History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 67

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014

USA > Ohio > Medina County > History of Medina county and Ohio > Part 67

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But still, my friends, if you will bear in mind The many disadvantages we find, Our chance of practice limited and small, Our talents trifling, almost none at all, Our education poor, our means confined- I say if you will even keep these things in mind-

Greatly surprised, perhaps, you will not be, Our imperfections and our faults to see. Some surly critic, mixed among the throng, May snap and snarl, and say that all is wrong- That not a sound salutes his ear aright, And not a graceful action meets his sight.

So he may criticise, detract and rail, And say, in every point, we wholly fail. But stop, my friend, prithee don't be so fast! You may be partly wrong yourself, at last ! Lend me your patience, while to you I tell An anecdote, that fits your case full well.

A beggar boy once met upon the road, A kindly man, who generously bestowed A meal of victuals on the hungry coot, And a refreshing pot of beer to boot. The beggar ate; then turning, when he'd done, Unto his benefactor, thus begun:

"Your meal of victuals was not worth a curse, Your bread and cheese were poor-your beer was worse. I do not thank you for such stingy fare, When you have cakes and pies, and wine to spare."

"Ungrateful wretch !" the generous man replied ;

"I gave it you-what could you ask beside ?

" It was the very best I could provide; And with the best you are not satisfied. Go-thankless cur! Go, villian, stay not here ! And, nevermore, in human sight appear !

' Beggars should not be choosers ; ' so now clear !" And now, my good friend, just hear one word more And then my prologue will all be said o'er. There is a maxim which you all have seen, Which near expresses every word I mean ; Never look a gift-horse in the mouth. Amen !

Criticism being thus disarmed, the exhibition was, by universal consent, pronounced a " suc- cess." This cxhibition was enlivened by an orchestra, consisting of a flute, clarinet, bass- viol, violin and bassoon ; played by Uriah M. Chappel, W. S. Richards, James Newcomb, Julius Richards and Ezckiel Richards.

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

About 1829-31, the township was finally dis- tricted for school purposes, and more com- modious frame structures built. These have since given way to still larger ones, principally built of briek, with the modern improvements. This brings us to the history of the public school building of Wadsworth Village.

This was begun in 1869. The draft for the building was made by the late Col. S. C. Porter, architect, of Cleveland. It is a large briek building erected at a cost of $25,000. The money was raised by bonds at 8 per cent. The interest and a part of the principal paid each year .* The building is of three stories, with Mansard roof. The whole upper story is fur- nished for a hall.

The Wadsworth Village High School, occupy- ing the above-described building, has been con- tinued to the present time; it is under the superintendenee of Hiram Sapp, with five as- sistants. The average daily attendance during the past school year was 241. Total enumera- tion, 400.

The first physician in the township was Dr. John Smith, who lived a short time in the east- ern part of the township, and then removed just over the line in Guilford, on the Medina road. Dr. Samuel Austin was the next, at Western Star. The first at the Center, now the village, was Dr. Nathaniel Eastman. The next, and for many years the only one at Wadsworth Village, Dr. George K. Pardee.

The first death in Wadsworth was that of Daniel Ware, in 1817. He was buried in the south burial-ground. The funeral discourse was preached by John Wise, of Chippewa. His coffin was made by Reuben Warner and others, from puncheons split from a tree, and hewed down to thin planks.

"The next death was that of an infant daughter of Frederiek and Chloe Brown, July 15, 1817. This was the first burial in the Cen- ter ground. The second buried in that ground

was Abraham Falconer, son of Henry Falconer ; died, 1817. The first adult burial was that of John Curtis; died of consumption in 1820. The second adult burial, Julia, wife of Sherman Loomis, and daughter of Augustus Mills, in 1820. The next, Mrs. Wright, wife of William Henry Wright, and daughter of Lysander Hard, in 1821. The first buried in the town-line ground was the wife of Ebenezer Wright, and mother of W. H. Wright, in April, 1825. The next, John Sprague, in 1826. The next, Lyman Brown ; killed by falling under a cart loaded with stone, at Akron, in 1826.

The first post office in the township was kept by Abel Dickinson, on the Medina road, estab- lished in 1822, which was removed to the Cen- ter in 1826, and kept by Frederick Brown. The first at Western Star, established at the same time, was kept by Mills Richards. The first at River Styx, by David Wilson. Previous to this, the old citizens received their letters from Talmadge, Canton, Old Portage, New Portage, or whatever office was to them couvenient.

