USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The pioneer families of Cleveland 1796-1840 Vol. I > Part 5
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1798
SPAFFORD
lots he wishes to purchase is more than they are worth, considering their isolation, and the great scarcity of money, and he threatens to locate elsewhere in the Reserve unless he is offered better terms.
The company, most unfortunately for himself, must have acceded to his demands, for he settled down to remain in Cleveland, building a two- story frame-house just south of the cabin, and the following year erecting another one at the foot of Superior Street, perhaps for his daughter, Mrs. Anna Craw, who was married in 1801.
Major Spafford must have been either visionary or impractical, for he burdened himself hopelessly by the purchase of more real estate than he could pay for or resell, and it was the means of a financial embarrass- ment from which he was never able to extricate himself. He was de- scended from John and Elisabeth Spafford, who came to Rowley, Mass., with Rev. Rogers in 1636, from Yorkshire, England. Amos Spafford was tall, very straight, had a high, broad forehead, and a quiet, sedate manner. All records speak highly of him, the last one as a "sound- headed, pure-hearted man."
Mrs. Spafford was a Miss Olive Barlow. She was born in Granville, Mass., and married Amos Spafford when only 17 years of age. The young couple continued to live in Granville until after the Revolution, when they joined the popular emigration to Vermont, living in Orwell, that state, until their removal to Cleveland. Mrs. Olive Spafford was then about 44 years old, and four of her living children were well grown. The oldest, Samuel, had been with his father a member of the second surveying party, and Anna Spafford, the oldest daughter, married within six months after her arrival in Ohio.
In histories of early Cleveland, it is stated that in 1802 Anna Spafford taught the first Cleveland school in the front room of Major Carter's cabin, locating said cabin at the corner of Superior and Water streets. There are many contradictions and discrepancies concerning this event, and after careful research the writer is led to believe that the first school was either started in her own, or her parents' home. She was no longer "Anna Spafford" after May, 1801, having married John Craw at that date, and her first child was born in the spring of 1802. The Carter home until 1803 was under the river bank, north of St. Clair Street, and Mrs. Craw would not be likely to go there when a room could have been obtained nearer. That the second Carter home was used as a school afterward, there can be little doubt, but with Chloe Spafford, Anna's younger sister, as its teacher. Chloe also taught in Newburgh a year or two later. There were only four families in town in 1802. The Carters, Clarks, Huntingtons, and Spaffords.
The Huntingtons brought with them a governess, Miss Margaret Cobb. That would eliminate their children from a school as long as she remained with them, which was a year or two at least. The youngest Spafford, Adolphus, was about eleven years of age. Of the Carters old enough for instruction, Alonzo was 12, Laura 10, and Henry 6 years old. The first school, therefore, could not have numbered over six pupils, with every child of proper age present.
After paying the usual license fee of four dollars, Major Spafford opened his house for the traveling public, and ever after, as long as the
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SPAFFORD
building stood, it was a tavern, and when it was pulled down another and more pretentious one, called the "Mansion House," stood on the same site. The building was painted red, and stood on the last lot on the south side of Superior Street. In the grading of the street, years later, this lot, and another east of it, were left high above the sidewalk, and eventually many feet of its surface were scraped off to the rear, which originally extended back to the river.
The arrival of Mrs. Huntington must have been a great pleasure to Mrs. Spafford. The two women lived side by side for several years, and doubtless, in the sorrows and calamities that befell Mrs. Spafford, her friend and neighbor extended much sympathy and aid.
In 1807, Anna Spafford Craw died, leaving two little sons, John, aged 5 years, and Richard, aged 3. She was buried in the cemetery on Ontario Street, and as her husband and parents eventually left the city and there was no one to attend to the matter, her ashes probably were thrown out when the foundation was dug for the building erected on the site, or were part of the barrels of human bones that stood day after day on the curb-stone awaiting the cart that at last bore them away.
The following year, Mrs. Spafford endured still greater sorrow. Her youngest daughter, Chloe, in March, 1804, had married Stephen Gilbert, a young man 29 years of age, who was associated with her father in the second surveying expedition. He had bought a lot and sowed it with wheat the following year-1798-and had been a permanent settler since then. He had filled small offices of trust, and seemed to be a valuable member of the community. Augustus Gilbert, of Newburgh, was an older brother. They were the sons of Joseph and Elisabeth Breck Gilbert, of Hartford, Conn., and descendants of Capt. John Gilbert, one of the founders of Hartford.
