immhtS^Sfia 
 
'\,*^ 
 
 ^ * ^ -% V' ^ ■< « o , <^ 
 
 ^^^.^m^^ ^^°W^y ^^^^^y ^ V 
 
 sp^ 9^ 
 
 
 
 '^^.> 
 
 
 -^^0^ 
 
 oO\^ 
 
 p,^^ <5^ =.' 
 
 
 \^^ 95, -'o.-^-^ .^^ 9? *^o,x^ # 9^ ""''^ 
 
 6^ %^ 
 
 % ,^' 
 
 . >^^;^''% ^'^^:^^''% ^^^:^i;^'^% ^^^':j^ 
 
 
 "''^'^'''''' ^^ o..w^^^^ ^c^ =L X/^^\F . * . ^> 
 
 
 
 ^cr^^ 
 
 cS «^ 
 
 ' » . s '■ ^G^ ^ 
 
 ^v^O^ 
 
 0^%:.^"/'^^ 
 
 

 ^ °^ I 
 
 i^ 9^ 
 
 
 
 ^ - 
 
 <i^ 9^ 
 
 
 
 ■L'^'''-% cP^o_^;;'^>^ ^^.^:;ai:':% ^^^'J^^^^% 
 
 '- \..# 
 
 V^ ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 •»-^ r.....\-'-^^ v<^-.,%'°-'* v<^..,%'°"* v<.... 
 
"RECOLLECTIONS OF AN 
 OLD SETTLER." 
 
 J0^ 
 
 STORIES OF KENT AND VICINITY IN 
 
 PIONEER TIMES. 
 
 J0^ 
 
 "Written l>y CHristian CacRler (Deceased), in 187'^. 
 
 CHRISTIAN CACKLER. 
 
 REPUBLISHED BY THE KENT COURIER, 1904. 
 
— 3— 
 
 **R.ecollections of an Old Settler.' 
 
 The qaestion has often been asked, 
 what this country looked like in early 
 days. Inasmaoh as I was one of the 
 early settlers, I thought I would give 
 you some idea of it. I came into this 
 country, or into Hudson . township, the 
 10th day of May, 1804. At that time 
 this country was an unbroken wilder- 
 ness, filled up with wild men and wild 
 animals. Probably forty Indians to one 
 white man. They were very friendly 
 and peaceable. There were three tribes 
 that inhabited this section of country — 
 the Senecas, the Taways, the Ohippe- 
 ways. They appeared to live very 
 friendly with each other as tribes. They 
 had their hunting grounds all bounded, 
 so that each tribe knew their bounds as 
 well as yon would know your farm. The 
 Seneca Chief's name was John Bigson. 
 He was, I should think, a little short of 
 six feet tall, of a stout, muscular frame, 
 and keen black eyes, and a well propor- 
 tiooed man ; had a stern look, and what 
 he said was law with his tribe. He 
 scarcely ever smiled, and I tbink he was 
 perfectly honest, and what he said he 
 meant. If he promised you anything, 
 you might be sure of it, and if any of 
 the rest promised anything, they had to 
 be as good as their word. And if you 
 promised them anything, they looked 
 for it with as much grace, and if you 
 lied to them, they would never forget it. 
 
 The Taway Chief's name was Stig- 
 nish He was a very pleasant looking 
 man, and honor and honesty was his 
 
 law, and he taught his people so. The 
 Seneca Chief had his headquarters in 
 Streetsboro, on land now owned by 
 Samuel Clin, that was quarters on or 
 near the Cuyahoga River. I have been 
 there a great many times when they 
 lived there, and if they had anything 
 they could bestow upon you in the way 
 of eatables, it was as free as the water. 
 They thought it was a privilege to give, 
 for they thought it was a token of 
 friendship, and if they gave one, they 
 gave all that were present. Their wig- 
 wam was about twenty-five feet long or 
 more, and they had their fire through 
 the middle, and had it so constructed as 
 to leave room for a tier of them to lie 
 down on each side of the fire, so as to 
 have their feet to the fire, for they lay 
 on their skins and furs, and covered 
 over with their blankets. .They had a 
 space left open on the ridge of their 
 camp to let the smoke pass out. They 
 had their wigwam thatched with bark, 
 so that it was tight and warm, and had 
 a door in each end, so that they could 
 haul in their wood without much chop- 
 ping. They lay there as warm and 
 comfortable as a man in his palace. The 
 Seneca Chief used to gather in all his 
 family connections and lay there 
 through the winter. And they would 
 kill their meat before the hardest weath- 
 er commenced, so they would not be 
 compelled to go out in bad weather to get 
 their living. In the Spring they would 
 scatter out over their hunting grounds. 
 
each family by themselves, and build 
 their wigwams for the summer. There 
 were all sorts of game all around them, 
 and the Indians were almost as an ani- 
 mal amongst animals. They did not 
 shoot one of them unless they got close 
 to them, so as to make sure work of it 
 They were as careful of their game as 
 we are of our cattle ; they would kill 
 nothing unless wanted for present use 
 The Indian was placed in the happiest 
 condition of any race of people that I 
 ever saw. The God of nature had pro- 
 vided everything that the heart could 
 wish for. They had nothing to vex or 
 perplex, or to disturb the mind. They 
 gave no thought for the morrow, but let 
 every day provide for itself. They had 
 no government expenses, no taxes to 
 pay, no ja'ls to build, no locks to buy to 
 secure their property, which was always 
 secure, if they put it out of reach of 
 the dogs and wolves. They meant 
 to make honor and honesty their rule of 
 life, and when they left their camps, 
 they set up sticks as a signal that there 
 was nobody at home, and everything 
 was secure. I think the Indian is the 
 happiest man in the world, in the wil- 
 derness. He can get up, kill and slay the 
 fattept of the land, and lie down and 
 take his ease, and no one to molest or to 
 make him afraid. I have often inquired 
 why it is, that the man of the forest is 
 so much more honest than the civilized 
 and christianized world. I never knew 
 that they had any language of their own 
 to swear or blaspheme in, at least not 
 till the whites taught them, and when 
 they got so as to repeat the oaths, they 
 would tickle and laugh, and thought it 
 
 was something very nice or cunning. 
 The Indian is peculiar in his customs 
 and habits. He will live on meat en- 
 tirely. He will eat all kinds of animals 
 and fish, and horses, or anything that a 
 dog will eat, and sometimes I have 
 thought what a dog would not eat. In 
 the summer they greased themselves 
 where their clothinj? does not cover 
 their skin, so as to prevent gnats and 
 mosquitos from biting them, and often 
 paint their faces in streaks. That de- 
 notes peace and friendship. They love 
 whiskey, and get drunk often. 
 
 I attended one of their drunken 
 scrapes, in Hudson, at Heman Oviatt's, 
 who kept a little Indian store, to trade 
 with them, to get their skins and furs, 
 and kept whisky. It was the Taway 
 tribe ; there were about fifteen or 
 eighteen of them. They got their 
 whisky, and had a deer skin suit made 
 like a little boy's suit, all whole, but 
 open before so they could stick their 
 legs and arms in, and tied up before, 
 and had it fringed all around the sleeves 
 and legs. The fringe was abont three 
 inches long. On these fringes they had 
 claws of several different kinds, deer, 
 bear, turkey, coon, and a great variety 
 of other claws. They were almost cov- 
 ered over with claws. One of them 
 would put on the suit and get on the 
 floor to dance. Two others would pat 
 and hum so as to keep time. The one 
 that was dancing would jump, hop and 
 kick around over the floor. It appeared 
 that the more he could make these claws 
 rattle the better the dance. The rattling 
 at the claws appeared to be the object of 
 his dance, and when he got tired he 
 
would take a driak, and another pat it 
 on. He would try his activity, and an- 
 other, and another, until they got so 
 drank they could not perform. But 
 when they got perfectly drunk with 
 that suit on, the claws rattling looked 
 more like the devil than anything I ever 
 saw. He would have made a Santa 
 Olaus in good earnest. They kept it up 
 almost two days. But before they com- 
 menced, they gave up their knives, 
 guns, and tomahawks, to the squaws, 
 who would keep sober, until the Indians 
 got sober, when they returned the im- 
 plements to the Indians, and then the 
 squaws went into it and got as drunk as 
 could be, and tumbled around on the 
 ground, and did not appear to have any 
 pride or shame about them. There were 
 two that kept sober to take care of the 
 papooses, while the others had their 
 frolic. But after they got through, they 
 looked as though they had lost their 
 best friends. They had their papooses 
 tied on a board, and had them standing 
 up against the house or fence. You did 
 not hear a whimper from th»m scarcely 
 ever. And when they are traveling, 
 they hang a board on their backs, with 
 the papooses strapped to it, and with a 
 strap across their forehead, the papoose 
 stands there looking back. And when 
 they come to a house they set them up 
 outside of the door until they get ready 
 to go again. They never bring them 
 into a house unless it is cold weather. 
 They strap their young ones on a board 
 for the purpose of making them straight. 
 You never saw an Indian but who was 
 as straight as a string. Oviatt made 
 himself rich out of those Indians, with 
 
 whisky, and a few Other Indian trinkets, 
 and when he got all he could out of 
 them, he cried out, "vanity, vanity, and 
 vexation of spirit," for whisky is the 
 root of all evil. 
 
 The Indians were a peculiar people in 
 their notions. In June, 1806, when the 
 total eclipse occurred, they did not 
 know anything of it until it began to be 
 dark. They became very much fright- 
 ened, and thought the Bad Spirit had 
 gone to war with the Good Spirit. They 
 formed themselves in a line of battle, 
 and commenced firing at the Bad Spirit, 
 and as the glimpse of the sun came out 
 on the opposite side, one of them fired, 
 aud he gained the victory, and they 
 made him Chief, or so it was said. 
 
 The Seneca Chief lost his wife or 
 squaw in Streetsboro, at their camp, 
 where they made their headquarters, 
 near the river, on Samuel Olin's farm, 
 in the Summer of 1809. She was a 
 large, stout woman, ancj very good look- 
 ing for an Indian Squaw ; I should 
 think between fifty and sixty years old. 
 They are a proud people in their way. 
 They had a calico frock made, which 
 was ruffled up nicely, and almost cov- 
 ered up with silver brooches and large 
 silver bands around her wrists and 
 ankles. They dug a grave about three 
 feet deep, and put a bark on the bottom 
 and on each^ide, and rolled her up in a 
 blanket and laid her in, and put a bark 
 on the top over all but her face, and 
 that was so arranged that when she 
 was covered up with dirt there was a 
 hole left so that she could see out, when 
 she bhould rise again at some future 
 period. They believe that a man ought 
 
— 6— 
 
 to be good and honest, and that a man 
 who will lie, steal, and cheat, ought not 
 to live. When they are your friend, they 
 are a friend indeed ; but as enemies, 
 
 they know no mercy. They believe in 
 punishing the wii;ked for their evil 
 
 deeds. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF ANIMALS, ETC. 
 
 This used to be one of the greatest 
 Qounties in the world for a great variety 
 of game. There were the Elk, Deer, 
 Bear, Wolf, Panther, Wild Oat, Otter, 
 Beaver, Wollynigs, Porcupine, Raccoon, 
 and a great variety of small animals. 
 Of the feathered flock, there were 
 Swains, Geese, Ducks, Turkeys, Bald 
 Eagles, Gray Eagles, Ravens, Buzzards, 
 Crows, Owls, and a great variety of 
 small birds, that used to make the forest 
 ring with their sweet songs, as one hap- 
 py family of the forest. And where are 
 they now? The white man has thrown 
 deatti and destruction among them, and 
 they have all disappeared and gone to 
 retura no more forever. There was the 
 Indian that was placed in the forest 
 with his happy family of beasts and 
 birds ; he was placed in the happiest 
 situation of any human being, for he 
 had everything that human heart could 
 wish for ; everything was plenty and 
 easily gotten, and he lived according to 
 the counsel that was given of old : 
 "Give no thought of the morrow, but 
 let every day provide for itself." For 
 there was all sorts of game playing 
 around that was for their use, and all 
 the ponds, rivers and brooks filled with 
 fish, aiad all the feathered flocks that 
 used to live here : and there were the 
 great forests that weye filled with bees 
 
 and honey in great quantities, and all 
 sorts of wild fruits, such as whortleber- 
 ries, blackberries, cranberries, black- 
 haws, chestnuts, hickorynuts, butter- 
 nuts, etc. Can a man be placed in a 
 pleasanter situation in this lifeV 
 
 The Indian has not the selfish and 
 covetous disposition of the white man. 
 He does not want to lay up riches to 
 make him trouble in this world, but to 
 take all the comfort he can in this life, 
 and I think if honor and honesty con- 
 stitute good men, they had it. The In- 
 dian has gone, with all his forest flocks, 
 to return no more. They have been 
 driven from their homes, their country,, 
 and their enjoyments of life, and to 
 leave their father's and mother's graves, 
 where they had been raised and so fond- 
 ly dandled on their knees And for 
 what? Merely to gratify and make 
 room for a covetous ahd craving dispo- 
 sition that can never be satisfied ; like 
 Alexander of old, when he had con- 
 quered the whole world, he sat down 
 and wept because there were no more 
 worlds to conquer. 
 
 I will now give yon a short history of 
 the animals of the forest. The bntt'alo 
 disappeared about a century ago. The 
 elk stayed here until about 1814. They 
 are peculiar creatures in some respects. 
 They are larger than the deer, but seem 
 to be of the same species They have 
 large horns, which drop off every year, 
 in the month of December, or when the 
 weather gets very cold. I think they 
 freeze off, for when freezing cold weath- 
 er begins the horn will begin to crack 
 arouud close to the head, where the 
 heat of the animal and the cold meet, 
 
-7— 
 
 and will keep cracking for two or three 
 weeks before it drops off, then heals 
 over, and in the Spring, when warm 
 weather begins, the horn begins to grow 
 again, with a skin over it, and it is soft. 
 In August the horns get their growth 
 and perfect shape. They then rub off 
 the skin or valvet, as we used to call it. 
 They then lay in the sun and dry their 
 horns until they become hard. The deer 
 pursues the same course with its horns. 
 
 I helped to run out the township of 
 Dover, west of Rocky River, bordering 
 on the lake. We surveyed it in 1810. 
 At that time there were a great many 
 elk in that township. We used to start 
 them almost every day. They run in 
 large nerds, like deer, only the old 
 bucks, they keep in flocks by themselves 
 until November, then they mingle in 
 with the rest. They have their fawns 
 in June, and when they are young they 
 are spotted all over with white, and 
 while they have the spots on there is 
 nothing that can follow their tracks by 
 scent. They do not leave any scent 
 until the spots come off. They hide 
 their fawns when they are young, and 
 suckle them twice a day. I have seen 
 elk horns that were over three and a 
 half feet long and full of prongs, and I 
 should think would weigh six pounds 
 each. A dog cannot do anything with 
 them, nor can a wolf. They will strike 
 with their feet almost as hard as a horse 
 will kick. They will knock a dog al- 
 most in pieces in a very few minutes, 
 especially if there are two or more to- 
 gether. 
 
 The deer is smaller, but I think can 
 run the faster of the two. The panther 
 
 is a hard customer. He is the master 
 animal that roams the forest, except the 
 bear. It is said he is the master of the 
 forest. It is not worth while to give you 
 a history of the panther, because you 
 have seen them in the shows. They 
 are the same animal in the forest. They 
 are of the cat kind, very sly and secret. 
 They often catch deer by getting up on 
 some leaning tree, or one that hangs 
 over a path where the deer travel, and 
 jump down on them, aad if they onoe 
 get hold of them they are a sure prey. 
 My brother-in-law killed one of them in 
 Boston, town 3, in the 11th range of 
 townships, and he and I used to go to- 
 gether to a lick where they used to come 
 to suck, and to kill the deer in the Sum- 
 mer. There we fixed a blind to sit be- 
 hind, so as to shoot them when they 
 came there to suck in the evening. One 
 evening my brother-in-law went there 
 alone until dark, when he heard some- 
 thing coming up a hollow towards him, 
 stepping very carefully, and when it got 
 within eight or ten rods of him it 
 stopped for some time, and then changed 
 his course up around him. Stepping very 
 carefully, he could hear him walk in 
 the dry leaves. He could not imagine 
 what it could be. He had a big dog 
 with him, and the dog would partly get 
 up and growl, which he was not accus- 
 tomed to do when there was deer about. 
 He would pat him on the head and 
 make him lie down and be still. But 
 the dog was not easily quieted, and still 
 he could hear the stepping and working 
 up around him, and the dog ^ot so un- 
 easy, and he thought it did not step like 
 a deer, so he let the dog go, and when 
 
-8- 
 
 the dog got near it, he heard eomethiog 
 mnniDg np a tree, and making a wonder- 
 ful scratching and tearing. He went up 
 to the tree and bnilt a big fire, and 
 thonght he wonld keep it np anti] 
 morning. He thonght it mnet be a bear. 
 He kept up a good fire, and about one 
 hour before daylight he heard it com- 
 ing down the tree on the opposite side 
 from the fire, and when it got fifteen 
 or sixteen feet from the ground it 
 jumped off and ran, but the dog soon 
 run it np another tree, and kept 
 barking so it dare not come down. 
 They kept it np until morning, when 
 he saw what it was. He drew up his 
 rifle and thought he would shoot it 
 through the head, and make sure work 
 of it. When the gun cracked, down 
 it came, and the dog jumped on it, 
 but the panther soon tore him so he was 
 glad to let go of it, and up the tree it 
 went again about twenty feet, and got 
 on a limb and got very sick. He went 
 to load his rifle again, but had no bullet 
 with him. He did not know what to 
 do, but he put in his powder and tow, 
 and whittled out plugs of wood, and 
 fired at it. One of them happened to 
 hit it right, and down it came, and 
 he and the dog dispatched it. It was 
 a big male one. His skin was about 
 eight feet from the tip of his nose to the 
 end of his tail, and had monstrous clawe. 
 It was in the Summer of 1805 or 1806 
 that it took place. 
 
 I think it was in 1807, my brother and 
 myself went out bee hunting about the 
 first of March. There came a warm day, 
 and the bees in the woods used to fly 
 out and fall on the snow, so we used to 
 
 find bee-trees in that way. We came to 
 a big tree that was scratched up very 
 much by bears. We concluded that 
 there must be some bears in it. There 
 was a big hole about fifty feet up the 
 tree. We went home and got my father 
 and brother-in-law, Daily, and some 
 dogs, guns and axes to cut down the 
 tree with. 
 
