USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve and early Ohio > Part 8
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only houses erected by the whites between the Ohio and the lake, on his route. Those at the Salt Springs were built for the accommodation of the persons sent there to make salt, and the tenants were dispossessed during the summer of 1785, by the order of Gen. Har- mar. During the year 1786, Hillman left a man by the name of Kribs, at the Salt Springs to care for a stock of goods stored in one of the vacant houses. On Hill- man's return his party found the remains of Kribs, who was murdered by the Indians, and his body hor- ribly mangled by the wolves.
These Salt Springs situated in the township of Weathersfield, near the Mahoning River, were spoken of by the surveyors of the Reserve; Augustus Porter, one of the surveying party, alludes to it as being open ground of two or three acres, where salt had evidently been manufactured for an indefinite number of years by the aborigines, and possibly by the white men. He found the salt-works in a general state of dilapidation. Among the evidences of their former occupation, he discovered partly buried beneath the soil, several plank vats, iron kettles, and other articles, which had at one time been employed in salt making by persons possess- ed of more skill and intelligence than the natives. He also found, at the time of his visit, an Indian and his squaw engaged in boiling the saline waters to the con- sistency of salt in a very slow and primitive way. They sold this product to the white settlers, who were glad to obtain it, although obliged to pay for it at the rate of $16 per bushel.
These works were said to have been established by Gen. Parsons of Connecticut by permission of the Gov- ernor of that state.
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Amzi Atwater, who was one of the surveyors of the Reserve, and a pioneer of Portage County, says : "It was understood that Gen. Parsons had some kind of a grant from the State of Connecticut and came on there and commenced making salt, and was drowned on his return at Beaver Falls". On the first map made of the Reserve by Mr. Seth Pease, in 1789, a tract was marked off and designated as "the salt spring tract". I have understood that the heirs of Gen. Parsons ad- vanced some claims to that tract, but I believe without success. At an early part of the settlement consider- able exertions were made to establish salt works at that place, but the water was too weak to make it profitable."
The Indians used to make salt from water obtain- ed from a spring situated near the Rocky River, in Liverpool Township, Medina County.
Afterward, the manufacture of salt was started by the whites and continued for some years.
The spring was improved by sinking a very wide well on its location, the depth was some 162 feet, by Justus Warner and others. Aaron Warner said "there are boards now on my barn, which cost me one bushel of salt per thousand, and the nails to put them on with, twenty cents per pound, and brought them from Cleve- land on horseback, being three days on the journey." Salt sold for $20 per barrel, at the well.
BIG SLEIGH RIDES
"Then toiled again the cavalcade
O'er windy hill through clogged ravine,
And woodland paths that wound between
Low drooping pine boughs winter weighed.
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From every barn a team afoot, At every house a new recruit,
Where drawn by nature's subtlest law Haply the watchful young men saw Sweet doorway pictures of the curls And curious eyes of merry girls, Lifting their hands in mock defense Against the snow-ball's compliments ,
And reading in each missive tost The charm with Eden never lost". -Whittier.
