RICHFIELD

     By the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, in 1785, the Cuyahoga, Por­tage Path, and Tuscarawas were the western boundary of the United States. This was confirmed by what is called Wayne's Treaty, made at Greenville, August 3d, 1795, in which the chiefs of twelve tribes were present, and ratified it. The land on the west side of the Cuyahoga was not purchased till 1805, when the United States acquired it by the treaty of Fort Industry, on the Maumee. This Fort was on the land of a Wyandot chief by the name of Ogonst, who, with his tribe hunted on the grounds between the Maumee and Cuyahoga in connection with the Miamies, Pottawatomies, Delawares, Shawnese, Chippeways, Ottaways, and Senecas. There was also a small band of Mingoes on the west bank of the Cuyahoga, being a part of the Cayugas, but formed a distinct band.

     Richfield being Town four, in range twelve, is consequently west of the Cuyahoga, and became a part of the United States by the Treaty of Fort Industry in 1805, or by what was known in those days, as "the new purchase." On the conveyance of "the Western Reserve" to the State of Connecticut, and by the State of Connecticut to "the Connecticut Land Company," Richfield in "the Drafts," fell to four proprietors. Benjamin Tallmadge drew the N. W. quarter—Capt. Smith the S. W. quarter,—a fami­ly by the name of Green the S. E. quarter, and Uriel Holmes the N. E. quarter—the township containing 16,000 acres. In 1811 Capt. Heman Oviatt purchased the N. W. quarter of the Town­ship of Col. Tallmadge, for $5000.

     Capt. Oviatt was a native of Goshen, Litchfield County, Con­necticut; and being possessed of an active, enterprising spirit, he formed the resolution of emigrating to the far west. He ac­cordingly left his native town, in April, 1800, and started for what was then a terra incognita-the unknown west. On arriving at Bloomfield, in the State of New York, he found David Hudson preparing boats, and provisions for a voyage to Ohio. They agreed to keep company, and having made the necessary prepa­rations, they left Gerandequat Bay, on lake Ontario, for the far west, in open boats. They, of course had too keep along shore and take advantage of favorable winds. As their history and adventures belong more properly to Hudson, I shall only say in regard to their voyage, that they arrived safely in Hudson, loca­ted their land, and got shelters prepared for their families. In the fall of that year Capt. Oviatt returned to Goshen, and on the 17th of January following, left there, with his family, and returned to Ohio, where they arrived on the 22d of March 1801—being two months and three days in performing a journey that can now be performed in less than the three days.

     In 1811 he returned to Connecticut, and in an interview with Col. Tallmadge, the Colonel expressed great fears of a war with England, and that a consequence would be the loss of our wes­tern territory. Capt. Oviatt inquired what he would take for his lands, when the Colonel offered them for $1,25 per acre. Capt. Oviatt agreed to give it, and thus became the owner of one fourth of the Township. He subsequently took his father and brother Nathaniel, into company in the speculation, and in the fall of that year Nathaniel moved on to the land.

     Captain Oviatt continued to reside in Hudson till 1836 when he removed into Richfield, where he now resides.

     The real centre of the Town is at what is called the east cen­tre—but John Newton, who had purchased most of the land about the centre, refusing to sell on terms that induced people to buy, they started another centre about half a mile west, now known as the west centre. This unfortunate division of the cen­tre, has built up two rival villages, which, instead of aiding each other have a tendency to put each other down.

     The eastern part of the Township, verging toward the river, is very hilly, diversified with deep "gulls," and almost perpendicular banks. The western part is not so hilly but the whole may be called rolling.

     From a slight geological examination I am satisfied the eastern part is rich in iron ore, and the whole underlaid with fossil shell limestone. Such I found to be the case in the same range of hills in Bath, and I believe it to be so in Richfield.

     The surface is particularly adapted to grazing—the western part for cattle—the eastern part for sheep; and no township in the county, perhaps, has turned its attention more to this subject. or succeeded better.

     The township is also noted, not only in this county, but through­out the State, for its excellent fruit, for which it is indebted to James W. Weld, Esq., who was, and still is devoting his attention to the production of the choicest kinds. The hills in this town­ship are peculiarly adapted to the production of fruit, particu­larly the apple and grape; and the soil also produces wheat, corn, and oats, but is better adapted to grass.

