USA > Ohio > Mahoning County > History of Trumbull and Mahoning counties with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Vol. II > Part 99
USA > Ohio > Trumbull County > History of Trumbull and Mahoning counties with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Vol. II > Part 99
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In 1821 Levi Rice, Ephraim Rice, second, and Wyman Wakefield became settlers, and Noah Bowen located on section forty-nine in the south part of the township.
In 1822 Ami Churchill and his sons, Major and Barnabas, with Noah Coleman, Levi Bailey, Steward Kee, Sr., Ira Kee, and ----- Sloan, father of John and Isaac Sloan, built cabins and bought land. From 1822 until 1840 the township set- tled up rapidly, and probably had at the latter year nearly as many inhabitants as at any time since.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.
At the time of the first settlement of the township Kinsman, Gustavus, and Greene were organized as one township and called Greene, Kinsman being the place for holding the elec- tions and meetings to transact the affairs of the township. At the township election in the spring of 1819 the voters living west of Pyma- tuning creek not voting to suit those living east, they petitioned to be set off as a township with
Kinsman as a name, which was granted, leaving Gustavus and Greene under the old organization, Gustavus being the place for meeting to trans- act township affairs. At the election in the spring of 1820 the voters from the new settle- ment not voting to suit the more populous and wealthy east part, the people of the east half petitioned to be set off as the township of Gus- tavus, which being granted left the new settle- ment the township's name but without town- ship officers. The new settlement applied for and was reorganized as a township that year, and held the first election at William Harring- ton's, in September (1820). The voters elected Ebenezer Kee, clerk; Ephraim Rice, John Harrington, and Roswell Bartlett, trustees ; David Rice, treasurer ; Ephraim Rice and John Wakefield, overseers of the poor ; W. A. Bas- com, constable ; William Harrington, David Rice, and Ephraim Kee, road supervisors ; Wy- man Wakefield, fence-viewer. The next spring Roswell Bartlett was elected justice of the peace, and in the spring of 1823 Noah Coleman was elected to the same office.
Up to this time but one wagon and one cart were owned in the township, and but one horse, owned by Roswell Bartlett, whereof a lit- tle story. Bartlett, Merritt, and William Har- rington started for Gustavus one morning, and Bartlett, mounted on his horse, proposed that he would ride on ahead and inform the people at Gustavus that they were coming. "Look here, Bartlett," said Jek, who had a poor opinion of Bartlett's horse, "by hines we can beat you and your old hoss there," and away he started on a hunter's lope, closely followed by Harrington, jumping the brooks and fallen timber, and dash- ing through swales and brush, arrived in Gus- tavus far in advance of Bartlett, and informed the people there that Bartlett would be there some time that day if " his old hoss didn't give out." Oxen were the teams used and the settlers took as much pride in owning a nice, well- matched pair of oxen as our horsemen of to- day do in a span of matched horses.
The principal article produced that would sell for money was black salts, made by leaching the ashes gathered from burnt log-heaps and boiling the lye down into the salts in a large kettle. Black salts looked somewhat like very brown maple-sugar, and found a ready sale among the
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trading merchants at $3 per hundred pounds. The means used to transport the salts to market was a large trough. The trough was made from a large poplar log, hewed flat on one side for the bottom; then one end tapered up and into a notched point for hitching the chain to; then the log was dug out with axes, making the inside as wide and deep as the size of the log would allow. With a good yoke of oxen hitched to one of these troughs, loaded with black salts, the settler could push through the woods to New Lyme, or cross the big swamp to Bloomfield, or ford the Pymatuning to Kinsman, without taking the risk of broken wheels or axles. For crossing swamps and swales, fording bridgeless streams, getting over fallen trees and logs, or turning sharp corners around stumps and among trees no modern vehicle will equal one of the settlers' tronghs. Loaded with bags of corn and wheat it was ready for mill and on Sunday carried the women and babies to meeting.
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.
The first church was built of hewed logs, and covered like the log-cabins, with oak shakes held on with poles, and stood on the square in front of the Hubbard church. This church was built at the earnest solicitation of Ami Churchill. He hewed all the logs for it himself.
