A BRIEF HISTORY OF WADSWORTH, MEDINA COUNTY, OHIO

A BRIEF HISTORY OF WADSWORTH, OHIO

The first evidence of white men in the area that became Wadsworth township, carved in the bark of a large beech tree on the west bank of Holmes Brook, was the name Philip Ward with the date 1797 followed by the initials TD, RC, and WV.  Who these men were and what the reason for their presence is lost to history. This was about the time surveyor Seth Pease and his party, employed by the Connecticut Land Company, ran the southern boarder of the Western Reserve. The men camped for a considerable time on the Mahoning River with the Massianga Indians, a small tribe of the Six Nations. They found a large number of small, black rattlesnakes they named the Massianga snake.

The township and village of Wadsworth, founded in 1814, was named for Revolutionary War hero General Elijah Wadsworth who owned a large portion of the land in the new State of Ohio. Wadsworth is located on the southern edge of the Connecticut Western Reserve, land reserved for Connecticut to replace land lost to Pennsylvania. Connecticut was allowed to keep its claim to this land while other states ceded their western lands to the new government. The Western Reserve extended from Pennsylvania in the east, Lake Erie in the north, south to 41 degrees latitude. The southern boundary runs just south of Youngstown, Akron and Willard.  The Connecticut Western Reserve was originally intended for land grants as compensation to veterans of the Revolutionary War. Connecticut sold this land to the newly formed Connecticut Land Company in 1795 and after a treaty with Native American tribes in 1805 the land was sold through land offices to white settlers. General Wadsworth never lived in Wadsworth. He settled in Canfield southwest of Youngstown in Mahoning County where he died and is buried. The citizens of Canfield erected a statue of him on the north side of town. Elijah Wadsworth was the descendant of Joseph Wadsworth, the man who saved the charter of the Connecticut Colony by hiding it in an oak tree that became known as the Charter Oak. Poet and author of "Paul Revere's Ride," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a distant relative.

MEN OF WADSWORTH WHO SERVED THEIR COUNTRY, AMERICAN REVOLUTION, WAR OF 1812 AND CIVIL WAR

Several men who later settled in Wadsworth and many who were born or lived there for a significant part of their lives served in their new nation's conflicts. During the American Revolution Joseph Bartholomew, Jedediah Richards, Moses Shaw of Connecticut, Michael and Peter Waltz of Pennsylvania, and James Gifford of Maryland served either in the Continental Army or in their states' militias.  Men who settled in neighboring Norton and were part of the Wadsworth community included Philemon Kirkum, Elisha Hinsdale and Simeon Humphrey of Connecticut and Clement Clark of Vermont.

During the second war with Britain, fought between 1812 and 1815, were ten Wadsworth men living in Ohio who served their new nation: Luman and William Beach, Samuel McCoy, Christopher Rasor, Christian Ritter, Daniel Shatto, Michael Simcos, Adam Smith, Adam Smith Jr. and Jacob Smith. Several men of Wadsworth who were living in Pennsylvania during the war included Christopher Auble, William Cronymiller, John Glasgo, George Mellick, Thomas Reese, and John Scott. Those who were from New York included Phineas Butler, Cyrus and Norman Curtis, John Smith, Nathaniel Eastman, Luther Hemmingway, Andrews May, Allen and John Pardee, James Platt, J. Van Orsdall, and Philo Welton. Wadsworth men from Connecticut were George Lyman and W. Steward Richards; from Vermont: Joseph Dean, Calvin Dorwin, and William H. Wright.

The first enlistments for the Civil War were in the 29th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company H. Those men were Thomas Folger, Hiram Root, Frank H. Boyer, and Eli Overholt who enlisted on October 28, 1861. Root and Overholt were captured by the Confederates in June 1862. Both were released in a prisoner exchange and rejoined their regiments, but were eventually discharged because of their wounds. Also enlisting in October 1861, were T. W. Sereene, R. McNaull, and John Reed who enlisted in the 6th Ohio (Artillery) Battery. Other Wadsworth men serving in various units included Don A. Pardee who reached the temporary rank of Brevet Brigadier General, Abraham and Jacob Kreider, and Quiney A. Turner. Men who joined the Army in 1862 were George K. Pardee who reached the rank of Captain, Harrison Sours, Andrew Herrington, Frederick Sporn, Robert Brown, William Benner who died in the war.

Our relatives who served during the Civil War, not in Ohio units but in the 41st Illinois were John and Paul Baughman, both prominent men of Wadsworth. Our direct ancestor Joseph Tyler (1821-1901), my grandmother's grandfather, joined the U.S. Navy, apparently at Cairo, Illinois in the last week in October 1862 at the age of 39. He was "discharged" as a sailor and made a Paymaster Steward assigned to the captured Confederate river boat "Clara Dolsen". The Clara Dolsen was used as a receiving ship - a place that received new recruits into the U.S. military. After the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi in July 1863 he resigned his position and returned home to Wadsworth.