     The first settler in Richfield was a man by the name of Robert Mays, who came from Pennsylvania, in 1810, and settled on the farm now owned by the widow of John Bigelow, in the S. W. part of the town. He was the counterpart of Daniel Boone, and hated civilization and the Yankees. His wife who is now living in Hinckley, in Medina county, used to say she had rather eat raw potatoes boiled in fresh water than live among the Yankees. Mays sold out to John Bigelow, and prepared to leave the intrud­ing Yankees, but death arrested his progress, and destroyed his fond hopes of a wilderness life.

     The first pleasure party fitted out from Richfield was to the Ayres settlement in this township—where they had for their entertainment, raw turnips, scraped or whole, according as the taste of each visiter might suggest. Mays had a daughter, Mary, who, by the bye, was the wit as well as the belle of Rich­field. As was the custom of those days, when there were no roads, nor the means of conveyance if there had been, Mary Mays took her shoes in her hand, and walked, barefooted, from Richfield to the party. As they were partaking of their pastoral supper of raw turnips, which, had much the flavor of horse rad­ish, Mary remarked that the turnips were small but strong enough to carry double.

     Mays had a son, John. who was as noted as a pugilist, as Mary was for a wit. He committed the first assault and battery in the town by beating Nathaniel Oviatt, for which he was prosecuted before Leman Farnum, Esq., who was the first Justice. This was the first assault and battery, and was the first trial before the first Justice in the town.

     An associate of old Mays was Abner Robinson, who, as well as Mays, was deemed a poet. Mays and Robinson had preserved the characters of most of their neighbors in immortal verse, and though the poetry was not always the sweetest there was general­ly some point to the moral. Wild honey being plenty in those days, metheglin was a favorite beverage. There was a man residing, at the time, near where Jonny Cake lock is now located, by the name of Jacob Morter, whose character for honesty did not stand very fair. On a certain occasion, when they had been drinking pretty freely of metheglin, Morter says, to Mays and Robinson, if you will make some poetry on me I will give you a gallon of metheglin—upon which Robinson responded impromptu:

Abner Robinson, and Bob Mays,

They think they're worthy of great praise,

For what a neighbor does, that's wrong,

Like two d—d fools, they'll tell in song.

Thus, Jacob Morter, as 'tis said,

Steals all the corn that makes his bread,

And while his neighbors are asleep

The paltry scoundrel steals their sheep.

     Morter paid the metheglin, but it is said Robinson and Mays relished the metheglin far better than Morter did the poetry.

     The second family that moved into the township was Henry Mallett. He settled in the S. E. part of the township, on the lot now owned by Richard Sweet. Mallett had two brothers, John and Daniel, who, as well as himself were in favor of a hard cur­rency. They accordingly erected a mint, on a point of land, ever since known as " the money shop," just over the line in North­ampton, and about a quarter of a mile from Jonathan Hale's, in Bath, where they manufactured "the hard" currency to order.

     This drew around the settlement a set of visitors that added any thing but respectability, to the place; and the inhabitants determined, if possible to get rid of them. They accordingly called a council at "the money shop," in the absence of the workmen, when it was moved; and carried to tear down the mint. Jonathan Hale, who dissented so far as to refuse to aid in the work, turned his back to the building, when he heard a fire brand whiz, whiz, and on looking toward the money shop the next morning he saw a smouldering heap of ruins. The remains of the old forge are still to be seen, though the site of the building is now overgrown with trees. Notwithstanding the destruction of his mint, Mallet continued "tinkering with the currency," until he was finally "taken into the employ of the State," and he died at Columbus.

     In 1811 John Farnum, from Cornwall, Litchfield county, Con­necticut, came into the township, and purchased 1200 acres in the North part of .the town, embracing the land now owned by Everet Farnum. Hostilities had already commenced between the whites, and Indians, by the battle of Tippecanoe, and although the Indians, on the receipt of the news of that, to them, disastrous fight, had fled from the township, they had carried with them an embittered hostility to the whites. Farnum accordingly prepared for the worst by erecting a kind of block house, and redoubt, to protect himself and family from the Indians. The house erected by Farnum was about a hundred rods East of the one now occu­pied by Everet Farnum, where he resided during the war of 1812, with his family, whom he moved into the town in the fall of that year.

