OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 737 Today's Topics: #1 obit: BARTON, Josephine Montgomery [christina m hursh To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <19991018.194706.-146247.13.frog158@juno.com> Subject: obit: BARTON, Josephine Montgomery co. Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From the Dayton Daily News February 1947, page unknown. MRS JOSEPINE E. BARTON Mrs. Josephine E. Barton, 62, died at 6:30 a.m. Sturday at her residence, 39 E. Hudson av. She was a Dayton resident for 45 years. Surviving are here husband, Charles N.; two sons, Lawrence and Edward, both of Dayton, and two granddaughters. Funeral services will be held at 2:30 p.m. Monday at the Stamper funeral home, 1833 N. Main St. with burial in Woodlawn cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 4 p.m. Sunday. ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 15:15:19 -0500 From: christina m hursh To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <19991018.194706.-146247.5.frog158@juno.com> Subject: obit - WHITE, Mrs. Julia Montgomery co. Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From the Dayton Daily News February 1947, page unknown. MRS. JULIA WHITE Funeral services for Mrs. Julia White, 46, of 2633 Riverview av. who died Thursday at the Good Samaritan hospital will be conducted at 1:30 p.m. Monday in the Magetti funeral home, 325 N. Broadway and 2 p.m. at the Magyar Evangelical and Reformed church, 626 Blaine st., by Rev. Ander Harsany. Burial will be in Woodland Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home after 6 p.m. Saturday ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #3 Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 15:49:12 -0500 From: christina m hursh To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <19991018.194706.-146247.11.frog158@juno.com> Subject: obit: HARNESS, Henry Montgomery co. Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From the Dayton Daily News February 1947, page unknown. HENRY DAVID HARNESS Henry David Harness, 49, died at the Dayton Osteopathic hospital, Friday, following a lengthy illness. He lived in Hillsboro. Mr. Harness was born near Jamestown and resided in Dayton the greater part of his life. He had been an employee of American Aircraft and was a member of the Lutheran church. Surviving are his wife, Hazel; five sons, Henry Jr. of the U.S. Navy; Bill of Dayton, and Bob, Jack, and James of Hillsboro; four daughters, Dorothy, Maryilyn, Barbara, and Betty, all of Hillsboro; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. L.C. Harness of Blanchester; three brothers, William and Virgil of Dayton and Edgar of Blanchester; three sisters, Mrs Nina Rutledge, Mrs. Helen Miller and Mrs. Lorena Heilman, all of Dayton. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. monday at the Hoyne funeral home, 1817 E. Third st., with burial in Jamestown. Friends may call at the funeral home after 2 p.m. Sunday. ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #4 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1999 09:43:27 -0400 From: Gina Reasoner To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.19991016001009.00956e10@pop.prodigy.net> Subject: SUMMIT COUNTY PART 4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D. SUMMIT COUNTY PART 4 THE MIDDLEBURY HYDRAULIC COMPANY was organized and authorized by the Legislature "to raise the natural surface of Springfield lake, in which the Little Cuyahoga had its rise, six feet, and lower it four feet below the natural surface. This gave to the water-power of the village a permanency and sufficiency that could be relied on at all times." In 1872 Middlebury was annexed to Akron as the sixth ward of that city. MIDDLEBURY is now a part of Akron. It our old edition it was thus described as in the township of Tallmadge: "Two miles east of Akron and on both sides of the Little Cuyahoga is the village of Middlebury. As early as 1807 a grist mill was built on the site of the town by Amos Norton and Joseph Hart. The town was laid out in 1818 by them, and soon became the most thriving village in this whole region until the canal was cut through to Cleveland, when Akron took away most of its trade. It has two churches and about 1,000 people." -Old Edition. Within Akron's beautiful and well-kept Glendale cemetery stands the AKRON SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL CHAPEL, dedicated Decoration Day, 1876. At the time of its erection it was the only building of the kind in the country. Its erection is due to the Buckley Post of the G.A.R., aided by outside subscriptions. The chapel is a handsome stone structure, its cost $25,000. Built into its interior walls are fourteen marble slabs, engraved with the names of the fallen brave of Akron and Portage township. A striking feature of the chapel are three beautiful memorial windows -one by the