USA > Ohio > Medina County > Wadsworth > Wadsworth memorial; an account of the proceedings of the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the first settlement of the township of Wadsworth, Ohio > Part 3
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After a recess of fifteen minutes, Gen. D. Northrop, 80 years old (brother of the deacon), of Mentor, Lake county. was called to the stand. The General, after alluding to the fact that he had represented Medina county in the State Legislature from 1831 to 1833, expressed a just pride in having cut down the first tree, in 1816, on the spot where the village of Medina now stands. He then supposed that Jocati on was about the center of the world. and that Medi-
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na was to be the town of the Buckeye State. Though his "large expectations" had not, perhaps, all been realized, yet the changes that had taken place were truly marvelous. The speaker gave an amusing account of the first wedding in the township-that of his sister-at which every person then living in the township was present, except one-an old lady, who had the rheumatism so bad that she could not come. The refreshments consisted of "white" and " black" cake, and whiskey-sling stirred up with a pud- ding-stick ; the merriment being so intense that the guests did not light their torches to go home until 3 o'clock in the morning. Medina county was organized in 1818, and the first court, held in a barn, was presided over by Judge Tod (father of the late Governor Tod), with Judge Brown, of Wadsworth, Judge Harris, of Harrisville, and Judge Welton, of Richfield, as associates. At this term of the court, there were no cases, and no lawyers, and in the rather " festive " ceremonies, described by the speaker, which took place during the night, after the court had adjourned, the presiding Judge, on being addressed as "Judge Tod," exclaimed, "Don't call me Judge Tod-I am George Tod, until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning."
Rev. M. K. Hard, of Wooster, boru in Wadsworth, in 1818, inquired if anyone knew who was the first child born in the township, and was answered that Alonzo Durham was born in July, 1814, and was still living, in the State of Indiana.
Mr. George Miller, of Akron, formerly of Wadsworth related some incidents connected with the early "jury sys- tem " of the county ; how many of the jurymen had to take their provisions with them, and that one man-a Mr. Par- sons, of Chatham-on being summoned as a juror, took his cow along with him, and kept her there during the term.
Hon. Myron C. Hills, of Medina, was the next speaker. Referring to the length of time required to perform the journey from Connecticut to Ohio in 1818, when he settled
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in Granger, he said that a certain man who then predicted that within fifty years, such improvements would be made in the mode of travel that the journey could be accom- plished in a week, was regarded as a visionary, and almost a fool. Now it could be accomplished in a single day. The old times were good times-no caste-all sociable, all hap- py. But there's a great deal of good in human nature- as much so now as then-but it takes adversity to bring it out. Mr. Hills closed by inviting all present to attend the meeting of the Pioneer Society of Medina and Summit counties, of which he is President, on the 10th of Septem- ber next.
Rev. Warner, of Seville, though not a pioneer himself, was the son and grandson of pioneers, and in a brief but eloquent address, paid a glowing tribute to the pioneers of the country, and called upon the present and rising gener- ations to cherish their memory, and emulate their virtues.
Mrs. Hobart, of Cleveland, stated that she had recently called upon Rev. Joseph H. Breck, who preached in Wads- worth in 1824, now living in Cleveland, who wished to be remembered to his old acquaintances present.
Aaron Pardee stated that he had received letters from Almon and Philander Green, Ira Sprague, of Iowa, Mr Fay, of Columbus, Eugene Pardee, and others, which there was not time to read, but which would be published in the book about to be issued.
Rev. Edward Brown, of Minnesota, made some feeling and interesting remarks in relation to his father. the late Judge Brown.
Brief remarks were made by President Blocker, Capt. Lyman (84 years old), A. McGregor, of Canton, and others' when, under the lead of Gen. Northrop, as chorister, with Miss Jennie Hard at the organ, the entire audience joined in singing Coronation and Old Hundred, closing with the Doxology, Rev. Edward Brown pronouncing the benedie- tion.
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The meeting closed with the very best feeling, about half past five o'clock, Dr. Lyman extending an invitation to all present to attend a sociable at his house in the evening.
