History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 66

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 66

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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

the Island of Nantucket, Mass., had ever seen, discouraged Thomas and he sold his interest in the Western lands to Capt. Folger, who re- mained at Kendal until February. 1828, when he removed to Massillon. During the year 1813, also came Bradford Kellogg and rented the building on Lot No. 2 in Kendal. then owned by Arvine Wales. Ile and his two sons opened a brick yard immediately south of, near the extreme east end of, now North street, and which was afterward known as the Free Bridge Road, until Massillon and Kendal were united. and North street was extended to its present eastern terminus. At that brick yard were made the first bricks manufactured west of Canton. Kellogg and his sons came from Hud- son, in Portage County, and brought the first oxen driven under the yoke in the township, and which were used for tramping the clay out of which the bricks were made for Alexander Skinner, Esq .. who erected the first brick house in the township. and which was the first west of Canton. The walls of the house were laid by Calvin Hobart and Peter Humphrey ; the building now stands on Front street in Kendal, where for sixty-five years it has stood a proud monument of the skill and integrity of the builders, and is a better piece of work, even now. than much of the brick-work built a half a century since. Messrs. Hobart and Hum- phrey removed to Wooster in 1817, where they remained until 1827, when Hobart returned to Massillon and built one of the first brick houses that was built there, and was finally drowned in the canal on the night of July 4, 1833. The brick house on Front street is now owned and occupied by citizen Anton Vogt, and bids fair to stand the storms of many years. Mr. Skin- ner removed to Loudonville, then Richland County, and died there. At the close of 1813 and commencement of 1814, and during the latter year, the population of the township in- creased largely. and the increase was of valua- ble citizens, among whom were Jonathan Win- ter. his wife Nancy, sou Abner and family, and daughters Sarah and Catharine. Unele Jona- than, as he was familiarly called, was a Quaker, had been a soldier in the war of the Revolu tion. and was fond of " shouldering his cane and showing how fields were won." He drew a pension, but escaped a wound on the battle- field. Prominent among the arrivals that year were Dr. William Gardner, from Albany, State

of New York, the first physician in the town- ship ; from here he removed to Norwalk, Huron County, remained there a few years and then returned to Stark County and located in Can- ton, where he died in 1833. Dr. Gardner was prominent as a physician, and earnest in his convictions, rarely yielding when onee having formed an opinion ; also. about the time of Dr. Gardner's arrival, came John C. McCoy, from the city of Baltimore, a journeyman tailor. afterward well known in the Pittsburgh Method- ist Conference as Rev. J. C. McCoy, a useful and popular preacher ; from here he removed to Loudonville, Ashland Co., Ohio, thence to Washington County. thence to Athens County. where he died a few years ago, honored and re- spected as a Christian gentleman. In the early part of 1814, came Thomas A. Drayton, after- ward a resident of Canton, and Hosea W. Tin- ker, all useful mechanics, who are pleasantly remembered by the few who yet remain to fur- nish items for these sketches. About the time of the organization of the township, a family known as the Andrews family came into the township, consisting of the father. Richard, Eve. the mother, and tive sons, Daniel, Adam. Charles, David and Richard ; the old man en- tered the fractional section upon which now stands the manufacturing establishment of Rus- sell & Co., the station house of the Pitts- burgh. Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway. and the other buildings of that corporation, the re- spective residences of Mrs. Julia Jarvis, Her- man Schreiber and all others on South Erie street below the railway, all of which went for intoxicating liquors, which were drank in the family.

Richard Andrews had a son-in-law, John Wolf, who, with two sons, Richard and Samuel, are sleeping their last sleep in drunkards' graves. Among the chattels brought from Maryland by the Andrews family was a stalwart negro, known as Black Jack, John Tibbs being his real name. On the family leaving Hagerstown they were about to sell Jack, and were offered $550 for him, but upon his promising to stay by and support the old folks as long as they lived, they brought him to Ohio. Jack soon learned, how- ever, that the old Constitution contained a clause in the Bill of Rights prohibiting slav- ery, and he told his old master and mistress that he would fulfill his part of the bargain, but he would not work to support the drunk-

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en sons, and left them and lived afterward in Jackson Township, where he married. earned a farm, sold it, moved into Lawrence, where he purchased another farm, and remained until the passage of the Fugitive Slave law, when he went to Canada and ended his days, fearing that some remote heir of the Andrews family might come from Maryland and elaim him.

