GILSON, Eleazor
Husband of Mary nee BROCKWAY? – m. 1775 in Sharon, Litchfield Co. CT
B. 1754 in Goshen, Orange Co. N.Y.
D. 22 Feb 1841 in Canfield Twp., Trumbull (now Mahoning) Co. OH at 87y
Burial – Feb 1841 in Canfield Village Cemetery Section B Row 08, Canfield, Mahoning Co. OH
Revolutionary War, US Army Pvt, 5th CT regt, 2nd brig, Col. Strung's Co. from 1777 until 1780
Western Reserve Chronicle, 16 Mar 1841, p. 3:
"Eleazer Gilson, 87, in Canfield on the 20th ult. Eleazer Gilson a soldier of the Revolution aged 87 years. In the fall of the year 1798 he removed from Sharon Connecticut to Canfield Township. In 1799 he carried the mail on foot between this place and Pittsburgh and the first letters he carried in a pocket handkerchief for want of mail bags. This was the first mail ever sent from Pittsburgh north westerly towards the state of Ohio."
Note: He served in the Revolutionary War in Capt. Sol Strung's Co. 5th Regiment Connecticut line
Military note: Eleazer Gilson was considered to be a resident of Sharon, Connecticut while he served as a private in the Revolutionary War, although he had enlisted from Rye, New York.
Eleazer had enlisted as a private at Rye, New York, in February 1777 and served almost until the end of the war. He first served in a company commanded by Captain Solomon Strong in a regiment commanded by Phillip Bradley in either the second or third company of the Connecticut Lines. His regiment was later blended with one under the command of Colonel Herman Swift and he served with Swift in a company commanded by a Captain Chapman for the rest of his service. He had been furloughed in March1783, and went from the Highlands where he was stationed to Sharon, so he could regain his health. He was still recovering when the army was disbanded in June of the same year. He received a regular discharge that was executed by "his excellency Gen. Washington and was forwarded to his place of confinement at Sharon." He gave his discharge papers to a Jabez Hamblin soon after the war when he sold his title to any lands that might be given him by the United States. In his pension application dated April 9, 1818, he stated that he was very infirm by reason of diseases contracted during his service in the Revolutionary War. He was given a pension of $80 per year in starting in 1831 for his service in the Revolution.
Source: Jim Young from Eleazer Gilson's Revolutionary War pension file in the National Archives
Eleazor Gilson was among the first Canfield settlers to arrive in 1799. He became Canfield's first mail carrier. His son Samuel was one of the original 1798 surveying team members. Eleazor Gilson located on East Street, south side, one and a half miles from the center. This later became the Martin Neff farm and today (2008) is where Westford Development is located. His daughter Mercy married Alfred Wolcott on February 11, 1800 making them the first from Canfield to marry. Mercy died in childbirth at the age of nineteen on November 27th of that year. She was buried on the Gilson family farm.
Mahoning Dispatch, Fri, 19 Feb 1897 - Article No. 5 by Dr. Jackson Truesdale
Excerpt:
"We have already noted that in the fall of 1798 the surveying party of which Nathan Moore was chief surveyor returned to Connecticut. In the spring of 1799 he returned to further prosecute the work begun. With him came some of the men that formed the party the preceding summer. The spring and fall of 1799 added a large relative addition to the colony of one family, and two young men that constituted the population the preceding winter. Three families, and possibly four, came to Canfield as settlers. They were Phineas Reed, Eleazor Gilson, Joshua Hollister and probably Rapheal Hulbert, all having families, and all from Connecticut, unless, perhaps the latter, who may have come in the spring of 1800 from Pennsylvania, and if so was the first of many more that came from that state soon afterwards. Aside from these families there were a few unmarried men. According to a statement made by a Mrs. Hale, who was a daughter of Nathan Moore, the surveyor, we find the names of unmarried residents of Canfield in 1799 of "Azariah Wetmore, Joseph Pangborn, Wilder Page, Nathaniel Gridly, one by the name of Mervin or Mewin and perhaps one or two others." Some of these last named were of the surveying party of '99, headed by Nathan Moore.
