(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) 200 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO was noted for its distilleries and whisky was almost universally used. The Society of Friends, however, would not use it. In the spring of 1816 the Ohio Register was removed to Mt. Vernon and in October of the following year the publisher, in an appeal to his subscribers, said: "For without this one thing necessary it is impossible to expect us to live. Money would be preferable, but if that is scarce with you, rags, wheat, rye, corn and almost all kinds of market produce will be taken in payment." Evidently conditions did not improve to any great extent, the project was not sufficiently supported and with the issue of April 18, 1818, the Ohio Register at Mt. Vernon was discontinued. It is recorded that from 1818 to 1844 a number of local papers were started at Mt. Vernon but none lived so long as this first paper. The first newspaper in Wayne County was the Ohio Spectator, which Judge Levi Cox, with whom Samuel Baldwin was associated, established in 1817. Its policy was neutral, it attained a circulation of three hundred and we are told that the revenue from advertising soon averaged two dollars a week. At the end of the year, Asa Hickox succeeded Cox. Later Hickox withdrew and Baldwin continued to publish the paper until he succumbed to tuberculosis. Dr. Thomas Townsend took control, Joseph Clingan being associated with him. After a while the paper was discontinued. Mansfield was a village of not to exceed thirty dwellings when, in April, 1818, John C. Gilkison started the first newspaper in that community. He had a Ramage press and some fonts of type, more or less worn, the whole outfit costing him about one hundred and fifty dollars. Gilkison named his paper The Olive and his circulation grew until he had between 350 and 400 subscribers. There was no printing office in Huron County at that time and a considerable portion of the paper's support came from that county. The Olive was an exponent of Whig principles. John Fleming purchased an interest in the paper and after it had been published for a year, Gilkison sold his interest to Robert Crosthwaite, who bought Fleming's interest a few weeks later. Crosthwaite seems to have had his troubles with the publisher for in less than a year he discontinued it and Mansfield was without any newspaper for a while. After coming to Mansfield in May, 1823, Attorney James Purdy bought The Olive outfit, giving his note in payment. He employed the former publisher, J. C. Gilkison, and changed the name to The HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 201 Mansfield Gazette. Finding the type badly worn, Mr. Purdy mounted his horse and rode to Cincinnati where he purchased new type on credit, bringing it to Mansfield in his saddle-bags. Later he bought a new press. It is said that for three years the paper was not self-supporting, but Mr. Purdy had confidence in the project and from his income as an attorney, maintained the paper until it began to pay. A Democratic paper was established in Mansfield in 1830 by Josiah L. Reed, who published it for a couple of years as The Western Herald. This was merged in 1832 with the Gazette which Attorney Thomas W. Bartley, Dr. Rentzel and J. C. Gilkison had also purchased, the new paper being The Ohio Spectator. Sandusky was in Huron County when in 1821, David Campbell, who founded the first newspaper in the Firelands, started in that community the Ohio Illuminator, a weekly newspaper, which received very little support. The following year he founded the Sandusky Clarion which later became The Register and which as a daily is still published. In the Ohio State University School of Journalism's Newspaper Hall of Fame is a portrait of the late John T. Mack, who with his brother, Isaac F. Mack, published the Register for a great many years. One of the founders, in 1827, of The Norwalk Reporter, second newspaper in the Firelands, was John P. McArdle, one of the founders, fourteen years before, of the Ohio Register, published first at Clinton and later at Mt. Vernon. Associated with Mr. McArdle in this first newspaper venture in the Huron County capital, was Horace Buckingham. The Ramage press, on which the Reporter was printed, had quite a history. It was obtained in England and first used in 1794 at Washington, Pa. It is said to have been the first to be brought across the Alleghany Mountains. It was used at Sandusky to print the Clarion and then secured for printing the Reporter. It afterward did service at Tiffin. The first issue of Norwalk Reporter and Huron Advertiser was April 7, 1827, a five column folio. The subscription price was two dollars a year, if paid in advance, two dollars and twenty-five cents if paid in six months and two dollars and fifty cents if paid at the end of the year. W. M. Lawrence in an article in the centennial edition of the Norwalk Reflector Herald giving an account of the early newspapers of Norwalk, mentions that in the second issue of the Reporter, under the headline "Latest News from Europe," are given items brought 202 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO by a sailing vessel, The James Cropper, which left Liverpool February 16, and by the Cadmus which sailed from Havre, February 17. The first page also had a column poem, "An Ode to Spring." On March 1, 1828, Buckingham having purchased McArdle's interest, became sole owner of the paper, which continued until Feb. 2, 1830, when the Huron Reflector was born. The founder was Samuel Preston, who had come to Norwalk in 1818 from New Hampshire. He purchased a controlling interest in the Reporter, changed the paper to a six-column folio and until Aug. 1, 1831, G. T. Buckingham was associated with him. Preston published the paper for a great many years. His son, C. A. Preston, became a member of the firm and in April, 1852, following the death of Samuel Preston, the latter's son-in-law, Frederick Wickham, took his place in the firm. In 1853, the name of the paper was changed to the Norwalk Reflector, the name, Huron, having been confused with that of the town of Huron. The further history of this and the other Norwalk papers will be given later. Elyria's first newspaper, the Lorain Gazette, was founded July 24, 1829. The publisher was Archibald S. Park, a young printer from Ashtabula. Judge Heman Ely, founder of Elyria, paid for the outfit which cost him $280.50. History of the Elyria papers is given elsewhere. Medina's first paper goes back to 1832, in May or June of which year a five column folio, 19 x 26 inches, published on Tuesday morning, was established "on Court Street, the fourth door north of Oviatt and Bronson's Store." The price was two dollars a year and the publisher announced that produce would be taken on subscription. The Medina County Gazette, now a semi-weekly, published by William B. Baldwin, former postmaster of Akron, was established in 1832 as the Constitutionalist, founded as a weekly by J. S. Carpenter of New York, a strong anti-slavery man who encouraged Whig sentiment and made his paper a power in the county. In 1839 Judge Carpenter was elected Representative and was in public life for years. In 1837 Medina County Whig was established, which in 1841 merged with the Constitutionalist. In 1853 the paper was enlarged and became the Medina County Gazette. Among the editors in the early 60s were the Hon. Harrison G. Blake, the Hon. Francis D. Kimball, Judge Charles Castle and H. Canfield. Capt. J. H. Greene, who in August, 1879, became editor of the Gazette, worked at Hamilton for the father of the famous author, William Dean Howells. After Capt. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 203 Greene's death, May 30, 1890, Charles D. Neil, became editor. After Neil's death in December, 1896, his widow, Mrs. Nellie S. Neil, published the paper until Aug. 8, 1898, when H. G. Rowe became the publisher, R. M. Clark being associated with him until March, 1906. Mr. Rowe retired as publisher when William B. Baldwin took over the paper, July 1, 1915. The Medina Sentinel, Democratic newspaper, was established in 1883. It is published by Mrs. M. K. Long ; her son, A. N. Long, is manager, and George M. Denton, former mayor of Medina, has been editor since December, 1913. Editor Denton began his newspaper career forty-seven years ago as a printer's devil ; at seventeen he was the youngest journeyman printer in the United States. In the early 90s he set type for the Cleveland Press. In 1834, two years after Medina had its first paper, two newspapers were established in what is now Ashland County. The first of these was the Mohican Advocate and Hanover Journal, established in Loudonville in October of that year by a Mr. Rogers, who found very little support for his paper and discontinued it after six issues. On Dec. 30, 1834, J. C. Gilkison, founder of Mansfield's first newspaper sixteen years before, started the first paper in Ashland, the Ashland Herald, neutral in politics. It was discontinued after eight or nine months and a few weeks later, Joshua H. Ruth established in Ashland, a Democratic paper, the Ohio Globe. It was continued for about a year and shortly before the close of the presidential campaign of 1836, Thomas White and Samuel McClure founded the Western Phoenix, advocating the principal of the National Whigs and the nomination of William Henry Harrison. It lasted until 1837. In the spring of 1846 at the time Ashland county was formed and Ashland became the county seat, two Democratic newspapers were started in the village, the Ashland Standard, by R. V. Kennedy, and the Ashland Democrat, by two attorneys,. William A. Hunter and Jonathan Moffett. Horace S. Knapp, who afterward wrote the first history of Ashland county, purchased the Democrat and Standard in April, 1848, changing the name to the Ohio Union. A Whig paper, The Ashlander, was founded in 1850 by William McCarty and in 1852, L. Jeff Sprangle founded the Ashland Times, among whose editors during the years were Judge William Osborne, Josiah Locke, the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Stubbs, afterward president of Nevada State University ; William G. Stubbs, William H. Reynolds and Senator George Hildebrand. There 204 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO were a number of changes in ownership of Ashland's Democratic paper, The Ohio Union, which in 1868 was purchased by Dr. George W. Hill, Ashland County's second historian. B. F. Nelson and William H. Gates, on purchasing the paper, Aug. 1, 1872, changed its name to the Ashland Press. William T. Alberson, afterwards publisher of the Mansfield Shield and papers at Coshocton and New Philadelphia, published the Press for a number of years. In January, 1895, he sold his interest in the paper to his partner, W. H. Gates. The Ashland Gazette, Republican, was founded in 1887 by Senator T. M. Beer and others. After having been a semi-weekly it became, in 1901, a daily. There had been a daily prior to this, John G. Herzog, former publisher of the Loudonville Democrat and later sheriff of Ashland County, having started on Sept. 10, 1892, the Ashland Daily News, of which W. I. Illger, former local editor of the Times, became editor and was followed April 1, 1894, by William A. Duff, subsequently editor of the Press and The Times Gazette. In August, 1903, the Times and Gazette were consolidated with George Hildebrand as editor and publisher. The Times Gazette and Press were consolidated Feb. 1, 1919, with Frank R. Beer as manager; Edgar Koehl, president, and William A. Duff, editor. In January, 1926, Harry L. Horne succeeded Duff as editor. Frank R. Beer died Dec. 13, 1927. William G. McKee is sports editor of the Ashland Times-Gazette and Miss Virginia Phillips, society editor. In the next chapter will be given further history of North Central Ohio newspapers. CHAPTER XXIII TWENTIETH CENTURY NEWSPAPERS. SURVEY OF DAILY AND WEEKLY PUBLICATIONS IN NORTH CENTRAL OHIO WITH SOME HIGH SPOTS IN THEIR HISTORY-NEWSPAPER PUBLICATION OF NINETEENTH CENTURY CONTRASTED WITH HIGHLY SPECIALIZED BUSINESS OF TODAY-FIELD OF USEFULNESS CONSTANTLY WIDENING-SOME PIONEER EDITORS. Newspaper publishing in these twentieth century days is a highly specialized business. Most of the North Central Ohio towns of a few thousand population have daily papers printed on fast presses capable of printing a number of pages at one time. News matter and a large part of the display advertisements are set up on linotype machines. Other equipment is costly and one machine in a newspaper plant of today frequently costs more than a whole plant did in some of the offices in the last decade of the nineteenth century. In the old days a weekly paper satisfied the farmers but now practically all of them take a daily paper, delivered to them each morning by rural free delivery and the field of the small daily has steadily widened. Day by day the news of the whole world is brought to their doors along with the happenings of the home community and the rural neighborhoods of the county and adjoining counties. The educational value of the newspapers—dailies, semi-weeklies, and weeklies—has been vastly increased. In the old days of the weekly papers the starting of a paper was a comparatively simple matter. If a man or several men in a community had political aspirations, it was quite easy to get hold of a small press, a few fonts of type and other modest equipment and start up. Those were the days when editorials were powerful for party, there was much personal journalism. Quite in contrast with the spirit of today when newspapers aim to present every side of a public question, fairly and impartially, leaving their readers to arrive - 205 - 206 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO at their own decisions. Newspaper files present an accurate cross-section of the community life and much of local history is lost when, as often has happened, bound volumes of files have been destroyed by fire. The Western Reserve Historical Society at Cleveland and the Ohio State Archaeological Society at Columbus, have been doing a splendid work in gathering these newspaper files from every section of the state. Many important facts of local history are obscure because, in a number of instances, early day newspaper files were either not preserved or were burned. Events of today are history of tomorrow and the importance of newspaper records is obtaining wider recognition. Mt. Vernon today has two daily papers, the Republican-News, which for a great many years Charles C. Jams edited but from which he retired in the summer of 1930 ; and the Banner, of which Stephen J. Dorgan is publisher and Gordon Nixon is editor, having succeeded Robert B. Armstrong, who died in June, 1930, after having been editor of the paper since 1898. Mr. Jams was succeeded as editor of the Republican-News by Justin E. Devalon, who had been city editor. The history of the Mt. Vernon Banner goes back to 1836, prior to which time there had been a number of papers in the town after the Ohio Register. Among the early editors and publishers of Mt. Vernon were Charles, John and Henry Colerick, William Bevans, John Barland, James H. Patterson, William P. Reznor, C. P. Bronson, Daniel Stone, Dr. Morgan I. Bliss, Dr. Lewis Dyer, Dr. John Thomas, Samuel M. Browning, John Teasdale, S. Dewey, Sam Rohrer, F. S. and P. B. Ankeny, James E. Wilson, Milo Butler and William H. Cochran. The Mt. Vernon Democratic Banner, established by Chauncey Bassett and Joel Robb, was sold in 1841 to John Kershaw. There were a number of changes of ownership before it was purchased in December, 1853, by the Hon. Lecky Harper, then of the Pittsburgh Post, who conducted it for more than forty-one years. For a year after his death, June 18, 1895, his sons, Frank and William, conducted it, then Frank bought his brother's interest and published it for some years, after which it was sold to the present owner, Stephen J. Dorgan. In June, 1898, the Banner became a semi-weekly and daily. Charles Colerick, who in 1835 established the Mt. Vernon Day Book, went to Texas to fight for the independence of the Lone Star HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 207 State and died there. Another Mt. Vernon editor who attained prominence in Texas was the historian, A. Banning Norton, who from 1851-55 edited the Mt. Vernon True Whig, which had been established in 1848. Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, whose name is perpetuated in a woman's garment, which at the time it was introduced seemed so radical, edited in Mt. Vernon for a year, a paper called the Lily, then moved it to Iowa. The Knox County Republican, a Whig paper, was established in 1840 and was edited by James Emmett Wilson of Steubenville, whose brother-in-law, Milo Butler, was afterwards associated with him. It was discontinued in 1841 and Wilson and Butler both went into the ministry. A young school teacher from Newark, William H. Cochran, rented the old Republican plant in 1842 and called his paper the Times. Under different names it appeared during the years, a number of people being interested in it. For a number of years the Republican was published by C. F. and W. F. Baldwin. Until 1885 the Republican was a weekly, then became a semi-weekly and in the autumn of 1897, a daily. The News, established in 1894, was merged with the Republican in 1898. Charles C. Jams was connected with the Republican since he was fifteen years old and on Aug. 27, 1900, set the first slug from the first linotype machine in Knox County. The Swapper's Friend, monthly, established at Mansfield in 1920, is edited by Maynard R. Cram. Mansfield now has two daily papers, the Daily News, established March 7, 1885, by William S. Cappeller, with E. S. Hiestand as editor ; and the Manfield Journal, the first issue of which was Sept. 2, 1930. This paper bears the same name as a previous daily which was started Sept. 13, 1924, and continued until Aug. 28, 1927. The president of the Mansfield Journal Company is S. A. Horvitz ; publisher, David Gibson, editor ; George J. Kochenderfer, who edited the former Mansfield Journal ; D. F. Williams, business manager; and Hugh Martin, secretary-treasurer of the company. In December, 1930, the Brush-Moore Newspapers, Inc., purchased from R. C. Hoiles, the Mansfield News and the Lorain Times Herald, making nine Ohio newspapers owned by the Brush-Moore group at the end of 1930. Philip Wolfe has been editor of the News for a number of years. William S. Cappeller, founder of the Mansfield News, was in his day one of Ohio's most influential newspaper publishers. He served as president of the National Editorial Association and was one of the 208 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO founders, Nov. 5, 1885, of the Associated Ohio Dailies. He died in 1911. The Mansfield Daily Shield, which was absorbed by the Mansfield News, had the longest career of any newspaper in Mansfield, dating back to the first newspaper published in Mansfield. The Mansfield Gazette acquired the outfit of John C. Gilkison's Mansfield Olive, founded in the spring of 1818. The Gazette merged with the Western Herald, became the Ohio Spectator and this plant was bought when the Ohio Shield was started in 1836. In May, 1841, John Y. Glessner bought the Shield and Banner, as it was then called, and continued it more than forty-one years, the paper being purchased Feb. 1, 1883, by Charles N. Gaumer. The Daily Shield was started in June, 1888, a stock company was formed and under different managements the paper was continued until it was absorbed by the News. Two other noted Ohioans identified with Mansfield journalism were General Roeliff Brinkerhoff, lawyer, banker, philanthropist; and David R. Locke, whose writings under the pseudonym of "Petroleum V. Nasby of Confederate Crossroads" made famous the Toledo Blade, which he published until his death in 1888. Locke's portrait is in the 0. S. U. School of Journalism's Hall of Fame. Locke and James G. Robinson, who on Oct. 6, 1853, established the Weekly Advertiser, at Plymouth, Richland County, came to Mansfield in 1855, after they had sold the Advertiser, and with Roeliff Brinkerhoff, purchased from Mathias Day, Jr., the Mansfield Herald. The Herald, which had its beginning as the Richland Jeffersonian, a Whig paper established in 1838 (its name being changed to the Herald ten years later), had a number of changes of ownership. Mr. Locke retired from the Herald in 1856 to become owner of the Bucyrus Journal. Lorenzo D. Myers and brothers from May, 1859, to Oct. 13, 1875, published the paper, which was then sold to George U. and William F. Harn. The Herald became a daily paper in 1885 and was discontinued five years later. The Mansfield Liberal, which General Brinkerhoff and others founded in April, 1873, was sold in 1877 to Henry and Charles Foulk. This paper was absorbed March 7, 1886, by the News. E. S. Hiestand, dean of Mansfield newspaper men, became editor of the Liberal in 1882 and of the News when it was started in 1885. He retired from active newspaper work on the News at the end of August, 1930. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 209 The Mansfield Courier was founded Oct. 5, 1872, by August Selbach. For many years L. S. Kuebler, who at one time represented Richland County in the Lower House of the General Assembly, published the Courier, which was discontinued in recent years. Abraham J. Baughman, Civil War veteran and historical writer, who at the time of his death, Oct. 1, 1913, was a trustee of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, was a newspaper publisher in Mansfield from 1876 to 1885. His paper, the Sunday Morning Call, was changed in 1884 to the Mansfield Democrat and was discontinued the following year. He was in newspaper work in Medina, New Philadelphia and other places, was secretary of the Richland County Historical Society from the time it was organized in November, 1898, up to the time of his death. He was secretary of the Mansfield Centennial Commission, which was in charge of the celebration, June 9-15, 1908, of the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Mansfield. Mr. Baughman published histories of Richland, Ashland and Huron counties. Among the many newspapers which were started from time to time and then disappeared was the Mansfield Morning Chronicle, which in 1895 was started by Charles Grant Miller, a brilliant young editorial writer from Cleveland. It was discontinued after five months. Wooster now has one newspaper, the Daily Record, of which E. C. Dix is publisher. His father, Albert Dix, president of the company, now in his eighty-sixth year, is one of North Central Ohio's oldest newspaper men. In December, 1898, Albert and E. C. Dix, who had previously been in newspaper business in Hamilton, purchased the Wooster Republican. In 1906 they purchased the Wooster Journal, published by the Jacksonian Publishing Company, and in October, 1919, bought from former Senator Willliam A. Weygandt, the Wayne County Democrat and the Wooster News. The editor of the Daily Record is E. H. Hauenstein. They were consolidated as the Daily Record. The Wooster College Voice is issued during the school year. A great many papers have been published in Wooster since Judge Levi Cox in 1817 established the Ohio Spectator, to which we have previously referred. The Spectator, which had become defunct, was revived by Cox, who sold it to Ben Bentley. Joe Clingan went into partnership with Bentley and later Clingan bought his partner's in- 210 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO teret and ran it alone for five years. In 1826, Col. John Barr bought the office and issued the Ohio Oracle, which lasted four years. After the plant had been sold to David Sloan the paper became the Wooster Journal and Democratic Times. J. W. Schuckers and Daniel Sprague were subsequently owners. In 1840 the name of the paper was changed to the Wooster Democrat. H. C. Johnson and Enos Fore- man assumed control of the Democrat in 1852 and in the following year the name was changed to the Wooster Republican. Johnson retired in 1858, going to Sandusky, and Foreman continued as editor and publisher. From July 25, 1861, to Nov. 30 of that year, Foreman issued the first daily in the county, it being devoted to war news. In 1870, Foreman sold the Republican plant to Capt. A. S. McClure and Joseph G. Sanborn. Publication of the Wooster Republican-Advocate began in September, 1826. Twelve years later it was sold to Samuel Littell, who had bought the Western Telegraph established by Martin Barr. The papers were merged as the Democratic Republican. Later owners of the paper, which in the meantime had been published as the Democrat, were Carny and Means, John Larwill, Jacob A. Marchanb and J. H. Oberly. In 1866 Col. Ben Eason, who had bought the paper a couple of years before, sold it to John P. Jeffries, who with his son, L. Q. Jeffries, published it for a year and then sold it to Eason and Asa G. Dimmock. After buying Eason's interest, Dimmock took Lemuel Jeffries into partnership. Later publishers were James A. Estill, E. B. Eshelman, John J. Lemon, Franklin Harry and Thomas E. Peckinpaugh. The Wayne County Standard was started in 1844 by R. V. Kennedy, but it lasted less than a year. In 1846 Kennedy started a paper in Ashland. A number of other papers were started in Wooster from time to time but their existence was brief. Norwalk now has two newspapers, the Daily Reflector Herald, published by R. C. Snyder, and the Weekly Experiment, published by the Experiment News Company. Mr. Snyder, who for a number of years has been president of the Associated Ohio Dailies, is one of the publishers of the Sandusky Register and Star Journal. In the autumn of 1912, Mr. Snyder, who had been publisher of the Coshocton Age, bought of A. N. Lawson the Norwalk Evening Herald, which had been started in March, 1902, by Frank Lamkin. Having purchased, on Jan. 25, 1913, the Daily Reflector plant, he merged the properties HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 211 under the name of the Reflector-Herald. Associated with him as manager is his son-in-law, Dudley A. White, former Ohio Department Commander of the American Legion. The Reflector-Herald, which occupies its own building on Hester Street, celebrated its centennial in November, 1930. Up to the time it was bought by Snyder the Reflector had been published continuously by the Preston, Wickham and Gibbs families. The Experiment was founded Aug. 20, 1835, by Joseph M. Farr and Samuel S. Hatch, as a Democratic newspaper. Among the later publishers of it were Charles J. Orton, James H. Rule, W. W. Redfield, and I. F. and J. L. Clark. The Huron County News, established in 1882, was consolidated with the Experiment in January, 1928. The officers of the Norwalk Experiment and Huron County News Company are : President, C. Fred Moll ; secretary, W. M. Lawrence, and T. A. Barrett, treasurer and manager. Among the other newspapers that have been published in Norwalk were the Western Intelligencer, started in June, 1832, and subsequently moved to Milan ; the Huron County Chronicle, started in March, 1875, and in 1877 a German paper was established and was published for some years. The Plymouth Advertiser, one of the founders of which in 1853, was David R. Locke, later of the Toledo Blade, has been published since 1925 by Peyton W. Thomas. Other publishers of the Advertiser have been James Robinson, A. H. Balsey, J. M. and J. F. Beal-man, 0. A. White and A. W. Davis. The New London Record, which Charles H. Hearson has edited since 1918, was established in 1870, Frank A. Whittemore securing the outfit of a previous newspaper. In 1871 George W. Runyan became the publisher and after his plant was destroyed by fire, he purchased new materials and started anew, continuing until 1911, when the New London Publishing Company purchased it, and about 1916 Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Wright took it over. Mr. Hearson had been publisher of a newspaper at Bellevue, which he sold to Callaghan brothers, after which he was in the job printing business at Norwalk until 1918. An early newspaper in New London was the Times, established in 1867 or 1868 by the Rev. Charles E. Manchester, who served during the Civil War in the Twenty-third Regiment, 0. V. I., and years later was pastor of the Methodist Church at Canton, of which President McKinley was a member. 