Wadsworth City (part 4 of 6)

In 1828, avc swapped farms with Steward Richards; we took his land, where William Freeborn now lives, and he took that upon which Ave first settled ; being what is uoav called the Duly Farm, of Western Star. Our orchard on the location, began to bear in 1824 ; and from that time until 1864, when I left Wadsworth for Iowa, where I now reside, the apples were never killed but once. We had a frost in 1834, that killed all the apples in the State.

In the beginning, our land was cleared by girdling such of the large timber as would kill easily, and a good deal of that timber was permitted to stand till it would fall down and rot ; doubtless a good deal of sickness was caused in this way.

Before we moved to Wadsworth, the old east and west center road had been partially opened. Men owning land in Western townships endeavored to have the road, to encourage settlements. The road was first located, by an order from Trumbull county. This was when all this county, and still west of us, was part of Trumbull county, Captain Bela Hubbard, of Randolph, was the surveyor, and Esq. David Hudson, of Hudson, Gen. Campbell, of Ravenna, and Esq. Day, of Deerfield, were the exploring committee. Esq. Day afterwards had the job of opening the road. I think this was in the year 1808.

In 1810 , after Portage county was organized (including what is now Medina county), and Owen Brown, of Hudson, was one of the county Commissioners, another appropriation was made, and Capt. Hubbard was employed to make more bridges, and other improvements.

The surveying party above referred to. named the streams in this vicinity. They named Wolf Creek, in consequence of finding the carcass of a deer on its banks, that had been killed by wolves ; and when they passed Hudson's run, Esq. Hudson named it by cutting his name on a beachtree. All the rest of the party chose streams, and recorded them in the same way; but when they came to River Styx, and Chippewa, they gave them other names, no one preferring to leave his name for either of them. This statement I had from Capt. Hubbard, in 1814, and afterwards from Esq. Hudson. Benjamin Dean.

Address Of Rev. Edward Brown

The occasion on which we have assembled to-day, is one of those rare ones, which from their very nature can occur but once in a generation. We come in obedience to an instinct of our nature, that leads us to associate events that make up the pleasant or the sad memories of past years with the places whore they occurred. That however far we may have wandered over earth's surface, however familiar its grandest or most enchanting scenery may have become, the thoughts wander back again to the scenes of childhood and youth, which memory envelopes writh a transparent halo, beauteous as the rainbow, that childish fancy held the depository of gems and gold ; those memories of the past, rising up with new freshness as the grosser senses fail, and the spirit begins to peer through the riven chinks of the crumbling tenement, to catch glimpses of the worlds beyond.

As travelers in the Arctic highlands have described the rare view, taken on the return of that day of the year when the day and the night exactly meet; when standing on an eminence to watch the declining sun as it dips to the horizon, its disappearing half at the same moment appearing like a newly risen sun in the east; so as life declines, memory blends the bright rays of its morning sun with the somber hues of its setting beams.

No memories are so deeply impressed upon the soul as first memories, first joys and sorrows, first hopes, first loves, and first aspirations. They return in day reveries, and night dreams, and are discerned in the mutterings of second childhood, when the child is mistaken for the brother, and the middle-aged neighbor for the father's associate, long since like him passed away.

Except, then, in the rare cases where an early blight has withered the life, there can be no spot on earth so sweet as childhood's first home, or next to it, the scenes where our first love® were formed, and our first manly hopes blossomed. Though rocky, or rugged, or unsightly, or even a desert where we would scarce desire to dwell, still it becomes to us holy ground.

Drawn together by a common feeling, we meet for a short re-union, to many of ue the last one on this side the mystical river ; to dwell for a brief day in the past ; to try to catch another glimpse of the joys of which we then, amid the busy cares of life, were scarcely conscious ; for it i3 human, in our eager grasping at the future, to forget the present pleasures, so that

Threescore years! To youthful imagination an age I To senile memory a day ! Almost the average lifetime of two generations. What changes have, during this period, taken place in the earth's history ! Sixty memorable years ! Beginning ere yet the " great tire canoe " had begun to terrify the savages upon the shores of Lake Erie and the Ohio ; ere yet the bison and the moose had fled before the sound of the woodman's ax ; when canals were only talked of as a future possibility; when the railroad was only a tramtrack, and the " iron horse " a " donkey engine " in an English coal mine ; when the wild, virgin stream, with its spangled waterfall, like a coy maiden, was hard to be wooed and won, to submit to the drudgery of turning the wheel, to card, spin, and w eave ; wrhen the carpenter, witli his podauger, found his daily task a tiresome "bore." and drove t he "wrought nail" with a hammer forged by his neighbor, "the village blacksmith," who, like Tubal Cain, w as "an instrutcor of every artificer in brass and iron." When the farmer, in early Spring*, got out his own plough-handles, from the trunk and roots of an ash, and hewed his wooden mould-board from a puncheon split from a winding beach ; when the young* ladies' music lesson was the monotonous bumble of the spinning-wheel, and "cards" were played without a partner, over "check tow -and -wool " apron; when the joyous shout of the corn-husking, on the floor of the log* barn was heard, under "the beams of the full-orbed hunters' moon," in October; when true loves, sincere if not romantic, were stealthily breathed while the industrious needles were plied at the rustic quilting party ; and when in the merry-making winter season, the lads and lasses entered with a hearty zest into the sleigh-ride, notin a splendid rig from the livery, but in a "Canadian pal u do," made of bent hickory poles, surmounted by a rough box, or crockery-crate.

Sixty years! What a weight of memories they Jay upon the mind of the aged, as we attempt- to recall their history. As when the captives of old returned and laid the foundations of their new temple, while the younger part shouted for joy, the old men who had seen the first temple wept - so this occasion is necessarily one of mingled joy and sorrow. Joy to all for the past and present- prosperity and the future prospects of one of the fairest portions of our favored land, and of sadness to the then stalwart pioneer, now the patriarch, " leaning* upon his staff for very age" - who lias almost outlived a generation ; who can count the names of far more of those who with him opened these roads, and subdued the primeval forests, upon the white tablets of yonder cemetery, than be can find among* the living* ; who sees with joy, an intelligent and enterprising generation entering into his labors, yet becomes himself more and more a stranger where he was once a leader, "'Only waiting," now, like Aaron, for the summons to ascend the mount, lay his robes upon bis son, and be gathered to his people, not sadly - for he leaves

And yet, it is sweet to stay a little longer, and see the maturing fruits from our planting. To trace the windings of the stream of blessings, widening its course, that flows from the rock we smote in the wilderness, and be able to say, How small, indeed, was ours, the human part of the miracle of progress ! Only a feeble blow of a staff upon a rugged rock ; but, "Behold what hath God wrought!"

Cheer up, then, small but to-day honored band of fathers. In the future annals of the town, and country around, your names can not be forgotten. In behalf of the former residents and old pioneers, who have come to greet each other on this occasion, some of us from far distant States, let me express the gratitude we feel to the present inhabitants of Wadsworth, for the honor they have shown ns, and the labor, self-sacrifice, and expenditure they have bestowed, to make this occasion one worthy of themselves, and a fitting tribute to the departed worthies, and their surviving cohorts of the "heroic age," when "a man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees." An opportunity afforded to perpetuate the recollection of the hardships, the toils and labors, it cost to clear off' those massive forests, to open these roads, to develop these resources of wealth, to found in an humble way these schools and churches, and make this a desirable abode; one of the bright gems in the crown of the queenly State of Ohio. Nor can l refrain from expressing my individual thanks for the honor you have conferred upon me, in * inviting me from my far off prairie home, to stand beneath these trees, where, half a century ago, I basked in thei shade at noonday, slaked my thirst from yonder spring, o with my boy companions, with bows and arrows, an* painted wooden tomahawks, played the Indian in tlies woods, or chased the squirrel up the tall chestnut, to sco'< back at us from his safe retreat - to tell the story of th settlement that was begun with the same year in which in life began, and recall the incidents with which I was one so well acquainted, or in which I bore a part. 1 propose then, without further preliminary, to enter into a brie history of the first settlement of the town, and some of tli prominent incidents of its earliest years. My know] edge, gained by personal conversations, my own rccollct tions, dating from a few years subsequent, and fron previously published documents.

First Footprints Of White Men Philip Ward 1797

The earliest record of the visit of any white men to th township of Wadsworth was, till 1834, to be seen in oh letters, carved in the bark of a large beaeli-tree, on the we* F>ank of Holmes' Brook, near the north side of the road The tree was cut down in straightening the road, in ISoi On the north side of the tree, the letters grown wide by il growth, but still legible, [could he seen this inscription: PHILIP WARD 1797 T D R C W V

Who were Philip Ward and his companions, or for wha purpose they visited that locality, so far from civilizec habitations, is unknown. The date is not far from th time when Seth Pease, with his surveying party, em ployed by the Connecticut Land Company, ran tin south line of the Western Reserve.*

The first white man who ever had a habitation in Wadsworth, was a former Indian trader, of English birth, from Montreal, by the name of John Holmes, who, marrying among* the Indians, lived among* them as a hunter and trapper, and was known to the white settlers as " Indian Holmes/* The remains ot his old cabin used to be pointed out to me, near the brook that bears his name. But as he had in a great measure lapsed from civilization, had never purchased nor cultivated land, but lived the roving, unsettled life of an Indian, he is no more entitled to the name of first settler than the Aborigines themselves, and like them would have been forgotten, but for the accident of his name having been given to the stream.