The first mail route was from Canton to Nor- walk, by way of Medina, established about 1821. The mail was carried by Josiah Price, of Can- ton, who brought our news from the Canton and Medina offices to our doors, calling us out with a tin horn.

About the year 1824, John Wilson, Esq., of River Styx, began to carry the mail over the Medina and Canton route on horseback once a week, and continued for several years. During Jackson's first term, Abel Diekinson was Post- master superseding Judge Brown, and John Pardee was his deputy or assistant, and kept the office in Pardee's store. Afterward, Pardee was Postmaster, and held the office in the stone store for a number of years, when Dr. George K. Pardee became Postmaster, holding the office in a building standing where the residence of John Lytle now is. At his death in 1848, it was changed several times, and held between Charles J. Pardee and Sherman Blocker, Esq.,

* Now nearly all paid.

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

finally settled with Pardce for quite a time. Orlando Beach held the offiec also for a short time. It was afterward held by John G. Houston, who was succceded by H. C. Pardee, who held the office in the town hall, where it is at present located, nnder the charge of his sue- eessor, Eli Overholt, Esq.

The first settlers of Wadsworth were mostly accustomed to sustain the institutions of relig- ion ; yet, coming from different seetions of the country and springing from different nationali- ties, each was naturally tenaeions of his own belief and his accustomed mode of worship. They suffered, as new settlements generally do, more from too many church organizations than too few; each society being too fecble, for many years, for efficient work, yet from the earliest they were accustomed to the public worship of God.

Mr. Brown, in his Memorial, says : "The first religious meeting was held at the house of Oli- ver Durham, in July 1814. The attendance was by the families of Messrs. Dean and Dur- ham, and Mr. Salmon Warner, a brother-in-law of Mr. Dean, and father-in-law of Mr. Durham, who had visited the place to seleet a farm for himself. Moving there the next February, reg- ular prayer-meetings were established at his

house, so that public worship may be eonsid- ered to have been established in February, 1815, the families of the first three settlers composing the assembly ; that of Mr. Dean be- ing of the Baptist, and those of Mr. Warner and Mr. Durham of the Methodist denomination. These meetings were continued at the house of Mr. Warner, until the ereetion of the first schoolhouse, in 1816. In May of that year, emigrants from Connectieut, the families of Frederick Brown, Benjamin Agard and Joseph Loomis, having arrived, they, with some other new arrivals, helped to sustain these meetings. "I have heard my father, in my youthful days, relate the pleasing ineident of his first introduction to Mr. Warner, and the arrange-

ment they made together to set np the Sabbath worship in a more publie and permanent man- ner. He had just arrived the previons week, and with his family was staying at the house of Benjamin Agard, who had preceded him a few months. Hearing that religious mectings were then held at the house of a man by the name of Warner, the three familics went on Sabbath morning, through the woods, to his house. The mecting was eondueted by Mr. Warner; those who were singers assisted in that part of the worship, and my father taking part in speaking and prayer.

' After the meeting, Mr. Warner called my father into the other part of his donble log house, for private conference. 'First,' said he, ' I wish to know who and what you are ?' My father replied, 'Wc are Congregationalists, from Connectieut.' Mr. Warner replied, ' My parents were Congregationalists ; I am a Methodist, and have been almost alone in keeping up meetings the past year; and now I propose that we unite, and we can sustain meetings every Sab- bath. I see yon are singers ; that will be a great help. And now yonr people have a prae- tiee that I like, that of reading a sermon when you have no preacher. Have yon any volumes of sermons you can bring to read from ?' My father replied, 'I have, but many of the ser- mons are highly Calvinistic, and you may not approve their doctrine; so I will hand you the book beforehand, and you may seleet such as you ean eall orthodox, and they shall be read.'

" The meetings were conducted jointly by those two men, in the manner agreed upon, at the house of Mr. Warner, nntil the ereetion of what was ealled the South Schoolhouse, in the autumn following (1816), when they were held in the sehoolhouse. Here began a fraternal union between those two old pioneers, who may, without any injustiee to others, be termed the first founders of the Methodist and Congrega- tional Churches-a union that was never broken. To the end of their pilgrimage, they

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

loved each other as brothers, and consulted together for the social, moral and religious wel- fare of the settlement.

