The History of Wakeman Township, pages 61 through 70
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The next house was that of A. P. Pierce, an unfinished frame house, with which I have many tender and solemn recollections. Mr. Pierce was a man of stalwart frame, a firm purpose, and a noble generous heart. He was qualified by nature to be a leader, and providence favored the result. He was Justice of the Peace. At some time he had borne the rank, and he still bore the title of Captain. Without disparagement to any other settler, he was probably a man of more influence and extended acquaintance than any other at the time I came in. This weight of character was used on the side of good order, education and sound morality. Although not a professor of religion, his house was ever open and free to religious men, and religious influences. It was there that the first Congregational church was organized; it was there that I was installed, as the first pastor of it. In the unfinished chamber of that house, may be, many will remember a scene, which I will never forget. With a scaffold built for a pulpit stand, over what was afterwards the place for the hall stairway, in the north part of the chamber, with all the parts of the chamber arranged with temporary seats, a large Congregation was gathered, in connection with the Presbytery of Huron, April 9th, 1829, and there, in connection with public worship, I received the Pastoral charge. It was my first, and although deeply sensible of the imperfection with which it was sustained, and the duties of it discharged, yet the time and the place, and the persons, will never leave my affectionate remembrance while reason lasts. That house is also dear to me from other and more private considerations. There with a self denying generosity, characteristic of the family, I was, with my family, accommodated with the best part of their house for two years, as a family residence. There we named our two eldest children, the first born called Samuel Pierce, partly in remembrance of the family kindness which we had experienced. Mrs. Pierce was a help-meet for her husband, in acts of hospitality, and in religious things, may be the moving spirit. She was the only 8+visible professor of religion in the first three families in the settlement. A woman of strong emotions, of firm christian faith and deep religious experience, she was a consistent christian and kind friend, a devoted mother and wife. Called to pass through much labor and trials, she bore it with a christian heroism which many will remember. Though not perfect, yet always conscientious. I called at their house when I first entered the settlement, but she was in that situation in which it was not convenient to entertain company. I was led to the next house, and calling again the next morning, found her comfortable with an infant son. It was their last, and was not long spared to them. At the age of about two and a half years, they were called to give it up. It was while I was residing with them. Not far from midnight it breathed its last, and I well remember, how we bowed together, under the stroke, around the family altar, while I tried to lead the family in saying "Thy will be done". This family came in June, before Mr. Bristol. When they came they had four children and a hired man. (See page 153).
The next dwelling on the road was Chester Manville (Manvel). There I spent the first night. It was the beginning of an acquaintance which has been only pleasant. After I left the place they passed through some sore afflictions. Twice the heart of the family has been torn away and he has been left desolate. At another time, by the kick of a horse, a son was suddenly taken from them. Though he lingered a few hours, and mostly without pain, yet the stroke was mortal.
The next family was Augustine Canfield. He was the first of the first three. He came in with his family in May 1817, before Mr. Pierce and Mr. Bristol. He had a wife and four children and a hired man. His house and family were, in more senses than one, the first among the pioneers. In his family was born the first white child in the township. A little less than a year from the time of their arrival, April 18, 1818, Burton M. Canfield was born. He is still a resident of the place. (Page 90). All these of the first three were in some respects alike. They were of the enterprising yeomanry of the age, or they would never have penetrated the forest in such circumstances. They were men of public spirit, and a respectful regard to public morals in society, as the character of the society testifies. Mr. Canfield was in some respects unlike the other two. More disposed to be social than Mr. Bristol, less firm, resolute and persevering than Mr. Pierce. Somewhat impulsive in his temperament, though he might not have been so safe a leader, he was a very efficient helper in all that pertained to good order, improvement and humanity.
Mrs. Canfield was one of those kind, affectionate, tenderhearted, conscientious women of whom of everybody else thinks better than they do of themselves. As brother A. H. Betts once said, "One of those persons without hope, better than many professing christians."
