History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 57

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014

USA > Ohio > Medina County > History of Medina county and Ohio > Part 57

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Great Britain, one of the most powerful nations on the face of the earth, of whom it is said, "the sun never sets on her possessions," derives her great wealth and power from her manufacturing industry ; and the main- spring of her industry is her coal-field. It is said " that the power developed in the combustion of one pouud of coal is equal to 1,500,000 foot-pounds. The power ex- erted hy a man of ordinary strength, during a day of labor, is ahout the same ; so that a pound of coal may be regarded as an equivalent to a day's labor of a man.

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

Hence, 300 pouuds will represent the labor of a man for a year. It is estimated " that the contributions made to the wealth of Great Britain, by her annual coal products, is equal to that of 133,000,000 of skilled opera- tives laboring for her enrichment." If these statements are true, all may see what Ohio can become by a proper development of her coal-fields, and a wise regard for her mechanical industry. The Lake Shore & Tuscara- was Valley Railroad being one of the links in that great chain of railroads calculated to develop the coal inter- ests of Ohio, its importance cannot be overestimated. All honor, then, we say to the President and Directors of the road. And all honor to those, who, by their la- bors and money, furnished the old road-bed years ago, without which we would not now have a railroad.

We welcome you, one and all, to the hospitalities of our village. For more than eighteen long years, the people of Medina have labored and struggled to accom- plish the building of this road ; and "now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer " by the usher- ing in of the first train of cars over the Lake Shore & Tuscarawas Valley Railway. We welcome our brethren from Cleveland and from the whole surrounding coun- try. Let us all rejoice together that labor and science have here erected another monument that shall con- stantly proclaim the great truth that nature presents no obstacles that may not by man be overcome, and made to minister to hiis comfort and happiness. And here, my fellow-citizens, permit me to conclude, in the language of our own poet, made to suit this occasion :

" Has the theme grown too old, and the triumph too cold, For a song of joy, I wonder ?

No, not while the shout of the engine rings out And the rumble of wheels, like low thunder,

Falls on the glad ear. No sound that we hear Wakes half such emotions of pleasure,

And the echoes resound, and our pulses rebound And beat to a rhythmical measure.

" By valley and mead, flies the steam-propelled steed, Like Sheridan's charger to battle.

The hopes and the fears of eighteen long years Are ended at last, and the rattle

Of. his iron hoofs say, as they speed on their way- ' Behold here the triumph of labor !

The hamlet awakes, and the City of Lakes Reaches her hand to her neighbor.

""The air is rife with new vigor and life, Wherever my hoofs are heard sounding,

And my shrill shrieking voice makes the valley rejoice, And the pulse of the village is bounding.

The stage-horse is seen on the meadow land green, And his neigh comes down like a blessing ; And poverty's flying and ignorance dying, And science and commerce progressing.'

"Hurrah ! and hurrah ! for the glad day that saw A village and city united.

The prayers of the past have been answered at last And the hearts of the people delighted."

To this address of welcome, Hon. F. W. Pcl- ton, Mayor of Cleveland, being called out, re- spouded as follows : "Mr. Mayor and citizens of Medina: In visitiug your city to-day, I did not expect to reply to your welcoming address, but came to join in the general rejoicing over the realization of our hopes in the final success of your railroad project. The completion of the Tuscarawas Valley Railway secures to you communication, not only with Cleveland, but with every city in the land. It is well calcu- lated to stimulate the rejoicings of your citi- zens. Medina is now linked with the fairest city of the lakes, whose citizens rejoice with you to-day, and are here to extend to you the hand of welcome, with the cordial wish that the new railroad may unite us more firmly together."

