USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 50
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Here the architect and builder Counts his value, sees his worth, In the massive works of grandeur, Rising skyward from the earth ; Beholds his monuments of glory, Lasting monuments sublime, From the ages dark and hoary, Towering from the gulf of time.
Onward, still, the march of genius, Crowned in triumph she appears, Looming from the mists of ages, In the wilderness of years ; And now to energy and labor, Honoring, thus, our native home, We this hall do dedicate, Builders of the Arcadome.
*It was destroyed by fire, March 23, 1874.
564
HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
Lee Baumgardner was born in East Union township, February IO, 1832. His parents removed to Wooster township about 1835, his father dying soon thereafter. At the age of ten years Lee left home and became a bound boy upon a farm, serving as such until he was sixteen years old, when, until he arrived at maturity, his rural recreations were under the management and discipline of James Findley, the old County Treasurer. Attaining the age of legal emancipation from the restraints of guardian, dictator and overseer, he removed to Wooster and went into business with J. H. and T. P. Baumgardner, under the firm name of J. H. Baum- gardner & Co. About 1855 they bought out Phineas Weed, and organized under the style of Lee & Co., Mr. Baumgardner him- self in charge. In 1857 they built Arcadome, when the stocks of both concerns were merged and the stores consolidated. In 1865 Mr. Baumgardner sold out his interest to his brother Joseph. In 1862 he built a fine residence on Beall avenue and sold it in 1864. In 1864 he bought a farm at Cuyahoga Falls, selling it in the fall of 1865, and removing to Toledo in the spring of 1866, entering into business, and since residing there.
Joseph H. Baumgardner died in Wooster a few years since. He married Miss Eckert, a sister of Thomas T. Eckert, who was appointed postmaster of Wooster in 1849, and in connection there- with was operator of the first telegraph line, introduced into Wooster about that time. The office then was in the build- ing now occupied by J. H. Reid's harness shop, north-east cor- ner of Public Square. Mr. Eckert in time became an expert operator, and developed excellent business management in tele- graph enterprise, by which he won his way to high positions. During the war he was Superintendent of Telegraph for the Army of the Potomac, with the rank of Brigadier General, and at the present time is President of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, his residence in New York City, where Mrs. Baum- gardner and her daughter Alice have also taken up their abode.
T. P. Baumgardner still remains in Wooster, and is one of its best citizens, a man of means, taste and standing. He is a dealer in musical instruments, and personally a musician of highest cul- ture, as are all the members of his family. His oldest son, Joseph, is United States Route Agent on the P., Ft. W. & C. Railway, from Pittsburg to Crestline, and is one of the most capable officials and courteous gentlemen on the line.
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WOOSTER-SKETCHES.
JOHN F. BARRETT.
John F. Barrett was born March 6, 1836, in Wayne county, Ohio. He volunteered in the Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Colonel Lorin Andrews, April 16, 1861, in Company E, Captain James McMillen, and was among the first men in the county (Jacob Shultz being the first) to put down his name. He went with the regiment to Camp Dennison, followed it to West Virginia, and along with the boys, smelled the breath of battle at Rich Mountain.
The way in which Mr. Barrett was wounded was as follows : The Eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry had been attacked at New Creek, whereupon they sent to Fort Pendleton for reinforcements. The Fourth proceeded to their relief, marching thirty-five miles to New Creek, assaulting Romney at 1:30 P. M., fighting the enemy that night, and capturing the town next morning. Company E of the regiment having been sent to the east end of the town to protect a gun about to be charged by the enemy, between the hours of I and 2 o'clock P. M., Mr. Barrett was wounded, receiv- ing a desperate bullet shot from a sharp-shooter. For two years he had to walk on crutches. Surgical science has exerted itself in vain to extricate the bullet, and Mr. Barrett is doomed to carry the enemy's lead in his body to his grave.
Mr. Barrett was married September 18, 1863, to Laura Nim- onons, of Wooster, by Rev. Jesse Durbin, of the Methodist church, of which he has been a member since 1856. We make mention of the wounding of Mr. Barrett, not because he was braver than his fellow-soldiers, or more patriotic than his comrades in arms, but because he was the first soldier from Wayne county shot in the war of the Rebellion. He was a gallant boy and it is a record of which he may well feel proud. Mr. Barrett is an honorable bus- iness man and a worthy, upright citizen.
MATTHEW JOHNSTON, SR.
This gentleman was a soldier in the war of 1812, serving in the capacity of a Captain, and settled in Wayne county at a very early date. In passing through this section with the army he was highly pleased with it and determined, when peace was restored, to return and make it his home.
