Clarksfield Township

Clarksfield Township

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,

The township was named from James Clark, who was one of the greatest sufferers from the incursions of the British in the Revolutionary war. The township contains more than sixteen thousand acres, as it is a little more than five miles square.

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.

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).

In September, 1817, Benjamin Benson purchased lot seven in the third section for three hundred and thirty-five dollars. In 1811 Comfort Hoyt, Jr., deeded to his son Simeon one hundred and fifty-nine acres of lot six in the fourth section and to his daughter Dolly lot four in the same section. This land which comprises the north part of Andrew Blackman's farm and the farm of George Smith was given by her to the First Congregational church in 1826, but was deeded back to the heirs of Comfort Hoyt in 1844.

In 1817, a number of the men who became pioneers of Clarksfield owned land here and in this year we find the first attempt to make a break in the forest. Samuel Husted was a stirring man of thirty-eight years of age and with a growing family, living at Danbury, Connecticut, and he decided to set up a home for himself on the land he owned in Ohio - that land of promise so far away from civilization. Ezra Wood, a young man whose wife was a niece of Mrs. Husted, also desired to see the new country. These two men started from Danbury in a one-horse wagon May 19, 1817. The narrative of their journey has fortunately been preserved in print. We quote from the narrative of Jonathan Fitch in the Firelands Pioneer of June, 1864: the day of May, 1817, I left Norwalk, Connecticut, for Ohio, in company with Capt. Adam Swan, his Irishman Kelley and John and Seth Keeler. We went by the way of New York city, which we reached about noon on the 20th. After resting a few hours we crossed the river to what is now Jersey City, and reaching Morristown we put up for the night. Moving forward the next morning, we arrived at the top of a long hill about mid-day when we stopped by the wayside, fed our horses and resorted to our provision chest. While eating we discovered two men in a one-horse wagon ascending the hill. As they came near they raised the shout: 'Hurrah for Ohio! They proved to be strangers to us, but we were not long in making their acquaintance. They were Captain Husted and a Mr. Wood (given name not remembered). They hailed from Danbury, Connecticut, and were bound for Ohio. Learning at Norwalk of our departure, they had hastened to overtake us. Our numbers being thus increased to seven, we moved on over hills, valleys, rivers and mountains to Pittsburg, which we reached the 8th of June. Here we rested for the Sabbath. Monday we traveled on to the west side of the Big Beaver bridge, where our new acquaintances left us, taking to the right hand road to go to Clarksfield, Huron county, while we kept on direct to Mansfeld, Richland county. We arrived at Mr. Giles Swan's north of Mansfield June 17th." In the same year Mr. Fitch started back to Connecticut on horseback. He and another man left Mr. Swan's, near Mansfield, November ro, 1817. He says: our journey east of Pittsburg we met an ox team with household goods. I told Smith it must be Captain Husted, but the driver was a stranger to me. We soon, however, met three horse teams. I raised a hurrah for Captain Husted, and in response he dropped his lines and waded through the mud to reach me upon my horse. He said he was overjoyed to see one he knew. A Mr. Starr, I think, was with him. After a brief interview we bade each other farewell and went on our ways." Husted and Wood went to Florence and stopped with Major Barnum, another Danbury man who had come to Florence eight years before. Fitch says that his party reached Mansfield June 17th and we may reasonably suppose that Husted and Wood reached Florence about the same time. Making Florence their headquarters, they came over into the woods of Clarksfield on Husted's land and worked for six weeks, preparing the timbers for a log cabin and clearing off the trees adjoining. Six men raised the house and these men were probably from Florence. Wood says that Husted cut the first tree and built the first house in the township, and E. M. Barnum, who came two years later, also says that Husted put up the first house. We find no reason to dispute this claim. Husted and Wood went back to Danbury after this.

