USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Strongsville > History of Strongsville, Cuyahoga County, Ohio ; with illustrations > Part 2
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Only twenty-three votes were cast in 1824 and twenty-two of these were for Henry Clay and one for J. Q. Adams, but during the next two years the population increased, and in April 1826, the householders num- bered eighty-six; among their names are those of Josiah Wright, Major Ashley, Cyrus Horton, Cyrus Palmiter, Reuben Ketchem, Jared Sartwell, Rev. Simeon Woodruff, Asa Drake, John Williams, Daniel June and Briant Blanchard. The proprietors thought that they could safely raise the price of land from $3 to $5 per acre, but about this time Congress per- fected the system of surveys and instead of selling the land to wealthy men in large tracts, began offering it to everyone in quarter sections at $1.25 per acre; therefore the proprietors were compelled to reduce the price of land to $2 per acre, because emigration to Strongsville quickly fell off before this competition.
Arrivals-In 1829 Major Bassett, Richard Wetherbee, Ahijah War- ner, Elizar Stocking, Nathan Underhill, Frederick Walkden, Samuel Miles, David Harvey, Elizar Prindle, Marcus Moe, and Rowland Barber were among the few who came to Strongsville.
Although used as a burial place for the first dead in Strongsville, the cemetery is first mentioned as township property iu 1830. Guide boards were erected about this time to direct the bewildered traveler as he journeyed the few roads then opened.
Arrivals-Calvin Thayer, Samuel Cody, Nathaniel West, Bela Clark.
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Later -Justin Merrick, Norton Briggs, David Fisk, Jonas Nims, Amzi Allen, Fitch Lyon, George Rabbitts, John Watson, Peleg Briggs, Avery Sprague, Nathaniel Merriman, Cyrus Damon, Parden Fisher, David Fish- er, Edwin Heazlit, Oliver Hicks, Abel Torrey, Nathan Foster, Fredk. Mc- Neal, S. Sanford and Josiah Giddings.
HINCKLEY HUNT.
Many of the pioneers in Strongsville, among them Esq. Lyman and Abial Haynes, took an active part in the most successful hunt of early times, known as the Hinckley Hunt, which took place Dec. 24, 1818.
The adjacent township of Hinckley, at that time, was still covered by an unbroken forest, in which game found safe haunts from which to steal forth to devastate the surrounding country. Sheep raising was es- pecially endangered from the wolves. Veterans of the war of 1812 were found to command the large body of men that gathered to surround the tract, and most of the party were well armed with muskets, although bayonets and butcher knives were carried by some. The men from Strongsville formed in the north division. At sunrise 600 men surround- ed the township, each side having a captain. The words "All ready!" passed along the line in forty seconds and all moved towards the center.
Late in the afternoon the slaughter ceased and the game was col- lected. The wolves were scalped first, each having a fixed cash value - ($15 bounty) This money furnished whisky at $32 per barrel for the crowd. A large bear was prepared for the barbecue. This with cakes, bread, salt, venison, etc. furnished a rare feast, which was followed by a night of hilarity, seldom experienced and never to be forgotten during a lifetime, by one who had participated. All agree that no one was intox- icated. The game killed-17 wolves, 21 bears, 300 dear, besides foxes, coons, turkeys, etc, was equally divided the next morning, Christmas, 1818 The campers then returned to their homes accompanied by their friends, many of whom had come twenty miles or more.
ROADS.
In the year 1820, J. S Strong took a contract of the Ellsworths to bui'd a good and substantial road through Strongsville. A road 60 feet
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wide was partially cleared, many large stumps being left to decay. The first road was on the lot line west of the turnpike. On this road lived Messrs. Bowen, Whitney, A. Haynes, sr, Abial Haynes, Cole and Avery.
Traces of an old road that followed the ridge south of the Center are found.
In 1827, H. W. Sabin and E. Lyon lowered Stone Hill slightly by means of crowbars and small blasts of powder, which removed about a bushel of debris at an explosion.
Under the direction of Lord & Barber, of Ohio City, the main road now in use was turnpiked by a stock company; the swale south of the Center had been corduroyed. Stock in this company was considered a good investment. Milestones were placed soon after the road was lo- cated.
In 1850, while Jesse Freeman was lowering Stone Hill, a workman, a Mr. Dobson, met with a fatal accident The stone that caused his death was buried with him in his grave at Parma, O. In 1860, Reuben Haynes, for a consideration of $1000, lowered the hill still more. After the turnpike became a toll road, one toll gate was located north of the Center and another two miles north was moved to one mile north and fi- nally to one mile south of the Center.
