USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The pioneer families of Cleveland 1796-1840 Vol. I > Part 6
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Mary Williams Cahoon had three children : Martha, Joseph, and Hiram Cahoon. The Misses Cahoon of "Rose Hill" are grandchildren of Mary Williams, and reside in the pioneer homestead.
There is in possession of some of the descendants of W. W. Williams, Sr., valuable souvenirs of his brother, Gen. Joseph Williams, of Revolu- tionary fame. They are gold buttons bearing his initials, which were cut from a military coat he wore, and an elegant snuff-box that had been presented to him from admiring friends. The Williams family Bible, brought from Norwich, Conn., is also preserved and held by a great- granddaughter.
The grindstones lying in the Public Square in front of the Old Stone Church were the first ones used in the grist-mill of William Wheeler Williams, erected in 1799.
Children of W. W. Williams, Jr., and Nancy Sherman Williams :
Mary Williams, m. Josiah Hale.
Eunice Williams, m. Spencer War- ren. James Williams, m. Lydia Owen.
Ephraim Williams, m. Mary An- drus.
Joseph Williams, m. Eunice Bennett.
George Williams, m. Eunice B., wid- ow of Joseph Williams.
Frederick and Frances, unmarried.
48
1800
CLARK
If the testimony of one Gilman Bryant has been properly quoted, David Clark was here in 1798 in company with Major Spafford. They were living in the surveyors' cabin on Superior Street. Spafford was driving stakes and finishing the laying out of streets, while Clark was building a log-house on Water Street-No. 9. It was on the west side of the street, about four rods from Superior, and here he died eight years later. The two men had once lived in the same place-Dorset, Rutland Co., Vermont-therefore, old neighbors and friends. Although they then made all preparations for the shelter of their families, two years elapsed before their wives and children arrived here.
The family of David Clark included his wife, two daughters, and four sons. There had been another child when they started from Dorset, but at some stage of the journey it met its death by drowning. The fate of this child indicates that the family came part of the way, at least, by water. Perhaps the Clarks and Spaffords made the whole journey by boat, as did the White family four years later.
Mr. Clark evidently was not in very easy circumstances, as corre- spondence concerning the sale of city lots at that time shows that he was able to pay but little down on those he wished to purchase.
The children of David and Margaret Branch Clark :
Margaret Clark, m. Elisha Norton. Martin Clark, m. Laura Lee.
Lucy Clark, m. Seth Doan.
Rufus Clark, m. Dimarus Billings. Mason Clark, m.
David Jarvis Clark, b. 1797 ; m. Ruth Smith.
Mrs. Clark was thirty-nine years of age, Margaret, the eldest daugh- ter, fourteen, Lucy twelve, and Jarvis, the youngest child, three years, when they came to Cleveland. The ages of the others-Rufus, Mason and Martin-can not be ascertained, but indications are that the boys were all younger than their sisters.
The first recorded event of the family was the marriage of Margaret, April, 1803, to Elisha Norton. Amos Spafford performed the ceremony.
In 1806 David Clark died and was buried in the cemetery on Ontario Street. His body was removed in 1831, to Erie Street Cemetery, and his grave is marked by a tiny stone, the first stone beyond the lodge. It is very black, but his name is still legible on it, and it seems to be the oldest marked grave in Cleveland.
Mrs. David Clark lies in an isolated cemetery in the farming district of Mesopotamia, Trumbull Co. She died in 1837. How she came to be in that township is a mystery the writer has been unable to solve, as no trace of any other member of her family there can be found.
January, 1807, Lucy Clark married Seth Doan, son of Timothy Doan, of East Cleveland. She named her first child David Clark Doan. Her children and their marriages will be found in the Doan records in this work. She lived all of her married life in East Cleveland. The surviving nephews and nieces of her husband's family, when questioned, spoke in affectionate and admiring terms of "Aunt Lucy" to the writer, but no one of the family, not even her grandchildren, were able to give any in-
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1800
HAMILTON
formation concerning her brothers, or of her sister, Mrs. Norton, al- though one of her grandsons was named "Norton" Doan.
