Lorain City (part 25 of 77)

The elegant and athletic forms; the tasteful, yet not cumbrous, dress; the dignified, noble bearing of the chief, and, more than all, the modest demeanor of the young warriors of the Jregucis party, won the admiration of all beholders. They brought no arms; each one bore a bat, used' to throw or strike a ball, tastefully ornamented, being a hickory stick about five feet long, bent over at the end, and a thong netting wove into thebow. After a day of repose and refreshment, all things were arranged for the contest. The chief of the Zroguois brought forward and deposited upon the ground a large pile of elegantly wrought belts of wampum, costly jewels, silver bands, beautifully ornamented moccasins, and other articles of great value in the eyes of the sons of the forest, as the stake or wager on the part of his people. These were carefully matched by the Fries, with articles of

The game began, and, although contested with desperation and great skill by the Fries, was won by the Jroguois, who bore off the prize in triumph. Thus ended the first day.

The Jrogusis having now accomplished the object of their visit, proposed to take their leave, but the chief of the Hries, addressing himself to their leaders, said their young men, though fairly beaten in the game of ball, would not be satisfied unless they could have a foot-race, and proposed to match ten of their number against an equal number of the Iroquois party, which was assented to, and the Jroqguots were again victorious.

The Kaukwas who resided on Eighteen-Mile creek, being present as the friends and allies of the Zries, now invited the Jroguois party to visit them before they returned home, and thither the whole party repaired. The chief of the Zries, as a last trial of the courage and prowess of his guests, proposed to select ten men, to be matched with an equal number of the Jroguois party, to wrestle, and that the victor should dispatch his adversary on the spot by braining him with a tomahawk and bearing off his scalp as a trophy. This sanguinary proposition was not at all pleasing to the Jroguots; they, however, concluded to accept the challenge; with the determination, should they be victorious, not to execute the bloody part of the proposition. The champions were accordingly chosen. ring, and threw his adversary, amid the shouts of the multitude. He stepped back and declined to exeeute his victim, who lay passive at his feet. As quick as thought the chief of the Zries seized the tomahawk,

'and, at a single blow, scattered the brains of his yanquished warrior over the ground. His body was dragged away, and another champion of the ries presented himself. He was quickly thrown by his more powerful antagonist of the Zrogwots party and as quickly dispatched by the infuriated chief. A third met the same fate.

The chief of the Jroguots party, seeing the terrible excitement which agitated the multitude, gavea signal to retreat. Every man obeyed the signal, and in an instant they were out of sight. In two hours they arrived at Tu-shu-way, gathered up the trophies of their victories, and were on their way home.

This visit of the hundred warriors of the Five Nations and its results only served to increase the jealousy of the Zries, and to convince them that they had powerful rivals to contend with. It was no part of their policy to cultivate friendship, and strengthen their own power by cultivating peace with other tribes.

but by exterminating all who might oppose them. But the combination of several powerful tribes, any of whom might be almost an equal match for them, and of whose personal prowess they had seen such an exhibition, inspired the Hries with the most anxious forebodings. To cope with them collectively they saw was impossible. Their only hope, therefore, was in being able by a vigorous and sudden movement to destroy them in detail. With this view a powerful party was immediately organized to attack the Senecas who resided at the foot of Seneca lake (the present site of Geneva), and along the banks of Seneca river. It happened that at this period there resided among the Hries a Seneca woman, who in early life had been taken prisoner, and had married a husband of the Erie tribe. He died and left her a widow without children, a stranger among strangers. -- Hearing the terrible note of preparation for a bloody onslaught upon her kindred and friends, she formed the resolution of apprising them of their danger. As soon as night set in, taking the course of the Niagara river, she traveled all night and early next morning reached the shore of Lake Ontario. She jumped in a canoe, which she found fastened to a tree, and boldly pushed into the open lake. Coasting down the lake, she arrived at the mouth of the Oswego river in the night, where a large settlement of the nation resided. She directed her steps to the house of the head chief, and disclosed the object of her journey. She was secreted by the chief, and runners were dispatched to all the tribes, summoning them immediately to meet in council, which was held in Onondaga Hollow.

When all were convened the chief arose, and, in the most solemn manner, rehearsed a vision, in which he said that a beautiful bird appeared to him and told him that a great party of the Hries was preparing to muke a secret and sudden descent upon them to destroy them, and that nothing could save them but an immediate rally of all the warriors of the Five Nations, to meet the enemy before they should be able to strike the blow. These solemn announcements were heard in breathless silence. When the chief had finished and sat down, there arose one immense yell of menacing madness. The earth shook when the mighty mass brandished high in the air their warclubs, and stamped the ground like furious beasts.

No time was lost. A body of five thousand warriors was organized, and a corps of reserve, consisting of one thousand young men who had never been in battle. The bravest chiefs of all the tribes were put in command, and spies immediately sent out in search

The advance of the party was continued several days, passing through, successively, the settlement of their friends, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas; but they had scarcely passed the last wigwam, now the fort of Ca-an-du-gua (Canandaigua) lake, when the scouts brought in intelligence of the advance of the Hries, who had already crossed the Ce-nis-se-u (Genesee)-river in great force. The Hries had not the slightest intimation of the approach of their enemies. They relied on the secrecy and celerity

The two parties met at a point about half-way between the foot of Canandaigua lake, on the Genesee river, and near the outlet of two small lakes, near the foot of one of which (ILoncoye) the battle was fought. When the two parties came in sight of each other the outlet of the lake only intervened between them.

The entire force of the five confederate tribes was not in view of the Zrics. The reserve corps of one thousand young men had not been allowed to advance in sight of the enemy. Nothing could resist the impetuosity of the Hries at the first sight of an opposing force on the other side of the stream. They rushed through it and fell upon them with tremendous fury. The undaunted courage and determined bravery of the Zroquois could not avail against such a terrible onslaught, and they were compelled to yield the ground on the bend of the stream. The whole force of the combined tribes, except the corps of the reserve, now became engaged. They fought hand to hand and foot to foot. The battle raged horribly. No quarter was asked or given on either side.

As the fight thickened and became more desperate, the Hries, for the first time, became sensible of their true situation. What they had long anticipated had become a fearful reality. Their enemies had combined for their destruction, and they now found themselves engaged, suddenly and unexpectedly, in a struggle not only involving the glory, but perhaps the very existence of their nation. 'They were proud, and had hitherto been victorious over all their enemies. Their superiority was felt and acknowledged by all the tribes. They knew how to conquer, but not to yield. All these. considerations flashed upon the minds of the bold Hries, and nerved every arm with almost superhuman power. On the other hand, the united forces of the weaker tribes, now made strong by union, fired with a spirit of emulation, excited to the highest pitch among the warriors of the different tribes, brought for the first time to act in concert, inspired with zeal and confidence by the counsels of the wisest chiefs, and led by the most experienced warriors of all the tribes, the Jroquois were invincible.

Though staggered by the first desperate rush of their opponents they rallied at once, and stood their ground. And now the din of battle rises higher; the war-club, the tomahawk, the scalping-knife, wielded by herculean hands, do terrible deeds of death. During the hottest of the battle, which was fierce ,and long, the corps of reserve, consisting of a thousand young men, were, by a skillful movement under their experienced chief, placed in the rear of the Aries, on the opposite side of the stream in ambush.

The Hries had been driven seven times across the stream, and had as often regained their ground; but the eighth time, at a given signal from their chief, the corps of young warriors in ambush rushed upon the almost exhausted Hries with a tremendous yell, and at once decided the fortunes of 'the day. Hun- dreds, disdaining to fly, were struck down by the warclubs of the vigorous young warriors, whose thirst for the blood of the enemy knew no bounds. A few of the vanquished ries escaped to carry the news of the terrible overthrow to their wives and children and old men that remained at home. But the victors did not allow them a moment's repose, but pursued them in their flight, killing all who fell into their hands.

The pursuit was continued for many weeks, and it was five months before the victorious party of the Five Nations returned to their friends to join in celebrating the victory over their last and most powerful enemy - the Zries.

Tradition adds that many years after a powerful war-party of the descendants of the Hries came from beyond the Mississippi, ascended the Ohio, crossed the country, and attacked the Senecas, who had settled in the seat of their fathers at Tu-shu-way. A great battle was fought near the site of the Indian mission-house in which the Zvies were again defeated, and slain toa man. Their bones lie bleaching in the sun to the present day, - a monument at once of the indomitable courage of the terrible ries and of their brave conquerors, the Senecas.

The Iroquois

After their conquest, the "ive Nations became the undisputed owners, if not the actual occupants, of the soil bordering the southern shore of Lake Erie. They carried their incursions into the far west, and became sovereigns of an almost boundless territory. For many years succceding the subjugation of the Hries this region was known as the hunting-ground of the powerful Zroguois. The Senecas which were the westernmost tribe of the Vive Nations were oftener the occupants of the territory than any other tribe. The rivalry between the French and English for title to American soil involved the Indians in innumerable wars, resulting in great decimation of their numbers. This struggle for rivalry ceased in 1763 with the treaty of Paris, when England came into the possession of France's title to the great west. From this time to the close of the Revolutionary struggle the Jroquois retained possession of the forests of Northern Ohio. In 1780 the number of the Zroguois

The Hurons, Or Wyandots

The peninsula enclosed between lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, had been the dwelling-place of the original Hurons. After their defeat by the Five Nations they became widely scattered, some descending the St. Lawrence, where, in the region of Quebec, their descendants are yet to be seen; a part were adopted into the tribes of their conquerors; others fled beyond Lake Superior and hid themselves in the wilderness that divided the Chippewas from their western foes, while scattered bands took refuge in the forests of Northern Ohio. They were probably more familiarly known to the pioneers of this region than any other tribe of Indians,

Remnants Of Algonkin Tribes

The Algonkins, two hundred years ago, were by far the most numerous family of American Indians, and their domain reaching from the Atlantic to the Mississippi river was the greatest in extent. The historian, Bancroft, fixes their number two centuries ago at ninety thousand, while the Zroquois family are thought not to have exceeded seventeen thousand. A hundred years ago a number of their tribes were quite numerously represented on the soil of what is now Northern Ohio. The greatest number of these red men belonged to the Delaware, the Chippewa, and the Ottawa tribes, although remnants of the Shawnees, the Pottawatomies, the Miamis, and the Kickapoos were likewise present. In the wars between the Indians and the pioneer settlers of Ohio, preceding the treaties of Fort McIntosh (1785), of Fort Harmar (1789), of Fort Greenville (1795), and of Fort Industry, (1805), the red men were completely subdued, and thereafter this region, instead of being the permanent dwelling-place of one or more tribes of Indians, came to be temporarily the common hunting-ground of many tribes. Seeking permanent homes in the remoter west, they returned here during the hunting seasons to renew the sports of the chase and roam through the pleasant forests where lay buried the dead of their forefathers. Such was the condition, for the most part, of the red men of this locality when first came hither the white settler.

