The History of Wakeman Township, Pages 81 through 90

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BUCK, Asahel - was married to Polly Ann, widow of Abraham Bronson, Aug. 30, 1821, by Dr. H. M. Clark, J.P. The family lived in a log house near the place where Calon Canfield’s house was afterward built, that farm belonging to Mrs. Buck’s son, Ebenezer Warner. In 1824, Mr. Buck bought the Samuel Bristol 50 acres of Lot 31 and sold it to Henry Bates in 1828. In 1835, the family was living in Florence township. In 1833, the heirs of B. S. Hendryx deeded to Polly Buck, the northeast part of Lot 14, which she sold to Sheldon Smith. (Sumner Todd farm).

BUNCE, Isaac – a son of John, came from Connecticut to Wakeman in 1832 or 1833. In the latter year he received a deed of 90 acres of land in Lots 45 and 46. He lived in a house which stood east of the Cort Armstrong house and died there Oct. 26, 1846, at the age of 76. His wife was Anna Sherwood and she died Oct. 5, 1856, at the home of a son in Toledo, Iowa. She was born in Woodbury, Conn., in 1772. They had sons, Hiram and Charles, and daughters, Harriet and Diantha.

Hiram Bunce, some of Isaac, became a physician, and came to Wakeman with his wife and four children about 1834, but removed to Clarksfield a couple of years later. The History of Clarksfield gives the history of Dr. Hiram Bunce as follows:

He was a son of Isaac Bunce and Anna Sherwood and was born in Connecticut in 1802. He was a student in Yale College and studied medicine with his uncle, Ebenezer Sherwood. He married, 1st, Margaret Kennedy, and they had children, William H., Augustus, Mary Jane and Marshall. In 1832, he married, 2nd, Mary Stevens, daughter of John Stevens, a sea captain of Connecticut. They came to Ohio with four children, settling first at La Porte, Lorain Co., and in Wakeman two years later. The parents of Dr. Bunce, with one son and some daughters, had moved to Wakeman in 1832. In 1836, Capt. Husted charged Dr. Bunce with twelve weeks’ board, and removed to Clarksfield the same year. In October 1851, they removed to Oberlin and in 1856, to Toledo, Iowa, where the doctor died in 1864, and the wife in 1879. The children of the second marriage were, Charles, Sherwood, Sarah, Theodore, Edwin, Mary, Edwin W., and Carrie.

William, Augustus and Theodore followed in the footsteps of the father and became doctors. William married Ellen Conant, of Rochester, Ohio, and practiced in Clarksfield, then moved to Oberlin, where he became one of the most skillful physicians in this part of the country. (His son Will also practiced medicine in Oberlin.) He died in 1892.

Augustus died in Oberlin in 1864. Mary, Edwin and Carrie died young. Marshall married Mary Elizabeth Patch and died in Clarksfield in 1850, a few months after his marriage. Charles died in Toledo, Iowa, in 1864. Sherwood died at Winchester, Va., in 1862, from the effects of a wound received in battle in the Civil War. Sarah married Edwin F. Oldroyd and lived at Shreve, Ohio. Theodore married Julia Pierce, of Wakeman, practiced in Wakeman, Cleveland, Oberlin, etc., and died in Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1885. Edwin W. lived at Marshalltown, Iowa.

Charles W. Bunce, son of Isaac, was born in Woodbury, Conn., Nov. 27, 1816. He was married to Sabra (Sabrina) Dowd, of Clarksfield, Jan. 11, 1842. He lived on the home farm in Wakeman until 1855, when he sold it to Eliphalet Brooks and removed to Toledo, Iowa, where he died Jan. 31, 1881. The wife, born at Tyringham, Mass., in 1824, was a daughter of Ashel and Fanny (Morley) Dowd, and died at Toledo, Iowa, July 6, 1887. They had children, Diantha B. (Edwards), died in Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 28, 1916; Hiram A., Isaac N., Fanny M., Grovener G., Alice H., Mary A. The first five were born in Wakeman. Harriet Bunce, daughter of Isaac, married June 2, 1835, Robert Barlow. Diantha Bunce never married.

Isaac Bunce had twin brothers, Jona and Jonas, and Rufus Bunce may have been a son of Jona. One member of the family wrote that Isaac had brothers, Jacob and William.

