Medina Historian Annis Darr

 

"Medina History"

This is the story of Medina in the late 1800's and early 1900's as told to me by my Grandmother, my Mother, 
and as I remember it. 

by Mrs. Will (Annis Cooley) Darr, 1955

Annis Darr and Abner Griffith (once proprietor of Old White Store) at 1960 Lenawee Historical Society meeting held at the old Oak Grove Academy building in Medina;  they are examining the Academy business register begun in 1853.  This meeting was called "Back to Old Medina School," hence the name of this project.  Photo from Lenawee Historical Museum.

I'll begin west and 1/2 mile north of Medina on the farm known as the Marcellis farm, later the George Huff farm.

In the early 1850's my maternal great grandfather John Lozer and his wife Nancy Berry Lozer settled on this farm.  They were originally from Pennsylvania.  Then, they moved to Holmes, Ohio; and in 1836 they migrated to Wauseon, Ohio.  They had a family of 12 children.  They brought the 7 younger children with them as the older ones had married and settled around Wauseon and Toledo, Ohio.

In the 1840's the nearest grist mill was at Medina.  The trip, when the roads were bad, would take a week to go the 25 miles to the mill.

When Great Grandfather had been away for a week on his spring and fall trip to the mill, and the flour and corn meal were gone, Great Grandmother told her family, "If your father comes home tonight, we'll have mush and milk for supper; and if he doesn't, I don't know what we'll eat."  Great Grandfather came home and all were fed and happy.  Great Grandfather died August 16, 1854 and is buried in Medina Cemetery.

The girls attended school in the Village and Oak Grove Academy.  Later the family moved back to Wauseon, Ohio.  My grandmother, Rachel Lozer, came back in 1865 and married Stillwell Palmer.  She spent her life on a farm in Dover Township, living her last few years in Medina.

My grandfather Stillwell Palmer came to Michigan from New York in 1835 at the age of 11.  His father paid $1.25 an acre for the 80 acre farm in 1849, and after the death of his father, my grandfather paid the heirs $2.50 an acre for the farm.  He lived there until his death in 1908.

I would like to go back and across the road from the Lozer farm where the Smith Hawley family lived.  Mrs. Hawley (Harriet) was from a very well-to-do family in New York; Smith was a roving shoe maker.  He came in the spring and fall and repaired and made new shoes for the family.  She ran away with him and came to Medina about 1865.  She inherited plenty of money; they saved it for their children, and they also loaned money out for interest.  Sometimes the notes were known to run for years if the interest was paid on time.

They had 3 children:  Rose married John Dwyer and still lives near Morenci; Florence, a dressmaker, married my Uncle Ernie Palmer, a blacksmith by trade.  Homer and his wife had triplet boys.  Two died as babies and the third died at the age of five, from a kernel of corn lodged in his throat.  they operated on him on the kitchen table by the light of an oil lamp, but it was too late.  A younger boy, Elmer, left Medina with his father to live in New York, where he inherited land and money from an Aunt.

To the south on the corner of Medina Township on Section 3, the first log house was built in 1834 by John Foster.  The first school was held in his cabin, also the first meetings of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  Sumner and Mary Jane Manning later lived there  I can remember apple trees there and a spring.

Now we are at the forks in the road, that led west to the little settlement of Tiffin or Pegtown and the old mills.

On the east side of the road (across from the grove of oak trees), was a house where the Mannings later lived.  The house tumbled down and there is nothing left but lilac bushes that blossom every spring beside the old cellar.

Now through the gulley, where a brook flowed, and up the sandy hill.  On top of the hill was the cheese factory, cider mill, sorghum molasses and jelly making.  Charley Colvin was the owner, Warren Farnsworth the cheese maker.  Later Fred Bryan and Bert Heydenberk were the helpers.  My father, Rube Cooley, worked as a helper when I was a little girl, for $10.00 a month.

The factory ran from March 1 until November (the cows were dry in the winter).

The price paid for milk was as low as 40 cents a hundred, and as high as 75 or 80 cents a hundred.

In back of the room where the big vats and the cheese presses were was the curing room.  Row after row of cheeses on long tiered shelves had to be turned and rubbed with cottasuet every day.  The farmers that brought in milk from spring until fall, usually bought a cheese for their winter use.  The others were sold to stores and shipped.

