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CHAPTER VII.

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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS—THE GREAT INDIAN TRAIL—PIONEER ROADS OF PORTAGE COUNTY—MAIL FACILITIES AND LETTER POSTAGE—STAGE ROUTES AND DRIVERS—CANALS—EARLY CANAL LEGISLATION—THE OHIO CANAL COMMENCED AND COMPLETED—PENNSYLVANIA & OHIO CANAL—THE EFFORTS MADE TO HAVE IT BUILT—ITS CONSTRUCTION AND COMPLETION—FIRST BOATS ARRIVE AT RAVENNA—SUBSEQUENT SUCCESS OF THE ENTERPRISE - CAUSES WHICH LED TO ITS ABANDONMENT—RAILROADS—CLEVELAND & PITTSBURGH — CLEVELAND & MAHONING VALLEY—ATLANTIC & GREAT WESTERN— CLEVELAND, YOUNGSTOWN & PITTSBURGH--CONNOTTON VALLEY - PITTSBURGH, CLEVELAND & TOLEDO—THE PROPOSED CLINTON AIR LINE, AND THE GENERAL RAILROAD FACILITIES OF THE COUNTY.

As a matter of necessity, almost the first thing to be done after the settler arrived was to cut out a road; in fact, it had often to be done before he reached his land, and in many instances days of weary work in underbrushing a path through the primitive forest intervened before he could move forword with his ox teams and rude wagon. This latter necessity was the origin of the first road in the county constructed by white men. When Benjamin Tappan, Jr., in the spring of 1799, as detailed in Chapter IV. of the county history, arrived at a point on the Cuyahoga where now is the town of Boston, Summit County, he unloaded his goods, and placing them in charge of one of his hired men, proceeded, with the assistance of Benjamin Bigsby, to cut out a road to his father's land, now known as Ravenna. After working two or three days, Tappan struck the great Indian trail which crossed the Cuyahoga at Standing Rock, a short distance east of the present site of Kent. Following this trail, he soon reached the spot where he erected his first cabin, in the

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southeast corner of the township, the Indian trail passing out of Ravenna exactly at the southeast corner. This great trail had been used from time immemorial by the aborigines, and was their main thoroughfare in the upper portion of Ohio. It extended from Fort McIntosh, where Beaver, Penn., now is, to Palmyra Township; thence passing through Edinburg, Ravenna and Franklin Townships, left Portage County, going northwestwardly to Sandusky. As early as 1786 Col. James Hillman, one of the pioneers of the West, who afterward lived to an advanced age in Youngstown, made six trips over this route, he being engaged in forwarding goods And provisions for a firm in Pitts- burgh. The road is said by old settlers to have been very compact and firm.

About the same time that Benjamin Tappan cut his road, one was under- brushed from Atwater to Georgetown, Penn., for the purpose of obtaining pro- visions. Capt. Caleb Atwater, Jonathan Merrick, Peter Bunnell and Asa Hall did the work. The road was about forty miles long, and ran through Atwater and Deerfield Townships, it being the present east and west center road of those subdivisions. Ebenezer Sheldon also had cut a road from the center of Aurora Township in 1799, that ran northwestwardly until it inter- sected a bridle path to Cleveland. In Nelson Township an east and west cen- ter road was cut out shortly after the Mills brothers settled in that section. In 1802 the road running north from Ravenna through Shalersville and Mantua Townships, to Burton, Summit County, was laid out, but it was several years until it was completed. Also, in 1802 a road from Warren to Cleveland, which ran hrough the center of Hiram and Mantua Townships, was begun. In 1804— 05 a road was cut from the center of Rootstown Township eastward to intersect the great road from Pittsburgh to Cleveland, which passed through the center of Edinburg Township. Not far from this time a road from Randolph Center,* standing at the creek just west of the Center, was cut to a point on the line between Rootstown and Edinburg Townships, and from thence running northwardly. There was also a horse path to Canton, and a trail to Atwater. In 1805 Amzi Atwater surveyed a road from his place in Mantua Township, along the south line of Hiram Township to Garrett's Mills in Nelson, and in 1806 another was cut out running westward to Aurora. About the same time a road was cut through Windham Township to Braceville, running thence to Warren, and is now known as the State Road. In 1808 Alva Day, of Deerfield Township, and Charles Chittenden, and Cromwell and Walter Dickinson, of Randolph Township, cut out and bridged the road from old Portage to the Seventeenth Range, west of Medina. In 1809 Erastus Carter, of Ravenna, and Lemuel Punderson, of Newburg, laid out a road from Ravenna through Rootstown and Randolph Townships toward Canton, as far as the south line of the county, but it was not completed in Stark County till 1812. This road afterward became the great north and south route over which J. O. Granger ran his four-horse stage line. In 1817 David McIntosh cut the center road through from Shalersville Township to Freedom, at which time the latter township was an unbroken wilderness, the first settler not arriving till the following year.

