GENEALOGY 977.1 F498 1863-1866

Vol. Vn.] jrxjTVE, i^oG. [50 Cts.

V THE - ^. — :::: ;j -i.^^ FORT WAYME i* AllLi-i CO. FIEE LANDS PIONEEK:

PUBLISHED BY THE

Fire Lands Historical Society,

AT THEIR ROOMS IN

WHITTLESEY BUILDING, NORWALK, OHIO. •

SANDUSKY, OHIO: DAILY REGISTER STEAM PRINTING HOUSE. 1866.

^^^- .. : j^0W. '^^'A> T H E FIRE LANDS PIONEER riBLISHED BY THE FIRE LANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY; AT THEIR BOOMS IN WHITTLESEY BUILDING, NORWALK, OHIO.

VOLS. IV, V, VI AND VII. 1863-4-5-6.

.. .

^ ?14753 GENERAL INDEX

NoTE.-=-A Complete lutlex of the first three volumes will be found in volume three. For convenience in binding, the contents of the remaining volumes are given below.

INDEX TO VOL. IV.

Page. Address, Kev. L. B. Gurley, 9 Memoirs of Townships, Huron, B5 Hon. J. JI. Root, 21 " " New London,.. .52 Editorial Notice, 'J8 Oxford 88 Errata, 98 Ripley, (iO " ' Fire Lands Grant, Record History of. . i).i Vermillion,.... 72 Grape, Culture of 45 Meeting—.\nnual at Norwalk, 1 " Kelley's Island, Historical Sketch of. . 30 (Quarterly, Wakemau, 4 Memoirs of Townships, Hartland, 49 " " Peru, t

INDEX TO VOL. V.

Fage. Page. Jnarterly at Fairtiekl, 3 Anti(Hiarian, Joel Blakcslee, lUy Meeting, ( " Bronson, Early Settlers in, 113 " New London,. . 5 Bank of Sandusky, 1 19 " " Castalia, 8 Chicago, First Vessel in 107 -Memoirs of Townships, l^airfleld, 36 Case "Old Squire," 114 " " Greenwich 69 Commerce on the Lake 100 years ago,. 109 " " Richmond, 57 Cincinnati Pioneer Association, 117 Ridgelield, 26 Early Settlement of Sec. 4, Norwalk, 21 Ruggles, 48 ' " WestTownsend,. .. 23 " " Sherman, 83 Fire Lands, Surveys in, 93 Missionary Pioneer, John Seward, 103 Editor's, Note 123 Miscellaneous Articles, 107 Governors of Ohio, Votes for from 1803 Mcllrath Samuel, 107 to 1861, 105 Obituary Notices, E. Andrews, 122 Gibbs Familv, 110 " " Eli S. Barnura 91 Hester Famfly, 102 Page Family 100

Huron Count}', Census of 1827,. . .'. L

INDEX TO VOL. VI.

Page. Page. Bronson, Early Settlement of, 62 Fire Lauds Historical Society, Members Cleveland in 1796—Oliver Culver 59 of 84 Claybourn John H., oldest citizen of Chi- Garrison John, Autobiography of, 33 cago, 77 Golden Wedding at Hudson, 66 Chicago Tribune audPress^ 102 Hartford Courant, 67 Errata, 123 Lockwood Family, 21 Firelands, Survey of by Hoyt, 27 Meeting, Nonvalk, 1 - Fifty Years Ago and Now—^No. 1, 69 " Perkins 3 No. 2, 70 ' Monroeville 5 . 1 ...

GENERAL INDEX.

rage. of Wood aud Bishop, 43 Obituary Notices—Capt. Stanton Sholes 115 Murder "" Miscellaneous—Indian Relics 71 Mary Beebe, IKi " I Wolfin Sheep's Clothing 94 Joseph Kelle V 1 1 ti Toledo Cong. Church,.. !)5 Daniel Waldo 117 " Tranlilin's lightning rod, 95 Henry Reed, Sen.,... IKi " Origin of Stars & Stripes, 9G " John Cuppy, ^... 117 " Lake Steamboats, 96 " Mrs. Sarah" JMcCord, 117 " " First American Book, . 97 Gen. Robert Bentlev, 117 " ". " Primitive Preference... . 98 Joel Downs, i;8 " Indian Conjugal Att'ec- Slaj.Wm. JJcLaughlin 118 tion .'..". 99 " Cyrus Cuuningliam,.. 118

" Forty-six Years Ago. . . 99 Our Summer Home, (jO " The Great Lakes, 99 Perkins, account of its settlement, 9 Big Family, 99 '• Jesse Taylor aud others of, 18 Oil Springs 100 '• Early settlement by Baker aud ". " Gas Springs 1 00 others,.. 23 " Name of Illinois, 101 Pioneer Meeting at Dover, 62 About tlie Old Folks,... 101 '' Toledo, 64 " Nuptial, ..101 Pierce, Mrs. Polly, reminiscences of 79 Obituary Notices—Peter Brown, 82 Press, Chicago, History of, 102 "" \Vm. Robinson, H'.i Rogers Family, 65 Mary M. Hester, lis Relic, .V Revolutionary, (is Obituary Notices—No.ih Hill 119 Sandusky Clarion—Eveuiugs with Pio- \i Dr. John H.Matthews 1-20 neers, 54

Mrs. Baum, 121 Secretary's Report at Annual Meeting, . 80

Dea. Pliilo Adams,. . . 120 War on Wolves, 25 " Daniel French, 120 Webb, Thomas D., Death of, 29 Dr. HenrvNiles, 122 Wood Ezra, Genealogy of, 58

Dr. Peter Allen, 123 Wedding, Golden atHudson, (i(i

•' Mrs. L'rania Fenn,. . . 123 Williams Countv. early History of. 73 " Leonard Case, 7.5

INDEX TO VOL. VII.

Page. Address, Prof. Hartupee 16 Meetings—.Annual at Norwalk ] " " lle^-. John Safford, 28 Quarterly at Vermillion,. .. . 4 " Rev. L. B. Gnrley, 64 ' '• " Bellevue 6 '• '• " Bear Hunt on the Marsh, (i 1 Plnnouth, s ". Bill, A Doctor's 73 McArdle, Jolin P 49 Black Hawk, 84 Minute Men of the Revolution 115 Coon Skin Library, 41 JMiian, Early Settlers of, : 58 Charivari, of Greentield, the last, 62 No Time like the Old Time, 41 Courtiug two hundred years ago, 93 Oldest Natives of Ohio, 96 Erie Canal, opening of, 76 Obituary Notices, 77 Geology of the Fire Lands, 42 Omick John, Trial and Execution of,. . . 66 Grahaiu, Francis, Autobiography of, 50 Old Canoe, 105 -Golden Wedding of Col. James Smith,. 100 Personal Reminiscences of John Sey- Genealogy of Hirara Rogers, 57 mour, 34 Genessce Coinitry, Ill Pioneer Excursion to Marietta, 86 Kenton, Gen. Simon, » KKi Pomfret Celebration at lOl MlSCEI.I..\NKOUS Akticles. Pioneer Ohio, 118 Initial Facts, 97 Remarkable Family Gatliering, 27 New England Farm House, 98 Sandusky Clarion, 74 Washington's Text Book, 98 Startling Scene in Church, 117 First Paper Money in America, 99 The Old aud the New, 33 Old Fashioned Funerals aud Ordin- Threshing Macluues, tirst in Ohio, ID tious, 99 Wheat aud Wool, lirst shipment of 27 Members of Fire Lauds Hist. Soc, 94 Wayne, Gen. anecdote of, 60 Mounds and Mound Builders of Ohio,. 1 Vour Mission 110 :

THE FIRE LANDS PIOl^EER.

VOLUME VII.—JUNE, 1866.

FIRE LANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

ANNUAL MEETING. cure a more complete history of churches and schools, and called MORNING SESSION. special attention to the necessity of The annual meeting was held in immediate steps being taken to col- Whittlesey Hall, Norwalk, on Wed- lect and publish the material for the nesday, June l-lth, at half past ten Fire Lands Soldiers' Record. o'clock, A. M. C. A. Preston, Esq., Treasurer, then The venerable President, Piatt presented his Annual Report, which Benedict, Esq., though bending un- was approved. In summary it is as der the weight and infirmities of follows ninety years, was in his accustomed On liand at last report, $40 90 place, and expressed his gratification Received for membersliip, 21 00 Sales of that time was dealing so gently with Pioueer per D. H. Pease, . GO 96 the Pioneers of the Fire Lands, and $122 16 that so many of them were able to Paid to R. T. Rust, CO be present tliis occasion. upon Paid to D. H. Pease per acc't The Rev. A. Newton, of Norwalk, of Sundries, $io CO 11 20 opened the meeting with prayer. Balance The proceeduigs of the last meeting in Treasur}', .$110 90 at Monroeville were read by P. N. The foUoAving officers were then Schuyler, Esq., and ai^proved. elected for the ensuing year: The annual report of the Secretary President—Piatt Benedict, Nor- was then read and approved. It re- walk. ferred to the flattering financial con- Vice Presidents—G. H. Woodrafl", dition of the Society successful —the Peru ; Z. Phillips, Berlin ; E. Bemiss,

publication of the Sixth volume of Groton ; J. H. Niles, Norwich ; Hosea the Pioneer, and the success which Townsend, New London. has crowned the labors of the Society Recording Secretary—Charles P. in collacting and publishing the Wickham, Norwalk. Historical Records of thirty-one of Corresponding Secretaries—F. D. the thirty-two townships embraced Parish, Sandusky; P. N. Schuyler, in their organization. It recom- Norwalk. mended that efforts be made to se- Directors—C. A. Preston, F. D. ;

THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

Parish, Z. Phillips, P. N. Schuyler, By Judge Charles Standart, of D. H. Pease. Auburn, N. Y., the New England Biographer—S. 0. Parker, Green- weekly Journal, dated April Sth, field. 1728. Keeper of Cabinet—R. T. Rust, By Dean Clapp, Peru, a Confeder- Norwalk. ate States Treasurj^ Note, obtained The roll of Township Historical by his son, Lieutenant H. S. Clapp, Committees was called, and Messrs. 19th Regiment U. S. C. T., at Rich- C. E. Newman, Martin Kellogg and mond. J. H. Niles Avere appointed a special By Elon Gibbs, New Haven, The Committee to report at the afternoon Ohristiaii Observer, Vol. 2, a period- session tiie names of suitable per- ical published in England in 1803 sons to fill vacancies. two letters to General Hull on his

Rouse Ely, Esq., of New Haven, conduct as a soldier, &c., 1821 ; an ex- presented a genealogical sketch of position of Church Catechism, print-

Hiram Rogers, of Plymouth, written ed in London about 1717 ; the Psalms by himseH—a lineal descendant of of David, printed in 1716, with tunes the ninth generation from John and "rules for learning to sing." Rogers, the martyr. By John F Green, Perkins, a The Constitution was then read Methodist Almanac for 1836, being and twenty-eight persons became the third of its publication. members of tlie Society, when a By E. B. Harrison, Norwalk, late recess was taken until half-past one, of the 123d Regiment O. V. I., a f100 P. M., during which the members eight per cent. Confederate Bond, enjoyed the hospitality of the citi- with coupons. zens of Norwalk. By E. J. Waldi-on, Hartford, a pew'ter spoon made by himself in AFTERNOON SESSION. 1821, in Canterbery (now Hartland,) The Session was opened by singing from an old pewter platter, formerly to the tune of Ijenox, '' Bloiv Ye the owned by his grandmother, and cast Trumpet, Bloin" after which the in moulds use'd by his grandfather special Committee appointed for that about one hundred vears ago- purpose at the morning session, rec- By C. V. Fay, Norwalk, the Nor- ommended the following persons for walk Reporter, August 1st 1829, and the Historical Committees in their the 1811 census of pensioners for respective Townships, which was services in the Revolution and the adopted, viz: War of 1812. heirs of the late Captain E. Ruggles, S. C. Sturtevant, ; Green- By the wich,"M.E. Mead; Townsen'd, Martin L. Coit, Greenfield, a cane of black Denman; Huron, R. R. Webber; and yellow ebony, with top of tooth whale, made on board the Milan, Seth Jennings ; Fairfield, L. of a sperm D. Allen; New Haven, George A. ship Palladium from the chips of the Knight; Ridgefield, G. W. Smith; hearse and cofiin at the exhumation Perkins, T. B. Taylor; Sherman, J. of the Emperor Napoleon at St. E. La Barr; Richmond, D. Sweet- Helena. By. D. W. Tenant, Berlin, the land ; Kelley's Island. George C. Huntington. bottle in which his medicine was The following articles were exhib- carried when conveying the mail in ited: .'By Henry and Timothy Gar- early times through the F4relands ner, Hartland, two stone fifes—one and'North-western Ohio. very perfect—found on the farm of A Rebel flag was presented by Kellogg. J. H. Chandler. Lieutenant Colonel Horace June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER.

This flag was captured by the gallant relics of the sacrifices and hair- 123d at Hatcher's Run, Va., on the breadth escapes made by their morning of April 2d, 1865, at which ancestors was commendable in the time the regiment captured a fort highest degree. It was a work with two peices of artillery (brass which inaugurated a healthy, high- twenty-four pounders,) 500 stand of toned state of society which would small arms, 200 prisoners and- two tell upon the people that shall live battle flags. upon the Fire Lands in after years. After a few very appropriate re- The young people present would be marks by P. N. Schuyler, Esq., the regarded as pioneers in the years to Society unanimously voted thanks come, and the relics now being for the gift. gathered beckoned them on in the Piatt Benedict, of Norwalk, pre- work so nobly commenced by the sented a copy of the first eight gray headed sires. He feared his volumes of the Spectator, 1710. address would be thought tame, and The following is the report made a tame address on an occasion like by Judge S. C. Parker, of the Pio- the present, when the wild state of neers and members deceased since the country and the sturdy people

the last report : Samuel Reed, who inhabited it in its early days

Ridgefield ; Henry Chapin, JSforwalk; was being celebrated, would be tame

Jeremiah M. Crosby, Norwalk ; Giles indeed. How, then, could a non-

Baker, Fairfield ; Clarrisa Pierce, resident of these historic lands edify

Greenfield ; Mrs. Juliette Taylor, the iieople. He Avould seek shelter

Norwalk ; Mr. Henry Lockwood, in the patriotism, not only of the Milan. Fire Lands, but of our common country. REMARKS OF REV. JOHN KEEP, OF OBER- He then proceeded to give his LIN. vioAvs on the duties and dangers of Mr. Keep said it was necessary he the nation at the present crisis, and should say a word about himself. urged their adoj)tion as the only He was eighty-four years old, and method by which, judging from the owing to a failure of his voice was history of the past, the national life fearful he could not make himself can be saved. distinctly heard by the large audi- REMARKS OF REV. ENOCH CONGER, OF ence present. He felt honored and LEXINGTON. gratified to share in the present anniversary of the Firelands Histori- Rev. Mr. Conger, a venerable cal Society. Such associations show- pioneer clei'gyman of the Fire ed a high state of society, and wei-e Lauds, spoke of the ministerial la- the means of manufactui"ing the bors of early times—the formation material for a strong civil govern- of society—the amalgamation of ment. It commenced at the family feeling—thinking, working, and the circle, and schooled alike youth and mode of transacting business, etc., age in the sacrifices made by the and contrasted them Avith the pres- pioneers, and was the means of form- ent. They had been handed down ing a safe and enduring society of from sire "to son and been the means the yeomanry of the country. of maldng a harmonious people. It was well that the children The relics exhibited showed the should be well informed of the sac- simple manners of the pioneers, and rifices made by their pai-ents, and their exhibition and the consequent the spirit they manifested in gather- discussion which they occasion, have ing and preserving the historical a marked efl'ect upon the rising THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866. generation. When he came to the Mr. F. D. Keed, of Norwalk, gave country everjHhiug was new, society an interesting account of hunting was just forming—there were no experiences in early days, and ex- churches—so to speak, and but few l^lained the manner of trapping preacliers. He came here in 1824, wolves as parcticed by the settlers. as a Presbyterian minister—his col- VermiUion was selected as the leagues, two Methodist and two place for the next meeting, the sec- Baptist ministers, were all then ond Wednesday of September next, known in this part of the State. He and Messrs. C. L. Burton, Lewis landed at Sandusky and counted but Wells, B. Parsons, Benjamin Sum- twenty-four dwellings, all told. He mers, PMo Wells, J. J. Cuddeback went to Lyme and Norwalk, both and W. H. Crane, the Committee of "Wlages, just commencing. He Arrangements. found one thing there very encour- On motion of Judge Pliillips, the aging, that he blushed to say does thanks of the Society were tendered not exist at the present day; all the Mrs. Gibbs, Miss Page, Messrs. Gil- people attended church. All he had bert and Kingsley for the excellent to do was to tell one or two of the music, the Committee of Arrange- prominent men that he would preach ments for their care in making at his house, or in the grove, on a provision for all, and to the citizens certain day, and they notified the of Norwalk for their hospitality. whole people by sending out cour- The Choir then sung " Exhortation," iers, and when the day arrived they and closing with "Old Hundred" were all present. They needed no the Society adjourned. persuasion to come to hear the D. H. Pease, Sec'y. gospel, and they all listened atten- tively. He enjoyed the pioneer meeting—it was interesting to hear men tell of their privations during the early settlement of the country. QDARTEELY MEETING. It was what made the pioneer meet- ings interesting—he hoped they MORNING SESSION. would be continued, as he believed they exerted a wholesome influence The first quarterly meeting of the upon all, both old and young. Society for the year 1865, was held in the "Methodist Church at Vermil- PIERCE, OF REMARKS OF MRS. POLLY lion, on Wednesdav, September 13th, PERU. at 10 o'clock A. M.

JMi-s. Polly Pierce, of Peru, exhib- The venerable President, Piatt ited a variety of indispensable articles Benedict, Esq., of Norwalk, was used by some of the first settlers of present and m the chair, uotwith- that township, and interspersed the stauding his great age and the presention vdih sparkling and pithy distance of the meeting from liis explanations. Her remarks com- home. paring the stars and stripes in which Tlie exercises were opened with the Hall was di-aped, and around prayer by the Eev. L. B. Gurley, of which her earliest recollections were Delaware, Ohio. The minutes of ent^vined, with the torn, soiled and the annual meeting were then read disgraced rebel banner just present- by the Secretary, and approved. ' ed to the Society by the gallant 123d, On motion, the report of the Di- were charged with pathos and pa- rectors, which showed a balance in triotism. the Treasury on account of the pub- —

June, 1866.] THE FIEE LANDS PIONEER.

lication of the Pioneer, of ^15 23, A. D. 1792 ; also, a book of Psalms was received and approved. and Spiritual Songs, being a present The roll of Township Committees to her mother Eunice Osborn, in the was called, and none having any ad- year 1789, and published in England ditional reports to those already A. D. 1785. made, to make, on motion, they A comb worn by Mrs. Shad- were re:juested to make reports at drick's mother, and purchased in the some future meeting of the Society. city of New York, in the year 1825. F. D. Parish, Esq., of Sandusky, By Miss Albini Liscomb—an then offered a resolution that the acrostic composed by her grand- Constitution be so amended that mother, Mrs. Lydia Benjamin, in any person by signing his or lier the year 1797. Mrs. Benjamin was name, or causing the same to be af- born on Long Island, in tlie year fixed to the Constitution, and pay- 1782, and emigrated to Ohio in 1812, ing the sum of twenty-five cents, and died in Amherst, Ohio, at the may become a -member of the Soci- age of seventy-five. By the same ety; and that any person upon a —a pair of ancient spectacles vote of the Society, may become an bought by her great grandfather, honorary member—which was laid Caleb Franklin, in the year 1785. upon the table for consideration, at He was born in Westfield, Connec- the next annual meeting. ticut, A. D. 1735, and served his The Constitution was then read by country in the Revolutionary War. the Secretary, and the names of He emigrated to the State of New twenty-one new members were York in 1800, and died at the age added. of ninety. On motion, adjourned to meet in By Eunice Pelton—a bottle Linwood Grove at 1 o'clock P. M. which has been in the i^ossession of relatives one hundred and fifty AFTERNOON SESSION. years. It contained the fu'st tea The Society met at the Grove at brought to America. 1 o'clock, in accordance with ad- By Emily Whitman—who was journment born in South Bristol, Connecticut, The following relics and curiosi- September 24th, 1822, weighing two ties, presented by the following and a half pounds,-—two pairs of ba- named persons, were then exhibit- by's socks and one baby's cap, which ed : were presented to her on the 2Sth By S. A. Pelton, of Vermillion of December, 1822, by Miss Betty a portrait of Captain Barlow Stur- Munn, and Miss Betty Botchford, as giss, born in Fairfield, Connecticut, a Christmas present. A. D. 1766, and who came to Ohio, By George Whitmore—a canister A. D. 1809; also a satchel which shot, which he extracted from the was in possession of Eunice Stur- head of a dead rebel at the battle of giss, grandmother of Mrs. S. A. Pel- Antietam,at which he hinself fought ton, in 1790. for eight days. By Mrs. Wylde, of Vermillion— By" Mrs. Atkinson—a platter the English breeches which Benja- which has been in her possession min Wylde wore to America in forty years. 1831, and for ten years previously, By Jonathan Brooks, of Vermil- they being over forty years old. lion—a fork presented to him by his By Charlotte Austin—a basket grandfather, Jonathan Brooks. Its sent to her mother, Eunice Osborn, history has been traced back to the from the East Indies, full of oranges. year 1725. How much older it is, is THE FBRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

not known ; also, a bottle presented Isaac Fowler, of Berlin Hights, to him by Benjamin Brooks, who moved that the photographs of eve- was a captive in the hands of the ry member of the Society be left Indians thirt}' years. The bottle with the Secretary, for deposit

was bought in 1786 ; also, a round among the collection of relics of shot extracted from the side of the the Society. Seconded and adopt- brig Detroit, at the time of Perry's ed. victory, by Jonathan Brooks. At Mr. Phdo Wells, of Vermillion, the time this ball was obtained, he then addressed the audience, giv- carried a boat load of green corn ing an account of some of his ear- and other vegetables to the sol- ly experiences when the country diers. was' new. By Mr. Hosea Hunt—two origin- On motion, a committee, consist- al writs, issued in Hampshire coun- ing of Messrs. Z. Phillips, F. D Par- ty, Virginia, and being in the nature ish and D. H. Pease, was appointed of a capias ad respondendum by the to fix upon and give notice of the authority of " George the Third, by place of the next Quarterly Meet- the grace of God, of Great Britain, ing. France, and Ireland, King, Defend- On inotion the tiianks of the So- er of the Faith, &c., and dated one ciety were returned to the citizens in the "sixth"' and the other in the of Veriuillion and the Committee of "ninth year of our reigu," or just Arrangements for their hosjjitality, one hundred years ago. and the excellent arrangements By Miss Julia A. Ball, of Vermil- which they had made for the meet- lion—two numbers of the Connec ing. ticut Evangelical Magazine, publish- On motion, after the singing of ed in lS02,"and 1801. "Old Hundred"' by the entire au- Prof. Hartsepee, of Elyria was dience, one of the most interesting then presented to the Society and profitable, as well as one of the and delivered a most able, learn- best attended Quarterly Meetings ed, and interesting address, on of the Society, adjourned. "The Dawn and Development of CuARLES P. WiCKHAM, Sec'y. Religious Interests on the Reserve, and especially on the Firelands." The Rev. Mr. Marks, of Huron, then delivered a short and appro- QUARTERLY MEETING. priate address. L. B. of Rev. Gurley Delaware, MORNING SESSION. then made an exceedingly pleasant and interesting address, and then at The second quarterly meeting of the request of the meeting, recited the Society for the current year, was a finely conceived and well written held in the Methodist Church at poem composed by himself many Bellevue, on Wednesday, December years ago, and founded upon a ro- 13th, at 11 o'clock A. M'. mantic Indian legend. The venerable president, Piatt On motion, the thanks of the So- Benedict, Esq., of Norwalk, was in ciety were tendered to the speak- the chair, assisted by Vice Presi- ers for their eloquent, able and in- dents John H. Niles, Esq., of Nor- teresting addresses, and copies of wich, Judge Z. Phillips, of Berlin, the same, together witli Mr. Gur- George H. Woodruff", Esq., of Nor- ley's poem, were requested for pub- wich, and E. Bemis, Esq., of Gro- lication. ton, June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER.

The exercises were opened with The meeting then engaged in prayer by the Key. E. Y. Warner, of singing the 70.5th hymn of the Monroeville. The minutes of the Methodist Collection. last quarterly meeting were read by The roll of Township Com- the Secretary and approved. mittees was then called by the Sec- On motion of P. N. Schuyler, retary. Esq., the calling of the roll of Town- D. D. Pease, Esq., committee for ship Committees was postponed un- Norwalk township, made an inter- til the afternoon session. esting report of the first shipment Moved by D. H. Pease, Esq., that of wheat from the Firelands, and the Board of ^Directors be authoriz- the first manufacture of threshing ed and directed to make the i^roper machines, which were made at arrangements for the publication of Monroeville, by C. W. Manahan, the next volume of the "Pioneer.'''' Esq., present Treasurer of Huron Adopted. county. The Secretaiy then read the Con- John Seymour, committee for stitution of the Society, after which Lyme township, made a highly en- twenty-two names of new members tertaining report of his early expe- were added. riences in Lyme township and vicin- On motion of Dr. L. G. Hark- ity. ness, the Society adjourned till Remarks were made by Vice 1 o'clock P. M. President, E. Bemiss, embodying early reminiscences. AFTERNOON SESSION. Mr. Ruggles, of Margaretta, son of The Society met pursuant to ad- Alfred Ruggles, was then introduc- journment at 1 o'clock P. M., Vice ed by Vice President Bemiss, and President Judge Z. Phillips in the related the early history of the fam- chair. ily of his father, who settled near The exercises commenced by sing- the mouth of the Huron. ing 707th Hymn of the Methodist Vice President, Z. Phillips ad- Collection. dressed the meeting upon the pleas- The following relics presented to ure derived by the Pioneers from the Society by the follo^ving nam- meeting together. ed persons respectively, were then Vice President George H. Wood-

exhibited : ruff, made a lew remarks upon the

, By Seth Jennings, Esq., of Milan subject of early life in Norwich —several copies of "The War," a township, stating during the course weekly paper issued in New York of his remarks that in a few months City during the years 1812 and 1813, he will Jiave been a resident of the and containing a current history of Firelands fifty years. the last war with Great Britain. D. H. Pease, Esq., announced the By B. P. Smith, of Oxford town- death of Mrs. Polly Pierce, and mov- ship—Volume five, (bound) of ed that G. H. Woodruff, be a " The Balance and Columbian Ke- committee to i^repare for publica- pository," a weekly Federal news- tion in the Pioneei\ a suitable no- paper published at Hudson, New tice of her death. Adopted. York, in 1806. The death of Mrs. Eliza Barker, Th(* Rev. John Safford of Belle- on the third day of September, last vue, then delivered an interesting - was then announced. She was and eloquent address upon " The born January 27th, 1800, at Athol, Social and Moral Condition of the Worcester county, Massachusetts, Firelands." and was the third of twelve chil- THE FIEE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

dren, and second dangliter, of Mar- Berlin, who announced that che shall and Elizabeth Barker, both President was unable, on account of born in Worcester county, Massa- the increasing infirmities of age, to clnisetts. She was married to D. G. be present, but had sent word that Barker, September 13th, 1829 ; came although he could not be present in to Ohio in the same f;ill, and settled body he would in spmt. in Ripley, Huron county, n'here she The exercises were opened with resided on the same farm upon prayer by the Rev. Mr. Dubois, of which her death occured, until that Plymouth. event. The minutes of the last quarterly On motion of J. H. Niles, Ply- meeting were read by the Secretary mouth was chosen as the point at and approved. which to hold the next quarterl.y On motion, the reading of the roll meeting, and the following named of Township Committees was dis- persons were appointed Committee pensed with. of Arrangements : Judge E. Stew- The Constitution of the Society art, H. C. Breckenridge, S. M. Rob- was then read by the Secretary, af- inson, R. McDonough, B. B. Taylor, ter which sixteen names of new Abraham York, and D. H. Young. members were added. On motion of .Judge G. Q. Adams, A communication from the Sec- a vote of thanks was tendered to retarj' of the Smithsonian Institute, Rev. Mr. Safford for his excellent stating that it was in possession of address, and a copy of the same was No. 1, Vol 1, of the Pioneer, and requested for publication in the calling for the numbers and volumes Pioneer. necessary to complete a set of the On motion the thanks of the So- Society's publications, was read bj^ ciety were returned to the citizens the Secretary, who announced that of Bellevue, and the Committee of he had received by express, from Arrangements, for their hospitality the Historical Society of Pennsylva- and the excellent arrangements thej^ nia, and the Moravian Historical So- had made for the meeting. ciety of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, a On motion, after the singing of large contribution of valuable " Old Hundred," by the entire audi- books, connected chiefly with the ence, which filled the Chuch, the history of that State, and read a let- meeting adjourned, to meet in Ply- ter accompanying the books, WTitten * mouth, on the second Wednesday by R. Eddy., Esq., Librarian of the' in March next. former Society. The Secretary also Charles P. Wickham, Sec'y. stated that he had written to Mr. Edd.y, thanking the Society re^n-e- sented by him, and stating that a complete volume of the Pioneer QUARTERLY MEETING. had been ordered bound, and that when it should be completed, it MORNING SESSION. would be forwarded to him. The third quarterly meeting of On motion of Judge Parish, the the Society for the current year, Secretary was instructed to write was held in the Congregational and forward a suitable repl^ to Church, at Plymouth, on Wednes- ,the communication from the Secre- day, March 14th, at 10 o'clock, A. tary of the Smithsonian Institute. M. Mr. Ezekiah Rooks then made The meeting was called to order some very interesting remarks in by Vice President Z. Phillips, of regard to the early liistory of the :

June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. 9

country in the vicinity of Plymouth, were purchased in the city of Alba- after which the meeting, on motion, ny, when that city was occupied by took a recess, until 1 o'clock P. M. the Colonial force. Mrs. Elliott, liv- ing so near the seat of war, was sub- AFTERNOON SESSION. jected to a great many changes. At one time she came near being The Society met pursuant to ad- taken prisoner by the British, she in the place, 1 journment, same at and her family escajjing in a wagon o'clock P. Z. Phillips still M. Judge the latter part of the night. The presiding. next morning herhouse was burned, The following relics and curiosi- and everything available was appro- ties were then exhibited by and on priated to the use of the British sol- behalf of the following named per" diers. This lady was sister-in-law to respectively sons Colonel Elliott, and Captain Daniel By D. E. Bacon Esq., of Wake- EUiott, of Revolutionary" memory ; man—a copy of "The Connecticut mother of Asa and Charles Elliott, Courant," a weekly paper, printed at who were musicians in the war of Hartford, October 28th, 1764. 1812-13 ; and great grandmother to By Hiram Rodgers, Esq., of Ply- Captain James Elliott and Lieuten- mouth, the following specimens and ant Peter Elliott, of the Army of curiosities brought from the muse- the Potomac. She was also the um of Jefferson College, Virginia, great grandmother of George Bo- Mr. George Hoffman, a soldier by dine, who was murdered June Sth, in the war of rebellion. the A spec- 1865, by Cheyennes and Ajjaches, imen of Sea Fan; a tooth of a at Sage Creek Station, Idaho. Mrs. Mastodon, being seven and three- Elliott dying in 1823, the ear-rings fourth inches across its surface ; a and her wedding ring were given to j)etrified vertebra of some large an- her daughter, Mrs. Mariali Carpen- imal a specimen of petrified ; wood, ter, who died in 1840, when they and a tine specimen of Pacific cor- were given to the present owner. al. They have thus had eighty-four By C. E. Bodine, a set of shaving years of wear. tools that were owned and used by By F. Swalley— an old brass but- Peter Irwin, a soldier of '76, who ton, found in an old dwelling in served his country in the brigade Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, known as the "Jersey Blues," and and bearing the inscription: "Long- who died in 1816, aged eighty-four live the President, G. W," and the years. He used the tools sixty-four initials of the original States of the years; and at the time of his death Union. they were presented to the present By Mr. Hart Seymour—a " Book owner, who has used them twenty of Sermons," of Rev. Jonathan Ed- years; so that they have been in wards, printed in 1780. constant use for eighty-four years. By E. Case—an old fashioned By Mrs. Angeline Bodine, a pair breechdoading musket, of Harper's of ear-rings, made of old Spanish Feny manufacture, captured from beaten gold. They were the bridal the rebels at Drainesville, Virginia, presents of Mrs. Mehitable Elliott, by S. B. Conger. wife of Laban Elliott, of Kingsbury, By Mrs. Coukling—a small Silver Washington county, N. Y,, who serv- Spoon, presented to a young lady as ed his country in some capacity du- part of her "setting out," one hun- ring the seven years of the Revolu- dred and ten years ago. tionary War. In the year 1783, they A series of very interesting papers.

I 10 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

prepared by J. H. Niles, Esq., of The names of the new member^ Norwich, entitled "Geology of the were then read by the Secretary. Firelands," "Bear Hunt on the On motion, the thanks of the So- Marsh,' "Last Charivari of Green- ciety were returned to the citizens tield," and "Anecdote of General of Plymouth and the Committee of Wayne." Arrangements, for their hospitality Judge Parish then addressed the and the excellent arrangements meeting, stating the object of the or- they had made for the meeting. ganization of the Society, its bene- On motion, adjourned. fits to community and its plan of op- Charles P. Wickham, Sec'y- erations.

FIKST THRESHING MACHINES IN OHIO.

The first Threshing Machines used Mr. Samuel Clock and Mr. Cone, on the Firelands, and probably in each bought one. Mr. Clook states the State, were made in Monroe- that his machine threshed an inch ville, in 1834, by C. W. Manahan, auger the first thing, and stood it Esq., the present Treasurer of Hu- well. The manufactui'ers were of- ron county, and his brother, George fered for one of them fifty acres W. Manahan. They used for a shop of land on which the business part the Old Fulling Mill. They made of Fremont now stands. their own machinery, and with the A machine with four horses and assistance of Mr. Jacobs, the pat- four or five men would thresh from terns. eighty to ninety bushels per day. The cylinders were made of The machines of the present day, wrought iron and the holes for teeth in the main, are constructed on the drilled by hand. This was a very same principle as these. Those first tedious operation, requiring from a made had some imperfections which week to ten days to drill one cylin- interfered with full success. The der, and it -was hard to find hands hub and standard were made square with sufficient patience to work. because there was no chance to get After working hard six or eight turning done, and would easily get months, they completed about that out of order. This difficulty was so number of machines, and put them serious that the manufacture was in market. All were sold and used finally abandoned. until worn out. Itis recollected that Jane, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. 11

ABSTRACT OF A VERBAL DISCOURSE UPON THE MOUNDS AND THE MOUND BUILDERS OF OHIO.

Delivered before the Fire Lands Historical Society, at Monroeville, Huron County, Ohio,

March 15, 1865.

BY COL. CHARLES WHITTLESEY.

The discourse was based upon and Ohio, the top of the bank is now illustrated by a number of diagrams. twenty-sis feeft above the bottom of A skeleton map of Ohio showed the the ditch. Here the ditch is inside principal ancient earth works of the of the parapet, which is not an un- State. It showed the situation of common case. about thirty extensive ruins on the Many of the worivs consist princi- rivers that run southerly into the pally of long lines of parallel em- Ohio. The sites of these works are bankments, like a narrow double the same with those of many of the turnpike well raised above the sur- principal cities of our day. On ac- face. They generally connect other count of the destructive propensity lines of more complicated forms, of our own race, a large number of such as circles, half moons, squares, them are already obliterated. rectangles, and portions of geomet- ITiese remains consist of embank- rical figures. ments of earth in a variety of forms, These parallel roads rising two, with and without ditches. Some are three, and even five leet above the circular and others elliptical, though general level, follow the undulations they are not precise mathematical of the ground, and attain a length of figures. Some are in the form of one, two, three and four miles. At arcs or portions of curves not en- Portsmouth, Ohio, they extend from tirely regular. The horse shoe form the second bottom on both sides is common. of the river, down to the first bot- The height of the walls va- tom, where they are obliterated by ries from a mere trace of a few the alluvium of the stream, deposit- inches elevation, not perceptible ed at high water. The entire length without close observation, to a height of the works at this place, on both of ten, and in one instance of fifteen sides of the Ohio river, is nearly five feet. At the great circle at Newark, miles. 12 THE FIKE LAM)S PIONEER. [June, 1866.