BUNCE, Oliver – a son of Jonas, once lived in Wakeman west of Bacon’s Corners. He lived also in Brighton and removed to Michigan. He is best remembered on account of the size of his family of children, twenty one in number. It is said that there were ten pairs of twins among them and a lonesome single one at one birth. Garwood Camp, in a joke, promised Mr. Bunce a cow when the twentieth child should appear. The cow was claimed in the 40’s. Salome Bunce, a niece of Isaac, married Hiram Rumsey, see page 160.

BUNCE, Rufus J. – born in Woodbury, Conn., in February 1799, married Mary Booth, a daughter of Elisha Booth, and who was born in Woodbury, Aug. 25, 1799. Two of her sisters married the Todd twins, Isaac and Kneeland, of Wakeman.

In 1827, the Bunce family emigrated to Wakeman, arriving at Justus Minor’s on Sept. 12th. They took up their residence in a log house near the mills, on the east side of the river, that being the only house on that side of the river in Wakeman except that of Cyrus Strong. Edward J. Bunce wrote a good narrative of the life of the family when they first came here, for the Firelands Pioneer:

"In 1827, my father and his family left Woodbury, Conn., for Ohio, and arrived at Justus Minor’s, at the center of Wakeman, Sept. 12, 1827. There were twenty eight families in the township at that time; (Note: The names of the families were: Buck, and Bronson, Bristol, Pierce, Manvel, Canfield, Sherman, Clark, Smith, French, Hendryx, Coe, Hill, Parsons, Barnes, Hyde, Johnson, Shelton, Minor, Todd, Wilson, Brooks, Downs, Tomlinson. The Sherman, French and Clark families included two or three of the name, enough to make up the number of twenty eight.); within two weeks after our arrival we moved into a log house at Wakeman Mills, on the east side of the Vermillion River. At that time we were the only inhabitants of the township on that side of the river. In 1824 the road called the River Road had been located from the mills in Clarksfield Hollow to Luther Loveland’s in Florence. During the fall of 1827 that portion of the road from the Wakeman mills to the center road was cut through and the timber cleared out, making a tax on my father of six day’s work. While we were living in the mill house, Philo Sherman and Burton French were building the first bridge across the Vermillion River, in this township. It was built near the place where the iron bridge now stands. During our stay in the mill house a great quantity of rain fell and the river was very high; on such occasions my father acted as ferryman, taking the neighbors back and forth in an Indian canoe. One of these occasions, while crossing for Burton French, when about midway of the stream, his paddle broke and he with the canoe was carried over the dam, in passing which, the water swept him from the canoe, and for a short time it seemed impossible for him to live or be extracted alive, but he soon made his escape from the roll of the water under the dam, and after being swept down the stream nearly to the bridge, succeeded in making his escape, with the assistance of Mr. French.

During the time my father lived in the mill house, he had so far completed a new house at the center of Wakeman that he thought best to move into it. In the Month of January, our goods with my mother and the children were loaded into a flatboat (called a scow, the largest boat on the river at that time) and my father, with the assistance of some neighbors, towed the boat up the Vermillion to the mouth of Brandy Creek.

On arriving at our new home we found a log house with places for windows and doors. The windows were soon closed with shakes (shingles) and the doors with blankets; we had a floor over one third of the house, a chimney as high as the mantel-piece, but no floor above. An opening in the roof six or seven feet square gave us plenty of light and also room for the smoke to escape. In the spring of 1827, a school district had been formed at the center embracing nearly three quarters of the township and contained eleven scholars. A log school house had been completed and the first three month’s school was in session when we arrived in Wakeman.

* * * * "My father had fifty acres of land on the east side of the river on what is now the east end of the Jesse E. Hanford farm. On this land was an Indian sugar camp, and the Indians had never failed to be there since the settlement of the township, and to use the camp during the sugar season. They were there in the spring of 1827, the spring before we came, and left their camp with everything packed in good order for their return the next season, but they never came again. Their huts were made of bark of the elm, their store troughs and small troughs of the same. The troughs were all packed in the huts, the bark doors closed up and stick set leaning against the door, signifying that no one was at home. A paper flour sack with both ends tied and cut in two lengthwise, would be a fair representation of their troughs.

