History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 37

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1060

USA > Ohio > Stark County > History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio > Part 37

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The early settlers of the county were morally inclined, and religious meetings were held almost as soon as actual settlements were made. Just when and upon what precise spot the first church society was organized. we are un- able to say. In Plain Township we have an account of religious meetings by Rev. Mr. Stough as early as 1806, and of the erection of a church there in 1809. A church was built in Jackson Township in 1814, by all religious denominations at that time represented in the township. It was of hewed logs and called " Zion's Church." The first preaching in Osna- burg Township, of which we have reliable in- formation. was by Rev. William Mitchell, a Methodist circuit-rider. He was also the first preacher in Sugar Creek Township. Rev. Ed- ward Otis was one of the pioneer Baptist preachers of the connty. The first church in Sandy Township was built by the Presbyterians and Lutherans, of which denominations Rev. Joshua Beer (Presbyterian) and Rev. Mr. Wagenholtz (Lutheran) were the first preach- ers in this section. St. John's Catholic Church was organized in Canton in 1818, and the Pres- byterian Church in 1821. A Methodist Church was organized in Lexington Township in 1819.

1HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

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and a church built in 1827. Revs. Weir and Faust. Lutheran and German Reformed minis- ters, were pioneers in Stark County. The Dun- kards were the first religious seet in Nimishillen Township. The Quakers built the first church in Marlborough Township, and Rov. Richard S. Goe, a Swedenborgian, was the first preacher in Bethlehem.

Thus the different sections of the county were brought under religious influence, by the organization of churches, and the erection of temples of worship, until at the present writing, there are in the county over 130 church build. ings. costing from $1,500 to $80,000 and up- ward each. This showing is pretty good evi- dence that the people have not retrograded from their early religious training.

Educational .- Nothing is more characteristic of the settlement of Ohio than the prominence which educational effort early attained in its social development. The settlements were sparse, and money or other means to secure teachers were obtained with great difficulty. but parents and children alike seemed to ap preciate the great advantage which knowledge bestowed, and made endless sacrifices to gain this coveted gift. In many cases in Stark County, schools were begun and carried on without much hope of reward. and principally as a labor of love. Houses were built for school purposes. before there were children enough in the neighborhood to form a very full school.

These early schoolhouses were rude in con- struction. and partook much of the same gen- eral plan. Logs were ent sixteen. eighteen or twenty feet, according to the population of the district, and of these logs the walls were com- posed. When raised. " shakes " or clapboards covered the building. A rude fire-place, clap board door. puncheon floor, the cracks filled with chinks, and daubed over with mud. com- pleted the primitive schoolhouse of the pioneer period. The window, if any, was made by cutting out a log the full length of the build- ing, and over the opening in winter was placed a well greased paper. that served to keep out the storm and admit the light. Just under this window. two or three strong pins were driven into the log in a slanting direction. and on these pins, a long puncheon was fastened. thus forming the desk upon which the writing was done. For seats. they used benches made

from small trees, out in lengths of ten or twelve feet, split open, and. in the round side. two large holes were bored at each end. which received the supporting legs, and house and furniture was complete. The books used by the pupils were as primitive as the house The most popular reader was the New Testa ment, when it could be obtained. though occa sionally a copy of the old - English Reader was found, and very rarely. the .Columbian Orator " was in the family : Pike's and Smiley's Arithmetics : " Webster's Speller " was first used. and after awhile the . Elementary Speller " came in. Grammar was seldom taught : when it was, the text books were Murray's or Kirk- ham's grammars. The primitive schoolhouses were in keeping with the homes of the pupils They were warm, if nothing more. as it was only necessary to make a bee and re-mnd the spaces between the logs each fall before cold weather came on. Children who were bare- footed till the school commenced. and some- times till the snows covered the hills and ice the streams, were not so sensitive to cold as pupils of these latter days. "I have often," said an old gentleman to us, " seen boys sliding down hill, and upon the ice with bare feet till mid-winter."

