Hudson City (part 1 of 6)

Early Resour' . Of The Settlers

"The sweet remembrance of the just, Like a green root, revives and bears, A train of blessings for his heirs, When dying nature sleeps in dust."

^'^O form a correct idea of the early history JL of the Western Reserve, it is essential that it should be viewed thi'ough the contemporaneous history of the parent State. The Pui'itan colony which had been planted in Connecticut some one hundi'ed and sixty years before, had grown to the dignity of a State. Its primitive customs, involving a close union of Church and State, had gi'own with its gi'owth until the chm'ch militant had become the chm'ch triumphant so far as it concerned municipal governments and cormnunities. Each tovni had its ministerial fund, schools were everywhere provided, and a patriotic pride in the individuality of its institutions was the dominant influence with every citizen of the State. The Puritan of the last centmy was no weakling in his least estate, but at this period he was at the summit of his power. Of a robust nature, physically and mentally, he handled the ponderous themes of the time as the mythological deities did thunderbolts, and in the lowest condition of life counted himself " a hero in the strife." Thus equipped, he was aggressive in every fiber of his being, and pushed his conqviests with an imperiousness that abated not a tittle of his eai'thly or heavenly heritage. It was with something of this spirit that the State maintained her right to the territory embraced by the provisions of her charter, in the midst of conflicting^ claims and the overwhelming opposition of non- claiming States. But when at last in the interest of harmony, Connecticut sun-endered her pretensions, save to the Reserve, and finally relinquished her jm-isdiction to that, she had sun-endered only her feeblest power. Her

The early settlement of the Reserve was an effort to reproduce in this Western wild the honored institutions of the motherland. This was the beginning of the golden period of the Connecticut churches, a period marked by revivals of religion throughout the State, distinguished for their power, purity and permanent influence, gi'eatly enlarging the chm-ches, improving the moi-als of society, and bringing the people of the State, to a great extent, under the control of religion." It was just at this time also that the Connecticut method of " missions to the new settlements " was completed, which was destined to play so important a part in the New Connecticut; and these civilizing influences combined to leave an impress upon the plastic civilization of the new land that has been ciystallized in the cultm'e of to-day. These influences were early marked, and perhaps nowhere more distinctly than in the region which is now embraced in Summit County. A letter from the Western Reserve to Eastern friends dated 1812, reads as follows: "I like Tallmadge better on several accounts than any other place I have seen. The settlers in this toA\Ta are much the most respectable of any on the Reserve. There is provision made for the pennanent support of preaching, which is not the case in any other town." Another letter dated from Tallmadge in the same year, speaks in the same strain: "I am persuaded that if any of om' fi'iends tliiulv of going to a new country, they will find none that they will be so well pleased with, either on account of the quality of the land or of the society. I do not think there is in the State of Connecticut a society where there is that attention paid to the Sabbath, and to religion generally, that there is here. There are very few who do not attend meeting regularly, and very few prayerless families." There is no question but that the early histoiy of Tallmadge was exceptional in some respects, but of Hudson it was scai'cely less true. Its founder, the son of a tailor who taught his children as he plied his trade, grew up to advanced manhood embracing skeptical notions. Caught by the sweeping power of the chiur.h movement of this period he was converted, and with the characteristic practicability of the Pm-itan mind, he sought an opportunity to prove his faith in work. The missionary spirit that had begun to pervade the religious communities of his native State, and the recent organization of the gi'eat Land Company, prepared the way which he adopted without hesitation. Zealous in his new found faith, " he wished to do something to repair the injury he had done, and to advance, to the extent of his ability, the interests of that cause which he had early labored to destroy. These were the views that led him to emigrate. * * * * The early efforts and sacrifices of the men who came to Hudson, show that they were actuated by the motives I have ascribed to them. They never suffered the Sabbath to pass by after the settlement was commenced, without religious worship; and by great effort and great pecuniary expenditure, they provided for the enjoyment of religious ordinances among themselves, and sought to promote the progi-ess of religion in this part of our country. It was the first desire of ^Ir. Hudson's heart to see the day when a chm'ch shou^ld be organized within the township, and he rejoiced in that day. The next object of desire was that this chiu-ch might enjoy the labors of a settled Pastor, and he lived to see that day and was glad. Then it was in his heart to see a house erected for the worship of Grod, and that he saw completed to his great satisfaction. 'But,' said he, 'the college - the college; that was a child of my old age. I never expected to live to see that.' Yet the college was in coincidence with his plans and with his missionary spirit. He spent most of his time in visiting Clmstian families in all parts of the Reserve, and securing the organization of churches and it was with him a matter of painful solicitude, how the infant chm*ches rising up on the Reserve were to be supplied with able, faithful ministers, in sufficient numbers to meet their wants. The college came in as the appropriate instrument to supply the deficiency."*

The site chosen for this enterprise - Township 4, Range 10 - was centrally located in the land company's purchase, and contained what has since proven to be among the best farming lands in Summit County. It was laid down in the original survey, however, as a swamp township and was " equalized " by the addition of 10,000 acres, situated in the townshi}>s of Norton and Chester. West of the central line of the township the land was covered by an almost impassable swamp, which, filled with innumerable springs, gave rise to the Brandy wine Creek, flowing in a northwesterly course to the Cuyahoga River and Mud Brook, flowing neaily due south in Hudson but fiu'ther on in its com'se, taking a ciu've to the westward finds an outlet in the Cuyahoga. A branch of Mud Brook in the southwest part of the township, known as Powers' Brook, and Tinker's Creek, which flows in a northerly com'se in the northeast part of the township, crossing back and forth from Hudson to Stratsboro, completes the list of the more important water-courses of the township. None of these, however, were found available in the first years of the settlement for such pioneer industries as the community needed, save the latter stream for a short period. Other water-com-ses were foiuid which in the changes wrought by the process of clearing and tilling, have become extinct or insignificant, that afforded suitable power for the early attempts at milling and manufacturing. The township is now inhabited by a purely agricultm'al community. The luxuriant growth of heavy timber which once covered every acre, has largely given way to meadow-lands and grain-fields, save where each farmer's woodland gives token of the grandetu* of "God's first temple." The soil in the lowlauds of the western part is largely a black muck, rich but saturated with moistiu'e and liable to frost. In the eastern part the siu'f ace is more rolling with a soil varying from a stiff, stubborn clay to a clay loam. There is but little regularity in the disposition of these varieties, though in the southern and northeastei'n parts it is said the clay-loam predominates. Eighty years of tillage has wrought great changes in the character of the soil, and the swampy portion of the early township has given place to good farms, and it is estimated that not over one thousand two hundred acres of low wet land remains. Water is everywhere easily accessible. Springs abound in the western part, while in other portions of the township there is no special difficulty experienced in securing good wells: some artesian wells, however, have been sunk. The soil is the chief material resource of the township, though there is an abundance of a fair quality of sandstone which has been utilized in the constniction of the foundations of the college buildings, most of the residences, railroad culverts, etc. The chief objection to the stone is its dark color and its lack of weathering qualities. These objections would proba bly prove no serious obstacle to its general use, if the more desirable stone was not found in the near vicinity which is placed upon the ground here as cheaply as the product of the home quarries can be got ready for transportation. As in most townships of the Reserve, the social and business center is at the geographical center of the township. An early cluster of houses in the southern part of the township on the central road has given name to the road, and across the line in the adjoining township it is designated, in the nomenclature of the map, Darrowville. The early jurisdiction of the township embraced what is now known as the towniships of Stow, Boston, Twinsburg, Aurora and Mantua, besides its own territory. As the settlement increased in these tov^^lships the jurisdiction of Hudson became limited to the lines of the original survey, which now bou.nds it on the north by Twinsburg, east by Stratsboro, in Portage County, south by Stow and west by Boston.

The original purchasers of this township with its annexes, were Nathaniel Norton, of Bloomfield, N. Y.,Birdseye Norton and David Hudson, of Goshen. Conn. There are no means now of ascertaining the arrangement between these partners in relation to this purchase. Nathaniel Norton was a well-to-do farmer in Bloomfield, N. Y., where he had come as an early settler ; Birdseye Norton was a wealthy merchant of Goshen, and David Hudson a farmer in comfortable circumstances, but of little cash capital. From such evidence as the old account books of Mr. Hudson afford, it is probable that Birdseye Norton furnished one-half of the capital and each of the others contributing a fourth, Mr. Hudson probably turning in his Connecticut farm to Mr. Birdseye Norton. The land was purchased at 52 cents per acre, but with the equalizing annexes the average cost per acre was reduced to 34 cents. Nathaniel Norton, some time in 1S()1, disposed of his share, probably to Stephen Baldwin, Benjamin Oviatt and Theodore Parmele. The first di-aft of the Reserve was made in 1798. and earlv in the following: yeai'. Mr. Hudson started out to explore and survey the land for the company in which he was a partner. His preparations for his new adventui'e were carefully made, as the following exhibit taken from an old account-book shows : far West was forced to depend upon the uncertain guidance of Indian trails and the surveyor's marks. The thoroughfare of Western travel was by the lakes, and IVIr. Hudson has left a carefully prepared " traveler's guide " over that route as follows: From Black Rock to Buffalo Creek, tlu-ee miles; Buffalo Creek to Five Mile Creek, live miles; Five Mile Creek to Eighteen Mile Creek, thirteen miles; Eighteen Mile Creek to Cattaraugus, twelve miles; Cattaraugus to Four Mile Creek, four miles; Four Mile Creek to Fifteen Mile Creek, eleven miles; Fifteen Mile Creek to Chataqua, twenty-live miles; Chataqua to Lowiy's, sixteen miles; Lowry's to Presque Isle, sixteen miles; Presq^^e Isle to Walnut Creek, twelve miles ; Walnut Creek to Elk Creek, eight miles ; Elk Creek to Conneaut, ten miles; Conneaut to Ashtabula, fourteen miles; Ashtabula to Grand River, twenty-six miles; Grand River to Chagrin, ten miles; Chagrin to Cuyahoga, twenty miles; a total of 205 miles. The only public source of information in regard to this country was " Morse's Geography," which represented the latter river as navigable for sloops for forty miles from its moiith.

