USA > Ohio > Portage County > History of Portage County, Ohio > Part 55
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 first hotel was built by Amzi Atwater, and first established as a hotel by Lewis Turner about the time the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railroad was completed to this point. Shortly after this Homer Frost purchased the house, then sold to Austin S. Beecher, who built the present Cuyahoga House in front of the old Atwater House, now conducted by H. T. Barnum. The house is the property of J. T. Spink.
The Mantua House was built by D. Santori, who conducted it as a hotel until rented to H. S. Sage about a year ago.
L. S. Turner established a livery at Mantua Station in January, 1885. The buildings cost about $2,000. In this building is Russell's photograph gallery and G. W. Franklin's harness shop.
Theo. Burnett, who was the pioneer of livery business here, died about two years ago, since which time the business has been carried on by J. H. Ditto & Sons.
Mantua Station .- This flourishing little town has about 700 population, and is on the site of an old settlement, but was laid out more extensively about the time the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railroad, now a branch of the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad, was built by Darwin Atwater. It grew rapidly, and is now an exceedingly live village, having a good class of build- ings and progressive citizens. It is a large shipping point for potatoes, cheese, onions, some cattle and sheep, and considerable garden truck. There are large shipments of potatoes, one dealer alone handling about 50,000 bushels during the season. Another provision shipper placed upon the cars during last spring an average of 300 calves per week. Great quantities of pails and other wooden-ware are also shipped, and in the matter of cheese Mantua stands as one of the leading points on the Reserve, there being three large factories for that product in the township, besides being the shipping point for the greater part of three other townships.
The business at the Station is as follows: Smith's pail and wood work fac- tory, which employs about twelve hands; Smith's lumber yard; Centennial Flour- ing-Mills, Frost & Knowles; general stores, Bowen & Sons, A. A. Gilbreath; drugs, O. P. Hays, C. W. Brainerd; groceries, S. Beecher, Kyle & Davis, Ditto & Sons; livery stable, Ditto & Sons; hardware, A. Barber; tinware, W. Westpeaker; millinery, Mrs. Mattie Smith; furniture, F. Bard; clothing, Choeker & Muncy; dealer in hides, pelts, etc., Will Croft; dealer in produce, W. H. Bradley; shoes, Philip Baldinger; foundry, Ed. Goddard; cider-mill, Ed. Goddard; Mantua House, C. H. Sage; Cuyahoga Hotel, H. T. Barnum; Tay- lor House, A. H. Taylor; carpenters; blacksmiths; restaurant; barber shop; physicians, Dr. George C. Way, Dr. Erwin; dentist, Dr. A. A. Carlton; lawyer, Cheny Ingle; Postmaster, Cheny Ingle; there is a fine Opera House.
Mantua Corners. - General stores, C. H. Ray, J. W. Foster & Co; grocery and notions, Mrs. Frazier; Postmaster, C. H. Ray; Dr. S. K. Wilcox.
The township is high and rolling, especially in the southern portion, and unsurpassed for fruit-raising and dairying, it standing next to Aurora in the
484
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
manufacture of cheese. It is well watered, and the soil is a sandy loam, mak- ing it splendidly adapted to the production of potatoes, where the finest in the world are raised.
Methodist Episcopal Church of Mantua was organized in September, 1807, by Rev. R. R. Roberts, with Paschal P. McIntosh and wife, Basil Windsor, Rufus Edwards and Asahel Mills. The first building was erected in 1820-21 at the Center, 24x32 feet. This log-house was used for eighteen years, when a new meeting-house was erected. This house was burned, and the same year a third Methodist Church building was erected. The old pastors were Joshua Windsor, 1810, Henry Ferris, John L. Ferris and Joseph Ferris, William Bump, Milton M. Moore, H. H. Moore and Albert Reed. In 1825 Paschal McIntosh, one of the founders, was dismissed, owing partly to his hostility to the United States. In 1815 he returned to Mantua, and his children were the first who had the whooping-cough in the county.