Up to the close of 1814. few settlements had been made in the township west of the Tusca- rawas River. On the fractional section west and opposite the residence of Mrs. JJarvis. now owned by the heirs of the late Peter Runser. was located a sturdy Irish pioncer. William Whiteraft ; he, however, sold out and removed to Lawrence Township. He was an energetie citizen and at his death left a worthy family. He sold to Hezekiah Bull, of Hartford, Conn .. who settled on the land and remained until 1820, when he died.

Mr. Bull was a Democrat of the New England Jeffersonian type, thoroughly imbned with an intense dislike to the Federal party. the Hart- ford Convention and New England politics in their length and breadth. He was exceedingly earnest in advocating and defending the war of 1812. and the administration of President Madison. He was a kind neighbor and genial gentleman in his social intercourse. In point of culture, he and his family were among the first in the then new and really wild region. Very soon after his arrival here, two of his daughters were married, Hetty, to Alexander Skinner, Esq., brother of the late Hon. C. K. Skinner, and Hoyland to Thomas Taylor. Esq .. a son of whom. A. A. Taylor, Esq., is the own- er of the extensive flouring-mill on Erie street, in Massillon. Mrs. Bull died a short time after her husband. and the family, sons and daugh- ters. removed to Loudonville, where all except ing Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Sheldon died. Hon. John W. Bull. a grandson, a member of the present Legislature, from Ashland County, re- sides in Londonville, and is always ready to extend a generous hospitality to his many friends. During the years 1812-11. the supply of provisions was not equal to the de- mand. and Charles K. Skinner, Edward Nelson and Charles Coffin, who was a Nantucket ship carpenter, built a boat and went to Coshocton, where corn was plenty, the Muskingum bottoms always yielding an abundance, and brought several loads, which soll readily for $2 per

bushel. Excepting Charles Coffin. none of them knew mueh in regard to the management of a boat, and on one occasion coming up, they struck on the Cedar Ripple, a few miles below where Massillon now is, and came near losing boat and cargo.

The first religious society organized west of Canton in Stark County was the . Kendal Pre- parative Meeting of the Society of Friends," their Monthly Meeting being at Marlborough. Quarterly Meeting at Salem, and the Yearly Meeting being held at Mount Pleasant, Jeffer- son County. It is supposed that all these or ganizations existed as early as 1813. The prin- eipal members of Kendal Preparative Meeting were Isane Bowman, Richard Williams, Zac- cheus Stanton. Charles Coffin. Thomas Roteh. Mayhew Folger. Joseph Hobson, Jonathan Michener. Mathew Macy. a brother-in-law of Charles Coffin. Thomas Coffin. Mieajah Macy and others, all of whom, with a single excep- tion, were heads of families. Thomas Cottin could hardly be called a member of that meet- ing, as he returned to Philadelphia : his wife, a sister of Mayhew Folger and mother of the late Lucretia Mott. survived him thirty years. The influence of that little Quaker meeting was strongly felt in the community. So far as any religious sentiment was recognized. they were in the majority. They were first to erect a place for meeting for worship. called by them a " meeting house," which, when erected, they opened for a school. and it should be said of them, they " bore, with liberty and law. the Bible in their train." Next to them and about the same time, or shortly after. came the Metho- dists to Kendal, as will be seen by the following extraet of a letter from the late Rev. Adam Poc, D. D. It will also be seen that the labors of the Methodists were mainly on the west side of the river until the period above referred to.

Dr. Poe says : " At a session of the Western Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held at a chapel in Shelby County, Ky., November 1. 1810, Rev. James Dixon was appointed to Tuscarawas Cirenit in the Muskingum Distriet ; Rev. James Quinn. Pre- siding Eller. The Tuscarawas Circuit then embraced all the country along the Tuscarawas River from New Portage to Coshocton, taking in the new settlements on both sides of the river. lle formed small societies, and only ro- turned seventy seven members in all that terri-

