History of Portage County, Ohio, Part 33

Author: Warner, Beer & co., pub. [from old catalog]; Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Norris, J. E. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 958

USA > Ohio > Portage County > History of Portage County, Ohio > Part 33

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).

291

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

following Thursday, March 13, 1851, when the locomotive "Ravenna," draw- ing one car filled with Directors of the road, came down from the city to exam- ine the progress of the work. On the 18th of March regular daily trains began running, connecting at Ravenna with a packet on the Ohio & Pennsylvania Canal, which ran to Beaver, Penn., where the traveler took the steamer for Pittsburgh. The trip was made in twenty-six hours, and the fare from Cleve- land to Pittsburgh was $3.50 including meals and bed on the boat. At that time a daily train (except Sundays) left Cleveland at 8:30 A. M., arrived at Ravenna at 10:30 A. M., and left the latter point for Cleveland at 2:30 P. M. But after the 1st of April, 1851, an accommodation left Ravenna every morn- ing (excepting Sunday) for Cleveland, and returned in the evening, so that, at that early day, Ravenna enjoyed traveling facilities that many country towns do not even yet possess.

The first week the road averaged 175 passengers daily, besides carrying considerable freight, and from that time forward its business increased rapidly. A telegraph office was opened in Ravenna, in connection with the road, April 22, 1851, which was the first established in the village. The work on the road south of Ravenna was pushed along vigorously, and by May 28, 1851, about eight miles of track were laid between Ravenna and Atwater. The track was being put down at the rate of half a mile a day, and before the close of June a passenger car on the construction train was making daily trips to Atwater, Lima and Alliance, and many availed themselves of the accommoda- tion thus afforded. The cars began running to Hanover, about seventy five miles southeast of Cleveland, November 5, 1851, there connecting with the stage for Wellsville on the Ohio River, and thence to Pittsburgh by a special line of steamers. Leaving Cleveland at 8:45 A. M., the traveler arrived at Pittsburgh at 10 P. M. the same day. The last rail completing the road to Wellsville was laid on Saturday, February 14, 1852, and the same evening the cars came through from Wellsville to Ravenna. But the first passenger train came over the line from Wellsville to Cleveland February 23, and February 26 regular trains began running between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. On Thursday, March 4, 1852, a grand celebration was held at Wellsville over the completion of the road, and on the following day at Wheeling, West Va. The line was subsequently built to Bellaire, Ohio, and Rochester, Penn. At the lat- ter point the Cleveland & Pittsburgh connects with the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, which track it uses from Rochester to Pittsburgh, under a twenty-five-year lease entered into between the two companies December 15, 1862, which went into effect April 1, 1863. On the 25th of October, 1871, the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad Company leased its road to the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company for the term of 999 years from December 1, 1871. The Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad enters Portage County in the southwest corner of Streetsboro Township, and thence passing in a southeast direction across Franklin, Ravenna, Rootstown, Edinburg and Atwater Townships, leaves the county on Lot 51 of the last mentioned subdivision. It is one of the most prosperous roads in the country, and pays a large annual dividend to its stock-holders.

The Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railroad Company was chartered by a special act passed February 22, 1848, with authority to construct a railroad from Cleveland to some point in or near Warren, Ohio, with the right of con- tinuing the road to the east line of the State. The road was built under this charter from Cleveland to Youngstown, and a branch from Youngstown to the State line. It enters Portage County near the northwest corner of Aurora Township, and passes through Aurora, Mantua, Hiram, Garrettsville, Nelson

292

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

and Windham Townships, striking the Trumbull County line near the north- east corner of Windham. Most of the grading was done and the track partially laid through this county in the fall of 1855. The Portage County Democrat of November 7, 1855, says that the rails were then laid between Warren and Mantua Station, and construction trains running between those points. In the spring of 1856 the road was completed to Cleveland, and July 4 of that year regular trains began running from Cleveland to Warren. The road east of Warren was, after that date, rapidly pushed to completion. On the 7th of October, 1863, the company leased the road to the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company for the term of ninety-nine years, and it has since been operated as a branch of that line.