The first road to Berea was cut through in 1828. As late as 1833 a straight road from Bennetts Corners was used. The first sidewalk was built by the citizens south of the center in 1847 of split logs. The first flagging walk was laid around the Square and north to the cem- etery. In 1868, a stone walk was laid to Albion and in 1872 a three- quarter mile walk was laid south from the center. In all, Strongsville has about 3 miles of Berea flagging all purchased by subscription.
FIRST SINGING SCHOOL.
The first singing school in Strongsville was held October 18, 1827. From the original paper, now in the possession of Milton Haynes, we copy the following:
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"We, the subscribers, do agree to pay the several sums anrexed to our names, in good, marketable produce or lumber, at the market place, for the purpose of hiring Mr. Alvah Kingsbury to instruct a singing school in this place the ensuing season, three months or more, in proportion to what we shall subscribe, and school to be kept two evenings a week, two months, and the remainder of the time three evenings in a week; said produce or lumber to be delivered at either mills in Strongsville; the pro- duce to be paid by the 20th of February next, and the lumber by the first of January; payable to the committee of said school, who are John Fuller, Wm. Baldwin, Emory Strong, Warner Strong:
Edward Woodbridge, $2 in grain; Reuben Haynes. $2 66
King H. Freeman. $1 in lumber;
Lyman Strong, $1 in grain;
Samuel Brittan, $1
Franklin Strong, $1 Hollis Whitney, $1
Emory Strong, $2 in produce;
Wm. Baldwin, $2 in boards;
Gamaliel Olds, 50c in grain.
Samuel Porter, $1
Warner Strong, $1.50 "
N. N. Ashley. $2 66
R. G. Strong, 75c 66
John Hilliard, 50c 66
Nathan Gardner, $1 in lumber;
Luke Bowen, $1.25
Joshua B. Thayer, 50c in grain;
John Fuller, $1 in lumber;
S. Woodruff, $2, in produce; Zackery Carpenter, 1 bu. wheat; Wheeler Cole, $1.00;
Thatcher Avery, 50c in grain;
Ebenezer Prindle, $L Alanson Pomeroy, 50c in board;
Guilford Whitney, $1.50 66
Henry Sabin, 50c Ebenezer Stone, $1 in grain;
Flavel Whitney, 50c in lumber; Jubal Wh tney, 50c in boards ; M. O. Bennett, $1
Wm. Wait, 50c in lumber;
Abram Conyne, 50c in grain; Charles Rabbitts, 50c
Isaac Bosworth, $1 in lumber;
Ahijah Haynes, $1
Otis Billings, 75c in scantling;
Amount, $24 28, part paid in deer skins and coon skins,
FIRST TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.
To offset the evils of intemperance, a Temperance Society was form- ed Feb. 27, 1829, the meeting being held in the Academy with twenty-
THATCHER AVERY
MRS. THATCHER AVERY
REV. HARVEY LYON
WHEELER COLE
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two persons present. Rev. Simeon Woodruff was chosen presiding offi- cer; J. Nichols, scribe; Luke Bowen, vice-pres .; A. J. Pope, secretary. A committee of Agency was then chosen, consisting of the following men :- James Wait, Wheeler Cole, Lyman Strong, Benj. Schofield, Elizar Stocking, M. O. Bennett, Ahijah Haynes, Emory Strong and John Fuller.
ALBION.
In 1834 Benjamin Northrop and Ezra, Samuel and Norton Briggs came from Albion, N. Y., and settled on the bank of Rocky River near the saw and grist mill, built by John S. Strong. Mr. Northrop soon erected a small building and put in a carding machine and a fulling mill, and in honor of the town from which he came, named the little settle- ment Albion. Soon after, he built a large factory in connection with his carding works. Albion advanced with rapid strides, and in a few years contained three churches, Baptist, Methodist and Episcopal, select and district schools, five stores, two taverns, three blacksmith shops, a tin shop, a scythe-snath factory, two wagon shops and two tailor shops.
Often the stage coach stopped in Albion, at the tavern kept by Eb- enezer Pomeroy, for passengers to get their dinner. On the hill, where the school house now stands, north of Albion, a horn was blown, the number of blasts given indicating the number of passengers for dinner. The stage coach was enclosed, with a door on each side and had three seats. Often 4 or 5 would ride on the top. The coach was drawn by four spirited horses, and the crack of the driver's whip and the rumble of that noble old coach is well remembered by the older people of the present day.
About 1840, a company built a machine shop, where all kinds of machinery were made for the manufacture of woolen cloth. 20 or 30 men were employed in the factory and shops. A farmer bringing 2} pounds of wool could exchange it for one yard of broadcloth. In Albion, (the place now being incorporated), Mayor Northrop issued twenty-five cent script, which passed current for several years in the immediate vi- cinity.
