HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 225 amples of which may be seen to this day. The house clung to the soil in a form known as the "story-and-a-half." The front porch was either a small stoop or a narrow recess under the roof. Two low ceilinged rooms faced the front, one on each side of a narrow center hallway—the "parlor" and the "sitting-room." The parlor was sacred. In its stately seclusion the minister sat on the occasion of a formal call; in it the dead lay in state; in it the accepted suitor sat in embarrassed pride. Only the most formal occasions justified its opening. From week-end to week-end it remained carefully dusted, swept and unopened. The sitting-room was by comparison informal, cheerful and homely. There the family gathered in the evening, entertained ordinary neighborly company, united in family worship and from it they "went to bed" to use the local phrase. But the kitchen was the real center of family life. It was usually a one story L attached to the rear, with a broad porch on one or both sides. It was usually the largest room in the house. All cooking was done there, of course, and also the baking, ironing and, in cold weather, the washing. Except when "company" came all the family meals were eaten there, and a most pleasant, cheery room it was. Not that there was no dining room. Every house had at least four rooms on the ground floor, and sometimes five, a bed-room on the ground floor being common. This was the parent's room, unless a grand-parent or two lived with the family. Upstairs over the main part of the house the eaves sloped down the sides of the bed-rooms until they allowed space only for a window of one sash in height. There were usually four of these bed-rooms, three for the family use, one, the "spare room," reserved for the welcome and expected guest. The bed-rooms had little heat; usually each had a fire place, 226 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO but fires were not regarded as necessary except in winter weather, and they had practically no ventilation. There was a prejudice against "night air." The local carpenter soon became a joiner and cabinetmaker. He had the advantage of magnificent timber. Black walnut, maple and wild cherry were the popular woods for furniture making. Some of the local artists developed very pretty talent for furniture making, and where they may still be found their product commands high prices today from the lovers of American early household art. Cupboards and shelves were made of "poplar," that is lumber sawed from the tulip tree, and the same lumber furnished the siding for the houses. The frames were made of white oak, however, in the better houses, and broad oak boards made the floors. The northeastern Ohio farmer took perhaps more pride in his barn than in his house. To be sure, he spent a great part of his life there, and he was a firm believer in the Biblical maxim that "a merciful man is merciful to his beast." His ideal was what is called a bank barn; a two story structure, with stables beneath and hay loft and granary above. A gentle slope was the best site for such a barn, so that the lay of the land would permit access to the barn floor without too much of an upgrade. But if it was necessary to build on level ground an artificial slope was made, so that the farm wagons could be driven onto the floor with as little extra effort on the part of the team as possible. The barn, like the house, had oak beams and floors, and poplar siding. There was a very general tendency to paint the houses white, and as time went on, green shutters were commonly fixed to the window frames. Barns, when painted at all, were likely to be red, although other colors were not uncom- HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 227 mon. This tendency toward white houses and red barns prevails to this day, and has always been characteristic of the Reserve landscape. The village church stood at the cross roads, and here a general type of architecture also prevailed, an inheritance, as were the houses, from New England. The idea of a "meeting house," rather than a church had a great deal to do with the development of church architecture in all the territory which claimed a Puritan origin. The church was rectangular; no inducement could have persuaded our ancestors to frame a church in the "papistical" form of a cross. The gable ends faced front and back, the pitch of the roof was rather low, and the walls rarely more than ten to twelve feet in elevation. The outside would have appeared too low for beauty, had it not been for the spire which rose from the roof comb in front. This spire, "steeple," we called it, was tall, slender and graceful, with a shuttered belfry as its base. The severity of the plan failed to prevent, or even added to the charm of many of these early churches, and a lover of this country may well regret the later replacement of them by the endless scrolls, balconies and gimcrackerie of the late nineteenth century. Most of the churches, like the houses, were built with oak frames and poplar siding, and in most of them many paned windows were guarded by green shutters. Stained glass was almost unknown ; our ancestors would have shuddered at a pictured scene on a church window, as smacking of imagery, and directly violating the Second Commandment. (Note.