History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 75

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1060

USA > Ohio > Stark County > History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio > Part 75

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Charles May. 170, etc .. and in all they killed in one day seventeen hundred squirrels. Thomas Grant took the premium for killing the greatest number. He now resides in Williams County, Ohio. In the year 1821. wolves were very numerons, and so bold they would attack stock of any kind. A little west of Freedom, on the farm now occupied by Mr. Elisha Tectors. a pack of these animals attacked and killed a six-years-okdl cow that belonged to John Grant. About this period, the last otters were killed in the Mahoning and its tributaries. Clayton Grant. now living in Bourbon, Kosciusko Co., Ind., shot the last deer, and caught the last otter seen in Lexington Township. In the year 1818, a Mr. Hubbard lived one mile east of the town of Lexington. He. as well as Mrs. Hub- bard, were excellent rifle shots, and often amused themselves by shooting at a mark. But death came into the family and left Mrs. Hubbard a widow, with four children depending upon her for the necessaries of life. To illustrate the trials, fortitude and heroism of a pioneer mother, the following incident is given: About dusk one evening, a sow that had a brood of pigs by the side of a large log, in the woods a little south of Mr. Hubbard's cabin, was heard demonstrating in a way peculiar to hogs when menaced with danger ; Mrs. Hubbard, with the quick sense of a hunter, at once suspected the cause of the threatened peril to the pigs, took her trusty rifle from its resting place, and with a courage that would blanch half the men in the township to-day, went to the scene of the trouble ; when within a hundred paces, she barely discovered the dim outlines of a great she wolf battling with the sow. With insufficient light to see the sights upon the gun, she fired. The wolf not knowing from which direction the shot came, or intending to attack her. sprang toward her and fell dead at her feet. Mrs. Hubbard drew the knife from her hunting gir- dle, and skinned the wolf. threw the skin over her shoulder and started in the supposed direc- tion of her cabin. In this she was mistaken and bewildered. It was now blank darkness. and she wandered in the woods all that night and all next day. in the vain search of her hum- ble home and little ones. Again night donned its sable mantle, and to mock its blackness, lit it up with stars, beneath which, and the somber. spectral gloom of arching primitive forests. moved the wearied steps and beat the anxiou-

IHISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

I art of that brave mother. After thirty hours w! travel and counter-travel, and circlings in the woods of almost tropical denseness, she canght a ray of light. which, on nearing, proved 1) be a glimmer escaping from between the mle logs of her rustic home, though to her more than a palace, for it contained her chil- Ora a mother's priceless jewels. Mrs. Hub This second husband was a Hazen. by whom .. . Hal three children Daniel. Sinon and Val- chine-uncles to the present generation of Hazens in Lexington Township. This circum- stance was related to F. N. Johnson by Mrs. Hatbard herself. and he thinks he is not mis- taken as to her being grandmother to our liv- ing citizens of that name: to say the last. they are worthy enough to be her offspring, and she was brave enough to be their grand- mother.

Up to 1812. salt was very high and scarce ; it had to be packed on horseback from Cleve- laund or Conneaut. The first barrel ever teamed into the township was in 1814. and cost $12. A few years after this, maunfactories of salt were established on Yellow Creek. from which source the carly settlers obtained their supplies, at a cost of 86 a barrel. The first improvement east of Alliance was on the then called - Mercer Clearing.' afterward known as the "Oyster Farm ; " it is now owned and occupied by James Hoiles. The farm lies at the junction of the county line road and the Mt. Inion road. The only house or cabin in 1818 between Salemi and this point was one half a mile this side of Damascus, built and used by a Mr. Morris, who was grandfather to the Hon. James Brutf. who now owns the spot of these primitive improve- ments. How strangely are the conveniences enjoyed to-day contrasted with those of the settlers of this township at the beginning of the present century. when it is remembered that Charles Hamlm. father-in-law to Shadrich Feltz. Nathan Gaskill. father-in-law to Joshua Hlamlin, residing now just west of Alliance. and other persons, had to go to the mouth of the Little Beaver to get their grain converted into flour. Corn was brought down the Ohio in barges, from the Monongahela region, and landed at the Little Beaver. From this source the first settlers obtained their supplies. until these "openings " or " clearings " would yieldl them a sufficiency. It required three days to go to mill and bring home two bushels of corn

