Ohio Counties
Adams
Historical Collections of Ohio
By Henry Howe
Vol. II
©1888
LAKE COUNTY
Page 33
LAKE COUNTY was formed March 6,
1840, from Geauga and Cuyahoga, and so named from its bordering on Lake
Erie. The surface is more rolling
than level; the soil is good, and generally clayey loam, interspersed with
ridges of sand and gravel. This
county is peculiar for the quality and quantity of its fruit, as apples, pears,
peaches, plums, grapes, etc. Its
situation tends to the preservation of the fruit from the early frosts, the
warm lake winds often preventing its destruction, while that some twenty miles
inland is cut off.
Area about 215 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were
55,817; in pasture, 38,401; woodland, 18,181; lying waste, 2,221; produced in
wheat, 81,789 bushels; rye, 14,942; buckwheat, 1,046; oats, 249,240; barley,
9,017; corn, 194,241; meadow hay, 15,949 tons; clover hay, 8,396; flaxseed,
5,321 bushels; potatoes, 59,562; tobacco, 7,830 lbs.; butter, 307,705; cheese,
166,372; sorghum, 19 gallons; maple sugar, 32,983 lbs.; honey, 6,762; eggs,
129,435 dozen; grapes, 1,169,435 lbs.; wine, 787 gallons; apples, 146,471
bushels; peaches, 15,674; pears, 3,042; wool, 68,023 lbs.; milch cows owned,
3,816. School census, 1888, 4,387;
teachers, 160. Miles of railroad
track, 118.
|
Township And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
|
Township And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
|
Concord |
1,136 |
722 |
|
Mentor |
1,245 |
1,822 |
|
Kirtland |
1,777 |
984 |
|
Painesville |
2,580 |
5,516 |
|
Leroy |
898 |
722 |
|
Perry |
1,337 |
1,316 |
|
Madison |
2,801 |
2,720 |
|
Willoughby |
1,943 |
2,524 |
Population of Lake in 1840 was
13,717; 1860, 15,576; 1880, 16,326, of whom 10,583 were born in Ohio; 1,905 New
York; 549 Pennsylvania; 43 Virginia; 32 Indiana; 19 Kentucky; 649 Ireland; 481
England and Wales; 244 British America; 141 German Empire; 19 Scotland; 4
France, and 11 Sweden and Norway.
Census of 1890, 18,235.
FIRST SETTLEMENT.
Mentor, according to the
statement of Mrs. TAPPAN, in the MSS. Of the Ashtabula Historical Society, was
the first place settled in this county.
In the summer of 1799 two families were there. Among the earliest settlers of Lake was
the Hon. John WALWORTH, who was born at New London, Ct., in 1765.
When a young man he spent five years at sea and in
Demerara, South America. About the
year 1792 he removed, with his family, to the then new country east of Cayuga
lake, New York. In 1799 he visited
Cleveland, and after his return, in the fall of that year, journeyed to
Connecticut, purchased over two thousand acres of land in the present township
of Painesville, with the design of making a settlement. On the 20th of February,
1800, he commenced the removal of his family and effects. They were brought on as far as Buffalo,
in sleighs. At that place, after
some little detention, the party, being enlarged by the addition of some others,
drove in two sleighs on the ice of the lake, and proceeded until abreast of
Cattaraugus creek, at which point they were about ten miles from land. At dusk, leaving their sleighs and
horses some 50 or 60 rods from shore, they made their camp under some hemlock
trees, where all, men, women and children, passed an agreeable night, its earlier
hours being enlivened by good cheer and social converse. The next afternoon they arrived at
Presque Isle (now Erie, Pa.), where, leaving his family, Mr. WALWORTH went back
to Buffalo for his goods. On his
return to Erie, he, with his hired man and two horses and a yoke of oxen,
followed the lake shore, and arrived in safety at his new purchase. His nearest neighbors east were at
Harpersfield, 15 miles distant. On
the west, a few miles distant, within or near the present limits of Mentor, was
what was then called the Marsh settlement, where was then living Judge Jesse
PHELPS, Jared WOOD, Ebenezer MERRY, Charles PARKER and Moses PARKS. Mr. WALWORTH soon returned to Erie, on
foot, and brought out his family and effects in a flat boat, all arriving safe
at the new home on the 7th of April. The
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the first fortnight they lived in a tent,
during which period the sun was not seen.
