Chapter XXV: Elizabeth Kenton, 428 (11)

In September commissioners were sent out by them to explore the country. They were much pleased with the locality called Harpersfield, and selected it as the township most eligibly situated for the commencement of a settlement. On the 7th of March, 1798, Alexander Harper, William McFarland, and Ezra Gregory set out with their families on their journey to this land of promise. As the winter’s snow was upon the ground, they came in sleighs as far as Rome, where they found further progress impracticable and were obliged to take up their quarters until the 1st of May. They then made another start in boats, and proceeded to Oswego, where they found a vessel which conveyed them to Queenstown. Thence they pursued their journey on the Canada side to Fort Erie, being obliged to take this circuitous route on account of there being no roads west of Genesee River, nor any inhabitants, except three families living at Buffalo, while a garrison was stationed at Erie, in Pennsylvania. At Fort Erie they found a small vessel which had been used for transporting military stores to the troops stationed at the West, and which was then ready to proceed up the lake with her usual lading of stores. This vessel was the only one owned on the American side, and the voyagers lost no time in securing passage in her for themselves and their families as far as the peninsula opposite Erie. As the boat, however, was small and already heavily laden, they were able to take with them but a slender stock of provisions. Having landed on the peninsula the party was obliged to stop for a week until they could procure boats in which to coast up the lake, at that time bordered by the primeval forest. After having spent nearly four months in performing a journey which now occupies but two or three days, they landed on the 28th of June at the mouth of Cunningham’s Creek.

The cattle belonging to the pioneers had been sent through the wilderness, meeting them at the peninsula, whence they came up along the lake shore to the mouth of the stream. Here the men prepared sleds to transport the goods they had brought with them; the whole party encamping that night on the beach. The next morning, Col. Harper, who was the oldest of the emigrants, and was then about fifty-five, set out on foot, accompanied by the women, comprising Mrs. Harper and two of her daughters, twelve and fourteen years of age, Mrs. Gregory and two daughters, Mrs. McFarland the Colonel’s sister, and a girl whom she had brought up, named Parthena Mingus. Their new home was about four miles distant, and they followed up the boundary line of the township from the lake, each carrying articles of provisions or table furniture. Mrs. Harper carried a small copper tea-kettle, which she filled with water on the way to the place of destination. Their course lay through a forest unbroken except by the surveyor’s lines, and the men who followed them were obliged to cut their way through for the passage of the sleds. About three in the afternoon they came to the corner of the township line, about half a mile north of the present site of Unionville, Ohio, where they were glad to halt, as they saw indications of a coming storm. The women busied themselves in striking a fire, and putting the tea-kettle over, while Col. Harper cut some forked poles and drove them in the ground, and then felled a large chestnut tree, from which he stripped the bark, and helped the women to stretch it across the poles so as to form a shelter, which they had just time to gather under when the storm burst upon them. It was not, however, of long continuance, and when the rest of the men arrived, they enlarged and enclosed the lodge, in which the whole company, consisting of twenty-five persons great and small, were obliged to take up their quarters. Their tea-table was then constructed in the same primitive fashion, and we may believe that the first meal was partaken of with excellent appetite, after the wanderings and labors of the day.

The lodge thus prepared was the common dwelling for three weeks, during which time some of the trees had been cut down, and a space cleared for a garden. The fourth of July was celebrated in the new Harpersfield by the planting of beans, corn and potatoes. The next thing was to build log cabins for the accommodation of the different families, and when this was done the company separated. The location chosen by Col. Harper was where he first pitched his tent, while his brother-in-law took a piece of land about half a mile east of Unionville, near the spot now occupied by the Episcopal Church, and Mr. Gregory put up his dwelling close to the river where Clyde Furnace was afterwards built. The settlers suffered from the sickness peculiar to a new country when the season came. A hired man in Harper’s service was taken ill in August, and soon after the Colonel himself was seized with the fever, of which he died on the tenth of September. They had been able to procure no medical aid, and a coffin was made by digging out the trunk of a tree and hewing a slab for the lid. This melancholy event was a peculiar and distressing affliction to the little band of pioneers, and its effect on them would have been paralysing, but that the firmness and energy exhibited by the widow, who now found her exertions necessary to sustain the rest, restored the confidence and hope which had nearly been extinguished by the loss of their leader. Although the principal sufferer by the dispensation, she would not for a moment listen favorably to the proposition made to abandon the enterprise. When an invitation came from friends in Pennsylvania for herself and daughters to spend the winter, both she and her eldest daughter, Elizabeth, declined, knowing how necessary was their presence to keep up the spirits of the little community, and that their departure would discourage many who had intended coming to join them in their forest home. The magnanimity of this resolution can be appreciated only in view of the hardships they knew it would be their lot to share.

