Historical
Collections of Ohio, Vol. II
Henry Howe, C.
J. Krehbiel & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, 1888 p 625-656
Holding
Institution; Akron Public Library, Main, Special Collections
SUMMIT COUNTY
SUMMIT
COUNTY was erected from Portage, Medina and Stark, March 3, 1840.
It derived its name from having the highest land on the line of
the Ohio canal, originally called “the Portage Summit.” Along the
Cuyahoga it is uneven and hilly; elsewhere level or undulating.
It has immense beds of bituminous coal and fine clay. The soil is
fertile and produces excellent fruit. The principal productions
are wheat, corn, hay, oats, cheese, butter, potatoes and fruit.
Area about 420
square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 105,569; in
pasture, 56,992; woodland, 23,513; lying waste, 4,343; produced in
wheat, 552,269 bushels; rye, 1,121; buckwheat, 241; oats, 581,260;
barley, 600; corn, 451,232; meadow hay, 26,082 tons; clover hay,
16,245; potatoes, 124,424 bushels; butter, 657,527 lbs.; cheese,
1,011,957; maple syrup, 14,944 gallons; honey, 3,903 lbs.; eggs,
345,814 dozen; grapes, 39,820 lbs.; wine, 349 gallons; sweet
potatoes, 200 bushels; apples, 75,006; peaches, 8,990; pears,
2,067; wool, 86,801 lbs.; milch cows owned, 11,501. Ohio Mining
Statistics, 1888.—Coal mined, 112,024 tons, employing 231 miners
and 40 outside employees; fire clay, 3,000 tons. School census,
1888, 15,339; teachers, 379. Miles of railroad track, 154.
[page 626] Population
of Summit in 1840, 22,469; 1860, 27,344; 1880, 43,788; of whom
29,198 were born in Ohio; 3,354, Pennsylvania; 1,644, New York;
182 Indiana; 124, Virginia; 42, Kentucky; 2,081, England and
Wales; 2,275, German Empire; 1,321, Ireland; 499, British America;
207, Scotland; 200, France; and 109 Sweden and Norway. Census,
1890, 54,089.
Summit county is
the centre of a region that for a radius of about forty miles
differs from any other in the State in the existence of a number
of natural lakes, such as Silver, Congress, Myers, Springfield,
Long, Summit, Turkey Foot, Chippewa, etc. The origin of these
lakes was glacial, and they were formed during the same era that
produced the varied natural formations peculiar to the region in
the vicinity of Cuyahoga Falls. This region is one of great
interest to geologists, and furnishes opportunity for study and
research as to the forces producing the external formation of the
State.
Here, at one of
the highest points of the State, the dividing ridge separates,
with but a few miles between them, the Cuyahoga, flowing north to
Lake Erie, and the Tuscarawas, whose waters, through the
Muskingum, reach the Ohio river. During the occupation of the
Indians the region had many important advantages for the red men.
It could be reached from the lake in canoes, and by carrying their
birch-bark canoes seven miles, navigation was clear to the Ohio
river. Fish and game were plentiful. OLD PORTAGE, at the head of
navigation on the Cuyahoga, became a trading-post for whites and
Indians. It was a recognized landmark in the western boundary
line of the United States, in the treaty of Fort McIntosh in
1798. In the war of 1812 it was the rendezvous of the troops
furnished by the Western Reserve.
The old Indian
PORTAGE PATH was part of the ancient boundary between the Six
Nations and the Western Indians. Its exact course is thus
described with reference to present sites.
It left the
Cuyahoga at the village of Old Portage, about three miles north of
Akron. It went up the hill westward about half a mile to the high
ground, where it turned southerly and ran about parallel with the
canal to near the Summit lake; there took the low ground nearly
south to the Tuscarawas, which it struck a mile or two above the
New Portage. The whole length of the path was, by the survey of
Moses WARREN, in 1797, 8 miles, 4 chains and 55 links.
The First
Settlement made in this county was at Hudson, in the year 1800, by
Mr. David HUDSON, the history of which we derive from a series of
articles written by Rev. J. SEWARD, and published about the year
1835 in the Hudson Observer.
In the division
of the Western Reserve among the proprietors, the townships of
Chester and Hudson fell to the lot of Birdsey NORTON and David
HUDSON.
Dangerous
Travelling.—In the year 1799 Mr. HUDSON came out to explore his
land in company with a few others. On the way he fell in with
Benj. TAPPAN, since judge, then travelling to his town of
Ravenna. They started in his boat from Gerondigut bay, on Lake
Ontario, early in May, and soon overtook Elias HARMON, since
judge, in a boat with his wife, bound to Mantua. On arriving at
Niagara, they found the river full of ice. They had their boats
conveyed around the falls, and proceeded on their dangerous way
amidst vast bodies of floating ice, having some of the men on the
shore pulling by ropes until out of danger from the current of the
Niagara. Arrived at the mouth of the lake, they found it full of
floating ice as far as the eye could reach, and were compelled to
wait several days ere they could proceed, which they then did
along near the shore. When off Ashtabula county, their boats were
driven ashore in a storm, and that of Mr. HARMON’s stove in
pieces; he proceeded from thence by land to Mantua. Having
purchased and in a manner repaired HARMON’s boat, Mr. HUDSON
shipped his effects in it, and they arrived at Cleveland on the
8th of June.
[page 627] Locating a
Township.—Morse’s Geography having given them about all the
knowledge of the Cuyahoga that they possessed, they supposed it
capable of sloop navigation to its forks. The season being dry,
they had proceeded but a few miles when they found it in places
only eight or ten inches deep, and were often obliged to get out,
join hands, and drag their boats over the shallow places, and made
but slow progress. After a lapse of several days, they judged
they were in the latitude of the town of which they were in
search. Mr. HUDSON went ashore and commenced hunting for a
surveyor’s line much too far north, and it was not until after six
days’ laborious and painful search that he discovered, towards
night, a line which led to the southwest corner of his township.
The succeeding day being very rainy he lodged under an oak tree,
without any covering except the clothes he wore, with the grateful
pleasure of resting on his own land. In the morning he returned
highly elated to the boats and gave information of his success.
Driving Cattle
Through the Wilderness.—While in Ontario, New York, TAPPAN bought
a yoke of oxen, and HUDSON two yoke and two cows. These eight
cattle they committed in the care of MEACHAM, a hired man in
TAPPAN’s service, who brought them safely on the Indian trail
through Buffalo, until they found near the lake the west line of
the seventh range on the Reserve. This line, it being the east
line of the towns now named Painsville, Concord, Chardon, Monson,
Newburg, Auburn, Mantua, Shalersville and Ravenna, they followed
due south more than forty miles, crossing the Grand and Cuyahoga
rivers, and striking the Salt Spring Indian trail near the
southeastern corner of Ravenna. They followed this trail
westwardly until they came to the new line recently made by HUDSON
and TAPPAN, which they followed to the spot where the boats were
lying on the Cuyahoga, in Boston.
The difficulties
encountered by these men in driving this small drove about three
hundred miles on an obscure, crooked Indian path, and in following
town lines through swamps, rivers and other obstacles fifty miles
farther, almost through an uninhabited wilderness, were appalling;
and what rendered their circumstances truly unpleasant, and in
some cases hazardous, was that they were strangers to the country
and without a guide. Their mode of travelling was to have several
bags of flour and pork, together with two blankets and an axe,
well secured on the backs of the oxen. They waded fordable
streams and compelled their cattle to swim those that could not be
forded, passing across those streams themselves with their
provisions on rafts hastily made of sticks.
Vicious
Flies.—Mr. HUDSON’s company being thus collected, his first care,
after making yokes for his oxen, was to open some road to his
land. The gullies they crossed were numerous and frequent and
often abrupt to an angle of forty-five degrees or more. On this
road, bad as it was, they performed all their transportrtion in
the year 1799, while their oxen were tormented and rendered almost
unmanageable by immense swarms of large flies, which displayed
such skill in the science of phlebotomy, that, in a short time,
they drew out a large share of the blood belonging to these
animals; the flies actually killed one of TAPPAN’s oxen this
season.
After having
conveyed their small stock of provisions on the southwest corner
of this town and erected a bark hut, Mr. HUDSON’s anxiety became
very great lest he and his company should suffer for want of
provisions, his stock being very much reduced in consequence of
the Indians having robbed his boat. Not hearing from LACEY, a man
he had left behind in Western New York to bring on stores, and
dreading the consequences of waiting for him any longer, Mr.
HUDSON started to meet him. Taking a boat at Cleveland, which was
providentially going down the lake, on the 2d of July he found
LACEY lying at his ease near Cattaraugus. With difficulty he
there obtained some provisions, and having a prosperous voyage
arrived in season, to the joy of those left in the wilderness, who
must have been put upon short allowance had his arrival been
delayed any longer.
Difficulty of
Obtaining Provisions.—The company being thus furnished with
provisions, they built a large log-house. Mr. HUDSON also set his
men to work in clearing a piece of land for wheat, and on the 25th
of July he commenced surveying. The settlement now consisted of
thirteen persons. In August every person except Mr. HUDSON had a
turn of being unwell. Several had the fever and ague, and in the
progress of surveying the town into lots, the party frequently had
to wait for some one of their number to go through with a paroxysm
of ague and then resume their labors. By the middle of September
they found to their surprise they had only nine days’ provision o
hand; and as Mr. HUDSON had heard nothing from his agent, NORTON,
at Bloomfield, New York, he was once more alarmed lest they should
suffer for want of food.
He immediately
went to Cleveland and purchased of Lorenzo CARTER a small field of
corn for $50, designing to pound it in mortars and live thereon in
case of necessity. He hastened back to his station and having
previously heard that Ebenezer SHELDON had made a road through the
wilderness to Aurora, and that there was a bridle-path thence to
Cleveland, he thought it probable that he might obtain pork for
present necessity from that quarter. He accordingly set out on
foot and alone, and regulated his course by the range of his
shadow, making allowance for change in the time of day. He found
the Cleveland path near the centre of Aurora, then a dense
forest. Thence he proceeded about two and a half miles to Squire
SHELDON’s cabin, and on inquiring found that he could obtain no
provisions within a reasonable distance in that direction. The
next morning, on his return, he found that the boat had arrived
with an ample supply of provisions.
[Page 629] A Perilous
Voyage.—Having completed his surveying on the 11th of October, Mr.
HUDSON left on the next day for Connecticut, to bring out his
family, in company with his little son and two men. Being
disappointed in not finding a good boat at Cleveland, he took the
wreck of one he had purchased of HARMON, and embarked upon the
dangerous enterprise of crossing the lake in it. It was so leaky
that it required one hand most of the time to bail out the water,
and so weak that it bent considerably in crossing the waves.
During their passage, the weather was generally cold and
boisterous; three different times they narrowly escaped drowning
by reason of the darkness of the night or violence of the wind.
Being under the necessity of lying five days on Chatague point,
they lived comfortably during that time on boiled chestnuts, in
order to lengthen out their small stock of provisions. Arrived at
Goshen, Conn., Mr. HUDSON found his family in health, and by the
1st of January, 1800, was in readiness to leave his native State
with all its tender associations. “Thus,” says he, “ends the
eventful year 1799, filled with many troubles, out of all of which
hath the Lord delivered me.”
