Although the land that was to become Orwell was surveyed and purchased, it was years before it was permanently settled because the land was priced too high. Two men by the names of Coit and Leffingwell had purchased land from Moses Cleaveland and Joseph Williams and named the area Leffingwell. It would take until 1826 before Leffingwell would be changed to Orwell and the township became officially organized.
In 1815, A.R. Paine came from Stillwater, New York, to look at his newly purchased land but left for a few years to look over other properties. He returned in 1817 with his wife, Lucinda, to stay. The Paines had the first white baby in the township in 1820, a girl they named Lucinda.
Solomon and Naomi Chandler joined the Paines as new settlers in 1824 and shortly afterwards had the first white child born in the township they named Gates. Gates Chandler went to California when he got older but returned to live out his life in Orwell. Naomi Chandler heard a bear getting into their hog pen. She watched as the large animal grabbed a hog in his mouth but the porker fought for his life. He fought so hard the bear dropped him and took off into the woods. The hog lived to see another day before he was eaten by the Chandler family!
Indians still lived in the area enjoying the good hunting grounds and plentiful river and streams. One Indian lived near the land of Orwell. “Big Jim,” as he was called by the settlers, came to the Chandler’s cabin often seeking food. Mrs. Chandler always fed him out of fear since he often threatened her if she did not, according to her account. His threats and menacing ways led to a confrontation between the settlers and Big Jim.
In the 1896 book, “Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve,” the Orwell Township chapter, written by four women descended from the first settlers, helps us understand the feelings of the settlers toward Indians.
They wrote concerning how the settlers dealt with “Big Jim.” “Things went on from bad to worse, until some of the pioneer Nimrods retired him on the principle that there is no good Indian but a dead Indian.” With that mindset, it is no wonder the Indians rebelled and could never make lasting peace with the settlers.
Benjamin Babcock brought his family from New York in 1818 and held the first meetings of the Methodist Episcopal Church in his home by 1832. Twelve people made up the church but by 1896, there were 225 members.
The first tavern was built and owned by Daniel R. Wolcott, who had a daughter, Lydia. She taught the first students in the town school in 1822. It is interesting to note that the home church leader’s son, John, married the tavern owner’s daughter, Lydia, the schoolteacher.
The Alasson Spaulding family also came from New York and settled in Orwell about 1820. Spaulding was a leader among the settlers helping the area advance. He became the first justice of the peace and postmaster, two essential positions in the early days of progress. In 1828, he built an inn on the Warren-Ashtabula Turnpike, about half way between the two cities.
The structure still stands today and is known as Old Brick. Spaulding built the beautiful two-story brick home in the Georgian style architecture with one room being set aside as a tap room. Four years later, the Pratt family bought the inn but promised Pratt they would keep it as an inn for a year until Spaulding could build another tavern, which he did.
Coming from Lyme, Connecticut, in 1832 was the Ezra Pratt family. Pratt had been a merchant in New York and opened up the first store in Orwell when he arrived. Mrs. Pratt was a woman “of culture, refinement and energy,” according to early accounts. The Pratt daughters were educated at Mount Holyoke, Hudson and Oberlin colleges. The Pratt family founded the Orwell Presbyterian Church and bought the Old Brick Inn from Alasson Spaulding. The home remained in the Pratt family for generations until they donated it as a museum and historical society, which it is today and has been renovated and opened for tours.
The S. Stone family played an influential role in the development of the Baptist Church. The family came to Orwell in 1831 from Otsego County, New York, and began Baptist meetings in their home by 1832.
Ward B. Stone, born in Orwell in 1855, only son of Richmond and Mary Stone, became a pharmacist. With his father, he built a two-story brick building occupied by Hall & Stevens for years in Orwell as a drug store and post office.
George and Mary (Bent) Smith came to Orwell in 1836 and bought up most of the land that is the village of Orwell today. Their three sons, Orsamus, Franklin and Pomeroy were owners with their father. Mary Bent married George Smith, 26, a Revolutionary War soldier, at the age of 18. They had 14 children, almost all who settled in Ashtabula County between 1820-1836.
Orsamus Smith first married Melinda Clapp-Smith, who died, leaving him with three young children. His second wife was Elmira Kendall, one of the 14 children of Mercy Gunn Kendall. Mercy lived with her daughter and son in law until she moved to Austinburg at age 95 in 1863. She was the sister of Elijah Gunn, the pioneer, who with his wife, Mindwell Carver-Gunn and son, Christopher, accompanied the Moses Cleaveland party and were the first entire family to settle on the Western Reserve.
Orsamus and Melinda Smith left behind a son and daughter, W.O and Emma Smith, who lived in the original Orwell homestead into the next century.
The Northway family came from New York to Orwell prior to 1840. Mrs. Orange Northway, husband and children located in the northeast part of town where they built their cabin. The children attended school at the center of Orwell, walking the two-and-a-half miles through rain, snow and mud wearing only the thin clothes they owned. One of the children became Congressman Stephen A. Northway.
The Issac Tuckerman family came to Orwell in 1837. One of the Tuckerman grandsons was Dr. Jacob Tuckerman, who headed Orwell Academy and Grand River Institute. Many fugitive slaves found refuge in the Tuckerman home as it was known as an Underground Railroad stop. The Tuckermans were strong Christians who lived out their faith opening their home to anyone needing help. The family was Wesleyan Methodist members.
The Howard family came to Orwell in 1837 from Toland County, Connecticut. Mary Howard and her husband had five children. She was a leading woman in the church, the antislavery movement and temperance movement. Later, she would be president of the Orwell Soldier’s Aid Society.
John and Sally Ruy came from Connecticut to Orwell in 1837 and had five daughters and three sons. Three of the children lived past 1897. A son, Mason Ruby, remained in Orwell
Charles Walling and his wife, Clarissa Northway, had 11 children and came to Ohio from Oneonta, New York, in 1832. Their adventurous trip traveling on a boat on the Erie Canal to Buffalo was different than the pioneers who came by covered wagon. Silas Walling was the second son in a family of seven children.
The thrilling trip is well documented in family records as kept by the late attorney Albert H. Moses, a descendant, and parts can be found in the December 1967 Quarterly Bulletin of the Ashtabula County Historical Society.
The family traveled down the Ashtabula-Warren Turnpike which was laid out in 1819 in the south part of our county. The Wallings came to the north part of Orwell where Rufus Northway and J.M. Ellenwood were living in log houses and where they found rest. Charles Walling and Rufus Northway then walked to Warren, Ohio, to the land office, twenty miles away.
The men bought four or five tracts of land paying four or five dollars an acre. Charles Walling bought 76 acres of land on Rock Creek in the northeast corner of Orwell, which had a few cleared acres.
David Bates had a sawmill at Orwell Center which greatly helped the settlers in building their log homes. Ten to 15 men worked together building five log homes at a time then going back to chink them.
Silas Walling married Huldah M. Blackford in 1848 and had four children, one of whom was Della Walling who first married Edward J. Cortelyou. After he died, she married Hebert H. Moses. They had a daughter Florence, and a son, Albert Henry Moses, well-known Jefferson lawyer and Albert Henry Moses of Jefferson.
The first families mentioned came before 1840. Next week you will read of the first settlers in Sheffield Township.
