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 97

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 97

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).

FRANKLIN'S RESOURCES .- In an early day, the marshes adjacent to Turkey Foot Lake, and the several water courses of the town- ship, bore immense quantities of cranberries, which, being gathered by the inhabitants, in the proper season, were, through local mer- chants, shipped overland to Pittsburg, Philadelphia, New York, etc., thus providing many a luxury to the pioneer settlers of the neighborhood. But that industry no longer exists in Summit county, not even to the extent of supplying the home market. There are, also, in different portions of the township, quite exten- sive beds of a pretty fair quality of peat, which, by reason of the plentifulness of coal, cannot be now profitably worked; the quite ·large deposits of bog iron-ore, formerly worked to a lim- ited extent in the early blast-furnace days of Middlebury and Akron, being entirely overshadowed by the iron mines of Lake Superior and the great West.

A VILLAGE THAT WAS, BUT IS NOT .- When first ceded to the United States, one Richard Carter, a well-to-do and enterprising Quaker, of Wheeling, purchased a tract of land at the junction of the Tuscarawas and Chippewa rivers, in the southwestern corner of the township, employing John Harris, Esq., and David McClure, of Canton, to survey and lay out a village at that point, the work being completed in the latter part of 1806, and in honor of its proprietor, the prospective village was named "Cartersville." Though perhaps some slight advance towards settlement was made, its liability to inundation by every considerable rise of water in the streams named, led to an early abandonment of the project, and the carefully platted lands of Cartersville were rele- gated to the use of the pioneer hunter and husbandman.

A STILL MORE UNFORTUNATE VENTURE .- About 1816, one David Harvey laid out a town on the banks of the Chippewa, a short distance northwesterly from the site of the abandoned village of Cartersville, above referred to. Harvey named his village " Savan- nah," and for a few years it had quite a boom, attaining to a popu- lation of some 60 or 70 souls, with mechanics, merchants, doctors, etc., Clinton being laid out about the same time by William Har- vey, a son of David. In locating the Ohio canal, however, Savan- nah was "left out in the cold," while that great commercial water- way passed directly through Clinton. This gave such an impetus to the latter village, with a corresponding depression to the former, that by the time the canal was completed, in 1827, Savannah had largely inerged itself in its more favored rival, and there is now neither stick nor stone to mark the spot where Savannah once stood.

FRANKLIN'S BUSINESS EMPORIUM .- The opening of navigation upon the canal, in 1827, as before intimated, very greatly stimu- lated the growth and business importance of Clinton. A number of

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stores were opened and stocked with goods suited to the times, hotels were established, mechanics' shops erected, schools and churches organized, with preachers, doctors, lawyers, speculators and all the paraphernalia of a prosperous and enterprising village. In fact, Clinton almost immediately became the market town for a large area of country, including not only contiguous towns east and west, in Stark and Wayne counties, but extended into Medina and. Richland counties. Three or four large warehouses, capable of storing nearly 100,000 bushels each of grain, were erected, and scores of teams laden with wheat, corn, wool and other farm products, were daily seen upon her streets, while large numbers of canal boats were almost constantly loading at her docks. Large quantities of coal from the Chippewa, and other mines of the vicinage, were yearly shipped from this point, the operatives in which added very materially to the business importance, though not always to the peace and order of the village.

THREE VILLAGES IN ONE .- The original village of Clinton was laid out upon the west side of the river, by William Harvey, about 1816, as already stated, additions to which were soon afterwards made by Samuel Rossitter, William Christmas and James W. Lathrop. The opening of the canal, in 1827, however, necessitated the building of warehouses upon that thoroughfare, and the concentration of business upon the east side of the river. Hence, about 1835, Gorham Chapin laid out a village on the southwest corner of section 29, the plat of which, under the name of "Oradeen," was duly recorded in Stark County, while, in 1837, William and Francis Pumroy laid out the village of "Pumroy" on the north- west corner of section 35, immediately south of, and adjoining Ora- deen, both of which adjoined Clinton on the east.

Many lots in both of the new villages were sold and deeded, under the names designated, and though the three villages have long been known to the public by the general naine of Clinton, the names of Oradeen and Pumroy are still carried upon the records and tax duplicates of Summit county.

PAST AND PRESENT STATUS .- In the early days, in addition to its importance, as a grain and produce center, Clinton was, for many years, a veritable mercantile port of delivery, merchants for many miles, both east and west, consigning their eastern pur- chases of goods to the commission houses at this point. But from about 1845, owing to the growing importance of other business cen- ters-Akron, Massillon, Canal Fulton, etc .- Clinton remained about stationary for several years, and finally, with the advent of railroad communication with near-by localities, in the early fifties, rapidly lost its prestige as a grain and produce shipping point, and though for a number of years holding its coal-shipping and mining trade, it has since been gradually declining in business importance, though still fully holding its own in point of population, and still enjoying the local every-day trade from quite a section of rich farming territory on either side, besides such business as the old canal and contiguous railroads naturally bring to it.