Mail facilities were extremely meager in the early days, and months would elapse before news could reach the settlers in their new homes. As late as the spring of 1801 Pittsburgh and Meadville, Penn., were the nearest post-offices to the Western Reserve, and in October of that year the first mail arrived at Warren, Ohio. Postage, even to a much later date, was high, and frequently a bushel of wheat was refused as payment on a single letter. A considerable number of letters were permitted to pass to the dead letter office, and in the advertised lists of letters at the Ravenna postoffice, published in the Courier of 1825-26, can be

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seen the names of many prominent citizens who at the time lived within a stone's throw of the office. John Diver, of Deerfield, was one of the earliest mail contractors and carriers on the Reserve. He had the contract for carrying the mail from New Lisbon to Mansfield, via Canton and Wooster, and, was in the business over forty years. The Cleveland & Wellsville Turnpike was finished in 1827 and became a great thoroughfare. It entered the county in Streetsboro Township, passed diagonally across Ravenna, Edinburg and Deerfield and left the county in the southeast corner of the last named township. Lines of stage routes were also opened east and west and north and south about the same time as the Cleveland & Wellsville Turnpike.

The old stage coach was an institution of those early days, and was, of course, the only means of traveling long distances. Several lines of them passed through this county, and Jabez Gilbert, of Palmyra Township, was the most noted driver and mail contractor in all this region. In the Western Courier of April 1, 1826, the editor says: " The line of stages between Pittsburgh, and Cleveland have always been more or less irregular, but arrangements now are made by Mr. Gilbert, the enterprising proprietor of this end of the line, to prevent these irregularities. * * * He has been at the expense of a new stage, which, instead of two, is to be drawn by four horses. * * * The line is now completely established from Pittsburgh to Cleveland, and will run regularly twice a week." In the same month a line of stages is announced to run from Beaver to Cleveland twice a week. The route was through a portion of this county, and was much traveled, as it intersected at Stow, now in Summit County, a line that ran due south to the interior of the State. August 5, 1826, J. 0. Granger advertises in the Courier that he will run regularly twice a week a line of stages from Fairport, at the mouth of Grand River, to Canton, through Painesville, Chardon and Ravenna, and the editor, speaking of this new evidence of improvement, says: "Few country towns possess equal facilities for the receipt and transmission of private and public documents there being 728 arrivals and departures of mails within the year at and from Ravenna." In November the Pittsburgh and Cleveland line, run by Jabez Gilbert, John Stokes and Horace Daniels, was increased to three trips per week. In August of this year (1826) the new bridge across the Cuyahoga at Carthage (Kent) was completed; and early in the following year a line of stages was put on the road that passed over it, running from Ravenna to Middleburg (now Akron). By this date roads had been opened in every part of the county, which through the passing years have been greatly improved, while many others were built from time to time as the wants of the country demanded.

Canals.—The subject of canal building began to be eagerly discussed in this portion of the Union during the first quarter of the present century; but this system of navigation met with considerable opposition from sections of the State off the lines of the proposed routes. Canal construction was one of the first great measures to which Ohio gave attention, and as early as January 1817, a resolution on the subject of canal navigation between Lake Erie and the Ohio River was introduced into the Legislature. In 1822 a bill was passed authorizing a survey of four several routes, viz.: From Sandusky Bay; from the Maumee River; from the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, or the Black River, by the Muskingum; and from the mouth of the Grand River, via the Mahoning to the Ohio. At the next session of the Legislature the Canal Commissioners reported all of the routes practicable, but requested further time to ascertain the comparative advantages of each. At the session of 1823-24 the route through the upper part of the Muskingum, the Licking, and the lower part of the Scioto Valleys was recommended; but they also called attention to the advantages of the route by way of the Miami Valley.

