Ashtabula
County
Page 261
Ashtabula was formed June 7, 1807, from
Trumbull and Geauga, and organized January 22, 1811.
The name of the county was derived from
Ashtabula river, which signifies, in the Indian language, Fish
river.
For a few miles parallel with
the lake shore it is level, the remainder of the surface slightly
undulating,
and the soil generally clay. Butter and cheese are the principal
articles of
export, and in these it leads all other counties in the amounts
produced. Generally
not sufficient wheat is raised for
home consumption, but the soil is quite productive in corn and oats. In
1885
the acres cultivated were 129,992; in pasture, 150,152; woodland,
62,223; lying
waste, 3,700; produced in wheat, 234,070 bushels; corn, 382,238; oats,
677,555;
apples, 587,385; pounds butter, 1,042,613; and cheese, 354,400. School
census, 9,441;
teachers, 543. Area
720 square miles, being the largest county in Ohio.
It has 191 miles of
railroad.
Townships And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
|
Townships And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
Andover, |
881 |
1,168 |
|
Monroe, |
1,326 |
1,459 |
Ashtabula, |
1,711 |
5,522 |
|
Morgan, |
643 |
1,223 |
Austinburg, |
1,048 |
1,208 |
|
New Lyme, |
527 |
893 |
Cherry Valley, |
689 |
698 |
|
Orwell, |
458 |
973 |
Conneaut, |
2,650 |
2,947 |
|
Pierpont, |
639 |
1,046 |
Denmark, |
176 |
697 |
|
Plymouth, |
706 |
780 |
Dorset, |
|
613 |
|
Richmond, |
384 |
1,011 |
Geneva, |
1,215 |
3,167 |
|
Rome, |
765 |
668 |
Harpersfield |
1,399 |
1,116 |
|
Saybrook, |
934 |
1,384 |
Hartsgrove, |
553 |
798 |
|
Sheffield, |
683 |
688 |
Jefferson, |
710 |
1,952 |
|
Trumbull, |
439 |
960 |
Kingsville, |
1,420 |
1,621 |
|
Wayne, |
767 |
835 |
Lenox, |
550 |
820 |
|
Williamsfield, |
892 |
974 |
Colebrook |
|
956 |
|
Windsor, |
875 |
964 |
The
population in 1820 was 7,369; in 1830, 14,584; in 1840, 23,724; in
1850, 31,789; in 1880, 36,875, of whom 1,274 were employed in
manufactures and
2,814 were foreign born.
This
county is memorable from being not only the first settled on the
Western
Reserve, but the earliest in the whole of Northern Ohio. The incidents
connected with its early history, although unmarked by scenes of
military
adventure, are of an interesting nature.
On
the 4th of July, 1796, the first surveying party of the Western Reserve
landed
at the mouth of Conneaut creek. Of
this
event, John Barr, Esq., in his sketch of the Western Reserve, in the
"National Magazine" for December, 1845, has given a narrative:
The
sons of revolutionary sires, some of them sharers themselves in the
great
baptism of the republic, they made the anniversary of their country's
freedom a
day of ceremonial and rejoicing. They
felt that they had arrived at the place of their labors, the - to many
of them
-- sites of home, as little alluring, almost as crowded with dangers,
as were the
levels of Jamestown, or the rocks of Plymouth to the ancestors who had preceeded them in the conquest
of the seacoast wilderness
of this continent. From
old homes and
friendly and social associations they were almost completely exiled as
were the
cavaliers who debarked upon the shores of Virginia, of the Puritans who
sought
the strand of Massachusetts. Far
away as
they were from the villages of their births and boyhood; before them
the
trackless forest, or the untraversed
lake, yet did
they resolve to cast fatigue and privation and peril from their
thoughts for
the time being, and give to the day its due, to patriotism its awards. Mustering their numbers
they sat down on the
eastward shore of the stream now known as Conneaut and, dipping from
the lake the
liquor in which they pledged their country—their goblets some
tin cups of no rare workmanship,
Page 262
yet
every way
answerable, with the ordnance accompaniment of two or three fowling
pieces
discharging the required national salute –the first settlers
of the Reserve
spent their landing-day as became the sons of the pilgrim fathers
–as the
advance pioneers of a population that has
since made the then wilderness of Northern Ohio to "blossom as a rose,"
and prove the homes of a people as remarkable for integrity, industry,
love of
country, moral truth and enlightened legislation, as any to be found
within the
territorial limits of their ancestral New England.
The
whole party numbered, on this occasion, fifty-two
persons, of whom two were females (Mrs. STILES and Mrs. GUNN, and a
child). As these
individuals were the
advance of after millions of population, their names become worthy of
record,
and are therefore given, viz.: Moses CLEVELAND, agent of the company;
Augustus
PORTER, principal surveyor; Seth PEASE, Moses WARREN, Amos SPAFFORD,
Milton
HAWLEY, Richard M. STODDARD, surveyors; Joshua STOW, commissary; Therodore SHEPARD, physician,
Joseph TINKER, principal
boatman; Joseph McINTYRE,
George PROUDFOOT, Francis
GAY, Samuel FORBES, Elijah GUNN, wife and child, Amos SAWTEN, Stephen
BENTON,
Amos BARBER, Samuel HUNGERFORD, William B. HALL, Samuel DAVENPORT, Asa MASON, Amzi
ATWATER, Michael
COFFIN, Elisha AYRES,
Thomas HARRIS, Norman WILCOX,
Timothy DUNHAM, George GOODWIN, Shadrach BENHAM,, Samuel AGNEW, Warham SHEPARD, David BEARD,
John BRIANT, Titus V. MUNSON,
Joseph LANDON, Job V. STILES and wife, Charles PARKER, Ezekiel HAWLEY,
Nathaniel DOAN, Luke HANCHET, James HASKET, James HAMILTON, Olney F.
