USA > Ohio > Portage County > Portage heritage; a history of Portage County, Ohio; its towns and townships and the men and women who have developed them; its life, institutions and biographies, facts and lore > Part 17
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the county's history and even when formally dedicated and laid out, roads were usually next to impossible to traverse with vehicles. They were fill- ed with stumps and roots, or stones, and washed out or swampy. Though coach passengers paid their way to ride the stages, they frequently had to walk or even push the coach in rough spots.
Plank roads were also tried, par- ticularly in Streetsboro, but they were not popular.
HIGHWAYS-1840-1955
Some so-called turnpikes were built, supported in the beginning by outright gifts of land. Legislation at first permitted both state and local aid. Then when laws were changed, people lost enthusiasm. They looked to railroads.
As near as can be determined the first road tax levied in Portage Coun- ty came into being in 1848. It amount- ed to one mill on each dollar valua- tion of property abutting the road.
In April of 1848, a meeting was held in Shalersville to discuss a new material for road covering. It was charcoal. Someone thought the abun- dant timber could be converted to charcoal for road surface at low cost. The idea was rejected.
After the Civil War, there came a span of years now called the "Horse and Buggy Days." Roads were slowly being improved but farm and village life expressed contentment. No one seemed then to be in a hurry. Into this set-up came buggies with bright- ly trimmed bodies and wheels, speed- ing along, stirring up clouds of yel- low dust, to the discomfort: of pe- destrians. There were buckboards, sulkeys, carts, surreys, expresses, hacks and even a few stage coaches. .:
In the '80s, a new type of locomo-
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tion appeared-the bicycle. Nearly every village had a bicycle club. When roads were unsuitable, bicycle paths were set up along roads paid for by subscription. One paralleled pres- ent State Route 43.
But the wretched condition of roads reached into villages themselves.
GARRETTSVILLE PAVING FIRST
The first really hard surfaced road built in the county was a short section of pavement on Garrettsville's main business street, laid in the middle '80s. The town can well be proud of this record. The improvement was paid for by the business men. Raven- na was next with its Main St. paved in part in 1898. Kent held out until 1903, when Water St. was paved from Erie St. to Crain Ave.
First record of a fine imposed for "overload" was that on George Haney of Mantua who was assessed $5.00 for hauling too heavy a load of logs on the Hiram Pike. This was in June, 1894.
With the passing of the nineteenth century and the coming of the auto- mobile, life changed. Strange and fantastic to Portage was the first prac- tical "horseless carriage" in 1892. Aft- er that the carriages were shown at fairs, including Portage, billed as "New Wonders of the World." At first regarded as playthings for the wealthy, they also had their critics, particularly in Ravenna where coach- es and buggies were made. Farmers hated them because they scared horses. Sometimes tacks were strewn on country roads to slow them down. Speed limits were at first fixed at ten miles an hour. But the on-coming "automobile age" created the great and ever increasing need for more and better roads. Even in 1905 over
80% of all county roads were still in the mud and dirt category.
It was this great demand for a sys- tem for improved roads that made it obvious that an all-county organiza- tion was necessary. The state legisla- ture created a highway department in 1905 but it was mainly advisory and lacked funds. About 1909, revenue for road building was authorized from motor vehicle license fees, which was distributed to the counties.
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT SET UP
The records of the Portage County Commissioners show that the first hard surface road of the county, out- side a town, was the "Dawley Road", as it was then called. On April 16, 1907, a contract was let to pave with brick for a distance of 9290 feet, at a cost of $12,784.00, the contract going to E. E. Morgan. Today this is called Infirmary Road, or county highway No. 164.
On July 13, same year, a contract was let for paving the "Dan Hanna" Road from Ravenna's village limits to the Cottage Hill farm to the Charles- town line, a distance of two and a half miles at a cost of $14,328.00. Han- na paid half of this, his own proposi- tion. The material was macadam. Lat- er it became State Route 5, and still later reverted to county status.
