THE BUILDER DECEMBER 1925

Turhand Kirtland

First Master of the First Masonic Lodge on the Western Reserve
By BRO. JAMES J. TYLER, Ohio

THE term Western Reserve is not merely the fortuitous combination
of two words of our language, lacking any special significance.
More than any other locality west of the Alleghenies, the term
Western Reserve embodies the spirit of colonization, the hardihood
of the pioneer, the willingness to endure for religious conviction,
the theoretical and practical exposition of the tenets of
democracy, the inclusion of thrift both private and public, the
fullness of patriotism, the devotion to education. It represents a
condensed history of civilization and embodies the best of American
civilization, and is a precious heritage which deserves to be
perpetuated."

FREDERICK C. WAITE, Ph.D.


LESS than a century and a quarter ago, the State of Ohio, and more
especially the Western Reserve, was an almost unbroken wilderness.
To subdue the pathless forests, those noble pioneers left their
homes in the East and struck their axes in the huge growths of the
forests, converting them into fertile fields and replacing the
wigwam of the Indian with the comfortable abodes of civilization.
They came to conquer a wilderness and they conquered it. They
sought a "land of promise" and they realized it. "The secret of
their success may be traced to the moral principles which
characterized their education; hence they practiced economy, and
led a frugal life commensurate with their limited means; they built
log cabins in which to dwell, log schoolhouses in which to educate
their children, and log churches in which to worship God. They had
faith, not only in God, but in themselves; they regarded each other
as a common brotherhood, and helped each other in time of need.
They looked ahead; ever mindful of their responsibilities to both
God and man, they have left to their posterity a rich inheritance,
rich in lands, and rich in lessons of wisdom."

There is still preserved in the Connecticut State Library, the
charter issued to that colony in 1662 by Charles II, which defines
the limits of the colony to be Massachusetts on the north, Long
Island Sound on the south, the Narragansett River on the east, and
the Pacific Ocean on the west, excepting certain portions granted
previously. "By virtue of this charter, subsequent to the
Revolution, Connecticut claimed land west of Pennsylvania.
Controversy in relation to this claim at length settled by the
cession, by Connecticut to the United States, of all land west of
the State of Pennsylvania, reserving a tract one hundred and twenty
miles in length, between Lake Erie and the forty-first parallel of
north latitude. This cession was accepted, and was considered as an
acknowledgment that the claim of Connecticut was well founded. This
tract received the name of the Connecticut Western Reserve."

Excepting the "Fire Lands," containing half a million acres on the
western end of the Reserve, so-called from being given by the state
of Connecticut to certain sufferers by fire and destruction of
their property in that state during the Revolutionary War, and the
Salt Spring tract lying in the townships of Austintown, Jackson,
Weathersfield, and Lordstown, and a few other parcels previously
sold or negotiated, this tract was sold by the state in 1795 to the
Connecticut Land Company for $1,200,000, which money was placed in
the school fund of the state and has always there remained.

Under General Moses Cleaveland, in 1796, the survey of the Reserve
was commenced, and in January, 1798, the survey into townships five
miles square then being completed, "the land was partitioned among
the stockholders of the company by draft. When the partition was
completed, the stockholders of the company received from the
trustees deeds of the land they had drawn. Many of the grantees
removed soon thereafter to their new country, clearings were made
in the forest, log houses were erected, crops were put in the
ground, and thus in the spring of 1798 was commenced the regular
settlement of the Reserve."

There were two ways to enter the Reserve, namely, through New York
state to Buffalo and along Lake Erie, or through Pennsylvania to
Pittsburgh, to the Beaver and up the Mahoning. By the first of
these two ways there came, in 1798, Turhand Kirtland, destined to
be a few years later the first Worshipful Master of the first
Masonic Lodge on the Western Reserve. He was a descendant of the
family of Kyrlands, landed gentry, of Sherrington, in
Buckinghamshire, England, which sent its first representatives to
this country in 1635. The family settled in Lynn, Mass., but later
moved to Saybrook, Conn. Turhand, of the fifth generation of
Kirtlands in this country, was born at Wallingford, Conn., Nov. 16,
1755. He was a carriage manufacturer by trade, which occupation he
followed in Wallingford until his removal to Ohio. "In 1776 he was
in the provisional service of New York at the time of the defeat of
the American Army on Long Island and was engaged on board the boats
which conveyed our retreating forces over to the mainland. He, with
most of the company, was attacked with the malignant camp
distemper, typhoid dysentery, and was discharged at Sawpits. After
his recovery and return home, he pursued for a number of years the
occupations of carriage making and farming in his native town."
Later he was one of the proprietors of the Connecticut Land Company
in the purchase of the Western Reserve from the mother state.