On Friday evening, pioneers and citizens, to the number of over 500, assembled at the house of Dr. Lyman, under the command of Gen. Northrop, of Lake county, and were marshalled according to their ages, in military line, in a grand review column, when choice music was furnished by the excellent band of Wadsworth. after which the multi- tude entered the spacious rooms of the house, and devoted themselves to enjoyment, such as was probably never be- fore had by any assembly in the whole county. In the multitude were the oldest surviving pioneers of Wadsworth and Medina county, and children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren were all mingled together, recounting scenes in the history of Medina county, and Wadsworth township, that embraced its history from 1814 down to 1840. It is impossible to enter into details of the re-union. Capt. Lyman acted as host of the house, and he had the rare good fortune of looking at friends and acqaintances, reaching from 1816 down to the present date.
Gen. Northrop organized the older members of the throng into a singing class, and with himself as leader and chorister, had all ages, down to about forty years, as sing- ers. They sang ancient tunes, in an old-fashioned manner and I will venture that no better time was ever had by any company than at that old-time singing school. Such a re-union, with so much piety and hilarity, interspersed with anecdotes of three-score years, will probably never be again held in the history of the State.
After hearty enjoyment until near midnight, the compa- ny sang "John Brown's soul is marching on," and separa- ted, never to meet again in a similar meeting on this earth.
Saturday was spent in visiting public and private places, and in renewing old memories and scenes of pioneer life in the township and vicinity.
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In the evening, a reception was held at Esq. Eyles' house, where another good time was had in a young folks' con- cert, of the singers of to-day.
On Sunday forenoon, Rev. Edward Brown delivered at memorial sermon, in the grove, to a vast throng. Here the good-by's were said, and many of the pioneers mingled their last tears together in one final embrace. It was a solemn time-enough to melt the most obdurate heart.
In the afternoon, an old-fashioned Deacons' meeting was held in the Congregational Church, presided over by that venerable man, Capt. George Lyman, who is the only sur- viving member left of its organization in 1819.
Here the programme closed, and a final separation took place of the pioneers of Wadsworth, some of whom have to travel nearly a thousand miles to reach their present homes. Many things more might be said of this memorable meeting, but your correspondent must content himself with a simple narration of facts, and leave others to gar- nish the event in a more detailed account. * * *
To the above sketches from the periodical journals, the following incidents may be added :
The oldest person present was Mrs. Mary Jacobs, one of the first settlers of Norton, who had survived three succes- sive husbands, all pioneer settlers ; Nathan Bates. Jotham Blakeslee, and John Jacobs, The next, Wm. Allen, of Akron, aged 86. Among the ladies on the stand, were Mrs Benjamin Tyler, aged 81, Mrs. Lodema Loomis, who taught school in the township, in 1819, and Mrs. Cahow, of one of the first families that settled in the township of Norton, in 1812, and Mrs. Mary Rasor, the first white woman married in the township. Among the guests not mentioned in the foregoing notices, were Morris Northrop, Esq., Capt. Aus- tin Badger, Ilon. H. G. Blake, Wm. C. Clark, and Martin Snell, of Medina ; Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Loomis, of Mentor ; Mrs. Ann F. Russell, and Mrs. Eliza Porter, of Cleveland ; Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Chritsie, Mr. and Mrs. M. W. Henry,
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Mar. and Mrs. George Weeks, S. A. Lane, B. F. Battles, Edward Brown. Mrs. S. Blocker, Mrs. Almon Brown, Mrs. J. F. Rowe, of Akron : Dr. A. Willey, of Spencer; Dr. Aurelius Agard, of Sandusky ; Mrs. Emily Eastman, Mr. and Mrs. V. C. Eastman, Rev. V. Noyes, Mrs. Noyes, Al- bert Munson, A. D. Licey, J. HI. Reese, J. A. Bell. of Guil- ford: Rev. and Mrs. Leonard Brown, D. C. Clifford and wife, Wellington ; A. Curtis. Ashland; Arch. McGregor, Canton ; B. B. Warner. Massillon ; Harry Pardee, North Hampton, Mrs. Elenor Pardee, Madison, Wis. ; Mrs. Mi- nerva Utley, Milwaukee, Wis .; Mr. Philo French, Berea : Gurdon Hilliard, Bedford ; Homer Johnson, Sharon ; Mrs. Frances Hamlin, Weymouth ; Christian Cackler, Kent; as well as many others, who did not report their names or attendance, who were among the old pioncers of this por- tion of the State, or had been former residents.
