History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 47

Author: Williams Brothers
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 443

USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 47
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 47

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).

Chardon Encampment, No. 204, was instituted June 20, 1876. Charter members, S. L. Griffith, C. A. Sanger, George D. Colby, J. W. Buttery, C. M. Turner, O. O. King, and M. H. Hamlin. The first officers were S. L. Griffith, C. P .; O. O. King, H. P .; C. A. Sanger, S. W .; C. M. Turner, J. W .; A. H. Chamberlain, Scribe ; J. W. Buttery, Treas .; B. W. Canfield, Guide; E. A. Johnson, 1st W .; H. D. Osmond, 2d W. ; J. Bickle, 3d W .; H. Bickle, 4th W .; M. H. Hamlin, I. S .; G. W. Stillwell, 1st G. of T .; E. E. Warren, 2d G. of T. Membership, twenty-six. Stated meetings, first, third, and fifth Thursday of each month. This institution is in a flourishing condition financially. Officers for 1878: A. H. Chamberlain, C. P .; Z. S. Warren, S. W .; I. W. Canfield, J. W .; E. A. Johnson, H. P .; H. Bickle, Scribe; S. L. Griffith, Treas. ; D. W. Can- field, Guide; C. A. Sanger, 1st W .; J. Bickle, 2d W .; O. O. King, 3d W .; H. D. Osmond, 4th W .; A. S. Watts, 1st G. T. ; G. W. Stillwell, 2d G. T .; M. H. Hamlin, I. S.

G. A. R .- There was formerly an organization of the Grand Army of the Republic located at Chardon. This has, however, ceased to be.

Farmers' Club .- The farmers in the north part of the township have evinced their appreciation of their calling and of themselves by forming a club, January 3, 1878. Officers: President, A. G. Barton ; Vice-President, Ira Woodruff ; Secretary, C. P. Bail; Treasurer, Jonas Tuttle. Constitution and by-laws adopted. A counterpart of the club by ladies was organized soon after, and the meetings and discussions are spirited and interesting, winding up with a social union of both sexes.

MANUFACTURES.

Undoubtedly the oldest manufactory now in operation in Chardon is the tannery on South Hambden street, built by Samuel Squires as early, it is thought, as 1823. It is now owned by John Kissick. Has done an extensive business. The first tannery was set up by John H. Justus, west of Water street, south side. L. J. Randall in about 1850 erected a building on South Hambden street, designed for a morocco-factory, and which he worked as such some eight years, when he converted it into a cheese-factory. On the death of Mr. R., which occurred some six years later, the business went into the hands of A. P. Stoughton, of New York, who conducted it some two years, since when it has passed under numerous man- agers, until, in the spring of 1873, the " American Dairy and Commercial Com- pany" leased the factory and grounds of Jabez King, and the season following erected the capacious buildings now occupied by them, costing fifteen thousand dollars. The name was changed to " Chardon Creamery." The cheese is made by the " Freeman Process." The season of 1877 there were manufactured ninety thousand pounds of butter and one hundred and sixty-two thousand pounds of cheese, working the milk of nearly one thousand cows, paying the prices quoted by the leading New York papers. This firm works a factory in Montville, and a number in other localities. The net price paid patrons in 1877 was eight and three-quarters cents per ten pounds of milk. The average receipts for the month of June, 1878, were seventeen thousand pounds of milk daily. E. G. Ellis is the agent for the manufacturers at this factory.

In 1845 or '46 the Chardon steam mill company was formed, and a steam saw- mill erected on the cross-road east of the village, afterwards sold to Alfred Phelps, Jr., who ran it several years, when it was burnt, the not unusual fate of such ventures.

W. Witter & Son, founders, began business in the year 1861. Their works were situated on the corner of Washington and Water streets. Amount invested, fifteen hundred dollars. In the year 1874 they removed the old building, and, purchasing the union school-building, placed it on the site of the old manufactory, refitted it, putting in new machinery throughout, and added making sash, doors, .and blinds to the business. The amount invested at present is five thousand dollars.

