Windsor Township (part 1 of 3)

Chapter Xli Miscellaneous

CHEESE INDUSTRY - GREAT INDUSTRY IN GLASS HOUSES - HORSES AND HORSEMEN - ASHTABULA COUNTY TELEGRAPH COMPANY - RECLAMATION OF MARSH - NATURAL GAS - ANTI-SLAVERY ACTIVITIES - FAIRS - ASHTABULA COUNTY SOCINTY - INDUSTRIAL SURVEY - STATISTICS___-==- === 426-447

Conneaut Public Library ~___--__-- 264 Conneaut Telephone Building - ____ 944 Court House, Jefferson ___________ 328 Dain, Mr. and Mrs. Henry E. ___-_ 820 Darling Geol ees a see eae 880 Dewey, Dr. Carl and daughter, Helen 728 Dickson, Dr. Orr Avwess 2 664 Disaster, The Ashtabula __.<______ 224 HSS RODeCRURR 2 eek aoe eee eee 752 Gallup, Charles Herbert __________ 472 Gallup, Edward Parker ___________ 480 Gapee Willian gates ee ees me 496 Gary... Dorance ten asa eee ee 796 Geneva Street Scene ______-_s____ 304 Grade School, Geneva ____________ 312 Grahams Storesot We Pee eee 968 Grand River Bridge oo i212 es 804 Halleen;-Charles As) ee 520 Eemiltons Jain esis a2 ee eee 1096 Harborvhichs School sas=s - sae aaa 96 HarleyinG Ree ee: a bi tae eee eee 504 Harmon Austine Aw oe ee eee 888 HawicinstsEinamy. Ps pees eee a 792 Hawkins, Martha Stevens ________ 792 Helander; > Bei kl) sie ees ecer eee nea 1068 Hewitt, Georse 20a see ane ee 776 Horton; Ered: dig = sa eee 840 Hunter, George =) 2 eae ees 936 Eeanter, Mrs. Isabele 222 936 JOHNSON. HU LMeSte Soe = ee ee ee 528 Kahne; Ail fred ea ys aes os ees eee 1032 Kelley,eHenryas. 2255522 eee 864 Kendall Brothers' =i ae 912 Kerr Dees) avi Cp nen ee oe eens 712 Kingsville Parkygl se ee eeeeme 248 Knapp: lewiges 2. ck eee 992 LGaVON MnO ats ANG hea ee eS ee 536

Original Territory And Title

"EXPLORATION - CLAIMS OF OWNERSHIP - THE WESTERN RESERVH - CONNECTICUT LAND COMPANY - PIONEER SETTLERS - -TITLES - SURVEYORS ARRIVE - EARLY CONDITIONS - TOWNSHIPS ORGANIZED.

What a wealth of romance, achievement and realization of fond hopes; what bitter disappointments and cruel tragedies have attended the discovery, growth and development of this blessed commonwealth!

It was over 300 years after Christopher Columbus discovered this continent, before other explorers penetrated the unbroken forests of what later became Northern Ohio, with a view to settlement and development of new territory for the future welfare and prosperity of themselves and _ their progeny.

For the purpose of this history, we will refer briefly to antecedents farther back than those who were immediately responsible for the organized and systematic plan for development of this section of new country. History relates that, in 1662, King Charles II granted a charter to certain patentees, through which the state of Connecticut derived a claim to a strip of land 62 miles wide, clear across the continent, from Narragansett Bay to the Pacific coast. What later became known as the Western Reserve, constituted one section of that strip in this locality.

The states of Massachusetts and New York also claimed right of ownership to this same territory, and it was more than a hundred yearg before satisfactory settlement of the dispute was made. In 1780, New York state relinquished claim to all territory west of a line running southward from the "Western Bend of Lake Ontario." Five years later, Massa- chusetts ceded the western land to which she had laid claim, and the next year Connecticut fell in line and, through her authorized delegates in Congress, gave up all lands which she had claimed lying west of "A line 120 miles west of and parallel with the Western Boundary of the State of Pennsylvania." The territory lying between latitudes 41 and 42 degrees, 2 minutes north, and extending westward of the Pennsylvania state line for 120 miles, was retained and became known as the "Western Reserve _of Connecticut''.

