History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 68

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

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C. Duley, who managed the school successfully for seven years, when he resigned and Mr. I. W. Gese- man took his place, who was again succeeded by lra M. Allen, April 1. 1879, and who has charge of the school at this time.

There have been graduated at the Kendal Charity School, which is the corporate name of the institu- tion, about one hundred and fifty scholars since its organization, most of whom have become honora- ble members of society, and many have arisen to eminence in the learned professions. The farm is nearly all under cultivation, the entire labor of the farm and in the house is performed by the pupils, notwithstanding which, the division of labor and study is such that the children have about as many hours of study during the year, as is devoted to teaching in the best Union schools of the State. Many complete the entire course of study, which consists of reading, writing, geography, arithmetic. grammar, natural philosophy, History of the United States, elements of physiology, algebra and geometry.

Whatever may be due to Charity Rotch for her gift for the education of the poor and needy, all of which will ever be gratefully ac- knowledged, the name and memory of Arvine Wales will ever be kindly and affectionately re- membered in connection with the cause of edu- cation, not only for his guarding the fund upon which the Charlty School is based, but for his devotion to the cause of popular education dur- ing his long and useful life. The Charity School of Kendal, and the Union School of Massillon, are monuments which bear the im- press of his care and watchfulness.

While great credit is due to the Superintend- ents of the Charity School, their wives, who have had the responsibility, in addition to their own families, of looking after the pupils, must not be overlooked nor forgotten ; they, too, have borne burthens that entitle them to men- tion everywhere in connection with the school, and nobly and well have they discharged every duty and every responsibility connected with their position, they will be ever gratefully re- membered by the poor for whom they so faith- fully labored.

On the 6th of the eighth month, 1824, Charity Rotch died at the Spring Hill farm, and was buried in the Friends' burying ground in Kendal, where rest the remains of many of the " rude forefathers of the hamlet."

The property belonging to Kendal Charity School, at a low estimate is valued at $60,000. The interest on the fund, now about $30,000, with the labor of the pupils, pays the entire cost of the school, and under the management

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of the present careful Board of Trustees and Superintendent. the school is fulfilling the anxious wishes of its founder. as expressed in her last will and testament near sixty years sinee.

The present Board of Trustees consist of Thomas Mccullough, President ; Charles F. Rieks, Frank L. Baldwin. Horace Richards and Hon. A. C. Wales, Secretary and Treasurer. The grave of Charity Rotch may possibly be found in the old Quaker burying ground. If there be anything to enable the stranger to find it, it is a plain sandstone just above the sur- face of the earth with the initials C. R. "The foe and the stranger might tread o'er her head," unconscious that he is standing on the grave of the noble woman who divided her estate with the poor. The writer of these sketches attended her funeral, and as no epitaph graces her tomb- stone, he desires to say of her, "she loved mankind."

While each year's history discloses some event that was regarded worth remembering, the year 1824 has its event, and that was the running of a four-horse post coach from Pitts- burgh to Mansfield once a week. and carrying the mail; then the post office department in- creased the mail service to twice a week in coaches, then tri-weekly, which soon became a daily ; before the running of coaches, the mails were received weekly ; their coming was an- nouneed by the

"Twanging horn of the postman that

With its wearisome, Imt needful length. Bestrode the wintry flood."

The four-horse post coach was an incident in those days. but few yet remain who remember its coming.

The proprietor of the stage line, as it was called. was Daniel Burgert. of Paris, the driver a man by the name of Estep, afterward a mer- chant in New Alexandria. Columbiana Co. Proprietor and driver have long since closed their accounts.

The year 1826, was marked by many impor- tant events in the history of this township : the laying-out of the new city of Massillon, the let- ting of the work on the Ohio Canal to contract- ors and the commencement of the work. were regarded as works of great importance in the effeet they were destined to have on the future history of the county, and especially on the

western townships, but to those who can say in reference to those events-

" Aff of which I saw-"

no circumstance in history is remembered with more interest than the formation of the Kendal Community. its rise and progress and decline and fall.