On the 22d day of April, 1799, in company with Jesse Lindley, William McKinley, whom he had hired as assistants, and Ira, his son of eleven years, Mr. Hudson started for Bloomfield, N. Y. The party was accompanied by a wagon driven by Thaddeus Lacey, who brought his wife and two childi'en. Mr. and Mrs. Lacey were engaged as purveyor and cook for the party, and were in charge of the supplies with which the wagon was loaded. Their route lay toward Albany, where they arrived on the 24th. Here Mr. Hudson hired Joseph Darrow for six months, at $10 per month, to accompany the expedition, terms similar to those on which the others had been engaged. Their course then led tlu'ough Schenectady, old Fort Schuyler, Onondaga to Bloomfield. Sixteen miles west of Schenectady, Mr. Hudson, leaving his son and Lindlev with the wagon, pushed on ahead with Darrow, making his way on foot to Fort Schuyler on the 29th, where he engaged Jonah Meecham; to Onondaga on May 2, where he added Richard H. Blin to his party, reaching Nathaniel Norton's in Bloomfield on the 5th day of May. Here the little party was detained eleven days, which they employed in fiu'ther providing for their enterprise in the wilderness. Here IMr. Hudson fell in with Benjamin Tappan, later known as Judge, on his way to his town of Ravenna. ]VIi\ Ta])pan here bought a yoke of oxen and ]VIi'. Hudson, as will appear in the preceding statement, bought two yoke of oxen and two cows. These animals were conhded to the care of Meacham, who assisted by some of Tappan' s hired men, brought them safely on the Indian trail thi'ough Buffalo, until he found near the lake the west line of the seventh range on the Reserve. This line, the eastern boundary of the present township of Paiuesville, Concoi'd, Chardon, Monson, Newburg, Auburn, Mantua, Shalersville and Ravenna, they followed due south for more than forty miles, crossing the Grand and Cuyahoga Rivers and striking the Salt Spring Indian trail near the southeastern corner of Ravenna, and thence to their destination. In the meanwhile Hudson had his baggage and supplies transported to Grondigut Bay, where, to his great disappointment, he found his boat in no condition for u.se. He sent back Eliada Lindley and Farr and Straight, whom he had secured at Bloomlield, and obtained passage in one of Tappan's boats for himself and DaiTow. He also had the good fortune to find Eli as Harmon here, about to start out with his wife for Mantua. In one of his boats he obtained passage for Blin and McKinley, dividing such of his store as he was able to take between the two boats. This was on the 16th of May, but meeting with bad weather the little fleet did not reach Niagara until the 22d, when to their astonishment they found the river full of floating ice. They proceeded up the river, however, against the united strength of the cmi'ent and floating ice, and with great effort reached Buffalo Creek on the 26th, where they were blocked up with ice " at least twelve feet high." Happily the ice broke up that night leaving Lake Erie clear, but with so heavy a swell rolling that the expedition was obliged to lay by until the 29th, when for three days the lake was almost at a dead calm. Prompt use was made of these advantageous circumstances, the little party rowing from Buffalo to Elk Creek, a distance of 120 miles in the meantime. On the 1st of June they put out and attempted to continue their jomTiey and rowed six miles, but they were obliged to beach their boats at Crooked Creek, and lay windbound for several days. "On the 5th," says IVIi-. Hudson, " we put out fi'om Crooked Creek and dined in Conneaut, with a fair wind fi'om the northeast. At 2 o'clock P. M., the wind shifted into the north and blew on the shore with such violence that the boat in which myself and Darrow were, and which was heavily loaded, filled with water before a single article could be got on shore. With most unremitting and violent exertion, we saved oin: boat and loading, and spent the remainder of the day and part of the next in diying our loading which was much damaged with water. On the 7th and 8th we sailed to Grand River, using the bed blankets as sails. The boat in which McKinley and Blin had taken passage and which was in oiu- company, fai'ed worse, it being stove, and a part of my potatoes went thi'ough her bottom. But after the wind had subsided they got her up, and with the help of my nails they so far repaired the wTeck that they got her into Grand River with her loading on the same day we got there."* This was the destination of JNIi-. Harmon's goods and as there was no way of securing the transportation of the goods on board, he pui'chased this boat of IVli*. Harmon for $1 and proceeded with his boat, leaving Blin and McKinley to proceed up the river some fom* miles, discharge Harmon's goods and then to continue the joiu-ney to the Cuyahoga River.

Without waiting for his second boat, Mr. Hudson j^roceeded, reaching the Cuyahoga River on the 9th, where, on the following day, finding that the other boat had not come up, he left Darrow to assist the inen up the river. He also took the precaution to lighten IVIi'. Tappau's boat of a large part of his stores, leaving them to be broiight on by his newly pm-chased boat, and proceeded up the river. The season previous to their coming having been very dry. they had proceeded but a few miles when they found the water in places only eight or ten inches deep, and were often obliged to get out, join hands and di'ag their boats over shallow ]>laces. In this way they proceeded until the 12th, when they reached such a rapid ciuTent that it was impossible to draw the boat any further. Mr. Hudson continues in his diary as follows: " I, myself, went on the land searching for some surveyor's line whereby we coiild find oxu' township. In this place my men overtook us, and to my great concern informed me that my boat had been })lundered the night before of a considerable quantity of whisky. ])ork, flour and some few potatoes. The men suspected of this villainy was an Indian in the Sandusky tribe, and a white man who calls himself Armstrong. They are two villains, famous in this quarter, and their conduct is not allowed of by their chiefs.

" 13th. - We now took a part of Tappan's load into my boat, and by our united strength we got the two boats along slowly up the rapid and shallow water, I still continuing on the land searching for some town line. In this way we proceeded until the 17th, when, as I had not been able to find any land mark, we determined to take a few days' provisions and strike our course in a southeast direction till we could find some clew whereby we could tell what part of the world we were in. It was at this time I most heartily repented having undertaken the expedition, but I must now persevere. I proceeded with my men and Tappan with several of his assistants, and to my great joy found the southwest corner of No. 4, Range 10, at about 11 o'clock on the 17th of June. I immediately went about making a road, getting oiu* stores up from the river, and in endeavoring to get a road into the middle of the town. In the latter attempt a new dilficulty was met. I tried at many places and could find no pass for a road across a swamp which stretched itself from the south line of the town, aboiit three and a half miles, as I afterward found in a northerly direction about one-half mile from the west line. I afterward went across the swamp and found excellent land beyond. In this dilemma. I determined to set my men at work on the west side of the swamp", until the land could be so far surveyed as to find some pass for a road. We found it a work of time and difficulty to get a road across the gullies which lie in No. 4, Range 11 (Boston), but,

By a very happy combination of circumstances the cattle, of which the explorers were just now begimiing to need, arrived at the landing on the 18th, just one day after the discovery of the township line. The journey of these men over some three hundred and fifty miles, guided ])y the tortuous trails of the Indian and the township lines of the siuweyor, through a totally unknown land, was one of the difiiculties of which we are scarcely able to appreciate. Their mode of traveling was to secure firmly upon the backs of the oxen several bags of flour and pork, together with two blankets and an ax. They waded fordable streams and compelled their cattle to swim those that could not be forded, crossing these streams themselves with their provisions on rafts hastily constructed of sticks. The teams thus happily at hand, rude sleds were constructed and the labor of transporting the goods from the boats to the place where Mr. Hudson had decided to begin operations commenced. In the meanwhile a road had been cut out and a bark shelter erected. The cattle were greatly tormented by the immense swarms of flies that attacked them at all times, nearly di-iving them mad. It is said they actually killed one of Mr. Tappan's cattle.

Aboiit this time David Kellogg with his wife, applied to be taken into Mr. Hixdson's employ. He had come out in the service of Mr. Tappan, but for some reason desired to change his service. Judge Tappan afterward took occasion in the public prints to say that Mr. Hudson enticed him away, which is an entirely mistaken idea. The provisions of the Hudson colony were very low, and he had great fears that those already dejiendent upon him would sufter for lack of supplies. He, however, granted the request, but Mr. Kellogg never became a permanent settler in this colony, though staying for a year or two.