Eleazor Gilson was born in Orange county, N. Y., in 1754. When young he moved to Sharon, Conn., where he married in 1775. Served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war and emigrated to Canfield in 1799, arriving here on the 27th of October. He died and was buried in our village cemetery in 1841, aged 87 years. He was the father of two sons and six daughters. The oldest one of the family, Samuel, has already been mentioned as one of the surveying party of Nathaniel Church in 1798, and with Jos. Pangborn, another one of the party, remained here, thus entitling them to be looked upon as the first actual settlers. Samuel died in Hubbard, Trumbull county, in 1816. Mercy, the eldest daughter married Alfred Wolcott. There were peculiarities attached to this union for which we have no space now, but may hereafter refer to. All the other children of Mr. Gilson, with the exception of the youngest, Anna Maria, married, and at an early period removed elsewhere. Mr. Gilson was the first contractor to carry the mail, on the first mail route established in 1801 in all the wide territory lying to the west and northwest of Pittsburgh. This first route extended from Pittsburgh to Warren, about 90 miles in length. The postoffices first established on the route were Beavertown, or Fort McIntosh, Georgetown, Canfield, Youngstown and Warren. The mail was delivered to these offices once in two weeks. The compensation to the contractor was the rate of $3.56 per mile, counting the distance one way, per annum, or for the whole year a little over $300. The method of conveyance was optional. I would suppose, from the fact that at least a part of the time it was conveyed upon the back of the son Samuel.
In 1826 I became a member of Jonathan Eastman's family, who were near neighbors to Ansel Beeman, a Son-in-law of Eleazor Gilson. Mr. Beeman then owned and occupied the farm where John Miser now lives - where, in my boyhood days, I occasionally saw Mr. Gilson. My recollection of him is that he was a tall, bony, muscular old man, dressed in homespun woolens of a color that I have no name for-something between a white and light brown - common in that day. The cut of the coat being in keeping with the latest fad of the present age; an evidence that fashions repeat themselves. I find as I make the effort, that I cannot recall the personal appearance or clothing of other men in the same vicinity at that time. Why is this? I know of no other reason than that he was said to be a Revolutionary soldier. My idea of a soldier then was one who had waded over his shoe tops in rivers of blood. Hence, I looked upon Mr. Gilson with childish awe and interest."
Mahoning Dispatch, Fri, 7 May 1897 - Article No. 16 -
Scraps of History by Dr. Jackson Truesdale
Excerpt from the Tryal Tanner family
Capt. Tanner in business affairs and social life was a plain, blunt, out-spoken man, severe in criticism when he thought needful, but with all a man with a kind heart, honest and incorruptable; in official transactions well informed as to his duties, which he dispatched with punctuality and decision. As an instance of directness in making a statement, one instance may be referred to. He with other citizens were together engaged in making prescribed and formal application and proof in order to obtain long-delayed justice, towards a revolutionary soldier. Ignoring forms, he took a sheet of paper and wrote, "I declare on the honor of an old revolutionary officer that I know Eleazor Gilson to be a private soldier in the 5th Connecticut regiment, 2nd brigade, in the army of the United States from the year 1777 until 1780, and have had personal acquaintance with him seventeen years last past, and know him to be a man of truth and that he is unable to support himself. TRYAL TANNER, late Lieut. and Adj't in Conn, Reg't."
Husband of Mary nee BROCKWAY? – m. 1775 in Sharon, Litchfield Co. CT
B. 1754 in Goshen, Orange Co. N.Y.
D. 22 Feb 1841 in Canfield Twp., Trumbull (now Mahoning) Co. OH at 87y
Burial – Feb 1841 in Canfield Village Cemetery Section B Row 08, Canfield, Mahoning Co. OH
Revolutionary War, US Army Pvt, 5th CT regt, 2nd brig, Col. Strung's Co. from 1777 until 1780
Western Reserve Chronicle, 16 Mar 1841, p. 3:
"Eleazer Gilson, 87, in Canfield on the 20th ult. Eleazer Gilson a soldier of the Revolution aged 87 years. In the fall of the year 1798 he removed from Sharon Connecticut to Canfield Township. In 1799 he carried the mail on foot between this place and Pittsburgh and the first letters he carried in a pocket handkerchief for want of mail bags. This was the first mail ever sent from Pittsburgh north westerly towards the state of Ohio."