212 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO The Tri-County News, which in 1880, A. M. Beattie and J. F. Laning started at New London, became the Greenwich Enterprise, Beattie buying Laning's interest and moving the plant to Greenwich. It is now the Enterprise-Review, the publishers, A. F. and F. E. Pope, having purchased the Shiloh Review. The Bellevue Evening Gazette, of which A. C. Callaghan is manager, was established as a weekly Aug. 10, 1867. The daily was established in 1894. Former newspapers in Bellevue included the Advertiser, started in 1851 by G. W. Hopkins ; the Independent, in 1861 by 0. B. Chapman, and the Local News, in 1875. The Monroeville Spectator, now published by J. H. Aydelott, was established in 1870 by J. F. Clough. A former newspaper in Monroeville was the News, started in 1878. Earl S. Frye is editor and publisher of the Willard Weekly Times, which was established in 1883 as the Chicago Times, Willard being formerly Chicago Junction. The Huron County village of North Fairfield had a newspaper at one time, the Rev. Robert McCune and J. R. Robinson having established, in 1857, the North Fairfield Gazette, which did not last very long. Chicago Junction at one time had another paper, The Herald, which 0. J. Powell started, but it was short lived. At Wakeman, Huron County, in 1873 Melvin Lewis established the Riverside Echo, which was moved a couple of years later to North Amherst. The Wakeman Independent Press was established in 1875 by G. H. Mains, who continued it for many years. Wakeman has no newspaper now. Many years ago the village of Collins had a newspaper which was started by Frank Miles. It was afterward absorbed by the Wakeman Press. A. C. Hudnutt, publisher of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, furnishes the following regarding Elyria newspapers: "The first newspaper printed in Lorain County was called the Lorain Gazette, published in Elyria by Archibald S. Park, who in the spring of 1829 was conducting a newspaper in Ashtabula, Ohio, called The Western Journal. Park sold his paper in Ashtabula and removed to Elyria with his family, arriving June 18, 1829. The press, known as the 'two-pull Ramage,' was put up in the small one-story building, two doors east of East Avenue, on Broad Street, where the first number of the Lorain Gazette was issued July 24, 1829. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 213 "The Gazette was a five column folio, sent by mail for two dollars and delivered in the village for two dollars and fifty cents a year. In politics it supported the Whig party. "Frederick Whittlesey was editor of the paper for the first six months, after which its publisher assumed entire charge. Its columns were chiefly filled with selected miscellany and news matter. "In the fall of 1830 Abraham Burrell, also a practical printer, became a partner in the paper and its publication was continued by Park and Burrell until the spring of 1832, when it passed into the hands of James F. Manter, who changed its name to the Elyria Times. "The Times also supported the Whig party, and was published by Manter for three months. About the first of June he sold the office and good will to A. S. Park and Josiah Harris, who added new material, enlarged the sheet and changed its name to The Ohio Atlas and Elyria Advertiser. "The first issue of this paper was dated July 12, 1832, and it was conducted for twelve years under the editorial charge of various persons. Harris published it, as editor and proprietor, until Nov. 21, 1833, when he sold it to Frederick Whittlesey and Edward S. Hamlin. Albert A. Bliss, then a law student in their office, became its editor. "On July 10, 1834, Bliss and Thomas Tyrell became its editors and proprietors, and on November 27 Bliss published his valedictory. He returned as editor, however, on Jan. 22, 1835, and finally retiree about the beginning of the next year. "The paper was taken over by A. Burrell and Company, with E. S. Hamlin as editor, on Feb. 10, 1838, and was soon sold to a stock company and published under the editorship of D. W. Lathrop. "The name of the paper was again changed on June 12, 1844, when Ezra L. Stevens became its proprietor and issued it under the name of the Buckeye Sentinel. "In 1846 this paper was sold to A. Bliss, who suspended it and succeeded it with a new paper called the Elyria Courier, which made its first appearance in November of that year. The following year, however, Bliss was elected State Treasurer, and he sold his interest to John H. Faxon, then sheriff of the county. The paper was published by Faxon and Burrell until April 13, 1847, when Faxon became proprietor. On Dec. 7, 1847, he sold it to Edmund A. West. In November, 1849, it was sold again to Jerome Cotton, who named the paper the Elyria Weekly Courier. 214 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO "In June, 1850, a group of men purchased the Courier and named George G. Washburn editor. On Feb. 10, 1852, the plant was destroyed by fire. Fourteen weeks later publication was resumed. On Jan. 25, 1854, Washburn sold his interest to George T. Smith. "A little later the Courier joined with the Independent Democrat, taking the name of the latter. On Aug. 5, 1852, the first number of the Independent Democrat was issued. "The paper changed hands several times and on Feb. 1, 1877, the Elyria Democrat and the Elyria Republican merged, retaining the home of the latter. The Republican had been established by H. A. Fisher on Oct. 24, 1874. "We do not have a record of the exact date of the establishment of the Elyria Chronicle or the Elyria Telegram. These papers were merged by J. F. Burke in 1919. Shortly thereafter Burke took into partnership A. C. Hudnutt, of Albion, Mich., who became business manager of the Chronicle-Telegram, Burke taking the place of editor. "On Sept. 1, 1927, Burke sold his partnership to A. C. Hudnutt, and Mr. Hudnutt is the publisher on this tenth day of December, 1930." For forty-four years the late F. S. Reefy and members of his family were newspaper publishers in Elyria. Miss Eva L. Reef y, of Elyria, gives the following regarding the newspapers which her father published for so many years. She says : "The Lorain Constitutionalist, a paper that had been in existence for nine years—Democratic in politics—was purchased by my father in 1872, when he removed with his family from Indiana to Elyria. When the name of the harbor town of Black River or Charleston, was changed to Lorain, father changed the name of the paper to the Elyria Constitution and once more to The Elyria Democrat because it thus expressed his political belief. Father died in 1911, but my brother R. T. Reefy and I carried on for five more years and finally sold the paper to the Evening Telegram, of Elyria. This occurred in 1916. In the present Chronicle-Telegram are assembled the one time three newspapers of this city." The City of Lorain has two daily papers, the Times-Herald and the Journal. The Times-Herald, of which Tex De Welse has been editor, was founded as a weekly under the name of The Times, by F. A. Rowley in 1879. In 1901 it was consolidated with The Herald and in 1919 Clarence Hoiles of Mansfield purchased the paper from HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 215 the Rowley estate. On Dec. 10, 1930, Hoiles sold this newspaper to the Brush-Moore chain. The Journal was founded by J. F. Burke, then of Elyria and now of Santa Ana, Cal., in 1920, as a Lorain edition of The Elyria Chronicle Telegram, which he owned at that time. The name of the paper was later changed to The Journal. In 1923 it was acquired by David Gibson, well known Cleveland writer and publisher, who has served as its publisher since that time. The editor is Frank Maloy ; business manager, John W. Graham, and Hugh Martin, secretary-treasurer. The Labor Weekly in Lorain, founded in 1919, is edited by H. L. Hunt. The Crippled Child, bi-monthly publication of the International Society for Crippled Children, is issued by the Lorain Printing Company. It was established in 1923 and has been edited by Vivian M. Hackett. Oberlin's two newspapers, The News, established in 1860, and The Tribune, founded in 1894, were consolidated in March, 1930, as the Tribune-News, Wilbur H. Phillips, who edited the News, and C. W. Pinney, who published the Tribune, having joined forces. During the school year some student publications are issued. The Wellington Enterprise, which has been a semi-weekly since 1919, is edited and published by Ernst Henes, who with Paul Powell purchased the paper from Walter H. Cole in August, 1924. Mr. Powell in February, 1929, sold his interest to Mr. Henes and is now associated with William G. Heebsh in the publication of the Orrville Courier-Crescent. The Weekly Journal, started in 1852 by George Brewster, was published a couple of years and the town was without a newspaper until Sept. 25, 1865, when James A. Guthrie issued the first number of The Enterprise. There were a number of ownership changes until 1901, when the Enterprise Publishing Company was formed, E. P. Whitney, manager, and R. L. Walden, editor. H. 0. Fifield, who bought the plant in 1902, was publisher until Nov. 18, 1918, when he sold to Walter H. Cole. Another Lorain County paper is the Grafton Citizen, of which George H. Frank is editor and publisher. Wadsworth, Medina County town, which on Jan. 1, 1931, attained the rank of city, has two newspapers, the Banner Press, of which W. S. Hostetler and Nellie A. Harter are editors and publishers, and the Wadsworth News, of which J. T. Darling is manager and D. M. Webb is editor. The history of the Banner Press goes back to 1866. 216 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO The original Wadsworth News, established in 1894, was discontinued and the present Wadsworth News was started in 1928 as a free distribution paper. In June, 1929, the Wadsworth News Company was incorporated and the paper put on a paid subscription basis. The officers are: President, Don Williams ; vice president, C. E. Knapp ; secretary-treasurer, D. M. Webb. Another Medina County paper is the Lodi Review, which was founded, in 1886, by H. E. Bassett, who published it for a number of years. Former Senator William A. Weygandt of Cleveland was at one time publisher of the Review and for twenty-five years J. W. Dunlap, former mayor of Lodi, was the publisher. The present publisher is Harold L. Harrington. The Centerburg Gazette at Centerburg, Knox County, was founded in 1880. The present editor and publisher is R. M. Hasson, who purchased the plant in 1921 from Lloyd M. Bell. During its existence of more than half a century, the Gazette plant has twice been destroyed by fire. Edward N. Gunsaulus, who died at Columbus, June 11, 1930, and who spent twenty-eight years in the consular service of the United States, once edited a paper at Centerburg. Another Knox County village paper is the Fredericktown Citizen, published by G. L. Marple and W. R. Bassnett. The Free Press, founded in 1875, was formerly published in Fredericktown. Danville and Buckeye City formerly had a newspaper but none is published there now. At Gambier, in 1838, the Gambier Observer was established, which became the Western Episcopalian. The Kenyon Collegian, founded in 1856, is now published during the school year. The Shelby Daily Globe, of which Raymond L. Castor is editor and Stambaugh & Stambaugh are publishers, was founded in 1900. There have been a number of newspapers in Shelby since 1858 when Samuel S. Bloom founded the Shelby Pioneer, afterwards the Gazette. Founding, in 1868, the Shelby News, he was connected with it until 1889. Other newspapers once published were the Enterprise, Express, and the Times. The last editor of the Shelby Citizen in 1914 was John W. Love, for many years on the editorial staff of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and now a column conductor on the Cleveland Press. Before going to Cleveland, Mr. Love, who is a grandson of the late S. S. Bloom, pioneer publisher at Shelby, was on "Gleanings in Bee HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 217 Culture" at Medina under H. H. Root, who was then editing the periodical. The first newspaper published in Bellville was the Rainbow and Repository, started at Fredericktown in 1849 and moved from there to Bellville. The Bellville Weekly, started in 1872, was published for some years by J. C. Potts and Thomas Faus. The Richland Star, founded by E. L. and A. L. Garber, who started publication in their farm home south of Bellville in 1875, was moved to Bellville in October, 1877. Later Bellville papers were the Messenger and the Richland County Leader, the latter absorbing the Butler Times. The Star was revived in 1922 and in 1924 (Feb. 1) 0. P. Vaughn and Gregor Cherp purchased it. Cherp, the present publisher, bought his partner's interest in February, 1928. The Orrville Courier-Crescent, semi-weekly, at Orrville, Wayne County, was founded in 1867. The Crescent was established by John A. Wolbach. James A. Hamilton was publisher of the Crescent for a number of years up to the time of his death, when it was sold and was subsequently consolidated with the Courier. The present editor of the Courier-Crescent is William G. Heebsh and the manager, Paul Powell, formerly of the Wellington Enterprise. An Orrville newspaper woman, Miss Georgia Hamilton, for some years was society editor of the Wooster Daily News. The Dalton, Wayne County, Gazette, established in 1875, is edited and published by E. F. Scott. Other Wayne County village papers include the following : Shreve News, established 1867, now published by Robert P. Crawford ; Creston Journal, founded in 1881, J. B. Hickin present editor and publisher, also publisher of the Rittman Press, which was established in 1912 ; West Salem News, founded 1922, G. W. Talmadge, editor and publisher. The only other Ashland County newspaper now, in addition to the Ashland Times Gazette, history of which was given in a previous chapter, is the Loudonville Weekly Times, published by John P. Bowman and J. G. Dauber. Loudonville's first paper after the Mohican Advocate and Hanover Journal, started in October, 1834, was the Independent, started near the close of the '60s by Robert Lockhart and removed to Mansfield a few years later. Dr. J. M. Heyde, in his history of Loudonville, says that in 1873 J. H. Ruth started the Loudonville Advocate, which Peter High Stauffer bought 218 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO in 1877; J. R. Fisher acquired it in 1901 and H. E. Zimmerman in 1903. In 1905 a stock company was formed and later John G. Dauber became publisher. John G. Herzog, afterward sheriff of Ashland County and founder of the Ashland Daily News, established the Loudonville Democrat in 1878. George Campbell bought it in 1885, selling it in 1890 to John P. Bowman. Sept. 15, 1920, Bowman and Dauber consolidated the Democrat and Advocate as the Weekly Times. Newspapers were formerly published in two other Ashland County communities. The Hayesville Journal, started in 1875 with J. B. Paine as editor, continued for a few years. At