As soon as the first most pressing duties were accomplished, Mr. Hudson set about making a clearing, aided by his four men. The robbing; of his boat and the faihu'e of his goods, shipped by wagon, to come on began to give him some uneasiness as to their means of subsistence. He borrowed some pork of a Capt. Stoddard, settled in what is now Northampton, and taking his boat as soon as unloaded on the 24th of June, proceeded alone down the river in quest of Lacey. Speaking of this trip in his diary, IVIr. Hudson says : " I had the misfortime to lose my fire, and being exceeding wet and the night very cold, I experienced the most uncomfortable night I ever felt. I arrived at Cleveland in twentyeight hours, and, although several boats had lately arrived, I could not get any information concerning Lacey. I had not heard a word from him since I left him on the Mohawk River near Schenectady in April. I was at a great loss what to do, but, on the whole, I thought best to wait a little longer. In three days an opportunity presented of going down the lake, and, after a quick and dangerous passage, I had the good fortune to find my boy, Lacey and the boat." It appears that Lacey had got as far as Cattaraugus Creek with the boat which Mr. Hudson found unfit for a voyage when he left, and was resting there very much at his ease. He had also quite an addition for the colony in the way of several hired men, which Nathaniel Norton had secured to go to the settlement. But of what the settlement needed the most [they were nearly destitute. " My joy at finding the boat," says Mr. Hudson, " was turned to sorrow on finding that they had but little more flour than enough to last through the voyage, excepting three barrels that belonged to Capt. Austin (Eliphalet Austin, of Austintown). I foimd myself under the most disagreeable necessity of abandoning my men, who were at work, to their fate, quitting the whole expedition and returning home, or else taking Capt. Austin's flour. After a sleepless night deliberating what was my duty in the trying case, I determined as the least of two evils to take Austin's floiu", to dismiss my hands, saving barely enough to manage the boat, pay Austin whatever his damage might be and prosecute my business. Having written my situation and reasons to Capt. Austin and Esquire Norton, I proceeded on my voyage. In a few days, by rowing in the nigrht and crowding our business, I got to Cuyahoga, and without meeting any further disaster we arrived with all oiu- loading at the landing on No. 4, Range 11, on that these voyages were made in open boats and were propelled by oars save when a light breeze was taken advantage of to raise a sail rudely constructed out of blankets. The courses of these boats were necessarily near the shore and were completely at the mercy of a brisk wind, and were greatly hindered in their voyages on this account. The present case was a pressing one, and Mr. Hudson made good some of the delays diu'ing the day by rowing nights. Among the crew was one Lindley, who declared that he was hired to work by the day and refused to work nights. Mr. Hudson therefore excused his rowing in night voyages, but when forced to lay by in the daytime put him at "chopping wood." A day or two of this experience caused him to smTender unconditionally.

The supplies came just in time, and after getting them into the shelter (which took one hand and the team several days), three days were spent in cutting over the land begun for a wheat-patch. Hitherto the bark shanty which had been hastily erected, on their first arrival, had been their only shelter. Rain had fallen almost incessantly, and with the recent additions the little colony, swelled to thirteen persons, demanded something better for their protection. A log house 16x18 feet was at once erected, and within a week's time the whole party were made comfortable beneath its roof. A day and a half had been spent in the meanwhile in stu'veying, the only fair weather during the week, but now matters were in a comfortable shape for the time being, IMi*. Hudson was anxious to get the township ready for settlement. " I now determined," says he, " to crowd the surveying business to the utmost, and if possible to get time to sm'vey om- annexation, but, in the last week in July, J. Lindley, Dai-row, Meecham and Blin were all taken sick, and, in short, there was none save myself that could be called well. For f ovu- weeks oiupeople who kept about did little else than take care of the sick. Rain fell in showers about every other day, and in those four weeks we cut three small stacks of poor hay which was much damaged by the rains, and fired and biu-nt the brush on about nine acres - the rain being such that we could not biu-n oiu- brush any other way than to pull our heaps to pieces and lay them on the fire. My original design was to sow a large piece to tm-nips, but not being able to burn the land over, I sowed on the 1st day of August a small piece from which we cut the timber and brush the week preceding.

" On the 22d day of August, our people having gradually recovered, we resumed siu*veying and jiressed it closely as possible until the 12th of October, when the business and Meriting was completed." The settlement so far had been confined to the northeast corner of Lot 11, but on the 1st of September Mr. Hudson brought his men to the center of the township and began to cut brush and timber on Lots No. 55 and 56. Here he designed to make his home, and " twenty-three days' work" were spent in building a temporary hut and making the clearing for the more substantial cabin. " Sixteen days' work " erected a good log-house on the line of these two lots where Baldwin street now abuts on Main in Hudson Village, and two days were spent " in trying to dig a well." While this work was progressing the surveying party were finishing their work, while another party comiected the two clearings with a road; cut out another to the boat landing in "No. 4, Range 11," now called Boston. About the middle of this month they foiind their store of jirovision nmning very low. Supplies were expected every day from Nathaniel Norton, but at this point Mr. Hudson realized something must be done to avert possible distress. He went immediately to Cleveland and purchased of Lorenzo Carter a small field of corn and potatoes for $50, tm-ning in a yoke of oxen as the larger pai-t of the payment. In case of necessity he thought the corn might be pounded up in mortars juid sustain the company imtil relief should come. He hastened back to his station, but having previously heard that Ebenezer Sheldon had made a road through the wilderness to Aiu'ora, and that there was a bridlepath thence to Cleveland, he thought it probable that he might obtain pork for present necessity from that quarter. He accordingly set out on foot and alone, and regulated his course by the range of his shadow, making allowance for change in the time of day. He foiuid the Cleveland path near the center of Aurora, in a dense forest. Thence he proceeded two and a half miles to Mi-. Sheldon's cabin, bu.t foimd he coiild obtain nothing within a reasonable distance. The next morning he retiu-ned to his colony to find that his long-expected boat had aiTived, and that there was once more plenty in the camp.

Having completed their surveying on the 11th of October, and got affairs well under way to make comfortable his family, and such colonists as he might bring back with him, he started on the following day with his son Ira, Meacham and Darrow for Connecticut. They went down the river in the old Harmon boat, intending to transfer to the sti'ong boat which Lacey had brought when he came, but on arriving at the mouth of the river he foimd the boat borrowed without leave and gone to Detroit. It was late in the year and any delay would only bring nearer the season of the year when such navigation was impossible or extremely hazardous, and they proceeded on their way in the old wreck. There was no tar at hand with which to " pitch " the seams, and it proved so leaky that it required one hand most of the time to bail out the water, and so weak that it bent considerably in crossing the waves. Dm'ing their passage the weather was generally cold and boisterous; tluve different times they narrowly escaped drowning by reason of the darkness of the night or violence of the wind. Referring to one of these narrow esca|)es from both the wind and darkness, Mr. Hudson writes in his diary: " This salvation has determined me never in futm-e to put into the lake in a dark night." Lying windbound at Chataqua for several days, they eked out their scanty stock of provisions by living on boiled chestnuts. They arrived at Gerundagut on the 31st of October, whence their joivrney to Goshen was by land. Mr. Hudson in the middle of November, found his family well and anxioxis to hear of the land which was to be their new home. No time was spent in idling, however, and by the 1st day of Januaiy, 1800, he had made his arrangements to leave with his family, his native State with all its tender and endearing associations, for the wilderness where he had knovna so much anxiety and hardship. " Thus," says he, " ends the eventful year of 1799, filled with many troubles, out of all of which hath the Lord hath delivered me." His stay at his old home had been a busy time for him. He had settled accounts with the Norton brothers; had sought cunong his old fi'iends and acquaintances for colonists; and had his own afiairs in his old home to settle as well as to provide supplies for the one to which he was about to move his family. His accounts for the first year are interesting to read over and vividly illustrate the character of the man and the enterprise. Among the items of expenditiu'es are the following: April. 1799, " paid $3 for an excellent dog which we lost in Schenectady;" May, " lent JVIi". Bacon $5 for ageeing to pilot us, for which he gave his note, which note I lost with all my minutes and observations on the Cuyahoga in wading the stream;" "paid Mr. Holly for twelve bushels seed wheat, $18;" October, " Gave Mr. Kellogg as a present to support himself and family, they being sick, $3; " October 19, "Gave as a gift to Mr. Berion, of Conneaut, he and his family being sick and in distress, $1 ;" November 16, " Retiu'ued to Goshen, expended in returning $9.75." The whole account reaches some $300, which does not include the unpaid balance of wages due his help, and which was applied on the land which each purchased, nor the supplies which had been brought from the East. On the credit side, Mr. Hudson shows tools and materials still in possession of the j^roprietors to the amount of $350.90; surveying instrmnents, $33; "nine acres of wheat on the ground calculated at $20 per acre, $180; smidry other articles not here enumerated, $36.91;" making a grand total of $600 worth of property for little more than an equal expenditure. In raising recruits for the new colony, his efforts had been marked with excellent success. It is said that he offered a bounty of forty acres to the first one to vohmteer, and Ruth Gaylord, whom Rev. John Seward calls " an ancient maiden " received the land, which afterward she gave to her niece, the daughter of Elijah Nobles. Among the party that were prepared to return with Mr. Hudson and his family, were Samuel Bishop with his ioxxr sons, David, Reuben, Luman ;md Joseph, Joel Gaylord, Hemau Oviatt, Dr. Moses Thompson, Allen Gaylord, Stephen

Perkins, Joseph and George Darrow, William McKinley and three men from Vermont by the names of Derrick, Williams and Shefford. The women in the company were the wives of Messrs. Hudson, Bishop and Nobles, with Miss Riith Gaylord and Ruth Bishop. The six childi-en of ]VIi-. Hudson completed the party that started for the New Conneeticut. Among these names will be noticed those of some who went out the preceding year. Darrow returned with his brother, Joel Gaylord and Heman Oviatt went out to view the land with the intention of taking their families thither if the situation proved favorable. Mr. Bishop, with his son-in-law Elijah Nobles, alone hazarded everything on the single cast of the die. The three men from Vermont were evidently acqu.aintances of Lacey, thi'ough whom they had probably learned of this settlement, and was desirous of tiying their fortune. They probably did not stay long as no mention is made of them in any of the old papers of Mr. Hudson.

