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1798

DODGE

     The name of Dodge in this county is as old as that of the city itself, as it has been on its records 113 years.
     It began to be locally historical when a 21-year-old young man arrived here in 1798.   He had trudged all the way from Westmoreland, N. H., to see for himself if the much talked-of New Connecticut was all that had been claimed for it, and to find out whether his chances for material advancement would be greater here than in his native town down East.  The question must have been answered in the affirmative, for Samuel Dodge remained to become one of Cleveland’s most valued citizens, as were his sons, and in after years grandsons of today.  He was a carpenter and builder by trade, and at once found work in the erection of cabins for the families yearly arriving and needing transient or permanent shelter.  He built a barn on Superior Street for Samuel Huntington, 30x40 feet in dimensions, for which, it is said, he received in lieu of $300 in cash, a strip of land on Euclid Avenue.  It contained 110 acres, and extended from the avenue to the lake.  Dodge Street, now E. 17th, runs straight through this property.
     Here, in 1803, he built a log-cabin for his bride, Nancy Doane, who had arrived here nearly two years previous with her parents,  Timothy and Mary Carey Doan, and had settled in East Cleveland.  And here was built the first well in town.  The stones that walled it in had first been used by the Indians to back the fire-places they occasionally built in their wigwams.  Nancy Doan had taught school in East Cleveland and Newburgh, and while working at his trade in that direction Mr. Dodge met the pretty young schoolma’am.
     The young couple lived a year or two in their Cleveland home, then moved out in the neighborhood of the Doans, now Windermere.  Here Mr. Dodge had a large farm lying each side of Euclid Road, just west of the present car-barns. For 35 years past, part of it has been “Forest Hill,” the property of J . D. Rockefeller.
     In an advertisement of 1819, it appears that, in addition to farming, Samuel Dodge was engaged in making wagon wheels “of all sizes, large and small.”  In course of time, he returned to his city property, building a small frame-house upon it.  His sons, after their marriages, built im-

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posing structures for their own use on either side of the paternal home.  That of Gen. H. H. Dodge, west of it, was Colonial in style, its facade adorned with stately pillars.  It was one of the show-places of early Cleveland, and long greatly admired.  It still stands on the avenue, though no longer used as a residence.
     George C. Dodge built to the east of his father’s house, and when Dodge Street was cut through, his house became a corner one.
     Mr. Samuel Dodge took high rank as an intelligent man, and it was found to be a difficult matter to get the best of him in an argument.  What his knowledge lacked, his fund of good sense supplied.  A former school-teacher, once working with him, was inclined to make too much of his own educational advantages, and to assume that they were superior to those of his associates.  Mr. Dodge, annoyed at his partner’s pretensions, found an opportunity to retaliate.  The man left the saw-mill, one day, to go to his dinner, leaving directions to a workman upon a piece of paper fastened to a log.  It read, “This log wants to be cut 2x4.”
     Mr. Dodge came along, read the note, and added, “This log is inanimate and can have no wants.  Write correctly, Mr. Schoolmaster!”
     Samuel Dodge died in 1854, aged 78.  He had lived through the first 57 years of the city’s life,—long enough to foresee its future greatness.
     Nancy Doan Dodge, his wife, outlived him nearly a decade, dying at the age of 81.

     Their children were:
 

Mary Dodge, b. 1804;      m. Ezra B. Smith Henry H. Dodge, b. 1810;      m. Mary

Anne Willey. George C. Dodge, b. 1813;      m. Lucy A. Burton

     Mary Dodge Smith, the only daughter of the pioneers, received from her father as a share of his city property the north end of it.  Clinton Park, now a public playground for children, is a part of the original estate belonging to her.  She died in her young womanhood of consumption, and her two children lived but a short time.  She was buried in Erie Street Cemetery, beside her parents.
     Henry H. Dodge, or "General Dodge," as he was known, was a lawyer by profession, being admitted to the bar at the age of 24.  He became United States Commissioner, State Engineer, and filled other offices of trust.  He said to have been a man of strict honor and integrity, kindhearted, and very patriotic.  He died at his Euclid Avenue home in 1889, nearly 80 years old.
     Mary Ann Willey his wife, was the daughter of Newton and Lucretia Willes Willey, of New Hampshire.  She had two little sons who died young, and seven daughters.  The latter all lived to womanhood and married.  Mrs. Dodge was a refined lady of charming manners, and gracious hospitality.  She was the niece of Hon. John W. Willey, the city’s first mayor, and of Mrs. Luther Willes, of Bedford.  She had two brothers, also residing in the city, and a sister living East.
     Mrs. Mary A. Dodge died in 1867, aged 47 years.