The Congregational Church of Mantua was organized by Revs. Seward and Darragh, May 31, 1812. The first members were Daniel Ladd and wife, Joel Walter and wife, of Shalersville, William Russell and wife, Daniel Ladd, Jr., and wife, Eleazer Ladd and wife, Eunice Harmon, the grandmother of Orrin Harmon, Lois Atwater, mother of Judge Amzi Atwater, Mrs. Eunice Moore and Mrs. Sally Pond.
In 1816 a brick church was erected at Aurora Center for this society. Jus- tus Parrish and others supplied the brick. Previous to 1816 this society held meetings in the first schoolhouse.
The Baptist Church was founded at Mantua in 1809 by Elder Jones, the meeting being held near the Judson cabin. The first persons baptized were Oliver Snow and wife, Jotham Atwater and wife, and Rufus Edwards and wife, Mr. Edwards leaving the Methodist Church. Those persons were bap- tized in the Cuyahoga near Judson's. John Rudolph and William West were also members. In 1826 Sidney Rigdon, subsequently Joe Smith's Lieutenant, was preacher to this society. In 1827 Sidney Rigdon left the Baptist Church and organized a Campbellite or Disciples Church, and succeeded in taking almost all the members of the old Baptist Church with him.
Disciples Church of Mantua was reorganized July 6, 1850, P. N. Jen- nings, D. Atwater and Edwin Sandford were elected Trustees, and C. D. Wil- ber, Secretary.
The Universalist doctrine was preached at Mantua by Rev. Reuben Jones, from 1815 to 1831, when he died.
Mantua Association of Spiritualists was incorporated July 9, 1881; Sam- uel S. Russell, Joel B. Gilbert, Reuben O. Halsted, David M. King and Henry Cobb, members.
Camp-meeting Association of Spiritualists of northern Ohio was organ- ized October 2, 1881, with Ira. Lake, President; A. Underhill and Mrs. Amon, Vice-Presidents; Mrs. Sarah Rockhill, Alliance, Mrs. M. A. Merrill, Record- ing Sec .; Silas Crocker, Treasurer; Samuel Fish, Melon; Reuben Hal- stead, Mantua; Mrs. Mercy Lane, Braceville; Frank Maloy, Hudson; Jesse Erwin, Alliance; Frank Rily, Warren; M. V. Meller, New Lynn, and Lewis King, Cleveland.
The Catholic Church was built at Mantua Station in 1872-73, under con- tract with the congregation, by Squire Fair. The building cost about $1,000, and the altar, pews and furnishing, about $1,500. The congregation numbers about 150 members.
Union Church. - The first Protestant Church building at Mantua Station is that now known as the Union Church, which is open to all Christian denom- inations for religious service.
485
MANTUA TOWNSHIP.
The first school was taught in the winter of 1806-07, at the house of Amzi Atwater, by John Harmon, and the next one was in the summer of 1807, the teacher being Patty Cochran, from Aurora, who afterward became the wife of Ebenezer Sheldon. The school was near where Rufus Edwards had form- erly lived. In 1808 John Harmon opened a school in Amzi Atwater's house. There is at present a fine graded school at the Station, in charge of Prof. Will- iam Thomas, in addition to the district schools in various parts of the township.
Mantua Township Schools .- Revenue in 1884, $3,225.83; expenditures, $1,916.37; eight school buildings valued at $3,600; average pay of teachers, $34 and $26; enrollment, 96 boys and 73 girls.
Mantua Special District .- Revenue, $1,650.33; expenditures, $1,281.39; one schoolhouse valued at $2,500; average pay of teachers, $60 and $37; enroll- ment, 43 boys and 57 girls.
Mantua Lodge, No. 533, A. F. & A. M .- There is a very flourishing lodge of the brothers of the "mystic tie," and although of but recent organization has a membership of over fifty. The lodge was chartered and organized in the fall of 1883, and the following were the charter officers and members: G. D. Smith, W. M .; E. M. Frost, S. W .; G. W. Franklin, J. W .; A. A. Barber, C. H. Thompson, C. E. Ryder, Edgar Chapman, C. H. Bowen, A. H. Kyle, G. T. Mattison, S. P. Vaughn, L. L. Reed, S. E. Coit, C. H. Ray, R. O. Hal- stead, G. F. Hinckley, A. S. Beecher, E. L. Hine, Myron Richards, M. B. San- ford, C. W. Brainerd, D. Washburn, J. Byron, James and William Bowen. A. A. Barber is the present Master.
