Ohio History Journal

276      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Topographically, Tallmadge is four hundred feet above the

level of Lake Erie, resting on the "Portage Summit," the eleva-

tion between the rivers Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas and on the

"carrying trail" over which, in the early days of canoe travel, the

portable boats were transferred from one stream to the other,

thus securing connected navigation from the Great Lakes to the

"Father of Waters." It is in Summit county, so called because

being the highest land on the line of the Ohio Canal. Summit

County, carved from Portage, Medina and Stark Counties, dates

back politically to 1840. These three latter counties, just men-

tioned, came out of Trumbull. Tallmadge antedates Summit

County by a generation. That we may comprehend the indelible

character stamped by its early settlers upon this town, we must

briefly recall its ancestry and descent.

THE WESTERN RESERVE.

It its a far cry from the throne of the Charles' in the early

years of the seventeenth century to the township of Tallmadge

in the beginning of the twentieth century, but the historical

chain is complete and the links are easily followed. The disso-

lute monarchs just named granted to certain favorites portions

of lands in the New World. Renewed charters were issued by

succeeding Kings until the colony and subsequent State of Con-

necticut, claimed under its charters, a strip of territory facing

the New England coast from latitude 41° south to parallel 420 2'

north and extending west from "sea to sea." That strip in its

westward extension, it will be seen, embraced what was later to

be the northern part of Ohio. The Northwest Territory was

similarly cut into by the colonial claims of New York, Massa-

chusetts, and Virginia, the latter embracing the southern portion

of Ohio to-be. We are rehearsing school boy history, history so

well known that it almost repeats itself, but thus only may we

get the proper perspective for our sketch. The American Revo-

lution forever severed the ties of the mother country to these

colonies, which emerged from that conflict sovereign States.

