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CHAPTER VII.


FROM STAGE COACH TO TROLLEY.


Days of Horseback Mails—Stage Lines—The River the Great Highway—Steamboating on the Ohio—River Floods and Disasters—Sandy and Beaver Canal; the Story of Great Expectations— Pioneer Railroad Projects—Fight for the Eric & Ohio Route—Railroad and Canal Men Cloth— Collapse of the East Liverpool & Ashtabula Railroad Scheme —Work of Wellsville Men for the Cleveland & Pittsburg Road—Telephone and Trolley—Rural Free Delivery


Then the stage crawled over the mountains. But for years after the Alleghanies had been crossed. the great routes of travel ended with Pittsburg, and the river was depended on for transportation, while the mails were carried on horseback. Mails reached the struggling settlements in Columbiana County only at irregular intervals until about 1809, when the county seat at New Lisbon received a regular weekly service by horseback from Pittsburg. John Depue, and later Horace Daniels. carried the mails during that early period. Depue is said to have used two horses. One he rode, the other he drove in front of him, two mail bags strapped across the beast’s back. Reaching the long lane east of New Lisbon ( his arrival was the event of the week ). he would commence sounding his horn, and all vehicles and travelers must give way to the government and the mails on his trip into town. The weekly mail ran by way of Smith’s Ferry, Little Beaver Bridge, Calcutta (then Foulkstown ). East Fairfield, New Lisbon, and thence via Deerfield and Ravenna to Cleveland. Another horseback mail was established about the same time from New Lisbon via Wellsville to Steubenville. and a third to Canton via Osnaburg. The first post office at New Lisbon had been established in 1809 ; that at Salem in 1807. while Wellsville did not have a postmaster until 1816. The first post office at Fawcettstown, as East Liverpool was then known, was established in 1810. but after two years it was abolished. No mail route passed through the place. and the people there sent to Wellsville. Little Beaver Bridge or Calcutta for their mail.


The great thoroughfare from Western Pennsylvania into this part of Ohio passed through Georgetown, Pennsylvania, just east of the Pennsylvania State line on the southern side of the river, making Smith's Ferry a celebrated river crossing. Georgetown waS a trading point before New Lisbon came into existence, and controlled the trade of the southern parts of Beaver and Columbiana countieS for a number of years. Smith's Ferry stood just at the junction of two of the great paths of emigration to the Northwest territory, one leading west through Pittsburg and Beaver, the other through Brownsville and Little Washington. On to the west. the mail went north. of Fawcettstown and Wellsville: while to the south of the river were Hookstown, Frankfort and Pughtown, all ambitious settlements.


Left off all through routes of travel by road. Wellsville and Fawcettstown sought means to secure a road to the north for several

years. In 1821 Cleveland’s commercial inter-


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ests demanded a first-class highway between the lake and the river, It was determined to raise funds by subscription for a free clay pike from Cleveland to New Lisbon and thence to some point on the river to be selected by the commissioners named by the projectors, The commissioners viewed and roughly surveyed three routes south from New Lisbon—one by the Georgetown road to a point near Smithls Ferry, at the State line; a second to Fawcettstown, and a third to Wellsville, It was given out that the route that could show the greatest amount of subscriptions to aid the project would be awarded the new road. Solicitors were appointed for each route, and a day was set for turning over the subscription papers at New Lisbon. The commissioners demanded that 15 freeholders on each route furnish a bond guaranteeing the payment of the subscriptions, John Bough, of near West Point, had charge of the bond for the Fawcettstown, or Liverpool, route, and it is related that on the night before the papers were to have been turned over at New Lisbon, he received a visit from one of his neighbors, who had signed the bond but who rued his action in doing so. Bough handed his visitor the paper containing the 15 signatures, and the latter calmly walked across the room to the grate and tossed it into the flames. Bough reported his loss the following day, when the representatives of all three routes assembled at Lisbon, but George Wells. and Henry Aten, representing the Wellsville route, were on hand with their papers, and the deal for the new pike was closed with them. The road was completed in 1823, and thenceforth became the stage and mail highway bementween the river and New Lisbon,


THE COMING OF THE STAGE-COACH.


The next few years following 1820, saw the introduction of regular stage lines into Columbiana County, which carried mail, passengers and light baggage. The arrival of the pioneer coaches into New Lisbon on the route out of Pittsburg created a sensation at the county seat, They were drawn first by four, then by six horses, According to a paper presented by H. H, Gregg, of New Lisbon, before the Columbiana County Pioneer and Historical Association at that place in 1876, regular lines first began running three times a week in 1829 —though they had run irregularly for several years before that date, In the Ohio Patriot, at New Lisbon, on May 23, 1829, the following advertisement appeared :


PITTSBURG, BEAVER, NEW LISBON, CANTON

AND WOOSTER LINE OF STAGES.


The public are informed that a regular line of stages is now running from and to the above places, three times a week, leaving Pittsburg on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, at 3 o'cicck a. m., and arriving in New Lisbon on the same days at 7 olclock p. m.—Leaving New Lisbon on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 3 o'clock a. m. and arriving at Wooster at 7 o'clock p. m. on the same day.

Offices for the above line:

Griffiths'. Wood street, Pittsburg; McClure's, Beaver;

Watson's, New Lisbon: Dewalt's, Canton;

Hempherly's, Wooster.


To facilitate the transportation of passengers arriving in New Lisbon or Wellsville on any other than the regular stage days. the subscribers have procured


GOOD CARRIAGES. HORSES AND STEADY

DRIVERS


To ply daily between Lisbon and Wellsville, 14 miles from the former. at which place a


STEAMBOAT


Can ordinarily be procured. to proceed to PiITTSBURG, STEUBENVILLE or WHEELING, in addition to which A HACK trill be kept constantly at the


STAGE OFFICE


Of JOHN FEEHAN, of Wellsville. to accommodate those preferring the latter made of conveyance to any of the above places.


The proprietors of the accommodation line just established pledge themselves to spare no pains to render the situation of those who may favor them with their patronage both comfortable and agreeable. Fare reasonable, and every attention paid to BAGGAGE, but in all cases it must be at the risk of the owner.


JOHN FEEHAN,

DAVID WATSON.


N. B.—Arrangements have been made to meet the Middleburg and Warren stages at New Lisbon on Tuesdays and Saturdays. which stages will leave town regularly every Wednesday and Sunday morning.


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The following week another line of stages was advertised to run three times a week, from New Lisbon through Wellsville to Steubenville, carrying the mails, The stage left the use of M. Seydel, "Sign of the Union Hall," New Lisbon, every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 A. M, ; arrived at the stage office of John M, Jenkins, Wellsville, at 9 A. M., and left Wellsville at 10 A. M., to arrive at Dohman's hotel, Steubenville, at 6 P. M., the same day, The next year Feehan & Watson extend their stage route from Wooster to Mansfield, and started daily stages from Pittsburg as far west as Beaver. For several years, however, the mails were carried from New Lisbon north on horseback or on foot. We are told a local historian that in the later '20's and in the early '30's, "James Vaughn carried the mail on foot from New Lisbon, through Salem to Deerfield and Palmyra, making connection with the stage line running from Big Beaver Point to Cleveland, Afterwards mails were carried on horseback, and where, by the increase of newspapers, greater quantities of mail were forwarded, a pack-horse was loaded, and traveled with the mail carrier,"


In 1833 Zadock Street, of Salem, George Wells, of Wellsville and Orion Brossom, of Painesville, with several others, established a route from Wellsville to Fairport, on Lake Erie, running through New Lisbon, Salem, Newton Falls, Chardon and Painesville. In 1835 still another route was established by Pittsburg parties, running from Wellsville to Cleveland via New Lisbon, Salem, Ravenna mid Hudson, By 1836 nearly all of these were daily routes, and despite the bad roads bore a commendable reputation for promptness.


One of these old routes still remains up to the present (1905), proving the claim of Lisbon and Wellsville to the oldest daily mail and passenger route in the county, The old daily stage line established by Street, Wells and others, between Wellsville and the lake in 1833, still runs out over the hills from Wellsville to Lisbon, the "daily hack," carrying the mails and an occasional passenger, leaving Lisbon early in the morning and Wellsville soon after noon for its three hours' trip hither and thither. The line has missed scarcely a day traversing the same route in over 70 years. According to Mack's "History of Columbiana County," the following great lines of Stages were in operation in 1835 :


Ashtabula to Wheeling—Through Jefferson, Austinburg, Morgan, Orwell, Bloomfield, Bristolville, Warren, Canfield, Columbiana, New Lisbon, Wellsville, Knoxville, Steubenville, Wellsburg, to Wheeling - 143 miles,


Beaver to Lower Sandusky—Through Ohioville, Foulkstown, New Lisbon,. New Garden, Paris, Osnaburg, Canton, Massillon, Dalton, Wooster, Jeromesville, Mifflin, Mansfield, Truxville, New Haven, Lafayette, Norwalk, Monroeville, Lyme, York, to Lower Sandusky -199 miles,


Beaver to Cleveland—Through Griersburg, Petersburg, Poland, Boardman, Canfield, Ellsworth, Milton, Palmyra, Edinburg, Ravenna, Stow, Hudson, Twinsburg, Bedford, Newburgh, to Cleveland - 105 miles.


In 1830 another great highway was projected from New Lisbon though to Pittsburg, vit Liverpool, there to cross the river, running through the "Panhandle" of Virginia into Pennsylvania, and thence to Pittsburg by way of Little Washington. This would have shortened the then existing mail routes to Pittsburg by several miles, The road was built from New Lisbon to the river, and Samuel E, Marks, then a prominent citizen on the Virginia side, pushed the project through to the Pennsylvania State line. Further than that it was never realized, Liverpool, as the original settlement of Fawcettstown had been renamed, was still without a post office up to that time, The town ship was a part of St, Clair, and the voters of Liverpool village were yet compelled to go to Calcutta to vote. In 1830 two or three citizens agreed to bear the expense of carrying the mail between the town and Wellsville, and in the same year the was reestablished, John Collins being appointed postmaster. The second postmaster, William G. Smith, finding that mail frequently found its way to Liverpool, Medina County, wrote the department at Washington and had the prefix "East" placed on the name of the office, Subsequently


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when the village was incorporated, it took the name East Liverpool.


