Ebenezer W. Earl
Ebenezer W. Earl (deceased) was born in Braceville, Ohio, February 12, 1806, and came with his father's family to Windham, this county, in 1814. There were then fourteen families in the township, of which there are now but eight persons living: Eli Case, R. M. Higley, Lorin Higley, M. P. Higley, Moses A. Birchard, Jesse Lyman, Mrs. Eliza Birchard and Mrs. Clemens Snow. Soon after coming to Windham a friendly plan was hit upon, by which Mr. Earl was engaged as mill boy for a neighborhood of young married people—John Seley, Hardin Seley, A. P. Jagger, John Streator—who settled a mile or so south of the Center, so that they could clear up their farms without the delay incident to such necessary work. Mr. Earl's father and some others made it necessary that two or three trips a week should be made, as there were no roads opened, and only a bridlepath with blazed trees to guide the horseman. Two bushels of grain was a full load in those days, and Mr. Jagger owned the only horse in the syndicate. The most frequented road to Garrettsville led across the Rudd farm and very often a delay at the mill would necessitate young Earl's starting home when near dark, and when it would be almost impossible to keep the path. Many a time the howling of wolves in every direction would announce their fearful proximity to the path he was following. Hunger and danger were mighty strong powers for a lad of twelve years to contend with, and sorely it taxed the youthful energies of our hero many times to the utmost limit of endurance, as he toiled along his forest path in these labors of kindness during the four or five years of this service. On one occasion he made a trip to Barnum's mill in Braceville, and a severe thunder shower prevented his starting for home until sundown. As he emerged from the woods to cross Eagle Creek Bridge, east of William Moore' s present farm, the darkness was complete, and some fox-fire on a stump in the State road frightened him greatly, as he imagined it to be the glisten of a bear's eyes or some more furious animal. It was 11 o'clock when he reached home, and found all the family a-bed and asleep. On another occasion Mr. Earl made a trip to New Falls with a horse that was extremely ugly and vicious and a blow from a whip would cause him to rear and kick with such violence as to pitch both boy and grist clean off his back on short notice. Young Earl found the mill so crowded with grists, that he was unable to start for home until late in the day, and at his arrival at Mr. Brooks' place, with a long swampy mudhole ahead, the horse refused to go any further. After every plan he could think of had been tried to make the animal proceed, the boy reluctantly took his back track to the mill and stayed with Ben Yale, who then ran the mill at night. In the morning on reaching the same place the horse refused to proceed, and neither leading nor coaxing would induce him to advance a step. In this dilemma Mr. Brooks saw the boy and came to his relief with a whip, which he applied so vigorously that the kicking up "racket " was suspended, and a rapid advance made for home. Chopping was a favorite employment with Mr. Earl in those days, forty or sixty acres in one job being not uncommon, and he would slash down an acre in a day by the windrow style of felling a long line of trees across a "bush" by cutting them half or two-thirds through and directing the course of each so that the first tree of the line would fall against the second, the second against the third and so on until the roar and crash of falling timber for fifty or one hundred rods would bear comparison with a first-class cyclone of modern times. Splitting rails was another work in which Mr. Earl excelled, and he could split from 400 to 600 per day. The ordinary price for this kind of work was then 12½ cents per 100. January 20, 1852, he left his home and started for New York with money to purchase eight tickets for California via the Panama route, and these were procured for $300. The company left in a few days for Chagres, Panama, and finding no boat on the Pacific side connected with the line they went by, they had to remain there eighteen days and were finally obliged to sue the purser of the boat they came on, whereby they received nearly enough returns to purchase tickets from there to San Francisco on an old sailing vessel; $252.50 secured their tickets and paid hospital fee at Chagres. They had a long, dreary voyage of sixty-five days, during which time they saw land only once and but one sail. A number of the passengers died on the passage, one of whom was Barnus Ives, of Nelson, this county. On arrival at Mayville they were obliged to walk seventy-five miles to the mines. The following December deep snow stopped the mule train, which carried the supplies a distance of thirty miles, and all their provisions had to be carried by men. The scarcity brought flour up to $2 per pound, but Mr. Earl managed to secure from the three bakeries twenty-five one-pound loaves for fifty cents each, and thus escaped the higher prices that followed. He was successful in securing a considerable quantity of gold. May 26, 1884, he died. His widow is now residing on the old homestead. Mr. Earl was an active worker in the Sunday-school and was a devoted Christian.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885