It was one from the Wilder Wharf to Kinsman, a distance of about fifty miles due south. The Wharf was a pier build Into Lake Erie at sufficient depth of water for yawls to land and take on freight, and was located about one and one-fourth miles west of Conneaut Harbor, directly north of the Colonel Fifield place, the present residence of Mr. Olmstead. The track ran up to Josiah Brown's fording the creek, then in a southerly direction to David Niles', now William Brydle�s, winding around the creek hills, crossing, and up the ravine just west of Walker S. Bennett's by George A. Ring's, the across Faden Creek, a tributary to Conneaut, and over Mr. Hardy's land west of Ebeneezer Wetmore's to Kelloggsvllle. Some of the first trips over this trail was made by three men with three yoke of oxen and one wagon, at times one yoke going before to haul away the logs and brush and the other two to draw the load. The third day they would reach Wilder's Landing. All they could carry was three barrels of salt, requiring a week to make the trip and camping out every night. The hills and banks were very steep and rugged, requiring the strength of all the teams to ascend. Such a task to obtain one small article of domestic use cost more of an effort than it would now to go to California for it.
RELIGIOUS MEETINGS
In these early days religious meetings were held in high esteem. All attended even when they were conducted by laymen, exhorters, or elders, and their private dwellings were open for any such gatherings. Social meetings were made Interesting without ministers. Rev. Joseph Badger, missionary from Mass., was probably one of the first to preach at South Ridge.
In October 1816, Rev. Avery Moulton from Canada, father of our townsman Alonzo Moulton, arrived to preach at various places. We have accounts of his holding service at the dwellings of Ell Sanford, James Hicks, Samuel Bemus, Dr. James Venen, Henry Smith and Captain Steel. In the Spring of 1817, Mr. Moulton returned to Canada with a purpose to remove his family to Conneaut, but was overtaken by sickness and died. This delayed the coming of the family till a year later. As soon as school houses were erected by common consent they were used for public worship. The Peter King school house stood at the forks of the Gore road between Conneaut and Amboy was one of the places of common resort.
In 1817, Rev. John Cheney held meetings at South Ridge and other places in town, and continued his labors In these parts for some years. May 25, 1818 he organized the Christian Church at the Peter King school house, consisting of fifteen members.
Rev. Mr. Pive, who came into Monroe with Frances Kellogg, held meetings, sometimes giving out several appointments for a single week. Rev. John Blodgett came from New York State the same year, 1818, and preached in the neighbor-hood south of the creek at various points. About the middle of November, Peck Clark having enclosed his new frame house, Mr. Blodgett preached in it. He continued his labors at intervals for four or five years. Among those he baptized were Mrs. Diocletian Wright and Mrs. Captain Hatch. In the organization of the Congregational Church of Conneaut, 1819 at the house of Robert Montgomery, Stephen Webb and Mrs. Sarah, wife of Eli Sanford, Esq. became members.
In 1821 Rev. Jesse Viets, from Vermont, having started for Sandusky, through an accident that happened while driving up a hill decided to stop at Conneaut. He settled in Amboy and occasionally held service at South Ridge.
Almost from the commencement of the settlement meetings of worship were held and a. tender spirit seemed to prevail. In 1821-2 revival meetings began to be held by Revs. Morrison and Blodgett. James Hicks was one of the converts, and in the night went to tell his brother David's family of his great change. Some of the more cautious entertained great fears that too many were giving away to excitement without proper convictions and they refused to attend lest they should 'bid them god speed.' But their fears gradually declined and they came to have a more favorable opinion of the work. The early settlers would go five or six miles on foot through woody groves to attend these meetings, and return, making a trip of ten or twelve miles. A little later they took to their horses and went on horseback. Women became almost (as) expert horse riders as men, and they journeyed from one town to another.
The camp meeting held in Amboy, August, 1824, made a deep Impression upon the public mind. One subject which was most effective in awakening the hearers and was long remembered, was the "Midnight Cry," the theme of a sermon delivered one evening. It fell upon the congregation with great power, and many who did not immediately yield to their convictions, a little later became subjects of grace. Soon after this an M. E. class at South Ridge, of which Nathaniel Brooks and wife, and Jacob Thayer and wife became members, was formed. For some years after Rev. Jesse Viets continued his appointments.
