USA > Ohio > Medina County > History of Medina county and Ohio > Part 75
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relief. Furnishing the men with provisions such as his own scanty supply afforded, and giving forage for the teams, he hitched up his own ox-team, and, thus lesseniug the load of others, he started next day with them for the camp at Huron. After a slow and laborious journey, they reached the camp on the eighth day out from Harrisville settlement. The return trip to this settlement only consumed about four days. The commission firm from Middlebury referred to, continued thereafter to supply the American army under Perkins on the shores of Lake Erie. Their trips in for- warding these supplies were made more expe- ditiously after a road had been cut through, but the provision trains always found it eonvenient to stop at the Harrisville settlement on their journeys back and forth.
In the spring of this year, many of the militiamen in the Northwestern army, from the counties of Knox and Wayne, and from other eounties in Southeasteru Ohio, passed through the settlement, their terms of service having ex- pired. Mr. Harris often entertained companies of from ten to twenty of these returning sol- diers at a time, and always furnished them the best his scanty board afforded. During the winter of 1812, a detachment of troops from Pennsylvania was stationed at Wooster, Wayne County, under the command of Gen. Bell. Provisions for soldiers, as well as for the horses employed in the service, were searee, and commanded high prices. Tempted by the prospect of gain, Avery Cross, of Randolph, in Portage County, set out the latter part of December, with a load of oats for the army. He was accompanied by his son Samuel, a young man of about eighteen years. On ar- riving at Wooster, they found teams were so searce that the army had not the means of transportation, and, by the offer of high prices, Cross was induced to go with the army as far as Mansfield, and aid in transporting baggage and forage. At Mansfield, he was paid off, and
started for home. On the road between Mans- field and Wooster, he purchased seventeen head of cattle, with which he arrived at Woos- ter on the last day of December. The next day, he and his son started up the valley of the Killbuek, intending to reach the settlement of Joseph Harris, with whom they were well ac- quainted. Soon after they left Wooster, there eame on a terrible snow-storm, which lasted three days. Nothing further was heard of Cross and his son, until the March following, when, his family becoming alarmed at his lengthened absenee, sent another son in pursuit of them. Finding they had left Wooster on the 1st day of January for the north, the son sent in pursuit of them took their trail up the Killbuck to Harris' settlement, where he ascer- tained they had not been there, and that sev- eral eattle had been taken up during the winter, for which no owner could be found. It was now evident that they had perished. The few settlers in that region turned out to find them. In the valley of the Killbuek, they found the trail of the eattle, but, instead of following it, which would have led them to Harris', it seems Cross got bewildered, and, when within a mile of the settlement, which lay northwest, he took another valley, which led them a southeast- wardly course into what is now Westfield. Here, almost three miles from Lodi, they found the skull of Cross, and some of his bones, the flesh having been entirely eaten off by wolves. Near by, was found a jack-knife and a small pile of sticks, where he had tried to make a fire, but failed. Pieces of clothing, and his great-coat, were found near by, showing the place where he and his son lay down to sleep after they had failed to make a fire. The bones of a yoke of oxen, still in the yoke, and chained to a tree, were lying near by, and the bones of another yoke of oxen, still in the yoke, a little further off. From all of them, except the last yoke, the flesh had been en- tirely eaten. It was evident that one of them
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had not been dead long, as the flesh was but partly eaten, and the blood in a fluid state. The trail was very plain to be seen where this ox had drawn his mate around, after he was dead, while the living one was trying to get something on which to live. No remains of young Cross were ever found. The bones of the old man were gathered up, and buried in a field just south of the village of Lodi. An inscription carved on a beech-tree, marks the place of the pioneer's death. Nothing but a natural mound, in which he was buried, marks his burial-place.
Another incident in these early days, of less tragical outcome than the one just related, but giving a glimpse of the life of the pioneers, has been related by James Redfield. Their grain, at that time, had to be carried on horseback to a mill in Wooster, seventeen miles distant. At one time, when James Redfield was a boy about twelve years old, Mr. Harris had balanced two bags of grain on his horse, and placed the boy on top, and started him for Wooster. The boy proceeded all right until about half-way to the mill, when the bags overbalanced, and slipped from the horse. The boy had not strength suf- ficient to replace the bags on the horse, though he labored desperately for an hour or more. Returning to the settlement for help, he found Mr. Harris had gone. So his wife mounted the horse behind the boy, and the two rode back where the bags had been left. Replacing them on the horse, she started the boy for Wooster, walking back through the woods to her home.
