The Indians were not very common in South Ridge, still some relics remain to show that they once roamed through the woods and set up their huts there. Whether they were a portion of the Massasauga tribe, a remnant of which in an early day dwelt on the site of the borough of Conneaut, or some other unknown, we know not. Seth Thompson found a few wigwams on the south east part of his land, near the north line of Shelby Smith�s farm. Also places were fires had been kindled, apparently for the purposes of cooking; but no Indians have been known to occupy these grounds since the white man came to take possession. That they often shot with bow an arrow, the numerous arrow heads found abundantly prove. Sharp stones have been found which were supposed to have been used for skinning their game. Their usual line of travel, east and west, was on the north ridge. Several however, seemed to take delight in keeping up the fur trade after the whites had begun it. When their season for hunting was past and they wished to bring their furs into market, those in the vicinity of Conneaut Creek filled their canoes and brought their burdens along its waters past Farnham� Mill and other points, to the merchants who paid them goods and money.

Among the first who tarried for a short time as far south as Conneaut Creek was a strange object of charity by the name of Moulton, and his wife. They lived in a large hollow button wood tree, standing on the flat southeast of Frank E. Sanford�s house. Where he came from, or what place he removed, is a mystery. None of the settlers could give much of an account of him, more than he girdled a few trees, raised a little corn, and at one time compelled his wife to carry him across the creek that he might go in pursuit of his cow. Some time later the tree was cut down, sawed off at both ends and boarded up, and he could at times sit in one end of the log and play the violin while his wife could spin on the other. How long he had been here when the settlers arrived we do not know. He seemed uneasy in their presence, apparently unaccustomed to good society, and left for parts unknown.

Obed Edwards must have come to South Ridge about the time Lemuel Jones settled on the present site of Mrs. Harriet Farnham�s residence, as he was in company with Mr. Mr. Jones in building the first saw mill, just west of Farnham�s Mill. He married for his first wife Miss Strong of Ashtabula and brought with him two children, Joseph, now of Plymouth, and Miss Lucy, now the widow of the later Mr. Carter of Jefferson. He lived on the hill just south of the present residence of Henry Frack. Mr. Edwards married for his second wife Miss Marcia, daughter of Solomon Wright, who came to Ohio with his sons, Diocletian, Ralph, and Sherman.

The next year after Seth Thompson returned from Vershire, Vermont, bringing his brother Zebidiah with him, their father, Seth Thompson, Sr., and mother, four daughters, Polly, Sally, Deborah, and Hannah, and two sons, Robert and George removed. They came in the Spring of 1816 and lived with Seth, Jr. Robert and George, a few years later bought land in East Conneaut, on the lake shore, but their father and mother made home with Seth, Jr. until their death. Appolus, another brother of Seth�s, moved his family about 1818, and bought of Roger Skinner the farm recently sold to David Curtis by Joseph Payne. Appolos built an ell part of a house which, when he put up the two story brick that now stands on the place was attached to it at the rear. He cleared his farm, but unfortunately, by undersigning, lost it, and went with his wife west, were they both died.

Shubel Albee and Sarah Sanford were married by Aaron Wright, Esq., in 1817 and on the F.E. Sanford place. He built the tavern stand and the house which belongs to Mr. S. and the one now owned by John Howard.

During the spring of 1817, Nathiel Brooks, from Strattford, Vermont, came to South Ridge and bought the farm on which his son Edwrd C. now lives, about one mile west of Howard�s Corners, did some work on it and returned to his native state. The following February, 1818, he, in the company with his brother William, Theophilus Sanbron, Colonel Fifield, and some twelve or fifteen others, drove to Ohio in sleighs.

February 25, 1819, Nathaniel married Miss Mabel, daughter of Peck Clark by his first wife. Theophilus Sanborn worked fro Eli Sanford about three years, took his money and bought the Kent farm a little west of Clark�s Corners. He married his first wife Miss Alethina, daughter of Captain Hatch. In 1824, he exchanged farms with Thomas Olds, who lived in the present Bemus place containing one hundred acres.

Earl Pierce, Sr., came into the vicinity of Amboy in about 1811, but did not move onto the farm now owned by his son Earl, Jr., and grandchildren, until several years afterward.

Peck Clark of Connecticut, who during the summers of 1816-7 visited Ohio as a land-looker, went to Cleveland, Rocky River, through Medina, and returning to Conneaut made a purchase of three tracts of land, lots 23, 24, and 34, being 829 acres lying in the south-east part of Salem, now Monroe, and moved his family to South Ridge about the middle of May, 181. He brought two daughters, Mabel and Julia, and six sons, Albert, Aaron, Alford, Edward P., and a babe, Frederick Kellogg Clark, and brought in his ox-cart, a two-horse, and a lumbree. On reaching this place, Mr. Clark exchanged his lands south of Clark�s Corners with David and James Hicks, where Asa Shepard and his son O.D. live, and with Thomas Mastin, Jr., the place lying opposite on the east side of Center Rd., the present home of Rev. Rufus Clark. Rufus and Merritt were born in Ohio. Mr. Clark was five weeks and two days on his journey. September 1st, the babe Fredrick Kellogg Clark died, aged nearly one year, and his remains were buried under the bough of a large tree near the northeast corner of what is now the South Ridge Cemetery. But the exact place of his grave cannot be now identified. During the spring of 1819, Mr. Clark built Seth Thompson�s house, the first frame building on the ridge. In the summer following he put up the wood part of his own house, now standing in the rear of the brick, and when it was enclosed and a floor laid, Elder John Blodget on the following Sunday preached in it, and the same evening went to Benjamin Abbott�s, about a mile east of Kent�s Corner and married one of Mr. Abbott�s daughters for his wife.

