USA > Ohio > Knox County > Past and present of Knox County, Ohio, Vol. I > Part 28
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A few years since an addition was made to the original building. The present competent matron is Mrs. A. L. Amadon, who commenced in April, 1910.
THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.
This is a new institution for Mt. Vernon. Several clubs and other at- tempts at caring for the young men had been experimented with in the city,
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KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
but not until the present Young Men's Christian Association took the field in hand and erected a fine, massive brick building on North Main street, in 1908, which was dedicated March 1, 1909, were the attempts worth men- tion in history. Four hundred and fifty men and boys became members and entered heartily into the work. The building is an ornament to the city and will long stand as a befitting monument to its builders. The upper floors of the building have a number of dormitory rooms that are well filled by young men who are glad to rent in so fine a building, surrounded by such good influences. The reading room and gymnasium are winners in this day and age. At present there are four hundred and fifty young men and boys connected with the work of the association, which is an increase of one hundred in the last year.
The present board of trustees is composed as follows: Wilmot Sperry, A. R. Sipe, Silas Parr. H. S. Campbell, James Israel and E. O. Arnold.
INSURANCE BUSINESS.
Mt. Vernon has been prominent in the matter of supporting fire insur- ance, as well as some life insurance companies. The Knox County Mutual Insurance Company was incorporated by special act of the Legislature, March 14, 1838. The first board of officers included C. P. Buckingham. president : Samuel A. Updegraff. secretary ; E. G. Woodward, treasurer. In 1843 William Turner became secretary and for nearly half a century was the prominent figure in this successfully operated company.
In 1880 it reported a well secured capital of about one million dollars in premium notes and a cash surplus of fifty thousand dollars, thirty thou- sand of which was invested in United States four per cent bonds. Up to that date this company had paid losses amounting to over four hundred thousand dollars. To keep their policies well scattered and keep clear of extra hazardous risks was always the policy of this company.
This company is the second mutual company in Ohio and has stood the storms of all these sixty-four years, being one of the solid insurance companies in the Buckeye state today. It has one hundred and twenty- eight agencies in Ohio; ten thousand policy holders, carrying more than thirteen million dollars worth of face policies, and has paid one million, three hundred thousand dollars in losses since its organization. This company has been giving thirty per cent cheaper insurance than the old line cash policy system. Their present office building was erected in 1893 and is located at No. 110 High street, Mt. Vernon. The present president is W. A. Bounds, while the secretary and treasurer is H. H. Green. The nine directors are :
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KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
W. A. Bounds, William Bird, William K. Koons, William Banning, Sourin W. Alsdorf, Henry S. Jennings, Robert M. Greer, Banner M. Allen, H. H. Greer.
The Eagle Mutual Fire Insurance Company was incorporated May 31, 1879, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars in premium notes. This com- pany was organized largely through the efforts of J. J. Fultz, who became its secretary. In 1881 the record shows the officers to have been: David C. Montgomery, president ; Gen. G. W. Morgan, vice-president ; J. J. Fultz, secretary ; John D. Thompson, treasurer; Hon. William C. Cooper, legal ad- viser, with John B. Castner, general agent. As long as Mr. Fultz was its manager it went forward well, but when it was taken over into other hands it soon went to the wall and a receiver wound up its affairs according to law. This occurred about 1881-82.
The Ohio Mutual Aid Association, an incorporated institution doing a mutual life insurance business, with offices at Mt. Vernon, began business after its incorporation in September, 1879, and at the end of the first year had a membership of nearly two thousand. Its officers were: Hon. John D. Thompson, president; Gen. G. W. Morgan, vice-president ; J. J. Fultz, secretary and actuary ; David C. Montgomery, treasurer, and S. C. Thomp- son, medical director.
This company, along with the fire insurance company known as the Eagle Mutual, went down in 1881-2 and was under the same management as that company, both having been established mainly by J. J. Fultz, and had it not been voted from his hands would be running today, as was ac- knowledged by General Morgan many years afterwards.
BUSINESS MEN OF SIXTY YEARS AGO.