Perrysville, the Enterprise was published for some years and about 1918 the Ashland County Times. In Ashland, the Brethren Publishing Company issues the Brethren Evangelist, official organ of the Brethren Church, and other church and school publications. The business manager is the Rev. Dr. R. R. Teeter and the editor, George S. Baer. Sketch of the Brethren Evangelist, founded in 1879, is given elsewhere. Annals of North Central Ohio villages tell of numerous newspaper and other publications, some of which flourished for a year or so, while others, after an existence of a number of years, were absorbed by other papers or discontinued. CHAPTER XXIV. MEDICAL PROFESSION INSPIRING EXAMPLE OF EARLY-DAY PHYSICIANS-SELF-SACRIFICE EMULATED BY TWENTIETH CENTURY PHYSICIANS-PIONEER DOCTORS OF KNOX COUNTY- ASHLAND'S FIRST PHYSICIAN-DR. CLARK OF MEDINAOTHER DOCTORS OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO IN LONG AGO-AGED PHYSICIANS WHO ARE STILL IN ACTIVE PRACTICE. In their devotion to duty, regardless of the number of hours of continuous service spent in relieving suffering humanity, the hardships involved in responding promptly to calls in all sorts of weather and often to homes of suffering remote from beaten lines of travel, self-sacrificing physicians of today carry out the traditions of their profession. Like the pioneer preachers, the early day physicians of North Central Ohio braved every danger in the newly settled country in responding to calls in emergencies. At any hour of the day or night, no matter how greatly they were in need of rest and sleep, they quickly responded to every call of human need, traveling on horseback over winter roads impassable for any vehicle. They were resourceful, self-sacrificing and early day annals are bright with examples of their abundant service. The example they set has not been forgotten by those who came after them. The swamps that abounded in the lowlands in the days of the early settlements in this section of Ohio, were prolific sources of fever-ague. In ordinary cases, home remedies were used by the settlers, one of them being butternut bark pills, mixtures of wild cherry bark, boneset, black alder and dogwood bark. In those early days blood-letting was considered essential in the treatment of many ills. One Northern Ohio writer of the long ago mentioned that the settlers considered it very important in peeling bark from the trees to have it stripped downward or it wouldn't physic. The leaves of the boneset must be stripped off upward or they would not be ef- - 219 - 220 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO fective as an emetic. Butternut pills were made by boiling the butternut bark to a thick syrup which was thickened with meal or flour and rolled into pills. In the early days every well-to-do family was careful to keep a supply on hand. Ordinary ills were treated with home remedies the virtue of which had been handed down for generations, but when these failed, or the emergency was such that it could not be met by home remedies, the family doctor was called in haste and quite frequently it meant for him miles of wearisome journey. PIONEER PHYSICIANS OF KNOX COUNTY Dr. Richard Hilliar, a native of England, who settled in 1806 in the southwestern part of Knox County, coming there from Zanesville, is said to have been the first physician to practice in the county. He owned 4,000 acres of land in the township which was named after him and was the first in Hilliar Township to die. Dr. Henderson, a young physician, began to practice in Mt. Vernon settlement about 1808 and it is said that he was so aggressive in urging vaccination that he aroused the anger of Landlord Butler, who ordered him off of the Tavern premises in such a menacing way that the doctor departed and never came back. About 1812 Dr. Timothy Burr located at Clinton, north of Mt. Vernon, and during the War of 1812 was a surgeon in the service. Dr. Byers was an early settler at Fredericktown and in 1814 Dr. G. B. Maxfield also settled there. In that same year Dr. Burge located at Clinton, leaving there after a year. Among the other early physicians at Mt. Vernon are mentioned Drs. Brook, T. E. Clark, T. R. Potter and W. F. McClellan. The county annals give the names of a goodly number of the early day physicians in communities of Knox County. One of the most prominent of the early day physicians who practiced in Huron County was Dr. George Anderson, who located in Venice, then in Huron County, in 1817 and in Sandusky the following year. His practice covered a large part of what are now Erie and Ottawa counties. He was a very active politician and one of the first directors of the Mad River R. R. He died during Sandusky's first cholera epidemic. Dr. G. W. Hill, in his history of Ashland County, says that for the first six or eight years after the pioneers began to locate along the rich valleys of this county, they were compelled in critical cases to go to Wooster, Mt. Vernon or Mansfield for a physician. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 221 Ashland's first physician, Dr. Joel Luther, arrived in what was then Uniontown, five-year-old hamlet, one evening in the early autumn of 1820. He was in a one-horse wagon and seeking a location. Stopping at Joseph Sheets' tavern on the site of the present Home Savings & Loan Company's place of business, he learned that there was no doctor nearer than Dr. Miller at Mansfield. During the night he responded to an emergency call at a settler's cabin several miles from Uniontown. That was the beginning of a succesful practice. He was afterwards in the dry goods business and died in 1834. An early day physician in Wooster was Dr. Daniel McPhail, whose practice extended into what are now Clearcreek, Montgomery, Mohican and Vermillion townships, Ashland County. Dr. Joseph E. Cliff, during 1821-22 studied medicine with him, located in Savannah in 1821 and afterwards practiced at Hayesville, Jeromesville and Loudonville. He married a daughter of Dr. McPhail and afterwards went to the gold mines of Brazil, where he had some thrilling experiences, for he arrived in the midst of a revolution. He remained at the mines for several years, obtained considerable wealth and returned home only to learn that his wife, supposing him dead, had married Robert W. Smith of Mohican Township, then in Wayne County. He provided liberally for his son and returned to England where he spent the rest of his life. The son, Dr. D. B. Cliff, became a very successful physician. Dr. Joseph Hildreth, who studied medicine with Ashland's first physician, Dr. Joel Luther, practiced a few years in Ashland and later practiced at Bellville, Richland County. Subsequently he studied law and located in Mansfield. Dr. Bela B. Clark, who located in Medina in 1818, practiced medicine there for nearly a quarter of a century. For several years he practiced at Columbus and in 1846, after Ashland County was formed, located in Ashland where he practiced his profession until his death Aug. 20, 1859. He was one of the associated judges of the Ashland common pleas court, serving until the adoption of the new constitution of 1851. He was interested in the building of the Atlantic and Great Western R. R. and was one of the first directors. His daughter, Elizabeth, became the wife of Dr. Philo Henry Clark, a native of Wakeman, the third white child born in that vicinity. His father, during the War of 1812, was a surgeon on the battleship Prometheus, 222 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO afterwards locating in Wakeman where he practiced medicine for many years. Dr. Philo H. Clark, who located in Ashland in 1850, practiced his profession there for forty-six years, except for the time during the Civil War when he was an assistant surgeon in the army. He was a member of the Ashland County Medical Society and in 1907 was made an honorary member of the Ohio State Medical Society. For a decade or more prior to his death in December, 1911, at the advanced age of ninety-two years, three months and twenty-five days, he led a retired life. Among the other physicians who located in Ashland during the first half of the nineteenth century, were Drs. William N. Denning, A. L. Davidson, George W. Cochrane, Gustavus Oesterlin, Burr Kellogg, Willard Slocum, N. S. Sampsell, J. B. F. Sampsell, W. R. S. Clark, Jacob W. Kinnaman and Benjamin F. Whitney. Dr. David S. Sampsell, who located in Ashland in 1851, served three terms as mayor of Ashland. He was the father of Dr. D. S. Sampsell, Jr., and Dr. William H. Sampsell, both of whom practiced here for many years. Dr. J. B. F. Sampsell served one term as Ashland's mayor and another physician, Dr. Benjamin Myers, was mayor of Ashland from 1884 to 1886, also served in the General Assembly and two terms as probate judge of Ashland County. During the Civil War he served in the 120th 0. V. I. Dr. Jacob P. Cowan, who first practiced medicine in Jeromesville and removed to Ashland in 1859, represented the county in the General Assembly and served in the Forty-fourth Congress, representing the old fourteenth congressional district at that time composed of Ashland, Crawford, Holmes and Richland counties. Dr. John Cowan, who practiced for years in Jeromesville and Ashland, and for a few years at Lodi, served as state Senator, 1869-70, from the Ashland, Richland, Lorain and Medina district. Dr. I. L. Crane, who served as assistant surgeon in the Civil War, died in 1867. Among the later physicians now deceased were Drs. J. M. Diller, Samuel Riddle, G. W. Hill, T. S. Hunter, Samuel Glass, R. C. Kinnaman, J. C. Campbell, Joseph Sheets, Frank Cowan, J. H. Stoll, A. L. Sherick, L. B. Ash, F. V. Dotterweich, Jacob Fridline, W. M. McClellan and W. H. Roasberry. Dr. Royal V. Powers, who located in Mansfield seven years after the town was founded, tore down the first cabin on the site of the HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 223 present Sturges block, Main and North Park streets, erected a one-story frame building in which he kept the pioneer drug store and practiced his profession. He was a brother-in-law of President Millard Fillmore. Dr. Powers afterwards located in Huron County and helped his brother, David, to lay out the town of New Haven. Dr. Bradley, the Drs. Miller and Sweney are mentioned as other physicians in Mansfield. Dr. William Bushnell, who began the practice of medicine in Mansfield in 1828 and passed away in that city Dec. 13, 1893, in his ninety-fourth year, used to recall his experiences as a lad of twelve years when his father, Sterling G. Bushnell, was adjutant of the First Regiment, Third Brigade, Fourth Division, Ohio Militia, during the War of 1812. On its way to the frontier after Hull's surrender, this regiment halted at his father's farm in Trumbull County, where after the noonday meal, resumed its march. His father permitted him to go along with the troops, but near Cleveland, when a battle with the Indians was imminent, his father sent him back home. He wanted to have a part in the fighting but, obeying his father, he followed the trail through the dense wilderness back to Trumbull County. In 1820 the family moved to the present Ashland County, his father purchasing for 50 cents an acre an eighty-acre farm, half a mile east of the site of Hayesville. The future physician had helped survey parts of the counties of Ashtabula, Medina and Lorain. After having taught school and studied medicine, he practiced for one year at Point Coupee, near New Orleans, before locating in Mansfield. He served several terms in the General Assembly, was a censor of the Cleveland Medical College for fifteen years, was a member of the American Medical Association as well as of the Ohio Medical Association, aided in the construction of the Atlantic & Great Western Railway, and was one of the directors of the line. By appointment of Governor Bishop, Dr. Bushnell was Ohio delegate to the International Congress on Prison Reform at Stockholm, Sweden. He was an enthusiast on local history. He was the grandfather of the present Dr. William Bushnell of Mansfield. Dr. John G. Bowesmith, who died at Mansfield Feb. 23, 1878, after residing there for eight years, is said by Historian A. J. Baughman to have been one of the "Immortal Six Hundred," commemorated by Tennyson in his "Charge of the Light Brigade," at Balaklava, Oct. 25, 1854. He was a sergeant in Lord Cardigan's Light Brigade and at 224 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL 01110 Balaklava received two sabre wounds. He is buried in the Mansfield Cemetery. One of the early practitioners in Medina County was Dr. Amos Warner, who came there in 1815. Dr. Elijah DeWitt, born in Vermont in 1800, began the practice of medicine in Lodi in 1821, locating in 1835 in Elyria. An account of the organization of the Medina County Medical Lyceum, Oct. 9, 1833, gives Dr. Bela B. Clark as president; Dr. George K. Pardee, vice president ; Dr. Elijah DeWitt, corresponding secretary ; Dr. 0. S. St. John, recording secretary ; Dr. Jesse C. Mills, treasurer ; Drs. DeWitt, Pardee and St. John, censors. In 1835, Drs. Clark and DeWitt were appointed delegates to the Western Reserve Medical Convention in May of that year, to consider the proposition of establishing a medical college on the Reserve. The Lyceum at its organization consisted of eleven members, the officers above mentioned together with Drs. Clark T. Rowe, G. W. Howe, S. Rawson, J. S. Ross, Lorenzo Warner and William S. H. Welton. Another early physician at Medina was Dr. Ormsby. Dr. St. John afterwards located in Lincoln, Neb. Dr. Samuel Day, who located in Huron County in 1819, two years after his sons, John and Josiah, came prospecting to the county, and a year after they and two other sons settled on the section of land northeast of New London, was the first physician in New London Township. He was described as a Botanic, using indigenous herbs and plants in most of his practice. Dr. Edward Thomson practiced medicine in Norwalk before he became head of the famous Norwalk Academy. Mrs. Caroline Boalt Strutton in reminiscences of old families of Norwalk, in the Centennial Edition of the Reflector-Herald, speaks of Dr. George Griswold Baker, one of the incorporators of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland R. R., now part of the New York Central, as an eminent early day resident of Norwalk. He served as U. S. counsel at Geneva and Athens, returning from Greece to enter the Union Army as a surgeon. Mrs. Strutton relates that while Dr. Baker was in Athens, he saved the life of an American visitor who had incurred the wrath of the populace. Pursued by enraged Greeks, the object of their wrath dashed up the steps of the American consulate to where Dr. Baker was standing. Seizing the flag hanging over the doorway, Dr. Baker spread Old Glory over the threshold and dared the mob to cross it. This impressed the mob, which quickly dispersed. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 225 The president of the first Medical Society in the Firelands, organized in 1822, was Dr. Moses C. Sanders of Peru. Officers of the Fourteenth District Medical Society, formed the previous years, were: Dr. D. Tilden of Norwalk, president; Dr. Anderson, Sandusky, vice president; Dr. Mantor, Elyria, secretary ; Dr. Fay, Milan, treasurer; Drs. Lucas of Uniontown, G. C. Miller of Mansfield, Dr. Baker of Florence, Dr. Sanders of Peru and Dr. Strong of Bloomingville, censors. It is recorded that at a meeting of the Fourteenth District Medical Society in 1830 a resolution was adopted approving efforts for the suppression of intemperance. When in 1817 Bordin Beeby of Ridgeville was injured by a fall from the upper floor of a frame house that was being erected for Heman Ely at Elyria, there was no physician nearer than Cleveland. Dr. Mack of that settlement was summoned and Ely paid the bill of $30 after Beeby recovered. One of the early teachers at the Yellow Schoolhouse in Elyria was Dr. Griswold, who became a prominent physician in Elyria and during the Civil War was a surgeon in the Union Army. Ashland County had a Medical Society about 1850 but disbanded in less than two years. A second one was formed in 1864, the officers of which in 1878 were: President, Dr. J. P. Cowan ; vice president, Dr. William S. Allen; secretary, Dr. R. C. Kinnaman ; treasurer, Dr. Gustavus Oesterlin ; censors, Drs. I. S. Cole, G. W. Hill and F. Cowan. The present officers of the Ashland County Medical Society are: President, Dr. D. L. Mohn, Ashland ; vice president, Dr. G. B. Fuller, Loudonville ; secretary-treasurer, Dr. Herman Gunn, Ashland. Dr. Abner E. Foltz, a native of Wayne County, who at the time of his death in August, 1917, at Akron, was dean of Summit County physicians, began his practice in medicine in Ashland, where he was associated with his brother, W. K. Foltz, and J. H. Barron in the drug business, before locating in Akron. In his reminiscences a few years before his death, he told how he earned his first dollar, carrying water to harvest hands on his father's farm in Wayne County in the early '50s. He was paid at the rate of 12 1/2 cents a day and it was real work, he said, for the buckets were fully as big as an ordinary barrel and the sun was amazing hot. He obtained his literary education at Sharon Center, Medina County. At the outbreak of the Civil War he and his four brothers served in the same company until the end of the conflict. While he was a soldier he determined to 226 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO become a physician and after the war he entered college, was graduated and had a long career in his profession. He served three terms as president of the Summit County Medical Society and during a service of twenty years on the pension board at Akron, never missed a meeting. The first physician in Wellington was Dr. Daniel J. Johns, who arrived there with other settlers from Massachusetts early in July, 1818. It required four weeks for this company to make the journey from Massachusetts to their new homes in the forests of what is now Lorain County. Dr. Johns was twenty-one years old when he came to Wellington and for a great many years was the only physician in a circuit of fifteen miles. He had a part in organizing the township and county, was chosen to various township offices and from 1838 to 1845 was an associate judge of the Lorain County common pleas court. It is said of him that he spent his life in furthering the interests of Wellington Township. A former Huron County physician whose physiognomy on chewing gum wrappers is familiar to millions of people, was the late Dr. Edwin E. Beeman, who for years practiced his profession in Wakeman before locating in Cleveland. Dr. Beeman graduated in medicine when the medical college of Western Reserve University was at the corner of Erie and St. Clair streets, Cleveland. After practicing a while in Michigan he located in Birmingham, Erie County, where he was quite successful. He married a daughter of Ahirah Cobb, later a manufacturer in Cleveland. In the late '70s he removed to Wakeman, where in addition to practicing medicine he was connected with a weekly newspaper. The late W. R. Rose narrated an incident of Dr. Beeman's Wakeman days. A young darky brought home from Norwalk a bottle of whisky and fearing to leave it where he was working, slipped into the doctor's back room and left his treasure there. It happened that in the back room Dr. Beeman had a large rattlesnake stuffed and lying on a board ready for display in a case. When the darky came out into the front office his eyes were bulging out. "Did you see the b-b-big snake in there ?" he stuttered. "What's that ?" replied Dr. Beeman, "there's no snake in there. Come, come, boy, you've been drinking. You'll have to quit it or it will get you sure." The colored boy was so convinced that he was on the verge of delirium tremens that he swore off on liquor all together. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 227 While living in Wakeman, Dr. Beeman, who had great faith in pepsin in cases of indigestion, began to make it for his own use. He found quite a market for it among other doctors and finally moved to Cleveland, where he devoted himself to the manufacture of pepsin and pancreatin. His office was on the east side of the Square between Superior and Euclid. Employed in his office was a young woman who was an inveterate gum-chewer. He warned her that she would injure her stomach but she replied that it wouldn't hurt her if he would put some of his pepsin in it. That gave him an idea upon which he acted promptly and with great financial success, for this chance remark led to the manufacture of his pepsin gum. Huron County's oldest physician, Dr. Samuel Holtz of Plymouth, who though in his eighty-first year is still as active and vigorous as a man one-half his years, has been spoken of as "St. Luke of Marshlands." In ministering to the suffering in the marsh district of southern Huron County, Dr. Holtz has undergone hardships with little thought of any financial return, in fact it is said it is his practice to bring food and other aid to those of his patients who are in dire need. During the past winter, organizations in that region have been aiding families in the onion fields. Dr. Joseph H. Todd, Wooster's oldest physician, now in his ninety-fifth year, is in remarkable physical condition, a youthful nonagenarian. Last December, at the time of his birthday anniversary, the Wayne County Medical Society gave a banquet at Hotel Ohio in his honor. More regarding North Central Ohio physicians is given in the chapters of the various counties. CHAPTER XXV. LIBRARIES, MUSEUMS, HISTORICAL SOCIETIES OBERLIN COLLEGE LIBRARY AND LATE AZARIAH S. ROOT-WOOSTER CITY AND COLLEGE LIBRARIES-KENYON COLLEGE COLLECTION-LIBRARIES OF ELYRIA, LORAIN, ASHLAND, NEW LONDON, NORWALK, MANSFIELD, MEDINA, MT. VERNON, SHREVE, SHELBY, AVON LAKE, AMHERST, LOUDONVILLE, WADSWORTH, WELLINGTON, WILLARD-MUSEUM-INCREASED INTEREST IN LOCAL HISTORY. Of the nearly 300 public, society and school libraries of 3,000 volumes or more totaling 8,659,749, in Ohio, North Central Ohio has its share, as well as of the smaller school libraries. The college libraries are especially worthy of note. The Oberlin College library, which is also used by the people of the town, is the largest college library in the nation. This does not, of course, mean university libraries. The Oberlin library contains 311,500 bound, and 240,061 unbound volumes. A large sum was received recently for the endowment of the Oberlin College librarianship. Under the will of Mrs. Azariah S. Root, who died in 1930, the library received the gift of $1,000 to start a fund to be used to discover the real origin of printing. Her husband, who died in 1927 after having been librarian of Oberlin College for forty years, and at the time of his death was the dean of American college librarians, had spent much time searching for the place where printing originated. Prof. Root, who was one of the founders of the Anti-Saloon League of America, served as president of the Ohio Library Association and the American Library Association. During the World War, Prof. Root was commissioned by the Government to build and equip libraries at almost all the army camps, spending two years in this work. The present librarian is Dr. J. S. Fowler. - 228 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 229 Wooster College, which has a splendid library, received in December, 1930, a grant of $15,000 from the Carnegie Corporation in aid of the library of the institution. The Kenyon College library, with its splendid collection, is referred to in another chapter, and Ashland College is building up a fine library in its new building. Splendid reports have been received of the increased circulation by a number of libraries in this section of Ohio. Miss Charlotte Brooks states that circulation of the Elyria library in 1930 passed the 100,000 mark, the greatest in its history, and one day in February of the present year there was the greatest one-day circulation. Efforts were made to obtain reports of every public library in North Central Ohio, of which the State Library had record. Responses to this request are given herewith. ELYRIA LIBRARY The Elyria Library was found in 1866 by Charles Arthur Ely, who gave to Elyria the Ely Library, including the block in which it was located. In 1928 the library trustees sold the building and invested in the Dr. Reefy residence on Second Street. To it a two-story brick addition was erected for stack rooms and basement for Historical Society quarters. The building cost about $75,000 and was opened on Feb. 12, 1929. The donor of the library was a son of Elyria's founder. The present board of trustees are: Arthur L. Garford, president; Henry Ingersoll, secretary and treasurer; Robert Lersch, James Seward and R. C. Maston. The library staff is Miss Charlotte Brooks, acting librarian ; Miss Linda C. Cuyler, children's librarian; Miss Alma Calli and Miss Stella Ream. There are about 25,500 books in the library. ASHLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY Ashland's Public Library, the growth of which in the past few years has been very marked, the sphere of its influence having steadily widened, is entering upon a new epoch in 1931. For many years it has had its quarters on the second floor of the Ashland Opera House, which the city owns. The new library building, now being erected at the southwest corner of West Main Street and Claremont Avenue at a cost of more than $100,000, will be dedicated during the 230 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO present year (1931). It is the gift of one of Ashland's wealthiest and most public-spirited citizens, J. L. Clark, another of whose gifts is Samaritan Hospital. Intensely interested in every movement for the advancement of his home city, Mr. Clark, formerly a trustee of the library, determined to build, equip and donate to the city a library that will be adequate to meet the rapidly increasing library needs of Ashland and surrounding communities for the next half century. The building, of classical monumental type, is of Bedford limestone, harmonizing in design with the Ashland Federal Building and the county court house. It has a frontage of some fifty-five feet on Main Street and a hundred feet on Claremont Avenue. The arrangement and equipment of the library rooms embody the most approved features of library construction. In the well lighted basement are rooms for the Ashland County Historical Society's museum. The architects of this beautiful building are Vernon Redding and associates of Mansfield. It is of fireproof construction throughout. The Ashland Public Library had its inception in a meeting held on the evening of Dec. 21, 1892, in the Sunday School rooms of Trinity Lutheran Church. Representatives from seven churches of Ashland were present to perfect plans to establish a reading room in the city. Rev. S. J. White was chosen president of the temporary organization; Charles A. Mcllvain, secretary ; and A. C. Bognaird, treasurer. A committee of five with Rev. D. B. Dunkin as chairman, was chosen to draft a constitution and a soliciting committee of twelve with A. C. Bognaird as chairman. Permanent officers of the library association were chosen at a meeting Jan. 25, 1893. Rev. Dr. A. H. Smith was chosen president ; I. H. Good, vice president ; S. L. Arnold, secretary ; C. W. McCool, treasurer; trustees, Rev. Dr. A. H. Smith, A. C. Bognaird, I. H. Good, George Koehl, P. A. Myers, F. W. Freer, S. W. Beer, E. S. Briggs, H. A. Mykrantz, J. T. Reaser. A constitution had been adopted at a meeting December 28, 1892. The association started off with 112 members. The first librarian was Mrs. E. C. Arthur, salary $120 a year. The first reading room was over F. R. Marks' store in the Freer Block, site of the present Farmers Bank Building. Later it was in the Crowell Block, Main Street and Claremont Avenue, across the street from the new library building site. At a meeting April 17, 1899, Jacob Cahn reported that the town council had given the asso- HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 231 ciation two upper east rooms of the Opera House, free of rent, "on condition of good behavior." The treasurer, E. J. Grosscup, reported receipt of an appropriation of $100 and $14.75 from collections. Records of the association tell of various donations by clubs and individuals, small appropriations from the city council and funds raised by entertainments, etc. The woman's edition of the Ashland Gazette, Feb. 22, 1895, brought in $230. On March 4, 1899, the Ashland Library Association was incorporated. In that year the library was moved to new quarters in the Opera House and after that building burned Feb. 18, 1903, rooms over Black's bakery on East Main Street were used until the Opera House was rebuilt, when the library was re-established there. In the summer of 1914 additional rooms having been arranged for any money donated by a number of Ashland