After this brief response, which was reccived with rounds of hearty applause, Judge Tyler was introduced as the man who had done as much or more than any other person, to secure the building of the road on the old road-bed. He began by saying that " the compliment was too high for his merits, but to sit still and say nothing on such an occasion would not do at all. Three months ago, Medina was 250 miles away from anywhere. To-day she is added to the family of railroad towns. Some twenty years ago, Medina started a railroad project ; and, like the Medina of old, she has kept the boncs of the prophet in the shape of the old road-bed, and many a dollar has been brought to this shrine. The starters of the old project deserve credit, and I am glad your Mayor gave them credit in his address. Like Rip Van

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

Winkle, Medina has slumbered for twenty years, but you see it has taken but two and a half months to wake up-to renew your life. And I want to say that you must thank the work- men for bringing the railroad to your doors so soon. Just sct Pete Young to work on a rail- road, and he will take it anywhere. Two months ago, or about that, the first stake was driven, and to-day, a passenger train arrives in your town. The railroad comes at the right time. It restores the losses by your great fire, and will build you up. The railroad itself will be a success. The stock will be good. In good hands, as it is, I am not afraid to guaran- tee 12 per cent on your stock in two years Its relations with other roads are of the most favorable kind; connections good; they all favor it. It runs through the richest agricult- ural and mineral portions of the State, aud Medina is midway on this great line. It now depends upon the citizens of Medina whether they will take advantage of their splendid loca- tion, where coal and iron and lumber will meet, to build up a thriving manufacturing business, and a prosperous town. Go ahead-make the most of your advantages. I did everything I could to help on the enterprise, and assure you no man in Medina rejoices at its success more heartily than I do."

This happy speech called out "three cheers" from the happy crowd, succeeded by earnest calls for Hon. James Monroe, the Congressman for the district of which Medina County formed a part. In responding, he said that, "upon re- ceiving the cordial invitation to be here, he liad examined carefully the programme, where he found that all that was required of him was to be happy and eat dinner. He was happy already, aud, as for the dinner, he was not going to talk long enough to keep it waiting. He did not expect to say a word -- the gratification of coming to Medina on a railroad train was su- premely satisfying. One thought, however, forced itself upon him. He saw a great many

young people herc. When he was young, he read about the grand old times in history, when there were Knights-errant, and he remembered that he felt a great regret that he was born in a prosy age-an age when there was no more chivalry, no more chance for heroic decds. He had no doubt the young people now thought the same-thought that this was only a corn and potato planting agc. But since then he had seen how much there was to do; what a work there is for stout hands and heroic hearts ; and he felt that this is the age of true chivalry. There are still useful deeds to be performed. We require as much heroism, and magnanimity, and all that noble quality of body and soul, called force, now as ever. The events we are met herc to congratulate the people of Medina on, are the kind of deeds required of us. This is valiant service. It is a different and more useful service than that of the Knights-errant, more worthy of a Christian age and a Christian people. The old Kuights destroyed cities by the sword and torch ; but it is the glory of this people, when their cities are burned, to build them up. I put it to the young men, if the age of chivalry is gone !"

Closing with some congratulatory remarks on the completion of the road, and a humorous allusion to his own services in getting a bill concerning the old road-bed through the legis- lature, when a member from this district, he was heartily applauded, and succeeded by Gen. John Crowell, of Cleveland. He said " his errand here was to join with the people in rejoicing over the completion of the railroad. His first visit to Medina was in 1823, when there were very few inhabitants in the town or township. The country was chiefly primeval forest, with now and then a log cabin and small clearing around it. How different the scene to-day ! The wilderness has been removed and trans- formed into cultivated fields and happy homes. I do join in rejoicing at the completion of your road, and trust you will realize all the benefits

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

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from it you justly expect. But, Mr. Mayor, five-minute speeches are, or ought to be, in or- der, and all I shall add is, to assure you that Cleveland, oue of the suburbs of Medina, ex- pects, at the close of the present decade, to num- ber 200,000 people ; and Medina may congrat- ulate herself, by her present enterprise she is promoting not only her owu iuterest, but the growth aud happiness of her enterprising sub- urb."

