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 71

Author: Williams, W. W. (William W.)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : Press of Leader Printing Company
Number of Pages: 726

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 71
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 71

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This family and one or two other settlers in the township, and two or three more in Greenfield, lived in almost constant fear that the terrific war whoop of the savages would be heard about their houses, and that scenes would be enacted about their hearthstones similar to those of which they had heard. The imagination pictured dangers when none existed. Any unusual sound in the forest, the suspicious cry

of an owl, or of a wild animal, might be the signal for an overwhelming onslaught and massacre.

Palmer and Woodcock had agreed that if either saw Indians in the vicinity, a rifle shot should be fired, and that on no account whatever, except on such occasion, should a gun be fired. Palmer and "Johnny Appleseed," who was at that time living with him, one day heard the sharp crack of a rifle, in the direction of Woodcock's cabin; almost immedi- ately it was followed by two more reports. Feeling sure that Indians were near at hand, Palmer and his companion prepared for a hasty retreat. The family was prepared to start, the moveables were packed, and then it being thought best to reconoiter, Johnny started, rifle in hand, through the woods. Several hours passed, leaving Palmer and his family in terri- ble suspense, and then he too, shouldered his gun and went toward Woodcock's, expecting to find that his friends had both been murdered. As he neared the spot, where he judged the shooting had occurred, his mind troubled with all kinds of apprehensions, he saw, indistinctly through the bushes, a dusky form. Supposing that it was an Indian intent upon murder, he raised his rifle to his shoulder, took de- liberate aim and was about to fire, when the figure disappeared. Presently it again came in sight, and again Palmer's rifle went to his shoulder and his eye glanced along the barrel. Something diverted his attention and he did not fire. A third time he leveled his gun upon the form, and just as he was about to pull the trigger, he obtained a clearer view and rec- ognized "Johnny Appleseed." The rifle was dashed to the ground and Palmer in a few seconds was em- bracing his old friend and explaining to him the danger through which he had unknowingly passed. Woodcock having become almost famished for want of meat, and a deer coming close to his cabin, he had shot him. regardless of the agreement that no firing should take place unless Indians appeared. Johnny Appleseed ou discovering the cause of the alarm, had . remained to help dress the animal, and when seen by Palmer, was on his way back with one of the venison hams hanging by his side.

Not all of the alarms, however, were so soon dis- pelled as this one. At three different times during the war, Palmer was compelled to fly from his home and take refuge in the block house at Mansfield. Once, in the fall of 1813, the scouts came to his cabin and told him that if he cared for his own life, or the safety of his family, he must lose no time in reaching Mansfield, for the Indians were not far away and were approaching. Early in the following morn- ing, the three horses were caught, all of the household goods, that could be carried, packed upon them; the crops that had been gathered, and whatever could not be taken with them, stored in the house, and the family made the tedious and slow journey to the block house. Palmer returned on foot to ascertain the fate of his log house and his goods, and laying in ambush, saw the the little log dwelling, which had

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cost him so much hard labor to build, in flames, while the red-skins, who had applied the torch, stood about, watching its destruction.

Once, when the dread news was given that Indians were about, the Palmers made hurried preparations to go to the block house, and were at a loss to devise a way to carry their children. Finally, after much planning and anxiety, Mrs. Palmer hit upon a novel expedient. She had. among the things she brought to her new home, some window curtains of heavy stuff. These she hastily made into two large bags, and then, putting a child in each, she hung them over the horse, and in that manner the little ones made their journey to a place of safety.

Palmer even went as far south with his family as Knox county, but he liked New Haven, and could not give up the idea of living there, and, as soon as it was considered safe to do so. he returned, and loca- ted upon lots fifty-six and fifty-seven, in section two, a little distance northeast of the center, and upon what is now known as the Norwalk road. He was told by the Indians, whom he afterward met, that he might have remained in the woods all through the war, with safety, as the Indians felt friendly toward him and would have done him no harm. They ex- plained that his house had been burnt because it was supposed to contain food and supplies for the army. Palmer lived until 1854, and was one of the leading citizens of the township.

THE INDIANS.

Most of the Indians who were seen by the early settlers in New Haven. were of the Seneca tribe, one of the divisions of the formerly powerful nation known as the Iroquois Confederacy. The south- western part of Huron county was peculiarly the hunting ground of this tribe. The Wyandots or Hurons were also seen, but not so frequently; and at times, some of the Delawares, the kindred of the Mohicans, about whom Cooper has woven so much of romance, passed through the country, as did small bands from various tribes of the Algo: quin race.

