USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The pioneer families of Cleveland 1796-1840 Vol. I > Part 22
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The year 1827 was one of great sorrow to the Sherwin family. A malignant fever raged in Cleveland and the surrounding countryside. Whole families were ill in bed unattended, and there was great mortality in consequence. Mrs. Sherwin, Jr., Sarah Sherwin Sumner, and Jesse Harris, husband of Poplin Sherwin, died within a few days of each other. Ahimaaz Sherwin, Sr., in writing to Vermont relatives soon afterward, said-
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"Every one of our family was sick, and no one to care for them. For the whole neighborhood was in the same situation. I had 16 children and grandchildren all sick at once."
The children of Ahimaaz, Jr., and Hannah Swan Sherwin:
Lucy Sherwin, b. 1818; m. David Carleton; removed to Elkhart, Ind.
Harriet Sherwin, b. 1820; m. Philip Cody of Cleveland.
Franklin Tyler Sherwin, m. 1st, Fanny Riddle, a widow; 2nd, Elisabeth Arnold.
In 1828, Ahimaaz Sherwin, Jr., married 2nd, Sarah M. King of Liv- ingston Co., N. Y., and daughter of Joseph King, a pioneer. The children of Ahimaaz, Jr., and Sarah King Sherwin :
Caroline M. Sherwin, m. Benjamin Burke; 2nd, her cousin Sherwin Logan.
Mary Sherwin, m. John Handley, son of Jonathan Handley.
Sarah P. Sherwin, m. Edwin G. Rose, formerly of Norwalk, Ohio.
Ruth Day Sherwin, m. Eugene Cole- man. She died in Cleveland. A daughter resides in Denver, Col.
Ida A. Sherwin, m. 1st, C. L. Beck- with; 2nd, Elisha Nichols.
Ahimaaz Sherwin, Jr., died 1881, and Sarah M. King Sherwin five years later, at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. John Handley. Mrs. Sarah Sherwin was an earnest worker in the East End Methodist Church. A costly cathedral-glass window adorns the western wall of the beau- tiful Euclid Avenue Christian Church. It was erected in memory of Delphia Sherwin, wife of William Hudson, and daughter of Ahimaaz and Ruth Day Sherwin. She died at the age of 84 years, and for many years had been a prominent and active worker in this church society.
1818 SAXTON
Jehial Saxton, 36 years of age, settled in Newburgh in the fall of 1818. His farm was five miles from the Public Square on Kinsman Road, corner of Rice Ave. He brought his family with him from Bris- tol, Vt. They were six weeks making the journey of 600 miles. Mr. Saxton hastened to clear a spot from trees and brush upon which to erect his log-cabin, and although its windows lacked any glass we may be sure that Mrs. Saxton and her five children spent their first night under its sheltering roof in deep content. One has but to sleep six weeks under the stars to be enabled to appreciate a stationary bed and one that was dry. Besides there had been very strange, blood-curdling noises in the
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last few nights of their journey. Any one who has ever heard the howl- ing of wolves would wish to be between four walls when they began their music, especially if it sounded close at hand.
The family diet that winter and the following spring became very monotonous, and Mr. Saxton must have grown quite desperate in ring- ing the changes up on squirrel, rabbit, wild duck and turkey, with occa- sional chances to cook venison. For the last of the provisions brought from Vermont gave out, and until crops were raised, the family had to depend chiefly upon wild game. All this hardship was a new experience for Mr. Saxton. He had been accustomed to comforts and to a public life and the loneliness of the wilderness and the daily sight of his fam- ily's deprivation was a constant regret and worry.
He took the contract for opening of Kinsman Road from Rice Ave. to Perry Street, now E. 33rd, which compelled the chopping down of many forest trees, clearing them out of the way, and other laborious work, at 75 cents a day.
There were no schools near enough for his children to attend, and with two neighbors he built a log school-house and sent for a teacher who boarded with the three families.
Although from Bristol, Vt., Mr. Saxton was born in Whitehall, N. Y. His parents were Ebenezer and Hannah Loomis Saxton of Sheffield, Mass.
In the War of 1812 he raised an independent company of militia, of which he was the captain. He served in the Battle of Plattsburgh.
He was married twice, first to Sally Fuller, and after her death, sec- ondly, in 1808, to Polly Stewart.
Jehiel Saxton died in 1858, aged 75 years.
Mrs. Saxton was the daughter of Sargeant Samuel Stewart, a hero of the Revolutionary War, born in Londonderry, N. H., and his wife, Elisa- beth Abbott of Salisbury, Conn. Their daughter, Polly Stewart Saxton, was the first white child born in Bristol, Vt.
