(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) 300 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO a fair on grounds on Sandusky Street, now a residence section and the fairs of the present Ashland County Agricultural Society are held at the fairgrounds on the Mansfield road, Route 42, southwest of Ashland. One of the pioneer manufacturers of Ashland was Martin H. Mansfield, father of Judge Edwin Mansfield, of Mansfield, and of Lieut.-Com. Newton Mansfield, of Ashland, retired officer of the United States Navy and secretary of the Ashland Community Chest. Martin Mansfield, clover huller inventor, manufactured his machines in Mifflin Township in 1849 and located in Ashland the following year. Here during the next few years he made plows and other farm implements in addition to supplying an increased demand for the clover hullers. A partnership with David Whiting began in 1856 and continued to 1860 when he sold his interest in the machine works on Center Street to his partner, who continued as a manufacturer for many years. In January, 1861, Mr. Mansfield resumed the manufacture of clover hullers on Main Street and the following year erected a factory building, now the quarters of the Ohio Public Service Company, continuing in business until 1875. This factory building was afterwards the plant of F. E. Myers & Brother until the first buildings of the present mammoth plant on Orange Street were erected in 1885. The development of this and other manufacturing institutions is given in another chapter. The establishment of the clover huller works and the pump and hay tool manufacturing plant a little later, marks the beginning of mass production here. There had been manufacture of commodities from the early decades of the village, the tailor, shoemaker, hatmaker, potter, the wagon and buggy maker, the miller, the maker of wooden pumps and other individuals produced articles for patrons in the village and surrounding country. The past sixty years or more have seen momentous changes along this as well as along all other lines of the community life. In the 70s there were the same changes in conditions, the same breaking up of old methods, the same sharp readjustments in this decade following the close of the Civil War that we have seen in recent years since the World War. The experience of Ashland was similar to that of other communities of North Central Ohio. Old frame buildings on Main Street began to be replaced by fine new brick business blocks. In 1873 the First National Bank located a few doors up the street where it had started as a private HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 301 bank in 1852 and later became a national bank, obtained the site at the northwest corner of Main and Orange streets and erected thereon the present building, remodeled in comparatively recent years. At the northeast corner across from the bank building there was erected in this era by Dr. J. P. Cowan, E. W. Wallack and W. C. Frazee, the large business block on the third floor of which until recent years, the Masonic lodge had its hall. The present Masonic Temple is on South Street. In 1874 Jonas and Randolph D. Freer, pioneer merchants, stock buyers and grain dealers of Ashland, founded the Farmers Bank and erected a brick building on the south side of Main Street, west of the Town Hall. This building was succeeded by the present Farmers Bank building which was formally opened July 25, 1918. The years that followed witnessed many important changes in Ashland, especially on Main Street. March 1 to 14, 1874, the temperance crusade which swept over Ohio resulted in an aggressive campaign in Ashland. Ashland College received its charter Feb. 22, 1878. The original college building was erected, now Founder's Hall, and the boarding hall. The college opened September 17th of the following year. In June, 1881, the annual meeting of the Dunkard Church, a notable gathering, was held in Ashland, eight thousand visitors being in attendance at this national convocation. Following a split in the church, the college entered upon a period of vicissitude from which under the control of the Brethren Church it recovered and during the past couple of decades it has had a steady and substantial growth, its influence constantly widening. P. A. Myers, president of the F. E. Myers & Bro. Co., Ashland's largest industry, tells me that the first self-binders in Ashland County were used during the harvest of 1881, he and his brother, the late F. E. Myers, placing it at that time fifty-one McCormick binders, all but one of which were purchased by the farmers who took them on trial. One man after cutting all the grain on his own farm and a considerable amount for his neighbors, brough the binder back having decided that he didn't care to buy it. April 10, 1882, the Old Stone Corner at Main and Church streets, one of the landmarks of Ashland, was destroyed by fire ; May 30th the Opera House was opened and on September 15th of that year the Ashland County Pioneer Historical Society, organized seven years 302 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO before, dedicated monuments in Mifflin Township marking the sites of the Ruffner-Zeimer and Copus massacres seventy years before. One of the twenty buildings burned in Ashland April 26, 1883, was the Trinity Lutheran Church on the north side of West Third Street between Orange and Church, the work of which began here in October, 1839, the first pastor being Rev. William J. Sloan. On June 3d of that year the Presbyterian Church, the cornerstone of which was laid August 1, 1879, on the site of the old stone church building, was dedicated. The work of the Presbyterian Church in this community began as early as 1814, the first visiting pastor being Rev. Joshua Beer. The first pastor at Hopewell Church, erected in 1819, a mile west of Uniontown, was Rev. William Matthews. In the auditorium of this present church, remodeled and enlarged in recent years, is a tablet commemorating the Rev. Dr. John Robinson, who beginning in 1844, served as pastor of the church for more than forty years. The First Methodist class was organized in Ashland in 1823, on April 12th of which year Francis Graham was appointed as first postmaster of Ashland. The little stone church sold to the county in 1846 was erected in 1833. The second M. E. Church, built in 1847 at the southeast corner of Church and West Fourth streets, was occupied until the new church at Sandusky and Cottage streets was dedicated June 10, 1888. This building has been remodeled and the new church school building was dedicated May 18, 1930. The Christian Church began its work in Ashland in 1836, Rev. John Reed, first pastor. The first church was erected in 1843 on the west side of Orange Street at Fourth. The second edifice on the same site was dedicated Dec. 30, 1888, and the present church building at Fourth and Cottage streets was dedicated Oct. 7, 1923. The Ashland United Brethren Church, founded in 1867 with Rev. R. Watson as its first pastor, erected a house of worship on East Walnut Street, west of the old Walnut Street school building, in 1870. The new church at Center and East Washington streets was erected in 1894. On New Year's Day, 1868, Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church was founded with Rev. C. Schmidt as its first pastor. The church building at West Main and Broad streets is one of the landmarks of that section of the city. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 303 St. Edward's Catholic Church, founded in 1871 with Rev. Father Magenhann as its first pastor, occupied the old Hopewell Church building on Cottage Street, which succeeded the Hopewell Church west of Ashland. The present St. Edward's, a brick structure which was remodeled some years ago, replaced the old building which was destroyed by fire. The work of Emmanuel Evangelical Church began in the early 60s and the brick church on the north side of East Third Street, now occupied by the First Church of the Brethren as its church home, was erected in 1874. The present Emmanuel Evangelical Church, stone building at East Third and Cleveland Avenue, was dedicated Feb. 22, 1914. In 1930 it was remodeled. The First Brethren Church, which for many years conducted its services in the Ashland College chapel, was founded May 22, 1879, with Elder S. Z. Sharp, first president of Ashland College, as pastor. The new church edifice on Park Street was dedicated May 23, 1926. The present Trinity Lutheran Church, erected at the southeast corner of Church and West Third streets in 1884 after the old church was burned, has been twice remodeled and enlarged, first in 1908 and again in 1914. The Salvation Army began its work in Ashland in 1885 with Captain Garner and wife as the first officers. Services were held in the old Baptist Church on West Walnut Street and for a number of years the present quarters of the Ashland Times-Gazette editorial and composing rooms were the Army Hall until the erection of the Salvation Army Hall on East Main Street. The Congregational Church at Center and Maple streets was erected following the organization of the church society in 1889. The first pastor was the Rev. John M. Merrill. The Union Mission Chapel on West Tenth Street was dedicated May 25, 1913, carrying on a work in the northwest part of the city. The Church of the Nazarene is on West Fourth Street. The Christian Science Church is on Claremont Avenue ; the Gospel Hall in the Riebel Block and the Penecostal Church Society meets in the G. A. R. Hall. One of the notable events in Ashland in the middle 80s was the encampment of the Seventeenth Regiment, Ohio National Guard, in Semple's (or Cahn's) Grove, northeast of the city. A civic demonstration, the Mardi Gras, with marching soldiers, floats, civic organi- 304 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO zations, bicycle club, Ike Saner's Fantastics, the "Jones' Best" Jumbo and fourteen bands and other musical organizations, brought many thousands of people to the town. The rains had left the other streets too muddy so the line of march was confined to Main Street. Though binders had been introduced in Ashland County four years before this, a Buckeye low-down binder in operation in the parade attracted a great deal of attention. In the evening there was a military dance at the Great Eastern Roller Skating Rink on West Main Street. Governor badly and staff visited the encampment and reviewed the troops Saturday, August 15th. When Ashland's electric light plant was put into operation April 25, 1891—forty years ago—the citizens felt that a big step forward had been taken to have the streets electrically lighted. Up to that time from Dec. 26, 1857, when the artificial gas plant on the south side of East Main Street, east of the present Montgomery-Ward building, was put into operation, Ashland's streets were lighted by gas, the lighter with his ladder making his rounds at eventide and a later trip at about ten o'clock to extinguish them. The water works system was installed in 1895, being put into operation September 23d of that year. The construction of the sewer system followed in 1902. April 24, 1898, saw the departure of the Ashland soldier boys of Company C, Eighth Regiment, to join the other members of the company for the Spanish-American War. July 15th of that memorable year free delivery of mail was established in Ashland with two carriers and on October 12th of the following year Ashland had an elaborate celebration marking the completion of the Ashland & Wooster Railroad from Ashland to Custaloga where it connected with the Pennsylvania. One of the speakers on that occasion was "Golden Rule" Jones, famous mayor of Toledo. Traffic on that line, which was completed through to Lorain in October, 1914, was discontinued a few years ago. With the close of January, 1931, operations were discontinued on the Cleveland Southwestern, which was completed through Ashland to Mansfield in August, 1908. With the extension of complete systems of paved highways throughout state and nation, methods of transportation have changed rapidly. Beginning in 1899 the Star Telephone Company, which bought out the People's Telephone Company of Butler, now operates in thirteen other communities in addition to Ashland. On March 4th of that year the Ashland Library Association, which began as a read- HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 305 ing room in 1893, was incorporated. Dec. 10, 1902, natural gas was turned on in Ashland. In 1905 the Ashland Bank & Savings Company was organized and the formation of the Young Men's Christian Association in December of that year was the outgrowth of a tabernacle revival in the city. The Y. M. C. A. building was dedicated June 15, 1909. The Ashland County Children's Home, for which a farm on Center Street was given by Mrs. Mary F. Freer, was opened October 17, 1907, in which year the Faultless Rubber Company, now one of Ashland's largest manufacturing industries, moved here from Akron. Elsewhere in this history is a sketch of Dr. Hess & Clark, Inc., another of Ashland's largest industries which had its beginning in a little frame building on East Second Street, when in May, 1894, Dr. Gilbert Hess and J. L. Clark formed a partnership for the manufacture of stock foods and remedies. Others of Ashland's thirty-five or more industrial plants are the Garber Publishing & Mfg. Co., which began as a printing plant established by A. L. Garber in 1879 and now consists of a large printing and publishing plant on Orange Street and a paper box manufacturing business in the building formerly occupied by the Federal Match Corporation; the Eagle Rubber Company, started in 1912; the Toycraft Rubber Company, Rybolt Heater Company, Elite Mfg. Company, Topping Mfg. Co., Ashland Malleable Co., Union Malleable Mfg. Co., Improved Mfg. Co., Firestone Foundry Mfg. Co., Ashland Vault Company, Mohican Rubber Co., and the Kauffman Mfg. Co. Ashland is proud of its schools, more extended mention of which is made elsewhere. The central school building was completed in 1875 at a cost of $32,000. In September, 1908, the eight-room Arthur Street school building was finished taking the place of the old two-room Walnut Street school. The Pleasant Street building of eight rooms was finished in January, 1912, taking the place of a two-room school. Another modern school, the Lincoln Building on West Eleventh Street, was occupied a month before this. The other two grade schools, both commodious and of modern construction, are the Grant Street School which succeeded a small building and the Osborn School on East Main Street, dedicated Jan. 29, 1925. It is east of the state armory building, erected at a cost of more than $80,000 and dedicated on Memorial Day of the same year. 306 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Ashland's new high school for the erection of which and the remodeling of the central building, the voters of Ashland in 1914 authorized a hundred thousand dollar bond issue, was dedicated Sept. 6, 1915. The