In January, 1800, Mr. Hudson started, with his family, on sleighs, from Goshen for Bloomtield, N. Y., the place of rendezvous. Here he occupied an empty cabin of Eber Norton's during the winter, employing his time in preparing for his journey by the lakes. He prociu'ed four boats, in addition to the Harmon boat, which he thoroughly repaired, and loaded them with supples, including window-glass for his cabin put up the preceding fall, a large quantity of woolen and linen cloth, peach and apple seeds, garden seeds, additional tools, and a supply of groceries intended to last his family for a full year - the whole reaching a cost of some $2,000. The balance of the party secured tliree boats for their transportation, and all was completed on the 29th of April. " The next night," said Ml'. Hudson, "while my dear wife and six children, with all my men, lay soundly sleeping around me, I could not close my eyes. The reflection that those men and women, with most all that I held dear in life, were now to embark in an expedition in which so many chances appeared against me; and, should we survive the dangers in crossing the boisterous lakes, and the disti'essing sickness usually attendant on new settlements, it was highly probable that we ratist fall before the tomahawk and scalping-knife. As I knew, at that time, no considerable settlement had been made but what was established in blood, and I was about to place all those who lay around me on the extreme frontier, and, as they would look to me for safety and protection, I almost sank under the immense weight of responsibility resting upon me. Perhaps my feelings on this occasion were a little similar to those of the patriai'ch, when exj^ecting to meet his hostile brother; but, after presenting my case before Israel's God, and committing all to His care, I cheerfully launched out, the next morning, upon the great deep." The little tieet experienced little difficulty coming up the lakes until they reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. The wind on this day was rather high, and IVIr. Hudson, in attempting to enter with his boat, missed the channel and stuck fast upon the bar. In this perilous situation, the boat shipped considerable water, and the occupants must have inevitably all been drowned had not a mountain wave struck the boat with such power as to tioat it clear of the obstruction. On reaching a point within two miles of their destination, darkness coming on, they were obliged to stop for the night a little north of Nortbfield, at a place called the Pinery. They encamped on the baiiks, which were somewhat low. During the night, a tremendous rain set in, which had so raised the river by daybreak that it overflowed its banks, and was on the point of floating off the very beds on which they were lying. Everything was drenched, many finding themselves without a dry thread upon them, and here they were obliged to wait Ave days before the water had so far subsided as to allow them to force their boats against the current. On the sixth day. May 28, they reached the landing place near the Boston line. Here Mr. Hudson left his family and the crew to look after the unloading, and hurried to visit the people he had left in the clearing, whom he found in good spirits. Before leaving Bloomtield, Mr. Hudson had secured some hogs, fourteen cows, a bull and a horse, which, with a yoke of oxen belonging to Mr. Bishop, were intnisted to the care of Elijah Nobles to bring through the wilderness by the route by which the cattle had been brought the preceding year. These arrived about the time the boats were unloaded, biit Mr. Hudson, busy in arranging for the large accession to the colony, did not take his horse to the landing after his family for several days. When he arrived, he found his family suffering from the persistent attacks of the gnats and mosquitoes that infested the woods at this season, and his wife, who had cheerfully borne all the trials of the journey hitherto, was now very much discouraged. A change to more cheerful siuToundings, and a fairly comfortable house, wi'ought a great change in her feelings, and she nobly seconded the eftbrts of her husband. The work of transporting the goods from the boats to the settlement on wooden sleds, over eight miles of hilly woods-road, was no slight undertaking, and it was several days before it was accomplished. After all the persons belonging to the settlement had collected, Mr. Hudson led them in rendering thanksgiving to the God of mercy, who had brought them safely to their desired haven. Public worship on the Sabbath, which had been discontinued in his absence, was resumed. In relating the fact, Mr. Hudson said : " I felt, in some meastu'e, the responsibility resting on first settlers, and their obligations to commence in that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom, and to establish those moral and religious habits on which the temporal and etei-nal happiness of a people essentially depends."

Once settled in their new quarters, the little commimity was at once a scene of bustling activity. Joel Gaylord selected and purchased 640 acres lying in a square piece on the southwest corner of the public square; Dr. Moses Thompson, who had been promised by Mr. Hudson $50, in medicine, if he concluded to settle here, selected for his father and brothers eight and a half lots, of K50 acres each, four of them forming a square mile of land adjoining the southeast part of the public square; Heman Oviatt selected a site soiith of the village about a mile, adjoining the Thompson property; a large elm tree standing on the road line to the farm now owned by Philander Ellsworth, which sprang from a ridingwhip which Mr. Oviatt brought on one of his trips to Pittsburgh, and carelessly stuck in the ground there, marks the vicinity where he erected his cabin in this year. Dr. Thompson made some clearings and planted a crop on thi'ee lots, and all found plenty of work to do. DaiTow bought in the southern tier of lots, near the central road, and in July, Ebenezer Stone, of Boughton, Ontario Co., N. Y., came out and bought Lot 70. Notwithstanding the fi'equent rains, the season on the whole was very favorable for the crops, and there was an abundant harvest of potatoes and tm*- nips and wheat.

On the 28th of October of this yeai', occm'red the tirst native accession to the settlement. On this date, a daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Hudson, and, notwithstanding the lack of professional aid, with the attendance of the women of the settlement, mother and child prospered finely. The heroine of this occasion, and the eldest born of the county, was Anna Maria Hudson, later the wife of Hai-vey Baldwin, who now lives in a vigorous old age, to rejoice in the results of her parents' pioneer labors. Two weeks later, another event occurred which served to vividly impress upon these people the stern reality of frontier life. Milo and William, two sons of Mr. Hudson, were sent to drive the hogs out where they could find plenty of nuts to feed upon. The path tliey followed was very rough, and Milo, who was barefooted, experienced a good deal of pain in tiying to travel in it. His brother, finding that he did not need his assistance, sent him back and proceeded on alone with his charge. In retm*ning, Milo left the path to walk upon the leaves in the wooded part to avoid the " hubs," and inadvertently strayed too far and became lost. A slight snow had fallen, and it was a chilly autumn day. He looked about him for some clew to his whereabouts, and, seeing a clearing at some distance, ran toward it only to find that it marked the site of a swamp. The return of William and the absence of his brother at once excited alarm, and the men rallied out with horns, guns and bells to find the lost boy. He heard the signals of those in search, but, deluded by the appearances of a clearing made by the various swamp lands, he only got farther away, until, night coming on, worn out with the anxiety and exertion of the day, he prepared to pass the night in the wilderness. Raking a pile of leaves beside a great log, and wrapping his bare feet in his jacket, which he had taken ofi" for thepiu'pose, he biuTowed deep into the leaves and fell asleep. The hunters could not thus easily lay aside their cares. The unsuccessful search caused them to redouble their exertions dming the night, and Mr. Hudson, with a father's anxiety, offered a reward of $40 to stimulate a search in which the keenest interest was already enlisted. The search was continued without avail until 11 o'clock the following day, when the boy was foiind still asleep, his hair fi'inged with fi'ost and his toes slightly frosted, but otherwise unharmed.

It was some years before the danger of being lost in woods was overcome by the number of settlements. As late as 1809, a little girl of Eben Pease, eight or nine years old, was lost. She was sent on an errand to Benjamin Oviatt's, about two miles north of the center. She got there safely, but on her retm-n, mistaking a cow-path for the trail, she wandered off and was lost. Not retm'ning by dark, her parents became alaimed, and, going to Oviatt's, learned she had left there early and was probably lost. The neighborhood was rallied out in search. Guns and horns were brought into requisition, but it was 10 o'clock the next day before she was found by Richard Croy. She was foiuid asleep on a log, with her feet wrapped in some aprons which she had taken to bring home.

The following spring brought the families of Joel Gay lord and Heman Oviatt, who came in wagons by the overland route, bringing with them Benjamin Oviatt, John Bridge and James Newton. Their wagons were the first that ever penetrated the wilderness in this part of the Reserve, and these pioneers were obliged to chop their way through the woods for miles. A little later in this year came Eliada Lindley, John Oviatt, William Boughton, Aaron Norton, Ezra Wyatt, James Walker, Deacon Stephen Thompson with his sons, Abraham, Stephen, Jr., and Moses, and his sons-in-law, George Pease and Bradford Kellogg. In the same company came George Kilbom-ne and William Leach. Dr. Moses Thompson had expended his patrimony in prosecuting his medical studies, biit his father proposed to give him a lot of land if he would investigate the Hudson settlement and, if favorably impressed, move the family out to it. After coming out with Mr. Hudson and selecting the land, he retiu'ned on foot to Goshen, carrying his provisions in a pack at his back. He made the 650 miles in eleven and a half days, helped to do the haying, and, returning with his father's brother's family, as well as his own. He secured some apple seeds from some pmnace at a cider-mill in Reading, Penn., and the lirst apples from this seed, were the admiration of the little folks, who had never seen an apple before.

