518 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY


CHAPTER XXIX.


RAVENNA TOWNSHIP AND CITY


ORIGINAL PROPRIETORS-THE PIONEERS-FIRST CABIN-BENJAMIN TAPPANFIRST BIRTH AND DEATH-PRIMITIVE MILLS-THE VILLAGE SITE 1N 1806—A THRESHING MACHINE-LAYING OUT OF THE VILLAGE-FIRST BUILDING-OLD BURYING GROUND-SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS- FIRST COURT HOUSE AND JAIL -RECIPE FOR CLEARING OFF STUMPS-TWO OLD STRUCTURES-AN INCIDENT OF 1812-PEN PICTURE OF PRIMITIVE RAVENNA-JOHN BROWN'S FATHER -JESSE GRANT'S TANNERY- SOME NOTED SETTLERS-SOME EARLY FACTS- TWO NOTABLE RAISINGS-FIRST SUNDAY-SCHOOL -SUNDRY ITEMS-EARLY MERCHANTS-A SCHOOL NEEDED-FIRST SCHOOL MEETING-GROWTH OF THE CITY - INCORPORATION - INDUSTRIES - BANKS AND BANKERS - PIONEER PREACHERS ON RELIGION-FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, AND REV. C. B. STORRS-METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH-DISCIPLES CHURCH-UNIVERSALIST CHURCH-CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION-EPISCOPAL CHURCH- SECRET AND OTHER SOCIETIES-STATISTICS.


RAVENNA, Town 3, Range 8, at the original drawing of the lands of the Connecticut Land Company, fell to the lot of the following parties : The south two-thirds to a company at Suffield, Conn., composed of Luther Loomis, Ephraim Robbins and Calvin Austin ; the northern third to Stephen W. Jones, of Stockbridge, and Nathaniel Patch, of Boston. September 2, 1798, Loomis & Co. sold their interest to Benjamin Tappan; November 1, 1798, Patch sold to John Buell, of Hebron, Conn., and October 31, 1799, Jones sold to. Ephraim Starr and Stanley Griswold.


In June, 1799, Benjamin Tappan, Jr., son of the principal proprietor, came to Ravenna as agent for his father, and to make a settlement. He located in the southeast part of the township, and built a cabin of unhewn logs, which was fin-


PAGE - 519 - BLANK


PAGE - 520 - PICTURE OF JOSEPH D. KING


RAVENNA TOWNSHIP - 521


ished by the following January, 1800. This was the first cabin built in the township and stood neat the southeast corner on the farm now owned by Capt. .1. Q. King. His second house stood on the farm of Marcus Heath, about one mile east of Ravenna. The following summer he went to Connecticut and married the sister of Hon. John C. Wright, and returned with his bride to the unbroken wilderness to build up a home. After the State was admitted he served in the Second Legislature of Ohio, but in 1809, at the urgent solicitations of political friends in Jefferson County, he settled at Steubenville, where he remained till his death on the 19th of April, 1857. Judge Tappan was a remarkable man in many respects, being one of the most thorough scholars of his day ; he was considerable of a linguist, an eminent lawyer. He was Aid-de-camp to Gen. Wadsworth in the war of 1812; Judge of the Fifth Ohio Circuit; United States Judge for Ohio; was the compiler of " Tappan's Reports," and United States Senator from 1839 to 1845.


A man by the name of Benjamin Bigsby and his family came in at the time Tappan came, and assisted him in clearing his place and building his cabin. He remained only a few months, but during this time he lost a son about twelve or fourteen years of age, who died from the bite of a rattlesnake, and was buried in the eastern part of the township, this being the first death. There not being any sawed timber at hand, a log of the proper length was cut and trimmed, and split through the center, then both halves hollowed out, and the corpse placed therein, forming a coffin, rude but secure.


In the spring of 1800 William Chard located on Lot 33, and in August, Conrad Boosinger, with his wife, sons George and John, and daughter Polly, came in and settled on the Mahoning about one mile and a half southeast of Ravenna Center. He purchased 200 acres of land from Tappan, cleared five or six acres and sowed it to wheat. Shortly after his settlement, he being a tanner by trade, constructed a couple of vats, and as fast as he could obtain hides, tanned them. This was the first tannery. John Boosinger, his son, then a lad of fifteen years, moved to Brimfield in 1816, being the first settler in that township. He lived to be over ninety years of age, and left a numerous progeny, his descendants now numbering up into the hundreds.


In the spring of 1801 John Ward and his step-son, John McManus, came in from Pennsylvania, and in the following fall Alexander McWhorter settled on the west side of Breakneck Creek, where, the following year, 1802, he erected a mill, which was the first grist-mill in the tOwnship, and was for a long time a great convenience to the settlers, who had, otherwise, to go long distances to get their little grists ground. There were two other mills in the county, one built in 1799 by Rufus Edwards in Mantua, a hand-mill, and one in Deerfield, built by James Laughlin in 1801.


In 1802 David Jennings, Sr., father of Daniel and David Jennings, came in from Bradford, Mass., and settled on Lot 24, and about the same time came Robert Eaton. Jennings and Eaton, in 1805, erected a mill on the Mahoning, which was the second grist-mill in the township. In this year also came David Moore, William Simcox, one of the Boszors, who afterward removed to Brimfield, and several others.


In 1803 Henry Sapp located on the north half of Lot 21, where he lived till his death, at an advanced age. His wife attained the age of over one hundred years, when she died. About this time a daughter was born to the Mr. Boszor mentioned above, and she is believed to have been the first white child born in the township. It is said, also, that the first wedding in the township occurred in this year, the parties being Charles Van Home and Phoebe Herrimon. The first school was opened this year, it bling held in a little log-house near Tappan's settlement, and the teacher was his sister-in-law, Miss Sarah Wright. The pupils were children of Boosinger, Ward and Eaton. The school cabin belonged to Conrad Boosinger. The next teacher was David Root, who taught at the house of Robert Eaton in 1806.


522 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.


In 1806 Erastus Carter moved into the township from Johnson, Trumbull County, and settled on Lot 16 with his wife and three children : Ruthalia, Lois and Howard. The latter was born in December, 1799, and is yet living, remarka- bly well preserved in all his faculties, and having quite a vivid recollection of early events. To this old gentleman we are indebted for much of the information herein contained, and who has set right many disputed facts in regard to the days now remembered by scarcely any one else in the county. Where Erastus Carter settled was in the upper part of the township, on the third owned by Ephraim Starr and Stanley Griswold, about two miles north of Ravenna Center. Moses Smith came with Carter to help him put up his cabin, and was so well pleased with the county that he purchased 100 acres of land and moved in the following year, although he had bought 400 acres in Trumbull at the time he and Carter settled there in 1804. In this year, 1807, Howard Fuller, the father-in-law of Erastus Carter, with Anson Beemim, moved in, Fuller buying Jotham Blakesley's place, about a mile southeast of Carter's land.


Not long after their arrival Mr. Carter and his little son, Howard, then about seven years old, came down to the grist-mill on the Breakneck to get a grist ground. They passed over what is now Ravenna City, blazing their way as they went, in order to get back over the same track. The old grist-mill was run by a man named Coosard. The mill had been erected by McWhorter in 1802. This old miller, Coosard, lived till he was nearly one hundred and two years old. The mill-stones rested upon cob-work, and a sort of bark canopy, upheld by crotched poles, formed a roof.


RAVENNA CITY.