The first. settlers were the families of Daniel Dean, and Oliver Durham, emigrants from Vermont, one of whom, Benjamin Dean, the eldest son of Mr. Dean, is permitted to join with us to-day.

The settlement was begun on the east line of the township, on the ground that is now a part of the village of Western Star. Their arrival was March 17th, 1814. The next family was that of Salmon Warner, February, 1815.

The first settlers of Wadsworth were principally from three States; Vermont, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, From Vermont were the Deans, O. Durham, and his brother Calvin (who wrote his name Dorwin),- his father-in-law Salmon Warner and sons, Reuben F., Salmon Jr., Daniel, Horatio, Amos, M. I). ; (Elisha Durham, brother to (>. and C., died on the way from Vermont, and his widow % daughter of Lysander Hard, married Mr. Henry Wright) ; Lysander Hard, and son Harlow, and stepsons, Davis and years ago, tells us that the party were camped tor a considerable time on the Mahoning River, among- theMassiauga Indians, a small remnant of the Six Nations; that finding in great numbers the small, black Rattlesnake, now called by naturalists, (Jrotellus Kirtlandi - from Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, who first published a description of it - the men of his party named it the Massiauga snake, a name by which it is still known throughout the Mississippi Valley.

Welles Holcomb, and his brother, Abraham Hard, withfota sons, Cyrus, Abraham Jr., L. Nelson ; John M., Peter, and Leavitt Weeks; Timothy S. and Harry Bennett (Abel, Stanton, and Elam Bennett came afterwards); W. II. Wright, and Milton Wright, and afterwards their father, Ebenezer Wright, and their brother Orris; Samuel M. Hayden, and Hiram C. Kingsbury.

Of those From Connecticut, first, Or in Loomis, then hi* father, Joseph Loomis, and his brother, Sherman T/Oomis ; Benjamin Agard, and his sons, Alvin and Roman L. ; Frederick Brown and sons, Marcus, John, and Edward; Wm. 8., Harry, and Cullen Richards, afterwards their father » Jedediah Richards, and his other sons, Jedediah, Mills. Robert IT., Ezekiel, Julius, and George, M. D. (part of these lived just over the line of Norton); Augustus Mills and sons, Harry A., human P., Philo P., William, and C. Curtis: Allen Pardee, and afterwards his brothers, John, Geo. K., Augustus, Aaron, and still later, Sheldon and Ebenezer, and brother-in-law, Phineas Butler; Norman and Cyrus Curtis, and afterwards their father, Cyrus Curtis, sr. The Mills's Curtis's and Pardee's, though from Norfolk, Ct., resided for a time in Marcellus, N. Y.

From Torrington, Connecticut, came George Lyman, Gordon Hilliard, Robert Hilliard, Lemuel North, Abel Beach and his sons, George and Orlando ; Elisha Hinsdale and his sons, Elisha, Sherman, and Albert. From Winsted came Philemon Kirk urn and his son, George Kirkum, just over the line, in Norton. From Hebron, Ct., Wm. Eyles.

From Pennsylvania, Samuel Blocker and sons, David and Eli; Jacob Miller and sons, George and David; the Rasors, George, Christopher, and William; old Mr. Everhard and sons, Jacob, John, Christian, and Jonathan : Henry, Christian, and Israel Ritter; Lawrence, Adam, and Paul Baughman, and sons, and Adam and Jacob Smith ; Peter Waltz and sons, John and David: John Wise, and Jacob Wise ; Nicholas Long, and John Long.

Wadsworth M Emori Ad

The west part of Wadsworth, along the center road was. before it was cleared up, very swampy, and because of its dismal appearance, was named by the surveyors, "The Infernal Regions;" and the sluggish stream that oozed through the swamps, was named "River Styx," from the old mythological river of that name. Those swamps and River Styx were a great dread to travelers for many years. The old road was filled with causeways, made of poles ; two of them, near River Styx, each about 40 rods long, and one over the Styx, on the Medina road, over 80 rods long. The late Judge Brown changed those causeways tnto turnpikes, in 182G and 1828.

The first house built and clearing made, on the ground where Wadsworth village now stands, was that of Frederick Brown, in 1816. The next house west of this, at that time, was that of George Burr, of Harrisville, as Hie road then ran, fifteen miles. Passing Harrisville, going due west, the next settlement was at Upper Sandusky ; the next at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and no other to the Pacific Ocean.

The roads were then but wagon-tracks, only the undergrowth cleared away. In this age of improvements, it may interest the present generation to recount the toils and privations then endured.

The first settlers came just at the close ol* the war with Great Britian, called the war of 1812. From the Genesee River westward, the whole country was new : mostly heavily timbered forest. The immigrant on his way, found not even a common turnpike road. The family of my father, Frederick Brown, accompanied by Sherman Loomis, were six weeks on their way from Connecticut, with a three-horse team, and -wagon. That of Elisha Hinsdale eight weeks.

a sorry predicament. Goods for the country stores were brought from Philadelphia, over the Alleghanies, in what was known as a Conestoga wagon - a large vehicle, about double the size of a common wagon, with box about three feet deep; the wheels double-tired, to keep from sinking n the mud. The wagons were almost invariably pai nted blue, and covered with canvass stretched upon poles; a large tar-bucket, for lubrication, hanging below the hind axle.

The team was usually of six, sometimes eight, large horses; the driver always riding the near wheel horse, carrying wh^t was called a blacksnake whip, and driving Ihe whole team with a single rein. In making up the oultit, one span was accounted necessary to draw the wagon : the rest, the load.

Our tinware and "notions/* were usually brought to our doors by peddlers, mostly from Connecticut, who bore an opposite character to the Pennsylvania teamsters. Far too many of them for the good name of their State, and to the grief of the moral New England settlers of the Reserve, sleek, polished knaves - so that the honest yeomen from the counties south of us, judging the race by its vagabonds (as was very natural), when they carne among us, were on (he lookout lest they should be "yankeed - a synonym for swindled - arid the horn gun flints and wooden nutmegs that gave the sobriquet of " The Nutmeg Slate '' to Connecticut, passed even into song.

Salt was first brought from Pittsburg; afterwards - about my first recollection - from a little village on the lake shore, called Clenveland, which the Cleaveland Herald ? in 1824 (50 years ago), told us - contained 100 houses. Since then, it has lost a letter from its name, and added considerably to the number of its houses.

Mr. Dean tells us of paying ten cents per pound for salt, in 1814, and Mr. George Lyman $11 per barrel in 1817* My father moving from Connecticut in 1816 - the memorable "cold summer " - it was exceedingly difficult to iind food enough to subsist the family, upon the road ; often able to buy or beg only enough for the little ones, and retire fasting, to find food on the road some time in the forenoon. Wheat, when it was to be had at all that year, was $3 a bushel, and corn $2. The bear, the deer, and the wild turkey, under the well-aimed rifles of Orin Loomis, David Blocker, and William Simcox, furnished the supplies that kept the neighborhood from starvation. To that corps of hunters were afterwards added Phineas Butler, and Timothy Dascoin. All these were "mighty hunters " in those days.

In that year, Judge A mzi Atwater, of Mantua, and Jason Hammond, of Bath, having a surplus of wheat and corn, sold it at a reduced price, on credit, to those alone who had no money, bidding those who wanted to buy on speculation to go elsewhere ; to their honor I record it.

Our limited trading was done at Middlebury, until Mr* Porter opened a store at the cross roads, then called liarveystown, eight miles southeast of Wadsworth. They advertised that they would give a high price in goods for dried ginseng root, and the woods were searched over, the next fall, to find the precious root, for there was Muncy in it. My brother and I dug and dried enough to buy for each of us our first white cotton shirts, at the low price of only fifty cents per yard ; and the next Sunday, you may believe that "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Do you think that we wore any coats on that day and hid the white arms? No indeed! Though late in October, it was too warm; so we carried them on our arms.

cial pressure, with its low prices, before the opening of the Erie and the Ohio canals, when it was hardly possible to raise enough in money, from their farm products, to pay taxes. 1 can remember when rye for distilling brought a better price than wheat for bread. The first grinding was done at Norton's mill, - afterwards known as Tallmadge Village, afterwards as Mfddlebury, now a part of Akron - and at Wetmore's mill, in Stow, a mile above Cuyahoga halls, and at Northampton Mills. 1 can well remember when they used to put up at my father's house, going and returning from Middlebury with their grists, from as far west as Sullivan, Huntington, and Wellington. Afterwards Hex's mill, east of New Portage, was built; then the mill so long owned by George Wellhouse, in Chippewa. The first mill built in Wadsworth was a log mill, built by Luther Hemming way, on the Medina road; the water carried in a log flume from a spring brook. The next by A. and J. Pardee (now Yoders mill).

Owing to llie distance from sawmills, our floors were made of kk puncheons," or planks split from straight-grained chestnut timber, hewed with the broadax, and smoothed with the adz, or plane. The first sawmill built, was the one that now stands one-fourth of a mile west of the depot, by Joseph Loomis, Sherman Loomis, Abel Beach, and George Beach, in 1826. The next by George Lyman, and Cyrus Curtis, on Holmes' Brook. But though to the honor of Wadsworth, it never had a distillery, amid ail the deprivations of that period, there was none of old rye whisky ; every .family could have it, whether they had a cow or not. Not that abounded ; it was before the doctrine of total abstinence was known, and its temperate use (as it was then esteemed) was universal. Though a few went home noisy from military musters and, perhaps, one or two from a barn raising, we stood above the average of Western communities as a temperate people.

a case of delirium tremens; "the only one," he said, "I ever saw, and I pray God I may never see another." Where is the physician that can now say that, in this or any other community ?

