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 4
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the farmer, in early Spring, got out his own plough-han- (les, from the trunk and roots of an ash, and hewed his wooden mould-board from a puncheon split from a wind- ing beach ; when the young ladies' music lesson was the monotonous bumble of the spinning-wheel, and "cards" were played without a partner, over " check tow-and-wool " apron ; when the joyous shout of the corn-husking, on the floor of the log barn was heard. under "the beams of the full-orbed hunters' moon," in October; when true loves, sincere if not romantic, were stealthily breathed while the industrious needles were plied at the rustic quilting party ; and when in the merry-making winter season, the lads and lasses entered with a hearty zestinto the sleigh-ride, not in a splendid rig from the livery, but in a " Canadian paludo," made of bent hickory poles, surmounted by a rough box, or crockery-crate.
Sixty years ! What a weight of memories they lay upon the mind of the aged, as we attempt to recall their histo- ry. As when the captives of old returned and laid the foundations of their new temple, while the younger part shouted for joy, the old men who had seen the first temple wept-so this occasion is necessarily one of mingled joy and sorrow. Joy to all for the past and present prosper- ity and the future prospects of one of the fairest portions of our favored land, and of sadness to the then stalwart pioneer, now the patriarch, " leaning upon his staff for very age"-who has almost outlived a generation : who can count the names of far more of those who with him opened these roads. and subdued the primeval forests, up- on the white tablets of yonder cemetery, than he can find among the living : who sees with joy. an intelligent and enterprising generation entering into his labors, yet be- comes himself more and more a stranger where he was once a leader, "Only waiting," now, like Aaron, for the summons to ascend the mount, lay his robes upon his son, and be gathered to his people, not sadly-for he leaves
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a work that is enduring, and a memory that is fragrant.
Why, then, even desire to linger? For, as one of our poets describes this " last leaf,"
"The mossy marbles rest On the lips that he has pressed, In their bloom; And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year, On the tomb."
And yet, it is sweet to stay a little longer, and see the maturing fruits from our planting. To trace the windings of the stream of blessings, widening its course, that flows from the rock we smote in the wilderness, and be able to say, How small, indeed, was ours, the human part of the miracle of progress! Only a feeble blow of a staff upon a rugged rock ; but, "Behold what hath God wrought !"
Cheer up, then, small but to-day honored band of fathers. In the future annals of the town, and country around, your names can not be forgotten. In behalf of the former residents and old pioneers, who have come to greet each other on this occasion, some of us from far distant States, let me express the gratitude we feel to the present inhabitants of Wadsworth, for the honor they have shown ns, and the labor, self-sacrifice, and expenditure they have bestowed, to make this occasion one worthy of themselves, and a fitting tribute to the departed worthies, and their surviving cohorts of the "heroic age," when "a man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick frees." An opportunity afforded to perpetuate the recol- lection of the hardships, the toils and labors, it cost to clear off those massive forests, to open these roads, to develop these resources of wealth, to found in an humble way these schools and churches, and make this a desirable abode ; one of the bright gems in the crown of the queenly State of Ohio. Nor can I refrain from expressing my individual thanks for the honor you have conferred upon me, in . inviting me from my far off prairie home, to stand beneath
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these trees, where, half a century ago, I basked in the shade at noonday, slaked my thirst from yonder spring, o with my boy companions, with bows and arrows, an painted wooden tomahawks, played the Indian in thes woods, or chased the squirrel up the tall chestnut, to sco' back at us from his safe retreat-to tell the story of th settlement that was begun with the same year in which m life began, and recall the incidents with which I was one so well acquainted, or in which I bore a part. I propose then, without further preliminary, to enter into a brie history of the first settlement of the town, and some of th prominent incidents of its earliest years. My know! edge, gained by personal conversations, my own recoller tions, dating from a few years subsequent, and from previously published documents.
FIRST FOOTPRINTS OF WHITE MEN.
