New Haven is bounded on the north by Greenfield, south by Richland county,
east by Ripley, and on the west by Richmond. The Huron River flows through
the township. There was formerly a large marsh in the southwestern part
and until thoroughly drained the principal crops were cranberries and
massasaugers, or rattlesnakes. The marsh is cultivated at present (1896),
and a colony of young Hollanders have recently settled there who will engage
in market gardening. Celery of the highest grade is raised on the reclaimed
land as well as all other vegetables. The early settlers remember embankments within the limits of the town plat
which were circular in shape and very plainly marked, and large trees were
growning on them fifty years ago. They were supposed to be the remains of
an old fortification. Caleb Palmer was the first settler in Huron county. He was a surveyor and
had visited this township, and bought land in the year 1810. He came to
settle on his farm in 1811. At three different times during the Indian war, he
and his family were compelled to fly from home and take refuge in the block
house at Mansfield. On one of these occaisions Palmer returned on foot to
find his house and all it contained burned to the ground. At another time they
were at a loss how to carry their two children. Finally, Mrs. Palmer made two
strong sacks, and putting a child in each sack hung them over the saddle on
either side of the horse, and thus carried them safetly to their destination.
Palmer and his family returned to New Haven as soon as it was safe to do so,
for he liked this township best of any. He was told afterwards by the Indians
that he might have remained at his home, all through the war, for they always
felt friendly towards him, and would have done him no harm. Johnny Appleseed, or Jonathan Chapman, lived with Mr. Palmer at one time.
He derived his name from the fact of sowing apple seeds and raising so many
apple trees. The first marriage was that of James Skinner and Harriet Beymer. The first
death was that of George Beymer. The first school was taught by Sophia
Barney, in 1815. The prosperity of New Haven began to grow backward about 1844, after the
Sandusky, Mansfield and & Newark Railraaod (now the Baltimore & Ohio)
was built and went a half mile west of town instead of entering the town.
People began to trade at other points, business began to get dull, and after
a few years all life and energy seemed to have left New Haven, and today
there are many deserted weather-beaten houses to attest to the "better days".
At present there are but a few places of business. A general grocery and
provision store kept by Frank C. Pennington. One also kept by Fred C. Layer;
one by F. H. Long; the postmaster, L. C. Heller, besides having the office,
keeps school books, drugs, candies, tobacco, etc.; there is one blacksmith
shop, D. R. Ewin, proprietor; a saw-mill owned by William Smith--these are
about the only places where business is done. Thomas Mulford came to Ohio in the early autumn of 1819 from Wyoming, Pa.
He was a tanner by trade, and in company with David Dow and Elisha Stewart
established a tannery in New Haven. In the autumn of 1820 he rode on horse-
back to East Lynne, Conn., to marry Miss Phoebe Stewart, having become
acquainted with her in Wyoming, Pa., where she was visiting a sister, Mrs.
Mary Lewis (Mary Stewart), who afterwards moved to New Haven. Mr. Mulford
was married at the home of his bride in March 1821. He made a harness for
his horse, and buying a wagon without springs, for springs were then unknown,
he put his wife and her effecrts in the wagon, and bidding "good-bye" to their
friends started for a THOUSAND MILE JOURNEY through the wilderness to
their home in New Haven. They were six weeks making the journey. Mr. M--had
made the resolve that in five years he would take his wife to see her friends at
the old home in Connecticut. He kept his resolution, and they went back with
their two little children in the same primitive fashion in which they had come
five years before. In 1828 Mr. M-- bought a farm just east of the town of New
Haven, which he reclaimed from the forest and on which he lived and died.
He was often heard to say that the happiest days of their lives were those
early days. There was no distinction of caste, one being as good as another
if they behaved as well. All were poor alike, and all tried to make their fellows
as happy as possible. There seemed to be no selfishness. He has said that
the first sign of selfishness he ever detected was after the Erie Canal was
completed to Buffalo, and wheat could be sold at Huron for fifteen cents a
bushel. To Mr. And Mrs. Mulford were born six children. Mrs. Mulford used to tell of her experience on her arrival at New Haven. There
was a tavern there kept by a widow, a Mrs. Benson, with whom Mr. and Mrs.