A much longer list of men who served in those conflicts is found in Edward Brown's, "Wadsworth Memorial" published in Wadsworth by the Steam Printing House in 1875. Another source is "History of Medina County and Ohio", Baskin & Battey, Chicago, (1881), These books are available in the Wadsworth library and Library of Congress. I was able to download them from the Internet, I believe from Google Books, as PDF documents and have them on my computer.

EARLY HISTORY OF WADSWORTH

When white men first entered the area of Wadsworth Township wildlife was abundant. Black bears, beavers, wolves, deer, gray foxes, raccoons, bob cats, skunks, several varieties of squirrels including flying squirrels, wild geese, ducks, turkeys, quails and vast flocks of the now extinct passenger pigeons, shot in huge numbers as pests and as food. As the township became settled many of these animals were considered pests and detrimental to their way of life as farmers. To eliminate the problem, ring hunts were organized. A large group of hunters would encircle an area enclosing many acres of open fields and forest land, gradually shrinking the circle until the animals trapped in the circle of men were concentrated enough for the hunters to kill. The usable meat and hides were used by the hunters and families, but the once bountiful wildlife soon became very scarce or eventually extinct in northern Ohio. Snakes, on the other hand, were deemed unsuitable as food, posed no real danger to the farms, and existed in Wadsworth and surrounding townships into modern times. The exception were rattle snakes, once common in Medina county, eventually became exceedingly rare or extinct because of their danger to human health.

Legend says that the first white man to live in Wadsworth Township was Canadian John Holmes, known by locals as Indian Holmes because his wife was an Indian and he lived and survived by hunting and trapping. There is no record of when Holmes came to the area, but his cabin was near a stream called Holmes Brook. Part of that area is now Holmesbrook Park located east of Leatherman Road and south of Interstate 76/U.S. 224. Holmes helped the earliest settlers in Wadsworth, the Deans and Durhams clear their lands and build their cabins. Other than these few facts, John Holmes has been lost to history. The Dean family came from Vermont with the Oliver Durham family, both settled in the Western Star area of eastern Wadsworth, arriving there on March 17, 1814. The following February Salmon Warner and his family arrived. The early settlers of Wadsworth were principally from Vermont, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. One of the first babies to be born in the new settlement of Wadsworth was Alonzo, son of Oliver Durham and his wife, born in July 1814.

On the first day of March, 1814, Oliver Durham and Benjamin Dean entered the wilderness traveling seven miles west to mark the birth of the Wadsworth settlement. Dean's father Daniel and his brother Daniel Jr. arrived two days later. They made simple shelters by cutting a pole, running it between two "crotches" then laying planks from the pole to the ground. That night they built a fire, wrapped themselves in blankets and lay with their feet to the fire, listening to the howl of a wolf pack. Occasionally, the wolves, traveling west from Wolf Creek, passed them on a path to Chippewa Creek but kept out of sight. The men rapped on a dead tree and yelled loudly to keep them bay. As a boy growing up in Sharon Center north of Wadsworth a century and half later, the upper section of Wolf Creek flowed east a few yards south of our house. The wolves were long extinct in the area by then.

Benjamin Dean felled the first tree in the first days of March, 1814. With the help of John "Indian" Holmes and Basley Cahow, Jacob Vanhyning (with one arm), Theodore Parmelee, George Hethman, James and George Cahow who traveled seven miles west from Summit County, they cut and drew the logs for the Dean family house measuring 18 by 18 feet, and the Durham family house measuring 16 by 18 feet. By March 17th the roof was on the Dean house and the family took up residence. At the time there were only eight dwellings between Akron and Wadsworth and only twenty families in what became Medina County, which then included Norton and Copley. The next family to arrive was that of Salmon Warner in February, 1815. The first settlement was in the area that became known as village of Western Star.

The first store in the area opened some seven miles to the east in a room of "Judge" Birdseye Norton's home, operated by Peleg Mason. In 1815 Mason and his brother built a small store and a few other merchants soon set up shops. However, supplies were scarce because most were requisitioned by the army. Because of the British control of Lake Erie during the war of 1812-1815, salt was very expensive and had to be brought in by wagon from the south. Very few had money to purchase their land and had to buy it on credit. Some men had to find work to support their families until they could harvest a crop on their own land. They found employment helping others clear land and build cabins.

Land was often cleared by girdling large trees - stripping off the bark completely around the trunk, which prevents water from reaching the leaves and branches and killing the tree. The trees would stand until they would rot and fall. This process would take many months and families would necessarily have lived in more temporary shelters. Serious illnesses were common and most families lost members, most often children, to disease.

A few years after Ohio became a state and before 1814 the first road was ordered by Trumbull county, of which Wadsworth was then a part, running west from the Pennsylvania border. This road followed the general route of today's U.S. 224 from Boardman and Canfield though Norton to Wadsworth. Owners of property in western townships desired the road to encourage the settlement in those areas. When our ancestor, Christian Wall, purchased his farm near Doylestown and brought his family to Ohio in 1824, he likely traveled there along this road as did our Tyler family who arrived in the area between 1810 and 1820. In 1810, "Captain" Bela Hubbard was contracted to make improvements and build several bridges. A surveying team consisting of Hubbard and several others named streams in the area, including Wolf Creek, so named because the men found a dead deer killed by a wolf on its bank. They named the River Styx because of its swamp and sluggish flow, and Chippewa Creek after the tribe that once hunted in the area. David Hudson named it by carving his name on a beach tree.