citizens, substantial improvements to the library were made. At the annual meeting Feb. 27, 1922, Mrs. C. J. Kenny reported that more books were added to the library in 1921 than any year for a period of thirteen years. Including gifts from clubs, tag day receipts, the Ashland Federation of Women's Clubs secured for the library over $778 and the Lions Club raised nearly $500. In April, 1923, it was decided to make this a school district public library. This gave the library a greatly increased income and with the income from bequests by Miss Belle Osborn, Miss Melissa Myers and others, and donations of books from time to time, the library has been enabled to enlarge its work steadily. In its new building, it will have facilities for a still greater work. For a number of years Joseph Patterson was president of the association and a great many other public-spirited citizens have been identified with this helpful institution. The present trustees are: William V. Beach, Mrs. H. E. Andrews, William A. Duff, John Fribley, W. L. Rybolt, Mrs. William Chalmers and Prof. J. E. Bohn. The officers for 1930-31 are : President, Wm. V. Beach ; vice president, John Fribley ; secretary, William A. Duff ; treasurer, Harvey Heifner ; librarian, Mrs. Lola Grabill; assistants, Mrs. Robt. McIntosh and Edward Richter. The library contains about 12,000 volumes. LOUDONVILLE LIBRARY Loudonville Public Library, which has quarters in the city building, increased materially its service to the community during 1930. A report by the librarian, Miss Bertha Scott, shows that 17,907 books 232 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO were loaned during the year, an increase of 2,287 over the previous year. New books added during the year totaled 467, of which thirty-five were gifts. Forty-two magazines and periodicals were subscribed for and subscriptions to eight others are donated by organizations and other friends. Mrs. Gaillard B. Fuller has been president of the board of directors for a number of years. The other directors are Rev. J. H. Kuhlman, Mrs. 0. D. Culler, Mrs. C. Fisher, Miss Ella Miller, Mrs. Martha Whitney and Miss Hoyland Pippett. NORWALK PUBLIC LIBRARY Miss Bertha M. Butler in 1930 gave the following history of the Norwalk Public Library: Few libraries can trace their origin back as many years as that of the Norwalk Public Library, which had its beginning in Civil War days. The first meeting of which there is any record for the establishment of a library in Norwalk was held Jan. 24, 1866. Minutes of a previous meeting were read and approved, but no further record of this meeting had been kept. One week later, on Jan. 31, 1866, was held a meeting of those favorable to the formation of the Young Men's Library and Reading Rooms Association, and the constitution, which had been drafted since the last meeting, was read and adopted. An opportunity was given those present to become members if they desired to do so. Officers were elected for the ensuing year and the necessary records made. On March 6th of the same year a meeting was held to consider a proposition made by the Whittlesey Academy of Arts and Sciences, to lend the use of its bookcases and all books in its possession at that time or afterward acquired, to the Young Men's Library and Reading Rooms Association ; to appropriate $500 from the fund on hand and thereafter not less than $50 annually, to be expended under its direction for the benefit of the library. The loan of books consisted of 1,554 volumes, a number of which had been presented to the Academy by Washington Irving. Added to this was a gift of 100 volumes by Mrs. S. T. Worcester and the two gifts formed a nucleus for the young library. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 233 During our Civil War there were four societies in Norwalk working for soldiers' aid ; two of women, one, the Alert Club, of girls in their teens and another organization of smaller girls. When the war was over these workers found they had $1,050 left, $900 of which belonged to the Alert Club. This sum was turned over to the new Library Association and with this $1,050, the first shelves were put up and the first books purchased. Later Judge and Mrs. Worcester, foremost war workers and founders of the Alert Club, deposited with the Association $1,900 to be kept on interest until the Association was ready to build. The first librarian was Miss Sophia Rowland, who for thirty-five years efficiently served in this capacity and left a memory which will never grow old. The library occupied rooms in various places until 1899, when the lot where the library now stands was purchased and the dwelling on that lot was used as a library until 1903. In this new location Miss Mattie Husted was the librarian. In 1903 this building was removed from the lot and the present building erected at a cost of $25,000, $15,000 of which was given by Mr. Carnegie and the balance by the Whittlesey Academy, the Young Men's Library and Reading Rooms Association and the Firelands Historical Society. The building was completed and opened to the public, May 10, 1905, and the present Public Library of Norwalk became the permanent home of the Young Men's Library and Reading Rooms Association and the Firelands Historical Society, which latter society occupies the basement of the library building. Now for the first time the City of Norwalk enjoyed a free public library. The first librarian in this new library was Mrs. Frances B. Linn, followed in turn by Miss Marian Commings, Miss Lucy E. Strutton and in 1922 the present librarian, Miss Bertha M. Butler. The next important stage in the development of the Norwalk Library came on Feb. 9, 1926, when by the joint action of the City Board of Education and the Young Men's Library and Reading Rooms Association under the provision of Section 7635-7640-1 of the Ohio Code, the Young Men's Library and Reading Rooms Association became the Norwalk City School District Public Library. The Board of Trustees under the present management includes : C. C. Patterson, president ; J. H. Williams, vice president; Mrs. E. Powers, E. D. Cline, E. G. Martin, C. B. Lawrence and A. E. Rowley. 234 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO From now on as the library had more money to finance its projects it made rapid progress. At the close of the year 1929, with a population in Norwalk of 7,775 (according to 1930 census) the Library had a circulation of 52,943 or 6.8 books per person. The children's department has become a vital factor in the community-86.6% of the children of Norwalk having cards at the Library. In 1927 the Public Library reorganized and placed the High School Library on an efficient running basis. Thus at the close of seventy-four years the Norwalk Library has reached a high state of service and has become an important element in the city life. THE FIRELANDS MUSEUM Ohio is rich in archaeological, ethnological and historical museums, including the wonderful building on the campus of Ohio State University, the museums in connection with many of the colleges of Ohio, the Hayes memorial at Freemont, the restored Moravian mission village of Schoenbrunn, near New Philadelphia, the Memorial Museum at Mansfield and the one at Wooster, but the Firelands Museum, occupying the basement of the Norwalk Library Building, has a charm and interest all its own. It is an institution of the Fire-lands Historical Society, which on May 20, 1857, was organized at Norwalk "to collect and preserve in proper form the facts constiuting the history of the Firelands." Leaders in the society's movement included Platt Benedict, founder of Norwalk ; the Rev. Alfred Betts, Philo Wells, Philo Adams, Seth A. Adams, Horace Hall, P. N. Schuyler and Harvey Fowler. For nearly three-quarters of a century the work of gathering this wonderful collection has been going forward and is still being engaged in. For several years the quarters have been inadequate to accommodate numerous valuable collections which have been offered. At a meeting of the executive committee of the society in October, 1930, steps were taken toward the building of an addition, one wing of which will contain articles pertaining to that world-famous son of the Firelands, Thomas A. Edison. The famous inventor is a life member of the society, as is also Henry Ford, famous auto manufacturer of Detroit. The society has $3,000 as a nucleus for a building fund and it was decided to ask the Legislature for an appropria- HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 235 tion of $50,000 toward carrying out the building project. One of the exhibits in this museum which is said to be the second oldest museum in Ohio is an enormous bass viol, eight feet, two inches tall, played by Palmer Gallup at Gilmore's Jubilee in Boston in 1872. The famous explorer and telegraphic engineer, George Kennan, a native of Norwalk, whose revelations in 1885 and 1886 of the Russian exile system in Siberia brought him international fame, sent to the museum a coat of mail such as were worn by the Russian Cossacks when they invaded Siberia about 1580. In a letter in 1921 when he sent the chain mail shirt to the late James G. Gibbs, at that time curator of the museum, Mr. Kennan said: "I brought it from Omsk in Western Siberia where it was dredged up from the bottom of a river some forty years ago. It weighs about sixteen pounds and has a hole in it where, in all probability, the sphere went through that killed the wearer." In three large showcases is displayed the George F. Titus pistol collection, one of the largest collections of the sort in the nation. This collection was made by a former Norwalk man, George F. Titus of Detroit, a life member of the Firelands Historical Society. An article by Mr. Titus regarding this collection appeared in the January, 1921, volume of the Firelands Pioneer. The collection contains pistols of every design from old Turkish guns and flint and steel blunder busses to the modern automatics. One of the most interesting weapons is an old squirrel rifle made in 1721. Another exhibit out of thousands, is a shoe worn by the Ohio giant, Capt. N. V. Bates of Seville. The president of the Firelands Historical Society since 1925 has been Attorney Hewson L. Peeke of Sandusky and John A. Strutton of Norwalk has been treasurer for many years. The other officers are: Vice president, Hon. S. A. Wildman, Norwalk; second vice president, James A. Ryan, Sandusky ; secretary and editor of Firelands Pioneer, Mrs. Esther Gibbs Powers, Norwalk; curator of museum, C. C. Pearl; assistant curator, Harry Bennett; acting curator, J. H. Williams, Norwalk ; librarian, Bertha Butler. The board of trustees consists of President Peeke, the secretary, Mrs. Powers ; S. A. Wildman, Dr. F. E. Weeks, Mrs. Ella C. Little, George S. Stewart and Harold S. Bowen. 236 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO MANSFIELD PUBLIC LIBRARY The Mansfield Public Library, which occupies a splendid building on the south side of West Third Street, that would now cost more than $100,000 to build, and which has an equipment valued at $75,000, was the result of a donation of thirty-five thousand dollars in 1903 by Andrew Carnegie. The city of Mansfield furnished the site on which formerly stood Grace Episcopal Church and pledged $3,500 a year for maintenance. From the Carnegie fund, $2,500 more was obtained for furniture. The Carnegie offer was obtained through the efforts of Miss Martha Mercer, then librarian of Memorial Library, during a trip to New York in the summer of 1902. Miss Mercer, who resigned in 1914 after twenty-four years of service as librarian, passed away April 22, 1930. Miss Helen J. Fox, head librarian since 1914, died very suddenly Jan. 2, 1931. Miss Fox had been in library work in Mansfield for twenty-five years, having been assistant librarian for nine years before succeeding Miss Mercer as librarian in 1914. The work of the Mansfield Library has steadily grown and since 1914, when county stations were established at Bellville, Butler, Lexington, Lucas and Shiloh, has been county wide in scope. Subsequently a station was organized at Plymouth and there are now branches of the Public Library in the new senior high school and in the John Simpson Junior High School. The first library association in Mansfield, so far as the records reveal, was the one formed Nov. 3, 1865. The first president was H. Colby ; vice president, Rev. T. K. Davis ; recording secretary, L. D. Myers ; corresponding secretary, 0. H. Booth ; treasurer, J. H. Reed ; executive committee, W. S. Hickox, L. B. Matson and J. M. Jolley. Quarters were secured in the court house with J. E. Wharton in charge and in a few years some 1,800 volumes had been collected besides magazines and other printed matter as a nucleus for a public library. The Mansfield Lyceum became custodian of the collection of books, which became a part of the Memorial Library which was organized in 1887 and had its quarters on the first floor of the Madison Township Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Building on Park Avenue, West. For a couple of years before Miss Mercer secured the Carnegie offer, the rooms in the Memorial Building had become inadequate for the pro- HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 237 gram of expansion and the opportunity for securing a library building was very gratifying. Miss Fox, in a historical sketch of the library, mentions that under the municipal code of October, 1902, a board of library trustees appointed by the mayor, was provided for. The board appointed by Mayor Huntington Brown, Nov. 19, 1903, consisted of Judge N. M. Wolfe, president ; James Reynolds, vice president; Richard Gailey, secretary ; F. M. Bushnell, treasurer ; and T. B. Martin and J. H. Herring. The Memorial board at this time was composed of Mrs. Henry M. Weaver, president ; Miss Anna Scattergood, vice president; Mrs. Roeliff Brinkerhoff, Jr., secretary; Mrs. Alfred C. Hand, treasurer; and Mrs. Mary B. Mitchell and Mrs. Lyman A. Strong. The Memorial and Municipal Library boards have, from this date to the present time (1930), cooperated in the administration of library affairs. The new library building was formally opened Saturday evening, Dec. 19, 1908. The Memorial Library board had given $1,000 toward the furnishing of the new building, and in later years contributed funds. In 1908 the library consisted of about 15,000 volumes. A rental collection, started in 1914 with money given by the Memorial Library board, has added about 