The year 1910 saw the paving with brick of the historic "Chillicothe Road" between Kent and Brimfield (now Route 43). Shortly after this the Ravenna-Freedom Road was paved in part. In 1911 the Infirmary Road
Herbert F. Hudson was a large opera- tor in the cheese, butter and milk bus- iness about 1900 and after. He had a farm in Rootstown and operated fac- tories and creameries in various sections of the county. His business headquarters were in Ravenna.
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paving was extended and the present Route 5 between Kent and Ravenna paved with brick. During 1912, 2.27 miles of brick highway was laid in Palmyra (Route 18). Other improved roads came rapidly.
IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION STEPS IN
In 1911 the State Highway Depart- ment asked each county to make maps of its principal roads. From these "Main Market Roads" were es- tablished, to be built with state aid. For these the state paid half, the coun- ty 25%, the townships 15% and abut- ting property owners 10%.
In October, 1912, the Portage Coun- ty Improvement Association came in- to being, led by Dan R. Hanna, the motto being "Better Roads, Better Live Stock, Better Farming." The As- sociation was a mighty force for bet- ter roads and in 1913 it was granted a charter to make contracts for roads with a road commission appointed by the common pleas court. It aimed to build roads at actual cost. F. M. Wil- liams, a skilled road engineer was brought in. Methods and ideals were the first of their kind in the country, and were watched far and wide. When Williams resigned in 1915, the job was taken over by B. F. Batchelder, formerly of Ravenna. One of the in- novations brought by Batchelder was construction of a complete narrow gauge railroad, with equipment, used for the first time in construction of a brick road between Whittlesey's Corners, Atwater, to Randolph Center. It solved the high cost of transporting materials. In December, 1914, the Ra-
William Mckinley spoke at Reed's Opera House, Ravenna, on Sept. 18, 1889. He was then a candidate for gover- nor of Ohio.
venna Republican said "22 miles of improved roads have been built in the county in 1914 by the Portage County Improvement Association."
The Cass law of 1916 required erec- tion of road signs at all centers, and other places where necessary. The numbering system for state highways came in 1922, Portage having its first number in 1923.
The Cleveland Automobile Club started branch offices in Ravenna and Kent in 1924 to provide information and road service for travelers.
In 1925 the present County High- way Department was organized under the County Engineer and funds for this work were received from the state through the levying of a two cent a gallon gasoline tax, later in- creased.
Many remember the white wooden Crosses erected along roads at the scene of fatal accidents. This was done by direction of Gov. Vic Donahey in 1925. Later, they were removed.
DEPRESSION SLOWS BUILDING
The road problems during the great depression period of the '30s were mainly maintenance and repair. Little new construction was done. However, Route 5, 18, and 224 were widened and resurfaced.
August 1937, saw Route 5, between Ravenna and Kent, widened and re- surfaced with an underpass at the B & O crossing. It was given the name of Memorial Highway.
Motor vehicle records for the coun- ty show a startling increase in the number of vehicles per 100 people. In 1910 it was less than one-half car per hundred persons. In 1920 it was 9.1 per 100 people, rising to 40.2 cars per hundred people in 1950. Now it is nearly one car for each two people. Truck and bus service across the coun-
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ty since 1940 has increased twice as rapidly as passenger service. The in- flux in population and use of cars for personal transportation has put an ever increasing load on the 1025.69 miles of highway in the area. Portage is 11th county in the state in amount of vehicular traffic.
Forty years ago the objective was a hard surfaced road for every farm with good connections to centers. To- day's objective of the state highway department is to build new roads and avoid running through municipalities. New routes for Routes 5, 18, 224, and 43 indicate this. All of which is amaz- ing as is the toll turnpike.
The old turnpikes, built by private capital over a century ago, served a useful purpose and their resurgence today will no doubt do the same.
