Pioneer History of Clarksfield, pages 31 - 40
In 1817 a number of the men who became pioneers of Clarksfield owned land here and in this year we find the first attempt to make a break in the forest. Samuel Husted was a stirring man of 38 years of age and with a growing family, living at Danbury, Connecticut, and he decided to set up a home for himself on the land he owned in Ohio -- that land of promise so far away from civilization. Ezra Wood, a young man whose wife was a niece of Mrs. Husted, also desired to see the new country. These two men started from Danbury in a one horse wagon, May 19, 1817. The narrative of their journey has fortunately been preserved in print. We quote from the narrative of Jonathan Fitch in the Firelands Pioneer of June, 1864: "On the 19th day of May, 1817, I left Norwalk, Conn., for Ohio, in company with Capt. A
Swan, his Irishman Kelley and John and Seth Keeler. We went by the way of New York City, which we reached about noon on the 20th. After resting a few hours, we crossed the river to what is now Jersey City, and reaching Morristown, we put up for the night. Moving forward the next morning, we arrived at the top of a long hill about mid day, when we stopped by the wayside, fed our horses and resorted to our provision chest. While eating, we discovered two men in a one horse wagon ascending the hill. As they came near they raised the shout: "Hurrah for Ohio!" They proved to be strangers to us, but we were not long in making their acquaintance. They were Captain Husted and a Mr. Wood, (given name not remembered.) They hailed from Danbury, Conn., and were bound for Ohio.
Learning at Norwalk of our departure, they had hastened to overtake us. Our numbers being thus increased to seven, we moved on over hills, valleys, rivers and mountains to Pittsburg, which we reached the 8th of June. Here we rested for the Sabbath. Monday we traveled on to the west side of the Big Beaver bridge, where our new acquaintances left us, taking to the right hand road to go to Clarksfield, Huron county, while we kept on direct to Mansfield, Richland county. We arrived at Mr. Giles Swan’s, north of Mansfield, June 17th." In the same year Mr. Fitch started back to Connecticut on horseback. He and another man left Mr. Swan’s, near Mansfield, Nov. 10, 1817. He says: "On our journey east of Pittsburg, we met an ox team with household goods. I told Smith it must be Captain Husted, but the driver was a stranger to me. We soon, however, met three horse teams. I raised a hurrah for Captain Husted, and in response he dropped his lines and waded through the mud to reach me upon my horse. He said he was overjoyed to see one he knew. A Mr. Starr, I think, was with him. After a brief interview we bid each other farewell, and went on our ways." Husted and Wood went to Florence and stopped with Major Barnum, another Danbury man who had come to Florence eight years before. Fitch says that his party reached Mansfield June 17, and we may reasonably suppose that Husted and Wood reached Florence about the same time. Making Florence their headquarters, they came over into the woods of Clarksfield, on Husted’s land, and worked for six weeks, preparing the timbers for a log cabin and clearing off the trees adjoining. Six men raised the house, and these men were probably from Florence. Wood says that Husted cut the first tree and built the first house in the township, and E. M. Barnum, who came two years later, also says that Husted put up the first house. We find no reason to dispute this claim, Husted and Wood went back to Danbury after this.