growth of the schools made necessary the erection of a combined auditorium-gymnasium addition to the high school building at a cost of $475,000. This was dedicated May 17, 1927. The present teaching force under Superintendent Bowsher is eighty. The first superintendent of the union schools was J. Lynch. Seth M. Barber succeeded him continuing until 1861 when he entered the army. He was again superintendent from 1867 to 1872. Among the others who served as superintendent were T. J. Barton, J. A. Beattie, B. T. Jones, Miss Emma Potter, Joseph E. Stubbs, Sebastian Thomas, E. P. Dean and J. A. McDowell, the latter serving from 1908 until 1927. A substantial contribution to the advancement of Ashland was the Board of Trade, which was organized in the 90s and did some splendid work in bringing new industries to Ashland. A later organization was the Ashland Commercial Club, formed Dec. 1, 1908, which in the spring of 1915, Ashland centennial year, became the Chamber of Commerce which did effective work along various lines of community advancement. The president in that year was William W. Moore, who was president of the Ashland Centennial Home Coming Association ; vice-president, John M. Stockwell ; secretary, J. W. Brown, who served in a similar capacity in the Centennial Association ; treasurer, Charles Swartz. Among the others who served as president of the Chamber of Commerce were : Former Postmaster George Hildebrand, Appellate Judge Frank N. Patterson, Preston E. Countryman and Edgar Koehl. The Ashland Retail Merchants' Association and Credit Bureau was organized in June, 1925, with C. E. Jamison as president and Mrs. Emma J. Wahl as secretary. In the following year J. C. McClendon became president and in 1927 there was a new Chamber of Commerce organization with Mr. McClendon, president, and Mrs. Wahl, secretary. Chamber of Commerce presidents since then have been Harry L. Horne, now treasurer of the organization ; H. D. Lingle and Floyd D. Stahl. Aggressive work has been done for the advancement of Ashland. An industrial survey was made in 1929. In 1912 P. A. Myers resigned as chief of the Citizens' Relief Fire Company after serving in that capacity for thirty years. He was HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 307 succeeded by Nathan Strauss and the present chief of the Ashland Fire Department is Henry J. Schulz, former county recorder. The city has a motor equipment thoroughly up-to-date, four drivers and seventy-five members of the Fire Company, subject to call. It is said that Ashland has the oldest volunteer organization of fireman in Ohio, an efficient one. Ashland has a charter form of government which became effective Jan. 1, 1916. Officials of the municipality are nominated and elected by non-partisan ballot. The charter commission chosen in 1913 drafted a charter which was adopted at an election June 18, 1914. President of the charter commission was J. L. Clark ; vice-president, Fred Edwards ; secretary, Edgar Koehl ; and later Attorney J. F. Henderson. The other members of the commission were former Mayor A. S. Miller, Prof. John A. McDowell, superintendent of the Ashland schools ; the Rev. Dr. J. Allen Miller, Dean of the Theological Seminary of Ashland College ; General T. R. Shinn, past commander, Department of Ohio, G. A. R.; County Recorder Henry Schulz ; Clyde C. Sherick, at that time city solicitor, now judge of the Court of Appeals ; Rev. Dr. William Smith ; Charles Clark, P. A. Myers, George R. Freer and W. W. Moore. Mayors of Ashland since its incorporation as a village in 1844 have been : Charles R. Deming, James Sloan, J. D. Stubbs, A. L. Curtis, Joseph Musgrave, J. H. McCombs, William Ralston, T. C. Bushnell, William Osborn, Dr. D. S. Sampsel, J. B. F. Sampsel, David Whiting, T. H. Beer, G. W. Urie, Jacob Crall, Jacob Cahn, Dr. Benjamin Myers, Jacob Brubaker, Howard Clugston, William G. Heltman, C. P. Winbigler, A. S. Miller, Morgan Minamyer, William A. Mason, Reuben A. Davis, W. Art Mason, B. F. Zercher and Clayton Ganyard. Miss Lotta Westover for a number of years has been city auditor and treasurer ; John D. Gorham, chief of police ; C. S. Huffman, city solicitor ; H. J. Schulz, fire chief ; J. L. Mason, municipal judge ; R. L. Williams, city engineer ; Dr. C. B. Meuser, health commissioner ; Mrs. Inez Waldo, public health nurse. Ralph Tinsley is vice-president of of council and the other members of council are J. H. Greshner, Lloyd A. Swineford, J. S. Sattler and 0. I. Wiley. A. H. Kennel is superintendent of the water works department. The past couple of decades of Ashland history have been so full of important events that it is impossible to suggest more than a few of them. Samaritan Hospital was dedicated May 28, 1912. August 19th 308 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO of the following year Ashland opened its first seven-day chautauqua and one of these inspirational community building enterprises has been held each year since that under the auspices of various organizations and public-spirited individuals. Ashland's centennial celebration July 26 to 31, 1915, brought to the city many thousands of visitors including hundreds of former residents and their families. One of the notables was the aged John M. Studebaker of South Bend, Ind., last of the five famous brothers who as manufacturers made their name famous the world over. At Ashland's first homecoming two of his brothers, Clem and Peter, had been with him and visited the old home at Pleasant Ridge, east of Ashland, where a boulder monument dedicated May 18, 1926, marks the site of the home and shop erected by their father in 1835. Four hundred local people participated in the historical pageant presented during Centennial week ; there was a remarkable pioneer exhibit in the high school building besides public meetings, parades, contests and on the 100th anniversary of the founding of Uniontown, Myron T. Herrick, at that time former Ambassador to France and who was afterwards reappointed to that post, delivered the principal address at the dedication of the boulder monument, commemorating the famous tree planter, John Chapman, and the other early day pioneers of Ashland County. The last Mexican War veteran in Ashland County, Nimrod Teaff, who with his four brothers also served during the Civil War in Company H, First Ohio Volunteers, died June 18, 1916, at his home on Main Street in his ninety-third year. His service in the Mexican War was in Company G, Third Ohio, under Col. George W. McCook, then a captain. He served under Gen. Zachary Taylor at Monterey, saw much active service and in one engagement was wounded. For many years before coming to Ashland he was a gunsmith at Steubenville. On the 19th of June, 1916, Company E, with the other companies of the Eighth Regiment, Ohio National Guard, was mobilized for service on the Mexican border, leaving Ashland for Columbus on the twenty-ninth of that month and from there August 31st for El Paso, Texas. After service on the Mexican border until March 10, 1917, the regiment proceeded to Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, and Company E arrived home on the twenty-second of that month, only to be called out a few months later for service in the great World War. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 309 Shall we ever forget the stirring, nerve-wracking experiences of 1917 and 1918, the wonderful patriotic spirit of the people here, as elsewhere, the willingness to sacrifice in helping to win a war, which it had been hoped would end war forever. How well we remember the wonderful work which was done at home while the brave soldier boys were in training camps and overseas—the work of the Red Cross, the Liberty Bond and War Savings Stamp sales campaigns, the war gardens, and all the other movements. The county selective draft board at first consisted of J. M. Norris and Henry J. Schulz with Dr. W. M. McClellan as the examining physician. Following the resignation of Mr. Norris, Dr. W. D. Furry, at that time president of Ashland College, was made draft board chief, Aug. 10, 1917. In July of that year Company E was mustered into federal service in front of the old armory on West Main Street, was recruited to the strength of 175 men and on Sept. 29, 1917, a crowd estimated at 8,000 people was at the Erie depot to see the company, now a part of the One Hundred Forty-sixth Regiment of United States Infantry, Thirty-seventh Division, depart for Camp Sheridan, Montgomery, Ala. The war service of the One Hundred Forty-sixth and of other units in which North Central Ohio soldiers participated, is given in another chapter. During the months that followed we saw large numbers of Ashland County boys depart for training camps. The year 1918 also stands out in memory, especially the all-day celebration which followed receipt of the news November 11th, of the signing of the armistice. Following their return from overseas the One Hundred Forty-sixth Infanty paraded at Akron April 5, 1919, and on the night of the thirteenth the Company E boys arrived home, having been mustered out of service. On the evening of April 18th, F. E. and P. A. Myers honored the return soldier boys with a banquet at Hotel Otter. Recalling the return of the other Ashland County soldiers we are reminded of those who did not return, who made the supreme sacrifice. In the sale of War Savings Stamps with T. W. Miller as county chairman, the county's quota was nearly doubled. Under the leadership of F. E. Myers with J. L. Clark as vice chairman, the county exceeded its quota in each of the drives for the sale of Liberty Bonds and had the honor of naming one of the fleet of ships which the government built at Lorain. A bronze tablet, presented in apprecia- 310 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO tion of the W. S. S. campaign work in the county, was placed on the south wall of the old court house on New Year's Day, 1919. Ashland's $125,000 postoffice building was completed in November, 1918, removal from the quarters at Orange and Second streets being made November 27. It is located on Market Street, Main and Sandusky streets. An addition costing about $6,000 was made in 1928. Postmaster Arthur Vanosdall states that the receipts of the office in 1930 totaled $223,980.84, an increase of $32,796.87 over 1929. In ten years the Ashland postal receipts have been doubled and the increase during 1930 over 1929 was over seventeen per cent.. The present force including city and rural carriers is thirty-eight. The following have served as postmaster since the establishment of the office April 12, 1823: Francis Graham, Luther M. Pratt, Hulbert Luther, S. G. Miller, William Dwire, John Pugh, B. B. Clark, William Ralston, Alexander Porter, Burr Kellogg, Horace S. Knapp, Jacob Crall, A. G. Beer, M. B. Deshong, A. 0. Long, Robert W. Cowan, Patrick H. Murphy, C. G. Ducomb, George Hildebrand, William H. Gates, James E. Gates and Arthur L. Vanosdall (March 1, 1924). There are nine rural mail routes out of Ashland. Capt. Milton B. Deshong, who served as postmaster under two administrations, appointed first in 1878 by his former commander, President Hayes, and again appointed eleven years later by President Benjamin Harrison, was an intimate friend of President McKinley. Captain Deshong, who died Oct. 24, 1915, in his eightieth year as the result of being struck by an automobile, told me many years ago of an incident in which McKinley figured back in 1862. After the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, thirty sergeants, among whom were Deshong and the future President, were sent home to do recruiting. "We came up to Columbus, called on Governor Tod," said Captain Deshong. " 'I've got the papers here,' said he 'and have been reading about what you boys did there at Antietam ; I want to shake you by the hand.' When we were starting to go the old Governor said : 'I want to see McKinley and Deshong after the rest of you go.' We remained and he gave us our commissions as second lieutenants, the only ones of the thirty to be so honored. McKinley and I came on together to New London and just before we got there McKinley said to me : 'Milt, I haven't quite enough money to get home.' I handed my pocketbook over to him. He told me afterwards there was $3.45 HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 311 in it and when I got of the train Dan Gray of Ashland, who drove the stage, had to trust me for my fare down to Ashland." Captain Deshong commanded the Second Division of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry at the inauguration of President McKinley, also at his funeral. He commanded the Twenty-third Ohio Veterans as an escort at the funeral of Mrs. Hayes and was one of the pallbearers at President Hayes' funeral. Ashland is well equipped with parks and playgrounds, Brookside Park of twenty-five acres, city-owned and maintained ; Myers' Field, donated to the Y. M. C. A. by P. A. Myers ; Cahn Grove of eight acres, donated to the city by the Chamber of Commerce and which is to be used for a tourist camp ; nine-hole golf course of the Ashland Country Club, which with club house is south of the city on Hayesville Road ; Glenwood golf course, west of Ashland, beside a number of small parks at street intersections and well-equipped playgrounds in connection with the school buildings over the city. In connection with Brookside Park are playgrounds, baseball diamond, horseshoe pitching and tennis courts, band shell, shelter house and other equipment. On the Savannah Road, north of Ashland, is an airport established in 1930 and a few miles south of Ashland, near Hayesville, is an emergency airport on the Cleveland-Louisville line. Headquarters of Division 3, State Highway Department, which has supervision of a number of counties in this section of the state, are on Clark Avenue, where the state has a large and substantial brick building housing offices, trucks and other equipment. T. S. Brindle, former division superintendent, was reappointed at the beginning of 1931, to succeed W. W. Anderson, of Medina. Mr. Brindle has also been given supervision of the Cleveland District. In the new Ashland armory are headquarters of the Second Battalion, One Hundred Forty-fifth Infantry, William M. Chalmers of Ashland, major ; Company E, One Hundred Forty-fifth Infantry, Gaylord Freer, captain ; and One Hundred Twelfth Hospital Company, Dr. E. L. Clem, captain. The Headquarters Company, Second Battalion, One Hundred Forty-fifth Infantry, formerly stationed here, was moved to Shreve in 1929, Lieutenant Fands is in command. A survey shows that with fraternal organizations, literary, musical and card clubs, civic and patriotic societies, luncheon clubs and other affiliations, Ashland has more than two hundred social organi- 312 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO zations. The Business and Professional Women's Club has a club house on Cleveland Avenue, the gift of Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Miller. The study clubs are affiliated with