The earliest record of the visit of any white men to th township of Wadsworth was, till 1834, to be seen in ol letters, carved in the bark of a large beach-tree, on the wes bank of Holmes' Brook, near the north side of the road The tree was cut down in straightening the road. in 183 On the north side of the tree, the letters grown wide by it growth, but still legible, could be seen this inscription :
PHILIP WARD 1797
TD RC W V
Who were Philip Ward and his companions, or for wha purpose they visited that locality, so far from civilize habitations, is unknown. The date is not far from th time when Seth Pease, with his surveying party, cm ployed by the Connecticut Land Company, ran th south line of the Western Reserve .*
*Judge Amzi Atwater, late of Mantua, in his notes published about 4
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The first white man who ever had a habitation in Wads- worth, was a former Indian trader, of English birth, from Montreal, by the name of John Holmes, who, marrying among the Indians, lived among them as a hunter and trap- per, and was known to the white settlers as "Indian Holmes." The remains of his old cabin used to be pointed out to me, near the brook that bears his name. But as he had in a great measure lapsed from civilization, had never purchased nor cultivated land, but lived the roving, un- settled life of an Indian. he is no more entitled to the name of first settler than the Aborigines themselves, and like them would have been forgotten, but for the accident of his name having been given to the stream.
'The first settlers were the families of Daniel Dean, and Oliver Durham, emigrants from Vermont, one of whom, Benjamin Dean, the eldest son of Mr. Dean, is permitted to join with us to-day.
The settlement was begun on the east line of the town- ship, on the ground that is now a part of the village of Western Star. Their arrival was March 17th, 1814. The next family was that of Salmon Warner, February, 1815.
The first settlers of Wadsworth were principally from three States; Vermont, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. From Vermont were the Deans, O. Durham, and his broth- er Calvin (who wrote his name Dorwin); his father-in-law Salmon Warner and sons, Reuben F., Salmon Jr., Dan- iel, Horatio, Amos, M. D .; (Elisha Durham, brother to (). and C., died on the way from Vermont, and his widow daughter of Lysander Hard, married Mr. Henry Wright) ; Lysander Hard, and son Harlow, and stepsons, Davis and
years ago, tells us that the party were camped for a considerable time on the Mahoning River, among the Massiauga Indians, a small remnant of the Six Nations; that finding in great numbers the small, black Rattle- snake, now called by naturalists, Crotellus Kirtlandi-from Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, who first published a description of it-the men of his party. named it the Massianga snake, a name by which it is still known through- out the Mississippi Valley.
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Welles Holcomb, and his brother, Abraham Hard, with his sons, Cyrus, Abraham Jr., L. Nelson ; John M., Peter, and Leavitt Weeks; Timothy S. and Harry Bennett (Abel, Stanton, and Elam Bennett came afterwards); W. H. Wright, and Milton Wright, and afterwards their father, Ebenezer Wright, and their brother Orris; Samuel M. Hayden, and Hiram C. Kingsbury.
Of those From Connecticut, first, Orin Loomis, then his father, Joseph Loomis, and his brother, Sherman Loomis ; Benjamin Agard, and his sons, Alvin and Roman L .; Fred- erick Brown and sons, Marcus, John, and Edward; Wm. S., Harry, and Cullen Richards, afterwards their father, Jedediah Richards, and his other sons, Jedediah, Mills, Robert U., Ezekiel, Julius, and George, M. D. (part of these lived just over the line of Norton); Augustus Mills and sons, Harry A., Luman P., Philo P., William, and C. Curtis: Allen Pardee, and afterwards his brothers, John, Geo. K., Augustus, Aaron, and still later, Sheldon and Ebenezer, and brother-in-law, Phineas Butler ; Nor- man and Cyrus Curtis, and afterwards their father, Cyrus Curtis, sr. The Mills's Curtis's and Pardee's, though from Norfolk, Ct., resided for a time in Marcellus, N. Y.
From Torrington, Connecticut, came George Lyman, Gurdon Hilliard, Robert Hilliard, Lemuel North, Abel Beach and his sons, George and Orlando; Elisha Hinsdale and his sons, Elisha, Sherman, and Albert. From Winsted came Philemon Kirkum and his son, George Kirkum, just over the line, in Norton. From Hebron, Ct., Wmn. Eyles.
From Pennsylvania, Samuel Blocker and sons, David and Eli; Jacob Miller and sons, George and David; the Rasors, George, Christopher, and William ; old Mr. Ever- hard and sons, Jacob, John, Christian, and Jonathan ; Hen- ry, Christian, and Israel Ritter; Lawrence, Adam, and Paul Baughman, and sons, and Adam and Jacob Smith ; Peter Waltz and sons, John and David; John Wise, and Jacob Wise ; Nicholas Long, and John Long.
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From Maryland, James Gifford. Henry Falconer, and Samuel Falconer.
