OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 52B

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Historical Collections of Ohio.
And Then They Went West
Know Your Ohio
Tid Bits- Part 52 B.
notes by
S. Kelly - series of articles
Willowby Independant.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tid Bits - Part 52 B.
Reminiscences - Continued.

One more snake story. Joshua Stow, the proprietor of the south tract in
Kirtland, occasionally visited us. He was a good talker and
story-teller. He claimed to be very fond of rattlesnake meat; that it
was better and taster of finer flavor than any meat and as delicious as
the Southern people consider the opossum --- said that
when they were surveying the Reserve he acted as cook. One day he got a
fine rattlesnake and killed several squirrels, dressed them, cut out the
squirrels backs 
and substituted a suitable length of the snake. General Moses Cleveland,
partook of the snake and praised it very much-- had never eaten
squirrels so sweet and tender and of so fine a flavor. The next morning
Stow showed him the squirrel's backs and the ends of the snake. The
General did not relish the joke quite so well as he did the snake the
night before.

Wolves were plentiful and made the nights hideous with their howling. On
a still, cold night we could hear them in two or three different
directions, one would make noise enough for a dozen. My father was at
Kirtland Flats one evening, and Mr. French advised him not to go home
till morning, as there were wolves in the swamp. The fine bottom land
just southwest of the brick house at the flats was most of it a swamp,
with thick growth of young hemlock timber, where the wolves often
congregated - but my father came home. There was a light snow on the
ground in the morning, and tracks showed that three wolves had followed
him home and passed several times around the house. Some years later
there was a great wolf hunt, participated in by citizens of several
townships. Lines were formed around a large scope of country by
stationing men at suitable distances apart, all to march in toward a
common center, which was in the southeast part of Chester township. They
were to make such noise by blowing horns and other means, so as to drive
the wolves together. I was too young to participate in the hunt, but ten
or a dozen of the hunters tarried at our house on their return from the
hunt.

Their report was that several wolves had been seen and shot at, but
broke through the lines, and none had been secured. From their actions
the hunters seemed to have taken with them large rations of whiskey. One
of them stepped to the door and shot one of our hens, which incensed me
very much, as we had so few domesticated animals that each had an
individual interest and seemed like one of the family. But my
indignation was soon turned to laughter. We had an old cat, an excellent
mouser, who to show her superior skill as a hunter to our two legged
visitors, brought in a live mouse, and laid it down at the feet of Jesse
Ames, a lad of some 18 or 20 years. The mouse, not badly hurt, seeing a
chance to escape, darted up his trousers. By the way he yelled and
jumped about was enough to provoke laughter at a funeral. The mouse,
with his sharp claws, worked his way to the waistband, when his friends
interfered, stripped off his clothes and released him from his unwelcome
visitor.
We heard afterwards that one or two dead wolves had been found, and they
soon disappeared, and their nightly serenades were but seldom heard.

There were some bears in the woods then, and I suppose they were more
dangerous than the wolves, and did us more damage. They killed a hog for
us one evening near the house. We heard the squealing and the next
morning found the remains. I think there must have been two bears to
have devoured so much. My sister taught school in Painesville. One day
she and the older scholars stayed after school to clean out the room,
and it was nearly dark when they left. the girls going one way and she
the other, alone. In a short piece of woods, she heard steps behind her,
and looking around she saw a large bear following her. She faced him,
opening and shutting her umbrella several times. The bear hesitated, and
finally turned into the brush, when she made a good time, to her
boarding house. There were some wildcats in the woods then. Ariel
Corning, son of Warren Corning, of Mentor, had a battle with one in the
still-house. He succeded in killing it, which made quite a hero of him.

I do not think I have overdrawn the prevalence of liquor drinking in the
early 
settlemet of this country. Whiskey was cheap, and could be obtained for
labor or most any kind of produce; no temperance society had ever been
heard of, or any effort to restrain or lessen its use, and many excuses
could be made for the early settlers. They had left good homes, with the
conveniences and comforts of civilization, and placed themselves here in
the woods, with neighbors few and far between, with but few of the
comforts of life; with the herculean task of hewing out a farm from the
dense forests, and the long years it must take to obtain a comfortable
home; it seemed to them to require something to stimulate and nerve them
for the task, and give them courage to face the battle of life which was
before them.

