USA > Ohio > Portage County > History of Portage County, Ohio > Part 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112
The writer has seen an old cash book kept at one of the frontier stores on the Reserve prior to 1800, wherein the accounts with the whites are carried out in pounds, shillings and pence, while those with the Indians, who largely patronized the store, were kept in dollars and cents. To judge from the daily consumption of whisky, it was pre-eminently the "staff of life," there being scarcely an account against a white or Indian, male or female, of which it does not form a large proportiou. For domestic use, it cost 3 shillings per quart, while a gill cost 4 cents. Tobacco was sold by the yard at 4 cents per
249
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
yard; common sugar at 33 cents, and loaf at. 50 cents per pound. Chocolate was in more general use than tea or coffee, and sold at 3 shillings aud 6 pence per pound, and coffee at 30 cents. Homespun linen could be purchased at 50 cents per yard, while the belle aspiring to the extravagance of calico, could gratify her ambition at 83 cents per yard, with the addition of a cotton hand- kerchief at from 70 cents to $1, according to color and design. Shoes and boots brought from $1 to $3 per pair, but moccasins were in common use with both white men and Indians at 3 shillings and 9 pence, though from 9 pence to two shillings higher when ornamented with the colored quills of the porcu- pine. The price of a rifle was $25, a horse $125, and a yoke of ozen $80. Indians usually paid their bills with peltry and many of the whites did like- wise. A bear skin was worth from $2 to $5; otter, from $3 to $4; beaver, from $2 to $3; deer from 75 to 90 cents; marten 1 shilling and 10 pence; muskrat, 1 shilling, while fisher, wild cat, panther, wolf, fox, raccoon, mink and other skins were also readily purchased.
Long journeys upon foot were often made by the pioneers to obtain the necessities of life or some article, then a luxury, for the sick. Hardships were cheerfully borne, privations stoutly endured; the best was made of what they had by the pioneers and their families, and they toiled patiently on, industri- ous and frugal, simple in their tastes and pleasures, happy in an independ- ence, however hardly gained, and looking forward hopefully to a future of plenty which should reward them for the toils of their earliest years, and a rest from the struggle amidst the benefits gained by it. Without an iron will and indomitable resolution they could never have accomplished what they did. Their heroism deserves the highest tribute of praise that can be awarded. A writer in one of the local papers says:
" Eighty years ago not a pound of coal or a cubic foot of illuminating gas had been burned in the country. All the cooking and warming in town as well as in the country were done by the aid of a fire kindled on the brick hearth or in the brick ovens. Pine knots or tallow candles furnished the light for the long winter nights, and sanded floors supplied the place of rugs and carpets. The water used for household purposes was drawn from deep wells by the creaking sweep. No form of pump was used in this country, so far as we can learn, until after the commencement of the present century. There were no friction matches in those early days, by the aid of which a fire could be easily kindled, and if the fire went out upon the hearth over night, and the tinder was damp, so that the spark would not catch, the alternative remained of wading through the snow a mile or so to borrow a brand from a neighbor. Only one room in any house was warm, unless some member of the family was ill, in all the rest the temperature was at zero during many nights in winter. The men and women undressed and went to their beds in a temperature colder than our barns and woodsheds, and they never complained."
Churches and schoolhouses were sparsely scattered, and of the most primi- tive character. One pastor served a number of congregations, and salaries were so low that the preachers had to take part in working their farms to pro- cure support for their families. The people went to religious service on foot or horseback, and the children often walked two or three miles through the woods to school. There were no fires in the churches for a number of years. When they were finally introduced they were at first built in holes cut in the floors, and the smoke found its way out through openings in the roofs. The seats were of unsmoothed slabs, the ends and centers of which were laid upon blocks, and the pulpits were little better. Worship was held once or twice a month, consisting usually of two services, one in the forenoon and one imme-
250
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
diately after noon, the people remaining during the interval and spending the time in social intercourse. It is much to be feared that if religious worship were attended with the same discomforts now as it was eighty to ninety years ago, the excuses for keeping away from the house of God would be many times multiplied. Taken altogether, while they had to endure many privations and hardships, it is doubtful whether the pioneers of any part of America were more fortunate in their selection than those of Portage County. Every one of the settlers agrees in saying that they had no trouble in accommodating themselves to the situation, and were, as a rule, both men and women, healthy, contented and happy.