Early in 1808 Benjamin Tappan commenced the foundation of the village of Ravenna. He laid off a plat of land containing 192 lots, the boundaries of which at present are Bowery Street on the north, Oak Street on the south, Walnut Street on the east and Sycamore Street on the west. The center of this plat is at the intersection of Main and Chestnut Streets. John Boosinger, then quite a young man, the fall previously " underbrushed " about two and one-half acres, the clearing comprising the present Court House square and a small space surrounding it. The first building of any kind on the original town plat is thought by many to have been erected by Henry Sapp for William Tappan on a spot now covered by the west end of Mechanics Block, but Mr. Howard Carter, who is, possibly, the best living authority as to the original settlement of Ravenna, says the building was erected by Joshua Woodard about the spring of 1808. At any rate the little log building stood on the spot indicated, and a well dug at the time is now under the building, just a little east of the east foundation of Homer C. Frazer's store. The birth of the first child on the town plat, or rather who the first child was, is also matter of dispute. James Woodard, son of Joshua Woodard, is thought by many to have the honor of first appearing in the embryo town, but Mr. Carter says that David Jennings contended and often told him that David Thompson had a son born before Woodard, and as proof cites the fact that Thompson's son won the prize offered to the first child born on the town plat. The prize was a lot offered by Tappan, and young

Thompson came into possession of it at twenty-one years of age. His father built a cabin upon it soon aftenthe child was born. It is the lot where the old water-cure used to be. David Thompson came here from Pennsylvania with his brother and married shortly afterward. His son was born about the spring of 1810.


The first grave-yard was donated by Tappan, and was located at the southwest corner of the town plat, where Mr. William Holcomb's garden now is, and most of the graves were in the southeast corner. Here were buried David Moore, the first Ravenna blacksmith; Mrs. Ruggles and her son; Mrs. Smith, the mother of Mrs. Frederick Wadsworth ; Mrs. Patterson, the mother of Mrs. Tappan ; Jared Mason, the first tanner in the town plat ; Epaphras Mathews, who was murdered


RAVENNA TOWNSHIP - 523


by Henry Aungst, in August, 1814, and Robert Campbell, who returned from the war sick and died shortly afterward. He was the last one buried in this graveyard, and a singular circumstance is connected therewith: The grave-digger dug the grave so that the head lay to the east, but as it was so constructed they would not alter it when the funeral took place. This circumstance served to identify his grave many years afterward, when his relatives sought the spot for the purpose of disinterring the remains and removing them to Campbellsport. Cobblestones only being placed at the heads of the graves, and no inscriptions, the remains of Campbell could never have been selected from out the others, had the corpse been laid in the usual manner, with head to the west.


The present cemetery was laid off in part in 1813, a plat of land being donated for that purpose by Howard Fuller, Erastus Carter, Moses Smith and Anson Beeman. Fuller made the suggestion of laying out another cemetery, as the one in the village plat seemed to him to be too close to the daily walks of man. Sluman Smith, a lad of seventeen, son of Moses Smith, was the first person buried in this cemetery. He died June 9, 1813. His grave, being the first in the new ground was of universal interest, it standing alone for some time. In 1815 Zenas Carter was drowned in Muddy Lake, one-half mile south of Ravenna, and was among the first buried in the new cemetery. Carter and Grear, both heavy men, were trying the floating qualities of a new dug-out canoe, when the vessel capsized, and as Carter could not swim, he sank to the bottom and was drowned.


In 1809 David Jennings, Sr., Erastus Carter and Moses Smith erected a log-schoolhouse about opposite where the residence of the late Mrs. Lois Judd afterward stood, and they engaged Miss Achsah Eggleston, of Aurora, to teach the children of the three families mentioned. Her scholars were eight in number : Daniel and David Jennings, Howard, Ruthalia and Lois Carter, and Samantha and Lucina Smith. Ruthalia Carter married Howard Judd, Lois married Lester Judd, Samantha Smith married Richard McBride, and Lucina married Charles Judd. The teacher married Mr. Kent. Miss Eggleston was very tall and stately, and the door of the little schoolhouse was very low, so that, when she entered it for the first time, stooping, she remarked to the proprietors, "I see you have built this for small people, so I will have to bring myself down to their level, or them up to mine, which?" "Up to yours, Miss Eggleston, and we will be satisfied," was the gallant reply. Of all those interested in that school, fathers, mothers, teacher and scholars, there are but two living: Mrs. Lucina Judd, aged eighty-seven, and Howard Carter, aged eighty-four. This school being a success, others wished to share in its benefits, and accordingly a meeting was held which resulted in-enlarging the attendance, at the same time deciding by vote that grammar and geography were unnecessary studies. Another school was taught in the unfinished Court House some time during 1810 or 1811, by Thaddeus Bradley.


In 1814, when Maj. Stephen Mason was Sheriff, he taught a school in a room in the Court House, and when he was off on official business the school was closed. The Major was a man of very versatile talents, and peculiarly well adapted to the times, for in addition to filling one of the highest offices in the county, he could "train" as a Major of Militia, and teach the youth.


The school statistics for 1884 are as follows: Ravenna Township schools— revenue in 1884, $4,451; expenditures, $3,334; nine schoolhouses, valued at $8,000; average pay of teachers, $36 and $27; enrollment, 162 boys and 126 girls. Ravenna Village schools—revenue in 1884, $27,047; expenditures, $20,161; three schoolhouses valued at $50,000; average pay of teachers, $79 and $72; enrollment, 346 boys and 408 girls; number of teachers employed, 15.


In 1810 William and John Tappan completed the building of first Court House and Jail. During this year a number of boys playing ball around the new Court House, discovered a fine buck in the underbrush, when all hands, headed by David Greer, surrounded the deer and captured him alive—the last deer caught or killed on the town plat.


524 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.


In 1811 Joshua Woodard, who had come in from Geneva, N. Y., constructed a dam about a mile below the old Coosard mill which had then disappeared, at a point on the Breakneck Creek where the stream was wider. .Here he erected a saw-mill, grist-mill and fulling establishment. The water set back about two miles, nearly to Ravenna Village, causing much sickness and many deaths. This state of affairs went on for several years, when Woodard was expostulated with by citizens, notified by the lawyers, Messrs. Sloane and Lyman, and threatened by everybody, but all to no avail. Heavy damages were even offered him, yet he persisted in keeping his disease dealing dam intact, when one night a party went with axes and crow bars and destroyed the dam. He moved to Franklin. There was no more malaria after the dam went.


William Tappan had a frame house put up at about where the middle of the Phoenix Block now is. Now, this building was erected before Mr. Tappan came to Ravenna, and as he was here December 5, 1809, when he signed he agreement to erect the Court House and Jail, it looks very much as if his house was erected before the one claimed to be the first, yet it is generally supposed that the house that stood on the Mechanics' Block lot was the first. It is reasonable to presume that the way these buildings came to be in dispute is that one was a frame, the other a log structure, each being the first of its class.


The first frame building in the north part of the township was a barn erected in 1810 by Moses Smith. Over sixty years afterward the same barn was moved by the grandson of the original owner, and it still stands. They put up buildings in those days to last. A little later Erastus Skinner, father of John N. Skinner, the first resident carpenter, raised a barn on the Hotchkiss place, on which occasion Skinner made a brief speech in honor of the important event. Tom Smith and family came in at an early date, and occupied a small building where now stands the First National Bank. He was a hatter by trade, and the hunters would come into his little shop and unload their bundles of coon and other skins. A hat that he made nearly seventy years ago, and worn at a school exhibition, is still in the possession of one of the oldest citizens of the township.


The oldest building in Ravenna City is the one on the southeast corner of Main and Chestnut Streets, and the next oldest is the yellow barn standing on the alley in the rear of Mr. Kinney's house on the corner of Main and Meridian Streets. The first was built by David Greer, who came to the town from Pennsylvania about the time the Court House was erected, put up this building and opened the first tavern. He also opened a small stock of goods, and the writer hereof obtained this information from an old gentleman who in 1812 watched the members of Capt. John Campbell's company purchase powder from Greer, pour it into their horns and march away toward the seat of war on the lakes. This venerable structure stands to-day as staunch, apparently, as any of its more modern companions. The other building was erected by Gen. John Campbell, who at the time was keep- ing a tavern that stood on the four corners of Ravenna, Rootstown, Edinburg and Charlestown. This frame building, afterward painted a peculiar yellow, which made it distinctively known as the "old yellow house," originally stood about where the barber shop now is on the eastern front of the Etna House, and was built with the intention of opening a tavern in it, but, soon after it was completed in 1812, James Haslip, from near Pittsburgh, Penn,, rented it and put in a stock of goods, this being the first regular store opened in the township. Greer, also, as has been stated, kept a small stock of goods, but he made no pretensions to being a merchant—his business was tavern keeping. The building stood upon a ridge running east and west, upon which the Court House, also stood. This ridge fell off abruptly to the north and more gently to the south, and down its northern slope the boys coasted many a winter day. In 1824 the" old yellow house" was moved away and now is used as a barn. It was a grand building in its day, as it stood proudly in front of the Court House, where the county magnates would ride in and


RAVENNA TOWNSHIP - 525


hitch their steeds around it and across the way at Greer's Tavern ; for a full-fledged store, where you could exchange two bushels of wheat for a yard of cotton cloth, was of no small consequence.


