ASHTABULA COUNTY OHIO 
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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

 " The Rev. Ephraim Treadwell Woodruff was born at Farmington, Connecticut,
 October 17, 1777, and was the youngest son of Timothy Woodruff, by his first
 wife, Lucy Treadwell, sister of John Treadwell, one of the governors of
 Connecticut.  He graduated at Yale college in 797. Rev. James Murdock, who, in
 1848, wrote a work entitled "Brief Memoirs of the Class of 1797," says in his
 preface to that work:  "The class of 1797 is distinguished for the longevity of its
 members, twenty-four out of thirty-seven, or about two-thirds of all that graduated,
 being alive after a separation of half a century."  He also says:  "It was
 distinguished for the uniform good scholarship of its members."  Among its
 graduates are such well-known names as Henry Baldwin, Judge of the Supreme
 Court of Connecticut; Lyman Beecher, D.D., Judge Thomas Day, official reporter
 of the Supreme Court of Connecticut; and Horatio Seymour, Sr.  Mr. Woodruff
 after finishing his theological course as the pupil of Reverand Charles Backus,
 D.D., of Somers, Connecticut, and teaching the academy at Stonington one year,
 was ordained pastor of the church in North Coventry, Tolland County, Connecticut.
  His health failed him in 1817 so much that he resigned his pastoral charge, and
 he took a commission from the Missionary Society of Connecticut to labor on the
 "Connecticut Western Reserve in Ohio."  He, however, stopped for one year at
 Little Falls, Herkimer County, New York, and taught an academy.  He arrived in
 Wayne, Ashtabula County, in April, 1819, and became the first pastor of the
 church, settling upon a tract of land which he purchased from Issacher Jones, of
 Connecticut, all heavily timbered, and upon which the sound of the woodman's
 axe had not been heard; but with the generous aid of such stout hands and hearts
 as were possessed by Nathaniel Coleman, Samuel Tuttle, Jonathan Tuttle,
 Norman Wilcox, Joseph Ford, Deacon Ezra Leonard, Samuel Jones, Deacon
 Calvin Andrews, Simon Fobes, Titus Hayes, Elisha Giddings, and Joshua
 Giddings, he soon erected a log house, in which his family consisting of his wife
 and sister and six children, were made as comfortable as any of his
 congregation.  He preached one half of his time in Wayne, while the remainder (of
 his time) was spent in missionary work and in the distribution of Bibles all through
 the wilderness for more than fifty miles in every direction from his home.  On that
 same spot he died, on the twenty-sixth day of November, 1859, at the age of
 eight-two years.   On his death bed, being in great pain, he said to his youngest
 son:  "This is a rough road to travel, but its roughness has elevated spots, from
 which I see 'the city' beyond."

 Mr. Woodruff was married October 7, 1801, to Sally Alden, ophan daughter of
 Jonathan Alden, a lineal descendant of John Alden, the pilgrim of Plymouth Rock
 of that name.  She died in 1829.  In 1832 he married Susan Porter.  He had no
 children by his second wife.  His oldest daughter, born in 1804, was the wife of
 The Honorable Seth Hayes, of Hartford, Trumbull County.  She died in 1850.
  Phoebe married Dr. T.J. Kellogg, of Girard, Erie County, Pennsylvania.  Jonathan
 Alden, a graduate of Hamilton College, and Presbyterian Minister, died
 September 12, 1876, at Imlay City, Michigan.  Harriet died in 1828, at the age of
 eighteen years.  Charlotte Maria, who married J.B. Clark, of Kelloggsville,
 Ashtabula County, removed to Michigan, and died in 1871. Samuel Ebenezer,
 born March 31, 1817, is an attorney-at-law, and with his son, Thomas S.,
 constitutes the firm of S.E.&T.S. Woodruff, attorneys-at-law, Erie, Pennsylvania,
 and in which county the senior partner of the firm has practiced his profession for
 thirty-four years.

 The first meeting-house in Wayne was erected in 1816.  A graveyard was opened
 upon the tract of land purchased, as before mentioned, by Mr. Woodruff.  The
 meeting- house was in dimensions twenty-eight by thirty-six feet, built of logs
 hewn only on the inside.  A board pulpit, ascended by five steps, stood at the
 north end; a singers' gallery, six steps high, of the same material, extended
 across the south end, with wings about ten feet along the east and west sides.  A
 hearth of rough cobble stones, about six feet square, in the centre of the building,
 without either chimney or stove pipe, was the only fire place previous to 1825.  At
 first most of the seats were slabs without backs; but they were crowded with true,
 faithful worshippers every Sabbath day.  They were not of the fair weather kind.
  At the right of the pulpit sat the elder Deacon Leonard.  He generally selected
 and read the hymns; he was a noble man, six feet in height, with flowing white
 hair, knee and shoe buckles, faultlessly clean, white bosom, rich, sonorous voice,
 and one of the best readers.  In the west wing of the gallery Elisha Giddings was
 the leading bass singer; in the centre, Captain Levi Leonard led the tenor,
 assisted by his nephew, Marvin Leonard, son of the deacon, and who, some time
 after the death of his father, which occurred in 1829, became a deacon of the
 church.  Linus H. Jones was one of the prominent members of the choir,
 composed of about twenty persons.  The music was of a high order, on account of
 the heart and soul it possessed.  This meeting-house  stood on the identical spot
 where the Reverand George Roberts, a subsequent pastor, lived immediately
 before his death.  It was burned down about the year 1829.  The church was highly
 prosperous, and its membership was increased to more than two hundred.

 The chief obstacle to Mr. Woodruff's usefulness as a pastor was the bronchial
 complaint that compelled him to leave Coventry.  This affected his utterance so
 much as to make it difficult at times for him to be heard by a large audience; yet it
 is doubtful if his efficiency and usefulness as a pastor were much affected for
 many years; yet it detracted somewhat from his popularity as an orator, though his
 success and reputation as such fully sustained the character ascribed to him by
 an eastern contemporary, "He was an excellent pastor."  He continued in the
 pastoral relation of the original church until about 1835, when the infirmities of
 age, and the consequent failure of his vocal powers and hearing, induced him to
 resign, and attend church as a listener, often standing in a leaning poition upon
 the front of the pulpit, so that his dull ears might not fail to catch each word that fell
 from the lips of the speaker.  In a letter to his son, Samuel, dated December 7,
 1856, he says:  "On the Lord's day, I get out with my family, without fail, and attend
 to my Bible-class of aged members, who gather together with great regularity,
 with the simplicity of little children, to receive instruction.  I wait upon them with
 great delight."  In further addressing his son in regard to his hope, confidence,
 and appreciation of the great refuge, as he was nearing the end of his days upon
 earth, in closing, he says: 

 "If thou, my Jesus, still art nigh, 
 Cheerful I live, and cheerful die:
 When mortal comforts flee,
 To find ten thousand worlds in Thee.

 Great King of Grace, my heart subdue;
 I would be led in triumph too,
 A willing captive to my Lord,
 And sing the triumphs of His word."

 Among the former residents of the township of Wayne no family is more kindly
 remembered or associated with stronger ties of friendship and appreciation, than
 that of Ephraim T. Woodruff."