She inherited from her father great force of character and it was because of her hopefulness and helpfulness that her husband was enabled to pass through those trying years of pioneer life. An interesting inci- dent of her early life in Newburgh has been handed down to her de- scendants.
Two neighbors and herself were spending an afternoon together. Each of them had a very young child in her arms. Suddenly they heard the squealing of the only pig in the neighborhood. They guessed at once what was happening to that pig, and rushed out, still holding their babes, in time to see a big bear making off with it. That domestic animal meant to the woman more than future pork, ham, and bacon. It stood also for fried cakes, doughnuts, and innumerable pies. Any housewife ever entirely out of shortening when trying to fry or bake will realize the desperate situation.
All three women chased that bear right into the heart of the woods over stumps, through underbrush, screaming as they ran. Bruno became rattled at the noise and pursuit and dropping the pig trotted on to more quiet and safety.
To the women of today the courage of those Cleveland and Newburgh
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pioneer wives and mothers is almost incredible. Imagine, if you can, three club-women living, say on Prospect Street, East 82nd, or Cornell Road, clutching their babes with one arm, brandishing a stick with the other, while running pell-mell in pursuit of a wild beast.
There were 12 children born to the Saxton family. Their mother closed the eyes of three in death in 1831, one in 1837, another in 1844, and yet another in 1857, half of her household preceding her to the grave. She died 1873.
Children of Jehiel and Polly Stewart Saxton:
Sally Saxton, b. 1809; died 1831; m. Johnson. Anson Saxton, b. 1817; died 1833.
Hannah Saxton, b. 1810; died 1885; m. Stark Edwards.
Jehiel Saxton, Jr., b. 1812; died 1895; m. Emeline A. Morse.
Harriet Saxton, b. 1814; died 1831.
Betsey Saxton, b. 1819; d. 1837.
The above were born in Bristol, Vt.
Phebe Saxton, b. 1821; d. 1844.
Elmira Saxton, b. 1823; d. 1900.
Dewitt Saxton, b. 1825; d. 1853; m. Christiana Corlett.
Cynthia Saxton, b. 1827; m. Luke Darroll.
Mary Saxton, b. 1828; died on East Prospect St. 1912.
1818
STOCKWELL
William Stockwell was in Cleveland as early as 1818, for in July of that year he was married to Lydia Hall by Horace Perry. His bride was a widow with a little nine-year-old daughter, Sarah or "Sally" Hall.
Much research has failed to secure the antecedents of either husband or wife, or where they came from to Cleveland. Mr. Stockwell left no descendants so far as can be learned, and those of Sarah Hall do not know who was her father nor the maiden name of her mother.
Probably Wm. Stockwell came originally from a New England state, as the name is a familiar one in that part of the country, although thus far no genealogy of the family has been compiled. No advertisement of his business appears in the early issues of the Cleveland Herald, and it cannot be ascertained.
The family lived on Superior Street adjoining the residence of Deacon Moses White, and east of it. Madam Severance remembered them well, though but a child at the time, as very nice, refined people.
Mr. Stockwell died in the cholera season of 1834, and was buried in Erie Street Cemetery. Mrs. Lydia Hall Stockwell died three years later in Massillon, Ohio, where she had been living during her widowhood with her daughter who, at the age of 16, in 1825, had married Joseph G.
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Hogan. They resided in Massillon some years, but in 1840 returned to Cleveland, bringing with them the remains of Mrs. Stockwell, who was placed beside her husband in Erie street cemetery.
Two years later, Joseph H. Hogan died. His widow survived him over 30 years, passing away at the age of 64 years. The family lived near the corner of St. Clair and Ontario streets.
The Stockwell-Hogan monument stands to the right of the main drive of the cemetery and near its entrance.
The children of Joseph G. and Sarah Hall Hogan :
Romelia Hogan, m. Daniel Folsom. He was drowned in Lake Erie in . passage from Buffalo to Cleve- land.
William H. Hogan, married late in life a Chicago lady. He died in 1892, and was buried in the fam- ily lot.
Maria Hogan, m. William Johnson of Wooster, D. S. P.
Mary Long Hogan, m. John Taylor Strong, brother of C. H. Strong, Sr. John Hogan.
Charles Hogan. Died at Harpers Ferry during the Civil War.
Mary L. Hogan, a namesake of Madame Severance, was considered an unusually pretty girl. Her life was spent in Cleveland. At her death in 1904, aged 66 years, she left two daughters, Mrs. William Van Tine of Pittsburgh, and Mrs. Nelly T. Gay of Manchester, Mass.