In 1812 a volunteer company was formed in this vicinity, with John Campbell as Captain ; Alva Day, First Lieutenant ; John Canis, Second Lieutenant, and Aaron Weston, Ensign. A more extended recital of Portage County in the war of 1812 will be found in the general history of the county, the following incidents being only given as illustrations of the times. The company raised by Gen. Campbell pitched their tents of homespun linen sheets near the house of their commander, and went into training for a week, the strictest military discipline being maintained. They had no uniform, very poor clothing, and very bad shoes, but every man managed to get a rifle, a tomahawk and a butcher knife. Thus, with their powder horns and their bullet pouches slung about them, they tramped off to meet the highly disciplined and well accoutred regulars of the British. This company was included in the cowardly surrender of Hull, but the following year, one day when George Barnes had a raising, Horace Burroughs suddenly made his appearance among the men, and gave them orders for marching to Cleveland in the morning. They began to make preparations, and the next day left for the scene of war, leaving Erastus Carter, who had a lame arm, to look after the women and children, and to prepare for retreat to Pittsburgh. Then came an' alarm greater than the first. The cannonading between Commodore Perry and the British vessels on the lake was heard, and soon a night messenger came riding down through Portage, warning the people to fly for their lives, as the Indians were about swooping down upon the defenseless settlers of this section. All the next day preparations were going on for flight, and still another messenger arrived, warning the people to lose no time in retreating, but during the following night a horn was heard in the direction of Shalersville, and soon a horseman came dash-ing along the road, shouting at the top of his voice, Hurrah, hurrah I Perry is victorious I " and the dread of a moment before fled amidst the rejoicings of the happy settlers, who made the welkin ring with their shouts of gladness.


Mrs. Betsy (Eatinger) Ward, widow of William Ward, states that Jacob Eatinger, her father, came to Ravenna in the spring of 1804, from Poland, Ohio, when _Mrs. Ward was thirteen years old. There were here at that time David Jennings, Benjamin Tappan, Robert Eaton, William Chard, Samuel Simcox, the first settler in Brimfield, and his son Benjamin, Conrad Boosinger and son, John Boosinger, John and Robert Campbell, John McMannus, John Ward, Henry Buzzard, Moses Bradford, Charles Van Home (son-in-law of Chard), William Lyons, Jack and Thomas Wright, Henry Sapp, Alexander Walker, Robert Bell, David Moore, Jotham Blakesley, David Haines, son-in-law of Simcox, and Polly Boosinger. Sally Wright taught the first school.


Ten or twelve years later Ravenna presents a village appearance. A man steps into the Seth Day store with wheat, and what does he receive for his twenty bushels of golden grain ? A package containing ten yards of cotton cloth ! Dr. Isaac Swift is behind the counter compounding a prescription, for on one side of this store of Day & Swift is kept a general stock of goods and on the other, drugs. Mr. Day had moved in from Deerfield, and Dr. Swift, then a fine-looking single gentleman, of twenty-six years, had come in from Connecticut in June, 1815. He married in

1818, and one of his sons, Henry A. Swift, became Governor of Minnesota, besides occupying other important positions. Mr. Day filled many public positions also.


Step out into the road again. There is another store, just opened by Zenas Kent, on the spot now occupied by the Second National Bank. Of this gentleman it is needless to make only mention, as he is so well known that nothing here can add to his fame as a splendid business man and good citizen. Now from your position in the road look across to the southeast corner of Main and Chestnut Streets, and you will see a building that still stands there. It is Greer's old tav-


526 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.


ern, long known as "King's Tavern." A little east of this spot you will notice a log-building that was put up by Joshua Woodard. Turn plumb around and you will see a little one-storied building, facing you. This is the law office of a man who was afterward known not only in Ohio, but throughout the land. Jon-athan Sloane occupies this unpretentious little building. Darius Lyman, another noted lawyer, has an office here, too. Look up the street, eastward, and you will see the house of Almon Babcock about a block distant on the north side of the way, and a little westward from that point a two-storied frame house painted red, looms up. It was built for Mr. Tappan, by Henry Sapp. But here is a building going up. It is on the spot now occupied by the Empire Block. Salmon Carter, or " Papa " Carter, as he was familiarly known, is building this structure for a tav-ern; so the one diagonally across is going to have competition. Turn partly around again and look westward and you will see a hat shop on the corner, now occupied by the First National Bank. It was the shop of " Uncle " Torn Smith, and not far from this was where Alexander and William Frazer made harness and saddles.


Face again to the south ; look across the Court House ground to the southeast and you will see a man getting on his horse, evidently in a hurry, in front of a building, a frame, that stands half a block or so south of Main Street. This gentleman, a physician and surgeon, who has just been summoned ten miles away to see a patient who had been injured by a falling tree, a few years later performed a surgical operation. in Ravenna, which for boldness, skill and success stands unsurpassed, if not unequaled, even to this day, and was considered of so much importance that a scientific record was made of it in the French surgical journals. This was Dr. Joseph DeWolf, and the operation referred to is described in the Western Courier of November 12, 1825. It was a case of strangulated hernia ; the patient, William McLaughlin. The Doctor opened the abdomen, found a por-tion of the intestines gangrenous, cut off eight or nine inches of the same, stitched together the several parts, sewed up the abdomen, and the man was as sound as ever in a couple of weeks.


But, take another look in the same direction you were, when Dr. DeWolf rode off, and you will see two men lifting something from a rude wagon. One, of the men is a farmer and he has just sold a couple of ox hides to the other. The buyer is a sturdy looking young man of about twenty-three years' whose sleeves are rolled up, and who has on a leather apron, for he is a tanner. He will have a son after a while, however, who will carry his name ringing down the ages, for it is Jesse R. Grant, who had just gone into business with John F. Wells, on the now Gretzinger lots. A few years ago the vats of this old tannery were taken up, and a walking stick made from a portion of them now awaits the illustrious General at the home of E. P. Brainerd, in Ravenna. Jared Mason, who came from Beaver County, Penn., in 1810, started this tannery and did a lucrative business for three years, dying in 1813. In 1815 John F. Wells married the widow, and thus came into possession of the tannery. Mr. Mason put up the building now standing in the rear of the Mechanics' Block, which was for a long time the residence of Hon. Seth Day, while it stood on Main Street.


