ASHTABULA COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY [Part 2]  (published 1898)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTION OF OHIO, By Henry Howe, LL.D, 1898

        Judge James Kingsbury, who arrived at Conneaut shortly after the
surveying party, wintered with his family at this place in a cabin which
stood on a spot now covered by the waters of the lake. This was about the
first family that wintered on the the Reserve.
        The story of the sufferings of this family has often been told, but
in the midst of plenty, where want is unknown can with difficulty be
appreciated. The surveyors, in the prosecution of their labors westwardly,
had principally removed their stores to Cleveland, while the family of
Judge Kingsbury remained at Conneaut. Being compelled by business to leave
in the fall for the State of New York, with the hope of speedy return to
his family, the judge was attacked by a severe fit of sickness, confining
him to his bed until the setting in of winter. As soon as able he proceeded
on his return as far as Buffalo, where he hired an Indian to guide him
through the wilderness. At Presque Isle, anticipating the wants of his
family, he purchased twenty pounds of flour. In crossing Elk creek on the
ice he disabled his horse, left him in the snow, and mounting his flour on
his own back pursued his way filled with gloomy forebodings in relation to
the fate of his family. On his arrival late one evening his worst
apprehensions were more than realized in a scene agonizing to the husband
and father. Stretched on her cot lay the partner of his cares, who had
followed him through all the dangers and hardships of the wilderness
without repining, pale and emaciated, reduced by meagre famine to the last
stages in which life can be supported, and near the mother, on a little
pallet, were the remains of his youngest child, born in his absence, who
had just expired for the want of that nourishment which the mother,
deprived of sustenance, was unable to give. Shut up by a gloomy wilderness
she was far distant alike from the aid or sympathy of friends, filled with
anxiety for an absent husband, suffering with want and destitute of
necessary assistance, and her children expiring around her with hunger.
        Such is the picture presented by which the wives and daughters of
the present day may form some estimate of the hardships endured by the
pioneers of this beautiful country. It appears that Jude Kingsbury, in
order to supply the wants of his family, was under the necessity of
transporting his provisions from Cleveland on a hand sled, and that himself
and hired man drew a barrel of beef the whole distance at a single load.

        Mr. Kingsbury was the first who thrust a sickle into the first
wheat field planted on the soil of the Reserve. His wife was interred at
Cleveland, about the year 1843. The fate of her child - the first white
child born on the Reserve, starved to death for want of nourishment - will
not soon be forgotten.
        CONNEAUT IN 1846.  The harbor of Conneaut is now an important point
of transshipment. It has a pier with a light-house upon it, two forwarding
houses and eleven dwellings. Several vessels ply from here, and it is a
frequent stopping place for steamers. Two miles south of the harbor,
twenty-two from Jefferson, twenty-eight from Erie, PA., is the borough of
Conneaut on the west bank of Conneaut creek. It contains four churches,
eleven stores, one newspaper printing office, a fine classical academy, Mr.
L. W. Savage and Miss Mary Booth, principals, and about 1,000 inhabitants.
       Conneaut on lake Erie, sixty-eight miles east of Cleveland, also on
the L.S. & M.S. and N.Y.C. & St. L. Railroads. The main shops of the Nickel
Plate railroad are located here. It is expected that the harbor will
shortly be opened by the Conneaut, Jamestown and Southern Railroad, giving
improved shipping facilities.
        Newspapers: Herald, Republican, W.T. Findlay, editor; The Reporter,
Republican, J.P. Reig, editor. Churches: 1 Congregational, 1 Baptist, 1
Methodist, 1 Catholic and 1 Christian. Banks: Conneaut Mutual Loan
Association, Theron S. Winship, president, C. Hayward, cashier; First
National, S.J. Smith, president, B.E. Thayer, cashier. Principal industries
are railroad shops, paper mill, Record Manufacturing Company, Cummins
Canning Factory. Population in 1880, 1,256; school census in 1886, 564;
E.C. Cary, superintendent.
        The first permanent settlement in Conneaut was in 1799. Thomas
Montgomery and Aaron Wright settled here in the spring of 1798. Robert
Montgomery and family, Levi and John Montgomery, Nathar, and John King, and
Samuel Bemus and family came the same season.
        When the settlers arrived some twenty or thirty Indian cabins were
still standing, which were said to present and appearance of neatness and
comfort not usual with this race. The Massauga tribe, which inhabited the
spot, were obliged to leave in consequence of the murder of a white man
named Williams.
        Two young men taken at the defeat of St. Clair were said to have
been prisoners for a considerable time among the Indians of this village.
On their arrival at Conneaut they were made to run the gauntlet, and
received the orthodox number of blows and kicks usual on such occasions. In
solemn council it was resolved that the life of Fitz Gibbon should be
saved, but the other, whose name is not recollected, was condemned to be
burned. He was bound to a tree, a large quantity of hickory bark tied into
fagots and piled around him. But the horrors of the most painful of deaths
he was saved by the interposition of a young squaw belonging to the tribe.
Touched by sympathy she interceded in his behalf, and by her expostulations
backed by several packages of fur and a small sum of money, succeeded in
effecting his deliverance; an act in the lowly Indian maid which entitles
her name to be honorably recorded with that of Pocahontas, among the good
and virtuous of every age.
        There were mounds situated in the eastern part of the village of
Conneaut and an extensive burying-ground near the Presbyterian church,
which appear to have had no connection with the burying-places of the
Indians. Among the human bones found in the mounds were some belonging to
men of gigantic structure. Some of the skulls were of sufficient capacity
to admit the head of an ordinary man, and jaw bones that might have been
fitted on over the face with equal facility; the other bones were
proportionately large. The burying-ground referred to contained about four
acres, and with the exception of a slight angle in conformity with the
natural contour of the ground was in the form of an oblong square. it
appeared to have been accurately surveyed into lots running from north to
south, and exhibited all the order and propriety of arrangement deemed
necessary to constitute Christian burial. On the first examination of the
ground by the settlers they found it covered with the ordinary forest
trees, with an opening near the centre containing a single butternut. The
graves were distinguished by slight depressions disposed in straight rows,
and were estimated to number from two to three thousand. On examination in
1800 they were found to contain human bones, invariably blackened by time,
which on exposure to the air soon crumbled to dust. Traces of ancient
cultivation observed by the first settlers on the land of the vicinity,
although covered with forest, exhibited signs of having once been thrown up
into squares and terraces, and laid out into gardens.

-part 3 to follow


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