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In the summer qf 1824 two lines of canal were located, one from Cincinnati to the Maumee River, and one from the mouth of the Scioto to Coshocton, and thence by one of three different routes to Lake Erie. By an act passed February 4, 1825, the Canal Commissioners were authorized to begin work on these two canal routes. The western route received the name of the Miami Canal, while the eastern was called the Ohio Canal, and the line of the latter, from Coshocton northward, was established by way of the Tuscarawas River, to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, passing from south to north through what was then the western range of townships of Portage County. Bids for the several sections of the Ohio Canal were advertised for in May, 1825, and by the middle of June several miles were under contract. It was thought that the break- ing of the first ground would take place at Portage Summit, then in Portage County, and that Gen. LaFayette, who at that time was on a visit to America, would attend, but the ceremony occurred July .4, 1825, at Licking Summit, on which date that celebrated Frenchman had promised to be in Boston. The invited guests, however, included many potables of the State and Nation. Gov. DeWitt Clinton, of New York, raised the first spadeful of earth, and ex-Gov. Jeremiah Morrow, of Ohio, the second. Hon. Thomas Ewing, of Lancaster, Ohio, was the orator on the occasion. An immense crowd had gathered and the scene was one of great excitement. The canal was completed from Cleve- land to Akron in 1827, and three years afterward navigation was opened via the Ohio Canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.

The construction of the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal from the Portage Summit to Pittsburgh, began to be mooted early in 1825, and during the sum- mer of that year a number of gentlemen along the line of the proposed route made explorations. On the 6th of September, 1825, a meeting of citizens of Trumbull and Portage Counties was held at the Court House in Ravenna to take into consideration the practicability and policy of constructing a canal from the mouth of Beaver River, via the Mahoning through the two counties to the Portage Summit. Alva Day was Chairman, and Darius Lyman Secretary of the meeting. which appointed Frederick Wadsworth, Dillingham Clark, Joshua Woodward, Eliakim Crosby, William Wetmore, Jonathan Sloane, Simon Perkins, Elias Harmon, Amzi Atwater, and Calvin Pease a committee to collect information as to the most favorable route for the canal. The meeting then adjourned to September 14, when another was held and arrangements made for a survey of the proposed route. At the following session of the Ohio Legislature a bill was introduced to incorporate the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal Company "for the sole purpose of making a navigable canal between some suitable point on the Ohio River, through the valley of the Mahoning River, to some suitable point on Lake Erie, or to some such point on the Ohio Canal." Under the articles of incorporation, this act, if passed, was not to become a law until the Pennsylvania Legislature would grant similar rights and privileges to said company. The bill was read the third time in February, 1826, but further action was postponed until the next session.

The people along the line were now thoroughly aroused, and in February, 1826, a canal meeting was held at Ravenna, of which William Stoddard was Chairman and Cyrus Prentiss Secretary. The meeting appointed Seth Day, Jonathan Sloane and William Coolman, Jr., a committee to obtain and communicate information on the advisability and practicability of building a canal from Portage Summit via the Mahoning and Big Beaver Valleys to Pittsburgh. A similar meeting was held at Pittsburgh, March 4, with the same object in view. On the 7th of March another meeting was convened at Ravenna, with Jonathan Sloane Chairman and Seth Day Secretary. Jonathan Sloane, Seth

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Day and Frederick Wadsworth were appointed to represent Portage County in a canal convention of Ohio and Pennsylvania citizens at Beaver, Penn., which was held March 10. A canal meeting was also held at Warren, Ohio, on the 21st of March, 1826; and on the 3d and 4th of May following a very large convention assembled at Newcastle, Penn., in which twenty delegates from Allegheny, Mercer, Butler and Beaver Counties, Penn., and Trambull and Portage Counties, Ohio, were in attendance. Those from Portage were Seth Day, Frederick Wadsworth and Jonathan Sloane. This convention adjourned to meet at Warren, Ohio, October 25, 1826, on which date a bill for the incorporation of the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal was prepared. The next day the bill was approved and adopted, Jonathan Sloane and Frederick Wadsworth, of Portage County, being two of the incorporators named in the instrument. This bill was passed by the Legislature January 10, 1827, to take effect whenever the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted a similar charter. The latter State passed an act of incorporation in April, 1827, and the legal power for the construction of this much cherished project was at last obtained. Jonathan Sloane, then representing the Portage district in the Ohio Senate, was the author of the bill, and also of a resolution passed during the same session authorizing the State Board of Canal Commissioners to have the proposed route surveyed and estimates made by a competent engineer the same season, and report to the next session of the General Assembly. Several surveys of the route were made but nothing positively decided at that time. The Courier in its issue of July 3, 1829, announces the location of the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal through Ravenna, and says " the information was greeted by the inhabitants of this village by the discharge of a national salute fired near the located route south of the village, accompanied by hearty cheers.” The survey was under the charge of Capt. Dumest, an accomplished engineer of the United States Army.

