(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) 400 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO and the pioneer orchardist found a market in Jackson Township for many young apple trees. From his nurseries came many of the early orchards of the township. Teachers of Jackson Township rural schools are : Stricker, Eli Harris ; Front Royal, Molly Hall ; Mt. Zion, Glennice Ealy ; Jug Run, Annabelle Phillips. AMITY, NORTH LIBERTY, PIKE TOWNSHIP. On the CCC Highway, southwest of Jelloway, Brown Township, is the village of Amity in the southeast corner of Pike Township. It will be a century old next year, having been platted in 1832 by David Jackson. It was originally called Emmettsville and being on the Wooster-Columbus state route, was a busy little place in the early days. The founder was a hotel keeper and Lewis Strong was the first merchant. After the postoffice was established, the name was changed from Amity to Democracy, which name it bore until 1911 when the postoffice was discontinued, patrons being served by a rural route out of Mt. Vernon and the village became Amity again. President of the Amity Farmers Institute was D. W. Harding ; secretary, Pearl Wright. Teachers of the Amity rural school are Ray Bross, principal ; Esther Snider, Ruth Hartell and Selma Welch. The village of North Liberty in the north part of Pike Township east of Ankenytown, Berlin Township, was laid out in 1838 by Francis Blakely, William Johnson, Dan Grubb and J. Nelson Dean. Grubb was hotelkeeper. The postoffice was first at Jonathan Smith's, but about 1850 was removed to North Liberty, Henry Taney becoming postmaster. Mrs. Grace Leedy is the teacher of the North Liberty school. In Pike Township, the north part of which is at the Greenville treaty line, is a picturesque region of verdure-clad hills and rich valley land. Schenck's Creek courses through the township. The first election, June 8, 1819, was at Mike Harter's. Boundaries of the township were changed in 1829. Among the early settlers of the township were John Arnold, Charles McBride, Aaron Bixby, Nicholas Headington, Aaron Smith, Philip Armentrout and William Wright. A century ago John Arnold built the first grist mill on Schenck's Creek and the following year Thomas Smith put up the first sawmill. Early annals tell of a giant, Henry Lander, who lived in the region as early HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 401 as 1816. He was 6 feet, 6 inches tall, weighed 250 pounds. He used to wager that seven men couldn't take his hat off, demonstrating which when the challenge was accepted, he would back up against a wall or a tree and swing his arms like a wind-mill. There was a distillery in the township in the early days, but half a century ago there wasn't a drinking saloon in the township, much less a distillery. Teachers of the Pike Township rural schools in addition to Mt. Liberty are : Berger, Gladys Whitney ; Eagle Grove, Helen Colopy ; Arnold, Mrs. Pauline West ; Pleasant Hall, Mrs. Eunice Deakins ; Four Corners, Mrs. Ethel Pealer ; Oak Grove, Eli Biggs ; Morgan, Mrs. Wanda Steinmetz. Near North Liberty is Salem Church, the history of which goes back to the early days. ANKENYTOWN, PALMYRA, BERLIN TOWNSHIP. Ankenytown, on the B. & 0. R. R., and Palmyra, on state route 13, are Berlin Township communities. Created in 1822, Berlin Township embraced a great deal more territory than at present, being reduced to its present size in 1825. Through the north part of the township, the Greenville treaty line passes. Henry Markley, who bought 1,000 acres in the township, erected his cabin in 1808 and his brother-in-law, Mike Harter, who came some months later, had a tavern at the junction of the Mt. Vernon-Mansfield and Columbus-Wooster roads. Early elections were held at this tavern and Landlord Harter is said to have planted the first orchard in the county. He was buried in this orchard, east of the tavern. Jacob Switzer was the second tavern-keeper and Amos H. Royce, the first justice of the peace, helped to build the blockhouses at Mansfield in 1812. One of the Indians who were accustomed to hunt in the northwestern part of the township was old Toby, who had his wigwam along a little stream, but left about the time of the War of 1812. The first village in the township was Shaller's Mills, half a mile east of the site of Ankenytown. A postoffice was established about 1844 with J. M. Robinson as postmaster. The Maple Grove postoffice was established in 1849 and discontinued in 1860. Amos Royce had a sawmill on the site of Ankeny-town and there were several other early mills in the township. Aaron Bull, a Revolutionary soldier, was the original owner of the land on the site of Ankenytown. Sylvester Clark, an early settler, 402 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO married Bull's daughter. When the B. & O. R. R. was built, Warner Miller built an elevator. Among the early settlers in this vicinity and southern Richland County were many Brethren. A church building was erected by them at Ankenytown. Palmyra, northwest of Ankenytown and near the Richland County line, was platted in 1835. At one time it had a tavern, store and postoffice, but declined after it failed to get the railroad. Teachers of the Berlin Township rural schools are : Palmyra, Donna McIntire; Knotty Oak, Estella. McIntire ; Ankenytown, Herbert Beheler ; College Hill, Cecelia Davis; Brick, Eva Revenaugh; Pounds, E. C. Rush. JELLOWAY, BROWN TOWNSHIP. On the CCC Highway in the northeast part of Brown Township is the village of Jelloway, where 113 years ago a German soldier, Jacob Phifer, who had served in the War of 1812, located and in addition to farming, conducted a tavern on the Cleveland-Columbus stage route, at Phifer's Cross Roads. When the postoffice was established, Landlord Phifer became postmaster. The first settler in Brown Township, which was first included in Union Township, was Charles McKee, in 1809. In 1810 Alexander McKee came, settling in the east part of the township. It is said of this region, sometimes referred to as a part of the "Alpine Trail," that for many years after the first settlers came it was one of the best hunting grounds in Ohio for deer, bears and wolves, deer being plentiful as late as 1840. In the southern part of the township was a tract of 600 acres which abounded in pigeons which roosted there. It is narrated that hunters came from a distance of fifty miles to shoot pigeons. It was related that on one hunting trip sixty-five Indians came and were entertained at Alexander McKee's. Early settlers were from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia ; some had served in the Revolution and others in the War of 1812. One of the Revolutionary War soldiers was Zephaniah Wade, who came in 1816. Squire James Blair came in 1820. There were several early day mills in the township. Jelloway, which first bore the name of Brownsville, was platted by Freeman Phifer. James Pearce had a store and Silas Brown was the first blacksmith. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 403 Teachers in Brown Township rural schools are : Whitney, Mrs. Vivian Shaw ; Rolla, Violet Davis ; Orange Hill, Lucille Wimmer ; Norrick, Mrs. Clara B. Bunting; Ireland, Ila Ross ; College Hill, Winona DeLong. Kenneth Ross is principal of the Jelloway rural school and the other teachers are Nellie Magers, Mrs. Mae Highman, Nellie DeLong and Mrs. Ruth Church. GREERSVILLE, JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP. In the region around Greersville, Jefferson Township, in the northeast corner of Knox County, hills are like mountain ranges. Upon one of the wooded hillsides above the Mohican River, southeast of Greer, (or Greersville) and north of Brink Haven, is Camp Nelson Dodd, the state Y. M. C. A. camp. It is a nature lover's paradise. In this township, organized in 1829, but to which settlers had come about the time of the close of the War of 1812, were found several mounds, also ancient fortifications and trenches which can still be seen. George Greer did much during the War of 1812 to promote the formation of companies to defend the frontier against British and Indians. John Greer built the first grist mill in the township, later erected a sawmill and still later a flouring mill at Mt. Holly, now Gann Station. Among the early settlers were Isaac Enlow, Nicholas Helm, John Melton, Aaron Mathene, Ephraim McMillen, Jacob Shriner, Elisha Ross, John Dailey, Alexander Darling, James Henderson, John Hibbetts, Josiah Trimbley and Joseph Critchfield. Absolom Shrimplin, born in 1806, in the Owl Creek valley, a son of the pioneer miller, John Shrimplin, settled in Jefferson Township soon after it was organized. Greersville, on the Mohican River, four miles north of Gann, was platted in 1836 by Robert Greer. James Greer had the first general store and Simon Hull erected the first dwelling. Dana Snow is the teacher of the Greer grammar school and Mabel C. Young of the Greer primary school. The other teachers of Jefferson Township rural schools are : Turkey Ridge, Elizabeth Neiderhouser ; Harrisburg, Bettie Workman ; Pleasant View, Donna Hunter ; Jericho, Gertrude Shultz ; Horn, Grover C. Strouse. 404 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO HOWARD VILLAGE AND TOWNSHIP. Watered by the Kokosing, Big and Little Jelloway, Howard Township bottomlands produce immense crops of wheat and corn. Barney's Run and Schenck's Run are tributaries of the Kokosing. When Andrew Welker erected his cabin on the Indian fields there was evidence that the land had been cultivated for generations. At the mouth of Indian Field Run, Tom Jelloway, with other Indians, used to camp. Nathaniel Critchfield erected in 1815 on Little Jelloway, the first sawmill and grist mill in the township. The village of Howard on state route 95 is east of Mt. Vernon and northeast of Gambier. When it was platted ninety-five years ago it was called Kinderhook. Henry Warden erected the first house and Ross Arbuckle was the first tavernkeeper. Postoffice was established about 1840. In 1904 the Howard cereal mills were erected on the Little Jelloway, a mile outside the village. There is a gas pumping station at Howard and the village has well equipped schools. 0. B. Fawcett is cashier of the Howard Savings Bank. J. G. Bateman is superintendent of the Howard village schools and the other teachers are : 0. B. Gummins, Mrs. Orpha K. Miley, Susan Whitney, H. R. Martin, Edith Babbs, Catherine Frick and Mrs. Pearl Harmer. Teachers in the Howard Township rural schools are : Union, Triesa Rine ; and Berry, Wilma Magers. BATEMANTOWN, MIDDLEBURY TOWNSHIP. In 1808 W. W. Farquhar, who was one of the associate judges of Knox County, removed from Wayne Township to Middlebury Township, locating two miles north of Fredericktown, and about the same time Thomas Townsend and Samuel Willitt located in the township. Early settlers of the township were members of the Friends Society from Maryland. Their settlement north of Fredericktown was a station of the Underground Railroad. Daniel Levering erected a mill at Waterford about 1815 and there were other mills in the township. In 1836 Waterford had a postoffice. The office was subsequently removed to Batemantown, then back to Waterford or Levering. Rural school teachers of the township are : Batemantown, Mrs. Blair Wyker ; Walnut Hill, Paul Hosack ; Quaker, Ilo Walker ; Pink-ley, Evelyn Hosack ; Caywood, Harland Winand. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 405 MT. LIBERTY, LIBERTY TOWNSHIP. Mt. Liberty and Bangs, on the CCC Highway, southwest of Mt. Vernon, are Liberty Township villages. Settlers came to the township as early as 1803, locating on Dry Creek. Mt. Liberty was laid out in 1835 and Bangs after the railroad was built. Near Bangs, which is partly in Clinton Township, is the county infirmary and a large natural gas pumping station. Liberty Township schools : Fairview, Chas. F. Carey ; Friendship, J. F. Olmsted ; Mt. Liberty, Mrs. May Biggs and Mrs. Lizzie Jackson ; Bedell, Anna Brown ; Polk, Mrs. Edna Boyd. OTHER RURAL SCHOOLS. Butler Township : Lincoln, Nora Burch ; Brush Run, Mrs. Millie Garrison ; Hazel Dell, Verna Slusser. Milford Township : Camp, Mrs. Bertha Hammond ; Mink Street, Mrs. Mabel Ball ; Lock, Mrs. Martha Smith ; Myers Corners, Mrs. Alice Gardner ; Cox College, Doris Bishop ; Five Corners, Gladys Thomas. Miller Township : Lafayette, Mrs. Grace Vanatta ; Brandon, Mary Jo Wintermute ; Splinterville, Claude Ernest ; Beech Grove, Dorothy Allen ; Chambers, Emily Gibson. Monroe Township : Sunnyside, Mrs. Pauline Pealer ; Hill Grove, Mrs. Mary L. Bulyer ; Valley Grove, Mrs. Blanche Sawvel. Morgan Township : Tuma Run, Mrs. Leota E. Lohr ; White Oak, Archie B. Hampshire ; Ewart, Opal E. Clutter ; Muckshaw, Howard McCullough. Morris Township : Bonar, Mrs. Jeanette Bebout ; Clinton, Mrs. Marian Ross ; Popham, Pearl Rine ; Union, Mrs. Anna Miller ; Rush, Mrs. Blanche Tucker. Pleasant Township : Oak Hill, Lulu Rinehart ; Bedell Mission, Mrs. Edna Browning; Graham, Chas. McKee; Hopewell, Mrs. Almeda Hawkins. Clinton Township rural: Columbia School, J. W. Burger (principal), James F. Biggs, Eulala Amos, Helen Hines, Wynona Tucker, Martha Blair ; Elmwood, Laurence D. Mizer (principal), Mrs. Winnifred Jenkins, Thelma Singer, Mrs. Esther Ewing; Hiawatha, Florence K. Gearhart (principal) , Mrs. Lora M. Hayes, Audrey Wright, Lucille Lyons ; Fairview, J. R. Bebout ; music, all buildings, Edith Babbs. Harrison Township : Burtnett, Creta Benedict ; Horn, Martha Horn ; Grove, Doty G. Farmer. 