Mantua, Ohio

The first man to drive a stake, put up a cabin, make a clearing and settle down to business was Abraham L. Honey, which he did in the fall of 1798, and although it has been asserted that a man by the name of Peter French came in the fall of 1798, cleared off some land on the northwest quarter of Lot 24 and put out a small patch of wheat, he also cleared some land on the southwest quarter of Lot 29. After making those improvements he moved to Mentor. That a small crop of wheat was harvested the next season by Rufus Edwards, who came in and took possession of Lot 24, the lot settled upon by Honey, is beyond dispute. How he got possession of Lot 24 does not now appear. Honey remained only two or three years in Mantua, when he moved to Hiram and from there to Cuyahoga County. The wife of Honey was a sister of Rufus Edwards, and it is possible that Honey made the improvements for his brother-in-law, himself settling on a portion of the land, there being plenty of room on 420 acres for three or four families in those times. At any rate Rufus Edwai-ds was the second settler, for in the notes keptby Elias Harmon of those early days he says that just after he came in he chopped for Edwards and hewed for Crooks. Crooks by this appears to have been the third settler, though not a permanent one, as he only arrived at Mr. Honey's on the 12th of June, 1799. David Crooks, the person referred to, settled on the southwest part of Lot 29. He remained there until November, 1799, when he went for his family, who refused to return to Ohio with him. William Crooks died in Aurora, some time in the fifties at the age of eighty-five years. He located in Warren, then at Nelson, next at Parkman, and ultimately in Aurora.

Passage source: History of Portage County, Ohio, published 1885.

Elias Harmon, who can be set down as the fourth settler, was born in Suflield. Conn., in 1773, and started for the Reserve in February, 1799, in a twohorse sleigh, going as far as Pittston, N. Y., where he remained till May, when, in company with Benjamin Tappan, David Hudson and Jotham Atwater, started for their future home - Ta,ppan for Ravenna, then Town 3, Range 8; Hudson for what is now Summit County; Atwater for Euclid, and Harmon for Mantua. After a long, tiresome and perilous trip, partly by lake, partly by land and partly by river, Harmon landed at the clearing of Honey, as stated, on the 12th of June, where he stopped awhile, and then went to the place of Ebenezer Sheldon, who had engaged him before leaving home to help him in boarding and aiding the surveyors in their allotment of Aurora, afterward returning to Mantua with his wife in September, 1799, and settling on Lot 18. One of two or three entries in his diary, shows that the erection of a habitation in those days was a matter to be accomplished in short order; he savs: "July 1, began to cut timber for our house. July 2, put up and moved into house. July 3, got timber for floor. July 4, laid thefloor."

Passage source: History of Portage County, Ohio, published 1885.

In fall of 1799 Paschal P. Mcintosh came in and settled on Lot 23. He was a half-brother to Gen. David Mcintosh, and came from Haverhill, N. H. The fact of his being here at that early date is shown by the notes kept by Elias Harmon, where he says: "October 21, 1799, helped Mcintosh to raise his house. " In this year also came Elisha Edwards and Samuel Burroughs. The next year, 1800, brought in a number of settlers, among whom were Moses Pond, who settled on Lot 35, and afterward moved to Mesopotamia; Jonathan Brooks also came, but soon went to Burton and settled. The Windsor family came in this year, Basil Windsor, Sr. , being the head. Samuel Pond, who also came at this time, shortly before they moved away, got lost on a trip to Burton and was almost without food for nine days. It was in the winter, and all his toes were frozen off, crippling him for life. Seth Harmon, John Blair and Jotham Atwater were among the settlers, but the man who more than any other left his impress on the township and county was Amzi Atwater. Jotham and Amzi Atwater came from Hamden, Conn. , in the spring of 1800, and settled on 200 acres of the west part of Lot 41, where now is Mantua Station. On the 21st of November, 1801, Amzi married, in Aurora, Huldah Sheldon, daughter of Ebenezer Sheldon, the couple being married by ihe father of the bride, which was the only official act performed by the old Squire during the first three years of his holding that position. At the first election, on the organization of the county, Atwater was one of the Judges, and the Legislatui'e appointed him one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, which positicm he held for a long time, tilling it with marked ability, impartiality and dignity. He had received a liberal education in his native State, had selected civil engineering and surveying as his profession, and, joining the party under Cleveland, came to the Western Reserve first in 1796. Being of a hardy constitution and determined will, combined with a buoyancy of disposition, he was specially adapted to the life of pioneer and surveyor. He was possessed of great versatility of talent, vigor of intellect, having withal a genial temperament and a fund of quiet humor that made him popular. He was courageous rather than daring, persevering, resolute and of sound judgment, qualities which rendered him useful in those early times. He was very ready with his pen, and wrote many letters to his relatives in the East, entirely in rhyme, covering ten or a dozen pages of foolscap, several of which were published some years ago, but which are too long for reproduction here.

Passage source: History of Portage County, Ohio, published 1885.

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 Mantua Township - it names this place 39 more 39 times.