The happy reference to Medina's aspiratious and new-fouud dignity, fell pleasantly upon the ear of the audience, which responded with en- thusiam. James A. Briggs, Esq., of New York, was then called out, who by his compre- hensive salutatiou left none to feel that they were omitted in his thoughts, and paved the way for a patient hearing, notwithstanding the length of the exereises preceding him. He be- gan with : "Men, women, children, babes and sucklings of Medina : The world moves, prog- ress is the order of the day, aud the good peo- ple of Medina are henceforth and forever iu railroad connection with all parts of the coun- try ; for the iron horse and his train are here, and have made their long-waited-for appearance, amid the roar of cannou, the ringing of bells, the trumpets' pealing sound, and the glad shout of a happy people. And I am glad to be here once again after an absence of so many years, to meet you to-day, not to talk of fields and crops, of lowing herds and bleating flocks, of advancement in agriculture, 'the noblest be- cause the natural employmeut of man ;' not to discuss here political questions upon which you are divided, but to stand with you upon a common platform, where all are united, where you have but one feeling and one interest, and where all rejoice in one common impulse, to be ridden on a rail out of town, and to take this long-wished-for ride, without tar, without feathers, without disgrace, and under the care of a good conductor.

" Farmers, merchants, traders, business men,

you have long looked for this event, because the completion of this railroad will add to your convenience, to your material prosperity ; and whatever will add to the material prosperity of a people, is a matter of no small moment. Some transcendental philosophers and remarkable geniuses, who live in garrets and are always out at the toes, and out at the elbows, may regard those who are in pursuit of money, as laborers who have not a proper appreciation of the true dignity of man. But he who at this hour of the world's history regards money as of no ac- count, lives to as little purpose as he who re- gards its mere accumulation as the only end and aim of life. Money enables you to have comfortable, elegant houses, to improve your field stock, to make your labor, by the use of implements, lighter, and gives you the means to contribute to all the benevolent, humane, edu- cational and religious demands of the age, and, when calamity eomes upon 'your neighbor,' as in Chicago, Wisconsin and Michigan, to help him in his hour of ueed to food and clothing, and to make you all feel how blessed it is 'to give.'

"To the farmers of Medina, this railroad is a matter of no small concern. Your county is a very productive one. Only eleven counties out of the eighty-eight in the State have more cat- tle, five counties make more butter, seven make more cheese, three make more pounds of maple sugar, seven raise more bushels of oats, six have more acres of meadow, and only seven counties eut more tons of hay. This is cer- tainly a 'good show' for a couuty with 20,000 people. You will soon have railroad transpor- tation for all your products, and a few cents a bushel on graiu, or two cents a pound on but- ter and cheese, saved in the cost of getting to market, will add largely to the profits of farm- ing. Your county, with the five counties south of you, through which the Lake Shore & Tus- carawas Valley Road is to pass, raised about six millions of bushels of wheat, corn and oats

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

for export. Now, if this road enables the farmers of these five counties, to save five cents a bushel in marketing this grain, then they will put into their pockets $300,000 a year. I have no doubt this road will give an additional value to the products of these six counties of $1,000, 000 a year, as you will not raise anything that will not have a market value.

" Previous to the opening of the Erie Canal, the cost of transporting a ton of merchandise from Buffalo to Albany was $100, and the time twenty days. Upon the opening of the Erie Canal, the cost was reduced to $10, and now to $3. Ten barrels of flour make a ton, and, if it now cost $100 a ton for freight from Buffalo to Albany, you can figure up at your leisure how much wheat and coru would be worth a bushel in Medina County. 'Corn at 75 cents a bushel will bear transportation in the old way, 125 miles to market, and wheat at $1.50 a bushel 250 miles, while upon a rail- road corn will have a marketable value at 1,600 miles, and wheat 3,200 miles away.' Railways are great equalizers, for they make land far away from market almost as valuable as land near the centers of population. A few years ago, the tolls on the Ohio Canal were more per mile for freight than the cost of transportation on railroads is now.

" Another thing of great value to be derived from this railroad is this : It will supply you coal for fuel at cheap rate, and this will save your timber. The farmers of your own and of other counties cannot do a better thing than to save your forests. Good timber is becoming more and more scarce and valuable ; and how to save it is a question your State and county agri- cultural societies cannot too thoroughly discuss. In New England, I have seen stone walls in woods, when twenty years ago they divided cultivated fields. It pays to grow timber and wood on that land where it is too cold to grow almost anything, except good men and women, for export.

