The brave woman’s name was Sarah. She held three little children close to her as she rode in the wagon pulled by two yoke of oxen. Her husband, Joel Thorp, had convinced his wife to leave her family and home in North Haven, Connecticut, in 1799. His promise of a new life and land with great possibilities was his argument for moving, but it had to have been her solemn vows that caused her to follow him to the “unknown” land of the Western Reserve.
But what really caused them to leave New Haven? Most likely it was the horrific events that had occurred in July of 1799, known as Tyron’s Raid. It occurred just after the Thorps left, but trouble had been brewing and everyone knew trouble was coming.
The British Major General, William Tryon, raided three Connecticut ports, New Haven, Fairfield and Norwalk. They committed widespread destruction when they annihilated military and public stores, supply houses, ships and even private homes, churches and public buildings. Tryon’s objective was to draw out Major General George Washinton’s Continental Army, but the strategy failed.
But it was enough to cause many New Haven townsfolk to leave and find a better, safer home for their families, including that of Joel and Sarah (Dayton) Thorp, Dorset’s first settlers. As they traveled from New Haven, they passed through Pittsburgh where Sarah Thorp had an uncle. Most likely, as a result of seeing the crowded conditions in the wagon of a husband and wife, three children and all their possessions, the uncle gave them a horse which Sarah rode the rest of the way. (The horse would later be attacked and killed by wolves.)
Upon arrival in May of 1799, the couple built a crude log cabin near the center of Dorset and next to a beaver dam on Mill Creek, named after Judge Mills, also of New Haven, Connecticut. Seneca Indians had used the area for their hunting grounds and camped by the creek until the 1820s so the Thorp family would have been familiar with them.
By June, the family was running out of supplies. The nearest supply store was 20 miles away in Pittsburgh. With only a pocket compass to guide him, Joel Thorp bid his wife and children goodbye, not knowing when or if he would return. A season of great rainfall occurred after he left, leaving the streams impassable.
Back home, his wife, Sarah, and her children were nearing starvation. In desperation, she ripped open the straw-filled mattresses and gathered a few grains of wheat, which she boiled and divided among her children. Still, her husband did not return. Then through the window she spied a wild turkey in the field. She quickly pulled down the old flint-lock gun and charged toward the bird. One good shot (and the blessing of the Lord), and the bird hit the ground. It was roast turkey for everyone that night! And what a story the mother had to tell her husband when he safely returned.
The Thorp family labored and lived along until 1812 when the Cowles family came and built near the Thorp home. The Cowles home was later used for a school and church.
Elijah and Asa Richardson and family came and lived alone for three years until her husband’s brothers, Elijah and Cheever Richardson, came from Vermont in 1822. Asa Richardson had exchanged his farm in Vermont with Judge Mills’ land in Dorset. The formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1825 was due to these families.
John C. Smith and his wife, Charlotte (Cottrell), came from Worthington, Massachusetts, to Dorset in 1821. They witnessed the first tree to be cut down on their land in the middle of a thick forest. It would be three months before Charlotte would see another woman. Although the new families only lived miles from each other, the land was so dense with trees and wild animals, they were unable to even know there was another person nearby nor have the ability to get to them. John C. Smith would open the first store in 1857. His father, John Smith, opened the first steam sawmill and cider mill.
Charlotte would recall hearing the wolves chase their dog around their cabin all night and the awful howling that the wolves emitted for hours. It would be 15 more years before the Cottrells moved into a new brick home. Their old log cabin would then be occupied by John C. and Mary Ellen Smith. In 1821, the Smiths would welcome the first baby born in Dorset, a girl they named Mary who would grow up to marry Chester Chapin.
Tragedy struck in 1822 when Abitha Sutliff was killed by a felled tree leaving his wife and four sons. His wife would later marry a Mr. Griffin in 1824, making her the first widow and bride of Dorset. In 1854, one of the sons, Lyman, was murdered not far from where his father was killed. The murderer, Horace Haynes, was sentenced to life in prison but later was pardoned.
As the land was cleared and news was sent home of the Dorset settlement, each year saw an increase in the number of pioneers. In 1822, Nathaniel Bassett and his wife came from Dalton, Massachusetts. Nathaniel Bassett and his son began the first orchard by bringing 40 trees on their backs from Denmark, Mrs. Bassett wove, spun and braided hats. The couple raised flax and flocks, allowing the wife to provide clothing for her family.