The first sermon preached in the settlement was also at the house of Mr. Canfield. It was in January 1819, when there were but four families in the settlement – Dr. Herman Clark in addition to the first three. The meeting was conducted and the sermon preached by Rev. Lot B. Sullivan, a missionary on the Reserve. Mr. Canfield’s family, and Dr. and Mrs. Clark were the singers on the occasion, and were ever after a great help in this part of worship. The tunes sung at that meeting were Windham, Mortality, and Florida.
Mr. Canfield’s lot first embraced the land afterward occupied by Justin Sherman, and his first improvement was made there. This he sold to Mr. Sherman and removed to the north part of his lot, building a log house, and subsequently a framed house wherein his grandson now lives. The first cabin put up was not far from the present residence of John Sherman. It was a room fourteen feet square, built of logs, and was the first family residence built in the settlement. It was still standing when I came in. Mr. Canfield soon built a larger and more convenient house near the same spot which he occupied until he and his eldest son were lost in the woods between that and Capt. Pierce’s, and were out all night. The family had all been at Captain Pierce’s through the day on some occasion, and at evening, as the weather was threatening, it was thought best to spent the night there. Mr. Canfield thought some things at home needed taking care of, and took his eldest son and started for home. A thunder storm arose and made it so dark he lost his way, and fearing that they should wander away into the woods farther from home, they stopped and bore the storm. Mr. Canfield with instinctive parental kindness, took the saddle from the horse and setting it up on sticks, made a shelter for his boy, who soon fell asleep in dry quarters, while the father bore the peltings of the storm while they waited for morning.
The next building to Mr. Canfield’s when I came was the school house. But we may not stop longer at that than to say that it was a small log building and at that time served both as a place of teaching and a place of worship on the Sabbath. In it I preached my first sermon which I preached in Wakeman. About a year after I came it was replaced by a comfortable framed school house which was also used as a place of worship alternately by the Congregational and Methodist churches. The new house had a kind of dedication by a service on Christmas Eve, accompanied by evergreens and illumination. It was a Union meeting. The services were conducted by Rev. True Pattee and myself. That meeting was only characteristic of the state of religious harmony which always existed between the two churches while I remained in the place. Without any special planning, we ever lived together in harmony.
The next family on the road was Justin Sherman. He came in Sept. 1822. When I came he was living in a substantial, well built framed house, painted white. He was himself a mechanic, and a man of influence in the community. He was the first Post Master. The office was kept in his house. It was established January 1, 1833, on a route between Florence Corners and Ruggles. Mrs. Sherman had died since he came in, and before my arrival he had married a Mrs. Redding. That house is marked in my memory with a sad and solemn recollection. On the first Monday evening in April 1832, as we were assembled at the school house for a monthly concert for prayer, Mr. Canfield was sitting by the door, he heard some unusual cry, and leaving the school house went to a burning fallow east of Mr. Sherman’s, and soon returned to the door with the shocking announcement, "Lewis Sherman is killed and burnt up in a log heap." We all immediately left and went to the scene of alarm.
Lewis, the eldest son of Mr. Justin Sherman, had been at work in his burning fallow, and probably a tree burnt at the root, fell on him, and killed him by the side of a burning pile of logs. When he was found he had a bruise on his head which would have caused his death, and his body was sadly burned in his feet and lower limbs. The body was wrapped in a blanket and carried to his father’s house, followed by a lonely widow, afflicted relatives and sympathizing friends. The funeral was afterward attended by Rev. True Pattee at the school house.
But we must go on.
The next family and residence was Doctor Herman M. Clark. They were the fourth family in the settlement, next to the first three, and equally honorable with the three. They came in about a year after Mr. Canfield. Dr. Clark was a practicing physician, as there was occasion, for practice; but he was too humane and generous to live by his profession. He traveled through the settlements on foot, ministering to the diseases of all, without regard of compensation. If they were able to it, he took a moderate fee; but went alike at the call of the rich or poor, without expectation of reward.
