USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve of Ohio and some of its pioneers, places and women's clubs, Vol. I > Part 2
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REV. DAVID BACON FOUNDER OF TALMADGE, O.
DARWIN WRIGHT, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS, 1896 TALMADGE
TALLMADGE
The Utopian Scheme of David Bacon
The missionary to the Indians of the Northwest was Rev. David Bacon. After six years, four in Detroit and two in Mackinaw, he returned East and reported nothing could be done for the Indians as long as the American fur-traders sold them whiskey in exchange for skins. He advised farming col- onies, as an object lesson in Christian civilization. David Hud- son, junior, heard these arguments and determined to see the country before he would advocate colonizing it. He went in the spring of 1799.
David Bacon was born in Woodstock, Ct., 1771. When 20 years of age he was ordained by the missionary society with headquarters in .Detroit. His salary, after paying his own expenses, was to be $1.10 per day. After remaining four years he returned East and advocated that a colony be established with schools, churches, stores, manufactories, and every appliance of civilization. He married Alice C. Parks, of Lebanon, Ct., a young lady of seventeen years, then returned to Detroit, where he labored for four years more. He acted as supply to the Congregational Church of Hudson, O., for three years, together with Rev. Badger, another missionary. It was said of the latter he was self-educated and worked in the coal mines of Tallmadge, which were used exclusively for the lake steamers.
In the survey of the Connecticut Land Company, township No. 2, range 4, fell to Jonathan Bruce and nine others. It contained 1,525 acres. The first five were called the Bruce Company; the second five the Rockwell Company. In 1879 one of them sold his interest to Ephraim Starr and Samuel Griswold,
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The Western Reserve of Ohio and Some of
of Goshen, Ct. And Ephraim Starr purchased Griswold's in- terest and transferred it to Colonel Tallmadge. The Bruce Company took the entire west section; the Starr Company three sections, and Colonel Tallmadge the balance. David Bacon was to act as agent to sell it. He obtained leave to form such a colony in Tallmadge. He explained that the Indians were kept drunk by the liquor sold them by the fur-traders of Detroit. These fur-traders were of the English and French gentry, em- ploying agents. He had spent two years in Mackinaw and there also the Indians were drunk most of the time. One old chief said to him: "Your religion is good for the whites, but not for the red man; you sow seed and reap harvests; we need more land to find our food for we kill wild animals," and Mr. Bacon agreed with him. As long as the Indians were filled with rum he was a dangerous neighbor. They moved to Tall- madge and had no neighbors for six months, except a German family. In a year twelve families had come in from other places. He located the place ten miles south of Hudson in a township gently rolling, although in its western border there was an abrupt eminence called Coal Hill, 636 feet above Lake Erie and the highest, except one, in Summit County.
The State road from Warren to Wooster went diagonally through it. Franklin Mills, now called Kent, was five miles to the northeast, Monroe Falls three miles north, and Middleberry three miles southwest, now East Akron.
For the center, David Bacon selected a high plateau south of the present one, but the real center of this township, five miles square, was preferred and some hollows were filled up and the center located there.
The roads surveyed by the Connecticut Co. were north, east, south and west, but David Bacon ordered one between each,
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Its Pioneers, Places and Women's Clubs
eight in all, and a road one mile and a half from the center, connecting all of them.
Thus all the farms were brought within easy access of the center, where there was a square of seven and a half acres, on which was placed school houses, carriage shops, blacksmith shops and a store. The church was a little to one side of the center of the square. The guide board was a puzzle to strangers, on each side of the eight boards was the name of a township or village and its distance. One man called out: "I have often heard of the hub of creation, now I have got there." Others would say, "This is the center of the world for these folks."
In 1808 Rev. Bacon suggested the name of the township should be after Colonel Tallmadge, as he had brought a colony to it. "Treat, Fenn, Wright," they said, many of each name being in it. He also advised the community to be a unit in religious matters, have but one church and cause to be in- serted in the "contract" and the "deeds of conveyance of land" the annual payment of two dollars for the support of the gospel- ministry of the Calvinistic faith, and seize for debt any that were in arrears. Several men, though pious, were not Calvin- istic, and refused to pay the annuity and that clause was stricken out.
Timber land was $4.00 per acre; girdled, without under- brush, $10.00, and cleared land, $15.00. Horses, cows, oxen and buildings were valued by the listers.
