Frontier City: Part 2

Earlier we left off discussing Elmon and his wife Lucinda Tripp who settled in Hanover Twp., near Horton, Michigan in Jackson County in 1832.

Today we learn that this was the brother of our ancestor, the one that came to Metamora in 1849 – Norman N. Tripp. Their father also came and lived very close to Norman and his wife Julia Ann in a small town east of Metamora called Richfield Center. In the book on the “History of Fulton County Ohio” it states

AMBOY TOWNSHIP

AMBOY was one of the three townships formed in old Lucas County out of the territory known as the "disputed strip." The date of its organization was June 4, 1837, a few months after that territory passed under the unquestioned control of the Buckeye State. Amboy is the northeastern corner township of Fulton county, and was originally six miles east and west, by seven north and south; but at the formation of Fulton township, two tiers of sections were taken from the south side, and in 1846, another tier was detached and added to Fulton township, thus reducing the area of Amboy to about twenty-six square miles. The surface of the country is somewhat varied, but the major portion of it is generally level, partaking somewhat of the character of the land in Pike and Fulton townships......

Amboy was originally covered with heavy timber, mostly of hard wood varieties, as walnut, butternut, hickory, the various kinds of oak, beech, maple, yellow poplar, whitewood, white ash, elm, etc. These were abundant, while the buckeye, sycamore, wild cherry, ironwood and dog-wood were less generally distributed. The shrubs were the hazel, blackberry, huckleberry, June berry, hackberry and spice. Most of the varieties of timber and shrubs are still represented, though the best has long since found its way to the mills and markets, if not the pioneer "log heaps."

The township was noted in early times for its abundance of wild animals, and was a favorite hunting ground for the Indians for many years after the cession of the land to the Whites. By general consent, they were permitted to make annual visits, which they seemed to greatly enjoy. There were bears, panthers, wolves and wild-cats in great numbers, while deer and wild turkeys, furnished the principal meat foods to the early settlers. The larger wild animals were of course for many years a source of annoyance and danger.

Amboy Township was settled nearly as early as any of the townships in Fulton County. The first settler was undoubtedly Jared Hoadly, who entered his land in the month of July, 1833, and late in the fall of the same year moved to the township. It is found that in the early part of January, 1834, he built a cabin on his purchase, in section seven, and made his home there for many years, until later in life he removed to Michigan. He was a very prominent man with the first pioneers, and was very influential in all the affairs of the township. He was prosperous in all his business ventures and bore well the hardships incident to early life in a new country, his home being an asylum for the distressed and unfortunate. His outlet for trade was at Perrysburg, and occasionally at Adrian. Mr. Hoadly was an active man and performed his full share of labor in the developing of the township in its very primitive days, holding the plow to break the first piece of land, and building the first cabin of which there is any record.....

Frank O'Neil settled where Metamora is now located and built the first cabin in that part of the township, enjoying with his family alone the full fruits of a pioneer's life and the honor of being ahead of the other settlers......

Norman N. Tripp first visited Amboy in 1838. He was then a young man and remained but a short time, but nine years later he returned and became a permanent resident of Amboy Township. He was a life-long Democrat and a man of much influence in the township and county. Hezekiah Culver, Caleb Satterly, Thomas Cahoe, and possibly others came prior to 1850.

Metamora is the only village in Amboy Township. It is located north and east of the center of the township, and of course is in the northeastern part of the county. Jonathan Saunders was one of the original proprietors of the village. The town is pleasantly located on elevated and comparatively level ground. In 1835, there were but one or two small clearings in the forest, but each year thereafter new settlers were attracted to it. While Metamora had no phenomenal growth, its progress was steady and substantial. The population has been nearly stationary for the last twenty years, increase in that direction being retarded to some extent by the advent of railroads in nearby townships

The experiences of the early settlers we're similar, regardless of locality, and, to some extent, without regard to wealth. Necessaries of life, as we of later generations class them, were not to be procured, by reason of the great distance to be traveled, and hazards encountered in reaching the older settlements. The forest supplied the meats, for the most part, as it did, also, the fruits and sugar. Coffee and tea were luxuries seldom used. This is mentioned to show the one simple fare that satisfied the demands of the times. A dinner of corn bread alone or of meat without bread was a common repast. Often the corn was pounded on a stone, or in a mortar, and thus prepared for the cooking before the open fire-place, and no doubt there are those living today who remembered the relish with which they devoured grandmother's "pone." Potatoes were early raised, but had not become a household necessity as now. Maple sugar and syrup were among the old-time luxuries easily obtained. The cabins usually had a "shake" roof, fastened on by weight poles, with a clay or puncheon floor and a door made of boards split from native timber, and fastened together with wooden pins, or, in the absence of this, a blanket hung in the opening; if a window was provided, the aperture was covered with greased paper instead of glass. The dimensions of the cabin were usually limited to the smallest size which would accommodate the family, the walls of rough logs, cracks "chinked" with split sticks or stones, and plastered with clay, with sometimes a little cut straw mixed in the "mortar" to prevent its falling out. The chimney was usually the most liberal arrangement on the premises, and often filled nearly the entire end of the cabin. It was generally built of split sticks liberally plastered with mud to prevent their taking fire from the heat of the tremendous "log-heap" beneath. In those days there was no scarcity of fuel, as the timber had to be removed before the land could be cultivated, and the logs which could not be utilized in making rails, or constructing buildings, were rolled together in great heaps and consumed on the ground. With the advent of the saw mills and various other appliances for manufacturing lumber, as devised by the ingenious pioneers, the best of the timber was usually worked into lumber.

A "full-dress" suit in those days consisted of buckskins, over a flax shirt, and moccasins for the feet, the latter sometimes "reinforced" by a sole of stiff, leather fastened on with buckskin thongs. These were all the product of home industry, even to the raising, heckling, scutching, spinning, weaving and making, of the flaxen garments.”