Randolph is located in the southern part of Portage County,
and is fifty miles from Cleveland. Previous to its settlement it
was owned by Col. Lemuel STORRS, of
Connecticut, and was named for his son, Henry Randolph STORRS.
It was first surveyed in 1797 by Amzi ATWATER
and Wareham SHEPHARD. The first settlers
came in March, 1802, from, Connecticut. They were Bela
HUBBARD, Salmon WARD,
Avad UPSON, wife and two sons, Salmon and
Lorenzo, Joseph HARRIS, and Calvin WARD.
To Mrs. Avad UPSON belongs the distinction of being the first
white woman to live in the township, and she was also the mother
of the first white child born in the township, a daughter,
Sophronia, born 1803. Sophronia married Morris
ADAMS for her first husband.
Mrs. Josiah WARD, with her husband and six children, in
company with their brother, Salmon WARD, came from Jefferson
County, New York, to Randolph in 1803. They made the journey by
lake in an open boat, and suffered very much by exposure to
cold.
One day, when Mrs. WARD was walking on a hill about one mile
west of the center, she exclaimed: "What a beautiful spot this
would be for a burying ground," and only a short time
afterwards, February, 1804, she was buried on the spot she
admired, and on this account it was established as a burial
ground. Her death was the first of an inhabitant of the
township.
Her daughter, Miss Clarissa WARD, married Bela HUBBARD in
1806. They were first married by a minister, but there were some
doubts raised to his being authorized legally to solemnize
marriage, so they were married again by a justice of the peace
in 1809. She was a very conscientious woman, and at the time of
her wedding the only marriageable girl in the township. She was
the mother of four girls and four boys.
Her daughter, Mary, married a Mr. ROGERS,
and moved to Deerfield; Caroline married a Mr.
HAYDEN and moved to Michigan; Phoebe married a Mr.
PERDY and moved to Mogadore; Harriet
married O. HENSTED and is still living.
Esther WARD, daughter of Mrs. Josiah WARD, married a Mr.
TUTTLE and moved to Michigan.
Mrs. Jehiel SAVAGE came from Middleton,
Conn., in 1803, with her husband and family. Also during this
year came Mrs. Timothy CULVER and Mrs.
Daniel CULVER, with their husbands and families. One morning,
Mrs. Timothy CULVER went to prepare breakfast for her family,
and like "Old Mother Hubbard," her cupboard was bare. She went
out in the fields and gathered nettles, boiled them, and her
family ate them without salt, or had anything else for their
breakfast.
After this queer repast Eliakim MERRIMAN,
who was living with them, took a bushel of corn on his back,
went on foot to Deerfield to get it ground into meal; waiting
until the meal was ground, he walked home with it, and Mrs.
CULVER cooked some without salt for their supper.
The next morning, with oxen and cart, he started for
Cleveland for a barrel of salt. The first night on the road he
hitched his oxen to a tree and lay down beside them to sleep.
The next day he arrived in Cleveland, purchased his barrel of
salt, and started home. The second night he occupied the same
bed as the first, reaching home the third day. Mrs. CULVER then
had plenty of salt to season her nettle greens and corn mush.
When going to Cleveland he took an ax to chop a road for his
oxen and cart to pass.
Miss Hannah RUSSELL married Eliakim
MERRIMAN June 16, 1806, the day of the great eclipse.
Mrs. Rufus BELDING (Miss Charlotte
SABIN) came from Cattaraugus, N.Y., in
1807. Her husband was the first physician in Randolph.
Mrs. Ebenezer GOSS, with her husband
and children, were from Plymouth, Conn., arriving in this town
in 1804. Her daughter, Polly, married Abisha
CHAPMAN and soon after they moved away. Her son, David,
married Hannah RYDER and their home was a
place of refuge for the widows and orphans. Aunt Hannah was a
good cook and always had plenty on the table to eat.
During this year came Mrs. Oliver DICKINSON,
with her husband and children. She had four sons and two
daughters. Mr. and Mrs. DICKINSON were charter members of the
Congregational Church, in which they always took an active part.
Her son, Oliver Cromwell, married Lovissa ROSE
in 1812. She was born in Granville, Mass., 1791, at which place
a colony was formed in 1804, and emigrated to Granville, Ohio.
She came with her parents in this company.