—Our forefathers accepted the Ten Commandments in toto, without reservation, and interpreted them in their own fashion. The famous Westminster Shorter Catechism, it may be remembered, emphasizes them all, and gives a Presbyterian explanation of each.) 228 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO The church interior was in keeping with the outside; plain, severe and formal. A narrow vestible crossed the front, entered usually by one central door. From this vestibule two doors usually entered the main room, each door leading to an aisle, flanked on either side by rows of pews; the center pews meeting at a partition as high as their backs, running the full length of the seating capacity. The backs were low, rising to a point just below the shoulder blades of the average worshipper. There were no cushions, although some families made for themselves a long narrow quilted pad which furnished some relief from the hard boards. The pews had no doors, and were in theory free, in most instances, but custom decreed that each family should assume a definite location, and hold to it strictly. It would have been an unthinkable breach of church etiquette for anyone to sit outside of the family pew. In later years there grew an exception to this rule, in that young people might congregate in unallotted pews in the rear. The strangers sat in the rear pews, unless some acquaintance in the congregation extended an invitation. At the end of the church farthest from the door was a raised platform, usually not more than eighteen inches to two feet. On the forepart of this platform the pulpit was placed, and behind the platform the minister had his chair. Flanking him were two other chairs, one on each side, to be used by visiting members of the clergy. In few of the churches was there an organ, or any other musical instrument. In fact, few of the sects which came into power in the Reserve tolerated the use of musical instruments in a church service. The church was not intended for comfort. A comfortable nap was well nigh impossible in the hard, low-backed pew. Religion was a serious business in those days, and a strong flavor of Puritanism, a hatred of forms and ceremonies, per- HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 229 vaded the entire Reserve. Two ceremonies almost inseparable from the old world church, weddings and funerals, almost never were performed in the churches of Northeastern Ohio. The local schoolhouses were little one-room buildings, with no attempt at architectural elegance. The furniture was rude and uncomfortable. Most of them, of course, were at first built of logs, and the frame buildings which succeeded them were no more elaborate. Here is the description of the Poland Center School in 1819, taken from the "Mahoning Valley Historical Collections:" "The schoolhouse was built on the southeast corner of the crossroads; built of round logs, with clapboard roof held on by weight-poles. I do not remember to have seen a nail about the premises. On the north side was a window of four lights of eight by ten. It was set high up above the reach of the smaller juveniles, a wise arrangement for the safety of the glass. It afforded sufficient light for the teacher's desk under it. On the other three sides of the house was a space made by cutting out a log, all except sufficient to hold up the corners. In this was a sash for eight by ten, one light high, but no glass. In the winter the sash was covered with writing paper, saturated with grease applied to it by a hot flatiron. These windows let in what was considered sufficient light for school purposes, and by the time the winter school was over, there was but little of the paper left. The writing desks were large slabs, flat side up, supported by pins let into the wall in holes made by a large auger. The seats were of narrower slabs, with supports made of dogwood saplings put into holes near the ends made by those same augers. There was a ten-plate stove in the center of the room, inscribed on each of the sideplates Tan. Eaton, Hopewell Furnace.' The stove was set on blocks of wood, protected by one brick at each corner between the wood and iron. The 230 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO castiron supports made for it were hanging on a wooden pin, driven into the wall for want of sufficient iron to make two rods to hold them together. The stovepipe was formed of what was called 'cat and clay' (a mixture of clay and straw). Its circumference was near that of a flour barrel, as it had several barred staves around it which were held on by hoops that I suppose had once been on the ends of barrels. This pipe ran through the upper floor, and the smoke had to find its way through the roof." With such a heating plant, the strange thing seems to be that the schoolhouse never burned. Village architecture resembled closely the farm house type. The more pretentious homes followed the form of the smaller houses. Store buildings were simple, usually one-story, although some rose to two, and one building in the early days of Warren, "Castle William," as we have seen rose to the magnificent height of three stories. The "false front," a rectangular continuation of the front store wall to an apparent second story, became common. On this front was painted the proprietor's name and a simple legend describing his business. The church yard was usually at first the graveyard, a custom of