[Here a plan of the eastern ter- Ohio river tract in addition to the minus on the Kentucky side, was large works and forts near Dayton, exhibited; it showed four concen- Hamilton, and North Bend, Fort An- tric circles of earth without ditches, cient, Warren county, on the Little the inner one four hundred and Miami ; in Adams, Pike and Perry eighty-five feet in diameter, and the counties, there are probably an hun- outer one one thousand and ten feet. dred small detached works and They are divided into four parts many hundreds earthen and stone forming quadrants by two open mounds of various sizes. One of streets running at right angles these near Miamisburg is sixty-nine through them : leading to a mound feet high with a circular base of in the center. The mound is conic- eight hundred feet in circuit. That al, twenty-two feet high, with a at Grave creek, on the Virginia side flat space on the top sixty feet of the river, is seventy feet high. in diameter. A spiral road leads [The lecturer referred to his out- from the base around the sides to the line sketches of both these mounds, level erea on the summit. A line showing their general form to the of parallels extends more than a audience. In the one at Grave mile from the river to the quadrants creek there were two wooden vaults around this mound. Around the in the central part of the mound, base of the mound is a raised plat- one near the natural surface of the form also circular, its surface on a ground, the other about half Avay level with the embankments com- from the bottom to the top. In both posing the c^uadrants.] of them were human skeletons, sur- Similar works onoe existed and rounded by timbers very much de- in part exist now witliin or near the cayed, and with the skeletons were limits of Cincinnati. Chillicothe, trinkets and other relics. Sketches Marietta, Circleville, Newark and were presented in full size of sever- Hamilton. They occupied in all al copper tools taken from the an- cases important positions on streams cient mounds. One is in the form which in a state of nature were nav- of a broad chisel, ten and a half igable for light craft, such as rude inches long, three and a half to four people would use. inches wide, four tenths of*an inch The large works are also in prox- thick, and weighing three pounds imity to extensive tracts of ex- thirteen ounces. It was taken from cellent land in the valleys of the a mound in Butler county, Ohio, fif- Muskingum, Scioto, and Great Mi- teen feet in liight, by the late Hon. ami rivers, showing that the mound John Woods. There were trees builders cultivated the soil and se- standing over it two hundred years lected the richest portions* of age. Another tool exhibited is It is shown by the map that they like a thin double-bitted axe, six did not occupy the entire surface of inches long and three and a half the State ; their principal works oc- wide, with a hole in the centre. cupy a belt from thirty to fifty miles With the large chisel there was wide along the Ohio river, extend- found the remains of coarse hempen ing northward along its tributai-iesas cloth, of which the speaker has a far as Zanesville, Newark, Columbus, specimen. Among the sketches was Springfield and Troy. North of this one of a copper gouge six inches there is a space or belt where no long, which weighs two pounds. It extensive ruins have been found un- is three and a half inches across the til after passing the summit land to- bit and one and a half ^across the wards Lake Erie. Throughout the head. All these tools were fashion- June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 13 ed cold from lumps of native cop- mental and not designed as hyero- per that has never been melted.] glyphical, or written characters. There is no region known from Thus f\u- no well authenticated writ- which native copper could have been ten inscriptions had been found to obtained by the mound builders, ex- help unravel the mysterious history cept that of Lake Superior. In that of the mound builders. region there are extensive ancient [The speaker was by no means mines wrought not less than one certain as to the effect which must thousand years since by a people be given (^certain recent discover- having about the same development ies which had been made, and as the race of the mounds. In the which were described as follows:] copper mines ot Point Keweuaw, On the first day of July, 1860, I native silver is lound in lumps, spots was at Newark, Licking county, and and blotclies in native copper, and toward evening my friend Israel the same is found in the copper Dillie, Esq., informed me that Mr. tools of the mounds. There can be David Wyrick of that place had just little doubt but the mound builders made a remarkable discovery. We wrought the mines of Lake Superi- went together to Mr. Wyrick's house or to obtain these rude tools ; cop- in the suburbs of the town. He per and silver being the only metals showed us a stone about seven found in these mounds. There is no inches in length, in the form of a evidence that copper can be harden- truncated pyramid with a base of ed except by means of alloys and about one and a half inches and an by beating in a cold state. All the upper surface of about an inch ancient copper tools of Egypt which square. There was at the base a were once supposed to have been projection made round, with a knob tempered like steel, are found upon like a button, as though it was in- analysis, to have been alloyed with tended for a string to be fastened to tin. the stone. It Avas moderately well [Profiles of two mounds, situated IJolished, with some scratches re- in Ross county, Ohio, near Chilli- maining, and of a dirty brown or cothe, were among the illustrations. yellow color resembling some lime- On them was represented the laj^ers stones. The edges of the stone were of stones and ashes that accompany all rounded off. On the four faces of the human remains, and the wood- the pyramid were inscribed Hebrew en crib work constituting the burial characters. Mr. Wyrick and his vaults of the ancients. From one of little boy said he had taken it from these mounds a well preserved scull a small circular embankment con- was obtained, of which an outline stituting a portion of the old works sketch was presented, size of life. about a mile from the town. He Also fac similes of the characters had rubbed and worked out of the upon two stones with hyeroglyphics; depressions made by the engi'aver, a one from the Grave Creek Mound, large portion of the dirt which and another from a mound which adhered to the stone, but some of it once stood at the corner of Fifth remained. I found Mr. Wyi-ick to and Mound streets, Cincinnati, Ohio.] be a great enthusiast on the subject The Grave Creek Stone has the of the mounds, who spent much of characters of the old British Stick- his time in making excavations Book engraven upon it, but its gen- among them. He was physically uineness as a relic is very much much disabled by rheumatism by doubted. The figures upon the Cin- which he suffered intensely; his cinnati stone are apparently orna- fingers were swollen and distorted, 14 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

and his feet so much enlarged as to thal, of Cincinnati, were translated

render them almost useless. He is substantially alike, viz : 1st. Torah

whollj' a seli-taught man, in many Adonai—Tc^'i law of God ; 2d. Dab- respects possessed of genius. When lah Adonai—The word o? God; 3d. able to get about, he surveyed lands, Kadosh KadosJieem—The Holy of

having been, I believe, the County Holies ; 4th. Malach Aratz—The Surveyor. In his humble home were ICing of the Earth. By a free trans- many relics he had disentombed from lation the whole may be rendered in " the earth works of LicIsiBg county, one sentence, as follows : The law to which 1 shall make imure refer- of God, the word of God, King of the ence. Mr. Dille, who has known Earth, is most holy." We took Mr. him from a child, has full confidence Wyrick and his son in a buggy, and in Mr. Wyrick's statements. He drove at once to the Ancient Works, stated that the idea of deception was one mile west of the town, and to out of the question. Mr. Wyrick, he the spot where he said it was found. said, was a man who might easily be Here was a fresh pit about two feet imposed upon, but who would not deep from which they said it was play the part of a deceiver himself.j taken. The earth adhering to the The remains of that ancient race stone was the same as that of the are very extensive in the vicinity of pit, a yellowish loam. Newark. They are seen in the form No one of Mr. Wyrick's neighbors of mounds, ditches, embankments, doubted his statement as to the excavations, roads, and covered genuineness of the relic, nor did I ways, extending many miles in discover anything to warrant sus- length. I made a survej' of these picion in him or his little boy. works in February, 1838, and found During the evening it was shown to them to cover several hundred some Free Masons of the place, who acres, at that time in a state of high recognized it as a Masonic emblem preservation. At one point the representing the key-stone of the height of the parapet above bottom arch, and one on which the owner of the ditch was twenty-six feet. might put such an inscription as he It was in a circular depression, saw fit, or none at all. In the days about twenty feet in diameter, with of the craft when Master Masons a low, circular bank around it, that wrought with their own hands, in Mr. Wyrick and his little son had the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, been digging that afternoon. Mr. they wore this as an insignia of Dille and myself saw the stone, their rank. The Hebrew characters probably an hour after it was found. are said by scholars to be imperfect, He said he was searching for human but legible, and of the style of bones in the cavity, and at the depth writing in vogue in the third cen- of twelve or fourteen inches threw tury. out the stone which he showed us, As this is the first stone ever and on which were legible cliaracters. found in the works of the mound I have a fac-simile of the four faces builders having written characters, of the stone and its inscriptions, the it excited great interest among characters of which are bold and antiquarians. Some denied its au- large, being sunk into the faces. thenticity as a relic. I had myself There were on each of the no such doubt, but its position so four faces an Hebrew sentence, near the surface did not give it a which being shown to the Rev. character of much antiquity. Every Mr. McCarty, of Newark, Mr. Peix- one who knew Mr. Wyrick said he otto, of Cleveland and Dr. Lillien- was an enthusiast, but wholly inca- jTune, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 15

pable of getting up an imposition. was exhibited with the Hebrew In the south-western part of characters upon it in full size.] Licking county, near Jacktown and The Rev. Mr. Newton, of Norwalk, south of the National Road, is a huge who was present, recognized the artificial pile of rough stone which letters to be genuine Hebrew, a was about forty-five feet high. portion of them easily translated. When I first saw it a portion of the Without indulging in speculations top had been thrown down by an upon these singular inscriptions, the adventurer who expected to find a remainder of the discourse was part of Kidd's money in the center. devoted to the ancient Forts on the There are many of these conical shores of Lake Erie, and the streams piles of stone in the vicinity, but which discharge into it from the this is the highest. On the first of south. The outline map of Ohio, November, 1860, Mr. Wyrick attack- before referred to shows them to be ed this pile in pursuit of relics, but numerous on and near the southern took the precaution to have reliable shore of this lake. They differ in witnesses present. A large part of their character very much from the stone had been removed by the those on the Ohio and its tributa- inhabitants and used in cellar walls ries. The northern works are or in the repair of roads. Under the smaller and in general occupy po- stone was found some low circular sitions of natural strength for milita- mounds of earth. Mr. W. and his ry purposes- They are clearly works five friends from Newark opened of defense; there is but one in- these mounds and found in one of stance, and that not beyond discus- them a grave and the rude cofiin of sion, where there are earth-works the race of the mounds. There were intended for the purposes of attack. human bones, copper rings or brace- Neither is there any evidence that lets, polished stones, a copper plate any of the ancient military works of and pottery. the Mound Builders were attacked. Under these relics was a stone They none of them show counter- box in which was a stone with the works such as must have been made figure of a man and more Hebrew by any party who should have characters. These were the same in attempted their capture. A single style as those on the Wyrick stone. capture by assault might have oc- They were easily read and upon curred in a few instances, but a being translated proved to be almost whole nation could not have been a copy of the Ten Commandments, driven from so many fortified po- but somewhat abridged and trans- sitions without works of circumval- formed. Mr. Lederer, an educated lation. A plan of the earth-works Jew of New York, states that the and ditches near Norwalk, Ohio, style of the writing indicates that it now nearly obliterated, was exhibi- was not made by a Hebrew, but a ted. This group occupies the bluffs proselyte, and it resembles that of at the fords of tlie Huron river, one the age of the Macabees. In regard and a half miles west of the village. to the antiquity of this stone, it A full description of these and the must be as great as the mound in the other works in Northern Ohio, which it was found, and not less than may be seen as given in Vol. I of one thousand years. ^ the Smithsonian Contributions. [A fac-simile of the Newark stone 16 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

THE DAWN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE EELIGIODS INTER- ESTS OF THE RESERVE AND THE FIRE LANDS.

BY PROFESSOR HARTUPEE, OF ELYRIA.

Mr. President:—Your committee left the "scenes of my birth and to Avliom the Firelands Historical careless childhood hours." To these, Association have confided the duty to the unnumbered influences of selecting and procuring speakers which kindle the soul's internal ener- for this, their Quarterly Festivity, gies and by their plastic power have, with the honors bestowed on mould its external form and fashion, me, likewise imposed a duty wliose I owe the honor I have to day. I doing demands qualifications surely at home among you in the am ; different, perhaps higher than my home of my childhood I am a stran- own. Though born and bred in a ger, and my voice makes strange more southern section of the State, echoes amid my natal halls. Strong, the arbitrations of fortune, in the even imperishable, are the ties early dawn of manhood, cast mj' lot which bind me to the scenery and among you and the people you rep- society of the Firelands. In your resent. Kind benignant Provi- speaker, therefore, is found one ele- dence ! I do not, cannot, wish a re- ment, at least, requisite to him who versal of the decree which wrested would to day address you with inter- me away even from the loved scenes est and profit, viz : a deep and abi- of my childhood, and gave me a ding interest in the object you had home and kindship likewise, among and still hold in view in the organ- you. To the institutions you have ization and continued maintenance established and now foster, to the of the Firelands Historical Associa- intelligence and social elevation ex- tion. The distinguished gentlemen emplified here, to the athletic vigor of who have previously addressed you, the intellect, to the purity of the reli- and whom it is an honor even to fol- gious faith and the earnestness of the low upon the speaker's stand of this religious love found amongyou, I owe Association, have spoken of " Now all that has been added to tlie stature and fifty years ago," concerning the of the boy I was, when twelve years men and tuiimals whose bones are ago, poor, penniless, untutored by the found in tlie ancient earth-works, rugged disciphne of the world', and and in the post-pliocene deposits of the world's rough ways with men, I the State of Ohio, and of the politic- June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 17

al and social history of the Firelaiids, by the historic, seeking to learn from embracing many and most interest- the annals of the past, in what con- ing reminiscences of personal achiev- vulsions of the religious world, ments and adventure. What, there- when and where, our religious histo- fore remains to us, but that as well ry had its rise. as we can, we trace the " Dawn and He who would know the mettle of Development of the Religious In- the son, must know the temper of the terests of the Reserve, and espe- sire. The exceptions but prove the cially of the Firelands," concluding rule. It does not sufficiently an- as we properly may, by indicating swer the inquiry we propose, to de- our present religious aspects and lineate the strongly marked and the demand our present and the im- prominent religious character of mediate future make upon us? Our our New England ancestry. We effort shall be, must know the paternity likeVise of First, To review and commemo- this. We find it in England. The rate the past. Lutheran Reformation was effected Second, To hold under view for a on the continent of Europe by mor- moment the present, and al means. In England it was sought Third, To set forth and enforce to be accomplished by imperial au- our duty as pertains to the future. thority. Henry VHIth sought to Or, what, in this respect, we have effect by royal edict what, across been, are, and ought and are to the channel, was wrought only by be. the mighty power of Go"d. He dis- A somewhat extended inquiry in- liked the Papacy chiefly because it to the nativity of those whose names gave the supremacy of the church noiv stand on the roll of your Asso- to Pope Leo Xth, and not to him- ciation, reveals that of the nearly self. The Catholic faith was preva- six hundred comprising it, one hun- lent in England; he neither sought dred and thirteen were born in Con- for nor allowed a change. He be- necticut, although a half century lieved in Popery but not in the has passed since the history of the Pope. Hence those who avowed Firelands began, and the ideals of the principles of the Reformation the pioneer's axe waked the echoes and the tenets of Protestantism, of our woods, and the prime and were burned as heretics, and those maturity of the second generation who owned the authority of the are fast yielding their parts in the Pope were hanged as traitors. But drama of life, to their uprising sons the "merry monarch," neither papal and daughters of the third. nor protestant, won the love of none Massachusetts furnished forty-six. and incurred the violent oposition of New York one hundred and forty- all. During the reign of Edward, eight, Vermont thirty-six, Penns3d- Archbishop Cranmer drew up the vania 20, but those portions of these teaets and homilies of the Anglican States, it is further found, which con- church, in substance as they are tributed most largely to the origin- now, a compromise between the al population of the Firelands, were claims of the Reformation and the themselves settled chiefly by emi- demands of the papal hierachy, in grants from the earlier colony of the the view of manj^ a scheme for Connecticut. We shall be able to serving two masters. These arti- get a genuinely real impression o- cles of faith, essentially the same as our own religious character as ajjeof they now exist in the established pie, in no other way so readily, in- church of England were never sub- deed in no other way possibly, than mitted to any assembly of divines, 18 THE riEE LANDS PIONEER. June, 1866.]

or to parliament for confirmation, fled from the face of their persecu- but were imposed on the clergy and tors. See now the little May Flow- the universities by an exercise of er rounding tlie southern cape of the King's authority. This compro- England. One hundred and three mise embracing articles of faith and souls are aboard—" families of right-

modes of worship, imposed by the eous ^ men under covenant with sole authority of the King, retained God and each other," to lay some many of the abuses of the papal hi- good foundation for religion in the erarchy. Many of the Protestant New World. Heroic souls they subjects of the King desired a more were, willing to brave all difliculty, effectual separation from the church all privation, all danger, if on the of Rome than the Establishment af- iron-bound coast of their inhospita- iorded and the liberty of following ble Atlantis and amid the repulsive the pure word of God, in opposition perils of a new and savage society, to the traditions of men and human they might find refuge against the constitutions. These were the Pu- tyranny of conscience to which they ritans, a term originally applied to had been subjected. The spirit those who desired to complete the which led our fathers thus into vol- Reformation, by reviving a purer untary exile, in order that they faith and simpler worship, "but sub- might obey the behests of con- sequently," says Sylvester, "the vi- science, and worship God according cious multitude of the ungodly call- to the dictates of reason, was a holy ed all 'puritans' who were strict and inspiration. We must not conceive serious in a holy lile. were they ever that our fathers had any political ob- so conformable. They maintained jects in view when they undertook the highest principles of civil liberty the navigation to the New World. and rigidly defended the speculative No visions of empire and imperi- principles ot the first reformers. al purple, and subject peoples; no The reigning sovereign found it nec- fabulous Fountain of Youth whose essary to employ his civil and milita- waters were to restore the wasted ry power to enforce the absolute energies of life, allured them as supremacy in matters of faith and Ponce de Leon ; no glittering gold worship which the Tudor Princes of a new El Dorado (auri sacra had labored to establish fames) fevered their avarice and The spirit of civil and religious lib- kindled the energy which to gratify erty, however, could not thus be greed laughs peril to scorn. When quenched by the despotism of Hernando Cortes and his Spanish might. The Puritans united, over- adventurers sought to achieve the threw the monarchy and establish- conquest of Mexico, he said to Mon- ed the Commonwealth under the tezuma the native King, "Send me

Protectorate of Cromwell. On the gold ; for my companions and I have death of the Protector, the Com- a complaint, a disease ot the heart, monwealth failed, monarchy with- which is cured by gold." out limitation of power was restor- It was the free air of the wilder- ed, and the persecution of the Puri- ness, the silence and grandeur of the tans revived. The parliament of woods, the unfettered praise and Charles II, passed its "act of pi-ayer the}' off"ered to God from be- conformity," by wliich two thou- neath the arching limbs of the trees, sand Presbyterian ministers were his first temple, the unceasing an- deprived of their livings, and the them- of the ocean's roll and roar &r gaols were filled with the Puritans. away from the dungeons and chains To the wilds of New England they of the Tudor Princes of England, June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. 19

that healed the discontent of the Pu- nant idea among them was, to pro- ritan. When the May Flower had mote the service of God; according- touched the Plymouth Kock, before ly when land was granted to settlers they suffered their feet to touch the it was in adjacent tracts, not gener- soil, they bowed the knee to the ally more than two hundred acres rock and consecrated themselves each, and it was an indispensable and the country to God. They first condition to the license for settle- build a house for God and then lor ment that a learned and faithful min- themselves. Let us discover, if we ister should be provided to dispense can, how distinctively religious was the bread ol life. the enterprise in which they engag- To secure constant attendance at ed. Religion was the " star in the meeting and to prevent danger from the Court or- East " which guided them hither ; it Indians by dispersion, was the inspiration of their hopes, dained that no dwelling should be lo- the lamp of their pathway in the cated more than a mile from the pathless wilds, light of their dwell- meeting-house. Only the sound in ings, nerve of their souls and faith and the blameless in life, as the strength of their arms. They were records have it, were eligible as carrying forward the Ark of the Al- deputies, and church membership mighty, and why should they fear? was an indispensable condition to It is not wilh us, said Robinson, becoming a freeman. Their juris- their pastor, at Leyden, when with prudence was chiefly borrowed from benediction and many a solemn mo- the sacred books of Moses. nition he committed a portion of his When the foundations of the New flock to the cabin of the May Flower Haven Colony were to be laid, Mr. and the care of God. "It is not with Davenport preached to all the free us as with other men whom small planters assembled, on the words, things discourage and small discon- "Wisdom hath builded her house tents cause to wish themselves &c," and the sovereign sway of his home again." Brave men, and grand- influence led them unanimously to er in bravery in that it is not a con- vote, that "The scriptures do hold fidence in finite but Infinite Power! forth a perfect rule for the diiection They drew up their creed with rig- and government of men in all du- orous precision, and "fenced it round ties as well in families and common- about with 'the Lord thus saith,'" wealths«s in matters of the church," and ordained it for all the churches. and so " Moses and Aaron rejoiced the Bancroft says : "They were formal and kissed each other in mount and precise in their manners, singu- of God." Thus they fashioned the lar in their forms of legislation, rig- Commonwealth to the setting forth id in the observance of their prin- of God's house as Mr. Cotton styled ciples. Every topic of the day found it. a place in their extemporaneous There is another noticeable fea- prayers and in their long and fre- ture in the history of the times of quent sermons. * * * * But our fathers; the preponderant in- these were only the outside forms fluence of the clergy. They were which gave to the new sect its mark- the Iramersof constitutions, makers, ed exterior. If from the outside pe- expounders and executors of law, culiarities which so easily excite the heads of the people, ecclesiastical, sneer of the superficial observer, civil and social. The Pilgrim we look to the genius of the sect it- preachers merited the veneration self, Puritanism was religion strug- and love of the people. They were gling for the people." The domi- master spirits, trained by the disci- 20 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

pliue of Providence and iiidustiy to the world, and it is difficult to see the stature of intellectual and spir- whj' such excess of odium should be itual grandeur. They inscribed on laid upon our ancestors, whose only their banners that sublime declara- reproach in the matter was that tion of faith '''"Qui translulit susti- they were not further in advance of netP Most of the Pilgrim ministers the civilized world, by another half had been educated in the Universi- century. The second and many of ties of Oslord and Cambridge, the subsequent generations of min- brought their libraries with them isters in the Colony of Connecticut, and were students in the midst of history compels me to say, were far their toil. They read the Hebrew less zealous and learned, and hence and Greek original scriptures famil- less exemplary, less influential and iarly in their household devotions. useful than their fathers had been. Timothies in their houses, Chrysos- Hence the pulpit lost its power and toms in their pulpits and Augustines purity, the people failed to maintain in their dispositions. Indeed, early the intelligence of their piety and late in history this has ever been and the fervor of their devotion, the characteristic of the New Eng- and there came times of mournful land man, he must have an able spiritual degeneracy, and in 1702, ministry; vigorous and elastic in in- Dr. Increase Mather was moved to tellect himself, he demands it like- publish a work entitled, "The Glo- wise in him who delivers to him the ry departing fron New England." lively oracles of God. Though the simplicity and vigor of The greatness itself of the Puritan the Puritanic faith and the glow of ministers and the union of the civil their zeal had departed, the deep and ecclesiastical authority_ were the impress of their discipline was not parent evils of many unjustifiable obliterated. Its rigors had been procedures, and the disasters which softened, its austerities had been subsequently befell both church and mitigated, ^id many of its specula- the ministry." Out of these grew those tive errors and extravagances had persecutions for opinion's sake been corrected and brought M'ithin which tarnish the bright pages of terms of reason, and though ' Icha- our colonial history. A passing bod " was written on many a New word to this. England altar once bright with the The capital error we commit in ma- glory of God, the times of refresh- king up our estimate of the Puritan ing Avere again to come from the character, in reference to religious presence of the Lord. Though men intolerance, is that we unconsciously of shining talents had risen up to try the institutions and conduct of preach with " charming accents " a the past, by the ideas of the present. more " liberal gospel" and drew The severe enactments found in the away the multitude after them while early codes of the Connecticut Com- death was dismantling, one by one, monwealth seem to have been di- the few towers of strength on which rected against a class of fanatics the banners of the Pilgrims floated; who scrupled not to violate the re- in those years God remembered his ligious convictions of others, bi-ing- Zion, and amid the hills of North- ing logs of wood to chop on the ampton awakened the voice of Ed- church steps on Sunday and their wards and elswhere of Davies and spinning wheels to spin by the door. Prince and Tennent. Earnest By a large historic induction, we words Avere spoken in high places might show that intolerance was the defending' the ancestral faith and ad- manner of the times throughout monishing all of the " rapid current ' : —

June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEEK. 21

which, without a breath of air was " Sliould fate comraaud me lo the farthest wafting them away." The " great awa- verge Of the green earth, to distant " barbarous kening came, and a rapid inci'ease climes ;

in the number and efficiency of the Rivers unknown to song : where first the christian ministry and hundreds of sun Gilds Indian mountains, or bis setting thousands of converts and commu- beam nicants in the various evangelical Flames on the Atlantic isles, 'tis naught to denominations. me We have thus endeavored to Since God is ever present, ever felt In the void waste as the full. bring under distinct yet rapid sur- in city And where he vital breathes, there must be vey, the leading historic facts neces- joy;" sary to a correct impression of the religious statutes of the Old Con- or musing sung necticut Colony, when from her " Earth has engrossed my love too long, cities, towns, hamlets and rural 'Tis time I lift my eyes Upward dear Father to thy throne. homes came forth the "Pioneers of And to my native skies." the Firelands." On the 10th of May, 1792, Con- I am not surprised sir, that you necticut granted, by a resolution of are not willing that those records her Legislature, five hundred thou- should perish, or that the rich lega-

sand acres of land ; . indemnity for cy of their memory should be lost. losses sustained by fire during the Though the pioneer was without Revolution. New London, Fairfield, house, home, or cities, or fields or Norwalk, New Haven, and Groton flocks, he was not without an altar, of Old Connecticut are in ashes, but since often from tangled copse or like the Phoenix of classic fable, green retreat, or solitary spot, his they rise from their dust, but trans- orison or evening prayer arose planted to the wilds of the New to heaven, and the notes of his praise Connecticut. I have been furnish- filled the air. The hard toil of the ed by a worthy member of this as- day is over, the shades of night are sociation with all the published his- quietly gathering around the solita- toric records of those who wrought ry scene. The solemn hooting of this mighty transmigration. With the owl^ and the distant howl of the absorbed attention, I have read wolf are heard echoing through the those records vested in more than wood; his children gather timidly the interest of romance, because yet tnustfully around him, confident reposing on the solid ground of in his strong arm and loving heart. historic verity; records ot ties and From the rude shelf in the corner of tissues of love which bound the the cabin, the wife brings the Bible, family together around the hearth- cherished remembrancer of the stone of the dear old Connecticut hearth and sanctuary of the dear home, sundered; of farewells mourn- fatherland, and he, like Obed Edom, fully spoken to the loved ones left has an altar to the Lord in his own behind; of perils by "field and house, and proves that God is a Spir- flood," by wild beasts and wilder it and seeketh such to worship Him savages, by disease and accident, all as worship Him in spirit and in truth. bravely endured; of suffering, priva- He who hears the raven's cry and tions and labor, all cheerfully sus- sees the sparrow fall hears, him, tained ; records often of faith in God since he is of more value than mTiuy which faltered not in the darkest sparrows. night of trial, but woke the solitudes The s\^^ft rolhng hours of the with the echo of trustful song. night usher in the morning when :

22 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEEE. [June, 1866.

mingled with fading flow- " To the benign and saving power lie conse- Of tedded grass crates his lengthened days, ers While marked with blessings every hour That yestermorn bloomed, waving in the should speak bis co-extende"d praise." breeze. The faintest sounds attract the ear—the hum toil of the week is over; he and The Of early bee, the trickling of the dew. his neighbors, if indeed he have any, The distant bleating midway up the hill ; gather togetlier in a cabin, or it may While from the lowly roof whose curling be beneath the open arch of heaven, smoke O'ermounts the mist, is heard at intervals to speak of the things of God, and The voice of psalms, the simple song of little the there, in the woods, with of praise." form, there was often much of the power of godUness. In default of a The appointed hour of service has minister the sermon was read by one arrived, and though no deep-toned,

of their number ; the singing with- solemn bell peals the hour or fills out choir or organ, gushing forth the air with invitations to the house from the broken fountains of sacred of God, over plain and woodland, song filled the perfumed air with up the hiU, and through the valley,

melody ; and prayers along foot-path and wagon-path, and through the pathless woods come the " Were borne * worshipers : the farmer who felled Like fumes of sacred incense o'er the clouds, And wafted thence on angel's wings through the trees, and with oxen, axe and ways fire, clears away the forest and light, to the bright source of all." Of makes the field ; and his goodhouse- ^vife, sole partner of the joys of As the settlements extended and which she is herself the greater part, neighborhoods began to touch at comes in the wagon with him, and, their extremities, by the combined sharing his toil and laborious care efforts of many extended over a wide " for better or for worse," according area of territory, the church was to the vow she took, with him erected ; of round logs, or hewn logs trudges along life's journey. There at best, with puncheon floor, without comes the son, a sturdy youth, with pulpit, or with a box huge and Iiigh used instead of one, with seats of sense strong by nature's gift, carry- ing on his arm, since the weather is slabs, smooth, or to be smoothed by the coat of homespun, which the rather tedious process of friction warm, his like good old with homespun. Heaven pity the mother, Hannah, and the daughter, fair luckless, boy, who comes too late to made him; her dress secure the coveted seat against the dame she was, though was hnsey-woolsey, and her only flowers wall and must sit the long hour away the lily nature penciled on her wdth back against the viewless air, cheek, yet in aU womanly virtues not and with feet, bootless and shoeless, less adorned than the more delicate dangling, easUy clear of the floor. of to-daj', whose Avonder is Let imagination dwell for a moment damsels their grandmothers, the girls of amid the scenes of the time gone by, how whom we speak, brooked bonnets so but dwelhng yet as bright, yet fa- large dresses so small. There ding, pictures in the memories of and came likewise the blacksmith who many here. It is Sabbath morn- ing struck for wages. True son of Vul- can though he is, he can wold " Mute is the voice of rural labor, hushed links of logic as well as iron ; the The plough-boy's whistle and the milkmaid's tailoi', that was, but his occupa- song. once The scythe lies glitttering in the dewy tion being gone, his customers and wreath his cunning being both left behind. June, 1866.] THE FIKE LAUDS PIOIJEEE.

he is now the horny-handed son of brave in the conflict ^vith life's " severer toil ; the rniller who took many and rigorous trials. No mar- honest toll of the rye;" the neighbor- ble monuments, with starred and ti- hood notable, the country esquire, tled names of doctors or honorables whose judicial utterances were aw- or reverends, were there, but the

ful with authority ; and the school- unhistoric dead, the dead whose master, who " boarded round " and only memorials were their works taught reading, writing, and cypher- of benevolence and love, the found- ing as far as the " Rule of Three," ers of churchers and schools, the or Loss and Gain. Before long a va- friends of the poor and the dead un- ried throng have gathered around named, and of whose number God the church door, to wait the arrival has kept better count than men. of the minister; for there eveu the All lie right peacefully together on

settled pastor was often a true itin- the hill-tops ; symbol, shall we say, erant, and ministered to the spirit- of the life they lived, as much above ual wants of distant congregations. the world and nearer to heaven At length the minister arrives. As than we? There the pastor sleeps,

he approaches the hum of talking and his flock around him ; the teach- ceases, and as he takes his station at er and those he taught, the judge his appropriate place the congrega- and those whose wrongs he sought tion gather in and iill the rustic to right—now gone to stand togeth- edifice, a promiscuous gathering in er before God's tribunal at the grand which the polite fictions and showy assize; the fathers, who with their conventionalities of the world had axes felled the trees, cleared the little power, but the severer virtues fields we till and ifiade the roads we

found many most worthy exemplars. travel ; and the mothers, patterns Though it be, that the broadcloth often of matronly virtues, they cloth- gentlemen and the silken ladies of ed the " the bodies of their children the present, who roll along the high- with homespun and their memories ways to the sanctuary in carriages with catechism." These, these., the and loll on cushions, are able to dead Avhose names we cannot men- 'worship God, it may be, in a more tion, perhaps, and if we could we cultivated figure, yet not in finer were none the wiser nor they the sincerity and purer devotion, not more honored; these, over whom with a piety deeper and truer, not freshens now the monumental turf, with a more tender and intimate fittest symbol, in the green of fellowship with each other and with springtime, of the immortality they

the Spirit whose abiding place is the sought and found ; these, the good of lowly, contrite heart, preferred be- our fathers and mothers, great in fore all temples. The world wore their unconsciousness, most memo- then an aspect less inviting to ease, rable in their deeds of patient toil less lulling us to luxurious indul- and suS'ering patience, were the true gence, and the perilous pleasures of founders of the goodly heritage of sinful extravagance, and shall we say religion and intelligence we have. it more readily relaxed its hold on This Association with its records men, and sufiered them to j'ield to cherished in your households as sa- the drawing of the worlds above the cred memorials of the past, but at- world ? And in the grave yard, too, tests your devotion to their memory, on the rising ground at the edge of and the appreciation of the name and the wood, there lay beneath its leafy legacy they bequeathed us. turf all that was mortal of many a Let us return to the church and pioneer, patient in suffering toil, and linger a moment there. The "

24 THE FIRE LAFDS PIONEER. [Jane, 1866.

preacher has arisen and the ex- affirmatively. Nor were the preach- ercises have begun. He is a plain ers then particularly cautious about man—plain alike in the cloth- long sermons, (and the same was ing of his person and his thoughts. true of the hearers,) but spoke on He is not a worm of the study, or a till they had exhausted the subject, maniac for books, but a bronzed and though the last sands of the hour weather-beaten toiler in God's heri- glass had already fallen out. tage, nurtured to endurance by trial, The camp of the emigrant, the cab- and to strength, by rugged discipline in of the pioneer settler, the log of i:)ioneer life. Whether it be a school house, the meeting house, the Bronson, a Betts, a Phillips, a Smith, chapel and the church, successively a Bradstreet, a Conger, a Pattee, a resounded with the voice of men Judson, a Coe, a Goddard, a Mc- who preached the gospel with no Mahon, a Bigelow, a Ruark, a Chris- uncertain sound, and who, in winning tie, a Foe, or one of many hon- souls were wise. Men of large be- ored names I might mention, you nevolence, consistent piety, of great may expect a vigorous and often positive personal influence while most effective oratory, terse and living, they made their mark upon conclusive reasoning, fervor of earn- every feature of their age, and estness, faithfulness of apphcation, though dead, they j^et speak—their and often the displays of the divine works following them. The direct, power and saving presence vouch- fervent, pathetic and often poNyer- safed to the faithful men, who, un- ful appeals of the early preachers to der God, were tlie founders of the the consciences of their hearers churches among u^. sometimes were accompanied by It maj^ not be inappropriate here, the religious phenomenon called in briefly to indicate the plan and lead- common parlance " the powers," and ing features of the sermons of the the more inexplicable appearances pioneer preachers. The method of denominated "the jerks." These sermonizing (and if circumstances phenomena are peculiar to no coun- admitted they were more methodical try or time. They occurred, as histo- than the ministry of the present,) ry attests, in Scotland, England, Ire- was, first to unfold the text historic- land and in almost everj' country ally and critically, then raise from of the continent of Europe, in New it a " doctrine," then bring forward England and the Western States, du- the proofs, either inferential or di- ring the middle ages of the church, rect, then illustrate and justify it to during the Wesleyan Reformation the understanding by the reasons in England, and the Great Awaken- drawn from the philosophy of the ing in New England, as Edwards has subject or the nature of things; and abundantly recorded ; although it is finally, conclude with an improve- worthy of notice that not a solitary ment by the way of uses or infer- example of this kind of religious af- ences and timely admonitions and fection is recorded in either the Old exhortations. These applications or or New Testament. They have not uses and exhortations often formed been confined to any denomination. the greater part of the discourse. The most remarkable instances have In some cases they were made under occurred among the Presbyterians, different heads, as the preacher pro- Baptists and Methodists, "thepow- gi-essed in his discourse. Occasion- ei-s" were accompanied with a par- ally two or more sermons were tial or complete suspension of all preached on the same text and dis- the rational powers, the will, judg- cussed the subject negatively and ment, reason, and even conscious- June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 25 ness, and the subject lay motionless in connection with religious causes. and powerless; and at times the in- Third, Though connected with re- voluntary susceptibilities were ab- ligious causes, they are themselves normally active, and the subject merely physical affections, and have yielded without resistance to the not always been followed by moral prevalent impression or influence. results, and have attended the worst "The jerks" were rapid jerking con- as well as the best forms of religion; tortions of the body, which seem al- the teachings of fanatics and here- ways more or less directly the result tics as well as those of sounder of religious causes, affecting howev- faith. er the most irreligious minds not " To be thi-own into the catalep- less irresistibly than the- religious. tic state, in conversion," says anoth- Violent opposers were sometimes er authority, " is no criterion of the seized by them. Men with impreca- genuineness of the change. The tions on their lips Avere suddenly proof of this must be sought and will smitten with them. Drunkards, at- be found elsewhere. The having tempting to drown the efiect by of 'the powers' is not a safe indi- liquors, could not hold the bottle to cation by which to judge of the re- their lips; their convulsed arms ligious state during any stage of re- would drop it or shiver it against ligious experience; because the the suri'ounding trees. Horsemen, same divine influence, exerted upon charging in upon camp-meetings to a person under difi'erent circum- disperse them, were arrested by the stances, would not probably produce strange aflection at the very bound- the same result, nor would it pro- aries of the worshiping circles, and duce the same efiect on another jper- were the more violently shaken the son under the same circumstances." more they endeavored to resist the Sometimes persons so aflected were inexplicable power. convicted of sin and converted, A pioneer preacher who has seen sometmies they were not. These more than five hundred jerking at things therefore are not and ought one time, in some of his large con- not to be regarded as conclusive in- gregations, says that if they did not dications that the Spirit of God is strive against it, but prayed in good present, and I must be permitted to earnest, the jerking woidd usually emphasize the remark that they abate. should by no means be regarded as Dr. Stevens, the historian of Meth- proof that the power of God is not odism, draws the following conclu- present and that therefore the work sions concerning them: accomplished is not genuine. We First, They were seldom or never do not then sit in judgment much followed by any morbid physical less condemn any one for being effects. In the revival meetings of subject to these affections. They the earlier times, persons apparent- may be and often have been, deeply ly in sound and even vigorous health pious. have been known to lie motionless The branch of our subject we pro- and insensible during a week with- posed to discuss in the second division out food or drink, and yet on re- of our discourse, we may more rapidly turning to consciousness, showed no pass, as the present condition of re- important physical injury or de- ligion among us is but the natural rangement. and necessary sequel of the past, Second, They have not yet been and in the marked religious history identified with any known diseased of the past we discover prophecies affections, and never occur except of things to come. The blessed — ;

26 THE FIEE LANDS PIONEEB. [June, 1866.

fruits of the seed our fathers sowed belongs the solution of the ques- are seen all over our lovely land tion, "What shall the future be of the our goodly heritage. The churches land we inhabit ?" I but repeat the all over our land with foundations consenting testimony of the wise, of stone, symbol of God's enduring the good, and the great, the founders truth, and with spires pointing up- and legislators of commonwealths, ward to lead our thoughts from philantliropists, patriots, statesmen, earth to heaven, the many and in- when I declare that the liberty, telligent congregations assembled the public and private weal of no every Sabbath for worsliip, the Sab- people can be preserved except by bath Schools everywhere organized public morality and private virtue and sustained, the immense circula- fostered and sustained by the preva- tion of religious literature through lence of a pure religious faith. the Sunday School Library and the Without the conserving influence of religious press, the prevalent moral- religion in the state, our elections ity and respect for the word and must become a mockery, our legisla- worship of God, in short the statis- tors venal, our courts corrupt and tics of this Association, best attest tainted with party spirit, and our the condition of religion among us. law become cobwebs through which But if the farmer wishes you to the rich and the poor break alike know how fertile are his fields, he there can be no security for person or takes you not to see the stubble jiroperty where there exists a gener- from which the harvest has been al disregard for public naorality and gathered, but to the barn filled with religion. If we fail to comprehend

grain : so likewise, would you know the responsibilities resting upon us how bountiful has been the harvest and meet them in the spirit of devo- borne by the seeds sown by the wa- tion and sacrifice, then we have in- ters, long ago, look not alone to the deed reached, " we have passed the fields below, but to the garner above. meredian, and have now to look Though in the condition of religious forward to an evening of degenera- interests among us there is much to cy and the closing in of a rayless encourage us, there is somewhat to and hopeless night of political de- deplore. The sermon has lost much cline." But if, true to our trust, we of its ancient power, our minds be- see that the Bible is in every house- ing overwhelmed and our time mo- hold among us, that the church and nopolized by the rush of secular lit- school are sustained in their present, erature upon us. The religious in- or raised to a higher efficiency, af- struction of our children at home is fording to every youth among us much neglected, and the Sunday facilities of liberal Christian culture School, unsustained by the more —if with uncompromising firmness necessary and effective instruction and undying zeal, we seek to rescue of parents at home, wages doubtful our youth from all seductive and de- contest with the ever increasing ac- praving influences, we stand at the tivity of corrupting and seductive in- portals of a future, which in social fluences, and vicious men ; and al- security and happiness,in public tran- together theie is a want of deep and quillity, in spiritual and intellectual fervent spirituality among us. enlightenment, will in its realiza- There remains a moment or two to tions transcend even the dreams of indicate our dutj", to whom are com- enthusiasm. I but echo your own mitted the legacj' of the religious maturest and most profound convic- institutions of the past and the in- tions when I assert, that among the spiring hopes of the present. To us varied obligations resting upon us, —

June, 1866.] THE PIKE LANDS PIONEER. 27

there is not one so imperative and has made us what we are, and alone

sacred as that of sustaining among can make our children what we hope , ourselves and transmitting to the them to be. future, the Christian morality which

FIEST SHIPMENT OF WHEAT AND WOOL.

The first shipment of wheat in Eochester by Erie canal. Previ- hulk^ from the Firelands, or on Lake ous shipments had been made in Erie, was made by Judge Charles bags. It was worth in Huron, sixty- Standart of Auburn, New York, two and a half cents per bushel. then a resident of Huron. He did Judge Standai-t, also made in the first permanent shipping at Hu- 1836, the first shipment of wool, ron, and built a frame warehouse in from the Firelands. He put in bales 1824; log warehouses having been between three and four hundred used before, and the trade merely pounds—of his own raising; and sent local to Sandusky. The wheat re- it to Auburn, New York, where it ferred to was shipped in 1828, in was made into cloth and returned. quantity, from eight to nine thousand He had so good luck that many of bushels, and the vessel was caulked his neighbors did the same the next for the purpose. It was sent to vear. Buffalo and reshipped thence to

A KEMARKABLE FAMILY GATHERING.

