After the Revolutionary War and prior to 1810, several families of Plymouth, Hebron, Seymour and Middletown, Connecticut, left their New England homes to make a new life in the Western Reserve. Their greatest common bond was that they were all Episcopalians, part of the congregation of worshipers at the Plymouth, CT., St. Peter's Church.
There were at least 10 families in the group, including those of Sala Blakeslee and son John G.; Zadoc and Warner Mann, Lynus Hall, Titus Seymour, David Warren, Elias Upson, Noah Bronson, Hubbards and others. After the arduous journey through the wilderness, they arrived in Ohio at their lands south of the Ashtabula River. Each family set about clearing land and putting up a cabin. Homesites were chosen by availability of water, timber, streams and quality of land. The Blakeslees, who owned land from present Seven Hills Road north to the Ashtabula River bank and east of State Road, cleared a spot on Seven Hills Road and built their cabin, where it stands today on it's original foundation at the original site.
These families were not the first settlers in the area, but they were some of the most influential in the community, bringing about the naming of the township (Plymouth) when it was officially formed in 1838. Although the Blakeslee Log Cabin was mainly a home, within it's walls the first local Episcopal Church services were held, and eventually evolved into St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Ashtabula, the first Episcopal Church west of the Allegheny Mountains. A resolution drawn up in the Cabin reads: "Ashtabula, September 26, 1816 , We the subscribers, having assembled at the home of John G. Blakeslee for the purpose of organizing ourselves into a Parish of the Protestant Episcopal Church in The United States of America, have each subscribed our names as members, Zadock Mann, Sala B. Blakeslee, Abner Scott, Noah M. Bronson, Harvey Hecox, Chester Porter, Linus Hall, Joseph Mann."
Sala Blakeslee, born June 30, 1764, died May 21, 1840. Sala and his wife, Mary, had 8 children, three of whom died young. John G. was the oldest child, born June 29, 1789. John died in 1828, leaving a wife Esther and children, Lucy, born in 1815, Hobart, Charlotte and Chauncey, born in 1823.