CUYAHOGA COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: Brooklyn
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Betty Ralph
bralph@HiWAAY.net
March 18, 1999
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About a year ago I transcribed numerous articles on Cuyahoga and Portage
counties, OH, from "Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve"
published under the auspices of the Woman's Department of the Cleveland
Centennial Commission in 1896, edited by Mrs. Gertrude Van Rensselaer
Wickham.  The articles contain many details about the lives of the early
settlers. 
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                      Brooklyn

The northern boundary of this township was once bounded by 
Lake Erie, but in 1836 that part of it became "Ohio City,"
and years later was annexed to Cleveland.  Its present 
boundaries are Independence on the east and Parma on the 
south.

Its first settlers were the BRAINARD and FISH families from 
Haddam, Ct., in the fall of 1811.  These two families inter-
married so often that it is safe to conclude that every 
Brooklyn BRAINARD one meets is descended from the first 
pioneer who bore the name of FISH and that every FISH that 
still resides in the township had a BRAINARD ancestor.

Ozias BRAINARD with his family, riding in a wagon drawn by 
oxen, left Old Haddam for Brooklyn and were six weeks on the 
road, only stopping long enough to eat, sleep and washing 
their clothes.  Their house was the first one built on the 
south side of Big Creek, and the first apple trees in the 
vicinity were brought by them from the east.  Two of these 
are still living and bearing fruit.

The nearest neighbor of the family was a squaw who, one day, 
appealed for food for her hungry papooses.  As Mrs. BRAINARD 
had no bread in the house, she baked a quick johnny cake 
over the coals in the fireplace, and gave her a share which 
was gratefully received.  Mrs. BRAINARD helped to found the 
First Methodist church of Brooklyn.

In 1815 came Jerusha RAY (Mrs. Amos BRAINARD) and Dorothy 
ELY (Mrs. William BRAINARD).  Harriet and Charlotte, 
daughters of the latter, have lived single in the old home.  
They were fine looking women and so witty and genial that 
their society was much sought and young girls were always 
delighted to receive an invitation to the home of the 
"BRAINARD girls."  The sisters made a beautiful home and 
an art of housekeeping.

Other daughters of the family were Philema and Jerusha.  
George BRAINARD married Delight HILL of Twinsburg.  Their 
two daughters grew up in a home of plenty and their 
characters were formed by kind and upright parents.  Mary 
married Samuel SLOAN and lives in West Virginia, Annie 
became Mrs. Sherry FISH and lives in Brooklyn.

In 1815 Jeremiah GATES came from Delhi, N.Y., on foot in 
order to examine the country between that place and 
Brooklyn.  Satisfied with his survey, he returned home, 
married Phoebe DEMING and started back with her, making the 
trip, this time, with horse and wagon to Buffalo and thence 
to Cleveland by boat.

Their only daughter, Matilda, was the first white child born 
in the township.  She married Isiah FISH, and died at the 
age of thirty-three.

As early as 1814, Seth BRAINARD with his wife Delilah came 
from Haddam, Ct., and bought a large tract of land, adding 
to it from time to time, until it numbered 100 acres.  A 
fine inheritance for their children.

The same year came Elijah YOUNG and his wife Candace, also 
their son Warren and wife Mary DEAN.  A covered wagon drawn 
by oxen brought them on they journey from Chatham, Ct., in 
forty days.  They settled on farms in fine locations and put 
up their log cabins, one a double one.

The Seneca Indians were not infrequent callers, were 
friendly, but too much inclined to beg.  Flour for some time 
was $18.00 a barrel, and brave Mary DEAN YOUNG had to 
exercise much forethought in providing bread for her little 
flock until land could be cleared for a crop of wheat.  Once 
she was forced to open the oven door and remove the top 
crust of a johnny cake she was baking to quiet the hungry 
crying of her children.

Candace was a sprightly little lady, and always walked to 
the "village," as she called what is now the city of 
Cleveland, even after it had grown to be one of good size.

Her son, Warren YOUNG, was the first settler to construct a 
road through Big Creek valley.  This was a serious but very 
necessary undertaking since the "Loaf Hills" in rainy 
seasons supplied mud of the most baffling nature.  Also he 
started the first toll gate kept in the township.

One of his daughters recalls her alarm when a big Indian, 
standing in the doorway of the road house, uttered a war 
whoop with all the power of his lungs.  It was, however, 
only an expression of good feeling as he stalked away with 
the tobacco he had just begged.

Warren YOUNG kept the first tavern in the settlement, which 
means that Mary had to prepare beds and meals at all hours 
of the day or night.  For many years this place, under 
different managers, was a tavern site.

Their three daughters Emmeline, Harriet and Emily, always 
resided in the township.  Emmeline became the wife of Lawton 
ROSS, and the hospitality of her home was proverbial.  They 
had no children but adopted two orphans, William CUSHMAN and 
Mary GREEN.  Out of this grew a romance, for, when arrived 
at a suitable age, the pair were married.