course inherited from the old world. The old straight marble slabs still stand in many church yards all over Northeastern Ohio. It is to be regretted that many of these old graveyards have fallen into neglect, and the stones are leaning or fallen and broken in a tangle of grass and weeds. However, the writer, in his wanderings over this territory in recent years has noticed a tendency to remedy this condition in many places, which indicates a desire to preserve the monuments of our ancestors; a laudable intent, certainly. The village and city graveyards unconnected with any church were nearly all instituted in the latter half of the nineteenth HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 231 century. The cemetery as a business enterprise belongs to the twentieth century. This chapter has been an attempt to portray the mode of life in Northeastern Ohio during the period following the War of 1812. It is now our purpose to devote a brief chapter to each of the several counties, bringing the local history of each down to the Civil War period. CHAPTER III TRUMBULL COUNTY Although Trumbull and Mahoning counties were not separated until 1846, it seems advisable, in order to keep this history coherent, to give to each a separate chapter, covering the period following the War of 1812. We shall, therefore, take up first in the list of the counties of the Reserve the story of Trumbull, that county being in a sense the parent of all the rest. The "Mahoning Valley Historical Collections" contains a carefully prepared map of Warren in the year 1816. This map is of sufficient interest to warrant reproduction. We quote from this work the list of streets and building, complete : "The map of Warren in 1816 was prepared, in part, from the recorded plat of Warren, as surveyed in 1801 by Mr. Caleb Palmer, to be found at the Trumbull County Recorder's office, book A, page 115, and in part from a platted survey by Joshua Henshaw, made at an early date, and in the possession of Mr. Henry Perkins." In the following explanations, which correspond with the numbers on the map, the streets are called names, familiar to us now, although they were originally numbered—Main Street being No. 1, High Street No. 2, Market Street No. 3, South Street No. 4, Liberty Street No. 5. Mahoning Avenue was considered to be only a continuation of No. 1. But neither numbers nor names were often used for many years. As is the case in smaller places today, in familiar conversa- - 232 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 233 tion, localities were known by the names of the persons living in the neighborhood. 1. Mill and dam, built by Lane and Daily in 1802, owned in 1816 by Mr. James L. Van Corder. 2. The Henry Lane house. 3. The house of Mrs. Rowe. 4. House of Mr. Jacob Harsh. 5. House in which, at one time, lived a Mr. M'Farland. 6. House of General Simon Perkins. 7. House built by George Plelps. 8. House and blacksmith shop of Mr. Reeves. 9. Log house built by Mr. James Scott, and torn down a short time since. For many years it was covered up in the Graeter House. 10. House of Dr. John B. Harmon. 11. House of Mr. George Parsons; a new house in 1816. 12. The jail, a framed building standing in 1816, or built so soon thereafter that it is with propriety placed on the map. 13. House of Mr. James Scott. 14. House of Mr. David Bell. 15. Cabin of "John Jerrodell." 16. House and office of Judge Pease. 17. House of Mr. Richard Iddings. 18. House of George Mull. ( ?) 19. House of Mark Wescott. 20. Foundations of the old Western Reserve Bank Building. 21. House and store of Asahel Adams. 22. The "Shook" house. 23. House of Mrs. M'Williams. 24. A shop kept by  25. House of Captain Oliver Brooks. 26. House of Mr. Thomas D. Webb. 234 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO 27. House of Mr. Hake. 28. House of Jonathan Rankin. 29. House and tannery (in the rear) of Mr. James Quigley. 30. House of Elihu Spencer. 31. House of Mr. Zebina Weatherbee. 32. House of Mr. Samuel Chesney. 33. A store occupied at one time by Mr. William Bell and Mr. James Quigley. 34. "Castle William," or the Cotgreave house. 35. For many years the site of the first hotel in the place. 36. In 1816, probably a hatter's shop ; afterward a store kept by Judge King. 37. Four stores in which Wheeler Lewis, the Quinbys, and the Austins were in business. 38. House of Judge Calvin Austin. 39. House of Tony Carter. 40. House of Mr. Jeduthen Rawdon. 41. The Western Reserve Bank. 42. Little log house, in which George Loveless probably opened the first store in Warren. 43. The Leavitt House; for many years a hotel, and later known as the Walter King place. 44. Building, probably erected by Mr. Adamson Bently, and in which he engaged in mercantile business. From this building the first number of the Trump of Fame, now the Western Reserve Chronicle, was issued in 1812. 45. House in which, in 1816, lived Mr. Jeremiah Brooks. It was built by Mr. Ephraim Quinby during the first summer he was here; in 1799. Attached to it was the first jail in Trumbull County. In front of it (b) were the corn cribs, between which the first court was held. HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 235 46. House of Judge Francis Freeman. 47. Mill and carding machine. This last had just been erected by Levi Hadley, and was sold in this year to Mr. Benjamin Stevens. 48. House of one Morrow. 