TRUMBULL COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: Part 2 (published 1874) *************************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. *************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Linda R. & Henry L. LIPPS, Kinsman, OH LRLBugsy@aol.com Researching ancestors & descendants of Daniel LIPPS/1792/Greenbriar Co., WV February 17, 1999 *************************************************************************** The following sketch is taken from COMBINATION ATLAS MAP OF TRUMBULL COUNTY, OHIO Compiled, Drawn and Published From Personal Examinations and Surveys By L. H. Everts Chicago, Ill. 1874 This Reprint sponsored by the Trumbull County Chapter, Ohio Genealogical Society Reprinted 1974, Second Reprint 1996, by The Bookmark, P. O. Box 90, Knightstown, Ind. HISTORY OF TRUMBULL COUNTY, OHIO (Part 2) After this appropriation of five hundred thousand acres as aforesaid, the State of Connecticut sold the balance of this large territory for one million two hundred thousand dollars to an organization known as the Connecticut Land Company, fifty-seven in number, which company caused this territory to be surveyed into ranges of five miles broad, running north and south, beginning on the Pennsylvania line, and numbering from east to west consecutively; that on the Pennsylvania line being No. 1. The Pennsylvania line was run in 1789, and from this the surveying party sent out in 1796, by the Connecticut Land Company, made a starting point in commencing their work. The Reserve was then surveyed into Townships--by lines running east and west, each five miles from the other--all those abutting on the south line of the Reserve being Townships No. 1. This land was then disposed of by the issue and sale of certificates of the Connecticut Land Company, entitling the holder to the quantity of land in Connecticut Western Reserve therein stated, its location to be determined by lot. The certificates went into the markets of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and elsewhere, and sold everywhere and to everybody that could buy, and to very many that ought not to have bought. Many there were who were made bankrupt by the operation. Thus the lands went into the hands of the people. Thousands who had small farms exchanged them for large ones here. Thus New England society was transferred to the Reserve, with its habits of thought, its religion, its ideas of schools, of enterprise, and of all that pertains to the industry, good order, and well being of society. BREAKING THE WILDERNESS "I hear the tread of pioneers, of nations yet to be; The first low wash of waves, where soon shall roll a human sea. The elements of empire here are plastic yet, and warm, The chaos of a mighty world is rounding into form." Three-quarters of a century since, the rich and populous County of Trumbull--as also the whole Reserve--was a dreary wilderness, and uninhabited, save by the red man of the forest, and, perhaps, here and there at wide intervals, the lone but of some white squatter or adventurous pioneer. As settlements began, the bark cabin might have been seen; within it the mother surrounded by her children, or in the shadow of the forest preparing their first evening meal, the white topped wagon standing near, in which they had journeyed, day after day and week after week, from New England's rocky hills, over the rugged crests of the Alleghanies to their new-found home in the western wilds. The father, with a stout assistant, is beginning to cut the trees preparatory to the erection of a more permanent home. Here and there is a small field of corn or wheat, thickly studded with stumps or girdled trees, which is to furnish a part of the scanty subsistence of the newly-arrived pioneer and his dependent family. A little further advanced in the process of settlement might be seen the log cabin,--in many cases simply a log pen,--serving scarcely more than a defense from wild beasts, with its smoke issuing from its rudely-constructed chimney of sticks cemented with mud; also children playing hide-and-seek among the giants of the woods, while the tinkling of the cow-bell, the crack of the rifle, and the barking of dogs are heard on the adjacent hills. Hard by, the hunter is dressing a deer, while in an adjacent clearing are heard the ringing blows of the woodman's axe, beneath whose sturdy strokes yield the giant monarchs of the forest, upon whose heads have beaten the storms of many a decade. Still further on, as the sun is sinking in the west, perchance from the thicket which overlooks the settlement we might see the aboriginal proprietor with his trusty rifle in hand, his young son standing near him, with his bow unstrung and his quiver unfilled, musing upon the scenes that have passed and are passing around him; thinking perhaps of his happy youthful days, when he roamed through those sylvan retreats, the happy hunting-grounds of his fathers, with the dusky maid of his choice, as wild, as free as the winds that kissed their nut-brown cheeks, undisturbed by thoughts of the white man; or maybe he muses upon the contest in which he himself has been engaged to drive the white invader back, his eyes brightening as he thinks of the part he bore in St. Clair and Harmer's defeats, or sadly recalling the losses of the day in which they met Mad Anthony and his legions at the rapids of the Maumee. But both sire and son are soon lost in the lengthening shadows, typical of that pale of oblivion which is so soon to settle down upon the life of the red man. They must soon follow the setting sun, and civilization open up a new era in the history of these hills and valleys, plains and streams. The cabin, the barn, the school-house, and the church, will soon spring into being by the magic touch of the pale-face; and in the steady march of civilization will appear the cultivated farm, the field of plenty, and the mansion of beauty, and the wilderness shall blossom as the rose." Trumbull County, named from two successive Governors of Connecticut, was formed in 1800, and comprised in its limits, at that date, the whole of the Western Reserve. At that early date there were very few openings made or settlements between Warren and Sandusky. Out of this large territory have been carved ten other Counties, thus reducing Trumbull to the area of twenty-five Townships, each about five miles square. The first County erected out of Trumbull was Granger; the act of organization took effect March 1, 1806. Portage was organized in 1808, and Cuyahoga in 1810. At the legislative session of 1845-6, Trumbull County was cut down to its present limits, and has comprised twenty-five Townships. To the town of Hartford, in this County, belongs the honor of having had, as a resident, the man who constructed THE FIRST STEAMBOAT His name was John Fitch. Twenty years before the great experiment of Fulton and Livingston, on the Hudson, a steamboat was constructed and put in operation in Philadelphia, under his sole direction, and was found to go at the rate of eight miles an hour. He was considered, in his day, as quite visionary, and, being a poor man, found it difficult to command the means to make his experiment. "Had his means been equal to the accomplishment of his designs, there can be no doubt that he would now hold undisputed the honor of having given the country this most noble and useful invention." He at last became discouraged and disheartened, and ended his days by suicide, and lies buried at Bardstown, Kentucky. THE DAYS OF SLOW TRAVEL Few of this generation can conceive of the amount of privation and toil endured by the early settlers. It required from six to seven weeks to make the trip from Connecticut. Goods and provisions must be brought from Beaver through the woods, with no path much of the way, save mere marks of an axe on the trees; fording the streams, and sometimes losing their road and compelled to spend the night in the forest, with the wolves making the woods resound with their hideous howling. PRIMITIVE MILLS Some families made a mortar in the top of a stump, and with a pestle and spring-pole pounded their grain; others boiling wheat for food when the supplies ran low and could not be renewed for a time. For only one or two years did the pioneers have to go long distances to mill. A few trips only were made to Beaver and Neshannock for that purpose; Brockway's, and also Hawn's mill, at Orangeville, being erected at an early day. (End of Part 2) ==== Maggie_Ohio Mailing List ====