Up to this time religious services had been held at private houses, and at the log school- house. The church built, the next thing was to get a settled minister. R. Crane, father of Rev. R. W. Crane, was invited to settle in the township and become their minister. He ac- cepted the invitation, but not being regularly ordained as a Congregationalist minister, the society applied to the nearest presbytery, asking that Mr. Crane be ordained and located as their minister. But that body, after examining Mr. Crane, refused to ordain him. About this time Rev. John Tassey, a Scotch independent Pres- byterian, came and preached in their church, and hearing of their dilemma, offered to ordain Mr. Crane as an independent Congregationalist. His services were accepted, and Mr. Crane was ordained. This being out of the regular order, Mr. Crane and his church members were named Tasseyites. About 1825 the members of the Methodist Episcopal church living in the town- ship, assisted by Ephraim Kee and his sons, built a small frame church at the east corners,
and in 184- the Presbyterians built a large church at the middle corners, which is now called the Hubbard church. The Baptists formed a society in 1831, and some years after built the church they now occupy.
About 1850 the Disciples formed a society, and built the church they now occupy, in 1852.
The first school-house was built of logs, and stood a half-mile north of the east corners. The second one was a frame building, and stood at the cross-roads, near the south cemetery. The first teachers were taken from among the settlers. Roswell Bartlett, James Bascom, and William Harrington taught winter schools, and Rhoda Rice, Mary Evans, and Charlotte Bascom sum- mer schools. The township never built an acad- emy, but Charles A. Harrington, Lawrence Cole- man, and Rev. S. D. Bates taught select schools in the old Presbyterian church, and by their ability in thorough teaching made their schools a success and raised the standard of education in the township to a point not often attained in more pretentious buildings erected in populous and wealthy townships.
MILLS.
In 1822 David Rice and Noah Bowen built a grist-mill on Mosquito creek near where Mr. L. Rice & Son's mill now stands. The next year H. P. Higgins and Samuel Hayford put up a saw-mill on the Merritt brook at the place now known as Mount Hunger. In 1824 Rice & Bowen built a saw-mill in connection with their grist mill. In 1825 John M. Jestin and E. Perkins built a saw-mill on the brook that crosses the Timothy Higgins farm. In 1830 Ichabod Merritt and Ephraim Kee built a saw-mill on the Merritt brook, west of the south cemetery. In 1840 John Evans and - Forward built a saw- and grist-mill on the creek near the north line of the township, and John Pettis built one near the south line, on the creek. About the same time Emerson Gibbs erected a woolen-mill on the creek east of the center. The charges for saw- ing lumber was twenty-five cents per hundred feet and the best poplar lumber sold at $6 per thousand.
NOTES AND INCIDENTS.
The first birth was Deborah Harrington, daughter of John Harrington, born in March, 1818.
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The second was Edwin Wakefield, now Rev. Edwin Wakefield, of this town, son of John Wakefield, born October 18, 1818.
The first marriage was John M. Jestin, to Ruth Higgins, in November, 1820. The second was William Harrington to Charlotte Bascom in March, 1821.
The first post-office was kept at the middle corners, Major Churchill, postmaster. The mail came through from Warren to Jefferson once a week, and was carried on foot by Caleb Leonard, of Bazetta, for $65 per year.
The first merchant was Jonathan Worthen, who came with a wagon load of goods and set up in a small building at the east corners. He also put in machinery for carding wool, driven by horse-power. George Hezlep and Stoddard Stevens were merchants at the east corners in early days, and were followed by George P. Cur- tis, who commenced about 1835, and continued in business at the same stand for thirty-five years.
For forty years the east corners was the main business point in the township. Since the war the center has been the business as well as the geographical hub of the township.
Elk, deer, and wild turkeys were plenty, and bears and wolves were frequently seen.
William Harrington purchased the first two sheep owned in the township, in Bazetta. Tying them together he drove them home. It getting dusk before he reached his clearing, the wolves began to howl as if on his track. He cut a heavy cane from a young hickory and prepared for a fight. It was not long before the wolves were close to him and placing himself between the sheep so as to hold them from running, he fought the wolves off and then started his sheep on. Three times before reaching his log barn he had to fight the wolves to save the sheep.
