OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 24 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 March 27, 2005 ************************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Tid Bits- part 24 from Notes of S. Kelly +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ part 24 The Mail Must Go Through After the Connecticut surveyors were really hard at work in 1796, the general tone of their diaries and notes is that of indifference or seriousess. They show the greatest joy at the appearance of mail brought by prospectors or some member of their party. Some of these early settlers, still preserved, are folded without stamp or envelope, dark with age, are fairly worn out from the handling in re-reading at that time. The very first settlers for months at a time had no way of getting any word from their family and friends left back home. As soon as a village or hamlet appeared, the thing most wanted, despite the fact that they had to send away for most of their luxuries, was the estblishment of mail service. In April, 1801, Elijah Wadsworth of Canfield, applied to Gideon Granger, postmaster general, for the establishment of a mail route between Pittsburgh and Warren. The reply was sent to " Captain Elijah Wadsworth, Warren,in the Connecticut Reserve, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. If Captain Wadsworth should not be in Pittsburgh, Doctor Scott is requested to forward this by private hand." Although this request of Captain Wadworth's was granted, the first mail delivery in Warren was October 30th, that same year. General Simon Perkins of Warren was appointed postmaster in 1801. He held the place twenty-eight years, when he was succeeded by Mathew Birchard. In May 1807, Mr. Perkins, at the request of Postmaster-General Granger, explored the mail route between Detroit and Cleveland. In a letter to Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, he says: " On the tour I was obliged to go out of the way to find a mail carrier, and I do not now recollect how long I was in getting to Cleveland; but from their to Detroit was six days, all good weather and no delay. There were no roads or bridges or ferry-boats. I do not recollect how I crossed the Cuyahoga, but at Black River, Huron, Sandusky and Maumee, at any time of high water, the horse swam alongside a canoe. In the Black Swamp the water must have been from two to six inches deep for many miles. The settlements were a house at Black River, perhaps two at Huron, two at Sandusky, ten or fifteen at Warren, and a very good settlement at River Raisin." [ letter box's Perkins to Whittlesey -# 37, WRHS ]. Mr. Perkins had a consultation with the Indians in which he asked permission to make a road, repair it, sell land for that purpose, and wanted the land a mile wide on each side of it for the government. The Indians granted his request. General Perkins"s exacting business made it impossible for him to attend personally to the detail of postoffice work. Among the Warrren men who served as his deputies were John Leavitt, who kept a boarding house at the corner of Main and Market streets; George Phelps, who lived where the Henry Smith homestead was; George Parsons, Samuel Quimby and Samuel Chesney. Samuel Chesney probably held the position the longest of any of the men. The mail route when first established ran from Pittsburgh to Beaver, Georgetown, Canfield, Youngstown and Warren. The distance was eighty-six miles. Calvin Pease was postmaster at Youngstown and Elijah Wadsworth at Canfield. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Simon Perkins Family One John Perkins came to America with Roger Williams in 1661. His descendant, General Simon Perkins, belonging to this old and respected family, was born in 1771, at Norwich, Connecticut. In 1798, he came to Warren as agent for the Connecticut Land Company and spent several summers here. His work so satisfactory that much business was intrusted to him; and in 1815, he paid in taxes one seventh of the entire revenue of the state of Ohio. General Perkins' father was a captain ( also named Simon ) in the Revolutionary War. His father was the son of Joseph Perkins of Lisbon, Connecticut, and died in 1779 Simon's mother, Olive Douglas, was a woman of strong character. She was the mother of five children and was left 122 acres of Land , with a dwelling house, corn house, & gristmill, located on Quinebaug-Shetucket point of land, a third interest in a pot ash house, the livestock of