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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

tory at the end of the year. At the next ses- sion of the Conference, which was held at Cincinnati, October 1, 1811, Rev. William Mitchell was appointed to the Circuit. Rev. James Quinn, Presiding Elder. Mr. Mitchell reported one hundred and forty-two members at the elose of his year. I am not sure whether Dixon formed a society in Tuscarawas Township, but during the winter of 1811-12. Mitchell or- ganized a society at the house of Peter John- son, Esq., and preached to them regularly every two weeks, since which there has always been a Methodist society in the township. The Western Conference was divided in 1812, and the Ohio Conference formed, which held its first session in Chillicothe, October 1, 1812. At this Conference, David Young was appointed Presiding Elder of the Muskingum District, and John Somerville was appointed to Tuscara- was ('irenit, and seems to have had consider- able success, for he returned four hundred and ninety-one members. During this year, my first personal acquaintance with the society at Johnson's commenced, and during the ensuing summer. the meetings were removed to the house of Joseph Poyser. This was, I think, ; the first regularly organized religious society in the township.

" At the second session of the Ohio Confer- ence, which was held at Steubenville September 1. 1813, Rev. John Graham was appointed to Tuscarawas Circuit. At the next session, held at Cincinnati September 8, 1814, Rev. John Cord was appointed to that circuit. At the next session, which was held at Lebanon, Ohio, September 14, 1815, Rev. Curtis Goddard was appointed to the circuit. The next session of the Conference was held at Louisville, Ky., and Rev. Archibald Mellroy was appointed to the cirenit, the society meeting at Joseph Poyser's. now the residence of John Christman, Esq. At the next session of the Conference, held at Zanesville, Ohio, September 3, 1817. Rev. James McMahon was appointed to the Tusearawas Circuit. At the close of the year, he reported 411 members. This venerable gentleman is still living and active in the ministry. His address is Chesterville, Morrow Co., Ohio. He could probably give you a more minute history of the society than I can. Peter Johnson and Joseph Poyser are both dead. As the regular preach- ing, during this period, was at both their houses, if living they no doubt could be more particular

in the history of the society meetings there. Rev. John C. McCoy became a resident in Ken- dal, I think in 1813 or 1814; and, there being no Methodist society there, he joined in Tus- carawas Township. His address is Marietta. Ohio. Wesley Hatton, still a resident of Tus- earawas Township, was also among the early members of the society. Also Miss Catharine Thacker, now Mrs. Nathan Eldredge. Mr. Thomas Eldridge, an uncle of Nathan, was like- wise an early and active member of the society. I think he is still living, but do not know his present address."

The letter from which the foregoing extraet was taken was written July 28, 1853. Dr. Poe was correct as to the death of Peter Johnson. He was well known to the writer, as was Poyser, who lived, until within a few years past, and died in Canton. All the other persons named by Dr. Poe, except Mrs. Eldredge, have been dead many years. She now lives with her nephew, William Moffit, Esq., about three miles southwest from Massillon, on the Millersburg road.

The Ohio Conference included within its boundaries the entire State of Ohio, and much more. The Muskingum District remained in that Conference until 1824, when the General Conference erected the old Pittsburgh Confer- ence, so affectionately remembered by all the old Methodists in the valley of the Tuscarawas, which remained as erected by the Conference of 1824 until the year 1848, when it was so changed as to put Perry Township into the North Ohio Conference, where it remained until 1856, when the Pittsburgh Conference was restored to its original boundaries. The Gen- eral Conference of 1876 changed the map of the Conterenee so as to bound it on the east by the State Line, between the States of Ohio and Penn- sylvania, and Ohio and Virginia. The first Meth- odist preaching in Perry Township, east of the Tuscarawas River, was by Josiah Foster, preach- er on the cirenit, and as Presiding Elder of the Muskingum District he preached at the house of Rev. J. C. McCoy, in Kendal, once in five or six weeks, and as early as 1816. During the succeeding six years, it is impossible to learn with certainty in whose charge the Muskingum District and Tuscarawas Circuit were. In 1822, before the erecting of the Pittsburgh Confer- ence, Thomas R. Ruckle, a young Irishman, was appointed to the circuit, and eame around

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once in five weeks, preaching in the school- room in Kendat, school then being in the east wing of what is called the " L" house, a build- ing built by Ephraim Chidester, grandfather of Dr. Ephraim Chidester, of Massillon. The school was then taught by the late Dr. B. Michener, whose recent death in lowa at the age of eighty was generally noticed in the public journals. The Doctor being then a Quaker, in unity with the society, and disposed to controversy, and Rev. Mr. Ruckle being " set in defense of the Gospel." soon got up a debate on paper, which was kept up for a long time. and finally died out by consent of the disputants themselves. The Methodists had no place for meeting at this period ; their leader in everything pertaining to the church, John ". MeCoy, had married a young lady by the name of Comly and removed to Loudonville, and Methodism in Perry Township made little progress, increasing, however. a little from year to year. and always holding its gains until it acquired strength enough to unite with the Freemasons in 1810, to have a place known as the Methodist Episcopal Church of Massillon, and which is fully noticed in the sketch of that city.