The attempt to organize what is called an "Old Folks' Concert" in the abundance of preparation had been given up as impracticable, but was more than made up by the one improvised by Gen. Duthan Northrop-one of the pio- neers of the county-once a noted singer, still in his eight- ieth year, retaining his clear voice. and almost the vigor of middle age. Collecting the old singers of from 40 to 80 years of age in a circle, in the large parlor, he stood in the center, with the same tall, erect, commanding figure that for- ty years ago singled him out even to the stranger as a leader of men, beating time in the old style, leading off in the old fugues, enlivening the whole with his pleasant sallies, and happy hits. Having set old Sherbern on too high a key. to the remark, "General. you'll have to come down," he replied, " No. the General never comes down ; however, we'll put the tune a little lower." At the close, a hearty vote of thanks was given to General Northrop, for having afforded to the present generation a real Old Folks' Con- cert.
But to those who could remember the old Deacons' meet-
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ings, so long kept up twice each Sabbath, in the old log schoolhouses by those old pioneers of Wadsworth's relig- jous history. Frederick Brown, Ebenezer Andrus, William Graham, Benjamin Agard. George Lyman, and Sherman Loomis, no part of the proceedings stirred up the deep fountains of emotion as did the recalling of those scenes once more in their lives, at the Deacons' meeting, held in the Congregational Church, on the Sabbath afternoon, con- ducted by George Lyman, by more than 20 years the last survivor of that band. himself 84 years old
Reading a chapter in the Bible, as in the olden time, and giving out the hymns, without glasses, in the second sight of extreme old age, he handed the volume of sermons- printed in 1797-that was first used in those days, to Mr. E. G. Loomis-whose father, with his sonorous voice and rhetorical delivery, was most often called upon to read -and desired him to read a sermon, from Matthew 5: 13, by Rev. Alexander Gillett, of Torrington. Ct .- his old pas- tor-"to whom," said the old patriarch, "more than sixty vears ago, I went two miles in the night season, to ask, ยท What shall I do to be saved ? "
As the reader, often choking with emotion, read the dis- course, and the audience, mostly of aged men and women could recall the voice of the father in that of the son, the buried momories of half a century came up as living reali- ities, and the dead and the living seemed once more met together in solemn worship, till each seemed to feel, like him whose vision connected heaven and earth, "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." It was an hour of solemn stillness, silent tears falling, or deep emotion break- ing forth in the audible sob. as each recalled the pleasing and sad remembrances of other years. and felt that this was indeed the last revival of their lives' tenderest memories.
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SONG OF WELCOME. By Mrs. Stanhope, of Seville.
Welcome, Pioneers ! [Air, "Bruce's Address."] Welcome, welcome, Pioneers, To your home of sixty years! Whom hail we with such glad cheers As the Pioneers? Come ye all, from hall or cot. Where'er fate hath cast your lot, And let station be forgot. To welcome Pioneers !
Let no ranks our cheer divide ; Let our greeting spread so wide, It may reach the ocean's tide, To welcome Pioneers ! Gather in, ye welcome bands! Whose brave hearts and willing hands, Made for us these beauteous lands; Worthy Pioneers!
Tho' no pride, or courtly grace Mark ve for a kingly race, Who should have a higher place Than the Pioneers? Ye who toiled through joys and woes, Ye who made, with heavy blows, Wilds to blossom as the rose- Noble Pioneers!
Ye shall be our boast and pride, Ye, the friends so true and tried, Ye shall have a welcome wide, Honored Pioneers ! Welcome, Pioneers, again! Minstrels, sing a lofty strain; Village, woodland, vale, and plain- Welcome, Pioneers!
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RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OLD SETTLER.
Read at the Pioneer Meeting in Wadsworth, May 28th, 1874, by Benja- min Dean, of Blairstown, Iowa.
On the first day of March, 1814, Oliver Durham and the writer, Benjamin Dean, went seven miles into the wilder- ness, and made the first beginning in Wadsworth.
My father, Daniel Dean, and my brother Daniel, came two days later. We built a camp, or shelter, by sticking crotches and laying a pole on them, then cut and split planks, or puncheons, and placed them with one end on the pole, and the other on the ground. At night, we built a large fire in front of our camp, and wrapped ourselves in blankets, and lay there with our feet to the fire. The wolves howled about us nearly all night, but did not come within sight. Sometimes they would get still, but if we would make a little noise or increase our fire a little, they would give us more music. At one time I rapped on a dry tree, and they yelled at the top of their voices. We soon found that they had a line of travel from Wolf Creek to the Chippewa, and that they passed us every alternate night, following the road, until the settlement became so large that they went around it. But they always, in pass- ing, saluted us with a specimen of their music.