The first school was taught in his house. Mrs. Clark was the teacher. He once went to join a mission among the Indians at Maumee, but he did not remain long.
I think their daughter, Hannah Maria, was the first person I ever baptised. The doctor settled on the southeast corner of the cross roads, a mile north of the center line, and a mile from the township line west. The southwest corner on the same cross roads was offered for a burying ground, and used to some extent for that purpose. But it was vacated, except a small lot enclosed by Mr. Justin Sherman. Some of the bodies were taken up, and removed to other grounds, but there still reposes there, some precious dust, undistinguished by mortal eyes from common earth yet not forgotten by Him who is the resurrection and the life. Among others, those two dear ones which were given to us at the house of Capt. Pierce. They died near together, at the ages respectively of four and two years, and were buried on that corner.
West of the Corners, between that and the township line, were two families. Sheldon Smith who came in the autumn of 1819, and his father-in-law, Silas French, who came in the spring following. Mr. French had a somewhat numerous family, among whom were a pair of twin daughters who so much resembled each other that few could distinguish them, and it was common when either of them was seen alone to speak of them as Jane Amanda French, thus giving both names to either discriminately. Both are since dead.
A little south of the Four Corners, and opposite the place of Dr. Clark was the residence and family of Barsillia (Barzilla) Hendrick. He came also in 1819. Abraham Bronson, a brother-in-law of Mr. Hendrick, came in at the same time. Mrs. Hendrick had died before I came in, and not far from that time he was married again. He and his first wife were among those who united in the organization of the first Congregational Church. Not far from the first of February 1830, as Mr. Hendrick was returning from a society’s meeting at the center, his wife with him, (Who had been to make a call by the way), by the wrecking of the sleigh, he received a fatal injury from which he died in less than twenty-four hours. He was not far from Mr. Merritt Hyde’s, where he was carried in, and where he died. His body was brought home to his house, I think it was on Saturday, and his funeral was attended in the new school house on the Sabbath.
The next family was Philo Sherman, brother of Justin. They came in together. He and his wife were Methodists, and he was a classleader. A man of quiet, meek, and christian temper, and his wife like him. His religion was in his life more than in many words. Nearly opposite was a building which I cannot distinctly locate or fill. The most distinct recollection I have of it was, that it was the place where I attended the first Methodist meeting I attended in Wakeman.
The next habitation and family was that of Amos Clark. He was a brother of Dr. Clark, and Mrs. Clark was a sister of Chester Manville.
The next was Bela Coe. I must stop here a moment to remark, it was the place where I stopped first when I returned from Conn., with my wife. It was the first time she had ever spent a night in a log house. She was from the midst of the ordinary accommodations and comforts of a Connecticut home. She had been somewhat accustomed to city life in New York. When we retired to our place of rest, which was nice and comfortable, but was in the corner of a log house, with a window of a few squares of glass set in a deep casement which the cutting out the piece of a large log made; she explored every nock and corner, especially the deep window hole, to see if there were no bears or other wild animals lodged there. A little beyond Mr. Coe’s were the Four Corners, made by the crossing of the west and center roads; and at the Corners on the north east was the commencement of a frame house being built by Isaac Hill. He with his family were living on the south west corner, in a log house, afterward the residence of Leverett Hill, his son. Isaac Hill was father-in-law to Mr. Coe. He was the first blacksmith in the settlement. The families came from Rootstown, Portage County, (Ohio).
Leverett came first about the time Chester Manville came. He made a clearing before his father’s family came. The spring after I came in, soon after I was installed Pastor of the church, Leverett Hill was married to Esther Strong, a sister of Cyrus Strong. The father soon moved into his frame house, and Leverett and his wife took possession of the log house. West of the corners, on the center road was but one house, or family, that was Mrs. Parsons’ on the west town line. Her husband had committed suicide before I came. She afterwards married Ned Malona.
