History Of A Township
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the seventh in a series of histories about Huron County townships. The writer is a longtime resident of Clarksfield Township, and has been a correspondent for Norwalk Reflector more than 40 years.
BY GRACE RUSSELL
To know the full history of Clarksfield Township one must start with Western Reserve and Firelands history, when Ohio was opened to pioneers from Connecticut and other New England states.
Earliest settlers found cranberry bogs as far west as Hartland Township along what is today Cook Road. First settlers were Simeon Hoyt, James Clark, and Almon Ruggles, who in 1808 came from Florence down the route of the Fitchville River Road to the junction of the St. John’s Road. They forded the winding Vermilion River and at what is now Vesta Road. There they found a small town named Bethel. They found Seneca and Wyandotte Indians, among which according to legend, was a white man named "White Joe."
The township was named for James Clark. Hoyt returned to Danbury, Conn. for his family, arriving back about the same time as Smith Starr did, who stayed in the "Hollow." Another small village was Stilesburg, named for Benjamin Stiles. This is now West Clarksfield. It was in Stilesburg that the first white boy was born to Benjamin and Hannah Stiles on Nov. 13, 1818. He was named Samuel.
First in the township and also in the county were a grist mill built in the "Hollow" by Samuel Husted in 1818. A second mill was built there many years later, but was torn down in 1925 to make room for a service station. The first mill had "one run of stones." The newer one had a three run of stone with a mill race dug from the Vermilion River to run its water wheel. Smith Starr erected the first sawmill in 1821, and also a cider mill at the foot of Zen Road, just east of a small creek there. The foundation can still be seen at this location. A "picket" furnace factory was started in the early 1820’s, along with a shoe factory and two cheese factories.
Two years after the settlement of the "Hollow" in 1818, a log school was erected. It stood sixty rods south of the "Hollow" at the top of the hill, where for 150 years the children of the township attended a public school. The first school of logs burned and was replace by a frame school. When five stone quarries at West Clarksfield were opened by the Warner Brothers this main school was replaced by one built of stone quarried by the residents of the two small villages. This was sold just three years ago to the Seventh Day Adventists.
When the Ohio 18 west cut-off was built, most of the "Hollow" buildings were destroyed. This included the mill, the hotel, two stores, a "Goodwill" Hall, and a blacksmith shop. A propane gas blast about four years ago also burned to the ground one of the earliest homes in Clarksfield that belonged to J. N. Barnum.
Most of the township is agricultural with a modern elevator owned by Landmark, located at West Clarksfield.
The first church built in the area was on "Central Road". It was built in 1811, and was Congregational. It must have had little patronage for in 1822 the land was deeded to Simeon Hoyt. Clarksfield United Methodist Church was started by its members in 1832 and completed in 1838, with the help of Hiram Cunningham, who by his generous gift of a treasured gold watch paid the painter. The first minister was the Rev. Thomas Barkdull.
A mail route was laid from Norwalk to Medina through Clarksfield. A Frenchman named Seboo carried the mail through the woods on foot between these two towns.
The history of the Underground Railroad shows up in the Clarksfield area. Two homes in the village were a part of the escaped-slave route. One of these is the home of the Collins Family, now owned by Miss Marie Collins’ nephew, Lowell Gray, on East Zenobia Road. A tunnel led from dense shrubbery nearby to a bank basement and up a narrow back stairway, winding to a separate room beyond the front bedrooms of the second floor. It was cleverly camouflaged, blending in with the woodwork and walls. The other house is owned by Cecil Mann and has been extensively remodeled in recent years. It was built by John Hough in 1856 and was designated as "Station 99." It was located just north of the Norfolk and Western Railway underpass on the west side of the road. It was a colonial two and a half story home with a basement. A tunnel led into the basement on the southeast corner. Its small center chimey camouflaged large intricate fireplaces in each room downstairs, which had a secret stairway from a trap door in the potato bin in the basement to the attic.
Some of the noted persons in Clarksfield Township history include General Harry Twaddle, who was buried in Arlington Cemetery outside Washington, D.C., when he passed away.
Miss Lucy Weeks, only daughter of the late Dr. F. E. Weeks, married Otis F. Curtis of Oberlin and moved with her bridegroom to Ithaca, New York. He became a noted professor of agriculture at Cornell University. "Miss Lucy", as her pupils of 1908 and 1909 called her, was a teacher at the Clarksfield Elementary School. Dr. Weeks wrote "The Pioneer History of Clarksfield." He was a medical doctor a puller of teeth and a surveyor.