HISTORY OF HARPERSFIELD TRACT

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     In 1801, Oliver Phelps conveyed two thousand eight hundred and eleven acres, being a tract of one mile in width from the north side of the Township, to Roswell Hotchkiss, who held it in trustee for an association of individuals, living in the town of Harpersfield, in the State of New York, called

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the “Harpersfield Land Company.”  They had purchased of Mr. Phelps town eleven in the fifth range, now called Harpersfield, and as that township was regarded more valuable than others, the tract on the north side of Wayne was put into the contract to reduce it to the average value of the other townships of the Reserve.  Hence that part of the town was for forty years known by the name of the “Harpersfield Tract ”

THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF WAYNE.

     In the spring of 1803, Simon Fobes, Esq., of Somers, in the State of Connecticut, contracted with Oliver Phelps for fifteen hundred acres of land in township No. eight, in the second range.  The tract embraced one entire tier of lots lying south of, and adjoining the east and west center line.  These lots were numbered from fifty up to and including sixty.
     On the 21st of June of that year, Joshua Fobes and his wife Dorothy, accompanied by Elias Fobes, a younger brother of some nine or ten years of age, started from Connecticut with the intention of settling in this township.  Their father attended them on their journey with the intention of seeing them located in the wilderness to which they were emigrating.  After one or two days travel they were joined by Daniel Fobes, a cousin, who shared with them the hardships and privations of that protracted journey.  In forty-nine days they reached Gustavus, and for the time being found shelter in the cabin of Jesse Pelton who had settled at the center of the township.
     Soon after their arrival they proceeded to ascertain the situation of their lands.  This done, the father returned to Connecticut.  Joshua Fobes and David commenced chopping timber and preparing a cabin, but the exposure of the journey affected the health of Joshua so much, that he could not remove on to his lands until the eighth of October.  On that day the family removed into Wayne as it is now called.  The family consisted of Joshua Fobes, his wife Dorothy, David Fobes and Elias Fobes.  These four farmers were emphatically the “first settlers of Wayne.”  I may be permitted to remark, that now, after the lapse of fifty years, they all live and are now present.
     The Scripture informs us that “God gave to man dominion over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth.”  Half a century since, our friends, just referred to, accepted a portion of this donation and took actual possession of so much of the earth as they could then cultivate within this township.  They also exercised dominion

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over all the cattle around them, and over all the fish they could catch, and all the fowls they could bring under their subjection.
     The cabin in which they lived was near the southeast corner of lot fifty seven.  Here they spent laborious days and lonely nights.  Soon after they had settled down in their new house, David Fobes left them and returned to the residence of his father in Massachusetts.  Mr. and Mrs. Fobes, with the brother Elias spent the winter of 1803-4, with no civilized neighbor within less than five miles from their dwelling.  They were often visited by Indians who lived in the township, and who occasionally supplied them with venison and bear’s meat.  They were usually friendly; but it may not be out o place to say, that on one occasion two of them visited the cabin of our pioneers when they found Mrs. Fobes without company.  They became boisterous in their demands for whiskey; but she, understanding their habits, refused to furnish it.  They drew their knives in a threatening manner; she had recourse to the weapon most used by her sex (the broom-stick) and drove them from the cabin.  Often amid the dreary hours of night, they listened to the howling wolf, and the screeching owl, who really appeared to be almost the only social beings about them.
     On the west, in the township of Windsor, at the distance of some fifteen miles, were a few families; but there was no road by which they could be visited.  On the north, their nearest neighbors were in Kingsville, some twenty miles distant without a road, while on the east there were no settlers nearer than Meadville, Pa.  They had no intercourse with white people except at the south.  In Gustavus were two or three families, with perhaps as many in Kinsman and Vernon.  These constituted their neighbors.  With heroic firmness they encountered the solitude, the toils and privations of pioneer life.  They cheered us who subsequently arrived they encouraged us in the midst of difficulties, and stimulated us to further efforts while contending with the obstacles which beset us on every hand  They have witnessed the change that has taken place around them; they have seen the wilderness made “to blossom like the rose,” and now, when their sun of life is descending, and the chilling autumn is coining upon them, they find themselves surrounded with the comforts, the luxuries which cluster in their quiet dwellings.