 Daily and my oldest brother placed 
 themselves on each side of the tree 
 where the hole would be when the tree 
 fell. When the tree feil it split all to 
 pieces, and out tumbled a big bear. He 
 had lain so long in the tree he could not 
 run much. The dogs jumped on him, 
 and he soon got one of them down, and 
 was about killing him, when Daily shot 
 him through, which made him more 
 savage, and my brother shot him through 
 the head and that stopped his career. 
 We went back to his nest where we 
 found three cubs about the size of black 
 squirrels. They have very little young 
 ones for so large animals. They hole 
 up in December, and have their cubs 
 in February, and lay there until warm 
 weather comes before they bring them 
 out, when the herbage begins to grow. 
 Then they begin to feed and give milk 
 for their young. They never have 
 more than three cubs at a time, or I 
 never saw any more together. They 
 run with their cubs about fifteen 
 months, then they separate, and yon 
 never find two together after that unless 
 it is in August in running time. The 
 bear is the most singular animal that 
 roams the forest. I think they breed 
 only every other year, fori have killed 
 quite a number, and never found one 
 
-9— 
 
 that had any appearance of young ones 
 aboat them while running with their 
 cubs, and they never leave them until 
 they are a year old, and the cubs will 
 weigh from eighty to one hundred 
 pounds ; and then they scatter, and each 
 one takes his own course. 
 
 The otter is a water animal and is 
 larger than the coon ; lives on fish, 
 clams, crabs and other things that he 
 gathers out of the water. He is of a dark 
 brown color, and is a very strong animal 
 for his size. They have tremendous 
 teeth. There is no one dog that can 
 kill one of them. 
 
 The beaver is a larger animal than 
 the otter, and is a lighter color, and a 
 very strong animal for its size. They 
 have large teeth, about one inch broad, 
 and very sharp, and strong in their 
 jaws, and will cut down a tree in a lit- 
 tle while. They will cut heaver Chips 
 than a two-inch auger can. They will 
 gnaw right round the tree until it falls. 
 They cut their logs from four to five feet 
 long, and then roll them into the water 
 to build their dams. They dig ditches 
 across the bottom of a stream, when 
 they place their timbers in a position 
 about half way between an upright and 
 horizontal, or an angle of forty-five de- 
 grees, with one end down in the ditch, 
 and then carry in their dirt and gravel. 
 I tore up one of their dams on 
 my farm, across Tinker's Greek, 
 and I found it built so then, 
 and there were some logs as sound ap- 
 parently as if they had not been there 
 ten years— those that were covered up 
 in the ground, one cherry log that was 
 ten inches through. I split it up and 
 
 found it perfectly sound, and I presume 
 it lay there a century or more. The 
 bank on each side of the stream is now 
 three feet higher than the level of the 
 ground. 
 
 The woolynig is an animal about a 
 size larger than the wildcat, not as long 
 in the legs, but heavier and stockier 
 built. They are of a darker color. They 
 have large whiskers on each side 
 of their heads. They look savBge, and 
 are as savage as they look. They are 
 the hardest customers that roam the 
 forest, according to their size. The wild- 
 cat is still smaller than the woolynig. 
 He is about as large as a small sized dog 
 but of longer legs in proportion to his 
 body. He is very fond of the feathered 
 flocks, such as geese, ducks, chickens, 
 pigs, lambs and sometimes kills smallish 
 deers, etc. 
 
 There are two other animals worthy 
 of note for their peculiarities. There is 
 the opossum and porcupine. The por- 
 cupine is a little larger than the coon, 
 and stockier built and very clumsy. 
 They have no defense but their quills. 
 They are covered all over with these 
 quills, and if anything approaches them 
 they stick their heads down so that 
 nothing can touch them without getting 
 full ot their quills, which are as sharp 
 as needles, and have beards on them. 
 There is no getting rid of them. If a 
 dog took hold of them, his mouth would 
 look like a broom, and if they were not 
 pulled out they would work through 
 and come out on the opposite side in 
 time, and kill him. 
 
 The opossum has no defense to make. 
 He lies down and pretends to be dead. 
 
-10- 
 
 Yoa may kick him and knock him 
 aronnd and he will not defend himself, 
 bat lie curled ap and pretend to be dead. 
 There is some peculiarity about them. 
 They have a pocket in their belly or 
 rather outside of it where they carry their 
 young. I have seen as many as eight in 
 one of these pockets at one time. 
 
 FIRST EXECUTION IN THE COUNTY. 
 
 The first judges after the organization 
 of Portage county, in 1808, were Amzi 
 Atwater, of Mantua, Samuel Forward, of 
 Aurora, and Aaron Norton, of Hudson 
 (afterwards of Middlebury, of the firm 
 of Hart & Co ) The first county clerk 
 was William Wetraore, of Stow town- 
 ship ; and I think John Campbell, of 
 Oampbellsport, was elected sheriff. The 
 first court that was organized in the 
 county was held at the dwelling house 
 of Robert Eaton, about two miles east 
 of the village of Ravenna ; and the first 
 person executed in the county was 
 Henry Aunghst, in November, 1816, for 
 the willful murder of Epaphras Mat- 
 thews, on the aOth of August, 1814. He 
 was condemned upon circumstantial 
 evidence. It was Asa K. Burroughs, as 
 sheriff, who executed him. On the day 
 of the execution he was led up on the 
 scaffold by the sheriff, and Timothy 
 Bigelow, of Palmyra, who was a Uni- 
 versalist preacher, preached a short 
 sermon on the scaffold, his text 
 being "O, wretched man that I am, who 
 shall deliver me from the body of this 
 death?" It was the first Universalist 
 sermon that I had ever heard preached, 
 and I have never forgotten the text. 
 Uuiversalism was looked upon in those 
 days as being outside of the Christian 
 
 churches, but Aunghst (or Unks) heard 
 the sermon through, and then made a 
 prayer in Dutch, and acknowledged his 
 guilt of the crime a few minutes before 
 he swung off. Matthews, the murdered 
 man, I think was a son-in-law of a man 
 living in Ravenna at the time, by the 
 name of Fuller. Matthews was coming 
 from the east with a one horse pedlar's 
 wagon, and came through Pittsburg, 
 and Aunghst (or Unks) fell in company 
 with him there, and they came togeth- 
 er to within a mile and a half of Raven- 
 na, whan he killed Matthews, and car- 
 ried him about ten rods into the woods, 
 and unharnessed his horse and let him 
 run, and then drew his wagon into the 
 woods, came to the village and got din- 
 ner at David Greer's, and then disap- 
 peared, no one knowing where. In about 
 ten days after, the murdered man was 
 found by way of the crows and buzzards 
 that had collected around his remains. 
 When they found the body, the question 
 was, how came he there? and who killed 
 him? and where the murderer was, no 
 man knew. 
 
 Robert Eaton, who lived two miles 
 east of Ravenna, and Lewis Ely, broth- 
 er-in-law of John Campbell, of Camp- 
 bellsport, were appointed to ferret out 
 the perpetrator. 
 
 They took the back track as they sup- 
 posed, towards Pittsburg, and found at 
 different places where two men had 
 staid over night with a pedlar's wagon. 
 They got some description of the men 
 and went on to Pittsburg. There they 
 hunted around and found that a man 
 had been to work at a nail factory who 
 bore the description that they had got 
 
-11- 
 
 previoasly, and obtained his name, 
 which was given as Hunks or Unks, 
 but did not learn where he was. They 
 obtained a complete description of him, 
 and made a search, but got no trace of 
 him, but ascertained that he formerly 
 lived east of the mountains in Pennsyl- 
 vania ; they came to a blacksmith shop, 
 where a man had hired out who an- 
 swered his description. 
 
 They asked him many questions, and 
 also asked him if he had not been work- 
 ing at a nail factory in Pittsburg. He 
 answered that he had been at work 
 there. They then asked him if he did 
 not go west from there with a,t, pedlar. 
 He hesitated to answer that question, 
 and exhibiting guile, they then charged 
 him with the crime, which he partly ac- 
 knowledged and they arrested him and 
 brought him back to Ravenna and pat 
 him in the jail. When court set he was 
 asked if he had any counsel, and he re- 
 plied that he had not. Benjamin Tap- 
 pan and Elisha Whittlesey were as- 
 signed by the court to defend him. He 
 was kept in jail nearly two years before 
 he got a trial. As there was a defect in 
 the first indictment, a second indictment 
 had to be returned in order to hold him. 
 When he was tried he was found guilty 
 of murder in the first degree, and exe- 
 cuted as before mentioned. Unks was 
 a large and musculo man ; I should 
 think he was six feet and six or seven 
 inches in height. 
 
 HJSTORY OF FRANRLIM TOWNSHIP. 
 
 The writer came into this county on 
 the 1 0th day of May, 1804, then a vast, 
 unbroken wilderness, filled with wild 
 men and wild beasts. At this period 
 
 there were forty Indians to every white 
 man, and not a house in Franklin 
 township. Stow township had not been 
 run off into lots, and the solitary house 
 in that district was, I believe, the only 
 one between Hudson and Canton. 
 
 Franklin township, which contains 
 16,000 acres, was purchased by Aaron 
 Olmsted, of Hartford, Conn., in the 
 summer of 1798. I think I heard Am si 
 Atwater, who helped to run the lines in 
 1796-97, say that the purchase money 
 paid was only 12}4 cents an acre. 
 
 This township has been rather an un- 
 lucky one. In the summer of 1807 the 
 proprietor, Olmsted, and John Camp- 
 bell, of Campbellsport, came here to 
 find a location suitable for the county 
 seat of Portage county. After canvass- 
 ing thoroughly, they selected a rise of 
 ground on land now owned by J. B. 
 Stratton, a little north of the upper 
 cemetery. Olmsted made arrangements 
 with Campbell to use his influence to, 
 secure the location here, when the locat- 
 ing committee came on, and to say that 
 he (Olmsted) would bear the expense of 
 building the court house. He then re- 
 turned home, was taken sick and died. 
 He left a will bequeathing all the un- 
 sold lands to his grandchildren, so 
 when the locating committee came the 
 land was not to be had. If it had not 
 been for this circumstance, the county 
 seat would undoubtedly have been lo- 
 cated here and we would to-day be 
 reaping the benefits thereof. The ad- 
 vantages possessed by this township 
 were, and now are, unequalled, and 
 but for its misfortune, would have been 
 far ahead of any place in this section. 
 
—12- 
 
 This township was surveyed in 1803 
 by Ezekiel Hoover and Ralph Buck) and, 
 a brother ii- law of the late Zenas Kent. 
 The first settler was John Haymaker, 
 who came into the township in Decem- 
 ber, 1805, and moved into a little house 
 that the surveyors had built when sur- 
 veying in 1803. Samuel Burnett came 
 here from Warren, Trumbull county, in 
 the spring of 1806, and commenced 
 chopping and clearing land on lot 65, 
 where John Reed now lives. 
 
 We lived in the southeast corner of 
 Hudson. We heard some timber fall- 
 ing in a southeasterly direction and 
 concluded that some one was chopping, 
 and thought we would go down and see 
 who it was ; but before we got started 
 there came a man and a boy up through 
 the woods to our place. The man said 
 he heard timber falling in our direction 
 and was anxious to know what it 
 meant. He said he was not aware that 
 there was any one in that part of the 
 •ountry but was glad to find neighbors 
 so near. He said that Judge Quinby, 
 of Warren, was agent for the township, 
 and had sent him to commence settling, 
 with a promise of 80 acres of laud for 
 making the first improvements. He in- 
 tended to chop off a piece for a spring 
 crop, put up a log cabin, and the next 
 spring move out here. 
 
 We helped him put up a log house 
 and I think it was the first in the town- 
 ship. He came with the expectation of 
 getting the 80 acres promised him, but 
 the proprietor died and he never got a 
 title. He afterwards moved to Austin- 
 burgh, Trumbull county, and died 
 there. 
 
 In the fall of 1806 George Haymaker 
 and his father, Jacob Haymaker, came 
 into town and built a house on the west 
 side of the river, near where Mr. Kent's ^ 
 new mill now stands. I think Frederick 
 Haymaker came the next spring and 
 bought 80 acres of laud that John Tuck- 
 er had contracted for. It included most 
 of the upper village. He built a house 
 on the east side of the river, where the 
 road nsed to cross. James D. Haymaker 
 was born in 1809, and his mother died 
 soon after. John and George commeuced 
 building a mill where Kent's mill now 
 stands, in the summer of 1807, and got 
 it running in the fall of 1808. The mill 
 stones were common hardheads, worked 
 out by Bradford Kellogg, of Hudson. 
 The mill was not finished when tliey 
 commenced running. They put op 
 crotches and laid poles across as a tem- 
 porary covering for the hopper, and a 
 little bolt that was turned by hand, sift- 
 ing out the coarsest of the bran. An- 
 drew Kelso was the millwright. They 
 kept it running until 1811, when they 
 sold to Jacob Reed, of Rootstown, who 
 roofed the building. When Reed re- 
 paired the building he 'Employed a mill- 
 wright from Mahoning county, whose 
 name was Powers. He was genteel 
 looking and full of manners but he 
 soon found out that it would not do to 
 wait for manners so much. Provisions 
 were scarce and hard to get, and when 
 meal time came every one pitched in 
 and helped himself. One day my 
 brother in-law, George Nighman, killed 
 a deer and brought it in. A good mess 
 of it was cooked. The call was given ; 
 all came with a quick step, sat down 
 
-13- 
 
 and began to help themselves. It vas 
 not long before the n illwright got 
 choked, became blaek in the face, and 
 got tip gagging and Btrangling as if for 
 dear life. The rest of the company set 
 to help him bj pounding him on the 
 
 back, and some got hold of his throat which they let oat to the neighbors lo 
 
 Reed kept the mill mnning until 1820, 
 when he sold out to William Price and 
 George DePeyster. They made quite an 
 improvement on the mill. 
 
 In 1825 or '26 they erected a hemp 
 mill, sent to Kentucky for hemp seed. 
 
 Cue of iHe Pioneers. 
 
 ZEN AS KENT, 
 
 Who Pure based Nearly Six Handred Acres of Land in Franklin Township in J832. He 
 Was bom July J2, 1786, and Died Oct. 4, 1865. 
 
 and trisd to force the meat up, but all 
 in vain. They began to think they were 
 going to lose their millwright. Finally, 
 as a last resort, they got him out of 
 doors on a big stump, and had him 
 ;omp from it. The third jump brought 
 np tbe meat, and saved the man. 
 
 raise hemp for the mill. I took come 
 and raised a big crop, which th(»ir mill 
 broke and dressed, but it did not pay 
 well. After two or three years, they 
 quit the business, with quite a loss. In 
 1827 they built a forge and put np a trip 
 hammer, which they got in operation 
 
—14— 
 
 in 1838 or '39, for the purpose of mann- 
 faotnring scythes, axe? and forks. In 
 February, 1831, William Price went to 
 New Lisbon to get a large grindstone. 
 On his way home with it the wagon np- 
 aet, throwing the stone on him and kill* 
 ing him. 
 
 In March, 1883, there came a freshet, 
 which swept the whole thing down the 
 rirer, mill and all. In May of the same 
 year Zenas Kent and David Ladd 
 boDght the mill site and built the mill 
 which is now owned by H. A. and M. 
 Kent. 
 
 Portage county was organized in the 
 summer of 1808 and Cuyahoga in 1810. 
 Previous to that time Trumbull county 
 covered the whole Western Reserve. 
 
 The township of Franklin was organ- 
 ized and a meeting held for the election 
 of township officers in 1815. The votes 
 all told numbered twelve. The first of- 
 ficers elected were Amasa Hamlin, 
 Elisha Stevens, George Haymaker, trus- 
 tees ; John Haymaker, justice of the 
 peace, and Hubbard Hurlbut, township 
 clerk. Jacob Reed and John Tucker 
 were judges of the election. The names 
 of the voters were Amasa Hamlin, 
 Elisha Stevens, George Haymaker, 
 John Haymaker, David Lilly, Hubbard 
 Hurlburt, Jacob Reed, Alexander 
 Stewart, Adam Nighman, William Wil- 
 liams, Christian Caokler, Sr , and An- 
 drew Kelso. This constituted the voting 
 population of 1815, all of whom have 
 gone to "that land from whence no 
 traveler returns." 
 
 The first lawsuit in the place was be- 
 tween Christian Oackler, Sr., and 
 David Lilly. They both lived near 
 
 Sandy Lake, north of Earlville. Lilly 
 had a piece of oats adjoining the lake, 
 which was not fenced on the lake side. 
 The said Cackler's geese got into ths 
 oats, whereupon Lilly killed a number 
 of them. He claimed there was no law 
 for geese. Oackler claimed that geese 
 were property, and he must pay for 
 them. He refused. A lawsuit ensued 
 before Esquire Haymaker. Lilly stood 
 out for some time, but finally settled by 
 paying two shillings a head and costs. 
 
 The first death in the township was 
 that of Eve Haymaker in October, 1810. 
 She was the wife of Jacob Haymaker 
 and the mother of John, George and 
 Frederick Haymaker. Jacob, the fath- 
 er, died in 1819; John died in 1837: 
 George, in 1838, and Frederick, in 
 Trumbull county in 1851. 
 
 In August, 1814, Christian Oackler, 
 Jr. , was married to Theresa Nighman, 
 it being the first wedding in the town- 
 ship. Frederick Caris, Esq , of Roots- 
 town, officiated. 
 
 The first school taught in the town- 
 wship as by Alphonso Lamphier, who 
 now resides in Brimfield. It was taught 
 in the winter of 1815 16, in a log house 
 built by Mr. Rue, in 1811. 
 
 The first sermon preached in the 
 township was in that house, by Father 
 Shewell, of Rootstown. 
 
