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Pages 31 - 40
RAILROADS.
Wakeman’s first railroad, or rather, attempted railroad, was a failure and did more harm than good.
About 1837 a project to build a railroad from Vermillion to Ashland began to be considered. In 1839 meetings were held to induce men to take stock in the company. Many of the settlers in the townships through which it was planned to build the road signed for stock, from $100 up. Many of them were not able to pay cash for their subscriptions but were to have the privilege of working on the road to pay for their stock. The State of Ohio contributed the sum of $44,000 to the project. As early as 1840 work was begun on the Vermillion end of the road. Ebenezer Warner, formerly of Wakeman, had a contract for building a portion of the road.
The method of construction was different from that of any roads seen now. Heavy oak posts were driven into the ground by a steam pile driver, in two rows and sawed off at the proper height by a saw operated by the engine of the pile driver. Cross ties were then fastened upon these posts by wooden pins, and wooden rails laid upon these, fastened by wooden pins. The pile driver ran upon these rails but the plan was to lay flat iron rails upon the wooden ones before the trains were run. Where the road ran through a hollow the posts were long enough to carry the rails on the grade. The road came through Florence Corners along the west side of the highway. (We can remember seeing the tall oak posts through the hollow north of the old Sprague brick house.) The road came into Wakeman along the road where Darwin Canfield used to live, thence through the fields until it struck the Clarksfield road south of the Harry Peck home, near the south line of the township. These oakposts along this road stood, or some of them, for many years, and an occasional one was to be seen only a few years ago. In 1842 the posts and rails reached Clarksfield near the residence of Daniel Stone, on the hill north of the Hollow. On the 4th of July, 1842, a great celebration was held at Clarksfield to commemorate the building to that point, but, alas, it might as well have been called an obituary, for no further work was ever done on it. The project failed and the subscribers lost their money. The local subscribers had another bitter pill to swallow. Those who had expected to work out their subscriptions had given their notes. The unpaid portions of these notes came into the hands of Bennett Pierce, then of Florence, for collection and those who were worth enough paid them, sometimes at the end of a lawsuit. Nathan G. Sherman was very active in organizing the company and pushing the project and lost money, too.
If the project had been carried through and the road operated it would have been of great benefit to the towns through which it passed. In 1850 the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad Company was incorporated. In the spring of 1852 the road was completed from Toledo to Fremont, ready for the rails and the rest of the road through Norwalk, Wakeman, Oberlin and Grafton , was completed and in the winter of that year passenger trains were running. Trains ran into Cleveland from Grafton over the Big Four road. A considerable portion of the money used was raised by bonding the townships through which the road ran. Ziba Surles was the first station agent at Wakeman. The building of the road was the means of bringing in a number of the first Irish settlers of the township. They worked on the construction, or afterward at maintaining the road, saved their money, bought wild land near the line of the road, cleared their land and sold much wood to the road for fuel for the locomotives, and became prosperous farmers and good citizens.
INDIANS.
For a few years after the first settlement of the township, fifteen or twenty families of Indians used to come here regularly, in the spring to make maple sugar and in the fall to hunt. They came from the region of Upper Sandusky. They made their trip in canoes as much as possible. They had a sugar camp east of the Vermillion River on land afterward owned by Rufus Bunce. Their huts were made of elm bark and their sap troughs of the same kind of material. The last time they were here, in 1827, they cut a large butternut tree on the Strong farm and made a canoe. At this time they evidently expected to come again, for they packed their sap troughs in their huts, closed the doors carefully, putting a stick against each one, which was the Indian warning for intruders to keep out.
C. C. Canfield has told of his first experience with Indians, in the summer of 1817, when he and his brother, and Lemuel and Bennett Pierce, lads from six to nine years of age, went to the "windfall" (the road leading west from the Nelson Bristol corners), to get blackberries. They rode Captain Pierce’s old mare. At the "windfall" they suddenly discovered a party of Indians near by, mounted upon ponies and coming toward them. The old mare was put through her best paces and away they went, over logs and through bushes, and arrived at Mr. Canfield’s without losing a boy. The Indians followed them and were greatly amused at the headlong flight of the boys and described, with many gesticulations, the appearance of the frightened boys.
