which are excellent, wild currants, gooseberries, cranberries and nuts
of different sorts in vast quantities. Hops, high
balm, ginseng, bloodroot, evin root or chocolate root, and many other
kinds of roots and herbage, of valuable properties, are the spontaneous
growth of Mead as well as of other townships in the county of Crawford.
"Health, the greatest of all merely temporal blessings, is nowhere more
prevalent than in this part of the country. Instances of the goitres
are occasionally found, which are probably caused by the common family
use of pure,
cold spring water, but are seldom accompanied with much inconvenience."
Mead Township was the place of the first settlement in Crawford County.
As stated in a previous chapter of this volume, a company of nine men
on the 12th day of May, 1788, landed at the site of Meadville, having
journeyed into the midst of the vast wilderness from Northumberland
County. The outlook was a gloomy one. They were far from any white
settlements and poorly supplied with the means of making a livelihood.
Most of the
men returned to the East, where if they must live with less
independence they could at least enjoy more of the comforts of life.
When Indian hostilities began all were obliged to forsake their homes
till the storm blew over. For
several years prior to 1795 there was doubtless little if any permanent
settlement in the township or county beyond the fort at Meadville,
though for a few years previous clearings were made and crops raised by
the venturesome
pioneers, working in bands for mutual protection David Mead patented a
tract on the west bank of French Creek about one mile above Meadville,
but in the fall of 1788 removed to the site of Meadville, abandoned by
Thomas
Grant. John Mead and Cornelius Van Horn, two early pioneers, became
life-long settlers in what is now Vernon Township. James Fitz Randolph,
another of the original settlers of 1788, located a tract about two
miles south of
Meadville in this township. Samuel Lord, John Wentworth and Frederick
Haymaker, among others, followed the Mead company to French Creek.
Samuel Lord settled on the tract "Mount Hope," the site of North
Meadville.
He had been a Revolutionary soldier and a noted Indian fighter. He kept
a store in Meadville and had a large trade with the Indians, whose
good-will he possessed and whose speech he had acquired. He was a
Federalist in
politics and took a leading interest in public affairs.
The settlement was increased in 1789 by Darius Mead, Frederick Baum and
Robert Fitz Randolph. Mr. Fitz Randolph was born in Essex County, N.
J.; he married when young and removed to Pennsylvania He served
during the Revolution, and at its close took up his residence in
Northumberland County. In 1789 he with his family immigrated to French
Creek, arriving at Meadville, July 6. He settled at once on a farm two
miles below,
where he remained until his death, July 16, 1830, in his eighty-ninth
year. During the war of 1812, in one of the alarms occasioned by the
approach of the enemy at Erie, he mustered his household, consisting of
four sons and
two or three grandsons, and placing himself at their head marched to
meet the expected foe. He was then in his seventy-second year and
before reaching Erie was induced to return His sons James, Edward,
Robert, Taylor and
Esaac were also pioneers.
Frederick Baum settled on a tract which be patented, situated about a
mile farther down French Creek, in the southwest part of Mead Township.
He was a German. John Baum, who was one of the earliest settlers in the
same
vicinity, was reputed the strongest man in the settlements.
The northwest corner of Mead Township consists of a tract patented by
Thomas Ray. He was one of the earliest to migrate to the western
wilderness, and in the spring of 1791, on the day Cornelius Van Horn was
taken
prisoner,
he also was captured by Indians near Meadville, where his companion, William Gregg, was killed. Ray
was taken to Detroit, and alter his release returned to Mead Township
and completed his settlement on French Creek, where he remained through
life. He was a native Scotchman, and like many of his countrymen
indulged
freely in the potent cup. His family is scattered, and one of his sons,
Thomas, became a noted Methodist minister.
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