SUMMIT
COUNTY—CONTINUED
Page 640
Samuel, David, Jr., and Lot PRESTON, Drake FELLOWS, Samuel M’COY, Luther CHAMBERLIN, Rial M’ARTHUR, Justin BRADLEY.
In 1811, Deacon S., Norman, Harvey, Leander, Cassander, Eleazar and Salmon SACKETT, Daniel BEACH, John CARRUTHERS, Reuben UPSON, and Asa GILLETT.
On the 21st of January, 1809, Geo. KILBOURNE and his wife Almira, Justin E. FRINK, Alice BACON, wife of David BACON, Hepsibah CHAPMAN, Amos C. WRIGHT, and Lydia, his wife, and Ephraim CLARK, Jr., with his wife Alva A. CLARK, associated themselves together as a church, named the Church of Christ in Tallmadge. Thus in the second year of its existence were the principles of the Bible adopted as the rule of moral government in this settlement. In 1813 the church had twenty-seven members, mostly heads of families within the township.
The stern purity of those New Englanders relaxed none of its rigor in consequence of a removal from the regular administration of the gospel in the East to the depths of a Western wilderness. The usual depreciation of morals in new countries was not experienced here. To this day the good effects of this primitive establishment of religion and order are plainly visible among this people and their posterity, who will no doubt exhibit them through all time.
Individuals not professors of religion considered it a paramount duty to provide for religious services on the Sabbath. Elizur WRIGHT, who became an extensive proprietor in the Brace Company’s tract, readily adopted the plan of Mr. BACON, and inserted it in his first conveyance. But this scheme was considered by most of the inhabitants as an encroachment upon their personal independence, and was generally resisted. Very early, however, a regular mode of contribution was established for the support of the gospel.
The materials of society which Mr. BACON had introduced were not of the proper kind to carry out his project. There was too much enterprise and independence of feeling among the early settlers to form a community of the character contemplated by him. Differences of a personal nature rose between him and many of the inhabitants, both upon pecuniary and religious matters. His purchases being made on time, without means and at high prices, and the sales not being sufficient, payments were not made to the original proprietors; the expenses of survey had been considerable, interest accumulated and the contract was finally abandoned. He left this region in the spring of 1812. The lands not sold came back to the proprietors; and some that had been sold and the payments not made to them were in the same situation. The large owners at this time were TALLMADGE and STARR in the central and eastern part; Elizur WRIGHT and Roger NEWBERRY in the west.
In the summer of 1875 two of the grandsons of Mr. BACON, both Congregational clergymen, Theodore Woolsey BACON and David BACON, came from the East, and selecting a boulder had engraved upon it an historical statement, as a memorial to him and the founding of the church. A picture of it on another page is engraved from the photograph. A large concourse of people attended the memorial services, which consisted of addresses by the grandsons and others, with prayer and songs. The site is about two miles south of the centre and half a mile north of the Cuyahoga, on the spot where stood the BACON cabin, the ground having been purchased for the purpose.
HISTORICAL MISCELLANY.
DRIVING AWAY THE EVIL SPIRIT.
On
June 17, 1806, an eclipse of the sun occurred.
It occasioned much consternation among ignorant whites
throughout Ohio,
and great terror among the Indians.
Those in Summit county
were greatly frightened,
notwithstanding its having been foretold by some of their squaws, who
were not
believed and put to death for witchcraft.
(The squaws probably got their information from some of
the whites.)
When
the sun was obscured, the terrified savages gathered together, and
forming a
circle, commenced marching around in regular order, each one firing his
gun and
making all the noise possible, so as to frighten away the evil spirit
menacing
the destruction of the world.
One
“brave,” who had fired off his rifle just as the
shadow began to pass from the
sun, claimed the distinction of having driven away the evil
spirit—a claim
which his fellow-barbarians recognized, and for this valor-
ous deed and invaluable service, at
once raised him to
the dignity of chieftainship.
STIGWANISH AND HIS TOTEM.
STIGWANISH,
or SENECA, as he was sometimes called by the whites, although that was
the name
of his tribe, had many noble traits of character, was friendly to the
whites
and much respected by them. (See Lake County).
His
people for years cultivated corn fields near where the village of
Cuyahoga
Falls now stands. In
Boston township they
erected a wooden god or totem, around which
they held feasts and dances, before starting on hunting and possibly
marauding
expeditions.
They
would make offerings and hang tobacco round the neck of the totem,
which the
white settlers would steal as soon as the Indians had left. The tobacco was said to
have been of a
superior quality.
When
the Indians went farther west in 1812, this god was taken with them.
DEATH OF NICKSHAW.
STIGWANISH
had a son, “GEORGE WILSON,” and a son-in-law,
NICKSHAW, each of whom was killed
by a white hunter named WILLIAMS at different times, but in both cases
under
circumstances hardly creditable to the white hunter.
The death of NICKSHAW occurred in December,
1806; he had traded a pony with one of the settlers, and being worsted
in the
bargain wanted to trade back, which John DIVER, the settler, refused to
do. NICKSHAW
threatened vengeance; he
told the settlers he had been cheated, and intended to shoot DIVER. Later, while at the cabin
of his brother,
NICKSHAW and another Indian called and tried to get DIVER to come out,
but he
would not, and his brother Daniel went out to placate the Indians when
he was
fired upon, and though not mortally wounded was blinded for life.
The
Indians fled, and a party of settlers, under Maj. H. ROGERS, started in
pursuit. They came
upon the camp of the Senecas
about midnight on a cold, clear night, at a point
near the northwestern boundary of the county.
Surrounding the camp they closed in upon the Indians, but
NICKSHAW
escaped them and fled to the woods.
He
was followed by George DARROW and Jonathan WILLIAMS, who, after a three
mile
chase, overtook NICKSHAW and called upon him to yield; this he refused
to do,
although without means of defence. WILLIAMS then shot over
his head to frighten
him into subjection, but without the desired effect; whereupon he fired
again,
killing the Indian. The
body was placed
under a log and covered with brush.
Afterward it was decently buried by the whites.
Some
of the settlers, deeming the death of NICKSHAW unwarrantable and likely
to
occasion trouble with the Indians, demanded an investigation. The investigation,
however, ended in a
“hoe-down,” with plenty of whiskey and a $5
collection for WILLIAMS.
WILLIAMS, THE HUNTER.
Johathan
WILLIAMS belonged to that class of old pioneer
hunters who knew no fear, were fully equal to the Indians in woodcraft,
and
bore them an inveterate hatred. He
lost
no opportunity to kill an Indian.
He was
six feet in height, with strong physique, swarthy complexion, lithe and
noiseless in his movements. He
supported
a family. With his
two dogs and rifle he
was feared and shunned by the Indians, and was continually on his guard
against
them, as his life was threatened many times.
DEATH OF “GEORGE
WILSON.”
On
one occasion, stopping at the house of one of the settlers, WILLIAMS
was told
that “GEORGE WILSON,” a good-for-nothing son of
STIGWANISH, had been there,
drunk and ugly, and had made an old woman, whom he found alone, dance
for his
amusement until she sank to the floor from exhaustion.
WILLIAMS at once started after the Indian,
and overtook him in the vicinity of a piece of “Honeycomb
swamp.” Taking
advantage of the Indian while off his
guard, he shot and killed him. Then
depositing the body in the swamp, he pushed it down into the mud until
it sunk
out of sight.
The
disappearance of “GEORGE WILSON” created a great
sensation among the Senecas,
but it was not known until years afterward what
had become of him, although the Indians and settlers suspected WILLIAMS
as the
cause of it.
“BLUE LAW” IN
OHIO.
Some
years after the organization of Copley township
in
1819, one of its citizens, early one Sunday morning, was aroused from
his
slumbers by the noise of a great commotion in his pig pen. Hastily donning his
clothes, he seized a
rifle and rushed out of his cabin just in time to see a bear disappear
in the
forest with one of his pigs. He
pursued
the bear and shot it; whereupon he was brought before the Squire for
violating
the Sabbath, and fined $1. Shortly
afterward the citizen left that community and joined the Mormons. The historian does not so
state, but if he
was prompted to this as a result of the fine imposed for violating the
Sabbath,
he was so far, perhaps, justified in joining the Mormons, who had no
laws
against shooting marauding bears on the “Lord’s
day.”
A LOTTERY SCHEME.