surviving members of the 29th O.V.I., in honor of the regiment and the late Col. Lewis P. Buckley, from whom the Post is named; a second, representing woman's work in the war; and the third, commemorative of three epochs in national history -Washington, Perry and Lincoln. There are also eight small memorial windows, individual contributions. The admirable AKRON SCHOOL SYSTEM (see Vol. I., page 143) is the result of the efforts of Rev. I. Jennings, a young man, pastor of the Congregational church at Akron, who, in 1846, set himself to work to reorganize the common schools of Akron. Previous to this the schools of Akron were poor affairs, giving only the most rudimentary education, and even that was accorded to only about two-thirds of the children of school age. In May, 1846, Mr. Jennings called a public meeting to secure better education, at which he was appointed chairman of a committee to submit a plan for improvement. At an adjourned meeting of citizens, held Nov. 21, 1846, the following plan received the unanimous approval and adoption of those assembled: 1. Let the whole village be incorporated into one school district. 2. Let there be established six primary schools in different parts of the village, so as best to accommodate the whole. 3. Let there be one grammar-school, centrally located, where instructions may be given in the various studies and parts of studies not provided for in the primary schools, and yet requisite to a respectable English education. 4. Let there be gratuitous admission to each school in the system for the children of residents, with the following restrictions, viz.: No pupil shall be admitted to the grammar-school who fails to sustain a thorough examination in the studies of the primary school and the teacher shall have power, with the advice and direction of the superintendent, to exclude for misconduct in extreme cases, and to classify the pupils as the best good of the schools may seem to require. 5. The expense of establishing and sustaining this system of schools shall be thus provided for: First, by appropriating what public school money the inhabitants of the village are entitled to, and what other funds or property may be at the disposal of the board for this purpose; and secondly, a tax be levied by the Common Council upon the taxable property of this village for the balance. 6. Let six superintendents be chosen by the Common Council, who shall be charged with perfecting the system thus generally defined, the bringing of it into operation, and the control of it when brought into operation. Let the six superintendents be so chosen that the term of office of two of them shall expire each year. This plan was embodied in an act passed by the Legislature, Feb. 8, 1847, excepting that the name of officers and mode of election of the sixth paragraph were changed. From a historical sketch of the schools of Akron, by Judge C. Bryan, we quote the following: "The interval between the meetings, in May and November, 1846, was improved by Mr. Jennings in collecting information, maturing the plan and elaborating the report. The idea originated with Mr. Jennings, and the labor of visiting every home in the village, to ascertain what children went to school and who did not go, and who went to public schools and who went to private, and how much was paid for school instruction, was performed by him. He went to Cleveland and Sandusky city in the same interest, to see the operation of graded schools there. He procured estimates by competent mechanics of the cost of erecting a grammar-school building to accommodate 500 pupils, and omitted no detail of the plan that was necessary to show it in organic completeness; and whatever credit and distinction Akron may have enjoyed for the principle of free graded schools in Ohio is due to Mr. Jennings." BUCHTEL COLLEGE stands on a beautiful and commanding eminence overlooking the city. It was founded in 1870 through the action of the State Convention of Universalists, and named in honor of John R. Buchtel, of Akron, who contributed $25,000 for the building and $6,000 for the endowment fund. After the completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal, it was determined to make water connection between Cleveland and Pittsburg, and in 1841 the PENNSYLVANIA AND OHIO CANAL was completed from Akron to Beaver, Pa. For a time the canal flourished, but the completion of and later the control acquired by the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad Company, let to its gradual disuse and dilapidation, until it became a menace to the health of those residing in its neighborhood. One night, in the spring of 1868, the banks were cut in three places, at and near Cuyahoga Falls, and its waters flowed out until the bottom appeared. The State threatened prosecution, but none was ever commenced and the breaks never repaired. Again, in the