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SIDNEY  RIGDON
AMONG  THE  BAPTISTS

HIS EARLY YEARS IN THE
STATE OF OHIO
Part A   Part B   Part C







Udell's Incidents (1856)   |   Riddle's The Portrait (1874)   |   Rigdon in Pennsylvania
H. T. Upton's Hist. of Western Res. (1910)   |   A. Wilcox's History of Disciples in Ohio (1918)


Incidents of Travel...
by John Udell

Jefferson, Ohio: Sentinel, 1856

  • Title Page   (additional text)
  • pg. 140: Rigdon in 1822
  • pg. 145: Rigdon/Campbell in 1829
  • pg. 147: Baptists in 1832
  • pg. 169: Campbellites in 1833

  • transcriber's comments



  •                                   LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                   139


    ... I could hear of no prospect of employment, and pushed on through Lewiston, thence down Lake Ontario to the Genesee Falls, where the city of Rochester now stands; but at that time there was not even a village there. From that point, I traveled through Canandaigua, (every day asking for employment,) to the head of Canandaigua Lake. I had no walked four hundred miles from home; my means were all expended, and I had still no prospect of getting anything to do for the season. I then tried to get work for a few days, to raise a little money to pay my expenses home again. I could not, and became almost despondent, fearing I should be reduced to beggary. Still I had some confidence left that God's providence would open a way for me to return home. I offered my clothing for sale, and sold a vest worth $3.00 for $1.50. With this money I bought pickled pork and bread, and loving on my pork, and bread and water, I walked forty miles a day, until I reached home. I returned, foiled in my expectation, after losing about a month's time and expenses; and suffered much hardship and fatigue. But notwithstanding all, there is, in all our misfortunes, some thing to buoy up the spirit of a reflecting man. The Lord hath spared my health, and the health of my family; we rejoice to see each other again in health, and we believe that all things will work together for good to them that love and serve God.

    In the fall of 1819, I cleared twenty acres of land for Robert Love, and took rye for pay. His brother, who owned a distillery, advised me to go into his distillery and distil my grain: I could realize double the profits that I could by selling it; and I could distill for him half of the time for the use of the distillery. I consented to do so; which was a great error in me; though at that time, making and




    140                                   LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                  


    using whisky, as a common drink, was very popular thro'out the Unoted States. But now I think that making and vending so much to intoxicate men was wrong, and especially reprehensible in a christian. I followed distilling that winter, and labored hard, night and day, only allowing myself four hours sleep out of 24; yet made but small wages, and was forty miles from my family during the time. In the summer of 1820, I purchased a set of stills, (principally on credit,) and was to pay for them in distilling, at six cents per gallon. I moved them up into Lenox, Ashtabula county, and built a house and apparatus for them. On June my wife presented me another heir. In the fall I had completed my distillery; my wife's brother took management of it for a share of the profits, and I moved down into Hubbard to work and pay for the distillery. I had sold the improvements, and signed a contract to part with my land on credit, to a certain man who ean off.

    I worked all the winter and spring of 1821, at the distilling business, and paid for my stills. We had a good christian society while living here, and much enjoyment. A number were added to the church during the winter. In the spring I moved my family ten miles up into Hartford, and worked distilling one year, for $20 a month, -- sometimes distilling grain, sometimes cider, and sometimes peaches. I found a small Baptist church under the pastoral care of Sidney Rigdon, quite a talented man, and at that time a very devoted preacher of the bible, and a great advocate for Baptist principles; but he has since apostatized and become a leader of the Mormons.

    In March, 1823, I cleared some small lots of land; bought a horse and wagon, and after distilling some herbs, traveled about, and sold the products, together with some goods. My distilling in Lenox, instead of yielding me any profit, was involving me in debt. I went up late in the fall and traded it for five acres of improved land, worth $50.00.




                                      LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                   141


    (under construction)







    142                                   LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                  


    (under construction)







                                      LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                   143


    (under construction)


    ... About this time [1826], there began to arise a very great excitement on the subject of Free Masonry, both in church and State, and from the expositions of Free Masons themselves, some of whom I was personally acquainted with, and knew to have always sustained a good character for truth and veracity, it was obvious to my mind, that it was a wicked and dangerous institution, calculated to paralize civil justice, and to have the same effect on the christian church. Perhaps I was too credulous in the matter, but I am possessed of a very sanguine and decided temperament, and am especially warm when from my convictions, I am opposing evil or error. I therefore took an active part as an anti-Mason, religiously and politically. In our part of the country, the anti-Masons were largely in the majority. The churches were broken up, and completely divided on the subject -- so great was the excitement; and our county offices were all filled by anti-Masons. As it had been the custom for years, (and the practice has never ceased to gain ground,) for the party in power to reap the spoils, through the influence of the Sheriff, I received an appointment from the county court to act as a kind of deputy -- a post which was worth a small sum to me. I continued in this office nearly four years, and until I left the place. I was then a member of the Baptist church, in Jefferson, as were, also, my parents; and I still lived under the immediate influence of their good counsel. We had little trouble in our church, on account of Free Masonry, for we had but one




    144                                   LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                  


    of the order among us, and he came out and renounced it, and publicly exposed their secret, wicked oaths and usages. Some of our sister churches, however, were rent asunder by the excitement.

    In the fall of 1826, and the spring of the following year, I set out some fruit trees on my land -- apples, pears, peaches, plums, etc. -- enough to make a fine little orchard. This year, with hard and constant labor, and with the sale of a horse and cow, I purchased materials, and paid the building of a fine, comfortable framed house. Schools were now beginning to be established throughout the country, to which we had the privilege of sending our children. This was most gratifying to us, although tuition was very high, and we had no public funds to assist us. Through the efforts of Mr. Joshua R. Giddings, and a few others, a house was built at the county seat, one mile from us, for a small Seminary and Primary school, under the same roof. Mr. Giddings is a very efficient man in the promotion of education, and is also a very kind and liberal man to the poor, the sick and the afflicted. Although a Lawyer, and a Member of Congress, yet he enjoys more of the affection of his neighbors, than commonly falls to the lot of his profession.

    In the fall of this year, I received the appointment of collector of delinquent taxes, for a part of the county, which yielded me a profit of about $1.50 per diem, for thirty days. This appointment I held fpur years in succession. In 1828 I finished my house; and in April of that year, our second daughter was born. Still the Lord was adding immortal souls to out charge, to train up for enjoyment in an eternal state with Him, and to add to our felicity here and hereafter: provided, that we filled the injunction laid upon us in training them. What a solemn and impressive reflection! The happiness of an immortal soul, in this life and the life which is to come, made to depend upon us! This year I bought three more acres of land, and paid for it by making a short piece of turnpike road. I also made a few other improvements on my land, and did some harvesting for myself and my neighbors. I made




                                      LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                   145


    some money in the fall, by gathering and selling cranberries. During the winter, I sold some medicines and goods on commission. In the spring of 1829 I fell into a great error, in buying a patent wright [sic] for a machine to make cider, which proved to be of no value. I lost three or four months in traveling to sell it, and made nothing. I had paid about fifty dollars for the right of one county, and did not get enough to save myself.

    This year, a great excitement prevailed among the Baptists of this region, respecting a new system of Baptist, or Christian principles, which was reported to have been gotten up by Elder Alexander Campbell, a champion of the Baptist cause, living in Virginia, it was said; that it was being propagated within the bounds of our association, that it was working the dissolution of all the Baptist churches in its way, and exerting a powerful influence on the other denominations; that votaries for it were multiplying by hundreds. We could not learn anything very definite in regard to this new system. As there was to be a meeting of the association of which Mr. Campbell was a member, and which was adjacent to our own association, a number of our brethren were delegated, agreeable to Baptist usages, to meet with them for correspondence. All being anxious to hear what the new theory was, we turned out en masse and went to the association. When we reached the place of meeting, we found a large multitude collected; the majority having probably come from the same motive that brought us.

    The usual business of the Association was dispensed with, and two or three days were spent in preaching. There were present Thomas Campbell and his son, Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, and Sidney Rigdon -- all very talented men, and said to be advocates of the new theory; and there were also present a number of gifted Baptist elders or preachers. We all listened eagerly and attentively during the whole meeting, to hear something new; but we only heard the same old Scriptures presented -- perhaps more forcibly than ever before, in so short a time. Some




    146                                   LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                  


    new ideas were advanced, but they were all so well sustained by the Word of God, that none, though repeated challenges were given, attempted to refute them. I could see no reason why I should doubt the truth of what was presented. I could see no reason why a reception of the doctrines advanced should cause a separation from the Baptist Church. But I concluded I would search the Scriptures more thoroughly, before I came to any decision in regard to the matter; and returned well satisfied with having gone forty miles to listen to such arguments and eloquence.

    In the spring and summer of 1830, I cleared and fenced as much of my sixteen acres as I wished to improve, and harvested, and did other work for my neighbors. In September, our third daughter was born. This year there was a great excitement among the Presbyterians, in some portions of the country. Protracted meetings of two and three weeks' duration, were held in different places, and the church was split up into divisions respectively called the New and Old School Presbyterians. New names and new sects arose, rendering imperative a deeper study of the Sacred Scriptures, that it might be seen whether the Lord had required or enjoined his Disciples to assume so many names and organizations, to represent the one Body of Christ,

    In the spring of 1831, I contracted for sixty acres of land in Madison, Geauga county, at the same time selling my sixteen acres in Jefferson, with my house and improvements, for payments to fall due with those I myself was to make. I moved my family to the new property, which was twenty miles from my former home, and one mile from Lake Erie, built a small house, and cleared, fenced, and planted six acres of corn, before the middle of June. I then commenced digging iron ore, drawing it to a neighboring furnace with my team, and continued in that business for one year -- of course doing my farm-work, meantime. Late in the fall, the man who had bought my Jefferson property informed me that he could not pay for it, and desired




                                      LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                   147


    me to take it back. I did so, and of course, was disabled from paying for the land I was on. Sold the improvements and contract for about cost, and bought two acres and a small house, as a residence for that winter, and took a deed of the property. The next spring (1832), I sold it, and moved back to Jefferson, in the hope that I should spend my days there, near my parents and kindred, and the Church to which I was so much attached.

    The following summer I was engaged in taking charge of my crops and orchard, and laboring for hire. In the fall a great reformation took place in Jefferson, under the influence of the Baptist Church. Many, bith old and young, came forward and related their experience, in accordance with Baptist custom, were received and baprized -- the Church nearly doubling its numbers. So great was the influence on the people, that our house of worship -- a large, framed school-building -- would not contain near all who thronged to it. Our meetings continued day and night, and deep interest and zeal was manifested by every one. W thought it advisable, under the present fervor and excitement, to build a House of Worship to the Lord, that all might be accomodated.

    The brethren agreed to send abroad, and solicit aid from their brethren in the older States, and as no one would go but the preacher, who could not be spared, so great was the work to be performed in the conversion of sinners, I offered to go, provided that the brethren would administer to the temporal wants of my family...

    (under construction)







    148                                   LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                  


    (pages 148-168 not copied)







                                      LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                   169


    twenty-two years,) receiving accessions from the Presbyterians and Methodists, till they now stand powerful among the denominations around them. Meantime, the old church steadily decreased. I visited all the members who were alove a few months ago, but many had been laid low. I trust their immortal souls have gone where peace and tranquillity reign.

    But perhaps my readers are anxious to know the reason why so much difficulty arose in the old church, and why so many of its members were excluded. The records of that body, which are to be handed dpwn to all posterity, show the causes of these troubles, and may, I suppose, be inspected by any one. This work, however, may be read by hundreds whom distance denies access to the records; it becomes my duty toward myself and brethren and sisters excluded with me, to give the proceedings of those who excluded us, that the world may be enabled to judge whether, according to the law of God, our exclusion was just or unjust. For we appealed ro the law of God for our justification; and by that law it will plainly be seen hath no man condemned us, unless it forbids the reading of Alexander Campbell's "Millennial Harbinger." I have already given the proceedings of the first meetings on this subject, setting forth the origin of the difficulties; and I think it would be useless to give the doings of the many contentious meetings held -- some of them previous to my return. They were all so repugnant to good feeling and Christian forbearance, that my mind was affected, and I had spells of mental derangement for several months, -- rising in my sleep, and lecturing upon the great inconsistency of such strife and animosity among Christians, -- to the great annoyance of my family, and all unknown to myself.

    Below I copy the record of the exclusion of brother E. A. Mills -- one of the first victims of the proscription, and the most prominent member of the church:

    ( Copy. )

    "March 2d, 1833. It was then motioned and seconded




    170                                   LIFE  OF  JOHN  UDELL.                                  


    that as brother E. A. Mills will not consent to abandon the reading of Mr. Campbell's 'Millennial Harbinger,' which we think is leading him from the Gospel and the faith of the Regular Baptists, we withdraw from him the hand of fellowship. The vote was then tried, and carried by a considerable majority....

    (remainder not copied)









    History of the Western
    Reserve Volume 1.

    by H. T. Upton
    NYC: Lewis Pub. Co., 1910

  • p. 634: Portage County
  • p. 675: Aurora Twp.   p. 691: Mantua Twp.
  • p. 692: Nelson Twp.   p. 685: Garrettsville
  • p. 689: Hiram Twp.   p. 696: Smith & Rigdon

  • Vol. 2   Vol. 3   (more Vol. 1 here)
  • (transcriber's comments





  • [ 634 ]




    CHAPTER  XXX.
    ______

    PORTAGE  COUNTY

    Possibly no county on the Western Reserve has a more creditable, a more stable, a more interesting history than has Portage. It was organized in 1807, but remained attached to Trumbull until the next year. The townships in the county then were Franklin, Deerfield, Aurora, Hiram, Springfield and Hudson. The township of Franklin was owned by Mr. Olmsted, and like the owners of all the townships he was desirous of having the county seat located there. He promised to donate land for the erection of a court house if the commissioners would decide for Franklin, and he urged General John Campbell, an influential man, to talk it over with the commissioners. He went back to Connecticut, died there and left no provision in his will for the county buildings and consequently Ravenna was made the county scat, as it was the geographical center. In 1840, when Summit county was founded, the two western tiers of townships were put into that county.

    Name And Natural Features.

    Portage county was named from the path which lay between the Cuyahoga and the Tuscarawa. No one knows how long this path had been traversed before the first settlers of Portage county arrived. Indians had used it, of course, as had traders between Pittsburg and Cleveland who made use of water routes.

    The southern part of the county is lower and the soil heavier than the northern part. The northern part is rolling, somewhat sandy, and in the northeastern corner, pudding-stone rock is near the surface and at Nelson Ledges is many feet out of the ground.

    Highlanders of The County.

    The northern part of the county was in the beginning settled by New Englanders. These families intended settling at Cleveland, having heard more of Moses Cleaveland than of any of the other landowners, but when they felt the sharp lake winds, saw the yellow drifting sand, they retraced their steps and rolled up their logs for their homes on the highlands of Hiram, Nelson, Mantua, etc. Many of these families were from the Berkshire districts of Massachusetts and they loved the hills and the grass and the trees. They had not been brought up to look at blue water, and white caps, nor to hear the dashing of waves. For fully seventy-five years, this pure strain of New England blood lived in this tier of townships.

    Pennsylvania Dutch And Germans.

    The people of the southern portion of the county were at first from New England, but the second comers were largely Pennsylvania people with a goodly sprinkling of Germans. Part of the latter were real Germans, but most of them Pennsylvania Dutch. There was a small per cent of Irish and Scotch, but the start was really made with New Englanders and Pennsylvanians.

    The Germans were good citizens; industrious, frugal, law-abiding. They cultivated their land, and sold vegetables, fruits and




                                    HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                635


    crops as soon as there was any market for them. As late as 1865 the author remembers seeing in Ravenna, German women from the lower townships, carrying baskets of huckleberries on their heads as they went from door to door selling them. The daughters of some of these families went out to service and made most excellent cooks and housekeepers. Their descendants are found among the best business men of the county.

    The Scotch-Irish.

    Today money is the great power, but in the first days of Portage county education was power. Throughout the Western Reserve the men, who in the beginning became the leaders in professions, in politics, in religion, in business, were the educated men, many of whom had their degrees from Yale and Harvard. The New Englander, as stated elsewhere, was a serious, solemn citizen, wholly undemonstrative, but upright in character. His Scotch-Irish companion was likewise undemonstrative, but was witty and brought to social gatherings his wit and humor. Contrary to the general belief, it was the Scotch-Irish and not the New Englander who established the churches of Portage county.

    It is not at all likely that any of the French soldiers or explorers, who traveled the lakeshore before the coming of the settlers, were ever in Portage county. It was too far south. Trappers and traders were here temporarily on their way from Pittsburg to Detroit. Indians, of course, roamed the whole county and settlements were still in existence in various parts, particularly along the old Indian path, when the first settlers arrived. These Indians were friendly with the women and families, but preceding the War of 1812 and soon thereafter they disappeared.

    Abram S. Honey First Settler.

    The first settlement in Portage county was made in 1798, at Mantua, by Abram S. Honey. It was midway between Cleveland and Youngs town. He erected a log cabin, cleared a spot of ground, and put in a small crop of wheat, which was next year harvested by his brother-in-law, Rufus Edwards. His first neighbor was William Crooks, who made a clearing and built a cabin not far from him. Mr. Crooks lived in Mantua until 1854. He was eighty-five when he died.

    Benjamin Tappan, Jr.

    The most distinguished of the first settlers was Benjamin Tappan, Junior, who in the summer of 1799 started with an employee, named Bisby, to settle in township 3, range 8, which belonged to his father, Benjamin Tappan, Senior. As we read of these pioneers we wonder, in the first place, why those of them, like young Tappan, who was well educated and well surrounded should leave home when he knew, in a measure, what hardships awaited him. Of course, with men who had families and no money, the low price of land and the stories of its fertility were seductive, but for an educated youth the situation was entirely different. Then, when these men had started and began to meet almost insurmountable obstacles, why they did not retrace their steps, is far more mysterious than why they came. Mr. Tappan's journey was made by boat. At Gerundicut Bay, New York, he fell in with David Hudson, whose adventures are narrated in the Summit county chapter.

    Meets Hudson and Harmon.

    Hudson became a passenger in Tappan's boat and they all went on to Niagara, where they met Elias Harmon and his wife in a small unseaworthy boat. The Harmons were bound for Mantua. Under the most favorable circumstances, early travelers found it extremely difficult to carry their boats and baggage around Niagara Falls.

    The Tappan party, because of ice in the river, had an unusually serious time. After they were fairly on the water, they were in constant danger, and when the ice had passed and they paddled along the southern shore of




    636                                 HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                


    Lake Erie day after day, they suffered from storms. Finally one of unusual severity drove them on the shore of Ashtabula county, where Harmon's boat was destroyed and he proceeded on foot. Tappan and Hudson continued their journey by water, and when they had gone down the Cuyahoga as far as they could go they landed at the place now called Boston, in Summit county.

    Mr. Tappan's Hard Luck.

    Here Tappan pitched a tent to cover his goods, left a man in charge, and, taking the oxen which he had brought all the way with him and which he had hitched to a boat or sled which he had constructed, he proceeded to Ravenna and established himself in the southeast corner where Mr. Neill's home now is (a picture of which is here given). He was obliged to cut his own road and proceed very slowly, crossing the Cuyahoga at Standing Rocks. He returned to Boston for the remainder of his goods, only to find that the man he had left in charge had deserted, going over to Mr. Hudson's settlement, and that thieves, undoubtedly Indians, had stolen the goods remaining. Loading up the fragments he started for Ravenna. The weather was very hot. Early recorders of Tappan's experience say that one of his oxen died from heat, but later evidence shows that many of the animals, particularly cows and oxen, which died in the early days, did not perish from heat but from the poisonous bites of swarms of flies, and we feel sure that that was the fate of Mr. Tappan's ox. Even this last stroke of ill luck did not discourage him. No wonder he was in later life a successful man.

    Help From Good James Hillman.

    Upon Tappan's return to Ravenna, Bisby was given a compass and was directed to go to Erie to secure a loan of money from the commandant at the Fort. That he was successful in this trip was undoubtedly due to the fact that Benjamin Tappan, Senior, was known to be a man of means and standing. During Bisby's absence young Tappan proceeded to Youngstown to consult James Hillman, as did most people who at this time lived in this vicinity. He got what he wanted at the hands of Hillman; sympathy, encouragement and a new ox. Over and over again do we read in different narratives of Tappan's adventures that notwithstanding his predicament, Mr. Hillman let him have this ox on credit and at the usual price. Have most men in most times so taken advantage of the misfortunes of others that when anyone does not take such advantage it is written down in history? All these misfortunes made it impossible for Mr. Tappan to put in any crop, or to build any house, and it was nearly January before he had a cabin. Through the summer and late fall he had lived in a tent, and a bark shack, and all winter he had to depend upon the Indians for his meat, and settlements far way for his other food.

    The Woman Behind Him.

    That he did not give up at this juncture was probably due to the fact that back in New England Nancy Wright, his promised wife, was waiting impatiently for his return. It was the following summer that he brought her on to his home in the woods and, as the story goes, they lived happy thereafter. At last he was established and his subsequent life was successful.

    Awful Trip Of The Sheldons.

    It seems as if the journeys of the first settlers were perilous and dangerous. In 1799 Ebenezer Sheldon arrived at Aurora and chose lot 40 for a home. He employed Elias Harmon and his wife to help him and they made a clearing. The Harmons moved to Mantua and Sheldon returned to Connecticut. In the following spring he, his wife and six children left Suffield for their home "out west." They had a comfortable wagon drawn by oxen and brought horses with them. In the beginning




                                    HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                637


    their journey was uneventful, but at Warren, when they were apparently almost through, they found the roads very bad, and in passing through a dense woods a storm overtook them, timber falling about them in such a way as to literally hem them in. They were obliged to stay all night and in the morning chop their way out. This experience was an awful one, since they expected every minute that they and their animals would be killed. They, however, proceeded with safety to Ravenna and then to Aurora.

    Capt. Caleb Atwater's Party.

    The second settlement was made at Atwater early in 1799. The party was lead by Capt. Caleb Atwater, the land was surveyed, and the men returned to the east with the exception of Asa Hall, who with his wife stayed through the winter. They were the only people in the township for two years.

    First Child Born.

    Here in this lonesome home in the woods. Portage county's first child was born. Little do we realize what it meant to be a pioneer mother. Nowadays the birth of most children is planned for with the greatest care. As a rule the mother's work is light; attention is given her health; she avoids, if possible, nervous strain, and nurse, physician and family do all that is known to medical science to aid her. But in Portage county's first days -- alone, without chloroform, without surgeon, with a husband and a squaw or a Deerfield neighbor, Portage county's first baby was born. No wonder most forefathers had two wives; many of them three; some of them four! No wonder women were bed-ridden and crippled for years at a time. Pioneer life was hard for men, but it was next to death for women. This baby was called Atwater, for Capt. Caleb Atwater, and while the father, who was a great hunter, roamed the woods, his mother watched him in their cheerless little hut.

    Mr. Hall Moves Away.

    After a while the condition grew too lonesome for Mr. Hall and, of course, then the family was moved. They settled nearer their Deerfield friends on the edge of the township. For two or three years the only other person living in Atwater township was David Baldwin.

    Deerfield's First Settler.