meal on horseback. The next approximation to a flouring-mill to these localities was one erected in the vicinity of New Lisbon. It only requiring two days to go and return from mill ; this mill was considered quite convenient, and supplied all further demands in the way of lux- ury for a number of years. The next great move, in the mill line, toward degeneracy upon the part of the vigorous pioneers of Lexington Township, was to have flouring machinery so luxuriously near to their cabin doors, that they coukl visit it with their batch of corn and return in a single day. So to meet this volup :- tuous demand. a mill was erected on the waters of the Mahoning. in Deerfield Town-hip, Por- tage County, and long known as the - Laughlin Mill." It was owned and run by the father of Harvey Laughlin, Esq .. a citizen of this city. A satiety of epienrean convenience was at last reached, but the cause of development and decay was at work, as it always has been and always will be. It ran Rome and Greece from noble, vigorons men to voluptuous imbeciles, and both became the easy prey of hardy ene- mies, who were destined to run this, the same course, and leave the track open for successors. It was true at the advent of the " Laughlin Mills:" the settlers of Lexington Township had not reached the epicurean sensuality of Romaps, at the era of their greatest debauchery, but their yearnings were in that direction. Pow- dered diamonds could not be drunk. but linsey- woolsey trousers could be substituted for buck- skin breeches. The aromatic fruits of the tropies were not of easy access, but a fouring- mill run by water. with wooden gudgeons, and costing the enormous fortune of $400 or $800, could be built within a stone throw of their elapboard cabin doors. There was the sweeping current of the Mahoning. made into a highway of commerce by legislative enactments. restless to revolve the ponderous machinery.

The first grist-mill in Lexington Township was south of the town of Lexington, on the river ; it was built by Aaron Stratton. A saw- mill was built in conjunction with the mill. It was on the latter mill that Job Holloway, son of the pioneer. Amos Holloway. lost his life by the falling of a beam. Job Holloway was the father of Mrs. William Antrum, now living with her excellent husband on a finely-cultivated farm immediately west of MIt. ITion. Treble the quantity of rain fell in early times that falls

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LLAINGTON TOWNSHIP.

now. The Mahoning was subject to three or four frightful freshets every year. inundating all the bottom lands. The river. restive of all first restraints upon its swollen waters, washed away the first enterprise of the kind attempted in the township. The next mill built in the township was by Bryan Elliot. on the less angry and more generous waters of Deer Creek. about one mile west of the village of Limaville. This mitl. though frequently repaired. has run con- tinuously since its first erection. In 1als. a grist and saw mill of some greater pretensions was built in Williamsport by Johnson & l'en nock, on the Mahoning. The water being in- sufficient at times, steam was introduced. It is at present in successful operation under the management of kirk & Co. This mill has been successively owned by Thomas Grant. John Chant. John Miller. M. Miller. C. Russell. Buckman & Co. and others whose names are not obtained. Mr. Burgett. formerly of Paris Township. erected. abont 1863. a steam grist- miil in Alliance, which has run continuously under his management since it was first started. The Liaville Mill, Kirk & Cos " tity Mills and Burgett's Mill are the three touring-mills now in operation in Lexington Township. The proprietors of these mitls are all fine citizens. and their respective brands of flour have a good reputation in the market. An incident is related to illustrate the jollifications of the settlers. In 1818. at the opening of the Williamsport Mill. John Meese, a hunter of considerable note. had a large and ferocious male boring, which he had broken. to be led and carry burdens. Ho ladened this bull with a bag of corn. rustically ornamented bis horns, and mounted on his back one of his boys that could play the fife, and to its sprightly musie be led the beast to the new mill with the tirst grist ever ground in Alliance. Saw-mills are more transitory in their lives than grist-mills. Rolla Day built the first saw mill in Lexington Township on the Mahoning. A saw-mill was connected with the Williams- port grist-mill : one was built on Rockhillton Creek. on the farm now owned by David Rock- hill : one in Freedom, east of the present steam mill : one in Limaville; one about one mile west of Limaville : one on Beech Preek. in the neighborhood of John Taylor's : one on Little Beech Creek. in the settlement of David Minser : another in the Hively neighborhood. on or ad- joining lands owned by Jacob Lower. The ruins

of one are seen on a small brook west of the Scranton tarm, north of Lexington. There have been from ten to twelve water saw mills built in the township, but none have been erect- ed since 1840. The ruins of some of the above located mills are found on what are now not even rivulets, water scarcely passing by the ruined tail-races of these former mills. in the weitest season.