"In 1816, a Methodist class was formed, con- sisting of Salmon Warner, Mrs. Lucina War- ner, Miss Harriet Warner, Oliver Durham and Mrs. Lamira Durham, William H. Wright and wife and Mrs. Polly Kirkum. As no record remains, the name of the minister who organ- ized the class is not preserved, nor can I learn the names of the first Methodist preachers, except Ezra Booth and William Eddy.

" The Congregational Church was organized August 8, 1819, Rev. John Treat the officiat- ing minister. The original members were Frederick Brown, Mrs. Chloe S. Brown, Au- gustus Mills, Mrs. Martha Mills, George Ly- man, Mrs. Ophelia Lyman, Benjamin Agard, Sherman Loomis and Jacob Lindley.

"On the 25th of August, 1817, a Union chnreh and society was formed by members of the German Reformed and Lutheran denomi- nations. The names of the original members can not be obtained. The elders were Peter Waltz, Sr. and Christian Everhard. Trustees, Jacob Everhard, Adam Baughman. Benja- min Faust, first Pastor.

" A Baptist Church was organized under the pastoral charge of Obadiah Newcomb, in 1821. This was afterward the nucleus of the Disciples' Church. Of its original members, were Oba- diah Newcomb and wife, William Eyles and wife, Samuel Green and wife and Mrs. Battison and Mr. and Mrs. Donor, of Chippewa. An- other Baptist Church was afterward organized in the northwest part of the town, by Elder Dimmock, in 1836. The original members of the Disciples' Church were Obadiah Newcomb, Satira Newcomb, Matilda Newcomb, Victory Clark, Samucl Green, A. B. Green and Polly Eyles.

" About the time of the separation of the Methodists from the Congregationalists, Mr. Brown was joined by George Lyman, a young

man from Torrington, Conn., who took an act- ive part in sustaining the meetings. They were held every Sabbath, twice a day, in the old style of New England. After singing and prayer, and singing again, the leader either read a sermon or called upon some other to read. The most frequent reader was Sherman Loomis, whose musical voice and rhetorical delivery is still one of the pleasant memories of those days. Of those who were occasion- ally readers, I can recall George Kirkum, Harry Lncas, Lemuel North, John Sprague, Allen Pardee, Dr. George K. Pardee, Aaron Pardee and George Lyman.

"On the erection of the next schoolhouse, then called the North Schoolhouse, the meetings were held alternately in each place. From 1821 to 1824, Mr. Lyman was absent from the township, and Mr. Brown was assisted in con- ducting the meetings, by Ebenezer Andrus and William Graham, of Chippewa, a portion of the time being occupied by Rev. Obadiah New- comb, the Baptists and Congregationalists unit- ing in his support. He preached a part of the time in Norton and Coventry. He was a man of ability, mueh respected ; and his services much demanded on funeral occasions.

" The western part of the township, and east- ern part of Guilford, were settled by members of the Mennonite denomination. I have no record of their churches (embracing each of the divisions known by that name)."

The two churches are called Old and New Mennonites. The Old Mennonites still worship in their log meeting-house, in the west part of Wadsworth, on the Seville road, on the hill. The new church established a college in Wads- worth Village, said to have been the first by that denomination in the United States. Their school has been removed, and the college build- ing is now occupied as a private school insti- tntc, in charge of T. J. Dague, Esq. But the church remains, and they hold weekly meetings in their mecting-liouse on the Medina road.

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

The Universalists maintained preaching for several years, from 1824. Their first minister was a Mr. Williams, who afterward became a minister of the Disciples' Church. The next was a Mr. Tracy. The next, a Mr. Rodgers. But no church was ever formed.

The first house of worship built in the town- ship was the Lutheran and German Reformed log meeting-house, on the town line between Wadsworth and Chippewa. The next, the old Congregational House at the Center, built in 1830, on the site of the present one, which was erected in 1842. The Disciples erected the house they now occupy, in 1842. George Hins- dale was the architect of both these houses, and died the same year. The Methodist House was built in 1835. The Congregationalists have continued from the time of their first or- ganization with various degrees of prosperity till the present time. Their Pastor is the Rev. G. C. Reed, and their members number about sixty. The first settled Congregational Minis- ter, Rev. Amasa Jerome, was installed Novem- ber 1, 1826. He was followed by Revs. Fay, Boutell, Johnson, Brooks, Tallcutt, Wright, Wilder, and, after an interval of some years, Rev. T. W. Browning, of the Methodist Church, was employed for a time, and he was followed by Rev. D. E. Hatheway, then by Rev. Edward Brown, in 1874, afterward by the present Pas- tor.

