History of the Fire lands, comprising Huron and Erie Counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers

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Contents

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HISTORY OF HUEOU AND EEIE COUNTIES n u

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Chapter I. The Connecticut Western Eeserve

The Western Reserve of Connecticut lies between tlie parallels of 41° and 4-2° i' of north latitiTcle, commencing with the western boundary of Pennsylvania and extending thence westward one hundred and twenty miles. The entire tract embraces an area of seven thousand four hundred and forty square miles, nearly one-third of which is covered by the waters of Lake Erie. Within its limits are contained, in whole or in part, thirteen counties, us follows: Ten counties, Ashtabula, Trumbull, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Cuyahoga, Lorain, Medina, Huron and Erie lie wholly in the Reserve; two others, Summit and Mahoning, are mostly within its limits, the former containing sixteen original townships, only two of which, Franklin and Green, are south of the line, the latter having ten townships north of the Reserve line and five south of it. Ashland county is represented on the Reserve by Sullivan, Troy and Ruggles townships, and Ottawa county by the township of Daubury.

There have been numerous claimants'to the soil of the Reserve. In addition to the red man's title. Prance, England, the United States, Virginia, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut have,, at one time or another, asserted ownership.

The claim of France arose by reason of its being a portion of the territory which she possessed by right of discovery.

England laid claim to all territory adjoining those districts lying along the Atlantic seaboard, whose soil she possessed by right of occupancy, asserting ownership from sea to sea. The greatest ignorance, however, prevailed in early times as to the inland extent of the American continent. During the reign of James I., Sir Francis Drake reported that from the top of the mountains on the Isthmus of Panama, he had seen both oceans. This led to the belief that the contment from &ast to west was of no considerable extent, and that the South Sea, by which appellation the Pacific then was known, did not lie very far removed from the Atlantic. As late as 1740, the Duke of Newcastle addressed his letters to the "Island of New England." This ignorance of the inland extent of America gave rise, as we shall see, to conflicting claims of western territory. England's valid title to the great west was obtained through conquest, compelling France, in 1713 and 1763, to surrender nearly the whole of her American possessions.

The United States succeeded Great Britain in her right of ownership in American soil, and thus came to have a claim on the lands of the Reserve. The claims of Virginia, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut were .obtained by virtue of charters granted to English subjects by English sovereigns. The tract of country embraced in the Loudon Company's charter, granted by James I. in 1609, whence arose Virginia's claim, commenced its boundaries at old Point Comfort, on the Atlantic, and extended two hundred miles south and two hundred north from this point. From the southernmost point, a line drawn due west to the Pacific formed the southern boundary; from the northernmost i>oiut, a line running diagonally northwesterly through Pennsylvania and western New York, aci'oss the eastern portion of Lake Erie, and terminating finally in the Arctic Ocean, formed the northwestern boundary; and the Pacific Ocean, or what was then called the South Sea. the western boundary. The vast empire lying within these four lines included over one half of the North American continent, and embraced all of what was afterwards known as the Northwestern Territory, including, of course, the lands of the Reserve.

The claim of Massachusetts rested for its validity upon the charter of ICyH), granted by James I. to the council of Plymouth, and embraced all the territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific lying between the fortieth and forty-eighth parallels of latitude. This grant comprised an area of more than a million of square miles, and included all of the present inhabited British possessions to the north of the United States, all of what is now New England, New York, one half of New Jersey, very nearly all of Pennsylvania, more

UISTOHV OF llUiiUX AM) ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.

than the northern half of Ohio, and all the country to the «-e.st of those States.

In 1630, the Earl of Warwick olHained a grant to a part of the same territory, and. in the following year, assigned a portion of his grant to Lord Brooke, and Viscounts Say and Seal.

In 1664. Charles II. ceded to his brother, tlie Duke of York, and afterwards King James II. of England, the country from Delaware bay to the river St. Croix, and afterwards it was insisted that the granted territory extended westward to the Pacific. This constituted New York's claim to western territory, of which the lands of the Reserve were a portion.

lu 1662, the same monarch granted to nineteen patentees an ample charter, from which Connecticut derived her claim to a territory bounded by Massachusetts on tlie north, the sea on the south, Narragansett bay on the east, but extc-udiug to the Pacific on the west. This grant embraced a strip sixty-two miles wide, extending from Karragausett bay on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west, and the northern and southern boundaries of this tract were the same as those, in part, which now form the boundaries at the north and south of the Reserve.