Among the early Presbyterians who settled in the township were John and Garrett Cruson. two brothers, and their families, their sister, Mrs. Anna Burhans. Ephraim Chidester. Daniel Myers and his family, Austin Allen, Boyd J. Mercer, and two or three other families in dif- ferent parts of the township, but no organiza- tion in the way of a church was had until after the now city of Massillon was laid out. and which will be noticed in its proper place.

The first thing almost that was done by Thomas Rotch on laying out and recording the płat of the village of Kendal, was to get a post office established on the great east-and-west route through the State, previous to which Can- ton was the post office for all the region round- about. Thomas was appointed Postmaster, and John C. Meloy his deputy, as the Postmaster lived a mile out of town. McCoy withdrew from the office, and Matthew Macy was ap- pointed Deputy, or, as that officer was called, Assistant Postmaster, and hold the place untit the death of Thomas Rotch, when he was ap- pointed Postmaster, and held the office until it was discontinued in 1829. Matthew Macy was a man of rare integrity and rare business qualitica-

tions. AA native of the island of Nantucket, Mass., he, as was common, indeed it was the rute, went to sca on board a whale ship bound to the Pacific Ocean, but getting crippled by a fall he left the ship he went out in and returned in a home- ward bound vessel, arriving at Nantucket soon after the commencement of the war of 1812. The ship he went out in was captured by a British cruiser, so that he lost his share of the cargo. Finding no employment at home in consequence of his crippled condition (from which he never recovered), he came to Ohio and was a clerk in Thomas Roteli's store, taught school, was with Arvine Wales, an administrator who settled Rotch's estate after his death, and held various offices of trust. His wife was a daughter of James Austin, a Vermont Quaker, who removed from Montpelier in 1817 to Kendal.

The first blacksmith in the township was Jesse Otis. llis shop was in Kendal, and he was ready for business as soon as a shop could be built. The first tanner in the township was Thomas Williams, whose tanyard and currying- shop were in Kendal, on the north side of State street, which was the great thoroughfare from east to west. Originally, the road from Canton west diverged in a nortwesterly direction on the top of the hill near the Russell farm, running through the farm now owned by the heirs of the late John Yingling. then occupied by Zae- chens Stanton, and intersecting the east end of State street, in Kendal, which street it followed to the west end, where it diverged to the south- west until it struck a point now known as the east end of Cherry street, in Massillon, thence west to the Tuscarawas River, where a toll bridge was built and turnished the only cross- ing-place on the river in the township. except- ing at the " high banks" at the northern ter- minus of Clay street, in the city of Massillon, and at Barr's Fording, three miles south, near where are now the Wormington Coal Mines. The stock in the toll bridge was mainly owned by Judge William Henry, who had purchased the fractional section of land on the west side of the river. and erected the brick house, yet standing there. in which he " kept store" and lived with his family. As immigration into Stark and Wayne Counties was in excess of any period before or since. the location for busi- ness was the best west of Canton or perhaps in the county. The toll bridge became a most

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1 odious monopoly, and the people everywhere determined that it should not exist. Their ef- fort was to get a road laid out from the diver- gence east of the city on a straight line west, or as nearly so as practicable, to the fording place, the now northern terminus of Clay street, thenee, after crossing the river at that fording place, as nearly west as possible, until it should intersect the old Wooster road. This plan, of course, would only answer when the river could be forded. It was at onee determined to build a free bridge, which was done, and trade was then diverted over the new route, and the old toll bridge went to decay, and is remembered by but few of the present residents of the Tus- - carawas Valley. After the free bridge was erected, it was sought to be destroyed by cut- ting away its principal supports at the eastern end. Tradition says that David Andrews, al- ready referred to in these pages, did the job, for which he received a fiddle, a silver watch and a quart of whisky. The bridge was re- paired and served the people for many years, until an additional straightening of the road from Canton to Wooster made Main street, in Massillon, the great thoroughfare, when the principal crossing of the river was located where it now is.

