| | Abstract: | Jonathan Warner (1782-1862) was an early pioneer settler of Jefferson, Ashtabula, County, Ohio, in the Connecticut Western Reserve. Born in Connecticut, he traveled to the Western Reserve in 1804, and permanently settled in the Jefferson area in June 1805, where he farmed. He married Nancy Frethy in 1807, and they had 11 children. Jonathan Warner served as an Ashtabula County justice of the peace, county recorder, and county treasurer. In 1822, he helped organize the Ashtabula County Agricultural Society. He was very active in the antimasonry movement and the Antimasonic Party, and helped establish and run the Ohio Luminary, an antimasonry newspaper in Jefferson. Warner also was an Ohio state legislator, served as the first mayor of Jefferson, and was elected a judge of the Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas, serving until 1846. The collection consists of correspondence, a biographical sketch, typed transcriptions, deeds, agreements, contracts, surveys, a lease, a petition, a record transcript, lists, indentures, wills, genealogies, newspaper clippings, account sheets, county treasurers' reports, receipts, powers of attorney, a wolf scalps subscription list, and obituaries. The letters of Jonathan Warner to his family in Connecticut describe in great detail the land, weather, crops, wildlife, social events, and fellow settlers of the Western Reserve. Descriptions of Warner family journeys back and forth from Ohio to Connecticut are also included, as is commentary on events and battles of the War of 1812, political discussions, descriptions of land transactions and business opportunities, farming conditions, and financial concerns of Jonathan Warner. Correspondence of the women of the Warner family often includes commentary on family life, religious and social activities, work, and other facets of daily life in the Western Reserve. Jonathan Warner's political involvement, particularly with the antimasonic movement, is well documented. Correspondence of Warner with James Moorhead, Alfred Kelley, Cyrus Smith, and Henry Dana Ward is included. | |