The first church of ten members was organized January 22, 1809, in Mr. Bacon's home. Four children were baptized. The members were Ephraim Clark, junior, and wife; George Kil- bourn and wife, Hezebah Chapman and wife, Amos C. Wright and wife, David Bacon and wife. The four children were Julia and Alice Bacon and Amos Wright, father of Darwin Wright
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The Western Reserve of Ohio and Some of
once Director of Public Works in Cleveland under Mayor McKis- son, and Eliza Kilbourn, daughter of George Kilbourn. Until a house was erected for worship, service was held in their several homes. Trees were planted in the Public Square. Two school- houses on one side of it north of the church were built.
The church was a two-story frame, painted white with green blinds, very much like the one in Goshen, Conn. Colonial pillars were in front of it and stone steps that reached the three doors of entrance. The gallery was on three sides and the choir occu- pied the side opposite the pulpit. The choir consisted of a large chorus-choir, two violins, two bass viols and a flute.
About the year 1846 all the choirs of Summit County were invited to join a musical convention to be held in the Tallmadge Presbyterian church. Well does the writer remember the thrill- ing music of the whole gallery of voices when all joined in sing- ing some familiar hymns led by the instruments of music. Alpha Wright was the chorister; he was the founder of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum in Columbus.
The same public spirit was manifest in the Sabbath School celebrations; they went in wagons decorated with banners to a basket-lunch in the "Old Maids Kitchen" of Cuyahoga Falls or to a table spread in a grove in Akron. Speeches were made and songs sung, some of them as they returned home.
Every year there was a squirrel hunt, sides chosen, and a: supper given by those who killed the greatest number.
In 1814 the first school house of two stories was erected, the upper one for the Academy taught by Elizur Wright. This was destroyed by fire in 1820 and the Academy was then built on the southeast road a few rods from the center. It was taught by Ephraim Sturtevant, a graduate of Yale. His home was on the same ridge and a long line of maples led up to it from
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the Public Square. He kept a green-house and had a night- blooming cereus on his porch, that we children went to see and wondered at.
Rev. David Bacon had some financial troubles in settling with the purchasers of his land and returned to Connecticut a discouraged man. He traveled and sold Scotts's Bibles and other religious books. He died in Hartford, Conn., in 1817, forty-six years of age. Dr. Leonard Bacon, President of Yale, was his eldest child. His daughter, Delia Bacon, visited Eng- land to publish a book on "Who Wrote Shakespeare?" She was assisted by Hawthorne, then Ambassador to England, but was discouraged by Thomas Carlyle and others. Her large volume was never sold. She said "I told Carlyle he did not know what he was talking about, if he believed that 'booby' wrote them. It was then he began to laugh; you could have heard him half a mile. We now know that Shakespeare was reviewed three times by Samuel Johnson and in that way it became nearly perfect."
A younger brother of Delia, Leonard Frances Bacon, went to Liberia, Africa, in the interest of the colonization of the col- ored race. He came back and published a book of his experi- ences as a physician among them. It was favored by Henry Clay and others as to "What Shall We Do With the Negro?"
In 1881 a celebration was held in Tallmadge, and a stone marked the site of David Bacon's residence, saying "Here the first church of Tallmadge was gathered, in the house of David Bacon, Jan. 3, 1809; this stone was placed here June 3rd, 1881."
When the church edifice was built, forty cents a day was the usual wage and was from sunrise to sunset and in the win- ter two or three hours of candle light. The subscription for the new church aggregated $3,500, to be paid with labor, lumber, or
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The Western Reserve of Ohio and Some of
wheat, in installments of two or three years; also wool; for it was a necessity, to clothe the workman; if there was not a sup- ply in the market, they suspended work until they could get wool, in payment for work. The building committee said the demand was reasonable and supplied the wool. A prize was given to the one who first got the timber to the ground for the erection of the church. The 20th of December was the day for hauling the logs, and Daniel Beech, while preparing none himself, hitched his oxen to the stick of his neighbor and got it on the ground just at daylight and received the prize (whiskey).
The contractors were S. Saxon, Samuel Porter, Willis Fenn, Joseph Richardson and Reuben Beech. The trees were blazed and the length marked as contracted for by the owners. Be- fore one o'clock timber had been brought from each of the eight roads, Mr. A. R. Sperry winning the honor of the occasion.