These States united into a federal government claimed the great

territory west of the Alleghanies. It was claimed by the Indians

who occupied it. It was likewise demanded by the colonies whose

Tallmadge Township.                 277

charters extended through it. The United States government by

treaties and wars of conquest abrogated or usurped the rights of

the Indians. One by one the States ceded their claims to the new

government. Virginia reserved certain lands between the Great

Miami and Scioto River, known as the Virginia Military Lands,

to be given as bounties to the Revolutionary veterans from the

Old Dominion. Connecticut, with Yankee persistency and fru-

gality, was the last colony to "give up." This she did on Sep-

tember 14, 1786, then ceding her claims west of the Alleghanies

except a tract of land bounded north by the international line,

east by the western line of Pennsylvania, south by the forty-first

parallel of north latitude and west by a line parallel with one

hundred and twenty miles west from the Pennsylvania line. This

western terminus is now the eastern boundaries of Sandusky and

Huron Counties. This territory Connecticut reserved, hence its

appellation, "New Connecticut," and more often the "Western Re-

serve." The United States government having now got title and

possession of the lands north and west of the Ohio River by the

famous "Ordinance of 1787," organized it into a vast political

territory. But this did not include the Western Reserve. The

part now embraced in the Counties of Erie and Huron, and con-

sisting of some 500,000 acres, was subsequently (1792) set apart

by the General Assembly of Connecticut to compensate the people

of that colony who had suffered loss, chiefly from fire, from the

incursions of the British troops during the Revolution. This tract

has ever since been known as "The Fire Lands." The Western

Reserve was a worry to Connecticut. It was too far distant to be

available. It was a howling wilderness inhabited by savage men

and ferocious animals. A purchaser was finally found. It was the

Connecticut Land Company. This Company organized for the

purpose described originally consisted of thirty-five persons. The

tract, sold without measurement, but supposed to contain

4,000,000 acres, was contracted for in September, 1795. The

price agreed upon was $1,200,000 or thirty cents per acre. The

purchase was made upon credit secured by mortgages. The

stockholders placed the title in three trustees. The amount was

divided into 400 shares of $3,000 each. Anyone paying in a sum

received a certificate entitling him to an amount of the land pro-

Tallmadge Township.                 279

laws over the territory, and to the United States to accept jurisdic-

tion, but both refused. The Western Reserve was an anomalous

autonomy, an isolated piece of a previous colony. In 1800 acts of

Congress and of the Connecticut Legislature confirmed the title

of Connecticut to the soil o the Reserve on one hand and re-

leased jurisdiction to the United States on the other. Thus for

the first time in its history, the Western Reserve came within any

civil jurisdiction and its people were protected and governed by

law. From 1795 to 1800 they were absolutely without laws or

government of any kind. There were no courts, no laws, no

records, no magistrates or police and no modes of enforcing or

protecting land titles or personal rights. It was literally, says

Mr. Hutchins, "No man's land," so far as government and law

were concerned. But it was, he might have added, a veritable

Utopia. It was the acme and dream of ideal society. "Lands

were bought and sold, personal contracts made, marriages solemn-

ized and personal rights respected as in the best governed societies,

and all without government and without law." It is a peculiar

and perfect picture for the contemplation of the historian and the

political economist. It was unequalled, and explained only by the

fact that these self-governing settlers were the descendants of the

New England stock, the heirs to the truth, the honesty and honor

of the Pilgrim Fathers. I know of no incident so illustrative of

the principle of the "square deal and fair play." When in 1800

the United States took in the Western Reserve, it became a part

of the Northwest Territory and was organized into one County,

called Trumbull, after Jonathan Trumbull, the grand old patriot,

Governor of Connecticut and the original "Brother Jonathan."

The wilderness of the Western Reserve began to be broken and

dotted by the settlers from New England, at first mainly from

Connecticut. One of these settlers now commands our attention,

for he is the patron saint and martyr of Tallmadge.

DAVID BACON.

David Bacon, the founder of Tallmadge, was a native of

Woodstock, Massachusetts, making his natal entry into that town

early in September, 1771. The English ancestry of this family

came to America previous to 1640. We are indebted for our

Tallmadge Township.                281

not a college graduate nor an ordained minister, but self-sacrifice,

unusual natural ability, and a desire to serve the Master, qualified

him for the missionary field. The missionary spirit was begin-

ning to possess the good people of New England, and in 1798

the pastors of the Connecticut churches completed an organiza-

tion called "The Missionary Society of Connecticut." There still

existed a partial relation, in Connecticut, of church and State,

and the Governor was authorized to issue a yearly "brief" calling

for a contribution from each Congregational parish in the State,

for this missionary society. In the summer of 1800 David Bacon,

who had read some theology with a clergyman, was examined by

the committee, "as to his doctrinal and experimental acquaintance

with the truth," and the examiners were "fully satisfied with his

answers." Learning that he was "embarrassed in his worldly

circumstances," the committee kindly undertook to mediate be-

tween Mr. Bacon and his creditors, but assumed no responsibility

for his debts. Those debts could not have been very large, as it

was evidently expected that he would be able to pay them out of

a salary of "one hundred and ten cents a day," which was the

compensation to be awarded him for his services as a missionary,

with an additional allowance for an interpreter. His field was

designated as the "Indians in the vicinity of Sandusky Bay or to

some of the Tribes south and west of Lake Erie." His engage-

ment was for a term not exceeding six months. Amid fervent

prayers for his success, he bade his friends farewell and with his

luggage on his back, started alone and on foot from Hartford

for the then far West. Including opportunities to catch a ride

now and then, he traveled about twenty-five miles a day. At

Canandaigua (N. Y.) he met Captain Chapin, Superintendent of

Indian Affairs, and from him obtained a letter commending him

to the Seneca chiefs at Buffalo Creek - now Buffalo City. At

this latter point he was welcomed by Sir William Johnson, the

Indian agent and interpreter, husband of the sister of Joseph

Brant, chief of the Mohawks. The Indians assembled to give

Mr. Bacon audience. One of the speakers was Red Jacket, the

Seneca orator, who among other things said the Senecas would

gladly receive a missionary if they could discover that their white

neighbors were also made better by his preaching! Bacon reached

282      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

Detroit thirty-four days after leaving Hartford. He visited and

held council with the Indians at Mackinac, deciding that the field

in that region was more promising for his work. The Indians

in that locality were more numerous and more in need of the

gospel. After two months sojourn in the Mackinac country, he

retured to Hartford to report his plans and obtain endorsement

for their execution. The Committee on Missions approved his

report and his proposals for future work and the Trustees of the

Missionary Society ordained him to the gospel ministry. He was

married, on Christmas Eve, at Lebanon (Conn.), to Alice Parks,

a most attractive and accomplished miss of eighteen, who was

thenceforth to share the joys and sorrows of the young minister.

In accordance with his own suggestion, the Rev. David

Bacon was delegated by the Missionary Society to Arbrecroche,

some forty miles from Mackinac, and a center of the Ottawas,

Chippewas, and Ojibways.    Thither he proceeded with his

young bride in the midst of winter. But the religious zeal was

irresistible and his courage dauntless. He and his wife both in-

tended to learn the Indian languages that they might better in-

gratiate themselves into the confidence and friendliness of the

natives. But the obstacles were greater than they had reckoned.