Take another look around you and you will see a blacksmith shop some little distance to the east, and a few cabins dotted here and there. These are all the buildings in sight, with the exception of one or two other residences on Main Street. Keep this picture in your mind's eye, and notice who now are in sight. There comes Amzi Atwater, one of the County Commissioners, just crossing over to Greer's Tavern, and there comes Owen Brown the father of John Brown, of Harper's

Ferry renown. Owen Brown is, also, one of the County Commissioners, and there is going to be a meeting here to-day. Here he comes on his old bay horse along the road from Franklin, making for the hitching rack in front of Zenas Kent's store, in the doorway of which stands Capt. Heman Oviatt,


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who had furnished young Kent the means to start in business. Near the Court House stand Sheriff Asa, K. Burroughs, Darius Lyman, Prosecuting Attorney, William Wetmore, County Treasurer, and Ira Hudson, Clerk. A little further off is another group, consisting of Rial McArthur, William Coolman, William Frazer, Orvill Crane and Calvin Pease. These groups are discussing some public measure, and, while they talk, cross over to Greer's Tavern. Capt. Deleon Mills has just dismounted from his horse, and, cane in hand, is shaking hands with Gen. Campbell, while Lewis Ely, John Diver and Capt. John T. Baldwin, with Artemus Ruggles, are discussig politics, but as they all think the same way there is not much disputation. Passing along the road, some toward the Court House and some toward the hat shop and stores, may be seen Capt. Joseph Eggleston, Elias Harmon, Alpheus Streator, Col. Benjamin Higley, Daniel Dawley and Christian Cackler, who has been married only a year or two, Bela Hubbard, Oliver Dickinson, and—but what is all that noise about among the boys down Main Street, near the eastern edge of the village. Why, a cow belonging to Ira Hudson, the late Clerk, has mired just opposite the frog-pond in the lot attached to the residence of Mrs. Skinner, on the corner of Main and Walnut Streets. The cow stumbled off the corduroy road just about where Mr. Mertz's beautiful front yard now is' and the boys, who were stoning the frogs in the pond, raised the alarm. It took nearly all the men in the village to get the poor brute safely out.


Ravenna was really growing into importance, for, in 1825, they had two mails per week from Pittsburgh, and two from Cleveland, and one each week from New Lisbon, Medina, Burton and Warren. James Belden came from Wellsville and took charge of the old tavern opposite the Court House, the one " Papa " Carter ran so long and so well, and named it the "Clinton Tavern." This was in May, 1825, and Belden improved the house very much. In this same month occurred one of the most terrific hail storms on record. On May 18, during the afternoon, a rain and wind storm blew up from the southwest, which shortly turned into hail, and such stones fell as never had been seen here before. One of the stones that fell in the village measured nine inches in diameter, according to the Western Cour- ier, published here at the time. Many windows were broken, dwellings, barns and orchards destroyed, and not a fence was left standing in the path of the cyclone ; for cyclone it evidently was, but they had not got to calling these visitations by. that high sounding title, as yet. William McLaughlin gave notice, May 21, that he had leased the carding works of Stoddard & Wadsworth, and was prepared for business. He also stated that children sent to his establishment with wool, should be "allowed to take their turn, and be treated like anybody else." It evidently had been the habit of the men to crowd out the little ones. Gen. La Fayette, who was in this country at the time, had been invited to Ravenna, and was expected to honor the county with, his presence at a Fourth of July celebration at the Portage Summit, but he could not come—had a previous engagment for Bunker Hill and Boston.


The second day-book used by Oviatt & Kent, of Ravenna, was opened March 2, 1818, with the following entries :

Almon Babcock, To 37 lbs. iron, at 14c - $5 18

Alanson Eddy, To 7 dollars of New Philadelphia money 

Sam'l D. Harris, To quire of paper, at 31c - 151

A. Baldwin, To 1 lb. tea, at $2.00, 50c.; 1 pipe, 3c.; and 2 nutmegs, - 25c

Giles Sutliff, To 1 lb. sugar, 18 3/4c., and 1 pipe, - 3c

Almon Babcock, To 12 lbs. sugar - 2 25

Joseph Torrey, To 1 cake of soap, 12 1/2c., and 1 sheet of sand paper, 18 3/4

William Veen, To 1/4 lb. ginger - 12 1/2

Nathaniel Austin, To lb. coffee, 22c.; 1 pipe, Sc.; snuff, 3c.

Joshua Woodard, To 6 yds. shirting, $3; 2 skeins of thread, 12 ½ c

Joshua Woodard, To 1 pair shoes, $2.25, delivered to E. Baldwin Almon Babcock, To 1 qt. brandy - 1 25


528 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.


Hezekiah Hine, To 1 almanac 06

Joseph Torrey, To 1 pt. of oil. 18 3/4

William Coleman, To 4 lbs. 15 oz. hops. 2 46

Jacob Stough, To 1 lb. tobacco, 18 3/4 c., and spirits terpentine, 25c.

By credit, deerskin, 99c

Giles Woodruff, To 1 thimble 06 1/4


A barn was raised in Ravenna for Lyman Hotchkiss, June 8, 1825, in three hours, and notice the dimensions : It was eighty-five feet long by forty-two feet broad, with ten bents, one of which was eighty-five feet long, the height of the building being in proportion. The ridge-pole of the barn was a solid and whole piece of timber, eighty-five feet long, a size unprecedented in the annals of barn raising up to that time. It still stands, one mile east of Ravenna, a little back from the road.


Another and still greater undertaking was the erection on June 23, 1825, of a building for Cyrus Prentiss and William Coolman, but let the editor of the Western Courier tell it in his way : " We witnessed such a scene on Thursday last. The frame, timbers, etc., of a very large brick building, belonging to Messrs. Prentiss and Coolman, were raised. The building is three stories high, eighty-six feet long and thirty-two feet in width. The timbers were very heavy, and in the morning lay scattered on the ground, but under the direction of the master-builder, Mr. Hills, the different pieces were collected, put in proper place, and now assist in forming by far the largest building in this place."


In 1825 Perry & Prentiss had a fine store for the times, where they kept everything " from a needle to a hay-stack "; so had Zenas Kent and Isaac Swift fine stores. Joseph Carroll made and sold fashionable boots and shoes a few doors east of the Court House, and Alonzo Bristol made and sold fashionable hats for men, but alas I there was not a milliner in the village, and the ladies had to wear sun-bonnets, or their mother's." calashes," brought from New England. A beet was raised this year by Hon. Seth Day that measured two feet and one inch in length, twenty-four inches in circumference, and weighed nine pounds and eight ounces. Timothy Holcomb raised a potato that weighed four pounds, twelve ounces ; and William Forbes produced, or rather one of his hens did, an egg that weighed four ounces. About this time Thompsonianism, a peculiar school of medicine, made its appearance here, and the death of one or two patients being .attributed to this system, the so-called " sweat doctors " were visited by all sorts of anathemas from the people. Robert Owen, the Scotch vagarist, who wanted to found one of his theoretical Elysiums near Ravenna, made his appearance, and collected a numerous following ; but When the "Auxiliary Owen Community " asked the Legislature for a charter, that practical old body " sat down " upon the project by refusing to grant it, and Owen went to pastures new—New Harmony, Ind., and set out his stakes. According to the published abstract of taxables, there was but one pleasure carriage in the county, The great comet of 1825 was visible here in November.


In January, 1826, H. A. Brewster opened a store in a room opposite the Court House, Perry & Prentiss removed to their new brick building on the public square, and M. Oviatt took the room vacated by Perry & Prentiss. Mark Woodruff, in February, took charge of the tavern that Belden had been owning, and called it the "Ravenna Hotel." Jabez Gilbert, " Moze Jabe," put on a spick and span new stage coach with four horses, on his line from Beaver to Cleveland, via Ravenna, some time in April, Robert E. Campbell opened the first watch, clock and jewelry establishment in a room next door to Perry & Prentiss' store ; Lyman Stephenson opened a shoe shop, and William Forbes was carrying on the tanners and curriers' business. A reward of $200 was offered for the capture of two runaway slaves, Ned Branch and Bob Booth, who ran away from Washington, D. C. A few years later three stations of the " Underground Railroad" were located in Portage—one in Randolph, one in Ravenna and one in Hiram.


