USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Pioneer sketches : scenes and incidents of former days > Part 21
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fine residence and business blocks, and several prominent manufactories, and a street ear railroad torn up to make room for another which we hope to have.
While its municipal taxation is high we must have other improvements which are in vogue; and before the close of this season we expect to see a high lever bridge across the river and an electric street car line to the Harbor. And allow me to say to whom it may concern that there is no more suitable place for an iron plant than Ashtabula Harbor. A most excellent site for such an enterprise can be had, and there is already afforded the best facilities for shipping by water and by rail to any point desired. Ash- tabula possesses the elements to become a city of forty thousand inhabitants in a short period of time.
1st. It is endowed with natural advantages. 2nd. It contains sufficient area of land in her corpor- ate limits.
3rd. It contains cheap sites upon which to build, and excellent locations upon the railway side track to erect man- ufactories, and the best facilities for shipment by water and rail to any point.
4th. It affords an excellent and cheap drainage for a good system of sewerage which, sooner or later, must come in as a great factor in the sanitary condition of any well regulated city.
5th. It has a good farming country around it.
6th. It contains a populace of intelligent, law and order abiding citizens and shrewd business men, numerous churches and excellent schools.
Then, in view of the above elements already at hand, what is there to hinder but to put our shoulders to the wheel and boom her onward to the zenith where she naturally belongs.
CHAPTER CVIII.
EAST SIDE.
ITHIN the past two years unusual activity in business and building has been going on at the Harbor on both sides of the river, es- pecially on the East Side. Real estate has changed hands to a wonderful extent, and extensive building of docks and appliances for increasing the facilities for handling coal and iron ore. A school house, church, stores and many dwell- ings have been erected, which angurs well for the Harbor people: but there has been one important factor that has precipitated this East Side real estate and building boom to a great extent. The Field property had been offered for sale for years past but there was no purchaser, as the snug sum of 829,000 had to be put up for its pur chase. Finally the time came for its sale-
A man of pluck and venture from our country; The name of this man was R. C. Humphrey,
who bought this magnificent property and proceeded at once to improve it, laying out and making streets and sell- ing allotments. A fine street called Harbor Avenue, from Pacific Street, Harbor, to the Lake Shore Railroad, SO feet wide, is nearly completed, which will be one of the finest streets in the country.
It is the intention of Mr. Humphrey and other land owners to build or aid largely in the construction of a high-
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lever bridge across the river at a point near the Lake Shore Railroad this summer, which when completed will be of great value, not only to the land-owners on the East Side but to all people who want to go to the Harbor and Wood- land Park, East Side.
Desirable lots and acres are being sold by Messrs. Humphrey, Sherman, Cook Brothers and Blythe & Haskell at reasonable rates and easy terms.
And reader please allow me to say, If perchance you should come this way,
I would be pleased to show terms and prices of this desir- able property.
CHAPTER CIX.
EARLY SETTLERS OF ASHTABULA.
ELIG SWEET came from Connecticut to Ashta- bula in the year IS08, and traded his Connecticut farm for the Holms' tract, comprising several hun- dred acres, located at the East Village and extending from the north line of Jasen Fargo's farm. now occupied by the Fargo Bros., to the Lake Shore. Mr. Sweet died in 1525, and previous to his death he gave to his sons Isaac, Pelig, Rufus, William and Ira and to his four daughters all a farm. His son Isaac lived to the advanced age of 95 years. We notice by papers of Mr. Sweet transactions with early set- tlers in Ashtabula of John and Wm. Wetmore, Eli Hol- comb, Asa Amsden, Bonj. W. Allen, N. Wilcox, Chester Wood. Caleb Parish.
Jasen Fargo was one of the prominent hard working carly settlers of Ashtabula, East Side.
John Loyd, now a resident of Westfield, N. Y., was one of our pioneer lake men. He is now SS years old. straight as an arrow and mentally bright. In his boyhood days he sailed upon the Atlantic Ocean. In 1825 he com- meneed to sail upon the chain of lakes on board the White Pigeon till 1827, then master of steamer William Peacock, belonging to Seth Reed, of Erie, and the William Penn and Charles Townsend, which were the only steamers on the lake at that time.