Thus arose conflicting claims. The extent of territory to which V^irginia insisted she was the rightful owner, was the largest, and included all the other claims. That of Massachusetts was next in size, and included the whole region claimed for Connecticut, as did the territory embraced in New York's claim.

The United States did not appear as a contestant until the time of the revolutionary war, when she, with good reason, insisted that these disputed lauds belonged of right to Great Britain's couquerer; that a vacant territory, wrested from a common enemy by the united arms and at the joint expense and sacrifice of all the States, should be considered as the property of the conquering nation, to be held in trust for the common benefit of all the people of all the States. To show how groundless were the claims of these contesting States, it was pointed out that the charters upon which they were founded had in some instances been abrogated by judicial decisions, and the companies to which they had been given dissolved; that the charters were given at a time when much of the territory to which ownership was claimed under them was in the actual occupancy of another power; that all the various grants were made in the grossest ignorance of the inland extent of the American continent: and that George III. had either repudiated the charters of his royal predecessors or denied to them the right of sovereignty over territory of so vast extent by issuing a proclamation forbidding all persons from intruding upon lands in the valley of the Ohio.

Popular feeling ran high. Contentions between conflicting claimants frequently resulted in bloodshed. The prospects of the American Union were darkened; the difficulties and embarrassments in prosecuting the I war for independence were greatly augmented. Marylaud would not become a member of the Union unless | the States claiming western territory would relinquish their title. In the midst of these gloomy and foreboding events, in which disaster to the common cause was more to be feared at the hands of its friends than its enemies, congress made a strong appeal to the claiming States to avert the approaching danger by a cessation of contentious discord among themselves, and by making li))eral cessions of western ten-itory for the common benefit.

New York was the first to respond, and, in 1780, ceded to the United States the lands she claimed lying west of a line running south from the western bend of Lake Ontario, reserving an area of nineteen j thousand square miles. Virginia, in 1784, relinquished to congress her title to lands lying northwest of the Ohio, reserving a district of land in Ohio lying between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers, which came to be known as the Virginia Military District, which reservation was made in order to enable Virginia to fulfill pledges to her soldiers in the revolutionary war of bounties ]iayable in western lands. In

1785, Massachusetts ceded the western territory to which slie had been a claimant, reserving the same nineteen thousand square miles reserved by New York, which disputed territory was afterwards divided equally between those two States. Connecticut was the most reluctant and tardy of all the contesting States in sacrificing State pretensions for the common benefit. However, on the 14th day of Septembei'.

1786, her authorized delegates in congress relinquished all the right, title, interest, jurisdiction and claim that she possessed to land within her chartered limits lying west of a line one hundred and twenty miles west of and parallel to the western boundary of Pennsylvania. This one hundred and twenty mile tract was not conveyed, but reserved, by Connecticut, and hence the name of Connecticut Western Reserve.

As Connecticut's claim included nearly the whole of the northern half of the present State of Pennsylvania, it infringed upon the rights of the people of that State, ^lo alleged ownership by virtue of a charter to William Penn granted by James II. of England, in 1G81. Both States strove for the occupancy of the disputed soil, and Connecticut sold to certain individuals seventeen townships, situated on or near the Susquehanna river, organized the tract into a civil township, and attached it to the probate district and county of Litchfield, in Connecticut. Westmoreland representatives occupied seats in the Connecticut legislature. [Pennslyvania protested and, when the revolutionary contest closed, sent an armed force to drive the intruders from the lands. The shedding of blood resulted. The controversy was finally submitted to a court of commissioners appointed by congress, on the petition of Pennsylvania, as i)rovided in the ninth article of the Confederation, which gave to congress the power to establish a court for the settlement of disputed boundaries. This court sat at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1787, when the case was tried and decided against Connecticut. The

HISTORY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.

