History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 11

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912

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HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

herd, of Wellsville, who was one of the prin- cipal owners of the steamer. Capt. Dan Moore and Capt. A. G. Murdock, both of Wellsville, were also financially interested in the boat. Captain Shepherd's widow, who was a daugh- ter of the late Judge J. A. Riddle, still lives in Wellsville. The new "Winchester" was on her return from her first trip to Cincinnati, and had a large list of passengers, besides heavy con- signments of freight. It was near midnight. She had just passed East Liverpool, and was nearing Babb's Island, when she took fire and burned like tinder. The pilot headed in to the West Virginia shore, the bow of the steamer striking the bank (the water was high), while her stern swung out into the swollen stream. Passengers were aroused from their berths, and rushed wildly from their staterooms in their night robes. The fire had made the great- est headway in the forward part of the steamer, and panic-stricken passengers-men, women and children-jumped overboard from decks and gunwales, and were carried by the currents either under the burning boat or down the stream. The steamer burned to the water's edge, and about 20 persons were drowned while the boat's prow was resting where it had been run up on shore.

THE "SCIOTO" DISASTER.

The second of these disasters was the sink- ing of the little excursion steamer "Scioto." which was a more notable event, because of the large number of deaths of Columbiana county people. A large majority of these were from East Liverpool and Wellsville.

The account of this disaster, as given by an eye witness, John H. Burgess, who was still living in 1905, and who was at the time mayor of East Liverpool, will be found interesting. It was published in a late holiday edition of the East Liverpool Review, and is as follows :

"It was at about 8:30 in the evening on July 4, 1882, that the 'Scioto,' carrying more than 400 East Liverpool men, women and chil- dren, was crashed into by the steamer 'John Lomas' at Mingo, resulting in the sinking of the 'Scioto' and the death of about 75 people,

46 of whom were from East Liverpool, Wells- ville and vicinity. Mayor Burgess was a pas- senger on the ill-fated steamer and was the last man to leave her.

"Mr. Burgess remembers almost every feat- ure of the horror, and tells the story :

" 'The "Scioto" left East Liverpool early in the morning for Moundsville, carrying a crowd of excursionists, who spent the afternoon viewing the West Virginia Penitentiary. We left on the return trip long before dark, and the shades of night had only begun to fall when the boats came together. It seems that on that day a new code of signals had been given the pilots on the river, and the man at the wheel on our boat either having forgotten them or never having been instructed, caused the disaster. We were passing Mingo when the "John Lomas" hove in sight. The pilot of the latter boat, taking it for granted that our pilot was ac- quainted with the signals, acted accordingly, and as a result the boats struck. The "Lomas" was scarcely marked, but a huge hole was torn in the bow of the "Scioto," and it was not long until she started to the bottom.

" 'I stood.at the front end of the cabin and for many minutes helped women and children through the ceiling to the hurricane deck. A number of men had lost their senses, and in their eagerness to get away tried to get past the helpless ones, and I was compelled to hold them back at the point of a revolver. All of the. rescued people were taken aboard the "John Lomas" or were picked up by men in skiffs, and then taken to the shore. Every death in connection with this horror, was sad enough, but the drowning of the Captain's boy appealed to me more than any of them. Captain Thomas was a man who loved his family and idolized his boy.

"'After every living soul had been safely landed on the bank, word was sent to Wells- ville and East Liverpool, and in a short time Superintendent Phil. Bruner ordered a train of seven passenger coaches to the scene. Many of the survivors took the train for their respect- ive homes, but there were few of those who had relatives or dear friends among the missing who did not remain and help in the grewsome.

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

search for their bodies. For several days searching parties dragged the river as far down as Moundsville, and eventually every body that was known to be missing was found. The City Council of East Liverpool and also of Wells- ville, instructed me to spare no money in re- covering the bodies. One of the councilmen at that time was Col. J. N. Taylor, and the morning after the disaster he told me to spend whatever money was necessary and he would stand personally liable for it. Thomas H. Silver, of Wellsville, gave me the same in- structions, and both backed me in my every move.' "

The names of the dead as recorded in an issue of the Saturday Review, under the date of July II, 1882, were as follows :

John Tomlinson, aged 28, a potter and na- tive of East Liverpool; died while endeavoring to save others.

Lincoln Wright, 19, son of Wilson Wright, East Liverpool.

Michael Emmerling and wife, 27 years.

Stephen Kent, a native of England.

William Woods, 16, East Liverpool.

GeorgeC. Thompson, 22, St. Clair town- ship. His funeral on the Sunday following the disaster was one of the largest that ever occurred in the county.