It was easier to build the houses and warm them, however, than to obtain money to pay teachers, small as the wages were often but $1 a week for women. and $2 or $3 for men. and board with the pupils. Books cost money. and money was a commodity that was scarce in the country, so the books were not easy to obtain. There was no changing of readers then every session, as some gassy representa tive of a publishing house got the - weather- gauge " of a school board. and convinced them that the old readers in use were already obso- lete. as at the present day. The instructors of those early times would make a poor show beside our present highly accomplished teach ers, so far as knowledge of text books is con corned. It is no slander to say that teachers who could not master square-root, or who had not seen the inside of a grammar, were more numerous than those who dared to make pre tensions to such qualifications. There was first no publie fund available, and in a later period the fund for the payment of teachers was quite small, and what was lacking was made up by assessment pro rata on those who

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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

attended the school; hence the teacher was often compelled to wait for a part of the small sum promised him. till it could be collected. But let it not be supposed that there was no good work done in these schools. The reading, the spelling, the writing and the ciphering, so far as the teacher could go. need not have been ashamed to stand beside that of these days of high culture and extended literary attainment. The seeds sown broadcast in the forests have i germinated and grown during these many years, and now we behold the magnificent harvest.

" Culture's hand

Hlas scatter'd verdure o'er the land : And smiles and fragrance rule serene. Where barren wild usurp'd the scene."

Prominent among the teachers of an early day in the common schools-and they were very common schools in those days-may be | Managing and superintend- mentioned the following persons, viz .. William Lee. Andrew Murray, John Laughlin, Andrew Interest on redemption of Johnson. Alpheus Brown, Lewis Probst, a Mr. Stevens. James Grounds, Cyrus Spink, Thomas Fuel and other contingent Carmichael, Dr. B. Michener, David Lawson and others, whose names are forgotten. The first schoolhouse in the county is supposed to have been built in Sandy Township. about the year 1807. and the first built in Canton Town- ship in the fall of 1808. Another schoolhouse known as the " Cameron Schoolhouse" was built in Sandy Township in 1815. The first school taught in Nimishillen Township was taught in 1814. in a schoolhouse built upon the land of Ulrich Spenley. Lexington Township Colored-Boys had a school in 1820; Marlborough's first schoolhouse was built in 1825. A German school was taught in Canton in a log barn in 1809, and in Plain Township. we are told that a Mr. Stevens taught a school in the fall of 1808. and about the same year Bethlehem High Township had its first school. The first select school in Perry Township was taught by the late Gen. Cyrus Spink. A log schoolhouse was built in Jackson Township very early and was occu- pied by a school. taught by Thomas Carmichael. Dr. Michener was the next teacher in Jackson, and is still remembered on account of his love for pure English. The first school in Sugar Creek Township was taught on the McFerren farm. and the first in Tusearawas was taught in the winter of 1812-13. and was a night-school. Its first day school was taught some time later. These early schools were all "subscription

schools ;" that is, each family subscribed so many scholars, for which they paid so much per scholar for the session, as there were no public funds then. In contrast to that period, we give the following statistics from the last report of the State Commissioner of Public Schools :

Balance on hand September 1. 1828 .. 85.901 79

State tax. . 30,909 00

Irreducible school fund. . 4.573 06

Local tax for schools and schoolhouse purposes 100. 122 18

32,104 02

Amount received on sale of bonds. .. . . From fines, licenses and other sources 3.017 86

Total receipts. $256,627 91

Amount paid teachers- Primary. . . . $73,160 84 High. 10,517 19

$83.678 03

ing.

3,615 00

Sites and buildings

38.417 16

bonds .. 25.138 97

expenses

23.803 39

Total expenditures. .. $174,952 55

Balance on hand September 1. 1879. ... $ 81,975 36 Receipts from counties. . . . . $32,472 79

Payments to counties ..

30,909 00

Excess of receipts. .. . 1,563 79

Youth between 6 and 21 years-

Boys.

10.405

Gifts

10,205

20,700 1

Girls

Total .

20,796

Number of schoolhouses-

Townships, primary

149

Separate districts, primary.

Total. 183

Valne of school property-

Townships, primary.

