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 18
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(He did not recover full health until March, 1849. In October of that year he took a school to teach in Orange, at $12.00 per month of 24 days each. He wrote that he "ex- pects trouble" there.)
Nov. 13, 1849-Punished S. Herrington severely for disobeying and being saucy. He endeavored to fight me but finally gave up and is now a good boy.
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Ohio Turnpike Scene, 1956, in Freedom.
and New York was finally obtained and the sale of $1,500,000 in stock started in 1852.
FINANCIAL WOES
Construction work was finally taken over by Henry Doolittle, of Dayton, an experienced railroad man. The proposed road was 353 miles long, with 28 miles in New York, 78 miles in Pennsylvania and 247 miles in Ohio. The amount of money need- ed was set at $7,000,000. But money was hard to find. Construction work slowed up. In 1855, the Ohio com- pany's name was changed to the At- lantic and Great Western. Shortly after that Mr. Kent decided to resign as president. He was succeeded by a Mr. Ward of Towanda, Pa., a close friend of Doolittle. Ward was success- ful in raising money in England and James McHenry of England contract- ed to finish the entire line.
On July 12, 1859, Marvin Kent was again elected president and energetic- ally worked for the road's completion. Almost immediately the country was
engaged in a great civil war which meant more delay. But despite scarce labor and other difficulties, the road was opened as far as Ravenna in De- cember, 1862, and reached Kent March 7, 1863.
Extensive machine shops for the Ohio division were started in Frank- lin Mills in 1864, mainly through the influence of Marvin Kent, who gave land for the purpose. By 1868, the shops employed over 800 men.
From 1861 to 1865, A. & G. W. of- fices were maintained in Kent. Then the Ohio division was merged with the A. & G. W. chain and Marvin Kent ended his official connection with the road. Another important man in Erie affairs was Enos P. Brain- erd, Ravenna and Kent banker who was treasurer of the A. & G. W. many years.
STEAM TO DIESEL
Since then many changes in man- agement and operations have been made. In 1874, the A. & G. W. was leased to the parent Erie Railroad Co.
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It went into a receivership. First a broad gauge line, in 1880 the track was changed to standard gauge and reorganized as the New York, Penn- sylvania and Ohio (Nypano). As of 1883, it was again leased to the Erie, which in 1896, acquired the capital stock. Today the modern Erie has changed from steam to diesel power, operates 2,245 miles of railroad in six states in the country's most populous sections. Like the C. & P., the Erie was peculiarly of our people.
BALTIMORE & OHIO R. R.
The railroad we know today first followed to a marked degree, the abandoned bed of the old P. & O. Canal. Very early in 1881, the Pitts- burgh, Youngstown and Chicago R. R. came into being. By lease the com- pany secured the right of way along the canal and almost immediately work of building the line started.
Slow progress was made in the con- struction of the road. Legal difficul- ties were encountered at Kent and a new right of way was necessary along a small portion of property belonging to the owners of the old Day, Wil- liams and Co. glass works. The heirs obtained an injunction and the case was not settled until 1882.
In January 1883, the name of the P. Y. & C. was changed to the Pitts- burgh, Toledo & Cleveland Railroad. Shortly after this the Pittsburgh and Western, by lease, acquired control of this line and the work was vigorously pushed. Trains started running across the county regularly in March, 1884.
Such villages as McClintocksburg, Wayland, and Campbellsport were re- established as stations on the line, giv- ing back their old importance.
The P. & W. had poor connections east and west and it was not too pros- perous until 1891 when the Baltimore
& Ohio, looking for a shorter route to Chicago, gained control of the P. & W. stock, when the future brightened. In 1898, all outstanding stock of the P. & W. was bought by the B. & O. At once track improvement, shorten- ing of lines and a general overhauling began. Some twenty-five miles of new line was to be constructed within this county and $5,000,000 was to be spent for right-of-way, labor and material. The old canal route was then disre- garded. That part of the new route between Ravenna and Niles was con- structed jointly by the B. & O. and the Pennsylvania R. R. and has been used by both since that time. These changes were made from 1900 to 1905.
This great double track system has played an important part in the his- tory of Portage County.
THE C. & M. V. RAILROAD
The Cleveland & Mahoning Valley road (now the Erie) received its char- ter February 2, 1848. Financing was difficult and in June 1852, the first stockholders meeting was held in Warren, with $300,000 subscribed. Jacob Perkins of Warren was first president and he pledged $100,000 of his personal fortune to the venture. Other directors also pledged heavily.