The west part of Wadsworth, along the center road was. before it was cleared up, very swampy, and because of its dismal appearance, was named by the surveyors, "The Infernal Regions;" and the sluggish stream that oozed through the swamps, was named "River Styx," from the old mythological river of that name. Those swamps and River Styx were a great dread to travelers for many years. The old road was filled with causeways, made of poles ; two of them, near River Styx, each about 40 rods long, and one over the Styx, on the Medina road, over 80 rods long. The late Judge Brown changed those causeways into turn- pikes, in 1826 and 1828.
The first house built and clearing made, on the ground where Wadsworth village now stands, was that of Fred- erick Brown, in 1816. The next house west of this. at that time, was that of George Burr, of Harrisville, as the road then ran, fifteen miles. Passing Harrisville, going due west, the next settlement was at Upper Sandusky ; the next at. Fort Wayne, Indiana, and no other to the Pacific Ocean.
The roads were then but wagon-tracks, only the under- growth cleared away. In this age of improvements, it may interest the present generation to recount the toils and privations then endured.
The first settlers came just at the close of the war with Great Britian, called the war of 1812. From the Genesee River westward, the whole country was new : mostly heavily timbered forest. The immigrant on his way, found not even a common turnpike road. The family of my father, Frederick Brown, accompanied by Sherman Loomis, were six weeks on their way from Connecticut, with a three-horse team. and wagon. That of Elisha Hins- dale eight weeks.
The immigrant who could not hew out a new axle or a new tongue for his wagon, from a forest tree, was often in
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a sorry predicament. Goods for the country stores were brought from Philadelphia, over the Alleghanies, in what was known as a Conestoga wagon-a large vehicle, about double the size of a common wagon, with box about three feet deep : the wheels double-tired. to keep from sinking n the mud. The wagons were almost invariably painted blue, and covered with canvass stretched upon poles ; a large tar-bucket, for lubrication, hanging below the hind axle.
The team was usually of six, sometimes eight, large horses ; the driver always riding the near wheel horse, carrying what was called a blacksnake whip, and driving the whole team with a single rein. In making up the out- fit, one span was accounted necessary to draw the wagon ; the rest, the load.
The Pennsylvania wagoners in those days, were a dis- tinct class, having their own peculiarities. Rough, but honest and brave.
Our tinware and "notions," were usually brought to our doors by peddlers, mostly from Connecticut, who bore an opposite character to the Pennsylvania teamsters. Far too many of them for the good name of their State, and to the grief of the moral New England settlers of the Reserve, sleek, polished knaves-so that the honest yeomen from the counties south of us, judging the race by its vagabonds (as was very natural), when they came among us, were ou the lookout lest they should be "yankeed " -- a synonym for swindled-and the horn gunflints and wooden nutmegs that gave the sobriquet of " The Nutmeg State " to Connec- ticut, passed even into song.
Salt was first brought from Pittsburg; afterwards- about my first recollection-from a little village on the lake shore, called Cleaveland, which the Cleaveland Herald, in 1824 (50 years ago), told us-contained 100 houses. Since then, it has lost a letter from its name, and added consid- erably to the number of its houses.
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Mr. Dean tells us of paying ten cents per pound for salt, in 1814, and Mr. George Lyman $11 per barrel in 1817. My father moving from Connecticut in 1816-the memora- ble "cold summer "-it was exceedingly difficult to find food enough to subsist the family, upon the road; often able to buy or beg only enough for the little ones, and retire fasting, to find food on the road some time in the forenoon. Wheat, when it was to be had at all that year, was $3 a bushel, and corn $2. The bear, the deer, and the wild turkey, under the well-aimed rifles of Orin Loomis, David Blocker, and William Simcox, furnished the supplies that kept the neighborhood from starvation. To that corps of hunters were afterwards added Phineas Butler, and Timothy Dascom. All these were " mighty hunters" in those days.
In that year, Judge Amzi Atwater, of Mantua, and Ja- son Hammond, of Bath, having a surplus of wheat and corn, sold it at a reduced price, on credit, to those alone who had no money, bidding those who wanted to buy on speculation to go elsewhere ; to their honor I record it.
Our limited trading was done at Middlebury, until Mr. Porter opened a store at the cross roads, then called Har- veystown, eight miles southeast of Wadsworth. They ad- vertised that they would give a high price in goods for dried ginseng root, and the woods were searched over, the next fall, to find the precious root, for there was money in it. My brother and I dug and dried enough to buy for cach of us our first white cotton shirts, at the low price of only fifty cents per yard ; and the next Sunday, you may believe that "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Do you think that we wore any coats on that day and hid the white arms? No indeed ! Though late in October, it was too warm; so we carried them on ow' arms.
