History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 80

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 80

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into the market. It is not definitely known that any purehases of these lands were made for a number of years. Exchanges of tracts in the township may have been made between Eastern land speculators, at various times, but no settle- ment oeeurred in the territory until in the win- ter of 1830 ; and, from that date, the real prog- ress of Litchfield Township makes its beginning.

Under the Land Company's survey, the terri- tory now comprised in Litehfield Township was set apart as No. 3, Rauge 16. The geograph- ieal boundaries are marked on the north and west by Lorain County, on the south by Chat- ham, and on the east by York. The physical features of the township are not notable for any striking characteristics. The ground is gener- ally level, and but a slight ridge runs northeast and southwest through the township, erossing the eenter road two miles east of the village of Litchfield. On this ridge are flowing wells, which afford large supplies of water through- out the year. The soil is a tough clay, and very much like that of Lorain County, which lies immediately west. There is a thickness of eight feet of elay above the Cuyahoga shale at the " Center."

A gas well of some note, originally bored for oil, is situated one mile and a half north, and one mile west of the Center. Oil was brought up by pumping, but not in any great amount. During the drilling, gas escaped with a clear, whistling sound, and when set on fire it blazed up from twenty to thirty feet, the outlet being eight inches wide.

A little stream, known as Center Creek, rises one and one-half miles southeast of the village, on the farm of Mr. Valentine Shank, and from

* Contributed by Charles Neil.

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IHISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

there, winding its way northward to the center of the town, it takes its course west and flows into Lorain County, where it enters Black River. During the summer season, this rivulet is gener- ally dry.

Among the legendary tales of the aborigines of North America, which have been told by hunters, trappers and the earliest frontiersmen in Northern Ohio, some of them relate to a part of the Wyandot tribe of Indians, who fre- quently located in Litchfield territory and there- about, and had made this a part of their favorite hunting-grounds. Some of their wig- wams were scen along Center Creek as late as 1822. For several years previous to that date, the Harrisville settlement on the south, and Liverpool on the north, had extended in num- bers and size. With the coming of the white man, the wild game, which alone is the only wealth the Indian possesses, and which alone affords him a means of earthly sustenance, for- sook the localities, and gradually diminished. The intrusion of the white settler and the ab- sence of game caused the copper-colored sons of freedom to desert their lodges in this neigh- borhood and seek for a means of livelihood elsewhere. No traces of Indians were found by the first settlers of Litchfield Township.

We now come to the time when the first real advance in the settlement of the township was made. In the month of February, 1830, Cyrus Cook, with his wife and one child, arrived from Connecticut, and squatted on a tract of land in the north part of the township. He encoun- tered the same difficulties that meet the settler of a new country. His first labors were the construction of a place of habitation. It was at first nothing more than a brush hut ; the space between four small trees cleared out, with the trunks of small saplings placed hori- zontally in a fork from tree to tree, and a cov- ering made of sticks and brush. The fireplace was by the side of the hut, in the open air ; a tool chest, perchance, and a few short log

pieces, a few quilts and blankets, comprised the household furniture. This was the luxurious dwelling which the pioneer called his home. Mr. Cook did not remain alone very long in the new country. In the May following, there ar- rived quite a company of settlers from the little Nutmeg State along the "Sound." They were all Connecticut farmers, who had purchased and traded for tracts of land in Litchfield Township before they had left their homes in the East. These settlers were Jonathan Rich- ards, with his wife and three children, Charles, Abigail and Julia ; Thomas Wilcox and wife ; George Wilcox and wife, with two children, Lucretia and Abigail ; Eliphalet Howd and wife ; Asahel Howd, with three children, Henry, Elizabeth and Caroline ; and Judah Howd and George Olcott. A few weeks after the arrival of these people, Henry Howd, with his wife and three sons-Albert, John and James-from Sheffield, Mass., came into the settlement and located permanently. The Howd families set- tled together on a tract of several hundred acres of land, on the west side of the north- and-south center road, which had been estab- lished some years prior to the coming of these people, while Jonathan Richards located, with his family, on the opposite side of the road. These settlements were about one mile north of the center of the township. George Olcott set- tled near the center, and George and Thomas Wilcox, with their families, about one mile south.