This road entered the county at Aurora, passing through Mantua, Hi- ram, Garrettsville, Nelson, and Wind- ham townships and has been through the years a great value to these towns.
By 1857, the road reached Youngs- town via Warren, opening the Ma- honing Valley coal fields to the lake ports, but doing harm to the canal. In 1863, the road was leased to the C. & G. W. for a 99 year term. To work better with the A. & G. W. it was made broad gauge, remaining so until 1880. It was single track until 1887, when a second track was laid on the
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entire route, but not entirely complet- ed until 1896. On May 7, 1942, the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley was absorbed entirely by the Erie system.
Today, iron ore and coal are the main items of freight, with passenger income way down the list as revenue collectors. It is the shortest route be- tween Cleveland, Youngstown, and Pittsburgh.
W. & L. E. - NICKLE PLATE
In the '70s came the news that an- other railroad was to enter Portage County to areas not yet touched by the "iron horse." A narrow gauge line was to pass through Suffield and Brimfield to the north. The railroad was originaly incorporated in the name of the Youngstown & Conotton Valley R. R. This was in 1877. In 1879 it was renamed the Conotton Valley Railway. Still later it became the Cleveland & Canton, and after that (1890), the Cleveland, Canton & Southern.
When construction got under way in 1880, difficulties were encountered in building the road bed through the swamp lands of Brimfield, but the tracks reached Kent in May, 1881, and Cleveland later in the year. This line ran from Cleveland to Zanesville with branches to Carrollton and Chagrin Falls. Sometimes it was called the "Tip Top Route." It became part of the Wheeling & Lake Erie in 1900. On November 22, 1888, the tracks were changed from narrow to standard gauge in a single day. The last pas- senger train passed over the line here July 17, 1938. On December 1, the Nickle Plate Co. took over operations of the line on lease.
CLEVELAND, YOUNGSTOWN & PITTSBURGH
The only railroad passing up the eastern side of the county, through
Deerfield, Palmyra, and Paris, was first known as the "Alliance & North- ern", built in 1879. Later it was known variously as the Lake Erie, Al- liance & Wheeling and Ohio River & Lake Erie. It was long a coal carrying road.
It was narrow gauge, originally planned to run from Fairport on Lake Erie to Wheeling and the line now ex- tends from Phalanx on the north to Dillonville on the south.
In 1882 the road went to standard gauge under the name of the Cleve- land, Youngstown & Pittsburgh. Much coal was moved from the Pal- myra and Deerfield mines and pas- senger service continued for half a century. In 1933, a gasoline single unit train was put in use for pas- senger service, running until 1940. The road is now a part of the New York Central system, being used as a freight feeder. It starts from Phalanx in Trumbull County. At one time it was planned to extend the line north- west to Fairport.
LAKE ERIE & PITTSBURGH
The last railroad built in the coun- ty was for a time known as "The Mystery Road", so named by the pub- lic because of inability to learn owner- ship and objective. But in 1905 it was announced that the Lake Erie & Pitts- burgh Co. was building the line. The line was to run from a point near Lorain to Youngstown. Various re- ports were heard but in 1906 actual work on grading was started and it was disclosed that the line was a joint enterprise of the Pennsylvania, Lake Shore and B. & O. After starts and stops a new line was finally construct- ed, passing into the county east of Darrowville and connecting with the Cleveland & Pittsburgh at Brady Lake. From this point traffic went
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east over the Pennsylvania and B. & O. Movements of trains started in 1911. It was intended to be a freight line, considered as being under New York Central control.
CLINTON AIR LINE - BRICE LINE
Portage County had two railroads that "died a borning." The so-called Clinton Air Line was proposed as the Great American railroad, Atlantic to the Pacific. It was to follow the gener- al line surveyed, years before, for the Clinton Canal. The "air line" meant a straight line, since it was to come from Kinsman on the Pennsylvania border, straight through Portage County to Hudson, traversing Hiram, Mantua and Aurora, a distance of 55 miles. Stock subscriptions were taken to $200,000 and work started in 1852. D. C. Coolman of Ravenna was chief engineer. But in 1856 construction work was suspended. Money was hard to get but grading had been complet- ed through the county. At various times later attempts were made to re- vive the work, but nothing was ever done. The old grades can still be seen in many places as can the mason work and other traces.