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     The children of Gen. H. H. and Mary Ann Willey Dodge:

Mary Lucretia Dodge,      m. William Heisley. Samuel Henry Dodge, d. at three years of age. Caroline Willey Dodge,      m. John J. Herr. Henry Newton Dodge, d. young.

Jeannie C. Dodge,      m. Ambrose J. Benson Nancy A. Dodge,      m. Edward K. Chamberlain Ella C. Dodge,      m. Everton Lattimer. Georgia L. Dodge,      m. Ernest Klussmann. Kate W. Dodge,      m. Albert Lawrence.

     George C. Dodge was an auctioneer and commission merchant.  He also owned a dry-goods and grocery store.  The rapid growth of the city made his real estate and that of his brother so valuable that they gave up all other business in order to attend to it.
     George C. Dodge was quite active in politics at one time, and served as the city's postmaster under President Tyler.
     Mrs. Lucy Dodge was born in Manchester, Vt., 1817, and as a child came to East Cleveland with her parents, Dr. Elisha and Mary Hollister Burton.  She was a beautiful woman, with a clear complexion, lovely dark eyes, and an abundance of dark brown hair.
     Dr. E. D. Burton,¹ her brother, is still living in the house in Windermere, in which he was born.  The first home of George C. Dodge and his wife was at 48 Ontario Street, afterward occupied by Mr. Castle.  They removed to their fine residence on Euclid Avenue, where they died.  Mr. Dodge in 1883, aged 70, and Mrs. Dodge in 1900, aged 83.

     There children were:
 

Anna Dodge,      m. Jeptha Buell. Wilson Dodge,      m. Ella Dudley Fanny Dodge,      m. Horace Hutchins, a brother of Judge John Hutchins. George Dodge,      m. Laura Gedge

Mortimer H. Dodge,      m. Flora Britton. Samuel Douglas Dodge,      m. Janet Groff

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1798

EDWARDS

     Rudolphus Edwards, son of Adonijah and Polly Edwards, came to Cleveland in the fall of 1798 from Chenango, N. Y.  He was accompanied by his wife and two daughters, one an infant of two months old.
     The eldest of the children was the only one of Mr. Edwards' first wife, Rhoda Barnett Edwards, whom he married in Tolland, Conn., in 1790, and who died three years later.
     He married, secondly, Miss Anna Merrill.  It is claimed of the Edwards family that they came with a party of twelve people who met in
---------------
     ¹ Died 1814.

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New York State while on their way to Cleveland.  They were Nathaniel Doan and family, Samuel Dodge, Stephen Gilbert, Nathan Chapman, and, lastly, Joseph Landon, who had spent part of the previous winter in Cleveland.
     Mr. Edwards had been engaged in surveying wild lands for six years before his arrival, and the compass used by him during that period is preserved in the Historical Society.
     He built a log-cabin at the foot of Superior Street and a few feet south of it. This the family occupied for two years. Meanwhile, he purchased 500~acres of land on Butternut Ridge, afterwards called Woodland Hills Avenue, and lately renamed Woodhill Road.  It was at the
eastern terminus of a highway now called Woodland Avenue.  The farm extended north and east of Woodland to Fairmount Street.  To this farm
the family were driven by the virulence of the malaria that attacked them all while they lived by the riverside, and here another log-cabin was
erected for their use.  After ten years’ occupation of it, Rudolphus Edwards engaged Levi Johnson to replace it with a frame tavern, which
became an old landmark of future years.  It was called the “Buckeye House,” and its roof sheltered many a pioneer family bound for town
ships south and east of Newburg, and its hospitality cheered and comforted in hours of weariness and discouragement.
     The occupation of tavern-keeping and the care of his large farm were two of the many activities engaged in by Mr. Edwards.  In the winter
season he often drove his slow-moving ox-team as far south as Pittsburg with a load of wild honey, receiving in payment household supplies.  He also made trips to Detroit, carrying hay and other commodities to the garrison established there by the government before 1812.
     In later years, when his age began to tell upon him, he gave his whole attention to his farm and tavern.  It is said of him that, “Rain or snow,
hot or cold, as regularly as Saturday came around, Uncle Dolph, as he was affectionately called, with his old horse, Dobbin, old-time carryall, and big brindle dog seated bolt upright on the seat by the side of his master, would make his appearance in town for the purchase of supplies for the following week.”
     Anna Merrill Edwards was a woman of uncommon good sense and judgment»—-qualities much needed in those pioneer days.  If Uncle Dolph kept too many irons in the fire, Aunt Dolph had as many more in constant use.  Six children were added to the two brought from Tolland, all born in the old tavern.  Besides a family of ten to care for, and the uncertain traveling public to entertain, there were spinning, weaving, soap-making, candle-dipping, and numberless other things on her hands, and she performed these tasks faithfully and as a matter of course.
     But she died in middle age-—53—when her youngest child was 15.
     Mr. Edwards lost his father, mother, wife, and a daughter 25 years old within a period of three years.  He died in 1840.  All the members of the Edwards family who died in Cleveland were buried in a small cemetery in the rear of the old Congregational church, north-west corner of Euclid Avenue and Doan Street.  It was then called the East Cleveland burying-ground.  The entrance was from Doan Street.  The largest and the finest monument in it, and, eventually, the last one, was that of the