    The first actual settler in Deerfield was Lewis Ely, who came with his family in July, 1799. Early in 1800 his son Alva, John Campbell and Joe] Thrall walked from Connecticut, reaching the township in March. They suffered many hardships, especially when they struck the snow in the mountains.

    First Marriage In County.

    John Campbell did not know that his hard experiences were soon to be forgotten in his. joys. In that very year he married Sarah, the daughter of Lewis Ely. This was the first marriage among white people recorded in Portage county.

    As there were no ministers in that neighborhood, Calvin Austin, of Warren, was asked to perform the marriage service. Justice Austin was a little fearful of this task because he did not know any marriage service. Calvin Pease offered to teach him the proper form. These two men did not sit down before a good log fire and prepare for this wedding, but as they walked twenty-one miles through the woods in that drear November, one taught and the other learned part of the Episcopal service. Pease had a great sense of humor, and was a tease withal. When, therefore, Mr. Austin, in the presence of the assembled guests and in a dignified manner, repeated the service concluding with "I pronounce you man and wife, and may God have mercy on your soul," a ripple of merriment was noticeable and Mr. Pease was convulsed.

    Young Campbell became a very influential citizen in the county. He resided in the neighborhood




    638                                 HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                


    all his life. Campbellsport, at one time a most thriving village, was named for .him. He was an efficient officer in the War of 1812, receiving the title of general.

    Portage County's First Bride.

    It is recorded in the "Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve" that during the War of 1812 General Campbell "either was wounded or fell ill and returning as far as Sandusky was unable to reach home. His intrepid wife, upon learning of his condition, mounted her horse, set out alone through the wilderness to succor her husband. Finding that he could not be cared for comfortably in Sandusky, she had him placed upon her horse and then led the animal all the way back to Ravenna."

    The great-granddaughter of Portage county's first bride remembers that when the latter was nearly eighty years old she was tall, straight and always carefully dressed. She wore a dark brown front piece over her white hair and under her white cap. Her dress of dark delaine had pink roses, a fichu-like cape of the same color was about her shoulders and .a touch of white at her throat. She was sober of face, quiet of manner and never held or kissed this great granddaughter. People did not show inward love in outward expression then. If they had, this pioneer would never have done much else but caress her descendants, for she had eleven children of her own and a host of grandchildren and great grand children. Several of her descendants still live in Portage county.

    The Mills Family.

    The sons of Ezekiel Mills, of Becket, Massachusetts, were among the first settlers in the northern part of the county. There were three brothers -- Delaun, Asahel and Isaac. At the time of their arrival at Youngstown, the northern part of Portage county was being surveyed under Amzi Atwater, and, being out of money, they were glad to engage as axemen in the surveying party. Isaac was not married and after a time went back east. Delaun settled on the road running west from the center of Nelson, and Asahel on the road running north and south.

    They All Stopped At "Mills."

    All the old diaries of early travelers who went to Burton, Painesville, etc., contain such statements as these: "Stopped at Mills for dinner;" or "fed horses at Mills;" or "stayed several days at Mills."

    It was Delaun who kept this hotel, or rather tavern, and a merry place it was sometimes for the backwoods country. Grog was served here, as everywhere, and many a happy evening was spent by travelers, and later, by travelers and neighbors, in this old log house which has long since disappeared.

    The Mills family came in 1800 and they were the only inhabitants of the town up to 1803. Delaun received the title of captain and was a most successful hunter of both animals and Indians. He was Portage county's Daniel Boone. The^ wonderful stories of his adventures have made the eyes of many a child open wide. The second generation of this family were all Methodists. It is not hard for the author to close her eyes and hear the rather sweet voice of Albert Mills (the son of Isaac, who came in 1805), oldest of Isaac's sons, himself then old, leading the Sunday school at the center of Nelson, and singing "There will be something in Heaven for children to do."

    Delaun and Asahel Mills came to Nelson in 1802 and Isaac in 1805.

    Homer Mills was a son of Henry Mills. Henry Mills was born north of the Center cemetery in 1803, and Homer was born on January 22, 1837.

    They All Stopped At "Mills."

    Pretty Lakes of Portage County. The early streams of Portage county were fuller at all seasons of the year, and the lakes, of course, were likewise deeper. These lakes were full of fish, and furnished food for the early settler and sport for his son and grandson. They are now, however, well fished out.




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    but are still attractive, and on their banks are many cottages where people have temporary summer homes. A majority of Portage county's lakes are in Franklin township. These are Stewart Ponds, Twin Lakes, Pippin and Brady. In Rootstown is Muddy Lake, a small portion of the northern part lying in Ravenna township. Ward's Pond, Muzzy's Pond and Sandy Lake are also in Rootstown. Fritch's Pond lies in Suffield. The lakes are fed largely by springs. As mentioned before, the lower part of Portage was swampy, and, as the land was cleared off, some small ponds dried up and were filled with vegetation. Here berries grew in abundance, and here was found peat, which was used for fuel. At one time a good deal of this material was prepared and sold in Ravenna. It was pressed into blocks.

    Undoubtedly the numerous lakes of Portage were originally a part of Lake Erie, but in the gradual rise of the land, were cut off from that body.

    The Court House Water-shed.

    The ridge which forms the water-shed in northern Ohio does not lie parallel to the lake. It begins in the southeastern part of Ashtabula county and runs southwest across the northwest corner of Trumbull on to the center of Portage, westward through Medina, then down into Crawford, etc. It was the tradition among the children in Ravenna that the water which ran south from the court house went into the Ohio river and that which ran north went into Lake Erie. Whether this is exactly true or not, the author does not know, but it is very nearly so.

    The Indians Of The County.

    The Indians found in Portage county, when the settlers came here, belonged to the tribes of Senecas, Ottawas and Chippewas. Bigson was the chief of the Senecas, living in Streetsboro township. He was a powerful man and is reported to have been honest and upright and a good friend. It was one of his sons, John Mohawk, who shot Diver. There was a settlement of peaceful Indians in Windham township about where the Mahoning station now is. The Indians of this northern section roamed over the hills of Hiram and Nelson, and when there was trouble the "Devil's Den" and like places at Nelson Ledges afforded them special protection. They feared Capt. Delaun Mills and despite the fact that they were noble red men, they often ran quickly to secrete themselves in these rocks. They found protection in severe weather under the over-hanging ledges and sometimes pitched their tents there. What was true of the other counties through which the old Indian patch from Beaver to Sandusky and Detroit ran was true of Portage. Indians singly and in groups passed back and forth on this path and parties of them built temporary villages and resided sometimes as long as a year or two in one spot, but just previous to the War of 1812 they began to disappear and at the close of the war they never returned in any such numbers or for any permanent settlement.

    Old Roads Of The County.

    The old Indian path so frequently referred to in this work entered Portage county in Palmyra township, and passed through Edinburg, Ravenna and Franklin. When the first settlers came, it was a hard, well-traveled road and no one knows how long it had been used.

    Benjamin Tappan cut the first road in the county in order to get to his possessions, and there was a sort of a road cut about the same time from Atwater to Georgetown. Asa Hall, and Caleb Atwater were among the men who cut this road. It was forty miles in length and ran across Atwater and Deerfield. Ebenezer Sheldon cut a road in 1799 from the center of Aurora, northwesterly, to a path which led to Cleveland The Mills brothers early cut a road in Nelson -- either in 1799 or 1800. The Ravenna-Burton road was laid out in 1802, but it was not finished for some time afterwards.




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    This road led through Shalersville and Mantua. In 1802 there was a road from Warren to Cleveland, which touched Hiram and Mantua. In 1805 a road from the center to Rootstown ran to that which connected Cleveland with Pittsburg, and then continued to Edinburg.

    Among the first roads constructed in the county were those which led to the mills, because the settlers had to get grain ground. One of these was surveyed by Amzi Atwater in 1805, and ran from his house to Garrett's Mills; the next year there was one running from his home to Aurora. After 1808. The cutting of roads became more frequent, and although hardly any of them exist today exactly as they were, still they occupy substantially the same place. In the early days, roads would sometimes run around a swamp, and in after years when the clearing away of the trees had dried the swamps, the roads would lie straightened. In the beginning, to save labor Indian paths were followed, and those more often lay along the waterway. When the country was settled, these were straightened also. If you think of it when you are driving through the country, you will realize that you are riding along by a stream and then you leave it and come to it again. These straight lines were made, of course, to save time.

    (The question of paths, of roads, or stage-roads and of the canals of the Western Reserve are treated in the early part of this work.)

    Coal ("Pamyra Lump.")

    At the time of the formation of Portage county, more than half of it had coal under the surface at varying depths. There is coal formation under Hiram and in Mantua; also in parts of Shalersville, Ravenna and Windham. In the southern part of the county that is in Paris, Charleston, Palmyra, Deerfield, Brimfield and Suffield -- the coal was thick, good and easy to mine. The United States has produced anywhere but little bituminous coal, better known than "Palmyra Lump." These mines were small and have been worked out, as have the mines of Trumbull and Mahoning. However, in ordering coal the people in the southern part of the Reserve still order Palmyra coal from the dealer, and he sends them whatever he has handy.




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    First Court in The County.

    The first court in Portage county was held August 23, 1808. Calvin Pease presided. William Wetmore, Aaron Norton and Amzi Atwater were the associate judges, and David Hudson was appointed foreman of the grand jury. The house of Benjamin Tappan had been chosen as the place for holding this court, but it burned the night before, and so Portage county, like its mother, Trumbull, held its first court with the sky as a roof. The afternoon session was held at the home of R. J. Thompson. Whiskey was everywhere, as we have seen in this study of the Western Reserve, and before the day was over it was so apparent, as shown by the hilarity of some of the attendants, that Samuel Taylor was arrested and fined five dollars for contempt.

    Among the cases of that day was one of Zebina Wetherbee vs. John Haymaker and George Haymaker. There were two indictments brought by the grand jury; one was against William Simcox for maliciously interrupting a religious meeting in Franklin township. It seems what Simcox did was to go hunting, when people going and coming from church could see and hear him. He pleaded guilty to breaking the Sabbath and was fined $1.50 and costs; $6.50 in all.

    Stories About Pioneer Lawyers.

    There are no set of men about which such good stories are told as the early lawyers. The writer when a little girl used to sit evening after evening and listen to lawyers tell tales on each other. One of the early tales told of Portage county's justice was that of a man found guilty of breaking the Sabbath. He was sentenced to jail for six hours. At that time there was no jail. The early lawyers were most of them poor, and they did not mind being joked about their poverty. They talked freely about the financial condition of each other and there was very little pretense in any of them.

    Came To His Meals Promptly.

    At one time a nephew of John Brown was a student in the office of Ranney and Taylor. Michael Stewart lived at the same boarding house as Brown did. One day when young Taylor was looking out of the window he saw Stewart, who was rather pompous and dignified for a young man, coming down the street. He then asked his student a question, "Brown, how is Stewart getting on?" Meaning, of course, how was he getting along at his profession. Brown replied, "All right, I guess; he comes to his meals regularly."

    Would Not Support Naked Christians.

    One of the most unique figures of the early Portage county Bar was Jonathan Sloane. Very little was known about his early life. He came to Ravenna as the agent of the Tappans, and because of this position and his own temperament, he was as well known as any of the early citizens. Numberless tales are told about him, all of a humorous touch. At one time a foreign missionary appeared in the town and delivered some addresses on his work in the Sandwich Islands. His interesting tales attracted the attention of Ravenna's citizens. Mr. Sloane, although not fanatical, was rather religious. He attended these meetings and had made up his mind to subscribe liberally to the work. Attending a session for that purpose, he listened to the missionary describe the life of the people on the Island and how they went without clothes. Mr. Sloane interrupted him with this question, "Do they wear clothes after they become Christians?" The missionary acknowledged that they did not. The thought of naked Christians did not strike Ravenna's early attorney very favorably, and wrapping his cloak about him, he withdrew from the meeting, and the converted Sandwich Islanders received none of his money.

    First Settlers Of Portage County.

    Atwater -- Mr. and Mrs. Asa Hall, 1799.

    Aurora -- Ebenezer and Lovey Sheldon, 1799.




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    Brimfield -- John Boosinger, 1816.

    Charlestown -- John and Sarah Campbell, spring of 1800.

    Deerfield -- Lewis Day and Horatio Day, 1799.

    Edinburg -- Eber Abbott, 1811.

    Franklin -- John and Sallie Haymaker, 1805.

    Freedom -- Charles H. Paine, son of General Paine, Painesville, 1818.

    Garrettsville -- Col. John Garrett, 1804.

    Hiram -- Elijah Mason, Elisha Hutchinson and Mason Tilden, 1802.

    Mantua -- Abraham L. Honey, 1798; also first settler in county.

    Nelson -- Delaun, Asahel and Isaac Mills, 1800.

    Palmyra -- David Daniels, 1799.

    Paris -- Richard Hudson, 1811.

    Randolph -- Bela Hubbard and Salmon Ward, 1797.

    Ravenna -- Benjamin Tappan, Jr., 1799.

    Rootstown -- Ephraim Root, 1800.

    Shalersville -- Joel Baker, 1806.

    Streetsboro -- Stephen Myers, Jr., 1822.

    Suffield -- Royal Peas, 1802.

    Windham -- Elijah Alford, Jr., Oliver Alford, Ebenezer, Ohio, Messenger and Nathan H. Messenger, 1811.

    First Marriages.

    Atwater -- Josiah Mix, Jr., and Sallie Mattoon, 1807.

    Brimfield -- Abner H. Lamphare and Miss Sophia Moulton, 1819.

    Charlestown -- Sallie Coe and Martin Camp, 1816.

    Deerfield -- John Campbell and Sarah Ely, 1800.

    Edinburg -- Greenbury Keen and Betsey Hitchcock, 1817.

    Franklin -- Christian Cackler and Theresa Nighman, 1814.

    Freedom -- Wakeman Sherwood and Harriet Randy (daughter of Rufus), 1825.

    Mantua -- Rufus Edwards and Letitia Windsor (married by Amzi Atwater), 1803.

    Nelson -- Enoch Judson and Anna Kennedy, 1804.

    Palmyra -- Benjamin McDaniels and Betsey Stevens, 1805.

    Paris -- William Bradford and Betsey Hudson, 1813.

    Randolph -- Bela Hubbard and Clarissa Ward, 1806.

    Ravenna -- Charles Van Home and Phoebe Herrimon, 1803.

    Rootstown -- Ashure Ely of Deerfield and Lydia Lyman, 1803.

    Shalersville -- Mr. Hezekiah Hine and Miss Mary Atwater, a sister of Amzi Atwater, 1810.

    Streetsboro -- Frederick Nighman and Parmelia Van, 1826.

    Suffield -- Alpha Wright and Lucy Foster, about 1804.

    Windham -- Dr. Ezra Chaffee and Polly Messenger, 1812.

    First Births..

    Atwater -- Atwater Hall, son of Mr. and Mrs. Asa Hall, 1800.

    Aurora -- Oliver Forward, son Cromwell, 1804.

    Brimfield -- Mr. and Mrs. Alpheus Andrews, son Henry Thorndike, 1817.

    Charlestown -- Mrs. John Baldwin, son John W., 1813.

    Deerfield -- Mrs. Alva Day, daughter Polly, 1800.

    Edinburg -- Lemuel Chapman, daughter, 1815.

    Franklin -- John and Sallie Haymaker, son John F., 1807.

    Freedom -- Charles H. Paine, daughter Emeline, 1820.

    Hiram -- Edwin Babcock, son of Simeon Babcock, 1811.

    Mantua -- Eunice, daughter of Elias Harmon, 1800.

    Nelson -- Asahel Mills, daughter Dianthea. 1801.

    Palmyra -- E. Cutler, daughter Emeline. 1802.




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    Randolph -- Sophronia Upson, daughter of Arad Upson, 1803.

    Ravenna -- Mr. Boszor, a daughter, about 1803.

    Rootstown -- John McCoy, son of Samuel McCoy, 1802.

    Shalersville -- Lucinda, daughter of Joel Baker, 1808.

    Streetsboro -- Child of Samuel Walker, 1823.

    Suffield -- Rebecca, daughter of David Way, 1803.

    Windham -- Daughter of Wareham Loomis, 1812.

    First Deaths.

    Atwater -- Maria Strong, daughter of William Strong, 1808.

    Aurora -- Rhoda Cochran, daughter of Samuel Cochran, 1806.

    Brimfield -- Infant child of Captain Uriah Sawyer.

    Charlestown -- Brayton King, 1812.

    Deerfield -- Betsey Rogers died of rattlesnake bite.

    Edinburg -- Mary J. Eddy, daughter of Alanson and Rachel Eddy, 1819.

    Franklin -- Eva Haymaker, mother, or stepmother, of the first settler.

    Freedom -- Emeline Paine, daughter of Charles Paine, 1820; two years and a half old, scalded.

    Hiram -- Wife and child of John Fenton, 1811.

    Mantua -- Anna Judson (given arsenic by mistake), 1804.

    Nelson -- Infant child of Asahel Mills, 1802 or 1803.

    Palmyra -- Son of John Tuttle, Senior, 1805.

    Paris -- Susan Cox, wife of John, 1814.

    Randolph -- An unknown man assisting spme surveyors died of heat and whiskey, 1797; Mrs. Clarissa Ward, first person known, 1804.

    Ravenna -- Little son of Benjamin Bigsby, rattle-snake bite, about 1800.

    Rootstown -- Young man named Davenport, 1800.

    Shalersville -- Edward Crane, son of Simeon Crane, 1809."

    Streetsboro -- First adult death, wife of Solomon Carlton.

    Suffield -- Orestes Hale, son of Samuel Hale, 1805.

    Windham -- Miss Lucy Ashley, 1812.

    First Schools.

    Atwater -- In a log school house at the center, 1806-7; Mrs. Almon Chittenden, teacher.

    Aurora -- School house in the Square at the Center; Samuel Forward, Jr., teacher, 1803-4.

    Brimfield -- Opened by Jeremiah Moulton in his own house, and continued through the winter of 1818.

    Charlestown -- Log school house at the Center in the summer of 1811; Sophia Coe, teacher. '

    Deerfield -- Presided over by Robert Campbell, 1803.

    Edinburg -- Log house of Amasa Canfield, 1818; teacher, Clarissa Loomis, of Charlestown.

    Franklin -- Abner H. Lamphare, teacher; in a small cabin erected by Mr. Rue in 1811.

    Freedom -- Taught in a frame building at Drakesburg; E. W. Ranney, 1835.

    Hiram -- School in a log house, taught by Benjamin Hinckley, in 1813.

    Mantua -- At the house of Amzi Atwater, in the winter of 1806, by John Harmon..

    Nelson -- At the Center, 1804; Hannah Baldwin, teacher.

    Palmyra -- South part of township; Betsey Diver, teacher.

    Paris -- At the house of Richard Hudson, 1819; teacher, Betsey North. This was a private school. First public school next winter (log school house) ; Daniel Leavitt, teacher.

    Randolph -- Log school house, stood on the west of the bridge over the creek; Miss Laura Ely, teacher.

    Ravenna -- In log house near Tappan's settlement ; teacher, Miss Sarah Wright, 1803.

    Rootstown -- Taught in a cabin at the Center; Samuel Adams, teacher, 1807 or 1808.




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    Shalersville -- Opened at the Center, 1810; Miss Winter, teacher.

    Streetsboro -- in the northwest corner of the township, 1826; Clarinda Case, teacher.

    Suffield -- First school of nine pupils; Harvey Hirlbert, teacher, 1807.

    Windham -- First school taught in the house of Alpheus Streator, by Eliza Streator and Rebecca Conant, "week and week about." Log school house erected in 1812.

    First Churches and Sermons.

    Atwater -- Rev. Mr. Ely preached regularly in 1806.

    Aurora -- First sermon in Ebenezer Sheldon's house, 1802.

    Brimfield -- Presbyterian, 1819.

    Deerfield -- First sermon by Henry Shewell, 1802.

    Edinburg -- First sermon by Rev. Nathan Damon, 1812.

    Franklin -- Among the first men to preach sermons were the Revs. Shewell, Shadrack, Bostwick and Joseph Badger. Who was the first is not known.

    Freedom -- Joseph Treat and David L. Coe organized the first church at the house of David Larkcom, 1828.

    Hiram -- All of the early denominations sent occasional preachers to Hiram. The Baptists and Congregationalists early had congregations.

    Mantua -- First church was a Methodist; organized, 1807, by Rev. R. R. Roberts; log house.

    Nelson -- First preaching by Asahel Mills. First church organized at the house of Johann Noah; Baptist; preacher, Rev. Thomas G. Jones.

    Palmyra -- Rev. Shewell preached the first




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    sermon; Methodist circuit rider. First church organized, 1813; Presbyterian.

    Paris -- First religious event, "Bush meeting," 1817; Welch congregation, 1835.

    Randolph -- 1806 meetings held at the house of Oliver Dickinson; Methodist class formed about 1808.

    Ravenna -- First services were Episcopal, held by Seth Day, Dr. Isaac Swift and Daniel Dawley, about 1816.

    Rootstown -- Organized by Rev. Giles H. Cowles, 1810.

    Shalersville -- Who preached for the first time in Shalersville township is not known, but the first church organized was the Congregational, 1818.

    Windham -- Early settlers organized themselves into a Congregational church before they left Connecticut; held service first Sunday they arrived, 1811; first sermon preached a month later, August.

    First Saw Mills.

    Atwater -- Owned by Captain Hart, 1805.

    Aurora -- Run by Septimus Wittar.

    Charlestown -- Built by the first settlers, near the Center.

    Deerfield -- Grist mill, owned by James Laughlin, 1801; first water-power mill in the county.

    Erlinburg -- Erected by Campbell and Eddy, 1816.

    Franklin -- Grist mill built by the Haymaker family, 1807.

    Freedom -- Owned by Elihu Paine, 1828.

    Garrettsville -- Saw and grist mill, owned by Col. John Garrett, in 1805.

    Hiram -- Built by Lemuel Punderson, 1807 (grist mill).

    Mantua -- Erected by Rufus Edwards, 1799, grist mill; first saw mill by the Dresser family, 1818.

    Nelson -- Owned by Colonel Garrett, both saw and grist mill, 1805.

    Randolph -- Saw and grist mill in 1808, owned by Josiah Ward.

    Ravenna -- Alexander McWhorter owned grist mill, 1802.

    Rootstown -- Saw mill on creek north of Center, owned by Ephraim Root, about 1808.

    Shalersville -- Owned by Stephen Mason, 1812; in 1814 added a grist mill.

    Suffield -- Mill erected at Fritch's, about 1805.

    Names And Proprietors Of Townships.

    Atwater -- Township 1, range 7; named for Captain Caleb Atwater; settled, 1799.

    Aurora -- Township 5, range 9; named Aurora in honor of the only daughter of Major Spofford, surveyor of the Connecticut Land Company.

    Brimfield -- Township 2, range 9; first called Swamptown because it was so swampy; later, Beartown, because of the bears which lived in the swamps. Its third name was Greenbriar. Then it was called Wrylestown for John Wyles, who owned a large part of its land. It was later called Thorndike, for Israel Thorndike, who bought part of the land from Wyles. He offered to give a public square at the Center for the name. He, however, did not fulfill his contract, and finally it was named Brimfield, in honor of John Wyles, who lived at Brimfield, Massachusetts.

    Charlestown -- Township 3, range 7; was called Hinckley up to the time of 1814, when it received its present name.

