USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The pioneer families of Cleveland 1796-1840 Vol. I > Part 10
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Mrs. Perry died within the following month, a victim of the terrible scourge of typhoid fever that swept the village in the late summer and autumn months of that year.
Three young children were left motherless at her death. Other cir- cumstances combined to make it a most unfortunate and irreparable loss to them, one that probably changed the whole tenor of their lives.
Horace Perry inherited much real estate. Original lots 85 and 86, on the Public Square-extending from Ontario Street to Euclid Avenue, and lots 97 and 98, directly back of them, which bordered Ontario Street all the way to Huron Street. In 1831, Prospect Street was cut through lot 97, to form a street. Mr. Perry also owned a large farm lying between Woodland Avenue and Broadway, in the vicinity of Perry Street. Some of this property had been sold previous to his death in 1835. Subse- quently, the estate dwindled rapidly, and in time his three children were reduced to poverty.
There is no record of any business that Horace Perry engaged in, save that of county clerk and recorder, and the salary for the former in 1831 is said to have been but $60 a year. The parentage of Mrs. Abigail Smith Perry cannot be learned. She was 28 years old at the time of her death.
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NATHAN PERRY, JR.
Horace Perry's headstone in Erie Street Cemetery stands close to the right of the main driveway. The lettering on it has been completely obliterated by time and weather. The children of Horace and Abigail Smith Perry :
Peter Perry, b. 1817 ; m. Louise Sel- Paulina Perry, m. Charles N. Wil- over, dau. of Ascher Selover. ley.
John S. Perry, m. Phebe Wireman.
Peter Perry died of consumption in 1844, aged 27 years. He left at least two children, of whom Mary Perry married a Mr. Bigelow, of Buf- falo, and Horace Perry, who died unmarried at the home of a relative on his mother's side of the family. Peter Perry evidently inherited the homestead on the Square, as it is advertised in the delinquent tax-list of 1841 under his name, also part of the Broadway farm.
Capt. John S. Perry served in the Mexican War, and upon his return was given a public reception by the city. He died in 1860-the result of hardships endured and of wounds received while in Mexico. His wife Phebe was but a child when they married. Her first long dress is said to have been her wedding dress. The only child mentioned of this couple was Major Frank W. Perry, who died in Washington, D. C., in 1876, aged 38 years. He was a soldier of the Civil War. If he left no sons there are no living descendants of Judge and Sophia L. Perry, who bear the family name.
Paulina Perry Willey inherited that part of lot 85 bordering upon Ontario Street. It was advertised for several successive years in the delinquent tax-lists of the 40's.
Charles N. Willey, her husband, was a nephew of John Willey, first mayor of Cleveland. He was a lawyer, and associated with his uncle in his law business. Children of C. N. and Paulina Willey are buried in Erie Street Cemetery.
1806
NATHAN PERRY, JR.
The Van Resselaers, Livingstons, and other Dutch families of New York, having great estates, always sent one of their sons, usually the oldest one, to live six months or a year with the Iroquois that he might learn their language and customs. These young men were usually adopted into one of the tribes, and thus a bond was created of like value to the Dutch settlers and Indians.
Judge Nathan Perry may have become familiar with this custom, for soon after his removal to western New York he sent his third son and namesake, Nathan, Jr., to live for a few months at the camp of the great chief Red Jacket, where he learned the Indian language, and acquired
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NATHAN PERRY, JR.
a knowledge of furs and their value that proved to be of great financial service to him. He came to Cleveland two years before his parents arrived, but spent most of his time at Black River, looking after his father's interests there, and trading with the Indians. It was not until 1808 that he made Cleveland his home. In April of that year a fatal accident befell a large row-boat on its way from Cleveland to Black River. Q. T. Aikins, in the 1887 annals of the Old Settlers' Association, furnished a personal reminiscence connected with the accident and Nathan Perry, Jr., which gives an insight into the latter's business meth- ods at the age of 23 years. He was a man of iron will, who never saved himself, and, naturally, expected others who served him to give of their uttermost. Like John Jacob Astor, whom he much resembled in charac- ter and business dealings, he was very successful in his fur trade, buying cheaply and selling at the best advantage. It is related of him that he loaded $12,000 worth of furs on wagons one year, and followed them all the way to New York. Mr. Astor, whose agents kept him notified of all such movements, waylaid the little caravan and tried to purchase the furs. But Mr. Perry flatly refused even to show them. Mr. Astor importuned and insisted. Probably he had never before met any fur-dealer who could withstand him. But it was a case of Greek meeting Greek. Mr. Perry had made up his mind that he was going to sell his furs in New York for all they would bring, and that no middleman should deduct from the profits accruing.