49. House of James Ellis. 50. House of Mr. Burnett. 51. House of Mr. Quinby. 52. The "old courthouse," then in an unfinished state. A, B, and C are explained on the map. It will be seen, on examination of the map, that the Public Square existed then as now, and that the original courthouse and jail occupied nearly the exact sites of the present buildings. The writer is inclined to the belief that no vestige of any of these buildings remains in 1934. The old cemetery still remains, however, and below it, near the river, can still be seen part of the channel of the canal, to be described in a later chapter. Warren had a quiet but highly honorable early history. Its story is so peaceful that a historian in 1882 could record that only one murder had occurred during all the time from the beginning until then. There was little development during the first half century of manufacturing; two flour mills, a small factory for weaving woolen cloth, a small furniture factory, a sash and door factory constitute practically the entire list. Commercial enterprises grew, of course, as Warren was the center of population of a fine farming country. We have already recorded the organization of the Western Reserve Bank in 1812. This institution lived and prospered, weathering the financial storms of 1814-1816, and of 1837, and surviving without any doubt as to its credit until its voluntary liquidation in 1866, to be succeeded by a new organization under the National Banking Act. The history of the Western Reserve Bank is closely bound up in the his- 236 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO tory of Trumbull County; many tales are told of the integrity of its officers, and its successful resistance of attempts, to break it from outside and envious sources, and it is an institution to which modern bankers may well look for an example of a bank which understood its duty. Perhaps the best tribute to this great institution is an obituary published in a Cleveland paper at the time of its dissolution in 1866 : "DIED RESPECTED. "Fifty years are not many, but it is a long life for a bank to live and then die an honest death. In these days of financial inflation and contraction, monetary chills and monetary fevers, which exhaust and collapse, a bank, being a soulless corporation, may not seem entitled to an obituary. But the case of the Western Reserve Bank, with which so many of the old school men have been connected, seems exceptional. This corporation, through its half-century career, has not only made good quarterly returns, on paper, but has deservedly enjoyed a good repute among men. The Western Reserve Bank has really gone out of existence. It seems it did not wait the expiration of its charter. Although it did not take its own life, yet it was so anxious to depart and be at rest that it sort of 'gin out,' consenting, not for its own sake, but out of pure regard for others, to keep breathing until it should legally expire in May, 1866." The school system in Warren passed through various stages of vicissitude, a condition common in Ohio during those early years when the state legislature was able to devise no plan for financing public schools which could not be defeated by the indifference or opposition of the local population. Some of the efforts toward larger education, however, are interesting. It is known that a "Young Ladies' Seminary" was operated about 1816 or 1817, by a Miss Bostwick, in "Castle William." What she taught, however, is not known, HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 237 except that the "young ladies" were paraded before their families and friends from time to time in public exhibitions. Other select schools were operated at times, but the most pretentious was the "Academy." This was an incorporated institution, intended to furnish the type of instruction corresponding to a modern high school. It was instituted in 1818. The most interesting fact about its institution was that the famous William H. McGuffey made his application for the position of principal, but was rejected by the board of examiners, not being able to pass the examination. This seems to have been McGuffey's first attempt to teach, or nearly so. We will meet him again in the story of Mahoning County. Of the Academy the courses of study have been lost, and little remains of its history. Some Latin and a little Greek were taught, and doubtless elementary mathematics and the English language. At least five of the Academy graduates went on to Yale, and others to other colleges. In 1849 a regular school system was established, and a high school organized. The high school course of study is interesting : "McGuffey's Fifth Reader; Mandaville's Course of Reading; Morris' Geography; Well's School Grammar; Thompson's Practical and Higher Arithmetic; Loomis' Algebra ; Davies' Surveying; Smith's Illustrated Astronomy; Parker's Natural Philosophy; Gray's Chemistry; Ackerman's Natural History; Hitchcock's Geology; 011endorf's French Grammar; Arnold's Latin and Greek Series." Certainly a creditable list of subjects for the place and times. The principal of the high school was paid a salary of seven hundred dollars per annum. The high school assistant received two hundred dollars; the grammar school principal one hundred and seventy-five dollars, the grade teacher three dollars and fifty cents per week. 238 