    Deerfield -- Township i, range 6; named for Deerfield, Massachusetts, in honor of the birthplace of the mother of Lewis Day, Senior, settled early in 1/99.

    Edinburg -- Township 2, range 7; settled in 1811. Part of it was bought by John Campbell and Levins Eddy, and from the latter the township took its name, for Edinburg was formerly Eddysburg.

    Franklin -- Township 3, range 9; named Franklin ; upper hamlet called Carthage -- lower hamlet. Franklin Mills. These two combined in one under the name of Kent, for Marvin Kent.




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    Freedom -- Township 4, range 7; settled in 1825; first called North Rootstown, in honor of Ephraim Root. In 1825 it was made a separate township and the name "Freedom" is supposed to have been suggested by Mrs. Paine, to whom the matter was referred, she having been the first female to enter the township. It is said that she first suggested "Liberty," but, as that name was too common, it was changed to Freedom.

    Garrettsville -- Named for Colonel John Garrett, 1804.

    Hiram -- Township 5, range 7. The original proprietors were all Freemasons, and, on the suggestion of Col. Daniel Tiklen, named the town that was-to-be, Hiram, in honor of the King of Tyre.

    Nelson -- Township 5, range 6; settled in 1800.

    Palmyra -- Township 2, range 6; settled in 1799.

    Paris -- Township 3, range 6; settled in 1811; first called Storsboro.

    Randolph -- Township 1, range 8; settled in 1797. Previous to its settlement it was owned by Col. Lemuel Storrs, of Connecticut, and it was named for his son, Henry Randolph Storrs.

    Ravenna -- Township 3, range 8; called Ravenna supposedly from Ravenna, Italy; settled in 1799.

    Rootstown -- Township 2, range 8; settled in 1800: named for Ephraim Root, who originally owned it.

    Shalersville -- Township 4, range 8; settled in 1806; named for Gen. Nathaniel Shaler, of Middletown, Connecticut, who drew this section at the time of dividing. It was at one time called Middletown.

    Streetsboro -- Township 4, range 9; named for Titus Street, a member of the Connecticut Land Company; settled in 1822; last township organized in the county.

    Suffield -- Township i, range 9; named for Suffield, Connecticut, the home of the owners. It was called Peastown, at one time -- for Royal Peas.

    Windham -- Township. 4, range 6; settled in 1810. It was first called Strongsburg for Governor Strong. The settlers, however, did not like Strong's politics -- he was a Federalist -- and they changed the name to Sharon. In 1820 it became Windham, for Windham, Connecticut.

    Pioneer Agricultural Society.

    The first agricultural society was organized in 1825. Joshua Woodward was president, Elias Harmon, first vice-president; William Coolman, treasurer; and Johnathan Sloane, auditor. The first fair was held in October of that year, and Seth Harmon received the premium for the best crop of corn. He raised a hundred bushels from one peck on one acre of land.

    In 1839 the association was organized under the state law for such societies, with William Wetmore as president. It kept its first name, Portage County Agricultural Society. The first fair under this organization was held in the court house in October, 1841. Like meetings were held the following four years.

    The legislature again passed some laws in regard to such societies in 1846, and the Portage County Agricultural Society framed its rules accordingly. Fairs were held each year, but there was no special meeting-place. In 1859 twenty acres of land east of Ohio and south of the present grounds were rented and used for twenty years.

    Several times in the history of the association it has looked as if it could not continue, because of the financial losses. At one time Horace Y. Beebe and a few enterprising citizens raised a subscription and paid off the debt. In 1879 the present grounds were rented. The association has continued to hold its meetings each year, but in 1909 the buildings were burned and there was talk of abandoning the meetings. Mr. Dan Hanna, who lives at Cottage Hill farm, made an offer to put into the association $10,000, provided the county would raise a like amount and rebuild and re-establish the association. This offer was accepted




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    and there will be no fair in the year of 1910, but in 1911 the new regime will begin.

    Horticulture and Floriculture.

    Portage county has always been interested in horticulture and floriculture. Scattered around through the Reserve were men and women interested in the culture of flowers, but in Portage county the interest was exceedingly strong and for many years it has had a society whose meetings were largely attended and whose results were good. Horace Y. Beebe was president of this society. He and his family have always been interested in flowers and his son, William Beebe, has probably spent more hours cultivating his garden and his flowers than has any other man in the county, who is not a professional farmer. Wherever he lives or whatever his condition, he always has flowers about him.

    Old And Modern Cheese Making.

    Portage county was one of the first cheese counties of Ohio. In the early days cheese was made in tubs on the floor and the overburdened housewife nearly broke her back . Stirring the curd. Then came square cheese vats on saw-horses; then the improved tin-lined tanks, with attached arrangements for heating; and when this home-made cheese was in great demand the neighborhood factory appeared, the farmer sold his milk and the cheese vat and press took its place in the garret, beside the loom and spinning wheel.

    The Call To "split Oven Wood."

    A. B. Griffin, of Ravenna, in 1880 wrote a series of articles on "Then and Now." He says in speaking of the old brick oven: No man now living, who when a boy. was obliged to furnish fuel for the brick oven, will ever forget that fact while memory lasts; for if there was any one thing that a boy dreaded more than another, unless it was the brisk application of the birch twig or the oiled strap, or pounding clothes, or picking up stones -- it was the call to split oven wood; and yet when he saw the nice bread and pies come out of that oven, steaming hot, and espied the delicious turnovers, baked especially for him, he forgot for the time the dreaded oven wood."

    Tinder Box and Candles.

    The tinder box was a tin box well filled with burned cotton cloth. This stuff was set on fire by a spark from a file or a flint. This was a rather uncertain and troublesome way of getting a fire, but it was the only way, unless neighbors were near.

    It was customary to burn only one candle in a room, unless there was company, when the number was doubled. In school houses and churches candles had to be snuffed, and usually some dapper young man was either appointed, or self-appointed, to do the snuffing. It was a joy to such a young man to walk around a meeting house and replenish the light; particularly was this true, if young ladies were present so that he could show his skillfulness. Many a youth in his embarrassment has cut the wick too low and put out the candle, and had to suffer from the jeers of his companions and the snickers of the girls. In some ill-regulated families the snuffers got lost, or broken, so that almost every person learned to skillfully snuff the candle with his or rather her fingers. This had to be done quickly in order to grab off only the part which was burned and could be easily detached. It was quite an art. None of us could do it today. None of us want to.

    Learning To Eat "Love-apples."

    When tomatoes first made their appearance, they were known as "love-apples." People had to learn to eat them, just as people of the later day learn to eat olives. A public man of this vicinity, who when a boy drove some cattle down to the Ohio river, saw a row of "love-apples" on the window and appropriated one for himself. He ate it and was soon so sick to his stomach that he lost the dinner which he had bought with his hard-earned money. Now from the beginning of the season to the




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    end he likes tomatoes on the table. Thought then, as well as now, was powerful in physical things.

    In speaking of the clothes that boys and girls wore in the early days of Portage county, Mr. Griffin says: "Boys did not wear 'mulley pants' -- ours had legs to them; we never wore holes in our stockings with our knees."

    Delicious Remedy For Colds.

    As we look over the medicinal remedies we are astonished at what they used, how they used it, and the result. Having lived for some time now in the past, the author of this work feels very proud that she received the treatment which was given to the pioneer for colds; that is, molasses, butter and vinegar simmered together and taken hot on going to bed. She used to long and pray to have a cold, and she regrets to record that her prayers then as now usually remained unanswered. This remedy was so delicious! At the time she took this concoction her stocking with the foot-side next to her throat was wound around her neck. It seldom took but one application of the medicine and the stocking to cure a cold. In fact, on waking in the morning, the first thing she did was to swallow to see if the sore was gone, and she bemoaned the fact that it always was. To be sure, the stocking was a woolen one knit by her grandmother, but she still recommends the remedy as a good one.

    Stoves As Church Desecrations.

    Much has been said in the local history of the church quarrels which arose from the introduction of musical instruments into churches, but very little is said about the dissatisfaction caused when stoves were brought into churches. Before that, people had shivered through the services, only a few having foot stoves -- most of them having no heat at all. It was supposed by the conservatives that stoves would desecrate the house of God.

    The pioneer men and women were so industrious that nobody can find any fault with them, but it does seem as if they wasted a goodly lot of time which might have been spent in sleeping, reading or in visiting, in discussing such subjects as free agency, total depravity, modes of baptism and foreordination.

    In the early days all married women and babies wore caps. The result was that almost every woman wore caps the most of her life. We have a record of girls who married at fifteen and were wearing caps at sixteen.

    The great back logs which filled the fireplace were rolled up to the door and pulled into the house by a horse. That was before the day of Brussels carpets, or polished wood floors.

    Punishments of A B C Scholars."

    Mr. Griffin says: "One of the modes of punishment meted out to the ABC scholar was cutting off the ears as short as a horse's ear, a scene never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it.

    "'Mary, I see you are whispering again. Come up here. I must have one of your ears.' Poor Mary walks slowly to the master, crying, and with her tiny hands to her ears. The master begins sawing away with the back of his penknife blade. She promises she will not whisper again and the master saves the ear this time.

    "Other scholars were required to hold the horizontal ruler, or stand on the floor facing the school with a split quill or stick astride the nose. This was interesting, especially when the handkerchief was missing; if not missing, it required skill to use it to advantage. The still larger boys received -- when they merited it -- an interest in the black mark system. In this system each offense entitled the offender to a black mark which was duly placed opposite his name. When five marks were received the offender was entitled to receive a vigorous birch dressing. The culprit was required to furnish the weapons in person, generally three in number. After procured, the master ran them through hot ashes so as to make them tough. Then the school was placed on dress parade to witness the scene."




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    Curious Baldwin Papers.

    Ralph Baldwin, son of Cornelius and the grandson of Stephen Baldwin of Nelson, has kept a large number of curios and papers belonging to his father. They are most interesting to look at.

    One dated December 24, 1808, is signed by Isaac Mills. It is for $2.23 -- state and county taxes for a year.

    There are several receipts signed by Ezra Booth for money collected and turned over to the proper authorities in Nelson, who were interested in the Library Society.

    The receipt signed by Benjamin Fenn, under date of January 23, 1821, to Stephen R. Baldwin shows that Fenn received six bushels of wheat in payment for five months schooling in the year 1819 and 1820.

    Another receipt reads: "Received of Stephen Baldwin $13.00 for the Anti-slavery cause, to be paid to Rev. E. Weed, at Oberlin. Windham, July 5, 1857, H. C. Taylor."

    The following is of interest: "This may certify that Stephen Baldwin, for the consideration of $98.00, received to our full satisfaction, is the rightful proprietor of a pew No. 7 in the Congregational meeting house in Nelson, to be holden by him, his heirs and his assigns forever.

    "Nelson, Sept. 17, 1825.
    "Hezh. P. Hopkins, Joshua B. Sherwood, Jeremiah R. Fuller, Eber Mansfield,
                    Committee."

    County's Area And Population.

    When the county lines were finally drawn, the area was four hundred and ninety square miles. Below is the table of population of the county for the last ninety years:
    1810, 2,905
    1820, 10,093
    1830, 18,792
    1840, 23,107
    1850, 24,419
    1860, 24,208
    1870, 24,584
    1880, 27,500
    1890, 27,868
    1900, 29,246

    Newspapers of the County.

    In 1825 the Western Courier and the Western Public Advertiser was established in Ravenna. The editor was J. B. Butler, of Pittsburg. He did very good business from the beginning and two years later it was sold to William Coolman, Jr., and C. B. Thompson. The next year, in 1828, James Walker bought an interest. Mr. Thompson died in 1829. In 1830 The Courier became the Democratic organ of the county. At one time Mr. Harsha owned an interest, but he retired in 1831 and left Mr. Coolman sole proprietor again. In 1832 John Harmon bought the paper and edited it till 1836, when Selby and Robins of Ravenna bought it, and raised the subscription price to $3.00, but it did not prosper and Mr. Harmon took control again. In 1838 it ceased to live.

    In 1830 Lewis L. Rice began to publish the Ohio Star. Cyrus Prentice and Jonathan Sloane backed this proposition financially. In 1834 Laurin Dewey succeeded Mr. Rice and the Star was the local organ of the Whigs of Portage county. In 1838 Lyman Hall bought an interest in the Star and became the senior partner. When Dr. Dewey was elected sheriff of the county, he sold it to Mr. Hall. Mr. Hall sold to Root and Elkins, and A. L. Lewis became editor. In 1840 Elkins bought out Root, he soon retired, and William Wadsworth owned the property. Lewis continued to be editor until 1843. Dewey and Wadsworth continued to be proprietors until 1844, when Wadsworth bought out Dewey, and Lewis again became editor. In 1845 Lewis bought an interest in the paper, but in 1847 Wadsworth bought him out. In 1849 Lyman W. Hall bought the Star. In 1852 he enlarged it and remained editor until 1854.

    The Western Reserve at this time was in an unsettled condition. Then newspapers stood decidedly for some political party and the parties were so mixed up, or rather the people were so divided into new parties, that altogether it was hard sledding for newspaper




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    men. The Ohio Star became the Portage County Democrat.

    There was a small paper published by John Harmon and issued from the Courier office in 1835, called the Watchman. John B. King, Rufus Spalding, Joseph Lyman and Ashael Tyler started the Buckeye Democrat This was intended to fill the place which the Courier had occupied. It did not live a year, however;

    Lyman W. Hill, in 1840, published the Western Reserve Cabinet and Family Visitor. It was enlarged in 1842 and discontinued in 1843. It was the history of Portage county papers, at least, that whenever they raised the subscription price, or enlarged the paper, the result was disastrous.

    The Plain Dealer, with Mr. Canfield as editor and publisher, was started at Ravenna in 1844. It was weak in the beginning and never grew strong.

    Samuel D. Harris, so long and well known as an editor, and Roswell Batterson, issued the Portage Sentinel in 1845. In 1851 Batterson, because of poor health, retired from the paper, and Mr. Harris became proprietor. In 1852 he sold it to Alphonso Hart and R. E. Craig. In 1854 the name was changed to the Weekly Portage County Sentinel and was enlarged. The next year Mr. Hart was sole proprietor. In 1856 James W. Somerville owned part interest. In 1857 Somerville bought out Hart. In 1862 the paper was discontinued.

    In 1848 the Portage County Whig was established by John S. Herrick. In 1853 its name was changed to the Home Companion and Whig, and in 1854 it lost its identity in the Ohio Star.

    The parents of the Portage County Democrat were the Ohio Star and the Home Companion and Whig. The Democrat was first issued in 1854. Hall, Herrick and Wadsworth owned it. When the Republican party was established the Democrat became its organ. Two years before this, that is 1856, Mr. Wadsworth had withdrawn from the firm, and in 1859 Mr. Herrick sold it so that for many years Lyman Hall and Son owned the paper and ran it successfully. L. W. Hall was an able man and his paper was a good one. Since the paper was a Republican and had the name of Democrat, the Halls were urged continuously to change its name. They disliked to do this because of sentiment, but little by little the word Republican crept in. First in small type in the head, afterwards at the head of the editorial column. In 1876 its name was changed to the Republican Democrat. For some reason in the early 70's it was no longer a financial success, and in 1878 L. W. Hall and Son made an assignment to J. D. Horton and C. A. Reed. Halsey R. W. Hall was then editor, and continued as such until 1882, when he moved to Minnesota and Arthur Mosley succeeded him. It is now owned by the Ravenna Republican Publishing Company and A. D. Robinson is president and manager.

    In 1878 the Portage County Republican was issued, with J. H. Fluhart as editor; in 1882 the Republican Democrat Company bought out the Republican and in 1883 the paper became known as the Ravenna Republican.

    The Democratic Press had a long and honorable career. It was established by Samuel D. Harris in 1868. He was one of the early editors. Mr. Harris had had experience on the Courier, the Ohio Star and the Democrat; so that his paper was a success. Since his death, it has been edited by his son of the same name.

    S. D. Harris should be particularly mentioned in this history, since he was an able newspaper man; the founder of the Democratic Press and for a long lifetime associated with the welfare of Ravenna. He was born in Ravenna township in 1816. His father was S. D. Harris, of Connecticut, and his son, as stated, bears the same name. His mother was Lucy S. Kent, daughter of Zenas and sister of Marvin. He worked in the Western Courier's office as long as it lived. He and Roswell Batterson, the first husband of Martha F. Dodge, published the Sentinel, a Democratic




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    paper, in 1845, and later he bought Mr. Batterson out. In 1868 he issued the Democratic Press, and this has been published ever since.

    In 1859 Dr. Alonzo Dewey established the Omnium Gatherum, the first paper of Kent. W. W. Beach was the editor. The name was not very satisfactory and in two months was changed to the Family Visitor. This name only lasted a few months, when it was called the Literary Casket. How this paper lived at all, under such a name, is not known, but it did not live in a very high manner, and in 1865 it was called the Saturday Review. Apparently the trouble was not in the name, for it did not prosper any better under the new name, and in October of 1866 it became the Commercial Bulletin. Later it was called the Saturday Morning Bulletin, and afterwards the Saturday Bulletin; so that this paper had eight names, for it was finally known as the Bulletin. In 1873 Mr. Dewey sold out and W. J. A. Minich purchased it. The first thing he did was to change the name to the Kent Saturday Bulletin.

    The Kent News was established, in 1867, by L. D. Durban & Company. The office was in charge of his son, but the paper was not prosperous. A. C. Davis and Richard Field established the present Kent News. In 1882 the News Company bought it and Paul B. Conant became editor and publisher. In 1883 O. S. Rockwell began the editing of the paper. It has been enlarged, the office is well equipped, and it is a strong Democratic paper.

    Warren Pierce owned the first newspaper in Garrettsville. It was called the Garrettsville Monthly Review'. The office stood about where the post-office is. Mr. Pierce was a practical printer and did his own press-work and his job work. This Review was discontinued at the end of a year and a half. In 1867 he established the Garrettsville Journal, which has always been successful. In 1873 he sold it to Charles B. Webb, who enlarged it. It is at present owned by the Journal Publishing Company, of which C. M. Crane is president and George H. Colton vice president.

    Railroads Of Portage County.

    Portage county had one of the earliest railroads. The act allowing the building of the Cleveland and Pittsburg was a special one passed in 1836, but .nothing came of it. Several other acts followed, which applied to this road, but in 1850 the Pennsylvania legislature authorized the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad Company to extend its line into that state. Further action was taken, in conformity with the Ohio railroad laws, and the line from Cleveland to Ravenna had its tracks laid in the fall of 1850. The last rail was laid in March, 1851, and the last spike was driven near Hudson on March 10. It was on that date that the first passenger train went from Ravenna to Cleveland and returned.

    The early locomotives were almost always named for one of the men who had been most efficient in promoting the road; but this one was named Ravenna.

    This road connected at Ravenna with the canal-boat running to Beaver, and from Beaver people took a steamer to Pittsburg. It took twenty-six hours to go to. Pittsburg in this way, and it cost $3.50, including meals on the boat.

    The construction of this road was the beginning of the end of the canal business. As soon as the Cleveland and Mahoning road was built, running from Cleveland to Youngstown, passengers from that section deserted the canal as they had in Portage county, and soon freight, as well as passengers, was being carried by the railroad.

    The Cleveland and Mahoning Valley railroad ran through some of the townships of Portage county. The Atlantic and Great Western railroad caused unusual interest in Portage county. In fact, Marvin Kent, who was for many years president of it, gave his time and enthused his friends on the subject, and it was incorporated in 1851. Enos P. Brainard was president of the company for nearly ten years, and because of his interest the county was interested. It took a long time




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    to get this road under way and the work was really begun at Jamestown in 1860. In 1862 the line was completed from Warren to Ravenna; trains were running between those points; and the same year the telegraph office was opened, and in January of the following year the last rail connecting the eastern and western part of the work was laid. In February the first accommodation train between Meadville and Ravenna arrived.

    Three companies made up the Atlantic and Great Western and the consolidation occurred in 1865. It was broad-gauge, and in that way was not a success. But not for this reason did it go into the hands of a receiver. It was leased and then again went into the hands of a receiver. The Erie Railroad Company released it in 1870, and in 1871 it was sold and the old name of the Atlantic and Great Western Company was used. In 1874 it was again in the hands of the receiver, and in 1880 was sold and its name changed to New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Then it was that the gauge was reduced to the standard. In 1883 the New York, Lake Erie and Western leased it for ninety-nine years. It now belongs to the Erie system.

    Two or three other railroads touched the county in several places. The Connotten goes through Suffield, Brimfield, Franklin and Streetsboro. It is now called the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad Company and is under the control of the Wabash system. The Cleveland, Youngstown and Pittsburg goes through Deerfield and Palmyra, and touches Paris. The Baltimore and Ohio has a branch which runs through Franklin, Ravenna, Charleston and Paris.

    Garfield, Really of Portage County.

    Although James A. Garfield was born in Orange and his body lies in Cleveland, the larger part of his life was spent in Portage county. Here he studied and taught; here became president of the college; here was his first home; here he married and raised children; and from this county he went into state and national politics. It, therefore, seems as if the most which is to be said about him in this history should be said in the chapter devoted to Portage county.

    Abraham Garfield and his wife, Eliza, lived in Orange, he dying in 1833. His oldest daughter was twelve, and there were three younger children. The farm was unpaid for and only thirteen acres of it was cleared. Sympathetic friends and neighbors told Mrs. Garfield that she could never pay off her indebtedness and that she had better give her children away, for, without them, she might be able to support herself. This advice she did not follow. Life to her, without her children, was not worth while. She sold all the farm except thirty acres, paid her debts, and she and her children planted corn, potatoes and other necessary eatables. They made fence, did all sorts of heavy work, and then, when the day's work was over, she sat by the candle light and sewed for her neighbors. For making a pair of pants and a vest she received seventy-five cents. Thus she raised her family, and those of us who knew her in her old age and saw her sweetness and the strength of character in her face, could not but feel that she was as great as the illustrious son she bore. Little did she then know that James would stand in the great east porch of the capitol, and, in loving appreciation, after taking the oath of office, kiss her in the presence of thousands and thousands. He remembered the struggle she had to rear him, and it seems as if all the way along he was helped largely through the self-denial and sympathy of women. Whether or no he realized this we do not know, but we do know he did not consider women inferior to men. His wife possessed great intellect and loved study as did he, and Almeda Booth, his friend, assisted him in his early study, and it is supposed furnished him money to finish his studies in Williams College.

    A schoolhouse in which he taught in 1850, at Orange, was remodeled, used as a residence, and is still standing. An autograph album belonging




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    to one of the granddaughters of one of the school directors of that time has the following: "James A. Garfield commenced keeping school November 11, 1850, ending February 26, at $15 per month; three and a half months, $52.50."

    Garfield came to Hiram in 1851, and lived there till 1877; then moved to Mentor. He was not twenty years old when he entered the Eclectic Institute. During two terms of his life at Hiram, he was janitor of the building, made the fires, swept the floors and rang the bell. With all this extra work he managed to keep at the head of his class and was its valedictorian. He taught school and studied by turn. He always looked forward with pleasure to getting back to Hiram. He loved its religious atmosphere, and in a letter to a friend he says, "Though a man have all knowledge and have not the love of God in his heart he will fall short of true excellence."