Owing to the uncertainty as to the point of intersection with the Pennsylvania Canal, and witnessing the steady progress that Pennsylvania was making in extending her improvements towards the Ohio boundary, the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal Company deemed it advisable to postpone the opening of books for the subscription of stock. The enterprise, therefore, lay dormant for several years, but in 1833 meetings began to be held along the surveyed route, with the object of reviving the scheme. The friends of the project went vigorously to work, and February 20, 1835, the charter, passed in 1827, was renewed and amended, and ten years, from December 31, 1835: given the company to complete the canal. On the 13th of April, 1835, the Pennsylvania Legislature also passed a bill renewing the old charter. Subscription books for stock were opened at Philadelphia, April 27, 1835, and in less than one hour $780,000, the amount of stock to which that city was limited, was all taken. The whole amount was placed at $1,000,000, and the remaining $220,000, allotted to Portage and Trumbull Counties, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania, was all taken before the close of May. The stock-holders met at Newcastle, Penn., May 21, 1835, and elected the following Board of Directors: Abner Laycock, William Boyd, William Robinson, Joseph T. Boyd, William Rayen, Leicester King and Jonathan Sloane; Abner Laycock, President; Zalmon Fitch, Treasurer; Leicester King, Secretary. Messrs. Sloane, Lacock and Rayen were appointed an Executive Committee to let contracts and transact and superintend any other business connected with the construction of the canal.

Col. Sebried Dodge and James D. Harris were appointed Chief Engineers of Construction, and with their corps began surveying on the Ravenna Sum-

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mit, east of the village of Ravenna, June 8, 1835. By the middle of August the survey was completed, and on the 17th and 18th of that month contracts were let for the portion of the canal west of Ravenna, but the western ter- minus being afterward changed to run by Cuyahoga Falls, the contracts for the whole western division, extending from the east line of Portage County to Akron, were re-let November 16, 1835. The several sections of the eastern division of the canal, extending from the east line of Portage County to near Newcastle, Penn., were put under contract August 10, September 21, and November 11, 1835. The whole length of the canal from its intersection with the Pennsylvania Canal, about two miles below Newcastle, Penn., to its inter- section with the Ohio Canal, at Akron, Ohio, was eighty-two miles. " Feeders " from the small lakes in the western section of Portage County were also built at the same time. The total estimated cost of the canal at that time was about $913,000. The section east of Warren, according to the terms of the contracts, was to be completed on or before September 1, 1836, and that between Warren and Akron via Ravenna and Franklin Mills (Kent), one year later.

The work of construction was begun at once and pushed forward vigorously. Hundreds of laborers found employment at good wages, but finally on account of the stock-holders neglecting to pay their subscriptions according to contract, the work was greatly retarded, and the canal was not finished at the dates specified. Though the finances were very low, work was however continued through the winter of 1836-37. In May, 1837, Gov. Vance, in the name and on behalf of the State of Ohio, subscribed $450,000 to the stock of the canal, and as soon as the money could be raised, paid the first installment of $145,000 to the Treasurer of the company. For a time, in the winter of 1837-38, the work lagged, but throughout the balance of the latter year the canal bed was rapidly opened through this county. In June, 1839, the Pennsylvania Legislature subscribed and paid $50,000 to the capital stock, which it was thought would complete the canal; and by April 1, 1840, it was expected to be finished and opened for business. These expectations were realized, for the writer found in a report of the Harrison Convention, held at Ravenna, April 3, 1840. the proceedings of which were published in the next issue of the Ohio Star, the following item relative to the canal:

From Trumbull County came first two crowded canal boats, with each a band of music—the "Mohawk," of Beaver, and the "Tippecanoe," of Warren—the first that ever passed through the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal now just completed.