In the fall, another small vessel was built for use on the American side of the lake, and two pioneers, one of whom was James Harper, were sent to Canada to procure provisions for the winter. They despatched four barrels of flour by this vessel, and waited some weeks for the other, the captain of which had agreed to bring provisions up the lake for them. Disappointed in this expectation, and hearing nothing of the vessel, they were compelled to return when the season was far advanced, without supplies; finding on their way home the remains of the vessel, which had been wrecked near Erie. They found also that the vessel which had on board the flour they had purchased had been driven into the basin, and was too fast locked in the ice to proceed. They were obliged therefore to remain till the ice became so strong that the flour could be removed in sleds. They at length arrived at home just in time to bring relief from absolute want to the settlers, who had lived six weeks without any kind of breadstuffs, substituting salt beef and turnips, the supply of which was just exhausted. Some grain had been raised at Elk Creek, in Pennsylvania, but there were no mills in that neighborhood, and the wheat afterwards procured there was brought in hand-sleds on the ice to Harpersfield. The records of the Historical Society state that the two sons of Mrs. Harper frequently brought bags of grain packed on their backs. It was ground in a hand-mill somewhat larger than a coffee-mill, which the pioneers had brought with them. By keeping this constantly in operation enough flour was obtained for daily use, mingled, of course, with the bran from which they had no means of separating it, but having a relish and sweetness which such necessity only could impart to the coarsest food.

There were no deer in the country at that time, but large droves of elk, the flesh of which resembled coarse beef, were frequently seen. The flesh of the bears was much more oily, and really very palatable; racoons also were abundant and easily obtained, and were much used by the settlers, although in after years of plenty they lost all relish for “coon meat.” Hickory nuts were also abundant that year, and were found a valuable article of food when other provisions failed. It is worthy of notice, that in the severest straits to which the settlers were reduced, the utmost harmony and friendly feeling prevailed among them, and whatever game or provisions chanced to be obtained by any one family was freely shared with the other two.

Towards spring the men were again sent for a supply of wheat, but by that time the ice was growing tender, and the weather tended towards thawing, so that they were detained on the way much longer than they had expected, and on their arrival at home found the families reduced to the last extremity, having been without provisions for two days. In this time of distress, the fortitude and energy of Mrs. Harper aided in supporting the rest; she was fruitful in expedients, and for the last few days they had lived on the wild leeks she had gathered from the woods and boiled for them. Their troubles did not terminate with the severity of the winter. As soon as the lake opened, the men set out for Canada in boats to procure provisions, but found so much ice as they went down that they were unable to reach Buffalo without much detention. In the meantime new difficulties arose in the little settlement. The mill, on which all depended, was broken beyond hope of repair, and there appeared no way of grinding the wheat, which they could not pound so that bread could be made of it, and which, when prepared by boiling, proved unwholesome food. In this extremity some relief was afforded by the arrival, at the mouth of Cunningham’s Creek, of Eliphalet Austin, who came to make preparations for a settlement at Austinburgh, and gave the pioneers what they needed for immediate use from his supplies of provisions, thus preventing them from suffering till the return of their messengers.

Howe gives an anecdote of Mrs. John Austin, showing some of the troubles of the settlers. “Hearing, on one occasion, a bear among her hogs, she determined to defeat his purpose. First hurrying her little children up a ladder into her chamber, for safety, in case she was overcome by the animal, she seized a rifle, and rushing to the spot saw the bear only a few rods distant, carrying off a hog into the woods, while the prisoner sent forth deafening squeals, accompanied by the rest of the sty in full chorus. Nothing daunted, she rushed forward to the scene with her rifle ready cocked, on which the monster let go his prize, raised himself upon his haunches and faced her. Dropping upon her knees to obtain a steady aim, and resting her rifle on the fence, within six feet of the bear, the intrepid female pulled the trigger. Perhaps fortunately _for her_, the rifle missed fire. Again and again she snapped her piece, but with the same result. The bear, after keeping his position some time, dropped down on all fours, and leaving the hog behind, retreated to the forest and resigned the field to the woman.”

About this time an accident not uncommon in this forest life occurred to Mrs. Harper. She went out one morning to find the cows, which had strayed away, but not having yet learned to tell the north side of a tree by the difference in the bark--a species of wood-craft with which she afterwards became familiar--she lost herself, and wandered all day along the banks of a stream that ran through the depths of the forest. Her family, of course, became alarmed at her lengthened absence and blew the horn repeatedly; but it was not until the shades of night had fallen that she heard the signal, when she managed to light upon the township line, and followed it to the clearing. In the summer following, her sons were obliged to watch closely the hogs they had brought from Canada, on account of the bears, which were very numerous and destructive to stock. The men being occupied in clearing and working the land, or procuring provisions, various out-door employments were cheerfully assumed by the women. One evening Mrs. Harper, with her eldest daughter, went out to look up the hogs, taking the path leading to the nearest neighbor’s house. Presently they were startled by seeing a small bear’s cub cross the path just in advance of them; it was followed by another, and the old bear composedly brought up the rear, taking no notice of the females, who made their way home with all speed. The pigs came to their quarters directly unharmed. So frequent were encounters with wild beasts, that the men never went beyond the clearing without fire-arms.