It will doubtless be of interest to the present-day reader to know who had charge of the business interests of Mt. Vernon city in 1850, over three score years ago, hence the following has been expunged from a directory of that date :
The merchants those days were not usually classed off, but nearly all carried general stocks, there being few if any exclusive stores. The mer- chants were: R. C. Kirk & Company, D. Potwin & Company, William Beam, R. M. Brown & Son, Hugh Cooper & Company, A. N. Stoughton, Hill & Mills, A. E. Davidson, Jonathan Weaver, George B. Potwin, H. H. Curtis, D. S. Norton, Sr., Warden & Burr, James Blake, Horatio Miller. C. G. Bryant, L. B. Ward, Richard Ridgeley, Robert Irvine, James George, N. Updegraff, J. E. Woodbridge, E. C. Vore, James Hutchinson, Daniel
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KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
Axtell, J. W. Miller & Company, G. A. Jones & Company, J. A. Graff and Washington Hendricks.
The druggists were C. P. Buckingham & Company, M. Abernethy, H. M. Ramsey & Company, J. N. Lewis & Company.
Chair-makers, Daniel McFarland, Daniel McDowell, J. H. McFarland, Noah Hill, Joseph Jacobs, Raphael Pyne.
Silversmiths, J. B. Brown, C. H. Strieby. Joshua Hyde.
Foundry and machine works, Coopers & Clark, M. C. Furlong, Bucking- ham & Upton.
Iron and hardware dealers, John McCormick, Adam Weaver, Henry Rook & Company.
Cabinetmakers, Joseph H. Martin, James Relf, Daniel McDowell, Jacob Martin, Henderson & Weirick, Abraham Bolyer.
Butchers, James C. Irvine. Joseph Bechtol, Allen Beach, Sr., Allen J. Beach, Archie McFarland, Aaron Sharp.
Tanners, Hugh Oglevee, Sr., Harrison Stoatler, N. Williams, Sr., N. Williams, Jr., James McFarland, Lyman Hendricks.
Hatters, S. F. Voorhies, Meigs Campbell, William L. King. William B. Henderson.
Stage drivers, Russell Crandall, John W. Martin, George Keller, Otho Welshymer, William Wright and Jacob Styers.
Threshing machine manufacturers, M. C. Furlong and A. Baker.
Soap-boilers, Judge Larre (colored). Samuel Jackson (colored).
Clothiers, A. Wolff, G. W. Williams & Company.
Hotels. Lybrand house, Kenyon house, by George Winne ; Mansion house, by David Kilgore : Ohio house, by Abraham Hughes : Franklin house, by C. F. Drake: Railroad house, by Douglas Harle : Indian Queen, by James Emery.
The Mt. Vernon Woolen Company, Henry B. Curtis, president, Norman N. Hill, secretary.
Newspapers, Ohio Times, William H. Cochran : Banner, William Dunbar and George W. Armstrong: The Whig. John W. White and E. A. Higgins.
Boot and shoe dealers. C. L. Manville, Miller & White, Weaver & Miller. . G. B. Arnold. Justus B. Bell, S. S. Rouse, Jr.
Miscellaneous, B. B. Lippitt, book seller ; E. T. Cohen, portrait painter : John W. White, telegraph operator: W. Robertson, chemist and fancy dyer ; Mr. and Mrs. R. R. Sloan, female institute : J. A. Andrews, sash and blind manufacturer : Casper Fordney, gunsmith.
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.
From the earliest day Mt. Vernon has been a manufacturing place, though never boasting of being a great center of manufacturing. It has
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with the passing years had numerous small plants, all doing a practical, paying business in the days in which they were operated. But of recent years the city may well boast of two immense industries, the bridge works, and the C. & G. Cooper Company, builders of all kinds of steam and gas engines. To introduce the reader to the great Cooper plant, located near the tracks of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, the following lines written by Charles Cooper in September, 1874, are quoted.