Saturday Dec. 50, 1826, the Free Will Baptist Church was organized at the house of Appollos Thompson, the present ell-part of the brick residence recently purchased by David Curtis of Joseph Payne. The services were conducted by Rev. Samuel Wire. The first members were Jonathan Gilbery, James Hicks, Appollos Thompson, and Judith Barrett, six members. They appointed Mr. Wright clerk, and voted to hold their covenant meetings every fourth Saturday of each month. Rev. Mr. Wire became their first pastor, preaching every alternate Sunday. At the second of these meetings there were five added to the church, Viz.: Joseph Lillie and wife, Luna Thompson, Lucretia Cheney, and Edith Hayward. In 1850 Rev. D.M.L. Rollin was chosen pastor and he held extra meetings, and crowds of people filled school houses and private dwellings, and often large numbers would be on the outside. Baptisms became frequent and their membership increased. Sometimes at their monthly meetings the people would attend as at a preaching service, and from sixty to eighty persons would speak.
Jan. 18, 1834, the Church petitioned the Legislature of Ohio for an act of corporation and on receiving the same, the following five trustees were appointed: James Hicks, Apollos Thompson, Silas A. Davis, Joseph Winch, and Edward P. Clark. Their annual meetings for electing their successors in office was to be held the first Monday In March. During the Summer of 1834 the church edifice was erected and enclosed, but it was not until 1840 that the inside was completed. The people were intensely interested in "building the church and most of them made great sacrifices. After the great union meeting in Conneaut in 1838 conducted by Rev. Norris Day, Mr. Day visited South Ridge and preached dally for a week or more In their unfinished church. September 1842 the great protracted meeting under the labors of Rev. F. w. Straight and Stephen Bathrick resulted in great accessions. The church received a membership of 150. The church has had fourteen pastors, viz.; Revs. Samuel Wire, Abram Shearer, D. M. L. Rollin, Stephen Bathrick, F. W. Straight, Rufus Clark, M. R. Kenney, William M. Yates, T. P. Moulton, R. E. Anderson, A. F. Bryant, F. B. Derrick, J. R. Spencer, and L. C. Chase. The longest pastorate was that of Rev. Rufus Clark, having served, under four different calls, fifteen years.
The Baptist Church that now worship in their tasty, repaired edifice in Conneaut, was organized at the school house in South Ridge, October 16, 1831, consisting of twenty-three members as follows: Rev. Asa Jacobs and wife, Isaac Crittenden and wife, Phebe Crittenden, David Taylor, Mary Sawtell, Albert Hibberd, Deborah Benton, Ira Benton, Elmira Benton, Alfred Crittenden, Sarah Ann Jacobs, Sally C. Williams, Marry Ann Williams, Louisa Williams, Thirza Wright, Elvira Clark, and Abner B. Clark. Rev. Asa Jacobs, their first pastor, served about five and a half years, when Rev. Judah L. Richmond succeeded to the pastorate, and under his labors their place of worship was removed to the Academy in Conneaut. Here they continued until their house of worship was dedicated Feb., 1844.
The Christian Church at Kent's Corners (was) organized Jan. 6, 1825, Rev. A. C. Morrison officiating. A covenant was written to which the charter members subscribed, and for a short time Mr. Morrison served as pastor. On various occasions other ministers visited them and spoke encouragingly to them. Among these were Rev. Levi Hathaway, John Blodgett, Joseph Bailey. During twenty of the thirty years Rev. Jesse E. Church was pastor, until he removed to Michigan. Rev. Caleb. G. Ward and at times various students from Meadville College supplied them.
Their house of worship was dedicated Feb. 4, 1849. Prof. R. P. Stebbins of Meadville preached the sermon from Isa. 1:13, Matt. lv:23, and Prof. Huyderhook with Rev. Church and others assisted in the services. They have had good congregations and a good Sunday School, but through deaths and removals they have been greatly reduced and at present they have no pastor.
Thus, as straitened as were the circumstances of our early settlers, all could take time to attend public worship. Old and young, middle-aged and children, could find their way in the forest, along Indian trails or public highways, and at an early hour be present and waiting for the opening exercises. All felt a relish for these gatherings and truth was received more readily than at present.
The first Sunday School was organized at the South Ridge school house in the Spring of 1824, under the superintendence of Enos Thurber and Miss Spaulding. Mr. Thurber was a young man who had taught in several districts, Winters before, and Miss Spaulding was then teaching In District No. 9 in the house where she was called to teach in the Sunday School. Says a lady who was a scholar at the time, "The young man heard the recitations of the boys and Miss S. heard the girls." They had no lesson leaves, no library, no papers, no singing books, no blackboards, no maps, no lesson helpers of any kind, no book but the New Testament. In the work of Sunday Schools they started at zero, and it was a union with all orders. In the Spring of 1832 a more complete organization was effected, and J. Porter was chosen superintendent and Edward P. Clark, a young man about 16 years old, assistant. They had a full house and a very profitable school. It was conducted as a union meeting until the F. B. Church held worship in their church and the Baptists removed to the village in June, 1837.
