Brief on Indian Lands. n. d. 17 pp. 16 pp. The Canals in Relation to the Farmers. 1887. 22 pp. Influence of Socialism on the Ohio Constitution. 7 pp. (In North American Review, November, 1912.) Ohio Constitution. 2 pp. (In North American Review, February, 1913.) The State Library and Its Founder. 9 pp. (In Ohio Archæological and Historical Publications, Vol. 28, pp. 98-107.) AND SHAKESPEARE* BY T. C. MENDENHALL The two ends of my topic seem widely separated, both in space and in time; thousands of miles in space and hundreds of years in time. The object of this paper is to bridge this gap; to give some information about the one, and to show how its story may be of tremendous significance to the other. First, then, the Town of Tallmadge. I use the word "town" in that larger, finer sense in which it is generally used in New England; redolent of the "town meeting", the best example of a pure democracy. It is geographically equivalent to the more common term "township". But in New England and originally in that part of the state of Ohio in which is the Town of Tallmadge, it implies a more intimate association of all the people of the district. In accord with this idea, the geographical center of these small political units, where will be found, almost invariably, the postoffice, church, general store, etc., is not differentiated from other parts by a separate name, but is known simply as "the center". In Portage County we speak of Randolph and Randolph Center; of Atwater and Atwater Center, and there is undeniably a more unified or "community" sentiment throughout the twenty-five square miles of the "town" than is usual in similar areas designated as "townships", in which the *Address at annual meeting of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, September 19, 1923. principal village is often not near the geographical center and generally bears an entirely different name. Thus, although throughout the Western Reserve the name "township" is used as the proper legal designation, the distinction is still recognized in the general use of the township name alone, as meaning the twenty-five square miles of territory, and not the village which may be within its borders. So when I speak of the "Town of Tallmadge" I mean the twenty-five square miles of territory to which. the name "Tallmadge" belongs. In this company even a brief résumé of the incidents leading to the creation of the Town of Tallmadge may be considered an entirely unjustifiable and even unpardonable assumption of ignorance regarding national and state history, but on the chance that some may have forgotten what all once knew, I remind you that in the year of our Lord, 1662, when Kings and Emperors were generous in giving away what they never possessed, Charles II of England granted to his Connecticut Colony all the land between the 41st and 42nd degrees of north latitude, from the western boundary of the state to the Pacific ocean; a princely gift of about 185,000 square miles, or four and a half times the area of the state of Ohio. There were excepted such parts as had been already occupied by properly authorized settlers; but the aggressive Connecticut colony undertook to assert its rights under this charter and became involved in disputes with colonial authorities of both New York and Pennsylvania. The Revolutionary War put an end to this quarrel and at its conclusion the state of Connecticut ceded to Congress all claims under this charter for ter ritory west of the state of Pennsylvania, reserving, however, a strip bounded on the east by the Pennsylvania line; on the south by the 41st parallel of north latitude extending west to a point one hundred and twenty miles from the Pennsylvania line, through which point a meridian constitutes the western boundary, while Lake Erie furnishes the northern. Thus was created the Western Reserve or "New Connecticut" as it was more often called a hundred years ago. Its area is approximately 6,000 square miles, or nearly four million acres. All but a half million acres, lying at the western end of the strip, was soon afterward sold to the Connecticut Land Company for $1,200,000.00, which sum became a part of the irreducible school fund of the state of Connecticut. In charge of the survey and mapping of this tract was Moses Cleaveland, whose name is borne by Ohio's most populous city. The whole was at first included in a single county organization, created in the year 1800, and bearing the name of the most distinguished of Connecticut families, one member of which, Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., famous soldier and statesman, was at that time governor of the state. The phrase "Brother Jonathan" which fifty years ago was used almost as frequently as "Uncle Sam" is today, is supposed to refer to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., also governor under both kingdom and republic, and an intimate friend and valiant supporter of George Washington. In this survey towns were made five miles square, (smaller than in any other part of the state,) their bounds being as nearly as possible meridians and parallels of latitude. In 1807 Portage County was formed, including much of what is now Summit County, the latter being organized in 1840. Thus our Town of Tallmadge has been a part of three different county organizations, though during the period of its history in which we are especially interested it was a part of Portage County. As an easy way of describing its location I may say that in recent years it has been despoiled to satisfy the insatiable appetite of the Rubber Tire, the city of Akron having taken a good bite out of its southwestern corner, while the northwestern corner has fallen prey to the hunger of the municipality of Cuyahoga Falls. Previous to the year 1807 it had neither name nor white inhabitants. In July of that year came David Bacon, missionary and colonist, in both capacities perhaps one of the most conspicuous and certainly one of the finest and most successful failures of his time. I say this because, though measured by all or any of the ordinary standards of success his work, both as missionary and colonist, was an almost irredeemable failure, his unselfish devotion to the betterment of the condition of his fellows; his readiness to undergo the severest hardships; to travel on foot for hundreds of miles through dense, unblazed forests, clad as the aborigines and often suffering from hunger and thirst; his apparently unbreakable courage and buoyancy of disposition; all these, together with the inborn nobility of his character, go to make of David Bacon a truly heroic figure. In the year 1800 he was sent by the Missionary Society of Connecticut to service among the Indian tribes on the border of Lake Erie. He was then about forty years of age, an idealist and a dreamer. Vol. XXXII - 38. |