Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc., Part 133

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Akron > Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc. > Part 133

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BENEVOLENCE, DEATH, ETC .- Mr. Alling died April 22, 1867, aged 66 years, 8 months and 9 days. Though not wealthy, in the modern acceptation of the term, besides his ever generous hospi- tality, and his liberal contributions to all public improvements and benevolent and patriotic enterprises of the town, Mr. Alling left an estate of about $40,000, in his will, besides providing liber- ally for his own immediate family, making quite a number of bequests to worthy but needy friends, and about $5,000 to church, Sabbath school and benevolent purposes; among the latter being a bequest of $300 to the Baptist Church at Twinsburg; $1,000 to the American Sunday School Union; $50 to each church Sunday school in Twinsburg at the time of his decease, to replenish their libraries; to the mayors of the cities of Cleveland and Akron (in trust for said cities), all dividends upon twelve and eight shares, respectively, of the capital stock of the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad Company, "for the express purpose of render- ing assistance, by way of food and clothing, to, and thereby pro- moting the temporal and spiritual condition of, the poor orphan, cast off and destitute children of said cities, in providing ways and means by which they may enjoy the blessings of the Sabbath school," etc.

Mrs. Alling, though for several years helpless from paralysis, was kindly cared for by her only surviving son, Ethan Lewis Alling, Esq., and his estimable wife, at their home, 113 Prospect street, in the city of Akron, until her death, on the 24th day of April, 1889, at the age of 87 years, 8 months and 8 days.

PIONEER INCIDENTS .- Twinsburg has no pioneer Indian tradi- tions, the aboriginal denizens of that township having "vamosed the ranch" several years before white settlement began. The usual pioneer exploits with wild beasts, and of individual pluck and daring are still rife among the people, but cannot be here recorded because of the space which the more recent history of the town- ship will occupy in this chapter.

A few incidents, however, illustrative of the hardy nature and invincible will of the early settlers, may not be amiss. Means

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EARLY MODES OF TRAVEL, BUSINESS, ETC.

of travel between Connecticut and Ohio, even as late as the middle twenties, were so meager, that it was no uncommon thing for emigrants to make the entire journey, of over 600 miles, on foot, Mr. Luman Lane and Mr. Hanford White traveling in that way in November, 1820, the last day of their journey walking 46 miles.

THE DEADLY MASSASAUGER .- In 1831, Mr. Luman Lane was bitten on the foot by a massasauger, but his life was saved by his hired man cutting open the wound with his pocket knife and suck- ing out the poison, though he nearly bled to death before the nearest physician, Dr. Town, of Hudson, could be summoned, and, in fact, suffered more or less pain front it to the day of his death.

GREATER ENDURANCE THAN A HORSE .- Mr. Nestor Hurlbut, an uncle of Henry Ward Ingersoll, Esq., of Akron, walked the entire distance between Goshen, Conn., and Twinsburg, five times. On his last trip he made a wager with a man who was about to set out on horseback, that he would beat him in. Starting at the same time, the horseman, of course, left the footman behind early in the day, but by making a little longer day of it, the footman slept at the same place as the horseman over night. Then, by get- ting an earlier start in the morning and traveling later at night, they kept along pretty evenly together until near the end of their journey, when the horse, as well as its rider, began to show symp- toms of fatigue, and by making a little extra exertion on the "home stretch," Hurlbut actually arrived at Twinsburg about six hours ahead of his equestrian competitor.

Even in local travel from town to town, and from county to county, pedestrianism was rather the rule than the exception, the writer, in the latter thirties, having often footed it from Akron to Ravenna, Aurora, Painesville, etc .; it being related that Mr. Isaiah Humphrey, grandfather of C. P. Humphrey, Esq., of Akron, hav- ing purchased an old-fashioned, heavy bull-nosed plow in Rich- field, shouldered it and walked the entire distance to Twinsburg, fifteen miles, without stopping to rest.

In 1817, Lewis Alling, Jr. (then 15 years old), Zenas Alling and Gideon Thompson, started on foot from Derby, Conn., with 104 Merino sheep, which they drove safely through to Hudson, 650 miles, in thirty days, though between the wolves, the dogs and disease, it proved a poor investment, nearly all being lost.

BUSINESS STATUS OF TWINSBURG .- In the two decades, from 1835 to 1855, Twinsburg was decidedly a business town. In addi- tion to the original hotel, then (1835) kept by David Grant, another house of entertainment at the northeast corner of the public square had been erected about 1830, by Otis and Eli Boise, for many years past known as Clark's hotel, and still owned by the widow of its late proprietor, Elmore W. Clark, Esq.