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When on board the Kenningston, Capt. Curtis, from Liverpool to New York, was three months and three days in making the voyage. He got shipwrecked on Georges Banks, Newfoundland and had nothing but crackers to eat and no water to drink for three days, except the little they could lap from the dew on the sails of the vessel.
Anen Harmon, one of the early settlers of Ashtabula, took up the large tract of land known as the "Harmon Flats," and also the uplands extending to the East Village and north of the Lake Shore Railroad. This man Harmon did not accustom himself to do things by halves, nor in those former crude days did he stop to polish words to express himself. At the time when the first baptism took place in Ashtabula, in ice cold weather, when the lady who was being baptized came out of the water the preacher asked her if she was not cold, to which the lady replied "no," whereupon Mr. Harmon quickly said to the minister, "Put her in again, d-m her, until she stops lying." Mr. Harmon thought the lady must have been cold and he thus frankly and roughly expressed himself, as he always did, in a stentorian voice. On another occasion Preacher Sanders was holding a series of Campbellite meetings and quite an interest was taken in them. At the close of the evening services the minister made the announcement that if there were any present who wanted to be baptized to rise up. One Martin Watrous, who was present and who was chock full of the "white horse," said, looking toward the minister-"I believe Mr. Harmon rose up;" to which Mr. Harmon quickly replied, "Its a d-d lie, for I never stirred." The preacher laughed heartily, as also did the congregation. Mr. Birdsey Metcalf, now an aged eiti- zen of East Ashtabula, was present at the time and sat at
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the side of Mr. Harmon, whose speech, he said, created quite a flutter and a laughable scene at the close of that evening's meeting.
While we consider that it takes all sorts of people to make up a community, we will have to exeuse the bluff style of Mr. Harmon, it being characteristic in him to spontaneously blurt out whatever came to his mind, alike to the saint and the sinner.
We understand that Mr. Harmon possessed redeeming qualities, was a stirring, energetic and a useful man in the community-
Rough diamonds, when put to the test,
Sometimes turn out to be the best.
CHAPTER CX.
JOHN METCALF.
HE subject of this sketch came to Ashtabula in 180S. He carried the mail from Eric to Cleveland when this country was a howling wilderness, with no roads and few settlers. No bridges on which to cross the streams, often- times he had to swim across the swollen streams, carrying his mail
pouch lashed to his head.
In 1812, there having been some improvements made, he was enabled to carry the mail in a double wagon. On the ridge, in favored places. he could get along quite well; but a considerable part of the way he had to pound along over corduroy. In 1815he used a small stage coach.
Bidders for such a mail route, for the salary paid for running it, would not be casily found to day. The priva- tions and the exposures would be too great of course for the average man of 1891.
On a certain occasion a party was to come off at Bun- ker Hill, and the gentlemen were given the names of the ladies to take to the dance. John Metcalf was delegated Horseback was the mode of When the hour. arrived Metcalf
to take Miss Lucy Strong. conveyance in those days.
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was on hand for his Miss Lucy, who took passage on the horse's back behind John, and as Lucy happened to be one of the plump variety, of more than the ordinary avoirdupois and obesity, there did not appear to be sufficient room aboard for her, and she slipped off. She got on again and presently slipped off again. Undaunted she mounted again and off she slipped and exclaimed, "I am off again." John replied, "No, you are not." and kept right on his way to Bunker Hill, and sent an ox team and a sled after Lucy and got her at last to the party, and on went the dance, and a pleasant time they had at Bunker Hill and the boys didn't go home with the girls until the wee hours of the morning.
In 1814 he married Miss Clarissa Sweet, a daughter of Pelig Sweet of East Ashtabula, and afterwards engaged in the fur trade at Green Bay, Wis. John Law, of this place, with whom he stopped, furnished him with plenty Johnny cake or hominy and bear's grease while at Green Bay, which was the standard ration for the Green Bay man at that time, and was said to be a very good diet for the consumptive and the dyspeptic, or to tickle the appetite, and also to make the hair grow on the lip of a dude.
Mr. Metcalf generally sold his furs in Albany and Troy, New York, which business seems to have been a very lucrative one with the Astors, and all who engaged in the business on an extensive scale.
Mr. Metcalf will be remembered as one of the heroic pioneers of the Western Reserve, who had to stand upon his merits and cut his way through from ernde privation to a competeney, and the perseverence and the energy exhib- ited by him has met its reward, in the industrious, correct
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traits of character developed in his sons, Birdsey and Ezra Metcalf, prominent and wealthy citizens and farmers of East Ashtabula, which affords a consolation to the sire as he looks back through the dim vista to behold that he left competent hands at the ship and at the plow.
