History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 30

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

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the one, to the value of which all others were brought by the equalizing process of annexation, and if there were several of equal value with the one so selected, no annexations were to be made to them. The equalizing townships were cut up into parcels of various size and value, and these parcels were annexed to townships inferior in value to the standard township, and annexations of land from the equalizing townships, were made to the inferior townships, in quantity and quality, sufficient to make all equal in value to the standard adopted. When the townships had thus all been equalized, they were drawn by It. There were ninety-three equalized parcels drawn east of the Cuyahoga, and forty-six on the west. The draft of the lands east of the river, took place prior to 1800, and of those west of that river, on the 4th day of April, 1807. In the first draft, it required an ownership of $12,903.23 of the original purchase money, to en- title the owner to a township; and in the second draft, it required an ownership of $26,087 in the original purchase-money, to entitle the owner to a township.

The same mode and plan were followed in each draft. The townships were numbered, and the numbers, on separate pieces of paper, placed in a box. The names of the proprietors who had sub- scribed, and were the owners of a sufficient amount of the purchase-money to entitle them to a township, were arranged in alphabetical order, and when it was necessary for several persons to combine, be- cause not owning severally, a sufficient amount of the purchase-money, or number of shares, to en- title them to a township, the name of the person of the company that stood alphabetically first, was used to represent them in the draft, and in case the small owners were unable, from disagreement among themselves, to unite, a committee was ap- pointed to select and class the proprietors, and those selected were required to associate them- selves together, for the purpose of the draft. The township, or parcel of land, corresponding to the first number drawn from the box belonged to the person whose name stood first on the list, or to the persons whom he represented; and the second drawn belonged to the second person, and so down through the list. This was the mode adopted to sever the ownership in common, and to secure to each individual, or company of individuals, their interest in severalty. Soon after the conveyance to the land company, to avoid complications arising from the death of its members, and to facilitate the transmission of titles, the company conveyed the

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entire purchase, in trust, to John Morgan, John C'adwell and Jonathan Brace ; and as titles were wanted, either before or after the division by draft, conveyanees were made to the purchasers by these trustees.

Little was known of this country at the time of its purchase by the Land Company. It was for- merly inhabited by a nation of Indians called the Erigas or Eries, from which the lake took its name. This nation was at an early date destroyed by the Iroquois. In his ". History of New France," published in 1744, in speaking of the south shore of Lake Erie, Charlevoix says : "All this shore is nearly unknown." An old French map, made in 1755, to be seen in the rooms of the Western Re- serve Historical Society, in Cleveland, names the country between the Cuyahoga and Sandusky Rivers, as Cauahogue ; and east of the Cuyahoga, as Gwahoga. This is also the name given to that river which is made to empty into Cuyahoga Bay ; and the country designated as Cauahogue is indi- cated as the seat of war, the Mart of Trade, and the chief hunting grounds of the Six Nations of the lake. The earliest settlement was on the Reserve, at Warren, in 1798, though salt was made in Weathersfield, Mahoning County, as early as 1755, by whites, who made short sojourns there for that purpose. The number of settlers increased in this section until, in 1800, there were some sixteen fam- ilies. In 1796, the first surveying party for the Land Company, landed at Conneaut, followed three years later by the first permanent settler. Then followed settlements in Geauga and Cuyahoga, in 1798; in Portage and Lake, in 1799; Summit, in 1800; Lorain. 1807, and Medina, in 1811. "The settlement of the Reserve commenced in a manner somewhat peculiar. Instead of beginning on one side of a county, and progressing gradually into the interior, as had usually been done in similar eases, the proprietors of the Reserve, being gov- erned by different and separate views. began their improvements wherever their individual interests led them. Here we find many of the first settlers immersed in a dense forest, fifteen or twenty miles or more from the abode of any white inhabitants. In consequence of their scattered situation, jour- neys were sometimes to be performed of twenty or fifty miles, for the sole purpose of having the staple of an ox-yoke mended, or some other mechanical job, in itself trifling, but absolutely essential for the successful prosecution of business. These jour- neys had to be performed through the wilderness, at a great expense of time, and, in many cases, the