In one respect, the first settlers of Litchfield were somewhat more fortunate than had been the pioneers of other sections of Medina County. There were already three roads established in the township, when the first settlers took pos- session of their lands, and commenced its cul- tivation. The "Smith Road," which has here- tofore been referred to, was established in 1812, and runs through the southern part of the township from east to west. The " north-and- south " road, running from Elyria to Wooster,

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

527

had been cut out several years previous to the first settlements, and intersected at the town- ship center with the "east and west," or Me-

! dina and Norwalk, which had been established several years before. This, as the appended abstract, taken from the Medina County road record, will show. It reads as follows :

FEBRUARY 8, 1820.

Frederick Hamlen had this day presented » peti- tion, signed by himself and others, praying that a com- mittee be granted to explore the ground beginning at the west line of the county of Medina, where a road laid from the county seat in Huron County intersects said line, thence southerly till it shall intersect the east-and-west center line of Township No. 3, Range 16, thence easterly, as near as the ground will admit, to the west line of Medina Township, or, if the committee think proper, from the center of Township No. 3, Range 15, in a southerly direction to the seat of justice of Medina County. The Commissioners, being satisfied that legal notice has been given, proceeded to appoint Isaac Barnes, Frederick Hamlen and James Moore a committee, and James Moore a surveyor. The third Monday in March, 1820, is fixed for commencing the duty of appointment.

The committee appointed for the purpose of building the described road, made a report to the Board of Commissioners of Medina County, on March 27, 1827, immediately after the estab- lishment and completion of the road.

These roads were of great value to the set- tlers iu Litchfield. It left them at once in easily accessible intercourse with the settle- ments at Medina, Harrisville and Grafton, on the north, and removed many difficulties that wonld otherwise have been their lot.

The pioneers were uot idle during the first summer of their stay in the new township. Sev- eral very good-sized clearings were made, and even a small erop of potatoes and corn was harvested by several of the farmers. In the fall of this same year, 1830, three more families came into the settlement, and loeated. These were D. Nickerson, Jacob Road and Z. Staf- ford.

The winter of 1831, was exceedingly mild,

and the Litchfield people suffered but little in- convenience from the weather this scason. With the coming of May, when the trees were again decked in green, came an addition of settlers for the new colony, from the far East. The first two families to arrive were those of Asa Strait and Lewis Finley. They were soon followed by J. L. Hinman, D. Pickett, O. Nickerson and W. Cole, with their families. J. L. Hinman, one of the new-comers, moved his family in with one of the older settlers, for the time beiug, and con- structed a substantial frame dwelling ou the tract that he had bought, and which he com- menced to clear. On the 13th of Jnne, 1831, au event occurred which cast a shadow of sad- ness over the whole eolony, for the time being. This was the death of little Jane, the daughter of Asa Strait. This was the first death that took place in the township, and the funeral services were the first open religious services ever held in the colony. On the Sunday follow- ing the death, her father, who had been an Elder in a Baptist society in Counecticut, de- livered a religious diseourse to the people in one of the little log cabins. About twenty-five people, yonng and old, had congregated to listeu to the sermon. Religious meetings were continued in this way, being held at the differ- ent private houses, nntil a few years later, when church societies were organized, and these met for a number of years in the union meeting- house, that had been erected at the Center, for public worship.

The political organization of the towuship was effected on the 30th of June, 1831, and the township was admitted into the County of Medina, under the name of Litchfield-under which name the territory was already known, having been given it by Mr. Beers when he first gained control of it as agent of the origi- nal proprietor. At the first township election, held in July, there were nine votes cast. E. Howd, J. Vandventer and George Olcott, were chosen as the first Board of Trustees ; Thomas

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

Wileox, Clerk ; Asahel Howd, Treasurer, and Jonathan Richards as Justice of the Peaee. A commendable spirit of emulation now be- eame manifest among the eitizens of the town- ship, to place it on an equal footing, in every respeet, with some of its older sister townships in the county. In the fall of the same year, the voters of Litehfield convened and east a voiee in the State eleetion, which took place on the 13th of October. The township records, which had been kept intaet, were consumed by a fire in 1879, and no exact or definite data ean now be given of these early political events, and mueh valuable and interesting information of the polities of the township is lost.