Nathan Perry, Jr., came to Cleveland in 1808. He probably lived with his parents at first. His father died in 1813. Soon after that event his son replaced the frame-house, corner of Superior and Water streets, with a brick store and dwelling under one roof. Here the Indians of this vicinity resorted with their furs, and often with the blankets furnished them by the Government, trading the latter for the various articles they coveted. Large silver brooches, and beads of many sizes and colors were in great demand by them, and always kept on hand by frontier merchants.
In 1816, when he was 31 years old, Nathan Perry married Pauline Skinner, daughter of Abram Skinner, well-known pioneer of Painesville, Ohio. She was born in Hartford, Conn., and 23 years of age. The mar- riage was another link between Cleveland and its sister village east of it, Mrs. Perry being one of several Painesville brides who chose a Cleveland man for a life-mate. Consequently there was much interchange of social courtesies between the two places in early days. Mrs. Perry was of pleasing personality, and has been remembered most kindly by those who recall her in later years. She died some years before her husband, and was laid to rest in Erie Street Cemetery, near the main entrance.
In 1824, Nathan Perry, Jr., bought a hundred acres on the north side of Euclid Avenue. It was purchased of Samuel Hinckley for five dollars an acre. Upon this tract a homestead was erected, which, with additions, yet stands far back from the road, upon a natural rise of ground, a picturesque reminder of pioneer days. North Perry Street was cut through this property. Mr. Perry also purchased several acres of land east of and near Erie Street for $10 an acre. As years passed this property increased greatly in value. He refused to part with any of his
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real estate, and years after the city had grown around it, and Payne Ave- nue had been cut through to Willson Avenue-East 55th Street-there were long stretches of pasture each side of the street, upon which horses and cattle grazed. This was made possible by a law which taxed unim- proved property on the basis of farming land. For years and years clerks with their lunch-baskets, and laborers with their dinner-pails walked the long stretch of "Perry-Payne Pastures" on their way to and from work.
Nathan Perry died in 1865, nearly 80 years of age.
The children of Nathan and Pauline Skinner Perry :
Oliver Hazard Perry, b. April, 1816; Mary Perry, b. Sept., 1818; m.
unmarried. Killed in a railroad Henry B. Payne. accident, 1864.
1806
HORATIO PERRY
Horatio Perry, the youngest son of Judge and Sophia Root Perry, was 16 years old when he came with his parents from Buffalo to Cleveland. Nothing concerning his residence in the village has been recorded save that in 1812 he was on the jury that tried O'Mic the Indian for murder. That same year he married Sally Prentiss, of Warrensville. She was a sister of Cyrus Prentiss, of Ravenna, and aunt of Loren and Perry Pren- tiss, of this city.
Horatio Perry removed to Wellington, Lorain Co., Ohio, where he led a long and useful life. He was deeply religious, having had in his early years a remarkable experience which was similar to that of St. Paul. Upon his reaching the great age of 100 years, not only Wellington, but all Lorain County celebrated the event. He was overwhelmed with gifts and kind wishes, and honored in an unusual degree. He lived nearly a year longer, and at his death the Wellington Enterprise published the following notice of the event:
"Horatio Perry, better known as 'Grandpa Perry,' departed this life on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 1891, at the extraordinary age of 100 years, 11 months and 1 day. Though weighed down by the infirmities of age the deceased was remarkably strong in mind and body for one so old until within a few weeks of his death. About two weeks ago he was stricken with apoplexy and gradually sank into a coma in which his life sank away, and he who had lived so many years among us sank to rest like a tired child.
The bell of the Congregational Church, which has long been unused for such purposes, tolled slowly out the one hundred strokes that an- nounced to the town the death of this venerable man."
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Horatio and Sally Prentiss had but one child who survived infancy, viz., Sophia Perry, m. Nathan Hamlin.
Mrs. Sally Prentiss Perry died and Mr. Perry married secondly, Har- riet Smith. Rev. Thomas Barr performed the ceremony.
The children of Horatio and Harriet Smith Perry :
Jane Perry, m. Homer Hamlin. Frances Perry, m. William L. Smith.
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WALWORTH
Fisher's Island, south of Connecticut, belonged to Governor Winthrop of that state. It was partially cleared and under cultivation, but a large part of it was still heavily wooded and the haunts of deer and other wild game, and in season, its inlets and swamps swarmed with wild fowl of every description.
Governor Winthrop usually rented it, reserving all rights of hunting and fishing, and frequently either himself or his family connections would make up a large party to spend a week on Fisher's Island and return to New London loaded with game. While on this island they were the guests of the lessee or of the families who sublet the farms on it.
