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Pages 2 through 10
HISTORY OF WAKEMAN
As Wakeman Township, Huron County, Ohio, is comprised within the bounds of the Firelands and the Connecticut Western Reserve, a brief review of the history of these political divisions of Ohio is appropriate to show how the first settlers obtained the title to their lands.
The war of 1651 between England and Holland left the people of Connecticut in doubt as to their charter rights. A charter was prepared and taken to England by John Winthrop (Governor of Connecticut, and son of John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts), and King Charles II signed it, in April, 1662, without change or modification. This charter constituted Mr. Winthrop and others a body corporate by the name of Governor and Company of the English Colony of Government in New England in America, with perpetual succession, and gave them all that part of New England "bounded on the east by the Narragansett river commonly called Narragansett Bay where said river falleth into the sea; on the north by the line of the Massachusetts Plantation: on the south by the sea: and in longitude as the line of Massachusetts Colony ran from the east to the south sea on the west." The south sea is the name formerly given to the Pacific Ocean. The king had asked Winthrop how far it was to the south sea, and he replied that he thought it could be seen from the western hills of the colony, as it had been explored, so the king was not loth to grant the seemingly modest request. If Connecticut could have held this territory according to the terms of the charter, she would have possessed a tract some three thousand miles in length instead of a few hundred. In their ignorance of the geography of this continent the English kings granted charters to other colonies which overlapped portions of the Connecticut grant in the western lands, and as the settlements grew there were clashes of authority and violent disputes. These were laid aside at the outbreak of the war of the Revolution. After the war came to an end, these disputes again arose, but were finally settled by the colonies ceding their disputed western lands to the general government, but Connecticut reserved a tract of the same width of the state, and extending west from the west line of Pennsylvania, one hundred and twenty miles, this tract being afterward known as "New Connecticut" or the "Western Reserve". This tract lies in the same latitude as the state of Connecticut, between parallels 41* and 42*, 2’.
During the war the British made several raids along the coast of Connecticut and burnt much property in the towns of New London, Norwalk, Danbury, and others. The state of Connecticut, to compensate the sufferers of these towns, donated to them a half million acres of land to be taken from the western extremity of the Reserve, the east line to be parallel with the west line. This tract embraces the present counties of Huron and Erie and the townships of Ruggles in Ashland County and Danbury in Ottawa County. This tract was officially designated as "the Half Million Acres of Land lying South of Lake Erie." It came to be called the "Sufferers’ Land", and later the "Firelands", the common name today. A company was incorporated which had full power to transact all business necessary to survey the land, establish the east boundary, and divide the tract into townships, & c. Nothing seems to have been done until after the state of Ohio was organized in 1802. In 1803 a new charter was granted by the state of Ohio and a board of directors was chosen. It was authorized to secure the title claimed by the Indians, survey the land into townships, to divide the land according to individual losses and to levy a tax to defray the necessary expenses. The Indian claims were settled July 4th, 1805. The final establishment of the south and west lines of the Reserve was made in 1809 and Almon Ruggles, who had been employed to establish the east line and fix the township lines, proceeded to do so. The remainder of the Reserve had been sold to a company of men who became incorporated as the Connecticut Land Company. The entire Reserve had been platted into tracts running north and south, each five miles in width. These tracts were numbered 1 to 24, beginning at the east end. In fixing the east line of the Firelands it was found necessary to include a little more than the width of five tracts, the east line being run 205 rods east of the east line of the 20th range. The surplus of 205 rods was divided among the five ranges of the Firelands, making each township about forty rods more than five miles in width. Each numbered lot in Wakeman contains about 167 acres instead of 160 as it would if just a half mile square. The surveyors had to work in an unbroken forest and the lines were not always accurately drawn. Thus the north line of Wakeman is 56 rods more than five miles, and the south line 44 rods, according to the minutes of the Ruggles survey. The township contains one hundred lots, numbered from No. 1 at the northwest to No. 10 at the southwest corner, No. 11 next to No. 1, and so on to No. 100 at the southeast corner.