During the spring months of 1832, a host of emigrants eame into the settlement of Litch- field. In one day in May of that year, no less than forty-one persons moved in, and all had come to stay, with the purpose of making this loeality their future home. Sueh large addi- tions to the number of inhabitants gave a zest to the life of the colony. That publie interest was alive is well illustrated by the manner in which the great national birthday of the Amer- iean Union was celebrated in the colony on its anniversary day in the year of 1832. Special invitations and word had been passed around among the settlers, far and near, and, when the sun rose on the morning of the glorious Fourth, the farmers came trooping in from every diree- tion, with their wives and daughters and sweet- hearts. Nearly all eame in ox-sleds-the only kind of eonveyanee in use among them at that time-and a few walked "eross lots " through the woods. They all congregated in the eenter of the township, where now is located the pub- lie park in the village of Litehfield. The oxen -about thirty or forty teams in all-were chained to the trees. There was then but a small spaee of open ground in this neighbor- hood. The woods echoed with merry sounds of song and laughter, and the greetings among these people as they eame in one after another,

were profuse and heartfelt. It was surely an old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration. After the compliments of the day had been ex- changed, the men in a body set to work, under the direetions of one or two older men, and "eleared" away the timber from a space of ground on the northeast corner of the Center, where now is located the dwelling of A. S. Jenne. Then a number of logs were roughly hewn, notches cut in at the ends, and in a very short time four wooden walls arose. Before the hour of noon had arrived, the building had been completed, logs had been dragged in for seats, and the " union meeting-house " had been completed, all within six hours. Baskets of provisions had been brought by the farmers' wives, and, when the work had been done, they all congregated together in the woods and had a Fourth of July picnie dinner. The formal exereises of eelebrating the day and dedieating the new house took place in the afternoon. A few national airs were sung by the whole as- sembly. Unele Jonathan Richards read the Deelaration of Independence, while Elder Asa Strait delivered the oration, closing up with a proper reference to the work that had been done by them that day, and giving the new building over to the people of Litehfield for all publie and laudable uses. The exereises of the day elosed with the formation of a temperanee and moral reform society, which continued in exist- enee for a number of years.

One of the features of the day was the gun sqnad, consisting of Daniel Oleott and Moses Olds, which played a very prominent part in the celebration, intentional and aeeidental. The gun used by these two patriotie cannoneers. simply consisted of a chunk of a log, with a hole in oue of its ends, in which the powder was plugged, and then touched off by a fuse hole. They fired the gun for several times with rather startling effeet, when, while youug Oleott was pouring in the wooden gun-hole another charge of powder, it suddenly exploded,

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

caused by sparks that had been retained in the wood. The wooden bowl in which the powder was kept, was torn to pieees, part of it striking Moses Olds on the forehead, and felling him to the ground. He bled profusely, but soon re- covered. The clothes of Daniel Olcott were set on fire by the flash of powder, in the con- fusion that took place among the people present to assist him and put out the flames, and every stitch of clothing was torn from his body. He was singed considerably, but not very danger- ously. He was wrapped in a bed-quilt and conveyed home. The festivities continued without further firing.

For several years following, an annual cele- bration of the national day recurred regularly in the eolony, and was considered as a most eventful day to the inhabitants of Litchfield Township, and their neighbors in adjacent townships north and south.