Steam saw mills have supplanted water mills : there have been five of these miils in the township : one was built in AAlliance by George Stroup. m 1857. sokt by him to Watson & Barnaby. and now owned by the latter member of that firm. Another steam saw-mill was lo- cated north of strong & Lowers warehouse. one at or near d'arr's Corners, and one on lands owned by Mr. Greenshields, three and one-half miles northwest of Alliance and one west of Limaville. The era of saw-mills of all kinds has about passed. In this township, timber is comparatively scarec and indifferent for sawing purposes. Pine and hemlock are brought into the city from the Saginaw region and sold as low as the native timber of the township. But little sawed timber was used or needed prior to the era of water saw-mills. The first sawed lumber commanded a value equal to 25 cents per hundred feet from Is15 to 1820. It was worth 50 cents a hundred feet from this date till 1815. when it brought in trade at Canton from 75 cents to SI per hundred feet. After this period. the rapid development of the coun- try and the increase of manufacturing. the price of lumber in the township has gradually advanced. till it has reached its present price, viz .. $2 per hundred feet for hard wood. beech, sugar. ehn. oak. etc. : white cucumber and pop- lar commanded at the mills from $2 to $2.50 per hundred feet. This is probably the maxi- mum price which sawed lumber of the town- ship will ever reach. for the reason that the quality is fast deteriorating, and hemlock and pine are now imported by the lumber mer- chants, and sold at the quoted rates.

The town of Lexington was surveyed in lots in 1-07 and duly christened after that spot on the continent which witnessed the first contest of British and Colonial arms, and inaugurated the Revolution of 1776. The name was his torical, and the anticipations of its founders doubtless great. By legislative deerce, the Mahoning was made a public highway of com-

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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

merce. Provisions were made in the survey for all necessary docks and wharves. Imagina- tion possibly saw the first occupied with masts, whose spars floated the flags of other nations, and the latter piled with the exports of the North and the products of the Gulf. It can easily be imagined how metropolitan this town. laying claim to such grand expectations, was held by the primitive settlers. Williamsport was not laid out for twenty years thereafter, and then was suburban to Lexington. Free- dom followed in twenty-one years. Mount Union in twenty-three years. At or soon after the founding of the city of Lexington, ex-Presi- dent Grant's father lived in the adjoining town- ship of Deerfield, and was engaged in the tanning business. Capt. Oliver, once Mayor of Alliance, William Vincent, James Garrison and other citizens attending the National Con- vention at Chicago in 1868, which nominated for the Chief Executive of the United States U. S. Grant. The Captain and his comrades went to the headquarters of the Ohio Delega- tion, and found the Deerfield tanner there. They were introduced to the old gentleman, who inquired where they were from. They in- formed him from Alliance. He said he had no remembrance of that place or of any of the surrounding towns, which they named. The Captain then told him they lived about mid- way between Canton and Salem. He then re- marked they must be from the town of Lexing- ton. The town of Lexington had a tavern, a store, a Friends' meeting-house, and a school ; it had the thrift and economy common to Qua- kers ; it had an expected future. and besides these grand frontier privileges, it had a weekly post office, and was the headquarters of news for a large adjacent district. Mount Union had no post office for twenty years after one was established in Lexington. Freedom had none for nearly forty years thereafter.

The post office in Freedom was established in 1848. David G. Hester was the first ap- pointed. He held the position eighteen months. The first mail to Alliance or Freedom brought one paper, the Ohio Repository, and one letter. The gross receipts for the first quarter were $17. The position was responsible, and the distribu- tive labors of the office arduous. David re- signed, and Robert N. Buck (deceased), the father of Dr. R. M. Buck, formerly a physician of this place. was his successor. Mr. Hester