During the war of 1812-15, many of the husbands and fathers volunteered their services to the United States, and others were drafted. Women and children were then left alone in many an isolated log-cabin in northeastern Ohio, and there were several intervals of unrest and anxiety. It was feared by many that the Indians might take advantage of the absence from these homes of their natural defenders, and pillage and destroy them. The dread of rob. bery and murder filled many a mother's heart, but happily the worst fears of the kind proved to be groundless, and this part of the country was spared any scenes of actual violence.
After the war there was a greater feeling of security than ever before; a new motive was given to immigration. The country rapidly filled up with set- tlers, and the era of peace and prosperity was fairly begun. Progress was slowly, surely made; the log-houses became more numerous in the clearings; the forest shrank away before the woodman's ax; frame houses began to appear. The pioneers, assured of safety, laid better plans for the future, resorted to new industries, enlarged their possessions, and improved the means of culti. vation. Stock was brought in from the South and East. Every settler had his horses, oxen, cattle, sheep and hogs. More commodious structures took the places of the old ones; the large double log-cabin of hewed logs and the still handsomer frame dwelling took the place of the smaller hut; log and frame barns were built for the protection of stock and the housing of the crops. Then society began to form itself; the schoolhouse and the church appeared, and the advancement was noticeable in a score of ways. Still there remained a vast work to perform, for as yet only a beginning had been made in the West- ern woods. The brunt of the struggle, however, was past, and the way made in the wilderness for the army that was to come.
For the next ten years succeeding the war of 1812 wheat was from 25 to 373 cents per bushel, and other products in proportion. Merchandise was still very high. A day's labor would barely purchase a yard of cotton, while thirty-two bushels of corn are known to have been exchanged, by one of the pioneers of Portage County, for four yards of fulled cloth. About 1813 John T. Baldwin and David Waller, two well remembered pioneers of Palmyra Township, brought the first load of salt from Cleveland to Portage County. It took five days to make the trip, and the salt was worth when delivered $20 per barrel. In 1816 corn was $2 per bushel, and flour $14 per barrel, while hired hands received but 25 cents a day. In 1821 wheat sold in Ravenna for 25 cents per bushel, and money was so scarce that the average pioneer was very often unable to raise the funds to pay the postage on an occasional letter, which then cost 25 cents. Wheat and flour were hauled to Cleveland with ox teams, and exchanged for goods, and, as the roads were usually in a terrible .condition, it often took a whole week to make the round trip. Along about this period Judge Amzi Atwater, who resided in the northern part of the county, with the laudable intention of encouraging the struggling settlers,
251
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
advertised that he would allow 50 cents per bushel for wheat to those who had purchased or would purchase land of him. Taking advantage of this liberal offer, they would buy up wheat at from 25 to 40 cents and turn it over to Judge Atwater at 50 cents per bushel. This was soon regarded by the Judge as "sharp practice," and he withdrew his offer. The usual hotel charges throughout the county for a good pioneer dinner was 12} cents, a similar amount being charged for four quarts of oats and hay for the guest's horse. Very little change occurred in prices of produce or goods until 1825, when the commencement of work on the Ohio Canal gave an impetus to every branch of trade.