RICE, John
LOCK, and four others whose names are not mentioned.
On
the 5th of July the workmen of the expedition were employed in the
erection of
a large, awkwardly constructed log building; locating it on the sandy
beach on
the east shore of the stream, and naming it "Stow Castle," after one
of the party. This
became the storehouse
of the provisions, etc., and the dwelling-place of the families.
The
view was constructed from a sketch on the spot taken by us in 1846,
altered to
represent its ancient appearance.
The
word Conneaut, in the Seneca language, signifies "many
fish" and was applied originally to the river.
CONNEAULT,
THE PLYMOUTH OF THE RESERVE, IN JULY, 1796
It
was then a mere sand beach overgrown with timber, some of it of
considerable
size, which we cut to build the house and for other purposes. The mouth of the creek,
like others of the
lake streams in those days, was frequently choked up with a sand bar so
that no
visible harbor appeared for several days. This would only happen when
the
streams were low and after a high wind either down the lake or directly
on
shore for several days. I
have passed
over all the lake streams of this State east of the Cuyahoga and most
of those
in New York on hard, dry sand bars, and I have been told that the
Cuyahoga has
been so. They would not long continue, for as soon as the wind had
subsided and
the water in the streams had sufficiently risen they would often cut
their way
through the bar in a different place and form new channels. Thus the mouths of the
streams were
continually shifting until the artificial harbors were built. Those blessed improvements
have in a great
measure remedied those evils and made the mouths of the streams far
more
healthy.
Page 263
Judge James KINGSBURY, who arrived
at Conneaut shortly
after the surveying party, wintered with his family at this place in a
cabin
which stood on a spot now covered by the waters of the lake. This was about the first
family that wintered
on the Reserve.
The
story of the sufferings of this family has often been told, but in the
midst of
plenty, where want is unknown, can with difficulty be appreciated. The surveyors, in the
prosecution of their
labors westwardly, had
principally removed their
stores to Cleveland, while the family of Judge KINGSBURY remained at
Conneaut. Being
compelled by business to
leave in the fall for the State of New York, with the hope of a speedy
return
to his family, the judge was attacked by a severe fit of sickness,
confining
him to his bed until the setting in of winter.
As soon as able he proceeded on his return as far as
Buffalo, where he
hired an Indian to guide him through the wilderness. At Presque Isle,
anticipating the wants of his family, he purchased twenty pounds of
flour. In crossing
Elk creek on the ice he disabled
his horse, left him in the snow, and mounting his flour on his own back
pursued
his way filled with gloomy forebodings in relation to the fate of his
family.
On his arrival late one evening his worst apprehensions were more than
realized
in a scene agonizing to the husband and father.
Stretched on her cot lay the partner of his cares, who had
followed him
through all the dangers and hardships of the wilderness without
repining, pale and emaciated,
reduced by meagre
famine to the last stages in which life can be
supported, and near the mother, on a little pallet, were the remains of
his
youngest child, born in his absence, who had just expired for the want
of that
nourishment which the mother, deprived of sustenance, was unable to
give. Shut
up by a gloomy wilderness she was far distant alike from the aid or
sympathy of
friends, filled with anxiety for an absent husband, suffering with want
and
destitute of necessary assistance, and her children expiring around her
with
hunger.
Such
is the picture presented by which the wives and daughters of the
present day
may form some estimate of the hardships endured by the pioneers of this
beautiful country. It appears that Judge KINGSBURY, in order to supply
the
wants of his family, was under the necessity of transporting his
provisions
from Cleveland on a hand sled, and that himself and hired man drew a
barrel of
beef the whole distance at a single load.
Mr.
KINGSBURY was the first who thrust a sickle into the first wheat field
planted
on the soil of the Reserve. His
wife was
interred at Cleveland, about the year 1843.
The fate of her child—the
first
white child born on the Reserve, starved to death for want of
nourishment—will
not soon be forgotten.
CONNEAUT in 1846.
The
harbor of Conneaut is now an important point of transshipment. It has a pier with a
light-house upon it, two
forwarding houses and eleven dwellings.
Several vessels ply from here, and it is a frequent
stopping place for
steamers. Two miles
south of the harbor,
twenty-two from Jefferson, twenty-eight from Erie, Pa., is the borough
of
Conneaut on the west bank of Conneaut creek.
It contains four churches, eleven stores, one newspaper
printing office,
a fine classical academy, Mr. L.W. SAVAGE and Miss Mary BOOTH,
principals, and
about 1,000 inhabitants. --Old Edition.