Southwest of Kent traces can also be seen of the so-called Brice Line. This was promoted by Calvin S. Brice, wealthy Ohio senator. The line was planned to be another east-west trunk railroad. Right of way was bought through Franklin, Ravenna, Charles- town and Paris at a cost of a quarter million dollars. Grading work was begun in 1897 and completed pretty much from Cuyahoga Falls to Kent, but in October 1898, all work was stopped. Brice died in December, and the whole scheme collapsed.
It is now said that the road was fi- nanced by other interests, with Brice the leader. The popular idea was that
the intention of Brice was to force the B. & O. to purchase the P. & W. in which he was heavily interested.
INTERURBAN LINES
The phenomenon of the 1890's and the 1900's was the electric inter-urban car. It provided low priced transporta- tion for relatively short distances and went into sections heretofore isolated. It helped retail trade as well. Rides were pleasant. In November 1895, the first inter-urban line entered the county. It's official name was, "The Akron, Cuyahoga Falls Rapid Co." Tracks followed the Kent-Stow road to Kent's west corporation line. After litigation and delay cars reached West Main and Mantua St., Kent in Febu- ary 1896, and River St. in May. It was May, 1901, before the Kent council granted a full franchise and the line was pushed to Ravenna. On Nov. 15, 1901, "Car 100", loaded with officials, made the round trip Kent to Ravenna. A branch loop was constructed at Brady Lake. In 1929, courts held that power and traction lines must be separate and the company got permis- sion to abandon the line March 31, 1932.
During 1912 an electric line was built northward from Alliance to At- water and Ravenna. About 1915, the Ravenna-Warren division was built and the system known as the C. A. & M. V. was leased to the N. O. T. & L. Co. It operated "in the red" until the suspension of all electric lines in 1932.
The second trolley line to enter Portage County was an extension of the Chagrin Falls and Eastern, known as the Eastern Ohio, which reached Hiram in 1901 and continued to Gar- rettsville, its terminal. They had am- bitions of extension. The line gave service to a sparsely populated sec- tion, and the company was always in
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trouble and made no profit. It went into receivership and by 1916 the line was abandoned and tracks taken up. Various other electric lines in or through the county were proposed but did not materialize into full life. Another trolley line, Cleveland to Warren, was surveyed across the northern part of the county, but it never materialized. An Akron- Youngstown line was also projected across the county. No work was ever done on it.
BUS TRANSPORTATION
At the height of their prosperity- 1905 to 1920-the electric lines were not much concerned by automobile and motor bus. In 1920 a bus line, Ak- ron to Ravenna, started operation but soon quit. In 1922, the Akron-Youngs- town Bus Co. operated through Port- age County over two routes. The Cleveland, Warren & Youngstown line used present Route 82. Changes in bus construction came on. Some of
the new types were made by the Fag- eol Motor Co., predecessor of the Twin Coach Co. Numerous other bus lines came into existence. When the inter-urban lines went out of exist- ence, the motor bus lines took care of the business, using the same routes that the "trolleys" had used.
During World War II both Kent and Ravenna men tried unsuccessfully the operation of bus service within their respective city limits but with- out success. Bus service here became part of the Greyhound system Janu- ary 1, 1946.
Portage County people use air transportation as others do. At one time every town and city wanted an airport. Today Kent State University uses the Stow field Airport for train- ing purposes, but this is located just outside the county. There are, how- ever, numerous private flying fields in the county for the use of small planes.
Tappan's Notable Career
Benjamin Tappan, Jr., who settled Ravenna, was a man of undoubted influence. He was a scholar and linguist, educated at Yale and a keen lawyer. In the War of 1812, he was an aide to Gen. Wadsworth. As a member of the Ohio Canal Commission he rendered great service to the state.
However, Tappan lived in Ravenna only about ten years, going to Steubenville, which no doubt was a better field for a trained lawyer. There he became a leader of the bar, a United States judge and U. S. senator. He ranked in Steubenville with Edwin M. Stanton and other legal greats. "Tappan's Reports" was a well known legal work.
The land bought in Ravenna was with his father's money, Benj. Tappan, Sr., a Con- gregational minister in Connecticut. He was strict in his dealings and he was a leader in organizing town and county. But despite his ability, apparently he never was a popular figure. Historian Elisha Whittlesey and Missionary Joseph Badger criticized him and old local writers speak of feeling against him. When Tappan ran for governor in 1826, he re- ceived but seven votes in Portage County, which he had helped organize.
According to Historian Henry Howe, the family name originally was Topham, which later became Tappan. In Tappan's biography, printed in Steubenville, no mention is made of his having lived in Ravenna. He died in 1857. A son, Eli T. Tappan, was president of Kenyon College from 1868 to 1875. In politics Tappan was originally a Democrat, but later a Free Soil man.
