History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 58

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 58

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It is but appropriate that some notice of the medical societies of Summit County should be made in this sketch of the profession. Our limited space, however, will admit of the very briefest inention. As early as 1842, the members of the medical profession met to- gether and organized a society by adopting a "preamble and constitution," and formally constituting themselves into a regular society. This society continued in existence a number of years, and finally became extinct. Again, in Febraury, 1866, a meeting was held in the office of Dr. J. J. Smith, its object being the re-organization of a medical society, and as a final result the "Summit County Medical So- ciety" was organized. This society is still in existence, and is an institution of considerable interest to the profession of the county.

George Miller

PORTAGE TOWNSHIP.

321

CHAPTER VII .*

PORTAGE TOWNSHIP-INTRODUCTION-TOPOGRAPHY-EARLY SETTLEMENT-CANAL LOTTERY THE COUNTERFEITING PLOT-TOWNSHIP OFFICERS, ETC.

"THE township of Portage possesses a pe- culiarly interesting history. Its celebrated " Portage Path " not only furnished a name to the township, but also to the county in which it was situate prior to the erection of Summit County. As the Portage Path has served so many uses as a boundary line, it will not be out of place to here briefly note them. In the first place, it constituted a portion of the ancient line of separation between the confederated Six Nations and the Western Indians. By the treaty of Fort McIntosh, near where is now Beaver, Penn., in 1785, the United States ac- quired from the Indians all the territory be yond the Ohio River and east of this line. When the great Northwest Territory, including this and more, was established in 1787, by ordinance of the Continental Congress, the Governor and three Judges thereof were ap- pointed by Congress. These men entered upon their duties with headquarters at Campus Mar- tius, now Marietta. Their first act was to cre- ate the county of Washington, July 27, 1788, named in honor of Gen. George Washington. Its western boundary was the Cuyahoga River, the old portage path, and the Tuscarawas River as far south as the southern line of the West- ern Reserve. This was practically the western border of the United States, and so remained until the year 1805. In 1796. August 15, the county of Wayne was set off, having for its eastern limit the same line. July 29, 1797, Jefferson County was ereeted out of Washing. ton, its western line being so far coincident with that of Washington.

On the 4th of July, 1805, at Fort Industry, on the Maumee River, representatives of both the General Government and the Connecticut Land Company, after much delay and reluct- ance on the part of the Indians, succeeded in negotiating a treaty with them, by which a final settlement of their unextinguished claim to all lands of the Reserve west of the Cuyahoga River, the portage path and the Tuscarawas

River, was accomplished ; all their right and title to the lands in question were thereby ceded to the United States. Thus we see that for a consid- erable time a portion of what is now the town- ship of Portage was within the United States. while another portion was not. After several further unimportant territorial modifications. the counties of Cuyahoga and Portage were authorized the same day, by act of the Ohio Legislature, February 10, 1807, and were both within a few years crected in accordance with that act. Now, for the first time, the " Portage Path " loses its distinctive service of impor- tance as a dividing line. All the early convey- ances of land in its vicinity make frequent reference to it as a well-known monument, and all parcels abutting upon it were so described and bounded. And now, having at such length evolved it historically, let us inquire as to just what the path was. Years before the white man invaded this country, the Indians had been in the habit of traveling across between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. The canoe was their most natural and easy mode of journey- ing. Ascending the Cuyahoga as far as the great bend, then transporting the boats and luggage by this, the shortest trail, a little more than eight miles in length, over to the head- waters of the Tuscarawas, they could reach the Ohio by way of the Muskingum River without again touching land. Many a burden of those various things in which their traffic consisted has been packed "over the portage," one of the links in this chain of communica- tion and commercial highway. One of the very earliest maps of this section known, is that of Evans', published in Philadelphia in the year 1755. Upon it appears, with tolerable geographic accuracy, the "Cayahoga " River, the " Portage," and a stream evidently designed to represent the Tuscarawas.

In a publication by Capt. Thomas Hutchins, London, 1788, is a mention, among the " Carry- ing Places between the Ohio and Lake Erie," as follows : "From Muskingum to Cayahoga,

* By Charles Whittlesey Foote.

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HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

a creek that leads to Lake Erie, which is muddy and not very swift, and nowhere ob- structed with falls or rifts, is the best portage between the Ohio and Lake Erie."

