Do you ever feel like our family history research is centered on the men in the tree? Have you been able to add details to a 2nd or 3rd great grandmother’s life beyond her vitals, census records and birth of her children? I know I struggle with that.
That’s why resources that provide a glimpse into the lives of our female ancestors are precious. One such source was written by women about women to celebrate Cleveland’s centennial. That source is a four part work titled, Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve and is available on FamilySearch.
Since my Hammond ancestors migrated from Connecticut to the Western Reserve in Ohio, I am fortunate to find information on my Hammond, Hale and Fisk ancestors in part three of this wonderful work.
Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve
The Women’s Department of the Cleveland Centennial Commission
Part 4
December 1897
page 755
Pioneer Women of bath
Summit county
1810-1840
Bath was organized in 1818 and called
Wheatland, afterwards Hammondsburg,
a name it retained as late as 1847, although
changed for many years
previous.
Owen Brown of Hudson. father of the
celebrated John Brown of Ottowasomia;
was a commissioner in 1818, and had
absolute authority to name the town.
“Hammondsburg” was considered rather
lengthy, and for postal convenience,
some of the old settlers thought one with
less letters in it would be preferrable, so
Brown named it Bath.
If any people in this country were
marked out as founders of a new community,
it was the little colony of less
than twenty souls from Connecticut
that settled on the west bank of the
Cuyahoga in Bath in the fall of 1810.
It was like the ancient Greek colonies,
“a miniature company complete in
itself.” Not only did they bring with
them to their new homes their industrious
and frugal habits, their wooden
clocks and spinning wheels, but their
Thanksgiving and other Connecticut
holidays, and their unyielding faith in
their religious creed, and planting them
all in this new community as coincidents
in the fresh soil they were to inhabit.
The site which they were to occupy
was in the region of surpassing loveli.
ness. From the surrounding hills could
page 756
be seen the picturesque Cuyahoga in its
winding course, its banks studded with
majestic forests, not yet despoiled by the
woodman’s axe, and all the land around
lovely with the peculiar beauty of hill,
stream and valley.
Jason Hammond and his wife, Rachel
Hale of Bolton, Ct., were the principal
personages of this colony. Early in the
spring of 1810 they purchased by exchange
of Thos. Bull, 1200 acres in the
northeast part of the township (then
called Wheatland), and in the fall came
on with their family and formally began
the settlement. Some weeks previous
to their removal their eldest son, Theodore,
was sent on in advance to select
the land they were to occupy and prepare
a temporary shelter for the family
when they should arrive. But it was
hard for Rachel Hammond to sever
family and social ties and remove so far
west into a wilderness without company,
so Jonathan Hale, her brother, and Mrs.
Elijah Hale, her sister, both at the head
of families, were persuaded to join the
colony. Besides, the greater the number
to go, the greater security.
This arrangement was carried out and
Jonathan Hale sent on in company with
Theodore Hammond to select his land
and prepare shelter for his family. He
had precisely the same contract with
Bull as did Hammond, only his choice
of land was second. According to his
first letter to his family, still in Connecticut,
after his arrival on the ground, he
had in view only 150 acres, but after
seeing the land he must have decided to
take more, as his deed from Bull, dated
September 8, 1810, nearly two months
after his arrival in Bath, describes fully
500 acres. By reason of the “first choice”
Theo. Hammond (who was twenty-one
years of age) and his father’s family became
the first bona fide settlers in Bath
township. The train for the removal of
this colony consisted of ox teams and
one span of horses, and started from
Bolton at the close of August, and proceeded
to East Hartford. a short distance
west where the Hale families
joined it. The Hales were Glastenbury
people. Elijah, the father of the Rev.
Edward Payson Hammond, the evangelist,
was master of the train as far west
as Cleveland.
Rachel, since her marriage to Jason
Hammond, had seen little of the hardships
of life, but no woman in all the
west brought to bear to the new situation
a braver heart or more practical
mind. From the first she was a pioneer.
The train was stocked with everything
for the journey and for the subsistance of
the families, some time after reaching
their destination. Rachel, the eldest
daughter of Rachel Hammond, drove the
span of horses from Bolton to Bath. Not
a hitch occurred on the whole journey,
although they had a “rocky” time of it, and
were over forty days on the road.
