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Proofed by Jeannette Harper
Newburg township, one of the first to be settled in Northern Ohio, long included nearly the whole of survey township number seven, in range twelve, of the Western Reserve, but the encroachments of the city of Cleveland have reduced it to very narrow limits. It is now exceedingly irregular in shape, somewhat resembling a carpenter's square in general form, and is bounded as follows: North by the city of Cleveland and the township of East Cleveland; south by the township of Independence; east by Warrensville, and west by Brooklyn. The Cuyahoga river flows along the western border, and Mill creek across the southern section-the latter stream occasionally providing good water power. The Ohio canal passes through the southern edge of the township, following the course of the river, and this Atlantic and Great Western and the Cleveland and Pittsburg railways run for a short distance across the south-eastern portion. The present Newburg is a strictly agricultural region. The soil is fertile, and farming is profitable, especially near the city, where gardening occupies the labors of the people to a large degree. Pasturage is plentiful and excellent, and dairies are numerous. The largest, average from thirty to forty cows each, and Newburg does a flourishing business in supplying the city with milk. Building stone is quarried to some extent, but receives no marked attention as an article of shipment. Newburg, as now constituted, is simply a rural settlement, with convenient access, however, to more populous regions. There are within its limits neither villages nor churches; but on the other hand, the citizens pride themselves on the fact that there is no place in the township where liquor is sold. The only public buildings are the town-hall and the school-houses. The earliest settlements of old Newburg were made in that portion now known as the Eighteenth ward of Cleveland. But the pioneers of that tract having been mentioned in the history of Cleveland, this chapter will deal merely with the first settlements in what is now known as Newburg township. Philip Brower, who was among the early comers, journeyed in 1816 with his wife and seven children from New York State to Independence township. He lived there until his wife died-in 1820-and then settled in Newburg, near the Independence line, where David L., his son, had purchased two hundred and seventy acres. David lived on the old place fifty-four years, and died in 1876, aged eighty-five. His widow still survives, residing with her son Perry in Cleveland. When Mr. Brower moved into Newburg he became a neighbor of Darius Warner, who came from New York in 1816 with five children, and took up the farm now occupied by James Walker, who married his granddaughter. Darius Warner's son, Spencer, carried on the farm after his father's death, and on his own death, in 1861, left four children. Two of them, Mrs. James Walker and Lydia Warner, live in Newburg; Norman resides in Iowa, and John in California. In the spring of 1820, Nehemiah Marks, Wilson Bennett, Richard Treat, and a Mr. Clark, all young men of Milford, Connecticut, set out in a one-horse wagon for Ohio, and, after a journey of thirty-three days, brought up in the township which is the subject of this chapter. Treat and Clark went farther west, but Marks & Bennett tarried in Newburg, where they had bought farms of Barr and Bardsley, the Connecticut proprietors. Mr. Marks bought one hundred acres on the present Bedford road, where he still lives, an aged but hale and hearty pioneer, now entering upon his eighty-third year. Mr. Bennett located on the farm next adjoining that of Mr. Marks on the northwest. Soon afterward Thomas Ross, as emigrant from the State of New York, came from Summit county and joined Marks and Bennett, his farm being the one now owned by Asa Dunham, one mile west of the Marks place. While engaged in clearing their farms, Marks, Bennett and Ross kept bachelor's ball in Ross' log shanty until late in the fall, when the family of the latter came out from the East, and then Marks and Bennett boarded with the Ross household. Meanwhile Marks had put up a log house and cleared six acres of land, whereupon, in 1821, he traveled on foot back to Connecticut for his sister, who accompanied him to Ohio, and kept house for him until 1822, when Mr. Marks married. The next year she married Cyrus Parmeter, a Vermonter, who had assisted Marks in clearing his farm, and removed to Strongsville. As an instance of the difficulty of traveling with vehicles in those days, it may be observed that young Marks walked back to Connecticut in thirteen days on the return trip; when he had a team, he consumed upwards of a month. When Mr. Marks first came out to Newburg he had to cut his way to his farm, although in the following summer a road from Cleveland to Hudson was opened, which was followed somewhat later by the present Bedford road. Ross died in 1832, of the cholera. Bennett fell eventually into evil ways, took to drinking, and died a wreck, in 1836. None of the descendants of either Ross or Bennett are living in the township. Mr. Marks married, in 1822, a Mrs. Parmeter, a sister of the man who married Miss Marks. She came to Newburg in 1821, in company with a family of Western pioneers, and drove a team all the way from New England as compensation for her transportation. After reaching Newburg she taught school on the Brainard farm, but unfortunately for the school it was broken up by the speedy marriage of its teacher. When Mr. Marks settled in Newburg there were on the Bedford road in Newburg the Jewetts, John and Samuel Brooks, and Nehemiah Wallace, with his three sons, Ira, Chester and Jefferson, the former two being married. Chester is still living in Morrow county, in this State. Lewis Harper's farm adjoined Wilson Bennett's but he subsequently moved to that part of the township now included in the city. Edmond Rathbun, now an old gentleman of eighty-five, living in Cleveland with his son-in-law, Freeman Brooks, made the journey in a sleigh from New