Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio, Part 14

Author: Sutor, J. Hope, 1846-
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 898

USA > Ohio > Muskingum County > Zanesville > Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio > Part 14

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In 1816 George Jackson, Nathan Findlay. Jeremiah Dare, Daniel Convers, Jeffrey Price, James Taylor. Thomas L. Pierce. Samuel Thomp-

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

son, Christian Spangler and Alex. Adair, as Jackson and Company, built a three-story frame grist mill north of the Licking, with two run of Buhr stones for wheat and one for corn; the stones were six feet in diameter, purchased at Philadelphia and the freight bill was $900.00; water was conveyed through a small race ; a saw mill and flax seed mill were later added, the latter operated by Richard Fairlamb.

In 1817 Thomas Adams, James Crosby and Thomas L. Pierce engaged in the manufacture of scythes, sickles, axes, etc .; the product was as good as foreign make but the people did not believe it and the firm sent the goods to Pitts- burg, where they were branded Pittsburg Manu- facturing Company and re-shipped to Zanesville and found a ready market at home and western points, but the expenses were too heavy and the business was discontinued in 1848.

In 1840 the large mill of Jackson and Com- pany was torn down and Richard Fairlamb bought the stones and used the material of the former mill in the construction of a new; in 1841 he added a saw and linseed oil mill which he operated until the year 1843, when he sold to Michael Dulty, who transferred it to John S. Platt in 1850, and he sold it to Drone & Com- pany.

The Express during October, 1817, contained an advertisement which indicates that there was a woolen mill in operation, and perhaps had been for some time previous ; the announcement was that "George Brooke has taken the clothing works at the mouth of Licking, West Zanesville, the property of Isaac Dillon, to full, dye and dress woolen goods." This mill was the two- story brick which stood between the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge and the Licking in Linden avenue and which was a familiar land- mark until its demolition in 1902; the cellar was a basement at the time of erection and was used as a store room for the products of the mill. In 1821-2 a carding mill was added and the line of manufacture embraced broadcloth, satinet, cas- simeres, blankets and flannel ; in 1827 a loom was installed for making carpets, and the first carpet was an all-wool ingrain, with the thistle and rose as the figure and sold to Mrs. Dr. Washing- ton Moorehead, of Zanesville. A saw mill was also operated above the present railroad bridge, and in 1829 a grist mill was erected near the old dam, which was washed away during high water in 1830; the saw mill was rebuilt in 1839 and partially destroyed by fire in 1840; in 1843 it was rented to John Deavers, who operated it until 1845, when it was rented to Francis Cassidy and Robert Lee, and later sold to L. Cassidy, who operated it until 1847, when it became the prop- erty of James Miller, who conducted it until its destruction by high water in 1860, when a steam

mill was erected at the foot of McIntire avenue and conducted for some twenty years.

In 1852 a postoffice was established and shortly after the shops of the Central Ohio Railroad were located, and a permanent impulse was given to the industries of the village. The western ad- dition, or Newtown, was platted in 1852, and in May, 1855, McIntire Terrace was laid out by the McIntire administrators. This addition consisted of forty-one lots, of large dimensions, the exterior boundaries being McIntire, Maple, Adair and Blue avenues, and in 1863 Terrace No. 2 was platted.

During the Civil war period the school facili- ties were very inferior, a small building in Amelia street, opposite Jackson, and a ramshackle affair about two blocks west, comprising the equipment. The village was in Falls township and the school directors were indifferent to the repeated requests for larger and better accommodations by the dis- satisfied parents of the town. S. Jacobs Moore and David Lee were among the most active petitioners and finally these two gentlemen announced them- selves as candidates for the office of school di- rectors and made so vigorous canvass that they were elected. Measurements of the floor space of the existing buildings attested that there was not sufficient standing room in them for the children enumerated in the school district, and by quoting statutes which imposed personal responsibility upon directors who refused to provide adequate room for school purposes, the erection of a four room brick building, at Park and Amelia .streets, was authorized, and has since been known as the Moore building, in compliment to Mr. Moore, who devoted so much time to its erection and equipment. To obtain funds to furnish it in proper order the friends of the measure held a festival in the building, during the fall of 1868, at which refreshments were served, burlesque mu- seums were exhibited and other devices employed to coax money from both the wary and unwary. the willing and unwilling, and several hundred dollars were secured in this manner.

