FIRST SETTLERS ON THE RESERVE.

     When the surveying party had concluded their first season's labors, in the fall of 1796, and, on the 18th of October, had began their journey homeward, three persons remained behind in a cabin standing on the site of the present city of Cleveland.  They were Job P. Stiles, Esq., and wife, and Richard Landon  The latter left before much time had gone by, and Edward Paine took up his residence with Mr. Stiles' family.  These parties at Cleveland, and Mr. James Kingsbury and family, at Conneaut, were most likely the only persons that wintered on the Reserve during the winter of 1796-97.

FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN WHAT NOW IS LAKE COUNTY.

    Mentor was one of the first settled localities on the Reserve. Its soil received these pioneers and their families early in the year 1798. They were Charles Parker, Jared Ward, and Moses Park. The exact date of, and the circumstances connected with, their arrival and their journey hither are in obscurity, and direct and positive information cannot be had. That they arrived early in the year 1798 cannot well be doubted.
     The Fire Lands Pioneer, in a biographical sketch of Charlotte Merry, wife of Ebenezer Merry, published in 1876, speaking of the Merrys’ journey to Ohio in 1800, says, “We arrived in Mentor, Ohio, May 26, 1800.  There were but three families in that township previous to our arrival, viz.: Mr. Jared Ward's, Mr. Charles Parker’s, who afterwards came to Milan, and the family of a Mr. Park."  The same journal speaks of the first  marriage in Mentor as occurring in 1799, and of Mr. Moses Park as being the officiating clergyman who married the parties.  All of this is proof that those settlers were in Mentor as early as 1799.  Mrs. Sherwood, grandchild of Colonel Alexander Harper, who settled in Harpersfield, Ashtabula county, Ohio, in June of 1798, in her manuscript history of the early settlement of that township, says that at the time of the Harpers‘ arrival at their destination there were but three other localities on the Reserve where settlements had been begun.  One of these was at Youngstown, another at Cleveland, and the third in Mentor. The fact that Mentor was settled at the time of their arrival, and it being borne in mind that they came in June, is conclusive proof that theMentor pioneers arrived early in the your 1798. There remains but little doubt that these three families were the first to settle in the territory which now comprises Geauga and Lake Counties, and that the settlement which they effected was one of the very earliest on the Reserve.  Burton township was settled in July of the same year, and has generally been supposed to have been the district first touched by the pioneers in either Geauga or Lake; but Mentor antedates her.  It is unfortunate that so little is known of these first pioneers; for we should like to give a full account of their settlement in Mentor.  Charles Parker assisted Mr. Holley, in 1796, in running the township lines, and he himself ran the south line of Men tor.  He is occasionally referred to in Mr. Holley’s diary. After living a few years in Mentor, it is known that he removed to Willoughby, and then to Painesville, where he at one time kept a store.  He resided at the last-named place as late as the year 1807.  He removed to Milan, Ohio, probably in the year 1814.  The townships of Lake were settled in the following order:
Mentor, 1798, Parker, Park, and Ward.
Willoughby, 1798, David Abbott.
Painesville, 1800, John Walworth.
.Madison, 1802, John Harper.
Concord, 1802, Wm. Jordan.
Le Roy, 1802, Colonel Amasa Clapp.
Perry, 1808, Ezra Beebee (probably).
Kirtland, 1810, John Moore, Jr.

FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN GEAUGA

     The first settlement in what is now Geauga County was made in July, 1798, at Burton, by Thomas Unberfield, Isaac Fowler, and Amariah Beard, and their families.  They were Connecticut people, but had dwelt a few years prior to their removal to Ohio in Washington county, New York.  The settlement at this place rapidly increased, and before the ushering in of the year 1800 there were probably as many as twenty persons dwelling within the present limits of Burton township.  Mr. Riddle, in his narrative, gives a very full account of these early pioneers, to which we refer the reader for further facts.
     The first settlements in the other townships of Geauga County were as follows :
Middleficld, 1799, Isaac and James Thompson.
Thompson, 1800, Dr. Isaac Palmer.
Chester, 1801, Justice Miner.
Hambden, 1802, Stephen Bond and others.
Parkman, 1804, Robert Breck Parkman.
Huntsburg, 1807, Stephen Pomeroy.
Claridon, 1808, Asa Cowles and Seth Spencer.
Chardon, 1808, Jordan.
Newbury, 1810, Lemuel Punderson.
Troy, 1811, Jacob Welsh.
Bainbridge, 1811, David McCououghy.
Auburn, 1815, Bildad Bradley.
Montville, 1815, Roswell Stevens.
Munson, 1816, Samuel Hopson.
Russell, 1817, William Russell.