Note: He served in the Revolutionary War in Capt. Sol Strung's Co. 5th Regiment Connecticut line
Military note: Eleazer Gilson was considered to be a resident of Sharon, Connecticut while he served as a private in the Revolutionary War, although he had enlisted from Rye, New York.
Eleazer had enlisted as a private at Rye, New York, in February 1777 and served almost until the end of the war. He first served in a company commanded by Captain Solomon Strong in a regiment commanded by Phillip Bradley in either the second or third company of the Connecticut Lines. His regiment was later blended with one under the command of Colonel Herman Swift and he served with Swift in a company commanded by a Captain Chapman for the rest of his service. He had been furloughed in March1783, and went from the Highlands where he was stationed to Sharon, so he could regain his health. He was still recovering when the army was disbanded in June of the same year. He received a regular discharge that was executed by "his excellency Gen. Washington and was forwarded to his place of confinement at Sharon." He gave his discharge papers to a Jabez Hamblin soon after the war when he sold his title to any lands that might be given him by the United States. In his pension application dated April 9, 1818, he stated that he was very infirm by reason of diseases contracted during his service in the Revolutionary War. He was given a pension of $80 per year in starting in 1831 for his service in the Revolution.
Source: Jim Young from Eleazer Gilson's Revolutionary War pension file in the National Archives
Eleazor Gilson was among the first Canfield settlers to arrive in 1799. He became Canfield's first mail carrier. His son Samuel was one of the original 1798 surveying team members. Eleazor Gilson located on East Street, south side, one and a half miles from the center. This later became the Martin Neff farm and today (2008) is where Westford Development is located. His daughter Mercy married Alfred Wolcott on February 11, 1800 making them the first from Canfield to marry. Mercy died in childbirth at the age of nineteen on November 27th of that year. She was buried on the Gilson family farm.
Mahoning Dispatch, Fri, 19 Feb 1897 - Article No. 5 by Dr. Jackson Truesdale
Excerpt:
"We have already noted that in the fall of 1798 the surveying party of which Nathan Moore was chief surveyor returned to Connecticut. In the spring of 1799 he returned to further prosecute the work begun. With him came some of the men that formed the party the preceding summer. The spring and fall of 1799 added a large relative addition to the colony of one family, and two young men that constituted the population the preceding winter. Three families, and possibly four, came to Canfield as settlers. They were Phineas Reed, Eleazor Gilson, Joshua Hollister and probably Rapheal Hulbert, all having families, and all from Connecticut, unless, perhaps the latter, who may have come in the spring of 1800 from Pennsylvania, and if so was the first of many more that came from that state soon afterwards. Aside from these families there were a few unmarried men. According to a statement made by a Mrs. Hale, who was a daughter of Nathan Moore, the surveyor, we find the names of unmarried residents of Canfield in 1799 of "Azariah Wetmore, Joseph Pangborn, Wilder Page, Nathaniel Gridly, one by the name of Mervin or Mewin and perhaps one or two others." Some of these last named were of the surveying party of '99, headed by Nathan Moore.
Eleazor Gilson was born in Orange county, N. Y., in 1754. When young he moved to Sharon, Conn., where he married in 1775. Served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war and emigrated to Canfield in 1799, arriving here on the 27th of October. He died and was buried in our village cemetery in 1841, aged 87 years. He was the father of two sons and six daughters. The oldest one of the family, Samuel, has already been mentioned as one of the surveying party of Nathaniel Church in 1798, and with Jos. Pangborn, another one of the party, remained here, thus entitling them to be looked upon as the first actual settlers. Samuel died in Hubbard, Trumbull county, in 1816. Mercy, the eldest daughter married Alfred Wolcott. There were peculiarities attached to this union for which we have no space now, but may hereafter refer to. All the other children of Mr. Gilson, with the exception of the youngest, Anna Maria, married, and at an early period removed elsewhere. Mr. Gilson was the first contractor to carry the mail, on the first mail route established in 1801 in all the wide territory lying to the west and northwest of Pittsburgh. This first route extended from Pittsburgh to Warren, about 90 miles in length. The postoffices first established on the route were Beavertown, or Fort McIntosh, Georgetown, Canfield, Youngstown and Warren. The mail was delivered to these offices once in two weeks. The compensation to the contractor was the rate of $3.56 per mile, counting the distance one way, per annum, or for the whole year a little over $300. The method of conveyance was optional. I would suppose, from the fact that at least a part of the time it was conveyed upon the back of the son Samuel.