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RAVENNA TOWNSHIP - 531


The directory of Ravenna for 1841 gives the following names and occupations : Clerk of Court, William Coleman, Jr.; Sheriff, Laurin Dewey ; Auditor, George B. DePeyster ; Treasurer, Henry L. Tilden ; Recorder, John N. Skinner ; Notaries Public, John N. Skinner, Luther Day and E. Spalding ; attorneys, Jonathan Sloane, Darius Lyman, E. Spalding, William Turner, Daniel R. Tilden, Luther Day, Joseph Lyman, Alonzo A. Skinner and Francis W. Tappan • merchants, Prentiss & Whittlesey, H. L. Day & Co , C. P. & F. W. Seymour, S. Mason & Co.; commission merchants and forwarders, Babcock & McBride ; druggists, Isaac Swift, Goddard & Hatch ; feather manufacturers, Cyrus Prentiss and John Gillis ; tin and copper workers, Cyrus Prentiss and John Wygle ; cabinet-ware, G. Lane, O. H. Griffin, A. S. Collins ; carriage builders, J. A. Clarke & Co., William Bond, Jonathan Minard ; physicians, Job Clark, Lyman Collins, Joseph DeWolf and John D. Wellman ; stage office, Hiram Collins, agent ; tavern and livery stable, William Ward ; tailor, William B. Matthews ; Ohio Star, A. H. Lewis, editor, R. S. Elkins publisher ; Western Reserve Cabinet, Lyman W. Hall, editor.


The citizens resolved to petition the Commissioners to permit them to set up for themselves as an incorporated village, which was accomplished in 1853. O. P. Brown was the first Mayor and S. R. Freeman the first Recorder. Six Councilmen were elected March 5,1853. The first ordinance passed was for the election •of Marshal, Treasurer and Street Commissioners, and prescribing their duties and compensation. The Mayors of the city since that time are named as follows: Darius Lyman, 1854; Pluto B. Conant, 1855; A. B. Griffin, 1856; J. D. Horton, 1857; Sam D. Harris, Jr., 1858; Joshua T. Catlin, 1859 to 1862; S. D. Norton, 1863 ; J. D. Horton, 1865; H. L. Day, 1867; 'Royal Taylor, 1869; John Meharg, 1869 to 1873; George F. Robinson, 1873 to 1882; E. P. Hatfield, 1882; George F. Robinson, 1883; N. H. Smith, 1884-85. The present officers are N. H. Smith, Mayor; A. E. Seaton, Clerk; A. P. Oviatt, Q. Cook, C. M. Stillson, Charles Merts, G. L. Horr and John P. Jones, Councilmen; W. T. Greundel, Treasurer; T. R. Mason, Marshal; S. B. Norton, J. W. Holcomb and N. H. Smith, Justices.


The Clerks of the city from 1853 to 1885 are named in the following list: S. R. Freeman, 1853; H. L Miller, 1856; H. R. W. Hall, 1857; A. W. Beeman, 1863; J. P. Catlin, 1864; E. G. Russell, 1865 to 1877; D. B. Lawrence, 1878; and A. E. Seaton.


On January 12,1885, the question of constructing water-works was submitted to the people. There were 473 votes for and 217 votes against. Bonds for $75,- 000 were ordered to be issued. The vote against construction by private enterprise stood 232 for and 244 against. The large body of voters did not notice the latter question.


The reservoir from which the water supply is to be obtained is known as "Mother Ward's Wash Tub." Theodore Clark, writing of this pond, says: "This phenomenal reservoir, situated upon a natural elevated plateau, saucer-shaped, is invisibly supplied with water; however, supposed to be by some unknown subterranean hydrodynamic power. It has the same invisible, subterranean outlet eastward—supplying thousands of acres and hundreds of families with its never failing underfiow of soft water, in an area, eastward, of twelve miles, on this sand ridge. This is a reality, based upon a careful examination made by Charles U. Shepard, Professor of Mineralogy and Geology, of Yale College, and myself over thirty years ago."


The city has a well disciplined fire department, with a steamer, a hand engine and a hook and ladder company. An extensive telephone system networks the town and stretches away to all important points within forty or fifty miles. A fine Opera House, lately remodeled, affords a place of occasional amusement for playgoers, and a "stand" for peripatetic shows. Ravenna sent 275 soldiers to the defense of the Union and seventeen fell in the service.


Evergreen Cemetery Association of Ravenna was organized March 9, 1849,


532 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.


with the following members: Dr. Isaac Swift, Seth A. Gillett, Edward A. Atwater, William Frazer, Sam. Mason, Isaac Brayton, F. W. Seymour, H. L. Day, William Coolman, H. Y. Beebe, E. Spalding, J. L, Ranney, John Gillis, George Robinson, Luther Day, Ransom A. Gillett, Cyrus Prentiss, L. Day and John N Skinner.


Church History.—In the very early days there were no regular religious services held in Ravenna, and the settlers had to depend upon the stray crumbs that fell from the table of the Lord for their spiritual sustenance. Occasionally some hardy old Methodist circuit rider, or some missionary of the Connecticut Society of Home Missions would come along, but their visits were very infrequent, yet when they did come the occasion was one of great joy and satisfaction. The preacher was well taken care of, and if it was a Sabbath when he preached, the entire township would turn out to hear the word. Denomination, sect and particular belief were all dropped; immersion and sprinkling were not thought of, and the rigid Predestinarian and the absolute Free-Willer clasped hands around the Altar of the Lord, beneath the overarching branches of some grand old oak, or at the humble cabin of the pioneer. Occasionally Rev. Shadrach Bostwick and old Father Shewell preached in the Court House, and afterward a minister from Beaver, Penn., would call every month or two. Rev. Caleb Pitkin, of Charlestown, Rev. Nathan B. Darrow and Rev. Mr. Seward, of Aurora, Rev. Hanford, of Hudson and Rev. Woodruff, of Tallmadge, all paid visits to Ravenna and ministered a the hungry sotils of the settlers. About 1816 Seth Day, Dr. Isaac Swift and Dan- iel Dawley began conducting religious services, adopting the Episcopalian form. Seth Day read the service, Dr. Swift led the singing, and Mr. Dawley led in the responses. Those young men had been reared in the Episcopal Church and were taught to respect the Sabbath in their Eastern homes When they were boys. This embryo Episcopal Church; therefore, can lay claim to being the first organization for religious services in Ravenna. Matters went on this way for several years, but one day, in 1822, an event happened that shaped in large measure the future of the township and village.


First Congregational Church.—On a Saturday afternoon, early in May, 1822, a traveler on horseback rode into the village of Ravenna by the eastern road, and hitching his horse in front of one of the taverns, applied for accommodations till the following Monday. As a stranger in those days, traveling on horseback and alone, was not an every-day occurrence, the identity and business of this person soon became known. He proved to be Rev. Charles B. Storrs, a Congregational minister, sent out by the Connecticut Home Missionary Society to carry the glad tidings into the Western wilds. He was a polished gentleman, a man of culture and refinement and a zealous worker for the Lord—a knight errant in the cause of religion, in search of spiritual adventure and to give succor to the weak, Becoming known to the leading citizens of Ravenna, the young minister was called upon by Darius Lyman and Seth Day and invited to preach the following Sunday, which he did, the service being so highly appreciated and the hearts of the people so thoroughly enlisted in the preacher, that he was solicited to remain a few days, which resulted in the formation of a church of twelve members, and a call for Mr. Storrs to become its pastor.


A call was issued June 25, 1825, by Rev. Charles B. Storrs, of the Congregational Church, for the citizens to meet in the Court House on the following Sabbath to take into consideration the establishment of a Sunday-school. All persons were urged to lend their aid to the cause, bring their children, and be prepared to act as teachers. A sufficient number went to the meeting and a school was formed, but it was a new thing—these schools on the Lord's Day—and the sturdy old descendants of the Puritan fathers did not entirely fancy the idea, so it languished along for about seventeen weeks, and, November 6, closed for the season. Mr. Homer C. Frazer, of Ravenna, is the only person now belonging to the Congregational school, who was a member of that little school of 1825.


RAVENNA TOWNSHIP - 533


The first regular pastor of the church after Mr. Storrs was Rev. Alvan Nash, ordained and installed in September, 1829, at which time there was a membership of sixteen. The other pastors in order of service were Rev. Edward Atwater, Rev. Nutting, Rev. W. D. Saunders, Rev. J. P. Hart, Rev. E. B. Mason and Rev. A. M. Hills. The present church building was erected in 1837, and the present pastor is Rev. Clarendon A. Stone, who began his labors August 1, 1884. The Sabbath-school was organized in 1825; present Superintendent, H. B. Coe.