In July, 1799, Major Joseph Harper, the Colonel’s brother, joined the colony with his family, while a relative of the same name, with some other families, made a settlement at Conneaut, “the Plymouth of the Western Reserve,” some thirty miles down the lake. This year wheat, corn, etc., were raised sufficient for the consumption; but there was a scarcity of meat, the severity of the preceding winter having killed several of their cattle, and many of the hogs being devoured by the bears. The settlers were under the necessity, therefore, of depending on wild game, and the ease with which they secured it in traps, or by the unerring aim of their rifles, with their iron strength for the endurance of fatigue in ranging the forest, might well entitle them to be called “mighty hunters.” But they were heavily laden with daily cares and laborious duties, which even the pleasures of the chase could not induce them to neglect; the clearing of the land and the culture of grain and vegetables demanded incessant attention, and the grinding of the grain was a matter requiring the exercise of some ingenuity. Corn they soon contrived to pound in mortars scooped in the top of oak stumps, with a pounder attached to a spring-pole; but they were obliged to send their wheat in boats down the lake as far as Walnut Creek, in Pennsylvania, where a mill was erected this year. The families of the new emigrants suffered considerably in the latter part of the summer from sickness, and Mrs. Harper went down to the settlement at Conneaut to offer assistance in attending to them. She remained some weeks occupied in her ministrations of kindness, and was not ready to return home till the last of November. Travelling in open boats and on horseback were the only modes practicable among the pioneers; the season was too far advanced for the first, and accompanied by her relative, James Harper, our benevolent heroine started on her homeward journey, the only road being along the lake shore. Fording the streams at their mouth, they had ridden some fifteen miles when they came to the mouth of Ashtabula Creek, across which a sand-bar had formed during the summer, but had now given way to the increased force of the waters flowing into the lake. Harper was not aware of the depth of the stream, into which he rode without hesitation, and presently found his horse swimming. He called out to warn his companion, but she was too anxious to reach home to heed his remonstrance, and followed him fearlessly. Both reached the other side with some difficulty, Mrs. Harper wet to the shoulders, and in this condition she rode the remainder of the way, arriving at home before midnight.

During the fall there were some accessions to the colony; Judge Wheeler, who had married a daughter of Col. Harper, came in October with his family, and Harper’s eldest son, who had been out the year before and returned. For a year and a half after the settlement was commenced, they were not visited by Indians, though they frequently heard their dogs, and learned afterwards that they had not escaped the observation of their savage neighbors, who had counted them and noticed all their occupations and new arrivals. The winter of 1799-1800 was remarkable for the depth of snow upon the ground. In consequence of this, game could not be procured, and the Indians suffered severely. Some thirty of them, unable to procure anything to satisfy the cravings of hunger, came to the settlement to ask relief, and were treated with the most generous hospitality. They remained six weeks, sheltered and fed by the colonists, and when the snow was melted they found plenty of game in the forest, which they showed their gratitude by sharing with their white friends.

In March, 1800, Daniel Bartholomew brought out his family accompanied by that of Judge Griswold, whose destination was Windsor. They came on the ice from Buffalo, arriving only the day before the breaking up of the ice left the lake clear as far as the eye could reach. In the winter preceding, the whole Western Reserve had been erected into a county, which was called Trumbull, the part of it comprising Ashtabula being then included in one township, and called Richfield. In May there were still further accessions, in consequence of which a scarcity was experienced of provisions raised the previous year, and designed for the use of a much smaller number. The settlers were again compelled to send, in June, to Canada in an open boat, for fresh supplies. In August, an election was held for the purpose of sending a delegation to a convention appointed to be held at Chilicothe in the ensuing winter, for the purpose of taking measures preparatory to the admission of Ohio as a State into the Union. The winter of 1800-1801, passed without any remarkable occurrence, the country being healthy and provisions abundant. In the following June other families were added to the number of inhabitants, and the summer was signalized by the erection of a horse-mill, the first built in the country, and the only one for many miles round, till others were built in Austinburgh. The sufferings of the settlers from scarcity of food and other privations were now over, the advance of improvement developing the resources of the country and the farmers were able to enlarge their cleared lands, and cultivate the soil to better advantage. Their friends from the East continued to join them, and Mrs. Harper had the satisfaction of seeing her elder children settled around her. In 1802, a school was established in the settlement; supposed to be the first on the Reserve. The scholars came from the distance of two miles and a half, and as the reputation of the institution extended, they were sent from Windsor and Burton, twenty and thirty miles distant. The same year regular meetings were established by the “Lovers of Good Order,” and the year following saw numerous accessions.

In about three years after the commencement of the settlement, the Indians began to visit them periodically. They were chiefly Ojibways, and belonged to Lake Superior in the summer, but came down every fall in their bark canoes, and landing at the mouth of the streams, carried their canoes on their heads across the portage to Grand River, seven miles from the lake, where they took up their quarters for the winter, returning west in the spring. They manifested a friendly disposition towards the white men, and as the pioneers gave them assistance in sickness and destitution, they endeavored to show their gratitude by bringing them portions of such large game as they killed. Many a choice piece of bear’s or elk’s meat, carefully wrapped in a blanket, has Mrs. Harper received from her savage friends. One day she saw a party of drunken Indians coming towards her house when the men were absent; and she had just time to conceal a small keg of liquor under the floor before they came in, demanding whiskey. They were told they could not have any, but insisting that they would, they commenced a search for it, and finding a barrel of vinegar, asked if that would “make drunk come,” as if so, they would take it. Finding it not the right sort of stuff, they insisted, before leaving the house, on treating the women from a calabash of muddy whiskey which they carried with them.

