THE PIONEER FAMILIES OF CLEVELAND.
1796
STILES
When, early in the month of June, 1796, a party sent out by the Connecticut Land Company to survey the Western Reserve, met with disaster in their open boats on Lake Ontario and were cast ashore at Sodus Bay, there were two women sharing in all the stress and danger of the expedition.
One was a bride of but a few months, the other carried a young child. The former, bearing the fantastic Biblical name of "Talitha Cumi," was a Miss Elderkin of Hartford, Conn., when in the previous November she had married Job P. Stiles.
The latter was Mrs. Elijah Gun.
Neither the name of Job P. Stiles nor that of Elijah Gun appears in the official list of surveyors and helpers composing the party. How or why they were included in it can only be conjectured. A good-natured assent to the appeal of the two men to be allowed in the party with their families as possible settlers may explain their presence there, or, possibly a recognition of the valuable service the women might render in the commissary department of the expedition may have influenced its leader in the matter.
Job Phelps Stiles-born in Granville, Mass., 1769-was the son of Job and Lydia Phelps Stiles, of two well-known New England families. The first American ancestor of the Stiles was Robert, who came to Rowley, Mass., from Yorkshire, Eng., with Rev. Ezekiel Rogers. The tombstone of Mrs. Lydia Stiles still stands in the Granville Cemetery. She died in 1779, aged 40 years.
Mrs. Talitha Stiles was equally well born. The Elderkin family has furnished to the American commonwealth many of the name who were noted for their statesmanship, scholarship, and patriotism. Mrs. Stiles was 17 years of age when she came to Cleveland.
The young couple were well educated for the times. Both had been school teachers. They were married in Vermont or removed to that state soon after the wedding, and lived for a time in a locality from which came, a year or two later, several of the earliest Cleveland settlers.
They were present at that first and memorable celebration of the Fourth of July on the Western Reserve soon after the surveyors had reached its north-eastern limit-now known as Conneaut, O.
Here the company divided its forces, part remaining to define the eastern line of the promised land, while the others pushed on in boats to lay out its north-western one, which, at that time, began at the mouth of the Cuyahoga-the Indian claims beyond that point not having been settled. This part of the expedition was considered of more importance, and it included Moses Cleaveland, its leader and the most skillful of its surveyors.
With them came Mr. and Mrs. Stiles-the Guns remaining in Conneaut. A cabin was erected for the former on lot 53, north-east corner of
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1796
STILES
Superior and Bank streets. This lot contained two acres of land and extended from Superior to what is now St. Clair Street. The cabin, if yet standing, would be on Bank Street, near Frankfort. It must be borne in mind, however, that there were no streets then, except on paper, and their limits only defined by an occasional stake left by the surveyors. Here, in the following February, was born a little son to Mr. and Mrs. Stiles. Squaws belonging to a tribe of Seneca Indians encamped on the river south of the present central viaduct attended to the needs of the young mother and child.
The Stiles family, in common with every other transient or permanent settler in Cleveland, suffered from the malaria that existed in all the lower portions of the hamlet. Marsh lands and stagnant water bred swarms of mosquitoes that, through lack of proper precautions, inoculated the inhabitants with their deadly poison. Fever and ague, typhoid and typhus fever, and many other like ailments yearly decimated the ranks of the young and old exposed to the attacks of the insects. Children especially suffered from disease and, in many cases, a whole family of little ones would be swept away by some form of malaria then prevalent.
The Stiles family moved their few household effects to the heights south-east of the city and settled upon the 100-acre tract of land situated on what is now known as the south-west corner of Woodhill Road and Union Street. Here they remained for a time, but for how long a period cannot be determined. Authorities conflict in statements regarding it. Probably not long before the war of 1812, Mr. and Mrs. Stiles returned to Vermont by way of Canada. What conduced to this seemingly backward movement of their fortunes has never been explained. They may not have succeeded in attempts to farm the land, or Mrs. Stiles may have succumbed to homesickness and a longing for her parents and friends.
The long, weary journey back to Vermont must have been filled with regret and discouragement. The return to the eastern state did not prove fortunate in a material way, for the family never acquired much means.
It frequently has been stated as an historical fact that the Connecticut Land Company made a valuable gift of land to Mrs. Stiles as the first woman settler of Cleveland. That such a promise was made there can be little doubt. The land-as itemized-consisted of the two-acre town lot on Superior Street, upon which the family first settled, a ten-acre lot, No. 133, on St. Clair Street, extending back to the lake-a line drawn northward from E. 18th Street would pass through this property-and a 100 acre lot, No. 448-situated on Woodhill Road corner of Union Street. The depth of the latter extended south half-way to Harvard Street, and its width now includes wholly, or partially, the great Newburgh Rolling Mills.
But the promise of this property was never fulfilled. The Connecticut Land Company furnished no deed of it to Mrs. Stiles. In 1841, John Ives and John Wilde -residence unknown-called upon her where she was living in Brandon, Vt., and secured a quit deed of the three parcels of Cleveland land. It has been stated that the equivalent for them was sheep and cattle. However, Messrs. Ives and Wilde were unable to take possession. The Connecticut Land Company had previously conveyed the property to other persons than the Stiles.
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1796
STILES
Job Stiles died in Branford, Vt., in 1849, aged 80 years. His wife, Talitha Elderkin Stiles, outlived him 10 years. Their Cleveland-born son - Charles Pheles Stiles-married Laura Irish, widow of Mr. Wetmore, raised a family of children and removed to Beaver, Iroquois Co., Illinois, where he died in 1882, aged 85 years.
His youngest son, the only male descendant of Job Stiles-born 1839 is a widower with two daughters. With his death the name of this branch of the Stiles family will cease.
(Map of Superior Street - not shown)
FIRST CHILD BORN IN CLEVELAND
The snow was falling lightly upon Cuyahoga's ice-locked river. The small trees and undergrowth covering its eastern bank were bending under the weight of that already fallen. Stretching away on the western side the white level of expanse was broken, here and there, by shriveled stalks or cattail plumes indicating the swamp beneath.
It was early in the afternoon, and a gray light yet outlined the river, but far out on the frozen shores of the lake Erie, the ragged hummocks of ice were growing dim, while the narrow zigzag trail that led up the steep bank was lost in a dense forest into which premature night had fallen.
A few minutes' walk in it from the river stood a small cabin built of rough-hewn logs, so overshadowed by the great trees pressing in upon it that they seemed a menace-as if Nature would gladly crush out this intrusion upon its primeval solitude. The narrow, crude door of the hut swung on leathern hinges, and the one other opening on a line with it and intended for a window was covered with greased paper, thus made transparent and rainproof, but through which daylight entered only when the sun hung high and skies were unclouded.
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1796
STILES
But the one-roomed interior needed no other light than that from the fireplace of mud and stone, which filled one end of its entire width, and in which big chunks of wood, backed by a flaming log, were brightly burning.
A bedstead of saplings, nailed crosswise and close together, supported by four posts, still covered with bark, stood in a corner near the window. A wide, smooth-hewed slab of wood resting upon rough logs served as a table, upon which stood the few pieces of crockery the household contained. A log stretching the length of one side of the room was used as a settle, while a low slab, fashioned like the table and capable of seating three people, stood before the fire. A rude ladder of sticks fastened to the wall led to a small opening overhead leading to a loft, in which no adult evidently could stand upright.
Down this ladder, with much stooping and wriggling, backed a young man, who then walked to the fire with a pretence of poking and replenishing it, meanwhile stealing embarrassed glances at a very young woman, who was either lying upon the bed or getting up and moving restlessly about the room.
Frequently she sighed, occasionally moaned softly, and every few minutes opened the door and peered anxiously out into the gloom beyond. Once she gave a quick gasp, as if stricken with mortal pain, and, sinking down upon the settle, turned frightened, beseeching eyes upon the other occupant of the cabin.
"I don't see why Job stays so long-seems as if I couldn't wait another minute for him. You better go to meet him, Joe, (1) and hurry him up."
"Yes, I will so, Talitha. But you know Indians are slow as molasses. It's hard to get one started. They seem to need so much time to turn things over in their minds. I wouldn't worry if I were you. The Senecas are still down under the hill by the river, for I was there only yesterday, and Au Gee's squaw signed to ask me how you were, real kind. But I'll go and see if there's anything hindering."
And taking a coonskin cap and a tippet from a peg in the wall, he hastened out. The young woman, as if unwilling to remain alone in the cabin, put a shawl about her shoulders, and following him to the door, stood leaning against the casing and looking up into the tall trees, where daylight faintly lingered, outlining their topmost branches, where glistened bunches of dead leaves encrusted in snow.
"Oh, Mother, Mother!" she exclaimed aloud, voicing the longing that had possessed her for hours, "I want you, I need you, I am so alone."
As she gazed upward, her tremulous speech breaking in upon the utter stillness of the forest, the tree trunks receded. Suddenly a band of closeset lights brilliant beyond imagination and higher than the tallest trees hung suspended in the darkness. Soon similar ones sprang out beneath them, rows above rows of lights dazzling, innumerable, rose from the ground to the dizzy heights that crowned the whole . (2)
With their appearance came strange sounds, unlike anything she had ever heard, rending the air, a continuous roar mingled with noises like clashings of steel upon steel. (3) Looking down at her feet, behold, a wide
1 Joseph Langdon.
2 The Rockefeller Building.
3. A trolley car.
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1796
LANDON
stone walk covered the leaves of the forest before her door, and beyond it a paved street, along which swiftly moved a horseless vehicle ablaze with light. (1) A little way to the left, it turned at right angles and eastward, and joined a procession of like vehicles passing and repassing in endless procession.
The other street (2) upon which it turned, and of which the cabin furnished but a glimpse, was also bordered with tall buildings that would have seemed of wonderful proportions, but for the tremendous structure -a veritable tower of Babel-across the way;
And as Talitha Stiles gazed spellbound, forgetting time, space, and even her dire forebodings, a voice whispered in her ear,
"The little child you are soon to enclose in your arms will lead the list of thousands of the Cleveland born who will make reality what is to you now but a dream."
And then, above the roar of traffic and commerce, sounded the faraway bay of a wolf, and nearer the guttural voices of an aboriginal tongue. Suddenly all other sounds ceased. The lights went out, the great building opposite broke up into innumerable tree trunks, and through the dusk appeared Job Stiles, her husband, followed by two squaws ; one with white locks and wise old eyes, bearing in her arms bunches of herbs, the other younger and spryer, carrying a warm blanket made of furs.
Talitha turned slowly back into the cabin. Had she fallen asleep, while leaning against the doorjamb? Or was it a heavenly vision that had come to comfort her? For surely in no earthly land could such things be!
Early in the morning of the following day, January 23, 1797, the stork that had been hovering for hours over the little log cabin, spread its wings for flight, leaving within a boy babe, the first child born in Cleveland, Ohio.
Charles Phelps Stiles.
1796
LANDON
One of the employees of both the first and second surveying parties that laid out the streets of Cleveland was a young man named Joseph Landon. He was given the choice of a town lot to purchase, and selected No. 77 on the south side of Superior Street, directly opposite that occupied by the Stiles. He remained in Cleveland some time after the surveyors had left, which was October 18, 1796. When he also returned East is doubtful. One authority states that it was in the month of February; another that it was at an earlier date. While remaining here, he lived with the Stiles in their log cabin. In the spring of 1797, he returned to Cleveland with the surveyors and with the help of Stephen Gilbert-who became a permanent settler-he cleared his lot and planted it to wheat. This is the last mention made in any Cleveland records of Joseph Landon.
(1) Bank Street.
(2) Superior.
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1797
THE SECOND FAMILY TO ARRIVE IN CLEVELAND
The most careful research has failed to throw authentic light upon the answer to this question.
(1) It is claimed that Lorenzo Carter and his family were the earliest on the ground in the spring of 1797, but no proof of this has been furnished.
(2) The Hawley descendants say that the Carters were accompanied by Ezekial Hawley, his wife, and child.
(3) Furthermore, the second surveying party of the Connecticut Land Company, on their way to Cleveland, reached Conneaut, Ohio, May 26, 1797. Elijah Gun and his wife had been left there the previous fall in charge of the company's stores.
"We found that Gun and his wife had gone on to Cleveland," is the testimony of one of the surveyors who kept a journal of the expedition.
It is very probable that the Carters and Hawleys took the journey from Vermont together. Mrs. Carter had three small children when she started, and, while wintering in Canada, another child was born, December 13, 1796; namely, Henry Carter, who was drowned in the Cuyahoga River ten years later. Because of the domestic situation in the Carter family, it is not likely that Mrs. Carter started on such a long and eventful trip into the wilderness unaccompanied by some one of her own sex. Mrs. Ezekial Hawley was her sister-in-law, and it is reasonable, therefore, to rest upon the word of the Hawley family-that they all came on together.