His land was situated northwest of the village, on what is known as the Northampton road, where he lived until the day of his death. He was the earliest doctor in the township, and had a practice that took him over a territory a hundred miles in extent. He retired from his practice in 1815, to engage in business. Christian Cackler came here in the spring of 1804, together with his father and eldest brother, settling on a part of Lot 10, in the southeast corner of the township. They came from Pennsylvania, bringing a horse and a yoke of oxen, and such supplies as could be packed on a horse. Coming to Ravenna, they found a few residents, and a road marked out and partly underbiiished to Hudson. Here they came, selected their land, and, going to the site, put up a temporary shelter. Four forks were driven into the ground, and upon them were laid poles, upon which a covering of bark was laid. The same material supplied the floor and the sides of this hastily constnicted tabernacle. Beds made of leaves and covered with blankets completed their household arrangements, and they proceeded at once to clear their lands for their spring crops. It was then the 10th of May, but they put in about three acres of corn, and cleared off another piece in time to sow some wheat. Provisions were hard to prociu*e, and were obtained by working for their neighbors. In his published reminiscences, Mx. Cackler says : " In September, my father and brother went back after the family, and left me in care of the shanty until they should return. I was then only twelve years old. They left for my use a small loaf of bread, an old rifle that carried an oimce ball and some powder and bullets, that I might kill squirrels for meat. They thought they would be back in three weeks. It was a trying time for me. I could get along very well through the day, but when night came, I was lonesome indeed. I would build a big fire and roll myself up in my blankets so that I could not hear anything, and there remain until morning. I managed so about two weeks. My loaf began to get very small, and I had to make my allowance still smaller to make it hold oiit. Tln-ee weeks expired and nobody came. The foxuih passed; my bread was gone and squirrels furnished my only food. The fifth passed, and found me without bread or bullets. I managed to kill some squirrels with gravel-stones, but the most of those I shot at escaped without serious injury. I stayed there until the sixth week began to di'ag its slow length along, when one aft,ernoon in the cabin, to avoid a heavy thunder shower, I fell asleep, and awoke to find it growing dark. The th-e had gone out, and everything was so satm-ated with the rain that I could not relight. While tinkering with the fii'e, I was startled by the howl of the wolves in the near vicinity. I seized my gun loaded with stone, and, wrapping my blankets about me, sat down to defend myself against the wolves. I sat there until morning without a visit fi"om the wolves, and then I left the shanty to cai'e for itself, and went over to where Harry O'Brien lived, about three miles distant, and remained until om' family came back, which was not long." Others came from time to time to gladden the heai'ts and share the bm*- densof the little fi-ontier community. It is not possible, at this time, to learn all the particulars of their coming, or even of their names. Among those who came dm'ing the first fifteen years of the colony were David Hudson, 1799; Thaddeus Lacev, 1799; R. H. Blin, 1799; William McKinley, 1799; David Kellogg, 1799; Joseph Darrow, 1799; Jonah Meacham, 1799; Jesse Lindley, 1799; Samuel Bishop, 1800; David Bishop, 1 800 ; Joseph Bishop, 1800; Luman Bishop, 1 800 ; George Darrow, 1 800 ; Allen Gaylord, 1800; Joel Gaylord, 1801; Heman Oviatt, 1801; Stephen Thompson, Sr., 1801;

Abraham Thompson, 1801; Stephen Thompson, Jr., 1801; Dr. Moses Thompson, 1801; John Bridge, 1801; James Newton, 1801; George Pease, 1801; Eben Pease, 1801 ; William Leach, 1801; George Kilbourne, 1801; Bradford Kellogg, 1801; Amos Lusk, 1801; John Oviatt, 1801 ; Eliada Lindley, 1801 ; William Boiighton, 1801; Ezra Wyatt, 1801 ; Aaron Norton, 1801; Robert Walker, 1801; John Walker, 1801; James Walker, 1801; Robert Walker, Jr., 1801; George Walker, 1801; Elisha Norton, 1802; George Holcomb, 1802; Nathaniel FaiTand, 1803; Robert O'Brien, 1803; John O'Brien, 1803; Charles Miles, 1804; Rev. David Bacon, 1804; Henry Post, 1804; Zina Post, 1804; Jonathan Williams, 1804; Chi-istian Cackler, Sr., 1804; Owen Brown, 1805; Benjamin Whedon, 1805; Marmadxike Deacon, 1805; Daniel Johnson, 1809; William Chamberlain, 1809; William Chamberlain, Jr., 1809; Nathaniel Stone, 1810; Samuel Hollenbeck, 1810; Gad Hollenbeck, 1810; Joseph Kingsbury, 1810; Elisha Ellsworth, 1810; Dr. Jonathan Metcalf, 1812; Augustus Baldwin, 1812; Frederick Baldwin, 1812; Dudley Humphrey, 1812 Ai-iel Cobb, 1813; Gideon Mills, 1814 Chauncey Case, 1814; Harvey Baldwin, 1814 Rev. John Seward, 1814. Most of these persons came fi'om Litchfield County, Connecticut, or Ontario County in the State of New York. The larger proportion were married, and some brought into the country large families, that interman'ied, so that few of the earliest families remained unrelated in this way. " David Hudson brought in a family of six children - Samuel, Jxa, William, Timothy. Milo and Abigail. Ii'a Hudson maiTied Huldah Oviatt; William mairied Phoebe Hutchinson; Milo married Hannah Rogers; Abigail maiTied Birdseye Oviatt. Samuel Bishop had a family of five sons and four daughters: Timothy man-ied Rebecca Craig; David mai'- ried Miss Kennedy; Luman man-ied Rachel Gaylord; Reuben died single; Joseph man-ied Miss Hollenbeck; one of the girls married Stephen Perkins; one, Elijah Nobles; one, Samuel Vaile; and one. Gad Hollenbeck. Joel Gaylord brought with him thi'ee sons and foiudaughters: John, Daniel, Harvey, Sally, Olive and Betsey; Sally Gaylord man-ied William

The little settlement thus dropped in the woods, like a pebble in the ocean, seemed lost in the vast expanse of wilderness that stretched, with interminable proportions, from the frontiers of Western New York along the lakes to the great West. By the treaty 1785 with the savages, the Cuyahoga River was made a pai-t of the dividing line between the territories of the contracting parties. Eight miles to the east of this national boundary, separated from the civilized world by hundreds of miles of wearisome, hazardous joiu-ney on land or sea, were a little handful of resohite men, with their wives and children, while on its western bank clustered the strongholds of the merciless savage, whose barbarous warfare had written the history of the Northwest in letters of fire and blood. None felt the seriousness of the situation, and the crushing weight of responsibility which it brought, more keenly than the heroic founder of this colony. He knew the jealous watchfulness with which the natives mai-ked the coming of each accession to the white colony; the sentiment of reckless indifference to the rights of others which possessed that class of hunters and ti-appers which hang about the outskirts of advanced settlements, and, to prevent the contact of these antagonistic elements, and to smooth the natural, inevitable asperities of the situation, was his constant cai-e from the beginning. He was constantly engaged in Indian conferences, entertaining them at his house and giving them presents, and to his upright dealings and judicious management may be credited the hai-monious relations and commanding influence of the community with the natives. The Seneca, Chippewa and Ottawa tribes had villages in the vicinity of the Hudson colony, and were fi-equently found among the whites on trading or begging expeditions. Stigwanish, the chief of the Seneca village, was on intimate terms with his new neighbors, and was a fi-ecjuent and welcome visitor at Mr. Hudson's cabin. He was a large, muscular man, standing straight as an an-ow, neai-ly six feet in height, with a stei-n expres- sion of coiintenaiice and a keen black eye. He is represented, by all who knew him here, as well disposed toward his white neighbors, and npright in his dealings, strongly discomitenancing anything in his followers which was likely to provoke trouble. His peojile had corn-fields on the river bottoms near where the village of Cnyahoga Falls now stands, which they cultivated for years. On one occasion, having reason to fear an attack from another tribe, he requested his white fi'iends to bnild him a fort near the falls of the river, which they did, though, happily, it was never needed for the pm-pose of defense. Heman Oviatt, with a shrewd eye to business, early established a trading- point at his cabin, about a mile south of the site of the village. This was a place of great attraction to the Indians, who gathered here in considerable numbers, exchanging the furs they secured by trapping and hiuiting for trinkets of various kinds, powder, lead and whisky. The latter was in the greatest demand, and a scale of prices, according to Christian Cackler's account, was established, as follows: Coon-skins, a half-pint of whisky; buck-skins, one pint; beai'-skins' fom* quarts. Mrs. Oviatt soon acquired their language' and gained quite an ascendancy over their "untutored minds." Before giving them any considerable amount of whisty, she was in the habit of demanding their guns, tomahawks and knives, which they siUTendered to her until they got sober, as they invariably got " kok kusi." One of these orgies, as described by Cackler, was as follows: "They were of the Ottawa tribe, and there were about fifteen or eighteen of them. They were provided with a deer-skin suit, like a little boy's suit, all whole, but open before, and sui)plied with openings for legs and arms. When put on, it was tied in fi'ont. It was ornamented aroimd the arms and lews with fringe some three inches three inches in length, to which was attached a vai-iety of animal claws, such as those of the tiu'key, coon, deer, bear, etc. One would put on this suit, and jump, hop, and kick about in a sort of Indian ' Highland fling,' while two others furnished the inspiration by patting and humming. The success of the performer seemed to depend upon his ability to get the greatest possible amount of clatter out of the claws attached to the fringe. When tired, he would doff the garment, take a diink of the whisky provided, and give place to another Terpsichorean artist. In this way, each one would try his agilitv, and gradually get beastly intoxicated. This they kept up two days. Before the proceedings began, however, they placed all their weapons in the hands of their squaws, who were quiet spectators of the scene. At the end of two days, all save two of the squaws who were assigned to the charge of the ])apooses, got di'imk, and exhibited all the worst phases of this degrading revel." It was hardly to be expected that the free use of whisky in this way should always result so harmlessly to the general interests of the community at large. The women and children could never learn to look upon the savages with any degree of equanimity, and the natives were not slow to perceiv(^ this. Occasionally, an ill-disposed fellow, inflamed by whisky, would frighten a woman if he found her unprotected in an isolated cabin. On one occasion, a paiiy of Indians came to the cabin of Marmaduke Deacon, situated where his son now resides, and, finding his wife alone with her children, approached her in a threatening manner, making some demand in their own langiiage. Not able to understand their iitterances, she provided them with a generous supply of provisions. They still maintained their menacing attitude, when she seciu'ed and gave them every cent of money there was in the cabin, and, finding them still unsatisfied, she left her childi'en and proceeded, through the snow, to the cabin of O'Brien, who lived some distance away, for more to satisfy their demands. She reached her destination, but the fright, added to the exposm-e, was too much for her feeble strength, amd she never left alive, dying of qTiick consumption in a few weeks. This circumstance aroused the revengeful disposition of a certain class of the whites, who, known as " Indian haters," became Indian slayers whenever occasion offered the chance of escaping the penalty of their acts. Jonathan Williams, who came in with Christian Cackler, Sr., in 1804, was one of this class. " George Wilson," a son of Stigwanish, was a quarrelsome fellow when under the influence of liquor, and had several sei'ious misvinderstandiugs with the whites. One time, when feeling paiiicnlarly surly, he happened at the cabin of " Old Mother Newell," on Paines' road, near the town line. She was alone, and, noticing his approach, she took the precaution to hi\x the door. Denied admittance to the cabin, which had but one door, he pnt his gun-baiTel through the opening between the logs, and satisfied his ugly disposition by forcing her, with threats, to dance in the middle of the floor till, tired of the sport, he went away. He had scai'cely left before IVIi's. Newell, on the watch for some passer-by, saw Williams coming along the trail with his gim on his shoulder, as usual. She called him, and related the circumstances. Williams waited only to hear the story, and pushed on after the Indian. Williams' character was not unknown to the natives, and, finding him on his trail, Wilson left the road and struck tlu'ough the woods hoping to avoid an encoimter. Williams gained upon him slowly but sm'ely, and, when in vicinity of a piece of "honey-comb swamp," taking advantage of a moment when the Indian was off his guard, he shot and killed him. Drawing his body into this piece of swamp, he thiiist it out of sight, sending, also, the Indian's rifle down with him. The mysterious disappearance of Wilson created a great commotion among the Senecas, and great effort was made to discover the whereabouts of his remains and the cause of his final takingoff. The Indians suspected what the whites did not learn imtil years afterward, and Williams was obliged ever afterward to be constantly on his giTard against surprise. It is said, on another occasion while hunting while there was a light coating of snow on the gromid, he lost for awhile his bearings, and found himself following his own track in a circle. He observed, in coming upon his own trail, the track also of a moccasined foot, and, with a himter's instinct, recognizing his pursuer, he took to a tree and shot him as he came again following the trail.