The Atlantic & Great Western Railroad is one of the principal trunk lines between the East and the West. It had its inception in three different charters granted in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, that granted by the last-men- tioned State being the one in which Portage County is more directly interested. On the 10th of March, 1851, the Ohio Legislature granted a charter to the Franklin & Warren Railroad Company, for the construction of a railroad from Franklin Mills (Kent), Portage County, to Warren, Trumbull County, and thence to the east line of the State, with power to continue the road westward or southwestward from Franklin Mills to connect with any other railroad in Ohio. On the 21st of May, 1851, the company was organized by the follow- ing incorporators: Marvin Kent, Zenas Kent, L. V. Bierce, Thomas Earl, O. L. Drake, Cyrus Prentiss, Simon Perkins, H. B. Spelman, Charles Smith, Jacob Perkins, Rufus P. Ranney, A. V. Horr, Daniel Upson, Fred Kinsman and C. G. Sutliff. Marvin Kent, the leading spirit of the enterprise, was elected President of the company July 8, 1851, and served five years continu- ously. He was again elected President in July, 1859, and re-elected annually five times, serving in that capacity until the fall of 1864, when he resigned the office.

Another well-known citizen of the county, who from long connection with the road deserves a passing notice, is Enos P. Brainerd, Esq. He became Treasurer of the company in January, 1855, and for nine successive years was annually re-elected to the same position, which he resigned December 2, 1864. He was, however, retained as Assistant Treasurer, and July 11, 1865, again elected Treasurer, but lost the office upon the consolidation of the three com- panies the following August.

In the meantime, during the summer of 1852, some gentlemen in Ohio and Pennsylvania had proposed the project of continuing the broad gauge of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad through Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania and southwestern New York. This grand plan for a great broad gauge from St. Louis to New York was subsequently submitted to the Directors of the three local companies of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York (the two last-mentioned having some years previously, under different titles, obtained charters covering the construction of roads in the same general direction), and favorable action taken thereon. By a decree of the Court of Common Pleas of Portage County, dated October 17, 1854, the name of the company in Ohio was changed to the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company. The Pennsylvania Com- pany also changed its corporate name, by an act of the Legislature passed April 15, 1858, to the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company of Penn- sylvania. The Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company of New York was incorporated the same year, and it was the intention to build and operate these three roads as one line, so far as such could be done by contracts with each other.

Posepler Waggoner

295

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

On the 20th of April, 1860, the engineers commenced work at Jamestown, N. Y., and on the 27th the contractors began grading. On the 8th of May, 1860, the first rail was laid, and the first spike driven. In May, 1861, the track was laid to Corry, Penn. Work was soon afterward suspended and it was not until October 22, 1862, that the road was opened to Meadville, Penn. During this time the work on the Ohio division was progressing very slowly, but in the spring of 1862 it was energetically commenced, and vigorously pushed throughout the summer. The first week in November, 1862, two loco- motives were placed upon the track at Ravenna to aid in the work, and by the 12th of that month about seven miles of track were laid east of that town. The telegraph office of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad was opened in Ravenna September 20, 1862, and the first dispatch sent over the wires to Corry, Penn., on that date. By December 10, 1862, the track between Ravenna and Warren was completed, and the construction trains freely run- ning from the latter town to a point four miles west of Ravenna; and January 4, 1863, the last rail, connecting Warren and Meadville, was laid in place.

On the 15th of January, 1863, thirteen freight cars loaded with rails arrived at Ravenna from New York over the new line, being the first cars direct from the eastern metropolis without change. On the evening of Febru- ary 10, 1863, the first accomodation train reached Ravenna from Meadville. The passengers were principally officers of the road. They were met at the depot (then a temporary frame building), by a number of leading citizens, taken in carriages to the Collins House and handsomely entertained, returning to Meadville the following morning. The first freight was sent over this road from Ravenna to New York February 11, 1863, and consisted of a car load of flour from one of the mills in the town. Two days afterward ten barrels of sugar were received at Ravenna from New York, via the Atlantic & Great Western. A regular accommodation train began running east from Ravenna February 16, 1863. It made three trips a week each way, and was only intended as a temporary arrangement to accommodate the people along the line until the further completion of the road. Though the rails were laid and an accom- modation running in connection with the construction train, as far west as Kent, in February, 1863, the first through passenger train did not reach that town until Saturday, March 7, 1863. The passengers consisted of President Marvin Kent, Chief Engineer Thomas W. Kennard and other officials of the road, who made the trip from New York to Kent without change. Up to March 30, 1863, there were only three trains weekly each way, but on that date daily trains began running. Business grew rapidly, and by the 18th of May the company found it necessary to put on two daily passenger trains each way to accommodate the traveling public. On the 26th of May, 1863, the line was completed to Akron, December 27th to Galion, and in June, 1864, to Day- ton, there taking the broad gauge track on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad to Cincinnati, which had been prepared for a connection to the new line. In August of the same year a train was run from New York to St. Louis, 1,200 miles of broad gauge, in forty-seven hours.

