Portage County OhArchives Biographies.....John Haymaker July 28 1774 - February 24 1828
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Mary Lou Cook collectornuts@aol.com February 6, 2004, 9:56 pm

Author: Unknown

John Haymaker, son of Jacob and the father of Frederick, cam to Portage County 
with his wife, Sallie, and children, Jacob, George and Catherine, and settled 
in Kent, on the Cuyahoga river, coming from Warren, Ohio, where they had 
located a year previously, having come from Pittsburgh.  They were of German 
descent and members of a large connection of that name in central and northern 
Pennsylvania.  The father, Jacob, had prospected through this section of the 
country during the spring of 1805, and, being pleased with the country, now 
Franklin Township, purchased of Olmstead’s agent a tract of land consisting of 
the present site of the Kent mills.  Arriving at the Cuyahoga, John and his 
family took possession of a rude cabin left by the surveyors, in 1803, which 
stood just west of where the upper bridge now is.  This hut had been used for 
several years indiscriminately by the Indians and a shelter for deer and other 
wild animals, and was about a foot deep with excrement, which had to be 
shoveled out before occupation.  During the time they occupied this hovel, the 
Indians came around in great numbers, as the headquarters of the red-skins 
were at the falls of the Cuyahoga and on a small stream in Streetsboro 
township.  One day, while the Haymakers were occupying this cabin, a few 
Indians came there and the squaw, as usual, took her papoose from her back and 
stood the board to which it had been strapped up against the logs of the 
cabin, as they never took their children into the houses of whites, except in 
the very cold weather.  After the squaw had gone in, a wild hog came through 
the brush, and grasping the Indian baby ran off with it; the mother, hearing 
the noise, ran out and rescued her babe, but not until she had badly beaten 
the hog.  In the spring of 1806, George Haymaker, brother of John, and their 
father Jacob, came in.  Jacob built a house on the west side of the river, 
where the Kent mills now stand.  During the fall of 1806, Frederick Haymaker 
came in.  He was another son of Jacob.  He purchased a tract of land including 
most of the upper village.  The Haymaker family owned about 600 acres on the 
present site of Kent.  The older Haymakers were Indian traders.  During 1807 
the Haymakers built a small mill.  The stones for grinding were those known as 
hard heads and were prepared by Bradford Kellogg, of Hudson.  The mill was a 
very crude affair and was used before it was entirely finished.  Crotched 
poles were planted, upon which other poles were placed.  A course cloth was 
used as a bolting cloth – the work being done by hand.  This primitive affair 
was of great convenience to the settlers and was used with but little 
improvement for several years.  The first white child born in Kent was John F. 
Haymaker, son of John and Sallie Haymaker, born September 11, 1807.  The first 
death was that of Eve Haymaker, wife of Jacob, father of the first settler, 
John.  Jacob died in 1819, John in 1827, George in 1838, and Frederick died in 
Trumbull county, Ohio, at Leavittsburg in 1850.  Sallie died on June 15, 1869, 
at the great age of ninety-four years.  The old burying ground in which Eve 
Haymaker was buried in 1810 was donated by one of the Haymakers for burial 
purposes and consisted of two acres of land.  

Additional Comments:
Source:  Portrait and Biographical Record of Portage and Summit Counties. A.W. 
Bowen Co., Logansport, IN. 1898, pages 782-783.  Transcribed by Mary Lou Cook

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