1818
BARBER
In the fall of 1818, a number of Hebron, Conn., families started for the West and traveled in company all the way to Cleveland. Three of these were the Watkins, Branch, and Barber families.
They made quite a cavalcade, as there were horses, carriages, wagons, ox-teams, ox-carts loaded with furniture, and in the rear of the proces- sion, patient but puzzled cows walked all the way to become pioneers of their kind in Ohio.
It must have been a wonderful experience for the children of the party, those weeks of journeying and camp-life, and doubtless, it fur- nished topic for reminiscence long after the snows of old age had whit- ened their locks, and railroad trains were covering the same route and the same distance in 36 hours.
Josiah Barber was the most important member of the party. With his brother-in-law Richard Lord he had purchased a large tract of land on the west side, extending from the river to Pearl street, now West 25th, and, with two or three exceptions, from Franklin Street to the lake. It must be borne in mind that there were no roads then, simply wide paths cut through the dense woods.
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Josiah Barber evidently had an eye for the beautiful in nature; per- haps it was his wife who possessed it. At any rate, no more beautiful or convenient spot could have been selected for their first, pioneer home. It was on the edge of the bank overlooking the wide Cuyahoga Val- ley, with the high, steep banks of Cleveland, Newburgh, and Brooklyn, all clothed in brilliant autumn foliage and hemming it in.
The log-house was built to face this wonderful scenery, and so was the brick residence that supereseded it in after years.
The writer as a child often wondered why the home turned its back on Pearl Street, and then little thought that she would be explaining why over a half century later. It still stands on the east side of the street but a few steps south of Detroit Ave.
Josiah Barber was born in 1771, and therefore was 47 years old when he came west. He brought with him his wife and four children. His oldest one, a daughter, was married, and did not accompany her parents to their pioneer home. His youngest child was about eight years old.
All the Barber family were devoted churchmen and when, in 1820, poor Trinity, only three years old that year, had no home nor rector on the east side of the river, Josiah Barber opened wide his door and for six years church services were held off and on in his home.
He became financially interested in several mercantile and manufac- turing enterprises of an early day. One of these was the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Co. As one of the firm of "Lord and Barber" he con- stantly dealt in real-estate. In 1836, he was mayor of Ohio City-the West Side.
Josiah Barber married 1st, Abigail Gilbert. She died leaving a little daughter, Abigail Gilbert Barber, who married Robert Russell. He died, and eventually with her three young daughters she joined her father in this city. Two of the daughters subsequently became the wives of very prom- . inent Cleveland citizens. These children of Robert and Abigail Russell were .:
Sophia Lord Russell, m. Daniel P. Charlotte Augusta Russell, m. Uriah Rhodes.
Livania Russell.
C. Hatch.
Josiah Barber married 2nd, Sophia Lord, daughter of Samuel Philips and Rachel White Lord.
Their children were:
Epiphras Barber, b. 1802; m. Jeru- Sophia Lord Barber, b. 1806, died sha Tracey Sargeant. unmarried.
Harriet Barber, b. 1804; m. Horatio Jerusha Barber, b. 1808; died 1823. N. Ward.
Mrs. Sophia Lord Barber, Sr., had a brother and two sisters, who re- sided in Cleveland at an early day. They were Richard Lord, Hope Lord, wife of Seldin Chapman, and Abigail Lord Randall.
As the only son of Josiah Barber, Sr., Epaphras Barber was associ-
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ated in business with his father, and at the former's death in 1842, it all devolved upon him.
His wife was the daughter of Levi and Rosamond Harris Sargeant, Cleveland pioneers. She had inherited many lovely traits of character from her mother, and been raised in a family of high ideals, and un- selfish devotion to principle. Consequently, her own children, the third generation of the Barber family, were a credit to their grandparents on both sides of the house. But one of this generation remains, Mrs. So- phia Barber McCrosky. She spends her summers in Cleveland and her winters in California .*
There is no descendant of the family now living anywhere in the vicinity of the pioneer home.
The children of Epaphras and Jerusha Barber :
Richard Lord Barber, b. 1827; died
1884 in Kansas; married 1st,
Mary E. Hodgeman of Parma, O .; 2nd, Ella Hale of Collinwood.
Josiah Barber, 2nd, b. 1825; died 1882; m. Caroline Cook, dau. of Chauncy Cook.
Epaphras Barber, b. 1830; m. So-
phia Watkins; died 1898, in Wau- seon, O.
Sophia Lord Barber, b. 1833; m. James McCrosky.
Tootie Barber, b. 1843; m. 1st, A. M. McGregor; 2nd, Dr. M. O. Terry of Utica, N. Y.