Free Congregational Church of Ravenna was organized under State law November 12, 1852. Lyman W. Hall, Fred W. Seymour and J. B. McIlwain were elected Trustees, and Homer C. Frazer, Clerk.


Methodist Episcopal Church.—In the year 1824 the first regular services of the Methodist Episcopal denomination began in Ravenna. Rev. Ira Eddy was engaged to preach every four weeks, he belonging to the Deerfield Circuit. This gentleman and other itinerants supplied the spiritual wants of the few Methodists here at that time till July, 1830, when Rev. John Wesley Hill. who had preached in the brick schoolhouse on Prospect Street, formed a class, which was only temporary, but in October, of the same year, Rev. Cornelius Jones formed a permanent class of probationers, who continued services and class meetings until March 31, 1831, when the same minister organized the class into a church organization, in a little log schoolhouse about two miles north of the village. Eight persons composed this society, viz.: Dennis Sutliff, Edwin Bostwick, Darius Ely, Hannah and Sarah Sapp, Samuel Foljambe, Mrs. Eliza Foljambe and Mrs. Susan Brown. During the fol-lowing summer Cyrus Prentiss and wife, Ashbel Bostwick and wife, Mary Carter, Lucy Burnham and Phcebe Mason joined this class. At this time, 1831, Ravenna was included in the Ohio District, Deerfield Circuit, and Revs. Cornelius Jones and the famous John N. Maffitt were the circuit riders.


Rev. Ira P. Eddy was the Presiding Elder of the church at this time. Early in September the congregation got the privilege of using conjointly with the Con-gregational Society the brick schoolhouse in the village, but they had it all to themselves, for the Congregational brethren thereafter held their meetings in the dining-room of Maj. Saler's tavern, on the present site of the Etna House. The Sunday-school of the church was organized at this time, also. The society continued to occupy the schoolhouse till their first church edifice was erected, it being dedicated December 15, 1832, Rev. Wilder B. Mack officiating.


In August, 1832, the church received its first appointment from the Conference. Revs. Eddy, Hill and Horton being the preachers on the circuit, and Rev. W. B, Mack, Presiding Elder. In July, 1833, Ravenna was made a station, with Rev. John McLean pastor. In 1834 Rev. Aurora Callenan was sent as pastor, and in 1835 Rev. Hiram Gilmon took charge.


In August, 1836, Ravenna was raised from a station to the dignity of head center to a circuit, around which revolved Franklin, Brimfield, Cuyahoga Falls and Northampton. The circuit preachers were Revs William Stevens, W. S. Warren̊, and Isaac Winans, Presiding Elder. In 1837 Revs. William Stevens and E. J. Kinney were on this circuit, and in 1838 Revs. A. G. Sturges and E. J. L. Baker were the preachers. In 1839 Revs. E. J. Sturges and William F. Wilson were sent by the Conference, and in 1840 Revs. L. D. Mix and D. M. Stearns were the pastors in charge, and Rev. John Chandler was Presiding Elder. In July, 1841, Ravenna was again made a station, and Rev. L. D. Mix was appointed pas-tor. A quarterly meeting, held in Ravenna October 31, 1841, was the initial point of a very remarkable revival, unprecedented in its results before or since. Rev. A. M. Brown, of Cleveland, was present, and during the service he and Rev. L. D. Mix became so warmed up by their feelings that they embraced each other within the altar. The act seemed to fire the audience, and a series of meetings followed, resulting in the conversion of a large number of persons, eighty of whom joined the church, William Coolman, George Robinson, Israel Foraker, John Wait and


634 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.


R. S. Elkins, and their wives, and Recellus Root, George Somerville, Isaac Hudson and Dr. Carter being among the number. Seventy-four of the probationers became members in full connection


The first building, erected in 1832, was used till 1856, when it gave place to the present edifice, which was dedicated with impressive ceremonies on Friday, January 30, 1857, by Bishop Simpson. Thus from so small a beginning as that little class of 1830, has grown a large congregation of the leading citizens of Ravenna, with a church edifice that is a monument to their zeal and liberality. Rev. Freshwater is the present pastor.


Church of Disciples.—In the year 1827 the religious movement in which Alexander Campbell and Thomas Campbell, his father, were the most prominent actors, found the Western Reserve its most fruitful field of labor, through the evangelistic work of Walter Scott. The whole Reserve was kindled to a blaze of religious interest never known before. Scott never visited Ravenna in person, save to preach one discourse in the summer of 1830, but he had sown the seeds of his fai in the mind of one of his opponents, Aylett Raines, a minister of the Restorationial Society, so deeply, that Raines came to Ravenna, had a discussion with Ebenezer Williams, the acknowledged champion of a sect opposed to the Disciples, convinced that doughty foe of the correctness of Scott's teachings in a four days' canvass, at the end of which time they both, Raines and Williams, repaired to Sandy Lake and immersed each other. This was June 1, 1828. Ebenezer Williams immediately began preaching the new doctrine.


March 12, 1830, W4lliam Hayden converted seven persons in the Clements district in the northwest part of the township, and baptized them in the run flowing through the Clements farm. They were Thomas, Mary and Margaret Clements, Mrs. Jonathan Stewart, Mrs. Sophia Hurlbut, Mrs. Mary Austin and Henry Sturdevant. Shortly afterward Marcus Bosworth came and baptized two others Misses Eliza Clements and Almira Austin. On the second Sunday of May, 1830, I William Hayden organized the little band, now numbering twenty-six, into a society, and the infant church was placed under the care of Abijah Sturdevant, who was elected First Elder. Regular meetings were held in the old log schoolhouse on the Clements place, and from tlmt day to the present the members of that church have not failed to meet on the Sabbath, with but half a dozen exceptions, when they have adjourned to attefid the yearly meeting or a funeral. First Congregation of Disciples in Ravenna was reorganized January 26, 1860, with Charles Judd, E. B. Reeves, Henry J. White, William Price and D. W. Jennings, Trustees, E. B. Reeves was Clerk.


The log schoolhouse was used for the church services for a few years, when a frame schoolhouse was erected, which they occupied for some time and then removed to another schoolhouse, whence they came to Ravenna and used the brick schoolhouse of the village till they built their present structure in 1843-44, it being dedicated by Elder A. B. Green in December of 1844. Soon after the dedication Elders 0. E. Brown and Symonds Ryder preached for the church, after whom came Charles McDougal, John T. Smith, who were followed successively by Prof. Thomas Munnell, Joel W. James, 0. P. Miller, C. C. Foote, A. B. Green, J. S. Lowe, Prof. Amzi Atwater, J. L. Pinkerton; then for three months previous to the commencement of the ministrations of George Darsie, H. J. White and C. F. W. Cronemeyer officiated. Mr. Darsie took charge April 9, 1871, continuing till 1876, when J. M. Van Horne became the pastor, during whose career the church was rebuilt at a cost of over $9,000, and dedicated on the 18th of November, 1877, Elder Isaac Errett, of Cincinnati, officiating. In 1881 M. L. Streator succeeded Van Horne. and labored two years, when the church was without a pastor for nine months, but in July, 1883, Elder W. H. Scott became the pastor, under whose charge it still is. The church is in a prosperous condition, free of debt and has an enrolled membership of 370.


RAVENNA TOWNSHIP - 535


Universalist Church.—Among the early settlers there were a considerable number of persons holding to the faith of Universalism, but they had no church edifice until 1842, during which year they built a small one in Ravenna, and on November 25 it was dedicated. This church in the course of thirty years became too small to accommodate the congregation and measures were then taken to remodel it. Accordingly, by July 29, 1877, the building had been so materially repaired that it was substantially a new church; and on that date it was rededicated. The services opened with music by the choir, followed by Scripture reading by Rev. C. L. Shipman, prayer by Rev. J. S. Gledhill, and a sermon by Rev. A. Will- son. In the afternoon the pastor, Mr. Willson, was installed, the services consisting of music, prayer and reading of the Scriptures, in addition to the installation rites. A sermon was also delivered by Rev. C. L. Shipman in an eloquent and forcible manner. The address to the pastor was made by Rev. J: S. Gledhill, and the address to the people by Rev. A. Canfield. The building is a creditable structure, has a fair membership, and the pastor, Rev. Mr. Willson, is one of Ravenna's best citizens, he being connected by marriage with one of the leading families.