After her marriage to Mr. DICKINSON she took her bridal tour
on horseback, carrying her "trousseau" in saddle bags; as there
were no bridges in those days they had to ford streams. Came to
Randolph, 120 miles, where her husband had provided a home. She
was the mother of five sons and four daughters. Three of the
sons, at the call of Father Abraham, went into his service. She
was kind, genial, charitable ever ready to do for others. "None
knew her but to love her." She died December 1869, in Randolph,
where she always lived after her marriage. Thus lived and died
the little blue-eyed woman, many years known as "Aunt Lovissa."
Her oldest child died suddenly, and Dr. LEE
of Randolph and Dr. COOK of Atwater, held
the postmortem examination, and, it being the first one in this
part of the country, it created much excitement.
Percy ROBERTS of Middleton, Conn.
Married Alpheus DICKINSON, in 1824. She left one child, a good
singer, who is still living.
Mr. DICKINSON afterward married Mary
JOHNSON, in 1826. She is, as far as is known, the first
woman to buy land with her own money. She bought fifty acres for
about two dollars an acre with money she brought from the east
with her.
The fourth wife of Alpheus DICKINSON, Martha
CURTISS, was a singer, and always at
church was able to be there. Her apple pies were inquired for at
"donation parties" and picnics, long after they had been sampled
out of sight, though she always provided her quota.
Miss Lydia SABIN, the youngest child of Jeremiah and Phoebe
BURDSELL SABIN, was born in New York
state. Her mother died when she was a child. She came to
Randolph with her father and brothers in the fall of 1805. She
made her home with her brother-in-law, Dr. Rufus BELDING, and
married Calvin WARD December, 1814. They
had eleven children. Four daughters grew to womanhood. Miss Mary
WARD married Dr. J.C. FERGUSON, and moved
to Mogadore, Summit County, where she died. Miss Phoebe WARD
married Wesley STANFORD and died in
Indiana. Miss Annie WARD married Lorenzo Don
JEROME and is yet living, also is Miss Eunice WARD who
married Geo. BROCKETT.
When Miss Lydia was a girl she was helping her Aunt Nancy
SEARS SABIN during harvest. One morning
after the men had gone to the field they went to the barn,
caught a pig, killed and dressed it, and roasted it before the
fire for dinner. At another time she and her daughter, Mary,
took one hundred pounds of wool, cut from the sheep to make
cloth; then carded, spun and wove it into cloth. Mary was
teaching school at one dollar per week, and she would do her
day's work (two and one-half round a day) besides her school
work. She was a good spinner, weaver and knitter, and would
often take her children's clothes while they were in bed at
night and wash them and have them ready for them to put on in
the morning. She died at the age of 76 years.
Mrs. Isaac MERRIMAN (Esther MERRIMAN),
with her husband and one child, were from Wallingford, Conn., in
1805. She was a great home body, and had seven children. Her
daughter, Jerusha, married Jonah HINE.
They were great lovers of flowers and had the first greenhouse
in town. Delight married Austin COLLINS.
She was a fine cook, and very neat housekeeper. Alvira married
Wm MEANS; Nancy, Robert
ALEXANDER; and Lovinia, J.C. BRAINARD.
Mrs. Elathan JENNINGS (Miss Hanna GOSS)
arrived with her husband and children from Pennsylvania in 1807.
Her husband was a carpenter and he soon left his family to
provide for themselves. On the small stream west of the center
one-half mile, she shot many wild turkeys, and at one time two
at one shot of the rifle.
Her daughter, Elizabeth, taught school. She first married
Carver GOSS, and after his death, Joel
PEGG. She went to Canton, a distance of
about twenty miles, on horseback; bought and brought home her
dishes and wedding dress, which was calico, and cost a dollar a
yard. She spun and wove both wool and linen; she was a tailor by
trade and made their own clothes. She was a Thompsonian doctor
and sent for far and near. At one time a fire broke out near her
home, and being no men near, she harnessed the horses and plowed
a furrow around the field.
Minerva, the daughter of Philo and Rosanna
BEACH, was born in Granby, Conn., in 1809. When she was six
years old her parents put their household goods in an ox-cart
and started for New Connecticut, in company with her Uncle
Andrew BEACH. They traveled "over the mountains" to Pittsburg,
through Beaver, Pa., to Deerfield, Portage County, where she and
her mother remained with relatives until her father and uncle
came to Randolph. When they reached the corners, a mile and a
half east of the center, they had to cut their way half a mile
north to their claim, where they soon erected a house, splitting
logs for floors, hanging blankets for doors, and building fires
around the house to keep the wolves at bay.