The postal rates prior to 1845 are given as follows : Less than 3o miles, 6 cents; more than 3o and less than 100, 10 cents; too to 150, 12 1/2 cents ; 150 to 400, 18 3/4 cents ; over 400, 25 cents,


RIVER TRANSPORTATION


As the Indian and buffalo trails preceded the National and State highways, in blazing the way for civilization’s westward march, so the Ohio River preceded the railroads as an avenue of transportation for the pioneers and the productions of their industry and enterprise, The forest-covered hills, which formed the background for the alluvial bottom lands and vemdure-clad slopes, no less than the majestic sweep of La Belle Riviere, beckoned the picket lines and the advance guard of the army of occupation. Never was name more appropriate than that applied by the French, who had so transient a heritage in this country, to the river which was to furnish a highway for the commerce of the new country. A more beautiful stream does not lave the hills and valleys of this vast continent of varied and enchanting scenery,


During the closing decades of the Revolutionary period, and the first half of the past century, the Ohio bore on its bosom the people who were seeking new homes and broader opportunities of the then Western frontier, and a little later, back again to the older settlements, by the same avenue of transportation, were carried the products of the virgin soil. Then, when the great forests and mines of Western Pennsylvania came to he developed, millions on millions of feet of timber and sawed lumber, and great fleets of coal were floated down to the growing markets of the South and Southwest, impelled only by the increasing currents supplied to the noble river by the perennial freshets from the mountain streams. The great forests became well nigh exhausted : but the coal, from the old fields of the Keystone State, in ever increasing yields, are vet transported by river and rail, in quantities up into the scores of millions of bushels yearly, to lower river ports and distant railway points,


The fine floating palaces which navigated the Ohio up to the middle of the 19th century are almost things of the past, especially on the upper waters. The "Granite States," the "Buckeye States," the "Alleghenys," the "Winchesters," the "Diurnals," and many other fine steamers of their class, which for so long camried the animate and inanimate freight of the river thoroughfare before the railroads bid for speedier if not cheaper and on the whole safer transportation, have few successors,


THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.


Prior to the use of steam power for navigation on the Ohio, covered keel-boats were used to transport freight along the river, propelled up-stream by poles, drifting down-stream with the current, The boat or barge was roughly constructed, and varied from 75 to 100 feet in length, It would carry from 60 to 100 tons, with a sort of rude cabin in the stern for female passengers. The boat usually carried a sail for use when the wind was favomable, and at times one or two boatmen trudged along the bank, hauling the craft with a rope, The first steamboat which descended the river was the "Orleans," a vessel of 400 tons, built at Elizabethtown, near Pittsburg, in 1811, under the personal supervision of Robert Fulton, the cost exceeding $50,000. In October of that year the little steamer started from Pittsburg for New Orleans, It was, in the language of an old writer, "a joy and wonder to the inhabitants of the river townships, who saw it pass on its first voyage," It never returned, however, haying insufficient power for the long journey against the current, and finally struck a snag and sank at Baton Route, in 1814, For three years, no attempts was made to bring a steamer up the Ohio; but in 1814 the "Enterprise" was built at Redstone, now Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and chartered by the government to carry. military stores to New Orleans, arriving there in time to take part in the battle on January 8th of the next year. And during June,.


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1815, the "Enterprise" arrived on the Upper Ohio on her return trip to Pittsburg, It is related that when the little stern-wheeler put in at the Wellsville wharf the entire population of the town turned out, astounded, hardly believing it possible that a steamboat could make her way up-stream all the way from New Orleans.


Nearly every town now had its boat-building yard. Wellsville was one of the first in the field, Robert Skillinger in 1815, establishing a small clock for the building of flatboats, In 1817 he laid the hull for the steamer "Robert Thompson," and boat-building became an important industry. In 182o at Steubenville, the steamer "Bazaleel Wells" was built—the "Thompson" and the "Wells" being the earliest steamers built on this section of the river. By the beginning of the year 1832, however, there had been built for the river trade a total of 348 steamers, of which 198 were then running.* The business grew so rapidly that the river towns along the Ohio were converted in to years' time into busy shipping centers.


DAYS OF THE RIVER TRADERS.


Dozens of the business men of these communities became river traders, making from two to four trips a year from the Upper Ohio to New Orleans, selling and buying merchandise, They endured great hardships during the cold winters, were frequently caught in the ice jam for clays or even weeks, and considered the ordeal of being forced by low water to walk all or part of the way home from Cincinnati no extraordinary experience. They were the forerunners of the commercial age of the West.


Wellsville and Liverpool had their share of these adventurous spiritS, Their visits to the home town were irregular, and at times they would disappear for two or three years to reappear unexpectedly. Merchants became accustomed to taking yearly trips to Cincinnati,

Louisville, of St, Louis, or even through to Memphis and New Orleans. Many of them hus became fascinated with the life and became rivermen to the end of their days. The

rivermen of the Upper Ohio "flocked together"


*Mack. "History of Columbiana County.”


at Wheeling, at Steubenville, at Wellsville, at Liverpool, and at Georgetown, Pennsylvania, just east of the Pennsylvania State line, and about Six miles from old Liverpool town, Georgetown to this day remain headquarters for a number of the families and descendants of retired rivermen, Wellsville, on account of its excellent natural harbor, became a center. James Wells, son of Alexander Wells, founder of the town, followed the river for years, William Bottenburg was one of the pioneers, Gen. T. \W. Reilly, afterwards one of the most famous lawyers at the Columbiana County bar, in his early days clerked on a steamboat. Josiah .Thompson, whose father, William Thompson, at that time kept a Store in Calcutta, and who was himself in later years one of East Liverpool's famous merchants, traded at down-river ports during the year following 1830.


The conditions during these early days are described by William G. Smith, deceased, of East Liverpool—who was among those who early interested themselves in river transportation at that town—in his "Reminiscences of Fawcettstown" (now East Liverpool ), published in the East Liverpool Tribune in 1888.


"The town was in 1826 the most forlorn of any located along the Ohio river. There was not a landing in front of the town for steamboats except when the river was high, The river had increased its width from hank to bank one-third since the first settlement, leaving a wide beach covered with boulders and rocks, so that the water was shoal in front of the town. I purchased a log house with two lots adjoining at Second and Union streets, and moved my store there (although it was at the extreme east end of the town), because the ferry was kept there and it was the only road to the river that a wagon could ascend and descend. The ferry road was simply excavated in the sand and clay bank, and every freshet washed it away, so a landing had to be built with timber and boulders from the beach. That was a very small commencement yet, strange to say, it was sufficiently large to create a jealously in a portion of the population that caused some trouble. The place at that


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time contained about 18 families, ten of whom were freeholders and the balance renters, the population may have reached one hundred. * * * * From Washington street west the people wished Market street to be the center, of business, and fearing that I was going to draw the business to the upper end of town, a few of them clubbed together and bought an old ferry flat, and Started an opposition ferry at the foot of Market street, in charge of "King" Smith, He had a small tug in court about license, run the ferry a month or two, and quit the unprofitable enterprise,


"In 1821 I made my first trip, with a small venture, on the river in company with (as he was familiarly known and spoken of) 'Old Father Bottenburg,' and his son Levi, both of whom have stepped behind the curtain and left the stage forever, That trip extended no further south than Memphis, Tennessee, where we sold our boat and remaining stock of produce to a merchant, a son of General Winchester, who waS somewhat notorious for having been defeated by the Indians, Memphis was new at that time, and contained but two stores and a few groceries (so-called), but the 'groceries' on sale were mostly of the liquid kind, and much of it was carried away in vessels somewhat similar to the skin bottles used by the Eastern nations. * * * Above the Hamilton farm, on the Virginia side of ,the river (nearly opposite Walkers), lived a man named Greathouse, who was one of the first pioneers on that side of the river, having settled there when Indians were troublesome, The lands of himself and sons bordered the Ohio river, The writer was in the habit of passing them, annually, from 1821 to 1829, and one winter, with a produce boat was caught in the frozen river opposite the old pioneer's lands ; we had to remain there a number of weeks ice-bound, and every night could hear packs of wolves howling through the thick forests owned by the stalwart sons of the old pioneer (he had passed away)."


BOAT-BUILDING AN INDUSTRY.


Mr. Smith continued to trade with lower river ports from Liverpool during the '30's and in 1830 built the wharf and steamboat landing at the foot of Union street, and near it a warehouse, which was destroyed by the fl00d of 1832, but was rebuilt a year later. In 1830, too, a steam sawmill was built by Anthony Kearns, William G. Smith, John Hill and William Scott at the western end of Second street, and near there Abel Coffin started a boat-yard a year. or two later, Here he built two steamboats, the "Olive" and the "DeKalb,” which ran on the lower rivers, George D, McKinnon, with Abraham Davidson, established a boat-yard nearby and built many flat-boats, Coffin lived above the town on the land afterward, occupied by the Harker Pottery Company, and near his home he established a small boat-yard later in the '30's— about 1835 and built the steamer "Liverpool," owned by the residents of the town. In that day Columbiana county was the second county in the State in the production of wheat, and, since securing a wharf and steamer landing, Liverpool had become the shipping point for a large amount of flour, manufactured in mills along the three forks of the Little Beaver that had hitherto been wagoned either to Smith's Ferry or. Wellsville for loading by river.