South, on the Clarksfield road, half a mile from the Corners was Samuel R. Barnes. His wife was a sister of Capt. Pierce. Beyond this was dismal swamp, known through all the region as Wakeman woods. No settlement beyond this till you came to Clarksfield.
East of the corners, on the center road, the first family was Merritt Hyde. He came in May 1823. The Post Office was a few years at his house. A cross mail from Medina to Norwalk had been established, passing through on the east and west center road. A son of Mr. Hyde was killed, being thrown from a horse, Sept. 28, 1834, not far from Captain Joab Squires in Florence.
North east from Mr. Hyde’s about half or a quarter of a mile, and off from the road was Marshall Johnson and family. (Note. In more recent years a lane ran from near Hyde’s house to a tract of picnic woods, south of the railroad, and west of the village limits.) He came in as a hired man with Capt. Pierce. He was married to Marinda Bradley in October 1820. It was the first wedding in the settlement. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Nathan Smith, a Methodist Preacher, at the house of Abraham Bronson. So the first funerals and the first wedding in the settlement were in the same house. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson had a numerous family, thirteen children.
The next family east of Mr. Hyde, on the center road, was Marcus French, son of Silas French. East of his lot a road ran south, may be half or three quarters of a mile, and there were Gershom Shelton and family. (Note. This road was known as "Shelton’s Lane", but was abandoned about 1861.)
The next building east of Marcus French, on the center road, on the north side was a log school house. It was also used as a place of worship, alternately with the northwest school house. It was succeeded, I think, in 1830 by a good substantial frame school house, with a stand which might make a desk for a teacher, or a pulpit for a preacher. Next to the school house near the cross roads, where the east and west center road is intersected by the mill road, on the north west corner, were Burton French and family, brother of Marcus French. At the center, on the south west corner lot was Justus Minor and family. He came in 1821, and first occupied the north west school house, till he could prepare a home at the center. Mrs. Minor died soon after their arrival, at the school house, she was buried at the center. Before the funeral a path was under-brushed from the school house to the center to prepare the way for the mournful procession. About two miles through the dense forest, the precious remains were borne to their resting place in the midst of the woods. Before I came Mr. Minor had married Miss Delia Palmer from Fitchville.
At the time father Minor settled at the center there was probably no settlement nearer than Dr. Clark’s and Mr. Hendrick’s. He brought with him an earnest zeal to establish religious institutions. He had lived through a painful strife and division in Woodbury, Connecticut, growing out of the location of churches. His theory was that the center was the place for the church; and to secure it there, he planted himself there, and made all arrangements in his own mind for carrying his theory out. As a proof of the solid conviction of the his theory in his own mind, when his wife died, a few weeks after he came, he had her carried and buried a few rods west of the center stake, on the border of ground he purposed for a cemetery. After I came as we were in the woods one day, a little east of the center, he showed me the minister’s lot, and a beautiful site for a house, with a sweet spring of water near by. His theory was beautiful, and had he the means he would have carried it out. But it died before him, and his very sincere attempt to avoid division before it should be made, came very near making a division, which would have been difficult to heal. He practiced great self-denial to carry out his theory; but providence did not favor it. The mill was fixed half a mile north of the center, and its attractions, and the ability of those who projected it, were too strong for his theory. The settlement increased about the mill faster than about the center; and ultimately the meeting houses fell between them.