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO It will be remembered that the two original church organizations in Warren were Baptist and Congregational. The Baptist Church, in the year 1828, was invaded by two very earnest and devout followers of the teachings of Alexander Campbell, founder of the Disciples of Christ, or "Campbellites." This sect, as will be seen in the study of the religious development of Northeastern Ohio, proselyted a great following in the first half of the nineteenth century, and established a position in our country which it has maintained ever since. The two Disciple missionaries, Walter Scott and J. G. Mitchell by name, conducted a series of very enthusiastic meetings, accompanied by open air baptism by immersion in the Mahoning, although the month was January, and the result was that nearly all the Baptist congregation for a time were converted to the Disciple faith. However, about six or seven years later a few faithful Baptists reorganized their church, although their building had been taken over by the Campbellites. The Baptists, nevertheless, grew and flourished, and acquired a new building of their own. The old Congregational Church in 1838 resolved to affiliate itself with the main Presbyterian body. In that year was incorporated the "First Presbyterian Church of Warren, Trumbull County," of which has ever since occupied the northwest corner of the Public Square, at the beginning of Mahoning Avenue. Methodism, of course, could not be kept out of Warren. The faithful work of the early clergy of the Methodist Episcopal Church must be admired by Christians of every faith. In 1819, the first congregation was formally organized. The Methodists were able to built a church building in 1837. They had for years been meeting in the old Academy Building. The subsequent history of the Methodists in Warren is one of continual prosperity. HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 239 Episcopalians have never been numerous in the Reserve. A small group of the followers of the Protestant Episcopal Church met in Warren as early as 1813, but no parish was established until 1836. The organization languished for a few years. A church building was constructed in 1847-8, and from that time on the life of the parish, although weak in its early years, has grown in power. Roman Catholics were even fewer in the Reserve. The first mass in Warren was celebrated on November 12, 1850. The history of this faith belongs to the latter part of our story. In 1834, the citizens of Warren felt that they had arrived at a period of growth which warranted the establishment of the village as a municipal corporation. Incorporation at that time was by legislative enactment, and accordingly, the legislature was in due form petitioned, and on March 3rd of that year the petition was granted. The original limits of the village were as follows: "Beginning at a point one hundred and sixty rods due west of the center of the Public Square, thence running north one hundred and sixty rods, thence east three hundred and twenty rods, thence south three hundred and twenty rods, thence west three hundred and twenty rods, thence north to the place of beginning." This original area is therefore exactly one square mile, with the Public Square at the exact center. On April 5, 1834, the village elected its first officers. They were : George Parsons, Major Edward Spear, Recorder; Charles White, Charles Smith, John Roberts, A. W. Porter, Walter King, Asahel Adams and Richard Iddings, Trustees; George Mygatt, Marshal ; and Samuel Chesney, Treasurer. While none of the early citizens of Warren may be said to have attained to national pre-eminence, many of them were such valuable citizens as th have been of great im- 240 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO portance in building Ohio and the nation. Within the scope of this work it is not possible to give space to the personal history of many, and it is likely that our selection will omit men as worthy as those we mention. We must, however, give a brief biographical sketch of a few. In earlier pages we have given some account of General Simon Perkins, John Stark Edwards and other men' who may be regarded as the founders of the city. Richard Iddings, born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1786, came to Warren in 1805. He served in the War of 1812 as a Major, and was elected to the state legislature in 1830. He died in 1872, having lived his long life in service to his fellow citizens. Leicester King, born in Suffield, Connecticut, in 1789, came to Warren in 1817. He was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal. He spent a large part of his life in active politics, and became one of the national leaders of the abolition movement. He served as an associate judge of the common pleas court, and was a member of the state senate from 1835 to 1839. He joined the Liberty Party after 1840, was its first candidate for governor, and in 1847 was nominated for vice-president. The organization of the Free-soil Party in 1848, however, resulted in a merger with the Liberty Party, and the withdrawal of King and John P. Hale, the presidential candidate associated with him. From that time on, King continued active in the operations of that group which evolved into the Republican Party and in 1860 accomplished the election of Lincoln. Calvin Pease has been