Jabez Burrell was the 8th son of Abraham and Mary [Austin]. He named for
an older brother who was born and died in 1762. Jabez married Mary (Polly)
Robbins in 1792 and their eight children were all born in Sheffield, Berkshire,
Massachusetts [Julia, Sarah M., Robbins, Lyman J., Soloma, Jabez Lyman, Eliza, &
Mary Ann]. Following the family tradition (his father and brother were
Revolutionary War soldiers), Jabez fought with the Massachusetts Militia with
the rank of Captain in the War of 1812.

In January 1815 Capt. Jabez Burrell and his partner Capt. John Day, both
from the town of Sheffield in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts,
purchased Township No. 7 in the 17th range of townships of the Connecticut
Western Reserve [present day Sheffield in Lorain County, Ohio]. After exploring
the township that summer and selecting lots for themselves and friends, they
returned to Massachusetts. The next summer, Captain Burrell and his family
arrived at the mouth of the Black River on the schooner Black Snake from
Buffalo, New York and their belongings arrived on the smaller schooner Fire Fly.
At Black River Jabez engaged John Reid, who had settled at the river’s mouth in
1811 and operated a ferry scow, to transport belongings up the river to the
mouth of French Creek where he had selected a place for the family homestead.
Some accounts indicate that the family proceeded upstream on the Fire Fly. In
1820 Captain Burrell built the fine Federal-style brick homestead that still
stands on high ground overlooking the confluence.

Jabez, and brothers Isaac, James, and Arnold who also settled in Sheffield,
Ohio, were from a family of 13 children. Their father was Abraham Burrell. Isaac
Burrell (1779-1860) came to Ohio in February 1817 with his wife Huldah
(1781-1864) and James Burrell (1773-1856) arrived in July 1817 with his wife
Roxana (1776-1862). One of James Burrell’s daughters, Harriet, married John B.
Garfield who had purchased a tract of land on North Ridge from Jabez. James
operated a cheese factory at the Burrell Homestead in the 1830s and 1840s.
Arnold (1766-1842) and his wife Lois (died 1823) arrived in July 1817. Members
of the Isaac Burrell Family are buried in Block B, Lot 9 of Garfield Cemetery,
while the James Burrell family is buried in Block A, Lots 7 & 8 and the Arnold
Burrell family are in Block B, Lot 11.

One of the terms imposed on the Connecticut Land Company, agent for the sale
of land in the Connecticut Western Reserve, was that each township was to have a
sawmill and gristmill to be built at the expense of the purchasers. During the
first winter in Sheffield, Jabez Burrell and his associates built a mill on
French Creek. Later, another mill was constructed on the Black River just above
the current 31st Street bridge. The area around this mill became the center of
much of Sheffield activity. A schooner was even built there and floated down
river to Lake Erie. Jabez also set up a brick kiln, where he burned bricks for
several houses, including the Burrell Homestead.

Jabez married Mary Robbins (1770-1831) in Massachusetts and they had 8
children before settling in Ohio. Their son Robbins Burrell (1799-1877) married
Eliza Brigham (1801-1870) in 1825 and carried on the management of the Burrell
Homestead after his father’s death. Robbins was active in the Abolition Movement
by operating a station on the “Underground Railroad” and helping many runaway
slaves obtain passage on boats that would carry them to freedom in Canada. Mary
Burrell died on August 26, 1831 and Jabez on September 25, 1833; they are buried
in Garfield Cemetery (Block A, Lot 8, Graves 2 & 3). Robbins and Eliza Burrell
are buried in Block A, Lot 8, Graves 4 & 5.

Jabez was a leader in the new community. He was elected Justice of the Peace
in 1819 and 1822 (Troy Township) and served with Henry Root as Sheffield
Township’s first Poormasters when Sheffield Township was organized in 1824. He
also served as an inspirational father. His eldest son, Robbins, taught in the
only public school then existing in the City of Cleveland during the winter of
1823-24. Robbins and his brother, Jabez Lyman, were founders and original
trustees of Oberlin College demonstrating the family commitment to both
work/study programs and abolition.