The stock to build the "Liverpool" was subscribed by a dozen or more Liverpool men, It was stipulated that as soon as the first steamer was completed and became a dividend-earner, a second should be built, and the two boats should form a daily line between Pittsburg and Wheeling, meeting at Liverpool and making the town the half-way point and headquarters of the company. It was hoped to procure a line of stage coaches from the north to meet and exchange passengers with the boats at Liverpool, When the "Liverpool Company" was inaugurated, Capt. Richard Huston, a stockholder, was appointed to supervise her construction at Coffin's new yard above the town, The pine lumber brought from Pittsburg for her cabin, while being kiln dried, was burned and a second lot had to be purchased. The steamer was finally completed, however, and launched with great ceremony, By a vote of the company, Captain Huston was made her


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commander, She was run for a time between Pittsburg and Wheeling; then, through the influence of two or three of the company, she was loaded at Wheeling for the Arkansas River. Then she was run between Little Rock and New Orleans for a couple of years, and finally sank, a total loss. She never paid a dividend to her owners, Captain Huston for many years built flatboats in East Liverpool, building as many as 26 in one season, He was the father of the Misses Euphemia and Martha Huston, for many years connected with the East Liverpool public schools. John S, Blakely & Company built the original Broadway wharf in the early '50's.


At Wellsville, in 1833, 20 years after Robert Skillinger had begun to build flatboats there Robert and David Ralstan. brothers, established a boat-yard and begun the building of more pretentious craft, In 1841-42 they built a large side-wheel steamer for James Farmer, of Salineville, Andrew Bunting and other Wellsville people, Mr, Farmer, who was then a prosperous merchant and had done much river trading, conducted his business with St, Louis and points as far South at New Orleans, with this steamer for a number of years, Philip F, Geisse built the engines for her and supplied the boilers and all machinery at his shop in Wellsville. A little later the same parties built and equipped the river packet "Union," which made its first trip from Pittsburg to New Orleans in 1843, In the '40's and early '50's Mr. Geisse built many ferry-boats, most of which were for traffic on the Mississippi.


MERIDIAN DAYS OF THE PORT OF WELLSVILLE,


Those halcyon days of river transportation were great days for the river towns. The height of river prosperity was enjoyed by Wellsville between 1832 and 1842, during which period the town controlled a large share of the river business of 15 Ohio counties, including the Western Reserve, with its important cheese trade. It was the chief port between Pittsburg and Steubenville. Mack's history says that from 1830 to 1845 over 50,000 barrels of flour were shipped annually from Wellsville by river, As many as 15o teams frequently arrived in Wellsville in one day from the interior, waited their turn to discharge their freight for the river, and reloaded with mercandise for points north.


Not a few of the older people still living in Wellsville after the beginning of the new century remembered the big boats that plied front the middle of the '30's to 1855, On the Pittsburg and Cincinnati line were the "Cincinnati," Capt, William Kountz ; the old "Buckeye State," Captain Beltzhoover ; the "Philadelphia," "Allegheny," "Brilliant," "Pittsburg," and "Clipper," These each made a round trip a week between Pittsburg and Cincinnati, and as a result of this schedule, one boat passed down stream and one up-stream each day. Those were the meridian days for the river steamboat trade. A few years later, when the railroad had been completed along the river, and to Pittsburg, this fine line of packets was transferred to the "lower river" trade. The Pittsburg and Wheeling line of steamers, however, which for many years consisted of the "Winchester" and the "Diurnal"—one passing each way each day—continued on the "upper river" trade until in the '60's, The "James Nelson," Capt. James Moore of Wellsville, was also in the Pittsburg and Wheeling trade for some years, Asa Shepherd and Samuel Stevenson (both of Wellsville) were captain and first engineer respectively. After the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad had been completed from Cleveland to the river, in 1852, and until the "river division" of the Cleveland & Pittsburg had been extended east and south to Pittsburg and to Wheeling, the "Forest City" and a sister boat made each a round trip daily, the one between Wellsville and Pittsburg, the other bementween Wellsville and Wheeling, connecting with passengers and frieght with the trains at Wellsville, The "Forest-City" was commanded by Capt, Austin Murdock, of Wellsville, and Samuel Stevenson was engineer, After the railroad had been built through to the up-river and down-river ports, the "Forest City," which was owned chiefly by Wellsville men, was transferred to the Louisville and St. Louis trade,


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FOR SLACK-WATER NAVIGATION.


Not all the classes of traffic withdrew from the river when the railroad skirted its shores, however, Coal and lumber, as well as great cargoes of iron products billed for points far south, made the river an important factor in the transportation interests of the West. And for 20 years before the opening of the new century the great river interests clamored for legislation by the government to carry out the Ohio slackwater, improvements and give the stream a nine-foot stage the year round. As the rafting lumber declined with the devastation of the forests at the headwaters and along the tributary streams, the shipping of coal by river developed into huge proportions. Coal was not always towed down the Ohio from the great black diamond markets at the headwaters in 'fleets of boats and barges by the steam towboats of later years. During the middle of the 19th century, each early spring or June rise in the river was the signal for the opening of the coal-boating season, when a gang of a dozen or 20 men would man a pair of coal boats, lashed together, each carrying 25,000 to 30,000 bushels, and float their cargoes down the swollen Stream to the lower ports, guided by ponderous oars at the bow and stern. Rafting of timber in the log and sawed lumber from the timber regions Of the Alleghany Mountains was done in the same manner, one great raft, made up of six` to a dozen "creek rafts" boomed together, often containing more than 1,000,000 cubic feet of lumber,


But where one of these rafts was run down the Ohio to lower ports in 1905, 50 were marketed in the same way in 1850-60, so nearly exhausted did the timber supply in the great :Western Pennsylvania region become, of coal, however, over 50,000,000 bushels per annum were being shipped out of Pittsburg harbor alone at the beginning of the century, for Southern ports, and this was practically all sent out during the freshets, three or four times in a year, owing to the absence of a sufficient stage of water at other times. One rise in the river would sometimes carry south 18,000,000 to 20,000,000 bushels of Pittsburg fuel. In 1903 .the largest tow-boat on the upper rivers, the "Sprague," was launched at Pittsburg, and towed south on one trip over 1,000,000 bushels,


These coal interests raised the greatest clamor for slack-water . improvements during the '90's, but, though the manufacturing interests of the entire Ohio Valley took up the cry of "A nine-foot stage to Cairo," Congress was slow to act. The appropriations were miserly and the work crawled forward in a discouraging manner. From 1895 to 1905 the progressive men in the river cities conducted the rivers and harbors committee on junketing tours down the stream from Pittsburg every two or three years, and Congressmen R. W, Tayler, of Ohio, and B, B. Dovener, of West Virginia, were particularly urgent in their appeals that the river cities be given relief from railroad freight discrimination by slack-water navigation. The dam and locks at Merill's, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, were opened in 1904, and the same year a substantial appropriation was made by Congress for the work on Lock No. 7, just east of the Pennsylvania State line, and No. 8, between Walker's and East Liverpool, which, it was promised, would give East Liverpool an ample harbor by 1908.


RIVER FLOODS AND DISASTERS.


The history of the old Ohio River from the days of the first settlements along her banks includes, as well, a story of disaster by flood and by accident. The freshets, which came as a rule in the spring of the year, when the snows of the mountains melted and swelled the volume of the stream until it overflowed its banks, resulted, as the valley became more thickly populated, in greater and greater damage yearly, first to crops and homes, then to the manufacturing and shipping interests. Toward the close of the century, when the coal interests assembled millions of bushels of fuel in fleets in Pittsburg harbor during the "low water" season, awaiting a rise to carry it to the Southern market, a sudden freshet always meant wrecked tow-boats and thousands of dollars' loss in sunken coal.


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The first disastrous flood in the memory of the old rivermen was that of 1832. The great flood of 1852, the next remark-able high water, established the record for nearly half a century. All the river towns were inundated to a greater or less extent. and Wellsville and East Liverpool suffered proportionately. The little potteries which had been established along the river at East Liverpool only a few years before were almost floated away. Houses, great rafts of lumber and acres of tangled debris swept down on the swollen current. and chickens and even cattle and persons were rescued in midstream. Another great freshet occurred in 1865. but the flood of '52 held the record until 1884. when the Ohio reached a height beyond the memory of the oldest settler. The high point was reached on February 7th. The low: lands were under water for miles. and the suffering at Wellsville and East Liverpool was great in the lower portions of the two cities. which had been built up since the 'so's. Factories and mills were completely shut down: pumps at the water-works were stopped and the towns. nearly surrounded by water, experienced the novelty of a water famine. Buildings of every description floated past. and the damage sustained by citizens of Columbiana County alone ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. For the first time since its construction, all trains between Pittsburg and Wellsville on the Cleveland (K: Pittsburg Railroad suspended business for nearly a week, and the river towns were completely cut off from mail or telegraph communication. The Cleveland & Pittsburg tracks were covered almost the entire distance between the eastern end of East Liverpool and upper Wellsville. For years after, the "high water mark" of 1884 was painted on the corners of brick buildings in the flooded districts of both cities.


With the subsiding waters. came the cry of hunger all along the river. While yet the waters were in the lowland districts. a little relief boat was sent out by the people of Pittsburg and ran down on the bosom of the flood. People in the flooded districts, living in the upper stories of their homes, knowing not the purpose of the little craft and fearing the wash of the waves from her wheel, fired on her with shotguns at many points between East Liverpool and Steubenville, and the pilot house of the steamer was riddled with bullets. Organized relief soon followed, committees being appointed at Pittsburg, East Liverpool, Steubenville and points further down the river, and within a few days a relief boat was started out, in charge of Rey. E. R. Donahoo, pastor of the West End Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, with provisions for the unfortunate.