The Catholic missionaries had been there before them; more than

all else the heathen of the forest were debauched by the fur traders

and made suspicious and hostile by the British and French

Canadians. After months of fruitless efforts to convert the men

or educate the children the outlook was "dark and gloomy and

what adds to the gloom, there is little prospect that it will ever be

otherwise," he wrote home. The soul of the devout but dis-

couraged missionary was vexed with the profaneness, drunken-

ness, licentiousness and absolute ungodliness that surrounded

him. The white man's rum and dissolute example had done its

deadly work. The reverend and his intrepid wife made poor

progress in acquiring the Indian dialects and interpreters for

religious work were practically impossible. The situation was

graphically set forth in a speech to Rev. Bacon by Pondegauwan,

a Chippewa chief:

"My father, I have spoken to our children, to get them to listen

to you, but they tell me that they think they are too foolish to learn.

284      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

trials of the household. The details constitute a pathetic story.

The attempted mission came to an end in the summer of 1804,

when orders were received from Hartford for Mr. Bacon to

abandon his efforts among the Indians, repair to New Connecti-

cut, there await further orders, making meanwhile a report to the

Society of his financial affairs. After a journey prolonged by

sickness and suffering the family reached Hudson (Ohio), where

the wife and children were left and whence Mr. Bacon proceeded

on, alone, to Hartford. The Missionary Committee received Mr.

Bacon's report, paid him in full for his services as missionary to

the Indians and discontinued his labors in that field. David Hud-

son, founder of the Western Reserve town bearing his name, and

the Revs. Joseph Badger and Thomas Robbins, sort of peripatet-

ic pastors in the Western Reserve, urged the Connecticut Society

to place Rev. Bacon in the New Connecticut field. It was done,

the Society agreeing to pay half the expense of the newly ap-

pointed pastor while the local churches, among which he might

administer, were to bear the other half.

THE TALLMADGE SETTLEMENT.

In March, 1805, Rev. Bacon began his quasi pastoral work in

Hudson. From this center he went about the Reserve preaching

in the little settlements, often in isolated log cabins to a single

family, at times trudging through the forest like the Apostles of

old without scrip or purse.  The wandering experience made

him thoroughly acquainted with the wants and with the possi-

bilities and prospects of the Western Reserve in its initial settle-

ments. He was convinced that more could be done for the estab-

lishment of Christian institutions and for the moral and religious

welfare of the Reserve as a whole, by one conspicuous example,

a well organized and well Christianized township, "with all the

best arrangements and appliances of New England civilization,

than by years of desultory effort in itinerant preaching."  He

would establish a community of which religion should be the basic

and inseparable element, a settlement after the form and spirit

of the early Puritan ideals. "Being near what was then the west-

ern limit of the progress of settlement in that region, he looked

about him for a vacant township in which such an attempt might

Tallmadge Township.                285

be made. Ten miles south from the centre of Hudson was the centre

of such a township, 'No. 2 in the tenth Range.' His prophetic

mind saw the exquisite capabilities of that five-miles square, its

fertile soil, its salubrious air, its beautiful undulating surface, its

pure and abundant water, its stream singing in the grand old

woods, and rich with power for the service of man. He saw

that the proprietorship of it was chiefly in the hands of men who,

as his trusting and hopeful nature led him to believe, would enter

into his views, and would even be willing to sacrifice something

of their possible gains (if need should be) for so great a scheme

of public usefulness as that with which his mind was laboring."