 In the summer of 1817, a school house 
 was built by the inhabitants on the east 
 side of the river, near where Dr, E. W. 
 Crain used to live. It was used as a 
 school and meeting house by all parties 
 and sects for some time, until a man by 
 the name of Elliott came along and 
 presched a sermon. He was a very smart 
 
—15- 
 
 man and well edacated. I thiak he was 
 a Scotclimaa by birth, and had been 
 edacated for a Boniaa Catholic priest. 
 All liked his preaching except Deacon 
 Andrews, and to sound him a little 
 closer, he gave him a text to preach 
 from when he came again. It was the 
 8bh chapter of Romans and a part of the 
 9th. It was soon noised about that 
 Deacon Andrews had given Elliott a 
 text to preach from, and there was a 
 large collection to hear him. He com- 
 menced to explain his text, when the 
 Deacon arose and dispated him. Elliott 
 told him if he woald sit down till he 
 got through, he would answer any 
 question he might aSk, so the Deacon 
 sat down again. After meeting he start* 
 ed off without asking any questions. 
 The next Sabbath they collected as 
 usual, but the hoase was locked. Th^y 
 sent for the Deacon or the key. He 
 would not go or let the key go. He said 
 he would not have such damnable 
 preaching m the house of God. He had 
 been the leading deacon previous to that 
 time, and it created a feeling that was 
 not soon forgotten. It became a fearful 
 warfare, but finally the Deacon com- 
 promised by paying back aU that the 
 others had paid towards building the 
 house. 
 
 This town was noted for its pious 
 streaks in early days. In 1825, I think, 
 there was a man by the name of Brown, 
 who worked in Price and DePeyster's 
 ^mill. He went one Sunday on the east 
 side of the river, near Oherry Hill. It 
 was in the fall of the year, when chest- 
 nuts were ripe, and he went to picking 
 them up. One Loomis Andrews— a son 
 
 of the Deacon before mentioned— saw 
 him, and entered complaint for Sabbath- 
 breaking. A summons was issued and 
 Brown was brought before the court, 
 which could do no less than fine him 
 $1.00 and costs. It was generally sup- 
 posed that young Loomis was out in the 
 woods for the purpose of getting chest- 
 nuts himself. 
 
 The first bridge across the Cuyahoga 
 river was built in this township, by the 
 people of Hudson and Bavenna, in 1808. 
 Its location was a short distance above 
 the present covered bridge, and about 
 ten feet below the place where it is said 
 Captain Brady made his famous leap, 
 about the year 1780. I crossed it the 
 10th day of May, 1804. It was the. first 
 east and west road traveled in this sec- 
 tion of the country. Where the road 
 crossed the river it was a dismal looking 
 place indeed The distance across the 
 points of shelving rocks was twenty-one 
 feet, and the tops of the hemlocks 
 reached across from either side and 
 mingled together. It was about twenty- 
 five feet down to the water. The bridge 
 was about ten feet below where it is 
 said Captain Brady made his famous 
 leap when pursued by the Indians in 
 1780. There was a dish in the rock on 
 the east side, so that the place where he 
 alighted was about three feet lower 
 than the side from which ha leaped. 
 
 The oldest log house now in the town- 
 ship was built in 1815, by Christian 
 Cackler, Sr. It stands a little east of 
 Earlville Station, and was recently oc- 
 cupied by Benjamin Frazier. 
 
 The first mill in the township was 
 built m 1814, by Elisha Stephens, near 
 
-16— 
 
 where the Lane foundry now stands. 
 
 Joshua Woodard moved into the town- 
 ship in 1818, and commenced building 
 in copartnership with Frederick Hay- 
 maker, then living at Beaver, Pa. They 
 built a woolen factory, dye-house, turn- 
 ing lathes, cabinet shop and a number 
 of private dwelling houses, also the 
 house where Dr. Dewey now lives, the 
 latter as a hotel. They continued a 
 thriving business until about 1825, when 
 they dissolved partnership— Haymaker 
 taking the mill property. 
 
 In 1822, Joshua Woodard, Benjamin 
 P. Hopkins and David Ladd formed a 
 copartnership. They built a glass fac- 
 tory near where the upper mill now 
 stands, several private dwellings and 
 the old tannery on the east side of the 
 river, near the upper bridge, first oper- 
 ated by Joseph Arnold. They also built 
 a woolen factory, saw mill and ashery, 
 one mile east of the village, on land now 
 owned by the heirs of Cornelius Wald- 
 ron, on Breakneck Creek. They also 
 built a woolen factory and oil mill in 
 the lower village, and started a dry 
 goods store in the basement of G. B. 
 DePeyster's house, now occupied by B. 
 O. Earl. They did a thriving business 
 until about 1881, when they dissolved 
 partnership and divided their property. 
 
 In the year 1824, James Edmunds, 
 Henry Parks and brother, built a glass- 
 factory on the land now owned by 
 Christian Cackler. From 1821 to 1831, 
 William H. Price and George B, De- 
 Peyster had in operation, in the lower 
 village, a grist mill, saw mill, forge and 
 trip hammer, l^emp factory and dry 
 goods store, George B. DePeyster was 
 
 the first postmaster in the place. He 
 used to keep the letters in a cigar box. 
 
 In 1882, Zenas Kent and David Ladd 
 bought the Price and DePeyster proper- 
 ty for $7,000, consisting of 300 acres of 
 land. In 1833 or '34 Zenas Kent bought 
 out Ladd'e interest. Ladd went to 
 Maumee and died soon after. 
 
 In 1831 or '32, Pomeroy and Rhodes 
 bought Frederick Haymaker's property, 
 consisting of one hundred acres of land, 
 and a good water power in the upper 
 village. They built a grist mill, woolen 
 factory, turning lathe, cabinet shop, etc. 
 In 3 836 they sold ont to the Franklin 
 L^nd Company, a company organized 
 about that time. The members of the 
 company were Augustus Baldwin and 
 John B. Clark, of Hudson ; Norman C. 
 Baldwin, of Cleveland ; George Kirk- 
 ham, of Clevelaud, and many other 
 prominent men. Previous to their pur- 
 chase of Pomeroy & Rhodes, the Land 
 Comp any bought of Zenas Kent abcut 
 300 acres of land with water powers, 
 for $75,000. Paid about |25,000 in all, 
 then bought out Pomeroy & Rhodes for 
 $40,000, paid $30,000, went into h bank- 
 ing business, run the establishment 
 about two years, compromised with 
 their creditors, destroyed the water 
 power by giving it to the Pennsylvania 
 & Ohio Canal Co., and then failed. 
 
 Kent, Pomeroy & Rhodes took back 
 their property. Thus ended one of the 
 greatest swindles that was ever per- 
 petrated on any community. Had they 
 left the water power alone, all would 
 have been well. 
 
 In the summet of 1823, J. C Fair- 
 childs bought out Woodard & Hay- 
 
—17— 
 
 maker's tannery, and built the first 
 brick faoase in town. It was the small 
 building south of John Thompson's 
 residence, on the west side of the river. 
 I think he carried on the tannery for a 
 number of years. 
 
 About that time another pious streak 
 came over some of our people. A new 
 minister by the name of Sheldon locat- 
 ed in town. He built the large, two- 
 story house now occupied by Luther H. 
 Parmelee. He had great inflaence over 
 some of the people. J. G. Fairchilds be- 
 
 summoned to appear before a justice of 
 the peace, and answer for their Sabbath 
 breaking, by paying one dollar and 
 costs. The violaters were Jacob Stough 
 and Sylvester Babcock, well known 
 citizens of Ravenna. It created so much 
 of a sensation that the people told 
 Stough that if he would cowhide Rus- 
 sell they would foot the bill. Some time 
 after, Russell went to Ravenna, and 
 had some business in the court house. 
 Stough saw him, got a cowhide, and 
 stationed himself where he could see 
 
 ^M^ 
 
 ■Bj?^dy le.^p s/^wse* 
 
 came a deacon, and a man by the name 
 of William Russell studied with Sheldon 
 for the ministry. He 4)oured in the oil 
 and wine so plentifully that they be- 
 came nearly intoxicated with it. 
 
 One Saturday some teams went through 
 this place on their way to Old Portage, 
 after goods for Zenas Ken^, of Raven- 
 na, and did not get back until Sunday. 
 As they came through they were closely 
 watched. The next day, on complaint 
 of Fairchilds and Russell, they were 
 
 Bradx Leap Bridg'e as it 
 Appears in 1904* 
 
 Russell when he came out. He did not 
 make his appearance until about dark, 
 when Stough stepped up behind him 
 and began to apply the cowhide, and 
 kept it up briskly clear across the street. 
 Russell attempted to escape by running 
 into the tavern kept by Papa Carter, 
 but the door would not open readily, 
 and Stough belabored him thoroughly. 
 When they came out to find the per- 
 petrator he was not to be found. I 
 think it was not positively known who 
 did it, except by a few. It was said that 
 Russell bad on Priest Shelden's cloak. 
 
—18- 
 
 which was cut up considerably by the 
 cowhide. The same fall the same parties 
 made complaint against two men for 
 driving cattle on Sunday. They were 
 fined but in return sued Bnssell and 
 Fairchild for damages sustained by 
 their delay, and obtained a judgment 
 against them. 
 
 Mr. Jesse Farnham and Oharles Doug- 
 las, from Westfield, Mass., became the 
 proprietors of the township in 1817. 
 Lyman Farnham, St., gon of Jesse 
 Farnham, came here in the spring of 
 1818, and selected a farm and went to 
 clearing it. In falling the timber one 
 tree lodged upon another, and in getting 
 it down he was struck by a limb and 
 killed. 
 
 Jesse Farnham died in 1886. David 
 Day, a son-in-law of Farnham, died in 
 1837. Mr. Nathaniel Packard, of Brim- 
 field, was bitten by a mad dog in the 
 spring of 1837. In six weeks he was at- 
 tacked with hydrophobia and for about 
 three days suffered the most excruciat- 
 ing agony. His spasms came every half 
 hour and lasted fifteen or twenty min- 
 utes. Mr. Sylvester Huggins was with 
 him the night he died. 
 
 THE FIRST SETTLERS. 
 
 I think it may not be amiss to give a 
 record of the names, ages and deaths of 
 the pioneer settlers, who came in early 
 days, and endured the hardships and 
 privations necessary in making the first 
 settlements : 
 
 Alexander Stewart settled on lot 79 in 
 1808 ; he died March 21, 1845, aged 62 
 years ; his wife, Catherine Stewart, died 
 April 2nd of the same year, aged 6S 
 years. They had no children. Christian 
 
 Oackler, Sr.,icamje into Hudson in 1804 ; 
 lived there till 181o, when he moved 
 into this town; he died Sept. 28, 
 1830, aged 74 years. His wife, Julia 
 Ann Cackler, died Nov. 2, 1831, aged 79 
 years. Adam Nighman settled here in 
 1807 ; died June 12, 1835, aged 71 years. 
 His wife, Elizabeth, died August 5, 
 1840, aged 68 years. William Stewart, 
 one of the pioneers, died June 4, 1834 ; 
 his wife, Susannah, died June 4, 1840, 
 aged 42 years. She was the mother of 
 Maria Stewart, Marvin Kent's wife, 
 and others. Sally Haymaker, wife of 
 John Haymaker, was the first white 
 woman that settled in the town. She 
 came here in 1805, In 1807 she gave 
 birth to John F. Haymaker, the first 
 white child born in the township. She 
 lived in the township 64 years, and 
 died June 15, 1869, at the advanced age 
 of 94 years. Elijah Rockwell came in 
 1822, and died March 30, 1837, aged 42 
 years. Aaron Ferry; another pioneer, 
 died January 30, 1860; his wife, Eliza- 
 beth, died October 26, 1842. aged 47 
 years. William Williams came in 1809, 
 and died March 16, 1822, aged 60 years. 
 Hubbard Hurlburt, St., came in 1815; 
 died May 24, 1857, aged 84 years. Wil- 
 liam Pomeroy settled in 1816. George, 
 DePeyster died February 12, 1844, aged 
 58 years. General Joshua Woodard died 
 December 3, 1864, aged 73 years. An- 
 drew Kelso came in 1807, and died Aug. 
 9, 1842, aged 61 years. Theresa, wife of 
 Christian Cackler, Jr. , came with her 
 parents in 1807, and died April 23, 1869. 
 Such were some of the earliest settlers. 
 All honor to their names. I thought it 
 but a just tribute to their memory to 
 
—19— 
 
 present their names in this connection, 
 that the rising fteneration may know to 
 whom they are indebted for many of 
 the blessings they enjoy. They came 
 here when the country was an unbrok- 
 en wilderness, toiled and endured suf- 
 ferings and hardships, and we are now 
 enjoying the fruits of that toil. They 
 have gone, all gone to the "undiscov- 
 
 ing a piece of cloth, and on her return 
 it became so dark that she passed the 
 path without noticing it. She kept ©n 
 until about where Seneca Green now 
 lives. Even at that time it was still a 
 wilderness, and on a dark night it was 
 indeed dismal. She became frightened, 
 and not knowing where she was, or 
 which way to go, she sat down near a 
 
 First WHite CHild Born in Franklin 
 TownsKip. 
 
 JOHN FRANKLIN HAYMAKER. 
 Bom in 1807, Died in 1900. 
 
 ered country from whose bourne no 
 traveler returns." May we cherish their 
 memory. 
 
 Dudley Williams and wife came into 
 the township in 1830, and took up the 
 piece of land now owned by H. T. 
 Lake, near Frederick Dewey's farm; he 
 built his house some distance from the 
 road and a path leading through the 
 woods to the house. One day Mrs. Wil- 
 liams went to town to see about weav- 
 
 large tree and remained there several 
 hours ; hearing strange noises, and what 
 appeared to be footsteps approaching 
 her, she became much alarmed and fled 
 whither she knew not, but she was de- 
 termined to escape that dismal place. 
 She wandered through the darkness and 
 rain till daylight, when she found that 
 she had been wandering from home in- 
 stead of toward it. It was some time 
 before she reached her home, and glad 
 
—20— 
 
 enough she was to find it. This was in 
 the fall of 1822. She died May 9, 1842, 
 aged 63 years. Rebecca Keed, wife of 
 John Beed, came here at an early day, 
 and died June 22, 1845, aged 45 years. 
 
 In 1821, William Pomeroy, before 
 mentioned, came into town. In 1886-37 
 he built a brick church on the feast side 
 of the river for the Presbyterian Society. 
 In 1840 the Apostle Avery came alouK 
 and commenced a series of sermons, 
 which continued three weeks or more. 
 During these meetings a great many of 
 the deacons and others, who verily 
 thought they had been doing "God's ser- 
 vice" before began to be alarmed for their 
 safety, and ask "what shall we do to be 
 saved?" Under the warning influence 
 their necks began to bend and their 
 knees shake and knock together, like 
 Belshazzar's of old. Avery told them to 
 confess their sins and sin no more 
 There were a great many bad acts con- 
 fessed in those meetings that were un- 
 locked for from the source from which 
 they came. Some confessed that they 
 had not dealt fairly with their neigh- 
 bors, and had cheated them ; others con- 
 fessed that they had given way to their 
 passions so much that they feared they 
 had committed the "unpardonable sin." 
 There were a great many who verily 
 believed that Avery was a man sent of 
 God to preach "peace on earth and good 
 will to man." But, be that as it may, I 
 believe he was a smart man, especially 
 in the manner of collecting money ; for 
 it is said, and I believe truly, that he 
 carried away with him from this town 
 three hundred dollars. 
 
 MR. CACKLER'S biography. 
 
 In this connection it will not, perhaps, 
 be amiss to give a short history of my 
 early life, together with the habits and 
 customs of the Indians, and the wild 
 animals that infested this country in its 
 wild state. 
 
 I was born in Washington county, 
 Pennsylvania, June, 1791. In 1795 I 
 moved to Wheeling Creek, Green coun- 
 ty, Pa., about twenty miles from 
 Wheeling, Virginia. The place then 
 went by the name of Indian Wheeling, 
 owing to its being a great hunting re- 
 sort. In the spring of 1804, together 
 with my father and eldest brother, I 
 came to Ohio. We brought with us, one 
 horse, one yoke of oxen, and what we 
 could carry on the horse. We crossed 
 the Ohio River at Steubenville, passing 
 through Yellow Creek, Deerfield, where 
 there were a few families living at that 
 time, and Ravenna, where there were 
 also several families by the name of 
 Wright. At that time there was a road 
 marked out to Hudson, and some of the 
 underbrush cut. We passed on to Hud- 
 son, where we found our stopping place. 
 Father bought half of lot No. 10 in the 
 south-east corner of the township. On 
 selecting our site we relieved our horse, 
 cut four forks and drove them into the 
 ground, upon which we laid poles and 
 covered the sides and top with bark, 
 also constructed a bark floor. Our beds 
 filled with leaves and blankets spread, 
 we were ready for operation. We com- 
 menced by clearing land for spring 
 crops. It was then the 10th of May, 
 1804. We got in about three acres of 
 corn, t^nd cleared off a piece in time to 
 
—21— 
 
 SOW wheat. Provisions were hard to 
 get and were obtained by working for 
 neighbors. We found out that Mr. 
 Abram Thompson, of Hudson, had pork 
 which he wished to exchange for work, 
 so father sent my brother and myself 
 up there to work for three and a half 
 pounds of pork per day. Abram's fath- 
 er, a deacon of the church, lived with 
 him. He would stand and keep us at 
 work every minute of the time, and 
 when meal time came would always ask 
 a blessing. He was very expert in the 
 use of the knife and fork, and when he 
 was satisfied he seemed to think the 
 rest ought to be, and would lay down 
 his table cutlery and offer thanks for 
 what he had eaten, and thon leave the 
 table. As boys, we were rather bash- 
 ful, and of course would follow suit, 
 whether we had eaten half enough or 
 not. We stood it two days, when we 
 took our fourteen pounds of pork and 
 went home. "We told father that we 
 could not work in that way— that we 
 did not get enough to eat. He said he 
 would go up next day, and I went with 
 him. When we arrived they had eaten 
 breakfast and we went to work without 
 any, but when noon came we were pre- 
 pared for a hearty meal. We went in 
 and seated ourselves about the table ; 
 the deacon asked the blessing and then 
 went to work as usual. When he had 
 -finished he dropped his knife and 
 fork and returned thanks, and then left 
 the table. My father said to the deacon, 
 "Your prayers are good, but Abram's 
 pork is a d— d sight better ; prayers will 
 not strengthen a man to roll up logs," 
 and went on eating again. The old 
 
 deacon never tried to choke him off with 
 his "thankfulness" after that. In Sep- 
 tember my father and brother went 
 back after the family, and left me in 
 care of the shanty until they returned. 
 I was then only twelve years of age. 
 They left for my use a small loaf of 
 bread, an old rifle that carried an ounce 
 ball, and some powder and bullets, that 
 I might kill squirrels for meat. They 
 thought they wbuld be back in three 
 weeks. It was a trying time for me. I 
 could get along very well through the 
 day, but when night came I was lone- 
 some indeed. I would build a big fire 
 and roll myself up in my blankets so 
 that I could not hear anything, and 
 there remain until morning. I managed 
 so about two weeks. My loaf began to 
 get very small, and I had to make my 
 allowance still smaller to make it hold 
 out. The three weeks expired and no- 
 body came. The fourth week wore 
 slowly away, and no one came. My 
 bread was gone and I had to live ou 
 squirrels alone. The fifth week expired 
 and still I was alone, with no bread and 
 no bullets. What to do I did not know. 
 It is said that "necessity is the mother 
 of invention." There was a necessity 
 for my doing something, so I went down 
 to the brook and picked up small stones, 
 which I. used in place of bullets— using 
 a handful for a charge. I managed to 
 kill some squirrels in this way, but 
 many were only crippled and would get 
 away. I stayed there till the sixth week 
 began, when one afternoon a severe 
 thunder storm came up. I fell asleep 
 and when I awoke it was getting dark. 
 I tried to start a fire but everything was 
 
—22- 
 
 80 wet that I coald not kindle it. As I 
 sat there tinkering with my fire, all at 
 once there came a screaming of wolves 
 a little way oflf. I soon left my fireplace 
 and rolled myself up in my blankets, 
 partly sitting up, with my gun by my 
 side, loaded with gravel stones. I 
 thought that if they attempted to come 
 in, I would give them the contents. 
 But they did not attempt it. I sat there 
 until morning, when I left the old 
 shanty to take care of itself, and went 
 over to where Harry O'Brien lived, 
 about three miles distant, and remained 
 until our family came back, which was 
 not long. 
 