THE VILLAGE OF MANCHESTER .- About the year of 1815-a year or more before Clinton was platted-Mahlon and Adam C. Stewart laid out a village about three miles northeasterly from the village of Clinton, which they named Manchester, though when sufficiently advanced to be accorded postal facilities, there being another

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FRANKLIN'S PIONEER SETTLERS.

Manchester somewhere in the State, the postoffice was named Nimi- silla, probably from the river or creek of that name, a short dis- tance south of the village. Mr. Adam Clarke Stewart was the the father of Mrs. George W. Manly, of Canton, and Mrs. Henry E. Canfield and Mr. Orlando Stewart, of Akron, Mr. Stewart's first wife being the first person buried in the Manchester grave yard, which was located on the farm of the two brothers.

A DAM CLARKE STEWART, - born in Frederick county, Mary- land, November 27, 1794, in early life removing to Ohio, where, in connec- tion with his brother, Mahlon Stewart, he founded the village of Manchester, in Franklin township, as elsewhere stated, in 1815. Having buried his wife in Manchester, as stated, in 1819 or 1820, removed to Richmond, Jeffer- son county, Ohio, where, in 1824, he was married to Miss Sarah Beebout, who bore him eight children, five of whom are still living-Hudson Stew- art, now residing in Richmond; Orlando Stewart, of Akron; Mrs. George W. Manly, formerly of Akron, now of Canton ; Mrs. J. R. Hague, of Columbus, and Mrs. Henry E. Can- field, of Akron. Mr. Stewart was a cabinet maker by trade, which busi- ness, together with that of under- taking, he carried on in Richmond for about forty years, also officiating as justice of the peace during the last twenty-five or thirty years of his

ADAM CLARKE STEWART.

life, his death occurring December 25, 1870, at the age of 76 years and 28 days.

Manchester, being an inland town, with no transportation facilities other than the old-time six-horse Pennsylvania wagon, has never been blessed or cursed with "booms," but has kept on the even tenor of its way, except as affected by the general busi- ness vicissitudes of the world, during the three-quarters of a cen- tury of its existence. With its two or three stores, its single hotel, its full complement of mechanics, its skillful physicians, its faith- ful preachers and teachers, Manchester has proved an indispensa- ble adjunct to the prosperity of the staid and thrifty farming community by which it is surrounded.

Though Manchester and Clinton are each some distance from the geographical center of the township, the elections, both general and local, have, until very recently, alternated between the two villages. Now, however, the township is divided into two sepa- rate election precincts, with voting places at Manchester and Clin- ton respectively, being much more convenient, generally, than the former arrangement, though still extremely unhandy for the voters in the northernmost sections of the township.

The first person to have really settled within the limits of the township, is supposed to have been Christopher Johnson, who located upon lot 14, in the eastern part of the township, in the Spring of 1814. It is not known where Johnson came from, but from the fact that he was designated by other early settlers as "Yankee Johnson," it is probable that he was of New England origin. The same Spring, and but a few days later, came Thomas Johnson,

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

from Westmoreland county, Pa., who settled on lot 27, near Man- chester, and about the same time William Halliwell, from Steuben- ville, who settled on lot 28, near Clinton. Johnson, a few years later, removed to Norton, where he built a tavern, store and sev- eral mills, and founded the village of Johnson's Corners. Mr. Halliwell, in 1833, removed to the southwestern portion of Rich- field, where he lived for many years, a highly respectable and pros- perous farmer. Jacob Burgner, from east of the Alleghanies, settled in Jackson township in 1812, and in April, 1814, removed to. Franklin township; and is believed, by his descendants, to have been the first actual settler in the township. Other settlers soon afterwards began to flock in, among them Mr. Jacob Hollinger, Jacob Sours, Jacob Balmer, George Rex, Michael Bradenburg, John Snyder, John Hicks and others not now remembered, followed rap- idly by the Vanderhoofs, Himelrights, Marshes, Davises, Swais- goods, Ludwicks, Clays, Spidels, Waltenbergers, McMurrays, Wholfs, Rightleys, Scotts, Wises, Browns, Chapins, Hooks, Groves, Rossitters, Greenloes, Stumps, Wagoners, Teeples, Blilers, Hoys,. Wirts, Hamms, Bears, Rowes, Troups, Sorricks, Wiltrouts, Stew- arts, Harveys, Flickingers, and others whose names are not now recalled.

BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, DEATHS, ETC .-- The first birth in the town- ship was John Johnson, son of Christopher Johnson, in 1814; the first marriage was that of John Hicks to Catherine Flickinger, in 1815; the first death being that of Mrs. Jacob Balmer, in the Sum- mer of 1815, from the bite of a rattlesnake.

ORGANIZATION OF TOWNSHIP .- So rapid was the settlement of the township, that in 1817, a school was established at Manchester, with Joseph Mishler, from Lancaster, Pa., as teacher, Mr. Mish- ler afterwards settling in Springfield. In April, of the same year (1817), by proclamation of the commissioners of Stark county, a township organization was effected, the first board of trustees. elected being Mahlon Stewart, Jacob Hollinger and Michael Bra- denburg, with David Harvey and Jacob Balmer as justices of the peace. The first store in the township was kept by Jacob Balmer. in Manchester; the first tavernkeeper being a Pennsylvanian by the name of John Schneider, while the first local dispenser of " pills and potions" in the township was Dr. Levi Brooks, after- wards, for many years, a resident of Oberlin, Lorain county.

FRANKLIN'S INDUSTRIES .- In the early days there were a num- ber of saw-mills and grist-mills in various portions of the town- ship, which cannot be well mentioned here, though all most use- fully served their "day and generation," in bringing old Franklin forward to her present highly prosperous status among her sister townships of Summit county; the most important among them, probably, being the grist-mill of George Rex, at the outlet of Turkey Foot Lake, erected about the year 1817, the power of which was. destroyed by the construction of the reservoirs in 1840. Nearly thirty-five years ago, Harvey Maranville, Esq., with the promise of pecuniary assistance from others, erected a four-story building, in the Oradeen portion of Clinton, for milling purposes, but failing to receive the promised aid, the property was transferred to the late- Alexander M. Russell, by whom it, was used as a store and ware- house, until the death of that gentleman in 1875. A few years ago it was purchased by a company, composed principally of Akron

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FRANKLIN'S MILITARY PROWESS.

capitalists, under the corporate name of the Franklin Milling Com- pany, and fitted it up with first-class machinery for the manufac- ture of flour, and is still devoted to that use, Messrs. C.F. Broseke & Son succeeding to the business in December, 1887. Among the pioneer "industries " of the township were several distilleries, for the transmutation of corn and other cereals into whisky; but as the fact began to dawn upon the minds of the people that the prod- uct of those establishments was a prolific source of poverty and disorder, the business began to wane, and long years ago became totally extinct. Would it were so throughout the entire world!

From quite an early day the mining of coal has been quite extensive in several portions of the township, but at the present time little, if any, more than supplies the local demand is being inined. It is thought, however, by those thoroughly posted upon the subject, that there are still quite extensive veins of coal under- lying the broad wheat fields of the township, that are only await- ing better facilities for transportation, to secure their profitable development.

G EORGE WAGONER, - born in Cumberland county, Pennsyl- vania, November 22, 1790; September 6, 1812, was married to Miss Sallie Rhodes, two weeks later starting with his bride for Ohio, settling in Law- rence township, Stark county. March 12. 1821, Mrs. Wagoner died, having borne him six children, four of whom survived her. June 17, 1821, Mr. Wagoner was again married to Miss Rebecca Souers, soon afterwards re- moving to a farm one and a half miles north of Manchester, in what. is now Summit county. Ten children were the fruit of this last marriage, and on the celebration of their golden anniversary, June 17, 1871, there were living twelve children, fifty-three grandchildren and fifteen great-

grandchildren. Mr. Wagoner was among the most substantial and intelligent citizens of Franklin town- ship, during his long life taking an active interest in public affairs, both local and general, in politics being a stanch Republican, and in every sense an upright christian gentle- man. Mr. Wagoner, after an illness of three days, of heart disease, died April 23, 1873. aged 82 years, 5 months and 1 day. Mrs. Wagoner died March

GEORGE WAGONER.

2, 1886, aged 83 years, 3 months and 15 days. Among their surviving chil- dren are Messrs. John J. and Aaron Wagoner, well-known business men of Akron, Mr. Philip Wagoner, one of the most enterprising farmers of Franklin township, and Henry L. Wagoner, postmaster at Krumroy.