Moved by this new call to the cause of his Master, Mr. Bacon

relinquished his previous engagements for that of the new enter-

prise, and in the Autumn of 180₅ proceeded with his family to

Hartford, a wagon journey of five weeks. He at once began the

exploitation of his plans and sought for parties who would aid him

in their prosecution. In the distribution of the land of the Reserve

among the stock purchasers, Town 2, Range 10, was originally

drawn by two companies called the Brace Company and the Rock-

well Company; the first consisted of Jonathan Brace, Justin Ely,

Roger Newberry, Elijah White and Enoch Perkins; the second

company comprised Azariah Rockwell, Abram Root, Oliver Dick-

inson and Stephen W. James. Subsequently Colonel Benjamin

Tallmadge, of Litchfield, Conn., and Ephraim Starr, of Goshen,

Conn., purchased the interest of the Rockwell Company and be-

came tenants in common with the Brace Company. In the prose-

cution of his plans, Mr. Bacon on July 12, 1806, contracted with

Mr. Starr and soon afterwards with Col. Tallmadge for the pur-

chase of their entire interest in the township, and with the Brace

Company for a part of their interest-in all for about 12,000 acres,

at the price of one dollar and fifty cents per acre. David Bacon,

it is readily imagined, did not pay for this property at the time of

purchase. He merely made a contract of purchase, with the

agreement that when any part of the price was delivered a deed

should be made for the part so paid for. Mr. Bacon gave the

name of Tallmadge to the township, as from him the largest

holding had been secured, viz., 6,245 acres. He was also doubt-

less actuated by the fact that the name of Colonel Tallmadge

Tallmadge Township.                 287

allel roads running east and west cut the township into the

sixteen equal divisions. In the exact center of the township was

established the Public Square, from which radiated four roads

extending respectively to the four corners of the township. One

can stand, therefore, in the public square and look down or up

eight straight roads. The great lots were generally subdivided

into six smaller lots - excepting those at the center, which were

divided into lots of a few acres each, for the accommodation of

mechanics and professional men, who were expected to locate

there. Says Mr. Sill in his semi-centennial address, "slight as

the relation may appear to a hasty observer, his (Bacon's) plan

of the township, which may well be termed a model, has undoubt-

edly produced a marked, abiding and beneficial effect upon the

character of its inhabitants, and furnishes evidences of the ab-

sorbing idea and sagacity of its author. The greatest possible

facility for intercommunication being, by this plan, furnished to

all sections of the township - the unity of sentiment and pur-

pose of its citizens, otherwise so carefully sought after, has been

secured as it scarcely could have been under other conditions."

Probably no rural town in this state or elsewhere was sim-

ilarly projected. It was a village with a heart from which should

flow all excellent influences and to which should be easily and

irresistibly drawn all members of the community. Says Leonard

Bacon, son of David: "The meeting-house at the geographical

centre, with the parsonage, the physicians' houses, the academy,

the country inn, and the mechanics' shops and dwellings around

the neighborhood, school-houses at the corners made by the inter-

section of the parallel roads with the diagonals, the attraction

drawing all households, on the Sabbath, towards the central

place of worship where all the highways meet, the gentle pressure

of the bond of neighborhood, binding every family to every other

-all this was in the mind of the projector when he drew the

plan, and was often on his lips while he was toiling to achieve

the reality." To still further indelibly implant the influence of

religion upon the settlers in this community, David Bacon in

all his contracts of sale to sub-purchasers, inserted a clause

charging every one hundred acres of land sold with a tax of two

dollars a year for the support of the gospel -and none could

288      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

have any land at any price or on any condition except that of

joining the church, and subscribing to the Saybrook Platform,

which was the ecclesiastical constitution or state confession of

faith adopted by the state of Connecticut through legislative en-

actment in 1703. Could the good David Bacon revert the wheels

of time for a century and transplant in the Western Reserve the

roots of New England character so they would thrive and grow?

It was a noble purpose; a courageous undertaking; but alas for

the hopes of human futility. Mr. Bacon was the first settler in

his land of promise. With his wife, three little children, one an

infant six months of age, and an assistant, Justin E. Fink, the

"Honest and faithful hired man," the founder of this new re-

ligious kingdom set out from Hudson in one of the cumbersome,

slow moving wagons of the time. It was June 24, 1807, when

they halted on the banks of a little creek, on the south line of the

Township one-half mile west of the north and south center road.

Here the clearing was made and the little log hut was erected,

close to the old Portage Path, over which the Indians passed in

their journeyings. Mr. Bacon was therefore the foremost pioneer

of his own enterprise. The new city of David was launched.

And now began the tedious work of seeking other families who

would enter into his views and actively co-operate with him in

the permanent establishment of this isolated Christian commun-

ity. With the exception of George Boosinger, a German having

no interest in Bacon's plans, who built a cabin in the south-east

corner of the Township in the Fall (1807) but left before Win-

ter, Mr. Bacon's family constituted the only inhabitants until the

Spring of 1808. The recruits to the settlement began to appear,

but they were few and far between. Many were the tedious and

prolonged journeys made by Mr. Bacon to the older Western

Reserve villages to present his claims and persuade others into

co-operation. With great joy and relief the arrival of each new

family was welcomed. Slowly the incomers were enrolled in the

little pioneer circle, from 1807 to 1810--"too slowly for the

hopes, far too slowly for the personal interest and pecuniary

responsibilities of the founder." But his religious zeal did not

abate. In midwinter, in the bleak month of January (1809) the

faithful few assembled in the Bacon log cabin, which had been

290      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

tire colony, was really the basis of the settlement, giving it its

true character and interest from the beginning. Individuals not

connected with the church, were yet actively interested in sustain-

ing the institutions of religion, and a regular mode of contribut-

ing to its support was adopted by the formation of a society -

members of which need not be communicants - under the name

of the Congregational Society of Tallmadge, - with a voluntary

system of taxation upon persons and property.