406 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO OHIO STATE SANATORIUM, MT. VERNON. Northeast of the city of Mt. Vernon is the Ohio State Sanatorium where, at the beginning of 1931, about 235 victims of incipient pulmonary tuberculosis were under treatment. Since the institution was opened in 1909, large numbers of people have been effectively treated before the disease had been permitted to reach an advance stage. This preventive work has been of inestimable value not only to the patients treated but in advancing materially the movement for the elimination of the great white plague. At the office of the. Ohio State Board of Health in Columbus, Nov. 14, 1901, the Ohio Society for Prevention of Tuberculosis was organized. On April 23d of the following year the General Assembly passed an act authorizing the appointment of a commission to investigate the feasibility of erecting sanatoria for tuberculosis patients in Ohio and upon the desirability of establishing such institution. Appointed by Governor Nash on this commission were J. H. Outhwaite, Columbus ; Dr. Chas. E. Slocum, Defiance ; S. S. Knabenshue, Toledo ; Dr. G. C. Ashman, Cleveland ; J. Warren Smith, Columbus ; Max Senior, Cincinnati ; and John Rusk of Zanesville. Urging that such a sanatorium be established, the commission, on April 30, 1903, made its report to the Governor, and on April 24, 1904, the General Assembly passed an act authorizing the naming of a commission to select site, buy lands and erect buildings for the sanatorium. Appointment of a board of trustees of the sanatorium was also provided for. Organized June 30, 1904, the Ohio State 'Sanatorium Commission consisted of Governor Myron T. Herrick, president ; W. D. Guilbert, Auditor of State, vice president ; Dr. C. 0. Probst, secretary of State Board of Health, secretary; Attorney General Wade H. Ellis, Columbus; and Judge J. B. Driggs of Bridgeport. After more than a hundred sites had been considered, the 355-acre tract of high elevation and containing fine woodlands northeast of Mt. Vernon was selected. Following the purchase, preparation of plans was immediately commenced, and on May 15, 1907, contract was given for the administration block and kitchen and the cold storage building. Contract was given July 1, 1908, for power house, laundry, a number of reception cottages and employes' building, also for heating and ventilating the buildings and for mechanical equipment. Contract for eight HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 407 living cottages was given May 25, 1909, and the institution was opened in November of that year. Governor Herrick was succeeded on the commission by Governor Pattison. On the death of Governor Pattison, Governor Harris became a member of the commission and he was followed by Governor Harmon. Upon becoming Auditor of State, Edward M. Fullington succeeded Guilbert on the commission and Attorney General U. G. Denman succeeded Ellis. Much credit is given to Dr. C. 0. Probst, both for the organization of the Ohio Society for Prevention of Tuberculosis and the enactment of the law creating the sanatorium. The first board of trustees of the institution consisted of Dr. S. P. Wise, Millersburg, president ; D. P. Campbell, Utica, vice president ; Frank H. Tanner, Mansfield, secretary ; J. W. Worst, Fremont ; A. A. Whitney, Mt. Gilead ; Dr. C. B. Conwell, superintendent ; C. P. Franks, financial officer. Dr. Stephen A. Douglass, son of the late Appellate Judge S. M. Douglass of Mansfield, was at one time superintendent of the sanatorium. The present superintendent is Dr. F. C. Anderson ; assistant physicians, Dr. Robert L. Eastman and Dr. Edward P. Waid; chief clerk, W. F. Deedrick. There is a staff of nurses and employes of the various departments of this important institution. There are now twelve buildings for the care of patients, also administration building, employes' building, power house, greenhouse, barns, and a dormitory for prisoners who are employed on the sanatorium farm. About 160 acres of the 355 acres are cultivated and the rest is used for buildings, lawns and woodlands. CHAPTER XXXV. LORAIN COUNTY CITIES AND TOWNS. ELYRIA, PICTURESQUELY SITUATED AT FORKS OF BLACK RIVER, FOUNDED HEMAN ELY-CITY'S FASCINATING HISTORY-FIRST HIGH SCHOOL IN OHIO-GROWTH OF INDUSTRIAL CITY OF LORAIN-CLASSIC TOWN OF OBERLIN-WELLINGTON ONCE GREATEST CHEESE-SHIPPING CENTER-OTHER LORAIN, COUNTY COMMUNITIES. Containing two rapidly growing industrial cities, Lorain and Elyria ; the college town of Oberlin, the towns of Amherst, Wellington, Avon, Avon Lake, Sheffield Village, Grafton, South Amherst, Lagrange and Rochester besides hamlets, Lorain County with a total population in 1930 of 109,206, an increase of 18,594 over 1920, is the most populous of the seven counties included in this review. The urban population of the county totals 86,719 and the rural population, 22,487. The city of Lorain increased from 37,295 in 1920 to 44,512 in 1930. The 1930 population of the city of Elyria was 25,633, an increase of 5,159 over 1920. The 1930 population of Oberlin was 4,292 ; Amherst, 2,844 ; Wellington, 2,235 ; Avon, 1,826 ; Avon Lake, 1,610 ; Sheffield Lake Village, 1,256 ; Grafton, 935 ; South Amherst, 914, LaGrange, 498 ; Rochester, 164. CITY OF ELYRIA. At the forks of the Black River 114 years ago, Heman Ely founded what is now the beautiful city of Elyria. This was twenty-one years after Cleveland, twenty-five miles to the east, was laid out. The coming of the settlers to the forests of the present Lorain County has been told in another chapter. Here was abundant water power for the early day mills and forests of oaks, ash, black walnut and other trees. At the falls of the Black River, the settlers found an ideal location for their homes. It is interesting to note the spirit of the early Elyrians, their interest in religion and education, their appre- - 408 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 409 ciation of the qualities which are essential in building up a communty, great in spirit as in material prosperity. The founder was generous in donating land for public buildings and in making other inducements that made Elyria the county seat. Artemus Beebe, who in 1820 erected the first hotel in Elyria, also established the first stage coach line from Cleveland to Fremont. A young minister, the Rev. Alvin Hyde, preached in a log house that Heman Ely had built, the first sermon in Elyria, Feb. 5, 1818. The first schoolhouse, erected in the autumn of 1819, was on a knoll on the east side of the east branch of the Black River. It was also used for religious services and if no minister were present, Ely or Sherman Minott would read the sermon. Sometimes Father Taylor, a minister from Dover, would preach. Heman Ely, appointed postmaster May 23, 1818, served in that position for fifteen years. The first school teacher in the settlement was Irene Allen, and Rev. Daniel W. Lathrop was the first minister, having been sent by a missionary society to the Western Reserve. He preached at first in the log structure that was also used as a schoolhouse, he brought about the union of a Presbyterian congregation in Carlisle Township with the one at Elyria, continuing for twelve years. It was while his successor, the Rev. John J. Shipherd, was preaching in Elyria that the movement which resulted in the founding of Oberlin College had its inception. Philo Stewart, who had been a missionary to the Cherokee Indians, came to Elyria in the spring of 1832 to do religious work. Shipherd told him of his desire to form a religious colony and establish a college remote from settlements and Stewart entered heart and soul into the project. Judge Webber says that the decision regarding the Oberlin project was reached by Shipherd and Stewart in an upstairs bedroom of a house, then located at the northeast corner of East Avenue and Second Street, where they had been engaged in prayer for guidance. Judge Webber says that while Stewart was at the Shipherd home in 1832, he invented a stove that revolutionized that industry, brought him wealth, enabling him to give vastly greater aid to education and the cause of Christianity. Stewart noticed that Mrs. Shipherd in baking bread had to turn the bread over and over, as the only heat that reached the oven was from the top. He studied over the matter and constructed, in Elyria, the first cook stove that drew the heat from the firebox completely around the oven, the principle of all successful cook stoves thereafter. 410 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO The first high school west of the Allegheny Mountains was started in 1831, in Elyria, a two-story structure with cupola, erected by Heman Ely between the site of the present Y. M. C. A. and Congregational Church. There had been two other schoolhouses after the log schoolhouse, one on East Broad Street, near the site of the Savings Deposit Bank & Trust Co. building in 1825, and the "Yellow School House," where the City Hall now stands. The charter for this high school was granted Feb. 22, 1830, and that of Woodward High School in Cincinnati was granted a year later. Incorporators of the Elyria High School were Heman Ely, Rev. David W. Lathrop, Reuben Mussey, Nathan H. Manter and Ebenezer Whiton. It is pointed out that the Elyria High School was chartered only nine years after the first high school in America was established in Boston. The first superintendent of this first Ohio high school was Rev. John Monteith, who was at the head of it for four years, during which time the enrollment had increased to 200, including students from over Ohio and other states. Among the students were James and E. H. Fairchild, both of whom afterward became college presidents, Dr. James H. Fairchild at Oberlin and Dr. E. H. Fairchild at Berea College, Kentucky. Prof. Montieth afterwards conducted a ladies' boarding school on. East Avenue. He was an ardent abolitionist, one of the conductors of the Underground Railroad, and was also an opponent of the liquor traffic. He became one of the founders of the University of Michigan and first president of that institution. The eldest daughter of Prof. and Mrs. Monteith became the wife of Col. Nahum B. Gates, who served as sheriff and county treasurer of Lorain County and for eighteen years was mayor of Elyria, elected the first time in 1843 and the last time in 1887. John Monteith, Jr., was a teacher, minister and reformer. As superintendent of the Missouri schools, following the Civil War, he reorganized the school system and despite opposition at the time, succeeded in establishing not only many schools for white but schools for colored children as well. Later he was secretary of the Missouri Board of Agriculture. Nearly 109 years ago Lorain County was established out of Cuyahoga, Huron and Medina counties. Commissioners were named to locate the county seat and Black River, Elyria and Sheffield townships all sought to secure the seat of justice. When in February, 1823, the commissioners arrived in Elyria, they were taken by Artemus Beebe to Sheffield and Black River, but Heman Ely's prom- HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 411 ise to furnish land, a temporary court house and jail and give $2,000 toward the erection of a permanent court house was the deciding factor in reaching a decision in favor of Elyria, especially as that village was most central and readily accessible, besides having such splendid water power facilities. On the site of the present court house the commissioners drove stakes for the court house that was to succeed the temporary one and the founder of Elyria proceeded to erect the temporary court house and a two-story frame building for a jail. Part of the jail was partitioned off with hewed logs for the cell block and iron-barred windows were provided. Judge Webber says that when the next jail was built on the site of the present one, the original building was removed to the south side of East Third Street, was remodeled and was later known as the Pomeroy homestead. In the erection of the new county, it was stipulated that it should not function until in January, 1824. On May 24 of that year the first session of court in Elyria was held. Judge George Todd of Trumbull County, president judge, and Moses Eldred, Frederick Hamlin and Henry Brown, associate judges. Woolsey Wells, the only attorney in the county, was named prosecuting attorney, also clerk of courts. He had been admitted to the bar the previous year and had begun practice in Elyria. The following day the court decided to make Ebenezer Whiton clerk. The first county treasurer was Edmund West. The first election in Lorain County had been held the previous month. John S. Reid, Ashabel Osborne and Benjamin Bacon had been chosen county commissioners ; Josiah Harris, of Amherst, sheriff ; Edward Durand, surveyor ; Ebenezer Whiten, recorder ; Sherman Minott, auditor ; and James J. Sexton, coroner. The first grand jury, with the founder of Elyria as foreman, deliberated and having reported to the court that there seemed to be nothing to demand their attention, whereupon it was discharged. The other members of this first grand jury were Harry Redington, Edward Durand, Mahel Osborn, Phineas Johnson, Abraham Moon, James J. Sexton, Thomas G. Bronson, Silas Wilmot, Simon Nichols, Erastus Hamlin, Gardner Howe, Eliphalt Redington and Benjamin Brown. "They were men of character," says Judge Webber. "Some of their descendants are with us in this county today." In three days during which several licenses for keeping tavern in the county were issued and a few matters regarding administration of estates were disposed 412 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO of, court adjourned. At the next term of court the following September, the Rev. D. W. Lathrop was granted the first license in the county to solemnize marriages. The case of the first person indicted by the grand jury at this time, assault and battery being the charge, was disposed of without trial. Two men were indicted at the spring term of court in 1825 for stealing hogs. Speaking of the increase in the volume of court business since that day, Judge Webber says that Lorain County now has more civil cases begun within a year than any one in the eighty-eight in Ohio, except eight, these being the large city counties. On the docket each term are from twelve to fourteen hundred cases. The city of Lorain has a municipal court which relieves the common pleas court very much. Serving for two years as prosecuting attorney, Woolsey Wells received $120. Whiton served as county clerk for twelve years. In 1930 Judge Reuben Wood became presiding judge. Others who served in that capacity were Judges Ezra Dean, John W. Wiley, Reuben Hitchcock, Benjamin Bissell and Judge Bliss. Heman Ely was an associate judge for twelve years. Others in the county who served as associate judges until the Constitution of 1851 became effective, doing away with layman judges, were : Josiah Harris, E. W. Hubbard, Franklin Wells, Ozias Long, Daniel J. Johns, Joseph W. Whiton, Elijah DeWitt, Daniel T. Baldwin, Benjamin C. Perkins and William Day. The founder of Elyria, who for so many years took such a prominent part in the affairs of the county seat and county, died in 1852. The Beebe Tavern, the Eagle Hotel and the Mansion House were early day taverns around which center many narratives of early Elyria. The Beebe four-story hotel built in 1847 was an unusually large and well appointed hotel for a town of that size. Later this became the Hotel Andwur, the corner part of which is the site of the Elyria Savings & Banking Company's ten-story building. The rest of the site is the present Hotel Elyria. Put-in-Bay's famous Beebe House, which more than twenty years ago was remodeled and became Hotel Commodore, was another hostelry built by Elyria's pioneer tavern keeper and stage coach line owner, who lived to be eighty-six years old. The old red brick court house, which for half a century was Lorain County's temple of justice, was erected in 1828-103 years HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 413 ago—in the center of the tract of land given by the founder of Elyria. It was of colonial style, two stories high, had four white fluted pillars, a