USA > Ohio > Huron County > Norwalk > History of Norwalk township, Huron county, Ohio taken from Williams' History of Huron and Erie counties > Part 3
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1809 .- Early in the spring of this year, Nathan en- gaged the services of Darins Ferris and Elijah Hoyt to accompany him on a second expedition to Norwalk with the intention of making a permanent settlement. They started with a span of horses and wagon and . such tools as would be necessary in elearing and build- ing. At Buffalo they found it impracticable to proceed further with their wagon, so a small boat was par- chased, into which their goods were packed, with the addition of a barrel of whisky. Two of them manned the boat, and proceeded up the lake, keeping near the shore, while the other took charge of the horses, and traveled overland, keeping near the lake. In this manner they reached the mouth of Huron river.
There were at that time quite a number of Indian settlements along that river, the largest of which was where the village of Milan now stands, and was called Pequatting. They were Moravians, in charge of a missionary named Frederick Drake, and had a mission house. Being very friendly. they offered the new comers the use of their mission house until a struc- ture could be erected to shelter them. A site was selected for the new house in section. two. ucar a spring, and in the immediate neighborhood of the fine brick residence erected a few years ago by Philo Comstock, Esq., and now occupied by John Ran- dolph, E-q., in section three of Norwalk. After cut- ting the logs, the few white men then in the country, of whom F. W. Fowler, of Milan, was one, were invited to assist in putting up the house.
This was the first house erected by white men, in the township of Norwalk, of which any record can be traced, and was, most probably, the pioneer house. It was not covered by a mansard roof; the windows were not set with crown.plate glass; the front door was not of carved wahut, nor mahogany; the back door did not exist; its floor was not covered with a brussels carpet: there was no piano and no sewing machine within its walls; upon the marble-topped center table (which was not there) lay no daily morti- ing paper containing the latest telegraph news and the last time card of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail Road, nor even that of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Company. In faet, it was no palatial residence, but rough and strong, and made for service like the strong-willed, iron-handed men whe built it. Its roof was made of "shakes;" its walls of rough logs; its floor was the face of mother- earth, carpeted with the most of the growth of ages:
the bedsteads were "hunks" with poles for springs. and their mattresses were sacks filled with leaves and mosses; its cooking range was a brass kettle hung on a pole supported by two crotched sticks driven into the floor, and its chimney was a hole left open in the roof. Rough. uncouth, homely, yet it was a home, -- the first home of Norwalk.
The house having been erected. they next com- menced a elearing of about ten acres which they com- pleted. in a manner, and sowed to wheat that fall.
Nathan was a genuine Yankee, and possessed of the same fertility of genius that invented "wooden nutmegs." The Indians had got a taste of his whisky, and became frequent visitors; he improved the quan- tity of it by the addition of three gallons of water to each gallon of spirits, and the color and quality by adding burned maple sugar and wild cherries. This "doctored" compound he sold readily to the Indians as "French brandy" at one dollar a quarr. It would be fortunate for the "red-nosed fraternity" of the present generation if they indulged in no worse brandy than was sold by Nathan S. Comstock in 1809.
While making their clearing, the three kept "bache- lor's hall," and a common dish with them was pork and beans. One morning they set their pot of beans and pork over the fire, so as to have their dinner ready cooked when they should come in at mid-day, and then went to their work. When the sun marked noon, they returned in time to see two or three sneaking wolves disappear down a neighboring ravine. and found their fire burned out, their dinner gone, and the unlucky brass kettle much the worse from having been used as a platter by several wolves instead of one. It is probable those hungry mon then in- dulged in a few remarks, not complimentary to the four-legged tramps.
The clearing having been made, and the wheat put in, they returned to Connecticut. Nathan intended to return the next spring with his family. and remain a permanem settler, but his health had become so poor in consequence of exposures and hardships ex- perienced on his return in the fall of 1809, and his wife being unwilling to risk the hardships and priva- tions of a frontier life, he resigned his interest in the west to his brother Abijah.
Nathan S. Comstock was the father of Philo Com- stock. Esq., now living in Milan. Ohio, and grand- father of E. A. Comstock, of this village, and Mrs. John Randolph, of this township, and an uncle of Giles, Stephen and Angusta Boalt, of this village.
ABIJAH COMSTOCK.