Other merchants than Mr. Alling also abounded, with the average degree of enterprise and success, or non-success, incident to mercantile operations. Mr. Apollos White erected mills, in the northern part of the township, and for many years maufactured large quantities of lumber, the writer having, in the latter thirties and early forties, purchased from Mr. White many thousands of feet of the very best whitewood, oak, ash and hickory lumber at from $6 to $8 per thousand. The village also had its full comple- ment of mechanics, Mr. James Alexander for many years carrying

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on quite an extensive carriage manufactory; the handling of the large dairy product of the township (under the old process) by Mr. Alling and others, being quite a large factor in the business activ- ity and prosperity of the village; all of which was augmented by the liberality of the people of Twinsburg and other towns along the line, in converting the old mud turnpike from Hudson to Cleveland, into a plank road, sometime in the middle forties, which greatly facilitated stage and other travel, transportation of produce to, and merchandise from, Cleveland, etc., a hotel being established and for many years maintained upon this road, near the northwest corner of the township, by Mr. Ezra Starkweather.

THE RAILROAD ERA .- The advent of the railroad into Ohio, however, very materially changed the business aspects and pros- pects of Twinsburg, in common with many of the other rural villages of the county and State. When the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad was projected, the route through Twinsburg was deemed both feasible and desirable, being on the direct line between Cleveland and Ravenna, but, under the mistaken notion that it would be a detriment instead of an advantage, the people mani- fested so much hostility to the project that the road was finally located three and a half miles to the west of the Center in the township of Northfield, and on to Hudson, largely increasing busi- ness there, and building up a rival business point at Macedonia Depot, besides placing the citizens of the township at a disadvan- tage with their neighbors in the matter of travel and transpor- tation. Being thus isolated from railroad facilities the commercial and mechanical importance of the village rapidly declined, with- out any of the compensating advantages to the rural population incident to railroad proximity. But the completion of the Connotton Valley road (now Cleveland & Canton) through the township, a short distance east of the Center, in 1880, while not very materially increasing the mercantile and industrial opera- tions of the village, is proving otherwise convenient and bene- ficial, not only as a great means of travel to Cleveland, Kent and other points, but also for shipment of the immense product of her several stone quarries, hereinafter more particularly referred to .. But the chief value of the road to the people of Twinsburg, in addition to the advantages named, and the ready means thus afforded of supplying themselves with coal, lumber, etc., is tlie opportunity which it offers to contiguous farmers of daily sending the product of their dairies to Cleveland, milk stations being established at nearly every cross road, and special trains run for that purpose.

CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS, ETC .- In chuch matters, Twinsburg has, from the start, held a fair average with her neighbors. Relig- ious meetings were held from the very beginning of settlement, generally in private houses, Lewis Alling, Sr., and Asa Upson taking turns in leading (when no preacher was present) until the death of Mr. Alling, in 1823, when Mr. Moses Wilcox took his place.

In 1822, an itinerant Methodist minister (name not remem- bered) formed a class, with Emery Alger and Asa Upson as members. In 1821, '22, Rev. John Seward (Congregationalist) preached one-fourth of the time on the Sabbath, after which Rev. Willian Hanford did likewise for several years; a Congregational church being formed in 1822, with Lewis Alling, Sr., Robert Hurd

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RELIGIOUS AND CHURCH MATTERS.

and wife, J. H. Kelsey and wife, Belizer Beach and wife, Julia Ann White (wife of William White), Comfort Nichols (wife of N. P. Nichols), Irena Thomas, Luman Lane, Hanford White and John A. Wells as members, Lewis Alling, Sr., being chosen deacon. Rev. Samuel Bissell, of Aurora, was ordained as pastor April 20, 1828, being succeeded by Rev. Mr. Hair in 1835. Differences arising, now difficult of explanation, a second Congregational church was organized with Mr. Bissell as its pastor, the pulpit of the first church being successively filled by Revs. Treat, Ward and Chapin until 1843, when the two churches were united with Rev. Robert C. Learned as pastor, followed, April 5, 1848, by Rev. Horace W. Palmer; November, 1853, Rev. Joseph H. Scott; November 21, 1860, Rev. Sidney Bryant, an interregnum of about two years, 1859, '60, being filled by President Pierce and Prof. Hosford, of Western Reserve College, alternately. Successive pastors since, Revs. Andrew Sharp, Post, Charles McNulty, William Haynes and Charles H. Lemmon, present incumbent, whose pastorate com- inenced March 1, 1890. Present. membership 150, Macedonia branch 22, total 178.