At the close of the war, in 1815, emigrants began to arrive, John Morse
an his son, John F., came in the fall of 1815 and built a log house, and
returned to Massachusetts for his family: John F. rmaining in Madison to
attend school. In the spring of 1816 the family came out, and we had a
neighbor but a half mile away. They came in company with David Wilson,
who settled in Mentor, and with him came three or four young men by the
name of Viall; smart, active young men, who settled in Willoughby.
Jacob, I believe afterwards served two or three terms as sheriff of Lake
county. In 1815, Marshall Bronson came to Kirtland. He had purchased the
east half of the Root tract, or tract # 2, bounded on the west by the
Chillicothe road as it now runs. He paid but little if anything down,
and sold it all out in a year or two, mostly on credit. He failed to pay
for it, and it fell back to Root or his heirs, and those who purchased
the Bronson lost all they had paid him, and so had to buy again of the
rightful owner. Many of them left; Bronson got into difficulty wth some
of his purchasers, and was finally sent to the penitentiary for a short
time. I have been told that on his release he went to Michigan, where he
made a raise and became quite noted, giving his name to a place called
Bronson.

                +++++++++++++++

There came from New Hampshire quite a colony and brought of Bronson ---
Stephen Ames and his three sons, Jeremiah, David and Ezra; two
sons-in-law, Aaron and Joseph Metcalf; his brother-in-law, a Buel, and
son or nephew, and Reuben Metcalf, twin brother to Aaron, who was never
married, and lies buried in South Kitland cemetery. Afterwards came
Samuel Moses and Levi. They were all large, stout men; their descendants
do not quite come up to the old stock in size, except Enos, who now
resides in Kirtland village. Abel Ames, brother of Stephen, came a year
later. Stephen Ames' house stood where Simeon Carter now lives. He was
township treasurer for many years, and at his house elections were held
and township business transacted. I believe that none of the Ames
descendants remain in this section, except those of the daughter, who
married Aaron Metcalf. There were the Gores, Godard, Craw, Robert Parks,
Leman Bronson, brother of Marshall, and others, who left on Bronson's
failure. About 1816 came Thomas Morley, Sr., and his son, Alfred; David
Holbrook, Samuel Tomblinson, Amos Wheeler and his sons, David and
Samuel; Alfred Witter; John Goodale, Aretas Marble, Henry Markell and
his five sns -- John, Peter, Benjamin, Nicholas, and James ( John was
afterwards one of the associate judges of Lake county.), Josiah Jones,
Robert Blair, Samuel Wilson and others. In 1818 the township settled
very rapidly. Card & Holmes built a grist mill at the Flats; James
Boyden put up a cloth-dressing and wool-carding establishment; Warren
Corning built a distillery and Isaac Chatfield started a blacksmith
shop, all wthin a year or two of that time. Claudius Stanard bought all
of the middle tract west of the Chillicothe road and gave farms to his
three sons and sons-in-law, Jos. Robison, and sold the balance to Reuben
Beeman, Edward and Abram Gilleti, Gideon McNutt, Jacob Lafter, and
others. But few of their descendants remain in Lake county.

In 1819 there were ninty-seven males that were old enough to vote. For
many years nearly all of our clothing was manufactured at home; the
women spun and wove our flax for our shirts, sheets and pantaloons for
summer wear, and for winter-wear they spun and wove the wool, and it was
fulled, colored and dressed by Boydon for ladies' wear; it was generally
half wood and half flax, called linsey wolsey. For very nice dresses, it
was all wool, stripped or checked, and finsihed and pressed, by Boydon,
the clothier. For footwear we used but little in summer; most of the
men, all of the children and some of the women going barefoot. In the
fall of the year we procured a side of sole leather, one of cowhide and
sometimes a calfskin, had a shoemaker come to the house with his kit of
tools and make up the shoes for the family. Boots were seldom worn;
leggings of cloth, tied from the knees down and to the shoe, kept out
the snow as well as bootlegs. The hides of all our creatures that were
slaughtered were taken to the tannery and tanned upon shares, the tanner
taking one-half.
Our head gear was mostly straw for children, both summer and winter; the
men frequently aspirng to coonskin caps. The ladies' bonnets generally
projected forward six inches or more, to protect from the rays of the
sun and the wind.  
A few years later Naverino bonnets became quite fashionable, being made
of pasteboard, colored and stamped to represent leghorn. They looked
quite pretty when new, and had the merit of being cheap, but were very
safe when caught out in a shower, as they were cut to shape and pasted
together. I once saw a lady caught in a shower on her way to
Painesville. The brim was down on her shoulders and the projecting front
hung down on her breast like a child's bib. But at the time, in larger
towns, the people dressed better, but few of the men going barefoot and
many of them wore broadcloth and soft shirts.