By the treaty of 1805, the Indians were removed from the near neighborhood of the whites, who were rapidly poiunng into this country, but they still continued to come back in squads to their old haiuits, to trade or hiint. In]1806, Stigwanish, with his sons, John Bigson, John Amur, his sons-in-law, Nickshaw and Wobmimg, and others of their family, came to their old camps inDeerfield. During their stay, Nickshaw traded his pony with a settler by the name of John Diver. The Indian felt aggrieved, and complained to some of the leading settlers, and endeavored to trade back with Diver, without success. Nickshaw felt that he had been cheated, and agreed, with Mohawk, to shoot Diver. Until this horse trade, there had been the kindliest relations existing between the parties, and no fears were entertained that the disagreement would cause a ruptiu-e. The young men called at Daniel Diver's cabin soon afterward, and sought to get his brother within their gi-asp by strategem, but failed. A little later in the same evening, Daniel, in going out to placate the Indians, was shot so as to blind him - a wound which did not prove mortal - and fled, supposing he had killed the one with whom they had had the difficulty. A party of settlers at once started in pursuit. Their camp, some three miles distant, was found deserted, but, following their trail along the great Indian road from the Ohio River to Sandusky, they crossed the Cuyahoga River, where Kent now stands, and the center road of Hudson, about a mile south of the village, thence across the Cuyahoga again near the site of Peninsula, in Boston Township. The trail entered Hudson on Lot No. 10, and passed within sixty rods of Cackler's cabin, and the pursuers, imder the lead of Maj. H. Rogers, reached this cabin about 1 o'clock in the morning. It was a clear, cold night in the latter part of December of 1800; the moon was shining with peculiar brightness upon the earth, lightly covered with snow, giving the pursuers every facility. When they arrived here, however, some of the party were nearly frozen, and a nimiber of them went no further Rogers got Christian Cackler, Sr.,his oldest son and Jonathan Williams, to accompany him in continuing the pursuit. " They went to Hudson, got a new I'ecruit, and followed on to near the west part of Richfield. Here the Indians had stopi)ed, built a Are, stacked their arms, tied their ponies, and lain do^vn with their feet to the fire. Most of them had pulled off their moccasins. When Rogers and his men saw the fire, they scattered and surrounded the Indians, some of whom were in a doze, and some asleep. As they were closing up, Nickshaw and Mohawk sprang up and ran oif barefooted. They closed in on the rest, and, it beginning to be light, Rogers wanted somebody to go after Nickshaw, and George Darrow, of Hudson, and Jonathan Williams, volunteered to go. The Indians' feet began to bleed before they got a mile, when they sat down on a log, tied pieces of blanket on their feet, and then separated. DaiTOw and Williams followed one of them, who proved to be Nickshaw, and whom they overtook in about three miles. He looked back, and, seeing them, gave a whoop and increased his speed, and they after him like hounds after a fox. In about a mile they overtook him, and asked him to come back, but he would not. Darrows said he thought he would clinch him; but, when he made the attempt, Nickshaw would piTt his hand under his blanket as though he had a knife. Darrow thought he would get a club and knock him down, but Mr. Indian could get a club and use it too. They got out of patience, and Williams fired his gun over Nickshaw's head, to let him know what was coming if he did not yield. This did not make the desired impression, and Williams loaded his gun and killed him by a second shot. They placed him under a log, covered him with brush and old chiuiks, and came back to Hudson."* The whites returned with Bigson and his two sons, who were committed, by the Justice of Deerfield, to the jail at Warren. A squaw belonging to them was allowed to escape, and, it is said, perished in the snow. The killing of Nickshaw, however, it was thoiTght was unwarrantable, and. fearing the consequences of such an act if allowed to pass unnoticed, David Hudson, Heman Oviatt and Owen Brown mounted their horses and brought in the body of the dead Indian. The matter was brought before the proper legal authorities, l^ut the investigation came to a lame concliTsion, and finally ended in a "hoedown," where whisky was plenty, and a collection of $5 for Williams as a reward for the deed. Bigson was finally set at liberty, and remained near the settlements for years.

The affair occasioned no further trouble, although it occasioned considerable uneasiness amongst the settlers for a time. The Indians either acquiescing in the judgment of the whites, or realizing their inability to successfully cope with the settlers, made a virtue of necessity and passed it by without notice.

The year 1806 was a marked one in other respects, to both the whites and Indians. A full eclipse of the sun occun'ed on 17th of June, much to the terror of the untutored savage, and gi-eatly to the injury of the crops of the whites. The Indians were greatly frightened by the event, and, though it had been in some cases foretold by some of the sqviaws (how they learned of the fact has never been ascertained), it was not believed, and the women were executed as witches. When the event occurred, therefore, they were greatly frightened, and. forming in a circle, and marching around in regular order, each one fired at the evil spirit that was threatening the destruction of the world. Happily for one "brave," he discharged his gun just as the shadow began to move off, and he was created a chief on the spot for his bravery and the great service he had performed for the natives. The whites, though less affected by the phenomenon, were hardly less seriously aftected by its effects, if the reminiscences of Mr. Cackler are to be relied upon. He says: " The day of the great eclipse was a beautiful, warm day; we were hoeing corn the second time, with only shirts and pants on, but, after the eclipse was off, the weather was so much colder that we had to put on our vests and coats to work in. There were frosts every month that summer; no corn got ripe, and the next spring we had to send to the Ohio River for seed-corn to plant. The next summer was the hardest time I ever saw. There was no gi-ain in the country. My father and Adam Nighman went to Georgetown, on the Ohio River, for flour; they had no money, but took a rifle and pledged it for floiu*, and I guess they never redeemed it."