The widow Clark removed-sometime between the death of her hus- band and the year 1812-either on Broadway, or to Woodland Hills Avenue, not far from Broadway, for at the latter date she and her four sons are included in a list of residents of that locality.
The marriages of three of these sons and the subsequent history of two of them have been secured, but what became of Mason and Martin, whether they died in this city or removed to some Western state, cannot be learned. But probably one of them lived for a time in Mesopotamia, Trumbull Co.
David Jarvis Clark, b. 1797, or "Jarvis," as he was called, married Ruth Smith, of East Cleveland, in 1817. In 1834 they moved to a new township, organized in Indiana, and called "Cleveland." A number of other families from this vicinity accompanied them. But in 1851 several of these families moved again, this time to Elkhart, Ind.
Ruth Smith Clark was born in Chatham, Conn., in 1801. She had three children: Lucy, who died in Cleveland, Asa Branch, and James Clark.
Jarvis Clark died in Elkhart in 1889, at the age of 92. He often spoke of Gau Chee, a little Indian playmate of his in the earliest years of his Cleveland life. Gau Chee was the son of a Mohawk chief, whose tribe lived part of each year under the hill between the present viaduct and the Columbus Street bridge. Jarvis Clark is remembered as full of fun, and fond of society.
Martin Clark married Laura Lee, of East Cleveland, in 1820. As has been stated, no further trace of him can be found.
Rufus Clark married Dimarus Billings, of a Newburgh family, in 1827, Job Doan, as justice of the peace, officiating at the ceremony. He was inclined to wander about, and after removing to two or three West- ern towns, which included Elkhart, Ind., he finally reached California, where he died about 1870.
Dimarus Billings Clark died, leaving one son, Mason, who went to Washington, to some place on Puget Sound. Rufus Clark married again, and had other children born to him. It is said that as a young man he was very gay and loved to dance. No dancing party was thought to be a success unless Rufus Clark was there to start the fun and keep it going. But during a religious revival he joined an East Cleveland church, which barred him out from further enjoyment of that amusement.
1800 HAMILTON
The name of Hamilton became familiar to the residents of Newburgh through two men, Samuel and James, erroneously supposed to be broth- ers. The relationship, if any existed, was no nearer than cousins. Sam- uel Hamilton was descended from an old New England family of Pelham,
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1800
HAMILTON
Mass. His father, Robert Hamilton, was born in 1759, married Elizabeth Kidd, and moved to Chesterfield. Their oldest daughter, Elizabeth Ham- ilton, married a Mr. Cochran, moved to, and died in Independence, this county, at the age of 90.
Samuel Hamilton, born in Chesterfield, 1761, married Susannah Ham- ilton of another family, of Chester, Mass. Together with their six chil- dren they started in the fall of 1800 for Newburgh. On arriving in Buffalo, they found nothing but an Indian trail between that place and Cleveland. As it was too late in the season to go by way of the lake, the family remained in Buffalo for the winter, while the father and second son Justus, then a lad of nine years of age, started on horseback for Newburgh.
One night, in Ashtabula County, they arrived cold and very hungry at the cabin of a former resident of Chesterfield, who welcomed them joyously, eager for news of the old home in the East, and to see familiar faces once more. A haunch of venison was cut in slices and cooked before the fire, and the hungry travelers ate it with keen relish. Justus Hamil- ton used to declare that nothing afterwards tasted so good to him as that late supper in the wilderness.