The first settlers were necessarily exposed to many dangers and privations, yet as a rule they had no fears of starvation, for the forest was alive with game, the streams abounded in fish and the virgin soil yielded bountifully. Upon selecting a location, the pioneer usually began at once to open a clearing in the primitive forest and prepare a piece of ground for tillage. Thus the foundation of the present agricultural prosperity was laid by the first settlers of the county. In the fall of 1798 Abram S. Honey planted a small patch of wheat in Mantua Township, which was harvested the following summer by his brother-in-law, Rufus Edwards, who owned the land. This was the first crop raised by white men in what is now Portage County. In June, 1799, Elias Harmon planted some potatoes and peas in the Honey clearing. The same fall Lewis Ely put in a crop of wheat in Deerfield Township, as also did Lewis and Horatio Day, amounting in all to some eight or ten acres. The next spring Lewis Ely, Alva Day, John Campbell and Joel Thrall each planted a small patch of corn in Deerfield. David Daniels cleared up a piece of ground on Lot 21, Palmyra Township, in the summer of 1799, and that fall sowed it in wheat, which he harvested the following summer. After threshing the little crop with his flail, he cleaned up about a bushel of the grain and carried it on his back to a mill located at Poland, Ohio, about thirty miles distant, had it ground and returned with the flour to his cabin, where for the first time since settling in the wilderness, he enjoyed the luxury of wheat bread. In the spring of 1800 Daniels put in a patch of corn; Ethelbert Baker and William Bacon also planted little fields of corn in Palmyra the same spring. In 1799 Ebenezer Sheldon sent out Eben Blair from Connecticut to make a settlement on his land in Aurora Township. Blair came via Pittsburgh, where he bought a peck of grass seed. This he carried on his back from Pittsburgh to Sheldon's land, where he was soon after joined by his employer and Elias Harmon. An opening was soon made in the woods and sown with wheat brought out by Sheldon, the grass seed being sown in the same field. Benja- min Tappan put in a few acres of corn and vegetables in 1800, on his land in the southeast corner of Ravenna Township, and the same fall planted the ground in wheat. William Chard and Conrad Boosinger, both of whom settled in Tappan's neighborhood, also planted small fields of the latter cereal in the fall of 1800. Asa Hall made the first clearing in Atwater Township early in 1800, and put in some corn, which was succeeded the next fall by wheat. In 1801 or 1802 David Baldwin raised a corn and wheat crop in Atwater Town- ship.
The first corn in Rootstown Township was planted in the spring of 1801, near its northeast corner, by Ephraim and David Root. In Nelson Township a crop was put in the same year by Delaun and Asahel Mills. In 1802 Royal Pease sowed a few acres of wheat in Suffield Township. In April, 1803, Ben- jamin Baldwin settled in the latter township. He brought from Connecticut a small bag of apple seeds, which he planted upon his arrival, and from the seed.
252
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
lings thus obtained has come the much-prized "Baldwin Apple." The first crop of wheat planted in Randolph Township was in the fall of 1802, by Bela Hubbard, on the northwest corner of Lot 57, the first land cleared in the township. He had to go to David Baldwin's in Atwater Township eight miles away to borrow a plow, which he carried on his shoulders to his little clear- ing, and returned it in the same manner. He went to Christman's Mill, on Little Beaver Creek, in Pennsylvania, for seed, the round trip taking about a week, but so rich was the soil that he raised 100 bushels of clean wheat from four acres of ground. He and Joseph Harris raised in partnership, in 1805, 1,500 bushels of corn. In 1803 Elijah Mason cleared twenty-two acres of land on Lot 23, Hiram Township, which he planted in wheat the same year. John
Campbell raised the first corn in Charlestown Township in 1805, having removed there from Deerfield, where he first settled. In 1806 John and George Haymaker sowed a small patch of corn on the bank of the Cuyahoga, in Franklin Township, and the next year built a grist-mill on that stream. Joel Baker put in a crop of corn and wheat on Lot 46, Shalersville Township, in 1806. Eber Abbott planted the first corn and wheat in Edinburg Town- ship in 1811. In the spring of that year Elijah and Oliver Alford and Eben- ezer O. and Nathan Messenger cleared small pieces of ground in Windham Township, which they planted in corn. Wareham Loomis also put in a small patch, and the same fall several acres of wheat were sown by the same parties and other settlers who arrived during the summer. Benjamin Higley, one of those who came to Windham that year, planted four acres of wheat on Lot 36, and from three bushels sown he threshed out the following summer about 100 bushels, which fully demonstrates the original fertility of the soil of this county.