"The transportation of grain by railroad, from the West, is rapidly increasing ; and this kind cf carrying is of great profit to the grain-growers, as the grain is shipped by rail from the dis- trict where it is grown, and taken, without change of cars, to the place of consumption in the East, thus saving two or three commissions. At a recent meeting of the officers of the Albany & Boston Railroad, it was stated by Mr. Chapin, President of the company, that its business was. rapidly increasing, and by reason of its connec- tions with the Western roads. It had carried the last year 4,557,700 bushels of grain, and that $5,000,000 were needed for additional rolling stock and improvements. In a few months the cars of the Lake Shore & Tuscar- awas Valley Railroad will be seen loaded with grain, eggs and poultry, in towns and cities of New York and New England.

" Wonderful has been the growth of the North- west; it has no parallel in history. When I started in 1832 from the hills of Berkshire, with my old friend, Judge Humphreville-who, for many years, has lived among you. aud whom you have honored with high public trusts, and who is worthy of your honor and confidence-the only railroad between the At- lantic and the Mississippi was the railroad from Albany to Schenectady. Now, we have one railroad to the Pacific, and two others are in progress of construction. In a little more than a generation the Northwest has increased from 1,600,000 people to 13,000,000, and for this marvelous growth it is greatly indebted to rail- roads to which its own people have contributed but comparatively little. At $42,000 per mile, the railroads in the Northwest have cost $830,000,000, and from this large investment of capital, farmers derive the largest dividends -- not only in the actual increase of value to their lands, but in the increase of price they obtain for every article their lands or their labor will produce. If this railroad adds only $3 an acre to the six counties south of Cuyahoga, it gives

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

an additional value to the real estate alone, of $6,555,390. What was the land worth in the counties along the line of the Cleveland, Colum- bus & Cincinnati Railroad, at the time that road was put under contract, and what are they worth now ? There is life, business enterprise, industry, flourishing towns, and growing cities, and improved agriculture along the line of rail- roads ; and silence most profound, and dullness in the extreme, where the locomotive is not seen.

"In 1850, the Northwest had 1,276 miles of railroad ; Ohio had 575 miles. Now, the North- west has 19,765 miles, and Ohio 3,448 miles. Forty years ago, there were 910 miles of rail- roads in the United States, now over 50,000 miles, and it is a remarkable fact that the large increase of railroad mileage was, in 1869, 4,990 miles. This is evidence of the faith that capital, the most timid of all things, has in railroads in the United States. While our popu- lation is increasing at the rate of 1,000,000 a year, our railroads are increasing about 3,000 miles a year. At $42,000 per milc, the cost of the railroads of Ohio has been $144,816,600. What has been the effect of this investment in railroads in Ohio ? In 1850, with 575 miles of railroad, the value of real estate, $341,588,838, the value of personal property, $98,481,302; total value of taxable property, $439,966,340. In 1870, with 3,548 miles of railroad, the value of real estate is $1,013,000,000, and this does not include the value of real estate belonging to railroad companies, and taking the value of personal property as returned in 1869, $459,884,- 351, and the total value of taxable property is $1,452,960,340. The real estate in Ohio has been trebled in taxable value in twenty years, and the personal property has been increased more than four and a half times. Mr. Poor, in his carefully prepared statistics of railroads and their influence upon property, states in his 'Manual of Railroads for 1870-71,' 'that every railroad constructed adds five times its

value to the aggregate value of the property of the country.' If this is so, and I believe the estimate of Mr. Poor not too high, as the in- crease in Ohio is much larger than the estimate of Mr. Poor, then the construction of the Lake Shore and Tuscarawas Valley Railroad, will add $20,000,000. Some of you may think this too much, but it is not. When the line of this railroad is continued from the Chippewa coal- fields to the Ohio River at Wheeling, passing as it will, its entire length through one of the richest mineral districts in the United States, who can compute the wealth that will be devel- oped by means of this work? I do not think that $20,000,000 is too much to estimate the increase of valuc along its immediate line, within ten years from the day the road is through to Wheeling.