He was married to Sarah Smurr, of Alexandria, Va., in 1806, where she was born May 20, 1787. Mrs. Johnston was one among
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
the first members of the old Seceder church of Wooster, which was organized in 1816. She was a woman of great amiableness of manner and excellency of Christian character. She died on Feb- ruary 5, 1877, at the residence of her son-in-law, Thomas Power, Esq., of the city of Wooster, her husband's death having occurred many years prior to this.
Her brother, Elias Smurr, bore the rank of Captain in the mil- itary service of 1812; was wounded in an action in Western New York, and died of his wound within ten days, and is buried at Buf- falo, where a monument is erected to his memory. The children of Matthew and Sarah Johnston were :
Mr. John S. Johnston, living in Chicago.
The late Matthew Johnston, Jr., United States Marshal of the Northern Dis- trict of Ohio, who died in Cleveland in 1861. He had been a vestryman in Toledo, and was always actively interested in church affairs. His widow, Mrs. Rebecca Johnston, is now a member of the parish at Marietta.
Mr. James Johnston, who, with his wife, Mrs. Maria Johnston, was the founder of St. James Parish, Wooster. He served for many years as a warden and vestry- man of this parish.
Mrs. Belinda Power, who, with her husband and son, is a member of the same parish ; Mr. Perry J. Power, her son, being a vestryman.
Mr. Elias S. Johnston, who died in Toledo, and whose family are now members of St. James', Wooster.
Mr. W. S. Johnston, living in San Diego, California,
And Mr. Perry Johnston, who died at the age of twenty-four, leaving a widow and child, who became Episcopalians, but also died within a few years.
Reasin Beall Johnston, who died when a child.
Mrs. Johnston had also in her family, as a daughter, an orphaned niece, Miss Nancy Smurr, who continues to live with Mrs. Power.
A CATHOLIC BISHOP DIES IN WOOSTER.
Bishop Edward Fenwick, then living in Kentucky, visited this section in priestly character as early as 1816. He would travel on horseback to Cincinnati, thence to Somerset, Perry county, thence to Knox county, thence to Canton, thence to some Catholic fami- lies in the eastern portion of Wayne county, and to the Gallagher settlement near Wooster, thence to Mansfield, and thence home to Kentucky. He was made Bishop in 1821, of Ohio, Indiana and and the Western Territories, and was the first Bishop who traveled in the West. On his way from Canton to Wooster he took sick, and arriving at the latter place he stopped at Coulter's tavern, where he died suddenly in 1832. Drs. Day and Bissell waited
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upon him, and pronounced his disease cholera. He was buried the same evening, but during the following winter his remains were disinterred and transplanted at Cincinnati.
WILLIAM SPEAR.
William Spear was born in Cumberland county, Pa., on the 17th of December, 1803. With a man named Myers he emigrated to Ohio and located in Wooster, where Myers and he, in 1830, went into the cabinet business in an old shed on the lot now occu- pied by S. F. Day's tin store on West Liberty street.
Myers remained with him a year and a half, when they dis- solved partnership, divided their effects, neither one being able to purchase from the other. Myers removed to Dalton, Mr. Spear continuing the business at the old stand in Wooster for two years, when he in connection with Robert Ewing, who afterwards went to Terre Haute, Indiana, built a shop on the corner where his fur- niture store now stands. It was a frame building one story and a half high, 18x40 feet, and then considered a mammoth structure. The building yet stands on the same lot, to the west of its old po- sition a few feet, and is now owned and occupied as a residence by Lewis Keller.
He then formed a partnership with John Beistle and was as- sociated with him in the manufacture of furniture for about eigh- teen years, during which time they purchased 18x60 feet of ground on the north-east side of the Public Square, from E. Quinby, Jr., agent of the Bowman estate, for the sum of $675, and erected thereon a three story brick building. This they used, while Mr. Beistle was in the firm, for saleroom and warehouse, and was con- tinued to be used as such by Mr. Spear until the spring of 1871, when he sold the property to the Jackson Brothers.
After Mr. Beistle withdrew, Mr. Spear gave his two sons, Wes- ley W. and Fletcher W., an interest in the business, each having learned a respective branch of the trade, and at maturity were ex- perts in their departments. Since that time "William Spear & Sons " has been the character and style of the firm, conducting one of the largest establishments of the kind in Wayne county.