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Dr. Roswell Trask settled in Albion in 1833; his practice extended over a large tract of the adjoining country. He remained there until his death in 1864. In this village was the home of Hon. David Harvey, who was sent to our legislature two terms; also the childhood home of his son, the late Governor Lewis Harvey, of Wisconsin; of Judge Walter Stone of Sandusky; Marvin E. Stone, a much respected citizen of the vil- lage for many years; Charles E. Tupper; Dr. Henry Parker, of Berea; Mr. Hazen Lathrop, a State contractor on Public Works; Avery Sprague, an honored deacon of the Baptist Church, and father of M. A. Sprague, of Berea; John Watson, who served as legislator one term; Benjamin Tuttle, Lester Miles, Samuel Snow; Mr. Fish, father of the late N. C. Fish; Samuel and Norton Briggs, and Mr. Spayth.
An account of the destructive fire in Albion has been furnished us by Mrs. Nancy Watson, widow of the late John Watson. Mrs. Watson, now past ninety years of age, says the fire occurred near the close of the winter of 1843-4, and that it broke out in the upper story of Mr. Wat- son's store, very early in the morning. People soon collected, but the weather being cold, and water not available, but few homes or goods could be saved. As is often the case at such a time, people lost their reason; one man threw a basketful of china out of a door as far as his strength would permit: another set the money drawer out in the street, where the wind could scatter both bills and papers. Most of the busi- ness portion of the village was destroyed. Mr. Watson was away, hav- ing driven to Michigan to market a load of dried apples and peaches, which he had taken in trade. Hearing of the fire, he hastened home and found that his insurance had just expired, so that he safered a total loss of his property.
After Mr Northrop was elected Judge, he sold his woolen factory to Dr. J. J. St. Clair, and moved to Cleveland. Dr St. Clair manufactur- ed woolen underwear for several years, giving his establishment the name of "Hamburg Works " This furnished employment for both men and women. Finally he sold out to Mr. Lester Miles who converted the
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building into a grist mill, retaining only the carding machine for the con- venience of the farmers who came from a long distance and brought fleeces of wool to be carded into rolls for their wives and daughters to spin into yarn. Afterwards, the mill was destroyed by fire.
In 1851, a railroad was built through Berea, aud a large part of the traffic left the turnpike; the stage coach was removed and since then the prosperity of Albion has faded slowly but steadily away.
WILD ANIMALS.
The late Charles Underhill, of Olmsted, related that, in 1828, his father came from Dorset, Vt , and bought what was later the John Heaz- lit farm. Two hunters, that fall, killed several deer, bears, wolves, and wild turkeys. Mr. Underhill had seen wild cats and heard the unearthly screach of a panther, in Strongsville woods.
Mrs. Jane Brodie, who has lived in Strongsville seventy-seven years, remembers well when her father, Asa Drake, killed a large, black bear in 1830. Merwin Beckwith mentions the deer that came to eat the spring wheat near his home north of the Stone Hill. Bears lived in the rocks in this hill, now called the Bear's Den. Mr. E. Fuller says that in 1827, wolves were very numerous at Beebetown, and used to howl around the log cabins at night, and at this same place a large black bear escaped, after being hard beset by dogs and men, by making short work of all by means of its paws.
MANNER OF LIVING.
From stories told by pioneers, some idea can be formed of life in the township before 1830, but the present generation can never realize the struggles of parents to provide food and clothing for large families in the wilds of Strongsville.
Corn, beans, pork and pumpkins were the principal articles of food, varied by game, wild honey, maple syrup and wild fruit. The food was cooked before an open fire or in kettles suspended on a crane in the wide fire-place. Bread was baked in the large ovens, frequently built
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outside the house. Fires were made in the ovens, the coals were re- moved and the dough to be baked was then placed within.
Fewter dishes were common, some at that time still clinging to the early idea that earthen dishes dulled the knives. Puncheon floors and greased paper for window panes adorned the rude homes of a few while others could boast of good floors and glass windows.
Buckskin pants were worn by the men and older boys. Clothing was made from a mixture of wool and flax, or wool and cotton, called linsey-woolsey, the materials of which were all prepared at home except the cotton, which was purchased before weaving. The wool, after shear- ing, was picked apart by the mother and children, then carded, either at home or at the carding mills, and was finally spun and woven by the women of the household. Flax was raised for home use, and almost ev- ery farm had its flax "break" and hatchel, while the small flax wheel adorned the kitchen of each thrifty housewife.