BACON'S DISCOMFITURE.

The year 181O brought some encouragement, for it marked

the arrival of the first settlers that came directly from New

England; among these Elizur Wright from Canaan, Conn., "who

brought with him not only a large family but more capital and

more wealth of culture than any who had come before him."

Many others deserve mention for their prominence and subse-

quent efficiency in the development of the community but space

does not permit us to specify. Thus originated the Tallmadge

Colony. In the fall of 181O Mr. Bacon wrote a New England

friend: "There are now in the Township about thirty families;

we have twenty-five persons who are professors of religion, but

they have not all of them joined the church as yet."

The community, however, was never consolidated into the

Congregational fold. It will be recalled that Mr. Bacon had not

purchased or contracted for all the land of the Township. Sec-

tions uncontrolled by him were sold by the Brace Company to some

settlers not of Bacon's faith, and those took title free from the

incumbrance as to religious belief or church tax imposed by Mr.

Bacon. Some holders of this "unrestricted" property espoused "lib-

eral sentiments which contrasted favorably with those of Bacon

which have strong marks of a state religion, as was at that time es-

tablished in Connecticut; those who were willing to aid voluntarily

in the support of the Gospel, protested against a tax or involun-

tary and compulsory payment for that purpose." This non-

conformity on the outside was augmented by dissension within.

The Napoleonic Wars in Europe and Jefferson's political poli-

cies in the United States created a wave of "hard times" in New

England. The tide of emigration to the west was arrested.

292      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

mained in Old Connecticut, courageously and manfully struggling

to save his colony, his credit and the furtherance of his religious

plans. But the worldly elements were against him. He could

not stem the tide. The times were out of joint. "So far as the

proprietor's interests were concerned, the undertaking of his life

was a failure. Instead of a homestead with comforts for his de-

clining years, instead of shelter and support for his wife and

helpless children, nothing remained to him but the burden of

debts which he had contracted in good faith and without reason-

able hope of ability to discharge them." With difficulty he ob-

tained merely means for returning to his family and of removing

them from the scene of so bitter a struggle and so great a dis-

appointment. "Broken in health, broken in heart, yet sustained

by an immovable confidence in God and by faith that reaches

into eternity, he turned from the field of hopes that had so

sadly perished and bade his last farewell to Tallmadge and the

Western Reserve."   This was in May, 1812. In Litchfield,

Conn., he taught school to sustain his family; he preached in var-

ious places; took part in two publishing enterprises, striving the

while to obtain justice for his creditors. On August 29, 1817,

in Hartford, Conn., he bade farewell to earthly strife and passed

to his reward. "His disease," writes his devoted son, and faithful

biographer, "was that to which physicians have given the ex-

pressive name Marasmus, from the Greek word which signifies to

wither."

We have written the story, unique and inspiring of

the career of David Bacon. The dreams of his religious and

philanthropic soul were not to be realized. But his work was not

in vain. The little village of Tallmadge lived on and thrived

and became a center of religion, education and sturdy Chris-

tian manhood, for which it has ever since been characterized.

The ideas of Bacon were not to meet their full fruition but

they were not without fruit. His spirit like the imperishable rock

that marks the place of his first cabin and church, still abides in

the quiet little town of Tallmadge.

The continuation of the history of Tallmadge after the de-

parture of its founder is almost as interesting as its origin, but we

cannot follow this--our task is practically accomplished when

Tallmadge Township.                     293

we have described the beginning. In its subsequent career were

many curious and amusing incidents illustrative of the customs

of those pioneer days, one we record as deserving preservation.

We repeat it from the rare little history of Summit county by

Gen. L. V. Bierce, published in 1857. He is describing the

erection of the original Congregational church edifice:

The present elegant, and spacious house was commenced in 1822.

Reuben Beach, long a prominent, and worthy citizen, as well as exem-

plary member of the church, was chosen superintendent of the building.