In 1826 I became a member of Jonathan Eastman's family, who were near neighbors to Ansel Beeman, a Son-in-law of Eleazor Gilson. Mr. Beeman then owned and occupied the farm where John Miser now lives - where, in my boyhood days, I occasionally saw Mr. Gilson. My recollection of him is that he was a tall, bony, muscular old man, dressed in homespun woolens of a color that I have no name for-something between a white and light brown - common in that day. The cut of the coat being in keeping with the latest fad of the present age; an evidence that fashions repeat themselves. I find as I make the effort, that I cannot recall the personal appearance or clothing of other men in the same vicinity at that time. Why is this? I know of no other reason than that he was said to be a Revolutionary soldier. My idea of a soldier then was one who had waded over his shoe tops in rivers of blood. Hence, I looked upon Mr. Gilson with childish awe and interest."
Mahoning Dispatch, Fri, 7 May 1897 - Article No. 16 -
Scraps of History by Dr. Jackson Truesdale
Excerpt from the Tryal Tanner family
Capt. Tanner in business affairs and social life was a plain, blunt, out-spoken man, severe in criticism when he thought needful, but with all a man with a kind heart, honest and incorruptable; in official transactions well informed as to his duties, which he dispatched with punctuality and decision. As an instance of directness in making a statement, one instance may be referred to. He with other citizens were together engaged in making prescribed and formal application and proof in order to obtain long-delayed justice, towards a revolutionary soldier. Ignoring forms, he took a sheet of paper and wrote, "I declare on the honor of an old revolutionary officer that I know Eleazor Gilson to be a private soldier in the 5th Connecticut regiment, 2nd brigade, in the army of the United States from the year 1777 until 1780, and have had personal acquaintance with him seventeen years last past, and know him to be a man of truth and that he is unable to support himself. TRYAL TANNER, late Lieut. and Adj't in Conn, Reg't."
GILSON, Eleazor
Husband of Mary nee BROCKWAY? – m. 1775 in Sharon, Litchfield Co. CT
B. 1754 in Goshen, Orange Co. N.Y.
D. 22 Feb 1841 in Canfield Twp., Trumbull (now Mahoning) Co. OH at 87y
Burial – Feb 1841 in Canfield Village Cemetery Section B Row 08, Canfield, Mahoning Co. OH
Revolutionary War, US Army Pvt, 5th CT regt, 2nd brig, Col. Strung's Co. from 1777 until 1780
Western Reserve Chronicle, 16 Mar 1841, p. 3:
"Eleazer Gilson, 87, in Canfield on the 20th ult. Eleazer Gilson a soldier of the Revolution aged 87 years. In the fall of the year 1798 he removed from Sharon Connecticut to Canfield Township. In 1799 he carried the mail on foot between this place and Pittsburgh and the first letters he carried in a pocket handkerchief for want of mail bags. This was the first mail ever sent from Pittsburgh north westerly towards the state of Ohio."
Note: He served in the Revolutionary War in Capt. Sol Strung's Co. 5th Regiment Connecticut line
Military note: Eleazer Gilson was considered to be a resident of Sharon, Connecticut while he served as a private in the Revolutionary War, although he had enlisted from Rye, New York.
Eleazer had enlisted as a private at Rye, New York, in February 1777 and served almost until the end of the war. He first served in a company commanded by Captain Solomon Strong in a regiment commanded by Phillip Bradley in either the second or third company of the Connecticut Lines. His regiment was later blended with one under the command of Colonel Herman Swift and he served with Swift in a company commanded by a Captain Chapman for the rest of his service. He had been furloughed in March1783, and went from the Highlands where he was stationed to Sharon, so he could regain his health. He was still recovering when the army was disbanded in June of the same year. He received a regular discharge that was executed by "his excellency Gen. Washington and was forwarded to his place of confinement at Sharon." He gave his discharge papers to a Jabez Hamblin soon after the war when he sold his title to any lands that might be given him by the United States. In his pension application dated April 9, 1818, he stated that he was very infirm by reason of diseases contracted during his service in the Revolutionary War. He was given a pension of $80 per year in starting in 1831 for his service in the Revolution.