    That one sentence was the key-note of Garfield's character. He was the most loving and friendly of any public man the writer has ever known. In every hamlet in his district were people who looked forward to his coming to the political conventions as they would to a loved member of their family. In all such hamlets, he has been seen with his arm around some man-friend, talking enthusiastically, pleasantly and cheerfully. At first people used to think he did this for political reasons, but soon they learned to know it was his nature. He probably called more people by their first name, and he felt he had a right to, than any other public man on the Reserve. He possessed one quality to a larger degree than any other person the writer has ever known, and it has always seemed strange to her that this never was commented on by his biographers. He was absolutely forgiving. He was so forgiving that he could not remember, unless it was a great offense, either the wrong done him or who did it. Of course, he had his enemies in most towns, as men who occupy so high a place surely would have, and when his friends in that town would tell him that certain parties there were his enemies, and for political reasons must be cut, he would really try to remember it, but when he reached the town, if he saw this old friend, he immediately forgot all about it until admonished by his political backers.

    Mr. Garfield early displayed the ability for debating, and it is recorded that at Hiram, when he was very young, he overthrew in debate Joseph Treat, who they were wont to call Infidel Treat. In the summer of 1852, wanting to earn some money, he stayed in Hiram and helped A. S. Kilby build his house. For work as a carpenter he received seventyfive cents a day and board. He was a strong, hearty man, and well fitted for this work.

    Garfield was never ordained to the ministry. Many of the early Disciple preachers were not. He held revivals and added a great many members to his church. He baptized people, married people and read funeral services. He first preached in Hiram in the winter of 1853-54, and for a number of years in churches near by. After his return from Williams College, he studied law and entered, as a student, the office of Williamson & Riddle in Cleveland. He lectured for Hiram College.

    Almeda Booth, in writing to James A. Garfield, then a student at Williams College, under the date of February, 1856, says: "Brother Hayden thinks you are morally bound to come back here, but I think the moral obligation resting upon him is quite as strong to give up the management to you if you do come. I know you can never endure to work under him, for it is ten times as irksome to me as it was before I went away. James, would you risk to come here and see what you can do with the school? It certainly is a good location, and I know you would succeed, if you were not embarrassed by dictation or management." It was after this that he became principal of the Institute.

    He was in Hiram on the 4th of February, 1881, for the last time. On that occasion he said: "Today is a sort of burial-day in many ways. I have often been in Hiram, and have




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    often left it; but, with the exception of when I went to war, I have never felt that I was leaving it in quite so definite a way as I do today. It was so long a work-shop, so long a home, that all absences have been temporary, and involved always a return. I cannot speak of all the ties that bind me to this place. There are other things buried beneath this snow besides dead people. The trees, the rocks, the fences and the grass are all reminders of things connected with my Hiram life. * * * May the time never come when I cannot find some food for mind and heart on Hiram Hill."

    As president of the Eclectic Institute, Garfield was a success. The school came into prominence and advanced under his direction.

    In regard to Mr. Garfield's early student life at Hiram, Mr. Munnell is on record. In writing to F. M. Green, who wrote the history of Hiram College, under date of December 23, 1881, he says:

    "Dear Sir: In compliance with your request, I send you the following fact concerning Garfield as a student. I belonged to the first faculty of Hiram College -- the Eclectic Institute then -- and in November, 1850, heard the first lesson ever recited within its walls, and, therefore, knew the general impression made by the noble student when he first appeared upon the campus, and, especially in the professors' rooms.

    "When he arrived, he had studied a little of Latin grammar, but had done nothing in the way of translating. I had no class to suit him in elementary Latin, one being behind him and another far in advance. He resolved at once to overtake the advanced class, provided I would hear his recitation after class hours, which I readily agreed to do. Teachers all know that an average lesson for an ordinary student, beginning 'Caesar's Commentaries,' is half a page, while carrying on the usual number of other studies; but, on no occasion did Garfield come into said recitations without three pages of 'Caesar,' or six ordinary lessons, and then could go on further if I had time to hear him. His method of getting a start, as he afterwards told me, was resolute and determined. He went to a secluded place in the college with his 'Caesar,' dictionary and grammar, and undertook to translate the first paragraph of half a dozen lines by writing down every Latin word, and under it every definition of that word, till he found the one that made the best sense, and when he had fairly made out, 'All Gaul is divided into three parts,' he thought his triumph had begun; and when he had completed the whole paragraph, he said he 'just knew that he knew it.'

    "This was in line with all his after studies, for he always sought a conscious victory over every difficulty. Truly yours.

    "Thomas Munnell."

    Synopsis of life: He was born in Orange, 1821; graduated at Williams College, 1856; studied and practiced law; Ohio senator, 185960; colonel, 1861; brigadier general, 1862; on Rosecrans' staff, 1863; in congress, 1863-80; elected to United States senate, 1880; did not take his seat, because elected president; assassinated July 2, 1881.

    Strange it was that a division in the political party which he had served so long should have made Garfield's death possible. The contention of "stalwart" or "half-breed" was enough to fire an insane man to commit an awful deed. The summer of 1881 was one of tension for the nation. Daily bulletins from the bedside of the dying president were read in every hamlet, and when the life had gone out interest turned to Charles Guiteau, whose trial and execution in the early winter followed. Twas a sad ending of a joyous, happy life.

    The widow and five children are still living, all prosperous and happy. The first child was nicknamed Betsey Trotwood, because he hoped she would be a boy. He playfully called her Trot. She died early and is buried on Hiram Hill.

    Probably no campaign was ever more hotly contested than was that of 1880, and no more excitement attending, unless it was those of 1840 and 1860. The great mass meetings at




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    Warren, when Grant and Conklin, of the Stalwart wing, spoke and afterwards visited Mentor, was the turning point. Probably no president had so many delegations visiting him, although he was at an inaccessible place, and, although he spoke in German sometimes, and on all subjects, he never made any statement which embarrassed his party.

    Almeda A. Booth.

    Undoubtedly the greatest woman the Western Reserve has produced was Almeda A., the daughter of Ezra and Dorcas Taylor. She was born in 1823, on a farm west of the center of Nelson, and there lived till she was twelve years old. From the very beginning of her life she showed intellectual and moral strength. At an incredible age she puzzled her teachers with questions and lost herself in her Greek grammar. In 1835 the family moved to Mantua where they lived for thirty-five years.

    F. M. Green, who wrote the "History of Hiram College," says: "Few women of nobler character, purer life, or better mental equipment, have ever lived. During all of her term of service at Hiram the light of her soul illuminated the classroom and the social walks of the students. It is difficult to institute a comparison between her and others of her generation. She had a distinct individuality and an almost divine personality. No one who ever came in contact with her can forget her. Even-tempered, an empress in her power to control, a conqueror of every will that seemed to her to stand in the way of true progress, she was undisputed mistress of all who came within the sphere of her influence. Her early pupils regarded her with almost as much reverence as the devout Romanist does the Virgin Mary. Her sweet, Christian spirit, made more fragrant by the sorrows of her life, permeated with its riches the history of Hiram school and social life for a full quarter of a century."

    Mr. Garfield, who was associated with her so long, and knew her so well, in his address, June 22, 1876, at Hiram, shows such a sympathetic insight into her life and character, as to make his estimate particularly valuable to those who would know her as she was known. The lesson and legacy of her life, left to her friends and to Hiram, are felicitously expressed by her appreciative biographer: "Her life was so largely and so inseparably a part of our own, that it is not easy for any of us, least of all for me, to take a sufficiently distant standpoint from which to measure its proportions. We shall never forget her sturdy, well-formed figure; her head that would have appeared colossal but for its symmetry of proportions; the strongly marked features of her plain, rugged face, not moulded according to the artist's lines of beauty, but so lighted up with intelligence and kindliness as to appear positively beautiful to those who knew her well.

    "The basis of her character, the controlling force which developed and formed it, was strength -- extraordinary intellectual power. Blessed with a vigorous constitution and robust bodily health, her capacity for close, continuous




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    and effective mental work was remarkable.

    "It is hardly possible for one person to know the quality and strength of another's mind more thoroughly than I knew hers. From long association in her studies, and comparing her with all the students I have known, here and elsewhere, I do not hesitate to say, that I have never known one who grasped with greater power and handled with more ease and thoroughness, all the studies of the college course. I doubt if in all these respects I have ever known one who was her equal. She caught an author's meaning with remarkable quickness and clearness; and, mastering the difficulties of construction, she detected, with almost unerring certainty, the most delicate shades of thought.

    "She abhorred all shams of scholarship, and would be content with nothing short of the whole meaning. When crowded with work, it was not unusual for her to sit by her lamp, unconscious of the hours, till far past midnight.

    "Her powers were well balanced. When I first knew her, it was supposed that her mind was specially adapted to mathematical study. A little later, it was thought she had found her fittest work in the field of the natural sciences; later still, one would have said she had found her highest possibilities in the languages.

    "Her mind was many-sided, strong, compact, symmetrical. It was this symmetry and balance of qualities that gave her such admirable judgment and enabled her to concentrate all her powers upon any work she attempted.

    "To this general statement concerning her faculties there was, however, one marked exception. While she enjoyed, and in some degrees appreciated, the harmonies of music, she was almost wholly deficient in the faculty of musical expression. After her return from college, she determined to ascertain by actual test to what extent, if at all, this defect could be overcome. With a patience and courage I have never seen equalled in such a case, she persisted for six months in the attempt to master the technical mysteries of instrumental music, and even attempted one vocal piece. But she found that the struggle was nearly fruitless; the music in her soul would not come forth at her bidding. A few of her friends will remember that, for many years, to mention 'The Suwanee River' was the signal for a little good-natured merriment at her expense, and a reminder of her heroic attempt at vocal and instrumental music.

    "The tone of her mind was habitually logical and serious, not specially inclined to what is technically known as wit; but she had the heartiest appreciation of genuine humor, such as glows on the pages of Cervantes and Dickens. Clifton Bennett and Levi Brown will never forget how keenly she enjoyed the quaint drollery with which they once presented, at a public lyceum, a scene from 'Don Quixote'; and I am sure there are three persons here today who will never forget how nearly she was once suffocated with laughter over a mock presentation speech by Harry Rhodes.

    "Though possessed of very great intellectual powers, or, as the arrogance of our 'sex accustoms us to say, 'having a mind of masculine strength,' it was not at all masculine in the opprobrious sense in which that term is frequently applied to women. She was a most womanly woman, with a spirit of gentle and childlike sweetness, with no self-consciousness of superiority, and not the least trace of arrogance.

    "Though possessing these great powers, she was not unmindful of those elegant accomplishments, the love of which seems native to the mind of woman.

    "In her earlier years she was sometimes criticized as caring too little for the graces of dress and manner; and there was some justice in the criticism. The possession of great powers, no doubt, carries with it a contempt for mere external show. In her early life Miss Booth dressed neatly, though with the utmost plainness, and applied herself to the




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    work of gaining the more enduring ornaments of mind and heart. In her first years at Hiram she had devoted, all her powers to teaching and mastering the difficulties of the higher studies, and had given but little time to what are called the more elegant accomplishments. But she was not deficient in appreciation of all that really adorns and beautifies a thorough culture. After her return from Oberlin, she paid more attention to the 'mint, anise and cummin' of life. During the last fifteen years of her life, few ladies dressed with more severe or elegant taste. As a means of personal culture, she read the history of art, devoted much time to drawing and painting, and acquired considerable skill with the pencil and brush.

    "She did not enjoy miscellaneous society. Great crowds were her abhorrence. But in a small circle of congenial friends she was a delighted and a delightful companion.

    "Her religious character affords an additional illustration of her remarkable combination of strength and gentleness. At an early age she became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and continued in faithful and consistent relations with that organization until she united with the Disciples, soon after she came to Hiram.

    "I venture to assert, that in native powers of mind, in thoroughness and breadth of scholarship, in womanly sweetness of spirit, and in the quantity and quality of effective, unselfish work done, she has not been excelled by any American woman. What she accomplished with her great powers, thoroughly trained and subordinated to the principles of a Christian life, has been briefly stated.

    "She did not find it necessary to make war upon society in order to capture a field for the exercise of her great qualities. Though urging upon women the necessity of the largest and most thorough culture, and demanding for them the amplest means for acquiring it, she did not waste her years in bewailing the subjection of her sex, but employed them in making herself a great and beneficent power. Shedid far more to honor and exalt woman's place in society than the thousands of her contemporaries who struggle more earnestly for the barren sceptre of power than for fitness to wield it.

    "She might have adorned the highest walks of literature, and doubtless might thus have won a noisy fame, but it may be doubted whether in any other pursuit she could have conferred greater or more lasting benefits upon her fellow-creatures, than by the life she so faithfully and successfully devoted to the training and culture of youth. With no greed of power or gain, she found her chief reward in blessing others.

    "I do not know of any man or woman, who, at fifty-one years of age, had done more or better work. I have not been able to ascertain precisely how long she taught before she came to Hiram; but it was certainly not less than fifteen terms. She taught forty-two terms here, twenty-one terms in the Union School at Cuyahoga Falls, and, finally, two years in private classes; in all, nearly twenty-eight years of faithful and most successful teaching, to which she devoted the wealth of her great faculties and admirable scholarship.

    "How rich and how full was the measure of gratitude poured out to her, from many thousands of loving hearts! And today, from every station of life, and from every quarter of our country, are heard the voices of those who rise up to call her blessed, and to pay their tearful tribute of gratitude to her memory.

    "On my own behalf, I take this occasion to say, that for her generous and powerful aid, so often and so efficiently rendered, for her quick and never-failing sympathy, and for her intelligent, unselfish, and unswerving friendship, I owe her a debt of gratitude and affection, for the payment of which the longest term of life would have been too short.

    "To this institution she has left the honorable record of a long and faithful service, and the rich legacy of a pure and noble life. I have shown that she lived three lives. One of




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    these, the second, in all its richness and fullness, she gave to Hiram. More than half of her teaching was done here, where she taught much longer than any other person has taught; and no one has done work of better quality. "She has reared a monument which the envious years cannot wholly destroy. As long as the love of learning shall here survive; as long as the light of this college shall be kept burning; as long as there are hearts to hold and cherish the memory of its past; as long as high qualities of mind and heart are honored and loved among men and women—so long will the name of Almeda A. Booth be here remembered, and honored, and loved."

    General Garfield said of Almeda Booth in an address which he made at Hiram in 1876: "I came to the Eclectic in the fall of 1851, and a few days after the beginning of the term, I saw a class of three reciting in mathematics -- geometry, I think. They sat on one of the red benches, in the center of the aisle of the lower chapel. I had never seen a geometry; and, regarding both teacher and class with a feeling of reverential awe, from the intellectual height to which they climbed, I studied their faces so closely that I seem-to see them now as distinctly as I saw them then. And it has been my good fortune, since that time, to claim them all as intimate friends. The teacher was Thomas Munnell; and the members of his class were William B. Hazen, George A. Baker and Almeda A. Booth."

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    ...

    Hiram College.

    Although Hiram College, from its formation, was well known by the people of its vicinity, it was not until the nomination of James A. Garfield to the office of president that its reputation became national. The rise of the Disciple denomination, after a religious revival, was phenomenal. The followers of Alexander Campbell in 1828 came to Warren; held their meetings in the court house; interested the Baptist minister, Mr. Bentley; held meetings in that church, and not only captured the congregation, but the minister and the meeting-house as well. In fact, when they were through with their mission, there were less than a dozen members -of the congregation who had not been converted to the new faith.

    Many of the early preachers, like the preachers in other denominations, were men who had become interested in the spiritual part of religion




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    and had not been educated for the ministry, or, in fact, educated at all. When the church in northern Ohio was under way, the denomination suffered the sneers of the people because of the ignorance of some of the preachers. This was one of the facts which led to the formation of a college under this denomination. Alexander Campbell, realizing this condition, had founded Bethany College, in the pan handle of Virginia, in 1840.

    In the very beginning the Disciple ministers and their followers used to gather purposely to discuss matters pertaining to the church, and from this beginning a yearly meeting was established. At the yearly meeting held in Russell, Geauga county, Ohio, in 1849, the question of establishing a school was brought up and a meeting appointed for June 12, to be held in the house of A. L. Soule. At that meeting, Mr. Soule was made chairman and it was found that the delegates who were gathered there were in favor of considering the subject and inviting the different churches to send delegates to a future meeting. Three of these meetings followed -- one in North Bloomfield, August 2nd, the second at Ravenna, October 3rd, and the third at Aurora, November 7th. At this last meeting .thirty-one churches were represented by as many delegates.

    The question of education was at this time a very live one on the Western Reserve. Hudson and Oberlin colleges were progressing, and Ohio's public school laws were becoming very popular. At the beginning of this discussion in Russell it was decided that the school ought to be founded, and at each meeting the interest grew until the Aurora meeting was a very lively one. Here was a set of people who had thrown aside creeds and dogmas and were trying to live the simple truth, as Christ had presented it, but when the question of whether they should establish a college or a school, and where it should be located, was considered, feeling ran quite as high as it does in a political convention. Six towns had petitioned for the school, and the delegates were divided in regard to accepting any. These towns were

    Newton Falls, Hiram, Shalersville, Aurora, Russell and Bedford. The discussion lasted throughout most of the day and "rose at times to a point where Christian forbearance was stretched to a dangerous tension." Finally it was determined to decide the location by ballot, and this balloting went on into the night. A few of the delegates who grew weary went home. Finally, Carnot Mason, either because he believed Hiram could not win or because he disliked the contention, withdrew Hiram's request. His earnest, gentle speech, as he withdrew his application, made such an impression on the delegates that it reacted to Hiram's advantage. There were many bubbling springs on the hillsides of Hiram at that time, which provided excellent water, and this and the fact that it was one of the highest points of the regi6n, also entered into the decision.

    Although many of the men interested would have liked to have made a college in the beginning, they realized that it was wiser to have a school instead -- a school where young men and women of the neighborhood and of the church could learn the branches which they most needed, or most wanted, without having to go through the whole course, as they would, more or less, in a college. The religious side was brought forth strongly in this institute, as it was in those days in all institutes of learning. Isaac Everett, one of the most able of the early ministers, suggested the name of the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute. It was incorporated by the legislature in 1850, but it really was begun before it was incorporated. The building committee consisted of Pelatiah Allyn, Jr., Zeb Rudolph, Carnot Mason, Jason Rider and Alvah Udall. Alvah Udall, because of his business ability, was made chairman of the committee.

    To show how men from the beginning of time have had sentiment, although that characteristic is erroneously laid to the doors of women alone. I quote from Green's "History of Hiram College." In speaking of a meeting of the building committee, he says: "This meeting also adopted a seal for the institution




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    the design of which was a vignette; a dove with an olive branch in its beak, its wings half raised, resting on the open Bible, with the motto, 'Let there be light.'"

    Thomas M. Young reluctantly sold a very nice section of land in Hiram to the men interested in this college, and it was plotted, seven acres being reserved for the campus. On one portion of this Young land was stone which was used for the foundation of the building. A good share of the work in connection with the construction of this first institution was voluntary. Pelatiah Allyn and Zeb Rudolph did the carpentering; bricks were burned on the farm of Alvah Udall, and members of the committee gave their thought, their time and their money to the work. There were very few brick structures on the Western Reserve at this time. Wood was so plenty that it was used in all building. However, this building had the lower story of reddish sandstone and the upper part of brick.

    The college was opened in 1850. There were eighty-four students and three teachers. Disciples, who gathered in great numbers on that date, had a thanksgiving service, after which the congregation proceeded to the new building, where appropriate exercises were had and the college was really opened.

    From the very beginning it was co-educational, and probably in no school in the country has the real spirit of co-educational training been more fully demonstrated than here. As a rule, people who have attended this institute have been people of small means who had to economize and to whom an education meant capital.

    Among the early teachers were able women, and possibly the ablest teacher that Hiram has ever had from the beginning was Almeda Booth. A sketch of her life is given elsewhere. To her, powerful as she was in morals and intellect, was due the fact that it mattered not whether a pupil was a girl or a boy. It was only that it was a pupil.

    When the writer was a little girl, she heard some older people talking about the nonsense

    of educating boys and girls in the same schools. One man said: "I do not want my son to go to a school where he may become entangled with some girl and early contracts to marry her." Most of the people in the party were on this gentleman's side, but finally an influential man of the party said: "Well, for my part, I would rather my boy would go to a school where he will meet decent, refined girls, even if he should marry one of them, than to go to a school with boys and become acquainted with young women of an entirely different sort, none of whom he would think of making his wife, or of telling his mother he knew them."

    Long after that the writer investigated, not exhaustively, however, the question of marriage among the students at Hiram, and she found that many of them did marry; and, although there were undoubtedly some unhappy marriages from that institute, as there have been unhappy marriages everywhere, she herself does not know of any Hiram College man and woman who are unhappy in that marriage. Among the different reasons for endorsing co-education in the school, F. M. Greene says that "co-education does away with rowdyism, hazing and many other disorders." This is a pretty good endorsement. President Hayden And Early Teachers.

    Amos Sutton Hayden, Thomas Munnell and Mrs. Phoebe Drake were the first teachers of the Eclectic Institute. It was not long before the number of scholars was greatly increased and new teachers were added. There is not space here to give their names nor the names of the people who early contributed to the success of the college.

    President Hayden was an unusual man and the right person for the beginning of this institution. He had taught at Bethany and held the position of president until 1857. He taught in other places in Ohio, and when he retired he lived at Collamer. He died in 1880. He was only thirty-seven when he became principal.

    Thomas Munnell was a graduate of Bethany,




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    an honored man, a good public speaker and a competent teacher. It is said he had the element of leadership among the scholars, and he had certain courteous southern ways which were very valuable in teaching the descendants of the Puritans.

    The Eclectic Institute became a college, August 13, 1867. A college was really added to an academy.

    President B. A. Hinsdale, in his historical discourse of 1876, said: "Hiram has never been a hatching or moulting ground for isms and new-fangled notions." There is something very funny in a leader of the Disciple church fearing new-fangled notions, because it was only such a little time preceding this utterance of Mr. Hinsdale's that the whole world had called the Disciples new-fangled.

    President Hinsdale.

    B. A. Hinsdale, the third president of the college, was perhaps the best known and the greatest man connected with the Institute, Mr. Garfield excepted. He was a thorough student, a splendid teacher and an unusual writer. He was a minister and a good lecturer, but he was not really popular as a preacher. He talked over the heads of people and was not emotional. He spent his early life on a farm, was a splendid physical specimen of manhood, and his motto from the beginning to the end of his life was "Work." Probably no man connected with Hiram College did as much work as he. When he left Hiram he was principal of the Cleveland schools; was then elected to a chair in the University of Michigan, and this he filled to the time of his death. He was an ardent student of the history of the Western Reserve, and admonished his students to study that history, since from it they could learn so much of real life, saying that nothing about it was too small to consider.

    Lack of Boarding Accommodations.

    One of the disadvantages which the men who built Hiram College foresaw was that there would not be room in the village for the students, providing the college was a success. Not wanting this to hurt the school, families took in all the students they possibly could manage, and cases are known where pantries were turned into bed-rooms, and three or four people occupied rooms that were not at all large. Some of the families of Hiram were exceedingly cultured, and students were very fortunate, to get into these homes. This was true of Zeb Rudolph's, and students appreciated a chance to live with him. He could read Greek and Latin; some members of his family were familiar with French, and it was really a center of culture. The same was true of John Buckingham's home and some others.

