This reproduction of the text of Reuben Hall’s Reminiscences of Dover Pioneer Life maintains the spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc. of the bound volume held at Westlake Porter Public Library. However, the page dimensions and some formatting of columns have been changed. Also decorative printer’s marks and the illustrations found in the original do not appear here.
Reminiscences
of
Dover Pioneer Life
By REUBEN HALL
1810 – 1910.
DEDICATED
TO
MY CHILDREN AND THEIR
DESCENDANTS.
Table of Contents.
Reminiscences of Dover Pioneer Life…………………….……1
Wild Animal Life……………………………………..…. …5
Industries ……………………………………………..…….. 7
Saw Mills…………………………………………….……. 9
Smaller Industries…………………………………………..11
Asheries…………………………………………………….13
Dover Blast Furnace………………………………………..15
First Temperance Movement in Dover………………….... 18
Presidential Campaign of 1840………………………..…...20
Grape Industry……………………………………..…….....22
Stock Industry…………………………………..………..…23
“Early Days,” a Poem by Leonard G. Foster………………..…25
The Porter Library and Literary Association of Dover………..30
Dover Academy……………………………………………..…34
Dover Agricultural and Mechanical Society………………..…35
Dover in the Civil War……………………………………..….37
Roster, Company I, 150th Ohio Infantry…………………..38
Dover men in 124th, 42nd and 23rd Ohio Regiments……..40
Paper Read before The Early Settlers’ Association,
September 11, 1911………………………………………...41
Religious History of Dover………………………….………...45
First Settlement of Dover……………………………..……….51
Emigration…………………………………………….……53
Church Reminiscences, June 3rd and 4th, 1911……………….57
Competing Sleigh Rides in Winter of 1855-1856……………...65
1
REMINISCENCES OF DOVER PIONEER LIFE
1810—1910.
Before the advent of white men as settlers, Dover, like the greater part of the Western Reserve, was a vast forest of trees. The only occupants were wandering bands of Indians on their hunting excursions, and many wild animals.
In 1810 Mr. Joseph Cahoon of Vermont came with his family, consisting of his wife and seven children, and arrived in Dover, October 10, 1810, and located on the east side of Cahoon Creek, nearly opposite beautiful Rose Hill, where three of his granddaughters now reside.
On the evening of the same day Mr. Asahel Porter with his family and Leverett Johnson, his nephew, came into the township, and other families came later.
The same year (1810), Moses Hall of Lee, Mass., came and took up 2163 acres of land in Dover, and he got his title from Hubbard and Stowe, agents of the Connecticut Land Company. Moses Hall’s deed to this land is recorded in the first volume of records in Cuyahoga County, Horace Perry then being County Recorder.
Nehemiah Hubbard,
Lucy Hubbard, Vol. A, page 298.
Joshua Stowe, Consideration $4,326.
Ruth Stowe Area 2163 acres.
to
Moses Hall
2
A portrait of Nehemiah Hubbard is now in the possession of Mr. George Hubbard (a relative of Nehemiah Hubbard), who is in the hardware business at Ashtabula, Ohio. A cut of that portrait is found in this pamphlet.
Moses Hall, after selecting his land in Dover,, [sic] in 1810, returned to his home in Lee, Massachusetts, and in 1811 he moved west with his large family, of wife and twelve children, together with a few other families who came with their ox and horse teams and lumber wagons; and after a journey of five or six weeks, arrived at Ashtabula, Ohio, where he and the most of his family established a home, and where he continued to reside until his death, July 4, 1834.
Three of his children came on to Dover the same year (1811), namely, Martha Hall Bassett, Barnabas Hall, and James Hall.
Four of his other children came to Dover between 1820 and 1830, namely, Charles Hall, Reuben C. Hall, Edwin Hall and Nancy, wife of David Ingersoll.
Charles Hall, my father, came to Dover in 1821, and settled down as a pioneer in a log cabin which he had erected a little north of where Mr. Thomas Mitchell now lives. He had married Lucy Seymour of Plymouth, Ashtabula County, October 22, 1819, and in the fall of 1821, they gathered together their few household goods, and a stock of provisions for the winter, and loaded them into an ox cart, and with two yoke of oxen, and a boy to help drive them,
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they started for their new home in the wilderness of Dover. After getting here, father had fifty cents left, and twenty-five cents of this he gave to the boy to take him back to Ashtabula with one of the yoke of oxen, which left twenty-five cents for father and mother to commence pioneer life with in their new home. Surely, not an extravagant sum for a newly married couple to begin with.
Of the large tract of land which Moses Hall took up in Dover, he gave to his seven sons 100 acres each, and to his five daughters 50 acres each. Seven of his children settled in Dover, and five in Ashtabula.
After 1811 other families came from the eastern states and settled in Dover, and by 1825, the forest had become dotted with clearings, and log cabins erected to shelter the early settlers. The ring of the ax, and the crash of falling timber were familiar sounds. The land had to be cleared and the trees were cut down and piled into log heaps and burned before the pioneer could raise anything to live upon, and in this way very much valuable timber was destroyed. But what else could they do? There was no market for the lumber, and no mills to cut the trees into lumber. The cutting down of the trees and cutting them into logging lengths was generally done in the winter, and then in the spring or fall they were piled into log heaps ready to be burned. As it required three men and a yoke of oxen to do
4
this work successfully, neighbors would change works, helping each other; one to drive the oxen and draw the logs together, and the other two with hand spikes to roll them together into heaps ready for burning.
When the field which had been chopped over was finished, the log heaps were fired; and it was a beautiful sight in the evening to see the glowing light which was cast on the surrounding forest.
The cleared fields were surrounded with a rail fence; the rails being made from trees near by, which were free to split. The Pioneer then had a hard task to get in the seed for the first two or three crops, as the land could not be ploughed on account of the stumps and roots, and he had to take his ox team and hitch them to a three-cornered drag and loosen the ground as well as he could to receive the seed for the first crop. But it is said that grit and perseverance will win, and in proof of this we can look at the beautiful fields which we have today.
5
Of the wild animals which were abundant in the forests when the first settlers came to Dover, there was the bear, wolves, foxes, deer, raccoon, opossum, porcupine, mink, weasel and black and grey squirrels, without number; and of the feathered tribe there was the wild turkey, partridge, quail and myriads of wild pigeons. These latter were very numerous, and during their migratory season, the skies would be darkened by their flight.
Some of these animals were very destructive to the farmers’ crops. Deer would bound over the rail fences and feed off from the growing wheat fields, and the raccoon would visit the corn fields when the corn was large enough for roasting ears, and climb on the stalks and break them down and make the pioneer’s corn field look as if a drove of hogs had been on a rampage.
