The Haymakers, Kent’s First Family
By the 1780s, seven of the 13 original states, wanting to have the option of growing, claimed to have claims to areas in the West. At first, Virginia said the land was theirs, then New York, then Pennsylvania and finally Connecticut.
In 1792, the Connecticut legislature granted 500,000 acres of the western portion of “New Connecticut” to those of her citizens whose property had been burned by the British during the war, hence the name the "Fire Lands". That goes west almost to Bowling Green.
Then, Connecticut sold the three million acres of land to 3 trustees of the Connecticut Land Company, for 1.2 million dollars, or at the rate of forty cents an acre (about $26 ½ today, or the total of about $61½ million). One of those purchasers was named Aaron Olmstead who bought 16,000 acres.
He had made his living from the sea all his life saving as much as he could to build on his success. Even when he was a boy, he saved his money made on a ship by hiding it in a bee-hive back home for safe-keeping. He bought out the other 2 and parselled that land, so as to make it easier to sell the smaller sections. One of those sections was here…
Portage County, was named because of an old Indian path between the Cuyahoga and the Tuscarawas rivers, which at one point was only seven miles separated.
Before Portage County was formed in 1808, Olmstead wanted very much or the county seat to be on his land. He selected the exact site for public buildings. That was just north of Standing Rock Cemetery. And with some pull from a powerful Mr. John Campbell of Campbellsport Connecticut, and a promise that Olmstead would donate some of that land for the courthouse, the deal was done. Everything looked copesetic when Olmstead went back home to put it in writing. But then, he died. And with no time to change his will, and no proof of the promise, all the land went to his grandchildren.
The Haymakers came from Germany (the pronunciation of Haymaker into German is HOY-moc(h)K-hah).
The story goes like this. It is said that Christophel Haymaker (or Heumacher), a German peasant somehow ended up marrying a blueblood known as Lady Gordon in England, and then, she sold her jewels to get enough money for them to come to America.
In 1738 or 9, the two bought land in Bucks County PA, but shortly lost it because they hadn’t filed the proper paperwork. Sometime in the mid 1750s, they bought some more land, around 10 acres, this time in Rockhill. He probably felt comfortable there because of a large German community.
Not long after, the French and Indian War erupted. Apparently, that’s how he died…fighting those natives (legend has it that he killed several before they killed him). (Being over 7’ tall probably made him an easy target)
Jacob Haymaker was Christophel’s son. He bought eight of the township lots that had been surveyed. It came to 2,093 acres, enough to form a township. He paid just a little more than $2.50 an acre for it (or just over $55.00 today), which came out to be $5,600 dollars (just under $125,000.00 In 2024 money). But there was one stipulation, that had been left by Olmstead; that the township be named, Franklin, after his son.
At the time, he was unable to go back o the newly-purchased land, but knowing its layout, sent his son John, without his wife and three kids to get the land ready to build a mill (since it was almost entirely forested, it meant cutting down a lot of trees along the river). Before John went back to move his family here, he had to get their humble abode reay to live in. There was this crude shack that the original surveyors built to live in temporarily. But in the years since, it had become a shelter for Native Americans horses, as well as wild animals and, well, there was a foot of old compacted poop. that had to be shoveled out. That hovel, according to an 1885 book on the History of Portage County, was located maybe where the old Hudson Dealer was and now The North Water Brewing.
They left Rockhill in late October, for the 252 mile trek. That’s just under 4 hours by car today, but they were doing it by oxcart. The ox, with cart, goes about 2 mph. The roads were trails, often only seen by the tracks left by the last traveler, and often, the road simply stopped, leaving it to guesswork and a compass to continue. So, it was 3 weeks before they got here.
But it was to be the first home of European settlers in the area.
Many of the roads in America follow rivers and were originally trails of Native Americans. And so, it was not that uncommon to see them walking close by the shack. There is a story about a Native American woman (likely from either the Ottawa or Seneca tribes) with her baby in a papoose on her back who stopped by the hut the Haymakers called home, for apparently a friendly visit. There, she leaned the papoose against the wall. While she was talking to Sally (John Haymaker’s wife), a wild hog ran up, grabbed the baby and went off with it. The story ends with the mom and the baby reuniting with the baby unhurt.
By the next spring, John’s brothers George and Frederick with their father Jacob, showed up to help clear away more trees so they could plant some corn. And they used the wood from those felled trees to build a 14’ by 16’ log cabin, so they could leave the hardly livable hut.
Its location was just north of Stow Street on the west side of the river.
So Jacob had John and George as sons, but then there was Frederick too, maybe the most interesting member of the family.
Along with his father Jacob Sr., Frederick bought some more land. When all told, their holdings covered what is now northern Kent and beyond (about 600 acres). By now, Franklin Mills was beginning to gather a very small community, mostly around the original Haymaker property. By 1810, the population had swelled to 40. In 1815, Franklin Township was organized with 12 votes cast, of which two were Haymakers; John and George. George was one of the trustees, and the justice of the peace was John Haymaker. Twenty years later, the population had only grown to 1,400. But by that time, except for Frederick, the Haymakers were tired of trying to make money off of the mill and sold it to a man from Rootstown.
