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 98

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 98

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The May term of court being then in session, with Judge Stephenson Burke upon the bench, and Edwin P. Green, Esq., acting as prosecuting attorney during the absence of the regular prosecutor, N. D. Tibbals, in the 100 day service in defense of Washington, the grand jury returned a bill of indictment charging the defendant with murder in the second degree.

Nathaniel W. Goodhue, Esq., and Samuel W. McClure appeared for the defendant, who entered a plea of not guilty, as charged in the indictment, but on the advice of his counsel, ten- dered a plea of guilty of manslaughter, which plea was duly accepted by Prosecutor Green. Thereupon Judge Burke, after hearing evidence from several of the large array of witnesses that had been summoned to testify to the previous good character of the defendant, sentenced him to two years' imprisonment in the penitentiary of the State, and to pay the costs that had accrued in the case, amounting. to $140.69.

Young Oster was but 17 years of age, as appears by the prison records, at the time of his incarceration, by Sheriff Chisnell, on the 15th day of June, 1864. He proved obedient and faithful in his

793

FRANKLIN'S CIVIL SERVICE RECORD.

service to the State, securing a discount from his two years' term of three months and eight days for good behavior, being released from confinement on the 7th day of March, 1866, thenceforth, as the writer learns, comporting himself in all respects as a peaceable and upright citizen.

HONORABLE CIVIL RECORD.

.In the civil annals of Summit county, Franklin holds a highly honorable position, as the following roster will demonstrate:

DR. HUGH R. CALDWELL, a successful physician, and enterpris- ing business man of Franklin township, residing about one mile north of Clinton, was appointed, by the Legislature, one of the first associate judges of the Court of Common Pleas, on the organ- ization of Summit county, in 1840, serving for the full term of seven years, with great ability and good judgment, though unfor- tunately, at times, considerably addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors.

HON. JOHN HOY, a resident of Manchester, was elected one of the first commissioners of the new county, in April, 1840, re-elected for the fractional term of two years in October of the same year, and again elected in October, 1842, for the full term of three years, giving to the position five years and seven months continuous and faithful service, and on the expiration of Judge Caldwell's term, in 1847, was appointed to the exalted position of associate judge, which he filled with credit to himself and his constituents until the taking effect of the new Constitution of the State in 1852. [A fine portrait, with brief biographical sketch, of Judge Hoy, will be found on page 98 of this volume.]

HOUSTON SISLER, EsQ., of Manchester, was elected to the highly responsible position of county treasurer, in October, 1854, and re-elected in 1856, filling the office to the general satisfaction for the constitutional period of four years.

HARVEY MARANVILLE, EsQ., a resident of Clinton from 1833 until his removal to Akron, in 1861, served for five consecutive terms as justice of the peace of Franklin township, and in 1862 was appointed, by the treasury department, government inspector of liquors and oils for the 18th Congressional District, and after- wards commissioned as general gauger of the district; serving in that capacity until the winding up of that branch of the revenue service, here, in all about 15 years; by his skill and diligence sav- ing to the treasury many thousands of dollars, that a less scrupu- lous officer would have permitted to stick to the fingers of the gentlemanly operators whose products he had to pass upon.

CHARLES RINEHART, EsQ., of Clinton, was elected clerk of courts for Summit county, on the union ticket, 1863, and re-elected, on the Republican ticket, in 1866, filling the office six years, very acceptably indeed.

DR. WILLIAM SISLER, of Manchester, was elected as represen- tative to the State Legislature in 1867, serving through the sessions of 1867, '68 and 1868, '69; Dr. Sisler also filling the important office of county commissioner for two consecutive terms, from 1875 to 1881, and also was one of the trustees of the Children's Home for two years.

794

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

HON. JACOB A. KOHLER, a native of Franklin township, but a resident of Akron since 1853, was elected prosecuting attor- ney in 1868 and re-elected in 1870, ably discharging the duties of that office for two consecutive terms; served as representative to the State Legislature in the sessions of 1883, '84 and 1884, '85, two years, and as attorney general of the State of Ohio from January, 1886, to January, 1888.

LIEUTENANT LEVI J. McMURRAY, residing near Clinton, was elected sheriff in October, 1872, and re-elected in 1874, holding the office the constitutional term of four years, though from failing health unable to give his personal attention to official business the last year or more of his incumbency.