Isaac B. Spring, better known in later days as Dr. Spring, went to Warren in March, 1820, to transact some business. On his return he reached Mosquito creek in Bazetta about sun- down, and being on foot got his feet wet in crossing. He sat down on a log and took off his shoes and wrung the water out of his stock- ings. While he was doing this he could hear the wolves howling, and just as he was putting on his shoes he heard the brush rattle, and look- ing around he saw a wolf looking at him through
a clump of bushes ; soon he saw another, and another, till some half dozen were around him. Making a spring for a limb, he climbed a tree for safety. The wolves were kindly disposed to- wards the doctor, and to keep him awake so that he would not fall, howled around the tree till daylight the next morning, then trotted off, and the doctor got down and tramped on to Greene.
Ichabod Merritt had been a successful hunter in Canada, and on settling here where game was plenty became the most noted hunter in the set- tlement. While hunting in the latter part of the winter of 1822, in company with Isaac Mowrey, Leonard Wheeler, and a new comer who had been a sailor, they struck a bear track in the west part of Gustavus. Following it to a large poplar tree, they found the bear had climbed it. Up some sixty feet the tree was broken off, leav- ing two large limbs below the break. No bear being in sight it was evident to them that the stub above the limbs was hollow and made a den for the bear. Having but one ax with them, and the tree being very large, they were about to give up getting the bear, when the sailor said that if they would chop a beech tree that stood near and lodge it against one of the limbs of the poplar, he would go up the beech and shoot the bear in its den.
The offer looking favorable for getting the bear, as well as a chance of seeing a novel hunt- ing exploit, Merritt and the others agreed to it, and chopped the beech, lodging it as the sailor di- rected. Taking a loaded gun he started up, Mer- ritt boosting him as far as possible, but after sev- eral attempts the sailor could not get any higher than Merritt could boost him. Suspecting that his courage had oozed out or failed, and that they had spent time and labor for nothing, Mer- ritt got angry and said, "Come down out of the way; by hines I can climb better than that my- self." Tying his gun to his back so as to have free use of his hands and arms in climbing, up he went to the top of the beech, and stepping from that onto the large limb and straightening up, he could look down into the hollow, where he could see two eyeballs glaring at him in the dark. Telling his companions what he saw, he gave di- rections to them to stand ready to shoot the hear should it come out, as he was going to shoot down into the den. Planning which was the
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quickest way to get from the limb on which he stood back into the top of the beech, and plac- ing a bullet between his teeth ready to re-load, he turned the butt of his gun up with the muzzle in the hollow and fired. Without waiting to see the effect of his shot he clambered up the top of the beech, and pouring some powder from his horn into the gun he dropped the bullet in and gave the butt a jam against a limb to "jar" the bullet down and prime the gun. While Merritt was getting from the poplar limb into the beech and re-loading, the bear came out of the hollow growling with rage, and made directly for Merritt. Mowrey tried to follow Merritt's directions, but his gun snapped. Wheeler, frightened out of his wits, began yelling, "You're gone Jek, you're gone Jek !" and fired his gun off in the air ; then thinking what he ought to do, rammed a bullet down his gun without powder, broke his ramrod, still yelling, "You're gone Jek; jump down Jek ; Oh Lord, Jek !" Just as the bear jumped from the large limb into the beech at Merritt, he brought his gun to his shoulder and fired, with the muzzle close to the bear's head, and it rolled off and dropped to the ground dead. Two cubs climbed out of the hollow and ran out on the limbs. Mowrey, having reprimed his gun, shot one, and Merritt, re-loading where he was, shot the other, and then descended and saluted Wheeler with, "By hines, Wheeler, I ain't a gone Jek yet."*
SETTLEMENT NOTES.
Deacon William Harrington, now aged eighty- eight, is still residing in Greene with the wife of his youth, where he settled sixty-five years ago. He was one of the original six purchasers of land in Greene, and the only survivor of that company. He was born in Brookfield, Orange county, Vermont, February 5, 1794. His father died when he was young, and he attended school but little after he was ten years old. Yet he was an apt scholar, and acquired a good common school education so that he subsequently taught school a number of terms. When twenty-four, in the spring of 1817, he came to Greene in company with the first three families, and assisted in making the first improvements in the town- ship. His purchase comprised one hundred and sixty acres in section seventeen, where he -
still lives. March 6, 1821, he married Helena Bascom, daughter of James and Helena Bas- com, born in Chester, Massachusetts, December 15, 1801. Mrs. Harrington's parents came out in the spring of 1819, and settled in the neigh- borhood of the Harrington's. Deacon Harring- ton was the leader in the Congregational church in Greene during its existence, uniting with it about 1831. He was many years ago justice of the peace for six years, and held other township offices. But the position to which he looks back with the greatest pride, as he says, was that of president of a temperance society in Greene for a period of thirteen years. This society was a very flourishing one in its day, having enrolled in its membership nearly every citizen of the township. Mr. and Mrs. Harrington are the parents of five children-C. A. Harrington, a well-known at- torney of Warren ; Corydon, a resident of Paines- ville ; Ashley, who married Helen Ross, and oc- cupies the home farm with his father ; Frederick, in Rock Creek ; and Ermina (Ashley) in Cole- brook, Ashtabula county.