THE FIRST WEDDING.

     The wedding which is described below is claimed to have been the first which occurred on the Western Reserve.  This claim, however, is incorrect. We are indebted for this narrative to the Chardon Democrat.
     “ The first wedding on the Western Reserve was in what was afterwards called Mentor, Geauga County.  Having no townships or counties, they designated localities by the name of settlements. This wedding occurred in what was called Marsh settlement in 1799.
     “In 1798, Colonel Alexander Harper, Major McFarland, and Ezra Gregory, with their families, arrived at what is since known as Harpersfield, Ashtabula county, from Delaware county, New York.  In Major McFarland’s family was a fine young widow by the name of Parthena Mingus, whom Major McFarland, having no children of his own, had adopted when a child.  She had been married to a man by the name of Mingus, and had one child; but Mingus died soon after the marriage.  The widow then returned to the family of her adopted father, and came on to Harpersfield with them in 1798.
     “There lived at Newburg, six miles from Cleveland, a comely bachelor by the name of James Hamilton, who had purchased land, put up a cabin, but had no helpmeet.  The arrival of the new settlers at Harpersfield, though fifty miles distant, was a remarkable event, and soon became known through the whole region, and the young widow stirred up the thoughts and heart of Hamilton. He abjured bachelordom and resolved to be a man. He procured two horses, on one of which he rode, and, leading the other, he started through the trackless forest fifty miles in search of a housekeeper. With nothing but the instinct of love and

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marked trees to guide him, he at last reached the Harper settlement, and in the young widow found the object of his search.
     “ In answer to the unspoken language of his heart, her heart responded in the language of Ruth: ‘Where thou goest I will go; where thou stayest I will stay; thy God shall be my God, and thy people my people.’ ”
     Both parties willing, nothing was wanting to crown their hopes and happiness but the solemnities of the marriage ceremony.  But here was the difficulty:  the Western Reserve was not organized into a county until the summer of 1800, when the county of Trumbull, embracing the whole Reserve east of the Cuyahoga, was organized by the legislature.  No justices or other persons had been appointed or authorized to solemnize marriages, and the young widow and her gay lover were in a dilemma.  But “where there’s a will there's a way."  In the Marsh settlement, in Mentor, there was a man by the name of Moses Park who had once been a Baptist preacher, and though he had abandoned his calling, and in fact abjured his Christian character, it was concluded he would answer.  It was accordingly agreed that on their way to Newburg, they would call on him and legalize, as far as circumstances would permit, their marriage contract.
     “ Accordingly, at early dawn on the following day, they mounted their horses, Hamilton taking the widow’s child in his lap, and the widow, for want of a side saddle, riding on her feather-bed, the betrothed set out in search of the preacher.  Arriving at his cabin they made known their business.  Mr. Park at first declined to don again the sacerdotal robes, as he had not preached for several years, and had totally abjured his former creed.  He finally yielded, however, to their importunity, and the happy pair were duly pronounced man and wife.  They paid the quondam clergyman in the only coin they had, which consisted in many hearty and heartfelt thanks."
     That this was not, however, the first marriage on the Reserve is in proof from the following paragraph taken from Whittlesey’s “Early History of Cleveland," page 394, and occurring in a statement of Alonzo Carter, made at Newburg, June 14, 1858:
     “ In July, 1797, our hired girl was married to a Mr. Clement, from Canada.  They were married by Mr. Seth Hart, who was a minister, and the agent of the company."
     Lottie Umberfield, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Umberfield, born at Burton in the spring of 1799, was the first birth in the territory now embracing Geauga and Lake.  The first school was taught at Burton in 1802 by Sally Miner.  Burton also has the honor of furnishing the first merchant in Geauga County, in the person of J. S. Cleveland in 1804, and the first carpenter in the person of Daniel Hill, who, in 1804, built the first frame house in the county.

