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 90

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 90

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

728

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

Gaylord, immediately south of Silver Lake, dividing his time between his farm and his village operations. The first building erected on his property was a log house, for the accommodation of his workmen, in 1825, just north of the hotel of Mr. George L. Bouys, on the east side of the river; a year later buying a two- story frame building that was being erected for a store, corner East Broad and East Front streets (still standing), 'which he converted into a dwelling house for his own use, and which he occupied until the completion of his fine stone residence on the hill to the eastward, in 1840, where he lived until his death, in 1854.

H ENRY NEWBERRY, - born in Windsor, Connecticut, Jannary 27, 1783; educated at Yale College ; was for several years a merchant in Hartford, where, October 9, 1803, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Strong, born April 29, 1782. His father, Gen- eral Roger Newberry,a Revolutionary soldier, was one of the original pro- prietors of Tallmadge, purchasing by draft, in 1798, one thousand acres in the northern part of the township. On the death of his father, in 1814, Mr. Newberry visited Ohio, and again in 1818 and 1822, and in 1824 removed his family thither, being one of the founders of the village of Cuyahoga Falls, erecting dams and mills upon the river, and engaging largely in farming, mining and manufacturing, one of the present evidences of his enterprise being the elegant brown stone dwelling house directly east of the covered bridge, still known as the "Newberry house." He was the first postmaster of Cuyahoga Falls, and filled many other important official positions. Mr. and Mrs. New- berry were the parents of nine chil- dren-Elizabeth, the first Mrs. E. N. Sill, born October 28, 1804, died No- vember 29, 1829; Mary Strong, born September 13, 1808, died December 30, 1855; Fanny, the second Mrs. E. N. Sill, born April 4, 1810, died February 14, 1849; Julia, Mrs. H. S. Holbrook, born April 1, 1812; Almira, Mrs. Wil- liam Fogle, born March 18, 1814;

BENEDIC

FCOCHY.

HENRY NEWBERRY.

Eunice, Mrs. C. S. Sill, born Septem- ber 18, 1815, died September 2, 1867; Henry, county auditor of Summit county, 1852 to 1854, born June 29, 1817, died December 21, 1875 ; John Strong, now a professor in Columbia College, New York City, born December 22, 1822; Sarah E., Mrs. J. P. Holbrook, born February 8, 1825. Mr. Newberry died December 5, 1854, and Mrs. New- berry, November 24, 1858.

In 1825 Mr. Newberry built the dam now (1891) used by the Variety Works of The Turner, Vaughn & Taylor Co., erecting thereon a saw-mill on the west side, and a linseed oil-mill on the east side. The oil-mill being carried away by a flood, in 1832, was immediately rebuilt and for a while was run as an oil-mill, by E. N. Sill and Ogden Wetmore, but afterwards converted into a paper- mill by Prentiss Dow and John Rumrill, and later, for some years, run by Prentiss and George Dow.

MAGNIFICENT WATER-POWER .- It is not the province of this work, even were data and space available, to present a detailed his- tory of the many manufacturing and business operations-suc- cesses and disasters-that have obtained in Cuyahoga Falls, during the three-fourths of a century of its existence. With water-power

729

EARLY INHABITANTS.

-then the great desideratum of manufacturing operations-second to no other point in Ohio, and with a population unsurpassed for intelligence and enterprise, its prospects at the beginning, and for a number of years thereafter, were bright and promising in the extreme.

Located some 500 feet above the level of Lake Erie, with the very finest of agricultural surroundings, it had within its corporate limits, and immediate vicinity, an aggregate fall of about 150 feet, furnishing at the lowest stage of water, fully 4,000 cubic feet per minute. Only a part of this power, however, owing to causes to be hereafter written of, has ever been utilized, though a large variety of manufactures are now being driven by three other dams besides those already named, the five representing a total fall of nearly 75 feet, as follows: Upper, or rolling mill dam, 15 feet; Newberry, or Turner, Vaughn & Taylor dam, 10 feet; paper mill dam, 18 feet; Prentiss, or sewer pipe dam, 20 feet, less 31/2 feet taken by "Chuckery;" Hinde dam, 12 rods above old Chuckery dam, 15 feet.