Abstract Of Treaties Conveying Lands

oe WHERE MADE, AND BY WHOM. SUMMARY OF THE GRANTS. WTB is erets Utrecht. England, France and other European powers. France cedes to England Bay of Fludson and its borders, Newfoundland and Nova we Albany, New York. Iroquois and the English. oe . All the claims of the Six Nations to lands west of Lake Erie, including a strip sixty miles wide along the shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie from Oswego river 1744.....:. Lancaster, Pa. Same parties as above. to the Cuyahoga. All the lands of the Jroquois that are or hereafter may be within the colony of 20GR 2.5.8 At Logstown, on the Ohio. Same parties as above Virginia. and western Indians. Confirm the treaty of Lancaster, and consent to settlements south of the Ohio OT Paris. England and Portugal on the one side, and Lite

| France cedes to England islands in the West Indies; the Floridas; the eastern half of the valley of the Mississippi; all Canada; Acadia; and Cape Breton and its independent islands.

TBS e is n2 Paris. England and the United States. England cedes to the United States the territory in North America lying south of the chain of lakes and east of the Mississippi.

United States. Blt BerOre Fort McIntosh, at the mouth of Big Beaver. The | The Indians cede all their claims east and south of the Cuyahoga, and the portage United States and the Chippewas, Delawares, between it and the Tuscarawas to Fort Laurens (Bolivar); thence to Laramie's Ottawas, and Wyandots. Fort (northwest part of Shelby county); thence along the Portage path to the St. Mary's river, and down it to the Omee or Maumee river and the lake shore to the Cuyahoga.

The United States and the Shawnees. allotted a tract on the heads of the two Miamis and the Wabash, west of the Chippewas, Delawares, and Wyandots.

tribes, - Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Otta- Recovery and the mouth of the Kentucky river. was, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, Miamis, Kickapoos, Piankashaws, and Kaskaskias. 1796. .| At Buffalo. The Senecas and the Connecticut Land | The Senecas, represented by Brant, cede the Connecticut Land Company their Company. rights east of the Cuyahoga. 1805....... At Fort Industry, on the Maumee. The United | The Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Shawnees, Munsees, and Potta- States and Western Tribes. wattomies relinquish all lands west of the Cuyahoga as far west as the west line of the Western Reserve, and south of the line from Fort Laurens to Laramie's fort. 1807.......| At Detroit. The United States and Western | The Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandots and Pottawattomies cede all that part of Ohio Tribes. north of the Maumee river, with part of Michigan.

a ko 2 ea Brownstown, Michigan. The same parties and the Shawnees grant a tract two miles wide, from the west line of the Reserve to the rapids of the Maumee, for the purpose of a road through the Black swamp.

Ce Springwells, near Detroit. The Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawattomies, Wyandots, Delawares, Senecas, Shawnees, and Miamis, wl.o had engaged on the British side in the War of 1812, confirm the treaties of Fort McIntosh and Greenville.

WM. At the rapids of the Maumee. The Wyandots cede their lands west of the line of 1805, as far as Laramie's and the St. Mary's river and north of the Maumee. The Pottawattomies, Chippewas, and Ottawas cede territory west of the Detroit line of 1807 and north of the Maumeee.

Chapter Viii The Moravian Missions

The earliest actual settlement made within the present limits of Lorain county, though short-lived, was effected by that zealous but persecuted sect known as Moravians, at the mouth of Black river in 1787. We deem it but just that a short chapter be devoted to this interesting people, and believe no one will deem the space we accord them as unwisely granted.

The sect had its origin in Bohemia. Always insignificant as to numbers, and none of them remarkable for wealth, position or learning, no Christian people have shown more zeal or enthusiasm in extending their Master's kingdom. Considering their meager numbers, it may be confidently asserted that no other denomination of Christians has done so much for the missionary cause. Without extraordinary skill or ability in elucidating abstruse or difficult problems of belief, they have sought not to make proselytes among those already well-grounded in the cardinal doctrines of Christian faith, but to teach the elementary gospel religion to those peoples and tribes who had not yet been converted to christianity. To the prosecution of this work they have freely devoted their lives and fortunes, and no country has been too remote, no shore too forbidding or inhospitable to prevent their planting there the banner of the cross and seeking to bring under its folds the most savage and degraded of mankind.

In 1732, while their numbers were less than four hundred, they began their missionary work, the first station established being at St. Thomas in the West Indies.

In 1740 they established a mission among the Indians at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; but as the Indians were being gradually driven westward, a permanent location was impossible.

The efforts of the missionaries to civilize the Indians were not wholly successful. Their contact with the whites was always corrupting in its influence upon the red men. For the missionaries to have success it was necessary for them to keep in advance of the wave of emigration.

In 1768 a new location was sought near Oil City, Pennsylvania, and in 1770 they removed to the Beaver river, where they remained a year or more, and then turned their steps westward to the valley of the T'uscarawas, near New Philadelphia, Ohio. Here, in this pleasant and fertile valley, they thought themselves so far in the wilderness that they hoped they might forever remain undisturbed. 'They built cabins, cleared away the forests, worshiped God in peace and happiness. Their numbers increased by conversions from the Indians until the settlement contained three villages named Schoenbrunn, Salem and Gnadenhutten.

Though they exercised only the arts of peace and kept aloof from war and strife, patiently submitting to wrong without seeking to bestow punishment, they could not escape persecution and martyrdom. They were distrusted by both the British and the Americans. The former took steps to break up their mission and bring the inhabitants to Detroit as prisoners.

It was a sad blow to the peaceful Christians to be forced to leave their homes and ungathered crops, and in a long journey through a pathless wilderness, suffering indignity, cruelty and untold hardships.

The following spring, 1782, a few of them by permission returned to harvest their corn; but no sooner were they arrived than a detachment of Americans came among them, and, seizing a favorable opportunity, rushed upon the defenceless Christians and slaughtered them in cold blood. It was one of the most 'cruel, unprovoked and bloody deeds known to the annals of border warfare.

Those that had remained at Detroit sought a home in Canada; but, after dwelling a few years among the Chippewas, their hearts yearned for their old home in the Tuscarawas, and in 1786 they started thither.

Reaching a point on the Cuyahoga in Independence township, known as Pilgrims' Rest, they received intelligence that made them shrink from going further. They halted and remained here about one year and then journeyed westward until they reached the mouth of Black river (in 1787), and here they made a settlement. Their hope was to found here a permanent colony and to labor among the Indians, endeavoring to civilize and Christianize them. This cherished wish, however, could not be realized. But a few days had elapsed when the chief of the Delawares. sent them a message commanding them to depart. This may be termed the first actual settlement effected within the limits of Lorain county. Though these Moravians tarried but a few days, they had actually chosen a spot where they fully intended to permanently remain, and their withdrawal was obligatory, not voluntary.

Driven from Black river, these valiant Christian soldiers next sought for themselves sn asylum on the banks of the Huron, about two miles north of the present village of Milan, in Erie county. Here they dwelt for five or six years; but, after suffering many persecutions, they were again driven away, and returned to Canada, settling on the river Thomas,

In 1797, Congress, mindful of their past wrongs, made grants to them of their old lands on the Tuscarawas, whither a portion of them returned and prosecuted their missionary labors. However, their success was retarded by the influence of the white settlers, which was ever demoralizing upon the Indian, and some of them returned again to Canada, while others, among them Charles Frederich Dencke, came to the Huron river and established there a mission. This was in 1804. Here they continued to dwell for five years, until the Fire Lands, having been surveyed, the white settler began to claim the lands upon which their cabin homes were erected. Then the missionaries and their Indian adherents sought their brethren in Canada.

The mission village on the Huron was called Pequotting, or Paynothing, and consisted of a chapel, mission house and a score or more of cabins, some of which were afterwards used by the white settlers.

Their labors consisted in teaching the Indians not only religion, but the rudiments of education, and were successful in inducing them to a certain extent to procure their food by cultivating the soil, to live in cabins, and to leave off their paint and feathers and to clothe themselves in more civilized garbs.

Among the most noted of these missionaries may be named Charles Frederich Dencke, who was born in Iceland, his father being a missionary to that coun. try. Tradition states that he had a library which filled a space of not less than ten feet in length by six in height, and occupied nearly the whole of one side of his log cabin at Pequotting. Surely the man who took the pains to transport these books from place to place under so many difficulties, could not have been uncultivated and unlearned.

These men were not the heroes of battles nor winners of renown in the noisy triumph of civic strife. They cared not for the applause of man, but in a humble way, through years of hunger, toil, weariness and loneliness, sustained by an unwavering trust and faith, they sought out the rude savage of the forest and strove to elevate him to a higher, truer manhood. Is it not fitting that History spares, then, a page whereon to transfix their names and deeds?