In May, 1795, the general assembly of the State of Connecticut appointed a committee to promote the sale of the greater part of the Western Reserve. This committee disposed of the property in individual contracts to about 50 persons. These purchasers banded themselves together and organized the Connecticut Land Company, and proceeded at once with preliminary steps, looking to early exploitation of their purchase. The Connecticut Land Company purchased the "New Connecticut" tract for $1,200,000, which was deposited in the state treasury of Connecticut, and. there was an understanding that the proceeds from this fund were to be devoted to the educational needs of the state. This original sale fund is said to still be in the state treasury. Mg

So many of the family names are familiar to residents of this day, that it is fitting to enumerate the individual members of the Connecticut Land Company, descendants of many of whom still live in the county. They follow: Atwater, Caleb; Austin, Eliphalet; Battle, William; Bliss, William; Boardman, Elijah; Brace, Johnathan; Bull, James; Burr, Timothy ; Cleaveland, Moses; Coit, Daniel L.; Cowles, Solomon; Edwards, Pierpont; Ely, Justin; Granger, Gideon, Jr.; Griswold, Solomon; Hart, William ; Holbrook, Daniel; Holmes, Urial, Jr.; Howland, Joseph; Hubbard, Nehemiah, Jr.; Hyde, Elisha; Johnson, James; Johnson, Robert C.; Judd, William; Kelley, Ephraim; Kent, Benejah; King, Ebenezer, Jr.; Law, William; Levvet, Thaddeus; Loomis, Luther; Lord, Samuel P.; Lyman, William; Mather, Samuel; Mather, Samuel, Jr.; Miller, Ashur; Newberry, Roger; Perkins, Enoch; Phelps, Oliver; Root, Ephraim; Sandford, Peleg; Starr, Ephraim; Stocking, Jabez; Stoddard, John; Storrs, Lemuel; Stow, Joshua; Street, Titus; Strong, Elisha; Swift, Tephaniah; Tracey, Uriah; White, Elijah; Williams, Joseph; Yates, Joseph.

It was necessary that they obtain an indisputable title, before they could safely proceed. This was no easy matter, as it was found that the state of Connecticut, from which they had bought the land, had not established a clear title, as the Government of the United States had not formally released its rights of possession and dominion. It was not until 1800 that Congress settled the matter by authorizing the President to grant letters-patent to the governor of Connecticut, releasing all claim to the Western Reserve territory. Connecticut, in turn, was thereby enabled to ratify her contract with the Connecticut Land Company.

In the meantime, however, the company directors were so sanguine of ultimate success in acquiring title, that they did not wait for the final decision, but, in the spring of 1796, a company of several surveyors and assistants, numbering nearly 50 persons, started out on an expedition to the newly acquired lands in the West, their object being to make a survey. and plat the property. :

The party assembled at Schenectady, N. Y., from which point they journeyed by devious routes to Buffalo. The men and their equipment filled four boats. 'Joshua Stow was commissary; the surveyor-in-charge was Augustus Porter, and the other surveyors were Milton Holly, Seth Pease, Amos Spafford, Richard Stoddard and Moses 'Warren. Moses Cleaveland, the special representative of the land company, was aboard and there was also a physician, Theodore Shepard. Other members of this venturesome party were Joseph McIntyre, George Proudfoot, Francis Gray, Samuel Forbes, Elijah Gunn, wife and child; Amos Sawtell, Samuel Hungerford, Amos Barker, Stephen Benton, Amzi Atwater, Asa Mason, Michael Coffin, Samuel Davenport, Samuel Agnew, Shadrach Benham, William Hall, Elisha Ayers, George Gooding, Norman Wilcox, Thomas Harris, Timothy Dunham, Wareham Shepard, David Beard, John Bryant, Titus Munson, Joseph Landon, Olney Rice, James Hamilton, John Lock, James Halket, Job Stiles and wife, Charles Parker, Ezekiel Morley, Nathaniel Doan, Lake Hanchet, Samuel Barns, Daniel Shulay, Steven Burbank.