the Ashland Federation of Women's Clubs. Service clubs represented in Ashland are Rotary and Lions. Offices of the Ashland County Auto Club are on East Main Street. Ashland has regular patronage from territory within a radius of twenty-five miles, a survey says. It has seven wholesale houses and retail stores are listed as follows : Groceries, 38; department stores, 5; dry goods, 8 ; drugs, 5 ; furniture, 4 ; auto dealers, 15 ; auto accessories, 8 ; auto tire agencies, 10; bakeries, 7 ; banks, 3 ; commercial auto agencies, 5; builders' supplies, 6 ; cigar stores and stands (including hotels), 38 ; confectioners, hotels included, 10 ; clothing and haberdashers, 8; delicatessen, 8 ; dairy companies, 4 ; dentists, 10; dressmakers, 20; electrical contractors, 7 ; florists and nurserymen, 5; public garages, 14 ; hardware, 3 ; hotels, 3 ; jewelers, 4 ; loan companies, 4; meat markets, 6; men's furnishings, 10; merchant tailors, 7 ; milliners, 6; opticians, 6 ; physicians and surgeons, 17 ; photographers, 3 ; pianos and music, 5; real estate and insurance, 18 ; restaurants, including hotels, 12 ; women's apparel, 16 ; stationers, 3 ; shoes, 9 ; radio supplies, 4. LOUDONVILLE AND PERRYSVILLE. Picturesquely situated along the Blackfork and the Mohican in southern Ashland County, in a region as rich in historic interest as it is in inspiring natural scenery is the town of Loudonville, a public-spirited community, appreciative of the finer things of life and exemplifying in a most commendable way a spirit of co-operation for community advancement. Founded Aug. 5, 1814, nearly a year before Ashland was laid out, six months before Jeromesville, ten months before the neighboring village of Perrysville, four miles to the northwest, Loudonville has a history of which it may well be proud. By the 1930 census Loudonville's population was 2,068, of which 640 were in Green Township and 1,428 in Hanover Township. The population of Green Township, in which is also the village of Perrysville (population 615) was 2,107 and that of Hanover Township, which has been called the mountain township of Ashland County, was 2,000. It is on State Auto Route 3 CCC Highway, Cleveland to Columbus and Cincinnati, it is con- HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 313 nected with the county seat by State Route 60 extending through to Vermilion on Lake Erie, with Perrysville and Mansfield by Route 39, is on the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the T. W. V. branch. James Loudon Priest, founder of the town, set aside twelve central lots for a public park, which is now a splendid community asset, also gave ground for the cemetery. Priest surveyed the town site and assisted by his sons and several of the early settlers of the region, staked off and marked the lots. Stephen Butler, the first tavern keeper in the village, located there in 1810, four years before the town was founded. George Davidson and Caleb Chappell came later in the same year, erected cabins and cleared land. Priest, Chappell and many other early settlers of the community are buried in Loudonville's well kept City of the Dead. The mayor of Loudonville is Prof. Curtis E. Budd, who for thirty-six years was connected with the town schools, first as high school teacher and for twenty-eight years, superintendent. The present superintendent of schools is R. F. McMullen and the high school principal for many years, W. E. Heichel. Loudonville's fine new high school building was formally opened November 20, 1925. A sketch of the schools appears elsewhere in this history. The late Miss Charlotte A. Stewart said that the first schoolhouse in Loudonville, erected in 1819 of plank placed upright and weatherboarded by Caleb Chappell, stood on the public square. The first teacher was a man named Robeson. She also mentioned a stone schoolhouse, a three-room frame school building that afterwards burned and subscription schools. Dr. Heyde in his history of the town tells of a movement in 1848, which resulted in the erection of a large brick building still standing on North Union Street. Prof. McCormick was the first principal and later principals included Scott, Hill, Myers, and Swearingen. Nathaniel Haskell, an early day miller and later in the dry goods business, bought the academy building in 1852 and it became known as Haskell's Academy. Miss Stewart taught the last term of school there in 1865. The former academy building is now the home of the Rev. Father John McGoogan, pastor of St. Peter's Catholic Church. Four years after the village was founded, Alexander Skinner's flour mill was built and half a century later by an invention of a Loudonville man, the late J. A. Stitzel, Loudonville flour came into 314 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO national renown. Patent flour originated in Mansfield brought to the Taylor Milling Company at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, first premium over all the world. The Loudonville Milling Company's present large plant of cement construction, is on the site of the old mill, which burned in November, 1922. The largest manufacturing industries are the Flexible Company and the Ohio Grease Company. There are a number of other industries and the various lines of retail business are represented with creditable stores. The Farmers Bank and the First & Savings Bank consolidated July 1, 1930, capital stock $150,000; reserve $30,000. Judge D. Homer Graven is chairman of the board of directors; J. J. Stitzel, president ; A. W. Motz, vice president; D. C. Nouse, cashier ; M. H. Spreng, W. S. Hissem, E. C. Kiplinger and A. P. Ullman, directors. Dr. G. B. Fuller of Loudonville, is Ashland County health commissioner, and Miss Ruth Guthrie, county health nurse. The ninety-first mayor of New York City, William L. Strong, was a native of Loudonville, born in the seven-year-old village March 22, 1821. When he was thirteen years old the death of his father made him the support of his mother and sister. He worked in a dry goods store at Wooster, later in Cincinnati and in 1853 obtained a position in a wholesale dry goods house in New York City. In 1870 he went into business for himself, became president of the Central National Bank of New York and was identified with numerous institutions. Serving as mayor of the nation's largest city from 1895 to 1897, he was interested not only in reform in the administration of civic affairs but in revolutionizing sanitary conditions. Under his administration, Colonel Waring's White Wings established new standards of street cleaning. He died in 1900. On a farm two miles north of Loudonville fifty-five years ago was born Charles F. Kettering, whose invention of starting, lighting and ignition device for automobiles, Delco light systems and frigidaire, brought him fame and wealth. He graduated from Loudonville high school, taught district school in Ashland County, finished a course at Ohio State University, worked for the Star Telephone Company in Ashland, was with the electrical department of the National Cash Register Company and is now president and general manager of the General Motors Research Corp., besides being interested in numerous other business enterprises. He has never forgotten his home town HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 315 of Loudonville and is actively interested in its advancement. The home economics, physical and chemical laboratory equipment in the new Loudonville high school building was a gift from him. He has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Antioch College and Ohio State University. He is referred to elsewhere in this history. Loudonville churches consist of Zion Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Trinity Reformed, Christian and St. Peter's Catholic. In Loudonville's park is a beautiful monument honoring the young men from the town and vicinity who served in the World War. The city building contains a fine auditorium for shows and public meetings and on the second floor in addition to the mayor's office is the public library, a section of which commemorates Mrs. Virginia Taylor Grosscup, native of Loudonville and wife of the late U. S. Judge Peter S. Grosscup of Chicago, who in his will made a memorial bequest of $1,000 to the library. Mrs. Grosscup died in 1899. The librarian is Miss Bertha L. Scott. Among the mayors of Loudonville since the town was incorporated in 1850 have been : William Hoch, John McCormick, A. J. Scott, John Strong, Jesse Hayes, William Larwell, Darius Rust, J. B. Long, R. Hill, J. W. Bull, C. S. Deyarman, H. L. Mcray, Frederick Smith, F. P. Young, J. F. Frangkiser, James C. Hissem, J. B. Riblet, E. F. Shelley, Charles I. Goard, E. C. Kiplinger, G. C. Henley, J. C. Andrews, R. F. Andress and C. E. Budd (1930—) . The first physicians in Loudonville were Dr. J. S. Irwin in 1821; Dr. Cliff, 1823 ; Dr. Clendennin, 1825 ; and Dr. E. B. Fuller in 1831. The latter was the father of the late Dr. Amos B. Fuller, surgeon in the 120th 0. V. I. during the Civil War, and grandfather of Dr. Gaillard B. Fuller, who has practiced in Loudonville for many years, as has Dr. J. M. Heyde, who has given a great deal of attention to local historical research. Loudonville has a splendid weekly paper, the Times, of which John P. Bowman and John G. Dauber are editors and publishers. History of the Loudonville newspapers is given elsewhere. The Loudonville Chamber of Commerce under the presidency of Charles F. Dudte has been active for community advancement, as has also the Rotary Club, of which Charles F. Heyde is president. The present postmaster is Gaylord Case. Among those who have been postmasters since the office was established in January, 1820, 316 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO are: Thomas Taylor, Abner Winter, Thomas McMahon, John Campbell, Jacob Miller, A. A. Taylor, John I. Whitney, John McCormick, J. C. Larwell, A. J. Scott, John Strong, George Honneberger, Joseph Brown, John G. Herzog, John D. Deyarman, Carl F. Stoelzel, W. S. Hissem, W. J. Weirick, H. E. Zimmerman. President of the Loudonville school board is Dr. J. M. Heyde; vice president, O. P. Paullin ; clerk and treasurer, C. O. McGuire; directors, A. M. Heydinger and H. M. Swank. HANOVER TOWNSHIP SCENERY. Hanover Township, surveyed in 1807 by General Hedges and organized in 1818, has numerous places of scenic and historic interest. Early day annals tell of its mills and taverns. The old stone house on Dr. Fuller's farm was built of stone from adjacent hills. Tradition says this was a station of the Underground Railroad, as was also an old building on the north side of West Main Street, Loudonville. Nyhart's Hill, east of the CCC Highway at the Clear-fork, is a miniature Kenesaw. Along the Clearfork is the state's new forest, Mohican Park, now consisting of 800 acres, to which it is planned to add considerable more acreage. It was in a log schoolhouse, in the early days, that the future statesman, Samuel J. Kirkwood, taught the Pine Run school in the Sand Ridge neighborhood. There is no more beautiful scenery in this section of Ohio than that which the traveler over the CCC Highway beholds between Loudonville and the Knox County line. Speaking of Hanover as the mountain township of Ashland County, Historian Knapp said, nearly seventy years ago : "Some of the lofty and precipitous hills of this township reach an altitude attaining the real grandeur of mountains. The Clearfork enters Hanover from near the northwest corner of the township, and flowing an average southeasterly course about five miles, unites with the Blackfork, and forms the Mohican. There is not a distance of a mile that does not afford sufficient fall and volume to turn a mill the year round." Hanover Township rural schools are Pleasant Hill, Oak Grove, Hickory Ridge, Red Brush, Ball Alley and Posse Isle. PERRYSVILLE AND GREEN TOWNSHIP. Historic events in Green Township in the region around Perrysville, the mounds, the Indian village of Greentown, the erection of HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 317 Coulter blockhouse, the stationing of soldiers there during the War of 1812 are referred to in other chapters of this history. It has been well said that no township of the county is more rich in antiquarian wealth and historic lore than Green, surveyed in 1807 and organized in 1812 as a part of Richland County. One writer has said : "After centuries of undisturbed repose, the disemboweled earth of old Green has yielded up treasures which have enriched the cabinets of students of archaeological science to a greater degree, probably, than any surface of equal extent in the country." Perrysville, on the Pennsylvania R. R. and state auto route 39, is 116 years old, having been laid out by Thomas Coulter less than a month and a half before William Montgomery founded the future county seat. This was about five years after the first settlers came to the township. It was first called Freeport. The Blackfork at that time was navigable by flat boats, which laden with pork, flour, whisky and other commodities to the extent of nearly 1,200 pounds, would be floated down to New Orleans. Coulter, Oliver, Rice and others of the early settlers engaged in these enterprises. In this region John Chapman had some of his tree nurseries, and a number of early day distilleries. Here, on Nov. 14, 1865, Prof. J. C. Sample opened Green-town Academy, where during a period of more than thirty years close to 900 young men and women received instruction, not only in studies but in practical idealism. When, in November, 1921, at the age of eighty-four years, this venerable educator passed away, the funeral discourse was delivered by one of his former pupils, the Rev. Dr. Simon P. Long, for many years pastor of the First Lutheran Church, Mansfield, and later pastor of Wicker Park Lutheran Church, Chicago. The late William Rodman, a resident of Perrysville for many years, used to tell how, out in Illinois, he knew Abraham Lincoln when the Emancipator was practicing law and riding a circuit. On one occasion Lincoln played "soak ball" with young Rodman and some other boys. Lincoln's fee for collecting $800 for Rodman's father was only $5. Rodman heard Lincoln at Galesburg, Ill., deliver that famous Lost Speech, the occasion on which Sam Medill and other reporters from Chicago were so carried away with the speaker's eloquence that they forgot to take notes. Rodman also heard Lincoln and Douglas in their famous debates. The last time he saw 318 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO the future President was one day when Lincoln was playing ten pins a week or ten days before he was nominated for the presidency. Churches of Perrysville are Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran and Presbyterian. A new twelve-room school building with combination auditorium and gymnasium, was finished in the fall of 1925. The domestic science and manual training quarters are on the first floor. There is a general science room and large study hall. F. F. Sprang is president