Palmyra Center Hotel

David Daniels, the leader in the vanguard of the little band of soldiers of civilization who settled and helped make habitable this tine township of Palmyra, arrived on the scene of action June 4, 1799, and settling on Lot 21, one mile and a half south of the Center. This hardy pioneer was born in Gratton, Conn., and as a reward for his daring and determination in venturing into a country that had hardly felt the tread of a white man, and when everything was as wild as nature had originally formed it, was given 100 acres of land by the proprietors. Soon after he had made a small clearing and thrown together a rude cabin, he put out an acre and a half of wheat, which he cut the following season, and carried one bushel of the grain on his back to Poland, thirty miles distant, had it ground and brought it back. His wife was Lucinda Meigs, cousin of Gov. Meigs, of Ohio. Daniels died July 13, 1813, highly respected by all, and much honored as the first Justice of the Peace of the township. He had also been a gallant soldier of the Revolutionary Army. His widow survived him till 1849, having lived to the advanced age of eighty-three years. They had six children: Electa, Frederick, Horace, Orville, Harvey W. and Almira. The first two were born in Connecticut, the third in Mahoning County, and the last three in Palmyra.

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

In this year, 1805, also came Capt. John T. Baldwin from Warren, Litchfield Co., Conn., bringing his wife and three sons, Alva, John and Tibbals. They arrived July 7, and their wagon was the second that came through by the " Old Palmyra Eoad," there being at the time not a single house between Canfield and Campbellsport. They camped at what is now the Square at the Center, along side of a post that had been erected to designate where the Center was. They then moved into a small log-house that had been built by Baker, where they lived two months, when they moved to the farm where his son, Squire Alva Baldwin, now lives. Two years afterward the Captain opened a tavern, and in 1825 moved to Toledo, where he died. He and David Waller brought the first load of salt from Cleveland, the trip occupying five days, but the salt was worth $20 per barrel, which paid them a handsome profit, having cost them about $12. The old gentleman was a kind and generous man, and had a fund of wit and humor that always made his tavern a great place of resort. Many stories are told of his playful jokes, one of which is how he shaved a vain young fellow who had no beard, with the back of a razor, having lathered him carefully, and the primitive "dude" never knew any better. His son Alva still occupies the old homestead, and is as hearty and genial an old gentleman, apparently, as his father. ^ He is now eighty-nine years of age, having been born in 1795. He was in the war of 1812-14, although only seventeen or eighteen years of age. His father, the Captain, served with Gen. Harrison in the position of Commissary, which gave him his title. There is a rose bush in the front yard of Squire Alva Baldwin's residence that was planted by his mother in 1805, and it still blooms. Capt. Baldwin was one of the first Commissioners of the county. John Baldwin was for many years a steamboat Captain on the lakes. John McArthur, a brother of the wife of Capt. Baldwin, came in at the time the Baldwins did, and settled on a piece of land in the southwest portion of the township. He was a Justice of the Peace, and died in 1818.

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

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