On the 19th of April, 1840, the "Ohio City" arrived at Ravenna, on her way to Pittsburgh, freighted with ashes, fish, etc.; and on the following day the "Huron" arrived from Pittsburgh with merchandise, the first brought to Ravenna by canal. Boats were now passing Ravenna daily, to and fro, along the canal, and on the 4th of August, 1840, a celebration was held all along the line, Gov. David R. Porter, of Pennsylvania, and other distinguished citizens being passengers on one of the excursion packets which made the trip. Meetings were held at nearly every town on the route of the canal, all expressive of a deep satisfaction over the successful completion and operation of the great enterprise.

For twelve years nothing occurred to mar the success of the canal, and throughout the summer of 1851 a line of packets connected at Ravenna with the Cleveland St Pittsburgh Railroad, which was completed to Ravenna early in that year. But in March, 1852, the railroad was finished to Wellsville, on the Ohio River, and therefore a superior mode of travel and shipment insti- tuted between northern and southern Ohio and Pennsylvania. It, however,

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did a comparatively good business for three or four years longer, or until the completion of the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railroad, when its traffic gradually dwindled away, and it became an unprofitable institution. In January, 1863, the State Board of Public Works sold the stock owned by the State in the canal, being the one-third of the whole amount, to the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railroad Company, for the sum of $30,000, by which purchase this road obtained a controlling interest in the canal, and thus sounded. its death knell. In December, 1863, the warehouse at Ravenna was sold, and though an occasional boat floated lazily along its sluggish waters, its day of usefulness and prosperity had passed away, and it was gradually abandoned. Its bed, which runs through Paris, Charlestown, Ravenna and Franklin Townships, Portage County, is now occupied by the Pittsburgh, Cleveland & Toledo Railroad, but nothing remains to be seen by the casual observer, save here and there portions of its old channel.

Railroads. —Up to the close of 1850, 150 charters for the construction of railroads had been granted by the General Assembly of Ohio, and the work was fairly under way for the net-work of roads now covering the State. The year 1851 introduced a new era and an entire revolution on the subject of railroad legislation. During the session of the General Assembly this year, twenty-one railroad charters were granted, and over forty amendments were made to those already in existence. The charters and amendments all contained power and authority to borrow money, and thirty-six of the amendments were authorized counties, cities, towns or townships to subscribe stock. The door was thrown as wide open as legislation could go to enable railroad companies to borrow money and procure stock subscription.

The Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad Company was the first corporation to obtain a charter from which Portage County subsequently reaped a benefit. It was granted under a special act passed March 14, 1836, vesting that company with the right to construct a railroad from Cleveland to some point on the State line between Ohio and Pennsylvania, or on the Ohio River, in the direction of Pittsburgh. But little or nothing was done under the rights thus granted, and an act of revival and amendment was passed March 11, 1845. By the acts of February 16, 1849, March 9, 1850, and February 19, 1851, certain branching privileges were granted, under which the roads from Bayard to New Philadelphia, and from Hudson southwest into Wayne County were subsequently built. On the 8th of April, 1850, an act was passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature authorizing the company to extend its railroad from the eastern line of Ohio up the valley of the Ohio River to a point at or near the mouth of the Big Beaver. The same Commonwealth also passed an act April 18, 1853, adopting the two first named acts of this State, and making the company a corporation of Pennsylvania with all the rights and powers granted by the Ohio acts. Under those various acts the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad Company constructed 1991 miles of railroad (not including the branch from Hudson, which was built by a separate company), extending from Cleveland to Wellsville, and thence down the Ohio River to Bellair, and from Wellsville up the Ohio to Rochester, and the Tuscarawas Branch from Bayard to New Philadelphia.

By the fall of 1850 much grading had been done on the main line, and the company began laying the track between Cleveland and Ravenna. On the evening of March 6, 1851, the last rail connecting these points was laid and the last spike driven about one mile southeast of Hudson, and Monday morning, March 10, the first passenger train left Ravenna for Cleveland, returning the same evening. The first round trip from Cleveland was made on the

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following Thursday, March 13, 1851, when the locomotive "Ravenna," drawing one car filled with Directors of the road, came down from the city to examine the progress of the work. On the 18th of March regular daily trains began running, connecting at Ravenna with a packet on the Ohio & Pennsylvania Canal, which ran to Beaver, Penn., where the traveler took the steamer for Pittsburgh. The trip was made in twenty-six hours, and the fare from Cleve- land to Pittsburgh was $3.50 including meals and bed on the boat. At that time a daily train (except Sundays) left Cleveland at 8: 30 A. M., arrived at Ravenna at 10:30 A. M., and left the latter point for Cleveland at 2:30 P. M. But after the 1st of April, 1851, an accommodation left Ravenna every morning (excepting Sunday) for Cleveland, and returned in the evening, so that, at that early day, Ravenna enjoyed traveling facilities that many country towns do not even yet possess.