mentioned before. He also belongs to that remarkable group of Reserve pioneers who claim Suffield, Connecticut, as their birthplace. Peace came to Ohio in 1800. His entire career was legal, his service continuing during his entire active life. In succession he filled the following offices: Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 241 from 1800 until the organization of the state in 1803; President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Trumbull County, 1803-1810; State Senator, 1812-13; Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, 1816-1830, during a part of which time he was Chief Justice. He died in Warren in 1839. George Parsons, born in Enfield, Connecticut, in 1781, came to Warren in 1803. He served as clerk of the Common Pleas Court from 1806 to 1838. In 1838, he was chosen President of the Western Reserve Bank, and served in that capacity to 1863. He died in 1865. While several of the children of General Simon Perkins rose to places of importance, as was to be expected, we can here only mention one, probably the most illustrious, Jacob Perkins. He was born in Warren in 1822, educated at Yale, and associated with his father in business. Jacob Perkins, like many other leading citizens of the Reserve, became early associated with the abolition movement, and gained a great reputation as an orator for the cause. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1851, and later one of the leading movers of the railroad building program of the '50s. We shall meet him again when we come to the period of railroad construction. He died, after a vain search for health, in Havana, Cuba, in 1859. Judge Milton Sutliff, born in Vernon, Trumbull County, was educated in Western Reserve College. He began the practice of law in Warren in 1834. He was another of the leading anti-slavery leaders in the Reserve. He was elected to the state senate in 1850, and to the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1857. He was a prominent member of the Republican Convention of 1860, which nominated Lincoln. He died in 1878. The history of the northern portion of Trumbull County is the uneventful development of a peaceful farming district; few incidents happening which can be given space here. One 242 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO story of Bloomfield Township deserves some record, however, as one of the earliest events in the history of the famous "Underground Railroad." It was on a Sunday afternoon in September, 1823, that the church people, on their way home from service, found a weary family of colored people dragging their feet along the turnpike road to the north. There were a father, mother and two small children. At this time no effort was made to stop them, but about dusk there rode into the tavern yard at the cross roads three men in hot pursuit. As the pursuers were also tired, the tavern keeper persuaded them to put up for the night. As soon as they were safely in bed, the landlord gave orders that no one was to stir in the morning until he gave orders. The village then rose. "Squire" Brown, the leading citizen, got out his covered wagon and took the road in pursuit of the fugitives. At Rome, twelve miles north, he overtook them, concealed in the house of another lover of liberty. The Bloomfield men had some difficulty in convincing the people of the house that they were friendly to the escaping slaves, but finally an agreement was reached, and the fugitives were placed in the wagon, which was driven into a barn at the rear of a tavern on the road. Back in Bloomfield on Monday morning, there was an extraordinary sleepiness on the part of the whole community. The slave owners were the first to awake. The landlord finally got himself and his household roused. The horses of the slave owners needed shoes, and the blacksmith could not be found. It was afternoon before it was possible for them to take the road. On their way ,north they passed the barn where their fugitives slaves were concealed, and continued their futile pursuit north to the lake. Three days after, they returned, to find that they had broken some turnpike law or other, and were forced to con- HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 243 tribute a fine to the Bloomfield Township treasury. In disgust they returned to Virginia without their slaves. Squire Brown kept the family of escaped slaves for some time, and then transported them to Ashtabula Harbor, where they were placed on board a sailing vessel, and carried across the lake to Canada and freedom. The Mahoning River flows from Warren along a course nearly southeast to the state line. This fact is the primary cause of the fact that the southern tier of Trumbull County townships have developed to the point where a practically continuous city covers the three eastern townships, although this territory is divided municipally into several distinct corporations. The industrial development of these municipalities belongs to the period following the Civil War, but the small beginnings of them must be noticed here. The largest present municipality between Warren and Youngstown is the fine steel manufacturing city of Niles. The founder of this city was James Heaton, brother to Dan. It will be remembered that the two brothers were in partnership in the construction of the Hopewell Furnace in Yellow Creek. James was probably a bit