 The corn that we planted was all de- 
 stroyed by squirrels, blackbirds, coons 
 and porcupines, before it was large 
 enough to roast ; not an ear came to ma- 
 turity. 
 
 In 1807 I was bound out to remain un- 
 til twenty-one, that I might help earn 
 provisions for the family. The war of 
 1812 having broken out about the time I 
 finished my servitude, I enlisted on the 
 a2nd day of August, 1812, and remained 
 in the service till Perry's victory, on 
 the 10th of September, 1818, a period of 
 one year and twelve days. I was mar- 
 ried soon after my return, and lived on 
 Darrow street during the following 
 winter. In the spring of 1815 I cut my 
 foot so badly that I did but very little 
 work that summer. 
 
 Ou the first day of January, 1816, we 
 moved to the place where I now live. 
 In moving, our furniture proved no 
 inconvenience ; my wife had a bed, I 
 had an axe. I added to this, by purchase 
 of Zenus Kent, three white cups and 
 
 saucers, costing seventy-five cants, three 
 knives and forks, and a wooden pail. 
 These were the first things I ever pur- 
 chased. The woman who lived with us 
 gave three wooden plates, and a kettle 
 to cook our victuals in My wife's fath- 
 er also gave us a table, which completed 
 our "set out." I run in debt for fifty 
 acres of land, at |3.50 per acre, a deed 
 of which I did not get for seventeen 
 years, and the interest was therefore 
 greater than the principal. I did not 
 have a hoof on the place for three years. 
 I went to clearing my land by cutting 
 out the small timber, which, together 
 with the old logs, I burned, after which 
 I girdled the standing timber, and split 
 my rails. I had no team to haul them 
 with, so I backed them to the line of 
 my fences. Having thus cleared and 
 fenced my farm, I got Alexander Stew- 
 art to do my plowing. I planted corn 
 and worked it entirely with the hoe. 
 The birds and animals were so numer- 
 ous that it required constant vigilance to 
 save any of it. It was a constant war- 
 fare, aud at best I could get but the 
 smallest half. It was trying to a man's 
 patience and courage to work that way. 
 We depended on the woods for our 
 meats and got our bread wherever we 
 could. 
 
 We were married in 1814 and lived 
 and toiled together fifty-five years. 
 After my wife's death, I made a will 
 and the estimated value of our property 
 was $80,000. We had twelve children, 
 all of whom grew up to be men and 
 women save one — he died when two 
 years old. There are now (in 1870) 
 eight of them living. 
 
-23- 
 
 Now for a small bear story. In the 
 sammer of 1817 I bought two hogs, 
 which we watched closely most of the 
 time, in order to prevent their being de- 
 Toured by bears. One day I was away 
 from home and the hogs had the liberty 
 to stray farther away from home than 
 usual. My wife heard them coming as 
 if some one was after them, and on look- 
 ing out, saw a bear close to their heels, 
 doing his best to catch them. They 
 came into the dooryard, closely followed 
 by the bear, and my wife ran out and 
 hallooed at them as loud as she could 
 (she could rival an Indian) , but the 
 bear did not abandon his chase. It so 
 happened that one of my neighbor's 
 hogs got in with mine, and the bear 
 picked him up and carried him off — tbe 
 porker kicking and squealing with a 
 vengeance. He did not seem to like the 
 noise made by my wife ; but he did like 
 the pork. He carried the hog about 
 fifty rods, when he laid it down and 
 killed it and then dragged it into a 
 swamp and ate what he wanted. When 
 I came home I took my gun and fol- 
 lowed after, but only found the remains 
 of his meal. 
 
 The early history of the settlement of 
 Franklin township might be extended, 
 but I will content myself with a few 
 closing remarks. 
 
 Timothy Wallace, one of the first set- 
 tlers, died January 15, 1845. aged 61 
 years. His wife, Elizabeth, died August 
 17, 1847, aged 50 years. Deborah Kelso, 
 wife of Andrew Kelso, died February 
 19, 1845, aged 59 years. Sally, wife of 
 Aaron Auter, and sister of George and 
 John Haymaker' died October 3, 1839, 
 
 aged 56 years. 
 
 In February, 1836, Cleveland men and 
 others purchased Zenas Kent's interest 
 in Franklin Mills, consisting of all the 
 lower water power and grist mill, to- 
 gether with about 300 acres of land in 
 and adjoining the village, for the sum 
 of $75,000. They organized under the 
 name of "Franklin Land Oompany," 
 and commenced improving said proper- 
 ty by laying out new roads, buildings, 
 etc. In 1837 they petitioned the Legis- 
 lature for a charter under the name of 
 the "Franklin Silk and Manufacturing 
 Oompany." They were granted the 
 charter and soon after commenced 
 "wild cat" banking, with Zenas Kent 
 as president, and Augustus Baldwin, 
 cashier. They issued bills and oon- 
 tiaued banking until the time when all 
 "vnld cats" were declared illegal, when 
 they suspended and collected their bills. 
 They redeemed every dollar presented. 
 
 In 1837 said company purchased of 
 Pomeroy & Rhodes what was called the 
 upper water power for $40,000, and con- 
 solidated the two by building the pres- 
 ent stone dam. The company paid 
 Pomeroy & Uhodes the purchase money 
 and also paid Zenas Kent $33,000, and 
 expended $19,000 by way of building 
 bridges, roads, etc. 
 
 The financial crisis of 1837-8 com- 
 pelled the company to give the land up 
 to Zenas Kent, and individuals of the 
 company, whose notes he held, com- 
 promised with him as best they could. 
 
 In 1837 quite a number of the inhabi- 
 tants embarked in the mulberry specu- 
 lation, with a view to propagating the 
 tree and manufacturing silk. The ex- 
 
-24— 
 
 citement ran high for a year or two, 
 then the bubble burst. Those who in- 
 Teated lost all they put in. Barber 
 Glark and perhaps one or two others 
 raised cocoons and engaged in the man- 
 
 between Daniel Diver and the Indians 
 is set forth, which, as regards the abuse 
 offered to the Indians, is not true. I 
 was acquainted with the whole transac- 
 tion, and with Mohawk, who shot Div- 
 
 Was One of tHe Pioneers. 
 
 WARREN BURT. 
 Mr. Burt came to this township in J 82 J, his father, Martin Burt, buying 600 acres of 
 timber bnd in the township at $5 per acre. Martin Burt died in J847. Warren Burt 
 died in {902, aged almost 96 years. 
 
 ufacture of silk for a year or two. 
 
 THE SHOOTING OF DANIEL DIVER, IN 1806. 
 
 I have seen in a book of Mr. Bierce's, 
 in Summit county, where the diflficulty 
 
 er. He was the son of the Chief Seneca. 
 The Chief was a large, muscular man, a 
 little short of six feet, straight, with a 
 stern look, and a keen, black eye. His 
 
—25— 
 
 word was law in his tribe; what he 
 said mast be done. He did not allow 
 his tribe to promise anything aad not 
 ' make it good. Honor was their law, 
 and you might be sore of their promises, 
 if they lived, for they hated lying. If 
 you told them a lie they never forgot it. 
 The Seneca Chief had seven children, 
 four sons and three daughters. There 
 were three in the family — John Bigson, 
 John Amur and John Mohawk. His sons- 
 in-law were George Wilson, Nickahaw 
 and Wobmung. Wobmung was as 
 smart a fellow as you would see in a 
 thousand. You would think his big 
 eyes would look through a man and see 
 all his faults. If he had been educated 
 he would have been equal to any white 
 man. Nickshaw traded off his pony 
 with Diver for an old horse. Diver had 
 given them whisky, which made them 
 "cocknsa," as they say when they get 
 too much. Nickshaw went off with his 
 horse, and in about three days brought 
 him back, saying he was no good for 
 Indian, because he could not eat sticks ; 
 but he was good for white man. Diver 
 would not trade back, and the Indians 
 got mad. They said Diver had cheated 
 them. Nickshaw left the old horse, 
 went away, and agreed with Mohawk 
 to shoot Diver. Three or four of the 
 Indians came there and asked for 
 whisky. Mohawk did not come in to 
 .drink the whisky with them. When 
 they went out they gave a whoop, 
 jumped on their ponies and away they 
 went. Diver thought thiS a little 
 strange and put his head out of the door, 
 when Mohawk fired at him, mounted 
 his pony and rode away. The shot took 
 
 out botlj of his eyes, aad he fell back on 
 the floor. He was not killed, but lived 
 at Deerfield at least thirty years after 
 this. 
 
 The Indian camp was about three 
 miles away. The Seneca Chief and his 
 family moved there in the fall, and the 
 greatest friendship existed with the 
 whites until this horse trade. Mohawk 
 thought he had killed Dive% and es- 
 caped. The neighbors rallied under 
 Captain Rogers, and took after the In- 
 dians. They went to their camp, and 
 none were there, but they followed their 
 trail along the great Indian road, from 
 the Ohio River to Sandusky. It crossed 
 the Cuyahoga River at "Standing 
 Stone," near Franklin Mills (now 
 Kent), and the center road south of 
 Hadsou about a mile, thence across the 
 Cuyahoga River near Peninsula in Bos- 
 ton. My father then lived in the south- 
 east part of Hudson. The trail was 
 about sixty rods from our house, and we 
 had a path to the trail. Rogers and his 
 men followed the Indians in the night. 
 
 It was about the last of December, 
 1806, and the snow was about four 
 inches deep. The night was very cold, 
 and the moon was near the full, and 
 shining. They came to our house about 
 one o'clock in the morning, some of 
 them nearly frozen, and about half of 
 them stayed there. Rogers got my fath- 
 er, my eldest brother and my brother- 
 in-law. Williams, to go with them. 
 They went to Hudson, got a new re- 
 cruit, and followed on to near the west 
 part of Richfield. Here the Indians had 
 stopped, built a fire, stacked their arms, 
 tied their ponies and lain down with 
 
-26- 
 
 their feet to the fire. Most of them had 
 pulled off their moccasins. When Rog- 
 ers and his men saw the fire they scat- 
 tered and surrounded the Indians, some 
 of whom were in a doze, and some 
 asleep. As they were closing up Kick- 
 shaw and Mohawk sprang up and ran 
 off barefooted. They closed in on the 
 rest, and, it beginning to be light, Rog- 
 ers wanted somebody to go after Nick- 
 shaw, and George Darrow, of Hudson, 
 and Jonathan Williams, my brother-in- 
 law, volunteered to go. They said the 
 Indians' feet began to bleed before they 
 got a mile, when they sat down on a 
 log, tied pieces of their blankets around 
 their feet and then separated. Darrow 
 and Williams followed one of them, 
 who proved to be Nickshaw, whom they 
 overtook at about three miles. He 
 looked back, and, seeing them, gave a 
 whoop and increased his speed, and 
 they after him like hounds after a fox 
 In about a mile they overtook him and 
 asked him to come back, but he would 
 not. Darrow said he thought he would 
 clinch him, but when he made the at- 
 tempt Nickshaw would put his hand 
 under his blanket as though he had a 
 knife. Dari'ow thought he would get a 
 club and knock him down, but Mr. In- 
 dian could get a club and use it too. 
 They got out of patience, and Williams 
 fired his gun over Nickshaw 's head to 
 let him know what was coming if he 
 did not yield. This did not make any 
 impression, and Williams loaded up and 
 popped him over. He fell on his face 
 and gave up the ghost. They threw 
 him under a log, covered him with 
 brush and old chunks, and came back 
 
 to Hudson. Heman Oviatt, David Hud- 
 son and Owen Brown mounted their 
 horses, took the trail and found the 
 dead Indian. They got out a State war- 
 rant against Darrow and Williams for 
 murder. 
 
 All the Reserve was then in Trumbull 
 coanty, the county seat at Warren. 
 When they got there to be tried for 
 their necks, they refused to go into the 
 little log jail till the court could be or- 
 ganized, and they had some fuss about 
 it. Finally some person said they 
 should be on hand at the tria]. When 
 the court was ready they came forward, 
 and the witnesses were called. Oviatt, 
 Hudson and Brown swore they followed 
 the tracks of Darrow and Williams, and 
 found where they had shot the Indian. 
 I think J. D. Webb, ot Warren, was 
 counsel for them. He muddled the 
 witnesses till they could not tell how 
 the Indian came to his death. Darrow 
 was cleared and brought as a witness 
 against Williams. He swore there was 
 a controversy with the Indian in order 
 to make a prisoner of him ; he heard the 
 crack of a gun and saw the Indian fall, 
 but could not tell where it came from. 
 Finally, the matter was quashed. There 
 was plenty of whisky and a hoe-down 
 that night. A collection was made for 
 Williams of five dollars for killing the 
 Indian. 
 
 The Chief and his family were 
 brought to Hudson and discharged. 
 They were not abused, but went to 
 their old camp In Streetsboro, which 
 was his headquarters. It was on Samuel 
 Olin's place, near the river. He lived 
 there till the summer of 1813. He was 
 
-27- 
 
 a man of great intelleet and firmness, 
 and had always been a friend of oar 
 goyernment. He was perfectly honest, 
 and when friendly a good friend ; bat 
 lie to him and he woald never forget it. 
 He believed in being honest, and trained 
 his people so. 
 
 THE GREAT STRBETSBORO HUNT OF 1819. 
 
 The township of Streetsboro was not 
 settled for many years after those 
 
 less our eyes were on it most of the 
 time. The settlers in the townships 
 aroand Streetsboro— Hudson on the 
 west, Franklin on the soath and Aaron 
 on the north — determined to have a big 
 drive, surround the township and kill 
 off the wild animals. A committee was 
 appointed to arrange matters, who 
 marked off thirty or forty acres a little 
 south of the center, where the old saw- 
 
 
 Standing R,ock. 
 
 In the old-time days it was know^n among the pioneers and the Red men as Standing 
 
 Stone. 
 
 \ 
 
 aroand it. It was all owned by Titus 
 Street, from whom it was named, and 
 who drew it as a member of the Oon- 
 necticnt Land Company in 1798, con- 
 taining 16,000 acres, being No. 4 in the 
 ninth range. It was a famous place for 
 bears', wolves, wild cats, wooly nigs, 
 deer and other smaller animals The 
 bears killed oar hogs, and the wolves 
 our sheep and calves and sometimes our 
 yearlings. We could risk nothing un- 
 
 mill stood, into which the game was to 
 be driven. The men from each town- 
 ship were to be on the line of the town- 
 ship of Streetsboro next to them, at ten 
 o'clock in the morning. The swamps 
 were frozen, and there was about three 
 inches of snow, and a good day for the 
 hunt. Most of the regular hunters were 
 opposed to the hunt, for the game was 
 all their dependence, and I was one of 
 them. I started oat early with my dog, 
 
-28— 
 
 to b9 OQ hand when the game started. I 
 took my positioa on a dry piece of 
 ground a little soath of the center, and 
 sat down on a log. I soon heard a crash- 
 ing noise in a hollow about forty rods 
 otf, and walked to a large whitewood 
 tree. Looking up, I saw the head of a 
 huge bear sticking out of a hole in the 
 tree. I drew my rifle on his eye. When 
 it cracked he fell back into the tree with 
 a wonderful kicking and smashing, but 
 was soon still. I saw where three more 
 bears had left the tree and sent the dog 
 after them. In about half a mile he 
 overtook and ran all of them up a tree. 
 
 KENT CONGREGATIONAL 
 CHURCH. 
 
 The Congregationalists organized in Kent 
 on June 18, J8J9. The present building, 
 pictured above, was erected in 1858. 
 
