Recordpub.com - PORTAGE PATHWAYS: Hollow log sheltered Shalersville pioneers

By Roger J. Di Paolo

Record-Courier Editor

When Joel Baker and his wife arrived in what is now Shalersville in 1806, they found themselves surrounded by wilderness.

"Not the least sign of a clearing appeared" in the area where Baker and his wife -- whose name appears to be lost to history -- set about creating a home for themselves and their child, according to a 19th Century account of the township's pioneer era.

The Bakers spent their first nights sleeping in the shelter of a hollow log until they were able to erect a small cabin near the present-day township center at S.R. 44 and 303. Their rugged existence, however, was tempered by the grant of 160 acres that Baker had received from Gen. Nathaniel Shaler, the proprietor of the township.

It also was a lonely life. The Bakers were the only settlers in the area for their first two years there. The nearest neighbors were in Mantua, two or three miles away.

It was said that Mrs. Baker often joked that she was "the best-looking woman in Shalersville Township," adding that of course the statement was true because she also was the only woman in the township.

The Bakers did their part to bring life to their new home. They eventually had seven children -- six daughters and a son. Lucinda Baker became the first settler's child born in Shalersville in 1808.

The Baker family got their first neighbors in 1808, when Simeon Crane and his two brothers, Belden and Calvin, arrived in the township after a brief period in Canfield. The trio built two log homes and moved their families there the following spring.

Simeon and his wife, Rachel, welcomed a son, Edward Manly Crane, on June 14, 1810. The boy was the first male settler born in the township. (Ironically, the Cranes could claim a sadder distinction. The family also had experienced the first death of a settler, their 7-year-old son, also named Edward, who had died nine months earlier.)

Edward Manly Crane spent his entire life in Shalersville, witnessing its growth from an isolated wilderness settlement to a thriving rural community.

Like the Bakers, the Cranes also helped to tame a wilderness. "An almost unbroken forest" surrounded their home; the family eventually settled north of the township center, near present-day Streeter Road.

Children growing up in the settlement began working at a young age, but the settlers realized the importance of an education. By 1810, the community had its first school -- a long structure with greased-paper windows located near the township center -- where youngsters in the Baker and Crane families learned their lessons.

"Opportunities for scholastic learning were very limited," according to an 1890 account in the Ravenna Republican, "but the privations, hardships and surroundings were educational. ... Many grew up not only with strong arms but with brawny brains, and while they read little, they thought much."

Edward Crane eventually qualified to teach school, doing so in the winter when the demands of the family farm were relatively fewer.

He was 25 years old when he married Lucinda Streeter in 1835. The couple had three sons. Following her death in 1842, he married Sylvina Streator -- no relation to Wife No. 1 -- and had six children with her. The second Mrs. Crane raised all nine children.

In addition to farming, Edward Crane served for 10 years as justice of the peace and later became one of the founding directors of First National Bank of Garrettsville. Three of his sons, Arthur, Frederick and Cassius (known as "Cash"), had business ventures in Garrettsville, including Crane Brothers, the community's largest store.

As a banker, Edward earned a reputation as a man whose "character was unimpeachable and his integrity unquestioned," ready to assist "every enterprise that commended itself to his judgment."

Edward Manly Crane was 89 years old when he died on Jan. 19, 1890, in Shalersville, within sight of his birthplace.

"The history of Mr. Crane is largely a history of Shalersville and vicinity," the Ravenna Republican observed in an obituary tribute.

The first man born in Shalersville also had a posthumous legacy who carried the family's name into the annals of American literature.

Harold Hart Crane, a great-grandson of Edward's, was born on July 21, 1899, in Garrettsville. As an adult, he shed his Christian name; writing as Hart Crane, he became an acclaimed poet before his life ended tragically in 1932, when he leaped overboard while traveling on a steamer about 275 miles north of Cuba.