The C. & G. Cooper Company was founded by Charles and Elias Cooper in the fall of 1833, when they erected the original foundry at Mt. Vernon, Ohio. The two brothers had been reared upon a farm purchased by their father in 1810, situated three miles south of Mt. Vernon. Seeking a wider field of activity than afforded by the parental farm, the brothers went to Zanesville, Ohio, in 1832, opened a coal mine there, and carried on a small coal business. The story of their return to Mt. Vernon and their first experiences in the foun- dry business is quaintly told in the words of Charles Cooper, written by him in September, 1874, as follows:
"The coal trade was followed with small success until the fall of 1833, and that summer I think I spent some of the 'bluest' days of my life. One day while sitting on the hill overlooking the town (Zanesville ), with the 'blues' as seldom I have had, I saw the smoke curling up from the old Davis Foundry. They used, as all foundries did then, an oven or air furnace for smelting. with raw coal for fuel,-hence the smoke. I was soon upon my feet and made directly for that concern, and I have never had 'foundry' out of my mind since. We commenced immediately to make arrangements for building one. I sold one of my three horses for fifty dollars, and took one Brown's note payable in coal for that amount delivered at Zanesville. I sold that note to Cose & Company, paper mill men, and took their note for same payable in paper at wholesale. This note I took to Granville, Licking county, and traded to P. A. Taylor & Company, blast furnace men, for the bottom and staves for our first cupola to melt iron in. We moved from Zanesville here some time in November, hauling all we had on two wagons. The moulding house was up, and the winter was spent in getting the horse-power and cupola and other matters ready. The horse-power was a primitive affair. There was a large wooden upright shaft. on the upper end of which was a bevel gear wheel. teeth and all of wood, no iron but the bolts. Think the pinion, too, was all of wood. You can now find the wheel in the bottom of the wall that is near the large brick chimney. It was used for a curb to build the wall on. We made the first melt late in April, or early in May. We broke and carried up the iron, washed the ladles and charged the furnace all by hand. It took all the afternoon to make from five hundred to seven hundred pounds of castings.
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KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
We worked with the horse-power until the fall of 1836, when we installed a small engine. We could now melt one thousand five hundred to two thousand pounds in one afternoon. We worked along this way for some little time. The year 1838 was a hard year after the panic of 1837, and all this time we were struggling to buy iron to keep the works going. We could borrow but little money, and that at three per cent interest per month, but by hard work we got to going somewhat well again in 1839."
In the early fifties the construction. of many railways in Ohio tempted this company to build locomotives, which they made in an up-to-date manner, but by reason of the panic of 1857 several of the roads failed. causing hard times in the Cooper shops, but, like the panic before, they weathered the storm and came out unscathed. They built the first locomotive made west of the Alleghany mountains.
By death and withdrawal there were many changes in the members of the company, all of the old stock of Coopers having long since passed from the activities of this life, but "while the workmen fall the work goes on." Charles Cooper, co-founder, died in 1901, aged ninety-two years.
This company made the first successful traction engines in 1875 and man- ufactured and sold one hundred of these engines. They increased their ca- pacity until they made five hundred per year. In 1886 they turned their atten- tion especially to making the Corliss engine and have shipped many to distant lands, including Africa, Japan, England and Germany. During their seventy- eight years of existence they have installed and utilized many of the great power-producing inmprovements of this age and are still at the head with late improvements.
The officers of the company are F. L. Fairchild, president ; C. G. Cooper. secretary ; D. B. Kirk, treasurer ; E. H. Fairfield, assistant treasurer, and B. B. Williams, assistant secretary. The five executive officers, who also constitute the board of directors, are the principal stockholders, and are all actively engaged in the management of the business. J. H. Debes, son of J. C. Debes, is present head of the mechanical engineering department. Five hundred men are usually employed in these engine works. The firm was incorporated under the Ohio laws in 1895 with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars.
The Cooper Manufacturing Company, foot of Main street, as shown in accounts given of it in 1880, was the successor of the old Kokosing Iron Works, originally established in 1849. It underwent many changes in management and ownership and in 1875 became known as the Cooper Manufacturing Com- pany, with John Cooper, president, and Nevil Whiteside, secretary. They made a specialty of all kinds of engines, mill machinery and foundry work. Engines were there produced of the light and heavy varieties, running from four to
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four hundred horse power. They also made "Cooper's combined grain steamers and heaters," patent spring grist mills of portable type. As early as 1872 this firm shipped one of their portable steam engines and saw mills to Japan, via San Francisco, and a few years before the company then operating this plant shipped a threshing machine to Australia. In 1872 they built two iron light-houses for the government. These weighed over three hundred tons each and were sent to the southern coast. In 1881 they sent_another iron light-house to Paris Island, off the coast of South Carolina. For the United States patent office they also made a large metal case for safe keeping of val- uable models, etc. After several changes of management this industry failed and went out of business, the foundry section being taken over by Mr. Cooper, and finally the plant was shut down and the works removed.
In the line of furniture manufacturing on a large scale. Banning & Willis began operations here in 1872. Their building was at first a brick structure, fifty-two by one hundred and thirty-two feet and more than three stories high. Forty men were employed in this factory.