The bears had a great liking for fresh pork; and the wolves had a ravenous appetite for mutton, and venison. Mr. Ransom Sperry, who lived near where Sherman Sperry now lives, had a few sheep; and one night a wolf or wolves got among his sheep and killed some. The next night he set a large steel trap near one of the sheep which had been killed, and then shut up his dogs in the barn. In the morning he went out and found the trap gone. He let out his dogs and put them on the track, and got his rifle and followed them, and about half a mile south, in
6
a swamp, he overtook the dogs battling with a wolf. The wolf would strike the dogs with the trap on his fore foot. But Mr. Sperry soon put an end to the fight by shooting the wolf.
Mr. Hiram Smith, who lived about half a mile west of the center, had been down to the lake, and was on his way back through the woods, when he met a large deer which was going towards the lake. Mr. Smith had no gun with him, and the deer passed on.
Soon after he met a wolf which was going in the same direction as the deer. It was supposed that the deer was making for the lake to jump into the water and swim out to get out of reach of the wolf. No doubt but the race between the deer and wolf had been a long one, as both of them had their tongues out as if they were very warm.
Uncle David Ingersoll, who had some pigs in a yard near the house, which was enclosed by a log fence, heard them squealing after he had got in bed, when he got up, and without stopping to dress, went out and found that a bear had hold of a pig and was trying to get over the fence with it. Uncle David ran up and got hold of the pig and frightened the bear away, and thus saved his porker. My father, Charles Hall, had a few pigs, and a bear came in the daytime and undertook to carry one of them away. But his dog and two other dogs, hearing the pig squeal, went after the bear and gave him such a warm reception that he let the pig go, and it came
7
home covered with blood; but it finally recovered, and when it was fattened in the fall and slaughtered, there was a large scar on its back where the bear had bit it in trying to carry it off.
Mr. Clark Smith, who lived near the Center, was hoeing corn in his field one day, when a bear and her two cubs, came across the field where he was at work, and in getting over the fence, one of the cubs could not get over, and Mr. Smith went after it and killed it with his hoe. Experiences of this kind were common when the Early Settlers first came to Dover.
The game has now all disappeared, but notwithstanding the annoyance and destruction it caused, it was a blessing, as some of it helped to furnish meat for the table, which was an important matter to the pioneers.
Sixty years ago or more, the industries in Dover (outside of farming) were much more extensive than they are today. The first grist mill was built by Mr. Joseph Cahoon, near the mouth of Cahoon creek in 1813, and the frame was put up, September 10th, the day of Perry’s victory over the British on Lake Erie.
The next was built over the same creek at Dover Center, just south of the middle ridge road, about 1854, by Millard and Smith, who had a store on the corner where the Perry store now is. In 1856 Mil-
8
lard and Smith sold to Junia Sperry and Robert Crooks, and moved to Neenah, Wisconsin. After a few years, Sperry and Crooks sold to Garrett Reublin and John Kirk, who carried on the milling business with profit to themselves and satisfaction to their customers for several years.
The mill then came into the possession of E. Carpenter and O. Lilly, and they made a success in the milling business for some years. It then passed into the hands of a Mr. Murphey, who lived in the western part of the state, and he bought it for his son, and it was not long after, from some unknown cause, it burned down. This was about 1890. In 1892 Mr. Wm. Glasgow and his brother bought the mill site, and built a mill on the same foundation on which the old mill stood, and put in the roller process for making flour, and a grinder for grinding feed and did a good business for about fifteen years, when Mr. Glasgow sold to Wight & Christman, or Wight & Shephard later, and after two or three years they sold to Eugene Ledogar and W. D. Holloway, and in the early morning of November 23, 1911, the mill again burned down. At the present day there is no grist mill in Dover.
9
The first saw mill was built by Mr. Joseph Cahoon, near his grist mill, and about half a mile south on the same stream, Mr. Oviatt built a mill, and farther up the stream Mr. Eli Clemans built another mill, and farther up on the same stream, on land now occupied by G. L. Cooley, Mr. Porter Smith built another mill. Mr. Carlos Atwell built a mill on Sperry creek near the north ridge road. All of the mills mentioned were run by water power. Farther up the Sperry creek, and opposite where Clarence Smith now lives was another saw mill built by Mr. Kellog, and his son, Myron Kellog, ran the mill for some years and then sold out to Smith & Hall, and they had not owned the mill long before it was burned. It was supposed that the fire from the arch had caught in some sawdust and worked along and set the mill on fire.
About 1875 A. Ward went in company with Smith & Hall and put up a new mill, with steam power, and a circular saw instead of an upright saw. About 1890 the mill went into the hands of C. E. Hall and Sherman Sperry, and after a few years, on account of the scarcity of timber, the mill was abandoned.
There were two or three saw mills on the west Dover road, and Mr. Philo Beach had one on his place, which was run by his son-in-law, Clinton
10
Fauver, who had, in connection with the mill, a bending works for making rims or felloes for wagon and buggy wheels.
Mr. Abram Ward had a portable saw mill on his place at one time. Of all these saw mills, there is not one left today.
The saw mills of Messrs. Oviatt and Atwell, were constructed especially for sawing ship plank. The northern part of the township where these mills were located, was heavily timbered with white oak which was suitable for boat building. The trees were cut down and logs cut off as far up as the timber was good (40-50 or 60 ft. long), and these logs were drawn to the mill with several yoke of oxen hitched together.
At a time when there was an abundance of water, the logs would be drawn into the mill and placed on head blocks on a carriage, and run through a set of gang saws at the right distance apart for the thickness of the plank, and by once going through the mill, the logs would be cut into plank and run out at the rear end of the mill. They were then loaded on wagons and drawn to the ship yards in Cleveland, where they were used for making boats to aid in the carrying of commerce on the Great Lakes.
In the south part of the township, south of the middle ridge road, the variety of timber was different from what it was in the north part where it was mostly white oak. There were more of the soft
11
woods, such as whitewood, basswood, elm, soft maple and black ash, mixed in with some hard woods, oak, hickory, beech, etc.
When timber was aboundant [sic] fifty or sixty years ago, there was quite an extensive business done in making staves and hoops for the making of barrels. White oak was used for making tight barrel staves for holding liquids, and other kinds of oak for making flour barrels, apple barrels, etc. Hoops were made from blackash timber which was quite abundant in the south part of the township.
The market was at the cooper shops in Cleveland, and some of the staves were shipped east.
There were several enterprises on a small scale carried on in Dover many years ago. There was a cabinet shop for making furniture, near where Mr. John Eheel’s blacksmith shop now is. Mr. Elijah T. Smith had a shop on the corner of the Hall and middle ridge roads, where he made blacksmith’s bellows, and also small bellows for the use of the pioneers, to encourage the fire to burn in the large open fireplaces when it had almost gone out. The building in which Mr. Smith’s shop was, was of brick, and was built for a school house, and it was on the same ground where a log school house had stood years before. The school district in which these school houses were located was the largest at one time of any school district in the township.
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Scholars came from west, north, and south of the Center, and east to the township line.