In the year 1825. it will be remembered that much was written on the subject of socialism and social reform, and that among the writers and advocates of such a reformation was Rob- ert Owen, father of the late Robert Dale Owen, and who will ever be remembered as a human- itarian of the most noble type, unbounded he- nevolence, and stainless purity of character and reputation, of New Lanack, Scotland. Panl Brown. one of the clearest writers and think- ers on that subject; Josiah Warren, a man somewhat Utopian in his ideas, but, neverthe- less, upright and honest in his convictions, and many others, were prominent in their efforts to awaken the publie mind to a consideration of the subject. Paul Brown and Josiah Warren being in the West and visitors at the Kendal Com- munity, were known to the writer. Men and women of liberal and enlarged views, and who might well be classed among the most advanced thinkers, gave the subject attention, and the re- sult was, that, in the summer of 1826, many of the residents of Perry and Tuscarawas Town- ships and also from Portage County, after vari- ons meetings and discussions of the subject. determined to organize a community based generally upon the views of Robert Owen ; the name adopted by the association was the Ken- dal Community. The name given it by the public was the "Owenites." They purchased of the estate of Thomas Rotch, 2,113 acres of land in the neighborhood of Kendal and Mas- sillon, together with some town lots, improved and nnimproved, in Kendal, for $20,000. Of the officers, or mode of government of the com- munity, little can now be ascertained. In No- vember, 1827, the community was re-enforced by a considerable accession from the State of New York. Edward Dunn and James Bayliss. of the city of New York ; Dr. Samuel Under- hill, wife and children. a total of five ; Nathan- iel Underhill, wife and children, a total of five ; Jethro Macy, wife and five children, a total of seven ; Ilenry C. Fosdick, wife and children, a total of seven ; William G. Macy and Edward

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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

Hussey, making a total of twenty-eight. They started from Coxsackie, Greene Co., N. Y .. so near the close of navigation as to be subjected to al- most untold trials before reaching Kendal. On reaching Buffalo, all the steamboats on the lake were laid up, and it was with great difficulty that a small and inferior schooner could be had to bring them to Cleveland, where they arrived after " hair-breadth 'scapes." The Ohio Canal was only navigable to Akron, in its best eon- dition, and, at that season of the year, could hardly be called navigable at all ; some of the men walked to Akron on the towing-path of the canal, which, much of the way, was through an almost uninhabited portion of the country ; those who managed to get to Akron were mnet with teams from the community, and, after much suffering, all got through safely, and all united with the Kendal Community to which they had been invited, and which they intended to do before leaving home.

For the rest, in regard to this social enter- prise, one of the surviving members of the community furnishes the following, and from whose manuscript the foregoing, much con- densed account in reference to the New York accession to the community is taken. It is much to be regretted that the full account of the journey from Albany to Kendal coukl not be inserted. as it is full of points of exceeding interest.

"On our arrival," says the gentleman from whose manuscript the following is copied. " we went to work with a will. and were very anxious to make a success of the undertaking, and will- ing and ready to make any sacrifice to that end.

We had listened to that eloquent philanthropist, , the above-named persons still remain in this

Robert Owen, had read much that he had writ. ten, and were thoroughly convinced-as he taught-that man is the creature of cirenm- stances, over which he has no control whatever. That he cannot say who his parents shall be, what shall be their country, polities or religious creed ; therefore his character is formed for him and not by him. That property was very un- equally divided ; that all things were tending to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. That those who produced the wealth enjoyed only a small portion of it, and that those who produced nothing had too much wealth for their own good. That the producing classes, if prop- erly educated and surrounded by proper eir- cumstances, could easily arrange society so as

to secure to each the product of his or her own labor, and all the best advantages of securing to all the children equally the very best educa- tion attainable.

" The Kendall Community, at the time of the arrival of the friends from New York, was com- posed of the following persons :

" Amasa Bailey, Asa K. Burroughs, Matthew Macy, Frederick Oberlin, Philip Waggoner. John Waggoner, John Newcomb, William Harding. Ze- no Culver. Hezekiah Culver, JJohn HI. Blackman. John Harmon, John Sprague, William Widgeon. Jehiel Fox, Jonathan Winter, Joseph Tinkler, Dr. Luther Hanchett, William Hanchett and Elijah Bigelow ; all these had families. Of those who had not families were Luther Pond, David Kennedy and John Kennedy, and doubt- less others that I cannot remember. Most of the families were large, and seemed to keep all busy to make a living, and no remunerative la- bor offering to enable them to earn money to pay the annual amount coming due on the large tract of land purchased of the Roteh estate, many of the above-named individuals had sold good farms or homes to raise money for the first payment. Some began to feel discouraged, and. unable to accomplish the object and pur- pose for which they came together, they gave it up, and the property was sold to Messrs. Duncan, Wales and Skinner, who divided it into farms and town lots, and sold much of it at a good profit. and divided the rest.

