History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 92

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 92

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These few settlers continued to be annoyed by wolves, despite the great slaughter of wild game that had taken place only a few years previ- ous. The pioneers were eneouraged to trap or kill wolves by a liberal bounty given for their

sealps, and paid by the State. To save their floeks, the settlers built high log pens, eovered over, and shut up their sheep at night. Woe to the man who neglected that precaution ! A farmer in the southern part of the township one day went to mill, and returned late in the evening. As he eame home in the night, he saw his floek of forty sheep lie quietly in the open air, elose to his house. He felt tired, and everything seemed so quiet, that he thought he would run the risk of the wolves catehing his sheep that night. But, in the morning, thirty- nine were found dead, mangled and torn by ' wolves. Many and various deviees were re- sorted to by the settlers to rid themselves of these pests. In Mareh, 1823, William Coggs- well, then living in Granger, eame up into Hinekley with parts of a steer that he had lost by disease. He deposited one quarter on the Remson Brook, in the south part of the town- ship, several rods from the stream, on one side, and the other part the same distanee on the other side. Then he took large, moss-eovered stones, and arranged them in the brook, several feet apart, as stepping-stones for the wolves to eross upon, for he knew that wolves, like sheep, dislike to step into water, and, if they have oe- easion to eross a stream too wide to jump over, will seek out a log to walk upon, or such a place as this trapper had fixed. In place of one of these stones, he put a large, double- spring wolf-trap, with ponderous jaws, armed with sharp spikes. This trap he eovered over with moss, so that it was nieely eoneealed, and resembled a moss-covered stone. Here Coggs- well eaught eleven wolves before his bait was all eonsumed.

There was living at this time in Hinekley, just a little way north of the Granger line, a Mr. Carpenter. His cattle strayed away in search of leeks and other herbage, and failed to come home at uight ; so the next morning he sent a boy, about twelve years old, who was liv- ing with him, in search of the eattle. The boy,

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accompanied by a small dog, took his way to the brook bottom, where leeks grew most nu- mcrous, hoping there to find the cattle. The dog, in running about, found Coggswell's wolf- bait, and began to eat it. The boy, seeing the dog eating something on the other side of the stream, thought he would go over and see what it was, and, as the water was too wide to jump, he strove to cross on the stepping-stones so nicely arranged, never suspecting a trap was concealed there. The second step he made, snap went the trap, and he yelled out with pain. His outery so frightened the little dog that he ran home and left the boy alone in his trouble. This was about 10 in the morning. In vain the boy tried to get loose. He tugged and strove with all his might to loosen the jaws, but they, with their cruel spikes, held him fast. Mr. Carpenter, seeing the dog come home without the boy, after a while began to suspect there was something wrong; so he started off for the double purpose of finding the cattle and boy. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, he found him, and strove to get him out of the trap by standing on the spring with his feet and using his hands at the same time ; but, failing in that, he carried the boy and trap to a log, and, getting a couple of handspikes or levers, by putting the ends under the log and resting them over the springs and bearing down, he loosened the springs and finally got the boy out. The poor fellow could not walk a step. The spikes had pierced the flesh on his foot, and it had been so tightly squeezed for so long a time that it had become swollen and benumbed. Mr. Carpenter took the boy on his back and the trap under his arm, and carried them home. The next day, Coggswell visited his trap and found it gone. From appearances, he rightly judged that it had been carried off by human hands, and not been dragged off by wolves ; so he went to Carpenter, who was the person or settler living nearest, to inquire about the trap. Here he found the boy and trap, aud learned

that Carpenter had gone to Squire Freeze's to see if he could not sue Coggswell for damages, but, as he had received no encouragement, he came back home, and, Coggswell being still there, Carpenter refused to give up the trap, and said the boy ought to keep it. Coggswell eontended he had a right to set the trap where he did, and that it was the boy's misfortune that got him into the trap, and not his (Coggswell's) fault. Carpenter finally relu ctantly gave up the trap.

