Copyright © 1997 by Beth Ellen Wills. This copy contributed for use in 
the USGenWeb Archives.  

 

USGENWEB NOTICE:  In keeping with our policy of providing free
information on the Internet, data may be freely used by
non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all
copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by other organizations.
_____________________________________________________________________

				   Excerpts from 
		  "The Ghost Towns of Westville and Slaught’s Mill"
                                  by A.M. Gustafson

 David Harrington was 43 years old when he came to Westville in 1879. His 
trade was that of blacksmith and wagonmaker, which involved skills needed in 
a frontier village. Westville had all the markings of the frontier. His 
brother, John D. Harrington, 13 years his senior, was already a resident of 
Day Township since 1865. He lived on a farm on the north side of Hemingway 
Lake and was to watch Slaught’s mill on the lake grow into a bustling mill 
town and then gradually vanish away with the pine. 
 David a John were proud of their ancestors. It was John who related that 
their father, William, had been one of the Green Mountain Boys in the War 
of 1812 and that their grandfather, Richard Harrington, was a soldier 
throughout the Revolutionary War and was well known as a hunter and 
fisherman. Both the father and grandfather had migrated from Rutland, 
Vermont to Portage, Summit County, Ohio. The father, William, his wife, 
Mary, and three children, John D., David B., and a daughter, moved on to 
Woodbridge township, Hillsdale Co., Michigan in 1853. The mother’s maiden 
name was Mary Crawford, also from Rutland, Vermont and came with her parents 
to Summit Co., Ohio. 
  On February 18, 1892, David Harrington acquired the deed to the business 
property on the southwest corner of State and McBride streets, which he 
later sold to George f. Clark in 1895. Harrington’s hall, the scene of 
numerous meetings and dances, came to be known as Clark’s hall after 1895.
  Harrington’s family consisted of his wife, Maria, a son, Frederick, and a 
daughter, Mary, with whom he lived in his later years. Frederick, better 
known as Fred, was for a number of years a carpenter in Westville before 
moving with his family to Greenville. He married Lillie M. Jenks, a daughter 
of Horace Jenks. Mary Harrington, first married to a Mr. Doaetry, later 
married Fred Gibson and for a number of years lived a mile south of 
Westville.
  Mrs. David Harrington died Wednesday, September 17, 1902, after having 
been in poor health for some time. The announcement stated that "she sank 
away as does the summer sun on a cloudless day." David Harrington, at the 
age of 76, died Wednesday, September 4, 1912 at the home of his daughter. 
He was buried beside his wife, Maria, in Palmer Cemetery.










dz