DR. WILLIAM SISLER,-born in Lycoming county, Pennsylva- nia, September 12, 1819; came to Man- chester in 1840, teaching and farming three years; in 1843 began the study of medicine, commencing to practice in Manchester in 1846 and continuing, in partnership with his brother, until 1873. During the War, at the call of Governor Tod, served in hospitals, after the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. In Fall of 1867 was elected representative to the State Legislature, serving two years; on removing to Akron, in 1873, in con nection with Mr. John F. Hoy, opened a drug store, continuing until 1879; in October, 1875, was elected county commissioner and re-elected in 1878, serving six years; in 1887 was ap- pointed trustee of Children's Home, serving two years. July 23, 1846, Dr. Sisler was married to Miss Lorohama R. Hoy, daughter of Hon. John Hoy, of Manchester, one of the first com- missioners of Summit county, and associate judge from 1845 to 1852. Of the six children born to Dr. and Mrs. Sisler, three only are now living-

DR. WILLIAM SISLER.

Mary A., now Mrs. W. H. Diehl; Emma I., now Mrs. George J. Nieberg, and Henry B., now a successful far- mer of Northampton township.

LIEUTENANT AARON WAGONER, born and reared upon his father's farm, in Franklin township, took up his residence in Akron, at the close of the war, whence he was elected county auditor, in October, 1880, and re-elected in 1883, intelligently, faithfully and courteously discharging the intricate duties of that office until his resignation thereof on the 1st day of April, 1887, to accept the cashiership of the City National Bank, of Akron, and is now (1891) cashier and one of the proprietors of the Akron Savings Bank, established in 1888. .

DAVID C. MILLER, residing near Manchester, was elected county commissioner in October, 1881, and re-elected in 1884, assiduously performing the laborious, and often perplexing, duties of the office until his death, which occurred on the 8th day of November, 1886.

FRANKLIN'S POPULATION.

Unlike most of the out-lying townships of Summit county, notwithstanding the decadence in business of its villages, through

795

FRANKLIN'S PRESENT OFFICIAL ROSTER.

the advent of railroads, and the concentration of business in the larger towns and cities, Franklin has, from the beginning, grad- ually gained in population-the census of 1840 placing the num- ber of inhabitants at 1,436, and that of 1890 at 1,957-showing a gain of 521 in the intervening fifty years.

PRESENT OFFICIAL ROSTER .- Trustees, Jeremiah Dice, Hiram Stump, Philip Serfass; clerk, Harry Miller; treasurer, Levi M. Kauffman; justices of the peace, Cyrus Warley, Andrew Donnen- wirth; constables, A. Roudebush, Ephraim Stump; postmasters, John Sisler, Nimisilla; Frank Maranville, Clinton.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

GREEN TOWNSHIP-WHEN AND BY WHOM SETTLED-A FALSE PREDICTION- INDIAN TRADITIONS-ORGANIZATION, EARLY OFFICERS, ETC .- TOPOGRA- PHY, RESOURCES, BUSINESS CENTERS, ETC .- LONG AND HONORABLE MER- CANTILE CAREER-GREENSBURG'S GREAT BOOM-EDUCATIONAL MATTERS, GROSS SLANDER REFUTED, ETC .- ELECTORAL AND POLITICAL STATUS- CRIMINAL AFFAIRS-HORRIBLE DEATH OF MICHAEL MYERS-THE STRIPE- COOPER HOMICIDE-THE SEMLER-KEPLER TRAGEDY-FINE MILITARY REC- ORD-GREEN IN PUBLIC AND OFFICIAL LIFE, ETC.

GREEN TOWNSHIP.

L IKE its neighbor upon the west, Green was a portion of what was originally designated as "Congress Lands," so called from the fact that they were surveyed and sold by government agents, instead of having been transferred in bulk to private companies, as were the lands north of the 41st parallel-the far-famed West- ern Reserve-to the Connecticut Land Company, Green being known upon the county records as township 12, range 9.

A FALSE PREDICTION .- In the discussion preliminary to the erection of Summit county, it was held that the people of the two townships to be taken from Stark county, being largely Pennsyl- vania Germans, could never be brought to fraternize with the " blue-bellied" Yankees, by whom the Reserve townships had mainly been settled, Senator Hostetter, from the Stark district, declaring, in a speech against the bill in the Legislature, that " you might as well undertake to make a Dutch plow-horse and a broad- horned Yankee ox work evenly in the harness, as to expect the inhabitants of the two sections to harmonize and pull evenly together in county affairs."