Memory brings to mind, four shops in the township where the wood work for wagons and buggies was made. Mr. George Wilson had a shop near where Mr. Perry’s residence is.
Mr. Knowls and Mr. Higgins each had one on Coe Ridge. Reuben C. Hall had a double log house, one end of which was his family residence, and the other end he used for a shop, and in it he had a lathe for turning the hubs for the wheels. He made the wood work for ox carts, as well as wagons and buggies. This kind of work is now nearly all done by machinery.
Mr. Standish, who lived on the Smith road, had a shop for making spinning wheels, and flax wheels, which were considered very important household utensils in every family in pioneer days. The mothers and their daughters did the spinning of the wool on the large wheels, and spun the flax and tow on the little wheels. Mr. Standish also made reels which were used to reel off the yarn and thread from the spindles on the wheels and form it into skeins, to be sent to the weavers to be made into cloth for family use.
These utensils have gone out of date, and can rarely be seen, only where they have been kept as relics of pioneer days.
Mr. Nathan Bassett, who lived where Frank Mylander now lives, had a shop where he made
13
chairs for the early settlers. He made both kitchen chairs and rockers. I have one of the rockers which I am keeping as a relic of the days when my mother used it to sit in, and rock her babies more than eighty years ago.
Nathan Bassett was killed by lightning while standing in his barn door during a thunder shower March 30, 1841.
There was an industry carried on in Dover many years ago which few persons of today know anything about. Mr. John Rose had an ashery at his home, and Philip Phillips had one near the center creek at the rear of Dr. Stoll’s lot. They would go with a team and wagon, and gather up the ashes in the fields where the log heaps had been burned, and draw them to the ashery, where they were put into leaches and a good supply of water put on, and when the lye ran out it was put into large iron kettles and boiled down and made into potash. The market for this was in Cleveland. Mr. Rose went as far as Olmsted, Middleburg and Rockport for his ashes.
It is related that Amos Sperry, Sr., who lived east of Sperry creek, had a blacksmith shop, and when he built his first barn, he made the nails at the forge to fasten on the boards.
Edwin Hall, an early settler who lived where Charles E. Hall now lives, had a cooper shop where he made barrels; pork barrels, cider and vinegar
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barrels, wash tubs, and pounding barrels. The latter were used to aid the housewife with her laundry work. He had all that he could do to keep the early settlers supplied with these articles.
The deadly rattlesnake was an inhabitant of the forest when the early settlers first came to Dover, and for years after. An experience which my youngest sister had with one I will relate. She was going from the log house to the log barn, and when she was climbing over the rail fence which surrounded the barn yard and had got nearly over, she looked around and saw a large rattlesnake coiled up and ready to strike where she was about to step down. She hurried back into the house and told her father, and he came out and killed the snake. It had sixteen rattles which would indicate that it was sixteen years old, as it is said they acquire a rattle for each year of their lives. It was five feet in length.
15
One of the largest industries which was ever undertaken in Dover was a blast furnace for making pig iron, which was made from bog ore, and this ore was found at different places on the north side of the middle ridge road, between Rocky River and Elyria. The promoters of the enterprise were Dr. Tilden of Ohio City, and Mr. Morley, a relative of the Morley who used to have a factory for the making of white lead, which was located at the junction of Canal and Champlain Streets in Cleveland. It was supposed that the Cuyahoga Furnace Company, which was located at the foot of Detroit Street hill, had an interest in the enterprise, as the products of the furnace were taken to the Cuyahoga Furnace. This enterprise required the services of a large number of men and teams. The wood had to be cut in the forest for making the charcoal, and the ore drawn from the beds to the furnace, and when the ore was smelted and made into pig iron, it took other teams to draw it to the city. The furnace was located where Mr. Glasgow’s barn now stands. A high chimney or stack was built, and at the top of this, what was called a top-house. A bridge was erected starting from near the road, and leading up to the top-house, for the purpose of drawing up the coal, ore and lime, and where they were to be put into the top of the stack. A horse and cart was used to draw the coal and ore up to the top-house. One of the horses used
16
for this purpose, was a large, fine looking sorrel horse by the name of Mike. He was so intelligent and became so accustomed to his work that he would take his loads up the bridge-way and deliver them in the top-house without a driver.
The pits for charring the wood into coal were near where the wood was cut. A level spot of ground would be selected, and the wood drawn together and set on end in a circle and built up about the shape of a hay stack, and was then covered with earth; after which it was fired, and then watchers had to attend it night and day to keep the fire confined so that it would not break out and burn up the wood. When the coal was charred sufficiently, the dirt covering was removed, and the charcoal taken out and drawn in wagons with high boxes, to the coal shed which was near the furnace to be kept dry for future use.
There was a large bellows at the bottom of the stack which was worked by an engine with steam power to keep the coal hot enough to melt the ore. The cinders were drawn out at the bottom of the stack, and when there was enough iron melted it was drawn out into beds, which had been formed with gutters to receive it, and when it was cool it was in the shape of pig iron, and was then taken by teams to the old Cuyahoga furnace in Cleveland.
The Dover blast furnace was built about 1830 or 1835, and in the winter of 1844 it was burned down. The cause of the fire was, that the charge in
17
the stack did not settle evenly and became clogged, and when it gave way it came down with such force that it threw the hot cinders and melted iron all through the building and set it on fire instantly; so that it could not be saved. There was one man who was sleeping in his berth who got so badly burned in getting out that he died the next day.
There was a very large pile of cinders which had accumulated at the rear of the furnace; but after a few years, these were drawn away and used to repair the roads.
So now there is nothing to show where the furnace stood. During the twelve or fifteen years in which the Dover blast furnace was in operation it was the largest industry between Cleveland and Elyria. There was in connection with the furnace, a boarding house for a part of the employees, and a store where such goods were kept as were in demand at that time.
As money was very scarce, and but little of it in circulation, the expense of carrying on the furnace was met in part by giving orders on the store. Mr. Benjamin Reed, Sr., who lived near where Dr. Lathrop now lives, was superintendent of the furnace, and his duties required him to report to the Cuyahoga Furnace Company in Cleveland quite often, and being a lover of good horses, he kept a fine saddle horse for that purpose.
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The nature of the work of carrying on the furnace was such that it could not be stopped for holidays, or on Sundays, and as there were two churches near by, it was a great annoyance to the church going people, who had been brought up in the belief that no secular work should be engaged in on the Sabbath day.
FIRST TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN DOVER.
After saw mills had been erected and the timber of the forests was being cut into lumber, the log cabins of the pioneers began to give place to frame houses, and frame barns.
Mr. Clark Smith was having a frame barn built, and Mr. Albinus Lilly, who was a carpenter, was doing the work. It was customary for the men in the neighborhood to come together and help at the raising of the frames, and the log rollings for the log houses, and on these occasions some of them expected to have whiskey furnished them. Mr. Smith and Mr. Lilly were both temperance men, and were opposed to the practice.