At the time of our arrival, the east and west center road had been located no further east than my father’s farm at the center. Mr. Cyrus Strong had settled on his place a half mile east of the center one or two weeks before our arrival. He was the only neighbor east for twenty miles. During the year 1828, Peter Sherman arrived and settled a half mile east of C. Strong’s. Isaac Todd also commenced his farm still farther east the same season.

During this year the center road was continued from the center of Wakeman to Pittsfield or Grafton, in Lorain County, my father helping to locate and mark it out. A settlement on the east side of the Vermillion had now fairly commenced and their numbers were soon increased by the addition of Martin Bell and family, his father, Elias Bell and Family, Simon Brown And family, Kneeland Todd and family - Isaac Todd being the first one to locate in that vicinity. The neighborhood received the name of the Todd Settlement, and still retains that name.

Soon after this settlement commenced, Isaac Todd and Cyrus Minor started a petition for a mail route from Grafton to Norwalk, which was granted and established, the Todd Settlement turning out and cutting the underbrush out of the road from the Vermillion east one half the distance to the settlement in Lorain County, the Lorain settlement cutting the other half. The neighbors in the Todd Settlement also took turns in ferrying the mail carrier across the Vermillion on his way to Norwalk once a week. He carried the mail on foot, the mail bag being a large pocket-book which he stowed in a side pocket in his coat. He made a stopping place at my father’s, getting many of his meals there, and frequently, staying over night. From him we received all the news of importance once a week from either end of the route."

Mr. Bunce purchased 60 ¼ acres of the south part of Lot 55, receiving the deed in 1828. This was the farm owned and occupied by his grandson, W. B. Hall, the southwest corner of which is at the center of the township. Mr. Bunce died here Jan. 22, 1862. His wife died Aug. 3, 1879. Their children were: (1) Edward J., born May 17, 1821, died May 8, died, 1873, married Olivia Hall. Issue:

(1) Celestia,

m. William Mordoff and d. in Birmingham 1877,

(2) Eugenia,

m. William Gessner and lived in Olatha, Kas.

(3) Alida,

died in 1880,

(4) Julia,

(Hunter) lived in Los Angeles, Cal.,

(5) Bessie,

(Combs) lived in Napa, Cal.

(2) Mary Jane,

born Jan. 23, 1823, married Lucius Hall, and died July16, 1896, (See Hall history).

(3) Julia Ann.,

born Jan. 2, 1826, died Jan. 11, 1910, married David S. Pierce. (See Pierce History.)

(4) Nathaniel,

born May 8, 1829, died in California, Oct. 23 ,1905, became a physician, married Catherine Bristol. Their only child, Josephine, was killed by a street car in Detroit in 1903.

Edward Bunce was a merchant in Wakeman for more than twenty years and was a Justice of the Peace for sixteen years.

BURHANS, James Abraham - a son of Peter and Ann Burhans, of Flatbush, Ulster county, N. J., was born July 3, 1817. He taught school in his younger days and was a city missionary in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He married Hester Van Wagner. She was a sister of Rev. J. M. Van Wagner, of Wakeman, and her ancestry may be found with his. In 1856 they came to Wakeman. They first lived on the Whitney farm north of the village on Lot 42. They sold that farm and purchased the farm east of town in Lot 65. Mr. Burhans died here Nov. 2, 1880.

Hester Van Wagner was born in Poughkeepsie in 1824. In 1845, she attended school in Oberlin, but did not complete her course until 1874, while the family was residing temporarily in Oberlin. After the death of her husband, she resided in Oberlin for some years, but returned to Wakeman and died Jan. 22, 1918. They had three sons, William V., born June 16, 1851, married Mary C. Van Etten and died at his home in Saugerties, N.Y., in 1918. Robert B., born Feb. 3, 1853,married, 1st, Ann Parker, of Birmingham, 2nd, Alice C. Birdsall, lived in California. James M., born Aug. 31, 1855, married Aug. 28, 1881, Elva, daughter of Seth Todd, of Wakeman, and died at his home in Dunbar, Pa., Aug. 16, 1917.

BURSLEY, Israel Harmon - born in Pamelia, Jefferson county, N.Y., June 14, 1824, married Susanna Fletcher, of Clarksfield, Jan. 4, 1844. She was a daughter of Robert Fletcher. In 1857 they settled in Wakeman on the Butler Road on Lot 88. The wife died May 3, 1884. Their children were:

Elvira Cornelia,

born Feb. 24, 1845, died in Kipton, Oct. 7, 1917, unm.