In
1807 the improvement of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers was the
great idea
of Northwestern Ohio. Col.
Charles
WHITTLESEY gives the following interesting description of a scheme to
this end:
“It
was thought that if $12,000 could by some means be raised the channels
of those
streams could be cleared of logs and trees and the portage path made
passable
for
Page 642
loaded wagons.
Thus,
goods might ascend the Cuyahoga in boats to Old Portage, be hauled
seven miles
to the Tuscarawas, near New Portage, and thence descend that stream in
bateaux. This great
object excited so
much attention that the Legislature authorized a lottery to raise the
money.”
The
tickets were headed “Cuyahoga and Muskingum Navigation
Lottery.” They
were issued in May, 1807, the drawing to
take place at Cleveland, the first Monday in January, 1808, or as soon
as
three-fourths of the tickets were sold.
There were 12,800 tickets at $5 each.
There were to be 3568 prizes, ranging from one capital
prize of $5000;
two second prizes of $2500 each, down to 3400 at $10.
The drawing never came off.
Many years after, those who had purchased
tickets received their money back, without interest.
A DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO.
On
the 20th of October, 1837, there passed through
Stow township a tornado
of great destructive power. It
occurred about
three o’clock in the morning, struck the western part of the
township, passed
north of east, and exhausted itself near the center of the township. Its roar was terrific, its
force tremendous;
in its course through heavy timber, every tree within a path forty rods
wide
was snapped like a pipe-stem. It
was
accompanied by vivid flashes of lightning, roaring thunder, and downpouring rain. It
passed over Cochran pond. The
residence
of Frederick SANDFORD was torn to fragments, killing his two sons and
mother-in-law outright, injuring Mr. SANDFORD so that he died within a
few hours,
while Mrs. SANDFORD and her daughter escaped severe injury. Other houses were struck
and felled or
damaged, but no other deaths resulted.
Farm utensils were twisted and torn to pieces. Domestic animals killed,
as well as fowls and
birds; the latter being plucked clean of feathers.
REMARKABLE CASE OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL
EVIDENCE.
One
of the most remarkable cases of circumstantial evidence occurred in
Northfield township. It came
near resulting in the conviction for murder of an innocent man. The circumstances are
quoted from Gen. L. V. BIERCE’s
“History of Summit County,” a work valuable for
its preservation of pioneer history:
“An
Englishman, named Rupert CHARLESWORTH, who was boarding with Dorsey
VIERS in
1826, suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.
He was traced to the cabin of VIERS on the night of the
23d of July, but
on the following morning when a constable went there to arrest him, he
was gone
and no trace of him could be found.
On
the arrival of the constable, Mrs. VIERS was found mopping up the floor. Questions were asked, but
Mrs. VIERS told
contradictory stories as to the disappearance of the man, alleging in
one
instance that he jumped out of the window and ran off and could not be
caught;
and in another, that he left when VIERS was asleep, and the latter knew
nothing
of his whereabouts. A
few days later
some one announced having heard the report of a rifle at
VIERS’ cabin the night
of the man’s disappearance, and of having seen blood on a
pair of bars which
led from the cabin to the woods. Years
rolled on, and the excitement grew stronger with age, until, on the 8th
of January, 1831, complaint was entered before George Y. WALLACE,
Justice of
the Peace, that VIERS had murdered CHARLESWORTH.
VIERS was
arrested,
and a trial of eight days followed.
Not
only were the circumstances above narrated proved, but a hired girl who
was
working for VIERS at the time of the man’s disappearance,
swore that a bed
blanket used by CHARLESWORTH was missing from the cabin on the day of
his
departure, and that it was afterward found concealed under a haystack,
with
large, black spots on it, resembling dried and clotted blood. It was also proved that
CHARLESWORTH had a
large amount of money, and that VIERS was, previous to the
disappearance of the
man, comparatively poor, but immediately afterward was flush with money. To complete the chain of
circumstantial
evidence, a human skeleton had been found under a log in the woods,
beyond the
bars already mentioned. Matters
were in
this shape when two men from Sandusky unexpectedly appeared and swore
that they
had seen CHARLESWORTH alive and well after the time of the supposed
murder,
though when seen he was passing under an assumed name.
On this testimony VIERS was acquitted; but
his acquittal did not change public sentiment as to his guilt. It was generally believed
that the witnesses
had been induced to perjure themselves.
VIERS, however, did not let the matter rest at this stage. He began a vigorous and
protracted search for
the missing man, and continued it with unwavering perseverance.
He
visited all parts of the Union, and, after a search of years, he one
day went
into a tavern at Detroit, and in the presence of a large assemblage of
men,
inquired if any one knew of a man named CHARLESWORTH.
All replied no. Just
as he was about to leave a man stepped
up to him, and taking him to one side, inquired if his name was VIERS,
from
Northfield. VIERS
replied that he was. The
stranger then said, “I am Rupert
CHARLESWORTH, but I pass here under an assumed name.” CHARLESWORTH was informed
of all that had
taken place, and he immediately volunteered to go to Northfield and
have the
matter cleared up. On
their arrival a
meeting of the township was called, and after a thorough investigation
it was
the unanimous vote, with one exception, that the man alleged to have
been
murdered now stood alive before them.
It
appears that he had passed a counterfeit ten-dollar bill on Deacon
HUDSON, and
fearing an arrest, he left the cabin of VIERS suddenly, and soon
afterward went
to England, where here mained
two years, at the
end of which time he returned to the
United States under
an assumed name, and went into the backwoods of Michigan, where his
real name,
former residence and history were unknown.
The name of the family was thus, almost by accident,
cleared of infamy
and shame. This
remarkable case is rivalled
only by the celebrated case of the BOURNES in
Vermont.”
EXPERIENCES OF DAVID BACON, MISSIONARY AND COLONIZER.
Rev. David BACON, the founder of Tallmadge, was born in Woodstock, Conn., in 1771, and died in Hartford, in 1817, at the early age of forty-six years, worn out by excessive labors, privations and mental sufferings, largely consequent upon his financial failure with his colony. He was the first missionary sent to the Western Indians from Connecticut. His means were pitifully inadequate; but with a stout heart reliant upon God he started, August 8, 1800, from Hartford, afoot and alone through the wilderness, with no outfit but what he could carry on his back. At Buffalo creek, now the site of the city of Buffalo, took vessel for Detroit, which he reached September 11, thirty-four days after leaving Hartford, where he was hospitably received by Major HUNT, commandant of the United States garrison there. After a preliminary survey he returned to Connecticut, and on the 24th of December was married at Lebanon to Alice PARKS, then under eighteen years of age; a week later, on the last day of the last year of the last century, December 31, 1800, he was ordained regularly to the specific work of a missionary to the heathen, the first ever sent out from Connecticut.
On
the 11th of February, 1801, with his young wife,
he started for
Detroit, going through the wilderness of New York and Canada by sleigh,
and
arrived there Saturday, May 9. The
bride, before she got out of Connecticut, had a new and painful
experience. They
stopped at a noisy
country tavern at Canaan. They
were a
large company altogether; some drinking, some talking, and some
swearing; and
this they found was common at all the public-houses.
Detroit
at this time was the great emporium of the fur trade.
The Indian traders were men of great wealth
and highly cultivated minds. Many
of
them were educated in England and Scotland at the universities, a class
to-day
in Britain termed “university men.”
They
generally spent the winter there, and in the spring returned with new
goods
brought by vessels through the lakes.
The only Americans in the place were the officers and
soldiers of the
garrison, consisting of an infantry regiment and an artillery company,
the
officers of which treated Mr. BACON and family with kindness and
respect. The
inhabitants were English, Scotch, Irish and
French, all of whom hated the Yankees.
The town was enclosed by cedar pickets about twelve feet
high and six
inches in diameter, and so close together one could not see through. At each side were
strong gates which were closed and guarded, and no Indians were allowed
to come
in after sundown or to remain overnight.
Upon
his arrival in Detroit the Missionary Society paid him in all $400;
then, until
September, 1803, he did not get a cent.
He began his support teaching school, at first with some
success; but he
was a Yankee, and the four Catholic priests used their influence in
opposition. His
young wife assisted
him. They studied
the Indian language,
but made slow progress, and their prospect for usefulness in Detroit
seemed
waning.
On
the 19th of February, 1802, his first child was
born at Detroit—the
afterwards eminent Dr. Leonard BACON.