Source: Jim Young from Eleazer Gilson's Revolutionary War pension file in the National Archives
Eleazor Gilson was among the first Canfield settlers to arrive in 1799. He became Canfield's first mail carrier. His son Samuel was one of the original 1798 surveying team members. Eleazor Gilson located on East Street, south side, one and a half miles from the center. This later became the Martin Neff farm and today (2008) is where Westford Development is located. His daughter Mercy married Alfred Wolcott on February 11, 1800 making them the first from Canfield to marry. Mercy died in childbirth at the age of nineteen on November 27th of that year. She was buried on the Gilson family farm.
Mahoning Dispatch, Fri, 19 Feb 1897 - Article No. 5 by Dr. Jackson Truesdale
Excerpt:
"We have already noted that in the fall of 1798 the surveying party of which Nathan Moore was chief surveyor returned to Connecticut. In the spring of 1799 he returned to further prosecute the work begun. With him came some of the men that formed the party the preceding summer. The spring and fall of 1799 added a large relative addition to the colony of one family, and two young men that constituted the population the preceding winter. Three families, and possibly four, came to Canfield as settlers. They were Phineas Reed, Eleazor Gilson, Joshua Hollister and probably Rapheal Hulbert, all having families, and all from Connecticut, unless, perhaps the latter, who may have come in the spring of 1800 from Pennsylvania, and if so was the first of many more that came from that state soon afterwards. Aside from these families there were a few unmarried men. According to a statement made by a Mrs. Hale, who was a daughter of Nathan Moore, the surveyor, we find the names of unmarried residents of Canfield in 1799 of "Azariah Wetmore, Joseph Pangborn, Wilder Page, Nathaniel Gridly, one by the name of Mervin or Mewin and perhaps one or two others." Some of these last named were of the surveying party of '99, headed by Nathan Moore.
Eleazor Gilson was born in Orange county, N. Y., in 1754. When young he moved to Sharon, Conn., where he married in 1775. Served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war and emigrated to Canfield in 1799, arriving here on the 27th of October. He died and was buried in our village cemetery in 1841, aged 87 years. He was the father of two sons and six daughters. The oldest one of the family, Samuel, has already been mentioned as one of the surveying party of Nathaniel Church in 1798, and with Jos. Pangborn, another one of the party, remained here, thus entitling them to be looked upon as the first actual settlers. Samuel died in Hubbard, Trumbull county, in 1816. Mercy, the eldest daughter married Alfred Wolcott. There were peculiarities attached to this union for which we have no space now, but may hereafter refer to. All the other children of Mr. Gilson, with the exception of the youngest, Anna Maria, married, and at an early period removed elsewhere. Mr. Gilson was the first contractor to carry the mail, on the first mail route established in 1801 in all the wide territory lying to the west and northwest of Pittsburgh. This first route extended from Pittsburgh to Warren, about 90 miles in length. The postoffices first established on the route were Beavertown, or Fort McIntosh, Georgetown, Canfield, Youngstown and Warren. The mail was delivered to these offices once in two weeks. The compensation to the contractor was the rate of $3.56 per mile, counting the distance one way, per annum, or for the whole year a little over $300. The method of conveyance was optional. I would suppose, from the fact that at least a part of the time it was conveyed upon the back of the son Samuel.
In 1826 I became a member of Jonathan Eastman's family, who were near neighbors to Ansel Beeman, a Son-in-law of Eleazor Gilson. Mr. Beeman then owned and occupied the farm where John Miser now lives - where, in my boyhood days, I occasionally saw Mr. Gilson. My recollection of him is that he was a tall, bony, muscular old man, dressed in homespun woolens of a color that I have no name for-something between a white and light brown - common in that day. The cut of the coat being in keeping with the latest fad of the present age; an evidence that fashions repeat themselves. I find as I make the effort, that I cannot recall the personal appearance or clothing of other men in the same vicinity at that time. Why is this? I know of no other reason than that he was said to be a Revolutionary soldier. My idea of a soldier then was one who had waded over his shoe tops in rivers of blood. Hence, I looked upon Mr. Gilson with childish awe and interest."