Rachel Hammond, wife of Jason, was
a Hale, born in Glastenbury, Ct. 1758;
came to Bath in fall of 1810, died November,
1842, aged eighty-four, and
buried at Bath in ground set apart for a
public cemetery by her husband. She
was a model housekeeper. Her pewter
mugs and platters were the brightest,
but the old wooden trenchers so long in
use had been supplanted by “blue—eyed”
crockery. Three utensils brought from
Connecticut were indispensable: the cast
iron bake oven, an iron pot and the
black earthen teapot; the last the chief
of the kitchen outfit. Rachel claimed
that in this
LITTLE BLACK STEEPER
she could make a better article of tea
than in any of the later vessels for that
purpose, and as long as she had charge
of the cooking she would use nothing
else. Tea was the old folk’s beverage,
and when “store tea” gave out, as it
often did, sage, pennyroyal or any other
nutritious herb of the fields was substituted.
Rachel never cooked a meal by any
other than the open fire-place. There
is a tradition in the family that she
could conjure up an excellent meal with
only a piece of salt pork for foundation.
The nearest grist mill was located at
Newbury, forty miles distant, but a
domestic mill for milling corn was set up
at home which answered the purpose
very well. It was made of hollowing
out the top of a ‘hardwood stump for a
mortar, rigging a heavy pestle on a
spring pole over the mortar, and with it
pounding the corn fine enough to cook.
Rachel’s linen for the table and bed
was the result mainly of her labor before
marriage. After her marriage she
did very little weaving, although a great
deal of that kind of work was done in the
Page 757
family. Her first home in Bath was a
double log cabin of four rooms and two
huge fire-places, with a drawing capacity
that literally annihilated the surrounding
forests.
It was a query in the settlement what
she could want with so much house-room,
unless she intended to start a tavern!
She lived in this log cabin eight years,
when she moved into the new frame house
erected in 1818, but not finished until
1836, six years after her husband’s death.
Shortly after this she abdicated her place
as housekeeper to her daughter-in-law,
Mrs. Eleanor Sears Jones, wife of Lewis
Hammond, “who succeeded to that important
position. Rachel Hammond
was noted for making excellent loaf cake,
but her strength as a woman extended
far beyond her household affairs.
When neighbors were down with chills
and fever then were her womanly
qualities most conspicuous; her very
touch seemed to soothe the burning
heat and accelerated pulse. If
“AUNT RACHEL”
were only present, the sick took courage.
She understood quite well how to treat
many of the common diseases. Physicians
were scarce, and those who‘ were
in the country were intensely allopathic.
Her religion was practical and earnest.
She and her husband were the first to
take steps for the organization of the
church at Bath center. Both would have
died for the creed of John Calvin. Her
evenings were the delight of her family.
The huge fire-places in winter sent out
a warmth and glow that cheered every
heart and drove out all the gloom which
“crowded around the walls.” When
there were no baskets to make, staves to
split, harness to mend, apples to pare,
there was corn to shell, tow to spin,
ropes to braid or walnuts to crack. Her highest
ambition was to do well her duty,
and “to get wisdom, to get understanding
and forget it not.” She was the mother
of six children, five of whom came west
with her, two daughters and three sons;
Rachel, her eldest daughter, born 1791,
married Leman Farnani (brother of
Everett) ‘and lived and died in Richfield
township. She survived her five children,
then, January, 1868, at the age of
seventy-seven was herself called to rest.
A more loving Christian woman has
rarely lived; kind, true and charitable
to all, to her friends and relatives dear
beyond measure. She taught one of the
first schools in Bath. Her hand all
through life was ever ready in all benevolent,
religious and educational work.
She had annually great quantities of
choice fruit and honey, free gifts to the
worthy poor or friends who asked for
them. In 1855 when Gen. L. V. Beirce
published his “Reminiscences of Summit
County,” she addressed him a spirited
letter criticising severely his account
of the settlement of Bath township.
Rachel Farnam was a good singer and
often led in the choir at Bath before her
marriage. She and all her daughters
were members of the Presbyterian
church in Richfield. Her children were
Darwin and Eleanor; three died young.
She was a faithful, frugal and industrious wife.
