The company training at South Ridge and the south part of Salem, now Conneaut, was instituted in the Fall of 1817. All male citizens over 18 years of age and under 45 were notified to appear at 10 o'clock A. M. at the house of Jacob M. Williams, now the home of Levant M. Horton, armed and equipped as the law required and prepared to do military duty. Daniel Sawtell, Jr., then living on the dark Hunt farm, now Geo. W. Howard's, was Captain, Marshall Williams, Lieutenant, and Eber Sanford, Ensign. Within a year or so Captain Sawtell removed from the limits of the company and Lieut. Williams was advanced to the Captaincy, Eber Sanford to the office of Lieutenant, and Ira Parker, Ensign.
About 1821 Samuel Kennedy was appointed Captain and held the office till about 1830, and Ira Parker Lieutenant. The Captain had a very pompous way of appearing before the company and still was a very fine locking officer, which, among the spectators, often occasioned remarks and smiles. He had his company gathered at the house of Eber Sanford and drilled it along the street. About 1829 the Captain was marching his men up and down the highway, when, wishing them to oblique to the right, i.e., step at an angle of twenty-five degrees to the right, he gave the word of command, saying, "Ob-li-que-ly to the right." Such a wrong pronunciation of the word excited great merriment especially among the spectators. A gentleman from Kelloggsville, M. K., seeing such a fine opportunity for displaying his rhyming talents made this, with many other word of mispronunciation the subject of versification. That the memory of our readers may be revived and they enjoy a hearty laugh, we will reproduce two verses with the chorus. The Captain let slip the word alligators, for regimentals; hence it opened with the tune Yankee Doodle in the following lines calling the militia from Monroe:
Ye gallant soldiers of Monroe
Slip on your alligators
And into Salem rise and go-
And stand before your betters.
Chorus:
Yankee Doodble never fret,
But take the whiskey freely,
As long as you can travel straight
And not go ob-li-que-ly.
And there obliged to train by law,
And since we must come to it,
It's in-o-tic-ler, this you know
Who calls us out to do it.
Some complaint had been made because the notice was not given by the equal officer to meet him at South Ridge on the training day, and to express the idea that it was not absolutely necessary he coined the word in-o-tic-ler. Notwithstanding he was so careless in his language he was esteemed as a good officer, and within a year or two of this time advanced to a Major and was the ob-li-que-ly officer. Captain Mowe succeeded him and served for a short time.
Sept. 10, 1832 Duncan McArthur, Governor of Ohio, appointed Aaron Clark Captain in which he served, two years when he removed to Jefferson being employed to write in the Auditor's office of Ashtabula County. Mr. Clark�s commission assigned him authority as "Captain of the Seventh Company In the First Regiment, Third Brigade, and Ninth Division In the Militia of this State." He does not remember who his first and second Lieutenants were.
For a number of years there was much trouble in getting men to serve as officers and there could be no training that would serve the purposes of drill. Things ran down to a low rate in military affairs.
In 1841 under Wilson Shannon, Governor of Ohio, a revision of the military law was made and a more thorough organization effected. Then ours became the 3d Company, 1st Regiment, 2d Brigade and 21st Division of the Militia of Ohio. The commissioned officers were Asahel C. Thompson, Captain; M.W. Wright, Lieutenant; Sidney A. Kennedy, Ensign. The non-commissioned officers were William Durkee, 1st Sergeant; David Taylor 2nd; Rufus Clark, 3d; Daniel Hill, 4th; Corporals, Henry Hicks, lat; Eleazar F. Ring, 2nd; Zenas H. Wright, 3d. Musicians', Edward P. Clark, Merritt Clark, Newton B. Payne, Isaac Judson, Wiley Tinker. Among the generals whose names are familiar were Gen. Henry Keyes, 1829, and Gen. A, Bruce Randall, 1837. The colonels were Col. Edward Fifield and Alfred Crittenden, 1835; Col. A. Elder, 1837, and Col. Harvey Williams, 1842. Under Col Crittenden, Reuben Sanborn served as Major.
