"286. Joseph Coit, eldest child of Thomas and Sarah Chester Coit, born in Norwich, Aug. 18,1783, in early life became interested in Western emigration, and made his first journey to the Western Reserve in 1808, at which time he accompanied Gen. Moses Cleveland, who went to treat with the Indians for the land on which the city of Cleveland now stands. The journey from Connecticut was performed on horseback in a little less than thirty days. At this time Mr. Coit selected a spot for his own settlement, at the center of Ellsworth, in Mahoning County, then an unbroken wilderness, and, in the following year, returned to take permanent possession. At this time, he began his improvements, although for a time employed in Gen. Perkins' office at Warren. In that western home he spent the vigor of his youth and the maturity of his manhood, leaving his family to enjoy it after his half-century occupation was closed. His death, which occurred May 31, 1857, was occasioned by a cancer upon his face, an affliction which he bore for several years with great patience. Mr. Coit shared honorably in various civil offices, and, in the war of 1812, did good service as cornet of a company of dragoons. Besides his agricultural labors, he was considerably employed in surveying, and took an active part in the various improvements of his town. Always moral and exemplary in his habits, he did not make a public profession of religion until the last year of his life. Of his true worth as a man we have the testimony of the Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, in a newspaper article contributed at the time of his decease. He married Elisabeth Mygatt, June, 1838."
