|
Biographies
Source:
Early History of Cleveland
by Col. Chas. Whittlesey -
Publ. Cleveland, O.
1867
< BACK TO BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX for 1867 >
< BACK TO ALL
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEXES FOR CUYAHOGA COUNTY >
|
|
LOT
SANFORD
Statement of A. W. Perry, his son-in-law, and of R. W. Perry, a
grandson.
Shoreham, Vt. November 21, 1859.
We have consulted with Lot Sanford, who was not
in the surveying party of 1796, but in that of 1797.
He was born September 5th, 1773, and was one of the
party who went out to survey the Western Reserve. Amos
Spafford was the chief surveyor of this party. No
particular incident happened on the outward journey, except the
accidental death of David Eldridge. He undertook to
swim his horse across Grand river, although strongly advised to
the contrary, and the animal proving unequal to the task,
Eldridge was drowned and his body carried on to Cleveland, and
buried on the banks of the Cuyahoga. Sanford assisted
in digging his grave, thus performing the office of sexton to the
first white man who was buried in Cleveland.
The company arrived and established their head quarters
building a log house, and enclosing a garden for the purpose of
raising their vegetables. Sanford laid a fence around
this garden, being the first fence ever built in the town.
There had been a log hut built at this place the year
previous, by the same party.
Seth Hart, the agent of the company, was left in
charge of the head quarters. No incidents are mentioned
while the party was out surveying, except the death of Minor
Bicknell, who was taken sick with fever, and was carried
through the woods fifty miles before he died. He was buried
near the Cuyahoga, probably about thirty miles from the present
site of Cleveland.
Soon after arriving at the head quarters, two more of
the party - Andrews and Washburn - died, and were
buried by the side of Eldridge. Several members of
the company are mentioned, among whom are Samuel Spafford,
(son of Amos), and Oliver Culver, who were chainmen;
Andrews was a flagman, and Sanford - the subject of
this sketch - went as axman. He, with eleven others, left
Cleveland the 12th of September, 1797, and returned to Orwell,
Vermont, where he then lived, arriving the 3d of December.
In April, 1804, he removed to a farm which he had purchased in
Shoreham, Vermont, where he has since lived, being now in his
eighty-sixth year.
The two Barkers, Alpheus Choat, David Clark, Oliver
Culver, the two Nyes and Amos and Samuel
Spafford were from Vermont; the two Giddings were from
Connecticut. Sanford and Samuel Spafford
chopped four acres of timber in Euclid, the first ever chopped for
settlement duties.
About eight or ten years ago Job Stiles died in
the town of Leicester, Addison county, Vermont. My brother
has heard Stiles boast of putting up the first house in
Cleveland. Sanford retains his mental faculties in a
good degree, but is infirm from a paralytic stroke he had about
two years since, and therefore he cannot write you, but I send you
his autograph, written before. He feels a lively interest in
the historical articles published in Cleveland, which are read to
him. You cannot better compensate him and his wife, who
still lives, than by sending him such articles."
Mr. Sanford died at Shoreham, April 20, 1860, on
the farm he had cultivated sine 1804, being eighty-six years and
seven months of age. Here there acquired a competence,
living for more than fifty years in communion with the
Congregational church, of which he was a liberal supporter.
His wife died in June, 1865, at the age of eighty-two.
Source: Early History of Cleveland
by Col. Chas. Whittlesey -
Publ. Cleveland, O. 1867 - Page 323 |
|
|
JOHN SHERWIN,
banker, b. Cleveland, O., May 24, 1868, s. N. B. and Lizzie
(Kidder) Sherwin. He has two children, John, Jr. and
Francis
M. Mr. Sherwin is president of the First National Bank,
Cleveland, First Trust and Savigns Company, Cleveland, Wigmore
Realty Company and the Euclid Square Realty Company. He is
chairman of the board of directors of the Bishop-Babcock-Becker
Company and director in the following corporations:
Cleveland Telephone Company, Central Union Telephone Company, G.