Dr. Bacon from Yale on the occasion of their anniversary in 1881, said: "The unity of a town depends upon a common center, made easily accessible. Public spirit, local pride, friend- ly intercourse, general culture, and good taste and a certain moral and religious steadfastness are the characteristics of Tall- madge, for which it is noted on the Western Reserve. Any ob- serving stranger can see that it was planned by a sagacious and far-seeing mind." Dr. George Ashmun, of board of educaton of Cleveland, and Sereno Penn, of Y. M. C. A., were born and reared in Tallmadge.
The railroads have taken its business and the town has but a fraction of its former life. The great shops, Oviatt and Sperry, no longer send carriages to the South and West. Tall- madge is of the 19th rather than of the 20th century. For many years there has been a Methodist, as well as Presbyterian church in Tallmadge. Squire Stone and T. H. Parmelee assisted
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in building the first edifice of the Methodists. The new church now stands on the Public Square. The cemetery on the south road slopes to the east. The Parmelee monument is there and has the names of the family deceased upon it. The cemetery is well cared for. Many beautiful monuments have been erected .- From Lane's Fifty Years of Akron and Summit County, and other sources."
There is something in the air, Something in the very earth And in all familiar things
Growing 'round our place of birth,
Which we feel, but may not speak; Lines engraven strong and deep
In the freshness of our youth, Jewels that the heart will keep.
We may change, but not the place Where our childhood's days were past;
It is looking still for us
Just as when we looked our last.
There's the rock with dappled moss, Where the stream comes lapsing down;
There's the seat, beside the ledge, With the beech tree overgrown.
There's a hill, a common one, Where the quivering birch trees grew,
And we think no other 'ere Half so soft a shadow threw. Other brooks to other eyes May as bright and sparkling fall,
But the one by which we climbed Has the sweetest sound of all.
Childhood's days are thronging back, Childhood's perils suffered o'er,
And we see with our young eyes, Feel with our young hearts once more.
THE ERIE INDIANS OR CAT NATIONS
Previous to the Connecticut Land Company settling on the Western Reserve, it was occupied by a tribe of brave Indians called the Eries or Cat Nation. They had burned off the under- brush, so they could more easily see the game. That killed the small trees and caused the large ones to grow to an immense size unsurpassed on the continent. They were of maples, oak, chestnut, walnut and beech. Under them many deer roamed, as well as bears and panthers. Birds of all kinds nestled in their branches. Snakes of every variety dwelt in its swamps.
The French had taught the Indians, who had fought with them, the power of federation, and in New York and Canada there were five nations federated.
This fact reached the Eries and they wished to know its purpose; they sent three delegates to invite them to a foot-ball game, it was refused; then a year later sent seven delegates, and in a game one of the chiefs of the Five Nations was killed by an Erie; immediately all the delegates were murdered. The Eries than harassed the Iroquois and took one of its chiefs prisoner. This man the Eries burned at the stake. The rule of the Indian is to kill the defeated party.
The next year the Iroquois led the Five Nations to the camp of the Eries, a promontory of Rocky River near Cleveland. They climbed it by putting their canoes on end. They at once mur- dered the women and children and tied a thousand Erie war- riors each to a tree, then piled fagots around them and after the darkness of the night set fire to the fagots and danced
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:around them in great glee. The Eries, writhing in agony, sang war songs, defiant and contemptuous of their foes.
The waves of Lake Erie from Buffalo to Detroit reflected the glare, and the heavens were red with this fearful conflagra- tion. The Five Nations remained a week to care for their wounded and to kill any of the Eries escaping. This ended the Erie tribe.
Colonel Cresus, who came to the Ohio River with no pur- pose but to kill Indians, leveled to the dust three sets of trap- pers near Wheeling, also at Coshocton, forty miles west of there. We read in McGuffey's reader: "There is no one left to mourn for Logan, no, not one." During and after the war of the Revolution settlers had to depend upon themselves for de- fense from the Indians.
DAVID HUDSON, JR.
David Hudson, Jr., inherited some of the qualities of his Quaker father, David Hudson, Sr., who, when dying, ordered a plain casket, made of pine and stained black, and the price be- tween that and the usual one to be given to the minister who officiated.
David Hudson, Sr.'s first wife was Kezia Rose, who had no children. His second wife was Rebecca Taylor, who had three: Kezia, who married Captain Theodore Parmelee; Timothy, the father of Prof. Hudson of Oberlin, and Maria, his sister. David Hudson, Jr., was born in Bradford, Conn., February 17, 1761. His wife, Anner Norton, daughter of Nathaniel Norton of Goshen, Conn., was born the same year, October 29, 1761. They were married when 22 years of age, December 22, 1783. Anner Norton's sister was the first wife of Colonel Ethan Allen, who often visited at her home in Goshen.