THE PIONEER ROAD OF GEAUGA AND LAKE, AND ALSO OF THE RESERVE.

     As soon as settlements had been effected in different portions of the county, steps were taken to open through the forests routes of travel, along which the pioneers might pass from one colony to the other.  When the surveyors arrived, in 1796, Indian trails, leading from one encampment to the other, were the only pathways to be found.  The Connecticut Land Company opened the first public highway through this section, and it was the first road that was laid out and recorded on the Reserve, being known as The Old Girdled Road.  A committee to select a route was appointed February 23, 1797, and the following is their report:

“To the Gentlemen Proprietors of the Connecticut Land Company, in meeting at Hartford:

     “Your committee, appointed to inquire into the expediency of laying out and cutting roads on the Western Reserve, report that, in their opinion, it will be expedient to lay out and cut through a road from Pennsylvania to the city of Cleveland, the small staff to be cut out twenty-five feet wide, and the timber to be girdled thirty-three feet wide, and sufficient bridges thrown over the streams as are not fordable; and the said road to begin in township No. 13 in the first range, at the Pennsylvania line, and to run westerly through township 12 in the second range, No. 12 in the third range, No. 11 in the fourth range to the Indian ford at the bend of Grand river; thence through township No. 11 in the fifth range, No. 10 in the sixth range, No. 10 in the eighth range, and the northwest part of No. 9 in the ninth range, and to the Chagrin river, near where a large creek enters it upon the east; and from crossing of the Chagrin river the most direct way to the middle highway leading from the city of Cleveland to the hundred-acre lots. Submitted with respect by

     The suggestions of the committee were adopted, and the road laid out without delay.  The following are the names of the townships which this road passed through, as they now stand upon the maps: beginning at the Pennsylvania line, the first town is Conneaut, Ashtabula county, the second is Shefield, the third is Plymouth, the fourth Austinburg, and the fifth Harpersfield.  It seemed to deflect to the south, and pass across a corner of Trumbull township; then passing into Geauga, across the township of Thompson; thence into the town of Le Roy, in Lake County.  The road across this township is open and traveled at this time.  Passing through Concord township, it crossed the road leading from Painesville to Chardon, about a mile south of Wilson's Corners, at a place called, fifty years ago, the “Log Tavern," and across the northwest part of Kirtland.

MAIL-ROUTES

     The earliest pioneers felt severely the lack of mail facilities for the first few years, having no way of communicating with their friends, except to intrust their letters with some one of their number who, being obliged to return to the east, became mail-carrier for all the colonists of the different settlements.  When any one of the inhabitants contemplated a trip to the east, knowledge of this fact was generally circulated among the settlers weeks and even months before the time of departure, so that all who had letters to write might get them in readiness.  This tedious and uncertain mode of communication was felt to be no slight hardship, and the establishing of a mail-route was looked for with eager expectancy. 
     The first mail-route that entered the limits of this region was established in 1803, and extended from Warren, Trumbull county, northward through Mesopotamia, Windsor, Morgan, Austinburg, thence westwardly to Harpersfield, thence to Painesville and to Cleveland; thence back southeastwardly to Warren.   A man by the name of McElvaine was the first mail-carrier, and accomplished his trips on foot about once every week, the distance being not far from one hundred and fifty miles.  The route was soon afterwards extended west to Detroit, and a boy or young man, mounted upon a sure-footed horse, superseded the plodding foot man.  In 1808 a mail-route from Erie to Cleveland was established, and a man by the name of John Metcalf was the first carrier over this route.  He made his journeys likewise on foot, and continued to do so until the year 1811.  This man's fidelity to his duties deserves laudable mention.  The settlements along the route were widely scattered; the road often in a wretched condition, at some seasons of the year almost impassable; oftentimes he was obliged to swim the streams, with the mail-bag poised upon his head to keep it from the water; yet neither muddy roads nor unbridged and swollen rivers, neither cold nor heat, nor storms and tempests, prevented this persevering man from delivering the mail at the different stations with surprising punctuality.