Josiah Piper eame into Ohio from his home in Massachusetts, in the spring of 1818. He located at first at Bath, working for John Hall, iu that township. The young pioneer, before he had come out West to look for a new home, had affianeed himself to a young lady of his neighborhood. He worked industriously to get a good start so he might return, marry his lady-love, and, as his wife, briug her back to the settlement in Ohio. He bought a traet in the center of Hinckley, after a few years, and soon accumulated sufficient funds to go back East and marry. Within a few years, he re- turned to Ohio and settled in Hinckley. He soon became a man quite influential in the pub- lic affairs of the township. He was appointed one of the Associate Judges of Medina County, in 1832, and served for a number of years.

In 1824, Daniel L. Conant located with his family of three children, one mile north of the Center. They had come out from the State of New York. After remaining in Hinckley for a number of years, he removed with his family elsewhere, having joined the Methodist Confer- ence of Northern Ohio as a stated minister. Orlando Wilcox, with his wife and one child, settled on a lot adjoining that of Josiah Piper's, near the Center, in the spring of 1831. One- half mile east of this point stood a small log eabin, and on the other side of the road, a little further east, was a log building, put up a few years previous, by one Ball, for a blacksmith- shop. Ball had sickened and returned to

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Richfield, where he had formerly lived, to be nursed and doctored, but he soon died, and he never used the building. Dr. Wilcox took pos- session of this building for a time, keeping his family in it until he could build himself one on his own lands. It had a " puncheon" floor and a roof of " shakes "-no boards overhead. The doctor removed with his family to the southern part of the county in 1838, living for a few years at Friendsville, in Westfield Township. He then returned to Hinckley, and thereafter oc- cupying his old possessions.

Lyman and Hiram Miller, father and son, came out to Hinekley in the spring of 1833, from their home in Monroe County, N. Y., to view the lands in the township. They pur- chased 650 acres in the western part of Hinek- ley, returned to their home in the East, and, within a few months, came back with their fam- ilies to Ohio, settling on the newly aequired territory. The two settlers had engaged the services of Asahel Welton, to erect a cabin for them on the new lands. But, he being unable to find the exact locality where the owners desired their building, had to defer the construction of it until their coming. These families had come by the Erie Canal to Buffalo, and thence across Lake Erie to Cleveland, whence they moved by wagons to Bruns- wick. There they engaged Thomas James to pilot them through the woods to their new lands on the line of Hinckley Township.

The accessions to the settlement on the " Ridge," in the castern part, had become quite numerous by this time ; among the new arriv- als being Nathan Damon with his family, and Jacob Shaw with his family, both of whom came from Massachusetts in the spring of 1831. The succeeding year Caleb Damon, with his wife and two daughters, Esther and Eliza, and their mother and grandmother, Lucy (who died sev- eral years after the arrival in Hinekley, at the remarkable age of one hundred and three years), and also Arad Damon with his family of four

children, came together and settled in the neigh- borhood.

In the fall of 1831, Erastus Waite, who had come out that year from Franklin, Mass., settled on land near the center adjoining Judge Piper's and Dr. Wilcox's land. He bought two acres cleared land of one Benjamin Buck, and moved with his family into the cabin the latter had con- structed.

The civil organization of Hinckley Township took place in the year 1825. The first eleetion was held on the 25th day of September of this year. and took place in a little log schoolhouse in the southeastern part of the town. Thomas N. Easton, Jared Thayer and D. M. Conant acted as Judges of Election, and Reuben Ingersol and Abraham Freeze as Clerks. Reuben Ingersol, T. N. Easton and Josiah Piper were elected Trustees ; Jared Thayer, Clerk ; Joab Loomis and Samuel Porter, Overseers of the Poor ; Curtis Bullard and Richard Swift, Fence View- ers ; D. M. Conant and Jonathan Fisk, Listers and Appraisers ; Fred Deming, Treasurer, and Thomas Stow and D. Babeock, Constables. On a promise made by Judge Hinkley, that, if the settlers of the township would name it after him, in his honor, he would deed them a lot of 160 aeres for school purposes, or any use they might choose to put it to. It was therefore voted by the people that it should be named Hinckley. When, a year later, Judge Hinckley made his an- nual visit to the colony to collect his dues, he was reminded of his promise. The Judge hemmed and hawed, said he had been very un- fortunate the past year, had met with heavy losses, had had much sickness in his family, and really did not feel able to make so large a gift. He finally compromised the matter by making out the following deed of tranfer, and giving it to the Township Trustees and their successors :