Evidences of the location of the pathi were plainly visible many years after its original followers were sunk again into the retreating forests. In fact, the track may now be observed in places, and the entire course closely followed from end to end. The path was very winding, a characteristic of all Indian trails, avoiding hills wherever possible and sidling up them when they must be climbed. Leaving the Cuy- ahoga near the present village of Old Portage, perhaps three miles north from Akron, it ran up the hill westwardly a half mile, then sonth- erly until near Summit Lake, passing just west and outside of the present corporation of Akron City ; thence nearly south to the Tuscarawas, which it reached about a mile above New Port- age.

In July, 1797, Moses Warren, one of the Con- neeticut Land Company's surveyors, ran the path from the Cuyahoga southward, meeting Seth Pease, who, with his party, had been run- ning the southern line of tlie Reserve. He made the length of the path 644.55 chains, or 8 miles 4 chains and 55 links. The path was again surveyed in 1806, by Abraham Tappan.

To Col. Whittlesey's valuable " Early History of Cleveland," we are indebted for the following interesting description of a scheme looking to the improvement of this highway of commerce :

The improvement of the Cuyahoga and Tusca- rawas was then (1807) the great idea of this part of the country and of Ohio.

It was thought if $12,000 could by some means be raised, the channels of those streams could be cleared of logs and trees and the portage path made passable for loaded wagons. Thus, goods might ascend the Cuyahoga in boats to the Old Portage, be hauled seven miles to the Tuscarawas, near New Portage, and thence descend that stream in batteaux. This great object excited so much attention that the Legislature authorized a lottery to raise the money. A copy of the scheme and one of the tickets is here given :

No. 11441 CUYAHOGA AND MUSKINGUM NAVIGATION LOTTERY.

THIS ticket entitles the bearer to such Prize as shall be drawn against its number (if called for within twelve months after the drawing is com- pleted), subject to a deduction of 12} per cent.

No. 11441 J. WALWORTH,

Agent for the Board of Commissioners.

SCHEME OF A LOTTERY FOR

IMPROVING THE NAVIGATION BETWEEN LAKE ERIE AND THE RIVER OHIO, THROUGH

TIIE CUYAHOGA AND MUSKINGUM.

THE Legislature of the State of Ohio having, at their last Session, granted a Lottery to raise the sum of Twelve Thousand Dollars, for the above-men- tioned purpose and appointed the subscribers com- missioners to carry the same into effect. They offer the following SCHEME to the public:

FIRST CLASS. 12,800 TICKETS AT $5 EACHI, $64,000.

1 Prize of ... . $5,000 is $5,000

2 do

2,500 5,000

5 do 1,000

5,000

10 do 500

5,000

100

5,000

100 do

....

5,000

3400

....

34,000

3568

$64,000

Prizes subject to a deduction of twelve and a half per cent.

The drawing of the First Class will commence at Cleveland on the first Monday of January, 1808, or as soon as three-fourths of the tickets shall be sold; and the prizes will be paid in sixty days after the drawing is completed.

Holders of Tickets, drawing prizes of Ten Dol- lars, may, at their election, receive the money, or two Tickets of Five Dollars each in the Second Class.

For the convenience of the owners of fortunate numbers, Persons will be appointed in Boston, Hart- ford, New York and Albany, to pay Prizes. Their names, together with a List of Prizes, will be pub- lished in some Newspaper printed in each of those places, and in three of the Newspapers printed in the State of Ohio. Persons will also be designated to pay Prizes in Zanesville and Steubenville.

The subscribers have taken the Oath and given the Bonds required by Law, for the faithful dis- charge of their trust, and they flatter themselves that an object of such extensive importance will not fail to attract the attention and patronage of many, who are not allured by the advantageous pros- peets held out in the Scheme.

John Walworth, Esq., of Cleveland, is appointed Agent of the Commissioners, to sign the Tickets and transact the business of the Board in their recess.

(Then follow the names of the twelve members of the Board of Commissioners.)

CLEVELAND, May 23d, 1807. CRAMER, PRINTER.

The drawing never came off. Those who had purchased tickets, many years afterward received their money back without interest.

The price of each ticket was $5.

The native timber of this section was oak, hickory, maple, chestnut and box, according to

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PORTAGE TOWNSHIP.

the notes of Moses Warren, Jr., before referred to.