McCormick & McDowell also operated a large furniture factory in 1880 on West Vine street, where a large force of skilled workmen were employed the year round.
The linseed oil factory was a thing of interest and value to the city thirty years ago. It was established at West Gambier and Norton streets by Henry Johnson, who was succeeded by Johnson & Israel in 1870. It was thirty by one hundred and twenty-five feet in size. They had immense warehouses both here and at Howard station, fifteen miles to the west. The products made were raw linseed oil, oil cake and oil meal, used by farmers and stock growers the country over. A business of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year was transacted.
The Mt. Vernon Bridge Company, that has come to be a leading indus- try of the city and known from one end of the continent to the other, was incorporated about 1880 for the building of wrought iron bridges. It started with a forty thousand dollar capital and has grown to be a great bridge build- ing concern, making all types of iron and steel structures for wagon and rail- road bridges.
Really the first company that operated on these grounds went into the hands of a receiver about 1897 and wound up its business. That was, in fact, a West Virginia company, and named the Mt. Vernon Bridge Works. James Westwater purchased the old plant, and in September, 1897, a new concern was granted a charter by the state of Ohio, known as the Mt. Vernon Bridge Company, having a capital of sixty thousand dollars. In October. 1900, the present company was incorporated with a capital of one hundred thousand
(19)
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dollars, which in December, 1905, was increased to three hundred thousand dollars. 'Still another hundred thousand dollars of preferred stock was author- ized and a portion of it has been disposed of. These extensive bridge works do all kinds of structural iron and steel work, and install the same in all parts of the country. Two hundred workmen are employed in the shops and forty in the offices. The original frame structure burned on February 14, 1910, and immediately the present large group of brick buildings were erected, and cover seven acres of ground, near the Baltimore & Ohio depot, on the site of the old works. The present officers are : James Israel, president ; I. M. Wolverton. vice-president and chief engineer; George Israel, secretary and treasurer.
The Reeves Engine Company, established in 1906, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, by all local men, makes a superior grade of both gas and gasoline engines. They also make a large amount of castings, employ- ing from fifty to seventy-five men. Their works are on the old site of the business started about 1902, by Mr. Chalingsworth as a foundry for making engine castings, but after a few years it failed in its undertakings and the prop- erty passed into the hands of the three Reeves brothers, from Columbus, who after a year or so sold to the present corporation.
Another industry of recent origin is the handle factory in the south part of the city, where large quantities of tool handles are produced from wood.
The leather manufactory of Penich & Ransom was located on West Gam- bier street and came into their possession in 1878, up to which time it had been operated by George E. Raymond. This tannery was within a building eighty by one hundred feet, furnished with modern machinery, and their annual product was about six thousand pieces of leather. Twelve hands were em- ployed at this tannery. Times changed and this industry went out of busi- ness.
The flouring mill industry has always been a very important adjunct to the enterprises of Mt. Vernon. The Norton City Mills were established in 1817. almost a century ago, and are widely known in this section of Ohio. The mill was established by pioneer Daniel S. Norton, who ran it until his death, in October. 1859, when it passed to his son's hands and George K. Norton then operated the mills until his death. It used to be styled the "Old Red Mill." To this was added a carding and fulling mill, a saw mill, and a custom flour mill. In 1845, the large four-story frame mill structure was erected as a merchant mill. In 1875 the property was leased to Messrs. James Rogers and Samuel J. Brent, who kept the plant busy until the fall of 1879. when Brent retired, having been elected clerk of the county. In January, 1881. the property passed to the hands of A. A. Taylor, under whose hands the product was known far and near for its superiority. With some modern changes. this mill is still running.
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The Eagle City Mills, West Vine street, were put in running order in July, 1876, by E. J. Chase, a practical mill man. It had four run of stones and a corn sheller operated by steam power. This mill had all it could pos- sibly do to keep up with the demand for its flour and meal. These mills are still doing a large business.
Among other enterprises that should not fail of going into history, was the carriage works of William Sanderson, Sr., established about 1855. Heze- kiah Groff then owned this factory, from which hundreds and thousands of excellent buggies and wagons were made.
David Sanderson also had a large buggy factory for those days, located near the depot of the Cleveland, Mt. Vernon & Columbus railroad.
Another industry was the pump factory of H. K. Cotton, who made the Corliss force pump, that had a large sale in the eighties.
INDUSTRIES IN I9II.