Although not Pioneer incidents, yet the big sleigh- rides have been incidents of more than passing interest and many stories are yet told of them around winter hearths throughout the Reserve. The following ac- count taken from a newspaper article, aptly describes the occurence which took place in the winter of 1856. The winter was one of unusual severity with great quantities of snow, which lay on the ground until after the time when robins should have been singing their morning lays to re-awakened nature. Upon a certain occasion during the winter, a border township turned out a number of four-horse sleighs, while one of the number bore a rude banner made of cotton, a yard square upon which was painted a negro boy with his thumb on the end of his nose, his hand spread out, and a scroll from his mouth bearing the legendary words, "You can't come it." This friendly challenge brought other townships into competition, and the rude banner passed from one to another, as it was captured by a larger number of four or six-horse sleighs than had been turned out by the predecessor, until it became a Summit County banner belonging by right of capture
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to Richfield township. To such an extent had the affair gone that it now became a county matter, and Medina, Cuyahoga and Summit counties entered into the con- test. A day was set-March 14, 1856-when one or the other would wrest the prize from Summit. The day came, and with it a large concourse of people to this friendly battle of the sleighs. As Richfield held the prize, it was decreed that the meeting should take place in that town. And the particular township turn- ing out the largest number of sleighs on the great trial day should receive the flag and in turn present it to its respective county. When all had assembled, the mar- shals proceeded to count the sleighs of each county, which were found to be: Medina County, 140; Cuya- hoga County, 151; Summit County, 171; a total of 462 four and six-horse sleighs in one grand and friendly rivalry for a rude banner that cost originally-just six cents. The procession was formed and passed on to Akron with the most perfect order and decorum. Upon arrival the flag was presented to Hudson township, as having the largest number of teams, by James W. Weld of Richfield, and received on the part of Hudson by Dr. C. R. Pierce, who presented it in accordance with a pre- arrangement, to the County of Summit. The crowd at this sleigh ride was variously estimated by eye-wit- nesses at not fewer than from five to ten thousand per- sons. Many of the sleighs were handsomely decorated with evergreens and profusely decorated with flags. All passed off in the utmost harmony and not an acci- dent of any kind occurred during the day. Akron re- ceived the banner with great dignity, which was to be preserved among the relics of the county until some
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rival should come with a larger number of teams than she had turned out on this occasion. The glory of be- ing possessor of the prize was short lived.
On the following Tuesday Medina County came over with 185 four and six-horse sleighs, being four- teen more than Summit County had turned out. The banner was turned over to her and carried to Medina, where it was deposited among the archives of the coun- ty, to be kept until captured by some other rival. It still remains the prize of Medina County, and thus end- ed the most remarkable sleigh rides on record.
COLONIAL RESOURCES
FOREST, FRUIT AND NUT TREES
The first settlers on the Western Reserve found the whole country covered with a heavy growth of gigantic forest trees, the result of centuries of uncheck- ed growth. For unnumbered ages the trees had dead- ened, fallen and rotted in the forest. Added to this the annual harvest of leaves and the soil had become a rich, dark vegetable mold fertilized from nature's inexhaust- ible storehouse in preparation of the day when a new race of men was to turn its deep alluvial riches, aug- mented and improved by that great natural chemistry, the sun, and frost, and rain and wind into a food and life, and to build a new Plymouth in a far distant west.
There were oaks of several varieties, but the mighty white oak, reaching its tops far above the for- est, while its massive limbs as large as the trunk of an ordinary tree proclaimed it King of forest life. These trees were from three to six feet in diameter with their thick rough bark. Next to these in thickness and height and massive proportions came the whitewoods, less rugged and more gentle; but if the oaks were kings, the whitewoods were queens of the unbroken wilderness. On the ridges were found immense chest- nuts; the writer measured the stump of one of these that was 26 feet in circumference. This was the favor- its tree for rails, as a chestnut rail would last a life- time. Then came the tall, stiff hickory in all its species
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-the shagbark predominating. Next the wide-spread- ing beech trees so famous for fuel, and its three- cornered dark colored nuts that in the fall of the year lay thick upon the leaf-strewn ground and on which the wild pigeons fed. Then the beautiful hard, or sugar maple, that has proven a fortune to many a hard- worked Reserve farmer. The soft and silver maple also held their places among the forest trees. Again came the linden, or basswood, the honey producer for the forest wild bee. The others were the sumach, white ash, cucumber or peperidge, white, red and slip- pery elm, the latter the rope-producing and medicinal tree. The immense black walnut, often rivaling in size the magnificent oaks and white woods, the bark used for dyes and its rich aromatic nuts for food. Of this species was the butternut, with its elongated, savory nuts, and its bark used in place of calomel. Here, too, was the wild cherry, another medicinal tree, both in its fruit and bark. The wild juniper, with its luscious berries that came in June; the hemlock, whose bark as well as the oak was used for tanning. The buckeye, with its peculiar foliage and its strange nut, from which the State of Ohio was named. The fragrant dogwood, whose blossoms were another pioneer medi- cine ; the sassafras, a famous medicinal tree; the iron- wood, which was used by the settler in place of iron, it being almost unburnable and unbreakable. There was also the black ash, tamarack, sycamore, birch and pine.