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Edwards family, and, finally, when all the bodies had been removed from the cemetery, this, with other Edwards grave-stones, remained standing until the old church was razed.  A big bank building stands on the site of the little church, and part of the cemetery is covered by another towering edifice.
     Adonijah Edwards, the father of Rudolphus Edwards, was a soldier of the American Revolution.  At an advanced age he came to Cleveland
to live with his son.  His wife Polly accompanied him, and they lived the remainder of their days in this Western pioneer town.  He died in 1831, aged 90, and Polly Edwards only a year later, aged 88.  They were buried in the small cemetery, and their children, one by one, rested beside them.
     The child of Rudolphus and Rhoda Barnett Edwards was

                                                                          Sally Edwards, m. Patrick Thomas.

     The children of Rudolphus and Anna Marrill Edwards:
 

Rhoda Edwards, b. 1798;      m. Lyman Rhodes;      2nd, John Fay. Cherry Edwards, b. 1800;      m. Samuel Stewart Clara Edwards, b. 1802;      m. David Burroughs.

Anna Edwards, b. 1805;      m. Noble Olmstead. Stark Edwards, b. 1808;      m. Hannah Saxton. Lydia Edwards,      m. Lyman Little. Rudolphus Edwards,      m. Sophia Mussen.

     Cherry Edwards Stewart, daughter of Rudolphus Edwards, Sr., was a merry-hearted woman who loved social pleasure.  She was always on hand when sleigh-rides were proposed, and a beautiful dancer, who never lacked for partners at a party, even in middle age, and was leader in any fun going on.  She was extremely neat, and, it is said, although refusing to use washboards after they were invented, her cothes hung on the line were snowy white.
     She had no daughters, but loved her many young nieces, and nothing gave her more pleasure than to initiate them in the various household mysteries she had herself mastered.

     Children of Samuel and Cherry Edwards Stewart:

     Children of Noble and Anna Edwards Olmstead:

     Both parents died young, and the children were raised by their uncles and aunts.  Rudolphus Edwards, Jr., took Margaret Olmstead, and Cherry Stewart took Maria Olmstead.

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     Children of Rudolphus, Jr., and Sophia Mussen Edwards:
 

John R. Edwards,      m. Mary Grower. Lydia Edwards,      m. Newton Bate. Mary J. Edwards,      m. Daniel Grower.

Sophia R. Edwards,      m. Edwin Roberts. Sarah Ann, and Julia Stark Edwards, unmarried.

     Mrs. Sophia Roberts is a well-known member of the Western Reserve Chapter, D. A. R.
     In Harvard Grove Cemetery can be found the following inscriptions.
No knowledge of the couple obtainable.

"Henry Edwards died 1804, aged 52 years.
Mary Edwards, his wife, died 1814, aged 54 years."

     Also:

"Thomas Edwards, died 1829, aged 27 years."

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1798

SPAFFORD

     How Amos Spafford, of Orwell, Rutland Co., Vermont, came to be in the employ of the Connecticut Land Co., is a matter of conjecture only.  The story, doubtless, would be interesting to his posterity wherever it may be, but it is one as yet untold.
     We first find him in May, 1796, with a company of 45 officers and men assembled in Schenectady, N. Y., preparing to explore and survey the Western Reserve.  He is one of seven surveyors, the rest are helpers and laborers.  He accompanies the party all through its journey in the Ohio wilderness, and takes a prominent part in allotting the future city of Cleveland.  And upon his return East, he prepares a map of the city, - the first one made.  He is a member of the second surveying expedition, as its leading surveyor.  At this time, a cabin for shelter, to hold supplies, etc., was built near the foot of Superior Street on its south side, and the following year, 1798, a traveler reports finding him in possession of this cabin.  He was then assisting the Connecticut Land Co. in locating lots for arriving settlers, collecting land sales, etc.
     It was not until the year 1800, four years from the time he first set foot in Cleveland, that he sent to Vermont for his wife and children.  They were accompanied in the long journey by David Clark and family.
     The Spaffords began housekeeping in the surveyors' cabin, which, though small must have seemed a haven of rest to Mrs. Spafford after months of travel and camping.  About this time, and before he began to build a home.  Amos Spafford wrote a sharp letter of complaint to the land company, protesting against the high price of lots.  He thought its demands unreasonable.  Twenty-five dollars cash each for the sixteen