There is considerable uncertainty in regard to the first actual settler in the township, but we believe the weight of evidence is in favor of the statement that the family of Stephen Post was the first to live here, although Ezra Wood, Benjamin Benson and E. M. Barnum, who have written sketches of the pioneer settlement of the township. fail to mention Mr. Post, but Simeon Hoyt, who came in

1817, says that Mr. Post was here when he came. Although we believe Mr. Husted built the first house his family did not come until some months afterward. Bushnell Post, a son of Stephen, tells the story of his father's journey to Ohio in the following words: "In the year 1815, down in the Empire state and in the rich valley of Genesee, there lived a family of Posts, a family of Miners, a family of Russells and a family of Andersons, all neighbors, or what was called neighbors in those early days, for though some miles of wooded roads lay between them, yet their social gatherings and their friendly greetings proclaimed them neighbors indeed. These four families consisted of the following persons: Stephen Post, my father; Sally Post, my mother; sisters Cynthia and Anna, brothers Isaiah, Stephen and William, and the baby, sister Lucinda ; and connected with the family as a hired man at this time was Zara C. Norton, in all nine persons. Asel Miner and his wife, Polly Miner, George Miner, Joel and Albert Miner make up a family of six. The Russells were three in number; the mother and the two sons, Olcott and Charles; and in the other was Henry Anderson, his wife and a daughter, Laura, and connected with the family was Simeon Munson, who came down from Ohio to help move them. The sum total of persons were twenty-two. Some time in the month of December, 1815, these four families came together with their goods packed and piled on three or four sleds, and one wagon was loaded with goods, and these loads were to be hauled by three or four ox teams and two spans of horses. Around were gathered six cows, three hogs and one pet sheep. The little lads, with sticks in their hands, were behind to drive the drove, the women and little children were tucked in among the goods, the drivers were at their post, with their faces set toward the frozen waters of Lake Erie, and with a crack of the whip they move on over the creaking snow. * * * They reach the place where the great city of Cleveland now stands, and - what do they find? One solitary log hotel down on the bottoms of the Cuyahoga river, but are told that there are a few houses up on the hills. On, on, we trace them; we hear the little lads complain of sore feet and weary limbs, the little children cry with cold and hunger, the mothers with anxious care, can but heave a sigh, and the father's whoa, haw, with energy rings out along the wooded way. The most serious mishap happens as they near the mouth of the Vermillion, where an ox sled capsized on the uneven ice that was cracked and bulged here and there, and scattered its contents over the ice just as the shades of night were setting thick and fast. A box of axes found a crack in the ice and slumped through and found a resting place in the gravelly bed of the lake. The goods were gathered up that night lest a wind should spring up and ice, goods and all be among the missing ere the dawn o' another day. But the ice was there; the crack was found and the box of axes wa fished out of eight or ten feet of water the next morning. Arriving at what i: known as Sprague's corners in Florence, my father's family put up for the rest of the winter - it now being the last of December or some time the first of January, 1816 - while the other three families held on for New London. In the spring of this year our family moved to New London and into the house belonging to Benjamin Hendricks and near the west line of the farm now owned by George Bissell. Here they raised corn, potatoes and garden sauce on the little opening that Hendricks had made, and during that fall they built a house in the southwest corner of Clarksfieid, and the foundation logs were laid very near where now stands the neat and trim white house of Mr. Dunning. They moved to this round log structure some time that fall or winter - the opening of 1817 - there being but one white person living in the township at the time, he being an old bachelor who had a shanty on the place now owned by Mrs. Baldwin - a Mr. Osmer by name who was there when our family moved into that good old log home built beneath the shades of the towering trees of southwest Clarksfield. * * * And here, above all other events on the first day of June, 1817, the first white child of the township was born - my youngest sister, Almira. Here, too, occurred the first wedding of the township, Zara C. Norton, being wedded to my oldest sister, Cynthia, and the knot was tied by 'Squire Case of New London. This wedding is down in the pioneer book of this county as having taken place in New London. But this is a mistake; it took place in the first log house built in Clarksfield, it being the one built by the hands of my father. * The nearest mill was eighty miles away, down on Owl creek, where my father went once the first year we lived in New London with a wagon loaded with corn and wheat and a pair of oxen and one horse hitched ahead of them to haul the load, my oldest brother riding the horse to lead the way and Philo T. Porter bringing up the rear with another ox team hauling another wagon like loaded. Well, they made the trip and returned home in three weeks, being delayed by high waters, where they found hungry, anxious friends awaiting them. Our people lived on the Clarksfield farm two years, but the trouble to get to mill caused them to move to Richland county and settle near where Hayesville now is. Here they lived for two years." In another article Mr. Post tells about his father's family coming to Ohio and says that it was in I816 that they started from their home in the east and 1817 when they went to New London and moved into a house built by a Mr. William Hendrix, "and where on June rst a little sister was born."

