Carlisle Township (part 4 of 4)

The town was subsequently divided into two schoo] districts, and a house built in the west part of the town and one in the east part. The latter was the first frame school house in town, and, it is believed, the first in the county. It was erected in 1821. It was situated in what was then called the northeast district, on the farm then owned by Philander Terrell, now owned by Oliver H. Lewis. The nails used in the construction of this building were made in

The first school taught in this house was kept by Peter Barton, in the winter of 1821-22. Merritt Osborne taught the following winter: His term ended with a school exhibition, a novel feature then. It was held in the barn of Asahel Morgan, old and young alike participating in the exercises.

The division of the township, with the location of the two school houses, as previously stated, was unsatisfactory to the people at the center of town, and they erected for themselves a house at the center. Subsequently they succeeded in obtaining a school district in this portion of town.

A catholic school was established at the center in October, 1876, with about forty-five scholars. The number now enrolled is fifty-five. in the town hall.

Organization

The township was organized the first Monday in April, 1813, at the Terrell tavern. There were fifteen voters, and they were all at the election, which resulted as follows: Wyllis Terrell, clerk; David Beebe, Sr., Ichabod Terrell and Joel Terrell, trustees; David Beebe, Jr., and John Reading, constables; Joel Terrel, justice of the peace.

The township officers elected at the spring election of 1878 are the following: Albert G. Terrell, clerk; Wm. D. Fuller, Randall Stetson and Lester C. Sexton, trustees; Chauncey Blakesley and James Healy, justices of the peace.

Post Office

A post office was established in Ridgeville in 1815. Moses Eldred was the first postmaster, who kept the office in his own house. He held the office until 1828, his successors being as follows:

Edward Byington, until 1836; Levi W. Terrel, 1842; Alonzo Benham, until 1846; Joel Terrel until 1851; Joseph Humphrey, until 1854; David Beebe, now of Elyria, until 1860; Alonzo Benham, until 1864; Doctor Palmer, until 1866; John Browen, until 1867; H. G. Linder, until 1868; George P. Burrell, until 1869; Bert Wilmot, until 1870; E. P. Smith, until 1874; Orson J. Tervell, is the present incumbent of the office, which is located at the center of the town.

The first store m the township was kept in his own house by Lyman Root. 'There are at the present writing four stores in the town, the name of the owners being as follows: Orson J. Terrell, Nicholas Diedrich, H. Ramsdall, M. Bruce.

Manufacturing Interests

In 1812, and prior to the partition of their lands, Joel, Oliver and Ichabod Terrell, and David Beebe, Sr., gave to Joseph Cahoon sixty acres of land at the center of the town, the consideration of the conyeyance being that the grantee build a grist mill on the land so conveyed. 'The deed was excuted December 3, 1812. This was the first real estate transfer in the township. In the spring of 1813 the mill was erected. It stood on the west bank of Center creek, a few feet north of the bridge that now crosses the stream. The mill was about eighteen by twenty fect in size, constructed of basswood logs, hewed on the inside, and was the best mill in the county in its day. It had but one run of stone, which was made out of a common 'hard head." Wyllis Terrell, Sr., bought the mill a few months after its completion and opereted it until 1826 or '27, when he sold to Orsén Humpbrey. The mill long sivee ceased to éxist, and thefe is now none of the kind in the tewnship.

The Ridgeville Chair Works

This enterprise has grown up to its present importance from a small beginning. It was established by A. H. Mooers, the present proprietor, in November, 1853, with a capital of seven dollars and fifty cents. He served his apprenticeship with his father, who was a chair maker, and had worked in Elyria, making chairs by the piece, the year previous to his location in Ridgeville. Herented a room, eighteen by twentyfour feet in size, in Joel Terrell's saw-mill at the center of the town, and with the capital previously stated, a few tools and a turning lathe.which he borrowed, started in business for himself. He was alone for over a year. He made about one hundred chairs a month and those of the cheapest character. For these he found a market, mostly at Elyria. After running for three years he sold out to William Young for two hundred dollars, but bought back within two weeks, paying a bonus of twenty-five dollars. Some two years and a half afterwards, during which he engaged in other enterprises, he bought a small building near the Bushnell mill, and moved it to its present location, in the rear of his house. In this building, which he now uses for a barn, Mr. Mooers prosecuted his business for about six months, using a horse power, when he commenced the erection of the first of the three large buildings now comprising his works. In addition to his factory proper, Mr. Mooers has a saw mill twenty-eight by sixty feet, two stories high, the motive-power of which is a forty-horse power engine. The goods made by these works consist of every variety of wood chairs, all kinds of double cane-seated chairs, settees and the round-cornered cottage bedstead. Mr. Mooers finds a market for his goods inCleveland. In 1873 he employed nearly seventy-five hands. At the present time he has forty employees, five of whom are women.