$198.400 00

Separate districts, primary $245 .- 000 00; high. $60,000 00 $305.000 00

Total in county. $503.400 00

Different teachers employed- Townships, primary, males, 177; females, 125. . . 302

Separate districts, primary, males. 26: females, 86: high, males, 13; females, 5. 130

Total. 432

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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

Average wages paid teachers per month-

Townships, primary, mates. $33 00

primary, females .. 19 00

Separate districts, primary, males 51 00 primary, females 34 00 high, males. 64 00

high. females. 53 00 Number of different pupils enrolled-

Townships, primary, males, 5.134. fc males, 4,318. 9.452

Separate districts, primary, males, 2.873

female-, 2.949. high, males. 347; fe-

males. 432. 6,651

Total .. 16,103

Average daily attendance

Townships, primary. male -. 2,254: fe males. 1,991. . .4.245

Separate districts, primary, mates, 2,015. females. 2,029. high, males, 259: fo- males. 31x 1,62t

Total. .8,866

In addition to the common and graded schools of the county, there is no lack of in- struction of a higher order. Academies, sem- inaries and colleges within the county limits, afford to the student ample means of a com- plete, or even classical education. These in- stitutions of learning will be fully written up in other chapters of this work. Mount Union College, the Charity School of Massillon, Can- ton Academy, and the defunct Alliance College will receive appropriate mention in their re- spective chapters. Itisour aim. in this chapter. to take but the merest glance at the church and educational history. but to notice briefly the organization of schools and churches, leav- ing their progress and advancement for other departments of this work. With these words of explanation. we will turn to another subject.

The Press,-There is no more important feature in the history of the county's social de- velopment, or one which more accurately meas- ures it. than the newspaper. A public servant in the truest sense. it lives only by the volun- tary support of the people, and as a matter of necessity. in the main, reflects the average sen- timent, enterprise and moral development of the community in which it appears. The peo- ple who settled Stark County. though an intel- ligent people. were not so great readers or close students as their neighbors. the Yankees of the " Reserve." but they, at an early day, showed their appreciation of the local press in a sub- stantial manner which led to the establishment of the Canton Repository in the early part of

1813. This was the first newspaper issued in the present boundary of Stark County Hither- to the people had been dependent for news on papers published elsewhere, but now, they had a paper of their own, which gave them quite a metropolitan air, and almost intoxicated them with their own importance. The files of the Repository have been bound and carefully pre- served, and from them we may learn. not only much of the history of the county, but of the conntry at large. In the first volume one may read of Napoleon at Waterloo, and nearly sixty years later of the misfortune of another Na- poleon at Sedan. It was established by John Saxton, and is still owned by the Saxtons, and is Republican in its political views. The Stark County Democrat was started in 1833 by John Bernard. It is now owned by A. Mettregor & Son, and is the leading Democratic journal in this seetion of the State.

The press of the county can only receive a general mention in the present chapter, as it is fully written up elsewhere in this work. As one of the chief matters of interest and im- portance in each city and town, the press will be noticed with due attention in the history of those places. For general reference. however, we give the following list of the papers pub- lished in the county at the present time : Can- ton : Canton Repository : Stark County Demo- crut : Canton Republican : Ohio Volks Zeitung : Canton Courier. Massillon : American : Inde- pendent. Alliance : Review : Standard. Canal Fulton : Fulton Signal. Minerva : Monitor. There have been a number of papers established in the county, which flourished for a brief sea- son-swept over the scene "like untamed meteors, flashed, darted and fizzled." and then went out. Their obituaries will appear in the history of the towns where they lived and died.

Roads and Highways. Among the great forces that develop the moral growth of a com- munity are the thoroughfares that connect it with the outside world. They are the arterios which carry the elements of the growth and vigor from the centers of church and school influence, and of commercial activity, to re- moter points ; and the great hindrance to the rapid growth. both moral and material. in fron- tier communities in that early day, was this lack of easy communication with the rest of the world. Information of all sorts was meager and generally inaccurate, and a place ten miles

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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

away was less known to the pioneers for the first fifteen or twenty years than Europe is to us to-day. The papers were almost universally taken up too much with State and national affairs to mention local matters, and there was nothing to incite the community to a generous rivalry. or to awaken an enterprising enthu- siasm.

One of the first roads in Stark County was known as the " Wooster Road," and passed through the county east and west. It was on this road that " Buckwheat Bridge " was built. one of the first. if not the first bridge in the county. The road passed through a large swamp near Canton, and into this swamp large quantities of buek wheat straw were thrown, and covered with sand and gravel, from which fact it received the name of Buckwheat Bridge. This was the commencement of public roads, and other important highways followed in rapid succession. For several years after settlements were made. the establishment of roads was un- settled. Each settler undertook to make a road to suit his own convenience. This. together with the uneven and hilly nature of the ground. has been the means of roads running in alnost any direction, except to the cardinal points of the compass. It is proverbial that the roads of Stark County are about as zigzag as they very well can be made, unless there were more hills to go around. Notwithstanding their crooked- ness, however. they are about as good as are to be found in any community where there are no pikes. Bridges span the streams. and the steepest of the hills are graded down. thus making the roads as nearly level as circum- stances will allow.