In
the May following he went down into the Maumee country, with a view to
establish a mission among the Indians.
The Indians were largely drunk, and he was an unwilling
witness to their
drunken orgies. LITTLE
OTTER, their
chief, received him courteously, called a council of the tribe, and
then, to
his talk through an interpreter, gave him their decision that they
wouldn’t
have him. It was to
this effect:
Your religion is very good, but
only for
white people; it will not do for Indians.
When the Great Spirit made white people, he put them on
another island,
gave them farms, tools to work with, horses, horned cattle, and sheep
and hogs
for them, that they might get their living in that way, and he taught
them to
read, and gave them their religion in a book.
But when he made Indians he made them wild, and put them
on this island
in the woods, and gave them the wild game that they may live by hunting. We formerly had a religion
very much like
yours, but we found it would not do for us, and we have discovered a
much
better way.
Seeing
he could not succeed he returned to
Detroit. He had
been with them several
days, and twice narrowly escaped assassination from the intoxicated
ones. His son,
Leonard, in his memoirs of his
father, published in the Congregational
Quarterly for 1876, and from which this article is derived,
wrote:
Something
more than ordinary courage was necessary in the presence of so many
drunken and
half-drunken Indians, any one
Page 644
of whom might suddenly shoot or tomakawk
the missionary at the slightest provocation or at none.
The two instances mentioned by him, in which he was enabled to baffle
the malice of savages ready
to murder him, remind me of another incident.
It
was while my parents were living at Detroit, and when I was an infant
of less
than four months, two Indians came as if for a friendly visit; one of
them a
tall and stalwart young man, the other shorter and older. As they entered my father
met them, gave his
hand to the old man, and was just extending it to the other, when my
mother,
quick to discern the danger, exclaimed, “See! he has a
knife.” At
the word my father saw that,
while the Indian’s right hand was ready for the salute, a
gleaming knife in his
left hand was partly concealed under his blanket.
An
Indian, intending to assassinate, waits until his intended victim is
looking
away from him and then strikes. My
father’s keen eye was fixed upon the murderer, and watched
him eye to eye. The
Indian found himself strangely
disconcerted. In
vain did the old man
talk to my father in angry and chiding tones—that keen black
eye was watching
the would-be assassin. The
time seemed
long. My mother
took the baby [himself]
from the birch-bark cradle, and was going to call for help, but when
she
reached the door she dared not leave her husband.
At last the old man became weary of chiding:
the young man had given up his purpose for a time and they retired.
Failing
on the Maumee, Mr. BACON soon after sailed with his little family to
Mackinaw. This was
at the beginning of
the summer, 1802. Mackinaw
was then one
of the remotest outposts of the fur trade and garrisoned by a company
of United
States troops. His
object was to
establish a mission at Abrecroche,
about twenty miles
distant, a large settlement of Chippewa Indians, but they were no less
determined than those on the Maumee that no missionary should live in
their
villages. Like
those, also, they were a
large part of the time drunk from whiskey supplied in abundance by the
fur
traders in exchange for the proceeds of their hunting excursions. They had at one time no
less than 900 gallon
kegs on hand.
His
work was obstructed from the impossibility of finding an interpreter,
so he
took into his family an Indian lad, through whom to learn the
language—his name
SINGENOG. He
remained at Mackinaw about
two years, but the Indians would never allow him to go among them. Like the Indians generally
they regarded
ministers as another sort of conjurors, with power to bring sickness
and
disease upon them.
At
one time early in October, the second year, 1803, SINGENOG, the young
Indian,
persuaded his uncle, PONDEGA KAUWAN,
a head chief, and two other Chippewa dignitaries, to visit the
missionary, and
presenting to him a string of wampum, PONDEGA KAUWAN made a very
non-committal,
dignified speech, to the effect that there was no use of his going
among them;
that the Great Spirit did not put them on the ground to learn such
things as
the white people. If
it was not for rum
they might listen, “but,” concluded he,
“Rum is our Master.”
And later he said to SINGENOG, “Our
father is a great man and knows a great
deal; and if we were to know so much, perhaps, the Great Spirit would
not let
us live.”
After
a residence at Mackinaw of about two years and all prospects of success
hopeless, the Missionary Society ordered him to New Connecticut, there
to
itinerate as a missionary and to improve himself in the Indian
language, etc. About
the 1st of August, 1804,
with his wife and two children, the youngest an infant, he sailed for
Detroit. From
thence they proceeded in
an open canoe, following the windings of the shore, rowing by day and
sleeping
on land by night, till having performed a journey of near 200 miles,
they
reached, about the middle of October, Cleveland, then a mere hamlet on
the lake
shore.
Leaving
his family at Hudson, he went on to Hartford to report to the Society. He went almost entirely on
foot a distance of
about 600 miles, which he wearily trudged much of the way through the
mud,
slush and snow of winter. An
arrangement
was made by which he could act half the time as pastor at Hudson, and
the other
half travel as a missionary to the various settlements on the Reserve. On his return, a little
experience satisfied
him that more could be done than in any other way for the establishment
of
Christian institutions on the Reserve, by the old Puritan mode of
colonizing,
by founding a religious colony strong enough and compact enough to
maintain
schools and public worship.
An
ordinary township, with its scattered settlements and roads at option,
with no
common central point, cannot well grow into a town.
The unity of a town as a body politic depends
very much on fixing a common centre to which every homestead shall be
obviously
related. In no
other rural town,
perhaps, is that so well provided as in Tallmadge.
“Public spirit, local pride,” writes
Dr.
BACON, “friendly intercourse, general culture and good taste,
and a certain
moral and religious steadfastness, are among the characteristics by
which
Tallmadge is almost proverbially distinguished throughout the Reserve. No observing stranger can
pass through the
town without seeing it was planned by a sagacious and far-seeing
mind.”
It
was fit that he who had planned the settlement, and who had identified
with it
all his hopes for usefulness for the remainder of his life, and all his
hopes
of a competence for his family, should be the first settler in the
township. He did
not wait for hardier adventurers to
encounter the first hardships and to break the loneliness of the woods. Selecting a temporary
location near an old
Indian trail, a few rods from the southern
Page 645
boundary of the township, he built the
first log cabin, and
there placed his family.
I
well remember the pleasant day in July, 1807, when that family made its
removal
from the centre of Hudson to a new log-house, in a township that had no
name
and no other human habitation. The
father and mother, poor in this world’s goods, but rich in
faith and in the
treasure of God’s promises; rich in their well-tried mutual
affection; rich in
their expectation of usefulness and of the comfort and competence which
they
hoped to achieve by their enterprise; rich in the parental joy with
which they
looked upon the three little ones that were carried in their arms or
nestled
among their scanty household goods in the slow-moving
wagon—were familiar with
whatever there is in hardship and peril or disappointment, to try the
courage
of the noblest manhood or the immortal strength of a true
woman’s love. The
little ones were natives of the
wilderness—the youngest a delicate nursling of six months,
the others born in a
remoter and more savage West. These
five, with a hired man, were the family.
I
remember the setting out, the halt before the door of an aged friend to
say
farewell, the fording of the Cuyahoga, the day’s journey of
somewhat less than
thirteen miles along a road that had been cut (not made) through the
dense forest,
the little cleared spot where the journey ended, the new log-house,
with what
seemed to me a stately hill behind it, and with a limpid rivulet
winding near
the door. That
night, when the first
family worship was offered in that cabin, the prayer of the two
worshippers,
for themselves and their children, and for the work which they had that
day
begun, was like the prayer that went up of old from the deck of the
Mayflower
or from beneath the wintry sky of Plymouth.
One
month later a German family came within the limits of the town; but it
was not
till the next February that a second family came, a New England family,
whose
mother tongue was English. Well
do I
remember the solitude of that first winter, and how beautiful the
change was
when spring at last began to hang its garlands on the trees.