Other severe freshets caused suffering in 1891 and in 1902. But .the record of 1884 remained the high mark up to 1905. The only authentic record kept during all these years on the upper river is at Pittsburg—where. in 1905, the flood of '52 still remained the high mark— though the waters in '84 reached a greater height at Columbiana County points, owing to the freshets below Pittsburg. The marks at Pittsburg are as follows :


February 10, 1832 - 33 feet

April 19. 1852 - 31.9 feet

March 18, 1865 - 31.4 feet

February 10, 1866 - 32 feet

February 6. 1884 - 33.3 feet

February 18, 1891 - 31.3 feet

March 2, 1902 - 32.4 feet

January 23. 1904 - 30 feet


BURNING OF THE "WINCHESTER."


While the decadence of the river as a means of travel was very marked during the last half of the old century, at least two steamboat disasters occurred within that time which brought sorrow to many families in Columbiana County. and are remembered as among the most appalling local incidents of the century.


The first of these was the burning of the "Winchester." in the spring of 1867. It was a brand-new steamer: built to take the place in the upper and lower river trade of the old steamer of the same name. The old "Winchester" and "Diurnal" had run in the '40's and '50's as a daily line between Pittsburg and Wheeling. But the new "Winchester" was about to be put in the Pittsburg and Cincinnati trade. It was commanded by Capt. Asa Shep-


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herd, of Wellsville, who was one of the principal owners of the steamer. Capt. Dan Moore and Capt. A. G. Murdock, both of Wellsville, were also financially interested in the boat. Captain Shepherd's widow, who was a daughter of the late Judge J. A. Riddle, still lives in Wellsville. The new "Winchester" was on her return from her first trip to Cincinnati. and had a large list of passengers, besides heavy consignments of freight. It was near midnight. She had just passed East Liverpool, and was nearing Babb's Island, when she took fire and burned like tinder. The pilot headed in to the West Virginia shore, the bow of the steamer striking the bank (the water was high), while her stern swung out into the swollen stream. Passengers were aroused from their berths. and rushed wildly from their staterooms in their night robes. The fire had made the greatest.headway in the forward part of the steamer, and panic-stricken passengers—men. women and children—jumped overboard from decks and gunwales, and were carried by the currents either under the burning boat or down the stream. The steamer burned to the water's edge, and about 20 persons were drowned while the boat's prow was resting where it had been run up on shore.


THE "SCIOTO" DISASTER.


The second of these disasters was the sinking of the little excursion steamer "Scioto." which was a more notable event, because of the large number of deaths of Columbiana county people. A large majority of these were from East Liverpool and Wellsville.


The account of this disaster, as given by an eye witness, John H. Burgess, who was still living in 1905, and who was at the time mayor of East Liverpool, will be found interesting.


“It was published in a late holiday edition of the East Liverpool Review, and is as follows :


"It was at about 8 : 3o in the evening on July 4, 1882, that the 'Scioto,' carrying more than 400 East Liverpool men, women and children, was crashed into by the steamer 'John Lomas' at Mingo, resulting in the sinking of the 'Scioto' and the death of about 75 people, 46 of whom were from East Liverpool, Wellsville and vicinity. Mayor Burgess was a passenger on the ill-fated steamer and was the last man to leave her.


"Mr. Burgess remembers almost every feature of the horror, and tells the story : " 'The "Scioto" left East Liverpool early in the morning for Moundsville, carrying a crowd of excursionists, who spent the afternoon viewing the West Virginia Penitentiary. We left on the return trip long before dark, and the shades of night had only begun to fall when the boats came together. It seems that on that day a new code of signals had been given the pilots on the river, and the man at the wheel on our boat either having forgotten them or never having been instructed, caused the disaster. We were passing Mingo when the "John Lomas" hove in sight. The pilot of the latter boat, taking it for granted that our pilot was acquainted with the signals, acted accordingly, and as a result the boats struck. The "Lomas" was scarcely marked, but a huge hole was torn in the bow of the "Scioto," and it was not long until she started to the bottom.


" 'I stood at the front end of the cabin and for many minutes helped women and children through the ceiling to the hurricane deck. A number of men had lost their senses, and in their eagerness to get away tried to get past the helpless ones, and I was compelled to hold them back at the point of a revolver. All of the rescued people were taken aboard the "John Lomas" or were picked up by men in skiffs, and then taken to the shore. Every death in connection with this horror, was sad enough, but the drowning of the Captain's boy appealed to me more than any of them. Captain Thomas was a man who loved his family and idolized his boy.


" 'After every living soul had been safely landed on the bank, word was sent to Wellsville and East Liverpool, and in a short time Superintendent Phil. Bruner ordered a train of seven passenger coaches to the scene. Many of the survivors took the train for their respective homes, but there were few of those who had relatives or dear friends among the missing who did not remain and help in the grewsome-


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search for their bodies. For several days searching parties dragged the river as far down as Moundsville, and eventually every body that was known to be missing was found. The City Council of East Liverpool and also of Wellsville, instructed me to spare no money in recovering the bodies. One of the councilmen at that time was Col. J. N. Taylor, and the morning after the disaster he told me to spend whatever money was necessary and he would stand personally liable for it. Thomas H. Silver, of Wellsville, gave me the same instructions. and both backed me in my every move.'


The names of the dead as recorded in an issue of the Saturday Review, under the date of July 11, 1882, were as follows :


John Tomlinson, aged 28, a potter and native of East Liverpool; died while endeavoring to save others.


Lincoln Wright, 19. son of Wilson Wright, East Liverpool.


Michael Emmerling and wife, 27 years.


Stephen Kent, a native of England.


William Woods. 16. East Liverpool.


George C. Thompson, 22, St. Clair township. His funeral on the Sunday following the disaster was one of the largest that ever occurred in the county.


Ben. E. Stebbins, 22, son of Dr. E. S. Stebbins, East Liverpool.


John Grounds. 20, son of Samuel Grounds.


Carrie Beardmore. 26. and Lincoln, 16, children of William Beardmore, East Liverpool.


Wilson Paul, 30. East Liverpool.


Thomas Beardmore, 19. and Harry Beardmore, 16, sons of Joseph Beardmore.


John F. Christy, 34, East Liverpool.


Eugene Farmer, 24. son of L. R. Farmer. East Liverpool.


Emma Maria Booth. 16, daughter of Adam Booth. East Liverpool.


David Freed, 28, East Liverpool.


Joseph Rahmann, 14. son of Mrs. J. Bailey, East Liverpool.


Evan P. Burke, 33. son of John Burke. Beaver County, Pennsylvania.


Albert Snow, 20, East Liverpool.


Willie Ewing, 10, son of Court Ewing, Wellsville.


George Pinkerton, 16, son of Engineer Pinkerton. Wellsville.


Denver Shannon, 21, Wellsville.


Stewart Pipes, 13, son of William Pipes, Wellsville.


Sarah Kiddey. 16, daughter of Charles Kiddey, Wellsville.


David Fogo, 24, son of Wallace Fogo, Wellsville.


Charles Leath, 15, Wellsville.


Charles C. Dayidsott, 13, son of Kenneth F. Davidson, Wellsville.


Columbus B. Armstrong, 42, Wellsville; met death while saving others, as he had been seen at least twice on shore.


Lou F. Harper, 18, son of D. H. Harper, Wellsville.


Augustus Redman. 15, son of John Redman, Wellsville..


Samuel Hunter, Jr., 17, Wellsville.


John P. Marsh, 23, son of Sidney Marsh, Wellsville.


Arthur E. Hoagland, son of W. P. Hoagland, Wellsville.


John C. Stevenson. 18, son of Samuel Stevenson, Wellsville.


Wesley Cross, 24, Wellsville.


Henry A. Hayes, East Liverpool.


Morris Dannaher, 25, Wellsville.


Joseph H. O'Connor, 17, son of Michael O'Connor, Wellsville.


E. P. Smith, 47, and his three children, Ellis, 14: Frank, 8, and Lottie. 6: Wellsville.


Flora Culp. 18, Wellsville.


Belle Brandon, 17, daughter of Thomas Brandon, Wellsville.


Henry Marker, 23, son of W. H. Marker, Hancock County, West Virginia.


John Prosser, 17, son of William Prosser, Hancock County; West Virginia.


THE SANDY AND BEAVER CANAL.


The Sandy and Beaver Canal Company was incorporated March 9, 1830, but work on the improvement was not commenced until. November 24, 1834. Elderkin Potter, a


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prominent lawyer of New Lisbon. with his own hands performed the ceremony of "breaking ground" for the enterprise, near the old Hughes furnace, in the presence of a large concourse of people, who had assembled to witness the ceremony, after which he made an address to the multitude present, in which he .set forth in glowing terms, the great future of New Lisbon and Columbiana County, which would grow out of the canal project. The canal extended from the mouth of the Little Beaver, on the Ohio River, to Bolivar, on the Ohio Canal, following Little Beaver and the middle fork of the same to New Lisbon. thence crossing to a point near the head waters of the west fork, following that several miles. and then crossing the watershed to the upper waters of the branch of the Sandy. thence with the course of that stream to where it flows into the Tuscarawas River, and there connecting with the Ohio Canal. thereby securing canal connections with Portsmouth and the intermediate points to the south, and Cleveland and intermediate points to the north. In following the streams and crossing ridges the canal had many curves which increased its length. The distance between its terminal points was about 45 miles on a straight line, while the canal was over 6o miles long.


After the first breaking of the ground in 1834, the work of construction was prosecuted with vigor until the financial panic of 1837 caused a suspension of the work, and it was not completed until 1846, the first boat from the East, under command of Captain Dunn. reaching New- Lisbon on October 26th of that year. The arrival was hailed with great rejoincing, a jubilee meeting was held at Hanna's warehouse, at which New Lisbon's most eloquent attorney made a speech on behalf of the citizens, to which Dr. Leonard Hanna gave an earnest response on behalf of the directors of the canal corporation. The day's celebration closed with an exhibition of fireworks, and a supper and ball at the Watson House.