No record has been left of the journey from Buffalo to Cleveland, whether it was made by water or land. If by the former route, they naturally would hug the shore all the way, beaching their boat at night-fall, and camping out until morning. As Conneaut was a station of the Connecticut Land Company and occupied by a family, the pioneer party would scarcely go by the spot without stopping.
On the other hand, if the trip was by land, the party would pass through Conneaut. In either event, unless the Guns already had started for Cleveland, the three families would meet there in April or early May.
It is the opinion of the writer that the Carters, Hawleys, and Guns all came on together from Conneaut, and were established here by the time the second surveying party reached Cleveland.
It is much to be regretted that accurate data concerning the earliest events in the history of Cleveland has not been preserved. No authoritative statements can be made regarding many things that would be of great interest and value in any history of the city. There remains, therefore, no recourse but to compare traditions handed down in pioneer families with the meager historical facts available, and accept that which seems most probable.
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1797
GUN
As stated previously, Elijah Gun and his wife, accompanied the surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company from some point in the East to Conneaut, Ohio. He was in the employ of the surveyors, and Mrs. Gun cooked for the party.
When the surveyors left Conneaut late in October, 1796, on their return to the East, the Guns were left in charge of the storehouse-dubbed "Castle Stow"-a large, low structure of unhewn logs, and thatched with wild grasses and sod.
This spot was on the north-easterly boundary of the Western Reserve. The following May the Guns left - a -month before the surveyors' return and proceeded to Cleveland, whether by boat or on foot, no record can be found. They occupied the company's cabin on the river bank north of Superior Street, then built one of their own on River Street. The prevalence of malaria and mosquitoes drove them finally to a farm out on Broadway, afterward called the "Rhodes Farm."
The family consisted of Mr. Elijah Gun, his wife, Anna Sartwell Gun, and at least four children, perhaps six. No mention of these children in connection with their sojourn in Conneaut or arrival here is made in any history of the city, but, nevertheless, one of the daughters was sixteen years of age at the time, and she was not the oldest child.
Elijah Gun seems to have been a valuable citizen while in Cleveland, for we find his name among those serving the community by holding small and unremunerative offices.
He was born in Deerfield, Mass., 1759, and died in Defiance, 0., at the age of 96. One or more of his sons were living there, at the time, and he had been making his home with him for several years. Whether Mrs. Gun also died there cannot be learned, nor the date of her death.
Mrs. Anna Sartwell Gun, wife of Christopher Gun, was given 100 acres of land by the Connecticut Land Company as a recognition of her services rendered it. It was valued at $150. The deed was recorded in 1803, as
"100 acre lot number 457."
In 1804, she sold 50 acres of it to George Kilbourne, and in 1805, the other half to Samuel Huntington. See map on page . .
During her residence in Cleveland and Newburgh, she was best known as a competent nurse, who went in and out of fever-stricken homes, ministering to the needs of the sick and dying, attending to the dire necessity of young mothers and their little ones, or relieving the bereaved of the last sad offices of their dead. And all of this freely bestowed without money and without price.
Mrs. Gun had a large family of her own, and many household duties while thus holding herself in readiness, by day or night, to respond to the call of duty or mercy.
It is to be hoped that this good woman had a far easier life in her declining years than was accorded her in her younger days. She was 38 years old when she came to Cleveland.
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1797
GUN
The children of Elijah and Anna Sartwell Gun:
Christopher Gun, m. Ruth Hickox, daughter of Abram Hickox.
Charles Gun, m. Betsey Mattocks
Philena Gun, m. Capt. Allen Gaylord
Horace Gun, m. Anna Pritchard.
Elijah Gun, Jr., m. Elenor Grant.
Minerva Gun, m. Mr. Hull, and died of consumption at the age of 21 years.
Christopher Gun lived near the foot of Superior Street, and ran the ferry between the east and west side of the river. Residents of the hamlet facetiously dubbed him Christopher Pistol, then docked the name to "Pistol"-one that clung to him the rest- of his life. He-lived on a farm in Nottingham for some years, and afterward removed to Toledo, Ohio.
At least three children were born to Christopher and Ruth Hickox Gun. They were Orsena, Hannah, and Solon Gun. Probably there were others.
Charles Gun, who married Betsey Mattox, removed to Maumee, O. His death occurred only three weeks after that of his wife.
Their children, so far as can be learned, were Lucien, Elliott, Edward, and Minerva Gun.
Christopher and Charles Gun were twins. After Charles died at his home in Maumee, Christopher visited his late brother's children in that town, and so closely did he resembel his twin brother that the Indians in that locality fled at his approach, thinking it was the ghost of Charles Gun.
Horace Gun, who married Anna Pritchard, daughter of Jared and Anna Baird Pritchard, lived in Cleveland the most of his life. He moved to a farm in Brunswick, 0., for a time, but returned and died here. His children were
Mary Gun, m. Samuel Snover Armstrong..
Sarah Anna Gun, b. 1820; m. Stephen Francis ; 2nd, Samuel Armstrong, widower of her sister, Mary.
Minerva Gun, d. of consumption, unmarried
Sophia Gun, m. John Allen. They moved to Kansas
Elijah Gun, m. Laura Wiesner. She d. in 1886.
Lucinda Gun, m. Andrew Stubbs.Moved to Illinois
Almon Gun, m. Catherine Cummins. He d. as a soldier in the Civil War.
Mrs. Gun was never a strong woman ; at last she succumbed to her large family and many cares, dying in 1843.
Horace Gun married, secondly, Mrs. Jane Germain Draper.
Elijah Gun, Jr., and Elenor Grant Gun lived in Maumee, Ohio.
They had at least four children-Catherine, Lucretia, Henry, and Julia Gun.
It is claimed by some of the Gun descendants that after the death of Elenor Grant Gun, Elijah Gun, Jr., married Mrs. Dorcas Hickox Watterman, widow of Eleazur Watterman ; but members of the Hickox family think this to be a mistake.
The Gun family records remaining in Cleveland are very incomplete, and it was with much difficulty that the above data-a partial one-was secured.
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PAGE 15
SKETCH SHOWS APPROXIMATE LOCATION OF STREETS
OMITTED
1797
CARTER
Major Lorenzo Carter has justly been called
THE PIONEER OF THE PIONEERS,
for it is doubtful if many of the earliest settlers would have survived the periods of great deprivation they experienced but for Major Carter.
He was their leader and protector. His courage sustained and fortified them in days of trial and danger. The skillful use of his rifle often saved them from starvation or from the terrors of wild beasts. His sturdy presence held in check any hostile demonstration of the Indians. Moreover, his continued residence in the hamlet--seventeen years in all encouraged later settlers in remaining and living down the malaria that had driven the Stiles, Guns, Hawleys, Kingsburys and Edwards to the heights now outlined by Woodhill Road.
He must have been a striking figure even in those days of picturesque, half-Indian attire ; six feet in height, erect, with black hair that hung in length to his shoulders ; and with an alert, resolute bearing that betokened the born leader.
We learn that he was honest and generous, as well as brave and capable. It was a common saying that "Major Carter was all the law Cleveland had. He was kind to the poor and unfortunate, hospitable to the stranger, would put himself to great inconvenience to oblige a neighbor, and was always at the service of an individual or the public when a wrong had been perpetrated."
It is not the purpose of this history of the Cleveland pioneers to dwell upon their American ancestry. But, as Lorenzo Carter was so unique a personage and filled for so many years so prominent a place in the hamlet, it seems proper to touch lightly upon his forebears, in order to explain him -to account for his intelligence and unusual traits of character.
(1) Rev. Thomas Carter was educated at Cambridge, England, and there took his degree of M. A. He came to America in 1635, and seven years later was ordained at Woburn, Mass. He became minister of the Congregational church in that town, and continued so for forty-two years.
(2) Thomas Carter, Jr., cultivated a large farm near Woburn, but resided in the old homestead, built in 1642, a part of which is still standing. He married Margery, daughter of Francis Whittemore.
(3) Thomas Carter 3rd, born in Woburn, removed to Litchfield, Conn. His wife was Sarah Gilbert, a descendant of Jonathan Gilbert, Hugh Welles, James Rodgers, and other early lights of Colonial days. Evidently he was a man of considerable property, as he deeded a generous amount of land to each of his six sons. These sons all served their country in the struggle for American independence.
(4) Lieut. Eleazer Carter enlisted in the Continental Army. His company was disbanded temporarily, and he returned home, to die of small-pox, in his thirty-seventh year, leaving a widow and six children, the oldest of whom-Lorenzo Carter-was but eleven years of age.
Elizabeth Buell Carter, wife of Eleazer, was the granddaughter of Ensign William Buell, of Windham County, Conn., and a descendant of the Griswolds, of Winsor, and the Collins, of Hartford. An educated woman, well-fitted for the years of trial and struggle that lay before her, she was
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1797
CARTER
capable of instructing her children when other opportunities of education failed them.
Warren-the small village of Litchfield County, in which they livedpossessed an unusual library for that day, and her children were taught to use it freely. The list of books drawn by Lorenzo from that library, and later from one in Cleveland, witness to his good taste in literature and frequent indulgence in it.
About 1783-the close of the Revolutionary War-Mrs. Carter married, secondly, Major Benjamin Ackley, who took her and her children, together with some of his own,. by a former marriage, to Castleton, Vt., where her brother, Major Ephraim Buell, had recently settled.
At least three more children were born to her, all of whom lived to be very aged. They were John A., Eleazer, and Orange Ackley. The former was once well known in Cleveland, as was his son, John M. Ackley, late of Brewton, Ala., to whose courtesy the writer is greatly indebted for valuable data concerning the family.
In 1789 Lorenzo Carter married Rebecca Fuller, and settled down on a small farm in Castleton. But not for long. He soon became dissatisfied with the old circumscribed life of a poor farmer, his imagination became fired by glowing descriptions of "New Connecticut," and in company with another man he came West, either in the fall of 1795, or very early the following year, to investigate for himself the future site of Cleveland.
He returned to Vermont, and in the late fall of 1796, in company with Ezekiel Hawley, Lucy Carter Hawley, his wife-who was Lorenzo's sister and their young child, the Carters started for their new home in the wilderness.
They had three children at that time, Alonzo, Laura, and Rebecca, aged respectively six, four and two years. When the party reached the little hamlet of Buffalo, N. Y.. it seemed expedient not to proceed any farther on the journey that season. There were no accommodations for the two families there. Buffalo was simply a store-house and a log-hut or two, so the party crossed over to the Canadian side of the Niagara River, where, at the close of the American Revolution, thirteen years previous, a settlement had been made by Tory refugees, chief of whom was John Clement, formerly of Schenectady, N. Y.--one of Butler's rangers in the dreadful warfare carried on by Tories against the patriots of the Mohawk Valley during the struggle of the American Revolution.
December 13, another child was born to the Carters-little Henry, who ten years later was drowned in Cuyahoga River. Mrs. Carter engaged a young Canadian girl to assist her in the care of the babe, by the name of Chloe Inches, who had an admirer in William Clement, a son of John Clement, the ranger.
She accompanied the family to Cleveland, but two months afterward was followed and claimed by her lover, and they were married the following July. A full account of this wedding will be found in the pages of this volume.
At what date the Carters and Hawleys resumed their journey is not ascertained, but they reached here in May, 1797. As there were young children in the party, including a babe five months old, and as the weather in this latitude is often at freezing point in the early part of April, it is
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1797
CARTER
probable they delayed starting until later in the month, which would bring them to their destination after the middle of May.
Mr. Carter bought lot 199, which was on the river bank west of Water Street, and nearly at the foot of St. Clair Street. It contained nearly two acres, and cost $47.50. The contract with and description of it from the Connecticut Land Company is still preserved.
Upon this lot he built a large log-house, containing two rooms, with rough puncheon floors. They must have been furnished in the most primitive fashion, as the only household effects that could be transported from the East at that early day were bedding and the simplest cooking utensils. One iron kettle and a skillet often served for half a dozen purposes in preparing a meal, and frequently only part of a family could eat at a time for want of sufficient dishes.
This first log-house, on the side of the hill and close to the river, was the center of many pioneer activities. It was a dwelling, Indian trading-post, store, and headquarters for all the settlement. Here, in 1801, was celebrated the Fourth of July, ending in a dance, participated in by about a dozen women and fifteen men. The only refreshment served, it is said, was whiskey and water, sweetened with maple sugar. But as the report of this social affair was written by a man, it may have been biased by his own taste in the matter of refreshments-the hot drink probably remembered, the food that appealed to the women forgotten.
Timothy Doan's eldest daughter, Nancy, aged fifteen, was one of the party. She had arrived the previous April with her parents, and was visiting her uncle Nathaniel at Doan's Corners. She was escorted by a young man living transiently in Newburgh, named Bryant. He wore a gingham suit, and his hair-queued-was tied with a yard and a half of black ribbon. It had previously been greased and sprinkled with flour as thick as it would stick. He wore a wool hat and heavy shoes. By means of the latter he hoped to make a fine clatter in his "pigeon wings" while dancing the Fisher's Hornpipe or "Hie Betty Martin."
