Windsor Township (part 2 of 3)

In the first dual contest the Iroquois won, throwing his opponent to the ground. The Erie lay there expecting to be killed but the Iroquois stepped back and left him, whereupon the chief of the Eries drew his tomahawk and himself killed the defeated warrior of his own tribe.

A repetition of this occurred with the second and third defeated member of the Eries. The Iroquois were horrified and gave the signal to retreat and disappearing in the forest went home to report.

The Eries also returned to their home but, stung by the ignominy of defeat, they cherished the hope of revenge. Not long after this they formed a plan to gather together a large body of warriors and secretly advance upon the Iroquois to exterminate them by taking small bands of the Iroquois unawares and killing them, repeating this method before the Iroquois had time to gather themselves together.

An Iroquois woman who had married an Erie warrior, but whose husband was at this time dead, having learned of the treachery contemplated, determined to warn her people, and alone made her way to the headquarters of the Iroquois nation, who then took measures to meet the expected invaders.

The two hostile bodies: met near the outlet to Seneca Lake. The battle raged with relentless fury, no quarter being asked and none given. The Iroquois were the victors. They pursued the Eries with unquenchable fury and completely exterminated the whole tribe, becoming the possessors of the land once occupied by the Eries.

This land was declared at that time to be forever after a neutral hunting ground. A division line between the Eastern and Western tribes was made at the Ashtabula Creek. Over this territory they might hunt, but not establish settlements.

Now the Iroquois had a treaty with the English made at Albany, N. Y., in 1726, by which they ceded to the English the territory as far as the Cuyahoga River.

The French in the meantime had formed settlements at Quebec, Montreal; Presque Isle, now Erie, Pa.; Le Bouf, near Franklin, Venango County, Pa.; Du Quesne, now called Pittsburg, Pa., and at Detroit, Mackinac, Vincennes, Ind., and Kaskaskee, Ill., claiming by right of discovery the whole territory lying between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi. These conflicting claims of the English and French gave rise to what was called the old French war. This continued for some years. At its close a treaty of peace between the English and French was made in 1763 by which the French ceded to the English all their territory in North America, including Canada, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, except Florida and Louisiana.

In 1783 by the treaty of peace made by the British with the victorious colonists, who had secured their independence, all the British territory excepting that in Canada was ceded to the United States. These facts of history explain why this Western reserve was free from the horrors of Indian massacre.

The Ashtabula River is said to have been the dividing line between the hunting and fishing grounds, respectively, of the Senecas, Tonawandas, Cayugas, Delawares and other tribes on the'east, and the Chippewas, Ottawas, Wyandottes and others on the west. These several tribes fished in the Ashtabula River, but kept religiously to their respective sides of the stream, never crossing to invade the acknowledged territory of their neighbors, except in exchange of their social visitations.

The bottom-lands, the beaver-meadows, the marshes and uplands of Ashtabula County produced plenty of herbage, with grass, berries, nuts and other foods sufficient to sustain great numbers of elk, deer, bears, turkeys and smaller beasts and birds, which constituted abundant game for the Indian hunters. Elk and deer were very numerous. Bears gathered in the beaver-meadows in great numbers to feast upon the berries. In these meadows the bears would make their winter hibernations, heaping up beds of wild grass, in which they would bury themselves and lie dormant through the extreem winter. Thus it is seen that there was everything to make this immediate section attractive to the Indian.

variable nature, which made him both respected and feared, but most feared, perhaps, by his own people. Long years after the redmen had entirely ceased to even pay this section of the Reserve periodical visits, they were remembered with great interest by some of the early day residents, who had come in personal contact with them. Q. F. Atkins, for many years a resident of Geneva, during the latter part of his life, was probably as well qualified as any resident of the county to relate incidents of the Indian days, and, in the year 1858, he wrote a series of articles for the Ashtabula Sentinel, from which we take the following interesting history. Writing under date of Feb. 8, 1858, Mr. Atkins says:

"To those unacquainted with the first settlers of the county, I would state that but few of them are now alive. - I came into the county in November, 1802, and very soon after my arrival I became acquainted with Chief Amik, Conoshawa and two or three others of the Chippewa tribe. Capt. John Wright, who afterward became my father-in-law, had settled in the township of Morgan shortly before my arrival. He brought with him the only horse then owned in the township. Some time in the fall the horse, which had picked up its living outside of the small opening made by Captain Wright and Hosea Wilcox, disappeared, and was supposed to be dead or stolen by the Indians. So matters remained until the latter part of February, or beginning of March, when one of the Chippewas called at Captain Wright's and told him that while hunting up Mill Creek he had discovered fresh horse tracks on the bottoms, south side of the creek, a day or two before, which led him to look about, and that he had found 'white man's horse, but him no understand Chippewa and 'fraid of Indian'. The horse was recaptured after no little difficulty, for he had roamed at large so long, and taken care of himself so well, that he had become wild, or independent, and did not seem to wish to be returned to the comfortable stable and regular feed. This incident placed the Chippewas before the settlers as trustworthy, and during the ten winters that they hunted among us we had no occasion to regret our confidence in them. ;

"Amik and his tribe had their summer home on the British side of the Strait of St. Mary's, and they spent ten winters, from 1802 to 1812, in old Ashtabula County, hunting, sugar-making or gathering cranberries. Their uniform practice was to leave their summer haunts about Lake Superior and St. Mary's Strait in time to reach their hunting grounds in Ashtabula County about the time of the falling of the leaves in autumn. Each family brought their brass and sheet-iron kettles, birchbark, separated from the course outside, or ross, cut into 18-inch or 2-foot squares, and packed snugly in their canoes, and brought all the way to be moulded into sap-troughs in the spring. This was easily done by crimpling up two opposite sides and tying them fast with a strip of basswood or leatherwood bark. Thus prepared, they made the lightest and handiest sap-troughs imaginable. In this way every family came prepared for sugar making and they made large quantities.

"I had another proof of the integrity of the Chippewas, on an occasion when Amik came to borrow my rifle, in 1807. He stated that the lock of his rifle was broken and he must take it to Poland or Pittsburg to get it mended. He asked to borrow my rifle to take on-his journey. He offered to pay me a ham of venison every week for the use of it. My rifle was a good one and I valued it highly, and I suggested to him that I might not see it again. He seemed disconcerted' at even a hint that I doubted his veracity. I took the chance and loaned him the gun, and every week that he kept it I received the promised ham. When he returned it he was accompanied by his son, Po-ka-haw, who was subsequently hanged for murder in Cleveland. Amik expressed in glowing terms the goodness of my rifle, and told of the number of elk, deer and bear he had killed with it. He said the rifle was 'cawlatch - resshissin', which, translated into English, was 'good, very good'. Always thereafter I imposed perfect confidence in Amik."

Joel Blakeslee, of Colebrook, one of the early historians of the county, gave another version of the personality of Chief Amik of the Chippewas, in whom Historian Atkins placed such great confidence and whose good traits he so greatly admired. It will be noted that Mr. Atkins had a close personal acquaintance with the Redskin named, while Mr. Blakeslee's story seems to have been made from what others had told him. Amik, Omick, O'Mick are but variations of spelling the name of the one person. Mr. Blakeslee's sketch was published in the Ashtabula Sentinel of Feb. 25, 1858, and is here reproduced:

"O'Mick, a Chippewa chieftain, of whose life sundry sketches are recorded in early history of Ashtabula County, was one of the number of 150 warriors, with their families, of the Chippewa and Ottawa nations who, in the autumn of 1796, and the following winter, made their first: hunting campaign in Northern Ohio, after Wayne's treaty at Greenville, settling their families along both banks of the Cuyahoga from its mouth to its source. After these tribes scattered, O'Mick made temporary abodes in several townships in Ashtabula County, as is well remembered by sundry surviving early citizens of the county. This rather savage chieftain, it is well remembered by Hon. J. R. Giddings, Dr. Almon Hawley, Col. David Wright and sundry others, liad two squaws, one of which he called his squaw. She performed his drudgery and was the mother of Po-ka-haw (Owl), the murdered. The other he called his 'Squaw Lady'. Those who saw her say she was beautiful. O'Mick's squaw dressed in a dirty blanket, pantaloons and plain moccasins. His 'Lady Squaw' wore a neat, costly blanket, ornamented with numerous silver brooches, silver ornaments in her ears and beautifully wrought wampum parti-colored moccasins. She played the lady and was the idol of O'Mick. He and his family lived a number of years in the south part of Morgan (Rock Creek). Some time previous to the declaration of the War of 1812, O'Mick resided with the Massassauga tribe in Wayne and is thought to have gone with them and to have joined the British with that tribe. He was evidently seen and recognized in the Peninsular battle, fighting with the British Indians against his old friends and neighbors of Ashtabula County, who belonged to Chief Cotton's party. This bloody chieftain, O'Mick, fell in this battle before the rifle of the veteran Rice, whose life was in imminent peril from the deadly weapon of the savage, a ball from which had just before cut off a weed close by the side of une brave sergeant, who did not wait for another shot from the savage."