"Here they tarried for only a short time, until a house could be built on a section of land in the southwest corner of Clarksfield, where they moved in the fall and where they lived for a year or two." Our readers will notice that there are some differences in these two statements. One makes the date of their arrival in New London and Clarksfield a year later than the other. One says that the baby sister was born in Clarksfield, and the other that she was born in New London ; one says that the house they moved into was built by Benjamin Hendriks, the other by William Hendrix. [The latter was a son of the former.] These discrepancies lessen the historical value of the statements and we must look for corroborating evidence. Dr. Skellenger says that the younger Stephen Post said that they came to Clarksfield in 1816, but he (Skellenger) upon investigation thinks it was a year later. In the history of New London township Dr. Skellenger says that Stephen Post, Henry Anderson and Mrs. Russell and her sons came to New London in 1817. It seems the most reasonable to suppose that Mr. Post came to Clarksfield in the fall of 1817, after spending the summer in New London.

Zara C. Norton, who came to Ohio with the family of Stephen Post, was born in Wolcott, Connecticut, November 15, 1799. He was married to Cynthia Post October 14, 1818, by Esquire Case of New London, and this was the first wedding in Clarksfield. After their marriage they lived with Mr. Post, went to Richland county with him and came back with him, but then settled in a log house on the north side of the town line road east of Barrett's Corners, on a farm now owned by Edward Hubbard. The little red house was built by Mr. Norton in later years. In 1829 he was licensed to exhort and to preach in 1833. At this time he went the circuit as a Methodist minister and was away from home much of the time. In 1840 he was admitted to conference and in 1841 he was assigned to a circuit in Williams county and remained for two years, but the family remained on the farm.

In the fall of 1817 Simeon Hoyt and Smith Starr started from Danbury, Connecticut, with their families, in a wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen and one horse and after a journey lasting six weeks they reached Clarksfield in October. Hoyt settled on his farm in the south part of the township where Sherman Smith afterward lived and died. It will be remembered that Mr. Hoyt was one of the party of surveyors who surveyed the Firelands in 1806 and later. In 1809 Comfort Hoyt, the father of Simeon, and one of the original proprietors of the Firelands, came out to see the land and was taken sick at Huron. Simeon sent to Cleveland for a doctor. After a while he recovered so as to be able to travel. Simeon had intended to remain longer, but was obliged to return to Connecticut with his father. Years afterward, when he was seventy years of age, Comfort Hoyt came to Ohio on horseback to visit his children, and returned to Connecticut the same way. In describing his experiences Simeon says: "I came with an ox team in company with Smith Starr. We were six weeks on the road. I had previously purchased the land on which I moved. It was nearly all a wilderness at that time. A few families were living in New London and Stephen Post in this town. We found it hard times. Provisions were scarce and high, and no roads. How we ever lived I can hardly tell, but we did, and in a few years became situated very comfortably." Also in another letter: "My family the first year comprised eleven persons, and it was no easy matter to provide provisions for so large a household. We obtained some flour from Richland county and some from Huron, and made use of pounded corn some of the time. After the first year we were not troubled for the necessities of life."

Smith Starr, who came with Simeon Hoyt, was a son of Peter, son of Samuel, son of Samuel, son of Josiah, son of Thomas, son of Dr. Comfort Starr, who came from England to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1634, and later to Boston. He was born at Ridgefield, Connecticut, and was married to Joanna Knapp in 1805. When they came to Clarksfield they had a number of children, John T., the oldest, being eleven years old. They first moved into the log house which Captain Husted had built in June until their own house could be put up. This was built on the south hill near the site of the fine frame house which he built afterwards and which was his home until his death. It is now owned by Grant Johns. He was a shoemaker by tradeand brought leather on his back from the nearest tannery, some thirty miles distant. His shop and tools were destroyed by fire, so he gave up the business and built a sawmill on the bank of Spring brook in 1819, the first sawmill in the town. He was a useful in the community and served as postmaster for many years.