Doan's Corners was four miles east from the Carter home, and two miles or more north of Newburgh, and Bryant went for Nancy on an old horse along the road now known as Woodhill Road. "He alighted by a stump near the Doan cabin, and Nancy mounted the stump, spread her under-petticoat over old Tib's back, secured her calico dress from the mudsplashes sure to assail it, and mounted behind him." It is reported that they had a good time.
In 1801 Mr. Carter added to his possessions by acquiring more city property. The deed and description of it is still retained in the family. It began at the north-west corner of Water (W. 9th) and Superior streets, and embraced all the lots between that point and lot 199-the one he was occupying.
Upon the corner he built a large frame-house-the first one in the settlement-which, when nearly finished, was set on fire by children playing with the dry shavings left on the floors. It must have been a serious loss to the family, as well as a great disappointment. However, another one was soon erected, but this time of hewn logs.
There is some dispute regarding the exact year in which this last house was finished, but the oldest son of the family was thirteen years of
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1797
CARTER
age at the time, and his testimony should have due weight. He says it was in 1803. The house consisted of a large living room, kitchen and two bedrooms on the ground floor, and several small rooms in the half-story above.
A large chimney stood in the center of this primitive structure, in which were two fire-places. The one in the kitchen had an iron crane, upon which Mrs. Carter hung venison, wild turkey or other meats to roast, while the few vegetables obtainable were cooked either in the hot ashes or in iron pots and skillets set close to the fire and requiring continual turning to secure an even heat within. The baking-oven was built in the chimney.
The oldest daughter of the family-Mrs. Laura Miles Strong-stated that the furniture in this log-cabin was all made by a Cleveland carpenter out of lumber brought from Detroit.
Mrs. Carter was fully in sympathy with her husband in all his plans for the future. There were many strangers constantly arriving to inspect the new settlement, with a view of joining it, and these were freely and generously invited to partake of the hospitality of the Carter home. Finally it became apparent that a public inn was necessary, and Mr. Carter made his new log-house a tavern.
Although the cares of this house, of strangers, and of her children required an immense amount of labor, Mrs. Carter was ever ready to comfort or aid any suffering neighbor by sympathy, tender nursing, or by supplying daintily prepared food for the helpless. Her intense religious nature, combined with her early training, led her to be among the first to assist in the organization of a religious society, which held its early services in Carter's tavern before a "meeting-house" was built.
It is a great satisfaction to the writer, and will be to the reader, that so much of this representative pioneer woman has been preserved. It is due to the loyalty and zeal of her great-granddaughter-Miss L. Belle Hamlin, of Milford, Conn.-a genealogist of our day, whose researches secured knowledge of her ancestress that otherwise would have been unattainable.
Rebecca Fuller Carter was the daughter of Amos and Mercy Taylor Fuller, who, with several neighbors, removed from Lebanon, Conn., to Carmel, a beautiful little village of Eastern New York. But during the War of the American Revolution, fifteen years later, that locality became so unsafe that after innumerable hardships the family were compelled to return to Connecticut, and Mr. Fuller, then nearing sixty years of age, was obliged to found a new home. This he did in Warren, a little village in the mountains of Litchfield County. It possessed, for that period, an unusually good library and an excellent school.
Here also lived the widow Carter and her children, and the Ackleys. Abel Fuller, Rebecca's brother, was in love with Roxanna Ackley, afterward the step-sister of Lorenzo Carter. Two years after the marriage of Mrs. Carter to Roxanna's father, and the removal of the families to Castleton, Vt., Abel followed them, and Roxanna Ackley became his wife.
In time Rebecca Fuller visited her brother in Castleton, and a friendship that had existed between Lorenzo Carter and herself was renewed.
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1797
CARTER
It matured into strong affection, and they were married in January, 1789. She was twenty-two years of age.
No pioneer woman of Cleveland was more illy fitted to endure the dangers, deprivations and toil which existed for all those first settlers than was Mrs. Carter, whose shy, timid, imaginative temperament created unnecessary terrors, and whose physical frailty made the struggle for existence difficult.
The surrounding Indians were a source of continual anxiety, for she possessed none of that fearlessness so characteristic of her husband, and she suffered greatly from an unconquerable dread of their approach. The common occurrence of one peering into the house with face pressed close against the window-pane would cause her to run away screaming with terror. Or, did they appear in the house when her husband was away, she would lock herself and children in another room, or would hide in the woodpile until they disappeared.
This fear of them was apparent to the Indians, and, perhaps in resentment of it, they seemed to enjoy tormenting her.
Once, knowing that Mr. Carter was away hunting, an Indian came into the house, and ordered her to cook a meal for him, and, growing ugly at some delay, he raised his arm threateningly and started towards her. She ran through the open door and circled round and round the woodpile, closely followed by her pursuer.
The aspect of this scene was suddenly changed by the appearance of her husband standing with gun leveled at her tormentor, and, while she fell breathless to the ground, almost paralyzed with fright, the Indian skulked limping away, carrying with him a stinging and personal knowledge of Lorenzo Carter's skill as a marksman.
Mrs. Carter had five more children born to her after she came to Cleveland, making nine in all. Her little Rebecca, who came with them from Vermont, died the fall after their arrival, and in 1808 she lost two more children-Cleveland born-in less than two months. Three years later her ten-year-old son Henry, the one born in Canada, was drowned in the river.
But she had yet to face a greater sorrow, one that demanded her uttermost fortitude. Lorenzo Carter, in the very prime of life, was smitten with that dreadful and fatal disease-cancer. It appeared upon his face, and he went East to consult the most eminent physicians, but returned, knowing that for him life was short. Brave and daring as he had shown himself hitherto, he could not resign himself to his fate. As the disease gradually disfigured his countenance, he grew morbidly sensitive, refused all visitors, and retired to an upper room to avoid friends and strangers alike.
There were days when, tortured by pain and his own thoughts, he would pace his room, furiously raging at his hard fate.
His gentle wife would then endeavor to pacify him in every way that love prompted, but often-so impatient and desperate was his mood-he would drive her away. Then she would sit down on the stairs near his door and pray to be taught how to comfort him.
That he appreciated her devotion and reciprocated her affection, is evi
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1797
CARTER
dent in his will, in which careful directions are given for her future welfare.
Lorenzo Carter died in February, 1814, and was buried in Erie Street Cemetery, to the left of the main drive, and close to the front entrance. Beside him lies his wife, Rebecca Fuller Carter, who survived him thirteen years and died at the age of sixty-one.
The births, deaths and marriages of the Carter children were copied from the family Bible and kindly furnished as data for this work.
Alonzo Carter, b. in Castleton, Vt., 1790; m. Julia Akins. .
Laura Carter, b. in Castleton, Vt., 1792; m. Erastus Miles, and (2d) 1800; d. Aug., 1803. James Strong
Rebecca Carter, b. in Castleton, Vt., 1794; d. Sept., 1897.
Henry Carter, b. in Niagara, Ont.,.Dec., 1796; d. Sept., 1806.
Polly Carter, b. in Cleveland, 1798; m. William Peets, and (2d)
Rebecca Carter, b. in Cleveland, 1800; d. Aug., 1803
Lorenzo Carter, b. in Cleveland, 1802; d. Sept., 1803.
Mercy Carter, b. in Cleveland, 1804 m. Asahel Abels
Betsey Carter, b. in Cleveland, 1806; m. Orison Cathan.
Soon after his arrival in Cleveland, Lorenzo Carter bought a large farm on the west side of the river, most of it lying directly opposite his homestead. This he either gave or sold to his eldest born and only son Alonzo, who lived on it and cultivated it for many years. His house, painted red and always mentioned as "the red house," stood where it was conspicuous from Superior Street, being directly opposite the foot of it.
Alonzo Carter married, in 1815, Julia Akins, who was the daughter of George and Tamison Higgins Akins, who had come from Haddam, Conn., in 1811, and settled in Brooklyn on the farm where the City Infirmary has stood for so many years.
In the red house Alonzo and his wife entertained the traveling public, and their tavern was as well-known a stopping-place as, for fifteen years, his father's had been. The Buffalo Land Company bought the farm some time in the '30s, and erected one of the finest hotels in the West, either on it or close at hand. But the grand hotel proved less profitable than the small pioneer tavern, and eventually fell into ruin, after many years of base usage as factory and slum tenement.
Alonzo Carter had the distinction of being
THE FIRST TREASURER OF CLEVELAND.
He was unanimously elected to that office in June, 1815, when the village of Cleveland was incorporated, and probably it was a tribute to the well known Carter honesty.
The marshal chosen in that election of 1815 was John A. Ackley, the half-brother of Lorenzo Carter.
Alonzo seems always to have been held in much respect. He was associated with leading citizens of the town in various enterprises. He inherited the kind, generous qualities of his parents. This was exemplified in an incident which will be found in Johnson's History of Cuyahoga County, p. 417.
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1797
CARTER
After the sale of the farm he removed to the vicinity of Broadway and Miles Ave., where his sons also lived and died.
Children of Alonzo and Julia Akins Carter
Rebecca Sarter, m. 1835, Joseph Few, of New York State..
Laura Carter, m. 1844, Stewart Rathbun..
Julia Carter, m. 1845, Dr. Charles Northrup, of Olmstead Falls, O..
Amelia Carter, m. Corydon Rathbun.
Lorenzo Carter, m. Eunice Brockway
Edward Carter, m. Margaret Stewart, widow of Augustus Stewart
Charles Carter, m. Anna Rock
Henry Carter, m. Julia McNamara
Alonzo Carter died in 1872, and his wife ten years later.
Laura Carter, the oldest daughter of Lorenzo and Rebecca Carter, was a tall, straight, black-eyed girl, and, like her father, courageous and fearless. Her remembrance of the long journey from Vermont to Cleveland was but slight, but some of her recollections of events that transpired after the family reached their destination remained vivid through life, especially that of the Indians crowding into their cabin and sometimes filling the living room with their numbers.
At first they peered curiously around, handled all articles that amused or puzzled them, watched closely the movements of the family, and showed particular interest in Mrs. Carter's method of cooking. The bread baking was a wonderful mystery, and when she placed the bread dough near the fire to hasten its rising they would watch its gradual rising upward, shaking their heads with solemnity, mutter "bad spirit," and edge to a distant corner.
Very early Laura learned that she could protect her timid mother from these invasions. She knew they both respected and feared her father, and that they would immediately disperse upon his arrival home. So she would glance out of the window, and, turning, call, "Father is coming!" or, going to the door, would pretend to be talking with him at a distance away. Whereupon the Indians would take to the woods.
One night, Alonzo and Laura planned to have some fun with several of their prostrate forms, the children placed handfuls of horse-chestnuts in the hot ashes, and then hid to watch results.
Soon a sputtering and cracking began, then a shot, followed by a resounding explosion, issuing from that fire-place. The Indians sprang to their feet and fled out into the night. The following day they told of how "an evil spirit came down the Carters' chimney, and they could not rest there."
One night, during Mr. Carter's absence, about fifteen Indians came in and took possession of the cabin. Their carousing and smoking greatly frightened Mrs. Carter, who was lying ill in an adjoining room. Laura was then but thirteen years old, but she walked in boldly, swinging a broom right and left, hitting heads, legs and arms indiscriminately, and crying, "Get out ! my mother is sick!" The Indians, taken by surprise, almost unconsciously obeyed the command of the daring little girl.
In 1809, at the age of seventeen, Laura married Erastus Miles, who
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1797
CARTER
had located in Cleveland in 1801, and the following year had been made town clerk. He held this office many years, and in 1810 was appointed a justice of the peace. His stirring energy appealed strongly to Laura's father, and soon after the marriage they were associated together in various enterprises, one of which was the building of the "Zephyr," the first vessel built in Cleveland.
As it seemed impossible to leave her frail mother to the labor and care the tavern entailed, the young couple decided to remain there until Mercy and Polly, the younger sisters, were older.
During the War of 1812 the tavern was overrun with soldiers coming by the boat-load into Cleveland-especially after Perry's victory. Laura and her sisters cooked night as well as day for those hungry men, and years afterward they used to refer to the barrels of bread they had then baked-often in the hours of the night.
Laura Carter Miles was her father's chief nurse during his fatal illness. Her strong, self-reliant, cheerful nature sustained and comforted the stricken man in a way impossible to his delicate, grief-stricken wife. She was with him to the end, and two weeks later gave birth to her second child.
Soon after, Mr. Miles built a residence in Newburgh, and removed his family there. This building, though changed beyond all recognition, still stands on the corner of Broadway and Miles Ave. At the same time he opened a store, and started for New York to purchase goods to stock it. Mrs. Miles accompanied him, riding all the way on horseback.