In April, 1808, Stephen Gilbert, accompanied by his young brother-in- law, Adolphus Spafford, went on a fishing expedition. They were in a large boat containing six other people, and were bound for a point ten miles west of town where black fish had been reported seen in great number. The boat was overturned, and all within it but one perished. Stephen Gilbert could easily have saved himself, but he clung to his young companion in a vain effort to bring him to shore. Their bodies were recovered, and after being placed in the cemetery on Ontario Street, afterward were removed to Erie Street Cemetery, near the entrance to the right. They are marked by small stones lying flat on the graves. By one stroke Mrs. Spafford thus lost her son and son-in-law, and added to her own grief was that of her daughter left a widow with two little children.
Major Spafford's Cleveland ventures did not prosper, and in 1810, having received the appointment of collector in the district of Miami, in which is now Toledo-probably through the influence of his old neighbor and friend, Gov. Huntington-he sold out to George Wallace, moved to Fort Meigs, and built a log-house at the foot of the rapids there.
Chloe Gilbert evidently did not accompany her parents, for in Novem- ber, 1810, her father writes to John Walworth, "I find myself under great obligations to you and your family for the friendly aid you have given our unfortunate daughter and children. As you observe, she will find a
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home with you until she obtains a better one. This is saying a great deal, as, in my opinion, a better home could not be found. Chloe well knows that she will always find one with me, but at present I hardly know where my house or home is."
Just a year later he writes Mr. Walworth that he is unable to come to Cleveland or to sell his land there. That Mrs. Spafford, himself, and son Aurora are recovering from severe illness, and that his home and all his business seem to be out of joint. He wished his Cleveland lots sold, as his creditors as well as himself are in need of money. Abram Hickox at this time was raising wheat on the Spafford lots on shares.
By 1812, Major Spafford had picked up a little, and had a log-house, a farm partly cleared, and some stock, when the Indians in the employ of the British swooped down on the Miami settlers, and looted their homes of everything that could be carried off. Major Spafford gave them all the money he had except $20, to exempt his household, but receiving word that another party was on the way, this time massacring as well as pillag- ing, he hurried his family and neighbors into a crazy old boat, leaving everything behind, and started down the river, out into the lake, for Huron, many miles east. Had not a friendly Indian misled the enemy in regard to the time they started, they could easily have been overtaken and put to death.
The Spaffords rowed up the Huron River, eight miles, to a little town called Milan, where they remained until the war closed. Upon their return to Maumee-or Perrysburg-as the place was afterward named by Major Spafford, he found his house burned, his horses and cattle gone, and had to begin all over again. Out of the old wreck of a transport he built a house to shelter them. The property in that section afterward became valuable, but not until after Mr. and Mrs. Spafford had passed away. Their lives had been that of long struggle, exposure, peril, sorrow, and disappointment.
Their children were all the parents could desire, respected and honored in the communities in which they lived. They were:
Samuel Spafford, m. Catherine Ma- bee, and d. in 1831, in Perrysburg. Anna Spafford, b. 1780; m. John Craw, May, 1801, and d. 1807. Left two sons-John, aged 5, and Richard, aged 3.
Chloe Spafford, m. March, 1804, Ste-
phen Gilbert, who was drowned 1808.
Aurora Spafford, m. Mrs. Mary Ralph Jones, and d. in Perrys- burg, O. Adolphus Spafford, drowned, when 18 years of age, in Lake Erie.
A Richard Craw was living in Cleveland or Newburgh about 1802, who may have been the father or the brother of the above John Craw.
Chloe Spafford Gilbert had two sons, Lester, and Stephen L. Gilbert. She joined her father when his family took refuge in Milan, Ohio, during the War of 1812, and taught the first school in Avery, near by, riding to it on a horse and a man's saddle in company with the mail-carrier. Her sons were living in Maumee as late as 1836, as letters from them to their cousins, the younger daughters of Augustus Gilbert, would indicate. Ste- phen L. Gilbert was a mail-carrier in the '30s, and removed later to a Western state.
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1798
DOAN
Were the writer to choose an ancestor from the earliest Cleveland pioneers, the choice, without hesitation, would fall upon a blacksmith. They were the most useful members of society in those first years of toil and struggle. A community could then dispense with lawyers and land agents, but to be without a blacksmith was a calamity. The shoeing of horses was small part of the service required of them, for they were called upon to mend everything from a candlestick to a plough, and usually were skilled wagon-makers as well.
