History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 93

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 93

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The Hinekley Lodge, of I. O. O. F., which is " hailed " as Lodge 304, was organized in 1856. The charter was given by the Ohio Grand Lodge, on the 3d of June, 1856. The peti- tioners for the grant were S. C. Oviatt, Wesley Pope, W. S. Wetmore, William Crooks, Will- iam S. Salisbury and A. Severance. The first regular meeting was held on the 4th of July, 1856, and the following board of officers was elected : W. S. Wetmore, N. G .; L. Parker, V. G .; A. Severance, Secretary ; G. B. Simmons, Treasurer ; M. W. Dunham, Couduetor ; and William Frost, Warden. After a few years, the society purchased one of the store buildings in the village, and arranged the upper story as a lodge-room. The regular meetings of the lodge are held on Saturday of each week.

A small Methodist society was organized on the "Ridge " as early as 1822. Meetings were then held at private houses, until a few years later, when the people met at the little log schoolhouse that had been erected in the vicinity. Serviees were conducted by missionaries from the East, and circuit-riders, who eame at differ- ent times through the settlement. On preaching days, four devoted sisters, Letitia Swift, Mrs. McCreary, Mrs. Chester Conant, and Mrs. David Taman, would come through the woods together, singing hymns, and making them ring with their bright and clear voices. They came dressed in all the simplicity of the times ; a plain sun- bonnet or a bandana handkerchief answered the purpose of the fashionable bonnet of to- day. During 1826, a Methodist society was organized by D. L. Conant, near the center, which the " Ridge " people soon joined, and the two together formed one society. Mr. Conant

Orpha Van Heusen

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

was the first preacher of the society, and he was quite frequently assisted by circuit-riders. The meetings were at first held in a little log house that had been erected for a blacksmith- shop, but had been abandoned by the builder. In 1844, a church edifice was constructed a lit- tle distance west of the Center, on a piece of land deeded to the society by David Babcock. The church now belongs to the Richfield charge, and contains about sixty active members.

A Congregational church was organized May 5, 1828. According to previous announcement, a number of persons met at the log schoolhouse near the Center, the usual place of holding relig- ious meetings on this date, for the purpose of or- ganizing into a church. There were present the Rev. Simon Woodruff and Israel Shaler, mission- aries from Connecticut, and the Rev. Joseph A. Pepoon, of the Grand River Presbytery. After prayer, the following persons presented them- selves for examination, viz. : James and Mary Porter, Cornelius and Mary Northrop, John and Myra Jones, Bordena Thayer, Temperance Easton, Harriet Carr (by letter), Curtis and Sarah Ball, Thomas Easton, Zilpah Loomis, Jonathan Fish and Samantha Loomis. "These persons having been examined with regard to their experimental acquaintance with religion, and having agreed to the confession of faith and covenant adopted by our churches in the country, and having expressed a willingness to hold fellowship with each other, it was con- cluded that they be organized into a church. A sermon was then preached by the Rev. Mr. Pepoon, after which the above-named persons, having given their public assent to the confes- sion of faith, were declared to be a church, and charged to be faithful. James Porter was ap- pointed Deacon, and Curtis Bullard, Clerk. The meetings were held every other Sunday, in the little blacksmith-shop, already referred to, until in 1838, when a separate church building was erected on a piece of ground deeded to them by Judge Piper. The meetings of this society

were discontinued in 1878, for want of proper support.

A Frec-Will Baptist society was organized on the " Ridge" in 1835, by Edward Waldo, Arad Damon and Russell Putman. It remained in effect for a number of years, holding meet- ings in schoolhouses and private dwellings, but, at the present day, has gone out of exist- ence.

The Hinckley Disciples' Church was organized on the 20th of February, 1870, by Elders Rob- ert Moffet, of Cleveland, a noted evangelist, and H. N. Allen, of Royalton. The Trustees of this society, after its first organization, were George E. Webber, Lewis Finch and John Mus- ser. A large church edifice was erected in 1871, and dedicated in December of the same year by Prof. B. A. Hinsdale, of Hiram. H. N. Allen was Pastor of the church until in 1874, when he was succeeded by H. B. Cox, for one year, and George Musson, for two years. The present officiating Pastor of the church is E. S. Bower, of Hiram. One hundred and nineteen persons have joined the church since its organization.