Eight years later, a man named Joshua Woodard who had moved to Ravenna from Geneva NY, built a grist mill there, but he liked what the Cuyahoga could do for business here, so he met up with Frederick Haymaker, who was now living in Beaver PA., and they formed a partnership called “Haymaker and Woodard', and they built several buildings, which included a woolen factory, dry house, turning lathe, a hotel, several houses, and a small cabinet shop under what would today be the Crain bridge.
Because Woodard had built his buildings just north of Franklin Mills, there seemed to be two settlements forming. So, the Haymaker’s enclave, Franklin Mills was called by the locals as the "Lower Village", and Woodard’s just north, was called the "Upper Village", and for a short while, it adopted its own name of Carthage. Quite by accident, the villages had been settled along the most direct line between the growing cities of Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Two routes were being planned and there were competitive efforts from two different taverns to get a definitive route. Finally, the matter was resolved when the stagecoach, pretty much went between the two. But the actual road on the route was so primitive, that it wasn’t uncommon for the passengers to have to get out of the coach to help push it through the mud-soaked road. The Old Cuyahoga House, was probably built for those muddy travelers.
In 1826, Frederick Haymaker dissolved the partnership he had had with Woodard, and then in 1831, two men bought all the properties from him. The Haymakers had purchased different land in what is now the Twin Lakes area to do farming. But the selling of those properties in Kent set off a boom in real estate deals from various parties vying to be best positioned to benefit from the proposed Pennsylvania & Ohio canal.
The plan was to build one from Portsmouth to Cleveland, with the water supplied from Lake Erie. Then, there was to be a tributary to link Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and yes, it was to run through Franklin Mills. So, land speculation was rampant. One of the most enticing parts of the deal from the view of eastern capitalists was, once again, the rapid Cuyahoga river. By the way, the canal officially opened in 1840, but with all that work that went into it, it still only operated until just after the Civil War, because the railroad was taking over. So, not long after, the canal was completely shut down, and what was left was all-but-destroyed in the devastating 1913 flood.
Zenas Kent and other investors from Ravenna, Hudson, Cleveland, and even as far away as Boston MA, formed the Franklin Land Company, with hopes of making Franklin Mills a major manufacturing center…specifically the manufacturing of silk. What could be better. First, plant mulberry trees for the silk worms, then send in the worms, and then send the raw product to a mill on the Cuyahoga to turn it into fabric. The prosperity of Franklin Mills then was immense.
But, too much building in anticipation of the success of the silk business was too much to deal with in the Panic of 1837, and the city fell into an economic depression. Many who had hoped to make it rich in the endeavor went bankrupt before a single thread of silk was made. But even if the economic collapse had not happened, they would have lost everything anyway, because, though the mulberry trees liked the climate, the silk worms did not. However, with all the construction leading up to this made Franklin Mills look like a real town. And the construction of the canal helped to bring the town back.
Now, a little more about the Haymaker family, known as "honest, upright and hardy, and these traits we know are as surely handed down from the mother as the father"
In 1772, Jacob Haymaker was a boat builder, so successful that people paid a pretty pennyto own what were called ‘Haymaker Boats’. He made it rich, and during the Revolutionary War, family tradition is that he loaned the State of Virginia 80,000 pounds and helped the government in putting together a regiment of soldiers, built forts to keep it all going (roughly estimated to be about $3.3 million dollars today). I don’t know if it was a loan or a gift, but Virginia never paid him back (that’s not the end of the story). He also fought in the war in 1778.
Years before becoming Jacob Haymaker’s first wife, Mary, along with her parents and an infant brother, were captured by the Indians, eventually split up to different tribes, and ended up in Canada. Somehow, her father escaped to Quebec, and with the help of English military officers, found her mother. Two years later when her mother met an Indian who came to trade,
she found among other girls, her daughter, Mary. The Indian had stained Mary’s skin to help hide her true color. Mary ‘bought’ her along with the others for $10 a piece.
Now, if you know about Aaron Burr, you know about that infamous duel with Alexander Hamilton, where he killed him. Then Burr had this elaborate plan to form his own country while still Vice President under Thomas Jefferson. With his position, he was able to attain international connections, so as to be able to take parts of Texas and the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase, to make his own country. Frederick loaned him a lot of money, and also, interestingly to the state of Virginia (remember that $80,000.00?) and had become Burr’s private secretary.
In 1806, the whole scheme was exposed and Burr was put on trial for treason.