A remarkable Thanksgiving gath- &c., &c.,* assisted only by a young ering took place in York, Maine, at lad. He reads his newspaper regu- the residence of Daniel Mclntyre, larly without spectacles. His big- Esq. Four generations were pres- ger and better half is hale and ent. The venerable grandfather is hearty, weighing two hundred and eighty-two years of age, and what is twenty -five pounds. They have had remarkable, weighs but seventy-two twelve children, eleven of them be- present pomicls, with not even a gray hair ing alive ; ten of whom were intermixed with his black locks or at the Thanksgiving feast; one, not whiskers. He carries on his farm in having quite reached his growth, person; last summer worked with measuring six feet three inches the hands mowing in the field, and while standing in stockings, with now performs all the duties connect- lots of grandchildren to make grand- ed with the care of two yoke of ox- mother's goodies disappear some en, five cows, one hundred sheep. what rapidly, Providence Press, 28 THE FIRE LANDS PIONBIER. [June, 1866.

ADDRESS OF REV. JOHN SAFFORD, AT THE QUARTERLY

MEETING AT BELLEVUE.

Mr. Safford welcomed the Pio- yourselves at the close, that I am neers to Belleviie and its hospitali- not prepared to present the subject ties, and remarked tliat he expected in a complete or satisfactory man- to occupy but a small part of the ner. time of the Society with what he The subject contemplates, as you might say, but expected to be a see, a statement of the present state listener to the remarks of other of society in Huron and Erie coun- members of the Society. He then ties. I cannot and do not assume in proceeded to address the meetmg as what follows to give anything like a follows : full presentation of the subject;! The Chairman of your Committee have not been a resident here long suggested to me as the subject of enough, or at least, have not had op- some remarks to be made on this portunities for forming that exten- occcsion, "The present Social and sive and familiar acquaintance with Moral Condition of the Fire Lands." the two counties, that is necessary

It is a topic, doubtless, in which you to do that ; still I may say that I am are all interested, for it is ^ home not a stranger to the social and mor- subject, a subject that pertains to al influences which have been at yourselves; it refers to your own work in these two counties from circumstances and prospects, and to their early settlement, and which the prospects and future welfare of have produced the present order of your children, and not only this. things, and given us the type of civ- To some of yon, to you who were ilization and society that now ex- Pioneers to the lands, or who are ists among us. Born on another the children of the Pioneers, the part of the Western Reserve, the subject refers to the results ac- child of Vermont Yankees, reared comphshed by the labors, the priva- and educated here, I ought to know tions and sacrifices incidental to the something of tlais subject, and be settlement of these Lands by j'our- able to speak in sympathy with the selves or by your parents and feelings and views of the settlers of friends. I am fortunate, then, in my the Firelauds and their decendantj^ subject, but I will frankly confess to so far as I am able to judge, there is you in the beginning of my remarks, but little difference socially andraor- what you would surely discover for allv, between the eastern and wes- June, 1866.] THE FIBE LANDS PIONEER. 29

tern parts of the Reserve. True, I pioneers. I read there what they remember that the epithet "be- thought and felt and did. I read of nighted" has been applied to Old their trials and privations, of their Ashtabula, but it was applied sim- fortitude and courage, of their indus- ply because she has ever been true try and intelligence, of their losses in heart to Right, and at the polls and sacrifices, and of their fidelity has always uttered her voice in andtaith. I see what style of men loudest tones for Liberty. And if and women many of them were. I this made a community benighted, see that they were not mere reck- then my own county, gallant little less adventurers, but men and wo- Lake, was and is worse benighted men that were intelligent and educa- than Old Ashtabula. But one of her ted; men of principle, of good char- townships ever faltered, and that acter, that believed in virtue, in was Kirtland, where the Mormon moi'ality and religion. I do not say, upas once struck root and flourished tor I do nat find, that all the pioneers for a time, and which, when it was were people of this class ; but in the removed, left a soil prepared for a sketches of the different townships, succession of follies and vices as I find in many, perhaps in nearly all, bad and false in nature as Mormon- that early and prompt attention was ism, but lacking its energy and given to the school and the church; power. But Kirtland is now re- that is, provision was made for the deemed, and affords another pleas- institutions of education and reli- ing instance in which correct prin- gion. As I have read over these ciples of virtue and " morality will sketches, or rathe^' as I have glanced survive and triumph over the false hurriedly through them, I have be- and wicked. You see, then, that I lieved and still believe, that if there am familiar with a condition of soci- were full and accurate accounts of ety essentially the same as that of die schools and churches of these which I am desired to speak. I sup- townships, I would have reliable pose that the leading and primary data from which to speak of their object of your Society is to collect present social and moral condition. and preserve reminiscences,'facts and In the brief and hurried examination memorials of the past. It is to pre- which I have been able to give this serve a record of the names and do- point, I have observed some curious ings of the early settlers ; have a re- and instructive facts in regard to cord of their trials and privations, of certain townships, but which, per- their labors and sacrifices, of their haps, would be unbecoming in me character and principles. The ob- to mention on this occasion. But, ject of the Society is, I presume, to as I was saying, the object of your seek out and declare the impulse Society is and has been to gather and direction given to society; to these materials for history, and to note the institutions planted, the show to us what our fathers and means they tried and instrumental- mothers were, what they did, what ities they used, to found and build they endured, what they believed up the social and moral state of and what they labored for. And things now existing, and this work, I this we know; a goodlj^ record of their judge, the Society has well done. deeds and labors and principles and I have seen a few copies of your purposes has been made. And with Magazine, and find collected there this record in mind, will it not be a great amount of interesting and interesting and profitable to look instructive matter. I find there tjie around us now, and note what the names and history of many of the actual results of their lives and la- 30 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

bors have been? We know what ment in iietroleum stock, will give they endured, we know what their men wealth but not refinement and

labors were ; and now let us know culture. I could take you to very the results of their labor humble homes, where the occupants what were ;

what did they bring to pass ; what are infinitely richer in social quali- did it avail that they endured all ? ties, in all that constitutes a true The answer is, they brought to pass manhood or womanhood, than some Huron and Erie counties. These who dwell in costly houses. I kaow counties of ours, with whatever of course, that wealth and taste are there is in them of material wealth often found together, and it is sure- and comfort, ofsocial culture, of intel- ly a very pleasing and desirable lectual and moral powers, of religion, combination. faith and truth, all these are the re- What then is the social condition sults of their lives and their labors. of these "Fire Lands" as indicated

They came, weak and feeble handed, by the homes of the people ? I and found a rugged wilderness of do not mean to dwell long on this wooded plains and broad prairies, point, but could not pass by without and bound themselves to a life of a word. I seldom go by a house, toil and conquest, and the result is or ride along a road, without receiv- what you see as you ride along the ing certain impressions of the peo- public roads. The wilderness is ple in this way, and I think it an in- subdued and blooms like a garden. dication worthy of notice. The pop- In its place you find beautiful and ulation as given by the census of pleasant homes, well cultivated 1860 was about fifty-five thousand, farms, busy towns and thriving vil- and I do not Know that anywhere in lages. Surely t!ie labor of their the land you will find fifty-five stout brown arms was not in vain thousand people of whom so large ; not in vain that they brought their a proportion have so pleasant and industiyand intelligence with them comfortable homes. It may be a ; not in vain thej^ built their humble mistaken ^^ew of mine arising from school houses, or rude chapel of want of information, but I believe logs, and sought to preserve and the fact is as I have said. I have perpetuate the interest, of education no statistics in regard to the wealth and religion. The results of their of the people, but I have in several efforts in these repects may also be of the townships remarked an air seen. In saying this, I have, as j^ou of taste, and refinement, an air of observe, indicated the points that enjoyment and comfort about many must be noticed in speaking of the of the Jiomes, and tliis always at- present condition of these counties, tracts me more than a showy and for the social condition of a people gaudy displaj' of mere wealth. Of is indicated in part, not fully, by the course there ai-e exceptions ; thei'e homes they live in. You can judge are neighborhoods, and perhaps pretty accurately what a man' is by whole townships of which these re- seeing his home. I mean you can marlis are not true, but still as a tell whether he is a man of taste Avhole I think that the homes of the and culture, of refined feelings and people in these two counties indi- educated mind, by looking at Jiis cate a social condition that compares home. I do not mean tnat mere most favorably with that of any por- ^vealth is a true index of social po- tion of the State of similar extent. sition it is not. ; Successful \'illiany But, not to dwell longer upon this in shoddy speculation or other infa- point—how, then, shall we decide mous business, or a fortunate invest- what the present condition is ? Shall June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. 81

we compare ourselves with other this respect is commendable and en- counties, or other States, and see couraging. liow we stand? Or shall we com- As regards the sentiment of the pare ourselves with an ideal stand- people in respect to political mat- ard of a perfect state of society? ters, I think it is overwhelmingly If we do the former, we may judge patriotic and loyal. I think the partially, and if the latter, i)erhai3s counties have made a good record in no two of us would have the same the mighty coniiict with slaveiy, standard in mind. But we can try treason and rebellion, that has been and look at the facts of our condi- tried and fought out on the battle tion as they are. I have already ex- field. I have now no data at hand, pressed my conviction that the but my impression is that during the homes of the people indicate that last 25 years, while the struggle they are industrious, intelligent and between freedom and slavery was refined. There are proofs of indus- going on, the counties were true in try in the pleasant homes and well the main, to the cause of freedom, kept farms to be seen all over the and I am sure that during the four

counties ; there are proofs of intel- years past they have been true to ligence in the methods and imple- the Constitution and the Govern- ments of industry and labor which ment, and have given freely of their are in use. The people keep pace with money and their men to supijort the improvements constantly made; them. Doubtless there have been for example, in agricultural imple- exceptions, but I am speaking of the ments and methods. At least I have predominant feeUng. I think our observed this where I have been in position in this res]3ect is one we some of the townships. The people, maj^ contemplate with satisfaction I think, are enterprising, disposed to and pride. make all improvements necessary As regards public morality and for their own and the public welfare. the religious condition of the people, So lar as I know, a commendable very much might be said, but I feel public spirit prevails, or at least pre- restricted by time, as I do not wish dominates in this region. The inter- to occupy but a little of j'our session. ests of education are properly cared As a whole, I feel entirely warranted for. Indeed I have reason to be- in saying that the population is a lieve that the schools of Huron and law abiding and moral one. Tlie Erie counties are in many cases su- great moral causes are as well sus- perior. I heard the excellence of tained among us, to say the least, as • the public schools of Sandusky spo- by the average of communities. ken of and held up as a worthy Perhaps the cause of Temperance model, when I lived at the eastern has as many friends and supporters end of the Reserve, and I do not in our counties as in any two of the know as the citizens of Sandusky same population. And perhaps are any in advance of their fellow there is as much seriousness and citizens throughout these two coun- attention to the subject of religion. ties in this respect. There seems to Probably the Gospel exerts as be a cordial, generous support to wide and powerful influence in these this interest. The vital necessity of counties as in any of the State. intelligence and education to true Comparing ourselves with others, prosperity and welfare of the peo- we may say, perhaps with entire ple, seems to be recognized. I truth, that our condition is as pros- might enlarge upon this point, but perous, as liigh and good as theirs, will only say that the condition in and indeed even from tliis very 32 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [Jtine, 1866. hurried aud imperfect glance, we see the lurking spirit of oppression and that in many respects our condition injustice, that I am not content with. is one of encouragement and prom- I would have all this removed and ise. We may well congratulate replaced by the sentiment of intelli- ourselves that our condition is as gent patriotism, and the. generous good as it is. As lovers of our com- spirit of universal liberty and justice. mon country, and as descendants and And there are numerous other evils as successors of our Pioneer fathers, with which I am not satisfied. I am we have reason to rejoice and take not satisfied, for example, with the courage in \iew of our attainments indifference and apathy existing in and our prospects. We should with view of the frightful evils of Intem- gratitude and praise recognize and perence ; I am not satisfied that in acknowledge the blessings bestowed all our towns and villages should be upon us, for the happy and benefi- found saloons and drinldng houses in cent results which have thus far wliich our young men are ruined, been achieved by the settlement of bodj' and soul ; not satisfied with the Fire Lands. We should be glad that public opinion wliich tolerates for the industriouSj intelligent, loyal and encourages these haunts of and moral iiopulation ; we should be ruin and murder. Whj', there are grateful for the regard that is paid to single dens of this kind which inflict educational and religious interests. deeper wounds and more deadly Tliere is much in these things to wounds upon our counties every inspire us with hope and confidence. year, than any rebel regiment caused But while I speak thus favorably us in a year. We mourn our brave of our condition, and gratefully boys who fell upon the red field of acknowledge the causes for grat- battle, but we mourn them not as ulation and courage, I should be lost. For them we have consola- sorry to have you feel that the con- tion: they were not wasted. But dition is such that we should be for those who fall by the rum mur- satisfied with it. I should be sorry derers at home, who die to manliness to leave the impression ui^on your and to usefulness, to truth and to minds, that I tliink it is as good as it honor—Ah! for these where is our ought to be; as good as it may be I do consolation? Oh, no, sir! We maj' not tliink so at all. As a citizen, as a not, must not, be satisfied with our patriot, as a Christian, I am not con- condition, tOl our towns and villages tent with the social and' moral condi- are purged from these plague spots, tion of these Fire Lands. I am not and our people rescued from the satisfied with the state of our Society, curse of rum. So, too, there is an nor with the degree of civilization amount of frivolity and trifling, of to which we have attained. There irreligion and ungodliness, M'hich no is a much higher and better state to truly earnest and thoughtful soul wliich we may, and to which Ave should be satisfied to have continue. ought to attain. There are evils ex- There are moral wastes places of ; isting here which I, as a citizen, as a spiritual desolation, which should be lover of mj^ race, am not satisfied to cultivated and made to bring forth have remain. There is a great better and more abundant fruit ; and amount of ignorance which I would we should not be satisfied wdth our have removed ; an amount of indo- social and moral condition till tliis is lence and thriftless poverty and done ; and I should deprecate it as a degradation, which I am not content fearful evil, if I thought there was a should remain; and there is a senti- feeling of entire satisfaction in re- ment of disloyalty to the Goverment, gard to these things. The facts June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 33

alluded to ought to stimulate and ness, and converted it into fruitful rouse us to action. An object wor- fields and pleasant homes—they have thy of our hopes and labors and our done their part, let us do ours. Let prayers, is set before us. Our us carry forward their work ; let us pioneer fathers have done their seek out the waste moral places and work, and done it well. It is fitting cultivate, till they shall be reclaimed that those of them who remain and bear the fruits of righteousness should rest from their labors. They and peace. grappled with the material wilder-

From the Simday-Scliool World. THE OLD AND THE NEW.

Two Connecticut churches cele- pointed to seat the remainder of brated their 150th anniversary, in the congregation according to their the month of October. One of these income, "ha\ing respect also to age was at Newton, in Fairfield county, and dignity." To prevent dispute it the other at Pomfret, in Windham was declared by vote of the Town county—the former home of Gen- that the " second seat in the body of eral Israel Putnam, of Revolutionary the meeting house, and the fore-seat fame. Both occasions were of rare in the front gallery, shall be judged interest, and are likely to be long and esteemed equal in dignity," and remembered by those who took part so on through doubtful portions of in their exercises. the house. The children who were present Yet in olden time the children of learned much of the quaint ways of all conditions were remembered by their Puritan fathers, as the record Pomfret christians. It was voted was unfolded of the earlier years of "that the space in the meeting the ancient churches, and had fresh house between the stairs and the reason to be grateful for the pro- door, be a place for boys to sit in," gress made during the last century including doubtless those not of the in American Society. Distinctions families of pew-holders, and in the were recognised even in taking- assigning of each "pew-spot," there seats in the sanctuary, one hundred was a proviso, that the householders and fifty years ago, which were long should take in, and cause all their since swept away in our land. In families to sit there, if it may be 1714, it Avas voted in town meeting, with convenience. In the recent in old Pomfret, that Jonathan Belch- anniversary celebration the children er, Esq., (afterwards colonial Gov- had a prominent part, and were ad- ernor of Massachusetts,) should dressed by their special friends, invi- " have liberty to build a pew in the ted from a distance, cared for as they meeting house next to the pulpit, at ever have been in that quiet and it." the west end of A year later a pleasant township ; it is to be desir- "pew-spot," was assigned to a milita- ed that the children of Pomfret, ry official, and then similar privileges shall imitate all the virtues of their were granted to other notabilities. fathers, avoid all their foUies, and be Afterwards a committee was ap- possessed of all their grace. 84 THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

SUBSTANCE OF THE REMARKS MADE BY JOHN SEY- MOUR, AT THE MEETING OF THE FIRE LANDS

HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AT BELLEVUE,

DECEMBER 13, 1865,

Ladies and Gentlemen, Members which although it will interest me, of the Historical Society, Friends may interest few if any others. I and Fellow-citizens: It is with some will, however, invite your patient embarrassment that I present attention for a iew moments. in.yseh before yon at this time, I came into this country for the from the fact tha't I have dehayed it first time, in October, 1824. A part- so long. ner, Joab Tyler, Esq., and a younger When this Society was formed, I brother, R. George Seymour, were thought it to be a good thing, and with me. We intended to have woulcl gladly have taken a part with landed at Sandusky, but were driven you, but I supposed that it was past and went to Detroit. We formed of first settlers only, or at spent a little time in Michigan, least of those who came into the looked around and made some in- country several years before me. It quiry, and then returned to Sandus- was a considerable time before I dis- ky, and hired a team to take us to covered my error. I then prepared Lyme, Strong's Ridge. The Rev. a short sketch of my experiences Enoch Conger and the Rev. John and observations during the first Beach, particular friends of ours, had us a few mouths. Mr. years of my residence in Ohio ; uni- preceded ted with the Society, and held the Conger was located at New Haven, manuscript in readiness to be pre- and Mr. Beach, at Lyme. sented when a suitable opportunity When we first came to the prairie, should offer. But when the oportu- the view was very difl'erent from nity came, and it was too late to what we see now. There was but make the needed preparation, to my little appearance of roads; it was surprise I could not find the man- not fenced ofi'into broad fields, and uscript. Of course I am thrown dotted over with orchards and upon memory. gardens, and buildings like an old My voice is weak and very liable settled country, but was a broad ex- to fail, and besides what I "have to panse of level ground. say is mostly of a private character, It appeared to me like M'ater cov- X 'U7r,63

June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 35

ered over with a thin layer of earth Bellevue, I think there were but and vegetation, or like a broad three or four houses. Chapman and dee]) marsh which could not be Amsden had brought on a small crossed with safety. The appear- stock of goods and just opened a ance of the shores along the ridges store in a log building near the and islands clearly showed that county line. they were formed by the action of The Indian title to lands west of water, and that the "lake, if not the Huron county was extinguished and ocean, once overflowed these settlements were beginning to be prairies. When the team at first made. We spent one day in traveling proceeded boldly from the shore in- over the oak openings. There was

to the wide expanse, I felt an invol- no need of roads ; we could go untary shudder and unavoidably where we pleased- There was usu- looked for an undulation or trem- ally a good supply of large oak trees, bling of the surface, if not for a but very little under-brush and but breaking through of the crust. And few old logs. We went as far as when I first walked out upon the Butternut Ridge, to the place where surface, I stepped carefully, and the Ballards, Horace, Winthrop and when I went through a cornfield and* Luke had made a Ijeginning, and found the earth bored lull of holes road in different directions during as with an augur, and the holes fill- the day. ed with cool, clean water, but little Much of this land was then in below the surface, and the ground market at government prices. It covered with the shells and bones was very easy to clear and would of craw-fish, (prairie lobsters,) I produce good crops of wheat, at could hardly avoid a sense of dan- leasttoca while, but was not thought ger. I have, however, since found to be good for corn or grass. And that the prairie lies on as firm a as it was underlaid with cavernous foundation as any other part of the limestone, it was supposed that it country. The soil was very loose would be very difficult to find good and black, and in a wet time the permanent water. I do not remem- wagoning was very heavy, but there ber to have seen more than three was no danger of miring. or four houses during the day. The We found Mr. Beach in a house Maumee turnpike was located, and belonging to Stephen Russell, the Isaac Slocum had commenced the father of Rufus B. and Joseph L. construction of the first mile. Russell, near where Rufus B. East of the Strongs and along the now lives. The four Strongs, who ridge, were Samuel Bemiss and his » gave name to the place, were living sons, Elijah and Rodney, Charles and along the ridge. Maj. Joseph Livy Rash, George and Jonathan Strong was living on the fai-m now Furgerson, Samuel Cox and Reuben belonging to Samuel Nims and Root. Worthington Nims. Gapt. Zadoc At Cook's Corners, Esquire Asaph Strong near where the burying Cook and his sons Asaph, jr., ground n6w is. Dr. Francis Strong Erastus and Israel, Martin Vrooman, where Col. James Smith now Benjamin Fish; and a little north, lives, and Abner Strong on theplace Lewis Stone, Hiram Parker and

now owned by Owen Dole. Capt. Drake ; south of the corners Doctor Samuel Stephens, Joseph and between there and Monroeville, Kenney and Isaac Slocum are all were Smith D. Baldwin, Wm. Par- that I remember as living between rish, the Clock family, Daniel Sher- Abner Strong's and Bellevue. At man, Benjamin Read, and his sort 36 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

Joseph. Tliese were all that I re- sold off for those purposes. The member. meeting house and most of the little At Monroeville, were a few village, now there, are on the same houses, one tavern, one store, two ground. I had been for many years blacksmith's shops and a grist and in trade, and intended still to con- sawmill. Schuyler Van Rennsselaer tinue that business in connection was about closing his store, and with farming, and particularly in George Hollister about coming in. raising hemp, which we expected to From Monroeville, we proceeded have broken and prepared for mar- south, through Peru, Greenfield and ket at the machine, for one-third. New Haven to Plymouth. The This we thought would be a good buildings were of the roughest kind article for remittance, and that the and the fields usually full of dead prospect of doing well was very trees and old logs, but appeared to lair. be verj' productive. After returning home and consid- We called upon Mr. Conger, ering the subject, we closed the con- spent some time with him, rode tract. I agreed to go on and take aroimd and examined several farms, the whole charge of the business were well pleased- with the country ff)r one or two years, and then if but made no purchase. We returned prospects were good, Esquire Tyler by way of Maxville and Norwalk. would come and assist, and if not, I Norwaik was a small, but thriving should probably return. village. It had become the county Accordingly I removed with my seat and the people seemed anxious family, in the fall of 1S25. Mrs. to increase its business and popula- Seymour's father and mother, (Dr. tion, and to improve the state of so- Moses Thatcher and wife,) and two ciety. They were about putting the workmen were with us. We came roof upon the first academy budd- by teams to Syracuse, thence by ca- ing. nal to Lockport ; thence seven miles We looked at several farms on the to Pendleton by teams, and from way and finally made a conditional thence to Buffalo by canal. The ca- bargain for a place called the Yroo- nal was finished through soon after man farm, at Cook's Corners. This we passed. farm contained 217 acres. It lay south We had expected to proceed up of the Milan road and was divided the lake by the steamboat Superior, near the middle by the Sandusky but were too late to get passage and road. We were to pay twelve dol- were compelled to come by sails or lars and fifty cents per acre. This wait a week or more for a boat. was a high price. Wild lands ad- There was but one on the Lake, ex- joining could have been purchased cept a very small one, which sailed for two and a half to three and a from Black Rock, and Avas not con- half dollars. But this farm was con- sidered verj" safe. We went on sidered superior in soil—had about Ijoard a schooner called the Red one hundred acres fenced in ; sixty .Jacket, commanded by Captain under good improvement, and a Walker, who was well knowiion the pretty comfortable house and barn. Lakes for jnany years. He was a Several roads centered there, and it good sailor, and an agreeable and was thought that it would be a good accommodating man. The vessel place for a store and tavern, and was over-stocked and we had a long that it would be central for societ3^ and stormy passage. We lay the A large liemp machine and a school first night under Point Abino, house were on jjarts of the farm, the second and third under Long June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 37

Point ; then beat to the right and very soon, and plowed steadily until left for about two days and lay over December. The weather was very for one night at Dunkirk, and after fine. We had some rain, but not about two days more of rough enough to stop our teams for a weather, arrived at Cleveland. The whole day at any time. By the first wind had now stopped blowing, the of December we had sixty acres all water had become smooth and the in one field, as black as a hat and as weather hot. Cleveland was not beautiful as a garden. then what it now is, a large and It was so furrowed out that no flourishing city. It was only a water could stand upon it, and so small village, partly on the bluff and smooth that I could see a goose partly along the river. We were from my back window on any part compelled to anchor out some dis- of the field. tance and land some families and During the winter we hunted fire their stuff with a flat boat, drawn a wood and rails, built fence and part of the way by men wading in and broke up thirty acres of new the water, in consequence of a sand prairie. In the spring sowed nearly bar which had closed up the har- all the old land to hemp, and planted bor. Tiiere was but little appear- the new to corn and set out about ance of business and but few if any one hundred and fifty fruit and shade teams to be seen. The families trees; all were easily cultivated. I who came with us and wished to go was much pleased with the beauty a few miles into the country, were and fertility of the soil, and confi- troubled to find conveyance. And dently anticipated a good and profit- we found it difficult to get the pro- able business. But I was destined visions needed on the vessel. The to meet with serious disappoint- next day we arrived at Sandusky, ments. The hemp machine which and were very glad to see the was expected to prepare from ten to place. It then appeared to us very fifteen hundred pounds j)er day for pleasant, lying along a bold shore, market, would not do more than one- on the south side of the bay. We third of that amount, and was out of- entered without difiiculty and came repair. The proprietors and their along side of a good wharf. The particular friends had more hemp place was full of men and teams. than they could dress. Numerous We found no difiiculty in getting the other machines, upon different con- provisions and other things which structions ^ivere erected, but did no

we needed and engaged teams to better. • During the first year I take us the same day to the Corn- could get no hemi) dressed by the ers. We arrived in good sijirits and machines. I then, made trial of took possesion the same evening. rotting and dressing by hand. The We put our things into the house rotting we found to be too expen- and some of us lodged, there, others sive, unpleasant and very unhealthy, at Esquire Cook's. and the breaking and dressing slow We arrived there, I think, on the and laborious. The second j^ear we 5th of October; purchased one yoke succeeded in getting some dressed by of oxen for forty dollars, one for lorty- the machine. Purchased some in five, a span of horses for eighty-five, trade and took some to sell on com- and a cow for ten. mission. Flour was from two and a half to With this, and some of the water three dollars per barrel good side rotted hemp, I went first to New ; pork ten; fresh hogs from two York, but could find no market. to three. We commenced plowing Then went to Philadelphia, and after 38 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

much effort and delay succeeded iu of hemp was discontiuuedj and it is selling it at a very low price. believed that it was an injury to all The facts were these: that the who had much to do with it. strength of the raw di-essed hemp I still kept goods for family suppl^y had been tried and proved to be and to hire labor and exchange lor fully equal to Eussian hemp. Appli- such things as we needed, and for a cation had been made to Congress small cash trade. to adopt its use in the Navy^ A I then made trial of raising corn Committee had been appointed, of and exchanging it lor whisky and which John Quincy Adams was taking the whisky to New York. Chairman. They made a very* This proved unprofitable. I then favorable report, and of course the tried feeding it to hogs. Built a lots first offered sold well, and hemp large hog house, with ten apart- men confidently expected great ments, intended to hold from 75 to profits. But upon further trial it 100 hogs, with an alley through the was found that although the strength middle and a room across one end of the raw hemp was at first good, for boiling and maldng swill. The yet it would not bear friction, and hogs most of them grew and fatted that when exposed to water, the well, but some of them made but vegetable gum, of which it con- little improvement. The first year I tained much, would dissolve and the sent about half my stock alive to texture of the cordage become Detroit. They sold readily, but not loose and spongy, and of course at a price that would be profitable. prove unfit for shipping. The remainder, when Avell fatted, I Well dressed water rotted hemp packed and sent to New York. The would always sell well and for a fair pork was good and highly compli- price, but it required too much mented. It was, however, badlj^ labor, of a very unhealthj" and un- cut and packed, and the proceeds, pleasant kind. after deducting all the expense, This was to me a verj^ serious left but a small balance to pay disappointment. I had brought in a for corn. I found from expe- good assortment of goods, but did rience that I seldom did as well by not expect a large cash business. taking property to a distant market There is a time in the settlement of as by selling it for what I could get a new country when provisions and at home. And this, I believe, property of all kinds are high and agrees with the experience of most money plenty, but this was past in who have tried it. I then gave Northern Ohio. The tide of emigra- attention to a greater variet^v of tion was flowing further west, and crops, and cut more hay, and was the Detroit market which had been perhaps doing a little better, but my good, was now beginning to be health had become poor. I was supplied by Michigan people ; and discouraged, and after a trial of nine the eastern markets were not j^et years sold out, paid off our debts and fully opened and trade established. returned to the partners the amount Of course I did not expect a good of their capital, Avithout interest or cash business, but supposed "that profit. This sale was just at the time goods could be readily exchanged that property began to rise, and the for hemp, and that hemp would country to feel the practical effect prove to be a good and profitable of the Erie Canal. I could liave article for remittance. In this I was more than doubled the property in seriously disappointed, and obliged the course of a few years, simply by to change my bu.siness. Tlie raisins the increase of value. June, 1866.] THE PIHE LANDS PIONEER. 89

We then spent six months in Mi- tops of their horns above the grass. lan and sis months in Massachusetts, Deer and wolves and foxes and dogs and then settled in Lyme, where we were then very plenty, but sheep now reside. scarce. I have often seen herds We came to Lyme, April, 1835. of deer \vitli the cattle. I at one Have since sold some goods, done time left about three acres of corn some farming and manufactured standing in the field until Decem- some brooms—all on a small scale, ber, and when we went to harvest and expecting to make no more it found it nearly all eaten up by deer. than a good living. I put out an orchard of from 100 to There have, of course, been 150 maple trees. They nearly all many changes in the prairie town- grew and promised well, but were ships during the forty years of my totally destroyed by deer. residence in Huron county. During the dry part of the year we The prairies when we came, were were much troubled with prairie nearly all in a state of nature. The fires. They would often come ui^on people had settled along the ridges us with great fury. We have and islands, and had usually enclosed often been compelled to contend no more land than they wished to against them until a late hour at cultivate. night. Our usual method was to They depended on wild grasses plow two or three furroAvs a little for the support of stock both sum- distance from the fence, and when mer and winter. This did well and we saw a fire coming, to go their cattle often became very and set head fires along the furrows fleshy, i)articularly in the early part and whip them out with brush on of the summer, but many died in the side towards the fence; but a dry, hot weather for want of salt and sudden wind would often drive it good, healthy water. ahead and around us in spite of all Men who had been accustomed to we could do. At one such time it the hilly and mountainous countries swept by with great fury and ran of the east, were poor judges ot size through a thicket where a sow and and distance on the pi-airies.—Major pigs had made their nest, and we Joseph Strong asked how many had a. practical illustration of an old acres I supposed there were in a story which we had often heard in fine smooth field before us. I said the east: "That in Ohio roasted perhaps twelve or fifteen. He said pigs ran about with knives and forks there were thirty. And when about in their backs, squealing, 'eat me, to cross a wide i^rairie, without a eat me.'" I did not see the knives bush or tree, the distance would and forks, but I saw the roasted xjigs appear small ; but after traveling a and heard them squeal. long time and seeming to gain About this time a Mr. A. brought nothing, if we looked back, the a suit before Esq. C, against a Mr. distance would appear perhaps each D. for stealing his hogs. At the way about the same as the whole at trial a lawyer asked one of the wit- the beginning. This deception was nesses if his neighbors were in the sometimes very discouraging, when habit of stealing hogs. "Well," said the weather was unpleasant, the the witnesSj "I will tell you, Es(iuire, road bad, or the team overloaded. just how it is: Here is Mr. A. and Vegetation then grew very large, Mr. B. and Mr. C, the plaintiff, defend- much larger than now. It was often ant and Justice. They are all very difficult to find cattle at even- very clever men and good neigh- " ing, but we could sometimes see the bors, but they will steal hogs. 40 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866

The facts in the case were these: his wife he had better move to Oliio; That at that time nuts, roots and that women would not live there acorns were very plenty, and hogs more than one or two years, and running out would grow and fatten that they could not raise children. well. Many let their hogs run out I found that the country was sub- all the year, and perhaps lost all ject to heavy rains, and that large knowledge of them. Persons turn- portions of the wild prairie remained ing their hogs loose, of course under water during the wet part of became joint proprietors of the the year. And when dry hot common stock. And when they weather came on in July and August, wanted any pork went out and took fevers became comilion and in some the first good hog that they could cases severe. There had been some get, and considered it good luck if seasons when there were more sick the hogs did not get them. The than well, and many died. But with hogs were usually peaceable and the exception of a very few years the would not attack a man if he let health ofthe people had been pretty them alone ; but if he wounded one good. Old Esquire Cook told me or in any way made one squeal, he where I came into the country, that must take care of himself—the whole in the school district at the corners, herd would be after him, and many when thej' had forty children, there ofthe boars had become large and had been but four deaths in four old and savage. A man worldng for years. Doctor Tilden who was our me said he had been treed three family physician for several j-ears, times in half a day. told me that the soil was so produc- I had heard many great stories of tive and the surface so level, that it Oliio before I came. These, of would be likely to produce bilious course, were much exaggerated, but complaints, but as the wind during not without some foundation. the- hot season was usually blowing Martin Vrooman told me that he had alternately to and from the lake, he stood on the ridge with his watch in thought that the general atmosphere Ills hand and saw the fire cross the would not often become so impure prairie to the bank of Huron River, as to produce much sickness without three miles, in three minutes. Of a local cause, and that he thought he course no animal could escape it by could usually discover the exciting running. cause in or about the house. He The country was subject to heavy advised me to keep the cellar, drain rains. I was told tjiat an empty and sinks all clean and sweet, to ban-el standing in the yard, before allow no stagnant water near, to the house which I purchased, had keep our feet warm, our heads cool been filled full in a single hour. and bowels open ; to live well and And one of my neighbors told me avoid all excess and anxiety. that lie was plowing in his field We have been sick some, jji-ob- when a shower came up; that he ablj^ not more than we should have took ofi' the team and left the plow been at the east, and are now all standing in the furrow, and that hving. when he came back after the I had been told before I came that shower he could see notliing of the the people in Ohio lived upon corn plow but the tops of the handles and pork, dressed in skins, had no above the water. I had" been told_ money and went barefoot. That frightful stories in relation to the" time, if it ever was had, passed healthof the people. One man said before I came. that if a man wanted to get rid of I found the people many of them ; ! ! ! ; ! ! —

June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 41

living in the roughest kind of build- pictures ; a rag carpet on the floor; ings and everything around in prim- the ladies well dressed and much itive style, but I have often been appearance of good taste and com- surprised on entering, to find the fort. walls white-washed and hung with

From the Atlantic Monthly. NO TIME LIKE THE OLD TIME.

BY O. W. HOLMES.

There is no time like the old time, when Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy you and I were young, crown of gold When the buds of April blossomed, and the But friendship is the breathing rose, with birds of spring-time sung sweets in eveiyfold. The garden's brightest glories by summer suns are nursed. There is no love like the old love that we But, oh, the sweet, sweet violets, the flow- courted in our pride : ers that opened first Though our leaves are falling, falling, and we're fading side by side, There is no place like the old place where There are blossoms all around us with the you and I were born, colors of oui- dawn, Where we lifted first our eyelids on the And we live in borrowed sunshine when the splendors of the morn light of day is gone. From the milk-white breast that warmed us, from the clinging arms that bore, There are no times like the old times,—they Where, the dear eyes glistened o'er us that shall never be forgot will look on us no more There is no place like the old place,—keep green the dear old spot There is no friend like the old friend who There are no friends like our old friends,

has shared our morning days, may heaven prolong their lives ] No greeting like his welcome, no homage There are no loves like our old loves,—God

like his praise bless our loving wives !

COON-SKIN LIBRARY.

About twelve miles from Athens, procure books, money was required. Ohio, t'lere is a library, formed very There was no monej'' in the settle- soon after the settlement had been ment. Accordingly, it was unanim- made, which was obtained by hunt- ously resolved to hunt during the ing. A meeting of the settlers was winter, and in the spring send all held to discuss the matter of im- their furs to Boston, to buy books. proving the roads, and after that bus- Thus was provided the first public iness was dispatched, Alexander library ever established west of the True, suggested that if anything Alleglaeny mountains, and it is still could be done to improve the minds known as the Coonskin Library. of the people, it would be very de- Hon. Thomas Ewing had the advan- sirable. But to improve, there tage of this library. must be books and teaching. To ;

42 THE HBE LANDS nONEBR. [June, 1866

GEOLOGY OF THE FIRE LANDS.

BY JOHN H. NILES, HAVAJTA.