cupola and bell. It resembled very much the old Ashland County court house, which was a landmark until 1928, when it was torn down to make way for the new court house. A county infirmary on Murray Ridge was finished in 1830. In the village days of Elyria the grounds in front of the court house were used for training day drills, Independence Day celebrations and other events that drew great numbers of people from the surrounding country. Here was held in September, 1832, the first fair of the newly organized Lorain County Agricultural Society, of which Eliphelt Redington was president. One of the leaders in the Agricultural Society movement was Dr. N. S. Townshend, who afterwards achieved prominence in connection with the State College of Agriculture. First awards on bulls and three-year-old steers went to William Andrews and William Ingersoll. Landlord Beebe won honors on geldings and Heman Ely on a yoke of oxen he exhibited. The old red brick court house was new then and during the day speeches were made encouraging the farmers to go forward "till the forest shall blossom as the rose." "It was a great day for the pioneers," says Judge Webber. "It had been only fifteen years since the Red Men alone inhabited the farms on which the town stood and the farms producing the exhibits were raised. Rutty roads, stumpy fields, log huts, log barns were still in evidence over the county. Bears, wolves, deer and small game inhabited the forests and the spot where Oberlin now stands was an unbroken wilderness. Black River, now Lorain, was but a port for lake craft. The pioneers came in ox carts, lumber wagons, on horseback and on foot." From that day to this Lorain County has had an agricultural fair each year, grounds being secured from time to time to meet increased demands. It was in 1832, the same year that the first fair was held in Elyria, that a board of health, with Dr. Manter as president, was organized. This led to the formation later of the Lorain County Medical Society. Ninety-nine years ago Elyria had two mills, a large grist mill, mechanics, tailors, and other individual manufacturers. It had seven stores, which did a credit business, and in this year, 1832, a young man, Horace K. Kendall, who had been in busi- 414 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO ness at Dover, decided to locate in Elyria and establish a cash business. This was quite a departure in business methods, but the young merchant saw in this an opportunity to sell on a narrower margin and build up a good business. It was the first cash store in Elyria and probably in that section of the state. Three years later he erected a building which he called the Fortress, his business grew, he established stores at Ashland and Lower Sandusky, now Fremont, was aggressive in advertising, public-spirited and his residence with spacious grounds was one of the show places of the town. He died in 1850 at the age of forty-one. His partner, Henry E. Mussey, who became prominent along various business lines in Elyria, became head of the firm, conducting the business until 1857, when he sold out. Mussey was one of the organizers of Lorain County's first bank, besides being an organizer of the First National Bank, Cleveland. He developed the Mussey stone quarries, which for years had the largest production of grindstones of any Northern Ohio quarry. He was interested in coal mines in the Cambridge region, helped to secure the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling R. R. and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern through Elyria. He was on the Elyria Board of Education for some thirty years and was treasurer of the board for many years. Ninety-eight years ago—the same year that Oberlin College was founded—the town of Elyria was incorporated. Oren Cowles is said to have been the first mayor of Elyria. On the walls of the city council chamber in the City Hall on Court Street, are portraits of a number of the men who have been mayor of Elyria. On the wall back of the desk of the president of council is the portrait of Colonel Nathum B. Gates, who, beginning in 1843, was mayor of the town, serving altogether eighteen years. The portraits of other mayors appear as follows : Dr. P. W. Sampsell, (1859-60) ; John Topliff, (1864-66) ; John H. Faxon, (1866-67) ; George D. Williams, (188082) ; P. H. Boynton, (1888-95) ; M. H. Levagood, (1895-99) ; P. D. Reefy, (1899-1903) ; Thomas Folger, (1903-06) ; Clayton Chapman, (1906-08) ; David S. Troxel, (1908-10 and 1912-14) ; Thomas A. Conway, (1910-12) ; Charles E. Tucker, (1914-18) ; Asaph R. Jones, (1918-23) ; Harry Hinkson, (1924-28) ; James A. Hewett , (1928—) . Mayor Asaph R. Jones was a member of council, 1914-17. The present mayor was member of council, 1919 ; president of council, 1920 to 1921; and director of safety, service, 1924 to 1927. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 415 George L. Richwine is now president of council ; H. C. Cheney, clerk of council ; and the other members are Myron W. Jones, Anna Kennedy, Clarence C. Locke, Walter S. Kohn, Paul Wainwright, George Stevens and George Stark ; A. C. Schilleman, auditor ; Ralph H. Reinhardt, treasurer ; Harry M. Redington, solicitor ; J. N. Eidt, director of public service and public safety ; W. N. Bates, chief of fire department ; E. J. Stankard, chief of police ; J. M. Powell, city engineer ; A. R. Agate, Thos. N. Cook, E. L. Moody, E. J. Howenstine and H. H. Nye, members of board of education ; S. S. Rockwood, clerk, board of education ; F. R. Cautle, R. L. Stearns, C. M. Lee, John K. Nece, W. F. Gollmar, members board of health ; and Dr. G. E. French, health commissioner. Elyria's zoning system was adopted in January, 1929. Built fifty-two years ago at a cost of $175,000, the Lorain County court house, facing Ely Park and the Soldiers' Monument, is a beautiful building. Stone from Lorain County quarries was used in its construction. During the present year the third floor of the building will be fitted up for some of the county offices, which in recent years have been outside of the court house, owing to crowded conditions. Not so many years ago one court room was adequate but now there are two judges of common pleas court, Judge Amos R. Webber of Elyria and Judge W. B. Thompson of Lorain, and the court of appeals often is in session at the same time. The probate judge is H. C. Wilcox. Miss Mabel Marsh, now on her fourth term as clerk of courts of the county, was one of the first women in Ohio to be elected to this office. Charles Keiser of Lorain became county auditor in March, 1931, succeeeding Monroe R. Welty. The other county officers are : Representative to General Assembly, P. H. Rogers of Grafton ; sheriff, Clarence E. Adams ; county commissioners, Charles D. Murray, Thomas Peebles and George Rhoads ; treasurer, M. D. Backus; recorder, William G. Mitchell ; prosecuting attorney, Don W. Myers ; coroner, Thomas Peebles, Jr.; surveyor, Charles T. Biggs. Elyria has no deadly grade crossings, the New York Central (L. S. & M. S.) having elevated its tracks through the city some years ago. This company, in April, 1925, completed a new $250,000 depot in Elyria. It is a very handsome structure of brick and concrete. It has been well said that Elyria is a high-class residence community. It is a city of diversified products, numerous lines of articles being 916 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO produced. Among the largest manufactories are General Industries, Inc., manufacturers of motors, fishing tackle, etc. ; the Colson Company, children's vehicles ; Fox Furnace Company ; Western Automatic Machine Screw Company, screw machine products ; Troxel Manufacturing Company, bicycle saddles, golf bags; Pfaudler Company, glass enameled products ; Duplex Manufacturing & Foundry Co.; Elyria Foundry Co.; Elyria Manufacturing Corp.; Harshaw Chemical Co.; Perry-Fay Co.; Electric Alloys Co.; Elyria Belting & Machinery Co.; Elyria Canning Co. ; Fay Stocking Co.; L. T. S. Rubber Co.; K & S Tool & Manufacturing Co.; Martell Packings Co.; Parsch Lumber & Coal Co. ; Ridge Tool Co. ; Steel & Tubes, Inc.; Timms Spring Co.; Universal Crane Co.; Worthington Ball Co.; American Lace Co. ; Couch-Uthe Co.; Elyria Brass & Bronze Co.; Elyria Milling Co. ; General Machine Works ; General Pattern Works, H. A. Lattin Co., ladies' coats ; A. Minnich Co.; Morr Bros. Block Co.; Telkor, Inc., electrical specialties ; Williams Alloy Products Co.; West Side Lumber & Coal Co.; Jim Armitage, Inc., neon electric signs. There are a number of other smaller industries which give promise for the future. The city's newest industrial plant is the Elyria Magnesium Products Co. The Elyria Gas & Electric Light Company, established a great many years ago, was taken over in comparatively recent years by the Doherty organization in a consolidation of Elyria and Lorain electric properties. The past thirty years have seen a wonderful development in Elyria's manufacturing industries, as well as the development of the city along numerous other lines. The new president of the Chamber of Commerce is A. M. Hannaford, succeeding Charles Tucker, resigned ; secretary, Earl D. Bacon, formerly secretary of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce. Elyria has service of the New York Central, Baltimore & Ohio, auto bus lines, with frequent service, and near LaPorte, a few miles to the south, is an airport landing field. There is also an airport eight miles north, near Lorain, and eighteen miles from Elyria, near Berea, is Cleveland's great airport. In these days when all the main county roads are paved and one can journey by auto in a few minutes to places which not so many years ago involved hours of travel, the mud roads frequently being well nigh impassable, we can scarcely realize the marvelous changes that have occurred in the life of the people. During 1930 a program of road construction, resurfacing and erection of new bridges in HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 417 cities and throughout the county was carried forward. Pioneer annals tell of travelers being mired in mud holes, not only out in the country but in the town of Elyria. Heman Ely used to keep a yoke of oxen ready to pull out luckless travelers fast in the mud holes. On one occasion two bridal couples had journeyed from Grafton in a two-seated spring wagon, drawn by a span of horses ; the brides were attired in light silks. In Elyria near where Fourth Street crosses East Avenue, the wagon upset in one of the seemingly bottomless mud holes. Arriving finally at the tavern, the brides had to change their attire, while their beautiful silk dresses were being rinsed in tubs of water. Many of the older people will recall the board sidewalks, which were so common in early day Elyria, as in other Ohio communities. Stringers were laid lengthwise and boards were laid across. Crosswalks were made of square pieces of timber laid across the street. With so much stone available from Elyria quarries, it was easy to pave the streets and to have stone walks. William 0. Cahoon, stone quarry owner, is said to have laid the first paving in Elyria. He died fifty-three years ago and since that time many quarries have been developed in and around Elyria. Elyria's water supply is from Lake Erie. The city has a filtration plant and in the latter part of 1929 a very complete sewage disposal plant, to meet the needs of the city for many years to come, was put into operation. In the next three years an elaborate storm sewer project, costing about four millions of dollars, will be completed. At Leavitt and North Ridge roads, near Amherst, Lorain County is erecting a $425,000 tuberculosis sanatorium on a forty-three-acre tract of land admirably situated. A hundred thousand dollar hospital building at the Lorain County infirmary has also been erected. The county home, of which R. B. Baus is superintendent, has 225 acres of land. Mention has been made of Elyria's first schools and that this town a century ago had the first chartered high school in the state. It has splendid school buildings, including a large high school building, junior high, ten grade schools and four parochial schools. In 1915 a three-story manual training and technical high school building of thirty rooms was a notable addition to the city's school system. The buildings are all well equipped. 418 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Elyria is a city of beautiful churches, the practical spirit of which is seen not only in the religious work that is carried on in these splendid edifices, but in various lines of humanitarian activites. There are twenty-two Protestant churches, four Catholc and one Jewish temple. Elyria is credited with being the founder of the community chest plan of taking care of local charities and various lines of service to the people of the community. Though industrial conditions throughout the nation were far from encouraging, the city of Elyria in its fourteenth community chest drive in November, 1930, secured pledges of $98,050, exceeding the goal by a thousand dollars. Of this amount the industrial division collected among the workers nearly $30,000. For taking care of indigent soldiers of Lorain County and their families in 1931, the Lorain County commissioners appropriated $38,500. There are over four thousand World War veterans in Lorain County, two thousand of whom are in Lorain and vicinity, seven hundred in Elyria and about thirteen hundred in Oberlin, Amherst, Wellington, Grafton, LaGrange and rural sections in the county. The Drum and Bugle Corps of Elyria Post, American Legion, has distinguished itself at national conventions of the organization. In 1929 it won the 40 and 8 national championship and was honored at the Boston convention in 1930, where its drum major, William Hruby, won the American Legion prize for the drum major with the best strut. The Legion's $50,000 home was opened in January, 1930. INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT STARTED IN ELYRIA. Out of a terrible accident on the Southwestern traction line at Elyria on Memorial Day, 1907—twenty-four years ago—in which sixteen people lost their lives and sixty-eight passengers were injured, came Elyria Memorial Hospital and Gates Hospital for crippled children and a world-wide movement for the better care of crippled children. Among those who perished in the wreck was the eighteen year-old son of Edgar F. Allen, a prominent business man of Elyria. Realizing that some of these lives might have been saved if there had been a general hospital in Elyria, citizens of Elyria, with Mr. Allen at their head, raised within two weeks $100,000 for the erection of the first building of the present Elyria hospital group. Increasingly interested in the work of Memorial Hospital, "Daddy" Allen, as he is now known by thousands of crippled children, became impressed HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 419 with the need of a hospital for crippled children, especially after he found in Lorain County alone, two hundred little cripples in need of surgical treatment. From Mrs. Ada Gates Stevens and other members of the Gates family, money was secured for the erection of Gates Hospital for crippled children. Elyria's school children helped raise money to purchase the hospital equipment. The Gates Hospital was founded in 1915, Rotary Clubs became interested in the work for crippled children and in 1919, at Elyria, the Ohio Society for Crippled Children was formed with Mr. Allen as president. Legislation was secured to give the various counties opportunity to assist in treatment of crippled children in their midst. In 1921 the International Society for Crippled Children was organized at Toledo. "Daddy" Allen is president of this organization, the work of which has grown during the years and is still growing throughout the nation and in foreign lands. Headquarters of the society are in Elyria. In connection with Memorial and Gates Hospital, additional buildings have been erected and the grounds enlarged to ten acres, a property valued at considerably more than a million dollars. F. A. Hoover is superintendent of the hospital and Miss Winifred Bowers is principal of the Elyria Memorial Hospital Nurses' Training School, in which sixteen student nurses received their caps in January, 1931. Five of these were from Elyria, three from Ashland, two from Lorain and one each from Conneaut, Wooster, Fostoria, Marion, Bellevue, Ohio, and Franklin, Ind. A private institution, the Elyria Clinic, is conducted by a group of physicians and surgeons. A considerable number of philanthropic people have contributed to building up the Elyria Home for the Aged, which occupies the historic Ely mansion on West Avenue, which in its day was the finest residence in the county. For some years it has been under the supervision of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In January, 1931, there were eighty-eight members of the home with more to be added. This institution had its beginning in the noble purpose and persistence of a farmer's widow, Mrs. Lily, who years ago started an old ladies' home in what had originally been the First Presbyterian Church building on East Second Street. Mr. and Mrs. Parks Foster became interested in the Old Ladies' Home and gave $5,000 toward the erection of a new building at West Avenue and Second Street. The Wick property was afterwards purchased and the number of friends of 420 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO the institution, which had become the Home for the Aged, increased. When the Ely mansion was purchased, former Mayor and Mrs. D. S. Troxel contributed $10,000 and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Taft of Lorain gave $26,500. Mrs. Taft, at the age of eighty-six, passed away Feb. 3, 1931, in Eustis, Fla. The Taft Memorial unit of the Home was named for her and her husband. The Rev. G. A. Reeder was at the head of the institution for a number of years ; the present superintendent is Carl Meister. One of the present members of the Home is Mrs. Ida M. Mitchell, aged eighty, who for more than forty-eight years has been an officer of the Cincinnati branch of the M. E. Foreign Missionary Society ; founded, in 1913, the summer school of foreign missions at Lakeside and for over eleven years has edited a missionary magazine, The Indicator. Elyria has a large and modern postoffice building. There has been a steady increase in postal receipts, which increased from $124,266 in 1924 to $150,226 at the end of 1929. The postmaster is J. W. McHenry. Total assets of the Elyria Savings & Trust Co., the Lorain County Savings & Trust Co. and the Savings Deposit Bank & Trust Co., which have fine business blocks, were more than twenty-three millions of dollars in 1930. There are three savings and loan societies, with assets totaling $2,000,000, also the Lorain County Mortgage & Title Co., the Guarantee Title & Trust Co. and other financial companies. The Elyria Telephone Co., locally owned, has a fine building, 8,000 subscribers and was one of the first companies in the state to put its main cables underground. The city has four modern hotels, three motion picture theatres, one house for road shows, public library building, Masonic Temple, modern Y. M. C. A. building, high school athletic field, two country clubs, county auto club, Chamber of Commerce with merchants' division and credit rating bureau, Kiwanis and Rotary, numerous Women's study clubs and parent-teacher groups, Musical Arts Society and other cultural organizations. A. C. Hudnutt, proprietor of the Elyria daily, the Chronicle-Telegram, was president of the 1930 Community Service Council and Myron Jones was chairman of the 1931 Community Chest campaign. In the heart of Elyria a short distance north of the business section, is one of the most picturesque parks in the State of Ohio, rich in natural scenery, at the falls of the Black River, and of special HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 421 interest to geologists. It is said that the number of people who visit this city-owned park and Elywood Park adjoining it, is around 225,000 each year. It consists of rocks, caves, waterfalls, forests. An auto trail winds for a mile and a half along its length. A description of it says : "Throughout the whole region are countless places where weird rock formations or unusual flora pique the interest of students of archaeology, geology, botany and other natural sciences. Age-old skeletons, relics of pottery, implements of war and of the chase pointing back untold centuries have been unearthed here. Virgin forests have encouraged the habitation of rare and beautiful bird life in the park." There are grounds for organized sports, numerous other recreational facilities and a large swimming pool, provided by the City Park Commission. This park property of inestimable value was a gift to the city thirty-one years ago by the Ely Realty Co., of which George H. Ely, grandson of the city's founder, was president. The only stipulation made was that a certain amount be expended each year in the upkeep of the park. Mr. Ely, who passed away in the fall of 1925 at the age of nearly eighty-one years, was public-spirited like his grandfather and did much for the advancement of Elyria. He served in the Ohio Senate for a couple of terms, gave employment to hundreds of workers and many stories are told of his kindness to young people. One of those whom he aided was a youth, who was working as a laborer in the Topliff & Ely Bow Socket Works, to get money to attend law school. Ely encouraged him in his ambition to achieve success and gave him $100 toward his expenses. That youth, William Graves Sharp, became one of Elyria's most distinguished citizens, represented the old fourteenth district in the Congress of the United States and was United States Ambassador to France at a most critical juncture in world history. As some one has said : "He met the vast problems of his office with prodigious industry, with unfailing discretion and tact, with statesman-like grasp and with utter fidelity." Mr. Sharp passed away in November, 1922. It is gratifying to note that another Lorain County man, former Governor Myron T. Herrick, serving twice as U. S. Ambassador to France, in war days and afterward, was equally beloved by the French people, strengthening the ties of international good will. Mr. Herrick was born on a farm northeast of the village of Huntington. 422 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO From a cleared space in the forest 114 years ago, Elyria has grown to be a beautiful city covering seven square miles and in its growth has extended from Elyria Township into Carlisle. Along with its material growth, there has been a growth in helpful influence. Some of these movements and the great-hearted people back of them have been referred to in this and other chapters, but down through the decades great numbers of others—and this is true of other communities in this review—have made a considerable contribution to community advancement, men like James T. Robinson, who rendered such service to widows and orphans ; S. W. Baldwin, pioneer merchant and abolitionist ; Mrs. C. H. Doolittle, for half a century a leader in the temperance cause; William H. Searles, author years ago of one of the best books ever written on field engineering ; William A. Braman, leader along many lines for the advancement of the county ; former Postmaster John W. Bath, state fire inspector for so many years ; and many others. Judge William S. Kenyon, of Iowa, was born in Elyria ; Brigadier General Wilder S. Metcalf, who succeeded General Funston in the Philippines, was in charge of a training camp in the South during the World War and was United States Commissioner of Pensions, was a graduate of Elyria High School and Oberlin College ; and Harrison Williams, who became a mighty power in the utilities world, was at eighteen a bookkeeper for the Topliff & Ely Co. in Elyria and later manager of the Fay Mfg. Co. In August, 1923, there passed away at Elyria, at the age of eighty-five years, Mrs. Annie Victoria Mumford, who for forty years was a missionary in Bulgaria and was decorated by King Ferdinand in recognition of her services as a nurse during the Turkish-Bulgarian War, brought about by an Ohio newspaper man who revealed the atrocities of the Turks. This war was about thirty years before Mrs. Mumford's death. It is recalled that this kindly soul was a great lover of nature and on her daily visits to the park enjoyed feeding the birds. THE INDUSTRIAL CITY OF LORAIN. The industrial city of Lorain, with its great steel mills, manufactures of iron tubing and rails, steam shovels, and scores of other substantial industries ; with its fishing industry and large ship-build- HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 423 ing industries, exceeded in population long ago the city of Elyria, which at the time of the organization of Lorain County, secured county seat honors over the aspiring settlement at the mouth of the Black River, on Lake Erie, and decades later succeeded in having the Cleveland & Toledo R. R. pass through the county seat instead of Charleston, as Lorain was then called. One hundred and seventy-six years ago when the White Captive, James Smith, with his adopted brother, Tontileaugo, traveled to the shores of Lake Erie, he found a village of Wyandot Indians at the mouth of the Canesadooharie, as the Black River was then called. In all probability there had been an Indian village at this site many years before the visit of the first white man. In April, 1787, when the Moravian missionary, David Zeisberger, and his Indian converts came from Pilgeruh at the mouth of Tinker's Creek in Cuyahoga County, they attempted to establish a village on the site of the city of Lorain, but were presented from doing so by an emissary of the Delaware Indians, who claimed the missionary and his little flock were trespassing on lands of the Delawares. Zeisberger and his converts traveled on and located near the site of Milan. It was twenty years after this, five years before the second war against Great Britain began, that the first permanent settlement was made at the mouth of the Black River. Azariah Beebe came there from Cleveland and being well pleased with the surroundings and the possibilities for trade, he proceeded to erect a log cabin where he was joined later by his wife and Nathan Perry. The trading post which Perry established for barter with the Indians was east of the Black River, near the life saving station. Marking this historic spot, Nathan Perry Chapter, D. A. R., has placed a monument. At the time the Beebes and Perry started the first permanent settlement in what became Lorain County, survey of the Firelands was going forward, also surveys in parts of Richland County. It was this same year (1807) that Gilman Bryant opened the first store in Mt. Vernon in a sycamore cabin and Ephraim Root became original proprietor of lands where afterward the town of Wellington was laid out. In the autumn of that year some settlers came to Columbia Township. The Beebes remained for several years. In the spring of 1810, Nathan's uncle, Daniel Perry, settled with his family near the mouth of Black River. Others who came the 424 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO same year were Jacob Shupe, Joseph Quigley, Andrew and George Kelso, Ralph Lyon and a man named Seeley. Daniel Perry called attention to the commercial possibilities of the mouth of the Black River, but he and his family later removed to Sheffield and then to Brownhelm. Some of the others settled in what became later Amherst Township. County annals tell of the coming in 1811 of other settlers, including Quartus and Aretus Gilmore, John S. Reid and William Martin. With the breaking out of the War of 1812, settlement of this and other parts of North Central Ohio was greatly interfered with, as stated in other chapters, but with the menace of war removed, settlement of the region proceeded. Black River Township, as organized in 1817, included also Amherst and Brownhelm townships. In this year the settlement at the mouth of Black River received impetus to growth when Judge Heman Ely, founder of Elyria, started development of his land holdings in the region of the future city of Lorain. The first election was held in April, 1817. There were two postoffices, the one to the south with Eliphlet Redington as postmaster and the "Mouth of Black River" postoffice with John S. Reid as postmaster. Annals of Black River, later Charleston, and subsequently Lorain, tell of religious services held at the home of villagers. The first public meeting house at Washington Avenue and West Erie Street was used for union services. This was moved later to Washington Avenue and Fourth Street, where later the First Congregational Church was built. The first school was held in a frame building, where later the Number 1 fire station was located. Early hotels were the Reid House, conducted by Conrad Reid, and the Lampman House. The Canard was a big boarding house. Dr. G. Frederick Wright, in his history of the county, speaks of how slow Lorain County was in coming to its own industrially. With its magnificent harbor, Lorain should have been what Cleveland is today. The Ohio Canal, which had its northern terminus at Cleveland, should have crossed the watershed at the head of Black River at Lodi, which is much lower than that at Akron. However slow Lorain's growth was for so many years, its growth has been steady and substantial in recent decades, the new era beginning with the establishment of the big steel plant by Tom Johnson and his associates in 1895. The beginning of Lorain's shipbuilding industry, with the coming of the ship carpenters, William