A tribe of Seneca Indians lived along the southwest end of Stow Pond (Silver Lake today) and along the Cuyahoga River, north bank, from Goose Egg Island down to where the Bailey Road Bridge is today. The village contained around 500 Indians living in wigwams and lean-to huts. 

This location was ideal for their village because the river and pond supplied their many needs along with a good supply of fish and rich hunting areas. Thus, they were very reluctant to give up this area although they had lost the title to the land under the Greenville Treaty of August 3, 1795. The treaty did, however allow them to live in their village until the district was settled by the whites, subject to their good behavior.

The Seneca tribe’s chief was Wagmong, a very fine upright man and with the arrival of Judge Wetmore and his party, the chief became a very frequent visitor at the Wetmore home. Wagmong’s hut was on Goose Egg Island in the Cuyahoga River, south of Stow Pond (behind what is now Water Works Park). 

Judge Wetmore was a very just and honorable man, and treated Chief Wagmong and his Indians very well, thus, the judge and chief became very close and good friends. Judge Wetmore also implored all pioneers coming into this area to buy land to treat the Indians fairly in all dealings and at all times. This paid off many times in the early life of this settlement.

The Indians  were amazed at the turnips and cucumbers raised by the settlers. A barter rate was set whereby the Indians could have six turnips or six cucumbers for a quarter of venison. This rate elated both sides.

In the fall, Judge Wetmore harvested a goodly supply of summer wheat. He flailed it out and cleaned it by pouring it into the wind. His problem then was to have it ground into flour. The nearest flour mill to anyone’s recollection was at Newburg, about five miles south of Cleveland on the Cuyahoga River, Newburg was a bigger town then Cleveland mainly due to its water power and mill.

The only known path from Stow to the Newburg mill was the old Indian trail north to nearby Painesville, then following the shore line of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, then following the river south to the mill. To cover this route was a distance of 83 miles one way.

Judge Wetmore found an old hunter from Hudson who became a part-time farmer with a pack horse. His name was Bill Lappin and Mr. Lappin agreed to make the trip for one half of the finished products. 

Lappin picked up three bags of wheat on Monday and by Wednesday morning he arrived at the mill and got the wheat  ground and started back. The miller kept one-eighth of the flour for his service. Lappin got back to Wetmore’s Thursday night having dropped off at his home in Hudson his share of half the flour, bran and mill-feed (byproduct).

The arrangement suited Judge Wetmore just fine but Lappin would not make another trip until he used up all of his flour. Mr. Lappin was a bachelor, so this took some time. The Wetmores ran out of flour long before he would make another trip.

Aaron Norton ran a distillery in Hudson but it burned down in 18003 so he moved to Northampton Township. He built a dam in Mud Brook at what today is State Road and then built a mill that he put into operation late in 1806. That ended Lappin’s wheat transport job.

In building the grist mill, Norton found that he needed help, so, he employed Seth Webster, and expert millwright from Blanford, Massachusetts. Webster was a heavy drinker, but he solemnly promised Norton that he would keep stone sober until the mill was finished if Norton would give him three gallons of whiskey in addition to his wages when the job was done, Norton agreed.

Webster kept his promise and got the three gallons. Then he departed. He went down along the creek until he found a shady spot where he would be comfortable while he did some serious thinking and drinking. He drank and thought and drank and thought. Soon, he stopped thinking and just drank. That was the end of Webster. Days later, his body was found and buried.

The first year was a very tough year for the transplanted easterners in what is now Cuyahoga Falls and Stow. In the winter, many settlers took sick and it was a very cold and snow-covered winter.

During his first year in the area Judge Wetmore lost his horse and a hunting dog to  rattlesnake bites. Chief Wagmong became so fond of Judge Wetmore that he was always a ready helper in any emergency and without him, the settlers would have suffered badly that first winter. The meat the Indians furnished – bear, deer, etc., no doubt, saved the settlers from starving during that cold and snowy winter when it was too bad for the white settlers to go hunting.

Chief Wagmong continued his fondness for Judge Wetmore and in the spring of 1806, he finally induced the judge to sell his Stow (remember ‘Stow’ was what is now 1/4 part of Cuyahoga Falls today, the corner of Stow reached 5th St between Broad and Portage) cabin and build a new home of the southeast corner of Stow Pond overlooking the whole pond, the Indian village and Chief Wagmongs hut on Goose Egg Island. The pond’s name was changed from Stow to Wetmore Pond.

Tomas Rice also sold his Stow cabin and built beside the judge on the east bank. John Cochran and his bride arrived in the spring of 1806 and boarded with the Wetmore family while he built his new home on his land at the north end of the pond where it also overlooked today’s Crystal Lake.

On June 16, 1806, while Cochran was working on his new cabin, it started to get dark at 9:32 a.m. and by 11:16 it was pitch dark. The owls started hooting in the trees and the chickens went to roost. Everyone including the Indians became frightened and was sure the world was coming to an end.

Today we know it as an eclipse – but can you imagine watching the sky and not knowing what we know today?