5,000 books ; 700 books from Senator John Sherman's Library were received in 1904 from Mrs. Mary Sherman McCallum. Other gifts include the John C. Larwill bequest of $5,000; John Baxter Black memorial books ; juvenile books from Robert S. Gibson, treasurer of the board of trustees and the Enos J. Forney endowment fund of $9,968.91. The County Commissioners aided in establishing the county library work. The library was changed in March, 1924, from a municipal organization to a school district library. Mrs. E. O. Huggins was president of the Memorial Library board, 1900 to 1901; Miss Anna Scattergood, 1901 to 1902 ; and Mrs. Henry M. Weaver since 1903. Municipal Library board presidents : Judge N. M. Wolfe, 1903-1913; Dr. W. E. Loughridge, 1914-1923; D. F. Shafer since 1924. Presidents of board of trustees of city school district library: D. F. Shafer, 1924-1927, and Attorney W. McE. Weldon since 1928. The present library staff consists of Miss Gladys Nichols, acting librarian ; Miss Ellen Ewing, reference librarian ; Miss Margaret Trott, children's librarian ; Miss Wathena Bowers, cataloguer ; Miss 238 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Catherine Sowers, Miss Edith Cairns and Miss Clara Conklin, general assistants ; Miss Gladys Nichols, senior high school librarian ; Miss Edna Johnson, junior high school librarian. WOOSTER PUBLIC LIBRARY AND MUSEUM A pamphlet issued by the Wooster Library gives the following information : The trustees of Wooster Public Library are Mrs. E. C. Dix, president ; Ira L. Neely, vice president ; Mrs. F. E. Boigegrain, David Taggert, G. C. Maurer, Mrs. Wayne Hart, Rev. Charles D. Hering and Mrs. Eugenia W. Glenn, the librarian, is also secretary of the organization. A Library Association was founded in Wooster in 1857 and twenty-five years later the Peoples Library Association was established. In the museum is a certificate of membership dated Dec. 2, 1882, made out to the late George J. Schwartz, curator of the museum for many years, and signed by Jesse McClellan. In 1895 the Woman's Christian Association was organized with a reading room for the general public and two years later the Wooster Free Library Association was formed. In 1900 the library was changed from a subscription library to a library supported by levying tax. A gift of $15,000 was given to the Wooster Library by Andrew Carnegie in 1903 and two years later the present library building, located at North Market and Larwill streets, was opened. In 1925 a school branch of the library was opened in the High School Building. The total number of volumes at the beginning of 1931, including books in the high school branch, was 16,108. The growth of the library has steadily increased, as is shown by the following figures : Circulation of books in 1928, 64,439 ; in 1929, 73,686; for the first ten months of 1930, 70,042, which is a gain of 41,318 over the same period during 1920, and a gain of 20,000 over the total circulation for the year 1910. James Mullins, in 1910, donated to the Museum cases of mounted birds and in 1918, after the addition of a larger collection and new cases purchased by citizens of the community through the efforts of George T. Schwartz, the museum was opened. The museum, which occupies the second floor of the library building, is one of which Wooster may well be proud. For at least twenty-two years the late George J. Schwartz, who died Feb. 15, 1924, gave liberally of time and money in the assembling of this collection. Mr. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 239 Schwartz, who was a former partner of Walter D. Foss in the brush manufacturer in Wooster( was curator of the museum, also served as trustee of the library and as trustee of the college of Wooster. He was an authority on bird life. Through his indefatigable efforts many valuable collections were secured for the museum. The display of documents, papers and letters pertaining to the early days in Wooster is particularly interesting, the first map of Wooster in 1811, a justice of the peace document beginning in 1812 and used for thirty years, books relating to the corporation in 1817, first proceedings of the borough of Wooster, copies of the Ohio Spectator, 1819, Ohio Oracle, 1823, and a rare copy of the Western Telegraph. One of the books in the collection of pioneers' school books is one published in 1802. In one of the cases of pioneer relics is wooden type made in Fredericksburg, the first wooden type made west of the Allegheny Mountains. There are cases of rare fosils, geological specimens, Indian relics, implements of the mound builders. Dr. Joseph H. Todd of Wooster, one of Ohio's best known collectors, gave to the museum many thousands of articles. There are collections sent by missionaries in China and West Africa. Petrified woods, Philippine relics and forty cases of mounted birds and small animals. "Only the larger cities of Ohio—Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo and Dayton—have museums comparable with Wooster," said Prof. G. C. Maurer, superintendent of the Wooster Public Schools and former president of the board of trustees of the library. "Everyone of our citizens can feel proud of such a fine collection of relics, curios, specimens and documents. We shall never forget the splendid service rendered by George J. Schwartz, custodian and curator, who spent time and money so cheerfully in the interest of both library and museum." The new curator of the Wooster museum is Albert Rich, who in the first part of 1931 re-arranged the collection. WADSWORTH LIBRARY The library at Wadsworth was founded by the Wadsworth Federa• lion of Women's Clubs in 1922. On Jan. 15, 1926, the library was moved to its present building which was the gift of Ella M. Everhard and which now bears her name. The present board of trustees are : Charles Edgar Curtis, president; Charles E. Holbein, vice president ; Charles B. Allen, secretary ; 240 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Henry Martin, Jr., treasurer; Ella M. Everhard, Frank Hunsberger and Mrs. F. B. Farnsworth. Mrs. Alice Vanderhoff Woodard is librarian and Mrs. W. H. Auck is her assistant. Dec. 1, 1930, the library contained volumes as follows : Juvenile, 2,820; adult fiction, 2,793 ; non-fiction, 1,867 ; reference, 275 ; a total of 7,755 volumes. HERRICK PUBLIC LIBRARY, WELLINGTON Wellington is justly proud of the Herrick Public Library presented Jan. 2, 1904, by the statesman, Myron T. Herrick, former governor of Ohio and twice United States Ambassador to France. The beautiful and splendidly arranged library building stands on the east side of the public square occupying the site of the famous American House from which, on Sept. 13, 1858, a fugitive slave, seized by United States marshal and assistants, was rescued by Oberlin and Wellington people. During 1931 a large addition to the library building will be completed, as provided for in the will of Ambassador Herrick, who left $70,000 for enlargement and maintenance of Herrick Library. The library in 1930 contained 16,050 volumes and the circulation averaged 23,000 books per year for the previous ten years. In the early 40s, a library was established over Reed's general store on the public square. At the time of the Civil War, up to which time the library had been maintained, the books were sold at auction. In April, 1873, the Wellington Library Association was formed with S. S. Warner, president ; N. Huckings, secretary ; G. L. Couch, assistant ; committee on constitution and plans for permanent library, E. F. Webster, W. R. Wean, J. H. Dickson and Lucius Herrick. With Miss Ella Wadsworth as librarian at $100 per year, the library was in operation in a room over the First Wellington Bank. The library at that time consisted of 1,100 books. In 1885, when the present Town Hall was erected, a room was fitted up for the library and reading room. From 1886 to 1904 the Wellington Township trustees maintained the library. When Myron T. Herrick came from his farm home in Huntington Township and attended Wellington High School, he enjoyed the little library over the bank and it is said that he told his mother one time that if he ever had the money to do it, he would give Wellington a library building. Steadfast in this purpose he purchased in 1902 the American House property and erected thereon a $25,000 library HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 241 building, dedicated Jan. 2, 1904. Miss Lenora L. Laundon, whose efficient work as librarian lives on in the community, died a few months after the library was removed to the new building. The present librarian is Miss Edith E. Robinson and the trustees are : R. W. Walden, E. A. VanCleef and W. B. Vischer. Gifts for the library have been received from time to time, $1,075 raised by the women of Wellington, small endowment funds from the Joseph Turley and Edward West estates and in 1927, $3,000 for the Charles C. Boise endowment fund. On January 7, 1928, when the memorial tablet presented by the people of Wellington and vicinity, sponsored by the Wellington Kiwanis Club, was placed at the entrance to the library building it was received by Ambassador Herrick. It sets forth that the library on the site of the American House was erected by "Honorable Myron T. Herrick, once our fellow citizen, always our friend. He dedicated it to the memory of his father and mother, Timothy R. Herrick and Mary Hulbert Herrick, and presented it to the township of Wellington Jan. 2, 1904." This was Mr. Herrick's last appearance in Wellington. He looked forward to seeing the library annex erected on his return to America but death came, this benefactor of Wellington passing away in Paris, France, March 31, 1929. His son, Parmely W. Herrick, of Cleveland, was present when ground was broken Aug. 22, 1930, for the library annex. An address on that occasion was delivered by the Rev. Dr. William E. Barton, a former pastor of the Wellington Congregational Church, who passed away at his home in the East, Dec. 7, 1930. Mrs. S. K. Laundon, aged ninety, whose grandfather was one of the first settlers in Wellingtotn and whose father was the first postmaster, played the piano for the singing of "America." LORAIN PUBLIC LIBRARY The Lorain Public Library Building at Tenth Street and Streeter Place was built in 1903. The quarters are commodious and the total number of volumes is about 24,000. The East Side Branch is at 339 East Erie Street and there are also branch libraries at the Longfellow Junior High School, Hawthorne Junior High School, Senior High School and in South Lorain at the Y. M. C. A. 242 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO The members of the library board are: L. A. Fauver, president ; Mrs. F. A. Rowley, vice president; Mrs. A. K. Hibbard, D. A. Cook, E. P. Reidy, P. C. Bunn, Adolph Kohlmyer. The members of the library staff consist of Miss Margaret Grant, librarian ; Mrs. Julia Sherman, reference librarian ; Miss Nina Baldwin, cataloguer; Miss Lucille Erwin, children's librarian; Miss Isabelle Kananen, high school librarian ; Mrs. Marie Fitzharris, Miss Mary Rose, Miss Helen Marquette, Miss Carol Horn, Miss Janet Baker, Miss Virginia Pandy and Mrs. Marian Anderson. SYLVESTER LIBRARY, MEDINA The Sylvester Public Library occupies a commodious building at the corner of East Washington and South Broadway. The movement which resulted in the formation of the library in Medina had its beginning in a meeting of a group of citizens at Union Hall, Jan. 15, 1877, on call of Prof. W. R. Commings, who was at that time superintendent of the Medina schools. The Library Association was organized at that time and a week later the constitution was adopted. The first president of the association was A. T. Reed; secretary, Miss Josie Manning ; treasurer, Eunice Butler ; librarian, Aldis Asire; executive committee, W. R. Commings, Miss Annie Shepard and J. S. Mason. For thirteen years the library had no real home, the books being kept in stores. For ten years it was in Miss Merva Andrews' jewelry store, she being the librarian during that period. For over twenty years the library was supported by annual dues of a dollar a year, returns from lectures, entertainments, etc., and by donations of individuals and organization. In 1890 a reading room was added, a room over W. Albros' drug store. Miss Eva Johnson became librarian and continued until 1925. In 1899 the Medina Library Association was incorporated and a small building on the north side of the public square was purchased. Here it remained until the Franklin Sylvester Library was built in 1905, the donor being Franklin Sylvester, a wealthy cattle raiser and dealer of Granger Township. The library has had many staunch supporters. Two trustees, Dr. C. B. Freeman and J. Sargent, were connected with the organization over thirty years. Judge Kennan was a worker in behalf of the library for many years up to the time of his death. Miss Flora E. Hard served as secretary of the association from 1881 to 1905. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 243 The library has over 6,000 volumes. The present librarian is Miss Elizabeth Urch, who in July, 1930, succeeded Miss Edna L. Eckert. The assistant librarian is Miss Grace Helen Kemp. Library Association officers (1930) : President, Miss Clara Wheatley, former principal of Medina High School ; secretary, Max Burnham ; other trustees: Huber Root, Dr. Will Nichols, J. Sargent, Mrs. Carl Wilson and Miss Clara Steeb. SHREVE LIBRARY Shreve Library was founded in 1911 by an association of ladies and has at the present about 2,877 volumes. Members of the board of trustees are Mrs. Loa Parson, president ; Mrs. Effie Kauffman, vice president; Mrs. William Boyd, secretary ; Mrs. Marcella Wilent, treasurer ; Mrs. Mabell Shelly, Mrs. Will Carl, Mrs. Will Shreve and Mrs. Maude Miley. Miss Susan Tice is librarian and Mrs. Sylvia Critchfield is her assistant. MT. VERNON PUBLIC LIBRARY Back in 1816—a hundred and fifteen years ago—when Mt. Vernon was a village of about 400 inhabitants, the Mt. Vernon Literary Society was formed and began the collection of books for a library. So long ago was the need of library facilities recognized. The Mt. Vernon Lyceum, formed in 1830, succeeded in collecting several hundred books. In 1856, the Mt. Vernon Library Society was formed and continued its work until 1864. An April 23, 1884, the city council selected a library committee and the old library was acquired. The library building at North Main and Sugar streets was formerly the United Presbyterian Church. It was remodeled for library purposes and was formally opened Feb. 18, 1888. It contains 8,200 volumes and a work of very great influence in the community and neighboring territories is accomplished. The librarian is Miss Bess B. Bennett and the assistants, Mrs. Esther Neher and Miss Louise Van Voorhis. H. C. Devin was president of the library board in 1930 and Mrs. J. K. Lyman, secretary. The other members of the board were R. C. Ringwalt, Mrs. F. L. Beam, Rev. James G. Hunt, W. L. Robinson and B. B. Williams. 