When the invitations had been sent out for raising Mr. Smith’s barn frame, and the men had come together, Mr. Lilly stepped upon a timber and asked for their attention.
He then said that he had several frames to put up that season and he wanted to take a vote to see whether they should have whiskey on these occa-
19
sions or not. The vote was decidedly against having whiskey. Some of the men were displeased at this and left and went home; but there were enough who remained to put up the frame. After this, Mr. Lilly had no trouble in getting his frames raised without whiskey, but instead, there was generally a good substantial lunch served after the raising.
Mr. Lilly came with his family from Ashfield, Massachusetts, and settled in Dover in the spring of 1829. He was drowned in Rocky River, March 1, 1839. He had bought him a cow in Rockport, east of the river, and after getting her home, she managed to get out and stray away. Mr. Lilly tracked her back to the river, and he supposed she had swam across and returned to her old home. There was a log row boat, or dugout, hitched to the bank, which belonged to Mr. Giddings. It was supposed that he took this boat to cross the river, and not being accustomed to the management of a boat, he capsized and was drowned. His body was not found for three or four weeks, when it was discovered in some drift wood about a mile below where he had undertaken to cross the river. This sad affliction left Mrs. Lilly with nine children, the youngest about a year old, and with a debt on the farm. But a brave and courageous pioneer she proved to be, for she managed to clear the farm of debt, and raise her children to become respected and useful citizens.
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THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1840.
The presidential campaign of 1840 was perhaps the most exciting one since the United States were first organized. Mass meetings were held all over the state and politics ran high. There was a call for a mass meeting to be held in Dover, and there were large delegations which came from adjoining townships. The meeting was held in Mr. Clark Smith’s woods a little south of the present Congregational Church. The people of Avon and Sheffield joined together and got up a large conveyance to which they hitched thirty-two yoke of oxen in one string. On one end of the wagon was a miniature log cabin decorated with coon skins, and on the other end was a barrel of hard cider.
In front of this cavalcade, was a donkey hitched to a small cart with the driver seated on a box which was labeled, Sub-Treasury. This was intended as a rebuke to the Van Buren administration for its failure to enact certain laws in regard to banking. The Whigs had nominated for President, William H. Harrison, and for Vice-President, John Tyler. The Democrats had re-nominated Martin Van Buren for President, and Johnson for Vice-President. The political fight was a warm one and resulted in the election of Harrison and Tyler. At the meeting in Dover a platform had been erected and speakers from Cleveland were present, and speeches, and the singing of campaign songs were the order of the day.
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Another mass meeting was held in Elyria, during the same campaign, and a large delegation went from Dover, and among those who went was a load of twenty-six young ladies, dressed in white, and each carrying a small white flag, and on each flag staff there were two buckeyes, one at the top of the staff and the other at the lower edge of the flag. These represented the Buckeye State, and each of the young ladies represented one of the States of the Union. One young lady was dressed in black to represent Texas, as this territory had seceded from Mexico and was then a republic. Texas was admitted to the Union as a state in 1845.
The political campaign of 1840 was an exciting one, and the rivalry between the two parties (the Whigs and Democrats) was very keen, and the speeches and songs sung were full of vim and vigor, and I regret that I cannot call to mind the words of some of the songs.
A part of one verse comes to my mind:
With Tippecanoe and Tyler too
We’ll beat little Van,
Van, Van, is a used up man.
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In reviewing the changes which have taken place in Dover in the past one hundred years, by the forest giving place to cultivated fields, and the log cabin to comfortable homes, it must be remembered that the grape industry has been an important factor in the development and prosperity of the township. Some years ago the principal part of the grape crop was shipped from the Nickel Plate Depot to different parts of the country; and it was then said that Dover was the second largest shipping point for grapes in the United States; Euclid, east of Cleveland, being the largest.
At the present time, most of the grapes are taken to wine mills in Dover, and to the Cleveland market.
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There was another industry connected with farming fifty or sixty years ago, and which was a very important one, and as it shows the changes which time has wrought, I will mention it here. After the pioneers had got their farms partially cleared, they began to raise stock, horses, cattle and sheep. There were enough horses raised to supply the home demand, and a surplus which was disposed of outside of Dover.
At the present time there are no horses raised here, and farmers, gardeners, and others who use horses have to go to other markets to get them. The raising of cattle on the farm was engaged in quite extensively for a good many years. There were so many raised that buyers from the east came and bought them up and left with the early settlers the cash, which they were in so much need of. In two or three days a buyer would gather together a good sized drove and take them east, and besides what were driven away, there were two or three slaughter houses in town where a great number of cattle and sheep were prepared for the Cleveland market. Now there are no beef cattle raised in the township and but a few cows, and not enough of them to supply the two dairies where forty or fifty cows are kept to furnish milk for the Cleveland market.
The sheep industry was also an important one fifty or sixty years ago. Nearly every farmer kept
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a flock of sheep, some of them seventy-five or a hundred, and perhaps more on the larger farms.
When shearing time came, about the month of June, wool buyers would make their appearance and buy up the year’s clip of wool. Some of the buyers were from Cleveland and Elyria, and Mr. John Hall and his father, George Hall, of Olmsted, and a Mr. Goodwin from Columbia, and also Mr. Charles Willson of Avon, were all wool buyers in Dover. In 1864, during the Civil War, Dr. Moore, who lived at the center, bought wool, and in that year he paid as high as $1.00 per pound.
The receipts from this industry helped to swell the meager bank accounts of the early settlers; but today there is not, to my knowledge, one sheep in the township. These industries have given place to the raising of grain, grape growing, gardening, and the raising of small fruits. So we see there has been a great change in the farming industry of Dover in the last one hundred years.
Between 1840 and 1845 there was a dry season, and but very little rain, so that pastures dried up, and there was not much hay to be cut, and grain crops were short, and the farmers were anxious about getting their stock through the coming winter.
Mr. Sheldon Johnson, who lived a little east of where Martin Griffin now lives, was a cattle buyer, and he bought up a drove of cattle and took them
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towards the southern part of the State, to winter, where there had been more rain, and feed more abundant. He bought cows for from $5.00 to $10.00 per head, and my father sold him a pair of steers, three years old, for $17.00.
A pair like those today would bring $140.00 or $150.00.
The ground became so dry that year, that where fire got accidentally started in the woods where there was a deep, mucky soil, it would burn the soil and burn off the roots of the trees, and they would fall down in a tangled mass.
There were several places in the township where several acres were burned over in this way.
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At
the yearly meeting of the Early Settlers’ Association, held in the
Chamber of Commerce, September 11, 1911, there was on the program a poem read
by Leonard G. Foster, the Cleveland poet; and as this poem portrays pioneer
life so well, I will copy it from the Annals of September 11, 1911.
“ ‘Twas in the early twenties
When the wild and savage race
Departed with their wigwams, and
Log cabins took their place;
The bear and deer and wild fowl
Remained awhile to show
What food kind mother nature on
The Red Man did bestow.