Lucy Ellen,

born Sept. 13, 1846, married Jefferson D. Bates, of Camden, and died May 8, 1902,

Dennis Smith,

born Sept. 10, 1848, died June 11, 1854,

Milo Spencer,

born Nov. 19, 1850, married Adda Crandall, of Camden, daughter of Henry Crandall, died in Brighton May 20, 1910,

Lydia Melvina,

born April 4, 1856, married Samuel M. Hanes, of Clarksfield, April 6, 1875, died in Camden, Jan. 6, 1923,

George Francis,

born Feb. 13, 1862, married Ida A. Lang, Jan. 27, 1886, and lived in Rochester township until his death,

Henry Orrie,

born March 6, 1865, married Gertie Tillinghast, of Clarksfield and lives in Norwalk, Ohio,

Lovina,

born April 4, 1856, died in Rochester Aug. 23, 1923.

 

BURTON, THOMAS - a tailor, lived in Wakeman as early as 1832. He was sent to the Infirmary at Norwalk. He became homesick and started for Wakeman one day, on foot, fell into a mudhole, and died there.

CABLE, John - married Huldah, an adopted daughter of Moses Hull. In 1832 or 1833, they came from Delaware county, N. Y., to take care of Mr. and Mrs. Hull who then lived in Florence township, O., (See Phebe Bates, page 54, who was also adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Hull.)

In 1856, Mr. Cable bought Lot 91 in Wakeman. He sold 40 acres from the east in 1858. He and his wife and son, Levi, lived on the farm and Mr. Cable died there Nov. 5, 1862, at the age of 65. The wife died at the home of her son, Marcus, in Florence, Sept, 5, 1883, at the age of 82.

They had children, Marcus, Levi, Fannie, Edwin, Huldah and Helen, of whom we have the history only of Marcus and Levi.

Marcus Cable, born in 1827, died in Florence in 1906, had a son Charles. Levi Cable, born in 1829, in Wiltmore, N.Y., married 1st, Eunice Parker, who died in 1858, 2nd, in 1859, Mary Ann Arnold, sister of Forsythe and Harrison Arnold, of Wakeman. He came into possession of the Wakeman farm and built the brick house yet standing. He sold the farm and lived in Florence for some years, but died at Sterling, O., Feb. 2, 1909. The wife died Oct. 27, 1900. Had a son, Dudley C.

CAMP, Garwood H. – son of Samuel and Mindwell (Hopkins) Camp, was born at Cooperstown, N. Y., Oct. 5, 1806. At the age of two years, he was taken to Connecticut. His father’s father, James Camp, owned one of the most beautiful farms in Connecticut, near New Milford. It was entailed after the manner of the old English law (always descending to the eldest son), and the document entailing it was in possession of David A. Camp a few years ago.

Samuel Camp disposed of his interest in the property, butting off the entail. When Garwood became old enough to understand matters he determined to have a farm of his own and early conceived the plan of going to Ohio, where he heard that land was cheap. At the age of eighteen (in 1824) he came to Ohio, landing at Huron, then footed it to Ruggles township (then the southeastern township in Huron County), where he engaged in school teaching, and clearing land (for wages) for seven years, then lived in Bronson and Florence townships, then came to Wakeman in 1833, and purchased of Cyrus Minor 30½ acres in Lot 46. In 1834 he and J. (or I.) C. Symonds bought of Marcus French 14 acres more of Lot 46 and in 1836 bought 15 acres more of the same lot of Burton French. This farm included the George Sherman farm. Cyrus Minor had built a sawmill on Brandy Creek and Lester Farrand owned a half interest in it. Mr. Camp worked in the mill until he injured his back by over lifting, and sold his interest to Farrand in 1837. In 1841, he made a trade and obtained David Manvel’s farm in Lot 24, purchasing additional tracts in the same lot from Marshall Johnson and Eunice Cary. This farm was his home until 1887, when he went to live with his daughter in Oberlin, where he died Dec. 6, 1887. On Oct. 21, 1834, he married Lydia Cary, who had come to Wakeman from Vermont with her parents, Seth and Sarah (Gleason) Cary in 1833. The wife was born in Rochester, Vermont, January 30, 1808, and died in Oberlin Oct. 10, 1890.