Abijah Comstock was born at New Canaan, Con- necticut, September 2, 1181, and in 1810 came to Norwalk, and by arrangement with his father and brother, Nathan S., took the interest of Nathan S. in the Norwalk land, and becoming an actual resi- dent,-in the house built by his brother the year previous, -- harvested the crop of wheat which had been put in by Nathan and his two lured men.
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In the latter part of 1810 or fore part of 1811, he married Esther Iseft, sister of Hosmer Merry's wife, at that time living at the place which became what is now known as the "Old County Seat."
He brought with him from Connecticut two yoke of oxen, a wagon and the supplies necessary for his permanent sojourn, and was accompanied by a lad named Alfred Arnold, who is yer living in Townsend township, well advanced in years.
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In 1812, his first ebild, Thomas, was born. When the child was only a day or two old, Alfred Arnold, who had been away on an errand through the woods, met, on his return, an Indian named Omick, * who stopped him and made very particular inquiry as to "How Comstock? How squaw? How pappoose?" The fact of the Indian being aware of the birth of the child, which had so recently occurred, surprised young Arnold, but he was quickly cured of that sur- prise by a greater one. The Indian seized hint by the hair of his head and said, "Arnold no be fraid, Arnold good boy: Indian no scalp Arnold." He then released his grasp and plunged into the woods.
Arnold was so impressed by the questions, manner and actions of Omick, that he hastened home and told Comstock that they must leave at once, or they would be murdered. His warning was acted upon, the oxen and wagon got ready, and the whole family sought safety in flight toward the Vermillion river. Soon after, their house was burned by the Indians, probably by the same band that destroyed Benjamin Newcomb's house.
While Norwalk was yet attached to, and part of, the Township of Hurou, Mr. Comstoek was elected a justice of the peace. And he was also elected and served as the first county treasurer, but this position proved unfortunate for him. He was of a generous disposition, and could not refuse to grant a favor asked by one who came to him in need, or in the character of a friend, and looked upon all men as honest and meaning just what they said. No sooner had the taxes been collected and returned to him than he was successfully beseiged by numerous appli- cants for temporary loans of money, each and all assuring him of their certainty of returning it to him before he should be called upon to account for it. The usual result in such cases followed, and he found the time for settlement at hand, but no funds. In this dilemma he hastened back to Connecticut, mortgaged all his interest in the Norwalk lands to his brother Nathan S .. in exchange for money sufficient to meet his deficit; returned to Huron county, and fully paid up all his liabilities as treasurer, and from that
* Mr. Arnold's recollection is, that it was Omick, but in this he is probably mistaken. for the incident related, is not likely to have oe mur- red before the commencement of the war of 1812. Congres passed the act declaring that war on June 1 tb, and it was proclaimed on the next day. In April, 1-12, Omick and another Indian, Semo, murdered Michael Gibbs and a Mr. Buel near "Ogontz Place" .now Sandusky City), and were soon after arrested, when semo blew his own braius out with a gun, and Omick was taken to Cleveland, tried, convicted, and on June 26, 1st2, executed
time to his death, remained a comparatively poor man, but always honorable and respected.
The mortgage was never paid. and the property eventually passed to Nathan, who. in 1838, sent his son Philo out to look after it, and so faithinl has been his stewardship that he has remained looking after it to this day.
He died February 1, 1857, at the house of Stephen Boalt, whose mother was a sister to Nathan and Abijah.
BENJAMIN NEWCOMB.
. Benjamin Newcon.b was born in Durham, Connecti- cut. He there married, and afterwards with his wife and two sons, Samuel S. and Benjamin C., removed to Kinsman, Trumbull county, Ohio. From there at some time previous to the war of 1812. he removed to Norwalk township, and located in the southwest corner of section four on the farm now owned and occupied by Miner Cole. He probably took the land under a contract from Comfort S. Msgatt, but never obtained a deed. Ifis name appears on the tax dupli- cate of personal property for 1815, but not on the real estate duplicate.
1815 .- In the summer of this year, he transferred whatever interest he had in the land to Joseph Pierce. who afterwards, in 1816, sold it to Levi Cole who obtained a deed from Mygatt.
1816 .- On July 4th, Mr. Newcomb was instantly killed by the kick of a horse.