After many days of buffeting the waves of Lakes Ontario and Erie, and weathering numerous storms, in one of which one of their boats was wrecked, the party, without the loss of a soul, arrived at the northeastern corner of the Western Reserve, and made a landing, on July 4, 1796, Independence Day, just east of the mouth of Conneaut Creek.

In recognition of the coincidence found in their arrival on their objective soil, on the anniversary of the day of the signing of the Declaration of American Independence, and in thanksgiving for having reached the goal which they had endured many hardships in attaining, the little company arranged a special feast and program of appropriate exercises and speeches, during which they christened the place of landing "Port Independence".

We who enjoy the blessings and comforts of the presént period oi luxurious living, can never be sufficiently grateful to those who composed that little band of adventurers; we can never fully appreciate what hardships those forbears faced and endured, more for the comfort and profit of generations to come than for their own advancement and happiness.

They had visions of a wonderful future when they started on their journey to an unknown land. They left comfortable homes and their circles of loving relatives and friends to fare forth on adventures of which they little dreamed. The fact that their journey was accomplished without serious mishap, was but an item to the credit of their good fortune. It was when they set foot on Ohio soil that they began to realize what an undertaking they had engaged in. The vista of highlands and unbroken forest that spread before them as the bows of their little vessels ground onto the sand of Lake Erie's beach, was anything but reassuring or promising. They knew not what lay behind that veil of standing green, that stretched as far as the eye could see up or down the coast. They knew this was the Redman's land - that in all probability he would not accept gracefully the intrusion of the hated white man, who had been gradually and surely pushing him back toward the setting sun, compelling him to relinquish his rights and abandon the happy hunting-grounds of his forefathers.

The newcomers knew that, by treaty, the Indians had ceded this territory to the government of oppressors; they also knew the treacherous: disposition of the Redskin, and that doubtless many had remained on their former possessions through hope that they would not be disturbed. For these Aborigines to withdraw to new abodes meant that they must encounter other tribes, who might not prove very hospitable, but-were more likely to resent the encroachment. It seemed more desirable that they remain where they were on the chance that their presence might intimidate the Palefaces from the East, who came to take up the land.

Arrived at their destination, the voyagers took a little time to explore the surroundings before they decided where they would locate to establish a settlement. Finally they decided upon a location and proceeded to erect crude dwellings. History says the first house built in Ashtabula County was put up at this time. The men of the party who were not busy on the survey, had little else to do than take such steps as would be necessary in preparation for meeting the rigors of the winter that was coming. They worked together, helping each other when and where needed, and the first snow fall found the strangers comfortably housed and fortified for what was to follow.

They found abundance of game, both large and small, right at their door, as it were, and the lake and river abounded in fish and amphibious animals that afforded good food.

In obtaining materials for their buildings, trees were cut down and other growth cleared away, whereby space was afforded for the tilling of the soil, when spring should come again.

Although they missed their comfortable homes back east, when the cold and stormy days of the winter came, they suffered few real hardships during those few months, because they were well housed, had plenty of fuel-and abundant food. To shorten the hours, they indulged in social intercourse, visiting each other's cabins, arranging evening entertainments, and laying their plans for the future. Every time that a man of the party went beyond the immediate confines of their settlement, he had new tales to relate upon his return, of discoveries made.

Every new prospect was a source of interest. They soon found that there were forests of maple from which they might extract the sap in the spring, and regale themselves on the delicious product. In the fall, the men came home laden with shack of every variety, and nutting expeditions were popular with the young people, whose particular care it was to see that abundant stores of various kinds were put away to cure for disposal, 'when the cold season of short days and long nights should come on.

Sitting in front of the fire-places from which big logs were spreading their cheerful radiance and, heat, they thought. and talked of those whom they had left behind, who were enjoying more secure habitations and educational and religious advantages. But they were not daunted; they had left with the full determination to take whatever came their way in the future, to meet the hardships with courage and brave the dangers, be what they might. So they accepted their chosen lot gracefully and looked hopefully forward to the future and what fortunes it might bring.