of the board of education ; Charlotte Eddy, vice president; G. B. Darling, clerk ; and the other members are H. E. Wigton and L. L. Yarnell. J. C. Wissinger is school superintendent ; Wayne Balliet, principal, and six other teachers are employed. Green Township one-room schools are Lepley, McKay, Sugar Grove, Wolf, Spring Valley and Greentown. Mayor of Perrysville is Frank C. Stoughton. The founder of Perrysville, Thomas Coulter, served as one of the associate judges of Richland County after the organization of the county in 1813. Another was Peter Kinney, also of Green Township. Coulter died Oct. 24, 1844, at the age of seventy-nine years. JEROMESVILLE, MOHICANVILLE, LAKEFORK. Jeromesville, on the Harding Highway, seven miles southeast of Ashland, is in a region rich in historic interest, as detailed in other chapters of this book. Here were the Mingo cabins which Major Rogers and his Rangers visited in 1761. Near by, on the other side of the Jeromefork, was the Indian village, Mohican John's Town, later called Jerometown. Here was the abode of old Captain Pipe from about 1795 to 1812. The site of Jeromesville was owned by the French trader, Jean Baptist Jerome, who with his Indian wife settled there about 1797. Here was a blockhouse during the War of 1812 and many pioneer stories center around it. Christian Deardorff, of Tuscarawas County, and William Vaughn, having purchased lands from Jerome, laid out Jeromesville on St. Valentine's Day, 1815, and the old Hargrave tavern, remodeled in recent years and now the home of B. A. Funk, was erected three years later by Richard Hargrave, innkeeper and for many years. postmaster. The postoffice, further up Main Street, is on the site of the George H. Cake tavern, in which, April 10, 1846, the associate judges of the newly formed HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 319 county of Ashland met to canvass the county seat vote. Frank Smalley is the present postmaster and the mayor is Carson D. Faber. The flouring mill on the north side of West Main Street, at the Jeromefork, is near the site of the Mingo cabins where, fifty-one years later, Capt. Nicholas Butler, with sixty soldiers from the Wooster blockhouse, built the blockhouse above referred to. Deardorff, one of the founders of Jeromesville, was an associate judge of Tuscarawas County after the county was organized in 1808. He, and a man named Slingluff, laid out the town of Dover, but they were doomed to disappointment in their hope that it would be made the county seat of Tuscarawas County. With the construction in 1899 of the L. A. & S. R. R., Jeromesville entered upon a period of advancement. In January, 1931, the village experienced a disastrous fire which destroyed a number of buildings. The population of the village in 1930 was 403. Walter H. Carl is cashier of the Citizens' Bank. The village has considerable tourist trade and from the surrounding country, for in Mohican Township is some of the richest land in the county. The churches of Jeromesville are Methodist, Christian and Lutheran. Jeromesville's new fifteen-room school building with combined auditorium and gymnasium, was finished in 1927. The superintendent is H. H. Geiger and there are eight other teachers. District schools of the township include Lakefork, Emerick, Oak Grove, Ridge and Mud College. Mohican has been spoken of as the mother of townships, for when the Wayne County commissioners, in 1812, divided Wayne into four township's Mohican's area was equal in extent to one-half of what is now Ashland County, including not only the present Mohican but three other Ashland County townships, part of Washington Township, Holmes County, and the west half of the present Plain, Chester and Congress townships, Wayne County. The population of the present Mohican Township in 1930 was 1,225. HISTORIC VILLAGE OF MOHICANVILLE. Mohicanville, in the south part of the township, was founded ninety-eight years ago. In its first decades it was a very busy village, "a hive of industry and thrift." A number of never failing springs supplied power for woolen manufactory, grist mill and a 320 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO couple of sawmills. It also had several dry goods stores, two wagon factories, saddle and harness factory, two cabinet shops, tavern, besides other lines of business. The springs are as abundant as ever and the old log tavern is still standing but only a few houses remain of the once thriving village. In the east part of the township, near the Wayne County line, are two other hamlets, Spreng's, which was a station on the L. A. & S., and Lakefork, originally Finley's Landing and later Tylertown. The first settler in the region was Alexander Finley, who in the spring of 1809 came from north of Mt. Vernon. Benjamin Bunn, William and Thomas Eagle and their families settled there the same spring. HAYESVILLE AND VERMILLION TOWNSHIP. At the junction of the Harding Highway and state route 60 (Ashland-Loudonville road), eight miles southeast of Ashland, is the village of Hayesville, famed as the seat of Vermillion Institute, founded eighty-six years ago and from which for many decades, went forth great numbers of young people, many of whom became prominent in state and nation, teachers, preachers, missionaries, jurists, leaders in many walks of life. Among these were William L. Strong, mayor of New York City ; the Rev. Sheldon Jackson, missionary and explorer, who introduced reindeer into Alaska ; Rev. Jonathan Finley and Rev. Jesse Emery Fisher, missionaries to Indian tribes ; the late Judge Joseph Reed, judge of the United States court of land claims ; Dr. Henry S. Lehr, founder of Ohio Northern University at Ada; Rev. Joseph Myers, missionary to India ; Miss Hattie Noyes, who with her sister was a missionary in China ; former U. S. Senator Atlee Pomerene ; the late John K. Cowan, president of the Baltimore and Ohio R. R. ; Dr. F. S. Fox, founder of Capitol College of Oratory and Music ; and many others. In recent years the historic institute building, erected in 1845, was used for the village and township high school, but since the completion in 1929 of the new Hayesville-Vermillion centralized school building in the west part of the village, it has been unoccupied. E. L. Hoke is superintendent of the centralized school ; Miss Byrdie McMillen is principal and there are eight other teachers. H. E. Roberts is mayor of Hayesville, D. M. Sigler is postmaster, and the churches are Methodist and Presbyterian. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 321 Bronze tablets on the memorial fountain, which originally stood on the village square, but now on the institute grounds, commemorate the soldiers of village and township. In the Hayesville cemetery is buried the Rev. Dr. Sanders Diefendorf, pioneer educator of North Central Ohio, for many years at the head of Vermillion Institute. Another prominent educator who lived in Hayesville in his boyhood is the Rev. Dr. Charles F. Wishart, president of Wooster College and former moderator of the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Linus Hayes had a public house at Hayes' crossroads, beginning in 1817, two years after the Wooster and Mansfield road was laid out, and in 1827 Elder John Cox, who had located there four years before, became postmaster, but it was not until Oct. 20, 1830, that Hayes and Cox laid out Hayesville where Elder Cox continued as postmaster until 1841. The year before Hayesville was founded, Robert Williams laid out Williamsburg, two miles to the west, but its existence was brief. The population of Hayesville in 1930 was 332 and that of Vermillion Township, 1,323. Last September, village and township joined in the Hayesville Centennial celebration. In the southwest part of the township is the hamlet of Widowville, which once had a postoffice. A pioneer resident, William St. Clair Lattimer, had reached the age of 100 years and twenty-one days when he passed away, April 29, 1915. SAVANNAH AND CLEARCREEK TOWNSHIP. A boulder monument on the site of Savannah Academy in the delectably situated village of Savannah, auto route 30, seven miles north of Ashland, commemorates the Rev. John Haney, who founded the village on Christmas Day, 1818, and the Rev. Dr. Alexander Scott, who in 1856 established Savannah Academy, the work of which continued until 1915 when it became the township high school. The memorial was dedicated June 27, 1928, at a homecoming celebration sponsored by the Savannah Civic Improvement Club. An historical pageant written by Mrs. W. S. Wert and Miss Rae Bailey was presented by an excellent cast of village and township people. Much interesting history centers around this village north of the Vermillion Lakes, source of the Vermillion River. First settlers 322 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO came in 1814 and were followed by other families in increasing numbers in the years immediately following. Among the early settlers besides the Haneys and Freeborns were the Baileys, Brights, Fords, Huffmans, Burnses, Clayburgs, Foulks, McWilliams and others. Savannah was first called Haneytown, also Vermillion, and in 1837 received its present name. In another chapter Savannah is spoken of in its relation to the Underground Railroad in ante-bellum days. At one time there were five churches in the village. A federated church has been formed, the Methodists and Presbyterians uniting. The other church is the United Presbyterian. The Savannah-Clearcreek grade and high school building was erected in 1923 at a cost of about $65,000. Carl Songer is superintendent and Smith-Hughes teacher ; Mrs. Esther Eberhart Gibson, principal, and there are seven other teachers. A modern $20,000 town hall replaced the one destroyed in the disastrous fire April 2, 1918, when the electric light plant, hardware store and some dwellings were burned, entailing a $50,000 loss. The mayor of Savannah is A. J. Walkden and the postmaster, John Gibson. The population of Savannah in 1930 was 338 and that of Clearcreek Township, 923. Uri H. Eberhart of Savannah has an inlaid bookcase containing 135,341 separate pieces of wood of 550 varieties from all parts of the world. He was seven years in constructing it. Inlaid in large letters at the top of the bookcase is an utterance of Spurgeon: "Find your niche and fill it. If it be ever so little, if it is only to be hewer of wood or drawer of water, do something in this great battle for God and Truth." William C. Copland, who on Jan. 31, 1931, celebrated his ninety-first birthday anniversary, served in the Civil War under General John A. Logan. He was a charter member of Crawford Post, G. A. R., at Adario. The L. A. & S., built through Savannah in 1914, was discontinued in 1925. The Farmers Bank was organized in 1910 and the electric light plant in 1915. The Civic Improvement Club was organized in 1926. An attempt of bandits to rob the Farmers Bank, Thursday afternoon, Feb. 5, 1931, was frustrated by the cashier, Stanton L. Rupert, World War veteran, who opened fire. The bandits escaped, but one of them was wounded. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 323 NANKIN, ORANGE TOWNSHIP. The village of Nankin, four miles northeast of Ashland on state route 58, was laid out April 22, 1828, by Amos Norris and Mordecai Chilcote, ten years after the Richland County commissioners organized Orange Township. Settlement of the township began in 1814. An ancient mound, afterward excavated, was on the Norris farm, near the village. Vachel Metcalf was the first justice of the peace of Orange Township. A story of the captivity of Christian Fast among the Indians in 1781, and who settled in Orange Township in 1815, is given in another chapter, also experiences of Patrick Murray, another pioneer settler of the township, who served in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812. Murray, nearly a century old when he died in July, 1854, is buried in Nankin cemetery, as is also another Revolutionary soldier, John Tilton, who died in August, 1849, in his ninetieth year. Martin Mason in the spring of 1816 began the operation of a flouring mill on the site of the Leidigh Mill on the Troy road, north of Ashland and two miles west of Nankin. Benjamin Cuppy built a mill the same year a mile and a half northeast of Uniontown (Ashland). Pioneer narratives say that before the erection of these mills, the settlers used hominy blocks and hand mills. The nearest flouring mill had been that of Stibbs, near Wooster. During the winter of 1814 and 1815, there were five families in the entire township. A number of families arrived in the spring of 1815. Among the other early settlers were Philip Fluke, Jacob Young, John Bishop, James Clark, Thomas Green, Martin Hester and Jacob Crouse. One of the first school teachers in Orange Township was John Swigart. The east and west road through Nankin Square was the Wooster-Milan road for teamsters with wheat and other farm products, commodities from lake ports being brought on the return trip. This road was through Lattasburg, Red Haw, Savannah, Fitchville and Norwalk, to Milan. Nankin at one time had four churches, but now has a community church by co-operation of the Methodists and Presbyterians. The population of Orange Township in 1930 was 1,149. Nankin has a Memorial Grove, eighty maple trees, planted in the spring of 1919 by two Civil War veterans, David Youngblood and William Davidson, commemorating Orange Township's participants in the wars of the nation. In this park, Sept. 1, 1924, was dedicated 324 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO a soldiers' monument, the gift of Judson M. Norris, a grandson of Amos Norris, co-founder of the village. Mr. Norris died in Ashland July 3, 1930, in his eighty-first year. In this park, on Memorial Day, 1926, was placed a World War trophy, a minnewerfer gun. Nankin has a well-equipped rural centralized school. The principal is Kenneth Walker, and five other teachers are employed. Much attention is given to poultry raising in this township. SULLIVAN, SULLIVAN TOWNSHIP. Seven families of settlers from Vermont, headed by Sylvanus Parmely, grandfather of Mrs. Myron T. Herrick, wife of Ambassador Herrick, arrived on the site of Sullivan Aug. 28, 1817. Their possessions were brought by six ox teams and a span of horses. Each of the families brought one or more cows, game was abundant in the forests, also wild fruits. One of the families occupied a log cabin that the surveyors had used the previous year and the others slept in wagons until hewed log cabins had been constructed on what is now Sullivan Square. Three years after the coming of the first settlers a postoffice was established with Sylvanus Parmely as postmaster. These pioneer folk were enterprising, the village grew and aspired to be the seat of justice of a new county, but the efforts were unsuccessful. Sullivan Township territory was once a part of Medina County, later of Lorain County and in 1846 became part of Ashland County. The population of Sullivan Township in 1930 was 785. The Franklin Highway (state route 17) runs east and west through the village and the north and south road is state route 58. It is nine miles south of Wellington and twelve and one-half miles northeast of Ashland. One of the landmarks of Sullivan is the big white mansion, New England type, on the south side of the street, a short distance east of the square. Here was born Carolyn Herrick, whose earlier years were spent in the village, and later to this ancestral home members of the family came from Dayton each summer. The Parmely mansion figures prominently in a recent biography of Ambassador Herrick. From Wellington, where he was studying law and keeping books for a liveryman, young Herrick came courting Carolyn and it was in a buggy on one of these occasions that he popped the question. Sullivan has two churches, Congregational and Christian. The village postmaster is H. E. Kulp. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 325 NOVA, TROY TOWNSHIP. On the Franklin Highway, four and one-half miles west of Sullivan, is the village of Nova, a community of thrifty people who cooperate in various organizations for the advancement of village and township. Settlement of Troy Township was retarded by reason of much of the land being owned in the early days by eastern speculators and it was not until 1835 that the township was organized out of territory four miles wide and five miles long. It had been attached to a township of Huron County. The first justice of the peace was Benjamin Moore and among the first settlers were the Parkers, Clarks, Fasts, Masons and others. C. H. Day is superintendent of the Troy Township centralized school, and seven other teachers are employed. At this school in September, 1915, was organized one of the first county normal schools under a law of 1914. A $50,000 addition to the centralized school was erected in 1929. In 1921, Sullivan, Ruggles and Orange townships joined with Troy Township in a four township fair, which was very successful. The Nova Banking Company's bank opened Dec. 4, 1907. The president of the banking company is Estey E. Miller, who for many years was in the grain business in Nova. The cashier is Guy B. Murray, treasurer-elect of Ashland County. Mr. Murray formerly represented Ashland County in the lower house of the General Assembly. Nova has two churches, the Methodist and the United Brethren. L. W. Pixley is postmaster. Westenburg was a station on the L. A. & S., two miles west of Nova. One of the most beautiful trees on the Franklin Highway is a majestic elm on the north side of the street, east of the Scarborough store. It is eighty feet high, has a spread of 125 feet at the top and was a large tree when the early settlers came to Troy Township. POLK, ALBION, JACKSON TOWNSHIP. Polk, in the west central part of Jackson Township, was once called Oak Hill. Jackson Township, surveyed in 1807, was organized from territory of Perry Township Feb. 12, 1819, and on Oct. 13, 1830, the village of Perrysburg, now Albion, was laid out by David Buchanan and Josiah Lee. Two years later Jacob Kiplinger started the town of Albany, which long since disappeared. It was not until 326 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO May 12, 1849, that Polk was laid out by John Kuhn. During the administration of President Polk, the name of the village was changed from Oak Hill to Polk. The 1930 population of Polk was 274 and that of the township, 1,018. The armory building, now used as community auditorium, was formerly the drill hall of Company C, Eighth Regiment, 0. N. G. The village has a splendid school building of modern construction and well equipped. Lloyd Black is the superintendent, and there are five other teachers. The enrollment in the autumn of 1930 was 187, largest in the school's history. There were eighty in the high school and twenty-five tuition students. The churches are Methodist and Christian. Lucas-Vaughn Post, American Legion, was named in honor of two Jackson Township soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice. The postmaster is Harlow J. Wiltrout, World War soldier. Village officers are : Mayor, Frank Hartsel; clerk, Mabel McQuate ; treasurer, H. H. Holycross ; marshal, Clyde Briner ; councilmen, J. M. Eidt, Walter Brubaker, John Taylor, Guy Landis, S. V. Plice and Bert Gast. Major Stanley E. Rinehart of the U. S. Army, who for some time after the signing of the armistice, was stationed at the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein across the Rhine from the city of Coblenz, Germany, is a son of the late Dr. W. H. Rinehart of Polk. Pre-historic earthworks of this township are spoken of in another chapter. R. E. Gingrich is principal of the Jackson Township centralized school at Albion. There are three other teachers. RUGGLES, RUGGLES TOWNSHIP. Ruggles village and township bear the name of the surveyor of the Firelands, Almon Ruggles. The first settlers in the township were Daniel Beach and family in August, 1823, and Bradford Sturtevant and family came the following month from Medina County. Others of the early settlers were Carters, Carvers, Poags, Sacketts and others. The first white child born in Ruggles Township was Wakeman J. Beach, Jan. 11, 1825. The Congregational Church at Ruggles was organized in 1827 and in August, 1927, a centennial celebration was held in the community park of the village. The Ruggles Methodist Church was built in 1873, now the village has a federated church, since which time there has been increased attend- HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 327 ance at church, grange and farm bureau organizations have gained, a gratifying revival of generous community spirit being in evidence. Early in 1928 a new community building was formally dedicated. Building and equipment cost $15,000. Ruggles is on state route 60, northwest of Savannah, south of New London and east of Greenwich. Dr. Charles H. Leech of Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, was a native of Ruggles, as was also Miss Ada. Hall, who for a number of years has been a missionary in Korea. From Hereford station, on the B. & 0. R. R. north of Ruggles, near the Huron County line, a great deal of fine livestock was formerly shipped. In this vicinity, on coming from Scotland in 1837, Alexander Thom and family settled. This sturdy pioneer tossed the first shovel of earth for the road over the Buck Creek hills. With Rev. Thomas Finney and George Mackey, he organized the Free Presbyterian Church of Savannah, Feb. 24, 1851. He died in his ninetieth year. MIFFLIN, MIFFLIN TOWNSHIP. The picturesque village of Mifflin on the Harding Highway was laid out by Peter Deardorf, Samuel Lewis and William B. James, June 28, 1816, seven years after the first white settlers came to the valley of the Blackfork. It was first called Petersburg after one of the founders. The Indian massacres south of the site of Mifflin in September, 1812, have been narrated in another chapter. There are several lakes south of the village and there has been a movement in recent years for their development. The 1930 population of Mifflin village was 132 and of the township, 454. The famous electrical inventor, Charles F. Kettering, at one time taught school in Mifflin. Over fifty years ago the village had a population of 250. In pioneer days there were a number of busy mills in this township, excellent water power being available. The late C. C. Stamen years ago told this writer of seeing General William H. Harrison in Mifflin on a beautiful September morning in 1840, when the General breakfasted at Landlord Will's tavern at the northeast corner of the square, on his way from Wooster to Mansfield while he was campaigning. Christian Newcomer's tavern was at the southwest corner of the square. C. M. Switzer is mayor of Mifflin, and teachers in the village schools are Mrs. Lillian Burns and Miss Ada McCready. Churches are Lutheran and United Brethren. 328 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO PARADISE HILL, MILTON TOWNSHIP. In Milton Township, west of Ashland, is the hamlet of Paradise Hill in a region of beautiful natural scenery. Schools of the township, in addition to Paradise, are : Anderson, Albert, Pifer, Roland, Nelson and Wharton. In a frame farmhouse to the south of the Paradise Hill road, United States Judge Peter S. Grosscup was born February 15, 1852. The old stone house on the J. J. McDanel farm, on this road, was built in 1847 by S. Smith, grandfather of the late Ralph Smith of Ashland. The 1930 population of Milton Township was 842. ROWSBURG, RED HAW, PERRY TOWNSHIP. In stage coach days, Rowsburg, on a hill in Perry Township, nearly nine miles east of Ashland on U. S. route 250, was a busy place. The village was laid out by Michael D. Row, April 15, 1835, twenty-one years after Perry Township was organized. In the fall of 1811, Joseph Chandler came to this township, selected a quarter-section, cleared a few acres, erected a cabin and departed, returning with his family in 1814, at which time other settlers came. About 1815, John Raver laid out a village, Elizabethtown, near the Muddy-fork, east of the site of Rowsburg, but found no sale for the lots. Several years later he erected a mill nearby. In 1860 Rowsburg had a population of a couple of hundred, with stores and shops, a lively place. Four years after Rowsburg was founded, the writer's grandfather, Jones Freer, was keeping tavern in the settlement. He fell in love with a young seamstress, Mary Frances Bridger, who had come way out west to Ohio and was working in the village. Accompanied by Jonas' brother-in-law and sister, he and Mary, on the morning of Sept. 5, 1839, went in a big wagon to Squire Allison's home, west of the village, where they were married. After dinner at Finley's tavern, east of Ashland, they returned to Rowsburg and that is all the wedding tour they had for forty years. Mr. Freer was very successful in business in Ashland for many years and Mrs. Freer will be remembered for her many benefactions, among them the Children's Home and the Soldiers' Monument. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 329 Rowsburg was the girlhood home of Mrs. F. E. Myers, wife of the millionaire manufacturer of Ashland. Pleasant Ridge, west of Rowsburg, was the boyhood home of the five famous Studebaker brothers. In this township were born three other men who became millionaires, F. E. and P. A. Myers and J. L. Clark, of Ashland ; two United States Senators, William B. Allison of Iowa and Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, besides a number of other prominent people, one of whom was Dr. Rufus Cole of the hospital of Rockefeller Institute, New York City. In the old Rowsburg Lutheran Church, on the site of the present edifice, General James A. Garfield, on the evening of Sept. 8, 1861, recruited a company for the Forty-second Regiment. The churches of Rowsburg are the Methodist and Lutheran. Teachers at the Rowsburg special school are Miss Opal Kiplinger and Mrs. Violet Spice. Teachers at the Perry Township centralized school in Red Haw are Roy Ward, Mrs. Martha Wolford and Miss Catherine Braun. The village of Red Haw, in the northeast part of Perry Township, was originally Lafayette. There is an Evangelical church here. The population of Perry Township in 1930 was 1,003. MCZENA, LAKE TOWNSHIP. The hamlet of McZena is in the east part of Lake Township, which was organized in 1814. The population in 1930 was 531. Near the junction of the CCC Highway and route 179, is the Round Lake Country Club and nine-hole golf course, laid out several years ago. Lake Township schools are McZena, Bunker Hill and Pleasant Valley. ENGLAND, TREATON AND MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP. Montgomery Township, in the west part of which is the city of Ashland, was surveyed in 1807 and, detached from Vermillion, was organized in 1816. The 1930 population of the township, including Ashland, was 12,404. In the southeast part of this township in the region of the Dickey Church, a colony of Dunkards settled at an early day. At England Station, the Tidewater Pipe Line Company has a pumping station and at Treaton, the Ohio Fuel Supply Company has a large compression station. 330 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO One-room rural schools of the township are Addisonian Hall, England, Old Sixteen, Sherradden, Snook, Bryte, Proudfit, Riddle, Fraunfelter and Thomas. The county Children's Home, opened Oct. 17, 1907, with L. C. Cumberland as first superintendent. J. L. Moon is the present superintendent. The county infirmary is on route 60, north of Hayesville. The first infirmary was erected in 1849 at a cost of about $4,000. In 1898, the new county infirmary was finished at a cost of $36,000. The present superintendent is J. C. Shannon. County officials : Common pleas judge, Charles C. Chapman; probate judge, Benjamin W. McCray; county clerk, Tully C. Fox; county auditor, J. P. Hunter; sheriff, H. F. Wallett; county commissioners, W. W. Barnhill, chairman; George W. Tugend, Fremont Wallace; recorder, Carl J. Harry ; prosecuting attorney, H. E. Culbertson; treasurer, T. 0. Deibler, (Guy B. Murray, treasurer-elect) ; surveyor, W. M. Spreng; coroner, Dr. George Riebel; superintendent county schools, O. H. Maffet; county board of education, Samuel Budd, Perrysville, president ; 0. H. Maffet, clerk; H. T. Crone, Ashland, R. D., vice president; James M. Fluke, Nankin; J. J. Welch, Loudonville, and A. B. Richards, Sullivan. CHAPTER XXXIII. NORWALK, BELLEVUE, HURON COUNTY. NORWALK, THE MAPLE CITY-HISTORIC MANSIONS-INSTITUTIONS OF HURON COUNTY CAPITOL-RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS-MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES PAST AND PRESENT-HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORWALK -GEORGE KENNAN, SIBERIAN TRAVELER-OTHER NOTABLES-BELLEVUE- WILLARD- MONROEVILLE- NEW LONDON-OTHER COMMUNITIES. Norwalk's tree-lined streets, majestic maples predominating, gave to Huron County's capital, many years ago, the name of Maple City. Forest monarchs, more umbrageous with the passing decades, are still much in evidence, especially on West Main Street, historic thoroughfare along a ridge once an Indian trail. Norwalk is a city of beautiful homes, some of its historic mansions more than a century old, still beautiful, for they were built to endure. This city of the Firelands, settlement of which goes back 122 years to the forming of Huron County, originally an area of half a million acres, is rich in historic traditions and records of heroic achievements by the pioneers who built wisely and well. Not only in the treasures of the Firelands Museum, one of the finest collections in this section of Ohio, and in the records and publications of the Historical Society for nearly three-quarters of a century have the lives and achievements of the forefathers been perpetuated for the emulation of succeeding generations, but in the ideals and enterprising spirit of the Norwalk citizens of today, so many of whom are descendants of early