To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: KNOW YE, That I, Samuel Hinckley, of Northampton, Mass., for and in consideration of one dollar ourrent money of the Commonwealth aforesaid, to me in hand

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paid, before the ensealing hereof by Thomas N. Easton, John Jones and Andrew McCreery, Trustees of the township of Hinckley, Medina County, Ohio, the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge and am fully satisfied, contented and paid, have given, granted, bargained, sold, aliened, released, conveyed and confirmed; and by these presents do freely, clearly and absolutely grant, give, bargain, sell, alien, release, convey and confirm unto them the said Easton, Jones and McCreery, Trustees as aforesaid, and their successors in office, for- ever, the following described parcels of land lying in Hinckley aforesaid, to wit :

A parcel of land bounded as follows : Beginning at a point 9 chains and 75 links, bearing south 88° west from the center stake of said township, in the center of the highway ; thence running northwest 2 chains and 50 links ; thence south 88° west 5 chains ; thence south 2° east 5 chains ; thence north 88° east 5 chains ; thence north 2° west 2 chains and 50 links to the place of beginning, containing 2 acres and 80 rods, be the same more or less-to be by said Trustees appropriated to such purposes as shall best subserve the interests of the town-it being understood that all roads now established and lying in any of the above-described lands are not hereby conveyed.

To HAVE AND TO HOLD the before-granted premises, with the appurtenances and privileges thereto belong- ing to them, the said Easton, Jones and McCreery, Trustees as aforesaid, and their successors in office, to them and their own above-mentioned use, benefit and behoof forevermore : And I, the said Samuel Hinckley, for myself and my heirs, executors and administrators, do covenant, premise and grant unto and with the said Easton, Jones and McCreery, Trustees as aforesaid, and their successors in office forever: That before, and until the ensealing hereof, I am the true, sole, proper and lawful owner and possessor of the before-granted premises, with the appurtenances ; I have in myself, good right, full power and lawful authority to give, grant, bargain, sell, alien, release, convey and confirm the same as aforesaid; and that free and clear, and freely and clearly, executed, acquitted and discharged of and from all former and other gifts, grants, bargains, sales, leases, mortgages, wills, entails, jointures, dow- ries, thirds, executions and incumbrances whatsoever.

AND FURTHERMORE, I, the said Samuel Hinckley, for myself, my heirs, executors and administrators, do hereby covenant, promise and engage, the before-granted premises, with the appurtenances unto them, the said Easton, Jones and McCreery, and their successors in office forever, to warrant, secure and defend against

the lawful claims and demauds of any person whatso- ever. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of June, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-one. SAMUEL HINCKLEY [L. S.]

Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of JOHN RANDALL. JOSEPH LVMAN.

Personally appeared before me, Samuel Hinckley, signer and sealer of the within instrument, and acknowl- edged it to be his free act and deed.

FREDERICK DEMING, J. P. HINCKLEY, MEDINA COUNTY, OHIO, June 23, 1831.

The Hinekley people were for quite a time, during the early days, exeited on the temper- anee question ; aud on various oeeasions it pro- dueed a state of ill-feelimg and unpleasantness. Whisky was in those days one of the social elements, and no publie oceasion was thought complete, unless there was a good supply of liquor. One set of eitizens finally decided that they would no longer assist at raisings if there was whisky ; and another said as determined- ly they would not if there was not whisky. Between these two faetions, it was often diffi- eult to get enough help to put up a frame with- out going a great distance to invite hands, or made a compromise. It thus happened, one day, that, while there was a raising on Oviatt's farm, near the Center, there was also another on the " Ridge," and, between these two, help was searee. Oviatt liked a "drop" now and then, and so did Craig and a few others present, but they could not muster forees enough to raise without the aid of the temperanee men, and so reluctantly agreed to dispense with whisky. Craig, a rough, whisky-drinking fellow, but a man of experience in barn-raisings "bossed" the job. After raising the bent, Craig called out, "There, you eold-water cusses, hold that till I tell you to let go." They did hold till they got tired and eould hold no longer, and over went the bent. William West was on it, but he jumped off without injury, while a pike-pole fell and

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struck Robert McCloud, fracturing his skull. Dr. Wilcox was called; he dressed the wound, and the man got well in a few weeks. This in- cident rather added to the ranks of the tem- perance people, and a society was formed which beeame influential and important, sustaining its organization for a number of years.

