Fairfield Township

Fairfield Township

Fairfield township still bears its original name. It was so called from Fairfield, Connecticut, where many of those lived who had received the land in payment for loss of property in the Revolutionary war. It was detached from Bronson and organized in 1823.

The surface of the township is quite level, except in the northwest portion where there are ridges and curiously formed hills. The soil throughout is rich and there is no waste land. The whole township was originally covered with an unusually heavy growth of timber - maple, beech, whitewood and black walnut, the last two varieties being found in great quantity. Black walnut was so common that it was used in large quantity for fence rails by the earliest settlers. Many of these old rails have since been worked up into furniture and house finishing material. The principal stream in the township is a tributary of the Huron river, and flows westward through sections one and four, thence northward through section three into Bronson. Fords creek runs through the southwest corner of the township, and empties into the Huron river in Greenfield township. There is a sandstone formation underlying the whole township, and it occasionally crops out in such a manner as to be available for use. There are stone quarries in the first, second and third sections, but none of them are worked upon an extensive scale.

Deer was very abundant in the early settlement, often from twenty to fifty were seen in half a day. Many were killed and their skins were used for clothing. Wild turkeys were found in great abundance. Wolves were troublesome for the first few years. A few bears were also found.

The present generation scarcely form adequate appreciation of the toilsome labor, privation, danger and last, but not least, the deep sense of isolation that the pioneers of the Western Reserve experienced. There was a great deal to be done, and very little to do it with. Food was scarce, and sometimes it was difficult to obtain a sufficient amount to alleviate hunger. It is said that some of the early settlers followed the cows around, and selected leaves and plants that they ate, for greens, knowing that the instinct of the animals would lead them to avoid any thing of a poisonous nature. The pioneers of Fairfield were obliged to make a five days' trip to Cold creek, Margaretta township, to get their milling done. There was but little money in the country, and but little to buy even had money been plenty. Nearly all manufactured implements brought a very high price, and the settlers often managed to do the work of clearing and tilling the soil, with the tools which their descendants would not think of using. Notwithstanding the hard life they led, the severe toil that was necessary to procure even the commonest conveniences of existence the pioneers were happy upon their frugal fare, and healthful, - physically and morally. They passed minor difficulties without noticing them, and met and overcame the more formidable ones bravely. The first few pioneers lent willing aid to those who came after them, and thus the severity of the settlers' experience was moderated by degrees unti! the community had attained a fair growth, and the advantages of civilization had been secured.

The first clearing in the township was made by a widow, of foreign birth, named Sample, and the boys in her family of nine children - ]John, Martha, Betsey, James, William, Anna, Samuel, Nancy and David. They came from Newark, Licking county, Ohio, in the year 1816, and settled on lot thirty-six, in the third section. The widow was a woman of very remarkable ability and of strong constitution. The family was very poor, and Mrs. Sample and her boys and girls were compelled to live in a manner which many people would consider impossible. 1t is related, upon the best of authority, that the boys went bare-footed all of one winter, while they were chopping timber and extending the clearing in which their rude cabin stood. They heated large chips by the fire, and carrying them to the place where they were intending to fell a tree, stood upon them until they grew cold, and then heated them again and again, until their day's work was done. Day after day they labored under this disadvantage, which less hardy people would regard as insurmountable. The mother of these boys was their equal, if not superior, in energy and spirit, and was ingenious as well. She out-reaped a man in the grain field in 1817, and clothed her family in cloth which she wove from the silk of wild nettles. Mrs. Sample married Jacob Rush, who died soon after. Her daughter Martha married Amos Harkness. The mother removed to the west, and lived to be nearly a hundred years old.

When the settlement was new, bears, deer, wolves and other animals were found in great abundance. The bears made hunting something more than a dilletanti amusement ; the deer afforded food for the table and clothing for the hunters ; the wolves were simply an annoyance, and the minor animals lent variety to the sport of hunting and to the larders of the pioneers' houses. Several bears were killed in the township. We narrate one instance, as it is a somewhat novel one, and although seemingly outside of the realm of probability, if not of possibility, is vouched for by those whose word is above suspicion of unreliability. George Eldridge, while passing through the woods, one day, in the northern part of the township, where the Jenning's farm now is, saw, at a little distance, a full grown bear standing upon the trunk of a large fallen tree. He raised his rifle, took a steady aim and fired. The bear fell down behind the tree, and Eldridge, not knowing whether he had killed him or not, reloaded his gun. He had no balls and so put in a beech slug. He had no sooner got his gun in readiness for use, then he saw the head of bruin raised above the tree trunk. He fired, and the animal dropped from sight. The hunter prudently loaded a second time and as quickly as possible, for in those days no man felt safe when in the woods unless provided for any emergency. After ramming the second beech slug home, he waited a few seconds and was rewarded with a third shot, which, like the former ones, apparently took effect. Again the bear fell from the log. Reloading the rifle, Eldridge went cautiously forward to see whether the three shots fired had quite ended the animal's life, and on reaching the tree trunk and looking over it, was surprised to find three dead bears instead of one. He had supposed, al! of the time, that there was but one bear in the vicinity, that the first and second shots had only slightly wounded him, and that he had each time, after recovering his surprise, again clambered upon the tree to reconnoiter the enemy. The trio consisted of a she bear and two cubs, more than half grown. The old bear weighed four hundred pounds, and her flesh furnished food for several families. This bear killing episode was commonly looked upon as something reflecting great credit upon Mr. Eldridge. He was a good marksman, but probably his success in this instance depended as much upon "good luck," or the kindness of fate, as upon his ability. Killing three bears in a period of time measured by about as many minutes, and with only three shots, two of them with bits of wood in the place of leaden ball, is a feat not often, if ever, equaled. The adventure became, and was for a long time, the subject of much wonder throughout the neighborhood.