The next public thoroughfares to the wagon- roads were the canals. These artificial water highways antedate the Christian era, and were employed as a means of irrigation and com- munication by the Assyrians, Egyptians and Hindoos, and also by the Chinese, whose works of this kind are unrivaled in extent. These canals, however, were uniformly level, and it was not until the fifteenth century that locks were invented, showing thus how canals might be advantageously used for inland navigation. It was not until little more than half a century ago, that canals received much attention in the United States. The Ohio Canal was finished from Cleveland to Akron in 1827, and through to Portsmouth. on the Ohio River. in 1830.

The project, with estimates of its cost, was brought to the notice of the Legislature in 1824. and commissioners appointed. An act was passed in 1825, for interior improvement by a system of canals. The Ohio Canal was chartered, and work begun on it between Akron, in Summit County, and Cleveland. In Decem ber, 1825, the line was located between Akron and Massillon, and the contract for its con struetion let in January, 1826. So rapidly was the work pushed forward that the canal was · completed, and, as we have said, opened through to Portsmouth in 1830. This highway of com- munication was the inauguration of a new era. It revived all branches of business, and, for the first time since the settlement of the county, merchants paid cash for wheat. Indeed its effects were felt throughout the entire country.

The old Sandy & Beaver Canal, which touches the southeast corner of the county, was built many years ago, and was intended as a kind of feeder, both in water supply and commerce, to the Ohio Canal. It extended from Glasgow, on the Ohio River, to Bolivar in Tuscarawas County, on the Ohio Canal. From some cause. it was abandoned more than thirty years ago. It still remains, as a means of ir- rigation and drainage to the district through which it passes. Its history. however. has little to do with the history of Stark County, touching, as it does. a very small corner of the county. But a measure, growing out of its construction. interested and exeited the people of the city of Canton, and of the county. con- siderably at one time, viz .. the " Nimishillen & Sandy Slackwater Navigation Company." " What's in a name?" said Shakespeare, and really there seemed in this case to be very little in this tremendous name, for the enter- prise finally failed. It was the design of this company to build a canal by way of the Nim- ishillen and Sandy Creeks to the Sandy & Beaver Canal, some miles north of its junction with the Ohio C'anal. It was to pass through Canton, thus giving it water communication with the world, and hence all of her business men of that day took an active interest in the project. Ground was broken on Walnut street with the most imposing ceremonies. A plow, drawn by ten yoke of oxen, and large enough almost to make a canal at one furrow, was used to make the commencement on this new inter nal improvement. The Sandy & Beaver Canal,

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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

in the meantime, dragged slowly along, and this enterprise was contingent. in some meas- ure, upon the completion of that ; funds, too, became scarce, and railroads were beginning to attract notice throughout the country, all of which, taken together, finally caused the aban. donment of the Nimishillen & Sandy Slaek- water Navigation project. But the railroad has destroyed to a great extent the value of . canals. as a means of travel and transporta- tion, except so far as carrying heavy frieghts, which are in no hurry to reach their destina- tion.

The railroads now claim our attention, and as public highways constitute perhaps the most interesting chapter in the history of our conn try. The origin. progress and perfection of the railroad system are modern wonders that must over command our earnest admiration. Wholly unknown to the commercial world three-fourths of a century ago. the railway has become the greatest single factor in the development of the material and social progress of not only of the United States and other civilized nations of the earth. but its inestimable blessings are being rapidly extended into the hitherto semi-civilized and barbarous portions of the globe. Though some rude tramways had previously been used in the mining regions of England, the first at- tempt at railroad building in the United States was in 1807. It was but a few hundred yards in length. and was built for the transporting of gravel from the top of Beacon Hill down into Charles street, in the city of Boston. the rails being entirely of wood. and the propelling power. the momentum of the loaded cars, which. in deseending. by means of a rope attachment. pulled the empty cars up, a double track. of course, being necessary to the proper working of the road. As late as 1827, the then longest railroad in the United States was from the Manch Chunk Coal Mines to the Lehigh River. in Pennsylvania. a distance of nine miles. The loaded cars were run from the mines to the river by their own gravity. and. on being emp- tied. were drawn back to the mines by mules.