In April, 1874, Austin Chilson erected a building on lot 98, Painesville road, .and therein began the planing-mill business, with scroll- and jig-sawing, mould- ings, etc. Amount invested, two thousand five hundred dollars. Still in successful operation.

In June, 1862, O. G. Thayer came to Chardon and began the business of gun- smithing. The present gun- and machine-shop, on lot 98, was erected and put -in operation in 1874; capital invested, five thousand dollars; does general repair work in the machine department. Makes a specialty of fine target rifles.

Among other items we may mention the saw-mill of John Bailey, South Hambden street; brick-kiln of Charles Colemans, established in 1875, by James Beach & Son; spring bed manufactory, Messrs. Quirk and Manley proprietors ; carriage manufactories, N. Collins, R. P. Parsons, A. W. Benton, and T. C. Crompton.

The lumber-yard of Elmer Riddle, at the depot of the Painesville and Youngs- town railroad, was established in 1875. He handles about one million feet of lumber annually; deals in shingles, lath, and all needed building-material, in which a considerable of productive capital is employed.

Blacksmiths .- L. V. Carpenter, S. L. Griffith, H. Crowningshield, H. P. Mathews, John Hardaker, James Highland, A. Clark, and Ed. Griswold.

D. F. Avery has for many years carried on the business of carriage, sign, and house and ornamental painting and graining, and ranks high as a mechanic in his line.

BANKING.

In the spring of 1857, Messrs. L. J. Randall and O. A. and T. M. Burton established a private banking-house. They did a large business. Ceased opera- tions in 1861. The same year Messrs. L. S. Ayers and Jno. Murray (2d) com- menced to do a banking business in connection with their merchandising. They discontinued in 1864, and Messrs. John Murray (2d) and B. W. and E. V. Can- field started a private banking-house. In 1867, B. W. Canfield retired, and the remaining partners prosecuted the business until May 1, 1873, when D. W. Canfield became a partner, and under the name of Canfield, Murray & Canfield continued business until September 2, 1876, when they were forced by an un- fortunate combination of circumstances to cease business. The Geauga Savings and Loan Association received a charter March 3, 1873. Capital, $100,000. Incorporators : B. B. Woodbury, D. C. Gridley, A. P. Tilden, E. N. Osborn, L. T. Wilmot, and W. C. Thrasher. May 13, 1873, officers elected as follows: President, B. B. Woodbury ; Vice-President, W. C. Thrasher ; Cashier and Treasurer, T. C. Smith ; Directors, B. B. Woodbury, W. C. Thrasher, Horace Tucker, Samuel Bodman, A. P. Tilden, E. N. Osborn, D. C. Gridley. Daniel Johnson and H. J. Ford, directors, and B. B. Woodbury, W. C. Thrasher, and E. N. Osborn, committee on finance. In the summer of 1873 they built their elegant bank-building. This is located on the corner of Court street and Public Square. It is in size twenty-two by sixty-six feet; two stories in height, and cost nine thousand dollars.

GENERAL BUSINESS.

Hotels .- " Chardon House," Benton & Co., proprietors; " Burnett House," A. M. Goodrich.

J. O. Converse, proprietor and publisher of the Geauga Republican and job printing-office, Randall's Block.

Dry-Goods .- J. F. Field, Messrs. Kelley Brothers, Smith & Bodman, and S. Patchen.

Millinery .- Mrs. F. A. Eaton, Miss Lydia Bruce.

Hardware and Tin .- Kelley Brothers, Parks Brothers, G. C. Smith, J. F. Bruce.

Drugs and Medicines .- A. Cook, W. C. Parsons; also books and stationery. Grocers .- Canfield & Co., A. D. Downing & Co., Bartlett, Hilliard & Co. Jewelry and Silverware .- O. H. Pilken and H. H. Bisbee.

