USA > Ohio > Erie County > History of the Fire lands, comprising Huron and Erie Counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers > Part 59
USA > Ohio > Huron County > History of the Fire lands, comprising Huron and Erie Counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers > Part 59
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Amaziah Barber died in Townsend in 1834, at the advanced age of ninety-six years.
Abijalı Barber's location was on lot seventy-four in section three. He finally removed to Branch county, Michigan, where he died.
David Lee built, on Rattlesnake creek in 1820, the first saw mill in the township, which he operated for several years. He was unsuccessful in paying for his land, however, and it reverted to the original owner, Lee removing to Clarksfield where he died at an ad- vanced age.
Frederick Perring came into the township in 1818, settling in the fourth section. Many years afterward he sold and removed to Branch county, Michigan, where he subsequently died. There are no descend- ants of the family now living in Townsend.
Samuel Sherman came to Townsend from New York, without his family, in the spring of 1817, and bargained for one hundred acres in the Barber settle- ment. He then returned east and moved out with his family the next year. He lived in this township only four years, when he moved to New London. He resided in the north part of that township twelve years, and then settled in Vermillion. He died there in 1836, aged seventy. Mrs. Sherman survived her husband a number of years, and was seventy-seven at her death. There were twelve children, nine of whom lived to adult age. Three are now living, as follows: Samuel, aged eighty-one, on the Medina road in Norwalk township; Lemnel, in the village of Nor- walk, aged sixty-seven, and Mrs. A. Welch, living with her brother Samuel.
Joseph Waldron, from Ontario county, New York, settled in the township of Hartland (then called Can-
terbury) in the year 1820. He located on the Hecock farm on Hartland ridge, and after a residence there of three years moved into Townsend, settling on lot number one hundred and thirteen, section one. He lived here until his death in September, 1865. His wife died four years subsequently. They had a fam- ily of seven children, five of whom are yet living. Sanford G. Waldron, the oldest, occupies the farm on which he located in 1839, just south of the old home- stead. Mrs. O. H. Vantassel and Mrs. Franklin Shineflew also live in Townsend. Edmund lives in Missouri, and Mrs. Sterling Tenant resides in Berlin township.
Thomas E. Fletcher settled in the south part of the township on the Medina road, in 1818 or'19. He was a cooper and worked at his trade here. He finally sold and moved to Indiana.
David H. Sutton, at an early date, settled on the creek in the west part, but did not remain long.
Ephraim Munger came in about 1818, and lived in the west part of town several years. Also, a family by the name of Malonv, about the same time.
David Goodell was an early settler in the northi part, and in different portions of the township, Stephen Heath, Henry C. Westfall, Jeremiah Mils- paugh, Caleb Knapp, Horatio Thompson, and Joseph Purdy.
The first actual settler in the second section, was Johnson Wheeler, who moved from Connecticut in January, 1824. A family by the name of Ellis had previously come on to the ground, erected a log house near the Wakeman line, on lot sixty-two, and partially cleared two or three acres around the cabin, but they had abandoned the premises when Wheeler had arrived, and he and his wife, with the permission of William Townsend, who owned the land, took up their abode in the vacant house. The former occu- pants had left a bedstead made of round poles and corded with bark, and a rude home-made table, which the tenants gladly made use of. In the cleared piece, among the logs and brush, had been planted corn and beans, which remained unharvested, and these also were appropriated by the new occupants. Wheeler a short time after contracted with Town- send for the lot on which he lived, together with the lot (eighty-four) adjoining on the south, agreeing to furnish him, in payment for the same, a certain num- ber of axes, scythes, hoes and other necessary farming implements. In order to the fulfillment of the con- tract on Wheeler's part, a trip to Connecticut was necessary, which he made in the fall of 1825. As- sisted by his brother-in-law, James C. Judson, after- wards a resident of Florence, he made in Litchfield county, Connecticut, during the following winter, the articles contracted for, and returned with them the next spring. They were delivered to Townsend at Sandusky and proved satisfactory.