A church was organized about 1875 in Wadsworth, who call themselves the Church of God, and number about forty members. They occupy the building formerly used for the Wadsworth Academy, which is an octagon building, standing at present on the corner of Lyman and Prospect streets.

The Methodist Church has continued from its first institution, in 1816, in the township, meeting in various places until the erection of the present meeting-house, in 1835; always under the charge of an itinerant ministry, and, like the other churches, having their seasons

of revival and depression from various causes, until, in 1867, their house of worship was en- larged and remodeled. Their church is now in a prosperous condition, their house commodious, and a convenient parsonage, at present under the pastoral charge of Rev. F. S. Wolf. Their communicants number about 150. The Disci- ples have continued their worship in their church, finished in 1842, under various Pastors, among them Revs. A. B. Green and H. Jones, and the last of whom were Rev. J. F. Rowe, Rev. J. Knowles from April, 1869, to April, 1872 ; then Rev. C. F. W. Cronemyer, and after him Rev. J. A. Williams. The present condition of the church is prosperous, with good congre- gation and interesting Sunday school. Under the pastoral charge of Elder C. W. Henry. The members number about 100.

The organization of the Reformed Church was effected on the 24th day of October, 1858. Its first Pastor was Rev. Jesse Schlosser, who began his labors here about four months pre- vious to the organization. During his pas- torate, the services were held in the Congre- gational and Disciples' Churches, furnished by their congregations.

Six members constituted the church at the beginning. Their names, in the order in which they appear upon the record, are Henry Yockey, Catharine Yockey, John C. Kremer, Lydia Kre- mer, E. K. Kremer and Isaac Griesemer. The first officers were Henry Yockey, Elder, and J. C. Kremer, Deacon.

The second pastorate was that of Rev. Jesse Hines, who began his labors June 1, 1860. It was under his pastorate that the old octagon academy building, and lot (elsewhere mentioned in this work), were purchased of Aaron Pardee, for $150, and converted into a house of worship. It was dedicated October 6, 1861, Revs. S. B. Leiter and William McCaughey preaching the dedicatory sermons.

Rev. S. C. Goss, the present Pastor, entered on his labors August 1, 1866. At the begin-

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

ning, the membership numbered forty-threc. The present numerical strength of the congre- gation is one hundred and sixty.

There are in Wadsworth Village and town- ship seven meeting-houses, and, within five miles of Wadsworth Center, may be found eighteen more, making twenty-five, and there are resident ministers in Wadsworth Village to the number of at least twelve, showing that there is no excuse for Wadsworth to be called an irreligious community.

It is refreshing to turn to a narrative fur- nished for Mr. Brown's Memorial by Shermau Blocker, Esq., an old resident of Wadsworth, and hear him speak of the pioncers as follows : " While there were some theological differences of opinion, yet, taken as a community together, there never was a more honorable, upright and conscientious set of people found on this broad continent than were the early pioneers of Wads- worth." He says : "They were as a unit in pro- moting each other's welfare and happiness, each seeking to move aud work in that sphere best calculated to render the most good, in which he was born and reared.

" At first there may have been some distrust, but in a very short time all distrust vauished into thin air as soon as they came to know each other ; and soon, the mass of early pioneers came to be like brothers and sisters, promoting each other's welfare in all possible ways. Would to God that such a spirit now prevailed among all the people as ruled the mass of pioneers in Wadsworth fifty to sixty years ago !"

Every one who has gone through the vicissi- tudes of pioneer life is aware of the fact that its tendency is to beget a spirit of adventure, to the extent that comparatively but few of the first settlers of a frontier town, or their children,

whose carliest impressions were amid the ad- venturous beginnings, are known to remain and spend their lives there. Especially is this true of those of Anglo-Saxon, or Celtic origin. So that the same individuals are often found among the adventurous frontiersmen in two or more States ; often moving on till old age overtakes them upon the frontier.

The rapid opening of the States of the inte- rior, westward of Ohio, became an incentive to new emigration, to such as had been among the first settlers, or their children who had grown up while as yet all things were new. This period was consequently marked by great changes of population ; so great that many names of the old families that counted not a few upon the poll books and muster rolls, nearly or quite disappeared. Particularly was this true of the New England portiou. Selling out and moving on the front wave of civilization, and their old homes passing into the hands of the wealthier but more conservative Teutonic race, or what are sometimes termed "Pennsylvania Germans," till the proportion of the two races was reversed. This also seriously affected the original churches, particularly the Congrega- tional and Methodist, which, through these causes, became, during this period, almost ex- tinct ; while a large church of the German Re- formed denomination, and another of the Men- nonite, the members of both being chiefly of German descent, attracted the major part of the church-going population, till the revival of business by the location of the railroad and the discovery of the coal mines, brought again members of those two denominations, and a resurrection of their churches. During that period also, the old Wadsworth Academy was suspended, and the octagon building occupied for that purpose was converted into a church.