In due time Mr. BEACH returned to Deerfield for his wife and
child. They were glad to get to their own home, even though it
was surrounded by thick woods and howling wolves. Minerva had to
go to school through the woods for about two miles from home.
When she was seventeen years old she was married to Ben Ami
ALLEN by Rev. Joseph
MERIAM, the first couple he married after being ordained a
minister. They united with the Disciple Church in their youth.
She lived within a quarter of a mile of her father's home all
her life. When she was married her father bought a bedstead, for
which he paid seventy-five cents, on which she slept all her
life, until her last sickness of two weeks, when she was kindly
cared for at her son Munroe's.
After her husband's death in 1880 she lived entirely alone
(but only a few steps from her son's). She suffered many
privations of pioneer life. She was a great worker and her home
was a pattern of neatness. She was a kind mother and every ready
to lend a helping hand to the needy. Peaceful, patient and
gentle, she closed her eyes in that last long sleep, June 10,
1896.
Mrs. Marcus SPELLMAN writes as follows:
"Among the early settlers came Deacon Festus SPELLMAN and his
wife, Hannah DICKINSON, and seven
children, four daughters and three sons. They emigrated from
Granville, Mass., and arrived in Randolph October, 1816, and
settled on the southwest center lot. The eldest daughter married
Almon B. COE and raised a family of four
sons and one daughter, who resides in Waupun, Wis. She is a
woman of remarkable executive ability and as willing as she is
able."
The second daughter, Aurilla, married a Mr.
COOLEY and died in Randolph.
The third daughter married Justin BELDING,
merchant. They had three daughters, the youngest, Mrs.
GILLMAN, is yet a resident of our village.
Mrs. BELDING died in 1890, aged 84 years. She was an earnest
Christian worker.
The fourth daughter, Deborah, married Charles
SANFORD of Rootstown. They had four sons,
only one living, O.M. SANFORD.
The year 1818 was remarkable for sickness in Randolph,
occasioned by the overflowing of a large territory by a mill
pond, and among the many deaths was that of Deacon SPELLMAN.
Some months after his death his widow married Dr. Rufus BELDING,
who had nine living children. This constituted a family of
eighteen, and she performed well the duties of housewife for so
numerous a family, and yet found time to bestow on her Savior
ardent love, and to perform good works. Two sons are yet living,
M.F., who resides in Rootstown in his 88th year, and the other
Rev. R.D., resides in Ft. Wayne, Ind.
During the removal an incident occurred which remains in the
memory eighty years after. The family being large, the
opportunities for lodging were various, but more generally the
floor was the bedstead for the children, and on one occasion,
the lad being unusually sleepy when the mother wished to pack
for a start, refused to surrender his bed and she, motherlike
told him she would switch him.
He told her he would break her stick, and, true to her word,
she switched him, which only raised his ire, and, to get even
with her, called her a vile name and made off, but kept his eye
on father and mother as they were counciling. Ere long the lad
came into the hands of the mother and then happened what remains
in the memory. Moral: If good words and gentle means will not
reclaim the wicked, they must be delt with more severely.
Miss Minerva GOSS married William
ROGERS in 1817. She is noted for her great
memory. Very benevolent and ready to go in sickness.
Miss Maria BEACH was only twelve years old when she came from
Connecticut in 1816 with her father's family. She married
Stephen CHURCHILL at the age of seventeen.
She was a great lover of flowers, always called on in sickness,
and a skilled weaver. Her sister-in-law, Mary CHURCHILL was a
noted school teacher.
Mrs. Norman HUMPHREYS (Miss Sarah
KENNEDY) came from Augustus, New York, in
1819, with her husband and two children. Her daughter, Jane,
married Levi MERRIMAN, and is still living
in Randolph, known to old and young as Aunt Jane.
Almira CASE (Mrs. Timothy
TERRY) was born in Simsbury, Conn. Soon
after her marriage in April, 1824, she removed to Randolph and
settled on the farm where she and her husband lived and died.
She was the mother of four sons and four daughters and lived to
see them all have homes of their own. She was a member of the
Congregational Church.
Amanda GRISWOLD, born in New Hartford,
Conn., in 1789, married D.P. ELMORE in
1814. One child was born to them; Elizabeth. About the first of
June, 1819, they started for Ohio. The mother and only one
child, with household goods were packed in an ox wagon;
accompanied by D.K. WHEELER and Jonah
HINE. The journey to Randolph was made on
foot, occupying forty-seven days. They first lived two miles
south of the center, a few years after they moved to the center,
to the north-east corner of the square, where they opened the
first tavern kept in Randolph. She died in 1872.