It was necessary to devise some kind of a scheme for dividing up the land among the different claimants. Each one of the thirty townships in the Firelands had been divided into four Sections. Slips of paper were prepared, each containing the name of a township and the number of one of its Sections. These were placed in a box, and an equal number of slips, each containing the names of the claimants whose claims amounted to the 120th part of the total claims, and these placed in another box. A man was blindfolded and drew a slip from each box. The sections thus drawn became the property of the claimants whose names were on the other slip.
Many of the persons who had lost property by the British raids, and had filed their claims, by reason of poverty or indifference, failed to pay the small tax assessed on their claims, and the claims were sold at auction for a trifling part of their face value, such as $10.06 for a claim of $747; $7.84 for $569, $.64 for $862, &c. The record of such sales are recorded in Vol. No.1 in the Recorder’s office in Norwalk, O. At the time of the drawing a large majority of the claims had passed into the hands of speculators by purchasing at the tax sales or direct from the original claimants or their heirs, or by direct inheritance. The four sections of Wakeman were drawn by Isaac Bronson, Ebenzer Jessup, Jr., and Jesup Wakeman. They also drew the whole of Florence township and part of Bronson. These townships received the names of these men, but Jesup was afterwards changed to Florence.
We do not understand how it came that these men drew, or obtained in some other manner, the whole of these townships. They had become the owners of the original claims of about seventy persons whose losses amounted to $102,539, but whose claims cost Messrs. Bronson, Jesup, and Wakeman only the sum of $26,885. The township contains approximately 16, 500 acres and cost to Messrs. Bronson, Jesup and Wakeman was only $1.63 per acre.
We copy a few of the field notes of the first survey of the east line of Wakeman. The figures refer to chains and links.
"Friday, June 10, 1808. Commence the first mile north. (A post was set at each mile.) The survey began at the south –east corner, a little west of the Advent Church, in a swamp. "7.50, upland; Cross the swamp, 24. 50; Swamp with standing water, 33.00; a willow and brier swamp. (Near the north line of the Shepherd farm.) Commence the second mile north, 5. 00. Enter a swamp extending E&W, 8. 50; Cross it to dry land, 66.00; Camped. Poor marsh water. Charles White unwell. (Near the northeast corner of the old Waugh farm.) Commence the third mile north, 19.50. Enter a red ash swamp, low wet land. (On the Noble Hurst – George Miller farm) 47.00 Enter a g.d.n. bad willow swamp. (On the south end of the John Ward farm). These few notes serve to give us an idea of the country along the east line of Wakeman, and the hardships of the surveyors, tramping through unbroken woods, wading through swamps to carry the chain, having nothing but swamp water to drink, part of the time, getting sore feet, &c. At the time of the drawing of lands, Nov. 9, 1808, only two townships in the Firelands, Huron, and Vermillion, had any settlements. The lack of roads hindered the settlements back from the Lake.
In December 1815, the Commissioners of Huron County voted to lay out a road, "beginning at the end of the North and South Road which is now laid out from the lake to the south line of Jesup (now Florence), thence to continue through the 20th Range to the south line of said 20th Range through the settlement in New London." (thus passing through Wakeman, New London and Ruggles.) This is the road running past the old Canfield, Pierce and Bristol homes. It was cut out during the winter of 1815-16, and was the first road regularly laid out in the township and probably explains why the first farms purchased by actual settlers were in the vicinity of this road.
On December 2, 1822, Justus Minor presented a petition to the Commissioners, signed by twelve land holders asking for a road on the east township line of Wakeman at the end of a road then laid in Medina County, (which then include a part of the present county of Lorain,) about 70 or 80 rods south of the section line of said township, running westerly near the section line to Norwalk until the same shall intersect a road leading to the county seat.
The war of 1812 checked the settlement of the Firelands, as well as that of all sections in this part of the west, and no new settlements were made between 1811 and 1815. After the close of the war there was a revival of trade so that people in New England, who had property and wished to emigrate, could find ready sale for their property, and this condition stimulated emigration.