The
next thing in carrying out the plan to which Mr. BACON had devoted
himself was
to bring in, from whatever quarter, such families as would enter into
his views
and would co-operate with him for the early and permanent establishment
of
Christian order. It
was at the expense
of many a slow and weary journey to older settlements that he succeeded
in
bringing together the families who, in the spring and summer of 1808,
began to
call the new town their home. His
repeated absences from home are fresh in my memory, and so is the joy
with
which we greeted the
arrival of one family after
another coming to relieve our loneliness; nor least among the memories
of that
time is the remembrance of my mother’s fear when left alone
with her three
little children. She
had not ceased to
fear the Indians, and sometimes a straggling savage, or a little
company of
them, came by our door on the old portage path, calling, perhaps, to
try our
hospitality, and with signs or broken English phrases asking for
whiskey. She could
not feel that to “pull in the
latch-string” was a sufficient exclusion of such visitors;
and in my mind’s eye
I seem now to see her frail form tugging at a heavy chest, with which
to
barricade the door before she dared to sleep.
It was, indeed, a relief and joy to feel at last that we
had neighbors,
and that our town was beginning to be inhabited.
At the end of the second year from the
commencement of the survey, there were, perhaps, twelve families, and
the town
had received its name, “Tallmadge.”
Slowly
the settlement of the town proceeded, from 1807 to 1810. Emigration from
Connecticut had about ceased,
owing to the stagnation of business from the European wars, and the
embargo and
other non-intercourse acts of JEFFERSON’s
administration. Mr.
BACON could not pay
for the land he had purchased. He
went East to try to make
new satisfactory arrangements with the
proprietors, leaving behind his wife and five little children. The proprietors were
immovable. Some of
his parishioners felt hard towards
him because, having made payments, he could not perfect their titles. With difficulty he
obtained the means to
return for his family. In
May, 1812, he
left Tallmadge, and all “that was realized after five years
of arduous labor
was poverty, the alienation of some old friends, the depression that
follows a
fatal defeat, and the dishonor that falls on one who cannot pay his
debts.” He
lingered on a few years,
supporting his family by travelling and selling
“Scott’s Family Bible” and
other religious works, from house to house, and occasional preaching. He bore his misfortunes
with Christian
resignation, struggled on a few years with broken spirits and broken
constitution, and died at Hartford, August 17, 1817.
“My mother,” said Dr. BACON,
“standing over
him with her youngest, an infant, in her arms, said to him,
‘Look on your babe
before you die.’ He
looked up and said,
with distinct and audible utterance, ‘The
blessing of
the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, rest upon thee.’ Just before dawn he
breathed his last. ‘Now
he knows more than all of us,’ said the
doctor; while my mother, bathing the dead face with her tears, and
warming it
with kisses, exclaimed, ‘Let my last end be like
his.’”
The village of Cuyahoga Falls is four miles northeast of Akron, on the line of the Pennsylvania canal and on the Cuyahoga river. Manufacturing is already carried on here to a large extent, and the place is perhaps destined to be to the West what Lowell is to the East. The Cuyahoga has a fall here of more than 200 feet in the distance of two and one half miles, across stratified rocks, which
Page 646
are worn away to nearly this depth in the course of this descent. In the ravine thus formed are a series of wild and picturesque views, one of which is represented in an engraving on an adjoining page.
The Indians called Cuyahoga Falls “Coppacaw,” which signifies “shedding tears.” A Mr. O., an early settler in this region, was once so much cheated in a trade with them that he shed tears, and the Indians ever afterwards called him Coppacaw.
The village was laid out, in 1837, by Birdseye BOOTH, grew rapidly, and in 1840 was the rival of Akron for the county-seat. It contains 1 Episcopal, 1 Wesleyan Methodist and 1 Presbyterian church, 1 academy, 7 mercantile stores, 1 bank, 1 insurance office, 4 paper, 2 flouring and 1 saw mill, 2 furnaces, 2 tanneries, 1 fork and scythe, and 1 starch factory, 4 warehouses, and about 1,200 inhabitants.
The view was taken from near the Cleveland road, above the village, at Stow’s quarry. On the right are seen the Methodist and Episcopal churches, in the centre the American House, and on the left the Cuyahoga river, the lyceum and Presbyterian church.—Old Edition.
CUYAHOGA FALLS if four and a half miles north of Akron, on the C. A. & C. and P. & W. Railroads. The Cuyahoga river furnishes abundant water-power for manufacturing purposes.
City Officers, 1888: John T. JONES, Mayor; Frank T. HEATH, Clerk; George SACKETT, Treasurer; Orlando WILCOX, Solicitor; George W. HART, Street Commissioner; Harry WESTOVER, Marshal. Newspapers: Home Guest, Home Guest Publishing Company, editors and publishers; Reporter and Western Reserve Farmer, Independent, E. O. KNOX, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Disciples, 1 Episcopal, 1 Congregational, 1 Methodist.
Manufacturers and Employees.—THOMAS Brothers, stoneware, 21 hands; CAMP & THOMPSON, sewer-pipe, etc., 50; Empire Paper Mill, 24; Phœnix Paper Mills, 14; REEVE & CHESTER, wire, 63; Glen Wire; Manufacturing Co., 16; Sterling Chain and Manufacturing Co., 72; John CLAYTON, carriages; William BARKER, blacksmithing; William BLONG, carriages; C. KITTLEBERGER, tannery, 9; HOOVER & Co., flour, etc.; David HAHN, cooperage; George W. SMITH, planing mill; TURNER, VAUGHN & TAYLOR, machinery, 40; The Falls Rivet Co., 133; American Foundry and Machine Works, 9.—State Report, 1887.
Population, 1890, 2,614. School census, 1888, 691; Frederick SCHNEE, superintendent of schools. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $150,000. Value of annual product, $175,000.—Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.
Cuyahoga Falls has become a great place of resort for summer excursionists, and improved approaches, stairways, etc., have been constructed to make the romantic glens and nooks more accessible to the visiting multitudes. The High Bridge, Lover’s Retreat, Fern Cave, Observation Rock, Grand Promenade and Old Maid’s Kitchen are some of the features that go to make up the romantic interest of this rock-bound gorge.
The beautiful Silver Lake is a short distance above Cuyahoga Falls. It is nearly a mile long and a third of a mile wide. Steamers ply on the lake. It is surrounded by woods with picnic grounds, and near it is a railroad station for the accommodation of visiting parties.
BIOGRAPHY.
JOHN BROWN, of Osawatomie, was born in Torrington, Conn., May 9, 1800. For three generations his family were devoted to anti-slavery principles. His father, Owen BROWN, in 1798, took part in the forcible rescue of some slaves claimed by a Virginia clergyman in Connecticut. At the age of five, John BROWN removed with his parents to Hudson, Ohio. Until twenty years of age he worked at farming and in his father’s tannery. He then learned surveying. Later he
Top
Picture
Drawn
by Henry Howe in
1846.
CUYAHOGA
FALLS.
Bottom
Picture
Drawn
by Henry Howe in 1846.
RAVINE
AT CUYAHOGA FALLS.
Page 648
removed to Pennsylvania, and was postmaster at Randolph, Pa., under President Jackson. In 1836 he returned to Ohio; removed to Massachusetts in 1844; in 1849 purchased a farm and removed to Northern New York.
In 1854 five of his sons removed from Ohio to Kansas, settling near Osawatomie, and their father joined them the following year, for the purpose of aiding the “Free-State Party.”
The BROWN family was mustered in as Kansas militia by the Free-State Party: their active participation in the Kansas troubles is a part of the history of the Union.
On the night of Sunday, Oct. 16, 1859, Captain BROWN, with his sixteen men,
captured Harper’s Ferry and the United States Arsenal. The citizens of the town had armed themselves, and penned BROWN and his six remaining men in the engine-house, when, on the evening of the next day, Col. Robert E. LEE arrived with a company of United States Marines. When BROWN was finally captured, two of his sons were dead, and he was supposed to be mortally wounded. BROWN was tried in a Virginia court, and sentenced to death by hanging. One the day of his execution, he handed one of his guards a paper, on which was written the following:
“CHARLESTOWN, VA., Dec. 2, 1859. I, John BROWN, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without much blood-shed it might be done.”
Rev. S. D. PEET, in the “Ashtabula County History,” gives some interesting items. The means were so out of proportion to the magnitude of the enterprise that most men not acquainted with John Brown believed him to be insane; but to those who knew him; who knew the depth and fervor of his religious sentiments; his unwavering trust in the Infinite; his strong conviction that he had been selected by God as an instrument in his hands to hasten the overthrow of American slavery; to such he seemed inspired rather than insane. In a conversation I had with him the day he started for Harper’s Ferry, I tried to convince him that his enterprise was hopeless, and that he would only rashly throw away his life. Among other things, he said, “I believe I have been raised up to work for the liberation of the slave; and while the cause will be best advanced by my life, I shall be preserved; but when that cause will be best served by my death, I shall be removed.” The result proved that his sublime faith and trust in God enabled him to see what others could not see. He had so lived that, though dead, “his soul went marching on.”