The homestead that Jabez built and Robbins inherited was used as the 100th
stop on the Underground Railroad. No records were kept to protect the family
from their illegal activity. Tempe Garfield Burrell recollects that, “….there
were usually two or more slaves brought in at a time—and always at night—and
they were hidden in the grain bins under the grain through the day while Mr.
Burrell went to Lorain to contact a captain sailing for Canada who would risk
taking them across. The granary is still standing on the Burrell farm in
Sheffield. When a boat was ready, Mr. Burrell would take the slaves to Lorain in
the bottom of a wagon with farm produce covering them. Then he would drive to
the dock and unload the provisions ordered by the captain and the slaves would
take the opportunity of concealing themselves on the boat. I don’t remember ever
being told for how long a period the Negroes would be concealed in the granary
but it probably took several days to make the necessary arrangements.”

Robbins Burrell’s obituary, written by son Edward Burrell, states: “From
the first he was a red-hot anti-slavery man. His house was for years a station
on the Underground Railroad, and many a fugitive slave from Kentucky, who had
reached Oberlin, was smuggled to him, concealed until Capt. [Aaron] Root reached
the nearest port, and then set across the lake. He believed in “the higher law”
heresy, and would have gone to prison or the stake before he would have aided in
the return of a slave. Many a time lordly Kentuckians, with spurs, pistols,
whips and hounds, visited his place in search of fugitives, and to “help them
hunt” put them on the wrong trails, let them ransack improbably places, peek
into holes, and devil and laugh at them, was delightful to him. It was just the
mischief and adventure he craved.”

About the same time Jabez’ son Lyman John joined the gold rush in California
and ended up with large land holdings, orchards and vineyards. Letters between
Lyman and his wife Clarissa describe the trials of this westward movement and
son Birney’s diaries provide historians with the early history of California.
Lyman’s descendants combined with those of his sister Sarah Maria Burrell
(believed to have married Auren Knapp) became merchants and owners of the
largest farm implement business in the northwest basing their business in
Portland, Oregon.

The family commitment to their faith runs through the generations. They
were hardly settled in Sheffield when Jabez gathered the pioneers for services
in his log house. His daughter Julia married first one and then another
minister. Her first husband founded the Congregational Church in Sandusky, Ohio,
in 1819. The Presbyterian Church of New England sent out her second husband on
missionary assignments. His prejudice against slavery was extreme. He would wear
nothing made by slave labor and eat nothing farmed with slave labor. Through the
generations one finds clergy, teachers, attorneys, physicians, physicists,
explorers, loggers, writers and publishers who demonstrated their convictions
with the unflagging energy and optimism inherited from their pioneer forefather.

Information provided by the Sheffield Pioneers

I need to introduce myself - I am Martin Strong Burrell the last line in this family. My father was Douglas Montgomery Burrell who was born in Portland, Oregon on 18 Aug 1900 and died near Dorena, Oregon on 15 Oct 1948. His father was Walter Frazar Burrell [the first child of Martin Strong Burrell] who was born in Portland, Oregon on 13 Feb 1863 and died in Santa Barbara, California on 08 Jan 1946. Walter's father was Martin Strong Burrell who was born in Sheffield, Ohio on 23 Nov 1834 and died in Portland, Oregon on 12 Apr 1885. Martin's father was Jabez Lyman Burrell who was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts on 01 Oct 1806 [he became a farmer and one of the founders of Oberlin College] and died 25 Jan 1900, at the age of 93 years, 03 months and 25 days. Jabez Lyman Burrell was married three times (1)Lovinia Strong [descendant of Governor William Bradford {1590-1657}], (2)Jane Strong, (3)Lydia Callahan. The first two wives each gave him two children. Martin Strong Burrell was the first born of Lovinia [Strong] Burrell, She died 26 Apr 1837. Her second child, John Stoughton Burrell was born on 03 Nov 1836 and died on 21 Jan 1837. Martin Strong Burrell was the only one of Jabez Lyman Burrell's children to wed and have children.

Jabez Lyman Burrell [farmer] was one of eight children born to Jabez Burrell who was in later life a farmer and wagon maker. Jabez Burrell was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts on 16 Jan 1768 and died in Ohio on 25 Sept 1833, at age 65 years, 8 months and 10 days. His married Mary Robbins and from this union their children were Julia [Rev. Treat Humphrey ?], Robbins [Eliza Brigham], Sarah M.[Knapp], Lyman Jabez, Eliza [Judge Frederick Whittlesey], Jabez Lyman, Salome [Warner] and Mary Ann Burrell [Edwin Gillette].

The Knapp family and Martin S. Burrell operated a large business in Portland, Oregon. They both became millionaires. Richard Knapp and his father.

Information provided by Martin Strong Burrell #46932334