EARLY RESIDENTS .- Among the earlier settlers in Cuyahoga Falls, besides those already. named, are recalled the following: Rowland Clapp and Grant B. Turner, 1828, (died in 1881); John Rumrill, (still living); Colonel Asa Stanley, 1829; Elisha N. Sill, 1829, (died April 25, 1888, aged 88 years); John Eadie, George Dailey, Oliver Dewey and Israel James, 1830; Oliver B. Beebe, 1831, (deceased); Major Charles W. Wetmore, Seth D. Wetmore, 1832, (both deceased); and earlier, or soon afterwards, Joseph T. Holloway, William A. Lawson, Preston Sawyer, Noah E. Lemoin, Henry Orrin and C. H. James, Noah and Dr. Chester W. Rice, J. A. Beebe, J. Blair, George H. Lodge, John Willard, S. D. Clark, Alexander English, J. H. Reynolds, Thomas and Isaac Sill, Asa Mariner, John Alexander, William Perkins, John Stouffer, Charles, William and Henry A. Sill, Horace Canfield, Timothy Phelps Spencer, Thomas Santom, R. H. Shellhorn, H. H. Smoke, B. Thal- himer, William Turner, William H. Taylor, Charles Thornburg, William H. Withey, George, Hiram S. and Almon Vaughn, Salmon and Sylvester Loomis, Jabez and Charles R. Hamlin, Simon Brown, J. Jenkins, John and Epaphroditus Wells, Abraham Yockey, Henry Barger. John H. Brainard, Nathaniel Rose, William and James Alley, Dr. Richard Fry, A. B. Gilespie, Samuel Goodrich, B. R. Manchester, "Judge" Burgess, H. N. Pool, Isaac Cooke, S. A. Childs, R. Chaffee, L. W. and Theodore R. Butler, David and Apollos Wadsworth, Cyrus C. and Livy L. Wilcox, Isaac A. Ballou, Enoch Adams, and somewhat later, Asa G. and Henry W. Bill, Hosea Paul, Henry and Orrin Cooke, Andrew Dailey, John B. Harrison, Timothy L. and Horace A. Miller, George H. Penfield, Sylvester Pease, William A. Hanford, Giles and Joshua L'Homm- edieu, William W. Lucas, Ezra S. and Samuel Comstock, A. R. Knox, John Cochran, Captain Isaac Lewis, Martin Griswold, Colonel J. P. Lee, William, Henry, Frank and Samuel Rattle, Samuel W. McClure, Seymour Demming, William A. Taylor, Julius A. and Dr. G. C. Upson, Dr. Porter G. Somers, R. S. Williams, Charles Hunt, Shubel H. Lowery, Seth Ely, George Hubbard, Robert Peebles, Henry E. Howard, Henry Plum, William, Samuel and Thomas Wills, George and Henry E. Parks, Austin Babcock, Edward Youmans, Stephen Powers, Esq., Sherman Peck, Joy H.

730

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

Pendleton, George E. Clarke, J. M. Smith, Edwin Starr, James and Charles W. Chamberlain, George A. Stanley, C. Reed, William H. Van Tyne, Henry Holbrook, Thomas W. Cornell, Benjamin Phelps, F. S. and Dr. T. F. Heath, and many others whose names are not readily recalled.

EARLY BUSINESS MATTERS .- Cuyahoga Falls, it will be seen by a comparison of dates, was quite a 'smart manufacturing village before Akron was ever dreamed of, and, in the early twenties, bid fair to soon outstrip that ancient business emporium, Middlebury, and become the great manufacturing center of the Western Re- serve. Her natural resources were adequate to the full realization of this anticipation, but certain artificial schemes soon began to materialize, which served to retard the progress of both herself and Middlebury, while favoring their mutual rival, Akron, which, like a full-armored gladiator, had suddenly stalked into the busi- ness arena of the vicinage.