Oakwood Chapel Sunday-school was reorganized November 11, 1883, and incorporated. Samuel F. Butts was Superintendent and Miss Mary Musser Secre- tary. George Sadler, G. S. Rusted, H. C. Frazer, W. C. Lacey and W. H. Lepper were incorporators.


This chapel is now (winter 1884-85) headquarters of the Salvation Army.


Church of the Immaculate Conception.—This congregation was formed November 9, 1854, by a number of railroad employes, who removed from Earlville to Ravenna. As Fattier McGahan, of Akron, Summit County, had visited this small congregation of eight families for eighteen months previous to their removal from Earlville, the same monthly visits were continued by him until the spring of 1856. Father Walsh, his successor in Akron, visited monthly until 1857, when the increasing interests of that town and its nearer-home missions rendered it necessary to have Ravenna attended from some other available source. About this time Ravenna became an out-mission of the Cathedral at Cleveland, and was visited by Rev. Father O'Connor from September, 1857, to September, 1858. He was succeeded by Rev. Father O'Sullivan, who ministered to his charge for some three months, when he was assigned to other duties. As circumstances would permit, the congregation was visited during the year 1859 by various priests from the Cathedral, among whom . were Fathers Hannan and O'Callahan. The latter gentleman seeing the necessity of a church for his rapidly increasing flock, set about raising subscriptions for that purpose when he was removed to Youngstown. The Catholics having suffi- ciently increased in number during the past five years in the Missions of Hud- son, Kent and Ravenna to maintain a pastor, Rev. P. H. Brown was assigned in 1860 to the pastorate"of the church at Hudson, with the two last-mentioned towns as out-missions. Ravenna and Kent having in the meantime acquired suf- ficient growth to demand the services of a pastor independent of Hudson, Father Brown, in 1863, was placed in charge of these two congregations. The year pre- vious to his permanent location at Ravenna, he resumed the work of raising funds, which had been already begun by Father O'Callahan to prosecute the erec- tion of a church. Up to this time mass had been frequently celebrated at the Town Hall and the houses of Peter King and Bernard Kinney.


During the administration of Father Brown the corner-stone was laid by Rt. Rev. A. Rappe, of Cleveland, on the 15th of August, 1862, on which occasion the Rev. T. P. Thorpe preached an appropriate discourse, and a little later on the completion crowned his efforts with success. The estimated cost of the structure was about $7,000 To the untiring zeal of Father Brown is largely due the pres- ent flourishing condition of the congregation of the Immaculate Conception. Few can realize the amount of labor performed by this noble priest in his endeavors to promote the welfare of his charge. He knew no rest until he saw a fitting tem-


536 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.


pie erected in which the Holy Sacrifice could be decently and worthily celebrated. He was frequently away from home for weeks collecting alono. the railroads to defray the expense in this, at that time, great undertaking. In his travels he was obliged to mingle with the poorest of the poor, and share their scanty fare and meager accommodations. But what would have been almost an impossibility to other men was to him a pleasure, so long as it afforded an opportunity to accom- plish the work of building up his mission. This life of privation and sacrifice soon told upon his once robust and vigorous constitution. Shortly after his pro- motion from Ravenna to Youngstown in 1872, he was stricken with paralysis, and died at St. Vincent's Hospital, Cleveland. The church schools (except the frame building erected by Father Bowles) and cemetery are all monuments to the zeal and labors of Father Brown, whose name is a household word, and whom none mention but to praise.


The Rev. W. J. Gibbons became pastor in 1872 and continued in charge until August, 1874. The

Rev. J. T. Carroll was next installed and directed the affairs of the congregation till March 9, 1876, when he was succeeded by Rev. J. D. Bowles. The growing wants of Ravenna and Kent requiring a pastor for each, Father Bowles was relieved of Kent July 6, 1878, and given sole charge of Ravenna. In April, 1883 he was removed from Ravenna to Fremont, Ohio. The present incumbent, Rev. John T. Cahill, succeeded Father Bowles. The pioneer families of the congregation, and likewise those who have generously maintained it with their means and counsel, are Peter King, John McNamara, Edward Broderick, Michael McMahon, George Jennings, Charles Murphy, Edward Breen and Patrick Keene. A short time after the formation of the congregation the following families settled in Ravenna and helped to forward the work in hand, viz.: Frank McGoorty, Michael Quirk, Patrick Lee, James King, Patrick Bergin, Daniel Cary, Matthew and Thomas McTighe, Bernard and Thomas Kinney, Christo- pher Jennings, George Madole, Garrett Herley and Michael Donohue. Among the citizens of Ravenna who generously aided the congregations in their early struggles to obtain a place of worship, are the Hon. Luther Day, ex-Supreme Judge of Ohio, and Mr. Isaiah Linton, Civil, Engineer of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad. The congregation at present comprises 125 families, who support two large schools, respectively primary and grammar, ably conducted by lay teachers. The present enrollment is 125—girls, 65; boys, 60. The Sunday school has a membership of 130 children. The cemetery is located a short dis- tance outside the corporation on the southwest side of the village and containe five acres. When Father Cahill assumed charge of the congregation, he found b indebted to the amount of $1,040, but under his earnest and indefatigable labor! this debt has been canceled, and steps taken toward the enlargement of the church to meet the growing wants of the parish.


Grace Protestant Episcopal Church, Parish of Ravenna, was organized Apri 10, 1865, with the following Members: W. E. Smith, H. C. Ranney, E. Spalding E. S. Comstock, senior and junior, H. D. Seymour, T. M. Jones, J. M. Kelly, P Banon, Charles B. Stowe, T. J. Bailey, Charles Rogers, S. H. Ferry, L. E. Hotchkiss J. H. Ferry, F. J. Ferry. H. W. Riddle, D C. Coolman, W. L. Coolman, J. L. Ranney, B. J. Wells, Daniel B. Wells, Francis L. Clark, M. Stuart, H. M

Clarke and C. W. Brainerd. Rev. Levi L. Holden. presided. Their present beautiful edifice was built in 1873-74, at a cost, including lot and fixtures, of $8,000 and was consecrated April 10, 1883, by Bishop G. T. Bedell. The rectors havo been, in their order of succession, Revs. Levi L. Holden, Edward Hubbell, Georg S. Davis, T. J. Taylor, W. H. Capers A J. Brockway and J. W. Gilman. Firs Vestry: P. Banon, Senior Warden; W. E. Smith, Junior Warden; and E. S. Corn stock, H. C. Ranney, B. J. Wells, E. Spalding. Present Vestry: G. Fairchild Senior Warden; A. B. Fairchild, Junior Warden. and D. C. Coolman, H. D. Seymour, J. C. Beatty, E. S. Comstock, D. L. Rockwell, E. S. Comstock, Jr., J. H


RAVENNA TOWNSHIP - 537


Jones, F. S. Comstock. Superintendent of Sunday-school, J. H. Jones. The late rector, Rev. J. W. Gilman, resigned November, 1, 1883, since which time the parish has been without a rector.

In the fore part of January, 1826, there was not a school of any kind in Ravenna, although the population more than justified one or two schools, and business was increasing at a very rapid rate. New stores were starting up, some little manufacturing was being done, and altogether Ravenna had a "boom" with a full head on, that lasted several years. The great canal was being rapidly pushed forward to completion, the mails were increased to tri-weekly arrivals and departures, a good weekly paper was being printed in the village, yet there was no school.