Harrowing
Uncertainty.—Having taken an affecting farewell of his friends and
acquaintances, whom he had left behind, Mr. HUDSON set out from
Goshen in January, with his family and others. They tarried at
Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, until spring, making
preparations for their voyage through the lakes and up the
Cuyahoga. They purchased four boats, from one to two tons’
burden, and repaired thoroughly the wreck of HARMON’s boat.
Lightly loading them with supplies to the value of about two
thousand dollars, they completed every necessary preparation by
the 29th of April.
“The next night,”
said Mr. HUDSON, “while my dear wife and six children, with all my
men, lay soundly sleeping around me, I could not close my eyes,
for the reflection that those men and women, with almost all that
I held dear in life, were now to embark in an expedition in which
so many chances appeared against me; and should we survive the
dangers in crossing the boisterous lakes, and the distressing
sickness usually attendant on new settlements, it was highly
probably that we must fall before the tomahawk and
scalping-knife. As I knew at that time no considerable settlement
had been made but what was established in blood, and as I was
about to place all those who lay around me on the extreme
frontier, and as they would look to me for safety and protection,
I almost sunk under the immense weight of responsibility resting
on me. Perhaps my feelings on this occasion were a little similar
to those of the patriarch, when expecting to meet his hostile
brother. But after presenting my case before Israel’s God, and
committing all to his care, I cheerfully launched out the next
morning upon the great deep.”
The crews of
their boats consisted of Samuel BISHOP and his four sons, David,
Reuben, Luman and Joseph, Joel GAYLORD, Heman OVIATT, Moses
THOMPSON, Allen GAYLORD, Stephen PERKINS, Joseph and George DARROW,
William M’KINLEY, and three men from Vermont by the names of
DERRICK, WILLIAMS and SHEFFORD. The women in the company were the
wives of Messrs. HUDSON, BISHOP and NOBLES, with Miss Ruth GAYLORD
and Miss Ruth BISHOP. The six children of Mr. HUDSON completed
the number.
They had little
trouble until they reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga. The wind on
that day being rather high, Mr. HUDSON, in attempting to enter the
river with his boat, missed the channel and struck on a sandbar.
In this very perilous situation the boat shipped several barrels
of water, and himself and all his family must have been drowned
had not a mountain wave struck the boat with such violence as to
float it over the bar. When up the river, within about two miles
of their landing-place, they stopped for the night a little north
of Northfield, at a locality now known as The Pinery.
Waiting for the
Fall of the Waters.—A tremendous rain in the night so raised the
river by daybreak that it overflowed the bank whereon they slept,
and even their beds were on the point of floating. Everything was
completely drenched, and they were compelled to wait five days ere
the subsiding waters would allow them to force their boats against
the current. On the sixth day, May 28th, they reached their
landing-place, from whence Mr. HUDSON, leaving his wife and
children, hurried to see the people whom he had left overwinter
and whom he found well.
About the time
they completed their landing, Elijah NOBLE arrived with the cattle
and Mr. HUDSON’s horse, which had been driven from Ontario by
nearly the same route that the cattle were the preceding year.
Being busy in
arranging for them, Mr. HUDSON did not take his horse to the river
to bring up his family for several days. When he arrived, he
found his wife, who had cheerfully submitted to all the
inconveniences hitherto experienced, very much discouraged. She
and the children suffered severely from the armies of gnats and
mosquitoes which at this season of the year infest the woods.
After all the persons belonging to the settlement had collected,
thanksgiving was rendered to the God of mercy, who had protected
them in perils, preserved their lives and brought them safely to
their place of destination. Public worship on the Sabbath was
resumed, it having been discontinued during the absence of Mr.
Hudson. “I felt,” said he, “in some measure the responsibility
resting on first settlers, and their obligations to commence in
that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom, and to
establish those moral and religious habits on which the temporal
and eternal happiness of a people essentially depends.”
|
[630] Mr. David HUDSON died March 17, 1836, aged 75 years,
leaving a memory revered, and an example of usefulness well worthy
of imitation.
Hudson in
1846.—Hudson is twenty-four miles from Cleveland and thirteen
northeast of Akron, on the stage road from Cleveland to
Pittsburg. It contains two Congregational, one Episcopal and one
Methodist church, four stores, one newspaper printing-office, two
female seminaries, and about 600 inhabitants. The village is
handsomely situated and neatly built, and the tone of society
elevated, which arises in a great measure from its being the seat
of the Western Reserve College.
The college
buildings are of brick, and situated upon a beautiful and spacious
green, in an order similar to the edifices of Yale, on which
institution this is also modeled, and of which several of its
professors are graduates. The annexed view was taken near the
observatory, a small structure shown on the extreme right. The
other buildings are, commencing with that nearest—south college,
middle college, chapel, divinity hall, president’s house, athenæum,
and a residence of one of the professors, near the roadside,
nearly in front of the athenæum.
The Medical
College at Cleveland is connected with this institution. By the
catalogue of 1846-7, the whole number of professors and
instructors in the college was 19; the whole number of students
320, viz., 14 in the theological department; 216 in the medical
department; 71 undergraduates and 19 preparatory.—Old Edition.
The college,
while at Hudson, did a great work in the cause of education; its
professors were largely graduates of Yale, some of whom attained
national reputation, but it always was financially a struggling
institution, and the salaries of its officers pitifully meagre.
In consequence of an offer of half a million of dollars from Amasa
STONE, the college was removed to Cleveland in 1882, and its
classical department then named ADELBERT COLLEGE, in memory of Mr.
STONE’s “lost and lamented son.”
The old college
buildings are now occupied by the WESTERN RESERVE ACADEMY, which
is for the education of both sexes. It was established in 1882
under the charter of the old college, which now comprises
“Adelbert College” and “College for Women,” at Cleveland. It is
maintained by and is under the direction of the trustees of
Adelbert College, and has an annual income of $3,000.
The academy is
under the charge of Prof. Newton B. HOBART. The site is
beautiful, comprising about thirty acres of land. It began with a
higher standard than that of any other preparatory school in the
State and its reputation is of the highest. In the eight years of
its existence it has had about 400 students from fifteen different
States, of whom 111 have graduated and 79 entered varied colleges,
as Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Amherst, Adelbert, Cleveland
College for Women, Ann Arbor, etc.
[631] HUDSON is twelve
miles north of Akron and twenty-six southeast of Cleveland, on the
junction of the C. & P. and C. A. & C. Railroads.
City Officers,
1888: H. B. FOSTER, Mayor; E. E. ROGERS, Clerk; S. MILLER,
Treasurer; L. E. REED, Marshal. Newspaper: Express, Independent,
D. B. SHERWOOD & Son, editors and publishers. Churches: 1
Congregational, 1 Catholic, 1 Episcopal, 1 Methodist. School
census, 1888, 263. C. F. SEESE, superintendent of schools.
The celebration
of the ninetieth birthday anniversary of Mrs. Anna M. HUDSON
BALDWIN was held in the Congregational Church at Hudson, Tuesday,
Oct. 28, 1890. From the programme of the commemoration exercises
we derive these items:
Her father, David
HUDSON, the founder of the town, was a direct descendant of
Hendrick HUDSON, who discovered the Hudson river in 1609.
Hendrick named his youngest son David, and he was the sixth David
in that line. He was born at Branford, Connecticut, July 17,
1760. His daughter, Anna, was the first while child born in
Summit county. This event took place in a hut of a single room,
which stood at what is now the junction of Baldwin with Main
street.
First Things,
wheeled, arrived in March, 1802; log school-house, 1802; first
burial in old cemetery, mother of John BROWN, 1808; Congregational
Church formed September 4, 1802, David BACON, pastor, 1804 to
1807; first tannery opened by Owen BROWN, father of John, 1805;
college opened, 1826; removed to Cleveland 1882, and Western
Reserve Academy organized; town celebrations, June 18, 1850 and
1856, and October 28, 1890.
At this
celebration the president was Geo. L. STARR; the historical
address by S. A. LANE, of Akron, the county historian; and
another, “First ninety years of the century,” by Hon. J. C. LEE,
Toledo.
Akron in
1846.—The large and flourishing town of Akron, the county-seat, is
on the Portage summit of the Ohio canal, at the junction of the
Pennsylvania canal, 36 miles from Cleveland and 110 northeast of
Columbus. The name of this town is derived from a Greek word
signifying an elevation. Akron was laid out in 1825, where south
Akron now is. In the fall of the same year, the Irish laborers on
the Ohio canal put up about 100 cabins. South Akron grew rapidly
for a few years; but in 1832 some buildings were put up half a
mile farther north, and business in a short time centered here.
In 1827 the Ohio canal was finished from Cleveland to this place.
In 1841 Akron was made the county-seat of the new county of
Summit. The same year the canal connecting Akron with Beaver,
Pa., was opened, and a new impetus given to the town by these
advantages.
Akron contains 1
Episcopal, 1 Congregational, 1 Baptist, 1 Methodist, 1 Disciples,
1 Universalist, 1 German Lutheran, and 1 Catholic church, 20
mercantile stores, 10 grocery, 4 drug and 2 book stores, 4 woollen
factories, 2 blast and 3 small furnaces, 1 carding machine
manufactory, 5 flouring mills, 1 insurance company, 1 bank, 2
newspaper printing-offices, and a great variety of mechanical
establishments. The mercantile business of this town is heavy and
constantly increasing, and immense quantities of wheat are
purchased. The water privileges here are good, and manufacturing
will eventually be extensively carried on. In 1827 its population
was about 600; in 1840 it was 1,664, since which it is estimated
to have doubled. Two miles south of Akron is Summit lake, a
beautiful sheet of water on the summit of the Ohio canal. Part of
its waters find their way to the St. Lawrence, and part to the
Gulf of Mexico.—Old Edition.
A resident of
Akron has given us some facts respecting the settlement of the
country, and one or two anecdotes, which we annex.
In 1811 Paul
WILLIAMS, Amos and Minor SPICER came from New London, Conn., and
settled in the vicinity of Akron, at which time there was no other
white settlement between here and Sandusky. We give an anecdote
of Minor SPICER, who is still living at Akron. In the late war,
one night just before retiring, he heard some one call in front of
his house, and went out and saw a large Indian with two rifles in
his hand, and a deer quartered and hung across his horse. SPICER
inquired what he wanted. The Indian replied in his own dialect,
when the other told him he must speak English, or he would unhorse
him. He finally gave them to understand that he wished to stay
over night, a request that was reluctantly granted. His rifles
were placed in a corner, his venison hung up, and his horse put
into a large pig-stye, the only stable attached to the premises.
The Indian cut
out a piece of venison for Mrs. SPICER to cook for him, which she
did in the usual way, with a liberal quantity of pepper and salt.
