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BROOKLYN township, which
joins the city of Cleveland on the west and south, is a part of
range thirteen, in which it is township number seven. It
included originally all that part of the territory of the city
of Cleveland lying on the west side of the Cuyahoga river,
which, along with what now comprises Brooklyn, was set off from
Cleveland township to form the township of Brooklyn.
Brooklyn's boundaries are the city of Cleveland and Lake Erie on
the north, the townships of Parma and Independence on the south,
the city of Cleveland and Newburg township on the east, and the
township of Rockport on the west. It contains four
villages, Brooklyn, West Cleveland, Brighton and Linndale, of
which the former two are incorporated.
The Cuyahoga river skirts the eastern part of the
township on the east, and separates it from Newburg. Its
other water courses are unimportant creeks, which, though once
valuable as mill streams, are now of no use for that purpose.
The land is generally fertile and farms are valuable, especially
near the Cleveland line, where attention is given to the
cultivation of fruit and garden products; the former industry
being profitably followed near the lake shore, and the latte
near Brooklyn village.
In the division of the Western Reserve, as narrated in
the general history, the greater part of Brooklyn, including the
present West Side of Cleveland, fell to Richard and Samuel
Lord and Josiah Barber, from one or the other, or
all, of whom the early settlers purchased their farms.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
A grassy
slope overlooking the Cuyahoga river from Riverside cemetery,
and known to this day as "Granger Hill," is the spot where the
territory subsequently occupied by the township of Brooklyn
received its first white settler. Granger was a "squatter"
from Canada, but when he squatted upon his Brooklyn land
is not exactly known. He was there, at all events, in May,
1812, when James Fish entered what is now Brooklyn
township, as the first of the permanent white settlers of that
territory. Granger had with him his son, Samuel,
and the two remained until 1815, when they sold their
improvements to Asa Brainard and migrated to the Maumee
country.
James
Fish, above mentioned, had been a resident of Groton,
Connecticut, and, having purchased a piece of land of Lord
& Barber in the present township of Brooklyn, he set out
from Groton in the summer of 1811 with an ox-team and a lumber
wagon, in which rode himself, his three children, his wife and
her mother. He journeyed west in company with a large
party of pioneers, but the only ones besides himself destined
for Brooklyn were his two cousins, Moses and Ebenezer
Fish—the latter of whom made the entire trip on foot.
Arriving at Cleveland early in the autumn, after forty-seven
days on the road, James Fish decided to pass the
winter in Newburg, while Ebenezer and Moses
remained in Cleveland. Early in the spring of 1812
James went over from Newburg alone and put up a log-house
that cost him just
eighteen dollars, and in May of that year he took his family to
their new home. Their log cabin was, of course, a rude
structure, and its furniture was in keeping with the house.
The bedstead—for there was only one at first—was manufactured by
the head of the family, and was composed of roughly hewn pieces
of wood, fastened with wooden pins, and having in lien of a bed
cord a net work made of strips of bark. This bedstead is
still in the possession of Isaiah W., a son of James
Fish, who resides in Brooklyn village upon the
place originally occupied by his father. Isaiah W. Fish,
just mentioned, was born in Brooklyn, May 9, 1814, and was the
first white child born in the new settlement.
James Fish began at once to clear his
land, but while waiting for a crop his family must needs have
something to cat. Mr. Fish had no cash, and
so he used to go over to Newburg two or three times a week, and
work there at farming for fifty cents a day. Thus he
managed to reach the harvest season, when from the first fruits
of his land he secured a little money. It is, however, a
question whether he could have carried his family through the
winter, had it not been for the assistance of his wife, who to
her other duties added that of weaving coverlids, by which she
earned a goodly sum, and in which she became so
Isaiah W. Fish
The first known ancestor of Isaiah W. Fish
was John Fish, who is supposed to have
emigrated from England and settled at Mystic, in
Groton, Conn. His son was Capt. Samuel Fish,
and his son was also Samuel Fish. the
son of the latter was Capt. John Fish, and
his son was Joseph Fish, grandfather of
Isaiah W.
The first person who
settled in what is now the village of Brooklyn was
James Fish, father of the subject of this
sketch, who came from Connecticut in the year 1811,
being forty-seven days on the road. He was a
native of Connecticut, having been born in Groton,
in June, 1783. In 1812 he built a log hut, on
the site of which stands a handsome farm house now
occupied by his son, Isaiah W. At the
time of his settlement, being in straightened
circumstances, he was obliged to walk to Newburg, a
distance of five miles, daily, where he worked days'
work, receiving in payment for the same sundry
provisions at the rale of fifty cents per day.
Some time afterwards he purchased one hundred and
sixty acres of land, but not being able to pay the
taxes on the same, though small, he sold all but
fifty acres to Aziah Brainnrd.
Subsequently he took up eighty acres one mile north
of his first purchase. It is related that
during the progress of the battle of Lake Eric he
was at work cutting logs, and the distant roar of
cannon could be distinctly heard. Thinking of
how they would lose their hard-earned homesteads
should victory be on the side of the English, he
became so nervous that he quit work and entered the
cabin, where the '• women folks" were assembled.