There was part of a letter printed in the Dec 29th 1806 edition of the Norfolk Gazette and Publick Ledger, The letter dated November 26th was written ‘from a gentleman in Meadville, Pennsylvania. to a member of Congress. In the letter, Frederick Haymaker’s name and some others who were called "adventurers” "embarked from this town for Beaver, with the expressed intention of joining the secret expedition under Col. Burr.". One of the reasons Burr was acquitted was that prosecutors couldn’t get all the facts. Frederick probably knew all of them and went to his grave with those secrets. He was no longer welcomed in Pennsylvania, and as fate would have it, his father and brothers were just settling here in Franklin Township in the fall of 1806. He bought a sizable tract of land, built a log house and welcomed his grandchild, the first child born here.
Frederick’s will was written in 1850 in Warren. He died of something called Air-a-sip-alos at the age of 79, he left nearly all of his property to his wife Mary Swan, except for some separate land to his son Jesse S. Haymaker, and hoped it would help his "unfortunate child Sarah, who is afflicted with lunacy", would be able to live with the family, and he also deeded $200 (just over $7,200 today) asking that a suitable person be appointed as her guardian, and "see to it that the said Sarah be tenderly treated and kindly treated”.
And Now, something about James Haymaker, the son of Frederick. JAMES DAVIS HAYMAKER was born September 2, 1809, ten days before his mother died. Her sister, Catherine, carried him on horseback back to the home in Crawford County, Pennsylvania and lived there for ten years, until Frederick got married again.
While still young, he had a swelling in his neck and was not expected to live. A Doctor from Ravenna, was brought in to see what could be done to save him. He brought in another, and the two concluded that the only thing that could be done was for one to hold him down while the other pierced the neck. It worked. What started as a simple feather that had become lodged in his throat, caused an infection. As we know, he recovered and lived for many years.
For four years, he worked in his dad’s woolen factory. Then he worked in the business of making wooden pails, tubs, and woodenware (spoons and other cooking utensils). He had an aunt who needed him to help her in “keeping tavern,” in the town Fairport, which today is called Fairport Harbor, just northeast of Mentor.
At the age of twenty-five, James Haymaker, moved back here from Fairport to settle down in a place that he would live for the rest of his life. In 1834, he first bought eighty-six acres of mostly forest land, and after living in a log cabin made from that timber, went about clearing more. His sister Rachel kept house while he prepared the land to build a house and barn for farming.
Then in June, 1835, he was ready for the “raising,” and it was the first of its kind in the area.
Usually, to help incentivize helpers, it was advertised in whatever means such as newspapers, that there would be liquor there. But her ad, because she was a tea-toddler, offered only “cool, refreshing water” Still, even though she had limited their celebration, people did show up to do it. That house was built on an old Indian trail that is now Diagonal Road. And that's my house that I bought 28 years ago
Since the barn raising frame could be done in as little as a day, it’s not that surprising that the very next day, he invited Mary Rosetta Olin, the daughter of the neighbor south west down the street to go on a ride. That would turn out to be the beginning of the rest of their lives together.
They married later that year.
The Haymaker House, being of the barn raising type, timber framing, used Mortise and Tenon, in which a massive beam is laid (mostly) in the center, with notches cut into it, and then the floor joists are put into the notches. Much of the rest of the framing is held with wooden pegs. The nails to hold the clapboards on were all hand made, and expensive and since made of iron, were brittle. Hence the reason for not using them at all with the framing. The beam in my house is 10 ½ inches thick.
The style of this house, exclusively for this area, is not surprisingly called Western Reserve Style architecture. This house had a stove in the kitchen for cooking but no fireplace for heating the house. As another trait of Western Reserve Style, The new, modern way to heat was with a Franklin stove in the middle of the first floor. And also in that design, ours originally had two identical front doors, right next to each other…one for men, and the other for the women. I’ve seen a couple of them still in Chagrin Falls. The paint color of it might have been white. In the old days the mineral zinc was needed to make it white, but was very expensive. So when an owner painted it that color, they were showing that they could afford it. But what I know about the Haymakers, doesn’t match with showing off.
Oscar F. Haymaker, the son of James D and Mary Olin was born in (my) house in 1838. He worked at his fathers farm and later bought his own.
Arvin Olin. was the third son of James D and Mary Olin. He too was a farmer on the shore of East Twin Lakes. He was into dairying and berrying as a milk producer and for cultivating
what were called ‘Haymaker Raspberries’. But for 30 years, he was a teacher and along with his wife, Mary [Burlingame] Haymaker of Geauga County, was a strong advocate for education in Portage Co. The couple had three daughters (Ida, Cora, Lillie) and one adopted son
Ida married F. A. Merrill, and he too was a prominent in education as part of The Kent State Normal College, in 1882. They had four daughters. In 1916, the daughter of Ida and F. A. Merrill, Mary, married George Dumm, a dentist in Kent. The two were very active in the Kent and Twin Lakes community Mary was a huge supporter of area hospital work, and he was big in the Kent Rotary Club.
During WWII, their son, Robert Dumm, who passed away in 2003, married Catherine Edwards while he served as a medical officer in the Navy. When he came home he became a physician of internal medicine here in Kent. Along with his father, he too was an active member of Kent Rotary.
.png)