A day was appointed in which the timber for the house was to be drawn

on to the ground, and to insure promptness, Mr. Beach offered a gallon

of whiskey to the man that would get the first stick on the spot. This

stimulated them to action, and each was anxious to win the prize. Great

preparations were made the night before--oxen kept yoked up all night

- timber hauled into the road- and everything ready for an early start

and fair race in the morning. One man only appeared indifferent--

that was Daniel Beach, now of Ruggles. He kept his oxen yoked up, but

had prepared no timber. As soon as daylight appeared he hitched on

to a fine stick, that Justus Barns had prepared and drawn into the road,

and before Barns was fairly awake, had his stick of timber upon the

ground, and got the whiskey. So expeditious was he that he had been

sitting on his log some time before Mr. Beach arrived with the prize.

By the time it was fairly daylight the neighbors had mostly arrived, and

the timber for the whole house was on the ground. The prize was more

fairly distributed than won, and as the superintendent was the last

man on the ground it was resolved that he should be punished by an

exhibition of him, and a proclamation of the fact, round the Town. He

was accordingly chained on to a sled, and all the oxen attached to it,

and the balance of the day devoted to exhibiting him, round town in that

situation.

THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL.

On June 24, 1857, Tallmadge celebrated its Semi-Centennial,

the fiftieth anniversary of its settlement. Large numbers of its

early inhabitants, for many were then still living, gathered to par-

ticipate in the interesting program of the occasion. The Rev. Car-

los Smith of Tallmadge, called the assembly to order, the Scrip-

tures were read by Rev. William Monks of Tallmadge; prayer was

offered by Rev. William Hanford, one of the oldest clergymen

of the Western Reserve. The historical address was delivered

by Hon. Elisha N. Sill of Tallmadge. It was an interesting

account of the origin and rise of the town, with elaborate detail

Tallmadge Township.                    295

the fact that his memory reverted back to the little log cabin,

the temple of the Lord, set up in the wilderness of the Portage

Trail.

THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.

On June 27, 1907, the modern little town of Tallmadge

fittingly celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of its birth.

An assemblage of several hundred, comprising the citizens of

the happy town, nearby neighbors and those from distant homes,

gathered to participate in the proceedings. The following pro-

gram, previously arranged by the centennial committee, was suc-

cessfully carried out: Call to order at 9 A. M., by the Rev. P.

D. Dodge, President of the Day:

Reading of Scripture and Prayer ......................Rev. E. J. Smith

Words  of Welcome .........     .......................Rev. Wm. B. Marsh

Settlement of Tallmadge and Early Days..............Lucius V. Bierce

History  of  Schools ................................ ...Miss  Lottie  Clark

History of the Congregational Church ....................Rev. S. Upton

History of the M. E. Church..........................Raymond Barnes

History of the Welsh Congregational Church ........Mrs. A. C. Jones

At 12 o'clock there was an intermission of two hours for a

basket picnic dinner and examination of relics, of which there

was a large and most interesting collection. The program re-

sumed at 2 P. M., was as follows:

Military History of Tallmadge .................... Col. Geo. M. Wright

Business  Enterprises  ............................... Sidney  C. Barnes

Music and Musical Organizations....................Miss Mary Carter

Benediction  ..................................... Rev. Chas. Cutler

The exercises were interspersed both in the forenoon and

afternoon with music by the Eighth Regiment Band of Akron.

Additional music was furnished by a chorus and orchestra of

local talent, attired in old-time costumes and making a handsome

as well as amusing appearance.

In the evening there were brief addresses by J. W. Walton

and Sereno Fenn of Cleveland, Mrs. Isabelle Berry of Akron,

Rev. Homer W. Carter of Beloit, Wis., and Rev. J. C. Treat

of Burton, Ohio, all former residents of Tallmadge.

We regret that space does not permit our incorporating in

296      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

full in this article the addresses of the speakers on this interesting

occasion. We can only allude briefly to one or two of the speak-

ers. As we learned from the Rev. P. D. Dodge, few townships

have so complete and accurate historical data, as that of Tall-

madge. This is due largely to the Tallmadge Historical Society,

organized in 1858. The men who planned this society were

Chas. C. Bronson, Jas. O. Wolcott, Andrew Fenn, Lucius V.

