Jabez Burrell (1768 - 1833)

Jabez Burrell was the 8th son of Abraham and Mary [Austin]. He was named for an older brother who was born and died in 1762. Jabez married Mary (Polly) Robbins in 1792 and their eight children were all born in Sheffield, Berkshire, Massachusetts [Julia, Sarah M., Robbins, Lyman J., Soloma, Jabez Lyman, Eliza, & Mary Ann]. Following the family tradition (his father and brother were Revolutionary War soldiers), Jabez fought with the Massachusetts Militia with the rank of Captain in the War of 1812.

In January 1815 Capt. Jabez Burrell and his partner Capt. John Day, both from the town of Sheffield in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, purchased Township No. 7 in the 17th range of townships of the Connecticut Western Reserve [present day Sheffield in Lorain County, Ohio]. After exploring the township that summer and selecting lots for themselves and friends, they returned to Massachusetts. The next summer, Captain Burrell and his family arrived at the mouth of the Black River on the schooner Black Snake from Buffalo, New York and their belongings arrived on the smaller schooner Fire Fly. At Black River Jabez engaged John Reid, who had settled at the river’s mouth in 1811 and operated a ferry scow, to transport belongings up the river to the mouth of French Creek where he had selected a place for the family homestead. Some accounts indicate that the family proceeded upstream on the Fire Fly. In 1820 Captain Burrell built the fine Federal-style brick homestead that still stands on high ground overlooking the confluence.

Jabez, and brothers Isaac, James, and Arnold who also settled in Sheffield, Ohio, were from a family of 13 children. Their father was Abraham Burrell. Isaac Burrell (1779-1860) came to Ohio in February 1817 with his wife Huldah (1781-1864) and James Burrell (1773-1856) arrived in July 1817 with his wife Roxana (1776-1862). One of James Burrell’s daughters, Harriet, married John B. Garfield who had purchased a tract of land on North Ridge from Jabez. James operated a cheese factory at the Burrell Homestead in the 1830s and 1840s. Arnold (1766-1842) and his wife Lois (died 1823) arrived in July 1817. Members of the Isaac Burrell Family are buried in Block B, Lot 9 of Garfield Cemetery, while the James Burrell family is buried in Block A, Lots 7 & 8 and the Arnold Burrell family are in Block B, Lot 11.

One of the terms imposed on the Connecticut Land Company, agent for the sale of land in the Connecticut Western Reserve, was that each township was to have a sawmill and gristmill to be built at the expense of the purchasers. During the first winter in Sheffield, Jabez Burrell and his associates built a mill on French Creek. Later, another mill was constructed on the Black River just above the current 31st Street bridge. The area around this mill became the center of much of Sheffield activity. A schooner was even built there and floated down river to Lake Erie. Jabez also set up a brick kiln, where he burned bricks for several houses, including the Burrell Homestead.

Jabez married Mary Robbins (1770-1831) in Massachusetts and they had 8 children before settling in Ohio. Their son Robbins Burrell (1799-1877) married Eliza Brigham (1801-1870) in 1825 and carried on the management of the Burrell Homestead after his father’s death. Robbins was active in the Abolition Movement by operating a station on the “Underground Railroad” and helping many runaway slaves obtain passage on boats that would carry them to freedom in Canada. Mary Burrell died on August 26, 1831 and Jabez on September 25, 1833; they are buried in Garfield Cemetery (Block A, Lot 8, Graves 2 & 3). Robbins and Eliza Burrell are buried in Block A, Lot 8, Graves 4 & 5.

Jabez was a leader in the new community. He was elected Justice of the Peace in 1819 and 1822 (Troy Township) and served with Henry Root as Sheffield Township’s first Poormasters when Sheffield Township was organized in 1824. He also served as an inspirational father. His eldest son, Robbins, taught in the only public school then existing in the City of Cleveland during the winter of 1823-24. Robbins and his brother, Jabez Lyman, were founders and original trustees of Oberlin College demonstrating the family commitment to both work/study programs and abolition.

The homestead that Jabez built and Robbins inherited was used as the 100th stop on the Underground Railroad. No records were kept to protect the family from their illegal activity. Tempe Garfield Burrell recollects that, “….there were usually two or more slaves brought in at a time—and always at night—and they were hidden in the grain bins under the grain through the day while Mr. Burrell went to Lorain to contact a captain sailing for Canada who would risk taking them across. The granary is still standing on the Burrell farm in Sheffield. When a boat was ready, Mr. Burrell would take the slaves to Lorain in the bottom of a wagon with farm produce covering them. Then he would drive to the dock and unload the provisions ordered by the captain and the slaves would take the opportunity of concealing themselves on the boat. I don’t remember ever being told for how long a period the Negroes would be concealed in the granary but it probably took several days to make the necessary arrangements.”

Robbins Burrell’s obituary, written by son Edward Burrell, states: “From the first he was a red-hot anti-slavery man. His house was for years a station on the Underground Railroad, and many a fugitive slave from Kentucky, who had reached Oberlin, was smuggled to him, concealed until Capt. [Aaron] Root reached the nearest port, and then set across the lake. He believed in “the higher law” heresy, and would have gone to prison or the stake before he would have aided in the return of a slave. Many a time lordly Kentuckians, with spurs, pistols, whips and hounds, visited his place in search of fugitives, and to “help them hunt” put them on the wrong trails, let them ransack improbably places, peek into holes, and devil and laugh at them, was delightful to him. It was just the mischief and adventure he craved.”

About the same time Jabez’ son Lyman John joined the gold rush in California and ended up with large land holdings, orchards and vineyards. Letters between Lyman and his wife Clarissa describe the trials of this westward movement and son Birney’s diaries provide historians with the early history of California. Lyman’s descendants combined with those of his sister Sarah Maria Burrell (believed to have married Auren Knapp) became merchants and owners of the largest farm implement business in the northwest basing their business in Portland, Oregon.

The family commitment to their faith runs through the generations. They were hardly settled in Sheffield when Jabez gathered the pioneers for services in his log house. His daughter Julia married first one and then another minister. Her first husband founded the Congregational Church in Sandusky, Ohio, in 1819. The Presbyterian Church of New England sent out her second husband on missionary assignments. His prejudice against slavery was extreme. He would wear nothing made by slave labor and eat nothing farmed with slave labor. Through the generations one finds clergy, teachers, attorneys, physicians, physicists, explorers, loggers, writers and publishers who demonstrated their convictions with the unflagging energy and optimism inherited from their pioneer forefather.

Information provided by the Sheffield Pioneers

Sources

• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=64696221