During all the privations, trials and sufferings which Mrs. Harper was compelled to undergo, she was never known to yield to despondency, but with untiring energy exerted herself to encourage all within the sphere of her influence, teaching them to bear up against misfortune, and make the best of the home where their lot was cast. Her own family knew not, until the hardships of pioneer life had been overcome, how much she had endured--how many hours of anxiety and sleepless nights she had passed in the days of darkness and disaster. She found her reward in the affection and usefulness of her children, several of whom filled important stations in their adopted State. During the war of 1812, the country was exposed to all the dangers of a frontier, liable, on every reverse of the American arms, to be overrun by hostile Indians. In time of danger, Mrs. Harper’s advice was always eagerly sought, as one whose experience qualified her to decide on the best course in any emergency. Her grand-daughter well remembers seeing her one day engaged at the house of her son-in-law in showing a company of volunteers how to make cartridges.

Her life was prolonged to her eighty-fifth year, and she died on the 11th of June, 1833, retaining unimpaired until her last illness the characteristic strength of her remarkable mind.

* * * * *

“In May, 1799, Joel and Sarah Thorp moved with an ox-team from North Haven, Connecticut, to Millsford, in Ashtabula county, and were the first settlers in that region. They soon had a small clearing on and about an old beaver dam, which was very rich and mellow. Towards the first of June, the family being short of provisions, Mr. Thorp started off alone to procure some through the wilderness, with no guide but a pocket compass, to the nearest settlement, about twenty miles distant, in Pennsylvania. His family, consisting of Mrs. Thorp and three children--the oldest child, Basil, being but eight years of age--were before his return reduced to extremities for the want of food. They were compelled to dig for and in a measure subsist on roots, which yielded but little nourishment. The children in vain asked food, promising to be satisfied with the least possible portion. The boy Basil remembered to have seen some kernels of corn in a crack of one of the logs of the cabin, and passed hours in an unsuccessful search for them. Mrs. Thorp emptied the straw out of her bed, and picked it over to obtain the little wheat it contained, which she boiled and gave to her children. Her husband, it seems, had taught her to shoot at a mark, in which she acquired great skill. When all her means for procuring food were exhausted, she saw, as she stood in her cabin door, a wild turkey flying near. She took down her husband’s rifle, and on looking for ammunition, was surprised to find only sufficient for a small charge. Carefully cleaning the barrel, so as not to lose any by its sticking to the sides as it went down, she set some apart for priming and loaded the piece with the remainder, and started in pursuit of the turkey, reflecting that on her success depended the lives of herself and children. Under the excitement of her feelings she came near defeating her object, by frightening the turkey, which flew a short distance and again alighted in a potatoe patch. Upon this, she returned to the house and waited until the fowl had begun to wallow in the loose earth. On her second approach, she acted with great caution and coolness, creeping slily on her hands and knees from log to log, until she had gained the last obstruction between herself and the desired object. It was now a trying moment, and a crowd of emotions passed through her mind as she lifted the rifle to a level with her eye. She fired; the result was fortunate; the turkey was killed, and herself and family preserved from death by her skill. Mrs. Thorp married three times. Her first husband was killed in Canada in the war of 1812; her second was supposed to have been murdered. Her last husband’s name was Gardiner. She died in Orange, in Cuyahoga county, Nov. 1st, 1846.”[29]

* * * * *

The first surveying party of the Western Reserve landed at the mouth of Conneaut Creek, on the 4th of July, 1796. One of the company says--“We celebrated the day in the usual manner, so far as our means enabled us, by drinking patriotic toasts of pure lake water from tin cups, and firing the usual number of salutes from two or three fowling-pieces.”[30] The party numbered fifty two persons, including two women, Mrs. Gunn and Mrs. Stiles. The next day the laborers commenced building a house as the dwelling-place of the families and storehouse of their provisions. In their exploration the surveyors discovered a fine bee tree. “We encamped, cut down the tree, and ate to our satisfaction, each man filling his canteen; and the residue was put into the bags of flour. Except for two or three days, while our honey lasted, we lived on bread alone. On our arrival at the lake we took the beach, and went east to our camp at Conneaut; and what was remarkable, on our way we fell in with all three of the parties, who had each finished their lines and joined ours. During our absence the house had been completed, and Gen. Cleveland[31] had assembled there a small tribe of Indians residing a few miles up Conneaut Creek, had held a council with them, made them some presents, and established a friendly intercourse. The General had furnished himself with an Indian dress, and being of swarthy complexion, afforded an excellent likeness of an Indian chief, and was thereafter known in the party by the name of Pagua, the name of the chief of the tribe referred to.”