He drew up to the table and eat but a mouthful or two. The family
being ready to retire, he placed his scalping-knife and tomakawk
in the corner with his rifles, and stretched himself upon the
hearth before the fire. When he supposed the family were asleep,
he raised himself slowly from his reclining position and sat
upright on the hearth, looking stealthily over his shoulder to see
if all was still. He then got upon his feet and stepped lightly
across the floor to his implements of death. At this juncture the
feelings of SPICER and his wife may be well imagined, for they
were only feigning sleep and were intently watching. The Indian
again stood for a moment, to see if he had awakened any one, then
slowly drew from its scabbard the glittering scalping-knife. At
this moment SPICER was about putting his hand upon his rifle,
which stood by his bed, to shoot the Indian, but concluded to wait
further demonstration, which was an entirely different one from
what he had anticipated, for the Indian took hold and cut a piece
of his venison, weighing about two pounds, and laying it on the
live coals until it was warmed through, devoured it and went to
sleep. Mrs. SPICER’s cooking had not pleased him, being seasoned
too high. The day before he and his father lost themselves in the
woods, and after covering his parent, under a log, with his
blanket, he had wandered until he saw SPICER’s light.
James BROWN, or,
as he was commonly called, “Jim BROWN,” was one of the early
settlers in the north part of the county. He was known throughout
the country as the head of a notorious band of counterfeiters.
Few men have pursued the business so long without being
convicted. Aside from this he was to a certain extent respected,
for he had the externals of a gentleman in his conversation and
address, and had many friends. He was a fine-looking man, over
six feet in height, with a keen penetrating eye. He even held the
office of justice of the peace when last arrested. He had often
been tried before, and as often escaped. Once he was sentenced to
the penitentiary from Medina, and the sheriff had nearly reached
Columbus, when he was overtaken with a writ of error and set at
liberty. It is said that large numbers of young men have been
drawn into his schemes from time to time, and thereby found their
way to the penitentiary. Many anecdotes are related of him.
He and a brother
and one TAYLOR once supplied themselves with counterfeit paper and
proceeded to New Orleans, where they purchased a ship with it and
set sail for China, intending to make large purchases there with
counterfeit notes on the United States bank. A discovery,
however, was made, and they were apprehended before they had got
out of the river, and brought back for trial, but he escaped by
turning State’s evidence. He escaped so often that it was said he
could not be convicted. However, in 1846, he was taken the last
time, tried at Columbus, and sentenced to the penitentiary for ten
years. When first arrested, he said, “Well, boys, now the United
States have taken hold of me, I may get floored; but I could have
worried out a county.”
AKRON,
county-seat of Summit, about one hundred and ten miles northeast
of Columbus, about thirty miles south of Cleveland, is an
important manufacturing city, sewer pipe and stoneware being noted
interests. It is the seat of BUCHTEL COLLEGE. Its railroads are:
N. Y., P. & O.; C. A. & C.; Valley; and P. & W. It is also on the
Ohio canal.
County Officers,
1888: Auditor, Charles W. F. DICK; Clerk, Othello W. HALE;
Commissioners, King J. ELLET, Washington G. JOHNSTON, Charles C.
HINE; Coroner, Albert H. SARGENT; Infirmary Directors, Stephen D.
MILLER, Joseph MOORE, Eli SMITH; Probate Judge, Charles R. GRANT;
Prosecuting Attorney, George W. SIEBER; Recorder, Henry C. Searles;
Sheriff, David R. BUNN; Surveyor, Charles E. PERKINS; Treasurer,
James H. SEYMOUR. City Officers, 1888: Louis D. SEWARD, Mayor;
Dayton A. DOYLE, Solicitor; Newton FORD, Clerk; Arthur M. COLE,
Treasurer; Simon M. STONE, Marshal; W. D. CHAPMAN, Civil Engineer,
Henry ACKER, Street Commissioner; B. F. MANDERBACH, Chief Fire
Department. Newspapers: Beacon, Republican, Beacon Publishing
Co., editors and publishers; Telegram, Independent, F. S. PIXLEY,
editor; Germania, German Independent, Germania Publishing Company,
editors and publishers; City Times, Democratic, F. S. PIXLEY,
editor; Freie Presse, German, Freie Presse Publishing Company;
American Farm News, AUTLMAN, MILLER & Co., publishers; Ohio
Educational Monthly and National Teacher, educational, Samuel
FINDLAY, editor. Churches: 1 Baptist, 1 Congregational, 2
Christian, 1 Hebrew, 1 Evangelical, 2 Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, 1
Universalist, 1 German Lutheran, 1 German Reformed, 1 Reformed, 2
Catholic, 1 Episcopal, 1 Lutheran, 1 United Brethren, 1 African
Methodist Episcopal. Banks: Bank of Akron, George W. CROUSE,
president, George T. PERKINS, cashier; Citizens’ Savings and Loan
Association, E. STEINBACHER, president, W. B. RAYMOND, cashier;
City National, J. B. WOODS, president, F. W. BUTLER, cashier;
First National, T. W. CORNELL, president, W. McFARLIN, cashier;
Second National, George D. BATES, president, A. N. SANFORD,
cashier.
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Manufactures and Employees.—AULTMAN, MILLER & Co.,
harvesting machinery, 605 hands; J. F. SEIBERLING & Co.,
harvesting machinery, 256; The J. C. MCNEIL Co., steam boilers,
etc., 32; Akron Twine and Cordage Co., twine an cordage, 60;
TAPLIN, RICE & Co., stoves and general machine work, 16; F.
SCHUMACHER Milling Co., flour, etc., 276; Citizens’ Electric Light
Co., 6; D. W. THOMAS, planing mill, 24; The Hower Co., oat
products, 20; ALLEN & Co., flour and feed, 17; J. Park ALEXANDER,
fire-brick, 20; W. B. DOYLE & Co., planing mill, 10; BAKER,
McMILLEN & Co., wood-turning, etc., 98; A. A. BARTLETT, planing
mil, 13; DEMPSEY Machine Co., general machine work, 12; D. E. H.
MERRILL & Co., stone-ware, 49; Enterprise Manufacturing Co.,
hardware specialties, 35; The Hardware Manufacturing Co., hardware
specialties, 17; The Thomas PHILLIPS Co., flour sacks, 50;
Christian VOGHT, carriages and wagons, 10; The B. F. GOODRICH Co.,
mechanical and hard rubber, 260; The Akron Cracker Co., crackers
and cakes, 14; WEARY, SNYDER, WILCOX Manufacturing Co., planing
mill and box factory, 25; WEBSTER, CAMP & LANE Machinery Co.,
hoisting machinery, etc., 135; The Akron Belting Co., leather
belting, 25; WERNER Printing and Manufacturing Co., lithographing,
printing, etc., 140; The Beacon Publishing Co., printing and
book-binding, 36; Akron Contracting and Cabinet Co., builders’
supplies, etc., 25; SMITH Brothers, druggists’ supplies, etc., 24;
The Akron Iron Co., bar iron, etc., 412; C. A. HANKEY, planing
mill, 15; The Diamond Match Co., matches, 664; WHITMAN and BARNS
Manufacturing Co., knives and sickles, 286; MILLER Match and Chain
Co., matches and chains, 138; J. C. EWART & Co., roofing tile,
etc., 70; The SELLE Gear Co., spring wagons and truck gears, 46;
The Buckeye Sewer-pipe Co., sewer-pipe, 40; The HILL Sewer-pipe
Co., sewer-pipe, 45; WHITMORE, ROBINSON & Co., stoneware, etc.,
129; The SEIBERLING Milling Co., flour and feed, 23; The Akron
Fire-brick Co., fire-brick, 8; T. C. BUDD, machine and foundry
work, 7; Akron Steam Forge Co., iron and steel forging, 23; F.
HORIX, lager beer, 12; ROBINSON Brothers & Co., sewer-pipe, 70;
WEEKS Brothers, stoneware, 31; VIALL & MARKELL, stoneware, 25;
COOK, FAIRBANKS & Co., stoneware, 23; Akron Stoneware Co.,
stoneware, 43; F. W. ROCKWELL & Co., stoneware, 20; The Ohio
Stoneware Co., stoneware, 32.—State Report, 1888.
Population in
1880, 16,512. School census, 1888, 7,707; Elias FRANNFELTER,
school superintendent. Capital invested in industrial
establishments, $7,202,000. Value of annual product,
$7,487,369.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1887. Census, 1890, 27,702.
Akron’s
Sewer-pipe Industry is famed throughout the whole country. The
sewer-pipe has been in use in many cities for years and only gains
added reputation by the test of time. It is manufactured in large
quantities by skilled labor and powerful machinery. It is
thoroughly vitrified and impervious to acids, gases or steam. The
glaze being formed from the action of the vapors of salt upon the
clay at a high temperature is not liable to scale or cut off by
sewer gas, as is sometimes the case when a slip glaze of foreign
substances is applied to the clay.
Of the clay
beds which supply the material for Akron’s sewer-pipe Dr. ORTON
says: “The potters’ clays of Springfield township, Summit county,
are among the best natural beds of stoneware clay in the State.
The clay deposits are from six to ten feet thick, overlain by shales and a hard sand-rock, and underlain by shales and
occasionally by an inch or two of coal. The clays are of several
grades of excellence; the poorest, or ‘chuck’ clay, which is
commonly rejected, is found on the top of the bed. The beds are
found close to the surface in the largest part of the territory.
They are mined by long pits or trenches by which the whole area
worked is taken clean and the refuse is piled back. In one or two
instances the clays are mined by drifting, which gives a much
cleaner product than the customary way. The district in which
these clays are found is small, all the workings being at one
place, viz., North Springfield, Summit county, where there are
twelve or fifteen banks. They supply all the Mogadore, Tallmadge,
Cuyahoga Falls and Akron stoneware potteries, which make at least
twice as much stoneware as any other district in Ohio."
Akron has another
industry—the MATCH INDUSTRY—which is almost as widely known as its
famous sewer-pipe. One-fifth of the entire match product of the
United States is made by one concern in Akron. The BARBER Match
Company was established in 1847 by George BARBER, and became by
consolidation a branch of the Diamond Match Company in 1881.
The Akron branch
of this concern use annually in the manufacture of matches
3,000,000 feet of white pine lumber, 70 tons of brimstone, 17,000
lbs. of phosphorus, 33,6000 lbs. chlorate of potash, 30,000 lbs.
of glue and 50,000 lbs. of parafine wax. The work is largely done
by improved machinery.
On the location
of the canal at Akron the town of Middlebury began to lose its
prestige, and its citizens decided that it must get increased
water-power to hold its own against the young rival.
The MIDDLEBURY
HYDRAULIC COMPANY was organized and authorized by the Legislature
“to raise the natural surface of Springfield lake, in which the
Little Cuyahoga had its rise, six feet, and lower it four feet
below the natural surface. This gave to the water-power of the
village a permanency and sufficiency that could be relied on at
all times.” In 1872 Middlebury was annexed to Akron as the sixth
ward of that city.
MIDDLEBURY
is now a part of Akron. In our old edition it was thus described
as in the township of Tallmadge: “Two miles east of Akron and on
both sides of the Little Cuyahoga is the village of Middlebury.
As early as 1807 a grist mill was built on the site of the town by
Amos NORTON and Joseph HART. The town was laid out in 1818 by
them, and soon became the most thriving village in this whole
region until the canal was cut through to Cleveland, when Akron
took away most of its trade. It has two churches and about 1,000
people.”—Old Edition.