IN THE MILITARY LINE .- Franklin has a very creditable military history. Being originally mainly settled by immigrants from patriotic old Pennsylvania, it is not improbable that quite a num- ber of ex-Revolutionary heroes were among her more aged early inhabitants, and though the War of 1812 had substantially closed before settlement fairly begun, it is known that several partici- pants in that struggle settled here, though their names cannot now be ascertained. In the Mexican War of 1846-1848, Franklin was represented by Matthias Weaver and several others whose names cannot now be given. And in the War of Rebellion, Franklin was

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

equally patriotic with the average of her sister townships of Sum- mit county, as the following roster, compiled through courtesy of Mr. Joseph M. Kleckner, and from the assessors' returns for 1863, '64 and '65 will abundantly show:

FRANKLIN UNION ARMY SOLDIERS .- Jacob J. Adams, Jacob Aue (died in service), Harvey Aue, Samuel Aue (died in service), George W. Burns, Solomon J. Bucher, Joseph Bucher, John Bucher (died in service), O. E. Brownell, Samuel Butler, L. F. Becker, H. G. Becker, John H. Bliler, Abram Baughman (died in service), Lewis Brenner, George Barkheimer, Israel Beck, Franklin Bennett, Wil- liam F. Bechel, O. M. Brown, Thomas G. Boake, William Beard (died in service), Patrick Costello, Samuel Cole, Jefferson Clay, John Cormany, D. S. Copp, Alexander Campbell, Richard Cleary, N. Gilbert Clark, Jeremiah Diehl, William Diehl, Isaac Daily, Amos Dailey, William Demming, John D. Dickerhoof, Henry · Emrich, Joseph Earnsberger, David Endiger, Jacob Fraze, Alpheus Grubb (died in service), Simon Grubb (killed in battle), John Harbaugh, Jacob D. Hollinger, Jr., David Hollinger, George Haneline, Solomon Haneline, Jacob Hoover, John Holler, David Hose, Isaac Hose, Levi D. Hollinger, David Harbaugh, John Hoy, Augustus Hill (died in ser- vice), Robert Hilton, N. M. Hoover (killed in battle), J. J. Hanshaw (killed in battle), John Huglı, James Hayes (died in service), John Henry, Fred Intermele (died at home), Theodore Jones, Andrew Keck, George Kleckner (killed in battle), Stephen Kissinger (died in ser- vice), John S. Killinger, George A. Kellogg (wounded at Town Creek, N. C., February 20, 1865), Simon Keck, Henry Koehler, John Koehler, Doras Lockwood (lost on Sultana), Samuel Ludwick, L. Loutzenhouser, George Leobold, Ephraim Marsh, Christopher C. Marsh, George A. Miller, Henry C. Miller, Samuel Marsh, John Marsh, Frank Maranville, George B. Myers, Adam Musser (died in service), David Marsh, Levi McMurray, Charles Myers, A. R. Marsh, William McCormish, J. H. Oberlin, Jefferson Palmer, William Pierce (died in service), Thaddeus Pierce, Alexander Peling, Isaac Phillips, Willoughby Rinehart, Peter Rinehart, Eli Roudebush, Darius P. Rinehart, William Sorrick, John H. Spigelmyer, Eli Stoudt (died in service), John Stoudt, J. Saeman, John Sullivan, John Smith (killed in battle), William Sense, Peter Shibe, Jere- miah Sullivan, Philip Stadler, Lawrence Shondle, Winfield Shaffer, Henry Strohl, Addison Strong (died in service), Daniel Swaisgood, Benj. Swope, David Smith, David Shanebrook, George Slusser, Samuel Simmons, William Traxler, Joseph Traxler, Aaron Teeple, Isaac Teeple (killed in battle), George Teeple, Samuel Teeters, William Tagg, Samuel P. Wolf, Henry Wolf, Freeman Whittlesey, Robert Wilkins (killed in battle), William Wolf, Joe Weil, William Whittlesey, David Welty, Alfred Wolf, John Wolf, J. F. Whittlesey, Aaron Wagoner, Isaac Wells, Silas Williams, Isaac Winkleman, John Wilson, Samuel Young (killed in battle).

FRANKLIN'S CRIMINAL RECORD.