They knew nothing of the desperate combat that was
being carried on so close to them, and exclaimed:
"How it do thunder!" " Yes," replied Mr. Fish,
" but it is home-made thunder."
Mr. Fish lived to the extreme age of
ninety-two years, his death occurring in September,
1875. He had shared all the privations and
dangers of the first pioneers, and lived to witness
the wonderful growth and development of the country
which he had found an unbroken wilderness. As
a citizen |
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he was quiet, sober,
and industrious, working for the good of his family
and the community in which he lived, but shrinking
from public notice. He was an earnest
Christian, and for thirty years a member of the
Methodist Church. In 1805 he married Mary
Wilcox, daughter of Elisha Wilcox,
of Stonington, Conn. They had eight children,
namely, — Mary, James, Elisha, Sally, Isaiah W.,
Lydia K., Joseph L.,
and John P. The first four were born in
Connecticut; the fifth, Isaiah W., was the
first white person born in Brooklyn, his birth
occurring on the 9th of May, 1814. His early
life was mostly spent in working on his father's
farm. He received but a limited education.
February, 1837, he married Matilda Gates,
daughter of Jeremiah Gates, of
Brooklyn. He then engaged in farming in
partnership with his father, with whom he resided
until the death of the latter. He has been
prominently connected with the religious, civil, and
educational interests of the town. For
fifty-two years he has been a member of the
Methodist Church, and has labored actively in the
cause of Christianity. For a period of twenty-three
years he has been a regularly ordained minister, and
has preached the gospel without receiving any
pecuniary compensation, his services being freely
given. He has also been for many years a
teacher in the Sunday-schools. Has been
president of the school board for four years, and
has always been active in the support of schools and
of charitable institutions.
In politics he is a Republican, and, although he has
never sought political preferment, he has been
elected to various local offices of trust, the
duties of which he has discharged with uniform
ability.
The result of his first marriage was three children,—Lucy
A., Charles, and Buell B.
Mrs. Fish died in February, 1850. He was
again married, on the 5th of July, 1850, to Mary
A. More, of East Cleveland, by whom he
has two daughters, Mary M. and Louisa S.;
also one son. James, deceased. |
[Page 417] -
celebrated that she found the demand far beyond her power to
supply.
When Mr. Fish set out for Newburg on his
periodical journeys, he left his family the sole occupants of a
wilderness in which there were no residents nearer than
Cleveland, and, knowing full well their fears and the good
reasons for them, he returned to them faithfully each night,
albeit, his trips were always made on foot, and covered ten long
miles. Such trips, too, he frequently made on
subsequent occasions, when, needing flour or meal, he would
shoulder a two bushel bag full of corn, trudge to the Newburg
mill and get back with his meal the same day.
Mr. Fish was a great hunter and slayer of
rattlesnakes, which were found in immense numbers, and
occasionally reared their ugly fronts through openings in the
rude floors of the settlers' cabins. It is told of one of
Mr. Fish's farm hands in the early days, that on
narrowly escaping the attack of a rattlesnake he joyously and
thankfully exclaimed: "What a smart idea it was in God Almighty
to put bells on them things!'' Mr. Fish
lived a useful and honored life in Brooklyn, saw cities and
villages rise where once he trode the pathless forest, and at
the age of ninety-three passed away from earth, on the old
homestead, in September, 1875, his wife having proceeded him
twenty-one years.
Kbenezer and Moses Fish, who have
already been mentioned as spending the winter of 1811-12 in
Cleveland, followed James Fish to Brooklyn in the
spring of 1812, and settled upon eighty acres lying just south
of James Fish's place—Ebenezer locating on
the north side of what is known as Newburg street, and Moses
on the south side. Neither was then married, but, as both
expected to be, they worked with a will to prepare their land
for cultivation, both living in a log shanty on Ebenezer's
land. Ebenezer was one of the militiamen who
guarded Omic, the Indian murderer who was hung in
Cleveland in June, 1812, as related in the general history.
Both also served a few mouths in the forces called out to guard
the frontier during the first year of the war of 1812.
Returning to their clearings, they vigorously renewed their
pioneer life. Moses was drafted into the military
service, but he was far from being strong, and therefore
Ebenezer went in his stead, serving six months and taking
part in an engagement at Mackinaw Island.
After the war closed Ebenezer returned to
Connecticut, where lie was married and where he remained six
years before resuming his residence in Brooklyn. There
Mr. Fish has ever since lived, and in his
ninety-third year is still a dweller upon his old homestead; the
only one now living of the little band of pioneers who began the
settlement of Brooklyn.
Of the children of Moses Fish, Ozias
and Lorenzo reside in Brooklyn, while others are in the
far West.
Following the Fish families in 1813 came
Ozias Brainard, of Connecticut, with four grown daughters
and four sons, Ozias, Jr., Timothy, Ira and
Bethuel, of whom Ozias, Jr., and Ira had
families. They settled on the Newburg road, near where
Brooklyn village now is, on adjoining places, and all resided in
Brooklyn during the remainder of their lives. David S.