Mulford stopped. They were cordially received by the people of New Haven,
and by Mrs. Benson especially. Mrs. B. had the reputation of being one of the
best landladies and cooks New Haven ever had. Mrs. Benson made these
people feel at home, and in a few days she made a party and invited in the
neighbors so they might become acquainted with Mrs. Mulford, and there
was only one room in the tavern (which was a log one) in which all the cooking
and visiting had to be done. The room was large and the guests occupied one
side an Mrs. Benson and her cooking occupied the other. Mrs. Mulford did not
see any table, and how the dinner was going to be served she did not know,
but when the time arrived to set the table two flour barrels were rolled out into
the middle of the floor and a door taken from the hinges and put upon the
barrels, a clean sheet was spread on it for a table-cloth, and the table was
ready. Mrs. M. said it was the best she ever ate. Sophronia Curtis was the oldest daughter of Josiah and Mary Curtis. She was
born in 1811, in Lake county, Ohio. Her parents came from Vermont and
settled in that place in the year 1810. They made the entire journey in a wagon
drawn by a yoke of oxen. Contrast the speed of the railroads with that of the
ox team and we will have some idea of the tedium of the journey. In the fall of 1814 the family moved to New Haven. Here Sophronia lived until
she was twenty-one years old, when she married Elder Marcus Mugg, and
with him removed to Sandusky county. In 1854 she moved to Michigan, where
she died, leaving a husband and seven children to mourn their loss. Calista Curtis was born at Painesville, Lake county, in February 1813. She
a sister of Sophronia Curtis, and the family moved to New Haven when she
was two years old. There were then but three families in the township. Like
others of that day, she learned to be skillful with the wheel and distaff and
loom. A sister of hers now has in her possession some pieces of bedding
woven by her over sixty years ago. She was united with the Free Will Baptist
Church of Greenfield, and with her sister Sophronia frequently made the trip
to it on foot, a distance of five miles. In May 1838, a Free Baptist church was
organized near her home, and she transferred her membership to it, becoming
a charter member and remaining a worthy member until death. At eighteen years of age she married John Loveland. To her were born ten
children, eight of whom were reared to manhood and womanhood. She lived for seventy-nine years in the same neighborhood, and died on the
same farm where she first began housekeeping and in sight of the ancestral
roof. She departed this life in October 1894, being eighty-one years old. Only
three of her ten children survived her. Her husband preceded her to the spirit
land some four years, he being ninety-one years of age. What changes she saw in her long life! The wilderness has given place to
fields of golden grain, the log cabins to comfortable homes furnished with all
the modern appliances. The spinning wheel and loom have given way to piano
and organs. The home is surrounded with luscious fruit and in place of the
cart and oxen are comfortable carriages and fine horses. Philena Curtis was born in New Haven township in September 1824, and lived
here until her marriage to Reuben Snyder, in 1844. They moved to Wisconsin.
The hardships of a new country were more than she could endure and in 1852
she returned to New Haven and spent some years. She endured many
disappointments, but met them like a heroine. In 1881, she removed to
Oregon, where she now lives surrounded by her family and all that is needed
to make her happy. Elizabeth Gougher was born in Pennsylvania in 1811, and her family moved
into New York State when but two years old. She was married to Andrew
Strimple in 1833, and started for Ohio, to make for themselves a home in the
new country. They bought a farm with but a small clearing. The cabin they
lived in for some time had neither window nor door. The floor wa made of logs
split in halves and laid flat side up. Their cooking was done by a fire-place.
A log-chain fastened to a pole across the chimney served to hang the kettle
on. The bread was baked in a large flat kettle set on coals; the iron coved over
it also was covered with coals. Like all other pioneer women, she spun wool
and flax to make clothing for her family. Her husband died in 1847. She lived
a widow for many years, raising her children and managing her farm. In 1865
she married William Howard, who died the next year. She still lives on the
farm which she helped to clear. The cabin has given way to a nice large
house. All she has left of her family is one grandson and one daughter-in-law.
Although she has passed through aflication deep and severe, she is kind and
cheerful, with always a smile for everyone. Sorrow has not soured her, but
she seems to be calmly awaiting her Master's call. When Jane Johnson (Mrs. William F. Knight) was a little girl playing about
the house, she ran into the blanket of an Indian squaw, who was selling bead-
work in the nieghborhood. Little Jane was so frightened that for some time
she could not be quieted, but the squaw gave her a bead basket, which was
treasured for many years. Roxanna Andrews (Mrs. John B. Johnson, and mother of the little girl referred
to above) was a doctor's wife. Many times, as she was sitting at her window
sewing, the dark face of an Indian would appear suddenly at the window and
inquire: WHAR'S DOCTAH? The doctor was a great favorite with the Indians,
and could travel at all times of night without fear of them. At one time they held
a war dance in his honor in his own dooryard. During the evening they had him
stand in the porch, and they threw tomahawks around him, which stuck in the
door-posts. His faith in them was so great that he never moved a muscle. It
was considered by them a feat honor to hold a war dance for a person. When Mr. and Mrs. Johnson first came to New Haven, in 1827, they had to
wait for some days for their household goods to arrive. Mrs. Johnson had
many handsome presents given her (for those days), among the rest was a
number of damask tablecloths. While they were at New Haven awaiting the
arrival of their goods Mrs. Johnson became very homesick and would cry nearly
all the time. One must admit that things did look discouraging. A house to live
in but scarcely anything to put in it. One day, while she was still crying, Mr. Johnson undertook to get the dinner.