Their fine ware-room is situated on the spot where he first lo- cated, on West Liberty street. For work-shops they purchased the old Episcopal church, on South street, and were doing exten- sive manufacturing there when, on August 13, 1866, it burned
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
down, involving a loss of $10,000, upon which there was no insur- ance. Notwithstanding this severe misfortune, he almost immedi- ately purchased two acres of ground at the terminus of South Wal- nut street, from J. H. Kauke, for $2,000, and there erected a large new shop, three stories high, forty feet wide and eighty-eight feet in length, filling it with all kinds of the latest styles of machinery, and running it by steam-power. In addition to the main building are dry-houses and store-houses, with lumber-yard, the whole es- tablishment employing twenty to twenty-five hands.
JOHN WILHELM.
This prominent carriage manufacturer immigrated to Wooster on the 9th of July, 1836, coming from Northampton county, Pennsylvania, where he was born, June 14, 1810. On his arrival in Wooster, with his wife and two children, he immediately em- barked in the business of carriage-making. His first shop was located on North Walnut street, where, besides other work, he kept in repair six or seven lines of stage coaches. He built the first carriage ever constructed in Wooster or Wayne county, there being no other maker nearer than George Hine, of Massillon. This carriage was built for Michael Mowry, the father of Michael Mowry, of Chester township, at a cost of $165. Before Mowry left the shop some one remarked that, in advance of the carriage being removed, it would have to be "wet," to which he con- sented; and calling on the hands in the shop, sixteen in number, with James Jacobs, Michael Bucher, Henry Koller and Mr. Wil- helm, they all went to Koller's tavern and got "a stiff cocktail," for, as Mr. Wilhelm remarked in narrating the circumstance, they "drank nothing stronger than whisky and brandy then."
After doing business on the west side for about three years Mr. Wilhelm bought lots on East Liberty street, and built the structure now owned and occupied by Frederick Schuch and Mr. Saal. He remained there for twelve or thirteen years, or until 1852, when he took possession of the new brick shops he had erected across the street, and was prepared to carry on business co-extensive with his increased capacities. In 1860 he built a fine residence on the corner of Beall avenue and Bowman street.
Mr. Wilhelm has been an industrious man all his life, is identi- fied with our public improvements, and has contributed his share to the general advancement of the town. He contributed freely
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to the University, and was one of the number who signed the $17,000 bond. For 46 years he has been connected with the Re- formed church of Wooster. Three of his sons were in the Fed- eral army, one of whom, Owen A., was afterwards, from 1875 to 1877, Mayor of the city.
JAMES CURRY.
The subject of this sketch, one of the most energetic business men of Wooster, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsyl- vania, October 17, 1816. His father's name was David, whose occupation was that of carpenter and builder, in which pursuit he brought up his son James. When he had completed his trade, at eighteen years, Mr. Curry left home and worked as a jour for two years, then came to Ohio, locating in Washington township, Holmes county. Here he began house and barn build- ing, with headquarters at Nashville, successfully following his trade until removing to Wooster, in the spring of 1853.
This was just after the railroad had been opened to Wooster, and when the citizens generally, for a time, were stimulated to en- terprise, especially in building up their town. Mr. Curry at once entered vigorously into business, establishing a lumber yard where the Snow Flake Mills now stand, remaining there but one year, however, on account of a freshet submerging his lumber, though not causing any financial damage. He then purchased of E. Quin- by, Jr., the several lots of higher ground now occupied by his stores, shops and lumber yard, on the corner of East Liberty street and Beall avenue. He first put up the old shop, now moved to the rear to give place to the main building he erected in 1857. In 1854 he placed in use the first planing mill brought into Wayne county, and at different times introduced other new labor-saving machines never operated before, and in some instances, not heard of, in Wooster, until his shops were filled with all kinds of machin- ery required in the skillful manufacture of doors, sash, blinds, mouldings, brackets, etc., for all kinds of buildings.
As time went on his shops and yard became an extens- ive establishment, his custom extending not only throughout Wayne, but into the neighboring counties, until, from doing a business of disposing of 100,000 feet of lumber, as in 1854, trade increased to 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 feet per year in later times. He was the first large dealer in pine lumber in Wooster, where it
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
was comparatively little used before he established his shops and imported building material, first from Cleveland, and then whole- sale from the pineries of Michigan and walnut woods of Indiana. The average price of pine lumber since Mr. Curry has been in Wooster would be from $25 to $30 per thousand feet, though in the war times the best lumber was as high as $65. When he started his yard, in 1853, lumber rated at from $10 to $25 per thousand.