Captain Theodore Parmelee had five separate enlistments in the Revolutionary War and received for services land in the New Connecticut of the Western Reserve; lots in Cleveland, Wadsworth, Norton, and two in Hudson, then called Range Four, Lot ten.
David Hudson, Jr., heard the arguments of David Bacon, and although 38 years old with with a family of six boys and one girl, immediately went to the Western Reserve to locate a col- ony. He took with him his son Ira, 11 years old, and a surveyor and two assistants, Mr. Lindly, of Albany, N. Y., Jonah Meach- um and Joseph Darrow. They left Goshen on the 26th of April and reached Bloomfield, Ontario county, N. Y., on the 5th of May. Here they met Benjamin Chapin, who was the proprietor
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Its Pioneers, Places and Women's Clubs
of Ravenna Township and was United States Senator from 1839 to 1845. Mr. Tappan had one yoke of oxen and Mr. Hudson bought two. They were driven by Mr. Meachum on the Indian trail to Buffalo, then along the lake to Painesville. Mr. Hudson also sent supplies by Mr. and Mrs. Lacy and his son Ira. They were one week in reaching Niagara River and found it full of broken ice; with great difficulty they persevered against the current and floating ice, and in a few days reached Buffalo .. where was a gorge 12 feet thick. It broke that night; then in three days they renewed their journey.
It was noticed the wind was less strong during the night, rowing, pulling and towing as need be, Mr. Lindly, the sur- veyor, objected and said he "had hired to work in the day time only." Mr. Hudson said nothing, but after a day set him to chopping wood and felling trees while the others slept. After a few hours' labor, Mr. Lindly, seeing the joke, apologized to Mr. Hudson and did his share of night work.
On June 5 they reached Conneaut River, the wind driving them on shore with such violence as to stove a hole in their boat, losing thereby some of their potatoes, also wetting their cloth- ing. They took one day for repairs and to dry their goods; they then used blankets for sails. In two days they arrived in Painesville. Mr. Harmon, debarking, sold his dilapidated boat to Mr. Hudson for one dollar. This, with Mr. Tappan's boat, enabled them to reach the Cuyahoga River in safety. On the 10th of June Mr. Hudson bought of Lorenza Carter a field of corn and one of potatoes and appropriated two barrels of flour (an outlaw and Indian had stolen from them flour, pork and whiskey). This would last them, with game, until their own crops would produce something.
They rowed up the crooked Cuyahoga River and were one
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The Western Reserve of Ohio and Some of
week getting to Northampton, and another week in locating the boundaries of their townships (the bluffs and gullys made travel very difficult). On rough sleds the goods of Mr. Tappan and Mr. Hudson were transferred to their respective places. Mr. Tappan lost one ox through overwork and had to send to Buffalo for another and also for money, as he was reduced to a dollar.
Mr. and Mrs. Lacy and Ira had not arrived. Mr. Hudson started in search of them, and found them at Cattaragus Creek. They had taken care of the supplies of Captain Austin of Ash- tabula County. They had fitted up the boat discarded by Mr. Hudson and were leisurely taking their way over Mr. Hudson's route. They all arrived on Saturday and Mr. Hudson held re- ligious services in the "lean-to" he had built on his first arrival and from that time services were never omitted. If no other person could officiate, he performed the various services himself.
It was said he was glad to go West to escape the religious convictions of Lyman Beecher, who preached then in Litchfield, Conn. But when in the ice-gorge near Niagara, and in great danger of his life, he prayed to God for deliverance and prom- ised to serve him all the days of his life, and was very faith- ful to the vow. It was also said he attended school but one day, and was punished three times for not giving the hard sound to Ch. Through his life he was a great patron of schools and this biography was written by him and preserved by his family.
The Western Reserve of Connecticut bordered on Lake Erie and on the western line of Pennsylvania for 120 miles north and south and 60 miles east and west. It was divided into townships of five miles square, with roads leading from center to center. Connecticut had failed in her claim to the Wyoming
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Valley and had seen Pennsylvania given access to Lake Erie, and asked for this Reserve for the services of her soldiers in the war of Revolution.
Immediately the Connecticut Land Company offered induce- ments for its settlements. 1277616
David Hudson, Jr., Company, Range No. 10, Township 4, was given to relatives or those connected by marriage: David Hudson, Jr., Nathaniel Norton, his wife's father, Birdseye Nor- ton, his wife's brother, Theodore Hudson Parmelee, his nephew, August Baldwin, father of Harvey Baldwin, who married his daughter Anner, and Benjamin Oviatt, relative to the husband of his daughter Laura. The land was laid out in one hundred acre lots.