kept the post office at his then residence, facing the Central Union School grounds. Mr. Buck then owned and ocenpied the grounds now known as " Garrison's Garden," at which point he dealt out the installments of news for three months. Not relishing the duties of the position, he sought a resignation and a successor for three months more, when one turned up in the person of Thomas Beer, a telegraph operator, occupying a room in the frame depot building, since burned, located opposite the present brick depot. Mr. Beer was an ardent Democrat. He turned his attention to the law ; moved to Buey- rus, Crawford Co., Ohio, and has gained some eminence in his profession. He has been twice honored by the citizens of that county with a seat in the councils of the State. Mr. Beer's successor was H. Laughlin, Esq., who held the office during the last two years of Buchanan's administration. The post office during his term was in the building now occupied by J. M. Webb as a restaurant. On the accession of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, D. G. Hester was again appointed to the position of Postmaster, and held the same for six years. A part of the time the office was in the building now occupied by Leek & MeElroy as a provision store, and the balance of the time in the room now owned and used by Mr. Hester as a book and stationery store. Mr. Hester yielded the post office to Wilson Culbertson through the persuasion of one Andrew Johnson. Mr. Cul- bertson located the office in the room now occu- pied by Dr. Fogle as a drug store. His lease of office continued only six months. when it was vielded to the llon. Humphrey Hoover, and re- turned to Mr. Hester's store. It continued un- der the management of Mr. Hoover for eighteen months. Mr. Henry Shreve, an assistant in the office under Mr. Hoover, was his successor, and has served the position of Postmaster acceptably to the departments and to the people for tour years, and was re-appointed for another four- year lease. Mr. Shreve had the office in Mr. James Vallilley's building, on the west side of the public square. It requires three persons in the post office to discharge the labor. What better commentary on the development and growth of Lexington Township could be found, than the statement, that, in 1848, the receipts of the post office at this point were $17 per quarter; in 1873, they were over $1,500, and in 1881 $1,800 per quarter. The people of the town-

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LEXINGTON TOWNSHIP.

ship are further supphed with postal con- veniences at Limaville and Mount Union. The offices at these points may be referred to in a subsequent chapter. A colony of colored people located in Lexington Township, one mile east of Williamsport. that being the name of the few buildings on the north side of the Mahoning River. This people had a church at the above-mentioned point. and they called themselves . Christ's Disciples." All that re- mains of that church now is a narrow strip of land thrown out to the commons. on the north side of the highway running east, and overgrown by brambles. This was their burying ground. This settlement of colored people comprised abont 200 souls, and was made up chiefly of fugitives and freedmen from Virginia. They were orderly. industrious, and esteemed good citizens. Messrs. I. Price. Roland Bracy and E. Hamlin officiated in the church in the ad- ministration of the Word. An anecdote is ro- lated of one of their preachers, as occurring in the heated summary of his discourse, establish- ing the doctrine that they were God's peculiar people. He touchingly referred to the lamb-like tufts of wool upon their heads as conclusive upon the point that they were his especial lambs. This church and settlement is now, and has been for years, entirely broken up. From this point. two fugitives were recaptured and consigned to a life of hopeless toil. Logan County. in this State, and Lower Canada were the two chief points to which they emigrated. In 1850. there were only 39 colored residents in Lexington Township : in 1860. there were 157; 38 in the Limaville Precinct. and 19 in the Alliance Precinet : in 1870, there were 201 colored citi- zens in the township ; 66 in the Limaville Pre- cinet, and 134 in the Alliance Precinct. This people possesses, in a large degree. the religions element. They have a church in Alliance, or- ganized in 1870. by " I'nele Josie AArmstrong." a colored man of large brain, and possessing great power as a preacher and great unction in prayer. This organization is called the African Methodist Church. It has no regular Pastor at present. and is languishing. embracing only from fifteen to twenty members.

Prior to 1812. there was no necessity for sawed lumber in the township. The floors of the cabins were made of " puncheons," their roofs were covered with "elapboards," rived from straight-grained oak timber, their sides of