spring of 1874, the canal was cut by night in Akron by disguised men, but no one was punished, although the supposed guilty parties were arrested. In 1838 a party of capitalists, largely Eastern men, undertook to build a great manufacturing city at a point between Cuyahoga Falls and Akron, to be called SUMMIT CITY. A joint stock company, with a capital of $500,000, was organized. the city was to be supplied with inexhaustible water-power, by means of a dam and canal diverting the waters of the Cuyahoga river. Work was begun and in 1839 water turned into the canal, but at this point the money gave out, and matters were at a standstill until in 1843 Horace Greeley, while on a visit to Akron, was so impressed by the scheme that, on his return to New York, he published in the Tribune an enthusiastic article, predicting that "Summit City" would become the "Lowell of the West." Nevertheless, no more money could be raised for the future "Lowell," and it "died a 'bornin'." The lands of the company, called the "Chuckery," are now in the suburbs of Akron. -continued in part 5 ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #5 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1999 11:09:40 -0400 From: Gina Reasoner To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.19991017094540.0095d1e0@pop.prodigy.net> Subject: SUMMIT COUNTY PART 5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe., LL.D. SUMMIT COUNTY PART 5 TALLMADGE, THE CHRISTIAN COLONY The history of the settlement of the township of Tallmadge is peculiar. At a drawing among the members of the Connecticut Land Company, at Hartford, Connecticut, Jan. 30. 1798, this township was drawn by the "Brace Company" and others. In 1803 the proprietors made a division. The Brace Company took all west of the meridian, one-half mile west of the centre line. The remainder of the township was taken by Ephraim Starr and Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, of Litchfield, from whom the township was named. No settlement was made in Tallmadge until the summer of 1807, when Rev. David Bacon, a missionary in the Western settlements, built a log-house on the south line of the township, half a mile west of the centre, and moved in with this family, the only one in the township. Mr. Bacon had conceived the idea of a religious colony, and made a contract with the owners for nearly the entire township; in all about 12,000 acres at $1.50 per acre. Payments were to be made upon time, but when payments were made for any part in full a deed was to be given. In the preceding year he had a new survey made of the township upon his own plan. He divided it into sixteen squares of 1,000 acres each, called Great Lots, a mile and a quarter on each side. A road or highway was established sixty-six feet wide on each line of the Great Lots, except the exterior or township line. These roads all run north and south or east and west. A public square of seven and a half acres was laid out as a common centre for churches, schools, stores,etc. From this square roads ran to each of the four corners of the township. The plan is shown in the annexed diagram, as given in 1842, by Col. Charles Whittlesey (see page 521), in his sketch of Tallmadge. Here he passed his youthful days and from his sketch these facts are derived. "At the common intersection of roads on the public square stands (1842) a guide-post, having eight fingers or hands, pointing in as many directions, with the names of two to four adjacent places painted upon each. On each of these avenues there are now planted double rows of elms from the adjoining forests. The northwest diagonal intersects the town line about half a mile east of the corner, in order to avoid the Cuyahoga river, and the southwest diagonal has a deviation in a straight course in the village of Middlebury; otherwise all these roads, amounting to forty-five miles in length, are now travelled in right lines through the town as laid out Mr. Bacon. It was the intention of the contractor, Mr. Bacon, to introduce a community of property to some extent, and among other things to have a large tract appropriated as a common pasture for all the sheep of the settlement, the proceeds to be drawn in proportion to the stock put in. No immigrants were to receive land who were not professors of the Congregational or Presbyterian Church, and two-dollars for each 100 acres was to be paid for the support of the gospel. The latter provision was inserted in some of the early contracts and deeds, but, in fact, never went into effect. During the spring and summer of the year following Mr. Bacon's establishing here, families came in rapidly, nearly all originally from Connecticut, especially from Litchfield county; many came direct from other settlements in Ohio, as those from Ravenna who "were driven out," writes Whittlesey, "by the systematic oppression of a large proprietor