A good rifle was a valuable piece of property to the first settlers. Next to his ax and plow, he depended upon it for support in subduing the wild land in which he reared his cabin home. The vast forests abounded with game, which at first was his principal dependence for sustenance, and later his greatest annoyance and damage. Elk, the common deer, bears, wolves, panthers, with otters, beavers and raccoons infested the country and preyed on the crops and stock of the early community with comparative impunity. Bears came right into the settlement, and, seizing a hog, caiTied it, struggling and squealing, to the woods, and destroyed it before the aroused settlers could prevent. Wolves attacked stock, killing calves and yearlings, and frequently assailed travelers, though generally with no serious results. Squirrels, raccoons and blackbirds, in their attack upon the grain-fields, were hardly less troublesome, and all the available children of the community wei'e pressed into the service of protecting the growing crops from their depredations. As the settlement became less dependent upon game for food, the disadvantages of this abundance became more apparent, and organizations were made, much against the wishes of the professional hunter, to drive it out of the coimtry. The towTiship of Streetsboro, on the east of Hudson, was not settled for years after its neighbors, and offered a secure retreat for the animals that played such havoc upon the stock of the pioneer settlements. The commimities which suffered most from this state of affairs determined, in 1819, to rid themselves of these impleasant neighbors. A committee was appointed, which marked off thirty or forty acres a little south of the center, into which the game was to be driven. The settlers of Hudson came in on the west, of Franklin on the east, and of Aurora on the north. In d( ascribing the hiuit, Cackler, who was an old hunter, says : " When the ring closed up, there was the gi'eatest sight I ever saw. There were over a hundred deer, and a large number of bears and wolves. As they ran around the ring, the guns cracked like a battle. The deer came in great hei'ds, forming a splendid sight with their large antlers, and, as they came toward the ranks, the hunters made wide gaps and let them out, closing in again to keep the bears and wolves. When we thought all dead, a wounded wolf came limping along a few rods from the line, calling out a perfect shower of bullets. A Hudson man, with another of the band, standing near each other, filled at the wolf when he fell dead. Both claimed the scalp, which then was worth |7, not a small sum for that time, and began a struggle for it that ended in a bout of fisticuffs. When finally the Hudson man was conquered, the wolf's scalp was gone. The proceeds of this hunt, when brought together, comprised over sixty deer, seven bears and five wolves. A large number of the wolves escaped, and many of the slaughtered animals were picked up and carried off by those who had not joined in the hunt, but enjoyed the game. The larger game grew rapidly scarce after this. The hunters of Hudson frequently went to the region of Sandusky Bay, the swamps of the Hui'on and Portage Rivers, and seciu'ed furs and plenty of game, but the lawlessness of the people who congregated at these points, and the dangers of lake travel, made it a hazardous rmdertaking, that scarcely remunerated the hunter for his risks and hardships.

HUDSON TOWNSHIP - CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COMMUNITY - ORGANIZATION - PIONEER INDUSTRIES - VILLAGE OF HUDSON - ITS INCORPORATION AND GROWTHFOUNDING OF CHURCH AND SCHOOL.

THE early community of Hudson was patriarchal in its characteristics. It originated in the self-sacrificing devotion of its founder; its first steps were directed by his judgment, and in its maturer years it bears his name and the impress of his character. It is difficult to imagine the early prosperity of this settlement without the material and moral support of Mr. Hudson. He is the central figure in all its early history, and remained so until his death. Coming with ample resources for the prosecution of his enterprise, he allowed no desire for private ends to swerve him from his chosen course. He sought to establish a center of civilizing influence ; his was the mission of a public benefactor, and the records of that time bear ample evidence of his faithfulness. The sick and unfortunate found in him a helpful friend ; public enterprises were placed beyond the danger of failure by his eftbrts ; struggling merit never failed for lack of material aid when solicited of him, while his old account books, bearing the names of every member of the settlement in those early days, tell many a tale of his devotion to his people. In the building-up of the influence he sought, Mr. Hudson exercised his power without the aid of compulsion. He laid no restrictions upon the freedom of thought or action in the sale of his land. The support of church and school was voluntary on the part of each one, but his personal influence - not an unimportant factor in the issue - he put without reserve in favor of these institutions, and in the end he wrought success, where more exacting methods reaped failure. There were two elements here from the first, antagonistic to each other in both politics and religion, but Mr. Hudson, commanding the respect of his cotemporaries in years, and the reverence of the young, on the principle of the resolution of forces, though his influence united them in carrying forward the general principles upon which the settlement was founded. There was in all this, however, no spirit of asceticism. The New England pleasures of the huskingbee and apple-paring were added to the Western logging-bees and spinning matches.

Dancing was a common form of amusement. There were plenty of violins and many a hard day's work in the field and cabin was supplemented by a night's scarceh' less vigorous exercise in dancing. The first ball in Cleveland was attended from all the surrounding settlements, and among the rest Hudson sent her complement. The occasion was the 4th of July, 1801, and R. H. Blinn, of Hudson, was one of the '' managers." An old chronicle says : " Notwithstanding the dancers had a rough puncheon floor, and no better beverage to enliven their spirits than whisk}' sweetened with maple sugar, yet it is doubtful if the anniversary of American independence was ever celebrated in Cleveland by a more joyful and harmonious company than those who danced the scamper-down double-shufile, Western swing, and half-moon fort3--six [eight}'] years ago in the log cabin of ^laj. Carter." The only record we have of the observance of this day in Hudson was on July 4, 1800. There were then just forty-two souls in the settlement, the most of whom had come in the preceding month. These all sat down at a table of elm bark, in the woods on what is now a part of the public square, a few rods north of the actual center of the township, and a very little west of the north-and-south road. Their fare may be imagined ; their guests were David Hudson, his wife Anna Hudson, their children, Samuel, Ira. William N., Milo L., Timothy and Abigail L. Hudson ; Thaddeus Lacey, his wife Rosanna Lacey, their children, Isaac H., Ann and Susan Lacey ;

David Kellogg, his wife Mrs. Kellogg, their children, Eleanor, Hiram and an infant ; Samuel Bishop, his wife, Mrs. Bishop, their children, Ruth, David, Luman, lleuben, Joseph, Phoebe, and a maiden sister of Mrs. Bishop, Ruth Gajdord ; Elijah Noble, his wife, Anna Noble and child, Ira Noble. Those not having families at that time, or whose families were still in the East, were Joel (laylord, Heman Oviatt. Dr. Moses Thompson, Stephen Perkins, William Leach, Reuben Parker, George Darrow, Joseph Darrow, Gordon Crandall and John Wood.

The property of the early community was very evenl}' distributed, and there were none who could be termed wealthy, even by the standard of that da}'. A few would be, perhaps, accurately placed by that New England term of-' fore-handed farmers." The accumulations of a well-advanced life-time invested in the cheap lands of the Reserve made a somewhat imposing show, but all were blessed with large families, among whom the parents sooner or later divided their property, so that there was but little difference in the size of their farms. All fared on the same food. The woods furnished freely to all an abundance of game, berries, honey and nuts, while none were so poor after a few years' residence that he could not raise his own pork and snppl}' his own table with milk, butter, cheese and flour. The most marked difference perhaps was in the superior comfort of some of the dwellings, and the fact that some wore shoes the year round. But even this difference brought with it the compensating burden of responsibility and risk to its possessor. The first, and perhaps the most pretentious house in the vilhige was the hewed-log cabin built by Mr. Hudson, on Baldwin street. This was supplied with glass windows, and was in its appointments a fitting residence for the principal man of the town. In 1802, his growing family and his duties of hospitality demanded a larger cabin, and he set about putting it up, choosing a site a few feet east of the first one. This he had completed and had moved a few beds and other things into it, and being in the middle of " moving " the family slept in their new home, the children leaving their clothing in the old one. An arbitration had been held in the old house untd quite late at night, and a roaring fire had been maintained on the hearth. A short time after closing the business and Mr. Hudson had retired to bed in the new building, he was aroused b}' the flames showing in the chamber of the old cabin. The old " cat-and-clay" chimney had proved recreant to its trust, and the chamber loft had been set on fire. Mr. Hudson saved his valuable papers, but everything else was lost, including a large stock of supplies intended to provide for his family and such of the settlers as would need them for a full year, and even his children's shoes. His loss was estimated at a .f 1,000, and was the more serious from the fact that the nearest market was Pittsburgh, which could onl}' be reached by traversing miles of trackless woods. There were others, like Christian Cackler, Jr., who found consolation in that traditional old lady's philosophy, '' blessed be nothing." On moving from Hudson in 1816, -' our furniture," says he, " proved no inconvenience ; m}' wife had a bed, I had an ax, I added to this by purchase of Zenas Kent three white cups and saucers costing 75 cents, three knives and forks and a wooden pail. The woman who lived with us gave three wooden plates, and a kettle to cook our victuals in. My wife's father also gave us a table which completed our ' set out.' " (In 1870, his property was estimated at $30,000). Such a distinction was obviously too slender a foundation upon which to build a spirit of caste. Indeed, the whole fabric of societ}- rested upon an aristocracy of labor, and none were so high or so low that he did not minister to his necessities with his own hands. The fathers of the community wrought in the fields with their sons, and were not less strong in action than wise in counsel. Their endurance is the marvel of later generations.

In 1802, Mr. Hudson was called to Goshen on business pertaining to the land which he held in company- with ^Ir. Norton. He started out on horseback and alone, carrying his provisions with him. It was in July, and after going some fifty miles he found his horse jaded by the journey and used up l)y the flies which were the scourge of animal life in the new country. He accordingly sold his horse, and slinging his pack upon his shoulder he proceeded on his way on foot. On reaching the Cattaraugus Creek, which was considerably swollen with rains, and finding no one there to aid him. he determined to cross on his own account. It was not far fi'om its mouth and the current was dangerously rapid, but taking an old hall-rotten sled that chanced to be near, he launched out for the other shore. Unfortunately he had miscalculated the force of the current and he found himself borne rapidly toward the open lake. To proceed far in this way meant death, and taking advantage of the course of the current he leaped from his raft upon a shifting sandbank which the current was piling up near the bank and after severe effort secured firm ground on the same side of the stream from which he had started, a wet but wiser man. Going some distance up the stream, he forded it in safety, continued his journey to Bloomfield, in New York, where he bought a horse and completed his journey and back to the settlement in safet}'. This was the exploit of a man over forty years of age.