STORES.
In 1839 Justin Sherman erected the first store building, the same structure, with some changes, later occupied by Mrs. Nehemiah Welch as a dwelling. The first goods were sold in this store on July 3, 1841. The principal articles of traffic were pork at $2 per hundred weight, butter at eight cents per pound, eggs at five or six cents a dozen, wheat at a dollar a bushel, corn at thirty cents a bushel, oats at twenty five cents per bushel. In 1845, Mr. Sherman sold this store to Rufus and Edward Bunce, who in turn, sold the goods two years later and they were removed from the township. Sometime later Edward J. Bunce and Lucius Hall revived the business and continued it at the Center until the building of the railroad, which naturally drew the business of the village nearer the railroad, and they changed their location near that point. About this time Pierce & Co. built the Wakeman exchange, a wooden structure, since enlarged and known as the Bright house. Here a Mr. Preston opened a hotel and a store was carried on by Hosford and Andrews. Other store buildings were built further west on the north side of the railroad. In 1871, Harris, Pierce & Baldwin with Van Fleet Brothers erected the brick building now occupied by the Wakeman Bank and L. Burk.
MILLS.
The first sawmills were built by Justin Sherman and Burton Canfield. Sherman’s mill was built on Chapelle Creek and sawed a log before Canfield’s, which was built on the Vermillion River, near where the flour mill was afterward built in 1824. Three other sawmills were built on the banks of the Chapelle, by A. P. Pierce in 1833, by C.C. Canfield in 1840, and Monroe Canfield in 1848. At an early day, probably before 1833, Cyrus Minor built a sawmill on Brandy Creek, on land later owned by Justin W. Sherman. Garwood Camp bought the mill, probably in partnership with L. T. Farrand, for we find that Camp sold Farrand one half the mill in 1837, and the latter sold one half interest to Justin Sherman in 1839 and the other half in 1842.
Burton Canfield sold to Judson Blackman a half interest in the grist and saw mills and 45 acres of land adjoining. On the same day Canfield and Blackman sold a third interest in the same to Amiel P. Pierce, and in 1831 sold their remaining interest to Jabez Hanford, and the latter sold his interest to Mr. Pierce in 1835. In 1840 Pierce sold the mills and seven acres of land to his sons, Bennett and Minott. The latter bought out his brother in 1845, and sold to Willard Jefferson, in 1850, who sold (probably under mortgage) to Timothy Baker. There was some litigation about this time. The records show that Mr. Jefferson sold the property to Samuel Barnes in 1850 for $4,000. The latter became involved in debts to the amount of $2665.50, and the mill property was sold at sheriff’s sale to Minott Pierce for $2,000. He in turn sold it to Daniel June in 1862. In 1871 it was sold by Daniel June, Albert June and Charles Baker to Samuel T. Gibson for $3300. It was owned and operated by the Gibsons until destroyed by fire.
WAKEMAN HOTEL.
The Wakeman Hotel was built in the fall of 1852 (the same year as the building of C. T. & N. R. R.), by Lemuel Pierce, Minott Pierce and Curtis Burr. The timbers for the frame were cut on Lemuel Pierce’s land and hauled to the railroad. One evening after the day’s work was done, the railroad workers lent their aid and some flat cars were run over to the pile of timbers, the timbers loaded and drawn to the village and unloaded in a convenient place.
The building had two stories when first built and there were two stores in the west part of the lower floor. The rest of the building was operated by the owners, taking turn about with each other. It was called the "Wakeman Exchange". ( See page 33.) Some years later John Y. Bright bought the building, added another story, making a dance floor, and conducted the hotel in the name of the "Bright House." The two store rooms were finally made into one and occupied by Harris, Pierce and Baldwin until the brick block was built on the other side of the railroad. The automobile killed the hotel business, so the building was sold and torn down in 1922.