Conneaut,
on Lake Erie, sixty-eight miles east of Cleveland, also on the L.S.
& M.S.
and N.Y.C. at St.L.
Railroads. The main
shops of the Nickel Plate railroad
are located here. It
is expected that
the harbor will shortly be opened by the Conneaut, Jamestown, and
Southern
Railroad, giving improved shipping facilities.
Newspapers:
Herald, Republican, W.T. FINDLAY,
editor; The Reporter, Republican,
J.P. REIG, editor. Churches:
1
Congregational, 1 Baptist, 1 Methodist, 1 Catholic and 1 Christian. Banks: Conneaut Mutual
Loan Association, Theron
S. WINSHIP, president, C. HAYWARD, cashier; First
National, S. J. SMITH, president, B.E. THAYER, cashier.
Principal industries are railroad shops,
paper mill, Record Manufacturing Company, Cummins Canning Factory. Population
in 1880, 1,256;
school census in 1886, 564; E. C. CARY, superintendent.
The
first permanent settlement in Conneaut was in 1799.
Thomas MONTGOMERY and Aaron WRIGHT settled
here in the spring of 1798. Robert
MONTGOMERY and family, Levi and John MONTGOMERY, Nathan and John KING,
and
Samuel BEMUS and family came the same season.
When
the settlers arrived some twenty or thirty Indian cabins were still
standing,
which were said to present an appearance of neatness and comfort not
usual with
this race. The Massauga
tribe, which inhabited the spot, were
obliged to leave
in consequence of the murder of a white man named WILLIAMS.
Page 264
Two
young men taken at the defeat of St. Clair were said to have been
prisoners for
a considerable time among the Indians of this village.
On their arrival at Conneaut they were made
to run the gauntlet, and received the orthodox number of blows and
kicks usual
on such occasions. In
solemn council it
was resolved that the life of Fitz
GIBBON should be
saved, but the other, whose name is not recollected, was condemned to
be
burned. He was
bound to a tree, a large
quantity of hickory bark tied into fagots and piled around him. But
from the
horrors of the most painful of deaths he was saved by the interposition
of a
young squaw belonging to the tribe.
Touched by sympathy she interceded in his behalf, and by
her
expostulations, backed by several packages of fur and a small sum of
money,
succeeded in effecting his deliverance: an act in the lowly Indian maid
which
entitles her name to be honorably recorded with that of POCAHANTAS,
among the
good and virtuous of every age.
There
were mounds situated in the eastern part of the village of Conneaut and
an
extensive burying-ground near the Presbyterian church,
which appear to have had no connection with the burying-places of the
Indians. Among the
human bones found in
the mounds were come belonging to men of gigantic structure. Some of the skulls were of
sufficient
capacity to admit the head of an ordinary man, and jaw bones that might
have
been fitted on over the face with equal facility; the other bones were
proportionately large. The burying-ground referred to contained about
four
acres, and with the exception of a slight angle in conformity with the
natural
contour of the ground was in the form of an oblong square.
It appeared to have been
accurately surveyed
into lots running from north to south, and exhibited all the order and
propriety of arrangement deemed necessary to constitute Christian
burial. On the
first examination of the ground by the
settlers they found it covered with the ordinary forest trees, with an
opening
near the centre containing a single butternut.
The graves were distinguished by slight depressions
disposed in straight
rows, and were estimated to number from two to three thousand. On examination in 1800
there were found to
contain human bones, invariably blackened by time, which on exposure to
the air
soon crumbled to dust. Traces of ancient cultivation observed by the
first
settlers on the lands of the vicinity, although covered with forest,
exhibited
signs of having once been thrown up into squares and terraces, and laid
out
into gardens.
There
was a fragment or chip of a tree at one time in the possession of the
Ashtabula
Historical Society, which was a curiosity.
The tree of which that was a chip was chopped down and
butted off for a
saw log, about three feet from the ground, some thirty rods southeast
of Fort
Hill, in Conneaut, in 1829, by Silas A. DAVIS, on land owned by B. H.
KING. Some marks
were found upon it near
the heart of the tree. The
Hon. Nehemiah
KING, with a magnifying glass, counted 350 annular rings in that part
of the
stump, outside of these marks. Deducting
350 from 1829, leaves 1479, which must have been the year when these
cuts were
made. This was
thirteen years before the
discovery of America by Columbus.
It
perhaps was done by the race of the mounds, with an axe of copper, as
that
people had the art of hardening that metal so as to cut like steel.
In
the spring of 1815 a mound on Harbor street,
Conneaut,
was cut through for a road. One
morning
succeeding a heavy rain a Mr. WALKER, who was up very early, picked up
a jaw
bone together with an artificial tooth which lay near.
He brought them forthwith to Mr. P.R. SPENCER,
secretary of the Historical Society, who fitted the tooth in a cavity
from
which it had evidently fallen. The
tooth
was metallic, probably silver, but little was then thought of the
circumstance.