Meat-Markets .- Toop Brothers and J. Houghton.

Boots and Shoes .- Bartlett, Hilliard & Co., E. Hastings, W. G. Harrison. Harness-Shops .- J. O. Teed, and Henry Pease. Both these gentlemen are also proprietors of livery-stables.

Furniture and Undertaking .- H. Bickle and W. G. Munsil.

Miscellaneous .- Geo. H. Garrett, flour and feed ; Lester Moffat, auction-store ; E. Johnson, restaurant and reading-rooms ; Thomas Christian, tailor ; E. D. King, cigar-maker ; Eggleston & Co., photographers; S. W. Newell, carriage-trimmer. Present Physicians and Dentists .- L. L. and A. L. Bennett, T. H. Sweeney. O. A. Dimmock, T. M. Cowles, E. Morse, O. Pomeroy, J. W. Atwood, and S. McNutt. Dentists, M. L. Wright, F. S. Pomeroy, and A. D. Sawyer. The present postmaster is O. R. Canfield.

THE FIRE.

A note must be made of the destruction and rebuilding of the business part of the village. So intimately is the village interwoven with the general history of the township, or rather so fully has it absorbed and swallowed up the Chardon of the pioneers, that I treat them as one.

Whoever recalls the old town will have a memory of a score of irregularly-built, ill-arranged, slovenly-kept, incommodious wooden buildings, with two or three brick structures, standing in a straggling rauk, fronting the square on the west side, reach-

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L.J. RANDALL.

LEANDER JASON RANDALL was a son of Jason and Martha Randall, who were born in Bridgewater, New York. Jason Randall and wife and five children removed from Genesee county, New York, to Kirtland, now Lake County, Ohio, in February, 1819, and in the spring of 1830 they moved from Kirtland to Munson, and afterwards to Chardon, Ohio, and died there,-Jason R., February 1, 1852 ; Martha, November 24, 1856. L. J. Randall was born in the town of Sweden, Genesee county, New York, February 15, 1818. He was the fifth of a family of ten children.

In young manhood he taught common school winters, went grafting in the spring, and worked by the month as a farm hand till August, 1843, when he formed a copartnership with Benjamin Cook, the father of Alpheus and Pardon O. Cook, at Munson, Geauga County, for the transaction of a general mercantile and produce business. This copartnership continued about one year, and in September, 1845, he formed a copartnership with Pardon O. Cook and Bradley C. Randall, a brother, under the firm-name of Randall, Cook & Co., at Chardon, Ohio, for the transaction of a general mercantile and produce business. In 1847 they added to their business the slaughtering of sheep, buying sheep pelts, pulling the wool off them, tanning the skins, and manufacturing them into morocco, and the tallow from the slaughtered sheep into candles. Some years as many as ten thousand sheep were slaughtered, and from ten to twenty thousand sheep pelta purchased and pulled. This copartnership continued until October 10, 1853, when it was dissolved by mutual consent, the senior member of the firm wanting to increase their business, and his more conservative associates not wishing to venture more extensively. After the dissolution, L. J. Randall continued the same busi- ness until the fall of 1854, when he added the slaughtering of cattle and packing of beef to the other business. This he continued for two seasons at Chardon, and for five or six years after in Cleveland, Ohio. This was a large business. Some seasons he killed and packed upwards of four thousand head of cattle.