impatient over Dan's eccentricties ; at any rate, by the year 1806 we find James located on Mosquito Creek in Weathersfield Township, where he constructed a dam—in the heart of the present city of Niles—and built a mill, probably both saw mill and grist mill. James Heaton seems to have had in him that peculiar spirit of the iron master which makes such a man impatient of any other business. There is undoubtedly a fascination about the manufacture of iron and steel which becomes a passion among those engaged in it. Heaton began to operate a diminutive forging plant, getting the necessary pig iron from the Yellow Creek furnaces. When these furnaces closed at the beginning of the War of 1812, he borrowed money and 244 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO built for himself a blast furnace on Mosquito Creek, almost on the site of the present new and beautiful Niles High School athletic field and stadium. Here he continued to operate his little furnace and mill until about 1830. A little hamlet grew up about him, the place being known as "Heaton's Furnace." The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal came through the little settlement about this time, following the course of the river, and bringing opportunity with it. James Heaton, his son Warren Heaton and his son-in-law, Josiah Robbins, laid out a little village plat west of Mosquito Creek and north of the river in 1834. Thus Niles was born. It seems that Heaton got the name from a Baltimore newspaper of the time, known as the Niles Register. Niles prospered with the canal. The Heatons and Robbins improved their little manufacturing businesses. In 1841, James Ward and Company, a partnership composed of James and William Ward, brothers, and Thomas Russell, built a mill to roll iron. This was the enterprise which gave Niles its first growth in population. Before leaving Niles for a time it must be noted that the Heaton furnace in 1842 came into the hands of a firm named McKinley, Reep and Dempsey. William McKinley, senior partner of the firm, made his residence in Niles at this time, and here, in 1844, a child was born to the McKinleys who was destined to rise to the highest position in the gift of the American Nation. Of him, more hereafter. Between Niles and Youngstown, on the extreme western border of Liberty Township, another flourishing little city stands; Girard. A settlement of extreme insignificance until the coming, of the canal, it began to grow in the '30s, and a village plat was laid out in 1837 by David Tod, whose property in Brier Hill, now part of Youngstown, reached to the northern township line. Girard probably received its name HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 245 from the great merchant philanthropist, Stephen Girard, although there is only a tradition to this effect. Girard's first industry was a flour mill built by Jesse Baldwin about 1840. The village grew slowly but surely until the great development of the iron business after the Civil War. A road runs east from Girard through Liberty and Hubbard Townships to the state line. At about the center of Liberty on this road grew up a little settlement called Church Hill, named for the Presbyterian Church which stood on the hill above the crossroads. Church Hill was a quiet place until the opening of coal mines gave it a larger growth in the '60s. About two miles east of Church Hill is another cross roads affectionately known as "Seceder Corners." Here a church of the Associate Presbyterian faith was instituted in 1805, the membership coming from those Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish who so largely populated this corner of the Reserve. The name of "Seceder Corners" is derived from the fact that the Associate Presbyterians were "seceders" from the parent Presbyterian body. Before the Civil War they were strong abolitionists, and the graveyards of Liberty Church at Seceder Corners is dotted with the markers which indicate the graves of Union soldiers. Continuing east along this road one arrives at Hubbard, another flourishing town] located in the central part of Hubbard Township. Hubbard wassettled in 1801, by Samuel Tylee, an agent of the Connecticut Land Company. The population of the township grew rapidly, but remained entirely agricultural until after the Civil War, when it also entered into the iron and steel business. We now leave the history of Trumbull County, to be taken up again during the period of industrial growth after the Civil War. CHAPTER IV MAHONING COUNTY It is our intention to devote a separate chapter to the growth of that part of our territory which was to be made into Mahoning County. Although the ten northern townships belonged to Trumbull, and the five southern to Columbiana, until 1846, yet the center of population for the future county soon grew around Youngstown, and the people began to develop an individuality which, in our opinion, warrants this separate classification. Youngstown and vicinity soon began to show signs of an industrial development along definite lines. It is not too much to say that the building up of this great center of the manufacture of iron and steel had its inception almost at the beginning. The early leaders of the life of Youngstown were men both of vision and of ambition. The names of Tod, Wick, Stambaugh, Struthers, Kennedy, Rayen, Baldwin and others are still