The early. settlers had, most of them, an appreciation of the benefits to themselves and their children, of the school and the church. As soon as there were children enough to form a school, they had the school.

The first school was taughtby Harriet Warner, in a room of her father's double log house. The first log sclioolliouse was erected on the farm of Jacob Miller, at the cross roads, one mile and a half east of this village. The first school taught in this house was by Marcus Brown, son of Frederick Brown. The second by his sister, Catherine Brown, afterwards Mrs. T. Hudson. About a year later, another house was put up, near the residence of the late Judge Wm. Eyles. The first school taught in this, was by Miss Lodcma Sacket (now Mrs. Loomis), in 1819. Those houses were formauy years known as the north and south schoolhouses. The first school at the Center (now Wadsworth village), was in a log house owned by Frderick Brown, and was taught by Dr. William Welton. These were also the only houses of worship, for several years.

The first settlers were mostly such as had been accustomed, to regard the Sabbath, and sustain the institutions of religion ; yet, coming from different sections of our country, and springing from different nationalities, each naturally tenacious of his own belief and his accustomed mode of worship, as has ever been ike case in new settlements of that character - they suffered more from too many church organizations, than too few ; each society being too feeble, for many years, for efficient work. Yet, from the first, they were never without the Sabbath, and the public worship of God. But of this 1 am to speak in a more extended manner, on the coming Sabbath.

the south sclioolhouse, and organized the first choir, of which he and Timothy Hudson were the choristers. After Mr. Hudson removed from the place, Benjamin Dean filled his place. The next was taught by Richard Clark. Both had great difficulty in making their pupils "learn the gamut." Tor the want of books, they wrote their tunes on slips of paper. They used the old-fashioned mahogony pitch-pipe to "sound the pitch." (Here the speaker exhibited the first book of tunes used, published in London, Eng., in 1772). A man by the name of Howe also used to teach in the south part of the town. In 1831-2, David S. Gibbs taught singing at the Center, and at Western Star. Gideon F. Gardner, of Chatham, taught in 1834-5.

Our boots and shoes were made from our own leather, which was tanned on shares. The first tannery was owned by Levi Blakeslce, in the same yard as the one that stands near where we arc now assembled ; these grounds being owned by him. Our first shoemaker, was James Platt; the next, Reuben Warner. We had also, shoemakers who went from house to house, and did the work for the whole family; tailors likewise. This was called, "whipping the cat." Our grindstones were made by Samuel M. Hayden.

The first retail store was owned by Allen and John Pardee, on the hill, at the present east limit of the village. The second by George Lyman ; the third by H. B. Spellman. The first smith work was done at the shops of Peter Waltz, in the southeast corner of the township, and Elisha Hinsdale, on the Akron road, just over the line in Norton. Waltz and Hinsdale were both soldiers of the Revolution. Hinsdale and his brother were for many years manufacturers of axes, in Torringtoh, Connecticut. Hinsdale axes were regarded of superior quality, and much in demand on the Reserve.

In 1819, Hiram C. Kingsbury set up a blacksmith shop, on the east bank of the brook, in the limits of this village. He was also a manufacturer of axes.

The first physician in the township was Dr. John Smith, who lived a short time in the Eastern part of the township, and then removed just over the line in Guilford, on the Medina road. Dr. Samuel Austin was the next, at Western Star. The first at the Center, now the village, was Dr. Nathaniel Eastman. The next, and for many years the only one at Wadsworth Village, Dr. Geo. Iv. Pardee.

The first Post Office in the township, was kept by Abel Dickinson, on the Medina road, established in 1822, which was removed to the Center in 1826, and kept by Frederick Brown. The first at Western Star, established at the same time, was kept by Mills Bichards. The first at River Styx, by David Wilson. Previous to this the old citizens received their letters from Tallmadge, Canton, Old Portage, New Portage, or whatever office was to them convenient.

The first mail route wras from Canton to Norwalk, by way of Medina, established about 1821. The mail was carried by Josiah Price, of Canton, who brought our newspapers from the Canton and Medina offices to our doors, calling us out with a tin horn.

Among the exciting amusements of the early times, not the least was the ring-hunt, occurring once a year, usually in the fall. When lines of swamps, in the west part of the townships of Wadsworth and Sharon, or the large swamp of Copley and Norton, so famous as the great pigeon-roost, were surrounded, and the game, consisting of bears, wolves foxes, and deer, were driven out, usually upon a conical hill, and picked off by experienced marksmen, and the spoils divided among the participants. The last of these was a wolf hunt, in the Western part of Wadsworth and Sharon, in the Spring of 1835.

The Western Reserve, and indeed the whole of Ohio, in the times of early settlement, abounded in wild animals, and the choicest game. The common deer, and moose (improperly called elk), abounded. Turkeys were very mi- merous, and wild pigeons in such numbers that the accounts given, below the facts, were regarded at the East as fabulous and were ridiculed as "Ohio stories/' of the same class as the sailors' " fish stories." But the numbers that flew over Wadsworth every evening and morning, going to their roosts in the great swamps S. E. of Copley, and N. E. of Norton, and to find their supplies in the vast beach woods, in towns westward, would seem incredible to those now living there, since those woods have been cleared up. They would come in vast flocks from the west, in the evening. For a long time before they appeared in sight, we could hear the roar of their wings, like a distant cataract. Then they would come, spreading like a cloud over the whole horizon, for several minutes. In the morning they would fly westward, breaking up into smaller flocks as they proceeded; so their morning flight was not, like the evening, in clouds, but in chains. In the fall of 1823, I watched such a chain flying over these grounds, that continued without a break from 6 to 9 o'clock.

There was always, as Davy Crockett would say, "a right smart sprinkling of bears in these parts." I have a very vivid impression upon my memory of sitting up till a late hour, hearing James Callow tell over his bear stories, of which he was the hero, till on the heads of us little ones, it caused " each particular hair to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porcupine ;" and when, at length, we were compelled to ascend the ladder and go to bed, we would set down the candle and peep under the bed, to sec if there was any mischief a Bruin there.

Wildcats, opossums, raccoons, gray foxes, and "the fret* ful porcupine," were not uncommon. A "coon-hunt," of a moonlight night in October, was the most fun for us boys. Wolves were very plenty, especially in the winter season. In the winter of 1824, they w ere very numerous and bold. They had a runway up the brook, and through the ravine where the depot now stands. We could hear their dismal concert, down at the point of the rock, where the sawmill now stands. They were sometimes caught with steeltraps, but the most common way was the wolfpen ; a pen made of poles, about eight feet^by three, and three feet high, with the top firmly pinned together, and liaised by means of a spring. This was baited with fresh meat, which the wolf coming in and gnawing, he would spring tlie trap, and remain a prisoner.

But saddest of all the episodes of those new settlements, were the searches for the lost ones ; a not uncommon incident to the early settlement in those vast forests. The memorable one of Wadsworth, was a long and fruitless search for a young woman, who was a deaf mute, and subject to paroxysms of mental derangement, during which she was much inclined to escape from the house, and wander off. Her name was Sylva Beach, daughter of Abel Beach, and sister of Orlando Beach. In March, 1823, one evening, being with her mother, in the yard of the house, as her mother went in, she slipped around the house. The family ran out, but could not find her. They and the neighbors searched for her all night, and in the morning, horseback couriers were sent to all in the region, for three or four miles around.

There had been a slight fall of snow, in which tracks were to be found, and traced about a mile ; but the rising sun soon melted the snow away. The search was organized about 10 o'clock, under the direction of William Eyles, chosen commander, with a general committee of arrangements, among whom I recollect Frederick Brown, Allen Pardee, and Sherman Loomis. The woods of Wadsworth and Sharon, and some parts of Copley, Norton, and Chippewa, wrere searched for several days. They came from Guilford, Chippewa, Norton, and Copley, till the line was increased to over four hundred men, stationed one every four rods, or sometimes broken into two or more bands, searching in different directions.

At length they met at the Center one morning for consultation, after about a week's search. The committee, after conferring with the father and brothers, concluded to go over the grounds nearest the place of her departure, and in ease of failure, give up the search. I can recall the very words of Esq. Eyles, as he addressed the crowd that assembled at the Center on that third morning, before forming the line, which reached beyond the hill, west of Holmes' Brook. (I was then a boy nine years old).

" Fellow-citizens," said he, "give me your attention for a moment, while I give you our directions. You will march westward, and let one man stop every fourth rod. Let each man look to his righthand man, each man to keep his proper distance, and not break the line. You will start at the sound of the horn at the west end, which will be repeated by the horns all the way through. When the last horn sounds, all move forward ; then let no man shout, no horn blow, except to announce that she is found. Search around every log or brush-heap with great care, for we only expect to find her lifeless body ; and let each man remember his responsibility. This is not a bear-hunt, or a wolf-hunt, but a search for a lost fellow-creature, and may God give us success ! Move forward !"

Never was a community more stirred in sympathy for a poor wanderer, and the afflicted family. But search* was unavailing. Advertisements were sent to the Ohio i?e« pository (Canton), and the Cleveland Herald , but no tidings of the lost one or any remains were ever found.