The first three Cleveland blacksmiths-Doan, Sargeant, Hickox- were typical of their class, fine specimens of American manhood. Hon- est, industrious, unselfish, kind, and behind each five or six generations of the best New England blood. Who, then, of today would not be proud of lineal descent from those noble pioneer blacksmiths? Nathaniel Doan heads the list, and his posterity is numbered among our best citizenship.
The history of Nathaniel Doan begins with John, his American ances- tor of 1633, who was a chosen assistant of Gov. Winslow in directing the affairs of Plymouth Colony, and down through Daniel to Seth and his wife, Mercy Parker, who lived in Haddam, Conn. Seth was a ship- builder and a hero of the American Revolution. With his son Seth, he was captured by the British and held in prison for a year. Seth, Jr., died from the effects of that captivity. Besides the martyred son, there was a large family of children, many of whom came to Ohio and settled in and around Cleveland.
Nathaniel Doan was the fourth child. He was a member of the Con- necticut Land Company in 1796 and 1797. He had charge of the horses used in the expeditions-seeing that they were kept well shod and other- wise cared for. He was offered a village lot in Cleveland by the above company if he would settle in the hamlet and start a blacksmith shop. He accepted the offer, and in 1798 left Haddam with his wife, four children, and his nephew, Seth Doan, son of his brother, Timothy, and started for Ohio.
It is said that the latter was sent West in order to keep him from following the seas, for which he had a strong inclination, much against the wishes of his parents.
The route, whenever possible, was by water. Down the Connecticut River, along the coast of Long Island Sound, down the East River to New York City, up the Hudson River to Troy, then on the Mohawk River, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Mr. Doan built his blacksmith shop of rough, unhewn logs on Superior Street, near Bank Street, and probably lived in the Stiles house, which had been abandoned by that family for one on Newburgh Heights.
Mrs. Nathaniel Doan-Sarah Adams-was 27 years of age when she arrived in Cleveland. She had, at that time, but one son, Job Doan, nine years of age, and three young daughters, Sarah, Delia, and Mercy Doan. Another little daughter, Rebecca, was afterward added to the family circle.
The presence of Seth Doan, the nephew, that first year of their arrival in Cleveland, proved most providential for the whole family. For it was scarcely settled in the little log-cabin before every member of it was taken ill with fever and ague. Although Seth himself was also afflicted with
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1798
DOAN
the distressing complaint, he kept about, waiting upon his aunt and the children, and doing all that he could to alleviate their sufferings.
To add to the family's distress, there was little food to be obtained in the settlement, and it suffered hunger for weeks at a time; corn-meal was the only diet. Mr. Doan remained in the hamlet less than a year, then moved out on Euclid Avenue, and settled on a farm. It was on the corner of Fairmount Street, E. 107th, west of and adjoining Wade Park. Here he built a small log-tavern and eventually a store, and a little salera- tus factory. The latter was a blessing to housewives, who hitherto had been compelled to use lye in place of that article in their cooking.
Mr. Doan was evidently a Christian gentleman, as he attended as delegate the first church convention held on the Reserve. He also, as justice of the peace, married many couples who came before him for that purpose, and he served as County Commissioner.
He died in 1815, aged 53 years.
His widow, Sarah Adams Doan, survived him nearly 40 years, dying at the age of 82, and outliving most of her children. Her life had been one of great change and vicissitude, also of great sorrows. But, like most women of that day, she accepted everything that came to her, whether of good or ill, with thankfulness or patient resignation.
Children of Nathaniel and Sarah Adams Doan:
Sarah Doan, m. Richard H. Blinn, in 1802, by Amos Spafford, J. P. Job Doan, b. 1789 ; m. Harriet Wood- ruff.
Delia Doan, m. Mr. Eddy; 2nd, Da- vid Little.
Mercy Doan, m. Edward Baldwin. Rebecca Doan, m. Harvey Halliday, in 1827.
Richard Blinn had a farm on what is now Woodhill Road. Sarah Doan, his wife, had a little son born, whom she named in honor of her father. She died in early womanhood, and Richard Blinn married 2nd, Electra Hamilton, of Newburgh.
Delia Doan taught the first school, it is said, in Euclid.
Mercy Doan died young. Her husband, Edward Baldwin, was 21 years old when they were married. He came from Ballston Spa, New York, and was County Treasurer. He died in 1843.
Harvey Halliday lived in East Cleveland. He had three brothers, Albert, Nathan, and Frank Halliday.