Chapter Ix

It would seem that the good old state of Connecticut never attempted, perhaps never intended, to exercise empire over her possessions in the west. She contented herself with mere ownership; was not very loth to part with her property, which she made haste to dispose of without any expenditure to develop orenhance its market value. The Connecticut Land Company purchased only to sell again. For the purpose of division, it was obliged to survey its domain. This accomplished, the Company was immediately dissolved, and each with his allotment at once sought purchasers, and they, without concert, pushed off singly to their acquisitions. Colonizing in America has been pursued on a somewhat different basis, under a different inspiration from that practiced in Europe. The state undertakes nothing. It is rare that there is organization or combination with us to effect this purpose. It comes to be known that some new unpeopled region is open or may be opened, and by a common impulse, hardy, enterprising men, with their wives and families, or without them, push off, undeterred by difficulties, and unappalled by obstacles or dangers even, and the next that the world hears, a new and thriving community, perhaps a lusty young state, demands recognition.

Perhaps no section of the conntry, of such an extent, had then been so rapidly peopled: as the Connecticut Reserve. With not ascore of occupants in 1800, twenty years saw it well settled, and those years cover all there was of pioneer life proper, although for twenty years more, the region was sought by men in search of new homes.

Planted mainly from Connecticut and Massachusetts, with a little sprinkle from the rest of New England, New York and Western Pennsylvania, most of immigrants had to traverse over six hundred miles, two-thirds or three-fourths of which was through a wilderness and over the roughest of roads. The whole was generally by land carriage, and usually by ox teams. Not until the construction of the Erie canal, did Lake Erie and water carriage make any considerable figure in the transit. Some of the earlier pioneers ventured up the lake in small open boats,

The crushing defeat of the western tribes of Indians by Wayne, in 1794, freed the Reserve from the fear of savage hostilities, and although many small bands found homes and hunting grounds by her beautiful streams and splendid forests, they were not even a source of annoyance till the dark days of 1812. Save a few from western New York and Pennsylvania, most of the settlers were from older New England, where the hatreds and enmities against the Indians had died out, and where the memories of the Pequots of the Narragansetts, and of King Phillip, had become traditions. Her children carried no border animosities into the Ohio woods, and very few of them had any skill as hunters, or much knowledge of woodcraft. No American of that time but had the memory at least of a hunter's and soldier's life; and men in a single day revert to the ways of barbarism if not savagery. Each man and woman from the old organized states of civilization, as their journeys led them deeper and deeper into the western forests, by so much plunged into the heart of primitive life, bearing all their civilized needs and wants with them, which could alone be supplied by the skill of the hunter, and of men who could draw all the elements of subsistence, at first hand, from unchanged nature. The great wave of pioneer life, which slowly rolled from the east to the west, followed by the fixed foot-prints of ever equally advancing refinement and civilization, gave birth, as it went, to a mode of life, manners and customs of a pioneer type, consisting of a few well marked peculiarities, of plainness, almost coarseness, in a stimulating atmosphere, in that fullness of unconventional freedom, which left individuals to develope, in a striking way, the diverse peculiarities and characteristics of their natures. On the Reserve, this phase of pioneer life, with its manners and customs, was of but a few years duration, and affected not more than two generations. There is scarcely a vestige of it now remaining. A cherished, a regretful memory: it is fast fading into a tradition, which genius, art, enthusiasm and the warmest imagination can never reproduce.

In the peopling of the Lorain woods, no state, nor powerful corporation, no strong combination of individuals had any hand. Few persons of wealth took any personal part init. No well constructed highway led from the old to the new, with convenient resting places. No common starting place, and no common point of*arrival and scttlement, where supplies were gathered, and around and from which the new homes would be built. A hundred different points, remote from each other, were occupied at the same time, and the sufferings, privations and hardships of the first settler were repeated a thousand times, when by care and tact they might have been avoided.

The silence of the Lorain forests remained unbroken a few years longer than some of her neighboring regions. The incidents of their first occupation will be detailed, under the names of the different townships; only a slight general reference can here be made to them. Asa general rule, the pioneers were men of courage and enterprise. Few others would have the hardihood to run the risk, and take upon themselves the labor and privation incident to a removal into the woods.

It is said that the Moravians were the first, of European blood, who attempted to make a permanent lodgment on the soil of Lorain, and that in 1787, they gathered a small band of christian Indians at the mouth of Black river, where they intended to establish a mission for the conversion of the natives, but were compelled to depart by the mandate of a chief, who claimed jurisdiction of that region.

One of the first efforts of a settlement, if such it may be called, was in 1807, by Nathan Perry, who established a trading post at the mouth of the same river. Actual clearers of the woods, and cultivators of the soil, first planted themselves at that point in 1810. They were said to have been natives of Vermont. This position was on the lake coast region, and quite central in the present county.

In the autumn of 1807, a strong and seemingly wel] considered attempt was made to colonize the present township of Columbia, the most eastern of Lorain, from Waterbury, Connecticut. The more prominent and Bronson, most of whom had families; also, Mrs. Parker and five children. It is said the party were two months in reaching Buffalo, and undertook to navigate Lake Erie, which must have been extra hazardous at that season. They seem to have been wrecked near the present city of Erie, whence they made their way on foot to Cleveland, - one of the most disastrous of the early attempts to reach the then west. Most of the party spent the residue of the winter in Cleveland. Other immigrants reached Columbia during the winter, and the ensuing season.

Ridgeville also received her first pioneers from Connecticut in 1810, and Amherst her first about the same time. Eaton was also first settled from Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1810.

Three of these points of occupation formed a sort of triangle, not remote from each other, in the eastern central portions of the county, while Black River and Amherst were quite distant to the northwest. The five seem to have been the only settlements in the county, until after the dark days of the war of 1812, although some of them seem to haye made accessions during that gloomy period.

Brownhelm, west of Black River, and Grafton, adjoining Eaton, on the south, were settled in 1816, as was Elyria, the future 'county seat, and all three from Massachusetts. Elyria was most fortunate in being selected as the home of the Elys.

Carlisle, south of, Elyria and west of Eaton, was first occupied in 1819, from Connecticut, and Brighton, adjoining Wellington on the west, in 1820. Russia's first settler came from New York in 1818. Penfield, adjoining Wellington on the east, in 1819, while Henrietta was settled in 1817. The other townships, many of them, were first occupied in the years soon following these older sisters.

These pioneers were of one origin, language, religion, with political and patriotic sentiments mainly identical with a common history and the same traditions. They were of the intelligent working class, having community of purpose, which they pursued by the same methods, and in the same field, with results not widely dissimilar. The journey, arrival, building, mode of life, fortune and career, of almost any one of these, resolute, vigorous, thrifty downeast families, was the counterpart of the histories of all the others.

The leading incidents of these will more properly be mentioned elsewhere. This slight reference to the periods of the first settlements of the older townships and the mention of their origin is merely to show that they were quite contemporaneous, and made by a perfectly homogeneous people and under similar conditions.

The man of our old civilization is astonished at the enumeration of his wants, and perhaps still more at the small number absolutely essential to the comfortable maintenance of human life, with all of its real enjoyments. A remoyal into the depths of the Ohio woods, where a man was directly placed face to face with primitive conditions, brought him at once to the practical contemplation of the problem, and the solution was in his own hands: Food, shelter, raiment. Here was the earth, whose soil was to furnish bread and clothing, but it was covered with a thick growth of great trees to be removed ere it could be planted. Their trunks and barks must be converted into houses. The last was the first to beextemporized. A temporary supply of food, was carried by the immigrant with him. On making his way to his purchase he pursued the trail that led nearest to it, and, with his axe, opened the rest of the way. The point gained, the same implement with which a savage continent has been hewn into the rough forms of civilization, cuts down and prepares the tree trunks for the first cabin, which the hands of the whole party, women and children as well, help to place in the low, rude walls of the primitive structure, while the bark of the baswood and elm make the cover. Doorless, floorless, windowless, chimneyless, the pioneer eagerly takes possession of his cheerless cabin. Thousands of them within these seventy years were built and occupied in the Lorain woods. Men and women lived in them; children - all the elders of the new generation - were born in them. Death came to them there; and there young women became brides and dwelt there - the happy wives of happy husbands. Of all these dwellings in the woods, scarcely the site of one can now be identified. The forest was at once the great foe and benefactor of the new dwellers in its midst. A war of extermination began on the trees. The axe and fire were the agents of their swift destruction, and rapidly the small ring of trees about the cabin enlarged, and the growing, stumpy fields, marked the progress of the struggle. Next to the erection of their own cabin, the most important event was the arrival of another family in the woods, and the erection of their dwelling received the joyous help of every male within ten miles of it. No one born of later years can comprehend the strength and warmth of the bands of sympathy and fellowship which united the first dwellers in the woods in wide neighborhood!

What an event was the erection of the first sawmill! The first grist mill! The setting up of the first blacksmith's forge! The advent of the first shoemaker! The purchase of the first cows and sheep! The acquisition of the first cat, dog and hens! The coming of aspinning-whcel in a family and the setting up of a hand loom in a neighborhood were events. The raw material for all fabrics were won from the earth. Men raised flax, rotted, broke and swingled it. Women hatcheled, spun, wove and made it into garments. Wool, shorn from the sheep, was turned into cloth, dyed with bark, and the first fretting mill was a benefaction. 'Then came carding machines. Many men became apt and skillful hnnters, and the pelts of elk and deer were changed by domestic tanners to material for clothing. A great drawback was the scarcity of necessary implements for the household, and for the outside war on the savagery of nature - rudely extemporized chairs, stools and boxes, gourds, shells, sap-troughs, wooden trays and trenchers; poor axes, rude hoes, imperfect seythes, sickles, hand flails, and fans, and wooden plows. Money there was none, and yet money had to be paid for taxes, for leather, and usually for salt. But one product could be exchanged for money. The field and house ashes were carefully saved, rude boiling asheries extemporized, and crude, black salts manufactured which in remote Pittsburgh commanded money.