Each settler was to release what land was needed for a pub- lic highway, to build a substantial house in five years, to plant not less than fifty apple trees and thirty peach trees, to provide himself with musket and ammunition, and perform military duty when called upon, and to settle in companies of not less than twenty men. Section 16 was reserved for schools; Section 29 for the support of the Gospel; two townships were reserved for a University, and three for Congress to dispose of as gov- ernment land. Allowance was to be made for bad land, for 1,500 acres they paid at the rate of 52 cents an acre, but owing to a report of the surveyors that a large part of it was swamp land, one thousand additional acres were given them in the townships of Norton and Chester, making the purchase at 32 cents an acre.
In 1802 the commissioners set off the townships of Burton, Twinsburgh, Aurora, Stow and Mantua.
Mr. Hudson in October returned to Connecticut for his fam- ily, accompanied by his son Ira, Mr. Meachum and Mr. Darrow.
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They went by boat to Buffalo and after infinite toil reached Bloomfield and there Ira stayed with his grandmother Norton. Mr. Hudson, on foot, pressed on to Goshen, the whole expense amounting to $9.75.
Mr. Hudson offered 40 acres to the first recruit. It was claimed by Miss Ruth Gaylord, of Vermont. Twenty-eight per- sons returned with him in the spring-Heman Oviatt, Joel Gay- lord, Dr. Moses Thompson, Allen Gaylord, Samuel Bishop and his four sons, Joseph and George Darrow, Stephen Perkins (father of General Simon Perkins), Mrs. Eliza Noble, Miss Ruth Gaylord, Miss Ruth Bishop, Mr. and Mrs. Noble, Mr. and Mrs. David Hudson and six children, namely, Samuel, William, Milo, Ira, Timothy and Laura.
Mr. Hudson took his family in a sleigh in his journey to Bloomington, and there purchased $2,000 worth of supplies, tools, garden and fruit seed, grains, glass, etc. With five boats of his own and three of his friends on the 30th of April they launched out on the great deep of Lake Ontario. They arrived in Hudson, O., in one month. Mr. Hudson had sent by land a horse, a bull and 14 cows, a yoke of oxen, and some hogs. They were driven by Samuel Noble and three sons of Samuel Bishop. They arrived safely about the same time. On the Sabbath fol- lowing their arrival, Mr. Hudson led his people in a Thanks- giving and Praise service, and resumed public worship, which had been suspended during his absence.
Surveying, clearing and seeding proceeded. A Public Square was laid out by Mr. Hudson, where, the next year, he erected a two-room house, and a few years later a commodious frame house, still standing, which was occupied by his daughter, Mrs. Harvey Baldwin (nee Anner Hudson), until her 90th birth- day, October 23, 1900, after which she went to live with her
MRS. HARVEY BALDWIN, (NEE HUDSON) DAUGHTER OF DEACON DAVID HUDSON B. OCT., 1800, D. 1902
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granddaughter, Mrs. Julius Whiting, in Canton, O. She died in 1902, aged 92 years.
On the Fourth of July, 1800, in the Public Square, a feast was spread on tables made of elm bark, laid on poles and put on crutches in the ground. Abundance of wild turkey and ven- ison and the usual accompaniments were provided. The exer- cises consisted of an anvil national salute, an oration by Mr. Hudson, and regular and volunteer responses. Forty-three per- sons participated.
The country was filled with game and nuts. The Indians felt the loss of their hunting ground, but the conciliatory acts of Mr. and Mrs. Hudson, emulated by their neighbors, made them almost without attack from them.
Anner Hudson was the first white child born on the West- ern Reserve, October 23, 1800. She was born in Trumbull County, married in Portage County, and lived in Summit County, all in the same house, for the counties were divided three times. She was married to Harvey Baldwin at 17 years of age and was faithful to the interests of the college until her ninetieth birthday which was celebrated in Hudson. The speak- ers, relatives and friends came from New York and surrounding towns, at the call of Miss Emily Metcalf, a teacher of Hudson.
In 1801 Governor St. Clair appointed Mr. Hudson justice of peace, so he was known as Squire Hudson nearly all his life. The first marriage he performed was George Darrow to Olive Gaylord. It was to have been a secret, but the birds told it, and the house was full of invited guests.
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