C. Kuhlman Car Company, the Lennox Company, Wellman-Seaver-Morgan
Company, Forest City Live Stock and Fair Company and the Garford
Manufacturing Company. He is a member of various clubs in and
around Cleveland, including the following: Union, Cleveland
Athletic, Tavern, Country, Roadside, Mayfield Country, Chagrin
Valley Hunt and the Willowick Country. Mr. Sherwin's
devotion to Cleveland is emphasized by the fact that nearly every
corporation with which he is associated is a Cleveland enterprise,
and he takes active part in the management and development of each
and every one. He is a carefully trained and shrewd banker,
who possesses the absolute confidence of a wide community.
Source: Early History of Cleveland
by Col. Chas. Whittlesey -
Publ. Cleveland, O. 1867 |
|
|
AMOS
SPAFFORD.
BY JUDGE HOSMER.
My Dear Sir: - Of
Major Amos Spafford I have been able to learn but little.
He emigrated from Vermont to Cleveland in 1800 or 1801. He
received the appointment of Collector for the District of Miami,
and of Postmaster, in 1810, at the commencement of which year he
moved from Cleveland to the foot of the rapids, and built a small
log house under the table of land, which forms the present site of
Fort Meigs.
His first return to the Government shows that the
amount of exports from this district, at the expiration of the
first quarter, was three thousand and thirty dollars. It
consisted of three thousand dollars worth of coon, bear and mink
skins, and thirty dollars worth of bear's oil. Major
Spafford cultivated a piece of land, including Fort Meigs,
built several out houses, and acquired considerable property here
previous to the war. He was a man very much esteemed by the
American and French inhabitants, was indeed an adviser and friend
to all the early settlers.
At the time the war broke out, there were sixty-seven
white families living on the twelve mile square Reserve, and some
nine or ten families in the immediate neighborhood. The
first actual notice the settlers had, that hostilities had
commenced after Hull's troops and marched through to
Detroit, was the appearance of about forth Delaware Indians and as
many British, at the foot of the rapids one bright morning in
July, 1812. The Indians, under command of their war chief
Sacamanc, by direction of the British, entered every house on
the north side of the river, and after a friendly salutation, took
all articles of any value which they could find, loaded them into
the canoes, pirogues and flats belonging to the settlers, and then
passed over to the south side. They met Major Spafford
in his cornfield, and were about to subject his house to
pillage but were prevented by a salvo of twenty dollars, paid them
by the Major, which was all the money he had.
With the exception of their chief, Sacamanc, and
four other Indians, they together with the British, left with
their plunder by water, for Malden. The Maumee river was in
those days inhabited by a species of hybrid, half human, half
animal, better known at the present time by the name of Canadian
French. These creatures united in their character the
cunning of an Indian, and the sagacity of the white. They
were principally friends to the British interest. One among
them, who had long been an Indian trader, was, however, a true
American in feeling. His name, Peter Manor, should
ever be remembered, for he was a true friend of the Americans.
He knew Sacamanc, pretended a friendship for him and for
the British, and learned from him that in the space of eight or
ten days, it was the intention of the confederated tribes in the
British interest to hold a council near Malden, and in six days
thereafter to make a general descent upon Monroe, Maumee and the
other places on their trail to Fort Wayne, whither they were
going, with about fifteen hundred British, to aid the beseigers of
that fort, for the purpose of pillage, massacre and rapine.
Sacamanc and his four men left for the interior
of our State the day after the others had came to Malden.
Manor visited Major Spafford the next day, asked him
what he intended to do; and was informed that he intended to
remain on the river and attend to his business. Manor
told him of the conversation he had had with Sacamanc, at
which the Major took alarm, and concluded to make preparations to
go down the lake. As the contemplated attack was some two or
three weeks distant, he was in no hurry. About five days
after this, at or near ten o'clock in the morning, a man, who was
brought up among the Indians, and who had been befriended by
Major Spafford, came running to his house in breathless haste,
with the astounding information, that a party of some fifty
Pottawatomies were with six miles of the foot of the rapids, and
that they were massacreing every Yankee they met with. The
Major spread the news among his neighbors. They immediately
launced an old barge, which was built by the army a year previous
at Fort Wayne, and used by Col. Undermick and other
officers, to come down the river on their way to Detroit.
Having put on board of this crazy hulk, what few
articles of provision and furniture they could, the little party
consisting of the Major's family and three other families, set
sail for Milan, in Huron county. Scarcely had they got under
cover of the point, below the amphitheatre at the foot of the
rapids, ere the Pottawatomies made their appearance. They
inquired after the Yankees, and were told by Manor that
they had been gone a week. The Indians stole what money and
other property the fugitives had left, and started for Malden.