William Walworth from London, England, became one of its tenants in the latter part of the seventeenth century, but soon removed to the mainland, settling in Stonington. About 70 years later, one of his direct descendants, John Walworth, was born in Stonington, and at the age of 35 purchased 1,000 acres of land at the mouth of the Grand River-now known as Fairport, and four miles north of Painesville. The family had previously moved to Aurora, N. Y.
Meanwhile, he had married Miss Juliana Morgan, of New London, a sister town whose social and commercial interests were closely interwoven with those of Stonington. She was a granddaughter of Col. Christopher Ledyard, of Revolutionary fame. The Walworths had several children when Mr. Walworth concluded to come West and settle on his newly- acquired property.
In April, 1800, after the usual weary weeks of travel, the family ar- rived at Fairport, where a log-cabin was built for them on a high eleva- tion, containing a beautiful view of the lake and river, and here Mr. Wal- worth began the task of clearing the 300 acres surrounding it. But he early found himself unfitted for such a strenuous undertaking. Nature had given him an active temperament, a fine, vigorous mind full of hope and ambition, but denied him the physical strength and endurance that should have accompanied those mental gifts. He was slight in appear- ance, and of a delicate constitution. His superior education and talents were soon recognized by the widely scattered community of that pioneer
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day, and such honors as were possible then were bestowed upon him. He was made justice of the peace, an associate judge of common pleas, and the postmaster of Painesville. Finally, when the national government in 1805 decided to establish a rate of customs on Lake Erie, Thomas Jefferson appointed him inspector of revenue for the port of Cuyahoga, which necessitated his removal to it.
This led to an interchange of property with Samuel Huntington, who had been living in a log-house on Superior Street back of the present site of the American House. It is probable that the constant illness of Gov. Huntington's family through the prevalence of malaria was a strong inducement in closing the bargain-he had already moved it to Newburgh Heights-and the beautiful location at Fairport presented attractions to lure one from the hamlet so infested with fever and ague. But the ex- change displayed a lack of appreciation of values that afterward must have caused him sore regret, and that it was effected must have been an unfailing source of self-congratulation to Mr. Walworth's descendants, as part of the property thus acquired includes every foot of the city of Cleveland's first ward.
We often hear of men carrying their whole ward precinct in their vest-pocket, but Mr. Walworth was the only one literally able to do so, though we naturally surmise that the deed was kept in a much safer place.
It was in April, 1806, that the Walworth family started for Cleveland in an open boat on Lake Erie; its occupants suffered great fright and exposure, for the boat was wrecked, while Judge Walworth's life was saved by the closest margin. When his feet at length touched bottom, he was almost exhausted from a prolonged struggle in the water, and with great difficulty reached the beach where he sank unable to rise. But his intrepid wife was equal to the occasion, and the family succeeded in reaching Cleveland in safety.
Judge Walworth built a home on the farm of 399 acres, now in the heart of the city, and lying between Erie, Huron, Miami streets and the river. The house stood about where the W. C. T. U. Friendly Inn is located. He lived there six years, taking such part in public affairs as his health permitted. He was the second postmaster of Cleveland, succeeding Elisha Norton in that office. He died in 1812, only 47 years of age.
Juliana Morgan Walworth was a type of the finest women of her day and generation. Her household always numbered other than her own household-orphan waifs and strays, now a friendless young girl, again a widow with children waiting for an opening for self-support. She was a sister of Youngs Ledyard Morgan and Deborah Morgan Weightman, both Cleveland pioneers, and in the remembrance of friends she is pic- tured as erect, active, vigorous, with a forceful face out of which looked kindly gray eyes, wearing her hair as was the fashion of the time-in side-puffs and curls, surmounted by a snowy cap. She was seven years old at the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, and well remembered the sorrowful days of the Groton massacre, how at the approach of the British she was sent to a place of safety ; how in the Sabbaths following nearly every woman in the church she attended was in mourning attire
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for fathers, brothers, and husbands who perished on that fatal day, of a beautiful girl made insane by the death of her betrothed, and other inci- dents connected with that historical event.
In 1812, when the news of an advancing foe struck terror to the hearts of the little settlement, and every one fled for safety, Mrs. Wal- worth with two other brave women remained to face all danger because her husband was too ill to move, and there were sick soldiers in town de- pendent upon their ministrations.
She was an adept at riding a horse, and after the death of Judge Walworth rode through the wilderness all the way to New York City and back.
Four years later she married William Keyes, recalled to the memory of aged people as a very handsome man. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Thomas Barr, of Euclid.
Mrs. Juliana Walworth Keyes died in her home on Euclid Avenue, in 1853, aged 84, having lived in Cleveland for nearly half a century.
