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Sarah Thorpe ~ Ohio

 

Sarah Thorpe was the wife of Joel Thorpe. They removed from North Haven to Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1799.

An incident is related in the life of Mrs. Thorpe which illustrates the extreme privations to which these early settlers were frequently reduced. In the absence of Mr. Thorpe, who had gone over into Pennsylvania to procure provisions for his family, it is told that Mrs. Thorpe emptied the straw out of her bed to pick it over to obtain what little wheat there was left in it, and this she boiled and gave to her children. Mrs. Thorpe was married three times. Her first husband was killed in the War of 1812, and her last husband's name was Gardner. The first surveying party to enter the Western Reserve arrived on the Fourth of July, 1796. Permanent settlers did not come in until two years later.

In 1798 small settlements were found all over the reserve and a little schooner had been built to ply on the waters of Lake Erie. The necessity for the building of a grist mill near the site of what is now the city of Cleveland is believed to be the foundation of that city.

The child of Mr. Kingsberry is believed to be the first white child born in the Western Reserve. The wife of Hon. John Walworth was quite noted among these early settlers.

In 1801, it is said, the first ball was given at Cleveland in the log cabin of Major Carter, and here Anna Spofford opened the first school Mrs. Carter was one of the prominent women of this settlement

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.

 

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