In fact, the majority of the people, of both Green and Frank- lin, were undoubtedly averse to the change, though the most of them would be considerably nearer the county-seat under the new than under the old arrangement. Many and curious were the rea- sons against the change, one of the most potent being that of the old lady who is alleged to have said that she did not want to live where it was so unhealthy as the Reserve was represented to be.

But, notwithstanding the opposition, the change took place, and since April, 1840, Green and Franklin townships have been contented members of the proud and prosperous county of Sum- mit, sharing both its honors and its responsibilities, except that in the enabling act there was a proviso that those two townships should be exempt from taxation for public buildings for the period of fifty years, which restriction ceased March 3, 1890.

EARLY SETTLEMENT .- There is considerable diversity in the traditions of the township, and the recollections of the older por- tion of the inhabitants, as to who was, in reality, the first white settler in the township. John Kepler, from Center county, Pa., is, however, conceded to have been the first purchaser of government land in the township, section 17, upon which he settled in the Fall -

797

INDIAN EXPERIENCES, ETC.

of 1809, though the Dixons, the Triplets, Basil Viers, John Cruzen, David Hartman, and perhaps others, with their families, had undoubtedly temporarily located, as squatters, upon section 16, earlier the same year, or perhaps even sooner than that, it being claimed by some, that John Cruzen came as early as 1807.

But it is not the province of this work to undertake to fully trace the pioneer history of the township, with biographical sketches of its early inhabitants, as that has already been quite extensively treated of by previous writers. It is, therefore, suf- ficient, for the purposes of this work, to say, that the majority of the early settlers, as well as those who came later, were sterling men and women, who heroically endured the hardships and priva- tions of pioneer life, and honestly earned, by faithful toil, frugality and sobriety, the solid prosperity and comforts which they and their descendants now enjoy.

A BRAHAM W. JOHNSTON,-born in Center county, Pennsylvania, October 25, 1810; moved with parents to Green township in 1814; educa- tional advantages limited, but, by close personal application, became a thoroughly well informed country gentleman ; in early life learned trade of weaver, at which he worked in Greentown nine years; then pur- chased the old family homestead, one mile east of Greensburg, where he resided till his death, August 25, 1877, at the age of 66 years, 10 months and 2 days. Mr. Johnston was married May 25, 1835, to Miss Catharine Moore. born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, February 27, 1814, who still survives. They were the parents of five children-Washington G., born February 18, 1836, now county com- missioner ; Cornelius, born March 4, 1839, died in early childhood; Mary E., born January 9, 1842, married Jan- uary 4, 1866, to S. H. Hunsberger, now of Ottawa, Illinois; Maggie J., born April 4, 1849, now living with her mother ; Isabella, born June 16, 1852, married October 28, 1878, to Corbin Dillman, now of Joliet, Illinois, the three daughters being educated at

ABRAHAM W. JOHNSTON.

Greensburg Seminary, and the son at Oberlin and Mount Union Col- leges. Though a thorough Republi- can, Mr. Johnston filled many posi- tions of trust and honor by the votes of his Democratic neighbors.

INDIAN EXPERIENCES .- Although the Indian title to the lands embraced in Green township had been extinguished nearly a quar- ter of a century before, (1785), quite a number of the red-skinned sons of the forest still lingered when the whites first came; but they entirely disappeared on the breaking out of the War of 1812. But as brief as their stay among their pale-faced successors was, there are many traditions still extant of deadly encounters between the two races, the alleged exploits of Liverton Dixon, a son of Thomas Dixon, among Green's earliest settlers, being still listened to by open-mouthed and wonder-eyed Young America, around the family base-burner, with thrilling interest and solemn awe.

TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION .- Green, like Franklin on the west, is six miles square, its other neighbors being Coventry and Springfield,

798

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

on the north; Lake, Stark county, on the east and Jackson, also in Stark, on the south. It was originally organized in con- nection with Lake and Jackson, and that portion of Franklin lying east of the Tuscarawas river, July 6, 1811, with Peter Dicker- hoof, of Lake, Christian Balmer, of Jackson, and John Yerrick, of Green, as trustees; Samuel Spitler, of Lake, as clerk; George Knoddle, as treasurer; William Ball, as assessor; and Simon Harsh and John Kepler, as constables. At the October election, the same year, sixteen votes were polled, while at the presidential election, a year later (1812), nine ballots only were cast. The first justice for the territory named, was Peter Dickerhoof, elected in 1811; the second being John Wise, elected in 1812.