The success of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was a moving factor in in- itiating the present Ohio Turnpike, which passes through Portage County today. This comes into the county from the east through Windham and traverses Freedom, Shalersville, and Streetsboro. After two years of con- struction it was opened for traffic on October 1, 1955.
To us in Portage County its bene- fits should come in reducing the amount of through motor traffic, par- ticularly of trucks, and it may be the answer to many problems of high maintenance and construction costs of the public routes.
THE P & O CANAL
The colorful era of the old canal days came to Portage county during the third and fourth decades of the ninteenth century. Importance of this type of transportation then can scarce- ly be over-emphasized. It meant an outlet for products and it brought in necessary merchandise.
From early times men here wished to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River for water transportation. The Ohio Canal was authorized in 1817 and in 1827 the "north end" between Cleveland and Akron was officially opened.
PROMOTION AND SURVEYS
The plan to provide a "crosscut" water way, east to west, through northeastern Ohio was first suggested by Alfred Kelley, of Cleveland, head of the state canal commission and known as the "Father of the Ohio Canals." Portage County people were strongly for this canal. Surveys were made as early as 1828. Dissension a- rose in Akron over the route through that section and not until 1835 was the route approved and finally adopt- ed. As the proposed route lay in two states, joint action was necessary. In January 1827, the Ohio legislature authorized the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, to take effect whenever Penn- sylvania granted a similar charter. This was accomplished in the follow- ing April. In the Ohio Senate, Jona- than Sloane, representing the Portage district, was the author of many bills and resolutions to aid the movement to build the canal.
Building the canal was a private enterprise but because of various un- certainties, the board of directors of the new company voted to postpone opening books for stock subscriptions. For five years the enterprise lay dorm- ant, except for occasional surveys be- ing made.
A revival of interest came in 1833, but it was 1835 before friends of the project went to work vigorously and
In 1905 the Erie Railroad Company workmen burned 500 obsolete box cars in the Kent yards.
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had the Ohio charter of 1827 amended and renewed. In the same year the Pennsylvania legislature also renewed the old charter. Subscription books for stock sales opened in Philadelphia in April 1835, under the direction of Abner Lacock, a giant in Pennsyl- vania canal history. Through his in- fluence there was a quick sale of $800,000.00 in stock. In the following May, an organization meeting was held at New Castle electing Lacock, William Boyd, William Robinson, Joseph Boyd, William Rayen, Leicest- er King and Jonathan Sloane as direc- tors. Lacock was president and Sloane secretary. The curtain was ready to go up.
FINAL CONTRACT LET
Col. Sebriel Dodge was Ohio's en- gineer in chief while Pennsylvania was represented by James Dunlap Harris, an emminent engineer. Direc- tors and commissioners often held meetings in the Globe Tavern at Ra- venna, now site of Hotel Ravenna. On August 20, 1835, contracts were let for constructing the P & O canal from Akron, to the mouth of the Mahoning River, near New Castle, Pennsylvania. It was to be 82 miles in length. Work started in September. The "Summit" was a mile and a quarter west of Ra- venna. The ditch was 40 feet wide at the water line and 26 feet at the bot- tom.
The biggest single job was supply-
ing the uppermost levels with water. To do this, the famous "Feeder Dam" was constructed in Shalersville, and another reservoir from Pippin and Brady Lakes. There were 37 locks on the eastern division. Portage Summit at Ravenna was 305 feet above the eastern terminus in Pennsylvania. Bids called for $510,000, but when completed, the eastern division had cost $648,000, the increase being largely due to swampy ground en- countered. Portage Summit was 112 feet above the basin at Akron and the western division from Ravenna had 16 locks. The cost of this division was $1,300,000.
Some of the costs were interesting. Locks cost $850 per foot of lift. Public bridges came at $600.00 each and lock houses at $500.00 each. Cleaning the right-of-way, or "grubbing" was $8.00 per chain of 66 feet. Excavation, be- low the surface, cost 15 to 20 cents per cubic yard. Embankments, 10 to 16 cents per yard. Culverts and dams were made of stone.