Before the settlement of the country some of these tribes inhabited the Fire-lands, and held them as their own. After the pale face came, they, no longer, re- garded the territory as their home, and seem only to have wandered through it, tarrying a little while here and there. hunting, fishing and making maple sugar. They had some villages in the northern part of the Fire-lands, but none in the sonthern. They were peaceable after the war had closed, and in New Haven, as in most other townships, there were no instances of any violence or crime being committed by them. The Senecas passed through New Haven, on their way to the eastern hunting grounds, sometimes in bodies of several hundreds, but more often in small companies which occasionally camped for a few days or weeks near the bank of the Huron. Some rode upon ponies, and some travelled afoot. All were clothed in characteristic Indian style. The warriors

wore the peculiarly fierce appearing feathered head- dress, and were clothed in buckskin. The squaws were always neatly dressed. in short skirts, beaded moccasins, and gaily bedecked blankets. They brought baskets. deer hams and various trinkets to the settlers, which they were always anxious to barter for bread. flour or meal. There were strong friendships between some of the whites and Indians. Even the little children were so accustomed to seeing the dusky savages that they did not fear them, and, indeed, formed for some of them strong attachments. Seneca John, the famous chief, used to carry the Palmer children upon his shoulders, and they learned to like him and look eagerly for his coming. Some- times when a band of Indians was seen approaching, they would watch them closely to see if Seneca John was among them, and then if they distinguished his tall, stalwart form, they would run to meet him and vie with each other the honor of a ride. to or from school, perched high up on his shoulder. The pale faced children played with the Indian boys and girls. visited them at their camps, and were upon as friendly terms as with the youthful playmates of their own race.

Several Indians have been buried in the township. Two braves were interred on the south bank of the river, on what is now known as the Keiser farm, and their bones still rest there, unless they have been dis- turbed in comparatively recent times by the hand of some vandal white curiosity seeker. A little child was buried not far from the place where the two war- riors were interred. About forty Indian women and half as many men were present at the sepulture. The body, encased in a small rough coffin, was placed in the ground with the cover unfastened, " so that the little spirit could easily escape," the Indians said, and one of the chiefs uttered a few words in the tongue of his people. after which the grave was closed. and the sad but stoical band returned to the camp. An eye witness says that an observer could not tell by the outward signs of grief, which one of the many squaws was the bercaved mother, but as the same sub-stratum of humanity runs through all races and nations, however they may appear externally, there was one mother's heart which experienced a thousand fold more pain than all of the others.

JONATHAN CHAPMAN-" JOHNNY APPLESEED."

No history of New Haven township could be com- plete which failed to bring into prominence that ec- centric man and great publie benefactor. Jonathan Chapman, known more commonly by the sobriquet of Johnny Appleseed. If the man who causes two spears of grass to grow, where but one grew before, is deserving of the meed of praise, "Johnny Appleseed " should receive the thanks of hundreds of thousands of people, whose homes are upon the fertile farms of Ohio and Indiana, for he not only caused the wilder- ness to blossom as the rose, but to bear fruit for the pioneers' children and their children's children.

THOMAS T.MULFORD.

MRS.THOMAS T. MULFORD

RESIDENCE OF THOMAS T. MULFORD, NEW HAVEN, HURON CO ., O.

