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(The text in quotations are selections from the 1896 book, “Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve”, page 279, by the Mecca Committee led by historian Amoretta Reynolds.)

 

1830 map over present day view, showing plats north of Mecca Circle

 

By 1819, Mecca had fourteen families living within its boundaries, all on the east side of Mosquito Creek. Those families included the aforementioned Joseph Dawson, John Rose, and Peter Rowe families, as well as those of Lemuel Hickok, Samuel Phillips, Sylvester Taylor, Martin Daniels, Daniel Tucker, Joseph Phillips, David Ballard, Joseph Headly, Joseph Barstow, a Mr. Sturgis, and Seymour Hunt.

 

Sylvester Taylor brought his family to East Mecca and settled north of the circle, on the west side of Rt. 46 (see first map). He married Rachel Tanner in 1815. Their daughter, Almira, was the township’s first death. The year she died and at what age is not specified, but likely occurred in the 1820s.

 

“Mrs. Sylvester Taylor's little daughter, Almira, who was choked to death eating popcorn, is thought to be the first girl who died in the new settlement. She was buried on what now is the Hickok farm. And a few years later, when other bodies buried there were reinterred in the cemetery, her little form was left sleeping alone and the roots of a black walnut hug closely the spot and its branches sweep over her grave.”

 

The Hickok farm referred to in 1896 was the property of Chauncey Justus Hickok, son of James Oscar and Orilla (St. John) Hickok. The lot was later split, and the part believed to contain Almira’s grave sits on the north side of Rt 88, two parcels to the west of the intersection of Phillips-Rice Rd. Gladys Rose later owned this property. The Taylors eventually left Mecca for Indiana, and little is known about this family.

 

1899 map over present day view of the Hickok farm. Almira is buried on the part north of Rt 88.

 

Dr. Ariel Bradley was Mecca’s first physician. He appears in the Mecca tax records for only 1836-1837, and otherwise lived in the nearby townships of Johnston and Fowler. He had arrived in Johnston from Connecticut with his parents and two brothers, and they were Johnston’s first settlers. Ariel worked on the farm, but ill-health forced him into a not so laborious occupation, and so he studied under his older brother, Moore Bird, and became a physician. Moore Bird had been the first student to learn the practice from the locally famous doctor, Peter Allen of Kinsman.

 

“Jose Chaffee and his wife, Theodocia Fletcher, were from Massachusetts and at an early day sought a home in Eastern Ohio. When they came to Buffalo they found it fired by the British, which delayed them two weeks. They came on and settled in Bristol township, until 1823, when they built a little cabin home at East Mecca. Mrs. Chaffee was of Scotch-Irish origin, pleasant and kind, and was considered a great doctor and nurse. She was a woman of unsurpassed courage. Was a neighbor sick or a child added to the already numerous members of a household, she was the first to be called, and, mounting her white horse, would gallop through the woods, or, if need be, plunge into Mosquito Creek and swim boldly across on her errands of mercy. Many speak of her skill today with praise. She raised a large family and was buried in the grounds given by Deacon Cook to the Baptists and afterward to the township.”

 

Jose and Theodocia lost their newborn son, John Milton, in 1824, and their teenage daughter, Jemmima Nancy, in 1847. They are buried together in South Mecca/Cowdery Cemetery with their six-year-old niece, Theodotia Scoville, who died in 1848.

Some other children of Jose and Theodocia Chaffee include:

 

–Betsey, who married Arnold Scoville. They were the parents of Theodotia.

–Sally, who married Moses Sperry and moved out west.

–Joseph Gilard, who married Wealthy Cook, the daughter of John and Ruth (Curtis) Cook of Mecca.

–Eunice, who married Alanson McCullour, who you may recognize from our previous biography on him.

Jose and Theodocia Chaffee were laid to rest in Old Bristol Cemetery. Some of their descendants are buried in East Mecca Cemetery.

 

Jose and Theodocia Chaffee, buried in Old Bristol Cemetery, photos by Skye (Volunteer #47137314) for Find A Grave

 

John and Jemmima Chaffee with their niece Theodotia Scoville in South Mecca Cemetery. Photo by Sherry Champlin for Find A Grave. Note how the o's are missing in Theodotia's name.

 

Arnold and Betsy Scoville in East Mecca Cemetery. Photo by Ashley Armstrong for Find A Grave.

 

(This post was written for the Mecca Township Historical Society, as part of an ongoing series for Mecca.)

 

Resources

 

– Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve, 1896

– The History of Trumbull County by Harriet Taylor Upton, published 1909

– 1874 and 1899 Trumbull County Atlases

–"Mecca" by Thomas Kachur, c. 1970 and 2002 editions

–Familysearch.org tax, census, and vital records

–Theodocia Chaffee Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64970363/theodocia-chaffee