On this trip, while visiting relatives, she learned to make salt-rising bread, much to the convenience of her neighbors, whom she instructed in the art, as fresh yeast was not always easy to obtain.
In 1826, after a few days only of illness, Erastus Miles died. Two years later Laura married Mr. James Strong of Cleveland-son of the pioneer and thenceforth lived in his home on Euclid Avenue, at the corner of E. 89th Street. The Severance mansion now occupies the site.
Here she spent twelve happy years. Mr. Strong was very kind to her children, and she was equally so to his by a former marriage, and in the course of time three more came to bless the household.
Mr. Strong died in 1840, and his widow moved to Olmstead Falls, and subsequently to Elkhart, Ind., where she died in 1863.
Children of Erastus and Laura Carter Miles
Emily Miles, b. 1810; m. Timothy T. Clark ; 2nd, Joseph K. Curtis.
Lorenzo Miles, b. 1815; m. Margaret Lawrence, of Mt. Morris, N. Y.
Edwin Miles, b. 1817; d. 18 years of age.
Lucretia Miles, b. 1818; m. Hon. Edward S. Hamlin, of Elyria, O.
Charles Miles, b. 1820; m. Electa A. Lawrence-sister of Margaret
Children of James and Laura Carter Strong
Mary Strong, m. Hon. Edward Hamlin.
Frances Strong, m. Lewis W. Pickering, of Elkhart, Ind.
Louise Strong, m. Samuel S. Strong, of Elkhart, Ind.
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1797
HAWLEY-HOLLY
Ezekiel Hawley of Carthage, Vermont, married Lucy Carter in Castleton, Vt.
The Hawley genealogy, recently published, contains no one by the name of Ezekial, and as this pioneer family wrote their name or allowed it to be written Holly quite as often as Hawley, the former spelling may have been the correct one. Mrs. Juliette Jackson Hawley, who married into the family, asserted this to be the case. In 1803, Elisabeth Buell Ackley, mother of Mrs. Hawley, wrote a letter to her daughter, which was directed to Mrs. Lucy Holly, care of Ezekial Holly; but the descendants of the pioneer evidently prefer the name of Hawley.
The young couple, with their little daughter, accompanied the Carters in the long journey from Vermont, with them spent the winter of 1796 on the Canadian side of the Niagara River, and together they reached Cleveland in May, 1797.
Mr. Hawley was the original purchaser of lots 49, 50, and 51, on Superior Street. Each lot was 132 feet front, and contained two acres. Had he bought lot 52 also, his homestead would have included the whole square between Superior and St. Clair, Water and Bank streets. Lot 52, upon which now stands the Rockefeller building, was bought by David Clark, another Vermont pioneer.
Mr. Hawley built a log-cabin upon lot 49. Careful research leads one to believe that it did not stand directly on the corner of Superior and Water streets, but a little north and east of it, facing on Water Street. This log-cabin later was used by Elisha Norton as a trading post and dwelling, and in 1806 the first post-office was located in it, with Elisha Norton as postmaster.
That same year, or the following one, Nathan Perry, Sr., purchased Mr. Hawley's three lots, also lot 52, and established himself directly on the corner of the two streets, Superior and Water.
Ezekial Hawley remained in the hamlet but two years, at the end of that time removing to the heights between Woodland Avenue and Broadway, which was then in the township of Newburgh, and which, in after years, was annexed to the city of Cleveland. He was, by occupation, a farmer, and the six acres of sand on Superior Street may have-been too constricted for one used to more land and richer soil. Besides this, the prevalence of malaria, making life miserable for every resident of the hamlet, undoubtedly hastened a decision to remove to higher ground. Ezekial Hawley thenceforth led a very quiet life. The only public record of him to be found is that he was one of three who held the office of "Fence Viewer."
Mrs. Hawley was the daughter of Eleazer and Elisabeth Buell Carter, and the sister of Alonzo Carter, the pioneer. Her family of living children was small, but she may have lost some on the frequent local epidemics, where the mortality among children was great. Little can be gleaned of her life in Cleveland, save that she was every inch a Carter, or a Buell, -whichever family it was that handed down to her and her brother the characteristics of courage, self-reliance, fortitude, and the instinct for wisely directing and guiding others.
Mr. and Mrs. Hawley were victims of the epidemic of fever that swept the village in 1827. He was 63 years, she was 57 years of age.
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1797
KINGSBURY
The children of Ezekial and Lucy Carter Hawley:
Fanny Hawley, m. Theodore Miles.
Lauren Hawley, unmarried.
Alphonso Hawley, m. Juliette Jackson, daughter of Morris Jackson, Sr.
Children of Alphonso and Juliette Hawley
Lucy Hawley, m. Alexander Hunter.-
David Hawley, m. Frances Hutchins..
Harriet Hawley, m. Edward Rose.
Morris J. Hawley, m: Isabelle Carver
Henry Hawley, m. Ada Hickox
Juliette Hawley, m. George Morgan
Mrs. Juliette Hawley lived to be a very old lady, dying at the residence of her son on Doan Street. She had possessed the characteristics of the Jackson family in a marked degree,-self-reliance, firmness of purpose, direct speech, industry, and fearlessness. She retained her memory to the last. As a reason for her inability to tell more of Ezekial Hawley's antecedents, she exclaimed, "We were all too busy in getting his descendants enough to eat to give any attention to his ancestors."
The Holly homestead adjoined that of Samuel Dille, on Broadway, about a mile and a half from the Public Square. The Grasselli Chemical work occupy the western part of the farm.
1797
KINGSBURY
When Col. James Kingsbury concluded to make a "hazard of new fortunes" by leaving Alsted, N. H., for the wilds of Ohio, he little dreamed that it would take a whole year to reach his final destination. Furthermore, could he have foreseen even a part of the tragedy awaiting him, it is more than probable Cleveland would have lacked one of its pioneers of 1797. In his haste to make the change, he did not wait for surveyors to lay out the land and_ report conditions, but left New Hampshire, June, 1796, about the time that Moses Cleaveland and his party arrived in Buffalo on their way to the Western Reserve.
It is difficult, from the stand-point of to-day, when the average man is over-careful, perhaps, regarding the health and comfort of his family, why or how a husband and father could be induced to burn all his ships behind him and, in absolute ignorance of what awaited his wife and little ones, start with them on a journey of hundreds of miles, in order to settle down in a trackless wilderness, out of reach of medical aid, and all else that pertains to the safety of civilization. That another babe was added to the number and perished, and that the whole family nearly lost
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1797
KINGSBURY
their lives through starvation and exposure, seems a natural consequence of a rash undertaking.
But Judge Kingsbury was not the only Cleveland pioneer to take such risks, and the only reason that his experiences were not identically those of many others, was simply through great good luck rather than wise precaution. He was the son of Absolm Kingsbury, of Norwich, Conn. As that part of Connecticut was aflame with patriotism through the Revolutionary period, it is not remarkable that all his older brothers saw active service in the cause of freedom. He himself born in 1767, was too young to engage in the strife. After the close of the war, members of the family removed to New Hampshire, and at the age of 21 Mr. Kingsbury married Miss Eunice Waldo. She was the daughter of John and Hannah Carleton Waldo. Her grandfather, Lieut. John Carleton, her father, and two brothers reinforced the garrison of Ticonderoga when it was besieged. When they started for Ohio, Mr. and Mrs. Kingsbury had three children. The oldest, a daughter, was three years old, the next, a boy, was two years old, and the youngest, also a boy, was an infant. They took with them a cow, horse, yoke of oxen, and a few household necessities.
Accompanying them was a young lad by the name of Carleton, the nephew of Mr. Kingsbury, who assisted by driving the animals in advance of the family, or following with them close in the rear.
When Oswego was reached, the party continued the journey in an open, flat-bottomed boat, which conveyed them through Lake Ontario, and, perhaps, Lake Erie, while the nephew on foot or horseback drove the animals along the shores. They arrived in Conneaut, Ohio, in October, four months from the time they started on their journey.
Moses Cleaveland and his surveyors left Cleveland on their way back to civilization, October 18, and Conneaut, Oct. 21. Whether the Kingsburys reached the latter place in time to meet the surveyors has not been stated, and just where the family spent the following winter months is a matter of conjecture. They could not have been with the Guns at Castle Stow, for no mention whatever is made of the Guns in the narration of all that befell the Kingsburys in their desperate struggle for existence.
Conneaut is on the site of an Indian village, about a mile and a half from the mouth of the river and Castle Stow. It consisted of a number of rude but comfortable cabins, occupied in the summer months by a remnant of the Massasaugas, who, at the approach of the winter, vacated until spring, spending intervening time farther south.
Mr. Kingsley may have taken advantage of this to obtain the use of one of these cabins, which would explain why the family seem to have been living separate from the Guns.
Why it seemed expedient for him to leave his family under such circumstances and return at once to Alsted, N. H., has never been clearly explained. He intended to make the journey there and return on horseback within six weeks.
Meanwhile, he had been storing up malaria in his system, and by the time he reached his former home, it began its work. For weeks he lay on his bed, too ill to start back for Ohio, and before he was able to do so, Mrs. Kingsbury passed through the supreme peril of motherhood alone
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1797
KINGSBURY
in the wilderness. Before she could attend once more to household affairs, the nephew, through ignorance of the consequences, poisoned the cow by feeding it oak twigs. Those of the elm or beech would have been harmless, and twigs of trees and bushes were the only provender available, but the boy did not know that any difference existed.
Then Mrs. Kingsbury became ill, and while burning with the fever, natural sustenance for the babe ceased, and she had to endure its moans of starvation, unable to relieve it.
It died as Mr. Kingsbury came staggering back from the East, his poor horse having dropped exhausted by the way.
With the help of his nephew he fashioned a rude coffin, and dug a grave in the frozen ground. As they bore the little body out of the cabin, Mrs. Kingsbury sank back unconscious. There was no food in store, and Mr. Kingsbury started back for Erie to obtain corn, dragging a handsleigh there and back.
This corn, partially crushed, was all the family had to eat until March, when pigeons and other wild game began to return from the South. When, in 1797, the second surveyor party, on its way to finish the work of the previous summer, arrived at Conneaut, they found the Kingsburys in a feeble condition of health through lack of proper food and medicine. Their immediate wants were relieved, and they accompanied the surveyors to Cleveland.
Whether from the start this place had been Mr. Kingsbury's objective point, or that he concluded to accept the offer of 100 acres of land from the Connecticut Land Company, should he become a settler of the frontier hamlet, has not been ascertained.
The family took refuge in an old trading hut on the west side of the river, nearly opposite the foot of St. Clair Street, in which they remained until their own cabin was built. Mr. Kingsbury had selected original lots 59 and 60-the site of the Old Stone Church and old court-house, but as Cleveland was all woods, with lots only partially defined, he may have made a mistake when he built on lot 64. The post-office and E. 3rd Street now occupy lot 63, so that the site of Kingsbury's cabin is now covered with the city hall building. Within two years they removed to the northwest corner of Kinsman and Woodhill Roads, on a farm, a portion of which was underlaid with fine building-stone, and proved of great value. Mr. Kingsbury also owned several city lots, which ultimately netted a fortune. The light-house on Water Street stands on one of these. The large frame-house that remained the homestead for 45 years was, in its day, considered. quite pretentious, and was the center of hospitality and good cheer.
Mrs. Eunice Kingsbury was a good, kind-hearted woman. It was but natural that she could never endure the thought of allowing any one to go hungry, and was prompt to relieve necessity in any form. The homestead stood far enough from town for young and old to make it the terminus of merry sleighing parties, who were welcomed, warmed and feasted with typical, old-fashioned hospitality. Memories of it lingered with the early settlers so long as life lasted, and traditions of it handed down to posterity. The kindly spirit that pervaded it, the big elm trees that shaded it, the apple and cherry trees surrounding it-whose deli
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1797
KINGSBURY
cious fruit was freely shared with many who had none, and the children who overflowed it, leading happy, natural lives.
Col. Kingsbury became "Squire Kingsbury," and then "Judge Kingsbury," and filled many places of trust in the city and county. He died in 1847, aged 80 years. His three older brothers, Dr. Asa Kingsbury, Lieut. Ephraim Kingsbury, and Obadiah Kingsbury, were soldiers of the American Revolution. His sister Margaret married John Carleton, whose children settled in Western Reserve.
Mrs. Eunice Waldo Kingsbury died in 1843, aged 73 years.
Judge and Mrs. Eunice Waldo Kingsbury were both laid to rest in Erie Street Cemetery.
Their children were:
Amos Kingsbury, b. 1793; m. Clarrissa Ingersoll; 2nd, Mary Sherman.
Almon Kingsbury, b. 1795; m. Lucy Cone.
Abigail Kingsbury, b. 1792; m. Dyer Sherman, of Vermont..
Elmira Kingsbury, b. 1794; m. Perley Hosmer..