Not the least of the enemies encountered by the pioneers, were the predaceous wild animals. The bears made war on the swine, considerable flocks of sheep were often devoured by wolves, and the good wives' poultry found many enemies, while the ripening crops were the spoil of animals and birds of all sorts.

The ill condition of their dwellings, the scanty supply of warm clothing, the sometimes lack of food, the general hardship and exposure of their mode of life and labor, the endlessness of that toil, with the constant care and anxiety of the elders of the family, amid the unknown perils of the climate, and diseases incident to pioneer life, rendered-the settlers liable to become the victims of sickness, often fatal. More than one epidemic, more malignant than any known to later times, visited the pioneers, and which, in the absence of skilled medical assistance, was left to work its fatal will, often aggravated by the attendance of quacks, who find shelter and victims on the skirts of civilization.

The presence with us, or the memory, of the few pioneers who have reached remarkable age, should not be taken as conclusive that such life is conducive to great length of years. Whoever will consult the tombstones of the pioneers, - men, women and chilren, - will, I think, be struck by the average shortness of their lives.

Living on the borders of older States and communities, their lives were marked by sharp vicissitudes and well defined and peculiar features. Often the victims of the common human vices and weaknesses, the nobler humane and social virtues were developed among them in a degree never found in well established states of human association. If there was less of what is now called culture, and conventional polish, and refinement, there was an hundred fold more warmth, spontaneous charity, abounding and widely extended sympathy, friendliness, and good neighborhood. Men and women were then spontaneously capable of self devoted, heroic and even great actions.

In the nature of things, pioneer life in the northern Ohio woods, with its habits, manners and customs, was necessarily transitory. The sons and daughters of advanced civilization, bearing all its most precious elements, seeds and principles with them, rushed into the forest, and planted them in the stimulating soil of the west, resolved themselves into the primitive constitutions of human society, only to guard and cherish the new growths the more certainly. And now, in seventy years, their descendants are in advance of the kindred who remain in the old seats from which they all sprung, retaining something of the warmth, much of the elevation of character, many features of the broader and freer natures and lives, developed in their pioneer fathers and mothers, by their sojourn in the wilderness. 'These are clear gains to the race of man, above and beyond the natural wealth wrought out and transmitted by their hands. They gave us a broader, deeper and wider system of education, freer and more catholic christian institutions, lived their hard, patient, toilsome lives of fidelity and devotion, and dropped by the wayside, many of them, early, unmentioned, with their worn, patient, unwearied wives, and were buried in the shadow of the near woods; while many more favored, or hardy, endured to near our day, honored and cherished.

"Oft' did the harvest to their sickles yield, Their furrows oft' the stubborn glebe has broke, How jocund did they drive their teams afield, How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke."

Civil Organization

On the 9th of July, 1788, Governor St. Clair, the newly appointed governor, arrived at Marietta, and, with the help of the judges and secretary, proceeded to organize the northwestern territory. Congress had appointed Winthrop Sargent, secretary, and Samuel Holden Parsons and John Cleves Symmes as judges. The district embraced was a vast one, including all the country lying northwest of the Ohio as far west as the Mississippi. The laws adopted for the governmental needs of the territory were those provided in the celebrated ordinance of 1787, which has been fitly described as haying been "a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night," in the settlement and govern. ment of the northwestern States.

In 1788 the county of Washington was organized by proclamation of the governor and judges. It included that part of the Western Reserve east of the Ouyahoga river, the old Portage path, and the Tuscarawas river. In the year 1795, Wayne county was established, including, with other territory of vast extent, the remainder of the Reserve not embraced in Washington county. In 179%, Jefferson county was organized, and its boundaries were such as to include all of the Western Reserve east of the Cuyahoga.

Notwithstanding the inclusion of the soil of the Reserve, by act of the territorial government, within the limits of these several counties, civil government was not of binding force upon the inhabitants of New Connecticut until the year 1800. Prior to this date, Connecticut and the Connecticut Land Company denied to the United States the right of jurisdiction over the soil of the Reserve, and refused obedience to the laws of the territorial government. (The reasons for this course are given in a former chapter of this work.) Thus it happened that, from 1796-97, the time the first settlers arrived, until May 30, 1800, the pioneers of the Reserve were without municipal laws. heir conduct was regulated and restrained, and their duties were prescribed, solely by their New England sense of justice and right. There was no law governing the descent and conveyance of real property, or of the transfer of personal goods; there were no regulations for the redress of wrongs or for the protection of private rights. They were literally a law unto themselves. Happily but few cases of misdemeanor arose; but if a settler was guilty of theft, or if he misused his wife, his neighbors constituted a court of justice, and decided what punishment should be inflicted. The offender's back generally furnished the only record of these judicial proceedings.

On the 10th day of July, 1800, the general government having ceded to Connecticut her claim to the soil of the Reserve, and Connecticut on her part having transferred to the general government all right of jurisdiction within the limits of New Connecticut, the Western Reserve was erected into a single county and called Trumbull, in honor of Jonathan Trumbull, then governor of Connecticut. This was effected by proclamation of the governor and judges of the northwestern territory. The county-seat was at Warren. Now had the people of the Reserve a government to which they gladly acknowledged allegiance. The first court of this large county convened in Warren on Monday, August 25, 1800. The following were the first officers of Trumbull county:

John Leavitt, justice of the peace and judge of probate; Solomon Griswold, Martin Smith, John Struthers, Caleb Baldwin, Calvin Austin, Edward Brockway, John Kinsman, Benjamin Davison, Ephraim Quinby, Ebenezer Sheldon, David Hudson, Aaron Wheeler, Amos Spafford, Moses Park, and John Miner, justices of the peace.

"Monday, 25th. - Went to Warren; took dinner at Adgate's and went to Quinby's; met the judge and justices of the county, when they all took the oath of office, and proceeded to open the court of.quarter sessions and court of common pleas, agreeably to the order of the governor. They proceeded to divide the county into eight. townships, and appointed constables in each. A venire was issued to summon eighteen persons as grand jurors."

These eight townships were as follows: Richfield, Middlefield, Vernon, Youngstown, Warren, Hudson, Painesville and Cleveland. The township of Cleveland, in addition to a large extent of territory east of the Cuyahoga, embraced all of the Reserve lying west of that river. Judge Boynton says:

Geauga, Lake and Cuyahoga, On the 10th day of February, 1807, there was a more general division into counties. That part of the Western Reserve lying west of the Cuyahoga and north of township No. 4. was attached to Geauga, to be a part thereof, until Cuyahoga should be organized. All of the present county of Lorain, north of Grafton, La- Grange, Pittsfield and Camden, belonged to, and was a part of, the county of Geauga, from February 10, 1807, until January 16, 1810, At that date, 1807, Ashtabula was erected out of Trumbull and Geauga, to be organized whenever its population would warrant it. Also, all that part of Trumbull which lay west of the fifth range of townships, was erected into a county by the name of Portage, and all of the Western Reserve, west of the Cuyahoga, and south of township No. 5, was annexed to, and declared to be a part of Portage. So that all of the present county of Lorain, south of Eaton, Carlisle, Russia and Henrietta belonged to, and was a part of, Portage, and remained a part of it until January 22, 1811. On the 10th day of February, 1807, the county of Cuyahoga was carved out of Geauga, to be organized whenever its population should be sufficient to require it. On the 16th of January, 1810, the population having become sufficient, the county was declared organized. On February 8, 1809, Huron was erected into a county covering the Fire Lands, but to remain attached to Geauga and Portage, for the time being, for purposes of government.

"On January 22, 1811, the boundary line of Huron was extended east, on the line now dividing Camden and Henrietta, Pittsfield and Russia, Carlisle and LaGrange, to the southwest corner of Eaton; and from there, north on the line dividing Carlisle and Eaton, and Elyria and Ridgeville, to the northwest corner of Ridgeville; thence west to Black river, and down the same fo the lake. On the day that these lines were so altered and extended, the legislature extended the south line of Cuyahoga county, from the southwest corner of Strongsville, west to the southwest corner of Eaton; thence north, between Eaton and Carlisle, to the northwest corner of Eaton; and from that point, west between Elyria and Carlisle, to the east branch of Black river, and down the same to the lake. Here was a conflict in boundaries. The boundary of Huron county included all of Elyria, extending east to Ridgeville; and the boundary of Cuyahoga included within its limits that part of Elyria lying east of the east branch of the river. The river was the dividing line between the two counties, in the one act; and the line between Elyria and Ridgeville was the dividing line in the other. This conflict was removed at the next session of the legislature, by adopting the township line, instead of the river, as the boundary line between the two counties, at this point. This adjustment of boundaries gave to Huron county the townships now known as Elyria, Carlisle, Russia, Henrietta, Brownhelm, Amherst, and all of Black River, and Sheffield lying west of the river; and to Cuyahoga county, Eaton, Columbia, Ridgeville, Avon, and all of the townships of Black River and Sheffield lying east of the river. Atthat date, 1811, the territory now comprising the county of Lorain, belonged to the counties of Huron, Cuyahoga, and Portage.

"The county of Huron, although established in 1809, and extended east of Black River in 1811, was annexed to Cuyahoga in 1810, for judicial and other purposes, and remained so annexed until January, 1815, when it was organized, and assumed control of its own affairs.

