History of Portage County, Ohio, Part 25

Author: Warner, Beer & co., pub. [from old catalog]; Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Norris, J. E. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 958

USA > Ohio > Portage County > History of Portage County, Ohio > Part 25

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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

admiration for the indomitable spirit that has never bowed to the yoke-never called any man "master." The Indian is a savage, but he never was, never will be, a slave. We have treated him like a dog and are surprised that he bites. In a speech in New York City, not long before his death, Gen. Sam Houston, indisputable authority on such matters, declared with solemn emphasis, that "there never was an Indian war in which the white man was not the aggressor." Aggression leading to war is not our heaviest sin against the Indian. He has been deceived, cheated and robbed to such an extent that he looks upon most of the white race as villains to whom he should show no quarter. A very decided feeling of justice to the abused red man is gaining ground of late years, and numerous able pens have been engaged in defending him, among whom are Joaquin Miller, the poet, and Hon. A. B. Meacham. But we can well afford, after getting all his land and nearly exterminating him, to extend to him a little cheap sympathy.

The Indians of this continent were never so numerous as has generally been supposed, although they were spread over a vast extent of country. Con- tinual wars prevented any great increase, and their mode of life was not cal- culated to promote longevity or numbers. The great body of them originally were along the Atlantic seaboard, and most of the Indian tribes had traditions that their forefathers lived in splendid hunting grounds far to the westward. The best authorities affirm that on the discovery of this country the number of the scattered aborigines of the territory now forming the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Michigan could not have exceeded 18,000.

The earliest date of any authentic knowledge of the Indian in this section is 1650, when the Eries held possession of the northern portion of what is now Ohio. They lived along the southern borders of the lake which bears their name, but when their domains were invaded by the Iroquois, about 1655, most of them fell before their relentless foes, whilst the remainder became incorporated with other tribes, were driven farther southward, or adopted into those of their conquerors. During the first half of the seventeenth century the Shawnees were living along the valley of the Ohio, but they, too, were dis- persed by the Five Nations or Iroquois, and dispossessed of their lands, though they subsequently returned to their early hunting grounds. For many years before and after 1700 this entire territory was occupied by the remnants of defeated tribes, who were permitted to remain by sufferance of their conquerers, the latter exacting a tribute, collected at will from the wandering and unset- tled tribes. In 1750, however, something like permanent occupation had again taken place, and we find in what is now Ohio the Wyandotts, Delawares, Shawanees, Miamis, Munsees, Chippewas, Ottawas, Senecas, Cayugas, Mohawks, Oneidas and Onondagas, the last five being known in history as the Mingoes of Ohio. They were settled mostly along the larger streams and on the southern shore of Lake Erie.

When the first settlers reached what is now Portage County, the then unbroken wilderness was filled with wild animals and nearly as wild men. There were members of several tribes, as this county was among the best of the hunting grounds of the red man. In the northwestern section there were representatives of three tribes: the Senecas, who had their headquarters near the Cuyahoga River, in Streetsboro Township, on land now owned by Samuel Olin, and whose chief was Bigson; the Ottawas, who had their village near the mouth of the Little Cuyahoga River, whose chief was Stignish, and the Chippewas, who lived further west in Medina County, about Chippewa. Lake, but who occupied a portion of this section in summer, where they hunted. These tribes had their hunting grounds as well defined as the boundaries of a

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modern farm, and every Indian knew where the limits of his "range " was, as well as if it had been surveyed.

Bigson, the Seneca chief, was about six feet in height, of a powerful and muscular frame, well proportioned, with keen black eyes, a stern and dignified look, honest and upright in all his dealings with the whites, a firm friend, or an implacable enemy. His family consisted of four sons and three daughters, only two of the sons being with him: John Amur and John Mohawk, the lat- ter the one who shot Diver in Deerfield Township. The husbands of the daughters were George Wilson, Nickshaw and Wobmung. These Indians did most of their trading with Capt. Heman Oviatt, who kept a little Indian store about one mile south of Hudson. They named the old trader "Coppa- qua," from the fact that he was so badly cheated in a trade on one occasion that he cried-the term Coppaqua meaning "to shed tears." This, also, was the Seneca name for Cuyahoga Falls.

