Clarksfield, Ohio

In dividing the Firelands in 1808 the township of Clarksfield was assigned to the holders of the original claims of one hundred and seventeen persons whose claims amounted to eight thousand, three hundred and thirty-nine pounds, worth then twenty-seven thousand, seven hundred and ninety-seven dollars, but these claims had been scaled down to seventeen thousand, nine hundred and twenty-four dollars, which is a little more than a dollar an acre. After the state of Ohio had incorporated the company known by the long name of the "Proprietors of the Half Million Acres of Land Lying South of Lake Erie, Called Sufferers' Land," the directors assessed a tax of two cents on the pound on the original losses for the purpose of defraying the necessary expense of surveying and dividing the lands. Many of the owners failed to pay this trifling tax and the lands were sold at ^Publick Vendue," as the deeds state, in 1808. Comfort Hoyt, Jr., was one of the tax collectors and among other claims sold to Zadock Starr claims amounting to seven hundred and forty-seven dollars for ten dollars and six cents; to Ezra Wildman claims amounting to five hundred and sixty-nine dollars for seven dollars and eighty-four cents ; to John Dodd claims amounting to eight hundred and sixty-two dollars for nine dollars and sixty-four cents, and other claims at like discounts. This indicates that the original claimants were often indifferent or too poor to pay the tax. Undoubtedly the most of the original sufferers or their heirs realized but little from the grant of the land. When the drawing for the division of the Firelands was made on the 9th of November, 1808, the several sections of Clarksfield township were drawn by the following persons and their claims entitled them to the number of acres opposite their names: First, or southeast section,

Passage source: History of Huron County Ohio Its Progress and Development, published 1909.

At the first meeting of the commissioners of Huron. county, held at the county seat north of Milan, near Abbott's bridge, on the rst day of August, 1815. Ver- million township was organized to contain the whole of the twentieth range, that is, the townships of Vermillion, Florence, Wakeman, Clarksfield, New London and Ruggles. It also included "all of that portion of Huron county east of the Firelands," which was a considerable of the present county of Lorain. March 2, 1818, New London township was organized to comprise the townships of Ruggles, New London and Clarksfield. March 8, 1820, the commissioner "ordered that townships number three, in the twentieth and twenty-first ranges (Clarksfield and Hartland), be and the same are hereby organized into a separate township with all the privileges belonging thereto, by the name of Bethel." In 1826 the two townships were organized under their present names.

Passage source: History of Huron County Ohio Its Progress and Development, published 1909.

At the December meeting of the county commissioners in 1815 a road was ordered to be laid out as follows: "Beginning at the end of the north and south road which is now laid out from the lake to the south line of Jessup (now Florence), thence to continue through the twentieth range to the south line of said twentieth range through the settlement in New London." This road was cut out during the winter and is the one upon which the village of Clarksfield is located. The settlement in New London was south of the present town of New London. On the 28th day of March, 1816, two brothers, Hosea and Hiram Townsend, left Florence with an ox team on their way from Massachusetts to New London, and are said to have been the first persons to drive a team over this road. In 1810 Benjamin Stiles of New York city purchased of John Dodd one thousand, two hundred and ninety-five acres of land in Clarksfield township, at one dollar per acre. In 1817, Samuel Husted purchased of John Dodd an undivided interest in seven hundred and eight-two acres for one thousand, six hundred dollars. At this time all of the third section except one tier of lots on the south side was owned in common by Ezra Dibble, Comfort Hoyt, Jr., Timothy Chittenden, Jr., Benjamin Stiles and Samuel Husted. May 14, 1817, they quit claimed to each other definite portions of this land, Chittenden getting five hundred and ninety-five acres; Dibble & Hoyt, six hundred and ninety-three; Stiles, one thousand, three hundred, and Husted, seven hundred and fifty-two. May 19, 1817, John Dodd sold to Nathaniel and Ezra Wood, brothers, of Danbury, Connecticut, a piece of land in common in the second section, to contain one hundred and twenty-six acres, for two hundred fifty-two dollars and fifty-six cents. Another deed located the land in lot seventeen and Nathaniel soon sold his interest to Ezra. In the same year, 1817, Abraham Gray purchased of Dodd and Dibble lot thirteen in the second section (the lot next east of the Daniel Rowland farm).

Passage source: History of Huron County Ohio Its Progress and Development, published 1909.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Clarksfield Township - it names this place 17 more 17 times.