"On the 18th day of February, 1812, Medina was formed, and comprised all of the territory between the eleventh range of townships and Huron county, and south of townships No. 5. It therefore included all of the present county of Lorain, south of Eaton, Carlisle, Russia and Henrietta. On the 14th day of January, 1818, that county was organized, and its local government put into operation, it remaining in the interim, from the date of its formation to the date of its organization, attached to the county of Portage, for county purposes. On the 26th of December, 1822, Lorain county was established. It took from the county of Huron the territory embraced in the townships of Brownhelm, Henrietta, Amherst, Russia, Elyria, and Carlisle; and those parts of the townships of Black River and Sheffield that lie on the west of Black River, and from the county of Cuyahoga the townships of Troy, (now Avon), Ridgeville, the west half of Olmsted, (then called Lenox), Eaton, Columbia, and those parts of Black River and Sheffield lying east of the river; and from the county of Medina, Camden, Brighton, Pittsfield, LaGrange, and Wellington. The county, as originally formed, embraced seventeen and ons-half townships, which, until the county was organized, were to remain attached to the counties of Medina, Huron, and Cuyahoga, as formerly. It was, however, organized independently, and went into operation on the 2ist day of January, 1824. In the organization of the county, it was provided that the first officers should be elected in April, 1824; and at that election, that part of Lenox that was brought into Lorain, should vote at Ridgeville, and that part of Brighton, lying previously in Medina, should vote in the adjoining township of Wellington.

"On January 29, 1827, the boundary lines were changed. The townships of Grafton, Penfield, Spencer, Homer, Huntington, Sullivan, Rochester, and Troy - some of them organized and some not - were detached from Medina, and annexed to, and became a part of, Lorain; and the half of Lenox, belonging to Lorain, was set off to Cuyahoga, to be a part of Middlebury, until otherwise provided. Upon the formation of Summit, in 1840, the townships of Spencer and Homer were reattached to Medina; and upon the formation of Ashland county, in February, 1846, Sullivan - and Troy were detached from Lorain, and made a part of that county.

Prior to this, and on the 29th of January, 1827, an act was passed, fixing | At the March term, 1830, Hon. Reuben Wood took his seat as presiding the northern boundary of the county. The mode of forming and organizing the counties had been such as to leave unsettled the northern limit of the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga, Cuyahoga and Lorain, And in matters involving the exercise of criminal jurisdiction of offences committed on the lake, in the vicinity of the shore, the question was of too much practical importance to be leftin doubt. The treaty between the United States and Great Britain fixed the line running through the middle of the lakes, as the dividing line between the two countries. Connecticut had reserved the land between the, 41° north latitude, and 42° and 2', The course and shape of Lake Erie were such that the parallel of 42° and 2' would cross the middle line of the lake; and adjoining Ashtabula, that degree of latitude would be south of, and adjoining Lorain, north of the boundary line between Canada and the United States. This carried the northern boundary of Lorain to the middle of Lake Erie, without regard to the northern limit of the Western Reserve."

Chapter Xi

'On the 24th day of May following the organization of the county, the following record was made in the Court Journal on page one of volume one:

"Be it remembered, that, on the 24th day of May, A.D. 1824, at Elyria, in the county of Lorain, in pursuance of a statute law of the State of Ohio, passed on the 10th day of February in the year aforesaid, entitled an 'Act regulating the time of holding Judicial Court,' the first Court of Common Pleas, in and for said county of Lorain, was opened in due form by the Sheriff thereof, Josiah Harris: holding said Court, George Tod, President of the Court of Common Pleas for the third circuit in said State, in which circuit is the said county of Lorain, and his associates, Moses Eldred, Henry Brown and Frederick Hamlin, before which Court the following proceedings were had, to wit:. Woolsey Welles, an Attorney of Record in the Court, was appointed the attorney to prosecute the pleas of the State for this county during the pleasure of the.

The first official act of this court was the appointment of administrators upon the estate of Almond Holcomb, deceased. Lucinda Holcomb, widow of the deceased, and Edward Durand, were appointed.

Before the court proceeded to the general business of the session Woolsey Welles was appointed clerk, during the pleasure of the court. The first suit was for the recovery of fourteen hundred and twentyseven dollars and twenty-seven cents. Simon Nichols, plaintiff, and Thomas G. Bronson, defendant. Judgment was rendered for the plaintiff. The second day of the session Ebenezer Whiton was appointed clerk of the court of common pleas, and: Woolsey Welles was discharged from further attendance as clerk.

Grand Jury

September term, 1826, Ebenezer Whiton was appointed clerk of the court of common pleas for the period of seven years, 'if so long he shall behave well." judge, with the same associates as before given. Heman Ely became associate judge the fall of 1830. April, 1831, Josiah Harris and EB. W. Hubbard, associate judges. Fall of 1833, Hon. Matthew Burcherd was presiding judge. Spring of 1834, Hon. Ezra Dean was presiding judge; Heman Ely, Josiah Harris and Franklin Wells associate judges. Spring of 1835, Ozias Long was associate judge. Daniel J. Johns was associate judge in 1837, and from this time until the spring of 1839 the record is missing. In 1840, Hon. John W. Willey became presiding judge. Judge Willey died in office July 9, 1841, and the Hon. Reuben Hitchcock was appointed to fill the vacancy until the next spring term, when we find, January 22, 1842, Hon. Benjamin Bissell presiding judge, with Franklin Wells, Daniel J. Johns and Joseph L. Whiton associates. In the May term, 1845, Elijah De Witt and Daniel T. Baldwin became associate judges. In the April term, 1848, Benjamin C. Perkins was an associate judge. In the May term, 1849, Hon. Philemon Bliss was presiding judge, and William Day, associate.

In 1852, upon the adoption of the new Constitution, the office of associate judge was abolished, and that of Judge made elective. The following is a complete list of the gentlemen who have presided as judge, from the above year until the present, with dates of their election:

1852, Hon. Samuel Humphreyville; 1857, Hon. James B. Carperter; 1858, Hon. Thomas Bolton; 1859, Hon. William H. Canfield; 1862, Hons. John §S. Green and Stevenson Burke. The last named resigned in 1869, and Hon. Washington W. Boynton was appointed to fill vacancy, whoserved, it appears by the journal, until 1877, when John C. Hale,

Probate Judges

This office was created by the new constitution, and agreeably to its provisions an election was held in October, 1851, at which time Philemon Bliss was chosen to fill it for Lorain County. He was commissioned by Governor Reuben Wood January 17, 1852, and entered upon the duties of the office March 3, 1852. His first official act bears date March 5, 1852,and was the granting of a license to the Reverend William O'Conner, a priest of the Catholic faith, authorizing him to solemnize marriage contracts. Judge Bliss was succeeded by William F. Lockwood, whose commission was signed by Governor William Medill, and bears date November 11, 1854. Judge Lockwood resigned, and Lionel A. Sheldon was appointed. His commission, which was signed by Governor Salmon P. Chase, bears date November 20, 1856. Judge Sheldon was succeeded by Charles H. Doolittle, who was commissioned October 26, 1857. His commission was also signed by Governor Chase. Judge Doolittle was followed by John W. Steele, who was commissioned December 12, 1867, his commission being signed by Jacob D. Cox, as governor. Judge Steele resigned, and the present incumbent, Laertes B. Smith, succeeded him. Judge Smith was commissioned by Governor Rutherford B. Hayes, May 26, 1871, and assumed the duties of the office June first of that year.

County Clerks

As previously mentioned, Ebenezer L. Whiton was really the first gentleman who filled the position of clerk of the court of common pleas for Lorain county. He served until 1836, when E. H. Leonard succeeded him, and continued to occupy the office until 1844, when George H. Benham was elected to the position. Mr. Benham was succeeded in 1847 by Myron R. Keith, who, in 1852, was followed by Landon Rood. In 1858 Roswell G. Horr assumed the duties of the office, and continuing until 1864, when William A. Briggs was elected and the fact of his having held the office continuously until the fall of 1878 is conclusive evidence of his fitness for the place. To him and alsoto his worthy companion who has ably assisted in the duties of the office, we wish to express our thanks for material aid in the preparation of the official roster. Henry J. Lewis is the clerk elect and will sueceed Dr. Briggs.

Prosecuting Attorney

We have seen that Woolsey Welles was appointed to this position in 1824. He served two years and resigned. Frederick Whittlesey succeeded him. In 1832, J. W. Willey was appointed. In 1833, Frederick Whittlesey, came in; served two years; was followed in in 1835 by E. S. Hamlin; and he, in 1836, by Elijah Parker, for one year. He was succeeded by Joel Tiffany; and his successors are as follows: 1840, E. H. Leonard; 1841, Joel Tiffany; 1842, E. S. Hamlin; 1844, Horace A. Tenny; 1845, Joel Tiffany; 1846, William F. Lockwood; 1850, John M. Vincent; 184, Joseph H. Dickson; 1856, John M. Vincent; 1858, George Olms ced, who resigned; and W. W. Boynton was appointed to fill vacancy. Mr. Boynton was elected the fall of 1859. He was succeeded by John C. Hale, in 1853. Charles W. Johnston was elected in 1869; and his successor, who was elected in 1873, is George C. Metcalf, the present incumbent, a man every way capable and worthy.

Contemporaneous with the birth of the county of Lorain, Sherman Minott assumed the duties and responsibilities of auditor. He retained the position until Henry C. Minott was appointed, and afterward elected. He was succeeded in 1835 by Edward Durand. In 1836, Luther D. Griswold was elected; and in 1838, Edward Durand again became the incumbent, and served until 1842, when we find John Sherman occupying the office. The following were his successors: In 1844, Landon Rood; in 1851, George Clifton; in 1855, William H. Root; in 1861, Richard Day; in 1463, Mozart Gallup; in +1869, E. G. Johanson; and in 1877, Orville Root, who still retains the office. 5

Upon the permanent organization of the county, E. West was appointed its treasurer, and held the office one year. Following are the names of the gentlemen who have occupied this position, with date of election or appointment: 1825, Heman Ely; 1827, F. W. Whittlesey; 1830, Elihu Cooley; 1835, Charles Chaney; 1840, Elijah DeWitt; 1844, Henry M. Warner; 1845, Henry B. Kelsey; 1849, S. D. Hinman; 1853, C. S. Goodwin (deceased in the spring of 1856 and N. B. Gates was appointed to fill vacancy until the fall election, when John H. Boynton was elected); 1°60, William E. Kellogg; 1864, M. F. Hamlin; 1868, John H. Boynton; 1872, Isaac M. Johnson, and, in 1876, the present incumbent, William A. Braman.

