Turhand Kirtland

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Justly referred to as an Ohio pioneer, Turhand Kirtland was a prominent figure in the early days of the Ohio territory, being a founding father of what is now Poland, Ohio. During a long life that extended nearly nine decades, Kirtland was involved in many different aspects of the development of the burgeoning counties of Trumbull and Mahoning. Kirtland was originally born in Wallingford, Connecticut on November 16, 1755, a son of Constant and Rachel Kirtland. Turhand was a Revolutionary War veteran, and is remarked by the National DAR Society Lineage Book, Vol. 32 as "having been engaged on the boats, transporting the retreating army at Long Island in 1776 where he contracted camp fever, and was honorably discharged." Following his stint in the Continental Army, Kirtland returned to Wallingford where he worked as a carriage manufacturer for a number of years.

  Kirtland married twice during his life, his first wife being Mary Beach, who died in 1792. He remarried in the year following her death to Polly Potter (1772-1850), who eventually gave birth to six children, who are listed as follows: Jared Potter (1793-1877), Henry Turhand (born 1795-1874), Mary Beech (1798-1825), Nancy (born 1801), Charles Dutton (died in infancy in 1814), Billious (1807-1891) and George (1809-1890). Of the Kirtland children Jared Potter Kirtland is the most notable, as he was for many years a distinguished physician judge and naturalist, and was honored by having a type of snake (the Kirtland's Water snake) named after him.

Turhand Kirtland was connected for many years with the Connecticut Land Company, being employed as a general land agent whilst also being one of the company's stockholders. He first visited the Ohio territory in 1798 and with wealth accumulated from his carriage manufacturing business began to purchase numerous lots of land throughout the area known as the Western Reserve. Portions of this three million acres of land throughout Northeastern Ohio were surveyed and examined by Kirtland for the Connecticut Land Company, and around 1799 relocated from Connecticut to the Ohio territory, settling in an area then known as Burton. In 1800 then territorial Governor Arthur St. Clair (1737-181) appointed Kirtland as Judge for the newly established county of Trumbull.
After leaving Trumbull County in April 1803, the Kirtland family removed to Mahoning County, settling in the village of Poland. Kirtland had surveyed and mapped out the Poland vacinity some years previously, and in the same year as his resettlement was named as the first master of the Erie Lodge #47 of Masons, the first masonic lodge to be built in the Western Reserve. Kirtland continued to make a name for himself in the still young community of Poland, becoming moderator of the first Episcopal church in Mahoning County and later aided in establishing the local Library Association and Poland Reading Room.
In 1814 Turhand Kirtland was elected as a member of the Ohio State Senate, representing Trumbull County. He served here until 1815 and was later elected as a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, serving on the bench for nearly a decade. Following his tenure as judge, Kirtland was a justice of peace in Poland for over twenty years and died on August 16, 1844, a few months before his 89th birthday. He was interred at the Poland Presbyterian Cemetery, also the resting place of Polly Kirtland and the couple's infant son Charles Dutton.