While residing in Norwalk, he had occasion to go to Huron, and while there had an altercation with an intoxicated Indian who took offence at something Mr. Newcomb said or did. The Indian attacked him with an axe, but Mr. Newcomb took the axe away from him, and then knocked him down with his fist The next day the Indian on horseback passed Mi. Newcomb near his house, and watching his oppor- tunity, hit him a severe blow with a club. Mr. New- comb sprang forward, seized the "red-skin" by one foot. dragged him from his'pony, and gave him Ao severe a beating that he was thought to be dead, and was put in the fence corner, and the children covered him up with sticks and leaves, but the next morning he was gone.
Soon after Hull's surrender in August, 1812, John Laylin, then of Berlin township, while on his way to Greenfield to notify his uncle, Hanson Reed, of the danger from the Indians, called in the mght. audl gave the aların to Newcomb that the Indians were coming, and they must at once leave the country. Very hastily such things as were necessary for a long tedious tramp through an alnost trackless wilderness. were packed np, and the family, consisting of father, mother, two boys and an infant, Mary,* less than two years of age, started for the older settlements east. By day-break, they reached the "old! State road." and at a place since called Pordy's Corners, met other
* Mary Newcomb married Phile Com-toek February 3. 1881. and died in September following: aged a little over twenty years.
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refugees from Huron. Together they kept on to Ver- million river, where a halt was made. and Mr. New- comb returned to reconnoiter, and reached his place, two or three days after leaving it, in time to see. from a safe cover, his house burned by the Indians, and he supposed they must have been led there by the one he had so severely punished some time before, as it was the only house burued so far away from the lake. After crossing the Vermillion river, they directed their course to the "portage" of Cuyahoga river, from there to Charlestown, and from there to Vernon, and from there Mr. Newcomb entered the army as a teamster. In preparing for flight. Mr. Newcomb hid his log-chains and some other property in a hole he dng in the ground, but upon his return after the war, could not find where he had made his deposit, and the articles have never been found.
Towards night of the next day after Newcomb and family had left their house, several persons from the township of Wheatsborough, now Lyme, fleeing from the dreaded Indian incursion, reached the deserted house. and determined to camp there over night. They "hoppled" their horses by tieing their front feet so near together that they could not step more than about a foot at a time, and let them loose to feed; then commenced to prepare their supper, which they soon had ready, and were about commencing to cat when they were startled by the much dreaded and
nnearthly Indian war-whoop. Stricken with horror. they stood not upon the order of their going, but preci- pitately sought safety in the darkness of the unbroken forest; their horses, goods and tempting supper were left behind; even their guns were abandoned, so com- plete and bewildering was their surprise; life, or torture and death hung upon the action of moments; property, resistance, the means of protection were unthought of, in the dire necessity for immediate escape and shelter from the merciless foe who tortured for pleasure, and murdered for revenge.
They all escaped successfully, and hour after hour, all night long, hurried south ward through the swamps, thickets; and over the fallen logs of the trackless wilderness; at day-break, they were near the south line . of the county, some of them so nearly exhausted that they wanted to halt and rest, but others of the party insisted the Indians could follow their track like a pack of wolves, and so the weary, famishing flight, kept on during the long, long hours of the das, until the worker ones were ready to fall out of line, abandon the escape, and submit to their fate. But there were warm hearts and strong hands in that party. A long fight pole was secured, each person took firm hokl of it. and thus, the strong supporting the weak, the weary march dragged on, and did not stop until Mansfield and safety were reached.
The day this party passed through the township of Ridgefield on their way to Newcomb's house, Reuben Pixley, Sr., then living in Ridgeffell township, heard in some way that there was no danger to be appre- hended from the Indians, and started after the party !
to induce them to return. On his way he met Seth Brown who lived in the fourth section of Ridgefield, and consented to accompany Pixley in search of the refugees.
They arrived near Newcomb's place, just as the party were about to commence eating their supper, and thinking to have some sport, tried their ability to counterfeit the hideous war-whoop of the savages. The success of their powers of imitation was greater than they had anticipated, and although they made strenuous efforts to overtake the frightened people, and explain their little joke, were totally unable to do so. They remained at Newcomb's house that night, fared sumptuously, and in the morning re- turned with the abandoned property, and soou sent word on to Mansfield explaining their miserable prac- tical joke. This story was recently related to the writer by Miner Cole, Esq., of this township, who says he has heard it many times from the lips of Reuben Pixley, Sr., one of the practical jokers.