Ebenezer Whiton was first recorder of Lorain county, and his first official act was to record a deed from Benjamin Pritchard to Anna Merrills, conveying a parcel of land containing thirty and threefourths acres, situated in township number six, range eighteen, in the county of Huron, and being part of lot number thirty-one. This instrument was acknowledged on May 10, 1823, before Isaac Mills, J. P.; was witnessed by I. Mills and Mary Mills, and endorsed " Received April 13, 1821, and recorded May 11, 1824, on page one, book 'A,' Lorain county record of deeds."" Mr. Whiton deceased in 1834, and Eliphalet H. Leonard was appointed to fill vacancy; 1837, E. O. Foot; 1840, H. B. Kelsey; 1841, Elah Park; 1843, Cyrus E. Bassett; 1849, John B. Northrop; 1852, Henry S. Rockwood; 1861, Henry B. West; 1864, William H. Tucker, and, in 1873, the present incumbent, John Blanchard, was elected. Mr. Blanchard was one of the noble army who went out to do battle for the flag, and lost his right forearm in its support on the bloody field of Stone river, December 26, 1862.

The first record we are able to procire is in the year 1827, James J. Sexton then filled the office. The following is a complete list: 1830, Edwin Byington; 1832, William N. Race; 1834, Justin Williams; 1836, Orson J. Humphrey; 1838, Otis Briggs; 1843, Ransom Gibbs; 1844, Philip L. Goss; 1846, Hezekiah Brooks; 1849, John S. Stranahan; 1852, William S. Hopkins; 1853, Herrick Parker; 1857, Clark Eldred; 1862, Nahum B. Gates; 1865, Otis Briggs; 1870, John H. Faxon; 1872, Hiram Patterson, who is the present incumbent:

The name of Josiah Harris, who was first sheriff, occurs the last time October 10, 1833. William N. Race, coroner, acted as sheriff until November, 1834, when the name of E. Griffith appears as sheriff. Mr. Griffith was succeeded by Edwin Byington in 1836, Nakum B. Gates was sheriff in 1838; E. Byington in 1842; John H. Faxon in 1844; William Patterson in 1848; John H. Boynton in 1850; Ashbel Culver in 1854; S. W. Lincoln in 1856; H. E. Burr in 1859; Milo Harris in 1863; resigned, and W. W. Dyer, coroner, filled the vacancy until 1865, when Mark Hitchcock was elected. He was succeeded by X. Peck, in 1869; and he by R. E. Braman, in 1870; and he again by Charles Stone, in 1877, who is the present incumbent. H. E. Corning, sheriff elect, succeeds Mr. Stone January 1, 1879.

The first meeting of the commissioners of Lorain county was held at Elyria, on the 24th day of May, 1824. Present: John S. Reid, Ashabel Osborne, and Benjamin Bacon. Their first official act was the appointment of Edmund West as county treasurer, who gave bond in the sum of three thousand dollars, for the faithful discharge of his duties. At the following June session, we find the record of the establishment of a road, as follows: "Beginning in the highway, a little easterly of the dwelling house of Walter Crocker, in Black River township, thence running in the most convenient route near the dwellings of Frederick and Daniel Onstine, thence across Beaver creek, near the house of Mr. Rice, thence to intersect the North Ridge road, so called, a little eastwardly of the dwelling house of Mr. Ormsby." 1827, Judson Wadsworth succeeded Osborne, as commissioner. The entire succession of incumbents to this office is given in the following list: 1830, Bacon, Wadsworth, and Milton Garfield; 1831, Wadsworth , Garfield. and Samuel Crocker; 1832, Wadsworth, Crocker, and George Bacon, Jr.; 1834, Crecker, Bacon, and John Laborie; 1835, Bacon, Laborie and Jonathan Rawson; 1836, Leborie, Rawson and Conrad Reid; 1887, Rawson, Reid and Leonard

H. Loveland; 1838, Reid, Loveland, and Ashley S. Root; 1839, Loveland, George Sibley, and William Day; 1840, Sibley, Day, and Rehisa Close; 1841, Day, Close, and Simon Nichols; 1842, Close, Nichols, and James M. Clark; 1844, Clark, C. Ormsby, and Uriah Thompson; 1845, Clark, Thompson, and Eliphalet Redington; 1846, Thompson, Redington, and John Conant; 1847, Redington, Conant, and Harry Terrell; 1848, Conant, Terrell, and George Bacon; 1849, Terrell, Bacon, and Samuel Knapp; 1850, Bacon, Knapp and O. J. Humphrey; 1851, Knapp, Humphrey, and John B. Robertson; 1852, Humphrey, M. B. Belden, and Asa Hamilton; 1853, Belden Hamilton and Otis Briggs; 1854, Hamilton, Briggs, and J. H. Dudley; 1855, Briggs, Dudley and C. G. Cole; 1856, Briggs, Cole, and J. H. Dudley; 1857, Briggs, Cole,and Darwin Dyer; 1858, Briggs, Dyer, and A. Lumm; 1859, Dyer, Lumm, Wi liam Patterson; 1860, Dyer, Patterson, and Charles S. Aiken; 1861, Dyer, Patterson, and Tabor Wood; 1862, Dyer, Wood, and Thomas Churchward; 1863, Wood, Churchward, and Darwin Dyer; 1864, Wood, Dyer, and George Clifton; 1865, Wood, Clifton, and Reuben Eddy; 1866, same; 1867, Clifton, Eddy, and B.S. Corning; 1868, Eddy, Corning, and William A. Braman; 1869, Corning, Laurel Beebe, and L. W. Bates; 1870, same; 1871, Corning, Bates, and Lucius Herrick; 1872, same; 1873, Corning, Herrick, and James Lees; 1874, Corning, Herrick, and William H. Root; 1875, Corning, Herrick, and Charles S. Mills; 1876, Herrick, Mills, and S. B. Dudley; 1877, Mills, Dudley and A. D. Perkins.

County Infirmary

On March 17, 1866, Tabor Wood, George Clifton and Reuben Eddy, county commissioners, purchased of Joseph Swift, Jr., one hundred and sixty-one acres of land in Carlisle township, for an infirmary farm, paying therefor ten thousand five hundred dollars. On January 8, 1867, the contract for the erection of a suitable building for the use of the poor of Lorain county, was awarded to John Childs, of Elyria, and Samuel C. Brooks, of Cleveland, for the sum of thirtyseven thousand five hundred dollars, and on September 10, 1868, the building was completed and accepted by the commissioners. The contractors, however, having done extra work, were paid thirty eight thousand five hundred dollars. The main building is one hundred and twenty-three by forty-six feet, three stories in height. In the center and rear of the main building is a wing thirty-two by seventy-five feet and two stories high, - the whole containing one hundred and twenty rooms.

Infirmary Directors

The commissioners appointed in 1868, Isaac S. Metcalf, Samuel Plumb, and Lucius Herrick, directors; 1869, Metcalf. Herrick, and Joseph Swift, Jr., were elected; 1870, Metcalf, Swift, and J. H. Hurlbert 1871, same; 1872, same; 1873, Swift resigned and John Chamberlain was elected to fill the vacancy - the others were Metcalf and Joseph B. Clark; 1874, same; 1875, Clark, S. D. Bacon and Isaac S. Straw. These gentlemen still occupy the position.

Superintendent Of Infirmary

September 11, 1868, Tabor Vincent was elected, and he contined as such until March, 1876, when he died, and was succeeded by the presen superintendent, Hiram Patterson.

Chapter Xii

CHAPTER XII. THE BAR OF LORAIN COUNTY.*+ At the organization of the county, in 1824, there was scarcely what could be called a bar. The history of the bar of Lorain county begins properly with the organization of the county, in the year 1824. It is worthy of mention, however, that there had resided in the county, prior to that time, a lawyer who subsequently rose to great eminence in the profession in Ohio. We refer to EBENEZER LANE, who came to Elyria not long after the original settlement, in 1817, and while that part of the present Lorain county, which lies west of the East Branch of Black river constituted a part of Huron county. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Iluron county in the spring of 1819, but continued to reside in Elyria until October 10, of the same year, when he removed to Norwalk for the more convenient discharge of his official duties. He rose rapidly in his profession, and in 1831 occupied a seat upon the supreme bench, which he continued to hold until'1845. His decisions are reported in volumes five to thirteen, inclusive, of the Ohio reports.

At the organization of the court of common pleas of Lorain county, May 24, 1824, four gentlemen competed for the appointment of prosecuting attorney from the court. These were WooLsEY WELLS, ELIJAH PARKER, EBENEZER ANDREWS and REUBEN Mussey. Mr. Welles was the successful candidate. "Not," says Mr. Welles, in a recent letter, "' because I was the best lawyer, but because I had more influential friends to recommend me to the court."

Mr. ANDREWS must have left the county about that time, as there is nothing in the records of the court to show that he was practising here ut any subsequent time. His name appears in only a single case, and that in 1829.

The other three gentlemen above named, with Frederick Whittlesey, who came shortly afterwards, seem to have constituted the resident county until about 1851.

Mr. Parker, the eldest of these, was born June 22, 1779. Ife came to Ohio from Vermont at a very early day. The date of his arrival we have been unable to avcertain; but he was in Elyria as early as 1823. He remained in Elyria until his death, April 2, 1859. His health in later years was poor, and he would seem, from the fecords, not to have practiced any after about 1854. Ile held the office of justice of the peace several times, and that of prosecuting attorney of the county during the years 1836 and 1837.