The first of November, 1817, Samuel Husted again started from Danbury, necticut, for Ohio, but this time he brought his family of wife and six children with him. Hester Paul and Jachim Morris must have come with them as members of the family. Eli and family also accompanied them. The Mr. Starr which Fitch mentions as being with Husted was not Smith Starr. Mary Jane

Husted was only six weeks old when they started and her cradle was a basket hung from the top of the covered wagon and she is said to have been the least trouble of any of the children. Probably the swaying of the wagon as it passed over the rough roads kept her cradle rocking. They were six weeks on the road. Husted drove an ox team with a white horse ahead. This animal lived for many years afterward and was known by the name of "Knitting Work," on account of her nipping kind of a gait. A piece of their wagon is still preserved by the youngest son. They came by the way of Pittsburg, Petersburg, Canfield, Rocky River, Ridgeville and Black river, as an old account book shows. Husted furnished the means to pay Seger's way and charged him fourteen dollars for carrying a chest three hundred miles. He went into his own log cabin which stood near the brow of the hill north of the Hollow, near Albert Stone's house. After a few years he built the first frame house in the township in the Hollow, near the brick store. The oid log house was used for a school house.

Benjamin Benson was a butcher in New York city. He was a member of the First Troop of Horse Artillery under Colonel Joseph Bogart in the war of 1812, and spent a little time in camp when the troops were called out to defend the city against an expected attack of the British, but did not see active service. He purchased a piece of land here in Clarksfield in the summer of 1817. He started for Ohio October 14, 1817. He says: "Traveling was very expensive, even when a man drove his own team, owing chiefly to the great flood of emigration at that time settling toward the west. The price of oats on the main thoroughfares would average about seventy-five cents a bushel, with hay proportionately dear. Our destination was Clarksfield, Huron county, Ohio, and we arrived at Florence on the 2d day of December, where we were accommodated by Major Barnum with shelter within the body of a log house without chimney or floor or anything but the bare logs with open spaces of three or four inches between them, thus affording very inadequate protection against the rigor of winter, which, after our arrival had begun in good earnest and continued through the months of January and February at a temperature with little variation, bordering upon zero. During this tinie we built a log cabin and before the spring opened we had removed to our intended future home." This cabin stood near the place where Robert Hurlbut afterward built his house, on the road about a half mile south of the Hollow.

Aaron Rowland was born in 1780, in a military camp at Danbury, Connecticut. In 1799 he was married to Deborah Dean of Carmel, New York. They located zt Southeast, Putnam county, New York. Mr. Rowland was a miller by trade and operated flouring and sawmills along the Croton river. On the roth day of October, 1818, he started from Southeast in a wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen and one horse. His family consisted of a wife and six children. Accompanying him was his brother-in-law, Ezra Wood, and family. They reached Clarksfield November 18th. Captain Husted's wife was an aunt to Mr. Rowland and Mrs. Wood, so all bands found shelter in Mr. Husted's log cabin. This addition must have swelled the number of inmates to about twenty. The probability is that the Husted family were glad to see some of their own folks and willing to be crowded for a short time. Mr. Husted charged Mr. Wood four dollars for a week's board for himself and wife. Mr. Rowland found employment at once in Captain Husted's new grist mill. Perhaps he had come here with that understanding. He built a log house a little ways north of Husted's house where Ezra Wildman wards lived, near the house of Mrs. Hubbell. He operated the mill when there was water and attended to farming at other times until 1822, when he moved to his own land which he had bought before he came here.

The first physician to make a settlement in the wilderness of Clarksfield was Andrew McMillan. He was of Scotch parentage but was born in the state of New York. About 1820 he came with his father's family to a farm near Monroeville and in July, 1822, he came to Clarksfield.