The center road, north and south, was, as originally cut through the forest, the Harrison road. It was made by the General's troops, and subsequently was straightened and improved. In 1825, when the new state road was laid out eleven miles through Fairfield and portions of Ripley and Bronson, the residents of this township gave material assistance to the enterprise. The road cost one hundred dollars per mile. The west, or ridge road, was laid out at an early day.

It is probable that Jonas Leonard, a native of Connecticut, who had settled in Bronson, taught the first school in Fairfield, about 1824. The school house was in the northwest quarter, or third section. The township is now well provided with district schools, and the union schools of North Fairfield afford higher instruction to those who desire it.

The first church in the township was the Methodist Episcopal, in 1822, with a class of less than a dozen members, but owing to the untiring exertions of those few a strong membership soon developed and in time a church edifice was erected. The other denominations came later, and they, too, have prospered.

The first postmaster was Walter Branch. He was commissioned January 1, 1829. He held the office for four years, and then resigned in favor of Horace L. Moulton.

The first cemetery was laid out in lot eleven, section three, upon the Ridge road, near the northeast corner of the township. The first settlers located in this vicinity, and the little piece of ground was set aside for burial purposes at an early day. There is another cemetery on the same road - lot one, section four: one on the Bronson town line road - lot six, section three, and one in North Fairfield village, just east of the corners.

Among the early settlers were Eliphalet W. Day. He was born in Connecticut and settled in Fairfield township 1818. Aaron Smith settled there in 1820, and Philip Moffitt came in 1819. Spencer Baker also came in I819. Samuel Foote also in 1819. Havilah Smith became a settler in Fairfield in 1821, and John Cherry came at a little earlier date.

A log house could be raised in half a day. The raising would be attended by all the settlers, and glad they were of the chance to have another settler added to the population. They took great pride in doing such a job. During all the chopping and clearing and many log raisings no serious accident occurred until 1828 when Henry Randall had his skull fractured by the falling of a bent at a barn raising, and died within an hour.

The Indians would come to the township and hunt every fall for several years after its first settlement. They claimed to be friendly, but would go to the cribs and take corn without leave, and were otherwise annoying.

North Fairfield Village

The first store in the township was opened at the center in the year 1831, by Ezra Smith, of Macksville, but soon after several enterprising men made efforts to establish a village at what was then known as Greenfield's corners. They were so far successful as to create all that now exists in North Fairfield, and in fact much more, for the village was at one time a flourishing business center, and had bright prospects of future prosperity. William Greenfield, Samson Baker, Walter Branch and Samuel Foote were largely instrumental in securing the location of various industries at this place. Horace S. Moulton opened the first store at Greenfield's corners, in 1832. Union White, of Fitchville, Woodworth and Holmes, Clark Sexton, A. R. Eastman, and a man by the name of West, began atanearly day. D. 5. Stevens opened a dry goods store in 1838. Manufactories were established, and the village developed for a few years at a rate, which, had it been long continued, would have produced a little city. A newspaper. The Fairfield Gazette, was established, and had, for a time, a fair patronage. The first copy was issued April 23, 1856, by Robert McCune. Afterwards the paper was under the charge of J. Ralph Robinson, and still later of O. B. Chapman. He moved it to Bellevue. The causes of Fairfield's failure to become all that its residents fondly hoped, were numerous. Chief among them was the building of railroads all around the village, at a distance of ten or a dozen miles, and the failure of the projected Clinton extension, which was (upon paper) a link of a long chain extending from New York to the great west. Over seventy thousand dollars of Fairfield money went out of existence with this bubble. The Milan canal was another failure. The largest manufactory in the little village - the chair factory - and the steam mill, built at an early day, vanished in fire - ended in smoke. Other evils assisted in thwarting the plans of the would-be founders of a city, and slowly, but surely, the last hope of making North Fairfield a large and live business town passed away. All that was left the people was the reasonable certainty that the village would always be, what it now is, a peaceful and pleasant home, in which there will never be an excess of bustle and din and sordid strife, but always well being, good manners and better morals.

Although North Fairfield failed to get the courthouse and the steam railroad it now has a fine electric line running north and south - the Sandusky, Norwalk & Mansfield. The village contains some fine residences, has a good country trade and supports a printing office.