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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 115
and saw him form a little class of eight or ten members. Early in the
spring his father built the house a half mile east of Bloomingville and
resided there till Hull surrendered to the English in 1812. He then left
and did not return till 1818 when he settled in Perkins.
The following extracts are from the pen of F. D. Drake, whose father
Avas prominently identified with the new country:
'' On the 16th of April, 1815, my father and his family, consisting
of mother and four boys, left Erie, Pa., for our future home in Oxford
township, where Ave arrived the 4th of Alay, having performed the journey
of one hundred and sixty miles in nineteen days. My father had
provided himself with a span of fine horses, a light wagon covered with
linen stretched over hoops. All heavy articles were left to be forwarded
by water to the mouth of the Huron. The road was so bad that, with
the addition of a yoke of oxen which my father purchased in Cleveland
to hitch ahead of the horses in bad places, we were unable to travel
more than six or eight or ten miles a day.''
He then describes the process of making new roads, cutting under
brush, laying a corduroy through marshy places, and at length tells of
his arrival at their journey's end:
"We stayed at Jabez Wright's, who lived at that time o'n the west
side of Huron River, about a mile from its mouth. He was surveyor
and land agent. He was afterwards an associate judge of Huron
county. His house was crowded that night with settlers on business
connected with a sale of lands. Among the number was Maj. Joseph
Strong, the first permanent settler of Lyme township. The major and
my father had been neighbors in New York State, and as every vestige
of a road had disappeared, he volunteered to guide us to his house.
We started early next morning, the major ahead on horseback as advanced
picket, the team following; and the three boys, driving the oxen
bringing up the rear.''
He then continues to give us the details of that eventful journey, of
his impressions of the broad prairies, covered,with tall grass of the
brightest green, and their first trials as pioneers. There was little or
no money in circulation in those days. A man might raise large
amounts of grain, and own large numbers of cattle, and still not be able
to raise money to pay his taxes. To borroAV a dollar or even 50 cents
AA'as almost an impossibility, and whoeA'er had it was looked upon as a
rich man.
Early troubles came to the settlers in many forms, and perhaps
none Avas more distressing than the milk sickness that affected the cattle.
It came simultaneously Avith the attempt to have a bank, and the cause
of it Avas a mystery. There are still places' in our country AA'here this is
common, and the United States Government offered a generous reward
of many thousand- dollars to Avhoever should discover the secret cause
of its prevalence. In Oxford ToAvnship they believed it was the result
of the animals drinking from springs of mineral water, but this was
disproved by the fact that a flock of sheep belonging to Thomas James,
of Bloomingville, Avere pastured in a field where there was no stream