U title to lands lying west of Pennsylvania was not involved in this adjudication, and Connecticut still insisted upon the validity of her claim to lands not ceded by her to the United States.

At a session of the Connecticut legislature held at New Haven, in 1786 and 1787, it was resolved to offer for sale that part of the Reserve lying east of the Cuyahoga, the Portage path and the Tuscarawas, and a committee of three persons was appointed to cause a survey to be made and to negotiate a sale. Nothing, however, was immediately done. On the 10th of February, 1788, however, certain lands lying within the limits of the Reserve were sold to General Samuel H. Parsons, then of Middletown, Connecticut. This was afterwards known as the salt spring tract, General Parsons having explored the country and had found the location of a salt spring near the Mahoning. He selected a tract including the spring and containing about twenty-five thousand acres.

In May, 1795, the legislature, in session at Hartford, appointed a committee of eight persons to negotiate the sale of the Reserve excepting the "sufferer's lands" and the salt spring tract. They effected a sale in separate contracts with forty-eight different individuals, realizing for the State the sum of one million two hundred thousand dollars. The money thus realized was set apart as a common school fund. The following were the original purchasers of the Reserve, not including the Fire-lands:

Joseph Honiand..

Daniel L. Coit

Elias Morgan

Daniel L. Coit

Caleb Atwater

Daniel Holbrook . .

Joseph Williams . .

William Law

William Judd

ElishaHyde

Uriah Tracey

James Johnson...

Samuel Mather, Jr Ephraim Kirby . . . .

Elijah Boardman. . , Uriel Holmes, Jr..,

Luther Loomis

Ebenezer King, Jr.,

William Lyman

John Stoddard

Davis King

Moses C'leaveland. .

Samuel P. Lord. . . .

Roger Newbury....

Enoch Perkins

•Jonathan Bruce

8 30,401 .51,408

60,000 44,818 24,730

32,600 14,093

38,000

Oliver Phelps (

Gideon Granger f

Solomon Griswold

William Hart

Henry Champion, 8d. . .

Ashur Miller

Robert C. Johnson. .

Ephraim Post

Xehemiah Hubbard, Jr.

Solomon Cowles

Oliver Phelps

Asahel Hathaway

John Caldwell I

PelegSantord f

Timothy Burr

Ephraim Starr

Sylvanus Griswold

Jabez Stocking )

Joshua Stow [■

Titus Street

James Bull i

Aaron Olmstead l

John Wyles )

Pierpont Edwards

8 80,000 10,000

Grand total $1,200,000

These gentlemen formed themselves into a body corporate, under the name of '-The Connecticut Land Company," and proceeded to survey and divide their lands. The survey of the lands east of the Cuyahoga was made in 1796, and partition effected, by draft, January 39, 1798. The lands of the Reserve west of the Cuyahoga were divided in 1807.

Chapter II. The Suffebing Towns Of Connecticut

Though her sons were not wanting in patriotism, and freely offered up their lives in the cause of independence, the soil of Connecticut was not the theater of any of the great battles or campaigns of the revolutionary period, and was, for the most part, remote from the scene of hostilities. None of the historic battles — Lexington, Bunker Hill, Monmouth, Trenton, Yorktown — were fought within her borders. Yet the war did not terminate without leaving here, as elsewhere, the evidence that it is its mission to cause suffering and death. On many different occasions the British troops, who occupied New York City for the greater part of the war, sent out expeditions to destroy stores and shipping in the towns of Connecticut. The object of these expeditions, or forays, was best attained by landing in the niglit, destroying and burning what they could, and then retiring and putting to sea before any considerable force could be gathered to prevent them from carrying out their plans, but in nearly every instance there was skirmishing, resulting in loss of life, the most notable being the massacre at Groton. Nine towns were thus visited, burned, jilnudered, laid waste, or despoiled. The account of the misfortunes that befell these towns and their citizens furnishes some of the most deeply interesting chapters of the history of the Revolution; doubly interesting to the people of the Fire-lands, as it is from these occurrences that the laud of their occupancy derives its name and being, and it is therefore appropriate that siiace be given to their recital in the present work.

XEW LOXnON.