CHAPTER XI Religion And Churches
By SHERMAN B. BARNES
No story of an American county can be complete which overlooks the Christian churches. Their influence in the minds of men shaping their ideals of life reaches farther than the historian can chronicle. This obtain- able record of churches, however, gives a glimpse into some of the in- stitutions through which men have channeled their religious aspirations.
The Congregationalist Missionary Society of Connecticut, formed 1798, sent the first missionary into the Port- age County country in 1801. This mis- sionary, Joseph Badger, a Yale grad- uate and Revolutionary war veteran, preached one or more times from 1801 to 1804 at Deerfield, Nelson, Mantua, Aurora, Palmyra, Ravenna, and Ran- dolph. Hungry animals, dense woods and cold rivers were perhaps less a trial to him than preaching to unfeel- ing hearts. At Ravenna he concluded that of twenty families who heard him there was "probably not a pray- ing family among them." Of fifteen souls who heard him at Aurora, March 1804 Badger commented, "alas, stupid as the woods in which they live." He was cheered a few weeks later by four families at Randolph "hungry for preaching."
FINDS NO ENTHUSIASM
Another traveling missionary preacher appointed by the Connecti- cut Missionary Society was Abraham Scott who in 1807 preached in Deer- field, Palmyra, Mantua, Hiram and Nelson. Although regretting the lack of education, Sabbath observance and
faith, Scott nevertheless found that . even ... the worst ... appear willing to hear what may be said a- gainst them. . . " and reported that" . . . I have been almost universally re- ceived and treated by all sorts since I came into this country with the great- est civility and friendship."
The growth of churches was slow, partly because of scarcity of preachers, partly because of the harsh physical struggle for survival, the scattered population, and the temptation to take advantage of the absence of re- straints usual in more established so- cieties. The Congregational Church at Randolph in its early years from 1811 to 1824 received only 32 mem- bers. At Edinburg in 1835 the Con- gregational Church had thirty-six members after thirteen years of exist- ence. Ten years elapsed between the founding of Aurora and the first formal organization of a church in 1809.
In the thirty years from 1809 to 1839 churches practicing either the Congregational or Presbyterian form of church government were formed at Aurora, 1809, Rootstown, 1810, Windham and Charlestown, 1811, Randolph, 1811, Mantua, 1812, Nel- son, 1813, Atwater and Shalersville, 1818, Franklin, 1819, Ravenna, 1822, Edinburg, 1823, Freedom, 1828, Gar- rettsville, 1835, Streetsboro, 1836. These churches all adopted very sim- ilar Calvinistic confessions of faith stressing the doctrines of predestina- tion, man's depravity and the inspira- tion of Holy Scripture. Before admis-
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Atwater's Congregational Church is known far and wide for the beauty of its architecture.
sion to membership it was necessary publicly before the church or the rep- resentatives of the church to be ex- amined on one's religious conversion experience and Christian character. Members were expected to practice family prayer, grace before meals, the Christian education of their children, refrain from work or travel on the Sabbath, and to submit to discipline by the church for doctrinal error or moral lapse.
JOHN BROWN ADMONISHED
The clerks' minutes of Portage County churches to about 1870 con- tain a sprinkling of discipline cases. At Freedom in 1844 Ambrose Chapin and wife were excommunicated for "whipping, bruising, and even burn- ing" an orphan girl in their charge. At Franklin, Barber Clark was repri- manded for "not making just measure in the sale of dryed fruit" to Sister Adams, fortunately of the same
.
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church. Also at Franklin, John Brown, of later fame, was admonished by the discipline committee of the Congregational Church for taking Negroes to his pew with him in de- fiance of the custom of Negroes sit- ting in the rear of the church build- ing. At Aurora in 1847 a church member was excommunicated for renting the ballroom in his tavern for "parties of pleasure, which consisted chiefly in the promiscuous dancing of the sexes to the tune of a violin, to a very late hour of the night." A church member at Edinburg was excommun- icated for bringing civil suit in the court at Ravenna against a fellow church member and for neglecting to appeal "to the government of the church according to the rule of Christ and our covenant promises." In Wind- ham in 1819 (then Sharon) Benjamin Higley was suspended for six months because his views on the Trinity were judged to be erroneous. The Con- gregationalists at Nelson from 1824 to 1830 had discipline problems over members going over to the Disciples of Christ, money affairs, and the liq- uor question.