FIRST EVENTS.
FIRST BIRTH; Burton Monroe Canfield, son of Augustin Canfield, April 18, 1818. Other early births were: David A. Pierce, April 20, 1819 (died in 1822); Philo Henry Clark, Aug. 3, 1819; Mary Smith, April 1821; Laura French, May17, 1821.
FIRST WEDDING; Marshall Johnson and Marinda Bradley, at the home of Abraham Bronson in October 1820, by Dr. H.M. Clark, J. P.; Second, Nathaniel Hine, of Berlin, to Ruth Sherman, at the home of Samuel Bristol, (sister of Mrs. Bristol.)
FIRST DEATH; Mrs. Jedidah Hendryx, June 14, 1820;
Second death; Abraham Bronson, August 29, 1820.
The first marriage and first two deaths were in the same house.
The first burying ground was on the corner west and across the road from Dr. Clark’s, (later known as the George Mordoff farm.) The present Wakeman cemetery was first used in 1821, in which year Justus Minor’s wife’s died on August 6th. Mr. Minor set off a tract for a cemetery, having buried his wife near the northeast corner. Additions have been made in later years.
The first hotel was kept by Marcus French a half mile west from the center of the township.
The first township election was held in April 1825, at which the following officers were elected:
Clerk, Woodward Todd,
Trustees, Samuel Bristol, Justin Sherman, Silas French,
Treasurer, A. P. Pierce,
Overseers of the Poor, Justin Sherman, Silas French,
Fence Viewers, Augustin Canfield, Isaac Hill,
Appraiser, Augustin Canfield.
Lister, Cyrus Minor,
Supervisors, Amos Clark, Marcus French,
Constable, Erastus French,
Justice of the Peace, Dr. H. M. Clark.
WHISKEY WAR OF 1856.
By Mrs. Elizabeth Canfield – Denton.
(Wakeman Press, Jan. 30, 1897.)
Wakeman had always been an uncomfortable place for a man to live in who proposed to sell liquor. The days of the sojourn of such men among us were few and full of trouble. From time to time some piratical spirit would make a foray on the town, and under cover of the night, smuggle in a barrel of whiskey to be sold on the sly, but sooner or later would be found out and then the place would become too hot for him and he would move to other fields.
At length a man in a neighboring town who had always been in the business, boasted that he would come to Wakeman and whether the good people here liked it or not, he would sell liquor when and how he pleased, that’s what he would. I shall call him John Smith, (See page 51), not because it sounds at all like his real name, but because there is such a surplus of John Smiths in the world that whatever odium may belong to the name can be divided up among them and no one will be over burdened.
Accordingly John Smith moved on to the Wheeler farm, a little north of town. (the William Wilber – George Dean – farm,) and commenced operations. The usual and natural results of such a traffic followed as a matter of course. People who were afflected with a chronic thirst drifted in that direction as naturally as ducks take to water. The place, like all other places of its kind, soon became a nuisance, with its fights and brawls, and as the women talked about it, as women will, they agreed that something must be done.
The stuff was bought in Monroeville and shipped here by railroad. The station agent here at that time was L. S. Hall, a staunch temperance man, and one can imagine the disgust and indignation that filled his soul when one of these barrels came for him to receive and deliver to the aforesaid John Smith. One day a barrel, or perhaps two of them, came, the freight being paid for, and then duly delivered, after which Mr. Hall locked up his station, and looked after some business in the other part of town. No sooner were they rolled into the Smith wagon than Mrs. D. C. Wilson, Mrs. Edward Bunce and Mrs. B. M. Canfield came from a house opposite, and in spite of the blubbering boy, broke in the heads with an axe and let the contents on the ground. Smiths went for another supply, this time going across the country and bringing it home in a wagon. He then sent word to the Wakeman ladies to make him a visit as he was ready to receive them at any time.