It became a great treat for the private soldiers to gather at the houses of their officers early In the morning on training days and fire heavy guns under their windows, if the officers did not rise from their beds and bid them welcome and treat them a with a drink of liquor, they would increase the charge of powder, and sometimes burst their guns. This was called "Waking up the officers. Sometimes at 2 o'clock in the morning, though the night was dark the roaring of guns would begin. It was seemed an honor to receive such attention. in calling the roll, if any were not present to answer their names, a pin was thrust through it and they were fined $2.
The company of Cavalry was formed out of volunteers in Ashtabula, Kingsville, Conneaut and Monroe. Elisha Strong of Ashtabula,was captain, Asahel Thompson of South Ridge, lieutenant.
A few names of the company can be remembered as follows: Samuel Eaton, Abner Kellogg, Walker S. Bennett, Henry Putney, Nelson Burrington, Mr. Pinney. Finally Mr. Strong was advanced to the office of Colonel .and Mr. Thompson was made captain, as an inducement for men to enlist, the law granted each enlistment one year's time free from military duty to equip.
All the companies belonging to the 1st Regiment were mustered once a year for a general training. At first they were required to meet in Ashtabula, but a little later at some house on the Ridge Road about half way between Amboy and North Kingsville, under Col. A. Elder. At these gatherings our citizens would rise early in the morning and loads be on their way by sunrise or they might be absent at roll-call and be fined $2. At the appointed hour the Sergeants of each company with the music would drum out their men, calling on the privates at every round to fall into rank and file.
When thus formed, the Sergeant detached the music to go and march the commissioned officers on to the ground to take command. Next, the whole number of companies thus formed were consolidated into a regiment. The music under one officer was sent to march out the Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, and Second Lieutenant Colonel, on horseback in beautiful uniforms.
A briefer drill ensued, after which the regiments were marched onto good ground, forming a hollow square, into which the chaplain was called with his attendants and prayer was offered to the God of the armies of Israel to have the oversight of the armies of America and to give success to their forces on the day of battle. Then at the command of the Colonel the fifes played, the heavy tread of the soldiers made the ground jar beneath them! Closing with a short address the regiment was dismissed for a year, and about 4 o clock P.M. all parties hastened for their teams for a start homeward. Usually it was long after dark before the soldiers, thus transferred into citizens could reach their places of rest in their own homes.
After a series of years the people began to think less of these days of military drill and their interest in them began to decline. They realized so little benefit from them that they came to be regarded as nearly, if not quite, useless. One week's thorough training in tactics would do more to prepare soldiers for the order of battle than whole lifetime of two days' annual parades. For some time before the War of the Rebellion, the military law became a dead letter until it was repealed and the people excused from both company and general training. Only the independent companies were kept up and made ready for service.
Sometimes our citizens were compelled to walk to Ashtabula for a general training. On one occasion when Harvey Hatch was Captain,. Samuel Eaton, Woodbury Hatch, Solomon Durkee, and William Durkee started before day on foot, walked the distance, did military service, and being dismissed a little before sundown, began their return towards home. Reaching Kingsville town line, a drenching shower overtook them, leaving not a dry thread in their clothing. The night was dark and they could not see the way. At length they came to a log house, and going in they found George Wright there, having proceeded them a short time. Their lunch in their pockets was well soaked without tea or coffee. The woman's husband was gone, but she said it was bad for men to be turned out of doors on such a night, and they found rest on the soft side of the floor. In the morning they arose at day dawn and walked home before breakfast. Such were some of the hardships of those times to keep up military drills.
SOUTH RIDGE CEMETERY Previous to the laying out of these grounds, burials were made in various places. Frederick Kellogg, child of Peck and Polly Clark, that died Sept.7, 1818 aged nearly one year was buried not far, as we suppose, from the northeast corner of the present yard, under the boughs of a large tree. But soon after, by the removal of stumps and breaking of the sod, the site was lost and it has never since been identified. Another place was thought to be more desirable on Jacob Thayer's farm, on the height of ground about one hundred rods east of his son's, Lewis A Thayer's house, and about thirty rods north by east of John Darlinn's house. Here several interments were made. The remains of David Hicks, who died March 28, 1819, of Thomas Mastin, August 18, 1822 and Jacob Williams, Jan. 15, 1822, his son Marshall who died May 31, 1826 and others, were buried here. But in the Spring of 1827 the importance of having a good yard, regularly divided into lots and numbered was talked up, a meeting called, and men appointed to secure two acres donated on the north-east corner of Joseph Lillie's farm, the present site of our cemetery. The day being appointed for the people to come and assist in the work, Peck Clark having prepared stakes of sawn lumber 2x2 inches with numbers cut in each to designate the lots, they were driven along the side of the lots. Of the yard a map, was made; as fast as men selected their lots, their names were written by the numbers. Hence, by reference to the map, every one's lot could be identified. This was a bout the last week in March.