Under an agreement of August 19, 1865, the three companies of Ohio Pennsylvania and New York were consolidated as the Atlantic & Great Western Railway Company. On the 1st of April, 1867, the road went into the hands of a receiver, and December 7, 1868, it was leased to the Erie Railway Company for the term of twelve years, but was only operated by them four months, when at the suits of creditors the courts of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio again placed the road in the hands of receivers. The Erie Railway Company leased the road in February, 1870, but in July, 1871, it was sold,

296

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

the purchasers re-organizing as the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Com- pany. The road again went into the hands of a receiver December 10, 1874, and January 6, 1880, was sold and its name changed to the New York, Penn- sylvania & Ohio Railroad. The track has been changed to the standard gauge of the country. In March, 1883, it was leased for ninety-nine years to the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company, who still operate it. It strikes the east line of Portage County in Lot 50, Windham Township, and taking a general southwest course through Windham, Freedom, Charlestown, Ravenna and Franklin, leaves the county at the northwest corner of Brimfield Township. The machine shops at Kent, which employ a large number of men, were located at that point by the Board of Directors April 5, 1854, though they were not built for many years afterward.

The Cleveland, Youngstown & Pittsburgh Railroad, which passes up the eastern side of Deerfield and Palmyra Townships and across the southeast corner of Paris, sprung from the Lake Erie, Alliance & Wheeling Railroad, chartered February 19, 1874, to run from Fairport, on Lake Erie, to Wheeling, W. Va. Early in 1876 the work of construction was begun, and the road was completed the same year from Alliance, Stark County, through Portage, to Newton Falls, in Trumbull County, and the following summer to Braceville. On the 9th of May, 1878, the road was sold, and on the 31st the purchasers re-organized as the Alliance & Lake Erie Railroad Company, and in the fall of 1879 completed the road to Phalanx. It was originally a narrow gauge, but July 14, 1882, a consolidation was effected with some other companies, under the title of the Cleveland, Youngstown & Pittsburgh, and the road changed to a standard gauge.

The Connotton Valley Railway Company was formed by a consolidation of the Connotton Valley Railroad Company and the Connotton Northern Railway Company. The Youngstown & Connotton Valley Railroad Company was incorporated August 29, 1877, to construct a line of road from Bowerstown to Youngstown. In 1878 this company purchased the Ohio & Toledo Railroad, which consisted of a finished track from Dell Roy to Minerva, and in the fall of 1879 the route and terminus of the Youngstown & Connotton Valley was changed, making Canton instead of Youngstown the northern terminus. By a decree of the Court of Common Pleas, issued November 20, 1879, the name of the corporation was changed to the Connotton Valley Railroad Company. The Connotton Northern Railway Company was chartered March 23, 1879, to build a road from Canton to Fairport on Lake Erie, but the northern terminus was afterward changed to Cleveland. When the Connotton Valley was built to Canton, and the Connotton Northern in course of construction, the two companies saw that their interests would be better conserved by uniting, and on the 25th of October, 1880, the consolidation was effected as the Connotton Valley Railway Company. The road is a narrow gauge, which entering Port- age County on the southern line of Suffield Township, takes a general northerly course through Suffield, Brimfield, Franklin and Streetsboro Townships, and crosses into Summit County on Lot 7, in the southwest corner of Aurora Township. It was completed and trains running as far north as Mogadore by the close of June, 1881, and during the same year was finished and opened through to Cleveland.