day settlers in the Firelands. The Whittlesey Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Firelands Historical Society, the Young Men's Library & Reading Room Association, out of which have grown so many lasting benefits to the community, have been spoken of as a "Trinity of Benefactors." The Norwalk Seminary, one of the famous educational institutions of the early days, attracted to the Huron county seat large numbers of - 331 - 332 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO earnest, aspiring young people in whom were inculcated highest of ethical standards, noblest of ideals, the beneficial influence of which can scarcely be measured. It grew out of a private school started in Norwalk 105 years ago. It was called the Academy and in 1833—the same year that Oberlin College was founded—it was transferred to the Methodist Episcopal Ohio Conference, which then included the greater part of Ohio. We shall speak further of this institution, also of some of the famous people who have figured in the annals of Norwalk. Nathan Comstock, who had previously come to the Firelands on an exploring trip, returned in the spring of 1809 with Darius Ferris and Elijah Hoyt and erected the first house in Norwalk Township. He cleared ten acres of land, sowed wheat, sold whisky to the Indians, so it is said, and in the autumn returned East. He had intended to return but it appears that his wife objected to the idea of facing the perils of pioneer times, when conditions were so unsettled, so Nathan sold the property to his brother, Abijah, who with his wife came to the house in the forest, where in August, 1812, their son, Thomas, was born, the first white child born in Norwalk Township. When Thomas was a babe, his parents took him and fled upon the approach of Redskins who burned their house. As stated in another chapter, Huron County's first county seat was on the David Abbott farm, north of the town of Milan. Here the first court in the county was held in January, 1815, in the fall of which year Platt Benedict, Elisha Whittlesey and others came to the site of the future city of Norwalk. The town was platted in 1816 and in the following year Platt Benedict erected a log cabin on the south side of East Main Street. After it was burned he erected another. The town plat filed Oct. 16, 1816, by Elisha Whittlesey, M. B. Whittlesey, E. M. White and Platt Benedict consisted of forty-eight lots. There had been complaint regarding the location of the county seat and the Legislature having appointed commissioners to consider this matter, decided that Norwalk should have the seat of justice. In 1816 Norwalk's first postoffice was on the Minor Cole farm and the following year when Platt Benedict became postmaster, it was at his cabin, which stood on the site of the present Home Savings & Loan Company's building, East Main Street. A poll book of an election held in Norwalk Township Oct. 13, 1818, shows fifty-three HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 333 votes for Ethan Allen Brown for Governor, and two for Thomas Worthington. The first election had been held in April of the previous year at the home of Hanson Reed, Norwalk and Bronson having been organized as an election district. Abijah Comstock had been justice of the peace but his commission had expired and it became necessary to send to Ridgefield for Squire Littlefield to come and qualify the election officials. Huron County's first court house in Norwalk was a building which the county commissioners bought from David Underhill & Co. for $848. In the spring of the following year a jail was erected at a cost of $1,275. Platt Benedict had the contract but Henry Gallup did the work. The temporary buildings at Avery were abandoned. The first county commissioners were Caleb Palmer, Charles Parker and Eli S. Barnum. The clerk was Ichabod Marshall; sheriff, Lyman Farwell ; treasurer, Abijah Comstock ; recorder, Almon Ruggles. The presiding judge at the first session of court in Huron County was Judge George Tod and the associate judges, Jabez Wright, Stephen Meeker and Joseph Strong. The old court house built in the late '50s was, in its day, considered one of the finest in the state. It stood where the present court house stands. This was rebuilt in 1882, a stately building of red brick and stone with clock tower. This building was destroyed on the night of July 9, 1912, in a spectacular conflagration. The fire started in rubbish and old papers stored in the attic. The law library of 10,000 volumes was consumed. The loss was more than $150,000. The clock tower surmounted by a statue of justice plunged through the building and helped in its fall to spread the flames. Improvements costing $10,000 had been made to the building, four years prior to its burning. The present court house of Amherst stone is along much the same lines as the previous court house. The jail, built in 1887, at the corner of Benedict Avenue and Seminary Street, is a modern brick structure to the south of the court house, with which it is connected by a bridge. During the present year the third floor of the court house is to be remodeled so as to give much additional space for county offices, thus saving about $1,500 a year in rentals. It is recorded that at Platt Benedict's log house in 1818 the first public religious service in the community was held, service of the Episcopal church being read and a sermon by a layman. A couple of years after this, services were held at the court house every Sun- 334 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO day and on Jan. 20, 1821, the old St. Paul's Parish was organized. The present St. Paul's Church was erected in 1910 on the site of the original church. The Methodists organized a Bible class in the vicinity of Norwalk in 1817, Ed. L. Young says in an historical sketch. This developed into a Sunday School, the first superintendent of which was John Laylin, father of L. C. Laylin. The first official church society was organized in 1823, the first regular pastors being the Rev. True Pattee and James McIntyre. The site for the first church building was bought in 1829 and the edifice erected in 1833 and 1834 on East Seminary Street. The second site was at Main Street and Benedict Avenue opposite the court house, where the Glass block now is. The church on this site was completed in 1867 at a cost of $15,000. This was used until 1893. The present church was built in 1897 and in 1902 the main auditorium was completed and dedicated. The First Presbyterian Church was organized Feb. 11, 1830, with nine original members. The sermon at the organization was preached by the Rev. Dr. Alfred H. Beets. The first minister was the Rev. John Beach. For some time the services were held in the academy building. After this was burned in February, 1836, the attic of a brick block on West Main Street was used for a while and then services were held in the old court house. A church was finished in July, 1838, at a cost of about $10,000. In 1870 the present church was dedicated. Until 1836 Catholics at Norwalk attended St. Alphonsus', at Peru. Later services were held in a log house on East League Street. Afterwards services were held at Old St. Peter's, on the site of which now stands the chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows. A combination church and school was built in 1868 and subsequently a new location was secured, the parish name changed to St. Paul's, the Old St. Paul's School was erected in 1876 and in 1878 the school was placed under the Sisters of Notre Dame. The present St. Paul's Catholic Church was dedicated by Bishop Horstmann of Cleveland, Jan. 22, 1893. Various changes have been made. The famous Fisher brothers of Detroit have been benefactors of this church, to whom are due the new parochial school buildings for children from first grade to the end of high school, a gymnasium and parish auditorium, a sister's convent, all of buff brick; and a pastoral residence of red pressed brick. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 335 It would be interesting to trace the history of all the other churches of Norwalk, the Congregational, the Baptist, St. Paul's Lutheran, St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran, St. Mary's Catholic, Christian, Christian Science and A. M. E. On grounds east of the court house there stood for many years one of the famous buildings of Norwalk, the Benham Block, erected in 1833 and used by the Bank of Norwalk, of which Ebenezer Lane was president and M. Bentley, cashier. It was used by a later bank which helped to build the Sandusky, Mansfield, Newark R. R. In 1850 on the organization of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland R. R., the building was occupied by the principal officers of the company until 1853, when the company was consolidated with the Junction R. R. Co., now the Sandusky division of the L. S. & M. S. R. R. It again was used as a banking house until the county bought the property for use as part of the grounds of the court house and the old building removed in 1882. In another chapter we have given the history of the newspapers of Norwalk. The Daily Reflector Herald had its hundredth anniversary edition last fall. The other Norwalk paper is the Weekly Experiment. James E. Cole, principal of Norwalk High School, says that the famous Norwalk Academy had ninety pupils when the Rev. C. P. Bronson opened the school in 1826. John Kennan, father of the famous author and Russian traveler, George Kennan, became the principal in 1838 and was in charge for two years. In 1833 the Norwalk Seminary was opened in the academy building under the auspices of the Methodist Church. The school was prosperous and popular. In February, 1836, the building was destroyed by fire and school sessions were held in the Methodist and Baptist churches until the new seminary building had been completed the following year. This new building was a three-story brick structure and the attendance at times reached 400 pupils. The principal was the Rev. Jonathan E. Chaplin, and to this school, the June following the fire, came Rutherford B. Hayes, then in his fourteenth year. He liked the place at once and the only thing needed to complete his happiness as revealed by a letter he wrote to his uncle, Sardis Birchard, was a pair of shoes that he had failed to bring along and which he asked his uncle to send to him. Board at the seminary cost $1.75 a week. In a letter to his mother under date of Oct. 13, 1836, he tells of writing a composition on "Liberty" and of delivering a eulogy on Lord Chatham. 336 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO He said that he was not scared as much as most of the boys were the first time they spoke. His Uncle Birchard had stopped to see him on his way home from New York and told his nephew of the ovation General Harrison received in New York, equalled only by that given when Lafayette was there. Uncle Birchard assured him that there were few men who could make a better off-hand speech than General Harrison. After attending a private school in Middletown, Conn., from the autumn of 1837 until near the close of September, 1838, he returned to Delaware and on November 1st of that year went to Gambier, where he entered upon his college course at Kenyon. Charles Foster, afterwards Governor of Ohio, and Secretary of the Treasury in President Harrison's cabinet ; and General James B. McPherson, who was killed in the fighting before Atlanta in the Civil War, were among the other students who became prominent in after years. It was in Norwalk in 1840 that the North Ohio Conference, now a part of the North-East Ohio M. E. Conference, was organized, and here in February, 1848, a famous gathering of Ohio teachers was held, the first teachers' institute in the state. In June of that year the first normal class of the State Teachers' Association was held in Norwalk, continuing for nine weeks. The seminary in Norwalk continued until it was sold to the Norwalk union school district, Prof. Hutchins becoming superintendent of the public schools. After the Akron school law of 1848 was enacted, authorizing towns to establish grade schools, Norwalk was one of the first to take advantage of its provisions and the schools ever since have maintained a high rank. The site of the present central school building, East Main, Foster Avenue and Seminary, has been dedicated to educational purposes for more than a century. Prof. Cole mentions that the high school has grown from a faculty of five and an enrollment of 180 in 1889 to the present faculty of twenty and enrollment of 364. Since the establishment of the graded system, the public school superintendents have been : D. F. DeWolf, W. P. Clark, A. S. Hutchins, William Mitchell, T. E. Baker, R. W. Stevenson, H. A. Farwell, C. W. Oakes, John C. Kinney, W. R. Comings, A. D. Beechy and C. C. Patterson, the latter having been superintendent from 1916 to the present time. The high school offers five distinct courses, is a HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 337 member of the North Central Association of colleges and secondary schools and its graduates in the college preparatory course are admitted to all colleges in the North Central States upon certificate and without examination. Nearly 2,000 young men and women have been graduated from the Norwalk high schools and a considerable number have attained positions of prominence in business and professional life. The St. Paul's Catholic school, previously mentioned, has one of the most complete plants in this section of Ohio. The St. Mary's parochial school is also an excellent one and well equipped, carrying through the grades efficiently. Other statistics of the Norwalk public schools are given elsewhere in this history. County fairs have been held in Huron County for nearly a century. The one for 1931 is to be held at Norwalk, September 2-4. The Huron County Agricultural Society was organized at the court house in Norwalk in June, 1833. Amos Woodward was the first president ; Timothy Baker, vice president ; secretary, John V. Vredenburgh ; treasurer, Eben Boalt ; directors, Lemuel Morse, Levi Barum, Lester Cone, John Miller, John Falton, Aaron Corbit, A. Eaton, W. P. Mason, Daniel Beach and C. B. Simmons. The first fair was held in the fall of that year. After the division of Huron County the society was reorganized for a while as the Huron and Erie Counties Agricultural Society and in 1852 it was decided to have separate societies. At one time fairs were held at Olena and Fairfield, as well as at Norwalk. Elsewhere in this history mention has been made of the early banks and bankers of Norwalk. The present banking organizations of the city are as follows : Huron County Banking Co., chairman of the board, B. B. Wood ; secretary, W. R. Pruner ; president, B. B. Wood ; vice presidents, E. L. Young, L. A. Heston ; cashier, W. C. Pratt. Citizens National Bank, president, Charles A. Paul; chairman of the board and vice president, C. W. Anderson ; vice president, William A. Fisher ; cashier, F. M. Roth. The Home Savings & Loan Co. was established in 1888. The president is John A. Strutton ; vice president, F. A. Powers ; second vice president, C. B. Lawrence; secretary, A. C. Holiday. One of Norwalk's largest industries for a great many years was the A. B. Chase Piano Co., which in more recent years became a part 338 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO of the Emerson Corporation, various articles being manufactured, including dining cars. An industry of fifty years is the Bostwick-Goodell Company, which turns out Victoria Venetian blinds for some of the largest buildings in the nation. These have been one of the products of the company for nearly thirty-seven years. The city has diversified industries, including the Gallup-Ruffine Handle Co., McCrillis Handle Co., Norwalk Vault Co., Norwalk Foundry, Maple City Rubber Co., Rotary Ptg. Co., Norwalk Auto Parts Co., Action Toy Co., Schauss Furniture Co., Edward T. Powers, furniture manufacturer; the Fisher Auto Top Co., Norwalk Drilling Tool. Co., Norwalk Tobacco Works, several dairy companies, novelty manufacturers, chick hatcheries, lumber companies and various other industries which contribute materially to the advancement of the city. The Pressing Canning Co. is a large industry in Norwalk. Norwalk is very proud of its municipal light and water plants. The capacity of the lighting plant is being doubled by the installation of a new 1,500 k.w. generator. Besides serving Norwalk consumers, the city sells power to rural districts in the territory. The two large reservoirs of the water plant, a mile east of the center of the city, are fed by three small streams, the largest of which is Norwalk Creek. The present building for the water works was erected in 1928. Norwalk has a splendid filtration system. The city is now spending $475,000 in a new sewage disposal project. The sewage disposal plant is to be on the old plank road, north of the city. The superintendent of the light and water department is M. G. Irving. The Fisher brothers, manufacturers of auto bodies, began their careers in their father's blacksmith shop in Norwalk and helped to repair buggies. Fisher vehicles and sleighs manufactured in Norwalk many years ago were exhibited during the celebration in Norwalk last November. The highest peak of the Queen Maude range in Antarctica has been named Mt. Fisher in honor of these former Norwalk men, who were among those who financed the Byrd Expedition to Antarctica. This great peak rears its head to an altitude of 15,000 feet in a vast continent of snow and ice. When Admiral Byrd and his companions made their flight from the Bay of Whales over the South Pole, they flew over the Queen Maude range. One of the most famous sons of Norwalk was the late George Kennan, Siberian traveler, who died in 1925 at his home in Medina, N. Y., at the age of eighty. Kennan, born in Norwalk Feb. 16, 1845, HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 339 learned telegraphy from his father, who at the age of eighty-seven years was the oldest telegrapher in the nation. While working in the Western Union office at Cincinnati in 1864 as assistant chief operator, George Kennan became a leader of one of the Russo-American Telegraph Company's exploring parties, which spent three years in constant travel in the interior of Northeastern Siberia. In 1867 on boarding an American vessel in the Sea of Okhotsk, he learned that the telegraph line project on which he had been working had been abandoned on account of the successful laying of the second Atlantic cable. It was not until months later that he received official notification to this effect with orders to return to America. He made other trips of exploration in the mountains of Eastern Caucasus and in 1885 visited Russia to investigate the Russian exile system for the Century Magazine, on which he spent sixteen months. In constant danger of discovery of their mission by the Russian government, he and Artist Frost suffered many hardships, traveling 1,500 miles into Northern Russia and Siberia, visiting all the convict prisons and mines between the Ural Mountains and the headwaters of the Muar River and exploring the wildest part of the Russian Altai. It required wonderful skill to evade the watchfulness of the Russian authorities. As one writer has said : "The publication in the Century Magazine of the results of these investigations filled the whole civilized world with horror and indignation at the inhumanity of the Russian government in its treatment of political and other offenders." Another famous Norwalk writer was Henry W. Shaw, known as the humorist, Josh Billings. He was a large land owner in Huron County and lived on Whittlesey Avenue in Norwalk for a number of years. Charles Farrar Browne (Artemus Ward), who attained fame as humorist and lecturer, is said to have done newspaper work in Norwalk at one time. Elbert H. Baker, publisher of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, was born on Mill Street in Norwalk, a son of a pioneer tanner, Henry Baker. Mr. Baker was one of the speakers at the homecoming last November. Theodore A. Willard of Cleveland, storage battery magnate, lived in Norwalk while he was working on some of his original ideas for the manufacture of electrical storage batteries. Mr. Willard, now a wealthy Clevelander, is an archaeologist and has studied the Mayan ruins in Yucatan. Two books which he has written on the old Mayan cities are regarded as authoritative. 340 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO The Domestic sewing machine was invented by a Norwalk man, W. A. Mack, and it was manufactured in Norwalk until a merger was formed and the plant moved to Hartford, Conn. Mr. Mack afterwards invented the Standard sewing machine, the first rotary, which proved to be a very great success. A noted portrait artist, Frank M. Tompkins, was a former Norwalk man, as were numerous other Huron County people, some of whom are mentioned in other sketches. One of these was the famous tenor, Orlando Harley, who achieved international reputation, and Miss Etheldreda Ayes, famous soprano of the Civic Opera Company of New York and more recently of the Metropolitan Opera Company. Her father was a minister in Norwalk for some years. The Huron County Children's Home on Benedict Avenue is one of the finest in this part of the state. This institution was given a bequest of $2,000 in the will of the late Mrs. Anna M. Stentz of Monroeville. On West Main Street is the Memorial Hospital, the cornerstone of which was laid October 15, 1916, following a movement led by C. F. Jackson in which the citizens of Norwalk responded generously for the purchase of the site and the erection of the building. The institution was opened June 8, 1917. The trustees at that time were : C. F. Jackson, president ; F. M. Roth, treasurer ; Miss F. Mary Gardiner, Mrs. M. Lillian Osborne, Mrs. L. P. Kellogg, Charles A. Paul, C. W. Anderson, George S. Stewart, Mrs. Mary Merritt, and I. W. Goodell. In connection with the hospital is the nurses' home, the Ernest Sheldon property to the east having been purchased in 1920. A maternity ward was added to the hospital in 1929 through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Paul. The superintendent is Miss Nellie Cockerill and there are seven nurses. During 1930 the hospital cared for 475 patients, sixty-seven being maternity cases. The report of the president shows that repairs were made and some new equipment of importance installed during the year. The endowment fund of the institution at the beginning of 1931 amounted to $19,436.19, including a bequest of $1,134.06 from the estate of Mrs. Margaret Goodrich. A number of other gifts to the hospital were made during the year and the institution is occupying an increasingly important place in the life of the community. The superintendent, operating nurse, obstetrical nurse, the three-day nurses and two-night nurses, are all registered HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 341 nurses so that no training school in connection with the hospital has been necessary. C. W. Anderson is president of the board of trustees ; C. A. Paul, first vice president; William Ernst, second vice president; F. M. Roth, treasurer ; W. R. Pruner, secretary. The other members of the board are Judge Irving Carpenter, Mrs. Mary Merritt, Mrs. R. T. Knapp, Mrs. Fred P. Link and George S. Stewart. On Norwood Road, the Norwalk Country Club owns fifty-five acres of land with an excellent clubhouse and a fine nine-hole golf course., The club was organized at the close of the World War and has 100 members. The president is W. R. Pruner, succeeding Charles W. Goodell. Citizens of Norwalk, with aid from the Carnegie fund, built in 1905 the beautiful library building at West Main Street and Case Avenue. On the first floor, or basement, is the Firelands Museum. Sketches of the library and museum are given in another chapter. Immediately to the east of the library building is the old Wickham homestead built ninety-six years ago by Samuel Preston, founder in 1830 of the Huron Reflector, at Norwalk which later became the Norwalk Reflector. For a number of years the Reflector was printed in the third story of this historic mansion, now occupied by Mrs. Emma Wickham Peters, granddaughter of Samuel Preston, and her daughter, Mrs. Corrine Peters Yates. In the midmst of extensive grounds on the south side of West Main Street is another historic home, the residence of Mrs. Edmond G. Gardiner. It was built close to a century ago by John Vredenburgh and was bought by the banker, John Gardiner, Sr., before 1855. At East Main Street and Milan Avenue is the English Lutheran parsonage. This old house, which during the years was remodeled and changed from its original lines, was built about 110 years ago by Judge Ebenezer Lane. The stately mansion of C. W. Montgomery on West Main Street adjoining the rectory of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, was built about 1836 by Shepherd Patrick. Another of the historic buildings of West Main Street is the home of Mrs. E. G. Martin, built a century ago by Mrs. Martin's grandfather, Moses Kimball, a Connecticut pioneer. It is said that the brick for this building came from England as ballasts in a ship and were transported to Ohio by canal boat and ox teams. The home of B. F. 342 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Patrick, at West Main and North Pleasant streets, was built in 1848 by the Presbyterians for a school for girls. The Elks' Club occupies the old Theodore Williams home at East Main and Prospect streets. On Whittlesey Avenue, at the rear of the Taber block, is the house in which the famous humorist, Henry W. Shaw (Josh Billings), once lived. Pictures and descriptions of historic homes and other landmarks of Norfolk appeared in the centennial edition of the Norwalk Reflector-Herald, Nov. 4, 1930. Last November when Norwalk celebrated the 121st anniversary of the settlement of the township, thousands of people viewed the wonderful displays of relics, antiques, historic furniture, heirlooms in great variety, in the show windows of the stores on Main Street, also the collection at the Firelands Museum. The local chapter of the Daughters of American Colonists, of which Mrs. R. S. Snyder is regent, transformed the Eri Keeler home on Whittlesey Avenue into a complete colonial home, which during the days of the celebration and the Sunday following, great numbers of people from this section of the state visited. Eri Keeler, early day blacksmith of Norwalk, erected this substantial old house in 1828 and after 103 years is still in good shape. In fitting up this old house as a colonial home, citizens of Norwalk loaned some wonderful treasures, old lustre ware, brass andirons, candle sticks, warming pans, early American furniture, rare china and glass, historic pictures, a display that delighted all who saw it. There were even some articles that had originally had a place in the Keeler house, a glass goblet, dish, pictures and a rocking chair, loaned by Miss Clara Johnson, granddaughter of the original owners of the century old house. The celebration was sponsored by the Norwalk Business Men's Association. The general chairman was J. N. Orebaugh ; vice chairmen, C. W. Montgomery and Dudley White ; secretary, A. A. Ake ; these officers being ably assisted by a number of committees. One of the events was a big banquet at the high school auditorium with many former Norwalk people among the guests. One of the articles in the Eri Keeler home during the celebration was a 121-year-old piano loaned by Mrs. Edmond G. Gardiner. This instrument, made in London, England, in 1790 by Aster & Co., 79 Cornhill, was the first piano brought to Huron County. It is of HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 343 mahogany, trimmed with rosewood, ebony and brass. It was the proud possession of a Miss Schuyler, was eventually sold and some years ago was discovered in a Huron County farm house. It had been painted black, but at the time of its purchase by Mrs. Gardiner, was restored to its pristine beauty. The display of choice shawls at the Sally DeForest Chapter House of the Daughters of the American Revolution was especially noteworthy, including paisley bride, traveling and dress-up shawls, Persian, broche, India camel's hair, Roman stripe and lace. The bride shawl, loaned by Mrs. Agnes B. Wickham, was one that was worn by her great-grandmother, her grandmother and her mother. Others of the shawls were nearly or quite a century old. This celebration was one long to be remembered and recalls the notable celebration of the Norwalk centennial, July 18 to 25, 1909. C. F. Jackson was chairman of the executive committee for this event of twenty-two years ago and on this committee were C. P. Venus, then mayor of Norwalk, and W. G. Gilger. The centennial was a very great success and large numbers of Norwalk people did loyal service on the various committees. The history of Norwalk's military company, Company G, One Hundred Forty-fifth Infantry, goes back to July 27, 1877. For a great many years the military company was known as the Western Reserve Guards. Its membership included some of Norwalk's most prominent business and professional men. Company G, of the Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, served in the Spanish-American War, under the leadership of A. W. Davis, now Colonel Davis, postmaster of Norwalk. This company numbering 109 young men, served in Cuba, but so great were the inroads of typhoid and malarial fever that when the regiment entrained for Ohio in September, 1898, less than fifty of the members of the company were able to march from camp to the railway coaches. In this connection it is mentioned that the lessons learned in sanitation and means of preventing typhoid during the Spanish-American War, made the Panama Canal a reality and contributed to the adoption of those methods of sanitation which enabled the soldiers of the World War to function