" The members of the community scattered in various directions, each pursuing those ob- jects in life most likely to lead him and his to enjoy health, wealth and happiness. Some of neighborhood, notwithstanding the wonderful changes that have oceurred in the last fifty-four years.

South of the center of the township is the village of Richville, laid out by John Houk, in 1836. Mr. Hlouk was proud of the title. "the proprietor of Richville," and did what he coukl to give the village celebrity. It is on the State road running from Canton, southwest to Navarre. | in Bethlehem Township, Wilmot. in Sugar ('reek and Holmes County.

For sixty-seven years, Perry Township has been an organized political community, occupy- ing a most important position in the fertile val- ley of the Tuscarawas. East and west of the river. it produces everything that any township

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389

produces in an agricultural sense, and its min- oral wealth is unequaled by any other township in the Congressional District. Under the great and enlightened policy that

marks Ohio's history, Perry Township must always be in the front rank of the townships of the county, whose boast shall soon be, that she contains within her borders three cities.

CHAPTER XIII .*

THE CITY OF MASSILLON-ITS BIRTH AND GROWTH -A DESTRUCTIVE FIRE-THE BUILDING OF THE CANAL-THE POST OFFICE-EDUCATIONAL- THE UNION SCHOOLS OF MASSIL- LON -INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN -ITS MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

A S noticed elsewhere, the city of Massillon was laid out as a village in the winter of 1825 26. One of the first lots purchased after the village had "a local habitation and a name " was purchased by Capt. Mayhew Folger and was Lot No. 45, on which now stands the three-story building occupied by Clarence L. Melain. Esq., as a store ; this lot was purchased for the purpose of erecting upon it a hotel, and which was built and opened as such on the 4th of February. 1528, by Capt. Folger.

Almost cotemporaneous with that purchase was the purchase of the lot on the southwest corner of Main and Mill, by Jacob Miller, Esq., and the two lots west of it extending to the alley. On the corner lot purchased by Jacob Miller. a building for a hotel was also erected and opened in the autumn of 1827, and ocen- pied by Mr. Miller for many years, when he re- tired from the business and engaged in mer- chandising. and was elected one of the Asso- ciate Judges of the county. a position he filled until his death in February. 1843. In all the relations of life, Judge Miller commanded the respect of his neighbors ; his father, George Miller, is believed to have been the first settler in the Township of Jackson, having erected a cabin on the west side of the Tuscarawas River opposite Millport as early as 1806. Judge Miller lost no time in filling his front. on Main street, with buildings which stood until Juty. 1853. when a fire swept out the whole square, since which, the lots have been divided and subdivided, until they have gotten into their present shape, forming an important business block.

On the 27th of August, 1851. the entire square, from the northeast corner of Main and * Contributed by Robert II. Folger

Erie streets to the northwest corner of Main and Mill streets, extending north to Plum street, was swept away by the first really destructive fire that occurred in the city. In this fire but a single building escaped on the : entire square, and that was the building adjoin- ing the one now occupied by F. Lehman as a book-bindery. The American House, then standing on the corner now ocenpied by t'. L. Melain as an extensive dry goods establish- ment. and which was kept by Samuel Hawk, late of the St. Nicholas and Windsor Hotels in New York. The store of Messrs. L. & S. Ran- son, the dwelling and grocery establishment of N. Sibila, the building on the northwest corner of Main and Mill, where now stands the Park Hotel, as well as all others, went down in the general conflagration, thus removing many of the original landmarks of the village of Mas- sillon. The first dwelling erected within the village limits, and the first occupied after Mas- sillon was known as a village, was the building on the southeast corner of Erie and Oak streets. It was erected by Julius lleydon, out of lum- ber gotten for a building in Kendal intended to be a home for the family. The rapid indica- tions of growth in Massillon induced the young man to consider whether the new village did not offer inducements to go there and build a home. Accordingly, after considering the pos- sibilities and probabilities, he determined to purchase the above deseribed lot. and did so and paid Mr. Duncan $40 for it, and erected a portion of the building now standing thereon, and known as the Farmers' Hotel.