the farm, two swarms of bees, all his other goods, and 533 Continental dollars. Her estate was appraised in 1778 at slightly over 1,398 lbs, but the actual money was " not worth a Continental " only a few years later. General Simon Perkins took over the management of this property at an early age, altough he was undoubtedly helped and possibly educated by his Yale graduate grandfather, Dr. Joseph Perkins, who lived on the adjoining farm. General Simon Perkins was postmaster, as stated above, twenty-eight years. General in the war of 1812, he established expresses throughout the Indiana country to Detroit. President Madison offered him a commission of Colonal in the regular army, which he refused for business and personal reasons. He was a member of the Board of Canal Fund Commisioners, and organized the Western Reserve Bank, the Union National Bank of Warren being its successor. A sentence in an old letter reads : " General Perkins' whisper could be heard all over town." [ WRHS ]. General Perkins took up land in the heart of Warren and here his home was opened to new comers, travellers and people in need. In 1804, he married Nancy Bishop of Lisbon, Connecticut. They were twenty two days on their way to Warren, where there were but sixteen houses. Mrs. Simon Perkins { Nancy Bishop Perkins} The old letters and manuscripts, which the author has examined, show that Nancy Bishop Perkins to have been of strong character. One old letter written by a pioneer says; " Mrs. Perkins was a superior woman. She stood on equal footing with her husband. Her strength came from her early decendancy of the Bishop family of Newbury, Massachusetts, 1640/41, whose strong morals of faith were imbred. She left her impress on such of her family as survived her. She was a lover of fruits and flowers, and her garden was among the finest of her time." General Perkins died in 1844, but Mrs. Perkins lived till 1862. In Barr's manuscripts we read; " She was a mother in Isreal." She outlived six of her nine children. She was a member of the Presbyterian church of Warren fifty-two years, and during the last few years of her life was seen every Sunday morning, walking to church, by her son Henry's side. She continued to occupy her own home all her life and to enjoy her children and grandchildren. Her daughter-in-law, in her eightieth year lived in a house on the site of her home and her granddaughter, the only one of her generation living in Warren, Mary Perkins Lawton, managed the estate left by her father Henry B. Perkins, the brother of David Perkins of Port Hueneme, California. ( my line ). Henry B. Perkins was one of the foremost men of the Reserve, taking his father's place in every way. He was public spirited, served in many public offices, was state senator, and president of the Western Reserve bank for years, and member of the Board of Education and of the Hospital for the Insane at Newburgh. Ohio. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ First Mail Contract Eleazor Gilson was awarded the first contract to carry mail on the Reserve. He was paid three dollars and fifty cents a mile, by the year, counting the distance one way. His son Samuel was, however, the real mail carrier, and walked the entire route often. The mail was not heavy then, and was sometimes carried in a bit of cotton cloth. Warren was for two years the terminus of this mail route. It was then extended to Cleveland. Joseph Burke, of Euclid, had the contract and his two sons did most of the work, alternately. Their route was Cleveland, Hudson, Ravenna, Deerfield, Warren, Mesopatamia, Windsor, Jefferson, Austinburg, Harpersfield, Painsville, on to Cleveland. They often walked, sometimes rode, crossed small streams on logs when possible, but sometimes swam their horses or plunged into the stream themselves. Up to the time of the stage coach the experiences of the letter carriers differed little. To be sure, towards the end the roads were better, the houses nearer together, there was less danger from wild animals and from Indians, but, on the oter hand, the mails were heavier, the stops oftener, and the time consumed, as long. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Asael Adams, Jr. Mail Carrier. Mr. Whittlesey Adams, the son of Asael Adams, Jr., who is conversant with early history of the Western Reserve, tell the following regarding his father's mail-carrying days; "Asael Adams, Jr., of Warren, who taught school in Cleveland in 1805, carried the United States mail on horseback during the war of 1812 and 1813, two years from Cleveland to Pittsurgh. He left Pittsburgh every Friday at 6:00 a.m., arrived at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, by 5:00 p.m., left at 5:30 p.m., arrived at Camfield on Saturday by 6:00 p.m. and arrived at Cleveland on Monday by 10:00 a.m. Then returning, he left Cleveland every Monday at 2:00 p.m., arrived at Canfield on Wednesday by 6:00 a.m., left at 7:00 a.m., arrived at Greersburg the same day by 6:00 p.m., left at 7:00 p.m., arrived at Pittsburgh on Thursday by 6:00 p.m. On his loop from Pittsburg to Cleveland, he stopped at the only postoffices at that time on the route, which were, at first BeaverTown, New Lisbon. Canfield, Deerfield, Hartland, Ravenna, Hudson, and Gallatin to Cleveland, and then returning by a loop route to Pittsburg by the way of Aurora, Mantua, Palmyra, Canfield, New Lisbon, Greersburg and Beaver Town to Pittsburg, once a week. He received a salary of $186 per quarter of a year during the continuance of his contract, to be paid in drafts on postmasters on that route, as above mentioned, or in money, at the option of the postmaster-general, Gideon Granger. He was authorized to carry newspapers, other than those conveyed in the mail, for his own endowment. Asael Adams, Jr., of Warren, had another mail contract from Gideon Granger, postmaster-general, dated October 18, 1811, to carry the mail from Greersburg, Pennsylvania, by way of Poland and Youngstown to Warren, Ohio, and return with the mail by the same route once a week, at the rate of $50 for every quarter of a year, for the term of three years and three months. He was to leave Greersburg every Saturday at 4:00 a.m., stopping at Poland and Youngstown and arriving at Warren at 6:00 p.m. The only postoffices on the route between Greersburg and Warren were Poland and Youngstown. He again, was allowed for his endowment to carry newspapers out of the mail if a printing press should be established on the route. The mail route between Greersburg and Warren was run in connection with the above mentioned route from Pittsburg and Cleveland. The postmaster at that time was General Simon Perkins at Warren, and the postmaster at Canfield was Comfort S. Mygatt. Asael Adams, Jr., the mail carrier, often while riding one horse with the mail would lead another, loaded with merchandise and articles from Pittsburg for the pioneers in Ohio. Dense woods skirted both sides of the bad roads almost the whole of the way from Pittsburg to Cleveland. Wolves and bears, as well as other wild animals roamed through these great forests, and often in the dark nights made the lonesome journey of the belated mail carrier exceedingly unpleasant. There were no bridges over rivers and streams, which were often very high. He would fasten the mail bag about his shoulders and swim his horse over the swollen rivers, often wet to the skin, and not a house within several miles' distance. The pioneers at Warren and Youngstown and other places along the route would often order him to purchase goods and merchandise for them in Pittsburg, which he would do, charging them for the money expended and for bringing to them their goods." While Asael was mail carrier,he has in his account book # 2 the folowing items charged to witt: THomas D. Webb ( Editor of the Trump of Fame), Dr. ------ To buy at Pittsburg a keg of printers ink and bringing it to Warren $2.75. To putting up newspapers one night 37 1/2 cents. To one loaf sugar, $ 2.25. To paid J.W. Snowdon for printer's ink $12.00. ************* Leonard Case. To leading horse from Pittsburg, $ 1.50 To carriage of saddle from Pittsburg, 50 cents. To balance for saddle, $ 4.75. To 2 boxes of wafers, 12 cents To 1 circingle, $ 1.00 *************** George Todd To Duanes' Dictionary, $6.75. To carriage of boots, 50 cents. To map of Canada, $1.00. **************** Camden Cleaveland To one large grammer. $ 1.00 To one lb. Tobacco and one almanac 37 1/2 cents. To Tobacco and powder, 37 cents. *************** James Scott, July 18,1812. To leading horse from Pittsburg $1.50. To three oz. indigo, 75 cents To martingale hooks and buckle, $ 1.25. To 2 lbs tea, $2.00. ******************** Comfort Mygatt, July 18, 1812. To one sword, $13.00 To one watch, $1.00 To powder and shot, $ 1.50 ***************** The foregoing are only a few of the entries listed in Asael Adams, Jr., Account book. Mail Carrier. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits continued in part 25.