The First White Man to Die in Wayne County
An excerpt from
The History of Wayne County
by
Benjamin Douglass
Published
1878
The first white man who died in Wayne county was Alexander Crawford, brother of Josiah Crawford, the owner then of what is now known as Bahl's mill. Shortly after his arrival in Wooster, his horse was stolen from him by the Indians. He immediately started in pursuit of the savage thieves, going on foot, which was at that time the popular method of travel. He persevered in his search as far as Upper Sandusky, but failing to overtake or capture them, he abandoned the pursuit. On his return he could obtain no water to drink, save what lay in pools in the woods and by the roots of fallen trees, and being very dry, was compelled to slake his thirst with this green-scummed and poisoned water. This was in 1808, and his pathway was amid the solitudes and stolid glooms of dense and dreary woods. On his return to Wooster, he was burning with a violent fever, when he found a stopping place, and to him a dying place, under the protecting roof of William Larwill.
He was sick but a few days, and died in the small office of Mr. Larwill's store, which was situated on the grounds known now as the drug store of Harvey Howard, No. 4 Emporium Block. Mr. Larwill describes his sufferings as being terrible. He had no medical aid. For him "there was no balm in Gilead, there was no physician there."
How, and Where Buried
Near the present First M. E. church the proprietors of Wooster, William Henry, John Bever and Joseph H. Larwill, had laid out and donated to the town what was called the ''Public Graveyard." Here his remains were interred. John Larwill, Benjamin Miller, William Larwill, Abraham Miller, and one or two others dug the grave and buried him. His coffin was made of rough boards by Benjamin Miller and his son Abraham, and he was carried to his final repose upon spikes of wood on which the coffin rested. His grave no one can identify. The sombre years have swept over it, and it casts no shadow unless upon some stricken heart. The death-ground holds him, and his sleep is as sweet as if under the granite shaft.
I heard this story as a kid. What is interesting to point out in this story is this. Back in 1972 I was born at Wooster Community Hospital. My parents owned a home in the 300 block of West Larwill. To give reference, this would be between Larwill Street to the north and North Street to the South, Grant Street to the East and Columbus Avenue to the West.
ReplyDeleteBefore 1853, the townspeople of Wooster buried their dead either in small family cemeteries or in church cemeteries. It might have stayed this way, if not for the efforts of Kimball Porter, John Larwill, Cyrus Spink, John Coulter, Constant Lake, James Johnson, James Jacobs, Ephraim Quinby, Henry Lehman, Lucas Flattery, Levi Cox, Eugene Pardee, Reason B. Stibbs, Horace Howard, and David Robison. Together, these prominent businessmen of Wooster founded the Wooster Cemetery Association with the intention of building a private cemetery for all of Wooster’s citizens. They purchased the land across from Madison Hill, just south of Wooster, for an average $100 per acre of land. Today, the Wooster Cemetery Association is still thriving and continues to expand with the generous help of community members.
However late 1800 maps show "Public Graveyard" primarily in the eastern portion of the public block I described above which would be between about 1850 to 1900. 1904 maps show the current Wooster Cemetery was established south of Wooster off of Madison Hill or Madison Avenue.
We found dates on the chimney of 1856 or 1858. It was hard to make out the last figure. To my understanding, the house at 320 West Larwill was the original farm stead for that block. The was a spring house and out house directly behind the house and the old barn sat where the alley is and intersects both Grant Street and Columbus Avenue.
We are not exactly sure when the transition took place to move those buried in the "Public Graveyard" to Wooster Cemetery. However, as a kid I do recall in the late 1970's some houses were torn down that sat facing North Street and some shadow graves where unearthed exposing human remains. Of course at first it was treated as a homicide but quickly discovered that they were some of the graves from back in the late 1800's that were missed when graves were transferred to the Wooster Cemetery.
After attending the Wayne County Joint Vocational School or back then known as "The Joint" for carpentry construction, I did some remodeling work on my parents home. In the real horse hair plaster constructed walls, I found rings, documents and some love letters. I'm not sure what happened to this stuff as I gave it to my parents. One of rings I sold and bought one of my ex's wedding rings and the rest was used to fund our wedding. Sad mistake looking bad now.
We had neighbors, a black woman and her sister with the last name of Woods. They were the sweetest kindest ladies a kid could know. I'm not sure when they the bought the residence but I do recall the one sister saying their family came from the Pittsburg, Pa., area. There was a big old oak tree behind the house that later became a "widow maker". The Woods used to make a bon-fire and tell a ghostly tale of the cemetery there and the widow maker oak tree was the stairway to hell. It also allowed the spirits of those who founded Wooster and buried there to watch over the neighborhood. If we were not good, the spirits would come get us. (laughing) Of course we believed it and loved spending time with the Woods sisters! They were awesome cooks as well.
It wasn't until I rebuilt my parents garage and had the lot surveyed that we found issues (boundary lines were off) that we discovered from early land survey maps the that back portion of our yard used to be a graveyard.
Just some interesting local tidbits to include in the history of my hometown.
-Dean Guy