A social event of great importance occurred in the Litchfield settlement in the summer of 1834. This was the dual marriage of Charles Richards and Lyman Cole, to the sisters Chloe and Julia Peek. The ceremony took place at the house of the brides' parents, one mile north- east of the center, the Rev. Asa Strait officiating as clergyman. The two young couple at once set out for themselves, after they had secured each a helpmate. Young Cole secured a tract of land adjacent to his father's possessions, and continued the occupation of a farmer ; while Charles Richards, who had quite a mechanical turn of mind, devoted his attention to industrial pursuits. A little dwelling was erected for him in proximity to his father's home, one mile north of the center, and this served him as a home for himself and young wife, and as a workshop. While living with his parents at their home in Massachusetts, he had, as a boy, worked in a silversmith factory, and had acquired the trade, so that he was quite an adept in this branch of workmanship. He had brought with him a few tools necessary to work at the handicraft, and,

for the first few years in the new settlement, he had spent a large portion of his time in experi- menting and perfecting himself in the art. After marrying, he adopted it as a profession, and opened up, as already stated, a little silversmith shop in Litchfield. He built a small smelting- furnace, secured crucibles and other apparatus at Cleveland to conduct his work. The young silversmith soon established a brisk trade, and at various times employed workmen in his shop. The demand for his goods among his brother- settlers was easily supplied, and he, therefore, sought a market elsewhere. He met with suc- cess wherever he endeavored to sell. For a number of years, he supplied the retail stores at Elyria with domestic silverware.

The charm of life is in the incidents and variations that often crowd upon us. It was these scraps of history that made old Uncle Jonathan Richards so generally known. He, at different times, conducted a singing-class in the log schoolhouse at the Center. In his course of instruction in the art of harmony, he availed himself of a short slip of wood placed between the compressed palms of his two hands, and then, putting the base of the thumbs against his mouth, he blew into the open space between the joints of the thumbs, and thus produced a sound. In this wise he found his scale-notes, very much for the same purpose as the singing master of to-day uses his tuning-fork. One of the boys in the colony, named Erastus Dickerson, had acquired this art of blowing a scale upon his hands in imitation of the worthy singing master, and he even excelled the latter in blowing out full, strong sounds. So, upon a banter from his comrades, the lad, who was about seventeen or eighteen years old, arose one day in the crowded meeting-house, while the venerable teacher was holding forth in eloquent terms on the divinity and grandeur of music, and sounded the " sol, sil, sal," of the teacher, as well as his strong lungs would permit. The effect was startling. The whole assemblage broke out in a shout of

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

laughter. This irritated aud infuriated the sing- ing master beyoud all measure. He had the boy arrested for riot and disturbance of the peace ou a State's warraut, as soon as time would allow it. A trial was had before a Justice of the Peace, within a practicable time, and it be- came the all-engrossing topic among the people for the hour. The deepest interest in the case was evinced on every side. Though many of the older people thought that the boy deserved punishment for the offense, still the manifest sympathy of the community seemed to be en- tirely ou his side. Lawyers were called in from Mediua to work the case in all its bearings. The proceedings took place iu the little tavern at the center. The end of it was, that the boy was fined $10 by his Honor the Justice of the Peace. As a fitting close to the little legal farce, the wituesses-there having been about fifteen subpouaed-signed their fees over to the prisoner before the bar. He collected it, paid his fine, and then had $8.75 left.

A source of pleasure aud income alike to many of the Litchfield farmers, was the hunt- ing of wild game which abouuded iu the terri- tory in plentiful uumbers in the early days of the settlement. It was an occupation that was industriously followed by many of the young farmer lads, and the older ones, too, during the winter months. It is related by Mr. A. Cau- field, that at one time they had as many as thirty-two deer carcasses hung up on the trees around their house. Many of the farmers killed from 100 to 200 deer during the season, and venison was the regular fare with them for more than half the year. That which was not used for home consumption, was transported by wagon to Cleveland, and a good share of it from there transported to Eastern markets.

