MAHONING COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: Part 6 (published 1889) *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Submitter: MRS GINA M REASONER Email: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com Date: 23 September 1999 *********************************************************************** HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, 1889 MAHONING COUNTY - Part 6 JUDGE JAMES BROWNLEE, of Poland was born February, 1901, at the family homestead of Torfoot, near Glasgow, Scotland, where for many generations had resided his ancestors, who on both sides distinguished themselves in the ranks of the White Flag of the Covenant. He inherited from them a vigorous constitution, a clear, strong, well-balanced mind, a buoyant temperament, a kindly, affable manner, an inflexible will, strict integrity, and that rare appreciation of the humorous, with large hope, which ever blunts the stings of adversity. His physical endowments were equally commanding, with fine, clear-cut features, dark expressive eye, so that when he appeared at Youngstown in the fall of 1827, the young Scotchman met with a most cordial welcome from the pioneers of Mahoning. Developing when at school into a youth of unusually ability, his father had designed him for a professional career; but that was not his choice. In 1830 his father and family followed him to America, when his father bought the beautiful tract of land at the junction of Yellow creek and Mahoning, building a handsome homestead thereon, where all the family resided until 1840, when Judge Brownlee was married to Miss Rebecca Mullin, of Bedford Springs,Pa. Shortly after his father died, and the judge built a new residence on the hilltop overlooking the river, where his three children were born, the first now Mrs. Kate Brownlee Sherwood. For the first thirty years in this country Judge Brownlee was engaged chiefly in the buying and selling of cattle, purchasing yearly thousands and thousands of cows and beeves for the great markets of the West and East. He was always active in politics, an enthusiastic and ardent Whig; but while acting with the Whigs, he astonished the Abolitionists by attending an indignation meeting held at Canfield against the passage of the fugitive slave law, when he drew up a resolution so audacious that the others of the committee feared to adopt it, it seeming treasonable. He offered it personally, and it was carried in a whirl of enthusiasm. it was: RESOLVED. That come life, come death, come fine or imprisonment, we will neither aid nor abet the capture of a fugitive slave; but on the contrary will harbor and feed clothe and assist, and give him a practical God-speed toward liberty. In the stirring times of the war he was so active in the forming of companies and recruiting without commission or remuneration, that Governor Tod sent him a "squirrel hunter's" discharge, as an appreciation of hearty services. Judge Brownlee held many positions of public and private trust, among others that of Assessor of Internal Revenue at Youngstown. For years he held his life in jeopardy having repeatedly heard the bullets whistling around his head when obliged to visit certain localities -still remembered for their opposition to the war and the operations of the revenue system. He died January 20, 1879. He was a staunch Presbyterian, and his friends were numbered among the rich and the poor, who found in him that faith and charity which make the whole world kin. CANFIELD IN 1846. - Canfield, the county-seat, is 166 miles northeast of Columbus and sixteen south of Warren. It is on the main stage road from Cleveland to Pittsburg, on a gentle elevation. It is a neat, pleasant village, embowered in trees and shrubbery, among which the Lombardy poplar stands conspicuos. It contained in 1846 three stores, a newspaper printing-office, one Presbyterian, one Episcopal, one Methodist, one Congregational, and one Lutheran church, and about 300 people. Since then the county buildings have been erected, and from being made the county-seat, it will probably, by the time this reaches the eye of the reader, have nearly doubled in population and business importance. -Old Edition. POLAND IN 1846. -Poland is eight miles from Canfield, on Yellow creek a branch of the Mahoning. It is one of the neatest villages in the State. The dwellings are usually painted white, and have an air of comfort. Considerable business centres here from the surrounding country, which is fertile. In the vicinity are coal and iron ore of an excellent quality. Limestone of a very superior kind abounds in the township; it is burned and largely exported for building purposes and manure. Poland contains five stores, one Presbyterian and one Methodist church, an academy, an iron foundry, one grist, one saw, one oil and one clothing mill, and about 100 dwellings. -Old Edition. SNAKES. -In a tamarack and cranberry swamp in this vicinity "are found large numbers of a small black or very dark brown rattlesnake, about twelve or fourteen inches in length, and of a proportionate thickness. They have usually three or four rattles. This species seem to be confined to the tamarack swamps, and are found nowhere else but in their vicinities, wandering in the summer months a short distance only from their borders. When lying basking in the sun, they resemble a short, broken, dirty stick or twig, being generally discolored with mud, over which they are frequently moving. Their bite is not very venomous, yet they are much dreaded by the neighboring people. Their habitations are retired and unfrequented, so that few persons are ever bitten. The Indian name for this snake is Massasauga." -Old Edition. A WEDDING INCIDENT. -Poland township is the southeastern township of the Western Reserve, but not that of the county, the southernmost tier of townships having been taken from Columbiana county. Jonathan Fowler and family came into it May 20, 1799, and were its first white settlers. About the year 1800 occurred the first marriage, between John Blackburn and Nancy Bryan. There being no one legally authorized to marry them, Judge Kirtland agreed to assume the responsibility by using his Episcopal prayer-book. About seventy persons were present. A stool was placed in front of the judge, and upon it a white cover. On this the judge placed his book when some one proposed that they take a drink all around before the ceremony. To this all agreed, it seeming eminently the proper thing to do. How long a time this occupied is not stated, or how many drinks they took. But when the judge had taken his "one or more," as the case might have been, and was ready for tying the know, lo! that Episcopal prayer-book had disappeared -could not be found. In this dilemma the judge said they must get along without it, and asked Nancy if she was willing to take John for a loving husband, and she said "yes;" and-that was about all there was of it. And thus ended what was probably the first wedding on the Western Reserve -with whisky or without whisky. CANFIELD is twenty-two miles by rail, ten miles by road southwest of Youngstown; is on the N.Y.P. & O. Railroad (N. & N.L. Branch). It is the seat of the Northeastern Normal College. City officers, 1888: S.K. Crooks, mayor; S.W. Brainard, Clerk; Hosea Hoover, Treasurer; C.W. Wehr, Street Commissioner; Eli Rhodes, Marshal. Newspaper: Mahoning Dispatch, Independent, Fowler & Son, editors and publisher. Churches: one Presbyterian, one Methodist Episcopal, one Disciples, one German Lutheran and one Congregational. Bank: Van Hyning & Co., Hosea Hoover, president, G.W. Brainerd, cashier. Population, 1880, 650. School census, 1888, 196. POLAND is six miles southeast of Youngstown, on the Beaver river. Bank: Farmers' Deposit and Saving, R.L. Walker, president, Clark Stough, cashier. Population, 1880, 452. School census, 1888, 206. PETERSBURG is fifteen miles southeast of Youngstown. It has one newspaper, the Petersburg Press, E.E. Stone, editor. Churches: one Methodist Episcopal, one Evangelical Lutheran, one Presbyterian. School census, 1888, 162. LOWELLVILLE is eight miles southeast of Youngstown, on the Ohio Canal and A. & P.O. & W., and P. & L.E. Railroads. School census, 1888, 241. WASHINGTONVILLE is sixteen miles southwest from Youngstown, part in Columbiana and part in Mahoning county. It is on the N. & N.L. Branch of the N.Y.P.&O. Railroad. School census, 1888, 122.