Mr. Wheeler resided in Townsend about seven years, and during that time but one other settler had moved into the section on which he lived. That settler
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HISTORY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.
was Lewis Middleton. Wheeler moved to Clarksfield in the fall of 1830, and located near the mills. His energy and public spirit manifested themselves in a number of enterprises. In company with his brother he carried on, during his residence in Clarksfield, a farm, a store, grist mill and saw mill and also built and run a distillery for a short time, but these enter- prises proved financially unsuccessful. In 1835, he sold out and moved to Florence, where he kept a tavern and carried on a grind stone factory for several years. He lived in Florence until 1846, when he removed to Crown Point, Lake county, Indiana. A few years later he caught the excitement about gold in Cali- fornia and went to that State, but remained only a few months, returning to Crown Point, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died September 27, 1870, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.
The settlers in the Barber settlement were generally very poor, and lived in the most primitive manner. Mr. Benjamin Benson, writing of their condition, says: "Some of the settlers in this part of the town- ship, were not very fastidious as to what kind of clothing they wore, and some allowed their children to be seen in a state of perfect nudity. The writer once called at a house in this place for some water, when a lad of about twelve years was sent for some. All the clothing he had on at the time was what had once been the arm-holes of a waist coat, but which was of no more service as an article of clothing than if it had been a piece of cotton yarn crossed over his shoulders and tied. And it is a fact that some of the children were provided with but a single garment- that is a shirt or frock of tow cloth for the then cur- rent year, unless they were occasionally assisted by the charity of others. But the most astonishing part of the story is, that this extreme destitution wa . not the result of vicious habits, or ruinous inebriety, for the most of those in this settlement were considered as correct in their morals, and it might be said, pious. This is no fiction. And if the real condition of some of those people, at the time alluded to, should be related in detail, it would create a doubt as to the truthfulness of the narrative."
Although the first settlers in Townsend were among the first in the county, the township was never-the- less much more slowly settled than many others. The land was difficult to bring under subjection, be- ing generally wet and very heavily timbered, and the township was generally shunned by the earlier emi- grants. Many who did take up land, and ran in debt for it, were compelled, after years of hard toil and privation, to give up the struggle, thus losing the improvements they had made. When the land was once cleared and drained, it was found to be very pro- dnetive, and in the character of its soil the township now ranks among the best in the county.
Nehemiah Ordway came to the Fire-lands from Vermont with his family in the year 1818. Ilis first settlement was on the Comstock place in Norwalk township. In 1824 he settled on lot number one
hundred and thirty-seven in the first section of Town- send. In 1832 he sold to James Arnold and pur- chased and settled near the center of town where Harlow House now lives. In 1852 he moved to Bowling Green, Wood county, Ohio, where he died April 19, 1873, aged nearly eighty-five. He was twiee married, and was the father of ten children, five of whom are living, and one-Martin-in this township.
Among those who came in at a later date were the Arnolds-two brothers, Alfred and James. Alfred Arnold, now almost an octogenarian, and in very feeble health, came to the Fire-lands when a lud of thirteen years with Abijah Comstock, arriving from Fairfield county, Connecticut, in 1810. Comstock was then unmarried, but subsequently he married and settled in the third section of Norwalk township, and young Arnold continued to live with the family until he attained his majority.
Not long after their settlement they began to expe- rience annoyances from the Indians. Comstock missed a couple of his hogs, which he subsequently found in the possession of two Indians, who were dressing them near where the seminary in. Milan now stands. He demanded their surrender, but the In- dians refused to give them up. Seeing their rifles against a tree a few rods away, Comstock seized them and carried them home, with the intent on of keeping them until the hogs should be restored or paid for. This greatly enraged the Indians, and dire conse- quences were feared by those who better understood the Indian character than did Comstoek. An ad- justment of the difficulty, however, was agreed upon through the mediation of an Indian missionary, the Indians promising to husk a piece of corn for Com- stock in payment of the hogs, when the rifles were to be returned. On the day appointed the Indians be- gan the fulfillment of their part of the bargain, men, women, and children engaging in the work. A few hours after, Comstock went out to see how the work was progressing, when he discovered to his amaze- ment that instead of putting it in piles the Indians dropped the corn as they husked it and then pressed it into the wet ground with their feet. Comstock was glad to buy them off, which he did, and to return their rifles to boot.