One of the many packets which traversed the canal between New Lisbon and the river was the "David Begges." commanded by Capt. George Ramsey. The east end of the canal. from New Lisbon to the Ohio River, was kept up and used for some years, or until 1852, but the middle division, from New Lisbon to the Ohio River, was used only a very short time. The Sandy and Beaver Canal was one of those public improvements which, during its construction and for some years thereafter, distributed capital, gave employment to many workmen at good prices, furnished a market for the products of the fruitful farms along its course. stimulated the spirit of enterprise, increased the value of real estate along its entire length and for quite a distance on either side, and in many ways was a factor in the development and progress of the country: but its early failure was a disastrous blow to New Lisbon. Several of its most enterprising citizens moved to other fields of labor and expended their wealth and energy in other cities. and the construction of the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad. afterwards known as the Pittsburg. Fort Wayne & Chicago. about 1852. along the northern border and the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad about the same time along the southern border of the county, left the village between them without any direct communication with other places of importance except by means of the common public roads, so that, except for the several terms of court. the county fair and such other events as occasionally attracted the people from the surrounding country and neighboring towns a state of lethargy prevailed in the village for a number of years.


EARLY RAILROAD PROTECTS.


The canal came too late to be a paying project or to accomplish great things in the development of the county, though. strange as it mans- seem, it was built during the period when the first struggling railroad projects in the same territory were denied encouragement and died a ling-erinj,-r, death. only to rise again on the completion of the canal and supersede it. The first of the railroad projects to take definite shape was the Erie & Ohio. to connect the lake with the river. The company was granted a charter by act of the Ohio Legislature. January 26. 1832, the announced purpose being


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"to extend from a point between the west line of Geauga County and the east line of Ashtabula, through Trumbull County, and to terminate at such point on the Ohio River in Columbiana County as the directors should determine. The capital stock was placed at $1,000,000. Local feeling over the location of the southern end of the route became strong. The projectors held a number of meetings during 1834 and 1833. One was held in Salem. Gen. William Blackburn was chairman and Nathan Hunt. secretary. John Campbell and Zadok Street were among the actual participants in the meeting, a report of which was published in the New Lisbon paper. Two surveys finally developed—one running from Fairport, Lake County, through Painesville and Salem to Wellsville, following the general rout then traveled by the daily line of stages. which had been established between Fairport and Wellsville in 1833: the rival line starting further east, at Ashtabula. in Ashtabula County. and running through Warren to East Liverpol. A convention was called to meet in Salem early in 1836. Both routes had their advocates. Aaron Brawdv. Sanford C. Hill and William G. Smith represented East Liverpool at the meeting. The advocates of the Painesville-Wellsville route out-voted the Ashtabula-East Liverpool faction in the convention, however. and the delegates who favored the eastern route


Among the early incorporations of railroad .compasnies in Ohio were the following, whch were to penetrate Columbiana county:


Erie & Ohio. 1832. from Geauga or Ashtabula County to Ohio River.


Pennsylvania & Ohio. 1832. Pittsburg; to Massillon. via Little Beaver Creek. New Lisbon and Canton.


Yellow Creek. Carrollton & Zoar. 1834-35,. from mouth of Big Yellow Creek through Carrollton to Zoar, on Ohio and Beaver Canal.


Ashtabula, Warren & East Liverpool. Cleveland & Pittsburg, Wellsville & Fairport. Steubenville & Ohio. and Ohio. Indiana & Pennsylvania, all in 1836.


Wellsville & Pittsburg (eastern division of Cleveland & Pittsburg). 1847.


Wellsville. Millersburg & Mount Vernon. and Steubenville & Indiana ("Panhandle” route). both in 1848.


Steubenville & Wellsville (river division of Cleveland & Pittsburg), 1850.


withdrew in a body to their hotel, agreeing to call a convention for a later date, to meet in Warren., That convention was held during the summer of 1836, and as a result of the split. over routes the Legislature the same year granted two charters, one for the Wellsville & Fairport Railroad ; the other for the Ashtabula, Warren & East Liverpool Railroad.


It was an accepted fact that but one of the two projects could succeed, and the feeling between the different sections of the community became very bitter. The points on the lake were about equal in strength. Warren was a stronger business community than Salem, but Wellsville was far in advance of East Liverpool in business men and available capital, and had a wide-spread reputation as a shipping point. New Lisbon was touched by the Painesville-Wellsville survey, following the line of the mail route then established; but New Lisbon was canal-made, the ground having been broken at that place in 1834 for the Sandy and Beaver Canal. And the county seat discouraged the railroad proposition as tending to injure the business of the canal.


It was the great panic of 1837 that brought to grief both these early railroad schemes. Meetings were held in Wellsville, and stock subscribed there and at Painesville but disputes over the route discouraged the project.. A more determined effort was made to build. over the Ashtabula-East Liverpool route, the survey for which followed what was known as "California Hollow" into East Liverpool,. reaching the town by what is now West Market street, through the property then owned by Basil Simms. East Liverpool men bore the expense of these preliminaries. The Progressive spirit of these old heroes of the '30's can be better understood when it is recalled that the railroad in that year, 1836, was barely four years old.;, that ..Colonel Robert Stevens had built his Camden & Amboy Railroad in New Jersey only in 1832, and that the pioneer roads of Pennsylvania were then building into Pittsburg.


After the company was incorporated, a meeting was held at Warren. and General Perkins of Warren, was elected president. The


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incorporators included David Todd (afterward Governor), and Senator Crowell, of Warren; Colonel Hubbard, of Ashtabula; John Dixon, of Columbiana; Aaron Brawdy, Sanford C. Hill, John Patrick and William G. Smith, of East Liverpool. Patrick had been an itinerant preacher, but displayed in this enterprise some of the genius of the latter-day promoter. The directors were authorized to open books at different points for stock subscriptions. Patrick was sent to New York ; Smith to Pittsburg. Gen. William Robinson, a wealthy man of Allegheny; George A. Cook, a Pittsburg banker: James Blakely and others in East Liverpool subscribed liberally to the stock, an addition of town lots in East Liverpool being laid out east of Broadway, and the newly plotted land offered as a sort of bonus on the stock. Robinson and Cook streets in the new addition were so named at that time in honor of Robinson and Cook. In this way, with some assistance from Warren people, $200,000 was raised. Patrick was successful in New York, securing subscriptions there aggregating $500,000. In the latter part of 1836 the actual grading was begun at East Liverpool on the south and at Ashtabula on the north. Several hundred men were put to work on the grading at the East Liverpool end, and a cut was made for over a mile back through "California Hollow," which could be traced along the old wagon road for nearly half a century afterward.


East Liverpool, encouraged by the influx of population from Pittsburg, began to boom. New stores and warehouses were built and Edward Carroll erected a big hotel, the "Mansion House." Then came the panic. The New York subscribers defaulted ; Robinson, of Allegheny, transferred his stock to Banker Cook, and Cook failed. The project was never revived, and East Liverpool and Warren were years recovering from the blow.


BIRTH OF THE CLEVELAND & PITTSBURG.


The Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad, which was later to become the Fort Wayne route, was granted a charter by act of February 3, 1832. to extend from Pittsburg to Massillon, Ohio, via Little Beaver Creek, New Lisbon and Canton—"or such other points as may appear most eligible"—with an authorized capital of $2,000,000. Some of the Ohio incorporators were: Benjamin Hanna, Daniel Harbaugh, Reason Pritchard, Morris Miller, Henry Bough and Zadok Street. The State reserved the right "to purchase and hold said road and all of its lateral branches and authorized connections within Ohio," after 4o years from the time fixed for its completion. Four years later, in 1836, the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad was incorporated—the same year that saw the effort undertaken for the ill-starred Lake Erie-Ohio River railroad routes. But the panic intervened. and it was nearly io. years before either the Ohio & Pennsylvania or Cleveland & Pittsburg schemes showed signs of real life. In 1842 the question of a Cleveland-Wellsville turnpike was discussed in Wellsville. and a canvass made along the route. but in 1844 it was determined that efforts be made to build a railroad instead. Public meetings with that end in view were held in the basement of the Methodist Protestant Church. Late in December. 1844. a meeting of business men named a committee of four, consisting of Henry Cope. James Stewart. D. T. Lawson and A. G. Catlett. to go to Cleveland to secure the cooperation of the citizens of that place in the scheme. The committee started on its mission on December 26th. in a two-horse. carriage. and were two days making the trip to Cleveland over the muddy roads. The meeting at Cleveland was held December 3o. 1844., in the old Court House on the Public Square. It was addressed by Thomas Bolton. an attorney of Cleveland : James Farmer, of Salineville. who had been active in the agitation. and Catlett and Lawson. of Wellsville, and plans were made to raise funds, secure a charter and prosecute the survey. The whole object of the project. at this stage, was to connect Cleveland with the river at Wellsville, where passengers and freight, for points east as far as Pittsburg and west and south to all points down-stream, could be transferred to the big river steamers, which then formed such an important adjunct to the transportation interests of the West. The


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plans for the extension of the road to Pittsburg were of the most vague character.


The Cleveland & Pittsburg was one of the earliest roads built west of the Alleghanies, and the difficulties in the way were enormous. That is one reason why the preliminary work and the actual construction. from the determined beginning in the winter of 1844-45 to the running of the first train into Wellsville. occupied seven long years. The pioneers in the project had tremendous prejudices to overcome before rights of way could be procured. Meetings were held and addresses delivered in every village and nearly every township through which the road was to pass. The Cleveland and Wellsville pioneers bore the brunt of this work. and made easy the paths of the projectors of other roads that came after in the early years of the '50.s. Capital had to be raised by vate subscription all along the line for the grafting of the roadbed, before bonds could be issued or credit secured for construction and the purchase of equipment. So many railroad schemes had been set afoot in the decade preceding. only to collapse after the expenditure of large sums on preliminaries, that capitalists. before they would back the Cleveland-Wellsville project. demanded the completion of the first stages as a guarantee of good faith. Wellsville did yeoman service in this pioneer work for the new agent of civilization. The people had visions of a city on the river to rival Cleveland on the lake as a shipping point by rail and water. Over $50,000 was raised by the citizens of the town in the organization of the company, and the whole expended in preliminaries.


