HISTORY;
Historical Collections of Ohio by Henry Howe, LL.D. GEAUGA COUNTY OHIO
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Istorical Collections of Ohio By Henry Howe, LL.D.

				GEAUGA COUNTY - Part 2

					TRAVELING NOTES

	AN AMUSING OLD LADY.  -On leaving Painesville 
on this the last morning of 
September, my attention was arrested 
at a little depth on the outskirts by 
an old lady, evidently a character. 
She was seated on a box; an eight-year 
old boy was by her side, and she was 
smoking a pipe. Changes were being 
made in the gauge of the track, with 
consequent confusion at the depot, 
with scant accommodation for waiting 
passengers. She was virtuously 
indignant. "All the railroad men care 
for is to get our money," she said; 
then puffed away. After a little the 
locomotive came up drawing a single 
car; in a twinkling it was filled with 
a merry lot of rural people, 
laughing and chatting, exhilarated by 
the air of a perfect September 
morning, sunny and bracing.
	I OBJECT. -While waiting for the 
start something was said about smoking in 
the car, whereupon a gentleman exclaimed: 
"If any person objects we must 
not smoke." Instantly came from a 
distant corner, in the shrill, screaming 
tones of some ancient woman: 
"I object." The announcement was received with 
a shout of laughter, in which 
everybody seemed to join. It was evident that 
every soul in that car felt that 
"I object" had such an abhorrence of 
tobacco smoke, that if the man in 
the moon got out his pipe she would know 
it after a few puffs; that is, if 
the wind was right.
	My sympathy was excited 
for the old lady at the deprivation of her 
pipe-smoke, and so tried, as 
we started, to relieve her mind by 
conversation. As is not unusual with 
humanity, herself was an interesting 
topic. She was, she told me, fifty-five 
years old; her parents born in 
Connecticut, she in "York State," but 
from five years old had lived in 
Geauga county. In turn I told her what 
I doing, traveling over the State to 
make a book. "Make money out of it?" 
inquired she. "Hope so." As I said 
this she dropped into a brown study, 
evidently thinking what a grand thing, 
making money! That thought having time 
to soak in, she broke the silence 
with: "My husband died twelve years ago;
" then putting her hand on the 
shoulder of the boy, as if joyed at the 
thought, added: "This is my man; 
took him at five months -first time seen the kears."
	As we were passing some sheep, 
I inquired: "Sheep plenty in this country, 
madam?" "Yes, I've got some, but no 
such poor scrawny things as those," she 
said, smirking her nostrils and pointing 
so contemptuously at the humble 
nibbling creatures, scattered over a 
field below us, that I felt sorry for 
them. Soon after crossing a country 
road whereon was a flock of turkeys, it 
came my turn to point, as I said: 
"How bad those turkeys would feel if they 
know Christmas was coming." "What?" 
said she. She had got a new idea: 
Turkeys dreading Christmas when 
everybody else was so glad.
	BURTON. -The ride over from 
the depot to Burton is a little over two miles 
westerly. Burton stands on a hill, 
and it loomed up pleasantly as I neared 
it, reminding me of the old-time New 
England villages. it was largely 
settled from Cheshire, Connecticut, 
which also stands on a hill. The 
prospect from the village is beautiful 
and commanding in every direction, 
takes in a circuit of sixty or seventy 
miles, including points in Trumbull 
and Portage counties; north I discerned 
over a leafy expanse spires in 
Chardon, eight miles distant; and south 
the belfry of Hiram College at 
Garretsville, fourteen miles away. As 
I look the one makes me think of 
Peter Chardon Brookes, its founder; and 
the other of James Garfield, for 
there he went to school. The county is 
charmingly diversified with hills 
and valleys. About ten miles from the 
shore of Lake Erie and nearly 
parallel to it is the dividing ridge, 
on which are points nearly 800 feet 
above the lake, as Little Mountain and 
Thompson Ledge; the mean surface of 
the county is about 500 feet above the lake.
	THE NEW CONNECTICUT PEOPLE. -
General Garfield in a speech at Burton, 
September 16, 1873, before the Historical
 Society of Geauga County, drew a 
pleasant picture descriptive of the 
character of the people, a large 
majority of whom are descendants of
 emigrants from Connecticut. he said: 
"On this Western Reserve are townships 
more thoroughly New England in 
character and spirit than most of the 
town of New England to-day. Cut off 
from the metropolitan life, that has 
been molding and changing the spirit 
of New England, they have preserved 
here in the wilderness the 
characteristics of New England as it 
was when they left it in the beginning 
of the century. This has given to the 
people of the Western Reserve those 
strongly marked qualities which have 
always distinguished them."
	When the Reserve was surveyed in 
1796 by Gen. Cleveland there were but two 
white families of settlers on the entire 
lake shore region of Northern 
Ohio. One of these was at Cleveland 
and the other at Sandusky. By the close 
of the year 1800 there were thirty-
two settlements on the Reserve, though 
no organization of government had 
been established. But the pioneers were a 
people who had been trained in the 
principles and practices of civil order, 
and these were transformed to their
 new homes. In new Connecticut there was 
little of that lawlessness which so 
often characterizes the people of a new 
country. In many instances a township 
organization was completed and a 
minister chosen before the pioneers 
left home. Thus they planted the 
institutions of old Connecticut in their new
 wilderness homes.
	The pioneers who first broke ground
 here accomplished a work unlike that 
which will fall to the lot of any succeeding 
generation. The hardships they 
endured, the obstacles they encountered, the 
life they led, the peculiar 
qualities they needed in their undertakings, 
and the traits of character 
developed by their work, stand alone in our history.
	These pioneers knew well that the 
three great forces which constitute the 
strength and glory of a free government are -
the family, the school and the 
church. These three they planted here, and 
they nourished and cherished 
them with an energy and devotion scarcely 
equalled in any other quarter of 
the world. The glory of our country can 
never be dimmed while these three 
lights are kept shining with an undimmed lustre.
	