Nancy Kingsbury, b. 1798; m. Caleb Baldwin Cleveland
Calista Kingsbury, b. 1800; m. Runa Baldwin
Diana Kingsbury, b. 1804; m. Buckley Steadman
Albert Kingsbury, b. 1806; m.Malinda Robinson ; 2nd, Mrs. Sophia Bates Laughton
James Kingsbury, b. 1813; m Lucinda Williams
Of Amos Kingsbury, the oldest son of Judge Kingsbury, little can be learned. He married his first wife, Clarissa Ingersoll, in January, 1815.
She died, leaving a little son, Dyer (?) Kingsbury, who lived in his later years in Wisconsin.
Amos Kingsbury married, secondly, Mary Sherman-sister of Dyer Sherman, his brother-in-law, in January, 1820. Only one son was born of this union, the Rev. C. T. Kingsbury, of Alliance, Ohio.
Both children were brought up in their grandfather's home. Amos Kingsbury was somewhat of a religious enthusiast. He suffered from ill-health many years, and was obliged to seek a warmer climate. Receiving a government position in Arkansas, he removed to that state. But his heart was in missionary work, and while there he labored and preached among the poor and illiterate, either black or white. He was a good man, respected and loved.
Almon Kingsbury was a quiet, dreamy sort of a man, very impractical in business affairs. He kept a store in early days on Superior Street, just west of Uncle Abram Hickox' blacksmith shop. A story illustrating his business stand-point is told, which may or may not be true.
A man wishing a saw picked one out at Almon's store, and inquired the price of it. There were in stock several other saws of assorted sizes. Almon looked at the saw, hesitated, and then remarked, "I guess I don't want to part with that. I have a complete assortment of sizes now, and if I let you have it the set will be broken."
Needless to add that he did not acquire any property save what was left him by his father. His wife, Lucinda Cone Kingsbury-whom he
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1797
KINGSBURY
married in August, 1820-was a fine woman, and her children were a credit to the Kingsbury name. Louisa Kingsbury, for some years, was a Cleveland public school teacher. She married Mr. Crooker, of Buffalo, N. Y.
Lucy Kingsbury married Cornelius Lansing Seymour, son of Alexander Seymour. Dianna Kingsbury married Samuel Hastings, of Boston, Mass. James Kingsbury married Philanda Phelps, of Milwaukee. George Kingsbury m. Fanny--- , and lives in Buffalo.
Abigail Kingsbury, or "Nabby," oldest daughter of Judge Kingsbury, led an eventful life. While yet in her teens, a brother and sister arrived from Vermont, named Sherman. The former Dyer Sherman laid siege to Miss Kingsbury's heart and won it. They were married February, 1808. They were a popular couple, and while keeping a tavern on Broadway, near E. 55th Street, became widely known. It stood on a 50-acre lot, the gift of Judge Kingsbury. He also afterward gave them 160 acres of land on the road to Warrensville, upon which they lived in late life. Previous to this Mrs. Sherman had received a city lot from her father, which she sold to the government for a large sum in gold. But in their old age, the greater part of this fortune had melted away. It is said that the chief reason of this was the sudden appearance of a woman and a middle-aged son from Vermont, who claimed Dyer Sherman for husband and father, and that he gave up everything he possessed to appease them and evade court process and penalty.
Dyer and Abigail Kingsbury Sherman had two daughters-Susan and Margaret, neither of whom married fortunately nor wisely in the two ventures they each made in matrimony. The latter lived and died in a Western state. Early in December, 1814, there was a double wedding in the old Kingsbury homestead, and great merry-making. Two daughters of the household-Nancy and Calista, married the Baldwin brothers -Caleb and Runa-and in less than a month afterward Amos Kingsbury married his first wife, Clarissa Ingersoll.
Runa and Clarista Baldwin began housekeeping in a home belonging to them on the north-west corner of Woodland and Wilson-E. 55th Street. Here they lived in health and prosperity for 20 years, when, in the summer of 1834, Runa Baldwin was stricken with cholera, an epidemic that year, and died, of course, suddenly. Clarrissa survived him many years.
They had an interesting family of children.
Sherman and Albert Baldwin became celebrated physicians of San Francisco. Almon Baldwin lived in Toledo. Alfred Baldwin died in Cleveland. Sophrona Baldwin married a Mr. Burrows, of Schalersville, 0. Martha Baldwin married a Mr. Lougee, of Oakland, Cal.
Nancy Kingsbury was the second wife of Caleb Baldwin. His first marriage was with Phoebe Gaylord, of Newburgh.
When the Mormon excitement was at its height, and its teachings were being discussed pro and con at every fireside, Caleb and Nancey became converts of the new faith. There was an element of mysticism in it sufficient to be an attraction to people of intense religious emotion, and it is possible that the former Baptist minister, who lived in the county, and whom they often met, may have been the influence that
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1797
THE FIRST CLEVELAND WEDDING
decided them to leave their comfortable home and its environment of kinship and life-long neighbors, to face what proved to be danger and many hardships.
Elmira Kingsbury Hosmer had four children. She lived and died in Chicago, Ill.
Diantha Kingsbury became the second wife of the once well-known Buckley Stedman. He kept a large market, for years, in Cleveland. Diantha made a model step-mother to his children by the first wife.
The family became wealthy, and subsequently removed to Washington, D. C.
James Waldo Kingsbury, the youngest child of Judge and Eunice Kingsbury, was born in the old homestead in 1813, and remained in it until his death in 1881-68 years.
He inherited this property with other and valuable land. Like his brothers, he possessed less business qualifications than other and more desirable gifts. He was a good, kind man, an indulgent father, and the most enviable of neighbors.
But little by little his inheritance slipped through his hands, until little remains in the possession of his children. He was long an invalid before his death.
His wife was Lucinda Williams, daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth DeWolfe Williams, who died in 1870, aged 54.
They had ten children. The first five died in infancy.
Those remaining were Egbert, Norman, Fanny, Caroline and Ellen Kingsbury -Mrs. William Parton-now a widow with these sons.
Mr. Kingsbury left the homestead to his youngest son, who died soon after his marriage, leaving it to his wife.
She married again for her second husband a man bearing a German name, who remodeled the house following a fire that nearly destroyed it, so that the old landmark has passed out of the family, and is greatly changed from its former appearance.
Mrs. Eunice Waldo Kingsbury, wife of Judge Kingsbury, had a brother - Roswell Waldo-who was a pioneer of Schalersville in 1815.
As was also their sister, Hannah Waldo Thompson.
Another brother, Dr. Carleton Waldo, was a pioneer of Butler County.
1797
THE FIRST CLEVELAND WEDDING
(An Address Delivered by Mrs. Wickham before the Old Settlers' Association in 1903.)
In the fall of 1797, when Lorenzo Carter and Ezekiel Hawley, his brother-in-law, with their families, arrived in Buffalo, on their way from Rutland, Vermont, to Cleveland, 0., they concluded to tarry in that vicinity and rest from their long and tedious journey. Buffalo was then
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THE FIRST CLEVELAND WEDDING
but a trading post, and contained no houses in which to shelter them, so they crossed the Niagara River, where they found accommodation for the winter.
When they resumed their travels and reached their destination the following May, the Carters were accompanied by a maid-servant by the name of Chloe Inches.
The surname is an unusual one, and though English nomenclature embraces many that are equally so, the writer is inclined to think that Inches is not an English name, but a misspelled French one, and corrupted from something quite different.
Take, for instance, the name familiar to us, as "Sizer." A century ago, Sizer was D'Zascieur, and we can all recall similar instances where the English tongue, unfamiliar with the eccentricities of French vowels, has twisted French names out of all semblance to their original form, the owners of them helplessly answering to their new cognomens.
No research enables us to decide whether Chloe Inches started with the party from Vermont, or attached herself to the Carters while they were in Niagara. The only mention of her is in connection with her marriage in Cleveland the following July.
Chloe Inches appears upon the annals of early Cleveland in one sentence, and disappears suddenly in the next. Her previous history and parentage are, and probably ever will be, unknown. Notwithstanding, this slip of a girl acquired distinction that July day when the simply and naturally took her place at the head of the great army of Cuyahoga County brides, estimated at 200,000.
And did she also lead the divorced women of this county down the path of regret and repudiation? No. Some other bride is responsible for the beginning of this sad procession of the unhappy, one that increases in shameful ratios with each succeeding year.
Chloe Inches also made an impress upon the economic life of Cleveland households in that she was its first domestic, and, as such, established precedents that have caused unending annoyances to mistresses from that day to this.
For, alas ! Chloe had a follower !
He followed 180 miles or more, from Niagara, Ontario, to Cleveland, in order to woo Mrs. Carter's little maid-servant.
How he came, by row-boat or sail-boat, hugging the shore and camping by night in creeks or coves, or whether he walked all the way, or rode horseback, no evidence is adduced. As I have stated, accounts of the affair are most meager, and imagination must supply the details that early Cleveland annals fail to furnish. His name was William Clement, and we easily can fancy that Miss Chloe sometimes spoke of him tenderly as "my Will."
We do not know what objections, if any, Mrs. Carter raised to the young man's unexpected appearance and strenuous wooing. She certainly had more reasonable cause for remonstrance than any Cleveland mistress that followed her, for her helplessness to successfully cope with the situation is apparent when we realize that she had no intelligence office to fall back upon, no columns of "Situations Wanted-Female," to scan, no hope of coaxing away the services of some other woman's serv-
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THE FIRST CLEVELAND WEDDING
ant. Her only resource would be an Indian maid, not available because of her own desperate fear and aversion to the redskins. So, for several years afterward, Mrs. Carter was obliged to perform all her household duties, and care for her children unaided.
The wedding of William Clement and Chloe Inches took place July 4th, 1797.
The Declaration of Independence was just twenty-one years old. Only nineteen years lay between Valley Forge and that Cleveland day of double celebration, only fourteen since the close of the Revolutionary War. Therefore, the Fourth of July meant more to those early residents of Cleveland than it does to us of today. They had lived, suffered, and, perhaps, lost dear ones in the recent struggle. They had not had time to become weary of Fourth of July celebrations, nor indifferent to the patriotic memories for which that day stands.
I assume that the first Cleveland wedding was the only one in which the guests included its whole population, therefore no imp of mischance mislaid, misdirected, or missent wedding invitations, thus paving the way for fancied slights and future misunderstandings.
Doubtless every one in town was informally bidden to the first patriotic and social event. There were present Mr. and Mrs. Job Phelps Stiles, Mr. and Mrs. Ezekiel Hawley, Mr. and Mrs. James Kingsbury, the two young men of the town-Edward Paine and Pierre Maloch, the minister, Rev. Seth Hart-superintendent of the Connecticut Land Co., and Mr. and Mrs. Lorenzo Carter, the host and hostess of the occasion, fourteen adults. Added to this, being seen and not heard, as befitted the youth of that day, may have been the ten children of the settlement.
As there were none but married people in the town, and very young children, Chloe must have lacked the support of bridesmaids upon this momentous occasion, and if either of the young men served as the groom's best man, history fails to record it.
The dearth of material for a fashionable wedding, however, had its recompense. The expenses did not include a bill for the bride's favors or masculine stick-pins.
THE WEDDING SUPPER?
Imagination fails us here. The Rev. Seth Hart may have donated from the supplies of the Connecticut Land Co., otherwise they could have had no wedding cake, since neither the Carters nor the other settlers possessed sugar or wheat flour. However, we may be sure that the hostess drew upon all her resources, and that all the other housewives added to the menu such offerings as their scanty larders permitted.
The wedding journey!
The second sentence in the annals of early Cleveland concerning this event reads, "He bore her away to Canada."
Now, in those days this term had a wide meaning; anywhere to the north of us, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the shores of Lake Superior. And within this land of wide domain the young couple vanish for 106 years.
The little hamlet of Cleveland becomes a vast metropolis, and its infancy sinks nearly out of sight and interest. Then comes its hundredth
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anniversary, when everything connected with its earliest history takes on new value.
As historian of the woman's department of the Centennial Commission, your speaker became interested in the pioneer women of the Western Reserve, and for some years has been trying to trace Mr. and Mrs. William Clement and learn something of their subsequent history. Finally, when all other efforts failed, a communication was sent to the Toronto Globe, begging for assistance in the matter. The Globe kindly gave it publicity, and the result justified her faith in the power and value of the press. Out of the many-letters- received but one was definite and satisfactory. Mr. Alexander Servos, of Niagara, Ontario, is the gentleman through whose efforts we are enabled to trace the Clements into their home in Canada.
William Clement was the son of an American Tory, John Clement, one of Col. Butler's rangers, who devastated the Mohawk and Wyoming valleys during the Revolutionary War. He was a resident of Schenectady, N. Y. At the close of hostilities, with many others, proclaiming themselves as "United Empire Loyalists," he settled in Niagara, Ontario. He became a prominent man in the community, and died wealthy. Over his grave in St. Mark's Cemetery, of that township, a stone records that "Ranger John Clement died 1845, aged 87 years."