The first death in Wadsworth was that of Daniel Ware, in 1817. He was buried in the south burial ground. The funeral discourse was preached by John Wise, of Chippewa. Ilis coffin was made by Reuben Warner, and others, from puncheons split from a tree, and hewed down to thin planks.

This was the tirst burial in the Center ground. The second buried in that ground was Abraham Falconer, son of Henry Falconer; died, 1817. The first adult burial was that of John Curtis; died of consumption, in 1820. The second adult burial, Julia, Wife of Sherman Loomis, and daughter of Augustus Mills, in 1820. The next, Mrs. Wright, wife of William Henry Wright, and daughter of Lysander Hard, in 1821. The iirst buried in the town line ground was the wife of Ebenezer Wright, and mother of W. H. Wright, in April, 1825. The next, John Sprague, in 1826. The next, Lyman Brown ; killed by falling under a cart loaded with stone, at Akron, in 1826.

Wadsworth Academy

The first school above the grade of common school, was held in the winter of 1830-1, in the then new Congregational Church. The teacher was George W. Barnes, a student of Western Reserve College. The next by Loren Kennedy. The next by Isaac VanTassel - both also students of the same College. The next by John McGregor, a native of Scotland ; a scholar, and in many respects a model teacher.

In 1839, Wadsworth Academy was incorporated, and the octagon house erected, which has for a few years past been used as a church. In this Mr. McGregor continued as teacher till 1816. Several different persons taught for a short time in succession, till the graded school was established., and the Academy went into disuse, and the building was sold.

In the days of the Academy, Wadsworth was sought by young men from many surrounding towns, as the place to obtain the rudiments of a higher education ; and the number is not small of those who have made their mark in the world, in the learned professions and as business men, who had their start here. * * * * *

Of the brilliant achievements of that day, I can recollect but one; but it equaled that of a renouned king, u with twenty thousand men/7 which the poet's pen has immortalized, for they " marched down the hill, and then inarched up again.77 The next year, the Guilford company beingset off and Captain Wilson with it, George Lyman was elected Captain, Marcus Brown Lieutenant, and Calvin Dorwin Ensign. They trained in the held where Dr. Ly~ man's house and barn now stand. The next Captain clec ted and commissioned was Lemuel North ; but he failed to make his appearance on the muster day, on account of sickness, and Peter Weeks, Ensign, took command, using a cradle-finger for a sword. He performed his duty with singular gallantry, considering that he was quite lame, from a severe wound in the knee, received that morning, in a skirmish with my father's old dog Trim, who could not understand why a man should be coming through his master's field, " with regimentals on."

The next Captain was John Crissman. The next year, Norman Curtis, a recent emigrant from New York, -where he had served as Captain, was elected to command the Wadsworth militia. Then began the era proper of the military spirit, or rather, its revival to what it was under Lyman's administration. The company greatly enlarged. Captain Curtis inspired them with an ambition to be the largest, best equipped, and best disciplined company in the regiment. Being promoted to Major, and then to Colonel, his brother, Cyrus Curtis, Jr., became Captain. He was succeeded by Harry A. Mills, afterwards promoted to Col. He by Daniel Warner.

What was the record of Wadsworth in the great struggle of our country, the pens of those who know must tell ; but I have no doubt ** the most gallant sons of gallant sires 77

I have thus endeavored to carry your minds back to the beginning of things in this flourishing village, and the towns and country round. My business has been only to show you the past. To picture to your mind's eye, Wadsworth as it was. You have called us back from our distant homes, to show us Wadsworth as it is. We find the old landmarks fast disappearing, and sometimes find it hard to connect the old with the new.

The present generation can form no such conception of the grand old forests we were once familiar with, as our memory recalls. Nor did our most sanguine hopes take in a view of what Wadsworth was to become. The least of all seeds has grown to a magnificent tree.

We bridge the chasm of half a century (and to the elders the span is but a short one), but how different the views upon either side. There, vast forests of primitive oaks, chestnuts, beeches, and sycamores, with here and there a log house and barn - the view confined to a few acres! Here, broad farms, stretching in the distance, with large farmhouses and barns, making in every direction, a landscape of surpassing beauty ! There, the little log schoolhouse, sixteen feet by twenty, with its low, sliding windows, and fireplace occupying half of one end ! Here, the brick structure, ample enough for a College of the olden time, and even the College bell, heard ringing out clearly on the morning air ! There, the little shops, of humble pretensions, but hard labor and toil ! Here, large manufacturing houses, going up on every side, and the wares of Wadsworth contending for prizes in distant States! There, the wagon-track following the line of blazed trees, and a dozen miles to some stage route ! Here, the shrill whistle announcing the arrival of the cars, on one of the great national railroads ! There, the post-rider on a jaded horse, with his tin horn announcing the arrival o f the weekly newspapers, giving you the news from New York, not more than three weeks old I Here, the daily mail and the telegraph, giving the news from the same points, in as many hours ; and the issues of the Press, from this village, going by hundreds of thousands to every State in the Union ! There, the farmer scarcely able, from his products, to raise the money for his taxes! Here, the very earth opening, and yielding up to the miner the hoards of wealth stored for ages !

We, then, who by your hospitality have been invited from our distant homes, in this and various other States, to this pleasant re- union on the old, familiar ground, bid you a hearty God-speed in the growing prosperity of our beloved town, in whose welfare we have felt a common interest, though other States, or other towns, now claim us.

Though Providence, in years past, has cast our lots iu newer scenes ; though we can speak with pride and pleasure of our joyful homes far away from you (for we live in a favored land, that under a Christian civilization, a free government, and liberal institutions, makes a home for humanity everywhere) ; though we can tell of delightful scenery, of broad, fertile prairies, of beautiful and growing towns, not a few of them founded by your own former citizens ; though we love these homes, we have foun^po better land than this. It would be hard, in this lanc^o find an area of five miles square, having as many natural advantages combined, as can be found in Wadsworth, Ohio.

Go with me to Prospect Point, as we called it in my youth, one mile east of this village, and there take in the view from every point of the compass, and I can show you a landscape view, with Wadsworth as its center, containing not grandeur, but beauty and loveliness. With all that is necessary to make desirable homes, and prosperous and happ\r people, unsurpassed, I tear not to say, in this or any other land, where a kind Providence, with no parsimonious hand, prepared a borne for a happy and prosperous people. Happy, so long as virtuous. Prosperous, so long as frugal, industrious, and temperate. Blessed in your basket and your store, in the city and the field, so long as you forget not the God of your fathers.

W Adsworth Jmkmok1 Ai Ais'D Chippewa

la August, 1814, a company of thirteen of us started" from Ellsworth, to come West. Names as follows: My father, brother John, (Catherine, and myself; Christopher Rasor, William Rasor, Christian Rasor, and George Rasor; old Father Everhard, Christian Everhard, Jacob Ever hard* and Jacob Smith.

We started on Monday morning, about the middle of August, with two wagons loaded with provisions. The tirst day, we came about six miles, to Turkey Creek, where we broke an axle of one of our wagons. Here we encamped over night, and repaired the wagon. The next day, we came to this side of Deei'field, and encamped on what was called Yellow Creek. The third day, wo got along finely till almost night, when we again had bad luck. The other wagon was broken in the same way as the first. This day, we arrived at Suffield.

In the morning w~e started, and came as far as to where old Mr. Cahow lived, near Wolf Creek; from there, we crossed Wolf Creek and came on the old Harris ville trail, across the Broad Bottoms Run; then came west to near where Jacob Miller's house now stands. From hence, cut the road southward, to where John Everhard lived. We arrived there little before night set in. They had erected a shanty here, in the Spring, in which we all found lodging until Monday. We then cut a road to where Jacob Everhard lived, and from this place, we cut our way through to our new home, known at present as the site of the Old Waltz Church. Wre had to seek shelter in our wagons for two nights. The third night, we had quite a house to live in. Then, you may believe, we felt at home.

We worked hard all summer, in order to clear enough land to sow some wheat in the fall. The next Spring, in April, 1815, we moved our families. You may imagine what a time we had in getting here.

We brought a lot of hogs along, and as the bears were then quite numerous and annoying, we were obliged to keep them penned up all summer, so as to shield them from the depredations of Bruin. The hears killed two of our hogs. We discovered two of the savage beasts, while in the act of devouring them, and as we had two firstrate dogs to assist us, the hears had no chance of escape.

.Now l will give you an account of how we obtained our s-alt in those days. In the fall of 1815, myself and father went to Cleveland for some. We had a span of horses, and a yoke of cattle, hitched to the same wagon, which was loaded with pork and wild honey. The first day, we got to where Mr. King kept tavern. From here we started, and got on the wrong road, and struck the river, below Old Portage. We kept on the west side of the river, till we got down to where James Brown lived, where we broko one of our wagon chains, in consequence of which, we were delayed one day. My father sent me to Hudson, a distance of seven miles, to get the chain mended. The charges for the same were twelve and a half cents. It took eight days to go to Cleveland and return.

Middlebury was the place we got our grinding done. It always took two days to go to mill, and return. Wliere Upper Akron is now situated, was then a large alderswamp, through which we could not drive, but were obliged to drive around it.