There is perhaps no subjectj nor gi'ouped the materials off into science, so uninviting and repulsive classes, and allotted to each class a to the popular mind, as that of Ge- period of time in which it was made. olog3^ And in approaching the sub- At the bottom they found the ject of the Geology of the Firelands, dresses consisted of tow and linen, before this Society, let me illustrate then linen and wool, then cotton by an allegory. muslin, then calico, and as they pro- A young lady, at the age of fifteen, ceeded, de laines, silks, and satin. had formed the plan, that at every Hence, thej^ had the tow-and-linen New Years day, instead of cutting period, the linsey-woolsey period, up the dresses she had worn the pre- the muslin period, the calico, silk, vious year, she would smooth them and satin period. Nor was this all out, and pack them down in the bot- for the girls soon learned by the tom of her clothes press. Here they draw and twist of the thread, just lay and accumulated year after year, where hand-spinning stopped, and just as she had packed them down. machine spinning began, and, by the At the age of eighty, her grand- evenness of the web, where the daughters became interested in power loom was introduced. And that pile of old dresses, and obtain- when all these peculiarities had been ed permission to examine them. studied and reduced to a sj'stem, And as might have been expected, any one could pick up a rag in any wonder succeeded wonder as the grandmother's garret, and tell by examination pro;ceeded down in the the materials and workmanship ex- pile. All was new. Ihe constant- actly in what period it was made. ly changing material, the different Now, what the girls had been do- style of fabric, the difference in the ing to their old grandmother's pile colors and figures and fashions, all of dresses, the geologists have been conspired to give them a keener doing to the dresses of Old Mother anxiety as the examination progress- Earth. For each layer of rock pried ed. up in the quarry, no matter how They soon became so well ac- thin, was once the outside dress of quainted with the pile that they the earth, and was worn until anoth- June, 1866.] THE 51BE LANDS PIONEER.

er was deposited by the waters the series, were being deposited, above it. And of the countless nothing but grains of granite, col- multitudes of shellfish that lived on lected in the waters, and like fall- each layer, a part became entomb- ing snow in the atmosphere, fell to ed when the next was deposited, the bottom. And when the waters and the geologist finds them as per- had become cleared of the constitu- fect in appearance as if he had just ents of granite, another lav/ came placed them there with his own into operation, and the lime still hand- He has examined the rocks held in solution was set free, and in from the mountain top to the bottom turn fell to the bottom, forming the of the deepest valley, from the drift lowest rock that appears on the sur- clay on the surface, down to the gran- face of the Firelands. After tlie ite rock at the bottom, and has group- lime had separated from the water, ed them into classes, and determined there was a superabundance of mud- by their constituents, structure and dy matter still held in solution, and fossils, the relative periods of time another law came in force, and the in which they were formed. And black slate was deposited, forming by examining the pebbles in the the middle rock of the Firelands. creek, or the fragments in the road, The waters thus cleared of their he has no trouble in determining dark impunties, were prepared un- the formation to which they belong, der the operation of another law, to and the period in which they were deposit the clear crystals of sand- formed. stone, that forms the upper rock But to the common observer the formations of the Firelands. Geology ot the Fire Lands presents Hence, our geology has its lime- no peculiar features. A rolling, stone formation, its slatestone for- monotonous surface, with its streams mation and its sandstone formation. and their valleys, and occasionally a But as the rocks of the Firelands are ledge of rocks, either of limestone, but a small part of the vast sheet slatestone, or sandstone, and lying that underlies the drift clay of the apparently just where nature in her whole country, from the Allegheny wildest confusion, had accidently to the Rocky Mountains, it is dropped them, is all. But to the necessary to look at the whole sys- Geologist, these formations, that ap- tem in order to understand the po- pear so accidental to the common sition of so small a part. observer, are subjects of his great- Were I to draw a line, with long est research. He sees nothing ac- undulations, along- the southern ho- cidental in the works of God. All rison, from the Allegheny to the is order, all is system, and each part Rocky Mountains, it would repre- is in perfect harmony with all oth- sent the surface of the great sheet ers. It is so with the rocks of the of limestone rock that underlies Firelands. They are a part of the the North American belt of coal- great system of creation, and must fields. The rock first dips from the be considered as such, and not as Allegheny Mountains westward, un- distinct nor accidental formations. der the coalfields of western Penn- " In the beginning," when " the sylvania, and eastern Ohio, and hke earth was without form and void," a huge ocean wave rises to the sur- the waters holding in solution all face again in western Ohio, and the constituents of the rocks, began again dips under the coalfields of the series of deposits under the Illinois, and again rises to the sur- strictest laws of nature. While the face further west, dipping and rising granite rocks, the lowest known in under each successive coaJ- 44 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

field as it occurs in the belt to- stone across the north-western cen- wards the Rocky Mountains. tral jjart, and the fine-grained sand- Again, were I'to draw a broad line stone on the southeastern part, on the surface across the State of leaving the coarse-grained sand- Ohio, from the Pelees in Lake Erie, stone and conglomerate in the southerly across the Bass Islands to counties further to the south-east, the main land, and thence to the towards the center of the coalfield. Ohio river, near Cincinnati, it would In examining each rock forma- mark the crest of the great lime- tion in detail, I shall be better un- stone wave that rises to the surface derstood, to begin in the centre and forms the dividing ridge in the of the coal basin, and j)roceed out- limestone rock between the coal- ward. But there are difficulties to fields of Ohio and Illinois. From be met with. The State of Ohio this line the rocks dip as from the has no geological survey of her cres^ of a roof, or more properly, own rocks, and until one is made, the crown of an arch, both to the no accurate measurements can be east and to the west, forming the de- given. The numbers here given pression, or basins of the two coal- are merely estimates,—the best I

fields. can give ; and may be far from accu- The north-western part of the Fire- rate, but they serve to illustrate the lands are situated on the limestone general idea, and must be received rock, and but a few miles to the as estimates only. east ol the dividing ridge, and con- No classification of our fossils has sequently are on the eastern slope yet been made public, and no accu- of the rocks, within the great circle rate mention can be made of them. of the Allegheny coalfield, and on And, indeed, so imperfect is our its extreme north-western border. - knowledge of all that pertains to ac- To illustrate the position of our curacy in our geology, that noth- rocks, take a large oval plate, and ing more than a mere outline of place it with its greatest diameter our rock formations can be given. north and south, and it will repre- The coal-bearing rocks consist of sent the limestone rock of the Alle- alternate layers of Hmestone, slate- gheny coal basin. Place another of stone, sandstone and iron ore. The smaller size within it, and it will coal seams vary in thickness from a represent the black slate formation, mere black mark on the face of the and another still smaller within that, rock, to eight or ten feet, and are will represent the fine-grained separated by laj^ers of the difi"erent sandstone, and another still will rep- rocks, sometimes eighty or one hun- resent the coarse-grained sandstone dred feet apart. The coal series and conglomerate. has been estimated at two thousand Fill the upper plate with alternate feet in thickness.* layers of hmestone, slatestone, COARSE- sandstone, coal, and iron ore, and THE CONGLOMERATE AND it will be a miniature representa- GRAINED SANDSTONE. tion of the Allegheny coalfield. Beginning at the base of the coal And if the the three fingers be placed on the north-western rim of series, and iDroceeding downward, the three outer plates, they will and outward, we first meet with the represent the position of the Fire- lands, on the north-western rim of * See outline sketch of the Geology ot coalfield, with the the limestone on Ohio; Ohio Ag. Kep. IS.'iT, by Charles Whit- the north-western part, and the slate- tlesey. June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 45

couglomerate formation, the coars- flows spontaneously, and if the est rock of the whole sandstone se- chamber from which the oil flows is ries. airtight above, and the air at inter- It is several hundred feet in thick- vals rushes down the well to fill ness, and its outcrop forms the first the vaccuum, the flow of oil is inter- circle around the coal basin. Be- mittent. But where the crevices lie low the conglomerate lies the horizontal below the well, force is coarse-grained sandstone. This is. necessary to raise the oil to the sur- several hundred feet in thickness, face. And had not Providence in and its outcrop forms the second her wisdom interposed the imper- circle around the coal basin, and vious strata of fine-grained sand- like all the rocks above the lime- stone and black slate below it, the stone, runs out to a thin edge over oil would doubtless have found its the rock below it. Its thin north- way down into the caverns, and western edge probably underlies a subteranean streams in the lime- a part of the townships of Green- stone rocks and disappeared forever. wich, Ruggles, and New London, The grind-stone rock, so largely but as there are no large sti-eams quarried at Berea and vicinity, is and deep valleys in those townships, the finest formation of the coarse- its western boundary is not known. grained series and is supposed to be The State of Ohio has no classifi- a formation peculiar to northern cation of her rocks, and geologists Ohio, and lying along the Lake are obliged to use the classification shore, between the coarse and fine- and nomenclature of the State of grained sandstone formations, thick- New York. But the coarse-grained ening up towards the lake, and thin- sandstone ot Ohio does not reach ing out and disappearing to the the state of New York, and is want- south. The close-grained sandstone ing in her classification. On the is largely quarried at Mansfield and other hand, the old red sandstone Belleville, and used for building pur- of New York does not reach Ohio, poses along the railroads. but lies immediately under the con- THE FINE GRAINED SANDSTONE. glomerate in their series, as the coarse-grained sandstone does in Geologists Iiave considered the ours, but they are not considered as fine-grained Sandstone the equiva- equivalents, and are held to have lent of the Portage and Chemung been formed in different geological group of New York. It lies below periods. the coarse-grained Sandstone and But the most interesting feature above the Black Slate, and is over in the coarse-grained sandstone at 300 feet in thickness, and forms the the present time, is the oil it con- third circle around the coal series. tains. The oil was doubtless the Its line of out-crop across the Fire product of the coal, and was form- Lands is not straight, but curved to ed during the process, whatever it the north-east. The line of its thin might have been, of charring the north-western edge, where it laps vast beds of vegetation mto coal. on to the Black Slate, commencing It found its way from the bottom of on the county line in the south-west the coal beds, down into the crev- part of New Haven, runs north-east- ices of the coarse-grained sandstone, erlj' across New Haven, the east where it is now reached bj' boring part of Greenfield, the south-east to the crevices containing it. And corner of Peru, the north-west part if the crevices ascend with the dip of Bronsou, the south-east part of of the rock above the Avell, the oil Norwalk, the north-west corner of 46 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

Townsend, to the center of Berlin, Ohio River, west of the Sciota, and where it curves to the east across still northward, near Columbus Florence, to the line of Lorain and Bucyrus, to the mouth of the county. In the townships of Flor- Huron, he could travel the whole ence and Wakeman, where the circle of the Allegheny coal field, on VerniiUion River has cut its chan- the out-crop of the Black Slate, nel through the Sandstone and from with the fine-grained Sandstone on forty to sixty feet into the Slate- liis right hand and the Limestone on stone, the thin northern edge of the his left. Sandstone maj' be seen resting on THE LIMESTONE ROCK. the Black Slate high up on the river banks. Further south, in Wakeman The Cliff or buff-colored Limestone and Clarksfield, tlie dip of the strata lies under the Black Slate and rises has sunk the Black Slate below the to the surface, and forms the surface bed of the river and nothing but rock from the out-crop of the Black Sandstone appears. A distinct vari- Shite, west to the Maumee Valley ety of the fine-grained Sandstone is and south to the Ohio River. It has quarried in the east part of Green- been considered as the upper bed of field. The layers are thin and the Upper Silurian Sj'stem, but fossil ripple-marked, and lie at a dip of testimony is now collecting that near forty degrees. may place it in the system above, (the Devonian,) or Geolo- THE BLACK SLATE. compel gists to admit those fossils now The Black Slate, which lies below considered Devonian into the Silu- the fine-grained Sandstone and rian system. above the Limestone and forms the The Cliff Limestone is divided into fourth circle around the coal field, is an upper and lower formation. The considered the equivalent of the Ham- upper bed, of some two hundred feet ilton group of New York. It is near in thickness, is considered the equiv- three hundred feet in thickness and alent of the Helderburg Limestone its line of out-crop across the Fire of NeAV York, and the lower Lands about ten miles in width. bed the equivalent of. the Niagara The Hue of its thin north-western Limestone. Between the Helder- edge where it laps on to the Lime- burg and Niagara Limestone in the stone, commencing in the north- State of New York, lies the famous western part of Sherman, runs Onondaga Salt Group. But here, north-easterly, across the north-west between the upper and lower forma- corner of Sherman, the south-east tions of the Cliff Limestone, the Salt part of Lyme, the north-west corner Group is repi-esented by the thin of Ridgefield, the eastern part of stratum of Gypsum that crops out Oxford, the south-east corner of in the liighest arch of the Lime Perkins, and curves to the east rock, some miles west of Sandusky across Huron to the Lake shore. If City, in Ottawa county. The extent a man should travel irom the mouth of the Gypsum rock is unknown, but of the Huron River easterly along in boring at the Round House in the Lake shore, and turn southerly Norwalk, the drill struck the Gyp- into Pennsylvania to the Allegheny sum sheet about four hundred and Mountains, and along the mountain sixty-eight feet below Die surface or range across Pennsylvania and Vir- about three iuindred and twenty ginia, and passed 'Kentucky into feet below Lake water. The sheet Tennessee; then west, and then was less than two feet in thickness. northerly across Kentucky to the With our present knowledge, we June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. 47

may consider the Gypsum rock a before it curves upward towards the northern formation, thinning out surface on the other side, for the and disappearing to the south, and basin is deep enough to hold the thickening up and receiving new three Sandstone formations, and the members as it goes north, and dips Coal series and still leave the sur- under the Michigan ^coal field, and face of the country comparatively rises to surface again with the Salt level. Group, fully developed, in the Sagi- Along the Allegheny Mountains, naw Valley. on the east side of the Coal Field, The Cliif Limestone rests on the the same rocks that here dip thirty Blue Limestone that forms the feet per mile, rise up the side of the surface rock, from Dayton to Cin- mountains nearly to a perpendicular cinnati, and there forms the bed position. On the north side the dip of the Ohio River, one hundred and is doubtless not as great as else- thirty-three feet below Lake Erie. where, for the Limestone ridge along The Cliff Limestone as it dips under the middle of Lake Erie sepa- the Illinois coal field, crosses the rating the Ohio and Canada Coal Ohio River and forms the rapids at Fields, does not rise high enough to Louisville, Kentucky. give so great an inclination to tlie different strata. THE DIP OF THE ROCKS. THE DRIFT. From any point on the circle of the coal-field, the rocks dip towards the Whether the Drift agencies were center, and always at right angles to mostly ocean currents, or currents their line of out-crop. The thickness tloating large fields and burghs of of the Black Slate across the Fire ice is not known, but the vastness Lands is not accurately known, but of their eflects is almost beyond will not vary far from three hundred conception. Granite boulders and feet, and its breadth of out-crop is pebbles sui)posed to have been about ten miles. brought by the ice from the primi- Divide the thickness by the num- tive mountains north of the Lakes, ber of miles in the width, and it are common everywhere. Our own gives a dip of thirty .feet per mile. rocks have been broken up and The Gypsum sheet dips between its scattered widely over the country, out-crop at the Plaster Bed, and and mixed with the Drift Clay. The Norwalk, only three hundred and furrows and scratches on the surface twenty feet or less than fifteen feet of the Limestone rocks along the per mile. But this diff'erence in the Lake shore and on the Islands, show dip of the Gypsum and Black Slate that these powerful currents passed is consistent with the facts. For it over the countiy from the north to should be remembered that the out- the south. This accounts for the crop of the Gypsuin is in the crown fragments of our indigenous rocks of the Limestone arch, and the rocks being found only to the south and for some miles to the east dip but east of their original formations. slightly, from a i'ew inches to a few On the Lunestone formation, aside feet per mile, increasing their incli- from the Granite, nothing but Lime- nation as they leave the arch, and stone boulders and pebbles can be finally plunge under the Black Slate found. To the south and east of the at the dip of thirty feet per mile. Limestone, on the out-crop of the The depth to which the Black Black Slate, the Slatestone boulders Slate descends imder the center of and pebbles are added to the Lime. the Coal Feld, must exceed 2,500 feet, Still further to the south-east, on the 48 THE FIRE LAm>S PIONEER. [Jnne, 1866. out-crop of the Sandstone, boulders the upper bed of the CHif Limestoue and pebbles of Sandstone are added to has all been swept away, leaving the the Limestone and Slatestone, and Gypsum sheet on the surface. The mixed through the Drift Clay down to Slatestone and Sandstone were the surface of the rocks. Each rock doubtless once as high along the formation has added its own frag- Lake shore to the east as the Lime- ments to the Drift Clay, for many stone, and h&ve shared the same miles to the south-east ; but not a fate. Had the rocks along the Lake mile, nor a rod to the north-west. shore still retained theu- original There was no reversed force to height and position, the northern sweep them northward. rim of the Allegheny Coal Field The drift forces swept southward would have been some two hundred and plowed up the layers of rocks, feet higher than it now is, and the and crushed them into fragments, Black Slate and Sandstone would and forced the broken masses along, have extended some twenty miles rolling and grinduig one against north into the bed of Lake Erie. another, and finally left them at the But this northern rim of the coal end of their journey, smooth, basin has been crushed inland by the rounded and water-worn. The Drift forces, and the materials Limestone boulders that are so nu- ground up and mixed with the Drift merous in tlie Drift Clay in the Clay, as far south as the Drift forces south-western townsliips of the Fire extended. Lands, were broken up from the If we extend our system of rocks surface of the rocks, north of Lyme across Lake Erie, to the Canada and Ridgfield, and driven south and shore, we find the Black Slate and left Uterally in piles just above the Sandstone i^lunging from the Lake Black Slate. The limestone, Slate- shore northward, under the Coal stone and Sandstone all entered into Field of Canada. And if we com- the moving masses, and when ground plete the formation geologically, we to powder became components of should find the Black Slate along the Drift Clay, and formed a soU and the Lake shore, rising from under sub-stratum, with all the elements of the north side of the Allegheny Coal fertUty, far into the interior of the Field, and curving over the Lime- State/ stone wave in the middle of Lake But from whence came all these Erie, and dipping into the Canada rocks, that were broken up and dis- shore, filling the bed of Lake Erie seminated through the Drift Clay? with a sheet of Black Slate three Were the rocks along the Lake shore hundred feet in thickness. But once higher than they are now? where is the Black Slate ? Its broad, Most certaiiilj'. The upper bed of double out-crop, from fifty to eighty the Chff Limestone that lies above miles in width, was exposed to the the Gypsum, has been worn away Drift currents, both to the south and from Lyme and Ridgefield, north to down the Lake valley, and its soft the Lake shore, making a gradual structure was easily swept out, form- descent of near two hundred feet, ing the basin of that part of Lake Erie and placing Margaretta, North Per- east of the Bass Islands. The out-crop kins and Portland more than a hun- of the Black Slate, west of the Bass dred feet lower down in the great Islands, as it dips west under the Limestone quarry than Lyme and Micliigan Coal Field, was also ex- Ridgefield, and on rocks infinitely posed to the Drift, and swept out, older. In Ottawa county, on the forming that part of Lake Erie along highest swell of the Limestone rock. the eastern shore of Michigan. The — —

June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 49

soft, abrasive character of the salt rents along tlie undulations, giving group, doubtless had sometliing to the elevations and depressions a do in undermining and breaking the north- easterly direction. The waters Limestone ridge between the two gradually receded down the Lake Lakes into channels and Islands, and slope, leaving the lowest places to forming- of Lake Erie, one Lake be filled with ponds, marshes and instead of two, as originally formed, swamps, and the future waters from with a communication, probably, rain and snow, to pick their way through Sandusky Bay. down the slope across the undula- tions left by the currents, THE SURFACE. and in time cutout their own valleys. The Drift period was drawing to a The gradual recession of the close, and the Creative fiat had gone waters was doubtless arrested at " forth : Let the waters under the 'intervals, and the water stood sta- heavens be gathered together into tionaiy for long periods of time. The one place, and let the dry land old coast line ridges along the Lake appear." The line of high-lands be- slope, were doubtless formed by the tweeen the Ohio River and Lake action of the water, during these Erie, was the first of the Lake slope stationaiy periods. to obey the command, and slowly Finally, the waters receded down emerged from the waters, and the slope to the present limits of formed a barrier on the south, to the Lake Erie, and the whole Lake slope Lake valley currents, and turned had become " dry land." Another " them eastward, washing the whole fiat had gone forth : Let the earth Lake slope in a north-easterly direc- bring forth grass, the herb yielding tion. Ages rolled on, and the seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit constantly diminishing waters flowed after his kind, whose seed is in itself only in broken and detached cur- upon the earth, and it was so."

A VETERAN BOOK-BINDER RETIRED.

John P. McArdle, now in his 80th lishing the ''' Nonoalk Reporter'^ year, last week finished up his last here as early as April, 1827. This he job of book-binding, and expresses published for a number of yeai-s, and his determination to retire from the was finally succeeded by the "i?c/?ee- business. He is certainly entitled ?;o7'," under other irmnagement. Mr. to an honorable discharge irom furth- McArdle was a very industrious man, er service on old books, on the by which sterling quality he was en- ground of old age and physical in- abled to rear a large family in high firmities. Calm and peacful be the respectability and standing, all of remaining hours of the evening of whom have, and still maintain, re- liis days. Fremont Sentinel. spect in the communities in which Amen, say we. " Calm and peace- they reside. They are a comfort and ful be the remaining hours " of the solace in his now declining sands of venerable retired. Our acquaint- life, and in his journey hitherward ance with Mr. McArdle da#s back to the " better land," we trust his some thirty years, at which time he pathway may be unobstructed by alternately worked at printing and any adverse circumstances. ]Vor- book-binding. He was the pioneer loalk Reftector. of the press in this township, estab- 50 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEEK. [Jxme, 1866.

FRANCIS GRAHAM'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

My parents, James and Isabella between Mr. Colt and our family, Graham, emigrated from Ireland to when a requisition was made on Philadelphia, in the 3'earl791. Soon the family to let their son Frank after the}^ arrived, my father took a go to Erie and live with the said lease of a small farm in Delaware Colt, he having no children. Some county, a few miles below Philadel- tfme elapsed for reflection, when phia, on which he settled, and there finally consent was given, and in I was born, on the 14th of October, October, 1804, I went home with 1794. him, wliere I was wall cared for. I had one brother and one sister When war with England was de- older than myself. Father remain- clared in 1812, there was a requisi- ed on said farm until the fall of 1799, tion I'rom the Governor of Pennsyl- when having heard much said in fa- vania, for volunteers to protect the vor of the back woods, as it was frontier from invasion by the ene- then commonly called, and the very my. Under this call, I volunteered, low price of land, he was induced and served three months. west, and settled in Craw- to remove There were strong nightly guards county, North Western Penn- ford posted on the shore of the Bay and sylvania, about fifteen miles west of Lake, for a distance of a mile and a Sieadeville. There he purchased one half above and below Erie. hundred acres of land of Judah Colt, the agent of the Population Land Tlie British at that time, had two Company, of Philadelphia. or three armed vessels on the Lake,

This Company • had established an which were soon out cruising, and ofBce there for the sale of their frequently showed themselves olf land. It was known as Colt's Sta- the harbor, and we had reason to ex- tion. The Company owned land pect an attempt to burn the town. from the Ohio river to Lake Erie. But no attempt was made to molest Judah Colt was principal agent. us in that waj\ Perry's fleet was His office was at Erie. There was built here, and the great victory of also, one office in Crawford county, September 10th, 1813, over the ene- and one in Beaver county, of which my achieved. On the 30th day of Mr. Colt had the supervision. He December, 1813, an army of Brit- spent a portion of his time at his tons, a*3ut 3000 strong, crossed the office in Crawford county, to see Niagara, at Black Rock, burnt our and advise his sub-agents. vessels that were in port, also burn- In the course ot two or three ed the -s-illage of Black Eock, made years, a warm attachment existed prisoners of a small force we had at —

June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. 51

Bitffalo, burned the town and re- northern part of the State. The treated to Canada. army, or brigade, in a short time be- The sad news reached Erie on the came so luuch reduced, that myself, day following the 30th, and produc- with many others, obtained a dis- ed intense excitement. Many fami- charge and returned to our homes. lies fled to the interior, some as far In May, 1814, I obtained a clerk- as Pittsburg. At this time General ship in Reed & Sanford's mercantile Jannehill, with about three thous- house, in Erie, where I remained un- and men, was in winter quarters at til December, 1815. This firm did a Erie. Every possible exertion was large business, and in the fall of made to obtain transportion and 1815, had an overstock of goods on march against the invaders of our hand. About the first of December territorj\ they decided to send a stock of Volunteers were called foi', and goods to Detroit, for disposal, but about one thousand were raised it was too late to send by some of myself one of them. The roads the small vessels that had navigated were almost impassable. The frost the Lake. About the loth of De- was out of the ground, and the mud cember, 1815, eighteen inches of deep, but an army of about four snow fell, which made fine sleighing, thousand moved under General Jan- and the firm resolved to send a por- nehill. Our march was a very tedi- tion of their goods to Detroit, by ous one. TDere were some days land, and four lumber sleds with a when we did not march more than good span of horses to each, were six miles. When we reached Ohau- loaded with the assorted goods. tauque county, a snow of eighteen Mr. Stephen Woolverton and my- inches depth, fell on the water-soak- self engaged to go with the goods. ed earth, which made it still worse We gave the teams forty-eight hours for transportation of baggage. start when we followed in Mr. Wool- Before we reached Buffalo, the verton's one horse sleigh. When weather became intensely .cold. On we reached Grand River, we found our arrival, we found that our ser- less snpw, and from there the snow vices were not immediately needed diminished as we went west. We at Black Rock, General Brown hav- overtook the teams at Rocky River, ing arrived there with a force suffi- on about three inches of snow. cient to keep the enemy on their From Black River to Huron, there own soil. was much bare ground, and hard We pitched our tents on the Com- traveling. When at Huron we had but mons, in Bufialo. Finding our posi- " two alternatives, either to send the tion a very bleak one, and fuel not goods back to Erie, or open them being close at hand, we remained at Huron. We made choice of the there but a few days, when our men latter and sent the teams home began to desert. We then remov- empty. We rented a room on the ed about three miles up Buffalo east side of the river, of W. Smith, Creek, near the Indian village of son-inlaw of John S. Reed, of Black Red Jacket, and his little band of River notoriety, and fitted it up for a Senecas. Here we found more com- store. We procured a small out fortable quarters, but the men de- building for storage, put up the serted shamefully. Mostly men goods and did a moderate business from the lower counties of the for about ten days, when Mr. Wool- State, also from Allegheny, Somer- verton said to me, "I left unsettled set, &c. They went off in gangs. business at home, that needs my at- But few deserted that were from the tention. I will go and see to it and —

52 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

return in ten or twelve days—do the ble article, and was used to great best you can in my absence." But excess. he never returned, and I was mind- The Court of Common Pleas at ful of his charge—" do the best you that time, held its sessions at Da^^d can." Abbot's place, five miles up the Hu- I obtained the assistance of John ron river. David Abbot was Clerk B. Flemmond, a Canadian French- of said Court. man, and an honest Roman Catholic. In 1817, the seat of justice was re- We did not do a large business, for moved to Norwalk. From that time, the country was new and thinly set- the former jjlace was known as the tled. Notwithstanding there were " Old County Seat." In June, 1816, some banks in Northern Ohio, mon- Mr. Giles Sanford, one of the mem- ey was anything but plenty. I said bers of the firm of Reed & Sanford, banks—but I need saj' nothing of had a younger brother come to Erie their solvency. To- wit: The Bloom- from Herkimer, in the State of New ingville Bank, in Huron county; the York, and he was sent to Huron, to Farmer's Bank of Mansfield, in Eich- assist me in prosecuting the busi- land county, and the Owl Creek ness at that place. Our business Bank, of Mount Vernon—with a accommodations were not good, and great owl perched on the bills. we resolved to put up a building for The paper of said banks had but a a store-room and warehouse. We limited circulation, and the creation let the job to two men.' The house of the United States Bank soon put was made of round logs, one and a them out of existence. half stories liigh—partition through A Mr. Hays, on the west side of the center— half store-room and half the river, was my competitor. He warehouse, with storage above. had a small stock of goods. We did not obey the admonition W. B. Smith of Sandusky City the good book contains to "build and his mother, kept public house your house upon a rock, lest the on the west side. floods come and wash it away," but On the opening of navigation, in we built on the beach of the Lake 1816, 1 received by a sail vessel, an on the sand—five rods from the wa- addition to my stock. Produce ter's edge. Well the rain did beat, being scarce, and money not plenty, and the winds did blow, but the I took anything of customei-s that I floods did not come, and we were considered better than goods. I IDermitted to enjoy tlie uninterrupt- bought ginseng and columbo root, ed possession of our domicil. and in the fall, bought hickory nuts In September, 1816, 1 was confined from forty to fifty cents per bushel, to the house by an attack of bilious in all about three hundred bushels, fevei', and was unable to do business and found a market for them in for about three months. As soon as Montreal. I began to gain a little, I was taken The morals of the inhabitants at to Judge Wright's, where I received that time would admit of a large the best of care and attention. margin for improvement. There Judge Wright was a warm friend of was neither church nor schoolhouse mine, and Aunt Tamar, as she was at Huron at the time of my arrival, sometimes called, was one of the and but little attention given to the best of women. Sabbath day. There was much in- A man from Salina, Ichabod temperance. The beverage called Bracket, left us on commission, one whisky, was considered by a ma- hundred barrels of salt. Large jority of the people, an indispensa- teams came to Huron, loaded wid) June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 53

flour, whisky, bacon and butter to the Lake shore who followed trap- exchange for salt or sell for cash, and hunting. We had furs brought and load back with salt. to us from Maumee afid the River Mr. Moulton, a merchant of New Raisin, and the Indians hunting on Lancaster, sent to Hui'on several the head- waters of the Vermillion times for salt, as did also P. M. Wed- and Black Rivers sometimes came dell, late of Cleveland, but at that to us in the iall and winter with time of Newark, Ohio. fur and skins. Many of them came The Mount Vernon merchants from the west in the fall and spent sent produce to Huron—Moody & the winter in the unsettled part of McCart}', the most prominent in that Northern Ohio. I had a desire to go respect. Anything they could not among them for trade, and for that f dispose of at that time to advantage, purpose hired John B. Flemmond they would leave with us on com- who spoke the Delaware, Ottawa mission. and Wyandot tongues. I selected a Mr. Bracket would come in the lot of Indian goods, in two packages, winter to get pay for the salt he had and put one on each side of a horse. left for sale the summer previous. My interpreter went on foot and I Salt was very high and one winter rode occasionally. We went to the was sold for twelve dollars per bar- head of those rivers mentioned rel. Mr. B, was a coarse man, stood above, where we found many Indian six feet four inches in his boots, had camps, and passed through New a grum voice and but little educa- London where we found Indians tion, but knew how to make money also. There were three or four on salt. He called to make his white families in the township, and annual settlement, and was seated in one of them was Mr. Sweet, where the store with several customers, we stayed two or three nights. Mr. conversing on the usual topics of the Sweet many years after removed to day, when one of them remarked a farm near Milan. The expedition that the salt trade must pay well paid well, and the Indians told us if now, and asked Mr. Bracket what we would go to Upper Sandusky per cent he generally made on the country, we would find jjlenty of salt he brought to Ohio. His re\)\y furs. We returned to Huron about " was : I know nothing about your the 15th of January, 1817, after an d—n cent per cent., but one thing I do absence of about twelve days. know, if a barrel of salt cost me three Stimulated by success I resolved dollars and I get ten for it, I am not to go to Upper Sandusky, where the losing anytliing." In that, all pres- Wyandot tribe resided, and about ent coincided with him. the 15th of February, 1817, 1 put off In the fall of 181G there was a with Mr. J. B. Flemmond. We Sheriff to be elected, and I was went to Lower Sandusky and fol- urged by Judge Wright, Judge lowed the Sandusky River to the Meeker, Captain Jones and others to Tyamochtee and followed that have my name announced for the stream to its head. We found the office, but I had no desire for it, and country interspersed with wigwams, Lyman Farwell was elected. and a considerable quantity of fur During the first two years I was and skins. Went zig-zag through at Huron, we purchased quite an the country, and arrived at the amount of fur and skins. The Indian village and spent two or marshes and creeks abounded with three days there. Called on John muskrat and other game, and there Walker at Sandusky several times, were many Canadian French along and by him we were treated with 54 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

Idndness aud attention. He was an obstacle in the way. I was two hun- intelligent gentleman of good infor- dred dollars short of funds to pay for mation. His wife was a squaw and it. I then borrowed two hundred dressed in the Indian costume. We dollars of the Judge for one year, aud deposited our furs with the agent gave my note with interest. I put until ready to go home. The Wyan- John Mason on the farm as tenant. dot's made a feast while we were I owned the farm about ten years, there; a large number of Indians then sold it to Jonathan Sprague. It congregated, met on the common is situated one and a half miles west one pleasa:nt afternoon, about the of Huron. 5th of March—had roasted two deer, Our hotel or boarding-house cut into small pieces, and served to changed landlords about twice a the crowd who were seated, forming j^ear, and we did.not alwaj-s have a a circle with a fire in the center. good one. In the fall of 1817, a After the appetite was satisfied family from the Green Mountain the old chief made a speech—his State i^urchased the tavern stand. name was Cherckerboy—after which We soon found our fare and accom- dancing commenced, and was kei)t dations not as good as we formerly up (with intervals of speaking) had. We made the best of it lor until about twelve o'clock. A large awhile, but finally resolved we bonfire burned until the close of the would try keeping Bachelor's Hall, meeting. All seemed to enjoy not from choice, but necessitj\ A themselves and separated in x^erfect widow woman near by would bake good humor. We soon after packed for us, and we agreed to di\ide the our peltry. I hired four Indians housework so that each one would do with their horses to pack our furs his share of the cooking and washing. and skins to Huron. We returned Graham would cook one day and by a more easterly route, an Indian Sanford the next. We slept in tJie trail that brought us by where Mel- store, and for about one year we more now is. Our Indians all got enjoyed life as well as any bach- drunk at Huron aud were very elors could under such circum- rude. Mr. Flemmond took their stances. We then found a new knives and tomahawks from them boarding place. The summer of lest they might make improper use 1817 was a very cold one—had frost of them. We had been absent about every month in that year. After- twenty days. Our stock of goods ward Avhen spoken of. it was called was kept up by supplies from Erie, the cold season. There was but sent by vessels on our order sent to little grain I'aised that year of any Reed & Sanford. kind, and prices advanced. Wheat In March, 1817, Gideon Olmsted, a for family use brought three dollars, refugee from Canada, who now, the corn two dollars, oats ten to eleven war being over, wished himself and shillings, and flour fifteen dollars per family in Canada again, sold me his barrel. Whisky was not dispensed farm of one hundred acres. About with; it sold for six shillings per thirty acres were improved, and on quart. it were a log cabin and stable. The In 1817 the seat of justice of price paid was six hundred dollars, Huron county was removed from one-third store goods and two-third's Abbotts Place to Norwalk. In the money. I consulted Judge Wright month of June, 1818, the two Ottawa as to buying, He said it was a low Indians who murdered Wood and price, and if I wanted land I would Bishop, were hung in Norwalk. I do well to take it. Still there was an was present. Sheriff' Farwell oflicia- June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. 55 ted. Their names were Negosheek During the winter of 1819 and and Negonaba. I was well ac- 1820, William Townsend brought a quainted with both Wood and stock of goods to Portland, from Bishop. Wood left a wife and two New Haven, Connecticut, in a children in Venice. Bishop was a sleigh. Moody & McCarty^s busi- single man. ness not meeting expectations thej'^ Well, time passed smoothly until moved their goods to Mt. Vernon, in February, 1819, when we got a pro- August, 1820. I then went into the posal from our employers to sell out employ of Mr. William Townsend, to us, at a discount from cost and and remained there until Septem- terms of payment liberal. Mr. San- ber, 1821, when I began to think I ford thought we had better purchase, ought to do something for myself, but I could not see as much money and consulted Mr. Townsend on the in the goods as he thought he did, subject. I had a desire to locate in and I declined the offer. About some country town, and open a store. this time the pensioners of Huron He then offered me the use of his county (the county was then large,) horses. I went to Mansfield and employed me to go to Chillicothe, Union Town, in Richland county, to draw their annuities from the now Ashland, in Ashland county, Branch Bank of the United States, where I rented a room for my antici- in that place. I was accordingly fur- pated goods, of Mr. Joseph Sheets. nished with the necessary creden- As might be inferred, my purse of tials. I left Huron about the 10th money was not large, and through of March, on horseback. I found the kindness of Mr. Townsend, I the roads good and the peach trees was furnished a letter of credit to a in blossom all the way down. I mercantile house in New York, spent one day in Chillicothe—pre- which enabled me to get more sented my claim to Mr Claypole, the goods than I could pay for, though 1 Cashier, and drew from the bank bought a light stock. I consigned about thirteen hundred dollars, for my goods to Gill, Thompson & Co., fourteen pensioners. I returned by Black Rock, to be shipped by them way of Columbus, visited the Peni- to Portland. About the 10th of tentiary, and found ninety-three November, I received a letter from convicts there. I was now out of Gill, Thompson & Co., saying my business, and had almost made up goods had been shipped on the my mind to become a farmer. I steamboat Walk-in-the-Water, and purchased a good yoke of oxen and that she was wrecked off the mouth wagon and went on to the farm, of Buffalo Creek, on the night of boarding with my tenant, Mason. I October 30th, and that the goods commenced clearing and fencing were now in store, in a slightly more land, and raised a field of corn, damaged state. The brig Union and broke iip some prairie for wheat was about to sail for Black Rock. in the fall. In the month of October, Sidway was Captain of the boat. I 1819, Moody and McCarty, of Mt. took passage, and went down in a Vernon, took a stock ot goods to south-west gale of wind. I think Portland, now Sandusky City. I no one on board had much hope of had done business for them at reaching shore. A Mr. Kuykendall Huron, and they hearing I was out and Mr. Bouley, both from the vicin- of employment, invited me to come ity of Plymouth, prayed fervently to into their employ at Portland. I Almighty God that we might be accepted their offer, and went to saved from a watery grave. I be- them in November. lieve their prayers were heard. We :

56 THE FIRE LANDS PIOJTEEK. [June, 1866.

arrived in safety. I looked at my land, with whom I lived very happy. goods, and found a few pieces of In June, 1825, I went to New cotton slightly wet. I opened and York ih companj^ with Eluetheros dried them." The damage was Cooke, Esq., late of Sandusky City, trifling. I put my goods on board deceased, and stopped at the Pearl the schooner Red Jacket, Captain Street House. The morning papers Augustus Walker, and took passage announced that General Lafayette with them. The wind was adverse, would leave the city at eight o'- and we kept on the north side of the clock, A. M., for Newark, New Lake. When near North Point the Jersey, en route for Philadelphia, wind increased to a gale. We I'an from the residence of Mrs. Bunker, back to Point Abino for a lee—rode in Broadway. Mr. Cooke and my- the sea awhile. We soon parted self went up and saw the General, cable, and let go the other anchor accompanied by his son, George which also parted. The vessel then Washington, and the Mayor of the ran to Black Rock, and ground iuto city. Escorted by the military, they the sand, anchorless. About half marched to the foot of Barclay the cargo had to be discharged to street, when the military opened to get the vessel off, and two new the right and left, and the officers anchors rigged, which detained us were marched to the center of the about two days. We then put out street. The General left his car- again, and had a long, tedious pas- riage, and with hat in the left hand, sage. Weather cold, with snow and walked down the street, taking an sleet. We were fourteen daj's, from affectionate leave of each officer. the time we first sailed, reaching When the boat left the wharf for Portland. Wesley Anderson and Hoboken, a National salute was John Bishop each had a good team. fired. I hired them to caiTy my goods to I was in New York in 1832, in Union Town, myself going with Cholera time, when many of the them. We reached our destination business places were closed, and December 6th, 1821. some excitement prevailed; but I As my stock ran down, I replen- found no difficulty in accomplishing ished in part from William Town- my business. 1 went to Fulton send, and in part from Pittsburgh, street, where I had been in the and did not go to New York until habit of buying books and paper. September, 1822. The Yellow Fever The gentleman that waited on me, prevailed at that time, and the part asked me if I was much alarmed of the city where I bought my about cholera. I told him I was not. goods the j'ear before, was nearly He remarked that many of tlie citi- deserted, and the goods removed to zens had left the city—that his the village of Greenwich, about neighbor on the corner had closed three miles north of Hanover Square. up and gone. He saw that morning The merchants had erected them a poetical notice to that effect on his temporary shanties, for the sale of door, which he presumed had been their goods, and kept them strongly placed there by a wag. It read as guarded at night. I soon found N. follows

& H. Weed, Toverty and Guntly, " Not Cholera sick, nor cholera ilead, and others of whom I had from fear cholera fled bought But from ; the year before. Will return when cholera is over, If from fear I do recover." On the 13th of March, 1823, 1 was man-ied to Amelia Shephard, daugh- I returned to Buflalo, and went on ter of Phineas Shephard, of Cleve- board the steamboat Superior, Cap- J line,- 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 57 tain W. T. Pease, about 8 o'clock, A. but on my arrival home, was very M. I found a man walking the unwell lor three or four days, and cabin who ai^peared very uneasy, took medicine. Lest the reader and eveiy few minutes would sit should charge me with desertion down and rub the calf of his legs, from Gen. Jannehill's Brigade, I and then walk again, saying his legs deem it proper to make some show- cramped badly. His trouble in- ing to the contrary. Many years af- creased—the boat went out—it ter the war, the officers and soldiers proved cholera. About ten o'clock who had served their country, were Captain Pease had a bed made on granted laud for their services, I deck for him, the weather being wrote to my friend Giles Sanford, warm and pleasant. Di-. Flagg, of in Erie, to have the goodness to get New Haven, Connecticut, was on some one to examine the muster board—gave him calomel, and tried roll of Erie county, and ascertain to sweat him, with sacks of scalded whether or not I was entitled to a oats, but all in vain. He died at a land warrant. In due time a war- four that afternoon. He was a rant came to me for eighty acres of Lieutenant Wells, of the United Uncle Sam's domain, for services States Army, now on his way from rendered in 1812. I wrote Mr. San- Washington, to Mackinac, where he ford again, with a request that Gen- had been stationed. His remains eral Jannehill's muster roll of 1814, were set on shore at Erie. be examined, which being done, I Another case occurred on the was furnished with a second wai-rant boat the next day—that of an Eng- for eighty acres of land for which I lish farmer, bound to Chicago, but ieel grateful to that generous uncle. he was alive when I left the boat. Francis Graham. I felt but little alarm on the boat, Ashland, Ohio, April 19, 1866.

GENEALOGY OF HIRAM ROGERS.