Bierce and Lucius C. Walton, who met at the home of Andrew

Fenn, March 19, 1858, and took the preliminary steps that led

to a complete organization the 24th of the same month. One of

the founders, Chas. C. Bronson, was historian of the society for

many years and the results of his untiring researches are em-

bodied in several closely written volumes that are of great his-

torical value and are carefully preserved. Mr. Bronson was for

many years one of the striking characters of the community. He

was born in Middlebury, Conn., July 5, 1804, and came with his

parents to Tallmadge in 1819. All their household goods were

lost on the journey. In the struggle that followed to carve a

farm out of the forest, to build a home and gain a sustenance,

Charles Bronson developed that sturdy character for which so

many men and women of those earlier days were noted. He

died April 11, 1886.

Of the five men who were responsible for the inception of

the historical society, Mr. Lucius V. Bierce is the only one now

living. For many years he has been the society's efficient secre-

tary, which office he still fills with great acceptance. Mr. Bierce

was born in Athens county, June 2, 1827. He was left an orphan

in early life and was obliged to shift for himself while yet quite

young and came to Tallmadge in 1843, where he learned the

trade of carriage trimmer. By thrift and economy he acquired a

comfortable village home and later a nice farm of nearly one

hundred acres close to the center of the township. Mr. Bierce

is of noted Colonial ancestry, a man of sterling quality, intolerant

of hypocrisy and shams; has filled many offices of trust and is

held in the highest esteem by all people. For more than fifty

years he has been   an active member of the Congregational

church, in whose councils his judgment is still sought and appre-

ciated. Mr. Bierce was secretary of the committee that planned

298      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

dent in our national life. But that the people founding a new

community should be bound together by no peculiar ideas, ex-

cept their absolute adherence to the accepted Christian beliefs

and practices of their day; and that they should make the per-

petuation of their simple faith and practice secure in the be-

ginnings and development of their community life without

isolation from their neighbors, and with no peculiarism to up-

hold; all this, and the studied use of methods for the accomplish-

ment of their purpose to make the history of the enterprise

unique. In 1807 Portage County was formed from Trumbull

with a boundary that included what is now part of several

counties. The principal settlements of the new county were at At-

water, Deerfield, Hudson, Mantua, Palmyra and Ravenna. The

county contained probably less than one thousand inhabitants

at these places, and a few smaller settlements. Opportunities

for religious worship were few in these new communities and

would have been almost wholly lacking in some of them but

for the Connecticut Missionary Society, which sent missionaries

to the western settlements. The Rev. David Bacon, one of

these efficient missionaries, conceived the idea of obviating the

need of missionary effort by founding a township, 'in which

the religious element should be incorporated in its beginning,

and be the controlling principle of its future growth.' The

furtherance of his plan and his methods for carrying out the

same have been related above. At the Semi-Centennial of the

founding of the township a speaker said, 'Slight as the rela-

tion may appear to a hasty observer, the plan of the township

has undoubtedly produced a marked, abiding, and beneficial

effect upon the character of the inhabitants.' After another

fifty years the truthfulness of that statement is not denied. But

the most potent influence upon succeeding generations that have

grown up in this community is that of a sturdy ancestry, people

of a rugged faith and exacting life, sifted at New England at

a time when God had sifted New England as he had Old Eng-

land two centuries before. Our judgment upon the habits of

life and the exactions of the Puritan Fathers and mothers may

be that they were harsh and forbidding, but judge them by

their children and children's children and their loyalty to re-

300      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

for the women of the household, the carding, the spinning, and

weaving, and the making of garments for both sexes were their

labors in addition to the usual duties of housekeeping. Many

were the distinguished men which Tallmadge sent forth to the

useful walks of life, among them Leonard Bacon, the eminent

divine; Julian Sturtevant, president of Illinois College, and one

of the fathers of Congregationalism in the west; Elizur Wright,

the most noted insurance actuary of the age; Col. Charles Whit-

tlesey, famous as a geologist, archaeologist and historian; Revs.

Aaron Kinnie Wright, Philo Wright, Samuel Wright and many

others equally deserving of notice.

The pioneers of Tallmadge looked upon the subject of edu-

cation as secondary only to their religion, and the early schools

of Tallmadge no doubt had a good share among the influences

which made the Reserve what it is. Mr. Bacon in his plan for

the town, arranged for an academy and a district school at the

center, and a district school at each six corners. In 1810 the first

school in Tallmadge was held in a little log building with Miss

Lucy Foster as teacher. In 1836 there were 763 scholars in

attendance in eleven school districts; in 1842, 922 pupils.