Chapter Iii Topography, Geology And Plant Life

The two distinct ridges that skirt the northern section of the county from east to west, results of erosions of the glacial period, are veritable uniform terraces, of which a third is the high bank overlooking the beach of Lake Erie. From this latter elevation there is a gradual rise to the North Ridge, and from that a continued incline to the South Ridge. Scientific deductions long ago established the fact that the lake once covered all this area, and that the ridges, which are many feet above the present lake level, were once the lake bottom; that the storms that perturbed its waters wore out the superficial depressions and amassed the sandbars and little spits of elevation which constituted the irregular land surface that was left as the waters receded. The two prominent ridges were particularly adaptable as main highways across the country. The early Ridge roads were little more than lanes, as they wended irregularly through openings bounded by interminable lines of 'worm-fences". The space constituting the public highway was seldom more than 30 feet wide and often narrowed to much less. The owners of the land through which the roads passed ceded to the public what they considered was a sufficient space to meet the needs, and some of them did not seem to think that it needed much more than barely room for passing.

Leaving the ridges, a very different formation is encountered. The underlying strata is found to consist of the conglomerates and sandstones, or of the shales of the old red sandstone, the upper covering being sand, gravel, loam or clay - the latter predominating through the center line north and south through the county.

Quoting a state geologist, in his comments on the difference between the two ridges in character: "The outer, or higher terrace, where exposed by railroad cuts, is shown to be a ridge, or wall of compact, unstratified clay, composed largely of the debris of local rocks, but with many fragments of granite or other metamorphic rocks, not rounded by the action of the waves, but in irregular forms - round, polished and marked with striae and scratches on all sides. This ridge contains beneath its surface the traces of an old swamp, with fragments of coniferous wood, the earth deeply stained with iron, and in places with deposits of bog-iron at the bottom. This swamp has its origin in the causes which raised the clay ridge into its position, and was evidently filled with swamp vegetation at the time the waters of the lake were resting upon the 'northern slope of this ridge, the winds gradually carrying the beached sands over the crest of the ridge into the swamp basin, and in time burying it beneath the constantly accumulating sandy deposit. This ridge, with its mass unstratified and without rounded, water-worn pebbles, can not be the slow accumulations of a water-washed beach, nor can the materials be deposited in water, which would rot and stratify them." Commenting on the deep ravines of the county, particularly those of the Hubbard Run and others immediately in or adjacent to Ashtabula city, former State Geologist Newberry said: "It is manifest that such a local break in the shale could be caused by neither an upheaval nor the subsidence of the strata. A vast mass of ice moving on from the north, and impigning on the exposed strata of the shale with sufficient power to cause a part of the strata to buckle upwards at some point where the sliding motion was arrested, is alone competent to produce the condition of things here seen. The movement of a glacier, like a sheet of ice, is the only known force to produce such a result."

South of the ridges the soil conditions undergo a decided change. The sub-stratum of rock is of the character known as the "Erie shale", and is composed principally of soft slate, which decomposes into clay. Where streams are swift they have cut deep into this formation, here and there making deep gorges. The southern part of the county is productive of much building stone. This is particularly the condition in Windsor Township, where there was for some years a large stone quarry, the working of which was a source of great commercial benefit to that town. The eastern part of Williamsfield also produced a great quantity of stone that was used for building purposes in that section for many years. The Cuyahoga shales underlying the conglomerate constitute the surface rocks in the central part of Wayne and the western part of Hartsgrove and Windsor Townships. The last named two townships show long stretches of sticky clay soil. In Wayne the soil is more gravelly. The "Berea grit" is also found in sections of Hartsgrove and Windsor. Its position is indicated by a ridge rising toward the west and covered with stone fragments. Underlying the "Berea grit", in the western part of the county, is found "Bedford shale'.

The water-shed which governs the flow of the streams between the Ohio River and Lake Erie is found in Ashtabula County. The course of this divide passes through from a point but 10 miles back from the lake, on the eastern border, where are found the head-waters of the Chenango River, at an altitude of over 600 feet above the lake level, courses toward the southwest, to Orwell, where, at a given point, it is but 360 feet high. Thence it strikes. off into Trumbull County. The effect of this divide is strikingly illustrated in the township of Dorset, where from one swamp flow two streams in opposite directions, the Pymatuning toward the south and Mill Creek toward the north. Dividing this swamp east to west is an embankment which was probably made centuries ago by beavers, constituting the very apex of the water-shed.

County's Plant Life. - (By Elwood V. Louth.) The wild plants growing in Ashtabula County 200 years ago numbered about 850 annuals and perennials. Today we. have a list of 1,200, as this section has adopted 350 foreign plants, such as the dandelion and white daisy. These 1,200 are divided as follows: Tender plants, that die to the ground in the winter, 990; shrubs, 100; trees, 110. The list is short now seventy plants that have disappeared from our section, because of the cutting away of our forests and the cultivation of places where they made their homes.

In a belt of land five miles wide, along Lake Erie from the east to the west borders of the county, may be found all excepting about 50 of the species. These 50 do not grow in the northern part. But the land south of this belt has about 300 less species than can be found nearer the lake, because of the more uneven lay of the surface in the northern portion and the railroads which bring seeds to us in stock cars.

Of the 110 varieties of trees, there are only the poplar and the willow, that are now wild everywhere, that can be called invaders from foreign lands. The shrubs have about ten newcomers since the Indian ceased to be the only human being to enjoy the vegetation of one of the richest districts in America.

Chapter Iv

EMIGRATION - BARLY COLONIZATION - 'OLD HARPERSFIELD LAND COMPANY'' - ALEXANDER HARPER - '"WESTWARD HO" PARTY - HARDSHIPS ENCOUNTERED - HARPERSFIELD AS A METROPOLIS - ITS POPULATION.

It was a couple of years after the arrival of that first little party from Connecticut before there was any material emigration from the east to this far-off section of which so little was known. Means of communication were slow and uncertain and months elapsed after the party left their Connecticut homes before their friends there received any word from them.

When the letters did arrive they afforded exciting news for each neighborhood and many at once decided that they would cast their lots with those who had preceded them to the Reserve. Some of them carried out their resolution and, in the course of time, those who were already here received most welcome visitors who straggled in from the old home state with personal messages from the loved relatives "'back there''.

The first decided movement toward a permanent colonization of this immediate section resulted from the organization of the "Old Harpersfield Land Company'"', which was effected in Harpersfield, N. Y., in 1798. Alexander Harper was one of the prime movers in organizing this company, the purpose of which was to invest in and develop land in the Western Reserve, which was by that time becoming well advertised in the Eastern states as the land "flowing with milk and honey".

Harper was a man of action and quick to see opportunities. Those associated with him in the project were no less anxious to see things move, and no time was lost in getting about the business in hand. It became known very soon in their own and surrounding towns that an emigration movement was on foot and applications to join the party that was being organized did not have to be solicited. Land that included six townships in the Western Reserve was purchased from the Connecticut Land Company. This tract was divided by the Cuyahoga River, three townships lying west and three east of that stream.

In March, 1798, the "Westward Ho" party, comprising about 25 members who were ready to try their fortunes in unknown forests, left their New York homes. The company included Alexander Harper, his wife and their children, James, William, Robert, Alexander Jr., Elizabeth and Mary; their hired man, Gleason; William McFarland and. Mrs. Mc- Farland; Ephraim Clark; Parthena Mingus, her son, William, and an adopted son, Benjamin Hartwell; Ezra Gregory, wife and children, Eli, Johnathan, Daniel, Thatcher, Ezra, Anna, Eleanor and Betsy.

and there they remained until the ice had gone, so they could proceed by water. They went to Oswego and there secured small boats, by which they voyaged to the mouth of the Niagara River. They portaged across to the foot of Lake Erie, embarking from Fort Erie in a little vessel that was taking on a cargo of supplies for military troops stationed farther west in Canada. This boat took them as far as Presque Isle (now Erie), and there they obtained passage in boats whose owners engaged to transport the party farther west. d On June 28, 1798, they disembarked at the mouth of Cunningham Creek, on the south shore of Lake Erie, and camped there for the night. Next morning Mr. Harper, with the women and children of the party, started on foot inland and tramped about four miles till they came to a place that seemed to promise a good home site. Here they were joined by the others of the party, who had transported the provisions, baggage and other equipment. All set to and hastily constructed a temporary shelter to cover them for the night. Later they completed a crude but habitable abode in which the whole colony were domiciled for several weeks, while the men were casting about in various directions for suitable places in which to establish permanent homes.

The Harper and McFarland families decided to locate at a point near where is now Unionville, and Mr. Gregory and his family chose a place a few miles to the southeast, on Grand River.

_ It was well that these venturesome families included several husky boys, for two of the party did not live to realize any of the hopes of their venture beyond the actual establishment of the new homes. The Harpers' hired man, Gleason, died soon after their arrival, and Mr. Harper was stricken and died before the snows of the winter fell. Thus the boys of that family had to assume strenuous obligations early in their career as settlers.

According to records obtainable, there were but fifteen families of whites in the entire Western Reserve prior to the arrival of the party above referred to. Cleveland had three of those, Youngstown ten, and Mentor two. In this same year, however, three other families came from the East and settled in what is now Burton, in Geauga County, and others came to Hudson, in Summit County.

The next arrivals came in the spring of 1799, Aaron Wright, Levi and John Montgomery, Robert Montgomery and family, Nathan and John King, and Samuel Bemus and family coming from the East and settling in what is now Conneaut.

During the summer following, Eliphalet Austin, with his associates, George Beckwith with his family, Roswell Stephens and family, and several other men, established a settlement where now is Austinburg.