The American people, from this time forward. became deeply interested in railroad enterprises. and from 1827 to 1830. several short lines. run hy horse-power. were constructed. The first locomotive propelled by steam, to turn a wheel upon the American continent, being a clumsy, uncouth importation from England, called the

" Stourbridge Lion." landed in New York in 1829. So slow. however, was the development, that the railroad running from Charleston, S. t. to Augusta, fa .. a distance of 130 miles, and then the longest railroad in the world, was, in 1833. operated by steam power for only the first 100 miles, the last thirty being by negro- power. This was owing to a sharp incline that the modern engine-driver would laugh at. but which it was then supposed only a stationary engine, with the proper hoisting apparatus, could overcome. But this was before such achieve- ments in the railroad era as bridging the Mis- sissippi and Ohio Rivers and the crossing of the Rocky Mountains with trains. The first locomotive ever built in America, called the " Best Friend." was used upon this road during its construction. It was built at the " West Point Foundry Shops." in New York, and for warded to Charleston by the ship Niagara. in October. 1830. The first trial trip was made on a small portion of the road out of Charles ton. November 2. 1830, running. according to the report of the excursion in the Charleston Courier, as " on the wings of the wind, at the rapid speed of fifteen to twenty miles an hour . annihilating time and space, and. like the re- howned John Gilpin. . leaving all the world be- hind. " The " Best Friend " was daily in serv ice. transporting workmen and materials used in the construction of the road. until the 17th day of June. 1831. when it became disabled by a singular accident. and the road was without a locomotive for several months Of this dis aster to the " Best Friend." the Charleston Courier of June 18, 1831. gave the following account : " The locomotive. Best Friend. started yesterday morning to meet the lumber cars at the forks of the road. and while turning on the revolving platform, the steam was suf fered to accumulate by the negligence of the fireman. a negro, who, pressing on the safety valve, prevented the surplus steam from escap- ing, by which means the boiler burst at the bottom. was forced inward. and injured Mr. Darrell. the engineer, and two negroes. The one had his thigh broken, and the other received a severe cut in the face, and a slight one in the fleshy part of the breast. Mr. Darrell was scalded from the shoulder-blade down his back. The boiler was thrown to the distance of twen ty-five feet. * The accident occurred in consequence of the negro holding

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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

clown the safety-valve while Mr. Darrell was assisting to arrange the lumber cars."

It will seem strange to the trained railroad operator of the present day that such an acei- dent from such a cause could have been possi- ble ; but it must be remembered that the en- gineer, himself almost wholly unskilled in lo- comotive driving. had to perform all the func- tions of conductor, brakeman, etc., in addition to his own proper duties, his only help being such as above indicated, common, unskilled laborers, unable to distinguish between the lever of a safety-valve and the crank of a grindstone. But without further tracing the growth of the railroad system of the United States, now forming a perfect net-work of iron and steel in every portion of the country, which daily and nightly and continuously run thou- sands of locomotives and tens of thousands of freight and passenger cars loaded with thou- sands of tons of the products of the country, with valuable merchandise from any and every part of the world. and with tens of thousands of precious human beings, dashing with light- ning speed from city to city, and from State to State, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, we will, with a few statisties of some interest, torn our attention to the sketching of the different railroads in Stark County. In January. 1832. it was re- ported that there were nineteen railroads. either completed or in course of construction in the United States, and that their aggregate length was nearly 1,400 miles. Though Congress af- forded no material aid in this new era of inter- nal improvements, yet this same year it exempt- ed from duty the iron imported for railways and inclined planes, and actually used for their construction. In 1840, it has been estimated that our yearly average of railroad construction was about 500 miles. In 1850, this average had increased to 1.500 miles. In JS60, it was nearly 10,000 miles, and in 1871 it was stated that enterprises requiring an expenditure of $800,000,000 and involving the construction of 20,000 miles of railroad were in actual process of accomplishment. In 1872. the aggregate capital of the railroads of the United States, which were estimated to embrace one-half the railroads of the world, was stated to amount to the enormous sum of $3,159,423,057, their gross revenue being $473,241,055. At the present time their estimated capital is over .

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History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 37

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1060

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1060