    Hiram College was enlarged in 1888, and between the period of 1883 and 1888 there was much talk of removing it. There are some people connected with the Disciple church who still think it was a mistake that it was not sent to a place where there were railroad facilities and larger advantages.

    Presidents Zollars And Bates.

    President E. V. Zollars entered upon the work at Hiram College when he was forty-four years old. He had good business sense; was called at the time when the college needed just such a person, and made a great success of his administration. He had been a student at Bethany, had taught ancient languages there and had experience in the financial work of the college. He was well equipped for the position at the time he was called to it, and the institution profited by his industry. He is at present at the head of a strong college of the church in Oklahoma.

    Minor L. Bates is at present president, and the college continues its usefulness.

    William J. Ford, son of John A. Ford, who had been one of the early trustees, was for years connected with the Board of Trustees of Hiram College. He probably served a greater number of years than any other one trustee. For many years he was the financial agent, and at one time collected $50,000 for the endowment fund of the school. All




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    ...

    Aurora Township

    This township, No. 5, range 9, belonged to David, Ebenezer and Fidelia King -- Ebenezer Sheldon, Jr., Gideon Granger and John Leavett having sub-interests. It was named Aurora for Major Spofford's daughter. He was surveyor for the Connecticut Land Company.

    Ebenezer Sheldon first visited Aurora in 1799 and, with the help of Mr. and Mrs. Elias Harmon, built a cabin and cleared a bit of ground. Mrs. Harmon was the first woman to be in the township, but when winter came on she and her husband went to Mantua and Mr. Sheldon to Connecticut; so the real inhabitants, the Indians and wolves, were unmolested during the cold months. The following spring Mr. Sheldon, his second wife Lovey Davis and six children came to their new home. Their house was on lot 40, two and a half miles east of the Center. Aunt Lovey, as she was called, brought a willow stick with her from the east and planted it, and it became a great tree. It was said of her that she was of commanding size, possessing great strength of character, and was of lively, buoyant disposition, and was the best looking woman in town. This last might not have been as much of a compliment if it refers to the year 1800, for women were few in that region. It was their daughter Hulda who married Amzi Atwater, of Mantua, and as there was no clergyman her father read the service and pronounced them man and wife, and they went walking to their new home four miles away. A year from that time the father was appointed justice of the peace by Governor




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    Tiffin, and he had his appointment dated before this wedding in order to make it legal There are many people living today who knew Amzi and Hulda Atwater and have been in their comfortable home.

    A story of unusual interest is retold here to illustrate the hardships of the early settlers. John Cockran, of Blandford, Massachusetts, who had bought land in Aurora, was taken sick on the trip west, and his party hurried on their journey in order to reach Buffalo, where he might get medicine and help. His wife and one daughter remained with him while the two other girls proceeded with the company. Rhoda was helpless from rheumatism and rode on a bed all the way, her sister Laura acting as her nurse. A man named Mills was engaged to bring the girls to Aurora. He compelled Laura to walk a good part of the way. Day after day she uncomplainingly trudged along, hungry and tired and with blistered feet. One night Mills unhitched the team and with his wife disappeared, leaving the girls alone in the dense woods four miles north of Burton. Laura was taken sick in the night, but fortunately the next day was better. He returned and took them to within twenty-five miles of Aurora, as he had promised, and left them in a settler's cabin. Laura, but a child, realizing the condition she was in, confided to the people in the cabin and asked to be allowed to work for food for herself and her sick sister, until she could communicate with her people. At that time there was a boat on the Cuyahoga river, between Mantua and Burton, which carried grain to be ground. The captain's sympathies were aroused and he offered to carry the girls to Mantua. It seemed that this experience was hard enough, but as soon as they had reached their new home they learned that their father had died at Buffalo. Their mother bravely came on to them and lived nineteen years of her life in that neighborhood. The crippled Rhoda died in 1806 and was the first person buried in Aurora. Laura married Stephen Cannon and was one

    of the most brave, skillful women that was ever in Portage county. The amount of weaving credited to her seems impossible. One day she rode fifty-two miles to get medicine for a sick person. Wolves followed her during that ride, but she accomplished her mission.

    The township was organized in 1807. Samuel Foward was the first school teacher. Leppinius Withe erected the first grist mill in 1813.

    As early as 1819 Aurora cheese was shipped :o distant points, and in 1898 it was said that more cheese was shipped from Aurora station than from any railroad station in the United States.

    Samuel Bissel, of Twinsburg, said that in 1806 his father moved his family to Aurora and that he remembers well Rev. Joseph Badger, who preached in Aurora as early as 1801. His father, although not a professor of religion, really kept a ministers' hotel. Samuel said the children in the family liked Mr. Badger because he told such good stories.

    Rev. Badger, in his diary, under the date of March 22, 1804, says: "Preached in Aurora to fifteen souls. Alas, stupid as the woods in which they live!" It seems he was either too busy or too disgusted to continue his services, and the "stupid souls" met in homes, read sermons, sang songs and prayed until 1809, when a missionary, Mr. Darrow, perfected a church organization, and the next year it took the form of the Union, but was really Congregational.

    In 1818 there was a Methodist class and active work was continued until 1845, and continued till 1871. The Disciple church was organized in 1830; the church built in 1837, destroyed by fire in 1855; new church built that same year and rebuilt in 1872. In this church James Garfield and B. A. Hinsdale preached with more or less regularity for a time. Rev. Amzi Atwater, grandson of the pioneer, was regular pastor.

    Thomas Barr, who later became so interested in the history of northern Ohio, was a preacher at the Bissel home. He preached




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    without notes and was very social and liked by everybody, including children. Samuel Huntington, who distinguished himself in so many ways, lived in Aurora for a little time, moving thence to Warren. The town was organized in 1807. The first sawmill was erected on the Chagrin river, near Squire Sheldon's house. In 1810 James Baldwin opened a store in the bedroom of his father's house. He sold calico at a dollar a yard.

    At an Aurora reunion, in 1899, a family Bible belonging to the great-great-grandfather of Louisa M. Hurd was shown. At the massacre of Wyoming this man was too old to carry arms, and was put on a horse and sent with the women and children through the swamps to New Jersey. He carried this Bible under his arm all the way.

    The first lamp was brought to Aurora in 1854 and was a great curiosity. In those days oil was called coal-oil, just as later coal was called stone-coal.

    Warren Forward was an Aurora man, who was postmaster at Buffalo, a lawyer in Pittsburg, a member of congress, secretary of the United States treasury under Tyler, and minister to Denmark.

    Judge Van R. Humphry and Henry McKinney both lived in Aurora. Royal Taylor lived in Aurora. His history is given elsewhere. He was the first state pension agent. Hon. Charles Harmon was one of the best known and best beloved of the pioneers. He was twice elected state representative. Dr. Worthy Streetor, who is well known in Cleveland as a doctor and railroad builder, was an Aurora man. Henry Hawkins, who lived in Ravenna many years, later moving to Cleveland, and becoming auditor of Cuyahoga county, and who died very recently when in the nineties, came from Aurora. Ransom A. Gillett, who kept hotel in Ravenna and afterwards was a noted hotel man in Cleveland, was from Aurora. James Converse, the railroad king of Texas, was born and raised in that town. A. M. Willard, who painted

    "Yankee Doodle" and the "Minute Man," and won a wide reputation as a military painter, was an Aurora boy.

    Victoria and Tennessee Claflin began their interesting career in Aurora. Their subsequent history is well known to the public. Victoria is dead, but Tennessee is now Lady Cook. Her husband is dead and she comes to America each year. She has much money. Victoria was the brighter of the two, had a good deal of oratorical ability and an active brain.

    Clara Morris' grandmother resided in Aurora for years, and when Clara was a barefooted maiden she played with the little girls in the neighborhood. ...




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    ...

    Garrettsville

    In 1804 John garrett, of Delaware, reached Hiram township, which then included what is now Mantua, Freedom, Windham, Nelson, Shalersville and Hiram. He bought his land from a company of men who owned the entire area of Nelson. His deed called for three hundred acres of land, inclduing the water-power on the creek and he paid $1.313 for it. Aside from his family, he brought a negress, ten years old, and a mulatto, six years old. They became free when they were eighteen years of age.

    One of the servants belonging to Mrs. Garrett named Flora, married Thomas Henes, a colored man, and they made their home in Mantua. Ravenna, Garrettsville and Mantua were three townships at least where the colored people were well treated from the very beginning.

    Abraham Dyson, his wife, two sons and daughter accompanied the Garretts, this daughter afterwards marrying Ira Hulet, who lived for many years on several farms in Nelson.These pioneers camped on what is now Main street.

    So necessary was a grist-mill to a settlement that sometimes before houses were built men began damming streams. This was true of Mr. Garrett. Very soon Mill creek was dammed and the saw-mill in operation, and not long after a grist-mill was erected. Dyson was a blacksmith, and he used to repair the firearms of the Indians.

    Elanor Garrett

    John Garrett died in 1806 and his widow Eleanor, with her three sons, assumed the business and the responsibilities of the husband and father. Mrs. Garrett was an exceptional woman. She really felt herself to be the




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    mother of the settlement, and her home was the stopping place for all. However, she was like most of the pioneers and had a great longing for "back home"; and twice she went to Delaware on horseback. She was a great Baptist and the first meetings of that denomination were held in her house. Her husband had given land for a church and she worked untiringly for the erection of the house. When the congregation introduced a bass viol into the meeting she left the house.

    The cemetery in Garrettsville was given by John Garrett in 1805, and the first interment was that of his son, Josiah. The Park cemetery was bought in 1876. The ladies of Garrettsville and of Nelson and Hiram township have taken a great interest in cemeteries and have accomplished much in beautifying them.

    It is supposed that the first school-house in Garrettsville was on the corner of North and Maple avenues. Of course it was of logs. There was another school-house on Center street opposite Park cemetery. A school district of Hiram had a school-house at the intersection of South and Freeman streets. The Red School House, the best remembered of the early buildings erected in 1841, and the present High School stands on its site. It was considered a very pretentious building of its time. When the village was incorporated, a special school district was erected.

    The first postmaster of Garrettsville was Eleanor Garrett. She had charge of the office in 1834. Mail then only came once a week from Parkman, through Nelson and Freedom, to Ravenna. It was at first carried on horseback.

    Village Incorporated.

    When Garrettsville was settled there was no road of any kind. There was an Indian trail, from Conant's corners in Windham to Hiram Rapids, where there was a village of Wyandotte Indians. Although Garrettsville had this early beginning, it was not an incorporated village until 1864, and it was not until 1874 that the village was set off as a township. In

    the early days the residents of Garrettsville had to go to Hiram or Nelson to vote, which was so inconvenient that few did their duty in this direction.

    Garrettsville Newspapers.

    The first newspaper published in Garrettsville was called The Western Pearl. Its date was 1836. It was a semi-monthly. It was a literary paper and did not last long. Dr. Lyman Trask was the editor.

    In 1862 a small monthly gotten out by Warren Pierce, under the name of the Garrettsville Monthly Review, which was likewise short-lived.

    The Garrettsville Journal was first published in July, 1867, by Warren Pierce, who continued it until 1873, when he sold it to Charles B. Webb. In 1905 Mr. Webb, because of ill health, was obliged to give up work and Myers and Snow bought the paper and the next year the Journal Publishing Company was formed and D. G. Myers became editor and manager. It is now a company, of which C. M. Crane is president. He is also editor of the paper.

    The Saturday Item appeared in 1885. It was a weekly and a spicy little sheet. It lived five years.

    The first store in Garrettsville was that of Hazen and Garrett. It was of logs, of course, and stood at the corner of the present Main street and North avenue. It was opened in 1820. John B. Hazen was the father of Stillman H. Hazen, and consequently an uncle of General William B. Hazen. David J. Garrett was a son of John Garrett, the founder.

    The writer remembers the first time she gazed upon the waterfall over the stone ledge at Garrettsville. It seemed to her that the air rising was as cold as ice and she wondered if it was possible that Niagara Falls, of which she had heard so much, could be larger than this, or if the water above and below could run swifter.

    The eldest daughter of John Taber who came to Garrettsville in 1833 was the first wife of Dr. A. M. Sherman.




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    Energetic Men And Women.

    There are numberless stories told of the energy, executive ability and industry of the early women of the different counties. Sarah Ann Pinney, who early came to live in Martin Manley's family in Garrettsville, seemed to have natural business ability. She picked up chestnuts, with which she bought her first apron. When she was seven years old she knit her first stockings, and, as did many others, carried them until she nearly reached the church before she put them on. When she was twelve years old, she made a cheese herself, curing it, and when it had seasoned properly, (and in those days cheese had to season a long time) she carried it on horseback to Atwood's store and sold it for a pair of gloves.

    Garrettsville has always had a business air and women, as well as men, from an early day have been good managers. The women of the fifties and sixties carried their butter, eggs, sugar, feathers, etc., to stores and exchanged them for dry goods and groceries. Few were the merchants who could "do" these women, if they had cared to do so.

    Garrettsville at this writing is a village of homes, and many people doing business in Cleveland live there. ...

    (remainder of pages 687-690 under construction)






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    Mantua Township  (Town 5, Range 8).

    Mantua was the first township reached by the pioneers. The main owners were David Fidelio and Ebenezer King, and Gideon Granger had a small interest in this township, as he had in so many others.

    Abraham Honey in 1798, built a hut, part on lot 24, cleared a small portion and sowed wheat. He did not stay, and after wandering a little in that part of the county, settled in Cuyahoga county. It is not known whether he intended to settle at the time. At all events, his brother-in-law, Rufus Edwards, came during the next year and harvested his wheat, which, was probably the first in the county. Edwards had a grist mill in 1799.

    Elias Harmon was one of the best known of the first settlers. Although he started in February, 1799, he did not reach Mantua until the I2th of June. He settled in Mantua that fall, having spent the summer in Aurora. His daughter Eunice received fifty acres of land for being the first child born in the township. She ran very close to second place in the county. Atwater Hall was the first child born in the county, and Polly Day, of Deerfield, was second, unless Eunice Harmon antidates her; the author believes she does, although the records are not sure.

    It was in Mantua that Amzi Atwater settled, his place known to all the early setters, and he is remembered by men who are living today as being a genial, intelligent, successful man. His name appears more often in the early histories of the Western Reserve than any of the other surveyors. This was because he was with both surveying parties and because he became a settler and prosperous citizen. The present Mantua station stands on their old farm and part of their house was converted into a hotel.

    Amzi Atwater was exceedingly honorable and honest. During, one season, when wheat and grain was plenty in Portage county and vicinity, and there was almost a famine in Medina county, men who were speculating came to him to buy his wheat. Knowing that they wanted to sell it to the settlers in those counties, he refused to sell and made arrangements to dispose of his himself to those people at an ordinary profit. In 1802 there was a tannery owned by Moses Pond, which was operated for ten years, David Ladd then established a regular tannery. Moses Pond was a valuable settler. It was he who introduced sheep into the township and also apple seeds. The first saw mill was not erected until 1818. In the early twenties there was a glass factory in Mantua, which later was removed to Kent, and at a centennial celebration in Aurora a glass bottle blown by Jonathan Tinker, who worked for David Ladd. From 1810 to 1824 Mantua had a distillery. It was owned by different parties. William Russell was the proprietor for the greatest number of years.

    For ten years there was an ashery, 1818 to 1828.

    In 1821 David Ladd had a brick yard.

    In 1825 the Rogers brothers owned a tannery.

    The first tavern was of logs, and Jonathan Atwater was the owner.

    Mantua has never had any business which paid its citizens better than potato raising. In season trainloads are shipped from this point.

    It is seldom that the Methodists are early in their organization, but they were in Mantua. A class was formed in 1807; first meeting house erected in 1820. This was of logs and was burned in 1838. A new one was immediately constructed.

    The Congregational church was organized in 1812,

    The Baptists organized in 1809, but the Disciples succeeded in capturing it, as it did many others. This church was reorganized in 1850.

    The Spiritualists have been numerous in Mantua.

    The Catholics have a congregation here, which is rather unusual for a rural district.




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    Albert G. Riddle.

    Albert G. Riddle was a native of Geauga county. When his father died he was apprentice to Seth Harmon, who lived in Portage county, and his biography is given here for that reason. He returned to Geauga county in 1831, studied law and was admitted to the bar; was a member of the Ohio legislature in 1848 and 1849, and then moved to Cleveland. He was naturally a radical and was much interested in the slavery question. He was United States Consul to Matanzas in 1863: finally went to Washington to live and was John Surratt's lawyer. He was preceptor in the Howard University, and wrote novels which dealt with the life of Northern Ohio, lie was a close friend of both Giddings and Wade.

    Nelson Township.

    Town 5, range 6, was originally part of Hiram. Uriel Holmes was the largest owner in this territory.

    We have mentioned in several other parts of this work the Mills brothers -- Delaun, Asahel and Isaac. The first two named were married and had children and all three started for this county. When they got as far as Youngstown, the wives and children were left and the men proceeded westward. Since Delaun had but eighteen cents, it was fortunate they met Mr. Holmes, who wanted helpers in his surveying party. He engaged them and they worked under the direction of Amzi Atwater. While the Captain was working with the surveying party and scaring the Indians, his wife was working in a hotel, earning her board and that of her three children during all the summer. Ashael stayed in Youngstown that winter, but the Captain and his family went to Nelson. He cut a roadway from Warren to let the wagon through: before that there had only been a blazed path.

    Delaun remodeled the cabin which the surveyors had used and began making, his home. It is supposed that Mr. Holmes gave him one hundred acres of land for settling there. In the next spring, the brother, Ashael, settled on the north and south road and it is supposed his land was given to him also. Delaun's house was just west of the center where the home of P. C. Freeman now is.

    Delaun Mills was a most powerful man and was likewise absolutely fearless. Probably no man on the Western Reserve was so much hated by the Indians as was he and no man's life was in danger so often as was his. The stories told of him are quite equal to imaginary tales told of Indian hunters. Most of the information in regard to the Mills family used in this work was taken from an address delivered at the Mills family reunion at Nelson Ledges, in 1879, by Professor George Colton of Hiram College. Professor Colton was born in Nelson and married Clara Taylor, daughter of Edwin and granddaughter of Elisha, one of the early settlers. Professor Colton's father was Belden and his mother was a Tilden. The family lived at the Corners about a mile and a half west of the Center. Her brother Henry's farm adjoined hers and the Taylor farm adjoined the Tildens' on the west, while the Couch farm was across the way. This neighborhood was an intellectual center. A member of congress in the eighties Said if he really wanted to know what the political situation was he had to talk with men of this vicinage. Lucius Taylor, one of the sons of Elisha. was a cattle buyer and was possibly the best known of any of the neighbors, his business taking him into all parts of the county. He was a genial man, with a fund of good stories and an inveterate tease. His uncle, Ferris Conch, was at one time sheriff of the county and his grandfather, Elisha Taylor, was elected the first justice of the peace, although he refused to serve. Of all this New England neighborhood there is not one of the name left and the only man of that circle who dwells upon his old farm is George Pritchard who. with his wife "Aunt Em," still resides at




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    the Corners of Hiram and Nelson, near where the old chair factory was once located.

    The general statement that the early settlers suffered many hardships does not mean much to us, but when we read that Delaun Mills sowed turnips the first year and that he and his family lived upon turnips and meat. They had no corn, no potatoes and no flour. In the the spring of 1801 wheat was sown and from three pecks of seed forty-three bushels of wheat was harvested. This Captain Mills loaded onto a sled drawn by oxen and started for the mills on Mill creek. The sleighing was good, but before his grist was done and he had started home a thaw began. When he was ready to leave Youngstown the water had frozen. His oxen were not shod and could not stand up. He therefore stopped, made an ox frame so that they could be shod and then resumed his journey. The thaw had made the river rise and when he reached Warren, as there was no bridge, he could not cross without wetting his flour. He therefore placed stakes in his sled, put chains on top, making a rack, and when his grist was on top of that it was beyond the reach of the water. He mounted one ox and thus brought himself and his food through without damage. He had been gone three weeks; his wife was fearing he had been killed by the Indians, and as his children had been without flour so long they did not like bread.

    Dianthia Mills was the first child born in Nelson. She was a daughter of Asahel.

    Professor Colton says: "The Captain was in the habit of opening each spring a sugar camp south of the center road, under the ledge. During 'run' the whole family lived at the camp, Mrs. Mills going occasionally on horseback to their home for supplies. On one occasion she found at the house an Indian who insisted upon riding with her to the camp. She protested; but the horseback ride was a treat which the Indian did not seem inclined to forego, and, in spite of her protests, he seated himself on the horse behind her. He enjoyed the ride to camp greatly, but how she enjoyed it tradition does not say."

    Since the Mills brothers came to Nelson there has always been some of the family living there. Nelson Center is one of the most attractive of the rural centers. It has a monument to the soldiers, two nice churches, a town hall and centralized school.

    The early settlers were generally Connecticut people. A beautiful township it is, too, with its rolling surface and its view of the Hiram hills to the west and the Pennsylvania hills to the east. East of the Center is an upheaval of rocks known as "The Ledges." This is composed of pudding-stone rock standing on ends, with caves between and all covered with thick woods. A little stream makes a long water fall and in summer this is as cool and attractive a spot as anyone could wish to see. If there had been a stream of any size in the vicinity, or if a railroad was near by, this would have been one of the resorts of this part of Ohio. It is now a stopping-place for automobile parties on their way back and forth from Cleveland.

    While his brother was fighting the Indians and doing that sort of an act, Asahel Mills was giving more attention to domestic affairs. He preached the first sermon in the township and he and all the family were attached to the Methodist church. Rev. Thomas G. Jones, of Sharon, who organized so many Baptist churches on the Western Reserve perfected an organization here. It was called Bethesda in 1808.

    The first school was at the Center, and the teacher was Hannah Baldwin. Delaun Mill's brother, Oliver, was one of the early teachers and it is said that he was the only one of the early Mills who cared anything about learning.

    There was a social Library Association very early in Nelson; probably as early as 1820.

    Orders in the possession of Ralph Baldwin belonging to his grandfather, Stephen Baldwin, and signed by Birdsey Clark, Thomas Kennedy and Ezra Booth, committee, show




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    that assessment was made and paid for the maintenance of this library. The books were stored at the Center of Nelson, or in the house of the Rev. Mr. Fenn, and people who were ambitious to learn, or who loved reading for amusement, walked miles to borrow these books.

    Among the early settlers of Nelson was Stephen Baldwin, who came to the township in 1803. He lived in a hunter's cabin on the ground where the Methodist church now is, and but for the aid of Indians might possibly have starved. The next spring he bought sixty acres of land, part of which is located on the Nelson Ledge territory. Here they lived in a log house. He procured his education, as so many boys of his age did, studying by the light of hickory bark, and continued always to be interested in education. He was one of the leaders of the anti-slavery movement in Northern Ohio, being very much interested in the Portage county Anti-Slavery Society, and was one of its fourteen members. He was an active member of the Congregational church of Nelson, but because of his anti-slavery sentiment was threatened with excommunication. At one time he was mobbed for speaking, his sentiments in Garrettsville, the men attacking him using rotten eggs. A party of men once lay wait for him to tar and feather him, but by the merest accident, having business in another part of town, he returned home another way. Nelson Bearse, Horatio Taylor, Elisha Taylor, Garret Gates and Orrin Smith rallied to his support and saved him much persecution.