There is considerable uncertainty in regard to the first actual settler in the township, but we believe the weight of evidence is in favor of the statement that the family of Stephen Post was first to live here, although Ezra Wood, Benjamin Benson and E. M. Barnum, who have written sketches of the pioneer settlement of the township, fail to mention Mr. Post, but Simeon Hoyt, who came in 1817, says that Mr. Post was here when he came. Although we believe Mr. Husted built the first house, his family did not come until some months afterward. Bushnell Post, a son of Stephen, tells the story of his father’s journey to Ohio in the following words: "In the year of 1815, down in the Empire state and in the rich valley of Genessee, there lived a family of Posts, a family of Miners, a family of Russells and a family of Andersons, all neighbors, or what was called neighbors in those early days, for though some miles of wooded roads lay between them, yet their social gatherings and their friendly greetings proclaimed them neighbors indeed. These four families consisted of the following persons: Stephen Post, my father; Sally Post, my mother; sisters Cynthia and Anna, brothers Isaiah, Stephen and William and the baby, sister Lucinda; and connected with the family as a hired man at this time was Zara C. Norton, in all nine persons. Asel Miner and his wife, Polly Miner, George Miner, Joel and Albert Miner make up a family of six. The Russells were three in number; the mother and the two sons, Olcott and Charles; and in the other was Henry Anderson, his wife and a daughter Laura, and connected with the family was Simeon Munson, who came down from Ohio to help move them. The sum total of persons were twenty-two. Some time in the month of December, 1815, these four families came together with their goods packed and piled on three or four sleds, and one wagon was loaded with goods, and these loads were to be hauled by three or four ox teams and two spans of horses. Around were gathered six cows, three hogs and one pet sheep. The little lads, with sticks in their hands, were behind to drive the drove, the women and the little children were tucked in among the goods, the drivers were at their post, with their faces set towards the frozen waters of Lake Erie, and with a crack of the whip they move on over the creaking snow. * * *
They reach the place where the great city of Cleveland now stands, and --- what do they find? One solitary log hotel down on the bottoms of Cuyahoga river, but are told that there are a few houses up on the hills. On, on, we trace them; we hear the little lads complain of sore feet and weary limbs, the little children cry with cold and hunger, the mothers, with anxious care, can but heave a sigh, and the father’s whoa, haw, gee, with energy rings out along the wooded way. The most serious mishap happens as they near the mouth of the Vermillion, where an ox sled capsized on the uneven ice that was cracked and bulged here and there, and scattered its contents over the ice just as the shades of night were setting thick and fast. A box of axes found a crack in the ice and slumped through and found a resting place in the gravelly bed of the lake. The goods were gathered up that night lest a wind should spring up and ice, goods and all be among the missing ere the dawn of another day. But the ice was there; the crack was found and the box of axes was fished out of eight or ten feet of water the next morning. Arriving at what is known as Sprague’s Corners in Florence, my father’s family put up for the rest of the winter -- it now being the last of December or some time the first of January, 1816 -- while the other three families held on for New London. In the spring of this year our family moved to New London and into the house belonging to Benjamin Hendricks and near the west line of the farm now owned by George Bissell. Here they raised corn, potatoes and garden sauce on the little opening that Hendricks had made, and during that fall they built a house in the southwest corner of Clarksfield, and the foundation logs were laid very near where now stands the neat and trim white house of Mr. Dunning. They moved to this round log structure some time that fall or winter -- the opening of 1817 -- there being but one white person living in the township at the time, he being an old bachelor who a shanty on the place now owned by Mrs. Baldwin -- a Mr. Osmer by name who was there when our family moved into that good old log home built beneath the shades of the towering trees of southwest Clarksfield. * * * And here, above all other events on the first day of June, 1817, the first white child of the township was born -- my youngest sister, Almira. Here, too, occurred the first wedding of the township, Zara C. Norton being wedded to my oldest sister, Cynthia, and the knot was tied by Squire Case of New London. This wedding is down in the pioneer book of this county as having taken place in New London. But this is a mistake; it took place in the first log house built in Clarksfield, it being the one built by the hands of my father.
* * * The nearest mill was eighty miles away, down on Owl creek, where my father went once the first year we lived in New London, with a wagon loaded with corn and wheat and a pair of oxen and one horse hitched ahead of them to haul the load, my oldest brother riding the horse to lead the way and Philo T. Porter bringing up the rear with another ox team hauling another wagon like loaded. Well, they made the trip and returned home in three weeks, being delayed by high waters, where they found hungry, anxious friends awaiting them. Our people lived on the Clarksfield farm two years, but trouble to get to mill caused them to move to Richland county and settle near where Hayesville now is. Here they lived for two years." In another article Mr. Post tells about his father’s family coming to Ohio and says that it was in 1816 that they started from their home in the east and 1817 when they went to New London and moved into a house built by a Mr. William Hendrix, "and where on June 1st, a little sister was born."