In what is now Windham Township there was a village of Indians up to about 1807 or 1808, a short distance northwest of where now stands the depot of the Mahoning Branch of the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad. There were small clearings and a few decaying wigwams still to be seen when the first settlers arrived in that section. There was, also, an old orchard, set out by the red men, and from the old trees, one of the sons of those first settlers informed the writer he had eaten apples. An Indian trail ran along the northern border, and at various points the pioneers discovered the remains of villages. What are now Nelson and Hiram Townships was a favorite hunt- ing resort of the Indians, and members of several tribes periodically visited this section, among whom were Senecas, Ottawas, Onondagas, and a few Oneidas, but mostly Cayugas, with their chief Big Cayuga, and his nephew, Snipnose Cayuga, who succeeded him, after the redoubtable Capt. Delaun Mills had killed the former. The "ledges" in the upper part of Nelson afforded excellent shelter for the red skins, and a few wigwams could always be seen under them. Many thrilling tales are told of the adventures, hair- breadth escapes and dreadful vengeance of the early settlers, and particularly of Capt. Mills, the most of which, however, has been summed up in the sketch of Nelson Township.

When the first settlers came into Palmyra Township, and for several years afterward, a number of families belonging to the Onondaga and Oneida tribes were living in that locality. The Onondagas had their village about a mile west of the Center, a little to the northeast of the residence of Mr. Alva Bald- win, and one of the trees under which they used to congregate is still standing on the spot. This settlement was on the line of the "Great Trail," which extended from Fort McIntosh, where Beaver, Penn., now is, to Sandusky and Detroit. From the Big Beaver the trail passed up the left branch of the Mahoning, crossing it about three miles above Youngstown; thence by way of the Salt Springs in Trumbull County, through Milton and on through the upper portion of Palmyra; thence through Edinburg, after crossing Silver Creek one mile and a half north of the Center road; thence through Ravenna and Franklin, crossing the Cuyahoga at Standing Rock, about a mile from the city of Kent, where the waters enter the narrow gorge made so famous by the "Leap" of Capt. Brady; the trail then passed in a northwesterly direc- tion to Sandusky. Along this great thoroughfare parties of Indians frequently passed for many years, even after the whites had taken possession of the country. There were several large piles of stones in Palmyra Township, along this trail, under which human skeletons were found, supposed to be the remains of Indians slain in war, or murdered enemies, and as it was the cus-

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tom of the red men to cast stones upon the graves of their dead foes, they each, in passing, helped to form the piles. In 1814, near where the trail crosses Silver Creek, several devices were found carved upon trees. The bark had been carefully shaved off, and in one instance seven Indian figures carved thereon, one of which was without a head, the inference being that seven of the red skins had started out on one of their forays, and that one of the band had been slain; hence the memorial.

The Indians living in Deerfield at the time Diver was shot were, according to Christian Cackler, who knew them well, Senecas, and not Mohawks, as Howe, in his "Historical Collections" makes them, nor were they permanent dwellers in that portion of the county, their camp being in Streetsboro Town- ship, where they would erect, in the winter-time, a large wigwam, spacious enough to contain the whole remnant of their tribe in this section. Nickshaw, who traded horses with Diver, was a son-in-law of the Seneca chief, John Bigson, and John Mohawk, who shot the unfortunate man, was a son of the chief. A detailed account of this affair will be found in the chapter on Deerfield Township. In the summer of 1809 Bigson lost his squaw by death, at their head-quarters on the Cuyahoga River. She was a large, stout woman, and very good looking, having, like her husband, a very dignified, not to say stoical, appearance. She was said to be very kind and friendly for an Indian. Her age was between fifty and sixty years. They made a new calico frock for her after she was dead, and placing it on the corpse, literally covered the arms and ankles with silver beads and broaches. She was buried in a coffin made of bark, in a grave three feet deep, being first rolled up in a large blanket, the covering being so arranged that a hole was left that she might see out of it when she was summoned to arise again and enjoy the happy hunting grounds in the domain of the Great Spirit.