Wadswoeth Memorial

How few the eyes that shone with joy, and youthful pulses' beat, Shall gather with us here to-day, their old-time friends to greet. But on each hand, we see the work their industry hath wrought;

The hills, the rocks, the wild -wood game that wandered far and free, The friends that'shared and cheered our toil, in memory we seo - All, all return * A moment, then, the present claims our care,

Aaron Pardee, Esq

This was in September, 1824. Butler married my sister Sally. They lived on the corner, where the road turns to Akron. The house stood on the south side of the stream, on Slanker's land now. Butler and Judge Pardee moved from New York State into Wadsworth, six yeara before, and A1 went back to help us move.

I knew every boy and girl in Wadsworth then, and everybody else. Here at the Center, were Judge Brown's folks, Levi Rlakeslee, and Hiram C. Kingsbury. We moved onto the Tim Hudson farm, now called Baser farm. Samuel Blocker's folks were on the Yoekey farm ; then old Jake Miller, and John Sprague. Next came, as you go west, Esq. Warner, Gus Mills, Stew Richards, and old

Uncle Jed, Cul, Zeke, Mills, George, and Jnle. (I believ© they could all fiddle, that is the Richards's could). Then there was Capt. Cyrus Curtis, lived on the little stony knoll, this side of Western Star, and Col. Norman on the hill north. Henry Wright along the town line; then old Lysander Hard owned the Dague farm ; John Nesmith on the other side of the road. Capt. Lyman owned the Doolittle farm, hut I think he was in Canton, teaching school. Uncle Ben Agard on the Laws farm ; Judge Eyles, and Uncle Joe Loomis, and Grin and Abel Beach. Then there was Lewis Battison, Alvin Agard, and Lemuel North. Moody Weeks lived down in the hollow, since a part of the old Glasgo farm. Moody Weeks died in February, 1825 ; his funeral was the first I ever attended in Wadsworth. Then there was Peter and Leavitt Weeks, Tim Bennett, Jimmy and Nancy Spillman, Elder Newcomb, Richard Clark, Gordon Hilliard and Robert, Ben Dean, and his father, Daniel Dean. Judge Pardee then lived on the farm now owned by Jacob S. Overbolt, and Harry Mills between them and Butler's. Then it was woods, over to Etc Moody's and Ira's. Then old Abram Hard, old Dr. Smith on the Hanchett farm, Luthur Hemming* way, Tom French, "Spider Hanchett," Abel Dickinson, and Josh Shaw, where Benjamin Tyler now lives; then, Chauncey Hart. Then you come over towards the Center, and you find George Beach and Sherman Loomis.

All the southwest quarter of the township was woods, except George Beach's farm, and David Biers's, who had a house opposite the house of G. Beach. Then, to come back into the southeast quarter, we find the Ever hards, the Rasors, Christian, Cristopher (called Stofel), William, and George ; the Smiths, Jake Smith and Big Jake ; Samuel Hayden, the Falconers, Henry and Sam ; William and Benjamin Simcox ; James Platt, and Reuben Warner; Platt lived just south of the depot, and Warner where the pine-trees stand.

Memorial Sermon, By Rev. E. Brows

" That the generation to come might know* them, even the children which should be born ; who should arise, and declare them to their children ; that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God ; but keep His commandments." - Psalm lxxviii : 6, 7.

The law of the universe is a law of progress, involving eternal change. Unchangeableness can reside only in infinity, and infinity can belong only to the Author of the universe. Hence, change is written upon all things.

All the researches of science are but discoveries of phenomena, or changes, that are ever taking place. Not even the landscape, seemingly the same in its features, can ever be pointed twice alike, or the swift beams of light stamp the same photograph twice, with the same features, the same lights and shades, with no variation. Nor is this confined to this world ; but the telescope and the spectroscope are continually recording the evidence written in the great book of the universe, that the Creator, through these changes, is forever working out his wmnderful counsels.

A godless science may see only a fortuitous evolution, working life out of death, and anon death resuming its ancient dominion. It sees only a universe going to decay and ruin. But true science takes account of the demands ot our higher nature, and looks for the wisdom and power that is behind all phenomena, and moving them, and having found an infinite God there, sees in all these changes, the working out of a great and glorious plan, worthy of a God. This thought comforts in the consideration of the fact that the wrorld is thus changing, and that we are changing with it. That though youth is bright and joyous, we can not stay young. That though middle-age is strong and hopeful, we can not retain our manly vigor. Nor can we even settle down in the tranquility of old age, for the Inevitable law can never change.

The earthly mission must close. The hands must wax feeble. The strong must bow. The vital current must cease to flow, and the wheels of life must stop. The dust return to dust again; and the demands of the soul of man. siding with revelation, tells us, that, though matter must change, there is a higher nature, that must still live, to experience new changes, in conscious existence forever. It is this nature that makes us so fond of living ou in the hearts of those with whom we were associated, and desirous of leaving some memorial of ourselves, something to keep the name on earth, sometimes to be repeated, though it be only a name, carved on a stone, to be road by generations who knew nothing of him who bore the name.

But there is another inevitable law ; that we value the memory of the dead only by the consideration of what the life was worth. A worthless life can have only a worthless remembrance. Hence, it is a merciful Providence that provides in our nature, as declared in revelation, that, --'The name of the wicked shall rot;" while all nature says amen to another declaration - "The righteous shall be had in everlasting rem emb ranee."

We pass among the gorgeous mausoleums of Mount Auburn, and Greenwood, and how soon the eye tires with the sight. The mind wearies with the contemplation of the folly of lavish wealth, trying in vain to counteract the law' of nature. Bi ch worthlessness, by money alone, keeping up a mute contest with the oblivion that claims all that can leave no worthy memorial behind. Not only are monuments proverbially false, but proverbially neglected. Yet you will see in Greenwood a plain shaft, unpretending enough, compared with its highly wrought surroundings, around which the path is ever well worn. It perpetuates only a name and a deed - the fireman, who sacrificed his own fife to save an unknown infant from the dames. Though only an unknown laborer, that one worthy act will leave a remembrance that will far outlive the name of him who only represented a mass of wealth. Though the world eagerly pursues after wealth as the chief good, how little interested is the world in knowing who held the coffers in which the gold of other days was hoarded. Yet, when a great or good work is done, all desire to know who did it.

Men are, after all, "only remembered by what they have done." If they have been monsters in wickedness, they live " in the long-lived annals of infamy," to become* a byword and an execration. If they have lived to bless the world, though they have rested from their labors, their works do follow them, and. their memory is blessed.

W e have been for a few days recalling the history of the years that have passed, calling to remembrance the toil, the labors, the self-denials, sacrifices done® and endured by daring and hardy pioneers, who opened in the wilderness these pleasant homes of yours, in the first of these three-score years since this became the abode of civilized man. We have recalled the long and toilsome journeys from their former Eastern homes, of those who came, impelled, some of them by necessity, some by the spirit of adventure, *ome in the pursuit of wealth, and some, as we may believe, with a sincere desire to extend their opportunity to do good to their fellow-men, and bless the world.

All tell a similar story, of hardships, privations, and labor ; yet all, of the happiness they enjoyed, in that which dignifies man far above empty titles, or ill-gotten honors - the nobility of honest labor. The fruits of all this you see in a beautiful and flourishing town, an enterprising and intelligent community, and material prosperity on every band, and you have vied with each other in bestowing honor upon the memory of those who have passed away.

alone, but of other worlds; not of time, but of eternity, we see that there are interests that rise above these material ones, as far as spirit is above dead matter; that reach beyond these rears, as eternity out-measures time. The mosr important historical question concerning the annals of this place, then, is the one which we have reserved as the last : What is the spiritual heritage left you, by the

To the gross mind, who can see no good but in material things, this may seem an unimportant question. But to those who have studied the history of communities and States, in the light of their religious and moral principles, the question is not uu important. I have heard the remark made, since 1 came here, *- It is our railroad that has created our prosperity." But, though not as large n place, it was the center of a prosperous community, before a railroad was thought of in the dreams of the most sanguine.

It has been my lot to have lived the life of a pioneer. To have been borne on the advance wave of emigration; to have seen the beginning of things, and actively to have participated in them, in five States ; and I have learned that it is not richness of soil, or material wealth alone, that make a prosperous community. I can point you to tolvns situated on leading thoroughfares of business and travel, with material advantages equal to this, that never can be prosperous till a better race, like Israel, shall crowd off those miserable Canaanites, and form a better community.

The founders of communities leave their impress upon those communities, that seems ineffaceable from generation to generation. It seems to have been incorporated with the laws of our being, that w'hat was the free will of the ancestor, becomes the destiny of his posterity. It was not an arbitrary decree, that " tho iniquities of the fathers should be visited upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation." It was, rather, the enunciation of an existing fact, growing out of the nature of man, discemi- ble without the light of revelation ; seen more clearly, indeed, where that light has never shone ; like the writing with phosphorus upon the wall, the more legible the thick* er the darkness ; while with a free Bible and the Sabbath worship, if there has ever been an exception to the script* oral rule, u Happy is the people whose God is the Lord," the historian has failed to record it. I can see where the dements of prosperity came from, long before the build* ing of the railroad, or the discovery of your mines.

I will suppose - a thing that I have more than once seen - that the first business house had been only a grog-shop, and the people for miles around had had no other resort on the Sabbath than that sink of pollution ; that the Sabbath worship had been only Bachanal orgies - would it have been the prosperous, pleasant, desirable location we now find it? It might have attracted business and intelligence by its natural advantages, but it would have obtained a good and desirable population only by a better class buying out the impoverished settlers, who, with their equally worthless children, wdiose only inheritance had been sin and shame, would have moved on, to curse some other place. You have, many of you, seen just such places. I have seen scores of them.