MANY LOCKS NEEDED
In Kent, contractors' blasting powd- er forever destroyed the "Cuyahoga Rapids", where Capt. Brady made his leap. There were numerous contrac- tors, the largest of which was Cyrus Prentiss of Ravenna. His jobs included five and a half miles of canal right-of- way, complete with tow-path, seven locks, three turning basins, ten
Hot And Cold
Some of the more modern, but unofficial, weather records show these thing about Portage county weather: Feb. 10, 1899, 31 below zero; April 20, 1901, 5 feet of snow; Jan. 21, 1906, 79 degrees, lasting three days; May 1, 1909, three inches of snow; May 3, 1911, snow several inches deep; Jan. 13, 1912, 33 below; Nov. 9, 1913, three feet of snow; May 28, 1915, killing frost; Feb. 4, 1917, 25 below in Ravenna and 39 below in Garretts- ville. Older records show still greater extremes in temperature or weather. The drouth of 1845 was long remembered.
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bridges, five arched culverts, five weir dams, four lock houses two small reservoirs and one aqueduct.
Hydraulics and machinery were used but the prime earth movers were Irish laborers. Nearly 500 of them were used in the work crews. Using pick, shovel, and wheel-barrow, they virtually dug the canal by hand. Num- erous Germans were also used as stone masons and their walls of stone can still be seen along the route today.
Work went on speedily until the summer of 1837, when it came to a halt because of a cholera epidemic and the panic of that year and later. In the epidemic, 29 workers died in Ravenna, Franklin and Shalersville townships. Completion of the work was not assured until the state of Ohio subscribed $450,000 and Pennsylvania $50,000.
COMPLETION AND CELEBRATION
The canal was completed in parts. On May 9, 1839, the boat Joseph Vance passed from the lower basin in So. Akron to Middlebury (E. Akron). Three weeks later the Ontario, the Huron and the Hudson started regu- lar runs between Warren and Beaver, Penna. The traffic over the "Summit" was not effective until August be- cause of water shortage. The "inaug- ural" voyage (through) did not come until April 1840, when four decorated packets carried Gov. Porter of Penn- sylvania and dignitaries from both states from New Castle to Akron.
Everywhere along the route they were welcomed enthusiatically. Cannon boomed, bands played and there were banquets.
Canal freight boats were much the same size, 75 to 80 feet long, 14 feet six inches wide with capacity of 60 to 100 tons. Passenger boats, or "Pack- ets", were 75 feet long and 10 to 14 feet wide, equipped to handle 60 pas- sengers and 20 tons of freight.
Cost of canal boats ranged from $1200.00 to $2,000.00 each, including mules or horses. Extra animals were carried on cargo boats, but packets were serviced by relay stations along the route.
Freight rates were on the ton-mile basis. It is said it cost $50.00 to carry a ton of wheat from Franklin Mills to Pittsburgh by wagon, but a canal boat could do the job for $5.00.
The canal business expanded rapid- ly. In 1843 there were 149 boats listed on the "register" with more coming in. In 1844 reservoirs and feeders were constructed at Muddy and Sandy Lakes, to insure steady water supply. Prentiss & Whittlesey received this contract.
Many "ports" sprang into life along the canal and around them, towns. Newport (now Wayland) and Mc- Clintocksburg were important ship- ping points. Campbellsport boomed and considered itself a rival of Ra- venna. Charlestown had its "Bread- port", so named because of heavy
An Early Telephone
Dudley H. Beaman published a newspaper in Hiram in the '80s and had a mail order music business. He also invented a telephone which used no electricity, connecting his home and office. At each end was a box in which was fixed a parchment, with copper wire connecting the two, and suspended in soft fabric. The virations of the voice were transmitted along the wire to the parchment at the opposite end and were reproduced there, operating very well. Some of these telephones of this nature were sold.
