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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 51
Am't Loss Am't Classed
Original Grantees £ s. d. Classified by £ s. d.
Matthew Willis 3 4 4 Ebenezer Jessup, Jr 3 9 4
Matthew Benedict 176 16 5 Ebenezer Jessup, Jr 0 16 0
Daniel Hickok 6 4 3 Ebenezer Jessup, Jr 3 0 0
Ebenezer Haytt 76 15 6 Ebenezer Jessup, Jr 76 15 6
Daniel Haytt 9 0 6 Ebenezer Jessup, Jr 6 9 1114
Footing of Classification No. 3 1,344 7 0
Classification No. 4, Section 4
Am't Loss Am't Classed
Original Grantees £ s. d. Classified by £ s. d.
Daniel Haytt or David
Haytt 9 0 6 Ebenezer Jessup, Jr 2 10 6%
Ebenezer Jessup, tAvo
rights 286 0 9 Ebenezer Jessup, Jr.... 286 0 9
Jabez Ilubbel 32 16 9 Ebenezer Jessup, Jr 17 17 3
Enoch Benedict 8-1 1 8 Ebenezer Jessup, Jr 29 13 2%
Hezekiah Sturges 532 8 3 Jessup Wakeman 36 3 2y2
Elijah Abel 719 4 4 Jessup Wakeman 467 19 5
Jessup Wakeman 239 6 10 Isaac Bronson 221 13 0'/a
John Perry 6 17 0 Isaac Bronson -i. 6 17 0
Aaron Jennings 100 0 0 Isaac Bronson 100 0 0
Nathan Beers 145 1 0 Isaac Bronson 175 12 7
Footing of Classification No. 4 1,344 7 0
Florence Avas organized as an independent toAvnship April 7, 1817.
The first election for township officers Avas held at the log schoolhouse
one mile south of Florence Corners. The number of votes polled was
seventeen.
The first settlement was made by Ezra Sprague and family, in May,
1809. They came to the mouth of the Huron River by water, and then
went to Florence through an unbroken wilderness. Mr. Sprague was
the first justj.ee of the peace in the township, and afterwards held the
position of associate judge of the Common Pleas Court. He died in
1856, survived by only two of his seven children.
Although the pioneers never actually starved, yet they were compelled
to live in the plainest manner. Hominy, potatoes and milk were
the only articles of food they had for weeks at a time. They gathered
wild onions on the river bottoms, and other hardy and edible vegetables
were also to be found. All kinds of provisions were high during the
early years. Pork sold for $20 per barrel, flour for $16, tea $2.50 per
pound, and salt $10 per barrel. Joab Squire once carried 200 pounds
of maple sugar to Sandusky, which he exchanged for two barrels of salt;
the trip requiring three days. At another time he went to Huron and
bought twenty-five pounds of bacon at 25 cents per pound, and lugged
it home on his back.
There was scarcely any money in circulation, and trade was principally
by barter. The first specie currency which circulated in Flor-