CHURCH EDIFICES .- In 1823 the Congregationalists undertook to build a small two-story house upon the public square, the upper story to be used as a place of worship and the lower story as a school room, hauling the timber upon the ground for that purpose. Exceptions being taken, a town meeting was called at which it was voted "that the public square shall remain unoccupied by any public building at present." Notwithstanding such action, a one- story house was soon after built, and jointly used as indicated for several years, being twice removed and finally torn down.

In 1831, Mr. Bissell, then teaching a select school, was empow- ered to raise funds and build a house for church and high school purposes, which was located east of the public square and imme- diately north of the Alling hotel, completed in 1832, the total cost being about $700. The present edifice west of the public square, erected in 1848, originally cost about $3,000, though material improvements have from time to time been made during the intervening years.

OTHER DENOMINATIONS .- The Methodist class of two members above alluded to, formed in 1821, expanded into a full church organization a few years later, their first house of worship, near the northeast corner of the square, being erected in 1832, the present structure on the south side of the square, being built in 1848. Present membership about 112. Present pastor (1891, '92,) Rev. Ira J. Harris.

A Baptist society was organized June 15, 1832, and a house of worship built in 1841. April 14, 1843, a Free Will Baptist Society was organized, building a house of worship in 1847. This house was destroyed by fire and rebuilt, in 1851. This latter society declining in numbers and influence, in 1859 their house was sold to Mr. Riley, who soon afterwards exchanged houses with the Baptists, who have occupied it ever since, the house being located a short distance north of the square, on the Cleveland road. This society has been without a pastor for the past few years, and from deaths and removals is reduced to about twenty-five mem- bers, who at present unite in worship with the Congregation- alists.

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EDUCATIONAL MATTERS .- In the matter of education. Twins- burg has, in some respects, the most wonderful record of any township in Summit county, not even excepting that long-time emporium of learning immediately adjoining upon the south, Hud- son. While her common schools have fully averaged with those of her neighbors on the Reserve, having now a fine high school building a few rods south of the square, "Twinsburg Institute" stands as a time honored and imperishable monument of what one good, conscientious and energetic mind can accomplish, during a well-rounded lifetime.

SAMUEL BISSELL was born in Middlefield, Hampshire county, Mass., April 28, 1797. In 1806, removed with his parents to Aurora, laboring on the farm until 1816, when he began to prepare for college. Entering Yale in 1819, he graduated with high honors, in 1823. Then ensued a rigid course of theo- logical study, amid difficulties that would have appalled an ordinary man, completing his studies in New Preston, Conn., and receiving a license to preach in 1825. Returning to Aurora in 1825, he opened a small select school which he kept till 1828, when he became pastor of the Con- gregational church at Twinsburg, as elsewhere stated, at the same ..... time conducting a private select school, the first three years in a small log house, and then in the church in which he preached, con- tinuing this dual occupation for seven years.

After an absence of about one year, SAMUEL BISSELL. as pastor of the Congregational church at Edinburg, Portage county, Mr. Bissell, about 1840, returned to his double duty of preaching and teaching in Twinsburg. In 1843, owing to the rapid increase of his pupils, Mr. Bissell resigned the pastorate and established "The Twinsburg Institute," which has never missed a term during all the intervening 48 years.

On his return to Twinsburg, a small school building was erected by Mr. Bissell a short distance south of the Center, which, after being once or twice enlarged, so as to accommodate 80 or 90 scholars, was still found to be too small to accommodate all who desired to enter the school. Mr. Bissell then purchased the old Alling hotel property, adding to it, upon the south, making the building 102 feet long by 30 feet wide, subsequently adding a three- story 30x30 foot wing, upon the east, and still afterwards annexing the 30 x60 foot building upon the north, formerly used by him as a church and school house (then called "Lyceum Hall") and still later, about 1858, annexing another school building on the north.

This composite building, or group of buildings, while making no pretensions to outside show, or interior adornment, had at one time over 300 students in attendance, requiring, besides the princi- pal, some seven or eight teachers and assistants to properly

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TWINSBURG'S GREAT EDUCATOR.

conduct the several classes therein receiving instructions, besides the necessary household reguiations for boarding and lodging, per- haps one-fourth of the number in attendance finding homes with the various private families and boarding houses of the village.