The first permanent settlement was not commenced till two years afterwards. One of the early settlers, on his return from Erie, with corn, along the ice on the lake shore, fell into an “ice hole” some distance from the land, and after spending some time in vain efforts to extricate his horse, took the meal, saddle and bridle upon his shoulders, and made for the shore, with his clothes frozen stiff upon him. On the beach he kindled a fire, and after partially drying himself, proceeded on his journey. Some time after nightfall he came to a stream on the west bank of which stood an empty cabin; to reach this and spend the night was his desire, but with the stream he was unacquainted. He built a large fire, and by the light of it ventured to ford it with his load; fortunately the water was only about five feet deep, and after much danger and difficulty he succeeded in reaching the cabin, where, by building a fire, and running about to keep himself awake, he spent the night. The next day at night he reached home, almost exhausted by his load and want of food.

In the year 1798, small settlements, few and far between, sprinkled the Reserve, and a small illbuilt schooner constituted the American fleet on Lake Erie. Subsequently the Indian title to that part of the Reserve lying west of the Cuyahoga, was extinguished, and the lands were brought into market. An apology for a grist-mill had been erected near Cleveland, which had no competitor within a hundred miles, and gave general satisfaction, as few had any thing to grind. Five or six log cabins had been built in what was called “the city of Cleveland.” Capt. Edward Paine made the first sleigh-track through the wilderness from Cataraugus to Erie, accompanied by his wife, her sister, and a female cousin, and encamped two nights in the snow. In the fall, business obliged James Kingsbury, the father of one of the families at Conneaut--the first, it is said, that wintered on the Reserve--to go to Connecticut; and it was the middle of November before he arrived at Buffalo on his return. The snow had fallen to the depth of two and a half feet, and the weather was extremely cold.

“From this point Mr. Kingsbury must leave the habitation of the white man, and make his way through a wilderness, one hundred and thirty miles, with no road to guide him except for a part of that distance the beach of the lake. He was sensible of the condition in which he had left his family; that they had but a scanty supply of provisions, and that his absence had already been longer than was expected. These circumstances, with the setting in of a winter so severe, filled his mind with the painful apprehension that his family might be suffering starvation. Having provided himself with such necessaries as he could procure, with which he loaded his horse, he set forth on foot, and leading his horse, pursued the beach of the lake. After a fatiguing march through the snow, he reached the Indian settlement on the Cataraugus. As from this place, on account of the bold projecting bluffs, he could no longer follow the beach, he procured an Indian, by the name of Seneca Billy, to guide him through the trackless forest, and took his course through the woods, leading his horse as before mentioned. In this manner he toiled through the deep snow, camping each night in the midst of it, for several days, when he reached Presqu’ Isle. With much difficulty he was able at this place to procure a bag of corn, for which he paid three dollars a bushel. Here he dismissed his Indian guide, and again took to the lake, travelling upon the ice. He had proceeded in this manner as far as the fire spring, near the mouth of Elk Creek, when his horse broke through the ice, and though he extricated him, he was so badly injured that he was obliged to leave him; and taking the bag of corn upon his own back, he reached his home, but not such a home as could afford him consolation after his excessive toil and suffering. He found a family perishing for want of food. His wife had given birth to a child, not only without any of those comforts which in such cases are usually deemed indispensable, but destitute of even the coarsest food, herself and family being in nearly a famishing state. The father soon after his arrival was doomed to see the child expire of starvation.

“The infant was, I believe, the first white child born on the Reserve. Some three or four months afterwards, Mrs. Stiles, of Cleveland, presented her husband with one more fortunate, not only as to life, but the means of sustaining it; to wit--a donation of land by the Company--at least so said rumor.

“As the supply which Kingsbury had brought would last but a short time, it became necessary that he should procure more. The Connecticut Land Company had stored the provisions for the use of their surveyors at Cleveland, and Kingsbury knew that of this some barrels of salt beef still remained. Having lost his horse, as before mentioned, and being destitute of any other, it was fortunate that the severity of the season, which had contributed to the suffering of his family by making the ice excellent, facilitated at this time the means of supplying their wants. Taking advantage of this, he went to Cleveland, (seventy miles) and procuring one of the barrels of beef, drew it home upon the ice on a hand-sled, in which he was assisted by a man then at Cleveland. When they arrived they found the first shanty erected by the Company, occupied by Capt. Hodge and family.”