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lots he wishes to purchase is more than they are worth, considering their isolation, and the great scarcity of money, and he threatens to locate elsewhere in the Reserve unless he is offered better terms.
     The company, most unfortunately for himself, must have acceded to his demands, for he settled down to remain in Cleveland, building a two-story frame-house just south of the cabin, and the following year erecting another one at the foot of Superior Street, perhaps for his daughter, Mrs. Anna Craw, who was married in 1801.
     Major Spafford must have been either visionary or impractical, for he burdened himself hopelessly by the purchase of more real estate than he could pay for or resell, and it was the means of a financial embarrassment from which he was never able to extricate himself.  He was descended from John and Elisabeth Spafford, who came to Rowley, Mass., with Rev. Rogers in 1636, from Yorkshire, England.  Amos Spafford was tall, very straight, had a high, broad forehead, and a quiet, sedate manner.  All records speak highly of him, the last one as a "soundheaded, pure-hearted man."
     Mrs. Spafford was a Miss Olive Barlow.  She was born in Granville, Mass., and married Amos Spafford when only 17 years of age.  The young couple continued to live in Granville until after the Revolution, when they joined the popular emigration to Vermont, living in Orwell, that state, until their removal to Cleveland.  Mrs. Olive Spafford was then about 44 years old, and four of her living children were well grown.  The oldest, Samuel, had been with his father a member of the second surveying party, and Anna Spafford, the oldest daughter, married within six months after her arrival in Ohio.
     In histories of early Cleveland, it is stated that in 1802 Anna Spafford taught the first Cleveland school in the front room of Major Carter's cabin, locating said cabin at the corner of Superior and Water streets.  There are many contradictions and discrepancies concerning this event, and after careful research the writer is led to believe tha the first school was either started in her own, or her parents' home.  She was no longer "Anna Spafford" after May, 1801, having married John Craw at that date, and her first child was born in the spring of 1802.  The Carter home until 1803 was under the river bank, north of St. Clair Street, and Mrs. Craw would not be likely to go there when a room could have been obtained nearer.  That the second Carter home was used as a school afterward, there can be little doubt, but with Chloe Spafford, Anna's younger sister, as its teacher.  Chloe also taught in Newburgh a year or two later.  There were only four families in town in 1802.  The Carters Clarks, Huntingtons, and Spaffords.
     The Huntingtons bought with them a governess, Miss Margaret Cobb.  That would eliminate their children from a school as long as she remained with them, which was a year or two at least.  The youngest Spafford, Adolphus, was about eleven years of age.  Of the Carters old enough for instruction, Alonzo was 12, Laura 10, and Henry 6 years old.  The first school, therefore, could not have numbered over six pupils, with every child of proper age present.
     After paying the usual license fee of four dollars, Major Spafford opened his house for the traveling public, and ever after, as long as the

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building stood, it was a tavern, and when it was pulled down another and more pretentious one, called the “Mansion House,” stood on the same site.  The building was painted red, and stood on the last lot on the south side of Superior Street.  In the grading of the street, years later, this lot, and another east of it, were left high above the sidewalk, and eventually many feet of its surface were scraped off to the rear, which originally extended back to the river.
     The arrival of Mrs. Huntington must have been a great pleasure to Mrs. Spafford.  The two women lived side by side for several years, and doubtless, in the sorrows and calamities that befell Mrs. Spafford, her friend and neighbor extended much sympathy and aid.
     In 1807, Anna Spafford Craw died, leaving two little sons, John, aged 5 years, and Richard, aged 3.  She was buried in the cemetery on Ontario Street, and as her husband and parents eventually left the city and there was no one to attend to the matter, her ashes probably were thrown out when the foundation was dug for the building erected on the site, or were part of the barrels of human bones that stood day after day on the curb-stone awaiting the cart that at last bore them away.
     The following year, Mrs. Spafford endured still greater sorrow.  Her youngest daughter, Chloe, in March, 1804, had married Stephen Gilbert, a young man 29 years of age, who was associated with her father in the second surveying expedition.  He had bought a lot and sowed it with wheat the following year—1798—and had been a permanent settler since
then.  He had filled small offices of trust, and seemed to be a valuable member of the community.  Augustus Gilbert, of Newburgh, was an older brother.  They were the sons of Joseph and Elisabeth Breck Gilbert, of Hartford, Conn., and descendants of Capt. John Gilbert, one of the founders of Hartford.
     In April, 1808, Stephen Gilbert, accompanied by his young brother-in-law, Adolphus Spafford, went on a fishing expedition.  They were in a large boat containing six other people, and were bound for a point ten miles west of town where black fish had been reported seen in great number.  The boat was overturned, and all within it but one perished.  Stephen Gilbert could easily have saved himself, but he clung to his young companion in a vain effort to bring him to shore.  Their bodies were recovered, and after being placed in the cemetery on Ontario Street, afterward were removed to Erie Street Cemetery, near the entrance to the right.  They are marked by small stones lying flat on the graves.  By one stroke Mrs. Spafford thus lost her son and son-in-law, and added to her own grief was that of her daughter left a widow with two little
children.
     Major Spafford’s Cleveland ventures did not prosper, and in 1810, having received the appointment of collector in the district of Miami, in which is now Toledo—probably through the influence of his old neighbor and friend, Gov. Huntington—he sold out to George Wallace, moved to Fort Meigs, and built a log-house at the foot of the rapids there.
     Chloe Gilbert evidently did not accompany her parents, for in November, 1810, her father writes to John Walworth, “I find myself under great obligations to you and your family for the friendly aid you have given
our unfortunate daughter and children.  As you observe, she will find a

