History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 100

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Ohio > Summit County > History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio > Part 100

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The first school taught in Springfield was in a little log cabin, which stood near Cass' camp- ing ground. It was taught in the winter of 1812, by Reuben Upson, and was on the sub- scription and " board-around " plan. Here, in this little log structure,

"skilled to rule, Master Upson taught his little school : A man severe he was, and stern to view,"

as every truant and culprit soon learned to know to their sorrow. The next school was taught by a Mr. Briggs, in the Vallandingham Schoolhouse. This was followed by one taught by Jesse Hall, which was in what was known as the Virginia Schoolhouse. Austin Weston was the next teacher, and wielded the ferule in the Sheep Schoolhouse. This schoolhouse was called after a family who settled in the neighborhood very early, named Sheep. They finally grew tired of being considered sheepish, and had their names changed by legislative act to Morton. a cognomen that their neighbors soon perverted into Mutton. Benjamin Meachem followed Weston as the next teacher, and taught in the MeGrew Schoolhouse ; next came Will- iam L. Clark, whose widow has died in Akron since this work (1881) has been in the course of preparation. He was followed by Robert Baird, who taught in the Metlin Schoolhouse ; and Baird was followed by Henry Westfall, who taught in the Dunbar Schoolhouse. Sam- vel Ellet next taught in the Ellet Schoolhouse, and after him P. C. McDonald, in the Roden-

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SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP.

baugh Schoolhouse. This comprises the early schools of Springfield, and brings the educa- tional history of the township down within the period of the free school system. Springfield now has some six schoolhouses, all of which are good, comfortable brick buildings, well furnished and appointed, in which schools are taught by competent teachers during the requi- site terms each year. Lusk, of Hudson; Lieut. Holcomb, of Hudson, resigned to John Caris, of Rootstown, who was Second Lieutenant ; Hiram King, formerly of Middlebury, was Ensign. They belonged to the regiment commanded by Col. Rayen, of Youngstown, in the brigade of Gen. Simon Perkins. Joseph D. Baird, Timothy Holcomb, Nathaniel DeHaven and Lee Moore are yet liv- ing .* John Hall died in Huron County, and For years after the first white people settled in Springfield, their highways of travel were blazed paths through the forest. The first road laid out was that leading from Canton to Middle- bury, known as the "Canton and Middlebury road." The next, perhaps, was the Middlebury and Kendall road. These were followed by oth- of much importance. The first mails were brought to the post office at Baldwin's, on horseback, along a blazed path through the woods, from Canton to Middlebury and back again. This road afterward became a some- what noted thoroughfare, and was a stage route between Cleveland and Canton. John C. Hart, of Middlebury, ran a line of stages over this route for a number of years. Alexander Hall died at Camp Huron ; James Baird died at La Grange, Ind .; and Martin Willis died on his way home at Tinker's Creek. On the return of the wreck of Hull's army, after his surrender at Detroit, the 'Ohio volun- teers,' under Cols. Cass and McArthur, passed through Springfield, and encamped on the ers, mostly centering in Middlebury, then a place | banks of the river near the south end of the bridge, at 'Clinton's Mill.' Samuel Ellet, the father of John and Jehn Ellet, who then lived where Jehu Ellet now does, measured off half an acre of green corn and turned it out to the soldiers, who picked and roasted it for their suppers. The following year, Maj. Croghan, when going to the lines with his command. en- camped on the same ground. At that time, Dr. Joseph DeWolf. of Ravenna, was the only Originally, as we have stated, Randolph, Suf- field, Springfield and Tallmadge comprised a single township. This was the case in 1812, and, under the old militia law of that period, all able-bodied men between eighteen and forty- five years of age, were compelled to drill on certain days of each year. The township above-mentioned was a military district, and formed a militia company, of which Bailey Hubbard was Captain ; Ariel Bradley Lieuten- ant, and Aaron Weston, Ensign. Weston was also Ensign of the company of volunteers from this section, under Capt. John Campbell, who were surrendered by Gen. Hull at Detroit, in the opening period of the war of 1812. practicing physician, except Dr. Ashmun, of Hudson, between Cleveland and Canfield. De- Wolf being a Democrat and a strong supporter of the war, could do no less than attend on the the sick and wounded soldiers as they were re- turning from what was worse than sickness, Hull's disgraceful surrender. He rode night and day, performing that unpaid office of hu- manity. The poor soldiers owe him a debt of gratitude, and his country ought to compensate him. Many a political brawler has received thousands of dollars for far less meritorious service than that performed by Dr. DeWolf in receiving the sick of the 'Ohio volunteers.' Whatever may become of the pecuniary ob- ligation of this Government to him, let not the gratitude be canceled by the statute of limit- ation.