honored, both for their early representatives and their subsequent history. The "Mahoning Valley Historical Collections" gives a statement of the situation of the .houses and buildings in Youngstown, in 1823. It will be noted that only two streets are mentioned; Federal and Front. There was in addition a cross street following the general course of Wick Avenue, but turning' east to cross Crab Creek about on the present line of East Madison Avenue and McGuffey Road. There were no houses south of the river except a few scattered farms. The few houses east of the Public Square, or the "Diamond," - 246 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 247 as it was always called until recent years, were quite far apart, so that the eastern end of the village reached nearly to the foot of the East Federal grade. The list is as follows : "Commencing on the north side of Federal Street and going west. 1. John Loughridge, loghouse. 2. Widow Murdock, loghouse. 3. James Hillman, frame. 4. Samuel Bryson, loghouse. 5. Corner Diamond, loghouse, owned by Samuel Bryson. 6. Presbyterian Church on the hill. ( The church stood on the west side of the road which is now Wick Avenue, and the graveyard extended for some little distance to the west and south.) 7. William Wick. (This seems to have been a store building; the Union Bank corner.) 8. Henry Wick, frame. 9. Henry Wick, loghouse. (This is the northeast corner of the present Phelps Street.) 10. Henry Manning, loghouse. 11. C. B. Wick, frame. 12. Philip Kimmel, frame. 13. Robert Pollock, frame. 14. Daniel Morris, loghouse; town hall on part of it. 15. George Hardman, part frame. 16. William Rayen, shingled house, sides and all. ( This seems to have been the old tavern.) 17. William Rayen, loghouse. 18. William Rayen, brick. 19. Jeremiah Tibbitt, loghouse. 20. Widow Dabney, loghouse. (This is the last house, and seems to have been close to Westlake's Crossing, the point where the present Erie Railroad crosses Federal Street.) 248 - HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO South side, going east. (It will be noted that the south side of Federal Street was more sparsely populated. The old settlers liked to face the sun.) 21. John E. Woodbridge, frame. 22. Mr. Hollingsworth, loghouse. 23. Mansion House lot, loghouse, owned by Judge Tod. 24. Jonathan Smith, loghouse. 25. Moses Crawford, loghouse. 26. John Day, frame. Back to Federal Street. 27. Charles Dutton, frame. 28. Methodist Church. 29. William Thorn, loghouse on the Diamond. (This site of the present Tod House.) 30. Henry Wick, brick. 31. Log schoolhouse on the Diamond where the Soldier's Monument stands. 32. Josiah Polly, frame. 33. Henry Wick, frame. 34. James McCartney, loghouse. 35. Robert Leslie, loghouse. This list is compiled from the recollections of old settlers looking back over a period of over fifty years, and is doubtless subject to correction, if there were any documentary evidence available. But it may be accepted as sufficiently accurate for our purposes. It may be noted that of the thirty-five structures noted, omitting the two churches and the schoolhouse, seventeen are designated as loghouses, eleven as "frame," if we include William Rayen's shingled house, and two are brick. The loghouses soon after this began to disppear, and he leading citizens moved toward the north hill, to build that fascinating series of Victorian mansions which made Wick Avenue famous. HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN OHIO - 249 The village as above described, as will be seen, occupied the central portion of the township, approximately, and what is the heart of the business and shopping district of Youngstown today. Outside the village proper may be mentioned the farm of Judge George Tod, in the northwest corner of the township—the district which was to be known as "Brier Hill," the Shehy farm, east of Crab Creek and north of the river ; the home of Robert Montgomery, a fine two-story log-house on the eastern boundary of the township—the district to be known later as "Hazelton ;" the farm of James Hillman, on the south side of the river; and the Brownlee farm, just south of the township line in Boardman. All these farms were to be absorbed in the growth of the city at later times. The business of iron making in the years following the War of 1812 transferred itself from Yellow Creek to Mill Creek. Some time about 1825, the Heatons built a stone furnace in the Mill Creek Valley in Youngstown Township. Dan seems to have been the founder of this new stack, but the other brothers were interested in it, and James was the real director of affairs. It was not very successful, but ran until some time in the '40s. In the '40s there began in the valley the building of blast furnaces in which bituminous coal was substituted for charcoal as fuel. In several places in the valley coal mines were being opened, notably on the Brier Hill estate of the Tod family, and in Poland Township on the little stream called Panther Run, at the mouth of which grew up a little settlement known as Mount Nebo. The Village of Lowell, later to be called Lowellville, grew up around a stone furnace using coal for fuel, built about 1845. In 1846, the Eagle Furnace was built on the north bank of the river in the Brier Hill neighborhood, by William Philpot, Jonathan Warner, David Morris and Harvey Sawyer. Another furnace, called the