The nuts were the acorn, the shellbark and pig hickory nuts, black walnuts, butternuts and hazel nuts. The fruit-bearing trees, bushes and vines were the wild cherry, wild plum, yellow and purple; the juniper
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berry, wild crabapple, white, red and black haw; the whortleberry, or as it was usually called the huckle- berry; the wild blackberry, raspberry, gooseberry, serviceberry, currant, cranberry, strawberry, dewberry and wild grape.
Among the game animals came the mastodon, but before man; then the buffalo and elk, both scarce at the coming of the settler. Then came the panther, wild cat, wolf, deer, bear, fox, marten, otter, muskrat, beaver, polecat or skunk, the groundhog or woodchuck, opossum, mink, raccoon, rabbit, black, grey, red and fox squirrels ; weasel and porcupine. We have included in this the fur-bearing animals as well.
Among the game birds were the swan, wild goose, turkey, black duck, mallard, wood duck, jacksnipe, sandsnipe, pheasant, quail, woodcock, rail, pigeon, dove, etc.
Among the birds of prey were the eagle, both bald and grey; the hen hawk, fish hawk, pigeon hawk; shrike or butcher bird; the horned cat or screech owl, the loon, shitepoke, crane, crow and buzzard.
The fresh water lakes, rivers and streams abound- ed with great quantities of fish in many varieties, eels and turtles.
PIONEER CRANBERRY FIELDS
When the country was new, wild cranberries were very plentiful in many parts of the Reserve. These seemed to thrive on the low or swamp lands. Settlers in many sections gathered them not only for their own use but to market for profit. Perrin, in his history of the cranberry fields of Franklin, as follows: "In early
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years thousands of bushels of cranberries grew annu- ally in the numerous Franklin swamps. These cran- berry fields were called marshes, and the berries were gathered by the Indians before the first settlers ar- rived, and taken to Pittsburg and other towns in Penn- sylvania and Virginia, where they were exchanged for ammunition, clothing, ornaments, etc."
The berry is a member of the heath family. The plant is a creeper or trailer, with slender, hardy, woody stems and small evergreen leaves, more or less white underneath. The stems are often from one to three feet long, and the flowers are lateral, rendering easy the gathering of the berries. The plants require very wet ground, and are often found growing where the soil is covered with several inches of water. The con- ditions for the possible life of the plant have been almost wholly removed, and cranberries have not been grown in paying quantities in either township or county for over twenty years. The berries, which get ripe in autumn, are red with some yellow, and are very acid. The harvest begins in October and is only closed by cold weather or perhaps the quantity fails. They are gathered during the spring months also, having remained out all winter. They are less acid when gath- ered in the spring, as the freezing converts portions of the starchy substance of the berries into sugar com- pounds, and in this condition the berries are valued more highly, as less sugar is required to fit them for the table. When the township was first settled the berries were almost worthless, as there was no market for them in the west, and the sugar required to sweeten them prevented their general use in the cabins of the
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settlers. About 1830 they rose in value from fifty cents to one dollar per bushel. The cranberry business became very extensive. Thousands of bushels were purchased annually by the merchants of Manchester, Clinton and other neighboring villages, and taken to wagon to Pittsburg, Philadelphia and New York, the teamsters bringing back loads of dry goods, groceries, salt, notions, etc. Water-tight barrels were filled with berries, after which the remaining space was filled with water and the barrel closed. In this condition the ber- ries kept fresh and bright for months. So great be- came the quantities purchased at one time by William Patterson, an early merchant of Clinton, that he either could not find market for them or could not procure wagons in which to ship them east, that 300 bushels spoiled on his hands.
When cranberry picking was at its height, many of the settlers were thus engaged. An implement of home manufacture was used in picking by which 15 or 20 bushels could be picked in one day by one man. Whole families turned out during the cranberry sea- son, and the marshes swarmed with settlers, some of whom came many miles and remained days, camping out, making a little money and having much fun and a good time generally.
The huckleberry swamps of the Reserve have been noted for their profusion and the size of their berries. During the huckleberry season men, women and chil- dren are engaged in picking these luscious berries. In wet swamps men frequently had to wade to their knees in water. The huckleberry bushes grow in bunches, around the roots of which great hummocks of earth accumulate.