Their children were:

1. Fannie M.,

born Aug. 18, 1835, married Charles Lake, of Quincy, Mich., Oct. 28, 1858, and died in Wakeman, of consumption June 16, 1862,

2. Seneca,

born Dec. 4, 1836, was wounded at the battle of Shiloh, April 7, 1862 and died three days later,

3. Ransom Hopkins,

born June 2,1838, married in 1863, Rhoda Jane Hardy, of Clarksfield, went through the war, settled on a farm in Clarksfield and later went to Oberlin, where he died Sept.14, 1885

4. Myron Garwood,

born Dec. 26, 1842, died Jan. 5, 1861, of consumption,

5. Sarah Caroline,

born June 21, 1844, married Charles Lake, Sept. 24, 1867, and died of consumption in 1884,

6. Mary Ann,

born Dec. 17, 1847, married Benjamin T. Strong, of Wakeman, Sept. 24, 1867, and died in Oberlin (her home for many years), Oct. 6, 1914,

7. Alice Myra,

born Jan. 1848, died July 16, 1856,

8. David Alanson,

born Aug. 16, 1850, married and lived at Ft. Scott, Kas.

 

CANFIELD GENEALOGY

Thomas Canfield, born in England, emigrated to America about 1634, died in 1689, was at New Haven and Milford, Conn., in 1646, representative to General Court 1674-76, sergeant of Milford train band. His wife was Phebe Crane. They had children: Sarah, Phebe, Mary, Elizabeth, Thomas, Jeremiah, Abigail, Hannah, Mehitabel .

Jeremiah Canfield lived in Milford until 1727, then in New Milford. His wife’s name was Alice. Both died in 1739.

Zerubabel Canfield, son of Jeremiah, born in 1709, married 1st, Mary Bostwick in 1737, and died in 1770. Went to New Milford with his father, but moved to Bridgewater soon after marriage.

Lemuel Canfield, son of Zerubabel, married Sarah Burton, Feb. 10, 1774, and had children, Daniel, Ann, Burton, Charles A., AUGUSTINE, Lemuel and Orlando. He lived on his father’s farmstead in Bridgewater.

AUGUSTINE CANFIELD removed to Wakeman, Ohio, in 1817. His wife was also a Canfield, Betsy, daughter of John Canfield (who died Feb. 21, 1814) and Phebe, daughter of John Treat, who lived in the Bridgewater part of New Milford. Betsy Canfield was born March 15, 1789.

John Canfield was a son of David, born March 7, 1725-6, married Mary Northrop, Oct. 3, 1745. He was a first settler on Long Mountain. He died in 1806 and his widow in 1809.

David Canfield was a son of Jeremiah, Jr., who married Judith Mallory, of Milford, July 17, 1711.

Jeremiah, Jr., was a son of Jeremiah, and a grandson of Thomas. The line of Augustine Canfield was, Lemuel, Zerubabel, Jeremiah, Thomas.

The line of Betsy Canfield was, John, David, Jeremiah Jr., Jeremiah, Thomas.

Betsy was a first cousin, once removed, of Augustine. They were married Oct. 25, 1807. While in Bridgewater, Mr. Canfield was a member of the "Troop of Horse", being uniformed in blue coat and buff trousers.

Augustine Canfield was born in 1783. In 1817, on the 29th of April, he and his wife with four children, his brother Burton Canfield and Seymour Johnson (who came as a hired man and died in September 1823, at the age of 27). They arrive in Wakeman on the 23rd of May.

A cabin was erected on Lot 13, near the present location of the house built by Justin Sherman, and afterward occupied by John Sherman, and still later by William Canfield. The cabin was constructed of rough logs, was fourteen feet square, with roof and floor of elm bark. The large chests were used for tables.

There was no fireplace and the cooking was done out of doors, by a log fire.

Now this was the first habitation of white people in Wakeman, and the Canfield family was the first one to make a permanent settlement in the wilds of Wakeman. In six weeks a substantial log house was built and the family moved into new quarters. The first cabin was left standing and figures in later history. In 1822, 70 acres of this part of the lot were sold to Justin Sherman and Mr. Canfield built another house further north on the same lot. Burton Canfield owned the whole lot but deeded the 96 acres on the north part to his brother in 1831. This home farm has been owned by members of the Canfield family ever since. Here Mr. and Mrs. Canfield spent the remainder of their days, he dying Sept. 16, 1848, at the age of 65, and the wife on Feb. 25, 1861, at the age of 71 years and 11 months.