Mahoning Dispatch, Fri, 7 May 1897 - Article No. 16 -
Scraps of History by Dr. Jackson Truesdale
Excerpt from the Tryal Tanner family
Capt. Tanner in business affairs and social life was a plain, blunt, out-spoken man, severe in criticism when he thought needful, but with all a man with a kind heart, honest and incorruptable; in official transactions well informed as to his duties, which he dispatched with punctuality and decision. As an instance of directness in making a statement, one instance may be referred to. He with other citizens were together engaged in making prescribed and formal application and proof in order to obtain long-delayed justice, towards a revolutionary soldier. Ignoring forms, he took a sheet of paper and wrote, "I declare on the honor of an old revolutionary officer that I know Eleazor Gilson to be a private soldier in the 5th Connecticut regiment, 2nd brigade, in the army of the United States from the year 1777 until 1780, and have had personal acquaintance with him seventeen years last past, and know him to be a man of truth and that he is unable to support himself. TRYAL TANNER, late Lieut. and Adj't in Conn, Reg't."
Husband of Mary nee BROCKWAY? – m. 1775 in Sharon, Litchfield Co. CT
B. 1754 in Goshen, Orange Co. N.Y.
D. 22 Feb 1841 in Canfield Twp., Trumbull (now Mahoning) Co. OH at 87y
Burial – Feb 1841 in Canfield Village Cemetery Section B Row 08, Canfield, Mahoning Co. OH
Revolutionary War, US Army Pvt, 5th CT regt, 2nd brig, Col. Strung's Co. from 1777 until 1780
Western Reserve Chronicle, 16 Mar 1841, p. 3:
"Eleazer Gilson, 87, in Canfield on the 20th ult. Eleazer Gilson a soldier of the Revolution aged 87 years. In the fall of the year 1798 he removed from Sharon Connecticut to Canfield Township. In 1799 he carried the mail on foot between this place and Pittsburgh and the first letters he carried in a pocket handkerchief for want of mail bags. This was the first mail ever sent from Pittsburgh north westerly towards the state of Ohio."
Note: He served in the Revolutionary War in Capt. Sol Strung's Co. 5th Regiment Connecticut line
Military note: Eleazer Gilson was considered to be a resident of Sharon, Connecticut while he served as a private in the Revolutionary War, although he had enlisted from Rye, New York.
Eleazer had enlisted as a private at Rye, New York, in February 1777 and served almost until the end of the war. He first served in a company commanded by Captain Solomon Strong in a regiment commanded by Phillip Bradley in either the second or third company of the Connecticut Lines. His regiment was later blended with one under the command of Colonel Herman Swift and he served with Swift in a company commanded by a Captain Chapman for the rest of his service. He had been furloughed in March1783, and went from the Highlands where he was stationed to Sharon, so he could regain his health. He was still recovering when the army was disbanded in June of the same year. He received a regular discharge that was executed by "his excellency Gen. Washington and was forwarded to his place of confinement at Sharon." He gave his discharge papers to a Jabez Hamblin soon after the war when he sold his title to any lands that might be given him by the United States. In his pension application dated April 9, 1818, he stated that he was very infirm by reason of diseases contracted during his service in the Revolutionary War. He was given a pension of $80 per year in starting in 1831 for his service in the Revolution.
Source: Jim Young from Eleazer Gilson's Revolutionary War pension file in the National Archives
Eleazor Gilson was among the first Canfield settlers to arrive in 1799. He became Canfield's first mail carrier. His son Samuel was one of the original 1798 surveying team members. Eleazor Gilson located on East Street, south side, one and a half miles from the center. This later became the Martin Neff farm and today (2008) is where Westford Development is located. His daughter Mercy married Alfred Wolcott on February 11, 1800 making them the first from Canfield to marry. Mercy died in childbirth at the age of nineteen on November 27th of that year. She was buried on the Gilson family farm.