When John Bull, in 1812, unchained his hungry lion upon the United States, there was considerable population in this section of Ohio. In Springfield Township there had settled quite a number of families. Gen. Bierce thus tells the war news of that period : " After Hull's surrender, a draft was made, and eight were taken from Springfield-Joseph D. Baird, John Hall, Timothy Holcomb, Alexander Hall, James Baird, Lee Moore, Nathaniel DeHaven, and Mar- tin Willis, who went as a substitute. They be- longed to the company commanded hy Capt.

" After the surrender of Hull, a press was made for horses for the use of the Govern- ment. David Preston, of Tallmadge, and oth- ers, were in the employ of the United States collecting horses in Springfield. The Rev. Mr. Beers, of Springfield, had five horses when the

* The above extract from Gen. Bierce was written in 1854 ; all of the squad there mentioned have fought their last battle, and are now at rest .- [ED.

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TALLMADGE TOWNSHIP.

kins, of Warren, being at the time agent for the proprietors, had a survey made of Town 2, Range 10, into lots a mile square, making a total of twenty-five lots, No. 1 being at north- west corner of the township. Caleb Palmer made this survey in 1803, and it was on this survey that the Brace Company, Starr and Tallmadge, made the partition of their land in May of the same year. The Brace Company were Jonathan Brace, Roger Newberry, Justin Ely, Elijah White and Enoch Perkins. In this partition the Brace Company received 6,105,50 acres lying on the west side of the township. Ephraim Starr received 3,493-71 acres, being a strip one mile wide through the center of the township, from the north to the south line, and Lot 24, east of Lot 23, on the south line. Col. Tallmadge received about 5,611 acres, lying on the east side of the township. The first sale of land to individuals wasto John and Selah Payne, and Jotham Blakslee, of Kent, Conn., by Eph- raim Starr and Hannah, his wife; the deeds were dated June 28, 1805. John Payne and Elizabeth Payne, his wife, conveyed to Col. Benj. Tallmadge 884 acres of land for $1,026, the deed to which was dated August 19, 1806. These deeds may be found among the land records of Trumbull County.

Rev. David Bacon made a contract July 12, 1806, with Ephraim Starr, and soon after with Col. Tallmadge, also with the Brace Company (for part of their lands), to become their agent for the sale of their lands in Town 2, Range 10. Mr. Bacon established himself with his family in Hudson until ready to commence operations. His first step was a re-survey of the township. Seth I. Ensign was employed to make the sur. vey on a plan devised by Mr. Bacon, which was to survey into great lots or tracts one and a fourth miles square, and the lines running to the four cardinal points of the compass to be roads, and then diagonal roads crossing at the center and terminating at or near the cor- ner of the township. The public square or green of seven and one-half acres as a parade ground for the militia on training days, and on which the meeting house and the academy were to stand. occupied the center of the town. This square was surrounded by the store, the tavern, the mechanics' shops, dwelling houses, etc., and from it eight roads diverged, so that all residents of the townships had a road to come to meeting on the Sabbath Day. This showed

Mr. Bacon's foresight, thus placing every lot or subdivision on a road, which has had a ten- dency to prevent much contention about roads, that some of the neighboring townships have been subjected to. Mr. Ensign made this sur- vey in November, 1806. His assistants as far as known were Justus Sackett and Salmon Weston, of Warren, Conn., and a man named Singletary. William Prior says : "I carried their provisions to them on a mule from North- ampton Mills to their camp. They found the northwest corner of the township, then run east two and a half miles, then south two and a halt miles, where they set the center stake, and turned their attention to a camping-place. They chose a spot about a fourth of a mile southwest from the center stake on the bank of the brook." Mr. Weston informed the writer that the camp was between the brook and a bank several feet high. They felled a large bass- wood tree which stood on the bank, and from it split puncheons with which the sides and top of their "camp" were formed. This circumstance it was that gave to the little stream the name of Camp Brook. When their camp was fin- ished, they again went to the northwest corner and commenced work. They run a line south one and a fourth miles, then east to town line, then south one and a fourth miles to the center line, then west again. The northwest corner tract was No. 1; the northeast corner tract was No. 4; and the southeast corner tract No. 16. The tracts were subdivided into six lots generally, which was done by Ensign, except Tracts 1 and 4-the latter was surveyed by Elizar Wright in 1817, for Col. Tallmadge.