In all the streams the finny shoals,
In great abundance grew,
While in the air, the feathered tribes,
In flocks unnumbered flew.
“Tranquility and peace prevailed
Upon each settler’s farm,
For scalping knives and tomahawks
Had lost their power to harm.
The music of the axe rang clear
From early morn ‘till night,
While heaps of burning brush and logs
Sent forth their gleam of light.
The new Log Cabins now were seen
Fast springing into view;
And Ox-team ‘Schooners’ from the east
Were six weeks coming through.
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“The little clearings that were made
Soon brought enough to eat,
For in each rooty, stumpy field
Grew Indian Corn and Wheat.
We struggled hard those early days
To keep privations down,
We hauled our cord wood many miles
To what was called a ‘Town.’
With Ox-Team, ‘geeing, hawing,’ through
The wild woods we would go,
With snail-like locomotion that
Was awkward, quaint and slow.
“We drove the Oxen through the gap
And down the barnyard lane,
Unyoked, and housed and fed them well
With fodder, hay and grain;
Then, to the new Log Cabin door,
Our weary footsteps led,
We pulled the latchstring, entered in,
And found the table spread.
With mush and milk, and pork and beans,
And good old pumpkin pie,
No Angel food in heaven or earth
Could better satisfy.
“Around our rustic cabin door
The climbing roses grew,
The fragrant honeysuckle bloomed
With flowers of varied hue.
The sunflower and the hollyhock,
Snowballs and lilies white,
The daisies, pinks, and daffodils
With lovely colors bright;
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The poppies, phlox and violets,
And morning glories gay,
All scent the air with odors sweet
In memory of today.
“A flickering tallow candle there
Was all the light we had,
Except the roaring fire-place,
That made us warm and glad.
We made those tallow tapers by
A process wondrous slow,
We dipped the wicking in the grease,
Then out to see them grow;
No strong electric light, or gas,
Illumined our pathway bright,
And yet our Tree of Knowledge grew
By that dim candle light.
“Dear mother had been spinning yarn,
And reeling knots and skeins,
And knitting socks and mittens
With cheerfulness and pains;
And there she was, that time of night,
To welcome pa and me,
Her angel face with loving smile
Methinks I still can see!
How plainly I remember now,
Though weary, old and gray,
When death came in our cabin home,
And mother passed away.
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“Let’s climb the little stairway here,
And walk the puncheon floor,
To trundle bed, where mother tucked
Us snug in days of yore,
And gave us good-night kisses
When our little prayers were said.
‘Twas ‘Now I lay me down to sleep’
And ‘Angels guard our bed’;
Those lessons taught by mother dear
Will follow you and me,
And cling forever round our hearts
As ivy round the tree.”
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THE PORTER LIBRARY AND LITERARY ASSOCIATION OF DOVER.
As mention has been made in a former paper of Mr. Porter’s bequest to Dover for the purpose of establishing a Public Library, it may be of interest to future generations to have a brief history of the Porter Library and Literary Association of Dover.
Leonard G. Porter was a native of Ashfield, Mass., and was a member of a family of eleven children, and was the youngest of five brothers who settled in Dover in 1826. He was married to a daughter of Rev. Mr. Stevens, a pastor of the Congregational Church in Dover, in 1838, and in 1841 she died leaving no children. After this he remained single the rest of his life, and devoted much of his time for the benefit of the community and the welfare of others. He was prominent in the affairs of the township, being elected treasurer, and serving in that capacity for twelve years. He was also elected Justice of the Peace and held that office six years.
He was also a prominent member and generous supporter of the Congregational Church and Sunday School; and was both superintendent in the Sunday School, and leader in the Church Choir, as he was a fine singer, and teacher of music.
After his death in 1884, it became known that he had made provision in his will for the founding
31
of a Library in Dover on this condition: that if the citizens of the township had enough interest in having a library to procure a charter and to become organized by forming a Society and electing officers, then his executor was directed to turn over to said Society the sum of $1,000; five hundred of which was to be invested in books, and the other five hundred was to be put at interest, and the interest was to be expended yearly in the purchase of more books. A Charter was procured from the Secretary of State with the following persons as Charter members:
Dr. J. M. Lathrop,
A. S. Cooley,
R. Hall,
F. J. Rose,
T. H. Hurst,
J. N. Hurst.
Charter was granted in 1884.
As there was a Society of young people at this time who had organized under the name of the Dover Literary Society, and as they had a small library, they decided to give up their organization and put in their books and join under the name of the Porter Library and Literary Association of Dover.
The question now arose as to where the books of the library should be kept. It was learned that the building and lot which now belong to the Society, could be bought for $600.00, and it was decided to buy, and invest the $500.00 which was to be put at interest to buy books each year, and the $100.00 was raised by individual donations and a place was thus secured for the housing of the new library.
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The constitution and by-laws of the Society required the payment of $1.00 per year for the privilege of drawing books, and for those who wished to pay by the week, the charge was five cents per week. This did not bring in enough revenue, to meet the expenses of the Society.
To get some relief a subscription was circulated to raise the sum of $500.00 to replace the amount which was to be put at interest for the purchase of books, and which had been used for the purchase of the library building. The $500.00 was raised and the money loaned at 6 per cent. Still the Society had a struggle to raise enough money to pay for the running expenses of the Library. About this time, it was learned from Mr. Wm. R. Coates, who was then County Clerk, that one township in the county which had become embarrassed by the lack of funds to carry on their library, had sent a petition to the Legislature to have a law passed giving the township trustees authority to make a small levy on the taxable property of the township for the support of a library. Acting on this information, a petition was circulated in Dover and about sixty property owners’ names were attached, petitioning the legislature to pass a special act, giving the trustees of Dover Township the power to make a levy on the taxable property of the township for library purposes. A prominent attorney of Cleveland, Allan T. Brinsmade, was then Senator in the legislature from Cuyahoga County, and the petition was placed in his
33
hands, and through his influence a law was passed giving the trustees of Dover the authority to make a levy of two-tenths of a mill on the taxable property of the township, for the period of fifteen years. This placed the Society in a safe and sound condition financially, as the report of the treasurer at the annual meeting in January, 1913, showed a balance in the Treasury of about $1,900, and the librarian’s report gave the number of books on the shelves at about 2,600.
There have been donations of books from individuals. Attorney Brinsmade of Cleveland gave several volumes, and the Cahoon family made contributions, and Mr. Asher Coe made the generous gift of about seventy volumes of well-bound magazines. The Library Committee have been authorized to expend for the past several years $100.00 for new books each year, and for the year 1913 are to purchase books to the value of $50.00.
Officers for 1913:
President: W. Clemans.
Vice-President: C. C. Reed.
Treasurer: F. Corkill.
Secretary: A. E. Weston.
Trustees: A. K. Rose, F. J. Rose, R. Hall, G. L. Cooley and Chas. E. Hall.