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home with you until she obtains a better one.  This is saying a great deal, as, in my opinion, a better home could not be found.  Chloe well knows that she will always find one with me, but at present I hardly know where my house or home is.”
     Just a year later he writes Mr. Walworth that he is unable to come to Cleveland or to sell his land there.  That Mrs. Spafford, himself, and son Aurora are recovering from severe illness, and that his home and all his business seem to be out of joint.  He wished his Cleveland lots sold, as his creditors as well as himself are in need of money.  Abram Hickox at this time was raising wheat on the Spafford lots on shares.
     By 1812, Major Spafford had picked up a little, and had a log-house, a farm partly cleared, and some stock, when the Indians in the employ of the British swooped down on the Miami settlers, and looted their homes of everything that could be carried off.  Major Spafford gave them all the money he had except $20, to exempt his household, but receiving word that another party was on the way, this time massacring as well as pillaging, he hurried his family and neighbors into a crazy old boat, leaving everything behind, and started down the river, out into the lake, for Huron, many miles east.  Had not a friendly Indian misled the enemy in regard to the time they started, they could easily have been overtaken and put to death.
     The Spaffords rowed up the Huron River, eight miles, to a little town called Milan, where they remained until the war closed.  Upon their return to Maumee—or Perrysburg—as the place was afterward named by Major Spafford, he found his house burned, his horses and cattle gone, and had to begin all over again.  Out of the old wreck of a transport he built a house to shelter them.  The property in that section afterward became valuable, but not until after Mr. and Mrs. Spafford had passed away.  Their lives had been that of long struggle, exposure, peril, sorrow, and disappointment.
     Their children were all the parents could desire, respected and honored in the communities in which they lived.  They were:

Samuel Spafford,      m. Catherine Mabee, and d. in 1831, in Perrysburg. Ana Spafford, b. 1780;      m. John Craw, May, 1801, and d.. 1807.      Left two sons - John, aged 5 and Richard, aged 3. Chloe Spafford, m. March, 1804, Stephen Gilbert, who was drowned in 1808.

Aurora Spafford,      m. Mrs. Mary Ralph Jones, and d. in PErrysburg, O. Adolphus Spafford, drowned, when 18 years of age, in Lake Erie.

     A Richard Craw was living in Cleveland or Newburgh about 1802, who may have been the father of the brother of the above John Craw.
     Chloe Spafford Gilbert had two sons, Lester, and Stephen L. Gilbert.  She joined her father when his family took refuge in Milan, Ohio, during the War of 1812, and taught the first school in Avery, near by, riding to
it on a horse and a man’s saddle in company with the mail-carrier.  Her sons were living in Maumee as late as 1836, as letters from them to their cousins, the younger daughters of Augustus Gilbert, would indicate.  Stephen L. Gilbert was a mail-carrier in the ’30s, and removed later to a Western state.