We cut and drew the logs for my father's house, 18 by 18, and for Mr. Durham's, 16 by 18 feet. We had our own help, my father, Mr. Durham, my brother, 14 years, and myself, 16 years old ; the rest of our help, seven men, came seven miles. They were Basley Cahow, Jacob Vanhyning (with but one arm), Indian Holmes, Theodore Parmelee, George Hethman, James and George Cahow, and with this help we raised both houses in one day. We got a roof on my father's house, and all moved into it on the 17th day of March.
At that time there were but eight dwelling-houses between us and Tallmadge Mills-afterwards called Middlebury- which was thirteeen miles distant from our settlement; they were those of Jackey Cahow, Theodore Parmelee,
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Indian Holmes (these all lived where Parmelee after- wards built his brick house), Pliny Wilcox-who lived near the foot of the hill, where Mr. Perkins afterwards built his stone house. Paul Williams and his son Barney-after- wards called Colonel Williams-lived on the hill beyond where Akron now stands, and betwixt there and the Mills, we passed Major Spicer, and Mr. Hasen. (The above was written in Iowa ; I have learned since I came here, to my astonishment, that the town of Akron now not only takes in the Williams farms, but also Major Spicer's, and the whole of Middlebury). But to return; the sawmill, and the gristmill, made of hewed logs, and three log houses, were all that could be seen where Middlebury now stands. There was a log house, and some land cleared, where old Squire Henry Vanhyning afterwards lived on Wolf Creek, and he moved in June, 1814.
1254247
There were at that time in the territory afterwards formed into Medina county, including Norton, Copley, Bath, and Richfield, in the 12th range, only twenty fam- ilies, viz. : five in Norton, three in Harrisville, five in Liv- erpool, two in Bath, and five in Richfield. My mother saw no woman but Mrs. Durham until August, and Mrs. Durham saw no woman but Mrs. Dean until October, dur- ing which time she gave birth to a son, the first born in the township. He was called Alonzo ; was born in July, 1814.
The first store in Middlebury was opened in July, 1814, in a room of Judge Norton's house, by Peleg Mason. In 1815, he and his brother built a small store-house, and other merchants soon came in. It will be remembered that this was during the war called the war of 1812, and provisions were closely bought up for the army.
Before harvest, wheat was worth $3 a bushel, flour $17 a barrel, and pork could not be bought at any price. To my knowledge, salt, which had to be brought up in wagons, on account of the British fleet on the lakes, was worth $20
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per barrel in Cleveland. or about ten cents a pound. You may well conclude that these were pretty hard times.
The early settlers of Wadsworth were from the East, and had been accustomed to farm labor. They were a hardy, industrious class of people, and were very economical. Their moral character was good, and they were mostly religious. But very few of them had money to pay for their land, and had to buy on credit. Some of them had hard work to support their families till they could raise a crop on their own lands. A very few had money to pay for improvements, after paying for their land, and this helped the poorer class, as it enabled them to get employ- ment in helping to clear land.
It cost much labor to clear up the land, as the timber was very heavy. This, with their land debts. kept the people embarrassed for a good many years ; but they lived togeth- er in peace and harmony. Their general intelligence and literature would compare favorably with the farmers of this day.
At that time there was no school law in the State; and where they got inhabitants enough together, they built schoolhouses by neighborly liberality, and employed teach- ers at their own option. Each had to pay in proportion to the number of days he sent to school.
We had good schools in those days, and the best society I ever was in. I often think of the meetings we had in the old log schoolhouse. mostly by reading sermons, and sometimes a missionary would come and preach to us.
The land in Wadsworth is mostly, as you know, high and rolling. The land in the Northern part of the township is said to be as high as any in the State. It is certainly as healthful, and naturally as good for fruit. as any in Ohio.
In 1828, we swapped farms with Steward Richards; we took his land, where William Freeborn now lives, and he took that upon which we first settled ; being what is now called the Duly Farm, of Western Star. Our orchard on
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the location, began to bear in 1824; and from that time un- til 1864, when I left Wadsworth for Iowa, where I now reside, the apples were never killed but once. We had a frost in 1834, that killed all the apples in the State.
In the beginning, our land was cleared by girdling such of the large timber as would kill easily, and a good deal of that timber was permitted to stand till it would fall down and rot; doubtless a good deal of sickness was caused in this way.