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

435

CHAPTER X .*

WADSWORTH TOWNSHIP AND VILLAGE-A NOTABLE EPIDEMIC-COAL INTERESTS-INCORPORA- TION AND GROWTH OF THE VILLAGE-EARLY INCIDENTS-FAMILY GENEALOGIES.

THE years 1844 and 1848 were memorable for a malignant epidemie that visited the township, earrying off by death a large number of its inhabitauts. s. It prevailed very exten- sively in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, aud was known as maliguant erysipelas, or erysipelatous fever. The following deseription, written by Dr. C. N. Lyman, one of the physi- eians who treated for the disease, may be valu- able for a historie referenee, both as to the dis- ease and its treatment:

" During the year 1844, there oeeurred within the limits of the township an epidemic of erysip- elas, very severe in its eharaeter and fatal in its results, seleeting for its vietims some of the best of our eitizens of adult age. It was eon- fined mostly within the limits of the township, though extending somewhat into the townships of Norton and Chippewa. It began in the month of January, and continued until the fol- lowing August, when its virulenee subsided, with oceasional manifestations until the winter of 1848, when it re-appeared in the east part of the towns of Guilford and Montville, with its aeeustomed fatality, and again made its appear- anee in this township, marking as its own a number of our prominent eitizens.

"Its mode of attaek was almost always in the form of inflammation of the throat and fauees, with a disposition to migrate to other parts of the body, usually seleeting the serous mem- branes. Sometimes, however, the museular and adipose tissues would be the seat of the metas- tatic attaek. The change from the throat to the point of attack would be sudden, and for a few hours the patient would flatter himself that

he was eonvalescent, when a rigor and restless- ness would supervene, telling, too often fatally, that the hope was only a delusive one. When the serous membranes were the seat of the dis- ease, the formation of pus was a rapid proeess, the patient frequently dying within three days. A post-mortem examination would diselose the serous eavities filled with pus. When the mus- eular and adipose tissues were the seat of the disease, pus was formed in enormous quantities if the patient survived long enough. Frequently, however, death supervened too rapidly for this process to mature.

" That portion of the epidemie which oeeurred in 1844 was most suceessfully treated by large and rapid depletion, some patients requiring to be bled to faintness, two or three times within thirty-six hours. This was markedly the ease when the serous membranes were involved. When the other tissues were the seat of the disease, bleeding was not of sueh manifest util- ity. Some eases were so rapid as to eall for the direetly opposite treatment, and they were as rapidly fatal.

"When the disease re-appeared in a severe form in 1848-49, bleeding and depletion was not tolerated at all. In the few eases in which they were tried, in the eommeneement of the outbreak, the results were so unsatisfactory that those measures were abandoned immedi- ately. This latter manifestation of the disease showed less predilection for the serous mem- branes than the former. In the first epidemie, with a population of about 1,200, there were 124 well-marked eases, 25 of which proved fatal. The later epidemie was spread over more territory, but the proportion of deaths to

* Contributed by Hon. Aaron Pardee.

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY,

those attacked was greatcr. Since that time it has not appeared in an epidemic form."

At an early day bituminous coal was known to exist in some parts of the township, before all its uscs or its true commercial value were known or thought of. More than fifty years since, small quantities of coal were found in various localities, in digging wells.

About 1829, coal in beds, eropping out near the surface, was found both in the northeastern and southeastern portions of the township; and small quantities for several years were mined for domestic use, and the limited manu- facturing of the region. But the location of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, bring- ing these mines into connection with the great coal markets afforded by the eities and ex- tensive manufactories of the State, not only made them sources of wealth, but, by develop- ing an extensive business, added greatly to the growth and prosperity of the village, and of the township at large ; a village by itself hav- ing grown up, composed of a population wholly connected with the mining and shipping of coal at Silver Creek, the point of shipment a mile and a half southeast of the depot. The first mining of coal for commercial purposes commenced at that point, in February, 1869.

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 67

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1014

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014