The first marriage in the village was Julia A., a sister of the proprietor of the building just described, and William M. Folger, now re- siding at Mantua Station. Portage County.

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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

This marriage took place on the 18th day of May, 1826, Hon. Gilbertharp Earle, then a Jus- tice of the Peace of Perry Township, officiating. Mrs. Folger died in the city of Akron. on the 5th of October, 1870. The first marriage in Massillon, according to the ceremony of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was that of Her man B. Ilarris and Louisa M. MeClary, the Rev. Mr. Morse, Rector of an Episcopal Church in Steubenville. being the officiating minister. This marriage took place in 1832, in the dwell- ing now occupied by T. Clark Miller. M. D. Miss MeClary was a niece of Mr. Duncan, the daughter of a widowed sister. Mrs. M. 11. McClary, one of the pioneer women of Kendal. and of rare accomplishments. She brought a small but well-selected library. which left its impress on the society she aided in building up. Mr. Harris died at sea on his way to d'alifor- nia, and Mrs. Harris in this eity many years since.

The next building erected in the village as a dwelling-house was the present residence of Hon. S. A. Conrad, now a member of the House of Representatives, in the General Assembly of the State of Ohio. This building was erected by Dr. Berialı Brooks, who was the first physi- cian in the county west of Kendal, and the second west of Canton. Dr. Brooks was from : South Hadley, Mass., and a thorough type of the New England Presbyterian. He first set- tled in Kendal, and as a physician was success- ful. When Massillon

" From dirt and seaweed like proud Venice rose."

and began to assume the proportions of a vil- lage, Dr. Brooks was one of the first to rec- ognize its importance, and at once purchased one of the most eligible lots on Main street. On getting his house habitable, he moved into it, buried his wife from there, and died there him- self in 1831.

On the locating of the canal in 1825, and the letting of the building of it in January, 1826, an entirely new and different class of people came into the village. Before these events, Kendal had a little store kept by Ambrose ('hap- man, and a still smaller one by his brother Aaron, who was a sound, orthodox Quaker, and who had the gift of making money out of his little business. He moved to Morrow County and died. Ambrose died before Massillon sprang into existence. In January, 1826, be-

fore the letting of the contracts for the building of the canal, the brothers H. and Il. A. How- ard, merchants, who had settled the year before in Middlebury, Portage County, furnished a stock of goods to Isaiah Brown, a most enter- prising young man from Berkshire County, Mass., which stock he opened as a dry goods store in Kendal, and was successful. Ile de- termined at once to go into business in the new village, and made arrangements for a storeroom, which was erected by Isaae Austin, about where now stands the drug store of Ph. Morgen- thaler, and there commenced business under the firm of I. Brown & Co., but did not get into their new building until near the close of the year.

The letting of the contracts on the canal took place at Kendal, at the residence of James Dun- can, Esq., on the 18th of January, almost co- temporaneous with the laying-out of the village of Massillon. Work progressed on the canal rapidly, that portion through the village being done by Jesse Rhodes and Horace E. Spencer ; they had two or three more sections of half a mile each, which they completed.

Mr. Duncan and George Wallace, of Brandy- wine, Portage. now Summit County, built the canal through the stone quarry. on the east side of the canal, between whose work and the village Aaron Chapman had a half mile to build, who, when advised that he had succeeded in getting a " job," advertised for laborers and added at the foot of his advertisement, " Those who can- not work without whisky need not apply." The result was that Aaron employed no whisky drinkers, his half-mile of canal was first finished in 1828, his work was better done, and while the history of the canal lasts, his section will be remembered as one built without whisky. Aaron gave his men hot coffee as a beverage, paid them promptly, and his work tells its own story. Just here the writer desires to say that the aqueduct just this side, north, of Bolivar, was built by the contractor, John Laughery, Esq., in the same way ; no intoxicating liquor was allowed on the contract, wet or dry, and there was a preponderance of wet in the con- struction of an aqueduct to take the canal across the river. No whisky or other intoxicat- ing liquor was used as a beverage in the build- ing of that work. Mr. Laughrey, the contractor, was a most worthy man. After finishing his work on the canal in the neighborhood of Massillon,

CITY OF MASSILLON.