The first school teacher in Hinckley was Miss Alsina Brooks, of Strongsville Township. She used to walk from Bennett's Corners to the center of Hinckley and teach all day. In one of her walks through the woods, she came across a raccoon, which she killed and brought to the schoolhouse to exhibit to the scholars. The pioneer children came two or three miles through the woods and sat all day on hard slab benches, and then their parents had to scrimp and save to pay the teacher. But the education they received was of the most prac- tical kind, and our humble log schoolhouses turned out men of the best stamp. The follow- ing table, on school statistics in Hinckley Town- ship, was prepared by Dr. Wilcox. It will illustrate, in a striking degree, the different phases in the school history, and also the popu- lation of the township at different times. The

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

enumeration of the youths, between the ages of five and twenty-one ycars, for the years from 1852 to 1880, is as follows : 1852, 620 ; 1853, 537; 1854, 493; 1855, 494; 1856, 479 ; 1857, 467; 1858, 491; 1859, 466; 1860, 463; 1861, 455; 1862, 427; 1863, 410; 1864, 394; 1865, 398; 1866, 387; 1867, 353; 1868, 333; 1880, 250. Beginning with 620 in 1852, it ends in 1880 with 250, a decrease of nearly 70 per cent. Again, twice 620 is 1,240, about the actual general population of the township in 1852-twice 250 is 500, which is very nearly one-half of our general population in 1880- in other words, the children have sunk from half of the whole population to a little more than one-fourth. The 370 children, lost in Hinckley in the years mentioned, this being the difference in the school population between 1852 and 1880, would form eight school dis- tricts larger than our average districts. Dis- tricts that twenty years ago enumerated cighty scholars, have now got down to twenty or less, with an average daily attendance of seven or eight scholars ; and the expense of supporting

the small school is as great as the larger one. To enlarge the school districts, necessitates re- moving the old schoolhouses or building new ones, and sacrificing the old ones, and then many children will be so far from them that they cannot or will not attend, and ignorance will be again on the increase, with all of its in- separable evils. Medina County is capable of supporting, with ease, three times its popula- tion. Hinckley is, to-day, divided into eight subdistricts. The following abstract shows the financial condition of the township schools for 1880 :

Balance on hand. $1,298 86

State tax ... 351 00

Township tax 2,428 46

Irreducible tax school fund 22 50

Fines, licenses, etc .. 252 56

Total $4,353 38

Whole amount paid township. $1,452 75

Amount for sites, buildings, etc ..... 506 45

Amount for fuel. 420 09

Balance on hand $1,974 09

CHAPTER XXI .*

SHARON TOWNSHIP-PHYSICAL FEATURES-EARLY SETTLEMENT-PIONEER INDUSTRIES-GROWTH OF CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS-PERSONAL SKETCHES.

T HIS township is situated on the east line of the county. Until 1840, it was an interior township, but at that time four townships were taken from Medina County to help form the county of Summit, which rendered Sharon a bor- der township. It is bounded on the north by Granger, east by Copley, south by Wadsworth, and west by Montville. The center of the town- ship is eight miles southeast of Medina, twelve miles west of Akron, and thirty miles south of Cleveland.

The surface of the township is undulating. *Contributed by George A. Root.

Taking the eastern line for a base, where it is crossed by Wolf Creek, the greatest elevation would be near the south line, west of the Center road, as well as the north part of the town near the same road, and reaching the altitude of 150 feet. The township furnishes as many springs as any on the Western Reserve. Its computed number is 127. The streams that go to make up Wolf Creek, the principal stream in the township, are, first, Spruce Run, which rises on Lot No. 32, runs one mile, fed by springs, and forms a junction with the creek fifty rods west of the town line. Minor streams feed the west

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

side until it receives the waters of Stone Brook, which rises on Lot No. 15, and runs one mile southwest and empties in the East Branch of Wolf Creek. This East Branch receives a slight start from a swamp in Granger Township, but gets its constant flow from springs south of the north line. Starting from the junction of the two streams called the East and West Branches of Wolf Creek, which occurs on Lot 52, we find the West Branch receives its largest feeder from Jones' Brook, which rises in Wadsworth, runs three miles north to the main stream. The next is the Young or Case Brook, rising on Lot 66 and running northeast. The third is a small stream starting at the paint mines. Another feeder to the West Branch is the Warner Brook, which rises on Lot 78, runs two miles north and empties. This main or West Branch, like its eastern brother, takes its rise in Granger. Yel- low Creek rises in Sharon, runs one and a half miles southeast to the township of Copley, thence to the Cuyahoga River. On the west town line there is a tributary of Rocky River, which rises on Lot 21. This, with Yellow Creek, contributes to the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The other streams mentioned, to- gether with Paint Creek, in the southwest part of the town, flow into the Tuscarawas River, which helps to swell the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and thence to the Gulf of Mexico. Thus there are several buildings in Sharon, whose roofs contribute to both of the great gulfs of North America. Sharon is drained by its natural formation, in the immediate rise of the land from the numerous creeks to the dif- ferent table lands. Drainage was provided when the waters receded from this continent.