York to Newburg, in the winter of 1817, in company with Isaac Clark and family. Young Rathbun took up forty four acres of land near where the "five-mile-lock" was afterwards, constructed, which tract he increased to one hundred and twenty-five acres in 1818. In that year his brother George joined him, and located on a neighboring farm. He removed to Euclid in 1844, and died there in 1877, aged eighty-one. Edmund Rathbun sold out his Newburg place in 1854, and went to Solon, afterwards becoming a resident of Cleveland, as before stated. His wife, who is still living, was the daughter of Samuel Hamilton, who settled in Newburg village as early as 1801. Mr. Rathbun's neighbors besides his brother George, were Milton, Erastus and Joseph Rathbun; a Mr. Burgess, who was killed by the fall of a tree; Jonathan Pearse, who located in Newburg about 1818; John Gould and his son, Myrick; Benjamin Parsons, Wildman White, Samuel Andrus and George Beakle. In the northeast, one of the pioneers was Jedediah Hubbell. His house was burned to the ground on Sunday, in 1822, while he was at church. The next morning his townsmen gathered in force, put up a new house for him and moved his family into it before nightfall. That is an example of how people used to help each other in the "good old days." Solomon White was located in the north near the present city line. On the old State road, now called the Fisher road, were Parker, Shattuck, Amos Brainard, Solas Owens, Lewis Peet and Isaac Clark; the latter having come out with Edmund Rathbun in 1817. A Mr. Remington, Lyman Hammond and Mr. Rightor were settlers perhaps, as early as 1814, near where James Walker lives, but they moved away after a very brief stay. Newburg township was formed by an order of the county commissioners on the 15th day of October, 1814. Until 1873 it embraced the thriving village of Newburg. In September of that year the village and the tract lying between it and the north line of the township were annexed to the city of Cleveland. The remaining citizens of Newburg determined to preserve the residue of their territory intact, and so, on the 2d of March, 1874, the township was incorporated for "special purposes." The only change in the form of election, however, is that each year one trustee is chosen to serve three years. Financially the township is in a healthful condition. On the 1st of September, 1879, there were in the treasury $2,555, against which there was not one dollar of indebtedness. The township tax for 1879 aggregated ninety-three and one-half cents on each $100. While Newburg village was a part of the township, all the township business was naturally done there, and a large part of the officers lived there, probably a majority of them. Others lived in the northwestern part of the old township. These are all "outsiders" so far as the present township is concerned. Yet if we give a bit of Newburg officers at all we cannot discriminate between them, and we can find no place more proper for it than in the history of the township which still bears that time-honored name. The township books from 1814 to the present time are in the possession of the clerk of the present Newburg, and from them we transcribe the following list: 1814, Clerk, Erastus Miles; trustees, Giles Barnes, Chas.
Miles, Daniel Marvin Newburg has now five school districts-two having been added during 1879. At the last report, September 1, 1879, for three school districts, the value of school property was set down at $10,000. The amount paid teachers for the year was $735, and the balance of cash in the school fund was $1,400. The number of children of school age was about two hundred, of whom one hundred and ten were enrolled in the schools; the average attendance being sixty-six. The great discrepancy between the enumeration and enrollment is explained by the statement that many of the children in the township attend a Catholic school in the eighteenth ward of Cleveland. Two fine brick school-houses, expected to cost $1,600 each, are now being erected in the two recently created districts. The five districts are located as follows: No. 1, in the northeast; No. 2, on Miles avenue, No. 3, on the Bedford road; No.4, near the California powder works, and No. 5, on Union street. The members of the board of education are Boardman Pearse, O. W. Quiggin, John R. Edwards, John B. Collett and Jacob Cramer. The manufacturing industries, although few in number, are of considerable importance. (an outgrowth of the firm of Austin & Sons, which was founded in Ohio in 1833), was incorporated in 1868, with a capital of $300,000 for the purpose of manufacturing all kinds of powder. The works are located near what is called five-mile-lock. Here the company owns one hundred and thirty acres of land, upon which are the mills, tenement houses, etc. Thirty men are employed, and about four hundred kegs of powder are produced daily; the product including blasting, mining, shipping, cannon, meal, and several grades of sporting powder. Mr. L. Austin, who was the secretary of the company until 1873, has been its president since that time. an association incorporated by the State of California, has branch factories in various parts of the country, and among them one in Newburg. This branch was established in 1877, for the purpose of manufacturing dynamite, or Hercules powder, for blasting. The business of these works aggregates $300,000 annually. Forty men are employed, being under the direction of William Wilson, the superintendent. The mills are located near the line of the Ohio canal, in a deep ravine upon an extensive farm owned by the company and comprise about a dozen different structures. composed of J. R. Peck, J. H. Breck, Jr., and E. S. Peck, has a large establishment near the river devoted to the manufacture of bone-dust, super phosphate of lime and neatsfoot oil. The company was established about three years ago, as the successor of Davidson & Palmer.
History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Part Third: The Townships, compiled by Crisfield Johnson, Published by D. W. Ensign & Co., 1879; pages 481-484 |