Mrs. Terry had one son who died in his teens. After the death of Mr. McGregor, she founded the McGregor Home for the Aged, on Lee Road, East Cleveland.
She was a very bright, attractive woman, and was of much use to the world. Her death took place in a southern state in 1912.
1818
MCINTOSH
Dr. Donald McIntosh was a very early Cleveland physician, also a tavern-keeper; for like all other professional men of that day he did not attempt to earn a livelihood for himself and family through his practice alone but combined with it another occupation.
Dr. McIntosh was born in New York and educated in Quebec. He was of Scotch descent and of good family. He was considered a skillful physician, but devoted too much of his time to horses, dogs, racing and, alas ! drink.
Nothing can be learned regarding his wife save that her Christian name was Susan, and that she outlived him.
But the doctor's children, two or three sons and a daughter were the schoolmates or playmates of others of their age who recalled them in after years. One of the latter was the late Philander Johnson who was
* Since deceased.
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born on Water Street and who furnished the writer with partial data concerning the McIntosh family.
The eldest son, Donald McIntosh, Jr., became a sailor on the lakes, a calling he followed many years and finally disappeared from knowledge of all early friends. There was another son, Grovenor or Grosvenor McIntosh, of whom no trace can be found. Both boys were nice-looking and much liked by their associates. So far as can be recalled there was but one daughter in the family, Elizabeth McIntosh.
Dr. McIntosh was profane to a degree and not always careful to abstain from bad language when in the presence of patients. In connec- tion with this an incident is related. Squire Hudson of the Ohio town of that name, was very ill and a call upon Cleveland was made for medi- cal aid. Why Dr. Long was not sent to his relief is a query, as he had a much better reputation and withal was a gentleman. However, Dr. McIntosh was dispatched to the scene. He found Squire Hudson very ill and very despondent. The patient thought he could not recover and refused to take the proffered medicine, which was not surprising when we recall that in those days nauseous drugs in quantity were administered for every ill.
Dr. McIntosh, an irritable, quick-tempered man, turned on the Squire, a pious deacon of the Presbyterian Church, and berated him in his choicest vocabulary. "Die then and go to hell!" was his parting shaft.
But the good deacon, horrified at such language, was aroused to expostulation and rebuke. He probably concluded that there was still work for him in this world when such very ungodly men were yet living in it. He took the medicine, recovered, and for many a year following was a religious power in his community.
Dr. McIntosh kept the Eagle tavern on Water street, corner of St. Clair. In 1820, Pliny Morey, who built a tavern in 1812 on the south-west corner of Superior Street and the Public Square, got into financial diffi- culties through signing a note for a friend. Leonard Case, the holder of the note, foreclosed, and the tavern was put up at auction, bid in, and later sold to Dr. Donald McIntosh for $4,500. The lot was the easterly half of original lot No. 63, with a frontage of 82.66 feet on Superior Street and a depth to Michigan Street.
In 1830 a new two-story house on Seneca Street south of Superior street is advertised for sale, "now in the occupancy of Dr. McIntosh," which would denote that tavern-keeping had ceased to be one of his occupations.
Dr. McIntosh lost his life early in the year 1834 while horse-racing by moonlight. He was thrown from his horse and his neck broken. The following June his wife Susan McIntosh, as administratrix of his estate, legally notified his creditors to exhibit their accounts within a year, and calls upon his debtors to make payment to Harvey Rice, Esq., who will transact all business connected with settling the estate.
Nothing farther can be traced of the family.
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1818
MERCHANT
Gen. Ahaz Merchant was born in Connecticut in 1794, and came to Cleveland in 1818. He was a civil engineer, and did much work in that line for the state and city. He was a contractor also, and erected many notable buildings in the business section of the city, among them the Angier House, afterward renamed "Kennard House." He tried his hand at farming with success, and the latter part of his life was spent upon a large farm on St. Clair street. He died "land poor," having invested freely in it, especially on the West Side, a locality in which he was much interested.
Gen. Merchant commanded the militia, and was a prominent figure in all military parades. His death occurred in 1862 at the age of 69. The family lived at 39 Euclid Ave. when in the city proper.
Mrs. Merchant was a Miss Catherine Stewart who came from Morris- town, N. J., in 1819. Her sister Hannah Stewart married Abram Ruple of East Cleveland. Ahaz Merchant had a brother Ira, and a sister Rebecca who came to East Cleveland a year or two earlier than he. Rebecca was a widow with two children, and married later, John Welsh.
The children of Ahaz and Catherine Merchant :
Aaron Merchant, m. Mary Ann Harriet Merchant, m. R. M. Taylor.
Warner Ammock. Mary Merchant, m. Madison Miller.