and agent, BenjaminTappan." The first settlers prior to 1812 were: In 1808, Dr. A.C. Wright, Joseph Hart, Adam Norton, Charles Chittenden, Jonathan Sprague, Nathaniel Chapmen, Titus, his father, Titus and Porter, and others of his sons, William Niel, Joseph Bradford, Ephraim Clark Jr., George Kilbourne, Capt. John Wright, Alpha Wright, Eli Hill. In 1809, Jotham Blakeley, Jotham Blakelee, Conrad Boosinger, Edmund Strong, John Wright Jr., Stephen Upson, Theron Bradley, Peter Norton. In 1810, Elizur Wright, Justus Barnes, Shubel H. Lowrey, David John, Samuel, David Jr., and Lot Preston, Drake Fellows, Samuel M'Coy, Luther Chamberlin, Rial M'Arthur, Justin Bradley. In 1811, Deacon S., Norman, Harvey, Leander, Cassander, Eleazar and Salmon Sackett, Daniel Beach, John Carruthers, Reuben Upson and Asa Gillett. On the 21st of January, 1809, Geo. Kilbourne and his wife Almira, Justin E. Frink, Alice Bacon, wife of David Bacon, Hepsibah Chapman, Amos C. Wright, and Lydia, his wife, and Ephraim Clark Jr., with his wife Alva A. Clark, associated themselves together as a church, named the Church of Christ in Tallmadge. Thus in the second year of its existence were the principles of the Bible adopted as the rule of moral government in this settlement. In 1813 the church had twenty-seven members, mostly heads of families within the township. The stern purity of those New Englanders relaxed none of its rigor in consequence of a removal from the regular administration of the gospel in the East to the depths of a Western wilderness. The usual depreciation of morals in new countries was not experienced here. To this day the good effects of this primitive establishment of religion and order are plainly visible among this people and their posterity, who will no doubt exhibit them through all time. Individuals not professors of religion considered it a paramount duty to provide for religious services on the Sabbath. Elizur Wright, who became an extensive proprietor in the Brace Company's tract, readily adopted the plan of Mr. Bacon, and inserted it in his first conveyance. but this scheme was considered by most of the inhabitants as an encroachment upon their personal independence, and was generally resisted. Very early, however, a regular mode of contribution was established for the support of the gospel. The materials of society which Mr. Bacon had introduced were not of the proper kind to carry out his project. There was too much enterprise and independence of feeling among the early settlers to form a community of the character contemplated by him. Differences of a personal nature rose between him and many of the inhabitants, both upon pecuniary and religious matters. His purchases being made on time, without means and at high prices, and the sales not being sufficient, payments were not made to the original proprietors; the expenses of survey had been considerable, interest accumulated and the contract was finally abandoned. He left this region in the spring of 1812. The lands not sold came back to the proprietors; and some that had been sold and the payments not made to them were in the same situation. The large owners at this time were Tallmadge and Starr in the central and eastern part; Elizur Wright and Roger Newberry in the West. In the summer of 1875 two of the grandsons of Mr. Bacon, both Congregational clergymen, Theodore Woolsey Bacon and David Bacon, came from the East, and selecting a boulder had engraved upon it an historical statement, as a memorial to him and the founding of the church. A picture of it on another page is engraved from a photograph. A large concourse of people attended the memorial services, which consisted of addresses by the grandsons and others, with prayer and songs. The site is about two miles south of the centre and half a mile north of the Cuyahoga, on the spot where stood the Bacon cabin, the ground having been purchased for the purpose. HISTORICAL MISCELLANY. DRIVING AWAY THE EVIL SPIRIT. On June 17, 1806, an eclipse of the sun occurred. It occasioned much consternation among ignorant whites throughout Ohio, and great terror among the Indians. Those in Summit county were greatly frightened, notwithstanding its having been foretold by some of their squaws, who were not believed and put to death for witchcraft. (The squaws probably got their information from some of the whites.) When the sun was obscured, the terrified savages gathered together, and forming a circle, commenced marching around in regular order, each one firing his gun and making all the noise possible, so as to frighten away the evil spirit menacing the destruction of the world. One "brave," who had fired off his rifle just as the shadow began to pass from the sun, claimed the distinction of having driven away the evil spirit -a claim which his fellow-barbarians recognized, and for his valorous deed and invaluable service, at