The Pittsburgh, Cleveland & Toledo Railroad Company was incorporated April 28, 1882, to construct a road from Newcastle Junction, in Lawrence County, Penn., to Akron, Ohio. Work was begun at once and pushed vigor- ously throughout 1882 and 1883, the track being laid through Portage County in the summer of the latter year. The road was opened for business February

297

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

1, 1884, but regular trains did not begin running until the 4th of March fol- lowing. It follows the abandoned bed of the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal, through Paris, Charlestown, Ravenna and Franklin Townships, and has proven quite an acquisition to the railroad facilities of the country through which it passes.

The foregoing are the only completed railroads which touch Portage County territory, but from 1853 to 1856 considerable grading was done on a proposed road called the Clinton Air Line. It entered the State at Kinsman on the Pennsylvania line, and passed southwest through Trumbull, Geauga, Portage, and Summit Counties, thence onward in the same general direction. It struck the northern boundary of Hiram Township, in Lot 4, and passed southwest through Hiram, Mantua and Aurora Townships to Hudson, Summit County, crossing the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railroad near the boundary line between Mantua and Aurora. Some efforts have recently been made to revive the project, but so far nothing definite has been effected, and it is very doubt- ful if the road will ever be built. Portage County, however, is well supplied with railroads, few counties in the State being able to point to six roads pass- ing through their territory. Randolph and Shalersville are the only town- ships in the county not touched by a railroad, yet railroad communications are so close at hand that the inhabitants of those two townships probably derive as much real benefit from the roads as if they passed within sight of their doors.

CHAPTER VIII ..

EDUCATION IN OHIO-LANDS GRANTED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES-COMMIS- SIONERS OF SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL LANDS IN 1822-THE SCHOOL LANDS SOLD AND A SCHOOL FUND ESTABLISHED-PIONEER SCHOOLS, SCHOOLHOUSES, TEACHERS AND BOOKS IN PORTAGE COUNTY-HOW TEACHERS WERE EM- PLOYED AND PAID-AN AMUSING AGREEMENT-GROWTII OF EDUCATION- GOVERNMENT AND PROGRESS OF SCHOOLS PRIOR TO 1851-SCHOOLS FOR COL- ORED YOUTH ESTABLISHIED-RE-ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOLS UNDER THE LAWS OF 1853-PRESENT GOVERNMENT OF SCHOOLS.

"THE most casual observer cannot but have noticed, notwithstanding the privation and discomforts attending the lives of the early settlers, the zeal they manifested in education, and that, as soon as a sufficient number of pupils could be collected and a teacher secured, a house was erected for the purpose. The period just preceding the Revolution was characterized by its number of literary men, and the interest they gave to polite learning; and the patriots who were conspicuous in that struggle for human liberty were men not only of ability, but of no ordinary culture. We can readily understand that the influence of their example had its weight in molding public sentiment in other respects besides that of zeal for the patriot cause. To this may be added that, for the most part, the early pioneers were men of character, who endured the dangers and trials of a new country, not solely for their own sakes, but for their children, and with a faith in what the future would bring forth, clearly saw the power and value of education. Then we find, from the beginning, this object kept steadily in view, and provision made for its successful prose- cution; and the express declaration of the fundamental law of the State enjoins that "the principal of all funds arising from the sale or other distri-

298

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

bution of lands or other property, granted or intrusted to the State for educa- tional purposes, shall forever be preserved inviolate and undiminished, and the income arising therefrom shall be faithfully applied to the specific objects of the original grants or appropriations, and the General Assembly shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise as, from the income arising from the school trust fund, shall secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the State."

The act of Congress providing for the admission of Ohio into the Union offered certain educational propositions to the people. These were, first, that Section 16 in each township, or, in lieu thereof, other contiguous or equiva- lent lands, should be granted for the use of schools; second, that thirty-eight sections of land, where salt springs had been found, should be granted to the State, never to be sold, or leased for a longer term than ten years; and third, that one-twentieth of the proceeds from the sale of the public lands in the State should be applied toward the construction of roads from the Atlantic to and through Ohio. Those propositions were offered on the condition that the public lands sold by the United States after the 30th of June, 1802, should be exempt from State taxation for five years after sale. The ordinance of 1787 had already provided for the appropriation of Section 16 to the support of schools in every township sold by the United States. This, therefore, could not, in 1802, be properly made the subject of a new bargain between the United States and Ohio; and by many it was thought that the salt reserva- tions and one-twentieth of the proceeds of the sale of public lands were inad- equate equivalent for the proposed surrender of a right to tax for five years. The convention, however, accepted the propositions of Congress, on their being so modified and enlarged as to vest in the State, for the use of schools, Section 16 in each township sold by the United States, and three other tracts of land, equal in quantity respectively to one thirty-sixth of the Virginia Mil- itary Reservation, of the United States Military Tract and of the Connecticut Western Reserve, and to give 3 per cent of the proceeds of the public lands sold within the State to the construction of roads in Ohio, under the direction of the Legislature. Congress agreed to the proposed modifications, and thus was established the basis of the common-school fund of Ohio.