In the spring of 1801, the rest of the family came on in an open boat, beaching it every night, cooking their meals and sleeping on shore. There was scarcely any one in Newburg when they reached there but Indians. On returning from a business trip to Massachusetts, in 1804, Samuel Hamilton was drowned in Buffalo Creek, leaving his wife a widow with six children, in a wilderness far from parents, brothers, sisters, or other kin to whom she could turn in emergencies for help and comfort. Her oldest son, Chester Hamilton, was then about 14 years old, Justus 12, and Samuel, the babe of the family, 4 years. She raised all her children to honorable and useful maturity, giving each a good education for the times. She was an expert at weaving, and earned many a dollar, or its equivalent, in that way. Once when her house and nearly everything in it belonging to herself was burned, she saved a neighbor's cloth she had woven by hastily cutting it from her loom. Their home was on Wood- land Hills Avenue, near the Carter homestead, where she died in 1820, having sustained the relation of both parents to her children for 16 years.
It seems then, that one of the very first women to live in Newburgh was one of the noblest type of wife and mother, living, and working, and sacrificing for her children, and keeping their family name honored and respected.
Her oldest child, Electa Hamilton, married Richard Blinn, lived many years in Newburgh, then removed to Perrysburg, and died there.
Chester Hamilton married Lydia Warner, of a pioneer family, resided here for a while, and went West.
Lyma Hamilton became Mrs. Samuel Miles, and lived in Strongs- ville, this county.
Julia Hamilton married Edmond Rathbun in 1819, with whom she lived 63 years, both dying in 1881, just six months apart. Their three daughters who married three Brooks brothers are still living in Newburgh.
Justus Hamilton married Selinda Cochran, daughter of Amos and
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1800
HAMILTON
Rachel Brainard, pioneers of an early day. Selinda Brainard was born in Middletown, Conn. When very young, she was married to Richard Bailey. Every thread of her wedding outfit was spun, woven, and made by her own hands. She was early left a widow with two sons, Sherman and Richard Bailey,1 and eventually married Amos Cochran, who lived but a short time, and by whom she had an infant daughter, Rachel Cochran. Their residence at that time was in Avon, New York. Mean- while, her parents had settled in Newburgh, whither she came with her three children, shortly after the sad death of her father, who was killed by a falling tree. In 1826, Mrs. Cochran married Justus Hamilton, and her family in time increased by three sons and a daughter, Augustus, Albert, Edwin T., the eminent jurist, and Delia Cleveland Hamilton.
Justus Hamilton was a dignified, brusk, magisterial sort of man, but kind-hearted and just. His neighbors were wont to seek his advice, and he was frequently chosen arbiter in the smoothing out of difficulties and quarrels. He had a contract for the building of a part of the Ohio Canal, and while it was in the process of construction he hired Mrs. Garfield- the mother of James A. Garfield-to board the men he had employed on the canal. It is said that every article of household goods the Garfields possessed was brought to the scene in a small conveyance, drawn by one horse, and that the money thus earned made the first payment on the lit- tle farm in Orange Township.
Mrs. Justus Hamilton was sweet-tempered and a valuable woman to the community in which she lived. Gifted as a nurse, constant demands were made upon her in this direction, which she never refused, thus lay- ing the foundation for many life-long and intimate friendships with families scattered all over the township. Her knowledge of medicinal herbs also proved invaluable to her neighbors, as her stores of worm- wood, tansy, camomile, and rue, ever kept replenished, were freely offered when elsewhere needed. A Christian woman in all that the name should imply.
Children of Justus and Selinda Cochran Hamilton :
Augustus Harvey Hamilton, b. 1827, in Newburgh; m. Eliza Coffin. He removed to Iowa in 1854-a law- yer and newspaper man.
Delia Hamilton, b. 1828; d. unmar- ried.
Judge Edwin T. Hamilton, b. 1830;
m. Mary Jones (served four years in the Civil War).
Albert Justus Hamilton, b. 1833; m. Imogene Brooke. He served three years in the Civil War, afterward removed to Parkville, Mo.
The most prominent member of this family was its second son, Edwin Timothy Hamilton, judge of Common Pleas Court from 1875 to 1894. He was a man of fine mental attainments, and no jurist in Cuya- hoga County was more respected and admired for his legal ability, hon- esty, sense of justice, scholarly address, and gentle dignity. His refined,
1 Sherman H. Bailey, son of Richard and Selinda Bailey, b. 1810, m. Susan Shattuck. He died in 1890.
John Richard Bailey, brother of above, m. Mary Philip. He died in Chillicothe, O.