The wife of Hon. John Walworth, one of the earliest settlers of Lake County, shared with him all the toils and privations attendant upon a settlement in the wilderness. An old pioneer writes of her, “In our pioneer days she went hand in hand with her husband in all that was kind, hospitable, and generous; and to her winning and attractive manner, and her sprightliness and vivacity, we must in part attribute the resort to their house of the polished and respectable part of the community. Twice has that lady travelled from this country to the furthest part of Connecticut and back, on horseback: I mention this to show her resolution and perseverance.” Early in 1800, Mr. Walworth brought his family in a sleigh to Buffalo, where they waited two weeks for a sleigh to come from Presqu’ Isle, then proceeded on the ice till they came opposite Cataraugus Creek. Leaving the sleighs and horses some fifty or sixty roods out, the party went to the shore and encamped under some hemlock trees, and partook of a repast seasoned with hilarity and good feeling. The next afternoon all arrived in safety at Presqu’ Isle, whence Mr. Walworth went back to Buffalo for his goods. Mr. Walworth’s nearest neighbors east of his new purchase, were at Harpersfield, fifteen miles distant. His family reached their new home April 7th, 1800, and lived in a tent for two weeks, during which time the sun was not seen.[32]

On the 4th July, 1801, the first ball was given in Cleveland, at Major Carter’s log cabin under the hill. The company consisted of a dozen ladies and from fifteen to twenty gentlemen. The dancers kept time to Major Jones’ violin, on the puncheon floor, and occasionally refreshed themselves with a glass of sling, made of maple sugar and whiskey; and never was the anniversary celebrated by “a more joyful and harmonious company, than those who danced the scamperdown, double-shuffle, western swing, and half-moon” in that unostentatious place of assemblage.

The first school opened in the town was taught, in 1802, by Miss Anna Spafford, also in a room of Major Carter’s cabin. This “thorough pioneer” appears to have been foremost in every advance of improvement. An incident in which his wife was concerned, showing something of the spirit of the times, I take from the MSS. referred to:--“In the summer of 1803, Mrs. Carter observed John Orric and another Indian lad in her garden, breaking some small fruit trees. Upon her reproving them, young Orric knocked her down with his war-club and seriously injured her. The lads fled immediately to the west side of the river to their fathers’ lodges. Several days afterwards, Major Carter, who was on the watch, observed these lads, with others, amusing themselves with playing ball and swimming on the beach of the lake. He went there and took the lads prisoner, secured them with ropes, and took them to the Indian camp on the side hill, telling them he was going to hang them. Not finding Orric’s father at the lodge, he released the other lad, and directed him to go and tell him he had John a prisoner and was going to hang him for striking his wife. The lad did the errand faithfully, for the Major soon heard the Indian whoop of alarm, followed speedily by the war-whoop from the different lodges on the west side of the river. John’s father soon arrived, much excited, and with all the savageness of his nature depicted in his face, with his tomahawk uplifted ready for deadly revenge. He confronted the Major, giving him one of those fierce, gleaming stares, so significant in the Indian brave; but the eyes of the Major met his and did not quail. The injured husband and the enraged father stood and gazed long in silence, each glancing defiance at the other; at length the eye of the savage turned from the calm, fearless look of the white hunter, and he enquired the cause of his son’s capture. Carter told him of John’s assault upon his wife, and his determination to have him punished. By this time, traders and other Indians had arrived and proposed to arrange the matter. John’s father sent him with twenty dollars to give to Mrs. Carter, and ask her forgiveness for the injury he had done; the Major agreeing to nothing unless Mrs. Carter was satisfied. Mrs. Carter indignantly refused the proffered money, and ordered John out of the house; he returned crestfallen to the council and reported the failure of his mission. By this time Carter became much enraged, and notwithstanding he was in the midst of over forty Indians, most of them well armed, it was with great difficulty he could be prevailed upon not to kill John upon the spot. After a long parley, however, he agreed that the affair might rest for the present; but on this condition, that if John was ever caught on the east side of the Cuyahoga River he should certainly hang him.”

XVI.

ELIZABETH TAPPEN.

Elizabeth Harper was the second daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth Harper, and was born February 24th, 1784, in Harpersfield, New York. She was in the fifteenth year of her age when she accompanied her parents to Ohio, in 1798, and was the oldest daughter who went with them, her elder sister having been married some years and remaining in their old home.

The labors and perils of commencing a settlement in an almost unbroken wilderness, encountered by all who took part in this adventurous enterprise, were shared without a murmur by the young girl, to whom fell, of course, no small part of the work of the household and the care of the younger children. The novelty of their mode of living, and the wild forest scenery, with incessant occupation, caused the time to pass speedily and pleasantly through the first summer; but with the approach of a more rigorous season, their hardships commenced, and the death of her beloved father brought before the bereaved family the realities of their situation, far from early friends, and isolated from the comforts of civilization. Elizabeth suffered much at this time of gloom and distrust, with a longing for home, and fears for the future; but the fortitude and resolution with which Mrs. Harper sustained herself under the pressure of calamity, had a due influence on the minds of her children, and the feeling of discontent was soon subdued.

During the absence of James, who went to Canada, as mentioned in the preceding sketch, to procure provisions, another son, William, broke his leg. The other boys were seven and nine years old, and as they could do nothing of consequence, the work of providing firewood for use in the house devolved entirely, for some four weeks, upon Elizabeth and her younger sister, Mary. It was no easy task to cut, split, and bring home all the fuel consumed, as the cabin was very open and large fires were required.