While this work was progressing in younger hands, the more aged collected in groups and entered into conversation. Seth Thompson, Sr. addressing Eli Sanford Esq. said, according to the course of nature, I shall be the first to lie in this yard. 'No," responded Mr. Sanford, "I shall be the first" and according to his premonition, it proved true. Mr. S. rode to Conneaut the next day and returned feeling ill and in less than a week he was a corpse. He died April 6, 1827, aged nearly sixty years. His funeral services were attended by a layman, Mr. Jonathan Gilbert, who made some remarks and offered a prayer. In those times ministers were not so numerous as now and the laity had to take their places. Mr. Thompson lived about a year and a half longer dying Oct. 25, 1828, aged 66 years.
At this time the dead were incased in a plain substantial coffin made solid with screws and stained red at a small expense. They had no hearses but for miles the dead were borne on a bier on men's shoulders to their resting place. A long procession marched in advance of the pall bearers and at intervals four men would step back, opening to the right and left and letting it pass on between them and the corpse brought along, when they would relieve the carriers and thus go on alternating to the end. A burial then would cost the bereaved family about six or seven dollars. I find by looking over Peck lark's day book, charges for coffins as follows: For David Hicks, March 20, l8l9, $3. For Samuel Kennedy's father, made of cherry with trimmings, lettered with brass nails, $4. For Marshall Williams, May 31, 1826, $1. For Thomas Mastin, Aug. 20, l822, $2.50, it being made of less expensive lumber, yet found all the trimmings. This is a wide difference from the present when coffins will cost the poor as well as the rich from $50 to $200. And those were much better made than those of our times. This is seen when the dead are disinterred for burials in other cemeteries. The early made coffins still hold together with firmness, while the late made coffins have fallen in pieces.
It is appalling to think how many friends and neighbors have been consigned to this city of the silent. One of our citizens who has taken the trouble to count the number of deaths from Volney Jacobs' along the Center Road to Farnham's Mill, a distance of about two miles, tells us that no less than eighty persons have died whose remains have found a resting place in South Ridge Cemetery. This is a number that would more than equal those now living along the same distance. Other districts of no greater size have undoubtedly furnished as many. What a world of death is ours in which we live!
The names of eleven soldiers have been buried here: Peck Clark, Nathan Brooks, Zabediah Brooks, Lemuel Jones, Barton C. Rouse , Elisha Judson, and Judson Rathbun, all of which served in the war 1812-15, and Don Alphonzo Farnham and Corwin Richardson in the war of the rebellion. A large number of volunteers never returned, among whom are Edward F. Ring and John Crandall.
THE DURKEE HILL CEMETERY also was a burying ground before it was laid out into a graveyard. Just before the death of Solomon Durkee, Sr., which occurred Dec. 29 1843 aged 72 years, he requested that his remains might be interred just north of the orchard of his son, Solomon, Jr., close on the brow of the creek hill west of Center Road. Of course his family respected his desires, and as he had served in the Revolutionary War, all felt glad to bow with deference to the wishes of the old veteran. The next year, June 11, 1834 (?), Elisha Spaulding died, aged 80 years, and his remains were consigned to the resting place, near Mr. D's grave and in the same row of lots. The people began to think it a desirable location for a neighborhood cemetery and Solomon Durkee, Jr., gave an acre of land inclosing the two graves already made, on condition that the people should fence and take care of it.
About three-fourths of the yard lies in Conneaut and the remainder in Monroe. This was done about 1834, but a deed was not given of the lot until the Autumn of l877, when it was thought best to have a town cemetery and then they could call for funds to make repairs. Now the trustees have the matter in hand and are looking after its interests.