	BURTON is about 30 miles east of 
Cleveland, 8 south of Chardon, about 20 
miles from Lake Erie, and 2 1/2 miles 
westerly from the P. & Y. R.R.. It is 
a finely located village,and the seat of
 the county fair grounds. 
newspaper: Geauga Leader, A.R. Woolsey, 
editor and proprietor. Churches: 1 
Methodist Episcopal and 1 Congregational. 
Bank: Houghton, Ford & Co. 
Population in 1880, 480.

				HE MAPLE SUGAR INDUSTRY.
	The peculiar industry of Geauga 
county is the making of maple sugar. 
Forty-five counties in the State make 
maple sugar, but Geauga, one of the 
smallest, yields nearly a third of the 
entire product, beside very large 
amounts of syrup of excellent quality; 
but no other county in the Union 
equals its amount of maple sugar. The 
entire amount for the year 1885 was a 
trifle less than 2,000,000 pounds, of
 which Geauga produced 631,000 pounds, 
and Ashtabula county, the next largest,
 53,000 pounds. Improvements in this 
have taken place as in other manufactures, 
and the quality here made is of 
the very best. Where poorly made its 
peculiarly fine flavor is lost. Our 
cut, showing the old-time way, is 
copied from that in Peter Parley's 
"Recollections of a Lifetime." The 
article which here follows is by Henry 
C. Tuttle, of Burton, who wrote it 
for these pages:
	"The undulating and somewhat 
hilly character of Geauga county seems 
especially adapted to the growth of 
the sugar maple and productive of a 
large supply of sap. Not only does 
it make the largest quantity, but also 
the best quality of maple sweet. 
From using troughs hollowed out of split 
logs in which to catch the sap and 
boiling it in big iron kettles in the 
open air to a thick, black, sticky 
compound of sugar, ashes and 
miscellaneous dirt, which had some 
place in the household economy, but no 
market value, sugar-makers to-day use 
buckets with covers to keep out the 
rain and dirt, the latest improved 
evaporators, metal storage tanks, and 
have good sugar-houses in which the sap 
is quickly reduced to syrup. All 
this has been done at a large outlay of 
money, but the result proves it to 
have been a good investment, as the 
superior article made finds a ready 
market and brings annually from $80,000 to $100,000.
	The season usually opens early in March, 
when the trees are tapped and a 
metal spout inserted, from which is suspended 
the bucket. When the flow of 
sap begins it is collected in galvanized iron 
gathering tanks, hauled to 
the sugar-house and emptied into the storage 
vats, from which it is fed by 
a pipe to the evaporator. The syrup taken 
from the evaporator is strained, 
and if sugar is to be made, goes at once 
into the sugar-pan, where it is 
boiled to the proper degree, and caked in 
pound and one-half cakes. If 
syrup is to made, it is allowed to cool, 
and is then reheated and cooled 
again, to precipitate the silica. It is 
then drawn off into cans and is 
ready for market.
	The greatest care and cleanliness 
is required to make the highest grade of 
sugar and syrup, and the fragrant maple 
flavor is only preserved by 
converting the sap into sugar or syrup 
as fast as possible. If the sap 
stands long in the vats or is boiled a 
long time the flavor is lost and the 
color becomes dark.
	The groves or "bushes" vary from 
300 to 3,000 trees each, the total number 
of trees tapped in 1886 being 375,000. 
The industry is still growing, and 
there are probably enough groves not yet worked 
to make a total of 475,000, 
which, if tapped, would increase the output 
about one-third. The sugar and 
syrup is mostly sold at home. The principal 
market is Burton, centrally 
located, and from there it is shipped
 to consumers in all parts of the 
country, the larger proportion going 
tot he Western States."

	-continued in part 3




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