The big vats in the back were used to boil and skim the sorghum.  The cane was crushed, and the juice ran down troughs to the vats.  The refuse or chankens were carted out and dumped over the bank with the apple pumice.  Hogs were kept there and fed the whey from the cheese to make them grow and get fat.

The yard was stacked with piles of farmers sorghum, each with his name and number on a shingle stuck in the top.  George Camp was the molasses maker, his brother Frank the helper.  Ernie Gaskill, Ellis Guss and Sam Darr worked carrying the bundles of cane to the crusher.

My father always helped get the place going in the fall, as carpenter and helper.  Hank Smith was the fireman on the boiler.  Many a barrel of cider was made in the fall.  Cider was boiled down to make apple butter and apple jelly.  The housewife of that day couldn't make her winter's mincemeat without boiled cider for flavor.  Charley Colvin made the cider and apple jelly.

In 1903 a cheese box factory was started.  Five or six men were employed, at the wage of one cent each box and cover.  A good days work was $1.50 to $2.00 a day.  My father worked here and earned between $8.00 and $10.00 a week.

In the spring of 1908 the Helvetia Condensery Company opened in Hudson.  The farmers were paid more money for the milk so the cheese factory closed in the fall of 1909.  The Colvins moved to Hudson, and the building was sold in 1911.  Charley Cooley bought part of it and moved it to the Allen farm, North of Medina, which he owned, and used for a barn.  The balance was bought by my father and moved nearby on the corner for a barn.

The sorghum mill closed about 1900, the cheese box factory or a part of it moved to Clayton in 1906, the balance to Hudson in 1909.

Mary Jane Manning and her son Asa lived across the road and down a little ways.  They moved a little nearer to Medina, as their home up the road fell apart.  Later Fred Wheeler and Mr. Willie, an old Civil War Veteran and father of Ellen Deyo, the wife of Ott Deyo, lived there.  My father bought it later and built a barn, before the one bought of the Colvins.

My father traded a horse to Charley Cooley and Al Colvin, for 1 1/2 acres of land on the corner.  There were no buildings on it.  In 1895 he traded a harness for a small building of Milliken Bros., east of Medina and moved it and built on two rooms.  My parents, my Grandmother Cooley, and we four children lived here until 1903 when my father bought an upright part of the old Gardner house for $50 and moved it to the corner.  Will and I lived here the summer of 1909.

Farther east the Oak Grove Academy is still standing and in very good condition.  This was built in 1853 as a select school.  My Grandmother Palmer was one of the first students and my mother went there in 1885 and 1886.

My Grandfather Palmer owned shares in the building and also helped to build it.  He also helped to build the Baptist Church and was deacon of this Church for many years until his death.

The oak trees around the building were planted after George W. Moore and other pioneers cleared the land.  Mr. Moore, with a team of oxen plowed the land around the building, while other men set out the white oak trees.  Today they are tall and straight, and have shaded many Academy reunions and 4th of July celebrations.

The school was closed in the early 90's and the building sold to the Medina Grange.  They used the lower hall as their meeting place and the Knights of the Maccabees had the upper rooms.  The ladies of the Maccabees held their meetings in the afternoons in these same rooms.

In the 90's a dramatic play, "The Turn of the Tide" was put on.  A duel between Mina Beneley and Ellis Guss.  At the last thrust of Ellis' sword, and as the red ink ran down Mina's face, Mina's father Oliver Bentley, seated in the front row, thought his son was fatally wounded and fainted dead away.  (the only casualty)  Later the Maccabees put on the "Old Fashioned District School" complete with the School Master, a dunce, and songs and recitations on the the "Last Day of School."

The farm across the road and a little east was owned around 1900 by Mrs. Gaskill Wilson; later by Charlie Colvin.  In the 80's the Cleve family lived there.  My mother boarded with them and went to the Academy to school.

Will and Carrie Moyer lived farther east in the next house and later Bert Fleming; he raised his own broom corn and made brooms to sell.

The old Catholic Cemetery, though not in use then, was next.  Chauncey Mann's first wife and child were buried there.

