First Settlers of Ashtabula

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="02c285a1erlcgo.gif"> <div> <B>Ashtabula Bicentennial Celebration</B><FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Century Schoolbook" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Century Schoolbook" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Century Schoolbook" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B> </B><A HREF="Home.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ashtabula Bicentennial Celebration"><U><B>Home</B></U></A>           <A HREF="History.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" History "><U>History</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=195 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="02ad4c00dkelyh.gif"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B>First Settlers of Ashtabula</B></I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="574" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1999 ><NOBR><div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="562" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1968 ><NOBR><div> <B><IMG SRC="388ed6b0.gif" border=0 width="237" height="107" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="572" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1827 WIDTH="566"><div> <B>  The First Settlers of  Ashtabula</B></div> <div> <B>   </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0066CC" FACE="Century Schoolbook" ><B>by</B></FONT></div> <div> <B>                                                  Darrell E. Hamilton</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>       </B><B>  The first settler to arrive in the original Ashtabula Township,</B></div> <div> <B>(Ashtabula City,   Ashtabula Township,  Kingsville,  Plymouth and</B></div> <div> <B>Sheffield Townships) arrived in what now is Ashtabula City about</B></div> <div> <B>the beginning of June, 1801. Most likely he came from Connecticut</B></div> <div> <B>but  my  research  has  found  that  he  could have came from some-</B></div> <div> <B>where in the South by the way of   Pennsylvania. Never the less he</B></div> <div> <B>came  alone  and  settled  at  the  Harbor  on the west side near the river. His name was Thomas Hamilton.</B></div> <div> <B>       After pitching his tent, he proceeded with the preparations for the  erection  of  a  log cabin. After the trees were cut and the logs prepared to put into place for his  new home,  Hamilton  was faced with a real dilemma. How was he going to assemble his new home?</B></div> <div> <B>The logs were much  too  heavy  for  one man  to handle.  However,</B></div> <div> <B>luck,  good  fortune,  God  or  whatever  you  want  to call it smiled</B></div> <div> <B>down on Mr. Hamilton. </B></div> <div> <B>       Unlike  Thomas  Hamilton, most early settlers usually traveled</B></div> <div> <B>in groups of families.  Sometimes three  or  four families would tra-</B></div> <div> <B>vel together to a new settlement. Often these families who traveled </B></div> <div> <B>to the Connecticut Western Reserve traveled by boat. As fate might</B></div> <div> <B>have it, a group of  settlers stopped near the  mouth  of   the Ashta-</B></div> <div> <B>bula  River.  Hamilton  offered  the  settlers  the  hospitality of  his</B></div> <div> <B>meager surrounding.  In return for his hospitality, the men helped</B></div> <div> <B>Hamilton erect his new home.</B></div> <div> <B>       Thomas Hamilton spent  almost  two  years  in his new home a-</B></div> <div> <B>mong  the  virgin  forest  of  Ashtabula.   He  hunted  and  probably planted a garden as  most early settlers  brought  seed  with  them.</B></div> <div> <B>The nearest settlement to him was  Austinburg  about  ten miles a-</B></div> <div> <B>way. He rarely ever saw another  human being and loneliness to a</B></div> <div> <B>young  man sometimes is too much to bear. After about two  years,</B></div> <div> <B>Thomas Hamilton moved on.</B></div> <div> <B>     In the spring of 1803, right about the time Thomas Hamilton left</B></div> <div> <B>the area, the first permanent settler arrived in  Ashtabula.  George Beckwith and his family were originally  from Connecticut but did not arrive in  Ashtabula  from  Connecticut.  