Murdock and Augustus Jones, whose shipyards on the Connecticut HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 425 River had been burned by the British, in compensation for which they were given land near the mouth of the Black River for the shipyards they established, has been mentioned in another chapter. Along the river and on the lake, east and west of the harbor mouth, other ship masters from time to time constructed wooden sailing vessels for the Great Lakes. The development of this industry ; the formation in 1836 of the Black River Steamboat Association ; the launching the following year of the "Bunker Hill," the first steamboat built at Lorain ; the romance of the fleets of lake schooners built in these yards; the construction, in 1873, of the 1,700-ton steamer Egyptian, and the twentieth century ships that have been built here, all form a fascinating chapter. Ninety-five years ago—the same year that the Steamboat Association above referred to was formed—Charleston, which up to this time had been "Mouth of Black River," was incorporated. History of the community mentions how the village increased in importance as a shipping point and of some of the handicaps. Like so many pioneer communities adjacent to marshlands, there was much malarial fever and typhoid during the summer months. Those were the days before systematic drainage and scientific sanitation. There were times when vessels could not come up the Black River until after the silt which chocked the channel had been removed. The residents persistently coped with their difficulties and in order to encourage trade from the south, there was built a plank road to Elyria with a toll gate between the two towns. In 1840, four years after Charleston was incorporated, the population of all Black River Township was only 668 and in 1880 was only 1,937, so it can be seen that the village, in spite of its harbor and advantageous situation commercially, did not increase very fast. Speaking of the setback Charleston had in not getting the Cleveland & Toledo R. R., someone has said : "The interior trade that had been Charleston's, fell into the willing lap of the county seat (Elyria). Charleston had lean years, much adversity ; then in 1872 came the awakening, development that has been going on ever since." It was the construction of a railroad line from this port on Lake Erie to the city of Wheeling, W. Va., that started Lorain's new era. This line, which was of such far-reaching influence, was originally the Cleveland, Tuscarawas Valley &. Wheeling; later it became the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling, now a part of the B. & 0. system. Over it comes 426 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO coal from the mines of Southeastern Ohio and Pennsylvania, and iron ore from the Lake Superior region, brought to the port of Lorain, is shipped to the great mills of Pennsylvania. With the construction of the Nickel Plate (N. Y. C. & St. L.), Lorain had an east and west railroad and with the advent of the big steel plant, an electric line was built to Elyria. And then came the interurban lines, the Lake Shore Electric and the Cleveland & Southwestern, which latter line has been discontinued. Auto bus lines provide frequent service and looking ahead one can catch a vision of still greater rapid transit within the next few 'years with aviation lines increasing so rapidly—every center of population has one or more airports. While Lorain's importance as a manufacturing city dates from the coming of the big steel mill by Tom L. Johnson and his associates—the transformation of many hundreds of acres of Sheffield "cut-over" into allotments that built up rapidly and these developments followed by new industries in increasing number—there had been a blast furnace in Lorain a great many years before Tom Johnson and his associates acted upon their belief in the vast possibilities of the harbor at the mouth of the Black River. This had been established by the father of President McKinley and other iron workers. W. M. Morr, in a sketch of Lorain, says that this furnace had a daily capacity of thirty tons and that at one time the products sold as high as $87.50 a ton. Braun Bros. & Co. had a planing mill which subsequently became the Lorain Lumber & Manufacturing Company and the Brass Company had established a plant where hundreds of men were employed. Across the river from where the American Ship Building Company's plant now is, the pioneer boat builder, H. D. Root, launched an occasional scow or steam tug, commercial fishing was carried on and a one-horse car line was operated up and down Broadway. But Judge Webber says that all the territory now occupied by the great steel plant, Thew Shovel Works, foundry, lumber yards, other industries, thousands of fine homes, miles of paved streets and numerous stores was covered with underbrush and second-growth trees. The pioneer hotel keeper, Conrad Reid, who after Charleston had become Lorain, in 1874, became first mayor of the town, had a vision of the possibilities of the town, had been public-spirited and had HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 427 given right of way for the north and south railroad. He saw Lorain grow, but not its greatest advancement. Others who served as mayors of Lorain in the '70s and '80s were Thomas Gawn, H. S. Rockwood, F. W. Edison, G. V. Bayley, F. B. Vernam, T. S. Fancher, Frank Hogan, A. R. Fitzgerald, G. J. Clark, Otto Braun, and A. H. Babcock, William B. Thompson, who in April, 1890, succeeded Babcock as mayor and continued for four years. It was during the administration of Mayor George Wickens that the Johnson Company constructed its steel mills and Lorain became a city, one of the first enactments of the city council being for the improvement of Black River. On the first of April, 1895, the steel mill began operations with a force of 1,200 men. A. J. Moxham was president of the organization; Tom L. Johnson, afterwards mayor of Cleveland for so many years, vice president ; P. M. Boyd, secretary ; W. A. Donaldson, treasurer; and Max M. Suppes, general manager. Manager Suppes invented an automatic rail mill roller for producing T rails, also numerous safety devices and improvements in producing steel products. Under his supervision the blast furnaces, the great ore docks and the immense tube mills, afterwards erected, were constructed. At the time of his death in March, 1916, he was managing the activities of 7,000 men. He was interested in various enterprises in Elyria as well as Lorain, was instrumental in the erection of the Lorain Y. M. C. A. building and in securing recreation grounds. Judge Webber pays glowing tribute to Mr. Suppes. The name of the company, in 1898, became the Lorain Steel Company, which subsequently by amalgamation of interest became the National Tube Company, a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation. The first pipe in the tube plant, east of the steel mills, was made in February, 1905, the open-hearth department was added in 1909 and additions to the plants were made during the years until now the steel mills cover more than 900 acres and normally employ over 12,000 workers. Charles Fell of Elyria, who became manager of the Lorain plant in 1916 after the death of Max Suppes, was succeeded Jan. 1, 1931, by Earl W. Brown of Elyria, who had been with the tube company for twenty-eight years. He is the son-in-law of the late Max Suppes. Mr. Fell resigned after forty-eight years of continuous service. 428 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO The Thew Shovel Company, which has grown to be one of Lorain's most substantial industries, was started by the late Capt. Richard Thew. The Cleveland Ship Building Company, which has become a part of the American Ship Building Company, began operations over thirty-three years ago across the river from the yards of the early day ship builders. The first steel ship from this plant was launched in 1898. Some of the largest ships on the Great Lakes are built here and the company employs, ordinarily, about 1,200 men. Several hundred people are employed by the Direct Action Stove Company, a division of the American Stove Company. The Ohio Public Service Company's $3,000,000 plant supplies city and county with power. At Avon Lake, Lorain County, is the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company's $30,000,000 power plant. Among the sixty or more industries of Lorain, in addition to those previously mentioned, are the Lorain Casting Co., Lorain Brass & Bronze Co., Lorain Steel Stamping Co., and the Spang Baking Company. A sketch of Lorain, by W. M. Morr, several years ago, stated that in buildings, machinery and equipment, Lorain industries represented an investment of $115,000,000, land values of Lorain were about $40,000,000 and that the annual pay roll of Lorain industries employing over 15,000 people, was $35,000,000. Banks of Lorain include National Bank of Commerce, Peoples Savings Bank, Lorain Banking Co., City Bank Company and Central Bank Co. The Cleveland Trust Company, which in 1905 took over the Lorain Savings & Trust Co., has on Broadway a fine $150,000 building erected several years ago. Lorain has many fine public buildings, churches, schools, Y. M. C. A. building, public library, Hotel Antlers, F. 0. E. $350,000 temple, St. Joseph's Hospital and numerous other well-housed institutions. South Lorain has a new $225,000 Y. M. C. A. building. The Lorain County Telephone Company is splendidly equipped and the Water Works plant is efficient. One of the brightest pages in Lorain's history is the spirit its people displayed following the terrible disaster in the late afternoon of June 28, 1924, when a tornado swept over the city, killing seventy people, injuring hundreds of others and destroying property to a value between twenty and twenty-five millions of dollars. Lorain's main thoroughfare, Broadway, was a mass of wreckage, telephone and telegraph wires were down, thousands of citizens were homeless HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 429 and without food. From hundreds of communities came ready response to the immediate needs of the stricken city, but what challenges admiration was the indomitable spirit of the citizens of Lorain in meeting the greatest emergency of its history. Within a few months nearly all of the 800 houses destroyed had been rebuilt and repairs made to hundreds of others. From the ruins rose new churches and other public buildings larger and better than those destroyed. Each year has seen new buildings erected ; construction problems for 1931 include a $75,000 addition to the Lorain high school building, a $70,000 Jewish Temple, a $28,000 municipal sea wall to protect lake-front property. The government at the close of 1930 appropriated $66,000 for the improvement of Lorain harbor, including the elimination of the bend in the Black River ; two new churches, St. Mary's costing $150,000 and the new $100,000 edifice of the Church of Christ, are nearing completion. During 1930, street and sewer projects to cost $130,000 were begun. Mayors of Lorain from 1896 have been. V. N. Snyder, J. B. Coffinberry, A. FL Babcock, George L. Glitsch, F. J. King, A. A. King, Thomas W. Pape, John J. Pollack, L. M. Moore, Albert J. Horn, Wm. F. Grail, George Hoffman, H. D. Walter, J. C. Standen and Paul Goldthorpe. Present officials of Lorain besides Mayor Goldthorpe are : President of council, John J. Baird ; clerk of council, Ralph W. Zinesmeister ; members of council, George P. Bretz, Alexander Munro, N. C. Perkson, Charles Peterson, C. E. Doane, Walter A. Stencil, Frances J. Woodings, Frank J. Svat and Leo B. Virant; auditor, A. M. Pollock ; treasurer, Norman J. Donohue ; solicitor, Henry G. King ; municipal judge, Wm. P. Duffy ; clerk of municipal court, Ben F. Thomas; director of public service, Henry F. Alexander ; director of public safety, Simon J. Austin ; chief of fire department, David Hatt ; chief of police, Theodore Walker ; city engineer, C. C. Miller ; sealer of weights and measures, Thomas Forbes ; board of education, A. E. Cameron, D. W. Lawrence, E. G. Cooper, Wm. C. Fisher and Walter S. Nielson ; clerk, board of education, Eli Smith ; board of health, Rev. F. W. Loose, Joseph Nocjar, B. N. Harris, Harvey Hill and Charles S. Kelser ; health commissioner, Dr. Valloyd Adair ; board of library trustees, Mrs. S. A. Rowley, L. A. Fauver, B. C. Bunn, E. P. Reidy, Rev. L. C. Grant and Mrs. A. K. Hibbard. 430 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Lorain is hoping to have a high level bridge constructed across the Black River at Fourteenth Street, the span to extend over Broadway and descend to street level. Lorain has an active Chamber of Commerce and Junior Chamber of Commerce, service clubs and various organizations working harmoniously for the advancement of the city. It has parks and playgrounds. Its two daily papers are the Times Herald and the Journal. History of Lorain newspapers is given in another chapter. FOR CITY BEAUTIFUL. As the result of a movement began in 1930, Lorain is to be the Lilac City. For years the city's slogan has been "Where coal and iron meet." But the city of Lorain is to be known, not only for its scores of industries which have brought it prosperity, but for its floral beauty and in this the influence on posterity may be vastly greater than the community organizations now realize. Civic clubs have sponsored the planting of lilac bushes in the public parks. Associations of war service men have planted lilacs as memorials to Lorain men who made the supreme sacrifice in the World War. The planting of lilacs in door-yards and gardens has been encouraged. Partly because of its beauty and hardiness but chiefly because it is the flower of the French Province of Lorraine, after which city and county are named, the lilac was selected as the community flower. Then, too, the lilacs can, in a measure, take the place of trees destroyed by the tornado of 1924. City administration, schools, women's federation, luncheon clubs, ex-service organization, Chamber of Commerce, practically every organized group in Lorain gave hearty co-operation to the movement. To carry out the plan a community service council was organized. In November, 1930, 5,000 plants were brought to Lorain, the first of a series of shipments by which it is planned to have a lilac bush growing in every yard, garden and park in the city. Lorain is said to be the first city in the nation to adopt, officially, a community flower. A springtime event each May is to be the Lilac Festival. THE LORAIN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The city of Lorain has enjoyed a rapid growth in population and the schools, of course, have grown correspondingly. There has been HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 431 almost a continuous building program by the board of