The story comes down that Mrs. Canfield used to rock her baby to sleep while crooning the lullaby, "Pretty little Wakeman, Wakeman, Wakeman, Pretty little Wakeman boy."

To Mr. and Mrs. Canfield were born five children:

(1) Calvert Calon (known as "Calon" or "C. C.") was born in Bridgewater, Conn., Jan. 1, 1809. He married Mary E., daughter of Jabez Hanford, of Wakeman, Nov. 14, 1832. He acquired the farm on Lot 21 where his son George lived until the time of his death. He died April 27, 1895. The wife, born May 14, 1808, died May 14, 1882. Their children were:

1. Sarah Elizabeth,

born Sept. 24, 1836, married George Denton, Nov. 8, 1860, and died Nov. 11, 1909.

2. Alban J.,

born Nov. 6, 1839, married Margaret Denton, of Florence, Dec. 3, 1861, and died March 14, 1908.

3. William A.,

born May 17, 1841, married Jane Amelia Whitney, Aug. 24, 1863, and died Feb. 19, 1915.

4. Frances Adella,

born Feb. 8, 1845, married G. W. Payne, Oct. 5, 1865 and lived in Sandusky.

5. Darwin R.,

born May 24, 1846, married Eunice Corbin, of Wakeman, May 31, 1869, and died Jan. 20, 1892.

6. George E.,

born April 8, 1849, married Florina G. Sherman of Wakeman, Oct. 11, 1870, and died Nov. 29, 1916.

(2) Royal Canfield,

became a physician and died in North Carolina some years ago.

(3) Sarah Canfield

married Nathaniel W. St. John and lived in Oberlin until her death.

(4) Harriet Caroline

was born July 2, 1815, married Curtis Burr of Florence and lived on the old Burr homestead until her death, Dec. 4, 1893. She had children, Elmer, Ellen (Bissell) and Velma (Ellis), all dead.

(5) Burton Monroe

(called "Monroe") was born April 18, 1818, the first white birth in Wakeman. He married Louise Cunningham in Wisconsin, June 20, 1847. He lived in Wakeman the most of his life. The wife died in Lorain, Ohio, at the home of her son in 1889. He died at the home of a son in Youngstown, Ohio, Aug. 13, 1892. They had children:

Narcissa,

died in 1853, at the age of four years,

Ervin,

b. 1853, d. in Youngstown, O., May 28, 1911,

Ebba,

b. Sept. 7, 1855, m. Norris C. Highfield in 1873, and lived in Zanesville, Ohio.

CANFIELD, Burton Monroe, brother of Augustine, was one of the company who purchased the large tract of land in Wakeman before the first settlement. (See page 42) He must have had means for he purchased much land in Wakeman. He bought and sold at different times more than two thousand acres. He came to Wakeman with his brother, Augustine, returning after a few weeks. Five or six years later he returned here with his wife and child. In later years he lived here and boarded with Elias Green while improvements were being made on his farm. In 1845 he bought of the estate of Isaac Bronson a lot of Wakeman land and sold it to Timothy Baker, of Norwalk. He lived at one time just north of the Isaac P. Haskins home. He had quite a number of children, as show by the signatures on some of the deeds given after his death. He built the first mills on the Vermillion River in Wakeman.

**********************************************

(Some quotations from Charles R. Green’s pamphlet history are quite applicable here.)

"In the spring of 1817, in the little town of Bridgewater, Conn., a farm wagon might have been seen before the home where lived Augustine Canfield and his family. Into this wagon were packed a few household articles, some farmer’s tools and supplies, and lastly, the young wife and four children, the oldest eight years old, took their places with brave hearts though tearful faces, started for what was then the far Ohio. Talk about heroism! A journey around the world now with big swift flying cars and steamships would be nothing to it. Burton Canfield of South Britain had bought a large tract of land in Wakeman and it was to this place they came late in the spring. After leaving Buffalo, most of their way led through the forest. The axe was in constant requisition for cutting away logs, underbrush, etc. The horses at least must have felt that "going west" was no child’s play.

Wakeman was then an unbroken wilderness, and the Canfields were the first white family to settle in the place, and their youngest son, born the next year was the first white child born in the place.

 

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Transcribed by Lowell Dunlap