Emmeline passed away at the age of eighty in the home to 
which she came as a bride.  She had a gentle, sweet nature 
and was beloved by all.

Emily became Mrs. Samuel LOCKWOOD, and like her sisters was 
a notable housekeeper.

Harriet married Willard BRAINARD.  Their daughters, Emmeline 
BRAINARD now Mrs. Abel FISH; Clarissa, Mrs. Leonard FISH; 
and Celia, Mrs. Lewis BRAINARD, settled near the childhood 
home.

Sarah B. YOUNG, who may have been a sister of Warren YOUNG, 
was born in East Haddam, Ct., came to Brooklyn in 1819, and 
married Jonathan FISH.  George AIKEN of Haddam, Ct., aged 
forty-five years, and his wife, Tamzen HIGGINS, aged forty-
three, came to Brooklyn in 1811.  Mrs. AIKEN survived her 
husband nearly a quarter of a century, dying when a very old 
lady.

Her children were Cyrel, Jared, Julia, Laura, Caroline and 
William.  They intermarried with the families of the 
earliest settlers.  Cyrel married Harriet RUSSELL, Jared 
married Julia BRAINARD and lived in Amherst, Ohio, Caroline 
married Diodate CLARK, and William married Betsey CLARK, 
sister of Diodate.

Julia AIKEN married Alonzo CARTER, son of Lorenzo of 
Cleveland, and kept tavern with her husband on the West side 
opposite the foot of Superior St.  A Julia AIKEN, also 
daughter of George and Tamison (or Tamzen) AIKEN, is 
recorded as being the wife of a RATHBUN, secondly of Abner 
COCHRAN.

Betsey CLARK AIKEN lived to be ninety-one years old.  She is 
said to have been a most worthy pioneer, and held in the 
highest respect.

Joseph and Hannah COLE CLARK also lived in Haddam, Ct.  Mr. 
CLARK died, and his widow with all but one of her ten 
children came to Brooklyn among its earliest settlers.  Her 
children were of the foremost element of progress in the 
town and connected with leading families of Brooklyn and 
Cleveland.

They were Joseph, who married Clarissa DICKENSON; Corey, who 
married Mary SKINNER; and Diodate, who married Caroline 
AIKEN.

There were also six daughters in this family:  Ruth, who 
became Mrs. Isaac ROBINSON; Mary, Mrs. Joseph BRAINARD; 
Phoebe, Mrs. Warren ELY; Betsey, Mrs. William AIKEN; Maria, 
Mrs. Erastus SMITH of Warrensville.  Lydia and Hannah were 
the wives successively of Sylvanus BROOKS of Newburgh.

Martin KELLOGG, born in Chatham, Ct., in 1793 married Laura 
ADAMS, daughter of Benjamin ADAMS of West Chester, Mass., in 
1818.  Soon after, accompanied by his young wife, he started 
with others for a new home in Brooklyn.  They traveled as 
was the usual way, by ox team, and it also took the usual 
time for the journey, forty days.

They settled upon a farm upon a part of which their son now 
lives in a fine residence.  Mrs. KELLOGG’s children were all 
sons and, lacking sisters, they must have had to assist 
their mother in her household work more than is usual for 
boys to do.

Alfred married Louise ACKLEY, daughter of Asa ACKLEY, and 
old settler who lived on a farm near the Infirmary.

Among the noble pioneer women of Brooklyn was Mrs. Isaac 
HINCKLEY, nee Sarah SHEPARD of Chatham, Ct., who arrived 
here with her family in 1815.  She had seven children, four 
of whom were daughters.  They brought two ox teams, two 
cows, a horse and a dog.  One of the wagons contained the 
household goods.  The most valuable were the loom and 
spinning wheel, also the precious store of provisions that 
were to last the large family until the land was cleared and 
made productive.  They reached their future home in the 
forest after six weeks of steady travel, and found 
themselves five miles from the little hamlet of Cleveland.  
The wilderness swarmed with bears, wolves, panthers, deer 
and other wild animals.  Fires were kept burning all night 
and day, alternately fed by Mr. and Mrs. HINCKLEY for 
protection.  Wolves came so close at night that they could 
hear the rustling of the leaves and twigs under their feet, 
also Indians passed closely by frequently, but usually were 
friendly, though their presence was always terrifying.

The log cabin had but two rooms and a loft reached by a 
ladder, where the children slept.  The huge chimney was 
built of mud and cement, while the floor was of hewn logs.  
The loft was so open that the children could count the stars 
through the wide cracks, and often in winter snow would beat 
in over the bed and floor.

Mrs. HINCKLEY was a typical pioneer’s wife, standing by her 
husband’s side, day after day, burning brush or tilling the 
unclaimed land.  The first year was one of peril and 
anxiety, for the store of provisions brought from 
Connecticut became so low that starvation threatened.  For 
months they lived on pounded corn made into mush, 
supplemented by occasional game.  Once Mr. HINCKLEY tried to 
mortgage his farm of 200 acres for a barrel of flour, so 
great was the extremity.  But no flour could be obtained.