Bentley Post, 294, G. A. R., named in honor of one of the soldiers of Man- tua, was organized February 21, 1883, with the following members: C. H. Ray, Myron Richards, N. A. Curtiss, A. M. Bishop, M. E. Haskin, G. W. Flemming, M. W. Chapman, H. M. Murry, A. C. Fish, J. B. Hinman, Warren Bowers, C. M. Stroud, George Yeagley, T. M. Esty, A. M. Erwin, M. D., G. G. Striker, M. C. Sweet, C. A. White, F. H. Adams, Edward Stiverson, James Flemming, C. A. Bartholomew, S. C. Rice, F. P. Bard, George Hurlbut, Charles Crawford, Henry Briggs, H. F. Smith, S. C. Crane, C. S. Steward and O. W. Folsom. The members who have joined since that time are S. A. Udall, Robert Crawford, Edgar Chapman, W. H. H. Wheeler, Nelson S. Bartholomew, J. F. Schoville, L. Winchell, W. C. Ensign, C. H. Maggs, A. B. Crane, A. H. Button, T. W. Anderson, William Ferrall, Edwin Smith, Henry Langston, Henry Barthold, H. S. Sheldon, John Hass, F. A. Derthick, Merrit Dutton, J. T. Spink, A. R. Houghton, H. O. Snedeker, Henry Green, A. W. Mills, O. W. Truman, Charles Duncan, Sylvester Force and J. B. Shaffer. The first Commander was A. M. Erwin, who served until succeeded by F. A. Derthick in 1885. G. G. Striker is Adjutant, and Edgar Chapman, Quartermaster.
The statistics of Mantua for 1884 present the following figures: Acres of wheat, 923; bushels, 7, 128; of buckwheat, 29 acres and 60 bushels; of oats, 677 acres and 24,132 bushels; of corn, 512 acres and 2,161 bushels; of meadow, 2,228 acres and 3,288 tons of hay; of clover, 65 acres and 93 tons of hay and 6 bushels of seed; of potatoes 383 acres, yielding 42,637 bushels; pounds of home-made butter, 40,065; pounds of cheese, 476,450; pounds of maple sugar, 17,957, and gallons of syrup, 3,385 from 20, 155 trees; pounds of honey, 1,727 from 98 hives; dozens of eggs. 16,591; 5,889 bushels of apples, 12 of peaches, 1 of cherries. and 3 of pears, from 323 acres of orchard; 4,164 pounds of wool; 1,233 milch cows; 1 stallion; 87 dogs; animals died of disease, 7 hogs; 48 sheep, 17 cattle and 4 horses; acres cultivated, 5,734: pasture, 6,345; wood-land, 2,972; waste, 281; total, 15,332. Population in 1850, 1,383, including 436 youth; 1870, 1,126; in 1880, 1,150; in 1884 (esti- mated), 1,200.
486
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXV.
NELSON TOWNSHIP.
COMING OF THE PIONEERS-THE MILLS BROTHERS-TWO LONESOME FAMILIES- IMPORTANT ARRIVALS-HEADS OF FAMILIES IN 1815-FIRST BUILDINGS- FIRST ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES -- CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS-TAVERNS, MILLS AND ROADS-Fiat Justitia, Ruat Colum-EXPLOITS OF CAPT. MILLS- SUMMARY-TOWNSHIP OFFICERS-THE LEDGES-STATISTICS.
N ELSON, when the first settler arrived in it, and for seventeen years thereafter, was included in the territory comprised in several of the adjoining townships under the name of Hiram, but in the surveys was laid off as Town 5, Range 6. The original proprietors, who purchased from the Con- necticut Land Company were Urial Holmes, Ephraim Root, Timothy Burr and Appolos Hitchcock, Holmes being the principal owner.