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Jonathan Chapman, supposed to have been born in Boston. 1745, first made his appearance in the terri- tory of Ohio in 1801. and about ten years later we find him living with Caleb Palmer in the township of New Haven. He remained here much of the time during the war, though he was frequently absent up- on pilgrimages to various parts of the country. The great mission of Jonathan Chapman's life was the preparation of the wild western country for the pio- neers and their succeeding generation, and through a strange monomania that possessed this singular man, his beneficent feeling toward mankind found expres- sion in only one form and effect: the planting of ap- ple orchards or nurseries in advance of the outposts of civilization. From these nurseries were obtained the trees which formed most of the now old and de- caying orchards in Ohio and Indiana. Johnny's plan was to choose a good natural location, in a little glade, or in the thickest part of the woods, it mattered not which. If the piece of ground which suited him chanced to be heavily covered with timber he would clear it off and, with the tops of the largest trees, make a rude fence, inelosing an area of two or three acres. This was done to keep the deer from brows- ing upon the young trees. Having prepared the ground he would sow his apple seeds broadcast, as farmers do wheat. He believed it wrong to raise trees in any way but from the seeds, and looked upon pruning with much the same species of horror that other men would upon human murder. He procured his seeds from the cider mills in western Pennsylvania and usually carried them through the wilderness in a leathern bag, though sometimes he was known to transport them in a small wagon, to which he would have an old horse harnessed, which had been turned loose by some settler. One of the nurseries planted by old Johnny was in New Haven, near the east mar- gin of the marsh. When the trees were grown suf- ficiently large to be transplanted Johnny either sold them, or gave them away himself, or left them in charge of a friend to be disposed of in a similar way. Sometimes he exchanged the trees for articles of clothing, but his general custom was to take a note payable at some indefinite time. Having received it he regarded the transaction at an end and bothered himself no further about the matter. He had no business method and needed none, for he had but lit- tle use for money. What little came into his posses. sion he soon disposed of in gifts to the poorer settlers whom he met in his wanderings. He was never known to have made but one purchase of land, and that was in Michigan township, Ashland county, the southwest quarter of section twenty-six. With his customary indifference to matters of value, he failed to record the deed, and lost his title to the land, a fact of which he was probably never aware.

The personal appearance of this strange character was in keeping with the peculiarities of his nature. Ile was small, wiry, quick and restless; his beard, short and unshaven; hair long and dark, and eyes

black and sparkling. His dress was generally a med- ley of the cast-off clothing taken in exchange for trees, but at one time his sole garment was a coffee sack, in which he cut holes for his head and arms. He nearly always went barefooted, even in the coldest weather. His head covering was as economi- cal as the rest of his attire. For a time, he wore the large tin dipper in which he cooked his food when traveling, but, as it hurt his head, he constructed, of paste-board, something between a hat and cap, which he adopted as a permanent fashion.

Religionsly, Johnny was a Swedenborgian. He was a most enthusiastic disciple of the great seer, and the zeal with which he endeavored to propagate his doctrines was only equalled by his untiring labor in planting his apple nurseries. Ile went from place to place, carrying his bag of apple seeds and his Swedenborgian books, and when he arrived at the hospitable cabin of some settler, no matter whether he were acquaintance or stranger, at once lay down upon the puncheon floor, and, while recovering from the fatigue of his long walk, would. read what he called "news right fresh from heaven." He purchased books and tracts treating of his favorite system of religion, for distribution among the settlers, and when he had not enough to go around, would often tear one in two and giye the halves to neighbors, telling them to ex- change when each had read his part. His veneration for the books of Swedenborg was so great that he believed they formed a sure preventive of bodily harm. The morals of the man were as good as his religions belief. He led as blameless a life as a human being could, and compared himself, in his simplicity of attire and habits of life, to the primitive Christian.

Upon one occasion an itinerant preacher was hold- ing forth on the public square of Mansfield in a long and somewhat tedions discourse upon the sin of ex- travagance, frequently emphasizing his text by the inquiry: "Where now is the barefooted Christian traveling to heaven?" Johnny, who was lying on his back in some timber, taking the question in its literal sense, raised his bare feet in the air and vociferated: " Here's your primitive Christian!" Ile was a veg- etarian, and rigidly opposed to killing any living thing for food. Upon this point his ideas were car- ried to a fanatical extreme as will be seen by the fol- lowing incidents, which are well authenticated: One autumnal night, while lying by his camp-fire in the woods, he observed that the mosquitoes blew into the flames and were burned. Taking the huge tin dip- per, which answered the double purpose of cup and mush-pot, from his head, he filled it with water and quenched the fire, remarking afterwards: "God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort which should be the means of destroying any of his creatures!" At another time he made his camp-fire at the end of a hollow log in which he intended to pass the night, but finding it occupied by a bear and her cubs, he moved the fire to the other end and slept in the snow rather than disturb the bears. Walking one morning

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over a small prairie he was bitten by a rattlesnake. Some time afterwards, a friend inquired of him about the matter. He drew a long sigh and replied: " Poor fellow! he only just touched me, when I, in an nn- ungodly passion, put the heel of my scythe in him and went home." Again, while assisting in the con- struction of a road through the woods, a hornet, whose nest had been destroyed in the operation. found lodgment underneath Johnny's shirt. Notwithstand- ing the fact that he was repeatedly stung by the en -. raged insect, he removed it with the greatest gentle- ness. His companions laughingly asked him why he did not kill it, receiving in reply, " It would not be right to kill the poor thing, for it did not intend to hurt me."