Those were the days when the teachers boarded around and

received very small salaries; one of whom taught for nine

shillings per week and upon getting her pay for sixteen weeks'

service, she sent the money back to Connecticut and received

in return three tablespoons at $3.00 apiece and nine teaspoons

at $1.00 apiece. These are all in the possession of her chil-

dren and grand-children today. Tallmadge had the first deaf and

dumb school in the state in 1827, an educated mute from the

East being employed as a teacher. The third year, a state in-

stitution having been established, the twelve scholars were trans-

ferred to Columbus. A large frame building two stories in

height was erected at the center in 1815, money was scarce and

every one was expected to contribute either money or labor.

The upper room was used as an academy, and the lower for a

common or district school. This early academy was of high

character and was the only school in northern Ohio of a grade

higher than the district school. In 1870 a fine school building

was erected on the North street and though this burned in 1876

Tallmadge Township.                301

another soon replaced it. A high school was established in

1878 with Miss Martha Maltby as the first principal. Twenty-

six classes have graduated, and they number 230 members.

The Congregational church, as already related, was organ-

ized January 22, 1809. Rev. David Bacon gathered into his

log cabin the few settlers every Sabbath and preached to them

the gospel of Christ. Later, meetings were held in other houses

or barns, then in the school houses and the academy building.

In 1819 the pastor, Rev. M. Woodruff, preached a sermon from

the words, "Behold now the place where we dwell is too strait

for us." The academy building had grown too small for the congre-

gations, a public meeting was held and $4,600 was raised that

year, and a building committee was appointed and architect

and builder chosen. These latter went through the township,

marking the best trees for material with which to build, and the

twenty-fourth of December was set as the day for delivering

the logs upon the ground where needed. There was much rival-

ry as to who should be the first on the ground Monday morn-

ing, and thus the work began with enthusiastic devotion. Earlier

in this article we have related an incident connected with the

erection of this building. In four years the building was com-

pleted and on the eighth day of December, 1825, it was dedicated.

Thus after 18 years of struggle the Congregational church moved

into its permanent home where it has abided for more than three-

quarters of a century. This church has had fourteen pastors who

have served loyally and well, and has received more than thirteen

hundred persons into membership. A Sabbath school was organ-

ized in 1882, and continues at the present time. From the first this

church was self-supporting and has been a liberal contributor

of money to Christian work, and has given its thousands of dol-

lars, its prayers, and many of its sons and daughters to the

same grand work. About twenty-five young members have gone

from the church into the ministry, and more than that number

as wives of ministers. Many have gone as teachers in the South,

or as missionaries to foreign lands. The present pastor is the

Rev. P. D. Dodge.

A Methodist class was formed in 1825 with six members,

and the church with thirty members was organized in 1832.

304      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

ington, who appointed him, in the fall of 1776, as Commander

of the first troop of the famous Second Regiment of Light

Dragoons. This commission bore date of December 14th, 1776,

and was signed by John Hancock, President.

"My own Troop," (he wrote at the time) "was composed

entirely of dapple grey horses, which with black straps and with

black bear skin holster covers look superb. I have no hesitation

in acknowledging that I felt very proud of this command."

It is to be regretted that this pride was so soon cut short,

as April ₇th, 1777, he was appointed a field officer, and was en-

gaged in every battle at this period of the war, at Short Hills

and the Brandywine. In the battle of Germantown, at the com-

mand of Washington, he made skillful but ineffectual attempts

to check the retreating Americans by repeatedly throwing his

squadron across their path. When the Army went into Winter

quarters at Valley Forge, Tallmadge received an appointment

to the command of an advanced corps of observation, consist-

ing of a picked detachment of Dragoons. At the Rising Sun

Tavern one day, in full view of the British outposts, he was in

consultation with a country girl he had sent to Philadelphia to

obtain information of the enemy, when he observed the enemy's

light horse bearing down on them at full speed. He caught the

girl and threw her up behind him and made for his own lines

amidst the firing of pistols, wheeling and charging throughout,

while the girl sat immovable as a statue, the embodiment of fem-

inine nerve. "I was delighted with this transaction," wrote the

Major.

The scene of action for young Tallmadge now changes to

the Hudson, having been placed in secret service work for Wash-

ington, and here began a lasting friendship between himself and

his Commander-in-Chief. Washington was never caught off his

guard, and learned to honor and love the young dragoon, as the

many letters from Washington to Tallmadge so fully attest.

History records in detail the capture of the British spy,

Andre, by Major Tallmadge, who was present at the execution.

On the 1₃th of May, 1783, the Society of the Cincinnati

was inaugurated and Major Tallmadge chosen Treasurer of the

Connecticut branch. The Major retired from the Army with the