REUBEN MusseEy, the father of Henry E. Mussey, who is still a resident of Elyria, was born in Dover, N. H., October 14, 1785. He was admitted to practice as an attorney-at-law at Albany, N. Y., January 17, 1818, and as a connsellor January 12, 1821. Prior to his removal to Ohio he resided at Sandy Hill, Washington county, N. Y., where he was a partner with Judge Skinner in the practice of the law. During this period Silas Wright was a student in their office. Mr. Mussey settled at Elyria in the spring of 1825, having previously located temporarily in Elyria, Norwalk and Cleveland, and continued to reside there (Elyria) until the fall of 1837, devoting himself during the time exclusively to the practice of his profession, and to the duties of the office of justice of the peace, which he held two or three terms within that period. During his residence in Elyria, Mr. Mussey did a large business, comparatively, though, of course the whole business was small compared with that of later years. He was a well-educated, thorough lawyer, and a genial, kind-hearted man. On leaving Elyria, in the autumn of 1837, he went to Logansport, Indiana, where he remained about a year and a half, when he removed to Kishwaukee, Il., where he was joined by his family, which, up to that time, had continued to reside in Elyria. His déath occurred at Kishwaukee, October 14, 1843.

Wootsry WELLES, the first prosecuting attorney of Lorain county, was born in Lanesboro, Berkshire county, Mass., May 26, 1802. He received an academic education at Lewisville, Lewis county, N. Y., and Utica, Oneida county, N. Y., and removed to Cleveland, Ohio, in September, 1819. He immediately commenced reading law in the office of Kelly and Cowles, in that city, and was admitted to the bar in 1823. In the fall of the same year he removed to Elyria and entered upon the practice of his profession. He remained in Elyria about two years (receiving, as he says, sixty dollars per year for prosecuting the pleas of the State), when he removed to Akron, where he had been appointed collector of canal tolls. This office he held about a year, and then resigned it because he was required to attend to its duties on the Sabbath. He was also appointed postmaster at Akron by President John Q. Adams, and held that position until the second term of President Jackson, in the latter part of which he resigned. He also held the office of justice of the peace in Akron about four and a half years and resigned it in 1834, at which time he commenced traveling over the State as agent of the Ohio State Temperance Society, of which Governor Lucas was president. He continued this about a year, when he returned to Elyria and re-entered the practice of the law in partnership with Heman Birch, Esq. In the fall of 1837 he remoyed to Cleveland, where he spent three years in the practice, at the end of which he returned to Elyria and again opened a law office. He remained at Elyria this time some eight or ten years. During this time he took part as an anti-slavery man in the agitations of the question of slavery; but his success at the practice of law was meager, partly, no doubt, on account of the prejudice excited against him by his anti-slavery sentiments. At the end of this time, through the agency of Dr. N. S. Townshend, whom the Freesoilers had succeeded in electing to the legislature, he received the appointment of agent of the State for the sale of Western Reserve school lands, and removed to Defiance, where he continued to reside about nine years, after which he was appointed to an Iowa land agency and removed to Fort Dodge, in that State, where he still resides at the ripe age of seventy-seven years.

FREDERICK WHITTLESEY was born at Southington, Conn., December 22, 1801. From the court records, he would seem to have come to Elyria about 1827, and continued to reside there, holding a prominent position at the bar until 1835. He held 'the office of prosecuting attorney several years during that time, and twice represented Lorain county in the Legislature. He continued to reside in Cleveland until his death, which occurred November 13, 1854. During his residence there, he held the office of clerk of the courts of Cuyahoga county, and afterward of associate judge of the court of common pleas. He also represented Cuyahoga county in the State senate. Mr. Whittlesey was a well-educated, thorough lawyer, and always acquitted himself creditably both at the bar and on the bench. He gave great satisfaction to the bar of Cuyahoga county while acting as associate judge, an office not generally filled by lawyers; and his opinions were received with quite as much respect as those of the presiding judge. While in Elyria, Mr. Whittlesey, for a short time, added to his professional labors those of an editor, having charge of the Lorain Gazette, the first newspaper published in Lorain county, which was established in 1829. Mr. Whitlesey's example in this respect was followed by quite a large number of his successors in the practice of the law at Elyria. Of their career as journalists, however, very little or nothing will be said in this connection, but the reader is referred to the chapter upon the press of the county, where it will be set out in full.

These were the pioneers of the Lorain bar, men of learning, ability and integrity; and in proportion to the amount of business to be done, the bar would seem to have been as large then as in the past ten years. 'The court of common pleas then, and for many years after, held only two sessions a year of a a week each, and the supreme court only one session of a single day. The first journal of the court of common pleas, which extends to the spring of 1832, and includes all the probate business, contains about the same amount of matter as the present journal of the same court for a single year, and the probate business is now all removed to the probate court. Over against this, however, is to be set the undoubted fact, that a greater proportion of the litigation was then disposed of finally before justices of the peace. Small as the business was, however, the Lorain bar by no means had the monopoly of it. Lawyers from adjacent, and even from remote counties, were at Elyria attending court, and did no inconsiderable part of the business. Prominent among these were:

RevuBEN Woop, (afterwards common pleas and supreme judge,) and Joun W. WILLEY, of Cleveland, afterward presiding judge of the court of common pleas. Samugn Cowtes, of the same city, also did a considerable practice. WHITTLESEY & NEwrTon, both eminent lawyers, of Warren, Trumbull county, and Tuomas D. Wess, of the same place, also appear frequently upon the records of the courts of Lorain during its early years. During this period, also, there commenced a practice which continued consecutively for about twenty years, and at intervals ever since. We refer to that of resident of Lorain county, and hence no extended notice of him will be attempted here, but a history of the bar of Lorain which omitted to mention him would be incomplete. Admitted to the bar in Cleveland in 1828, he immediately commenced attending the courts at Elyria, and rapidly acquired a practice. A thorough and accomplished lawyer, a fiery and eloquent advocate, quick and incisive at repartee, full of the spirit of genuine and healthy mirthfulness, and continue a prominent figure in the memory of the earlier inhabitant of Lorain county. _He was for a short time jndge of the old superior court of Cleveland, and also a member from that county of the Ohio constitutional conventions of 1850 and 1873. He still resides in Cleveland, at the ripe age of seventy-seven years, in full possession of his mental faculties, and remarkably well preserved physically, in the regular practice of his profession - the honored Nestor of the Cuyahoga bar,

The period from 1831 to 1845 with large increase of population and business in the county witnessed the advent of no fewer than twenty new lawyers to Elyria, the county seat. Prominent among these were Edward 8. Hamlin, Horace D. Clark, Joel Tiffany, Albert A. Bliss, Philemon Bliss, Judson D. Benedict, Robert McKachron and William F. Lockwood.

The earliest of these to begin practice at Elyria was EpwarkpD 8. Hamurn who held a prominent position at the bar and had a large practice for a period of about eighteen years. He commenced, as the records indicate, about 1831, and soon after entered into partnership with Frederick Whittlesey, which partnership continued until Mr. Whittlesey left Elyria in 1835. In 1833-4-5, he held the office of prosecuting attorney of Lorain county. In 1837 he removed to Cleveland, but returned in a little over a year. In 1838 or 1839, he formed a partnership with Albert A. Bliss, (of whom more hereafter) which arrangement continued until 1843, when Mr. Hamlin was elected to Congress for an unexpired term. About the time of its dissolution William F. Lockwood became his partner, and seems to have continued 'so until Mr. Hamlin left Elyria in about 1849. Mr. Hamlin was known as a close, thorough and industrious lawyer, and though not as eloquent an advocate as some of his cotemporaries, an eminently ''safe'? man to have the charge of litigation. He is still living and practicing his profession, and when last heard from by the writer was at Cincinnati.

Horack D. Ciark, one of the lawyers who had the largest continuous practice in Lorain county, was born May 22, 1805, at Granby, Connecticut, where his mother still resides at the advanced age of ninety-four years. He went to district school summers till he was eight years of age, and in the winter till he was sixteen, when he was taken from school and placed in a country store, where he served his apprenticeship and was taken in as a partner. In this business he continued some four years, at the end of which time, says he ina recent letter, ''I found we had-lost so much by bad debts and the stealings of clerks that there was but little left, and I quit the business in disgust." He studied law one year in Connecticut, and in November 17, 1832, started for Ohio, and reached Hudson in this state, in December of the same year. On the eighth of that month he entered the law school of Judge Van R. Humphrey, and a year later was admitted to the bar by the supreme court in bank at Columbus.

On the fourth of the following July (1834) Mr. Clark opened a law office in the southeast corner room in the court housein Elyria. He continued to practice law in Elyria from that time for about thirty years, having during a large portion of that time the largest practice in the county - a practice never approached in magnitude by more than one rival ata time. A, A. Bliss, Hamlin and Bliss, Joel Tiffany, Benedict and Leonard, Hamlin and Lockwood, and W. F. Lockwood alone, were at different times, bis nearest competitors, but Mr. Clark steadily maintained the leading position he had gained, until after he ceased to reside in Elyria; for though he continued to practice there till 1864, he removed with his family to Cleveland in 1851.

In 1845 Mr. Clark took in as a partner Cyrus Olney, who came from Iowa, where he had been in practice. Ife stayed about a year and returned to Iowa, where he was soon after elected a judge. '* He was about twenty-eight," says Mr. Clark, ''and the best special pleader of his age I ever saw."

In March, 1849, Mr. Clark formed a partnership with Stevenson Burke, who had been admitted to the bar the August previous, having been astudent in Mr. Clark's office. His partnership continued till about June, 1852. John M. Vincent and John V. Coon were also students with Mr. Clark during his practice in Elyria. In 1850 Mr. Clark was elected a member of the constitutional convention of Ohio, and served in that body, which completed its labors March 10, 1851. This is the only official position held by Mr. Clark.

He was an excellent lawyer, though not especially an eloquent advocate. He abandoned the practice of law in 1865 and removed to Montreal, Canada, where he now resides.