These works furnished for the Sengerfest building in Cleveland, in June, 1876, six thousand chairs in nine days, all carried to the city in wagons. 'The capital invested in business at the present time is upwards of thirty thousand dollars.

Since this enterprise was started by Mr. Mooers, nineteen similar establishments, within a radius of twenty miles, have had an existence and failed of success. He attributes a great part of his success to his strict temperance principles, to which he has adhered from childhood, never having tasted a drop of malt or spirituous liquor.

Just south of the saw mill isa building used by Mr. Mooers, exclusively for the manufacture of an implement called the 'Griffin Land Leveler," of which Mr. Seth Griffin of Elyria, is the patentee. It is a combined roller, harrow and scraper, and is used for leveling roads and tracks, and for the preparation of land for seeding. It was first patented in 1874, and its manufacture begun in 1877. About thirty machines are turned out yearly, and there is an increasing demand for it.

Recognizing the necessity of means for the greater security of the dead from the nefarious business of grave robbers, Mr. Mooers applied his mechanical genius in this direction, and patented in the spring of 1878, a '' Metallic Coffin Shield" which he is now manufacturing. Itis made of wrought sheet iron, and is used in the place of the ordinary box 'which the coffin is enclosed. Efforts in this direction are most commendable.

Saw Mills

The first saw mill in this township was built by Major Wyllis Terrell, on Center creek, near his grist mill, in 1819. It continued in operation until 1830, when Major Beebe and Joseph Humphrey, out of sanitary considerations, bought the property and tore it away. It overflowed their lands with water much of the time, causing a great deal of sickness.

Capt. Bush erected a saw mill on West creek at an early day, but it never went into operation. A freshet carried away the dam, and the enterprise was abandoned.

THE Herrick MILL, at the Center, was built by Joel Terrell, son of Major Terrell, in the year 1850. He established at the same place a button factory, which he operated in the day time, and the saw mill at night. It ceased to exist some five or six years since. Successive owners of the saw mill were men by the name of Viets, George Burrell and Dr. Herrick, of Cleveland, the present owner.

THE ROBINSON MILL, located on lot fourteen, was built in 1850, by Messrs. Peck and Hesten. The former subsequently bought the latter's interest, and ran the mill until 1866, when the present proprietor, J. Robinson, came into possession of the property. It is a steam mill, and-has facilities for sawing from two thousand five hundred to three thousand feet of lumber per day, but has been idle much of the time of late years.

THE Moorrs Miti. - This is by far the most important mill of the kind in the township, and, indeed, It was built and is used mainly as an adjunct to his chair works, but the mill also does a great deal of custom work. It was built in 1873. It is a two-story frame, thirty by sixty feet, with a substantial brick boiler and engineroom with an iron roof, making it as nearly fireproof as possible. The engine is a forty-horse power. The capacity of the mill is five thousand feet of lumber perday. The upper story is used by Mr. Mooers for his turning works, and is replete with all the varied machinery necessary to thet branch of his chair factory.

Cider Mill

The only cider mill in the township is owned and operated by W. H. Eldred, who, with his father, built it in 1856. The entire machinery, with the exception of the engine, is of Mr. Eldred's own manufacture. It possesses facilities for the manufacture of eighty barrels of cider per day. With a small force of hands largely to Cleveland. with one run of stone, and run by steam, the engine being a twelve-horse power. Its capacity is about twenty-five bushels per hour.

Cheese Factories

Tue Excersior Factory. - The original factory on this location, lot twenty-four, was built in 1869 by Jackson & Roe. It was destroyed by fire in 1871, when the present factory was erected by Adams & Eldred. In 1873, Jackson & Eldred, the present proprietors took charge, and have continued its operation up to the present time. This factory makes a specialty of the manufacture of what the proprietors call ''Cheshire cheese," the entire product being shipped direct to England. It consumed the milk of about four hundred and fifty cows the last season.

THE FULLER Factory was established in 1870, by a stock company. W. D. Fuller, the present owner, has operated it about three years. It formerly consumed the milk of about two hundred cows. It was supplied the last season by about one hundred and fifty.

