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(The text in quotations are selections from the 1896 book, “Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve”, pages 278-279, by the Mecca Committee led by historian Amoretta Reynolds).

 

"Mecca, ten miles north of Warren, the county seat, is a quiet little town, where the locomotive is only heard from beyond the border. And yet it has its history. For years it was a point of interest to "oil seekers," and fortunes were made and lost, and confusion and disorder reigned. Today it is a peaceful community, and the four church spires pointing upward speak well for the spiritual inclination of the people. While no very thrilling adventures mark the history of our early days, they had their hardships and trials".

When Mecca was first surveyed, the Connecticut Land Company divided the township into four tracts among its members: Judge Turhand Kirtland, William Ely, Andrew Kingsbury, and Solomon Cowles. Judge Kirtland owned the largest tract and is thought to have paid little for it due to the swamps, and therefore sold his parcels to hopeful settlers with easy terms. He lived in Poland, OH, where he was a Justice of the Peace. He was also elected State Senator in 1804 and served as an associate judge for the Court of Common Pleas.

 

"The land of Mecca was originally very wet, and a large cattail swamp in the center of the township, lying along the west side of Mosquito Creek, was often in the early days a scene of disaster, and perhaps peril. Wagons were embedded, horses and oxen mired, and extracted with difficulty."

 

Poland resident Joseph Dawson purchased a parcel of land from Judge Kirtland, and in 1811, brought his family to Mecca, where they became the township’s first settlers. Presently, the property the Dawson’s once occupied sits north of the circle on the west side of Rt. 46, across from the intersection of Mahan Denman.

 

They lived here alone for nearly two years before they had company. Mrs. Dawson’s father, John Rose Sr., followed from Poland and settled on the property just north of Joseph’s cabin. There, he brought his wife, Tacy (Reese), and his mother, Hannah (Parr) Rose, to live. The Roses lived out their lives here, but the Dawsons moved away.

 

“But what of the early mothers who helped make Mecca what it is today? In 1811 the first rude cabin was made, and Mrs. Joseph Dawson called it home. It stood on the old Beman farm, north of East Mecca. She was the mother of a large family of boys. And a few years later her little daughter Nancy was the first girl born in the township. Mrs. John Rose and Grandma Rose two years later lived near them. They had the smallest of cabins, which was always kept neat and clean, and the old grandma often entertained the children with her quaint stories told in her Quaker dialect. When Lydia Coates and husband, Lijah Rose, arrived in Mecca, they blew a big horn, announcing a new settler, which was heard at Gustavus, ten miles away, and a delegation came over to find who were the new neighbors.”

 

"At one time the question of salt became an important one to the mothers, who found their venison steak and pot pie lacking the proper savor, and it was decided to send Lijah Rose to Pittsburgh, nearly one hundred miles away, to procure some."

 

Elijah Rose, known as “Lijah”, was the son of John and Tacy Rose, and was in his late teens when his family settled in Mecca. He met Lydia Coates of Gustavus, ten years his junior, perhaps when her uncle, Noyes Coates, settled next to the Roses. Elijah and Lydia were married in Mecca in 1833. Elijah and Lydia lived here for the next thirty or forty years before moving west to Nebraska.

 

“Among the early few was Mrs. Peter Rowe, from New York State. It is said Mrs. Rowe was not wooed in the usual manner by her husband. Peter was at a logging bee, and, seeing a girl at the house, asked the father what he would take for her. He said, “A shotgun and a gallon of whiskey.” He gave the desired articles, married the girl, brought her to Ohio, and their son Martin was the first white child born in Месса.”

 

The Pettis family came to Mecca in the 1820s from Alburg, Vermont. This family group included an elderly mother, Amy (Button) Pettis, and most of her children: Stephen Jr., William, Nathan, and Amy, along with their spouses and children. This group traveled west together, and their first stop was Mecca, where they settled along Rt. 46.