"Twinsburg Institute" was simply a private individual enter- prise -- no charter, no $500,000 donation, no endowment funds, but solely the outgrowth of the persevering energy of its liberal- hearted, self-sacrificing founder, and wholly maintained on the basis of the meager tuition fee of $2.00 to $4.00 per term, and the still more meager charge of from $1.121/2 to $1.50 per week for board and lodging.

A VIGOROUS NONAGENARIAN .- The venerable principal of this remarkable school, now almost 95 years of age, is still (November 1891), vigorous in both mind and body, except as to impaired hear- ing. In a letter to the writer, in reply to inquiries about his school, Mr. Bissell, in 1887, said:

"As to Twinsburg Institute I have kept no record of the number of scholars, and can only approximate to it, as I find from some of its catalogues and from memory. It has never lost a term from its commencement, and will average 100 a year from 1840, a period of 47 years, making 4,700, and from its beginning, in 1828, not less than 6,000; among them more than 200 Indian youth, both from the east and from the west."

And to this brief and modest mention of the gigantic labors of this remarkable man, the writer will add that a very large pro- portion of the instruction and sustenance imparted to the 200 dusky pupils mentioned, was gratuitous, while a goodly number of indigent white youth, of both sexes, were also taken in, boarded and educated free of charge, or on the " manual labor" system, the labor performed consisting of chores, and other light work about the, institution, that could have been done by regular hired help at far less cost to the kind-hearted proprietor.

As illustrative of the tenacity of purpose of this philanthropic educator, it may be stated that when, by reason of his open-handed liberality, and the embarrassments growing out of the War, he was obliged to vacate the buildings he had occupied for nearly twenty years, though then seventy years of age, Mr. Bissell resolutely set about erecting another on his own private lot, a short distance south of the public square. This is a two-story stone structure, 33 x 77 feet in size. Mr. Bissell himself helping to quarry and haul the stone, and with his own hands framing and putting on the roof, laying the floors and doing all the joiner work, except making the window frames and sash. The walls were laid by a Scotchman, over twenty years ago, with instructions to regard strength rather than beauty, and, adds Mr. Bissell: "The rock of Gibraltar will as soon give way, without an earthquake," though a suit was brought against him; by a neighbor, three or four years ago, on account of its liability to fall and crush his (the neighbor's) house upon the adjoining lot-the old gentleman feeling deeply grieved at being compelled to defend himself from the charge of maintaining a nuisance (his first law suit), in the 91st year of his life, the suit being happily decided in his favor.

In closing a letter about his school, Mr. Bissell, in 1887, says: "Circumstances are such, we expect to do but little more by way of giving instruction, and very little more than the name will con- tinue." Mr. Bissell still survives, and in his 93d year delivered an address before the Old Settlers' Association, at Cleveland, July 22,

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1889, with twenty of his old pupils on the platform with him, and October 8, 1890, took part in the 90th anniversary exercises in honor of Mrs. Anner Mary (Hudson) Baldwin, in Hudson.

Among well-known citizens who have in years past attended Twinsburg Institute are the following: General A. C. Voris; Hon. U. L. Marvin; B. C. Herrick, Esq .; Hon. Henry Mckinney, State senator for Summit-Portage district, 1869, '70, since Common Pleas Judge in Cuyahoga county; Hons. D. W. Gage and W. S. Kerruish, of Cleveland; H. W. Ingersoll, Esq., Akron; Hon. E. E. White, former president De Pauw University, Ohio commissioner of common schools, and late superintendent schools, Cincinnati; General Lucius Fairchild, ex-member of Congress, ex-governor of Wisconsin, ex-U. S. consul at Liverpool, ex-consul general at Paris, ex-minister to Spain, ex-commander Department of Wiscon- sin, G. A. R., ex-commander-in-chief of National Encampment G. A. R., etc., etc.