In June of that year George Phelps and family cast their lots in what is now Windsor Township, Monroe received its first settlers in the persons of Stephen Moulton and his family, and Joseph Harper and Aaron Wheeler, two of the promoters of the Old Harpersfield Land Company, arrived with their families and increased the settlement on Grand River, which afterward was given the name of Harpersfield.

The number of settlers within the boundaries of this county in the winter of 1799-1800 was about fifty, of whom the greater number made Harpersfield their home, that hamlet thereby having the honor of being the "metropolis" of Ashtabula County. Conneaut, Austinburg, Windsor and Monroe boasted possession of the remainder of the population, Conneaut having the most and the others standing relatively as named.

The influx of emigrants took a new start in the spring of 1800, and during that year the following acquisitions were made to the several settlements:

To Harpersfield came Daniel Bartholomew and a Mr. Morse, with their families; Conneaut's population was increased by the addition of Seth Harrington, James Harper, James Montgomery, and their families; Austinburg's growth was given a decided impetus by the settlement therein of Joseph and J. M. Case, Roger Nettleton, Joseph B. Cowles, Adam Cowles, Josiah Moses, John Wright, Sterling Mills and family, Noah Cowles and son Solomon, Dr. O. K. Hawley, and Ambrose Humphrey.

Nearly all of the men named made the journey from Connecticut on foot or by horseback. Numerous of them braved the perils of such an arduous journey with the idea of locating and building at least a temporary home for their families who were left behind. Later several of the heads of families made the journey back to the native state to get their own and the other men's families who were to become pioneer residents of the West.

According to Joshua Forbes, who wrote a history of Wayne Township, a missionary from Connecticut, named Rev. Thomas Robbins, made a complete circuit of Ashtabula County, as it was later bounded and organized, in the year 1804, and upon its completion stated that he found, in the entire county, 93 families, constituting a population of from 400 to 500. Of these families, Harpersfield had 27; Conneaut, 20; Austinburg, 17, and Morgan, 18.

The early comers must have sent glowing accounts of the new country to their friends "back home', for the number of settlers gradually increased, starting each spring and continuing through each summer, while some of the belated ones who came across country dropped in during the rigorous winter months.

Chapter

It was on July 10, 1800, that the Legislature of the State of Connecticut authorized the return to the United States government the right of jurisdiction over New Connecticut, and the Western Reserve was converted, through proclamation of the Governor and judges of the Northwestern Territory, into a county which was named Trumbull, in honor of Jonathan Trumbull, who was then Governor of the State of Connecticut. Warren was assigned as the county seat, and the first court of jurisdiction over the newly made county was called to convene in that town on August 25, 1800.

During this session the court appointed a committee whose duty it was to divide the county of Trumbull into townships, and to make a report to the court at an early date, describing the boundary lines of each subdivision thus made. The original Trumbull County was therefore divided into eight townships that were named Youngstown, Warren, Vernon, Richfield, Painesville, Middlefield, Hudson and Cleveland.

This township of Richfield is the one in which the readers of this work are interested, that division having embraced all of what is now Ashtabula County, excepting the two southern tiers of townships that now constitute Windsor, Orwell, Colebrook, Wayne, Williamsfield, Hartsgrove, Rome, New Lyme, Cherry Valley and Andover. Of these ten towns, Colebrook, Wayne, Williamsfield, Cherry Valley, New Lyme and Andover were included in the township laid out as Vernon, while Windsor, Orwell, Hartsgrove and Rome were in Middlefield. The present towns of

At the May term of court, 1801, the original eight townships were formed into election districts, called the "Northern" and the "Southern" districts. Middlefield, Richfield, Painesville and Cleveland constituted the "Northern" district, and the home of one Simon Perkins, at the intersection of Young's road and the Lake road (now Concord, in Lake County), was designated as the place of holding the elections. Youngstown, Hudson, Warren and Vernon, the "Southern" district, did their voting at the home of Ephraim Quimby, in Warren.

So far as can be ascertained from available history, Noah Cowles and Nathan. King were the first trustees of Richfield, Aaron Wheeler was justice of the peace, and John Harper and Miles Case were constables.

In 1804 the county of Geauga was formed, and its territory embraced the greater portion of the present limits of Ashtabula County. However, this county came into its own three years later, being organized in 1811.

Richfield Township was left intact until 1804, when Divisions Nos. 12, 13 and 14 were set aside as the town of Salem, which is now Conneaut.

The next subdivision of Richfield was made in 1807, by setting out that territory now embracing Geneva, Harpersfield, Trumbull and Hartsgrove and calling it Harpersfield Township.

The following year further disintegration of Richfield was accomplished by assigning the territory now Kingsville, Sheffield, Ashtabula and Plymouth as Ashtabula, and forming Jefferson out of what ultimately became Jefferson, Denmark, Pierpont, Lenox, Dorset and Richmond.

When Ashtabula County was organized, on January 22, 1811, its confines embraced six organized townships, namely: Salem, including Nos. 12, 13 and 14 of the first range; Ashtabula, including Nos. 12 and 13 of the third range; Kingsville, including Nos. 12 and 13 of the second range; Jefferson, including Nos. 10 and 11 of the first, second and third ranges, and Richfield, which took in the remaining territory of the county, excepting Nos. 8 and 9 of the five ranges.

In 1806 Williamsfield, Wayne and Colebrook were included in a township called Green, which embraced other territory to a considerable extent in Trumbull County.

Wayne Township was organized in 1811, and: included in it were the. present townships of Wayne, Williamsfield, Colebrook, Andover, Cherry Valley and New Lyme.

That section now embracing New Lyme and Colebrook was set aside as Lebanon, in 1813, which name it bore until 1825, when it became New Lyme.

In 1813, also, Denmark was taken away from Jefferson's authority and organized with boundaries which included Pierpont, Richmond and Dorset. Pierpont and Richmond were taken away five years later and named Pierpont.

Leffingwell (Orwell) was attached to Richfield in 1823, and the two were known as Richfield until 1826, when Orwell was organized into a township by itself.

All that was left of the original Richfield Township was taken away in 1828, when, upon petition by residents, the name of Rome was adopted.

Hartsgrove came into its own in 1830, and the finish to more than a quarter of a century of "cut-and-dry" methods of settlement, organization and reorganization, was reached in 1838, when the major part of |

No. 12 of the third range was taken from Ashtabula and named Plymouth. The organization of Plymouth was effected on Independence Day of that year, and thus closed the final chapter of the history of Richfield's division into the twenty-eight townships that now compose the county of Ash- . tabula.

This section was embraced in what was known also as New Connecticut, and there was no civil government organized therein until the year 1800. This free condition was. because of the fact that the State of Connecticut and the Connecticut Land Company had refused to give Congress the right to formulate laws to govern the inhabitants of the Western Reserve.

The pioneer settlers of this county were, therefore, without civil laws and were entirely independent of any sort of government other than the dictates of their good old New England consciences. This condition could not possibly obtain at the present time in even the most remote points of this great country, but it was not abused by those sturdy sons of toil, as they had not come for selfish aims, alone, and they had proper respect for the rights of others. If, at times, some one did digress from this tranquil condition of existence, and committed some act that was not in accord with the customary way of living, the others disposed of his case as seemed most appropriate, and, it is said, always prescribed and administered an effectual cure.

From the time that Moses Cleaveland and his party landed on the south shore of Lake Erie, in Conneaut, there was a lapse of 15 years before affairs so shaped themselves that Ashtabula County could be organized. On January 22, 1811, the State Legislature passed: the following enactment:

"Be it enacted, etc., that the county of Ashtabula be, and the same hereby is organized into a separate county, and that the townships numbered eight, in Trumbull County, shall be attached to and become a part of said county of Ashtabula."

"That on the first Monday of May, next, the legal voters residing in the county of Ashtabula shall assemble in their respective townships, at 'the usual places of holding elections in said townships, and elect their several county officers, who shall hold their offices until the next annual

"That all of Geauga and Trumbull Counties which lies north of the townships numbered seven, and east of the sixth range of townships (all in the Connecticut Western Reserve), shall be a distinct and separate county by the name of Ashtabula."

The first men who served the new county as officers, and their respective positions, follow: Presiding judge, Benjamin Ruggles; associate judges, Aaron Wheeler, Ebenezer Hewins and Solomon Griswold; treasurer, David Hendry; recorder, James Harper; county clerk, Timothy R. Hawley; sheriff, Nathan Strong.

In accordance with the State Constitution, the above judiciary was established, and the first term of court was called to be held in Jefferson, on June 20, 1811. Following were the first grand jurors selected: Noah Cowles, Peleg Sweet, Stephen Brown, Jesse D. Hawley, William Perrin, Walter Fobes, Ebenezer K. Lampson, Sterling Mills, Michael Webster, Gideon Leet, Joshua Rockwell, Eliphalet Austin, James A. Harper, Moses Wright and David Hendry. Eliphalet Austin was appointed by the court as foreman of this first grand jury. The jury was duly sworn and charged by the court.

There was, in the beginning of the judicial activities of the county, no petit jury. Peter Hitchcock was the first prosecuting attorney pro tem, and Ezra Kellogg was the first regular prosecutor. The first county surveyor appointed was Timothy R. Hawley. The first probate judge was J. Addison Giddings.