The agricultural implements in use by the early settlers were very simple and rude. The plow was made entirely of wood, except the share, clevis and draft-rods, which were of iron, and had to be for a number of years transported from Pittsburgh, as there were no iron works in the county where the plow- shares could be forged. The wooden plow was a very awkward implement, very difficult to hold and hard for the team to draw. It was, however, very generally used until the fall of 1824, when the cast-iron plow, patented by Jethro Wood, was first brought into the county, though it did not gain popular favor very rapidly. The farmer looked at it and was sure it would break the first time it struck a stone or a root, and then how should he replace it? The wooden mould-board would not break, and when it wore out he could take his ax and hew another out of a piece of a tree. In no one agricultural implement has there been more marked improvement than in the plow-now made of beau- tifully polished cast-steel except the beam and handles, while in Canada and some portions of the United States these, too, are manufactured of iron. The cast-steel plow of the present manufacture, in its several sizes, styles and adaptations to the various soils and forms of land, including the sulky or rid- ing plow of the Western prairies, is among agricultural implements the most perfect in use.
The pioneer harrow was simply the fork of a tree, with the branches on one side cut close and on the other left about a foot long to serve the purpose of teeth. In some instances a number of holes were bored through the beams and dry wooden pins driven into them. It was not until about 1825 that iron or steel harrow teeth were introduced into Portage County.
The axes, hoes, shovels and picks were rude and clumsy, and of inferior utility. The sickle and scythe were at first used to harvest the grain and hay, but the former gave way early to the cradle, with which better results could be
Con." Poster
255
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
attained with less labor. The scythe and cradle have been replaced by the mower and reaper to a great extent, though both are still used considerably in this county.
The ordinary wooden flail was used to thresh grain until about 1830, when the horse-power thresher was largely substituted. The method of cleaning the chaff from the grain by the early settlers, was by a blanket handled by two persons. The grain and the chaff were placed on the blanket, which was then tossed up and down, the wind separating a certain amount of the chaff from the grain during the operation. Fanning-mills were introduced about 1820, but the first of these were very rude and little better than the primitive blanket. Improvements have been made from time to time until an almost perfect separator is now connected with every threshing machine, and the work of ten men for a whole season is done more completely by two or three men, as many horses, and a patent separator, in one day. In fact, it is difficult to fix limitations upon improvements in agricultural machinery within the last fifty years. It is, however, safe to say that they have enabled the farmer to accomplish more than triple the amount of work with the same force in the same time, and do his work better than before. It has been stated on compe- tent authority that the saving effected by new and improved implements within the last twenty years has been not less than one-half on all kinds of farm labor.
The greatest triumphs of mechanical skill in its application to agriculture are witnessed in the plow, planter, reaper and separator, as well as in many other implements adapted to the tillage, harvesting and subsequent handling of the immense crops of the country. The rude and cumbrous implements of the pioneers have been superseded by improved and apparently perfect machin- ery of all classes, so that the calling of the farmer is no longer synonymous with laborious toil, but is in many ways pleasant recreation.
The farmers of Portage County are not behind their neighbors in the employment of improved methods and in the use of the best machinery. It is true that in many cases they were slow to change, but much allowance should be made for surrounding circumstances. The pioneers had to contend against innumerable obstacles-with the wildness of nature, the jealous hostility of the Indians, the immense growth of timber, the depredations of wild beasts and the annoyance of the swarming insect life, and the great difficulty and expense of procuring seeds and farming implements. These various difficul- ties were quite sufficient to explain the slow progress made in the first years of settlement. Improvements were not encouraged, while the pioneers gener- ally rejected "book-farming" as unimportant and useless, and knew little of the chemistry of agriculture. The farmer who ventured to make experiments, to stake out new paths of practice, or to adopt new modes of culture, subjected himself to the ridicule of the whole neighborhood. For many years the same methods of farming were observed; the son planted as many acres of corn or wheat as his father did, and in the same phases of the moon. All their prac- tices were merely traditional; but within the last thirty years most remarkable changes have occurred in all the conditions of agriculture in this country.