Ephraim Rice, Sr., one of the first purchasers of land in Greene, was a native of Worcester county, Massachusetts. He moved out with his family in 1817, settled on the creek where Samuel Jerauld now lives, and resided there until his death. He was born in the year 1772, and died July 3, 1869, in the ninety-eighth year of his age. He was the father of four children, as follow : Rhoda (Martin), Eli F., and Eph- raim, all living in Greene, the oldest over eighty, and Rebecca (Gill), dead. Eli F., the oldest son, was born July, 1803; married Mary P. (Alger) McKee, who died January, 1882. Their children are William A., married and lives in Mecca; Edward S., married and lives in Greene; Mary, living at home, and Eli F., Jr., married and occupies the farm with his father.
Orin Cory was born in Derby, Vermont, in 1809, where he lived until 1830, when he re- moved to the State of New York. There he engaged in the lumber business for several years. In 1837 he married Polly Phillips and the same year came to Trumbull county, and purchased land in Greene township, where he settled. His wife died in 1875 aged sixty-eight. They have had a family of four boys and four girls. The patriotism of this family is attested by the fact that four sons were in the army during the war
* NOTE The guns used in early days were flint-lock tilles.
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of the Rebellion. Dwight enlisted in the Sixth Ohio volunteer cavalry as private and came out as captain. Nelson had an army experience of about four years. J. B. enlisted in 1862 in the Ohio volunteer infantry, and served one year. Charles served about five months. Mr. Cory was married a second time, in 1875, to Lizzie Ayres, of Stark county, born in 1834.
Lucian Rice was born in Williamsfield, Ash- tabula county, Ohio, August 15, 1810. His grandfather, Aaron Rice, came to Ohio about 1829, and settled in Greene township, Trumbull county. He was a soldier of the war of the Revolution. He died at an advanced age about 1832. Aaron, Jr., son of Aaron and Anna (Yale) Rice, was born in New York State in 1781, and married Submit Jones, born October 20, 1786. He served in the War of 1812, and died in 1865. Lucian Rice was married March 27, 1839, to Lovina Hays, born in 1815, and died May 11, 1855. In 1856 he married Sarah White, born in 1823. By his first marriage he had five children, and by his second one son.
1
William C. Tuttle, son of Chester and Eliza- beth (Cowden) Tuttle, was born in Oneida coun- ty, New York, August 20, 1816. When four- teen, in February, 1831, he came to Greene, Trumbull county, Ohio, and has resided here since. He learned the trade of tanning with his uncle, Alexander Cowden, with whom he came
to Ohio and who had a tannery where George P. Curtis now lives. He married in September, 1838, Emeline Coleman, of Greene township, who came to Greene with her parents in 1821. Her father, Noah Coleman, was one of the prominent early residents of Greene, having held the office of justice of the peace for the period of twenty-five years. He was one of the pioneers of Colebrook, Ashtabula county. Mr. 1 Tuttle bought the business of his uncle when twenty years of age, and carried on the business at the old location until the spring of 1847, when he established his business where he has since been located, one mile east of the center of Greene. His business is that of tanning and harness making, and he formerly carried on shoe- making. Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle are the parents of five children, three living and two deceased. Sylvia married Charles P. Jerauld, and died in Nebraska City February 27, 1882. Chester Tuttle, employed in business with his father; he was a member of company C, One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Ohio volunteer infantry, in the war of the Rebellion; served two years and nine months and was discharged for wounds received in a skirmish at Lovejoy's station, Georgia. Mary E. Tuttle, until lately engaged in school teaching, now at home with her parents. Clin- ton, who died young; and Charles A., residing at Little Valley, New York.
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