When intelligence of Hull's surrender was received, Mr. Comstock returned to Connecticut. He saw that he was a special object of the animosity of the Indians and believed that his presence would tend to excite them to acts of violence. He instructed young Ar- nold, in case of threatened danger, to take Mrs. Com- stock and baby, then a week old, to Wooster. While
the boy was in the woods after the cattle, that same day, an Indian suddenly accosted him with "How Alfred?" It was the Indian Omick, afterwards exe- cuted at Cleveland for murder. The boy had often seen him, but never, as now, in his war paint and feathers. He inquired about Mr. Comstock. The boy said he had gone to Connecticut. He then asked
DI Humphrey
DUDLEY S. HUMPHREY was the eighth child of Dudley Humphrey and Polly M. Sherman. He was born in Goshen, Conn., Nov. 21, 1814. His early life was spent among the hills of New England. In the winter of 1834-35 he, with his brother William, engaged in a lumber speculation which resulted in the purchase of a large number of clocks. To dispose of these clocks, the brothers decided that the West offered the most inviting and promising field not only for the sale of their clocks, but for future enterprises. During the year 1835 they came to Ohio and settled in Parma, near Cleveland, where they remained about fourteen years. Their first venture in the lumber business having proved remunera- tive, together with their natural fitness for the business, both of them having a taste for mechanics, they again embarked in the lumber and clock business, built a water, afterward a steam, saw-mill in Parma, and developed a large trade.
Our subject married Mabel F. Fay, of Parma, Ohio, March 10, 1847, by whom he had five children : Mina S., married A. D. Scott, of Wakeman, and is now living in Hartland. Harlow, Dudley S., David, and Linnie are unmarried and live in Townsend.
The scarcity of timber in Parma induced the brothers to come to Townsend, which they did in the year 1849, and pur- chased a large traet of land. They built mills and opened business on a large scale. During the partnership of the brothers they built over forty steam and water saw-mills through the West. They were the first to introduce and use the " Mulay Gang-Saws, " and "Cone Pulley-Feed." In Janu- ary, 1851, while working with a circular siding-saw, an acei- dent occurred which resulted in the amputation of his right hand. Serious as was this accident, press of business, ingenuity, and ambition made the better use of his remaining hand, as well as the machinery; in fact, he is said to have handled tools and machinery more skillfully with one band than most persons would with two.
In 1855, Mr. Humphrey moved to the southeast part of the township, where they owned a tract of land and a mill. He divided his attention between the mill and farm.
In 1860 he returned to Townsend Centre and remained until 1863, when he returned to the farm on the townline road, and gave his attention to its improvement and embellishment. HIe was an enthusiastic admirer of fruit- and forest-trees, as the large orchards and many shade-trees on the farm will attest. He planted out over five miles of maple-trees along the road- way, which gave the name of Maple Street to the road so improved. His admiration for shade-trees will be seen from the following circumstance :
In opening a publie highway on one side of his farm, a
number of thrifty maples stood in what was to be the centre roadway. The supervisor attempted to cut them down, but our subject defended them so vigorously that the supervisor was forced to desist at the time, and, to make the protection complete, served an injunction on the supervisors, which was made perpetual by the courts. More than four hundred of his friends and neighbors joined him, it is said, with affidavits in defense of the trees. These trees still stand as monuments to the memory and fidelity of him who so nobly defended them.
His school-room education ended with his thirteenth year, as the financial condition of his parents was such as to oblige the sons to commence their business life early. He was tem- perate in his habits and industrious always,-as might be expected of a New England boy,-which may explain the force and vigor of his later life. He took a deep interest in the welfare of others, and in building up for the comfort of those who were to follow. Was public-spirited and generous to a fault. It has been said that he and his brother William did more to relieve the township from draft during the late war than all the rest of the township combined. His educa. tion, like his brother's, was self-acquired for the most part, and few men in the country read more, and fewer still were more successful in business.
In 1872 he indorsed paper for some manufacturers in Wake- man, and in 1873, when the financial crash came, these manu- facturers failed, and he to save himself took the mill property, which required a still greater outlay of money. He never recovered this loss, as prices declined with the demand for manufactured goods as well as grains and stock.