Mary Hammond, the youngest daughter
of Mrs. Hammond, born at Bolton,
Ct. 1796, married Dr. Horatio Cooley,
second James Chapman and lived and
died at Chatham, Medina County, where
she is buried. She returned to her
father’s home with her two children
after death of Dr. Cooley, where she remained
until her second marriage. She
was the “worker” of the family where
all were workers. The weaving fell
pretty much to her, and some of the
fabrics she turned out of her loom would
do credit to our modern mills. She was
very active and bright in her work. hardly
knowing fatigue or sorrow in her
young days. She was a splendid example
of what the union of great
physical and mental vigor can do. Like
her sister Rachel, she was an active and
zealous worker in church and Sabbath
school. She had two children by Cooley
and five or six by Chapman. Her eldest
son, Samuel Cooley, is still living and
a resident of Knox County, Ill. Her
grandson, Col. Orrin Cooley, who died
In 1893, gained distinguished honors in
that county. Her eldest daughter, Au-
rilla, married Benj. Stanton of New
York and removed to St. Johns Mich.,
fully forty years ago, where she died and
was buried.
When Mary M. Chapman’s “intended”
brought with him his cousin, a
Methodist minister, to “tie the knot,”
(they came. the night before the wedding)
her parents. stout Presbyterians,
were so exasperated at this that it was with
Page 758
great difficulty they would admit the
good brother into the house. He remained
over night and the following
day officiated at the wedding, but during
that time he received no attention from
the “old folks.”
We can hardly appreciate the prejudice
against Methodists in that day.
That very house, after the death of
Mary’s father, became known all over
the Western Reserve as the “house of
Methodist ministers,” and her brother
Lewis was the founder of the church at
Niles, and class leader of it for nearly
twenty years!
Rebecca Farnam, daughter of John
and Mary Farnam, born at Canaan, Ct.
in 1791, came with her parents to Hudson,
O. early in 1800, thence to Richfield,
Summit County, where she married
at the age of twenty-four, Theodore
Hammond early in 1815, and settled in
Bath, where she died. She had five
children, viz: Maria, died at age of sixty eight;
Jason, accidentally killed at age
of eleven; Augustus, still living; Sarah,
married Nathan Jones about 1840, and
died 1848; James, living in Knox
County, Ill., a rich farmer. He was four
months old when his mother died.
Rebecca’s father was in the Revolutionary
war, and for some time acting as
aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington. Her
mother was a woman of great mental
force; lived to be ninety-five. Rebecca
inherited from her a love for all good
culture, and her home was a constant
school house. Like her mother, she was
fond of reading. One who knew her
intimately says: “She was charitable,
gentle, kind, patient, loving and devoted
to her family and friends.” She was
very zealous and active in educational
work. The site for the select school at
Hammond’s Corners was donated by her
husband. She gave great promise of
much greater usefulness in life, when at
the age of thirty-three, she was called
home by her Master in heaven. Her
brother, Everett, if we except Col. Perkins
of Akron, was the largest landholder
in Summit County.
Mary Fisk, born in 1800 at Watertown,
N. Y., married Theo. Hammond as his
second wife, in 1825. She was sister to
Mrs. Horatio Hammond. When the
first settled minister was called at Bath,
he and his wife lived for a time at Mrs.
Hammond’s. Being “the minister” he
was a privileged character and at liberty
to go where he pleased. For some time
after he came to live in the family the
cream, as it came to the surface on the
milk, mysteriously disappeared. This
troubled Mrs. Hammond; a watch was
stationed and the reverend brother was
caught
SKIMMING THE CREAM
for his luncheon. She was the mother
of twelve children, some of them dying
in infancy and early age. Those that
lived to have names were: Mary, Theodore,
Eloise, Rebecca, Oliver, William,
Olive, Trypheas, Lucy, Milan and
Emily; ‘but all are dead save Theodore
and the last two.
Emily, the youngest, is fifty—one, married
and living in Arkansas; Theodore
is a rich farmer in Knox County, Ill.
Rebecca, the third daughter, was a
graduate of Miss Strong’s at Hudson.
0., and later was herself a popular and
successful teacher at Galesburg. Her
death was very much deplored and the
newspapers of that place gave a very
extended account of her character and
school—work at the time of her decease.
Eleanor Sears Jones, wife of Lewis
Hammond, was born 1800 at Dighton,
Mass. married 1823, at the home of Gen.