Hiram Rogers, of Plymouth, Connecticut. He came to Ohio, in Ohio, is the son of Eliphalet Rogers, 1816, stopping at Burton, Geauga of Branford, Connecticut. He was county, during the season. (This the son of Thomas, who was the son was known as the cold seasOn. It of Josiah, who was the son of Josiah, snowed on the 7th day of June to of Branford, who was the son of Jo- the depth of two or three inches, siah of Huntington, Long Island, and it lay on the ground until the who was the son of John of Ded- 9th.) He returned to Connecticut ham, England, who was the son of in the fall, and resided there one Noah of Exeter, England, who was year; then moved to the State of the son of John Rogers, the first New York, and resided there until christian martyi-, burnt at the 1831, when he moved to Huntington, stake in the refgn of Queen Mary, Lorain county, Ohio.* lii 1838, he in 1554. removed to Ruggles, then in Huron, Hiram Rogers was bom October now Ashland county, and has since 23d, 1795, in Branford, since known as resided in Huron county. North Bis^nford, New Haven county, 58 THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

EARLY SETTLERS IN MILAN.

The following notes are furnished 1773. His father removed, while the

by Mr. . Martin Kellogg, of Bronson, son was a child, to the State ot New now eighty years of age, whose per- York. Mr. Merry spent his boy- severance in gathering historical hood in Kinderhook. At the age of materials of the Fii-elands, is worthy nineteen, he removed to the " Gen- of all praise: esee Country," while it was a wil- EBENEZER MERRY. derness. In 1797, when about twenty-four " Ebenezer Merrv was born July years of age, he penetrated the wil- 21st, 1773, in East Hartford, Connec- derness to Mentor, in Geauga coun- ticut; his wife, Charlotte Adams, t}^ of this State, where he resided born August 17th, 1780, in Tin- several years. From that place he

mouth, Vermont ; were married removed to Milan, in the autum of May 5th, 1800, in Avon, State of 1814. It will be seen, that nearly

New York ; settled in Mentor, Ge- his whole life has been spent as a auga county, Ohio, in May 1800; pioneer, on the outermost borders moved to Avery township, (now Mi- of the new settlements of the west.

lan,) November, 1814 ; to Milan vil- His early advantages for educa- lage in 1819. The following are the tion, were only ordinar}^. Possesed, names of their children: Sarah, Ma- however of a remarkably retentive ry, Julia, Martin, Samuel, Lucy, memory, of very careful habits of born in Mentor; Elizabeth, Ebene- observation and comparison, and a zer and Charlotte, who were born in strong native intellect, he had treas-

Milan.' Charlotte, deceased ; all the ured up a fund of knowledge, that, others are now living in Milan." combined with a cheerful temper, The preceding was obtained from made him a most estimable com- Mrs. Merry, in the summer of 1865. panion, not for those of his own age The following is an extract from the onl}% but for all classes who desired funeral sermon of Ebenezer Merry, his society. preached by Rev. E. Judson. Both in Western New York, and Martin Kellogg. in Ohio, he was thrown, in the early Text—Proberbs xxii, 1: "A good period of his residence, into frequent name is ralhA- to be chosen than contact with the ' Indians, whose great riches, and loving favor rather confidence he alway won, by his than silver and gold." kind and affectionate treatment. As Ebenezer Merry was born in West an instance of this: Since his remov- Hartford, Connecticut, July 21st, al to this State, the old ^ief Red ;

June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEEK. 59

Jacket, on his way west, to attend hand, to the extent of his means, and an Indian Council, turned aside to more. spend a night beneath the hospita- Were I to judge from the opinions ble roof of his ancient friend. expressed from time to time, since I have spoken of Mr. Merry as my acquaintance with him, I should having penetrated the \vilderness. say he had a hundred times been In 1800, he returned to remove his censured for being too liberal, where companion to his new home, in Ge- there had been one expression of auga county. The journey to Ohio, dissatisfaction with the smallness was made on horseback, from the of his donations. In a higher sense Genesee river, at a time when there than is often true of any man, he was no road, and with the exception was the friend of the poor, the i)ro- of two or three families in Buffalo, tector of the orphan, and the ben- one in Leroy, and a small settlement factor of the needy. at Erie, Pennsylvania, there was no Nor did he wait for the call of the white inhabitant in the entire dis- solicitor—" the cause that he knew tance. Some hospitable Indian cab- not, he searched out." in, or the green boughs of the forest You will say that I have given our trees constituted their shelter by deceased friend, in these several re- night spects, a high character. It is true. Mr. Merry, in all the situations of I have only followed, however, the life, has shared largely the confi- promptings of my own heart, and dence of his fellow men. He was the convictions that are the fruit of elected by the Legislature, an As- more than sixteen years of intimate sociate Judge of the Common Pleas and cherished acquaintance. . for Geauga county, and subsequent- PETER LAKE. ly to the same post in Huron coun- ty, but in both instances declined Peter Lake settled in Milan, in the honor. 181.5 ; died in June, 1818 ; his wife, He repeatedly held a seat in the Lucretia Buck, was born April 1st, House of Representatives of this 1787, in the town of Heath, Massa- State, and filled most of the respon- chusetts: married in Buffalo, 1808. sible offices of the counfy and town- Their children, Sophia, Elisha, Lu- ship, at different times. No feature cretia, and Frances. Sophia was of his character was more strongly born in Buffalo, Frances in Milan, marked than his integrity. If he and the others in Pennsylvania. erred, no one believed it other than Mrs. Lake, for second husband, an error of his judgment. married Israel Waggoner, who died His benevolence was a marked in Milan, June 9th, 1857. Of their feature of his character. He would children, Clark* lives in Toledo, edit- divide the last loaf with the stranger or of the Toledo Blade; Ralph lives and the guest. He knew how to do in Green Springs, Sandusky county this without grudging. Nor was he Mary lives in Milan. Clark's wife, less distinguished for his public was Sylvia Roberts; Ralph's wife, spirit. No object of public interest was Isabel Hunter. M. K. was before the community in which October 5, 1866. he Avas not willing to lend a helping " '

60 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

ANECDOTE OF GENERAL WAYNE.

The following anecdote of Gener- in the edge of a wind-fall, and al Wayne, or Mad Anthony, as he Wayne formed his line of battle on was afterwards called, happening at his original plan, but it could not be the battle of the Miami, or Maumee, carried out. For when the charge in ITW, was witnessed by General was sounded, and the "Palefaces" Kobert R. Beall, who was, if I mis- and " Bloodyheads " advanced to the take not, one of General Wayne's charge, the Indians gave away along staff during the campaign, and was the Avhole line, and ran pell-mell related to me by General Beall, over the fallen timber, exposing about thirty years ago. themselves to the deadly fire of In order to distinguish the divis- Wayne's riflemen. The "Rowdies," ions of his army. General Wayne instead of falhug back according to ordered one wing to wear a red sash orders, caught the excitement, and firound the hat, and called them the rushed over the logs into the Avind- " Bloodyheads." The other wing fall, shooting at every Indian that wore a white sash around the hat showed himself in his flight. and he called them the " Palefaces," And such was the excitement of and the centre, he called his " Row- the battle, that Wayne, as he sat on dies." Ms horse, iri the rear of the "Row- His plan of attack upon the In- dies," and saw the Indians running, dians, whenever he should come u]3 and falling under the hot fire of his with them, was formed early in the advancing army, raised himself in his campaign, and every Sunday during stirrups, and with his sword arm the march, the army practiced in a above his head, and his eyes fixed sham fight, that his soldiers might on the combat, i^ut spurs to his know thoroughly the i^art each di- horse, and was wildly rushing into vision was to play in the expected the wind-fall after the " Rowdies." battle. One of Wayne's staff, (I think Gen- The attack was to be made by the eral Beall,) to check so reckless a whole line, but when the final move, put spurs to his horse,' caught charge was ordered, the " Palefaces" the General's horse by the bit, and and " Bloodyheads" were to advance brought him to a stand still. But, to the charge, while the "Rowdies," without taking his eyes for an in- in the center, Avere to fall back and stant from the battle, Wayne slowly feign a retreat, and thus draw the settled back into his saddle, and Indians between the two wings, and with a hearty "Ha! Ha!" exclaim- cause them to be cut in pieces. ed: "see, the G—d d—d 'Rowdies, The battle was fought on the sending them to hell faster than the banks of the Maumee, August 20th, devil can receive them ! -,1794. The Indians, numbering two J. H. N. thousand warriors, had made a stand June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 61

BEAR HUNT ON THE MARSH.

A small cluster of timber, a little so thick that each hunter could see east of the Pigeon Koost, on the his neighbor but a few feet at most, Richmond Marsh, received its name nor could he tell by anything within fi'om its being the residence of an his sight, in what direction he was old bear, for many years previous to going, so that a constant hallooing 1846, and has since been known as was kept up along the line, as they "Bear Island." It is said the Rich- slowly advanced; sometimes turning mond squatters long suspected that heels forward to crush the unyield- a large bear harbored about the ing cane from their i^ath. In this marsh, from the annual appearance way they slowly approached the Is- of a new spot of bark torn from the land, but the bear had taken warn- trunk of a tree standing on the bor- ing from the clamor of the hunt, and der, and gravely considered it an ef- quietly slipped unobserved through fort on her part, to preserve a record the line, towards the uplands. of her age ; always leaving the marks A number of citizens who were of her huge jaws and teeth as she too cautious to approach the game grasped and tore the bark from the in her den, had stationed themselves, tree. rifle in hand, along the border of the Her retreat, when discovered, con- uplands, to intercept her, should she sisted of a heap of brush and grass, attempt to leave the marsh in any with an ingress low on side, and was direction. so massive, that the sides and roof Jacob Steel, had made his ambush were completely impervious to some two miles west, on Morehead's wind and rain—forming a. safe re- Point, and discovering the bear ap- treat in all seasons. proaching, made the fortunate shot. In the "winter of 1846, after sever- They tied a strip of bark to her nose, al failures, an efibrt was made to and " snaked " her three miles across surround a large portion of the marsh, the marsh to the north shore, where including "Bear Island," and the Steel lived. Dr. Hoy, of New Ha- Pigeon Roost, and if possible to kill ven, preserved the bones of her her. At the appointed time, a large head, as his trophy of the days number of hunters assembled, and sport. formed their line in the marsh The last bear seen in Richmond, around the Islands, and started for- Avas killed by James Read and ward. The tall cane grass that grew James Cooley, a year or two after. from eight to twelve feet high, was J. H. N. ;

62 THE FIBE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

THE LAST CHARIVARI OF GREENFIELD.

As the practice of "Charivaring" woodsman could follow far away in- still lingers in a modified form in to the forest. some of the ruder sections of the The first point to be decided, on Firelands, perhaps a description of assembling was, whether thej' should the custom of over thirty years ago, proceed with the charivari on Sun- may deserve a place in their history. day night, or wait till Monday. The Previous to 1832, there existed in more timorous hesitated to break Greenfield, a large organized band the Sabbath, but the resolute felt the of " charivariers," numbering some responsibility of the moment, and twenty or thirty persons, under the argued that the bridegroom had leadership of a tall specimen of a been an earnest co-worker in the New Hampshire Yankee, familiarly company, and for him to "play off" known as "Juggernaut." They nev- and skulk now, when his turn had er failed to pay a nocturnal visit to come, was an ofl'ense against the every new-married couple, no mat- dignity of the company, that demand- ter what their circumstances might ed immediate action, and the se- be, and always were, or expected to verest penalty known to the usages be, treated to a portion of the Aved- of the company. ding dainties, or to what was more A vote was taken and a majority acceptable to them—a jug of whis- were for ijroceeding immediately to business. The company separated One of the most faithful workers in quest of their favorite instru- of the company, in order to avoid the ments—tin Iiorns and cow bells. usual clamor of a charivari, was Tin horns Avere borrowed from all married privately, and kept the mat- who had them in the surrounding ter a secret for a number of days, neighborhood, and wherever a cow but the secret leaked out on Sunday bell could be heard to tinkle, the morning. Towards night the com- strap was quietly unfastened, and pany began to coUect on the village the bell borne away for the intended green, and soon numbered twenty sport. At length all Avas in readi- or thirty. A goodly number were ness, and the company formed in accompanied by their trusty dogs line, and marched, as Avas their cus- ; not the puny dogs of to-day, but tom, in Indian file to their place of large, noble dogs, that could kill a destination. wild cat, drive away a wolf, or drag- On arriving at the house, the or- down and capture a wounded deer der was given : "Around the house and whose loud echoing notes the and music! " and around they march- June, 1866.] THE FIEE LANDS PIONEER. 63

eel. The horns sounded, the bells had friends or homes in the neigh- rattled, and the dogs set in their borhood, started off for food, and prolonged doleful howlings, notice brought back cold meat, bread, and to all the surrounding settlements such dainties as they found at hand. that the " charivariers " were in pur- They laid their plans while eating, pursuit of a victim. But the groom and the company broke up into small did not appear. "Around the house squads. One was to watch this " and music ! was repeated with the path, leading into the woods to one same results till the order to "search settler, and another that, until eve- " the house ! was given. But after ry road, by-way, and cow path in searching the house from top to the settlement had their secret sen- bottom, the groom was not to be tinels. found. They were fairly foded, but About day light, they caught the where was he, was the question. wary bridegroom, but before night Suspicion pointed to a certain neigh- he wished they had not. His crime bor, and with music and quickstep, now deserved a penalty, and he they were soon on the ground, must pay it. The signal note was marched with their best music sounded, and the company came to- around the house, and demanded of gether and formed a line with the the proprietor a parley, but obtained culprit in the middle, and marched no reply. " Around the house and him away to the village tavern, music!" was the order, for they where with breakfast and dinner at knew that human endurance had its eighteen pence per meal, and whis- limits, and that such music as they ky at two-and-six-pence a gallon, could make would surely bring him they enjoyed an all day's "blow- to their terms. After two hours of out," at the culprit's expense. And marching and music, the answer a merrier and mellower set of row- came,—the groom was not there. dies, one seldom has the fortune to Foiled again! They well knew they meet. The penalty was dearly paid. were playing a game with one who But this was their last charivari, knew the game they were playing, and the company never met again and the shrewdness of those who in that capacity. were playing it. They had been out- But whatever of error and folly generaled so tar, and it was a rule, lay upon the surface of society in that what they could not do by cus- Greenfield thirty or forty years ago, tomary maneuvering, they must do it was not so deeply rooted but that by stratagem. "Let us go home!" time has long since obliterated all was the order, and with their best traces of its existence, excepting music, away they went. But their those upon the memory of the " old- night's work was not yet finished, est inhabitants." And itis but justice for they resolved, when iairly out of for me to say that many members hearing not to go home till they had of that company, now living, are found the bridegroom. But the honored members of both church night was fast wearing away, and and State. J. H. N. they were getting hungry. Such as :

64 THE FIRE LANBS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

EARLY DAYS ON THE FIRE LANDS,

BY REV. L. B. GURLEY.

The following is the substance of feehng; those upon whose heads lay the remarks made at the meeting at the snows that will never melt- It Vermillion, in September last had been his lot to have something He said he had listened with great to do with the develoi^ment of reli- interest to the proceedings of the gion in the Firelands and their vi- meeting, but had not prepared any- cinity. He was present at the first thing for delivery. Still he was meeting held in Bloomingville, when among pioneers, and with them in the first religious society in that old times it was customary to shoot township was organized. And ofl'-hand; they would not insult a among those present at the meeting, squirrel by taking a rest ; and he had was the celebrated Indian chief, Te- a right now to shoot in the same cumseh. manner, and what he should say Forty years since, at a mid-night would be ofF-hand. He spoke of the meeting in Florence township, when first time that his eyes ever rested the minister poured poured forth his upon the bosom of Lake Erie, fifty- lessons of religion, he a rude and four years ago; of bathing in its wicked boy of twenty years of age, sparkling element. Every sound gave his heart to God, and religion upon the Fire Lands was sweet had sweetened his whole life since. music to his ear; the chirping of the He had read that Cotton Mather birds in her forests, and even the was a veiy grave man and had never voice of the katy-did was more but once been known to smile in grateful ihan the music of the mag- church, and that was at seeing a nificent choirs of the great cities. wag in the gallery in front of him, Long years ago he had, with an drop a quid of tobacco into the gap- Indian tomahawk, helped his father ing mouth of a sleeper in the seat build his house in this then new below. The distortions of the coun- country ; and his ideal of the hap- tenance of the astonished man caus- piest home, is one made of round ed the grave and serious counten- logs, with a blazing fire in one end, ance of Cotton Mather to break into and a bed in each corner at the oth- a broad smile. er end, while the tempest howls If Mather had Kved among the pio- without. Scores of those present neers he would have had his gravity would sympathize with him in this tested upon more than one occasion. ;

June, 1866.] TUE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. 65

He recollected preaching once in an debated, was that one which has so old vacated out-building that had agitated our people ever since : "Is been iised for picking geese and it right to enslave the negro?" shearing sheep; he was rather care- For himself it was not easy to obtain ful of his personal appearance in knowledge ; books were very scarce those days, as he was young and the first book on theology that he unmarried and the ladies were very ever owned, he paid three dollars pleasant ; he used for a seat a keg for earning the money by splitting containing feathers, and had a rude rails at fifty cents "per hundred. barrel for a pulpit; while engaged Men must make themselves ! Learn- in prayer, tlie dogs of the settlement ing is of great value, but unless a into got a war outside, and a man work it will be vain- and if he luckless spaniel seeldng to escape does he must succeed ! It seemed its pursuers, ran into the building to him as if, in those old times, eve- andagainst the keg of feathers, up- ry man and woman helped to carry setting it and scattering its contents forward the rehgious work, and mu- all over him. It was a grave man sic was one of the most powerful who would not have laughed then. means. Sacred music, ballads and He confessed that his own gravity rehgious songs, were put forth with was nearly upset. wonderful pathos and power. He We have many men of strength remembered one camp meeting, at and ability who were developed in which the services had extended to those rude days. In Sandusky City, mid-night, when they had become thirty years ago, a bright and beau- dull and most of the audience had tiful boy used to come to his Sab- retired ; only a few earnest ones be- bath School; he was a quiet and ing left. At that solemn hour, when pleasant boy. Now that boy was all was still, a plain young country the great financial agent of the Gov- girl rose up, and standing on a bench, ernment—Jay Cooke. commenced to sing in a voice sweet, He remembered, too, a little boy full, round, sonorous, "Old Ship at Green Springs, who used to wel- Zion," commencing, "What ship is come him, and assist him in taking that is going to sail ? "—the sweet care of his horse, taking great pleas- tones extending far out into the sur- ure in waiting upon an humble Meth- rounding woods. Before two verses odist minister. That boy became had been sung, hundreds had arisen the great, the brave and amiable from their sleep, and surrounding General McPherson, who died for her were shouting and singing. his country, with her glorious stars The meeting continued until morn- and stripes floating over him. Many ing, fifty or sixty making earnest in- more of our boys may grow up like quiry concerning their salvation. him. But he must close; he had not come In those old times of which he had to the meeting with the intention of been speaking, a club of young men speaking. Mr. Gurley then, at the to which he belonged, used to meet request of the meeting, recited a and study evenings, and on Satur- finely conceived and well written days, selecting some Justice of the poem composed by himself many Peace as umpire, would spend the years ago, and founded upon a ro- whole day in debating. He remem- mantic Indian legend. bered that the first question the club —

THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF JOHN OMICK.

An account of the killing of Buel case occurred on the 26th of June, and Gibbs in 1812, is given in the his- 1812. When xi antiquarian fit was tory of Portland (Pioneer, Vol. 1, on the other daj^, we made, through No. 3,) That murder was so marked the kind permission of the gentle- an event in the history of that por- men of the office of the Clerk of the tion of the Fire Lands that every- Common Pleas Court, a search of th£ thing connected with the transac- records, and having found a queer tion deserves a place in these col- document, which proves to be the umns. first record of a trial for murder in The execution of Dr. John W. this count}% we propose to shake it Hughes at Cleveland, in February out in the light of common day and last, occasioned the pubhcation of in- let the air blow from the page, teresting articles respecting those whereon it is entered, the dust gath- who had suffered the death penalty ered during nearly two generations in that place. It would hardly be of men. just to the writers to condense the But for the right understanding of following articles; and, therefore, at the record by some of our readers, the risk of some repetition, they are we must make the preliminary state- given entire. The first is from the ment that Cuyahoga county in 1812 Cleveland Leader of February 5th, was not the contracted area we now 1866, and the second from the Cleve- see cramped down on the maps ; but land Herald of February 10th, 1866. it lay around in a loose, careless kind of fashion, reaching beyond Sau- THE TIME. OLDEN dusl^ on the west and stretched far enough east to embrace the present SOJIETHESTG IN THE ANTIQUARIAN LiNE county of Geauga. It was not, there- A Search of the Eecoeds—First — fore, at the time we write of, the Execution foe Murder in Cuya- "pent up Utica," known to the j'oung hoga in 1812 County, "John the geographers of our city schools of Omick,'' Son of an Indian, our to-day. Primitive Cain. In reading the document we dis- We have received authentic official cover the name of oul venerable information that there has never townsman, Mr. Levi Johnson, on the been but one execution in this county list of jurymen, being the last sur- for the murder of a party within the vivor of that number. We made limits of the county, and that this haste to find him, and ask that :

June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 67

the grave of his memory give up its event created a great stir, of course, dead. He accordingly went over the and the friendly Indians thereabouts affair, and we jot down the facts as became greatly alarmed, and finally they fell from his lips. agreed to hunt out the offenders and In the early spring of 1812 two deliver them up. They were readi- men, named Blichael Gibbs and Dan- ly discovered, as they had the guns, iel Buel, went from this place to traps and fur still in their possession. the townshii^ of Wheatsboro', and John, the son of Omick, was arrest- built a rude cabin on Pipe creek, a ed and delivered up to the authori- small stream about fourteen miles in ties of the people of a little settle- length, which empties into the bay ment at Huron, who passed him along near the present city of Sandusky, to this xjlace. Semo, finding the fag- which was then a small affair in the ots kindled about him were proving wajr of a settlement. They were hot, and conscious that he would be trappers, and owned several of the taken, shot himself, and so saved the best rifles and traps then manufac- authorities of Cuyahoga county, the tured. It seems that two Indians of trouble of trying and hanging him. the Chippewa tribe, named John Omick was chained to an iron sta- Omick, or John the son of Omick, ple driven in the floor of a room in alias Beaver, and Semo, coveted what was then known as Carter's these implements, and " not having building, the site of which is imme- the fear of God before their eyes," diately in the rear of Mr. George and " seduced by the instigation of Worthington's hardware store, corn- the devil," as the document reads, er of Superior and Water streets. determined to possess themselves of The trial was primitive. It lasted them. They accordingly went to the but one day, and was held in the cabin, and in a friendly maimer asked open air under a large cherry tree to stay over night. The recpiest on the spot now occupied by Mr. was granted. During the night the George Worthington's store. The "devil" began to "operate," as the indictment and the general record physicians say of pills, and John the read as follows son of Omick arose and dispatched The State of Ohio, Cuyahoga Co., 88. Buel with a tomahawk. How cir- Supreme Court, April Term, 1812. cumstantial the document ! It tells what kind of a helve the tomahawk The State of Ohio,) had, the stuff the "tommy" was made vs. off, and the cost. Semo shot Gibbs John Omick. with a pistol, and the pale faces per- Be it remembered that at a ses- ished unawares. sion of the Supreme Court of the A Mr. Nash was Kving in Sandusky State of Ohio, holden at Cleaveland, at the time, and early in the morn- in and for the County of Cuyahoga, on ing after the murder, his two sons, Wednesday, the "twenty-ninth of AIdcI and Joel, went back into the April, in the year of our Lord one woods with an ox team to get some thousand eight hundred and twelve, timber. On tlieir return they dis- before the Honorable William W. covered smoke a httle way off, "and, Irvin, and the Honorable Ethan Al- thinldng it strange, went to the cabin len Brown, Esc[uires, Judges of said of these trappers, and found it burn- Supreme Court, duly appointed and ing. With difficulty they rescued commissioned according to the laws the bodies of the men from the of the State of Oliio, The Jurors of flames, and then made haste to the the Grand Jury of the State of Oliio, settlement and gave the alarm. The to-wit : Asa Smith, Hezekiah King, 68 THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

Horatio Perry, Calvin Hoadlej^ Lem- Daniel Buel one mortal wound of uel Hoadley, Phinney Mowrej^, the breadth of three inches and of James Cudderbach, John Shirtz, the depth of three inches, of which Benjamin Jones, Jeremiah Everitt, said mortal wound the said Daniel Samuel Miles, Jacob Carad, and Buel then and there instantly died. Harvej" Murray, Good and lawfuU And so the Jurors aforesaid do say men of the County of Cuyahoga that the said John Omick, the said aforesaid, then and there returned, Daniel Buel then and there in man- irapanneiled, sworn, and charged to ner and form aforesaid, feloniously, enquire of and ijresent all Treasons, wilfully, unlawfully and of his malice Murders, Fellonies, and all other aforethought did kill and murder crimes and misdemeanours whatso- against the form of the statute in ever which shall have been com- such case made and provided and mitted or done within the limits of against the Peace and Dignitv of the said County of Cuyahoga, upon their State of Ohio. oaths present that John Omick, oth- And the Jurors aforesaid upon erwise called "John," the son of their Oaths further present that the Omick, alias Beaver, an Indian of the said Semo, an Indian of the Chippe- Chippewaj' tribe, being a person of way tribe, a person of sound mem- sound memorj' and discretion ; and ory and discretion—and John the Semo, an Indian of the Chippeway son of Omick, otherwise Beaver, oth- tribe, of sound memory and discre- erwise called John Omich, an Indian tion, not having the Fear of God be- of the Chippeway tribe, being " a fore their eyes, but being moved and person of sound memory and discre- seduced by the instigation of the tion," not having the fear of God devil, on the third day of April, in before their eyes, but being moved the year of our Lord one thousand and seduced by the instigation of eight hundred and twelve, on the the Devil, on the third day of April night of that day, with force and eighteen hundred and twelve afore- arms at Pipe Creek, in the Town- said on the night of that day, with ship of Wheatsborough in said Coun- force and arms at Pike creek afore- ty of Cuyahoga, in and upon one said in the town of Wheatsboro Daniel Buel, a human being, in the aforesaid in the County of Cuyaho- public peace, the peace of God and ga aforesaid, in and upon one Mich- the State, then and there being, Fel- ael Gibbs, a human being in the pub- loniously, willfully, unlawfully and lic peace, the peace of God and the of their malice aforethought, did State then and there being, felloni- make an assault and that the said ously, willfully, unlawfull_y and of John Omick with a certain Toma- their malice aforethought did then hawk made of iron and Steele with a and there make an assault, and the wooden handle or helve therein of said Semo ^^^th a certain pistol, of the value of One Dollar, which Tom- the value of one dollar, then and ahawk the said John Omick in his there loaded and charged with gun- right hand then and there held, the powder and one leaden bullet, which said Daniel Buel in and ui:)on the head pistol he, the said Semo, then and of him the said Daniel Buel, then and there, in his right hand had and there feloniously, willfully, unlaw- held, to, against and upon the said fully and of his malice aforethought, Michael Gibbs then and there, fel- did Strike, Thrust and Cut, giving to loniously, willfully, unlawfully, and the said Buel then and there with of his malice aforethought, did shoot the Tomahawk aforesaid in and upon and discharge, and that the said the head aforesaid of him the said Semo with the leaden bullet afore- :

Jime, 1866.] THE FIEE LAOT)S PIONEER. 69

said out of the pistol aforesaid, tlieu the said Supreme Court above nam- and there bj^ force of the gunpowder ed, here cometh the said John Omick shot and sent forth as aforesaid, the under the custody of Samuel S. aforesaid Michael Gibbs in, upon and Baldwin, Esquire, Sheriff of said through the body of him, the said county, in whose custody in the jail Michael Gibbs, a little below the of said county for the cause afore- right shoulder of him, the said Mich- said he had been before committed, ael Gibbs, and through the body of being brought to the bar here in him, the said Michael Gibbs, then liis proper person by the said Sher- and there with the leaden bullet iff, to whom he is here also commit- aforesaid by the said Semo so as ted, and forthwith being demanded aforesaid shot, discharged and sent concerning the premises in said in- forth felloniously, willfiiUy, unlaw- dictment above specified and charg- fully, and of his malice aforethought, ed upon him how he will acquit him- did strike, penetrate and wound self thereof he saith that he is not

giving to the said Michael Gibbs, guUty thereof ; and thereof for good then and there with the leaden bul- and evil i^uts himself upon the conn-

let aforesaid, so as aforesaid shot, try ; and Alfred Kelley Esquire who discharged and sent forth out of the prosecutes for the State in this be- pistol aforesaid by the said Semo, in, half doth the like. Therefore let a upon and thro' the body of him, the jury thereupon immediately come said Michael Gibbs, a little below t)efore the said Judges of the said Su- the right shoulder of the said Mich- preme Court of free and lawful men ael Gibbs, one mortal wonnd of the residing as near as may to the place depth of eight inches and of the of residence of the said Michael breadth of half an inch, of which Gibbs late of Pike Creek, Wheats- said mortal wound the said Michael boro Township, in the county of Gibbs then and there instantly died, Cuyahoga aforesaid, by whom the and that the said John Omick then truth of the matter may be better and there felloniously, "willfully, un- known, and who ^are not of kin to lawfully and of his malice afore- the said John Ornick, to recognize thought, was in'esent aiding, helping, upon their oath whether the said abetting, comforting, assisting, and John Omick be guilty of the felony maintaining the said Semo the felo- and murder in the indictment afore- ny and murder aforesaid in manner said above specified, or not guilty, and form aforesaid to do and com- because as well the said Alfred Kel- mit. And so the jurors aforesaid ley, who prosecutes for the State in do say that the said Semo and John this behalf, as the said John Omick Omick, the said Michael Gibbs then have put themselves upon the said and there in manner and form afore- said felloniously, willfully, unlawful- And the jurors of the said jury, by ly and of their own maUce afore- the Sheriff for this purpose returned thought did kill and murder agamst and impanneled, to wit, Hiram Rus- the form of the statute in such case sell, Levi Johnson, Philemon Bald- made and provided, and against the win, David Bunnel, Charles Gunn, peace and dignity of the State of Christopher Gunn, Samuel Dille, Eli- Ohio. jah Gunn, David Barret, Dyer Shear- And afterwards, to vnt, at the man, Wilham Austin and Seth same session of the Supreme Court Doane, being called came, who be- in said county, on the in the ing elected, tried and sworn to year eighteen hundred and twelve speak the truth of and concerning aforesaid, before the said Judges of the premises, upon their oath say, 70 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEEK. [June, 1866.

That the said John Omick is guilty Another half pint Avas brought? of the fellony and murder aforesaid which, having shared the fate of on him above charged in form afore- its predecessor, stimulated the ora- said, as by the indictment, aforesaid tor immensely, and he went into is above supposed against him. And the merits of the case -with far more upon this it is forthwith demanded particularity. He evidently scorned " of the said John Omick if he hath the pale-faces, and said : Two days or knoweth anytliiug to say where- to-morrow come back here with fore the said Court ought uot upon great many Injuns and kill 3^ou all the premises and verdict aforesaid off." This was all the English he to proceed to judgment against him, deigned to use on the occasion, save according to the form of the statute the simple exclamation, "Too high! in such case made and provided. Injuns laugh at me." This he said Who nothing further saith unless as wiien looking at the gallows and re- before he hath said. Whereupon flecting on the disgraceful mode of all and singular, the premises being death. seen and by said Court here iuWy un- He soon called for more whisky, derstood, it is considered bj^ said although quite drunk by that time. Court that the said John Omick be Before the request was complied taken by the said Sheriff of said with. Judge Walworth made a County to the jail thereof from speech, denouncing the proceedings whence he came, and from thence as barbarous,—a speech which had to the place of execution ou Friday, the effect to stop further demonstra- the twenty-sixth day of June next, tions in that line. and then and there, between the Sheriff Baldwin then strapped bourse of twelve and two of the Omick's hands firmly behind him, clock, in the afternoon of that day, drew the cap over his eyes, and ad- be hanged by the neck until he be justed the rope; after which he dead. mounted his horse and was about to Wm. W. Irvin, Presiding Judge. sever the rope with a hatchet, when It wdl be seen that John the son it was discovered that the convict of Omick was sentenced to be exe- had in some way got hold of the cuted on the 26th of Juue. The " line " above his head. The officer gallows were set up on Avhat is now was forced to get off' his charger, and the Public Square, and stood about right matters with John the son of midwaj^ between the monument and Omick. When all was thought to the terminus of west Superior street. be well, he again took to horse, but The gallows consisted ot two upright before he could cut the rope, the posts joined at the top by a cross supple Indian bounded and caught piece, which was strengthened by a hold of one of the braces with his brace on either side. The rope was pinioned hands! The Sheriff must passed through the center of the dismount once more and re-adjust cross piece, and was tied as support John. The third trial was a success; to the platform. John the son of the Indian was strangled. When Omick was placed on this platform life was pronounced extinct, the by Sheriff Baldwin, when he called "boys" drew the head of Omick for "fire water." A half pint of close up to the cross piece, and sud- whisky was brought, which he gulp- denly letting go, the corpse dropped, ed in a desperate sort of way, when and fell whole length into the grave he entered upon an oration in the which had been akeady dug under pure IncUan tongue. He soon called the platform. And to this day the for more fire water. remains of John the son of Omick, :

June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER, 71

the man who on one unfortunate oc- A partjr of three or four went from casion had not the fear of God be- the head of Cold Creek, (now Casta- fore his eyes, but allowed himself to lia, Ohio,) to bury them. In wash- be seduced by the instigation of the ing the body of Gibbs a spear was

devit, rest in Monumental Park. taken out of his head ; it was about three inches long and two inches THE FIRST EXECUTION IN CLEVELAND. broad at the butt end, running to a On the night of the last of March, point. There was a shank at the

or first of April, 1812, Michael Gibbs butt end, with square shoulders ; the and Daniel Buel were Idlled by two shank was set in a club and fastened. Indians named Semo and Omick, at The blade entered under the ear, the cabin of Gibbs, near Sandus- and the shank broke ofl' and left the ky. This cabin was still standing in blade in. The latter circumstance

1859 ; it was on the Milan road and led to the detection of the murder- within the late enclosure of the ers. The blade was recognized as State Fair grounds at Sandusky. belonging to Semo by the person Buel was a trapi^er and went one who had made it for him but a short evening to pass the night with time previous. The Indians were Gibbs. On the same evening the arrested, but Semo made his escape Indians called as friends, to stay to his tribe and claimed their pro- over night. Gibbs was engaged pre- tection. He was arrested the sec- paring supper, and Buel being tired ond time and brought to a house and wet, had spread his blanket on near Fremont. While a messenger the floor and lay with his feet to the was sent to notify the whites to open fire. Gibbs went out doors come and get him, he destroyed

to get some wood, and while out Se- himself with a rifle ; though pinion- mo seized an axe and buried its edge ed with his arms behind him, he in the face of Buel. Buel sprang contrived to get the muzzle of the to his feet and made for a gun sus- piece to his head, and discharged it pended upon the side of the cabin, Avith his toe. but a second blow from the axe Omick was brought to Cleveland brought him to the floor a corpse. and tried before the Supreme Court The pole of the axe was buried in of Cuyahoga county, in April 1812, his head, and one arm cut ofl", oon- convicted and sentenced to be hung nected only by a little skin. Gibbs, on the 29th day of June following. on opening the door, received a blow The gallows was erected on the across the face from the handle of north side of the square, near Onta- the axe. With a stick of wood he rio street. An eye witness of the felled Semo to the floor, but Omick first execution in this county, gives struck the right arm of Gibbs with the following account of it. He the blade of his war club, which says wholly disabled it. Gibbs turned I was present at the execution, and ran about ten or twelve rods and as distinctly recollect the facts from the cabin, when a ball from I shall narrate, as I did the night of the pistol of Semo brought him the day when they occurred. 1 was down. The Indians then plundered not at the trial, but I understood that the house of five dollars in money, Peter Hitchcock was assigned as some furs and blankets, and attempt- counsel for the accused. The custo- ed to burn it, but the floor being- dy of the prisoner was assigned to green the fire went out. The bodies Lorenzo Carter, (there being no of Gibbs and Buel lay several days jail,) because he Avas a man of un- before the murder was discovered. common energy, and because he had ;

72 THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. [Jime, 1866. more influence over the Indians than in front of where the old Court any other man in the West, or at House was erected. After tlie re- least in Cuyahoga county. Mr Car- ligious exercises were over, Major ter's house was on the high ground Jones endeavored to form a hollow near the bank, to the right of the square, so that the prisoner shoiild road that descended the hill to the be guarded on all sides. He rode ferry across the river, and to the left backwards and forwards with drawn of the street that leads to where the sword, epauletts and scabbard flying, light-house stands. The prisoner but he did not know what order to was confined in a chamber of Mr. give. The wagon moved ahead and

Carter's house. Strong irons were stopped ; but as the Sherifl' doubted above his ankles, with which whether he Avas to be aided by the was connected a staple that was military, he proceeded onward. driven into a joist that supported the Major Jones finally took the sug- floor, so that the prisoner could not gestion from some one who told him go to any window. Probably I to ride to the head of the line and should have said with more accura- double it round until the front and cy, that a chain was attached to the rear of the line met. Arriving at fetters, and a staple was attached to the gallows, Mr. Carter, the Sherifi; the other end, which was driven in- and Omick, ascended to the platform to the joists, etc. After his comdc- by a ladder. The arms of the prison- tion, Omick told Mr. Carter and er were loosely pinioned. A rope Sherift' Baldwin, (who was from Dan- was round his neck with a loop in bury,) that he would let the pale- the end ; another was let down faces see how an Indian could die through a hole in the top piece on that they need not tie his arms, but which was a hook, to attach to the when the time came he would jump rope around the neck. The rope off from the gallows. Before Mr. with the hook was brought over to Carter's house, in the direction of one of the posts and fastened to it Superior street, was an open space, near the ground. After a short lit- somewhat extensive, and covered tle time, Mr. Carter came down, with grass. The religious exercises leaving Omick and Sheriff' Baldwin were held there. Several clergy- on the platform. As the Sheriff men were i)resent, and I think the drew down the cap, Omick was the sermon was delivered by Rev. Mr. most terrified being, rational or irra- DaiTow, of Vienna, Trumbull coun- tional, that I ever saw, and seizing ty. The military were commanded the cap with his right Iiand, which by Major Jones, a fine looking he could reach by bending his head officer in full uniform, but he was in and inclining his neck in that direc- the condition that Captain McGufiy, tion, he stepped to one of the posts of Centervile, said he was in, when and put his arm around it. The Sher- he was commanded to perform an iff" approached him to loose his hold evolution by his company, and could and for a moment it was doubtful " not do it. His explanation was : I whether Omick would not throw know Baron Steuben perfectly well, him to the ground. Mr. Carter ascend- but I cannot commit him to prac- ed the platform, and a negotiation, in tice." Omick sat on his coffin in a a regular diplomatic style was had. wagon painted for the occasion. He It was in the native's tongue. As I was a fine looldng young Indian, understood at the time, Mr. Carter and watched everything that occur- appealed to Omick to display his ed with much anxiety. The gallows courage, narrating what he had said was erected on the Pubhc Square, about showing the pale-faces how June, 1866.; THE FIRE LANDS PIONEEK. 73 an Indian could die, but it had no ef- end of his fingers on tiie right hand fect. Finalljr, Omick made a propo- between the rope and liis neck. sition, that if Mr. Carter would give The rope that held up one end of the him half a pint of whisky he would platform was cut, and the body consent to die. The whisky was swung in a straight line towards tiie soon on hand in a large glass tum- lake as far as the rope permitted and bler, real old Monongahela for which returned, and after swinging forth an old settler would almost be wil- and backward several times, and the ling to be hung if he could now ob- weight being about to be suspended tain the like. The glass was given perpendicular under the center of to Omick and he drank the whisky the top of the gallows, the body in as little time as he could have turned in a circle and finally rested turned it out of the glass. Mr. Car- still. ter again came down, and the Sher- At that time a terrific storm ap- iff again drew down the cap, and the peared and came up from the north- same scene was again re-enacted, north-west with great rapidity, to Omick expressing the same terror. avoid which, and it being doubtful Mr. Carter again ascended to the whether the neck was broken, and platform, and Omick gave the honor to accomplish so necessary a part of of an Indian in pledge, that he a hanging, the rope was drawn would not longer resist the sentence down with the design of raising tlie of the Court if he should have body, so that, by a sudden relaxing another half pint ot whisky. Mr. of the rope, the body would fall Carter representing the people of several feet and thereby dislocate Ohio and the dignitj^ of the laws, the neck beyond any doubt; but thought the terms were not unrea- when the body fell, the rope broke sonable, and the whisky was forth- as readily as a tow string, and it fell coming on short order. The tum- upon the ground. The coflin and bler was not given to Omick, but it grave were near the gallows, and the was held to his mouth, and as he body was picked up, put into the sucked the whisky out, Mr. Baldwin coffin, and the coffin immediately put drew the rope that pinioned his into the grave. The storm was arms, more tight, and the roi^e was heavy, and all scampered but Omick. drawn down to prevent the prisoner The report was at the time, that the from going to the post, and to pre- surgeons at dusk raised the body, vent him from pulling off his cap. and that when it lay on the dissect- The j)latforni was immediately clear- ing table, it was easier -to restore ed of all but Omick, who run tlie than to cut it up.

