OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 60 *********************************************************************** 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. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 60 Today's Topics: #1 Geauga County - Part 2 [Gina Reasoner To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.20000212154210.00958db0@pop.prodigy.net> Subject: Geauga County - Part 2 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed HIstorical 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. THE 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 ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2000 00:55:28 EST From: Matboyd@aol.com To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <49.13a96d9.25df8a50@aol.com> Subject: Scott's History of Fairfield Co, Carpernter's addition Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit pg 34 Carpenter's Addition (to Lancaster) The part of Lancaster known as Carpenter's Addition, begins with the south side of an alley, sometimes spoken of as Carpenter's allley, which, beginning at the canal on the western border of the city, runs a due east dorectopm tp High street in front of the Methodist Church. This alley is situated haldway between Jail and Walnut streets. All that part of the city lying south of Carperter's alley is properly Carter's Addition. Mr. Carpenter was known in his day as Emanuel Carpenter, Junior. (In the original play, this alley was called Jackson alley.) He gave three lots on the east side of High street, to be used for church and burial purposes. The north division of sthis gifst is that on which the Methodist Church edifice now stands; the middle division belongs sto the African Methodissts, upon which they have erected a commoduous fram church; and the south division has been used by the city for opej9ng Walnut street. All the ground in Carperter's Addition, extending now as far as Maple street in front of Hunter's residenxce, belonged originally to Zane's tract, though Carpenter's Addition at first lay west of High street, that part lying between High and Maple streets having been sold to parties as out-lots, and since subdibided and sold as town-lots. The Zane tract, one mile square, begun on the north side of what in known as Lundy's Lane, on the south front of the fairgrounds at the foot of Mount Pleasant; its eastern boundary was Maple street; it's southern line passed from a point a few rods west of the present residence of Thomas White, Esq., upon Kootz's hill, thence west past Giesy's mill to the west line, to intersect the north line, and embraced what is now the residence of G. Mithoss ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #3 Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2000 00:55:30 EST From: Matboyd@aol.com To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: Subject: Scott's Hist. of Fairfield Co, 1806 taxpayers Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Names of Tax-payers in Fairfield County in 1806 Hocking Township Aller, John Harper, Samuel Pitcher, Abram. Baker, Daniel Huffman, John Pew, Marshall Bond, Thomas Hanson, George Rees, John Babb, William Hunter, John Rees, Solomon Boiler, Elias Hunter, Joseph Roberts, Ezekiel Burton, Jacob Harmon, Jacob Rees, David Bucher, Philloman Holler, Samuel Rees, Thomas Boyle, Hugh Hardy, James Rees, Morris Bryan, Peter Hunter, James Rees, James Cox, Mary Hutchins, Benedict Rever, Peter Clayton, John Irwin, William Reynolds, Larken Convers, James Irwin, William D. Slaughter, Robert Compton, Ezekiel Ingman, Edward, jr Spurgeon, Jesse Compton, John Ingman, Edward Searls, John Coffenberry, George Invel, Samuel Swearengen, Thos. Carpenter, Emanuel Kemp, Henry Shope, Daniel Cisna, Thomas King, Christian Sturgeon, Timothy Coates, Samuel Koons, John Shurr, John Collen, Timoth Keller, James Sacket, Elizabeth Duffield, William Lymk, Johnathan Swizerk, John Dillen, Henry Lofland, John Selby, Ralph Daily, Charles Mellon, Bandle Stoops, Samuel Eckhart, Conrad Meek, Jacob Stoops, William Feather, Peter McCabe, William Stigart, Luke Ferry, Thomas McCabe, David Stull, John Foglesong, John Marshall, John Scofield, Elenathan Fricher, Thomas Marres, Ralph Thompson, Samuel Graham, Edward Marr, John Tumlinson, William Green, Samuel Myrer, Henry Vanmeter, Daniel Green, Allen Myrer, Joseph Woolford, Jacob Green, George McPherson, John Wilson, Nathaniel, sr. Green, Charles North, Mary Watson, John Green, William Neel, John Wiletson, Elisha Green, Timothy Neibling, Christian Weaver, Adam Gaster, Jacob Price, John Work, Joseph Gisinger, David Pitcher, Rudolph Williamson, John Gates, Samuel Painter, Jacob Wilson, Nathaniel, jr Hedger, Jesse Peek, Wm B. Young, William Huston, Andrew Pitcher, Frederick, sr Zerba, Peter Tomorrow, Berne Township taxpayers ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #4 Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 22:27:56 -0800 From: "marilyn_morgan" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <000701bf7aa2$76ccff20$b840193f@mmorgan> Subject: OBIT:Hopkins, 1879, Ashtabula Co. Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Ashtabula Telegraph 26 Dec. 1879 CONNEAUT My Dear Old Telegraph:--The cold chilly winds of December are upon us, and if we have all done our duty we are prepared for them, as we have had sufficient warning. Last week two quite sudden deaths occurred in our midst. One a Mr. Garner HOPKINS, who lived near Amboy station, had been threshing for a neighbor with a flail, came home and while sitting in his chair with the family, suddenly ceased to breathe, and that was all the struggle he had to pass away. He was a very robust, hearty man for one of his age--85. Some fifty years ago he was a resident of Ashtabula, and lived near Bunker Hill. The other was Stephen B. Hopkins, a nephew of Garner. He had been a resident of the borough for the past eight years. He was formerly from Pierpont, and I believe was one of the pioneers of that township. He was one of the most successful deer hunters on the Reserve. The Hopkins family were natives of Rhode Island, and descended of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. {Stephen Hopkins, Signer of the Declaration of Independence was actually a second cousin twice removed.} -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V00 Issue #60 ******************************************