The following account of the burning of New London is mainly, and often literally, taken from Caulkin's history of that town and county. More space is given to the incidents attending the destruction of New London, and the massacre at Groton, not only on account of their greater relative importance, but because many scenes related as transpiring here were common at other places, and are therefore mentioned but once.

The writer referred to says: "It may be obsei-ved in general terms, that during the whole war New London was a den of serpents to the British — constantly sending out its sloops and schooners, well manned by skillful and daring seamen, to harass the boats and tenders along the shore, or to cutoff merchant vessels on the high seas. Rich prizes, in spite of their vigilance, would run into this open port, and if pursuit was apprehended, they might be hurried up to Norwich, entirely out of reach. The year 1777 forms, indeed, an exception to the universality of this assertion; so great was the vigilance of the British squadron on this coast, that between the summer of 1776 and that of 1778, not a single prize was brought into the harbor of New London.

"Althrough New London had been repeatedly threatened, no direct attack was made upon the town till near the close of the war in 1781. Gen. Arnold, on his return from a predatory descent upon the coast of Virginia, was ordered to conduct a similar expedi. tion against his native State. A large quantity of West India goods and European merchandise, brought in by various privateers, was at this time collected in

HISTORY OF HUKON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.

New Loiuloii; the iiuantity of shipping in port was very considerable, and among the prizes recently taken was the Hannah, Capt. Watson, a rich merchant ship from Loudon, bound to New York, which had been captured a little south of Long Island, by Caj)t I)ndley Saltonstall, of the Minerva privateer. The loss of this shij), whose cargo was said to be the most valuable brought into America during the war, had exasperated the British, and more than any other single circumstance, istliought to have led to the expedition. At no other period of the war could they have done so much mischief; at no other had tlie inliabitants so much to lose.

"The expedition was fitted out at New- York, and consisted of thirty-two sail, including twenty-four transports, and the troops numbered eighteen hundred. Late in the evening of the 5th of September, 1781, information was received in New London, of the presence of a Britisli fleet on the shore of Long Island. So many false demonstrations of attack had been made during the war that this intelligence caused but little alarm. No public notice was given of it, and no unusual precaution taken against surprise. At nightfall the fleet began to move, aud arriving on the coast at one o'clock would undoubtedly have accomplished its design, which was to descend suddenly upon the town, under cover of darkness, with such expedition as to destroy the fortifications, shipping, stores, etc., and depart before any considerable force could be collected to oppose them. As they were about making preparations to land the wind shifted, the fleet was obliged to stand off until morning, aud it was ten o'clock before the troops debarked. They were in two divisions, about eight hundred landing on the Groton side, and nine hundred or a thousand on tlie New London side. A considerable jwrtiou of the troops were loyalists.

"In the meantime confused and hasty prejiarations had been made to receive them. At early dawn the fleet had been discovered lying off, becalmed, but the transports were making preparations to beat in to the mouth of the river. Signal guns were fired to call assistance from the neighboring country. * * * , * * In the town consternation and fright were suddenly let loose. No sooner were the terrible guns heard, than the startled citizens made haste to .send away their families, and their portable and most valuable goods. Throngs of women and children were dismissed into the fields and woods, some without food, and others with a piece of bread or a biscuit in their hands. Such was the confusion of the scene, that families, in many cases, were scattered upon different roads: children eight or ten years of age were •sent off into the country, their parents lingering to bury or conceal some of their effects. Groups of fugitives gathered on the high hills afar off, watching with intense interest the movements of the enemy, who,se course might be traced by their gleaming arms and scarlet coats, until the sun hid them from their view. Colonel William Lodvard was the militarv commandant. The garrisons were small, l)arely sufficient to keep the posts in order, and in cases of emergency they depended on volunteers from the neighborhood or details of militia. These were coming in now and the commander confidently anticipated the arrival of sufficient aid to warrant a defense.

" In the meantime great efforts were made to secure the shipping in the harbor by getting it up the river, but at first neither wind nor tide favored the attempt.

"Toward noon, however, before the enemy had got possession of the town, a favorable breeze came in from the water, and a considerable number of vessels escaped up the river. ***** guch confusion reigned in the town, every householder being engaged in the care of his family and effects, that it was difficult to form any concerted plan of action. But when the women and children had departed, the men began to gather in groups, and consult respecting the course to be pursued. They could muster but few effective men; flight and concealment seemed the only prudent course for them to adopt."