" A town in these days, without a railroad, is of no account. It is 'off the track,' at least, of trade and travel. Medina is now in the line of promotion, and may hope for advancement, and may bid a long farewell to the lumbering coach-to stage wagons, to mud roads, and to patience-trying journeys. There are men herc to-day who have been as long coming from Cleveland here as it takes now to go to New York from Cleveland. All hail the coming of the cars of the Lake Shore & Tuscarawas Val- ley Railroad ! Before another year is gone the road will be finished to Dennison, on the line of the Pittsburgh & St. Louis road, as I am told that Mr. Selah Chamberlain, the contractor, a man who knows no such word as fail, intends to have the whole line completed by the first day of October, 1872.

" Let me say to you, business men of Cleve- land who are here in numbers so large and so respectable to-day, that the railroad will, in my opinion, be of more importance to all your in- dustrial interests than any line of railroad leading out of Cleveland. It is a Cleveland road, and one that cannot be 'gobbled up' by the Pennsylvania Central to hold you at the

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

mercy of that great corporation. It will bring you eheap coal, salt, iron, oil, fire-clay and agri- cultural products in great abundance. Nour- ish it and give it your support. It will pay. "Friends of this railroad euterprise, you have been fortunate iu the men who have taken this work in hand, in the character of its officers, in the ability, energy and responsibility of the contractor, who is pushing right on with the work, and has not felt the blow which shook the eredit and tested the strength of the strongest in the land, since this road was eom- menced. Fortunate, indeed, has this country been in making eonnection at Grafton with the Cleveland, Columbus, Cineinnati & Indianapo- lis, and the Lake Shore & Michigan Railroad companies. Withont the arrangement made with these two great lines of roads, I do uot see how this road eould have been made. One of the best railroad men in Cleveland, told me, a few days ago, that the facilities obtained by this company for passengers, freight, eoal and dockage in Cleveland, from the roads above named, would have cost, even if they could have been obtained, $2,000,000. I believe the stoek of this railroad will be at par in two years, and its bonds are as good as any rail- road ever offered in the market, as the 40 per cent for freight and passengers to be paid by the Clevelaud, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis, and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern are, in fact, a guarauty of the bonds.

" Well may you ring the bells and fire the guns and make merry and prepare a feast of good things, at the completion of the first link in the chain of railroad that is to connect you with the Lake at Cleveland, and with the Ohio River at Wheeling. Onward is the word. And, if, in our rapid progress in all material prosper- ity, we do not, as a people, forget that virtue is the strength of a nation-that a correct public opinion is stronger than armies-and if the common schoolhouse, the meeting-house, and the town house, well filled with honest, intelli-

gent people, 'who know their rights and dare maintain them,' shall be seen from every rail- road along onr prairies, over the broad savan- nas, in our gorges, among our hills and valleys -then all will be well iu the future of this Re- publie, the world's best treasure and last hope."

This was the oration of the day, and it will, at this day, probably, afford a consolation to many who would hardly be ready to indorse his opinion so far as it concerns the value of the stock. Gen. Duthau Northrop, T. W. Browning, C. G. Washburn, editor of the Ely- ria Democrat ; A. W. Fairbanks, of the Cleve- land Herald ; Royal Taylor, Esq., and Thomas Jones, Esq., were ealled for and made short responses, when dinuer was announced. The invited guests were taken to the American House, where all the variety the market afforded was provided. Ample provision had been made to feed the crowd that gathered from the eouutry, at Empire Hall. Here the ladies waited on some twelve hundred persons, who were bonnteously fed. The dinner was the free gift of the citizens of the county, and, after all that cared to partake were provided for, there was a wagon-load of good provision that was dispensed among the poor, who were thus, at least, made to rejoice iu the coming of the railroad.

As soon as dark set in, the square began to blaze out with unwonted brilliancy. One after another illumination, was lighted in the business blocks, hotels aud offices. Some were quite elaborate, and all were bright and light, re -. sponsive to the happy mood of the people. Some of the mottoes were, "Out of the wilder- ness ! Hurrah for the railroad ! Good-bye, old hacks, good-bye !" " Welcome to the L. S. T. V. Railway. This is the way we long have songht !" " The motive power which develops the vital in- terests of our conntry-the locomotive !" The trees of the park were beautifully illuminated with colored lanterns, while " rockets, serpents, wheels, Romau candles, nigger-chasers, zig-zags,

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 57

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1014

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014