FIRST BIRTH IN THE TOWNSHIP

     On the 21st of April, A. D. 1804, Mrs. Fobes gave birth to a son.  He was the first child born in the township.  He was named Alvin.  In his childhood, his youth, I was well acquainted with him.  He was amiable,

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industrious and enterprising; but died before reaching the meridian of life.
     In May 1804, Simon Fobes, Jun., now present, came to this township and took up his residence with his brothers.  His presence greatly cheered and comforted them.  With his society the summer passed off pleasantly; but he returned to Connecticut in the autumn, and our pioneer family was left to spend the second winter without other neighbors than those heretofore referred to.
     During the summer of 1804 a wagon road was opened from their residence to Morgan.  This road was occasionally traveled, and our pioneers were, at times, called on by the lonely traveler who, in that day, was always delighted to find a cabin amid the dreary wilderness through which he passed.
     The next year proved more auspicious to our friends.  Early in the sea son Simon Fobes, Jun., returned to Wayne.  He came in a wagon drawn by two horses, which enabled him to bring with him many articles of clothing and other necessaries which the family greatly needed.  He was also accompanied by a cousin, Jabez Fobes, who is now present with us.  His father had purchased lands in Wayne, and the son came to rear a cabin and prepare a place for his father’s family.  These were joyful tidings to our lonely pioneers, and they imparted fresh hope and kindled new expectations in the breasts of those who had begun to despond.*
     By hard labor they cleared several acres of land.  On this they planted a garden and corn, and had sowed a small field of wheat.  Indeed, they were beginning to raise a supply of provisions for their own support.
     During the winter of 1804-5, Titus Hayes and Elisha Giddings removed from Canandaigua, in the State of New York, with their families on sleds drawn by oxen.  They reached Hartford, in the county of Trumbull, in the month of March.  Here they remained during the season, engaged in raising corn and getting a stock of provisions for the next season, intending to settle in this township during the following autumn.  Accordingly, on the eighth of October, these gentlemen and their families removed to Wayne, and took up their residence in a cabin, erected on lot thirty-three, which Mr. Hayes had purchased of Oliver Phelps.
     Mr. Fobes and family had resided in the township just two years before the arrival of any other family.  Elisha Giddings soon erected a cabin and
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     * During the winter of 1804-5, some friends in Gustavus advised Mr. Fobes to leave his cabin and remove to some of the settlements south.  He submitted the proposition to Mrs. Fobes, who, with true heroism, declared she would live and die in the township in which they were located.

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removed to lot thirty-four where his brother Joseph H. Giddings now resides.  The arrival of these families was an auspicious event to our pioneers.  The gloom which had brooded around them for two years was broken, and the dawnings of social life began to cheer their pathway.  It is true, the "new settles" were more than two miles distant from them; but at that period families resident within two miles of each other were regarded as "conversant neighbors."
     In the autumn of 1805, George Wakeman, a farmer on the Yohogany, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, came to this township and purchased lot eighty-five, and employed a man to make some improvement thereon.
     During the autumn of that year, Joshua Giddings, father of your speaker, also purchased several lots of land in different parts of the township.  Jabez Fobes also erected a small cabin during the autumn on lot eighty-eight, and commenced felling timber near where Mr. Dean now resides.
     Edward Inman, of Somers, in the State of Connecticut, also made a purchase of lands here during the autumn, and prepared to move his family on to them.  But the winter of 1805-6 found only three families actually resident in the township.  These families consisted of ten persons, beside two unmarried men, Simon Fobes, Jun., and Jabez Fobes, and the boy Elias Fobes, making in all, thirteen souls.  Of the six married persons referred to, all are now living and present, except Titus Hayes.  He lived to see our township settled with a numerous population, and himself respected and honored with important trusts.  He died, however, in the midst of apparent usefulness.  There were also five children beside the two young men, all of whom are now living, and now present, except Alvin Fobes, to whom I have previously referred.
     In the winter of 1805-6, Joshua Giddings, accompanied by his son Aranda P., came from Canandaigua and commenced an improvement near the center of the town on lot forty-five.  Here they erected a cabin, and planted a small field of corn and a garden.
      In the month of May, George Wakeman with his family, his son-in-law, Henry Moses and family, removed into Wayne, and settled upon lot eighty five.
     In the same month the family of Joshua Giddings, consisting of his wife Elizabeth, his son Joseph W., and your humble speaker, who was the youngest of the family, left Canandaigua in charge of Nathaniel Coleman, at that time recently married.  His wife, a sister of your speaker, and himself constituting a separate family.  We reached Conneaut on the sixteenth of June, a day rendered memorable by the total eclipse of the sun.  Coming down