Phillip Rice and his wife Mary Jane Smith Rice lived in the next house to the east.  Phillips bought eggs of the farmers, and the story was that he would count out eggs from a basket, 3 in one hand, 4 in the other, his profit 1 egg.

High Manning's shop was across the road and to the north.  He cut wood in the summer to make axe handles, barrels and kegs.  He lived alone in the back room.  Harmless always wore brown duck pants and a felt hat all summer.  The old men gathered there to play domino's and checkers.

Farther to the east was the house where Bob Smith and his son Henry lived. Later the house was moved across the road on the south side for a garage.

An Italian with a hand organ and a brown bear that danced lived in the old Gillett house, which almost tumbled down in the 1890's.  It was a treat in those days to see a bear dance and we were almost late for school.

The Methodist Church is the next building to the east.  Built in 1858 and used as a dining room and meeting place after the church united with the Baptist Church about 1935. It is now torn down.

The Robinson family lived in the next house, on the south side of the road. He was a day worker who dug ditches, cut wood and later was sexton of the cemetery.

The next house to the east was the Darr's.  They lived there until the family grew up.  Will's father dug ditches, cut wood for 40 cents a cord and worked for Milliken Bros. for 39 years in the fields.  He was a sexton of the cemetery and dug graves, receiving $50 for the season's work ($2 in the summer and $3 in the winter).

The Baptist Church sheds were the next buildings to the east.  The deacons and church goers hitched their horses and buggies there while they attended church.

The Baptist Church was next, built in 1846.  The first church was in Canandaigua and in 1846 they voted to move to Medina.  Meetings were then held in the homes until a building was built.  The cemetery was probably laid out at this time.

Some of the ministers that served this church were Rev. Eldridge, Kerr, Conrad, Smith, and in 1905 Rev. Fraser, Mrs. Fraser and daughters Nana and Electa came to Medina--they moved away about 1915.

The next house to the east was the Gardner house.  Will's parents lived there in 1873 and 4.  Jimmy Dayton, an old Civil War veteran lived there.  Later it was torn down and the upright moved to our home on the corner to the west.

Mr. Mumford, a Civil War veteran, lived in the next house to the east.  Later it was Uncle Ernie Palmer's home and also the Camp's.

Henry Kingsley owned the next shop to the east.  He did carpenter work of all kinds.  Made axe handles and sold them in Hudson for 15 and 20 cents each, made wagon tongues, whipple trees and neck yokes.  The building was later moved to the Guss farm.

A blacksmith shop was next to Henry Kingsley's shop and it was owned by Carl Weber until 1903 when the family moved to Wauseon.  Uncle Ernie Palmer bought the shop and ran it until 1915, when it was rented to Stetten and Fairbanks (both blacksmiths).  I can still hear the ring of the anvil and smell the hot shoes being fitted to the horses' hooves.

The Sutton house was next.  Later Bird Gaskills and the Skeels families lived there.  The Suttons were direct descendants of the first marriage in Medina township, that of John Sutton and Abigail Knapp in September 1834.

The next house was small and white washed and owned by Mr. Mitchell.  He was a Civil War veteran and walked with a cane and whistled under this breath.

Last, a small new building housing the Post Office.  Nettie Harrington was the post mistress.  Henry Kingsley used it later for his home.  

Further east, the Hotel barn, a big old building with a big yard.  The Griffin Humbug Show staked their tents there when they came to town.

The hotel is next, a big two story building built in 1837.  The hotel was originally intended to be built in Canandaigua and later sold to 2 Medina men, not knowing that the lumber was mortgaged; the mortgage was paid and Medina had a frame hotel.

The George Allen family lived here and had rooms to rent to traveling men.  There was also a bar room and pool room and barber shop.  George was the barber and tended the bar room.  It was torn down in 1912.  

Now we are at the main 4 corners, where the town pump stood.  Across the road and to the east was the Carter blacksmith shop, later run by Clark Harrington.  Upstairs was a buggy repair and paint shop run by Wheeler Lindenbower.  Back of the shop and to the south was the Carter home.  Farther south, a house stood empty and below the hill was the old watering trough, a spring that ran continually summer and winter.

Across the creek was the old grist mill.  It was built in 1837 and was not used after the early 90's.  Later it was torn down.  