The first week the road averaged 175 passengers daily, besides carrying considerable freight, and from that time forward its business increased rapidly. A telegraph office was opened in Ravenna, in connection with the road, April 22, 1851, which was the first established in the village. The work on the road south of Ravenna was pushed along vigorously, and by May 28, 1851, about eight miles of track were laid between Ravenna and Atwater. The track was being put down at the rate of half a mile a day, and before the close of June a passenger car on the construction train was making daily trips to Atwater, Lima and Alliance, and many availed themselves of the accommodation thus afforded. The cars began running to Hanover, about seventy-five miles southeast of Cleveland, November 5, 1851, there connecting with the stage for Wellsville on the Ohio River, and thence to Pittsburgh by a special line of steamers. Leaving Cleveland. at 8:45 A. M., the traveler arrived at Pittsburgh at 10 P. M. the same day. The last rail completing the road to Wellsville was laid on Saturday, February 14, 1852, and the same evening the cars came through from Wellsville to Ravenna. But the first passenger train came over the line from Wellsville to Cleveland February 23, and February 26 regular trains began running between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. On Thursday, March 4, 1852, a grand celebration was held at Wellsville over the completion of the road, and on the following day at Wheeling, West Va. The line was subsequently built to Bellaire, Ohio, and Rochester, Penn. At the lat- ter point the Cleveland & Pittsburgh connects with the Pittsburgh. Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, which track it uses from Rochester to Pittsburgh, under a twenty-five-year lease entered into between the two companies December 15, 1862, which went into effect April 1, 1863. On the 25th of October, 1871, the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad Company leased its road to the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company for the term of 999 years from December 1, 1871. The Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad enters Portage County in the southwest corner of Streetsboro Township, and thence passing in a southeast direction across Franklin, Ravenna, Rootstown, Edinburg and Atwater Townships, leaves the county on Lot 51 of the last-mentioned subdivision. It is one of the most prosperous roads in the country, and pays a large annual dividend to its stock-holders.

The Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railroad Company was chartered by a special act passed February 22, 1848, with authority to construct a railroad from Cleveland to some point in or near Warren, Ohio, with the right of continuing the road to the east line of the State. The road was built under this charter from Cleveland to Youngstown, and a branch from Youngstown to the State line. It enters Portage County near the northwest corner of Aurora Township, and passes through Aurora, Mantua, Hiram, Garrettsville, Nelson

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and Windham Townships, striking the Trumbull County line near the northeast corner of Windham. Most of the grading was done and the track partially laid through this county in the fall of 1855. The Portage County Democrat of November 7, 1855, says that the rails were then laid between Warren and Mantua Station, and construction trains running between those points. In the spring of 1856 the road was completed to Cleveland, and July 4 of that year regular trains began running from Cleveland to Warren. The road east of Warren was, after that date, rapidly pushed to completion. On the 7th of October, 1863, the company leased the road to the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company for the term of ninety-nine years, and it has since been operated as a branch of that line.

The Atlantic & Great Western Railroad is one of the principal trunk lines between the East and the West. It had its inception in three different charters granted in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, that granted by the last-mentioned State being the one in which Portage County is more directly interested. On the 10th of March, 1851, the Ohio Legislature granted a charter to the Franklin & Warren Railroad Company, for the construction of a railroad from Franklin Mills (Kent), Portage County, to Warren, Trumbull County, and thence to the east line of the State, with power to continue the road westward or southwestward from Franklin Mills to connect with any other railroad in Ohio. On the 21st of May, 1851, the company was organized by the following incorporators: Marvin Kent, Zenas Kent, L. V. Bierce, Thomas Earl, O. L. Drake, Cyrus Prentiss, Simon Perkins, H. B. Spelman, Charles Smith, Jacob Perkins, Rufus P. Ranney, A. V. Horr, Daniel Upson, Fred Kinsman and C. G. Sutliff. Marvin Kent, the leading spirit of the enterprise, was elected President of the company July 1851, and served five years continuously. He was again elected President in July, 1859, and re-elected annually five times, serving in that capacity until the fall of 1864, when he resigned the office.