In the spring of 1857 he sold his store in Chardon and commenced the banking business, as senior partner of the firm of Randall & Burtens. This business continued until the fall of 1861. In 1859 he opened a produce commission business in New York, as senior partner of the firm of Randall, Hamilton & Co. This business continued some three or four years. In 1860 he engaged in the business of buying cheese, then made by the farmers instead of factories, as now. The year's purchase amounted to upwards of one hundred thousand dollars, and this business he continued until the time of his death. In 1861 he again engaged in the mercantile business, and in the fall of that year he purchased the cheese made by the first factory operated in the county. In 1862 he embarked in the manufacture of cheese by the factory system, starting the second factory in the county. This business he added to, year after year, until 1869, when he owned six factories, and rented one, which he worked that year. In 1864 he commenced operating in railroad stocks and gold, in Wall street, New York, which he con- tinued up to the time of his decease. His transactions in this branch of business were enormous, frequently almost controlling the market of one or two of the leading stocks, the purchases and sales amounting to millions of dollars daily. In 1866 he invented and patented a process for pressing a series of cheeses with a single screw. These were a small cheese weighing six pounds, of a very fine quality, intended for family use, and readily brought from one hundred to one

hundred and twenty-five dollars per ton more than ordinary cheese. In 1868 he built the Randall Block, at Chardon, Ohio, one hundred and forty-one feet by sixty-six, at a cost of about forty thousand dollars. In 1869 he took the contract to build the court-house at Chardon. He died before there was a brick laid.

L. J. Randall was married to Elisa Smith, March 9, 1847. Her parents were Samuel and Sibbyll Smith, of Chardon, Ohio. Of this marriage were born Sibbyll M., February, 1848; Lucinda A., September, 1849; Juliet V., June 12, 1852; Florence E., March 31, 1855.

Juliet V. married Ira W. Canfield, May 22, 1872, now living at Chardon, Ohio; Sibbyll M. died April 7, 1848; Lucinda A. died March 12, 1856; Flor- ence E. died October 1, 1856.

He was not always successful in business enterprises, often met with losses, and frequently large amounts. In 1847 the wool-house, used for drying the wool pulled from sheep pelts, was burned, and again in 1849. In 1868 he suffered largely by the fire that destroyed almost the entire business portion of the town of Chardon, losing three entire buildings, and from two to three thousand dollars' worth of wool and goods. He frequently said during his life that it was as necessary for him to meet with these reverses as it was to be successful; that if he was always successful, that the excitement would so affect his nervous system that he would soon be a fit subject for an insane assylum.

As seen, the life of Mr. Randall was one of constant and intense activity. He was, in many respects, a most remarkable men; to his great activity be added the capacity for large enterprises, a grasp and ability to successfully manage large undertakings, and several of them at the same time. While he could originate and set on foot a new and extensive business, such was his sagacity and power over details that each in turn was made to succeed, and no one even partially failed. Without capital at the commencement, he was obliged to use it, and such was his credit, and the confidence men had in his integrity, sagacity, and skill, that he could usually command what he required. The energy, dash, and force with which he pressed an enterprise was equal to the skill with which he perfected and managed it.

Of vigorous, compact form, capable of great endurance, pleasant, frank, manly face, and prompt address, he had no time for external polish of manners, nor did he ever become interested in books or papers beyond the price current. His life was one of action, on the double-quick ; his perceptions, in his lines of thought, quick as a flash, and very certain; a bold and skillful operator, his end at mid- career cut off a man who had not made his mark, and was only really preparing to do that. In his early days at Chardon, while that was yet his field, no man was ever so useful to it. He did more business, of a kind to employ men and give activity and life to a town, than all his predecessors, who had dosed out their lives before he came to wake them up. He was attached to Chardon ; there was his home and early life associations.

His business transactions involved him in many expensive and sharply-contested law-suits, and the uniformity of his success in them marked the care and skill with which he mastered and never lost sight of details. He was a kind-hearted man, steady in his friendships, true in all his engagements. He leaves only a daughter, and when men cease to speak of him, his name will be forgotten in Chardon.

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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.

ing from the old court-house, south, to the corner, with every sort of a disreputable, unswept sidewalk in front, and a series of badly-whittled wooden benches along the walls of the buildings. There was little to do, and no great disposition to do more. Randall's store, near the south end, was the only redeeming feature in the ragged row. Chardon was quite content with itself, had the county-seat, and, if profits were small to her business men, they were certain. Life was cheaply main- tained, and a sense of indolent security pervaded and brooded over the good folk of the county-seat.