Among his other eccentricities was that of a re- markable stoicism, an indifference to physical pain. To demonstrate this, he would often stick pins into his flesh; and he cured wounds by cauterizing them, and then treating them as burns. This fortitude, or nervous insensibility, whichever it was, led the In- dians to look upon him as a being peculiarly gifted, a "great medicine man," and they treated him with great kindness. "Johnny Appleseed " made his home with Caleb Palmer through the war, visited the settlement very often afterward, and was as well known here as in any part of Ohio.

About 1838, he left the State and pushed further into the west, still laboring in his self-imposed mis- sion, impelled perhaps wholly by his philanthropic monomania. but probably by a gnawing misery of the heart as well, for it was commonly believed that some bitter disappointment in a love affair, had, in his young manhood, changed the tenor of Jonathan Chap- man's life. If so, a great good was accomplished through the thwarting of one human being's happi- ness, for the strange, heroic, generous, humane char- acter, whom the pioneers of Ohio and Indiana knew as "Johnny Appleseed," by his self-sacrificing toil did a vast service to the settlers whom he preceded in the wilderness, and to their succeeding generations. It has been well said of him, that "as a hero of endur- ance, that was voluntarily assumed, and of toil, the benefits of which could only be reaped by posterity, the name of Jonathan Chapman deserves a perpetnity beyond that of a generation of lesser lights passed in the glare and romance of the tomahawk and scalping knife period. "

But little is known of the early life of this pioneer nurseryman, but there is every reason to believe that it was one strangely in variance with his after years. That he was a man of fine education is beyond doubt, for it is testified to by those who knew him in New Haven and elsewhere. At a very early day he deliv- ered a Fourth of July address at Bronson, which, it is said by those who heard it, was masterly in matter and manner, a splendid piece of eloquence and a model of thought, such as only a mind of fine order could give birth to. '

In 1844, after nearly a half century of devotion to

his chosen mission, and at the age of seventy-two years, Jonathan Chapman died in the cabin of a set- tler near Fort Wayne, Indiana. The physician who was present said that he had never seen a man in so placid a state at the approach of death, and so ready to enter mpon another life.

THE PIONEERS AND EARLY SETTLERS.

New Haven was settled by a superior class of men. Many of them had enjoyed unusual educational ad- vantages, and a number were much better endowed with material goods than the pioneers in a new country generally are. As the village was formed at an early day, there were many who came in without experiencing the pleasures or pains of pioneer life. This class did not, as a rule, take up land. They were not, in the proper sense of the term, early set- tlers. They located in the village and followed trades, and their number was so great that many are not even mentioned, while others are barely referred to.

Beginning with the pioneers, there was Caleb Palmer, of whose first years in New Haven, an ac- connt has already been given. He was born in Horse Neck, Connecticut, in 1115, went from there to New York, and then to Trumbull county, Ohio, and re- moved from there to New Haven, as has been hereto- fore stated, in 1811. His first wife was Harriet Smith. He had by her, four children : Maria, (born before he settled here, and now dead.) Meigs, (now sixty-eight years of age, a resident of New Haven, lot thirty-nine, section two.) Ruth, (Mrs. Jessie Youngs of Tompkins county, Michigan), and Electa S., (now Mrs. C. C. Harding, of New Haven.) She married, first, Jacob Guyselman. Meigs Palmer married Betsey Curtiss. Caleb Palmer's first wife died in 1818, and he married. several years later, Mrs. Shel- don. the mother of the famous Methodist preacher, Harry O. Sheldon.

Who came next after Palmer, Woodstoock and Nemcomb, cannot be definitely stated, and, in fact, it is impossible to state precisel; ile year in which the first settlers arrived, for memory errs, and there is naught to depend upon in this matter but the re- collections of the oldest residents of the township. The settlement increased quite fast during the years 1814 and 1815. During these two years, Josiah Cur- tiss, Reuben Skinner, Jas. MacIntyre, David Powers, Samuel B. Carpenter, John Barney, Samuel Knapp, Martin M. Kellogg, the Inschos, Henry Barney, Royal N. Powers, Chism May. Calvin Hutchinson. George Beymer, Wm. Clark, Jacob Speeker. Ronse Bly, Joseph Dana, John Alberson. George Shirel, Matthew Bevard, William York, Prince Haskell, Stephen Stil- well, and many others cast their fortunes with the settlement.