Ben. E. Stebbins, 22, son of Dr. E. S. Steb- bins, East Liverpool.

John Grounds, 20, son of Samuel Grounds.

Carrie Beardmore, 26, and Lincoln, 16, children of William Beardmore, East Liver,- pool.

Wilson Paul, 30, East Liverpool.

Thomas Beardmore, 19, and Harry Beard- more, 16, sons of Joseph Beardmore.

John F. Christy, 34, East Liverpool.

Eugene Farmer, 24, son of L. R. Farmer, East Liverpool.

Emma Maria Booth, 16, daughter of Adam Booth, East Liverpool.

David Freed, 28, East Liverpool.

Joseph Rahmann, 14, son of Mrs. J. Bailey, East Liverpool.

Evan P. Burke, 33, son of John Burke, Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

Albert Snow, 20, East Liverpool.

Willie Ewing, 10, son of Court Ewing, Wellsville.

George Pinkerton, 16, son of Engineer Pinkerton, Wellsville.

Denver Shannon, 21, Wellsville.

Stewart Pipes, 13, son of William Pipes, Wellsville.

Sarah Kiddey, 16, daughter of Charles Kiddey,, Wellsville.

David Fogo, 24, son of Wallace Fogo, Wellsville.

Charles Leath, 15, Wellsville.

Charles C. Davidson, 13, son of Kenneth F. Davidson, Wellsville.

Columbus B. Armstrong, 42, Wellsville; met death while saving others, as he had been seen at least twice on shore.

Lou F. Harper, 18, son of D. H. Harper, Wellsville.

Augustus Redman, 15, son of John Red- man, Wellsville ..

Samuel Hunter, Jr., 17, Wellsville.

John P. Marsh, 23, son of Sidney Marsh, Wellsville.

Arthur E. Hoagland, son of W. P. Hoag- land, Wellsville.

John C. Stevenson, 18, son of Samuel Stevenson, Wellsville.

Wesley Cross, 24, Wellsville.

Henry A. Hayes, East Liverpool.

Morris Dannaher, 25, Wellsville.

Joseph H. O'Connor, 17, son of Michael O'Connor, Wellsville.

E. P. Smith, 47, and his three children, Ellis, 14; Frank, 8, and Lottie, 6; Wellsville. Flora Culp, 18, Wellsville.

Belle Brandon, 17, daughter of Thomas Brandon, Wellsville.

Henry Marker, 23, son of W. H. Marker, Hancock County, West Virginia.

John Prosser, 17, son of William Prosser, Hancock County, West Virginia.

THE SANDY AND BEAVER CANAL.

The Sandy and Beaver Canal Company was incorporated March 9, 1830, but work on the improvement was not commenced until November 24, 1834. Elderkin Potter, a

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HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

prominent lawyer of New Lisbon, with his own hands performed the ceremony of "break- ing ground" for the enterprise, near the old Hughes furnace, in the presence of a large con- course of people, who had assembled to wit- ness the ceremony, after which he made an address to the multitude present, in which he set forth in glowing terms, the great future of New Lisbon and Columbiana County, which would grow out of the canal project. The canal extended from the mouth of the Little Beaver, on the Ohio River, to Bolivar, on the Ohio Canal, following Little Beaver and the middle fork of the same to New Lisbon, thence ·crossing to a point near the head waters of the west fork, following that several miles, and then crossing the watershed to the upper waters of the branch of the Sandy, thence with the course of that stream to where it flows into the Tuscarawas River, and there connecting with the Ohio Canal, thereby securing canal connections with Portsmouth and the interme- diate points to the south, and Cleveland and in- termediate points to the north. In following the streams and crossing ridges the canal had many curves which increased its length. The distance between its terminal points was about .45 miles on a straight line, while the canal was ·over 60 miles long.

After the first breaking of the ground in 1834, the work of construction was prosecuted with vigor until the financial panic of 1837 caused a suspension of the work, and it was not completed until 1846, the first boat from the East, under command of Captain Dunn, reaching New Lisbon on October 26th of that year. The arrival was hailed with great re- joincing, a jubilee meeting was held at Hanna's warehouse, at which New Lisbon's most elo- ·quent attorney made a speech on behalf of the citizens, to which Dr. Leonard Hanna gave an earnest response on behalf of the directors of the canal corporation. The day's celebration closed with an exhibition of fireworks, and a supper and ball at the Watson House.

