Pages 6 - 10

Once known as the Wm. D. Brooks Farm Circa 1841 on Lincoln Road, this home is an example of the set-in porch common to Firelands farm houses. Formerly the Glenn Beecher home, it is now the George Henry Dalton, Jr. home.

The former Curt Todd home on Rt. 303 and Butler Road was part of the Todd Settlement in 1828 when Center Road was built from Wakeman to Pittsfield or Grafton. It is now the home of Harry A. Woods

The Amiel Pierce family came three weeks after the Canfields followed by Samuel Bristol a month later. Erastus French who had walked from Connecticut boarded with the Pierces. The three cabins were the entire settlement until the Spring of 1818 when Dr. and Mrs. Harmon Clark arrived. Mrs. Clark opened a school in her cabin that summer, having 3 Canfields, 3 Pierces and 1 Bristol as students. Her pay of $1.00 a week was taken in produce. Mrs. Clark also taught in the log school built on the Canfield farm in 1820. The log school was used as a meeting place and school for nine years when it was replaced by a frame building costing $170.

The Barzilla S. Hendricks family came with the Abram Bronson Family and a hired man in 1819. Then Sheldon Smith and Burton French, Silas French, father of Burton, Erastus and Marcus had arrived by 1820. Marcus French ran the first hotel in Wakeman, west of the center. Justus Minor arrived in 1821. About 1822, Chester Manville (Manvel) came to visit his sweetheart, Dortha Minor, later he returned with his sister to settle next to Amiel Pierce and became a cooper by trade. He was elected justice of the peace several times.

The Justin Sherman family arrived in style with a four horse team after a speedy trip of two weeks. Justin was active in real estate. In 1824 he built a sawmill on Chapelle Creek. In 1832 he built a sawmill on Brandy Creek. He was the first postmaster of Wakeman in 1833. The post office was in his house. He built and operated the first store in 1839 where he sold butter for 8 cents a pound and eggs were 5 cents a dozen. The goods for Sherman's store came from New York via the Hudson River, Erie Canal, and Lake Erie to Huron.

The Jan Frederick House on River Street was originally built by Burton French after leaving his log cabin.

Philo Sherman, Leveritt Hill and James Wilson also came in 1822, joined later by Leveritt's father, Isaac. 1824 Brought Russell Barnes and William Beers. Sheldon Barnes came in 1826, and in 1827 Rufus Bunce
settled east of the center. Isaac and Kneeland Todd (twins), Cyrus Strong, Martin Bell and his father, Elias Bell and his family and the Simeon Brown family all settled in the eastern section. Lucius Tomlinson settled north of the Todd's section. 1832 brought Amos Clark, and Merritt Hyde who was the Indian agent and the second postmaster of Wakeman. North of James Wilson who lived on the west bank of the river was Nathan Downs. Going South toward Clarksfield were Lewis Beers, Marcellus Booth, and Gershom Shelton. Other early settlers were Bela Coe, Peter Sherman, John Brooks, Jabez Hanford, Hiram Rumsey, Henry T. Peck, Isaac Haskins, Dr. Curtis and Edward Denman.

From the earliest days Wakemanites had a reputation for being on their toes. Reverend Zenophon Betts in the Firelands Pioneer, November 1868 says when a man was seen riding rapidly he was said to be "riding on a Wakeman trot."

The first child born in Wakeman was Burton Canfield,
April 18, 1818. The first wedding took place in 1822 at Abram Bronson's
house. Marshall Johnson married Marinda Bradley with Dr. Clark
performing the ceremony.

Wakeman was attached to Florence (then called Jesup) until 1824 when it became an independent township. The first town officers were: Woodward Todd, clerk; Samuel Bristol, Justin Sherman and Silas French, trustees; Amiel Pierce, treasurer; Justin Sherman and Silas French, overseers of the poor; Augustin Canfield and Isaac Hill, fence viewers; Augustin Canfield, appraiser; Cyrus Minor, lister; Amos Clark and Marcus French, supervisors; Erastus French, constable; Dr. H. Clark, justice of the peace.

Burton Canfield built the first saw mill on the Vermilion River in 1823 and the first grist mill in 1824. Before that settlers journeyed to Milan, Clarksfield or Florence for their grist. Saw Mills were built on Chappelle Creek by Pierce in 1833; C. C. Canfield in 1840 and B. M. Canfield in 1848.