 When I got sight of them the old one 
 was about forty feet from the ground, 
 on one side of the tree. I took to a tree 
 to shoot her, but before I got there she 
 came down and took to boxing the dog, 
 and finally to hugging him as though 
 she loved him. I ran up to within about 
 two rods, but could not fire without hit- 
 ting the dog. She would hug him and 
 then ease up, and every time he wonld 
 
 work from under her. The dog got 
 loose and came running towards me, 
 and the bear, whirling around, saw me 
 and made as straight for me as a bee 
 line. When she was about eight feet 
 from me I fired, and happening to hit 
 her right, she dropped. I was a little 
 scared, and ran back to load my gun. 
 The dog was worrying her, when she 
 got up and knocked him away. She 
 went about fifteen feet to a big tree and 
 set herself down between its large roots, 
 her back to the tree. There she sat like 
 a person in an arm chair, to keep oif 
 the dog. By the time I got my gun 
 loaded she fainted, tumbled over and 
 gave up the ghost. She was the most 
 frightful looking animal I ever saw as 
 she came at me, her bristles sticking 
 forward, her eyes like balls of fire, and 
 her nose turned up, showing her teeth 
 furiously. While we were at the tussle, 
 the other two came down the tree and 
 ran off. I set the dog after them, and 
 in about a mile he treed one of them, 
 which I shot and carried back to the old 
 one. Then I began to hear the horns 
 and bells in different directions, and to 
 see the deer bounding along ahead of 
 the men on the lines. When they cam^ 
 up I fell into the ranks and marched up 
 to the ring or slaughter pen. When it 
 was closed up there was the greatest 
 sight I ever saw. There was over one 
 hundred deer and a large number of 
 bears and wolves. As they ran around 
 the ring the guns cracked like Rattle. 
 The deer came arouud in great flocks 
 like a storm. It was a splendid sight to 
 see so many deer with their large 
 antlers. The hunters got together and 
 
-29— 
 
 when the dreves came around would 
 make a gap in the lines and let them 
 oat. They ran out in large flocks and 
 then the gaps were closed up to keep in 
 the bears and wolves. The firing was' 
 kept up till we thought they were all 
 
 Williard, of Rootstown, and Samuel 
 Curtis, of Hudson, were standing to 
 gether and both fired at the wolf. He fell 
 and Williard ran up to the wolf: Curtis 
 claimed the scalp as his, and took hold 
 of the wolf. They pulled and hauled 
 
 GRANDMA SPOONER. 
 
 The oldest person who ever lived in Franklin township was Priscilla Delano 
 Spooner. She was bora in Plymouth, Mass., Dec. U, 1793. She lived in Kent a quarter 
 of a century and passed away July 9, J 897, aged i03 years and seven months. 
 
 dead bat one ; he was wounded and 
 came hopping around the ring, eight or 
 ten rods from the line, everybody holler- 
 ing "Wolf, wolf, wolf," and firing a 
 perfect storm of bullets. He was shot 
 down before he reached us. Phillip 
 
 the wolf around a while, then dropped 
 him and went at each other with their 
 fists. They were of about the same size 
 and well matched. They made the blood 
 flow pretty freely, bat after a long and 
 hard pull, Willard outwitted Curtis and 
 
-so- 
 
 got the better of him. When they got 
 up to look for the wolf, he was scalped 
 and gone. A. wolf scalp was worth 
 seven dollars— a big pile of money for 
 those times. When all were collected 
 there were over sixty deer, seven bears 
 and five wolves, but a number of wolves 
 got away. 
 
 The wolf is the most cunning of ani- 
 mals. When they find themselves cor- 
 nered they hide in tree tops or under 
 
 A Pioneer Hotel. 
 
 THE OLD REVERE HOUSE. 
 
 It was erected in 1836 by Zenas Kent. 
 Merrick Sawyer opened it April i, 1839, 
 and was its first landlord. It has been 
 known as the Franklin Exchange, Franklin 
 House, Continental Hotel and the Revere 
 House. It was remodeled as a business 
 block in 1899. 
 
 oid logs. When we went to gather up 
 the game, a number of wolves started 
 off. We thought there were twelve 
 bears and six wolves killed that day, 
 for many that were killed were not 
 brought in. David Grier, Dr. DeWolf, 
 Wm. Frazier and many others followed 
 on horseback behind the line, and what 
 
 was killed they put aside and went on 
 for more, or it was so said. The same 
 game was played in other directions, 
 and it was not certainly known what 
 game was killed. It was divided into 
 four piles, one for each of the four 
 townships, when they cast lots for 
 choice, and each took its pile and 
 marched away, Franklin township sold 
 theirs for whisky, and had a high time, 
 benefitting nobody by the destruction of 
 the game. Many families suffered in 
 consequence, whose whole dependence 
 for meat was in the wild game of the 
 forest. The country could not have 
 been settled had it not been for the wild 
 animals to furnish meat, and their skins 
 for clothing for us. The beaver, otter, 
 mink and muskrats supplied us with 
 hats and caps. 
 
 A HUNTING EXPEDITION. 
 
 I thought I would give yon a history 
 of a trapping and hunting expedition 
 up the lake in early d'lys, in 1817, by 
 three of us. Col. George Darrow, Joseph 
 Darrow and myself. We built a little 
 boat on Darrow street, in Hudson, 
 twelve feet long and four feet wide in 
 the middle. We prepared ourselves for 
 a six weeks' trip. We got sixty traps 
 and two guns, and started about the 
 middle of March, in 1817. We hauled 
 our boat to the river in Boston, near the 
 "big opening," and launched it and 
 loaded up, got in and down the river 
 we went, anticipating a good time of it. 
 The river was almost walled in with ice 
 on each bank, the day was fine and 
 warm, and down we went with two 
 oars, and a paddle to steer with, until 
 we got to the Pinery in Northfield, 
 
—31- 
 
 where there was a fallen tree with a 
 bashy top, which reached about two- 
 thirds across the river. We thought we 
 could run around it, but the water 
 sucked us into the top , knocked both of 
 our guns overboard, and came near cap- 
 sizing our little boat ; but we managed 
 to save her and run around the top, and 
 what to do we did not know. We had 
 no money to buy, and did not want to 
 go without guns, so we thought we 
 would make the attempt to regain them. 
 We cast lots to see who should make the 
 attempt. They were the oldest and got 
 it on to me. I stripped off and took hold 
 of a limb, and in I went. The water 
 was as deep as I was "long," but I hap- 
 pened to strike one of them with my 
 feet and got it up, and in I went again, 
 and felt around with my feet and found 
 the other and got it up so that they got 
 hold of It. They hauled me into the 
 boat. We had a jug of whisky with us 
 I took a good "horn" when I went in 
 and when I got out and got my clothes 
 on, and they rolled me up in some 
 blankets. I lay there most of the day. 
 If it had not been for the whisky it 
 would have almost killed me. We went 
 down the river within a few miles of 
 Cleveland, where we encamped for the 
 night. The next morning we loaded up 
 and got to Cleveland about 9 o'clock a. 
 m. The day was warm and fine, but 
 the lake was full of ice. But the breeze 
 from land had broken it off from shore, 
 60 there was a strip of . about twenty 
 rode wide, of open water. We went on, 
 and when we came to Bock River, there 
 was about seven miles of ice-bound 
 shore, where a man could not save him- 
 
 self in time of a storm. The weather 
 being fine, we thought we could risk it. 
 We made our oars play lively to get by 
 the rocks, but the wind changed and 
 the ice drifted back. We pulled for 
 dear life, but before we got through the 
 ice began to crowd us. We came to a 
 place where there was a little hollow, 
 where a little stream came in, and we 
 hauled out. Quite a snow storm came 
 up, and we stayed there two nights. 
 The second night it cleared off and we 
 went on again. About 5 o'clock a. m. 
 we came in sight of Vermillion River, 
 where the ice had broken off. It led us 
 into the Iftke nearly a mile, where the 
 channel of the river came in ; but the 
 wind changed again, and before we got 
 through the ice closed in upon us, and 
 we had a serious time of it. When the 
 ice closed up we were about twenty 
 rods from the channel, and we thought 
 our time had come. Our little boat was 
 knocked about by the ice, sometimes on 
 top and again almost under, and the 
 water kept splashiag in so that one had 
 to keep bailing it out, and the other two 
 had to contend with the ice and work 
 ahead slowly. We stuck there for a 
 long time, but with patience and hard 
 work we got through to the channel of 
 the river, and glad enough to get 
 through what we might call the "for- 
 lorn hope." There was a family living 
 at the mouth of the river, and we 
 stayed there that day and night. We 
 dried our things, and came to Huron 
 River, where we found a large marsh 
 in which were plenty of muskrats. We 
 set our traps and caught over sixty rats 
 that night. The next night we again 
 
-32— 
 
 set our traps. The Canadian French 
 found us out, and stole ten of them. 
 The next morning we went in search of 
 them, but were glad enough to get off 
 with what we had and a whole skin 
 We left as soon as we could. The next 
 place was Sandu8k7 Bay. There was 
 the greatest sight I ever saw in the way 
 of feathered flock. The swans, geese 
 and ducks had gathered into the bay, 
 and were still coming in from every 
 direction, and by night there were acres 
 covered with them. They laid their 
 eggs and hatched their young on those 
 islands. 
 
 At that period they kept in the mid- 
 dle of the bay so that ws could not get 
 at them, but after dark Darrow thought 
 he would give them a shot, but before 
 he got there some trappers on the op- 
 posite side fired at them, and they all 
 rose and flew, and with the squawking 
 and flapping of wings, you would think 
 there was a wonderful thunder storm 
 nearby ; and when they came over Dar- 
 row fired at them, and that increased 
 their noise. We went out in the morn- 
 ing and found two geese. We camped 
 on a small creek that came into the bay, 
 called Coal Creek, and came out of a 
 hill about a mile from the bay. It was 
 large enough for our boat to go up to 
 the head of it. The second day we went 
 up the bay, which was nine miles long. 
 We got a Frenchman to haul our boat 
 across a neck of land, about half a mile 
 across, to the main lake, and where 
 Caron River, afterwards called Portage 
 River, runs through Black Swamp. We 
 went up the lake about four miles and 
 came to a stream that emptied into the 
 
 lake. There was a big marsh that was 
 full of muskrats— I should think two or 
 three hundred acres. We landed and 
 pitched our tent, and prepared to catch 
 rats. The first night we caught over 
 sixty rats. One of us was out among 
 the traps most of the night. The next 
 day Darrow started out with the traps 
 
 LUTHER H. PARMELEK 
 
 Mr. Parmelee, who was born in Mt. Mor- 
 ris, N. Y., came to Hudson in J 832 and to 
 Franklin Mills in 1855. He died July 8, 
 1894. 
 
 in a canoe, and met three Frenchmen 
 coming down stream who demanded 
 the canoe, and Darrow • paddled back. 
 The fellows paddled after, and when 
 Darrow came up we pulled the canoe 
 on shore. They landed and got hold of 
 it and attempted to push it back into 
 the water, and got it partly in. One of 
 them jumped into the canoe and was 
 trying to push it off. I had one of our 
 
-33- 
 
 gnns in my hands and I pat it up 
 against him and pushed him over into 
 the water. He got up, and if you ever 
 saw a devil you might have seen one at 
 that time. They swore in French, and 
 looked as savage as a meat-axe. We got 
 out our traps, and it was not long before 
 ten or twelve more came down by land 
 and we did not dare to say our souls 
 were our own. They took the canoe 
 and went off, and told us to leave. We 
 loaded up and left, and had just got 
 started when back they came. We got 
 out into the lake, and if we had not got 
 off as we did, they would have stripped 
 us, or perhaps killed us. 
 
 There was no law west of Cleveland 
 but the strong arm and the club law. 
 We thought of going to the point of 
 Olay Island, about three miles out in 
 the lak< , but the wind was so strong 
 against us that we could not make it, so 
 we turned our course for the Penin- 
 sula and got there after dark. We saw 
 a fire out in the woods, and one of us 
 went out to see what it meant, and found 
 an old Frenchman living there who was 
 shooting rats in a little marsh on the 
 Peninsula. We begged the privilege of 
 staying over night with him. He said 
 yes, so we hauled our plu'uder to his 
 camp. About ten o'clock we heard some 
 firing up where we had left, and about 
 twelve o'clock two men came up to our 
 fire, and said they had had a damnable 
 scrape with the Frenchmen about where 
 we had left. They had taken every- 
 thing from them but their guns. They 
 said they backed off into the bushes and 
 commenced firing at them, thinking 
 they would kill some of the devils. But 
 
 the Frenchmen returned their fire. 
 They knew where there was a canoe, 
 and made for it and got away and came 
 where we were. One of them was 
 Ohauncey Lowry, of Stow, and the other 
 a man by the name of Smith, both at 
 that time of Palmyra. The next day 
 they were hunting on the Peninsula, 
 and came across a herd of hogs belong- 
 ing to the French. Smith said he was 
 going to have pay for one trap, and he 
 shot and skinned one of them and 
 brought it near the camp, so when the 
 old Frenchman went out to shoot rats, 
 there was a good meal cooked of it . We 
 stayed there eight days, then went 
 down the lake shore. As we were going 
 along we saw a man lying on the shore. 
 We supposed he was dead, and went out 
 and found him alive, but so badly 
 bruised and cut up that he could not 
 stand alone when assisted to his feet. 
 His face was so badly swollen that we 
 could not see his eyes. He said he and 
 his partner got into a fuss with the 
 Frenchmen, and they overpowered and 
 knocked them as long as it seemed good 
 to them. He could not tell where his 
 partner was. We took him in and car- 
 ried him around to the main land and 
 left him there in care of a man ; then 
 we went on down to Huron River, 
 where we made a fine haul that night, 
 but had to leave again on account of the 
 French. The next day we went down 
 to Black River, where we stayed two 
 days. There I shot an otter, and did 
 well while we stayed there, and then 
 went on down to Cleveland, where we 
 heard of the death of J. Wood and 
 Bishop, by the Indians. They were 
 
-34— 
 
 killed about three miles from the mouth 
 of the Caron River, We were well ac- 
 quainted with Wood, and tried to find 
 him, but failed. I think the Indians 
 that killed him belonged to the Chippewa 
 tribe. They killed them for their traps 
 
 the fall of 1817. They were tried and 
 convicted on the testimony of the In- 
 dians, and two of them were hung. The 
 other was discharged because he was 
 young, and was led into the scrape by 
 the older ones. They were executed in 
 
 Rent Town HalL 
 
 Erected About the Middle of the Eighteenth Century. 
 Photo by Woodard. 
 
 and furs. There were three of them 
 that did the deed. Our Government 
 called on the Chief to deliver up the 
 perpetrators, and to deliver them up in 
 
 May, 1818, and were . the first persons 
 executed in Cuyahoga county. We 
 were gone from home five we^ks, and 
 got $150 worth of furs, and mi 'it have 
 
—35- 
 
 got three times that amoant if we had 
 not been molested by the French. 
 
 FIRST SETTLEMENT OF HUDSON . 
 
 The writer came into what is now the 
 township of Hudson, Summit county, 
 Ohio, on the 10th day of May, in the 
 year 1804. At that time this region was 
 a nearly unbroken wilderness, heavily 
 timbered, and occupied by wild men 
 and wild animals ; probably thirty or 
 forty Indians to one white man. I 
 think there was not a house between the 
 present town of Hudson and Canton, in 
 Stark county, except one that was built 
 in the northeast corner of Stow town- 
 ship, by William Walker, before the 
 township was surveyed into lots. . 
 
 Hudson is township 4, in the 10th 
 range of townships ; it was purchased of 
 the Connecticut Land Company by 
 David Hudson. Birdseye Norton, Nath- 
 aniel Norton, Benjamin Oviatt, Stephen 
 Baldwin, and Theodore Parmely. The 
 township was supposed to contain six- 
 teen thousand acres ; the price said to be 
 paid for it was fifty-two cents per acre. 
 The first settlement was made by David 
 Hudson, in 1799. Mr. Hudson came up 
 the lake with some hired men, in an 
 open boat, to the mouth of the Cuyahoga 
 River, then up the Cuyahoga into Boston 
 township. When he thought he was in 
 range of the township of Hudson, the 
 party landed and went in search of their 
 wilderness home. They struck off in a 
 southeasterly direction and got into the 
 southwest part of the township, a little 
 south of where Henry Deacon now lives, 
 where they settled down and commen- 
 ced work. They built a shanty to 
 shelter them from the storms, and went 
 
 to chopping and clearing land for a fail 
 crop. They nnderbrushed about ten 
 acres, girdled the standing timber, and 
 sowed it to wheat that fall, of which 
 they raised a good crop. They next 
 built a log house, 16 by 18, I should 
 think, for I have been in it a great many 
 times. 
 
 The company consisted of David Hud- 
 son, Joseph Darrow, Geo. Darrow, Wil- 
 liam McKinney, Theodore Lacey, Elijah 
 Nobles, George Pease, and some others. 
 About the last of July, Thaddus Lacey 
 and Joseph Darrow commenced survey- 
 ing the township of Hudson, and about 
 the middle of October David Hudson 
 started back to the east after his family, 
 from whence he returned in the year 
 1800, in company with Samuel Bishop, 
 Joel Gay lord, Aaron Norton, Dr. Moses 
 Thompson, William Leach, Heman 
 Oviatt, and Stephen Perkins, who all 
 settled near the center of the township, 
 except Mr. Oviatt, who settled one mile 
 south of the center, where he built a log 
 house near to where there is a big elm 
 tree standing to mark the spot. That 
 tree has grown up since my remem- 
 brance ; it stands about twenty -five or 
 thirty rods north' of R. P. Ellsworth's 
 old house. George Darrow located on 
 what is now called Darrow street, south 
 of Hudson, and Dr. Thompson, north- 
 west of Hudson, on the Northampton 
 road, where he lived and died. In the 
 fall of 1800 Dr. Moses Thompson went 
 back east on foot, carrying a pack of 
 provisions on his back to last him 
 through the wilderness. In the spring 
 of 1801 he returned in company with his 
 father, Deacon Stephen Thompson, and 
 
-36— 
 
 his brothers, Abraham and Stephen, Jr , 
 his brother-in-law, Bradford Kellogg. 
 I think it was in the spring of 1802 that 
 
 Whedon and George W. Holcomb 
 came in 1803. William Chamberlain, 
 Nathaniel Stone, Theodore Hollenbeck, 
 
 Rent's Foremost Citizen. 
 
 MARVIN KENT. 
 