The first election of county 'commissioners, as held in Ashtabula, Austinburg, Jefferson and Harpersfield, was declared illegal by the common pleas judge, who ruled out the returns from those townships, and that the votes of the remaining townships should be added together and that the candidates found to have the plurality of votes should be declared elected. This ruling, apparently, did not meet with popular favor. It is recorded 'that James Harper was the only one of those thus declared elected who did not decline to serve. Upon refusal of the others, the

At the next term of court the three commissioners presented their expense bills, which, in comparison with the expense of the like body of today, is interesting. James Harper's expense was $31.50, Nathan Strong spent $28, and Titus Hayes' activities in the interest of the county had cost him but $13.10.

The records show that the first case brought before the judge by the grand jury involved Isaac Cook and Amos Fisk, who were up for fighting. It is recorded that both were fined.

From the arrival of the first settlers, Ashtabula County was destined to experience a healthy growth, indefinitely. In the early days the reports going back East from those who had braved dangers and suffered the privations attendant upon the breaking into a wilderness were all favorable and resulted in bringing many who contemplated casting their lots in the new West to this immediate section, rather than to some other of which they knew nothing. The records show that but very few of the early emigrants to this section were dissatisfied with what they found and as a consequence moved on. The succeeding generations also, as a rule, remained hereabouts, and as the decades passed by the newcomers and the natural increase of local population caused the number of inhabitants to increase each year. For the sake of comparisons, we give figures on population as shown by the census enumerations of 1840, 1850 and 1920:

The above figures for the years 1840 and 1850 are taken from a report published in the Ashtabula Sentinel, and the figures for 1920 from the National Map Company's compilation of the Fourteenth Federal Census. The total shown above does not include Cherry Valley, that town not being mentioned in the 1850 list. The individual figures shown under 1920 must embrace the corporations or villages only, as the total for the county is given in the Federal Census as 65,545, in 1920, while the figures quoted above show but 44,798.

However, the figures shown present matter for interesting comparison. In the first decade represented in the figures, Conneaut was larger than Ashtabula, but during that 10-year period the former town gained but 44 inhabitants, while the latter added 466. The next three-score-andten years show Ashtabula far ahead. Austinburg, one of the early-year leading villages, showed a healthy gain between the first two periods, but in the latter had dropped off 25 per cent. Harpersfield, that started out so bravely and auspiciously, could not seem to hold her people, her population gradually decreasing until, in the last census, the town was not given mention. A half dozen others of the towns of the county failed to get into the reference list at hand. In the general summary it is seen that the county has increased its population about threefold in the past four score of years, but the greatest part of the increase has been within the last fifty cycles.

For some time prior to 1850 there was agitation among certain residents of the south part of the county, together with those from over the line to the south and west, relative to a proposition that the southern portion of Ashtabula County be split up and detached from the parent commonwealth. That there was political] influence in the project was apparent. Several proposals were made, seeking to dismember old Ashtabula. One was that the two most southern rows of townships in this county be attached: to the five townships on the north line of Trumbull County and set out as a separate county to be called '"'Hartford'', the official seat of which should be Colebrook. This would have lost to the original family the towns of Hartsgrove, Rome, New Lyme, Cherry Valley, Andover, Windsor, Orwell, Colebrook, Wayne and Williamsfield. Another scheme was to attach Windsor and Hartsgrove to Geauga County, add Richmond and Dorset to the other eight of the southern rows and combine them with the same five from Trumbull, and have the county seat at Wayne.

The scheme did not, however, reach the point of real action till the court house at Jefferson burned, on August 17, 1850. That misfortune seemed to revive the agitation in regard to the dismemberment of the county, and some of the projectors lost no time in getting to the county commissioners with a request that that body take no steps looking to the rebuilding of the court house until it should be determined whether or not they could hope to accomplish the designs on the southern section. For years prior to this time Ashtabula had nourished a hope that the county seat would be moved to her bailiwick some day, and the destruction of the court house seemed to furnish the opportune time for action looking to that end. The situation in the southern section of the county was encouraging to those who sought to have Ashtabula village benefit by Jefferson's misfortune, and they, too, got busy with the commissioners. The plans of both interests that were seeking a change, however, were doomed to disappointment, for before the day of the fire had passed the county commissioners held a meeting, called in contractors and arrived at an estimate of what it would cost to rebuild the court house on its old site. They reached an estimate figure of $9,000. The building was insured for $8,000, and with that and money they had as surplus in the county fund, they saw how they could go ahead and replace the old building with a new and better one and not occasion a dollar of extra cost on the county. Before the disturbing elements had gathered their forces for a final call for a showdown the contract was let for rebuilding and the controversy was settled.

What particular interests were to be served by the hoped-for dismen:- | berment of the county did not appear, but it was evident that it was attempted for individual aggrandizement of some nature, for Andover, Dorset and other townships involved by the scheme held public meetings and passed resolutions against the proposed action. Old Ashtabula County, seventy-five years later, still holds her undivided territory and Jefferson still has the court house, but Ashtabula's hope to some time be the county seat is not dead.

Chapter Vi Early Day Roads And Mail

Only one who has lived in or traveled through newly broken territory can appreciate the condition of the roads cut through by pioneer settlers of any section of the country that is wooded. All kinds of obstacles were encountered in breaking straight lines through forest land and making such openings fit for travel. First came the felling of the trees, then the grubbing out of the stumps (they were not blown out by dynamite in the pioneer days of this section) and the removal of other obstacles that nature had placed (it seemed) where they would cause the most trouble. The low, boggy places had to be filled, or corduroyed, and the upkeep of these particular stretches required constant attention to keep them so they would hold up the traffic. The coming of spring, when the frost left, the ground, produced conditions on the roads that made them impassable in places. It is to be regretted that the early settlers, who worked so hard _to make and maintain public highways, could not have lived to witness the triumph of the twentieth century and ride over the wonderful roads that we enjoy today, and for which they laid the foundation so many years ago.

The locating of the county seat at Jefferson made occasion for heavy travel from Ashtabula and it was a great disadvantage to have the direct route involved by the marshes that lay between the two towns. The making of a thoroughfare through the marshes was attended by years of labor and many setbacks. The boggy surroundings seemed to absorb everything that was put into the construction for years, and during a good share of each year that route had to be abandoned and a roundabout way taken, which was several miles longer. Continued labor and persistent

However, there were times when drivers realized that something further must be done, and that led to the subject of planking. Some time in the late forties a move was set going seeking to interest the people who used these roadways in the organization of a stock company to be formed for the purpose of building and maintaining a plank road between these two important points of the county, and how they succeeded, and some idea of the joy over the accomplishment, is to be deduced from the following item taken from the Ashtabula Sentinel of Saturday, Nov. 16, 1850:

"Ashtabula Central Plank Road. - The road from Ashtabula Harbor to Jefferson, a distance of 1214 miles, is now completed. The last plank was laid on Thursday, and the laborers have been paid off and discharged. This important work was commenced about the first of May last and has been prosecuted under the efficient superintendency of John A. Prentice, Fis., and assistants, with energy and success to its final completion. We can now boast of 1214 miles of as handsome and durable plank road on one of our principal thoroughfares as there is in the State of Ohio, or any of our sister states. Its benefits are just beginning to be appreciated. The towns at its terminals have received an impulse in the way of business and durable improvement, such as they have not seen before for years. The farms and real estate along the whole route have increased in value almost enough to pay the cost of building the road, and are in good demand to all those who desire to sell. The traveling community who have business at Ashtabula Harbor now find at all times of the year, in all kinds of weather, a pleasant and agreeable road to travel over, and what they pay in tolls is more than made up to them in the increased loads they can draw, the saving of horseflesh, and the comfort of body and mind they receive in going to and returning from market over a good road. The expense of this important work will not be far from $22,000. The stock will pay a fair per cent. and will be eagerly sought for at par. On the whole, we regard this enterprise, now successfully completed, as a profitable one for the public, for the people of Ashtabula and Jefferson, for the stockholders, and for all concerned."

This new piece of improved roadway was built from Ashtabula Harbor to the city on Lake street, and to Jefferson over the present direct road.

There was a toll-gate on Lake street, near where is now the bridge over the railroad tracks. Another toll-gate was located a short distance out on the Jefferson road, and one or two more between that and the southern terminus of the improved road.

This plank road was calculated to take care of its own upkeep and pay a dividend to stockholders, through its receipts for tolls at the pay stations indicated. Whether the stockholders ever received any dividends is not stated in available history, but the road was kept in passable condition for several years, and then the owners seemed to get careless about keeping it up, though they were not careless about collecting their tolls.

In course of time the road got so bad that those who had to traverse it protested against its condition. This had the effect of lowering the rates for passage, which were based on the nature of traffic. Clark Tarbell, of Ashtabula, said he well remembered what.a time was had over the condition of the road when many cf the planks had broken out, leaving great holes for wagons to drop into. Still the owners compelled the gatekeepers to charge as high as 18 cents for a loaded wagon with team. Other rates were lower, as the conveyances and loads were lighter.

Mr. Tarbell said: "The conditions finally got so bad that the people who had to use the road daily, or frequently, got together and agreed that they would not pay any further tolls till the road was put in proper shape. I remember of seeing Jack Gary pull up, as a gate dropped before his team. He did not stop to banter words with the keeper, but, unhitching his team from his wagon, he hitched them to the gate and dragged it away and into a gully nearby. Then, as the owners of the roadway would not fix it, and those who had right of way on the public highway refused to pay toll, the road gradually went to pieces."