244 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO MARVIN MEMORIAL LIBRARY, SHELBY The Marvin Memorial Library at Shelby was founded in 1897. It has 12,000 volumes in its own building, a fine property. The board of trustees consists of: John 0. Hughes, president ; R. I. Lewis, vice president; Mrs. Pearl H. Seltzer, secretary-treasurer ; Miss Georgia Ott, Mrs. Lawrence Hoffman, Mrs. Boyd Smith, and D. Bruce Young. Members of the library staff are : Elsa E. Koupal, librarian ; Ella Askew, assistant, and Helen E. Williams, assistant. AMHERST LIBRARY The Amherst Library was founded in September, 1906. There are approximately 7,500 books in this Carnegie Building. The librarian is Maud Nieding and the board of trustees are : Mrs. Joseph Westbecher, president ; Arthur Tolhurst, Dr. Powers, George Holstein, Mrs. Nord, Mrs. Lucy Roemer, and Miss Marian Steele, secretary and treasurer. Avon Lake established a new library a few months ago and it is meeting a community need in a very gratifying way. NEW LONDON PUBLIC LIBRARY In 1910, as there was no library in New London, Miss Elizabeth N. McConnell opened her home to the public for this purpose. However, on July 15, 1916, the new Carnegie Library was dedicated with Miss McConnell as librarian. At the present time, Miss McConnell is librarian-emeritus, Miss Marian B. Wood is librarian and Miss Myrtle Erb, Miss Paula Porter, Miss Lucille Smith and Miss Lillian Twaddle are assistants. The library contains over 8,100 volumes. The present board of library trustees is : Supt. I. L. Landes, president ; B. V. Winebar, secretary-treasurer ; E. M. Palmer, Mrs. Anna Swanger, Mrs. Alice Arnold and Miss Stella Townsend. WILLARD LIBRARY The Willard Public Library, which was founded in 1921, has quarters in the Willard City Hall. The numbers of volumes at the close of 1930 was 2,900. E. L. Wolff, president of the board of trustees, has occupied that position ever since the library was founded ; Mrs. R. P. Sharick, vice president ; Mrs. L. Simmermacher, secretary ; Mrs. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 245 D. C. Haum, treasurer. Other members of the board are Mayor C. L. Willoughby, Supt. C. I. Landis, Mrs. H. H. Neff and Mrs. 0. J. Landefeld. Miss Elizabeth Sykes has been librarian since the library was established and Mrs. T. C. Kinney is substitute. HISTORICAL SOCIETIES OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Increased interest in the formation of county and local historical societies has been seen since the Ohio History Conference, called by the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society at Columbus, Feb. 7, 1930. North Central Ohio people have been prominent in the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society since its reorganization March 12, 1885. Gen. Roeliff Brinkerhoff of Mansfield was first to be vice president of the organization and afterwards president, being actively identified with it the rest of his life. Other life members during the first three years of the organization—from North Central Ohio—were Rev. G. T. Bedell, Gambier; John S. Braddock, Mt. Vernon ; Dr. William Bushnell, Miss Susan M. Sturges, Henry C. Hedges, M. D. Harter, Judge Manuel May, Senator John Sherman, Willis M. Sturges, John E. Stuges, all of Mansfield ; W. C. Cooper, Henry B. Curtis (died Nov. 5, 1885), Henry L. Curtis, Columbus Delano, George W. Morgan, Prof. J. A. Shawan, all of Mt. Vernon ; Heman Ely, N. B. Gates, George G. Washburn, Elyria ; Dr. J. P. Henderson, Newville ; Rev. 0. A. Hills, Dr. J. D. Robinson, Rev. Dr. S. F. Scovil, Dr. Joseph H. Todd, U. S. Judge Martin Welker, all of Wooster ; Prof. George C. T. Southworth, Prof. Eli T. Tappan, of Gambier ; A. R. McIntire, Dr. G. E. McKown, Mt. Vernon ; Hiram R. Smith, Mansfield ; and Prof. G. Frederick Wright of Oberlin, who was afterwards president of the society. The Richland County Historical Society, which unfortunately is no longer in existence, was organized Nov. 23, 1898. The officers in 1901 were : President, Gen. R. Brinkerhoff ; vice president, Attorney George F. Carpenter ; secretary, A. J. Baughman ; treasurer, Martin B. Bushnell. The Mansfield Lyceum, previously mentioned, which continued for several decades, was organized Sept. 6, 1871, with Barnabus Burns as president ; Henry C. Hedges, Michael D. Harter and Prof. H. M. Parker, vice presidents ; recording secretary, Charles Elliott ; corresponding secretary, J. M. Hillyar ; treasurer, E. W. Smith ; librarian, W. S. Bradford. In 1900 Charles N. Gaumer, former publisher of the Mansfield Shield and Banner, was president of the 246 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Lyceum and A. J. Baughman was secretary. On the top floor of the Memorial Building is an historical museum, which should be more accessible. Common Pleas Judge Charles C. Chapman is president of the Ashland County Historical Society, organized Oct. 19, 1929 ; vice president, T. V. Simanton ; secretary, William A. Duff ; assistant secretary, Miss Lera A. Markley ; treasurer, Joseph Patterson, president of the First National Bank, who is probably the oldest active banker in the United States. Among the township chairmen are Postmaster Arthur Vanosdall, Ashland ; Miss Rae Bailey, Savannah ; Mayor C. E. Budd, Loudonville ; Mrs. H. J. Wiltrout, Polk; Daniel E. Beach, Ruggles ; J. W. Davidson, Nova ; and County Commissioner Wallace W. Barnhill, Orange Township. The society has monthly meetings, is marking historic spots and is greatly stimulating interest in local history. The Shelby Historical Association was organized March 14, 1930, with thirty-eight members. H. Dale Kuhn is president ; C. J. Laser, secretary and treasurer; and the executive committee consists of H. D. Kuhn, John Kingsboro, Raymond Wilkinson, Dr. Moffatt, R. P. Bricker, Elsa Koupal, and Ed May. The Lorain County Historical Society was founded in 1889. It followed a temporary organization, the Centennial Loan Association of 1888, which had for its purpose the proper representation of woman's work at the Ohio Centennial Exhibition held that year in Columbus. Previous to this time there was a group of eight men, of which F. S. Reefy was the leader, who had started upon the road of a collection of such as geological specimens, Indian relics, etc., and this was turned over to the later instituted society. This collection first was kept in the basement of the county court house but these quarters were needed for county purposes and in the early part of the winter of 1913-14 it was stored. While in storage a fire broke out in the rooms beneath and part of the collection was destroyed. In 1927 the Elyria Library trustees, having purchased the Dr. Carl P. Reefy residence remodeled it for library purposes and added a two-story brick building for stack room. In the basement of the building quarters were provided for the society's collection. The present officers are Miss Eva L. Reefy, president and trustee ; Mrs. F. W. Underhill, vice president ; Mrs. C. S. Johnson, member of the executive committee. Mrs. W. E. Cahoon, who was secretary and treasurer, is now deceased. CHAPTER XXVI. GROWTH OF ELECTRIC SERVICE INDUSTRY ISOLATED STEAM-ENGINE DRIVEN PLANTS FOR LIGHTING FORERUNNERS OF SUPERPOWER PLANTS-INTERURBAN ELECTRIC LINES-MELCO AND AVON POWER STATIONS-INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. The rapid development of this section of Ohio has been closely interlinked with the development of the art of generating, transmitting and distributing electric current. Since 1879 when Thomas A. Edison invented the first electric light bulb the growth of electric service companies has been phenomenal. Electricity was first used only for lighting and the invention of the alternating current motor paved the way for its use in industrial plants. At first small isolated steam engine driven plants were established in each of the larger towns and cities and these plants were located close to the load for their current. These plants, the forerunners of the present-day superpower plants, operated only a few hours per day and service was very unreliable. The operation of the original Ashland Gas and Electric Company plant was typical of the service available in towns and cities of Huron, Lorain, Medina, Wayne, Ashland, Richland, and Knox counties. The plant was started up at dusk and operated only until midnight. On moonlight nights no street lights were burned and one or two men took entire care of the plant, lines and poles. Later a few motors in factories were connected and the plant operated all day, with frequent interruptions to service from failure of equipment or other causes. The cost of current was high and only the well-to-do citizen could afford its use in their home for lights. Electrical appliances, such as irons, washers, radios, vacuum cleaners, toasters, percolators, etc., were unknown. It was assumed the principal use for electric current was for lighting. - 247 - 248 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Shortly after the year 1900 a few electric railways were established and gradually interurban electric lines were built. In this section what is now known as the Cleveland and Southwestern Railroad was built. Also the Lake Shore Electric Railway and a few minor short lines. The Cleveland and Southwestern Railroad connected Cleveland with the cities of Elyria, Oberlin, Medina, Wooster, Ashland, Mansfield, and Norwalk. The Lake Shore Electric Railway connected Cleveland and Toledo and ran through Lorain, and Sandusky. Before the advent of paved roads and the automobile interurban railways were the principal means of transportation for short trips not available by steam railroads. Frequent service was given and amusement parks, served by electric lines, were established in various choice locations. During the period of the World War the counties of Huron, Lorain, Medina, Wayne, Ashland, Richland and Knox developed rapidly along with the rest of Northern Ohio as an industrial and manufacturing region. As a natural and economic point for the iron ore from the north and the coal from the south to meet steel mills, foundries, metal working plans and allied industries were established. Automobile parts fabricating plants developed and the cities grew in size. Rubber plants, brass plants, glass factories and a large variety of industrial plants sprang up. With the growth of the cities standards of living were raised ; bigger payrolls put more money into circulation ; new homes were built and items formerly classed as luxuries became necessities for the recognized standard of comfortable living. The alternating current motor was put into use as a source of motive power in the manufacturing plants. The ease of installation ; operation and flexible plant control as well as more efficiency and production resulted in practically all industries becoming electrified. From this the character of service given by local electric current companies changed and their service, instead of being practically all for lighting became predominately for power. In a large number of the cities in these counties over ninety per cent of the total current was used for power. Naturally these heavy loads and demands for power swamped the local electric plants. When they were built they had not provided for expansion and the fact, known all along to far seeing engineers, became evident that large capacity plants could not be built in the HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 249 cities where the power was used. This was because of sufficient condensing water not being available. A modern plant used twenty tons of water to each ton of coal and the water must be of a normal temperature to condense the steam quickly after the steam has done its work in the turbine which turns the generator. Coal can be transported but water transportation is impractical. The two sources of water in Ohio in sufficient quantities for a large modern plant are the shores of Lake Erie and the banks of the Ohio River and lower sections of the Muskingum River. Thus we have seen the modern plants located about equally in each place. In the case of power plants on Lake Erie's shore there is a high freight rate on coal from the mines of Southern Ohio and West Virginia and in the case of power plants on the Ohio River there is the transmission line cost and losses to get the power up in the section which uses it. In Lorain County at Avon is located a large power station owned and operated by The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company. Built at a cost of many millions it generates power for Northeastern Ohio and has a capacity of several hundred thousand horsepower. Transmission lines on steel towers carry the power to distributing substations. The Rowsburg Road substation of The Ohio Public Service Company at Ashland is typical of these outdoor stations. Modern business methods soon saw control of the small isolated plants pass into the hands of larger companies, adequately financed and properly managed to give the type of service the cities required. Steel tower transmission lines were built ; mammoth substations erected and facilities for distributing power economically and reliably in large quantities put in. The city of Lorain which has at present a demand of 20,000 horsepower is served by a large steam plant and also by high voltage transmission lines from Toledo, Cleveland and Ashland. This situation is typical of the service available in such cities as Elyria, Ashland, Wooster, Mansfield, Mt. Vernon and others. All electric utilities in Ohio come under state control as to the rates charged for service. Utility companies are allowed, after paying all operating and normal maintenance charges and setting aside five per cent of their valuation for replacements to earn eight per cent as a net profit. Very few of them charge rates so as to earn the full amount allowed by law and any earnings over the allowed amount are cared for by a reduction in rates. The history of rates since 1922