    Cornelius Baldwin of Nelson lived at the foot of the Ledge for many years. His father was Stephen and his grandfather was Stephen. His son Ralph is a teacher and lives in Warren. Ralph Baldwin is very much interested in all historical things and cherishes a great many curios. He has a chair with wooden pegs which was made about 1803 and a mouse trap made of cedar which was gotten about the same year; a wooden canteen from the war of 1812, and an old lantern which was brought from the East. He has numerous papers and letters from old -settlers and among, them is a receipt from Elisha Garrett. He has three whiskey bottles; one with an eagle and morning glories on it, dated 1800; one with General Jackson's name on it, 1812, and the other with an eagle, stars and clasped hands. He has a fine collection of old china, among them a Clews with the words "warrantes Staffordshire" upon it. This is called the rose and hawthorn pattern and is supposed to be among the rarest china of the old kind.

    Gen. William B. Hazen was a Nelson boy. On one lot nearly two miles west of the Center four men became judges. Two of them were the sons of Benjamin F. Brown and another was Judge Ezra B. Taylor, now living in Warren at a very advanced age, and Duane Tilden of Cleveland.

    The year 1802 marked the settlement of Hiram -- Elijah Mason. Elisha Hutchinson and Mason Tilden took up their land there. Mason and Tilden were from Connecticut and Hutchinson was a New York man. The Masons were long identified with the township.

    In 1830 there was a chair factory near Pritchard's Corners, which was a lively place. Many "hands'" were employed and some of the chairs manufactured were very pretty. There was scarcely a housewife in Nelson who did not have some of these chairs, the backs of which were ornamented with fruits and flowers, the design, of course, being more or less conventional and the colors rather light. For durability they could not be surpassed. ...




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    (pages 695-698 under construction)






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    Hiram Township.

    Hiram is one of the most beautiful townships in the Reserve. From its hills the scenery is most picturesque. It is 1300 feet above sea level. Its people are prosperous, its homes substantial and, although some people call it "sleepy," it impresses the author as having an air of refined respectability and at the same time, romance. Most of its history is given under the topics "Hiram College," "Garfield," or "Almeda Booth."

    Elijah Mason, Elisha Hutchinson and Mason Tilden arrived in 1802, looked over their possessions and returned home.

    John Flemings was the first real settler. He came in 1802, but did not remain long.

    The Masons, Tildens and Hutchinsons returned the next spring and made improvements. It was the Masons who gave Silver creek its name. The young Masons did not like the county and persuaded their father to purchase a Vermont farm. This move discouraged Tilden and both Hutchinson and Flemings sold their lands. The latter sold his land to Richard Redden, who, with Jacob and Samuel West, had worked for the Masons and Tildens. Redden's father and family came out in the summer and they spent the winter. Russell Mason, son of the owner, finally concluded to come.

    It seems as if the question of settling Hiram was a hard one, for Mason did not arrive until 1806. The first inhabitants were Irishmen and Pennsylvania Germans, all of whom were poor. Finally Hiram stock began to rise in New England and with their coming, real growth began,

    Hiram was named by the Free and Accepted Masons for Hiram of Tyre.

    The first child born in the township was Simeon Babcock, son of Edwin.

    The first death was Mrs. Fenton, who died at the time her child was born.

    The old farm where William B. Hazen lived and which he owned until within a few years of his death, if not all his life-time, was a few years since bought by Frank Freeman, who was the son of Samuel Levitt Freeman. The Freemans were an old Trumbull county family and facts about them are found in that chapter.

    Smith And Rigdon Tarred And Feathered.

    The people of Hiram tarred and feathered Rigdon and Smith, who were in Hiram at the time of the Mormon agitation. Several stories have been told as to why this was done. The truth is that they received this treatment because they were Mormons, because they had interested the people of that vicinity in their belief, and because some of these converts had decided them to be frauds. This was before the days of polygamy. It was largely a quarrel among different religions in the beginning, later because it was believed the new followers were to be deceived.

    Mason Tilden, now over ninty years old, who was born in Hiram, says Smith was taken from his bed in a log house standing just back of the so-called Joseph Smith oak, and that Sidney Rigdon was taken from the Stevens house, to be treated to their respective coats of tar and feathers.

    The Stevens house is located about two miles southwest of Hiram College. In the early days of Mormonism Joseph Smith, its founder, lived for a time in this house and thus it was the headquarters of the Mormon church. In March, 1832, a company was formed of citizens of Shalersville, Garrettsville and Hiram, which proceeded to execute their vengeance on Smith and Rigdon. One room in the house is still called the "Revelation Room," because




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    here on the night following, Smith claimed to have received a revelation instructing him to depart for the West.

    Zeb Rudolph.

    Zeb Rudolph, the father of Mrs. Garfield, was a man of quiet calm nature, and when the word was brought to him that his son-in-law had been nominated for the presidency, instead of rejoicing as most elderly men would, he hesitated a few moments and then said: "I hope no harm will come from it."

    One of the early settlers of Hiram was Chauncey F. Black, afterward Governor of Pennsylvania. His father was Jeremiah S. Black and Judge of the Supreme Court from 1851-57. He was a member of Buchanan's cabinet.

    Alvah Udall was one of the strongest men connected with the history of Hiram and Hiram College. It would seem strange that he had so much to do with the building of this college when he was not a professor of religion. Men living today who knew his father, Samuel Udall, who came to Hiram in 1818, say that Samuel was a stronger character than Alvah, but the writers of the present day seem to differ with this statement.

    F. M. Green, in his "History of Hiram College," quotes a letter of Mrs. Lucretia R. Garfield to Prof. A. C. Pierson. It is as follows: "The first commencement exercises were held under the apple trees of an old orchard which reached over the northeast corner of the Eclectic grounds. A stage was built around one of the largest trees, and decorated with whatever we were able to get from the scant flower gardens of that time. Seats for the audience were improvised in the usual way -- boards resting, on chairs and blocks. No admission was charged, as the chief purpose was to call together as many people as possible to show what we were doing. I do not think the audience was large; still a good many came. I do not remember, but I think the music must have been only vocal, as I think there was no music teacher or an instrument those first two terms.

    "It was a perfect day, bright and cool, and had you not given the date as May, I should have said it was a perfect day in June, and we were all in that state of exaltation which belongs to the beginnings of new enterprises. The women of this community loaded a long table with appetizing viands, and opened their houses in the largest hospitality their accommodations would permit. This public table became a burden when it grew evident that many came merely for the 'loaves and fishes'; and it was abandoned. The memories of those days, almost half a century away, seem to belong to another world when the enthusiasm and ambitions filled heart and soul. The details of the commencement exercises are entirely lost to me. I could not have told you that I took any part in them, and don't remember the subject of my poor little essay, nor anything about the 'Colloquy.' Like a woman, I have a rather vivid recollection of the dress I wore -- that's all." ...

    (remainder of text not transcribed)





    (Excerpts from Volume 2)
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    Orville Duane Howe, who was born in Painesville, September 1. 1831, is of English descent, the family, which was established in Canada at the outbreak of the war of 1812. being forced to leave the Dominion after Dr. Samuel W. Howe, the paternal grandfather, had declared his allegiance to the United States. He and his two sons, Eber D. and Asahel. As residents of New York, participated in various military movements against the British; in 1817 the family settled in Cleveland, and about three years later in Painesville. In the years which followed, the father. Eber D. Howe, became prominent as a newspaper man, an Abolitionist, an anti-Mormonist. and a citizen of brave, independent and able character, while Orville D. has largely contributed to the splendid record of his family by his active career as a progressive agriculturist and a public man. As a Republican he has extended his father's work and influence to the present day, while as superintendent of public instruction, county surveyor and justice of the peace, he has been of invaluable assistance in furthering the causes of education, the security of property and the establishment of law and order -- three forces which, more than all others, maintain the integrity of the typical American community.

    The first authentic and definite records of the Howe family relate to the stirring career of Samuel William Howe, already mentioned as the grandfather of Orville D. He was born in Longmeadow, Connecticut, in the year 1760; lost his father at an early age and was tenderly and thoughtfully reared by his stepfather. After receiving a common school education, at the age of nineteen he entered Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, and during the ensuing year made some proficiency, in the study of medicine. Upon one of his visits to Boston, in 1780, he shipped as surgeon on an American privateer, then fitting for a cruise along the eastern coasts; but, contrary to the understanding of the crew, when the ship was fairly out of the harbor it headed across the Atlantic direct for the English Channel. The privateer proved to be entirely unseaworthy, with an incompetent and intoxicated captain, and the voyage of forty days to the Irish coast was mostly occupied by the hands in bailing out the rotten hull. In that locality they fortunately found themselves alongside a British man-of-war, and surrendered after the firing of one shot. This is one of the dark spots in the usually bright record of American privateering. After being removed in safety to the British boat the American crew joyfully saw the dishonored craft disappear beneath the ocean waves, the ship not being worth the trouble of towing, into port. The Americans were taken to Dublin as prisoners of war and there Mr. Howe was detailed to the medical department of the city prison, then filled with sick and maimed victims of the war. By bribing a prison keeper named Craft, he finally escaped from Dublin prison with two other physicians, and reached the coast of France, thence walking 300 miles to Havre, where he shipped for Boston as a hand before the mast. It may be added to this life chapter that Craft came to Painesville many years later, and that the recognition was mutual and cordial.

    After his return to the United States Dr. Howe completed his medical studies, and about 1785 married Miss Mabel Dudley, a native of Middletown, Connecticut, who was descended from an English familv of Surrey county. The first of the Dudley family to come to America was William, who died in Guilford, that state, in 1683, after whom the line descends, through Joseph, (Captain) William and Asahel, to Mabel Dudley, who became the grandmother of Orville D. Dr. S. W. Howe and wife resided successively in Clifton Park and Ovid, New York, and in 1811, with their family, located near Queenstown, eight miles from Niagara Falls, Canada. Through his practice and businesslike investments, the doctor had accumulated considerable property, and at the outbreak of the war of 1812 was the prosperous owner of 200 head of cattle and horses, 500 acres of fine land, a beautiful English mansion, and an iron box holding gold coin and good securities to the value of $60,000 -- the latter a large fortune of itself in those days. In the midst of these handsome evidences of his industry and ability, he was summoned to appear before the royal authorities of the dominion and declare himself for the king of England, on pain of banishment and confiscation of all his goods and property. With breakfast on the table, the head of the household was given one hour to decide, but within a minute pronounced for the Stars and Stripes and commenced to prepare for immediate departure. No sooner were his intentions known to the Indian allies of the British who were hovering outside the house than they secretly bored holes in the bottom of the scow which was to be used to convey the doctor, his family and valuables across the Niagara river to New York. His wife and daughter Harriet had packed the best bedding, silver and box of gold, and after loading his goods and family on the scow started on his perilous trip. Not far from shore the scow sank, the passengers barely escaping through the assistance of a British officer who was affianced to the doctor's daughter. Dr. Howe himself returned to his residence, intending to throw his strong box into the river, but found his house in flames. Seizing, a feather bed from the pile of household goods not yet consumed, he tied it to his horse Kate to protect her from the expected shower of bullets which he knew would greet him when the British discovered his attempted escape. Nor was his expectation amiss, as in his dash for the upper ferry he was obliged to pass through a storm of bullets which riddled the bed and put out one of his good horse's eyes; and in crossing the ferry, where he was met by his sons, one




    966                                 HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                


    of the latter (William) had his hat pierced by a ball.

    The family formed a new home at Lewiston, New York, and when the British captured that place, December 13, 1813, the Howes escaped on an ox-sled to Batavia. Here was organized the Swift and Dobbins regiment of New York Volunteers, of which Dr. Howe was surgeon's mate, and his sons, Eber D. and Asahel, private soldiers. All participated in General Scott's campaign, including the battles of Lundys Lane and Fort Erie. In 1817 Dr. Howe settled in Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1820 at Painesville, and successfully practiced his profession until his death at Concord, Ohio, in 1838. His wife died at the same place in 1852, mother of William, Eunice, Laura, Harriet, Eber D. and Asahel.

    Eber Dudley Howe was born at Clifton Park, New York, on the 9th of June, 1798, his birth occurring near the battlefield made famous by the surrender of General Burgoyne. He served with his father throughout the Niagara campaign, from April 1 to November 8, 1814, and after the war became an apprentice in the printing office of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. In his autobiography, he remarks that, at this time, the paper had a circulation of about 1,000 copies and that two days were spent in striking off the edition. In 1819 Mr. Howe moved to Cleveland and, with Z. Willis, began the publication of the Herald. The first article in No. I was a strong anti-slavery paper by Benjamin Rush. In 1822, after publishing an interesting and stirring newspaper for two years, he came to Painesville and established the Telegraph, continuing it until 1835. In 1837 Mr. Howe located at Concord, in the Hollow, and engaged in the woolen business, and his vigorous crusade against slavery as an agent and patron of the Underground Railway to Canada. He was an ardent leader of the Liberty party and in 1842 declared he never again would vote for a slaveholder for any office. During these years of his residence at Concord he assisted so many colored fugitives to freedom, through his home ministrations, that the neighbors christened the locality Nigger Hollow; that same Hollow, in which also for thirty years was heard the busy hum of machinery, is now silent and deserted.

    In common with other earnest characters of northern Ohio, Mr. Howe became much interested in the representations of Joseph Smith and his Mormon followers, who, with Kirtland as their headquarters, attempted to establish themselves and their religion in that part of the state. These fanatics made their appearance in 1830, and in 1834 Mr. Howe published his book entitled "Mormonism Unveiled," which conclusively fixed the real author of the Book of Mormon in the person of Solomon Spalding. Eight reliable witnesses testified that the original records purporting to have been found inscribed on gold plates buried in the ground were substantially the manuscripts written by Mr. Spalding twenty years before and intended by the author to be published as a romance. These witnesses stated that Spalding, who was a minister and graduate from Dartmouth College, had written several other manuscripts. Fifty years after the publication of Howe's book the Mormons came into possession of one of those other manuscripts, and published it in pamphlet form for general circulation, to show that it bore no resemblance to the "Book of Mormon," assuming that it was the only manuscript Spalding ever wrote, notwithstanding the testimony of his neighbors to the contrary. It is undeniable that Mr. Howe's book had much to do with the subsequent migration of the Mormons westward, and formed but one of the many evidences of his ability, determination and force of character. His death occurred November 10, 1885.

    His religious experience and belief are best told in his own words: "Up to the age of forty, like a large share of the human family, I was governed in my opinions on that subject (religion) by education and all the surrounding influences under which it was my fortune to be placed. I resolved to investigate the whole question of the hereafter, if any. The result was I became a skeptic. Thus, up to the advent of modern Spiritualism, which came in its own time and its own way. In this I believed and still believe."

    Eber D. Howe married Miss Sophia Hull, born in 1800, daughter of Warren Hull, of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, a Revolutionary soldier. She died in 1866, mother of six children, of whom three died in infancy. The only daughter, Minerva, was born July 8, 1827, and is the widow of Franklin Rogers, of Vermont, whom she married December 19, 1844. Her husband died in Painesville, June 13, 1884, and five children were born to their union: Helen M., August 4, 1846; Elvene, August 1, 1848, who died May 17, 1892; Lillie D., August 20, 1853, Frank Wilton, October 17, 1855; and Fred Howe, December 30, 1859. Mrs. Minerva H. Rogers, the mother of this family, is a bright lady of strong memory, fully alive to current happenings, whether in her own community or in the world at large, and presents a striking example of physical and mental vitality -- albeit, she is in her eighty-third year and is the great-grandmother of three, and the grandmother of twelve (ten living).

    Edmund Dudley Howe, the eldest son, who was born in 1829 and died in 1849, was a young man of remarkable ability and promise. In 1847-8 he was a student at Oberlin College, but was obliged to leave school on account of declining health. Although he passed away before attaining his majority he had already become well known as a forcible opponent of slavery.

    Orville Duane Howe, the third born, obtained an academic education at Painesville and Oberlin; taught school and farmed in his youth and early manhood; became active in Republican politics and, as stated, served his constituents in various county offices of prominence, and in 1871, when forty years of age, settled on the Nebraska farm on which he still resides with the family of his son. In the early seventies he experienced successive and destructive visitations of grasshoppers, scorching winds and droughts, but emerged from these visitations with credit and prosperity. He is now chiefly engaged in the raising of apples and has about forty acres in orchards.

    On December 20, 1861, Mr. Howe married, at Warren, Illinois, Miss Mary Elizabeth Pcjxxm, who was born at Painesville in 1831. daughter of Silas and Mary (Benedict) Pepoon. Her parents were of a family of French Huguenots who were expelled from Corsica by the edict of Nantes. Sirs. Howe, who died in 1903. was educated at Painesville Academy and was a lady of great refinement and originality, being the author of many poems and prose articles. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Orville D. Howe. Edmund Dudley Howe, the son, was born in Warren, Illinois, on the 24th of September, 1802. In 1887 he graduated from the civil engineering department of the University of Nebraska, with the degree of B. C. E.. and has been engaged in farming and professional work. He is at present county surveyor and a resident of Table Rock, Pawnee county, Nebraska. His wife, whom he married in 1896, was formerly Miss Mary Viggers. a native of London, England. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Orville D. Howe was Myrta Eunice, born in Painesville, December 6, 1868, and at the time of her death in Table Rock, October 8, 1904, was quite widely known as a talented musician....




                                    HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                 1023


    Charlotte Coe Kummel. -- Charlotte Florence Coe, who, on June 20, 1899, married Dr. Henry B. Kummel, since 1902 state geologist of New Jersey, is a daughter of Henry Hayes and Lucy A. Coe. Her father, who died in Painesville, in 1908. was one of the prominent business men and public leaders of the city, and her grandfather, Rev. David L. Coe, was one of the pioneer educators and clergymen of the Western Reserve. In fact, four lines of her family radiated from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and brought their intellectual and moral influences to bear upon the best development of the Western Reserve in its formative periods....

    David Hinckley, Mrs. Kummel's greatgreat-grandfather, resided in Wellington, Connecticut, and served in the Revolutionary war from that colony. He died at that place in 1835, and his wife in 1809, parents of two sons and three daughters. Benjamin, who married Susanna Davis, came to the Western Reserve in 1813. The two families of the party were transported from Buffalo, along the shores of Lake Erie, in two wagons drawn by a yoke of oxen and a span of horses. As nothing but the absolute necessities were taken one of the babies of the party was snugly cradled in the huge brass kettle of the times. From Fairport the little caravan proceeded to Chardon, breaking down in the mud about five miles north of that village, whence the women and children proceeded on horseback. Susan, the daughter of Benjamin Hinckley, who headed one of the families, was then six years of age. Mr. Hinckley proceeded from Chardon to Hiram and Hiram Rapids, where he definitely located the two square miles of firelands, which he had purchased from the Connecticut Company and which he fortunately found to be fertile and valuable. As he was a graduate of Yale College, the care of his lands by no means occupied his time; for he not only taught the first common school in Hiram but tutored such likely youths as Joshua R. Giddings, Elisha Whittlesey and (Judge) Newton, of Mahoning county, who traveled over many miles of wilderness to study with him. Both Benjamin Hinckley and his wife are buried at Hiram. Susan Hinckley, already mentioned, married Ariel Proctor, of an old New Hampshire family, and became the maternal grandmother of Mrs. Kummel. She was the mother of nine children; was well educated and partook of the intellectual brilliancy of her father, dying at Hiram, aged eighty-four. Lucy A., the eldest daughter, was, as stated, the mother of Mrs. Kummel. She was born at Hiram, September 4, 1828; was educated at Grand River Institute, Austinburg; taught school for a number of years: passed an honored married life of nearly fifty years in Painesville, and is still a most respected pioneer of that city....




                                    HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                 1099


    Cheney J. Moore was born at his present home in Mantua Center on April 11, 1839, and he is a member of one of the first families to seek a home in this part of the Western Reserve. In his early boyhood he attended the district school nearest his home, was then in school at Kent for one winter, and completed his educational training in the Hiram Eclectic Institute, of which James A. Garfield was then the president. Leaving that institution of learning in 1859 he returned to the farm, and here he has since lived and labored.

    Jason Moore, the father of Cheney J., was born in Southwick, Massachusetts, August 31, 1798, and was one of the old-time physicians of this section of the state. He was one of the seven children born to Samuel and Eunice Root (Gillett) Moore. Samuel Moore was born in Simsbury, Connecticut, May 24, 1764, and was a son of Joseph Moore, who lived in Grandby, that state. Samuel and Eunice Moore and their seven children drove through to Mantua in 1806 in a wagon drawn by oxen and a span of horses, and they brought with, them a cow. Six weeks were consumed in this journey, the family in the meantime sleeping in their wagon, and en route they passed through Warren when it contained but one house. This section of the country was then a dense wilderness, infested with hungry wolves and other wild animals, and only a few houses here and there marked its progress toward civilization. Perley Moore, one of the daughters of this family, is recorded in the annals of the early history of this community as furnishing the pillow of feathers with which Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered in this state. Samuel Moore died on November 3, 1816, and was laid to rest with others of the




    1100                                 HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                


    early and honored pioneers of Portage county, while on October 10, 1850, his wife Eunice followed him to the grave.

    Jason Moore, one of the seven children mentioned above, was a boy of eight at the time of the westward emigration of his parents in 1806, and he was prominently identified with much of the early history of Portage county and the Western Reserve. He helped to bury the first white person who died in this section. Studying medicine in the office of Dr. Deo Wolf, of Ravenna, he became a competent and successful physician and practiced in his own town and surrounding country for fifty years and more. He married on November 20, 1833, Christiana Ingell, who was born in Chester, Massachusetts, March 27, 1808, and both are now deceased, the husband dying on March 23, 1887, and the wife on February 18, 1901.

    Cheney J. Moore married on November 20, 1862, in Mantua, Adelucia B. Ferguson. Her father, Alva Ferguson, was born in Blanford, Massachusetts, and married for his first wife Amanda Doolittle, and for his second, Betsy Hawkins, she being the mother of Mrs. Moore. Her paternal grandfather, John Ferguson, died in 1814 from wounds received in the war of 1812. Her maternal grandfather, John Hawkins, born in Connecticut, April 20, 1775, married Acenath Pease, and they came from Enfield, Connecticut, to Mantua, Ohio, many years before the birth of Mrs. Moore. Three children have been born to Cheney J. and Adelucia Moore. Henry L., the eldest, was born October 9, 1863, on the old Moore farm in Portage county, and on July 5, 1905, he married Addie Gardener. Frank C. Moore, born October 27, 1866, married on June 1, 1898, at Chagrin Falls, Ohio, Carrie L. Dean, and their two children are Bernard L., born May 9, 1899, and Treva E., born July 20. 1903. Amaret A. Moore, born January 19, 1875, married William N. Herbert on February 14, Kjoo, and their three children are: John Cheney, born December 5. 1900; Aland Amaret, April 18, 1904; and Roger William, March 6, 1907. Mr. Moore politically was reared in the faith of the Republican party, but he has since taken up the cause of Prohibition. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist church.