round logs, their doors of heavy clapboards and swung on wooden hinges ; their window con- sisted of a couple of feet cut from one of the side logs and the hole covered with greased paper. The chimney and fire-place was a mag- nificent affair. the latter often occupying the entire end of the cabin, and the base of it was built of "nigger-head " stones or "bog-ore,' and the balance of the chimney above the con- taet of the fire, was built on the outside of the cabin, of cross-sticks and tempered elay. These cabins made one room, were one story high and a " loft." The furniture consisted of a rude table and stools of primitive style. In some instances, there were two doors in the same cabin directly opposite, and Dogs ten feet long and eighteen inches in diameter were drawn with a horse into the cabin. and then rolled into the rapacious fire-place. A few green logs of this size, when fairly ablaze, would bid defiance to the coklest weather. This form of architec- ture was followed. not precisely by the Corin- thian, but by an improved hewed log house. The logs were flattened on both sides. the joists were hewed. the flooring sawed. and the buildings were mostly two stories high ; the roofs were made of rived. and often shaved, oak shingles. fastened to the sheeting with nails which would now be obtained at 25 cents per pound. The windows were few. but consisted of a four-light sash window. made to hokl Bxto glass : the crevices between the logs were filled by juggles, and then neatly plastered on the in and out side with well tempered yellow clay, of which article there has never been any scareity in the town- ship. The outside ponderous chimney of the round-log cabin was moved to the inside of the hewed-log house. This kind of a house was warm and neat. and also aristocratic. until John Grant, in 18 . built a commodious two-story brick house, west and across the ravine from where Amos Coates now lives.

There have been three woolen mills in Lex- ington Township. One was built south of Lex- ington. on the Mahoning, by W. S. Miller ; it was sold by him to one Snyder, under whose management the enterprise failed. It was then purchased by Lawrence Alexander, under whose practical control it manufactured a variety of fabrics for clothing, as well as carded wool. This mill was burned. Mr. Alexander removed to Canton. and now owns and runs fine woolen mills in that city. Another woolen mill was

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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

built in Limaville by William lieklen and sold to MI. Allison, and then purchased by Elias Hoover. During the administration of the above parties, the mill was operated for the pur- base for which it was built ; but Mr. Hoover sold it to John Ware for a chair factory. and while thus occupied it was burned. The third and last mill of this description was built on the Freedom side of the Mahoning. The race is yet to be seen. about which a law snit was com- meneed at the time the mill was ready to go into operation, which defeated the project. and the machinery was moved to the northern part of Portage County.

" Nothing ~ des as a tale of the old a line."

The differences being so great between the surroundings of life in Lexington Township sixty years ago and what they are to-day, many might conclude that those old veterans of pio- peer life had deprivations and hardships with- out any interims of pleasure. Such a conclu- sion is very wide of the mark ; they had their recreations and festivals. The brain power and moral tension for wealth was not so great then. and more frequently relaxed than it is to-day. Democracy pervades society in frontier life. wealth and development are the lever-arms upon which aristocracy treads to power. De- moeraey is equality and humanity ; border and dependent life compels it. Aristocracy is ou- throned selfishness ; wealth and its purchases perinit it. The pioneers, outside of superior social enjoyment common among early settlers, enjoyed a delirious pleasure when, with their sinewy arms, they grappled with the ferocious bear. They felt a wild enjoyment when the fleeting stag fell dead in his lightning course, through the agency of their unerring rifles. This exhilarating and manly sport may be startling to the pampered, effeminate sons of ! luxury. Those iron-armed. resolute settlers might have been unlearned in books, but they were wise and ennobled from an admitted con- verse and intimacy with nature, when her grandeur was undefaced by man's spoiling art.

The population of Lexington Township in 1820 was 165, all enumerated. In 1830, it was 869 ; in 1849, 1,600. The value of personal property in 1853 was $122,808, with $31,968 of an increase over the previous year. The value of real estate in 1853 was $183,783. with $15 .- 175 of an increase over the value of the same

property the year previous-there being three times more of an increase of real estate than in any township in the county, save Canton and Perry. In 1832, Lexington Township had 6.000 acres of wheat, which yiekted 13,564 bushels. The same year was cut 506 acres of corn, which produced 15,627 bushels. The soil of Lexington Township is thin and clayey. White oak timber was the chief variety in the northeast corner ; the other sections grew more poplar, maple. beech, chestnut, etc. The soil in the neighborhood of the town of Lexington seemed originally quite productive, but from bad husbandry or a deficiency of the proper elements of a good soil, it must be regarded as the poorest in the county. Polities never caused much excitement in this township until the log-cabin and hard-eider campaign of 1840, since which time there has been a sufficiency of zeal manifested on all election occasions. The stores in the township in 1823 were owned by Jacob Shilling, Limaville : Stephen Hamlin, Lexington ; Akey & Culbertson, Li- maville ; Mathias Rester. Freedom ; Job John- son, Mt. Union.

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History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 75

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1060

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1060