The first of these artificial schemes was the construction of the Ohio Canal in 1825-27. Neither Middlebury nor Cuyahoga Falls lying directly upon the canal, they could not, of course, reap the full measure of its benefits of travel and transportation, the result being the establishment along the line of sundry villages and hamlets, as at Akron, Old Portage, Niles, Peninsula, Boston, etc., that drew off a large proportion of the business that would other- wise have come to the earlier villages named.

The second scheme to militate against Cuyahoga Falls, was the construction of the Cascade mill race from Middlebury to Akron, by Dr. Eliakim Crosby, in 1832, thus, by the creation of a .considerable water power at that point, dividing the attention of manufacturers between the two places, which otherwise would have been concentrated upon Cuyahoga Falls alone.

The third blow to the manufacturing interests and growth of Cuyahoga Falls was the famous "Chuckery" project, described at length in another chapter, by which more than one-half of the immense power above described, within her borders, was sought to be diverted to "Summit City," by the "Portage Canal and Man- ufacturing Company" in 1836, but which, through the ultimate failure of that corporation, has remained substantially unimproved and unproductive to the present time.

It is but simple justice to the people of Cuyahoga Falls, and to the memory of Mr. Henry Newberry, to state, in this connection, that it was, and is, claimed that the diversion alluded to was effected through absolute fraud, the late Hon. E. N. Sill, Grant B. Turner, Esq., and Mr. Henry Wetmore, and other well-informed old-time residents, now living, who were perfectly familiar with Mr. Newberry's business and feelings, at the period named, hold- ing to this opinion.

The fourth back-set to the prosperity of Cuyahoga Falls, was the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal scheme, inaugurated in 1836, and completed in 1840. This, it was supposed would greatly benefit the village, by giving it communication with the outer world, in receiving its supplies of iron, coal, lumber, merchandise, etc., and in shipping its manufactured products, to say nothing about the matter of passenger travel.

To a certain extent this expectation was realized. But is was found that being supplied with water from the river at Kent, and

731

CUYAHOGA FALLS AHEAD OF CHICAGO.

in turn, besides being used for navigation purposes, with nine locks between Cuyahoga Falls and Akron, it was so largely utilized, to augment the hydraulic privileges at Akron, that a shortage of water in the river was created, that, in dry seasons, very largely interfered with the manufacturing operation of the village.

This disadvantage was patiently endured, long after the use- fulness of the canal to the people of Cuyahoga Falls had ceased, by reason of the completion of the "Hudson Branch" railroad from Hudson to Akron, in 1852, and until, by reason of the building of the Mahoning Branch of the A. & G. W. R. R., navigation on the canal was entirely suspended, when the slow process of the law for its formal closing was anticipated by the parties in interest summarily draining off its waters at points both above and below Cuyahoga Falls, in the Spring and Summer of 1868, since which the wheels of the shops and mills upon the river, have had the benefit of all the water the stream affords, though, of course, con- siderably diminished, from early times, by the clearing up of the timber lands contiguous to its sources and along its banks.

TO THE CONTRARY, NOTWITHSTANDING .- Yet, in spite of all these drawbacks, Cuyahoga Falls has been, and still is, a town of large business resources and enterprise. Up to 1836 its population, as well as the volume of its manufactures, were fully equal to, if they did not surpass those of Akron, with even brighter propects for the future. A newspaper description of the business of the town, at that time, is as follows:

"Eight dry-goods stores, two drug stores, two groceries, one hat store, one clothing store, four tailors' shops, one milliner's shop, three shoe shops, one book store, one book-bindery, one printing office, four blacksmiths' shops, two tin shops, two cabinet shops, one pump shop, two paper mills, one flouring mill, two saw mills, one oil mill, one tilt-hammer, ax and scythe factory, one woolen mill, one stone saw mill, one planing mill, one chair factory, one foundry, one engine and machine shop, and sundry other smaller works," placing the amount of goods sold during the year at $407,000 and the sales of real estate at $200,000.