This chapter can have no more appropriate closing than to give a few extracts from the recollections of the late Christian Cackler, who was an eye- witness to what he relates. Speaking of the head quarters of John Bigson, the Seneca chief, whom he knew personally for many years, the old gentleman writes in the following quaint style: "I have been there a great many times when they lived there, and if they had anything to bestow upon you in the way of eatables, it was as free as water. They thought it a privilege to give, for they thought it was a token of friendship, and if they gave-one they gave all present. Their wigwam was about twenty-five feet long or more, and they had their fire through the middle, and had it so constructed as to leave room for a tier of them to lie down on each side of the fire so as to have their feet to the fire, for they laid on their skins and furs, and were covered over with their blankets. They had a space left open on the ridge of their camp to let the smoke pass out. They had their wigwam thatched with bark, so that it was tight and warm, and had a door in each end so that they could haul in their wood without much chopping. They laid there as warm and comfortable as a king in his palace. The Seneca chief used to gather in all his family connections and lay there all winter. In the spring they would scatter out over their hunting grounds, each family by themselves, and build their wig- wams for the summer. They were as careful of their game as we are of our cat- tle, and would kill nothing unless wanted for present use. * They * had no government expenses, no taxes to pay, no jails to build, no locks to buy. I think the Indian is the happiest man in the world, in the wilderness. * I never knew they had any language in which to swear. He will eat all kinds of animals and fish and horses, or anything that a dog will eat, and sometimes I have thought what a dog would not eat. They often paint

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their faces in streaks; that denotes peace and friendship. They love whisky and get drunk often."

Describing one of their drunken frolics, Mr. Cackler says: "They got their whisky and had a suit made like a little boy's suit, all whole, but open before so they could stick their arms and legs in. It was fringed all around, and had claws of several kinds-deer, bear, turkey, coon, etc.

The one that was dancing would jump, hop and kick around the floor, * * * and when he got tired he would take a drink and another would try his hand. But when they got perfectly drunk, the claws rattling looked more like the devil than anything I ever saw. * * * Then the squaws went into it and got as drunk as could be, and went tumbling around on the ground. But after they got through they looked as though they had lost their best friends."

CHAPTER IV.

THE PIONEERS OF PORTAGE COUNTY-THEIR HEROIC PERSEVERANCE AND PRI- VATIONS-NEW ENGLAND TRANSPLANTED ON THE CONNECTICUT WESTERN RESERVE-THE FIRST SETTLEMENT MADE WITHIN THE LIMITS OF PORTAGE COUNTY-FIRST SETTLERS OF MANTUA, RAVENNA, AURORA AND ATWATER TOWNSHIPS-ATWATER HALL, THE FIRST WHITE CHILD BORN IN THE COUNTY-FIRST SETTLERS OF PALMYRA, DEERFIELD, NELSON, ROOTSTOWN, RANDOLPHI, SUFFIELD, CHARLESTOWN, HIRAM, FRANKLIN, SHALERSVILLE, EDINBURG, WINDHAM, PARIS, BRIMFIELD, FREEDOM, STREETSBORO AND GARRETTSVILLE TOWNSHIPS -- THE PORTAGE-SUMMIT PIONEER ASSOCIATION.

ESS than one hundred years ago there was not a single white inhabitant a permanent settler throughout the length and breadth of the State of Ohio; less than eighty-seven years ago there was not a single white person in Portage County. Could those who. only see this country as it now is, borrow the eyes of those who helped make the transformation, their amazement could not be depicted by words. In place of the now smiling fields and comfortable homes, naught but a vast wilderness of forest would greet the sight. The true story of the first settlement of Portage County has never been told. Those early pioneers were not seeking fortunes, nor fame; they were intent only on making a home for their children, and from that laudable impelling motive has arisen the splendid structure of Western civilization we see all around us. It is astonishing how rapidly accurate and reliable information concerning the pioneer days is perishing. The traditions of those early times have been very carelessly kept, and whoever seeks to collect them finds much difficulty in doing so. Yet, what does remain has been carefully and cautiously collated, keeping ever in view the unreliability of certain sources, but gleaning the rich kernels from out the debris of shells. The present generation can form no just conception of the trials, tireless labors, sacrifices and privations to which the first settlers heroically submitted. These men whose industry, enter- prise and perseverance wrought from out nature's wilds the great prosperity which in to-day's sunlight, from every hillside and glen, looks up to smile upon us, have, in the benefactions they have bestowed upon their children, by leaving this to them for an inheritance, proved themselves greater heroes, because their achievements were nobler and better, than if they had laid the trophies of a blood-bought conquest upon their escutcheons. Courage upon

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the soil of carnage wins the wreath of laurel that evanescently bedecks the brow of victory, but true, manly courage upon life's broad field of battle should bestow a more brilliant and fadeless diadem than ever pressed the war- rior's brow, for the peaceful conquests of ax and plow are more fruitful of benefits to mankind than those of the sword and the mere scorn of death.