The adventure of Mr. Solomon SWEATLAND, of
Conneaut, who crossed Lake Erie in an open canoe, in September, 1817,
is one of
unusual interest. He
had been
accustomed, with the aid of a neighbor, Mr. COZZENS, and a few hounds,
to drive
the deer into the lake, where, pursuing them in a canoe, he shot them
with but
little difficulty. The
circumstances
which took place at this time are vividly given in the annexed extract
from the
records of the Historical Society:
Adventure of Solomon SWEATLAND.- It was a lovely morning in early
autumn, and
SWEATLAND, in anticipation of his favorite sport, had risen at the
first dawn
of light, and without putting on his coat or waistcoat left his cabin,
listening in the meantime in expectation of the approach of the dogs. His patience was not put
to a severe trial
ere his ears were saluted by the deep baying of the hounds, and on
arriving at
the beach he perceived that the deer had already taken to the lake, and
was
moving at some distance from the shore.
In the enthusiasm of the moment he threw his hat upon the
beach, his
canoe was put in requisition, and shoving from the shore he was soon
engaged in
rapid and animated pursuit. The wind, which had been fresh from the
south
during the night
Page 265
and gradually increasing, was now
blowing nearly a gale, but
intent on securing his prize SWEATLAND was not in a situation to yield
to the
dictates of prudence. The
deer, which
was a vigorous animal of its kind, hoisted its flag of defiance, and
breasting
the waves stoutly showed that in a race with a log canoe and a single
paddle he
was not easily outdone.
SWEATLAND
had attained a considerable distance from the shore and encountered a
heavy sea
before overtaking the animal, but was not apprised of the eminent peril
of his
situation until shooting, past him the deer turned towards the shore. He was however brought to
a full appreciation
of his danger when, on tacking his frail vessel and heading towards the
land,
he found that with his utmost exertions he could make no progress in
the desired
direction, but was continually drifting farther to sea.
He had been observed in his outward progress
by Mr. Cousins, who had arrived immediately after the hounds, and by
his own
family, and as he disappeared from sight considerable apprehensions
were entertained
for his safety.
The
alarm was soon given in the neighborhood, and it was decided by those
competent
to judge that his return would be impossible, and that unless help
could be
afforded he was doomed to perish at sea.
Actuated by those generous impulses that often induce men
to peril their
own lives to preserve those of others, Messrs. GILBERT, COUSINS, and
BELDEN
took a light boat at the mouth of the creek and proceeded in search of
the
wanderer, with the determination to make every effort for his relief. They met the deer
returning towards the shore
nearly exhausted, but the man who was the object of their solicitude
was
nowhere to be seen. They
made stretches
off shore within probable range of the fugitive for some hours, until
they had
gained a distance of five or six miles from land, when meeting with a
sea in
which they judged it impossible for a canoe to live
they abandoned the search, returned with difficulty to the
shore,
and SWEATLAND was given up for lost.
The
canoe in which he was embarked was dug from a large whitewood log by
Major
James BROOKES, for a fishing boat; it was about fourteen feet in length
and
rather wide in proportion, and was considered a superior one of the
kind. SWEATLAND
still continued to lie off, still
heading towards land, which a faint hope that the wind might abate, or
that aid
might reach him from the shore. One
or
two schooners were in sight in course of the day, and he made every
signal in
his power to attract their attention, but without success.
The shore continued to
sight, and in tracing
its distant outline he could distinguish the spot where his cabin
stood, within
whose holy precepts were contained the cherished objects of his
affections, now
doubly endeared from the prospect of losing them forever.
As
these familiar objects
receded from view, and the shores appeared to sink beneath the troubled
waters,
the last tie which united him in companionship to his fellow-men seemed
dissolved, and the busy world, with all its interests, forever hidden
from his
sight.
Fortunately
SWEATLAND possessed a cool head and a stout heart, which, united with a
tolerable share of physical strength and power of endurance, eminently
qualified him for the part he was to act in this emergency. He was a good sailor, and
as such would not
yield to despondency until the last expedient had been exhausted. One only expedient remained,
that of putting before the wind and endeavoring to reach the Canada
shore, a
distance of about fifty miles. This
he
resolved to embrace as his forlorn hope.
It
was now blowing a gale, and the sea was evidently increasing as he
proceeded
from the shore, and yet he was borne onwards over the dizzy waters by a
power
that no human agency could control.
He
was obliged to stand erect, moving cautiously from one extremity to the
other,
in order to trim his vessel to the waves, well aware that a single lost
stroke
of the paddle, or a tottering movement, would swamp his frail bark and
bring
his adventure to a final close. Much
of
his attention was likewise required in bailing his canoe from the
water, an
operation which he was obliged to perform by making use of his shoes, a substantial pair of stoggies,
that happened fortunately to be
upon his feet.
Hitherto
he had been blessed with the cheerful light of heaven, and amidst all
his
perils could say, "The light is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing for
the
eyes to behold the sun," but to add to his distress, the shades of
night
were now gathering around him, and he was soon enveloped in darkness. The sky was overcast, and
the light of a few
stars that twinkled through the haze alone remained to guide his path
over the
dark and troubled waters. In
this
fearful condition, destitute of food and the necessary clothing, his
log canoe
was rocked upon the billows during that long and terrible night. When morning appeared he
was in sight of
land, and found he had made Long Point, on the Canada shore. Here he was met by an
adverse wind and cross
sea, but the same providential aid which had guided him thus far still
sustained and protected him; and after being buffeted by the winds and
waves
for nearly thirty hours, he succeeded in reaching the land in safety.