 Marvin Kent, son of Zenas Kent, was born in Ravenna, Sept. 21, I8J6. He became 
 a resident of Kent in 1838, following manufacturing and mercantile pursuits. In 1850 he 
 planned and projected the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, now a part of the Erie 
 system, being its first president In 1865, w^hen his father died, he became his successor as 
 president of the Kent National bank. In 1875 he was elected State senator from the 
 Twenty sixth district of Ohio. In the history of Portage county it is written: "In early 
 days the pioneers devoted themselves to the task of building up a town on the Cuyahoga 
 w^ith remarkable energy; not, however, until the various enterprises were taken hold of by 
 the master hand of Marvin Kent did theories of progress, put forward by the old settlers, 
 assume practical shape. Thus, to his aid and fostering care may properly be ascribed the 
 industrial and commercial prosperity which the pleasant little village bearing his name 
 now enjoys," 
 
 John Oviatt, Amos Lusk and Elias Liud- 
 ley came into Hudson. Zina Post came 
 in 1804; Owen Brown, Benjamin 
 
 and .Joseph Kingsbury came in 1810. 
 , The following are the names of a few 
 of the heads of families that first came 
 
—37- 
 
 to Hudson and their families : David 
 Hudson came in 1799, and in 1810 
 brought his family of six children — five 
 sons and one daughter— Samuel, Ira, 
 William, Timothy, Milo and Abigail. 
 Ira Hudson married Huldah Oviatt ; 
 William married Phebe Hutchinson ; 
 Milo married Bannah Roberts ; Abigail 
 married Birdseye Oviatt. Samuel 
 Bishop came to Hudson in 18u0, and 
 brought five sons and four daughters. 
 Timothy married Rebecca Craig ; David 
 married Miss Kennedy ; Luman married 
 Rachel Gaylord ; Reuben died single ; 
 Joseph married Miss HoUenbeck. One 
 of the girls married Stephen Perkins ; 
 one Elijah Noble ; one Samuel Vale, and 
 one a HoUenbeck. Joel Gaylord came 
 in 18)0, and brought v?ith him three 
 sons and four daughters— John, Daniel, 
 Harvey, Sally, Olive, Betsy and Nancy . 
 Sally married Wm. Leach, and after- 
 ward a John Ford ; she lost one of her 
 legs by stepping on a rusty nail. Olive 
 married George Darrow ; Betsy married 
 William McKinley ; and Nancy married 
 William Chamberlain. 
 
 David Hudson was commissioned a 
 Justice of the Peace by Governor St. 
 Glair, in this Northwest Territory in 
 1801, before the township was organized. 
 This territory was ceded to the United 
 States by the State of Virginia in 1784, 
 and in 1875 Gen. St. Olair was appoint- 
 ed Governor. The territory included 
 the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
 nois and Wisconsin and Michigan. 
 
 The first law salt brought before 
 David Hudson, Esq., was by Thaddens 
 Lacey against Thomas and Daniel Jndd, 
 on book account, March, 24, 1801. The 
 
 first birth in Hudson was Anna May, 
 daughter of David and Maria Hudson. 
 She was born October 28, 1800, and be- 
 came the wife of Harvey Baldwin, both 
 now living in the old homestead. The 
 first male child born in Hudson was the 
 son of Wm. and Harvey Leach, born 
 November, 1801. First death in Hudson 
 was that of Ira Nobles, August 23, 1801 , 
 aged eight years. The first wedding 
 was that of George Darrow to Olive Gay- 
 lord, October 11. 1801. The ceremony 
 was performed by Squire Hudson, and 
 being the first official act of the kind, 
 the Squire was considerably embar- 
 rassed, and had to repeat the ceremony 
 over and ever to get it right. 
 
 The township was organized April 5, 
 1802. A public meeting was called for 
 the purpose of electing township officers, 
 at which eighteen votes were polled. 
 The names of the voters were D. Hud- 
 son, J. Darrow, G. Darrow, Dr. Thomp- 
 son, T. Lacey, Wm. McKinley, A. Nor- 
 ton, H. Oviatt, E. Sheldon (of Aurora) , 
 E. Nobles, S. Bishop, J. Gaylord, A. 
 Thompson, Deacon Stephen Thompson, 
 Robert Walker and Elias Harmon. 
 These constituted the voting population 
 of Stow, Boston, Twinsburgh, Aurora 
 and Mantua, which were all attached for 
 township purposes in 1802. David Hud- 
 son was chairman ; Thaddeus Lacey was 
 chosen township clerk ; Heman Oviatt 
 and Ebenezer Sheldon, trustees ; Elias 
 Harmon, poor maF'^r; Aaron Norton, 
 fence viewer. 
 
 The first school taught in Hudson 
 township was by George Pease, in a log 
 house on the puUic square, in the center 
 of the township, in the winter of 1801. 
 
-38— 
 
 The next was in the same house by Miss 
 Patty Fields, in the winter of 1802. 
 Miss Fields was a sister of Judge Nor- 
 ton's wife. The third was in the north- 
 west quarter, near John Oviatt's, by 
 Amy Gannon,' of Aurora, who after- 
 wards became the wife of Deacon Spen- 
 cer, of Aurora. 
 
 died in 1808. She was buried with an 
 infant in her arms, and I think was the 
 first adult buried in the township. Mrs. 
 Joel Gaylord, 1800 : died '45, aged 74. 
 Samuel Bishop, 1800 ; died '13, aged 62. 
 Mrs. Bishop died '15, aged 59. Heman 
 Oviatt, 1801; died '55, aged 81. Mrs. 
 Oviatt, 1801 ; died '13, aged 37. Amos 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Jas. H. Reed. 
 
 Jas, H. Reed and Miss Terzie Scranton were married in 1835. In *37 they located 
 in Franklin township. Mr. Reed was a veterinary surgeon for 60 years. Their married 
 life of 66 years was terminated by the death of Mr. Reed, Oct. 15, I90I. 
 
 ARRIVALS AND DEATHS OF EARLY SET- 
 TLERS. 
 
 David Hudson came in 1799 ; died 
 March 17, 1836, aged 76 years. His 
 wife, Maria, died August 31, 1816, aged 
 55 years. Mrs. Geo. Darrow came in 
 1800; died in 1845, aged 60. Joel Gay- 
 lord came in 1800 ; died July 24, 1827, 
 aged 74. Owen Brown, 1805; died 
 March 8, 1856, aged 85. Mrs. Brown 
 
 Lusk, 1802 ; died '13 ; he was captain of 
 a company of militia in the war of 1812, 
 came home on a furlough, was taken 
 sick and died of an epidemic fever. 
 Eben Pease, Elias Lindley, and some 
 others died with the same fever. Geo. 
 W. Holcomb, 1802; died '47, aged 71. 
 Ohauncey Case, 1814 ; died March 27, 
 '63, aged 75. Mrs. Case died Jan. 23, 
 '67, aged 87. 
 
—39- 
 
 Robert Walker came in 1801, with 
 four sons— John, James, Robert and 
 George William Walker built a house 
 in the northeast corner of the township 
 of Stow, in 1803, which was the first one 
 built in the township. At that time the 
 township had not been surveyed into 
 lots. In the spring of 1803 Robert Wal- 
 ker and David Hudson were elected 
 
 Oldt-Tixne Printer. 
 
 
 G. G. GALLOWAY, 
 Mr. Galloway, who was still living in 
 Chicago in 1894, aged 81 years, was a prin- 
 ter on the Ohio Observer in Hudson in 1832. 
 
 Justices of the Peace, and were the first 
 Justices elected by the people. Mr. 
 Walker was kept in that office up to his 
 death, Jane 11, 1813, aged 74. Elizabeth, 
 his wife, died April 24, 1818. John 
 Walker came in 1801 ; died Sept. 3, '41, 
 aged 78. George Walker came in 1801 ; 
 died March 16, '55, aged 63 ; his wife 
 died March 23, '51, aged 68. Robert 
 
 O'Brien came in 1802 ; died '31, aged 82. 
 Harry O'Brien came in 1802 ; married in 
 1804 ; died July 15, '52, aged 71. Sally, 
 his wife, died August 11, '57, aged 79. 
 Marmadake Deacon came in 1805 ; died 
 June 9, '30, aged 67 ; his wife, Mary, 
 died August 15, 1806, aged 40. Augus- 
 tus Baldwin came in 1812, as a dry 
 goods merchant. I used to trade with 
 him, and pay him fifty cents for a yard 
 of cotton, three-quarters wide ; seventy- 
 five cents for a yard wide ; had to work 
 three days for a shirt. Baldwin moved 
 into Franklin township in 1836, and took 
 charge of the Franklin Silk Company's 
 Bank, as cashier, where he was taken 
 sick, and died Oct. 29, '38, aged 50 years. 
 Benjamin Whedon came in 1805, died in 
 1833, aged 54; his wife died in 1809, 
 aged 43. They had no children, but an 
 adopted son, whom they called John 
 Whedon ; he kept a grocery store in 
 Hudson for a long time. 
 
 Nathaniel Stone came in 1810 ; died 
 August 2, '60, aged 75. Sarah, his wife, 
 died June 17, '67, aged 77. Richard 
 Croy Came in 1807 ; died March 9, '52, 
 aged 66. Zenas Kent and wife came in 
 the spring of 1814, and settled on Darrow 
 street ; came with a one horse peddling 
 wagon, and some goods. He worked 
 there that summer, at the carpenter and 
 joiner business ; his son Henry was born 
 there, in 1814, in a little log house. Mr. 
 Kept kept school that winter. I attended 
 it then, and also in the winter of '15. 
 Heman Oviatt induced Kent to go to 
 Ravenna and put up a store house, and 
 that fall Kent put in six hundred dol- 
 lars worth of goods that he had on hand. 
 Oviatt put in one thousand dollars 
 
-40— 
 
 worth, and Kent became the salesman. 
 They carried on the business six years, 
 when they dissolved partnership, and 
 Kent had made eleven thousand dollars 
 out of his six hundred dollars. Col. John 
 Oviatt came to Hudson in 1801 ; died 
 1827, aged 75 ; his wife died 1813. Joseph 
 Darrow came in 1799, and in 1803 was 
 married to Sally Pry or, of Northampton ; 
 the first wedding in that township. In 
 1804, he bought a farm on Darrow 
 street, just over the line in Stow town- 
 ship, where he lived, and died at the 
 good old age of 81 years ; Sally, his wife, 
 died May 30, '47. Dr. Moses Thompson 
 came in 1800, and died Nov., 1858, aged 
 83. John Brown (Ossowatamie), born 
 May 9, 1800 ; came in 1805 ; executed at 
 Charleston, Va., Dec, 1859. Dr. Met- 
 calf came in 1812 ; died 1869, aged 83. 
 George Darrow came in 1799 ; died Nov. 
 83, '59, aged 83. 
 
 In coming to this country we had to 
 buy our farms and pay for them in 
 hard knocks ; make our roads the best 
 we could, and build log bridges mcross 
 swamps. Our carriages were the plain- 
 est kind of ox carts, sleds and stone- 
 boats. In visiting- one another we used 
 to get up the oxen, hitch them to the 
 cart, throw in some hay or straw, all 
 get in, and off over stumps, around trees 
 and over log bridges. I never knew of 
 a man being troubled with dyspepsia or 
 heart disease in those days. The first 
 mill built in Hudson was by my father 
 and Stephen Myers, in the faU of 1806 ; 
 it was a hand mill, and answered a good 
 purpose. Our neighbors used to come in 
 to grind, and kept the little mill a hum- 
 ming. I have one of the mill stones 
 
 now to look at. Before this, we had to 
 go to Newburg to mill, and carry the 
 grain on horse-back, as there were no 
 roads so we could go with a cart. It 
 would take a day to go down, about 
 twenty miles, stay there a day to get it 
 ground, and the next day go home, all 
 the way through the woods. 
 
 After all the hardships and privations 
 we enjoyed life when we had enough to 
 eat, and the greatest friendship and har- 
 mony existed among neighbors. If one 
 had provisions, he would divide with 
 his neighbor, almost to the last mouth- 
 ful. We used to get together at some 
 school house and have meetings, all 
 parties and no distinction of parties ; all 
 harmony and peace until the sectarians 
 and lawyers come among us, who creat- 
 ed parties and strife, and destroyed a 
 good deal of the friendship that existed 
 between neighbors. 
 
 EARLY TIMES IN HUDSON— THE LOST CHILD. 
 
 In 1809, Eben Pease, who lived a little 
 west of the center of Hudson, sent one 
 of his girls, aged eight or nine years, on 
 an errand to Benjamin Oviatt's, about 
 two miles north of the center, where 
 George Bently now lives. She went 
 there, and on coming back, she got off 
 the road, and was lost in the woods. 
 There was a cow- path that led off from 
 the road, and she followed that. As 
 she did not get home at dark, her father 
 got uneasy about her, and started over 
 to Oviatt's, where they told him she 
 had left for home long before night. 
 Mr. Pease went back, and getting no 
 trace of her, he rallied the neighbors, 
 and they ransacked the woods in every 
 direction. They fired off guns and blew 
 
horns till after midnight, but got no 
 trace of her. The next morning they 
 started out again, and about ten o'clock 
 Richard Oroy found her lying on an old 
 log, asleep. She was almost exhausted, 
 and looked vei-y wild. She said, when 
 she got off the road into the woods, she 
 tried to find her way, ran, hallooed and 
 cried, going from instead of towards 
 home, with no one to hear her lamenta- 
 tions. She had wandered about three 
 miles in a southerly diiection. 
 
 THE BURNING OF BELINDA STONE. 
 
 Nathaniel Stone came to Hudson in 
 1810, and bought the farm that John 
 Ellsworth now occupies. In 1834 he 
 sold out, and bought where his son, 
 Roswell Stone, now lives, where he 
 built a log house. In the year 1845 his 
 house got on fire in the dead of night, 
 when all were asleep. His son, Oharles, 
 and daughter, Belinda, slept up stairs. 
 The stairs were near the fireplace, and 
 when they awoke the stairway was all 
 in flames, and the chamber was so full 
 of smoke they could hardly breathe. 
 Oharles called his sister, and they 
 started for a window, where he got out 
 and escaped, but his sister was suffocai- 
 ed, and, falling down inside, she burned 
 to death. She was twenty-two years 
 old. 
 
 HEMAN OYIATT AND THE INDIANS. 
 
 Of the Indians who formerly lived 
 about Hudson, there were three tribes, 
 viz : the Senecas, Ottawas and Ohip- 
 pewas. The Senecas had their head- 
 quarters in the southeast part of Streets- 
 boro, on the Cuyahoga River; the Otto- 
 was near the mouth of the Little Cuya- 
 hoga, and Id the summer time a great 
 
 mary of them used to come up and 
 camp around Wetmore Pond, in Stow 
 township. The Ohippewas lived farther 
 south, near Seville, in the southern part 
 of Medina county, and about Chippewa 
 Lake, in Wayne county, which derives 
 its name from these Indians. Heman 
 Oviatt had his residence about one mile 
 
 KENT DISCIPLE CHURCH. 
 
 This edifice was erected in J853-'54, 
 through the efforts of the late S. S. Clapp. 
 
 south of Hudson, where, in early days 
 he traded with the Indians, buying 
 their furs, skins, etc. When he got 
 enough to make two bales, he would 
 load them on a horse across a pack- 
 saddle, and take them to Pittsburg, 
 which was the nearest market at that 
 time. At Pittsburg he would buy two 
 ten gallon kegs of whisky, with which 
 to make a return load for the pack- 
 horse, then with a bundle of dry goods, 
 such as blankets and shawls, also pow- 
 der, lead and a great many Indian 
 trinkets, with a bundle behind him on 
 
—42- 
 
 the horse, he would start for home, 
 through the woods. He nsed to sell the 
 Indians half a pint of whisky for a coon 
 skin, which was worth three or four 
 shillings, and a pint of whisky for a buck 
 skin, worth from seventy-five cents to a 
 dollar ; fonr qnarts of whisky for a bear 
 skin, worth from three to five dollars. 
 The Indians thonght he cheated them 
 and did not like to trade with him. 
 They called him Coppaqna ; they liked 
 to trade with Coppaqna's sqnaw ; she 
 wonld give them little presents and a 
 little whisky, and she conld cheat them 
 worse than Coppaqna conld, and they 
 would think it all right. She got so she 
 could talk Indian almost as good as they 
 could. The Oviatts traded with the 
 Indians till the war of 1818, when the 
 Indians all left the country. Oviatt 
 made himself rich out of the Indians, 
 and before they left he built a still- 
 honse, I think in 1808, and got the 
 whisky running that fall. He got Rich- 
 ard Redden, from Hiram, to run the 
 still, and after several years sold out to 
 his father-in-law, George Kilbnrn, who 
 turned it into a tannery. Oviat made 
 all he could, and then cried out, "vanity 
 and vexation of spirit, for whisky is the 
 root of all evil!" 
 
 THE GBEAT ECLIPSE — INDIANS— CROPS. 
 
 In the summer 1806 was a great 
 eclipse of the sun, which took place on 
 the 17th day of June. It was so dark 
 you could not distinguish a neighbor ten 
 rods off ; chickens and birds went to 
 roost. The eclipse commenced about 
 eleven o'clock a. m., and went off at 
 one p. m. The Indians were very much 
 frightened. They knew nothing of it 
 
 till it came on, and thought it was the 
 Bad Spirit which had got at war with 
 the Grood Spirit. They formed them- 
 selves Into a"ring and marched around, 
 and when they came to a certain spot 
 would fire at the Bad Spirit. Just as the 
 
 One of tKe Pioneers. 
 
 RUEL L. SHIRTLIFF. 
 
 Mr. Shirtliff was born Oct. 27, I8J6, in 
 Hampden cc, Mass., and came to Fra,nklin 
 township March 6, I8I8. He died Feb. J2, 
 1900, after a residence here of 82 years. 
 
 sun came oat one of tbem fir>id, and 
 they made him a chief for his bravery. 
 The day of the eclipse was a beauti- 
 ful, warm day ; we were hoeing corn 
 the second time, with only shirt and 
 pants on, but after the eclipse was off 
 the weather was so much colder that 
 we had to put on onr vests and coats to 
 
—43- 
 
 workin. There were frosts every month 
 that summer ; no corn got ripe, and the 
 next spring we had to send to the Ohio 
 River for seed corn to plant. 
 
 The next sammer was the hardest 
 time I ever saw. There was no grain in 
 the country. My father and Adam 
 Nighman went to Georgetown on the 
 Ohio River, for flour; they had no 
 money, but took a rifle and pledged it 
 for flour, and I guess they never re- 
 deemed the rifle. 
 
 BRADY'S LEAP. 
 