The lack of police and fire protection, street lighting, water supplies and the other conven- iences of urban life, caused the question to be agi- tated of annexation to Zanesville, and the moving spirits in this were David Lee and S. Jacobs Moore; the project was vigorously opposed by many who feared the expenses would be so in- creased that the cost of living would be materially affected, without corresponding benefits; to meet the desires for local government the village was incorporated in 1869, the first officers being Henry Peters, mavor, and Imri Richards, recorder, with a council favorable to annexation to Zanesville ; with these positions gained the annexationists were able to prove that expenses would be less with a united than two independent municipali-

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

ties, and the question was decided by the elect- ors in favor of annexation at the October elec- tion in 1870, and West Zanesville became the Eighth ward of the city.

PUTNAM.

A sale of land was announced to occur at Mari- etta, in June, 1801, and among the parcels was the tract opposite Zanesville, now known as Putnam, John McIntire and Dr. Increase Mathews both desired to secure it, but kept their inclinations to themselves, and each started alone to Marietta. During the trip they met, traveled and slept to- gether in the woods, but neither referred to the object of his visit. Mathews, Gen. Rufus Put- nam and Levi Whipple became partners in the proposed purchase, and when the sale was called McIntire and Mathews became aware of each other's object. McIntire bid $4.00 per acre and Mathews offered $4.25 and secured it, much to McIntire's displeasure, as the tract crossed to the Zanesville side up to South street, the southern boundary of McIntire's land, and extended west to Pine street, in Natchez.

July 27, 1801, the Spring Hill Company was formed by Putnam, Whipple and Mathews, named in honor of the spring in Putnam hill; a town site of 147 building lots of a quarter acre each, with some fractional lots and 45 outlots, of from two to four acres, were platted, and the town called Springfield, which name it retained until January 20, 1814, when the General Assembly passed an act changing the name to Putnam, "in conse- quence of there being two towns of the same name within the state, by which letters and packages are occasioned frequently to be miscarried." When the change of name was under consideration, the people of Putnam met at the General's house, and he had been so zealous in promoting the welfare of the community and had endeared himself so closely to his neighbors that they decided to give expression to their appreciation of his conduct, by naming the village in his honor.

In the original. plat the proprietors assigned to the town of Springfield, for the purpose of erect- ing such public buildings thereon as might be needed for the use of the town, or any religious society established in it, or for the county or state, the eleven and one-half acres now known as Put- nam Hill park, and the tract, or so much of it as should not be occupied by public buildings of the description named, should remain a perpetual commonage. The site was heavily timbered and the proprietors opened a road around the hill, next the river, passing the spring, previous to which time there had been only a bridle path, so narrow that two horsemen could not pass; the new road was made wide enough for wagons to pass except in a few places. With the opening of the road the spring became a popular resort and was called the "lovers' fountain."

May 14, 1805, the partnership was amicably dissolved, and the property divided into three por- tions ; Putnam offered the most for the first selec- tion and chose that portion nearest the river ; Whipple secured second choice and took the land west of Putnam Hill, known as Millwood; and the stone quarry, Woodlawn cemetery site and the Fair Grounds fell to Mathews; the monies were divided equally.

The first squatters upon the site of Putnam were John and George Mathews and David Stokely, who came in 1800. The Mathews' were brothers and millrights by trade, but not related to John and Increase Mathews, of Zanesville.

The town had scarcely been platted when a burial ground became necessary; Dr. Mathews, one of the proprietors, was living at Zanesville and was preparing to move to Putnam when his wife died, in May, 1802, and her remains were the first interred at Putnam, and were placed on the hill near the Cooper Mill road, adjoining Wood- lawn cemetery. Her body was the first to be en- closed in a coffin, which was made by Richard McBride. In 1806 Dr. Mathews deeded two and one-half acres for a public burial lot, but the soil was wet and its use was abandoned and many bodies were removed to the outlot in Moxahala avenue, donated by Levi Whipple.

PIONEER INDUSTRIES.

Blacksmith : Peter Miser settled in 1803, and in 1805 had competitors in the persons of Philip Munch and John Balthis.

Dam : December 0, 1801, the Springfield Com- pany contracted to pay John Sharp $200.00 for the construction of a wing dam at the second falls, which would leave the Zanesville shore open for boats, and agreed to furnish three gills of whiskey daily until the work was completed, the dam being designed to supply water to a grist and saw mill.

Foundry : In 1835 Lawson Henry and Jacob Anderson built a foundry at the southeast corner of Moxahala avenue and Harrison street, and made all kinds of hollow ware, and ten years later manufactured butt hinges and plow points.