 

Col. Stephen Pettis Jr. suffered more losses than a single person should have to endure. He brought his third wife, Olive (Hutchins), to Mecca. His first two wives and an infant son were buried back in Vermont. In late October of 1827, his two married daughters, 24-year-old Sally and 17-year-old Polly, left Vermont and departed from Buffalo, NY on the schooner Ann. Sailing on Lake Erie into November, they planned to join the Pettis family in Mecca. With them were their husbands, brothers Rollin and Milo Pelton, and Rollin and Sally’s infant son, Ephraim. In a tragic turn of events, a fierce storm rolled in and dashed the schooner to pieces. Sally, Polly, and Ephraim drowned, along with four other victims. Their bodies were lost when the boat broke apart in the water.

 

Only two years later, Stephen Jr. buried his wife Olive, aged thirty, in South Mecca Cemetery (also known as Cowdrey/Cowdery Cemetery). She is believed to be the second burial in this cemetery after their nephew Enos the year prior. In 1830, Stephen Jr. lost his 13-year-old son, Stephen Franklin Pettis, and interred him near his stepmother.

 

A short time later, when Stephen Jr. married his fourth wife, Catherine Hosford, she said, "Now the Colonel has a wife who will outlive him.” She survived him by 33 years. Stephen Jr. and Catherine’s first child together, a son, was stillborn and buried here in an unmarked grave. They went on to have five more children, though another son was lost, aged 2, after they moved west. In total, Stephen had 21 children by his wives.

 

William Button Pettis and his wife, Wilhemina “Mina” (Thompson), settled on the east side of Rt. 46, just north of the circle. Their son, Enos Clark Pettis, died aged 21 in 1828, and is believed to be the first burial in South Mecca Cemetery.

 

“Mrs. William Pettis, who lived on the place owned by Nathan Buck, was an invalid for years, and, thinking it was more inclination than necessity which made her keep her bed, the doctor when calling, placed a snake beside her in the bed, which he brought for that purpose. It had the desired effect of bringing her to her feet, and keeping her there.”

 

Amy Pettis came to Mecca with her husband, Joseph Wing, and their children. Joseph was the brother of Stephen Jr.’s first deceased wife, Catherine. The couple had nine children and the two youngest were born here.

 

The matriarch, Amy (Button) Pettis, died in 1833, aged 85-years, and was interred in South Mecca Cemetery.

 

In 1837, the Pettis and Wing families moved west to Illinois and later to Minnesota. Some among the younger generation stayed behind. Stephen’s daughter, Rowena, who had married Peter Booth, remained in the county. Both were buried in Greene. When Amy (Pettis) Wing’s husband, Joseph, returned to Mecca in 1844 to visit their son, he passed away, and was buried in South Mecca Cemetery.

 

Along with these first settlers who made their homes north and south of the intersection of 88 and 46, the stirrings of a true town began. The first schoolhouse was a log structure that once occupied the property presently owned by the Brunstetter’s just off the circle. It was also used as a church.

 

“In the early thirties, house raising and logging bees became frequent, and the good wives and mothers showed their interest in the work by going to the bee, taking along their few dishes, and helping to get dinner. Often the huge iron kettle was hung, in which a quarter of mutton was boiled, or as much venison, and then filled to the brim with pot dumplings, light and beautiful, the art of which has almost been lost in these days of pastry cooking. This was served on puncheon tables, laid out of doors, to the tired workers, amid laughter and social talk that made the hearts light and happy.

 

“One little lone Indian hut stood on the banks of Mosquito Creek, where George Boone’s farmhouse stands, and when the white man’s ax sounded too long and well, it was left silently deserted. The Indians sometimes camped in Mecca. The first schoolhouse was made of logs, and built where Dr. Brown is now located. All honor to the early teachers, whose names we have forgotten. Alvin Coe, a Presbyterian missionary to the Indians, used often to hold services there, and was loved by all for his kindness. And it was with deep regret some of his friends learned years afterward that his wife died in the county infirmary at Warren.”

 

(Researched with vital records and genealogies from familysearch. Much of the Pettis family details are sourced from the genealogy work of descendant Dean Milton Pettis, who said that many Pettis family records were preserved by Stephen Pettis Jr.’s fourth wife, Catherine.)

 

(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