The children of Judge John and Juliana Morgan Walworth :
Ashbel Walworth, b. 1790; m. Mary Ann Dunlap. Louisiana, aged 67.
Horace Walworth, b. 1796; died in
Juliana Walworth, m. Dr. David Long.
Hannah Walworth, b. 1812; m. Benj. Strickland.
John Periander Walworth, m. Sarah Wrenn.
The Walworth burial lot is in Woodland Cemetery.
1806
COZAD
To be a Cleveland McIlrath is not always to be also a Cozad, but if one is a Cozad, in this part of the country, he surely is a McIlrath as well. For the grandmother or great-grandmother of them all was Jane Mc- Ilrath.
The Cozad family are descended from Jacques Cossart, a French- Huguenot, who came to New York City from Holland in 1662. He was accompanied by his wife, Lydia Williams Cossart, and two children, the eldest of whom, a daughter, married a Goelet. There were two more children born to the couple in this country. The youngest of these was Anthony Cossart, and his son Jacob removed from Brooklyn, where he had been living some years, to Mendham, New Jersey, where he died. The family name, by this time, began to be pronounced and later written "Cozad."
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Samuel, fourth in descent from the American ancestor, married Anna Clark, and had a family of five daughters and two sons. Three of these children came west in 1806 and were Cleveland pioneers." They were :
Samuel Cozad, Jr., b. 1756; m. Jane McIlrath in 1785.
Abigail Cozad, b. 1761; m. Andrew McIlrath.
Elisabeth Cozad, b. 1763; m. Thom- as McIlrath.
Jane, Andrew, and Thomas McIlrath were the children of Samuel and Jane Aikman McIlrath, who also came to Cleveland about the same time.
Samuel Cozad, Jr., and wife settled on the south side of Euclid Ave. Their log-cabin stood on the grounds of the present Adelbert College. They bought land on that side of the street from Doan's Corners out to Lake View Cemetery. And their sons purchased considerable property on the north side of the street, including what is now Wade Park.
The children of Samuel and Jane Cozad:
Elias Cozad, b. 1790; m., in 1813, Hannah Palmer.
Anne Cozad, b. 1792; m., in 1809, John Carlton. Nathaniel Cozad, b. 1803; m. Ann Collier.
Samuel Cozad, b. 1794; m., in 1816, Mary Condit.
Sarah Cozad, b. 1799; m., in 1817, William Dudley Mather; 2nd, Jonathan Hale.
Andrew Cozad, b. 1801; m. Sally Simmons, who was born 1805, and died 1884.
Jacob Cozad, b. 1786; m. Rosanna Brownlee.
Elias Cozad's farm was what is Lake View Cemetery, and his log-house stood near the centrance to the cemetery. An old well once marked the spot, but probably has long since been filled in. In late life he lived on the south-west corner of Euclid and E. 107th Street, in a comfortable brick residence, where he died the last of his generation.
Mrs. Elias Cozad was Hannah Palmer, daughter of Deacon Thomas and Sarah Fardyce Palmer of Annapolis, Maryland. She had a large family of children, most of whom were born into pioneer life, and the mother experienced all the hardship, deprivation and loneliness entailed upon the women of that very early day in Ohio.
The children of Elias and Hannah Palmer Cozad:
Dr. Amos Cozad, moved to Indiana. James Cozad, m. Isabell Bonnall. Jesse Cozad, m. Sophie Strong. Solomon Cozad, died a bachelor. Hannah Cozad, m. Elias Cozad. Jerusha Cozad, m. James Johnson of Collamer.
Lydia Cozad, m. Leonard Marcelot of Euclid.
Julia Cozad, m. Augustus Andrews. Aurelia Cozad, m. Wells Beckwith. Ethan Allen, Cynthia, and Amelia Cozad, unmarried.
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The family lived later at the north-west corner of Euclid Avenue and Fairmount Street.
Anne Cozad married in 1809 John Carlton of Northfield, Summit Co. He was a soldier of the War of 1812, was wounded, and died September, 1813. They had one child:
Harriet Carlton, b. March 18, 1811; m. William Hale of Bath, Summit Co.
Mr. Hale was the son of Jonathan Hale, who married for his second wife Harriet Carlton's aunt, Mrs. Sarah Cozad Mather. William Hale had also been married before. William and Harriet Carlton Hale had five children.
Sarah Cozad married in 1817 William Dudley Mather of Northfield, O. If a name signifies aught, Mr. Mather must have been of the finest New England stock. He died leaving two children:
Jane Mather, b. 1821; m. Andrew Betsey Mather, b. 1823; m. Sand- Hale, brother of William Hale of ford Rogers of Bath, O.