On March 11, 1845. the Legislature. on petition from the projectors. revived the charter of the old Cleveland & Pittsburg. first granted in 1836. The commissioners appointed by the new charter to organize the company were as follows : Philo Scovill. Charles Bradburn. A. G. Catlett, James Farmer. Cyrus Prentiss. Samuel Starkweather, Samuel Williamson. John W. Allen, James Stewart. Zadok Street. Robert F. Paine and Thomas Bolton.


The first Board of directors was chosen by these commissioners, at a meeting held at Ravenna, October 29, 184;. as follows: John M. Wolsey. Reuben Sheldon, Henry Cope, James Steward, A. G. Catlett, Zadok Street, Thomas Bolton. Daniel T. Lawson. John S. McIntosh, Alexander Wells. James Aten and Cyrus Prentiss.


The first president of the company, chosen by this board, was James Stewart, of Wellsville. elected October 29, 1845; A. G. Catlett. also of Wellsville, was chosen secretary, and Cyrus Prentiss, treasurer, on the same date. The second president was James Farmer, elected March to. 1847.


At the first meeting of the directors. October 29. 1845. it was decided to locate the road from Wellsville, through Salineville, Alliance and Ravenna into Cleveland. One of the original surveys had laid the route far north of Salineville. through New Lisbon and Salem. But the opposition of the projectors of the Sandy and Beaver Canal, which was opened into New Lisbon the following year. (October 26, 1846 1. defeated this route. The canal projectors insisted that the railroad would prove harmful to their enterprise, and no railroad sentiment could be aroused in New Lisbon.


On the other hand, it was mainly through the influence of James Farmer that the survey as finally accepted was diverted far to the southward, so as to touch Salineville, where the coal mines and the salt wells gave promise of important industrial development. The new route lengthened the line into Pittsburg. and its acceptance was bitterly regretted by the Cleveland & Pittsburg magnates in later years. The change in route was almost wholly responsible for the revival of the Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad project a year or two later.


James Farmer, with J. N. McCullough, later first vice-president of the Pennsylvania. and Philip F. Geisse, the owner of the Fulton foundry and machine works at Wellsville. and at that day largely engaged in steamboat building. remained among the leading spirits of the enterprise at the southern terminus during the early years of construction. They were continually in demand to assist in securing rights of way, for in many of the communities through which the survey passed the people thsi Mutely refused to allow the "death wagons"


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to run through their land, and denounced the project as wholesale murder. Traffic was opened from Cleveland south to Alliance in 1850, and finally March 4, 1852, the first train ran into Wellsville, the advent of the new marvel being the occasion of a great celebration in the river town. The first route of the new road into Wellsville entered the town back from the river, along the hill, the terminal station being at the foot of Seventh street, near the old school house (later the Baum pottery). Two years later, the tracks were changed to the river front and work started on the "river division," southwest along the river to Steubenville. The engines hauling the Wellsville-Cleveland trains were among the first in the country to use coal instead of wood for fuel, the coal being obtained from the mines at Salineville.


It was two years later, in 1854, that the "river division" was completed south along the river from Wellsville to Steubenville and Bellaire. The Steubenville & Indiana Railroad Company, later to become the "Panhandle" route of the Pennsylvania, had been incorporated in 1848, and the sale of its bonds negotiated in Europe largely through the instrumentality of Col. George W. McCook. a former Columbiana County man, then living in Steubenville. The first train on that road had run into Steubenville on October 8. 1853, and the construction of the "river division" a year later. gave Steubenville communication with Cleve- land by way of Wellsville.


The building of the link in the Cleveland & Pittsburg road between Wellsville and Rochester, Pennsylvania, was delayed several years. Early in 1851 the Ohio & Pennsylvania. the predecessor of the "Fort Wayne” route. had reached Rochester from Pittsburg, but there were great difficulties in getting surveys through along the river from Wellsville to Rochester. The river had already encroached greatly on the land originally laid out for the town of Liverpool, and at points it seemed impossible to construct a road-bed between the towering cliffs on one side and the treacherous river on the other. But on September 16, 1856. the first through train ran between Wellsville and Pittsburg, with an excursion party to a Fremont barbecue in the latter city. There was no depot at East Liverpool, and Andrew Blythe, the company's agent in the town, sold tickets from the front doorstep of his house, on Broadway near the river. The new link had been built west from Rochester, and trains had been running between East Liverpool and Rochester previous to the date named. The yards and repair plant of the Cleveland & Pittsburg were located at Wellsville largely through the influence of J. N. McCullough and others of the Wellsville promoters. The first structure of the repair plant was built in 1857, but it was io years later before the roundhouse and the larger shop buildings were removed from Wellsville to Cleveland. The opening of the "new shops" in 1867 was the occasion for a great celebration by the people of Wellsville, and a ball was held in the new roundhouse. Shortly after 1890 the office of the division superintendent was removed from Wellsville to Cleveland, and in 1905 the division officers were also taken to Cleveland.


When the route via Alliance and Salineville into Wellsville was decided on by the Cleveland and Pittsburg directors in 1845-46, Zadok Street and Samuel Chessman, the Salem members of the board of directors, resigned their offices and immediately commenced to raise a voluntary subscription for the preliminary work on a road from Pittsburg via Rochester and New Brighton to Salem, Canton. Wooster and Mansfield, to intersect the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad. The old Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad project was being revived by Pittsburg manufacturers, who had surveyed a route as far west as Rochester. The Ohioans raised a fund, and the Ohio Legislature in 1847 revived the Ohio & Pennsylvania charter. Captain Whippo, of New Castle. the same year completed the preliminary survey from Rochester. where the line left the Ohio River. through New Brighton and Columbiana to Salem. Early in 1848 the company was organized. Gen. William Robinson, of Allegheny. who had been prominent in the East Liverpool-Ashtabula project, was chosen president: William Larimer, of Pittsburg. treasurer: William Chessman, one of the assistant


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treasurers for Ohio; J. J. Brooks, of Salem, who had been active in securing the charter from the Legislature, counsellor-at-law, and Zadok Street, of Salem, one of the directors. Two hundred and ninety-two persons in Columbiana and Mahoning counties subscribed to and paid for stock aggregating $9o,000. Pittsburg manufacturers were the heaviest contributors. The first train was run into Rochester from Pittsburg in May, 185r. The division from Pittsburg to Enon, Pennsylvania, was completed November 24, 1851. At that time the eastern terminus was in Allegheny City. and freight was hauled across the Allegheny River to Pittsburg.


In the fall and winter of 1847-48, a passenger car was run in connection with the construction train between Salem and Alliance, and on November 27, 1851, the road was formally opened for traffic from Alliance to Salem, a distance of 13 miles. In the January following the construction force working east from Alliance and the force working west from Pittsburg met at Columbiana, the first passenger train between Columbiana and Pittsburg running on January 3, 1852. Before the close of the month, regular trains were running from Pittsburg to Alliance. where they connected with the Cleveland & Pittshurg trains, already operating from Alliance into Cleveland. In September, 1852, the Ohio State Fair was held in Cleveland, and special arrangements were made by the railroads by which the people of Salem could go to Cleveland. attend the fair and return the same day, which was considered a wonderful feat. The Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad rapidly pushed the new road westward from Alliance to Crestline, and in a few years consolidated with the Ohio & Indiana. which had built from Crestline to Fort Wayne. Indiana. Here the Fort Wayne & Chicago. extending into Chicago. was added, the three roads consolidating as the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago. The first move toward the building of the great Fort Wayne system was thus made by the people of Columbiana County. The Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad was in operation before the Ohio & Pennsylvania was extended to Crestline, and hence travelers to Cincinnati from Salem and points nearby readied Cincinnati by rail via Cleveland.


It is interesting to note that nearly all the railroad enterprises of the '30's and early '40's were suggested by the idea of connecting with some of the canals then projected or building. The original Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad, the forerunner of the Fort Wayne system, was chartered in 1832 to build from Pittsburg to Massillon, connecting there with the Ohio and Beaver Canal. The Yellow Creek, Carrollton & Zoar, projected in 1834, in which Wellsville people were interested, was to be a short cut to the canal at Zoar. The idea of intersecting the canal with railroad lines at desirable points was thought at that time to be the solution of the transportation problem.


Through all the earlier period of railroad agitation one objection that was raised to the new railroads by many of the people was that the new mode of rapid transit would be attended by increased danger to life and limb. It is a matter of history, however, that for almost or quite 30 years after the opening of. the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad, which has always had more miles of track in the county than any other road, there was not a single death by accident among the passengers on any of its trains. The company's business was always managed with the strictest care,. only men known for their sobriety and conscientiousness being employed in its departments. During the administration of Superintendent John Thomas, which extended over a good portion of the time referred to. no Sunday passenger trains were run regularly. Occasional Sunday excursions were run during the latter '8o's and the early 'go's, but the first regular Sunday train was not put on until 1899. At that time, when those in favor of Sunday observance were making their fight, against the Sunday train, the fact of the absence of Sunday trains in previous. years was referred to as a reason for this remarkable immunity from fatalities, especially in the early years of the history of the road.


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LISBON'S FIRST RAILROAD.


