ASHTABULA COUNTY OHIO *************************************************************************** Transcribed by Cherre Loftus Flynn. THE HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY OHIO WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ITS PIONEERS AND MOST PROMINENT MEN Published in Philadelphia by Williams Brothers in 1878 "NATHANIEL COLEMAN, ( ), was born at Chesterfield, Massachusetts, January 19, 1779. His great grandfather was an officer during the old French and Indian Wars. His father, Deacon Nathaniel Coleman, was one of that band who, disguised as Indians, boarded the British tea-ships at Boston harbor, and threw the tea into the sea. At the battle of Bunker Hill his father was one of the band stationed on a peninsula, then called "Horseneck," to intercept the landing of men from a British vessel. As the lamented General Warren passed he approved of their position and, smiling, passed up the height to the fort. They saw him but once after, and that was when he fell. Mr. Coleman's father died May 17, 1837, in Wayne, honored and revered, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. Nathaniel Coleman, at the age of twenty-three years, left his home in Massachusetts, and settled in Canandaigua, New York, where he married Submit, only sister of The Honorable Joshua R. Giddings, June 4, 1804. In company with Mr. Giddings' family they moved to Wayne, Ashtabula County, in June, 1806. They entered upon the Western Reserve at Conneaut, on the day of the total eclipse of the sun of that year. Just as the sun was becoming darkened they stopped to cook their food, and also observe the eclipse. As they kindled a fire, an eagle alighted on a projecting rock that overlooked Lake Erie, and folded its wings as if to repose. They might have brought it down with thier trusty rifle, but they talked of the incident as an omen of success, and left it there in peace. They cut a road through the south part of Williamsfield and Wayne to the Pymatuming Cree,, and theirs were the first teams that crossed the creek in Wayne, near where the South bridge now stands. Mr. Coleman's wife died in Wayne, January 21, 1809. In January, 1810, he married Miss Kezia Jones. Her father died in Somers, Connecticut in 1804. Her mother like other early settlers, wishing to see her family settled around her, and not being able to purchase high priced land in New England, came to Wayne, in 1807, with her children, consisting of three sons and four daughters. One of the sons was among the soldiers surrendered by General Hull at Detroit. The Honorable Joshua R. Giddings, in his address at the Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the Settlement of Wayne, in 1853, stated that Miss Kezia Jones taught the first school in Wayne Township, commencing in the spring of 1809, where he obtained the only school education that he received after he was ten years of age. A kind mother and grandmother, a generous neighbor, she passed away February 19, 1862, aged seventy-eight years. In the War of 1812, Nathaniel Coleman joined Captain Joshua Fobes' company, Colonel Richard Hayes' regiment, and marched to Cleveland, and from there to Camp Avery, near Huron. He was appointed quartermaster of his regiment, an office not free from peril, as much of their meat consisted of wild game, or cattle and hogs found running at large in the forest. He filled the office with credit and approval, and by activity and industry was often enabled to relieve the suffering or take their place in the ranks. The first settlers were certainly men and women of great enterprise and resolution to break away from the comforts of old established communities, and go hundreds of miles beyond the borders of civilization into a wilderness, to enter into the hardships and privations incident to a new country. With such people he was associated in the early effforts to form an enlightened comunity and cultivated society on the Western Reserve. He was chosen one of the first justices of the peace in and for the territory now embraced in the townships of Wayne, Williamsfield, Andover, and Cherry Valley. His first commission was dated in July, 1811. He served in that capacity for twenty-one years. He even labored to obtain amicable settlements, and was slow to render decision. On deciding he clearly defined points of law, and in his decisions was very firm. If he was ever a leader in council, he did not appear to be such. Retiring, unassuming, yet observing, if he spoke, attention watched his lips; if he reasoned, conviction seemed to close his periods. He early became engaged as agent in the sale and surveying of lands, and observed closely the quality of soil, timber, surface, and streams, and was often consulted by settlers and purchasers who wished for immediate information. His life has been peculiarly marked by kindly relations with all with whom he associated. Of a generous nature and strong mind, not void of wit and humor, he drew around him a circle of friends. His marked integrity, consistent Christian character, and a modesty that withheld him from a desire for official position, rendered him prominent as a counselor and adviser. He died July 22, 1868, in the ninetieth year of his age. One who was intimately acquainted with him, and knew him well in his declining years, has observed that his desire for life seemed to recede parallel with his failing organism, until they seemed to go out together without a struggle. Eliza, the oldest daughter of Nathaniel Coleman, was born in Wayne, May 28, 1807; married Sylvester Ward, February 22, 1828. She died in Wayne, February 22, 1872. Her children were Orcutt Reed, born December 23, 1828; Erasmus Darwin, born June 17, 1832; Calvin Coleman, born May 18, 1836, died March 20, 1837; Eliza Sarepta, May 6, 1839; Sabra Matilda, born May 20, 1842, died in 1846; Flora Maria, born September 11, 1848. Submit, the second daughter, born October 10, 1810; married David Hart of Wayne, January 6, 1836; died May 6, 1839. Her children were Henry C., born August 11, 1837; Salmmon, born March 16, 1839. Nathaniel, Jr., the oldest son of Nathaniel Coleman, was born June 12, 1812; married Miss Mary A. Lathan , of Wayne, November 28, 1839. Their children were Nathaniel Latham, born in Wayne, November 1o, 1842, enlisted in the autumn of 1864, as sergeant in Company K, One Hundred and Seventy-seventh Ohio Infantry, died at Cumberland Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, December 1, 1864, and was buried in the United States cemetery, in grave number ten thousand and fourteen, aged twenty-two years and twenty one days; Jennie, born February 5, 1846, married Truman L. Creesey, of Cherry Valley, in April, 1864; Zally, born September 19, 1853. Rachel, the third daughter of Nathaniel Coleman, born August 11, 1814, married William H. Hoisington, of Oberlin, January 28, 1845. Their only child, Sophia Naomi, was born in Parkman, Ohio, March 22, 1846. William, the second son of Nathanial Coleman, born October 25, 1815, died Janurary 13, 1819. Kezia C., born in Wayne, October 4, 1819, married Stephen W. Bailey, of Parkman, Ohio, November 19, 1846. Their children were: Russell Williams, born in Parkman, Ohio, December 5, 1847, died in Wayne, September 29, 1854; Florence Maria, born March 26, 1856, married Kirtland Dillon, of Colebrook, Ohio, May 3, 1876, - their only child, Russell Ernst, born in Wayne, June 25, 1877. William, the third son of Nathaniel Coleman, born in Wayne, November 4, 1822, married Miss Emily Phelps of Cherry Valley, Ohio, March 13, 1851; children, Albertus A., born January 8, 1852, died in Wayne, September 23, 1854; Oliver William, born July 20, 1853; Elliot Seeley, born in Wayne, April 2, 1855; Minnie Viola, born March 26, 1860, married Daniel L. Horton, of Wayne, January 31, 1877. Francis, the youngest son of Nathaniel Coleman, was born in Wayne, July 20, 1827; married Miss Mary R. Miles, of Weymouth, England, January 8, 1852; children, Alphonso Miles, born in Wayne, May 17, 1854; Clifton Royal, born August 16, 1855; Carrie, born January 19, 1862