once raised him to the dignity of chieftainship. STIGWANISH AND HIS TOTEM. Stigwanish, or Seneca, as he was sometimes called by the whites, although that was the name of his tribe, had many noble traits of character, was friendly to the whites and much respected by them. (See lake County). His people for years cultivated corn fields near where the village of Cuyahoga Falls now stands. In Boston township they erected a wooden god or totem, around which they held feasts and dances, before starting on hunting and possibly marauding expeditions. They would make offerings and hang tobacco round the neck of the totem, which the white settlers would steal as soon as the Indians had left. The tobacco was said to have been of a superior quality. When the Indians went farther west in 1812, this god was taken with them. DEATH OF NICKSHAW. Stigwanish had a son, "George Wilson," and a son-in-law, Nickshaw, each of whom was killed by a white hunter named Williams at different times, but in both cases under circumstances hardly creditable to the white hunter. The death of Nickshaw occurred in December, 1806; he had traded a pony with one of the settlers, and being worsted in the bargain wanted to trade back, which John Diver, the settler, refused to do. Nickshaw threatened vengeance; he told the settlers he had been cheated, and intended to shoot Diver. Later while at the cabin of his brother, Nickshaw and another Indian called and tried to get Diver to come out, but he would not, and his brother Daniel went out to placate the Indians when he was fired upon, and though not mortally wounded was blinded for life. The Indians fled, and a party of settlers, under Maj. H. Rogers, started in pursuit. They came upon the camp of the Senecas about midnight on a cold, clear night, at a point near the northwestern boundary of the county. Surrounding the camp, they closed in upon the Indians, but Nickshaw escaped them and fled to the woods. He was followed by George Darrow and Jonathan Williams, who, after a three mile chases, overtook Nickshaw and called upon him to yield; this he refused to do, although without means of defence. Williams then shot over his head to frighten him into subjection, but without the desired effect; whereupon he fired again, killing the Indian. The body was placed under a log and covered with brush. Afterward it was decently buried by the whites. Some of the settlers, deeming the death of Nickshaw unwarrantable, and likely to occasion trouble with the Indians, demanded an investigation. The investigation, however, ended in a "hoe-down," with plenty of whiskey and a $5 collection for Williams. WILLIAMS THE HUNTER. Jonathan Williams belonged to that class of old pioneer hunters who knew no fear, were fully equal to the Indians in woodcraft and bore them an inveterate hatred. He lost no opportunity to kill an Indian. He was six feet in height, with strong physique, swarthy complexion, lithe and noiseless in his movements. He supported a family. With his two dogs and rifle he was feared and shunned by the Indians, and was continually on his guard against them, as his life was threatened many times. DEATH OF "GEORGE WILSON". On one occasion, stopping at the house of one of the settlers, Williams was told that "George Wilson," a good-for-nothing son of Stigwanish, had been there, drunk and ugly, and had made an old woman, whom he found alone, dance for his amusement until she sank to the floor from exhaustion. Williams at once started after the Indian, and overtook him in the vicinity of a piece of "Honeycomb swamp." Taking advantage of the Indian while off his guard, he shot and killed him. Then depositing the body in the swamp, he pushed it down into the mud until it sunk out of sight. The disappearance of "George Wilson" created a great sensation among the Senecas, but it was not known until years afterward what had become of him, although the Indians and settlers suspected Williams as the cause of it. "BLUE LAW" IN OHIO. Some years after the organization of Copley township in 1819, one of its citizens, early one Sunday morning, was aroused from his slumbers by the noise of a great commotion in his pig pen. Hastily donning his clothes, he seized a rifle and rushed out of his cabin just in time to see a bear disappear in the forest with one of his pigs. He pursued the bear and shot it; whereupon he was brought before the Squire for violating the Sabbath, and fined $1. Shortly afterward the citizen left that community and joined the Mormons. The historian does not so state, but if he was prompted to this as a result of the fine imposed for violating the Sabbath, he was so far, perhaps, justified in joining the Mormons, who had no laws against shooting marauding bears on the "Lord's day." -continued in part 6 -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #737 *******************************************