A distinct organization for Green was effected April 7, 1815, with a poll of seventeen votes. Joshua Richards, William Ball and George McCormick were chosen trustees; Robert Lawson, clerk; Daniel Wise, treasurer; David Hartman and Thomas Parker, constables. From this time on settlement was steady, so that upon the erection and organization of Summit county, in 1840, the township had a population of 1,536, with a gradual increase to the present time, the census of 1880 placing the number of inhabitants at 1,827, and that of 1890 at 1,911. Twenty per cent. gain in fifty years may seem like a very small ratio of increase, but when it is remembered that several of the strictly rural towns of the county, as well as other portions of the State, have actually fallen off in population, during that period, the showing for Green is very cred- itable indeed.

TOPOGRAPHY, RESOURCES, ETC .- Though somewhat rolling, and in portions quite broken, Green township is one of the most pro- ductive and thrifty agricultural townships of Summit county, its great specialty being wheat, though equally well adapted to every other variety of cereals and field products, fruits, etc. In the northwest corner of the township lies a portion of Turkey Foot Lake, and a small section of the Tuscarawas reservoir, with three or four other small bodies of water, and numerous creeks and runs in various localities, by which the township is quite liberally watered for agricultural purposes, besides affording a number of sites for grist and saw-mills, and other mechanical enterprises which have from to time existed in the township-the Tritt flour- ing mill, in the southwestern portion, having been a well-known landmark, since its erection in 1827, to the present time, though several times remodeled during that period.

In the matter of travel and transportation, being altogether inland, Green has had to depend upon its well-fed and well-trained farm horses, until the completion of the Valley Railway along its eastern border, in 1880, which with Greentown Station in the south- east, and Myersville Station in the northeast, is proving a very great convenience to the people, both as a means of travel and for the shipment of their produce and manufactures; the extensive elevator of the American Cereal Company, at the former station, being especially convenient to contiguous farmers in marketing their wheat and other cereals. Unlike most of the Reserve townships of Summit county, Green has no village at its exact geographical center. A mile and a half to the southeast, however, is the village of Greensburg, laid out in 1828 by David Bair, upon the lands of Abraham Wilhelm. Previous to the laying

799

A GOOD MERCANTILE RECORD.

out of the village, Wilhelm kept a tavern, a short distance to the southward, which was the "Stage House," or stopping place for the old-fashioned four-horse stage-coach, which in that early day used to make tri-weekly trips between Middlebury and Massillon. A natural concomitant.of the early tavern-a distillery-was also run for several years by one of the Wilhelms, and after its disman- tlement, as a fabricator of " blue ruin," was converted into a chair and bedstead factory by a man named Moulton.

The growth of the village was slow, containing only about a dozen frame houses as late as 1845. The first store was established in the early thirties by John Shick, on the southwest corner of the principal street of the new village, the same gentleman also about the same time, erecting a hotel upon the northeast corner, on the same site of the hotel now (1891) owned by Mrs. Lydia Thornton, and kept by Levi Mix, both the original building and its immediate successor having been destroyed by fire.

WASHINGTON G. JOHNSTON,- son of Abraham W. and Catharine (Moore) Johnston, was born in Green township, February 18, 1836 ; educated at Greensburg Academy and Ober- lin and Mount Union Colleges ; at 20 entered store of his uncle, Cornelius Johnston, in Akron, clerking two years; then, in connection with his cousin, Cornelius A. Johnston, opened Johnston's shaft coal mine, in Franklin township, working same for four or five years, also, during that time manufacturing oil in Akron about a year and a half; then re- moved to Rochester, New York, and for some four years engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes ; then returned to Summit county, after the death of his father pur- chased the homestead, 153 acres, which he has since successfully farmed. October 1, 1863, Mr. John- ston was married to Miss Anna Irvin, adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Irvin, of Akron. They have five children - James Irvin, born August 13, 1864; Katharine, born March 19, 1870; Grace May, born June 29, 1871 ; Martha Irvin, born June 6, 1874, and George Abraham, born Jan-

WASHINGTON G. JOHNSTON.

uary 26, 1882. October, 1888, Mr. John- ston was elected county commis- sioner, which responsible position, as president of the board, he is now ably filling.