only safe guide to direct their course, were the township lines made by the surveyors. The want of mills to grind the first harvest, was in itself a great evil. Prior to 1800, many families used a small hand-mill, properly ealled a sweat-mill, which took the hard labor of two hours to supply flour enough for one person a single day. About the year 1800, one or two grist-mills, operating by water- power, were erected. One of these was at Newburg, now in Cuyahoga Co. But the distance of many of the settlements from the mills, and the want of roads, often rendered the expense of grinding a single bushel equal to the value of two or three."* Speaking of the settlement of the Fire Lands, C. B. Squier, late of Sandusky City, says : "The largest sufferers, and, consequently, those who held the largest interest in the Fire Lands, pur- chased the rights of many who held smaller inter- ests. The proprietors of these lands, anxious that their new territory should be settled, offered strong inducements for persons to settle in this then un- known region. It is quite difficult to ascertain who the first settlers were, upon these lands. As early, if not prior to the organization of the State, sev- eral persons had squatted upon the lands at the mouth of the streams and near the shore of the lake, led a hunter's life, and trafficked with the Indians. But they were a race of wanderers, and gradually disappeared before the regular progress of the set- tlements. Those devoted missionaries, the Mora- vians, made a settlement, which they called New Salem, as early as 1790, on Huron River, about two miles below Milan. The first regular settlers, however, were Col. Jerard Ward, who came in the spring of 1808, and Almon Ruggles and Jabez Wright, in succeeding autumn." The next year brought a large inflow of immigration, which spread over the greater portion of both Erie and Huron Counties, though the first settlement in Sandusky City was not made until 1817.

It was not until the year 1800 that civil govern- ment was organized on the Western Reserve. The Governor and Judges of the Northwest Territory, under the ordinance of 1787, by proclamation in the following year, organized the county of Wash- ington, and included within it all of the Western Reserve east of the Cuyahoga; and in 1796, the year of the first occupation by the whites of the New Connecticut, the county of Wayne was erected, which included over one-half of Ohio, all of the Western Reserve west of the Cuyahoga, with a part of Indiana, all of Michigan, and the Ameri- *Judge Amzi Atwater.

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can portion of Lakes Superior, Huron, St. Clair and Erie, to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, with the county seat at Detroit. In 1797, Jefferson County was established, and the Western Reserve, east of the Cuyahoga, became a part of it, by restricting the limits of Washington. Connecticut and the Land Company refused to recognize the right of the General Government to make such disposition of the Reserve. The act of including this territory within the counties of Washington, Jefferson and Wayne, they declared to be unwarranted, and the power of Congress to prescribe rules for the gov- ernment of the same, they denied, and from the opening settlement in 1796, until the transfer of jurisdiction to the General Government was com- plete, on May 30, 1800, the new settlers were entirely without municipal laws. There was no regulation governing the transmission of, or success to, prop- erty on the decease of the owner; no regulations of any kind securing the protection of rights, or the redress of wrongs. The want of laws for the government of the settlers was seriously felt, and as early as 1796, the company petitioned the Legislature of Connecticut to erect the Reserve into a county, with proper and suitable laws to regulate the internal policy of the territory for a limited period. This petition, however, was not granted, and for upward of four years the inter- course and conduct of the early settlers were regu- lated and restrained only by their New England sense of justice and right. But on the 10th of July, 1800, after Connecticut had released her jurisdiction to the United States, the Western Reserve was erected into a county, by the name of Trumbull, in honor of the Governor of Connecti- cut, by the civil authority of Ohio. At the elec- tion in the fall of that year, Edward Paine received thirty-eight votes out of the forty-two cast, for member of the Territorial Legislature. The elec- tion was held at Warren, the county seat, and was the first participation that the settlers had in the affairs of government here. During the same year the Court of Quarter Sessions, a tribunal that did not survive the Constitution of 1802, was es- tablished and organized, and by it the county was divided into eight organized townships. The town- ship of Cleveland was one, and embraced a large portion of territory east of the Cuyahoga, but all the Reserve lying west of that river. On December 1, 1805, Geauga County was erected. It included within its limits, nearly all the present counties of Ashtabula, Geanga, Lake and Cuyahoga. On February 10, 1807, there was a more general di-