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1798

DOAN

     Were the writer to choose an ancestor from the earliest Cleveland pioneers, the choice, without hesitation, would fall upon a blacksmith.  They were the most useful members of society in those first years of toil and struggle.  A community could then dispense with lawyers and land agents, but to be without a blacksmith was a calamity.  The shoeing of horses was small part of the service required of them, for they were called upon to mend everything from a candlestick to a plough, and usually were skilled wagon-makers as well.
     The first three Cleveland blacksmiths—Doan, Sargeant, Hickox— were typical of their class, fine specimens of American manhood.  Honest, industrious, unselfish, kind, and behind each five or six generations of the best New England blood.  Who, then, of today would not be proud of lineal descent from those noble pioneer blacksmiths?  Nathaniel Doan heads the list, and his posterity is numbered among our best citizenship.
     The history of Nathaniel Doan begins with John, his American ancestor of 1633, who was a chosen assistant of Gov. Winslow in directing the affairs of Plymouth Colony, and down through Daniel to Seth and his wife, Mercy Parker, who lived in Haddam, Conn.  Seth was a ship builder and a hero of the American Revolution.  With his son Seth, he was captured by the British and held in prison for a year.  Seth, Jr., died from the effects of that captivity.  Besides the martyred son, there was a large family of children, many of whom came to Ohio and settled in and around Cleveland.
     Nathaniel Doan was the fourth child.  He was a member of the Connecticut Land Company in 1796 and 1797.  He had charge of the horses used in the expeditions—seeing that they were kept well shod and other wise cared for.  He was offered a village lot in Cleveland by the above company if he would settle in the hamlet and start a blacksmith shop.  He accepted the offer, and in 1798 left Haddam with his wife, four children, and his nephew, Seth Doan, son of his brother, Timothy, and started for Ohio.
     It is said that the latter was sent West in order to keep him from following the seas, for which he had a strong inclination, much against the wishes of his parents.
     The route, whenever possible, was by water.  Down the Connecticut River, along the coast of Long Island Sound, down the East River to New York City, up the Hudson River to Troy, then on the Mohawk River, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.  Mr. Doan built his blacksmith shop of rough, unhewn logs on Superior Street, near Bank Street, and probably lived in the Stiles house, which had been abandoned by that family for one on Newburgh Heights.
     Mrs. Nathaniel Doan—Sarah Adams was 27 years of age when she arrived in Cleveland.  She had, at that time, but one son, Job Doan, nine years of age, and three young daughters, Sarah, Delia, and Mercy Doan.  Another little daughter, Rebecca, was afterward added to the family circle.
     The presence of Seth Doan, the nephew, that first year of their arrival in Cleveland, proved most providential for the whole family.  For it was scarcely settled in the little log-cabin before every member of it was taken ill with fever and ague.  Although Seth himself was also afflicted with

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the distressing complaint, he kept about, waiting upon his aunt and the children, and doing all that he could to alleviate their sufferings.
     To add to the family’s distress, there was little food to be obtained in the settlement, and it suffered hunger for weeks at a time; corn-meal was the only diet.  Mr. Doan remained in the hamlet less than a year, then moved out on Euclid Avenue, and settled on a farm.  It was on the corner of Fairmount Street, E. 107th, west of and adjoining Wade Park.  Here he built a small log-tavern and eventually a store, and a little saleratus factory.  The latter was a blessing to housewives, who hitherto had been compelled to use lye in place of that article in their cooking.
     Mr. Doan was evidently a Christian gentleman, as he attended as delegate the first church convention held on the Reserve.  He also, as justice of the peace, married many couples who came before him for that purpose, and he served as County Commissioner.
     He died in 1815, aged 53 years.
     His widow, Sarah Adams Doan, survived him nearly 40 years, dying at the age of 82, and outliving most of her children.  Her life had been one of great change and vicissitude, also of great sorrows.  But, like most women of that day, she accepted everything that came to her, whether of good or ill, with thankfulness or patient resignation.

     Children of Nathaniel and Sarah Adams Doan:
 

Sarah Doan,      m. Richard H. Blinn, in 1802, by Amos FSpafford, J. P. Job Doan, b. 1789;      m. Harriet Woodruff

Delia Doan,      m. Mr. Eddy;      2nd, David Little Mercy Doan,      m. Edward Baldwin Rebecca Doan,      m. Harvey Halliday, in 1827.

     Richard Blinn had a farm on what is now Woodhill Road. Sarah Doan, his wife, had a little son born, whom she named in honor of her father.  She died in early womanhood, and Richard Blinn married 2nd, Electra Hamilton, of Newburgh.
     Delia Doan taught the first school, it is said, in Euclid.
     Mercy Doan died young.  Her husband, Edward Baldwin, was 21 years old when they were married.  He came from Ballston Spa, New York, and was County Treasurer.  He died in 1843.
     Harvey Halliday lived in East Cleveland.  He had three brothers, Albert, Nathan, and Frank Halliday.
     The Doan Tavern, kept by Nathaniel Doan, and rebuilt by his son, Job, was a famous landmark for nearly half a century.  It stood by the roadside, where all travel east and west between Cleveland and Buffalo passed it.  The little creek flowing through the picturesque woods just east of it, now Wade Park, attracted the large parties of pioneers who traveled in company from their New England homes in huge wagons, and driving horses, cattle, and other domestic animals in advance of them.  Here, or on the level stretch of ground now occupied by Western Reserve University, they would make a halt of a day or two, resting and washing

