The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-05-29
MISCELLANY.
HISTORICAL "REMINISCENCES.
The Leap Of Capt. Samuel Brady
Letters Of Gen. L. v. Bierce and
Hon. Frederick Wadsworth.

at this time declare it to be impossible,
and place the accounts of it among the
excusable fctions of the Indian wars.
Such persons should take into consider
alton the changes that have been
wrought by bridges and mill-dams, and
by the construction of the Pennsylvania
and Ohio Canal, since the days of Brady.
In this natural state the river ran for
about a mile in what was an impossible
gulf, even in low water. From point
below the cotton mill, nearly up to the
old glass works of 1925, or the upper
village, it rushed through a straight,
narrow channel, with natural walls of
rock twenty to thirty feet high, fringed
with overhanging trees. In many places
the breadth was not much greater than
the depth. When the river was in a
food the water was very deep, coursing
swiftly through the dark chasm, made
more sombre by its chocolate color,
with resistless power. This chasm was
produced by the wearing action of the
water upon the rocks during incompre-
hensible periods of time. At the lower
part of the present village there must
have heen in the early ages cataract
twenty or thirty feet high over the edge
of the conglomerate. Particle by parti
Gle it has been carried away, the chan
mel receding up stream, until it let off
the water from a natural basin above
the old village, through a cut merely
wide enough for the discharge of full
river. 4 short distance above the pres
ent bridge at Main street, there was left
standing natural column of rock in
the middle of the channel, with dwarf
pine on the top, known as the "Stand-
ing Stone" 1t is nearly round, its sur
face nearly ON the level with the banks,
and not quite as large around as hay
stack. The waters surging by it slowly
wore away its base; but it was yet strong
and firm when the Pennsylvania and
Ohio Canal was constructed. The en-
gineers made slack water of this portion
of the gorge, by means of dam and
locks. They demolished the standing
stona," and cut down the craggy edges
of the east bank for tow path. This
accounts for the apparent impossibility
of man jumping the Cuyahoga at this
point.
In the earliest history, this place, the
standing stone," name suggested by
the natural monument which l have de-
scribed, was we'll known as the crossing
place of an ancient Indian trail, leading
from the Ohio river at the mouth of
Beaver, up that stream and up the Ma
honiDg river, over the Summit, short
distance south of Ravenna, down the
BreakneclS creek to ford over ripple
in the upper village. From there the
Indian road had two main branches.
One led north, directly to the Cuyahoga,
ct the mouth of Tinker's creek; the
other continued through Stow near the
center, past Cuyahoga Falls, to the "Old
Portage" three miles north of Akron.
Here the great trail, or carrying plade,"
from the Tuscarawas came to the Cuya-
hoga river from the south, and from
thence there was free navigation for
canoes to the lake at Cleveland. There
were well beaten paths used by Indians
and traders, on foot and with ponies,
visible long after the settlement of the
country in places, where the forest had
not been cut away. The first road from
the western part of Portage county to
Ravenna, crossed at the upper ford, near
where the red man had his crossing; but
eventually a more direct route became
necessary, and bridge was built near
the spot of "Brady's leap" because here
it was most narrow. Before the bridge
there was crossing for foot passengers,
on tree felled across the chasm. On
the eastern bank the shelving rock just
above the bridge had fallen, forming a
pile of rough stones with brushes grow
ing out of the crevices. The stringers
of the first bridge were said to be twen-
ty-seven feet long.
With these explanations, the impossi-
bility of the leap is wholly removed. A
stout man, stimulated by an unified
tomahawk in the hands of savage, or
the still more horrid expectation OF
death torture by fire, would quickly take
the risk. He is reputed to have sprung
from the edge of the west bank, twenty
FIVE feet above the water, and so, de-
scribing as he went, to have landed on
the broken stones on the east side near
the water level. By the help of bushes
and roots he scrambled out of the gorge
and reached BRADY Lake." before his
red foes overlook him.
The letters of Gen. Bierce and Mr..
Wadsworth explain the principal incl
dents of this, the most exciting foot race
yet chronicled in Northern Ohio:
AKRON, Sept. 4, 1873.
JOHN BARR, Esq.
DEAR SIR-Your favor saying "some
writer in the Cleveland Herald has late
Iy insinuated that the story of 'Brady'f
Leap across the Cuyahoga, little be.
low Kent, of % feet, is a myth, and gives
General F. Wadsworth as authority
came to hand last evening.
have not seen the article but Gener
al F. Wadsworth is a myth. There
never was any such man. There wa
General Elijah Wadsworth, of Garfield
who had son F. Wadsworth, for many
years resident of Portage county, anC
who died few years ago in California
This I presume, is the man the write
means, but if his other statements ar
no more correct than his designating F
Wadsworth by the title of his father
they are not very reliable. If he mean
F. Wadsworth, without the General,
venture to say that neither he 'nor an.
other man" can produce any evidenc
that Mr.. Wadsworth is authority t
prove "the leap" a myth. Ihave lette
written by him to Seth Day, of Ravenna
February 26, 1851, which is very lengthy
or / would copy it for you. I can onl