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the old salt road which ran near the center of the first range of towns nearly to the south line of Williamsfield, we cut a road across the farm now occupied by Capt. Stanhope, and reached the Pymatuning at the point where the bridge on the south road in Wayne now stands.  Here we descended to the low bottom lands, and following down the stream until we passed the mouth of the small creek which empties in from the west, we forded the creek, then turning to the right, we crossed the small stream, and ascended a handsome plateau where we found an Indian wigwam.  Here we halted for the night.  It was near the close of a beautiful day in June, just as the sun was casting its last lingering rays upon the tops of the trees on the high grounds east of us, that we unyoked our oxen and took possession of the desolated wigwam.  Here we ate our suppers, and found our first night’s lodging in the township of our future residence.  Ours was the first wagon that crossed the “Pymatuning” in Wayne,' and the sixth family that settled within its territory.  The next morning, being the twenty-second of June, we resumed our journey.  Traveling in a westerly direction we passed the small cabin of Jabez Fobes, near where Mr. Dean’s dwelling now stands; around this cabin he had chopped some two or three acres of timber.  Traveling to the north of west, we entered upon the road leading from Gustavus to Morgan where it passed over a part of lot sixty-five.  We stopped at the residence of Mr. Fobes for an hour, and then passed on to the cabin erected by my father and brother on lot forty-five where we commenced our residence.  Our cabin contained but one room, without hearth or chimney, or window.  Our furniture had been left at Buffalo, to be forwarded by water.  We were without chairs or table; with only such materials for cooking as were deemed necessary for us on our journey.
     Mr. Coleman soon after commenced an improvement on lot sixty-five near the center line of the township, where he subsequently settled.
     About the first of July, Edward Inman and family, with his son Edward, Jun., and family, arrived and settled on lot eighty-six.  Soon after this, Nathan Fobes and family reached the township and took up their residence in the cabin prepared for them by Jabez Fobes on lot eighty-eight.   Thus, at the commencement of the winter of 1806-7, there were ten families actually resident in the township, beside David Fobes, Jabez Fobes, Simon Fobes, Jun., Samuel Phillips and Stephen Inman who were unmarried men.  The whole population at that time according to my recollection, numbered forty-seven souls.

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THE SABBATH MEETING FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP.

     Soon after our family became residents of the township, my father proposed a meeting of the people for public worship on the Sabbath.  Having consulted with his neighbors, he appointed a meeting at his cabin.  I think it was held on the second Sabbath in July.  At the proper hour all the in habitants of the township, clad in their best holiday suits, were convened.  All were seated on benches prepared for that purpose.  The weather was warm.  The door was set open, and through it and a window without glass, and the open space left in the roof for the escape of smoke, sufficient light was admitted to render the room pleasant.  All were solemn, maintaining a decorum which in that day characterized our meetings for public worship.  My father was the only male professor of religion present.  He and my brother Elisha Giddings sang a hymn.  He then led in prayer.  My brother in-law, Nathaniel Coleman, read a sermon from a volume of sermons by the the Rev. Mr. Storrs, of Somers, Connecticut; another prayer and another hymn closed the services of the day.  Those present appeared devout and conscious that they were establishing habits and laying the moral foundations of a community that would continue long after they and their children, and their children’s children would sleep in dust.  The practice thus introduced was continued for many years, nor was it suspended until a regular Church and Society were formed, and a regular Pastor ordained to lead them in spiritual matters.

FIRST SABBATH PREACHING.

     In the published memoirs of the “Rev. Joseph Badger,” it is stated that he preached at the house of Joshua Fobes, in Wayne, on the second day of November, A. D., 1806, which he states to have been the first “Sabbath Preaching” in this town.  I well recollect the circumstance, having myself carried to some families the intelligence of Mr. Badger’s arrival on Saturday, and his intention to preach the next day.  The weather was not favorable, however, and but a portion of the people convened to hear the sermon.
     Early in the spring of 1807, Nathaniel Coleman moved into his cabin.  During the summer, Stephen Feather with his family settled upon lot eighty seven, on which Mr. Smiley now resides.  And Mr. Partridge with his family moved on to lot ninety-six, now occupied by Mr. Sheldon.
     In November, Simon Fobes, Esq., removed his family to Wayne, and resided for the winter with his son, Joshua.  He also brought with him his aged parents, so that four generations, constituting three families, actually

