Lake County Ohio GenWeb

Ashbel Munson

From The Painesville Telegraph, Painesville, Ohio, June 27, 1867, and reprinted in the September 1986 "LakeLines," the newsletter of the Lake County Genealogical Society.

Mentor

EDITORS TELEGRAPH:

The pioneers who have bequeathed to us the heritage of this beautiful land, are surely worthy of our grateful memory. Their names and history should have an enduring record; and in the belief that you will welcome to your colums a few lines bearing upon one of these honored men, I send you a sketch of a social gathering in Mentor, at the homestead of the late Ashbel Munson, on his birthday, the 6th inst., a place temporarily occupied by his daughter, Mrs. C.M. Scott.

In response to her invitation some sixty-three relatives of the departed pioneer assembled at his old home for a picnic. Forty-six years have elapsed since he arrived in Mentor, then well nigh a wilderness, resounding with the cries of the wild denizens of the forest.

Ashbel Munson was the son of Abner Munson, of Middlebury, Ct., one of Putnam's famous band of Rangers during the French and Indian wars, and there are legends still current in Connecticut of his bravery - his marvellous strength and endurance. The son of such a father cheerfully welcomed the toils and perils of a pioneer life.

Four generations were represented at the old homestead on the 6th. Lamberton Munson, Esq., of Geneva, N.Y., a younger brother of our departed friend, erect under the burden of 85 years, and a sister, Mrs. Zuba Parmelee, aged 93 years, were present and sat at a table spread under the branches of a vine planted by their brother's hands, while before and around them were souvenirs of the past, some of them in the possession of Mrs. Scott, being more than a century old.

Twenty children and youth* were ranged in a line and listened to a few warm hearted and genial words from their aged relative, who had come unattended from his distant home expressly in honor of the occasion. It was a goodly array, and showed no deterioration of the ancestral stock, and proved also that emigration does not necessarily tend to barbarism, a favorite notion you know with a distinguished eatern divine.

The occasion called forth many reminisences of pioneer life, and strengthened, as we believe, the bonds of kindred and of mutual regard.

This season of social enjoyment closed with words of prayer and thankgiving to Him who was the God of the fathers, and who by the memory of his faithfulness to them would quicken and strengthen the loving trust of their children.

B.
*Of the fourth generation