Nathan Perry’s Road – July 21, 1926

For you history lovers, here’s an interesting article from the pages of the Lorain Journal of July 21, 1926. It concerns the effort of two Lorain men (one a city engineer, the other an official with the Chamber of Commerce) to trace a historic road dating back to Lorain’s earliest days. The article illustrates their research efforts and the many challenge of trying to interpret various clues more than a hundred years later.

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Trace Lorain-Co Road Used By Nathan Perry 125 Years Ago

By A. O. France

A LOST road 125 years old, believed to be the oldest highway in Lorain-co, is being traced by assistant city engineer Edgar Job and H. G. Curtis, secretary of Lorain Chamber of Commerce.

Long since fallen into disuse the century old road is marked now by inaccurate measurements, old hickory and elm trees, and rotten stumps.

This meagre dole of information is supplemented by the startling announcement in an old record book that the road goes “by” the trading post of Nathan Perry.

That word has caused Curtis and Job much perplexity. Job says that he wishes he had the patience of his Biblical namesake. Curtis seconds his wish.

For they cannot decide whether “by” means past, near or misses.

That’s because all other records assert that Nathan Perry’s trading post was located near the mouth of the Black River. Should the road record be authentic Perry’s post must have been near the present site of the post office at 9th-st and Broadway.

History of the road goes back to the year 1808 when the entire western portion of the original Western Reserve was known as Geauga-co. The county seat was at Chardon.

Curtis and Job went to Chardon recently. There they found a record dated Nov. 8, 1808. It contained a petition to the commissioners of Geauga-co praying that a road be established to start at a point 10 miles west of Hudson and proceed to the mouth of the Black River, there to join the road leading from Cleveland to the western line of the “firelands” – what is now the boundary of Erie-co.

Here’s the original “praying” which sets forth the desire of prominent citizens for the road.

“We, the undersigners, being desirous of obtaining a road for the accommodation of the public, present this petition before your honorable board, praying you, the honorable Commissioners for the County of Geauga, and the State of Ohio, to grant a committee to lay out a road, beginning where contemplated road from Hudson westward shall strike the line of the county, thence the nearest and best way to the head of boating on the Black river, thence the nearest and best way to strike the contemplated road from Cleveland to the west line of the fire lands; which committee we do wish to have appointed to do their businys [sic]. The persons we do wish for a committee are Nathaniel Doane Esq., Calvin Hoadley and Bella Brunson, all of which is a desire of yr Humble servants.”

Then follows a list of signers of this petition.

That the petition was granted is evidenced in the fact that Curtis and Job have found definite traces of the road.

Starting near Boston-twp and proceeding westward through Columbia they arrived at a large ash tree near the 10th mile post from the Cuyahoga river. Thence by a series of intricate measurements in chains they arrived at the site of a farm owned by Calvin Hoadley.

From there the directions took them to an old mill. A “creek of water” running northwest was their next clue. Then an old mill mentioned in the record proved that they were on the right trail. They kept on. Old tree stumps, large rocks, and a clump of elm trees rewarded their search.

At last they reached what is referred to in the record as “a trading camp on the Black river.”

From that point on, it was easy to follow the directions given in the 125-year old manuscript.

But the result was mystifying. The record commanded that they cross and re-cross the Black river arriving finally at the spot where the road goes by the trading post of Nathan Perry.”

Curtis and Job are still puzzling over the original location of Perry’s post. Was it at the mouth of the river? Or was it at 9th-st and Broadway?

Until they solve that problem the greater puzzle of what happened to Lorain’s lost road after it reached Lorain will remain a mystery.

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I’m not a historian, but to me, the whole thing seems like an odd premise. 

You would think that if a road was carved out of the wilderness from Hudson to today’s Downtown Lorain (slightly more than 50 miles) that it wouldn’t have been ‘lost’ or have disappeared. It would seem that such a road would have appeared on at least one township map from the 1800s, and eventually would have evolved into a well-traveled state route or county road.

Interestingly, the Ohio Turnpike would seem to be the modern-day equivalent for most of the route.