JOEL TIFFANY, one of the the most remarkable men who eyer lived in Elyria, was a native of Barkhamstead, Connecticut. He removed to Elyria from Medina, in 1835, and remained in Elyria, as_ the court records indicate, until 1848. In 1840, he seems to have been associated with Mr. Silliman, of Wooster. Mr. Silliman was an able lawyer, and practiced in Elyria for a number of years, though never a resident there. Mr. Tiffany seems also to have been associated with L. G. Byington, for a short time, and with Mr, E. H. Leonard, for about two years. He was proseeuting attorney in 1838 and 1839. Upon leaving Elyria, he went to Painesville, and subsequently to New York City. From 1863 to 1869, he resided in

Albany, where be was reporter of the court of appeals of New York, and published volumes twenty-eight to thirty-nine, inclusive, of the New York reports. From there he removed to Chicago, where he still resides,

Mr. Tiffany approached nearer to being a '' genius," as that word is ordinarily understood, than any other practitioner of the Lorain bar. With acute and accurate perceptions, great mental powers of acquisition and assimilation, a prodigious memory, and, withal, an eloquence séldom equalled, he was extremely well equipped for all forensic encounters. In the locally celebrated '' counterfeit cases," Mr, Tiffany exerted his great powers to their utmost, and made for himself a reputation that will long endure in Lorain county. These were tried in 1838-9, when he was prosecuting, and no fewer than fourteen persons were sent to penitentiary for being implicated in the making and issuing of counterfeit money.

The great qualities we have mentioned were, however, handicapped by an unsteadiness of. purpose, and lack of application to his profession, which rendered them of comparatively little value to their possessor. He engaged in a variety of enterprises, outside of his profession, while in Elyria, none vf which proved profitable, while they prevented his reaching that success in his profession which he might otherwise have attained.

During his residence in Albany, in 1864, Mr. Tiffany, in connection with Mr. Henry Smith, published a work upon practice under the New York code, under the title of ''Viffany & Smith's New York Practice." It is highly spoken of by the law reviewers. A second edition has just been published, edited by H. G. Woods.

In 1862, in connection with EK. F. Bullard, Mr. Tiffany published a work, under the title of '' The Law of 'Trust and Trustees, as administered in England and America." Professor Theodore W. Dwight, reviewing this work, in the American Law Register of July, 1863, says: © '*'This appears to be an excellent work. The arrangement of topics is simple and logical, and the discussion lucid and satisfactory."

Mr. Tiffany also published, in '* A Treatise on Government and Constitutional Law, being an inquiry into the source and limitation of governmental authority, according to the American Theory."

AvBeRT A. Buiss was born March 23, 1811, in Canton, Connecticut. In 1821, his father's family removed to Whitestown, Oneida county, New York. In 1825, he left home, to learn a trade, and served until 1830. He then attended school for a couple of years at, the Oneida Institute, at Whitestown, an excellent institution, on the manual labor plan, then recently organized. In the spring of 1833, Mr. Bliss came to Elyria, and commenced studying law, in the ottice of Whittlesey & Hamlin. During the period of his studying he engaged also in newspaper work. He was admitted to the bar in Cleveland, September, 1835, and the following spring moved to that city, and engaged in editing a newspaper, the Daily Gazette. during the political campaign of that year; after which he returned to Elyria, and engaged in the practice of his profession until 1847. In 1840, he ent red into partnership with K. 8. Hamlin, and the firm did a large business until sometime in 1845, when it was dissolved. Previous to 1845, Mr. Bliss had, for a short time, been in partnership with his brother, Philemon Bliss.

A deep interest in politics, however interrupted the continuity of Mr. Bliss' application to the practice of his profession. He was three times elected to the legislature - in 1839, 1840 and 1841, and was oceupied at different times in the editing of political newspapers. In the winter of 1846-7, he was elected treasurer of state by the legislature, and held that office until January, 1852. He removed to Columbus in the spring of 1847, but seems to have kept up, somewhat, his law practice at Elyria, as a. member of the firm of Bliss & Bagg, until 1849. He returned to Elyria late in 1852, and remained until the spring of 1863, when he removed to Jackson, Michigan, and engaged in mercantile business until 1874, when, finding the business becoming unprofitable, he sold it out and re-engaged in the practice of the law. He still resides at Jackson, where he is, as he always has been wherever he has lived, a highly respected citizen.

He isa member and the treasurer of the city school hoard, and one of the inspectors of the Michigan penitentiary, which is located at that place.

Jupson D. Benepict came to Elyria from Medina in 1838, and engaged in the practice of the law for about ten years from that time. In 1840 or thereabouts, he formed a partnership with E. H. Leonard, who had then recently finished a long term as clerk of the courts, and been admitted to the bar. 'This partnership continued some two years, the firm doing a large business during the time. After the dissolution of his connection with Benedict, Mr. Leonard soon formed @ partnership with Mr. Tiffany, which lasted till about 1845, after which time his name does not appear upon the records of this court.

After the dissolution of the firm of Benedict and Leonard, Mr. Benedict associated with himself Robert McEachron, under the firm of Benedict & MeKachron, which firm continued some three years, after which Joshua Myers was partner with Mr. Benedict for about two years more. About 1848, Mr. Benedict abandoned the practice of law, and became a preacher of the denomination known as Disciples or Campbellites, and left Elyria. He remoyed to. the vicinity of Buffalo, New York, where he resided most of the remainder of his life. He died in Canada three or four years ago.

Mr. Benedict did a very considerable business during all his residence at Elyria, but was not considered a strong lawyer; as a pleader, he was especially weak.

PHILEMON BLIss, a brother of A. A. Bliss, was admitted to the bar in Elyria in 1838. He commenced practice at once in Elyria in partnership with his brother, A. A. Bliss, but soon after, by reason of ill-health, was forced to abandon business, and went west. Regaining his health, he re-commenced his practice in Cuyahoga Falls, Summit county, Ohio, in 1842, but returned to Elyria in the winter of 1846-7, and remained in practice there, except when interrupted by office holding, until the spring of 1861. During that period, he was elected probate judge, being the first probate judge of Lorain county, also common pleas judge in the winter of 1848-9, and to Congress in 1854 and 1856.

In 1861, he was appointed chief justice of Dakota territory, which office he held until the fall of 1864, when he removed to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he resided until 1872. During this period, he was elected probate judge, and, in 1868, supreme judge of Missouri, which office he filled to the end of the term with credit to himself and benefit to the jurisprudence of that state. In 1872, he was elected resident professor of law at the university of Missouri, and dean of the law faculty, and removed to Columbia, where he still resides. Mr. Bliss is a man of great mental ability. A more extended sketch of his life will be found in that part of this volume devoted to Elyria. He is the author of a work on pleading, which is just published.

Wm. F. Locxwoop, one of the latest lawyers to settle in Elyria during the period of which we are now speaking, was born April 1, 1822, in Norwalk, Fairfield county, Connecticut, and there received a common school education. In 1837, he went to New York, and became a clerk in a wholesale grocery store. In 1840, he came to Ohio, and, in 1841, settled in Elyria, where he became a law student in the office of Hamlin & Bliss. In 1842, he was admitted to the barat Medina. He was a candidate on the whig ticket, the same year, for the office of prosecuting attorney, but was defeated by H. A. Tenney, the democratic candidate. He was elected to that office, however, in 1844, and held it for four years, being re-elected in 1846. In 1852, he was a delegate from his congressional district to the whig national convention, which met at Baltimore and nominated Winfield Scott as a candidate for the presidency. The same year he was the candidate of his party for congress, but was defeated, Harvey Johnson, of Ashland county, the democratic candidate, being elected.

In 1854, he was elected probate judge of Lorain county, succeeding Philemon Bliss. In 1856, he was a candidate before the Republican convention for the nomination for common pleas judge, but Judge Carpenter, of Akron, was the nominee.

By reason of impaired health, he resigned his office, and in the spring of 1857 removed with his family to Nebraska and settled at Omaha, where he resided some two years, when he removed to Dakota City,

He was one of the federal judges for the territory of Nebraska, from April, 1861, until the admission of Nebraska as a State in 1867, when he was nominated by President Johnson as United States district judge for the district of Nebraska, but was not confirmed by the Senate. He then returned to Toledo, in this State, where he still resides.

In 1878, he was recommended by the bar of Lucas county for the office of common pleas judge, which recommendation was ratified by both the republican and democratic conventions, and he was elected to that office.

Mr. Lockwood had a large practice when at the bar in' Elyria, and is a man of fine abilities, as the large number of important positions he has held with credit to himself well attests.

THOMAS TYRRELL, from 1834 to 1838. During a part or all of this time, he was a partner with EH. 8. Hamlin. He engaged also in the newspaper business.

L. F. Hamurn, 1838 to 1855. He was considered a good equity lawyer, but his practice was limited. He was for a time a partner with Mr. Lockwood. He died in Elyria.

Rosert McEacuron, 1842 to 1850. He came from Richland county, was a partner with Mr. Benedict from 1842 to 1845, and with Joshua Myers under the name of McEachron & Myers from 1847 to 1849, and did a very considerable business. His health failed while in Elyria, and he died soon after leaving there.

JosHuA Myers came to the bar about 1844, and remained in Elyria until his death, in 1877. He was first associated with Mr. Benedict, then with Mr. McKachron, as already stated. From about 1850 to 1854, he was associated with Judge Bissell, of Painesville, in the firm of Bissell & Myers, which did a considerable business. His practice when alone was never large. During his later years, he held the office of justice of the peace for a single term, securing his election partly by means of the anti-temperance excitement, which grew up in opposition to the '' crusade," in 1874,

Forpycr M. Knytu was admitted to the bar in 1839, and commenced practice in Elyria, but removed to Stark county in 1840, and subsequently to Jackson county, Ohio. He served with distinction in the late war as major of infantry, and wajor and lieutenantcolonel of artillery, and in 1865 removed to White Cloud, Kansas, where he now resides, engaged in the practice of law, and farming.