              +++++++++++++++++

>From 1816 to 1820 the neigboring townships settled up equally as fast as
Kirtland. I can only give the names of the prominent business men. I
think there had been some dry goods sold in Painesville previous to the
war. If I recollect aright, Franklin Paine had a small stock of goods,
but Wm. Latimer brought in the first general stock. The citizens in So.
Kirtland 
put up an ashery building at Peck's Corners, and Latimer bought all our
ashes and manufactured them into black salts. He paid for them in goods,
the price being four cents for field and seven for house ashes. He kept
a stock of ironware, which was a great help to us, as most of the people
had brought with them scant supplies of cooking utesils, and for sugar
making, kettles were indispensable. B.F. Tracy had a large stock of
goods for those times. A Mr. Patridge started a factoy for the
manufacture of hats and Mr. Croft made chairs. I recollect going there
with an ox team for a load of splint-bottomed chairs. Before that we
used benches and stools, It was an all day's drive to Painesville and
back with an ox team. Mentor had become quite thickly settled on the
ridge road and south o it. North of the wide strip of wet lands was
unsettled and there were but few settlers on the lake shore. Mr. Hopkins
was a very early settler at what was called Hopkin's Marsh. He once told
me, when I made an appraisal at Mentor township in 1846, that the site
of the first house he built was more than forty rods out in the lake. I
found lots that were originally one hundred acres reduced to seventy by
the encroachment of the lake. The mouth of Grand River was once at
Hopkin's Marsh, but the lake encroached upon the land until it reached
the bend of the river at Fairport and made that the mouth. Th bed of the
river below became filled and made an impassable swamp, rendering access
to the Headlands impossible except at Fairport and sometimes at Hopkin's
Marsh. Some of the names I recall to mind in Mentor were Kerrs,
Carrolls, Ingersolls, Prouty, Hodges, Rexfords, Goodells, Daniels,
Munsons, Dickys, and E. Ward, a Methodist clergyman.

In Willoughby there were the Cards, Christies, Woolseys, Cam the tailor,
the Sharpes, Colsons, Miller, and oters. I don't know when and by whom
the Willoughby mills were built, but I think
they may have been built previous to 1811; but our first milling was
done at Painesville, and the few boards used about our log house was for
floors and shelves came from Painesville..