The white man who first settled permanently within this township came from Groton, New London Co., Conn., Maj. Minor Spicer, in the summer of 1810. He purchased from the Connecticut Land Company, whose headquar- ters were at Hartford, Conn., and who originally bought the entire territory of the Western Re- serve from the State of Connecticut (excepting two tracts previously sold, together aggregating something over a half million acres, or about one-sixth part of the whole arca). Maj. Spicer's farm consisted of 260 acres of land, two-fifths of a square mile, and was situated about mid- way between what is now Akron's Sixth Ward and South Akron. From that time to this there have always been members of the Spicer family living upon the site of the original pur- chase, and "the Spicer settlement " is a well- known section of town. Just what was paid for the land we have been unable to ascertain. It is worth noting, however, that the State of Connecticut, in October of 1786, several years prior to her sale of the Reserve to the Land Company as mentioned above, by resolution fixed the selling price at three shillings (50 cents) per acre. With a spirit strongly charac- teristic of the time and thought, she also pro- vided that 500 acres of land in each township should be reserved to the support of the Gospel ministry (in those days there was no opposi- tion to a union of church and State), 500 acres to the maintenance of schools, and 240 acres to the first minister who should locate within the township. As Connecticut did not succeed in disposing of her land at the figure above given, she once more, in May, 1795, resolved the price at not less than one-third of a dollar an acre. The ensuing summer developed only fruitless negotiations, but, finally, on the 2d of September of the same year, a bargain was struck by the terms of which 3,000,000 acres of the Reserve next west from the Pennsyl- vania line (which was afterward found to be a little in excess of the exact quantity of land then actually remaining within the limitations of the Reserve, after deducting the " Salt Spring Tract " of 24,000 acres already sold to Gen. Samuel H. Parsons, and located in Trumbull County, and the grant of 500,000 acres com- monly known as the Fire Lands, from the western end (in 1792), were decded to the Land

Company for the consideration of $1,200,000, or 40 cents per acre.

To return from our digression : At the time when Maj. Spicer prospected and located his purchase, he was the only white person within the township. About him stretched the un- broken forest with no clearing nor path, save that made by the hostile aborigine. In a sense more literal and forcible than comes to most men, was it true that

" The world was all before him, where to choose His place of rest.'

With admirable judgment he made his selec- tion. After some little labor and improvement, he returned in the fall of the year, to his home and family in the East. Leaving Groton again in June, of 1811, with the sturdy conveyance of an ox team and wagon, and this time accom- panicd by his family, his brother Amos and Paul Williams, he once more reached the spot that was for more than twoscore years to be his home. Vigorous efforts soon erected a log house, the first in Portage Township, the site of which was but a few rods from the comforta- ble residence where still lives Avery Spicer, son of Minor, in the dignity of a ripe old age and the assurance of the esteem and respect of an entire community, sprung up beneath his observation, and the recipient of many and substantial favors at his hands. Mrs. Avery Spicer, a daughter of Joshua King, Esq., was born at Old Portage, and was the first white child born in the township.

We subjoin an incident in the life of Maj. Spicer, as we find it narrated in Howe's "Ohio, its History and Antiquities :"

One night just before retiring, he heard some one call in front of his house, and went out and saw a large Indian with two rifles in his hand, and a deer quartered and hung across his horse. Spicer in- quired what he wanted. The Indian replied in his own dialect, when the other told him he must speak English or he would unhorse him. He finally gave him to understand that he wished to stay over- night, a request that was reluctantly granted. Ilis rifles were placed in a corner, his venison hung up and his horse put into a large pig-stye, the only stable attached to the premises.

The Indian cut out a piece of venison for Mrs. Spicer to cook for him, which she did in the usual way, with a liberal quantity of pepper and salt. He drew up to the table and ate but a mouthful or two. The family being ready to retire, he placed his scalping knife and tomahawk in the corner with his rifles, and stretched himself upon the hearth be- fore the fire. When he supposed the family were asleep, he raised himself slowly from his reclining

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HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

position and sat upright upon the hearth, looking stealthily over his shoulder to see if all was still. He then got up on his feet and stepped lightly across the floor to his implements of death. At this juncture, the feelings of Spicer and his wife may be well imagined, for they were only feigning sleep and were intently watching. The Indian again stood for a moment, to see if he had awakened any one, then slowly drew from its scabbard the glittering scalping knife. At this moment, Spicer was about putting his hand upon his rifle, which stood by his bed to shoot the Indian, but coneluded to wait further demonstration, which was an en- tirely different one from what he had anticipated, for the Indian out a piece of his venison, weighing about two pounds, and laying it upon the live coals until it was warmed through, devoured it and went to sleep. Mrs. Spicer's cooking had not pleased him, being seasoned too high.

