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Page 10
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The William Stoll House at Cooper & Abbott Streets was the former home
and office of Dr. D. H. Young. |
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Elmer Dalton's House (Circa 1845) on West River at Ogan was formerly
Bacon and Haskins Farm. Note the Greek Revival Architecture typical of the Western Reserve. |
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In 1856 a new citizen of Wakeman began importing whiskey
from Monroeville by railroad and selling it in Wakeman. His place became a center for brawls and fights. One day Mrs. D. C. Wilson, Mrs. Edward Bunce and Mrs. B. M. Canfield took their axes in hand and smashed the whiskey barrels at the depot. The whiskey dealer brought another load home by wagon and dared the ladies to visit him there. About thirty of the first ladies of Wakeman descended on his place. He invited them in and abruptly tried to drive them out but Delia French wedged a board in the door and the ladies swarmed into the back room and released the "spirits" which flowed into the Vermilion River. The whiskey dealer had the ladies arrested on a charge of riot. The day of the trial the whole town accompanied them by train to Norwalk where they were met by the Norwalk Band and marched to the courthouse. The ladies begged to be locked up but were persuaded to be guests of the town. Eight lawyers volunteered to defend them. The lawyers proved what a nuisance the whiskey created in town. Since he was new to Wakeman, the whiskey dealer couldn't identify any of the ladies by name so the verdict was not guilty. The whiskey peddler left for parts unknown. |
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Wakeman was a part of the Underground Railroad, a secret
organization to help escaping slaves. The homes of Leveritt Hill, Isaac Todd, Burton French, Carlon Canfield and possibly Isaac Judson were stations on the railroad in Wakeman. Isaac Todd's son, Seth, and Leveritt Hill's son, Benedict, were often the engineers who conducted the trains to Oberlin. Wakeman also had an Anti Abolition Association which feared rash action by abolitionists would destroy the Union. |