The manufacturing concerns of the city in 1910-II were noted as follows in the new directory :
Two bottling works; one box factory; one broom factory; one candy factory ; four cigar factories; one cold storage and ice making plant; one crate making factory ; one engine manufacturing plant (the Cooper) ; one gas engine factory, exclusive : two flouring mills; one furnace factory ; four glass plants ; the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company, the Hartford City Flint Glass Company, the Essex Glass Company, and the Camp Glass Company ; thirteen gas and oil companies and several lesser factories added since. Be- tween sixteen hundred and two thousand men find employment in these manufacturing concerns.
The glass industry came with the successful operations in natural gas at Mt. Vernon, in the early nineties. It has grown to be one of much value to the city. The Pittsburg plate glass works produce machine-made window glass, and operate in the large brick building erected in the nineties for a steel plant, by a stock company which was headed and promoted by General Coxey, who at one time marched an army of laboring men to Washington from the Pacific states and known as "Coxey's Army." These works were a flat failure and local stockholders lost much by the wild schemes of Coxey.
The Camp Glass Company, in the northwestern part of the city, makes window glass exclusively, also.
One glass factory makes nothing but the tops for fruit jars, and the Essex works makes a specialty of milk bottles, all machine made. Their works, near the Reeves Engine Company, are just being enlarged to a won- derful capacity.
1
CHAPTER XXI.
TOWNSHIP HISTORIES.
The original four townships or civil sub-divisions of Knox county were Wayne, Clinton, Morgan and Union. Wayne embraced all of the present townships of Franklin and Chester (now in Morrow county), Middlebury, Berlin, Wayne and the north half of Morris. Clinton included Bloomfield (now in Morrow county ), Liberty, the north half of Pleasant, Monroe, Pike, and the south half of Morris. Union township embraced Brown, Jefferson, Union, Howard, Butler, Jackson, three-fourths of Harrison and the east half of Clay. Morgan township embraces the west half of Clay, southwest quarter of Harrison, south half of Pleasant, and all of Morgan, Miller, Milford and Hilliar.
These civil townships remained intact until 1812. In the meantime, however, the county commissioners on June 9, 1809, created Madison township, in Richland county, which embraced the entire county, Richland being up to 1813 under the supervision of Knox county. As time went on and settlements were effected, various changes were made in the division and sub-division of these original four townships, until the present condi- tion prevailed as to the boundaries of the townships, which now number twenty-two.
The subjoined will show the reader the date of organization and num- ber of acres of land in each of the present townships in Knox county :
Organized.
Acres.
Organized.
Acres.
Brown
March 6, 1826
14,217
Liberty
March 9. 1825 16,137
Berlin
March 9, 1825
11,674
Middlebury
Dec. 3, 1823
13,000
Butler March 6, 1825 II,&SI
Milford
March 3, 1823 13,472
Clay
March 9, 1825
15.000
Miller
June 4, 1816 13.057
March 3, 1812 March 12, 1812 10,28I 13.604 Clinton
College December 21, 1838 4,000
Morris Morgan
October 9. 1809 16,582
Howard
March 9, 1825
14,586
Monroe
March 9. 1825 13,455
Harrison March 9, 1825 15,179
Pleasant
March 9, 1825 12,39I
Hilliar August 28, 1818
16,000
Pike
June 7, 1819 18,576 Jefferson
March 9, 1825
20,499
Union
March 9, 1825 18,628
Jackson
September 4, 1815 14.937
Wayne
June 7, 1807
16,258
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BROWN TOWNSHIP.
Brown belongs to the northern tier of townships, is east of Pike, west of Jefferson, north of Howard township and south of Richland and Ash- land counties. It was named for a distinguished officer in the war of 1812, Major-General Brown. It was at first included in Union township, but on March 9, 1825, it was attached to Jefferson township, when there were few inhabitants within its territory. More families having moved in for permanent settlement, on March 6, 1826, it was organized as Brown town- ship. The first election was held at the house of Jonas Ewing.
The general surface of this township is broken and in places quite hilly, but the soil is fertile and the township is well cultivated today. The orig- inal timber here was oak, sugar maple, beech, chestnut, elm and sycamore.
The main stream is the Big Jelloway creek, flowing through the town- ship from northwest to southeast, entering from Richland county, passing out into Howard township, Knox county. The southwest corner of this township is drained and watered by the Little Jelloway creek. Sapp's run and its small tributaries are also part of the water courses of the town- ship.
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