Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1858-11-09
MORNING LEADER.
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF ROCKPORT,
Up TO 1921
BY HENRY ALGER.
[CORciudcd.J
CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER III.
l will give you a brief history of one family
and their suffenngs, whilst there are other fam
lilies who could tell you about their hardshipa
and privalions in settling in this country in
those days.
When Henry Alger and his wife arrived here,
June 9TH, 1872, all his personal property con
sisted of an old French watch, an axe, part Of
a kit of shcemaker's tools, and seven cents in
cash and no household goods except bed
| They had no provisions on hand, and he owed
ten dollars of borrowed money to begin with.
He built log cabin Is by Is feet inside, one
| story high, with Z" stake and ridered' root, as
we used to call a roof covered with wide, thin
slaves, and poles laid on to keep the wind from
blowing them off. He split out his floor boards,
and hewed out boards for door, table, and a
shoemakers bench, as he was a shoemaker by
trade, and must have bench. (The shoe bench
is still in his possession.) When they had got
moved into their hut, built their fire in one end
against the logs, and had brought in their Scat
amount bedstead, table, shOemaker's bench,
and stool or two, they found their mansion to
be quite roomy and convenient To describe a
catamount" bedstead-say take four round
sticks of wood of the size and length desired for
posts, bore holes in them, take four poles, sharp
| en- the ends, put them in for rails, and bottom it
with strips of elm bark, and you have fair
sample of bedstead in those days.
But will return to the story. All the iron
ware they had to use the first summer was the
half of a tea kettle he found on the beach Of
the lake. The kettle was broken from top to
bottom, and the half in question had the spout
on it, into which they drove plug. They used
the spout for a handle. In the fall they bought
two quart kettle and piece of rod for a
bail, at the moderate price of 81 so, which rem
dered them quite comfortable. (The kettle Is
still in the family)
In the fall of 1872, he went thirty-six miles
to Mentor, four miles west of gainesville, and
threshed wheat for Ebenezer Merry, Esq, for
every tenth bushel, and famed it up in board
fan, to get bread to live on.
About the first of March, 1913, he took d
yoke of oxen and wagon belonging to his faith
er's estate, took with him his axe and log
chain, which were two Indispensable articles in
those days, when one went with team and a
blanket TO cover up his load and went to Abra-
ham Bishops, in Euclid, TO get load of pro-
visions for his mother and her family; (the pro-
visions had been bought by his father before his
death;) and also to get some for has own use -
He got over 200 lbs. of fresh pork, and salt to
cure it with quite quantity of corn meal,
some flour, &c; bought bushel of flaxseed to
SOW in the spring, for people in Olden times
made their own cloth, and when he got back
to Cleveland, he bought new axe of " Uncle
Abram," and run in debt for that. 1t had thaw-
ed while he had been gone, and he was afraid to
venture on the ice to cross the river; but man
standing by said he could pilot him safely
across; so on they went, and when they had got
| about half way across, down went the team,
wagon and load, into the drink; the wagon turn
I l,,4 ooI Of
land soon rallied to his assistance. One OK was
drowned They got out the live OK and wagon,
and three bags of meal, well wet up; this was
all that was left of the load. He left the wag-
on and peal, and started for home with the live
who lived in Euclid, sold the OK to h, Ji1'eeta
little money, and was to have the balance IN
provisions.
Among their daintics in the line of meats,
were racoons and woodchucks You may be
| inclined to ask why he did not kill deer, as
they were plenty in those days. The fact is, he
was not a hunter. At one time they lived five
weeks without one mouthiuI of bread, meat, but
ter or milk in their house, and two weeks of the
| time they had no salt. Perhaps You may ask
what they lived on ! The answer is, potatoes
and beans
In the fall of 1918, he went to Cleveland
and tried to find a chance to work and get q
little salt He spent the day without success.
At night he met with S. S. Baldwin, of New
burph, who offered him salt for work He then
laid himself down on the bar room floor at Wal
Iace's until morning, and then went to Now
burgh and worked nine days for fifty pounds Of
Onondaga salt. Work was then worth one dol
lar per day. On the eleventh day, Sunday ex-
cepted,) } he carried the salt on his back sixteen
miles, from Newburgh to ROckPort, and not q
little reioiced to get it at that Then It was ten
miles, the way they had to 60, from the Algel
Settlement to Cleveland.
In the summer of 1914, he went to old Capt
Hoadley, in Columbia, who offered to give lUC
lbs. of flour for chopping an acre of heavy tim
ber and pilng the brush, the logs TO be chopped
from IA to l6 feet long, and rail timber IL feet
He then on the strength of the contract tool
about so lbs of flour and carried it home OF
his back, ten miles, five miles OF the distance
through the woods where there was not even
marked tree to guide his way, and said TO hi
wife. when he got home" We shall not wan
for flour any more, for l have found a plac
where I can get 100 lbs. of 1t for chopping al
acre"
We have now given you part of their histor,
for the first two years and a half they lived i
r the township. They kept house almost tw
! wears before they owned a COW, and then b
( ran in debt for one. Soon after they bough
: COW, they bought small dinner pot that he'll
about six quarts, and they not only boiled thei
dinner in it, but made lid and dasher to i
and churned their butter in it. lie had no tear
until he had been here five years, and then b
S ran in debt eighty dollars for a yoke of Oxer
; and knew not where the first dolldr was comm
S from, to pay for them with.
To close this chapter, 1 will say that they ar
still living on the farm they first settled on, g
!. the advanced age of three scure years and ter
possessed of the good old Yankee feelings an
principles that characterized them in their you'll
and invite their friends and acquan.ancest to CIV
e them call.