Curtis Bullard was the first Justiee of the Peace. The first couple he married, and the first couple undoubtedly married in the town- ship, were a Mr. Carr and Miss Harriet Wal- lace. Among the guests present, were Judge Josiah Piper and wife, Curtis Bullard and wife, and others. They had a right jolly good time ; and among other amusing performances they sang :

" Scotland is burning, run, boys, run,

Scotland is burning, fire ! fire ! fire ! Pour on water," etc.

They were excelleut singers, and carried all the parts to perfection. The time and oeeasion and spirit in which it was sung, rendered it lu- dierous in the extreme. Carr stayed with his wife but three or four days, and then left her for parts unknown. The first child born in the township was a daughter to F. Deming. The latter put up the first frame dwelling ever con- structed in the township. It burued down in the year 1856. The next ereeted was by A. Freeze and is still standing. The dwellings of the first settlers were universally built of logs. Though not as commodious as the present dwellings, the dwellers therein enjoyed as much true happiness.

Hinckley has been quite prolific in deaths by accident. F. N. Ferris was killed by the fall of a tree. Riehard Swift, Jr., was killed by the accidental discharge of a rifle in his own hands. J. B. Dake was killed by the kick of a horse. S. Woodruff was killed by lightning. Caleb Damon was shot by A. Shear.

A very common method of hunting turkeys was to use a turkey-bone, with the aid of which the call of a turkey for its mate could be very

closely imitated. The hunter would lie in am- bush and call until some turkey, unconscious of the fate which awaited him, would approach the hiding-place of the hunter, when he was made an easy vietim of the rifle. Caleb Da- mon had secreted himself in this manner behind a log. Shear, who was hunting in the same lo- cality, heard the "call," answered it, and cau- tiously advanced in the direction of the sound. Soon a blaek object was seen to rise slowly above the log, and Shear, thinking it to be a turkey, took deadly aim with his gun and fired. A ery of " My God ! I am shot !" from the ob- jeet at which he had discharged his rifle, ap- prised Shear what he had done. Instead of killing a turkey, he had sent a rifle bullet crashing through the brain of his friend and neighbor. Mr. Damon died almost instantly. Susan Sutton committed suicide at Burk's Cor- ners by poisoning herself. R. Swift drowned himself in a well. The most remarkable in this category of aeeidents and incidents, is the " Whipp Case," that created a sensation at the time of its oeeurrenee, perhaps never equaled by any event in Medina County. Robert Whipp is a wealthy land-owner in Hinckley Township. He lost his first wife by death, and was re-married to a young widow, thirty or forty years his junior, in 1876. They lived

together on his farm in the central part of Hinckley. Between the hours of 11 and 12 o'clock on Saturday night, September 15, 1877, Whipp was awakened from sleep by mysterious movements on the part of his wife. He also discovered a strong and to him peculiar smell about the bed-clothing, which he afterward de- scribed as chloroform. In a few minutes he heard footsteps approaching his bed, and his wife, getting off from the bed, asked iu a whis- per, "Shall I put the light out ?" The other voice answered " Yes." The light was then put out, and they walked away from the bed to- gether. Whipp then asked, " Who is there ? " No answer. They turned back and went into

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the kitchen. Other voiees were then heard, all apparently in consultation together. Soon after Whipp, who still remained in bed, heard heavy footsteps approaching, and, in a moment more, he was seized by the throat. A struggle en- sued. Whipp, who is a powerfully strong man, finally sueeeeded in getting off from the bed onto the floor. He then saw another man, of short stature, and thiek set, who eame to the assistance of the first, with a rope in his hand. At this time he recognized in the first, his young wife's brother, Lon Spensley. The other man, he did not know. The two men soon got him down on the floor and attempted to put a slip-noose rope over his head. It was a matter of life and death now, and the strug- gle was hard. They got the rope over his head and down as far as his mouth several times, but he desperately shoved it off ; and finally, with a desperate effort, he threw the assailants from him and gained his feet. He wrenehed the rope from their hands, and they baeked out into the kitehen. He then ran out-doors in his night elothes and started for a neighbor's, where he remained until morning. He then had Spens- ley, and, soon after, his wife and a young man named Taylor, arrested. At the wiuter term, in 1878, of the Medina County Court of Com- mon Pleas, the prisoners were arraigned on the charge of attempt to kill. After a most exeit- ing trial, of several weeks in duratiou, they were found guilty, and senteneed to seven years' im- prisonment. After a year's servitude, they were released by the Governor's pardon.