In February, 1814, Russell and Justus Burr reaclied the settlement from Connecticut, and settled in the immediate vicinity of the two families already located. In March of the same year, young James Redfield, a lad fourteen years of age, who had remained in Randolph after the flight from Harrisville in 1812, again made his advent in the new settlement, and took up his abode with the family of Mr. Harris. He was a hardy, plucky boy, and the carcer of
his life is inseparably connected with the de- velopment of Harrisville Township, and the his- tory of Medina County. It was in the years closely following his return to the new settle- ment, when James was fast ripening into young manhood, that he became one of its nota- ble and interesting characters. He became noted for his prowess and dexterity in trapping and hunting wild game, in a large measure taking away from the Indians in this neighborhood their occupation. In the period of a very few years, he caught 122 wolves, for which he re- ccived a bounty given by the State Government. He related to the writer, that, " having at one time caught one of those beasts by the end of the forefoot, and feariug that in its struggles it would get its foot out of the trap and escape, he pounced upon it, cuffed its ears, and put the foot into the trap, carrying it in this way into the settlement. This wolf, it would seem, was about as passive as old Put's, when he applied the twist to its nose, for it offered no resistance, and seemed completely cowed." Another hunt- ing adventure told by him occurred in the earlier days of the settlement. Finding his traps tampered with, of which he had out a large number, in a circuit of several miles from the settlement, and the game taken therefrom, he secreted himself with his trusty gun in the crotch of a tall sycamore on the Black River bottoms, where he remained overuight to await events in the morning. In the morning, he es- pied several redskins sneaking along the river banks, and killing and taking from his traps whatever animals were canght. He waited un- til one of the scoundrels came within easy range of his rifle, and then let him have it ; the Indian made a big jump in the air, and he and his companion beat a precipitate retreat west of Black River. His traps were no more molested after that. In the spring of 1816, when James was a boy seventeen years old, he took a con- tract to chop out a road from the center of Harrisville to the center of Medina, for which
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appropriations had been made by the State Legislature. It was a distance of ten miles, on which he made fifty-seven rods of bridge and causeway, principally bridge. He proceeded from day to day with his work, following the preseribed survey, having a small supply of provisions with him. When night came, he would build a fire, eat his supper, aud then peel off a large sheet of bark from an oak-tree, and roll himself up in it and go to sleep. He had the road cut out through to Medina in the fall.
New families came into the settlement in the spring of 1814. The first were Timothy Mun- son, of Vermont, and Loammi Holcomb, from the State of New York, who with their families eame in April and settled on the west bank of Black River, about two miles from Mr. Harris' house. From that year on, the influx of set- tlers increased and permanent settlements were made in the close neighborhood. In the spring of 1815, there arrived Timothy Burr, Alvin Loomis, Collins Young and Job Davis, with their families, and to these were added in the year 1816, the families of Carolus Tuttle, Isaac Catlin, Nathan Marsh, Elisha Bishop, Perez and Nathaniel Rogers and James Rogers, who eame together in the spring. Later on in the same year, came Charles Lewis, David Birge, Josiah Perkius and William Welsh, all of whom located permanently iu the township, at various points, from a quarter of a mile to three miles distant from the original location, where Mr. Joseph Harris had placed his home- stead.
More came in the spring of 1817, whose names are Noah Kellog, Jason Spencer, Noah Holcomb, Thomas Russell, Isaac Rogers, Orange Stoddart, Daniel Delvin, Henry K. Joline, Cy- rus and Arvis Chapman, Jouathan Fitts, David Rogers, Cyrus Curtis, George Hanna, and Dr. William Barnes, quite a genius in his way. He assumed the functions of preacher, doctor and miller in the colony, aud soon after his advent
became a man of considerable importance to the people of Harrisville.