It is and old saying that one-half of the world does not know how the
other half lives. It is equally true that the present generation does
not know how the preseding generation lived. My parents home was made of
axe architecture, the only tool being the only necessary in its
construction. The size was sixteen or eighteen feet wide by twenty-two
to twenty-four feet long, inside measure. The door was in the front
side, about the middle of the building. We had a back door on the
opposite side. At one end seven or eight feet of the lgs were cut out
about six feet high, and the opening filled with a stone wall. On this
wall at each end was laid a timber sufficiently large to support the
chimney to the fire chamber floor beam, about four feet from the end of
the house and some two feet higher than the wall. On these timbers and
wall the chimney was built with flat sticks, some two or three inches
wide, laid up in clay mortar and plastered outside and within the same.
The chimney narrowed as it went up out of the peak of the room, from six
by four to three by two, giving a good light from above to the fireplace
below, where it was very much needed.  A wooden crane stool at one end
of the firepalce, with an arm sufficiently long to reach to the other
end of the fireplace. A trammel or other device was used to hang the pot
or kettle, and to raise or lower it as occasion required. In the
fireplace was a large back log, five or six feet long, and smaller wood
could be piled on to wam the whole house and a considerable portion of
the outdoors above the chimney. Our cooking utensils consisted of a
five-pail brass kettle, an eight quart brass kettle, one-pail iron pot,
an iron tea-kettle, and a frying-pan with an iron handle three or foor
feet long. Our bread was baked in a Dutch oven out of doors. Probably we
were well off for cooking utensils as most of our neighbors. For light
we had greased paper windows by the side of the door and from the
chimney above. For a buttery a few shelves in one corner of the room by
the fireplace, and a chest brought from Massachusetts, had to answer.
The opposite corner was occupied by a ladder for access to the chamber,
until we could get lumber for stairs. For a cellar we had a trap door in
th floor and a small hole dug in the ground for stowing a few vegetables
out of the way of frost. Our supply of table furniture was very scant,
especially for plates, from breakage on the road. We had six pewter
plates of English manufacture; they would not do to cut on, as it
scratched them; so it became the duty of the cook to cut the meat in
small pieces and dish it out to us with a spoon. When Mr. Gillmore came
to Chester, in 1811, he had a lathe for turning wooden bowls and plates,
called trenchers. The spaces between the logs of our house were chinked
on the iinside wth pieces of wood and plastered on the outside with clay
mortar. The building  was carried up some four to five feet above the
chamber floor, then on each side log drawn in about three feet, each
rounded as it went up to the peak. These side logs, lying horizontal,
answered for rafters to lay shingles upon, or shakes, as they were
called. The shingles were about four feet long, and generally split out
of white oak, the wider and thinner, the better. These, if laid about
three thicknesses, and weighted down with heavy poles to keep the in
place, make a very good roof. The chamber was all one room, and answered
for storage of corn, spinning wheels, and all the traps, barrels and
household goods that were not in daily use, besides lodging-room for the
young folks. The hearth, some six by eight, was of clay, pounded down
hard and made smooth, five or six inches lower than the floor. When we
found flat quarry stones they were laid on the clay, bringing the hearth
up even with the floor. This the women folks thought a great
improvement, and much more cleanly, as the hearth could be swept without
raisng a cloud of clay dust. Our brooms were all splint brooms, home
made. The back end of the room was partitioned off into two bedrooms,
originally by blankets hung up around the beds -- a rack overhead, with
numerous poles for drying pumpkins, and numerous pegs driven into the
logs all around the room for hanging up clothing, seed corn, red
peppers, dried beef, and other articles. 

Our great trouble was the want of light. Our two greased paper windows
gave but poor light in clear weather, and on dark and cloudy days were
almost worthless. But these windows were only temporary. Our glass came
from Pittsburg by wagons, and was of poor qaulity, thin, and much of it
lost by breakage on the road. The price was very high, and much of the
time it could not be obtained at any price.
At night, our source of light was the tallow dip, which would give but
just enough light to make darkness visible, and we had to be very
prudent in their use, as there were not enough beef cattle slaughtered
to half supply the inhabitants with candles. When the candles gave out,
we tied a cotton rag around a button, gathering it around the eye of the
button, letting it stick up a half inch or more, set it in a saucer,
filling the saucer with lard. It would take two or three lamps of this
kind to make darkness visible. Our next resouce for light, and perhaps
the most important one, was hickory bark. We kept a supply on hand, and,
by occasionally feeding the fire with this, it made a better light for a
half dozen to read by than the tallow dip. 

The great wonder to me is, how people raised the money to buy books, for
times were extremely hard -- no money in circulation. There had been
slight, if any improvement as years went by. It was at that time almost
impossible to raise money to pay taxes, or take a letter from the post
office. It is hard for people to pay their debts, the money drained out
of the country and goes to Europe to pay for goods, hard times follow,
and a general crash and stagnation is the result. Fortunately the
organization of the  "Mentor Library Association "  called up some very
early and pleasant recollections of mine connected with it. Their books
were kept at Judge Clapp's most of the time while I knew anything about
it. As I recall it, I don't think there were over two hundred volumes in
it, mostly solid reading for mature minds. 
Not a romance ( we called them " novels" in those days) in it, unless it
was Goldsmith's " Vicar of Wakefield." Many at that time did not believe
in reading or permitting their children to read that kind of literature.
I remember a few of the volumes in that collection --" Addisons
Spectator; Cook's voyages; Riley's Narrative; and Priest's Wonders of
Nature" -- the last two of which I read. As a little boy I was often
sent out to exchange books before I was big enough to want to read them.
With oats at fifteen, corn at twenty five, and whiskey at from seventeen
to nineteen cents per gallon, that little library told all the strangers
of the tastes, intelligence, self sacrifices, of the early settlers in
our heavily timbered country. I hope that I have been able to furnish
your paper with our recollections that too shall be read and remembered
of our liittle venture with life as a pioneer in our early beginnings. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tid Bits continued in Part 53.