The house of Hiram Miller, in the south- western part of the township, on the Brunswick liue, beeame noted during the Fugitive Slave exeitement as a station on the "underground railroad," and its owner was known as one of the most zealous workers and abettors to keep. the runaway slave out of the elutehes of the pursuing master. The negroes were brought by Festus Ganyard and Ira Ingraham from Granger, where they always found suecor at the

hands of the two men, to the house of Miller. Here the slaves were detained until after reeon- naissance had been made to the north, and, when the eoast was found to be elear of slave-hunters, the darkies were transported by Miller and Egbert Ashley, of Strongsville, to the outlet of Roeky River, on Lake Erie, and thenee they were shipped to Canada. Miller often- times had as many as twenty-five fugitives under his roof, and he supplied them with food and elothing to the best of his means. Aside from giving aid to the slaves in this way, Miller took a very deeided and open stand among his neighbors on the great anti-slavery question, and he boldly advocated the eause by leeturing and preaching in its behalf. It created an in- tense exeitement for a time, and on one or two oceasions bodily assaults were inade upon him by his neighbors, he at one time receiving seri- ous injuries.

The pioueer industry of Hinekley forms a considerable faetor in the affairs of the town- ship. The first store was built by A. Miles, of Brunswiek, who put into it a young man named Daniel Bradigum, who ereeted a large ashery near the store. Ashes was then the principal artiele of manufacture people had to sell. These ashes were converted first into blaek salts, aud then into pearl-ash. This was before the days of saleratus. Corn-eob ashes and pearl-ash were used to raise short-eake, and the eake was baked in an iron kettle. William Comstoek established the first blacksmith-shop in the township, in the eastern part. Houghton Paekard built a large, three-story earding-mill in the Roeky River Valley, in the southeastern part of the township, in the year 1828. A foundry, grist-mill and distillery were added to it in the course of a few years. Business was done here for some time, until, in later years, the manufacturing and business interests shifted to the eenter. David Babeoek built a saw-mill north of town, on "Big Brook," in 1842. He was followed in this enterprise by Warren

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Warren and Lewis Brown, both of whom built mills a little further up the creek. In 1852, F. P. and W. L. Wetmore established a large steam saw-mill, which was afterward, in 1857, sold to Mortimer Old, who added a grist-mill. Immediately after the war, Abram Dunham ereeted a foundry at the Center. This was de- stroyed by fire on the 1st of April, 1867, but was immediately rebuilt on a larger scale. Two years later, on May 6, 1869, the fire-fiend again reduced the establishment to ashes, involving a great loss to the proprietors and the business interests of Hinckley. The workmen had just cleared out the shop, throwing the shavings, chips and refuse pieccs into the engine-room to be used for kindlings and fuel, preparatory to taking off a "heat." The fire was kindled, the engine put in motion to propel the fan to in- crease the heat in the cupola, and they were busy in filling the molds, when suddenly they were startled by the cry of "fire," raised with- out. A spark had falleu among the shavings in the engine-room, and, before they were aware, it was filled with a blaze. It burst outward, ran up the siding, and soon the roof was on fire. There was a stiff breeze from the south, which blew the fire directly into the upper room, where the wood-shop was located. The work- men could save nothing ; their coats aud vests, hanging up on pegs, were burned. About two rods to the east stood the warehouse, filled with plows, cultivators, etc. Soon the west side of that building and the roof were on fire. The roofs of Waite's and Riley's barns and house caught fire about the same time. It seemed as if everything was about to be consumed by the devouring elemeut. It was a time of wild ex- citement, when suddenly the wind changed, blowing the flames from the buildings. Men mounted the buildings and poured water on the parts of the roof on fire. Old carpets were got, saturated with water and spread on the roofs. Men and women worked like beavers, and they finally succeeded in their heroic efforts to stay

the flames. Even the warehouse, which had at one time been abandoned to the flames, was partially, with all its contents, saved. Within a few years, the establishment was again res- urrected, and it is to-day one of the most successful and extensive foundries in Medina County.

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 92

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