His sons, who grew up in the business, became valuable assist- ants to him. As they came to manhood's years he gave each an interest, until " The Currys" became noted as the "lumber fam- ily." In the fall of 1867 Mr. Curry and his three oldest sons, John, David and Wel., purchased the Stibbs & Co. yard and planing mill, on North street, and very successfully carried on business there under the firm name of James Curry & Sons, but in 1874 this co-partnership was dissolved, the sons retaining the new yard on North street under the style of D. C. Curry & Co., which they still retain, while James Curry resumed sole charge of the old shops on East Liberty street. In the meantime he had erected a fine three story brick block adjoining the shops, and in connection with lumber and house building, established a furniture manufactory, which he still continues to carry on there to a very large extent in all branches, including undertaking.
The lumber and building business he has, in great measure, given up and transferred to other management, he having in May, 1877, taken into active partnership his fourth son, James Willard Curry, and Robert Cameron, the firm doing business under name of Curry, Cameron & Co. They do a large trade as builders and manufacturers, putting up buildings of all kinds by contract, from the foundation, besides selling great quantities of material to other contractors and builders. The junior members are enterpris- ing young men. J. M. Curry was born in Holmes county, Ohio, August 27, 1849, and is trained to the lumber business by long experience under his father ; while Mr.' Cameron is a fine archi- tect and skilled workman in house building. He was born March 5, 1842, in Scotland, within two miles of the city of Glasgow, learning his trade there, and in 1867 came direct from Scotland to Wooster, where he has since lived, and won the esteem of the community.
57I .
WOOSTER-BANKS.
OLD GERMAN BANK.
The old German Bank of Wooster was organized in 1816, with T. J. Jones as President and W. Larwill as Cashier. Its existence was of brief duration, and for a while it was conducted without a charter. In 1834 the Bank of Wooster was established with J. S. Lake as President and Benjamin Bentley as Cashier, and exploded in March, 1848.
WAYNE COUNTY BRANCH OF THE STATE BANK OF OHIO.
The Wayne County Branch of the State Bank of Ohio was or- ganized February, 1848. D. Robison, Sr., was President until January, 1858, and Isaac Steese from 1858 to the expiration of its charter in 1865 ; E. Quinby, Jr., being Cashier from the organiza- tion to its close, in 1865.
THE WAYNE COUNTY NATIONAL BANK.
The Wayne County National Bank was organized in January, 1865; R. R. Donnelly, President, and E. Quinby, Jr., Cashier. January, 1874, Harrison Armstrong was made President and so continued until his death, in 1876; E. Quinby, Jr., serving as Cash- ier. The officers at this date (1878) are, E. M. Quinby, President, and E. Quinby, Jr., Cashier. Original capital, $75,000, with the privilege of augmenting it to $250,000.
EXCHANGE BANK.
In April, 1854, this bank began business under the style of Sturges, Stibbs & Co., as a private banking institution, and in 1863 it was changed to Stibbs, Hanna & Co. At present the style of the bank is J. H. Kauke & C. S. Frost.
NATIONAL BANK OF WOOSTER.
The private banking company of Bonewitz, Emrich & Co. was organized in the spring of 1865 by S. R. Bonewitz, T. S. Johnson, M. W. Pinkerton, G. P. Emrich, John Bechtel and C. H. Brown, with capital of $25,000. April 15, 1865, it opened up for business. In 1868 it was reorganized as the Commercial Bank
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
of Wooster, with a capital of $75,000. Its officers then were : President, T. S. Johnson ; Cashier, S. R. Bonewitz; Teller, C. V. Hard; Directors, T. S. Johnson, S. R. Bonewitz, G. P. Emrich, D. Robison, Jr., M. W. Pinkerton. Johnson resigned April 10, 1868, and Mr. Emrich was chosen, and continued President until the bank ceased to exist. July 22, 1869, Mr. Bonewitz, Cashier, resigned, and C. V. Hard was appointed Assistant Cashier, re- taining that position during the life of the bank. In November, 1871, the shareholders of the Commercial Bank were granted a charter for the National Bank of Wooster, with a capital of $100,- 000. November 29 the books were opened for subscriptions, and the same day the amount of the capital stock was taken. G. P. Emrich, D. Robison, Jr., M. Welker, J. Zimmerman, G. B. Smith, J. S. Hallowell and W. Barton were chosen Directors, to serve from January 2, 1872, the day the bank began business. The officers were: President, David Robison, Jr .; Vice-Presi- dent, G. P. Emrich ; Cashier, C. V. Hard ; Teller, T. E. Peckin- paugh. The present (1878) officers are: President, G. P. Em- rich ; Vice-President, J. Zimmerman ; Cashier, C. V. Hard ; Tel- ler, Will Emrich, a position vacated in 1876 by T. E. Peckin- paugh, to become one of the proprietors of the Wayne County Democrat.