What
were the emotions he experienced on treading once more "the green and
solid earth," we shall not attempt to inquire, but his trials had not
yet
ended. He found
himself faint with
hunger and exhausted with fatigue, at the distance of forty miles from
any
human habitation, whilst the country that intervened was a desert
filled with
marshes and tangled thickets, from which nothing could be obtained to
supply
his wants. These
difficulties, together
with the reduced state of his strength, rendered his progress towards
the
settlements slow and toilsome. On
his
way he found a quantity of goods, supposed to have been driven on shore
from
the wreck of some vessel, which, although they afforded
Page 266
him no
immediate relief, were afterwards of
material service.
He
ultimately arrived at the settlement, and was received and treated with
great
kindness and hospitality by the people.
After his strength was sufficiently recruited, he returned
with a boat,
accompanied by some of the inhabitants, and brought off the goods. From this place
he proceeded by land to
Buffalo, where, with the avails of his treasure, he furnished himself
in the
garb of a gentleman, and finding the "Traveller,"
Capt. Chas. BROWN, from Conneaut, in the harbor, he shipped on board
and was
soon on his way to rejoin his family.
When the packet arrived off his dwelling, they fired guns
from the deck
and the crew gave three loud cheers.
On
landing, he found his funeral sermon had been preached, and had the
rare
privilege of seeing his own widow
clothed in the habiliments of mourning.
The First Regular Settlement made
within
the present limits of the county was at Harpersfield,
on the 7th of March, 1798. Alexander
HARPER, Wm. M'FARLAND and Ezra GREGORY, with their families, started
from Harspersfield,
Delaware county,
N.Y., and after a long and fatiguing journey arrived on the last of
June, at
their new homes in the wilderness.
This
little colony of about twenty persons endured much privation in the
first few
months of their residence. The
whole
population of the Reserve amounted to less than 150 souls, vis.:
ten families at Youngstown, three at Cleveland and two at Mentor. In the same summer three
families came to
Burton, and Judge HUDSON settled at Hudson.
Pioneer
Trails. --
Cut short of their expected supplies
of provision for the winter, by the loss of a vessel they had chartered
for
that purpose, the little colony came near perishing by famine, having
at one
time been reduced to six kernels of
parched corn to each person; but they were saved by the intrepidity of
the sons
of Col. HARPER, James and William.
These
young men made frequent journeys to Elk Creek, Pa., from which they
packed on
their backs bags of corn, which was about all the provision the
settlers had to
sustain life during a long and tedious winter.
Some few of their journeys were performed on the ice of
Lake Erie,
whenever it was sufficiently strong to bear them, which was seldom. On the first occasion of
this kind they were
progressing finely on the ice, when their sled broke through into the
water. A third
person who happened to be
with them at this time exclaimed, "What shall we do?" "Let it
go," James replied. "No!"
exclaimed William, who was of a different temperament, "you go into the
woods and strike a fire while I get the grain."
He then with great difficulty secured the
grain, by which operation he got completely wet through and a cutting
wind soon
converted his clothing into a sheet of ice.
He then went in search of his companions and was
disappointed in finding
they had not built a fire. The truth was, they had grown so
sleepy with the intense cold as to be unable to strike fire. He soon had a cheerful
blaze, and then
converted himself into a nurse for the other two, who on getting warm
were
deadly sick.
Jefferson in 1846.
-- Jefferson, the county-seat, is 56
miles from Cleveland and 204 northeast of Columbus.
It is an incorporated borough, laid out
regularly on a level plat of ground, and contains 3 stores, 1
Presbyterian, 1
Baptist, 1 Episcopal, and 1 Methodist church, and 73 dwellings. The township of the same
name in which it is
situated was originally owned by Gideon GRANGER, of Conn.
In the spring of 1804 he
sent out Mr. Eldad
SMITH from Suffield, in that State, who first opened
a bridle path to Austinburg,
and sowed and fenced ten
acres of wheat. In the summer of the next year Michael WEBSTER, JR.,
and
family, and Jonathan WARNER made a permanent settlement.
In the fall following, the
family of James
WILSON built a cabin on the site of the tavern shown in the view. The court-house was
finished in 1810 or 1811;
and the first court held in 1811; Timothy R. HAWLEY, Clerk; Quintus F.
ATKINS,
Sheriff.—Old Edition.
Jefferson,
county-seat, is fourteen miles south of Lake Erie on the Franklin
Branch of the
L. S. & M.S. R..R., in the
midst of a very prosperous
farming district.
County
officers for 1888: Auditor, Ellery H. GIKLEY; Clerks, Chas. H. SIMONDS,
Benjamin F. PERRY, JR.; Commisioners,
Edward P.