The land of Tallmadge Township is rolling and somewhat elevated ; several points rising to a height of 540 feet above the level of Lake Erie. The summit of Coal Hill (near Daniel Hines'), is 636 feet, and is the highest point of land in the county, with one exception. The highest point is in Richfield Township. The soil is a light loam, and in places, somewhat sandy, but upon the whole, well adapted to grain, and also to grass. The prevailing tim- ber is oak and chestnut, intermixed with which is hickory, elm, ash, white and black walnut, bass, cucumber, with beech and maple on the streams. On many tracts, quite a collec- tion of sugar maples were found, from which quantities of sugar and molasses were manu- factured. The drainage of Tallmadge is all into

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HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

the Cuyahoga River on the north, and the Little Cuyahoga on the south ; the east and west center road being about the divide. The streams are all small. The Little Cuyahoga runs through Springfield near the line, and the Cuyahoga runs near the north line in Stow, making a sharp bend into Tallmadge on the Speng farm. The streams are fed by numer- ons springs, furnishing water on almost every farm in abundance. The swamps have been mostly reclaimed, so that at the present day, there is in the township but very little land un- suitable for cultivation.

Tallmadge Township was originally bounded on the north by Stow Township, on the east by Brimfield Township (in Portage County), on the south by Springfield Township, and on the west by Portage Township. In 1851, Cuyahoga Falls was set off as a township, and takes from Tallmadge the whole of Tract No. 1, containing 899 acres, and about 100 acres off the north side of Lots 1, 2 and 3, in Tract 5. Then in 1857, Middlebury was set off as an independ- ent township, taking from Tallmadge Lots 3 and 5, containing by Ensign's survey, 299 aeres. The productions of the township are the various kinds of grain, grass and fruit. The pursuit of a large majority of the inhabitants has been that of farming in its different branches, no one branch being made a specialty.

The first permanent settlement in Tallmadge Township, from the most reliable testimony, seems to have been made by George Boosinger. He was born in 1777, and, in 1801, his father emigrated to Ohio with his family, and located in Ravenna, in Portage County. George lived there until grown to manhood, when he mar- ried Miss Nancy Simcox. He then bought seventy-five acres of land in this township, in Lot 6, Traet 14, of Jotham Blakslee, of Ravenna, and off the west side of the lot. This farm is now (1881) owned by Sherman Pettibone. Boosinger came over and selected a spot on which to build, which was at a fine spring of water, near the south line of the township, and then returned to Ravenna. In March, 1807, he again came over, and brought help with him preparatory to building a house on his new purchase. Those who came over with him were Henry Sapp, Jotham Blakslee, Jr., John MeManus, Moses Bradford, Philip Ward, William Price, David Jennings, William Chared, Robert Campbell, Abel Forshey and

Henry Bozor. They assembled on the ground in the morning, ent the logs and raised the house, which was about 16x20 feet in dimen- sions, made the long shingles, or " shakes " (as they were called), put on the roof, cut out a door and laid down a floor of puneheons. These puncheons were split out of a straight- grained tree, and hewed smooth on one side and laid down upon the sleepers. As they seasoned, they were driven up close together, and made a good substitute for board or plank floors. The doors were also made of punch- eons, pinned on to wooden battens or hinges, and often not a nail was used in making them. The windows of the pioneer cabins were quite as primitive as the doors. A place was eut out, across which stieks were put at right angles, and covered with greased paper as a substitute for glass.