vision into counties. That part of the Western Reserve lying west of the Cuyahoga and north of Township No. 4, was attached to Geauga, to be a part thereof until Cuyahoga should be organized. In the same year Ashtabula was erected ont of Trumbull aud Geauga, to be organized whenever its population would warrant it ; also, all that part of Trumbull which lay west of the fifth range of townships, was erected into a county by the name of Portage, all of the Western Reserve west of the Cuyahoga and south of Township No. 5, being attached to it. The e unty of Cuyahoga was formed out of Geauga, on the same date, February 10, 1807, to be organized whenever its population should be sufficient to require it, which occurred in 1810.

On February 8, 1809, Huron County was erected into a county, covering the Fire Lands, but to remain attached to Geauga and Portage, for the time being, for purposes of government. The eastern boundary of this county was subsequently, in 1811, moved forward to the Black River, but, in the year 1822, it was given its present bounda- ries, and, in 1838, Erie County was ereeted, di- viding its territory. On the 18th of February, 1812, Medina was formed, and comprised all the territory between the eleventh range of townships and Huron County, and south of Township No. 5. It was attached to Portage, however, until January 14, 1818, when it received an independ- ent organization. Lorain County was formed on the 26th day of December, 1822, from the outly- ing portions of Huron, Medina and Cuyahoga Counties. It was organized with an independent local administration, January 21, 1824. In 1840, were organized Summit County, on March 3, and Lake County on March 6; the former drawing from Medina and Portage, and taking two town- ships from Stark County, and the latter being formed from Geauga and Cuyahoga. . In 1846, Ashland County was formed, taking three town- ships of the Reserve, on February 26, and Maho- ning, on March 1, taking ten townships from Trumbull, leaving the boundaries of the Reserve as marked at present.

In the history of its social development, the Western Reserve is not less interesting or peculiar than in the beginning of its material interests. The history of the mother State was peculiar, and the Reserve, it was fondly hoped, would be a re- production of the maternal features and graces, a New Connecticut. A chronicler* of the carly *Charles W. Elliott.

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HISTORY OF OHIO.

history of New England, writing of the New Ha,- ven Colony of 1637, says : " During the first year, little 'government ' was needed or exercised. Each man was a lord to himself. On the 4th of June (1638), the settlers met in Mr. Neuman's barn, and bound themselves by a sort of Constitu- tion. *

* They decided to make the Bible their law-book ; but by and by new towns were made, and new laws were needed, and they had the good sense to make them. Their State was founded upon their church, thus expressed in their first compact, signed by one hundred and cleven persons : 'That church members' only shall be free Burgesses, and that they only shall choose Magistrates and officers among themselves, to have the power of transacting all publique civil affairs of this plantation, of making and repealing laws, dividing of inheritances, deciding of differ- ences that may arise, and doing all things or busi- nesses of like nature.' " Twenty-seven years later, when circumstances made a union of the two Connecticut Colonies necessary, the greatest and most lasting objection on the part of the New Ha- ven Colony was the lessening of the civil power of the church which would follow the union. In 1680, the Governor of the United Colonies, thus describes the community: "The people are strict Congregationalists. There are four or five Seven- day men, and about as many Quakers. We have twenty-six towns and twenty-one churches. Beg- gars and vagabonds are not suffered, but are bound out to service." These characteristics of Connect- icut have been marked by all historians as well as the facts, that she "Early established and sup- ported schools and colleges ; her people have, from the outset, been industrious and honest ; crime has not abounded ; while talent and character, and courage and cleanliness, have been common through all her history." It was to reproduce these characteristics throughout the territory embraced within the provisions of her charter, that the mother State labored. For one hundred and thirty years she followed this purpose with an un- deviating method. " One tract after another, suf- ficient for a municipal government, was granted to trusty men, who were to form a settlement of well assorted families, with the church, the meet- ing house, the settled ministry of the Gospel, the school, the local magistracy, and the democratic town-meeting represented in the General Assem- bly. Under this method, self-governed towns in what is now a part of Pennsylvania, were once represented in the General Assembly at Hartford