"Here they tarried
for only a short time, until a house could be built on a section of land in
the southwest corner of Clarksfield, 
where
they moved in the fall and where they lived for a year or two." Our
readers will notice that there are some differences in these two statements.
One makes the date of their arrival in New London and Clarksfield a year later
than the other. One says that the baby sister was born in Clarksfield, and the
other that she was born in New London; one says that the house they moved into
was built by Benjamin Hendricks, the other, by William Hendrix. (The latter
was a son of the former.) These discrepancies lessen the historical value of
the statements and we must look for corroborating evidence. Dr. Skellenger says
that the younger Stephen Post said that they came to Clarksfield in 1816, but
he (Skellenger) upon investigation thinks it was a year later. In the history
of New London township Dr. Skellenger says that Stephen Post, Henry Anderson
and Mrs. Russell and her sons came to New London in 1817. It seems the most
reasonable to suppose that Mr. Post came to Clarksfield in the fall of 1817,
after spending the summer in New London. Taking Bushnell Post’s statement, the
Mr. Osmer was the first white man to live in the township, but his habitation
was only a shanty and we hear nothing more of him, so he cannot be called a
permanent settler.
Stephen W. Post lived in Clarksfield for a couple of years and then moved to Richland county, but moved back to Clarksfield in a few years, obtaining the deed for the whole of the lot upon which he lived in 1823. His wife was a sister of the father of the Fanning brothers who lived in Clarksfield in later years. Mr. Post died in 1833 at the age of 63. His wife died in 1844 at the age of 62. She died at the home of David Potter, who lived in a log house a short distance north of Platt Sexton’s. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Post were Isaiah, Cynthia, Lucinda, Anna, Stephen, Bushnell, William E., Ashbell, and Almira.
Isaiah was born in 1806 in Ontario county, N.Y. He married Clarissa Blackman, daughter of Capt. William Blackman. He obtained a farm near his father’s, the farm now owned by E. J. Harland, and built a house there. He afterward sold it and moved to Indiana, and after that he lived in New London, in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan, but finally settled in Brighton, where his wife died. He died in 1887, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Charles Fish, at East Clarksfield. Mrs. James Backus of Brighton is another daughter.
Cynthia Post was born in 1801 and married Zara Norton, Oct. 14, 1818, and this was the first wedding in Clarksfield township. She died in 1880.
Lucinda Post married Hessel P. Ryerson. He obtained a deed of the Widow Fanning farm, now occupied by John Ries, in 1832, but sold it in 1834 and bought eighty-five acres across the road of Alfred Stebbins. In 1838 he sold out to William J. Harland. The family finally moved to New Jersey.
Anna Post married Lewis Higgins, a son of Daniel Higgins, one of the pioneers of the Forks of the River, in Florence. Mr. Higgins purchased forty acres of land at the southwest corner of this township in 1823, but sold it to George Minor in 1825. We cannot learn where they lived, but they went to Florence, and Mr. Higgins died there in 1829. The widow then married Eber Newton, who lived north of Oberlin.
Stephen Post was born in 1809 and married a daughter of "Elder" Carlton. They lived for many years on the farm now owned by Spencer Prosser, just over in Hartland from the farm of the elder Post. He lived in New London for a few years before his death, which occurred in 1877.
Bushnell Post was born in Richland county, O., in 1820 and married a daughter of John Miller of New London. He died in New London in 1888.
William Post married Sally Case of Fitchville and they lived in Fitchville, New London and finally Oregon.
Ashbell Post went west and now lives in the state of Washington. He is the only one of the family living.
Almira Post was born June 1, 1817. She married David Potter and they lived in many different houses in Clarksfield, but finally went to Nebraska, where Mrs. Potter died.