But about one hundred, hastily armed, and indignant at the thought of abandoning their homesteads without a blow, collected on Tower Hill, with a view of obstructing the course of the enemy. They were without a commander, and as the advancing files of regular soldiers, in firm array, with glistening steel, appeared in sight, they saw the rashness of their design, and scattering into the fields, concealed themselves behind rocks and fences, and annoyed the troops whenever they could.

No serious resistance was, however, made to the entrance of the troops, aud once in the town the destruction of ])roperty was begun. "Vengeance and destruction had no check; shops, stores, dwellings, piles of lumber, wharves, boats, rigging and vessels were soon enveloped in smoke and flame. Hogsheads were knocked in, sugar and coffee lay in heaps, and rum and Irish butter, melt in the fire, trickled along streets and filled the gutters. * * * Ou the parade all was destroj-ed. The market, wharf, the old magazine and battery, the court house, jail and jail house, the Episcopal church, and several contiguous shops aud dwelling houses, were soon a iieap of ashes. The western part of this street was left unhurt. The ancient, dilapidated old building, still extant near the corner of Green street, was then, as it since has been, a well known tavern stand. The landlady, like many other American women in those disastrous times, had lier nearest friends arrayed ou opposite sides. Her husband, as sergeant iu the militia, was at his post iu the field annoying the invaders, and her brother was one of those invaders, an officer under Arnold's command. Before mounting her horse to escape, she had her tal)le spread and furnished bountifully with provisions. Though fleeing with her patriot husband, she could not refrain from leaving a dinner for her tory brother. That oHicer eagerly sought the threshold of his relative, and thouiih he found her iiot, refreshed himself and

HISTOEY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.

his brother officers with the collation." The enemy, however, did not, in general, spare the dwellings of their reunited friends. This, instead of being a favor, would have marked them out for patriot vengeance. Arnold himself took some refreshment that day at the house of an old acquaintance in Bank street, but even before they rose from the table, the building v/as in flames over them. It has been often stated that some whose property was destroyed, received in the end double compensation; that is, from the British, on account of their loyalty, and from Congress, in the grant of Fire-lands, by which reparation was made to the sufferers. Arnold was born within fourteen miles of New London, and had lived so long in the vicinity that he had many acquaintances in town; some of these, it was well known, had held secret intercourse with him, and officiated as counsellors and guides in this expedition.

It is doubtless a fact that the wanton burning of dwellings had not l^eeu at first intended. Arnold says in his report: " The explosion of the powder and the change of wind soon after the stores were fired, communicated the flames to part of the town, which was, notwithstanding every effort to prevent it, un-. fortunately destroyed." Sir Henry Clinton, in his official letter to England, expresses his concern that the town was burned, but says it was unavoidable, and occasioned by the explosion of gunpowder.

"It ought to be stated as a general fact that Arnold's orders appear to have been given with some reference to humanity and the laws of civilized warfare. Private houses were to be spared, unless in some few instances where the owners were particularly obnoxious. It was afterwards well understood that most of the spoil and havoc in private houses was the work of a few worthless vagrants of the town, who prowled in the wake of the invaders, hoping in the general confusion not to be detected." The loss of life was not great, being a half dozen killed and a dozen wounded on each side. A few of the inhabitants were carried off as prisoners.

Tlie next morning at eight o'clock the fleet made sail. "By this timet he whole surrounding country was in motion. All the militia, all who had friends on the seaboard, all who hated the British, all who were impelled by curiosity, came rushing to the scene of desolation, mingled with the fugitives returning after a night of terror and anxiety, to their forlorn homes. On the hights, in view of the town, they paused and gave vent to lamentations and cries of anguish over the smoking ruins."

That the enemy suffered so little annoyance on the New London side, and were allowed to retire unmolested to their ships, has been attributed to the want of an efficient leader to concentrate and direct their force. But even under the ablest commander, • no position of attack or defense could have been sustained. What could be effected by a motley assemblage of two hundred citizens against a compact army of one thousand disciplined soldiers!' It was well that no daring leader came forward to germinate and encourage rash attempts, whose only result must have been a duplicate of the slaughter on the other side of the river. A single spark more, to kindle indignation to a flame, and the inhabitants had come rushing down on the enemy to pour out their blood like water.