He gave generously to all church organizations seeking aid, but his belief and sympathies were with the Universalists. He was a man of great courage, fine presence, and wonderful nerve. When he met with an accident requiring a surgical operation,-he broke a leg two or three times badly, lost a toe and a hand,-he refused all anæsthetics, preferring to be in perfect command of his senses during the painful operation. He died of typhoid pneumonia, Oet. 19, 1876, after an illness of several months.
His wife, who so nobly sustained him in his efforts, still sur- vives him. She was ever faithful in seconding the efforts of her husband, and is a loving and affectionate mother. The two older sons, Harlow and Dudley S., though up to the time of the death of their father unaccustomed to care and respon- sibility, with a courage and determination rarely equaled, have shouldered the indebtedness of the estate, and hope, by application to business and strict economy, to discharge the incumbrances.
Www. Humphing
WILLIAM HUMPHREY was born in Goshen, Conn., Oct. 13, 1812, and was the seventh child of Dudley Humphrey and Polly M. Sher- man. He married Sarah A. Bierce, of Cornwall, Conn., April, 1834. By this union were born four children : Emma Louisa, married Joseph Hyde, an extensive farmer, and lives in the northeast portion of the township. Sarah Alice, married George Bargus, farmer, fruit-grower, and manufacturer of lumber, and lives near Collins' Station, in the same township. Delia Lucretia, married W. D. Johnson, a merchant, at the centre of Townsend ; she died June 15, 1869. Wittie, died in infancy.
Mrs. Humphrey died Nov. 13, 1854. Our subject married his second wife, Miss Sarah M. Ilyde, of Wakeman, Ohio, June 28, 1855, who survives him. At an early age the subject of our sketch mani- fested unusual mechanical skill and ingenuity, and during his busi- ness life invented many improvements in machinery ; among which is what is still koown as " Humphrey's Direct Action Steam-Mill," also the " Ilumphrey Double Action Pump."
In 1835 he removed from Connecticut to Parma, Ohio, where, with his brother, Dudley S. Humphrey, he engaged in the manufacture of clocks, tumber, etc. In 1849 the two brothers came to Townsend, purchased a large tract of land, and commenced tumbering on a large scale. They built mills and plank roads, and furnished employment for a large number of men.
What was an almost unbroken forest in 1849 is now adorned by two thriving villages, broad acres of pasture, meadow, and orchard lands.
Ile was president of the Contre Plank Road Company, and was one of the principal movers in the enterprise ; in fact, was the animating force in completing the work.
The lumber manufactured by them was, to a large extent, sent to an Eastern market through Milan as the nearest shipping-point for water transit ; hence they became the most extensive patrons of the plank road. He soon became the largest landholder in the township, and continued to bo up to the time of his sudden demise.
Ile was cool, self-reliant, and always in full command of his forces, no matter what the emergency. When, as was frequently the case, one of his mill-men would meet with an accident requiring surgical skill, like the crushing of a hand or the breaking of an arm, he was the first man sought for; when, with pocket-knife, needle, splints, and bandage, with steady nerve and ready judgment, he would dress the wonod so acceptably that the surgeon would seldom change it.
Ile went boldly forward with business enterprises where many of large experience, even, would hesitate and doubt. His judgment on all business matters in which he had the management was clear, decided, and came by intuition apparently. In every sense of the
word he was a" large-hearted, broad-gauged man, of prepossessing appearance, attractive and genial in manner,-with strangers as well as friends.
He scorned a mean or dishonorable transaction, and was incapable of doing a mean thing himself, and despised it in others. Combined with his other social qualities was the rare trait of equantoity of temper and forbearance, even under strong provocation, remembering the injury only to render some kind office to the offender when in need, which was frequently the case. This quality seemed to be recog- nized most fully by all who knew him.
Not only his business, but his charities and his sympathies were on a broad and generous scale. He would always prefer to lose a debt than distress a poor, industrious man. He was a peacemaker of his neighborhood, and, no matter what the press of business, would atten- tively listen to the misfortunes and trials of others, and, like a father, freely advise those who sought his kindly offices.