Following closely on the completion of the new road, the stockholders held a meeting in Jefferson and organized their company, electing the following original officers: R. W. Griswold, R. Warren, E. C. Root and S. McIntyre, directors; O. H. Fitch, treasurer, and J. A. Giddings, clerk. At this meeting it was decided to open stock books to raise money with which to continue the new plank road on toward the southeast, going from Jefferson via M. Barber's, Richmond, to Kinsman. Also to take steps looking to an extension to Rock Creek and other interior county towns. O. H. Fitch, William Knapp and M. Barber were the committee named to look after this stock project. This effort did not'have immediate results, but

The Ashtabula end of the original road was double-tracked through Main street of the city of Ashtabula, to meet the needs of the users in the "congested district'.

This was one of several roads through the county that were improved by the planking method, but as the timber disappeared the method became more expensive and the "improvement" by graveling became common. Plank roads had disappeared years before the modern brick, macadam and cement roads came in, to meet the demands occasioned by the development of the automobile. Today there are hundreds of miles of "improved" roads, and one can cross the county from either direction by several of the principal highways and can go hundreds of miles in most any direction without getting onto dirt.

North Ridge Road. - The obtaining of flour was a matter of no little inconvenience during the early years of the occupation of the Western Reserve by the white man. Those who settled in Conneaut had to obtain their bread material from the mill at Elk Creek, Pa., 16 miles away, to which point they had to "pack" their grain to be ground and then carry it home in like manner, on their shoulders or back, there being no suitable road for even a horse to travel.

The way lay mostly along the beach of the lake, and afforded gocd ~ footing, generally, but at certain times of the year the crossing of streams was a problem and it was not infrequently that it was necessary to wade through deep water to accomplish this. Aaron Wright, prominent among the early settlers, soon found this means of transportation irksome and he discussed the situation with his neighbors from time to time, until he had convinced them that the near future was going to see such development in this section that regular roads would be indispensable and that it devolved upon those who had come ahead to take immediate steps toward improvements that would make it convenient and easy for the influx of emigrants from the East that was certain to follow within the next few years.

Thus it came about that Aaron Wright, Nathan King and Seth Harrington got busy and laid out a road extending through their domain from _ east to west, a distance of ten miles from the Pennsylvania state line.

This road followed in a general way an old Indian trail which coursed the crest of the ridge and was always high and dry. In addition to this advantage, it afforded a point of vantage that was an attractive feature, giving, wherever there were clearings, a splendid view of the lake on the north, and of the hills and valley on the south. This road was a section of what is now the North Ridge road. Nathan King was the first man to have supervision over the new road as supervisor, his authority extending to Kingsville. In the same year these men also laid out the South Ridge road to a point westward beyond the present city of Ashtabula, where they joined the road built eastward by residents of Harpersfield. This completed a means of easy access to the Reserve for those who were to follow.

The Old Girdled Road. - This was not, however, the first road projected in this eastern section of the Reserve. The officials of the Connecticut Land Company, in 1797, foresaw the needs of the future and appointed a committee to select a route for the construction of a road from the Pennsylvania state line to the Cuyahoga River. The committee conferred with the company's surveyors, who had pretty well covered the northern part of the Reserve, and had acquired a general knowledge of the topographical conditions. Taking some of the engineers along, they traversed the sections suggested by the surveyors and, after selecting a route, they submitted a report to the company, making the following recommendations:

"Your committee appointed to inquire into the expediency of laying out and cutting roads on the Western Reserve report that, in their opinion, it will be expedient to lay out and cut through a road from Pennsylvania to the city of Cleveland, the small stuff to be cut out 20 feet wide, and the timber to be girdled 33 feet wide, and sufficient bridges thrown over the streams as are not fordable; and the said road to begin in township No. 13 in the first range, at the Pennsylvania line, and to run westerly through township 12 in the second range, No. 12 in the third range, No. 11 in the fourth range to the Indian ford at the bend of Grand River; thence through township No. 11 in the fifth range, No. 10 in the sixth range, No. 10 in the eighth range, and the northwest part of No. 9 in the ninth range, and to the Chagrin River, near where a large creek enters it on the east; and from crossing of the Chagrin River, the most direct way to the middle highway leading from the city of Cleveland to the hundred-acre lots."

The company issued orders for the immediate laying out of the road over the route as recommended by the committee. It passed through Conneaut Township, taking a generally southwesterly direction, traversing the successive townships of Sheffield, Plymouth, Austinburg and Harpersfield, and cutting across the northwestern corner of Trumbull, as it passed out of the county to the west. This avenue of communication was known for many years as the "Old Girdled Road'.

"The first mail contractor and carrier of mail to and from Ashtabula was John Metcalf of the East Village. His first contract for carrying the U. S. mail was made, it is supposed, in 1808, and his route extended between Cleveland and Erie. From the early part of 1809 he carried the mail on his back till 1811. Such was the wild state of the country and the badness of the roads that Mr. Metcalf was subjected to dangers, privations, labors and various obstacles. It is said that he sometimes waded and even swam the swollen streams, with the mail bag poised upon his head to keep it above water.

In 1811 Asher Bigelow was employed by Gideon Leet, Esq., then the postmaster in Ashtabula, to carry the mail on horseback between Ashtabula and Buffalo. Under the best conditions of traveling, he was allowed twelve days for the round trip, and fourteen days when the mud was deep . and waters high.

In the beginning of 1812 John Metcalf is found again carrying the mail in a heavy lumber wagon, with a span of spirited horses, the team and vehicle being furnished by Anan Harmon, and driven by Metcalf with surprising velocity over his old route from Cleveland to Erie. About A. D. 1815 the wagon was succeeded by a decent little stage coach, with two seats for passengers, and the driver's box, and drawn by two horses. In this carriage Metcalf carried the mail and passengers back and forth, on the Cleveland and Erie route, perhaps until 1818. About that time William Whitman of Ashtabula, Calvin Pool of Painesville, and others established a regular line of stages extending east and west far beyond Metcalf's old route, and conveying mail and passengers in an improved style of wagons through this place.

This company was succeeded by Edwin Harmon of Ashtabula, who furnished the route from Erie to Cleveland with four-horse coaches of the best description, drawn by excellent horses. He commenced running stages on this route of 100 miles, both ways, every twenty-four hours. From this time onward daily morning and evening stages passed through this place, bringing the eastern and western mails. Mr. Harmon thus occupied the route for perhaps seven years, and was succeeded by Col. Henry J. Rus of Ashtabula for a considerable time. Then Rus and Converse, who were succeeded by Col. H. J. Hubbard and Mr. Rus, until 1838, when they were succeeded by Neil, Moore & Co., until stages on this route were suspended by the more rapid railroad cars, in 1852."

Post-Roads. - ''The Ridge road from east to west was from 1808 to 1852 the great thoroughfare and the principal post-road on which the mails were brought to Ashtabula. The old road from Ashtabula through Saybrook and Austinburg and other townships of the fourth range, to Warren, a dreadful wilderness road from the beginning of the present century to 1819, continues as it has been from the beginning, the principal post-road (with some changes in the narthern 20 miles) from the south. In 1819 this road was converted into the Trumbull and Ashtabula turnpike, which was used for about thirty years to transport the mails to and from Warren by stage coaches, and eventually to and from Wellsville and Ashtabula. It thus constitutes a continuous post-road from the Ohio to Lake Erie, its northern part passing now from Rock Creek, in Morgan, through Eagleville, in Austinburg, to Jefferson, the county seat, and thence to Ashtabula. Daily morning and evening mails are received at Jefferson and Ashtabula, and tri-weekly mails at the offices south of Jefferson on this road. The north part of this road was for a few years used to convey the mails to and from the temporary postoffice at the harbor and village postoffice.

"In 1817 a road was laid from Ashtabula to Jefferson through the great marsh in South Ashtabula (now Plymouth), which was important as the most direct and shortest route from the northern part of the county ' in the vicinity of Ashtabula village, and from the Ridge roads to the county seat, which could be projected. By subscriptions, and by $300 from the county treasury, the expense of opening this road and rendering it barely passable through an almost unbroken wilderness were defrayed. Other subscriptions and grants were obtained from time to time and the road gradually improved until it became a good one.

"The patrons and projectors of this important road in Jefferson were Timothy R. Hawley, Quintus F. Atkins, Durlin Heacock, Esq., and Messrs. Noah Hoskins, Loomis and others; in Ashtabula, Matthew Hubbard, Esq., Thomas Whelpley, John Hall, Walker Richmond, Joshua Rockwell, Dennis Hoadley and Jonas Buffum. Quintus F. Atkins performed the greatest job on the road in causewaying the big marsh. This road was covered by the plank road from Ashtabula Harbor to Jefferson, built by a chartered company in 1850, at a cost of $12,000. This post-road, together with its connections radiating from Jefferson, forms the most important communication between Ashtabula and the southern country to the banks of the Ohio."

First Mail Routes. - The first United States mail route in the Western Reserve was authorized by Postmaster General Gideon Granger and service was established late in the fall of 1801. It was a loop route from Cleveland to Warren and return, and residents of Windsor, Jefferson, Austinburg and Harpersfield, in Ashtabula County, had the advantage of the service.

