Vernon Township
Vernon was formed from Fairfield in 1830. Its
settlement bears date among the first in the County. In the middle of
May, 1788, the first party of settlers, nine in number, erected
themselves a temporary residence, and, putting four horses to the plow,
they broke up about ten acres of an old Indian field and planted corn. A
freshet ruined their crop, and it was replanted in June. Those of the
party who settled in Vernon were John Mead, a mile north of the site of
Meadville, David Mead, temporarily south of him, and Cornelius VanHorn,
who found an Indian cabin built upon his tract and moved into it.
Continuing to maintain claims in these early tracts located, some
progress was made in improvement, but until the close of hostilities
with the Indians, numbers remained few and work was restricted to the
vicinity of the creek. In 1791, on May 5, while VanHorn, William Gregg
and Thomas Hay were at work putting in a field of corn, an attack was
made by Indians; Gregg was killed and scalped, and the others captured.
VanHorn, captured first while the others were at dinner, was taken to
the outlet of Conneaut Lake and tied to a tree and left; he cut himself
loose with a toy-knife, and illustrates courage and the anxiety of the
pioneer for his improvements, by going to a small nursery of apple-trees
and weeding around the trees with his hands fettered, to save the
trunks from a possible fire. He was hailed while at work by John
Fredebaugh, and went with him to Mead's house. Some soldiers there soon
left for Franklin; but VanHorn remained to secure some articles, and
passed the night under some trees with two friendly Indians, and next
day went down the stream in a canoe. Hay was taken to Canada, ransomed
by an old friend, and returned to Franklin, thence to Pittsburgh to his
family. In 1794 a military company was formed and VanHorn was chosen
Captain. He lived to take part in the ceremonies of opening the canal,
and saw the fields where he had been surrounded by all the dangers and
solitude of frontier life reclaimed and made to reward the toil of the
husbandman. About 1797 James Davis settled in Vernon, about five miles
west of Meadville. James Burchfield lived adjoining him. Theodore
Scowden was a third settler in the Davis neighborhood. At an early date
a saw-mill was built on VanHorn's Run. Gabriel Davis erected a
grist-mill about eight miles from Meadville, but there was no mill in
the bounds of Vernon. A man named Affentranger kept the first and only
tavern in the township. It was in a frame building which stood about
three miles out from Meadville on the road to Conneaut Lake. About
1817, H. J. Huidekoper built a small saw- and grist-mill on a branch of
the Cussewago. His son Edgar ran it for a time, when it was disposed of
to Gill and Shryack, by whom it was altered and repaired and steam
power introduced. Mr. Carr was a tavern-keeper and store-keeper across
the creek from Meadville, and was proprietor of the suburb bearing his
name.
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