 I saw an article in the Press, entitled 
 "Brady's Leap Corrected," written by 
 Gen. L. V. Bierce, of Akron, in which 
 1 thought there was room for correc • 
 tion. There must be some error, for of 
 the various accounts that I have seen, 
 no two of them agree as to the distance 
 across the chasm where it was said that 
 Brady leaped. Some gave it at 27 feet, 
 some at 25 and some at 22. I will now 
 give you my view of the matter : I 
 crossed the bridge that was thrown 
 over the river about ten feet below 
 where it was said Brady jumped across, 
 on the 10th day of May, 1804, and at 
 that time it was a dismal looking place. 
 It was just as the God of Nature had 
 made it, with the exception of the 
 bridge. The distance between the 
 shelving rocks could not vary very 
 much from 21 feet. The hemlocks from 
 either side mingled their tops together, 
 and it was about 25 feet from the bridge 
 down to the water. It was a dismal 
 place, indeed. The Hudson people and 
 the Ravenna people got together and 
 threw a bridge across at that place, in 
 the fall of 1803. This was the first bridge 
 
 overthrown across the Cuyahoga River. 
 They ran a road from Hudson to Ra- 
 venna that fall, crossing on that bridge, 
 and that was the first east and west 
 road ever traveled in this section of the 
 country. It was not all underbrush 
 when I came through on the 10th of 
 May, 1804. I was well acquainted with 
 the men who built the bridge. From 
 Hudson, there was David Hudson, Esq., 
 Joel Gaylord, George Darrow, Joseph 
 Darrow and Wm. McKinley. From Ra- 
 venna, "Jack" Wright, Thomas Wright, 
 Robert Bell and some others. I have 
 heard them speak of it a great many 
 times, and none of them ever called it 
 more than 21 feet between the points of 
 the rocks. I have never measured it, 
 but took their, word, and I should think 
 it did not vary a foot from that distance 
 across. I was well acquainted with the 
 place. The Haymakers built a mill be- 
 low, where Kent's mill now stands, and 
 I used to go to mill there. They got the 
 mill running in the fall of 1808. I recol- 
 lect one circumstance that occurred 
 which made me examine the place more 
 particularly. The Haymakers had a 
 yoke of oxen, and one of them was 
 blind of an eye. He was feeding along 
 the river, near the end of the bridge, 
 with his blind side toward the river, 
 and tumbled off the shelving rocks into 
 the stream below. It was, as I have 
 said above, about 25 feet down to the 
 water, and the water was about eight 
 or ten feet deep where he fell. Freder- 
 ick Haymaker's wife saw him tumble 
 in, and she gave the alarm, and they 
 got him out. I used to go to see the 
 place where he fell off, and should think 
 
—45— 
 
 First Meeting of Pioneer Association. 
 
 From the Kent Courier, Aprill 22, 1904. 
 
 The Courier presents herewith, j 
 through the courtesy of O. O. Cackler, 
 a most iaterestiag photograph, interest- 
 ing because it shows a gathering of 
 many of the pioneers of this section, 
 nearly all of whom have long since 
 passed to the great beyond. 
 
 It was taken by James Wark, now of 
 Marion, O, at the home of Christian 
 Cackler, the author of the history now 
 running in the columns of the Courier. 
 
 The occasion was the gathering of the 
 pioneers on the day of the first meeting 
 of the Pioneer Association at Mr. Cack- 
 ler's home, October 20, 1874. 
 
 The members of the association who 
 appear in the photogragh are : 
 
 FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 
 
 Yale Russell and wife, 
 Seneca Green and wife, 
 Joseph Stratton and wife, 
 James Haymaker and wife, 
 Mrs. John Reed, 
 Mrs. Jacob Day, 
 James Cuthbert, 
 A. M. Sherman and wife, 
 Elisha Burnett (and drum), 
 Frederick Nighman and wife, 
 Mrs. Betsy DePeyster, 
 Mr. Kendrick and wife, 
 James Woodard and wife, 
 William Bassett and wife, 
 John Dewey and wife, 
 Mrs. Mary Perry, 
 Mrs. Frederick Dewey, 
 Mrs. Hall, 
 
 Joseph Norton and wife. 
 Dr. L. W. Crittenden, 
 Mrs. Clarisa Olin, 
 John Gardner and wife, 
 Robert Morris, 
 Mrs. Austin Williams, 
 Luther Parmelee and wife, 
 P. W. Bard and wife, 
 Harman Bradley, 
 
 Mrs. Mary Wilcox, 
 
 Mrs. Priscilla Spooner, 
 
 John Perkins, 
 
 Solon Gilson and wife, 
 
 George Dewey, 
 
 William Stinafif, 
 
 Curtis DeForfst and wife. 
 
 Homer W. Hart and wife, 
 
 Warren Burt and wife. 
 
 Freeman Underwood and wife, 
 
 Mrs. S. E. Blake. 
 
 STREETSBORO. 
 
 Samuel Olin and wife, 
 
 'Squire Russell, 
 
 Mr. Bartholomew and wife, 
 
 John Tucker and wife, 
 
 Albert Doolittle and wife, 
 
 Harvey Baldwin and wife, 
 
 George Bradley, 
 
 Mrs. Peck, 
 
 Mrs. John Foster, 
 
 Mrs. John Myers, 
 
 Mrs. Lydia Wood. 
 
 HUDSON. 
 
 Stephen Myers and wife, 
 Wm. Myers, 
 Mrs. Hassetc, 
 
 Frederick Baldwin and wife, 
 Harvey Baldwin and wife, 
 Lora Case and wife, 
 Edwin Dewey and wife, 
 Wm. Darrow and wife, 
 Sylvester Thompson and wife, 
 Harvey Dakin. 
 
 BRIMFIELD. 
 
 John Boosinger, 
 Peter Cackler and wife, 
 Captain Sherman and wife, 
 Lida Underwood and wife, 
 Oliver Sawyer. 
 
 STOW. 
 
 Henry Wetmore and wife. 
 Maxwell Graham and wife, 
 William Graham and wife, 
 Betsy Lappin, 
 Robert Stewart and wife. 
 
 AURORA. 
 
 Mrs. Polly Kennedy, 
 Ely Cannon and wife. 
 
 CUYAHOGA PALLS. 
 
 George Dailey and wife, 
 Andrew Dailey and wife. 
 
—46- 
 
 the shelving rocks hung over the water 
 on the west side ten feet or more at the 
 place where it was said Brady jumped 
 across. But oa the west side, from 
 where he jumped, the rocks were about 
 three feet higher than where he alight- 
 ed, there being a dish or depression in 
 the rocks to aboat that depth, three 
 feet. I used to live in the south part of 
 Hudson township, called Darrow street. 
 In early days the Tawa tribe of Indians 
 used to travel that road very much, go- 
 ing to Captain Oviatt's to trade, he at 
 that time keeping a trading post one 
 mile south of the center of Hudson. 
 The headquarters of this tribe was at 
 the outlet of what is called the Stow or 
 Wetmore Pond, Stow being 3 in the 
 10th range of townships. One day some 
 of these Indians came there to get some 
 bread. He noticed that one of them 
 looked very different from the rest, he 
 having light blue eyes and sandy whis- 
 kers, and was able to talk a little 
 English. In conversation with him, he 
 learned the following items ef his past 
 history : He was living with a family 
 near Pittsburg when a boy five or six 
 years old. One day five Indians came 
 to the house and killed all but himself. 
 They then stole some horses, strapped 
 him on behind one of the Indians, and 
 'in this condition he was brought into 
 this country. He said when he was 
 grown up, he went back to hunt up 
 some of his relatives He found some of 
 them still alive, and after staying around 
 a short time, he came back to the Indian 
 life again, giving as his reason that the 
 white man had to work, work, work, 
 but the Indian did not. He married a 
 
 squaw, (and at the time of this conver- 
 sation) in the summer of 18G6 or '07, he 
 had two papooses. 
 
 As near as I could ascertain, he was 
 taken prisoner in 1790 or '91, about, the 
 same time that Brady had his fight with 
 this same tribe of Indians, near the 
 Wetmore Pond. Brady, being whipped 
 in this fight, fled. The Indians, know- 
 ing he would cross the Cuyahoga where 
 the old Indian trail crossed which ran 
 from the Ohio River to Sandusky, sent 
 some of their fleetest runners to head 
 him off there. They reached the cross- 
 ing first. When Brady came up and 
 saw that he was headed off, he started 
 down the river. They could have shot 
 him then, but being desirous of taking 
 him prisoner, started after him. When 
 he had reached the narrows of the river, 
 he discovered that they had cut him off 
 from below, also, and were closing in 
 upon him from all sides, so that there 
 was only one chance for life ; he quick- 
 ly took that one, that of jumping the 
 chasm of the river, which has ever since 
 been called Brady's Leap. As he was 
 climbing up the opposite bank, they 
 shot him in the thigh. The Indians had 
 to go down the river to the nearest cross- 
 ing, where Kent's mill now stands, and 
 come up on the other side. This gave 
 Brady some time the start of them. 
 They tracked him by the blood from his 
 wound, to what has ever since been 
 called Brady's Lake, in the eastern part 
 of Franklin township, about a mile and 
 a half from where they wounded him 
 after he jumped across the river. Upon 
 coming to the lake, he swam down to a 
 point where a large tree had fallen into 
 
—47— 
 
 the water, beneath which he secreted 
 himself, and remained until his savage 
 pursuers left, when he made his escape. 
 
 The old Indian trail running from the 
 Ohio to Sandusky crossed the Cuyahoga 
 Hear what is called the standing stone • 
 near where the water enters the gorge 
 of rocks in Franklin township. I saw 
 this standing stone in the fall of 1804. 
 At this time there were two trees on 
 the top of the rock, one of them a hem- 
 lock, about 12 inches in diameter ; the 
 other one a small pine. The rock, at this 
 time, was from 16 to 18 feet across the 
 top, and about half as large at the bot- 
 tom, having been worn away by the 
 action of the water below. The top of 
 the rock was higher than the banks on 
 either side, and covered all over with 
 huckleberry bushes and moss. This rock 
 stood about ten feet from the west 
 bank. The Indians had felled a small 
 sapling from the shore to the rock, form- 
 ing what was called an Indian ladder, 
 and by this means could climb on to the 
 rock. It was a custom among them, 
 that whenever a family passed here, 
 they would climb on this rock and fasten 
 to the hemlock a piece of bark pointing 
 in the direction that they had gone, so 
 that others following them could tell in 
 what direction to find them. There 
 were a good many pieces still sticking 
 to the tree when I saw it. 
 
 I got more information from an old 
 lady who used to live in Springfield, 
 and who afterwards moved to Streets - 
 boro, and lived as a near neighbor to 
 me, about Samuel Brady, than from 
 any one else. She was a full cousin to 
 him. She was the wife of Abraham 
 
 DeHaven. She said she was well ac- 
 quainted with "Samuel," as she called 
 him ; that he used to live above Pitts- 
 burg on what was called Orumb Creek ; 
 that he was a very stout, muscular man, 
 very active, and did not appear to be 
 afraid of anything. She thought it was 
 in 1790 that the Indians used to come to 
 that settlement, and kill a family or 
 two, steal some horses, and get what 
 plunder they could, and then clear out. 
 Samuel Brady raised a company of men 
 and followed them. I think she said he 
 had three scrapes with them. It is a 
 little singular that it has been stated 
 that John Haymaker and Jacob Stough 
 were personally acquainted with and 
 personal friends of Brady, and he never 
 told them at what period or date this 
 chase took place. T have not seen any 
 dates given by any one who has written 
 on this subject, therefore I think Mrs. 
 DeHaven is right about the date. I 
 also think so from other circumstances 
 which corroborate her statement. 
 
 In order to give you some idea of how 
 the Indians became so hostile and sav- 
 age towards our people, I should like to 
 take you back to early times, as early as 
 1776, when we declared ourselves free 
 from our mother government. This 
 vexed England very much, and in order 
 to quickly reduce her children to sub- 
 jection and obedience, she employed the 
 Indians to assist her. She encouraged 
 them by giving them five dollars for 
 every scalp they could take from her 
 subjects, and furnished them with all 
 implements of war. The Indians pitched 
 in with all their fury, and killed and 
 scalped a great many of our people for 
 
—48— 
 
 the bounty. The mother called herself 
 a civilized and Christian people, and 
 yet gave the wild Indians five dollars for 
 every scalp taken from her chil- 
 dren, just as we used to pay for the 
 scalps of wolves that killed our sheep 
 and calves. If that was a Christian 
 spirit, God forbid ; the devil can do no 
 wrong. But the war lasted seven long 
 years, and by the help of France, we 
 made her acknowledge our independence 
 in 1783, But the Indians still continued 
 their warfare till 1785, when we made a 
 treaty of peace with them, and bought 
 a large tract of land of them, which lay 
 west of the Ohio River. I think it ex- 
 tended as far west as the Cuyahoga 
 waters. About that time there came in 
 some clusters of families on the east 
 side of the Ohio, in Pennsylvania and 
 Virginia, and General Putnam com- 
 menced a settlement at the month of 
 the Muskingum, on the west side of the 
 Ohio, where Marietta now stands. It 
 was the first settlement made in Ohio ; 
 bat at that time it was called the North- 
 West Territory. The North- West Ter- 
 ritory was ceded to the United States 
 by the State of Virginia, in 1784. It 
 was situated west of the Ohio River, 
 and contained what are now known as 
 the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
 Michigan and Wisconsin. 
 
 In the spring of 1788 the Indians be- 
 came dissatisfied with the treaty, and 
 again took up the tomahawk, and be- 
 came as savage as ever. General Rutus 
 Putnam built a block-house to shelter 
 his people from them, but they would 
 cross the Ohio, kill a family or two, and 
 steal horses, and get back across the 
 
 river, where they felt themselves all 
 safe. But the States of Virginia and 
 Pennsylvania employed a parcel of 
 young men as spies or sharpshooters, to 
 look out for them when they came over, 
 and to give the alarm to the inhabi- 
 tants, upon which all would flee to the 
 block-house for protection. This block- 
 house was located in Green county, 
 Penn., on Wheeling Creek, about twenty- 
 five miles from Wheeling, Va. In the 
 fall of 1790, John Crow, Martin Crow, 
 Frederick Crow, John Williams and 
 Martin Wetzel had camped out, and 
 some Indians came over the river and 
 happened on their camp when they 
 were absent from it. The Indians se- 
 creted themselves near by, and waited 
 till towards evening, when they came 
 in. Four of them came in together and 
 as they were entering their shanty the 
 Indians fired upon them, killing John 
 Williams, breaking Frederick Crow's 
 arm, and making bullet holes in the 
 clothing of the others. The three not 
 killed immediately sprang into the 
 woods and ran in different directions. 
 Martin Crow said he ran by a big tree 
 behind which a big Indian was stand- 
 ing, who fired upon him, sending a ball 
 through his ear, the muzzle of the rifle 
 being so near his head that the flame 
 scorched his hair. He ran until he came 
 to a small stream, across which he at- 
 tempted to leap, but the stream being 
 wider than he supposed, he jumped into 
 the water and fell down, wetting his 
 gun and clothes ; he scrambled up and 
 ran on. Having run a short distance, he 
 looked back and saw the Indian stand- 
 ing on the bank of the stream where he 
 
—49— 
 
 had jumped from. He saw the Indian 
 lay down his gnn, and taking his toma- 
 hawk in his hand, ran down stream to 
 a shallow place, cross over and give 
 chase. Crow put for a big hill which 
 was not far off. As he was going up 
 this hill he again looked back, and saw 
 that the Indian was gaining on him ; he 
 therefore stopped, laid down his gun, 
 and began hurling stones down upon 
 his merciless pursuer. He could throw 
 a stone almost as straight as he could 
 shoot, and when a stone would go whirl- 
 ing down the hill the Indian would 
 dodge behind a tree. He in this way 
 kept him in check a short time, and 
 when he could gain a moment's time he 
 would prick powder into his gun, 
 and when the Indian came out from be- 
 hind a tree he would point his gun at 
 him, and so drove him off. Grow then 
 went on up the hill, unloaded and re- 
 loaded his gun, and hearing the dog 
 bark which was out with his brother, 
 John Grow, who had not returned to 
 camp with the rest of the party, he 
 started for him, but did not find him. 
 About dark he heard the cracking of 
 guns down at camp, so he changed his 
 course to that in which he supposed the 
 others had gone. A little after dark, in 
 'the hope of being heard by some of his 
 companions, he hooted like an owl, and 
 then howled like a wolf, and soon heard 
 an answer from one of them. In this 
 way the three got together again. Find- 
 ing Frederick Grow's arm broken, they 
 set it as well as they could, and sent 
 him home. The other two next morn- 
 ing went back to camp, where they 
 found John W illiams and John Grow 
 
 dead and scalped, the latter having been 
 shot just at dark, as he was coming 
 alone to camp. 
 
 The next spring on Easter Sunday in 
 April, 1791, four of the Grow girls start- 
 ed from home to Ryason's station, or 
 block-house. It being a warm, pleasant 
 day, they thought they would go up to 
 the station. Having proceeded about 
 half way, they met their brother, Mi- 
 chael, on horseback. It was their cus- 
 tom to send Michael two or three times 
 a week up to the station to get the news. 
 When he met the girls he tried to per- 
 suade them to go back home, but the 
 girls thought they had got so far on the 
 way they would go the whole distance. 
 About twenty rods farther on there lay 
 a large rock by the side of the read. 
 When three of the girls reached this, 
 three Indians stepped out from behind 
 it and stopped them. The youngest girl, 
 Tenah by name, was about fifteen rods 
 behind them, and saw them stopped by 
 the Indians, whom, however, she mis- 
 took for negroes. Upon walking up to 
 them, she now discovered her mistake. 
 The Indians marched them up a hill 
 nearly a mile distant, and stopped. Here 
 they held a council as to the disposition 
 of the girls. The girls, believing the 
 Indians intended to kill them, also held 
 a council among themselves, and agreed 
 to all start at once and run in different 
 directions, thinking that as there were 
 four of them and but three of the In- 
 dians, some of them might get away. 
 They accordingly started, and Tenah 
 said she had run but a short distance 
 when a tomahawk struck her in the back 
 and knocked her down upon her hands 
 
—50— 
 
 and knees. She got np, and looking 
 back, saw one of her sisters having a 
 wonderful tussle with an Indian. She 
 ran a short distance to a hollow in the 
 side of the hill, down which she went 
 to the road, and so home, where she 
 told the news. Some men soon collect- 
 ed for pursuing the Indians, and rescu- 
 ing the other three girls. But there was 
 not force enough collected until next 
 morning, then a search was made, and 
 two of the girls were found lying on the 
 ground, dead and scalped, the other was 
 missing. Upon further search, a trail 
 of blood was found, which was followed, 
 and soon they found the missing girl 
 lying on the ground, and yet alive- 
 They took her home and she lived nine 
 days in an utterly insensible condition. 
 Tenah Grow, the one that escaped, and 
 who was at the time of the adventure I 
 have just narrated, ten years of age, 
 married a Mr. John McBride, moved to 
 Ohio and raised a large family. She 
 lived in Noble county. In the year 1845 
 I went down there and had an inter- 
 view with her on this subject, which 
 refreshed my memory. 
 