Each member of the company drew his portion by lot and "in the
first draft of the company, in 1798, he with several others drew
the township of Mecca and part of the township of Auburn. He also,
in company with Messrs. Benjamin Doolittle, Seth Hart, William Law,
Andrew Hull, Titus Street, Levi Tomlison and Daniel Holbrook, drew
the townships of Poland, Burton, and over two thousand acres in
Kirtland (located midway between West Mentor and Willoughby), as
well as many minor amounts in other townships. Three months after
this draft, April, 1798, he set out with his party of surveyors and
settlers upon the arduous journey to the Northwest Territory where
lay these new possessions." Each succeeding summer he returned,
locating first at Burton (now Geauga county), but spent much of his
time in Poland and Youngstown, engaged in examining, surveying and
selling land, until 1803, when his family accompanied him and
settled in Poland.

He not only attended to the sale of his own lands but was also
agent for the Connecticut Land Company, and while acting in this
capacity during the year 1798, he surveyed the townships of Burton
and Poland, and during the years 1798-1800 transacted most of the
business connected with the final purchase of land by John Young,
and assisted him in laying out the village of Youngstown. He
continued to act as agent for the company for many years, and,
until he retired from active business in 1834, had charge of the
greater part of the land of those proprietors of the Connecticut
Land Company who resided in the East.

From his diary we learn that during the year 1798, in fulfillment
of his duty as agent for the company, he laid out and opened a road
through the wilderness, from Grand River, near Painesville, to
Poland. This was the second road of any distance in old Trumbull
County and connected Lake Erie with the Mahoning River and thus
establishing communication between the two gateways to the Reserve.
This road started at Poland and followed rather closely the old
saltmaker's and Indian trail to Salt Springs, thence to Warren, and
north on what is now Mahoning avenue. In Champion it turned off to
the west above the County Farm, led through Southington, Nelson,
Parkman, Burton and thence to Grand River. "Over this road the
Indians walked, the early settlers went on horseback, and the first
stage coaches sometimes rattled and sometimes plowed the mud. It
was at different times known as the plank road, the turnpike, and
the state road."

It is of interest to trace the route of between six and seven
hundred miles which Turhand Kirtland with his party of surveyors
and settlers, with their supplies and cattle, traveled on their
journey from Old to New Connecticut. From Wallingford they followed
the old Boston and New York post road to the Hudson River. Then by
way of the Hudson to Schenectady, and from here the boats and
supplies continued up the Mohawk River through Wood Creek and into
Oneida Lake to the Oswego River. By this river they reached Lake
Ontario and followed its southern shore to the Niagara River. From
thence the boats were hauled around the Falls on the Canadian side
and then navigated up the river to Buffalo.

The cattle went overland from Schenectady along the Genesee Road
and Niagara Road, turning off to Buffalo Creek. Turhand Kirtland
was with the party which proceeded by land, for he states that they
left Geneva on the 22nd of April, and his diary, from which the
following extracts have been taken, begins
abruptly as follows:


Sunday, May 12, 1798--I crossed the Genesee River with Esq. Law,
Abott, Moss, etc., with oxen, two cows, one steer, having in
company forty heads of cattle and swine. Arrived Monday at Buffalo
Creek, leaving the cattle with the men to come on the next morning.

Tuesday, May 14--Swam our cattle over Buffalo Creek and took a
boat. Mr. Abott and Mr. Moss went to Chippeway and down to the
indescribable Falls of Niagara.

Wednesday, May 15--Went to garrison at Niagara to Mr. Samuel Cook's
and put up to wait for the boats to come on. Spent my time in
viewing garrisons and the adjacent country until Saturday, 19th.
Sunday, May 20--At daylight went up the river to Queensland . . .
detained at portage until Tuesday noon. I arrived at Chippeway and
proceeded to Fort Erie.

Wednesday, May 23--Arrived at Buffalo.

Thursday, May 24--Left Buffalo and arrived at a small creek about
five miles and lay wind bound Friday and Saturday . . . hung our
grindstone and ground some tools . . . fished and hunted some and
Sunday arrived at Presque Isle (Erie). was treated very politely by
Capt. Lyman. Slept and breakfasted with him and took a glass of
Most Excellent Cyder and some garden seeds.

Monday. May 28--Arrived at Conneaut (Stow Castle). Left Conneaut
Thursday, May 31st.

Sunday, June 3--Arrived at Grand River, about eighteen miles,
encamped, and found on the interval as fine large strawberries as
ever I saw.