His cabin being ready for occupancy, Boos- inger left Ravenna the last of March or the first of April, and with his family moved into his new home, thus becoming the original set- tler of Tallmadge Township. At the semi- centennial of the settlement of the township, Hon. E. N. Sill, in his address on that day, gave to Rev. David Bacon the honor of mak- ing the first settlement. This was disputed at the time by several pioneers who were present, and who were familiar with all the circum- stanees. They were well satisfied of the fact that Boosinger settled in the township in March or April, 1807. These pioneers are now dead, but, in years that are past, the writer has interviewed some of them, and has given that attention to the subject which has confirmed him in the opinion that Boosinger was the first settler. There was no intention on the part of any one to deprive Mr. Boosin- ger of all the honor that belonged to him, but there was evidently a hasty conclusion of some to give the honor of priority in settle- ment to Mr. Bacon. Soon after Boosinger's settlement, his wife went back to Ravenna, and, while there, gave birth to twins-a boy and girl. As soon as prudent, she returned to her home in Tallmadge. In a few weeks after- ward, the boy siekened and died, and was buried on his father's farm. This was the first death in the township. Mr. Boosinger and his wife were honest, upright and industrious peo- ple, and just in their dealings with their fellow- men. He was not in sympathy with Bacon

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TALLMADGE TOWNSHIP.

and his grand scheme for supporting the church by direct taxation, and united with the Presbyterian Church in Springfield, where he and his family attended meeting. Mrs. Boos- inger died in Tallmadge, and he married a sec- ond time, to a Miss Wolfert. He sold his farm to Pettibone in 1836, and removed to Macoupin County, Ill., where he died in 1862.

To the Rev. David Bacon this township is greatly indebted for its religious and moral standing in the community. His infinence in- duced many others to settle here from towns on the Western Reserve, and to co-operate with him in his plans for building up a state of society of Puritan tendencies. Mr. Bacon was born in Woodstock, Windham Co., Conn., in 1771. In early life he had a strong desire for a college education, but this he was unable to obtain. It did not lessen his desire, however, to preach the Gospel, and to this end he com- menced the study of theology with Rev. Levi Hart, D. D., of Preston, New London Co., Conn. He was ordained a minister of the Gospel December 31, 1799, and was married to Miss Alice Parks about the same time, at Lebanon, Conn. He left Hartford on the 8th of August, 1800, under the patronage of the Connecticut Missionary Society, with a view of visiting the Indian tribes bordering on Lake Erie. He sailed from Buffalo September 8, arriving at Detroit on the 11th, and about the middle of December he returned to Connecticut with much valuable information. The next year he came back to Ohio, bringing his wife with him, arriving in safety at Detroit. This place was then but little else than a trading-post of the Indians, and a military point, garrisoned by United States troops. Here Mr. Bacon labored as a missionary among the Indians for some time, and here his eldest child (Rev. Leonard Bacon, D. D., of New Haven, Conn.), was born February 14, 1802. He went from Detroit to Mackinaw, where he labored until the latter part of the summer of 1804, when he left the place, and after a long and dangerous voyage, part of the time in a canoe, he arrived with his family on the soil of the Western Re- serve. About the 1st of October, he found a home temporarily at Hudson. He labored on the Reserve as a missionary, but soon became convinced that more good could be accom- plished for the Reserve by a township with all the appliances and the accomplishments of

New England civilization as an example. Dr. L. Bacon, in an address delivered June 24, 1857, speaking of his father, says : "Being on the western limits of civilization, he looked about for a vacant township, in which such an experiment might be tried. His prophetic mind saw the capabilities of Township 2, Range 10; its fertile soil, its salubrious air, its beautifully undulating surface, its pure and abundant water, its streams singing in the grand old woods and rich with power for the service of man. He saw the proprietorship of it was in the hands of men who, as his trusting and hopeful nature led him to believe, would enter into his views, and would even be willing to sacrifice something of their possible gains (if need should be) for so great a scheme of public usefulness as that with which his mind was laboring." He went to Connecticut with his family near the close of the year 1804, and, as already stated, secured the agency of the pro- prietors of most of the land in Tallmadge Township. Being a descendant of the Puri- tans, and deeply imbued with New England Puritanism, he was thought by many to be visionary. His ideas were of the true Puritan stamp-the church first, and next the school- house. The church was to be Congregational, and no inhabitants were to be admitted into the settlement but those of that denomination, or who were in sympathy with the strictest Puritan principles. As a people and a town- ship we are greatly indebted to Mr. Bacon for laying, as he did, foundations so broad and deep, and embellished with moral, religious and educational principles. Some of the land he was unable to control, and a few persons settled on it that did not agree with Mr. Bacon in all his grand views. The majority of the settlers, however, for the first twenty-five years, were his adherents, and were firm supporters of the Gospel, and of elevating the standard of morality.