When the Disciple Church was formed, Mrs. Bassett was the first to join. Her sister, Elizabeth Cole, soon came and married Lyman Larabee and began teaching. The Disciple Church was organized soon after the Reverend Joseph Winch and family and two brothers came in June of 1822. Abijah Winch and his wife had just returned from a meeting of the Disciple church. When they arrived at their cabin, they found it in ashes and their little son, Philo, only two years old, burned with it.
Enough children filled the Dorset area to start a school. Miss Sarah Houghton began classes in 1823 after riding horseback to get there. All for 75 cents a week! Later, she married Aaron Burr, Esquire, who ran a cooperage in Dorset. The couple would have eight children; all rocked in the handmade cradle by Mr. Burr. Austin Burr gave the land which became the Dorset Cemetery.
Others that came at that time were Mrs. Levi Hubbard and three daughters, Lucy, Sarah and Lorinda; Mrs. Jack and two daughters, Mrs. R. Thompson, Mrs. Newcome and daughter, Mrs. Samuel Fox and daughter, Lorainey, Mrs. Aaron Wilson and four daughters, Marietta, Betsy, Eunice and Priscilla.
It is interesting to note that during this time, settlers came first to Dorset for a few years, then moved on to join the Mormons in Kirtland, Ohio. Among them were Mrs. Narro, an English lady and a Mrs. Franklin. The time period would be circa 1828.
A family that came in 1831 would have an impact on our area even today. John Greenwood came in 1830 with his wife and daughter, Betsy. Betsy was a school teacher who married Alonzo Garlick. The following year, Anson K. and Lucy C. (Edwards) Garlick, came to this area and lived on the “Andover Road.” Their home was a “way station” on the Underground Railroad.
The runaway slave, Abel Bourgess, lived and worked on the farm of Anson and Lucy Garlick and adopted their surname and thereafter has been known as Charlie Garlick. He would move to Jefferson and live in the home of Joshua R. Giddings until it burned, then moved into the Giddings old law office out front. His autobiography is available to read at the Jefferson Historical Society.
Mrs. Daniel Garlick became famous as a nurse and her son, Thaddeus, was a organizer of the Cleveland Medical College.
John Brown, Jr., son of abolitionist John Brown, lived in Dorset with his wife, Wealthy Hotchkiss, in 1860, according to census records.
The first woman to be a postmistress was Mrs. David Sage. She began her service in an old tavern after her husband went west with all their money and good and was never heard from again. She was left with nine children.
When the Gold Rush fever first hit in 1849, it hit hard in Dorset for years. Many men left behind wife and children to follow their dream of a quick fortune. Most notably in Dorset to leave was Joseph R. Allen. The group that left on March 4, 1854, included Solomon Bassett, Calvin Larabee, James Loveland, Joel Loveland and his wife and several children. Also joining them was Esther Coon, Joseph Allen, Jack Clark, Old Man VanNetton, Charlie and Tom Patchin and Joel Peters.
When Joseph R. Allen left with the group, he was leaving behind his wife, Mary Anne (Robbins) and three sons, one named Riley G. Allen, age nine. When Riley turned twelve, his mother sent him to live with his uncle Marshall Conant and twenty-year younger wife, Rosalie. After an absence of 14 years, Mrs. Riley received word that a man by the name of Allen had died while returning from the coast. Believing the man to be her husband, she married again.
When her first husband arrived back in Dorset after so many years, he learned his wife had remarried. He also remarried. When both of their second spouses died, the couple REMARRIED. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction! Riley Allen would marry Cornelia Burr, first Dorset schoolteacher and daughter of Austin Burr. Cornelia died in 1916, his uncle, Marshall Conant had died in 1904. Riley then married his aunt, Marshall Conant’s widow, in 1918.
Joel Peters would live until he was 91 and was the last survivor of the expedition. Peters wrote down the story of what happened and it is preserved today. If you would like to read it in its entirely, contact the Jefferson Historical Society and ask to see the Dorset Forty-Niners account on pages 303-305 of Moina Large’s “History of Ashtabula County” Volume One, printed in 1924.
Dorset was officially recognized as a township in 1828. Next week, you will read of the last township history, Hartsgrove.