About thirty of the first ladies in the place accepted the invitation and marched upon him in a body. The names of the recruits as far as I could obtain them are as follows:
| Mrs. C. Burr | Mrs. C. C. Canfield |
| Mrs. David Pierce | Fanny French |
| Delia French | Mrs. Dexter Bacon |
| Mrs. James Wilson | Mrs. D. C. Wilson |
| Mrs. L. S. Hall | Mrs. Edward Bunce |
| Mrs. L. B. Pierce | Mrs. B. M. Canfield |
| Mrs. Hiram Abbott | Mrs. B. French, Jr. |
| Frances Hanford | Mrs. Rowley |
| Miss Rowley | Mrs. Charles Shelton |
| Amanda Wilson | Mrs. Edwin Clark |
| Adeline Coon | probably, Matilda and Sarah Furman |
In the mustering of the forces, Mrs. George Sherman was accidentally omitted, at which her husband felt aggrieved. As if he could not stay in the house and take care of the baby while his Sally went with the rest; Arrived there good old Deacon Wilson’s wife asked him if he was ready to receive company. He invited them in, but no sooner did his guests accept his invitation, than he turned upon them to drive them out again. But he reckoned without his host. Mrs. Erastus French (Ruth Squires) had a large family of girls, who had great strength in their hands and arms, and the youngest, Delia, was there. As he attempted to close the door, she seized a piece of board and thrust it into the door, and none of the Smiths could wrench it out of her hand. The ladies forced open the door, and swarmed into the back room where the barrels were stored, and soon the imprisoned "Spirits" were liberated, and rushing down a little run close by, found its peaceful way to the Vermillion, a few rods east of the house. During the scrimmage, the young Smiths on the outside swore and shook their fists, and the old Smiths on the inside threatened to kill someone. "All right;" said Eunice Shelton, "we would as soon see you hung as any one," and made another onslaught on the barrels.
When the cruel war was over, the woman squeezed the liquor out of their dresses, poured it out of their shoes, and went back to their homes to the peaceful avocations of skimming milk and getting supper for the men folks. Only one wounded was reported, Mrs. D. C. Wilson had her thumb nearly severed from her hand by an axe. Dr. Trembly, of Florence, dressed the wound and took care of it until it was well, free of charge.
But the Smiths had unwise counsellors. They persuaded him that the path of glory for him led to having those women arrested and punished. Not only would he by this means win renown for himself, but from the fines (penalties) which he would be able to impose upon them, he could fill his pockets to bursting with shekels, and thus start in business again.
Accordingly, they were all arrested on a charge of riot. That was a rare and happy day for the sheriff when he came out to serve the warrants, instead of finding any obstacle in his way, the amazing spectacle presented itself of culprits insisting on their rights as American citizens to be arrested. His progress through the town that day was triumphant march. History does not record how many invitations to dinner and tea were extended to him, but there is a tradition among us that he was sought after, smiled upon, and feasted, to an extent that would utterly turned the head of a younger and less experienced man.
When the day for the trial came on, the whole town turned out en masse. Arriving at the depot in Norwalk, they were met by the Norwalk band, and escorted up to the courthouse, where they again insisted on their rights of being locked up like other sinners. They were at length persuaded to accept the hospitalities of the town. Eight of the best lawyers in the county volunteered their services in their defense. And then those lawyers proved, as lawyers will, that John Smith, himself, started the riot by inviting them into his house and then turning them out again. They also proved beyond a doubt that the place was a nuisance which the women had a right to abate.
Being a newcomer in Wakeman, he was unable to identify a single one of the women, whom he swore were at the riot. At the end of the trial which lasted two or three days, the jury brought in the verdict of "Not Guilty", and the roof of the old courthouse fairly flew into the air at the explosion of cheers and hurrahs which followed.
The ladies of Norwalk presented Mrs. D. C. Wilson with a gold ring, which she wore till death, and in dying, put it on her husband’s finger, to be kept by him as a sacred relic.