The first Justice of the Peace in Perry Town- ship was a blacksmith by the name of Francis Smith, the grandfather of citizen George W. Hathaway, of Massillon. Justice Smith moved to Brookfield, in Tuscarawas Township, where he died. He was succeeded by Capt. Nathaniel Ray, a retired shipmaster, from Nantucket, and it may be said of him that he was a "charac- ter." While it was true of him that he had been a shipmaster, his sailing had been confined to coasting from Portland, Me., to the Capes of Florida and New Orleans. He had followed that mode of life until he felt that he, too, ought to join the vast crowd that was seeking a new home, so he came to Kendal. He had an un- fortunate habit of mixing whisky with his water in considerable quantities, and when under the influence of the mixture, had little control over himself. On one occasion, while driving his iron-gray mare before a " Dearborn " wagon, as they were called in those days, a wheel came off, and he, considerably under the influence of the whisky he had drank, dropped the lines and jumped out. As he struck the ground the mare started for home, and got there

with what was left of the carriage. As Ray fol- lowed, he found the pieces. He had the wheel on his shoulder that dropped from the wagon while he was driving. Meeting one of the neigh- bors he swore he would kill the mare, but on getting home he compromised by simply cut- ting off' her ears, a feat Ray never survived so as to remain at Kendal, so he packed up and went back to Nantucket, got a little vessel and resumed his old avocation as master of a coaster, and finally anchored there.

The first store that was opened in Kendal or in the township was opened by Thomas Roteh ; next to him came William Henry and Gilber- tharp Earle, and lastly in Kendal, Isaiah Brown, noticed more particularly in the sketches of Massillon. The embarrassment in all business matters, stagnation of trade, and especially the ruin of commerce upon the ocean. upon which New England subsisted, occasioned by the war of 1812, drove many shipmasters and New England people to the West, and the year 1814 was strongly marked by the increase from that quarter. Among those who came into Perry Township that year were Gilbertharp Earle and his family, Capt. James Duncan, a retired ship- master from the merchant service, his residence having been at Portsmouth, N. H., and many others. These gentlemen are mentioned particu- larly because of the important parts they sus- tained on the historic stage, as did Alexander Johnston, Esq., who came into the township a year or two earlier, and before the township was organized.

Gilbertharp Earle was born June 19, 1772, at Burlington, N. J., and was married at Upper Freehold, Monmouth Co .. to Sarah Cook, Octo- ber 10, 1799 ; he remained at Burlington until 1813, when he removed to Canton in the autumn of that year, and remained until the spring of 1814, when he removed to Kendal. lle en tered at the land office the fractional Section on the west side of the river, known as No. 6, and after merchandising at Kendal and remov- ing to Canton again, where he remained but a year or two, returned to his farm, gave his atten- tion to farming and the dispensing of a gener- ous hospitality that will ever be gratefully re- membered by all who shared it. The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Earle was a resort for young and old, and all were made happy by the unfailing politeness always kindly tendered. On arriv- ing at Kendal, the family of Mr. and Mrs. Earle

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consisted of Sarah B., who married Dr. Gard- ner, by whom she was left a widow in 1833, and moved to Harmar. Washington Co., Ohio, and married Henry Fearing, Esq. ; she died on the 30th day of July. 1876 : John, who died January 8, 1855 : Thomas Earle, M. D. now living in Brooklyn, N. V., at the age of seventy- six ; Hannah, now the wife of Hon. Harlow Chapin living at Harmar, at the age of seventy- four ; Frances, who married Gen. Gardner Field, a notice of whose death will be found in the sketch of the city of Massillon ; she after- ward married Edward Clark, Esq., of Harmar. and died on the 26th day of February, 1879.

Gilbertharp Earle. Jr .. born in February. 1812, and died at his residence near this city in September, 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Earle had three children born in Ohio, but one of whom survives, Mrs. Rebecca Johnson, widow of the late Ilon. Matthew Johnson, member of the Legislature of Ohio in 1837 and 1838 from this county. and Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio, during the administration of Presi- dent Buchanan. Mr. Earle died January 9. 1850, at the age of seventy-eight, and Mrs. Earle died at Harmar in 1855, aged seventy- nine; they led useful and active lives, Mr. Earle having filled important public trusts.

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History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 66

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