In the year 1811, a large body of Indians, under the leadership of one of their braves, Onondaga George, evidently ill-natured and bent on trouble, suddenly appeared along the Cuyahoga River. A few days later, they as suddenly disappeared. Soon after their depart- ure came tidings of the battle of Tippecanoe. It then became clear that these Indians were plotting to act their part in a great intended tragedy, the massacre of all the frontier whites, but were deterred from carrying the terrible project to an accomplishment by the intelli- gence, brought them by their fleet runners three days before it reached the settlers, of the disas- trous issue of that battle. While they remained hovering about the neighborhood, they kept a lookout stationed upon the high bluff west of the canal lock at Old Portage.

During the war of 1812, a camp was estab- lished at Old Portage (or as it was then known and had been since the exploring expedition of the surveyors of 1797, the Upper Headquarters) by Gen. Wadsworth in September. The post was regarded as of great importance through- out the war. In order to reach the immediate scene of action, Gen. Wadsworth's soldiers, not daring to follow the lake shore from Cleveland to Huron on account of the British, ascended the Cuyahoga as far as the Upper Headquarters. Thence they felled trees and cut a road north- westerly through the woods to Camp Avery on the Huron River, not far from where Milan now stands, a distance of sixty-five miles. This road was of great service to the American forces. It was afterward known as the "old Smith road," and portions of it are to this day used for pur- poses of travel.

The next year, 1813, there were built at Old Portage and floated down to Lake Erie, two vessels, the Portage and the Porcupine, which took a conspicuous part in the ever memorable naval victory achieved by Commodore Perry, September 10.

For a time, Minor Spicer, Amos Spicer and Paul Williams, with their families, constituted the entire settled population of the township. Others, however, began to come in, among them being Charles W. Brown, in 1816, and Talmon Beardsley, Andrews May and Julius Sumner, . in 1818.

In 1825, the town of Akron was laid out ; the same year work was here begun upon the Ohio Canal, and a great number of laborers were imported for its construction.

Ohio Canal .- We, of a day of steamboats and a multiplicity of railroads with the full and rapid transportation they afford, cannot appre- ciate the importance to the early pioneers of this enterprise, which was regarded as a won- derful accommodation, inasmuch as by its means the few necessities unobtainable from their wilderness surroundings could be brought from the regions of civilization at the remarka- ble speed of four miles an hour, and as often as once or twice a week. The Ohio Canal, origi- nally denominated the " Lake Erie and Ohio Canal," was first formally suggested in a reso- Intion brought before the lower body of the Assembly, January 7, 1819.

Six and a half years elapsed before work was actually commenced. Finally, on the 4th of July, 1825, in the presence of Gov. De Witt Clinton, of New York-the man to whom more than any other is to be accredited the honor of the successful accomplishment of the great Erie Canal-and other notables, the first spade- ful of earth was upturned upon the Port- age summit near Summit Lake. The thing first required was the lowering of the surface of that lake five feet, which was done by means of a ditch cut to about where Lock No. 1 now stands.

It was worth noting, in passing, that the water of Summit Lake flows both north by way of the canal, Lakes Erie and Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean, and south via canal, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and Gulf of Mexico, ultimately reaching the same great depository. The work all along the line from Portage summit to Cleaveland (as it

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PORTAGE TOWNSHIP.

was then spelled), was speedily let to contract and energetically prosecuted. Precisely two years to a day from the practical inception of the work, on the 4th of July, 1827, the first boat-the Allen Trimble-with Gov. Trimble, the Canal Commissioners, and other prominent persons on board, cleared from Akron, passed over the thirty-seven intervening miles of water, and reached Cleveland the same day. Here was an event of no slight moment to the people of Akron and vicinity. It constituted an epoch in the town's history. Henceforward there was to be easy communication with the most con- siderable town west of Marietta, and Akron's certainty of development was secured.

After many obstacles overcome and vast labor expended, the canal was completed from Cleveland to Portsmouth in the summer of 1833.

The total of the receipts for tolls and water rents at the Akron office for the year 1835 was $7,028.23, a very creditable showing for so early a day.