The matrons were of a not less hardy race, and are no less a marvel to the women of these -'degenerate days." " Carpets, or even painted floors, were not then found even in the houses of comparativel}" well-to-do families, but the floors were kept scoured to a snowy whiteness, and in the best rooms were neatly sanded and then marked into fantastic figures. Crockery, or queensware, as it was then called, was too expensive for the tables of the yeomanry, and the dresser was supplied with pewter platters, which must be kept polished to a silvery whiteness. The thrifty housewife kept her deal tables and benches and unpainted doors washed to immaculate cleanness. The towels, tablelinen, bed-linen, and most of the summer clothing of the family were the products of home industry. The mothers and daughters hatcheled the flax, at a small wheel spun the thread, and afterward their hands threw the shuttle that formed the durable fabrics, the remains of which are held as heir-looms by the descendants of the old families, and proudlyshown as proofs of the handiwork of hands long since laid to rest. Spinning, knitting and weaving linen, and braiding straw hats and bonnets, were a large part of the regular work of the winter. Bleaching, cutting, making and fashioning these ready for use was spring work. Then came cleansing, picking and carding the wool into bats ready for spinning on the large wheel. The yarn was woven into blankets for bedding. Some was made into checked flannel for aprons and dresses for the women, and died red for the children's dresses. Part of the flannel was fulled for clothing for the men and boj's. Then there must be many skeins of yarn of divers shades and colors for the hose and mittens and comforters of all. Knitting occupied the evenings of the grandmother and daughters in the family of the olden time, and she was considered a poor knitter who could not show a well-shaped sock or a double mitten as the result of a winter evening's work. Summer gloves or mitts were made of linen thread with a hook similar to the modern crochet needle. Nor were these branches of home industry confined to the families of farmers. No woman was held of much account whose hands- laid not hold of the spindle and distaflT, and who looked not well to the ways of her household, or could even be suspected of eating the bread of idleness. The strength of these women Avas equal to their da}^, and their work did not hurry them so that they could not occasionally make and receive visits of half a day with neighbors and friends. They were able to attend two long services in church on the Sabbath, and to stand through the longest prayer that was ever oftered."* There was present in the earl}^ society not only the plain virtue of helpfulness, but there were some homes that without losing this, foreshadowed the culture which to-day is Hudson's crown of glory.

The fathers of the colony were not men of learning or of courtly demeanor. With tastes formed by the experiences of New England farm life, and the echoes of that controversial conflict which was characterized more by the power exhibited than b}* the culture of the combatants, their intellectual tastes preferred "sound common sense" to the elegant accomplishments. But they brought with them an earnest appreciation of and desire for educational advantages, which attracted those like-minded, and early cast over the community here an air of culture that vvas to be found nowhere else on the Reserve. By the permission of Miss Emily Metcalf, we are permitted to look in upon one of these early homes, which she has sketched with such a " tender grace." Mrs. Metcalf came to Hudson in 1814. "The first ten years of her married life were spent in a house of hewed logs, its four rooms neatly hung with newspapers ; an article only procured in sufficient numbers through the generosity of her ministerial friends and her legal friend, Judge Parkmau. Its windows were of glass instead of oiled paper, which ranked the appointments of the house as decidedly superior, nor was it wanting in a certain air of refinement, which could not be absent from a house of which she was mistress. The house stood near the woods, a mile from the nearest neighbor. Wild animals from the forest often ventured near, and Indians frequently- called to light the pipe and beg a mug of cider. Her husband's ride in the practice of medicine was over sevei'al contiguous counties. * * * At such times the wife, left alone with her small children, had no diversion from intense solicitude except in reading ; and, in the scarcity of books and papers of general interest, she resorted to her husband's medical library In the long nights, when anxiety forbade sleep to the defenseless wife and motiier, these medical works were read and re-read, until, without aiming at such acquisition, she had gained a very creditable knowledge of medicine, which became of great value to her, both in rearing her own family, and in kindly offices for the sick in other families, when her services were ever esteemed above price." Mrs. Metcalf, before her marriage, had pursued a course of stud}' in the academy at Westfield, Mass. Here her fine mental powers, stimulated by that unquenchable thirst for knowledge which characterized her whole life, ranked her high in every department of study. Especially did the artistic chord in her nature respond rejoicingly to the aesthetic culture of the school, and, after a period of nearly sixty years (1870), she leaves as heirlooms several paintings and pieces of finest ornamental needle-work, executed by herself at chat time."*

Dr. Jonathan Metcalf came to Hudson in 1812. After a long tour of inspection on horseback, he came to Aurora, and was about to leave for Pittsburgh, when he was met by David Hudson, who persuaded him to visit the Hudson settlement. The place pleased him, and he took up his abode with Mr. Hudson on the 6th of June. Two weeks later, the little community was startled by the intelligence that war had been declared with Great Britain. The militia which had been formed a few years previous were ordered out. A company formed from Hudson and the several adjoining townships, had its headquarters here, and was under the command of Amos Lusk as Captain. A good deal of uneasiness prevailed in this frontier settlement, although there seemed no necessity for any public measure of safety save to remain constantly on the alert. Late one Saturday evening in August, a messenger from Newburg entered Mr. Hudson's house, bringing the news of Hull's surrender, and the further rumor that the British and Indians in great numbers were making their way down the lake in flatboats.

The whole communit}- was thrown at once into a fever of excitement. Preparations were made for placing the women and children in a place of safet}-, and the companyof militia was summoned to their place of rendezvous. On the Sabbath moi'ning following, Capt. Lusk paraded his compan}' on the green, prepared to act upon the first information or order, when a messenger from the Committee of Public Safet}- at Cleveland announced that the forces approaching were the paroled troops of Gen. Hull. At this juncture, Capt. Lusk called for a volunteer to carry the news to Warren, to which Dr. Metcalf responded, as he was provided with a good riding horse. -' There was then only a bridle path by marked trees to Warren, and no bridges across the streams, and he was an entire stranger to the country. He left Hudson about 11 o'clock with a letter of introduction from Capt. Lusk to Col. Edwards, of Warren, and rode forty miles on a sultry August da}-, swimming the Mahoning River two or three times, the water coming nearly to the seat of the saddle. He reached Warren about dark, found Col. Edwards at the house of Gen. Perkins, delivered his communication, and was invited to stay all night at the house of the former. In the morning he found an Eastern acquaintance who was trading in Warren, who informed him that Col. Cotgrave, who was then encamped with his regiment on the common, under marching orders, had raised a great excitement the pi'eceding night. It was alleged that Metcalf was a British officer in disguise, and had brought the message to delay the marching of the regiment and gain time for the British. It was intimated, moreoxer, that if lie had not enjoyed the protection of Col. Kdwards, his life would probably have been sacrificed by the excited soldiers."* Fortunately, the excitement was allayed by morning, and Mr. Metcalf returned to Hudson in safety. Capt. Lusk's compan}- was ordered a little later to old Portage under Gen. Wadsworth's command, and afterward to Huron and Sandusky, being out some three months, but saw no active service. While in the service. Dr. Metcalf accompanied them as Surgeon in charge. These troops were armed with such weapons as each man owned, and something of their effectiveness may be learned from an incident that occurred at old Portage. A compan}' of some twenty men practicing in firing b}' platoons found only one gun that did not miss fire at the first shot. The peace establishment after the war was entered into with enthusiasm by the Hudson people. A company of '' light infantry " was organized, which was the pride of the colony and the env^- of the regular militia at general musters in Ravenna.

The political organization of Hudson was very early. The settlement here was, at that time, the largest on the Reserve, and the townships of Stow, Boston, Twinsburg, Aurora and Mantua were attached to it for township purposes. It has been agreed among the original proprietors that the township should be named after its founder, and, in 1802, the Commissioners of Trumbull County, sitting at Warren, the county seat, organized this territory with the name of Hudson. On the 5th of April following, twenty electors gathered at the cabin of David Hudson, and elected Thaddeus Lacey, Township Clerk ; Heman Oviatt, Ebenezer Sheldon and Abraham Thompson, Trustees ; Elias Harmon and Samuel liishop, Poormasters ; Aaron Norton, John Oviatt and Jotham Atwater, Fence Viewers ; Joel (xaylord and Elias Harmon, x\ppraisers of Houses ; George Kilbourne, Moses Pond and Moses Thompson, Supervisors of Highways ; Ebenezer Lister, Aaron Norton and Rufus Edwards, Constables. Of the election, Mr. Hudson was Chairman, and the voters were D. Hudson, J. Darrow, G. Darrow, Dr. Thompson, T. Lacey, William McKinley, A. Norton, H. Oviatt, P]. Sheldon (of Aurora), E. Nobles, S. Bishop, J. Gaylord, A. Thompson, Deacon S. Thompson. Robert Walker (of Stow), Elias Harmon (of Mantua), Jotham Atwater, Moses Pond, Rufus Edwards and George Kilbourne. In J 801, Gov. St. Clair Appointed Mr. Hudson,