 In 1803-3 there used to come to our 
 house a man by the name of George 
 Tush, and tell over his troubles. He 
 said he lived about four miles from 
 Crow's, on a farm. One day he and his 
 wife stood out in the yard leaning 
 against the fence, and looking at their 
 hogs, when an Indian crept up and shot 
 him through the breast, and he fell 
 down. His wife ran into the house to 
 her three children, and fastened the 
 door, but three Indians came up to it, 
 split it down, and got in after some 
 
 time. While they were working at th > 
 house, he got up, crawled away and hi . 
 himself, but saw the Indians take hi 
 wife and children away. After thej 
 were out of sight, he crawled off to i. 
 neighbor's, about a mile away, when 
 he got some men to go after his family 
 and the Indians. They went and found 
 where the mother and her children had 
 all been killed and scalped. The Indians 
 went to another farm, stole two horses 
 and made good their escape. Tush fre- 
 quently came to our house, told over his 
 story and would cry like a child. The 
 wound in his breast was always a run- 
 ning sore. 
 
 In 1800 my sister married Martin 
 Grow, above mentioned as being shot 
 through the ear. I lived with them 
 most of the time for three years, and 
 often heard him tell over these stories, 
 and I never forgot them. 
 
 In the fall of 1791, Martin Grow, with 
 twenty others, crossed the Ohio River, 
 thinking to pay the Indians in their 
 own coin. After crossing the river they 
 made a rule not to fire a gun. They 
 traveled on almost a day's journey. As 
 they were going along they saw a big 
 black bear sitting near a laurel thicket, 
 and as they approached him he ran into 
 the thicket. They thought . they must 
 have him, so they cut sticks to which they 
 tied their knives, thus making spears of 
 them. Some went round to drive him 
 out, while the others repaired to the 
 place where they thought he was com- 
 ing out, and as soon as he got out they 
 pitched into him, rough shod, and 
 speared him to death. Martin said the 
 bear was so fat that he could run but 
 
-51— 
 
 slowly ; any of the party could out-run 
 him. They stayed there all night, tak- 
 ing two good meals, supper and break- 
 fast, out of him. The next day they 
 again pursued their course. In the after- 
 noon they struck an Indian trail, which 
 lay along the stream, probably the Big 
 Sandy, south of Canton, which appeared 
 to be very much traveled. On this ac- 
 count they proceeded with caution. In 
 a short time after discovering this trail 
 they came upon a couple of wigwams, 
 which they surrounded, and found two 
 squaws and three papooses. As they 
 closed up the squaws became desperate- 
 ly frightened at seeing so many "shem- 
 ocamnm," as they called the white man. 
 From these squaws Crow and his party 
 tried to find out where the Indians 
 were, in which, however, they did not 
 succeed. The squaws thought they were 
 to be made prisoners, and one of them 
 went into a wigwam and brought out 
 two bridles, and pointed in a certain di- 
 rection, by which she was understood 
 that the ponies were in that direction. 
 She was given to understand that the 
 ponies were not wanted. The squaws 
 then concluded that they were to be 
 killed, and one of them turned her back 
 to the white men, covered her face with 
 her hands, and stood trembling, evident- 
 ly expecting to be tomahawked. Previ- 
 ous to this, Crow had sworn vengeance 
 against the Indians, and that he would 
 kill all he could find, either in war or 
 peace ; but when he saw that this squaw 
 placed her life in his hands, to take it 
 or not, as he pleased, his feelings 
 changed so much that he could not in- 
 jure her in the least. After this, the 
 
 white men held a council, and deter- 
 mined that if any of the papooses were 
 males they would dispatch them, but no 
 males being found among them, they 
 were all left unharmed. A council was 
 then held as to the best course to pur- 
 sue, and it was determined to work 
 their way slowly back to the Ohio. 
 They believed there must be many In- 
 dians somewhere in that vicinity, too 
 many for their small band to encounter. 
 The next day, as they were proceeding 
 homeward, they saw a bear about two 
 years old, feeding in a hollow. They 
 scattered and surrounded him, and 
 drove him up a big elm tree, the 
 branches of which came out low. The 
 bear climbed one of these branches. One 
 of the party was named Kizzey Hames. 
 He was made to believe that he could 
 go up and knock the bear off the tree. 
 They helped him up to a branch, and 
 when he had about reached the bear, 
 he began to yell and halloa, with the 
 expectation of frightening the bear so 
 that he would jump to the ground. In- 
 stead of this, the bear turned and faced 
 him. and began to come down. Eizzie, 
 seeing there must be a collision between 
 them, began to swing around under the 
 limb, to let the bear pass, and as he 
 came near him, he uttered a scream 
 which frightened the bear so that he 
 did jump off, and he came very near 
 falling off with him. Upon reaching 
 the ground, the bear was attacked and 
 killed with the same kind of spears that 
 had been used in the case of the fat 
 bear in the laurel thicket. They feasted 
 heartily upon the flesh, and resumed 
 their journey. Upon reaching the Ohio 
 
-52— 
 
 River, they learned that Gen. St. Olair 
 had some time before marched from 
 Pennsylvania into the North- Western 
 Territory, that part which is now Ohio, 
 and ap the Muskingam about thirty 
 miles, with a force of twelve hundred 
 men, for the purpose of attacking and 
 destroying an Indian village situated 
 there, which served as a sort of head- 
 quarters for the Indians in their ma- 
 rauding expeditions to the east side of 
 Ohio, into Pennsylvania and Virginia. 
 To meet this invading force of St. 
 Glair's the Indians had collected at this 
 place all their warriors from the sur- 
 rounding country, which accounted to 
 Crow and his party for their not finding 
 any Indians, and also served to explain 
 the meaning of the squaws attempt to 
 tell them which way they had gone. 
 Information respecting this expedition 
 of St. Glair's was given me by a soldier 
 named Troop, who served under him. 
 The village which St. Olair set out to 
 destroy was situated near Fort Johnson. 
 Upon approaching the village, instead 
 of marching directly in and taking it 
 as he might have done, 3t Glair en- 
 camped at some distance, and com- 
 menced throwing up fortifications, thus 
 giving the Indians time to send out run- 
 ners, and bring in many hundred war- 
 riors. The next morning they began to 
 come in, at one time five hundred of 
 them coming in a body. In the after- 
 noon they began firing on the fortified 
 camp of St. Clair, keeping up an inces- 
 sant fire from all directions until night- 
 fall. During the night all was silent, 
 not a gun being fired. The next morn- 
 ing, at the break of day, they opened on 
 
 him again and soon drove him trom his 
 camp. He thereupon retreated to the 
 Ohio, losing in the battle and on the re- 
 treat nine hundred of his men. 
 
 It will thus be seen that about 1790 
 hostilities were most actively carried on 
 between the Indians and the whites, in 
 the vicinity of Ohio. And it was on the 
 4th of November, 1791, that Gen. St. 
 Glair, who, we may remark, was the 
 first governor of the North- Western Ter- 
 
 . C. C. CACKLER, 
 Son of Christian Cackler, author of **Recol- 
 lections of an Old Settler." 
 
 ritory, and who commissioned David 
 Hudson as a justice of the peace ii» 1801. 
 before the township of Hudson was or- 
 ganized, or the State of Ohio ndmitfed 
 into the Union, was so terribly defeat- 
 ed near Fort Jefferson. It is therefore 
 
—53— 
 
 probable that Brady's leap occurred in 
 one of these years, and as Mrs. De- 
 Haven's testimony is in favor of 1790, 
 the greater probability is in favor of 
 that year. 
 
 JOHN BROWN. 
 
 Having read the biography of John 
 Brown, by one Redpath, and believing 
 it to be false, I will now give a few 
 facts coming under my own personal 
 knowledge. 
 
 John Brown was born May 9, 1800, 
 and came with his father into Hudson 
 township in 1805. I became acquainted 
 with him when a mere boy, and knew 
 him for forty years or more. I have 
 often worked for his father in haying 
 and harvesting during that time. John 
 was married to a young lady by the 
 name of Lusk, in 1837, and came into 
 Franklin township in 1835. He bought 
 eighty acres of land, and surveved it out 
 into lots, expecting to build up a city 
 right away. This land was purchased 
 of Frederick Haymaker, and afterward 
 known as Porter Hall's estate, upon a 
 part of which the car shops of the A. & 
 G. W. R. R. are built in Kent. I work- 
 ed tor John, building turnpike roads to 
 the amount of $300. He borrowed all 
 the money he could of different parties, 
 and then, in 1840, failed in business, 
 and a large amount of those debts are 
 still unpaid. One of my neighbors sold 
 him a yoke of cattle for $80, and took 
 John's note for them. The note was 
 still unpaid at the time John was hung 
 at Harper's Perry, Va. John owned 
 eighty acres of land in the northeast 
 corner lot in Hudson township, a man 
 by the name of Daniel Gaylord holding 
 
 a mortgage upon it. The mortgage was 
 foreclosed and the land sold at sheriff's 
 sale, and was bought by Amos Chamber- 
 lain. John refusing to give possession, 
 armed himself and two sons, taking pos- 
 session of the big log house as a fort, 
 cutting port holes through between the 
 logs, being determined to hold posses- 
 sion at all hazards. Chamberlain would 
 
 MRS. POLLY OWEN. 
 
 Mrs. Owen, who is a daughter of Christian 
 
 Cackler, resides in Cleveland. 
 
 turn his stock on the farm to pasture, 
 and John would sally forth and drive 
 them off. This, of course, brought on 
 on a war of words, and John sued 
 Chamberlain for trespass. In a letter 
 written to him in June, 1841, John says : 
 "I am making preparations for a long 
 and vigorous prosecution of a tedious, 
 
—54- 
 
 distressing, wasting, and long protract- 
 ed war. ' ' After several lawsuits , Cham- 
 berlain obtained an oiHcer and some 
 men, and went to arrest John, and take 
 possession of his property, John re- 
 fused to give bonds to keep the peace, 
 and was put in jail until the next morn- 
 ing, and, no one appearing against him, 
 he was released. Just previous to 
 John's arrest. Chamberlain went to the 
 farm to talk with him. They conversed 
 together outside of John's fort, when 
 harsh words and feelings ran high. 
 John turned to one of his sons inside, 
 and ordered him to shoot Chamberlain, 
 but the boy refused. In the year 1842, 
 John went to work for Capt. Oviatt, in 
 Richfield township, in a tannery, Oviatt 
 thinking in this way to get from him an 
 account which John had been owing 
 him in the store for a long time. But 
 he found the longer he kept John the 
 more he owed him. John went from 
 here to Akron, to work for Simon Per- 
 kins, who owned large flocks of sheep, 
 and employed John to look after them, 
 and superintend the shearing, sorting 
 and marketing the wool. John, proving 
 to be rather of a smooth fellow, Perkins 
 sent him to Westfield, Mass. , and put 
 him into a large wool depot. He was 
 not as successful here as was expected, 
 so Perkins sent him to Europe with 
 about 400,000 pounds of wool to sell. 
 He landed in London, and disposed of 
 part of it. He then went to Belgium, 
 selling some more, but not finding a 
 very good market, he brought part of it 
 back with him. Perkins said John sunk 
 him about $70,000 in the operation. I 
 knew John a good many years, and nev- 
 
 er knew him to succeed in anything he 
 undertook, in a business point of view. 
 
 Now for a few incidents to show what 
 he would do to accomplish his purposes. 
 
 John's mother died in 1800, and in 
 1810 his father married again to a Miss 
 Root, of Aurora, who was afterwards 
 the mother of three sons, half-brothers 
 to John. He never liked his step- 
 mother, and often had trouble with her. 
 So he laid the following plan to have 
 revenge : He and his younger brother, 
 Salmon, obtained a half pound of pow- 
 der and put it in the out-house under 
 the seat. They then took a piece of rot- 
 ten wood, or punk, and tied a string to 
 it and suspended it from the seat in such 
 a way that any person sitting down 
 would loosen the fuse and it would drop 
 into the powder. 
 
 Knowing about the time she would be 
 there, they set the rotten wood on fire, 
 and went away. A hired man named 
 Loomis, seeing the boys there, thought 
 there was something going on, went 
 and looked, and spoiled their plan. 
 Having failed in this, John now began 
 to study up the following plan to ac- 
 complish his purposes : His father had 
 built a new barn, and John noticed that 
 his step-mother was in the habit of 
 going up on the scoff old to gather eggs. 
 He thought he would experiment again. 
 So he took out the long boards and put 
 short pieces with the ends coming be- 
 tween the joists, and covered them over 
 with straw. This proved successful, 
 for she was thrown to the floor, some 
 fourteen feet, with the short boards 
 falling on her. John's oldest sister 
 heard the noise, and going to the barp, 
 
—55— 
 
 found her lyinfi; insensible and badly 
 hurt. She was taken to the house. 
 When John's father came home 
 and saw how matters stood, he took 
 John into another room and questioned 
 him. Being satisfied who the guilty 
 
 olothes, and returned to bed all right. 
 After breakfast his father obtained a 
 cowhide, and took him to the barn, and 
 began to apply the rod of correction in 
 earnest. John would jump at every 
 blow, and howl like a panther. After 
 
 A Scene in Kent in 1850. 
 
 VIEW OF BUSINESS SECTION, SHOWING OLD CANAL AND COVERED 
 
 BRIDGE. 
 Reproduced from an old photo, enlarged by F, E. Poister, and presented to the COURIER 
 
 by Mrs. W. A. Lee. 
 
 one was, he sent him to bed and told 
 him he would settle with him in the 
 morning. John knew pretty well what 
 was coming, so in the night he got up 
 quietly, and went down to the tannery 
 about thirty rods from the house, and 
 took a tanned sheepskin and fitted it 
 around his person nicely, put on his 
 
 all was over, he took off his sheepskin, 
 and his own hide was unhurt. The old 
 man found it would never do to keep 
 the boys together, so he sent Salmon to 
 Pittsburg, where he was educated as a 
 lawyer. He went to New Orleans, and 
 died soon afterwards. 
 It appears that when John was in 
 
-56— 
 
 England, he fell in company with some 
 Abolitionists, who took him to the bat- 
 tlefield where the Duke of Wellington 
 captured Bonaparte, giving him all the 
 information they conid on the subject. 
 When he came home he said he did not 
 respect the laws of our country ; neither 
 Congress that made them, nor the Pres- 
 ident that executed them. He became a 
 perfect outlaw, and would sacrifice 
 home, friends, or his country to gratify 
 his will for the nigger. Redpath says 
 he was equal to either Washington, 
 Cromwell, Moses or Joshua. This com- 
 parison I think ridiculous in the extreme 
 and shows lack of knowledge or a depth 
 of ignorance which is to be pitied in- 
 deed. Had this man any knowledge 
 w hatever of the high and holy purposes 
 which actuated the whole life and being 
 of Washington, he never would have 
 belittled him by placing on a common 
 level with him such men as John Brown. 
 As for Joshua and Moses, men whose 
 lives were tempered by the presence and 
 admonitions of God himself, I know of 
 no trait of character in Brown which in 
 any degree would stand comparison be- 
 fore any enlightened people. For in- 
 stance, look at his conduct in Kansas, 
 
 which gave him the name of Ossowata- 
 mie Brown. John claimed to trace his 
 ancestry back to the landing of the May- 
 flower, in 1620, one Peter Brown, a 
 distant relative of John's, landing in 
 Massachusetts at that time. They being 
 called the Puritan Pilgrim Fathers, 
 John himself claimed to be governed by 
 the principles of this body: such as 
 boring holes through their ears, to make 
 converts of people ; or hanging Quakers 
 for opinion's sake, &c. For instance, 
 look at his idea of marching through the 
 whole South and liberating the slaves, 
 with but a few men to start with, show- 
 ing what a fickle minded man he was, 
 lacking in either judgment or good 
 sense. 
 
 The same day he was hung, in an in- 
 terview with his wife, he requested her 
 to obtain the bodies of his two sons, 
 two sons-in-law, and his own, to burn 
 them, and gather up the bones, and 
 bury them at home. This shows how 
 heathenish were his notions. 
 
 It seems to me that no one but a traitor 
 to his country, and an outlaw to the 
 common cause of humanity, could have 
 ever written such an untruthful account 
 as is found in this book. 
 
 0CT;g5lS 
 

 
 
 z _ 
 
 
 
 
 Vs-^'O'^'^ V<!-^*0/-'% V^-'""/-'^ 
 
 >^ 
 
 
 ■\.^^ 
 
 
 
 o O^ 
 
 : ^-^<^' 
 
 V 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 05? 
 
 ^. -^^0^ 
 
 ^ ""^ 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 c,*^ ^ ^ 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 ^ .^".s 
 
 
 '^ "^/.O^ 
 
 
 <^ 
 
 "o. ' , X "° vv a. •' « !k ^ . ^ 
 
 
 » « 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 
 
 .^ .«^^ -"^^ 
 
 
 
 

 ^ 9^ 
 
 ^ -i. ■aS' ^ - 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 , ■ax <p 
 
 .<< 
 
 c^ ^ 
 
 
 s -^ 
 
 <:. 
 
 ^^0^ 
 
 
 X-* # 9?, -0. .-* ^V^ 95, 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 A o^ 
 
 ' .<i:^ Q 
 
 ,^- -^ =; 
 
 ^<^-..^'' .^ 
 
 ^^d< 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * (0 
 
 ,< 
 
 
 
 V> v^ -> " A 
 
 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 750 331 3