Mr. Clark being a millwright as well as a carpenter immediately found employment in that work. During the summer of 1820 he built a grist mill and a saw mill fro Eli Sanford on the site where now stands Mr. Frack�s saw mill. Mr. Sanford�s was the first was the first grist mill built at South Ridge. It was not till some years later when the firm of Lemuel Jones and Ralph Williams built a grist mill where now stands Farnham�s. Mr. Clark was employed for a number of years in building mills. He put one in Ashtabula for Mr. Newell, one in Andover for Mr. Adams, one in Kelloggsville (steam) for Caleb Blodgett, and others.

Conneaut did not long bear the name of New Litchfield. Salem came to be the recognized cognomen until the winter of 1832-33, when a petition was circulated among the citizens which was almost universally signed, to have it changed to Conneaut. Up to the year 1817, Salem reached as far south as Gifford�s Corners, and South Ridge might be supposed to reach some considerable distance into what is now the north part of Monroe; the Gore on the lake was about equal to half a township, so that Salem contained about one township and a half. Five miles square according to the original survey would give sixteen thousand acres for one township, but the Gore added about 8000 more making 24,000. Hence at the organization of Monroe into a township, Salem gave that part of town 6400 acres in the two mile strip off the south end.

In these parts settlers began early to pitch their domiciles. Elijah Poole, a young man who came into the country with David Niles, 1802, and married one of his daughters, raised his shanty about one hundred yards west of where Walker Bennett now lives. It was in the ravine where he set out an orchard. Pardon Spooner raised his cabin on the present site of Mr. Bennett�s home and set an orchard north of it. Abram Bennett came in 1816 as a land looker, traded his property in Connecticut and sent two of his sons, Isaac and Daniel, to settle here. They swapped lands with Mr. Poole and Mr. Spooner, the former raising log house east of the ravine, about twenty rods Wm. Brydle�s, while the latter built on the present site of Austin Armstrong�s house. Years later Mr. Spooner exchanged farms with Andrew Thayer and moved to the farm where Corwin Payne lives. Isaac Bennett moved into the Spooner house, where now stands the dwelling of his son Walter; Daniel Bennett raised his habitation on the present site of George A. Rings�s residence. This he traded for the farm where George W. McKinley now lives. Next Mr. Bennett sold to Mr. Judson, father of Hiram Judson of Conneaut.

But to return to the part that is now the north part f Monroe, formerly Salem, w would observe that the settlers appear to have been fortunate in making their advent so nearly at the same time, the largest portion coming in the year 1818. Some preparations were made in the summer of 1817.

As early as 1816, Capt. Rufus Hatch left Chelsea, Vermont and came to Meadville, Pennsylvania. In the summer of 1817 his son Harvey came and brought the estate now farmed by O.G. Clark, and erected his cabin on the site where Mr. Clark�s residence now stands. In the fall of 1817 Harvey Hatch returned to Chelsea, Vermont, married a wife and came back to Meadville, and in early 1818, he and his wife joined his father, mother, and family, which at this time consisted of two sons, Woodbury and Alpheas, and four daughters Lucy, Allethina, Lydia, and Abigial, and moved to Salem, into the house made ready for them the summer before. At the time of their arrival the nearest neighbor north was Lemuel Jones on the Elisha Farnham place, the present of his widow, Harriet Farnham, and the nearest south was William Reed in Pierpont, seven miles away.

The same month and year, viz., February 1818, Samuel Ely arrived at Diocletian Wright�s, from Wilbreham, Massachusetts. They had one son, then about one and one half year old. The family remained at Mr. Wright�s for a few weeks till he could raise a log cabin on the farm where his son Samuel Edgerton Ely now lives. He bought one hundred acres. For ten years they dwelt in their log house, and then built the two story building that now occupies the ground. In a two horse sleigh Mr. Ely brought his family and goods.

Benjamin Abbott, Esq. bought his land across the way from Lyman Brewster, the farm a year since sold by L. Shumway to Mr. Anderson, in 1817 and did some work on it, but did not move his family until March 1818. He brought one son, Augustus, and six daughters, Anna, who became the wife of Rev. John Blodgett, one the wife of Mr. Fifield, one the wife of Rev. Walter Bartlett, one the wife of Mr. Woodbury Hatch, and one the wife of Solomon Spaulding, and one the wife of Mr. Chas. Collins.

Part V
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