The Worcester Spy prints a gen- range from five to twenty cents, uine curiosity in a doctor's bill, da- and the highest amount in the col- ted no longer ago than 1830. The umn is " to sundry medicine, com- price of a visit in those days was fif- pound tincture, and the box, .39." teen cents, but when the conscien- The total of the bill, which is for con- tious physician took one ride to see stant attendance and medicine for a several patients, he divided the price period of eight months, the visit av- among them, so that the most fre- eraging as often as once a Aveek, is quent item in the bill is " to part less than five dollars. visit, .08." The charges for medicine 10 74 THE FIKE LANDS PIONEEK. [June, 1866.

[From the Sandusky Register.]

THE SANDUSKY CLARION ; OR EVENINGS WITH THE PIONEERS.

EVENING THE FIFTEENTH—rCONTINrED FROM VOL. SIX.)

Mr. Asa Smith, the iather of our in the winter of ISll. Arrived at informant, died on the farm where he the mill in the woods in the originally settled, a little west of night and found nobody there. the month of the Huron, August He went into an unoccupied cabin 30th, 1815, and thus never lived in and spent the night, wet and cold, Sandusky, as stated to us bj' some of without fire or an.y other comfort the pioneers. The family after his In the morning he went two miles death removed to Sandusky; but to the house of tlie miller, a Mr. Lee, Mr. Asa Smith never resided here. who had been wounded in the bat- It has been somewhere stated that tle on the Peninsula. He thinks a Mr. Wright was the first justice of that if this mill had been built in 1810, the peace at Huron. Mr. Smith's as stated in Jabez AVright's letter to recollection is that his father was John Walbridge, it could not have elected at the first election held been in operation, as he remembers there, on the first Monday in April, that he went to Cleveland to get 1811, and that a Mr. Newcorab was milling done in the fall of 1811, and elected constable at the same time. others went there and to Monroe, Jabez AVright was afterward elected and this would not have been, if a justice of the peace in Mr. Smith's there had been a mill only a few

place ; but at the time when Mr. miles from home. Smith was a magistrate, Mr. Wright Mr. S. thinks Dr. Ansolem Guth-

was engaged as a surveyor, and ly was tlie first physician in Huron ; could not have been a justice of the and it is his recollection tliat he peace. came there in 1816. He remembers Mr. vS. says the first saw-mill in that he exchanged horses with tlie that part of the county was built by Doctor in the fall of 1816, and is '.fudge Ruggles, on Cranberry Creek. quite certain that he had been thei'e He had also a grist mill, the first one but a few mo!iths at that time. Dr. built in the east part of the county. Dake came in 1817. AVe have made He remembers going to mill there mention of these matters as stated June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. 76

by Mr. S., because they difFei- some- first of April, Mr. Smith, with his what from previous accounts as giv- mother and the whole familj", left en in the "Pioneer." Huron and came to Sandusky on the After the death of Mr. Asa 8mith, ice, and went into the frame build- the family resided on the farm until ing erected the previous j^ear. In the spring of 1817, when they mov- the spring of ISIS, a man named ed into a tavern at the mouth of the Hector Kilbourne, came here and Huron, on the west side. It was the was employed to make a new sur- usual double log structure, built by ve}^ of the town. In tliis survey a man named Hayes. Here they one lot Aws added to the east of the kept a public house and had charge one selected by Mr. Smith, and in of tlie ferry for one year. the winter following, Mr. Cyras W. In the summer of 1817, Judge Zal- Marsh bought this corner lot and mon Wildman ofl'ered some lots in built the " Steamboat Hotel,"' now Sandusivy City at public sale. The known as the "Old Verandah." sale proved a failure, as there seem- His family lived meantime in a room ed to be no purchasers. With a done off in one corner of the " Old view to accommodate those who had White Store," in which Mr. Moors already commenced business at San- Farwell was then doing business. duslcy, and to invite others to come, It was during this year that Dr. as well as to biing his land into mar- Anderson came down from Venice ket, Judge Wildman went to Huron and l5oarded with Mr. W. B. Smith and proposed to Mrs. Smith and her and his mother. The Doctor board- son that if they would build and ed with them two years or more. keep a boarding-house at Sandusky, In the summer of 1818, Mr. Smith he would give them a lot of land on commenced the building of the two- which to locate the same. Mr. story brick, which stiil remains and Smith came here and selected a lot forms a part of the "old Verandah," on what was then the corner of and is the oldest brick structure in Wayne and Water streets, west of Sandusky. It will soon be half a AVayne and south of Water, and century old, and is so far as we know, erected a frame building, 18x22 the oldest structure left which con- feet with good chambers above. nects the present with the infancy This building was torn down by Mr. of our town. Thus it will be seen, Porter, a few years since. It stood Mr. Smith erected the second frame just back of the little brick which building, the first frame dwelling, forms a part of the old Verandah. and the first brick building put up A Mi-s. DeZang, a widow lady and a in Sandusky. The "Old Wiiite Store" half-sister of Mr. Smith, went into which stood opposite and a little to the house and kept a boarding-house the west of Smith's lot, was erected until winter, when she returned to in 1817, by Z. Wildman, and was up Huron. Moors Farwell, Silas Dewey before Smith's frame house was and Amos Fenn boarded Avith her erected. The building of the brick during the summer. Dewey and structure was quite an imdertaking Fenn afterwards married sisters of for those times. By some turn of

Mr. Smith ; the wives are both the wheel, which is immaterial to dead. Amos Fenn is still living at our purpose, Mr. Smith failed to get Clyde. Dewey went east and is still a title to his lot and eventually lost living. both the land and the buildings. In the spring of 1818, about the —

76 THE FIEE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

THE OPENINCx OF THE ERIE CANAL.

Forty years ago to-day, the formal the Mississippi Eiver and its tribu- celebration of the opening of the taries, but for that canal, the pio- Erie Canal was held simultaneously neer of ours and all others at the and enthusiastically at all the jjlaces West. The railroads of the then fu- along the canal. The meeting of the ture daj^ have been and always waters of Lake Erie and of the^ud- would be entirely insufficient for the son River was the occasion of much necessities of the great west. The rejoicing. The meeting took place Erie Canal set other minds at work at Lockport, and the late Captain in other States, and such men as Daniel Cady, of this city, put the Benjamin Tappan, Alfred Kelley, M. first boat through the locks at that T. Williams, Governor Worthington, place, in which he was assisted by and a score more of such in Ohio Major Henry Olds, now residing here. to whose sagacit}', energy and integ-

—Syracuse' Journal ^ Oct. 2oth. rity we owe greatly more than we We do not think the Journal is shall ever pay, began the agitation demonstrative enough about the of our canal policy as soon as the great celebration of October 25th, completion of the Erie Canal was 1825. Nothing of the kind at that assured, and which resulted in the day had even equaled it in this coun- construction of our canals. True, try. The first boat left Buffalo with financially, they have proved failures all the most prominent magnates of since the introduction of railroads the State, DeWitt Clinton being at in every direction through the State, the front, to traverse the whole line and we have the debt incurred for of the Canal, and their progress was them to pay b3' taxation, but the in- an ovation exhibiting the wildest creased wealth of our people by rea- enthusiasm till thej' reached the son of them would pay this debt a battery in the city of New York. dozen times over. Cannon were placed witliin hearing The first cost of the Erie Canal, of the report of each other, from we think, was not more than eight Buffalo to Montauk Point on the millions of dollars, but with branch east end of Long Island, a distance canals and enlargements the pres- of almost seven hundred miles, and ent sum would reach forty millions, when the boat started, the fii'st can- we suppose, and large as that may non was followed as fast as sound seem, we do not hesitate to express could travel from one extreme to the the opinion that out of that directly other. Even here in the little ham- and incidentally, the resulting in- let of Cleveland, tradition has it that crease in the value of the property there was a " high old time " among in the West has been equal to a the four or five hundred residents much greater amount than our pres- then composing the sum total of its ent national debt, whether it be population. three thousand millions or four, and Of tlie importance of that canal the end of the stream of rich fruits enterprise, the present generation is not yet, nor will it terminate has no adequate conception. The while our Government lasts Cleve- whole West would have been de- land Herald. pendent, in a great measure, upon June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEEK. 77

OBITUARY NOTICES.

J0SP:PU TAYLOR. the numbers that gathered to pay Died October 20th, 1865, at his the last tribute to his memoiy. He residence in Perkins township, Mr. leaves a bereaved circle of friends, Josepli Taylor, aged seventy-six who "knew him only to love him." But we shall meet again yes, yeai's, two months and nine days. ; we " Joseph Taylor was born in Con- shall meet in the white radiance of necticut, 1789. He removed to eternity." t. b. t. Ohio in the fall of 1815. In compa- DATUS KELLEY. ny with many others he endured all the privations and hardships incident Died on January 24,1866, at the res- to pioneer life. How numerous are idence of his son, on Kelley's Island, they who, year after year, waged in- Datus Kelley, aged seventy-seven cessant war with the forest, amid the years and nine months. hardships of a new country ; and it Mr. Kelley first visited Cunning- is witii commendable pride that as ham's Island as what is now known they become aged, and as they sit as Kelley's Island was then called, in the shadow of years, that they and became, jointly with his brother look on the broad and well tilled Irad, interested in the title of the acres that their strong hands have same, sometime in the autumn of cleared. Such should have all the 1833, and moved his family there honor and praise. Stern and rugged from Rockport, Ohio, in the spring men as they are, ever enduring mon- of 1836. Since his first visit there, uments to their herculean labor, the his life has iormed no inconsiderable true conquerors, whose brows part of the history of the Island. should be entwined with the oak and For two or three years past Ms the laurel. Let their memories be health had seemed to fail him, and perpetuated. Such men need no la- for several months it had become ev- bored eulogy to set forth their mer- ident to his friends, that he was its ; but to hold in grateful remem- slowly but surely fading from earth. brance the illustrious dead, is not For some two years he had suffered only a debt we owe to them, but a from partial paralysis and general duty we owe to ourselves and pos- dropsy, and other maladies incident terity. To this honored class be- to old age, came in as instruments to longed the late Joseph Taylor. As cut him down, and at half past-five a husband and father, he was kind on Wednesday morning last, com- and indulgent; as a friend and pleted the work. neighbor, genial and obliging. He MRS. PLINY BROWN. was a consistent christian, ever striv- ing to retain his religious integrity. Mrs Pliny Brown departed this He needs no higher encomium than life on the 23d instant, at the resi- 78 THE FIRE LANBS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

dence of her son, Orlando Brown, The first minister that ever visited Esq., in Margaretta. Her remains, the township lodged with him in his attended by a goodly number of cabin. friends and neighors, were, on tiae Twelve years ago he had a Neu- 24th instant, interred by the side of ralgic attack since which he has been those of her husband, whose death an intense sufferer and cripple. Al- preceded hers but five years. though confined much of the time Mrs. Brown was born in Ashley, to his house, he was yet often able Connecticut, in 1785, and came to to ride and sometimes walk to Ohio with her husband in 1816. church, from M'hich place no slight They settled in Margaretta, where illness or trivial circumstance ever they I'esided, except two brief inter- kept him. Often has the writer of vals, till death removed them, as we this seen him, with a staff" in each trust, to a better and brighter world. hand slowly and painfully wending For thirty years Mrs- Brown was his was thither. He conversed free- a faithful member of the Presbyte- ly and feelingly upon the subject of rian Church at Castalia. In her later religion, and often spoke with bright years, being infirm in health and a anticipations of his home above. great sufferer, she was watched over For some weeks before his death, with assiduous care and filial atten- his wife was seemmgly at the gates tion by her son and his interesting of death, which caused him often to and devoted family. Thus she has express fears that she would be ta- made her way through all the priva- ken first. His desire was to go be- tions, hardships, trials, and toils of a fore, which desire was granted. His western pioneer, and gained a haven aged wife and five of their children of rest. s. A. B. are yet behind. May they all when NAHUJI GILSON. called to follow, rejoin him on yon- der peaceful shore. Died, in Nor\yich, Huron county, E. Y. WARNER. Ohio, June 14th, 1864, of erysipelas, EZRA CHAPPELL. Nahum Gilson, in his seventy-sec- ond year. He was born in the'State The New London (Conn.) Daily of Connecticut, came to the place Star announces the death of Ezra where he died, in 1817, cleared a Chappell, July 1st, 1865, at the age of patch of ground and erected a cabin. eighty-nine. In the fall of ISIS, he returned east, Mr. Chapi)ell was well known to married Miss Sally Ormes, January many in Cleveland. He was the un- 28th, 1819, and immediately with his cle of Mi-s. Parsons, mother of Hon. bride set out for his wilderness home. R. C. Parsons. In former years, He was thus one of the pioneers Mr. Chappell made large invest- who helped to plant civilization and ments in Ohio, especially at Nor- religion in this, the then far oif West. walk, in Huron county, where his Of those who settled in the town- annual visits brought him into inti- ship, as early as he, but two or three mate business relations with the now remain. He was a land neigh- principal men of that vicinity, and bor, devoted husband and father, where his death will be sincerely true patriot and a faithful and exem- mourned, as the loss of a personal plary christian. For forty-three friend. years he was a consistent member of He was one of an eminent gener- the Methodist Episcopal Church, was ation which is fast passing away—" a one of the first class that ever or- gentleman of the old school," a man ganized in the township, in 1S21. of the strictest integrity—" right to a June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEEK. T9

shaving." At one period he was al- " Rocky river," as fromi the ferry boat jnost the sole financial agent of his the teams on the west side had own city, and was then as wgll to plunge into a slough, from which known and appreciated in Wall it was very steep to gain the side street as any of its old money kings. lying road ascending the bank. His life was as pure as the quaiut- All the long journey of five hundred ness of his personal habits and char- miles, the "Rocky river" had been acter. In every walk of life he was a hideous spectre ever flitting before himself and " we ne'er shall look up- the imagination. At this lime the on his like again." In all business village of Cleveland was first reach- transactions he was very exact, but ed from the east on emerging from withal was very generous and open- the Euclid bush road on the west handed, especially to the poor. side of the square or park. His faith was firm and of the real The subject of this notice was no-

Puritan stamp ; and his religious ted for household industry, and econ- character as quaint and practical as omy, especially in the war of 1812.

• his business life, but " rich in good Having a large family to clothe, the works." " home made " was in good sui^ply. For many years his chief occupa- Flax, cotton and wool, were taken tion has been to " clothe the desti- to the carding machine, the spin- tute," and "deal his bread to the ners, the weavers, the clothiers in hungry." He enjoyed an "after- different neighborhoods. For seven- noon of leisure and an evening of ty consecutive years, till the last one rest," and has " come to his grave of her life, she worked with her in a full age, like as a shock of own hands the butter for the family

corn Cometh in his season." use, and a surplus for sale ; and at the Golden Wedding four or five MRS. CATHERINE PENFIELD. years since, of the late Rev. Dr. Died, at the residence of her son, Betts, of Brownhelm, her plate of R. H. Penfield, in Elyria, on Sunday butter was selected from among evening, October 29th, 1865, widow others as the banner plate. In lat- Catherine Penfield, of Penfield, ter years she had taken a lively in- aged eighty-eight years, relict of Pe- terest in the Republican cause, and ter Penfield Esq., whom she surviv- at the late State election of the 10th, ed thirteen years. She died in the towards the close of the day, fre- exercise of a strong faith in the quently inquired how the vote was. * merits of the Savior, having been a In the evening inquiry was made at professor of religion near seventy the newspaper olfice, when the years. Her remains were taken to probable majority was stated at 20,- Penfield for sepulture. The family 000; tliis atiorded her much satis- emigrated to Penfield in 1821, where faction. She Avas a native of Bridge- she lived till \vithin the past year. port, Connecticut, daughter of Elijah Her husband built the first log house Hawley, Esq., whose grave, as that in the town, in 1819. This, with sev- of the mother, is in the same ceme- eral contiguous townships in Lorain tery of Penfield. Deceased remem- and Medina counties were then one bered the case when a stalwart ne- solid body of unbroken forest. In gi-o was sold in Connecticut, at the the migration of the family, tiie current market value of £80 or §200. " Cattaraugas Woods" was to them, Slavery existed ac that time in that

as to all emigrants in those days, a State. ' She also remembered when source of anticipated dread, but to cotton was universally carded by them even tiiis was secondary to hand-cards, in Connecticut. 80 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

JUDGE LYMAN. Black River," The batteaux was wrecked opposite the now township died in Cleve- Judge Darius Lyman of Dover, and all hands lost save a 18- land, on the 13th of December, Mr. Plumb, who floated ashore at 65, at the age of seventy-six. He the foot of a rocky jprecipice, which was a native of Goshen, Connecti- he could not scale, and from which cut, and was the youngest son of he was relieved by the arrival from Col. Moses Lyman, of Revolutiona- Black River of Nathan Perry and ry fame. He studied law and came Quintius F. Atkins. to Ravenna, in this State, in May, On Mr. Perry's return to Cleve- 1814, where he remained during land, which was before the war of most of his life. He was the first le- '12, he engaged in trade with the gal practitioner in the town. He Indians. Mr. Perry's house and served in both Houses of the Legis- store, under one roof, stood at the lature 1816 and 1833. In between corner of what is now Superior and 1832 he was the candidate of the Water streets, where the Central Anti-Masonic and National Repub- Buildings now stand. His house lican parties for Governor, and was was the third house built in Cleve- beaten by his opponent Robert Lu- land. cas, by 8,000 votes. He was the Mr. Peny made the great bulk of prominent advocate in the Legisla- his fortune by purchasing real es- ture of the building of the Ohio tate, of which, as most of our city Canal. In 1850 he was again chos- readers know, he died largely pos- en to the Senate, and became identi- sessed. He made some money, fied Soil with the Free party. Du- however, in the fur traffic with the ring the nine years between 1855 Indians, their hunting grounds at and 1864, he lield the position of that day being bounded on the east Probate Judge of Portage county. by the Cuyahoga river. It is related was also a member of the Board He oi' Mr. Perry that one time taking of Trustees of the Western Reserve $12,000 worth of furs to New York, College. The Ravenna Democrat, he followed the wagon containing from which we condense the above them from Bufl'alo to New York. facts, describes Judge Lyman as a On arriving in that city he encoun- pattern of stern morality and a tered John Jacob Astor, who en- sound and valuable attorney. deavored to get from Mr. Perry the NATHAN PERRY. asking price of his furs. Mr. A. be- coming importunate, Mr. P. told him The death of Mr. Perry removes flatly that he could not have the furs from us the pei'son longest resident at any price. Mr. P. had made up in Cleveland. Mr. Perry came to the his mind that he could do better spot where Cleveland now stands, with any one else than Mr. Astor, in 1801. He soon went to Black Riv- hence declined any sale to him, and er and engaged in trade. How loiig would not even show his furs to Mr. deceased remained at Black River Astor, who was the great fur mer- we do not know. An incident of chant of those days. his life, given in Howe's Ohio, re- As showing the great advance lates that in the Spring of 1807, a made in real estate here during the fishing expedition set out from life time of the deceased, we will Cleveland for Maumee river. The mention the fact that between 1820 vessel was a Canadian batteaux, on and '25, Mr. Peny purchased that board which were goods "sent by elegant property on which his home- Major Perry to his son Nathan a't stead is located, running east, and June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 81 amounting to some seventy acres, Fredonia, N. Y.,) were only con- for five dollars an acre. Later than catenations of their begun pioneer that time he purchased a number of life. Stately forests invited and acres where the Medical College wearied sturdy arms; a strife for liv- stands for ten dollars an acre. We ing impelled earnest vigor, and vis- have said that Mr. Perry's wealth ions of "good for the next generation" was due to fortunate purchases of encouraged unrepining settlers. real estate, and a few years since Then were unplanned the "Erie Ca- Mr. P. told a friend that he never nal," nor the strong schooner—much made $20,000 in trade. less the docile steamer. To the The last illness of Mr. P. was of present active generation these about five weeks duration. Para- things are traditionary history. lysis set in, first attacking the lower Mr. Lockwood, as farmer, hatter, extremities and gradually working trader. Justice of the Peace, and in up until it reached the heart. Mr. other duties to promote the im- PeiTy leaves a very large estate. provement of his village and coun- Cleveland Herald, June 27th, 1865. ty, had with others the ever active HENRY LOCKWOOD. experience. His life's companion continued with him till January Died, at Milan, Ohio, on Friday, 1 1863— till of their eleven 9th inst., of dry gangrene, Henry children, only five survived. Truth- Lockwood, in the 71st year of his fulness and rectitude, and their usu- age—son of Stephen and Sarah al companions, patience, industry, Lockwood, deceased, the former in kindness and intelligence, were his 1830, at Norwalk, Connecticut, the standard as evinced in practical latter in 1848, at Milan. lite. These were also evinced in his Born at Norwalk, Conn., May 11, last incessant, painful illness of nigh

1795 ; became a hatter in his fath- five months, when his lower extremi- er's hat-shop ; intermarried with ties, by supposed arterial ossifica- Miss Amelia Chichester, May 15, tion, lost their vitality and parted, 1813. The deceased in 1815, with his and all without a complaint or a father and senior sister's husband, murmur. To the usual salutation the late David Gibbs, (a lawyer, then of a returning son, "How do you " recently from the disbanded army do ? he responded, Dying as fast as of 1812-15,) sought in the "Fire- I can," as he did, easily, calmly—and lands " in Huron county, Ohio, a new was buried from the Presbyterian home, and began a "clearing" at Church on the afternoon of the com- what was afterwards known as ing Sunday. "Gibbs' Corners." In the ensuing Thus passed the useful, genial, season, he and Mr. Gibbs made a kindly, practical citizen, the last of "winter removal" of their families four brothers, (Stephen, Ralph and by wagons, with full experiences of George) —preceded by his eldest early settlers. Their "big wagon" sister, Sanih, (Mrs. Marvin) —leav- breaking through the ice of Cat^rau- ing only three sisters surviving, Eli- gus Creek—the drowning and loss za (Mrs. Gibbs,) Esther (Mrs. Saun- of teams—the cheerful aid of kind- ders,) and Mary (Mrs. Benedict.) ly Indians in the recovery and dry- COM. ing of sunken goods—desperate ill- Mr. Lockwood will be remember- ness—deaths in each family of the ed by some of the early settlers, and

eldest or onl}' child ; all within fifteen especially by the pioneer traders and miles' travel, in the then " wilds of hotel-keepers, whom he met in his Cataraugus and Canadaway," (now trips through this region peddling 11 82 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

liats manufactured at his establish- "This people shall be my people, ment in Milan. For many years he and their God shall be my God," furnished most of these articles and then as if anticipating her end, worn in Northwestern Ohio, and she spoke with feeling of soon they ever held a high reputation meeting in the great class meeting among the people. in the heavenly world, which shall endure forever. AUMT POLLY PIERCE. ROS\YELL EDDY AND OTHERS, OF Aunt Polly Pierce, died in Peru, PERKINS. Huron county, Ohio, September 26th, 1865—aged sixty-seven years. Again the pen is called into requi- She was a pioneer as a settler and sition to chronicle the departure of a pioneer as a christian. She loved an aged pioneer; another of our her God and her country ardently. landmarks is gone, Mr. Roswell She came to Huron county in Eddy died at his residence, in Per- January, 1816, after a toilsome jour- kins jFriday evening, April 13, 1866. ney of forty-lour days, in mid-winter, He was born in Chatham, Middlesex with an ox team from Massachusetts. county, Connecticut. By his death, She died on the same farm on which the Church has lost one, who in the she settled in Peru. noontime of life, was one of its most She joined the Methodist Episco- amiable, earnest, and devoted mem- pal church in April, 1820, under the bers, and society, in which, by liis in- ministry of the Kev. Dennis God- tegrity of purpose, correct habits, and dard. She was an ardent patriot, a devotion to duty, he won the esteem devoted christian, and a faithful and respect of all, one of its most member of the church of her choice. energetic citizens, adorned 'with She was a member of the Fire ennooling virtues, robed in the vest- Lands Historical Society, and con- ments of holiness, and enriched with tributed much to its interest. As a that wisdom which is more precious mere complete notice of her life and than rubies, he has left a world which character is to be prepared, it is he lived to bless, for one where he sufficient now to say, that in every will be blessed forever. His death respect she was a remarkable wo- was a triumph of laith. Truly he man. Possessing a reten;ive mem- showed how Christians die, peace- ory, fearless disposition, and a ready fully and triumphantly the Lord's. wit, together with a remarkable He married Hannah Taylor, in the gift of expression, few will ever year 1802. She was born in the year forget the interest she excited when 1784, on the second day of Novembei'. present at the meetings of the Soci- They had, in all, six children ; five of ety. Last June, at the annual meet- whom were born in Connecticut, ing at Norwalk, was her last attend- viz : Almira, Maiy, Emeline, Edwin ance and many who read this, will and Joseph. They had one child long remember the excitement and born after moving here—a daughter enthusiasm caused by her compari- named Caroline. The oldest child son of ancient with modern fash- died a number of years ago. Mary, ions, and her impassioned apostro- the second, married a Mr. Cook, who phe to the flag of our country. is now deceased. She is living at pres- The last class meeting she attend- ent with her sons in Sandusky, Ohio. ed, was one of interest and spiritual Emeline is married and lives near profit to her. She spoke of her Mount Vernon, on the Sandusky, acquaintance with the Methodists Mansfield and Newark Railroad. forty-five years ago, and then said : Edwin, the elder son, lives in Milan, —

June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEEK.

Ohio, and at one time farmed near butter, bacon, cheese, and rusk. the old homestead. He has two Having taken out a capacious trunk children living—William and Albert that served the xjurpose of a table at Eddy. Joseph, the younger son, mealtimes, thej' spread the evening lives on the old homestead, and with repast, and having partaken of the him the parents have always lived. eatables in a regular old backwoods He is an enterprising and wealthy style, they again resumed their pla- farmer. He married Caroline Akins, ces in the wagons for a night's repose. of Euclid, Ohio. They have had in It was next to impossible to sleep

all three children ; the oldest dying in the open air, the musquitos and at the early age of six years. The flies were so severe in their attacks. two younger are living at home, and Many a conflict was there between are named Mary and Martha. In the huge insects and the weary the Spring of 1817 Mr. Eddy having travelers, and and many an unwarrj^ heard of the richness of the soil and musquito was brought to grief by a healthfulness of the western cli- vigorous tap from the awakened mate, determined to seek a home in sleeper. what was then known as the the Mr. Eddy was accompanied by "far-west." The party with which another family by the name of Akins, he traveled consisted of but two consisting of Mr. John Akins, his families. For the transportation of wife and seven children—four boys their families and goods, they used and three girls. They stopped at the large and timehonoi'ed "Yankee Euclid, near Cleveland, where they Wagons" made for the purpose. have ever since resided. They had Their propelling power consisted of one daughter born while in Euclid, two yoke of stout oxen, assisted as called Caroliue, who afterwards, as the driver thought necessary, by a before mentioned, became the wife dexterous application of rawhide. of Mr. Eddy's younger son. The Although witii many regrets at leav- children walked most of the way, ing the scenes of childhood sports, and as the teams walked very slowly around which clustered all the pleas- they were often far in the advance. ant associations of early life; yet, They busied themselves in picking feeling that the call of duty must be berries, running and playing, and obeyed, they bade adieu to loved looking with wondering eyes upon on es—and with many a "God bless the new sights that were constantly you" and silent prayer for their opening to their view. One day a future welfare, started. They com- man passing with an empty wagon, menced the journey in the heat of and overtaking the children, who summei', and suffered many incon- were considerably in advance, per- veniences resulting therefrom. The suaded them to ride with him, and weather for the greater part of the left them at a tavern far in advance journey was very good. They were of the wagons, much to the alarm of six weeks on the road, and reached the parents, who did not know this, their destination in the month of and were very much alarmed, think- August. The roads were badly cut ing that perhaps they had strayed up and large ruts had been formed into the woods and had been lost. and were filled with mud and water. Mr. Eddy was often compelled to They encamped nights where they wade into the mud and water up to could find pasturage for their cattle. his waist to find a ford for the teams Having turned out the teams they in crossing the many streams on the then prepared for supper. Their route. One day, when crossing a provisions consisted mostly of bread, large and very rapid creek, the old- :

84 THE FIKE LAXDS PIO!s"EER. [June, 1866.

er son's hat was blown from his he might secure some venison, and head, and he bemg about six years taking his gun, he retraced his steps of age, and thinking, perhaps, that and was fortunate enough to secure hats were not very plenty in a new his game. At another time, Mrs. country-, set up a cry and kept it up Eddy was out walking, when a huge lustily, until the missing property deer came rushing by, and in at- was recovered. tempting to leap the fence, made a The prairies would often catch fire misstep, and was caught in the fence. from various causes, and do a great Mrs. Eddy immediately ran forward amount of injury. Stacks of hay and caught hold of it and held it un- were never sate from the devouring til a settler came to her relief. element. When they saw the grass Mrs. Eddy, more familiarly known on fire, they would plow several fur- as "Aunt Hannah," is left,' but not rows around the stacks, and thus alone. She is surrounded by kind greatly lessen the danger of their friends and devoted children, that catching on fire. One Sabbath, while will make her happiness while she going home fi'om church after a remains, the great object of their large fire had taken place, they could lives. She has the consolation of see deer that had been so blinded believing that the husband of her by fear that they had run headlong youth, the partner of her life for against the fence and killed them- more than sixty years, whom she selves. One day, while out choj)- ably seconded in all his undertakings, ping, a deer kept browsing near Mr. has gone with a christian's trust, to Eddy, and as it was there when he reap in a better world, the rewards went home from work, he thought of a life of usefulness in this.

BLACK HAWK.

The July number of the "Annals near lowaville, the scene of his tri- of Iowa," a quarterly publication is- umph under Pash-a-pa-ho over the lo- sued under the auspices ot the State was, in the early part of his warlike ca- Historical Society, at Iowa City, un- reer. He was buried in a sitting pos- der the editorial supervision of Theo- ture, in a frail tomb made of wooden dore S. Tarvin, is worthy of exten- slabs set upon the ground in the sive patronage from the people of form of an inverted V. His war club, our State. Its historical sketches a shaved post lour or five feet high, and details of eaUy legislation in the was placed in the front of his rude Territory are worthy of preservation. tomb, upon which a great number From an interesting article entitled of black stripes were painted, cor- " Sketches of the Sac and Fox In- responding with the number of scalps dians, and the Early Settlement of he had taken during life. Openings Wapello County," by Uriah Biggs, were left in his tomb, so that his we extract the tollowing account of friends and curious visitors could the death of the celebrated warrior. witness the progress of decay. Some- Black Hawk time after the removal of his friends Black Hawk died in the fall of 1837, higher up the river, and after the June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER.

flesh had wasted away, a Doctor soled and comforted by the return of Turner, of Van Buren county, re- the cherished relics to her care, un- moved his skeleton to Quincy, Ilh'- der a strong confidence that they nois, and had the bones handsomely would not again be disturbed where polished and varnished preparatory she might choose to entomb them. to connecting them by wires in the The widow then advanced to the lid skeleton form. When his wife heard of the box, and without the least of the exhumation, she affected great seeming emotion picked up in her and uncontrollable grief, and poured fingers bone after bone, and exam- out her sorrows to Kobert Lucas, ined each with the seeming curiosity Governor of the Territory and ex-of- of a child, and replaced each bone ficio Superintendent of Indian Af- in its proper place, and turned to the fairs, who promptly recovered the interpreter and replied through him bones and placed them in a box in to the Governor that she fully be- his office at Burlington, and dispatch- lieved they were Black Hawk's bones ed a message to the bereaved fami- —that she knew he was a good old ly, then staying at the Des Moines, man, or he would not have taken some ninety miles distant. A caval- the great pains he had manifested to cade was soon in motion, bearing the oblige her—and in consideration of disconsolate widow, and a retinue his great benevolence and disinter- of her friends to Burlington. On the ested friendship so kindly manifest- evening of their arrival the Gover- ed, she would leave the bones under nor was notified by a messenger, of his care and protection. The con- their readiness to wait upon him, ference then closed, and the distin- who fixed the audience for ten A. tinguished visitors took leave of the M. the next day. Several visitors Governor and the assembled audi- were in attendance. The box con- tors. This scene was detailed by the taining the august remains opens by Governor to the present writer, a lid, and when the parties were all while standing at the side of the fa- assembled and ready for the awful mous box, soon after its occurrence. development, the lid was lifted bj- On the accession of General Har- the Governor, fully exposing the sa- rison to the Presidency, Governor cred relics of the i-enowned chief to Lucas was removed from the guber- the gaze of his sorrowing friends and natorial office of the Territory, and the very respectable audience who he removed his private office into the had assembled to witness the impres- same room with Dr. Enos Lowe, now sive scene. of Omaha City, Nebraska. An his- The Governor then addressed the torical society was organized in Bur- widow through John Goodell,the in- lington about this time, and efiorts terpreter for the Hard Fish band, were made to get these relics into giving all the details of the transfer their cabinet and under the control of of the bones from the grave to Quin- the society. This arrangement was cy and back to Burhngton, and as- never formally accepted, but in the sured her that they were the verita- course of events tliey happened to ble bones of her deceased husband be in the same building with the so- —that he sympathised deeply with ciety's collection, and the whole w^ere her in this her great affliction—and consumed in the burning of the that he now hoped she would be con- building in 1852. :

86 THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

From the Cinciuuati Gazette of April 7th, 1866. PIONEER ANNIVERSARY EXCURSION TO MARIETTA.

