The Hoskin Homestead Shalersville Ohio (See Four Generations of Hoskins below).

It's fascinating to see how Yankee families grew, migrated, married, built, diversified, and dispersed over two centuries of time. Also to discover how searching for roots has fostered an interest in American history among these family historians—and how the Internet is helping to carry their connections across both time and space.

George Wakefield, the "waterfront historian" of Vermilion, Ohio, in the Ohio Western Reserve, recently mentioned our film project in his Photojournal column, which prompted responses from sons and daughters of this Yankee culture area, now living all over the world!

• Sherri Lumadue of Vermilion, read George's piece and mailed us some fascinating stories about her ancestor Elijah Porter of East Hartford, Connecticut, and other early pioneers of Guilford Township (Medina County), Ohio. According to a family account, Elijah Porter's son Shubal (then 18 years old) and daughter Abigail (aged 24) left their home in the Berkshire mountains on December 31, 1816 (the height of "Ohio Fever"), in the company of five other young friends—Henry, Chester and Mary Hosmer, Moses Noble, and Lyman Munson. For the adventurous, winter was a favorite time for traveling, as the hard-packed snow smoothed rutted roads and otherwise treacherous rivers were frozen solid. Once they were safe in Guilford, their precarious passage was recorded in a letter written by Mary Hosmer to her parents back in Massachusetts.

• Our next letter came from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii! Charles W. Pettersen, a descendent of Henry Hosmer, sent along more interesting anecdotes from the early settlement of Medina County. According to the Willamette Valley Record (1903) "Mr. Hosmer was born in Connecticut...and was a soldier in the War of 1812." Mr. Pettersen comments: "If Henry was in the War of 1812, he was a real rebel of his community, that war having been very unpopular in the area. In fact, the secret Hartford Convention of 1815 considered the secession of all of New England from the Union. One could speculate that this was what drove him out into the wilderness of Ohio the next year." According to the records, on January 1, 1826, Henry Hosmer received the first letter to arrive in the Guilford Township Post Office. (For more stories about the early mail, click here.) "Hosmer's Opening" became the village of Seville, named after the Spanish city. When he was 79 years old, Henry's father (William, Sr.), his mother and sisters, walked out from their home in Hartford, Connecticut, to see the rest of the family in Seville, Ohio, making the journey in 49 days. (William, Sr. died at 94, his son at 89.)

• Ruth Colburn of Biglerville, PA, sent us photographs and an excerpt from the life story of her grandfather, Ed Sinclair Smith, who wrote a memoir of his Ohio pioneer grandparents Levi Platt, originally of Fairfield County, Connecticut, and Abigail Bodman, of Ontario County, New York, in 1933. It's interesting to note how this family spread even farther west. Smith writes, "My grandfather expected his boys to work for him until of age, then he gave each of them a farm in Iowa, thus transferring his family to the Hawkeye State."

• Next came a letter from Richard N. Platt, Jr. in Milford, Connecticut. "A copy of an article describing your project involving Connecticut pioneers into the Western Reserve was forwarded to me by e-mail. As a retired history teacher, I read the article with great interest. As my branch of the Platt family stayed here in Connecticut, I have nothing that I can give you myself. I will, however, reprint the article in our newsletter, with the hope that some of our members will be able to respond...."

• Soon we heard from Barbara Hoskin DeHaven in Des Moines, Iowa:

  This letter comes in response to an E-mail message broadcast to members of the Platt Family Association by Dick Platt, who received the information from another member, Ruth Colburn, who saw the notice of your work in the Vermilion, OH, local newspaper. Modern communications are a marvelous thing. (To contact the Platt Family Association, e-mail rnplatt@ix.netcom.com.)

  I have long been interested in the history of the Connecticut Western Reserve because it is the history of my family. My ancestor, Anthony Hoskins, came from England...to settle in Windsor, CT, in the early 1630s. Gradually the generations drifted westward—into Simsbury, then Wintonbury (now Bloomfield) and finally Colebrook. My great-great-grandfather, John Hoskins, had moved to Colebrook by 1791 and married there that year.

  Four generations of the Hoskin Family Courtesy of Barbara Hoskin DeHaven

  In 1816, John bought land in the Western Reserve from Nathaniel Shaler of the Connecticut Land Company, and he migrated there with his wife and family of 12 children before the year was out. John cleared his land in Shalersville, Portage County, OH, built a home (which is still lived in) and farmed there until his death in 1849. The next three generations were born and raised there. My father, Robert Hoskin, was born there in 1884, but later moved to Akron, OH, where I was born and raised.

  Julius Harrison Day (Great-Grandfather of Barbara Hoskin DeHaven)

  This is the story of his family as they came into and helped settle the Reserve. The Hoskins, Days, Elys, and Platts were ordinary people—no mayors, governors, or presidents; no outstanding engineers or inventors; no heroic generals or admirals; no famous artists or musicians—just common folk who helped make America what it is today.

  Looking back, it has been a most remarkable two centuries my family has lived on the Connecticut Western Reserve. My great-great-grandfather, working to clear and farm his land, would never have dreamed of a tractor, or a college education. My great-grandfather would never have dreamed of a car, or that the Disciples Church would become a large international denomination. My grandfather would never have dreamed of the radio, or television. My father would never have dreamed that a man would walk on the moon, or that his daughter would have instant communication with her friends in India, free of charge, on E-mail. I wonder what the next century will hold for the next few generations of Hoskins, many of whom are still living on the Reserve? —Barbara Hoskin DeHaven

  (To read excerpts from Barb DeHaven's family story, click on the family names highlighted above.)

  Day/Hoskin Family Tree

  Julius Harrison Day	Nancy (Brisbane) Day
  Frances (Day) Judd and Lucy (Day) Hoskin		Elmore Hoskin
  Robert Hoskin			Margaret (Dickel) Hoskin
  Barb (Hoskin) DeHaven				Tom DeHaven

   

• For the story of the origin of Connecticut's Western Reserve lands in Ohio, see the Connecticut State Library's concise and accurate entry.

  The definitive "whole story" is still Harlan Hatcher, The Western Reserve, available in most libraries, or from the Western Reserve Historical Society.

  Excerpts from Harriet Taylor Upton's earlier History of the Western Reserve are available here. (Also explore Maggie's ROOTSWEB page for Ohio genealogy information.)

• If you've read all this, you may be curious, as we were, about an earlier migration. Many of the people who went out to Medina County, OH, from New Milford, CT, were descendants of Milford, CT, settlers. We asked Richard Platt about the connection between the two towns, and this is what he found....