Like every other pioneer’s home, Mrs. HINCKLEY’s shuttle 
played no insignificant part in the home.  Emily and Lucy 
were not old enough to be useful, but even the younger ones 
soon learned to wind bobbins for their mother.  

It was a God-loving home.  Morning and evening the bible was 
read, hymns sung, and earnest prayers were given for divine 
guidance.  The nearest church was two miles distant, at 
first only a school-house, and it was the custom of the 
HINCKLEY children, as well as others to carry their shoes 
and stockings in their hands until within sight of the 
church, then sit down on a log and put them on, thus saving 
the wear of those precious articles at the expense of their 
feet.

These children were an honor to their mother after leaving 
the home nest.  The youngest surviving one died in Iowa aged 
eighty-four.  Emily married Herrick GOULD, and died in 
Newburgh in 1849.  She was the mother of Mrs. Oliver 
HARTZELL of Cleveland.  Lucy married Starkweather BRANCH of 
Cleveland, in 1827, and died the same year.  Cleantha 
married Phineas SHEPARD, Jr., of Cleveland and died in 1886.  
She was the mother of Mrs. G. GUILFORD of Cleveland and Mrs. 
A. W. MEREDITH of Washington, Iowa.

Sarah HINCKLEY became Mrs. C.S. GATES of Brooklyn, and died 
in 1873, leaving four sons.

Mrs. Demas BRAINARD (Nancy) who came from Haddam, Ct., in 
1818, had three daughters and a son who were all born in the 
township.  Phoebe marred Alfred FISH, Lucinda married 
Leonard HUNTLEY, Betsey remained single, and Luther married 
Marcia SPRAGUE of Parma.  She was born in Keene, N.H.

In 1824 Nathaniel GATES and his wife, Nancy SMITH, with her 
sister, Sally SMITH, came from Chatham, Ct., after a short 
stay in Delhi, N.Y.  Their daughter Caroline married Dan 
WILLIAMS.  Sally became Mrs. James PATTERSON and Mary GATES 
remained unmarried.

The settlement had now become prosperous.  Roads through the 
hilly country surrounding had been laid out with the hardest 
kind of work.  Good feeling prevailed as the settlers were 
mostly connected by marriage or by strong bonds of sympathy.  
But pioneer life was not all toil by any means, for much 
visiting back and forth kept warm the friendships.  These 
visits were made in ox carts or on horseback.

About 1837 Levi LOCKWOOD and his wife, Tamison, came from 
Madrid, N.Y., with their grown-up family and kept the 
Brooklyn tavern.  Their three daughters, Finette, afterward 
Mrs. Lewis WRIGHT of Fremont; Malvina who married Ducay 
LOSEY and Helen, who became Mrs. George MATHEWS, were all 
efficient aids in the business, and the generous fare and 
well kept rooms of that necessary institution the "Country 
Tavern" were largely owing to the industry and zeal of 
these bright girls.

Malvina, the only one now living, is a useful woman of good 
mind and possessed of a singular gift of preparing herbs and 
roots for medical use.  She had a fine disdain for doctors 
and their "stuff," and, had she come upon the stage of 
life years later, would have been an invaluable nurse, or 
even a physician herself, at least for her own sex.

Rev. Edward FULLER, with his wife Anne GREEN of Granston, 
R.I., came to Brooklyn and became a minister of the town.  
Mrs. FULLER was a lovely woman with a fund of cheerfulness 
that never failed and an inborn love of flowers and a gift 
for cultivating them.  Her life was well rounded out with 
years.

She had unusual business faculty, and by her enterprise in 
allotting and recording of her property, made possible the 
incorporation of the village.  Without such help, it would 
have been almost impossible.

Her eldest daughter, Mary FULLER, was a beautiful girl who 
early joined the Society of Friends in which faith her 
mother had been raised.  Her rosy face beaming from the 
depth of a Quaker bonnet of drab silk, was a revelation to 
the townspeople who passed her.  She married Thomas PINKHAM 
of Salem, and died at the age of thirty-one.

The youngest daughter, Anna FULLER, grew up in the 
retirement of the pretty village, and was married to her 
school teacher, William TREAT, and still resides in 
Brooklyn.

Brooklyn in those days was very attractive, occupying a 
high, sandy ridge which assured its healthfulness, and with 
a soil that was very productive.  Society was at its best.  
Education advantages were held in high esteem.  Much was 
thought of and done for young people.  Debating societies, 
singing classes and informal parties were frequently held at 
some home or at the tavern.  The last were not monopolized 
by the young, for there were many social events for real 
enjoyment held by their elders, where friends met early in 
the afternoon, visited, danced, and enjoyed a good supper.

The old tavern passed through many hands, and has finally 
disappeared.  Many other changes also have taken place.  A 
long viaduct spans the Big Creek valley and over the 
pioneers roads made with so much effort and toil, rush 
symbols of the new age, the automobile and the electric car.

       Anna E. TREAT
           Historian