After unloading their household goods, working implements, stores of food and other cargo, the surveyors lost little time in setting about the business that had brought them. They set out for the southernmost boundary of the Western Reserve, to ascertain the exact point at which the western line of Pennsylvania was intersected by the twenty-first degree of north latitude, and from that point they laid lines north and south, five miles apart, toward the west, and similar lines east and west, the same distance apart, thus blocking out the Reserve into sections five miles square, which were to constitute townships. This original survey extended only as far west as the Cuyahoga River, as that portion of the Reserve lying west of that line was still in possession of the Indians, from whom it was not finally taken over until 1805.

'To facilitate description, the latitude lines were numbered''as townships and the meridian lines as ranges. The base of the survey having been the southeast corner of the section, that block, Williamsfield, was range 1 and township 8; Andover, the next township north, was in the same range, and township 9, and so on, up the first range to the lake. In the other direction, Wayne was in range two, and was township 8, ranges 3, 4 and 5 succeeding toward the west.

When the work of surveying had been finished in accordance with the company's plans, the land was divided among the various members of the Connecticut Land Company. Three thousand dollars constituted one share, and in accordance with the number of shares owned, the land was divided among the owners, each of whom received a deed from the Connecticut Land Company for his individual portion.

Nehemiah Hubbard, a member of the Connecticut Land Company, whose home was in Middletown, Conn., had extensive interests in the company's holdings, and he became owner of a large share of the land which is now Ashtabula Township, Plymouth and a large portion of Sheffield.

The question of apportionment among the stockholders of the company, gave rise to a rather perplexing proposition. The company having bought the tract for $1,200,000, divided the holdings of the 52 stockholders into four hundred shares, thus making each share of a value of $3,000. Some of the members had invested heavily and held large blocks of the stock, while there were others who held but one share. In order that the large holders might not have an advantage over the others and get possession of the most desirable portions of the land, it was decided that the fairest method of division would be by lottery, which means would assure

To this end, a committee of equalization was appointed to make the division according to the plan of the company, which contemplated, first, the setting aside of certain parts of the Western Reserve to be offered for sale to actual settlers. It was decided to retain the best four townships in the eastern part of the Reserve, to be the first partitioned among the stockholders, after the manner above mentioned. These townships were surveyed, so as to average one hundred lots to the township, thus forming four hundred lots, or one for each share of stock. When it came to the drawing, each holder participated in proportion to his holdings.

The townships chosen for this first drawing were: No. 11 in range 7, and Nos. 5, 6 and 7, in range 11. This reservation included what is now Perry, in Lake County; Northfield, in Summit County; Bedford and Warrensville, in Cuyahoga County. Eventually, the territory that now constitutes the County of Ashtabula, came into a drawing and was disposed of by lot and chance, like the others.

Chapter Il Our Predecessors

INDIANS - ALGONQUIN AND IROQUOIS TRIBES - "ASHTABULA" - INDIAN VILLAGES - MASSASAUGA - INDIAN CUSTOMS - ABUNDANT GAME AND FISH - INDIAN WARS - ASHTABULA RIVER - CHIPF AMIK.

The surveying party who landed at the mouth of Conneaut Creek in 1796 were not the first white persons who had penetrated thus far into the western forests, but they were the first to come to the then wild West with a view to establishing for some of. themselves permanent homes; the first to constitute a colony with the declared object of starting the development of the unknown resources of this new Western Reserve of the State of Connecticut.

They found footprints of moccasins only, but not many of them, as, by treaties consummated prior to that period, most of the Red Men had retired to other sections of the country, said retirement being of the nature of retreat from the onward progress of the white man.

The Indians who inhabited the south shore of Lake Erie in this section last prior to the invasion of the white man, were said to have been of the Algonquin and Iroquois tribes. This, however, had been a prolific hunting and fishing resort, and representatives of numerous tribes came here periodically to indulge in the sport and replenish their larders at home in some other territory.