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resided at the same time in one cabin.  Thus we commenced the winter of 1807-8, with thirteen families actually resident of our township.
     This was, however, a very unpropitious season for the settlers.  The rains were so frequent that they could not clear lands, and consequently could not plant corn for their support.  The rains were attended with an unusual amount of lightning, which appeared to have but little effect of relieving the atmosphere of electricity.
     During this season the inhabitants found it necessary to erect a bridge and causeway over the Pymatuning Creek and swamp, where the south road now crosses that stream.  It was a gigantic undertaking for the number of people engaged in it.  It was, however, effected by the voluntary labors of the thirteen families then resident in the township; although it was a work, when compared with the ability of the inhabitants, far greater than it would now be to build a railroad through it.
     During this season the Messrs. Gillis, of Kinsman, succeeded in getting their grist mill in operation.  It was regarded as a matter of great public interest, inasmuch as it afforded the public increased facilities for the grinding of grain.

THE FIRST DEATH AND FUNERAL

     On the eighth of January, 1808, Mrs. Thankful Fobes, grandmother of Joshua Fobes, died suddenly at his home.   It was the first death in the township and appeared to impress our people with a feeling of deep solemnity.  It then became necessary to decide upon the location of a cemetery.  And Simon Fobes, Jun., Joshua Fobes, Titus Hayes and Elisha Giddings met at my father’s cabin and with him proceeded to select a suitable location for a grave-yard.  Mr. Hayes proposed to donate the land.  It was then an unbroken wilderness.  The site agreed upon was some little distance out of the center of the town and is still occupied as a burial place.  The location for the grave being fixed, Simon Fobes, Jun., and his brother Levi, commenced digging it.  John L. Cook, of Kinsman, made the coffin, and the funeral was attended with great solemnity.  There was no clergyman present; but a suitable sermon was read, with appropriate prayers and singing, and the body was deposited in its final resting place amid the lonely forest.  The day was cold and dreary.  The snow covered the earth; the trees having put off their foliage, stood exposed to the chilling blasts, and nature around us appeared emblematical of the death which had called us together.

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     Three days subsequently we attended the funeral of Simon Fobes, her husband.  He was buried beside his deceased wife in our forest grave-yard.
     The year 1808 was the only season in which the early settlers of Wayne suffered from the scantity of food.  The wet season of the previous year, as already stated, had prevented them from raising their usual supply of corn.  As early as May or June there was great demand for flour, corn and potatoes.  But these articles were all of them difficult to obtain.  No flour was to be had short of “Beaver Falls,” in the State of Pennsylvania; and many of our settlers were too destitute of the “root of all evil ” to obtain “ the staff of life.”  Few of them had become expert hunters; yet much of their food was obtained from the forest.
     Soon as the wheat was so far perfected as to be separated from the chaff it was cut in small quantities and used for food.  I think every family had a supply of milk, and that article really constituted the principal support of some.  It may be regarded as mortifying to the descendants of some families, were I to state that their ancestors were actually in want of bread.  I was myself one of those who actually suffered from hunger, and I well recollect of hearing a neighbor, one who was bowed down with age, say he had not tasted bread for several weeks, and that he had become too weak to labor.  But at length new wheat, new potatoes and green com brought relief, and cheerfulness and hope again were visible among the settlers.
     Another misfortune befel our people.  Most of the lands which had been purchased in town, were found to have been mortgaged by Oliver Phelps prior to their sale.  Phelps died about this time, and his estate being insolvent, the purchasers were left without remedy.  Joshua Giddings felt this loss so severely, that he left the township and settled in Williamsfield.
      During this season Messrs. Fobes finished their saw-mill on lot 55.  The completion of this mill marked an era in our settlement.  From that time we obtained boards for all the various uses to which they are commonly applied.  Our dwellings were rendered comfortable by improved floors; partitions were erected to separate bed-rooms from our kitchens, and the people began to think they were enjoying the luxuries of an old settlement.
     The commencement of the year 1809 was marked, like that of its predecessor, by two deaths.  On the 13th of January, an infant daughter of Nathaniel Coleman died, and on the 21st of that month his wife Submit, only sister of him who now addresses you, departed this life.  She was the first person who died in the township at an age to be useful.  They too were buried in our forest cemetery.  This is not an occasion on which it would

