Old Ridgeville Part 2

This article, written by Doris Terrell Mills, is part 2 of a three part series published in the Chronicle Telegram newspaper in celebration of our city’s 150th anniversary.  It offers a unique look into the past!  A few locations might be unknown to younger residents, so these will be explained in [bracketed type.]

By 1812 there were ten families in the settlement.  Their nearest neighbors were in Columbia with unbroken forest between them.  West of them the nearest settlement was at Florence, Erie County, 22 miles away.  Food was sometimes scarce and hard to procure.  The land produced abundantly after it was cleared, but it was covered with an extremely heavy growth of timber.  Their food was of the very plainest mush made of jointed corn, milk and stewed pumpkin.  The only sweetening they had was maple syrup and honey.

Until the erection of Cahoon Mill in 1813 it was hard for the settlers to get their grinding done.  Some took it to Chagrin Falls, a distance of 40 miles, and others depended on mortar and pestle.

Clothing Simple

Their clothing was as simple as their food.  Every farmer whose land was suitable for flax cultivated the product from which most of the summer clothing was made.  In the winter the men wore suits of buckskins and their pants were almost always of buckskin.

While their condition was one of poverty, the settlers all shared the same lot, endured the same hardships, subsisted on the same foods and were arrayed in the same garments so there was no occasion for envy or uneasiness on the part of anyone.

Their cattle died in large numbers of disease and wolves attacked and killed their sheep and even calves and young cattle.  They were put to considerable expense building enclosures to protect the livestock from marauders.

Little do we realize what it meant to keep their large families in clothing as well as food.  Fortunately most women could spin and knit.  People who had looms wove material for others in exchange for other labor.

Cloth from Help

The first cloth thought to be made in Lorain County was made by Mr. and Mrs. James Geer of Ridgeville.  Mr. Geer found some hemp in the valley of Rocky River and knowing that it made good rope, thought it might make cloth.  Mrs. Geer carded it, spun and wove it into 15 yards of material and dyed it with butternut bark.  The finished product was described as looking like a willow basket, but she made herself a Sunday dress and her husband a pair of Sunday trousers from it.

In August, 1812, Gen. Hull surrendered Detroit to the British and a few days afterward a report reached the settlement that a party of British and Indians was seen landing at Huron.  This information created the greatest excitement among the inhabitants and preparation for flight was immediately commenced.

Household goods were secreted in brush heaps, stowed away in hollow logs and even buried in the earth, while a few blankets and other camp equipment were packed on horses or in wagons and they started for Columbia.  There were ten families in the settlement at the time.

It took some of them a couple of days to reach Columbia because one of the oxen was suffering from a rattlesnake bite.  When they arrived they found the Columbia settlement nearly abandoned.  The next day word reached them that the party supposed to be invaders were only paroled prisoners, so the refugees returned to their home.  From this time on until Perry’s victory, the settlers lived in constant fear of an Indian massacre

Stations in Columbia

All the men who were subject to military duty were stationed in a block house in Columbia and thus the women and children were left to the protection of a few old men.  Things continued in this manner until September, 1813, when, on the 10th, the roar of a cannon was distinctly heard and Mrs. David Beebe counted 60 guns, so they knew that the battle on the lake was in progress and on its result depended the safety of their home.  Soon the joyful news arrived that Perry had won.

Icabod Terrell, who had been sent to Rocky River for news, galloped his horse all the way to the settlement and shouted the glorious new of victory.

There were quite a few additions to the settlement from 1812 to 1825.  Among them were Stephen Cables on lot 83 (Winkles Farm) [ near Lake Ridge Academy] John Reading (Race Farm)  [near Race Rd.] Asahel Morgan, Lot 16 (A. R. Pitts Farm) [near Pitts Blvd] Martin Shellhouse, Amos and Samuel Cahoon and Moses Eldred, lot 46, near the railroad track-west.  At this time the nearest house west of him was in Florence.  Other early settlers were Joshua Giddings, our first postmaster, Asahel and Sylvester Powers, Chaney and James Emmons, Bordon Beebe, Aaron Sexton, Origen Adams and family, John Kibby, Thomas Phelps, Wilson Blain, James Blakesley, Joseph Humphreys, Oliver Lewis and Otis Briggs.

Origins

These pioneers came from Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey.  Many of the people of Ridgeville today are descendants of  these families.

The first couple to be married in the settlement was Jethro Butler of Dover [Westlake, Bay Village  and North Olmsted made up Dover] and Clarissa Beebe, daughter of Bordon Beebe.

The first white child born was Harriet Terrell, daughter of Noah and Esther Terrell.  This event occurred in the spring of 1811 in the first house built in the settlement at the corner of Jaycox Rd.  The second child born was Nancy Beebe, daughter of David Beebe Jr.

Martin Shellhouse was the first of the early settlers to die here and the second was Lydia Terrell, daughter of Noah Terrell.  She was one of the first school teachers, if not the first one.  She was buried in the first place selected as burial ground, Lot 16 (A. R Pitts Farm)  Only a few burials were made here and then it was abandoned for the present cemetery.  [Center Ridge at Stoney Ridge]

The first blacksmith was Zenas Barnum.  His first shop was at the center but later was moved to the west part of town.

First Doctor

The first Doctor who practiced in the settlement was Dr. Zephaniah Potter of Columbia, but the first resident doctor was Dr. John Butter.

The first lawsuit was between Loman Beebe, plaintiff and Joseph Cahoon, defendant, in 1813.  It was held at the house of David Beebe before Asahel Osborn, a Justice of the Peace, of Columbia.  The plaintiff claiming unfaithfulness, wastage and poor work on the part of the defendant in the grinding a quantity of wheat.

Schools were started almost as soon as the first settler reached the community.  At first they were conducted in a one-room cabin of some pioneer and later in a small log house, built in 1812, at the center of town.  This building was 18 by 22 feet, with a fireplace at one end which sometime set the logs of the building afire.  It was here the Lydia Terrell was teaching when she caught cold, contracted pneumonia and died.  Some of the other teachers in the school were Betsy Shellhouse, John Reading, Abigail Davis and Samuel Mills.  The school burned in 1817.

New School Built

Another was built of logs in about the location of our present school building. [former Middle School]  For several years this was the only school and in spite of the danger of wild beasts, the children from  the entire settlement made the long trip night and morning.  Later, however, in 1821 the town was divided into two districts, one in the west part of town and one in the east, the latter being the first frame school house in the county.  This building was on the farm of Philander Terrell, about the location where Bert’s Tavern now stands. [Century Tavern on Center Ridge]

The division of  schools was unsatisfactory to the people at the center of town, so they erected for themselves a school house in the center.  (It is believed that this is the building that was torn down when our present high school building was built) [Middle School]

A Catholic school was established in 1876 and was first held in the Town Hall.