Miss Elizabeth Amanda ELMORE, the only child of Mr. and Mrs.
ELMORE, married Wm. STEDMAN; she was the
mother of three sons and two daughters, Helen and Ellen. A kind
neighbor, and true friend. Her devotion to her family was one of
the great characteristics of her life. She was one of the
pioneer band who early exposed the anti-slavery cause, in a day
when it cost to give utterance to conviction. She lived to see
the triumph of freedom, a national jubilee.
Three sons with their father went to the front in the Army of
the Potomac, while she watched with bated breath the reports of
that army for three eventful years, and hailed their return as a
wife and mother only can.
She was one of the few who was presented with a volume "Own
Acre and its Harvest," a book published by the Cleveland branch
of the United States Sanitary Commission. Within the space of
five years she buried her parents, husband, and three children.
She died in Randolph, where she had always lived, March 2, 1880.
Mrs. Clarissa S. AUSTIN, commenced Feb.
21, 1821, pioneer life in Ohio, moving with her husband and four
small children on the wild, uncultivated land once owned by a
Mr. BACON. A double log house, a fire
place and chimney made of stone, bake oven to chimney. On
starting a fire, a large possum came out from the oven, down
into the room with the family.
They had a trap door leading to the cellar, a hole dug out to
put some things for family use; Mrs. AUSTIN went to her cellar
one day bare footed, soon she called for help, for there were
snakes in the cellar; her husband, with her help, brought out a
black snake and stretched it out eleven feet in length, and
large around in proportion; the next day they caught the mate,
the same size. This was the beginning of pioneer life in Ohio.
At another time they had a small flock of sheep, twelve in all;
the wolves attacked them in the night and killed three of them.
Mrs. AUSTIN got up, took the coarse furniture out of one room of
the log house, and helped drive the sheep into it to save their
lives.
Mrs. AUSTIN was a very devoted religious woman. She would
walk two and a half miles to church on the Sabbath. She would
carry her stockings and shoes in her hand, and when near the
meeting house she would put them on, and on her return do the
same. They had no horses or wagons; having no money, could have
no luxuries.
Her son, Hiram, married Miss Elizabeth
SEARS, and she is today the oldest living person born in the
township. Mrs. AUSTIN is a good housekeeper, and an earnest
Christian worker.
Miss Betsey SLEATH was born in England
in 1798; when four years old, she came with her father to
Wallinford, Conn. January, 1817, she married Albert
BROCKETT, and about May 1st, 1825, they
started for Ohio, with three children and their few household
goods packed in a one-horse covered wagon. They bought
themselves a home one mile and a quarter east of the center,
where she died August, 1843. She was the mother of six daughters
and three sons. Three of the daughters are living in Randolph
today. Mrs. Lodema B. BELTES, Mrs. Mary B.
FENTON, and Mrs. Alvina B.
SHOOK. Mrs. BROCKETT owned the first tin
baker in Randolph. She was always kind to the poor.
Miss Fidelia MORSE was from
Wallingford, Conn., in 1827. She was a fine singer and good
nurse, also a weaver and spinner.
Mrs. Josiah BROCKETT (Miss Rebecca RAYMOND)
came from Connecticut in 1829, with her husband. She was a noted
housekeeper, and the mother of four daughters and four sons; all
the daughters are living. Mrs. Susan REDFIELD
and Mrs. Ellen JARIAN live at Randolph;
Mrs. Belinda BELTES, in Talmadge, and Mrs. Lucinda
ELLIOTT at Ravenna. Her mother who was
blind for several years, lived with her, and is always spoken of
as a very patient old lady.
In January 1826, she who the day before was Miss Emiline
BIDWELL, now the wife of Rev. Joseph
MERIAM, started from Madison, Lake County.
A one-horse wagon contained a feather bed and her little all for
housekeeping. The roads were bad, but her experience in coming
from Middleton, Conn., had taught her patience in traveling.
Between Buffalo and Erie, with the upsetting of wagon and the
miring of teams, their little company worked hard for eight
house to get through the four-mile woods.
Wise to plan and strong to do she assisted her husband in his
parish duties. Three-fourths of his small salary was by
agreement to be paid in produce, wheat being reckoned at one
dollar a bushel and other things in proportion.