Que of the afflictions that brought about con- siderable loss to the families of Litehfield, was the " bloody " or dry murrain, which at differ- ent periods for several years affected the cattle of the colony, and caused them to die in num-

bers. The owners of cattle were worried and perplexed with the epidemic, and tried, by all meaus within their power, to stop its progress and continuance. The cattle, in these days, had no other feeding-grouud than the woods, and were given but little other uourishment than the wild grass that they could fiud. From this, probably, more than anything else, the disease took its origin among the Litchfield cattle. Many and persistent efforts were made to stop the disease and its spread, but for several years it proved of no avail to check the inroads made by it upon the lives of the cattle. Not uutil meadows and pastures had been established, and the ruminants eould feed on succulent and fresh grass, did the epidemic disappear.

A locality about one and one-half miles west of the village of Litchfield, along the bauks of Center Creek, became notorious at an early day in the history of the township as a place ealled " Bogus Hollow," which name cliugs to it at the preseut time. In the latter half of the thirties, one Rufus Moses, who had become a settler in that region, established a small tannery, and pursued the occupation pertaining thereto. He carried on a remunerative business in this line, as he was quite an ingenious fellow, and an adept at the trade. After a few years, he added a small foundry, supplying the farming commu- nity with agricultural and domestic ironware. He eularged his industries further by adding a carding-mill, aud also a saw and grist mill. The necessary power for his mills was gained by the accumulated waters in the stream pass- ing through a short race-course that had been constructed. There was a busy hum in this region while these factories stayed in motion ; and the enterprise of tanniug hides, molding ironware, and making wooleu goods, continued for a number of years. The place was of high repute among the people far and near, for the manifest enterprise that was displayed and the business airs that it assumed, and it was uot until the certain discovery was made that spu-

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

rious coin was manufactured here, that odium was cast upon it. The dies for the molding of counterfeit money were found hidden in the vicinity, by special detectives, who had been seut from Columbus. No positive evidence was ever established to fasten the guilt of making spurious coin upon any one in particular, and there is no proof to show now how much of the money made here ever got into circulation. It is told that a few of the residents of this local- ity departed about this time in rather a surrcp- titious manner.

The place was then given the appellation of " Bogus Hollow." It soon fell into decay, aud in later years the building was destroyed by fire and but little in the line of industries has been done there since.

Several saw and grist mills were cstablished in the township as early as 1834. It was in that year that David Hinman built a mill for the sawing of lumber north of the Center. This was destroyed by fire in 1838. Several other saw and grist mills were erected about this time in the township, but they have gone out of use, and no definite information could be gained of the names of the persons who undertook these various enterprises. In con- nection with the industrial affairs of the col- ony, are its cheese-making interests, which to-day form one of the main factors in the agricultural pursuits of the Litchfield farmers. From several reasons, it forms a chapter of great interest in the history of the township. The first cheesc-factory was established in the spring of 1866, by A. C. Benedict and Martin Brooker. The latter soon sold out to his part- ner, who then extended his interests in this line still further by building and conducting factories in the adjoining townships of York, Penfield and Grafton. He carried on his busi- ness on a very extensive scale, and became one of the most prominent cheesc manufacturers in the Reserve. With the panic of 1873, he was forced to make an assignment of his posses-

sions. The effect upon the people of the town- ship is well described by a report written by Mr. H. A. Leach at this time, from which we partially condense. It is dated November 19, 1873 : " A great excitement has just broken out in financial circles in Litchfield over the failure. The news broke upon the public to- day, and is a great surprise to many. There is no man in town whose failure would have af- fected so many, and donc so mueh injury to the township. The panic cloud has spread darkly over the township of Litchfield. Though greatly limited in proportion to the affair on Wall street, its effect will be as severcly felt by the citizens here. The loss to the people of Litehfield is between $12,000 and $15,000- a very heavy loss to be borne by a farming township, and at a time when it was the only dependence of many. The manner in which the people of Litehfield have resolved to meet the panic looks encouraging. Creditors are willing to give more time to their debtors. Some are trying to sell stock, and some will be obliged to sell their farms, but all have re- solved to work it out." In the lapsc of years that have followed these finaneial disasters, the depression that was caused by them has disappeared, and there is again a buoyant stir and a well-grounded confidence evident among the farmers of Litchfield Township.

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 80

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