Immediately upon the opening of the canal for business between Akron and Cleveland, in 1827, Wolsey Wells was appointed Collector of the Port. He appears to have been a man of versatile talents, or at any rate of varied occu- pations. Besides his Collectorship, he held the position of Postmaster, and was also attorney at law and a Justice of the Peace. Notwith- standing all these respective duties, a desk of two feet by one and one-half, sufficed to con- tain all his business papers.

Doubtless every one, during the last year, has read or heard of the early experience, as driver upon a canal, of the man who now fills the highest place within the gift of the Ameri- can people. James A. Garfield once, when a young man, worked upon this same Ohio Canal, and, as in everything else to which he turned his hand or attention, did his work well. As he was passing down the Valley Railroad one day last fall (1880), in company with President Hayes and others, he pointed out many famil- iar places along the line of the canal, and re- galed his companions with anecdotes and inci- dents connected with his former acquaintance with it under so diverse circumstances.

The Counterfeiting Plot .- We have also to record as matter of history, a thing which for years rendered the northern portion of Portage Township and vicinity very notorious, and im-

pressed a blight which never has been, and probably never will be, etfaced. We refer to the remarkable operations of the gang of coun- terfeiters, which, through a period of nearly or quite a score of years, made their headquarters and conducted their business at Old Portage and Yellow Creek. Without question, this was the most thorough, daring and successful scheme of the sort ever devised and carried out in this country or any other. The system had its ramifications throughout the whole United States and Canada ; not a State or Territory but had its agents, and scarcely a county in any State without them. The head and front of this stupendous complication was one James Brown, a man of rare talent, of wonderful ener- gies, and possessed of a degree of personal attraction and power few men have ever wielded. He was six feet and two inches in height, with a well-proportioned fine physique, of command- ing presence, and keen, penetrating eyes, like an eagle's. Just how early he began the work is not known, but early in the thirties he was notorious as the " Prince of counterfeiters " in all the country round. Many marvelous stories are told of his achievements. One of the earli- est of his exploits consisted in passing off upon a prominent New England bank a forged draft. Relays of fleetest horses had been previously provided at a series of stations known to him- self, and in care of his agents. He departed instantly, rode day and night until he reached home at Yellow Creek. He was arrested, taken East, and, upon trial, established an alibi to the satisfaction of the Court, proving by numerous and trustworthy witnesses that he was seen here so soon after the occurrence at the bank that, as the Court held-" it was utterly impossible that he could have been there so shortly be- fore." In conversation, he seemed to delight in letting fall remarks confirmatory of his gen- eral reputation, yet never saying anything dis- tinctly declaring its well-foundedness. A young man, whose youth had been spent in Western New York, and who, like every one else, had heard many tales of the prowess of Jim Brown, became an assistant teller in a Cleveland bank. One day, a tall man of impressive appearance called at the bank, produced a large amount of money and an account book, stating that he wished to make a deposit. Upon the book the clerk noticed the name, James Brown. Half frightened and thrilled to the marrow at sup-

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posing that he was at last beholding the veritable genius of the wonderful stories of his boyhood, he stepped to the cashier, and in an awed whis- per inquired if this were the Jim Brown, and if so, whether he should receive the money. The cashier replied " certainly." The clerk stepped back to the counter, when Brown, who readily guessed the nature of the quick conference, ob- served, " Young man, you need not be con- cerned that I should bring anything but good money here !"

He had some traits of character which any man might well emulate. It is said that his word was always as good as a bond. That he should be so rigid in keeping a promise and entertain so high an idea of personal honor, coupled with a profession seemingly so devoid of everything of the kind, was indeed strange. About the year 1832, he was tried in the Me- dina Court of Common Pleas upon the usual charge of counterfeiting. The confinement of the jail was exceedingly irksome to one of his vigorous, energetic temperament. So great con- fidence had the Sheriff in Brown's veracity, that, upon his request and a parole promise to return at night, he permitted him every morn- ing to go out, unattended, and spend the day as and where he chose. He never proved rec- reant to the trust, but returned regularly and voluntarily each evening. He was convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary. The Sheriff started with him for Columbus, but was over- taken by the service of a writ of error at Mt. Vernon, and obliged to return. The judgment of the Court of Common Pleas was reversed. Brown gave bail for his appearance at the proper time, but before the trial came on, two or three essential witnesses had disappeared, and the indictment was nollied.

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History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 58

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