The estate of his father having been absorbed by indorsements for friends io the early life of our subject, he knew all about poverty, and struggles, and misfortune, and his kindly sympathies were de- veloped in that school of experience which alone seems fitted to make men Godlike, and gives them active, intelligent sympathy for the unfortunate. To his immediate family he was a tower of strength and a fountain of love. As a neighbor, kind and obliging. As a citizen, liberal and patriotic. His biographer finds a pleasure in writing of one who was endeared to a whole community by so many amiahle qualities, and who was so entirely self-made.
His school-room education ended with hia twelfth year. Few men with a classical education were more prosperous in business. His education was practical, and acquired in the school of experience.
Politically, he affiliated with the Democratic party, hut was said to be in active sympathy with the maintenance of constitutional liborty, and untiring in his labors for the comfort of soldiers during the late war. He was nominated by his party for representative, August, 1865, at a time when his party was in a hopeless minority, and of course was not elected, though he ran ahead of his ticket.
Ile never was a member of any church organization, but treated all with respect. llis religion was to do good to his fellow,-to help those in want. In short, he was one of those few noble souls who could rise above church, creed, and formulated dogma, and reach that higher principle from which it is possible to know God hy dis- covering the Almighty in the soul.
He met his death, Nov. 23, 1874, by the breaking of a scaffolding. white engaged in repairing the roof of his dwelling-house. The fall broke his skull, causing his death within a few hours, and he was unconscious most of the time until death released him.
247
HISTORY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.
about Mrs. Comstock and, finally, "How papoose?" This question startled the boy, for he knew that the babe had never been out of the house, and the Indian had evidently been lurking about the place. The savage, noticing the boy's agitation, endeavored to reassure him. Taking him by the hair he addressed him thus: "Me no scalp you, Alfred. You good boy; give Injun corn bread. Me no kill you." This emphatic assurance, that his own life was not in jeopardy, did not tend to quiet the boy's fears. He hurried home with the oxen, and informed Mrs. Com- stock of the circumstance in the woods. They decided not to remain in the house another night, and prepa rations for flight were at once commenced. They got started by evening and, after a tedious journey, ar- rived at Wooster, where they learned that their cabin was burned the night they left, and everything de- stroyed that had been left behind. The family soon went to the block house, where they were afterwards joined by Mr. Comstock. There they re ained until after Perry's victory, when they returned to their ruined home.
When young Arnold reached the age of twenty-one, Mr. Comstock gave him fifty acres of land in Nor- walk township. He built himself a cabin and kept bachelors' hall for five years, and then exchanged his farm for a team, harness and wagon.
While in attendance at a party a short time after- wards, his team broke loose and ran away, both horses being killed. He sold what remained of his harness and wagon for fifteen years-the total amount of his earnings for fourteen dollars. He went back to the State of New York, where his father was then living; but, after remaining a year, returned to this county and bought, jointly with Nehemiah Ordway, a part of lot one hundred and thirty-seven, in section one.
In 1831, the year following the arrival of his brother, James Arnold, with his family, consisting of his wife and a son six years of age, arrived from Utica, New York. The family were accompanied by a young lady, who subsequently became the wife of Alfred Arnold. James bought out Ordway's interest, the remainder of the lot was purchased, and the two brothers remained in partnership for six years, when a division was made, Alfred taking the east and James the west half. The former now lives on his original purchase. James resided here seventeen years, when he sold and moved to the center of town, where he bought a farm with the old block house in which William Townsend had kept store. The next year Mr. Arnold erected a framed building in which he opened a store, and continued in merchandise for many years. Hle now resides at the center, aged nearly seventy-six. Mr. Arnold was the agent of William Townsend for the sale of his land for many years.
W. S. Hyde, now living at Collins, came to the Fire-lands in 1823, from Fairfield county, Connecti- cut. He was, for several years, one of the active business men of Milan. He was one of the original
proprietors of the town site of the village of Collins, and is the inventor of the "Hyde Cultivator." He has four children, two sons and two daughters.
Hiram Boardman came to this township from Massachusetts, alone, on foot, in the spring of 1835. He bought his farm and then returned east for his family, with whom he arrived in June following. He died in Townsend in 1871, aged sixty-five years.
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