"But Linden saw another sight, When the drum beat at dead of night, Commanding fires of death to light."

On the warm July night of the 24th, 1868, the villagers, as was their wont, retired early, and by nine P.M. every window was darkened. There was a light northeast wind fanning the bare, treeless, littered square, and raising small eddies of dust in the empty, silent streets.

At the serene hour of two the next morning, some wakeful eye discerned a bewildering light in the rear of the row, and then another, and yet a third, all at the outside. A moment and the awful cry of fire ! fire ! fire ! rang through the sleeping town, awaking the whole people, who awoke also to the realization of their utterly helpless condition. Not an engine, not a bucket, not a ladder, or even a reservoir of water, no filmy outline of a fire organization had visited thie brain of any till the unnatural dawn of that lurid morning burst on them, with the light of their tindery buildings crackling in the leaping flames. Char- don had a plenty of stout, manly stuff in her men, and plenty of courage and devotion in her womanhood. Half clad they rushed to the already lost battle of their town ; a desperate and determined stand was made on the battlements of the old court-house, which was also lost, and with it the seat of the county put in peril. All attempts to stay the burning were futile. The whole wooden row was soon a mass of melting flames, roaring and leaping, and sending jets into the heavens, burning out the heart of the July night. It seized on the court-house, the wooden roof and tower of which, overtopping the village, led and lent its pyre of flame to the destroying grandeur of the spectacle, lighting from the hill all the surrounding country, and projecting ghostly shadows in strange unwonted directions. Southward the tempest of fire swept, and the desperate citizens, in the light of their blazing stores and shops, rushed to the defense of their im- periled homes. The width of Water street, the lightness of the wind, saved the south street, or the marble-marked village of the dead, on the fair southwest slope of the hill, would have contained the only unburned homes in that part of the town.

When the morning of the 25th succeeded the morning born of fire, the town from Water street to the Methodist meeting-house was a mass of charred, smoking ruins, with groups of villagers, increased by men and women from the surrounding country, who sad and wondering, stood about talking over the great calamity.

Chardon was full of good stuff-how much and what it never before knew. From the smouldering ruins of the old town was to spring the new Chardon, with a new life, new energy, and new ambition, to conduct to a better and higher destiny. In the hands of an average people the town would never have been rebuilt. The owners of the ruin-encumbered ground would have sold and de- parted dispirited. The county-seat would have passed to more ancient Burton, and instead of writing these chronicles within the walls of the spacious new court-house, strangers would now be pointed to the ruins of the old, and asking for the site of the gallows on which Wright was hanged sixty years ago.

On the following Monday a spontaneous meeting of the citizens resolved to re- build the town by organized and combined action. Wisdom, harmony, and energy controlled the meeting, and guided the future action of the people, which marks the sterling qualities of the citizens. It was resolved that the whole burnt dis- trict should be covered with fire-proof buildings, and a building association was formed. The first steps were to find temporary shelter for the trades and inter- ests thus despoiled, and quite wonderful old " Bee-Hive" had a magical entrance upon the southern margin of the square. Chardon was never so wide awake, never so capable, never so creditable. Her men and women became a new peo- ple, full of the new wine of awakened energy and enterprise. It began to find its real capital and the better inner resources of its own people.