52
1800
GAYLORD
intellectual face was one that would ever win a second glance from a stranger.
He died, some years ago, at his last residence on East 89th Street, ยท leaving a widow and two children-Walter Hamilton, a Cleveland attor- ney, and Florence Hamilton.
1800
GAYLORD
Captain Allen Gaylord was born in Goshen, Conn., 1778. He came to Ohio in 1800, going first to Hudson, where he remained two years. He then returned to Goshen, and some months later again set out for Cleve- land, bringing with him his parents, Timothy and Phebe Gaylord, his brother Timothy, and his sisters, Roxana and Phebe Gaylord. They came all the way in an ox-team, and were six weeks on the road. The girls had never seen black walnut trees, and when they reached the Western Reserve and saw the green nuts hanging in abundance, they imagined they had struck an orange grove, and eagerly gathered aprons full of those found lying on the ground. They were much chagrined at their brother's hearty laughter at their mistake.
Timothy Gaylord and Phebe, the parents, settled in Zanesville, Ohio.
Roxana Gaylord married Joseph Ryder, and settled in Painesville. Ryder is said to have built the first house in that place in 1803. Phebe Gaylord married a Lowry. Allen Gaylord bought a farm on what is now Woodland Hills Road and Miles Ave., where his parents died. It con- tained 50 acres and cost $200.
Capt. Gaylord was a prominent man of Cleveland and Newburgh, tak- ing an active part in all public affairs. He organized and commanded a company of militia during the War of 1812, and announced to the terror- stricken residents, after Hull's surrender, that the boats coming down the lake and sighted off Huron, were not filled with Indians, but with our' own troops.
Philena Gun, daughter of Elijah and Anna Sartwell Gun, married Capt. Allen Gaylord, May 7, 1809, a hundred and four years ago. The ceremony was performed by a justice of the peace, either Nathaniel Doan or Amos Spafford. Anna was about sixteen years old when she came to Cleveland with her parents in 1796, and therefore married at the age of twenty-eight. A not unusual thing at the present time, but at that day she must have been considered quite an old maid. Mrs. Gaylord was ener- getic and persevering, well fitted for pioneer life. Her over-taxed feet seldom rested, and her hands were never idle. She bore privations and hardships with patience, and was a faithful wife, mother, and friend.
Her wedding gown was a calico dress made in very primitive style, scant, with big sleeves. Mr. Gaylord's wedding vest was of buff and white gingham.
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1801
HAMILTON
The music of the spinning-wheel filled their cabin all hours of the day. She made the thread with which she did all her sewing, from flax grown on the farm, and spun and colored the wool that went into the garments worn in the family, and the blankets that covered them at night. Mrs. Gaylord was obliged to go some distance for all the water she used-at a neighbor's well. One morning, while absent on this errand, the Indians came into the house begging, as they often did. She had left her little son and daughter alone there, and whether through evil design or only in a spirit of mischief-to give her a scare-one of the Indians took her boy on his back and made for the dense forest behind the house. Mrs. Gay- lord was returning, and within sight of her home, when she caught a glimpse what was going on, and dropping her pail, she ran, screaming at the Indian to bring back her child. He returned, laughing, and, handing over the little fellow, said,
"White squaw 'fraid Injun going to carry off papoose!"
Capt. Allen Gaylord lived to be 90 years old, outliving his wife twenty- two years. Mrs. Gaylord died in 1845, aged 64. They remained on their farm all their married lives.
The children of Capt. Allen and Philena Gaylord :
Anson Welcon Gaylord, b. 1816; m. Lucy Kellogg.
Henry Chrystopher Gaylord, m. Harriet Parshall, daughter of John.
James Sartwell Gaylord, d. young. Ann Gaylord, m. Willard Leach, of Lockport, N. Y.