Zara
C. Norton, who came to Ohio with the family of Stephen Post, was born at Wolcott,
Conn., Nov. 15, 1799. He was married to Cynthia Post, October 14, 1818, by Esquire
Case of New London, and this was the first wedding in Clarksfield. After their
marriage they lived with Mr. Post, went to Richland county with him and came
back with him, but then settled in a log house on the north side of the townline
road east of Barrett’s Corners, on a farm now owed by Edward Hubbard. The little
red house was built by Mr. Norton in later years. In 1829 he was licensed to
exhort and to preach in 1833. At this time he went on the circuit as a Methodist
minister, and was away from home much of the time. In 1840 he was admitted to
Conference and in 1841 he was assigned to a circuit in Williams county and remained
for two years, but the family remained on the farm. In 1856 the family moved
to Minnesota where they remained for ten years and then moved to Missouri. In
1878 Mr. and Mrs. Norton moved to Nebraska, where they both died only a few
weeks apart in 1880, having lived together for nearly sixty-two years. Their
children were Louisa, Isaiah, Sally, Lucinda and Elizabeth. Louisa married Jasper
Pixley and they lived south of Alexander Twaddle’s on the east side of the road.
In 1856 they moved to Minnesota and Mrs. Pixley died in two or three years.
Isaiah Norton married Abigail Tracy of Wood county, O., and they lived in Wood county until 1856 when they went to Minnesota with the Norton family. They are living in Nebraska at present.
Sally Norton married Isaac Tracy of Wood county and they lived on the Norton farm, on the south town line, for a number of years, but went west with the rest and finally moved to Nebraska, where both died, the wife in 1899.
Lucinda Norton married Gregory Barnum in 1849. They went to Missouri in 1855.
Elizabeth Norton (Thomas) is the wife of John Barnum of Clarksfield.
Zara Norton’s father, Noah U. Norton, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, where he served as a servant or body guard for General Washington. In 1832 Zara went to New York state with an ox team and brought his father and mother back with him and they made their home with him until their deaths in 1841 and 1843, respectively.
In the fall of 1817 Simeon
Hoyt and Smith Starr started from Danbury, Conn., with their families, in a
wagon drawn by two 
yoke
of oxen and one horse and after a journey lasting six weeks they reached Clarksfield
in October. Hoyt settled on his farm in the south part of the township, where
Sherman Smith afterward lived and died. It will be remembered that Mr. Hoyt
was one of the party of surveyors who surveyed the Firelands in 1806 and later.
In 1809 Comfort Hoyt, the father of Simeon, and one of the original proprietors
of the Firelands, came out to see the land and was taken sick at Huron. Simeon
sent to Cleveland for a doctor. After a while he recovered so as to be able
to travel. Simeon had intended to remain longer, but was obliged to return to
Connecticut with his father. Years afterward, when he was 70 years of age, Comfort
Hoyt came to Ohio on horseback to visit his children, and returned to Connecticut
the same way. In describing his experiences Simeon says: "I came with an
ox team in company with Smith Starr. We were six weeks on the road. I had previously
purchased the land on which I moved. It was nearly all a wilderness at that
time. A few families were living in New London and Stephen Post in this town.
We found it hard times. Provisions were scarce and high, and no roads. How we
ever lived I can hardly tell, but we did, and in a few years became situated
very comfortably." Also in another letter: "My family the first year
comprised eleven persons, and it was no easy matter to provide provisions for
so large a household. We obtained some flour from Richland county and some from
Huron, and made use of pounded corn some of the time. After the first year we
were not troubled for the necessities of life." His brothers Ira and Aaron
were undoubtedly members of the family. Simeon Hoyt married Mindwell Knapp,
the widow of John Knapp. She had a family of seven children at that time. They
were Lyman, Hiram, William, Henry, Caroline and Emeline, twins, and Eliza.
Lyman R. Knapp was born in 1802 and married Arvilla Curtiss. He lived on a farm on the east side of the New London road towards the south part of this township, the farm being now owned by his son, Jay. Mrs. Knapp died in 1833 at the age of 24. She left a daughter, Mary (Hosmer) and son, John S. Mr. Knapp married for his second wife Harriet Rowland, daughter of James Rowland. Lyman R. Knapp died in 1880 and his wife, Harriet, in 1896. They had two sons, James B. and Henry Jay.
Hiram Knapp married Sally White and lived on the farm next north of Lyman Knapp’s. He moved to New London and died there. His children were Lucy, Betsy, Caroline, Eliza, Frederick and Smith.