The prospects for the approaching winter were very dark, owing to the scarcity of provision and the want of comfortable quarters; and Mrs. Harper thought it best to send her younger daughter to stay with some friends at a settlement in Pennsylvania. She determined not to accept the invitation for herself, and Elizabeth decided to stay with her mother. The winter proved one of unusual severity, and the settlers suffered greatly from the want of provisions after the wreck of the only vessel on the southern shore of Lake Erie, their supplies having to be brought from Canada. Twice the little community was reduced almost to the point of starvation, having to relieve the cravings of hunger with strange substitutes for wholesome food. On the last occasion, when the men sent for supplies returned, they brought with them a small quantity of coarse Indian meal boiled, which was called samp. Mrs. Harper warmed a portion of this, and making some tea, called her family to partake of the simple meal, then a luxury privation had taught them to appreciate. Most of the children felt sick from absolute want, and disinclined to touch the food, but after tasting it, they were so eager for more that it required all the mother’s firmness to restrain them from taking more than they could bear in so weakened a state.

It has been mentioned that a quantity of wheat raised in Pennsylvania, was brought on hand-sleds a distance of fifty miles on the ice to the settlement, and ground in a small mill belonging to one of the families. It was Elizabeth’s work to grind that required for her family. She would take a peck of wheat and walk two miles and a half to grind it, then carry home the meal and make it into bread. The mill would grind no more than a bushel of grain in a day when constantly in use, and three families were to be supplied. The men being occupied in bringing the wheat and attending to other necessary duties, the grinding was chiefly done by the women.

Many of the cattle belonging to the settlers died this winter, and some of the oxen disappeared, supposed to have been killed and carried off by the Indians. The disaster that caused so much inconvenience the following season--the breaking of the little mill which had been so useful, set them upon the invention of a substitute. A hole was burned and scraped in the top of an oak stump, large enough to hold a quantity of corn which was then pounded as fine as possible with a pounder attached to a spring pole resembling a well-sweep, the heavy end being fastened to the ground. This contrivance was called a mortar. Their ovens were equally primitive. As neither brick nor stone was to be had, a stump was hewn perfectly flat on the top, and a slab hewn out and laid upon it. On this the women spread a layer of clay, and placed upon it wood heaped up in the form of an oven, covering the whole except a small opening at one end, with a thick layer of clay. It stood a short time to dry, and then the wood was set on fire and burned out. The oven thus manufactured proved an excellent one for use, and served as a model for all the ovens in the country for some years afterwards.

In the autumn of the second year of the settlement, Mrs. Wheeler, Mrs. Harper’s eldest daughter, came with her husband and family, and they took up their residence in a cabin they built half a mile from that of the widow. They were joined by several other families soon afterwards.

Some anecdotes of their encounters with the wild beasts of the forest are remembered in family tradition. One summer evening in the third year, when William Harper was returning about dusk from Judge Wheeler’s, his attention was arrested by the sight of a bear just in the path before him, engaged in devouring a hog he had just killed. William fired at the animal without apparent effect, and was hastily reloading his gun, when the bear desisted from his meal, and started in pursuit of the new enemy. Fortunately, a large tree was near at hand, which the young man ran round, the bear closely following and tearing off pieces of the bark in his fury. William contrived, while dodging him, to load his gun, and fired eleven times before the enraged animal fell to the ground; then, completely exhausted by the efforts he had made to keep the foe at bay, he hastened homeward, and met his brother, who alarmed by hearing reports in such rapid succession, had come to look for him. On going to the spot the next evening, they found the bear quite dead, with ten of the eleven balls in his body, the tree being entirely stripped of bark as high as he could reach.

It was not long after this that Elizabeth, while staying with her sister in the absence of her husband, was alarmed by an attack from one of these ferocious animals. A crazy woman belonging to the settlement had come to stay the night in the house. Late in the evening they heard a noise among some fowls roosting upon the projecting logs of the cabin, and going to the door they distinctly saw a large bear standing on his hind legs, trying to reach the fowls, that crowded together in their terror above the range of his paws. It required all Elizabeth’s presence of mind and energy to prevent the lunatic from rushing out; but by alarming her fears she persuaded her to be quiet, and fastened the doors. A more severe encounter took place some years afterwards, in the house of her brother. A hungry bear broke into the yard and attempted to catch a goose wandering on the premises. Mrs. Harper, the sister-in-law, hastily called to her children to come in, and barred the door; but the fierce creature had heard the sound of her voice, and bent on securing his prey, sprang through the open window and attacked her. Her clothes were much torn, and her arm badly scratched; but her husband and a man who chanced to be with him coming to the rescue, they beat off the bear with clubs, and killed him. The fright of Mrs. Harper had such an effect upon her that she suffered in health for many years.

When the school was established in 1802, the earliest on the Reserve, Elizabeth Harper was employed to teach it. The following winter Abraham Tappen was appointed to take charge of it, and some of the scholars came from distant settlements. The school was taught alternately by Tappen and Miss Harper during the winter and summer, for some years. Religious meetings were established about the same time.