U
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CHAPTER CXI.
THE FIRST VESSEL BUILT AT ASHTABULA.
HE FIRST vessel launched at Ashtabula was built by Anen Harmon, and was the occasion for a great turn out of the people all over the coun- try. The day was pleasant, and the vessel was launched successfully. Aboard of it were a good number of " (w. L'I'D. men, women and children, and several babes in their mothers' arms. Captain Jack and the in- trepid Anen Harmon were also aboard. The latter, it was said, was liquored up to a reckless degree, which was prob- ably the cause of the saddest event in the early history of Ashtabula.
Soon after the launching of the vessel, when two or three hundred people were aboad, its owner wanted to test its rocking powers, and he called on the people to stand on one side of the vessel and rock her, which they did. " Rock her more," he shouted. This being done, he again said: "Rock her more." At this juncture Captain Jack said: "She has been rocked all she can stand." "Pshaw!" said Harmon. " Well," said Captain Jack, "if you per- sist, I am going ashore," and he got off the boat. The people, thinking that Captain Jack was rather timid, and
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perhaps didn't know much about the boat, again obeyed Harmon's command to "rock her," and over went the boat, throwing the men, women, children and babes into the water.
In the excitement that followed some of the babes floated from their mother's arms and were saved, as were also the women, but strange to say, seven stalwart, worthy young men were drowned, casting sorrow over the com- munity, into seven stricken families, leaving seven vacant chairs. Stranger still is the coincidence that all of the seven drowned were of an age between 22 and 23 years. Among the number was Amos Bachelor, of Kingsville, who was a very promising and intelligent young man, beloved by all who knew him for his reliable and manly traits of character. He had declined several times to go, being engaged in burning off a fallow. Finally two men rode into the field and said to him that he must go. He consented, and upon arriving at the house his mother said to him, "I'm glad you are going with the rest." "But," said he, "it seems to me I ought not to go." When the sad news was conveyed to his mother she was overcome with grief.
This was a day long to be remembered by the friends of the victims. There was a great difference between the cool judgment of Captain Jack and the whisky clamor of the vessel owner, who, wanting to do something, capsized his vessel and drowned seven men.
CHAPTER CXII.
WILLIAM HUMPHREY.
ILLIAM HUMPHREY was one of the carly settlers and business men of Ashtalula. His venture was in the grocery, provision and bakery business at Ashtabula Harbor. Later he acquired con- siderable real estate situate on and in close proximity to some of the principal streets in Ashtabula, several of which bear the names of members of his family. In the early days he purchased a large tract of land in the big marsh in Plymouth Township, through which the Jefferson plank road was laid, a good portion of which is now drained, cleared off and has become the most productive land in the county.
Mr. Humphrey possessed an excellent judgment, and for the same outlay on the first cost of his real estate trans- actions realized a greater value therefrom than any other man, with the exception of H. E. Parson's Chicago deal.
Mr. Humphrey was eccentric, but he generally looked out for Humphrey, and went through all right without a tag on. A transaction is related of him during his carly days in trade at the Harbor. While in Buffalo buying goods he attended an auction. The auctioneer was selling tobacco. "How much am I offered for a pound or for the lot ?" he cried. Humphrey bid and it was struck off to him. "How much will you take?" "I will take the whole lot."
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"Ah, no sir; I can't let the whole lot go at that price." "I bought the whole lot," said Humphrey. The auctioneer went on. Presently Humphrey said to him, "I want my tobacco; I will insist on it if it takes all summer." He got the tobacco and realized a good thing on it.
One day Mrs. Humphrey accidentally fell into the river near her residence and was about to sink under the surface of the water when Thomas Mosher. of Ashtabula, jumped into the water just in time to save her. When Mr. Humphrey returned home he was informed of the accident and the timely rescue, to which he replied, "If you had let her alone she probably would have got out herself."