Joseph Osyer moved from Canada to Berlin and in 1820 to Hartland Ridge, settling on the farm known as the Eno Holiday farm. In 1824 he sold out his place and moved to Clarksfield, living in a log house on the farm of Benjamin Stiles, back of Charles Fisher's house. He used to make many shingles and had a shed near his house where he used to shave the shingles. The Stiles boys and others of the neighborhood used to like to go there and watch him at work. He received two dollars per thousand for his shingles, and the price seems small when we consider that every shingle was split and shaved by hand and made of the very best oak or whitewood timber.

On the 3d day of November, 1820, "the inhabitants of Bethel were legally warned for the purpose of building a bridge across the Vermillion river." This was without doubt the bridge at the "Hollow."

In 1825 Joseph Waldron received two dollars for putting up guide boards. In April, 1825, after the separation of the townships the following officers were elected in Clarksfield: Andrew McMillan, clerk; Asa Wheeler, Jr., Platt Sexton and Sheldon Freeman, trustees ; Samuel Husted and John Hough, overseers of the poor ; Ira Peck and Andrew McMillan, fence viewers ; Smith Starr, Lister and Andrew McMillan, appraisers of property ; Aaron Rowland, treasurer ; Levi Barnum and Stiles Webb, constables; John Wriker, John Hough, Stephen Post, Ezra Rowland and Harvey Webb, supervisors. In May the trustees divided the township into four school districts and made a list of the householders, forty-four in number.

Samuel Stiles, who was born November 13, 1818, was without doubt the first white child born in the township and Bethiah Wheeler was the first girl. Dorothy Benson, who was born January 9, 1819, was probably the third white child born here. The first death, as before stated, was that of Ephraim Seger, which occurred on the 27th or 28th of August, 1818. He had been sent on an errand by his father and when he returned was set to work picking up chips to put on a log heap. He was soon heard to exclaim, "What has bit me!" A large rattlesnake was found in the weeds and was quickly put into the burning log heap. It was found that the boy had been bitten on the wrist and he died three days afterward. In 1820 Horace Bodwell went down into Levi Barnum's well, a very deep one, on the Abraham Gray place, and was overcome with the "damps," and fell to the bottom. Nickerson went down and after several attempts succeeded in fastening a rope to the body and it was drawn out, but life was extinct. Two deaths by falling trees, those of Henry Vanderveer and Rodney Blackman, occurred soon after the settlement of the town.

The first wedding in the township was that of Zara C. Norton and Cynthia Post, on the 14th day of October, 1818, and the second was that of Obadiah Jenney and Hester Paul.

East Main Street, New London, Ohio

The first settlers, coming as they did from New England, were people of considerable education as a rule, and they began to erect school houses very soon after they were established in their new homes. Captain Husted gave Ezra Wood credit for one day's work at school house in December, 1818. The first school house in that township was built of logs, south of the Hollow not far from the Hough house, in 1819 and Miss Alzina Barker was the first teacher. This building was burned in 1829. It was supposed that some of the young men set fire to it in hopes of getting a better building. A frame building was soon afterward built just north of the river on the east side of the road. Soon after the first school house was built at the Hollow another was erected in the Stiles settlement some distance south of the present village of West Clarksfield. During the first years the schools were supported by those inhabitants who sent children to school, the expense being borne according to the number sent. But three months of school were taught in a year.

During the first four years of the new settlement the inhabitants had to go to Florence, or, perhaps, New London, for their mail. In 1821 a postoffice was established at Clarksfield with Smith Starr as postmaster, and he held that office until 1853, with the exception of two short intervals.