But the day of high prices soon passed away, as the farms were cleared up ; and then came on the great finan-
.
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cial pressure, with its low prices, before the opening of the Erie and the Ohio canals, when it was hardly possible to raise enough in money, from their farm products, to pay faxes. I can remember when rye for distilling brought a better price than wheat for bread. The first grinding was done at Norton's mill,-afterwards known as Tallmadge Village, afterwards as Middlebury, now a part of Akron- and at Wetmore's mill, in Stow, a mile above Cuyahoga Falls, and at Northampton Mills. I can well remember when they used to put up at my father's house, going and returning from Middlebury with their grists, from as far west as Sullivan, Huntington, and Wellington. Afterwards Rex's mill, east of New Portage, was built ; then the mill so long owned by George Wellhouse, in Chippewa. The first mill built in Wadsworth was a log mill, built by Luther Hemmingway, on the Medina road; the water carried in a log flume from a spring brook. The next by A. and J. Pardee (now Yoder's mill).
Owing to the distance from sawmills, our floors were made of " puncheons," or planks split from straight-grained chestnut timber. hewed with the broadax, and smoothed with the adz, or plane. The first sawmill built, was the one that now stands one-fourth of a mile west of the de- pot, by Joseph Loomis, Sherman Loomis, Abel Beach, and George Beach, in 1826. The next by George Lyman, and Cyrus Curtis, on Holmes' Brook. But though to the honor of Wadsworth, it never had a distillery, amid all the de- privations of that period, there was none of old rye whis- ky ; every . family could have it, whether they had a cow or not. Not that drunkards abounded; it was before the doctrine of total abstinence was known, and its temperate use (as it was then esteemed) was universal. Though & few went home noisy from military musters and, perhaps, one or two from a barn raising, we stood above the aver- age of Western communities as a temperate people.
I heard Dr. G. K. Pardee, in a lecture, in 1833, describe
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a case of delirium tremens; "the only one," he said, "I ever saw, and I pray God I may never see another." Where is the physician that can now say that, in this or any other community ?
The early settlers had, most of them, an appreciation of the benefits to themselves and their children, of the school and the church. As soon as there were children enough to form a school, they had the school.
The first school was taught by Harriet Warner, in a room of her father's double log house. The first log schoolhouse was erected on the farm of Jacob Miller, at the cross roads, one mile and a half east of this village. The first school taught in this house was by Marcus Brown, son of Frede- rick Brown. The second by his sister, Catherine Brown, afterwards Mrs. T. Hudson. About a year later, another house was put up, near the residence of the late Judge Wm. Eyles. The first school taught in this, was by Miss Lodema Sacket (now Mrs. Loomis), in 1819. Those houses were for many years known as the north and south schoel- houses. The first school at the Center (now Wadsworth village), was in a log house owned by Frderick Brown, and was taught by Dr. William Welton. These were also the only houses of worship, for several years.
The first settlers were mostly such as had been accus- tomed, to regard the Sabbath, and sustain the institutions of religion ; yet, coming from different sections of our country, and springing from different nationalities, each naturally tenacious of his own belief and his accustomed mode of worship, as has ever been the case in new settle- ments of that character-they suffered more from too many church organizations, than too few ; each society being too feeble, for many years, for efficient work. Yet, from the first, they were never without the Sabbath, and the public worship of God. But of this I am to speak in a more ex- tended manner, on the coming Sabbath.
My father taught the first singing-school, in 1821-2, in
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the south schoolhouse, and organized the first choir, of which he and Timothy Hudson were the choristers. After Mr. Hudson removed from the place, Benjamin Dean filled . his place. The next was taught by Richard Clark. Both had great difficulty in making their pupils "learn the gamut." For the want of books, they wrote their tunes on slips of paper. They used the old-fashioned mahogony pitch-pipe to "sound the pitch." (Here the speaker exhib- ited the first book of tunes used, published in London, Eng., in 1772). A man by the name of Howe also used to teach in the south part of the town. In 1831-2, David S. Gibbs taught singing at the Center, and at Western Star. Gideon F. Gardner, of Chatham, taught in 1834-5.