John Smith went home a poorer, but wiser man. He discovered that Wakeman air did not agree with him, so he moved to an adjoining state. Rumors came to us afterwards that he had reformed, and even became a religious man. If this is true, the seeds of his conversion were probably sown by that faithful Home Missionary work which the pioneer women of Wakeman did that summer afternoon in 1856."
CLARKSFIELD’S WHISKEY WAR.
In 1857, the ladies of Clarksfield, probably encouraged by the success of the Wakeman ladies, tried a successful "Carrie Nation" stunt in the saloon of Nat Fisher, in the old hotel building in Clarksfield Hollow.
We do not have the story of this affair as fully told as did Mrs. Denton in the Wakeman war, but we have before us a diary kept by "Col" Jerauld in 1857, and some entries in this and a recollection of what some of the old settlers told us years ago, which serve to give an idea of the affair. The entries are as follows: Friday, July 10th. The ladies spilt Fisher’s liquors." Wednesday, July15th. Girls arrested."
Saturday, July 18th. "Wind discharged by Esq. Hubbard."
"Great picnic in a grove."
"Squire Hubbard lived on the town line road between Clarksfield and New London, and the trial was held at his house. Mr. Fisher had a lawyer from Ashland. After the lawyer had talked with some of the people, he announced that Mr. Fisher had no case and offered his services to the ladies. A large delegation had gone up there in hay wagons, and after the termination of the trial, the sympathizers of the ladies proceeded to a grove near by and had a great celebration. This affair broke up the saloon business in Clarksfield for a time. (These two affairs are worth recording, as showing what a band of determined women were able to accomplish in those early days.)
THE "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD" IN WAKEMAN.
The "Underground Railroad" was a mythical name for an organized system of aiding escaping slaves to escape, and is supposed to have arisen from a remark made by a slave catcher, who pursued a slave across the Ohio River in a boat, but could find no trace of him on this side. He said he must have gone by some "underground road." The "Grapevine Telegraph" was the name given to the means by which information was passed from one "station" to another. These stations or posts were usually the homes of Quakers and other liberty-loving people, extending in chains from the north bank of the Ohio River, across Indiana, Ohio and western Pennsylvania, to the south shore of Lake Erie. Many of the captains of vessels plying between the lake ports and Canada were friends of the slaves and of great assistance to them.
It should be remembered that the famous "Fugitive Slave Law" was in force and the slave owners had a legal right to seize an escaping slave in any state in the union. There was enough anti-abolition sentiment in the north that many justices and other judiciary officers were ready to decide in favor of the slave owners when cases came before them. Prior to 1850 there were no railroads completed between the Ohio River and Lake Erie, so that the 250 miles must be traversed by wagons or on foot, through a country peopled largely by men opposed to abolitionism, and then the laws of the United States imposed very severe punishments upon those aiding, in any way, the escape of slaves, if convicted, hence many who might have been willing to help the fugitives did not dare to do so, but there were so many others who dared the risk that very many slaves were helped to reach Canada, where slavery was absolutely prohibited. Some lawyers defended slaves when attempts were made to free them in court, but Judge Sloane, of Sandusky, was tried in federal count for the crime of defending a slave, and the fines and costs which he had pay amounted to about three thousand dollars.
Elijah Anderson, a fearless colored man, was the general superintendent of the Underground system in this part of Ohio, and probably conducted more fugitives than any other dozen men up to the time he was arrested, tried and convicted in Kentucky and sent to prison, where he died in 1857. When he came to Sandusky in 1855, he said that he had conducted more than a thousand fugitives from slavery to freedom.
To those who have read "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" it may be of interest to know that one, George Harris, a slave, with his wife, Eliza, (The Eliza in the story) reached Sandusky in the autumn of 1850, by way of the Underground Railroad, and were secreted for two days. Eliza cut her hair short and put on man’s clothes and George was dressed as a girl. They were so nearly white, and being so diguised, they boarded the steamer under the eyes of the unsuspecting master, and were soon in Malden, Canada.