O. M. Oviatt of Richfield. She with
her parents removed from Massachusetts
to Bristol, Ontario County, N. Y.
in 1802. Her grandfather, Capt. Alden
Sears, was one of the founders of that
town. Her father dealt largely in unimproved
lands in middle and western
N. Y., and failed. There were ten children,
eight coming to Ohio; Eleanor,
with her brother, Jason, first settled at
Richfield, where she taught school for
a couple of years. Her home was a
famous place for Methodists. During
“quarterly meeting” time as many as
six ministers with their wives would be
present at a time. She never sat down
to eat without company, and an extra
cover laid in anticipation of a call.
In her home were three large brick
bake ovens, the largest with a capacity
for twenty—six two pound loaves. Two
batches of bread were turned out weekly
from this oven. One of the other ovens
was used to bake pies. Hers was a pie
family. From the first, almost, she
took charge of the household, not with-
standing “grandmother” Hammond
Page 759
lived in the family nearly twenty years
thereafter. She was permitted to take
her ease and quietly live in a room
specially provided for her. Eleanor was
a capital manager. More than twenty
cows were milked each day and an
abundance of good cheese and butter
made on the premises in the grass season,
rarely any of which was sold, but
consumed in the family. She was an
accomplished equestrian, and thought
nothing of riding to Richfield or Bath
Center, six and eight miles, to attend
meeting. She had a set of chinaware
brought by her grandfather Sears from
China, which she set out on rare occasions.
Once her brass candle-sticks
turned up missing, but found some days
later in a large jar of boiled cider, where
her youngest “hopeful” had carefully
deposited them for safe keeping. In
winters she had a graceful custom of
inviting five young ladies, one from a
family, her nieces, to make her a visit
and remain four to six weeks. The
young ladies had a sitting room to themselves,
received their own company, and
were in the family only at meal and
prayer times. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hammond
were fair singers and led the singing
in the family and church at Niles.
She was exceedingly charitable; many
times has she packed up food and other
articles and sent them six or eight miles
to
SOME NEEDY FAMILY,
and everything not consumed in the
family was given away to the worthy
poor.
Not a lock was used on dwelling or
store rooms. Her circle of acquaintances was
very large. Her funeral was
one of the largest ever held in the township,
the Methodist minister from Akron
conducting the services. Her life was a
very useful one. She had eight children,
one only of whom was a girl, and she
died young.
Louisa Fisk married Horatio Hammond,
youngest son of Jason and
Rachel, She was an earnest and faithful
worker in the Congregational church
at this place, of which both were lifelong
members. In June, 1848, her
family removed to Galesburg, Ill., arriving
in time to celebrate the 4th of
July at the home of her sister there, Mrs.
Theo. Hammond. From here they
removed to Oneida, Ill. and lived on a
farm.
R0xanna(Fields) Hammond, who
with her husband, Calvin, came to Bath
in June, 1815, was born at Fairley, Vt.
She was one of the first to become
interested in the church at Bath
center, where Mr. Hammond is buried_
Her son, Royal, was elected deacon of
that church at the age of twenty-five.
After the death of Mr. Hammond she
made her home with him, and when he
removed to Ontario, Ill. in 1844, she
accompanied him, and died there in
Her son drove 1500 head of sheep
west at the time of their removal, being
49 days on the road, and she drove the
wagon a great part of the way and doing
all the cooking. In speaking of his
mother recently Royal says: “She was a
very energetic and healthy woman. She
began on a farm right in the woods.”
Theodore, the son of Elijah and Sarah
Hale, married Irene Lyman, born 1814,
at Brattleboro, Vt. She came to Strongsville,
O. when she was three years old.
She was one of the sweetest dispositioned
women the world ever knew.
She had eight children, four living;
Celia E. is in Oberlin, O. Mrs. Irene
Hale died August, 1871.
Sally C. Upson, fist wife of William
Hale (a little boy when his father Jonathan
moved to Bath in 1810),was born
in Tallmadge, married Mr. Hale
November, 1823 and came to live at the
old Hale homestead. Six months after
she died while absent on a visit to Tallmadge.
For second wife Mr. Hale
married, 1831, Harriet Carlton, born
March 18, 1811, died 1854. She was a
niece of Mrs. Jonathan Hale, second
wife. She had five children; Sarah,
Lucy, Olivia, Othello and Josephine.
Othello only now living.