William Knapp went back to Connecticut not long after the family came here. About 1850 he brought his family here and they lived in a house which stood on the Sherman Smith farm, east of Barrett’s Corners. Mr. Knapp died there and the rest of the family went back east.
Henry Knapp married Eunice Case, a sister of Dr. Case, of New London. They lived in New London for a time and then lived in a house which stood just north of Royal Gridley’s. They went back to New London again. Mr. Knapp was taken sick at Sherman Smith’s and died there. There children were Murray, Abel and Rose.
Caroline Knapp married Sherman Smith. She died in 1892 at the age of 82.
Emeline Knapp married Dr. Tracy Case and they lived in New London. There children were Phelps, Lorinda and Eliza.
Eliza Knapp married Major Smith. She was about four years old when she came here with the family in 1817 and is still living. She will have lived here for eighty-two years, if she lives until the fall of the present year, (1899) which is longer than any other person has done.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt had three children, J. Frederick, Dolly and Lucy Ann. Frederick married Mary Andre and they lived on Simeon Hoyt’s place for a time and then moved to the Butler road, across the way from Sedgwick Barnes’ farm. They then moved to Michigan, where Mr. Hoyt died about 1885, after losing his mind. Their children were Simeon, Malcolm and Elmer. Dolly Hoyt married John Dean, Jr., and lived on Mr. Hoyt’s place, east of the corners, for a time and then went to Michigan, where Mr. Dean died. His wife is still living there. Lucy Ann Hoyt married William Lloyd Vanderhoff, and they too, lived on Mr. Hoyt’s place at first, but moved to Florence township, living at Terryville. The husband died there and the widow married Benjamin Pierce. She is still living at Terryville. She had no children.
Mrs. Hoyt died in 1858 at the age of 77. Mr. Hoyt afterward married the widow of the elder William Vanderhoff. Before this she had married John Blackman, but they soon separated. Mr. Hoyt moved to Florence township in 1860, living south of Terryville. He died in 1867, being nearly ninety years of age. His wife died two years before.
Smith Starr, who came with Simeon Hoyt, was a son of Peter, son of Samuel, son of Samuel, son of Josiah, son of Thomas, son of Dr. Comfort Starr, who came from England to Cambridge, Mass., in 1634, and later to Boston. He was born at Ridgefield, Conn., and was married to Joanna Knapp in 1805. When they came to Clarksfield, they had a number of children, John T., the oldest, being eleven years old. They first moved into the log house which Captain Husted had built in June, until their own house could be put up. This was built on the south hill near the site of the fine frame house which he built afterwards, and which was his home until his death. It is now owned by Grant Johns. He was a shoemaker by trade and brought leather on his back from the nearest tannery, some thirty miles distant. His shop and tools were destroyed by fire, so he gave up the business and built a sawmill on the bank of Spring brook in 1819, the first sawmill in town. He was a useful man in the community and served as postmaster for many years. He was Justice of the Peace and Township Clerk and the township records and the Justice docket shows a beautiful handwriting and an exactness which show him to have been a man of education. His children were John Taylor, Mary, Rory, Peter, Deborah Ann, Smith and William Knapp. For several weeks after Mr. Starr moved here his nearest neighbor was Simeon Hoyt, or perhaps some settler in Hartland. It is said that Mrs. Starr saw the face of a white woman but once in two months. Mrs. Starr died in 1846 at the age of 63, and Mr. Starr in 1856 at the age of 72.
Taylor Starr was born in 1806 and married Ortency, daughter of Daniel Bills, Sr., in 1831. They lived in a double log house on the farm afterwards called the Hamlin place, where Dorr Twaddle now lives. The wife died in the fall of 1841, and was the first person buried in the Methodist cemetery. In 1842 he married Amanda Ferry, a daughter of Joseph and Louisa Ferry, and moved to Amherst, O. After a few years he came back and lived in the house with his father for a time and then moved into a house which stood at the end of the lane running east of J. N. Barnum’s present residence. In 1857 they moved to Kansas, where Mr. Starr died in 1882. The children by the first wife were Melissa, Lucy, Louisa and Theodora. By the second there were three sons, Elmer, Henry and John. Two of Mr. Starr’s girls, Lucy and Melissa, married sons of Levi M. Bodwell.