The loss of New London, from this predatory visit can only be given in its main items: sixty-five dwelling houses were burnt, occupied by ninety-seven families; thirty-one mercantile stores and warehou.ses; eighteen mechanics shops, twenty barns, and nine other buildings for public use, including the Episcopal church, court house, jail, market, custom house, etc. Nearly all the wharfing was destroyed, except sixteen sloo})s which escaped up the river.

While at New London the loss of life was inconsiderable, it was different on the other side of the river, at Groton; and the occurrences of the 6th of September are among the most sad and tragic of the revolutionary period. A small body of brave men, hastily gathered together in the morning, occupied Groton fort. They numbered only one hundred and fifty men all told, and were commanded by Colonel Ledyard. They were assaulted by an overwhelming force of eight hundred British, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Ej-re, and though they made a heroic defense it was all in vain, the fort was taken, nor did the work of butchery stop even after the surrender. The few remaining brave men were mostly massaci'ed. Arnold says eighty-five were killed and sixty wounded, most of them mortally; about thirty of the least injured were taken away as prisoners. The others were paroled, taken out of the fort, the magazine of which was then set on fire, but it was extinguished, before the explosion, by an American who approached the fort soon after the British had left.

"As soon as it was known that the British had reembarked, all Groton was moved, enquiring for her sons. Women and children assembled before the morning dawn, with torches in their hands, examining the dead and wounded in search of their friends. They passed the light from face to face, but so bloody and mangled were they — their features so distorted with the energy of resistance, or the convulsion of pain, that in many cases the wife could not identify her husband, or the mother her son. Forty wives had been made widows that day, all i-esiding near the scene of action. A woman,, searching for her husband among the slain, cleansed the gore from more than thirty faces before she found the remains she sought."

The wounded men left, in a house at the foot of the hill, were given attention. Two had already died, but most of the others finally recovered. Fourteen among the dead, and three among the wounded, bore the title of captain, some having served in the army, others in the militia, while others commanded vessels. Of the killed, sixty belonged to Groton and twelve to

HISTORY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.

New London. Eleven bore the name of Avery and six that of Perkins.

The British loss is stated to have been fifty-four killed and one hundred and forty-three wounded. A granite monument one jiundred and twenty-seven feet in height, bearing the names of the heroic dead, commemorates the scene of the bloody encounter.

DAXBUUY.

In the latter part of the year 1776, this town was selected as a place for the deposit of military stores for the Continental army. A large quantity having been collected, Governor Tryon, with a detachment of two thousand British troops, set out to destroy them, in which attempt they were successful, as the inhabitants were not prepared to defend the town against such odds. They entered the town in the afternoon of April '26, 1777, and left the next morning. The amount of stores destroyed was about three thousand barrels of pork, one thousand bari'els of flour, several hundred barrels of beef, one thousand six hundred tents, two thousand bushels of grain; also, rum, wine, rice, etc., a considerable amount. Nineteen dwelling houses, a meeting house, and twenty-two stores and barns, were destroyed by fire.

NEW HAVEN.

The attack on New Haven was preceded by a proclamation, or address, to the inhabitants of Connecticut, dated July 4, 1779, and signed by Commodore George Collier, commander-in-chief of his majesty's ships and vessels on the coast, and also by Major General William Tryon, commanding his majesty's land forces on a separate expedition. Three sentences of the proclamation will indicate its character: ''The ungenerous and wanton insurrection against the sovereignty of Great Britain, into which this colony has been deluded by the artifices of designing men, might well justify in you every fear which conscious guilt could form, respecting the intentions of the present armament. Your towns, your property, yourselves, lie within the grasp of the power whose forbearance you have ungenerously construed into fear, but whose lenity has persisted in its mild and noble efiorts, even though branded with the most unworthy imputation. The existence of a single habitation on your defenceless coast, ought to be a subject of constant reproof of your ingratitude."