Another factor operating at this time was the "cold summer" of 1816. In New England there were frosts every month in the year and crops were almost a total failure. Jabez Hanford, of Bridgewater, Conn., but afterwards of Wakeman, made the following entry in his family Bible; "The year of our Lord 1816 being a remarkable year is worthy of record. The spring was very cold and backward with considerable thunder. From the 6th to the 10th of June very cold with severe frost. The ground froze to some thickness, the wind generally from north and dry. Snow fell in Canada on the 10th of this month twelve inches deep. Corn all cut to the ground. The first of August the summer continues to be dry and cold. The corn is now very small with but little hope of a crop. Frosts July 24th, August 27th and 29th, so that clothes spread out were frozen stiff. "We have seen other statements corroborating the above record. It was certainly a most discouraging summer for the farmers of New England."
Communication by railroads, canals, and steamboats did not exist as now it was difficult to get food from other sections of the country. The following winter was severe and the spring backward. There was much distress and many people nearly perished from starvation. At this time highly colored stories of the rich soil and mild climate of Ohio were circulated. A sort of stampede took place from the cold and desolate hills of New England to the land which promised so much. One writer says that he well remembered the tide of emigration through and from Connecticut on its way west during the summer of 1817. Some persons went in covered wagons – frequently a family consisting of father, mother, and eight or nine children, with perhaps one, a babe, at the breast-some on foot and crowded together under the cover with kettles, gridirons, feather beds, crockery and the family Bible, Watts’ Psalms and Hymn Book and Webster’s spelling book. Others started in ox carts and trudged on foot at the rate of ten miles a day. Many of these persons were in a state of poverty and begged their way as they went. Some of them died before they reached their destinations.
"The roads over the Alleghany mountains between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were then rude, steep and dangerous and some of the more precipitous slopes were strewn with the carcasses of wagons, carts and oxen which had been " shipwrecked" in their perilous descents. The scenes on the road – of families gathered at night in miserable sheds called taverns, mothers frying, children crying, fathers swearing – were a mingled comedy of errors, &c."
Henry Howe, the Ohio historian, in " The Family Magazine" of 1837, gives such a good picture of the experiences of very many of the Ohio emigrants, that it is worth copying, as showing, perchance, the experiences of many of the Wakeman pioneers.
" The frontispiece of the present number represents a halt for the night of an emigrant and his family; one, perhaps, who has left his natal soil and the inheritance of his fathers, and seeks in the far west for that independence in his worldly circumstances which he has tried in vain to gain from the stony and barren patrimonial homestead; or perhaps, one who has looked on his rapidly increasing family, and, ambitious of doing something for his children while he is in the prime of life, or anxious to see them settled comfortably around him, that his old age may be cheered by their presence, has resolved to go to the far west, the land which is represented as flowing with milk and honey, the land which repays with an hundred fold the labour expended upon it, and the riches of whose bosom far exceed those in the mines of Peru. Resolved to emigrate, the emigrant collects together his little property, and provides himself with a wagon and two or three horses, as his means permit; a rifle, a shot gun and an axe slung over his shoulder form part of his equipments, and his trusty dog becomes the companion of his journey. In the wagon are placed his bedding, his provisions, and such cooking utensils as are indispensably necessary. Everything being ready, the wife and children take their seats, the father of the family mounts the box, and now they are on the move. As they pass through the village which has been to them the scene of many happy hours, they take a last look at the spots which are hallowed by association; the church with its lowly spire, and emblem of that humility which befits a christian, and the burial ground where the weeping willow bends mournfully over the headstone which marks the parents’ grave; nor do the children forget their play ground, nor the white school house where the rudiments of education have been instilled into their minds.
The road is at first comparatively smooth and their journey pleasant; their way is chequred with divers little incidents, while the continual changes in the appearance of the country around them, and the anticipation of what is to come prevent those feelings of despondency which might otherwise arise on leaving a much-loved home.
