PDF (20 MB) - Virtual Library of the Public Library of Cincinnati

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 67
masters, Heironymus Mingus and Christopher Brumbacker. The first
act of authority on the part of the new government was the ordering
of a certain Rachel Taylor to "depart the township of Eldridge."
Whether she went or where in the wilderness she was expected to go
is not stated.
One of the first houses was built by John Hoak in 1910, near the
western line of the toAvnship. There were only four white men present
to lift the heavy logs, but Silas David, an Indian chief, who was a
frequent visitor to the whites, brought his friends to the '' raising.'' He
Avould not allow his followers to taste the liquor provided until the Avork
Avas done, when they drank to their heart's content. One of them
became so drunk that the others built a pen of rails around him and
covered him up, leaving him till the next day.
The lirst Avhite settler Avas either John Dunbar or a man named
Tillison, who may have preceded him. Mr. Dunbar came from NCAV
Vorlc State in 1809, cleared his land and built a house, and Avas joined
by his^jrolher, Isaac, Avho afterAvards built himself a house near the
center of rl^ toAvnship. In 1810 Perry and Thomas Starr came from
Connecticut to Cleveland in a one-horse Avagon. Thomas Starr AA'as a
blacksmith by trade and used to folloAV the business of ironing vessels
for the lake. Hi; did the iron Avork for the first decked vessel built this
side of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was OAvned by Captain Austin, of
Vermillion. On his trips to Cleveland to do the iron- Avork on the
vessels Mr. Starr used to carry torches to light the Avay and to drive
oil' the wolves that hoAvlcd about the path. He had eight children, of
Avhom his eldest son, William Eldridge, is said to have been the first
male child born ii^the toAvnship.
The Starr brothers built a mill on land afterward OAvned by L. II.
Hill, and in the fall of the same year, 1810, built a house on the/arm
aftenvard OAvned by J. S. LOAATV. A SIIOAV fell the night before the
raising and it was feared the neighbors would not come as they lived
for several miles in every direction; but early in the morning "old Mr.
Burdue" Avas on hand Avith a jug of Avhiskey. When the building was
up the whiskey was disposed of, as Avas customary with the pioneers.
In this building the brothers kept bachelor's hall for a time. Thomas
served as a militiaman in the War of 1812, from AA'hich he returned,
and in February, 1814, married Clementina Clark, of Florence, and
moved to the center of the township.
Soft water was very scarce, and it is told of Nathaniel Burdue, "Old
Mr. Burdue," that while living on the Huron River he set out one
Sunday Avith a piece of soap in his pocket and said he would travel until
he found a spring of soft water, and there he would locate. In the
afternoon he found a beautiful spring and decided to remain there. Ilis
orchard Avas the first in this section to bear, and a schoolhouse being
built near his apple trees the old man's life AA-as made miserable by the
depredations of the boys.
The first physician Avas Dr. George G. Baker, who came from Connecticut
in 1822. He did not remain long, but. moved to Florence