SANBORN’s “Life of John BROWN,” published by ROBERTS Brothers, Boston, is the most complete biography of him extant. We here give, in an original contribution from high authority in this county, some facts in his history not before published.
John
BROWN, of Osawatomie and Harper’s Ferry, spent a large part
of his youth in
Hudson, and the incidents of his life there throw much light upon his
subsequent career.
Space
will permit the record of only a few
of the
“memorabilia” which might be gathered up. He was the son of Owen
BROWN, a tanner, one
of the pioneers of the township; a man of strong character, of many
peculiarities, and of the most unquestioned integrity.
Owen
BROWN was an inveterate stammerer
and a noted
wit. He could not
endure placidly any
reference to his infirmity of speech, and was never more witty and
caustic in
his retorts than when some well-intentioned party sought to help him to
the
word he was stammering for. On
one
occasion when, in answering the question of a stranger, his effort to
give a
desired word had become painful, the stranger kindly helped him to it;
when his
answer was, “Ba-Ba-Balaam
ha-ha-had an a-a-ss to speak for him
too.”
The
stranger rode on without an answer to his question.
Owen
BROWN’s first
wife was a Miss ___, of a large family
in Hudson and the neighborhood, in which there was a strong hereditary
tendency
to insanity. All
the members were
peculiar, eccentric, and many of them insane.
John was a son of this first wife, and in early life
disclosed the
influence of this insane tendency.
He
was noted for his pranks and peculiarities, which reverence for the
stern
government of his father could not suppress.
This government was based upon the rule laid down by
Solomon, not to
spare the rod; and the old man was as faithful in tanning the hides of
his boys
as he was in tanning the hides pickled in his vats; and this practice
gave John
an early opportunity to disclose hs
penchant for
military tactics.
When
a mere lad, having committed an offence which by sad experience he knew
would
bring the accustomed chastisement, he repaired to the barn, the
well-known
place of discipline, and prepared for it by so arranging a plank that
one
stepping upon it would be precipitated through the floor and upon the
pile of
agricultural implements stored beneath it; and then, with apparent
childish
innocence, returned to the house.
Soon
the pater familias
accused
him of the offence, and invited him to an interview in the barn. After a paternal lecture,
responded to by
supplications for mercy, and promises “never to do so
again,” in obedience to
orders he meekly stripped off coat and vest, and, with apparent
resignation,
submitted himself to the inevitable.
As
the first blow was about to fall, he dexterously retreated across the
concealed
chasm, and the good father was found to be as one “beating
the air.”
The
ancient Adam in him was aroused, and leaping forward, with more than
usual
vigor in his arm, as the cutting blow was about to descend, he stepped
upon the
treacherous plank and landed upon the plows and harrows below. John retired from the
scene. With
difficulty the father rescued himself
from his position, and with bruised and chafed limbs repaired to the
house. John escaped
further interviewing
for this offence, but tradition is silent as to the cause, whether,
before the
father’s recovery, the offence was deemed outlawed, or
whether his own
experience had given him some new ideas as to the effect of the
abrasion of a
boy’s cuticle.
Passing
over many similar events of his boyhood, his first military campaign
should not
be omitted. After
reaching his majority
and becoming the head of a family, he was the owner of a farm in
Northeastern
Hudson, upon which there was a mortgage that he was finally unable to
raise,
and proceedings in court were had for its foreclosure.
BROWN repaired to his neighbor, CHAMBERLAIN;
told him he could not keep the farm, and asked him to bid it in. This he agreed to do and
did. But after the sale was made
and deed given, BROWN asked for the privilege of remaining on the
premises for
a little time as tenant.
The
request was granted. When
this time had
elapsed he refused to vacate.
Proceedings in ejectment
were had, and the
officers of the court turned him out of the house.
Upon the withdrawal of the officers he again
took possession, barricaded the house, armed his family with shot-guns
and
rifles, and prepared to hold the fort.
Repeatedly arrested and sued, he responded to the warrant
or summons,
but left his garrison in possession of the stronghold.
The contest was protracted into the winter,
when an heroic scheme,
like that of the Russians in
burning Moscow, compelled the retreat of our general.
On some real or fictitious charge, warrants
were obtained in another township for the arrest of the eccentric
garrison. While the
warrants were served some half
hundred of CHAMBERLAIN’s
friends were ambushed in the
immediate neighborhood, and
as the officer and his
prisoners passed out of sight they took possession of the premises; and
as the
building was of little value they quickly razed it to the foundations,
carried
off all material which would suffice even for building a hut, and
rendered the
place untenable. When
BROWN and his
garrison returned, he found a hasty retreat the only alternative. It was not as disastrous
as NAPOLEON’s
retreat from Moscow, but it ended the campaign.
His
subsequent experience in wool-growing was not more successful. Simon PERKINS, then a
well-known capitalist
of Akron, furnished the capital for the enterprise, and BROWN furnished
the
brains. He soon
became as enthusiastic
over fine-wooled sheep
as he afterwards became over
the woolly-headed slave and brother, but when the business was closed
out, the
share contributed to the capital by BROWN was all that remained.
His
experiences in Kansas and at Harper’s Ferry are too well
known to need repetition
here; but some account of his last visit to Hudson and the
neighborhood, just
before his invasion of Virginia, is important to a right understanding
of his
character. After
his trial and
conviction in the Virginia court, M. C. READ, an attorney of Hudson,
was
employed by a brother of John BROWN to take affidavits of parties whom
he
interviewed just before leaving for Harper’s Ferry, to be
laid before Governor
WISE, with the hope of obtaining a commutation of his sentence. It
Page 650
was found that he had approached many
persons with
solicitations of personal and pecuniary aid, but these approaches were
made
with great shrewdness and caution.
His
real design was masked under a pretended scheme of organizing a western
colony. In
discussing this, he adroitly
turned the conversation to the subject of slavery; to his work in
Kansas; and
finally to his divine commission to overthrow the institution of
slavery. His
commission was from Jehovah; his success
was certain, because it was divinely promised, and divine direction to
the
employment of the proper means was assured.
Affidavits of these parties were taken, showing the
details of the
conversation, and giving the opinion of the affiants that BROWN was
insane. They were
laid before Governor WISE by C. P.
WOLCOTT, then an attorney of Akron, and afterwards Assistant Secretary
of War
under President LINCOLN. They
produced
no effect upon the Governor.
This unquestioning faith
of BROWN in his divine commission and in
his promised success, accounts for his undertaking so gigantic a work
with such
inadequate means. He
had read and
believed that the blowing of ram’s horns by the priests, and
the shouting of
the people with a great shout, had caused the walls of Jericho to fall
down,
because Jehovah had so ordered it.
He
believed that, with a score of men poorly armed, he could conquer the
South and
overturn its cherished institution, because Jehovah had so ordered it,
and had
commissioned him for the work. His
faith
was equal to that of any of the old Hebrew prophets, but his belief in
his
divine commission was a delusion, resulting from pre-natal influence
and the
mental wrench and exhaustion of his Kansas experience.
The
Rev. CHARLES B. STORRS, the first president of the Western Reserve
College, was
the son of the Rev. Richard S. STORRS, of Long Meadow, Mass., and was
born in
May, 1794. He
pursued his literary
studies at Princeton, and his theological at Andover, after which he
journeyed
at the South, with the double object of restoring his health and
preaching the
gospel in its destitute regions. In
1822
he located himself as a preacher of the gospel at Ravenna. In his situation he
remained, rapidly
advancing in the confidence and esteem of the public, until March 2,
1828, when
he was unanimously elected professor of Christian theology in the
Western
Reserve College, and was inducted into his office the 3d of December
following. The
institution then was in
its infancy. Some
fifteen or twenty
students had been collected under the care and instruction of a tutor,
but no
permanent officers had been appointed.
The government and much of the instruction of the college
devolved on
him. On the 25th
of August,
1830, he was unanimously elected president, and inaugurated on the 9th
of February, 1831.