Bath, O.
Andrew Cozad married Sally Simmons of Fredonia, N. Y. She was born in 1805, and died in 1884.
They had a large family of children. The first three died young. Those who reached maturity were:
Justus L. Cozad, m. Ortensia Whit- Henry Irving Cozad, m. Emma Hine.
man. Sarah L. Cozad, m. Daniel Duty.
Andrew Dudley Cozad, m. Lucy Marcus E. Cozad, m. Margaret Wag- Crosby.
goner.
Nathaniel Cozad, b. 1803, married Anne Collier, and settled on the old homestead of his father, the site of which is part of Adelbert Col- lege grounds. His children :
Martha Cozad, b. 1825; m. Horatio Minerva Cozad, b. 1831.
Ford.
Samuel Cozad 3rd, who married Mary Condit of the pioneer Condit family, settled on Euclid Avenue opposite his father, at Doan's Corners. His log-cabin was situated on a spot now the center of the pond in Wade Park. Afterward, he built a frame-house directly opposite Hatch Li- brary. His farm consisted of 100 acres of woods, undergrowth and marsh. The nearest neighbors were Job Doan, keeping the Doan Tav- ern, north-west corner of Euclid Avenue and E. 107th Street, and the Hendershotts, living back of the college grounds. E. 107th Street was then Newburgh Road.
Mr. Newell S. Cozad, son of Samuel Cozad 3rd, is yet living and relates many exceedingly interesting stories of his boyhood. He inherited, or succeeded his father as owner of the Wade Park property. From the first he recognized and appreciated the unusual natural beauty of the
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spot, its towering trees, the loveliness of the brook flowing through the place, and the charm of the ever-changing ravine, its steep banks covered with flowering bushes and wild flowers. He gave much time and a great deal of money in improving the property. He met with serious business reverses, which compelled him to part with it at a great financial loss, and the late J. H. Wade became the owner of it. Mr. Cozad states that along Doan Creek for miles in both directions were bear-dens.
"Farmers slept each night with muskets by their bedsides, ready for nocturnal attacks upon their pig-pens. These were not infrequent, and many a night the terrified squeals of a young porker sounded the alarm to all the farmers of the neighborhood, bringing them to its rescue.
"We were awakened one night by a commotion in the pig-pen," he relates, "and hastened out with loaded muskets to determine the cause. The pen was constructed of logs placed one above another, with a space of six inches between them. Upon the convenient ladder thus afforded, we discovered a large bear with a squealing pig held in his strong em- brace, ascending step by step to the top of the high enclosure. It took but one shot to settle him for all, and bear-meat was a drug on the mar- ket around Doan's Corners next day."
Samuel Cozad 3rd was a pioneer in the temperance movement, and actively interested in the slavery question. With Cyrus Ford, a pioneer neighbor, he assisted slaves into Canada.
The children of Samuel and Mary Condit Cozad :
Hetty Ann Cozad, b. 1817; m. Jo- seph Bennett of Staten Island, N. Y.
Silas H. Cozad, b. 1819; unmarried. Mary Cozad, b. 1821; m. Joel B. Hawkins; d. 1872.
William Mather Cozad, b. 1823; m. Sarah Bennett. He died 1872.
Newell Samuel Cozad, b. 1831; m. Sarah J. Goe.
Martha Jane Cozad, b. 1834; un- married.
Newell S. Cozad, who as a lad experienced much of pioneer life, is still a prominent resident of the East End.
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By the death of John Walworth in 1812, his widow and children were left in a frontier town in the midst of a national war that threatened danger to all the settlements of northern Ohio.
The oldest child of the family was Ashbel, 22 years of age, the young- est a babe. Upon the former fell all the cares and responsibilities of his father's business and of the bereaved household. His young shoulders were worthy of the mantle. He was steady, discreet, wise for his years,
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honest, kind-hearted, and therefore popular with his neighbors of the lit- tle hamlet. He safely tided over the family crisis, and in 1820 started a home of his own by his marriage to Miss Mary Ann Dunlap of Schenec- tady, N. Y. Her sister became Mrs. Elisha Taylor and another one Mrs. William Beattie. They were of a fine Schenectady family.
Mr. Walworth filled the highest offices of trust, except those of the bar, that the government could bestow upon a citizen of Cleveland in those days. He was collector of port 17 successive years, and postmaster when for a time the mail was yet so far from heavy that he is said to have carried it around in his pocket and handed it over to the rightful owners as he casually met them. In later years the mail was yet so far from heavy that occasionally he closed the office while he went fishing.
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