so powerfully. The return of Company G, One Hundred Forty-fifth Infantry, on the night of April 22, 1919, was an event that will be long remembered. After the return of the soldiers from overseas, they came to 344 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO Cleveland and from there to Shelby over the Big Four, where two interurban cars over the Norwalk, Shelby and Mansfield line were boarded and the rest of the journey home was made. When the troops crossed the Huron County line at Plymouth, the signal was given by the car whistles and the soldiers burst forth into cheers. At the W. & L. E. crossing in Norwalk the soldiers were greeted by a Huron County massed band of sixty pieces and the high school cadets in uniform. They paraded to the armory where an address of welcome was delivered by Col. Charles P. Wickham, Civil War veteran. Norwalk is so rich in history, there are so many narratives of fascinating incidents worthy of a place in this review, but space will not permit of giving them. The people of Huron County are fortunate in the wealth of historic facts in the archives of the Firelands Historical Society and in the museum displays. They challenge the spirit of research and the young people of Huron County should take advantage of their abundant opportunities for historical research, stories innumerable of their ancestors. Norwalk is looking forward to a new $150,000 government building southeast of the intersection of Whittlesey Avenue and East Monroe Street, the property acquired by the government for the postoffice building consisting of the half block south of Monroe Street between Whittlesey Avenue and Linwood. The site costing $28,500, has a frontage of 264 feet on the south side of Monroe Street, is 115 feet deep and extends from Whittlesey Avenue through to North Linwood Avenue. In clearing the site the historic house, formerly occupied by the humorist, Henry W. Shaw, will be removed together with other buildings. Construction is to go forward during the present year, it is anticipated. The population of Norwalk in 1930 was 7,776 and that of the county, 33,700. The population of villages outside of the city of Norwalk—Bellevue, Willard, New London, Monroeville, Greenwich, the Huron County portion of Plymouth, and Wakeman—is 15,300, making the urban population of the county 23,076, not including some hamlets. The mayor of Norwalk is C. M. Schock and the other officers are : City clerk and clerk of council, F. G. Warner ; president of council, Rolle E. Fader ; members of council, C. T. Gahn, B. P. Webster, 0. G. Tillotson, Ed. M. Esker, Charles A. Wagner, George W. Fifner, R. C. HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 345 Orr; auditor, F. G. Warner ; treasurer, Carl H. Rohrbacher ; solicitor, Rex F. Bracy ; director of public service and public safety, J. M. Ramsey ; chief of fire department, James Burns ; chief of police, Frank Remington ; city engineer, G. E. Scott ; board of education, W. P. Taber, Mrs. Wildman, Frank Carpenter, W. W. Lawrence, John A. Strutton ; clerk, board of education, John A. Strutton ; board of health, J. L. Fulstow, Fred G. Laible, C. F. Canby, Fred P. Link and A. C. Holiday ; health commissioner, C. L. Bell. Huron County officials are: Representative, General Assembly, Clarence H. Burk ; common pleas judge, Irving Carpenter; probate judge, J. M. Bechtol; clerk of courts, John R. Berry ; sheriff, H. D. Smith; auditor, A. S. Vail; county commissioners, Glenn Wood, Thomas Bond, N. W. Lee; treasurer, Kent H. Woodward ; recorder, William H. Darling; surveyor, Clifford T. Williams ; prosecuting attorney, Edgar G. Martin ; coroner, C. L. Bell. G. Ray Craig is president of the Huron County Bar Association and Henry Young is secretary and treasurer. A soil survey made by the government shows that Huron County has a greater diversity of soils than any other county in Ohio, the following nine varieties being listed, in addition to intermediate grades : Volusia clay loam, Volusia silt loam, Dunkirk sand, Dunkirk loam, Clyde sandy loam, Miami loam, peat and muck and a small area of Fox soil. Statistics show that Huron County farmers succeed well whether they till the high grade soils of the western part of the county or the heavier clay lands elsewhere. The following is the population of the twenty townships of the county : Bellevue, 3,644; Bronson, 671; Clarksfield, 666; Fairfield, 903 ; Fitchville, 537; Greenfield, 558; Greenwich, 1,428 ; Hartland, 547; Lyme, 654; New Haven, 5,645; New London, 2,004; Norwalk, 8,891; Norwich, 727; Peru, 660 ; Richmond, 1,338; Ridgfield, 1,777; Ripley, 646 ; Sherman, 531; Townsend, 866 ; and Wakeman, 1,007. Huron County has long been active in the construction of permanent roads. Nineteen years ago the building of concrete roads in the county began. In 1912 three miles were completed and each year thereafter the mileage was increased and in 1919 the county had a total of more than 100 miles of concrete thoroughfares, the concrete being laid sixteen feet wide on the main traveled roads and ten feet wide on the less important connecting roads. In 1928 the county still had over 504 miles of dirt road which at the close of the 1930 346 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO road construction campaign had been reduced to 300 miles. Figures by county surveyor C. T. Williams showed that at the beginning of 1931 the county had 144.1 miles of concrete road, 206.4 miles of water-bound, 181.9 of traffic-bound, 35.6 miles of brick, 16.7 of bituminous macadem, 4.6 miles of Kentucky rock, besides 300 miles of earth road. During 1930 more than 28 1/2 miles of traffic-bound construction was accomplished, over 50 miles of road was graded by county men and equipment, 20.17 miles of gravel road constructed by country trucks and men, 109 bridges were painted and 23 bridge jobs repaired or rebuilt by county forces and equipment. The mileage of unimproved roads is to be considerably reduced by the 1931 road construction operations. Of the 889.3 miles of roads in the county, 150.4 are state roads ; 165.9, county roads; and 573 miles, township roads. It is said that a mile of concrete road, for which contract was let in 1911, was the first country road of that type to be built by any county in Ohio. BELLEVUE CITY AND TOWNSHIP. The city of Bellevue in the extreme northwest corner of Huron County and the southeast corner of Sandusky County increased from 5,776 in 1920 to 6,256 in 1930. Of this population 3,644 is in Bellevue Township, Huron County, and 2,612, in Bellevue Township, Sandusky County. Bellevue Township in Huron County was organized in 1927 from part of Lyme Township, being that part of Bellevue in Huron County. It is on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad ; the New York Central & St. Louis Railroad ; the Pennsylvania, the Wheeling & Lake Erie, and the Lake Shore Electric line. It is on state auto routes 18 and 59 and on United States auto route 20, thirteen miles west of Norwalk. State auto route 4 from Sandusky to Marion crosses route 20 three miles east of Bellevue. This city of growing importance industrially, has railroad repair shops, flouring mills, factories for the manufacture of plows, ditching machines, cultivators, soda fountains and handles. This is a great grain and fruit shipping point for the surrounding region and in this territory are extensive sauerkraut and fruit canning factories. Near by are extensive limestone quarries of the France Stone Company and other stone companies. Industries which have been associated with the growth of this city are the Ohio Cultivator Company, the Wise Soda Apparatus HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 347 Company, the Conway Stove Company and other substantial industries. C. M. Carrick is superintendent of schools, the total enrollment of which at the close of 1930 was 1,311. There are five school buildings, valued at $700,000 and excellent work is being done. There is a corps of about fifty teachers. Principals of the various schools are: High school, Alfred Ross ; junior high, Gertrude Munn; Pike school, Blanche Warner ; Ellis school, Gertrude Ihle; and McKim school, Clara Erdman. Tessora Baker is the school nurse. 0. A. Overmyer is president of the board of education ; vice president, Dr. H. K. Shumaker ; and the other members are Charles B. Dillon, C. A. Wolslagel and C. J. Friedley. OPERATES IN SIXTEEN COUNTIES. Bellevue is the headquarters of the Northern Ohio Telephone Co., which at the close of 1930 had 26,811 telephones connected with its forty-one exchanges, in sixteen counties of North Central Ohio. In November, 1930, the total value of the company's property exceeded four million dollars. During the year more than $220,000 was spent in rebuilding new lines and new plants. On its payroll are 356 employes. The average payroll is over $31,000 a month. Frank A. Knapp, of Bellevue, is president of the company ; Allan G. Aigler, vice president and general counsel ; John P. Ruffing, vice president ; and William C. Henry, secretary, treasurer and general manager. The directorate, in addition to the officers given above, is J. E. Wise, J. A. Wright, H. C. Stahl, all of Bellevue; A. W. Surrell, of Cleveland; R. F. Devoe, of New York City ; F. W. Uhlman, of Bowling Green ; Ed. L. Young, of Norwalk ; H. H. Thornton, of Oberlin ; Frank L. McKinney and Gustav Hirsch, of Columbus. A movement is on foot to build a subway at Bellevue to carry the traffic of United States auto route 20 under the Nickel Plate, Pennsylvania, and Lake Shore Electric railway systems, eliminating a source of constant danger on this federal highway to the suburbs of Toledo. Bellevue was the scene of early business activities of Henry M. Flagler and Stephen V. Harkness, both of whom achieved vast wealth as associates with John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Company. Flagler, who at the time of his death in May, 1913, was one of America's foremost financial giants and one of the most potent factors 348 - HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO in the development of Florida, came to Ohio in 1844 at the age of fourteen, worked in a country store at Republic, Seneca County, for five dollars per month and board. Not long after this, young Flagler opened a grain business in Bellevue. The carloads of grain which he shipped to Cleveland were sold for him by a young commission merchant named John D. Rockefeller. Stephen V. Harkness was a Bellevue harnessmaker who added a grocery, lunch room and ten pin alley to his establishment, being in business when young Flagler located in Bellevue. Subsequently he located in Monroeville where he became a large operator in livestock. He purchased the banking house of Perkins & Co. together with the Perkins block and residence. It is related that the foundation of his fortune was laid in the purchase of liquor. He had learned that the government planned to place a tax of two dollars on each gallon of spirits, so he proceeded to buy to the limit, so much so, that at one time when Rockefeller and Andrews, commission merchants in Cleveland, did not remit as quickly as he thought they ought to for a car load of corn he had shipped to them, he sent a message to them, remarking that unless he got the money soon, he would "bust." But the crisis passed, the tax went on and Harkness made several hundred thousand dollars, so it is said. Flagler, who had moved from Bellevue to Saginaw, Mich., became associated later with William and John D. Rockefeller and Samuel Andrews in the oil refining business, which grew rapidly and in 1870 the Standard Oil Company was organized. It is said that when Rockefeller was in urgent need of $100,000 he tried to obtain it from the banker, John Gardiner, at Norwalk, who considered it too speculative and refused the loan. Rockefeller proceeded to Monroeville, saw Stephen Harkness, who agreed to put in the money provided Henry Flagler should have control of the investment. And thus it happened that two former residents of Bellevue helped to establish the Standard Oil Company and made for themselves colossal fortunes. In 1866 Harkness removed from Monroeville to Cleveland, where he became a heavy investor in land along Euclid Avenue. At his death, his estate was estimated at thirty millions of dollars. Flagler was a man of boundless energy and to this Rockefeller in his autobiography credits much of the rapid progress of the Standard Oil Company in its early days. Single handed, Flagler undertook the task of building up the east coast of Florida in connection with which he extended the Florida East Coast Railway from Knights Key to HISTORY OF NORTH CENTRAL OHIO - 349 Key West, "the railroad over the sea," 156 miles of track connecting the chain of islands between the mainland and Key West, one of the greatest engineering feats of his time. At the time of his death his fortune was estimated at least one hundred million dollars. Such were the careers of two former Bellevue men. Following is a list of the Bellevue city officials : Mayor, H. N. Donaldson ; city clerk, W. B. Snyder ; president of council, George L. Brown ; clerk of council, W. B. Snyder ; members of council, Ralph N. Leonard, John Loudenslagel, H. B. Wright, Eugene Erdrich, R. W. Fitzpatrick, N. D. Euler and F. M. Webster ; auditor, W. B. Snyder; treasurer, Walter C. Raish ; solicitor, Kenneth P. Fox ; director of public service and public safety, G. A. Williams ; chief of fire department, Van R. Barklow ; chief of police, Charles L. North ; city engineer, J. C. Overmeyer ; board of education, B. A. Woleslagel, C. J. Friedley, H. K. Shumaker, Charles B. Dellon and A. 0. Overmeyer ; clerk of board of education, Alma Spayd ; board of health, H. K. Shumaker, Rudolph Kugel, Mrs. C. A. Bowman, George E. Wright, Tessora B. Baker and Mrs. Phillip Ruppert; clerk of board of health, Tessora B. Baker ; health commissioner, John Diehr, Sr. Lyme Township, of which Bellevue Township was formerly a part, was once a part of Wheatsborough Township, now Groton Township, Erie County. There were scattered settlements in all the townships along the lake shore prior to the War of 1812, but the surrender of Detroit by General Hull exposed the country to the ravages of the enemy and there was a general exodus to the south until after Groghan's victory at Ft. Stephenson and that of Commodore Perry on Lake Erie in 1813. After these battles the settlers found it safe to return to their abandoned homes. Comrade Hawks, in 1818, was the first settler in the northeast corner of the township. Levi Sutton about 1814 erected a sawmill on Frink Run in the south part of the township and one at Belevue about 1830. WILLARD, NEW HAVEN TOWNSHIP. It is said of the town of Willard (population 4,514) that it has unsurpassed railroad facilities for a town of its size, with more than a score of passenger and express trains daily. It is on the New York & Chicago Division of the B. & 0. and the Sandusky, Newark Division, and here are the Baltimore & Ohio shops with the extensive yards.