When the roads are bad or hilly the family quit the wagon and plod their way on foot, and at night they may be seen assembled round the fire made by the roadside, partaking of their frugal supper. The horses are unharnessed, watered and secured with their heads to the trough, and the emigrants arrange themselves for the night, while their faithful dog keeps watch; or if the close of the days finds them near a tavern or farm house, a bargain is struck for the use of the fireplace and part of the kitchen, and the family passes the night on the floor. Amid all the privations and vicissitudes in their journey they are cheered by the consciousness that each day lessens the distance between them and the land of promise, and that the fertile soil of the west will recompense them for all their trails. The roads become more and more rough, the swamps and little streams are rendered passable by logs placed side by side, and the bridges thus formed are termed "corduroy" from their ridgy and striped appearance. The axe and the rifle of the emigrant or "mover" as he is termed in the west, are now brought daily, almost hourly, into use. With the former he cuts down saplings or young trees to throw across the roads which, in many places, are almost impassable; with the latter he kills squirrels, wild turkeys or such game as the forest affords him, for by this time his provisions are exhausted. If, perchance, a buck crosses his path and is brought down by a lucky shot, it is carefully dressed and hung up in the forks of the trees, fires are built and the meat cut into small strips and smoked and dried for future subsistence. The road through the woods now becomes intricate, the trees being merely felled and drawn aside so as to permit a wheeled carriage to pass, and the emigrant is often obliged to be guided in his route only by the "blaze" of the surveyor on the trees, and at every few rods to cut away the branches which obstruct his passage. The stroke of his axe reverberates through the woods but no answering sound meets the woodman’s ear to assure him of the presence of friend or foe. At night in these solitudes he hears and sees the wolves stealing through the gloom and snuffing the scent of the intruders, and now and then the bloodshot eye of the catamount glares through the foliage. At length the emigrant arrives at the landmarks which indicate to him the proximity of his own possessions. A location for the cabin is now selected, near a small stream of running water, and, if possible, on the south side of a slight elevation. No time is lost. The trees are immediately felled, and shortly you can perceive a cleared space of ground of perhaps a few rods in circumference. Stakes, forked at the top, are driven into the ground, on which are placed logs, and the chinks between these are stopped with clay. An inclosure is thus thrown up hastily to protect the inmates from the weather.
The trunks of the trees are rolled to the edge of the clearing and surmounted by stakes driven crosswise into the ground; the tops of the trees are piled on the trunks, thus forming a brush fence. By degrees the surrounding trees are killed by girdling. Some that are fit to make into rails are cut down and split, while others are left to rot or are logged up and burned. The next season a visible improvement has taken place. Several acres have been added to the clearing. The emigrant’s residence begins to assume the appearance of a farm. The brush fence is replaced by a worm fence. The temporary shanty is transformed into a comfortable log cabin, and although the chimney is built of only small sticks piled together and filled in with clay, and occupies an end of the cabin, it shows that the inward man is duly attended to, and the savory fumes of venison and other good things prove that the comforts of this life are not forgotten, and that due respect is paid to that important organ in the human economy - the stomach. In a few years, or even months, the retired cabin, once so solitary, becomes the nucleus of a little settlement, new portions of ground are cleared, cabins are erected, and in a short time the settlement can turn out a dozen efficient hands for a raising bee, logging bee, etc. A sawmill is soon in operation on one of neighboring streams, the log huts receive a poplar weather boarding, and as the settlement increases, a church and school house appear; a mail is established, and before many years elapse, a fine road is made to the nearest town; a stage coach, which runs once or twice a week, connects the place to the populous country to the eastward of it. A generation passes over. The log buildings have all disappeared. In their places stand handsome edifices of brick or wood, painted of a pure white, and the settlements have all the conveniences and refinements of its parent settlements on the Atlantic frontier. The emigrant himself is now an aged man. His locks are silvered by time. His toils are over. Some fine summer’s evening he may be seen seated in the porch of his dwelling, his frank open countenance beaming with delight as he relates the tale of his early adventures to his little grandchildren, who, clustering about his knees, drink in every word with intense interest."