Library Committee: Mrs. F. J. Rose, Miss Alta Clemans, Miss Ida Tuttle.
Librarian: Miss Ida Tuttle.
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In 1845 John Wilson, a graduate of Oberlin College, who located in Dover in 1844, founded Dover Academy, and in that year erected a building for its use about a mile and a half southwest of Dover Center. Mr. Wilson’s school grew to be a popular institution, and had at one time as many as sixty pupils.
In 1852 several citizens of Dover proposed to Mr. Wilson to have the school removed to near the Center, and organize a corporation to control it, to which he assented. A school building was accordinly [sic] erected on what was later the Dover Fair Ground, and an act was obtained incorporating the Dover Academical Association. The building was completed in 1854, and Mr. Wilson acted as principal until 1860, when he retired, and in 1862 the school was given up.
The first directors of the Academy Association were Leverett Johnson, L. G. Porter and Benjamin Reed.
35
DOVER AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL SOCIETY.
This association was organized in 1850 for the purpose of holding annual fairs in Dover. Enough land was bought adjoining the Academy grounds to make seven acres in all. A race-track was laid out, graded and fitted up with a one-third mile circuit. Entries for prizes were made outside of the township, and sometimes Cleveland, Elyria and Berea were represented on the race track. Successful fairs with a large attendance were held for more than thirty years, when there was a law passed by the State, providing for a fair to be located in the west part of the County on the same conditions as the one at Chagrin Falls on the east.
Dover and Berea were sharp competitors for the location of the fair, but Berea having the advantage of railroads and electric lines, which Dover had not, it was decided that the western Cuyahoga Fair Grounds be located at Berea, and the Dover fairs were then abandoned. The Society now had seven acres of land on which there was a debt of about $200.00. After negotiating with the township trustees, it was decided to turn over the property to the trustees for educational purposes with the proviso that they pay the indebtedness.
36
Within a few years the Board of Education have had erected on the old fair grounds a fine brick High School building with four large school rooms and fire escapes for the two upper rooms, and the old Academy which was built about sixty years ago is used as an annex in case of need.
37
When Fort Sumter was fired upon in April, 1861, and President Lincoln called for volunteers to defend the flag, there were many loyal sons of Dover responded to the call during the four years of conflict from April, 1861, to April, 1865. There were enlistments in the 103rd Regiment, and others in the 124th, and more in the 42nd. The 124th was at Chattanooga under Grant, at the taking of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge from General Bragg in November, 1863. The 42nd was at the siege and surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, when General Pemberton gave up that stronghold on the Mississippi to General Grant. The 150th Regiment for one hundred days’ service, was raised in Cleveland and was composed of eight companies from Cleveland, one company (K) from Oberlin, and Company I, from Dover, Olmsted and Rockport. The Regiment was mustered in May 5th, 1864, and sent to Washington, and was divided and companies were assigned to the different forts about Washington.
On July 11 and 12 the Rebel General Early, made a raid on Washington with the object of capturing the capitol; but with the aid of the 6th and 19th Army Corps sent by General Grant, the rebel forces were repulsed and the National Capitol was saved. W. E. Leach of Company K was shot and killed while on the picket line, and four other members of
38
the same company died in hospital. Ten members of the Regiment were killed or died in hospital during the one hundred days’ service. President Lincoln was at Fort Stevens during the battle.
The regiment was mustered out at Cleveland, August 23, 1864.
The roster of Company I is as follows:
Officers.
Edwin Farr……………….Captain.
Jonas F. Rice…………….1st Lieut.
John G. Fitch…………….2d Lieut.
James P. Rice……………1st Sergt.
James A. Potter………….Sergeant.
Junia Sperry……………..Sergeant.
Daniel A. Brown………...Sergeant.
Marvin O. Taylor………..Sergeant.
Harvey Richardson……...Corporal.
Herbert O. Kennedy…….Corporal.
Eli S. Mastick…………...Corporal.
Charles Dow…………….Corporal.
Richard Carpenter……….Corporal.
Edwin Mastick…………..Corporal.
James E. Parker………….Corporal.
Charles D Knapp………...Corporal.
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Privates.
Alexander, Chauncey
Alexander, Lester
Andrews, William G.
Atwell, Charles G.
Barker, John S.
Barry, Mathew
Bell, Charles C.
Bommer, Joseph
Carpenter, George W.
Chappell, Benjamin
Clague, Thomas
Colahan, John
Colton, Hiram W.
Cooley, John M.
Dailey, Hezekiah
Finley, Philip
Fitch, Herbert O.
Ford, Newell
Frost, Lorenzo E.
Hall, Reuben
Hall, Zibia S.
Hawkins, John
Kellogg, Myron
Kennedy, George W.
Kirk, John
Knapp, Harvey
Latimer, Robert
Lewis, David
Lilley, Erastus
McCarty, Edson K.
McKenzie, Roswell
Nelson, Herbert S.
Noble, William S.
Osborn, Jerome
Parsons, Oscar N.
Perkins, John, Jr.
Phillips, Philip
Porter, James C.
Reed, James P.
Ross, Henry A.
Saxer, Martin
Schillinger, Joseph
Smith, Hiram, Jr.
Smith, Orpheus
Sorter, Alexander, L.
Southworth, Henry Y.
Sperry, Amos
Sprague, William T.
Standen, George
Stearns, Asher
Stearns, Cassius
Stearns, Henry E.
Stearns, Oscar D.
Steele, Henry
Stocking, Joseph, Jr.
Strope, Carroll C.
Taylor, Comfort B.
Townsend, George
Tuttle, Frederick
Underhill, Bloomer D.
Underhill, Charles L.
Upham, William R.
White, Joseph
Williams, Clark
Williams, Thomas
Winslow, Daniel
Wolf, Alfred
Wright, Albert
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Enlisted from Dover in the 124th Regiment.
Gilbert Porter
Andrew K. Rose
George M. Miner
Thomas Hammond
Samuel H. Ames
Orlando Austin
Chauncey D. Hall
Jobe Hamlin
Peter H. Kaiser
William Reed
J. Gesner
J. Jordan
Orias Smith.
42nd Regiment.
John F. Flynn
Leonard G. Loomis
Benjamin Phinney
Bertrand C. Austin
R. W. Austin
Harrison Bates
Melvin B. Cousins
Asahel P. Foot
William H. Webbsdale
John Griffin
Martin Lilly
Sanford Phinney
William Sage
David H. Taylor
Stephen M. Taylor
Thomas Williams
Christopher Dimmick
Marius Tuttle.
23rd Regiment.
Sherman Sperry
Francis Smith
Joseph Root
William Root
Hiram Bartholomew.