In two weeks the Chardon Building Company was perfected, with J. F. Bruce, president; B. B. Woodbury, D. W. Canfield, D. C. Kellogg, Jabez King, and John Murray, Jr., directors. Of that board, I. N. Hathaway became secretary, and E. V. Canfield, treasurer. Immediately a contract for "Union Block" was entered into with Messrs. Herrick & Simmons, of Cleveland, and the work began August 24th. The corner-stone was laid with gratulations, and finished the next January. It is a two-story brick, of good material and style, two hundred and thirty-one by sixty-six feet, with twelve spacious stores on the first and fine

rooms on the second floor. When done, but eight thousand dollars were due the architects. The Masons built their hall in connection with Union Block, thus adding a third story near the centre. Union Block covered about two-thirds of the burnt district. Of the owners of the residue, L. J. Randall was the largest. His enterprise, seconded by the others and an organization of citizens who were willing to risk their means in the undertaking, enabled the parties to put the Randall Block under contract in September, and its completion followed that of the Union Block. This is one hundred and forty by sixty-six feet, with an attic and fine basement, seven feet higher than Union, and cost forty thousand dollars. It is constructed in a style and with a finish superior to Union, and compares favorably with good structures in well-built cities, is an ornament to Chardon and a credit to the enterprise of the builders and projectors.

The destruction of the old court-house and change of site left a gloomy va- cancy north of Union Block. H. K. Smith purchased the property, and opened Court street west to the railroad station, one of the pleasantest and most useful improvements of the town. With the aid and under the lead of B. B. Wood- bury, the savings bank was organized, of which Mr. W. became president, and built its fine structure on the corner of the new street, in 1873. In connection with this, Messrs. H. K. & T. C. Smith, Tilden, and Osborn, built the adjoining store; the bank at the cost of ten thousand dollars, and the store at seven thou- sand dollars. This was followed the next year by the erection of the Opera- House Block. The enterprise was projected also by Mr. H. K. Smith, with whom his brother, T. C., united, for the lower story, and an organization of public- spirited men of Chardon combined for the cost and construction of the Opera- House. Of its class, this is a beautiful and creditable edifice. These buildings are constructed in a superior manner, and present a fine appearance. With a small building and the new jail, these complete the west side, and form the new Chardon.

That July morning, ten years ago, came with clouds and seeming ruin. It was the dawn of a new and better era. Individuals may never have recovered. Chardon was built by it, yet her greatest gain was in the revelation of the quali- ties and the development of the characters of her men and women, the fathers and mothers of the new generation, who have also indicated their progress by the erection of their beautiful school-building, and the care with which they provide for the education of those who follow them. From that structure my eye turns to a fine bit of church architecture, at the southeast corner of the square, built by the Congregational church in 1876; and I recall the solitude of the square of 1825, and its still, dreary, empty aspect in 1841, almost with surprise.

Subjoined is a list of the losers by the fire : J. O. Converse, Democrat office and post-office; Rush & Harrison, hardware store; A. Weaver, boots and shoes ; E. A. Hayes, billiard-room and saloon; Canfield & Canfield, law-office; L. J. Randall, dry goods; J. N. Adams, boots and shoes ; Mrs. A. Marsh, millinery ; Eggleston & Brother, photographers ; Henry Chapman, Tucker & Clark, grocers ; Parlin & Parkin, groceries and crockery ; Bestor & Tibbals, photographers; B. W. & H. F. Canfield, insurance agents; Miss Caroline Parmalee, dressmaker ; J. O. Teed, saddle- and harness-shop; A. Cook, drugs; Nichols & Parsons, drugs; W. S. Wight, jeweler; Samuel Squire, dry goods and groceries; B. W. Canfield, clothing; John Stohl, tailor; J. A. Hathaway, law-office; E. D. Richardson, dentist; Murray & Canfield, bankers; Robert Murray, dry goods; J. F. Bruce, hardware; B. N. Shaw, shoe shop; C. H. Marsh, tin-shop; Shaw & Shaw, dry goods; D. C. Kellogg, Kelley Bros., hardware, dry goods, and groceries; Mrs. F. A. Eaton, milliner; James Ehrlich, dry and fancy goods; R. P. Munsell, boots and shoes; Durfee & Stephenson, law-office; Masonic Lodge; Odd-Fellows Lodge; A. J. Walton, James Brewer, bakery.

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History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio, Part 47

Author: Williams Brothers Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages: 443

Author: Williams Brothers
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 443