From the time that the Connecticut Land Company put their lands upon the market, exaggerated reports of the wonderful richness of the Connecticut Western Reserve, or New Connecticut, as it was called, were in circulation. Single individuals, parties and companies made their way to the far-off wilds, nearly all of whom either returned with or sent back to their homes glowing accounts, the result of which was an exodus to and a rapid settlement of this section. The new comers were at first almost exclusively from Connecticut and Massachusetts. They brought with them their religious ideas and preju- dices, their virtues and social customs, their peculiarities, and above all, their New England thrift, and to such an extent that for many years the inhabitants of Portage County, as well as the entire tract of territory known as the Con- necticut Western Reserve, so closely resembled their ancestors in their modes of life and veins of thought. as to be but a transplantation of, or an enlarge- ment upon, the land of the "Pilgrim Fathers." The two upper tiers of town- ships, especially, were peopled from Massachusetts and Connecticut, and a native of any other State was rarely to be found. The pioneers of the two southern tiers of townships, however, were from New England and Pennsyl- vania, with here and there a Virginian, a Carolinian, or a Marylander. Many Germans came in later, bringing with them their hardiness of constitu- tion and industry, and bringing up the land upon which they settled to the highest point of fertility. In the eastern portion of the county many of that sturdy race, the Welsh, have settled, and in one township largely outnumber the purely American population.

In those early days the entire community were producers-every man, woman, boy and girl had their duties to perform. They lived in comparative social equality, and the almighty dollar did not form a barrier between the rich and the poor; a man was esteemed not for his money bags, but for actual merit. All aristocratic distinctions were left beyond the mountains, and the only society lines were to separate the bad from the good. Rich and poor dressed alike, homespun being almost universal, whilst the primitive cabin was furnished with the same style of simplicity. Bedsteads often consisted of forked sticks driven in the ground, with crosspoles to support the clapboards or cord. We have grown older, in many respects, if not wiser, and could not think of living on what our ancestors lived. But this is an age of progress and improvement, and these observations are made by way of contrasting the past with the present. The pioneers who endured the hardships, and ofttimes the dangers from wild beasts and still wilder men have, with few exceptions, passed to their final account, and all that remains for their descendants to do is to keep bright the recollections of such names and such events as have come down to them, for the memory of their deeds should be "written in characters of living light upon the firmament, there to endure as radiant as if every let- ter were traced in shining stars."

The first settlement within the bounds of what is now Portage County was made in the fall of 1798, in Mantua Township, on Lot 24, by Abram S. Honey, who erected a log cabin, made a clearing, and put out a small crop of wheat, which was harvested the following season by his brother-in-law, Rufus Ed- wards, who owned the land, but who had sent Honey in advance to prepare the way. A man by the name of Peter French is said to have been at the point

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where Edwards settled, as early as Honey, but be made no permanent settle - ment and may have been simply a helper of the latter. William Crooks was the next permanent settler to come in after those named above, and he built a cabin and made a clearing on the southwest part of Lot 29. He remained a resident of Mantua till 1854, dying at the age of eighty-five. Elias Harmon arrived at the clearing Honey had made on the 12th of June, 1799, where he remained a short time, and then proceeded to Aurora, where he had engaged to make some improvements on the land of Ebenezer Sheldon. Harmon came in company with three other men who have had considerable local notoriety: Benjamin Tappan, Jr., of Ravenna, afterward a resident of Steubenville; David Hudson, of Summit County, and Jotham Atwater, of Euclid. Mr. Harmon was for a number of years one of the leading citizens of the county and left many descendants. He was the first Treasurer of the county.