Another mail route in the pre-railroad days was from Cleveland eastward through Geneva, on the South ridge, and through Austinburg, Jefferson and Pierpont, and on over the Pennsylvania line to Conneaut Lake, to connect with mail to Pittsburgh. Ezra Gregory, who conducted a tavern on the South ridge in Geneva, carried mail over this route from Painesville to Conneaut Lake for some years.

In the days before the government had established routes through this county, the small interior villages could only get their mail by going long distances, as was the case in numerous instances, some one in the town would volunteer to take the mail through a certain territory without expense to the government, thus accommodating his neighbors at his own expense.

The daily mail service from New York to Ashtabula was established in 1863, the first through mail from the metropolis being received on Oct. 29 of that year.

Rock Creek and East Trumbull were so anxious for daily mail service that they determined to secure it without expense to the government and independent of official sanction. To this end they clubbed together, raised a fund and pledges of support and put on a daily hack line touching at Rock Creek, East Trumbull, Mechanicsville and Ashtabula. It does not appear that the Postoffice Department raised any objection to this proceeding; in fact, they were glad to have any one get the service without making additional expense.

In the fall of 1850 the following mail routes were established in the county: From Ashtabula, via Plymouth, North Sheffield and Kelloggsville to Elk Creek, Pa.

Daily mail service between Ashtabula and Warren was instituted on July 1, 1852, being carried by a line of stages that was put on the route on that date. The mail left Ashtabula each morning at 7 o'clock for Jefferson. From Jefferson south the route on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays was via Rock Creek, Orwell and Bloomfield, to Warren, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays through Lenox, New Lyme and Colebrook. The paper said: "The stages were built in the barouche style, and were both genteel and comfortable."

Prior to 1856 there were no postage stamps, and transportation of letters was paid in cash, either by the sender or the addressee. In that year the Postoffice Department issued stamps and an order that all letters must thereafter be prepaid with stamps affixed. The order also stated that postmasters would provide themselves with stamps to sell to the public for accommodation.

Rural Delivery. - The introduction of the rural delivery service, at the beginning of the present century, proved a wonderful boon to the farmer, who had always theretofore had to "go to town" for his mail, or have a neighbor bring it, and it was not an uncommon things for residents of the rural districts to get their mail but once a week, or less frequently. This was a great boon to the beneficiaries of the system, as were also the telephone, the automobile, the paved roads and the electricity for lighting and power, as well as the tractor and other power machinery. The farmer of today might be said to be right in town and his condition is a wonderful blessing as contrasted with that of the brave and ambitious forbears who suffered many hardships for the benefit of succeeding generations.

Chapter Vil

On Jan. 26, 1832, incorporation papers were granted for the Lake Erie & Ohio Railroad Company, which projected a road from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, the northern terminal to be located in either Ashtabula or Geauga County, but nothing further was done in the matter and the charter expired. In the fall of 1835 there arose a renewal of interest, and Columbiana, Geauga and Trumbull Counties held meetings, with a view to securing a new charter for a road to extend through their sections and end at Fairport.

Ashtabula County people were not slow to see that this county had a valid claim for a railroad to Ashtabula Harbor, so it seemed advisable to get into the conferences. A convention was called to be held in Jefferson on Oct. 21 to elect delegates to meetings to be held in Columbiana and Trumbull Counties, on Oct. 27 and Nov. 12, respectively.

; R. W. Griswold, Horace Wilder, Henry and Matthew Hubbard and O. H. Fitch were appointed a committee of Ashtabula citizens to ascertain, through correspondence, all available information regarding what was being done by other counties and what would be necessary to get Ashtabula County into the running.

. At the Jefferson meeting, R. W. Griswold, O. H. Knapp, Selah Whiting, Johnathan Warner, Aseph Turner and O. H. Fitch were named as a committee to draft resolutions on this occasion, one of which called for appointment of delegates to the convention in Warren and Salem, in Trumbull and Columbiana Counties, respectively. This committee consisted of the following leading citizens of their respective townships: Solomon Fitch, Geneva; Eliphalet Austin, Austinburg; Horah Miner, Wayne; George G. Gillett, Kingsville; Horace Wilder, M. M. Sawtell and William Hubbard, Ashtabula; Lynds Jones, Jefferson; Robert Lyon, O. H. Knapp and George Morton, Conneaut; James M. Bloss, Monroe, and S. Wing, of Lenox.

_ This delegation met with a disagreeable surprise when they presented their credentials at the Columbiana County meeting, and what followed demonstrated that the Ashtabula County representatives were not to be easily disregarded. One of the delegates from this county, relating their experience, after their return, said that after waiting for some time for the Geauga and Wellsville delegates to complete "their secret arrangements', the convention organized by the appointment of Albert G. Richardson of Wellsville, chairman, and Gen. Charles C. Pain of Painesville, vice-chairman, and with Painesville and Wellsville secretaries. The delegates from Geauga County and Wellsville then presented their credentials and were admitted to the convention. Next appeared the Trumbull delegates, whereupon one of those already seated arose and stated that no delegates would be admitted to a seat who were not favorable to the | Wellsville-Fairport route. This led to a heated discussion that ended with the Trumbull and Ashtabula and part of the Columbiana delegates leaving the building and organizing a counter-convention, at which they protested against the proceedings of the other body. The date for the Warren meeting was changed from the 12th to the 6th. This convention was held, but no definite action looking to actual future activities was accomplished, and it was adjourned without date.

While the Ashtabula and Trumbull County delegates refused to pledge themselves on a road from Wellsville to Fairport, it did not signify that they would insist on the northern terminal being at Ashtabula. They made it very plain to members of the Salem convention, from which they had been excluded, that they were ready to support the best route, whichever would show to be the most feasible, after both had been subjected to a government survey.

On Dec. 22 Trumbull and Ashtabula County citizens got together in the Presbyterian Church at Warren and declared themselves in favor of a railroad over the Ashtabula route and adopted a resolution urging their congressmen to "use their influence to cause the charter of 1832 for a railroad from the Ohio River to Lake Erie to be renewed and so to amend the same as to designate Ashtabula and Warren as points on said road".

The next definite step in a railroad project was the passage of a bill by the State Legislature to incorporate the Ashtabula, Warren & East Liverpool Railroad Company, in February, 1836, giving twenty years in which to complete it.

The passage of this bill resulted in a land boom at Ashtabula Harbor. Illustrative of the way valuations rose, one case is noted where a piece of property that was offered for $800 the previous fall sold for $1,800. An enthusiastic resident at that time, foreseeing a great city at the northern terminal of the proposed road, suggested that it would be appropriate to change the name of Ashtabula Harbor to Manchester. Then with (East) Liverpool at one end and Manchester at the other, two great cities of England would be memorialized. Maybe that man was not an Englishman.

The Ashtabula Sentinel of March 12, 1836, says editorially: "Real estate here still continues to rise in proportion to the increased confidence which is felt that the stock of the Ashtabula, Warren & East Liverpool Railroad will be taken. Large purchases have recently been made at the Harbor by capitalists from abroad who will make extensive improvements there next summer. The land on both sides of the creek, at its mouth, has been laid out into lots, which are now selling to bona fide purchasers at prices which only six months ago would have astonished the natives. One lot 50 feet by 120 feet, on which the forest trees are now standing, was sold to a gentleman from Trumbull County this week for $650, with a condition that he shall erect a good building on it within a year. It could have been purchased twelve months ago for as many cents."

After the incorporation of said railroad, subscription books were immediately opened for the sale of stock to the public, in each of the counties through which the proposed route was projected. In the city of Ashtabula the stock books, drawings and all desired information were available at the home of James Post.

The projectors lost no time in effecting a survey of the proposed northern section of the railroad to be, and under date of April 12, 1826, the engineer on the survey made his first report. The line was laid from near the lake on the west side of the Ashtabula Creek and southward over practically the course that is now traversed by the P., Y. & A. branch of

When it came to selling the stock in the proposed company, it soon developed that the people, in general, were not so enthusiastic as the comparatively few who had given so much time and spent a considerable money in an effort to bring to this county the much needed line from the south. After a few months of effort through public meetings and other means of publicity to popularize the railroad proposition, the projectors finally became discouraged and decided to drop the matter until such time as the people were awake to the need, or leave it for another generation to work out to a finish. The real cause of the inability to get the public to show an active interest in the project was, doubtless, largely due to the fact that just at this time the country was in the throes of one of the periodical financial crises that paralyze business and make everybody hang onto their spare dollars until they find out what the future has in store for them.

After more or less informal talk of the project, a meeting of Ashtabula promoters was held on Dec. 28, 1851, in the Ashtabula House, to which the public was invited, for the purpose of considering the construction of a railroad to the Mahoning Valley. Henry Hubbard called the meeting to order, and E. C. Root was appointed chairman, and George Willard secretary. W. E. Scarsdale, Henry Hubbard and O. H. Fitch were appointed a committee to draft resolutions and present to the gathering for consideration. The committee presented the following resolutions, which were adopted:

"Resolved: That this meeting views the project of connecting Ashtabula with the Mahoning Valley, by railroad, as one of vital importance to the interests of Ashtabula County, and that immediate action is called for to secure the advantages of our geographical position.

"Resolved: That we are of the opinion that the star of internal improvement is about to dawn upon 'benighted Ashtabula', and that it is our duty as well as our interest to follow its leadings."