On Friday morning last, through Mrs. Louisa Perry, aged sixty- the liberality of the Marietta Rail- three, from Virginia, in 1806. road Company, the Pioneers' Asso- John S. Perkins, born in Brown ciation of tliis city and vicinity, took county in 1808, where his father, the occupancy of three of the Com- from Virginia, settled in ISOl. pany's new passenger coaches, and Isaac McFarland, from Pennsyl- started for Marrietta. The object of vania, in 1806, aged sixty-four. the excursion was to unite with the Daniel Cameron, born in Hamil- Pioneers of Marietta in celebrating ton county in 1796, where his father, the 78th anniversary of the first set- from Pennsylvania, settled in that tlement of Ohio, the Association of year. the latter city having tendered our J. W. Mason, from Maryland, in " Old Folks " an invitation to spend 1801, aged sixty-seven. the day with them on that occasion. Joseph Bates, aged fifty-seven, The party, including a few who were born in Cincinnati, his father having not strictly pioneers, but who went moved here from Massachusetts in as companions of some who were, 1791. numbered over a hundred, many of William Moody, aged seventy-sev- them being females, the grandmoth- en, born in Cincinnati, to which ers and great-grandmothers of the place his father moved in 1789, hav- present generation. Membership in ing resided two years in Marietta. the Association is confined to those William McMakin, of Spring who emigrated to, or were born in Grove, aged sixty-four, from Penn- the West prior to the year 1S12, and s^dvania, in 1810. of such we noted the following on Emma Hart, aged fifty-sLx, from the train Pennsylvania, in 1810. E. B. Reeder, President of the As- Mary B. Dunn, aged sixty-eight, sociation, born in Cincinnati, in 1808. born in Cincinnati. J. S. Ross, Vice President of the Emeline Myers, aged fifty-eight, Association, aged sixty-five, from from Virginia, in 1807. New Jersey, in 1806. Andrew Myers, aged sixty-seven, Wm. P. Stratton, Chaplain, bom of Cumminsville, from Virginia, in in Cincinnati, aged fifty nine. 1803. Mrs. Wm. P. Stratton, born in J. K. Wetherby, aged seventy, Hamilton county, aged fitty. from Vermont, in 1806. June, 1866.] THE PIKE LANDS PIONEER. 87

Sarah C. Wetherby, born in Cin- six, having come West in 1806. cinnati, aged fifty-six. John McMakin, aged sixty-two Samuel West, aged seveenty-ight, from Virginia, in 1810. from Virginia, in 1801, to Marietta, A. L. Bramble, of Plainville, aged and thence to Cincinnati, in 1809. sixty-seven, from Pennsylvania, A. B. Shaw, aged sixty-two, from 1806. Pennsj'lvania, in 1807. John H. Gu-ard, aged sixty-four, Mary H. Wellshear, bom in Cin- born near Mt. Washington. cinnati, in 1808. C. Cropper, aged sixty-nine, mov- Mrs. Diana Ross, aged fifty-six, ed west 1810. born in Marietta, where her father Jas. G. Payne, aged seventy-one, settled in 1807, but moved to Cincin- from New York in 1806. nati in 1810. John Whetstone, aged seventy- Louisa Stuart, born in Cincinnati eight, from Pennsylvania in 1792. in 1810, where her father settled in Zebulon Strong, of College Hill, 1791. aged seventy-eight, from Vermont, Margaret Sweeney, aged sixty- in 1809. seven, from Virginia, in 1811. H D. Stout, aged fifty-eight, mov- Miles Williams, aged sixty-five, ed west in 1811. from New Jersey, in 1806. Benjamin Ludlow, born in Cincin- J. M. Clark, aged sixty-six, from nati in 1797. New Jersey, in 1802. H. S. Earhart, born in Huron Francis Harrison, aged sixty, born county, Ohio, in 1800; has the old near Chillicotlie, where his father compass that belonged to Judge settled in 1798. Symmes, to whom was granted the Lydia Denvers, aged sixty, born in land between the two Miamis. Cincinnati. Judge David Oliver, aged seventy- Charles H. Simpson, aged fifty, five, ol' Oxford, born in Belpre, in from Maryland. 1791. William L. Cummings, bom in Daniel Ackerman, aged seventy- Warren county, Ohio, aged fifty- eight, from Kentucky, in 1801. three. William B. Dodson, aged seven- Louisia Daily, aged sixty-five, ty-nine from Maryland. from New Jersey, in 1812. Jacob Sloop, aged sixty-eight, Elizabeth Woodruff, aged sixty- first settled in Columbiana county in six, emigrated in 1812. 1803. Olive L. Reeder, aged sixty-nine, Wm. M. Bates, bom in Cincinnati, bom in Cincinnati. in 1811. Joseph A. Reeder, bora in an In- J. L. Mallot, aged seventy-three, dian wig-wam, into which his father from Maryland, in 1797. moved li-om Virginia, in 1792. S. J. Brown, from England, aged Eliza Williams, born on Duck seventy-nine, his father having set- Creek, aged fifty-seven. tled in this city in 1798. John Williams, of Carthage, aged Maria Vanmeter, born in Cincinna- fifty-two, born in Cincinnati. ti in 1807. 0. S. Walker, of New Richmond, Mrs. Submit Strong, aged eighty- came to Cincinnati in 1801, aged sev- two, in 1798, from Connecticut. enty-two. Hannah Strong, of College Hill, A. N. Riddle, Esq., born in Cincin- aged seventy-four, irom New Jersey, nati, aged sixty-five, his father hav- in 1804. ing come from New Jersey in 1790. Joseph Snodgrass, born in Green 001. Morris, U. S. A., aged sixty- county, in 1803. :

THE HRE LANDS PIONEEK. [June, 1866

M. L. Broadwel], aged sixty, born Sarah Hukill, aged sixty-nine, from in Clermont county. New Hampshire in 1807. Rebecca Leatherby, born in Mrs. Ira Athern, born in Cincinna- Springfield township, where her pa- ti in 1805. rents settled in 1811. Mrs. Mary Cassiday, born in Cler- Mrs. Dr. Oliver aged sixty-nine, mont county in 1801. daughter of David E. Wade, who James Cunning, aged sixty, from emigrated in 1790. New Jersey in ISiO. Mrs. Dr. Alexander Duncan, aged Mrs. Sophia B. Williamson, born sixty-seven, from Pennsylvania, in in Cincinnati in 1798. 1805. The following were the Executive Sarah Price, born in Cincinnati, in Committee, having charge of the 1803. excursion N. Goshoi'n, aged sixty-five, from Messrs. N. Goshorn, Lew. Ludlow, Pennsylvania in 1807. J. B. Dennis, Dr. D. A. Ross, A. M. Rees E. Price, aged seventy-one, Ross. from Maryland in 1807. Among the invited guests present John Toms, of Mt. Healthy, aged were Hon. Judge Storer, members seventy-three, from New Jersey, in of the press and others. 1798. Although the day was cloudy, the Mary A. Smith, born in Cincinna- faces of all were cheerful, and pleas- ti, 1810. ure seemed to prevail in all hearts. Henry Rogers, aged sixty, of Mt. Conversation was spirited, and many Healthy, from Pennsylvania in 1806. a scene of pioneer life was lived over Nathaniel Reeder, of Hamilton, as they were recounted to each oth- born in Cincinnati in 1810. er during the day. Most of them C. Mallott, from New Jersey in brought their wholesome lunches 1811. along with them, and thus cheated Mrs. Deborah Dodson, from Mass- the eating houses at Chillicothe out achusetts in 1811. of several expected greenbacks. Johnson Hulul, aged sixty-five, At half-past seven the train arriv- from Virginia in 1805. ed at Harmer, where a Committee Charlotte Carshmer, born in Cin- ot Reception met them, placed cinnati 1810. them in carriages and omnibuses, J. W. Gillespie, born in Cincinna- and distributed them among the hos- nati, aged sixty-three. pitable citizens residing on both S. W. Lodley, born in Cincinnati, sides the Muskingum. aged seventy-five. THE WEATHER ON THE SEVENTH. N. Harrofl, from Virginia in 1806, aged sixty-eight. The sky was clear, and the stars John Horrocks, aged sixty-two, shining brightly on the evening of from England in 1810. our arrival, and all predicted a pleas-

E. Ross, aged sixty-eight, from ant day ; but, alas ! the disappoint- New Jersey in 1806. ment. First it rained and then

J. F. Cunningham, born in Ham- snowed, and then blowed ; and there ilton county in 1810. was not an hour in the day when Maria Thompson, born in Butler one could venture out without an county in 1807. umbrella. Of course this prevent- E. T. Hubbell, aged sixty-two, ed all, except a very few of the from Pennsylvania in 1811. younger and more rugged ones, Margaret 'M. Lathrop, from Ver- from visiting the many out-door lo- mont in 1810. calities of interest. Full attendance, : :

June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 89 however, was given to the in-door that entitles it to the appellation of gatherings and exercises. the Queen City of the West. At an early day the agents and KECEPTION CEREMONIES. proprietors of the Ohio Company At ten o'clock the old bell of the passed a resolution that the 7th ot Congregational Church, where sixty- April be forever considered as a day years before, many of the visiting pi- of public festival in the territory of oneers had regularly attended ser- the Ohio Company. In compliance vice, called them once more to en- with this resolution and from the im- hearts, as- ter its revered walls. Carriages suf- pulse of our own we are ficiently numerous conveyed them sembled to commemorate this 78th invitation, to its doors, and many a one saw anniversary. At your venerable and women, again, for the fii-st time in half a cen- these men tury, the old famiUar "meeting representatives of the early pioneers house." of Cincinnati, have come to unite Half an hour was spent, as in old- with us in this celebration. We bid en times, in fraternal recognitions them welcome—welcome to our hos- and friendly gossip, during which the pitalities, welcome to the scenes organ solemnized the scene with its where Captain Pike, the celebrated sacred tones. Then prayer was of- chief of the Delawares, accorded a fered by Rev. Dr. Wicks, the pres- hearty welcome to the early pio- neers the first court of jus- ent pastor, which was followed by ; where the choir singing " God of our Fath- tice in the great Northwest was ers," etc. held , where the first marriage was Mr. William E. Putnam, President solemnized ; where the first Sabbath of the Marietta Pioneer Association, School was taught; where -the first and grandson of Gen. Kufus Put- sermon was preached. nam, next addressed the assemblage, The worthy President briefly re- in substance as follows ferred to many incidents connected On the 7th of April, 1788, there with the early settlement of Ohio, landed on yonder point of land the and then gave way to the first pioneer settlers of Ohio, of RESPONSE OP MR. E. B. REEDER. whom Gen. Washington said " No colony was ever settled un- Mr. Keeder, as President of the der such favorable auspices as that Cincinnati Association, responded which has just commenced at Mus- briefly, being in very poor health. kingum. Information, property and His mind was filled with stirring strength will be its characteristics. emotions, suggested by the interest- I know many of them i^ersonally, ing occasion. He and his associates, and there never were men better some of them four score years and calculated to promote the welfare of ten, and many of them three score such a community." had come up from the Queen City In the same year, on the 24th of which they had seen grow up from December, another band of pio- the wilderness, the second settle- neers landed opposite the mouth of ment in a State that now contained Licking river, on the north side of nearly three millions of people. He the Ohio, where Cincinnati now thanked the pioneers of Marietta for stands, a city no less celebrated for their cordial invitation, and this gen- its pioneer history than for its litera- erous hospitality they were receiv- ry, scientific and benevolent institu- ing. Many of them would never tions, its architecture, its manufac- enjoy another such occasion, for be- tures and commerce—in a word, all fore another anniversary they would 12 90 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866. be tiying that " undiscovered coun- women, and children, landed in the try " which their fathers had tried illimitable waste, what their pur- before them. poses were they could hardly have

The speaker's mind ran back sev- told ; but one thing was sure ; the enty-eight years, and called up the same course that was pursued when original forty-seven emigrants who the Mayflower landed, was pursued landed at this point. They knew not here. They built—in their hearts, where they were going or what they at least—an altar to Almighty God, were to do, except that they were and the first object was to worship trying to better their condition. He Him and invoke His blessing, and briefly alluded to the fact that the depend upon His care. It required Ohio Company had early battled something more than mere physical against the establishment of an in- courage, hardihood, endurance grow- stitution in the new territory, which ing out of strong limbs and good had everywhere proved a curse, and health, to meet the difliculties and dwelt somewhat on the blessings trials of those days. It requi'-ed a that had resulted from that wise pro- principle within, a fire of faith to be vision. kindled in the hearts of those men Mr. Reeder then introduced Judge and women, to face those dangers Storer, as one of the worthy pio- and overcome them. neers ot Cincinnati, though arriving Tlie speaker then drew a graphic too late (1817) to be admitted to picture of the results that had fol- membership in the Association. lowed fast and thick, and were now so wonderful to behold. He spoke REMARKS OP JUDGE STORER. modestly of the part he had taken in The venerable Judge, now seven- the great work. Forty-nine years ty years of age, delivered a hand- ago this very month, he crossed the some address, which we are sorry mountains from Philadelphia to Pitts- our limited space compels us to burg, and there, finding no steam- abridge of its fair proportions. First, boats as now, he, in company with a he drew a picture of the landing of dozen other young men, obtained the May Flower at Plymouth Rock, some sldfl's and started for Cincin- and the disembarking of the Puritan nati. Stopping at Marietta for a few fathers, who, belonging not to the days, he made the acquaintance of world from whence they came, nor Gen. Rufus Putnam, David Putnam, yet to New England exclusively, Col. Barber, McFarland, and others, came to fulfil the purpose of the Al- and felt quite at home. He had read mighty. Then he compared with Aaron Burr's romantic description that scene the landing of the little of Blannerhassett's Island, and on arks, as they were called, seventy- the way down he stopped there, eight years ago, on such a misty where he became acquainted with April morning as the present. Who William Putnam and his sister. He were they and what their purpose? agreed that the island was a lovely They were cultivated men, qualified place, but not a little magnified. He for any position in life ; many of them found Cincinnati with a population had passed through the revolutionary of 5,000 people. In describing its war, had come from the land just wonderful growth, he spoke of its freed from the British yoke, where High Schools, founded in part upon the school house and the church ex- funds furnished by Thomas Hughes, erted their wholesome and hallowed a New England shoemaker, and Wil- influence. When their boats touch- liam Woodward, a tanner—the for- ed the shore, and those men, and mer having donated the proceeds of :

June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 91

a large farm, now in the bounds of is gone, but the point itself is washed the city, to endow a school for poor away, and its sands scattered from children. here to the Gulf, I thinlc I may say The speaker was here interrupted I was born all along the shore. by an aged pioneer in the audience, The laughter that followed was re- Mr. Zebulon Strong, who asked the newed by the remark of W. P. Put- privilege of saying that he split the nam, grandson of old Israel Putnam rails to fence in Mr. Hughes' farm. —" You say. Doctor, that you were After some suggestive remarks in born in the south-east corner of the regard to the future. Judge Storer blockhouse in 1791. I was born in closed. A quartette of gentlemen the south-west corner in 1792." then sang, with toucliing eflFect, a "And I," added Col. E. S. Mcin- song beginning tosh, " was born in the same place in 1793." " Old friends, old friends, The dear old friends. That time has swept awaj'." VARIOUS OTHER REMARKS.

DR. OLIVER AND THE OLD CHURCH. Mr. Walker, of New Richmond, narrated of the incidents of Dr. David Oliver, rising in the au- some liis pioneer life that were listened to dience, wished to^ve expression to with interest. the emotions of his soul. Looking up and about the old church, he said Adam N. Riddle, Esq., of this city, that he remembered the time when followed in a happy little speech. he had helped to raise and build this He described the inauguration of the sacred house; that he had not seen first Court in the territory, at Mari- it for fifty-five years, and he was re- etta, in 1788, on which occasion the joiced that the pioneers of Marietta Sherifi, with drawn sword, headed had not forsaken the altar they had the procession that marched up to in an early day dedicated to the liv- Campus Martius hall, through the ing God, and he hoped they would woods, followed by any numlaer of never do so, nor their descendants Indian chiefs looking on with won- after them. He hoped they would der. That Court was opened the good escape the humiliation that mortifies old way—with prayer. the true believer as he looks back to Col. W. P. Cutler, grandson of one the home of the Pilgrim Fathers, of the leading members of the Ohio which is now the seat and hotbed oi Company, made some very interest- all the isms of the land. ing remarks, chiefly to the point that the ordinance of 1787, so generally BIRTH PLACES. attributed to Thomas Jeiferson, was Dr. Oliver remarked, in closing, in a great measure the work of the that he had been trying to find the Ohio Company, and especially of his place where he Avas born, but had grandsire ; that Jeff'erson's ordinance not succeeded. He was like the was framed in 1784, and contained a sailor who, when asked where he provision permitting the existence was born, replied, "^ Well, at Cape of slavery in the Northwestern Ter- Cod, Cape . Ann, and—pretty much ritory for sixteen years, or until the all along the shore." Seventy-five* year 1800 ; that Jefferson was not in years ago contmuedthe Doctor there this country when the subsequent or- stood, on the point over the Mus- dinance was adopted in 1787. He kingum, a block-house, in the south- closed with a poetical and eloquent east corner of wliich they say I was allusion to the prosperity that had born ; but as not only the blockhouse attended the State of Ohio and the ; : :

92 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

great Northwest, in consequence of Next in interest were the pioneer the prohibition of slavery. curiosities, such as the powder horn of Israel Putnam, the one he wore MARIETTA COLLEGE EXERCISES. when he killed the wolf. At 3 o'clock the visitors were Upon it was the following inscrip- transported through the falling snow tion, cut by himself with his pen-

to the chapel and society rooms of knife : Marietta college, which they found " When bow's weighty spears were us'cl in decorated from basement to roof for flght, their entertainment. President I. 'Twere nervous limbs declared a man ol W. Andrews, the pioneer officer of might But now, Gunpowder scorns such strength institution, in conjunction with the to own, the Committee of Arrangements, And heroes not by limbs, but souls are was successful in making all feel at known. home. The valuable libraiy and the "Israel Putnam's Horn. cabinet of the college were then " Made at Fort Wm. Henry, Nov. 10, A. D., the inspection of 1756. thrown open to " A plan of the stations from Albany to everybody, and the time was well Lake George." improved. And here followed a kind of map PIONEER PICTDRES AND CURIOSITIES. of the road and me fortifications re- The rooms of the two college so- ferred to. following are the more promi- cieties were the chief places of at- The curiosities traction, and the most prominent nent of the among the matters of interest Shovel and tongs of Commodore were the fine oil portraits of the Whipple. the original pioneers who have gone Gov. Wintlu-op's chair, brought to the better land. The following over in the Mayflower. named are only the more promi- Gen. Artemus Ward's pistols. nent: The original order for the arrest of Kev. Dr. Manassa Cutter, Direc- Blannerhasset, signed, by Gov. Re- tor of the Ohio Company, died in turn Jonathan Meigs, and directed Buell, 1781, aged 81 years. to Gen. Joseph dated Decem- Judge Ephraim Cutter, died at 86 ber 10, 1806. years. A powder horn presented by Aa- Blannerhassett. Gen. Artemus Ward, born 1727, ron Burr to died 1800. Mrs. Blannerhassett's work box. Major General Kufus Putnam, REPAST AND REUNION. landed at Marietta in 1788. Major General Nathaniel Green, During the afternoon a most born 1742. sumptuous repast of all that was Governor JReturn Jonathan Meigs, good to eat, was kept upon the first Governor of Ohio. Also, por- broad and long tables in one of the traits of Col. Levi Baker and wife, college rooms, where all were invi- Gen. Eward W. Tupper Nathan ted to help themselves. Ward, Col. Ichabod Nye, W. R. Put- At the same time a speaking meet- nam, Major Anslen Tupper, Wm. • ing was organized in the chapel, Dana, Dr. S. P. Hildreth, David Put- where the loquacious indulged in, nam, and of twenty other pioneers and delighted their hearers in five of that section, of both sexes. It minute speeches, President Adrews was a very interesting picture gal- presiding. At its close the follov?- lery. ing resolutions were adopted —: :

June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 93

Resolved, That the pioneer mem- Resolved further. That the thanks bers of the Association of Cincinna- of the Association are cordially ex- ti, who have, by the invitation of the tended to the President and officers people of Marietta participated in of the Marietta & Cincinnati Rail- the celebration of the 78th anniver- road for the very handsome manner sary of the landing of the first set- they proffered a free passage from tlers of Ohio, now tender to their Cincinnati to Marietta, for all the hosts their hearty thanks for the members, and the care and skill with kind attention and the warm wel- which the whole transit was conduct- come they have bestowed during ed. their entire visit ; and they ardently Resolved furthermore., That the hope that both the guests and the papers of Marietta and Cincinnati hosts may enjoy many more such re- be requested to publish these reso- unions, and when, with time, they lutions A. N. Riddle, shall pass away, those may remain Wm. p. Stratxon, behind who will honor the memories B. Stoker. of our Pioneer Fathers.

COURTING TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO- -A ROMANCE OF WETHERSFIELD.

Among the amusing reminiscences think of his proposal, he would step of those days is the fiimous coiu-t- into the next room and smoke a pipe sliip of the Rev. Stephen Mix, of with her father, and she could report Wethersfield. He made a journey to him. Having smoked a pipe and to Northampton in 1696, in search of sent a message to Miss Mary that he a wife. He arrived at the Rev. Sol- was ready for her answer, she came omon Stoddard's informed him of the in and asked for further time for con- object of his visit, and that the pres- sideration. He replied that she could sure of home duties required the ut- reflect still longer on the subject, most dispatch. Mr. Stoddard took and send her answer by letter to him into the room where his daugh- Wethersfield. In a few weeks he re- ters were, and introduced him to ceived her reply, which is probably Mary, Esther, Christiana, Sarah, Re- the most laconic epistle ever penned. bekah, and Hannah, and then retired. Here is the model letter which was Mr. Mix, addressing Mary, the eldest soon followed by a wedding daughter, said he had lately settled Northampton, 1696. at Wethersfield, and was desirous of Rev. Stephen Mix obtaining a wife, and concluded by • Yes. offering his heart and hand. She Mary Stoddard. blushingly replied that so important The matrimonal mixture took a proposition required time for con- place on the 1st of December, 1696, sideration. He replied that he was and proved to be compounded of pleased that she asked for a suitable the most congenial elements. Mix time for reflection, and in order to was pastor of that paradise of onions afford her the needed opportunity to for forty-four years. N. Y. Evang. 94 THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

MEMBERS OF THE FIRE LANDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

CONTINUED FROM VOLUME 6TH. June, 1866.] THE PIKE LANDS PIONEER. 95 —

96 THE FIRE UmDS PIONEEK. [June, 1866.

THE OLDEST NATIVES OF OHIO.

In noticing the death of Judge mer's Gastlef at Belpre, April 2, Arius Nye, two weeks ago, we stated 1792, and still lives just above the our belief that he was at the time of place of liis birth, one of the most his death, on the 27th ult., the oldest prominent citizens of the county. surviving native of Ohio, except These five are probably the oldest Judge Oliver Rice Loring, of Bel- surviving natives of Oliio, although pre. The Times also made an ex- Thomas Kain, of Glermont county, ception of one, but named James is still living—about which we are V. Gushing, of Zanesville. Both not certaiu—is the senior of some of were in error. them. And Mary Hectewelder, The facts are these: James Var- daughter of Rev. John Heckewel- num Gushing, now of Zanesville, der, one of the Moravian missiona- was born in Marietta, in Januaiy, ries, was born at Salem, a missiona- 1789. He was a son of Golonel Na- ry station in the present county of thaniel Gushing, whose family was Tuscarawas, April 16th, 1781, and is one of the first eight which arrived stijl living, as we are advised, at in Marietta in August, 1788, four Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in her months after the arrival of the forty- eighty-fifth year. She was the first " eight " Pilgrims —all men—who white child born in Ohio, but before came the 7th of April previous. the permanent settlement. St. Glair Alpha Devol, son of Wanton De- Kelly, who was bom in Marietta, in vol, and grandson of Judge Gilbert December, 1788, was the first born Devol, is now living in Waterford, after the first settlement. He died this county, and was born in Mariet- in 1823. ta, August 12, 1789. Gol. Enoch S. Mcintosh, of Bev- Judge Dliver Rice Loring, of Bel- erly, is not far behind. He was pre, was born at that place, June 17, born at the " Point," in Marietta, 1790, and is still hving, a highly re- May 23, 1793. spectable farmer, near the place of Judge Arius Nye, who died on the his birth. 27th ult., was born in "Campus Mar- Jeremiah Wilson, son ot George tins," Marietta, December 28th, 1792; Wilson, was born in " Fort Frye," at and George Dana, who died at Bel- Waterford, April 21, 1791. He still pre, last April, was born at that place lives in Waterford. in 1790, in March, we think. Mari- Wm. Pitt Putnam, son of Aaron etta Register. Waldo Putnam, was born in "Far- ; ;

June, 1866.1 TUE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 97

MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES.

INITIAL FACTS IN. QUR HIS- age; that twenty years later—1602 TORY. —California was discovered and ex-

plored ; that in 1603 a Frenchman, Our children are taught Freucli, Sieur de Monts, made the first per- moral science and conic sections and manent settlement north of San Au- read histories of Greece and Rome. gustine, at Annapolis, and twice at- How few of them, and how few men tempted a settlement on Cape Cod, and women know anything of but was di-iven off the natives the by ; history of their own country, except that Champlain founded Quebec in an outline or a few detached facts. 1608 ; that our coast, from Pennsyl- How few undergraduates know that vania to New Brunswick, was named

Columbus undertook his first voyage Acadie, alterward Now France ; that in the expectation of finding the Canada iormerly comprehended our

Grand Klian of Tartary ; that he set Vermont and New York ; that Vir- sail on Friday, 1492—that unlucky ginia was so named by Sir Walter and direful day—and on Friday, ten Raleigh in honor of Queen Eliza- weeks after, discovered land ; that he beth, 1581, when he made his explo- supposed Cuba to be the Continent ration of the North Carolina coast that he first reached the continent on that the first English child bom in the north coast of South America six America was Virginia Dare, daugh- years afterward ; that upon his fourth ter of Ananias; that the pi'ojected and last voyage he founded the first cotony failed ; that Jamestown was colony on the mainland on the Isth- the first English town in America, mus of Tanama; that twenty-one began 1607 and named for Iving years after the first discovery the Jame I ; that the want of wives in Old World was astonished to find Virginia was so great that in 1621 they had discovered a new world, a large number of young women when they reached the Pacific across " of good character " were trans- the Isthmus; but that Cabot, an ported to the colony on specu- Englishman, reached the shores of lation and sold to the lonely New England a full year before Co- settlers for a hundred and twenty to lumbus touched the continent ; that a hundred and fifty pounds of tobac-

San Augustine, Florida, is the oldest cr each [Mem : to suggest that a cer- town in America, being just 300 tain governor borrow a hint there- years old ; that Santa Fe,"New Mex- by]; that New England was so ico, is the second town iu point of named by John Smith, 1614 ; that at 13 — —

THE FIEE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

length a settlement was made, with- boys in detecting a large graft on a

out a grant from the king's council, at slow tree ; there are fifty men that " New Plymouth," and set its roots remember fifty such boughs while I deep and -wide into the scanty soil am speaking. Of course we do not by a band of 102 passengers, Dec. forget the crooked foot path running li, 1620, who came in a craft whose across the lots to our neighbor's farm name has name has been spoken —that curious little solitary high- from from the Occident to the orient, way, that turns, and twists and struts " to wit : the Mayflower." aside for no concievable reason ; all foot-paths in the fields look as if they NEW ENGLAND FARM HOUSES. had been trodden out by lovers or madmen. Not far off T>'as the wood It is hard to draw a picture of New where the sweet fern breathed its England countrj^ life \\'ithout making fragrance, and the baj^beriy repeal-

a portrait which the fancy at least of edit ; where the checkerberiy spread many will gift with a resemblance its aromalic leaves and berries, and to their earlyrecollections. Is there the black -birch imitated its flavor not more than one here who remem- with its bark—so economical is New bers such a place as this which is England's nature in the matter of per- • now set before him ? It is an ancient fumes and spiceries. Kyou were born looking brown house—brown with and bred among such sights and that peculiar tint that belongs to sounds as these, they will never die weather-stained pine, and is the na- out of your remembrance. Dr. tural complexion of unpainted New Holmes. England houses. It fronts with two fair stories to the road • but if you WASHINGTON'S TEXT BOOK. take it in flank, you see that the roof runs back^dth a great slope to with- The New York Tribune says a gen- in a few feet of the ground. One tleman in that city, recently came huge square chimney rises through in possession of a book which was the center of the ridge pole ; a tall doubtless the architect of George poplar, its emulous companion, has Washington's character. It was overtopped it, and drops a feWleaves found in Virginia during the occupa- every autumn into its black throat. tion by our troops. Tlie book was There is the barn, of course—vast, presented to Gen. Grant, who, how- brown, like the house, with a ring of ever, refused to accept it, but agreed swallow's nests, like barnacles, all to take it in trust until the owner is around the eaves ; there ought tolbe found. Should he not be discovered, a swing inside, and plenty of hen's it will be placed among the national nests, and secret deposits of ripening archives. It is a small octavo vol- apples in holes of the haymows. We ume of 472 pages. The name of should find them all no doubt, if we George Wasliington is written upon went in and knew where to look. it in boyish chirography, l^ut large, Ever graceful and beautiful, the well- bold, with every letter distinct, as in sweep, with the clanking, iron-bound his maturer days, to which the year bucket, and the heavy stone, its coun- 1742 is added in the same hand wtI- terpoise, stands a little back and at ting. Washington was then ten one side. There is the orchard years of age. The title of tlie book " there are trees iii it famous for early is this : Young Men's Companion apples, and limbs of trees that the or Arithmetek Made Easy, with Plain boys knew well for the fruit they Directions for a Young Man to At- bore ; wonderfully sagacious are tain to i-ead and Write True English, —

June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. 99 with Copies of Verses for a Writing cider, wine and preserves. The book School. Instructing of Letters to holds a medical department; and Friends. Forms for Making Bills, household games, tricks and pas- Bonds, Keleases, Wills, &c. Like- times are not overlooked. wise Easy Kules for Measuring Board and Timber by the Carpenter's Plain FIRST USE OF PAPER MONEY Rule, &c. Also, Directions for Mea- IN AMERICA. suring, Gauging and Plotting out of The first American colonists used Land, &c., and Taking the Distance by Quadrant and Triangle, together pelting and wampum as substitutes for coin. In the Council in with a Map of the Globe and Water. 1640, Netherland, petitioned to raise Also a Map of England, together New their colony with Choice Monthly Observations the value of money in in order to prevent its exportation. for Gardening, Planting and innocu- Afterward, Gov. Stuyvesant tried to lating Fruit Trees. Written bj"^ W. introduce a specie currency and to Mather in a Plain and Easy tStyle establish a mint at Amsterdam. that a Young Man may Attain the New already had her mint. same without a Tutor. Thirteenth New England Massachusetts was the first of the Edition. London. Printed for S. colonies to use paper money. In Clark." The Young Men's Companion 1690 it issued bills to the amount of seven thousand pounds to pay the opens with instructions in spelling, the expedition punctuation and composition. Se- soldiers engaged in against the French in Canada. lections for practice are presented Carolina issued from hymns, prayers and prose. Twelve years after, paper money to pay her soldiers. Easy copies tor writing, with instruc- Three or four years later, a paper tions how to sit, hold the pen, and to act was passed in the island make ink follow. Rules are laid money of Barbadoes. little later, in 1709, down for writing letters on love, bu- A Connecticut and New York passed siness and friendship, and how to be- enactments creating bills of credit gin and end a letter, with the diifer- The low state of the currency at ent styles to be addressed to people this time in New York was thought of rank and plebians. Forms for all to arise from the fact that most of kinds of mercantile and legal papers the foreign trade of the country are presented, with Powers of Attor- came through Boston and other New ney, Deeds and Wills. Arithmetic England ports, drawing thither mon- comes next. Surveyings, Mensura- ey and produce. In 1695 the difler- tions, Navigation, Building, Gauging, ence between York and sterling Taking Observations, and Architec- New money was about one-fifth ; in 1700 ture, accompanied by rude drawings, about a quarter. have their place. Rules for behavior The present legal rate of interest in company are then given, how to en- in New York (7 per cent.) was es- ter and leave the presence of nobility tablish in 1738. andrankwith the order ofprecedence, so that a young man's manners may be well formed. Banldng and Ex- OLD-FASHIONED FUNERALS change follow, with rules for farm- AND ORDINATIONS. ing and gardening, with innoculat- ing, as grafting was then called, the The following authentic letter from raising of flowers and fruits, and in- John Hancock will show how fune- structions for each month in a year. rals were celebrated in Boston a

Receipts are given for the making of hundred years ago : : —

100 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER, [June, 1866.

Boston, February 11, 1760. The following bill, the original of

Sir : My uncle lias sent some wine, which we have, was presented to the two pieces of Beef fully corned, & a Beneficent Congregational Society,

Cag of New England rum ; he brings of this city, after the ordination of up with him a doz. more of Madeira " Father AVilson " as colleague i^as- wine, he supposes ^\^ll be enoug, & tor some west India Rum & ^- doz. loaves Congregation Society to Tho. Jones Dr. of bread—Would have the corps put 1793, Oct. 15 £. s. d. To 1 gall, ^'f, I. rum for the workmen near in the coffin as soon as may be for the Parsonage House 5 6 fear of the Ratts sends the plates — FOB THE ORDINATION DINNER. for coffin by bearer, \\ith Directions To 17 bottles of sherry wine 3Ji galls. 93 1 13 8 on the Box and send back the Box. To 3 quarts do. 9s 6 9 To IS juggs old cider, 98 4 6 You have also some sugar. To 5 bottles Jamaica spirits, 7s. 6d. gal. ... 8 5>i else be wanted that will To 8 decanters wine for the Counsel at my What may house, 2 galls, 9s 18 do to be there on Wednesday morn- To 3 decanters Jamaica spirits, 7s. 6d. gall. 5 7>3 To 2 bottles Durham mustard 2 ing, let us know by the bearer.— There is no good Beef to roast to be £4 4 7 Deduct had to-day, but can get some to-mor- 6 juggs cider returned 1 6 bottles wine 11 3— 12 8 row, and if any one is coming down 5>i to-morrow would be glad if he'd call £3 11 10 To one dollar paid la^ryers 6 at Warehouse. To keeping two men 14 1 00 00 I am, dear sir, your assured friend, Cherry rum, brandy^ etc., etc 00 00

John Hancock. £4 11 10

GOLDEN WEDDING—COL. JAMES SMITH.

Col. James Smith and wife, invited and including Colonel Smith and their family and the older class of Avife, the united ages of the fourteen their neighbors and friends, to meet were nine hundred and seventy-one at their residence, at Lyme, Ohio, years. September 21st, 1865, to celebrate The company passed a pleasant af- the fiftieth anniversaiy of their mar- ternoon, socially relating incidents riage. of " ye olden time." After a very Of their children, five are living, interesting and appropriate prayer a daughter and four sons, and all and address by their pastor. Rev. W. were present except Martin, who T. Hart, and a kind invitation to the was in California. Grand children company by Deacon John Seymour, were also present, representing to meethim at the Marriage Supper three different branches of the faint- of the Lamb, refreshments were ly. Of the friends present, twelve served, and the happy companj'^ re- were more than sixty years of age, turned to their homes. Com. June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 101

From the isiiriiiglleUl Rcpublicai!. FROM POM FRET, CONNECTICUT.

CELEBRATION OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST CHURCH ORGANIZATION.

roMFRET, Ct., October 27, 1856. Pomfret was settled in 1713, and, Everybody knows that in this au as was often true of the early Puri- cient town Israel I'litnani killed the tan communities, the good people wolf; but only a few are aware how took action in town meeting to se- rich is Pomfret history in incidents sure a settled ministry, even before that have a value to every son of their town organization was fairly New England. Yesterday being ob- comi)leted. Rev. Ebenezer Williams served here as the 1.50th anni- of Roxbury, having been invited to versary of the organization of preach six months on trial, was re- the First Church of Christ in Pom- quested before the expiration of his fret, the commemorative discourse probationary term to settle over the on the occasion, with the historical new church, "the people by the lit- papers, and reminiscent addresses, tle exijerience they have had of Mr. brought much of this interesting- Williams being very well satisfied material to light. From these sour- with him, finding him to be a gentle- ces it is gathered that John Eliot, the man very agreeable to them, and ev- Indian apostle, on his mission to the ery way willing to accept of him for Nipmucks and Mohegans, visited their minister." Wlien he gave a fa- eastern Connecticut while it was yet vorable response, and the time tor a wilderness, and " held up the cross his ordination approached, a commit- in view of the children of the forest tee was appointed by the town " to when their council fires were lighted take care that a good dinner be pre- within four miles of the spot upon pared and all things be carried on in which now stands the . Pomfret good order," and it was voted that church." It is more than xjrobable the ministers and messengers of the that Eliot's report of the fertility and church "be entertained as much as ne- desirableness of this immediate re- necessary before the ordination at the gion induced members of his Roxbu- town charge." Whether the guests ry church to colonize hither, first to had anj^thing to eat after they had Woodstock and later to Pomfret. performed their day's work, does not 102 THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866 appear in the record. Mr. Williams the Pomfret church, was active in was nephew of Rev John Williams of good works. He organized the first Deerfield, well known for his captivi- Sabbath school, and mstituted the ty among the Indians. One of his sons, montMy concert of prayer for mis- while pastor of the church at Hadley, inions in eoiuiection with Ms church a member of the council which dis- and took up a collection and paid was missed Pres't Edwards from his into the treasury of the American Northampton pastorate. He con- board of Commissioners for foreign tinued nearly forty years over the missions " the first money that was church at Pomfret. The successor collected at a monthly concert in of Mr. Williams was Eev. Aaron Put- Connecticut." nam of Reading, Mass. His pastor- Provision for a house of worsMp ate included the years of the Ameri- in Pomfret was made almost as early can revolution. John Hancock, pre- as were arrangements for a pastor, sident of the continental Congress, and the votes with reference to the passed Ms summers in Pomfret, sit- latter seem even more quaint and pe- ting under the preaching of Mr. Put- culiar than those on the former sub- nam and sustaining with Mm rela- ject. With formality and m order tions of warm personal friendship. the dignitaries and honored citizens The Pomfret community was emi- of the community were assigned nently loyal and patriotic. The re- places in the . sanctuary according cord of Israel Putnam is familiar to to their social status. At a Pomfret all. Besides him a consideraUe com- town meeting in 1714, when it was pany of volunteers hurried to Bos- decided to build a meeting house, it ton after the battle of Lexington, and was voted that Jonathan Belcher, of these two were Idlled and sixteen Esquire, (subsequently colonial gov- wounded at Bunker Hill. A lieu- ernor of Massachusetts ) should "have tenant of this company became fam- liberty to build a pew in the meeting ous as Col. Tnomas Grosvenor, lay- house next to the pulpit at the west ing the foundations of the strong end of it." A year later it was voted works at West Point, where is now " that Lieut. Chandler shall have lib- the military academy, having Kosci- erty to build a pew for himself and usko as his engineer in this and other and family in our meeting house, at enterprises. Rev. Mr. Putnam taught the south end between the great as vv'ell as preached, fitting for college door and the next window." "Pew- many young men, including some sx5ots " were thus assigned to a num- afterwards prominent in their pro- ber of prominent citizens, it being fessions, such as Rev. T>i: Sumner, "provided that they all finish their of Shrewsbuiy, the celebrated Sam'l pews by the last of Sept. next, take Dexter of Boston and Hon Wm. Pres- in and cause all their families to sit cott, father of the historian. When there if it may be with convenience." Mr. Putnam's voice failed, he for sev- When the notabilities were provided eral years wrote out sermons regular- lor, a committee was appointed to ly for Ms people, and had them read in seat the rest of the congregation, it their hearing on the Sabbath. He being formally declared, to prevent also wrote frequent messages of af- controversy, " that the second seat fection to members of his tlock and in the body of the meeting house and and occasionally a tract for them, the fore seat in the front gallery shall sending the missives around by the be judged and esteemed equal ni hand of his little grandson, who came dignity and the third seat of the to be known as " Mr. Putnam's Post." body and the fore seat of tlie side gal- Rev. James Porter, fourth pastor of lery shall be equal; and that the ;

June, 1866.] THE PIKE LAITDS PIONEEK. 103

governing rule in seating the meet- New York city; Dr. Thomas Hub- ing house shall be the first three rates bard, professor in the Yale medical

which were made in the town on the school ; Rev. Drs. Alexander H. and

last year's list, having respect also to Francis Vinton, of New York ; Rev. age and dignity." Again it was vo- Thomas Williams of Providence, ana ted " that the space in the meeting Henry Dexter, the sculptor; and this house between the stairs and door list might be largely increased. The be a place for boys to sit in;" that sous and daughters of this ancient " there shall be pews built over the town are widely scattered through men's and women's stairs going up the land, doing honor to the memory the galleries, (called " swing pews," and perpetuating the virtues of tlieir being suspended from the ceiling) Puritan fathers in the old church on that " each seat in the front gallery the hill-top. shall be lengthened on the men's The commemorative exercises yes- side and shortened on the women's terday were of rarest interest. The side so far as that two men more may principal discourse was by Rev. W. be accommodated in each seat ;" and S. Alexander, the young pastor of finally that "the lower half of the hind the church : Rev. Daniel Hunt, an ex- most seat in the galleries shall be fit- pastoi', contributed historical papei-s ted for and devoted to the negroes." on the pastors and meeting houses Connecticut was more generous with of the church. Addresses of frater- religious privileges for the negro then nal sympathy were made by Rev. than at present with privileges of cit- Messrs. George Soule, of Hampton, izenship, not being wUIing now to ac- and Andrew Dunning, of Thomi^son, cordto the blacks even"the lower half of neighboring parishes, whUe Rev. of the hindmost seat." In the vote Messrs. C. P. Grosvenor, of Canter- that Nathaniel Young should have bury, and George N. Webber, of " liberty to build a house in the high- Lowell, Mass., gave reminiscences of way lor himself and family to sit on their early days in the good old town. Sabba' days" is the first distinct men- Gov. Buckingliam was present and tion of the "Sabba'-day houses," addressed the assembly, and Rev. which were one of the peculiar in- Dr. Augustus C. Thompson, of Rox- stitutions of New England. These bury, Mass., gave greeting from de- houses were small buildmgs erected scendants of the fathers in the parish near the meeting-houses as resting from whence the Pomfret church places for families coming from a dis- came fortli. At the close of the fore- tance, where they could build a fire, noon service the children of the Sab- fill their foot-stoves, and thoroughly bath school had their share of the warm themselves as preliminary to celebration, singing their beautiiul the long campaign in the unwarmed liymns and listening to remarks from church, and where tliey could take Messrs. David Hawley and H. Clay their lunch during the noon inter- Trumbull, of Hartford. mission. Last evening there was a social re- Besides Gov. Belcher, Gen. Put- union at the house of Col. Charles nam and Col. Grosvenor, already re- Mathewson, where the friends from ferred to, many other citizens have abroad met each other and the Pom- gone out from Pomfret to become fret citizens in more familiar inter- well and widely known in other com- course than was practicable during munities. Among these are found the the day. At this gathering letters names of Hon. Benjamin Ruggles, were read from invited guests who United States senator from Ohio; were unable to attend the celebra-

David Hall and J. Prescott Hall, of tion ; also a j^aper from the pen of ;

104 THE FIKE LAOT)S PIONEER. [June, 1S66.

Dexter, the sculptor, full of interest- old church that was gone : and he ing reminiscences of his early Pom- saw a new church in a new place. fret life. There was good old fash- He had thought, he said, to find the ioned singing, led by one who was church new, but he was disappointed the church chorister fifty years ago. that it was not uj)reared on the old The ancient pitch-pipe was brought foundation. And the wliipping-post into requisition, and the words of the and stocks which he left near the hymns were "lined" or "deaconed" church were now missing; those he oif by a gray-haired singer. In this could not mourn ; but he did regret exercise the old people joined with the absence of the great stone horse heartiness, and there was rich melo- block, which was broken up years dy in the trembhng notes of theii- since, and its fragments worked into aged voices, as they raised the fami- the underpinning of the new church. " liar strains of Coronation " and Change ! change ! Everything was " When I can read my title clear," changed. Even those who still lived just as they were accustomed to in of his former associates he did not the long gone years. recognize and they failed to recog-

Each service and exercise of the nize him ; he must be introduced to day and evening was pleasant and them as strangers. Sitting in the impressive, and the occasion will church during the day he had looked never be forgotten by any who over the filled house searching vainly shared its privileges. Perhaps as for familiar features ; one personjonly striking an illustration as any he there recalled, and that was his the anniversary afforded of the own nex^hew—one whom he had left changes the passing j^ears produce, a youth, but whose hair and beard he was found in the simple recital at the now found silvered with age. It was evening gathering of an old man's in all sincerity and wath touching- personal story. He was born in Pom- eloquence that the old man repeat- fret, and there passed the years of ed : "I am a stranger here—a stran- his boyhood and j'outh. When a ger in my own home." The stoiy of young man, he went westward. the flight of time, -with the mutabili- At that time, as he said, there ty of all that is earthlj^, could not were to liim no strangers in Pomfret have been told more imijartially than he knew every face in the street and in his simple narrative. the dwellers in every home. For Pomfi'et will have a higher place nearly fifty years he did not once henceforth in the estimation of its visit the town ; now, for the first sons and daughters, and among oth- time, he had come back to it—back er citizens of Connecticut, for the to liis old home—but only to find revealings of this anniversary day, himself among strangers and with as the record goes abroad, and it is strange surroundings. He knew no well that the menoftliis day have face among the passers, and even the made these things known, " that the houses were nearly all changed. generation to come may know them, The very foundations of the house even the children wliich shall be where he was born no longer re- born, who shall arise and declare mained. When he looked tor the them to their children." u. c. t. — ——

THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 105

THE OLD CANOE.