A few women made their own straw bonnets. The straw was ob- tained from June grass, cut at the proper time; this was braided and sewed into fine leghorn bonnets. Fine head gear was made for the men and boys by braiding oat and wheat straw, which was then sewed into hats.
Barks and nuts furnished dyes for the cloth. When a nicer dress was desired "for handsome", hickory nuts or farm produce was exchang- ed at the country store for indigo or madder, and on rare occasions for store cloth, which admitted one to the best society.
When a beef was killed in the winter, the hide was taken to a tan- nery. After the tanning, which took nearly a year, the leather was tak- en home to be made into shoes by Esq. Haynes, Russel Harris, or some other local shoe.naker, often one who came to the house for the purpose. It was not uncommon to see prints of bare feet in the snow before the shoes were obtained. The first shoemaker's bench used in Strongsville, is now in the possession of Hon. M. S. Haynes, having never been moved from the farm.
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AHIJAH HAYNES, JR.
REUBEN HAYNES
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Grain was very low and the greatest income was obtained by boiling the ashes left in clearing the land; from the lye obtained, "black salts" were made.
Yellow ironstone was taken to a furnace located on the river below the old depot in Middleburg, and made into much needed kettles. Mr. E. H. Reed related that, when in company with Mr. J. Watson in the mer- cantile business in Albion, he bought one fall 200 bushels of hickory nuts picked up by the boys and girls of the surrounding country. A similar account was given by Emory Strong, who established in 1824 the first store, which occupied a separate building in Strongsville.
An old store bill reads as follows: Muscavada Sugar, 13 cents a pound; Raisins, 372 cents a pound; Molasses, 63 cents a gallon; Cinnamon, $1.00 a pound.
It was a difficult matter to raise 25 cents to get a letter from the nearest post office, Cleveland, the postage never being prepaid. The price of postage remained the same for a number of years after a post office was established in the town, but a reduction to 15 cents and later to 10 cents was received by the pioneers with great rejoicing, for the exorbitant price heretofore charged, often occasioned a delay of a week before the letter could be taken from the office.
Vehicles of the stoutest make were used to travel over the rough roads. Oxen were used and horseback riding was common. Tradition says that Julia Ann Lyman and Roxanna Stevens went to Cleveland on horseback to make some necessary purchases and returned the same day; also that one worthy couple rode to the home of the minister to be unit- ed in marriage, the young lady neatly attired in a calico dress, securely seated on a pillion behind her future husband.
When men went to Cleveland, two journeyed together to help each oth- er through miry places, each having two yokes of oxen, a sled, a wagon, an ax, an auger, provisions and a jug of whisky. They were sometimes gone four days on a journey of fifteen miles and back, with their loads of two barrels of potash, each weighing 500 pounds and for which they received from $4 to $5 per hundred.
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Owing to the scarcity of money and provisions, children from poorer families were often bound out until they had reached the age of twenty- one. An agreement recorded is as follows: I, James F -- , do hereby agree to learn said Horace B- to read and to write and so much Arith- metic as will include the single rule of three and at the expiration of said term of service furnish the said Horace B- with a new Bible, one good suit of clothes and $100 in cash for the sole use and benefit of said Horace, to clothe and to feed the said Horace in a good and wholesome manner, and to furnish all necessary medical attendance during the time aforesaid.
Life was hard in those days, but it was often gay and glad. In the log cabins with their rude furniture there were no rich folks. People were kindlier and friendlier than now, and they made the most of corn huskings, quilting parties, paring bees and log rollings, varied by cabin raisings and singing schools. Religion tempered the ruder pleasures and camp meetings were often held. After a hard day's work, young and old would start off at night to some gathering, lighted on their way by the flickering light of hickory torches.
Neatly bound bunches of hickory bark could be seen reposing against the wall at evening meetings and singing schools, ready to be used by the young gallants as each escorted his fair one to her home, the forest pathway often marked by blazed trees and the torches making fantastic shadows among the oaks and elms.
There being no kerosene at that time tallow dips or candles were used by all for lighting purposes.
At a raising, when the work was completed, the men ranged them- selves on one of the plates, passed a bottle of whisky from mouth to mouth until all had partaken and then after three rousing cheers, the last man flung the bottle as far as his arm could send it.
By 1830 the deer and the bear were becoming scarce, and by 1840 only stragglers could be seen.
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The log houses had begun to be exchanged for frame, and during the next decade the township began to put on the general appearance of a thrifty community. The lumber for the first frame barns was hemlock, obtained in Middleburg and sawed in a mill located on the river there and finally brought to Strongsville.
Many pressed on and left the low lands nearer the lake, until the hills of Strongsville, with their healthy climate, were peopled with a stur- dy colony of pioneers.