Minerva Gaylord, m. Noah Graves,
formerly from Springfield, Mass. Settled in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, 1832. Caroline Gaylord, m. Erastus G. Thompson, of Conneaut, Ohio. Desdemona Gaylord. The youngest child of the family and the only surviving one.
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1801
HAMILTON
James Hamilton, the head of the other Newburgh family of that name, came in the spring of 1801. Soon after his arrival, he married Phenie Miner, a widow with one son. He brought them and their belongings from the East on horseback, and commenced housekeeping not far from the Carters, on Woodhill Road. Mrs. Hamilton was always called "Aunt Phenie," a term of endearment given because of her great sympathy and fondness for young people who enjoyed her company and frequently vis- ited her. She had at least two sons and three daughters.
Elmira Hamilton. Emily Hamilton. Eli Hamilton. Julia Hamilton.
Frank Hamilton.
Jane Hamilton.
Oliver Hamilton.
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1801
GILBERT
Julia Hamilton, the youngest daughter, took excellent care of her parents in their old age. She also administered to a brother whose mind was long mentally unbalanced. Another, and older, brother died, leav- ing an invalid wife and six children. Julia cared for them all until the widow's death, and looked after the children until enabled to provide for themselves. Her beautiful record of unselfishness has scarcely been equalled. One of her brother's children, Lydia Hamilton, long a valuable nurse, died about six years ago, the last member of the family.
It is a source of regret that so little of the James Hamilton family could be secured. Mr. Hamilton appears on accessible records as late as 1812. He seems to have been a good citizen, who was often entrusted with local public matters in Newburgh. Only one of the sons married.
1801
GILBERT
Augustus Gilbert, Sr., was another Newburgh pioneer, who came west, expecting to settle in Cleveland, but changed his plans when he found its malarious condition.
The exact year in which he reached this locality cannot be learned, but family tradition places it within a year or two following that of 1800.
At that date the family was living in New York State, whither it had removed from some place in Vermont. The only son, Augustus Gilbert, Jr., was born in New York in 1800.
According to old family letters, two brothers and a sister of Augustus, Sr., Daniel-Elias and Olive-were residing in or near Gaines, N. Y., as late as 1838. Another brother, Stephen Gilbert, who came to Cleveland in 1798, was drowned in Lake Erie, off Rocky River, April 19, 1808.
Augustus Gilbert, Sr., born 1763, was the oldest child of Joseph Gilbert III, and Elizabeth Breck Gilbert, of Hartford, Conn., and was the great-grandson of Capt. John Gilbert, one of the earliest settlers of Hart- ford. The Newburgh pioneer married Olive Parmely, of Weybridge, Vt., in 1790. He was then 27 years of age.
Augustus Gilbert lived in Newburgh about 10 years, dying in 1813, aged 50.
During his short residence here he became well known in the Western Reserve as an associate judge of this district. Evidently he was a man of note, both in the Vermont town from which he removed and in this, his later residence, and highly respected for his superior education and natural talent. He left an unusual library for that early day and crude environment, for when he died Newburgh was yet a hamlet of log-houses standing in a wilderness.
At the death of his wife, Olive, April, 1807, he was left in sad domestic straits, a large family of motherless children on his hands, the eldest one
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1801
GILBERT
being too young to assume the responsibility and the burden attending its charge.
He was obliged, therefore, to again take upon himself marital rela- tions within a year of his wife's death.
He married Irene Burke, daughter of Sylvanus Burke, of Newburgh, a noble woman, who, in the seven years of the life remaining to Mr. Gil- bert, gave to his motherless children the measure of care and affection they so sorely needed, and which, alone, he was unable to bestow.
Two more little ones were added to the family-Louise and Irene-the latter a posthumous child, born several months after her father's death.
Augustus and Olive Gilbert were buried in the old Newburgh Ceme- tery, eventually destroyed at the behest of Commerce, the few bodies per- missible of removal being reinterred in Harvard Grove Cemetery.