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Sledding Party assembled in Ravenna Square, about 1880. Sledding parties were very popular.
wheat shipments. At Franklin Mills so much was expected of the canal that a land boom developed which collapsed when the 1837 panic came along. Yet, the Mills did enjoy great canal prosperity.
COMES THE RAILROAD
The whistle of the "iron horse", heard in Ravenna for the first time in 1851, announced the slow death of the P & O Canal, though none realiz- ed it then. Within a year all passenger traffic had ceased, but freight traffic continued for a few more years.
When the C & M V Railroad reach- ed Warren and Youngstown from Cleveland, the event was almost the death blow for the canal. Through Civil War years, the canal carried little traffic. The Ohio Board of Pub- lic Works then sold the canal to the C. & M. V. Railroad, which in turn
leased water rights. But the canal was neglected and finally abandoned al- together by 1869. The locks and feed- ers went to pieces and boats and equipment were allowed to rot away. By court order the P. & O. was dis- enfranchised and its few assets sold.
From 1884 to 1905 its tow path was used in part by the P. & W. Railroad and its successor, the B. & O. still does so in sections.
So passed into history the Penn- sylvania and Ohio Canal with a record of usefulness.
THE PIONEER RAIL LINE
Portage County has good reason to be proud of its first railroad, the Cleveland & Pittsburgh line. In 1845 the county was essentially a land of farmers, shop keepers, merchants, and artisans.
Passenger travel was slow, either by
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canal or stage coach. Judge Darius Lyman of Ravenna brought back from the east glowing accounts of railroad progress. People were interested. Men like Capt. Isaac Brayton, Cyrus Prent- iss, Samuel Foljambe, William Cool- man, Zenas and Marvin Kent became interested. This group asked for a re- vival of the original act of incorpora- tion dated March 1836. At a meeting of subscribers in Ravenna a re-organ- ization of the company was effected. James Stewart of Wellsville was nam- ed president; A. C. Catlett, secretary; and Cyrus Prentiss, treasurer. The Kents, of Franklin Mills, wanted the line near their town and were disap- pointed when it came only as close as Earlville. Marvin Kent never forgave this failure.
On March 9, 1848, contracts were let, but the work went slowly for lack of funds. Subscribers failed to pay up. But in 1849 Cyrus Prentiss went into a key position and soon showed lead- ership under which the work went ahead vigorously and early in 1851
the line was completed to Ravenna from Cleveland. The first round trip, Cleveland to Ravenna, came on March 13, 1851, when the locomotive "Ra- venna" pulled a car of road officials into town. Regular trains were run- ning by another week. By June 1, 1851, trains were running as far as Alliance and by Feb. 14, 1852, the first train came through from Wells- ville, covering 100 miles in seven hours. The road brought telegraph service, railroad mail service and the "railroad Irish" to form the Ravenna Catholic church organization. The line was leased to the Pennsylvania R. R. Co. in 1871 for 999 years. Today it is listed as the Lake Division of the Penna. R. R. with excellent service. Much of its revenue arises from carry- ing iron ore. The line was double tracked soon after 1900. For many years Cyrus Prentiss was president of this line.
ATLANTIC & GREAT WESTERN R. R.
More than five score years have
Fancy Canal Boat Names
Names of canal boats, like names of boats elsewhere and always, make an interesting study. Some of them today seem incongruous but many of them reflect the times. In 1849 and for several years thereafter these boats navigated the P. & O. canal through Portage County, as shown by old records:
Sea Bird, Mary Ellen, Falcon, Ravenna, Pearl, Peru, Bennington, Boston, New Fashion, Algomah, Beaver, Manchester, Old Zach, Bugle, Amboy, Independence, Bril- lient, Hibernia, Ciburnia, Harkaway, Grand Trunk, Selim.