For a township so largely peopled by staid, sober, industrious and intelligent inhabitants, Franklin has been cursed with a large amount of turbulence and disorder, during the past 40 or 50 years. It is but just to the good people of the township, however, to say that a very large proportion of the disorder indicated has come from the comparatively transient population brought to the vicinity

791

FRANKLIN'S HOMICIDES.

by the canal and mines, and it is safe to say that all of it resulted from the traffic in, and the excessive use of, intoxicating liquors. · Passing by the almost innumerable brutal assaults and bloody affrays, that, in days of yore, so often disgraced Clinton, and sev- eral of the mining settlements of the township, we will here give the particulars of the two following cases, only, both of which resulted fatally:

THE SAUTER-SHEETES TRAGEDY .- On the night of June 26, 1856, occurred, within the bounds of Franklin township, one of those oft recurring fatal tragedies incident to indulgence in intoxicating drinks. The parties involved were Germans, named, respectively, Plauseus Sauter and Oswald Sheetes, living near, and operatives in, the Chippewa coal mines, a short distance west of Clinton. On the day in question there had been a gathering in the village, for the purpose of organizing a military company, preparatory to cele- brating the approaching Fourth of July. Liquors were freely indulged in during the afternoon and evening, and a portion of the party became considerably intoxicated and quarrelsome. Between 10 and 11 o'clock at night, Sheetes, with a companion named Hertz, started for home. Near Chippewa bridge, about a inile from Clinton, Sheetes and Hertz sat down by the side of the road to rest. Sauter soon afterwards coming up, carrying a gun, Sheetes, between whom and Sauter there had previously been some ill-feeling, commenced taunting the latter, calling him a coward, and asking him why he was walking around at that time of night carrying a gun.

Sauter ordering Sheetes to keep off, and intimating that it would be unsafe to approach him, passed on, Sheetes continuing his taunts of cowardice, telling him that he durst not shoot; that he had no heart; that his threats were all in his belly, etc. In the midst of this drunken bravado, Sauter aimlessly fired off his gun, the charge of shot entering the abdomen of Sheetes, from the effects of which he died the day following; the wounded man walking some distance to the nearest farm house, after receiving the fatal wound.

THE HOMICIDE DEFIANT .- Sauter reloaded his gun, shut him- self up in his house, and resisted all attempts to arrest him, until morning, when, the effects of the liquor having passed off, he became entirely submissive; expressed great sorrow for what had taken place; declaring that though he distinctly remembered discharging his gun, he had no recollection of the occurrences of the evening. He was duly examined before Justice David Stump, who committed him to jail, without bail, to answer to the Court of Common Pleas, then in session, on the charge of murder. The May term of the Common Pleas being then in session, and the regular grand jury having been discharged, the court, on the application of Prosecuting Attorney Sidney Edgerton, ordered Sheriff Dudley Seward to summon a special grand jury, who returned a bill of indictment, against Sauter, charging him with murder in the first degree. To this indictment Sauter entered a plea of not guilty. On further investigation, Prosecutor Edgerton; becoming satisfied that the killing of Sheetes was neither premeditated nor intended, accepted the plea tendered by the defendant, upon the advice of his attorneys, Messrs. Goodhue and McClure, of guilty of manslaughter.

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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

SENTENCE, PARDON, ETC .- On this plea Judge Samuel Humph- reyville sentenced the defendant to ten years' imprisonment in the State Penitentiary, whither he was accordingly taken by Sheriff Seward, July 16, 1856, his age then being 31 years. Sauter was pardoned by Governor Chase, October 14, 1859, after a service of three years, two months and twenty-one days, and, so far as the writer is advised, thereafter conducted himself as a peaceable and law-abiding citizen.

THE OSTER-KERNAN HOMICIDE .- Henry Oster was the keeper of a grocery store and saloon, in the village of Clinton, for several years, in the late fifties and early sixties, having among his cus- tomers a somewhat bibulous denizen of the place by the name of Martin Kernan. Mr. Oster having deceased early in 1864, his son, Charles Oster, had the settling up of his affairs, and had several times attempted to collect a small account against Kernan for groceries and whisky, chiefly the latter, but without success. On the 29th day of April, 1864, young Oster, seeing Kernan passing the field where he was working, stepped to the fence and again dunned him for the amount of his indebtedness, and not getting a very satisfactory response, told Kernan that he would give him until the 25th day of May to settle the matter, and if the bill was not paid by that time he would give him a thrashing. To this Kernan replied, in substance, that if he thought he could thrash him, he could try it then, whereupon Oster jumped over the fence and made an attack upon Kernan, knocking him down twice, and severely kicking him several times, from the effects of which he died in about half an hour.

A post-mortem examination disclosed the fact that three of Kernan's ribs were broken, and his spleen badly lacerated, which was undoubtedly the cause of death; though the liver was found to be very greatly enlarged. Sheriff Jacob Chisnell happening to be at Clinton at the time, arrested Oster and brought him to Akron and lodged him in jail. On Friday, May 1, Oster was examined before Lewis M. Janes, Esq., of Akron, and held to bail in the sum of $1,000 to answer to the Court of Common Pleas, on the charge of manslaughter.

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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