BAKER, Thomas McGOVERN,
Edward G. HURLBURT; Coroner,
Wm. O. ELLSWORTH; Prosecuting Attorney, James P. CALDWELLl;
Probate Judge, Edward C. WADE; Recorder, Edgar
Page 267
L. Hills; Sheriff, Starr O. LATIMER; Surveyor, John S. SILL; Treasurer, Amos B. LUCE.
Newspapers: Ashtabula Sentinel, J. A. HOWELLS, editor, Republican; Jefferson Gazette, Republican, Hon. E. L. LAMPSEN, editor. Churches: one Congregational, one Baptist, one Methodist, one Episcopal, and one Catholic. Banks: First National, N. E. French, president, J. C. A. BUSHNELL, cashier; Talcott's Deposit, Henry TALCOTT, president, J. C. TALCOTT, cashier. Population in 1880, 1,008.
The village is well situated on a slight eminence which falls off in each direction. Its streets are wide, well kept and finely shaded. It has been the home of a number of prominent men, including Senator B. F. WADE, Hons. J. R. GIDDINGS, A. G. RIDDLE, Wm. C. HOWELLS, Rufus P. RANNEY, etc. Mr. HOWELLS is the father of W. D. HOWELLS, the author, and is one of the oldest editors, if not the oldest, in the State; he was at one time United States Consul in Canada. The eminent Rufus P. RANNEY was born in 1813 in Blanford, Mass.; passed his youth in Portage county; studied law with WADE and GIDDINGS; in 1839 became a partner with Mr. WADE; was twice Supreme Judge; member of the Constitutional Convention, United States District Attorney for Northern Ohio in 1857; in 1859 was , the Democratic candidate- for governor against Wm. Dennison. He now resides in Cleveland and is considered by many as the first lawyer in Northern Ohio.
Drawn
by Henry Howe, in 1846
COUNTY BUILDINGS AT JEFFERSON.
TRAVELLING
NOTES.
Tues.,
Oct. 5.—At
noon I stepped from the
cars at Jefferson. There is not in any land a community of 1,200 people
who
live in more substantial comfort and peace than this. The streets are
broad,
well shaded, the home lots large, where about every family has its
garden and
fruit, trees, where all seem to be on that equal plane of middle life
that
answered to the prayer of Agar ;
and, more-over, as
the home of Joshua R. GIDDINGS and Benj. F. WADE, those Boanerges
of freedom, and the spot of their burial, it has an honor and memory of
extraordinary value. The village, too, is well named, being in memory
of' one
who said that God was just and his justice would not sleep forever, for
he had
no attribute that sympathized with human slavery.
The Old Man
and his Grapes.—After
leaving the cars
I turned into the mail street
leading to the centre, when my attention was arrested by the sight of
an old
man four rods from the road standing on a chair plucking grapes from an
arbor
by the side of his cottage. One of the pretty things in rural life is
the sight
of people plucking fruit; instinctively the thoughts go up,
and there. drops into
the heart with a grateful sense the words
"God giveth the
increase." Early this
morning while in a hack going from Chardon to Painesville I had passed
an apple
orchard where men and boys were on ladders plucking the golden and
crimson
fruit and carefully placing it in bags hanging from branches
; and the sight was pleasing.
It is a
weak spot in the education of city people that they can know nothing of
the
gratification that comes from the cultivation and development of the
fruits of
the earth, nor that exquisite pleasure, the sense of' personal
ownership that
must arise in the breast
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of the husbandman as he looks upon
his fields of golden
grain, majestic forests, and grassy hills dotted with pasturing kine and gamboling herds, and
feels he looks that the eye
of the Great Master is over it all: there, where the dew of morning
upon every
tender blade and fragile leaf sparkles with His glory.
This
is a vain and deceitful world. My
mouth
watered for a bunch of the old man's grapes, cool and fresh from the
vine; so I
approached him under the guise of an inquiry about the way to the
centre of the
village, which I knew perfectly. As
I
neared him he excited my sympathy, for I discovered he was paralyzed in
one arm
which hung limp and useless by his side, and there were no grapes left
except a
few bunches under the roof of the trellis which he could with
difficulty reach
with the other, and he said in plaintive tones, "The boys came and
nearly
stripped my arbor when the grapes were not ripe.
They did them no good; if they had only
waited they should have been welcome to a share with myself."
I couldn't help thinking, as I listened to his sorrowful tones, the
genus boy
is the same everywhere, and then there is something so irresistibly
comical in
the nature of a boy that the very thought of one often makes me laugh;
that is,
internally, though at the moment the expression of my countenance may
be quite
doleful. On my
arrival at the centre I
found standing the court-house and tavern that I had sketched in the
long ago
only a little changed; a grove of trees had grown in the court-house
yard and a
porch had been built on the front of the tavern.
They gave me a good dinner therein and then I
went for a walk about the village to see the comfort in which the
people lived.
The Four Little Maids.-
On the plank walk on the
outskirts I met two little girls. I stopped them and said, "Where are
you
going, my little girls?" and they replied, "To the primary,
sir." And then I
inquired of one of
them, "How old are you - ten years?" "No, sir, I am
nine." Whereupon
the other chimed
in "I too am nine."
"That," I remarked," makes eighteen years of little
girls." By this
time two other of
their mates had come up and, pausing, I asked each "How old she was,"
and each answered as the others, in the soft, musical tones of
childhood,
"Nine,sir."
"That," said I "makes in all thirty-six years of little
girls." I wanted to
hold this
interesting group, so pointing to an oak near by, the symmetry of which
had
arrested the eye, I said, "Is not that a beautiful tree? What kind of
tree
is it?" when one of them replied, "It is an acorn tree."