It is not, however, in grain-growing that Portage County has made its most material progress. The natural adaptation of the soil to grass, and the abundant supply of pure water, early attracted the attention of many progress- ive farmers to the raising of dairy stock, and the manufacture of butter and cheese, which industries have increased until they are among the leading agri- cultural pursuits, exceeding most other branches of farming in their impor- tance and magnitude. Milch cows were brought into the county by many of the very earliest settlers, and butter and cheese began to be manufactured for
256
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
market in a small way during the first quarter of the present century. The business grew rapidly, and by 1850 nearly 2,000,000 pounds of cheese were annually produced in Portage County, and butter and cheese became the great staple products of the northern half of the county. Their regular manufacture has since extended into several of the southern townships, though the latter are more largely devoted to grain-growing. From 1860 to 1864, inclusive, Portage County ranked among the counties of the State respectively third and fourth in its production of cheese and butter, annually averaging for those five years 2,933,471 pounds of cheese, and 872,454 pounds of butter. In 1866 it stood second in both products, having 3,115,728 pounds of cheese, and 833,988 pounds of butter. In 1870 it was third and fifth respectively, with 3,822,829 pounds of cheese, and 916,376 pounds of butter. In 1871 it had 3,308,334 pounds of cheese, and 907,693 pounds of butter, being fourth and seventh respectively in those products. In 1872 it produced 3,619,983 pounds of cheese, and 906,995 pounds of butter, ranking fifth in both. In 1873 there were turned out 948,964 pounds of butter, which was more than any other county in the State, and 3,712,233 pounds of cheese, or the fifth in that article. In 1874 this county's butter product heads the list with 1,062,043 pounds; and it was the fourth cheese producing county, with 3,483, 965 pounds. It ranked respectively third and sixth, in butter and cheese, in 1875, turning out 955,- 817 pounds of the former, and 3,404,286 pounds of the latter product. In 1877 Portage manufactured 1,043,542 pounds of butter and 3,767, 783 pounds of cheese, ranking fifth in each. In 1878 its butter product stood fourth, and its cheese product second in the list of counties, reporting 981, 425 pounds of the former, and 4,170,339 pounds of the latter. Its butter product dropped in 1879 to the ninth place, being 911,910 pounds, while its cheese production also declined to less than one-half of the amount turned out the previous year, or 2,061,111 pounds, making Portage fifth in the list of cheese counties for that year. Little change occurred for the succeeding two years, the county stand- ing, in 1881, seventh in its butter product, with 962,970 pounds, and third in its cheese product, having 2,798,722 pounds. In 1883 this county again took the first place in its butter product, standing at the head of all the other coun- ties, with 1,299,077 pounds, while its 2,645, 115 pounds of cheese gave it fifth place in the list of cheese producing counties. The statistics for 1884 have not yet (March 1885) been collected, but cheese dealers have informed the writer that, on account of the long dry season, there will be a considerable falling off in last year's product. The county now contains about thirty cheese factories, located principally in the three northern ranges of townships, though there are several in the southern section of the county.
Horses, cattle, sheep and hogs were brought into the county by the first settlers, though they were usually of an ordinary breed, and very little was done toward the improvement of farm stock for fifty years after the first set- tlement was made. Mrs. Josiah Ward is credited with owning the first sheep in Randolph Township, which were brought in from the East in 1805. Her husband having no money, was unable to purchase them, when she "took out her stocking " and paid cash down for eight or ten of the drove standing in front of their little cabin. She had saved up this money ere leaving her Con- necticut home, to be used for that very purpose. Timothy Culver, also of Randolph Township, bought sixteen sheep about the same time, the seller to receive as many more at a certain stated date; but the animals were kept near the creek, and, in consequence of eating a poisonous plant, all but one died the first winter. In 1806 John H. Whittlesey and Jeremiah Jones located in Atwater Township, and soon afterward went to Georgetown, Penn., and pur-
257
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
chased twelve sheep, which they brought to their homes in this county. On getting the sheep here they discovered that they had no place to keep them safe from the wolves during the coming night, but Mr. Whittlesey soon got over the difficulty by giving the animals a portion of his own kitchen. About 1807 John Campbell went to Pennsylvania and brought in some stock from that State, which he distributed among the few settlers who were then finan- cially able to purchase. In 1813 Erastus Carter bought six sheep of John Campbell. They were watched through the daytime by his son Howard Car- ter, who is yet living, and shut up at night in a log-stable. One night the sheep were left out, and the wolves killed every one of them. The family picked up the wool scattered around the remains, carded and spun it, and had it woven into cloth, from which young Howard was made his first pair of woolen pants since coming to Ohio several years before, buckskin being then the only material generally in use for such garments.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.