Another well-known citizen of the county, who from long connection with the road deserves a passing notice, is Enos P. Brainerd, Esq. He became Treasurer of the company in January, 1855, and for nine successive years was annually re-elected to the same position, which he resigned December 2, 1864, He was, however, retained as Assistant Treasurer, and July 11, 1865, again elected Treasurer, but lost the office upon the consolidation of the three companies the following August.

In the meantime, during the summer of 1852, some gentlemen in Ohio and Pennsylvania had proposed the project of continuing the broad gauge of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad through Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania and southwestern New York. This grand plan for a great broad gauge from St. Louis to New York was subsequently submitted to the Directors of the three local companies of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York (the two last-mention having some years previously, under different titles, obtained charters covered the construction of roads in the same general direction), and favorable action taken thereon. By a decree of the Court of Common Pleas of Portage County, dated October 17, 1854, the name of the company in Ohio was changed to the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company. The Pennsylvania Company also changed its corporate name, by an act of the Legislature passed April 15, 1858, to the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company of Pennsylvania. The Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company of New York was incorporated the same year, and it was the intention to build and operate these three roads as one line, so far as such could be done by contracts with each other.

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On the 20th of April, 1860, the engineers commenced work at Jamestown, N. Y., and on the 27th the contractors began grading. On the 8th of May, 1860, the first rail was laid, and the first spike driven. In May, 1861, the track was laid to Corry, Penn. Work was soon afterward suspended and it was not until October 22, 1862, that the road was opened to Meadville, Penn. During this time the work on the Ohio division was progressing very slowly, but in the spring of 1862 it was energetically commenced, and vigorously pushed throughout the summer. The first week in November, 1862, two locomotives were placed upon the track at Ravenna to aid in the work, and by the 12h of that month about seven miles of track were laid east of that town. The telegraph office of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad was opened in Ravenna September 20, 1862, and the first dispatch sent over the wires to Corry, Penn., on that date. By December ,10, 1862, the track between Ravenna and Warren was completed, and the construction trains freely running from the latter town to a point four miles west of Ravenna; and January 4, 1863, the last rail, connecting Warren and Meadville, was laid in place.

On the 15th of January, 1863, thirteen freight cars loaded with rails arrived at Ravenna from, New York over the new line, being the first cars direct from the eastern metropolis without change. On the evening of February 10, 1863, the first accomodation train reached Ravenna from Meadville. The passengers were principally officers of the road. They were met at the depot (then a temporary frame building), by a number of leading citizens, taken in carriages to the Collins House and handsomely entertained, returning to Meadville the following morning. The first freight was sent over this road from Ravenna to New York February 11, 1863, and consisted of a car load of flour from one of the mills in the town. Two days afterward ten barrels of sugar were received at Ravenna from New York, via the Atlantic & Great Western. A regular accommodation train began running east from Ravenna February 16, 1863. It made three trips a week each way, and was only intended as a temporary arrangement to accommodate the people along the line until the further completion of the road. Though the rails were laid and an accommodation running in connection with the construction train, as far west as Kent, in February, 1863, the first through passenger train did not reach that town until Saturday, March 7, 1863. The passengers consisted of President Marvin Kent, Chief Engineer Thomas W. Kennard and other officials of the road, who made the trip from New York to Kent without change. Up to March 30, 1863, there were only three trains weekly each way, but on that date daily trains began running. Business grew rapidly, and by the 18th of May the company found it necessary to put on two daily passenger trains each way to accommodate the traveling public. On the 26th of May, 1863, the line was completed to Akron, December 27th to Galion, and in June, 1864, to Dayton, there taking the broad gauge track on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad to Cincinnati, which had been prepared for a connection to the new line. In August of the same year a train was run from New York to St. Louis, 1,200 miles of broad gauge, in forty-seven hours.