OPPOSE STRONG DRINK
In 1830 there were sixteen distill- eries in the county. When Joseph Meriam, Congregationalist pastor at Randolph, began efforts in 1827 to stop the use of strong drink, many bitter struggles took place in churches over whether to make abstinence from intoxicating liquor a requirement for church membership. At Nelson the organization of a temperance society in 1828 called forth a torrent of op- position. Of the 71 Congregationalists only 16 were prepared to pledge them- selves to total abstinence. Some ex- pressed disapproval that ministers
should leave their proper tasks to agitate, divide and excite.
STANDARDS STRICT
Through at least the first fifty years of the life of the Congregational churches in Portage County it was difficult to be a church member. The diary of Marcus F. Spelman reflects this. Becoming a member of the church at Edinburg in 1831, Spelman confided to his diary in 1838 that "I find the Christian life to be a life of struggle and self-denial too intoler- able for human depraved nature to compete with without the assistance of Divine Agency." He felt he was "naturally of a mule disposition" and had to fight hard against sin and the hardening of his heart against what "the Word of God declared to be right." The standards were high; dis- cipline was demanding. Though this Spartan severity certainly won ardent supporters for the churches, it also kept others from joining and helps explain why for so long church mem- bers were a minority group in most communities. Also, enforcement of ex-
Counterfeiters
When the Union Bank of Warren was being re-modeled in 1913, workmen dis- covered two barrels of counterfeit coin behind a wall of the basement. Investi- gation revealed that the coins had been made in a cave at Nelson Ledges, seized by U. S. officers at the close of the Civil War, and stored in the bank at Warren, and presumably forgotten. When found the coins were turned over to the govern- ment and destroyed. This was only one of the known incidents involving count- erfeiting of money in Portage County.
(Above facts given by James Wilson, Sr., who was working on the bank re- modeling, and who still has one of the coins. Story printed in Warren Chron- icle some time in Spring of 1913.)
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communication decrees at times led to disputes, splits, and secessions with- in churches, to the detriment of good reputation of church members. In one case, after fifteen years of acrimony, there was held at Edinburg in 1858 "a day of mutual confession of delin- quency and request for prayer. . . Some of the brethren who had been alienat- ed were reconciled and determined to bury in oblivion all past offenses, and mutually to co-operate in seeking the peace and prosperity of the church."
THE BETHESDA CHURCH
The first Baptist Church in Portage County was formed by six persons at Nelson in 1808. This church, called Bethesda, met in homes or school- houses in Nelson, Mantua, and Au- rora, and had no fixed church build- ing for many years. This church prac- ticed closed communion, strict disci- pline for drunkenness, swearing, false- hood, or views contrary to its Calvin- ist theology. By 1836 there were Bap- tist churches at Garrettsville, Mantua, Streetsboro, Franklin, Brimfield, and Aurora. In 1840 a Baptist church building was erected at Hiram Rapids called the Hiram Baptist Church. Portage County Baptists called them- selves Regular Baptists. One of the leading Baptist ministers in the 1833- 55 period was Amasa Clark, who cared for the Hiram and Mantua churches. A man of learning, as evi- denced by his library and notebooks from his days at Hamilton College,
Reverend Clark had become discour- aged shortly before his death in De- cember, 1855. His diary entry for No- vember 6, 1855 stated that never since he came to Ohio had the state of re- ligion appeared so low. "The people do not wish for preaching. Last Sab- bath two ministers were present at Mantua and had only a prayer meet- ing. To a human eye there is no pros- pect that the work of God will soon be revived. O Lord, keep active and revive thy work."
MISSIONARIES ACTIVE
One factor which limited the ex- pansion of the Baptists was that Dis- ciples of Christ missionaries made many inroads upon Baptists, particu- larly after 1827. Disciples did not de- mand, as a condition of membership, a strong conversion experience. Com- munion was open, creeds were at a minimum, predestination and hellfire were put on the shelf. Voluntary ac- ceptance of the New Testament and immersion were sufficient. Disciples of Christ churches were founded at Mantua Center (1827), Franklin (18- 27?), Randolph (1828), Windham (1828), Shalersville (1828), Ravenna (1830), and Aurora (1831), Garretts- ville and Hiram (1835). By 1849 Free- dom, Deerfield, Mantua, Streetsboro and Palmyra had Disciples churches and in June of that year 3,000 persons attended at Deerfield the annual coun- ty meeting of Disciples.
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