When it was time to set the table, he put a rough board on two barrels, then
went to her and said in his blandest tones: "Mrs. Johnson, where is one of
your damask table cloths? I want to set the table." It is said that she smiled.
the first smile which had lightened her face for many days. But their goods
soon came, and things brightened for them, and they lived a great many years
in New Haven and died at an advanced age. Electa Palmer, who married for her first husband Jacob Guyselman, and for
second C. C. Harding, is still living in New Haven. She was of a jovial nature
and fun-loving disposition, and many are the jokes she remembers of the good
old pioneer days. At one time there were two young men boarding with her,
and on the first day of April Mrs. Gunselman and a girl who live with her, Emily
Bunnnett, grated potato into vinegar and passed it on the table for horseradish.
The boys, as she called them, owned that they were nicely fooled but
declared that the joke should not be on them again that day, and certainly not
with potato. That evening some one thought a glass of cider would taste good,
so the boys offered to go to the cellar to draw some from the barrel. The
candle given them somehow would not light. The tried and tried, but still no
flame. Then they began to examine the candle, when they found they had
been trying to light a potatoe. "Fooled again, and by a potato!" Mrs. Guyselman, now Mrs. Harding, remembers distinctly her experience
with the Indians. It was always of the pleasantest character, for they were
her especial friends. She and her sister Ruth (Mrs. Youngs) would often,
coming from school, see Indians approaching, and the children would get up
on a stump and look for Chief Seneca John. If he were along, they would wave
their little hands and call to him, and he would come to them, and, putting a
little girl on each of his shoulders, would carry them to where they were going.
The children thoght a great deal of him, and had no fear of him or his tribe. Salina Hough (Mrs. Salina Davis) was another woman who for fun, tricks and
jokes New Haven has never seen the equal. Among the numberless jokes
which her friends tell of her perpetrating on her friends is the following:
At one time there was a dinner party given at the home of Judge Ives. At the
table one of the gentleman present, a Mr. Wicks, a merchant whose store
was near by, gave to Mrs. Davis a chicken bone which he had picked. After
dinner Mrs. Davis asked Mrs. Guyselman to accompany her to this
gentleman's store. Mrs. Davis requested the clerk to deposit a package for her
in the safe. She had wrapped up this chicken bone very neatly and carefully
adressed it to Mr. Wicks. She knew he would find it before many days, which
he did. As he unwrapped the package carefully and came to the bone he
exclaimed "Salina Davis!" In payment (as he thought) for this, he sent her a
pig-tail. Mr. Wicks bought butter of Mrs. Davis, and one evening she sent down
a larger roll then usual, sending word to Mr. Wicks that as the roll was large he
could divide it with his business partner. Mr. Wicks was to cut it in two in the
store, which was always full of men in the evening. He had some difficulty in
separating the roll, which, of course, called the people's attention, and when
it was finally cut in two there was that pag-ail, nicely cleaned, cooked, and
placed there by Mrs. Davis. He owned then that he was completely sold. At one time when she was living with her first husband (Hubbard May), she
sent him to one of the neighbors very early in the morning to bring home her
brass kettle, which the neighbor had borrowed a day or so before. After
arousing them from their slumbers, and inquiring for the kettle he was told
they did not have it, and was reminded that it was the first day of April.
Mary J. Woodwoth, Chairman and Historian New Haven committee--Mrs. N. J. Heller
Gertrude Van Rensselear Wickham, editor, A Memorial to the Pioneer
Women of the Western Reserve: published under the auspices of the
Woman's Department of the Cleveland Centennial Commission 2 volumes
(1896; reprint, Middleton, KY.: Whipporwill Press, 1981), 184-187.
Transcribed and submitted by Cathi Vannice 01 January 2002
Return to Pioneer Page Return to Huron
County OHGenWebThe history of New Haven is of special interest for many reasons. It was the
first township settled in Huron county. The village was the first one laid
out in the county (1815), and the first deed was made out to David and Royal
Powers. William Moore was the first mayor in 1839. The Indians were very
prominent in the experiences of the early settlers, and Johnny Appleseed
occupies a large place in the history of the town as well as in the hearts of
the people.