Mahoning Dispatch, Fri, 19 Feb 1897 - Article No. 5 by Dr. Jackson Truesdale
Excerpt:
"We have already noted that in the fall of 1798 the surveying party of which Nathan Moore was chief surveyor returned to Connecticut. In the spring of 1799 he returned to further prosecute the work begun. With him came some of the men that formed the party the preceding summer. The spring and fall of 1799 added a large relative addition to the colony of one family, and two young men that constituted the population the preceding winter. Three families, and possibly four, came to Canfield as settlers. They were Phineas Reed, Eleazor Gilson, Joshua Hollister and probably Rapheal Hulbert, all having families, and all from Connecticut, unless, perhaps the latter, who may have come in the spring of 1800 from Pennsylvania, and if so was the first of many more that came from that state soon afterwards. Aside from these families there were a few unmarried men. According to a statement made by a Mrs. Hale, who was a daughter of Nathan Moore, the surveyor, we find the names of unmarried residents of Canfield in 1799 of "Azariah Wetmore, Joseph Pangborn, Wilder Page, Nathaniel Gridly, one by the name of Mervin or Mewin and perhaps one or two others." Some of these last named were of the surveying party of '99, headed by Nathan Moore.
Eleazor Gilson was born in Orange county, N. Y., in 1754. When young he moved to Sharon, Conn., where he married in 1775. Served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war and emigrated to Canfield in 1799, arriving here on the 27th of October. He died and was buried in our village cemetery in 1841, aged 87 years. He was the father of two sons and six daughters. The oldest one of the family, Samuel, has already been mentioned as one of the surveying party of Nathaniel Church in 1798, and with Jos. Pangborn, another one of the party, remained here, thus entitling them to be looked upon as the first actual settlers. Samuel died in Hubbard, Trumbull county, in 1816. Mercy, the eldest daughter married Alfred Wolcott. There were peculiarities attached to this union for which we have no space now, but may hereafter refer to. All the other children of Mr. Gilson, with the exception of the youngest, Anna Maria, married, and at an early period removed elsewhere. Mr. Gilson was the first contractor to carry the mail, on the first mail route established in 1801 in all the wide territory lying to the west and northwest of Pittsburgh. This first route extended from Pittsburgh to Warren, about 90 miles in length. The postoffices first established on the route were Beavertown, or Fort McIntosh, Georgetown, Canfield, Youngstown and Warren. The mail was delivered to these offices once in two weeks. The compensation to the contractor was the rate of $3.56 per mile, counting the distance one way, per annum, or for the whole year a little over $300. The method of conveyance was optional. I would suppose, from the fact that at least a part of the time it was conveyed upon the back of the son Samuel.
In 1826 I became a member of Jonathan Eastman's family, who were near neighbors to Ansel Beeman, a Son-in-law of Eleazor Gilson. Mr. Beeman then owned and occupied the farm where John Miser now lives - where, in my boyhood days, I occasionally saw Mr. Gilson. My recollection of him is that he was a tall, bony, muscular old man, dressed in homespun woolens of a color that I have no name for-something between a white and light brown - common in that day. The cut of the coat being in keeping with the latest fad of the present age; an evidence that fashions repeat themselves. I find as I make the effort, that I cannot recall the personal appearance or clothing of other men in the same vicinity at that time. Why is this? I know of no other reason than that he was said to be a Revolutionary soldier. My idea of a soldier then was one who had waded over his shoe tops in rivers of blood. Hence, I looked upon Mr. Gilson with childish awe and interest."
Mahoning Dispatch, Fri, 7 May 1897 - Article No. 16 -
Scraps of History by Dr. Jackson Truesdale
Excerpt from the Tryal Tanner family
Capt. Tanner in business affairs and social life was a plain, blunt, out-spoken man, severe in criticism when he thought needful, but with all a man with a kind heart, honest and incorruptable; in official transactions well informed as to his duties, which he dispatched with punctuality and decision. As an instance of directness in making a statement, one instance may be referred to. He with other citizens were together engaged in making prescribed and formal application and proof in order to obtain long-delayed justice, towards a revolutionary soldier. Ignoring forms, he took a sheet of paper and wrote, "I declare on the honor of an old revolutionary officer that I know Eleazor Gilson to be a private soldier in the 5th Connecticut regiment, 2nd brigade, in the army of the United States from the year 1777 until 1780, and have had personal acquaintance with him seventeen years last past, and know him to be a man of truth and that he is unable to support himself. TRYAL TANNER, late Lieut. and Adj't in Conn, Reg't."
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