AHEAD OF CHICAGO .- In illustration of the life and business activity of Cuyahoga Falls, at this period, it is related that while Mr. Ezra S. Comstock, long a prominent business man of the Falls, was, in 1836, prospecting for a location, after visiting several places in this vicinity, having heard of a place called Chicago, thought he would take a look at that town before locating. But he soon returned to Cuyahoga Falls, saying that it was more of a business place than Chicago, and always would be, locating here accord- ingly.

The panic of 1837, however, added to the prospective loss of one-half, or more, of its water-power, in the manner above set forth, was a severe blow to its prosperity and growth. Values of real estate rapidly diminished, contemplated business enterprises were indefinitely postponed, mercantile failures ensued, and the general effects of the panic, as at Akron and other points heretofore de- scribed, were here felt in their fullest force.

A "SHINPLASTER" MILL .- Yet, the people of Cuyahoga Falls pluckily struggled on. To partially remedy the stringency of the money market, incident to the failure of a large proportion of the banks of the country, and the suspension of specie payments by

732

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

all, following the example of many other towns, a quasi-bank was organized, called the "Cuyahoga Falls Real Estate Association," the paper issued being in denominations of 25 cents to $5.00, a bill of the latter denomination now in the hands of the writer, reading thus: "Treasurer of the Cuyahoga Falls Real Estate Association: Pay on demand, Five Dollars to William G. Oatman, or bearer. Cuyahoga Falls, April 1, 1838" - bearing also upon its face the legend: "Real Estate pledged by deed of trust to double the excess of issue beyond the capital stock paid in, and stockholders liable," and signed by Moses Thompson, president, and Ogden Wetmore, cashier, the cashiership afterwards devolving upon Birdsey Booth, Esq.

This "currency," loaned to merchants, manufacturers and speculators, obtained quite a large circulation, and for a time all seemed to be lovely for both those who issued and those who handled it. But by and by, holders began to find it difficult to get rid of it, and speculators began buying it up at a discount, and presenting it in such considerable sums for redemption that the institution soon found itself short of the wherewith for its redemp- tion, its embarrassments being increased by the fact that many borrowers were unable to meet their paper at maturity. Added to all this, the rapid decline in value of real estate, and other prop- erty, and their inability to realize upon their securities, compelled the company to go into liquidation, bringing disaster to most of its managers, and leaving considerable sums of its issues in the hands of holders to be kept as relics of the financial crisis of 1837-44.

SUBSEQUENT BANKING OPERATIONS .- During the existence of the panic above alluded to, nearly all of the banks of the country went by the board, the Western Reserve Bank, at Warren, and the Geauga Bank, at Painesville, being the only ones in Northeastern Ohio to stand the pressure. The Ohio State Bank system, similar to the present National Bank system, having been inaugurated in the early forties, in 1845 the Summit county branch of the State Bank of Ohio, at Cuyahoga Falls, was organized, with a capital of $100,000, by Joseph Hale, Henry B. Tuttle, William Rattle, Horace A. Miller, Charles R. Miller and others, with Joseph Hale as presi- dent and H. B. Tuttle as cashier. The stock of this bank was bought, in January, 1851, by Elisha N. Sill, Samuel W. McClure, Ezra S. Comstock, Charles Curtis, and others, E. N. Sill becoming its president and E. S. Comstock it cashier, James H. Stanley succeeding Mr. Comstock as cashier in 1862. The charter of this bank expiring in 1866, the First National Bank of Cuyahoga Falls, with $50,000 capital, was organized by Thomas W. Cornell, Elisha N. Sill, Chas. S. Sill, Henry Newberry, and others, with E. N. Sill as president, and J. H. Stanley as cashier. In 1869 the franchise of this bank was transferred to the First National Bank of Akron, its stockholders organizing, as a private partnership, "The International Bank of Cuyahoga Falls," with the same offi- cers as before, J. H. Stanley becoming its sole proprietor Sept. 1, 1881, but a series of losses sustained by "over-confidence in the integrity of its customers" compelled its final suspension on the 26th day of October, 1886.