This home of the dead is beginning to be crowded with occupants and ere long will need to be enlarged. The remains of soldiers who have been buried in the Durkee Hill Cemetery are Solomon Durkee, Sr., of the Revolution, Oliver Benton, and Solomon Durkee, son of Alanson, who served in the Rebellion, and a large number field on the field of battle and their remains were not brought home. Joel Benton, Elisha Abbott Spaulding, wounded in the battle of Chickamauga Sept. 2, 1863 and died in hospital at Chattanooga six days later. Asa Blodgett Spaulding on the battle field of Perryville, Kentucky, Oct. 8, 1862. Franklin Felch in the Fall of 1863. Edward Felch who died on his way home. These are a few that can be remembered.
A REPRESENTATIVE of Ashtabula County in the Legislature of the State of Ohio was chosen from South Ridge at the October election of 1833 in the person of Ira Benton, Esq. For years Ira Benton had served as Justice of the Peace and run four or five other kinds of business in wool, carding, cloth dressing, cutting our lumber, grist grinding, etc, and still he could add another in legislating for the state. Among other things done at this session, Mr. Benton obtained a charter for the Baptist Church at Conneaut. He entered heartily into every subject that pertained to the good of his constituents. It was probably the question concerning the sale of the school lands lying in Ohio that drew Mr. Benton out in an elaborate speech which was published in the newspapers of our county and was read with sc much interest. There were about 60 thousand acres in the southern part of the State which had been appropriated by the government for common schools, and the propriety of selling it when it would command but ten shillings per acre and using it immediately for schools, or keeping it until it could be disposed of at an advanced rate, was the question discussed at the polls and in the Legislature. Mr. Benton was in favor of delaying its sale until it would bring more money. The land was sure to rise in the market and our Representative wished the people to have the advantage of that rise.
Mr. Benton soon began to see that alcoholic drink as a beverage was an evil and he became a thorough temperance man. His distillery was discontinued and he removed to Kelloggsville and went into business with Judge Moffitt, during which time he took the job of building the Congregational Church building. At the time of the raising of the frame, he refused to furnish 1iqiuor for drink, a great novelty at that time, and fears were entertained that the drinkers of whiskey, being greatly in the ascendancy, would not give their assistance and the building couldn�t be put up. Hence some of the staunch temperance men of South Ridge proffered their assistance, among whom where Deacon Alfred Crittenlunch and Henry Williams. But the frame went up without any difficulty and a fine lunch was served to all men, with tea and other wholesome drinks. About 1839, Mr. Benton removed to Galena, Illinois, where he lived and died. He was a member of the Baptist Church and was one of the very best of men. Many times in our youth, the writer of these sketches heard Mr. Benton urge the Gospel on the attention of the young, holding it to be the foundation of every moral and political good. THE DEBATING CLUB, organized at South Ridge by the young men about the winter of 1839-40, was one of the most instructing institutions we have known in these parts. Nothing was ever started that set all classes to reading up on every variety of questions like this. It became a school in the professions, arts, sciences, enterprises, and governments. Scarcely an important question of the day failed to receive its due attention. Theology, ecclesiastics, law, politics, philosophy, history, home and foreign new, human rights, temperance, slavery, etc., each in its turn came before the disputants. The result was the young men of our place became fluent and acceptable speakers on nearly all the living questions. At home or abroad, they could converse freely with the leading men of our day.
Some of those who started t is important school can be remembered, as follows; M. W. Wright, Horatio Jones, Edward P. Clark, Harvey Williams, Lorenzo Wright, Francis Wright, Edwin R. Williams, Eleazar F. Ring, Rufus Clark, and later Reubin Sanborn and Rev. F. W. Straight. At times, this absorbed all the interests of the young men and its benefits became equal to any literary society of our land. Nothing ever so improved the tone of thought and intellectual culture. Its worth was beyond price.