In the spring of 1800, three sons of Deacon Ezekiel Mills, of Becket, Mass., started out to seek their fortunes in the Western Reserve. They were Delaun, aged twenty-four, who had married at the age of sixteen, and had three children; Asahel, who had been married two years, and had one child; and Isaac, nineteen years of age and single. These three men with the two wives and four children started out in two covered wagons, each drawn by a yoke of oxen. Several weeks elapsed before they reached Youngstown, then a very diminutive hamlet, containing only a few log-cabins. By this time the money of the brothers had dwindled down to less than 25 cents, so they had to seek employment, and, as luck would have it, Urial Holmes, the principal proprietor of Nelson, happened to be on his way to his land for the purpose of having it surveyed, so the brothers were engaged as ax-men to the surveyors, who were led by Amzi Atwater, afterward one of the most noted citizens of the county, and Roger Cook. Leaving their families at Youngs- town, the brothers went forward to their work, and returned in the following September. Delaun immediately removed his family to a cabin on 100 acres of land given to him by Holmes as a reward for his settling thereon, which land was on the north side of the road, just west of the Center; Asahel remained in Youngstown till the following spring (1801), and then settled on 100 acres on the north and south road, which, it is thought, was also a gift from Holmes; Isaac returned to the East. Asahel in after years became a Methodist preacher and died in Deerfield. Delaun had an extremely adven- turous life, and some of his exploits and experiences will be given in this sketch further along. He was a man of not only great physical strength, but of unusual sturdiness of character, as brave as a lion, and perfectly fearless of consequences, having withal a coolness of temper that to a foe was exas- perating. It is said that one of the blandest of smiles would overspread his features when drawing a bead on some cowardly savage who had waylaid and missed him. He was a man of little education, but possessed of extraordi- nary common sense and correctness of judgment.
Delaun and Asahel Mills and their families were the only inhabitants of the township till the spring of 1803, when quite a number arrived from Mas-
Frederik Slum
489
NELSON TOWNSHIP.
sachusetts and Connecticut and made settlement. Among those were Stephen Baldwin, Benjamin Stow and his two sons, Daniel and Caleb, John Bancroft with four sons, Rudolphus, John, Artemus and David, Daniel Owen, two brothers, Stiles and William, Thomas Kennedy and Asa Truesdale, making seven families in all, which constituted the entire population of Nelson in 1804. In this year came Isaac Mills, the father of Mr. Albert Mills, of the Center, who is now seventy-eight years of age, and well preserved in all his faculties. The old gentleman has been a great singer in his day, and led the singing in his church for over forty years, having only within the past two or three years ceased to do so. Isaac, in company with a friend, Origen Adams, both being single men, made the journey on foot from Connecticut, but the former, doing quite well the first year, returned to Connecticut and on Novem- ber 27, 1805, married his pretty little sweetheart, Miss Polly Adams, a dam- sel of only fifteen years. It was a fearful undertaking for the child-wife to come to this far-distant wilderness, but of such stuff were some of the women of those days made, that the little girl became a splendid pioneer wife, equal to all emergencies, content and happy, a blessing to all who knew her, and the mother of stalwart sons and buxom daughters.
In July, 1804, also settled Col. John Garrett, from Delaware, for whom was named Garrettsville. A German from Delaware, named Johann Noah, came about the same time as Col. Garrett; also Abraham Dyson, from Delaware, who settled near Col. Garrett, on the spot that afterward became the village of Garrettsville. In 1805 came John Tinker and Nathaniel Bancroft, sons- in-law of Benjamin and Daniel Stow, Martin Manly and Daniel Wood.
In 1806 Asahel Mills, having fitted up accommodations for his aged father and mother, brought the old couple out, but the Deacon died in 1809 and his widow followed him several years later. Oliver Mills, a brother of the above, also settled in the township about 1809, and about the same time came Charles May, the Rudolphs and Rev. William West, a Baptist minister.
In 1810 or thereabouts came Charles Johnson, from Connecticut, bringing three sons, Erastus, Alanson and Charles, Jr.
