Tracing our Roots: Settlers come to Austinburg, Ohio

Judge Eliphalet Austin, a Revolutionary War veteran discharged in 1798, left Hartford, Connecticut, in 1799 with a party of family members and hired men to come to the Western Reserve. The group consisted of newlyweds Roswell Stevens and his bride, and three young men, David Allen, Anson Colt, and Samuel Fobes. George Beckwith, his wife, and two young small children rounded out the group.
Austin had brought along farm tools and a team of horses. They followed the Indian trail marked by them years before and still in use. After leaving Buffalo, the group separated with the women, children and hired men getting into boats, and Austin heading by land with the team of horses.
Austin was very familiar with Alexander Harper and his family, and he headed to the rough first Harper cabin where he knew they had landed earlier that year. Provisions at the Harper cabin were very meager and the situation was dire. He left and headed to where the rest were to land by boat.
The landing was where Lake Erie meets Cunningham Creek (today’s Arcola Creek). He expected to find the rest of the party in their small boats, but no one was there.
Thinking they may have landed further down the shoreline, he travelled to the mouth of the Grand River and up to a point near the present site of the Painesville. As he gazed out over the emptiness of the area devoid of man or beast or any structure, it was later recorded that he openly wept at the sight before him. Had he made a mistake by coming? Were all lost who had followed his leading without question?
Very discouraged, he returned to the Harper cabin. During the night, a messenger came to say the party had arrived safely. Judge Austin immediately followed the man to the arriving party and great rejoicing took place. Without the use of cell phones, phones, radio or television, it is amazing how hard the early settlers had to work to communicate.
Arriving at the landing site, all provisions were unloaded onto hand sleds and the group began their journey to Austinburg. Today, we know this distance to be five miles, but in June of 1799, the forests were thick with green growth and had to be hand cut to make a path.
As soon as possible, they began to construct crude cabins. Austin chose a spot in what would become the village of Austinburg and today would be the northeast corner of Route 45 and Mill Street. The Austin Cemetery is beside where he settled. There are many Austins there. George Beckwith and his family chose the spot where the Grand River Academy is today.
There were very few settlers in the area. Besides Harpersfield, there was the new settlement of the year before of Conneaut in 1798 of Thomas Montgomery and Aaron Wright. Three to four hundred Indians lived and hunted along the shores of the streams. There was just a single road that tied these settlers to each other and the outside world. The surveying team the year before had cut out a crude trail that ran from the east line of the county, about seven miles south of Lake Erie, across the site of Austinburg to Little Mountain in Lake County to Cleveland. This road actually passed by the door of Judge Austin’s log cabin.
Late that summer, Judge Austin returned to Harford, Connecticut, with his son, also named Eliphalet, to begin the process of making Austinburg a true settlement and bringing more interested parties in 1800. The last names of many of those who came were Cowles, Case, Nettleton, Hawley, Wright, Stone, Mills, Butterfield, Rice, Moses and Phelps. In the spring of the following year, the heads of these households would come and join the other settlers and build one room cabins, with anticipation of their families to follow. In the fall of 1801, the men began returning with their families they had left behind and the harsh work began in establishing crops and obtaining provisions.
Judge Austin had gone and brought back his wife, Sibbell, and five daughters, Betsy, Chloe, Florilla, Sophia and Sibyl to the new settlement called, “Austin’s Camp.” From the very first party of three families, a regular time of worship had been set aside. With the coming of more families, this practice was continued and revered even though they did not have a church or pastor. This act of worship not only showed their faith, it brought them together to share their joys and sorrows which was greatly needed, especially in those early difficult days. I am sure the women especially encouraged and enjoyed this time together.
The first worship time were held in Judge Austin’s home and when they outgrew that structure, they moved to his barn. Meetings were also held to the south of Austinburg at the home of Deaon Sterling Mills.
In August of 1800, the first sermon ever delivered in the county or the Western Reserve was preached by a devout man who had been sent out by the Connecticut Missionary Society as a pioneer missionary and evangelist. The Reverend Joseph Badger, of Blanford, Massachusetts was an answer to the prayers of the settlers. October, Badger preached in Austinburg and recorded in his journal that “there were a small number of professors in the place.” The first church on the Western Reserve was then formed.
During that first winter of 1800, the first road that could carry a wagon was cut through the woods from Austinburg to the Ashtabula Creek. This move would open up the way for other settlements in Ashtabula County. No longer would folks only have the choice of coming by boat and horse. The road was extended from Austinburg to Morgan through New Lyme, across a corner of Colebrook to Wayne and from Wayne to Gustavus, Kinsman, Vernon to Poland. This was called “the old Salt Road.” Other roads were later cut out to Harpersfield and Jefferson. This was the first road that was traveled to any extent throughout the area and it opened the door to community life and further settlement.
Today, we hop on I-90 and get to wherever we want to go and come back the same day, just to shop, do business or visit, but the settlers could never have dreamed of such a thing.
This series does not seek to cover the progress of each township, only the settlers who first came, where they came from and how they interacted in the first few years. But I would be remiss if I did not mention what happened in Austinburg a few years after it was settled when in 1804 a great revival broke out among the people and many were added to the church and the whole community affected when forty-one people made a profession of faith. Included in that number were Eliphalet Austin, Thomas Montgomery, Quintus F. Atkins, Henry L. Badger and Juliana Badger. In 1810, Reverend Giles H. Cowles would be called to be pastor of the church at Austinburg.
Eliphalet Austin would become the first postmaster. In 1815, Judge Austin had the bricks made from the banks of Coffee Creek for his beautiful and spacious home on Route 45 known as Sycamore Hall, a far cry from his humble cabin. It remained in the Austin family for three generations. Judge Austin would die in 1838 at the age of 77. His wife, Sibbell, would live until 1844, age 84.
Most of the early settlers are buried in either the Austin Cemetery located on the north side of College Street or the Austinburg Center/Cowles Cemetery on the northeast corner of Lampson Road and State Route 45, south of Austinburg. It is one of the oldest in our county and has historical ties to the Austinburg United Church of Christ.