In 1858 occurred the famous "Oberlin-Wellington Rescue" case, which created a greater sensation than any other rescue of a slave. The slave boy was working on a farm near Oberlin (until he could be sent to Canada) when he was enticed away and seized by his owner and taken to Wellington. The news was spread and a crowd of Oberlin and Wellington men managed to get him out of the hotel where he was confined. A number of the prominent men of both places were arrested and taken to jail. They refused to give bail and remained in jail until their trial. Two of them were convicted and received a jail sentence. This created a great excitement throughout the north, on the 24th of May 1859, a great mass meeting was held in Cleveland, thousands coming by trains, and delegations paraded the streets with flying banners. The city was full of armed men, and it needed but little more incentive to precipitate a bloody collision between the people and the United States authorities. However, the excitement died down and the prisoners remained in jail for three months, but were finally released by a compromise with the federal authorities. It is possible that if there had been a clash between the federal authorities and the people who sympathized with the prisoners, a civil war might have begun then instead of in 1861.
Mr. Charles R. Green published an interesting account of the Underground Railroad, in Wakeman, from which we quote:
"Wakeman early became interested in the operations of the Underground Railroad. The stockholders at first were few. When the Liberty party nominated James G. Birney in the 40’s as their candidate for president, four men in this place voted for him, Leverett Hill, Isaac Todd, Burton French and Carlon Canfield, perhaps also Isaac Judson. These men used to say, that no one could accuse them of joining the party for the sake of office. The homes of these men were of course the stations where stray chattels from the south were received and forwarded on their way to Canada and freedom, generally by way of Oberlin.
Isaac Todd’s son, Seth, was usually selected by his father to conduct the trains, which from time to time, pulled out from that station bound for Oberlin. Leverett Hill’s eldest son, Benedict, was likewise often sent by his father over the same route.
Isaac Hill lived west of Wakeman, Westfall Corner, and had a barn with a long shed, the top of which was used for storing hay and fodder.
A troop of thirteen singers, all slaves, ran away from a point in the south and stopped at Hill’s for aid. They were secreted on the top of the hay in this shed to await a safe time for the next stage in their journey. They had been there but a short time, when their masters, who were on their track, came by on horseback in full pursuit. They did not succeed, however, in picking up any clue to their hiding place. The slaves were concealed a few days, until all danger of pursuit was over, and then sent on their way rejoicing.
Once a whole family, in some mysterious way was brought into town and concealed several days before it was thought safe to send them on to the next station. There were not over five families in town at that time, to whom it would have been safe to intrust such a secret. It was generally supposed that they were concealed somewhere on the premises of Leverett Hill, as he was known to be an old offender in cases of this kind.
Thursday evening came, the time of the regular weekly evening prayer meeting. At this time these meetings were held at the houses of private families. This evening it was to be at Mr. Hill’s. As Carlon Canfield saddled his horse that he might attend the meeting, some hired men in his employ hinted darkly that the wagons hitched to Mr. Hill’s fence that night would probably lose some of their lynch pins, but the slaves were not there, neither was there any demonstration made. One half mile north of the Hill’s, Isaac Judson lived, and here the fugitives were concealed. Thinking it not safe to keep them in the house, they were taken to an old log house several rods away, which was completely concealed from passers by by a fine crop of corn. Before going to the house the children were disguised in clothes owned by the Judson children lest some neighbor might see them and betray their secret.
These same hired men of Mr. Canfield once made their boast that no "niggers" could come there and they not know it. But one night, not many weeks after when all the family except Mrs. Canfield were snugly in bed, there was a knock at the door, and on opening it, there was a load of these poor creatures in charge of a friend of a neighboring town. The night was cold and rainy, and one the women was suffering from tooth ache. They were brought into the house, warmed and dried, and the aching tooth made as comfortable as possible. Before starting out, Mrs. Canfield went to the chamber overhead, where the boasting hired men were sleeping, brought down some blankets to cover them up with in the wagon, and sent them on their way, and no one the wiser but herself and husband.
End of Pages 31 through 40
Transcribed by Lowell Dunlap