At first the club held its meetings in the school house near the cemetery, next in the session room of the church, and lastly in a building which the members bought and moved to a lot just west of the post-office. This they named "Congress Hall." To add to their facilities for Improvement they raised a fund and bought a good surely of books which they denominated "South Ridge Circulation Library." Thus a stimulant to reading was affected and with such close attention to the matter read that the substance could be called into use at a moment's notice. Soon these young men were invited to speak at various points in Monroe and other towns. They read digests of Southern Slave Laws and discussed the question of Abolition, showing its bearing on American citizens, and the duties of the Free States to the Slave.
Just before the State election, Oct. 1844, the candidate forSenator, Hon. A.B.R., in his lecturing tour, made South Ridge his last place to lecture in, which happened to be on the evening of the debating club, the former at the school building and the latter at the session room in the church. The club sent a delegation of two members, M.V. Wright and his companion, to go and Invite the Hon. gentleman and his congregation to come to the Club room. Mr. R., with five others came and he spoke, giving liberty for any question which the listeners might feel disposed to ask. Among them the one relative to the fact whether the people of the District of Columbia were entitled to representatives as the citizens of the several State. (?) The Hon. gentleman seemed not informed on the subject and when he attempted to enlighten then Club he betrayed his ignorance and found the members ready to tell him all about the matter. The candidate, especially in this particular, was wiser than when he came.
The anti-Slavery question has ever been of vital interest to the people of South Ridge. The first published facts were received with such a welcome as to indicate a willingness to know the truth. Yet all sides were represented; the neutrals waiting to note the results of the discussions, and the pro-slavery, joining with the slave-holders in calling the abolitionists "fanatics", incendiaries", "negro thieves", "cut-throats", and other hard names. But a goodly number regarded the liberty of the slave as consistency of character in carrying out the "Declaration of Independence" to the colored race as well as the whites. It was simply re-affirming that "All� men were created free and equal and were endowed with inalienable rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." They intended to abide strictly by the Constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society in discussing the question, showing its bearing, its cruelty to the slave, its cancerous malignity to our government, and that the 5000 of slaveholder and slave all concerned, demanded its immediate abolition. And at that tine they thought that the anti-slavery side of the question could be so clearly made to appear that the South would see it to be for their interest to liberate their slaves, that every State would peacefully proclaim acts of emancipation, and in no case be compelled to countenance the liberty of the oppressed by taking up arms or resorting to physical force.
To disseminate these principles and shed light on American slavery, the liberty loving portion of our citizens set then-.selves to work. They circulated the mammoth pamphlets, "Liberty", "Slavery as it is, by a Thousand Witnesses", the speech of Hon. Thomas Morris, two speeches of Hon. William Wade of Vt. containing most exhausting arguments, and later Hon. J. R. Gidding's speech on the Florida war, etc. Also newspapers, such as "The Colored American", published at New York; the "Cincinnati Philanthropist", published in Cincinnati; "The National Era", published in Washington, B.C., and other anti-slavery publications. In those early times anti-slavery publications were limited and the object of pro-slavery men was to render them so scarce that our nation should be kept as it had been for more than a century, profoundly in the dark. Hence, it cost Abolitionists no small efforts to obtain these documents. The censorship on the press and post-masters made both criminals; the former for printing facts concerning slavery and the latter for delivering their printed matter to the citizens through the malls to whom they were addressed. At Charleston, South Carolina, the post-master took a bushel of such anti-slavery documents and burned them. Every effort was made to prevent any exposure of the enormous evils of the system. The public mind had become so debauched with its malignity; men did not feel willing to be told that American Slavery was "the sum of all villainy." They could not consent to acknowledge that free America was tolerating a. system of oppression more wicked- and cruel than any other ration. It was considered a disgrace to be anti-slavery and some even thought that an abolitionist would, through necessity have his complexion in some degree changed to that of the colored man. His "principles of equal rights to all men would so thoroughly permeate physical nature that they would descend to their posterity, and in one instance it was reported that the first child of an abolitionist was so impressed as to be born with purple fingers and Negro features. So Ignorant at the onset were American citizens.