The Newcomb house, burned by the Indians in. 1812, stood on the east side of the creek, close under the hill, and but a few rods from the town line between Norwalk and Bronson. There are now standing near its site a stately poplar and an ohl descrepit apple tree planted there by that early settler nearly seventy years ago.
A military road or trail then existed upon the town line, just south of his house, which Mr. New- comb had assisted in opening, and it was while at work on that road that he was attracted by the beauty of that particular location which afterwards he settled upon as related.
At the close of the war, he returned to his place, and crected another log house on the west side of the creek, on a gravel bluff overlooking the valley. From that bluff the gravel was taken that filters the water used by the citizens of Norwalk from the water works, and West Main street was graveled partly from the same source.
Yesterday. May 2, 1870, the writer and bis little daughter, in company with Mimer Cole, visited the spot: the old house is gone: its site is marked by an indentation where the cellar used to be, and the old hearthstones yet remain in place. Standing upon that memento of the first steps of civilization, and looking forth- in the bright sunlight of the balmuns May afternoon, over the beautiful valley at his feet, upon which a flock of sheep and lambs were grazing. busy fancies brought to him echoes of the scream of the panther and howl of the wolf, followed by the Enging sound of the woodman's axe, and the voices of children playing at the creek, then by screams and shouts of terror-stricken fugitives, soon followed by the dim vision of a stealthy band of haif-naked. painted savages, quickly made distinct in all their wild orgies by the lurid light of a burning home: then another sound broke in, gentle, sweet and pleading --- "Papa. please buy mo a little baa-ban-lamb? "
The contrast was too great: the fancies took to
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flight, else the writer to this hour might have stood on that ancient hearth, listening to echoes from the remote past.
SAMUEL B. LEWIS
1814 .- Mir. Lewis was born in South Salem, West- chester county, New York, in 1790, and died at Norwalk. July 14, 18;0. in the eighty-first year of his age.
In 1814, he purchased two hundred acres of land about oue and a half miles south of the present loca- tion of the village of Norwalk, paying for it two dol- lars per acre, and in the spring of that year came on to make preparation for a permanent settlement. He made some clearing, and put in a small piece of wheat. then returning to New York.
1815 .- On the fifteenth of February, 1815, he started with his family, then consisting of his wife and a little daughter, named Angeline, (who died at Norwalk, September 1, 1812), for the new home in . the West. The journey was made in a covered wagon drawn by a span of horses, and required forly-sis days to complete. They arrived at Norwalk. April 2, 1815, or rather, they arrived at their new home on that day, for Norwalk was yet to be; only an " Indian trail" marked the crest of the " sand ridge" where Main street now is.
Soon after arriving with his family. he sold the land upon which he had commenced his improve- ments the year before. to Hanson Reed, for five dol- lars per acre, and purchased another tract of two hundred acres, in seetion one, for one dollar and fifty cents per acre.
During the summer and autumn of 1815, he built a house on his new purchase, and in that house the election for State officers, of October, 1818, was held.
In an article written by Mr. Lewis, and published in the Fire-lands Pioneer, of June, 1858, and from which most of the foregoing facts of his history have been taken, he says:
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"When I first came to Ohio, provisions of all kinds were scarce, and prices high. Wheat was sold at two dollars per bushel, also the first oats I sowed cost me two dollars per bushel: I bought them of Judge Meeker, on the lake shore, as I came into the country : and at another time I paid him five dollars for a common axe, and went tirelce miles for it; how- ever, upon the cessation of the war of 1812, people having turned their attention more to elearing their lands, and to agriculture, when soon field was added to field, and farm to farm, and, rich in their virgin soil, they sont forth their luxuriant harvests until plenty filled the land. Then produce fell to an extremely low price; so low that the year previons to the opening of the New York and Erie canal. the most that I could get offered for a fine quality of wheat, was twelve and a half cents per lorshel. and haul it a distance of six miles to tharket, which was then at Milan. "
. In those early days, wild turkeys were very plenty,
and did great damage to wheat and corn erops. Mr. Lewis relates that in 1822, they were so numerous as to endanger his wheat crop. He built a rail pen abont eleven feet square, with rails laid near together on top. A trap-door was provided, and grain freely scattered around and within the pen. The turkey's came, entered the trap, and his first catch was nine fat birds, but one got away. Two or three days afier- wards, twelve more fell victims to the trap, and this put an end to their depredations, for no others came around that season.