ANOTHER SHIN-PLASTER ERA .- At the commencement of the Civil War, all the gold, silver and copper currency of the country disappeared as if by magic, so that, after shifting along for a time

733:

BANKS AND FINANCES.

with postage stamps for small change, another avalanche of mer- cantile and personal shin-plasters flooded the country, until the more reliable, and really very convenient, National Fractional Currency scheme was adopted. Among those to avail themselves. of such private issues, was Mr. William A. Hanford, then exten- sively engaged in the manufacture of paper at the Falls, Mr. Hanford having kindly presented us with specimens of his entire- series, of the denominations of 50, 25, 10 and 5 cents, worded as follows:

SUMMIT COUNTY BANK, pay the bearer FIVE CENTS when like- orders are presented in amounts of one or more dollars.

Cuyahoga Falls, O., 1862.

W. A. HANFORD.

Unlike the issues of 1837, '38, however, all of this scrip was. eventually fully redeemed by Mr. Hanford.

PRESENT BANKING FACILITIES .- In the Spring of 1891, The Akron Savings Bank, of which Mr. Willianı Buchtel is president, Judge Charles R. Grant, vice president, and Aaron Wagoner, cashier, established a branch, in the old bank building in Cuya- hoga Falls, in charge of Mr. Archie B. Clarke, which is proving a very great convenience to the people of that village.

HON. ELISHA NOYES SILL,-son of Dr. Elisha N., and Chloe (Allyn) Sill, born in Windsor, Con- necticut, January 6, 1801, graduating from Yale College in 1820, and for several years engaged in teaching; in 1829 came to Cuyahoga Falls, for a short time engaging in manufactur- ing, but in 1833 became the secretary of the Portage Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which position he ably filled for over a quarter of a century. Mr. Sill, besides serving Portage county as representative, was the first State senator for Portage and Summit, after the erection of the lat- ter, holding the position two years .- 1840 to 1842 ; was State fund commis- sioner seven years; president Sum- mit County Branch of Ohio State Bank, and its successors, the First National Bank of Cuyahoga Falls and the International Bank, from 1851 to 1869; and also a director in the First National Bank of Akron. Octo- ber 4, 1824, Mr. Sill was married, in Windsor, to Miss Elizabeth Newberry, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Newberry, who died November 27, 1829, leaving two sons - Alfred H. and Ethelbert - both now residents of Cuyahoga Falls. June 17, 1834, he was again married to Miss Fanny New- berry, sister of the first Mrs. Sill, who died February 14, 1849, having borne him two daughters-Elizabeth New-

INO

HON. ELISIIA NOYES SILL.

berry, born in 1838, now widow of the- late Edward R. Sill, who with her brother Ethelbert occupies the fine old family homestead, and Mary, born in 1841, who died in 1883. May 1, 1867,. Mr. Sill was again married to Mrs. Laura (Dowd) Cooke, widow of the late Henry Cooke, who died Septem- ber 26, 1873, Mr. Sill himself dying April 26, 1888, aged 87 years, 3 months: and 20 days.

PIONEER TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

Though millions of gallons of whisky have since been made in Cuyahoga Falls, and though still, like similar towns all over the

734

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

country, cursed with the beer and whisky saloon, and its natural sequence, drunkenness and disorder, the community has, as a whole, been a model of sobriety and good order. Indeed, it may safely be affirmed that Cuyahoga Falls is the pioneer town of the Western Reserve, if not of the State, in organized temperance work.