In 1811-12 a large company, mostly Presbyterians, came in from Connec- ticut, prominent among whom were Deacon Joshua B. Sherwood, Wells Clark, Bridsey Clark, Theron Colton, David Beardsley, Titus Bonney, Hezekiah Bonney, John Hannah, David Goodsell and a large connection of the Hopkins family. Emigration then ceased almost entirely till the close of the war, 1812-14.
In 1815 an enumeration of the settlers of the township resulted in a show- ing of thirty-three heads of families, as follows: Hezekiah Higley, John Bancroft, Jr., Adolphus Bancroft, Titus Bonney, Benjamin Stow, John Ban- croft, Sr., William Kennedy, Thomas Kennedy, John Hannah, Rossitter Hop- kins, Stephen Baldwin, Delaun Mills, John Tinker, Alanson Johnson, David Beardsley, Benjamin Pritchard, Theron Colton, Rev. William West, John Rudolph, Widow Garrett, Joshua B. Sherwood, Isaac Mills, Robert C. Ben- nett, Sylvanus Hewlett, Elisha Taylor, Sr., Martin Manly, David Stow, Johann Noah, Asa Truesdale, Erastus Johnson, Bridsey Clark and Wells Clark.
From the date of the above enumeration till 1820, the township rapidly settled up, and among those who came in were, to give a good heading to the list, Jeremiah Earl Fuller, who was six feet four inches in height, bringing two sons; Charles Whiting, Charles Hewlett, Marcus and David Morris, Thomas Barber, Thomas Perry, Benjamin Brown, one of whose sons was Probate Judge, another a prominent lawyer, and another a well-known physician; also, came
26
490
HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
the Merwins, Eatons, Merritts and others. From 1820 onward, emigrants from the East still came in till the price of land began materially to advance. Among those coming about this time were Harry Spencer, Jacob and Ashbel Haskins, Jr., sons of Ashbel Haskins, Sr., Jared W. Knowlton and family, Ira Fuller, who lived to be ninety-four years of age, and a number of the Pritchards and Taylors.
As soon as the surveying party under Atwater arrived in Nelson, they set to work and erected a log-cabin for their use whilst in the township. It was, of course, a rude affair, built of unhewn logs, and stood just east of the pres- ent house on the land afterward donated to Capt. Mills. This was the first human habitation in Nelson, and was erected in the early spring of 1800. When Delaun returned with his family in the fall, he made considerable improvements in the surveyors' cabin, and put it in the best condition pos- sible for wintering his wife and her three young children. Capt. Mills afterward erected a double log-cabin, quite a commodious affair, and it was the admiration of the whole settlement. Asahel Mills erected the next cabin after his brother, and was soon followed by many others. But one of the most noted events of the time was the erection by Thomas Kennedy, about 1811, of a frame house. It was located about three-fourths of a mile north of the Cen- ter, and when it was finished some of his neighbors said that Thomas was get- ting too proud. The father of Thomas Kennedy was William Kennedy, who was ninety years of age when he came. The old gentleman was considerable of a drinker, and on one occasion came to his son and told him that the spring back of the house was not water but Santa Cruz rum.
In the spring of 1804 Enoch Judson, of Mantua, married Anne Kennedy, this being the first marriage in the township, but the married life of the unfor- tunate lady was short, for in June following she became slightly sick, and applying to Mrs. Rufus Edwards for an emetic, was given, through mistake, arsenic, which caused her death. The second marriage was that of a sister of Anne Kennedy, Mrs. Norton, to Joseph Nourse, a lawyer of Burton.
It has been generally supposed that Harmon Mills, son of Delaun Mills, born in November, 1801, was the first child born in the township, but we are sorry to annul that claim by stating that the reputed " previous " Harmon had a little girl cousin named Dianthea, who antedated him by almost a month, she having made her appearance on the 14th day of October, 1801. She was the daughter of Asahel Mills.
The first death in the township, like the first birth, has been wrongly stated. A son of Col. Garrett died in September, 1804, and to this youth has usually been given the honor of departing the earliest, but an infant of Asahel Mills died a year or two before the date of young Garrett's death, as is proven by the Mills' family record. The first man to die in the township was Col. John Garrett, who departed this life in January, 1806, at the age of forty-six years, after a career of usefulness to his fellow-men and honor . to himself. He left a widow, who survived him forty years, and four children who became honored and distinguished citizens.