A notable event oeeurred in the settlement on the 15th of April, 1815. It was the birth of a daughter to George and Mehitable Burr. There was great rejoicing over the arrival of this little messeuger from heavcu, among the pioueers. It was the first child born in the towuship. It lived but a few years, dying in July, 1817. It was buried ou its father's farm. The funeral services were simple but impressive ; all the settlers with their families attended. Dr. William Barnes conducted the services, and preached a sermon over the grave of the ehild.
In the spring of 1818, there came nine more families, among them being Lomer Griffin and his wife and six sons and one daughter. Lomer Griffin was destined to become one of the most remarkable and most widely-kuown men of Harrisville Township and Medina County, on account of the unprecedented age he attained.
There were now thirty-five families in the settlement. Clearings were made on every side, and the area of soil on which the sun threw its benefieent rays and rewarded human labor with crops of grain, grew larger every day. Joys had also come to the sturdy pio- neers. One of these was a marriage feast, the coutraeting parties to which were Levi Hol- comb and Miss Laura Marsh, which occurred in November, 1816. There beiug no Justice of the Peace in the towuship at that time to solemnize the marriage contract, Mr. James Rogers volunteered his services to procure the needed official dignity. Setting out on foot, he started for Wadsworth, and there secured Esquire Warner, who readily assented to come out the next day and legalize the ceremony. Mr. Rogers stayed overnight to return with the official next day; but Mr. Warner was taken severely ill during the night, and it was quite impossible for him to fulfill his engage- ment. Here was a dilemma. The wedding
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had been set for that very night, and no one on hand to perform the ceremony ; but Mr. Rogers, true to his purpose, pushed on east to Norton, to Esquire Van Heinans ; but this gentleman was ont on a deer hunt, and did not return until night, wben he informed Mr. Rogers that he could not go with him. This, to most men, would have been a settler; not so to Mr. Rogers. These reverses and backsets only stim- nlated his zeal the more, for, on learning that there was a Justice of the Peace in Coventry, he forthwith went there and engaged the serv- ices of an Esquire Heathman, and the two together arrived at Harrisville the next day after the wedding should bave been. However, the affair was closed up that evening. This was the first wedding in Medina County. Other festivities and excitement of a general kind, at this time, were wolf-hunts, for the purpose of destroying and driving out these troublesome beasts.
There lived, during the years from 1830 to abont 1839, an old and strange character near the Harrisville settlement. Nobody knew whither he bad come; and, when he, in the lat- ter year, disappeared, it remained nnknown where he had gone. He was known to the set- tlers as "Old Cherryman," and was supposed to be a half-breed, as traits of Caucasian and Indian blood mingled in his features. He in- habited one of the little cabins, back in the woods, that had been abandoned by its builder. He wore a pair of buckskin tronsers, and a cloak made out of wolfskin; on his head he wore a squirrel cap, and his feet were clothed in leather moccasins. His hair hnng in long strings over his shoulders, and his sal- low, brown-colored, peaked face was covered with a grizzly beard. His sole companion in the woods, and at his lodgment were two rifles, which he invariably carried about with him on his tramps. When he spotted any game, he would drop one of his guns. He was taciturn and uncommunicative, and would talk with no
person more than the disposal of his slangh- tered game, and the buying of ammunition, re- quired. One of his ways to track the deer and bring them within reach of his rifle was to start with a burning hickory torch and burn a line of the dry leaves and grass through the woods for a considerable distance. This some- times cansed great annoyance and tronble to the farmers, as, in many instances, the fire would extend, and, quite often, burn down tim- ber. The deer would approach the fire line, but would be afraid to cross it, and pass along its entire length, while the old hunter would post himself at some convenient spot, and kill the deer as they passed along. The farmers of the neighborhood finally made efforts to have him stop this practice, as they feared that great injury might be done to their property by the fire. He stolidly listened to the remonstrances, and made no reply. He suddenly disappeared, and was never seen again in the locality.