George  Beckwith was </B></div> <div> <B>one of the first settlers in Austinburg in 1799. After spending about four  years  in  Austinburg,  Beckwith  decided to move close to the</B></div> <div> <B>lake. Chances  are  that  he and his family took up residence in the</B></div> <div> <B>Thomas   Hamilton  cabin  or  at  least incorporated a  part  of  the</B></div> <div> <B>Hamilton cabin into theirs. The settlers of  Austinburg  along with</B></div> <div> <B>George  Beckwith's  brother,  Samuel  Beckwith,  helped  the  Beck-</B></div> <div> <B>withs build and/or  move to their new home. The George Beckwith</B></div> <div> <B>cabin  was  located  just south of  Bridge  Street  and was occupied</B></div> <div> <B>by George, his wife and two very young daughters.</B></div> <div> <B>        In  January 1804,  George  needed to  go to Austinburg for sup-</B></div> <div> <B>plies.  On  his  way  back  home  he encountered a blizzard. George </B></div> <div> <B>was unable to see where he was going but knew he had to keep go</B></div> <div> <B>ing to keep warm. Unable to see,  George walked around a tree un-</B></div> <div> <B>til he had worn a trench around the tree.  Becoming  tired,  he  sat</B></div> <div> <B>down and probably fell asleep  and  froze to  death.  He was found</B></div> <div> <B>about 250  yards south of  what now is  Bunker  Hill  Rd.  near  the Saybrook-Ashtabula line. Thus, George Beckwith became the first</B></div> <div> <B>settler to die in what now is now Ashtabula City.</B></div> <div> <B>      A miscarriage of  justice has been done by some local historians</B></div> <div> <B>in the past. Some historians have credited a later  settler as  being</B></div> <div> <B>the first the first permanent settler in  Ashtabula. What was forgot-</B></div> <div> <B>ten or ignored was the fact that Mrs. George Beckwith remained in</B></div> <div> <B>that log cabin for several years. At the time of her husband's death,</B></div> <div> <B>Mrs.  Beckwith   was  a  very  young  woman  with two very  young</B></div> <div> <B>daughters to support in the wilderness all by herself. Over  a  hun-</B></div> <div> <B>dred years ago, a local historian who had known Granny Beckwith</B></div> <div> <B>as she was called later in her life, wrote the following:</B></div> <div> <B>                "She was a woman of great energy and character.  She </B></div> <div> <B>         deserves to be numbered as a benefactress of her day. She</B></div> <div> <B>         endured great hardships in her lone condition, but she is </B></div> <div> <B>         said to have found means to assist others."</B></div> <div> <B>    Settlers from the east would come with great loaded wagons but</B></div> <div> <B>would  be  stopped at the  river's edge  because of the depth of  the water.  Mrs. Beckwith would know by the depth of the water in the</B></div> <div> <B>stream whether or  not  it was fordable at the crossing place, some</B></div> <div> <B>three-forths of  a mile  below her dwelling. She would row down to</B></div> <div> <B>them in her canoe and offer her assistance. Her method was first to</B></div> <div> <B>ferry the family across the river in her canoe; then she'd direct the</B></div> <div> <B>men to bind  their  load on  strongly; to tie a rope to the end of the</B></div> <div> <B>wagon giving her the other end of the rope to carry in her  Canoe </B></div> <div> <B>to the opposite shore.  Then the oxen having  been  loosened  from </B></div> <div> <B>the wagon,   would   be   driven  into  the  stream  to  swim over  to theother  side.  Mrs. Beckwith  would then have the wagon rolled into the  stream,  hitch  the team  to the  rope  and  then  have  the oxen draw the wagon through the water to the western shore. </B></div> <div> <B>       Once the travelers were across the other side, they would glad-</B></div> <div> <B>ly  pay  Mrs.   Beckwith   for  her   help  which  was much deserved</B></div> <div> <B>and needed by Mrs. Beckwith and her two daughters.</B></div> <div> <B>     Samuel Beckwith, brother of  George Beckwith, seeing the hard-</B></div> <div> <B>ships of his  brother's  wife,  moved  with  his  family  to  Ashtabula</B></div> <div> <B>from  Austinburg   and   settled  on  the  opposite side  of  the river.</B></div> <div> <B>However, Samuel Beckwith himself  would meet an untimely death</B></div> <div> <B>in October of 1813.</B></div> <div> <B>       Mrs.  Beckwith remained  in  Ashtabula for many  years before</B></div> <div> <B>moving to  Sheffield  Township. She died  at  the  age  of  ninety, a</B></div> <div> <B>pauper at the infirmary in Kingsville.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>       </B></div> <div> <B>       </B></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>