Notes for Lambert SHAFER, JR.
Headstone inscription: Lambert Schaefer PVT Brown's Company Vrooman's NY Regt.
Rev. War 1833
from HISTORY OF THE FIRELANDS FLORENCE TWP., Erie Co., Ohio by W.W.Williams 1879 pages 445-453
For a number of years after the arrival of the first settler in Florence, deer, wolves, wild turkeys, and smaller game too numerous to specify, were found in great abundance. Bears, though not infrequently seen, were not so numerous as in more marshy townships. The honor of killing the first bear naturally fell to Richard Brewer and Christopher Shaeffer, two of the best shots in the county. Shaeffer was out with his gun one evening, when a bear suddenly loped across his path a short distance in front of him. Just as he raised his rifle to fire, a little snow dropped from the branch of a small tree above him upon the barrel of his gun, obscuring the sight, and the bear got away. The next morning he obtained the assistance of Brewer, and with two good dogs they tracked the bear into Berlin, where they found him in a marsh. The bear ran to a log, which he had no sooner reached than Brewer fired, but only wounding, not killing, him. The report of the gun was the signal for the onset of the dogs. They seized the animal as he tried to escape, but were being badly worsted in the encounter, when Brewer grabbed the bear by the fur and plunged a hatchet into his head. He released the dogs, rose upon his hind legs, gave one piercing howl, and fell over on his back, dead. The bear was an unusually large one, the flesh on his sides, it is said, measuring six inches. Shaeffer subsequently killed a bear in Florence, the only one ever killed in the township. He has probably killed more deer than any man in the county, often following them by day and by night. He killed by actual count one thousand deer, after which he kept no record. The last year that he hunted, and when deer were less numerous than formerly, he shot seventy. One method of his hunt at night was to fix up a torch of some kind which would attract the deer within range of his gun.
After the close of the war, the township settled more rapidly. One of the first families that moved in was that of Lambert Shaeffer [Jr.?], formerly from Schoharie County, New York. He came to Ohio in 1812[?], stopping at Painesville, where he carried on blacksmithing until the war was over, when he removed to this township, arriving in February, 1815. He settled on the Vermillion, in the first section, where Mr. Graves now lives. He moved into a cabin which stood on his purchase and formerly occupied by Jeremiah Wilson, who left at the breaking out of the war. Shaeffer died at the home of his son Christopher, in this township, about twenty-six years ago, his wife previously. They had seven children, one of whom died in the east. Three are yet living, viz.: Mrs. Richard Brewer and Christopher Shaeffer in this township, and Elias in Illinois.
| HOME | EMAIL | SURNAMES |
I have not personally researched or verified every
name, date, or place mentioned in these files, but every attempt is made
for accuracy and verification is ongoing.
Page built by Gedpage Version 2.20 ©2000 on 05 January 2016