39t

he was largely engaged on the aqueduct aeross the Seioto River, at Circleville, Pickaway Coun- ty; from there he went to Adams County, and engaged in fruit culture, and ended a long and useful life.

As the work of building the canal south of the Portage summit progressed. business cen- tered at Massillon. the only important point in the Tuscarawas Valley, north of New Philadel- pbia, and south of Akron, which is in the Cuya- hoga Valley, and as fast as a room could be had it was filled. The first stock of goods opened in the village as a store was that of A. MeCulley & Co .. who erected a small building, where now stands the establishment of Messrs. P. Dielhenn & Son. This establishment was backed up by Judge William Henry, and did a wonderful business. The Hon. Bezaleel Wells, almost as soon as lots were in market, pur- chased the block of lots on which now stand the stores of S. Oberlin, G L. Albrecht. Joseph Coleman, watches and jewelry, the Union Na- tional Bank. Joseph Oppenheimer's Star Cloth- ing Store and the First National Bank, and erected a small frame and put in a stock of goods, previous to which they had kept as a store in the east end of the building now cceu- pied by T. Clarke Miller. M. D., the style of the firm being S. O. Wells & Co .. Samuel O. Wells being a son of the senior partner. Thus it will be seen that I. Brown & Co., S. O. Wells & Co. and A. McCulley & Co. were first to en- gage in the business of merchandising in the new village, all of whom had good backing, Messrs. Wells & Dickinson being in the firm of S. O. Wells & Co., Judge Henry in that of_1. McColley & Co. and the brothers H. & H. A. Howard in the firm of {. Brown & Co. Im- mediately following them came Iliram Johnson, from Middlebury, and business took a start- the town began to grow. In 1828, a malignant fever swept over the Tuscarawas and Cuyahoga Valleys, which baffled the best medical skill that could be had. The Howard brothers fell before it, as did almost all who were attacked. The population along the line of the canal es- pecially was almost decimated ; it swept over the conntry. scarcely missing a house. The ne- erology of that year records the death of many of the most enterprising citizens. As cold weather came on and the ravages of the disease were stayed, business resumed its wonted ebar- acter and all kinds of labor found employment.

Still progress was not rapid ; there was a full supply for every demand. Within the knowl- edge of the writer. Capt. Mayhew Folger soll. in 1826, 100 barrels of flour at $2 per barrel. The great change in the entire business rela- tions of the county came, but too late in the season to be felt to any great extent. On the 25th of August, 1828, the Ohio Canal was opened from Akron to Massillon. The first boats that arrived here were the Allen Trimble of the Ohio. Troy & Erie Line. Capt. Z. Mather. and the State of Ohio, of the Farmers' Line. Capt. Il. Wheeler. They brought the Acting Commissioners and Engineers and the event was celebrated with bonfires and illuminations at night as it had been by the roaring of cannon during the day. A poem was written for the occasion, a single stanza only of which is re- membered, and is in this wise :

" Come give us a bumper and let it run full While we drink to the health of our friend John- ny Bull,

And long may prosperity follow us all. While water shall run in the Ohio Canaw]."

Navigation was thenceforth open between Massillon and the outside world. Warehouses for the storing of produce had already been erceted ; a system of warehousing, in the nature of a forwarding and commission business was inaugurated, and a new impulse was given to all sorts of enterprises. With the closing of the canal, business closed, and it was not until 1829, that a regular and systematic mode of business could be said to excreise control of the commercial relations of the country just opened to the rest of the world. Massillon was put in communication, by means of canal navigation, with Cleveland. and the world was open to her enterprise ; boats continued to arrive and de- part during the season of the open canal. In 1829, near the close of navigation, a mercantile firm composed of Hiram B. Wellman and Mar- shall D. Wellman, by the firm of H. B. & M. D. Wellman, brought a large stock of goods into Massillon. H. B. Wellman had a year or two before opened a law office in Wooster, and M. D. Wellman, who had been a cooper and set- tled in Wooster, left there and went into the State of Pennsylvania, and went to buikling canals under State contracts, and succeeded in money-making. These brothers started the firm under the above name. On opening their store in Massillon, they offered " cash for wheat."

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History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 68

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