Within Akron’s
beautiful and well-kept Glendale cemetery stands the AKRON
SOLDIERS’ MEMORIAL CHAPEL, dedicated Decoration Day, 1876. At the
time of its erection it was the only building of the kind in the
country. Its erection is due to the BUCKLEY Post of the G. A. R.,
aided by outside subscriptions. The chapel is a handsome stone
structure, its cost $25,000. Built into its interior walls are
fourteen marble slabs, engraved with the names of the fallen brave
of Akron and Portage township.
A striking
feature of the chapel are three beautiful windows—one by the
surviving members of the 29th O. V. I., in honor of the regiment
and the late Col. Lewis P. BUCKLEY, from whom the Post is named; a
second, representing woman’s work in the war; and the third,
commemorative of three epochs in national history—Washington,
Perry and Lincoln. There are also eight
small memorial windows, individual contributions.
The
admirable AKRON SCHOOL SYSTEM (Vol. I., page 143) is the result of
the efforts of Rev. I. JENNINGS, a young man, pastor of the
Congregational church at Akron, who, in 1846, set himself to work
to recognize the common schools of Akron. Previous to this the
schools of Akron were poor affairs, giving only the most
rudimentary education, and even that was accorded to only about
two-thirds of the children of school age.
In May, 1846, Mr.
JENNINGS called a public meeting to secure better education, at
which he was appointed chairman of a committee to submit a plan
for improvement. At an adjourned meeting of citizens, held Nov.
21, 1846, the following plan received the unanimous approval and
adoption of those assembled:
1. Let the whole
village be incorporated into one school district.
2. Let there be
established six primary schools in different parts of the village,
so as best to accommodate the whole.
3. Let there be one
grammar-school, centrally located, where instructions may be given
in the various studies and parts of studies not provided for in
the primary schools, and yet requisite to a respectable English
education.
4. Let there be
gratuitous admission to each school in the system for the children
of residents, with the following restrictions, viz.: No pupil
shall be admitted to the grammar school who fails to sustain a
thorough examination in the studies of the primary school, and the
teacher shall have power, with the advice and direction of the
superintendent, to exclude for misconduct in extreme cases, and to
classify the pupils as the best good of the schools may seem to
require.
5. The expense of
establishing and sustaining this system of schools shall be thus
provided for: First, by appropriating what public school money the
inhabitants of the village are entitled to, and what other funds
or property may be at the disposal of the board for this purpose;
and secondly, a tax be levied by the Common Council upon the
taxable property of this village for the balance.
6. Let six
superintendents be chosen by the Common Council, who shall be
charged with perfecting the system thus generally defined, the
bringing of it into operation, and the control of it when brought
into operation. Let the six superintendents be so chosen that the
term of office of two of them shall expire each year.
This plan
was embodied in an act passed by the Legislature, Feb. 8, 1847,
excepting that the name of officers and mode of election of the
sixth paragraph were changed.
From a historical
sketch of the schools of Akron, by Judge C. BRYAN, we quote the
following: “The interval between the meetings, in May and
November, 1846, was improved by Mr. JENNINGS in collecting
information, maturing the plan and elaborating the report. The
idea originated with Mr. JENNINGS, and the labor of visiting every
home in the village, to ascertain what children went to school and
who did not go, and who went to public schools and who went to
private, and how much was paid for school instruction, was
performed by him. He went to Cleveland and Sandusky city in the
same interest, to see the operation of graded schools there. He
procured estimates by competent mechanics of the cost of erecting
a grammar-school building to accommodate 500 pupils, and omitted
no detail of the plan that was necessary to show it in organic
completeness; and whatever credit and distinction Akron may have
enjoyed for the principle of free graded schools in Ohio is due to
Mr. JENNINGS.”
BUCHTEL COLLEGE
stands on a beautiful and commanding eminence over-looking the
city. It was founded in 1870 through the action of the State
Convention of Universalists, and named in honor of John R.
BUCHTEL, of Akron, who contributed $25,000 for the building and
$6,000 for the endowment fund.
After the
completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal, it was determined to make
water connection between Cleveland and Pittsburg, and in 1841 the
PENNSYLVANIA AND OHIO CANAL was completed from Akron to Beaver,
Pa. For a time the canal flourished, but the competition of and
later the control acquired by the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad
Company, led to its gradual disuse and dilapidation, until it
became a menace to the health of those residing in its
neighborhood. One night, in the spring of 1868, the banks were
cut in three places, at and near Cuyahoga Falls, and its waters
flowed out until the bottom appeared. The State threatened
prosecution, but none was ever commenced and the breaks never
repaired. Again, in the spring of 1874, the canal was cut by
night in Akron by disguised men, but no one was punished, although
the supposed guilty parties were arrested.
In 1838 a party
of capitalists, largely Eastern men, undertook to build a great
manufacturing city at a point between Cuyahoga Falls and Akron, to
be called SUMMIT CITY. A joint stock company, with a capital of
$500,000, was organized. The city was to be supplied with
inexhaustible water-power, by means of a dam and canal diverting
the waters of the Cuyahoga river. Work was begun and in 1839
water turned into the canal, but at this point the money gave out,
and matters were at a standstill until in 1843 Horace GREELEY,
while on a visit to Akron, was so impressed by the scheme that, on
his return to New York, he published in the Tribune an
enthusiastic article, predicting that “Summit City” would become
the “Lowell of the West.” Nevertheless, no more money could be
raised for the future “Lowell,” and it “died a’bornin’.” The
lands of the company, called the “Chuckery,” are now in the
suburbs of Akron.
TALLMADGE, THE CHRISTIAN COLONY
The history of
the settlement of the township of Tallmadge is peculiar. At a
drawing among the members of the Connecticut Land Company, at
Hartford, Connecticut, Jan. 30, 1798, this township was drawn by
the “Brace Company” and others. In 1803 the proprietors made a
division. The Brace Company took all west of the meridian,
one-half mile west of the centre line. The remainder of the
township was taken by Ephraim STARR and Col. Benjamin TALLMADGE,
of Litchfield, from whom the township was named.
No settlement was
made in Tallmadge until the summer of 1807, when Rev. David BACON,
a missionary in the Western settlements, built a log-house on the
south line of the township, half a mile west of the centre, and
moved in with his family, the only one in the township.
Mr. BACON had conceived the idea of a religious
colony, and made a contract with the owners for nearly the entire
township; in all about 12,000 acres at $1.50 per acre. Payments
were to be made upon time, but when payments were made for any
part in full a deed was to be given.
In the preceding
year he had a new survey made of the township upon his own plan.
He divided it into sixteen squares of 1,000 acres each, called
Great Lots, a mile and a quarter on each side. A road or highway
was established sixty-six feet wide on each line of the Great
Lots, except the exterior or township line. These roads all run
north and south or east and west. A public square of seven and a
half acres was laid out as a common centre for churches, schools,
stores, etc. From this square roads ran to each of the four
corners of the township. The plan is shown in the annexed
diagram, as given in 1842, by Col. Charles WHITTLESEY (see page
521), in his sketch of Tallmadge. Here he passed his youthful
days and from his sketch these facts are derived.
“At the common
intersection of roads on the public square stands (1842) a
guide-post, having eight fingers or hands, pointing in as many
directions, with the names of two to four adjacent places painted
upon each. On each of these avenues there are now planted double
rows of elms from the adjoining forests. The northwest diagonal
intersects the town line about half a mile east of the corner, in
order to avoid the Cuyahoga river, and the southwest diagonal has
a deviation in a straight course in the village of Middlebury;
otherwise all these roads, amounting to forty-five miles in
length, are now travelled in right lines through the town as laid
out by Mr. BACON.
It was the
intention of the contractor, Mr. BACON, to introduce a community
of property to some extent, and among other things to have a large
tract appropriated as a common pasture for all the sheep of the
settlement, the proceeds to be drawn in proportion to the stock
put in.
No immigrants
were to receive land who were not professors of the Congregational
or Presbyterian Church, and two dollars for each 100 acres was to
be paid for the support of the gospel. The latter provision was
inserted in some of the early contracts and deeds, but, in fact,
never went into effect.
During the spring
and summer of the year following Mr. BACON’s establishing here,
families came in rapidly, nearly all originally from Connecticut,
especially from Litchfield county; many came direct from other
settlements in Ohio, as those from Ravenna who “were driven out,”
writes WHITTLESEY, “by the systematic oppression of a large
proprietor and agent, Benjamin TAPPAN.”
The first
settlers prior to 1812 were: In 1808, Dr. A. C. WRIGHT, Joseph
HART, Adam NORTON, Charles CHITTENDEN, Jonathan SPRAGUE, Nathaniel
CHAPMAN, Titus, his father, Titus and Porter, and others of his
sons, William NIEL, Joseph BRADFORD, Ephraim CLARK, Jr., George
KILBOURNE, Capt. John WRIGHT, Alpha WRIGHT, Eli HILL.
In 1809, Jotham
BLAKELEY, Jotham BLAKELEE, Conrad BOOSINGER, Edmund STRONG, John
WRIGHT, Jr., Stephen UPSON, Theron BRADLEY, Peter NORTON.
In 1810, Elizur
WRIGHT, Justus BARNES, Shubel H. LOWREY, David, John Samuel,
David, Jr., and Lot PRESTON, Drake FELLOWS, Samuel M’COY, Luther
CHAMBERLIN, Rial M’ARTHUR, Justin BRADLEY.
[page 640] In 1811,
Deacon S., Norman, Harvey, Leander, Cassander, Eleazar and Salmon
SACKETT, Daniel BEACH, John CARRUTHERS, Reuben UPSON, and Asa
GILLETT.
On the 21st of
January, 1809, Geo. KILBOURNE and his wife Almira, Justin E. FRINK,
Alice BACON, wife of David BACON, Hepsibah CHAPMAN, Amos C.
WRIGHT, and Lydia, his wife, and Ephraim CLARK, Jr., with his wife
Alva A. CLARK, associated themselves together as a church, named
the Church of Christ in Tallmadge. Thus in the second year of its
existence were the principles of the Bible adopted as the rule of
moral government in this settlement. In 1813 the church had
twenty-seven members, mostly heads of families within the
township.
The stern purity
of those New Englanders relaxed none of its rigor in consequence
of a removal from the regular administration of the gospel in the
East to the depths of a Western wilderness. The usual
depreciation of morals in new countries was not experienced here.
To this day the good effects of this primitive establishment of
religion and order are plainly visible among this people and their
posterity, who will no doubt exhibit them through all time.
Individuals not
professors of religion considered it a paramount duty to provide
for religious services on the Sabbath. Elizur WRIGHT, who became
an extensive proprietor in the Brace Company’s tract, readily
adopted the plan of Mr. BACON, and inserted it in his first
conveyance. But this scheme was considered by most of the
inhabitants as an encroachment upon their personal independence,
and was generally resisted. Very early, however, a regular mode
of contribution was established for the support of the gospel.
