ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO

BOOKLET / PRINTS

Early days in Ashtabula County, OH, including the communities of Ashtabula, Jefferson, Geneva, Conneaut and Rock Creek, are recalled through a mixture of colorful tales and factual data in this NEW 31 page Booklet of excerpts reprinted from the 1892 Centennial edition of Henry Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, The Ohio Guide (a 1940 WPA writer's project) and other sources. The spiral-bound booklet is printed one-sided on 60# paper with the print enlarged 10% for easier reading.
IN ADDITION TO THE BOOKLET the buyer will receive THREE Computer-Enhanced 8 1/2 x 11 Prints of engravings from the original book, suitable for framing. These include the 1846 sketch of Ashtabula, shown below, the county buildings in Jefferson in 1846, and an 1888 view of Geneva.
Among the many fascinating topics covered in the booklet are: early surveyors and settlers of the Western Reserve, the adventure of Solomon Sweatland who crossed Lake Erie in an open canoe, the settlement of Harperfield, the harbor of Conneaut, a curious chip from a tree, pioneer difficulties, prominent residents like Giddings, Wade, Spencer, Cowles and Tourgee, the Ashtabula Railway Disaster, Geneva poetess Edith Thomas, and a religion emphasing "bodily excercises", whose members were familiarly called The Jerks.
GENEALOGY BUFFS will find a list of 1888 county officers and businesses. A 1933 look at the history of newspapers in the county, a brief piece on the Fitch Homestead, Joshua R. Giddings, abolishionist and statesman, and Platt Rogers Spencer, penmanship specialist, points of interest in the 1940s, and maps showing the 88 Ohio counties and 1805 Ohio are also included.