Mary Starr was born in 1808. She was married to her cousin, Smith Starr Gray, in 1829, and died in 1853. They had a daughter, Harriet, who was a cripple and died at the age of 23. They had another daughter, Mary Ann.
Rory Starr was born in 1810 and married Eliza Smith of Wellington in 1835. She died in 1859 and in 1860 he married her sister Caroline. Mr. Starr lived on a farm just east of the center of the township until his second marriage, when he moved to the Hollow and lived where his son William afterward lived. He died suddenly in the woods in 1872. His wife died the year before. His children were Mary, Augusta, Orlando, William, Ann and Emma.
Peter Starr was born in 1812 and married Rhoda Way in 1837. They lived across the road from John Hough’s place, the place now owned by Urban Snyder. Mr. Starr fell from an apple tree in 1858 and his back was broken. He died from the effects of it in a few months. Their children were George, Sarah and Joanna. The widow married Peter Bivins of Amherst and died only a short time ago at the home of her daughter, Mrs. William S. Prosser.
Deborah Starr, or "Aunt Debbie" as she was called, never married, but lived at the old homestead until her death in 1883. She was born in 1816 and was a baby when her parents moved here.
Smith
Starr, Jr., was a bright, promising young man, who was born in 1824. In 1848,
while working in a sawmill near Sandusky, he was struck in the back by the pitman
and the back was broken, causing his death four months afterward. He was engaged
to Betsy Ann Richardson, who afterwards became the second wife of Smith Gray
and after his death she married Hiram Newhall, and now lives in Brighton.
William K. Starr was born in 1825 and married Jane Arnold of Sandusky in 1848. They lived on a portion of the old homestead until the death of Mr. Starr in December, 1898, and the widow still resides there. They had no children. Five of Smith Starr’s children died on the old farm.
Samuel Husted was a son
of Andrew Husted, who died in 1812. His wife was Esther Wildman, a daughter
of Samuel Wildman 
of
Danbury, Conn., and a sister of Ezra Wildman and Grace Rowland, the
mother of Aaron and Levi Rowland and Nancy, wife of Ezra Wood. Their children
were Hiram, Edward, E., Samuel W., Thomas F., Hoyt, Betsy, Mary Jane and Obadiah
J.
Hiram Husted remained here but a short time, but returned to Connecticut. He afterwards went to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he married and lived the rest of his life. He was a lawyer.
Edward Evelyn Husted was born in 1805 and married Deborah Gray in 1831. He was a miller by trade, as were all his brothers, except Obadiah. In 1830 he purchased from Asa Wheeler the farm now owned by James Gray, but sold it to Ezra B. Gray in 1842. Mr. Husted lived on that place and also built the house now owned by Dr. Foss, in Clarksfield village, where he also lived. In 1841 he was elected sheriff, and Clarksfield felt honored by the choice, and the office was honored by having a man of the character of Mr. Husted to fill it. He served two terms and in 1847 he was elected county treasurer and served two terms in that office. He spent the rest of his life in Norwalk, where he was in the boot and shoe business with his brother-in-law, Erastus Gray, for many years, and sons of Mr. Husted have continued the same business ever since. He died in 1878 and his wife in 1884. They had ten children, seven of whom grew up to have children of their own. Their names are Edwin, Elmer, Emma, Frank, Edward, William and Ella.
Samuel W. Husted was born in 1808 and married Tamzon Rowland in 1830. They lived at Hamlin’s corners, then at Rowland’s Corners and when the hotel was built at Clarksfield about 1834 they moved into it and lived there for eight years.
They then moved back to Hayesville and from there to Clarksfield again, where Mr. Husted built the house now owned by Henry Miller. Mr. Husted died there in 1852. Their children are Harriet (Scott) and Esther.