In
this situation he showed himself worthy of the confidence reposed in
him. Under his mild
and paternal, yet firm and
decisive administration of government, the most perfect discipline
prevailed,
while all the students loved and venerated him as a father. Under his auspices,
together with the aid of
competent and faithful professors, the institution arose in public
estimation,
and increased from a mere handful to nearly one hundred students. For many years he had been
laboring under a
bad state of health, and on the 26th of June,
1833, he left the
institution to travel for a few months for his health.
He died on the 15th of September
ensuing, at his brother’s house in Braintree, Mass. President STORRS was
naturally modest and
retiring. He
possessed a strong and
independent mind, and took an expansive view of every subject that
occupied his
attention. He was a
thorough student,
and in his method of communicating his thoughts to others peculiarly
happy. Though
destitute in the pulpit of the tinsel
of rhetoric, few men could chain an intelligent audience in breathless
silence,
by pure intellectual vigor and forcible illustration of truth, more
perfectly
than he. Some of
his appeals were almost
resistless. He
exerted a powerful and
salutary influence over the church and community in this part of the
country,
and his death was deeply felt.—Old
Edition.
REV. DR. HENRY M. STORRS, the eminent Congregational divine, is a son of this the first President of the Western Reserve College. The father was one of the earliest and strongest to uplift his voice in behalf of the slave; and when he died, the then young but now venerable and deeply-revered WHITTIER paid to his memory the tribute of his humanizing verses: two of these are annexed:
Joy to thy spirit, brother !
A thousand hearts are warm,— A thousand kindred bosoms
Are baring
to the storm. What though red-handed Violence
With secret Fraud combine
! The wall of fire is round us,
Our Present Help with thine. |
Lo,—the waking up of
nations,
From Slavery’s fatal sleep.— The murmur of a Universe,—
Deep calling unto Deep
!
Joy to the spirit, brother
!
On every wind of heaven The onward cheer and summons
Of FREEDOM’S VOICE is given. |
DR. LEONARD BACON, whose sketch of his father we have so largely drawn upon, was literally a child of the wilderness. His long life of usefulness closed
at New Haven, Dec. 24, 1881, in his eightieth year. It had been incessantly devoted to the discussion of questions bearing upon the highest interests of man. He was a strong, independent thinker, and his writings upon vital topics so largely judicial as to carry conviction to the leading minds of the nation. Abraham LINCOLN ascribed to a volume of Dr. BACON on slavery his own clear and comprehensive convictions on that subject. Leonard BACON did more than any man who has lived in making clear to the popular apprehension, and in perpetuating to the knowledge of the coming generations the simple domestic virtues of the fathers; the religious and political principles which governed them, and gave to the American people their strongest, all-conquering element. In his Half-century sermon, preached in New Haven, March 9, 1875, Dr. BACON gave an eloquent description of his boy-life here in Summit county, when all around was in the wilderness of untamed nature:
“I
think to-day of what God’s providence has been for three and
seventy
years. I recall the
first dawning of
memory and the days of my early childhood in the grand old woods of New
Connecticut, the saintly and self-sacrificing father, the gentle yet
heroic
mother, the log-cabin from whose window we sometimes saw the wild deer
bounding
through the forest-glades, the four dear sisters whom I helped to tend,
and
whom it was my joy to lead in their tottering infancy—yes,
God’s providence was
then ever teaching me.
“Our
home life, the snowy winter, the blossoming spring, the earth never
ploughed
before and yielding the first crop to human labor, the giant trees, the
wild
birds, the wild flowers, the blithesome squirrels, the wolves which we
heard
howling through the woods at night but never saw, the red-skin savage
sometimes
coming to the door—by these things God was making impressions
on my soul that
must remain forever, and without which I should not have been what I
am.”
A
daughter of David BACON, DELIA, was born at Tallmadge, February 2,
1811, and
the next year she was taken with the family to Connecticut. Her early life was a
bitter struggle with
poverty, but she became a highly-educated and brilliant woman in the
realms of
ideality; was a teacher and lecturer, and published “Tales of
the Puritans” and
“The Bride of Fort Edward,” a drama.
A published account of
her states that her chief delight was to
read SHAKESPEARE’s
plays and his biographies.
The idea at length grew upon her that the
plays were the work of the brilliant Elizabethan coterie and not of the
actor
and manager, SHAKESPEARE. In
opposition
to the wishes of her family, she went to London in 1853 to publish her
work on
the subject. This
she at last
accomplished, chiefly through the marked kindness of HAWTHORNE, then
Consul at
Liverpool, who was willing to listen to her argument, but never
accepted
it. HAWTHORNE’s
letters to her have a beautiful delicacy, though she must have tried
his
patience frequently, and sometimes repaid his generosity with
reproaches. Her
book, a large octavo, never sold.
The edition is piled up in London today.
CARLYLE took some interest in Miss BACON, who
came to him with a letter from EMERSON.
CARLYLE’s
account of her EMERSON is as follows:
“As
for Miss BACON, we find her, with her modest, shy dignity, with her
solid
character and strange enterprise, a real acquisition, and hope we shall
see
more of her now that she has come nearer to us to lodge. I have not in my life seen
anything so
tragically quixotic as her SHAKESPEARE enterprise.
Alas! alas!
there can be
nothing but sorrow, toil and utter
disappointment in it for her! I
do
cheerfully what I can, which is far more than she asks of me (for I
have not
seen a prouder silent soul); but there is not the least possibility of
truth in
the notion she has taken up, and the hope of ever proving it or finding
the
least document that countenances it is equal to that of vanquishing the
windmills by stroke of lance. I
am often
truly sorry about the poor lady; but she troubles nobody with her
difficulties,
with her theories; she must try the matter to the end, and charitable
souls
must further her so far.”
Miss
BACON’s
account of the visit to her sister contains
this:
“My
visit to Mr. CARLYLE was very rich.
I
wish you could have heard him laugh.
Once or twice I thought he would have taken the roof of
the house off. At
first they were perfectly stunned—he and
the gentleman he had invited to meet me.
They turned black in the face at my presumption. ‘Do you mean to
say so and so,’ said Mr.
CARLYLE, with his strong emphasis, and I said that I did, and they both
looked
at me with staring eyes, speechless from want of words in which to
convey their
sense of my audacity. At
length Mr.
CARLYLE came down on me with such a volley.
I did not mind it in the least.
I
told him he did not know what was in the plays if he said that, and no
one
could know who
Page 652
believed that that booby wrote them. It was then that he began
to shriek. You
could have heard him a mile.”
Miss
BACON’s
brother advised her to publish her theory as
a novel. He was in
earnest, but she
found it hard to forgive him. HAWTHORNE
saw her personally but once. She
wrote
to him from London: “I have lived for three years as much
alone with God and
the dead as if I had been a departed spirit.
And I don’t wish to return to the world.
I shrink with horror from the thought of it. This is an abnormal state,
you see, but I am
perfectly harmless; and if you will let me know when you are coming, I
will put
on one of the dresses I used to wear the last time I made my appearance
in the
world, and try to look as much like a survivor as the circumstances
will
permit.”
Miss
BACON returned to America in 1858.
It
was found necessary to place her in an asylum, and a few months later
she
died. She is buried
in her brother’s lot
at New Haven.
A REMINISCENCE.—I remember often seeing Delia BACON in my youth in my native city, going in and coming from a private residence, wherein, in a private parlor, that of Dr. Joseph DARLING, an old Revolutionary character in old Revolutionary attire, she met a select class of young ladies, to whom she delivered her thoughts upon noted historical characters. She was somewhat tall and of a willowy figure; a very spirituelle appearing personage, attired in black, with simplicity and neatness, a strikingly refined and thoughtful expression, that always attracted my youthful gaze as something above the ordinary line of mortality. If indeed it be true that “this world is all a fleeting show for man’s illusion given,” it is a happy arrangement with some of us ancients, who have come down from a former generation, that we can reproduce from our mental plates, used in boyhood years of innocence, such an interesting variety of the genus woman, of whom to me Delia BACON was among the celestials.
Delia had a younger brother, who narrowly escaped being Ohio-born, DAVID FRANCIS BACON, alike brilliant and erratic. He went out to Liberia, to serve as a physician to the colony which, it was thought by Henry CLAY and other wise men of the day, would solve that early vexed question, “What shall we do with the negro?”
