Elizabeth Pettingill Corning came to Mentor with her husband Warren Corning, from New Hampshire, in 1810. Their first house was a fifteen foot log house, with oiled paper windows, puncheon floors, a chimney built of sticks, built up cob-house fashion, and plastered over with mud. Just above the jamb a pole was fitted in, upon which a crotched stick was hung, having pins driven through the ends to hang the kettle on. The roof was covered with long shingles, called shakes, which had been riven from oak logs.
These were fastened by long poles, kept in place by pin and brace, guiltless of hammer and nails. The first improvements upon the land were made by cutting away small trees, and girdling large ones to enable them to hack in a little corn and wheat among the roots and stumps. In this way, with what game they killed, which was plentiful, and with nuts and berries, they managed to live the first year or two.
Mrs. Corning had five boys in her family and four girls. The boys wore out their clothes faster than she could make them, and so deer skins were tanned for breeches. When these were wet from rain it made them very stiff and the boys had to sit upon the grindstone while the others turned the crank. This process had the effect of softening the leather, although it helped very seriously to wear out the garment.
One day when going to the spring for water, Mrs. Corning found a huge rattlesnake in her path. Thinking of the rudeness of her own home in comparison to the one they left in New England, she became very discontented and began to cry. Her husband said to her: "My good woman, you are homesick! We will move over the creek, nearer to neighbors."
In 1814 they built the first two-story frame home in Mentor. Mrs. Corning was a woman of fine presence and handsome face, and one whose influence was great in the church and in society.