First settlers
First
Land
Owners
Until 1701 no one owned any specific land. The
land was the property of everyone. If was considered free for all to
use. It was of course a vast wilderness abounding in wildlife.
It is
believed that the first landowner in our area was Charles Groesbeck who settled
in Section 33 in 1830 according to the Warren Historical Society's Booklet on
the History of Warren. Then followed Charles Rivard in 1831
in Section 35. He made a homestead at the northwest corner of
12 Mile and Mound. Others followed Louis Groesbeck and the
Beebe Family who settled near the trail (later called the
Creek
Road) that ran
along the Red Run Creek.
Beebe’s corners
This
was probably the first settlement in what was later Warren Township and became
known as Beebe’s corners probably because it had a toll gate run by John L
Beebe, to pay for the labor that went into the plank road paving over marshy
area of road. The road was ten feet wide and made of oak
planks. Loaded wagons had the right of way.
Or if both were loaded or empty the wagon heading South had the right of
way and the other one had to pull off. This was not very
good after a rain as the ground became very
muddy. John Beebe also operated a general store, tin shop and
later a post office.
1826
Warren was still a heavily timbered area.
The Moravian road was still a trail road.
Land
office very busy
The land office was doing a booming business in the
1830s. Most of the settlers arrived after 1830.
The dense trees were cut for homes, fuel and crop land.
The area of Warren and Center Line began to be changed from mature forest
to rural farmland.
Trees five feet in diameter
The
dense trees, some about five feet in diameter at the base and over 200 feet
tall, were cut for homes, fuel and crop land. The area of
Warren was gradually changed from mature forest to rural
farmland. These settlers still had no laws and no police
except the sheriff but nearly everyone agreed to live in a civilized
way. Crime was very low during these times but we have no
evidence to prove it until more research is done. Most people
were too busy cutting trees, clearing ground, planting crops, building cabins,
gathering food, cooking meals and doing chores to cause any trouble.
Beebe’s Corners sprouted a Tavern,
trading post, distillery, a mill and later other businesses.
It has been reported that the main industries in the early days of the
village other than farming was making of bricks, saw mills, flour and feed
mills, and wagon and buggy making.
This
is what they saw when they arrived here.
The
first pioneers worked very hard and long. It was a survive or not
survive situation. They had to keep constant watch for raiders or
hostile Indians. First they had to build a lean-to to protect
themselves from wolves, bears and wild cats as there were no rooms at
the Holiday Inn.
They
had to scout out places to find water and to build a cabin. The
next thing was to clear some ground to plant some crops. All
cooking was done outside regardless of weather. The lean-to
usually did not keep out the rain. Misquotes were
horrendous. There were no power tools so everything had to be
done with the ax. If they brought animals pens had to be
constructed. Soon a primitive cabin was built. This was
followed some time later by a real log cabin with a roof that kept out
rain. There were no windows as there was no glass. The
cooking was still done outside until a chimney could be
constructed. The woods was the bathroom until an outhouse could
be constructed and there was no toilet paper. There were no stores or
fast food places. All things needed had to be built by hand out
of local materials. All of this took great amounts of time and
hard labor.
There were no roads just trails. If you got hurt you either
bandaged yourself up with rags or died as there was no help
around. Any neighbor was a long ways away. Many settlers
died from Indian raids and diseases. Many babies died and many
women died in childbirth as there were no doctors.
See the History links for more details.
Here are the stones of a few of
them. The first settlers usually did not even have shovels,
caskets or gravestones.
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