Immediately after the Civil war, the agitation for a road to tap the rich mineral section in the interior of the county resulted in the building of the Niles & New Lisbon. which was opened to the county seat in 1866. It was first leased to the Atlantic & Great Western Railway, and was then reorganized as the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio, and as such was leased to the Erie and became a part of the Erie system. In 1886-87 a second road tapped the county seat, running from New Galilee, Pennsylvania, a point on the Fort Wayne road. It was originally projected by New York capitalists as the New York, Pittsburg & Chicago, the project being for a line from the Eastern States west to Marion, Ohio, to connect with the Chicago & Atlantic Railroad at that point. The surveys were extended on west of New Lisbon, and the first train from New Galilee ran into New Lisbon June I, .1887. The line was never built further, however, but, under the name of the Pittsburg, Marion & Chicago, it did much during the latter part of the century to develop the coal lands in the interior of the county and to foster the industries at New Lisbon. It was reorganized in 1896 under the name of the Pittsburg, Lisbon & Western, and shortly after passed under the control of the Wabash system. The general headquarters of the road have always been at New Lisbon. In 1905 the general officers were : President, Hon. N. B. Billingsley ; secretary. J. W. Clark : treasurer, J. G. Stidger.


The Salem Railroad, a coal road about seven miles long, connecting Salem with the Erie system at Washingtonville, was completed and opened in September, 1892. The city of Salem obtained permission by special act of the Legislature to build the line, and bonded itself for $125,000 for the purpose. A few years later, however, when the city attempted to tax the Pennsylvania Railroad to pay its bonded debt, the Pennsylvania carried the case into court on the plea that the city had no right to build the road. The special act under which the venture was put through was declared unconstitutional, and the road went into the hands of a receiver, the bondholders finally buying it in for the face value of the bonds, $125.000. In November, 1902, the road was finally taken over by the Pittsburg, Lisbon & Western. and thus became a part of the Wabash system.


In 1903 the Youngstown & Southern Railroad surveyed a line from Youngstown via Columbiana to Lisbon and East Liverpool. In the latter part of 1904 the road was opened from Youngstown to Columbiana, and trains started with steam as the motive power, though electricity was promised at a later date. Construction work on the line between Columbiana and Lisbon continued during 1905, and a branch line to Salem was promised.


The railroads opeiating in Columbiana County in 1904, with their mileage and valuation as reported to the Secretary of State. were : Cleveland & Pittsburg (double track). 85 miles, $1,507,637: Cleveland & Mahoning Valley (Niles & New Lisbon), 21 miles, $153,225; Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago (double track), 59 miles, $1,188,026 ; Pittsburg, Lisbon & Western (including Salem Railroad). 35 miles, $68.850.


A narrow-gauge railway, to be known as the Ohio & Toledo. was projected about 1872, to extend from Leetonia. via Hanoverton and Bolivar to Toledo. The road was incorporated and grading was begun. but the leading spirits failed after some thousand dollars' worth of work had been done in the vicinity of Leetonia and Hanoverton.


As early as 1878, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had a survey run along the old route of the Sandy and Beaver Canal, entering the county near Kensington on the west and following the canal route to a point near Smith's Ferry, Pennsylvania. on the Ohio River, just east of the East Liverpool city limits : and the same route was used for nearly every railway survey made through the center of the county during the following quarter of a century. About, I894--a company of Canton and East Liverpool men former the Canton, East Liverpool & Southern Railroad Company, and ran several surveys through the center of the county with East Liverpool as the southern terminus, all following the old canal route to a


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point near. Lisbon and then branching south. These surveys also became the basis for extensive negotiations for the Wabash system in 1899 and 1900 and again for the Baltimore & Ohio about the same time. Grading was begun for the Baltimore & Ohio route at Smith's Ferry in 1900, but the absorption of the Baltimore & Ohio system by the Pennsylvania at that time stopped the work. In the later '90's, however, the Canton-East Liverpool projectors purchased outright almost all of the right of way for the route, which they have held ever since.


The old route of the Ashtabula. Warren & East Liverpool road, on which actual grading was done in 1836, was also utilized for many surveys in later years—one of them as early as 1886, when a company, headed by Dr. George P. Ikirt, of East Liverpool, projected a route along the line of the old survey through "California Hollow," then north to Cannon's Mill. and thence through West Point into New Lisbon. The road was incorporated as the New Lisbon. East Liverpool & Southern, and was revived spasmodically during the next ro years. Other projected roads between East Liverpool and Lisbon, all aiming to open up the rich coal fields around West Point and throughout Madison township, followed the lines of this survey during the '9o's, but none of them got beyond the paper stage.


THE TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE.


The telegraph reached west to Steubenville in 1857, only three years after Morse had built his experimental Baltimore-Washington line. Two years later it had reached Wellsville and East Liverpool from Pittsburg, following the railroad about the same time in the northern part of the county. It, with the telephone 25 years later, assisted in the revolution in business methods which had followed the railroad construction, by making communication for long distances easy.


The establishment of the "Plaything of the Philadelphia Centennial"—the telephone—as a business auxiliary in Columbiana County by the opening of the first Bell telephone exchange in East Liverpool, in 1881, had in it a pleasing incident—for through it East Liverpool gave to the telephone world the first "hello-girl." The first lady operator of a telephone exchange operated the switchboard of the East Liverpool exchange. and her presence there was at first accepted with poor grace by the telephone magnates of that day.


Early in 1881 James H. Goodwin, president of the Goodwin Pottery Company, went to the officials of the Central District & Printing Telegraph Company at Pittsburg, and urged the establishment of a telephone exchange at East Liverpool. He was asked to get 20 subscribers. and had difficulty in securing that number Of business men in the town who were willing to pay $48 a year—the rate in that day—for a telephone. He finally secured his list, and W. D. Painter. at that time general superintendent. began the installation of the exchange, in the old First National Bank Building, at the foot of Broadway. The company, out of compliment to Mr. Goodwin, informed him that he might name the "central" operator. He named Miss Crsilla Kinsey ( later Mrs. John Wick. of Kittanning. Pennsylvania).


The company would not consider a girl for the position, Mr. Painter replied. They had always employed boys ; girls could not do the work. Mr. Goodwin insisted that a young woman was as capable as a boy. Mr. Painter agreed to lay the case before the general offices at Pittsburg; and a week later they gave their reply. If Mr. Goodwin cared to learn to operate the board himself and then teach a young lady, he might do so. The company was convinced, however, that the experiment would not be a success ; and it declined to take the responsibility.


Mr. Goodwin, on his mettle. agreed to the terms. He mastered the details of the switchboard.-- and–taught his young protege. Within a year: the company was teaching young women to become operators; in two years' time. throughout the country, the boys at the central exchanges had disappeared; the "hello-girl" had won.


Within eighteen months the telephone had invaded Wellsville, the first instrument being


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in the W. DeWees Wood Company's mill— later the American Sheet Steel Company's plant—east of the town. By 1883 an exchange had been installed in Wellsville, and two telephones had been placed in New Lisbon, one in the Court House and the other in the drug store office of Dr. T. B. Marquis. who afterward secured the list of subscribers for the first exchange in the town. Salem opened its exchange July 1, 1884; Lisbon. June I, 1890; Leetonia, February 1. 1890: Columbiana, July 1. 1896, and East Palestine. November 1, 1896—though all these towns had had telephone connections by 1887 or 1888.


In 1884 a rival to the Bell telephone appeared in East Liverpool and Wellsville—the Buckeye Clay Telephone Company, organized by three Wellsville men—Hon. P. M. Smith, I. B. Clark and William Wooster. The exchange in East Liverpool was installed in the Stone residence, on Washington street. on the site later; occupied by the First National Bank. That office also had a young lady operator— Miss Jessie Stone (later Mrs. Willard Morris. of East Liverpool).

Exchanges were established at Wellsville and New Lisbon and the company ran something more than a year. but the system was not a success. In that year the telephone was still a novelty, and when, in 1885. the Evening Review, of East Liverpool. the pioneer daily in the county, which had been established the year before by William B. McCord, received its report of the Van Fossan murder trial daily from the Court House at New Lisbon, 18 miles away by telephone. the performance was considered a decided stroke of newspaper enterprise. Twelve years later. in 1897 the East Liverpool Daily Crisis, published by James C. Deidrick. received the first regular daily telegraphic news service in the county.


The long-distance telephone system was first put in operation between New York and Chicago by the Bell system in 1892. and East Liverpool was first in communication with those two cities in 1894. A public reception was held by the telephone company. and the people of the little city attended in large numbers. and heard an orchestra play in the New York end of the line. After that period, the business increased with great strides. In the absence of the Postal Telegraph or other competition with the Western Union, the Daily Crisis company put in a long distance line to Cleveland in 1898,. and received a daily news report from that city by long-distance telephone.


In 1898-99, under the auspices of the Everett-Moore syndicate of Cleveland and in connection with the United States Telephone Company of that city, the Columbiana County Telephone Company was organized in competition with the Bell, with Solon C. Thayer, of Salem, as president. The service was installed in Salem in February. 1900. and in East Liverpool and Wellsville in July. of the same year. The service was rapidly extended throughout the county.


In 1905 Columbiana county had approximately 5,000 telephone instruments in use, and every township was reached by the lines, with pay stations every few miles and many private instruments in farm houses. Of the total, the Bell company claimed 2.540, of which 1,155 were in East Liverpool. The Columbiana, or Independent, had a total county list of subscribers of 2,598. of which 800 were in East Liverpool. In June 1905. the Bell company removed into its own building, on Market street, East Liverpool.


CLOSE OF THE CENTURY-THE TROLLEY.


So, within the half-century from 185o to 1900, the people of the county saw the development of the steam railroad, and electricity with all its varied uses—the telegraph, the telephone. the incandescent and other forms of lighting. and finally, the trolley. The "tallow dip' of our grandfathers had first given place to the ordinary molded tallow candle; then the sperm candle came into use to those who could afford that luxury of its day ; carbon oil, manufactured gas. natural gas had followed in turn and at last the brilliant electric light. It was a far cry from the early means of transportation. the ox-team, the saddle horse and the rumbling stage-coach to the railroad of 1850; but the


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leap was scarce greater than the change in urban and interurban communication wrought by the telephone, the trolley and the automobile of two.