The first roads through the forest were mere trails and could only be followed by a line of " blazed" trees, made by chopping off the bark from a spot on one side of the tree and not by burning it by fire as some men supposed. The next step was to chop the brush and small trees from the line of the road, leaving the large trees to be girdled. In miry places logs of wood from twelve to fifteen inches in diameter and twelve or more feet in length, were laid side by side, crosswise of the road. Although the logs were of a uniform size when laid, some would sink into the mud more than others; one end of a log might be supported by a stump or large root and held up while the other end would sink in the mud and thus the road became very uneven in time. The roots of the large trees around which the driver must pick his way, added to the unevenness of the road and a wagon would rock as much as a ship in a storm and the horses be almost thrown from their feet. Some of those logs were to be found in the roads very many years later.
When the settler selected the location of his house, it was near a spring, if possible. This fact accounts for the crookedness of some of the earlier roads, some of which would along the banks of streams, near which the springs were found. One instance of such a crooked road is to be found on the road past the Munger farm, just over the line into Florence township, where Cyrenus Beecher built his house, yet standing, many rods east of the present road.
The settler cleared away the brush and trees from a space large enough so that none of the standing trees, when they were afterward felled, would endanger the safety of the house or its occupants. (The writer’s grandfather said that Robert Carter, who built his log house on the Butler Road, in Florence, left a large tree, and commenced to cut it down, but being ignorant of the science of felling trees, began to chop around the trunk, like the beavers fell their trees. Of course there was no telling where the tree would fall. It so happened that a couple of men came along who were woodsmen, and they proceeded to fall the tree so as not to endanger the house.)
Word would be sent to his neighbors (everybody within a dozen miles might be considered neighbors) to come to the "raising." An experienced man was selected for the "boss" and an expert axman for each corner to cut the notches in the logs so as to make them fit together. As soon as logs enough had been but and hauled, the work of building the house began. The logs were laid butt and top alternately, to keep the walls level. When the walls were breast high, skids and handspikes were used. The laborers were divided into two parties and there was a strife to see which side would get their logs up first. Accidents sometimes happened from the slipping of a log, and the ever present black jug did not always help matters. Sometimes the floor of the house was "Mother Earth," but it was generally made of puncheons, which were planks or slabs two or three inches thick hewed on one side with a broadaxe and laid on sleepers. It was far from being tight and smooth. When the walls were as high as the eaves, a log was placed on each end wall, but long enough to project a foot or so beyond each side wall. These were called the "eave bearers " and supported the " butting poles." The logs forming the gable ends, called "trappings", were of basswood or some other soft wood, which was easily chopped off to make the slant of the roof. Poles called "ribs" were laid lengthwise to support the roof. If the settler was in a hurry the roof was made of bark, but it was usually made of "shakes", which were shingles three or four feet long, split from a straight-grained tree by a tool called a "frow." The first course of shakes was laid on the ribs against the butting pole. A "weight pole" was laid lengthwise of the roof near the upper end of the first course of shakes and kept from rolling down by short pieces of wood called "knees," resting against the butting pole. This weight pole made the butting pole for the next course, and thus the roof was carried to the peak. No nails were used and the roof would shed water first rate and last many years. In fact, no nails were used anywhere in the house. To form a doorway, a sections of logs were cut out and a piece of plank or puncheon was set up at each side and fastened to the ends of the logs by wooden pins, to form the door casing. The door was made of puncheon or plank if a sawmill was in reach, fastened together with a cross piece at top and bottom, pinned on with wooden pins. ( It is related that Ezra Wood carried boards for the door of his house in Clarksfield on his back from Florence.) The wooden latch was on the inside of the door and was raised from the outside by means of a leather string which was passed through a gimlet hole in the door. The door could be locked on the inside by pulling the string inside, and from this circumstance came the accepted symbol of hospitality, "the latch string hangs out." The windows were made by sawing out a section of one of the logs and fastening some upright sticks in the opening. To these sheets of paper were pasted and well greased with lard or bear grease. They let in a kind of subdued light, but were not much needed for door and huge chimney let in plenty of light in the summer and in the winter the light of the fire was sufficient.