     Leeman Farnum, a son of John, was elected the first Justice of the Peace in the township, in April, 1816. He taught the first school in the town, being a Sunday school, in which he taught all the branches of a common school education. "It was not then known," says Everett Farnum, from whom this fact was ob­tained, " to be wicked to teach reading, writing and arithmetic en Sunday."

In the fall of 1811 Jared Barnes, from Virginia, and Benaj Paine, Jason Philips, and Denton E. Buck from the State of New York, moved into the township. Buck erected the first grist mill in Richfield, which consisted of a large oak stump, hollowed out on the top, with a pestle, worked by a spring pole. This, for a long time, was the "Town Mill," the remains of which are still to be seen.

     In 1820 the people being without a stated preacher, met in town council, to elect a person "to lead in meeting." The can­didates were Bradford Sturdevant, and Elijah Ellsworth. On a full and animated canvass, Ellsworth was declared duly elected, "to hold his office during good behavior." As he was somewhat addicted to swearing he agreed to abandon the practice so long as he held the office of "conductor of meetings." He has ful­filled his engagement, and more than answered the expectations of his friends. The conscientious discharge of the duties of this office gave him a claim on the affections of the people, and he was elected the first "train band captain" in the town, and finally rose to the post of colonel.

     The inhabitants, being mostly Yankees, brought the love of good society, and education with them; the consequence is schools are located in all parts of the Township; and in the winter of 1835, the Legislature chartered an Academy which is located about midway between the "two centres," and maintains an honorable rank as a literary institution.

     The town was organized in 1816, and then included Bath, Hinckley, and in fact extended west to an indefinite distance. Two years after the organization of the township they settled the Rev. Mr. Shaler, who was the first settled preacher in the town. The fact that he continues at his post to the present time, shows that he has a hold on the affections of the people that time can­not destroy.

     The Indians inhabiting this township were Wyandots, and Ot­taways, who, on the retreat of Capt. George, after the battle of Tippecanoe, entirely abandoned the township. After the conclu­sion of the war of 1812 a party of fifteen or twenty returned to their former homes, but they were strangers in the land of their birth. They asked permission of those holding their former homes and land, to erect huts to protect their families, while they were hunting; and by their subdued and dejected manner, acknowledged the supremacy of the whites.

     While encamped on Farnum's land some of the young Indians stole some green corn, but the old Indians made them return it and ask Farnum to punish them. Such was the honesty of the unenlightened savages; but the whites stole their horses, and by continued depredations on their property compelled them to leave the township.

     This township appears to have been a favorite residence of the Indians, who resorted to it for hunting, and making sugar; and maples have been cut in the township with a growth of two hun­dred grains outside of, and over the boxing of the Indians for the purpose of procuring sap.

     Nicksaw, who was with John Mohawk, when he shot Diver, in Deerfield, in 1806, was killed by the party of Maj. Rogers, on lot eight, in the N. W. corner of this township, near where He-man Oviatt Jr. now lives. The Indians were discovered at Pon­ty's camp on the north line of Boston, but they fled on the appearance of the whites, and had got thus far, when the rifle, and deadly aim of Jonathan Williams laid poor old Nicksaw in the dust. He was a friendly old Indian, and nothing but a love of barbarity for an Indian, because he was an Indian, could have induced a white man to kill him. His squaw, with a papoose on her back, was with him when he was killed. She hid her pa­poose in a hollow log, and made her escape. On her return, a few days after, to bury her husband, she found her papoose in the hollow log, in fine condition.

     The Indians buried Nicksaw on the ground where he fell, and, according to their custom, raised a mound over him to commem­orate the place and circumstances of his death. His grave is yet to be seen.

     The little party that returned after the war of 1812, were the last Indians seen in Richfield. Before leaving the township, on being asked why they were going to leave, one of the old chiefs raised himself to his full height, and with an eye flashing with a owe of injuries, but subdued by circumstances, replied:—

     "I am one of the embers of an almost extinguished race. My grave will soon be my habitation. The winds of three score years and ten have whistled through my branches, and the Great Spirit is calling me to the Spirit land.

     My people are like the scattered stalks that remain in the field when the tempest has passed over it.

     The Great Spirit ordained us for the forest, and our habitation is the shade. We pursue the deer for our subsistence, but they are disappearing before the pale faces, and the red man must starve or leave the graves of his fathers, and make his bed with the setting sun."

     Thus ended the once powerful race of Indians in Richfield.