One of the many packets which traversed the canal between New Lisbon and the river was the "David Begges," commanded by Capt. George Ramsey. The east end of the canal,

from New Lisbon to the Ohio River, was kept up and used for some years, or until 1852, but the middle division, from New Lisbon to Min- erva, was used only a very short time. The Sandy and Beaver Canal was one of those public improvements which, during its con- struction and for some years thereafter, distrib- uted capital, gave employment to many work- men at good prices, furnished a market for the products of the fruitful farms along its course, stimulated the spirit of enterprise, increased the value of real estate along its entire length and for quite a distance on either side, and in many ways was a factor in the development and progress of the country ; but its early fail- ure was a disastrous blow to New Lisbon. Sev- eral of its most enterprising citizens moved to other fields of labor, and expended their wealth and energy in other cities, and the construction of the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad, after- wards known as the Pittsburg. Fort Wayne & Chicago, about 1852, along the northern border and the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad about the same time along the southern border of the county, left the village between them without any direct communication with other places of importance except by means of the common public roads, so that, except for the several terms of court, the county fair and such other events as occasionally attracted the people from the surrounding country and neighboring towns a state of lethargy prevailed in the village for a number of years.

EARLY RAILROAD PROJECTS.

The canal came too late to be a paying pro- ject or to accomplish great things in the de- velopment of the county, though, strange as it many seem, it was built during the period when the first struggling railroad projects in the same territory were denied encouragement and died a lingering death, only to rise again on the completion of the canal and supersede it. The first of the railroad projects to take definite shape was the Erie & Ohio, to connect the lake with the river. The company was granted a charter by act of the Ohio Legislature, Janu- ray 26, 1832, the announced purpose being

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

"to extend from a point between the west line of Geauga County and the east line of Ashta- bula, through Trumbull County, and to ter- minate at such point on the Ohio River in Co- lumbiana County as the directors should de- termine." The capital stock was placed at $1,000,000. Local feeling over the location of the southern end of the route became strong. The projectors held a number of meetings dur- ing 1834 and 1835. One was held in Salem. Gen. William Blackburn was chairman and Na- than Hunt, secretary. John Campbell and Zadok Street were among the actual partici- pants in the meeting, a report of which was published in the New Lisbon paper. Two sur- veys finally developed-one running from Fair- port, Lake County, through Painesville and Salem to Wellsville, following the general route then traveled by the daily line of stages, which had been established between Fairport and Wellsville in 1833; the rival line starting fur- ther east, at Ashtabula, in Ashtabula County, and running through Warren to East Liver- pol. A convention was called to meet in Salem early in 1836. Both routes had their advocates. Aaron Brawdy, Sanford C. Hill and William G. Smith represented East Liverpool at the meeting. The advocates of the Painesville- Wellsville route out-voted the Ashtabula-East Liverpool faction in the convention, however, and the delegates who favored the eastern route

Among the early incorporations of railroad compa- nies in Ohio were the following, which were to penetrate Columbiana county :

Erie & Ohio, 1832, from Geauga or Ashtabula County to Ohio River.

Pennsylvania & Ohio. 1832, Pittsburg to Massillon, via Little Beaver Creek, New Lisbon and Canton.

Yellow Creek, Carrollton & Zoar, 1834-35. from mouth of Big Yellow Creek, through Carrollton to Zoar, on Ohio and Beaver Canal.

Ashtabula, Warren & East Liverpool, Cleveland & Pittsburg, Wellsville & Fairport, Steubenville & Ohio, and Ohio, Indiana & Pennsylvania, all in 1836.

Wellsville & Pittsburg (eastern division of Cleve- land & Pittsburg), 1847.

Wellsville, Millersburg & Mount Vernon, and Steu- benville & Indiana ("Panhandle" route), both in 1848.

Steubenville & Wellsville (river division of Cleve- land & Pittsburg), 1850.

withdrew in a body to their hotel, agreeing to call a convention for a later date, to meet in Warren. That convention was held during the summer of 1836, and as a result of the split over routes the Legislature the same year granted two charters, one for the Wellsville & Fairport Railroad; the other for the Ashta- bula, Warren & East Liverpool Railroad.

It was an accepted fact that but one of the two projects could succeed, and the feeling be- tween the different sections of the community became very bitter. The points on the lake were about equal in strength. Warren was a stronger business community than Salem, but Wellsville was far in advance of East Liverpool in business men and available capital. and had a wide-spread reputation as a shipping point. New Lisbon was touched by the Painesville- Wellsville survey, following the line of the. mail route then established; but New Lisbon was canal-mad, the ground having been broken at that place in 1834 for the Sandy and Beaver Canal. And the county seat discouraged the railroad proposition as tending to injure the business of the canal.