The children of Augustus and Olive Gilbert:
Dotia Gilbert, b. 1791; d. 1846; m. Erastus Goodwin.
Harriet Gilbert, b. 1792; d. 1839, unmarried.
Maria Gilbert, b. 1796; d. 1817; m. Elias Osborn, 1813.
Emily Gilbert, b. 1805; d. 1822, un- married.
Lovice Gilbert, b. 1798; d. 1841; m. Jacob Van Duser.
Augustus Gilbert, Jr., b. 1800; d. 1853; m. Mercy A. Jackson, 1829. Althea Gilbert, b. 1802; d. 1836; m. Oliver J. Brooke, of Warren.
These children must have lacked vigorous constitutions, as it will be noticed that the one who survived the longest was only 55 years of age.
The daughters born to Augustus and Irene Gilbert:
Louise Gilbert, b. 1810; d. in Cin- cinnati, 1849 ; m. James S. Bangs, of Akron, O., and later of New- burgh.
Irene Gilbert, b. 1813; m. Rev. A. P. Jones. He was associate editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer in the 30's.
Mr. Jones' parents were Richard and Hester Van Bibber Jones, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y. His father was a soldier of the Revolutionary War, who removed to Euclid, O., and died there in 1820.
His mother had a half-brother named Marselliot-French-Canadian voyageurs.
Augustus Gilbert, Jr., the only son of the family, lived many years in Geauga County, near Chardon, O. His children were:
James H. Gilbert, m. Harriet Barnes.
Maria Gilbert, m. W. G. Welsh. Lawson A. Gilbert, m. Althea Brooke.
Harrison W. Gilbert, unmarried.
Killed at Chickamauga, in the Civil War.
Julia Gilbert, m. M. B. Crofts. Eliza Gilbert, unmarried.
Arthur Gilbert, m. Lavina Glenden- ning.
Newton G. Gilbert, m. Emma Rob- inson. Wallace B. Gilbert, m. Anna Oura.
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1801
WARNER
Darius Warner, Sr., of some Eastern state, unknown, had a son and two daughters living in Newburgh as early as 1801.
The son, Darius Warner, Jr., married Delilah J. Wells of Virginia. Lydia Warner m. Chester Hamilton.
Esther Warner m. Lyman Hammond.
The daughters of Darius Warner, Jr., were:
Lydia S. Warner, m. James Skinner, Sarah L. Warner, m. Sherburn H. of Foxborough, Mass. Wightman.
The marriages are given in court records of
Spencer Warner and Sarah Culver, of Newburgh. Norman Warner and Mary Chase.
Marian Warner and James Wolker.
Any or all of whom may have been members of the Darius Warner family.
1801 HUNTINGTON
In 1801, Samuel Huntington, Cleveland's first distinguished citizen, appeared upon the scene. He was the one man who, for many a day, came with money in his pocket. Back of him, in Norwich, Conn., where he was born, were wealth, position, and influence, and we suspect this plunge into the wilderness with wife and family was but part of a plan of future public life mapped out for himself and successfully followed. For, before fairly settled in Cleveland, honors began to flow in upon him, and within seven years he was governeor of the state. Meanwhile he had left the hamlet, and Painesville possesses all the glory of this part of his career.
However, we can still claim what Samuel Huntington left to us, a few years' residence here, and the fact that in that time he was made chief justice of the state, which office he held until assuming a higher one. The story of his life and public services have been so often printed and repeated that all detail at this time would be superfluous.
The Huntington family first went to Youngstown, Ohio, from Nor- wich, and but a few months later-May, 1801-arrived in Cleveland. Perhaps they were but tarrying awhile until Amos Spafford had finished the double log-house he was building under orders from Mr. Huntington. It stood back of the American House, once numbered 42, but today 802 Superior Street. It was on the edge of a bluff that commanded a view of the Cuyahoga Valley, the river, and the distant hills of Newburgh. A charming spot, but, alas! one where life was made miserable by mos- quitoes and malaria.
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