In 1806, Elizabeth was married to Abraham Tappen, then engaged as a surveyor, and employed in equalizing the claims of land-holders. His duties compelled him to be absent from home during a great part of the time, and after they were settled, the labor of superintending the clearing of a new farm devolved upon the wife. The work was done, however, with an energy and cheerful spirit worthy the daughter of such a mother; and a substantial foundation was thus laid for future comfort and prosperity. For a few years the youthful couple lived in a small log hut containing but one room, in which it was necessary very frequently to entertain company, as Tappen’s acquaintance and business associations with land owners and land agents brought strangers continually to his house, and the duties of hospitality were esteemed sacred in the most primitive settlements. Mrs. Tappen was often obliged to spread the floor with beds for the accommodation of her guests and the abundance of her table, and the excellent quality of her cooking, could be attested by many who from time to time were the chance inmates of her cheerful home. At that early period an unaffected kindness of feeling, poorly replaced in a more advanced state of society by the conventionalities of good breeding, prevailed among the settlers, and some families were sincerely attached to each other. Good offices were interchanged between neighbors every day, and a friendly intercourse maintained by frequent visits. These were often paid from one to another, even when a journey of fifteen miles on horseback, occupying a whole day, had to be performed. The alarms and accidents to which a new settlement is liable, tended also to bind the emigrants together for mutual assistance and protection. One of a number of similar incidents which occurred in 1811, caused much trouble to the Harper family. A son of Mrs. Wheeler, nine years of age, had gone out alone to gather chestnuts. The afternoon was sultry, and he was thinly clad, but it was not long before a terrible storm of wind and rain came on, prostrating acres of the forest, and swelling the streams in a little while to torrents. Just before dark, Mrs. Tappen received a hasty summons to go to her sister, whom she found half frantic with fears for the missing boy. The alarm quickly spread, the neighbors assembled, and people came from a distance of fifteen and twenty miles to aid in the search, which was continued through the next day and the following one, without success, till near the close of the third day, when the child was found in so exhausted a state that in attempting to rise he fell upon his face. His limbs were torn and filled with porcupine’s quills.

Not very long afterwards, another boy belonging to the settlement was lost in the woods, and the members of his family, in the search for him, called his name aloud repeatedly. It may not be generally known that the panther, which at this time came frequently near the dwellings of man, emits a cry resembling a human voice in distress. The calling of the boy’s name was several times answered, as his friends supposed, and after following the sound and hallooing some time, they discovered that the voice was not human. In a state of torturing anxiety and apprehension, they were obliged to wait for day-light, when the boy made his appearance. He had wandered in an opposite direction from the panther’s locality, and had found shelter at a house, where he remained all night.

The experience of Mrs. Tappen during her residence in the backwoods was full of such incidents. But the forest around them gradually receded before the axe of the enterprising emigrant, the country became cleared and cultivated, and with the progress of improvement the condition of the early settlers became more safe and comfortable. Judge Tappen and Mrs. Tappen still reside on the same farm which they first reduced to cultivation, about half a mile from the spot where her father fixed his dwelling on his first removal to the country. The little village of Unionville, in Lake County, Ohio, has been built partly on Judge Tappen’s farm, and partly on the land formerly owned by his wife, the county line running through it.

XVII.

REBECCA HEALD.

It was the lot of this matron to have the story of her life associated with one of the most remarkable and melancholy events recorded in the annals of border warfare. She was the wife of Capt. Heald, commandant at Fort Dearborn, Chicago, and bore a part in the scenes of the massacre that took place there on the 15th August, 1812. A brief notice of her will be an appropriate introduction to an account of that memorable occurrence.

Rebecca Wells was the daughter of Col. Wells of Kentucky. Her uncle, with whom she resided in early life, was Capt. William Wells. The story of this brave man, who forms so conspicuous a figure in our frontier annals, was a singular romance. When a child he was captured by the Miami Indians, and became the adopted son of Little Turtle, the most eminent forest warrior and statesman between Pontiac and Tecumseh, and the leader of the confederated tribes. When old enough, the captive was compelled to do service, and took a distinguished part in the defeats of Harmar and St. Clair. It is said that his sagacity foresaw that the white men would be roused by these reverses to put forth their superior power in such a manner as to command success; and also that a desire to return to his own people influenced him to abandon the savages. “His mode of announcing this determination was in accordance with the simple and sententious habits of forest life. He was traversing the woods one morning with his adopted father, the Little Turtle, when pointing to the heavens, he said, ‘When the sun reaches the meridian, I leave you for the whites; and whenever you meet me in battle, you must kill me, as I shall endeavor to kill you.’ The bonds of affection and respect which had bound these two singular and highly gifted men together were not severed or weakened by this abrupt declaration.” Wells soon after joined the army of Gen. Wayne, who had taken command of the troops after the resignation of St. Clair, and by his knowledge of the forest, and of the Indian haunts, habits, and modes of warfare, became an invaluable auxiliary to the Americans. He commanded a very effective division of spies, of whom were the best woodsmen on the frontier, served faithfully and fought bravely through the campaign, and after Wayne’s treaty at Greenville in 1795 had restored peace between the Indians and the whites, rejoined his foster father, Little Turtle, their friendship remaining uninterrupted till the death of the chief.