For the "Origin and History of Sunday Schools in the Township of Conneaut" see a discourse delivered at the South Ridge Church, May 7, 1855 by Rev. Rufus Clark, published in the Conneaut Reporter, of which Hon. D. C. Allen was then proprietor. Suffice it therefore, for us to say in these fetches that the first Sunday School in Conneaut was organized by Rev. Thaddeus Csgood, a S. S. missionary from Lower Canada. Mr. Csgood began his labors' in Montreal and although strenuously opposed by the Roman Catholics, succeeded in gathering large numbers into his schools. Of his own money he built a school house and employed teachers to instruct all that he should send them.
In the Spring of 1820 he came to Conneaut, went from house to house, explained the nature of the enterprise, sought out a young man for a teacher, and the following Sunday, gathered about twenty children into the Center School house, which stood about three or four rods west of Rev. O. T. Wyman's residence. At that time they did not have superintendents. It was a single teacher, as in a district school, that was wanted and Enos Thurber was the young man called to the work here. They had no books but the New Testament. From Conneaut Mr. Osgood went to Ashtabula and on to Cleveland organizing Sunday Schools. The second school house in our town was opened in East Conneaut two or three years later. Hence the one at South Ridge was the third. In 1827 one was organized in the Putney district west, taught by Mr. Sperry and wife.
CHURCH MUSIC has been some of the very best almost from the commencement of the settlement of South Ridge. They have seldom been for a year with out a good chorister and teacher of sacred music. The first Sunday after Lemuel Jones and the Wright families arrived in town they were called upon to conduct the singing. It was a missionary meeting in which, probably, Rev. Joseph Badger officiated. They were a choir of themselves. With all their musical talent, for years they served in the public worship at South Ridge. Mr. Jones became very popular as a music teacher and was employed in Ashtabula, Kingsville, Conneaut, and other places. During the winter months he gave his whole time to the instruction of singing classes.
Peck Clark had a very fine tenor voice and was an old singing teacher before he left Connecticut. He with his family alone could carry all the parts of church music, Mr. Clark had several schools and kept up choir rehearsals at South Ridge. He told people that singing often did as much to keep up a congregation as preaching. Also that frequently singing was praying. When we used the poet's language;
"Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,
"With all Thy quickening power,"
we sung a prayer for the Holy Spirit to come on the people.
Eber Sanford was a good chorister and often gathered the singers in rehearsals and occasionally taught a class. When Alfred Crittenden came in 1828 Mr. Clark gradually transferred the leader ship to him, making a special request that he should continue in use the better portion of the old tunes, such as China, Exhortation, Majesty, etc. Mr. Lake taught a singing school about the Winter of 1838-9. At the next national celebration of the 4th of July, Mr. Lake having charge of the singing, invited a number of the South Ridge choir to join them at the old brick church.
Silas Davis became a very excellent teacher of both sacred and secular music, and. while he gave himself to teaching became very popular. He taught at Conneaut, South Ridge, Burg Hill, and other places. Oliver Smith for twenty years preceding his removal to Hillsdale, Mich., was a chorister of South Ridge Choir and kept up their rehearsals.
Our Sunday School music has been taught the children since the publication of the "Sabbath School Bell" about 1858. The school was deeply interested in Bradbury's Golden Chain, Golden Showers, Golden Censor(?), Fresh laurels, Bright Jewels, etc. The pastor, Rev. Rufus Clark, assisted by his daughter Laura (now Treasurer Cook's wife, of Jefferson) and others, as organists, gathered the children Friday at 5 o'clock, P.M. for instruction. This was continued for years and drew out some of the best musical talent. During the Summer of 1862 Prof. A. B. Luce of Kingsville was employed to give the children a thorough training to sing at the Ashtabula County Sunday School Convention to be held at South Ridge, Aug. 27. At this large gathering there were fifty teams with Sunday School workers and children that came from Kingsville. And from Pierpont, Monroe, Kelloggsville, Sheffield, Conneaut, and Amboy, there were schools present, riding into Lewis A. Taylor�s grove with colors flying. At such a time the spirit of song moved with a power on the little people. At this time Miss Hattie A. Smith, now the wife of S. W. Clark of Kingsville, was organist.