Disease was a serious concern and cause of death in the families of Wadsworth. In 1844 and 1848 epidemics of erysipelas caused the deaths of many in Wadsworth. The epidemic was widespread across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. In Medina County it was concentrated mainly in Wadsworth, but also effected nearby communities in Chippewa Township in Wayne County and Norton in Summit County. The illness is a bacterial infection caused by insect bites. The swamps of the River Styx were a prime breeding place for mosquitoes and flies and were probably the major contributor for the deaths in Wadsworth. The first outbreak began in January 1844 and continued through August. Sporadic cases arose until the winter of 1848 when another major outbreak occurred. Patients were, more often than not treated by bleeding. This was a nineteenth century medical practice that caused as many deaths as the disease itself. Until the 1920's there were no antibiotics available to help, even if medical practitioners had known anything about the existence and nature of germs. In 1844 when the population of Wadsworth was about 1,200 there were 124 known cases with 25 deaths. The epidemic of 1848 a larger number of people suffered from the disease before it disappeared.

Bituminous coal was first discovered in Wadsworth township in 1829 and used in homes and some manufacturing, but its commercial value was not fully realized until 1869 after the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad came to town. Coal mining and shipping soon became a source of employment, wealth and growth in Wadsworth. Coal was the first major industry other than farming in the township. The Humphrey & Coleman's mine was located on distant relative Seth Baughman's three farms. Others were the Wadsworth Coal Company mine, the Silver Creek mine and the Town Line Mine, which extended into Sharon and Norton townships. The Stoney Ridge mine was located on the land of Don A. Pardee. The first shipment of coal from Wadsworth was in 1863, brought in wagons from the mines on Silver Creek until the completion of the Silver Creek Branch Railroad.

Wadsworth was incorporated in 1866 and the first election of town officials occurred in April. Aaron Pardee was elected as mayor, J.C. Houston as town recorder, C.N. Lyman, William Boyer, John Lytle, W.T. Ridenour, and Lyman Mills as Trustees. The first town hall was a substantial brick structure of two stories. The first floor contained the post office in the front. In back were the council room, police and village justice courts, cells for holding prisoners and vagrants.

By 1881, Wadsworth had four dry goods stores, two hardware stores, two drug stores, two shoe stores, three grocery stores, two cigar factories, three wagon and carriage shops, two planing mills, an agricultural machine shop, an oatmeal mill, two bedstead factories, two hotels, four doctors, three lawyers, one dentist, three blacksmith shops, several shoe shops, two tailors, two harness shops, two meat markets, two barber shops, two livery stables, two furniture and undertaker stores, four millinery stores, three jewelery stores, one bank, a printing office, a flour and feed store, two restaurants, a grain warehouse, two photographers and a few other businesses. Of course there were several churches of differing denominations.

As a young lad growing up in Wadsworth and Sharon Center in the 1940's and 50's, I fondly remember the Woolworth's "Five & Dime" store on High Street south of Broad Street where we could buy toys, trinkets and candy, the hardware store next to it with its open trans of nails, screws and assorted small hardware items, the A&P grocery store where we obtained our groceries, the Strand theater on College Street where, for a dime, we watched to Saturday matinées with pre-TV cowboys Lash Larue, Red Rider, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Brother Arthur and I attended the first grades of school at the old Lincoln Elementary on High street, which we walked to from our house at 187 Gordon Avenue. We attended church and vacation bible school in the wooden Lutheran church on Acme Road four miles west of our home. On nice summer evenings some Saturdays we would travel to nearby Seville in our Uncle Platt Coolman's 1930's model Chevrolet, with a leaky leather roof section when it rained, to see old 16mm black and white movies, with sound, projected on the blank, painted white, side of a building. The movies were free and we sat on wooden folding chairs set up in the vacant lot next to the building eating snacks we brought with us. How times have changed. The two main industries in Wadsworth when I was a boy were the Injector factory, which manufactured machine parts, and the well known Ohio Blue Tip match factory, later bought by Hunt Foods (I believe) and eventurally moved from Ohio. My aunt and foster mother, Clara Coolman and her second husband Del Bridgman worked in the match factory, where they met.

In June 1959, I left Ohio to live with my birth mother and maternal grandparents. I returned to Ohio during the summer in 1961 and joined the U.S. Air Force in September that year, spending the next twenty years in the military. After retiring from the Air Force 1981, I moved to the Pheonix area of Arizona. I made occassional visits back to Wasdsworth in the years following to visit relatives, but did not spend much time there. During those visits, including a family reunion and the funerals of relatives, I visited cemeteries in the area as part of my interest in family history and genealogy. These visits included the old Emanuel Church of Christ, formerly known as the Waltz or "High" church cemetery south of Wadsworth, the Woodlawn cemetery in Wadsworth, Copley cemetery, and the Sharon Center Cemetery where my father, grandparents, great grandparents, great-great grandparents and several other relatives and ancestors are buried.

Ronald N. Wall

Modified: 1 March 2025