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Christian Cackler, Jr., says : "Our furniture proved no inconvenience; my wife had a bed, I had an ax; I added to this by purchase from Zenas Kent of three white cups and saucers costing 75 cents ; three knives and forks and a wooden pail. The woman who lived with us gave three wooden plates and a kettle to cook in. My wife's father gave us a table." In 1870 his property was estimated at $30,000. During the pioneer days the whole fabric rested on an aristocracy of labor, and none were so high or so low that he did not min- ister to his necessities with his own hands. The fathers of the community wrought in the fields with their sons and were not less strong in action than wise in counsel. Their endurance is the marvel of later generations.
Mrs. Hickley relates: "Then we fully realized that poverty is the mother of invention. Our tables, book- cupboards and bedsteads were formed from long shingles rived out by our own hands ; our bedstead had but one leg. Our book-cupboard was a hollow log, with shingle shelves. A large clean chip for a plate, with a sharpened stick for a fork, a pocket knife for a carver. A hard shell of a squash for a sugar bowl, gourds for dippers."
Mrs. Warner said: In harvest time I have often assisted in gathering and securing our scanty crops. Could the people today see the wild state of garden and fields that once existed they would be surprised.
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Stumps in gardens were many and not far between. In the fields logs, stumps and log-heaps were numerous."
N. B. Northrop says: "It was not uncommon in pioneer times to find a young man, with no implements but an axe, engaged solitary and alone, felling the for- est and making the first opening. A rude hut, hastily constructed, was his dwelling, a piece of pork, a loaf of corn bread and a few potatoes his dainty and daily food . A pronged stick was his fork, a split slab his table ,and a few leaves and a quilt his bed. There he toiled, ate and slept soundly for many weeks without seeing or conversing with any human being. At night when the rushing winds ceased to make the forest vocal, the wolves serenaded him with their wild music."
THE OLD MAN OF THE WOODS
Trumbull County was the first county organized on the Reserve. It was organized July 10, 1800, and included within its county limits the whole Reserve. The first court was held at Warren, its county seat, on the fourth Monday in August, 1800. The Court House was the vacant space between two corn cribs on the clearing of Capt. Quimby. The early settlements in the vicinity of Warren commenced for the most part in 1798, though a few adventurers it is said, had settled in this region at a much earlier period. Claims have been made to its being settled as early as 1755. This cannot be substantiated, but if so, they were merely adventurers and not permanent settlers. To this class must belong that mysterious personage known to the earliest settlers as "the old man of the woods". No one ever knew his name, although he was called by some, Merryman, and he was a merry, jolly, old soul, whose place of residence in that vast wilderness which hemmed them about, was not known. No one ever knew where he came from or whither he went, yet whenever he appeared in the settlement he always appeared to be the happiest man alive, especially after exchanging his furs for powder and ball for his gun, and a few gallons of "red eye" for his stomach. He came to be looked upon and revered by the early settlers as a very mysterious person, possessing wonderful and miraculous powers. He claimed to be able to cure dis- eases of whatever nature, and no matter of how long standing. He made no charges for his services and ad-
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ministered a decoction of certain herbs known only to himself. He loved the solitude of that beautiful forest land and hated civilization wherever found.
He was supposed to be nearly, if not quite, seventy years old, and at all times refused to give any account of his life, either past or present. What became of him none ever knew. They missed his visits and that was all. Whether he died alone, in some obscure cabin home, away from the ministering hands of his kind, or whether his scalplock adorned some distant wigwam and slowly swung back and forth among the fragrant smoke, none ever knew, and no one ever will, until that great day when all shall be made known.
His memory was cherished for many years after he ceased coming and he was always spoken of as the "old man of the woods."
WILL O' WISP
"Night is the freeman's country Wherein my soul unshod, Her thatch-cloak loosed about her, Lays bare her breast to God."
-Wilkinson.
