Birmingham of Yesteryear - First 10 Pages

"The Man who feels no sentiment or veneration for the memory of his forefathers; who has no natural regard for his ancestors, or his kindred, is himself unworthy of kindred, regard or remembrance." - Daniel Webster

NOTES ABOUT BIRMINGHAM'S HISTORY
Starr Truscott

This book is not designed to be a comprehensive history of Birmingham, but is designed to advise of some of the high points of Birmingham's past, and to stimulate interest in our debt to the past.

The village of Birmingham in Florence Township, Erie county, Ohio lies at the eastern edge of an unusual and unique tract of land: The Firelands of the Connecticut Western Reserve, sometimes called the Sufferers Lands.

During the American Revolution, British troops under Benedict Arnold destroyed by fire parts of the towns of New London, Norwalk, Groton, Greenwich and others along Long Island Sound. To recompense the burned out citizens and their heirs, the Connecticut Legislature in 1792 set aside from the Connecticut Western Reserve a half million (500,000) acres of land.

This land was deducted from the western extremity of the Western Reserve prior to the sale in 1795 of the eastern remaining 3 million acres to the Connecticut Land Co.

The Firelands were what is today Erie County, Huron County, Ruggles Township in Ashland County and Danbury Township in Ottawa County.

The state of Connecticut held title to the Western Reserve by reason of a 1662 charter from King Charles II and a later confirming agreement with the young U. S. government made in 1880. The Indian claims to lands west of the Cuyahoga River were released by the treaty of Fort Industry on July 4, 1805.

On February 9, 1809 the Firelands were made into Huron County but attached to Geauga and Portage Counties. In January 1810 Huron County was attached to Cuyahga County.

In January 1811 the eastern boundary of Huron County was moved to the Black River in what is today Lorain County, In January 1812 Huron County was fully organized. In 1818 the county seat was moved from Avery to Norwalk, and in January 24, 1824 Lorain County was organized and Huron County reduced to the Firelands.

On March 16, 1838 Erie County was split from Huron County with a new county seat at Sandusky.

Florence Township, originally known as Jessup Township, was first settled on Lot 38 in 1811.

Uriah Hawley had settled in 1816 on Lots 85 & 86 in the Terryville area and later built a carding and cloth dressing factory there.

The Settlement of Birmingham followed those settlements. Perez Starr, a millwright, came to Birmingham to lots 84 & 94 in 1817 and built a saw and grist mill on the Vermilion River in 1819. Daniel Chandler, the first carpenter in the area, framed the mills. Starr sold the mills and 160A (Lot 94) to Cyrus Butler about 1823.

The first covered bridge across the Vermilion was built in 1820, the Huron County Commissioners supplying about $200 and the local citizens the balance necessary.

The present Birmingham cemetery site was chosen in 1825 or 1826. Other burials had taken place earlier on Hawley's farm south of town, they were moved to the new site.

The first school house was built a half mile west of the river. Rhoda Root was the first teacher.

Cyrus Butler, the merchant from Norwalk who bought the mills from P. Starr, also started the first mercantile business in Birmingham. He also built a forge. Later selling all to Mr. Cobb.

Aaron Higgins built the first tan house east of the river and south of the mill diking.

The photographs that follow illustrate what life was like at a later time than these early happenings. They illustrate Birmingham in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

It was a world and time different than ours today. The farm was the basic unit of our area. The rich agricultural lands of Erie County and Ohio produced bountifully and the small town served their rural population. At the time that most of the photos were taken there were many functions which the small town provided which have been altered by our present day transportation. The area needed merchants, doctors, shipping points for agricultural products, and other goods and services.

The horse and wagon were the slow moving transportation, the public fancy was caught by the rapid transportation of the electric street railway, of which Birmingham had its like.

The development of the automobile and the hard surface road changed Birmingham as it changed our nation and the civilized world. Transportation and communication became rapid. The all day trip to the county seat became a matter of minutes. Trucks moved farm produce direct to the city market. Jobs in the growing industrial factories 15 to 20 miles away were available. The commuter became and remains the mainstay of the population of the present day small town. An era has passed and with it gas lights, horses hoofs, mud roads, self-sufficiency, and isolation.

Eras and times change, but not suddenly. Birmingham is today radically different from Birmingham of 1900. We pray that the changes of the future will be to the good of mankind and our descendants. To them we offer this booklet, that they may have some conception of what has gone before.

The savage believes a photograph is powerful magic and can capture his soul. In his simple conception he sees something our more satiated senses perhaps overlook. A photograph is magic; it announces: "Look, here I show that on a day long ago the sun shone, grass grew, men lived and laughed and cried, and here for you is preserved a fragment of that day, preserved on paper the faces, clothes, and building of those before you. What I show is gone and will never come again but here forever may be enshrined the rays of light which fell those many years ago."

Here then are presented for you some of the magic bits of the past.