It was the great panic of 1837 that brought to grief both these early railroad schemes. Meetings were held in Wellsville, and stock subscribed there and at Painesville; but dis- putes over the route discouraged the project. A more determined effort was made to build over the Ashtabula-East Liverpool route, the survey for which followed what was known as "California Hollow" into East Liverpool, reaching the town by what is now West Mar- ket street, through the property then owned by Basil Simms. East Liverpool men bore the expense of these preliminaries. The Progres- sive spirit of these old heroes of the '30's can be better understood when it is recalled that the railroad in that year, 1836, was barely four. years old; that Colonel Robert Stevens had built his Camden & Amboy Railroad in New Jersey only in 1832, and that the pioneer roads of Pennsylvania were then building into Pitts- burg.

After the company was incorporated, a meeting was held at Warren, and General Per- kins, of Warren, was elected president. The

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

incorporators included David Todd (afterward Governor), and Senator Crowell, of Warren; Colonel Hubbard, of Ashtabula; John Dixon, of Columbiana; Aaron Brawdy, Sanford C. Hill, John Patrick and William G. Smith, of East Liverpool. Patrick had been an itinerant preacher, but displayed in this enterprise some of the genius of the latter-day promoter. The directors were authorized to open books at dif- ferent points for stock subscriptions. Patrick was sent to New York; Smith to Pittsburg. Gen. William Robinson, a wealthy man of Al- legheny ; George A. Cook, a Pittsburg banker; James Blakely and others in East Liverpool subscribed liberally to the stock, an addition of town lots in East Liverpool being laid out east of Broadway, and the newly plotted land offered as a sort of bonus on the stock. Rob- inson and Cook streets in the new addition were so named at that time in honor of Robin- son and Cook. In this way, with some assist- ance from Warren people, $200,000 was raised. Patrick was successful in New York, securing subscriptions there aggregating $500,000. In the latter part of 1836 the actual grading was begun at East Liverpool on the south and at Ashtabula on the north. Several hundred men were put to work on the grading at the East Liverpool end, and a cut was made for over a mile back through "California Hollow," which could be traced along the old wagon road for nearly half a century afterward.

East Liverpool, encouraged by the influx of population from Pittsburg, began to boom. New stores and warehouses were built and Ed- ward Carroll erected a big hotel, the "Mansion House." Then came the panic. The New York subscribers defaulted; Robinson, of Al- legheny, transferred his stock to Banker Cook, and Cook failed. The project was never re- vived, and East Liverpool and Warren were years recovering from the blow.

BIRTH OF THE CLEVELAND & PITTSBURG.

The Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad, which was later to become the Fort Wayne route, was granted a charter by act of February 3, 1832, to extend from Pittsburg to Massillon,

Ohio, via Little Beaver Creek, New Lisbon and Canton-"or such other points as may ap- pear most eligible"-with an authorized capital of $2,000,000. Some of the Ohio incorpora- tors were: Benjamin Hanna, Daniel Har- baugh, Reason Pritchard, Morris Miller, Henry Bough and Zadok Street. The State reserved the right "to purchase and hold said road and all of its lateral branches and author- ized connections within Ohio," after 40 years from the time fixed for its completion. Four years later, in 1836, the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad was incorporated-the same year that saw the effort undertaken for the ill-starred Lake Erie-Ohio River railroad routes. But the panic intervened, and it was nearly 10 years before either the Ohio & Pennsylvania or Cleveland & Pittsburg schemes showed signs of real life. In 1842 the question of a Cleve- land-Wellsville turnpike was discussed in Wellsville, and a canvass made along the route, but in 1844 it was determined that efforts be made to build a railroad instead. Public meet- ings with that end in view were held in the basement of the Methodist Protestant Church. Late in December, 1844, a meeting of business men named a committee of four, consisting of Henry Cope. James Stewart, D. T. Lawson and A. G. Catlett, to go to Cleveland to secure the cooperation of the citizens of that place in the scheme. The committee started on its mis- sion on December 26th, in a two-horse carriage, and were two days making the trip to Cleve- land over the muddy roads. The meeting at Cleveland was held December 30, 1844, in the old Court House on the Public Square. It was addressed by Thomas Bolton, an attorney of Cleveland : James Farmer. of Salineville, who had been active in the agitation, and Catlett and Lawson, of Wellsville, and plans were made to raise funds, secure a charter and prosecute the survey. The whole object of the project, at this stage, was to connect Cleveland with the river at Wellsville, where passengers and freight, for points east as far as Pittsburg and west and south to all points down-stream, could be transferred to the big river steamers, which then formed such an important adjunct to the transportation interests of the West. The

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

plans for the extension of the road to Pittsburg were of the most vague character.