and New Haven."* It was with the hope of ex- tending this method to the Reserve that Connecti- cut so strenuously asserted her jurisdiction to her Western lands ; but in the years of rapid growth succeeding the war of the Revolution, the old method proved no longer practicable, and the par- ent surrendered her offspring to the hands of abler guardians. But there remained a field in which solicitous regard could find action, and the impress of her work in this direction is plainly apparent to this day. It was her method of " missions to the new settlements" which had become crystallized into a system about this time. Of the scope and character of this work, Rev. Leonard Bacon thus speaks: " At first, individ- ual pastors, encouraged by their brethren, and ob- taining permission from their churches, performed long and weary journeys on horseback into Ver- mont and the great wilderness of Central New York, that they might preach the Word and ad- minister the ordinances of religion to such mem- bers of their flocks, and others, as had emigrated beyond the reach of ordinary New England priv- ileges. By degrees the work was enlarged, and arrangements for sustaining it were systematized, till in the year 1798, the same year in which the settlement of the Reserve began, the pastors of Connecticut, in their General Association, instituted the Missionary Society of Connecticut. In 1802, one year after the jurisdiction of the old State over the Reserve was formally relinquished, the Trustees of the Missionary Society were incorpo- rated. As early as 1800, only two years alter the first few families from Connecticut had planted themselves this side of Northwestern Pennsylvania, the first missionary made his appearance among them. This was the Rev. Joseph Badger, the apostle of the Western Reserve-a man of large and various experience, as well as of native force, and of venerable simplicity in character and man- ners. In those days the work of the missionary to the new settlements was by no means the same with what is now called ' Home Missionary ' work. Our modern Home Missionary has his station and his home; his business is to gather around him- self a permanent congregation ; his hope is to grow up with the congregation which he gathers, and the aid which he receives is given to help the church support its pa-tor. But the old-fashioned 'missionary to the new settlements,' was an itiner- ant. He had no station and no settled home. If he had a family, his work was continually calling *Address by Leonard Bacon, D. D.

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HISTORY OF OHIO.

him away from them. He went from one little settlement to another-from one lonely cabin to another-preaching from house to house, and not often spending two consecutive Sabbaths in one place. The nature of the emigration to the wilder- ness, in those days, required such labors.

" It was soon felt that two missionaries were needed for the work among the scattered settle- ments. Accordingly, the Rev. Ezekiel J. Chap- man was sent. He arrived on the Reserve at the close of the year 1801, and returned to Connecti- cut in April, 1803. His place was soon supplied by a young man ordained expressly to the work, the Rev. Thomas Robbins, who continued labor- ing in this field from November, 1803, till April, 1806. In a letter of his, dated June 8, 1805, I find the following statement: 'Since the be- ginning of the present year, I have been taking pains to make an actual enumeration of the fami- lies in this county .* The work I have just com- pleted. There are one or more families in sixty- four towns. January 1, 1804, the number of families was about 800. The first of last January there were a little more than 1100, of which 450 are Yankees. There were twenty- four schools. There are seven churches, with a pr. spect that two more will be organized soon, and more than twenty places where the worship of God is regu- larly maintained on the Sabbath.'" Such was the beginning of an influence to which the people of the Reserve are principally indebted for the early and secure foundation of the church and school, and for that individuality which marks them as a peculiar and envied people in a great common- wealth made up of the chosen intellect and brawn of a whole nation.