Though, before the agitation oi the temperance question, ardent spirits were in common use. the tow n never had one of those unmitigated curses, that, fifty years ago, made so many neighborhoods to be moral wastes ; that brought a thriftless, hopeless, drunken rabble around them, as crows and buzzards fiock around a putrid carcass. I mean a country distillery, or " stillhouse." as it was then called. Instead of that, from the first, the w orship of God was established. To-day, all unite in the most affecting tribute of respect to those old Christian pioneers, who, like file father of the faithful, erected the altar of God wherever they weW. The foundation of the prosperity of the place was laid in the observance of the Sabbath, and the erection of the log schoolhouse, in the wilderness to serve the double purpose of a seminary of learning, and a sanctuary for the pure worship of God.

The first religious meeting was held at the house of Oliver Durham, in July, 1814. The attendance was by the families of Messrs. Dean and Durham, and Mr. Salmon Warner, a brother-in-law of Mr. Dean, and father-in-law of Mr. Durham, who had visited the place to select a farm for himself. Moving there the next February, regular prayer-meetings were established at his house ; so that pub* lie worship may be considered to have been established in February, 1815, the familes of the first three settlers composing the assembly ; that of Mr. Dean being of the Baptist, and those of Mr. Warner and Mr. Durham of the Methodist denomination. These meetings were continued at the house of Mr. Warner, until the erection of the first schoolhouse, in 1816. In May of that year, emigrants from Connecticut, the families of Frederick Brown, Benjamin Agard, and Joseph Loomis, having arrived, they with some other new arrivals, helped to sustain these meetings.

I have heard my father, in my youthful days, relate the pleasing incident of his first introduction to Mr. Warner, and the arrangement they made together to set up the Sabbath worship, in a more public and permanent manner. He had just arrived the previous week, and with his family was staying at the house of Benjamin Agard, who had preceeded him a lew months. Hearing that religious meetings were then held at the house of a man by the name of W arner, the three families went on Sabbath morning, through the woods to his house. The meeting was conducted by Mr. Warner ; those who were singers assisting in that part of the worship, and my father taking part in speaking and prayer.

After the meeting, Mr. Warner called my father into the other part of his double log house, for private conference. -- First," said lie. " l wish to know who and what you are.*-

My father replied, "We are Congregationalists, from Connecticut." Mr. Warner replied, "My parents were Congregationalists ; I am a Methodist, and have been almost alone in keeping* up meetings the year past ; and now I propose that we unite, and we can sustain meetings every Sabbath. I see you are singers ; that will be a great help. And now your people have a practice that I like ; that of reading a sermon when you have no preacher. Have you any volumes of sermons you can bring to read from ?" My father replied, "I have, but many of the sermons are highly Calvinistic, and you may not approve their doctrine ; so I will hand you the book beforehand, and you may select such as you can call orthodox, and they shall be read." The next week, he handed Mr. Warner this volume of sermons I have in my hand, and here exhibit to you. (Holding up an old volume of sermons, printed by Hudson and Goodwin, Hartford, Conn., 1797).

The meetings were conducted jointly by those two men, in the manner agreed upon, at the house of Mr. Warner, until the erection of what was called the south schoolhouse, in the autumn following (1816), when they were held in the sclioolhouse. Here began a fraternal union between those two old pioneers, who may, without any injustice to others, be termed the first founders of the Methodist and Congregational churches. A union that was never broken. Though then, as now, and always, there were narrow-minded bigots who sought to break up such a union ; though an outside influence was brought to bear so powerfully as to compel a separation about a year afterwards, the particulars of which I need not give to the public, nothing ever occurred to create any estrangement or jealousy between those two old fathers. To the end ol their pilgrimage, they loved each other as brothers, and consulted together for the social, moral, and religious welfare of the settlement.

moil Warner, Mrs. Lucina Warner, Miss Harriet Warner, Oliver Durham and Mrs. Lamira Durham, Wm. II. Wright and wife, and Mrs. Polly Kirkum. As no record remains, the name of the minister who organized the class is not preserved, nor can 1 learn the names of the first Methodist preachers, except Ezra Booth, and Wm. Eddy.

The Congregational church was organized August 8, 1819, Rev. John Treat the officiating minister. The original members were Frederick Brown, Mrs. Chloe S. Brown, Augustus Mills, Mrs. Martha Mills, George Lyman, Mrs. Ophelia Lyman, Benjamin Agard, Sherman Loomis, and Jacob Lindley.

On the 25th of Aug., 1817, a Union church and society was formed, by members of the German Reformed, and Lutheran denominations. The names of the original members can not be obtained. The elders were Peter Waltz, sr., and Christian Everhard. Trustees, Jacob Everhard, Adam Baughman. Benjamin Faust, first pastor.

A Baptist church was organized under the pastoral charge of Obadiah Newcomb, in 1821. This was afterward the nucleus of the Disciple church. Of its original members were Obadiah Newcomb and wife, William Eyles and wife, Samuel Green and wife, and Mrs. Battison and Mr. and Mrs. Donor, of ChiijpewTa. Another Baptist church was afterwards organized in the northwest part of the town, by Elder Dimmock, in 1836. The original members of the Disciple church were Obadiah Newcomb, Satira Newcomb, Matilda Newcomb, Victory Clark, Samuel Green, A. B. Green, and Polly Eyles.

About the time of the separation of the Methodists from the Congregationalists, Mr. Brown was joined by George Lyman, a young man, from Torrington, Connecticut, who took an active part in sustaining the meetings. They were held every Sabbath, twice a day, in the old style of New England. After singing and prayer, and singing again, the leader either read a sermon, or called upon some other to read. The most frequent reader was Sherman Loomis, whose musical voice and rhetorical delivery is still one of the pleasant memories of those days. Of those who were occasionally readers, I can recall George Kirkum, Harry Lucas, Lemuel North, John Sprague, Allen Pardee, Dr. Geo. K. Pardee, Aaron Pardee, and George Lyman.

On the erection of the next schoolhouse, then called the north schoolhouse, the meetings were held alternately in each place. From 1821 to 1824, Mr. Lyman was absent from the township, and Mr. Brown was assisted in conducting the meetings by Ebenezer Andrus and William Graham, of Chippewa, a portion of the time being occupied by Rev. Obadiah Newcomb ; the Baptists and Congregationalists uniting in his support. He preached a part of the time in Norton and Coventry. He was a man of ability, much respected, and his services much demanded on funeral occasions.

The Congregational church, through the Deacons* meetings, as they were called, was the first to maintain public worship on the Sabbath, for several of the first years of the history of the township. Through these early beginnings I have sketched, the Sabbath has ever been kept as a day of rest and worship, and a moral and religious atmosphere created ; the soil broken up and prepared, from which the churches of to-day have sprung up and grown. It is no injustice to others to say that Salmon Warner and Frederick Brown Tvere the ones who cast the grain of mustard seed into this field, which their subsequent co-workers nourished, till it has grown into a goodly tree, whose various branches have spread far enough to furnish a grateful shelter for Christians of different names.

The Western part of the township, and Eastern part of Guilford were settled by members of the Mennonite denomination. I have no record of their churches (embracing each of the divisions known by that name). The College established by that denomination, stands within th limits of this village ; their only one in the United States. The Universalists maintained preaching for several years, from 1824. Their first minister was a Mr. Williams, who afterwards became a minister of the Disciple church. The next was a Mr. Tracy. The next, a Mr. Dodgers. But no church was ever formed.

The first Congregational minister who preached statedly in Wadsworth, was Rev. Joseph II. Breck, in 1823, alternating with Harrisville. In 1826, Rev. Amasa Jerome was settled as pastor of the church. He wTas installed November 1, 1826. The services w ere held in Benjamin Agard's barn ; sermon by Rev. Giles H. Cowles, D. D., of Austinsburg; text - 2nd Cor., v: 20. The choir was led by Richard Clark, James Newcomb playing the bass-viol. (This was the first use of a musical instrument in public worship). In 1828, declining health compelled his resignation, and he returned to Connecticut, where he died, about three years afterwards. The next settled pastor was Rev. Gilbert Fay, from 1830 to his death, in 1835* He was a good man, highly respected by all classes of people. The next year, the pulpit Avas supplied by Revs. Asaph Boutell, and W. Johnson ; then Revs. Boswell Brooks, and Joel Talcott, each one year ; then Rev. A. K. Wright, who died in 1844.

Up to 1828, the Congregational church met, on alternate Sundays, at the the south schoolhouse, on the corner opposite the Spragues, and the north schoolhouse, near Judge Eyles's. The Baptists used the north schoolhouse, and the Methodists the south, on alternate Sabbaths.

In 1828, a log house belonging to Judge Brown, at the Center, and used for a schoolhouse, began to be used, and in 1829, the north sehoolhouse went out of use, and the meetings were held at the Center alone. The Methodists meeting at the town-line schoolhouse, and the west schoolhouse, on the Medina road, and the Disciples meeting at the town-line, and the north schoolhouse, near Lemuel North's,

The first house of worship was the Lutheran and German Reformed log meeting-house, built on the Chippewa road, on the line between Wadsworth and Chippewa. The next, the old Congregational church at the Center, on the site of the present one, built in 1830. The Methodist house was built in 1835.