The pioneer electric street railway in the county was built in Salem. The first rails were laid on Depot and Main streets and Garfield avenue in 1890, and the cars were started in May of that year. The new line, 2 8-10 miles in length, was operated by the Salem Electric Railway Company, local capital haying built the road. Milton Davis was president and treasurer of the road in 190;. and D. L. Davis, secretary.


The first inter-urban line in the county was built during the spring and summer of 1891, connecting the East End of East Liverpool with the West End, Wellsville, and was put in operation in December, 1891. The projectors were Albert L. Johnson. of Cleveland (brother of Tom L. Johnson, for years mayor of that city and prominent in the Democratic party of the State and the nation ) : Sidney H. Short. a wealthy inventor of Cleveland. and C. E. Grover. of the same city, a large shipowner on the Great Lakes. The line. running over the treacherous clay hills between East Liverpool and Wellsville. was considered the most daring piece of trolley engineering to be seen in Ohio in that day. It was originally seven miles in length and the total cost, including rights of way. was given at $200.000. In 1900-03 the road was extended two miles east of East Liverpool, to the Pennsylvania State line, and two branch extensions built, via East and West Market streets. to the northern limits of the city. A single fare of 5 cents was charged from the start. and for the branch lines a system of transfers without extra fare was adopted. Following the erection of the East Liverpool-Chester bridge across the Ohio River in 1897, the Chester & East Liverpool Street Railway Company. promoted by Charles A. Smith, built a line into Chester. the traffic for which was greatly stimulated 1w the Rock Springs pleasure resort. on the \Vest Virginia side of the river.


The year 1905 saw the second Ohio River bridge opened at East Liverpool, connecting it with Newall. with a trolley road to the new suburb from the lower end of the city. East Liverpool was therefore, in 1905, the center for three trolley systems, with a total of over 20 miles of track, representing, with the two bridges, an investment of nearly $1,300,000.


In 1901 the great network of trolley roads branching out from Cleveland began building from Akron south to Canton, and by the close of 1903 Cleveland was connected with Akron, Massillon. Canton and Alliance. In 1904 the Stark Electric Railway, extending east from Canton through Alliance, reached Salem, the cars operating first during the summer of that year. An auxiliary company, the Salem & Eastern Railway, was at once organized, and during 1905 plans were proposed for the extension of the system to other towns and villages in the northern part of the county, to connect eventually with the Beaver Valley Electric system.


This inter-urban trolley system into the Western Reserve had its discouragements, however, just as had the steam roads of 3o years before. As early as 1892 the Salem & Canton Electric Railroad Company was incorporated, backed by Cleveland men, Joseph A. Linville of that city being president of the company. The survey made at that time was later adopted by the Everett-Moore syndicate, of Cleveland, which pushed trolley projects in all directions from Cleveland until the spectacular crash of all its companies. in 1902. which came near carrying down with them many of the banks and solid men of Cleveland and the interior of the State.


TWENTIETH CENTURY MAIL SERVICE.


With the constant increase in postal business. the letter carriers made their appearance in the principal cities of the county. Salem was the first to secure free delivery, in 1888: East Liverpool followed in 1890, while the service started in Wellsville in May, 1905. Meantime, the rural free delivery system. established by the government in 1897 and first introduced in Western Pennsylvania. was put into effect in the rural


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townships of Columbiana County in the first year of the new century, and brought more general advantage and substantial benefit to the "back townships" than perhaps any other public utility. The rural delivery system was not at first and possibly never will be selfs sustaining in this country. But it brought the rural sections to the very door of the towns and cities daily. It gave the people living in the country the advantage of daily mails. the daily newspaper and the facilities of practically a daily express service. It brought the city people and the country folk into more direct sympathy; and it engendered in both a community of interest such as never previously existed. It was the twin measure with the telephone— which was also making its way into the suburban and rural sections—which systems in ro years had done more for the comfort and convenience of those who had hitherto been deprived of many of the urban advantages and benefits, than had been brought to them in a century before. These advantages—die rural free delivery and the telephone made very many people more contended with their lot in life. The man behind the plow. and the woman with her milking pail and farm housework, found more to interest them in their every-day life than formerly. Their world—though never confined within, and in the shadow of brick walls—was found to he yet broader than it had previously been. Life was more worth the living than when they had been compelled to depend upon the weekly newspaper. and the semiweekly or tri-weekly mail to bring intelligence from beyond the boundaries of their quarter section.


Rural free delivery had a beneficial effect, too, upon the roads of the country districts. For the Post Office Department issued the edict that where the highways were not kept in reasonably good condition, there the R. F. D. service would not be extended, or if roads were allowed to fall into decay or into "chuckholes," where the service had already been given, it would be discontinued until the roads were put into their normal condition.


The R. F. D. carrier, with .his neat little wagon, covering his daily route of 20 to 25 miles, and delivering mail matter to 100 or 150 boxes, and more than that number of families. the boxes furnished at a nominal sum by the government, formed a pleasing contrast with the weary, plodding horseback rider of 50 or 75 years before. astride of a well-worn pair of saddle-bags, covering his 5o or 73 miles twice of thrice a week, and serving perhaps half the number of people on his entire route which the rural carrier in 19oo served each day.


The first rural free delivery routes in Columbiana County were located and the service started in 1901. The service was extended with remarkable rapidity. Up to the beginning of 19o3. 28 routes had been established in the county. as follows : Out of Lisbon, 6 routes ; Salem. 6: Salineville. 2 Leetonia, 2: Columbiana. 3: East Palestine. 2: Hanoverton. 1 : Kensington. 2: Washingtonville. 1 : East Liverpool. 1: Wellsville, 1: Homeworth.


As samples of the manner of locating these rural routes. and their manner of operation. those leading out of Salem will be briefly described. Where the service was desired, petitions were presented, through the Congressman of the district, and soon an inspector from the department was sent out, who went over the proposed route. With the assistance of the postmaster. at the town or city from which the service was to be given. the route was located. Then a carrier was advertised for, who after undergoing an examination. was employed. with a compensation of $720 a year out of which he must furnish his horse and wagon.


As stated. a fair sample of the working of the rural free delivery system is to be found in the six routes served in 19o5 from the Salem Post Office. since they were the first to be established in the county, and served perhaps the largest number of people of any similar "circuit." Service on five of the routes was started July 1, 1901, while No. 6 was started January 15. 1904. Route-No. 1 from Salem. started from the Salem Post Office ; thence in a westerly direction to Fouts' corners ; thence southeast to the Georgetown road, northwest to Fogg's schoolhouse, south to the village of Valley, thence to Stark's corners, to Shriver's corners, thence north to the Salem road, east to


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New Middleton, north to Georgetown road, northeast to Salem. The route covered 20 7/8 miles. served 110 boxes, which included the mail of 123 families.


Route No. 2, starting at the Salem Post Office led southwest to Coffee schoolhouse. thence south to Johnson's corners, southeast to Camp's schoolhouse, southwest past Votaw's schoolhouse, to the township line; thence northwest to McCann's schoolhouse, east to Grange Hall, northeast to New Middleton. east to Bowers' corners, northwest to Salem. Length of route. 21 3/8 miles ; 90 boxes, and 96 families.


Route No. 3. south on the Depot road, to the Center township line ; thence northeast to Highland schoolhouse, northeast to McCracken's corners, southeast via the creek road. northeast to Rogers' corners. northeast to McCracken's corners, northeast on Lisbon and Salem road to the Post Office at Salem. Length of route 20 1/4 miles : served 101 boxes and 105 families.


Route No. 4, extending over into Mahoning county, the most populous of any served from the Salem Post Office, had 153 boxes. for 160 families. The route was north on the Ellsworth road to West Hickory P. O. : thence west to Bunker Hill road, north to Berlin township line, southeast to Hickory P. O., east to Bayard's corners. southwest via the New Albany road to Salem 21 1/2 miles.


Route No. 5. west and northwest on Goshen road to Campbell's corners, northwest to Ambler's corners, south to French's corners, south to Diagonal road, north to Boswell's schoolhouse, south to Dennis' corners, east and southeast to Ovington's corners, northwest to Mead's corners, east to Hogback road, south to Sandbank, east to the Salem Post Office. Length of route 23 7/8 miles; 120 boxes and 125 families.


Route No. 6, south to Pleasant Valley schoolhouse, southwest to McCracken's corners, southwest to M. Moran's residence and return, thence east to Betz' corners, northwest to Haskins' corners, east to Parish's corners. west and northwest to McComb's corners, northeast to Peoples' corners, northwest to township line, south to D. Miller's residence and return, northwest to Fawcett's corners, east and northwest to Millville, northwest to Post's corners, southwest to Salem. Length of route, 20 miles ; area covered i6 square miles : number of houses, 112 ; population, 504 ; boxes, 88.


Route No. 1, the only one out of East Liverpool—leaving the Post Office of that city. traversed the Lisbon road to Cannon's Mills, thence to Spruceville, thence to within one mile of Clarkson, across the township line road. thence to the old Camp Meeting road, and back to East Liverpool. Length of route, 26 miles; 500 people served ; 111 houses and 75 mail boxes. It was established in 1902.


Route No. 1. the only one leaving Wellsville—passed Spring Hill Cemetery to Inverness, thence to California Mills, to Glasgow. on the Lisbon road, and thence to Wellsville. It served to; boxes and a few more families, covered 22 1/2 miles, and was established in 1903.


The six routes established at Lisbon, each from 20 to 24 miles in length radiated in all directions from the county seat in 1905 ; and with those given above and the others on the north, south and west borders of the county. formed a network of routes which left little of the territory unserved with free delivery of mail.