Owing to the peculiar relation of the Reserve to the General Government in early years. the history of its publie school fund is exceptional. By the ordi- nance of Congress in 1785, it was declared that Section 16 of every township should be reserved for the maintenance of public schools in the town-

ship. The ordinance of 1787, re-affirmed the policy thus declared. The provisions of these ordi- nances, in this respect, were not applicable to, nor operative over, the region of the Reserve, because of the fact that the United States did not own its soil ; and, although the entire amount paid to Connecticut by the Land Company for the terri-

*Trumbull County then included the whole of the Reserve.

tory of the Reserve was set apart for, and devoted to, the maintenance of public schools in that State, no part of that fund was appropriated to purposes of education here. There was an inequality of advantages between the people of the Reserve and the remainder of the State, in that respect. This inequality was, however, in a measure removed in 1803, by an act of Congress, which set apart and appropriated to the Western Reserve, as an equiv- alent for Section 16, a sufficient quantity of land in the United States Military District, to compen- sate the loss of that section, in the lands lying east of the Cuyahoga. This amount was equal to one- thirty-sixth of the land of the reserve, to which the Indian title had before that time been extin- guished. The Indian title to the lands of the Re- serve west of the Cuyahoga, not then having been extinguished, the matter seemed to drop from public notice, and remain so until 1829. At this date, the Legislature, in a memorial to Congress, directed its attention to the fact, that, by the treaty of Fort Industry, concluded in 1805, the Indian title to the land west of the Cuyahoga, had been relinquished to the United States, and prayed in recognition of the fact, that an additional amount of land lying within the United States Military District, should be set apart for the use of the public schools of the Reserve, and equal in quan- tity to one thirty-sixth of the territory ceded to the United States by that treaty. The memo- rial produced the desired result. In 1834, Con- gress, in compliance with a request of the Leg- islature, granted such an additional amount of land to the Reserve for scho 1 purposes, as to equalize its distribution of lands for such purpose, and in furtherance of its ob- ject to carry into effect its determination to donate one thirty-sixth part of the public domain to the purposes of education. The lands first allotted to the Reserve for such purpose, were sit- uated in the Counties of Holmes and Tuscarawas, and in 1831, were surveyed and sold, the proceeds arising from their sale as well as the funds arising from the sale of those subsequently appropri- ated, being placed and invested with other school funds of the State, and constitute one of the sources from which the people of the Reserve derive the means of supporting and maintaining their common schools.

SUMMIT COUNTY COURT HOUSE

PART II.

HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

CHAPTER I .*

INTRODUCTORY-DESCRIPTION-TOPOGRAPHY, ETC .- GEOLOGY-ALTITUDES IN THE COUNTY-THE DRIFT-COAL DEPOSITS-AGRICULTURE, ETC.

" And riper eras ask for history's truth."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes.

THE advantages resulting from the local his- tory of cities and countries is no longer a matter of doubt. Whether considered solely as objects of interest or amusement, or as having the still wider utility of the places they describe, these records are worthy of high consideration. And although in a country like ours, this depart- ment of history can claim to chronicle no great events, nor to relate any of those local tradi- tions that make many of the countries of the Old World so famous in story and song, yet they can fulfill the equal use of directing the attention of those abroad to the rise. progress and present standing of places which may fairly claim, in the future, what has made others great in the past. And in any age, wlien every en- ergy of the whole brotherhood of man is directed to the future, and when mere utilitari- anism has taken the place of romance, it is a matter of more than ordinary interest and value to all, to note the practical advancement, and so to calculate, upon the basis of the past, the probable results of the future of those places which seem to present advantages, either social or pecuniary, to that large class of foreigners and others, who are constantly seeking for homes or means of occupation among us. Nor is it to these alone that such local history is of value. The country already possesses much unemployed capital seeking for investment, while many, having already procured the means of living well, are seeking for homes more con- genial to their tastes than the places where they

have lived but for pecuniary profit. To both of these, the history of individual localities is an invaluable aid in helping the one to discover a means of advantageously employing his sur- plus money, and in aiding the other to find a home possessing those social advantages which will render him comfortable and happy. But it is to the emigrant foreigner that local his- tory is of the greatest benefit. Leaving, as he does, a country, with whose resources, social. moral and political, he is intimately acquainted, for one of which he knows almost nothing, such works, carefully and authentically written, are to him what the guide-books of the Old World are to the wonder-seeking traveler ; they pre- sent him at once with a faithful view of the land of his adoption, and point out to him every advantage and disadvantage, every chance of profit or of pleasure, every means of gain, every hope of gratification, that is anywhere to be afforded.

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History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 30

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