It may be interesting to the present generation to give a history of the building of the first Congregational house ; the first house of worship erected within the limits of the township. In March, 1820, finding a house of worship a necessity, a society meeting was called, and it was resolved to build a house 24 by 36 feet in dimensions, to build it with our own hands. We met at the house of F. Brown, a company of thirteen. Frederick Brown, Joseph Loomis, Sherman Loomis, Benjamin Agard, Roman L. Agard, Geo. Lyman, William Beach, Levi Blakeslee, James Platt, Geo. Walcott, Caleb Battles, John Brown, and Edward Brown. W e felled, scored, and hewed the timber, drew it to its place - Mr. Battles and Hezekiali Ward laying out the work - framed it with our own hands, with the exception that some other citizens worked with us a part of the time, of whom, I recollect Cyrus Hard, H. A. Mills, Alvin Agard ; Dr. G. K. Pardee, and some others, contributing money and nails. The lumber was procured in the same way ; cutting the trees, hauling them to the sawmill, and each one sawing his own part of the lumber, Messrs. Loomis and Beach, the proprietors, giving the use of the mill. The first lumber was burned in kiln-drying, necessitating the hauling and sawing of a new lot of logs, in midsummer. The shingles, also, were made by the same hands, from chestnut trees, and the shingles, siding, and lathing put on by them. A joiner was hired to lay the floor, and make the doors and windows. All else was done by volunteer work.

thing that had never been attempted before. Notice was sent throughout the town, inviting everybody to come, saying no spirits would be furnished, but a good dinner provided by the ladies. Some refused to come, but when the day arrived, a large crowd was upon the ground, and never had a building been put up with such ease and facility. All repaired to the rich dinner, provided by the Wadsworth ladies, with the best of feeling. The day was closed with an old-time game of baseball, and the new fashion established, of raisings without intoxicating liquors.

I have thus given you a sketch of the early religious history of Wadsworth, illustrating these great truths, "that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him." That costly temples, or an ordained or appointed ministry, though among the important means of grace, are not absolutely essential to the maintenance and true preaching of the gospel. The gospel preached in low, hesitating words, in his own house, or by the sick-bed, or at the funeral in the log cabin, by Salmon Warner, was refreshing as draughts of pure water to the pilgrim in the desert. And although an ordained minister of the gospel, in due formality, I can never feel myself more truly called of God as his minister, than was Frederick Brown, in these wilds, almost three-score years ago. As I listened to those sweettoned Sabbath bells that this lovely morning rung their musical call to pleasing, solemn worship, what a mingled train of solemn, pleasing, and sad emotions tilled my thoughts! How the buried memories of half a century welled up from the depths of the soul ! I was more than twelve years old before I ever heard the sound of the church-going bell, and that in a distant town. It was many years before I ever saw a house that was erected especially for the worship of God. Yet my memory can hot go back to the time when I did not expect to repair to the rough, log schoolhouse sanctuary ; and I have thought that had our spiritual eyes then been opened, as were those of the servant of Elisha, we should have seen angelic listeners, as those old sermons were read, and the " Glory of the Lord" resting upon those rude white-wood tables, as truly as on r.he mercy-seat, in the holy of holies. No memory of my childhood now comes up before me, in the day dream or night vision, surrounded by such a halo of heavenly light as that of the family group - the mother on horseback, the father and children threading their way along that well-worn forest path of two miles to the north schoolhouse. When the squirrel chattered a good-morning from the tree above us, and the wild bird sang a voluntary, as our prelude to prepare the heart to worship God; when, a barefooted boy, I often stopped and sat down to pick the spines of the chestnut burs from my feet, and then ran on, in gleefulness that would sometimes break forth in such boisterousness as to call forth the gentle reminder, from my father, that it was the Sabbath day. And now, let me drop the remark, that I have sometimes heard, with pain, the Sabbath keeping views of Judge Brown caricatured, as though he held it a day of such awful solemnity as made it a burden, such as not even a Jew of old could have borne ; that even set sacrifice before mercy ; but the best commentary upon this, as upon most of the caricatures so fashionable upon the Puritan Sabbath, is that his own family never made the discovery. No day of the week was one of such home delight, towards which we looked with such eager joy, in that day when parents and children must fill up the week with wearisome toil, as the Sabbath.

Then, citizens of Wadsworth, was the seed-sowing time in the wilderness. You are reaping the harvest. The matured fruit always testifies to the sowing, whether the sower wills it or not. You enjoy the fruits. I leave it to you to say whether good seed was sown. Ah ! again and again have I found my self-command of small account to me, as I have grasped the hand of the octogenarian, and as he looked into my face, already beginning to show the furrows of time's ploughing, and the harro wings of care? and said with choking emotion, "How you remind me of your father, that good old man whose memory is so precious fully as often, too, from those who differed from him on almost every subject, in former years. I ask no better monument to his memory. It will live in hearts in higher worlds, long after marble has crumbled to dust. Why do we hear the names of Salmon W arner and Frederick Brown still repeated with reverence, so many years after they have rested from their labors ? Because their works do follow them. I do not mention them so prominently to set them above other noble workers, of different names and denominations, but because they planted the first seed. One old veteran,* now beyond four-score years, then a youthful co-worker, who took up the burden after they laid it down, still lingers, waiting to see a few more sheaves gathered, and report the harvest. Other pilgrims, who traveled the same road with them, rest in the land of Beulah, waiting for the messenger. And soon, the company on the shore will wave their adieu as the boat leaves with the last of the pioneer band. May no degenerate descendant ever bring a blot upon their honored names, and may the time never come when those now living here, or those to rise up hereafter, shall blush to own that Wadsworth was their birthplace, or their home.

To welcome him, from, near and far, with gladsome song and choerau Back to the home he loved so well, when he and home were young; That home of memory's rainbow tints, the home his heart has sung - Another claimed the graceful muse, lit for so grateful task,

From this ye went with bounding step; with staff in hand ye come. The Shepherd's "rod and stafl"" shall guide you to that better home. Hopeful ye went, with eye undimmed; changed is your visage now.

Ye went forth young; ye came back old; new youth will blossom there; And all that grieved, and all that wore, no more shall grieve- or wear. This home ye left knew joys and griefs; but love has made it bright; That home is happiness unmixed; and love divine its light..

W Ainsworth Memorial By Sherman Blocker, Of Akron

in addition to the foregoing historical papers, Sherman Blocker, Esq., of Akron, a native, aucl for many years a resident of Wadsworth, had prepared a brief statement of reminiscences for the pioneer meeting, which was not presented for want of time, and at the request of the compiler has been enlarged and re-written for this history, as will be explained by the following letter:

I herewith send yon, for publication in your pioneer history of our beloved township of Wadsworth, my contribution of notes for the same, in accordance with your request on the 26th inst., and which I have had to compile and arrange within that short space of time, giving me no time to re-write or revise them. I have made up my statement from memory of what my father and brothers told me many years ago, when a small lad ; and I am also indebted to the late Reuben F. Warner, Jacob Miller, and Benjamin Dean, and to other pioneers yet living, for those portions of it that happened before I was born; so that, in the main, it may be relied on as correct, and I have endeavored in my hasty composition to relate what I have in plain, simple language ; and while I know the narrati ve may be subject to criticism, yet I venture to submit it to my dear old friends in Wadsworth, and a generous and indulgent public. Faithfully your Friend,

The first settlement made in the present boundaries of Wadsworth was in 1814, and among the first settlers were the Deans, Durham 6, Warners, Jacob Miller, and Samuel Blocker. At that time, there was no township organize tion, but in the year 1810, the present territory embracing Wadsworth and Norton townships, wa« erected into a township, and named Wolf Creek,

The first election in the above township) was in 1816, at the house of Philemon Kirkum, Esq., in what is now Norton township, on the town line between Wadsworth and Norton townships, as at present located. At said meeting of the electors, Henry VanHyning, Theodore Parmelee, and Salmon Warner were chosen judges, and Philemon Kirkum clerk of election. An old beaver hat was used, in which the ballots were deposited. The election occupied but a short time, as there was no discussion about the merits of the candidates* Abraham V anllyning, Nathan Bates, and Jacob Miller were chosen Trustees ; John Ca~ how and Daniel Dean, Overseers of the Poor; Keuben Warner and Dennis Bates, Constables ; Christopher Rasor and John Bryan, Pence Viewers ; Samuel M. Hayden and Gurdon Prior, Listers and Appraisers of Property; Nathan Bates, Treasurer ; Salmon Warner, Samuel M. Hayden, John Bryan, John Cahow, and Gurdon Prior, Supervisors; Salmon Warner and Henry VanHyning were chosen Justices of the Peace ; each of the the foregoing officers had 22 votes, which constituted the electoral strength of Wolf Creek township. The following are the names of the electors at that election : Henry VanHyning, James Cahow, Lyman Bates, Gurdon Prior, John Bryan, Dennis Bates,. Christopher Rasor, Oliver Durham, George Cahow, Wm. H. Wright, Wm. Rasor. Talcott Bates, Christian Ritter,, R. F. Warner, Daniel Ware, John Cahow, Christian Everjiard, Samuel Blocker, Samuel M. Hayden, T. H. Parmelee. Phineas Barnes, and Philemon Kirkum.

The first death in Wolf Creek township tvas that of Seth Lucas. Mr. Lucas came to the township in the early part of the summer of 1815, and died in the month of September following. He had erected his cabin on the lot next east of KirkunTs.