Our boots and shoes were made from our own leather, which was tanned on shares. The first tannery was owned by Levi Blakeslee, in the same yard as the one that stands near where we are now assembled; these grounds being owned by him. Our first shoemaker, was James Platt; the next, Reuben Warner. We had also, shoemakers who went from house to house, and did the work for the whole family ; tailors likewise. This was called, "whipping the cat." Our grindstones were made by Samuel M. Hayden.
The first retail store was owned by Allen and John Par- dee, on the hill, at the present east limit of the village. The second by George Lyman ; the third by H. B. Spell- man. The first smith work was done at the shops of Peter Waltz, in the southeast corner of the township, and Elisha Hinsdale, on the Akron road, just over the line in Norton. Waltz and Hinsdale were both soldiers of the Revolution. Hinsdale and his brother were for many years manufactur- ers of axes, in Torrington, Connecticut. Hinsdale axes were regarded of superior quality, and much in demand on the Reserve.
In 1819, Hiram C. Kingsbury set up a blacksmith shop, on the cast bank of the brook, in the limits of this village. He was also a manufacturer of axes.
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The first physician in the township was Dr. John Smith, who lived a short time in the Eastern part of the town- ship, and then removed just over the line in Guilford, ou the Medina road. Dr. Samuel Austin was the next, at Western Star. The first at the Center, now the village, was Dr. Nathaniel Eastman. The next, and for many years the only one at Wadsworth Village, Dr. Geo. K. Pardee.
The first Post Office in the township, was kept by Abel Dickinson, on the Medina road, established in 1822, which was removed to the Center in 1826, and kept by Frederick Brown. The first at Western Star, established at the same time, was kept by Mills Richards. The first at River Styx, by. David Wilson. Previous to this the old citizens re- ceived their letters from Tallmadge, Canton, Old Portage, New Portage, or whatever office was to them convenient.
The first mail route was from Canton to Norwalk, by way of Medina, established about 1821. The mail was car- ried by Josiah Price, of Canton, who brought our newspa- pers from the Canton and Medina offices to our doors, call- ing us out with a tin horn.
Among the exciting amusements of the early times, not the least was the ring-hunt, occurring once a year, usually in the fall. When lines of swamps, in the west part of the townships of Wadsworth and Sharon, or the large swamp of Copley and Norton, so famous as the great pigeon-roost, were surrounded, and the game, consisting of bears, wolves, foxes, and deer, were driven out, usually upon a conical hill, and picked off by experienced marksmen, and the spoils divided among the participants. The last of these was a wolf hunt, in the Western part of Wadsworth and Sharon, in the Spring of 1835.
The Western Reserve, and indeed the whole of Ohio, in the times of early settlement, abounded in wild animals, and the choicest game. The common deer, and moose (im- properly called elk), abounded. Turkeys were very nu-
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merous, and wild pigeons in such numbers that the ac- counts given, below the facts, were regarded at the East as fabulous and were ridiculed as " Ohio stories," of the same class as the sailors' "fish stories." But the numbers that flew over Wadsworth every evening and morning, going to their roosts in the great swamps S. E. of Copley, and N. E. of Norton, and to find their supplies in the vast beach woods, in towns westward, would seem incredible to those now living there, since those woods have been cleared up. They would come in vast flocks from the west, in the eve- ning. For a long time before they appeared in sight, we could hear the roar of their wings, like a distant cataract. Then they would come, spreading like a cloud over the whole horizon, for several minutes. In the morning they would fly westward, breaking up into smaller flocks as they proceeded ; so their morning flight was not, like the evening, in clouds, but in chains. In the fall of 1823, I watched such a chain flying over these grounds, that con- tinned without a break from 6 to 9 o'clock.
There was always, as Davy Crockett would say, "a right smart sprinkling of bears in these parts." I have a very vivid impression upon my memory of sitting up till a late hour, hearing James Cahow tell over his bear stories, of which he was the hero, till on the heads of us little ones, it caused "each particular hair to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porcupine ;" and when, at length, we were compelled to ascend the ladder and go to bed, we would set down the candle and peep under the bed, to see if there was any mischief a Bruin there.
Wildcats, opossums, raccoons, gray foxes, and " the fret- ful porcupine," were not uncommon. A "coon-hunt," of a moonlight night in October, was the most fun for us boys. Wolves were very plenty, especially in the winter season. In the winter of 1824, they were very numerous and bold. They had a runway up the brook, and through the ravine where the depot now stands. We could hear
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