The first symptom of political organization manifested itself in 1816, when an "Ear-mark " and Estray Recorder was appointed, Alvin Loomis being the person who was endowed with this function. This was unquestionably the first office held by any person in Medina County This is the direct antecedent of the mnch-ma- ligned "pound-keeper " of to-day. It was an outgrowth of necessity at that time. There were no fences, and the cattle ran at large. To distinguish the ownership of the cattle and sheep and hogs, a distinct and separate ear- mark by every owner of stock in the colony, was required, and the mark properly re- corded in a book kept by the " Ear-mark" Clerk. The first entry in the book reads as follows : "Harrisville Township, Portage County, State of Ohio, April 16, 1816 .- This day Joseph Harris entered his ear-mark for his cattle, sheep and hogs, which is as follows : A half-penny on the under side of the left ear." Then follows Timothy Bnrr, whose mark is " a swallow tail in the end of the right ear." Rus-
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sell Burr, " a square crop off the right ear." Five more were recorded in this year ; two in 1817 ; one in 1818. Then follow records every year up to the year 1865. A complete political organizatiou of the township was effected in April, 1817, and the new township then included all the territory which now belongs to the town- ships of Harrisville, Westfield, La Fayette, Chatham, Spencer, Huntington, Rochester, Troy, Sullivan and Homer. Twenty-nine votes were cast at the election held for township officers on October 6, 1877, at the little schoolhouse erected in the spring of that year. The poll sheet of this election has been lost, but the following were elected as township officers for the ensu- ing year : Joseph Harris, Loammi Holcomb and Isaac Catlin, Trustees ; Isaac Catlin, Jus- tice of the Peace; and Timothy Burr, Town- ship Clerk. The first is a list of the taxable property of Harrisville Township, made ont by Willey Hamilton in the spring of 1819. There are eighty-one names listed, and their personal property comprises 49 horses and 211 neat cat- tle. This included territory north, east and west, other than what constitutes Harrisville Township to-day, although at that time it all came within its political boundaries. The next election occurred in Harrisville on the 12th day of October, 1819, at which time, State, couuty and township officers were voted for by the Harrisville people. Thirty-nine votes were cast at this election. At one of the township electious in the early years, forty-seven candi- dates were voted for, though there were but thirty-one votes cast. This included all the different township offices, such as Road Super- visor, Overseer of the Poor, Fence Overseer and " Ear-mark " Recorder. Some of the can- didates had the honor of receiving ballots for four and five different offices. From this, it may be inferred that there was as much strife for office among our forefathers as there is among the politicians of to-day. This is again well illustrated at a special election held on July 3
following, to elect two Justices of the Peace. Twenty-nine votes were deposited, and they were divided amoug eleven candidates, as fol- lows : Waynewright De Witt, 23: Leonard Chapman, 24 ; Elijah De Witt, 2; James Rog- ers, 2; William Burr, 1; Amos Witter, 1; Jo- seph Harris, 1; Jonathan Fitts, 1; Lomer Griffin, 1; Carolus Tuttle, 1; and Ebenezer Harris, 1. The names of the voters at this election, the first Presidential held in Harris- ville Township, were Aaron Loomis, Reuben Chapman, Arvis S. Chapman, Joseph Harris, James Rogers, Seeva Chapman, Cyrus Chap- man, Loammi Holcomb, Carolus Tuttle, Timo- thy Burr and Levi Chapman. At the next spring election, forty-seven votes were polled. This increased, at the election on April 7, 1828, to fifty-six. During the fall of that year, the people of Harrisville were thoroughly aronsed in the Presidential canvass that was being waged between Andrew Jackson (Democrat) and John Q. Adams (National Republican). Sixty-five citizens came out that day for the Adams Electors, and one solitary vote had been cast for Andrew Jackson. Then indignation arose. Who could have been the traitor in their midst, who had presumed to vote for An- drew Jackson and the Democratic ticket ? When it was suggested by Waynewright De Witt that the man who had presumed to vote the Democratic ticket should be rewarded by a free ride on a rail, and the scorn of the entire colony, Josiah Perkins arose and defiantly de- clared that he had been the man, and intimated to the suggestor of the free ride that he was ready, right then and there, to sustain the vir- tue of a free ballot with a little more forcible argument than mere words. But it did not go further than words, aud the political excitement soon subsided, and pleasant good feeling was restored. At the Presidential election held on November 2, 1832, 86 votes were cast. The Henry Clay Electors (Whig) received 45 votes, and the Andrew Jackson Electors (Democrat)
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41. Four years later, the vote ran up to 171 votes, the William H. Harrisou Electors receiv- ing 100 votes, and the Martin Vau Buren Elect- ors 71. On November 3, 1840, the total vote in Harrisville Township amounted to 240, the Whig candidate receiving 138, and the Dem- oerat 102. The most intense excitement known in the election annals of Harrisville Town- ship was created at the Presidential election held iu 1844. The anti-slavery sentiment of the North was asserting itself all over the eouu- try, and it had come to the surface iu the new settlement. Five of the citizens of Harrisville, whose names are Timothy Burr, Milo Loomis, Ebenezer Munson, L. M. Grant and John Grant, voted the " Free-Soil " or " Third-Party " ticket at this eleetion.