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PAPER READ BEFORE THE EARLY SETTLERS ASSOCIATION
September 11, 1911.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Last Saturday morning when I went to the Post Office to get my mail, I received a card announcing the holding of the Early Settlers’ Meeting at the Chamber of Commerce today, and at the bottom of the card was written with pen and ink—“Give some reminiscences,” and it was signed “M.” I took that to mean our secretary, Mr. Mellen. I didn’t know what I could furnish in the way of reminiscences, but come to think it over, we had four centennial celebrations in our township, in the last eleven months and I thought perhaps I might say a little something about them. The first was held at the M. E. Church at the lake on Sunday, October 9, 1910, and the exercises were a review of the religious life of Dover for the past one hundred years. Rev. Dr. Bradley of Cleveland was one of the speakers.
The next was October 10th, and was held on the spacious lawn of the Cahoon homestead at Rose Hill in Dover, and was in memory of the first resident in Dover, Joseph Cahoon and family, who came October 10, 1810, one hundred years ago. This celebration was gotten up by the Misses Cahoon, granddaughters of Joseph Cahoon, and the only remain-
42
ing members of a once large family. Through their hospitality there were about two hundred and fifty invited guests who sat down to a generous repast which was served under a large tent erected on the lawn, after which reminiscences were given of pioneer life. A biography of the Cahoon family by Miss Ida Cahoon was read, and addresses by Rev. Dr. Luce of the First M. E. Church of Cleveland, Judge Nye of Elyria and others.
The next centennial was at the time of the dedication of the new Congregational Church in Dover, June 3rd and 4th. The church society was organized in Lee, Berkshire Co., Mass., June 5th, 1811, with eight members, and soon after, they, with several families removed to Dover and continued their church organization under the name of the Congregational Church of Dover. On this occasion the ministers who had officiated here in former years, and who were within reach, took part in the exercises, and a very interesting paper was read by our esteemed secretary, Deacon L. F. Mellon, of Plymouth Church, Cleveland, “Early Religious Work on the Western Reserve.”
The last centennial, was held at the home of Mr. Reuben Osborn at the lake, in memory of the settlement of the Osborn family here May 27, 1811. So it can be seen that the past year has been a year of centennials for Dover.
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In the year 1810, my grandfather, Moses Hall, came from Lee, Mass., to Ohio, and took up land in Ashtabula, and also in Dover, and then returned to Lee, and in 1811, one hundred years ago, he and his wife and twelve children, accompanied by other families, came with their ox carts and lumber wagons over almost impassable roads, and after a journey of six weeks, arrived in the wilderness of Ohio. A part of them settled at Ashtabula, a part at Euclid, and the balance came to Dover.
A short time ago, I drew a book from the Cleveland City Library, entitled “Sketches of Western Life,” written by Hon. Harvey Rice, which is very interesting, as it contains biographical sketches of some of the founders of this great city, such as Moses Cleveland [sic], Major Carter, Judge Ranney, Judge Andrews, Gov. Ward, and many others. There is also a sketch of Rev. Joseph Badger, who was sent by the Connecticut Missionary Society as a missionary to the Indians in the wilds of Ohio in the year 1800. And it is recorded that he preached the first sermon ever preached in Cleveland, and organized the first church on the Western Reserve at Hudson, in 1801. This sketch was especially interesting to me, as an uncle of mine, John Hall, who came to Ashtabula in 1809, married his daughter, Sarah Badger.
As the memory of the older ones of the Old Settlers’ Association runs back to seventy-five or eighty years ago, the changes which have taken
44
place in that period of time seem wonderful. My first experience in coming to Cleveland was when I was a small boy, coming with my father and crossing the Cuyahoga River, at the foot of Detroit Street hill, near the old Cuyahoga furnace, on a float bridge, which was pulled back and forth with ropes. Now there is no end of bridges, and the prospect now is that our County Commissioners will soon build a high level bridge, high enough for boats to go under without a draw. Another recollection of my boyhood days, is of coming to the city on the 4th of July to attend a celebration which was held in the woods just a little east of Erie Street, or 9th Street, now. Who of the younger generation can realize the changes which have taken place during the past one hundred years?
In the Annals of the Old Settlers’ Association for the year 1909, I see that the names of those who belong, are recorded, and in one column are the names, and in another the place and date of birth, in another the date of coming to Ohio. Now, I would like to know how many came to Ohio previous to 1827?
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Paper read at a gathering held at the M. E. Church, Lake Shore, September 9, 1910, for a review of the religious life of Dover for the past one hundred years.
In recalling to mind the history and incidents connected with the religious life of Dover, I find there are many things of interest if there was time to relate them.
By referring to the History of Cuyahoga County, I learn that on June 5, 1811, there was a Congregational Church organized in Lee, Massachusetts, by eight persons, and among that number was Lydia, wife of Moses Hall. She was my grandmother. All but her soon removed to Dover and on their arrival continued the Lee Church organization changing the name to the Congregational Church of Dover. In 1825 the Methodist Church at Dover was organized, and in 1827 the M. E. Church at the lake. In 1836 the Baptist Church was organized. In 1837 the Episcopal Church, and in 1858 the Lutheran Church. As the Congregational Church was the oldest in the township it was natural that the church-going people should attend there. In 1822 a log meeting house was built near where the present church edifice stands. Some years later this was burned, and services were held in Joseph Stocking’s barn, and in the town house until the completion of the present church edifice. My recollection of this is that it was
46
built between 1833 and 1835. In those days it was customary to have a service in the forenoon and one in the afternoon and lunch and a Sunday School between.
Our mothers would bring their old-fashioned baskets filled with lunch, and we children would take our fried cakes and bread and butter and go out and sit on the sills after they had been placed on the under-pinning stone, and eat our lunch.
So I can truthfully say that I have eaten my dinner on the foundation of the Congregational Church in Dover.
About 1840 there was a division on the subject of slavery, and as I remember it, difference of opinion on church government, and until 1847, one congregation worshipped in the church building, and the other in the town house. In that year the two bodies were reunited and reorganized under the name of the Congregational Church of Dover, with fifty-one members.
About this time the doctrine of Election, Predestination and Foreordination was being discussed, and at the session of the Sunday School, the older members would take part. Deacon Osborn, Sr., Nehemiah Porter and others taking the part of the affirmative, and Deacon Ingersoll, Deacon Millard and others taking the negative. These discussions were very animated and attended with some heat, but no one was injured, and no harm done on either
47
side. Another incident which memory recalls is of President Charles Finney of Oberlin College coming to Dover and setting up a tent, just north of the church and below where Mr. Barrows lives, and on the spot where Mr. Prechtel’s berry patch now is, and holding revival services there. Mr. Finney was of the fire and brimstone order of preachers, and he did not fail to give emphasis to the doctrine of hell and the devil. This was before there were any church buildings, and he went with his tent to different towns and set it up to hold meetings.
About 1850 the Episcopal Church membership had become so reduced by death and removals that church services were discontinued there. In 1853 the Congregational and Methodist Societies joined and held revival services in the little Episcopal Church which used to stand in front of the residence where Mr. Boon now lives. Rev. Gleason A. Reeder, Sr., father of the present President of Berea College, was the Methodist minister, and the Congregational minister’s name has gone from me. The ending of Mr. Reeder’s life was a sad one, as he and his wife were both suffocated by gas from their stove when they were living at Olmsted Falls some years ago, and their bodies were not discovered until a day or two afterwards.