The whole country was a primitive wilderness. Thera was no lsawmill nearer than sixty miles, through an unbroken forest. The hardy pioneers needed but little iiaabar, and what they did need, they had to depend on themselves to produce. The ax, maul, wedge, and froe were the tools used and depended on to produce shingles and puncheons with which to supply their limited wants. Tools of every kind were very scarce, but, happily, Mr. Lucas had brought with him from his New England home a few tools, consisting of two or three augers, a couple of chisels, one adz, froe, handsaw, jackplane, and two or three gimlets. At the death of Mr. Lucas, the question stared each one of his fellow-pioneers in the face : Where were the boards to come from to make a coffin, and where was the cabinetmaker to build it? Let us think of it a moment, and transport ourselves hack to that period, and imagine ourselves in that position. Suppose there were only a dozen of ns together, from a region ten miles square, with no cabinet shop to go to for a coffin, no sawmill to make boards, and no road to- travel on except a path, as it wound its lonely way through the dense forest. This is indeed but an imperfect picture of the situation in which the sympathizing friends of Seth Lucas were placed at his decease. The inventive genius of his fellow-pioneers soon obviated the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of obtaining a coffin for their lamented friend. Although there were hut few of them, and severely feeling the loss of one of their number, being thus early cut down in his wilderness home, in the prime of life, they resolved to give him as decent a burial as was possible under the circumstances. Reuben F. Warner, Daniel Dean, and Benjamin Dean volunteered to make a coffin. Selecting a large whitewood tree, they felled it to the earth, measured the right length for the coffin, chopped the log off, and with maul and wedge puncheons were split. The broad-ax was then used to hew them to the right thickness,' after which, the jackplane of their deceased friend put on the finishing touch. The body was then arrayed in the habiliments of the grave, deposited in the primitive coffin.

Ail the pioneers within ten miles had come to attend hi* funeral, and express their sympathy to the family, and to each other. After prayer and singing, the solemn march to the place of sepulcher began. It was a sad and solemn funeral procession, in the wilderness. Less than twenty souls formed the procession, aside from the family of the deceased. The coffin was placed in a one-ox cart, and hauled through the dense forest about one-fourth of a mile east from the cabin, and there, in the lonely forest, deposited in the silent grave. A hard-maple tree stands near the head of the grave, one of the original forest-trees, left, no doubt, as a monument to commemorate the place of interment.

This was the first funeral in the wilderness, and a venerable pioneer, now deceased, who assisted on that occasion, informed the writer of this sketch, that it was the most still and solemn scene he had ever witnessed* Not a loud word was spoken, but all were awe-stricken at this sudden and unexpected visit of the King of Terrors, who had sought them out in their wilderness homes, and snatched one of their number from their midst. Thus died Beth Lucas, and thus he was buried : the first among as brave and devoted a band of pioneers as ever settled a country.

For the first few' years, many of the settlers had to depend oil the wild animals of the forest for their meat. Bears, deer, turkeys, raccoons, wolves, and wildcats, and the large, yellow, spotted rattlesnake, together with the smaller varieties of game usual to a uewr country, abounded by thousands in Wadsworth, and the surrounding territory.

There are many anecdotes preserved of the hunting exploits and adventures of the early pioneers. There was an Englishman of Indian habits, by the name of Holmes, from whom Holmer Brook derives its name, who was m early and famous hunter in this region, and among the most celebrated pioneer hunters were Grin Loomis, David Blocker, John Waltz, andjJPhineas^Butler. These men were celebrated rangers *of the wilderness, lithe, hardy, and resolute,* and had some periloushdventures with the wild animals of those days. Dressed in buckskin breeches, with linsey or linen overshirts that reached nearly down to the knees, with 'buckskin] moccasins snugly fitted to the foot and ankle, with a leather belt buckled about the waist, in which was a sheath lor a tomahawk and a stout hunting-knife ; with shot-pouch and powderhorn ; with a flint and "punk" to start up a Are anywhere ; with a good rifle, and a couple of well-trained huntingdogs, and about a loaf of bread, or ''johnny-cake," and a little salt, these menj would sally out into the boundless forest and dense thickets and swamps, day after day, and pursue the bears and deer, with a zest unknown to modern sportsmen. If they were belated in th enchase, and night overtook them in the woods, they would roil a couple of logs together and build a Are, and roast a chunk of bear, venison, or turkey, seasoned with the"salt, which with the bread made them a hearty and wholesome meal, and which was devoured with an appetite and "relish unknown to the present dyspeptic generation. After finishing the meal, with leaves for their bed, and the starry canopy of the sky for a covering, they would lie down and sleep in the forest, wherever night overrook them.

Many times these men slept in the forest, with the howling of wolves, screaming of wildcats, and the hooting of the great horned owls all about them, which dismal music lulled them to sleep. The sharp howl of the wolf and the mewing and screaming of the wildcats was pleasant music to them, as they lay by the fire in the dark woods.

It was supposed that the late David Blocker, from the year 1816 to 1833, killed and dressed over 800 deer, within the limits of Wadsworth and adjoining townships; and as the relator of these reminiscences is more familiar with th# hunting exploits of David Blocker (being a brother) than with the others, he will confine himself to a rehearsal of some of his adventures in the forest

When quite a little boy, the writer can remember when David Blocker shot and killed, in one day, six fine deer. On one occasion he was hunting deer in the River Styx Bottoms, just south of the east and west center road where it now passes, accompanied by his two faithful dogs, Cuff and Range. Cuff was part wolf, and possessed all the cunning of that animal in a hunt for game. Range was a large yellow mastiff, bold and resolute, good natured, and obedient to his master, while Cuff would sneak off silly and hunt ox^ his own account. At the time of which I am speaking, Cuff had stolen away, and was ranging the woods as usual, while Range was carefully following the footsteps of his master. They had proceeded carefully a short distance through the brush, when a noble buck was discovered, with massive antlers. The hunter took aim, pressed the trigger of the deadly rifle, and drove a ball crashing through the buck. The shot was not fatal, and Range was let go to catch the deer, and being a fast runner, he soon caught the buck, which turned and gave battle to the dog, and in the skirmish got the advantage, and by the time his master arrived at the scene of the conflict, had nearl y finished the dog, by goring hi in with his sharp horns. Just at this juncture, Cuff, who had heard the fight, came bounding up, and instantly seized the infuriated buck by the throat, when a desperate struggle ensued between the dog and the deer. It resulted in the buck getting Cuff under his horns and goring him almost to death in a moment. It was now high time for the hunter to interfere, and save the perishing dogs. He drew his hunting-knife, and springing with the agility of a cat up* on the deer, dispatched him while he was over the prostrate dogs. I1 pon examination of the dogs, Cuff was so severl y wounded that it was thought he would die on the spot, while Range was so deeply gashed by the horns of the buck that a part of his intestines protruded from the wounds. With his fingers the hunter pushed back the insides, and stopped up the aperture with leaves, and tied his handkerchief around the rlog, an 1 although he weighed upwards of eighty pounds, picked him up tenderly, and carried him a mile and a half to a neighbor's house, where his wounds were dressed and c :red for until he could come to his own home, several days alter. The hunter returned to dress the buck, but Cuff was gone, and could not be ' found, but next day came crawling home, to the great joy of his master. Both dogs recovered, and did good service in hunting.

About twelve years before this adventure occurred, David Blocker had a desperate hand to hand fight with a bear, near where Yoder's gristmill now stands, about one mile southwest of the Center. It happened about the year - 1817. The cows were wanted, and one of them had a bell on. and they would stray along the brooks and swab's for food, and David Blocker went in pursuit of them without his rifle, or weapon of any kind, which was strange, for in those days of pioneer life, few persons ventured from their cabins without the trusty rifle, and pouch filled with balls and powder, ready for business.

The trail of the cattle led down Blockers Creek, and when he got near where the first mill stands he passed near a large treetop which had fallen the season before, when the leaf was in full growth, and in its fall had crushed a number of small saplings, which together formed a thick mass of leaves and brush, making a cozy home for a wild - animal; and sure enough, as he was walking around this bevy of treetops, out rushed a large, haggard looking black bear, right at him, with ponderous jaws wide oj eii . ready to seize him on the spot. Having no weapon with him, and having no means of defense except his hands, and two small dogs about as large as raccoons, and being shod with Indian moccasins, and a swift runner, he concluded to run for his life, and thus escape the ugly embrace of the bear ; but Mrs. Bruin was too fast for him, and he had to turn and fight, and dodge about as best he could, to keep out of the clutches of the sharp claws and ponderous mouth of the bear, which seemed determined to destroy him on the spot. In his extremity he got behind a tree, and ran around it with all his might, with the furious brute close at his heels. The day was hot, and in that dense forest extremely sultry, and he was fast losing his breath and strength, when his two little dogs, hearing the fuss, came bravely to the rescue of their master. The little fellows seized the bear in the rear and tugged and bit with such vigor that the monster would have to stop and whirl round and brush them off, as one would a fly or mosquito from the hand or face, and then instantly renew the chase to catch the hunter. But these momentary lulls in that close and desperate chase gave him a moment for fresh breath, and reflection what to do in that desperate condition of affairs ; but it would only be for a moment, when the angry brute would renew the chase with increased rage and growls. Finding that with all his powerful exertions to escape her, she would seize him, he broke for a larger tree, with the bear close to his heels, and the little dogs doing all they could to help their master.