A LONG AND PROSPEROUS CAREER .- After one or two changes of proprietors, the store above alluded to, in 1838, passed into the hands of Mr. John Berger, who, at the age of fourteen years, emigrated with his father's family from Lancaster county, Pa., to Ohio, in 1822, having meantime served a four years' apprenticeship at the mercantile business with Hart & McMillen, in Middlebury. For over half a century the Berger store has been the leading, and most of the time, the only store in the village, always doing a conservative but reasonably profitable business. Some twenty years ago Mr. Berger retired, transferring the business to his son, Captain D. F. Berger, who in turn, having removed to Akron, has turned the business over to his son, Sheridan G. Berger.

800

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

Postal facilities were first accorded to Greensburg, under the official name of Inland, in 1838, Mr. John Berger being then appointed postmaster by President Van Buren; the present incum- bent (1891) being Sheridan G. Berger, grandson of the former; the old gentleman, at 81 years of age, dying at the residence of his son in Akron, May 30, 1889; the present incumbent being one of the youngest appointees in the service-a few days past 21, only, on receiving his commission.

GREENSBURG'S GREAT BOOM .- About the year 1854, the citizens of Greensburg and vicinity organized a stock company with a capi- tal stock of about $2,000, in shares of $50, for the purpose of erecting a suitable building and establishing a seminary in the village. About this time the Evangelical Association were looking about with the view of establishing an educational insti- tution in the interests of that denomination, similar to that of the Methodists at Mount Union. As an inducement to the location of the proposed school in Greensburg, the stock was transferred to the association, some as a donation and other shares at fifty cents on the dollar. Under this arrangement the institution was organized, under competent teachers, and for many years enjoyed a remark- able degree of prosperity, having, at one time, about 130 students- in attendance. This created a demand for boarding houses, and necessitated an increase of other branches of business, under the stimulus of which the population, and private and public build- ings of the village rapidly increased. But for reasons which can- not now be well defined, differences and difficulties arose, by which the property passed into, the sole ownership of Bishop Joseph Long and the school was closed. About 1869, the citizens again organized, purchased the property from Bishop Long, refitted the building, this time placed it under auspices of the Disciples, by whom it was quite successfully managed for some three or four years. It was then placed, rent free, under the con- trol of Professor J. R. Davis, who, for two or three years, kept a most excellent private academy therein, but, by reason of the multiplication of similar and larger educational institutions in the vicinity, the enterprise did not prove remunerative, and was given up. Complications among the stockholders forced the property to legal sale, and being bought by private parties, the building was taken down, and the grounds devoted to other pur- poses. But notwithstanding its decadence, in this regard, and notwithstanding the concentration of almost every kind of mer- cantile and mechanical business in the larger towns and railroad centers of the country, Greensburg fairly holds its own as the local business point for quite a large section of the rich farming country by which it is surrounded.

OTHER VILLAGE ENTERPRISES .- East Liberty, four miles north- westly from Greensburg, was laid out by John Castetter, in 1839. This village has usually maintained a store, tavern, postoffice (called Summit), and sundry mechanical establishments, but not possess- ing any special elements of enterprise, and being so near the city of Akron, can hardly expect to attain to anything more than the pleasant hamlet that it now is. Myersville, three miles east of East Liberty, is an outgrowth of the location of the Valley Rail- way through that portion of the township. It was laid out on the lands of John B. Myers, about 1880, and as a railroad station is of

INDUSTRIAL, EDUCATIONAL, ETC.

801

very great convenience to the people of the vicinity. The village maintains a store and postoffice, with quite a number of private residences, and may be regarded as a permanent adjunct to the business interests of Green township.

D ARIUS F. BERGER, - born in Middlebury, March 5, 1835 ; edu- cated in district schools, and Marl- boro and Greensburg Seminaries ; raised to mercantile life in store of his father, Mr. John Berger, in Greensburg, in 1863, with his brother, Clinton F., succeeding to the busi- ness, the latter retiring in 1868; was married November 25, 1858, to Miss Arnestena C. Henkle, of Ashland county, who has borne hin six chil- dren -Sheridan G., Arthur F., Homer E., Lottie C., Arlin E., and John H. During the War he was a member of the Ohio National Guards, and com- manded company H., 164th regiment, in its 100 days' service before Wash- ington, as elsewhere stated. In 1884, Captain Berger moved to Akron and engaged in the sale of engines and threshing machinery, in 1887 trans- ferring his Greensburg business to his sons Sheridan G., and Homer E., the former also assuming the duties of postmaster, which position had been successively held by his grand- father and father for nearly half a century, and probably the youngest officer in the service, being barely of age when appointed. Captain Berger

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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