Earliest History of Saybrook Township

<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> <FONT SIZE="6" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Century Schoolbook" ><B>Ashtabula Bicentennial Celebration</B></FONT><B>     </B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="Home.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ashtabula Bicentennial Celebration"><U><B>Home</B></U></A><B>        </B><A HREF="History.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" History "><U><B>History</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=177 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="02ad4c00dkelyh.gif"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Earliest History of Saybrook Township</I></div> <div>        </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="596" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 1629 WIDTH="590"><div>                                    <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Century Schoolbook" ><B> Early History of  Saybrook Township</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>   Even  though  Saybrook  Township was not a part of  the original</B></div> <div> <B>Ashtabula  Township,  my book will also be on Saybrook  Township</B></div> <div> <B>as  all  the  surrounding  townships are linked one way or the other.</B></div> <div> <B>Parts of   Saybrook are now a  part  of  Ashtabula  City.  All  the  sur-</B></div> <div> <B>rounding township also share the same school system and the same</B></div> <div> <B>municipal court system.</B></div> <div> <B>    On January 31, 1798, a drawing was held in Hartford, Connecticut.</B></div> <div> <B>Each  township  was given a number which  was then put into a box.</B></div> <div> <B>The investors' names were then arranged alphabetically and a clerk</B></div> <div> <B>drew one number for every name.  Samuel  Mather  Jr.  was awarded </B></div> <div> <B>Township 12, Range 4. Thus, Mathertown (Saybrook was born.</B></div> <div> <B>    Actually Mathertown (Saybrook) was called  West  Mathertown as</B></div> <div> <B>Samuel  Mather  Jr. also purchased another  township in  Ashtabula</B></div> <div> <B>County in which he named East Mathertown. However, Mather died</B></div> <div> <B>and  his  Saybrook  land  was  turned  over  to  another   Connecticut</B></div> <div> <B>Land Co. investor, William Hart. Hart then sold the entire township,</B></div> <div> <B>with the exception of one lot, to Josiah  and  Samuel  Wright. By  the</B></div> <div> <B>year  1809,  (West)  Mathertown  became  Wrightsburg.  East  Mather-town later on became known as Sheffield.</B></div> <div> <B>   Josiah Wright also died before he could make good on his title. Due</B></div> <div> <B>to legal complications,  the Wrights,  although were the first to  actu-ally  purchase  land  in  Saybrook  and  had  given  the  township  the name Wrightsburg, were not to become the first settlers.</B></div> <div> <B>       The first settler to  settle  in   Saybrook  was by  accident. George</B></div> <div> <B>Webster,  a young man of fifteen and his widowed mother were look-</B></div> <div> <B>ing  for  a  new  home  and  a  better  life  when they left their home in Courtwright, New York. </B></div> <div> <B>   They traveled by the way of Cooperstown, Utica and Buffalo where</B></div> <div> <B>they  were  told   there  was  no  settlement  west  until  they  reached </B></div> <div> <B>Cattaraugus, New York. To reach the settlement, they were instruct-</B></div> <div> <B>ed to kept to the beach for about  eight  miles  and  then  they  would</B></div> <div> <B>find a marked road through the woods. </B></div> <div> <B>     Proceeding  along  the  shores  of   Lake  Erie,  the  Websters came </B></div> <div> <B>upon a spot that they were certain was the  "marked road"   and turn-</B></div> <div> <B>ed  inward.   They   traveled  on until dark but did not find  anything</B></div> <div> <B>but dense forest and wild animals.</B></div> <div> <B>     At nightfall, they camped until dawn and then set out again. With-</B></div> <div> <B>in a few hours,  they came upon a log cabin  and were joyous to find a</B></div> <div> <B>white settler. Their joy was not long lived as they were informed that</B></div> <div> <B>they had come exactly the right distance in the wrong direction. The</B></div> <div> <B>settler,  a  Mr. Cummings,  advised  them  to  return  to  the beach and</B></div> <div> <B>start  over.  He  also  agreed  to  be  their  guide as far as the shores of </B></div> <div> <B>Lake Erie. Three days later, they arrived at the  Ashtabula River,  far</B></div> <div> <B>from Cattaraugus, New York. </B></div> <div> <B>     Not  knowing  the  depth  of the creek (Ashtabula River), they were</B></div> <div> <B>considering  which  course  to  take  when  a  canoe  paddled  over  to</B></div> <div> <B>them.   A  friendly  woman  advised  them  that  she  could  help  them </B></div> <div> <B>across in exchange for a small  amount  of  supplies  or   money.  They </B></div> <div> <B>happily agreed to the terms.</B></div> <div> <B>     When the Websters, their wagon and their team were safely across</B></div> <div> <B>the  river,  they  learned  the  hard  working  woman  was Mrs. George</B></div> <div> <B>Beckwith, the mother and wife of the first family to settle  Ashtabula.</B></div> <div> <B>She related to  Mrs. Webster,  also a widow, how she lost her husband </B></div> <div> <B>in a snow storm returning from Austinburg for supplies. </B></div> <div> <B>    The Websters then went on to become the first settlers in Saybrook</B></div> <div> <B>Township  but  not  by  much.  Another  settler,  Joseph  Hotchkiss of </B></div> <div> <B>Harpersfield  had  purchased  land  just  west  of  the Webster's cabin.</B></div> <div> <B>The   Hotchkiss  family  built  their  log  cabin  and  moved  in the day </B></div> <div> <B>after the Websters moved into their log cabin. </B></div> <div> <B>      Wrightsburg had originally  been a  part of  Austinburg Township.</B></div> <div> <B>It was not until 1816  that  organization made it a separate township</B></div> <div> <B>of its own. It remained  Wrightsburg  until  1827  when it became Say-</B></div> <div> <B>brook. Its new name coming from Saybrook, Connecticut.</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="731" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 348 ><NOBR><div> <B><IMG SRC="39df0560.jpg" border=0 ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" width="240" height="342"></B></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="496"><bR> <bR> <div>            <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Century Schoolbook" ><I><B>Old Saybrook,</B></I></FONT></div> <div> <I><B>         Connecticut</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.oldsaybrookct.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.oldsaybrookct.com"><U><I><B>http://www.oldsaybrookc</B></I></U></A><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Century Schoolbook" ><A HREF="http://www.oldsaybrookct.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.oldsaybrookct.com"><U><I><B>t.com</B></I></U></A></FONT></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> <B>  </B></div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>