RALPH WRIGHT was one of the first and most active in getting the facts before the people and because he would go from house to house carrying his papers to read, he was called �the Abolition missionary.� Being afflicted with sore eyes and not able to read or work he spent much of his time in this way. Nor did these obstacles militate him against him. On the contrary it proved a great advantage to the cause. For, as he could not see to read, others out of pity read his papers for him. The farmer, the mechanic, the miller, the merchant, the divine, would stop and read to accommodate �Uncle Ralph� when they would not think of doing such a thing for themselves. The most pro-slavery would not be so rude as to not to do it. Hence they began to be interested in anti-slavery facts and the sooner became liberty men. It so happened that every week brought some new development of the evils of American slavery, and it was of special interest that each one should know it. Consequently, Mr. Wright had it read by everyone whom he met, which familiarized him so fully with every part that he could rehearse with great precision. The result was he became virtually a walking cyclopedia on the history of anti-slavery movements. He was ready to give a very accurate account of nearly every question that had arisen. The writer of these sketches has heard him minutely delineate the facts about the right of petition, the gag rule, the power to Congress to abolish slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia, implied faith, the Giddings censure, the J.Q. Adams censure, the Lovejoy murder, the mobbing of the press, the Missouri and Maryland prisoners, the strife of speakership, the Seminole Indians and the Florida Wars, the paying of $70,000 to slave holder for the 52 Amistad captives who asserted their right to liberty, etc., etc., Many times Mr. Wright expressed a strong desire that he might live to see slavery abolished, �but the way the government is ordering its course, I do not believe I shall.� He died April 30, 1860, almost one year before the start of the war of the Rebellion, but his soul, like John Brown�s, went �marching on.�
Seconding the labors of Mr. Wright and others, the young men of South Ridge admitted to their debating club the question of abolition and freely discussed it. Among the pro-slavery supporters, Major Sanborn for a short time stood first, but with the advocates of abolition were enrolled such boys as M.W. Wright, Francis Wright, E.F> Ring, Lorenzo Wright, Rufus Clark. One evening the club was called to meet at the Hunt school house to discuss the question. On reaching the place the boys found strong men called to speak against them. Buzzel Woodbury, then a student of law at Kelloggsville, father of Judge Woodbury, and Dr. Spencer of Kingsville. The former read a digest of the laws in the Southern states and drew the conclusion that slavery was fastened upon the and it could not be abolished even if the slaveholders wished it to be. The latter gave a history of the system and argues that it had grown so strong that it would threaten the life of the nation to undertake to destroy it. The agitation of this subject in the North tended to tighten the chains of the slaves worse. Hence, anti-slaver men were inflicting greater evils by attempting to overthrow it.
The reply to these arguments was that the power that made slave laws was the power that could unmake then and enact laws of liberty, and if slavery had wound its coils around us like a boa-constrictor, with purposes to crush us, and would be enraged if we resisted, we should make the more desperate effort to break these coils and destroy the monster. Hence if the chains were drawn the tightened, they were the nearer to be broken. The discussion waxed hot, and both parties went away crying victory.
The General Conference of Free Baptist, held a South Ridge, October 1839, took strong ground against American slavery and was the understood to be the first order of Christians in the country that had taken such an advanced position. De. Wm. M. Housely was here from Kentucky to be ordained as a Free Baptist but he was rejected because he claimed three slaves and would not grant their right to liberty. The question was extensively discussed in General Conference. Notice of the time being give, the church was crowded at the appointed hour. Men came to give counsel to the F.B.�s denomination, not to throw so much light as to put out the people eye�s and injure both the F.B.s and the cause of the slaves. Judge Moffitt of Kelloggsville came advising that he knew the people of Ohio better than our New England ministers and delegates, and that such decided anti-slavery principal pushed forward at that time would prove disastrous. But Lawyer Lovejoy of Conneaut, brother of lamented Rev. O. Lovejoy of Alton, spoke enthusiastically for the slave and urged strong measures against slavery as a sin against God and a crime against man. It was time for him and all others to be in earnest. His brother�s blood was crying to slaveholders from the ground, and he would not be a dumb dog when our lives were in such peril. The Free Baptists never saw reason to regret the advance step they then took. They chose to right with the few rather than wrong with the many. Since that day they have seen the whole nation come to their ranks. This warm discussion gave such an impetus to the anti-slavery cause at South Ridge that the next week after the General Conference adjourned the people took measures for advanced steps in a regularly constituted body for work, bound to their purpose by a preamble and constitution.