Hence, industry and economy were necessary on her part to
make ends meet and keep her five children comfortable. It was
her tact and social nature that made successful and attractive
forty successive New Year donation parties at the parsonage. Of
nearly two hundred weddings solemnized by the pastor, the
greater number took place in her "front room" By her kind words
and genial manners the most timid were made to feel at perfect
ease. The wedding cake was never lacking.
Her sympathetic nature was shown in the following incident. A
neighbor, Mrs. DICKINSON, died leaving a
babe six weeks old. Mrs. MERIAM immediately took it into her
care and keeping. Her own babe was nearly the same age. When
both babes cried at once, Walter, "the poor motherless one," was
always the first to receive attention.
At the organization of a Sunday school she refused to take a
class already collected, but gathered one from the highways and
hedges. This was not new work for her. When only nineteen years
of age while teaching at Waterford, Penn., she organized a
Sabbath school with seventy scholars, though at that time she
had never seen a Sabbath school. Evening meetings at the
parsonage were frequent. Those coming from a distance through
the woods would, on their return, light their way with a torch
of hickory shagbark, for an all evening meeting of those days
commenced at early candle lighting.
At one time she and other ladies were visiting at a
neighbor's. As they returned to the parlor from the tea table a
large rattlesnake came out from its place of concealment on the
bureau. It probably came in the morning through an open window.
On another day she was called out of doors by her husband, when
she saw lying in the path a rattlesnake which he had just
killed. Her grandfather was on General Washington's staff.
She was personally acquainted with her great grandfather and
great grandson, making seven generations.
On a stone in Sand Hill cemetery in inscribed, "Rev. Joseph
MERIAN, for 64 years pastor of the
Congregation Church in Randolph, the longest pastorate in the
United States." On another side of the monument: "Emeline
BIDWELL, wife of Rev. Joseph MERIAM, died March 1st, 1803. A
helpmeet, indeed. Her children also rise up and call her
blessed."
Miss Fanny RYDER was born in Vermont,
1796. Came to Hiram with her father in 1814. Married Silas
BELTES, of Talmadge, in 1819; lived in Akron at the time of the
building of the Ohio canal. She cooked for twenty men and cared
for a family of four small children. All the assistance she had
was a young girl of fourteen years of age; and, to make her
burden heavier, her little boy of four years old, was brought
home to her one day with a broken leg.
She moved from Akron to Randolph and then back to Talmadge.
When the cholera reached Akron in 1830 she used to walk from her
home to Akron to help take care of the sick, coming home every
third day to look after her family of four small boys. She took
care of a husband and wife, sick with the cholera, both dying,
and no one but herself to do anything for them until they were
ready for burial. The neighbors would come to the fence to
inquire if she needed anything, but dare not enter for fear of
catching the dreaded disease.
In 1832, after the death of her husband, she moved back to
Randolph, where she was married to Fredrick
DYE, who died in 1856. She afterwards married Samuel Buel
SPELLMAN, of Rootstown.
Her life was a busy one. She learned to weave in her girlhood
and afterwards learned the tailor's trade. Her webs of cloth
always held out full measure after they came from the loom, and
her seams never ripped, no buttons came off. She found time
during her busy life to read the Bible through from Genesis to
Revelations over thirty times. She was familiar with its
teachings and tried to make them practical in her life. She was
a member of the Disciple Church of Randolph for almost sixty
years. She was familiarly known by old and young as simply "Aunt
Fanny." She died in 1885, aged 89 years.
Mrs. Hiram WINCHELL (Miss Olive
GOODWIN), born in Harwinton, Conn., 1799;
came to Randolph in 1827. Her parents were wealthy, but marrying
against their wishes, they disowned her. Mr. WINCHELL was
naturally a very smart man, but whiskey ruined him. He died in
1854, after which she lived entirely alone in her little
two-room house, save her numerous cats and house plants. That
terribly cold morning, December 9, 1882, which is well
remembered, her house caught fire and burned to the ground with
all its contents and she in it. A sad ending of two unhappy
lives.
Mrs. LADD (Miss Mary
CHAPMAN) arrived in 1827, a widow with three sons and two
daughters. She was a very useful woman; always called on in
sickness and ready to do any kind act. She was very poor, but
bravely struggled with poverty. She wove and spun.
Mrs. Otis MERRIMAN (Miss Phoebe
HART) came to Randolph in 1833. She had
three sons and three daughters. Martha married Wesley
PLUMMER; Mary married John
RANDALL. Mrs. MERRIMAN married James
COLLAR in 1879. She practiced midwifery
and is a good nurse. She is known to old and young as Aunt
Phoebe. She is an earnest Christian worker and a member of the
Disciple Church.