The materials of
society which Mr. BACON had introduced were not of the proper kind
to carry out his project. There was too much enterprise and
independence of feeling among the early settlers to form a
community of the character contemplated by him. Differences of a
personal nature rose between him and many of the inhabitants, both
upon pecuniary and religious matters. His purchases being made on
time, without means and at high prices, and the sales not being
sufficient, payments were not made to the original proprietors;
the expenses of survey had been considerable, interest accumulated
and the contract was finally abandoned. He left this region in
the spring of 1812. The lands not sold came back to the
proprietors; and some that had been sold and the payments not made
to them were in the same situation. The large owners at this time
were TALLMADGE and STARR in the central and eastern part; Elizur
WRIGHT and Roger NEWBERRY in the west.
In the summer of
1875 two of the grandsons of Mr. BACON, both Congregational
clergymen, Theodore Woolsey BACON and David BACON, came from the
East, and selecting a boulder had engraved upon it an historical
statement, as a memorial to him and the founding of the church. A
picture of it on another page is engraved from the photograph. A
large concourse of people attended the memorial services, which
consisted of addresses by the grandsons and others, with prayer
and songs. The site is about two miles south of the centre and
half a mile north of the Cuyahoga, on the spot where stood the
BACON cabin, the ground having been purchased for the purpose.
HISTORICAL MISCELLANY
DRIVING AWAY THE EVIL SPIRIT
On June 17, 1806,
an eclipse of the sun occurred. It occasioned much consternation
among ignorant whites throughout Ohio, and great terror among the
Indians. Those in Summit county were greatly frightened,
notwithstanding its having been foretold by some of their squaws,
who were not believed and put to death for witchcraft. (The
squaws probably got their information from some of the whites.)
When the sun was
obscured, the terrified savages gathered together, and forming a
circle, commenced marching around in regular order, each one
firing his gun and making all the noise possible, so as to
frighten away the evil spirit menacing the destruction of the
world.
One “brave,” who
had fired off his rifle just as the shadow began to pass from the
sun, claimed the distinction of having driven away the evil
spirit—a claim which his fellow-barbarians recognized, and for
this valorous deed and invaluable service, at once raised him to
the dignity of chieftainship.
STIGWANISH AND HIS TOTEM
STIGWANISH,
or SENECA, as he was sometimes called by the whites, although that
was the name of his tribe, had many noble traits of character, was
friendly to the whites and much respected by them. (See Lake
County).
His people for
years cultivated corn fields near where the village of Cuyahoga
Falls now stands. In Boston township they erected a wooden god or
totem, around which they held feasts and dances, before starting
on hunting and possibly marauding expeditions.
They would make
offerings and hang tobacco round the neck of the totem, which the
white settlers would steal as soon as the Indians had left. The
tobacco was said to have been of a superior quality.
When the Indians
went farther west in 1812, this god was taken with them.
DEATH OF NICKSHAW
STIGWANISH had a
son, “GEORGE WILSON,” and a son-in-law, NICKSHAW, each of whom was
killed by a white hunter named WILLIAMS at different times, but in
both cases under circumstances hardly creditable to the white
hunter. The death of NICKSHAW occurred in December, 1806; he had
traded a pony with one of the settlers, and being worsted in the
bargain wanted to trade back, which John DIVER, the settler,
refused to do. NICKSHAW threatened vengeance; he told the
settlers he had been cheated, and intended to shoot DIVER. Later,
while at the cabin of his brother, NICKSHAW and another Indian
called and tried to get DIVER to come out, but he would not, and
his brother Daniel went out to placate the Indians when he was
fired upon, and though not mortally wounded was blinded for life.
The Indians fled,
and a party of settlers, under Maj. H. ROGERS, started in
pursuit. They came upon the camp of the Senecas about midnight on
a cold, clear night, at a point near the northwestern boundary of
the county. Surrounding the camp they closed in upon the Indians,
but NICKSHAW escaped them and fled to the woods. He was followed
by George DARROW and Jonathan WILLIAMS, who, after a three mile
chase, overtook NICKSHAW and called upon him to yield; this he
refused to do, although without means of defense. WILLIAMS then
shot over his head to frighten him into subjection, but without
the desired effect; whereupon he fired again, killing the Indian.
The body was placed under a log and covered with brush. Afterward
it was decently buried by the whites.
Some of the
settlers, deeming the death of NICKSHAW unwarrantable and likely
to occasion trouble with the Indians, demanded an investigation.
The investigation, however, ended in a “hoe-down,” with plenty of
whiskey and a $5 collection for WILLIAMS.
WILLIAMS, THE HUNTER
Johathan WILLIAMS
belonged to that class of old pioneer hunters who knew no fear,
were fully equal to the Indians in woodcraft, and bore them an
inveterate hatred. He lost no opportunity to kill an Indian. He
was six feet in height, with strong physique, swarthy complexion,
lithe and noiseless in his movements. He supported a family.
With his two dogs and rifle he was feared and shunned by the
Indians, and was continually on his guard against them, as his
life was threatened many times.
DEATH OF “GEORGE WILSON”
On one occasion,
stopping at the house of one of the settlers, WILLIAMS was told
that “GEORGE WILSON,” a good-for-nothing son of STIGWANISH, had
been there, drunk and ugly, and had made an old woman, whom he
found alone, dance for his amusement until she sank to the floor
from exhaustion. WILLIAMS at once started after the Indian, and
overtook him in the vicinity of a piece of “Honeycomb swamp.”
Taking advantage of the Indian while off his guard, he shot and
killed him. Then depositing the body in the swamp, he pushed it
down into the mud until it sunk out of sight.
The disappearance
of “GEORGE WILSON” created a great sensation among the Senecas,
but it was not known until years afterward what had become of him,
although the Indians and settlers suspected WILLIAMS as the cause
of it.
“BLUE LAW” IN OHIO
Some years after
the organization of Copley township in 1819, one of its citizens,
early one Sunday morning, was aroused from his slumbers by the
noise of a great commotion in his pig pen. Hastily donning his
clothes, he seized a rifle and rushed out of his cabin just in
time to see a bear disappear in the forest with one of his pigs.
He pursued the bear and shot it; whereupon he was brought before
the Squire for violating the Sabbath, and fined $1. Shortly
afterward the citizen left that community and joined the Mormons.
The historian does not so state, but if he was prompted to this as
a result of the fine imposed for violating the Sabbath, he was so
far, perhaps, justified in joining the Mormons, who had no laws
against shooting marauding bears on the “Lord’s day.”
A
LOTTERY SCHEME
In 1807 the
improvement of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers was the great
idea of Northwestern Ohio. Col. Charles WHITTLESEY gives the
following interesting description of a scheme to this end:
“It was thought
that if $12,000 could by some means be raised the channels of
those streams could be cleared of logs and trees and the portage
path made passable for loaded wagons. Thus, goods might ascend
the Cuyahoga in boats to Old Portage, be hauled seven miles to the
Tuscarawas, near New Portage, and thence descend that stream in
bateaux. This great object excited so much attention that the
Legislature authorized a lottery to raise the money.”
The tickets
were headed “Cuyahoga and Muskingum Navigation Lottery.” They
were issued in May, 1807, the drawing to take place at Cleveland,
the first Monday in January, 1808, or as soon as three-fourths of
the tickets were sold. There were 12,800 tickets at $5 each.
There were to be 3568 prizes, ranging from one capital prize of
$5000; two second prizes of $2500 each, down to 3400 at $10. The
drawing never came off. Many years after, those who had purchased
tickets received their money back, without interest.
A
DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO
On the 20th of
October, 1837, there passed through Stow township a tornado of
great destructive power. It occurred about three o’clock in the
morning, struck the western part of the township, passed north of
east, and exhausted itself near the center of the township. Its
roar was terrific, its force tremendous; in its course through
heavy timber, every tree within a path forty rods wide was snapped
like a pipe-stem. It was accompanied by vivid flashes of
lightning, roaring thunder, and down pouring rain. It passed over
Cochran pond. The residence of Frederick SANDFORD was torn to
fragments, killing his two sons and mother-in-law outright,
injuring Mr. SANDFORD so that he died within a few hours, while
Mrs. SANDFORD and her daughter escaped severe injury. Other
houses were struck and felled or damaged, but no other deaths
resulted. Farm utensils were twisted and torn to pieces.
Domestic animals killed, as well as fowls and birds; the latter
being plucked clean of feathers.
REMARKABLE CASE OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
One of the most
remarkable cases of circumstantial evidence occurred in Northfield
township. It came near resulting in the conviction for murder of
an innocent man. The circumstances are quoted from Gen. L. V.
BIERCE’s “History of Summit County,” a work valuable for its
preservation of pioneer history:
“An Englishman,
named Rupert CHARLESWORTH, who was boarding with Dorsey VIERS in
1826, suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. He was traced to the
cabin of VIERS on the night of the 23d of July, but on the
following morning when a constable went there to arrest him, he
was gone and no trace of him could be found. On the arrival of
the constable, Mrs. VIERS was found mopping up the floor.
Questions were asked, but Mrs. VIERS told contradictory stories as
to the disappearance of the man, alleging in one instance that he
jumped out of the window and ran off and could not be caught; and
in another, that he left when VIERS was asleep, and the latter
knew nothing of his whereabouts. A few days later some one
announced having heard the report of a rifle at VIERS’ cabin the
night of the man’s disappearance, and of having seen blood on a
pair of bars which led from the cabin to the woods. Years rolled
on, and the excitement grew stronger with age, until, on the 8th
of January, 1831, complaint was entered before George Y. WALLACE,
Justice of the Peace, that VIERS had murdered CHARLESWORTH. VIERS
was arrested, and a trial of eight days followed. Not only were
the circumstances above narrated proved, but a hired girl who was
working for VIERS at the time of the man’s disappearance, swore
that a bed blanket used by CHARLESWORTH was missing from the cabin
on the day of his departure, and that it was afterward found
concealed under a haystack, with large, black spots on it,
resembling dried and clotted blood. It was also proved that
CHARLESWORTH had a large amount of money, and that VIERS was,
previous to the disappearance of the man, comparatively poor, but
immediately afterward was flush with money. To complete the chain
of circumstantial evidence, a human skeleton had been found under
a log in the woods, beyond the bars already mentioned. Matters
were in this shape when two men from Sandusky unexpectedly
appeared and swore that they had seen CHARLESWORTH alive and well
after the time of the supposed murder, though when seen he was
passing under an assumed name. On this testimony VIERS was
acquitted; but his acquittal did not change public sentiment as to
his guilt. It was generally believed that the witnesses had been
induced to perjure themselves. VIERS, however, did not let the
matter rest at this stage. He began a vigorous and protracted
search for the missing man, and continued it with unwavering
perseverance.