Jane_ Mather, born in Northfield,
Summit County, O., 1821, married, 1838,
Andrew Hale, brother of William, and
settled in the old Hale homestead, where
she still resides. She was a daughter of
Mrs. Jonathan (Mather) Hale. She had
six children; Pamelia, Sophronia,
Clara, Charles 0., Alida and John, all
married and living; Betsey Mather,
another daughter of Mrs. Jonathan
(Mather) Hale, born 1823 at Northfield,
moved to Bath in 1840 and married
Sanford Rogers of Bath. She taught
school at $1.25 per week to buy wedding
Page 760
outfit. Resided in Bath eight years,
when she moved to Galesburg, Ill. She
had four children, three born in Bath.
Josiah Fowler came to Bath with the
colony in 1810, married there and lived
on a farm adjoining Elijah Hale, but
the maiden name of his wife is not recalled.
Another settler about this time
was Polly (Brown) Barber. She lived
in the family of Jason Hammond nine
years. Barber died and she married
second, Fanning. She died in Bath.
She used to say that her life was made
up of “nines.” Her father died when
she was nine years old; at nine she went
to live at Mr. Hammond; she lived there
nine years; when she married Barber,
he lived nine years; she was a widow
nine years, and then married Fanning,
and in nine years he died.
Shortly after the settlement .in the
valley was fairly under way, it began to
spread to the hills, and soon the village
of
HAMMOND’S CORNERS
was founded, with post office, school,
church, tannery, shops of various kinds,
and other New England appliances for
a thrifty community. The site for the
store and school house was donated by
Theodore Hammond, the first bona fide
settler of the township. He became of
age in the May preceding his removal
from Connecticut and was at that time
unmarried. He afterwards was appointed
the agent of the proprietor of the remaining
unsold land, and as such representative
settled a number of additional
worthy families about the
“Corner.”
The married ladies of the colony were
sisters and sister-in-law, they practically
making one family of the whole settlement.
Mercy S. Piper, the first wife of Jonathan
Hale, was born in Acton, Mass.,
April 28, 1779. She was the fourth
child in the family of seventeen children
of Samuel Piper, who was a soldier in
the Revolutionary war. With her
parents she moved to Eastbury, Conn.
about 1783 and married Jonathan Hale
of Glastonbury in 1802. Their home
was in Glastonbury until 1810, when as
previously stated with the families of
Jason Hammond and Elijah Hale they
moved to Bath. In addition to a good
education she had also learned the trade
of a tailoress and many a pioneer was
made happy by receiving from her deft
fingers nicely made garments, the material
of which had been grown, carded, spun
and woven right in the neighborhood.
Leaving comfortable homes on the
banks of the Connecticut and settling in
rudely constructed log houses in the
wilderness meant many privations.
Mrs. Hale was capable of mastering
them all, and her pluck and courage were
often brought to the front. Eighteen
miles from a post office, few books,
no newspapers, no physicians within
miles, and plenty of fever and ague, wild
animals numerous and quite often Indians,
called for indomitable courage.
When the war of 1812 broke out they
were in constant fear of the Indians and
slept with their door barricaded and
their gun and ax by the side of their
bed ready for any emergency.
She was the mother of five children,
three of whom were born in Connecticut—
Sophronia, William and Pamelia;
and two in Bath—Andrew and James,
the latter only now living (1896) in
Akron, O. She was a noble and kindhearted
woman and died in Bath, October
16, 1829. Her eldest daughter,
Sophronia, who helped so materially in
her mother’s work until the old log
house was discarded and a spacious
brick was built, was married to Ward
K. Hammond, May 31, 1827 and settled
on a farm near Hammond’s Corners,
living there until 1837, when they moved
to Delaware County, Ohio, and from
thence to Davis County, Ill., where she
died February 5, 1873.
Her descendants are many, and are
widely scattered through the Western
states,
NOBLE MEN AND WOMEN,
making their impress wherever they go.
Pamelia, her youngest daughter, was
married September 28, 1828 to William
C. Oviatt, who had been a contractor
of blacksmith work in the building of
the Ohio canal, and afterward carried on
an extensive business in carriage manufacturing
at Tallmadge, O. She had no
children of her own, but adopted and
kindly cared for two orphan children,
one the wife of a prosperous farmer in
Nebraska, and the other a prominent
surgeon in Wisconsin.