Wliei'e the rocks are gray, and the shore is steep. And the waters below look dark and deep. Where the rugged pine, iu its lonely pride. Leans gloomily over the murky tide; Where the reeds and rushes are long and rank. And the weeds grow thick on the winding bank; Where the shadow is heavj- the whole clay through, Lies at its moorings the old canoe.

The useless paddles are idly dropped, Like a sea-bird's wings that the storm has lopped. And crossed on the railing, one o'er one, Like the folded hands when the work is done; While busily back and forth between. The spider stretches his silvery screen. And the solemn owl, with his dull "too-hoo," Settles down on the side of the old canoe.

The stem half sunk in the slimy wave. Rots slowly away in its living grave, And the green moss creeps o'er its dull decay. Hiding its mouldering dust away. Like the hand that plants o'er the tomb a flower, Or the i\'y that mantles the falling tower; While roany a blossom of loveliest hue, Springs up o'er the stern of the old canoe.

The currentless waters are dead and still But the light wind plays with the boat at will. And lazily in and out again It floats the length of the rusty chain. Like the weary march of the hands of time, That meet and part at the noontide chime. And the shore is kissed at each turn anew By the dripping bow of the old canoe.

O, many a time, with a careless hand, I have pushed it away from the pebbly strand; And paddled it down where the stream runs quick Where the whirls are wild and the eddies are thick And laughed as I leaned o'er the rocking side. And looked below in the broken tide. To see that the faces and boats were two That were miiTorcd back from the old canoe.

But now, as I lean o'er the crumbling side. And look Ijclow in the sluggish tide, The face that I see there is graver grovra. And the laugh that I hear has a soberer tone, And the hands that lent to the light skill" wings Have grown familiar with sterner things. But I love to think of the hours that flew As I rocked where the whirls their white spray threw. Ere the blossom waved, or the green grass gi'ew. O'er the mouldering stem of the old canoe. u :

106 THE FIEE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

GENERAL SIMON KENTON.

The following sketch of the life of able and certainly providential. It the noted pioneer, Gen. Kenton, was was in 1778, when, becoming tired of given on the occasion of the re-inter- inactivity, he devised one of those ment of his remains at Urbana, in No- disgraceful horse-stealing expedi- vember last, by Hon. W. T. Coggshall. tions, so common among the whites, He said in retaliation for Indian wrongs. The ceremonies of to-day carry us Taking with him two companions, back three-quarters of a century, Alex. Montgomery and Geo. Clark, when what is now the rich and popu- he crossed the river and pushed for lous State of Ohio^the third in all Chillicothe, (now in Ross county, the ajjpliances of civilization in the Ohio) an Indian village. Theycaugl'it great American Republic—was a six horses and started for the river, wilderness inhabited by savages, who but the river ran so high thej could contended hopelessly .against the en- not cross, and they concealed them- croachments of tliat small band of selves until the follo\Aang day. But determined whites, the j)ioneers ot though the storm had abated, the the civilization of to-day. The most horses would not "take to the wa- famous of the latter class was Gen. ter," and they turned three of them Simon Kenton, who died in poverty, loose, determining to push for the but whose bones are to-day re-in- Falls, where there was stationed a terred Avith distinguished honor. garrison. If they had adhered to Let us pause, and carefully re-read this purpose all would have been the chapter in history devoted to the well, but their cupidity would notlet eventful career of this distinguished them leave the three extra horses American. behind without further effort to car- Simon Kenton was born April 3d, ry them off. They separated, and 1755, in Culpepper county, Virginia, soon the Indians were upon them. and in 1771, at the age of sixteen, he Kenton attempted the bold game of emigrated to Kentucky. It is relat- shooting his pursuers, but liis gun ed of him that from that time on un- failed him and he was taken til the treaty of Greenville, he was prisoner. Montgomery was killed almost constantljr engaged in con- and scalped, while Clark alone es- flicts with the Indians, and encoun- caped. Now commenced for Ken- tered greater peril, and had more ton a series of sufferings, the contem- narrow escapes from death than any plation of whicli almost turns the man of his time. heart sick, and to survive whicli One of these escapes was remark- seems almost miraculous. June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 107

He was first, like Mazeppa, lashed his inevitable fate—death. He was with stout thongs to the back of a removed to Wapatomika. As soon horse. The wild animal was turned as he arrived here, the Indians of all loose, and he ran furiously through ages and sexes crowded around him- the brush, wliich terribly lacerated It was here where that meinorable the face and limbs of the jjoor vic- meeting between him and the noto- tim ; but finding he could not shake rious Simon Girty took place. Ken- oflF his burden, he returned and qui- ton and Girty had been bosom com- etly followed the cavalcade to Chil- panions at Fort Pitt and in the cam- licothe. During the several days l>aign Avith Lord Dunmore. But so that followed the arrival at the In- black had the Indians painted their dian village, the prisoner had to sub- prisoner, that it was not until he told mit to the taunts and jeers and jibes Girty that he was the Simon Butler of Indian women and children, and once his friend, that the renegade the nights were spent standing firmly white recognized him. Girty threw bound to a post. He was now doom- himselfinto Kenton's arms,embraced ed to run the gauntlet. This savage and wept over him—calling him his pastime is familiar to every one. Ken- dear and esteemed friend, and prom- ton had not run far between the lines ising to do everything in his power before he discovered an Indian with a to save his life. knife drawn ready to plunge it into Girty called a new coiuicil of the him, and he suddenly broke through Indians, and after addressing them the lines and made with all speed for in rough but eloquent language, he the town. He had been previously in- succeeded in saving the ijrisoner's formed by a negro named d'esar, life, and having him placed in his who lived" with the Indians and knew care. He dressed him in new clothes their customs, that if he could break and for some time they roved in the through the Indians' lines, and ar- wilds, boon companions again. But rive at the council house in the town the hand of fate seemed against Ken- before he was overtaken, that they ton, and he was doomed to suffer would not force him a second time more than ever before. to run the gauntlet. But Kenton The Indians had been defeated by was intercepted and thrown down the whites in an engagement near before he reached the goal, and was Wheeling, and returning home they terribly beaten ; then he Avas drag- were determined to be revenged on ged to the council house, where, af- every white man. Girty received ter much animated discussion, sen- notice to bring his friend before a tence of death was passed upon him. grand council at Wapatomika, which It was decided also that the place of he dared not disobey. When they execution should bo Wapatomika, entered the house, the Indians all (now Zanesfield, Logan county.) rose up and sliook hands with Girty, The next morning he was hurried but Kenton was received with ma- away to the place of execution. lignant scowls. A chief addressed From Chillicothe to Wapatomika the council in violent language, fre- they had to pass through Pickaway quently turning in a menacing way and Macacheek, two other Indian towards -Kenton. Girty followed towns. At each he was compelled in an earnest si^eech in behalf to run the gauntlet, and was severe- of his friend, appealing to them ly punished. Being carelessly guard- to spare his life in return for the ed at the latter place he attempted to faithfulness with which he had serv- to escape but was overtaken and drag- ed their cause in fighting against his ged back to what he now considered own countrymen. If they would in- ;

108 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866. dulge him in granting- his request to an interpreter, and a man of great spare the life of this young man he influence among the Indians. It was woukl pledge himself never to ask to this man that Logan, with good them again to spare the life of a judgment, had sent his young men hated American. Several chiefs to plead for Kenton's life. In his spoke in succession ; and with the speech Druyer argued that it was most apparent deliberation the coun- the wish of the British government cil decided, by an ovewhelming ma- that not an American white should jority, for death. ' After the decision be left alive, but that strategy should of this grand court was announced, be used in conducting the warfare, Girty went to Kenton and embraced and that the intelligence which him very tenderly , said that he veiy might be extorted from the prisoner sincerely sympathized with him in liis would be of more advantage in con- forlorn and unfortunate situation ducting the future operations of the tliat he had used all the efiorts he war, than the lives of twenty ijrison- was master of to save his life, but it ers. He concluded by demanding was now decreed that he must die the prisoner for the British General that he could do no more for him. at Detroit, who might in future re- Girty, however, persuaded the In- turn him to be put to death. As the dians to take their prisoner to Upper Indians had been to a good deal of Sandusky, a trading post where the trouble he would give them one hun- British paid olf their Indian allies dred dollars in rum and tobacco. giving as a reason that the vast num- The Indians accepted the ransom, bers there would be gratified in wit- and gave up the prisoner to Druyer. nessing the death of the prisoner. Kenton was taken to Detroit and Kenton was [ilaced in charge of five lodged in the fort as a prisoner of Indians, who forthwith setoff for Up- war. He soon recovered from the per Sandusky. severe treatment he had undergone On their way they passed a night with the Indians, and in the following at the wigwam of the celebrated June he esca^ied, and after great pri- chief Logan, the friend of the whites, vations rejoined his friends. and a brave, humane, high-minded, In 1802 Kenton settled in Urbana, noble man. During the evening, where he remained some years and Logan entered into conversation with was elected a Brigadier of mihtia. the prisoner. The next morning he In the war ot 1812 he joined the ar- told Kenton that he would detain the my of Gen. Harrison, and was at the party that daj' ; that he had sent two battle of Moraviantown, where he of Ill's young men off the night before displayed great bravery. In 1820 to Upper Sandusky, to speak a good he moved to the head of Mad river, word for him. After the return of and a few years after, at the solici- the young men the guard carried tation of Judge Burnet and General their prisoner forward, and when Vance, a pension of $20 per month they arrived at the place of destina- was granted him by the Government. tion he was again forced to run the He was very poor, and frequently gauntlet. But Logan had done good wanted the necessities of life. He work for liim. A fourth ccamcil was has been seen to walk the streets of held to consider what should be done the town barefooted, but dignified with the prisoner, now nearly ex- and erect as if he were the richest hausted. A Canadian Frenchman, man in the country. He spent a by the name of Peter Druyer, here good deal of his time in Kentucky, appeared as Kenton's champion. He where he had many friends. was a Captain in the British service, Gen. Kenton resided during the :

June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEEK. 109

last few years of his life in a small when the troops were stationed at log house, about five miles northeast Urbana, a mutinous plan was formed of Beilefontaine, on Mad river. He by part of them to attack and was buried on a grassy knoll, and destroy a settlement of Iriendly In- aroui!d tlie grave was placed a rude dians who had removed with their picket fence. A i-ougli stone slab families within the settlement, under bore the following inscription: assurance of protection. Kenton " In memory of Geii. Simon Ken- remonstrated against the measure, ton, who was born April 3, 1755, in as being not only mutinous, but Culpepper county, Va., and died treacherous and cowardly. He co7a- April 29, 1836, aged 81 years and 26 trasted his knoAvledge of the Indian days. His fellow-citizensof the West chai-acter with their ignorance of it. will long remember him as a skillful He vindicated them against the pioneer of early times—the brave charge of treachery, which was al- soldier and the honest man." leged as a justification of the act they It was from this jjlace the remains were about to ijerpetrate, and re- have just b'een removed, by oi'der of minded them ot the infamy they the General Assembly and Gov- v/ould incur by destroying a defense- ernor. less band of men, women and chil- Gen. Kenton is described by his dren, who had placed themselves in friend, Col. McDon;dd, as " a man of their power, relying on a promise of of fair complexion, six feet one inch protection. He appealed to their in hight. He stood and Avalked very humanity, their honor and duty as

erect ; and in the prime of life weigh- soldiers. Having exliausted all the ed about one hundred and ninety meays of persuasion in his power, pounds. He never was inclined to and finding them resolved to execute be corpulent, although of sufficient their purpose, he took a rifle and de- fulness to form a graceful person. clared with great firmness that he He had a soft tremulous voice, very would accompany them to the Indian pleasing to the hearer. He had encampment, and shoot down the laughing, gray eyes which appeared first man who dai-ed to molest them ; to fascinate the beholder. He was that if they entered their camp, thej'- a pleasant, good-humored and oblig- would do it by passing over his ing companion. When excited, or corpse. Knowing that the old vet- provoked to anger, (which was sel- eran would redeem his pledge, they dom the case,) the fiery glance of abandoned their purpose, and the his eye would almost curdle the poor Indians were saved. blood of those with whom he came Mr. Coggshall concluded as ibl- in contact. His rage, when aroused, lows was a tornado. In his dealing he To-day we may bear in mind with

was perfectly honest ; his confidence significant force that to Simon Ken- in man, and his credulity, were such ton and his associates we owe the that the same man might cheat him peaceful plains in which agriculture

twenty times, and if he professed thrives ; across which lines of rail-

friendship, he might cheat him stiJl.'' way and of telegraph run ; on which The act for which Simon Kenton our towns, our cities, our churches deserves to be longest remembered, and our school houses stand. This was the impulse of a noble nature, thought is worthy of careful am- and was performed near where he plification. I can only suggest is now buried by the State. This it. Take it with you, men and wo- has been well described by Judge men of Ohio, and especially take it,

Burnet in his letters. He states (hat young men ; and from the lesson of — — ;;

110 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

Simon Kenton's career, as a brave, tives ; Pioneer Association and other chivalrous, patriotic and honest man, invited guests, on foot ; Commission- learn that true manhood alone makes ers of Kenton Monument, on foot fit the monumental stone and the re- Town Council of Urbana, on foot presentative statue. Take it along Fire Companies, and other organiza- with the lessons which lie thick along tions on foot; Citizens on foot ; Cit- the pathway of our nation during the izens in carriages. memo'*able years in which rebellion The burial service at the grave was distracted and devastated the land, read by Rev. L. F. Vancleve, and it and apply it to the duties which are was concluded with the firing of three required for restoration, for general rounds of small arms by the escort. prosperity, for the common good, for This part of the service, like the the unanimous respect of the coun- first, was well performed, and the try's flag, for pervading intelligence whole reflects credit on the citizens and high public morals. of Urbana. The rest of the services were in On the return home those in the charge of the military, under com- Governor's special train organized a mand of Col. J. B. Armstrong, of the meeting, by appointing the Gover- 4th Ohio National Guards. nor chairman, and Col. Godman se- The line of march to Oakdale Cem- cretary, and adopted resolutions com- etery was as follows : Music ; Guard plimenting the managers of the Co- of Honor and Hearse; -Ith Regiment; lumbus & Indianapolis and Central Speaker and Clergy; Surviving Rela- Railways.

YOUR MISSION.

If you are too weak to journey If you cannot in the conflict Up the mountain steep and high, Prove yourself a soldier true; You can stand \Yithin the valley, If where fire and smoke are thickest As the multitude go by; There's no work for you to do You can chant In happy measure. When the battle-field is silent As they slowly pass along; You can go with silent tread, Though they may forget the singer You can bear away the wounded, They will not forget the song. You can cover up the dead.

If you have not gold and silver, Do not then stand idly waiting, Ever ready to command; For some greater work to do; If you cannot toward the needy Fortune is a lazy goddess. Reach an ever open hand She will never come to you. You can visit the afflicted. Go and toil in any \incyard. O'er the erring j-ou can weep. Do not fear to do or dare. You can be a true disciple If you want a field of labor. Sitting at the Savior's feet. You will find it anywhere. June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER, HI

From the New York Independent. THE GENESEE COUNTRY

NUMBER ONE.

BY REV. PHAECELLUS CHURCH, D. D.

THE MYTHICAL PERIOD.!

"The Genesee Country" was, how to reach so remote a region was with the past generation, a general the great c[uestion. How to traverse name for all lying west of the Dutch intervening forests, pass unbridged settlements on the MohaAvk, to Lake rivers and lakes, or how to work Erie. The term was not then ai^pli- their way through bottomless ed to accurately-defined local limits, swamps and quagmires, were ques- but to an aggregation of forests, tions too perplexing for Dutch and lakes, rivers, wild beasts, and In- even for Yankee ingenuity. dians, of which a mythical account INCIPIENT MOVEMENT TO GET POSSES- had been received by the New Eng- SION. land people as early as the Revolu- tionaiy War. It was then a terra At length a Jason and bis crew incognita, and soon after began to were found to undertake the pur- be regarded as the place of the Gold- suit, in the persons of Phelps and en Fleece, to which emigration Gorham, two slirewd New England- must make its way, if the Yankee ers, the one of Connecticut and the dream of wealth would realize itself other of Massachusetts. They be- in the actual and the experimental. gan their enterprise bj^ securing a Even Dutch Rip Van Winkles on the title to the country, first from the Hudson began to shake off their State of Massachusetts, and second ages of sleep, to realize the new from the Indians. Massachusetts hopes excited by the Genesee. But held it by a grant from Charles II. —

112 THE FIEE LASBS PIONEER. [Jime, 1866.

and the Indians by immemorial in- own. They ought to have had the heritance and occupancy. Tlie Mass- miUion of dollars rather than Massa- achusetts claim they bought on trust chusetts. for a million of dollars, and the In- Whatever defect may be detected dians' they canceled chiefly by fair in the original conveyance, one speeches and ingenious diplomacy. thing is certain: the actual occu- Phelps went to the Genesee country pants of the country have, by in 1789, called the sachems together, means of labor, added", during the had a grand pow-wow at Canandai- past seventy years, a thousand-fold gua or at Buffalo, it is not quite cer- to its value, and have thus made tain which, the result of which was good their claim in a way most of the signing of a deed conveymg aU all deserving of the respect of man- the land from Seneca to Lake Erie, kmd. Indeed, I hold that the meum^ between Pennsylvania on the south or right of possession in a country, and Lake Ontario on the north, to the or in landed property, is based said Phelps and Gorham, their heirs chiefly in labor, and no claim ought and assigns forever. This document to come in between the emigrant was signed by iifteen or twenty sach- and the fariu which he reduces from ems, and is still on file in the regis- the wilderness of Nature to a state ter's office at Canandaigua—a sug- of cultivation. To my certain knowl- gestive document, the first of the edge, many a hard-working pioneer kind, probably, in the Genesee coun- has been driven from the acres tiy. Each chief signed with his which he had subdued by his own mark—Eed Jacket among the rest, hands, because he could not save who lived to deplore the act, and to enough out of the proceeds of his hate the race who had wheedled his labor to pay oft' the fictitious claims people out of then: country and which others set up to the soil he their fathers' sepulchers had cultivated. If there is anything " Lo, the poor Indian." righteous in legislation, it is in our late Homestead Act of Congress, giving OWNERSHIP. WORK AND to actual settles, not the land, but Still, the decrees of Providence the enjoj^ment unmolested of their are thereby fulfilled, assigning the actual rights. The land is theirs of reward lo the ten occupied rather right, and this act sanctions and sus- than to the one unoccupied tal- tains the claim. ent. As the Indians had made little now THE SPECULATION FAILED. out of a country which was capable of so much, their talent was taken The original purchasers of the from them and consigned to those Genesee country, great as the bar- who had the ten, that thus idleness gain was, did not make money out and work might each have its ap- of it, owing to the lack of capital to propriate reward. Those who use turn it to their own advantage. God's gifts are certainly better enti- Both of them, we beheve, died in- tled to them than those who ahuse solvent. Of the more than 3,000,000 them. The fee simple of a country acres included in it, they set off belongs to those who cultivate it, in about 90,000 to satisf3^ certain claim- preference to those who leave it un- ants on the North Kiver, of Mdiicli cultivated. One thing seems to me one of the Livingstons was a repre- clear, however, that the Indians had sentative; and 2,000,000 more they a better title than the one derived sold to Robert Morris, of Philadel- from King Charles, who gave away phia, a name of Revolutionary no- what was in no possible sense his toriety, and on this immense sale June, 1866.1 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER, 113

they got only two cents an acre over only bed of his kind host and what the land cost them. They gave hostess. The next day he reached six cents an acre, and Morris paid Buffalo, where he also found but one them eight cents. This left them house. These are suggestive facts, with less than a million of acres in showing that the sites of our most their own right, which they appear opulent cities and richest farming to have disposed of at such forced sections, over an area of hundreds sales as to leave them but a small of miles in a country now deemed margin of profits over their accruing comparatively old, were sixty-two expenses in various ways. years ago, a waste, howling wilder- ness. TUE EARLY SETTLEJLENT. THE COUNTRY ATTRACTING SETTLERS. Still, Phelps and Gorham are enti- tled to great credit for the impulse Few countries in the world offer- which they gave to emigration, and ed greater inducements to emigra- well deserve the honor of having tion than the Genesee. Its forests each an important township called were many of them beautiful, its after his name. They began this soil rich and easily tilled, its climate emigrant movement in 1789, and salubrious, and its capacity for fruit- within eleven or twelve years they bearing unlimited. Its peach-trees had laid the foundation for that im- would blossom the second year from portant limb of our country which the stone, and bear the third. This we call Western New York. Gene- was true in particular cases, if not va and Canandaigua were the first as a general thing. So abundant was points at which they broke ground, tliis fruit sixty or seventy years ago, the one at the foot of Seneca (or that cart-loads might be had for the Seneka, as spelled in the original gathering. Indeed, there was al- deed of conveyance,) and the other most no market for it, and the farm-

of Canandaigua lake ; two of the ers might as well give it away as not. most beautiful sheets of water to be The apple-treess were equally luxu- met with in our countiy. rient, though of slower growth. A gentleman now living informs Western New York is to this day the me that he emigrated to Canandai- great source of fruit-supply in all gua with his young wife in 1803, and the varieties common to the climate. found on the way one or two log- The Genesee wheat for many years houses at Utica, about as many at had the highest place in the market. Auburn, a considerable cluster of We cannot wonder, therefore, that buildings at Geneva, and also at these facts, becoming known and Canandaigua, where he has resided acknowledged, should have stimula- ever since; In a journey to Canada ted immigration. The western that same year, he found a log-house movement of population in the free at Bloomfield, one at Leroy, one or states first set in tliis direction, and two in Batavia, and beyond Batavia, it was long before it began to look he rode eighteen miles through the for homes in Oliio and at other re- woods, when he came to another, a moter points. Even to this day ag- tavern, which he abandoned in the riculture has found no better resting- night for fear of being robbed, and place. rode many miles through the snow, THE GAIN TO THE COUNTRY FROM NEW when he came to a log-hut, of which INVENTIONS. a man and his wife had just taken possession, and to save himself from The causes which have made freezing he slept in the same and Western New York, however, are not 15 114 THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

in itself nor in its local industry, but threshed in a single day. Then the in the new channels of commerce mowing and reaping which it took a and locomotion which have been dozen men a week or two to do is opened through it. The canal, rail- now done up in a day or two by half road, and telegraph have made it the number of laborers. The effect what it is. Its products for thirty or of these farming facilities is to dis- forty years after its settlement would tribute laborers over a much wider hardly pay the cost of getting them extent of country, and the hands to market. Carting a bushel of which under the old syestem would wheat to Albany was about as much have been required on the farms of as it was worth, nor could the soft Western New York are cultivating roads endure the wear of teams the forests and prairies of the Far enough to carry a tenth part of what West, or working the mines, or per- the country was capable of produc- forming other tasks equally impor- ing, to a distant market. Hence, the tant to the aggregate of our nation- products of the country had but a al wealth. No country is situated to nominal value, except for the use of reap so many advantages from im- its inhabitants, merchandise was proved locomotion and labor-saving dear, and the best farms could be machinery as our own, because our bought for ten or fifteen dollars per demand for labor is greater and our acre. spaces to be traversed in reaching But as soon as the Erie canal was a market are more extended. Our opened all values rose tenfold, and capacity for labor might be increas- the country became at once rich and ed a hundred fold, and yet our fields opulent. Wild lands were rapidly and opportunities for its profitable cleared, population poured in from occupation would be unexhausted. all quarters, cities and towns multi- Western New York is not tlie only plied on all hands, and the Genesee or even the chief section of our country of earher years became the country to be benefited by inven- tiie prairie States are no doubt proud empire of Western New York. tion ; Soon after the great thoroughfares in advance of it. Those vast natural through the country were opened meadows, which it was thought im- came labor-saving machinery in ag- possible a few years ago to settle, on riculture, to facilitate and cheapen account of a lack of wood, water, cultivation, and to give a new im- and stones, are now in rapid progress petus to production and wealth. We of conversion into magnificent rail- of the cit}'-, who accept what is farms, througli the influence of brought, as Ehjah did the ofl'ering of roads and agricultural implements. the ravens, have little idea of the These inventions give us a power we source whence it comes, or how little dreamed of forty years ago, to much invention has to do vnth sup- fulfill our appointed task of subdu- plying our daily wants. It is- scarcely ing the earth, and no people so a quarter of a century since our reap- mucli needed these auxiliaries as we, ers, mowers, drills, rakers, and va- because none had so much to do rious agricultural machines came in- and so few to do it. to use, and yet it is safe to calculate I speak with the more enthusiasm that our country is a century in ad- on this subject, from seeing what this vance of what it would have been if country now is, under its new modes it had been left to the farming-tools of labor, and comparing it with what in use when I was a boy. Then it took I remember of it years ago. Then a whole winter to beat out with the everything moved with snail-like flail the grain that may now be pace, novr with race-horse speed. June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. 115

Then to talk of threshing, and win- no means reached its goal ; but from nowing and putting into bags twen- past achievements we are led to ty acres of wheat in a single day, all anticipate greater things to come. ready for market, woidd have been As some one said of New York, he deemed insane and fabulous as an could not tell what it would be when

Arabian Night's tale ; now it is spo- it was finished, so we cannot tell ken of as the most ordinary thing what this world will become when imaginable. So used have we be- Divine influence, working through come to the new order of things as human intelligence and labor, has to forget the old, and we need to be achieved its ultimate results. It reminded of it by such scribblers as must become, even without miracle, I am, that we may be provoked to greater, and, we hope, better and say, "What hath God wrought?" happier than ever before. What is more, improvement has by

THE MINUTE MEN OF THE REVOLUTION.

FEOM ANNALS OF WIJ-BRAHAM, JIASS.

' " General Gage, commander of the he found the minute men ' of Lex- British troops in Boston, had deter- ington drawn up in arms be- mined to get possession of the am- fore him. He ordered them to munition and arms of the Pro^'ince, disperse. They stood their ground. which he heard were stored at Lex- He ordered his men to fire. That ington and Concord. volley opened the Revolutionary On the night of the ISth of April, War. Couriers were despatched on the troops stole out of Boston, ho- the fleetest horses to arouse the peo- ping to reach Lexington without be- ple everywhere, and carry the fla- ing discovered, but the concerted ming torch of alarm through the signal flashed from the spire of the country. New North Church, and Paul Ke- On the 20th, we may suppose just as vere was instantly on his way from the sun was passing the meridian, a Charleston to Lexington, rousing the rider was seen coming down the inhabitants on the road, so that when Bay Head at full speed, his horse Major Pitcairn, who led the advance dripping and smokmg with sweat, of the troops, reached the Common, who barely checked his pace before "

116 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866.

Samuel Glover's door, and announc- his powder horn over his shoulder, put ed the iiglit, calling upon the ' min- his bullets into his i)ocket, and taken

ute men ' to hasten to the rescue. down his trusty gun from its hooks, He was ofl" and out of sight on his the faithful steed was at the door. way to Springfield, in a moment. Breathing a prayer for his heroic Blood had been shed! wife, standing by in speechless sub- Glover mounts his horse and rides mission, he was off at full speed on as he never rode before, down by the track of young Burt, and passing Jones' and Bliss', calling them to up the same road. Comfort Chaffee come on as he goes. Brewer and and Jesse Caii^enter joined him Merrick, and Warriner, the Cai^tain and rode for the mountain, while of the minute men, rush in from Enos Stebbins and Asa Chaflee from the field. The long roll is beaten by south of the Scantic, rushed over to Charles Ferry, so that the mountain William King's, and together up the answers it from Oliver Bliss' to No- middle road, taking Ezekiel Russell ah Stebbins.' Merrick mounts his and Rowland Crocker in comj)any, horse and flies down the west road and all joined those coming up the to the Hitchcocks, and the Steb- west road and over the mountain, at binses, the Chapins, and the Lang- a barn then standing near the site of dons by the Scantic. Burt tells his the present school-house on the most vigorous sou to cross the moun- Main street. tains by Rattle Snake Peak, as swift Before the mountain ceased to as the winds ever swept over them, glow with that day's departing sun, and rouse the Crockers, the Cones, thirty-four men, with the blessing of the Kussells, the Ivings, and to stay their wives and the prayers of the not his speed till all the men of the fathers who were too old to go into South Valley, from the corner to battle, were on the 'Great Bay Road,' Isaac Morris' were summoned to the hastening on their way to defend, march ; then to return without de- and, if need be, to die for their lay along the east road, by the Chaf- rights. But the 'red coats' had re- fees, Hendricks and Carpenters, and turned to Boston in fewer numbers over the mountains by Kev. Noah and more rapidly than they left it,

Merrick's home. It was done as and our ' minute men' returned after quick and as well as said. 'Edward,' ten days to the quiet and security of said Isaac Morris to his son, your their own homes. Such was the father, Mr. President, 'bring the 'Lexington alarm.' horse.' And as soon as he had slung —

June, 1866.] THE FIRE LANDS PIONEEK. 117

A STARTLING SCENE IN CHURCH.

There were many thrilling scenes darkness. In all the disasters that ill the New England churches dur- had successively overwhelmed them ing the Revolutionary War. The fol- he traced the hands of God, and de- lowing one occurred in Sharon, Con- clared that to his mind, they clearly necticut, under the ministry of Rev. indicate some striking inteiijosition Cotton Mather Smith. It is found of Divine Pro\adence about to take in Headley's " Chaplains of the Rev- place in their behalf. Man's extrem- olution." ity had come, and now was the time Mr. Smith one Sunday took for his for him to make bare his arm for the text a part of Isaiah xx, 11—12 : delivery of the people. " Watchman what of the night ? The Prophet-like, kindling with the watchman saith, the morning Com- vision on which the eye of his faith eth." The question in the first part rested, he boldly dropped the gene- of this passage had been the daily, ral subject of God's faithfulness, and almost hourly, inquiry for nearly a told his astonished hearers that ho month, of every one ot the congre- believed they were on the point of gation, and hence its appropriateness hearing extraordinary news of victo- was keenly felt, but the startling an- ry by our arms. He would not wait nouncement, "The morning com- for an indefinite future to prove his eth," took them by surprise, and they faith to be well founded—he was could not at first comprehend its willing to bring it to the test of the significance, nor how it could be IDresent. They might j udge whether adapted to the present- gloomy x)ros- he was right or wrong, for, said he, " pect. Had he heard any good news ? the morning now cometh, I see its What had happened that he could beams already gilding the mountain say so confidently "The moniing tops, and you shall soon behold its Cometh." brightness bursting over the land." No, he had nothing new to tell One cannot imagine the effect of them, only to proclaim over again such language uttered by the minis- his unshaken confidence in God's ter of God in such a time of doubt promises. He did not attempt to and suspense. He ceased, and as he conceal or lessen the calamities that closed the Bible and exclaimed, " had befallen the country, nor deny Amen ! so let it be," a silence, pro- that a fearful crisis was at hand. He found and death-like rested upon the acknowledged that to human appear- audience. Each one seemed to feel ance " clouds and darkness were as if an invisible presence was there round about God's throne," but said and some weighty announcement that the eye of faith could pierce the was just at hand. gloom. The throne was there, Suddenly the deep hush was bro- though wrapped in impenetrable ken by the distant clatter of a horse's 118 THE FIRE LANDS PIONEER. [June, 1866 hoof along the road. The sharp and mounting the pulpit stairs handed rapid strokes told of swift riding the pastor a letter. and urgent haste.. They knew at Notwithstandi^g the good man's once what it meant. For days and faith his hand trembled and an ashy weeks their eyes had strained up hue overspread his face as he reach- the streets that led northward to ed out to receive it. " Burgoyne has catch sight of the messenger of good has surrendered ! " were the first or evil tidings that was hourly ex- words that met his eye. He stag- pected. gered under them as under a blow. He had come at last, and as near- The next moment a radience like er, clearer rang the sound of that that of the morning broke over liis gallop on the listening ear, each countenance, and he burst into tears. looked in mute and earnest inquiry Rising to read the incredible tidings, into his neighbor's face. Right on such a tide of emotion flooded his through the place, straight for the heart that he couhl scarcely utter meeting-house, darted the swift ri- them aloud. The audience sat for a der, and drawing rein at the door, moment overwhelmed and stupefi- leaped from the saddle, and leaving ed, then as their pastor folded his his foam-covered steed unattended, hands and turned his eyes toward strode into the main aisle. On tlie heaven in thankful prayer, impelled deep silence that filled the building by a simultaneous movement, they like a sensible presence, his armed feU like one man on their knees and heel rang like the blows of a hani- wept aloud. Sobs, sighs, and fer- mer. As he passed along a sudden vently uttered " Amens " were heard paleness spread over the crowd of on every side attesting the depth of faces turned with a painful eager- their gratitude and the ecstacy of ness toward him. But looking nei- their joy. "The morning had come ther to the right hand nor the left, bright and glorious, and its radience the di'ead messenger passed on, and filled all the heavens."

SOMETHING ABOUT PIONEER OHIO.

The following facts concerning the themselves the " Ohio Company," early history and settlement of Ohio, established a few fur trading posts were ijublished by the Journal on along the Maumee, although the ti tlie occasion of the visit of the Cin- tie to the land of the State was yet cinnati Pioneer Association to the unsettled between them and the

Capital of our State : Enghsh. In 1749 the English built The territory now comprised \AM\- a trading house on the Great Miami \\\ the limits of this State, was for- at a i)lace since called Lorain's Store. merly a i^art of the immense central Christopher Giot, an agent of this tract owned by the French and comijany, appointed to examine called Louisiana. In the year 1748 Western lands, also made a visit to a company of Frenchmen, calling this river in the same year, and called June, 1866.] THE FIKE LANDS PIONEER. 119 on the Twigtrees tribe. The French sary is held. Previous to this, there hearing of the EngUsh settlers among had been an attempt for settlement these Indians, in 1752 sent a force to at the mouth of the Scioto, by four route them, in whi'fch transaction the families from Pe^sylvania, but dif- iirst white olood was shed iii Ohio ! ficulties with the Indians defeated The tribes of the Shawnees and their enterprise. Delawares being hostile, Col. Bo- The same year that Marietta was quet,* in 1764, marched from Fort settled, Congress appointed Gen. St. Pitt, Pennsylvania, into the heart of Clair Governor of the territory. The the State, and by prudence and skill second settlement in the State was at effected an honorable treaty with the the mouth of the Little Miami, five savages. miles above Cincinnati. The next war with the Indians, in A third settlement was made on 1774, is commonly called Lord Dun- the celebrated " French Grant " at more's war. A severe battle was Gallipolis, early in 1791. The Con- fought at Wapatomico, above Zanes- necticut reservation, along the Cuy- ville on the Muskingum, and one at ahoga, was partially settled in the Point Pleasant, on the Ohio, which year 1800 by about 1,000 inhabitants. ended the war. General Harmer's unsuccessful ex- In 1779 an expedition was planned pedition against the Indians, under- against the native Shawnees, and taken from Fort Washington, now in their village, Chillicothe, on the Lit- the limits of Cincinnati, occurred in tle Miami, near the site of Xenia, the year 1790. This was followed by burned. The "Coshocton Cam- St. Clair's still more disastrous cam- paign" was an unimportant demon- paign in 1791. Gen. Wayne, in 1794 stration on the Muskingum in 1780. wiped out these chsgraceful deijKits, There were several other invasions by a successful attack on the Inuians of unimportance about this time. at the rapids of the Mauniee. This In 1786, that of Col. Logan Edwards victory was speedily followed by a in 1787, and Todd in 1788. peace honorable to the whites. Moravian missionaries were in Hamilton, the second county to Ohio as early as 1762. Ninety-four of Washington, was erected in 1790. the Moravian Indians were murdered The name of the settlement opposite in the limits of Tuscarawas county the Licking was at that time called in 1782 by a party of Americans un- Cincinnati. In 1796 Wayne county der Col. Williamson. was established, and Adams county, By act of Parliament in 1774, all 1797. this territory, known as the North The first meeting of the territorial Western Territory was made a part legislature was on the 24th of Sep- of the province of Quebec. In 1788, tember, 1799. Number of acts the claim of England to the North passed—thirty-seven! The conven- Western Territory was signed to the tion to form a constitution, assem- United States. bled at Chillicothe, November 1, The first mirchase of land and set- 1802. Under this constitution, the tlement in Oliio of a permanent char- first General Assembly met March acter was in 1788, at Marietta, in 1, 1803, (over 60 years ago.) lienor of which the present anniver-

» The house of Col. Boquet, built just out- Central R. R. It is of brick, square, anil side of old Fort Pitt, is still standing in Pitts- erected in antique style, with portholes for burg, on an obscure street on the "Point," musljetry under the eaves. near the Freight Depot of the Pennsylvania . .

INDEX TO VOL. VII.

Address, Prof. Haxtupee, 16 IMeetiugs—Annual at Norwalk 1 " Rev. John Safford, 28 'I Quarterly at Vermillion,... 4 Rev. L. B. Giirley, 64 " " " Bellevue, 6 Bear Hunt on the Marsh, 61 " " "Plymouth, 8 BiU, A Doctor's, '73 McArdle, John P., 49 Black Hawk, 84 Minute Men of the Revolution, 115 Coon Skiu Library, 41 I'Ulan, Early Settlers of, 58 Charivari, of Greenfield, the last, 62 No Time like the Old Time, 41 Courting two hundred years ago, 93 Oldest Natives of Ohio, 96 Erie Canal, opening of, 76 Obituary Notices 77

Geology of the Fire Lauds, 42 Omick John, Trial and Execution of, . . 60 Graham, Francis, Autobiography of, 50 Old Canoe, 105 Golden Wedding of Col. James Smith, 100 Personal Reminiscences of John Sey- Genealogy of Hiram Rogers, !>7 mour, 34 Genessee Country, Ill Pioneer Excursion to Marietta, 86 EeStpu, Gen. Simon, 106 Pomfret Celebration at 101 Miscellaneous Articles. Pioneer Ohio, 118

Initial Facts, !)7 Remarkable Family Gathering, 27 New England Farm House, 98 Sandusky Clarion, 74 Washington's Text Book 98 Stai'tling Scene in Church 117 First Paper Money in America, 99 The Old and the New, 33

Old Fashioned Funerals and Ordin- Threshing Machines, fli'st in Ohio, 10 tions 99 Wheat aud Wool, first shipment of 27 Members of Fire Lands Hist. Soc, 94 Wayne, Gen. anecdote of,. 00 Mounds and Mound Builders of Ohio,. 11 Your Mission, 110

Page 10, 1st col., eth line, after "Wayne," read "was read by the Secretary.' Page 87, 2d col., 22d line, read "Warren" for "Huron." Page 47. Ist col., 7th line, for "to surface," read "to the surface."