Afterward, by many, he was called "Old Proba- bility." His estimable wife, at all events, was spared to aid him, and proved a great helpmate to him. Years later, when the Lake business fell off, Mr Humphrey moved up town, where he kept a large stock of general mer- chandise and continued in trade for some years. His wife having died, he again married a worthy lady lady of more than ordinary attainments, who lives in her pleasant home left by her departed husband. She was reading in a news- paper of a lady who had been buried alive and she said to her husband, "Here is another of those sad happenings of persons buried alive ; and William, it is my request that my body be kept a sufficient time in a vault after I am dead. The idea of being buried alive is shocking !" "Have no fear, my dear," said Humphrey ; "the folks will know you are dead when you stop talking."
Mr. Humphrey was a man of few words, but made them count, as he did his business transactions. He left a fine property and a worthy wife and family to inherit it, whom we know to be well-to-do, and are industrious and reliable citizens.
CHAPTER CXIII.
L. W. SMITH.
HE SUBJECT of this sketch, L. W. Smith, was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1825. With the exception of twenty years in middle life spent in the mercantile business in New York, he has been engaged in the mercantile business in Ashtabula, in which he was prosperous, and it soon became apparent that he had come to stay, to be recognized as one of the prominent citizens and traders of Ashtabula. Possessing the happy faculty of a sound judgment in matters generally, pertaining to his business, he early learned the value of a dollar, how to make it and how to keep it. He invested in real estate and when the signs came right, the prospect that Ashtabula was to' become a point of some importance, his real estate possessions were steadily angmented. In 1873 the southern roads, the Franklin branch and the Ashtabula & Pittsburg railroads were built. Quite a boom was given to Ashta- bula, then containing 2,800 inhabitants. With an eye to the growing village by an influx of people, creating a demand for dwelling houses, Mr. Smith soon erected num- erous dwelling houses, which were eagerly taken by renters, and when the roads were completed to the Harbor the Swede and the Finlander followed in their wake.
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The advent of business at Ashtabula Harbor created a boom in Harbor and uptown property, and rents and prop- erty were higher for a time than ever before in the history of Ashtabula.
The opera house, the brick blocks, and the num- erous dwelling houses owned and erected by L. W. Smith, of Ashtabula, if they all stood upon a rural site would make quite a burg. Mr. Smith has been an inveterate worker; took off his coat and put his hand to the plow on many a field, and turned up a prolific soil, which will prove a consolation to him in his declining years . that it will be remunerative to himself and to his posterity. His only son, Mr. James L. Smith, on account of the declining health of his father, principally assumes the management of the business affairs. He is a courteous gentleman, and we believe fully capable of its successful management.
CHAPTER CXIV.
FARGO BROTHERS.
HIE FARGO BROTHERS, of East Ashtabula, live on the site selected by their ancestor, Jason Fargo, who was one of the carly settlers of Ash- tabula. aeres. This estate originally contained upwards of 300 The Fargo Brothers have added considerably to it, and it now comprises 500 aeres, and there is no finer estate in Ashtabula County. It contains the elements requisite for an excellent dairy farm, a variety of soil for pasture, meadow and plough lands, and an abundance of good water for stock, fined by the Ashtabula Creek on two sides and centrally having an abundant supply of good spring water.
The Fargo Brothers are the pioneer milk dealers of Ashtabula, and for many years have thoroughly run their routes. When the floods came and submerged the roads leading to the city, they crossed the dizzy height of the Nickel Plate bridge and got a hand car with which to trans- port their cans of milk. Then with a livery rig they dis- pensed the lacteal fluid to their customers.
This sort of valor took much better with their custom- ers than to have said to them: "You will have to drink water or lager for a spell, or milk your mountain goats until the waters shall have subsided over the valley of Ashtabula."
The people well know that the Fargo Brothers are use- ful and important factors in the community, and know that
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from their hands they are served to the best quality of milk, and good measure, 365 days in the year.
The courteous and honorable treatment extended to their patrons during all these years bespeak well for them, and they have not only held their ground, but their trade has constantly increased.
Their two veteran peddlers on the route, Messrs. Ed. Woodard and Jepp Jensen, than whom no better men can be found for the business, are still on deck to-day, "un- gripped" and unmarried.
Nothing succeeds like success.
CHAPTER CXV.
THE ASHTABULA DISASTER.
[See Cat on page 211.]