The Cleveland & Pittsburg was one of the earliest roads built west of the Alleghanies, and the difficulties in the way were enormous. That is one reason why the preliminary work and the actual construction, from the determined beginning in the winter of 1844-45 to the run- ning of the first train into Wellsville, occupied seven long years. The pioneers in the project had tremendous prejudices to overcome before rights of way could be procured. Meetings were held and addresses delivered in every vil- lage and nearly every township through which the road was to pass. The Cleveland and Wellsville pioneers bore the brunt of this work. and made easy the paths of the projectors of other roads that came after in the early years of the '50's. Capital had to be raised by pri- vate subscription all along the line for the grad- ing of the roadbed. before bonds could be is- sued or credit secured for construction and the purchase of equipment. So many railroad schemes had been set afoot in the decade pre- ceding. only to collapse after the expenditure of large sums on preliminaries, that capitalists. before they would back the Cleveland-Wells- ville project. demanded the completion of the first stages as a guarantee of good faith. Wells- ville did yeoman service in this pioneer work for the new agent of civilization. The people had visions of a city on the river to rival Cleve- land on the lake as a shipping point by rail and water. Over $50.000 was raised By the citizens of the town in the organization of the com- pany, and the whole expended in preliminaries.

On March 11. 1845. the Legislature. on petition from the projectors, revived the charter of the old Cleveland & Pittsburg. first granted in 1836. The commissioners appointed by the new charter to organize the company were as follows: Philo Scovill. Charles Bradburn. . 1. G. Catlett, James Farmer. Cyrus Prentiss. Samuel Starkweather. Samuel Williamson. John W. Allen, James Stewart. Zadok Street. Robert F. Paine and Thomas Bolton. .

Wolsey, Reuben Sheldon, Henry Cope, James Steward, A. G. Catlett, Zadok Street, Thomas Bolton, Daniel T. Lawson, John S. McIntosh, Alexander Wells. James Aten and Cyrus Pren- tiss.

The first president of the company, chosen by this board, was James Stewart, of Wells- ville. elected October 29, 1845: A. G. Catlett. also of Wellsville, was chosen secretary, and Cyrus Prentiss, treasurer, on the same date. The second president was James Farmer, elected March 10. 1847.

At the first meeting of the directors, Octo- ber 29. 1845. it was decided to locate the road from Wellsville, through Salineville. Alliance and Ravenna into Cleveland. One of the ori- ginal surveys had laid the route far north of Salineville, through New Lisbon and Salem. But the opposition of the projectors of the Sandy and Beaver Canal, which was opened into New Lisbon the following year, ( October 26. 1846). defeated this route. The canal pro- jectors insisted that the railroad would prove harmful to their enterprise, and no railroad sentiment could be aroused in New Lisbon.

On the other hand. it was mainly through the influence of James Farmer that the survey as finally accepted was diverted far to the southward. so as to touch Salineville, where the coal mines and the salt wells gave promise of important industrial development. The new route lengthened the line into Pittsburg, and its acceptance was bitterly regretted by the Cleveland & Pittsburg magnates in later years. The change in route was almost wholly respon- sible for the revival of the Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad project a year or two later.

James Farmer, with J. N. Mccullough, later first vice-president of the Pennsylvania, and Philip F. Geisse, the owner of the Fulton foundry and machine works at Wellsville, and at that day largely engaged in steamboat build- ing. remained among the leading spirits of the enterprise at the southern terminus during the early years of construction. They were con- tinually in demand to assist in securing rights of way, for in many of the communities through which the survey passed the people

The first Board of directors was chosen by these commissioners, at a meeting held at Ra- I venna, October 29, 1845. as follows : John M. tal solutely refused to allow the "death wagons"

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

to run through their land, and denounced the project as wholesale murder. Traffic was opened from Cleveland south to Alliance in 1850, and finally March 4, 1852, the first train ran into Wellsville, the advent of the new mar- vel being the occasion of a great celebration in the river town. The first route of the new road into Wellsville entered the town back from the river, along the hill, the terminal station being at the foot of Seventh street, near the old school house (later the Baum pottery). Two years later, the tracks were changed to the river front and work started on the "river division," south- west along the river to Steubenville. The en- gines hauling the Wellsville-Cleveland trains were among the first in the country to use coal instead of wood for fuel, the coal being ob- tained from the mines at Salineville.

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History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 11

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844 Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 912

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912