Before we moved to Wadsworth, the old east and west center road had been partially opened. Men owning land in Western townships endeavored to have the road, to en- courage settlements. The road was first located, by an order from Trumbull county. This was when all this county, and still west of us, was part of Trumbull county, Captain Bela Hubbard, of Randolph, was the surveyor, and Esq. David Hudson, of Hudson, Gen. Campbell, of Ravenna, and Esq. Day, of Deerfield, were the exploring committee. Esq. Day afterwards had the job of opening the road. I think this was in the year 1808.
In 1810 , after Portage county was organized (including what is now Medina county), and Owen Brown, of Hud- son, was one of the county Commissioners, another appro- priation was made, and Capt. Hubbard was employed to make more bridges, and other improvements.
The surveying party above referred to. named the streams in this vicinity. They named Wolf Creek, in con- sequence of finding the carcass of a deer on its banks, that had been killed by wolves ; and when they passed Hudson's run, Esq. Hudson named it by cutting his name on a beach- tree. All the rest of the party chose streams, and record- ed them in the same way : but when they came to River Styx, and Chippewa, they gave them other names, no one preferring to leave his name for either of them. This statement I had from Capt. Hubbard, in 1814, and after- wards from Esq. Hudson. BENJAMIN DEAN.
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ADDRESS OF REV. EDWARD BROWN.
The occasion on which we have assembled to-day, is one of those rare ones, which from their very nature can occur but once in a generation. We come in obedience to an instinct of our nature, that leads us to associate events that make up the pleasant or the sad memories of past years with the places where they occurred. That however far we may have wandered over earth's surface, however familiar its grandest or most enchanting scenery may have become, the thoughts wander back again to the scenes of childhood and youth, which memory envelopes with a transparent halo, beauteous as the rainbow, that childish fancy held the depository of gems and gold ; those memories of the past, rising up with new freshness as the grosser senses fail, and the spirit begins to peer through the riven chinks of the crumbling tenement, to catch glimpses of the worlds beyond.
As travelers in the Arctic highlands have described the rare view, taken on the return of that day of the year when the day and the night exactly moet; when standing on an eminence to watch the declining sun as it dips to the horizon, its disappearing half at the same moment appear- ing like a newly risen sun in the east; 80 as life declines, memory blends the bright rays of its morning sun with the somber hues of its setting beams.
No memories are so deeply impressed upon the soul as first memories, first joys and sorrows, first hopes, first loves, and first aspirations. They return in day reveries, and night dreams, and are discerned in the mutterings of second childhood, when the child is mistaken for the brother, and the middle-aged neighbor for the father's associate, long since like him passed away.
Except, then, in the rare cases where an early blight has withcred the life, there can be no spot on earth so sweet as childhood's first home, or next to it, the scenes where our first loves were formed, and our first manly hopes
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blossomed. Though rocky, or rugged, or unsightly, or even a desert where we would scarce desire to dwell, still it becomes to us holy ground.
"Breathes there the man with soul so dead,
That never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land-
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandring on a foreign strand?"
Drawn together by a common feeling, we meet for a short re-union, to many of us the last one on this side the mystical river ; to dwell for a brief day in the past ; to try to catch another glimpse of the joys of which we then, amid the busy cares of life, were scarcely conscious; forit is human, in our eager grasping at the future, to forget the present pleasures, so that
"Joy's fleeting angel scarce sheds a glad ray,
Save the gleam of the plumage that bears him away."
By a united effort to reverse the cars of time, and bring back before us the long train of three-score years.
Three-score years! To youthful imagination an age! To senile memory a day ! Almost the average lifetime of two generations. What changes have, during this period, taken place in the earth's history! Sixty memorable years! Be- ginning ere yet the " great fire canoe " had begun to terrify the savages upon the shores of Lake Erie and the Ohio : ere yet the bison and the moose had fled before the sound of the woodman's ax; when canals were only talked of as a future possibility ; when the railroad was only a tramt- track, and the " iron horse " a " donkey engine " in an English coal mine ; when the wild, virgin stream, with its spangled waterfall, like a coy maiden, was hard to be wooed and won, to submit to the drudgery of turning the wheel, to card, spin, and weave; when the carpenter, with his pod- auger, found his daily task a tiresome "bore," and drove the "wrought nail" with a hammer forged by his neigh- bor, "the village blacksmith," who, like Tubal Cain, was "an instrutcor of every artificer in brass and iron." When
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