N THE EVENING of December 29th, 1876. Lake Shore train No. 5. three hours late, during a terrific snow storm, went down with the Ashtabula bridge, seventy- six feet to the iey bed of the river below. The train was a heavy one, loaded with passengers, many of them on a New Year's excursion to visit friends. When upon this bridge, it suddenly collapsed, and the great train with its precious load was hurled into the river below. A hundred or more never rose from that iey bed. and the wreck was soon enveloped in flames, to add horror to the awful seone. The fury of the storm, with the mercury ten degrees below zero, the heart-rending shricks of those who could not be extricated from the lap of the fiery flames which transformed many precious bodies to charred and blackened dust, created a scene better imagined than described. The elick of the telegraph wire conveying the news of the sad disaster, the hurrying of anxious friends from Maine to California and nearer by to this awful seene, the anxious look, the terrible supense, the searching through the ice to discover some relie of the dear one who was known to have been on the ill-fated train; then from the valley of the death up to the morgue to look over the charred remains, the agonizing look of des- pair, never will, by the many, be forgotten.
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Messrs. Kepler and A. H. Stockwell, of Ashtabula, and Garwood Stowe, of Geneva, and the evangelist and great singer Bliss and his wife were among the vietims. Mr. Martin, wife and two children, of Lenox, Ashtabula County, were injured. Mr. Martin was pretty badly crushed and had a few ribs broken. Mrs. Martin, who was in delicate health from an untimely childbirth, and their two small children miraculously escaped.
Of this horror much has already been written, and suffice it to say that something like a half million dollars was paid by the Lake Shore Railroad Company as damages for the dead and injured in one of the greatest railroad horrors on the American Continent.
CHAPTER CXVI.
GRANVILLE LOOMIS.
HIS BOYHOOD-HE STARTS FOU MENOMINEE, WIS. - THIS MURDER AT STONY RIDGE, OHIO-DETECTIVES SQUIRES AND BROWN.
HE SUBJECT of this sketch was an cecentric young man, though honest, peaceful and indus. trious. In Ists he bought a lot on what is now Auburn Street, then on the Commons of Ashtabula, which location appeared to suit his desire to live a sort of pioneer life. He therefore placed on his lot a couple of large dry goods boxes, in which he took up his abode. In one of these boxes he done his cooking, kitchen and house work; the other he used for his sleeping room, which was the second story of his cabin on the plain, as he called it, the box in which he slept setting on top of his kitchen. This cecentric lad had a shot gun with which he occasionally shot a bird or a rabbit, and a string of fish, that he now and then caught, supplied him principally with meat. This manner of living seemed to suit him.
However, he became anxious to be earning something more for himself by way of a steady employment. He therefore went to work out by the month in Saybrook, O., on a farm in an adjoining town, where he received pretty harsh treatment for a trivial cause at the hands of his em- ployer. The matter was taken to the courts and quite a sum in damages awarded him. Soon after Loomis bought a horse and skeleton buggy and was living in Orwell, Ohio, where he formed an acquaintance with a young man by the
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name of A. J. Grover, whose parents lived in Menominee, Mich. Thereupon an expediton was planed to go west. Loomis, with his horse, buggy and trunk, accompanied by Grover, set out on their journey for the west. It appears that they traveled on together to a point in Wood County, Stony Ridge, where some four days later the dead body of Loomis was found, his head being crushed, showing unmis- takable signs of a foul murder, and by papers and letters worked into his clothing they identified his former residence.
This information soon reached the friends of the mur- dered boy, who engaged the services of S. A. Squires, an Ashtabula detective, and he at once started in pursuit to ferret out, and if possible, to capture the murderer. On arriving at Stony Ridge, where the body of Loomis was found by a farmer near a log-heap, where evidently they had stayed over night. A portion of his head and face was cut off to obliterate a scar.
Sheriff Brown, in the meantime, had diligently searched the country around, but could get no clue of the murderer, whereupon a consultation was held, and he and Mr. Squires went to Toledo and thence to Adrian, Michigan, where an uncle of Grover lived, who was a minister. He, however, had not seen Grover for some time, and said he was a vicious fellow- that he (Grover) would maim and torture animals; that he had killed a cow with a pitchfork; that he was a destructive fellow, and he did not want him about his premises.
He however informed the detectives that Grover had a sister at Saginaw, to which place they went. After a fruit- less search for three days they started for Menominee, Michigan, hearing nothing on the route except that a party had seen a horse and buggy answering the description of
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