David Francis soon hurried back, his nose on a snivel, thoroughly disgusted with an African Republic, under the statesmanship of exported plantation slaves. He published a book wherein he described his voyage over, and gave a sad account of the loss at sea of a bright youth, closing with a poem of lamentation. He began the poem with a borrowed line, apologizing for so doing by stating his muse was like a pump gone dry. He always had to get a line from some other poet, to first pour in as a starter. Certainly a good thing to do if, when one gets on a flow, he can bring our champagne.
JOHN STRONG NEWBERRY was born in Windsor, Conn., December 22, 1822. Two years later his father, Henry NEWBERRY, removed his family to Cuyahoga Falls. The last-named was a lawyer, a large landholder, and one of the Directors of the Connecticut Land Company, which he founded on land inherited from his father, Hon. Roger NEWBERRY. Young NEWBERRY graduated at Western Reserve College in 1846, and at Cleveland Medical College in 1848. Travelled and studied abroad two years; then practised medicine at Cleveland until 1855.
In May, 1855, he was appointed assistant surgeon and geologist with a United States exploring party to Northern California. In 1857-58 he accompanied Lieut. IVES in the exploration and navigation of the Colorado river. In 1859 he travelled over Southern Colorado, Utah, Nerthern Arizona and New Mexico on an exploring expedition, which gathererd information of great value concerning a hitherto unknown area of country.
June
14, 1861, although still on duty in the war department, he was elected
a member
of the United States Sanitary Commission.
His medical knowledge and army experience led to his
becoming one of the
most important members of that Commission.
(For a sketch of his valuable services on this Commission,
during which
hospital stores valued at more than five million dollars were
distributed, and
one million soldiers not otherwise provided for received food and
shelter, see
Vol. I, “Ohio’s
Work in United States Sanitary Commission.”)
After
the war, Dr. NEWBERRY was appointed Professor of Geology and
Paleontology at
the Columbia School of Mines—a position he still holds. In 1869 he was appointed
State Geologist of
Ohio, filling this office till the close of the survey, making reports
on all
the counties of the State. The
results
of the survey are embodied in nine volumes, of which six are on
geology, two on
paleontology and one on the zoology of the State, with a large number
of
geological maps. In
1884 he was
appointed Paleontologist to the United States Geological Survey. In January, 1888, the
Geological Society of
London conferred on him its Murchison medal.
He
is a member of most of the learned societies in this country and many
in
Europe. He was one
of the original
incorporators of the National Academy of Sciences; has been President
of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and President of
the New
York Academy of Science since 1867, and President of the Torrey
Botanical Society. The
publications of
Prof. NEWBERRY are quite numerous, and include, in addition to his
reports to
the United States Government, the State of Ohio, and the Sanitary
Commission,
contributions to the scientific journals, and transactions of learned
societies, of which the titles number nearly two hundred.
AN EDUCATIONAL HERO.
The northernmost part of this county is formed by two townships. That on the west is Northfield and that on the east Twinsburg. It has a village centre called Twinsburg, wherein stands on the village green a Congregational church and a Soldiers’ monument, thus symbolizing God and Country.
When old Pomp took me over the State, I passed through this village and found it was an educational spot for children—boys and girls largely from farmers’ families from the entire country around. They told me that in many cases children from the same family kept house and boarded themselves—the girls cooking for their brothers, and they chopping wood, kindling fires, and doing the rough work for their sisters. This struggling for an education among the young people aroused my sympathy. As Pomp bore me away, I felt I had a pleasant indestructible picture for my mind’s keeping. The good things are eternal. Then Twinsburg is not a bad name; it brings the thought of two at one time to coo and be loved.
From that period until now Twinsburg has been as a far-away picture in the dim remote. Now, on opening the county history, there comes a revelation of the great work done there in the early years, starting out of the wilderness. Then, withal, a hero is behind it—a great moral hero. The contemplation of one who liveth not unto himself alone swells the heart.
SAMUEL BISSELL is of Puritan stock; his ancestors among the founders of old Windsor on the Connecticut. In 1806, when he was nine years old, he came with his father into the wilderness of Portage county, where he helped to clear up the woods. He was educated at Yale, took charge of a then feeble Congregational Society at Twinsburg and taught school. The church grew under his ministrations, and after a lapse of fourteen years he gave up his pastorate and devoted all his time to the “Twinsburg Institute.” He has devoted himself to the institute for over fifty-two years, during which time more than 6,000 students of both sexes have been under his instruction. The details of his work are here given from the history issued in 1881.
It was in 1828 that he came to Twinsburg, when the Society erected a block-house for his family, and he took for his school a rude log-house twenty by thirty feet. It had for
Page 654
windows three small openings in the logs, each with
rude sashes and four small panes of glass.
The furniture consisted of rude seats and desks hastily
constructed. The
dismal room had a broad
fire-place, with chimney built of stones and clay.
He thus began his work of philanthropy.
The school was opened free of any charge to
all young people desirous to attend, except from those disposed to pay,
in
which case the tuition for the term was to be two dollars. From the first it was a
success. Three
years later a combined church and
school-house was erected. In
1843 a
large two-storied frame building was secured, and in the lapse of five
years
two others. The
reputation of the
Twinsburg Institute was now so extended that he had about 300 pupils of
both
sexes largely from abroad. Seven
teachers and assistants were under him,
and the
students wherever desired fitted for college.
No charter was obtained and no public money
given—the entire institution
rested upon the shoulders of one man.
The ordinary tuition charged was two dollars for the term,
and when the
classics were taught never more than four dollars.
More
than six thousand students have been in attendance at the institute
during its
continuance, and out of these about two hundred have been Indians of
the
Seneca, Ottawa, Pottawatomie and Ojibway
tribes. Ministers,
statesmen, generals, lawyers,
professors, physicians and artisans, in all portions of the country,
trace the
beginning of their education to the door of the Twinsburg Institute. A good library was secured,
and literary and other societies were instituted.
The
benevolence of Mr. BISSELL was such that he not only greatly lowered
the
tuition, but even educated hundreds at his own expense who were unable
to pay
their own way. He was
accustomed to give such students a few light chores to do, and these
trifling
duties were so divided and subdivided that the work was more in name
than in
reality. It is
related that on one
occasion Mr. BISSELL having gone to extremes in this respect, some of
the
students thus detailed grumbled about having more to do than others. Considerable ill-will was
thus incited. One
morning Mr. BISSELL arose at his usual
hour, five o’clock, and, beginning with these chores,
completed the entire
round before the time for opening the school.
Not a word was said; but the act spoke in volumes to the
fault-finding
students, who, after that, vexed the ear of the principal with no more
grumblings.
Among
the Indian youth was George WILSON, a Seneca, about whom
a great deal has been said. He
became a
fine scholar—superior in many important respects to any other
ever in the
institute. His
presence was fine and
imposing, and he displayed rare gifts in logical force
and fervid eloquence. Mr.
BISSELL says
that the quality of his eloquence, the unusual power of his intellect
and the
force of his delivery, resembled in a marked manner those of Daniel
WEBSTER. He
afterward became chief of
his tribe, and was sent to represent their interests to the New York
Legislature and to the New York Historical Society, receiving from the
latter
several thousand dollars for his people, who were in a starving
condition in
the West.
Another
one, named JACKSON BLACKBIRD, or “Mack-a-de-bennessi,”
was an Ottawa, and a direct descendant of PONTIAC.
He excelled in composition, and composed a
comedy, three hours in length, that was presented by the societies of
the
institute publicly to large audiences with great success. Mr. BISSELL became known
throughout the
Reserve for his philanthropy in the cause of Indian education. Some two hundred were
educated at the
institute, from whom no compensation worth mentioning was ever received. All their expenses were
paid—including board,
tuition, room, fuel, light, washing, books and stationery, and some clothing—at the fair
estimate of $200 each a year. This
expense, borne by no one except the
Principal, estimated at these figures, has amounted during the history
of the
institute to over $40,000. Almost
as
much has been expended on indigent white youth; and when the cost of
erecting
the various buildings is added to this, the total amount foots up to
the
enormous sum of over $80,000; all of which has been borne by Mr.
BISSELL. To offset
this not more than $12,000 have
been received from all sources.
When
the rebellion ensued the institute received an almost ruinous blow. Several of the buildings
were sold to pay its
debts. From the
materials of the wreck
he saved a few hundred dollars, obtained a loan of $1,500, and erected
the
present stone building, largely doing the manual labor himself,
he then a man of seventy years.