JOHNSON'S BANK.
September 2, 1868, T. S. Johnson "started a bank, too," which the same was of discount and deposit, with a capital of $20,000, and in 1875 it-, when there was a wailing among depositors to the amount of $ 100, 000.
SAMUEL ROUTSON.
Samuel Routson, the founder of the first and only pottery lo- cated at the county-seat, was born in Slankerville (Easton), Chip- pewa township, and has always lived in Wayne county. On both sides of the house his parents were of good old pioneer stock, his mother belonging to the great Franks family. He organized his present business in Doylestown in 1841, where he engaged in the manufacture of stone-ware until 1846. Then he embarked in mer- cantile trade there, to which he gave his attention until 1856, when with his family he removed to Wooster, locating on Pittsburg av-
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WOOSTER-SKETCHES.
enue, east of the railroad depot. Here he at once built a resi- dence, and buildings for carrying on the manufacture of pottery. From that time to the present, in connection with his brother, Quincy A. Routson, he has with industry and care successfully conducted the business in all branches, including drain tile, chim- ney tops, flower pots, vases, etc., his goods finding sale all along the line of railroad from Pittsburg to Chicago. The works are run by hot-air power engine, the only one in Wooster, and very ser- viceable for the business. He obtains his clay in Franklin town- ship, on farms of Daniel Snyder, Andrew Miller and Jacob and Israel Franks, buying many tons from them in the course of a year. His crockery ware is among the very best in the market, and his drain tile in demand, of which, in one year, he has sold as high as 35,000 feet, or nearly seven miles, mainly to farmers, and used always with success.
Mr. Routson is a man of the most upright character; as a neighbor he is kind, accommodating and sympathizing; socially, no one can be more pleasant and cordial; his house is a home to all that come, and he enjoys company always; and in all his re- lations to the community he is held in esteem as one possessing those qualities that make a good citizen. He is a consistent Chris- tian man, for many years a member of the Baptist church, of which he is now one of the Trustees.
D. C. CURRY & Co.
The superior processes introduced into modern mechanic indus- try by the knowledge of machinery have led to the establishment of various branches of manufacture, and made them of the most vital importance. Its application to the immense lumbering dis- tricts of the Penobscot river, in Maine, of Michigan and Wisconsin, on the headwaters of the Hudson, the Susquehanna, Delaware and Allegheny rivers and the Cascade and Coast ranges of mountains in Oregon, is one of the triumphs of mechanic and industrial skill, and demonstrates more clearly than ever that the employment of steam-power is not only a mighty factor in civilization, but is one of the agents by which science succeeds in mitigating the oppress- iveness of labor, and by which the possibilities of human energy are multiplied beyond all moderate calculation.
The planing-mill and concomitant dressing apparatus forms an interesting and most useful feature in all our well-appointed
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
lumber establishments, and is a source of positive benefit, not only to mechanics and architects, but to the whole community, the city builder and the farmer alike, as well as a means of profit, as it cer- tainly should be, to its conductor and proprietor.
The lumbering establishment of D. C. Curry & Co., embracing some of the bolder features of the huge mills of the pineries, has, in a brief struggle of a few years, anchored itself in our midst as one of the successes and permanences of the city of Wooster. It has survived hard times, the panic, and a destructive fire on Feb- ruary 3, 1875, and at present moves along in the line of business and prosperity. The firm was constituted in January, 1868, having purchased the machinery, grounds, areas, etc., from Stibbs, Spink & Co., with James Curry then as a member of it. It was con- ducted under this arrangement until October, 1874, when he re- tired from the partnership, although the style of the firm-D. C. Curry & Co .- underwent no change. The following, the sons of James Curry, are the members of the firm in the order of senior- ity: John Curry, born in Holmes county, February 18, 1839, and married Miss Elizabeth Laubach; D. C. Curry, born Sep- tember 25, 1841, in Holmes county, Ohio, and married December 24, 1868, to Miss Jennie J. Yergin; Wellington Curry, born in Holmes county, May 27, 1845, and married January 9, 1866, to Miss May E. Vanhouten-all coming to Wayne county, with their father, in 1853.
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