Sharon shares with Montville in a swamp of seventy-five acres, which was called by the early settlers the Bear Swamp.

She soil of Sharon is varied. The western half is blue clay mixed with small particles of shale, which changes as we go eastward to sand and gravel, mixed with petrified shell of ancient

deposit. As we approach the east line of the township, there is a greater proportion of sand, with occasional gravelly knolls. The valleys are a compound, sand prevailing. Vegetable decomposition is about 33 per cent of its com- position. The valleys embrace one-fourth of the tillable land. The timber is variable ; principally beech in the northwest quarter. The middle tier of lots, north and south, were once celebrated for choice sawing timber. Yel- low white-wood, black-walnut, white ash, hard and soft maple, beech and white-oak abounded. The few noble oaks that yet remain are mostly in the east part of the township, and indicate that from four to six feet in diameter was not an uncommon size.

Sharon remains as first surveyed, it being in accordance with the rules adopted at the commencement of the survey of the Western Reserve, unless natural objects prevented. It is five miles square, divided into eighty lots varying in size from one hundred and ninety- eight to two hundred and thirty-six acres, rendering in the aggregate 17,200 acres of land. The center is in 41° 6' north latitude. The pursuits of the inhabitants are almost en- tirely agricultural. The soil is adapted to grain and grazing. From 1835 to 1845, it pro- duced a great quantity of wheat. The fields were then visited by destructive insects to such an extent that farmers turned their atten- tion to sleep-raising. This was continued un- til 1868, when the produce of sheep fell to nominal prices, and this industry gave place to cheese-factories and dairying, and also to wheat-raising, which latter has proved success- ful for a number of years past.

The principal village of the township is Sharon Center, located, according to the fashion of the times, at the geographical center. It con- tains about forty dwellings, two dry goods, gro- cery and hardware stores, post office, two black- smith and wagon shops, two shoe shops, grist and saw mill, two churches, hotel, town-hall and

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

schoolhouse combincd, haruess-shop, ctc. The population numbers 150; the whole township about 1,200. On the north line of the town- ship, near the northeast corner, is the village of Coddingville. This contains a hotel, a grocery, a few dwelling-houses on the Sharon side, and a blacksmith and wagon shop, dwell- ings, schoolhouse, etc., on the Granger side. Half a mile west is Troy Corners, which con- tains a store, hotel, dwellings, and the post of- fice kuown as Smith's Road.

The principal part of Sharon was owned first by the miuor heirs of Hart & Mathers, by which name the township was first designated. This was changed, at the suggestion of Peter A. More, to Gask, the name of his native city in Scotland, and was thus known until 1830, when the name was again changed, by act of the Legislature, to that by which it is now known. The name was suggested by the wife of Samuel Hayden, an early settler, in honor of her native town, Sharon, Conn. The formal organization of the township took place in April, 1831. Seveuty-five votes were cast, which resulted in the election of Peter A. More, Samuel Hayden and Charles McFarliu, Trustees ; Jacob Rudesill, Clerk ; Col. Luther Fitch, Treasurer; Jonathan Smith, Justice of the Peace; Mark Smith, Constable. Of the above number, but one survives-Jacob Rude- sill. At the election in April, 1832, Amos Ritter, Charles McFarlin and John Boydston were choseu Trustees; David Boydston, Clerk; Luther Fitch, Treasurer.

The lands in Sharon came into market in March, 1829, but there were several squatters as early as 1815. Among these first settlers was one Parmeter, Bridgeman, McConkey, Point, Valland and Green, and, it is supposed, that, as early as 1810, a hunter was living at the forks of Wolf Creek. When the lands were surveyed, in 1827, these squatters, with the exception of David Point and McFarlin, took their departure. They left no available

"Footprints on the sands of time."