He visited all
parts of the Union, and, after a search of years, he one day went
into a tavern at Detroit, and in the presence of a large
assemblage of men, inquired if any one knew of a man named
CHARLESWORTH. All replied no. Just as he was about to leave a
man stepped up to him, and taking him to one side, inquired if his
name was VIERS, from Northfield. VIERS replied that he was. The
stranger then said, “I am Rupert CHARLESWORTH, but I pass here
under an assumed name.” CHARLESWORTH was informed of all that had
taken place, and he immediately volunteered to go to Northfield
and have the matter cleared up. On their arrival a meeting of the
township was called, and after a thorough investigation it was the
unanimous vote, with one exception, that the man alleged to have
been murdered now stood alive before them. It appears that he had
passed a counterfeit ten-dollar bill on Deacon HUDSON, and fearing
an arrest, he left the cabin of VIERS suddenly, and soon afterward
went to England, where here remained two years, at the end of
which time he returned to the United States under an assumed name,
and went into the backwoods of Michigan, where his real name,
former residence and history were unknown. The name of the family
was thus, almost by accident, cleared of infamy and shame. This
remarkable case is rivaled only by the celebrated case of the
BOURNES in Vermont.”
EXPERIENCES OF DAVID BACON, MISSIONARY AND COLONIZER
Rev. David
BACON, the founder of Tallmadge, was born in Woodstock, Conn., in
1771, and died in Hartford, in 1817, at the early age of forty-six
years, worn out by excessive labors, privations and mental
sufferings, largely consequent upon his financial failure with his
colony. He was the first missionary sent to the Western Indians
from Connecticut. His means were pitifully inadequate; but with a
stout heart reliant upon God he started, August 8, 1800, from
Hartford, afoot and alone through the wilderness, with no outfit
but what he could carry on his back. At Buffalo creek, now the
site of the city of Buffalo, took vessel for Detroit, which he
reached September 11, thirty-four days after leaving Hartford,
where he was hospitably received by Major HUNT, commandant of the
United States garrison there. After a preliminary survey he
returned to Connecticut, and on the 24th of December was married
at Lebanon to Alice PARKS, then under eighteen years of age; a
week later, on the last day of the last year of the last century,
December 31, 1800, he was ordained regularly to the specific work
of a missionary to the heathen, the first ever sent out from
Connecticut.
On the 11th of
February, 1801, with his young wife, he started for Detroit, going
through the wilderness of New York and Canada by sleigh, and
arrived there Saturday, May 9. The bride, before she got out of
Connecticut, had a new and painful experience. They stopped at a
noisy country tavern at Canaan. They were a large company
altogether; some drinking, some talking, and some swearing; and
this they found was common at all the public-houses.
Detroit at this
time was the great emporium of the fur trade. The Indian traders
were men of great wealth and highly cultivated minds. Many of
them were educated in England and Scotland at the universities, a
class to-day in Britain termed “university men.” They generally
spent the winter there, and in the spring returned with new goods
brought by vessels through the lakes. The only Americans in the
place were the officers and soldiers of the garrison, consisting
of an infantry regiment and an artillery company, the officers of
which treated Mr. BACON and family with kindness and respect. The
inhabitants were English, Scotch, Irish and French, all of whom
hated the Yankees. The town was enclosed by cedar pickets about
twelve feet high and six inches in diameter, and so close together
one could not see through. At each side were strong gates which
were closed and guarded, and no Indians were allowed to come in
after sundown or to remain overnight.
Upon his arrival
in Detroit the Missionary Society paid him in all $400; then,
until September, 1803, he did not get a cent. He began his
support teaching school, at first with some success; but he was a
Yankee, and the four Catholic priests used their influence in
opposition. His young wife assisted him. They studied the Indian
language, but made slow progress, and their prospect for
usefulness in Detroit seemed waning.
On the 19th of
February, 1802, his first child was born at Detroit—the afterwards
eminent Dr. Leonard BACON. In the May following he went down into
the Maumee country, with a view to establish a mission among the
Indians. The Indians were largely drunk, and he was an unwilling
witness to their drunken orgies. LITTLE OTTER, their chief,
received him courteously, called a council of the tribe, and then,
to his talk through an interpreter, gave him their decision that
they wouldn’t have him. It was to this effect:
Your religion is
very good, but only for white people; it will not do for Indians.
When the Great Spirit made white people, he put them on another
island, gave them farms, tools to work with, horses, horned
cattle, and sheep and hogs for them, that they might get their
living in that way, and he taught them to read, and gave them
their religion in a book. But when he made Indians he made them
wild, and put them on this island in the woods, and gave them the
wild game that they may live by hunting. We formerly had a
religion very much like yours, but we found it would not do for
us, and we have discovered a much better way.
Seeing he could
not succeed he returned to Detroit. He had been with them several
days, and twice narrowly escaped assassination from the
intoxicated ones. His son, Leonard, in his memoirs of his father,
published in the Congregational Quarterly for 1876, and from which
this article is derived, wrote:
Something
more than ordinary courage was necessary in the presence of so
many drunken and half-drunken Indians, any one of whom might
suddenly shoot or tomahawk the missionary at the slightest
provocation or at none. The two instances mentioned by him, in
which he was enabled to baffle the malice of savages ready to
murder him, remind me of another incident.
It was while my
parents were living at Detroit, and when I was an infant of less
than four months, two Indians came as if for a friendly visit; one
of them a tall and stalwart young man, the other shorter and
older. As they entered my father met them, gave his hand to the
old man, and was just extending it to the other, when my mother,
quick to discern the danger, exclaimed, “See! he has a knife.” At
the word my father saw that, while the Indian’s right hand was
ready for the salute, a gleaming knife in his left hand was partly
concealed under his blanket.
An Indian,
intending to assassinate, waits until his intended victim is
looking away from him and then strikes. My father’s keen eye was
fixed upon the murderer, and watched him eye to eye. The Indian
found himself strangely disconcerted. In vain did the old man
talk to my father in angry and chiding tones—that keen black eye
was watching the would-be assassin. The time seemed long. My
mother took the baby [himself] from the birch-bark cradle, and was
going to call for help, but when she reached the door she dared
not leave her husband. At last the old man became weary of
chiding: the young man had given up his purpose for a time and
they retired.
Failing on the
Maumee, Mr. BACON soon after sailed with his little family to
Mackinaw. This was at the beginning of the summer, 1802.
Mackinaw was then one of the remotest outposts of the fur trade
and garrisoned by a company of United States troops. His object
was to establish a mission at Abrecroche, about twenty miles
distant, a large settlement of Chippewa Indians, but they were no
less determined than those on the Maumee that no missionary should
live in their villages. Like those, also, they were a large part
of the time drunk from whiskey supplied in abundance by the fur
traders in exchange for the proceeds of their hunting excursions.
They had at one time no less than 900 gallon kegs on hand.
His work was
obstructed from the impossibility of finding an interpreter, so he
took into his family an Indian lad, through whom to learn the
language — his name SINGENOG. He remained at Mackinaw about two
years, but the Indians would never allow him to go among them.
Like the Indians generally they regarded ministers as another sort
of conjurors, with power to bring sickness and disease upon them.
At one time early
in October, the second year, 1803, SINGENOG, the young Indian,
persuaded his uncle, PONDEGA KAUWAN, a head chief, and two other
Chippewa dignitaries, to visit the missionary, and presenting to
him a string of wampum, PONDEGA KAUWAN made a very non-committal,
dignified speech, to the effect that there was no use of his going
among them; that the Great Spirit did not put them on the ground
to learn such things as the white people. If it was not for rum
they might listen, “but,” concluded he, “Rum is our Master.” And
later he said to SINGENOG, “Our father is a great man and knows a
great deal; and if we were to know so much, perhaps, the Great
Spirit would not let us live.”
After a residence
at Mackinaw of about two years and all prospects of success
hopeless, the Missionary Society ordered him to New Connecticut,
there to itinerate as a missionary and to improve himself in the
Indian language, etc. About the 1st of August, 1804, with his
wife and two children, the youngest an infant, he sailed for
Detroit. From thence they proceeded in an open canoe, following
the windings of the shore, rowing by day and sleeping on land by
night, till having performed a journey of near 200 miles, they
reached, about the middle of October, Cleveland, then a mere
hamlet on the lake shore.
Leaving his
family at Hudson, he went on to Hartford to report to the
Society. He went almost entirely on foot a distance of about 600
miles, which he wearily trudged much of the way through the mud,
slush and snow of winter. An arrangement was made by which he
could act half the time as pastor at Hudson, and the other half
travel as a missionary to the various settlements on the Reserve.
On his return, a little experience satisfied him that more could
be done than in any other way for the establishment of Christian
institutions on the Reserve, by the old Puritan mode of
colonizing, by founding a religious colony strong enough and
compact enough to maintain schools and public worship.
An ordinary
township, with its scattered settlements and roads at option, with
no common central point, cannot well grow into a town. The unity
of a town as a body politic depends very much on fixing a common
centre to which every homestead shall be obviously related. In no
other rural town, perhaps, is that so well provided as in
Tallmadge. “Public spirit, local pride,” writes Dr. BACON,
“friendly intercourse, general culture and good taste, and a
certain moral and religious steadfastness, are among the
characteristics by which Tallmadge is almost proverbially
distinguished throughout the Reserve. No observing stranger can
pass through the town without seeing it was planned by a sagacious
and far-seeing mind.”
It was fit that
he who had planned the settlement, and who had identified with it
all his hopes for usefulness for the remainder of his life, and
all his hopes of a competence for his family, should be the first
settler in the township. He did not wait for hardier adventurers
to encounter the first hardships and to break the loneliness of
the woods. Selecting a temporary location near an old Indian
trail, a few rods from the southern boundary of the township, he
built the first log cabin, and there placed his family.
I well
remember the pleasant day in July, 1807, when that family made its
removal from the centre of Hudson to a new log-house, in a
township that had no name and no other human habitation. The
father and mother, poor in this world’s goods, but rich in faith
and in the treasure of God’s promises; rich in their well-tried
mutual affection; rich in their expectation of usefulness and of
the comfort and competence which they hoped to achieve by their
enterprise; rich in the parental joy with which they looked upon
the three little ones that were carried in their arms or nestled
among their scanty household goods in the slow-moving wagon—were
familiar with whatever there is in hardship and peril or
disappointment, to try the courage of the noblest manhood or the
immortal strength of a true woman’s love. The little ones were
natives of the wilderness—the youngest a delicate nursling of six
months, the others born in a remoter and more savage West. These
five, with a hired man, were the family.
I remember the
setting out, the halt before the door of an aged friend to say
farewell, the fording of the Cuyahoga, the day’s journey of
somewhat less than thirteen miles along a road that had been cut
(not made) through the dense forest, the little cleared spot where
the journey ended, the new log-house, with what seemed to me a
stately hill behind it, and with a limpid rivulet winding near the
door. That night, when the first family worship was offered in
that cabin, the prayer of the two worshippers, for themselves and
their children, and for the work which they had that day begun,
was like the prayer that went up of old from the deck of the
Mayflower or from beneath the wintry sky of Plymouth.
One month later a
German family came within the limits of the town; but it was not
till the next February that a second family came, a New England
family, whose mother tongue was English. Well do I remember the
solitude of that first winter, and how beautiful the change was
when spring at last began to hang its garlands on the trees.