In June, 1799, Benjamin Tappan, Jr., son of Benjamin Tappan, of North - ampton, Mass., one of the principal proprietors of the present territory known as Ravenna Township, set out from his home in the East to make a settlement on the land of his father. On his journey, Mr. Tappan fell in with David Hudson, at Gerondaquet Bay, N. Y., whom he took in his boat'and assisted on his way to what is now Summit County. In company they overtook Elias Har- mon in a small boat with his wife, bound to Mantua. At Niagara they found the river full of ice, which compelled them to convey their boats to some dis- tance around and above the Falls. Proceeding on their dangerous way vast bodies of floating ice impeded their progress, and they had to get out upon the shore and drag their boats along with ropes till they were clear of the stronger current running to the Falls. When they arrived at the mouth of the lake they also found it full of floating ice, and had to remain there several days before proceeding. Off Ashtabula County their boats were driven ashore in a storm, and that of Mr. Harmon stove to pieces, the latter traveling thence by land to his destination. Tappan and his companions sailed along the shore- line till they arrived at Cleveland, which consisted at that time of one log- cabin. Entering the Cuyahoga River and following its sinuosities, but know- ing nothing at all of its depth, they soon found that they would have to either abandon their boats or drag them over the frequent rapids in the river. After much difficulty, however, they passed safely onward, and, judging from the dis- tance traveled, thought that they were in about the latitude of the township of which they were in search. They landed at a point where now is the town of Bos- ton, in Summit County, where Tappan left all of his goods under a tent with a hired man, and taking Benjamin Bigsby with him commenced to cut out a road to Ravenna. They built a sled and with a yoke of oxen Mr. Tappan had bought in Ontario County, N. Y., conveyed a load of his farming utensils to his set- tlement in the southeast corner of the township, where, owing to delays, a cabin was not finished till the first of the following year, 1800. He subse- quently erected a house about one mile east of Ravenna on the Marcus Heath

farm. Returning for a second load, he found that his effects had been aban- doned and partly plundered, and to make it still worse, one of his oxen became over-beated and died. From a sketch of Hon. Benjamin Tappan, published in the Democratic Review for June, 1840, we extract the following:

" The death of one of his oxen left him in a vast forest, distant from any habitation, without a team, and what was still worse, with but a single dol- lar in money. He was not depressed for an instant by these untoward cir- cumstances. He sent one of his men through the woods, with a compass, to Erie, Penn., a distance of about one hundred miles, requesting from Capt. Lyman, the commandant at the fort, a loan of money. At the same

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time, he himself followed the township lines to Youngstown, where he became acquainted with Col. James Hillman, who did not hesitate to sell him an ox, on credit, at a fair price-an act of generosity which proved of great value, as the want of a team must have broken up his settlement. The unexpected delays upon the journey, and other hindrances, prevented them from raising a crop this season, and they had, after the provisions brought with them were exhausted, to depend for meat upon their skill in hunting and purchases from the Indians, and for meal upon the scanty supplies procured from west- tern Pennsylvania. Having set out with the determination to spend the win- ter, he erected a log cabin, into which himself and one Bigsby, whom he had agreed to give one hundred acres of land on condition of settlement, moved on the first day of January, 1800, before which they lived under a bark camp and tent."

During the spring following the removal of Tappan into his first cabin, which stood on the Capt. J. D. King farm, several other settlers came into Ravenna, among whom were William Chard and Conrad Boos- inger, the latter coming in August, and bringing his wife, sons George and John, and daughter Polly. Boosinger settled on 200 acres of land about one and one-half miles southeast of the present town of Ravenna, made a clearing and sowed it in wheat. Chard located on Lot 33. Boosinger being a tanner, constructed a couple of vats soon after he came, which was the first effort in that direction, and the first public enterprise in the way of manufac- tures in the county. The privations of these early settlers of the Western Reserve cannot now be described or realized, and why a young lawyer like Benjamin Tappan, Jr., surrounded with all of the comforts of an Eastern home, would venture out into an unknown wilderness, seems to us now some- thing wonderful.

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History of Portage County, Ohio, Part 25

Author: Warner, Beer & co., pub. [from old catalog]; Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Norris, J. E. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Chicago, Warner, Beers & co. Number of Pages: 958

Author: Warner, Beer & co., pub. [from old catalog]; Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Norris, J. E. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 958