The Vanfleet Brothers and Henry Peck each operated cheese factories about the time of the Civil War and after.

The first improvement in swine stock was made by Isaac and Kneeland Todd.

Early schools in Wakeman were open for classes just a few weeks a year. When the frame school house was built in 1829 it became the meeting place for the Congregational and Methodist Churches. Christmas Eve 1829 it became the meeting place for the Congregational and Methodist Churches. Christmas Eve 1829 a union dedication service was held amid candlelight and evergreens. The first teacher was J. M. Root who later became a member of Congress. The second school district was set up in 1827 and a log cabin built at the center of town which was replaced by a frame school house a few years later.

 Thurman House on Railroad Street is the oldest house in Wakeman
Village.

 The Platt and Nina Beecher House on Route 60 North was built in 1845.

The Wm. Olsen House on West River Road was built by Wm. Bostwick (Circa 1836). It was known for many years as the Pierce Farm.

The First Congregational Church was organized in 1822 though religious meetings had been held regularly since January 1819. The pioneers who had struggled for freedom from England, moved west and fought the rigors of the frontier to create a new society, had gone through a democratizing process. Only an optimist could survive the ordeal. He became uncomfortable with the rigid puritan doctrine which emphasized damnation. When Finney, the revivalist of Oberlin College, was invited to set up his tent on Bela Coe's farm, President Mahan and several seminary students spoke to the heart of many Wakeman folk when they emphasized the mercy of God and salvation. The new hope engendered resulted in the formation of the Second Congregational Church.

The first mail route was established in 1829. Settlers along a road from Wakeman to Grafton cleared the underbrush so Cole could carry the mail on foot once a week. Waldron was the second mail carrier.

Dr. Clark was the first physician in the area followed by Drs. William B. Latin, Burrough, Trumbull, Jones, Bunce, Standart and Rose.

Dr. E. E. Beeman conducted experiments with pepsin while he lived in Wakeman in the late eighteen hundreds. There was a small slaughterhouse on the Pierce farm where they scraped pepsin from cows' stomachs for his experiments. The story goes that when Dr. Beeman became concerned about the health of his secretary because she constantly chewed gum, she quipped, "Then why don't you put pepsin in it?" And he created Beeman's Pepsin Gum. Dr. Beeman is reported to have lived in Jim Busek's house on River Street and the Robert Bement house on Pleasant Street.

 The William Stoll House at Cooper & Abbott Streets was the former home and office of Dr. D. H. Young.

Elmer Dalton's House (Circa 1845) on West River at Ogan was formerly Bacon and Haskins Farm. Note the Greek Revival Architecture typical of the Western Reserve.

In 1856 a new citizen of Wakeman began importing whiskey from Monroeville by railroad and selling it in Wakeman. His place became a center for brawls and fights. One day Mrs. D. C. Wilson, Mrs. Edward Bunce and Mrs. B. M. Canfield took their axes in hand and smashed the whiskey barrels at the depot. The whiskey dealer brought another load home by wagon and dared the ladies to visit him there. About thirty of the first ladies of Wakeman descended on his place. He invited them in and abruptly tried to drive them out but Delia French wedged a board in the door and the ladies swarmed into the back room and released the "spirits" which flowed into the Vermilion River. The whiskey dealer had the ladies arrested on a charge of riot. The day of the trial the whole town accompanied them by train to Norwalk where they were met by the Norwalk Band and marched to the courthouse. The ladies begged to be locked up but were persuaded to be guests of the town. Eight lawyers volunteered to defend them. The lawyers proved what a nuisance the whiskey created in town. Since he was new to Wakeman, the whiskey dealer couldn't identify any of the ladies by name so the verdict was not guilty. The whiskey peddler left for parts unknown.

Wakeman was a part of the Underground Railroad, a secret organization to help escaping slaves. The homes of Leveritt Hill, Isaac Todd, Burton French, Carlon Canfield and possibly Isaac Judson were stations on the railroad in Wakeman. Isaac Todd's son, Seth, and Leveritt Hill's son, Benedict, were often the engineers who conducted the trains to Oberlin. Wakeman also had an Anti Abolition Association which feared rash action by abolitionists would destroy the Union.

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