Martha Merchant, m. Charles Cad- Silas Merchant, m. 1st. Julia Riddle ; 2nd, Celia Tuttle.
man.
The sons of Ahaz Merchant assisted him in his work, and after his death followed the same lines of business. Mr. and Mrs. R. M. Taylor were host and hostess of the Angier House for many years.
The only representative of the family bearing the name of Merchant is Charles C. Merchant, son of Aaron. Silas Merchant had no children, but adopted a nephew and niece of his first wife. He became involved in his business affairs and removed to New Philadelphia, in this state.
1818
LOGAN
In 1818, upon the south-west corner of the Public Square and Superior Street, a site now occupied by Marshall's drug-store, there stood a small frame-building used as a book-store and a doctor's office. Between that store and Seneca street, now West 3rd, there was no other building save one near the corner of Seneca that had been constructed for weighing hay. It was a quaint little structure, only 10x20 feet, and one story high. The front of the roof had been built to project a little more than the width of a wagon, and from this hung four stout log-chains which were fastened to the wheels of the vehicle to be weighed, which was then raised from the ground with the help of a long heavy beam used as a lever.
In this crude place was started the first newspaper published in the city of Cleveland, on the same street and but a short walk from the pres-
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ent great printing establishments of the Cleveland Leader and the Cleve- land Plain Dealer, each representing a fortune and housed in many- storied and costly buildings of its own. This first newspaper venture was made by Andrew Logan, an ambitious young printer and future editor. He is said to have resembled John A. Logan of the Civil War, who was of medium height, stockily built, and of swarthy complexion, and like the late general, he claimed descent from Logan, the noted Mingo chief.
Andrew Logan brought his type from Beaver, Pa., which may have been his home, for a time at least. The type was much worn, so much so that some of the letters made almost illegible impressions. But he started his newspaper July 31, 1818, under the pretentious title, "The_ Cleveland Gazette and Commercial Advertiser." A copy of it is preserved in the Western Reserve Historical Library, and it will be found a very creditable sheet.
The big beam that served as a lever for the weighing apparatus ran nearly through the length of the room, and young Logan must have had to step over or around it many times a day, but as he was also official "weigher" for the town, the obstruction, like his type, was a means of livelihood. The Cleveland Weekly Herald, starting a year later with far better equipment, must have discouraged the young printer from further effort to make ends meet, and within a few months following its first issue, he ceased the publication of his own paper. To his position as weigher was added that of "village inspector," and he remained in or near town several years after the close of his printing establishment. Meanwhile, he had married Phila Sherwin, daughter of Amahaaz and Ruth Day Sherwin, who had come to Cleveland in the fall of 1818, from Middleburg, Vt., in company with her parents.
The indifference of descendants has made it difficult to gain correct information concerning Andrew Logan's subsequent life. But this much has been gleaned, that he removed to Iowa, continued in the printing and publishing business, and for many years was the editor of the Davenport News. Only the names of two children have been secured, Dr. Augustus Rodney Logan, who died in Mexico, 68 years of age, and Sherwin Logan, who married his cousin Caroline Sherwin. She was the daughter of Ahimaaz Sherwin, Jr., and born in this city where she grew to woman- hood.
1818
HAMLIN
The records of the Presbyterian church of Lenox, Mass., for August, 1820, contained an item that had an important bearing upon the strug- gling little society of the same faith in Cleveland. It was a record of withdrawal of Samuel Isbell Hamlin, twenty-five years of age, who had been absent from his native town for two years, and now transferred by letter to the Presbyterian church of Cleveland.
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He was one of the small band of Christians headed by Elisha Taylor who, in 1819, started the first Sunday-school of the town, and for half a century kept his shoulder close to the church wheel in readiness to push or lift in times of discouragement or difficulty. From a young, ardent recruit, he became an officer and pillar of what is now called the "Old Stone Church." He was "Deacon" Hamlin for many long years before his death in 1868. He was the son of Ichabod Hamlin of Lenox, Mass., and early learned the carpenter trade. He became a contractor and was financially prosperous.
Six years after he arrived in Cleveland, he married Cynthia Jones, the daughter of Daniel and Lucretia Jones. She was born in Cheshire, Conn., in 1804, and was twenty years of age when married.
Deacon Hamlin and his wife kept open house for the ministers of their faith, and loved to entertain them. Many weekly services were held at their home before the first church edifice was erected. One of their sons became a minister, which doubtless gave the good deacon and his wife unbounded satisfaction.
Samuel and Cynthia Jones Hamlin had ten children, five of whom died young.
Martha Hamlin, m. George Dewey Rev. Chauncy L. Hamlin, m. Mary
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