Back on the main street and to the east of the Carter shop was where Charley and Katie Gaskill lived.  Mr. McKibben lived in the next house and was a shoemaker by trade.

The Fessendens and their son Lou lived in the next house.  Later Fred Bryan a cheesemaker lived there.  

Now the Colvin home.  Mrs. Colvin (Nellie) was the daughter of Dr. J. D. Ely who settled in Medina in 1867.  The Colvins owned the cheese factory and sorghum mill and were well to do in those days.  They owned a horse and buggy and had running water in the house and a bath tub, the only one in Medina.

Next was the Hen Miller home.  Later Jim Groom lived there and we also lived there from 1914 until 1922 when we moved to our farm in Hudson Township.

Now we are at the corner going toward Canandaigua.  The Weaver house was the next one to the south.  Mr. Weaver was the sexton of the Methodist church.  Later Al Newell lived there.  

Chauncey Mann was a carpenter and a cabinet maker and lived in the next house.  He had the best garden and the earliest one in town.  He died in 1909.  This is where will and I started housekeeping in 1909.  We paid $2.00 a month rent, but we had a new green plush davenport, the first in Medina.

The next house to the south was the one my father and grandmother Cooley bought when they came to Medina in 1885.  We always called it the house on the hill.

The Charley Cooley house was next.  Later the Hoisingtons lived there, also Hen Miller and his son and daughter, Billy and Sadie.

Back up the road and on the east side, just across from the house on the hill was our barn.  This building was the original school house and moved here when the new yellow brick school house was built in 1872.

To the north, a small long house owned by y Uncle Orange Cooley, and rented to the Tiffanys, McKinneys and others.

The next house was small and yellow and also owned by Orange Cooley.  Alva and Lucy Stone lived there in 1878.  It was the birthplace of Stanley Stone, the Editor of the Hudson Post Gazette.  My parents lived there in the winter of 1887 and 1888.

Orange Cooley lived in the next house to the east.  They had 2 jersey cows, made butter, raised a few pigs and lots of russet apples.

The Oliver Hotchkiss farm was next.  They had 5 daughters.  He was a deacon of the Baptist church for years.  The first cemetery was on this farm.

Across the road and to the east was the Wooster farm, owned by Milliken Bros.  To the east was a deep ravine and a hill.  The mud was so deep in the spring that a horse and buggy could hardly get up it.

The west was the Chester Lyon home.  He lived with his daughter and husband, Ralph and Myra Tew.

The Barbers lived in the next house to the west.  My parents lived here in 1894 before we moved to the house on the corner in the west end of the village.  Tom and Almira Hemenway later lived here.  Tom was a Civil War veteran and a painter by trade.

In the next building to the west the Milliken family ran a saloon and boarding house.  It was a big rambling house with a bar room, a long cross-legged table and a barn in back where horses were kept.  They moved to the Ed Baldwin farm east of Medina in 1902 or 03.  The house was bought by Ira Fike in 1908 and the front part moved to the east by Charley Gardner, a carpenter who made a home there.  Mr. Gardner also remodeled the house for Mr. Fike, and Will worked with him for 20 cents an hour and boarded himself.

Next to the Milliken house was the Camp home.  George was the town barber after George Allen.  Ike Acker and his daughter Gertie lived there later.

Next was the Ben Heydenberk home.  He was a Col. in the Civil War, a former school teacher and a carpenter by trade.

Next was the home of Dite Buck, then John and Maggie Pursell, later Wheeler Lindenbower lived there, a Civil War veteran, buggy repair man and painter by trade.

To the north was the Chris Kime home where he lived with Manly and Gertie Kime until they moved to the McKibben house on Main Street.

Next to the west on Main Street was the Baptist Ladies' Hall.  Church dinners, Sunday school parties and church bazaars were held there.  Earlier it was a Masonic Hall and sold about 20 years ago and moved away. 

Maccabee Hall was next, a 2 story building built in 1901 or 02.  I have a program to the dedication dance in 1903.  the floor managers were Will Moyer, Al Tew, Ed Baldwin and Rube Cooley.  It was always a treat when the Tews and the Baldwins danced the old round dance and round waltz and quite a contrast to the two step and quadrilles danced by the younger folks.  The girls wore ankle length dresses and had their hair fixed in a pompadour, and the boys wore peg top pants, high stiff collars, and had their hair parted in the middle.