Engineers were employed to make a survey for a railroad from Ashtabula Harbor to Warren, 49 miles, and submit an estimate of what it would cost to construct. The report came that it would cost $101,300 for grading and $276,828 for the superstructure. The estimate contemplated the use

On December 29, 1851, a similar meeting was held in Austinburg, at which Lucretius Bissell, Esq., was chairman, and L. B. Austin secretary. At this meeting a committee appointed, for the purpose offered for consideration the following resolutions:

"Resolved: That as Austinburg is (as we understand) the banner township in this county, in amounts subscribed to the Lake Shore Railroad, and was amongst the first and most efficient townships to aid in the construction of that road, we are resolved to be the first to speak, and not behind any other in action in relation to the road from Ashtabula to Warren.

"Resolved: That as Ashtabula County has heretofore been behind most counties in behalf of internal improvements, and is therefore falling far behind most other portions of the State of Ohio in such improvements as are now adding greatly to the improvement and prosperity of other more active portions, the results of such dilatory action on our part being duly seen in the low price of real estate in this county, when compared with many other sections of the state, we deem it time for 'Old Ashtabula', now,

In reporting the meeting of Austinburg enthusiasts to the weekly paper, the Ashtabula Telegraph and Lake County Advertiser, Secretary Austin wrote a long article on the proposition, from which we quote the following paragraph:

"Judging from the goaheadativeness of our people in these modern days of steam and lightning, as also from the present prospects of all railroads now opened in Ohio, we feel safe in saying, bees a railroad where you will, it can not but prosper'."'

The enthusiasm of Ashtabula and Austinburg spread to other towns along the proposed route and similar meetings were held. The agitation was spontaneous and resulted in the calling of a general meeting at Warren, in January, 1852, at which all towns interested were represented. The published accounts give the following representatives for their respective towns: Ashtabula, Henry Hubbard, J. B. Hall, Henry Fassett, George Willard and H. L. Morrison; Austinburg, L. B. Austin and Myron Whiting; Morgan, W. C. St. John and E. DeVann; Rome, Richard Tinan and Ichabod Champion; Orwell, R. Barnard and R. C. Newell.

On July 15, 1853, an organization meeting was held in Warren, when Anson L. Brewer, Esq., of New Lisbon, was elected president; O. H. Fitch, Esq., of Ashtabula, treasurer, and a Mr. Young, of Canfield, secretary. The Hon. Joshua R. Giddings was authorized to take subscriptions for stock and relinquishments for the rights-of-way for the northern section. The boast was made that this road would be exceptional, in that it would be the first in the United States to be constructed by the people without any capitalist interest in the concern.

Engineers were employed and they began a survey of the proposed routes in the early fall of that year. There was considerable uncertainty in the beginning, as to which would be the better route, via Jefferson, or via Austinburg, and interests lying along each course pulled all the strings they were able, to have the line laid out their respective routes.

The preliminary surveys continued through the winter of 1853-54 and in the spring a summing up of the results resulted in the choosing of the route via Austinburg and southward through the fourth range of townships, practically the route that is now traversed by the P., Y. & A. road. This selection was, of course, a great disappointment to the people in range three, the Jefferson way, but they accepted the matter very philosophically and were ready to lend their moral support to the successful culmination of the project to the other fellow's advantage. It was agreed that the depriving of those of the eastern range of the great advantage that the road was expected to be to their territory, if built through that range, released them from their pledges for support through the purchase of stock they had subscribed, though it did not perc their taking it if they chose, and many did so.

_about twelve thousand dollars 'more than that of getting up Munson Hill, and that the Austinburg route would be three-tenths of a mile shorter. The stock proposition was a very amicable "gentlemen's agreement", it being understood that, in consideration of the loss through the Jefferson route, the stock of those recalling their pledges would be offset by many of the Austinburg routers doubling their pledges.

The disappointment of the third range people was soon alleviated by the launching of a bran-new railroad project. That was to build a line from Ashtabula Harbor to Jamestown, Pa., to connect with the "Clinton Line" road that had been located to run across-country south of the Ashtabula County line. On June 1, 1854, a mass-meeting was held in the courthouse, for exploitation of the proposition and the taking of preliminary steps. Abel Krum was chairman and A. 8S. Hall secretary of this meeting. That the promoters of the Ashtabula & New Lisbon Road were not averse to this new possibility was demonstrated when H. Hubbard, of the former company, arose and stated that he was heart-and-soul in sympathy with this, or any other project that would benefit "Old Ashtabula County". He thought it a very feasible undertaking, gave facts and figures to show that it must be a paying proposition and offered the aid of the A. & N. L. on very reasonable terms through the use of that company's right-of-way sufficient to enable the proposed new line to carry its traffic over the heavy grade in getting down to the harbor. All who attended this meeting went away sanguine of the early realization of this latest commercial hope.

"When the Iron Horse, south from Ashtabula, Starts upon its course, will they take it cooly? Sheep that graze in Rome, stately steers in Morgan - Will they feel at home, roused by such an organ?

"Starting stoutly on - Wheezing with a witness; Swiftly come and gone, with all ease and fitness; Such a train to see, eyes of stock are straining, And immediately go into 'General Training.'

"Soon the panic's o'er; Austinburg in quiet; Orwell's flocks and herds turn out from their diet. Thousands roll along - from their homes, or to it; Freight trains in a throng, all foresaw and knew it.

"In a railroad path progress is surprising. All the region hath all its fortunes rising. Warren loud resounds, soon a city, truly, Spreading wide its bounds.

"All along the line, is enthusiasm. Mountains, none to climb, nor dark, yawning chasms. Level lies the way, joining lake and river. Judgment needs no stay -

The work of soliciting for each of the lines was pushed vigorously, but nothing was done on any of the projects in way of other preliminaries, excepting the A. & N. L., which organized and the directors kept things moving, spending lots of their own money in traveling up and down the line. They secured pledges on rights-of-way through over half of the proposed route, with depot sites, etc., but a bad season for the farmers slowed up the work very materially the first year and this had a dampening effect on the enthusiasm of the people. This made the work harder for the solicitors, but they kept up spirit. However, desultory work was done from time to time and a great amount of grading accomplished. Up to 1857, the work showed a considerable amount of grading done over the 36 miles between Harbor and Bristolville, and over $80,000 had been expended. Then came three successive famine years, during which all work was suspended.

Periodically the directors would publish a statement of progress, but they did not seem to accomplish much, and, when the hard times of the early months of the Civil War hit the country, in the beginning of the year 1861, the directors held a meeting and passed resolutions, one of which was: "That in the present embarrassed condition of the country, prudence and sound judgment require that until a change shall take place for the better, no further expense or liability shall be incurred, farther than may be necessary in collecting the debts due the company, and discharging every honorable or legal obligation it may owe, and thus place the officers of the company in a position to resume operations so soon as circumstances will warrant the ultimate completion of the work."

This was rather disheartening, but the promoters were men who had seen many things go and come in the early growth of the country and they stuck to the ship. They kept the project-before the people, and were determined to see it through to a successful issue. The people at the southern end of the line disposed of the section from Niles to New Lisbon to a company which agreed to have that much road running by 1869. And they did.

In 1869, Aug. 11, a meeting of the northern interests was held at Youngstown, at which Henry Hubbard of Ashtabula reviewed the history of the A. & N. L. Company, and urged some sort of action that would revive the work. No definite action was taken, however, until Sept. 20, 1870, when a meeting was held in Ashtabula for the purpose of turning over the Ashtabula & New Lisbon Company to the Ashtabula, Youngstown & Pittsburg Railway Company, that had been formed for that purpose. This change of ownership brought all the necessary backing for the early completion of the railroad and work to that end was pushed forthwith. Work of grading and excavating was rushed along for some months and in the early spring of 1872 it was thought expedient by the directors to accept a proposition made by the Pennsylvania Central Company to take the project over and complete the work. This was done and there was never after that any doubt about the ultimate outcome of the effort. that had been in the works for forty years. On June 14, 1872, the work of laying rails was commenced at a point between Prospect and Center Streets in Ashtabula. A locomotive and several flat cars were transported from Pittsburgh and the gang of thirty trackmen began work amidst a great crowd of spectators and blowing of all the whistles in town.

The first train was run to Austinburg on July 4. It was the construction train with the flats rigged up with temporary seats. The officials of the company and many citizens were on board, the trip being a public picnic excursion. A big program was to have been given in the grove where the picnic was to be held, but rain poured all day and the men turned to and erected a temporary canopy-top of lumber, which served to shelter the crowd.

The first through train from Pittsburgh arrived at Center Street, Ashtabula, at 3 P. M. on December 13, 1872. It consisted of a baggage-car and two private cars, and brought a party of road officials. The conductor was J. H. Scott: Henry Groebing was engineer. The train was met at Center street by a local reception committee and taken in carriages to the harbor, then returned to the Fisk House, where a banquet was served and felicitations offered.

The formal opening of the Pennsylvania branch to the south was on May 26, 1874, when a party of officials from Pittsburgh and other points along the line assembled at Ashtabula with the local officials. All went to the Harbor and boarded the schooner Snowdrop, on which they took a lake ride, after which they returned to the city and enjoyed a banquet, which was served in the Opera House. In the evening the celebration closed with a grand ball in Haskell's Hall.