Mrs. Henry BRUMBAUGH (Miss Catherine
STIFFLER) came from Pennsylvania to
Randolph in 1832. She raised a large family of children.
Miss Temperance HUTCHINSON, from
Danbury, Conn., moved to Hudson in 1806. She married Samuel
CHENEY and came to Randolph in 1836. A
strong, religious character. She was a famous spinner. She was
at one time teaching school, from which she was discharged for
keeping company with her future husband.
Betsey HINE was born in Milford,
Conn., and married Joseph CLARKE, a
resident of the same town in 1813. They moved to Randolph in
1836, and to Cuyahoga Falls in 1851. Mary E., only child of
Betsey and Joseph CLARKE, was born in Connecticut in 1815, came
to Randolph with her parents in 1836. She was married to C.D.
FARRAR from Vermont in 1838 by Rev.
Joseph MERIAM.
For many years Mrs. FARRAR was an mantua-maker, in which she
excelled. A lady in town has a dress Mrs. FARRAR made for her
more than fifty years ago, that in needle-work the young ladies
of today might pattern from.
One child was born to them, Harriet. About 1850, with her
family, she moved to St. Albans, Vt. Her husband died in 1870;
the following year she went to Boston, Mass., to live with her
daughter and family. She is in her eighty-second year and still
does any amount of knitting, embroidery and fancy work, of which
she is an artist.
We are indebted to Mr. E.P. BRAINARD
of Mantua for the following sketch of his mother:
Nancy POST BRAINARD-MITCHELL was the
third daughter of Josiah and Lydia (nee
PLATTS) POST, born in Saybrook, Conn., July 26, 1788. In the
spring of 1803, when Nancy was fifteen years old, her father,
with his wife and seven children removed to Leyden, Lewis
County, New York, which was then a primeval forest. Having made
the best of her school opportunities in her native town, soon
after settling in the new home she engaged in teaching, with
more than ordinary success. July 5, 1823, she married Joseph
BRAINARD, by whom she was the mother of four sons and one
daughter. This union was replete with happiness to both husband
and wife, until the death of the former, which occurred March,
1831. When Mrs. BRAINARD was left a widow with the care of five
young children, then it was that her superior executive ability
manifested itself in her good management, parental care and
devotion to the best good of her fatherless children.
At the age of sixteen she united with the Baptist Church; to
the time of her death she continued a zealous, consistent
member, and her life was adorned by all the virtues of a
Christian character, and she never missed the opportunity of
imparting to her children, as well by precept as example, the
principles of integrity and honor, which formed the basis of her
own character. March, 1835, she married Deacon Jotham
MITCHELL, of Steuben, New York. In March,
1837, she and her husband removed to Ohio, and in 1839 settled
in Randolph, where she died, 1865, aged 76 years. Her death
resulted from the effects of a fall.
Mrs. MITCHELL possessed a retentive memory and a sound,
logical mind; a great reader and strong reasoner. As wife,
mother and friend, she was kind, steadfast, ardent in her
nature, self-sacrificing, devoted and affectionate. Human
suffering always excited her warmest sympathies, and she was
ever ready with a helping hand to mitigate it.
The first religious services were held in 1806 at the home of
Oliver DICKINSON.
The first church (Congregational) was organized on July 5,
1892 , by Rev. John SEWARD, and
comprised twelve members. When the schoolhouse at the center was
completed, religious services were held therein. A Methodist
society was organized in 1810, consisting of ten members, and a
Baptist society of about the same number in 1819. In 1832 the
Congregational society erected a church, and the year following
the Methodists built their first house of worship.
The Disciple Church was organized in 1828 out of the
Methodist, Baptist, and Congregational societies, and in 1860
erected a house of worship. Their new church was erected in 1884
and completed in the spring of 1885.
The German Reformed church was founded in the township at an
early day, and in 1857 the members of this society erected a
house of worship.
Time and space forbid mention of others worthy of notice, and
are connected with the early pioneer life of the town. But we
all can pay a tribute of respect to our brave, loving pioneer
women who toiled so patiently and bravely to make homes in the
unbroken wilderness.
Miss Viola L. BETTES
Historian
Randolph Committee - Mrs. Helen P. HAUGHAWOUT, Mrs. Mary B. FENTON
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