                                    HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                 1165


    ...
    A son of Freeborn Matteson, Major Matteson was born October 10, 1799, in Shaftsbury,Vermont, and there spent the earlier years of his life. He married, while living in Bennington county, his native place, Patience Matteson, whose birth occurred July 4, 1800. In 1834 Major Matteson and his family came to Ohio, locating in Hiram, Portage county, in the very house from which Rigdon and Smith, Mormons, were taken by the mob that tarred and feathered them. They subsequently moved to a place near the present Matteson homestead, and the following year bought the farm now owned and occupied by their son Gordon. They improved the land, and carried on general farming the remainder of their lives, the Major dying December 21, 1872, while his wife, who preceded him to the better land, passed away May 13, 1861. They were the parents of four children, two of whom were born in Vermont, and the other two in Ohio....






                                    HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                 1245


    James Henry Stevens is a prominent and successful farmer of Portage county, and resides on the farm which was his birthplace. He was born August 31, 1862, and is a son of William Wallace and Catherine (Hutchinson) Stevens. He is grandson of Jude Stevens and great-grandson of John Stevens, of Chester. Massachusetts. Jude Stevens was born July 31, 1788, in Chester, Massachusetts, and married July 13. 1815. at Chester, Polly T. Ayres, born in Chester, December 10, 1788. He had seven children and came to the Western Reserve in 1833, with his family. One of his sons, Henry Homer, born December 20, 1823, in Chester, Massachusetts, died October 22, 1904, and is further mentioned elsewhere in this work [on p. 738 as husband of Ellen S. Hine of Ravenna]. The only living child of this union is Permelia Sophia, the youngest, who was married June 8, 1854, to James A. Alcorn, by whom she had no children. She lives with her nephew, James H. Stevens.

    William Wallace Stevens was born October 9, 1821, in Chester, Massachusetts, and was twelve years of age when he came west with his parents. He married, in Mantua, Catherine, daughter of Orin Hutchinson, and they had six children, only two of whom survive, James H. and Mary Ellen. The latter married Frank E. Dilley, April 20, 1905, and they have one child, William Stevens Dilley, born December 10, 1906. Mr. Stevens came west with his parents by way of the Erie canal, and crossed the lake from Cleveland. They purchased a farm at Kirkland [sic - Kirtland] and later traded farms with John Johnson, a Mormon, who wanted to get near the Mormon Temple. The present home of James H. Stevens was said to be the place where the Mormon Bible was written by Joseph Smith, and from this house Mr. Smith was taken and tarred and feathered in the back yard; Sidney Rigdon was treated similarly at the same time.

    James Henry Stevens attended the district schools of Hiram, attended Garrettsville high school, and then spent two years at Hiram College, while President Hinsdale officiated in that institution. Returning home, he took up farming, which has since been his occupation. He married in Mantua, November 21, 1883, Jennie Burnett, born January 12, 1860. ...

    (remainder of text not transcribed)




    (Excerpts from Volume 3)
    comments



                                    HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                 1729


    Glenn Hyde Raymond, a well known farmer of Hiram township, Portage county, was born at Hiram, Ohio, on August 13, 1877, and is a son of Nelson F. and Mary (Hyde) Raymond. The Raymond family is of such ancient French origin that its genealogy may be traced back to 790. Linguists find the origin of the name both in the French word "rai," or beam, and the Latin word of the same meaning, "raimundus." Paul Raymond, the great-greatgrandfather of Glenn II., and son of Paul and Tabitha Raymond, of Salem, Massachusetts, was born in that town May 12, 1732, and married Abigail Jones, a native of Weston, that state, who was born April 6, 1734. Their union occurred in November, 1755, and they became the parents of nine children. Their son Silas was twice married -- first, in November, 1796, to Ruth Stone, who died December 25, 1806, the mother of six children; and secondly to Clarissa Fitch, daughter of Elijah and Mary Mason, of Hartford, Vermont. This marriage occurred October 6, 1807. The son Silas by the first union was also one of six children and was born at Marlboro, Vermont, on February 26, 1799. In May, 1826, he married Rebecca Pitkin, of Hiram, Ohio, by whom he had eleven children.

    Silas Raymond (Sr.) came to the Western Reserve from Connecticut in 1816, starting with an ox team on October 16 and arriving at Buffalo on the 16th of the following month. He first made his home with Elijah Mason and family, working out and assisting in the clearing of the road between Hiram and Freedom. He was an honest, hard-working, economical and thrifty man, and cleared and placed under thorough cultivation two farms -- the Raymond farm, upon which he settled after his marriage in 1826, and the homestead upon which he died, between Garrettsville and Hiram. Although he made a trip to Hartford, Connecticut, on foot in 1825, it was for purposes of business and pleasure, rather than because he had any idea of abandoning the west as a home. He had given his brother, Charles Raymond, the choice of the two farms which he had cleared, and after his marriage he settled with his young wife on what is still known as the Raymond farm. At first they lived in a log cabin, but in 1836 the husband and father erected a larger and more convenient residence, as well as a commodious barn. Silas Raymond was not only a successful farmer, but was a leader in all the local events which agitated the community. He was especially positive regarding the harmful workings of the Mormon doctrines, and always spoke with pride of his participation in the tarring and feathering of Joe Smith and his right-hand prophet, Rigdon, which occurred on the old Stevens farm, Mr. Raymond being one of those who furnished the tar pot. This useful and hardy pioneer died at Hiram November 11, 1881, and his wife had preceded him March 9, 1878.

    Silas Raymond's third child, Sophronia Stone, never married, and died deeply lamented by all who knew her, passing away in 1908. Her life was an inspiring example of helpfulness, patience and love, and her constant cheerfulness, always unruffled by the trials which came to her, was an uplifting influence to all her relatives and friends. Her mortal remains are buried in the Raymond family lot at Park cemetery, Garrettsville, and it is a natural sequence of her life that her memory should be cherished and revered by all who came within the sphere of her strong and loving womanhood.

    Nelson F. Raymond was the tenth of the eleven children born to Silas and Rebecca (Pitkin) Raymond, his birthplace being the old Raymond homestead and the clay. September 30, 1841. He received His education in his native town, spent his boyhood on his father's farm, and when a young man assisted a brother in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they engaged in the manufacture of carriages. Two years later he returned to Hiram in very ill health, and in 1869 purchased the farm upon which he spent the remainder of his life. After patiently enduring almost constant pain for two years, he passed away on February 13, 1907.




    1730                                 HISTORY  OF  THE  WESTERN  RESERVE                                


    The deceased was universally honored, and had earned the firmest confidence and the deepest esteem of his near associates, He is buried in the Raymond lot, Park cemetery, Garrettsville. His wife, whom he married December 28, 1871, was Miss Mary Hyde, daughter of Daniel and Rebecca Hyde, of Farmington, Trumbull county, Ohio, and was born on November 23, 1844. She is a faithful member of the Disciples' church at Hiram, as was her beloved husband for thirty-five years before his death.

    Glenn Hyde Raymond, only child of this worthy couple, received his education at the Hiram district school and college, leaving his studies in 1897 to assist his father in the work of the home farm. At the death of the latter he assumed the management of the estate, "The Maples," and has continued his successful labors as an up-to-date agriculturist and an enterprising, worthy citizen. On December 10, 1903, at Windham, Ohio, Mr. Raymond married Miss Florence Eleanor Thomas, and they have become the parents of two children: Thomas Myron, born at Akron, Ohio, September 26, 1904, and Wells Nelson, born at his present home, July 5, 1906. Mrs. Raymond is a daughter of David John Thomas, and was born at Pans, Portage county, Ohio. April 16, 1884. Her father is a native of Youngstown, Ohio, born March 28, 1859, and his wife (nee Mary A. Evans) whom he married at Paris, May 25, 1882, was born at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 13, 1863. She is a daughter of Samuel D. and Eleanor Thomas Evans, both of whom were born in Wales in 1828 and 1837, respectively. Mrs. Raymond was their only child. Her grandfather, Samuel S. Thomas, was a native of Wales, where he was born in 1832, coming to Paris when only thirteen years of age. On November 30, 1853, he wedded Miss Catherine Bowen, also a native of Wales, the ceremony occurring at the old Wick home, on Wick avenue. Youngstown. There were eight sons of this union. Mrs. Raymond's great-grandfather, John W. Thomas, was one of the first settlers of Paris, Ohio, previously living in Tallmadge, Ohio, for two years after coming to America from Wales and is known to have owned the first mowing machine in Paris township. Thomas Bowen, the greatgrandfather on the maternal side, fought with the British army at the battle of Waterloo, and there, as on other historic battlefields, the Welsh soldiers acquitted themselves to the high honor of their country and rugged ancestry.


    Note 1: Upton's entry for "Glenn Hyde Raymond" provides the name for his father (Nelson F. Raymond) and his grandfather (Silas Raymond, Jr.) but gives no information on his cousin, Silas H. Raymond (Silas, 3rd.). Silas H. was encountered in 1902 by LDS missionaries, as is related in Nels B. Lundwall's 1952 Fate of the Persecutors, page 71, where the Elder John D. Barber's 1948 statement is reproduced. Barber testifies that Silas H. Raymond was in possession of the tar bucket and lantern supposedly used during the 1832 tarring and feathering of Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon. Barber's statement identifies Silas H.'s father as a self-confessed "leader" in that assault.

    Note 2: Another source that names Silas Raymond, Jr. as a participant in the 1832 tarring and feathering incident is Laura L. Pitkin Kimball, a plural wife of Heber C. Kimball and sister of the "Rebecca Pitkin" who married Silas, Jr. See her "Autobiography of Sister Laura L. Kimball," in the Deseret News of Nov. 28, 1866.

    Note 3: Silas Raymond, Jr.'s confession of a leadership role in the tarring and feathering assault probably came late in his life. Life-long Hiram resident Mary Ellen S. Dilley wrote in 1909 that "Great secrecy was maintained by those engaged in this raid. In fact it has been stated, no doubt with truth, that the grandchildren of the men engaged in it know more about it than did their own children, for as these men grew old and more reminiscent there was less and less reason for maintaining secrecy." Abram Garfield, whose family had roots in Hiram, evidently wrote in 1934 that Silas Raymond, Jr.'s older brother Charles ("Charlie") Raymond was a leading figure in the 1832 assault: but Garfield's semi-fictional account does not always present accurate historical details.





    History of the Disciples
    of Christ in Ohio

    by Alanson Wilcox

    Cincinnati: Standard, 1918


  • Title Page
  • pg. 40: Restoration Movement - Western Reserve
  • pg. 48: Evangelism on the Western Reserve
  • pg. 169: Campbellites in 1833

  • transcriber's comments



  • A History of the Disciples
    of Christ in Ohio




    BY
    ALANSON  WILCOX




                      ERRATA Page 36: Picture of Edwin Wakefield is misnamed; does not belong.

    Page 271 : Pictures top row, left to right, should read:
          1. Mrs. A. M. Atkinson; 2. Mrs. R. R. Sloan.
    Second line:
          1. Mrs. Lois White MacLeod; 2. Mrs. M. M. B. Goodwin.






    CINCINNATI
    THE STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY




    [40]



    V

    THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT AND THE
    WESTERN RESERVE

    The Western Reserve includes eleven counties in northeastern Ohio. Before the Revolutionary War, Connecticut claimed lands reaching far west. After the formation of the United States Government, she ceded all her lands to the United States except three million acres, in what is now northeastern Ohio. Originally this tract was called "The Connecticut Western Reserve." Later the word "Connecticut" was dropped off, and it is now known as "The Western Reserve." It was settled mostly by people from New England. The original lands were surveyed into townships five miles square. At the center of each township a village grew up. Schools and churches were planted, and business establishments were started. Our Pilgrim forefathers came from England via Holland, and were home missionaries. They were planters of churches, the founders of schools and foreign missionary societies. The settlers of the Western Reserve brought their religion with them, so that in nearly every township of the Reserve was planted a Congregationalist church. In the early part of the nineteenth century Baptist and Methodist churches sprang up and later all kinds of religious and infidel fads.




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    In 1820 the Mahoning Baptist Association was formed. The constitution declares: "It is our object to glorify God." After stating items in their creed, it closes by saying: "Finally, we believe the Holy Scriptures to be the only certain rule of faith and practice." Each church was left, also, to form its own creed. Calvinism prevailed. The human creeds would not stay fixed. The association had sixteen churches. In 1826 Wellsburg (Va.) Church was received into the association. Alexander Campbell was one of the messengers from Wellsburg Church to the Mahoning Baptist Association. The letter of introduction discriminated between the Jewish and Christian portions of the Bible, and repudiated all human authority over the churches, and really contained the germs of our Restoration movement. Bro. Campbell frequently visited the ministerial meetings of the association. In 1823 the Christian Baptist was started and circulated in the association churches. The discussion between Walker and Campbell was read. Also the McCalla and Campbell debate. And so a leavening influence was going on. The Scripture motto of the Christian Baptist was: "Style no man on earth your Father; for he alone is your Father who is in heaven; and all ye are brethren. Assume not the title of Rabbi; for ye have only one teacher; neither assume the title of leader, for ye have only one leader, the Messiah" (Matt. 23:8, 9).




    Elder Walter Scott  (from page 181)

    The association met in New Lisbon in 1827. At this meeting Walter Scott was chosen as evangelist. A sentiment had been growing in the association that they should repudiate human creeds as authoritative and follow the Scriptures.




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    In the fall of that year he held a successful meeting at New Lisbon, and, for the first time in modern times, presented the Scriptural plan of the forgiveness of sin. Nearly all of the churches of the association repudiated their human creeds and accepted Christ as their creed and the Scriptures to guide them in all matters of faith and worship. The Mantua Church was the first to completely take apostolic grounds, as their declaration was made in the fore part of 1827, and the New Lisbon movement was in the latter part of 1827.

    The restoration of the primitive gospel movement spread rapidly. They pleaded for a return to apostolic teaching and practice. They baptized believers on profession of their faith in Christ for remission of sins. They met the first day of every week to attend to the Lord's Supper. They made offerings every first day for self-support and for a relief fund. This relief fund offering for the poor is kept up in some of the oldest churches to this time. They called themselves individually disciples of Christ, or Christians. In a collective capacity they desired to be known as "churches of Christ." They thought they had the only ground of Christian unity for which Christ prayed. They called on all believers to come out of Babylon and to restore original Christianity. They adopted all that Luther and other Protestants advocated which was Scriptural, but protested that they had not gone far enough. It was not so much reformation that was needed as restoration of original apostolic teaching. They tried to break away from all human religious shackles. They repudiated the title of "Reverend" for their




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    ministers. Instead of Sabbath or Sunday, they used the "first day of the week" or "Lord's day." They tried to speak of Scriptural things in Scriptural language. They discriminated between opinions and faith, and held that faith and the obedience of faith brought the joy of salvation. They held that opinions would neither save nor damn a person. They were to receive one another without reference to opinions, and opinions must not be bound on others as tests of fellowship. The old association meetings were continued as evangelistic meetings till they grew so large that they were unwieldy and were mostly abandoned. Isaac Errett was the first settled minister in this new order of things, first at New Lisbon and later at Warren.



    Almon B. Green  (picture on pg. 181)

    Men, women and young people did as in apostolic times -- they went everywhere preaching the Word. They carried the New Testament with them in forest, field and family. They were compelled to hold many discussions. Alexander Campbell debated in Cleveland with the infidel Irad Kelly. Isaac Errett debated with the Spiritualist Tiffany, at Warren. James A. Garfield discussed with the infidel Denton, at Chagrin Falls; Marshall Wilcox with the Universalist at Medina; A. B. Green with Methodists in several places, and one disputant, to ridicule him, got off the couplet:
    "Ho, every son and daughter,
    Here is the gospel in the water."
    To which Bro. Green aptly replied:
    "Ho, every son and wench,
    Here is the gospel on the bench."
    Jasper Moss met all kinds of opponents, and they called him the "Rasping Wasp" instead




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    of "Jasper Moss." Opposition has largely ceased, and denominationalism is loving and lulling the disciples into quietude. Perhaps some have lost their aggressive spirit. Their attention is called to the disciples' claim that they hold the only possible ground of Christian unity for which Jesus prayed, and this was originally one of the chief features of the Restoration movement. They asked believers in Christ to come out of Babylon and sectarianism. While many joined in with the disciples in the Restoration movement, they were only asked to lay aside their human appendages and give full obedience to Jesus Christ in baptism, and all other things, and we would all be one, as Jesus prayed. They taught that the people were not to come to them, but to lay aside all humanisms in coming to Christ, and then we would all be one people, as Jesus prayed.

    For their own good and edification, and the progress of restoration, the early churches became Bible schools for old and young. The elders of the churches became preachers of the gospel. After twenty years of experience and enthusiasm for original Christianity, aids to the movement were adopted. In 1844 Bible schools were started, and the D. S. Burnet Library of fifty volumes was produced. In 1850, Hiram College was planted. In order to strengthen existing churches and plant new ones, the Ohio Christian Missionary Society was started in 1852. At first the churches were in rural districts, and they builded small meeting-houses. Now larger houses are built, with Bible-school appliances. City churches are now flourishing. In 1866 the Christian Standard was started at




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    Cleveland, and is now the largest religions paper published, has the largest circulation, and is the most influential religious paper in all the world.

    This greatest of world movements since the apostolic age could not be confined to the Western Reserve. Tradition says that when Christ died his face was turned to the west. This Restoration movement looked westward. Other movements, as in Kentucky, amalgamated with this movement and joined common interests, and the plea went to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, California and aU the world.

    In 1830, Mormonism was rampant on the Reserve, and a big temple was builded at Kirtland, and stands there to-day as a monument of folly. Sidney Rigdon, an eloquent minister, joined in with them and is supposed to have had a hand in preparing the Book of Mormon.

    In 1843, Millerism prevailed, and the disciples preached on the coming of Christ. Alexander Campbell, commencing 1830, published the Millennial Harbinger for forty years. Some of the early elders studied the Greek language in order to read the Scriptures in the original tongue. Alexander Campbell revised and published a new translation of the New Testament. He entitled it "The Living Oracles." This was used in family worship and often in the pulpit. In 1851, Spiritualism carried off a few disciples. Music was a great power in carrying on the Restoration movement. The Haydens were great singers. John Henry played on many different instruments, and was a martial band-leader, and gave his great musical ability to the churches. So the forefathers read and prayed and sang and worked, and led the greatest movement in




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    the history of Christianity since the apostolic age.

    The minutes of the Mahoning Association were well kept, and are now in the Hiram College vaults.

    The disciples on the Western Reserve are gathered into 100 congregations, and there are 104 active and retired ministers.










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    Elder Darwin Atwater





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    VI

    EVANGELISM ON THE WESTERN RESERVE

    B. S. DEAN, a pioneer, writes:

    "Down to 1827 the Campbells seem to have planted only two churches -- the mother church at Brush Run, and her eldest daughter at Wellsburg. The latter had fifty-six members, the former probably never so many. It is doubtful whether they had baptized two hundred people between 1809 and 1827. Their fundamental plea was for the union of God's people. The nature of that plea determined its direction. It was not addressed primarily to the unsaved, but to those in the kingdom. A restored and re-united church would be the most effective evangelizing agency. Here and there an existing church had laid aside its human creed and taken the Scriptures as its only rule of faith and practice.

    "The earliest action of the kind in Ohio, so far as I know, was that of the Nelson-Hiram-Mantua Church in Hiram, Aug. 21, 1824. But, down to 1827, we look in vain in the pages of the Christian Baptist for any indication of evangelism, either in editorials or reports from the field. There are powerful destructive editorials, and great constructive editorials on 'The Christian Religion,' 'Christian Union,' 'The Work




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    of the Holy Spirit in the Salvation of Men,' and 'The Ancient Order of Things.' But there is nothing to indicate that Mr. Campbell had ever thought through the subject of New Testament evangelism. Their work was not primarily evangelistic. It is an interesting question what would have been the fortunes of the movement had not other men of a different type arisen.

    "Walter Scott Supplements Alexander Campbell.

    "Every historical crisis draws to itself or develops men of varied and supplementary gifts. Not otherwise was it with the Restoration of the nineteenth century. Alexander Campbell was easily the master mind, the creative personality of the movement, and it heightens rather than dims the luster of his fame that the cause he set on foot had power to draw to itself men who, in certain respects, surpassed and happily supplemented him. Facile princeps among these was Walter Scott. A Scotchman by birth and education, the Restoration found him at Pittsburgh. From their first meeting in 1821 the two men became a veritable Paul and Timothy. Both were of lofty intellectuality, both gifted with rare eloquence -- Campbell with the eloquence of sublime reasoning; Scott with the eloquence of imagination and human sympathy. Scott was thus fitted to become the Whitfield of the Restoration.

    "The Mahoning Association Appoints Scott Its Traveling Evangelist.

    "The association met in 1827 at Lisbon, just off the Reserve. Thirteen of its sixteen churches




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    were represented. From Youngstown, Canfield and Salem went my grandfather, Samuel Hayden, and my uncles, Myron Sackett and Arthur Hayden. My father was appointed a messenger from Canfield, but could not go. From Wellsburg went Alexander Campbell. Sidney Rigdon and Walter Scott were visiting ministers, as were several from the Christian Connection. The epoch-making action of the association was taken in response to a memorial sent up from the Braceville Church asking that a traveling evangelist might be appointed. All the ministers present were appointed a committee to select a man and report. The result was the appointment of Scott. The action was unprecedented. Several of the committee were not Baptists. Scott himself was neither a Baptist, nor known to any save Campbell; yet he was sent forth at the charges of the association. Our history shows that this was a most wise selection.

    "The Field.

    "Ten of the sixteen churches were in Western Reserve counties, four in Columbiana County, and one in western Pennsylvania and one in western Virginia. It was a region of farms and scattered villages. Cleveland had less than five thousand souls. The Reserve pioneers had inherited the best New England traditions; they were a reading people. They also inherited New England Calvinism, with its mystical notions of conversions. But, stimulated as the people were to eager inquiry by the Christian Baptist, the Campbell and Walker debate, and by a few personal visits of Mr. Campbell, the field was ripe for the harvest when Scott thrust in his sickle.




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    OUR ANNUS MIRABILIS.

    "Scott's study of the New Testament, and of popular methods of 'getting religion,' had led him to certain definite revolutionary convictions and practices. Sweeping aside current revival methods, such as the 'mourners' bench' and 'experience' as a test of conversion, he boldly preached that faith is not a direct gift of God, but comes by hearing the Word; conversion is not a miracle to be wrung from God by agonizing prayer; heaven does not need to be stormed to make God willing. He threw on the sinner the sole responsibility of accepting or rejecting Christ. Men are not to look to their own volatile emotions as the evidence of pardon, but to the sure promise: 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' To bring the gospel to the apprehension of the man behind the plow, he summarized the process of conversion from apos- tolic preaching thus: (1) Faith, (2) repentance, (3) baptism, (4) remission of sins, (5) gift of the Holy Spirit. His five-finger exercise on these items was as famous in its day as G. W. Muckley's five-finger formula on Church Extension. To such moderns as have never witnessed or experienced the mysticism of those days, Scott's generalization may seem mechanical. But it was effective. To hundreds of bewildered souls agonizing to get their feet on the rock, it broke like the light of heaven on the way of salvation. In the hands of small or unspiritual men it might degenerate into legalism; but with Scott 's wealth of Scriptural knowledge and spiritual insight his message was sublime in its very simplicity. Results were marvelous. In the sixteen churches




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    there had been only thirty-four conversions the previous year, and only 354 in the seven years of associational history. In the first year of Scott's evangelism there were nearly one thousand. The like had never been known anywhere on the Reserve. It was truly our annus mirabilis -- the beginning of evangelism in the Restoration.

    "Momentum of the Movement.