The township of Windsor, than which there is none more picturesque in the whole county, was one of the favorite places of assemblage for the hunting braves. It is said that as many as four or five hundred Indians would constitute the temporary colonies attracted in season by the excellent sport afforded by the wilds of that interior township. Among the tribes represented, who met in friendly association, are named the Ottawas,

The name "Ashtabula" was derived from the Indians and is variously translated as meaning "Beautiful River', "River of Fish', "Many Fish", "Fish River", "River of Many Fish', etc. At any rate it seems to have reference to the river, the course of which, with its tributaries, embraces many wonderfully picturesque scenes, the most attractive of which are almost within the limits of Ashtabula city.

Where the Algonquins came from, history does not relate. Neither does tradition. The Massasaugas were of the Delaware family. Both were friendly, as a rule, with the white newcomers, and gave the latter very little trouble. :

These tribes had their villages in different sections of the county, Conneaut, Wayne, and Andover being the most prominent. Near Andover, in the vicinity of Pymatuning Creek, there was a large village that covered nearly an acre of ground. Many implements of stone, arrowheads and other relics of the day when the Red Man held sway have been found on and about the site of this village.

In fact, evidences of the Indian occupation or visitation have been found in nearly every section of the county and many homes now have treasured relics that were picked up by the occupants' ancestors, or even up to very recent years by themselves.

The Massasaugas were a very religious tribe and even after the advent of the whites there were enough left to hold their periodical feasts and rites. Relative to this, the following is taken from historical sketches of Ashtabula County written in the '50s by Joel Blackeslee, historian:

"They are described by the early settlers as occasionally holding their dances and pow-wows for heathen worship on the site of the old fort. Some of these were performed with great solemnity. One has been described by Joshua Fobes as follows: 'They arranged themselves in a circular form around a large fire, one of them with a sort of drum, beating on it to mark the time, while the rest, stooping forward, kept up a sort of jumping dance, with much prolonged activity, all the time singing the words "He-up-a-he-oh-a, He-up-a-he-oh-a", in a monotonous manner.'

"One of their modes of worshiping the Great Spirit was described to Mr. Joel Blakeslee by a lady, one of the first settlers in Williamsfield, who often visited the Indian camp, and in the night season witnessed the solemn ceremony. She describes it as follows: 'When the hour arrived, the worshipers arranged themselves in two lines, one of males, the other of females. Three or four Indians, drummers, sitting on the ground with their single-headed drums and single drumsticks, struck up the solemn tones, accompanied with the voice. At that, all parties in both lines commenced an active and regular motion to and fro toward one another and back again, all keeping exact time with their feet to the drum, while their voices, united in solemn tones, chanted aloud the following notes: '"Weter-weter we-hah; Weter-weter, we hah; Weter weter we hah, hah. How-we-ah, How-we ah hah. How-we ah, How we ah haw wah. Hightonne-ah, High tonne ah hah wah; High tonne ah, we a hah wah."

"'This tune, expressed in a plaintive voice and accompanied by the melancholy sounds of the drums and the measured tread of the dancers, gave an air of solemnity to the whole. To witness one of these exhibitions of a savage worship at midnight, by moonlight or torchlight, in the otherwise silent hours of the night when all nature was hushed in soft and deep repose, was indeed impressive'.

"This company of Massasauga Indians consisted of 20 or 25 families, who lived by hunting until about the time of the arrival of the whites. Friendly intercourse was kept up between them and the settlers, and through the efforts made in their behalf, they soon became more civil, and turned their attention to the cultivation of the soil and raising of cattle.

"It is told of them that, notwithstanding the efforts made in their behalf, the Indians played a trick with some of their benefactors which showed their inherent treachery. Good old Father Wakeman engaged to let them have an excellent piece of ground for corn land, consisting of about five acres. He prepared the ground in good season and style, expecting that the Indians would work upon the halves. The Indians came and were punctual to their contract, and about the time the corn was to be gathered, Mr. Wakeman was so well pleased that he told his wife to prepare a good dinner for the whole gang, as he would give them a good feast for their faithfulness.