William Clement, his son, took his bride, Chloe Inches Clement, to a farm of 400 acres in St. Davids, a small hamlet within Niagara Township. St. Davids is about two miles from the Niagara River, and six miles from the falls. It is under the brow of a very high hill or mountain, with a never-failing spring stream running through it, and is now surrounded with thrifty orchards and vineyards. Here they raised a family of five children, three sons-Robert, James, Joseph, and twin daughters-Ann and Margaret.
William and Chloe Clement are buried in the cemetery of St. Davids, one stone marking their graves., The date of their deaths is 1835.
It is a pleasure to find that their descendants always were, and still are, honorable and respected citizens of the communities in which they live. I shall not dwell on this to the extent of wearying your patience, but will touch lightly upon the principal features that characterized them as a family.
Richard Clement settled in Norfolk County, Ontario; Joseph Clement in Brantford County, while James Clement remained in St. Davids and owned a large farm.
The twin daughters, Ann and Margaret Clement, married Richard and William Woodruff, of Connecticut, who settled in Niagara about 1802.
The only living grandchild of William and Chloe Clement, bearing the name, is a resident of St. Davids, and 76 years of age. He is an honest, wealthy farmer.
The Woodruffs have distinguished themselves in many ways as professional men, large mill-owners, prominent merchants, or extensive landowners. Margaret Clement's son, Samuel D. Woodruff, is still living at the age of eighty-five. He is a civil engineer, and for many years was superintendent of the Welland Canal.
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DODGE
As the Canadian stock of the Clements had its origin in New England and New York State, it is but natural that members of the younger generation should drift back to this country of their ancestors, and where their grandparents were married on its national anniversary. Therefore, we are not surprised that many have done so, and that this city at any time may possess an honored citizen, who is the direct descendant of the young couple who furnished the first wedding in Cleveland.
DODGE
1798
The name of Dodge in this county is as old as that of the city itself, as it has been on its records 113 years.
It began to be locally historical when a 21-year-old young man arrived here in 1798. He had trudged all the way from Westmoreland, N. H., to see for himself if the much talked-of New Connecticut was all that had been claimed for it, and to find out whether his chances for material advancement would be greater here than in his native town down East. The question must have been answered in the affirmative, for Samuel Dodge remained to become one of Cleveland's most valued citizens, as were his sons, and in after years grandsons of today. He was a carpenter and builder by trade, and at once found work in the erection of cabins for the families yearly arriving and needing transient or permanent shelter. He built a barn on Superior Street for Samuel Huntington, 30x40 feet in dimensions, for which, it is said, he received in lieu of $300 in cash, a strip of land on Euclid Avenue. It contained 110 acres, and extended from the avenue to the lake. Dodge Street, now E. 17th, runs straight through this property.
Here, in 1803, he built a log-cabin for his bride, Nancy Doane, who had arrived here nearly two years previous with her parents, Timothy and Mary Carey Doan, and had settled in East Cleveland. And here was built the first well in town. The stones that walled it in had first been used by the Indians to back the fire-places they occasionally built in their wigwams. Nancy Doan had taught school in East Cleveland and Newburgh, and while working at his trade in that direction Mr. Dodge met the pretty young schoolma'am.
The young couple lived a year or two in their Cleveland home, then moved out in the neighborhood of the Doans, now Windermere. Here Mr. Dodge had a large farm lying each side of Euclid Road, just west of the present car-barns. For 35 years past, part of it has been "Forest Hill," the property of J. D. Rockefeller.
In an advertisement of 1819, it appears that, in addition to farming, Samuel Dodge was engaged in making wagon wheels "of all sizes, large and small." In course of time, he returned to his city property, building a small frame-house upon it. His sons, after their marriages, built im
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DODGE
posing structures for their own use on either side of the paternal home. That of Gen. H. H. Dodge, west of it, was Colonial in style, its facade adorned with stately pillars. It was one of the show-places of early Cleveland, and long greatly admired. It still stands on the avenue, though no longer used as a residence.
George C. Dodge built to the east of his father's house, and when Dodge Street was cut through, his house became a corner one.
Mr. Samuel Dodge took high rank as an intelligent man, and it was found to be a difficult matter to get the best of him in an argument. What his knowledge lacked, his fund- of good sense supplied. A former school-teacher, once working with him, was inclined to make too much of his own educational advantages, and to assume that they were superior to those of his associates. Mr. Dodge, annoyed at his partner's pretensions, found an opportunity to retaliate. The man left the saw-mill, one day, to go to his dinner, leaving directions to a workman upon a piece of paper fastened to a log. It read, "This log wants to be cut 2x4."
Mr. Dodge came along, read the note, and added, "This log is inanimate and can have no wants. Write correctly, Mr. Schoolmaster!"
Samuel Dodge died in 1854, aged 78. He had lived through the first 57 years of the city's life, long enough to foresee its future greatness.
Nancy Doan Dodge, his wife, outlived him nearly a decade, dying at the age of 81.
Their children were:
Mary Dodge, b. 1804; m. Ezra B. Smith
Henry H. Dodge, b. 1810; m. Mary Anne Willey
George C. Dodge, b. 1813; m. Lucy A. Burton
Mary Dodge Smith, the only daughter of the pioneers, received from her father as a share of his city property the north end of it. Clinton Park, now a public playground for children, is a part of the original estate belonging to her. She died in her young womanhood of consumption, and her two children lived but a short time. She was buried in Erie Street Cemetery, beside her parents.
Henry H. Dodge, or "General Dodge," as he was known, was a lawyer by profession, being admitted to the bar at the age of 24. He became United States Commissioner, State Engineer, and filled other offices of trust. He is said to have been a man of strict honor and integrity, kindhearted, and very patriotic. He died at his Euclid Avenue home in 1889, nearly 80 years old.
Mary Anne Willey, his wife, was the daughter of Newton and Lucretia Willes Willey, of New Hampshire. She had two little sons who died young, and seven daughters. The latter all lived to womanhood and married. Mrs. Dodge was a refined lady of charming manners, and gracious hospitality. She was the niece of Hon. John W. Willey, the city's first mayor, and of Mrs. Luther Willes, of Bedford. She had two brothers, also residing in the city, and a sister living East.
Mrs. Mary A. Dodge died in 1867, aged 47 years.
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EDWARDS
The children of Gen. H. H. and Mary Ann Willey Dodge:
Mary Lucretia Dodge, m. William Heisley..
Samuel Henry Dodge, d. at three years of age..
Caroline Willey Dodge, m. John J. Herr
Henry Newton Dodge, d. young.
Jeannie C. Dodge, m. Ambrose J. Benson
Nancy A. Dodge, m. Edward K. Chamberlain
Ella C. Dodge, m. Everton Lattimer
Georgia L. Dodge, m. Ernest Klussmann
Kate W. Dodge, m. Albert Lawrence.
George C. Dodge was an auctioneer and commission merchant. He also owned a dry-goods and grocery store. The rapid growth of the city made his real estate and that of his brother so valuable that they gave up all other business in order to attend to it.
George C. Dodge was quite active in politics at one time, and served as the city's postmaster under President Tyler.
Mrs. Lucy Dodge was born in Manchester, Vt., 1817, and as a child came to East Cleveland with her parents, Dr. Elisha and Mary Hollister Burton. She was a beautiful woman, with a clear complexion, lovely dark eyes, and an abundance of dark brown hair.
Dr. E. D. Burton," her brother, is still living in the house in Windermere, in which he was born. The first home of George C. Dodge and his wife was at 48 Ontario Street, afterward occupied by Mr. Castle. They removed to their fine residence on Euclid Avenue, where they died. Mr. Dodge in 1883, aged 70, and Mrs. Dodge in 1900, aged 83.
Their children were:
Anna Dodge, m. Jeptha Buell
Wilson Dodge, m. Ella Dudley..
Fanny Dodge, m. Horace Hutchins, a brother of Judge John Hutchins.
George Dodge, m. Laura Gedge.
Mortimer H. Dodge, m. Flora Britton
Samuel Douglas Dodge, m. Janet Groff.
1798
EDWARDS
Rudolphus Edwards, son of Adonijah and Polly Edwards, came to Cleveland in the fall of 1798 from Chenango, N. Y. He was accompanied by his wife and two daughters, one an infant of two months old.
The eldest of the children was the only one of Mr. Edwards' first wife, Rhoda Barnett Edwards, whom he married in Tolland, Conn., in 1790, and who died three years later.
He married, secondly, Miss Anna Merrill. It is claimed of the Edwards family that they came with a party of twelve people who met in
(1) Died 1814.
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EDWARDS
New York State while on their way to Cleveland. They were Nathaniel Doan and family, Samuel Dodge, Stephen Gilbert, Nathan Chapman, and, lastly, Joseph Landon, who had spent part of the previous winter in Cleveland.
Mr. Edwards had been engaged in surveying wild lands for six years before his arrival, and the compass used by him during that period is preserved in the Historical Society.
He built a log-cabin at the foot of Superior Street and a few feet south of it. This the family occupied for two years. Meanwhile, he purchased 500 acres of land on Butternut Ridge, afterwards called Woodland Hills Avenue, and lately renamed Woodhill Road. It was at the eastern terminus of a highway now called Woodland Avenue. The farm extended north and east of Woodland to Fairmount Street. To this farm the family were driven by the virulence of the malaria that attacked them all while they lived by the riverside, and here another log-cabin was erected for their use. After ten years' occupation of it, Rudolphus Edwards engaged Levi Johnson to replace it with a frame tavern, which became an old landmark of future years. It was called the "Buckeye House," and its roof sheltered many a pioneer family bound for townships south and east of Newburg, and its hospitality cheered and comforted in hours of weariness and discouragement.
The occupation of tavern-keeping and the care of his large farm were two of the many activities engaged in by Mr. Edwards. In the winter season he often drove his slow-moving ox-team as far south as Pittsburg with a load of wild honey, receiving in payment household supplies. He also made trips to Detroit, carrying hay and other commodities to the garrison established there by the government before 1812.
In later years, when his age began to tell upon him, he gave his whole attention to his farm and tavern. It is said of him that, "Rain or snow, hot or cold, as regularly as Saturday came around, Uncle Dolph, as he was affectionately called, with his old horse, Dobbin, old-time carryall, and big brindle dog seated bolt upright on the seat by the side of his master, would make his appearance in town for the purchase of supplies for the following week."
Anna Merrill Edwards was a woman of uncommon good sense and judgment-qualities much needed in those pioneer days. If Uncle Dolph kept too many irons in the fire, Aunt Dolph had as many more in constant use. Six children were added to the two brought from Tolland, all born in the old tavern. Besides a family of ten to care for, and the uncertain traveling public to entertain, there were spinning, weaving, soap-making, candle-dipping, and numberless other things on her hands, and she performed these tasks faithfully and as a matter of course.
But she died in middle age-53-when her youngest child was 15.
Mr. Edwards lost his father, mother, wife, and a daughter 25 years old within a period of three years. He died in 1840. All the members of the Edwards family who died in Cleveland were buried in a small cemetery in the rear of the old Congregational church, north-west corner of Euclid Avenue and Doan Street. It was then called the East Cleveland burying-ground. The entrance was from Doan Street. The largest and the finest monument in it, and, eventually, the last one, was that of the
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EDWARDS
Edwards family, and, finally, when all the bodies had been removed from the cemetery, this, with other Edwards grave-stones, remained standing until the old church was razed. A big bank building stands on the site of the little church, and part of the cemetery is covered by another towering edifice.
Adonijah Edwards, the father of Rudolphus Edwards, was a soldier of the American Revolution. At an advanced age he came to Cleveland to live with his son. His wife Polly accompanied him, and they lived the remainder of their days in this Western pioneer town. He died in 1831, aged 90, and Polly Edwards only a year later, aged. 88. They were buried in the small cemetery, and their children, one by one, rested beside them.
The child of Rudolphus and Rhoda Barnett Edwards was
Sally Edwards, m. Patrick Thomas.
The children of Rudolphus and Anna Marrill Edwards
Rhoda Edwards, b. 1798; m. Lyman Rhodes ; 2nd, John Fay..
Cherry Edwards, b. 1800; m. Samuel Stewart..
Clara Edwards, b. 1802; m. David.Burroughs.
Anna Edwards, b. 1805; m. Noble Olmstead
Stark Edwards, b. 1808; m. Hannah Saxton
Lydia Edwards, m. Lyman Little
Rudolphus Edwards, m. Sophia Mussen.
Cherry Edwards Stewart, daughter of Rudolphus Edwards, Sr., was a merry-hearted woman who loved social pleasure. She was always on hand when sleigh-rides were proposed, and a beautiful dancer, who never lacked for partners at a party, even in middle age, and was leader in any fun going on. She was extremely neat, and, it is said, although refusing to use washboards after they were invented, her clothes hung on the line were snowy white.