I thought it quite a
pretty name. She
had evidently admired acorns and had
picked them up, and not knowing the right name of the oak had called it
by its
fruit. I too
admired acorns - indeed,
had one at that moment in my vest pocket - with its dark, rough
reticulated
saucer and smooth, light-hued conical cup. Then I said, "I make it a
rule
when I meet a group of little girls like you to catch the prettiest one
and
kiss her." I so spake
because
I thought it at the time to bring the conference to a close, and I
should have
the fun of seeing them scream, laugh, and scamper away. Man
proposes, God disposes.
They didn't scare a bit - stood stock still:
one indeed, the prettiest, the one to whom I had first spoken, the one
who had
called the oak an acorn tree - a plump, rosy-cheeked, blue-eyed little
puss she
was - advanced and, looking archly in my face while holding betwixt
finger and
thumb a gladiole, said,
"Will you please accept
this, sir?" Could anything be more irresistible? a
cherub dropped from the skies inviting a kiss!
Can anything that happens up yonder be sweeter than this?
I
had no sooner accepted the flower than a second little one thrust
forward her
hand holding a large, golden pippin and said, "Will you please take
this,
sir?" and I took it. Then
a third
one did not advance, but in the hollow of her hand lay a small, wee
peach, and
as she spoke she gently waved her open hand to and fro, while her body
waved in
unison from right to left, and in a half-shy, deprecating tone said, "
I
have nothing but this little peach to offer; will you take it, sir?"
The fields
and gardens around were blooming with flowers and orchards were bending
under
their burden of many-colored apples and golden, luscious pears, but
Jack Frost
had lingered too long in the springtime and cruelly nipped the peach
blossoms;
so I declined the peach, as peaches were scarce, thereby I fear
wounding her
feelings.
Ere
I parted I gave each my card, whereupon was told who I was and what my
errand. And as I
did so, I thought long
after I had passed away and these little people will be mothers, they
will show
my book to their offspring with its many pictures of their Ohio land,
and
stories of pioneer life and later stories of heroic men who fought for
the
Union in that dreadful, bloody war of the Rebellion, and point out the
portrait
of the author and describe this meeting with him when they, too, were
young
things on their way to the "primary;" meeting with him, an old,
white-bearded man, by the beautiful oak on the wayside of the village. And then to a question
from the children,
they may answer: "Oh, he has been dead many years, long before you were
born; it was in ___ he died."
An Early Acquaintance.—Twenty
minutes
later I was in the office of the Ashtabula
Sentinel, and
there met Mr. J. A. HOWELLS,
editor. I had seen
him but once before; he
was then a nine year old boy standing by my side watching me sketch
Rossville
from the Hamilton side of the Miami River.
And when the book was published and he looked upon that
picture with the
old mill, bridge and river, it was always with a sense of personal
ownership -
he was in at its birth. And
the whole
family valued it; and when his brother, the famed novelist, had a
family of his
own, he wrote from Boston, where he lived, for a copy; for he wanted,
he said,
his boys to enjoy the book as he had done in his boy days.
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To
illustrate the fruitfulness of the land Mr. HOWELLS showed me
thirty-six pears
clustered on a single stem only about twenty inches long; the entire
weight was
eleven pounds. He
told me that this
county last year raised 587,000 bushels of apples.
One cider factory, that of Woodworth, at West
Williamsfield, sent off
in 1885 twenty carloads of
sixty barrels each, fifty-two gallons in a barrel - in all 62,400
gallons.
The
old fashioned cider mill is here a thing largely in the
past—the rustic cider
mill, unpainted and brown as a rat, with its faithful old horse going
around in
a circle turning the cumbrous wheel, was always a picturesque object,
and the
spot attractive by its huge piles of apples in many colors, especially
to the
boys and girls who flocked hither to "suck cider through a straw."
Few
peaches are now raised on the Reserve; formerly they were so
superabundant that
they could not use them all and had to feed them to the swine; now in
the
absence of the peaches we have to look for the exquisite tints on the
cheeks of
the merry, healthy children.
Anecdotes of
GIDDINGS.—Mr. HOWELLS gave me
some
ancedotes
of the renowned Joshua. WHEY
he came
home from Congress after the long session often prolonged into the
heated term
of midsummer he would as one might say, "turn
out
to grass." He went
about the
village barefoot with old brown linen pants, old straw hat, and in his
shirt
sleeves engage in games of
base ball of which he was very fond, and enter people's houses and talk
with
the women and children, for he knew everybody and was eminently social.
"On an occasion of this kind" said Mr. HOWELLS, "he picked up my
wife, then a child, and illustrated his prodigious strength by holding
her out
at arm's-length, she standing on his hand."
Frank Henry
Howe, Photo,
1887
GIDDINGS
AND WADE’S
MONUMENTS,
JEFFERSON.
The monument of Giddings is in the foreground: that of Wade in the distance.