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up. It is said that as many as 15 wagons at once would be encaped there.  It followed that the Doan Tavern was patronized, more or less, by these travelers.  One feature of this, however, was not at all lucrative - "the borrower was abroad in the land."  Everything conceivable was asked for and usually obtained, from silver spoons to camp-kettles.  For the Doans were kind-hearted and very accommodating.  Once, some one carried off one of Mrs. Doan's teaspoons.  She felt very badly over her first chance the party had of restoring it.
     Two years after his father's death, Job, his only son, replaced the log-tavern with a large frame one.  Eventually, this was moved to Cedar Avenue, just east of Streater, E. 100th Street, and three tenement houses constructed out of it.  Job Doan was an energetic, ambitious, hardworking man.  He died of cholera in 1834.  He must have possessed lovable qualities that secured and kept for him many friends.  When the news taht he was stricken with the disease reached town Capt. Lewis Dibble and Tom Calahan - well-known Cleveland men - at once set about procuring medical aid for him. Every doctor was busy or away, and
the friends had to wait for some time before they succeeded.  Finally, they intercepted two physicians who had just returned from other calls, and prevailed upon them both to start out again at once, although there was a four miles’ drive between town and Doan’s Corners.  The physicians rode in one buggy, and Dibble and Calahan in another.  It was far in the night before they reached their destination.  Capt. Dibble found his brother-in-law, Capt. Ebenezer Stark, already there, also Job Doan’s brother-in-law, David Little.  They were bending over the sufferer, rubbing him and trying to alleviate his agony.  Poor Job looked up as the men entered his room, and stretched out his hands to the friends who had hastened to his bedside.  The doctors, evidently, were unable to add anything to the treatment already given, for they merely looked at him, shook their heads, and departed.  Within an hour death came to Mr. Doan and relieved his sufferings.
     Job Doan met his future wife for the first time on the highway near Hudson, Ohio.  The road was in a frightful condition—nearly knee-deep with mud.  She was on horseback, and he on foot.  He thought her the sweetest girl he had ever seen, and took measures to meet her again and under more favorable conditions, and not long afterward they were married.  The honeymoon, however, was postponed six weeks, for, immediately after the ceremony, he took a drove of cattle to the southern part of the state, which kept him away for that length of time.
     Mrs. Harriet Doan was the daughter of Nathaniel and Harriet Isabelle Woodruff, of Morristown, New Jersey, who came to the East End in 1814.  She was 19 years of age when married.  A descendant describes her as tall and fine-looking; a woman of remarkable Christian character, faithful, cheerful, generous, kind.  She never allowed ill-natured gossip in her presence, without rebuke.  She was an original member of the Euclid Congregational Church.  Her sister, Sarah Woodruff, married William Adams, of Collamer.  As the wife of Job Doan, Harriet Woodruff was the mother of eight children:

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Nathaniel Doan, d. in California, unmarried. Caroline Doan,      m. John R. Walters in 1835. Harriet Doan,      m. Frederick Wilbur;      2nd, Capt. Sprague Lucy Ann Doan,      m. Isaac Miller, of  Braceville, Ohio

William Halsey Doan,      m. Elisabeth Hennell, of Portland, Maine. Martha Doan,      m. Anthony McReynolds Edward Doan, m. Carrie P. Bradley

     William Halsey Doan became a wealthy philanthropist.  He built a large tabernacle on Vincent Street, near East 9th, where popular concerts and lectures were held, which people of moderate incomes were enabled to attend.  There was no other large auditorium at teh time and for many years it proved a blessing and convenience to the public.  It finally burned and was not rebuilt.
     Six years after the death of her husband, Mrs. Harriet Doan married Cornelius Conkley, and in 1854 was again a widow.  She died in 1884.  Meantime, S. C. Baldwin had either purchased or rented the Doan Tavern and kept it open to the traveling public.

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1799

BLINN

     One of the earliest settlers in Cleveland and Newburgh was Richard Blinn.  As all of his descendants are livng elsewhere, and fail to answer inquiry, it has been impossible to learn anything of his antecedents.  He may have come from New Jersey with the Cozads, or from Connecticut with the Doan family.
     He married Sarah Doan, daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah Adams Doan April, 1802.  The original record of their marriage is in Warren, as Cleveland was in Trumbull County in that year, and Warren the county-seat.
     Sarah Dean Blinn had a little son named Natianiel Doan Blinn, in honor of her father, and, possibly, she may have had a daughter.  She died in early womanhood, and Richard Blinn married secondly, Electa Hamilton, daughter of Samuel and Susannah Hamilton, of Newburgh, now a part of Cleveland, the town then being in Geauga County.  This record is in Chardon.  They lived for some years north of the Edwards Tavern, on what is now Woodhill Road, and then moved to Perrysburg, Ohio, near Toledo.  They had at least three sons - James, Chester, and Julius Blinn, and three daughters.   It is said that the family suffered terribly from malaria during their first years in Perrysburg, and that one of their daughters was disfigured for life through the strong medicines administered by one of the ignorant and reckless country doctors of that day.