Glass : Carter, Burns and Kearns established a glass works at southeast corner of Muskingum avenue and Harrison street, in 1845. for the pro- duction of fruit jars and bottles, and the works were continued until 1877.

Hotel: John Levens and Robert I. Gilman erected a hotel, in 1807-8. at the southwest corner of Muskingum and Putnam avennes; the first story was of stone and the two upper ones of brick, and the building was the first brick hotel in eastern Ohio and was recognized as the best west of the Alleghany mountains. It was occasionally referred to as Leven's Tavern, although he never occupied it, but its popular name was Burnham's and was opened by Captain William Burnham in

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

1808 : in 181 1 he moved to Zanesville and the busi- ness never was profitable; further mention of this hostelry is made in the sketch of the "State House."

Merchants : Dr. Increase Mathews moved from Zanesville and opened the first store at Put- nam, in Muskingum avenue, in 1803, as more specifically stated in the personal sketch of that pioneer. In April, 1806, Ebenezer Buckingham opened a small store and soon became the leading merchant, and John Levens and Company, in September, and Benjamin Tupper, in October, gave the town four mercantile houses at the close of the year.

Mills : The Putnam and Whipple woolen mill was erected in 1815 and occupied the site of the present woolen mill, at the south end of the Third street bridge : in 1817 it was leased to George E. Clapp and later passed to Joseph R. Thomas, who closed it, until it was purchased and reopened by Beaumont and Hollingsworth as a grist mill.

The Putnam Manufacturing Company was or- ganized November 23, 1815, to manufacture cot- ton goods : it-had a capital of $5,000.00 and au- thority to increase to $100,000.00, and the par value of shares was $500.00. The stockholders were Ebenezer Buckingham, three shares; Levi Whipple and Edwin Putnam, two shares, each ; Stephen C. Smith, Moses Smith, N. C. Findlay, H. Nye, Amos Nye and Jeremiah Dare, one share each ; in addition two shares were issued to Put- nam and Whipple for water privileges. The build- ing was erected between the Putnam and Whipple mill and the bridge and was only a few feet from the latter structure; it was purchased a few years later by Joseph R. Thomas and converted into a woolen mill, and it and the adjoining building were destroyed by fire when the bridge was burned.

Beaumont and Hollingsworth rebuilt the grist mill in 1845, and in 1870 it was purchased by the Zanesville Woolen Manufacturing Company and changed to a woolen mill ; the frame structure now standing immediately east of the bridge is the original Beaumont and Hollingsworth mill and the other buildings have been added by the Woolen Mill Company. The first officers of the Woolen Mill Company were James Buckingham, president ; Robert Fulton, secretary and treas- urer : Joseph R. Thomas and C. W. Potwin, and the first product was jeans and yarns, but the pres- ent product is exclusively ladies' dress goods.

Oil mill : In 1828, John Goshen erected a flax- seed mill on the lot immediately north of the Methodist Episcopal church, in Moxahala avenue, and in 1838 it was sold to Russell and Cutler, who converted it into a flouring mill.

Pottery : The hrst potter was Solomon Purdy, in 1820, who began business west of Putnam ave-

nue, between Jefferson and Madison streets, and produced bowls, plates and dishes of red and yel- low ware.

Tannery : The first tannery was operated by I. Newell, in 1805, and later tanners were Horace Nye, Peleg Mason, Jacob Reese, William Reese and A. M. Ewing. The Nye tannery was on the hillside near the present railroad enginehouse, at Adams street, and its twelve or fifteen vats were supplied with water from a spring in the hill.

PUTNAM FEMALE SEMINARY.

When Miss Sarah Sturges Buckingham re- turned from school, at Hartford, she recognized the need of better educational advantages for the young ladies of her native town, and by her exer- tions a girls' school was opened in the "Stone Academy" in 1835, and a Miss Mather, gover- ness in the Buckingham family, was placed in charge. The interest in the school was so mani- fest that February 29, 1836, by act of the General Assembly, William H. Beecher, Levi Whipple, Alva Buckingham, Julius C. Guthrie, Solomon Sturges and Albert A. Guthrie, and their succes- sors, were declared to be a body corporate, as the trustees of "The Putnam Classical Institute."