Howe's History of Ohio, published in 1848, claims for Gran- ville, Licking county, the honor of organizing the first temperance society west of the Allegheny mountains, July 15, 1828, and in this work, Copley is credited with organizing a society in October, 1829, which was supposed to be the first in the State. But Stow and Cuyahoga Falls claim, with positive assurance, that they are entitled to the priority. A letter written, several years since, by Dr. Orlando Wilcox, late of Hinckley, a resident of Cuyahoga Falls front 1827 to 1831 (father of Orlando Wilcox, Esq., now a practicing attorney at Cuyahoga Falls), states that in the Fall of 1827, the temperance question was discussed by the Medical Association of Portage county, of which himself and Drs. Joseph Cole, of Akron, Amos and Philo Wright, of Tallmadge, Titus Chapman, of Middle- bury, and Israel Town, of Hudson, were members; that on return- ing he presented the matter to Mr. Henry Wetmore, then in charge of Stow & Wetmores' store, at Cuyahoga Falls, in which liquors were kept for sale; that at Mr. Wetmore's request he drew up a constitution, to which seven names were then and there attached, as follows: . Henry Butler, Washington L. Butler, John J. Gaylord, Henry Wetmore, Ogden Wetmore, Rev. David Bacon and Dr. Orlando Wilcox; that in the latter part of December, 1827, Rev. George Sheldon, of Franklin Mills (Kent), delivered a lecture on temperance, at which Judge Stow was present, that gentleman proposing that if a majority of the people of the township (Stow) would join the society, he would deed to the township any 160 acres of land a committee, appointed for that purpose, inight select, the proceeds to be devoted to the purchase of a pall and bier, and for educational purposes. The requisite number of signatures to the constitution (65) was obtained, and the lot duly selected, but, for reasons not now explainable, the conveyance was never consummated by Judge Stow, though it has been known as the "Temperance Lot" to this day. The next Fourth of July (1828) there was a temperance celebration at the Falls, with Mr. Ogden Wetmore as the orator of the day.

A WHISKY STRIKE .- Apropos of this temperance movement, Mr. Henry Wetmore relates that at the time of its inauguration, Stow & Wetmores were employing some thirty mechanics and laborers, on their varied improvements upon the river, to whom rations of grog were regularly dealt out at stated hours of the day, amounting to nearly a barrel a week. On the announcement that no further rations of whisky would be supplied, the entire force went on a strike; but within a few days fully one-third resumed work, and gradually others came back, or their places were filled with new men, and with considerable improvement in the quality and quantity of labor performed.

The first large building to be raised in Cuyahoga Falls, with- out the help of grog, was the paper mills of Stow & Wetmores, in 1829, in the absence of sufficient local help, a number of recruits coming over from Tallmadge to help elevate the heavy timbers and the cause of temperance at the same time.

735

TOWN AND TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.

Yet, notwithstanding the entire absence of whisky, in the rais- ing of this building, Mr. William Alley received a fatal injury from the falling of a heavy stick of timber, from the effects of which he died within a very few days.

Dr. Orlando Wilcox, who was a native of Berlin, Conn., and a distant relative of Mr. Isaac Wilcox, one of the earliest settlers in Stow, after a residence of 54 years in Hinckley, returned to Cuya- hoga Falls, the scene of his early temperance labors, in 1885, where he died April 3, 1886, at the ripe old age of 84 years.

MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION .- The town of Cuyahoga Falls was incorporated, by an act of the Legislature, on the 5th day of March, 1836, the people of the village, prior to that date, being under the legal jurisdiction of their respective original townships, Tallmadge and Stow. The boundaries of the corporation were fixed by the charter as follows: "Beginning at the northwest corner of the township of Tallmadge and running south, on the line of said township 240 rods; thence east 240 rods; thence north to the north line of lots one and two in said township of Stow; thence west 240 rods; thence to the place of beginning, and any addition that may hereafter be platted and recorded."

It will thus be seen that about an equal amount of territory was taken from the two townships named, with power to add thereto indefinitely, without resort to any further Legislative action. The act of incorporation fixed the first Tuesday of the ensuing April, as the day for electing municipal officers, but for reasons not now apparent, due notice of the passage of the act, was not received until that day had passed, and to avoid the possi- bility of illegality, the organization was postponed to await the further action of the General Assembly.

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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