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     James Blinn lived and died in Perrysburg, leaving six adult children.  Julius Blinn also moved to Perrysburg, and the name of Blinn has become a familiar one in that locality, while it has disappeared off the records of Cleveland.
     The wives of Richard H. Blinn were undoubtedly fine women, as both were daughters of the best pioneer families of the city.  Richard himself is said to ahve been a very jovial man, full of jokes and mad pranks.  He left behind him a reputation for kindliness and good humor.
     His oldest son - Nathaniel Doan Blinn - was married in Cleveland in 1825 to Miss Anne M. Parker.

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1800

WILLIAMS

     In the spring of 1799, two men appeared in Newburgh and began building a grist-mill—the third one built on the Western Reserve.  They were Major Wyatt and William Wheeler Williams.  It was a great event to the women of Cleveland and Newburgh, for it meant corn-meal of a far better quality than the rude hand-mills hitherto had provided, and above all it meant white flour, something that had been a great luxury, many families having scarcely seen any since leaving Connecticut.  Of the many New England families who came to Cleveland in that early day, there were none that could claim better birth and breeding than that of William Wheeler Williams.  His parents were Joseph and Eunice Wheeler Williams, both descended from Puritan ancestors who settled in Massachusetts about 1630.
     Joseph Williams had four sons in the Revolutionary War.  They were Frederick, an officer in the Continental Army, and buried in St. Paul’s
Churchyard in New York City.
     Gen. Joseph Williams, a friend and correspondent of Washington, Putnam, and Gov. Trumbull.  He was a Brigadier-General of the Third Brigade, Connecticut Militia, and a member of the original purchasers of the site where Cleveland stands.
     Benjamin Williams died on board the terrible Jersey prison ship, and Isaac Williams, who lost a leg while in the Revolutionary Army.  A fifth son, William Wheeler Williams, b. 1760, married Ruth Granger, daughter of Zodac and Martha Granger, of Suffield, Conn.
     Ruth Granger was born in 1764, and, therefore, was 35 years old when she came to Newburgh in the spring of 1800.
     It has been difficult to learn anything concerning the personality of Ruth Granger Williams, although her descendants in and about Cleveland are numerous.  It has been told the writer that she had two brothers, Reuben and Franklin Granger, who lived with her or near by.  Also, that before her death she became blind, but developed such acute hearing that no one could enter her room, ever so cautiously, but she would

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hear, and be able to tell who it was. She was small, alert, and very intelligent.
     The family settled on what is now Woodhill Road, but called Newburgh Street in early days.  It ran from Doan’s Corners to Mr. Williams’ mills.  Mr. and Mrs. Williams brought five little children with them from Norwich, Conn.  The eldest was only twelve years of age, the youngest but two. They were:
 

Frederick Granger Williams, unmarried while living here, joined the Mormons in Utah. William Wheeler Williams, Jr.,      m. 1st, Lavina Dibble;      2nd, Nancy Sherman, daughter of Ephraim and REmember Cook Sherman.

Joseph Williams, unmarried.  In Capt. Murray's Company, War of 1812. Martha Williams,      m. Elijah Peet. Mary Williams,      m. Amos Cahoon, pioneer of Rockport, Ohio.

     W. W. Williams, Jr., was always designated as Capt. Williams.  All the Williams family bearing the name and descended from W. W. Williams, Sr., are grandchildren of Capt. Williams.
     Mary Williams Cahoon had three children: Martha, Joseph, and Hiram Cahoon.  The Misses Cahoon of “Rose Hill” are grandchildren of Mary Williams, and reside in the pioneer homestead.
     There is in possession of some of the descendants of W. W. Williams, Sr., valuable souvenirs of his brother, Gen. Joseph Williams, of Revolutionary fame.  They are gold buttons bearing his initials, which were cut from a military coat he wore, and an elegant snuff-box that had been presented to him from admiring friends.  The Williams family Bible, brought from Norwich, Conn., is also preserved and held by a great granddaughter.
 The grindstones lying in the Public Square in front of the Old Stone Church were the first ones used in the grist-mill of William Wheeler Williams, erected in 1799.

     Children of W. W. Williams, Jr., and Nancy Sherman Williams:
 

Mary Williams,      m. Josiah Hale. Eunice Williams,     m. Spencer Warren. James Williams,      m. Lydia Owen. Ephraim Williams,      m. Mary Andrus

Joseph Williams,      m. Eunice Bennett. George Williams,      m. Eunice B., widow of Joseph Williams. Frederick and Frances, unmarried.

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