Under an agreement of August 19, 1865, the three companies of Ohio Pennsylvania and New York were consolidated as the Atlantic & Great Western Railway Company. On the 1st of April, 1867, the road went into the hands• of a receiver, and December 7, 1868, it was leased to the Erie Railway Company for the term of twelve years, but was only operated by them four months, when at the suits of creditors the courts of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio again placed the road in the hands of receivers. The Erie Railway Company leased the road in February, 1870, but in July, 1871, it was sold,

296 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

the purchasers re-organizing as the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company. The road again went into the hands of a receiver December 10, 1874, and January 6, 1880, was sold and its name changed to the New York, Penn- sylvania & Ohio Railroad. The track has been changed to the standard gauge of the country. In March, 1883, it was leased for ninety-nine years to the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company, who still operate it. It strikes the east line of Portage County in Lot 50, Windham Township, and taking a general southwest course through Windham, Freedom, Charlestown, Ravenna and Franklin, leaves the county at the northwest corner of Brimfield Township. The machine shops at Kent, which employ a large number of men, were located at that point by the Board of Directors April 5, 1854, though they were not built for many years afterward.

The Cleveland, Youngstown & Pittsburgh Railroad, which passes up the eastern side of Deerfield and Palmyra Townships and across the southeast corner of Paris, sprung from the Lake Erie, Alliance & Wheeling Railroad, chartered February 19, 1874, to run from Fairport, on Lake Erie, to Wheeling, W. Va. Early in 1876 the work of construction was begun, and the road was completed the same year from Alliance, Stark County, through Portage to Newton Falls, in Trumbull County, and the following summer to Braceville. On the 9th of May, 1878, the road was sold, and on the 31st the purchasers re-organized as the Alliance & Lake Erie Railroad Company, and in the fall of 1879 completed the road to Phalanx. It was originally a narrow gauge, but July 14, 1882, a consolidation was effected with some other companies, under the title of the Cleveland, Youngstown & Pittsburgh, and the road changed to a standard gauge.

The Connotton Valley Railway Company was formed by a consolidation of the Connotton Valley Railroad Company and the Connotton Northern Railway Company. The Youngstown & Connotton Valley Railroad Company was incorporated August 29, 1877, to construct a line of road from Bowerstown to Youngstown. In 1878 this, company purchased the Ohio & Toledo Railroad, which consisted of a finished track from Dell Roy to Minerva, and in the fall of 1879 the route and terminus of the Youngstown & Connotton Valley was changed, making Canton instead of Youngstown the northern terminus. By a decree of the Court of Common Pleas, issued November 20, 1879, the name of the corporation was changed to the Connotton Valley Railroad Company. The Connotton Northern Railway Company was chartered March 23, 1879, to build a road from Canton to Fairport on Lake Erie, but the northern terminus was afterward changed to Cleveland. When the Connotton Valley was built to Canton, and the Connotton Northern in course of construction, the two companies saw that their interests would be better conserved by uniting, and on the 25th of October, 1880, the consolidation was effected as the Connotton Valley Railway Company. The road is a narrow gauge, which entering Portage County on the southern line of Suffield Township, takes a general" northerly course through Suffield, Brimfield, Franklin and Streetsboro Townships, and, crosses into Summit County on Lot 7, in the southwest corner of Aurora Township. It was completed and trains running as far north as Mogadore by the close of June, 1881, and during the same year was finished and opened through to Cleveland.

The Pittsburgh, Cleveland & Toledo Railroad Company was incorporated April 28, 1882, to construct a road from Newcastle Junction, in Lawrence County, Penn., to Akron, Ohio. Work was begun at once and pushed vigorously throughout 1882 and 1883, the track being laid through Portage County in the summer of the latter year. The road was opened for business February

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY - 297

1, 1884, but regular trains did not begin running until the 4th of March following. It follows the abandoned bed of the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal, through Paris, Charlestown, Ravenna and Franklin Townships, and has proven quite an acquisition to the railroad facilities of the country through which it passes.

The foregoing are the only completed railroads which touch Portage County territory, but from 1853 to 1856 considerable grading was done on a proposed road called the Clinton Air Line. It entered the State at Kinsman on the Pennsylvania line, and passed southwest through Trumbull, Geauga, Portage, and Summit Counties, thence onward in the same general direction. It struck the northern boundary of Hiram Township, in Lot 4, and passed southwest through Hiram, Mantua and Aurora Townships to Hudson, Summit County, crossing the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railroad near the boundary line between Mantua and Aurora. Some efforts have recently been made to revive the project, but so far nothing definite has been effected, and it is very doubtful if the road will ever be built. Portage County, however, is well supplied with railroads, few counties in the State being able to point to six roads passing through their territory. Randolph and Shalersville are the only townships in the county not touched by a railroad, yet railroad communications are so close at hand that the inhabitants of those two townships probably derive as much real benefit from the roads as if they passed within sight of their doors.