To
a question Mr. HOWELLS answered me that Mr. GIDDINGS was such an even
common
sense man so devoid of eccentricities that there were but few floating
anecdotes in regard to him. "I
once
however," said he, "remember hearing him relate this startling
incident. When a young man clearing up the forest he one day leaned
over and
grasping at both ends a decaying log he lifted it up with outstretched
arms to
take it away, and had it drawn up to within a few inches of his nose
when he
discovered curled up in a hollow place within a huge rattlesnake." I presume at this
discovery Mr. GIDDINGS
gently, very gently laid down that log; it would be characteristic of
him if
characteristic of anybody.
The
homesteads of GIDDINGS and WADE were near each other in the centre of
the
village. Mr.
HOWELLS showed them to me,
and then we went to visit their graves in the cemetery.
I felt as though he was an eminently proper
person to pilot me to a graveyard, for only a few weeks had elapsed
since he
was in the most noted graveyard in Old England, the scene of Gray's
elegy;
there he stood by the grave of GRAY and witnessed an old-fashioned
burial, that
of a rustic borne on the shoulders of four men, with four others
Page 270
for a relief- they had brought
the body two miles over a
country road.
The
village cemetery is in a forest half
a mile from the centre and a beautiful spot it is, showing evidences of
great
care. Rustic
bridges cross a ravine
there, at times a brawling stream; I pencilled
some
of the fancifully trimmed evergreens.
Such a handsome tasteful cemetery as this little village
possesses a
hundred years ago would have been world famed, now such are scattered
over our
land. Even the
first graveyard on the
globe laid out in family
lots dates only to 1796, that
in New Haven, Conn., and by James HILLHOUSE, the man who planted the
elms. The monument
to WADE is granite, about twelve
feet high; that to GIDDINGS is taller and more ornate, and one side is
occupied
by a fine bronze portrait in bas-relief.
The inscriptions are:
"Benjamin
F. WADE,
Oct.27,1800.
March 2,
1878"
"Joshua R. GIDDINGS, 1795-1864."
As
we stood there looking upon the scene I heard a low chirping and then
an
answering chirp, both in sad tones, and I inquired: "What birds are
those?"
"Mourning
doves," was the reply, "male and female, and one is
answering the other."
At
the end of the cemetery is a ravine over which crosses the railroad by
a
trestle forty-four feet high. The
previous summer two boys one night were crossing this on some open
freight cars
during a severe thunder storm. They
were
from a Western State. Their
minds
poisoned by the reading of miserable fiction they had run away from
their homes
to go forth and seek their fortunes; and were stealing rides upon the
railways. An
electric flash darting from
a telegraph wire knocked one of them off the car and he was found next
morning
in the ravine in a dying condition. Poor boy! He did not live long
enough on
earth to know much of it.
In
the evening a faint light glimmered in the window of the little
building so
long famed as the law office of Joshua Reed GIDDINGS.
I made my way thither and knocking at the
door was bade to walk in.
The sole occupant was a
young colored man;
and I could not have had my sense of the fitness of things more
completely
gratified than by finding one of this race
there; Charlie
GARLICK the people called him. I
had
rather have seen him there than the proudest white man in the land. Mr. J.A. GIDDINGS, a son
of Joshua, I found a
few minutes later in a store hard bye, a lounging place for the old
gentlemen
of the village. In
the morning I had an
interview with him in the old office; and these are my notes.
A Chat with a Son of Joshua
GIDDINGS -
His father began the practice of law in 1819, his age twenty-six. This building was built in
1823 for a law
office, adjoining his dwelling, a wooden structure burnt in 1877. For years it was the joint
office of GIDDINGS
and WADE. The brick
dwelling now on the
site of the other is the homestead of his son, J.A. GIDDINGS. In the office in his
presence I write these
lines as he sits in his rockingchair
twirling his
glasses. He is now
sixty-four years of
age, a powerfully built man; not so tall as his father, whom he
strongly
resembles; has practised law, but playfully tells me his is now a
"land-grabber." I
think he has
his hands full, all out of doors to go for.
The building is 16 by 30, divided into a front and rear
room, the latter
once the counseling chamber, now the bed-room of Mr.GARLICK.
The office is just as left by his father;
everything is plain, a box-stove for wood, a large office table, two
plain shelvings for law
books, each standing on low cupboards,
three plain chairs, a rocking-chair and an old sheet-iron safe bought
in 1836
and lined with plaster. The
greatest
curiosity is Mr. GIDDINGS' desk. It
is
just four feet high at its lowest place, the front, and is in the
corner by the
front window. At
this in the latter part
of his life Mr. GIDDINGS stood and did all his writing.
The office looks out upon an orchard.
Mr.
GIDDINGS said: "My father never had an idea he could have a profession
until he was about twenty-three years of age, when he commenced
regularly going
to school to a Presbyterian minister in the township of Wayne where my
grandfather's family lived. Prior
to
this he had not been to school since he was a small boy; there was no
opportunity for developing his mind in the wilderness.
"Soon after his settlement in Wayne my grandfather lost his farm through a defect in the title; so that they had to begin anew. My father and an older brother went to clearing land, the hardest sort of labor. By this they earned a farm for their parents and then one for each member of the family. This developed my father's prodigious muscular power. He was six feet two inches in stature, and weighed 225 pounds with no superfluous flesh.
"He
was fond of athletic exercises, often