Geneva, Ohio

The lands at present embraced within the limits of this township were, at the drawing of the territory east of the Cuyahoga river in 1798, used for the purpose of equalization, and fell by lot to Caleb Atwater, Gideon Granger, and William Hart. Upon the organization of Ashtabula County, Harpersfield township embraced all the territory now included within the .prescribed limits of that township, Geneva, Trumbull, and Hartsgrove. On March 22, 1816, Geneva was detached, and formed into a separate township, of which action we find the following entry on the record of the commissioners of Ashtabula County : " Resolved, that all that part of Harpersfield township north of the north line of number eleven in the fifth range, to the lake, be set off fronj that township and erected as a separate township to be known by the name of Geneva, and that the first township election be held at the dwelling-house of Loren Cowles, on the first Monday of April next."

Passage source: History of Ashtabula County, Ohio, published 1878.

In 1807, John and Robert Lamont and Benjamin Custin made a temporary settlement on the Norman Webster farm ; remained some two years, and removed to what is now Harpersfield township, the history of which see for further particulars of this family. In the year 1808, Eleazer Davis commenced improvement on the farm afterwards owned by the Reverend Jonathan Leslie, now the property of John C. Brakeman. About this time, Dr. Nathan B. Johnson and Noah Cowles came to reside in Geueva, and located on the South Ridge road, east of Cowles creek. These are thought to be all the settlers in Geneva township up to 1808. During the next seven years there were accessions made to the settlement, consisting of perhaps fifteen families. Among them were Squire B. French, John Ketchum, John, Benjamin, and Jacob Bartholomew, Rev. Jonathan Leslie, Samuel Quinton, Abisha Lawton, and Truman Watkins. On the North ridge were Samuel Thompson, Norman Webster, and Harvey S. Spencer (father of Warren Platt Spencer, of the Geneva twins, and brother of the renowned father of penmanship, Platt R. Spencer, whose biographies appear, the one in connection with the group of editors of the county, and the other with the Spencer family group, which see for further mention). Another settlement was begun on the lake-shore, in the northeast corner of the township, as early as 1811. This consisted of Barzillia N. Spencer, lot 53; John Austin, lot 51 ; James M. Morse, lot 50 ; Jacob Hall, lots 44 and 45 ; and Strowbridge Morrison, on lot 46. From divers causes, this settlement was finally abandoned, and the cabins were left to resolve themselves into their original elements. The early settlers of Geneva, in common with all the pioneers of the Reserve, endured privations and hardships of which those of to-day can have but a faint conception. Under the most favorable circumstances, their food was always coarse, often unsavory, and, if accident befell the sources from which they were supplied, scantiness as well as coarseness mingled with their meals. The two principal articles of food upon the tables of the early settlers were bread and meat. If the bread chanced to be made of wheat flour, and the meat consisted of the flesh of domestic animals, then was the fare considered good in the superlative degree. If the bread chanced to be made of corn-meal, and the meat consisted of the flesh of the deer, the bear, or the raccoon, there was no complaining, for in those days were they less concerned about the quality of the food than they were about the quantity. Coffee was known only by the name, and tea, if drunk at all, was drunk about as frequently as it was by the Whigs of Boston immediately after that article was cast into the harbor from the British ships. In respect to clothing, as well as other necessaries for which the settlers had to depend in whole or in part upon the market, they were about as well provided for as they were in respect to tea and coffee. There were no stores in the vicinity, so that whatever was required beyond what their own hands could supply was entirely dispensed with or supplied in a meagre manner. The consequence was that the wardrobe of the ladies comported but miserably with their patient and untiring industry.

Passage source: History of Ashtabula County, Ohio, published 1878.

One striking characteristic of the pioneer settlements on the Keserve was their eagerness to afford the advantages of schools to their families. Geneva was fully the equal of her sister townships in this particular. In default of positive knowledge in relation to the first school-house in the township, Harvey 11. Gaylord, Esq., now of Saginaw, Michigan, was appealed to with the following result : " No doubt the log school-house which stood nearly opposite S. P. Holden's, on or near the site of which Jesse Leonard afterwards had a wagon-shop, was the first schoolhouse built in Geneva. This was undoubtedly erected in the fall of 1807 or spring of 1808. I am sure that my sister Margaret (afterwards the wife of Otis Johnson) taught a term in this house in the summer of 1808, which was the first school taught iu the township of Geneva." The first frame school-house was built in probably 1821. W. P. Spencer, of the Geneva Times , furnishes us the following in relation to that old-time teacher, Josiah Alford : " Born in Connecticut in 1771. In about the year 1817 he removed to Ashtabula County, and located in Geneva. His wife was Pauline, sister of Judge Q. F. Atkins (of whom see prominent mention elsewhere). Mr. Alford was a professional teacher; taught his first term in Granby, Connecticut, in 1792, and his last in Trumbull, this county, in 1837, covering a period of forty-four years. During this interval he taught in the townships of Saybrook, Jefferson, Geneva, Morgan, Harpersfield, Windsor, Conneaut, and Trumbull ; also in Crawford and Mercer counties, Pennsylvania, and in Trumbull county, this State. This faithful old teacher and most exemplary citizen died at his residence on the lake-shore, in Geneva, in the year 1851." As a contrast to the present wages paid teachers we learn that the first two terms this gentleman taught in Granby, Connecticut, he was paid at the rate of two dollars per month and his hoard , and for his last school (in Trumbull) he received twelve dollars per month, boarded around, and had fi fty-one scholars. For statistical matter pertaining to Geneva township, - number of teachers employed, number of scholars enrolled, etc., - see close of this history. The following historical matter in relation to the Geneva normal school was prepared by Prof. J. P. Treat, the able principal of that school, to whom our thanks are tendered:

Passage source: History of Ashtabula County, Ohio, published 1878.

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 Geneva Township - it names this place 49 more 49 times.