The Doan Tavern, kept by Nathaniel Doan, and rebuilt by his son, Job, was a famous landmark for nearly half a century. It stood by the roadside, where all travel east and west between Cleveland and Buffalo passed it. The little creek flowing through the picturesque woods just east of it, now Wade Park, attracted the large parties of pioneers who traveled in company from their New England homes in huge wagons, and driving horses, cattle, and other domestic animals in advance of them. Here, or on the level stretch of ground now occupied by Western Reserve University, they would make a halt of a day or two, resting and washing
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up. It is said that as many as 15 wagons at once would be encamped there. It followed that the Doan Tavern was patronized, more or less, by these travelers. One feature of this, however, was not at all lucrative -"the borrower was abroad in the land." Everything conceivable was asked for and usually obtained, from silver spoons to camp-kettles. For the Doans were kind-hearted and very accommodating. Once, some one carried off one of Mrs. Doan's teaspoons. She felt very badly over her loss, but, lo! a whole year afterward the spoon came back, it being the first chance the party had of restoring it.
Two years after his father's death, Job, his only son, replaced the log- tavern with a large frame one. Eventually, this was moved to Cedar Avenue, just east of Streator, E. 100th Street, and three tenement houses constructed out of it. Job Doan was an energetic, ambitious, hard- working man. He died of cholera in 1834. He must have possessed lovable qualities that secured and kept for him many friends. When the news that he was stricken with the disease reached town, Capt. Lewis Dibble and Tom Calahan-well-known Cleveland men-at once set about procuring medical aid for him. Every doctor was busy or away, and the friends had to wait for some time before they succeeded. Finally, they intercepted two physicians who had just returned from other calls, and prevailed upon them both to start out again at once, although there was a four miles' drive between town and Doan's Corners. The physi- cians rode in one buggy, and Dibble and Calahan in another. It was far in the night before they reached their destination. Capt. Dibble found his brother-in-law, Capt. Ebenezer Stark, already there, also Job Doan's brother-in-law, David Little. They were bending over the sufferer, rub- bing him and trying to alleviate his agony. Poor Job looked up as the men entered his room, and stretched out his hands to the friends who had hastened to his bedside. The doctors, evidently, were unable to add any- thing to the treatment already given, for they merely looked at him, shook their heads, and departed. Within an hour death came to Mr. Doan and relieved his sufferings.
Job Doan met his future wife for the first time on the highway near Hudson, Ohio. The road was in a frightful condition-nearly knee-deep with mud. She was on horseback, and he on foot. He thought her the sweetest girl he had ever seen, and took measures to meet her again and under more favorable conditions, and not long afterward they were married. The honeymoon, however, was postponed six weeks, for, imme- diately after the ceremony, he took a drove of cattle to the southern part of the state, which kept him away for that length of time.
Mrs. Harriet Doan was the daughter of Nathaniel and Harriet Isabelle Woodruff, of Morristown, New Jersey, who came to the East End in 1814. She was 19 years of age when married. A descendant describes her as tall and fine-looking; a woman of remarkable Christian character, faithful, cheerful, generous, kind. She never allowed ill-natured gossip in her presence, without rebuke. She was an original member of the Euclid Congregational Church. Her sister, Sarah Woodruff, married William Adams, of Collamer. As the wife of Job Doan, Harriet Wood- ruff was the mother of eight children :
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Nathaniel Doan, d. in California, unmarried.
Caroline Doan, m. John R. Walters in 1835.
Harriet Doan, m. Frederick Wilbur ; 2nd, Capt. Sprague.
Lucy Ann Doan, m. Isaac Miller, of Braceville, Ohio.
William Halsey Doan, m. Elisabeth Hennell, of Portland, Maine. Martha Doan, m. Anthony McReyn- olds.
Edward Doan, m. Carrie P. Brad- ley.
William Halsey Doan became a wealthy philanthropist. He built a large tabernacle on Vincent Street, near East 9th, where popular con- certs and lectures were held, which people of moderate incomes were ena- bled to attend. There was no other large auditorium at the time, and for many years it proved a blessing and convenience to the public. It finally burned and was not rebuilt.
Six years after the death of her husband, Mrs. Harriet Doan married Cornelius Conkley, and in 1854 was again a widow. She died in 1884. Meantime, S. C. Baldwin had either purchased or rented the Doan Tavern and kept it open to the traveling public.