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Income me to speak of that loved sister.  Our hearts were bound to her by the strongest possible attachment, and although forty-five years have passed since she bade us adieu, yet I often find the tear of affection bathing my cheek when I reflect upon that parting scene.  These were the only deaths which occurred in our township during the first ten years of its settlement.
     During the year 1809, there was no increase of our settlement by immigration.  A portion of the people were engaged in efforts to repurchase the land bought of Mr. Phelps.  They also opened roads, improved their dwellings, and some of our young men were married, and erected cabins, and commenced improvements.  Joshua Fobes removed his family on to lot 55, where his brother Levi now resides.  Nathaniel Coleman commenced an improvement on lot 70, where he now lives; Samuel Phillips, being married, moved on to lot 90, where he erected a cabin, near the present residence of William Matthews; David Fobes, being married, also erected a cabin, and settled on the farm where he still resides.
     During the autumn of that year, a school-house was erected near the centre of the town.  It was a small log cabin, with windows of oiled paper.  It has not been visible, I think, for the last twenty years.  Keziah Jones, now the wife of Nathaniel Coleman, was employed to teach the first school taught in the township.  Your speaker was a member of that school, and in it obtained the. only common school education which he acquired after he was ten years of age.
     During the year 1810, our settlement began to increase more rapidly.  Samuel Jones removed from Connecticut, and settled on lot 28, where he still lives; James W. Foster also erected a cabin, and removed on to lot 12, on which Anson Jones resides.
     Samuel Wakeman, son of George Wakeman, removed to Wayne, and commenced an improvement on the lot on which his father resided.  There were, according to my recollection, seventeen families in Wayne Township at the commencement of the year 1811.
     During the year 1812, our settlement made but little advance.  The war of that year occupied the public attention.  In that war Wayne, like other portions of the country, participated.  We were then attached to Trumbull county for military purposes.  The townships of Wayne and Gustavus constituted a company, commanded by our respected pioneer Joshua Fobes.  When the news of General Hull’s surrender of Detroit reached us, the whole of our regiment was ordered to take the field.  It is forty-one years, this day, since our regiment met in general rendezvous at Kinsman, and on the

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its proper cognomen, by which it has since been known, and will probably remain known in coming time.

RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

     In 1808 the church at Vernon was divided, and those professors of religion, who belonged to the Presbyterian and Congregational faith, resident in Kinsman, Gustavus, Williamsfield and Wayne, were organized into a separate church.  The preparatory meeting was held, the church was formed, and the sacrament administered in a log barn, built by George Matthews, in the north part of Kinsman.  The Rev. Mr. Wick of Youngstown, was the officiating clergyman.
     In 1816, the people of Wayne and Williamsfield, united in erecting a log meeting house, on lot 51, where the Rev. Mr. Roberts now lives.  It was furnished with glass windows, a pulpit and singers’ gallery.  Soon after its erection, the church above referred to was again divided, and those members who lived in Williamsfield and Wayne, were erected into a separate church which held its meetings in this house until 1831, when the house was accidentally burned.  The Rev. Alvan Coe was the first preacher employed by the new church, and the venerable Ephraim T. Woodruff, now present, was their first settled pastor.
     After the loss of their meeting house, the church was again divided, and a new meeting house was erected at the centre of Wayne, in which the church of this town has since worshipped, while that of Williamsfield has occupied a building of their own.
     There has also for many years past been a Methodist church organized in Wayne.  They have usually held their meetings at some convenient schoolhouse.  They are quite respectable in point of numbers, and highly so in the character of its members; but I have been unable to obtain the necessary date to enable me to state the time of its formation, or to give details of its history.

ANCIENT WORK.

     Our township contains but one of those works called “ancient fortifications,” of which so much has been written, and so little is known.  That work was situated on the west side of the Parmataving Creek, on lot 89, near where the mill now stands.  It had the appearance of having been designed for defence.  Its parapet walls were some three feet in height, and on them were found forest trees of the ordinary size.  It was evidently erect-

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ed by the same people, and for the same purpose, as those ancient works so numerous at the south and west of us were erected, and which are described with so much accuracy of detail.  I will not therefore occupy further time on that subject.

NATURAL HISTORY