| Notes |
- From his Find a Grave page (accessed 8 Jan 2024):
"The History of Aurora, Ohio" by L. V. Bierce published in the Portage Democrat 19 Mar 1856
"In 1805, quite a colony arrived in the Aurora woods, from Blandford, Mass. Among the number in this colony was the family of John Cochran, who had purchased sixteen hundred acres of land in Aurora. Mr. Cochran was taken sick on the way, and the teams were hurried forward to Buffalo, where help and medicine might be obtained. Mrs. Cochran, with one daughter, remained with him, while the two other girls were sent with the company. Rhoda, being helpless from rheumatism, was brought all the way on a bed, her sister, Laura, a girl of thirteen, serving as nurse and companion. A man by the name of Mills was hired to bring the girls to Aurora. One night the man unhitched the team, and with his wife, departed and left the girls in the deep, dense woods, four miles north of Burton, alone all night. They were hungry, defenseless and forsaken, and Laura was taken ill, but, fortunately, was better by morning. The next day he appeared and brought them near a settler's cabin, where he wholly deserted them twenty-five miles from their destination. When Laura comprehended the situation she gave way to bitter tears, but rallied from her despondency, made known their forlorn condition to the sympathetic people of the cabin, asking for food and shelter for herself and sister until she could communicate with friends, for which she offered to work, resolutely determining to earn their support until their future was revealed. The generous captain of a boat offered to bring them to Mantua. There they learned of the death of their father at Buffalo, and that their brother had gone to meet the desolate mother. He was the first white man buried at Buffalo, which then consisted of but a few rude cabins."
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
1749 - 1805 (56 years)
[1]