David Point was a native of Orange County, N. Y .; came to Portage County, Ohio, in 1810, where he married a daughter of John Dunbar, and moved to what was then called "Hart & Mather," now Sharon, in 1816. He was a tan- ner and currier by trade, and the settlers found him a valuable acquisition. As cattle were scarce, deer were slain for their hides as well as their meat, and Mr. Point proved a good tanner. One old settler declares he had a pair of boots made from deerskin of his tan- ning that had worn for twenty years, and thought that they would yet outlast several pairs of modern tanning and manufacture. Mr. Poiut lived to the age of eighty-four years. His widow still survives, aged eighty-six years, in full possession of all her faculties. Strictly adhering to the injunction of the Bible, there were born to them fourteen children. Uncle David looked with disdain upon modern fam- ilies, with a few children "whining for sweet- cake and candy." Instead of this, he would say, "Mother, give them children a supper of roasted potatoes and milk ; put some leeks on the table so the milk won't taste leeky!"

As the actual settlement of the township did not take place until several years after that of the neighboring townships, the settlers were spared much of the privation usually endured by the pioneers of civilization. They were euabled to obtain supplies from earlier settled neighbors in adjoining towns, and their social customs and domestic manners partook of the character of older communities from the first.

The first ehild born in the township was a son to Stephen Greeu and wife, who lived on Lot No. 13, in 1819. The first female was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Point, born in 1818. The first marriage was that of Joseph Willey to Malinda McFarlin, in 1829. They moved to Porter County, Ind., where Willey died in 1856. The first death was that of a child of David Point, in 1822. As there was

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

623

no graveyard in Sharon at that time, the bur- ial took place in Granger, near Coddingville. A few settlers assembled to console the afflicted parents. The ceremony consisted of a hymu sung and a short petition to God for consola- tion to those called to mouru.

The necessity of education was recognized by the early settlers in a school meeting held early in the fall of 1822. Among those who thus met were David Point, Abram Valland, Lyman Green and Charles McFarlin. At this meeting, it was resolved to build a sehoolhouse, and the site selected was that upon which Link's Tavern now stauds. An objection was made to this, however, from the fact that au Indian squaw had been buried there a few years before, and that her spirit had been seen and heard, and the following is what she is supposed to have said : "Brothers, I do not want the place where my bones lie disturbed. My braves tell me this is theirs by inheritance. There was a time when our forefathers owned all this land ; now you envy me one small spot. Your forefathers came across the great plains and the Cnyahoga and landed on this our hunting-ground. When they eame across the great waters, their number was small. They found friends and not euemies. They told us they had fled from their own country for fear of wicked men, and had come here to enjoy their religion. They asked for a small seat. We took pity on them and gave them corn and meat. They gave us poison (whisky) in return.

"' Why is my sleep disturbed ? Who is it calls the dead ?' "'

The old squaw's grave did not prevent them from building on the place. Tradition says it was better than the majority of schoolhouses at that time. It had a floor made of split chestnnt logs, and benches of the same mate- rial, similar to extended milking-stools. Here sat the juvenile lords aud ladies of the past, some of whom were endowed with faculties to

do honor to the farmer's station, while others stood at the head of their profession, and, in the halls of their native State, stood foremost to beat back the inroads of class legislation. The pedagogue who had the honor of teaching the first school in Sharon was David Holmes. His throne was an elm-bottomed chair. Perched thereiu, and equipped with a good ferule and plenty of blue-beech " gads," tlie monarch reigned. The roll of scholars thus assembled in the first school taught in Sharon, in 1822, reached the number of twenty-four. A few of these lived in Granger, but this township fur- nished the great majority. Their uames were William, Polly, Rhoda and Sally Valland, John Orville, Esther, Moses, Reuben, Mervina, Al- mina and Wilson McFarlin, Jane, Betsy and Marilla Point, Lyman, Orpha, Dexter and Asc- nath Green, Myron C., Chester and Tracy Hills. Mr. Holmes married a Miss Codding, of Gran- ger, and removed to Michigan. He died in Coneord, Jackson County, in that State, in 1837.