We have seen in the foregoing how Congress, by a compact with the peo- ple, gave them one thirty-sixth part of all of the lands northwest of the Ohio River for school purposes. The lands for this purpose set apart were, how- ever, often appropriated by squatters, and through unwise, careless and some- times corrupt legislation, these squatters were vested with proprietorship. Caleb Atwater, in his history of Ohio, in speaking on this subject says: " Members of the Legislature not unfrequently got acts passed and leases granted, either to themselves, their relatives or to their partisans. One Sena- tor contrived to get, by such acts, seven entire sections of land into either his own or his children's possession." From 1803 to 1820 the General Assembly spent a considerable portion of every session in passing acts relating to these lands, without advancing the cause of education to any degree.

In 1821 the House of Representatives appointed five of its members, viz., Caleb Atwater, Loyd Talbot, James Shields, Roswell Mills and Josiah Barber, a Committee on Schools and School Lands. This committee subsequently made a report, rehearsing the wrong management of the school land trust on behalf of the State, warmly advocated the establishment of a system of educa- tion and the adoption of measures which would secure for the people the rights which Congress intended they should possess. In compliance with the recommendation of the committee, the Governor of the State, in May, 1822,

299

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

having been authorized by the Legislature, appointed seven Commissioners of Schools and School Lands, viz. : Caleb Atwater, Rev. John Collins, Rev. James Hoge, N. Guilford, Ephraim Cutler, Josiah Barber and James M. Bell. The reason why seven persons were appointed was because there were seven different sorts of school lands in the State, viz .: Section 16 in every township of the Congress lands, the United States Military lands, the Virginia Military lands, Symmes' Purchase, the Ohio Company's Purchase, the Refugee lands and the Connecticut Western Reserve. This commission of seven persons was reduced by various causes to one of three, Messrs. Atwater, Collins and Hoge, who performed the arduous duties incumbent upon them with but little remu- neration and (at the time) but few thanks.

The Legislature of 1822-23 broke up without having taken any definite action upon the report presented by the commission, but during the summer and autumn of 1824 the subject of the sale of the school lands was warmly agitated, and the friends of the measure triumphed over the opposition so far as to elect large majorities to both branches of the General Assembly in favor of its being made a law. The quantity of land set apart was ascertained in 1825 to be a little more than half a million acres, and was valued at less than $1,000,000. The school lands were finally sold and the proceeds taken charge of by the State, the interest accruing from the moneys derived from the sale of the different classes of lands to be annually distributed among the counties in the respective land districts, according to the school enumeration of each county. It might be well to state here that the school age at this time was from four to sixteen, which was, however, changed whenever the General Assembly considered such a change necessary or judicious. From the time the school lands were sold up to the present, each county in the State has received annually its quota of the interest obtained from this school fund. Nearly one-half of the counties of Ohio pay more money into the common school fund of the State than they receive back again, the surplus thus raised going to poor or sparsely settled counties. This has been the case in Portage County for many years. In 1875 she paid $16,412.86 and received $12,537.60, or $3,875.26 less than she paid in. In 1880 she paid $15,785.11, and received $11,662.50, or $4,122.61 less than paid into the State fund. These two years will serve to illustrate what this county has been doing for the cause of educa- tion, for besides educating her own youth she has and is paying annually for the instruction of the school youth in other counties of the State.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Portage County, Ohio, Part 33

Author: Warner, Beer & co., pub. [from old catalog]; Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Norris, J. E. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Chicago, Warner, Beers & co. Number of Pages: 958

Author: Warner, Beer & co., pub. [from old catalog]; Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Norris, J. E. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 958