education since 1895. The last extensive program involved the erection of four junior high schools. Some years before this a large senior high school was completed. There are now 259 on the instruction and supervision staff. The schools are organized on the Six, Three, Three Plan, which means six years of elementary, three years of junior high, and three years of senior high school. The policy of the Lorain school system is to provide educational opportunities for as near 100 per cent of the children as possible. To this end extensive provision has been made for commercial and industrial education, as well as purely academic. Special schools are provided for those who have defective vision, for crippled children, and for those who are not adapted to the regular courses of study in operation in the regular schools. Of the school population, 46 per cent are in the upper six grades, and 54 per cent are in the lower six grades. These per cents indicate the rapid growth and enrollment in the upper grades. During the time that the city population was doubling, the elementary grades increased three times. The upper four grades increased six times, and the number of high school graduates increased twelve times. Lorain has one Senior High School Building, four Junior High School Buildings, and eight Elementary Buildings. In two of the Junior High School Buildings Elementary Schools are also conducted. The estimated value of all this property is two and one-half million dollars. THE LORAIN PUBLIC LIBRARY. By Margaret T. Grant. Lorain Public Library came into existence with the organization of a Reading Room Board early in the spring of 1900. Rev. A. E. Thompson was chairman, E. C. Loofbourrow was secretary and treasurer, and F. P. Bins, W. C. Fisher, and S. L. Bowman were active members. These men had secured private subscriptions sufficient to rent a reading room on Franklin Street for one year, and to equip it with magazines and newspapers. Meantime, the Lorain Sisterhood, a women's literary and charitable organization, had constituted itself a library committee and organized with the following Library Board : Mrs. E. M. Pierce, chairman ; Mrs. J. H. Hills, secretary and treasurer; Mrs. W. R. 432 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Comings, Mrs. F. D. Ward, Mrs. F. M. Mcllvaine, Mrs. A. E. Thompson, Mrs. McKee, Mrs. J. A. Graham, Mrs. S. Klein, and Mrs. C. B. Hopkins. They raised $120, by means of a series of entertainments, for the purchase of books ; and the Wimodaughsis contributed their library of 80 volumes. In the autumn these resources were made available to the public. There is today, in the library files, a copy of the card of invitation to the opening, as follows : "The Reading Room Committee and the Library Association invite you to be present at the opening of their room on Franklin Street near Broadway, October 1, 1900. Donations of books thankfully received." But this combination library and reading room was inadequate to meet the demands which were made upon it, and in April of the following year the Lorain Library Association of 50 members was organized and all property turned over to the then-elected trustees. These trustees were : E. M. Pierce, Mrs. J. H. Hills, Mrs. W. R. Comings, E. E. Hopkins, F. A. Rowley, A. E. Thompson, F. P. Bins, Mrs. F. W. Mcllvaine, and George Wickens. Mr. E. E. Hopkins was elected president, and E. C. Loofbourrow was chosen secretary and librarian. There were at this time 520 books in the collection. A building committee was appointed, composed of : E. M. Pierce, chairman, F. M. Rowley, and J. M. Jones, who was later succeeded by W. C. Fisher. This committee applied to Andrew Carnegie for a library building, persuaded the city council to meet requirements by voting a $3,000 tax levy for library support, and at the third annual meeting in April, 1903, were ready to place the contract for a $30,000 Carnegie building. The cornerstone was laid August 18, 1903, and the new building was ready for occupancy in May of 1904. It was first introduced to the public through an exhibition of Elson and Turner prints and three art lectures. On the 20th of May the building was formally dedicated with an address by Dr. C. F. Thwing, president of Western Reserve University. By now there were 3,240 volumes. Mr. E. E. Hopkins continued as president until April of 1905, when he was succeeded by Mr. E. M. Pierce, who served for fifteen years. In January of 1920 Mr. L. A. Fauver became president, and so continued until his resignation, when Mrs. A. K. Hibbard took the post in March, 1931. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 433 There have been six librarians since the work became too heavy for Mr. Loofbourrow to direct: Margaret C. Deming, April, 1903, to December, 1904 ; Grace D. Chapman, January, 1905, to January, 1907; Frances Root, February, 1907, to August, 1910 ; Elizabeth K. Steele, September, 1910, to February, 1924, hers is the longest term of service; Evelyn Yeaton, March, 1924, to April, 1928; and Margaret T. Grant, June, 1928, to date. The financing of the Library has always been a struggle, and in 1925 it was finally decided to change from municipal to school district form of organization. Accordingly, on April 15, the Lorain Public Library Association, at its final meeting, passed a resolution that the Association should dissolve its corporate existence and that the property of the Association should be transferred to the Board of Trustees of the Lorain Library (appointed by the Board of Education in accordance with sections 7635-40 of the General Code). Mr. Fauver, going out of office with the old Library Board, was immediately made president of the new Board of Trustees. The Library has grown gradually but steadily, until now it has a book collection of 25,000 volumes, a circulation for 1930 of 160,610, and 13,500 registered borrowers. There are twelve on the payroll as compared with three at the time the Carnegie building was opened ; and the annual budget has grown from $3,000 to $25,000. FAMOUS COLLEGE TOWN OF OBERLIN. Eight miles southwest of the city of Elyria is one of the most famous college towns in the nation. Oberlin, first American college to open its doors to all students regardless of sex, race, or creed, first to give women the A. B. degree, has had a mighty influence on the life of the nation. Its material success in buildings, equipment, endowment and students has been infinitely greater than its founders could ever have dreamed, but greater than all this has been its humanitarian influence, leading the way in giving equal educational advantages to women ; urging the abolition of slavery at a time when the championing of that cause entailed powerful opposition not only in the South, but in many parts of the North. Oberlin remained true to the covenant of its founders, exerting a mighty power in creating those forces which eventually brought about the abolition of slavery. In this same town of Oberlin thirty-eight years ago was born the Anti-Saloon League, which through nation-wide, signally effective 434 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO organization helped to mold public sentiment that resulted in national prohibition. In the forests of Russia Township, Lorain County, ninety-eight years ago a young preacher from Elyria, John J. Shipherd, and a former missionary, Philo P. Stewart, of whose meeting in Elyria mention has been made elsewhere in this history, founded the Collegiate Institute and the village of Oberlin simultaneously. As some one has said, no town of Northern Ohio has had so remarkable history as Oberlin, romantic, strange, thrilling, the nursery of antislavery feeling. More than half a century ago the late President James A. Garfield said : "I know of no place where scholarship has touched the nerve center of public life so effectually as at Oberlin." On that November day nearly ninety-nine years ago when founders Shipherd and Stewart knelt under the historic elm, which is still standing at the southeast corner of the college campus, and consecrated the ground for a Christian town and college, the Alsation pastor, Jean Frederic Oberlin, who for sixty years had accomplished so much among the people of Steinthal in the Vosges Mountains across the seas, had been dead six years. So deeply were they impressed with the practical benefits which had come to the people from his leadership, not only along all lines of educational, moral and religious training, but also for improved methods of agriculture and the construction of good roads, so they named the new community for him. In the shade of the historic elm on the sixteenth of April, 1833, logs were laid for the first dwelling in Oberlin. On the third of the following December in the heart of the forest where eleven families had settled, Oberlin Collegiate Institute, as it was then called, opened with an enrollment of twenty-nine young men and fifteen young women, seven states being represented. Love to man was the vital principle that the founders taught and exemplified. In the early days manual labor was required from all, the college had a farm of 800 acres and it was not so long until there were mills, machinery, steam engine, a work shop, four hours' labor per day was required at from three to seven cents an hour. The first year 100 students were enrolled 40 per cent of whom were young women. Students—young women as well as young men—often walked the nine miles between Oberlin and Elyria when the mud was ankle-deep. Professors Dascomb, Waldo and Branch became instructors five months after the HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 435 institution opened. From the first, the men who came to Oberlin to teach were scholars of attainment, graduates of Yale, Dartmouth, Williams and Amherst. As some one has said, "they were proud to cross the Alleghenies and keep alive the torch of learning in the Middle West through restless years." In 1835 after a discussion of slavery had been barred at Lane Theological Seminary, near Cincinnati, some of the anti-slavery students had started night schools for colored and after three-fourth of the seminary students had withdrawn from the institution and the Rev. Asa Mahan, a dissenting trustee, had resigned because of the board's action, it was proposed that they, with as many of their colored pupils as could do so, should go to Oberlin. The Oberlin board was divided on the proposition to admit colored students even though Shipherd had obtained in New York $10,000 on condition that colored students be accepted and three prominent ministers and educators, along with the anti-slavery students from Lane, would join forces on the same condition. After hours of discussion the vote was a tie and Chairman Keep, of Cleveland, cast the deciding ballot, admitting colored students. Rev. Mahan was made first president of the college; Prof. Morgan, a noted scholar from Lane, was added to the faculty ; to Oberlin came from New York the Rev. Charles G. Finney, one of the greatest pulpit orators in the nation, afterward for so many years president of the college. Famed in Oberlin history was Slab Hall, the first ladies' hall was erected in 1834, Colonial Hall in 1835, in which year Rev. Finney brought his big tent, seating 3,000 people and used for commencement gatherings and other large meetings until the First Congregational Church was completed in 1844. Tappan Hall, a four-story brick building, was completed in 1836. The old First Church, which seats 1,800 people, and for many years the finest church in the state, is still standing. On a foundation of more than twenty-three millions of dollars the Oberlin College of today is conducted. There are more than thirty buildings, most of them of the latest type of college architecture. The endowment is around $17,000,000 and about 1,800 students. The teaching staff in 1930 numbered 276. Dr. Ernest Hatch Wilkins has been president of the institution since 1927. 436 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Oberlin is now in the midst of a ten-year building program by which the institution will have eighteen new buildings at an aggregate cost of nearly eight millions of dollars. Some of these will be completed in time for the college centennial celebration in 1933. On the site of Council Hall, which at the time it was completed in 1873, at a cost of nearly $70,000, was the most modern and expensive of the college buildings, is now being finished the new $600,000 Theological Quadrangle, the finest theological building in the United States. It is west of the old First Congregational Church and the Carnegie Library building. This library, dedicated June 23, 1908, at the time of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the college, is the largest college library in the nation. In September of the same year the Finney Memorial Chapel at West Lorain and North Professor streets, on the site of the former residence of President Finney, was opened. Two of the newer buildings commemorate the late Dr. Dudley P. Allen, famous surgeon of Cleveland. The Dudley Peter Allen Memorial Art Building was completed in 1917 and the Allen Hospital, which honors also Dr. Allen's father, Dr. Dudley Allen, a lifelong resident of Oberlin, was completed in October, 1925. One of the largest of the college buildings is the Men's Building finished in 1911. The Administration Building, finished in 1915, is in memory of a distinguished alumnus, General Jacob Dolson Cox, who in the Civil War commanded the Twenty-third Army Corps, was Governor of Ohio, Secretary of the Interior under President Grant, president of the Toledo, Wabash & Western R. R., member of Congress, dean of the Cincinnati Law School, and president of the University of Cincinnati. There is now under construction the first section of the new $400,000 gymnasium for women, including two swimming pools. It is also to have constructed in time for the centennial of 1933 the Sophronia Brooks Hall Auditorium, to occupy a site on North Main Street directly opposite Tappan Walk. The auditorium will be equipped with a great organ and this memorial building provided for in the will of the late Charles M. Hall, famous alumnus of the college, as a memorial to his mother, is to become the center for a wide variety of interests, serving community as well as college. Commemorating this famous son of Oberlin, whose bequest of twelve millions of dollars to his alma mater has substantially in- HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 437 creased, is a bronze tablet on the ivy-colored brick house of C. H. Aussiker, 64 E. College Street, bearing the following inscription : IN THIS HOUSE CHARLES MARTIN HALL DISCOVERED THE ELECTROLYTIC PROCESS OF MAKING ALUMINUM FEB. 23, 1886, THE YEAR FOLLOW- ING HIS GRADUATION FROM OBERLIN COLLEGE THUS MAKING AVAILABLE FOR INDUSTRY A METAL LONG KNOWN BUT LITTLE USED On the campus opposite