Meantime, the little barge, favored by prosperous gales, reached
Milan in safety. Major Spafford established his
office as collector there until after the war, at the close of
which he and his old companions returned to old Fort Meigs.
When they left they had dwellings, horses, fine corn-fields, and
comfortable homes. On their return they found their fields
destroyed, and their horses and cattle stolen by the Indians.
Government promised redress for the injuries committed by our
army. Their families obtained a small compensation, for the
supposed quantity of corn taken from the fields by Gen.
Harrison's army.
This small sum was obtained through the energy of
Major Spafford, who, on behalf of himself and neighbors, made
two trips to Washington, and spent much time there before aught
could be accomplished. Nothing disheartened he commenced
repairing his ruined homestead. Of the old arks that were
used to transport provisions to our army during the war, from Fort
Amanda and other places on the Auglaize and St. Marys rivers, he
constructed a comfortable farm hosue and office, both of which are
still standing in front of Fort Meigs. He received a grant
from Government of a tract of land next above and adjoining the
Fort, which is now owned by his son, Judge Aurora Spafford,
of this place. He retained his office of Collector until
1818, when he died at his residence. Major Spafford took
an active part in all the early affairs of this county. He
named our town Perrysburg, in honor of the hero of Lake Erie.
I have several letters of his in my possession, one to General
Harrison and one to President Madison, setting forth in
the most graphic language, the losses to which he and his
neighbors had been subjected by the war, and asking for redress.
He was a sound headed, pure hearted man, as all say who knew him,
and as his papers abundantly prove.
Yours faithfully,
Hez. L. Hosmer. In
Judge Atwater's description of the personal appearance
of the surveyors, he says of Spafford, "he was more than
medium in height, very straight, broad in the forehead, with a
sober, serious countenance; rather slow in his motions, and on the
whole was an excellent man."
Source: Early History of Cleveland
by Col. Chas. Whittlesey -
Publ. Cleveland, O. 1867 - Page 347 |
|
|
ANDREW
SQUIRE, attorney, b. Mantua, Portage Co., O., Oct. 21,
1850, s. Andrew Jackson and Martha (Wilmot) Squire. As a
pupil in the public schools of his native town Andrew Squire
continued his studies until eleven years old, after which he
entered Western Reserve Eclectic Institute at Hiram, O., his
parents removing to that place in 1863. In 1867 he entered
upon a course of medical lectures in Cleveland. While
pursuing his studies in that direction his interest became
awakened in law and he determined to prepare for that branch of
professional service. Following his graduation at Hiram he
began the study of law in the office of Cadwell and Marvin of
Cleveland, and on Dec. 3, 1873, was admitted to the bar at
Columbus. Mr. Squire at once located for practice in
Cleveland, and upon the election of his former preceptor, Mr.
Cadwell, to the common pleas bench, he was admitted to a
partnership by Mr. Marvin. On January 1, 1890, Mr. Squire
resigned his former associations and joined Judge William B.
Sanders and James H. Dempsey in the existing firm of Squire,
Sanders and Dempsey. In recent years he has largely
concentrated his attention upon corporation law and is now legal
representative for some of the most prominent business concerns of
the city. Mr. Squire is a stalwart Republican and in 1896
was a delegate to the St. Louis convention, which nominated William
McKinley to the presidency. He has become
financially interested and also has a voice in the management of
the Bank of Commerce National Association; is likewise a director
of the Citizens Savings and Trust Company, the Cleveland Stone
Company, the C. & P. R. R. and various other organizations, and is
trustee of Western Reserve University and Adelbert and Hiram
Colleges. He received the highest honors of Masonry when the
thirty-third degree was conferred upon him, and he is prominent in
the club circles of Cleveland, being a member of Union, Country,
Mayfield Country, University, Rowfant and other clubs, also being
a member of the University club of New York City. His
activities are varied, and his example and efforts are forceful
factors toward the betterment of all conditions bearing upon the
social, professional and intellectual life of the Ohio metropolis.
Source: Early History of Cleveland
by Col. Chas. Whittlesey -
Publ. Cleveland, O. 1867 |
NOTES:
|