During the infancy of the settlement of Norwalk, Mr. Lewis' house was always open, free of charge, to the new comers, who sought bis hospitality, and on one occasion, from the frequency of such calls upon him, his stock of breadstuffs ran very short. There were no mills in the country, and no flour market nearer than Mansfield, and no road practicable for a wagon to that place; so he went there on horseback, and constructing a rude rack to fit the back of his horse, loaded a barrel of flour on that, and in that manner transported it home.
On another occasion he was called back to the cast. and performed the whole journey from Norwalk to Jersey City, on foot.
Mr. Lewis, with another pioneer, named William Marshall, a surveyor, traveled over and surveyed many of the lands in Huron county. These two went days and sometimes weeks together through the wilderness, camping out nights, while they were sur- veying farms, and running out public roads.
He held at different times the office of justice of the peace, township trustce, assessor, and lister.
The maiden name of his wife was Amy Ferris. She was born at Newtown. Fairfield county, Con- nectient, and until her death. in October, 1856. bore her share of the privations of pioneer life cheerfully. and with courage.
In those early days, they were surrounded by the dense wilderness, the home of thousands of savage men, hears, wolves and panthers.
On one occasion, when there was no one at home but Mrs. Lewis and her little daughter, there came on horseback to the house two Indian women, or squaws. who wanted flour, which was kept in the house up stairs. Mrs. Lewis went up, and was get- ting the flour, when the two squaws followed, and commenced impudently lifting the lids of boxes and barrels, to see what they contained. Mrs. Lewis shook her head at them, and they shook their heads at her. When the floor was put up, they all descended. and one of the squaws seized the little girl, then nearly two years old, and the two hastened to their horses, mounted and galloped away with the child before Mrs. Lewis fully realized what they were at. But the mother's heart quickly took the alarm, and desperation nerved her to an almost superhuman effort for the recovery of her little one. The ropte taken by the squats would compel them, at the dis- tauce of about one mile, to pass the house of another
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settler,* but before that was reached. the mother was so close after them, and screaming so lustily. that they dared not pass the settler's clearing, ahead of them, with the child, for fear of being captured, so the child was put down on the ground. the squaws seampered off with all the speed they could get out of their ponies, and the mother returned home with her child and a heart full of thankfulness.
DR. JOSEPH PIERCE.
1815 .- Dr. Joseph Pierce came to Norwalk in 1815, in company with Major David Underhill. Timothy Baker, Levi Cole and Horace Morse. That summer he purchased of Benjamin Newcomb all the interest held by the latter in lot number one of section four of Norwalk, being the Newcomb place, now Miner Cole's farm, and, in 1816, transferred his interest to Levi Cole, but continued, with his sister Rhoda, to make it his home with Mr. Cole for a number of years. He was the first practicing physician in Norwalk township, and the first postmaster, of which more particular mention is made under the head of " First Post Office." Dr. Pierce was from Herkimer county, New York. He remained here until about 1825, and then removed to New Haven and remained for some time, and then removed to Indiana.
LEVI COLE.
Levi Cole was born in Windom county. Connecti- cut, November 20, 1766, married November 25, 1200. and died February 11, 1826, at Norwalk, Ohio. His wife, Hannah Kinney, was born in Windom county, Connectient. July 24. 1720, and died at Norwalk, Ohio, February 21, 1840. They had seven sons, as follows: Jeremy. born March 12. 1:95; died July 30, 1818; came to Ohio in 1815. Asher, born April 23, 1:97; died November 4, 1830: came to Ohio in 1816. James, born April 25. 1299; now living in Norwalk township; can to Ohio in 1816. Levi, born March 23, 1801; now living in Ridgefield town- ship; came to Ohio in 1816. Miner, born July 26, 1803; now living in Norwalk township: came to Ohio in 1816. Manly K., born February 11, 1807; now liv- ing in Bronson township: came to Ohio in 1816. Lyman, born March 10, 1810: died October 10, 1843; came to Ohio in 1816.
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