Brainard, a son of Ozias, Jr., now resides in
Cleveland near the county infirmary. At this time, as will
have been observed, Brooklyn township was peopled exclusively by
Fishes and Brainards, and it used to be a common story in
Cleveland that "the visitor to Brooklyn might be cerain that the
first man he'd meet would be a Fish or a Brainard.
Ozias Brainard, Jr., put up the first framed
dwelling in Brookllyn, on the place now occupied by his son
David, and Asa Bainard raised the first framed barn,
which is still in use on the farm of Carlos Jones, the
erection of which, in 1818 or before, was the occasion of a
hilarious celebration. Asa Brainard also built the
first brick house in the old township of Brooklyn at what is now
the junction of Columbus and Scranton avenues, where he opened
the first public tavern in that township, about 1825.
The autumn of 1814 witnessed a large and important
accession to the little settlement when six families, comprising
forty persons, came thither from Connecticut within a week;
thirty-one of them landing within the same hour. These
were the famlies of Isaac Hinckley, Asa Brainard, Elijah
Young, Stephen Brainard, Enos Brainard and Warren
Brainard, all of whom had been residents of Chatham,
Middlesex county, Connecticut. All exchanged their farms
there with Lord & Barber for land in "New
Connecticut," and all set out for that unknown land on the same
day. The train consisted of six wagons, drawn by ten
horses and six oxen, and all journeyed together until Euclid was
reached (forty days after leaving Chatham), where Isaac
Hinckley and his family rested, leaving the others to
push on to Brooklyn, whither he followed them within a week.
It appears that the trustees of the township of
Cleveland—to which the territory of Brooklyn then
belonged—became alarmed at the avalanche of emigrants just
described, and concluding that they were a band of paupers, for
whose support the township would be taxed, started a constable
across the river to warn the invaders out of town.
Alonzo Carter, a resident of Cleveland, heard of the
move, and stopped it by endorsing the good standing of the
newcomers— adding that the alleged paupers were worth more money
than all the trustees of Cleveland combined.
Isaac Hinckley settled in the southeast
on lot seventy-nine, near where the line between Parma and
Independence intersects the south line of Brooklyn, in the heart
of a thick forest, "a mile from anybody" as his son, Abel,
now says. The first table the family used there was made
by Mr. Hinckley out of an ash tree.
Moreover, although he owned three hundred and sixty acres of
laud, he had no money to buy flour, and, being in great need of
breadstuffs, he offered to mortgage a hundred acres of land as
security for a [Page 418] -
Asa Brainard
located ....
[Page 419] -
EARLY MILLS.
ORGANIZATION.
TRUSTEES.
CLERKS
TREASURERS.
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
CHURCHES.
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF BROOKLYN.
[Page 420] -
THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
BRIGHTON METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
THE EVANGELICAL PROTESTANT CHURCH.
CHURCH OF THE LADY OF THE SACRED HEART.
---------------
* The Reformed Methodists had seceded from the
Methodist Episcopal church of Brooklyn, and started a church on
the south side of the creek in 1840, but dissolved three years
later. The prominent members were Julia and Ogden
Hinckley, Cyrus Brainard, and Joseph and Matilda
Williams. [Page 421] -
THE DISCIPLE CONGREGATION.
SCHOOLS.
THE BROOKLYN ACADEMY.
THE BRIGHTON ACADEMY,
BROOKLYN VILLAGE.
Brooklyn Village (originally called Brooklyn Center) was laid
out in part in the year 1830 by Moses Fish, an early
settler and the owner of considerable
[Page 422] -
WEST CLEVELAND.
THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FARM.
LINNDALE.
Martin Kellogg
[Page 423] -
CEMETERIES.
POST OFFICES.
THE CLEVELAND DRYER COMPANY.
THE LAKE ERIE DRYER COMPANY.
OTHER MANUFACTURES.
NURSERIES.
[Page 424] -
RAILWAYS.
GLENN LODGE I. O. O. F.
Glen Lodge, No. 363, was
organized in Brighton, Mar. 21, 1855, with ten charter members.
The present membership is one hundred and thirteen, the officers
being as follows: George Schmehl, N. G.; J. C.
Wait, V. G.; Walter H. Gates, R. S.; William Treat,
P. S.; George Eeidel, treasurer.
GLENN ENCAMPMENT, I. O. O. F.
Glenn Eacampment, No.
181, was organized at Brighton in 1874, with ten charter
members. In June, 1879, it was removed to Cleveland, and
named Cleveland Encampment, after an organization which had
previously existed in that city, but which had been suspended.
The present officers are J. J. Quay, C. P.; J. S. Wood,
H. P.; P. Shackleton, S. W.; W. H. Newton, J. W.;
Wm. Treat, scribe; C. Stickney, treasurer.
BROOKLAND LODGE, F. & A. M.
MILITIA COMPANIES.
BROOKLYN HOOK AND LADDER COMPANY NO. 1.
ABEL S. HINCKLEY. |