About the expiration of this time Gen. Edward PAINE–the first
delegate to the legislature from the Lake county, in the winter of
1801-2--arrived with seven or eight hired men, and settled about a mile
distant. Mutually assisting each
other, cabins were soon erected for shelter, and gradually the conveniences of
civilization clustered around them.
Shortly after the formation of the State
government (states the Barr MSS.)
Mr. WALWORTH, Solomon GRISWOLD, of Windsor, and Calvin AUSTIN, of
Warren, were appointed associate judges of Trumbull county. In 1805 Judge WALWORTH was appointed
collector of customs for the district of Erie. In August he opened the
collector’s office at Cleveland, and in the March ensuing removed his
family thither. He held various
offices until his decease, September 10, 1812, and was an extensive land
agent. Judge WALWORTH was small in
stature, and of weakly constitution.
Prior to his removal to the West it was supposed he had the consumption;
but to the hardships and fatigue he endured, and change of climate, his
physicians attributed the prolongation of his life many years. He was a fearless man, and possessed of
that indomitable perseverance and strength of will especially important in
overcoming the obstacles in the path of the pioneer.
WILLOUGHBY is on the Chagrin
river, 3 miles from Lake Erie and 11 miles southwest of Painesville, on the L.
S. & M. S. R. R. and N. Y. C. & St. L. R. R. Newspaper: Independent, Independent, J. H. MERRILL, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Congregationalist, 1
Methodist Episcopal, 1 Episcopal, 1 Disciples, 1 Catholic. Bank: Willoughby, S. W. SMART, president
S. H. SMART, cashier. Population,
1880, 1,001. School census, 1888,
323.
Willoughby in 1846.–The
village and township were originally callen Chagrin, and changed, in 1834, to
the present name, in honor of Prof. WILLOUGHBY, of Herkimer county, N. Y. It was settled about the year 1799, by
David ABBOT (see page 579), Peter FRENCH, Jacob WEST, Ebenezer SMITH, Elisha
GRAHAM, and others. ABBOT built the
first grist mill on the site of the WILLOUGHBY mills: SMITH was the first man
who received a regular deed of his land from the Connecticut land company. In 1796 Charles PARKER, one of the
surveyors, built a house at the mouth of the river, and a number of huts for
the use of the land company; the house was the first erected in the township,
and probably the first in the county.
PARKER became a settler in 1802; in 1803 and 1804 John MILLER,
Christopher COLSON, James LEWIS and Jacob WEST settled in Willoughby. Dr. HENDERSON, the first regular
physician, came in 1813, and the first organized town meeting was held April 3,
1815. A bloody battle, says
tradition, was fought at an early day between the Indians, on the spot where
the medical college stands: human bones have been discovered, supposed to be of
those who fell in that action.
The village of Willoughby
contains 4 stores, 2 churches, 18 mechanic shops, 1 fulling mill, and in 1840
had 390 inhabitants. The engraving
shows, on the right, the Presbyterian church; on the left, the Methodist
church, and in the centre, on a pleasant green, the Medical University, a
spacious brick edifice. This
flourishing and well-conducted institution was founded in 1834: its number of
pupils has been gradually increasing, and in 1846 its annual circular showed
174 students in attendance.–Old
Edition. This institution was
removed, in 1846, to Columbus, and became the foundation for Starling Medical
College.
THE MORMONS.
Nine miles southwest from
Painesville, on the east branch of Chagrin river, in a beautiful farming
country, is the little village of KIRTLAND, so famous in the history of
Mormonism. We reproduce here from
our old edition the account we then gave as to the origin of the sect and their
position at that time.
Kirtland is widely known, from having
formerly been the headquarters of the Mormons. While here, in the height of their
prosperity, they numbered nearly 3,000 persons. On their abandoning it, most of the
dwellings went to decay, and it now has somewhat the appearance of a
depopulated and broken-down place.
The view taken shows the most prominent buildings in the village. In the
Page 35
centre is seen the Mormon Temple; on the right, the Teachers’ Seminary, and on the left, on a line with the front of the temple, the old banking house of the Mormons. The temple, the main point of attraction, is 60 by 80 feet, and measures from its base to the top of the spire 142 feet. It is of rough stone, plastered over, colored blue, and marked to imitate regular courses of masonry. It cost about $40,000. In front, over the large window, is a tablet, bearing the inscription: “House of the Lord, built by the Church of the Latter Day Saints, A. D. 1834.” The first and second stories are divided into two “grand rooms” for public worship. The attic is partitioned off into about a dozen small apartments. The lower grand room is