The next store was made of brick and was built in the '80s by John Christophers.  The bricks for this building were hauled from Hudson by the Milliken bros., Jimmy and Robbie.  John Christophers died in 1895 and the building was sold to the Masons for $500 and is still used as a meeting place.  In 1910 they built the banquet hall to the East. 

In back of the store was a building used before the 90's as a drug store and later the Masons banquet rooms.  It was sold in 1910 to Jim Groom to be moved away.  It was used as a barn.

Back of the store was the Amos Gambell home.  He clerked for John Chris and then for Bob Goldsborough; also a clerk in the brick store was his daughter Alice, a dressmaker.

Across the street lived Mrs. Charley Brown.  Her husband Charley ran the white store in the early 70's.  Mrs. Brown's son Ed Farnsworth later lived there.  Ed was a Civil War veteran, a sergeant in the Sharpshooters, Berdan's, ran a little clock and watch repair and owned a big farm south of the village.

Ern and Emma Keller moved there about 1901.  The Kellers had 20 acres east of Medina, pastured 2 cows, sold milk (you took your pail) 5 cents a quart, and raised strawberries and apples.

Aldrich McLouth came to Medina in the 70's and ran the white store and post office on the corner until his death in 1912.  It was a general store, food in barrels and boxes, a pot bellied stove, wooden benches and wooden plug tobacco boxes filled with sawdust by the stove.  Young and old gathered there at mail time.  

At nine in the morning the old stage ran from Morenci to Medina and then to Hudson and back at 4 in the afternoon.  The team so beat up it just jogged along.  Two or three passengers could ride to Hudson for 25 cents each.  If you had 5 cents you could buy a tablet with a McKinley or Bryan button on it in 1900.  One cent bought a blind robin, a licorice stick or peppermint candy.

Every three months on the 4th day of March, June, Sept., Dec. the old Civil War veterans were on hand for their pensions.  Most of them received $12 a month, a few received more because of rank or disability.  Mr. Willie, John Hall, Mr. Mitchell, Charles Guss, Tom Hemenway, Alvin Goodale, Henry Hiller, Mr. Mumford, Wheeler Lindenbower, Ben Heydenberk, Jimmie Dayton, Ed Farmsworth, Hi Covell, and Mr. Hoisington were a few that received a pension.  Spanish American veterans were Jim Groom, Ira Robinson and Sam Darr.  Ellis Guss, who also served in the Philippines, died there and was brought back and a military funeral was held in Medina in 1903.

The meat market was the next store to the west.  Dwight Buck was the butcher and Art House the helper.  They ran a wagon through the country selling fresh meat.  The building fell down in the 1890's and also a harness shop.

To the side and back were the big scales to weigh hay and hogs.

Next is the first frame house, and the oldest house in Medina.  Built in Canandaigua in 1836 and occupied by Dr. Hamilton.  Moved to Medina in 1836 (Doctor and all).  The Webers lived there until 1903. Ben Tew until 1910, and we lived there a year and paid $1.50 a month rent.  We could have bought the house for $200.  Will earned $12.00 a week as a barn carpenter, working 10-12 and sometimes 15 hours a day, room and board included.  Norman was born here and the Dr. bill was $10.00.  It didn't cost too much for food, bread was 5 cents a loaf, milk was 5 cents a quart, 5 cents of cheese or cold meat made a meal.

Will bought a team of mules and a milk rout Oct. 1st and for the next 22 years he was a milk hauler and a farmer.

Next on Main Street lived the Aldrich McLouth family.  Mrs. McLouth was short and stout, but very well corseted.  She played the melodeon while we practiced.  Mattie's Sunday school class of girls sang hymns at the morning church services.  They had more than the most of us, they hired a dressmaker and they took the Youth's Companion.

The Goodale family lived down the side street and the Wheeler Lindenbower family next, later Hank Smith lived here in the old Strobeck house.

Dr. Cofin lived across the street and to the west.  They came to Medina from Hudson in 1891 and moved to Addison in 1902.  A house call was 50 cents and an office call 25 cents.  He kept a ledger in 1893 and his receipts were $400.  He pulled teeth, doled out headache powders, and made a wonderful hand lotion of glycerine and quince seeds.  They had a fat black horse, a jersey cow, buff cochin hens that he called boys, and a yellow pug dog.