THE Brices CHEESE Factory, situated a short distance south of Briggs' Corners, was built in the spring of 1871 by a stock company. The present manager of the factory is C. I. Mead. The directors are Homer Terrell, John McNelley and Edward Hill. The production for the season of 1878 was about sixty thousand pounds of cheese, consuming the milk of about two hundred cows.

C. Lester Sexton

Soon after the marriage of George Sexton and Miss Mary Cahoon, at Vergennes, Vt., in the year 1810, they moved into Ohio, stopping at Judge Kingsbury's, Newburgh, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, where they remained until March 12, 1812; then, with family, Mr. G. Sexton moved into the west part of Ridgeville, Lorain county, Ohio, where he resided until his decease, November 7, 1829, aged forty-two years, leaving a widow and seven children, five of whom are since dead. Mrs. Mary Cahoon,died September 17, 1849.

The two children-living are Amos C. Sexton, who is a farmer in Orange, Cuyahoga county, Ohio; the other, C. Lester Sexton, of whom this sketch is written, following the same calling as his brother, resides in Ridgeville, Lorain county, Ohio. He was born at Newburgh, as above, on April 20, 1810.

The parents of Mrs. Lester Sexton, viz: Ebenezer Porter and Miss Eunice Yale, were married at Lee, Berkshire county, Mass., in 1800. They left Lee, in 1822, with a family of eight children, for Ohio. Spending the winter in Dover, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, in the early spring th. y removed to Ridgeville, : where they built the first ''log house" on Sugar Ridge, Asa farmer, there he lived until death, which occurred on July 6, 1867, he having reached the advanced age of ninety-one years; his more aged father having died at his son's residence, in 1839. ninety-four years of age. Mrs. Eunice Sexton died November 19, 1847.

Mr. C. Lester Sexton and Frances C. Porter were married at Ridgeville, December 5, 1833. Soon after they removed to Ashland, Ashland county, Ohio. Returning to Ridgeville on the 9th of March, 1838, they commenced in the unbroken woods to make for themselves and children a home. How pleasant that home and its surroundings have become, the artist shows in the view accompanying.

Mr. Sexton was father of five children. Lydia Louisa, their eldest child, was born in Ashland county, Ohio, November 26, 1834. Becoming the wife of Harlo C. Emmons, of Elyria, she was left a widow in March, 1869. In San Francisco, California, she was re-married to John Dunbar, and has since resided in Petaluma, California. George P. Sexton and HK. Porter Sexton were both born in Ridgeville; the one November 5, 1838, the other April 15, 1841. At the commencement of the rebellion, both brothers enlisted in Company E, Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. George died in hospital at Paintville, Ken-

Frances M. was born August 21, 1847, and became the wife, February 9, 1869, of W. H. Bastard, of Columbia, Lorain county, Ohio, where they now live with their sons, Robert Lester and George Harry.

Mr. Sexton has filled, and now holds the office of township trustee. Still vigorous, at a ripe age, loved and respected by his neighbors, he remains one of the makers of Ridgeville. To him belongs the credit of being one of the first, if not the first, of using tile drains, to any great extent, in Lorain county, - he at an early day, laying over two miles on his farm.

wife, Mr. Sexton's mother, and another lady, started on foot through the woods, to make a friendly call on the new-comer. The visit being made, the ladies commenced their journey home. Losing their way, and night coming on, they were forced. to spend the night under a partially fallen tree. The next morning brought them kind neighbors, who had passed the night in vain search for them. Such was " calling" in Lorain county pioneer life.

Richard Blain

Wilson Blain was born April 24, 1789, and married t> Hannah Van Natten, in May, 1810. They moved to Ridgeville, this county, in September, 1818, where he bought a farm on the Butternut. ridge, and lived there until his death. He had four children. Richard, the eldest son of Wilson, and subject of this sketch, was born October 13, 1812, and married Fanny

To Richard Blain and his. wife have been born four children: Warren W., born November 6, 1837; James M., born December 30, 1839; Vesta H., born February 11, 1841; and Harlan I., born March 14, 1843, and died April 5, 1856.

Richard Blain united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1829, when he was seventeen years old, and remained a faithful, devoted member until the close of his life. In all these years, after he became of-age, he was either class leader or steward, and usually both. He was always at his post, and filled his place with honor to himself, and great benefit and credit to the church. He wasa man of decided and unblemished character, one who lived to do his neighbors good; and was truly devoted to his wife, his children and the church of his adoption.