The first freight conveyed to Ashtabula from the south over this line was a train of 12 cars of coal, consigned to J. M. Clark's coal yard at Center Street.

Ashtabula was, for a number of years, the division headquarters of this line, the old two-story depot building at Center Street housing the offices of Superintendent D. B. McCoy, Dispatcher C. W. Jaques and Station Agent A. D. P. Young. There was regular passenger service to the Harbor for ten or a dozen years after the opening of the line. George B. Raser was the agent at that place.

The Oil City and Youngstown division of the Nea York Central system was not so long in contemplation and uncertainty as was the Pennsylvania branch. This was because of the substantial backing, the well established Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula (later the Lake Shore and then N. Y. C.) road, the directors of which realized the importance of a southern feeder. What was for many years known as the "Jamestown Branch" was first the subject of consideration in the early '60s. In 1864 the agitation began in earnest, with two northern terminal routes under consideration. The C., P. & A. wanted a right-of-way for the terminal donated and Conneaut came immediately to the front with an offer of all the rights desired. Ashtabula hustled into the game, and, by an offer of all the needed land and the depot grounds, secured the plum.

Preliminary surveys were at once begun, three routes for entry into the village of Ashtabula being considered. One was through the East Village and to the harbor via the east side; another across the gulf over Cemetery Hill, and the third somewhat farther west. The Cemetery Hill route was chosen and actual operations began at that point in the early spring of 1865. This initial work embraced the building of a bridge 450 feet long across Hubbard Run, a cut through the hill, about twenty feet deep and a highway bridge to span this excavation; also a long and high stone culvert to take care of the gulf stream. This work consumed many months and gave employment to a large number of men. The earth from the excavation was dumped into the gulf to fill over the culvert. This section of the new road was completed in December, 1871, after several interruptions that caused uneasiness lest the project might have been dropped. Contracts for the construction of the entire line were awarded in July, 1871, and on August 5, 1872, the road was completed, ready for business.

During one stage of the work, the ascendancy that Ashtabula village proper had many years before gained over East Village was seriously threatened. When the line had been completed to a point near Ashtabula, the company asked the town committee to ratify the pledges that remained unfulfilled to the extent of about $7,000. For a time this looked as if it would fail of accomplishment, but when the company threatened to change to the east. side route that had been surveyed, and to move their passenger station to a point east of the river, their terms were met in short order.

The opening of the road was celebrated by a meeting of officials from both directions held in Jefferson, within which place the rails being laid from each way were joined. The first regular through passenger train left Ashtabula at 10 A. M. on the date above mentioned and was loaded with railroad officials, citizens and county politicians, the Republican county convention having been called to meet at the "Hub" on that date, also.

Before the Jamestown branch was completed, the Mahoning Coal ° Road Company commenced operations on a line from Youngstown to con-: nect with the Ashtabula & Jamestown road at Andover. That company also projected an extension of the A. & J. road from Ashtabula city to the harbor, but discovered that the Pennsylvania company had tied up the only right-of-way feasible. Then began an interesting series of conferences which ended in the A., Y. & P. officials coming across handsomely. W. H. Morrison, of Ashtabula, whose father, Hon. H. L. Morrison, was one of the principal promoters, officers and directors of the A., Y. & P., gives the following account of this controversy:

"The P., Y. & A. had secured options on lands abutting both sides of the river and affording rights-of-way thereto. When the Youngstown branch had been put through, the Lake Shore interests immediately took it over and decided to build to the harbor section at once. P. H. Watson, who had supervised the building of the A. & J. road and was handling the company's interests as Father was those of the opposition line, sent word to father to come to his (Watson's) office to meet him and other officials regarding the harbor right-of-way. Father sent word back that if they had any business with him it was no farther for them to come to his office than it was for him to go to Watson's. And they came. At first they assumed a brow-beating manner and intimated high-handed procedures, but when they learned that Father had the contracts right in his pocket, they changed their tactics and got down to a reasonable basis of dickering which, after several conferences resulted in the A., Y. & P. company giving the Lake Shore not only a share of the right-of-way to the harbor section, but also first choice as to which side of the river they would like to adopt. They chose the east side, and that's how the Lake Shore got to the harbor."

The progress of work on the Harbor extension of the A. & J. was hindered by inability to get men. It happened that just at this time the Painesville & Youngstown road was in course of construction and shortage of labor was also felt there. The contractors on the Ashtabula work hired men in Buffalo and paid their fare to Ashtabula, several times, but none of them ever showed up. It developed that the Painesville contractors were coming to Ashtabula and meeting the imported laborers as they got off the train, and, by offer of more pay, inducing them to continue on to Painesville.

The Lake Shore's line to the harbor section was completed to the Harbor June 9, 1873, but no ore was received, nor coal shipped until the following spring. From that time the business grew with great strides and the seven-ton ore cars and correspondingly-small locomotives also increased in size and capacity to the formidable rolling-stock of today.

The growing trains, in weight and length, caused the company to look for some means of escaping the heavy grades of the old line and, in 1901, a survey was made for a low-grade line, leaving the A., J. & F. (the name of the road had some years previously been changed to the Ashtabula, Jamestown & Franklin) main line at Plymouth, making a short cut, bearing to the east and south and crossing it at Dorset, to the west side, and hitting it again at Hubbard. This short-cut lessened the distance about ten miles and also eliminated all the heavy grades. This new "low: grade" line was completed the following year.

During the construction of the southern lines, other parties undertook to arouse interest in a proposition to build a line from Fairport, via Perry, Madison, Harpersfield, Austinburg and Jefferson, across to Albion, Pa. This finally ended in the construction of the Painesville & Youngstown line, now a part of the B. & O. system.

The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, which was opened for business in 1882, was created in record time. Incorporation papers were taken out in New York in April, 1881, for a railroad to be built from that city to St. Louis. The actual construction necessary was the gap between Buffalo and Chicago and the work was begun in Buffalo soon after the incorporation had been effected, and was finished in Chicago and the road ready for operation on October 23, 1882.

This road was calculated as a competitor of the Lake Shore lines, but had been finished only a month when it was purchased by the Vanderbilt interests, which controlled the Lake Shore, and the result was that the Nickel Plate did not do much for several years. Then the attention of the Interstate Commerce Commission was called to the suppression of the business of the new line and the parent company was given to understand that the law prevented ownership of competing parallel lines by one interest, and that the Nickel Plate must be disposed of. There were no pur-. chasers, however, and eventually the line became an important freight road.

In 1916 a sensation was created by the sale of the Nickel Plate line, on July 6, to O. P. and M. J. Van Sweringen, two young Cleveland men who had gone to that city from a Geneva Township farm and started life as newsboys. Neither of the young men was out of his thirties when this transaction took place, and the story as to how it came about. is still more remarkable.

To tell it briefly: When they were of school-going age, country life began to pall on their aspirations and Geneva became too small for them. They went to the big town, continued in school for a time and then got jobs in offices. They took a stroll out into the outskirts of the city, one Sunday and became interested in a certain section with beautiful surroundings. With borrowed money they purchased a few lots in this section and put them on the market. They sold readily and the boys plunged a little deeper and arranged for the purchase of 2,000 acres and then the public began to hear about "Shaker Heights". To insure success of this remote allotment, it was necessary that they furnish proper transportation facilities, so they asked the Cleveland Railway Company to extend their car lines out there, but they declined, whereupon the young men proceeded to get right-of-way and build their own line. There was one mile of territory they needed to complete their transportation plan, and that was occupied by the Nickel Plate railway and the only way they could get possession of the 5,280 feet was to purchase the 523 miles of railroad, which they did, paying $8,500,000.

Under the aggressive management of the Van Sweringens, the Nickel Plate has absorbed the ''Erie"', the Chesapeake & Ohio, and the Pere Marquette, and is after the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and the Wheeling & Lake Erie.

One evening in the year 1897, Dwight Crowell, E. L. Hills and Charles Lawyer sat in the office of the first-named in Jefferson, chatting on topics of the day, when the subject of transportation was brought up, just as Frank Fortune, then postmaster of Jefferson, dropped in. Within a few minutes the quartet of long-headed business men were projecting an interurban electric line from Painesville to Conneaut Harbor, via Ashtabula, To think was to act with these men and next morning the three first named took train to Painesville, hired a team and drove through to Ashtabula over what they thought should be the route to be followed by an electric line. The next step was the procuring of incorporation papers for the

Pennsylvania & Ohio Electric Railway, which were issued in the early spring of 1898. Then followed the preliminary survey and securing of the right-of-way. The company awarded a contract for construction of the proposed line and the work was about to be started just before the price of steel took such a big jump that the contractors forfeited their agreement. Then the projectors decided to do the work themselves and operations were actually begun in the summer of 1899, at the eastern end, and in the spring of 1900, the city line in Conneaut was put in operation.

On Nov. 11, 1901, the first car was run over the line to Ashtabula from Conneaut, with officials of the company, and on Thursday, Nov. 21, 1901, the cars were put on regular schedule between the two points.

The projected continuance of the line to Painesville never materialized, but in the following year, 1902, the line was extended to Jefferson. The road was constructed entirely of capital raised in Ashtabula County and it never paid a dividend. It continued to operate under varying conditions, being conducted by a receiver for several years prior to Feb. 29, 1924, when the service was suspended and a few months later the property was sold for junk.