The great chimney was generally built against one end of the house. The lower part was made of small stones or of logs, and the upper end of thin pieces of wood laid up in clay, and the whole chimney was well plastered on the inside with clay. Some chimneys would be built only part of the way up, and left for a more convenient time for finishing, which never came. The fireplace generally had a hearth of stone, but sometimes a portion of the cabin next the fireplace was not floored over, and the fire was built on the ground. In such a case it was possible to do what boys are now sometimes told to do; "sit on the floor and hang your feet off." Building a fire in these fireplaces required some degree of skill. As large a log as could be handled was first rolled to the back side of the fireplace, and was known as the "backlog." The "andirons" were placed at the front the hearth and a small log, called the "forestick", was laid upon them. The space between the logs was filled in with fine stuff and the fire kindled. The backlog of green timber would last for several days, and was often hauled into the house by a horse (as some men had a second doorway cut into house.) The andirons were used to allow a draft under the forestick. They were made of wrought or cast iron, and the more expensive ones were of brass and were ornamental when kept brightly polished. (Some andirons may be seen in the Firelands Historical Society Museum at Norwalk.)
The furniture of the fireplace was not complete without the long handled shovel and tongs, as well as bellows. The shovel and tongs were sometimes ornamented with brass to correspond with the andirons. The fire would be covered with ashes at night, but if not properly done might go out in the night, and then if the tinder box had not been kept supplied, so as to be able to start a fire with flint and steel, a boy would be sent to the nearest neighbor to "borrow fire", which would be a burning brand carried between a couple of pieces of bark. The writer’s grandfather told of being sent on such an errand. This was before the days of friction matches.
An iron crane was fastened to one side of the fireplace in such a way that it could be swung out from over the fire. The kettles were hung on the crane by hooks of different lengths or on a "trammel," according to the condition of the fire. In some of the more primitive fireplaces there was no crane, but a stick of timber called the "bearing stick" was placed across the chimney ten feet or so above the hearth, and a chain was fastened to it so as to hang down over the fire. The hook to support the kettle was hooked into a link of the chain at the proper height to suit the fire, and this arrangement answered the purpose very well, although not as convenient as a crane. Potatoes were roasted in the ashes, and no modern way of roasting excels it for quality of the finished product. The next improvement was the "bake kettle"or "Dutch oven" with its three legs and a cover with a raised rim. Live coals were drawn out on the hearth and the kettle was set upon them while more coals were heaped - not on an enemy’s head - but on the cover, and thus the contents of the kettle were cooked. After this came the " Tin oven" or "reflector" which was set on the hearth in front of the fire and the heat was reflected from its polished back and it would "bake, roast or broil." As the frame and brick house superseded the log house, while the fireplace was in use, the brick oven built at the side of the fireplace was a great improvement.
The oven was heated by building a fire in it or shoveling some coals into it. When heated the coals and ashes were swept out and the heat retained by the oven was sufficient to do the baking. The men folks had to look out and provide a supply of "oven wood," generally of white ash split fine, and have it dry for baking day. A long handled flat shovel was used for taking the bread, etc., from the oven. Last of all came the modern stove.
(Undoubtedly some of these old brick ovens are in existence in Wakeman at this time, in old houses in which the old fireplace and chimney has not been removed. We know of one, in Florence, in the old Judson house, now owned by Arthur Spore.)
The spaces between the logs of the house were filled with triangular strips of wood, or moss, and well plastered with mud. We have heard an old man tell of seeing his father, in the fall of the year, mix up some heavy clay into a kind of mortar, and with his hand sling masses of it into the crevices between the logs, then smoothing them with his hands, so that the walls were water and cold-proof for the winter.
End of Pages 2 through 10
Transcribed by Lowell Dunlap