But we must not leave Father Minor and his family here. I have reason to remember them with much affection and gratitude. I spent much of the first winter I was in the settlement in his family. He had offered to board a minister a year, if they might have one. I did not indeed take up his offer literally, but I carried my trunk there, or rather he brought it there for me; there I had my study in the little bed-room which looked out on the garden; and there I heard many of the incidents of early settlement. When he first went in to chop, before he was familiar with the music of the forest, one night, hearing an owl, he supposed it was some person lost in the woods, and went out and called, responsive to the cry, hoping to lead some lost wanderer to his hut. One Sabbath, after they had made some improvement and were raising some stock, while the family had gone to meeting at the north western school house, he heard trouble about the hog pen. He crept from his bed, took a gun that was in the house, and went forth to ascertain the difficulty. A bear was making love to his pigs. He loaded and fired, and the bear fled. But he had not strength to follow. When, however, the family came home, they set the dog on the track, and they soon found bruin dead, having been mortally wounded by his shot. Soon after I came there, one evening about sunset, I heard the most unearthly sounds which had ever saluted my ears. It seemed like a strange commingling of all the discordant noises I had ever heard. Calves and dogs, and cats and horses, could hardly have made greater variety, or more discordant music. It was a pack of wolves, holding carnival a little east of the center, where some one had lately killed a dear, and left portions of the body behind, after dressing it. It was the nearest and most distinct that I ever heard a pack of wolves.
After I returned the second season, bringing my wife with me, we spent a few weeks at the same place, occupying the same room, while we were making preparation for house keeping. On the Sabbath the meeting was at the center, and the traveling being muddy, they yoked up the oxen and put them to a cart, and the ladies rode to meeting in that style. Of course it was reported back to our friends in Conn. A sister of Mrs. Betts in reply says, now we know all about Ohio, if they ride to meeting in a cart. But the kindness and delicacy of the hospitality made amends for all lack of style in the manner or furniture. The Mrs. Minor whom I found and left there was among the choice spirits of society. Without disparaging any others, it was doubtless true, Mrs. Pierce and Mrs. Minor were among, and high among, the leading females of our church, if not of the community. Very unlike, in many respects, thy were very much alike in their generosity and hospitality. I have often remembered with gratitude their kindnesses, and have often smiled, at the differences of their expressions, in the acts done, as characteristic of the two persons. One would bring in a piece of broad side pork, or a ham, or a pail of soap; the other would bring a fine chicken, nicely dressed, or a bowl of preserves or a plate of honey. All good and useful in a family, all very benevolently given. I need not tell which gift came from which person. They both expressed the same love, they both drew forth the same gratitude.
But we must leave father Minor; yet before leaving I must allude to a singular matrimonial connection in the family. There was a granddaughter of father Minor, who came later and joined the family, Eliza Curtis who used to call him grandpa; and a brother of Mrs. Minor who visited there, and used to call him brother Minor. In course of time the two became one, and father Minor became brother to his grand-daughter, and grandfather to his brother Palmer.
The next family in order was Mr. Rufus Bunce. They occupied the north eastern center lot and at that point the road began to angle a few degrees south of east probably to find a favorable crossing place over the Vermillion River. Mrs. Bunce had a sister living with her, whom we will have occasion to notice soon. Between Mr. Bunce and the river was Cyrus Strong. He had also a sister living with them, Esther Strong, already mentioned as Mrs. Leverett Hill. It was at Mr. Strong’s that I performed my first marriage ceremony in the place, if not the first I ever performed.
The next family was across the river. Mr. Peter Sherman, and with him boarded Isaac Todd, who was making a clearing still beyond, which was the ultima-thule of improvement, in that direction. Mr. Todd afterwards married the sister of Mrs. Bunce, already mentioned, and settled on the improvement he was making. His twin brother, Kneeland, soon coming in, subsequently married another sister of Mrs. Bunce, and settled with or near his brother Isaac. These brothers so strongly resembled each other as to be of the confounded, and few could tell them apart. Even their wives did not always know them at once when coming in. There was in the family a strong resemblance. It was once happily, though in mournful circumstances, turned to good account. A son of one of one of the brothers died in the army, and was buried among the promiscuous slain. The father subsequently went to bring home the body. Two graves were found marked with the same name. They commenced disinterring one of the bodies, when a negro, who had aided in the burial, seeing the father, said, "I think that is not the right grave, the man who was buried in this grave looked very much like you, massa." The negro hint was regarded. They changed the place of digging, and found the body they sought.