In 1834, Asa Wheeler, Jr., sold to Samuel Husted and David Tyler the strip of land at Clarksfield between the river and the east and west road and running from Spring Brook west to the north and south road, for fifty dollars. Husted and Tyler built a saw mill at the west end of this land. The power was derived from water brought by a race from the grist mill race. The mill cost three hundred forty-two dollars and twenty-eight cents, as shown by one of Husted's books. This mill was operated until about 1888, but has now nearly disappeared from the face of the earth. On March 5, 1836, this property was sold to Virgil Squire and Ebenezer Warner (of Florence) for one thousand, five hundred dollars. On the same day Samuel Husted sold to Squire and Warner the old gristmill property including the pond and race, for one thousand, five hundred dollars. On September 30, 1836, Squire and Warner sold both properties to George Lawton and David Tyler for four thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars and on November 16, 1836, Starr sold to Lawton and Tyler the store and two acres of land afterward occupied by J. J. Cobb, for seven hundred and fifty dollars. On March 4, 1837, Lawton and Tyler sold to Virgil Squire a one-third interest in their property for two thousand, five hundred dollars. In the same year John Hayes sold to Squire, Lawton and Tyler the land where the present grist mill stands, including his store and privilege of water from the mill race, and, at the same time Samuel Husted sold to them the triangular piece of land bounded by the New London road, where it angles to the east, the lot line and the east and west road, with the point near the top of the hill, for one hundred dollars. Mr. Tyler soon sold out his interest. In the fall of 1837 Squire & Lawton began the erection of a grist mill on the premises and it was completed the next year, about September Ist. On the day when the mill was started there was quite a gathering of the inhabitants of the place, and as was usual upon such occasions, the men were ready to indulge in sports. Myron Furlong attempted to jump across the race, which was sixteen feet wide and full of water but he undershot the mark and landed in the water. This created a laugh and he excused himself by saying that no man could jump across and that he should have known better than to try. This led to a banter and a bet that a man could be found who would jump across. Ben Patch, who was not a man grown, was sent for and when he came Almanza Hamlin told him what was wanted and patted him the shoulder, saying, I would rather lose a hundred dollars than have you fail." He did not fail, but made the jump easily and the laugh was on Furlong again. The machinery for this mill was hauled by teams from Huron, to which place it had probably been shipped from Pittsburg. It had four runs of stone and was capable of doing a good deal of business while the waterlasted. It was driven by a large overshot wheel, which was replaced by a turbine wheel in later years. About 1850 a steam engine was put in for use when the water did not suffice. A few years ago modern roller process machinery was put in and since then all of the stones have been removed and the water power discarded entirely. It still does a large business with the farmers. Squire & Lawton did not have capital enough to carry on the business successfully and the property was heavily mortgaged. In 1842 Lawton sold his interest to Squire for five hundred dollars. On November 25, 1837, Squire & Lawton sold to David Tyler a tract of land fifty-two by one hundred feet, including a building upon it. which stcod twenty-six feet east cf the mill then building, "with a water privilege of as much water as would spout through an aperture three feet six inches by two inches, with two feet head, but reserving the right to run four stones and two saws." This building is where Mr. Tyler carried on the business of making furniture, drums, coffins and almost anything which could be made from wood. This shop was burned in 1841 and another was erected in the same place, but it has been moved away and converted into a barn. In 1837 Samuel H. Gibson entered into a contract with David Tyler and Samuel Husted, in which Tyler agreed to let Gibson have the "privilege of water on said Tyler's land for use of propelling a wheel for carding and cloth dressing, and also agreed to furnish a shop and fit it in order for the above and put in a fulling mill and furnish one-half of all outgoes, wood, candles, soap, dye wood, dye stuffs, etc., and in turn was to receive one-fourth of the avails of the business." Mr. Husted agreed that when the water should not be sufficient to carry the grist mill and cloth works, to secure the water for the cloth works for the consideration of one-half of Tyler's avails, at the time his water was used for said works. The business of cloth dressing was carried on in the basement of Mr. Tyler's shop until it was burned. Silas Earl then built a cloth mill across the river from the grist mill and carried on the business until a freshet came on New Year's Day of 1847 and wrecked the machinery. He used horse power at first but put in a steam engine later. Virgil Squire kept a store at Clarksfield in 1835, in a building which stood near the foot of the hill north of Smith Starr's, and the business was continued by Squire & Lawton.

