Litchfield enquirer., 1835-05-21
From the Chari.ssOm Spectator.

TRADITIONS or THE WESTERN RESERVE.
 Those who emigraie from New England, and settle in the newer parts of Ohio, at this time, when 35 steamboats plough the waters of Lake Erie, and the white sails of hRndred of vessels arc spread to the breeze, deem themselves entitled ao credit for enterprise, and speak of the comforts and lnxnries they have @relinqnished, and the hardships they encounter in moving into new country.
 A few tales of the real hardships suffered, and the manly resolutions exercised to meet and endure them, by the early settlers of the Western Reserve, when the great west. now so populous, was nearly an entire wilderness, would make such ashamed of their weak and causeiess complainings.
 In the year f7Q6, fr6n the town of Uti- ca. then a littles es,new SiEiSgc,e t0 DeffOit, with the exception of.a few scattering in- fant settlements iH the western part of N. Y., the whole country was one vast solita- ry forest, trayersed only by wild beasts, and a few Indians. Lake Erie rolled her waves upon her untrodden shore, andawas indeed watery waste; enlivened by no passing sail-1oating no vessel freighted with human beings, save the occasional bark canoe of the natives of the forest.- During the summer of that year, the survey ors of the Connecticut Land Company laid out the Western Reserve into townships a single family located themselves on the spot where Cleaveland is now situated 1; and two others took up their abode at the mouth of ConneaIt the three families, with the exception of few. the appenda- ges of military post at Erie, then called Presque Isle, were the only white people, between Buffalo and the old French settle- ment on the river Raisin.
 We can scarcely conceive the appalling and discouaging prospect which at that ear- ly period country covered with so dense and heavy a growth of timber. to which the forests of New England were as mere brush wood-must have presented. To see this forest subdued, and converted into cultivated fields, must have exceeded the hopes of any but the enterprising and san- guine pioneers, whom Providence has a. dapted to the work. The world was be- fore them, but-it was wilderness oflakes and woods. ss'@.
 In the fall of that year, necessary busi- ness with the CoDnecticpt Land Company obliged MT. K----. the father of one of the families at Connsapt, 10 leave. his faaunily, and make journey tb Connecticut In h great u0der1aIslng Fl 4 faDie spaff- of the distance, no road was opened, and when the country of roads was first attain- cd they were nearly isapassable.
 The provision upon which his family had subsisled during the summer, beyond what game was procured from the forest. and fish fron the lake, had been brought from the state of New York. Until the winter set in, however, they could do very well, and before that time he expected to be back.- He therefore made the best arrangement he could for their comfort. and departed, leav- ing lad of about fourteen or fifteen the oldest male member ofhis family. At that period there were no steamboats, or stages; neighbors were hundred of miles apart, but a journey to Hartford. if fortunate, re- quired as many weeks as it now does days. If Ill luck occurred, it might be prolonged much more. It was therefore the middle ofNovember when he arrived at Buffalo on his return. Before he reached this place, the snow had fallen to the depth of two and half feet, and the weather extremely cold. All who were old enough, will re- member that the winter that year began early, and was very severe. From this point returning to his family, Mir. K
 must leave the habitation the white man, and make his way through wilderness one hundred and thirty miles, with no road to guide him, excepting for part of the dis- tsnce the beach fthe Lake. Hewa sen- sibIe of the condition in which he had left his family, that they had bui scanty sup- ply of provision, and that his absence had already been longer than was expecled.- These circumstances, together witl, the set- ting in of winter 90 severe, filled his mind with the painful apprehension that his family might be suHarihg siaFyatiop.-- These things would have zunnerved some {; but MT. K-- was a insn ofstrong resolute character, and they only served to rouse him to more vigorous exertion. Having provided himself with such necessaries for his family as he could procure, with which he loaded his horse, he set forth on foot, and leading his horse, pursued the beach of the Lake. After iatiguing march thro' the snow, he reached the Indian settlement on the Cat,araugus. As from this place. on account of the bold projecting bluffs, he could no longer follow the beach, he pro- cured an Indian .by the name of Senecs Billy, to guide him through the trackless forest. Understhe guidance ofihe Indian he took his course through the wood. lead ing his horse ms before mentioned. IT this manner he toiled through ahe deer snow, camping down each night. in thu midst of if for several days. when he reach.