Returning from this direction to the corner of Burton French, we follow that road south almost to the Clarksfield line, and there we find Lewis Beers; with one family beyond, Marcellus Booth. But in getting there, I might have mentioned, that Brandy Creek, on that road, was not yet passable, on account of its bold bluff bank on the north, and was shunned by horses and teams by going around Mr. Bunce’s on the east road, and then turning south-west to find the road again. I remember it, because I once turned quite around in passing through the woods, and found myself going to Clarksfield when I intended to be returning.
From Mr. French’s corners north, was half a mile to Mr. James Wilson’s. His house was on the west bank of the Vermillion River, and the mill, of which he was the miller, on the other side, a few rods further south, or up stream. The river was already spanned by a substantial bridge, built a few years before. Mr. Wilson was one of nature’s noblemen. Without any special early advantages, he was intelligent; and without any thing to begin with, but his character and his prudence and industry, he was in possession of a good farm, considerably improved. For his intelligence he was very much indebted to his love of newspaper reading. He had much general, and especially, political information. His temperance experience is worth relating. At that time as a Home Missionary, I had sent to me a temperance paper, the Journal of Humanity, published at Andover, Mass. Knowing his love for newspapers, I was accustomed to hand it to him. Like all the rest he was, as he regarded it, a moderate drinker, i.e., he kept his barrel of whiskey in the house, took his drink before breakfast, then before dinner, and treated his friends freely as they called. In reading the paper, he found much said about persons becoming intemperate before they were aware of it. So much was said, that he resolved that he would know if he had an appetite formed. He resolved to try it for one week, to do without it. He soon found that he no appetite for his breakfast without his morning dram. He then found a great craving for something about eleven o’clock. He was soon convinced, that his appetite for intoxicating liquors was formed; and like a man of sense and resolution, as he was, he resolved to do without it; and he signed the total abstinence pledge. Not long after his stomach and head were cleansed of this evil spirit, the spirit of God came and took possession; and he took his position among the people of God. Another temperance conversion might have been mentioned in passing, which took place the first winter I was in the settlement. It was one of those cases where Satan over-acts himself, and defeats his own work. During the winter of 1829, there was a deer hunt. A large tract was surrounded, and the driving in was on the river bottom at the mills in Brownhelm. After the fray the hunters returned. The Wakeman company called on their return at the tavern at Florence Corners, cold and hungry; and, as custom was, took something to drink. One of the company, without thinking of his empty stomach, and chilled limbs, found himself unable to return any farther without being brought on a sled.
When he became sober he sought the temperance pledge and signed it. It was Isaac Todd. That temperance pledge is historical; though what ever became of it I cannot tell. It was, probably, the first one in the county. At the meeting of the Presbytery of Huron, in Milan, January 1829, the subject of temperance was brought up and discussed; a resolution and pledge were adopted, and signed by most, if not all, of the members present. I was then a new member of the Presbytery, and a kind of itinerant missionary; and the pledge was committed to me, to get signers. I brought it with me into Wakeman, and a Society was formed. I cannot give its history, but this was the origin of the pledge. I have known of none in the county before it.
But we must cross the river a moment at the mill, then travel on. The Mills were known as Canfield and Pierce’s Mills. There were at that time, a saw-mill and a grist-mill. The saw-mill was built first. (In the Firelands Pioneer, of 1859, in the memoirs of Wakeman, by Justin Sherman and Chester Manvel, occurs this: "The first saw mill on Vermillion River, in Wakeman, was built by Burton Canfield, about half a mile north of the center stake, in 1823, and in 1824, he attached a grist mill to the same. Previous to that, our grinding and sawing were done in Clarksfield and Florence, from five to seven miles distant. The first saw mill on Chappelle Creek was built by Justin Sherman, half a mile west of his house, 1823; this saw mill and the one on the river were built at the same time, but it sawed the first log.")
End of Pages 61 through 70
Transcribed by Lowell Dunlap