She had no daughters, but loved her many young nieces, and nothing gave her more pleasure than to initiate them in the various household mysteries she had herself mastered.
Children of Samuel and Cherry Edwards Stewart
Calvin Stewart, unmarried ; d. aged, 20..
Rudolphus Stewart, m. Margaret Sayles. She married 3rd, Edward.Carter.
Jehiel Stewart, m. Sophia Thomas sister of Dr. Thomas
Noble Stewart, removed to the West, married and had children
Children of Noble and Anna Edwards Olmstead
Margaret Olmstead,,
Maria Olmstead,.
Stark Olmstead, Levi Olmstead twins
Both parents died young, and the children were raised by their uncles and aunts. Rudolphus Edwards, Jr., took Margaret Olmstead, and Cherry Stewart took Maria Olmstead.
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SPAFFORD
Children of Rudolphus, Jr., and Sophia Mussen Edwards:
John R. Edwards, m. Mary Grower.
Lydia Edwards, m. Newton Bate..
Mary J. Edwards, m. Daniel Grower.
Sophia R. Edwards, m. Edwin Roberts
Sarah Ann, and Julia Stark Ed-wards, unmarried.
Mrs. Sophia Roberts is a well-known member of the Western Reserve Chapter, D. A. R.
In Harvard Grove Cemetery can be found the following inscriptions. No knowledge of the couple obtainable.
"Henry Edwards died 1804, aged 52 years.
Mary Edwards, his wife, died 1814, aged 54 years."
Also
"Thomas Edwards, died 1829, aged 27 years."
1798
SPAFFORD.
How Amos Spafford, of Orwell, Rutland Co., Vermont, came to be in the employ of the Connecticut Land Co., is a matter of conjecture only. The story, doubtless, would be interesting to his posterity wherever it may be, but it is one as yet untold.
We first find him in May, 1796, with a company of 45 officers and men assembled in Schenectady, N. Y., preparing to explore and survey the Western Reserve. He is one of seven surveyors, the rest are helpers and laborers. He accompanies the party all through its journey in the Ohio wilderness, and takes a prominent part in allotting the future city of Cleveland. And upon his return East, he prepares a map of the city, -the first one made. He is a member of the second surveying expedition, as its leading surveyor. At this time, a cabin for shelter, to hold supplies, etc., was built near the foot of Superior Street on its south side, and the following year, 1798, a traveler reports finding him in possession of this cabin. He was then assisting the Connecticut Land Co. in locating lots for arriving settlers, collecting land sales, etc.
It was not until the year 1800, four years from the time he first set foot in Cleveland, that he sent to Vermont for his wife and children. They were accompanied in the long journey by David Clark and family.
The Spaffords began housekeeping in the surveyors' cabin, which, though small, must have seemed a haven of rest to Mrs. Spafford after months of travel and camping. About this time, and before he began to build a home, Amos Spafford wrote a sharp letter of complaint to the land company, protesting against the high price of lots. He thought its demands unreasonable. Twenty-five dollars cash each for the sixteen
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lots he wishes to purchase is more than they are worth, considering their isolation, and the great scarcity of money, and he threatens to locate elsewhere in the Reserve unless he is offered better terms.
The company, most unfortunately for himself, must have acceded to his demands, for he settled down to remain in Cleveland, building a two story frame-house just south of the cabin, and the following year erecting another one at the foot of Superior Street, perhaps for his daughter, Mrs. Anna Craw, who was married in 1801.
Major Spafford must have been either visionary or impractical, for he burdened himself hopelessly by the purchase of more real estate than he could pay for or resell, and it was the means of a financial embarrassment from which he was never able to extricate himself. He was descended from John and Elisabeth Spafford, who came to Rowley, Mass., with Rev. Rogers in 1636, from Yorkshire, England. Amos Spafford was tall, very straight, had a high, broad forehead, and a quiet, sedate manner. All records speak highly of him, the last one as a "sound headed, pure-hearted man."
Mrs. Spafford was a Miss Olive Barlow. She was born in Granville, Mass., and married Amos Spafford when only 17 years of age. The young couple continued to live in Granville until after the Revolution, when they joined the popular emigration to Vermont, living in Orwell, that state, until their removal to Cleveland. Mrs. Olive Spafford was then about 44 years old, and four of her living children were well grown. The oldest, Samuel, had been with his father a member of the second surveying party, and Anna Spafford, the oldest daughter, married within six months after her arrival in Ohio.
In histories of early Cleveland, it is stated that in 1802 Anna Spafford taught the first Cleveland school in the front room of Major Carter's cabin, locating said cabin at the corner of Superior and Water streets. There are many contradictions and discrepancies concerning this event, and after careful research the writer is led to believe that the first school was either started in her own, or her parents' home. She was no longer "Anna Spafford" after May, 1801, having married John Craw at that date, and her first child was born in the spring of 1802. The Carter home until 1803 was under the river bank, north of St. Clair Street, and Mrs. Craw would not be likely to go there when a room could have been obtained nearer. That the second Carter home was used as a school afterward, there can be little doubt, but with Chloe Spafford, Anna's younger sister, as its teacher. Chloe also taught in Newburgh a year or two later. There were only four families in town in 1802. The Carters, Clarks, Huntingtons, and Spaffords.
The Huntingtons brought with them a governess, Miss Margaret Cobb. That would eliminate their children from a school as long as she remained with them, which was a year or two at least. The youngest Spafford, Adolphus, was about eleven years of age. Of the Carters ola enough for instruction, Alonzo was 12, Laura 10, and Henry 6 years old. The first school, therefore, could not have numbered over six pupils, with every child of proper age present.
After paying the usual license fee of four dollars, Major Spafford opened his house for the traveling public, and ever after, as long as the
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SPAFFORD
building stood, it was a tavern, and when it was pulled down another and more pretentious one, called the "Mansion House," stood on the same site. The building was painted red, and stood on the last lot on the south side of Superior Street. In the grading of the street, years later, this lot, and another east of it, were left high above the sidewalk, and eventually many feet of its surface were scraped off to the rear, which originally extended back to the river.
The arrival of Mrs. Huntington must have been a great pleasure to Mrs. Spafford. The two women lived side by side for several years, and doubtless, in the sorrows and calamities that befell Mrs. Spafford, her friend and neighbor extended much sympathy and aid.
In 1807, Anna Spafford Craw died, leaving two little sons, John, aged 5 years, and Richard, aged 3. She was buried in the cemetery on Ontario Street, and as her husband and parents eventually left the city and there was no one to attend to the matter, her ashes probably were thrown out when the foundation was dug for the building erected on the site, or were part of the barrels of human bones that stood day after day on the curb-stone awaiting the cart that at last bore them away.
The following year, Mrs. Spafford endured still greater sorrow. Her youngest daughter, Chloe, in March, 1804, had married Stephen Gilbert, a young man 29 years of age, who was associated with her father in the second surveying expedition. He had bought a lot and sowed it with wheat the following year-1798-and had been a permanent settler since then. He had filled small offices of trust, and seemed to be a valuable member of the community. Augustus Gilbert, of Newburgh, was an older brother. They were the sons of Joseph and Elisabeth Breck Gilbert, of Hartford, Conn., and descendants of Capt. John Gilbert, one of the founders of Hartford.
In April, 1808, Stephen Gilbert, accompanied by his young brother-in-law, Adolphus Spafford, went on a fishing expedition. They were in a large boat containing six other people, and were bound for a point ten miles west of town where black fish had been reported seen in great number. The boat was overturned, and all within it but one perished. Stephen Gilbert could easily have saved himself, but he clung to his young companion in a vain effort to bring him to shore. Their bodies were recovered, and after being placed in the cemetery on Ontario Street, afterward were removed to Erie Street Cemetery, near the entrance to the right. They are marked by small stones lying flat on the graves. By one stroke Mrs. Spafford thus lost her son and son-in-law, and added to her own grief was that of her daughter left a widow with two little children.
Major Spafford's Cleveland ventures did not prosper, and in 1810, having received the appointment of collector in the district of Miami, in which is now Toledo-probably through the influence of his old neighbor and friend, Gov. Huntington-he sold out to George Wallace, moved to Fort Meigs, and built a log-house at the foot of the rapids there.
Chloe Gilbert evidently did not accompany her parents, for in November, 1810, her father writes to John Walworth, "I find myself under great obligations to you and your family for the friendly aid you have given our unfortunate daughter and children. As you observe, she will find a
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home with you until she obtains a better one. This is saying a great deal, as, in my opinion, a better home could not be found. Chloe well knows that she will always find one with me, but at present I hardly know where my house or home is."
Just a year later he writes Mr. Walworth that he is unable to come to Cleveland or to sell his land there. That Mrs. Spafford, himself, and son Aurora are recovering from severe illness, and that his home and all his business seem to be out of joint. He wished his Cleveland lots sold, as his creditors as well as himself are in need of money. Abram Hickox at this time was raising wheat on the Spafford lots on shares.
By 1812, Major Spafford had picked up a little, and had a log-house, a farm partly cleared, and some stock, when the Indians in the employ of the British swooped down on the Miami settlers, and looted their homes of everything that could be carried off. Major Spafford gave them all the money he had except $20, to exempt his household, but receiving word that another party was on the way, this time massacring as well as pillaging, he hurried his family and neighbors into a crazy old boat, leaving everything behind, and started down the river, out into the lake, for Huron, many miles east. Had not a friendly Indian misled the enemy in regard to the time they started, they could easily have been overtaken and put to death.
The Spaffords rowed up the Huron River, eight miles, to a little town called Milan, where they remained until the war closed. Upon their return to Maumee-or Perrysburg-as the place was afterward named by Major Spafford, he found his house burned, his horses and cattle gone, and had to begin all over again. Out of the old wreck of a transport he built a house to shelter them. The property in that section afterward became valuable, but not until after Mr. and Mrs. Spafford had passed away. Their lives had been that of long struggle, exposure, peril, sorrow, and disappointment.
Their children were all the parents could desire, respected and honored in the communities in which they lived. They were:
Samuel Spafford, m. Catherine Mabee, and d. in 1831, in Perrysburg.
Anna Spafford, b. 1780; m. John Craw, May, 1801, and d. 1807. Left two sons- John, aged 5, and Richard, aged 3.
Chloe Spafford, m. March, 1804, Stephen Gilbert, who was drowned 1808.
Aurora Spafford, m. Mrs. Mary Ralph Jones, and d. in Perrysburg, O.
Adolphus Spafford, drowned, when 18 years of age, in Lake Erie.
A Richard Craw was living in Cleveland or Newburgh about 1802, who may have been the father or the brother of the above John Craw.
Chloe Spafford' Gilbert had two sons, Lester, and Stephen L. Gilbert. She joined her father when his family took refuge in Milan, Ohio, during the War of 1812, and taught the first school in Avery, near by, riding to it on a horse and a man's saddle in company with the mail-carrier. Her sons were living in Maumee as late as 1836, as letters from them to their cousins, the younger daughters of Augustus Gilbert, would indicate. Stephen L. Gilbert was a mail-carrier in the '30s, and removed later to a Western state.
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1798
DOAN
Were the writer to choose an ancestor from the earliest Cleveland pioneers, the choice, without hesitation, would fall upon a blacksmith. They were the most useful members of society in those first years of toil and struggle. A community could then dispense with lawyers and land agents, but to be without a blacksmith was a calamity. The shoeing of horses was small part of the service required of them, for they were called upon to mend everything from a candlestick to a plough, and usually were skilled wagon-makers as well.
The first three Cleveland blacksmiths-Doan, Sargeant, Hickoxwere typical of their class, fine specimens of American manhood:- Honest, industrious, unselfish, kind, and behind each five or six generations of the best New England blood. Who, then, of today would not be proud of lineal descent from those noble pioneer blacksmiths? Nathaniel Doan heads the list, and his posterity is numbered among our best citizenship.
The history of Nathaniel Doan begins with John, his American ancestor of 1633, who was a chosen assistant of Gov. Winslow in directing the affairs of Plymouth Colony, and down through Daniel to Seth and his wife, Mercy Parker, who lived in Haddam, Conn. Seth was a shipbuilder and a hero of the American Revolution. With his son Seth, he was captured by the British and held in prison for a year. Seth, Jr., died from the effects of that captivity. Besides the martyred son, there was a large family of children, many of whom came to Ohio and settled in and around Cleveland.
Nathaniel Doan was the fourth child. He was a member of the Connecticut Land Company in 1796 and 1797. He had charge of the horses used in the expeditions-seeing that they were kept well shod and otherwise cared for. He was offered a village lot in Cleveland by the above company if he would settle in the hamlet and start a blacksmith shop. He accepted the offer, and in 1798 left Haddam with his wife, four children, and his nephew, Seth Doan, son of his brother, Timothy, and started for Ohio.