Soon after the revival service in the same year (1853), a subscription was circulated and funds raised to build the present Methodist Church where I joined the same year. I had been baptised [sic] by my
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Uncle, Rev. John Hall, who was pastor of St. Peters Church at Ashtabula. He used to come to Dover occasionally on a visit, and while here would preach at the Episcopal Church. After I had joined the Methodist Church he was very much grieved, and thought my case a hopeless one. We used to have some arguments on the matter, and he would always support his belief by referring to the passage in the new testament where Christ said: “On this rock (Peter) build I my church.” Another matter we used to differ upon, was that of slavery; he taking the ground that it was supported by the bible.
I love and reverence his memory, for I think he was a good man, and sincere in his belief, but like the rest of the human family he was liable to err.
In this connection I would say that the present pastor of St. Peter’s Church at Ashtabula, where Uncle John Hall preached many years, has recently married a Dover girl. If any one who is acquainted with she that was Josie Brown, and would like to see the picture of her present husband, they can do so at the proper time, as I have it with me. It is in a newspaper clipping which I received from a cousin in Chicago about a year ago, and on one side is a picture of her husband, and of St. Peter’s Church, and on the reverse side is a picture of Uncle John Hall.
At the meeting of the Old Settlers Association which was held in the Chamber of Commerce building at Cleveland, Sept. 10th, 1909, there was a min-
49
ister of one of the Cleveland Churches who gave an address, and his subject was in regard to the history of the Cleveland Churches. In the course of his address, he related an anecdote of a young man whom he knew, who had become converted, and when he thought of joining a church he went for a while at the Catholic Church, but he thought that he could not join them, as their religion consisted in worshipping the pope. He then went to the Methodist Church, but he was not satisfied there, as they worshipped the founders of Methodism. He then tried the Baptists, but they worshipped the doctrine of immersion. He finally joined the Presbyterian Church, but he said he could never fully understand the meaning of their faith and creed.
As I have mentioned the fact of President Finney when he set up his tent in Dover to hold revival services, I will relate an incident in the life of Elisabeth Cady Stanton, the great woman suffragist, which has a connection with Mr. Finney, and is taken from her Biography. It is as follows:
The Rev. Charles G. Finney, a pulpit orator, made a visit to Troy, N. Y., and preached in the Rev. Dr. Beman’s Presbyterian Church, where Elisabeth and her schoolmates attended. “I can see him now,” she says, describing Mr. Finney’s preaching, “his great eyes rolling around the congregation, and his arms flying in the air like a windmill. One evening he described hell and the devil so vividly, that the picture glowed before my eyes in the
50
dark for months afterwards. On another occasion, when describing the damned, as wandering in the Inferno, and inquiring their way in its avenues, he suddenly pointed with his finger, exclaiming, ‘There, do you not see them,’ and I actually jumped up in church and looked around, his description had been such a reality.” In quoting this allusion to Mr. Finney, I cannot forbear saying that, although high respect is due to the intellectual, moral and spiritual gifts of the venerable ex-president of Oberlin College, such preaching works incalculable harm to the very souls, which it seeks to save. It worked harm to Elisabeth. The strong man struck the child as with a lion’s paw. Fear of the judgment seized her soul. Mental anguish prostrated her health. Dethronement of her reason was feared by her friends. Flinging down her books, she suddenly fled home. At last she regained her wanted composure of spirits, and joined the Johnstown Church. “But I was never happy,” she writes, “in that gloomy faith which dooms to eternal misery, the greater part of the human family. It was no comfort to me to be saved with a chosen few, while the multitude, and those who have suffered most on earth, were to have no part in heaven.”
As the march of time marks the passing of a century, it is encouraging to think that this style of preaching is passing away; and that a more rational theology is gradually but surely taking its place: the Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man.
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Paper read at the gathering at Rose Hill, Sept. 10, 1910, in memory of the Pioneer life of Dover for the past one hundred years.
We meet today to celebrate the beginning of the first settlement of Dover one hundred years ago, when the land was covered with a dense forest, and the Indian and wild animal life were the only occupants. When we of today look back and note the changes which time has wrought in that brief space in the world’s history, it is with feelings of wonder and astonishment. My first residence in Dover dates back to June 18, 1827, when I was born in a pioneer’s log cabin, which was surrounded with forest trees inhabited with wild animals. Although the changes which have taken place since then have been rehearsed at old settlers’ meetings and other public gatherings, I will mention a few of them.
When our fathers and mothers with their families, came to settle in this, then wilderness country with their ox carts and lumber wagons, over rough and almost impassable roads, it took them five or six weeks and sometimes longer to make the journey from their homes in the eastern States to their prospective homes in the wilderness country of the west. Now if a person wishes to take a trip to Boston, he can take a Pullman car at Cleveland, at 5 p. m. and reach Boston the next day before noon. If he wishes to come from Boston to Dover he can take a car which is provided with every convenience and
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comfort, at 5 p. m. and reach his home in Dover in time to take dinner with his family the next day.
In the matter of sending and receiving news the change has been wonderful.
My first remembrance of sending and receiving letters was when they were sent by stage coach or other slow means of conveyance, and when they arrived at their destination after some days or weeks, there was twenty-five cents to be paid as postage. Now a letter with a two-cent stamp attached can be sent to any part of the United States or Canada, and with the aid of the mail trains on our railroads, and the electric lines and free delivery, it can be delivered to any part of the United States in a very short time.
The telegraph and telephone have made a wonderful change in the dispatch of news. When the war between Russia and Japan was in progress, we in the United States with the aid of the telegraph and the newspaper could get the news of a battle the next day. With the aid of the telephone, we can converse with our neighbors, and do business at quite a distance in a few moments of time.
In the matter of agricultural implements for the carrying on of the farm, there has been a very great change. From the scythe to the mowing machine; from the sickle and the cradle, to the reaper and binder; and from the flail with which the farmer could thresh out by hard work a few bushels of grain in
53
a day, we have come to the thresher and the separator with which he can have 1000 bushels of grain put into his granery [sic], in one day.
The social life of the pioneers, from my point of view, has not changed very much for the better. Notwithstanding the hardships and the privations of the pioneer and his family, there were many things which helped to cheer and support them with their burdens, which we do not have at the present day. There were the log rollings, the husking bees, the paring bees, the spelling schools, and the singing schools.
All of these helped to furnish social enjoyment of the first order, both to young and old. It was not necessary in the good old pioneer days to send an invitation card to bring neighbors together for an afternoon or evening visit, where a real enjoyable and social time was sure to follow.
After the township had become partially settled there were four principal roads running through the town, east and west, and nearly parallel with each other.