The next thing in
carrying out the plan to which Mr. BACON had devoted himself was
to bring in, from whatever quarter, such families as would enter
into his views and would co-operate with him for the early and
permanent establishment of Christian order. It was at the expense
of many a slow and weary journey to older settlements that he
succeeded in bringing together the families who, in the spring and
summer of 1808, began to call the new town their home. His
repeated absences from home are fresh in my memory, and so is the
joy with which we greeted the arrival of one family after another
coming to relieve our loneliness; nor least among the memories of
that time is the remembrance of my mother’s fear when left alone
with her three little children. She had not ceased to fear the
Indians, and sometimes a straggling savage, or a little company of
them, came by our door on the old portage path, calling, perhaps,
to try our hospitality, and with signs or broken English phrases
asking for whiskey. She could not feel that to “pull in the
latch-string” was a sufficient exclusion of such visitors; and in
my mind’s eye I seem now to see her frail form tugging at a heavy
chest, with which to barricade the door before she dared to
sleep. It was, indeed, a relief and joy to feel at last that we
had neighbors, and that our town was beginning to be inhabited.
At the end of the second year from the commencement of the survey,
there were, perhaps, twelve families, and the town had received
its name, “Tallmadge.”
Slowly the
settlement of the town proceeded, from 1807 to 1810. Emigration
from Connecticut had about ceased, owing to the stagnation of
business from the European wars, and the embargo and other
non-intercourse acts of JEFFERSON’s administration. Mr. BACON
could not pay for the land he had purchased. He went East to try
to make new satisfactory arrangements with the proprietors,
leaving behind his wife and five little children. The proprietors
were immovable. Some of his parishioners felt hard towards him
because, having made payments, he could not perfect their titles.
With difficulty he obtained the means to return for his family.
In May, 1812, he left Tallmadge, and all “that was realized after
five years of arduous labor was poverty, the alienation of some
old friends, the depression that follows a fatal defeat, and the
dishonor that falls on one who cannot pay his debts.” He lingered
on a few years, supporting his family by travelling and selling
“Scott’s Family Bible” and other religious works, from house to
house, and occasional preaching. He bore his misfortunes with
Christian resignation, struggled on a few years with broken
spirits and broken constitution, and died at Hartford, August 17,
1817. “My mother,” said Dr. BACON, “standing over him with her
youngest, an infant, in her arms, said to him, ‘Look on your babe
before you die.’ He looked up and said, with distinct and audible
utterance, ‘The blessing of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
Jacob, rest upon thee.’ Just before dawn he breathed his last.
‘Now he knows more than all of us,’ said the doctor; while my
mother, bathing the dead face with her tears, and warming it with
kisses, exclaimed, ‘Let my last end be like his.’”
The village of
Cuyahoga Falls is four miles northeast of Akron, on the line of
the Pennsylvania canal and on the Cuyahoga river. Manufacturing
is already carried on here to a large extent, and the place is
perhaps destined to be to the West what Lowell is to the East.
The Cuyahoga has a fall here of more than 200 feet in the distance
of two and one half miles, across stratified rocks, which are worn
away to nearly this depth in the course of this descent. In the
ravine thus formed are a series of wild and picturesque views, one
of which is represented in an engraving on an adjoining page.
The Indians
called Cuyahoga Falls “Coppacaw,” which signifies “shedding
tears.” A Mr. O., an early settler in this region, was once so
much cheated in a trade with them that he shed tears, and the
Indians ever afterwards called him Coppacaw.
The village was
laid out, in 1837, by Birdseye BOOTH, grew rapidly, and in 1840
was the rival of Akron for the county-seat. It contains 1
Episcopal, 1 Wesleyan Methodist and 1 Presbyterian church, 1
academy, 7 mercantile stores, 1 bank, 1 insurance office, 4 paper,
2 flouring and 1 saw mill, 2 furnaces, 2 tanneries, 1 fork and
scythe, and 1 starch factory, 4 warehouses, and about 1,200
inhabitants.
XXMissingPictureXX
The view was
taken from near the Cleveland road, above the village, at Stow’s
quarry. On the right are seen the Methodist and Episcopal
churches, in the centre the American House, and on the left the
Cuyahoga river, the lyceum and Presbyterian church.—Old Edition.
CUYAHOGA FALLS if
four and a half miles north of Akron, on the C. A. & C. and P. &
W. Railroads. The Cuyahoga river furnishes abundant water-power
for manufacturing purposes.
City Officers,
1888: John T. JONES, Mayor; Frank T. HEATH, Clerk; George SACKETT,
Treasurer; Orlando WILCOX, Solicitor; George W. HART, Street
Commissioner; Harry WESTOVER, Marshal. Newspapers: Home Guest,
Home Guest Publishing Company, editors and publishers; Reporter
and Western Reserve Farmer, Independent, E. O. KNOX, editor and
publisher. Churches: 1 Disciples, 1 Episcopal, 1 Congregational,
1 Methodist.
Manufacturers and
Employees.—THOMAS Brothers, stoneware, 21 hands; CAMP & THOMPSON,
sewer-pipe, etc., 50; Empire Paper Mill, 24; Phœnix Paper Mills,
14; REEVE & CHESTER, wire, 63; Glen Wire; Manufacturing Co., 16;
Sterling Chain and Manufacturing Co., 72; John CLAYTON, carriages;
William BARKER, blacksmithing; William BLONG, carriages; C.
KITTLEBERGER, tannery, 9; HOOVER & Co., flour, etc.; David HAHN,
cooperage; George W. SMITH, planing mill; TURNER, VAUGHN & TAYLOR,
machinery, 40; The Falls Rivet Co., 133; American Foundry and
Machine Works, 9.—State Report, 1887.
Population, 1890,
2,614. School census, 1888, 691; Frederick SCHNEE, superintendent
of schools. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments,
$150,000. Value of annual product, $175,000.—Ohio Labor
Statistics, 1888.
Cuyahoga Falls
has become a great place of resort for summer excursionists, and
improved approaches, stairways, etc., have been constructed to
make the romantic glens and nooks more accessible to the visiting
multitudes. The High Bridge, Lover’s Retreat, Fern Cave,
Observation Rock, Grand Promenade and Old Maid’s Kitchen are some
of the features that go to make up the romantic interest of this
rock-bound gorge.
The beautiful
Silver Lake is a short distance above Cuyahoga Falls. It is
nearly a mile long and a third of a mile wide. Steamers ply on
the lake. It is surrounded by woods with picnic grounds, and near
it is a railroad station for the accommodation of visiting
parties.
BIOGRAPHY
JOHN BROWN, of
Osawatomie, was born in Torrington, Conn., May 9, 1800. For three
generations his family were devoted to anti-slavery principles.
His father, Owen BROWN, in 1798, took part in the forcible rescue
of some slaves claimed by a Virginia clergyman in Connecticut. At
the age of five, John BROWN removed with his parents to Hudson,
Ohio. Until twenty years of age he worked at farming and in his
father’s tannery. He then learned surveying. Later he removed to
Pennsylvania, and was postmaster at Randolph, Pa., under President
Jackson. In 1836 he returned to Ohio; removed to Massachusetts in
1844; in 1849 purchased a farm and removed to Northern New York.
In 1854 five
of his sons removed from Ohio to Kansas, settling near Osawatomie,
and their father joined them the following year, for the purpose
of aiding the “Free-State Party.”
The BROWN family
was mustered in as Kansas militia by the Free-State Party: their
active participation in the Kansas troubles is a part of the
history of the Union.
On the night of
Sunday, Oct. 16, 1859, Captain BROWN, with his sixteen men,
captured Harper’s Ferry and the United States Arsenal. The
citizens of the town had armed themselves, and penned BROWN and
his six remaining men in the engine-house, when, on the evening of
the next day, Col. Robert E. LEE arrived with a company of United
States Marines. When BROWN was finally captured, two of his sons
were dead, and he was supposed to be mortally wounded. BROWN was
tried in a Virginia court, and sentenced to death by hanging. One
the day of his execution, he handed one of his guards a paper, on
which was written the following:
“CHARLESTOWN, VA., Dec. 2,
1859. I, John BROWN, am now quite certain that the crimes of this
guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I
now think, vainly flattered myself that without much blood-shed it
might be done.”
Rev. S. D. PEET,
in the “Ashtabula County History,” gives some interesting items.
The means were so out of proportion to the magnitude of the
enterprise that most men not acquainted with John Brown believed
him to be insane; but to those who knew him; who knew the depth
and fervor of his religious sentiments; his unwavering trust in
the Infinite; his strong conviction that he had been selected by
God as an instrument in his hands to hasten the overthrow of
American slavery; to such he seemed inspired rather than insane.
In a conversation I had with him the day he started for Harper’s
Ferry, I tried to convince him that his enterprise was hopeless,
and that he would only rashly throw away his life. Among other
things, he said, “I believe I have been raised up to work for the
liberation of the slave; and while the cause will be best advanced
by my life, I shall be preserved; but when that cause will be best
served by my death, I shall be removed.” The result proved that
his sublime faith and trust in God enabled him to see what others
could not see. He had so lived that, though dead, “his soul went
marching on.”
SANBORN’s “Life
of John BROWN,” published by ROBERTS Brothers, Boston, is the most
complete biography of him extant. We here give, in an original
contribution from high authority in this county, some facts in his
history not before published.
John BROWN, of
Osawatomie and Harper’s Ferry, spent a large part of his youth in
Hudson, and the incidents of his life there throw much light upon
his subsequent career.
Space will
permit the record of only a few of the “memorabilia” which might
be gathered up. He was the son of Owen BROWN, a tanner, one of
the pioneers of the township; a man of strong character, of many
peculiarities, and of the most unquestioned integrity.
Owen BROWN was an
inveterate stammerer and a noted wit. He could not endure
placidly any reference to his infirmity of speech, and was never
more witty and caustic in his retorts than when some
well-intentioned party sought to help him to the word he was
stammering for. On one occasion when, in answering the question
of a stranger, his effort to give a desired word had become
painful, the stranger kindly helped him to it; when his answer
was, “Ba-Ba-Balaam ha-ha-had an a-a-ss to speak for him too.”
The stranger rode
on without an answer to his question.
Owen BROWN’s
first wife was a Miss Dianthe
Lusk, of a large family in Hudson and the neighborhood, in
which there was a strong hereditary tendency to insanity. All the
members were peculiar, eccentric, and many of them insane. John
was a son of this first wife, and in early life disclosed the
influence of this insane tendency. He was noted for his pranks
and peculiarities, which reverence for the stern government of his
father could not suppress. This government was based upon the
rule laid down by Solomon, not to spare the rod; and the old man
was as faithful in tanning the hides of his boys as he was in
tanning the hides pickled in his vats; and this practice gave John
an early opportunity to disclose hs penchant for military tactics.
When a mere lad,
having committed an offence which by sad experience he knew would
bring the accustomed chastisement, he repaired to the barn, the
well-known place of discipline, and prepared for it by so
arranging a plank that one stepping upon it would be precipitated
through the floor and upon the pile of agricultural implements
stored beneath it; and then, with apparent childish innocence,
returned to the house. Soon the pater familias accused him of the
offence, and invited him to an interview in the barn. After a
paternal lecture, responded to by supplications for mercy, and
promises “never to do so again,” in obedience to orders he meekly
stripped off coat and vest, and, with apparent resignation,
submitted himself to the inevitable. As the first blow was about
to fall, he dexterously retreated across the concealed chasm, and
the good father was found to be as one “beating the air.”