In the spring of 1807, Mr. Bacon began to make prepartions for moving into Tallmadge. He hired a man named Justin E. Frink, who had just arrived at Hudson from Vermont, to clear a piece of ground for a garden, and on which to build a house. He and Bacon came over and selected a place which was near Starr's west line, and the south line of the township, at a spring of good water, and about a mile west of Boosinger's cabin. Frink cleared off

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HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

the ground and cut logs for a house. The house was built, and was of pioneer pattern, with its puncheon floor and door, stick chimney, etc., and when completed the family moved into it. Says Dr. Bacon in the address already quoted from : " I well remember among the dim and scattered reminiscences of early childhood, the pleasant day in the month of July, if I mistake not, when the family made its removal from the center of Hudson, to the new log house that had been prepared for it, in the township which had no other designation than 'No. 2, Range 10.' The father and mother, poor in this world's goods, but rich in faith and in the treas- ure of God's promises rich in their well-tried mutual affection, rich in their hopes of useful- ness, and of the comfort and competence to be ultimately achieved by their enterprise, rich in the parental joy with which they looked upon the three little ones that were carried in their arms or nestled among their seanty household goods in the slow-moving wagon, were familiar with whatever there is in hardship and peril, and in baffling disappointment, to try the cour- age of the noblest manhood or the immortal of a true woman's love. The little ones were na- tives of the wilderness, the youngest a delicate nursling of six months. This child's name was Juliana ; was born in Hudson February 25, 1807. The others were born in a far remoter and wilder West than this was even then. These five were the family who, on that day, removed to their new home. I remember the setting out ; the halt before the door of good old Deacon Thompson to say farewell ; the fording of the Cuyahoga, at Monroe Falls ; the slow day's journey of somewhat less than thir- teen miles, along a road that had been merely cut, not made, through the unbroken forest ; the little clearing where the journey ended ; the new log house so long our home, with what seemed to me a stately hill behind it, and with a limpid rivulet winding near the door. And when at night, the first family worship was offered in that lonely cabin, when the father and mother, having read from this Bible (Dr. Bacon holding up to the audience the identical Bible his parents used on that occasion), then commended to their Covenant God, themselves, and their children, and the work which they had that day begun ; the prayer that went up from those two saintly souls, breathed the same spirit with the prayer that went of old from the

deck of the Mayflower, or from beneath the wintry sky Plymouth. In the car of God, it was as, 'The voice of one crying in the wilder- ness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.'"'

From April, 1807, up to February, 1808, the only persons in Tallmadge were George Boos- inger and wife and child ; Rev. David Bacon, his wife and three children, and J. E. Frink, a hired man in Mr. Bacon's family, making in all five adults and four children. In 1808, Ephraim Clark, Jr., came in, being the third regular settler in the township. He was a na- tive of Southington, Conn., and, when he was sixteen years of age, his parents removed to Russell, Mass., where he lived until his matu- rity. He caught the Western fever, and, in 1799, left his home in Massachusetts, his des- tination being " New Connecticut," his object- ive point, Town No. 7, Range 7, of the Western Reserve, now known as Burton Township, in Geauga County. Alone and on foot, he trav- eled the distance, often camping out at night without fire or blanket, but, finally, arrived in safety. He liked the country and settled in Burton Township. Like many others of the pioneers of the times, he was fond of hunting. He once found the carcass of a deer that had been killed by a wolf. Around the carcass he built a pen with an opening and a door, which was set with what trappers and hunters called a figure 4, and thus caught the wolf. He pealed elm bark, made a rope, formed a noose at one end, which he succeeded in putting over the wolf's head, and by this means led it, as one might lead a dog, to Burton Square, where he tied the rope to the sign post of the tavern. Judge Calvin Pease, with an Eastern friend, were present, and the "Eastern friend " pro- posed to give a gallon of whisky for the priv- ilege of shooting the beast, that he might tell it at home that he had killed a wolf. Clark agreed, and when the whisky was given him, he handed his gun to the man, who performed the great feat of shooting a wild wolf-tied to a tree. Mr. Clark killed many deer, wolves and bears. In 1805. he left Burton and settled in Mesopotamia, where, in 1807, he married a Miss Sperry, and, in 1808, removed to this township. His wife died in 1833, and he, in 1858, at the age of eighty years, having lived on the Reserve fifty-nine years. The next settler in Tallmadge was, probably, Jonathan Sprague,

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History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 100

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848- Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104