During the early setlement of the Reserve, the low grounds and frequently the vicinity of early burial grounds were noted for the appearance of the "ignis fatus". By the superstitious these dancing and de- ceiving lights were supposed to be the spirits of the Indians or "spooks", who had come back to visit their hunting grounds and upbraid the pale faces for their fraud and "double tongues". These harmless lights caused many a strong man to tremble, as he passed through the dense and dark forest. Indeed it is said of that brave hunter and noted Indian fighter, Luther Nixon, that he was not afraid of any living thing, but it is told of him that he would never go out of doors after night time, in the latter years of his life, as he was afraid of the "spooks" of the Indians he had killed. Most localities had its "haunted houses," or localities. Coventry Township, Summit County, at one time seem- ed to be noted for its superstitions. An old settler, whose veracity was never questioned, has told me that one night while coming home she met what seemed to her to be a large dog, as big as a calf, as she described it ; it passed by her and trotted along on the road before her. As it passed, she declared that she looked closely at it, and she says it had no head, the head and neck
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2 ACRES
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FCRT D. T. WOLBACH Northfield Township, Summit County
WILL O' WISP
being severed at the junction of the body and neck. She also told about "a pot of gold". This pot of gold existed in the "State of Coventry", near Falor's cross- ing". It was said of this small fortune, that if any one spoke while taking it from its ancient resting place, it would go tinkling down into the earth. She says her two brothers resolved to get the gold ; so one night they started out after it. They found the gold which was in a large iron vessel with an iron bail, or handle. Obtain- ing a rail from a nearby fence, they passed it through the bail, then one taking one end of the rail and the other man the other end, they proceeded for home. The young man in front stepped in a hole and pitched forward, pulling the rail sharply at the same time. This caused a splinter to run into the hand of the other man, who unthinkingly said "D- it."
No sooner said than the iron vessel left the rail, passed into the ground, and they could hear it tinkling, tinkling apparently at a great distance down in the ground as it grew fainter and fainter and then-silence.
The writer gives these simply as an illustration of the earlier superstitions and the tales told. My mother in common with the rest of her race, was given to superstitious belief. I have seen her heat a horseshoe and put it in a churn when the butter would not come. Some one had bewitched it-of course. If a cow was sick some one had bewitched it. I have seen my grand- father running silver bullets to shoot witches with. The "modus oprandi" was this, blaze a spot on a tree, make the figure of a man on the blazed spot, load a rifle with a silver bullet. Then take careful aim at the fig-
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ure and fire. If you placed the bullet within the lines drawn on the tree, you killed the witch and removed the trouble. I tell this for the benefit of future genera- tions to show them what foolish great-great-grand- daddies and grandmammies they had in those days.
Knowledge has wiped out these old fancies and superstitions. Education has made men happier be- cause they can rise out of such things as these.
The great amount of rotten or doty wood in the forest in those days caused much "fox-fire", and start- led many belated pedestrians.
The low swampy grounds in some localities, in the night-time, when under proper atmospheric conditions, were frequently covered with dim dancing lights, low on the surface. These gaseous bodies by the ignorant were supposed to be "spooks" or "death lights", and many a timid pioneer heart has trembled with fear when viewing these illusive "Ignis Fatons" of the pioneer days.
FIRST POST MASTERS AND EARLY POST ROUTES
MAIL CARRIERS ON THE RESERVE AND ANECDOTES
As late as the fall of 1801, there was not a post- office or mail route on the Western Reserve. The near- est post-office up to that time was either Pittsburg or Meadville, Pa.
John Diver, of Deerfield, Portage County, was one of the earliest mail contractors, carriers, and stage drivers, on the Reserve, and was in the business for more than forty years. Diver had the first contract for carrying the mail from New Lisbon to Mansfield, by way of Canton and Wooster. He was a man of iron will, unflinching determination and seemingly unlimit- ed resources.
The first postmasters on the Reserve were Lewis Day, General Wadsworth, Judge Pease and General Simon Perkins, notable names in the Nation's History. Lewis Day was postmaster at Deerfield ; General Wads- worth at Canfield; Judge Pease at Youngstown, and General Simon Perkins at Warren.
These post-offices were organized October 30, 1801, and were the only post-offices for some two years in the great archaean wilderness now known as Northern Ohio, in fact including one half the counties in the present limits of the state.
This great ark of governmental civilization then hovered for some two years at Warren, when it crept
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