Without any previous experience he put on the roof, made
the doors,
window frames, etc. The
entire cost was
about $8,000. “Not
only,” says the
‘County History,’ “was the under-taking
gigantic, but its wisdom may be
doubted. The
institute is likely to fail
altogether when the Principal's hand is removed by death from the helm.
“Mr.
BISSELL is now almost penniless, and is compelled to teach for a living
at the
age of more than eighty years.
Considering the invaluable service he has rendered the
village and
township in the past; how scores of people now living there have been
the
recipients of his generous bounty; how patient self-denial and faith in
God
have been the watch-words of this venerable
old man;
it is unquestionably due from the citizens to provide him with at least
the
necessaries of life.”
JOSHUA
STOW was from Middlesex county,
Connecticut, and was born in 1762.
He
was the proprietor of the township of Stow, surveyed in 1804, under his
personal supervision, by Joseph DARROW, of Hudson.
In our first edition it was
stated STOW was a member of the first party of
surveyors of the Western Reserve, who landed at Conneaut, July 4, 1796. (See
V. I., p. 252.) Augustus
PORTER, Esq., the principal
surveyor, in his history of the survey, in the BARR manuscripts, gives
the
following anecdote of Mr. STOW, who was the commissary of the party:
A
GENUINE SNAKE STORY.—In making the traverse of the lake
shore, Mr. STOW acted
as flag-man; he, of course, was always in advance of the party;
rattlesnakes
were plenty, and he coming first upon those in our track killed them. I had mentioned to him a
circumstance that
happened to me in 1789. Being
with two
or three other persons three days in the wood without food, we had
killed a
rattlesnake, dressed and cooked it, and whether from the savory quality
of the
flesh or the particular state of our stomachs, I could not say which,
had eaten
it with a high relish. Mr.
STOW was a
healthy, active man, fond of wood-life, and determined to adopt all its
practices, even to the eating of snakes; and during almost any day
while on the
lake shore, he killed and swung over his shoulders and around his body
from two
to six or eight large rattlesnakes, and at night a part were dressed,
cooked
and eaten by the party with a good relish, probably increased by the
circumstance of their being fresh
while all our other meat was salt.
A
REMINISCENCE.—Joshua STOW became a noted character in
Connecticut, to which he
returned after his Ohio experiences.
He
was a strong old-style Democrat, and one of the first in the State to
start the
cry, “Hurrah for JACKSON!” which he did so lustily
that Old Hickory made him
postmaster of the little town of Middletown.
In
the summer of 1835 I was a rod-man in the party who made the first
survey for a
railroad in Connecticut. The
country
people over whose farms we ran our lines were greatly excited at our
advent. They left
their work and came around us, and
looked on with wondering eyes, calling us the “Ingun-neers.” But few had been one
hundred miles from home;
scarce any had seen a railroad; had but a faint idea of what a railroad
looked
like. Our
operations were a mystery,
especially the taking of the levels.
A dignified gentleman,
the head of the party, Prof. Alex. C.
TWINING, peering through a telescope, and calling out to the rod-man,
“Higher!”
“lower!”
“higher!”
“a tenth
higher!” “one
hundredth
higher!” “a
thousandth lower!” “all
right!” accompanied by a gyration of the arm, which meant
screwing up tight the
target; then came the reading of the rod,
“Four-nine-seven-two.”
Remember these were old times, indeed, when
letters cost from ten to twenty-five cents postage; before prepaid
stamps on
letters were known, and then when they did come into use the mucilage
was so
poor that sometimes they were lost, which led to a profane wag of the
time
writing under one, “Paid,
if the darned thing
sticks!”
One
of our lines of exploration was made three miles west of Middletown. One morning there
approached us, as a
looker-on, a queer-looking man. He
had
come from his farm perhaps a mile away.
He was short and stout; had a most determined expression
of countenance;
was attired in gray from head to foot; wore a gray roundabout jacket,
and a
shot-gun was hanging by the middle from his hand.
This sort of Rip VAN WINKLE figure was bent
over and dripping with water. Just
before reaching us, while crossing a brook on a rail, the rail turned
and he
tumbled in. This
was Joshua STOW, or, as
called by the people at the time, “Josh
Stow.” He
was then just
seventy-three years of age; a man who had found rattlesnakes a savory
diet,
hurrahed for Gen. JACKSON, and gave his name to one of the prettiest
and most
romantic spots of land in Summit county.
It
is a remarkable fact that the very township which Mr. STOW purchased
and named
after himself to show to posterity that such a man as Joshua STOW once
lived
should prove to have been about the most prolific in Ohio in its snake
product. The County
History thus states:
Rattlesnakes were very numerous, and a great pest to the first settlers of Stow township. The “Gulf” at Stow’s Corners was filled with these reptiles, and it was many years before they were killed off. So numerous were they and so dangerous, that the
Page 656
settlers took turns in watching the rocks
to kill all that
came forth. This
was done on sunny days
in early spring, when the snakes first came from their holes to bask in
the sun.
Watching for Snakes.—It
fell upon Mr. BAKER to watch the gulf one Sunday, when Deacon BUTLER
was
holding a class-meeting in a log-cabin close by.
While looking down into the gulf, Mr. BAKER
saw a large number of rattlesnakes crawl from a crevice in the rocks
and coil themselves in
the sun.
When it seemed that all had come forth, Mr. BAKER dropped
his coat near
the crevice, and with a long pole prepared for the purpose, pushed the
garment
into the opening. He
then descended to
the rock, and killed sixty-five of
the venomous reptiles.
Dad’s Achievement.—The
first intimation that the worshippers had of what had taken place was
made
known by a son of Mr. BAKER, who ran to the log meeting-house at the
top of his
speed, crying out with a loud voice: “Oh, dad’s
killed a pile of snakes! dad’s
killed a pile of snakes!”
This adjourned the meeting,
and the members repaired to the gulf, to continue their thanks for the
victory
over the ancient enemy of mankind.
A Mother’s Terror.—One
day, when John
CAMPBELL was away from home, his wife placed her little child on the
floor,
with a cup of milk and a spoon, and closing the door went a short
distance to
one of the neighbors’ on an errand.
She
soon returned and, stepping up to the little window, looked in to see
what her
baby was doing. There
sat the child upon
the floor, while close at its side was coiled up a large yellow,
repulsive
rattlesnake. It had
crawled up through
the crack of the floor, and, when first seen by Mrs. CAMPBELL, was
lapping or
drinking the milk, which had been spilled by the child.
Just as the mother was taking her first
lightning survey of the fearful sight the child reached out its spoon,
either
to give the reptile some milk or to touch its shining body with the
spoon. The mother
gave a piercing scream, and the
snake slid down a crack and disappeared.
Mr. CAMPBELL came in soon afterward, and raising a plank
of the floor,
killed the snake.
From the dawn of history the snake has had the first place as the symbol of deceit and subtilty, finding his first victim in our common mother. Nothing good in the common estimation has come from this reptile. It will therefore be new to many that the snake idea should have been pressed into patriotic service among the heroes of the American Revolution.
In 1844, when travelling over Virginia for my work upon that State, I called upon Capt. Philip SLAUGHTER, at his home in Culpeper county, on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge. He was then some eighty-six years
of age, and about the last surviving officer of the Virginia line of Continentals.
When the war broke out, Patrick HENRY, the commander of the Virginia troops, received 150 men from Culpeper; among them was SLAUGHTER, then seventeen years of age, who enlisted as a private. The flag used by the Culpeper men I drew from his description, as depicted in the annexed engraving with a rattlesnake in the centre. The head of the snake was intended for Virginia, and the twelve rattles for the other twelve States. The corps were dressed in green hunting shirts, with the words “LIBERTY OR DEATH” in large white letters on their bosoms. They wore in their hats buck-tails, and in their belts tomahawks and scalping-knives, making a terrific appearance.
As illustrating the chivalrous feelings among the Virginia officers, the old hero told me that when he received his commission as captain, he then being but nineteen years of age, he indorsed upon it the name of the lady to whom he was engaged, at the same time declaring it never should be disgraced; and he added, with commendable pride, “it never was disgraced.”
The prominent villages in Summit county are TWINSBURG, having, in 1890, 821 inhabitants; PENINSULA, 562; and these others with less: Copley Centre, Clinton, Manchester, Mogadore, Richfield, Tallmadge, and Western Star.