Back to Main Street and to the west was an old brown house where Chris Daley and his son Clyde lived.  It was torn down long ago.  In 1909 Uncle Ernie Palmer moved the Carter house just to the west of it and my Grandma Palmer lived here until 1919 when she passed away.

Dr. Ely's house and office was next, with the office in the front.  He came to Medina in 1867 and practiced until 1890. His son Dr. Delancy Ely practiced around 1886 in Medina.  The boys of the village gathered big carts of witch hazel brush for Dr. Ely so he could make his own medicine.  Will used to get 5 cents a quart for picking mullen blossoms.

There was a russet apple tree on the corner and artichokes grew around his barn to the north.  the kids dug them in the spring to eat.  They tasted crisp and a little dirty, like the dandelion greens after a winter on dry food.

Across the side street was the yellow brick school house, where Will and went to school in the 90's and early 1900's.  Built in 1872, a fractional district.  In 1892 and 1893 Jay Rogers taught 65 students from 6 to 20 years old and Gene Gaskill had 56 students in 1902 and 1903.  A few of the other teachers were Newson Drewyer, Hattie Sutton, Mary Gaskill, Dora Hart, Fay Goldsborough, Austin Gould, Sara, Rita, and Enid Gardner, Glen Craig and Marie, my sister, taught in 1910 and 1911.

Back to the south and the Baptist parsonage, which was sometimes rented.  My folks lived here the winter of '93 and '94 after we came back from Detroit where my Father teamed and helped to make Belle Isle.  Ministers that lived in the parsonage were Rev. Eldridge, Kerr, Conrad, Smith and Fraser (Fraser came in 1905 and moved away about 1915).

Next to the west was the Dr. Dodge house where Will's Grandfather Burnett lived  They came to Michigan in the 1840's and bought 110 acres over on the town line.  Will's folks later lived there and we lived there two years until we moved in May 1912 to the Palmer farm in Hudson Township.  Will's father died in Feb. 1914 and his mother moved back across the road to the old house where she lived until she died in March 1929.  To the west and just to the east of the Methodist Church was their parsonage.  Rev. Lyon, Tedman, Caster, Palmer, Camburn were some of the ministers.

We will go back to the yellow brick school house and turn east to the Guss farm.  A big barn to the west and the horse barn along the road and a big pond where the school boys and girls skated and sometimes fell in.

The red brick house was built years earlier.  A Dr. Brown lived there in the 50's and girls attending school at the Academy boarded there.

The Guss boys and their friends always rode the work horses to the town watering trough below the hotel hill everyday.  This hill was where the school kids slid down hill at noon and at night after school.  Their cheeks would be so rosy, and their coats would all be unbuttoned when they slid down the hill, across the bridge and half way up Strobeck hill to the south and back down, across the bridge and half way to the watering trough.  When the tap bell rang, they knew they had five minutes to get back to school.

Across the street from Gusses was Grandpa Brazee.  He made splint baskets of all kids and shapes.  He pounded the ash and elm logs to get the splints to make his baskets.

In the home of Mrs Bennett, a widow lived.  Across the road and the next house to the east was the Ed Farnsworth home.  He moved to the home of his mother Mrs. Brown.  The Tew family came in the late 1890's.  They ran the threshing machine and corn husker.  You were always welcome to visit them and to sing around the piano and dance in the kitchen.

The Lindenbower, the McLouth, and the Keller barns were across the street.  Now to the east was the big farm of Mrs. Gaskill.  They raised a large family and most of them married and lived around Medina.  The farm was then bought by Charley Cooley.  He bought and sold cattle (with a trade thrown in). He sold the farm to Ira Fike in 1908.  The Fike barn stood along the street to the east and then the 20 acres belonging to Uncle Orange Cooley.  He had a big apple orchard, mostly russets, pastured two jersey cows and a few pigs.

To the east was the slaughter house of Dwight Buck.

This is the story of Medina in the late 1800's and early 1900's as told to me by my Grandmother, my Mother and as I remember it.

February 1955
Mrs. Will (Annis Cooley) Darr

(This document is from Hudson Museum.)