Sarah Hale, wife of Elijah Hale, and
sister to Rachel Hale Hammond and
Jonathan Hale, was born in Glaston-
Page 761
bury, Conn., Feb. 16, 1771; married her
cousin, Elijah Hale, December 25, 1799
and came to Bath as above stated in
She was a remarkably kindhearted
woman and keenly felt the
separation from her mother, even to her
old age often making preparations and
talking about “going home to see
mother.” She was very strict in her
observance of the Sabbath, which for
her began at sundown Saturday evening
and closed at sundown on Sunday
evening. Her children were Eveline,
Mary and Theodore. The first two
were born in Glastonbury, Conn.,
Eveline, 1801, and Mary, 1804.
Eveline married John Bosworth, Dec.
6, 1821 and moved to Edinburg, Portage
County, where she died May 1,,
She was the mother of two children,
Augusta, who married John Bell.
and who is now living at Muskegon,
Mich. and Eveline, who married James
Cook and is living at Weymouth, Ohio.
The former has numerous descendants
in Michigan and Washington, but the
latter has none.
Mary lived single until October 14,
1860, when she married Deacon Ethel
Strong of Edinburg, O., where she went
to reside. Several years later her husband
dying, she returned to her old
home in Bath, but when her brother
Theodore moved to Oberlin, P. she
moved to Weymouth and spent the remainder
of her days with her niece,
Mrs. Cook.
Of the sixteen who came to Bath in
1810, she was the last one to die.
Royal Hammond, one of the Bath
pioneers who is still living at Galesburg,
Ill. tells of his walking with Mary
through the woods to Richfield to
school and how they came across a
wolf, which graciously let them pass
without molestation, and how they once
caught and killed two young raccoons,
and skinning them proposed to sell
their skins and buy for one a pocket
knife and for the other a side comb.
And how their teacher one day saw a
large flock of deer feeding near the
school house, and telling the pupils to
keep still he ran across the lots for his
gun, expecting to kill one, but while
gone so much noise had been made
that the deer were frightened, and the
teacher came back and gave them all
a good scolding. “Aunt Mary” was
married at the age of fifty—six. She
wore a bonnet made from the silk dress
worn by her grandmother, Rachel Tal-
cott, when she was married in 1758,
In a part of Jason Hammond’s residence
was taught the first school with
pupils of all grades and sizes. Among
the teachers were Roxanna and Phoebe
Jones, sisters of Nathan. The former,
while riding a spirited coal-black colt,
which she was breaking, met for the
first time a young engineer, who was
engaged in laying out and constructing
the Ohio canal, Capt. Richard Howe, to
whom she was married in 1827. A year
later she removed to Akron and organized
the first Sunday school in that place.
This was done in the school house on lot
No. 35, which is still used for school
purposes.
Mrs. Howe continued her Sunday
school ministrations with but few brief
intermissions for a full half century.
She was the mother of seven children,
four of whom are living.
Phoebe Jones, closing her school labors,
married Ira Hawkins, who was a
canal superintendent for a quarter of a
century, at what is now “Ira” post office,
“Hawkins” station on the Cleveland Terminal
& Valley Railway. Leaving
there they removed to the Hawkins
homestead, three miles west of Akron.
They left two sons and one daughter and
three orphan children, whom they
brought up as their own. Early in life
she made it a rule to devote at least half
an hour every day to solid reading, and
to this she adhered, though much of the
time was snatched from sleep after the
family had retired.
Jason Hammond’s son Lewis married
Eleanor Jones, the eldest of the three
sisters, and in time succeeded to his
father’s estate.
A sad accident happened to the family
of Mrs. Eleazar King, which cast a
gloom over the remainder of her life.
They came to Bath in 1826. leaving one
married daughter in Massachusetts.
Lucy King went back to visit this sister,
Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, and both
were returning to the home in Bath when
they were lost on the steamer Erie that
burnt on Lake Erie in 1843.
To the early settlement of the township
Ontario County, New York, contributed
more than any other locality.
Of ‘Puritanic descent, they brought with
Page 762
them some characteristic traits of their ;
ancestry and planted them in the western
wilds. Of the Jones family two brothers‘
not mentioned settled in Westfield
and one in Norton. They were children
of Major Sylvanus Jones, who traced
his descent from Capt. Jones of
THE MAYFLOWER,
and Phoebe Sears Jones, whose ancestral
head on this continent was a passenger
in that memorable voyage.
Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania
contributed their quota to this
settlement, and it is claimed that a former
resident of the town, distinguished
in war and jurisprudence, General and
Judge A. C. Voris, is indebted for some
peculiarities to a dash of aboriginal blood
coursing through his veins. Julia Coe
Voris came originally from Connecticut
and became the mother of thirteen Children,
bearing well her part in peopling
a new territory. Her children were early
taught industry, frugality and self-reliance,
and today three generations of her
descendants revere her memory. .
Mrs. Diana Sturdevant and her husband,
Joel, were the first of quite a colony
of relatives that came from Susquehanna
County, Pa., and settled on the
Smith Road on the line of Bath and
Copley. They made the journey with
horses and wagon. Her father, Orlen
Capron, accompanied them on horseback
to help select a place on which to settle.
The father assured Diana when they
started that he would not leave her in a
place he would not like to live himself.
They settled a short distance east of Latta’s
Corners. Then the father returned
to Pennsylvania. In 1820 a daughter,
Amy, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Sturdevant.
Amy is now Mrs. James Arnold,
of Copley, and to her bright and
active memory we are indebted for many
facts that could not has been secured
elsewhere.
Mrs. Arnold remembers, when a little
girl, of hearing Mrs. Rachel Latta tell
with what anxiety and dread she and her
family waited to hear the result of the
battle on Lake Erie. The neighbors
were few and far between. Some started
but they had their wagon loaded and
waited. If the British were victorious
they were to move quickly farther east,
where the settlers were more numerous,
for they expected to be overpowered by
the Indians and scalped without mercy.
Mrs. Latta’s family were great hunters;
though not the first settlers in Bath were
the first in the southern part of the town,
coming in the spring of 1810. There
were seven girls in this family, viz.:
Mary, Charlotte, Sally, Ursula, Rachel,
Betsey and Florinda.
There was an Indian camp a short distance
south of the Latta home on Latta
Run, for some time after they came. One
afternoon Sally was over there playing
with the children, and they asked her
to eat supper with them. She did not
like to displease them by not staying, but
did not think she could relish roast
skunk, so left at the risk of offending
them.
In 1823 there was quite a number added
to the colony, of which Mr. and Mrs.
Joel Sturdevant were the first. Orlen
Capron and his first wife, Amy Carpenter,
and his mother, Martha Metcalf;
Comfort Capron and wife, Mary Ann
Osmun; Hilen Capron and wife, Fanny
Osmun, who settled in Bath; Ara Capron
and wife, Eliza Sweet, and Alfred
Sweet and wife, Clarissa Capron; then
came later Ibra Capron and wife, Louisa
Aldrich, who settled in Copley. They
traveled by wagon and were three weeks
on the road, camping out at night most
of the time. With them came also three
pioneer children, Julia Capron, a babe
of a few months; Hannah Sweet, one
year old, and Leah Aldrich Capron, one
year old. They had been on the road
but a short time when they found that
little Julia could not stand riding over
the rough roads; so her father and mother
took turns walking and carried her
in their arms on a pillow to the end of
the journey. She is now ‘Mrs. Wallace
Nelson, of Cleveland, O.
Hannah Sweet at the age of sixteen
had charge of a family of seven other
motherless children. She spun, wove,
made clothes, and had all responsibility
for four years, when the father married
again, and she married Rial Conkling,
of Bath.
Leah Capron was a most successful
home and neighborhood doctor and
nurse. With home-made remedies she
relieved many distresses. She married
R. R. Marsh and lived many years in
Kent, O.
With this colony too came
“MY GRANDFATHER’S CLOCK,
that was too tall for the shelf, so it stood
Page 763
ninety years on the floor.” Though in
1840 the grandchildren numbered about
forty, not one had dared to penetrate the
mysteries of that huge clock-case. We
could watch with longing the operation
of pulling up the heavy weights and arranging
the calendar, but must not meddle.
The old clock is still in a good State
of preservation in the home of Alfred
Capron, of |Copley, a grandson of Amy
and Orlen Capron. Several others of
the same families were added to this colony
in 1832.
Mrs. Morris ‘Miller, nee Hetty B.