Monday, June 4--Went up the river about four miles to the Indian
Town at the old fording place. Found several old houses and a large
settlement.

Tuesday. June 5--Esq. Law and Mr. Beard started the road for
several miles.

Wednesday. June 6--Cut one and a half miles of road.

Saturday, June 16--We caught a very fine faun we judged about one
month old which made us an Excellent Dinner.

Sunday, June 17--Esq. Law ointed for the itch.

Monday, June 25--Being out of bread and flour was obliged to give
up surveys this day . . . We killed a large rattlesnake--fifteen
rattles and carried him home and dressed him and cooked him and
notwithstanding my exclamations to the contrary, after it was cook,
it was generally eat with a good relish as any fresh meat we had
eat on the road. I can say with candor I never ate better meat.

Wednesday, July--Being Independence Day drank a can extraordinary
and several Patriotic toasts. Mr. Beard with his hands to survey.

Friday, July 6--Turhand Kirtland and Mr. Umberfield completed a log 
house on which they had been working, and Mr. Umberfield's family
moved in. "It being the first night they had slept in a house since
we left Geneva. being which was the 22nd of April, but as I had not
finished the chamber floor I concluded not to leave our tents."

Sunday July 8--[He completed his room in the cabin, made a
bedstead, struck his tent and moved into Mr. Umberfield's cabin.]
"It being the first night I had slept in a house since I left
Queenstown."

Thursday, July 19--Arrived in Cleaveland and found Col. Sheldon and
Rising unwell.

Friday. July 20--Spent in viewing the town . . . of Cleaveland.
He returned to Wallingford to pass the winter, and in 1799 he was
again on the Reserve, returning this time no doubt by way of
Pennsylvania. On May 2 of that year he attempted a journey from
Poland to Burton, and on his arrival in Youngstown, he states,
"found to my great disappointment that the road was so incomplete
that I could not take my wagon further than No. 4 (Warren)."

Sunday, June 23, 1799--Shirted, shaved and read and went to
Boardman.

Saturday, June 29--I set out with Doolittle and Law for Burton, and
went to Youngstown and got a pair of shoes. Set on my horse and
went to No. 4 (Warren).

Saturday, August 31--I explored some and filled a map.

Sunday, September 1--I went to Youngstown to attend public Worship.
The Rev. William Wick from Washington county (Penn.) preached, it
being the first Sermon ever delivered on New Connecticut.

Saturday, September 14--I set out for Burton with Mr. Weaver and
Benjamin; went to No. 4 (Warren) and put up at Quinby's.

Saturday, September 26--Doolittle and Law set out for McIntosh
(Beaver, Penn.) and Washington on the way home.

An event occurred the following year which no doubt determined the
location of the first Masonic lodge in New Connecticut. On July 10,
1800, Arthur St. Clair, Governor (1788-1802) of the territory
northwest of the Ohio River, organized the entire Reserve as
Trumbull County with Warren as the county seat. This immense
county, now divided into a dozen counties, was known as Trumbull
County of the Northwest Territory, for it was not until 1803 that
Ohio was admitted into the Union as a state.

The eastern part of the township comprising the county-seat had
fallen to Ebenezer King, Jr., in the apportionment of land among
the stockholders of the Connecticut Land Company in 1798. On Feb.
22, 1800, he deeded to Ephriam Quinby 441 acres at the rate of
$3.68 1/2 an acre. Later in the same year, Ephriam Quinby had that
portion of his land located on the east side of the Mahoning River
surveyed into town lots and donated the public square to the
village. The town was given the name of Warren as a compliment to
Moses Warren, of Lyme, Conn., one of the first surveyors on the
Reserve. "The capitol city consisted of a dozen log cabins
surrounded by a wall of trees, with here and there a gate opening
to a distant settlement." The first cabin in Warren was built by
William Fenton in 1798 and the second by Captain Ephriam Quinby in
1799.

That Turhand Kirtland had already gained a reputation as a man of
importance on the Reserve is shown by the fact that he was
appointed one of the five Justices of the quorum by Governor St.
Clair at the time he organized the Reserve as Trumbull County.

These Justices of the Peace were the sole law dispensers and
constituted the general court of the county. Those designated as
the "quorum" taking a higher rank, while the remainder were
associate Justices. "In this body was vested the entire civil
jurisdiction of the county, local and legislative as well as
judicial." They met four times a year, hence were known as "the
court of quorum sessions." Governor St. Clair directed the sheriff
to call a meeting of this body at Warren, Aug. 25, 1800, and in a
session which lasted five days, the foundation was laid for law and
order in the new county of Trumbull. The court room on that day was
a bower of native trees standing between two large corn cribs on
the farm of Captain Quinby on Main street (near the present
location of the Erie R. R. station). A synopsis of the record of
this session is preserved in the handwriting of Judge Pease, a
brother-in-law of Hon. Gideon Granger, of Suffield, Conn., the then
Postmaster-General of the United States. It read as follows:

Trumbull County 
August term 1800 
ss.