No other schools were commeuced in the township nntil 1832. In the meantime, the town had become well settled, uearly all of the lots having been sold. This gave rise to the establishment of the second school, which was located at the eenter, in a building recently ereeted for the double purpose of a school aud town house. The people could find uo author- ity in law for levying a tax to build a house of that character, and so the enterprise had been carried out by subseription. This building was a small wooden structure, ceiled within, aud supplied with a desk and seat extending aloug three sides. The scholars were thus seated with their faces to the wall, and their backs to the teacher. The first school taught in this house was in the summer of 1832, Elizabeth Hayden, teacher. The winter term of that year was presided over by Dr. Ormsby, followed, the next summer, by Julia Hayden. The other sehool districts of the township, were formed

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

during the next five years, and were speedily supplied with scholars, one in 1840, enumerat- ing 117.

The ruling spirits at the center of the town were generally New Englanders, fully alive to the importance of education, and early con- ceived the idea of a higher school. To this end, a charter was obtained in 1836, for the erection of an academy, which was accom- plished during that year. This building also served a double purpose, the first floor being used for school purposes, while the upper room was occupied by the Universalist Society as a church. The first seven years of the existence of the academy, was mainly under the direction of John McGregor, a very successful teacher, and under whose supervision the school ac- quired a widespread reputation. Mr. McGregor was a native of Scotland, and had there become quite a prominent politician, but for the expres- sion of some radical sentiment, he had left old Scotia, and came to Vermont in 1829. Through the intervention of Mrs. Caroline Gibbs, he came with his family to Sharon, and took charge of the academy during the winter of 1836-37. In the spring, he was induced to go to Wadsworth to start a school there. Un- der his directions, the octagonal building in that village was erected and used by him for two years, when he returned to Sharon and taught five years. His first residence in Sharon was in a log house near the residence of the late Mrs. Graves, one mile north of the Center. He bonght a farm on Lot 39, two miles west of the Center, on which he lived a short time. He moved to Wadsworth finally, in 1842, settling on a farm on the diagonal road, near Wilson's Corners. His death took place in 1847, from the bursting of a blood-vessel. He was of an eccentric turn of mind, and zealous in any sub- ject he took hold of.

Rev. Alvin Dinsmore, Universalist, succeeded McGregor as teacher in the academy. He also served as Pastor of the society that assembled

to worship in the same building. He was a very studious man, and under his administra- tion, the school flourished greatly. Many stu- dents from abroad were in attendance, and classes were formed in the higher mathematics, philosophy, chemistry, languages, etc. His favorite method of punishment of the smaller scholars, was by ducking in the spring at the bottom of the hill, near the academy. He was an extensive reader of history, and appeared to live more in the society of past ages than in the present. This made him seem to be absent- minded, but he was never neglectfnl of duty. He removed from here to Naperville, Ill., in 1856, but now resides in DeWitt, Iowa.

E. W. Reynolds, a graduate of Western Re- serve College, and, perhaps, the most accom- plished scholar that ever taught in Sharon, was the next Principal of the academy. The previ- ous interest in this school was fully sustained nn- der him, and many students from abroad came here for instruction. Mr. Reynolds married, while living in Sharon, a daughter of Abel Dickenson, of Wadsworth. His courtship and marriage had been conducted so secretly that the family in which he boarded (Col. Barron's) had no sus- picion of the true state of affairs until one morning, while they were at the breakfast table, Mr. Dickenson suddenly came into the room somewhat intoxicated, exclaiming, "Mr Reynolds, you can have my horse and buggy to take your wife to Akron to-day." A thunder- clap would not have produced more astonish- ment in the family than thus to have learned so suddenly that their supposed bachelor boarder was really a Benedick. Mr. Reynolds removed to Cassopolis, Mich., from which place he was elected to the Legislature of that State. An accidental fall from a wagon terminated his life about the year 1860.

The affairs of the academy thus ebbed and flowed until 1851, when the old building was sold to make room for a church the Universal- ists had resolved to build. Another building

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

was fitted up for a high school, just east of the new church, and in this labored for two years, as teachers, Mr. Aldrich and George Rudesill, respectively. The Presbyterian Church had by this time become disused, and was purchased aud fitted up for a high school by Isaac R. Henry, and by him used for a few terms. He was succeeded by others, amoug whom may be mentioned H. H. Mack, W. H. Williams aud A. L. Barnard. The number of scholars under the latter's tuition rose as high as one hundred and twelve. After this, the sehool deelined, and the old house was finally sold, and went to help build up a neighboring village.

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 93

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