In October, 1835, Miss L. A. Emerson, of New- buryport, Massachusetts, was engaged as princi- pal with Misses Mather and Buckingham, the promoter, as assistants ; Miss Daniels as instruc- tor in music, and Mr. Hobbie for such French as was required, and the school was opened in the stone academy with fifteen pupils. In the follow- ing year it was removed to the basement of the Presbyterian church, which had just been com- pleted, and the future seemed to warrant the erec- tion of a suitable building. Mrs. Eunice Buck- ingham contributed $10,000.00 and Solomon Sturges and Alva Buckingham each contributed $5,000.00 and the ground, which was purchased from Levi Whipple for $400.00. In addition, Mrs. Buckingham, who died in 1843, provided in her will that the interest on $10,000.00 should be devoted, semi-annually, in such manner as was deemed fit, to the education of such females as her daughters, or their successors, should desig- nate, or if they failed the executors should make such payment to the treasurer, or, if the executors saw fit, to pay the principal sum. A portion of this bequest was annually used to sustain and in- crease the "Buckingham library," which was pre- sented to the Board of Education, as related under that caption.

The work of construction was begun at once and the building was completed in the fall of 1838; the grounds are in Woodlawn avenue, immedi- ately north of the Presbyterian church, opposite Jefferson street ; the three story brick, II0 feet

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

front and 45 feet deep, stands well back from the street, and the spacious lawn was not only orn- amental but afforded ample recreation ground ; the rear addition was erected by the trustees, in 1855, and in 1868, C. W. Potwin and James Buck- ingham erected the mansard roof at a cost of $8,000.00.

The institution was conducted as a select school of a high order, but declined and was permanently closed in 1902, and the building occupied by the Brunton Sanitarium for a couple of years, when it was purchased by the trustees of the Helen Pur- cell Home.

SCHOOLS.

Education has ever been highly esteemed at Putnam and special mention has been made of the stone academy and the Putnam Seminary ; the rec- ords of the public schools have not been found, but they were maintained and are now a part of the Zanesville system. An illustration of the man- ner in which the schools were conducted is given in an agreement entered into December 1, 1841. between the school directors and a teacher, "to teach a good school in the first district, in the town of Putnam, at the lower school house, where reading, writing, spelling, grammar and arith- metic will be taught in an interesting manner ; copies are to be set, both coarse and fine, in a workmanlike manner, and pens made previous to the school in the morning and in the evening. The teacher is to be at the school at half past eight and a quarter before one p. m., the house. win- dows, benches, etc., to be kept clean and all things ready to begin precisely at nine o'clock and one p. m .; school to continue from nine to twelve, and one to four p. m., five days per week and twelve weeks per quarter. For the faithful performance of the above duties the school directors agree to furnish a house and pay for each scholar who may attend thirty days or more, one dollar and ten cents of the public money, and the said teacher is to collect one dollar from each scholar at his own risk. As witness our hands.

"P. S. All scholars that attend under thirty days and over six, fifty cents."

Teaching was an occupation in which one could do no more than exist upon such terms ; for mak- ing Dens, keeping the school house clean and teaching "in an interesting manner," the teacher would receive the munificent compensation of $44.00, during twelve weeks labor, provided there were forty pupils-less than $4.00 per week ; he had the right to collect $40.00 additional, if he could, and thereby have about $1.50 per day for his labor.

MOXAHALA AVENUE METHODIST EPISCOPAL

CHURCII.

During 1806, Rev. John Weeks organized a so- ciety of Methodists in Putnam, composed of John Goshen, Samuel Chapman and William H. Moore and families, Jesse Smith, J. Mervin, Merriam Putnam, and Winthrop and Benjamin Robinson. The records of the congregation were destroyed, in 1872, by the burning of the house in which they were kept. November 23, 1815, Levi Whipple donated a quarter acre lot on the east side of Mox- ahala avenue to William H. Moore, John Goshen, James Vickers, John Lafferty, John Russell, Barnabas Monroe and Benjamin Ricketts, as trus- tees, upon which a one-story frame, forty feet square, was erected within a year. In 1830 it was removed and a one-story brick church built, and during its construction the congregation assem- bled in the old oil mill adjoining on the north. In 1867 this structure was removed and the present two-story, brick church, forty-five by seventy- three feet, was erected. The first Sunday school was organized in 1830 and has never been sus- pended.

PUTNAM PRESBYTERIAN.