In connection with the growth and develop- ment of the township, stand the men and women whose names will ever be associated with its his- tory. First and foremost stands the founder and pioneer settler of the township, Judge Joseph Harris. His life's career has been told in the foregoing pages. He helped and sustained all laudable aud beneficent euterprises, social, re- ligious, political and industrial, that were ad- vanced and consummated, until the day when his eyes were closed in death. He died ou the 2d of October, 1863, at the age of eighty-one years, at the home which he built in the town of Lodi. As prominent by liis side is the life of his wife, Rachel, who followed him to the grave about ten years later. She came with him to the settlement, aud endured all the hard- ships, struggles and privatious of the pioneer life, and with him enjoyed the sweet reward of their energy and industry by his side. She died on the 5th of October, 1874, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Henry Ainsworth.
Another life, graven in the township's history, is that of James Rogers, one of its first pio- neers. His publie labors will go down with it to coming posterity. He died November 20, 1877.
Quite as brilliantly iu this gallery of histor- ical characters, stands James Starr Redfield. His life is told in the history of the township. Another personage, perhaps the widest known the world over, is Lomer Griffin. A few years ago, the world kuew him as one of the most re- markable men of the day. He attained an age that no man with well-authenticated record of birth and age had ever reached before. A few years ago, at the time of Mr. Griffin's death, the writer prepared the following obituary, which was published in the leading journals of America and Eugland : " The last mortal re- mains of Lomer Griffin, the man whose life eovers a century, and who has exceeded the Seriptural allotmeut of years given to man by nearly two scores, have been borne to their final resting-place. There are but few mortals to whom such a rich harvest of years are given. He was cotemporary with times and events that have gone into history generations ago. When he first saw the light of day, this Repub- lie, whose existence uow covers a period of over a hundred years, was unborn, and was yet but the dream of a few brave men. The grand struggle for freedom, ou this side of the Atlan- tic, had not yet commeneed. He was yet a boy when those burning lines that gave birth and liberty to a great uation were indited and pro- claimed to maukind, and, as a boy, he shared in the triumphs and glory of the Revolutionary host. The vast domain west of the Allegha- uies was yet one unbroken wilderness, and the numberless treasures hidden within them were undreamed of by mau.
" The old man is dead now, and he rests well in his grave. His last breath passed from him on Mouday evening, and he died peacefully. Life ebbed slowly away. It was an easy, nat- ural death. He clung to life as long as there was a spark of vitality left in him, aud it was some days after parts of his body had turned cold that he fell into the never-ending slumber. "Just seven weeks ago to-day, Mr. Griffin
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walked out in his baek yard on a rainy morn- iug to split some kindling wood, and do a few ehores, as was his wont. He was found pros- trate on the ground shortly after, having met with a fall. He was carried in the house and placed in a bed, from which he never rose again. He lingered along bravely, but, within a week or so, it beeame apparent that he could live no longer. The machinery of life was worn out, and, on Monday evening, the news passed out that Lomer Griffiu, the oldest man in America, was gone forever. The funeral took place in the Congregational Church in Lodi on Thursday afternoon, September 19, 1878, and was eondueted by the Rev. William Moody, of La Fayette, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Whitman, of Chatham. After the serviees, the eorpse was placed in a convenient spot in the open air, to give the large erowd of mourners who had gathered, a partiug look of the re- mains. After the viewing of the body, it was conveyed to the village eemetery, followed by a large processiou. The following gentlemen, all advaneed in years, and old settlers of this county, aeted as pall-bearers : Albert Harris, Dyer Strong, John Holmes, B. F. Criswell, Al- bert Brainard and Henry Obers. The body was placed by the side of his first wife, who died in 1830, and lies buried iu these grounds.
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