JONATHAN E. HERRICK,-one of J the pioneers of Twinsburg town- ship, was born in Worthington, Mas- sachusetts, July 11, 1804. At 22 years of age he came to Ohio, then an almost unbroken wilderness, settling in Aurora, Portage county. April 10, 1828, he was married to Miss Phila Clark, of Twinsburg, soon after which he bought a farm in that township, a mile and a quarter south of the vil- lage, from which he cleared the forest, and on which he resided over sixty years, in 1845, erecting a fine stone house, one of the best in the township. Mr. and Mrs. Herrick were the parents of five children-Burke C. Herrick, for the past twenty years a successful crockery merchant in Akron ; Earl, now residing in Cleve- land; Electa A., now Mrs. E. L. Alling, of Akron; and Olive and Cyrus M., deceased. Mrs. Herrick died May 7, 1889 ; Mr. Herrick, though still retain- ing his property interests in Twins- burg, is now living with his daughter, Mrs. Alling, in Akron, in the 88th year of his age. Mr. Herrick was for several years one of the trustees of his township, and otherwise active in public affairs, being chairman of

NEDICT CF COCHI.

JONATHAN E. HERRICK.

the monumental committee, which erected the beautiful soldiers' monu- ment on the Public Square, an engraving and description of which will be found elsewhere in this chapter.

TWINSBURG'S PATRIOTISM .- The first settlement being more than forty years removed from the Revolutionary struggle, and several years after the close of the War of 1812, we find no recorded or traditionary history of the participation of any of her citizens in either of those wars, though it is very probable that a number of her early settlers were soldiers in the latter, and probably some in the former struggle; nor is it thought that Twinsburg furnished a single volunteer for the Mexican War, of 1846-48.

The township paid some attention, however, to early military matters, keeping the patriotic ardor of New England fully glow- ing for many years, under the old militia system of Ohio, Mr. Luman Lane recording that Elisha Loomis was captain of the

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SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, DEDICATION, ETC.

first military company, Joseph Myric, second and Asa Upson, third. This is all of the early military history of the township that has come down to us. But in the War of the Rebellion-1861- 65-her patiotism and valor was second to no other township in the county, according to population, having furnished a total of one hundred and seventeen soldiers for the Union Army.

A MAGNIFICENT TRIBUTE .- Not only were the customary boun- ties promptly raised and paid to her volunteers, and their dependent families kindly looked after during their absence, but after the close of the War, a splendid monu- ment was erected on the public square, in memory of her fallen, and in honor of her surviving, heroes. This monument, located near the north side of the square, is of the following dimensions : First base (paradoxical as it may seem, the "crowning" glory of the superstructure), is a solid sand- stone block, quarried one mile west of the village, containing 3581/2 cubic feet, and weighing 50,549 pounds ; Second base, also a single block, 120 cubic feet, 16,920 pounds; 1152 Third base, 48 cubic feet, 5,768 pounds, all firmly resting upon a solid sandstone foundation. The TWINS BURG. monument proper consists of seven pieces of handsomely wrought Italian marble, measuring 1003/8 cubic feet, weighing 18,120 pounds, the main shaft being surmounted by a splendidly carved spread eagle, the entire height, above the foundation, being 28 feet, and the BENEDICT FORENT total cost not far from $2,500.

Twinsburg's Soldiers' Monument, on Public Square.

DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT .--- July 4, 1867, was truly a gala day for the people of Twinsburg-a triple celebration-the 91st anni- versary of American Independence; the Semi-Centennial of the first settlement of Twinsburg, and the unveiling and dedication of the beautiful soldiers' monument in question.

Jonathan E. Herrick, Esq., was president of the day and Horace P. Cannon, Esq., was chief marshal. A mammoth tent had been erected about the center of the square, in which the chief literary and oratorical exercises were held, a free banquet being provided in a neighboring orchard, the central figure of whichi was a one thousand pound steer, roasted whole, flanked by a very great variety of gustatory viands.

The Declaration of Independence was read by Isadore Roskolp, Esq., of Cleveland; Hon. O. S. Griswold, of Cleveland, being the orator of the day. Hon. N. D. Tibbals, of Akron, responded to the toast, " Our Citizen Soldiery;" President Henry L. Hitchcock (who had lost a son in the army), to "Our Sons Who Never Returned;" Dr. H. J. Herrick, of Cleveland (a native of Twinsburg), to "The

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

Surgeons of the Army;" Rev. S. Bryant to "Woman in the Hos- pital and Woman at Home;" Edward Oviatt, Esq., of Akron, to "The Day We Celebrate;" S. A. Lane, editor SUMMIT COUNTY BEA- CON, to " The Press; " Ethan Alling, to " The First Settler of Twins- burg."

The exercises were interspersed by the firing of cannon, martial, band and vocal music, and general good cheer, scarcely dampened by the drenching rainstorm which occurred early in the afternoon.

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Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905 Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department Number of Pages: 1228

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228