"Just at this time one of Mr. Wakeman's friends came and asked him what had become of his corn. Mr. Wakeman started over the ridge which lay between his land and the cornfield, but when he arrived at the

"Wakeman then directed his course to the Indian camp, where he found the Indians, old and young, feasting on roasted corn. They had carried the whole crop on their backs, going a considerable distance around through the woods to prevent discovery, and had taken it to the camp. Mr. Wakeman concluded, the next time, to till his own land."

The surface of the Western Reserve, especially the county of Ashtabula, was not like that of New England - made up of rocky hills and ledges of granite and with the exception of along the streams emptying into Lake Brie, there was not much that might be called romantic or beautiful in the way of scenery. For about five or six miles back from the lake these streams had cut deep gorges; in many places more than 100 feet deep.

The banks of these streams and of Ashtabula Creek especially, were covered with a heavy growth of pine and hemlock, whose branches overhung the gorges and together with the giant sycamores growing upon the flats and occasionally black walnut, they were dark, gloomy recesses in the woods. In many places they were very narrow and the banks steep. They were given the name of "gulfs,"' where the sun seldom penetrated even in the summer. Along the valley of these streams there was a profusion of wild flowers.

These gulfs furnished retreats for the wild animals which often made them their abode. The upland was covered with a very heavy growth of timber - giant oaks, white woods, chestnut, hickory, elm, sycamore, sugarmaple, with here and there a grove of black walnuts, covered the land. There was not much underbrush among these trees. Many of them were over 100 feet in height, 50, 60 and 70 feet to a limb and from two to five feet in diameter, affording an excellent home and range for bear, elk, deer, panthers, wild-cats, raccoons, hedge hogs, foxes and other smaller wild animals, which made this section the great hunting ground of the Red men from both East and West.

The streams abounded in fish, among which were the sucker, bass, pike, muscallonge, pickerel. The muscallonge was a royal fish, reaching sometimes the weight of 40 pounds. For several years after the first settlers reached Ashtabula, the Indians in large numbers made their annual visits here for the purpose of hunting, fishing and trapping. Also for the purpose of making sugar from the sap of the sugar maple, the time for making which was in the early spring. They came usually in September and remained until late in the spring.

The intercourse between the early settlers and these Indians was in the main of a friendly character. They often furnished settlers with meat in exchange for something of more value to them. This section of the country never heard the war-whoop of the Indian, nor witnessed a midnight assault upon the white settlements, burning of houses nor the massacring of the inhabitants. It was never what might be termed "bloody ground." True the Indians did not always refrain from helping themselves and sometimes one who had imbibed too much fire water became impudent and occasionally made trouble.

The reason for this peaceful condition of affairs is found, according to the best traditions gathered from the head men, in the previous events which took place before there were any white settlers here or written history.

Years before the advent of the white man there dwelt upon the south shores of Lake Erie a powerful war-like tribe called Eries. They had conquered and either exterminated or amalgamated several smaller tribes and become the dominant powers in this region. They were known under the general term Algonquins.

There existed also at the same time another powerful body of Indians known afterwards as the Six Nations and called the Iroquois. Their home was in the state of New York and the extent of their territory reached from the Mohawk Valley westward to near the present site of Buffalo.

Each of these tribes had heard of the war-like character of the other and each lived in fear of the other. The Eries feeling themselves in danger thought to test the endurance of the Iroquois, so sent by messengers a challenge to them to select 100 of their best warriors to meet a like number of the Eries for a friendly contest in athletic sports.

Not long after, the challenge was again renewed and again declined. A third time the challenge was repeated and at the council heard to consider it the younger braves of the Iroquois decided to accept.

In due time the two bodies of warriors came together with the chiefs and leaders present. They met at a point not very far from Buffalo. Unexpectedly to the Eries the Iroquois won all their games. This angered the Eries but they were in the presence of a friendly tribe and on neutral ground and the chiefs of the neutral tribe invited the opposing tribes to a feast they had provided: During the feast the Eries made another proposition to the Iroquois to select ten men from each side to meet and wrestle, man with man, and the victor should kill his opponent.

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.