Thomas F. Husted was born in 1811. He married Nancy Frazier in 1835. She died in 1838 and he married Lydia Cooley, at Oberlin, in 1841. He taught school in his early years, but followed the occupation of miller from the time of his marriage until 1856, first at Clarksfield and then at Olmstead Falls, to which place he moved in 1844. In 1850 he moved to Elyria. In 1856 he moved to West Climax, Mich., where he engaged in farming until his death in 1887, his wife surviving him but sixteen days. The first wife had two children, Hiram and Esther. The last wife had three children, Celia, Emma and Thomas. Esther (McIntyre) is the only one living.
Hoyt Husted was born in 1813 and married Sarah Gray in 1837. She died in 1858 and he afterward married Anna Cornelia Stone. He owned the house now owned by Mrs. Beers and lived there and in the one next to it until his wife died. After his second marriage he lived in his father’s house for a time and then in the house near the river which was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. S. D. Gray until recently. He died in 1866. The children by the first wife were Henry, Evelyn and Evaline, twins, and Hugh. Henry and Evelyn lost their lives while fighting for their country. The fruit of the second marriage was one son, Daniel S.
Betsy Husted was born in 1815. She married Oran Rowland. They lived on a farm at Rowland’s corners the rest of their days. She died in 1878. The names of their children are Asher, Levi, Samuel, Nancy, Cornelia, Watson, Jennie, Thomas, Eber, George and Eddie. All are living except Watson and Eddie. The former died while a soldier in the field.
Mary Jane Husted was born in 1817 and married George Signor. They spent the rest of their lives in Clarksfield. Their children were Mary, Anna Esther, Louise, Emma, Georgiana, Juliet and George.
Obadiah J. Husted was born in 1820 and was married to Mary W. Hurlbut in 1841. He was a farmer and lived south of Clarksfield village for many years. They moved to Kansas City, Kansas, where they are still living. The names of their children are Charles, Elbert, Anna and James. All are living but Elbert.
The first of November, 1817, Samuel Husted again started from Danbury, Conn., for Ohio, but this time he brought his family of wife and six children with him. Hester Paul and Jachim Morris must have come with them as members of the family. Eli Seger and family also accompanied them. The Mr. Starr which Fitch mentions as being with Husted was not Smith Starr. Mary Jane Husted was only six weeks old when they started and her cradle was a basket hung from the top of the covered wagon, and she is said to have been the least trouble of any of the children. Probably the swaying of the wagon as it passed over the rough roads kept her cradle rocking. They were six weeks on the road. Husted drove an ox team with a white horse ahead. This animal lived for many years afterward and was known by the name of "Knitting Work," on account of her nipping kind of a gait. A piece of their wagon is still preserved by the youngest son. They came by the way of Pittsburg, Petersburg, Canfield, Rocky River, Ridgeville and Black river, as an old account book shows. Husted furnished the means to pay Seger’s way and charged him $14 for carrying a chest three hundred miles. He went into his own log cabin, which stood near the brow of the hill north of the Hollow, near Albert Stone’s house. After a few years he built the first frame house in the township in the Hollow, near the brick store. The old log house was used for a school house and William Stiles, John Barnum, Samuel Gray, Hiram Gray and others of that age attended school there. Daniel Stone afterward used the old building for a barn.
He was a sergeant in the Connecticut Militia and was a Captain in the Ohio Militia and was generally called "Captain Husted." Platt Benedict says that he "with his regimentals" had command of the military guard at the hanging of two Indians at Norwalk in July, 1819. He took an active part in the affairs of the community and was, perhaps, the best known citizen during the earlier years of the settlement. He was a Freewill Baptist and as early as of 1821 had an account with the Baptist Missionary Society. Before there was any church building in town services used to be held at his house and he used to read sermons from a book. He used to be a regular attendant at the Congregational church when that building was erected and became a member and gave his assistance to help build it. There was a post near his seat and he used to hang his tall hat on a particular nail on that post. After he had lost his mind so as not to know his own children he used to go to the church, during the week, thinking it was Sunday and wonder why the people did not come. He had a large wen on his forehead and he used to rest his glasses there when he stood at the door of his store, and he was a very familiar figure to those who passed through the Hollow.
End of Pages 31 - 40
transcribed by Lowell Dunlap