The Putnam members of the Presbyterian church at Zanesville and Springfield found it very inconvenient to attend the services, and as their own town had grown and the number of adhe- rents had increased, seventeen persons assembled, March 6, 1833. in the brick school house, in Woodlawn avenue, near Jefferson street, to con- sider the expediency of forming an independent congregation. Dr. Increase Mathews was chosen chairman and A. A. Guthrie, secretary, and J. C. Guthrie, Levi Whipple and A. A. Guthrie were appointed a committee to ascertain whether suf- ficient funds could be obtained to erect a church building, to be controlled by the Presbyterians but open to all orthodox communions ; the committee was instructed to adopt a plan for such an edi- fice, secure estimates of the cost of construction and report as soon as possible.

March 16, the committee presented a plan for a structure, fifty by seventy feet, with a stone base- ment, and a one-story, brick auditorium, of a height not less than eighteen nor more than twenty feet, and a vestibule ten feet wide. The report and recommendations were approved and Alvah Buckingham, J. C. Guthrie and Levi Whip- ple were appointed a building committee to erect the building when sufficient subscriptions were guaranteed to meet the expense. Mr. Whipple donated the site now occupied in Woodlawn ave- nue, opposite Jefferson street, and money and labor was promised in the aggregate of $5,190.00, and the structure was begun.

PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

January 1, 1835, at a meeting held in the Meth- odist church, thirty-six members of the Zanesville- Springfield church were released and constituted into the Presbyterian church of Putnam, and in February, 1835, the building was dedicated ; March 7, 1835. the congregation was made a body corporate, by act of the General Assembly. In 1849 the parsonage was built at a cost of $3,700.00, and in 1860 the Sunday school build- ing was erected at a cost of $2,000.00, and dedi- cated December 6, 1860.

A Sunday school was established in 1816, by Henry Safford, in the ball room, in Burnham's hotel, and later moved to the stone academy, and upon the completion of the Presbyterian church. in Zanesville, it was moved there, in 1820. In 1828 a portion of the school withdrew and united with the Methodists, as a Union Sunday school, but the Methodists later withdrew and when the church building, in Putnam, was completed, the school was conducted in the basement of that ed- ifice.

The second pastor was Addison Kingsbury, D. D., who was installed January 1, 1840, and at a congregational meeting, held March 15, 1878, he resigned his charge.

Woodlawn Lodge, No. 228, Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows, was instituted March 16, 1854. by Special Deputy Alexander Glenn, as- sisted by Past Grands Thomas Durban, Robert Howard and Henry Granger, with the following charter members :

J. B. Erwin, Alexander Stewart, Nicholas Rem- linger, Frederick Dieterich, G. F. Wiles, George Wolford, N. K. Smith, Norman Dodge, John C. Wilber, Leroy S. Perry, G. F. Mervin and Rich- ard B. Osmond. The first officers were Frederick Dieterich, N. G. ; J. B. Erwin, V. G. ; G. F. Wiles, secretary, and G. F. Mervin, treasurer.

The lodge was instituted in the second story of William Munce's store, on the east side of Put- nam avenue, near the site of the present three story brick hall, which was erected in 1854 by S. C. Haver, and the third floor designed and espe- cially fitted for the lodge, and since the comple- tion of the building the meetings have been held therein.

Tradition asserts that in 1803 the postmaster general was induced to extend the postal facilities of the village by establishing a postoffice, with Dr. Increase Mathews as postmaster, the residents having been previously compelled to receive their mail at Zanesville. The records of the postoffice department contain no entry of the office and co- temporary facts do not warrant the acceptance of the statement as correct. Dr. Mathews was the first merchant and did not open his store until 1803; there were few inhabitants as the town was only one year old, and the records of the postoffice department allege that the first postoffice

at Putnam was established January 30, 1817, with Henry Safford, as postmaster, and that he retained the position twelve years.

The village was incorporated in 1835 and its first officers were William H. Moore, mayor ; William C. Ely, recorder ; John Goshen, Samuel Ashmore, John Balthis, Edwin Putnam and Jo- seph R. Thomas, trustees. When annexation of the west side villages to Zanesville was agitated the question came up in Putnam, and elections were held in October, 1868, April and October, 1870, at which the Zanesville electors expressed their desire for a "Greater Zanesville," but the Putnamites rejected the overtures ; at length the matter was concurred in and, April 22, 1872, com- missioners from the two municipalities agreed upon conditions and Putnam became the Ninth ward of the city, and so continued until the reor- ganization of Ohio cities, under the new munici- pal code of 1902, when it became a part of the new Third ward.

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Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio, Part 14

Author: Sutor, J. Hope, 1846- Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 898

Author: Sutor, J. Hope, 1846-
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago : S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 898