It is said that the latter was sent West in order to keep him from following the seas, for which he had a strong inclination, much against the wishes of his parents.
The route, whenever possible, was by water. Down the Connecticut River, along the coast of Long Island Sound, down the East River to New York City, up the Hudson River to Troy, then on the Mohawk River, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Mr. Doan built his blacksmith shop of rough, unhewn logs on Superior Street, near Bank Street, and probably lived in the Stiles house, which had been abandoned by that family for one on Newburgh Heights.
Mrs. Nathaniel Doan-Sarah Adams-was 27 years of age when she arrived in Cleveland. She had, at that time, but one son, Job Doan, nine years of age, and three young daughters, Sarah, Delia, and Mercy Doan. Another little daughter, Rebecca, was afterward added to the family circle.
The presence of Seth Doan, the nephew, that first year of their arrival in Cleveland, proved most providential for the whole family. For it was scarcely settled in the little log-cabin before every member of it was taken ill with fever and ague. Although Seth himself was also afflicted with
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the distressing complaint, he kept about, waiting upon his aunt and the children, and doing all that he could to alleviate their sufferings.
To add to the family's distress, there was little food to be obtained in the settlement, and it suffered hunger for weeks at a time ; corn-meal was the only diet. Mr. Doan remained in the hamlet less than a year, then moved out on Euclid Avenue, and settled on a farm. It was on the corner of Fairmount Street, E. 107th, west of and adjoining Wade Park. Here he built a small log-tavern and eventually a store, and a little saleratus factory. The latter was a blessing to housewives, who hitherto had been compelled to use lye in place of that article in their cooking.
Mr. Doan was evidently a Christian gentleman, as he attended as delegate the first church convention held on the Reserve. He also, as justice of the peace, married many couples who came before him for that purpose, and he served as County Commissioner.
He died in 1815, aged 53 years.
His widow, Sarah Adams Doan, survived him nearly 40 years, dying at the age of 82, and outliving most of her children. Her life had been one of great change and vicissitude, also of great sorrows. But, like most women of that day, she accepted everything that came to her, whether of good or ill, with thankfulness or patient resignation.
Children of Nathaniel and Sarah Adams Doan
Sarah Doan, m. Richard H. Blinn, in 1802, by Amos Spafford, J. P..
Job Doan, b. 1789; m. Harriet Woodruff.
Delia Doan, m. Mr. Eddy; 2nd, David Little
Mercy Doan, m. Edward Baldwin
Rebecca Doan, m. Harvey Halliday in 1827.
Richard Blinn had a farm on what is now Woodhill Road. Sarah Doan, his wife, had a little son born, whom she named in honor of her father. She died in early womanhood, and Richard Blinn married 2nd, Electra Hamilton, of Newburgh.
Delia Doan taught the first school, it is said, in Euclid.
Mercy Doan died young. Her husband, Edward Baldwin, was 21 years old when they were married. He came from Ballston Spa, New York, and was County Treasurer. He died in 1843.
Harvey Halliday lived in East Cleveland. He had three brothers, Albert, Nathan, and Frank Halliday.
The Doan Tavern, kept by Nathaniel Doan, and rebuilt by his son, Job, was a famous landmark for nearly half a century. It stood by the roadside, where all travel east and west between Cleveland and Buffalo passed it. The little creek flowing through the picturesque woods just east of it, now Wade Park, attracted the large parties of pioneers who traveled in company from their New England homes in huge wagons, and driving horses, cattle, and other domestic animals in advance of them. Here, or on the level stretch of ground now occupied by Western Reserve University, they would make a halt of a day or two, resting and washing
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DOAN
up. It is said that as many as 15 wagons at once would be encamped there. It followed that the Doan Tavern was patronized, more or less, by these travelers. One feature of this, however, was not at all lucrative -"the borrower was abroad in the land." Everything conceivable was asked for and usually obtained, from silver spoons to camp-kettles. For the Doans were kind-hearted and very accommodating. Once, some one carried off one of Mrs. Doan's teaspoons. She felt very badly over her loss, but, to ! a whole year afterward the spoon came back, it being the first chance the party had of restoring it.
Two years after his father's death, Job, his only son, replaced the log tavern with a large frame one. Eventually, this was moved to Cedar Avenue, just east of Streator, E. 100th Street, and three tenement houses constructed out of it. Job Doan was an energetic, ambitious, hardworking man. He died of cholera in 1834. He must have possessed lovable qualities that secured and kept for him many friends. When the news that he was stricken with the disease reached town, Capt. Lewis Dibble and Tom Calahan-well-known Cleveland men-at once set about procuring medical aid for him. Every doctor was busy or away, and the friends had to wait for some time before they succeeded. Finally, they intercepted two physicians who had just returned from other calls, and prevailed upon them both to start out again at once, although there was a four miles' drive between town and Doan's Corners. The physicians rode in one buggy, and Dibble and Calahan in another. It was far in the night before they reached their destination. Capt. Dibble found his brother-in-law, Capt. Ebenezer Stark, already there, also Job Doan's brother-in-law, David Little. They were bending over the sufferer, rubbing him and trying to alleviate his agony. Poor Job looked up as the men entered his room, and stretched out his hands to the friends who had hastened to his bedside. The doctors, evidently, were unable to add any thing to the treatment already given, for they merely looked at him, shook their heads, and departed. Within an hour death came to Mr. Doan and relieved his sufferings.
Job Doan met his future wife for the first time on the highway near Hudson, Ohio. The road was in a frightful condition-nearly knee-deep with mud. She was on horseback, and he on foot. He thought her the sweetest girl he had ever seen, and took measures to meet her again and under more favorable. conditions, and not long afterward they were married. The honeymoon, however, was postponed six weeks, for, immediately after the ceremony, he took a drove of cattle to the southern part of the state, which kept him away for that length of time.
Mrs. Harriet Doan was the daughter of Nathaniel and Harriet Isabelle Woodruff, of Morristown, New Jersey, who came to the East End in 1814. She was 19 years of age when married. A descendant describes her as tall and fine-looking; a woman of remarkable Christian character, faithful, cheerful, generous, kind. She never allowed ill-natured gossip in her presence, without rebuke. She was an original member of the Euclid Congregational Church. Her sister, Sarah Woodruff, married William Adams, of Collamer. As the wife of Job Doan, Harriet Woodruff was the mother of eight children
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BLINN
Nathaniel Doan, d. in California, unmarried.
Caroline Doan, m. John R. Walters in 1835..
Harriet Doan, m. Frederick Wilbur ; 2nd, Capt. Sprague..
Lucy Ann Doan, m. Isaac Miller, of Braceville, Ohio.
William Halsey Doan, m. Elisabeth Hennell, of Portland, Maine.
Martha Doan, m. Anthony McReynolds
Edward Doan, m. Carrie P. Bradley
William Halsey Doan became a wealthy philanthropist. He built a large tabernacle on Vincent Street, near East 9th, where popular concerts and lectures were held, which people of moderate incomes were enabled to attend. There was no other large auditorium at the time, and for many years it proved a blessing and convenience to the public. It finally burned and was not rebuilt.
Six years after the death of her husband, Mrs. Harriet Doan married Cornelius Conkley, and in 1854 was again a widow. She died in 1884. Meantime, S. C. Baldwin had either purchased or rented the Doan Tavern and kept it open to the traveling public.
1799
BLINN
One of the earliest settlers in Cleveland and Newburgh was Richard Blinn. As all of his descendants are living elsewhere, and fail to answer inquiry, it has been impossible to learn anything of his antecedents. He may have come from New Jersey with the Cozads, or from Connecticut with the Doan family.
He married Sarah Doan, daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah Adams Doan, April, 1802. The original record of their marriage is in Warren, as Cleveland was in Trumbull County in that year, and Warren the county-seat.
Sarah Doan Blinn had a little son named Nathaniel Doan Blinn, in honor of her father, and, possibly, she may have had a daughter. She died in early womanhood, and Richard Blinn married secondly, Electa Hamilton, daughter of Samuel and Susannah Hamilton, of Newburgh, now a part of Cleveland, the town then being in Geauga County. This record is in Chardon. They lived for some years north of the Edwards Tavern, on what is now Woodhill Road, and then moved to Perrysburg, Ohio, near Toledo. They had at least three sons-James, Chester, and Julius Blinn, and three daughters. It is said that the family suffered terribly from malaria during their first years in Perrysburg, and that one of their daughters was disfigured for life through the strong medicines administered by one of the ignorant and reckless country doctors of that day.
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1800
WILLIAMS
James Blinn lived and died in Perrysburg, leaving six adult children. Julius Blinn also moved to Perrysburg, and the name of Blinn has become a familiar one in that locality, while it has disappeared off the records of Cleveland.
The wives of Richard H. Blinn were undoubtedly fine women, as both were daughters of the best pioneer families of the city. Richard himself is said to have been a very jovial man, full of jokes and mad pranks. He left behind him a reputation for kindliness and good humor.
His oldest son-Nathaniel Doan Blinn-was married in Cleveland in 1825 to Miss Anne M. Parker.
1800
WILLIAMS
In the spring of 1799, two men appeared in Newburgh and began building a grist-mill-the third one built on the Western Reserve. They were Major Wyatt and William Wheeler Williams. It was a great event to the women of Cleveland and Newburgh, for it meant corn-meal of a far better quality than the rude hand-mills hitherto had provided, and above all it meant white flour, something that had been a great luxury, many families having scarcely seen any since leaving Connecticut. Of the many New England families who came to Cleveland in that early day, there were none that could claim better birth and breeding than that of William Wheeler Williams. His parents were Joseph and Eunice Wheeler Williams, both descended from Puritan ancestors who settled in Massachusetts about 1.630.
Joseph Williams had four sons in the Revolutionary War. They were Frederick, an officer in the Continental Army, and buried in St. Paul's Churchyard in New York City.
Gen. Joseph Williams, a friend and correspondent of Washington, Putnam, and Gov. Trumbull. He was a Brigadier-General of the Third Brigade, Connecticut Militia, and a member of the original purchasers of the site where Cleveland stands.
Benjamin Williams died on board the terrible Jersey prison ship, and Isaac Williams, who lost a leg while in the Revolutionary Army. A fifth son, William Wheeler Williams, b. 1760, married Ruth Granger, daughter of Zodac and Martha Granger, of Suffield, Conn.
Ruth Granger was born in 1764, and, therefore, was 35 years old when she came to Newburgh in the spring of 1800.
It has been difficult to learn anything concerning the personality of Ruth Granger Williams, although her descendants in and about Cleveland are numerous. It has been told the writer that she had two brothers, Reuben and Franklin Granger, who lived with her or near by. Also, that before her death she became blind, but developed such acute hearing that no one could enter her room, ever so cautiously, but she would
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1800
WILLIAMS
hear, and be able to tell who it was. She was small, alert, and very intelligent.
The family settled on what is now Woodhill Road, but called Newburgh Street in early days. It ran from Doan's Corners to Mr. Williams' mills. Mr. and Mrs. Williams brought five little children with them from Norwich, Conn. The eldest was only twelve years of age, the youngest but two. They were:
Frederic Granger Williams, unmarried while living here, joined the Mormons in Utah.
William Wheeler Williams, Jr., m. 1st, Lavina Dibble ; 2nd, Nancy Sherman, daughter of Ephraim and Remember Cook Sherman.
Joseph Williams, unmarried. In Capt. Murray's Company, War of 1812.
Martha Williams, m. Elijah Peet.
Mary Williams, m. Amos Cahoon, pioneer of Rockport, Ohio
W. W. Williams, Jr., was always designated as Capt. Williams. All the Williams family bearing the name and descended from W. W. Williams, Sr., are grandchildren of Capt. Williams.
Mary Williams Cahoon had three children : Martha, Joseph, and Hiram Cahoon. The Misses Cahoon of "Rose Hill" are grandchildren of Mary Williams, and reside in the pioneer homestead.
There is in possession of some of the descendants of W. W. Williams, Sr., valuable souvenirs of his brother, Gen. Joseph Williams, of Revolutionary fame. They are gold buttons bearing his initials, which were cut from a military coat he wore, and an elegant snuff-box that had been presented to him from admiring friends. The Williams family Bible, brought from Norwich, Conn., is also preserved and held by a great-granddaughter.
The grindstones lying in the Public Square in front of the Old Stone Church were the first ones used in the grist-mill of William Wheeler Williams, erected in 1799.
Children of W. W. Williams, Jr., and Nancy Sherman Williams:
Mary Williams, m. Josiah Hale
Eunice Williams, m. Spencer Warren.
James Williams, m. Lydia Owen..
Ephraim Williams, m. Mary Andrus.
Joseph Williams, m. Eunice Bennett.
George Williams, m. Eunice B., widow of Joseph Williams
Frederick and Frances, unmarried.
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