The building used to face the north, but Cobb had it turned around to face the west and had it painted anew, and he put in the best stock of goods which had been brought to the town. He had a partner, Mr. Buckingham, of Norwalk, until 1843. In 1848 he had the store building moved back and a large two-story building with a basement was erected and then Mr. Cobb enlarged his business until he drew trade from all the surrounding country. Excepting a store at Wake- man and another at King's Corners (now New London), Clarksfield offered the chief facilities for trade in this part of the country, until the advent of railroads changed the order of things. Mr. Cobb bought anything which the farmers had to sell and supplied them with nearly everything which could be bought in stores at that time. The most of his produce was shipped at Milan and his goods came from there. He kept several teams busy most of the time. When he moved away he sold out to Tyler & Seger and théy were followed in 1858-59 by Sam and Harley Jones. William Stiles carried on the business from 1859 to 1865, followed by J. N. Barnum, Seneca Ronk and Frank Wildman. The building has not been occupied for several years. Winslow Fay opened a store here in 1839 in a new building which he erected on the hill south of Smith Starr's house. He had a partner, one Albert Sherwood, until 1845. Fay sold out to him, but put up a smaller building by the side of the one sold to Sherwood, and carried on a store there for a short time. The first building erected by Fay was fitted for a school house some years after Fay moved away, and now stands at the foot of the hill east of the Cobb store. The second building erected by Fay was cut in two and one-half of it moved to the foot of the hill south of the old Cobb store, the other half stood on the lot north of the Congregational parsonage until recently, when it was torn down. When the Vermillion & Ashland railroad company was building its road north of this place, it bought the Husted store and hired Simeon B. Sturges to carry on the business, but after the company failed the store was sold to Abel D. Howe at sheriff's sale. Seger & Curtiss kept store there at one time. In 1820 Ezra Wildman came from Danbury, Connecticut, to Clarksfield, bringing a load of goods and he made several trips afterward, until he moved here in 1828. It is likely that his brother-in-law, Captain Husted, sold out the goods for him. When Johnson Wheeler bought the Barnum mill north of Rowland's corners, at what came to be known as Hayesville, he carried on a store in one corner of the mill, until a building was put up on the east side of the road on the north bank of the ravine, called the "Mansion House," where one room was used for a store. He also carried on a distillery. Albert Seger carried on a foundry at Hayesville for some time and then he and Walter Bates built a foundry at Clarksfield on the north side of the road just west of where the old grist-mill used to stand.

We learn that Alvin Coe, a Presbyterian, and William Westlake, a Methodist, were the first regular ministers. Other men visited the new colony and some of these missionary workers saw hard times. David Marks was one of them and in his Memoirs (see page twenty-two) he gives a narrative of his first journey to Ohio. Finding that a Free Will Baptist church had already been established at Milan, he journeyed on to New London, Clarksfield and Danbury, where he attended meetings "with some appearance of success." On the 29th and 3oth of June, 1822, a general meeting was held at Milan. "Brethren attended from three small churches in Milan, Greenfield and Clarksfield, which were the only Free Will Baptist churches in this part of the country." In August of this year he attended meetings at Clarksfield in addition to other places. It is probable that the first church society organized in the township was the Baptist, but we are unable to learn anything more concerning it than stated above.

There was a society of Free Will Baptists here at one time. When the Millerite doctrine began to be preached here, some of the members of the Baptist church embraced the new faith but when the prophecy that the world would come to an end on a certain day in April, 1844, did not prove to be true, some of these joined the Congregational church, under the preaching of John Todd. There was a larger society of Close Communion Baptists here, among whom were J. J. Cobb and wife, Robert W. Hurlbut and wife, Ezra Wood, the Fletchers. Aaron and Levi Rowland, Esex Call and family, Asa Percy, William Wood, Ransom Day and wife, Mrs. I. B. Scott and Mrs. Henry Kress, the last two being the only ones to hold their membership when the society disbanded. In 1845 a new school house was built across the street from the Congregational church and the building which had been used was made over into a church. J. J. Cobb helped much in the work. Elder Hall was the first minister in the new church building. The church society was kept up for about ten years and then there was a division and some of the members withdrew and organized a society at Rowland's corners. About 1837 a Methodist church was organized at East Clarksfield and a church building was afterwards erected at Whitefox corners and is still in use. We have been unable to get any history of the early days of this church. Two other Methodist churches have been built in the township, one at Barrett's corners and the other at West Clarksfield.