    "In 1828 the association met at Warren. The news of the continuous Pentecost spread from fireside to fireside. The meeting was a grand jubilee. Scott was continued as evangelist with William Hayden, a young minister, as assistant. The second year was even more fruitful. Adamson Bentley, the most influential man of the association, and all the younger men fell into line with the new-old evangel. Sowing and reaping continued a third year with like results. It was like the incoming of the ocean tide, sweeping the entire association into the current of restoration. In 1830, Scott left the Reserve, but the good work went on. Humbler men arose of limited education, but fine gifts and utter devotion; men who, following the plow, like Paul his tent-making, for daily bread, yet preached more sermons than the average minister then or now; men like William Hayden, who toiled to clear and cultivate his farm, yet averaged 260 sermons per year for thirty-five years, and baptized twelve hundred with his own hands. A host of such men did pioneer service: Adamson Bentley, John Henry (the 'walking Bible'), A. S. Hayden, A. B. Green, Harrison Jones, Aylette Raines, J. J. Moss, Cyrus and Marcus Bosworth, Jonas Hartzel, Isaac Errett, J. P. Robison, W. A. Belding,




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    Calvin Smith, Jolm T. Smith, Edwin Wakefield, Wesley Lanphear, Lathrop Cooley, and many others who mnst be nameless here. There were few protracted meetings. Three nights and over Sunday often resulted in twenty or thirty conversions. These preachers expected conversions at every service.

    "Then, the great yearly meetings which took the place of the annual associations won hundreds to the cause. People came by the thousand and long distances to hear the Campbells and other giants of the Restoration. Hospitality was taxed to the utmost. At a yearly meeting in Canfield in 1849 my father lodged 120 in his farmhouse and barns, and lunched double that number the noon the meeting broke up. The history of Christian evangelism furnishes no finer chapters than those which record the beginnings of the Restoration on the Western Reserve. But, in a sense, the strength of the evangelism was its weakness. In the first generation more churches were planted than could be cared for. Deaths, the tide of westward migration, the tremendous drain from country to city -- above all, lack of efficient shepherding -- were fatal to many congregations. Yet the momentum of the movement has never been lost. Of our 528 Ohio churches, with a little over 100,000 members, 53 churches, with 13,483 members, are within the four counties of the old Mahoning Association. The eleven Reserve counties contain 100 churches, with 24,682 members.

    "Evangelism to Date.

    "An extended correspondence warrants these conclusions:




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    "1. During the past generation new churches have been planted and old ones mightily strengthened by evangelistic meetings, with fruits up to two hundred.

    "2. During the past year (1915) there have been many meetings, with conversions ranging from twenty-five to one hundred.

    "3. Often the largest, and always the most permanent, fruits have been garnered by minister-evangelists.

    "4. One of our largest city churches reports that, during the present ministry of eleven years, 1,075 of the 1,125 accessions have come at the regular weekly ministrations. Yet

    "5. There is no marked tendency to abandon special evangelistic meetings. Nearly all the churches continue to employ them effectively. Eeports indicate that from 40 to 90 per cent, of conversions thus are gained.

    "6. There is dominant sentiment in favor of maintaining the evangelistic note at every service, supplemented by special meetings by the minister or neighboring ministers. While such meetings are not the exclusive reliance, they are not regarded as outworn agencies. The cause born of evangelism seems little disposed to disown its paternity."




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    Elder Matthew S. Clapp





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    VII

    PIONEER MINISTERS OF THE WESTERN RESERVE

    Bro. J. M. VanHorn writes as follows:

    "Every great religious movement has brought to public notoriety some great and noble men who manifested the highest heroism in their devotion to truth, and in loyalty to their convictions. The current Restoration is no exception to this rule. We think of our forefathers as giants in body and mind.

    "None of our pioneers were required to seal their testimony with their blood; but those who knew them and have written of them have little doubt but that most of them would have laid down their lives for the truth they preached. It has required as great heroism to live for the gospel as to die for it. It has been said 'that the true martyr spirit has been displayed by many whose blood never was shed as really as those who died at the stake, or whose life-current stained the sands of the arena.' I feel sure that such spirit characterized the pioneers of our movement. They must, therefore, live in history and in the hearts of the people for the good of all who shall follow them.

    "There is nothing that can help life like life itself.




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    "To study thoughtfully some rare and crystal character, to analyze and understand, if possible, the principles that made and controlled it, is the surest way to have the low and ugly seK transformed into the likeness of it.

    "For this reason the Bible is largely the record of great lives. The life of Jesus is more to the world than his teachings. 'In him was life, and the life was the light of men.' So it is that we do well to perpetuate the lives of our heroes, who are the highest reflection of the light of Christ.

    "Among the pioneers who preached on the Western Reserve must be named some of the most distinguished ministers known to the brotherhood of the disciples.

    "Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, A. S. Hayden, Isaac Errett, J. H. Jones, Wesley Lanphear, John Henry, Adamson Bentley, Jonas Hartzel, William Hayden, Calvin Smith, J. J. Moss, Edwin Wakefield, Lathrop Cooley, T. J. Newcomb, M. S. Clapp, W. A. Belding, Leonard Southmayd, J. F. Rowe, W. A. Lillie. These men may be divided into two classes: first, those who were highly educated; second, those who were then called 'self-made men.'

    "No one can read our literature, in which we find so many discourses and public discussions, without being impressed with the great treasures of learning and eloquence which those of the first class brought to the Restoration in which they were the great leaders. And as the Western Reserve was, perhaps more than any other region, the theater of the earliest theological conflicts of the Restoration movement, nearly all the men foremost in scholarship were seen and heard within its borders. The 'yearly meetings' early




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    established brought to the ears and hearts of the people such eloquent and able speakers as Alexander Campbell, D. S. Burnet, Walter Scott, Isaac Errett, O. A. Burgess, J. A. Garfield, H. W. Everest, and A. S. and Wm. Hayden, who had tremendous power in appealing to the intellect and reason, and convincing the judgment. But along with these, on most occasions, were those of the second class, who, while 'self-made,' were very able, having well mastered the teachings of the scholars, and, with native genius and passion and eloquence, some of them far surpassing the most learned -- these were needed to move to action people who had been convinced, and often great numbers were swept into the kingdom by the persuasive eloquence and touching pathos of such men as Harrison Jones, Wesley Lanphear, Jonas Hartzel, and others. I have heard some of the leaders, of a later day, say that sometimes after such men as Campbell and Errett had spoken in their most convincing and powerful appeals, and the song of invitation had been sung, not one responding, that Harrison Jones would be called on to address the multitude, and in response to his towering, overmastering eloquence and hortatory pathos, scores would press their way to the front to confess Christ.

    "Some of these men were strong in contending for 'the faith,' and were constantly in discussion with men who were confident that the new doctrine which they preached was heresy. They had to fight for their position, which was constantly being challenged, and publicly and privately were often in debate. The pioneers were all fighters. Garfield once said: 'The first chapter




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    (pages 60-66 not transcribed)








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    IX

    GREAT LEADERS


    1799 -- William Hayden -- 1863

    William Hayden, companion of Walter Scott in his early labors as evangelist of the Mahoning Baptist Association, was a man of rare gifts: with a good physique, strong intellect, tender emotional nature, clear voice and fluent speech, he commanded attention at once and held it closely both in sermon and song. He was a logical reasoner, and pressed the claims of the gospel upon thinking men with convincing power and a pathos that was well-nigh irresistible. He used to say: "If I wish to convert a man, I never debate with him in public, but get as near to him as I can and kindly talk with him in private and bring his mind into personal contact with the gospel story of Jesus and His divine mission. But if a man is bold and defiant, like Goliath, and is leading people astray, then I will floor him if I can." And he could and often did, for he was quick in action and always had his cause and argument well in hand. He was especially strong in the internal evidences, and in miracles and prophecy.

    He went to a village on the Western Reserve to preach on a Lord's Day, and was entertained at night at the home of a good sister, whose husband




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    was an infidel, but very hospitable. In the early evening he introduced the subject of the claims of the Bible upon the rational confidence of men, and drew from his kind host a statement of his objections to Christianity. As he presented them one at a time, Hayden, with utmost frankness and fairness, discussed them and refuted them so clearly that the objector surrendered them one after another, regardless of the fleeting hours of the night. As the morning dawn appeared in the east, he said: "Have you any further objections to urge?" "Only one more," was the reply. It was stated and completely answered, and his candid opponent surrendered. Quickly he asked: "What, then, will you do?" As promptly the response came: "I will confess Christ and follow Him. "And he did, and was a faithful Christian all the rest of his long life and blessed the world with an excellent family.

    On another occasion, in a community where skepticism was prevalent and boastful, Wm. Hayden preached a sermon on the miracles of Jesus -- publicly performed, of great number, variety and beneficence, and wrought immediately, instantaneously and without failure in a single instance: so evidencing the divine power and prerogative of our Lord. It flashed upon him that skeptics claimed that miracles of a similar character were wrought by mesmerism and other powers. He turned suddenly toward the objectors and said: "What do men say to all of this?' What do they do? They say, 'Put a man to sleep and take his leg off and he doesn't know it.' Humph! Take a man's leg off! That's nothing. Put a man's leg on once. Try that." His hearers caught the point and the scoffers were put to




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    silence by the forceful reply. William Hayden once said that his brother Sutton, with his sweet voice, sang people into heaven, but he had kept many infidels from going to hell.

    He was born in Pennsylvania, and came to Ohio when four years old. In 1828 he was set apart to preach the gospel. During his ministry of thirty-five years he traveled ninety thousand miles, sixty thousand of which were on horseback, a distance of over three times round the world. He baptized 1,207, and preached over nine thousand sermons -- that is, 287 sermons a year -- and once he preached fifty sermons in the month of November. His industry was proverbial. He was incessant in preaching, teaching and in conversation -- in public and private. He created openings, occupied them, and when others could be found to hold the position, he broke new ground. He was the first man and the chief operator in raising up the churches in Ravenna, Aurora, Shalersville, Akron, Russell and several other places. He did all this work largely at his own expense. To perpetuate and carry on the work, he promoted the founding of the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute and the Ohio Christian Missionary Society. His converts were thorough and decided like himself. It is said that he could, from memory, almost reproduce the New Testament.

    1813 -- Calvin Smith -- 1859

    Calvin Smith was bom Oct. 30, 1813, in Vernon, O., and died at his home farm in Johnstown, near Cortland, Jan. 13, 1859. In 1837 he became a Christian under the preaching of John Henry. He soon became a preaching elder, as did many




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    others in those early days. He could declare the unsearchable riches of Christ with power. An old brother declared that he could listen with delight as often as he would deliver his sermon on "Man: 1. As He Was. 2. As He Is. 3. As He Shall Be." From 1844 to 1848 he visited many churches in northeast Ohio. On Nov. 30, 1848, he commenced his first protracted meeting four miles west of Cortland. The meeting was held in a schoolhouse where there was no organized congregation. Stormy weather reduced the audience to eight persons. On the sixth evening eighteen were present and there were four confessions. The meeting resulted in the organization of a church of thirty-five members. The church still exists, with a good membership, at Weirs Corners in Trumbull County, and they have a well-arranged house of worship. In 1852 he held a meeting at North Jackson, and Joseph King, then a young man teaching school, was baptized. Bro. King became a pastor of the church at Allegheny, Pa., now Pittsburgh, for twenty-one years. Smith made extensive trips eastward, to New England and westward beyond the Mississippi. He planted several churches in northwestern Ohio, as at Elmore and Kenton. It is said that often he would secure a shovel, go to a near-by stream, construct a dam, and, when asked what his object was, would say that he was going to hold a meeting and expected to baptize converts. Bro. Smith's work as an evangelist was of ten years' duration. It was brief, but brilliant and fruitful. In that ten years he had 1,536 converts and organized sixteen churches. At that stage of our history, eighty-five years ago, but few had surpassed these figures as evangelists.




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    1831 -- Clark Braden -- 1915

    Clark Braden was born Aug. 8, 1831, in Gustavus, Trumbull Co., O. He was immersed by Calvin Smith, Feb. 29, 1855, in Rome, Ashtabula Co., O. He was educated at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute at Hiram. He was a preacher nearly sixty years. He has been president of colleges in Ilinois and editor of the Herald of Truth. Some of the last months of his life were spent with his brother at Ravenna, O. He delivered more than three thousand lectures, speaking in nearly every State in the United States and Provinces of Canada. He held 130 debates. He debated with infidels, and held eighteen debates with Mormons and with religionists. He debated the action, subject and design of baptism; the work of the Holy Spirit; human creeds; justification by faith only; and church organization, soul-sleeping, kingdom-comism, Seventh-dayism and Universalism.

    During the last twenty years every prominent champion of infidelity has backed out of debating with Clark Braden. These statements were made at the veterans' camp-fire meeting in Pittsburgh in 1909. He said also: "I do rather avoid giving a challenge, but I have been selected by brethren: they have called upon me and I have responded and done my best in discussions. Another thing, when you get so very good and so very refined and cultured that you are unwilling to debate, you will know more than God Almighty, you are better than Jesus Christ, and purer than the Holy Spirit. The last six weeks of the Saviour's life was one strong debate, and he did some pretty plain talking too. Just so long as there




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    is error in the world, just so long as truth has to be defended, there will be discussion. Every reform was born in debate, rocked in the cradle of discussion and grew strong in the battle for that which is right. And when you become so cultured that you won't debate anything any time, you will be a saint among saints, and then leave the result of it to God."

    "After this stormy, strenuous life, I," said Braden, "sum it all up in this: that the supreme work of the followers of Christ is to learn the Christ teaching, live the Christ life, and grow in the Christ character in this life, and in the eternal life we shall be like Him and see Him as He is."

    (pages 72-88 not transcribed)






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    ....



    1837 -- B. A. Hinsdale -- 1900

    B. A. Hinsdale was born in Wadsworth, C, March 31, 1837, and passed from earth in Atlanta, Ga., Nov. 29, 1900. He was of New England parentage. He had an irresistible desire for scholarship. At the age of sixteen he entered the school at Hiram, and for thirty years was with the school as student and professor. He was a close and accurate scholar. He became a man of extensive information. He was elected president of Hiram College in 1870. In early manhood he made a profession of faith in Christ, and became a minister of the gospel and preached at Hiram, Painesville, Cleveland, and often spoke at the great annual meetings in northern Ohio. He lectured, preached, edited, talked and wrote books. In 1882 he was made superintendent of the schools in Cleveland. In 1888 he was called to the chair of the Science and Art of Teaching at Michigan University. Some of his published works are "The Genuineness and Authenticity of the Gospels," "The Jewish Christian Church," "Ecclesiastical Traditions," "Schools and Studies," "President Garfield and Education," "Garfield's Life and Works," "Civic Government of Ohio," "Life of Horace Mann." A monograph on "The Training of Teachers," which he wrote, was awarded a medal at the Paris Exposition. He was a kind of encyclopedia on the events of the early history of Ohio. He received academic honors from Williams College, Bethany College, Hiram College and Ohio State University. He was in sympathy with young men, their struggles, difficulties, aims and triumphs. There are few whose lives are so rounded out and so fruitful.




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    (pages 90-120 not transcribed)






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    Mantua Church  (picture not in Wilcox book)


    XIII

    THE  FIRST  RESTORATION  CHURCH  IN  OHIO

    The first church of Christ of the Restoration movement in Ohio was organized at Mantua, O., Jan. 27, 1827. Walter Scott organized the (New) Lisbon Church in November, 1827. The Mantua Church is, then, historically at the head of the 570 churches of Christ in Ohio. A Baptist church was established in Nelson in 1808, the first church of any order in Portage County, O. In 1820 the celebrated Mahoning Association of Baptist Churches was formed. Alexander Campbell, in time, joined this association, and the Christian Baptist circulated in all the churches. Through the presence of Campbell and his writings, reformatory views took possession of the people in the fifteen churches of the Mahoning Association. In about 1824, the Nelson Church declared in favor of the Scriptures as the rule of faith and practice. For two or three years the disciples of Nelson, Hiram and Mantua met at various places for Bible instruction and worship. Then, in January, 1827, they organized at Mantua. Later the church at Hiram was organized, then the church at Garrettsville.

    The first year eighteen members were added to the Mantua Church. The church, in May, was visited by Thomas Campbell. "The infant cause derived great advantages from this visit. He set




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    in order the things wanting, confirmed the faith of the members, and new converts were added to the congregation." At this visit of Thomas Campbell, May 24, 1828, he preached in a barn, and Symonds Ryder, of Hiram, confessed the Lord and was baptized. He became a strong leader in the Hiram Church.

    In the early days of this church there were some severe trials, and the greatest of these was "Mormonism." Sidney Rigdon, of Mormon fame, was the preacher at Mantua. Rigdon was once a Baptist preacher. It is evident, to those who were familiar with his doings in those days, that he came among the disciples as a schemer. He talked about the Aborigines and the Mound-builders, and in his eloquent, enthusiastic style spoke of a book to be published setting forth these subjects and the restoration of miracles. He led off Oliver Snow, who became a leader among the Mormons. He led off Symonds Ryder, a man of genius and mental ability. Ryder, however, was soon cured of the delusion. Joe Smith wrote to him to sell his land and property and put it into the "community" at Kirtland. This letter purported to be from the Almighty, and inspired. Ryder was to be a Mormon elder. The letter spelled Ryder's name wrongly. His name is Symonds Ryder, and the letter spelled it Simon Rider. He said, if this letter was from the Lord, he would know how to spell his name. With this keynote he started anew an investigation, and came back to the church, kept his fortune, corrected his mistake, and was a valuable member of the church at Mantua and Hiram. Joe Smith and Sidney Rigdon were tarred and feathered and driven from Hiram.




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    The Mantua Church has given to the world many valuable disciples of Christ. Among them may be mentioned Oris, John and Amzi Atwater, Almeda Booth, Mary Atwater Neely, the Derthicks, Frederick Truedley and many others. For ninety years it has kept on the even tenor of its way in a country-village community and a power for good in the locality. The church has more than one hundred members, and 125 in the Bible school. It has fellowship in all our missionary and benevolent enterprises. Being located only five miles from Hiram, they frequently have student preachers. Bro. Truedley is professor at Ohio State University at Athens, O.




    Mentor Church  (picture not in Wilcox book)


    An Historic Church -- Mentor

    As the church at Mentor, O., is an historic church of interest, attention is called to it. The church, in 1826, was a Baptist church and had Sidney Rigdon as minister. Rigdon had been a reader of the Christian Baptist, and had adopted its restoration teaching. In the spring of 1828 he visited Walter Scott at Warren. At other times he had interviews with him, and had adopted his Scriptural view of baptism. When he returned from Warren he brought with him Adamson Bently, the great Warren preacher of the Restoration movement. Bently was a brother-in-law of Rigdon. Together they conducted a successful meeting, and baptized about fifty persons. A. S. Hayden, in his "History of Disciples on the Western Reserve," says: "Nearly the whole church accepted cordially the doctrine of the Lord, exchanged their 'articles' for the new covenant as the only divine basis for Christ's church, and abandoned unscriptural




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    titles and church names, choosing to be known simply as disciples of Christ.

    From Mentor, Rigdon and Bentley went to Kirtland, five miles distant, where an ingathering awaited them. The converts were so many that they organized a church at Kirtland.

    The Mentor Church has at this date (1917) a substantial meeting-house and about one hundred members; also a Bible school of one hundred. In 1828 [sic - 1830?] it was shaken by a tempest under the outbreak of Mormonism. Few of its members were led astray. Kirtland, with less experience and more under Rigdon's power, became engulfed, and has never since been recovered. The church in Mentor, with stronger material, resisted the shock. They were much aided in their resistance by the presence of Thomas Campbell, who spent several months there and in the vicinity during the agitation it produced.

    M. S. Clapp, a young man, came into the church in the Rigdon-Bentley meeting, and soon attained prominence by his zeal and ability. He began the study of the classics under Thomas Campbell, and in time became a good Greek and Latin scholar. In 1830 he married Miss Alicia Campbell, sister of Alexander Campbell. He studied in Bethany, Va., and West Middletown, Pa., and returned to Mentor, and for years was the minister of the gospel at Mentor and other places. He saw, in the Christian religion, the germ of all good to man in the world, as well as the sure and only basis for hope hereafter. He was a friend of the poor, against slavery and intemperance, and stood firm in defending the Bible against infidels. In 1830 he defended the truth as against Mormonism.




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    In the fall of 1830, Parley P. Pratt, a young minister from Lorain County, under Eigdon's influence, passing through Palmyra, N. Y., became converted to Mormonism. In November, Pratt and three others came to Rigdon, in Mentor, and remained a week. In Kirtland some disciples had formed "a community" of goods, and had all things in common, and advocated the restoration of miracles. There were seventeen of them. They were rebaptized into the Mormon faith. Then Rigdon and his wife were baptized into the same order of things, and many of the Kirtland members went the same way. Three weeks after this, Rigdon went to Palmyra, N. Y., and tarried with Joe Smith two months. Soon after his return to Ohio, Smith and several of his relatives arrived. The delusion immediately assumed an aggressive attitude. They formed the Mormon hierarchy, and Rigdon's popularity gave it success. The opposition to it was quick on its feet. One J. J. Moss, a young schoolteacher, had recently come into the Mentor Church. He there and then began his great and long opposition to all forms of error. Under his influence, and that of M. S. Clapp and Thomas Campbell, little headway was made in Mentor by this Mormon raid. Only the church at Kirtland went down. Thomas Campbell proposed to pursue an exposure of the claims of Mormonism:

    1. By examining the character of its author and his accomplices.

    2. By exposing their pretensions to miraculous gifts and the gift of tongues; and by testing them in three or four foreign languages.

    3. By exposing their assertion that the authority for baptism was lost for fourteen hundred




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    years till restored by the new prophet and by showing it to be a contradiction of Matt. 16:18.

    4. That the pretended duty of "common property" is antiscriptural, and a frand upon society.

    5. That rebaptizing believers is making void the law of Christ; and the pretensions of imparting the Holy Spirit by imposition of hands is an unscriptural intrusion on the exclusive prerogative of the primary apostles.

    6. That its pretentious visions, humility and spiritual perfections are nowise superior to those of the first Shakers, Jemima Wilkinson, the French prophets, etc.

    7. In the last place, by examining the internal evidence of the Book of Mormon itself, pointing out its evident contradictions, foolish absurdities, shameless pretensions to antiquity, and thus restoring it to its rightful claimant as a production beneath contempt, and utterly unworthy of reception of a schoolboy.
    Rigdon threw Campbell's communication into the fire. His reputation, however, lifted Mormonism into notice. He had been a popular preacher at Hiram and Mantua. He took Smith to those places. Some converts from the disciples were made to the new order of things. The majority of them, however, saw in it a scheme to get their property into a common fund, and allow certain persons to live without work. The big stone temple was built at Kirtland. All those who joined in this "community" lost their property. After the Hiramites saw through the scheme, they gathered together and were joined by adjoining townspeople, and they 'tarred and feathered" Rigdon and Smith and drove them from the township.




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    The Mentor Church has been a tower of strength. Their early trials were severe, but they lived through them. The church is doing a good work among the young, and takes a hand in all the missionary societies and benevolent enterprises of the disciples of Christ. M. S. Clapp and J. J. Moss were great and successful ministers coming from the Mentor Church.

    (remainder of text not transcribed)







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