Trader, Lake Erie, Prince, Petrel, Empire State, Mayflower, Birmingham, Apollo, Blue Bell, Rochester, Eclipse, Genessee, Pearl, Express, Hornet, Illinois, Clipper, Winding Way, Detroit, Perdido Bay, Globe, Ocean Queen, Leroy, Kentucky, Jennie Lind, Champion, American Eagle, Michigan, Bell Ringer, Paris.
Wasp, Napoleon, Spy, Germany, Grit, Uncle Sam, City Mills, Arabella, Norway, Oriental, War Dance, Amazon, Oregon, Willow Dale, Planet, Rapids, Saratoga, Poco- hontas, American Flag, Katie Darling, Grandpa, Rough and Ready.
Elephant, Oaxaca, Orizba, Pilot, Maryland, Rover, Prairie State, Housatonic, S. A. Douglas, Belle, Liberty, Orinoco, Wisconsin, Golden Rule, Brady, Challenger, Royal Arch, Uncle Tom, Alliance, Hurricane, Conneautville, Mt. Carbon, Winona May, Daniel P. Rhodes, Burton, Sylph, Arequippa, Utica, Lily, and of course many family names and names of presidents and generals.
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passed since Marvin Kent removed the first shovel full of earth at Franklin Mills (Kent) on the present road bed of the Erie Railroad system. This was about 20 feet south of the Kent West Main St. crossing.
Disappointed by his failure to have the C. & P. touch his town, Marvin Kent (and his father, Zenas) con- centrated their energies on bringing a railroad to their own village. They knew the C. & P. group wanted no competition in Portage County, but they did apply to the state legislature for a plank railroad charter. The re- quest was turned down. Later, Mar- vin Kent, backed by Simon Perkins, Lucius V. Bierce, Harvey B. Spelman, and Daniel Upson of Akron, did se- cure a charter in 1851. To cover their plans the bill was drafted under the name of the Coal Hill railroad. Upon
the last reading the name was changed to the Franklin & Warren, under the pretense that it was to be a branch line from the C. & P. to the coal fields at Tallmadge.
Financing the new line was not easy. Under the charter the Kents were required to subscribe the first $20,000, of the capital stock. At the first meeting of the board of direc- tors, Marvin Kent was elected presi- dent, an office which he held until 1864, with the exception of three years.
From the first the Kents held the idea of connecting their dream rail- road with the then newly constructed Erie Railroad in the East, and the embryo Ohio & Mississippi railroad on the west, forming a great trunk line, New York to the Mississippi River. Authority to cross Pennsylvania
Garfield's Canal Career
In the diary of James A. Garfield, he refers to his work on the canal as follows:
Aug. 16, 1948-Went to Cleveland. Hired on the canal boat, Evening Star, to my cousin, A. Lechter. Started up the canal.
Aug. 17-Passed through Akron.
Sept. 2-From Akron we turned east on the cross out which passes through Cuy- ahoga Falls, Franklin, Ravenna, Warren, Youngstown, and a short distance from the latter place it forms a junction with the Erie extension, and from there went to Beaver on the Ohio River. Hired a steamboat to tow us up the river to Pittsburgh, where we arrived on the 26th.
Sunday, Sept. 27-Took a stroll. Listened to two sermons on the street by men hired by the authorities of the place.
Oct. 2-Staid over Sunday. Unloaded Monday. My business is "bowing", which is to make the locks ready, get the boat through, trim the lamps and I get $14.00 per month. I followed the business about two months, in which time we transported 240 tons of stone coal and 40 tons of iron to Cleveland and 52 tons copper ore; 150 barrels of salt, 10,000 lath and 1000 feet of lumber from Cleveland to different places along the canal. After the fourth trip I was taken sick with fever and on Oct. 3 came home with Charles Garfield. Was confined to my bed about 10 days and then broke the ague. It came again. I employed Dr. Butler. Medicine no effect. Took Dr. Vincent and Harmon of Chagrin Falls.
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