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Page 6
Once known as the Wm. D. Brooks Farm Circa 1841 on
Lincoln Road, this home is an example of the set-in porch
common to Firelands farm houses. Formerly the Glenn
Beecher home, it is now the George Henry Dalton, Jr.
home.

The former Curt Todd home on Rt. 303 and Butler Road was
part of the Todd Settlement in 1828 when Center Road was
built from Wakeman to Pittsfield or Grafton. It is now the
home of Harry A. Woods

The Amiel Pierce family came three weeks after the
Canfields followed by Samuel Bristol a month later. Erastus
French who had walked from Connecticut boarded with the
Pierces. The three cabins were the entire settlement until the
Spring of 1818 when Dr. and Mrs. Harmon Clark arrived. Mrs.
Clark opened a school in her cabin that summer, having 3
Canfields, 3 Pierces and 1 Bristol as students. Her pay of $1.00 a
week was taken in produce. Mrs. Clark also taught in the log
school built on the Canfield farm in 1820. The log school was used
as a meeting place and school for nine years when it was replaced
by a frame building costing $170.
The Barzilla S. Hendricks family came with the
Abram Bronson Family and a hired man in 1819. Then Sheldon
Smith and Burton French, Silas French, father of Burton, Erastus
and Marcus had arrived by 1820. Marcus French ran the first hotel
in Wakeman, west of the center. Justus Minor arrived in 1821.
About 1822, Chester Manville (Manvel) came to visit his
sweetheart, Dortha Minor, later he returned with his sister to settle
next to Amiel Pierce and became a cooper by trade. He was
elected justice of the peace several times.
The Justin Sherman family arrived in style with a
four horse team after a speedy trip of two weeks. Justin was active
in real estate. In 1824 he built a sawmill on Chapelle Creek. In
1832 he built a sawmill on Brandy Creek. He was the first
postmaster of Wakeman in 1833. The post office was in his house.
He built and operated the first store in 1839 where he sold butter for
8 cents a pound and eggs were 5 cents a dozen. The goods for
Sherman's store came from New York via the Hudson River, Erie
Canal, and Lake Erie to Huron.