1799
BLINN
One of the earliest settlers in Cleveland and Newburgh was Richard Blinn. As all of his descendants are living elsewhere, and fail to answer inquiry, it has been impossible to learn anything of his antecedents. He may have come from New Jersey with the Cozads, or from Connecticut with the Doan family.
He married Sarah Doan, daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah Adams Doan, April, 1802. The original record of their marriage is in Warren, as Cleveland was in Trumbull County in that year, and Warren the county-seat.
Sarah Doan Blinn had a little son named Nathaniel Doan Blinn, in honor of her father, and, possibly, she may have had a daughter. She died in early womanhood, and Richard Blinn married secondly, Electa Hamilton, daughter of Samuel and Susannah Hamilton, of Newburgh, now a part of Cleveland, the town then being in Geauga County. This record is in Chardon. They lived for some years north of the Edwards Tavern, on what is now Woodhill Road, and then moved to Perrysburg, Ohio, near Toledo. They had at least three sons-James, Chester, and Julius Blinn, and three daughters. It is said that the family suffered terribly from malaria during their first years in Perrysburg, and that one of their daughters was disfigured for life through the strong medi- cines administered by one of the ignorant and reckless country doctors of that day.
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1800
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James Blinn lived and died in Perrysburg, leaving six adult children. Julius Blinn also moved to Perrysburg, and the name of Blinn has become a familiar one in that locality, while it has disappeared off the records of Cleveland.
The wives of Richard H. Blinn were undoubtedly fine women, as both were daughters of the best pioneer families of the city. Richard himself is said to have been a very jovial man, full of jokes and mad pranks. He left behind him a reputation for kindliness and good humor.
His oldest son-Nathaniel Doan Blinn-was married in Cleveland in 1825 to Miss Anne M. Parker.
1800
WILLIAMS
In the spring of 1799, two men appeared in Newburgh and began building a grist-mill-the third one built on the Western Reserve. They were Major Wyatt and William Wheeler Williams. It was a great event to the women of Cleveland and Newburgh, for it meant corn-meal of a far better quality than the rude hand-mills hitherto had provided, and above all it meant white flour, something that had been a great luxury, many families having scarcely seen any since leaving Connecticut. Of the many New England families who came to Cleveland in that early day, there were none that could claim better birth and breeding than that of William Wheeler Williams. His parents were Joseph and Eunice Wheeler Williams, both descended from Puritan ancestors who settled in Massachusetts about 1630.
Joseph Williams had four sons in the Revolutionary War. They were Frederick, an officer in the Continental Army, and buried in St. Paul's Churchyard in New York City.
Gen. Joseph Williams, a friend and correspondent of Washington, Putnam, and Gov. Trumbull. He was a Brigadier-General of the Third Brigade, Connecticut Militia, and a member of the original purchasers of the site where Cleveland stands.
Benjamin Williams died on board the terrible Jersey prison ship, and Isaac Williams, who lost a leg while in the Revolutionary Army. A fifth son, William Wheeler Williams, b. 1760, married Ruth Granger, daughter of Zodac and Martha Granger, of Suffield, Conn.
Ruth Granger was born in 1764, and, therefore, was 35 years old when she came to Newburgh in the spring of 1800.
It has been difficult to learn anything concerning the personality of Ruth Granger Williams, although her descendants in and about Cleveland are numerous. It has been told the writer that she had two brothers, Reuben and Franklin Granger, who lived with her or near by. Also, that before her death she became blind, but developed such acute hear- ing that no one could enter her room, ever so cautiously, but she would
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1800
WILLIAMS
hear, and be able to tell who it was. She was small, alert, and very intel- ligent.
The family settled on what is now Woodhill Road, but called Newburgh Street in early days. It ran from Doan's Corners to Mr. Williams' mills. Mr. and Mrs. Williams brought five little children with them from Nor- wich, Conn. The eldest was only twelve years of age, the youngest but two. They were:
Frederic Granger Williams, unmar- ried while living here, joined the Mormons in Utah.
William Wheeler Williams, Jr., m. 1st, Lavina Dibble; 2nd, Nancy Sherman, daughter of Ephraim and Remember Cook Sherman.
Joseph Williams, unmarried. In
Capt. Murray's Company, War of 1812.
Martha Williams, m. Elijah Peet. Mary Williams, m. Amos Cahoon, pioneer of Rockport, Ohio.
W. W. Williams, Jr., was always designated as Capt. Williams. All the Williams family bearing the name and descended from W. W. Will- iams, Sr., are grandchildren of Capt. Williams.
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