Court of general quarter sessions of the peace begun and holden, at
Warren, within and for the said county of Trumbull, on the fourth
Monday of August, in the year of our Lord, 1800, and of the
independence of the United States the twenty-fifth. Present, John
Young, Turhand Kirtland, Camden Cleveland James Kingsbury,
Eliphalet Austin, Esquires.

CALVIN PEASE, Clerk.

Some interesting incidents of this year from the diary of Judge
Kirtland are given in "The Mahoning Valley Historical Collections"
by his son, Dr. Jared P. Kirtland:

July 1, 1800--John Atkins, an old salt, returned to Poland with a
mail from Pittsburgh, the then nearest post office. There he
obtained two lemons from another sailor who had turned pack-horse
man. Turhand Kirtland and Atkins immediately started, with the
lemons in charge, for Burton, and probably the first lemons on the
Western Reserve

July 4--The good people of Burton and others from Connecticut,
assembled on the green, forty-two in number, partook of a good
dinner, and drank the usual patriotic toasts then the president of
the day, Turhand Kirtland, caused the lemons to be mixed in a
milk-pan of punch, when he offered and drank as a toast, "Here's to
our wives and sweethearts at home." The vessel of punch and the
toast passed around the table till at length it came to a Mr. B.,
who a few weeks before, had fled from a Xanthippe of a wife in New
England, to obtain a little respite, and had joined the surveying
party; he promptly responded thus to the toast: "Here's to our
sweethearts at home, but the D l take the wives."

July 23--Turhand Kirtland had partially recovered from an attack of
fever and ague. He went from Poland to Youngstown to get his horse
shod; was required to blow and strike for the smith. This threw him
into an aggravated relapse of the disorder which was at length
cured by taking teaspoonful doses of the bark every hour. He adds:
"I found that Joseph M'Mahon and the people of Warren had killed
two Indians at Salt Springs, on Sunday, 20th, in a hasty and
inconsiderate manner; and they had sent after a number (of Indians)
that had gone off, in order to hold a conference at Esq. Young's
and had sent for an interpreter to attend, who arrived this day, in
company with an Indian chief and his lady on horseback."

July 30--Went to Youngstown (from Poland) to attend the conference
with the Indians on account of the murder of two of their principal
men at Salt Springs, on Sunday. 20th. by Joseph M'Mahon and Storer.
We assembled about three hundred (whites) and ten Indians, had a
very friendly talk. and agreed to make peace and live as friends.
Monday. August 25th--Went to Warren, met the judges and justices of
the county, when they all took the oaths of office and proceeded to
open the Courts of Quarter Sessions and Common Pleas, appointed
constables, and summoned eighteen grand jurors. Bills of indictment
found against Joseph M'Mahon and Richard Storer for murder.

August 27, 28, 29th--Spent in hearing proposals viewing the ground
and affixing on a place for the seat of Justice in Warren. Many
places were mentioned but the east side of the Mahoning near Esq.
Quinby's house was determined upon by the Court, the court
adjourned at noon. I rode to Burton.

Sunday. September 14th--Sample (of Pittsburgh) the counsel for
M'Mahon went on to Youngstown. The prisoner is on the way from
M'Intosh (Beaver) with the sheriff. and an escort of twenty-five
troops from the garrison at Pittsburgh to guard him to Warren,
where a court is to he held on Thursday for his trial for the
murder of Captain George and Spotted John (Indians) at Salt
Springs.

Wednesday. September 17th--Went to court at Warren. (Return J.)
Meigs and Gilman the judges. Messrs. Edwards. Pease. (George) Tod,
Tappan (of Ravenna) and Abbott admitted as counsellors-at-law by
this court.

Thursday, September 18th--Prisoner (M'Mahon) brought in traverse
jury summoned: Friday, September 19th--witnesses examined: 

Saturday, September 20th--case argued; verdict acquittal.