James MacIntyre and his son by the same name, with their wives. came from New York State. The old gentleman, whose family included several girls, took up lot ninety, section one. At the same time

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came two sons-in-law, Samuel Knapp and Daniel Pratt, the latter of whom, located upon lot one hundred and four, section one, east of the river. Knapp lived with MacIntyre for a time, and then he and Pratt re- moved to Seneca county. Samuel Tooker, a prospec- tive son-in-law, came also with the Macintyre family. Josiah Curtiss, a native of Vermont, and his wife, Mary Rockwell, made their home on lot fifty-six, sec- tion two. Curtiss took as his second wife, Margaret De Witt. David Powers located upon lots sixty-eight and sixty-seven, section three-the Jesse Snyder farm. His brothers, Royal N. and Lemuel, came into the county later,-the last named, considerably so. They had a sister, who married Millard Fillmore. Chisim May came from Georgia, and it is said that the prime cause of his immigration was the fact that he had bitten off the ear of a man and brother. He died about ten or a dozen years after coming to New Haven, leaving a large family. Martin M. Kellogg was for a short time a resident of the place, and probably the first wagon maker in it. He removed to Bronson, (the history of which township contains more extended mention of him). Samuel B. Carpenter, of New York, took up lot forty, section two. He left about the year 1820. Prince Haskell, noted as a mechan- ical genius, a native of Vermont, came in, and re- mained a short time, and removed to Bronson, where he died in 1852.

Matthew Bevard, of Muskingum county, settled first upon lot forty, section two, and afterwards re- moved to lot sixty-four. It is related of him that be- ing with his brother in the war of 1812, and the latter being taken sick after Hull's surrender, he carried him upon his back from Cleveland to Zanesville. Bevard went from New Haven to Missouri where he died. His children were: Hiram, William, Sydney, George, Emery, Julia Ann and John. Joseph Dana was an early resident who was prominent from the fact that he was a fine scholar, and for many years, taught a school which afforded excellent advantages to a large number of youth. He at first took up the Mul- ford farm, but was unable to pay for it, and after- wards resided upon the Henry Trimner farm. He removed some time after 1835, to Sandusky county. John Alberson, a brother-in-law of Dana, came in company with him to New Haven, and also lived a while upon the Mulford farm. George Shivel who arrived about this time, was noted as a great maker of shingles. Jacob Speeker, a great hunter and trap- per, located upon the edge of the prairie, and re- mained there several years, after which he went to the mouth of Pipe creek (near Sandusky) where he died quite recently. William York, a native of Virginia, removed from Fairfield county, Ohio, to New Haven, in 1815, and located upon lot one hundred and twenty-eight, section one. By his wife, Fannie Ettzler, he had several children, three of whom, He- cotor, Ruth and Abraham came to New Haven. Ruth is dead; the other two reside in New Haven. William York died in 1858, and his wife in 1853.

Reuben Skinner came to the township in 1814, bought land, and made preparations to move his family. He took up lot one hundred and three and a part of one hundred and four in section one, and made his home there. In February, 1815, he brought his family from Knox county, Ohio, where they had been for some time residing (he was originally from New Jersey), and began life in the new settlement. He was rich in the possession of about forty head of cattle, the same number of sheep and eight or ten horses and colts. His wife's name was Sarah Coleman. The pair had eight children: Rebecca, James, Joseph, Alfred, John, Ruth, Asel Har- rison and Harriet. Father, mother and all of the descendants are now dead, but John, Ruth and Asel Harrison. John lives upon the old homestead. He married for his first wife, Emeline Frisbie, and as his second, Maria Reubens. Their children are: Harriet (deceased), William, Edward and Ann, all residents in New Haven. Ruth married St. Clair Beymer, and is now living in Iowa. Asel Harrison is in Michigan.

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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 71

Author: Williams, W. W. (William W.) Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : Press of Leader Printing Company Number of Pages: 726

Author: Williams, W. W. (William W.)
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : Press of Leader Printing Company
Number of Pages: 726