About the first preaching ever listened to in Nelson fell from the lips of Asahel Mills, who at the time he settled in the township had made up his mind to be a Methodist preacher. His sermons may have simply been exhorta- tions in the Methodist sense, but we have the word of Albert Mills that he was the earliest preacher who lifted up his voice in the township. Rev. Will- iam West, a Baptist minister, came in very early, probably 1807 or 1809, and of course delivered a sermon to the settlers occasionally, but the first church organization occurred in 1807, at the house of Johann Noah, the services
491
NELSON TOWNSHIP.
being conducted by Rev.(Thomas G. Jones, of the Baptist denomination. Mr. Jones was afterward a member of the Ohio Legislature, and President of a bank in Wooster. Rev. R. R. Roberts, afterward a leading Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a circuit rider in those early days, and preached every two weeks at the cabin of Capt. Mills. A preacher by the name of George Lane, a noted singer, came in an early day. He had a powerful voice and always led the singing. William West, the minister spoken of above, became the first settled pastor in 1809 or 1810, he having preached irregularly for the settlers some time before. The original proprietors donated him fifty acres of land. Mr. West was an excellent man and much beloved. He has no descendants in the township, but one of his daughters married Prof. Brainard, of Cleveland. The large company that came from Connecti- cut in 1811-12, organized a Congregational Church in 1813, all of the mem- bers having belonged to the same church before they came West. In 1822 the Presbyterians erected a very fine church at the Center, and it stands there to-day. Rev. Benjamin Fenn was the first regular preacher to occupy the pulpit, he coming there in 1823. The first Methodist Church was built in 1832, and the first minister to preach in it was Rev. J. W. Davis. The church still stands in good condition at the Center.
The first school opened in the township was taught by Hannah Baldwin, at the Center, in 1804. Not one of those who attended this primitive educa- tional institution is now alive. The next school was taught by Oliver Mills, in 1806. He was a brother of the famous Captain, and is said to have monopo- lized all the "school larnin'" of the early Mills family; he was a farmer, mechanic, teacher and doctor, all combined. Nelson Academy Association was permanently organized January 6, 1852; Charles Goodsell, D. Everest, David Hanners, Josiah Talbot, C. C. Fuller, Silas Clark, John Martin, A. J. Eldred and Albert Mills were elected Trustees. At the annual meeting, Jan- uary 3, 1853, W. R. Knowlton, J. W. Spencer and G. B. Stow were elected Trustees. C. C. Fuller was Clerk of the first annual meeting. The condi- tion of the township schools at the close of 1884 is shown by the following statistics: Revenue in 1884, $3.947.10; expenditures, $2,344.62; eight school buildings valued at $5,000; average pay of teachers, $36 and $22; enroll- ment, 88 boys and 91 girls.
Capt. Mills for many years kept his house as a stopping-place or tavern. It being located on the route to the farther western country, it was very con- venient, especially as he always had on hand a supply of whisky and rum. Another tavern was kept on the road north of the Center by Artemus Bancroft.
The first mill was erected by Col. Garrett, at Garrettsville, and it was the greatest convenience with which the settlers had been supplied, as previous to its erection long journeys had to be made to get their little grists ground. The mill was both saw and grist, and was built in 1805.
This same year Amzi Atwater surveyed a road from his place in Mantua, along the south line of Hiram Township, to Col. Garrett's mill, and in 1806 another was cut out to Aurora, westward, and one through Windham and Braceville, to Warren. Abraham Dyson, who came in at the time Col. Gar- rett did, was the first blacksmith, and had more than he could do repairing guns for the Indians. The first wheat raised was forty-three bushels, from three pecks of seed, sown in the turnip patch of Capt. Mills in 1801. It was threshed out on a sheet in the wind. An epidemic of a fearful nature pre- vailed in 1842, and carried off many persons. The patient would be taken with something like the ague. after which a peculiar fever would set in, when death would shortly ensue. It baffled the skill of some of the best physicians.
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.