Another incident of this year occurs in Harvey Rice's "Pioneers of
the Western Reserve." John Blackburn and Nancy Bryan desired to be
married before the departure of the surveyors from Poland in the
fall of 1800 and requested Turhand Kirtland to perform the
ceremony. Mr. Rice states:

"He yielded to the force of circumstances and consented to
officiate. A stool covered with a white tablecloth and a prayer
book (Episcopal) lying upon it was brought and placed before him.
As he was about to proceed a guest proposed that the whisky bottle
should first be passed around, which was done; and while the party
was engaged in taking a hurried sip of the 'O-be-joyful' someone
mischievously inclined purloined the prayer book which contained
the formula to be used in solemnizing marriages. Kirtland, though
somewhat disconcerted, appreciated the situation, directed the
happy pair to stand up before him and take each other by the hand,
when he asked, 'Are you agreed to become man and wife?' They
responded 'Yes.' 'Then,' said he, 'I pronounce you henceforth man
and wife and bid you go on your way rejoicing."'

The use of liquor by the pioneers was so general that they deemed
it parsimony, approaching wickedness, to neglect to offer it to a
guest or limit the quantity. "It was free as water in the harvest
field, clearing and cabin, at public dinners and on election days."
It was employed in the mechanic arts, such as barn raisings, and
became the standard of value and medium of exchange, and was used
in almost all transactions. Masons, in the earlier days, considered
liquid refreshments as necessary to a convocation as a room to meet
in, and the Steward's bills of the early lodges often show payment
for cider, rum, brandy and whisky. It was not until about 1830 that
a reaction began to take place on the Reserve and temperance
societies were organized. The Masonic lodges were one of the first
social organizations to abandon the common use of ardent spirits.

Of the annual journeys from Old Connecticut, one record states that
in the spring of 1801, "probably a merrier set of men never crossed
the mountains and found their way through the wilderness," than
that composed of John Kinsman, the pioneer settler of Kinsman, and
with him Ebenezer Reeves, General Simon Perkins, Calvin Pease, "who
as Judge, citizen and companion had no superior"; George Tod, one
of the ablest jurists of Trumbull County; Josiah Pelton. the
pioneer of Gustavius; John Stark Edwards, and Turhand and his
brother, Jared Kirtland. This party organized itself into a society
called "The Illuminati." All were titled, and in addressing each
other the titles were frequently used. When they stopped for the
night, mock trials were held and thus they beguiled the tediousness
of their journey. The party continued together as far as Youngstown
where they separated.

There were on the Reserve at this time less than 1500 inhabitants.
In the diary of Bro. Joseph Badger, known over the Reserve as
"Father Badger," the statement is made that he visited Warren in
January of 1801 and "was received courteously by Mr. John Levitt
and family. I preached here on the Sabboth. In this place were
eleven families and one in Howland." In the month of July he
records that "on Monday visited Cleveland, in which were only two
families. Here I fell in company with Judge Kirtland. We rode from
here to Painesville; found on the way, in Euclid, one family and in
Chagrin one; in Mentor four, and in Painesville two families."

In the year 1803, Turhand Kirtland decided to make his permanent
home on the Reserve, and in the spring brought his family by way of
Pennsylvania and settled in Poland. Contrary to expectation it was
the inland and not the lake shore villages which at first
prospered. The settlers desired the higher and drier land and
avoided the colder, windy regions about Lake Erie. Thus in the
first three years of white occupation, the southeast corner of the
Reserve close to the Pennsylvania line grew rapidly and Youngstown,
Canfield, Poland and Warren developed into healthy villages, and by
1810 the latter led all the Western Reserve villages in size and
importance.

Regarding the Fourth of July celebration of that year (1803), Bro.
John S. Edwards wrote:

I was at Warren on the 4th of July where I attended a ball. You may
judge my surprise at meeting a considerable company, all of whom
were dressed in neatness in fashion, some of them would have been
admired for their ease and grace in a New Haven ball room. It was
held on the same spot where four years since there was scarcely the
trace of a human hand or anywhere within fifteen miles of it. We
improved well the occasion; began at two in the afternoon of Monday
and left the room a little before sunrise in Tuesday morning. We
dance but seldom, which is our apology.

In this year is found the record of the first school in Warren,
this being a log building on the river bank west of the square and
on about the same site as the present Monumental Park. On Sept. 3
the present First Baptist Church was organized, under the name of
the "Concord Baptist-Church," being the first religious body
organized in the village. Later in the same year, Nov. 18, the
First Presbyterian Church was organized. Judge Kirtland speaks of
stopping at Adgate's and Quinby's, in Warren, but neither of these
men opened regular taverns, "they merely entertained strangers with
such fare as they had themselves." Bro. John Leavitt opened in 1803
the first regular tavern which was located on the corner where the
Second National Bank building now stands, and was for many years
the principal stopping place in the village.