CLOSE OF EARLY HISTORY.
The actors on the Strongsville pioneer stage have passed away. They acted well their part, which was no easy task. It took bone, mus- cle, courage, will and character to subdue the stubborn forest and change it into smiling fields and beautiful homes. The present actors withhold not from them their well deserved honors as heroes and mighty men. We thank them for fields and homes, but more for principles, institutions of learning and religion which train our minds to think and our hearts to love. A granite monument marks each resting place and tells the story of birth and death. A prosperous town, a magnificent state, a united country is the monument of the life work of the pioneers of our Union, and no men have a grander shaft erected to the memory of their noble deeds.
May we ever strive to inculcate the principles taught by them, and to transmit to our country, with its institutions, even greater truths than have descended to us.
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HISTOR FROM 1840 TO 1890.
THE PART TAKEN BY STRONGSVILLE CITIZENS IN THE INSURRECTIONARY MOVEMENT IN CANADA.
In 1838, during the insurrectionary movement in Canada, there were many secret organizations in the United States for the purpose of equipping her citizens to aid the dissatisfied subjects in their endeavor to free themselves from the rule of the British government. Such a socie- ty, known as the "Hunters and Rangers," was organized in Strongsville, by Esq. John Fuller, an influential man in society and in the Church; . Mr. Samuel Snow, Mr. Whitaker, Capt. David Frank, Isaac Bosworth, Joe Whitney, and others. A large number of citizens of the United States engaged in this movement were captured by the British Army, and were either hung or banished to Van Diemen's Land. Of them, [Esq. Fuller managed to escape and reach his home. Mr. Snow, however, was at first sentenced to be hung, but afterward was banished, and later was pardoned, when he returned to Strongsville. Dr. Leonard soon after wrote a book describing Mr. Snow's adventures in Van Diemen's' Land, now Tasmania.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
In the days before the Civil War settled forever the question of sla- very in the United States, brave indeed were the few who dared to show, in any way, sympathy for the downtrodden and oppressed negroes. No pulpit dared to express sentiments against the injustice. Several of our citizens were identified with the famous Underground Railroad system for getting runaway slaves into Canada. Among these Abolitionists were
FLAVEL WHITNEY
JUBAL WHITNEY
CALEB CARPENTER
MRS. CALEB CARPENTER
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DR. WM. BALDWIN'S RESIDENCE; (First frared dwelling; built in 1822)
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JOHN S. STRONG'S OLD RESIDENCE
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THE OLD WHITE CHURCH
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THE OLD TAVERN-BURNED IN 1898
THE WARNER STRONG BRICK STORE
THE WARNER STRONG RESIDENCE
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Philander Pope, Ahijah Haynes, Abram Conyne and Elijah Lyman. Hon. M. S. Haynes remembers well the many times his father harbored slaves. Very interesting is his account of interviews with the colored men, wom- en and children, as they waited so anxiously, in the old shop, for the night to come when they might, with less danger, be helped on their way to freedom. G. H. Lyman, and doubtless others, can relate similar ex- periences. Mr: C. H. Pope mentions catching a glimpse, one time, of a negro in his father's barn. Not being old enough to realize the signifi- cance of the sight, he recognized a mystery connected with it, and re- frained from mentioning the matter to any one until years afterward.
SICKNESS OF 1856.
In August and September, of 1856, Strongsville Center was visited by a sickness-typhoid dysentery-that caused great sorrow and suffer- ing. At one time, the disease was thought to be the cholera, and a quar- antine was threatened. So frequent were the deaths, that the bells were not tolled for fear of alarming the sick, and the school was closed. Help could not be obtained, and the energies of the well people were severely taxed in caring for those afflicted. Among those who died at this time, were Mrs. O. W. White and child, Mrs. Ruth, Nathaniel Merriman, Jr., Mrs. Leonard and Mrs. Conger, wife and mother-in-law of Dr. H. L. W. Leonard, Mr. and Mrs. Warner Strong, Allis Locke Whitney, Josie Hoyt, and Mrs. Ahijah Haynes, Jr.
FAIRS.
The Strongsville Agricultural Society was organized in 1857, and fairs were held yearly until 1870. A quarter of a mile speed track and show ring was graded on the Square; stakes were driven on the outside of the track and ropes were strung on them. The lower room of the First ('ongregational Church, on the northeast corner of the Square, was rented for an Agricultural Hall. Twenty-five cents was the membership fee, but the fair was free to all well-behaved persons. The yearly event was looked forward to with the expectation of having a good time, and it was considered unusual if 2000 or more were not in attendance. No cash premiums were paid, but diplomas were given.
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