Looker, came from Tompkins County:
N. Y., in 1817 to Boston township on
the Cuyahoga river, with her husband
and three sons. They were eleven days
on Lake Erie from Buffalo to Cleveland
in the little sloop, Livona. Fever and
ague, which was a disease none along
the river could escape, took hold of them
so severely they could not work, so they
moved to Bath in 1823.
The first six months their log house
had neither doors, windows nor chimney,
and Mrs. Miller did the cooking
and baking for a family of seven by the
side of a big stump, and before winter
she and her little boys hauled stone from
the creek on a hand sled and built a
chimney and bake oven.
Many descendants of these families
are now living in Bath and Copley, all
good, worthy citizens.
Mrs. Mary A. Capron, being of a
quiet, inquisitive nature, and also very
kind and sympathetic, seemed al-
ways to know who in the neighborhood
was in need of a kind word or deed: and
was ready in that same quiet way to
encourage and help. Her firm but gentle
discipline was felt wherever_ = she
moved. She was busy all her life of
eighty-four years, because she liked to
be, and it was her delight, even to the
last year, to have the earliest vegetables
from a garden of her own cultivating,
with which to treat her friends. She
settled in Bath in 1823. Mrs. Capron’s
youngest daughter, Alfe Capron, was a
very successful school teacher.
Mrs. Mehitable Brown was one of
Bath’s model housekeepers. Whatever
of other work she did, and she was a
skilled tailoress, her house was always
a pattern of neatness and order. Mrs.
Brown’s granddaughter, Mary Brown, is
a graduate of the Long Island College
Training School for Nurses; was matron
of Akron‘s hospital for some time, and
is now Mrs. W. C. Jacobs, of Akron.
Her husband is Akron’s most noted physician.
Another granddaughter of Mrs.
Brown, Miss Hattie Brown is a graduate
of the Akron high school and is a
very successful young teacher in the
Akron schools at present.
In 1834 Margaret Moore bade Farewell
to her lover, Joseph Brinley, in Frank—
lin County, Pa., and with others of her
family started on horseback to seek a
new home in Ohio, having Copley in
view, as her sister Mary had settled there
earlier. It ‘did not take young Joseph
long to decide that Pennsylvania had
no charms for him when
“PEGGY” WAS NOT THERE.
Next day he started for Ohio, too, and
it seems with a determination to catch
the party so lately gone, for he overtook
them before they were out of the state,
at a little place called Bloody Run, where
by the proper authority the words that
united Joseph Brinley and Margaret
Moore for life were spoken. They settled
in a short time on one of the most
desirable farms in Bath, where they
stayed the rest of their lives, and where
a son, Joseph, and a daughter, Margaret,
are still living. Margaret Brinley was
a successful school teacher for several
years.
Mrs. Elisha Miller, nee Sarah Woodford,
moved from Farmington, Conn.,
to Bath in February, 1827, traveling the
entire distance by sled. She had her
husband and four daughters for company.—
Emeline, Clarinda, Lowley and
Evaline.
Mrs. Wm. Davis, nee Ann Sewell,
with husband and six small children, left
friends and native land in Lincolnshire,
Eng., to make a home in the United
States. They settled first in N. Y. then
came to Bath in 1840. The order, discipline
and domestic harmony in the
one-roomed log cabin, where she raised
her twelve good boys and girls, was
never more complete in any royal palace,
and would have been a blessing to all the
homes in this land of freedom.
A daughter of Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Ann
Wyckhoff, is a fashionable dressmaker
located at Ghent.
The foregoing embraces the record of
the early settlers in Bath township.
Hundreds of others came in later, but
Page 764
even their names we have not the
space to give. The very exalted character
of the original colony naturally attracted
other good people, until all the
desirable unimproved lands were taken
up.
But these pioneer scenes and women,
Indians, wild animals and forests, to~
gether with the little earthen steeper, the
loom, pea porridge, the ancient dinner
horn, and the “moss-covered bucket
which hung in the well,” have passed
away for all time, and in their narrow
cell
“The rude forefathers of
sleep.”
Historians—Mrs. O. W. Hale, of Akron;
Eleanor Hammond Hilliard, of
Cleveland; Mrs. H. W. Howe, of Bath.
The women of northwestern Ohio were fortunate to be remembered in this wonderful work!
Heartland Genealogy 