Old Ridgeville

In 1960 the Chronicle Telegram ran a series of articles in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of North Ridgeville.  We recently ran across these articles and would like to share them with you.  The author of these articles was Doris Terrell Mills, who was a direct descendant of Oliver Terrell- one of our founding fathers.  She wrote with a passion for her hometown and includes some references to locations that have since changed and people who are now gone.  We are offering this to you as it originally appeared in the newspaper as we think this represents the North Ridgeville where we all grew up- a small  town, where you knew your neighbors, and counted most other residents as your friends.  This is part one of three.  The other two articles will follow in the coming weeks.

In the fall of 1809, Oliver Terrell, Icabod Terrell and David Beebe Sr. of Waterbury Connecticut exchanged their New England farms with a Mr. Root for something over one-fourth of what is now North Ridgeville Village.  They had the privilege of selecting their own acres, so they chose the northeast quarter with some additional acres on Butternut Ridge.

In April of the next year, a company of 13 men set out from Waterbury for their western purchase.  Their names were David Beebe and two sons, David Jr. and Loman, Joel Terrell, Oliver Terrell, Philander Terrell, Elihu Terrell, Lyman Root, Sheldon Wooster, Mansfield Webb, Amos and Orin Hotchkiss and Ira Morgan.

At Buffalo they bought a new outfit consisting of axes, saws, planes, chains and other articles for use in clearing the forest.  A man in a small sailboat was engaged to carry the tools to Cleveland.  Lyman Root accompanied him to take care of the precious cargo when they arrived in Cleveland.

The rest of the men resumed the journey by foot and arrived in Cleveland only a day after the arrival of the vessel.  From Cleveland (then a little settlement of only a few cabins) they proceeded through the forest by the way of Columbia and thence by the Indian Trail to Ridgeville, but named by them at the time “Rootstown”.

Carried Tools

They carried some of their lighter tools in their knapsacks on their backs and left the rest to be brought later by pack horses.  They reached the end of their journey on Tuesday, May 10, 1810.

As they approached the Ridgeville Line, David Beebe Jr. quietly passed ahead of his companions and, arriving first on the ground, cut down the first tree.  This was on lot 15 on land owned by John Lonsby.  For years this section was known as Lonsborough Rd. but is now Bainbridge. Rd.

Here the men erected a crude log cabin with dirt floor and roof of bark.  In this the men kept bachelors’ hall while they worked on their selected locations, cleaning and  preparing for the arrival of their families later in the season.

As soon as the clearing was done and the cabins built, they laid out three thoroughfares on the ridges, Butternut Ridge, Chestnut Ridge and Center Ridge.  The first two were named for the timber that predominated in the area.

On July 6, 1810 Tillotson Terrell, his wife and three children arrived from Waterbury and took up their abode with the men in the cabin on lot 15.  They stayed there until October when they moved into a house erected for them on the corner of Jaycox Rd.  The Gerstenberger home now stands at this location.

Father Arrives

Shortly afterward, his father, Icabod Terrell, and his family arrived and then they changed their location to the east bank of Center Creek.  Later they moved to a more permanent location two miles east.  Here he spent the rest of his life.  At the age of 53 he was shot by one of his neighbors while hunting.  The man saw him through the bushes and thought he was a deer.  His wife carried on alone in the forest with her 11 children and lived to be 76 years old.

In October, 1810, the families of David Beebe Jr. and Lyman Root arrived with Icabod Terrell and his aged father, Oliver Terrell, swelling the colony to 22 persons.  The oldest was 85 and the youngest five weeks.  Two wagons of three yoke oxen and one horse brought the immigrants and their effects.

At Cleveland, Icabod Terrell bought a barrel of flour and barrel of salt and paid $40 for them.

Instead of going through Columbia as the others had done they cut their way through from Rocky River. This was 12 miles and took four days.

Moved by Meeting

As the party approached the house of Tillotson Terrell, Mrs. David Beebe Jr., who had been a near neighbor of Mrs. Terrell in Waterbury, led the way so as to be the first to greet her friend.  The two women were so moved at the meeting that neither could utter a word for several minutes, during which they stood with hands clasped across a brush fence.  Mrs. Beebe was the first white woman that Mrs. Terrell had seen for over three months.

The Beebes located on lot 21 near the center.

Their son, David Jr. started a distillery on Center Creek.  He operated it for a few years but did not make good, so he abandoned the business and became a stone mason.

The David Beebe Sr. family had 11 children.  Beebe lived to be 94 and was blind several years before he died.

Lyman Root moved to Dover the following spring after arrival but returned in 1815 and settled on what is now part of the Mills Dairy Farm.  He kept a little store in his home at an early date.  They also had 11 children.

Ichabod Terrell, father of Tillotson, settled in the cabin vacated by his son on the corner of Jaycox Rd.  His wife was the former Rhoda Williams, a survivor of the Wyoming Massacre.  They had 10 children and 92 grandchildren.

Craftsman

Noah Terrell came from Waterbury at the same time as Tillotson but stopped in Columbia.  He came here to Ridgeville later and lived in the first cabin built.  He had a turning lathe on which he made wooden ware such as bowls, plates and many other useful articles for the inhabitants.  Later he went back to Waterbury and in September of the following year he returned with his wife and son, Willis Terrell, and five children.  They erected a house on the ground now occupied by the old tavern (Spitzer Store).  Later, they erected a log house and it was opened as a tavern.

Joel Terrell was a shoemaker and a very valuable asset to the little settlement.  The settlers exchanged clearing and logging for the shoes that he made for them.  He was a man of much energy and character.  He was the first man elected as justice of the peace.

Their son, Willis, soon opened his log house as a tavern.  It was a favorite place of resort for the Indians, both before and after the War of 1812.  He bought the Cahoon grist mill and they often came to him for their corn and meal. They often brought the family presents and for many years a pair of deer horns was fastened on the outside of the tavern, a gift of the Indians.  They finally gave the tavern the name of “The Indian Tavern”.  In 1821 this structure was torn down and a frame building built.