The ancient Adam
in him was aroused, and leaping forward, with more than usual
vigor in his arm, as the cutting blow was about to descend, he
stepped upon the treacherous plank and landed upon the plows and
harrows below. John retired from the scene. With difficulty the
father rescued himself from his position, and with bruised and
chafed limbs repaired to the house. John escaped further
interviewing for this offence, but tradition is silent as to the
cause, whether, before the father’s recovery, the offence was
deemed outlawed, or whether his own experience had given him some
new ideas as to the effect of the abrasion of a boy’s cuticle.
Passing over many
similar events of his boyhood, his first military campaign should
not be omitted. After reaching his majority and becoming the head
of a family, he was the owner of a farm in Northeastern Hudson,
upon which there was a mortgage that he was finally unable to
raise, and proceedings in court were had for its foreclosure.
BROWN repaired to his neighbor, CHAMBERLAIN; told him he could not
keep the farm, and asked him to bid it in. This he agreed to do
and did. But after the sale was made and deed given, BROWN asked
for the privilege of remaining on the premises for a little time
as tenant. The request was granted. When this time had elapsed
he refused to vacate. Proceedings in ejectment were had, and the
officers of the court turned him out of the house. Upon the
withdrawal of the officers he again took possession, barricaded
the house, armed his family with shot-guns and rifles, and
prepared to hold the fort. Repeatedly arrested and sued, he
responded to the warrant or summons, but left his garrison in
possession of the stronghold. The contest was protracted into the
winter, when an heroic scheme, like that of the Russians in
burning Moscow, compelled the retreat of our general. On some
real or fictitious charge, warrants were obtained in another
township for the arrest of the eccentric garrison. While the
warrants were served some half hundred of CHAMBERLAIN’s friends
were ambushed in the immediate neighborhood, and as the officer
and his prisoners passed out of sight they took possession of the
premises; and as the building was of little value they quickly
razed it to the foundations, carried off all material which would
suffice even for building a hut, and rendered the place
untenable. When BROWN and his garrison returned, he found a hasty
retreat the only alternative. It was not as disastrous as
NAPOLEON’s retreat from Moscow, but it ended the campaign.
His subsequent
experience in wool-growing was not more successful. Simon
PERKINS, then a well-known capitalist of Akron, furnished the
capital for the enterprise, and BROWN furnished the brains. He
soon became as enthusiastic over fine-wooled sheep as he
afterwards became over the woolly-headed slave and brother, but
when the business was closed out, the share contributed to the
capital by BROWN was all that remained.
His experiences
in Kansas and at Harper’s Ferry are too well known to need
repetition here; but some account of his last visit to Hudson and
the neighborhood, just before his invasion of Virginia, is
important to a right understanding of his character. After his
trial and conviction in the Virginia court, M. C. READ, an
attorney of Hudson, was employed by a brother of John BROWN to
take affidavits of parties whom he interviewed just before leaving
for Harper’s Ferry, to be laid before Governor WISE, with the hope
of obtaining a commutation of his sentence.
[page 650] It was found that
he had approached many persons with solicitations of personal and
pecuniary aid, but these approaches were made with great
shrewdness and caution. His real design was masked under a
pretended scheme of organizing a western colony. In discussing
this, he adroitly turned the conversation to the subject of
slavery; to his work in Kansas; and finally to his divine
commission to overthrow the institution of slavery. His
commission was from Jehovah; his success was certain, because it
was divinely promised, and divine direction to the employment of
the proper means was assured. Affidavits of these parties were
taken, showing the details of the conversation, and giving the
opinion of the affiants that BROWN was insane. They were laid
before Governor WISE by C. P. WOLCOTT, then an attorney of Akron,
and afterwards Assistant Secretary of War under President
LINCOLN. They produced no effect upon the Governor.
This
unquestioning faith of BROWN in his divine commission and in his
promised success, accounts for his undertaking so gigantic a work
with such inadequate means. He had read and believed that the
blowing of ram’s horns by the priests, and the shouting of the
people with a great shout, had caused the walls of Jericho to fall
down, because Jehovah had so ordered it. He believed that, with a
score of men poorly armed, he could conquer the South and overturn
its cherished institution, because Jehovah had so ordered it, and
had commissioned him for the work. His faith was equal to that of
any of the old Hebrew prophets, but his belief in his divine
commission was a delusion, resulting from pre-natal influence and
the mental wrench and exhaustion of his Kansas experience.
The Rev. CHARLES
B. STORRS, the first president of the Western Reserve College, was
the son of the Rev. Richard S. STORRS, of Long Meadow, Mass., and
was born in May, 1794. He pursued his literary studies at
Princeton, and his theological at Andover, after which he
journeyed at the South, with the double object of restoring his
health and preaching the gospel in its destitute regions. In 1822
he located himself as a preacher of the gospel at Ravenna. In his
situation he remained, rapidly advancing in the confidence and
esteem of the public, until March 2, 1828, when he was unanimously
elected professor of Christian theology in the Western Reserve
College, and was inducted into his office the 3d of December
following. The institution then was in its infancy. Some fifteen
or twenty students had been collected under the care and
instruction of a tutor, but no permanent officers had been
appointed. The government and much of the instruction of the
college devolved on him. On the 25th of August, 1830, he was
unanimously elected president, and inaugurated on the 9th of
February, 1831.
In this situation
he showed himself worthy of the confidence reposed in him. Under
his mild and paternal, yet firm and decisive administration of
government, the most perfect discipline prevailed, while all the
students loved and venerated him as a father. Under his auspices,
together with the aid of competent and faithful professors, the
institution arose in public estimation, and increased from a mere
handful to nearly one hundred students. For many years he had
been laboring under a bad state of health, and on the 26th of
June, 1833, he left the institution to travel for a few months for
his health. He died on the 15th of September ensuing, at his
brother’s house in Braintree, Mass. President STORRS was
naturally modest and retiring. He possessed a strong and
independent mind, and took an expansive view of every subject that
occupied his attention. He was a thorough student, and in his
method of communicating his thoughts to others peculiarly happy.
Though destitute in the pulpit of the tinsel of rhetoric, few men
could chain an intelligent audience in breathless silence, by pure
intellectual vigor and forcible illustration of truth, more
perfectly than he. Some of his appeals were almost resistless.
He exerted a powerful and salutary influence over the church and
community in this part of the country, and his death was deeply
felt.—Old Edition.
REV. DR. HENRY M.
STORRS, the eminent Congregational divine, is a son of this the
first President of the Western Reserve College. The father was
one of the earliest and strongest to uplift his voice in behalf of
the slave; and when he died, the then young but now venerable and
deeply-revered WHITTIER paid to his memory the tribute of his
humanizing verses: two of these are annexed:
Joy to thy spirit, brother !
A thousand hearts are warm,—
A thousand kindred bosoms
Are baring to the storm.
What though red-handed Violence
With secret Fraud combine !
The wall of fire is round us,
Our Present Help with thine.
Lo,—the waking up of nations,
From Slavery’s fatal sleep.—
The murmur of a Universe,—
Deep calling unto Deep !
Joy to the spirit, brother !
On every wind of heaven
The onward cheer and summons
Of FREEDOM’S VOICE is given.
DR. LEONARD
BACON, whose sketch of his father we have so largely drawn upon,
was literally a child of the wilderness. His long life of
usefulness closed at New Haven, Dec. 24, 1881, in his eightieth
year. It had been incessantly devoted to the discussion of
questions bearing upon the highest interests of man. He was a
strong, independent thinker, and his writings upon vital topics so
largely judicial as to carry conviction to the leading minds of
the nation. Abraham LINCOLN ascribed to a volume of Dr. BACON on
slavery his own clear and comprehensive convictions on that
subject. Leonard BACON did more than any man who has lived in
making clear to the popular apprehension, and in perpetuating to
the knowledge of the coming generations the simple domestic
virtues of the fathers; the religious and political principles
which governed them, and gave to the American people their
strongest, all-conquering element. In his Half-century sermon,
preached in New Haven, March 9, 1875, Dr. BACON gave an eloquent
description of his boy-life here in Summit county, when all around
was in the wilderness of untamed nature:
“I think to-day
of what God’s providence has been for three and seventy years. I
recall the first dawning of memory and the days of my early
childhood in the grand old woods of New Connecticut, the saintly
and self-sacrificing father, the gentle yet heroic mother, the
log-cabin from whose window we sometimes saw the wild deer
bounding through the forest-glades, the four dear sisters whom I
helped to tend, and whom it was my joy to lead in their tottering
infancy—yes, God’s providence was then ever teaching me.
“Our home life,
the snowy winter, the blossoming spring, the earth never ploughed
before and yielding the first crop to human labor, the giant
trees, the wild birds, the wild flowers, the blithesome squirrels,
the wolves which we heard howling through the woods at night but
never saw, the red-skin savage sometimes coming to the door—by
these things God was making impressions on my soul that must
remain forever, and without which I should not have been what I
am.”
A daughter of
David BACON, DELIA, was born at Tallmadge, February 2, 1811, and
the next year she was taken with the family to Connecticut. Her
early life was a bitter struggle with poverty, but she became a
highly-educated and brilliant woman in the realms of ideality; was
a teacher and lecturer, and published “Tales of the Puritans” and
“The Bride of Fort Edward,” a drama.
A published
account of her states that her chief delight was to read
SHAKESPEARE’s plays and his biographies. The idea at length grew
upon her that the plays were the work of the brilliant Elizabethan
coterie and not of the actor and manager, SHAKESPEARE. In
opposition to the wishes of her family, she went to London in 1853
to publish her work on the subject. This she at last
accomplished, chiefly through the marked kindness of HAWTHORNE,
then Consul at Liverpool, who was willing to listen to her
argument, but never accepted it. HAWTHORNE’s letters to her have
a beautiful delicacy, though she must have tried his patience
frequently, and sometimes repaid his generosity with reproaches.
Her book, a large octavo, never sold. The edition is piled up in
London today. CARLYLE took some interest in Miss BACON, who came
to him with a letter from EMERSON. CARLYLE’s account of her
EMERSON is as follows:
“As for Miss
BACON, we find her, with her modest, shy dignity, with her solid
character and strange enterprise, a real acquisition, and hope we
shall see more of her now that she has come nearer to us to
lodge. I have not in my life seen anything so tragically quixotic
as her SHAKESPEARE enterprise. Alas! alas! there can be nothing
but sorrow, toil and utter disappointment in it for her! I do
cheerfully what I can, which is far more than she asks of me (for
I have not seen a prouder silent soul); but there is not the least
possibility of truth in the notion she has taken up, and the hope
of ever proving it or finding the least document that countenances
it is equal to that of vanquishing the windmills by stroke of
lance. I am often truly sorry about the poor lady; but she
troubles nobody with her difficulties, with her theories; she must
try the matter to the end, and charitable souls must further her
so far.”
Miss BACON’s account of the visit
to her sister contains this:
Miss BACON
returned to America in 1858. It was found necessary to place her
in an asylum, and a few months later she died. She is buried in
her brother’s lot at New Haven.