Peters Hall is a beautiful memorial arch dedicated in May, 1903, as a memorial for the missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, who were slain in China during the Boxer insurrection of 1900. Most of those who suffered martyrdom were Oberlin graduates. Oberlin, through its missionary enterprises, helped to open China to the world. Fukien Christian University of Foo Chow, China, has had a long connection with Oberlin. The president of that university is an alumnus of Oberlin, as are also a number of the faculty members. Nearly half a century ago Oberlin alumni established a school at Taiku, Shansi Province, in the interior of China. Two years after the school had become well established as a high school came the Boxer uprising and among the missionaries and their families who suffered martyrdom were six Oberlin teachers in the Shansi school. In 1903 Oberlin men and women again took up work in Shansi, enlarging the curriculum of the academy, establishing grammar schools for girls and numerous primary day schools. Oberlin has been called the most cosmopolitan institution of learning in America, for in addition to students from practically every state in the nation and the Panama Canal Zone, there were, in 1930, seventeen students from China, fourteen from Japan, three each from India and Turkey and other foreign countries represented in the student body were Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Jamaica, New Zealand, Persia, Siberia and Spain. For nearly a century so many streams of influence have gone out from this famous town of Oberlin, so rich in fascinating history is 438 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO it, that one could devote a great deal of space to it and still leave much equally deserving of mention untold. The First Congregational Church was organized August 19, 1834. The present church, completed in 1844 was copied after the Broadway Tabernacle in New York City. Episcopal services began in 1852; Christ Parish was founded in 1855 ; the Second Congregation, 1860 ; First Baptist, 1866 ; First Methodist Episcopal, building, 1869; Rust M. E. (colored) ; African M. E., 1876; Mt. Zion Baptist, 1887. The Church of the Sacred Heart (Catholic), began as a mission in 1880. The Oberlin Missionary Home for children of missionaries, was opened in 1892 and in 1896 Tank Hall was opened, but since the fall of 1922 has been used as a dormitory for women students. What is believed to have been the first of all women's clubs in the nation was the "Young Ladies' Association of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute for the promotion of literature and religion." This was on the evening of July 21, 1835, in Slab Hall, a little over nineteen months after the college opened. Until 1878 the school year ended in the middle of August, the long vacation coming during the winter months so as to accommodate students who desired to teach. The club grew rapidly and soon was allowed to use the attic of Ladies' Hall, which for thirty years was the first women's club room. Among the early members were Antoinette Brown Blackwell, first woman in this country to be ordained as a minister ; Mrs. Sarah Blachley Bradley, missionary to Siam, and mother of the Rev. Dr. Dan F. Bradley of Cleveland ; Mrs. Helen Finney Cox, daughter of President Finney and wife of Governor Jacob D. Cox ; and Mrs. Anna Mahan North, daughter of the first president of Oberlin College. In the class of 1841 three young women were graduated from the classical course, but it was not until 1857 that girl graduates were permitted to read their own essays on graduation. The Agricultural College at Oberlin, which was established in 1854, antedated by twenty years the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College at Columbus, which was the beginning of the Ohio State University. The State Board of Agriculture took very little interest in this agricultural course which was carried on for two years at Oberlin and a year at Cleveland and no appropriation was made by the Legislature, so the course was discontinued. The first public school in Oberlin was taught by Miss Anna Morr in Deacon Turner's cabin and later in a shop. In 1838 the first public HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 439 school building was erected at Main and Lorain streets. In 1844 Oberlin secured its first fire engine and eight years later bought two hand engines. The village was incorporated in 1846. In 1852 a two-story brick school building, Cabinet Hall, was erected, and two years later the schools were reorganized with Joseph H. Barnum as superintendent. Samuel Sedgwick, at a salary of $600 a year, became superintendent when the Union School was organized in 1860. A new school building on South Main Street was built in 1874. Later schools were erected on Prospect and Pleasant streets. Oberlin today has a well-equipped system of public schools. The Board of Education of Oberlin exempted-village consists of Mrs. 0. C. McKee, R. A. Buddington, Mrs. W. L. Tenney, T. L. Porter, P. D. Sherman ; C. F. Spitler, clerk. Carl W. Berg is president of the Russia Township school board, John Kern, vice president; Glen I. Hobbs, clerk ; Charles Simms, Charles Squires, Jr., and Earl Peabody. Platt R. Spencer, founder of the Spencerian system of penmanship, from 1859 to 1861, taught in Oberlin. A few years later an institute of penmanship was organized and still later a business college, which has attained considerable success. The Oberlin Hook and Ladder Company, formed in 1860, won a silver trumpet at Cleveland in 1862, another the following year at Sandusky and four others at tournaments. Oberlin's first water supply for fire fighting was from cisterns. A, water works system was completed in 1887. Oberlin is now planning to increase its water supply by 50,000 gallons daily in addition to the supply from Kipton. As long ago as 1915 the manager form of government was urged for Oberlin, but it was not until the election in November, 1925, that this plan was adopted, becoming effective at the beginning of 1926. When twenty-seven years old, D. F. Herrick, who had served two years as city manager of Albion, Mich., was chosen out of forty applicants, the appointment displacing thirteen administrative heads of departments. Herrick resigned at the beginning of September, 1928, and the present city manager is Louis A. Sears. Oberlin expects to have a new postoffice building in time for the centennial in 1933. An appropriation of $105,000 for the building was included in the appropriation bill of February, 1931. Postmaster E. G. Dick and Grove Patterson, chairman of the Oberlin Centennial Committee, received promise of speedy work on the new postoffice. 440 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Oberlin is a well-lighted and excellently paved city. Along its streets are many of the original forest trees. The 1930 population of Russia Township was 5,458, of which Oberlin had 4,292. WELLINGTON VILLAGE AND TOWNSHIP. Though it has an inspiring history of achievements by its people from the coming of the first settlers 113 years ago, Wellington, on the New York Central, the Wheeling & Lake Erie, auto routes 58 and 18, with auto bus lines, is not resting upon any laurels of the past, but with a civic spirit which is so characteristic of so many North Central Ohio communities, its public-spirited people are zealous in continuing to build up the community and extend its influence. In this commendable work the Wellington Kiwanis Club, organized in April, 1924, is having an important part. This charming and historic town, nine miles south of classic Oberlin on auto route 58, was the scene of the Oberlin-Wellington rescue in September, 1858 ; here Myron T. Herrick studied law and twenty-seven years ago he gave to the community and township one of the finest libraries that any Ohio town of this size possesses. A $70,000 addition to the building provided for by Ambassador Herrick in his will is nearing completion. Here lived a young man with a skill for painting who developed his art by decorating circus wagons in E. S. Tripp's carriage shop and by painting thrilling scenes of the Civil War in which he served. But the painting which brought to Archibald M. Willard international fame and which is a constant inspiration to patriotic devotion whenever it is looked upon, is that stirring painting, "The Spirit of '76," exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. Willard, who passed away Oct. 11, 1918, at the age of eighty-two, is buried in the Wellington cemetery. Fifty-three years ago Wellington was the world's largest shipping point for cheese and butter. There was exported from Wellington in that year (1878) 6,465,674 pounds of cheese of the value of $800,000, and 1,001,661 pounds of butter. Two and a half miles west of Wellington is the State Game Farm of 200 acres, under the supervision of Tom Nash, who has devoted his life to the rearing of game birds, in his earlier years on some of the great estates in Europe and for the past eleven years in Ohio. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 441 The Wellington farm, for its size, has made a record in the nation for the yearly output of game birds. Wellington has a number of thriving manufacturing industries, but dairying is still one of the chief industries and in the Wellingtton area more than 100,000 pounds of milk are produced daily, practically all of which are consumed in the Cleveland market. Here is a branch of the Belle Vernon Company, which, besides furnishing employment to a considerable number of people in its big plant, distributes annually hundreds of thousands of dollars among dairymen of the region. Wellington Township lands came to Ephriam Root in a division of lands which he and James Ross drew in the thirty-eighth draft of the Connecticut Land Company. Originally about seventy-five acres of it were swampy but it was drained long ago and it is said that there is not an acre of waste land in this township of ideal location, well watered by the west branch of the Black River and its tributaries, in addition to Wellington and Charlemont Creeks. Wellington was included in the limits of Medina County under an act of February, 1812, continued so after Medina County was organized and until January, 1824, when the organization of Lorain County went into effect. Traveling afoot with their packs and tools loaded upon a cutter drawn by an old mare, Ephriam Wilcox, Charles Sweet, John Clifford and Joseph Wilson left Berkshire County, Massachusettts, in February, 1818, William T. Wellingtton, of New York State, joining them on the way. From Grafton, which they reached the following month, they cut a trail through the forests to the Wellington Township lands. By the fourth of July they had been joined by others from Massachusetts, Mrs. Ephriam Wilcox and child, Dr. Daniel J. Johns, Frederick Hamlin, Austin Kingsbury, Theodore Wilcox and sister, Miss Caroline. She and Mrs. Wilcox were the first women in Wellington and John W. Wilcox, born September 25th of that year to Mr. and Mrs. Ephriam Wilcox, was the first white child born in the township. Dr. Johns, as stated elsewhere, was just twenty-one years old when he came to the site of Wellington, figured prominently in the affairs of township and county, and for many years was the only physician for many miles around. In the autumn of 1818 more settlers arrived from Massachusetts and the settlement grew. Col. Francis Herrick, Frederick Hamlin, Harmon Kingsbury and two others purchased the 442 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO township from Root in 1819. Other transfers to settlers were made the following year. Frederick Hamlin, pioneer storekeeper, became Wellington's postmaster in 1820 and four years later was an associate judge at the first session of Lorain County Common Pleas Court in May, 1824, serving in judicial capacity until 1831. His son, Frederick M. Hamlin, was Lorain County treasurer for two terms. The Wyandot Indians, on their hunting trips, came to the Wellington settlement, and surrounding country for several years after the settlers came. The first school in Wellington was conducted at John Clifford's cabin 111 years ago by Miss Caroline Wilcox. This cabin was at the top of the East Main Street hill, east of Wellington Creek, and the first sermon in the settlement was preached at the Clifford cabin that same year by a Methodist minister, the Rev. Mr. MeMann. On the site of the E. E. Watters's store was the First Congregational Church in the setlement. It is narrated that when a cutting-bee was organized to prepare the logs for the church, it was a very cold day and the men departed because there was no whisky furnished, but later they erected the building without the aid of stimulants and not so many years later a resolution of the local Congregational Church, organized April 20, 1824, as a Presbyterian Church, stipulated abstinence from spirituous liquors as a qualification for membership. The noted pioneer preacher, Adam Poe, organized the Methodist Society in Wellington in 1826 and a log church half a mile west of the village was erected 101 years ago. In 1835 the first brick M. E. Church, which served the Methodists in Wellington for thirty-two years, was erected on the site of the present church, which, when it was dedicated in 1868, was one of the finest in the North Ohio Conference. It has been remodeled several times, the last time in 1925. The present pastor is Rev. P. L. Carter. The society, which afterwards became the Congregational Church, built in 1839, on the site of the present opera house. This building was destroyed by fire and the Old White Church, built in 1840, was used until 1879 and a new church, burned in 1895, was erected on the site of the present Congregational Church, dedicated in 1896. The first pastor, in 1824, was Rev. Lot Sullivan. Among the other pastors was the Rev. William E. Barton, who attained fame as minister and author of many books, including biography of Lincoln. Mr. Barton, who was the father of Bruce Barton, noted magazine writer, was pastor here from 1890 to 1893. The present pastor, the Rev. Dr. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 443 Charles W. Recard, has been the minister of this church for the past ten years. A Catholic Mission was established in Wellington as early as 1850, the first visiting priest being the Rev. Father M. Healy. The present Catholic Church, North Main Street, was dedicated Dec. 6, 1908. The Rev. G. Burke, of Oberlin, is the present priest. The Church of Christ, organized in 1853, erected in 1859 a church at West Main and Union streets, James A. Garfield, afterwards President of the United States, delivering the dedicatory sermon. The church was remodeled in 1902 and rededicated in 1903 by Judge A. R. Webber, of Elyria. The first pastor of the Baptist Church was Rev. J. W. Smith. The church edifice was dedicated Dec. 5, 1894, and remodeled in 1914. The Rev. H. K. Finley is the present pastor. The first school building was an academy erected in 1849 on the site of the present Catholic Church. This was taught by Miss Mary Ann Adams, who graduated from Oberlin College in 1839. Her successor was Miss Eliza Hamilton, who sold the building to the town when the public schools were established. Two other buildings were erected and a $30,000 high school building was finished in 1869 and remodeled and enlarged in 1918. A. W. Shields is superintendent of schools. The Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati R. R. was built through Wellington in 1850, in December of which year there was train service between Cleveland and Shelby. The Masonic Lodge in Wellington dates from 1844 and the I. 0. 0. F. Lodge from 1855, in which latter year the village was incorporated and the first of the Wellington Agricultural Fairs was held at Huntington, where also the fair of 1856 was held. Since then the fairs have been held in Wellington, the seventy-fifth annual fair, at which Governor Cooper spoke, being held in August, 1930. The Baldwin, Nelson & Laundon Company's store, organized in 1857, built up a large business, serving also as bank for its customers until the National Bank of Wellington, now the First National Bank, was organized in 1864. Charles W. Horr is president of the First Wellington and Charles T. Jamieson is cashier. A. H. Binder, druggist, is the president of the First National Bank, organized 1923, and the cashier is Robert E. Andrews. 444 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO First to buy and ship cheese from Wellington was R. A. Horr, who in 1868, with S. S. Warner, E. F. Webster and 0. P. Chapman, organized Horr, Warner & Co. Two years before this Mr. Horr erected the first cheese factory in Lorain County. Through a trip to Europe in 1878 Mr. Horr established relations in Glasgow and Liverpool that made Wellington the largest shipping point in the world for cheese and butter. The firm at one time controlled seventeen factories in Wellington, with a branch house in Elyria managing seven more. In 1895 the firm controlled fourteen factories with 500 dairymen as patrons. The Horr, Warner Company, incorporated in 1897, since discontinuing the cheese and butter business has developed market gardening, farms totaling 1,468 acres being operated at Lodi, Creston and Orrville. Wellington's town hall, erected in 1885 at a cost of $40,000, contains an auditorium seating 1,400. The municipal waterworks system was completed in 1898. Additional reservoirs have been constructed and in 1916 pumping station and filtering plant were built together with new reservoir. Further improvements were made in 1930. The town also has an excellent sewer system and municipal lighting plant. The Cleveland & Southwestern Electric Line, which for more than thirty years served Wellington, was discontinued in 1931. Sketches of the Herrick Library and the Wellington Enterprise are given elsewhere. Manufacturing plants in Wellington include among others the Sterling Foundry, Cleveland Steel Products Corporation plant, the Wellington Machine Co. and the Turner Bros. Industrials. L. D. Smith is mayor and Ray S. Coates, clerk. The population of Wellington Township in 1930 was 2,751; Wellington village, 2,235. AMHERST AND SOUTH AMHERST In Amherst Township, population 5,649, are the famous Amherst stone quarries, the town of Amherst, population, 2,844, and South Amherst, with a population of 914. Some of the finest buildings in the United States are constructed of Amherst stone. Of this stone are the Canadian Parliament buildings, most of the public buildings in Amherst, including the hospital and public library building, are of native stone. Amherst claims to have more paved streets than any town of its size in the country. The New York Central R. R. is now HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 445 through subways; no grade crossings in the town. Among the town's industries are the American Specialties Company and the U. S. Automatic Machine Company. The president of the Amherst Hospital is Charles Ebbs ; vice president, Albert Slack; secretary-treasurer, C. E. Cooper ; hospital matron, Miss Pauline Eischen. A total of 366 patients were admitted to the hospital in 1930, forty boys and twenty-four girls were born there and only four persons died. President of the Farmers Elevator is J. E. Whiton ; vice president, A. J. Shattock ; secretary-treasurer, Ward Tolhurst. In Town Hall Park, Amherst, in May, 1924, a monument to World War heroes was dedicated. At Leavitt and North Ridge roads, near Amherst, the Lorain County Tuberculosis Sanatorium is under construction. J. H. Frederick, who served as village marshal for many years, is the only living charter member of the Amherst Volunteer Fire Department, organized in 1877. He resigned recently after over fifty-three years as a volunteer fireman. The president of the Amherst Outdoor Life Association, which has purchased the old Klondike quarry, two miles west of Amherst, is A. Nabakowski and the secretary is F. R. Powers, superintendent of the Amherst schools. Mayor C. E. Cooper was head of the committee which in November, 1930, conducted a very successful community chest campaign. J. J. Smythe, secretary of the Amherst Water Works Company, is also a member of the Lorain County Building Commission. South Amherst, incorporated in 1922 with Fred Ruth as the first mayor, is an enterprising village, has put in a lighting system and improved its streets. It has its own high school. The present mayor is 0. J. Ruth. In November, 1930, the village council adopted an ordinance that boys and girls under sixteen, unaccompanied by elders, should be off the streets after nine o'clock. AVON AND AVON LAKE. Avon village has a population of 1,826 and Avon Lake, 1,610, both increases over 1920. At Avon Lake is the super-power station of the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company with a capacity of more than 400,000 horse power. The plant occupies the site of twenty-three acres, formerly an amusement park. This village, in February, 446 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO 1931, opened a new public library on the Avon Center Road. Judge Pierrepont Edwards, Revolutionary soldier, was the original owner of Avon Township. Noah Davis, in 1812, settled on the lake shore, but remained only a short time. Lewis Austin, Wilbur Cahoon and Nicholas Young made the first permanent settlement at Avon. The first schoolhouse at Avon was built in 1818 with Larkin A. Williams as the first teacher. The mayor of Avon is W. C. Wagner ; clerk, Lewis Bennett. Hugo F. Bouse is mayor of Avon Lake and William Hinz is clerk. OTHER TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES. Population of other townships of Lorain County in 1930 was : Brighton Township, 451; Brownhelm, 1,148 ; Camden, 780 ; Carlisle, including 917 of Elyria, 3,299 ; Columbia Township, 1,141; Eaton Township, 1,382 ; Grafton Township, 1,459 ; Henrietta, 800 ; Huntington, 565 ; LaGrange, 1,284; Penfield, 561; Pittsfield, 763 ; Ridgeville, 2,419 ; Rochester, 460. Guy C. Barton, born in Carlisle Township in 1839, became president of the Omaha & Grant Smelting Company at Omaha and Denver. His daughter, in 1930, gave to the Omaha Society of Liberal Arts a million-dollar collection of rare paintings, Oriental rugs, vases and other objects of art to be placed in the new $3,000,000 memorial building given to the society by another former Ohioan, George A. Joslyn. A Carlisle Township girl, seventeen-year-old Margaret Pallas, won honors at the Ohio State Fair in 1930 as the outstanding "Room Club" girl of Ohio in 4-H Club competition and her model room was exhibited at the National 4-H Club Congress in Chicago. The village of Grafton has a population of 935, of which 244 is in Eaton Township and 691 in Grafton Township. Here is a 900-barrel flour mill and near by, State Prison Farm. Erie C. Hopwood, who became editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, being one of the most prominent of Ohio journalists, one of the organizers of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and at the time of his death, in 1928, president of the organization, was born at North Eaton, which was also the birthplace of Miss Allene Sumner, noted Ohio feature writer, who died in April, 1930. In the vicinity of Kipton, Camden Township, much attention is given to quarrying and to chicken hatchery business. LaGrange vil- HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 447 lage has a population of 498. Like Wellington, was formerly noted for its cheese factories, but now the milk is shipped to Cleveland. The village, which has a well-equipped centralized high school, is in the midst of a fine farming and dairying district. It is on the Big Four R. R. In the early days it sometimes took two days to go to Elyria with an ox team ; now the journey is made in about twenty minutes. Quite a number of people, prominent in the business and professional life of Cleveland, were natives of LaGrange, one of these being former Common Pleas Judge Burton Gott. In Huntington Center is an interesting residence of the New England style of architecture, erected more than a century ago, and with an interesting history as Perkin's Tavern. Huntington declined following the completion of the railroad through Wellington. Northeast of Huntington is the farm house in which Ambassador Herrick was born. An old church at Pittsfield, between Wellington and Oberlin, has an interesting history ; in fact, every neighborhood abounds in fascinating narratives of the early day residents. In a number of places on the commons you find substantial monuments commemorating soldiers of the Civil War. Officers of the Lorain County Herd Improvement Association, which held its annual meeting in February, 1931, at the Pittsfield Town Hall, were : J. W. McHenry, Elyria, president ; Lawrence Betts, Penfield, vice president; Carl Webber, Brighton, secretary-treasurer ; Ray Eppley is tester for the herds. The mayor of Grafton is F. W. Cousins; clerk, Vancil Myers. LaGrange : Mayor, J. P. Holcomb ; clerk, C. A. Rawson. Rochester : Mayor, F. A. Richardson ; clerk, D. C. Mann. Sheffield Lake : Mayor, Fred D. Hosford ; clerk, Frank F. Field. CHAPTER XXXVI. MEDINA AND MEDINA COUNTY COMMUNITIES. SETTLEMENT OF MEDINA COUNTY GOES BACK ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS-THREE GOVERNORS WHO LIVED IN THIS COUNTY, OTHER NOTABLES- A. I. ROOT COMPANY HISTORY-SKETCH OF MEDINA VILLAGE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS, COUNTY BUILDINGS AND OFFICIALS-WADS- WORTH'S EARLY DAY ACADEMY-GROWTH OF COMMUNITY-LODI, LEROY, SEVILLE, SPENCER, CHIPPEWA LAKE AND OTHER VILLAGES. Medina County, which increased in population from 26,067 in 1920 to 29,677 in 1930, is rich in history, natural resources, beautiful natural scenery, thriving towns, villages and neighborhoods and it is also fortunate in the character of its people, who are progressive, enterprising and public-spirited. These characteristics are shared by the other counties of North Central Ohio, which we have been considering. Communities and counties of a particular region usually have many characteristics in common and this is especially true of North Central Ohio where the early settlers, though from different sections of the eastern states, shared many traditions and essential ideals. They were thrifty, energetic, courageous, self-sacrificing and imbued with a determination to build up the wonderful regions to which they had come to establish new homes in the wilderness. But we have seen in tracing the history of the various counties, that each county with its townships has distinctive characteristics, an individuality of its own. This is particularly true of Medina County, to which 120 years ago Joseph Harris, afterwards an associate judge, came with his family, and Justus Warner, a few months later. Carved from the Western Reserve Feb. 18, 1812, the county was attached to Portage County until it was organized in 1818. The first trail through the county to the north was made in the spring of 1812. An Indian trail to the Tuscarawas River passed through what is now Harrisville Township. - 448 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 449 Among the people of prominence that this county has produced have been a Governor of Ohio, one of New York State and a Governor of Michigan, who afterwards became Secretary of War in President McKinley's cabinet; there have been a number of Congressmen, jurists, educators, bankers, philanthropists, poets, journalists, influential leaders along numerous lines of useful activities down through the generations. One cannot read of the services rendered by these people of the past and those who are achieving today without being thrilled. It has been well said that every institution, every enterprise, is the lengthened influence of some man or woman and this is impressed upon us again and again as we read local history, the annals of Medina County neighborhoods and communities ; so much so that we are reminded again and again, just as we have in our consideration of other North Central Ohio counties, that "the common deeds of the common day have been ringing bells in the Far Away." It has been so in the past and more true today than ever before since modern transportation and communication have made it possible to multiply infinitely the influence of each individual who appreciates the responsibilities of citizenship and the vast opportunities all about him. A Medina citizen and business man, whose achievements are set forth further in this chapter illustrates how far-reaching may be the influence of an individual, not only in building up a great manuing business, very well known throughout the nation and in foreign lands, but also in inspiring great numbers of people to see in themselves possibilities of achievement which hitherto had not been revealed to them. When, so many years ago, Amos I. Root, gave to missionaries in foreign lands subscriptions to Gleanings In Bee Culture, he did not, perhaps, realize how he was opening doors of opportunity to so many people in so many regions in lands across the sea. In other chapters we have referred to events in the early history of Medina County, the coming of the first settlers and how the population of the townships increased steadily after the War of 1812 ; the organization of the county in 1818, when its area was 100,000 acres greater than it is at the present time. We have described the session of the first court of the county held in Rufus Ferris' barn in 1818, with Judge George Tod, of Trumball County, as presiding judge, and with Harris, of Harrisville; Brown, of Wadsworth; and Welton, of Richfield, as associate judges ; we have told of the log