The Legislature the year previous had passed the act providing for common schools, so May 29, 1826, a meeting was called to be held at the house of Almon Babcock, where the Opera House now stands, for the purpose of taking measures to build a schoolhouse in the First (Ravenna) District. A house was shortly afterward built, and from that time to the present Ravenna has always had schools suitable to the necessities of all its citizens. There are two more than ordinarily handsome and conveniently arranged buildings in the city of Ravenna and the curriculum is particularly good under the charge of Principal Pickitt and his able assistants. Throughout the township, at suitable distances, there are comfortable schoolhouses with good teachers and full attendance.


Unity Lodge, No. 12, F. & A. /IL—This lodge commenced work under dispen- sation from the Grand Lodge of the State of Ohio, May 28, 1810, and organized under charter signed by Lewis Cass, Grand Master, January 15, 1812. The char- ter members were Rial McArthur, Joel Walter, George Darrow Jr., George Dar- row, Sr., Joseph Hart, Joshua Culver, William Throop, Timothy Culver, Gideon Chittenden Jeremiah Root and Elijah Blackman.


In 1831 or 1832, in consequence of the intense excitement in regard to the fraternity throughout the northern section of the country, the lodge suspended work. The late Gen. L. V..Bierce, being at the time Secretary of the lodge, took charge of the Charter of the Three Lesser Lights, the Altar and the Jewels and twenty years thereafter restored them to their former places within the Jewels, which resumed work under dispensation on the 23d day of August, 1852. Octo- ber 22 of the same year the lodge was again instituted under charter, to E. T. Rich- ardson, W. M.; E. Spalding, S. W.; C. Lawrence, J. W.; and members A. K. King, J. G. McBride, Ephraim Clark and Henry Beach. Upon the rolls there are 135 members.


Tyrian Chapter, No. 91, R. A. M.—This chapter was organized under charter granted December 13, 1864, to Companions E. T. Richardson, H. L. Day, J. C. Beatty, Joseph Vance, M. Bosworth, James E. Wilson, W. H. Day, F. L. Sawyer and William Coolman. The charter was granted by George Rex, G. H. P.; Charles C. Kiefer, D.-. G.-. H.-. P..., and J. D. Caldwell, G.-. S.-. The chapter has seventy-nine members.


Richardson Council, No. 63, R. & S. M.—This council of Royal and Select Masters was organized under charter dated August, 1876, to Companions E. T. Richardsdn, D. C. Coolman, D. Lindsay, A. G. Bradley, Quincy Cook; W. Holcomb,. 'C. H. Ray, James Reynolds and G. Seymour. The. charter was issued by J. W, Courtright, M.-. I.-. G.-. M...; 0. A. B. Senter, I.. D.. G.-. M..., J. D. Caldwell G... R.-. The council has twenty-two members. The three Masonic bodies own conjointly a fine hall, handsomely and appropriately fitted up.


Ravenna Lodge, No. 65, I. 0. 0. F.—This lodge was chartered by the Grand Lodge of the State of Okio, April 25, 1846. The charter members were Horace Y. Beebe, Edward T. Tremaine, Ransom A. Gillette James D. Watson, Henry L. Tilden, James W. Clark and A. W. Bruce. The Gillette, was instituted May 27, 1846, by Edward Downs, D. D. G. M. The first officers were Horace Y. Beebe,


538 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.


N. G.; R. A. Gillette, V. G.; E. T. Tremaine, Secretary, and Henry L. Tilden, Treasurer. There is a membership of something over 200. The lodge owns the third story over a building on Main Street, their property being worth about $3,000.


Ravenna Encampment, No. 129, 1 0. 0. F.—This body was chartered by the Grand Encampment of Ohio, at the May term, 1870, the charter members being William H. Beebe, Horace Y. Beebe, Benjamin J. Wells, David E. Wells, William Ward, J. G. Willis and John Phillips. The encampment was instituted July 5, 1870, by Robert B. Innes, Grand Patriarch of the State of Ohio. The first officers were William H. Beebe, C. P.; H. Y. Beebe, H. P.; B. J. Wells, S. W.; John Phillips, J. W.; David E. Wells, Scribe, and William Ward, Treasurer. The membership is 125.


Ravenna Council, No. 878, R. A., was organized August 29, 1879. The first officers were: Regent, G. Seymour; V. R., D. C. Coolman; Past R., W. H. Beebe; Orator, D. R. Lawsmer; Secretary, C. H. Griffin; Collector, W. S. Krake; Treasurer, B. F. Keller; Chaplain, A. M. Hills; Guide, J. H. Oakley; Warden, D. L. Rock- well; Sentry, A. T. Smith. The present Regent is E. M. Davis; Secretary, C. H. Griffin; Collector, G. P. Reed, and Treasurer, Quincy Cook. Membership, fifty-nine. Place of meeting. Reed's Opera House.


David McIntosh Post, No. 827, G. A. R., was organized at Ravenna, June 14, 1883, and named in honor of the old militia General of northern Ohio. The members of this post are Philo Bierce, A. D. Bishop, Hiram Bentley, S. P. Barr, H. 0. Barber, George N. Bissell, C. L. Bartlett, G. R. Braden, James Baxter, George W. Barrett, Joel Beery.


C. S. Colter, James Calhoun, Seymour Codding, John Campbell, H. B. Coe.

John S. Dix.

S. R. Freeman, H. Furry, George and John P. Frank.

W. Gill, J. H. Goddard, William Grennell, W. S. Gibbons and D. C. Gardner.

L. P. Hunt, L. F. Hunt and Joseph Henson.

J. Jewell and E. M. Jennings.

Philo L. King, W. S. Krake, I. W. Kirk and S. Kick.

W. Lewis, John C. Lindsay.

D. W. B. Marsh, T. R. Mason, H. H. Moore, John Meharg, J. W. McGahan, F. N. Marvin, James Miller and C. A. Mason.

A. P. Oviatt, J. H. Oakley and H. L. Osborn.

L. R. Pryor, A. A. Parker, Simon Perkins and F. B. Powell.

George F. Robinson, 0. C. Risdon, D. L. Rockwell, J. B. Russell, Peter Richards and George E. Robinson.

George Sadler, Robert Smith, J. C. Shreader, James Sutliff, J. J. Shreader, Charles Sweeney, Henry Sears, J. F. and R. W. Sapp, James Stewart, Marion Sinclair, C. A. Stone and William Stowell.

W. B. Taylor and W. D. Turner.

H. J. Webber, William Wilcox, John Wilson, 0. D. Wheeler and John S. Walker.


Dr. Bevington, of Freedom, was voted in a member in December, 1884, but died in January before muster in.


American Health College and Religio-Medical Society was first incorporated December 15, 1874, for the purpose of practicing and teaching the Vitapathic system of health, by Prof. J. B. Campbell, M. D., V. D., the founder of the system. The college was reincorporated June 15, 1856, when J. B. Campbell was elected Permanent President, Treasurer and Secretary. The names of the incorporators are J. B. Campbell, William Rose, J. T. Johnson, J. C. Haver, G. D. Binkley, T. J. Derver, W. D. Church and A. D. Howard, all having the degrees of M. D. and V. D. J. E. Mahan, E. Henderson, Mrs. J. M. Flint, Mrs. M. E. Gile, E. W. Bretz, W. E. Sweetland; Mrs. M. Pray and Mrs. L. C. Bassett, having the degree of V. D.


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PAGE - 540 - PICTURE OF BENJAMIN FOWLER


RAVENNA TOWNSHIP - 541


Western Reserve Horse Breeders' Association was organized May 2, 1859, with the following : J. B. King, William Ward, J. P. Alcorn, Chris. Green, W. P. Hazen, J. L. Leffingwell, J. W. Wilson, R. King, F. Willard and Samuel D. Harris, Jr. The capital was $2,000 in $10 shares.


Portage County Park Association was organized February 4, 1878, with Alex. Topping, M. H. Carter, Horace Y. Beebe, H. W. Riddle, R. E. Wait, W. Williamson and A. J. Jennings members, for the purpose of laying out a park, holding fairs, etc. During the last half century many societies have been organized, of which but a few have survived.


Portage County Branch Bank was established at Ravenna December 15, 1847, as a branch of the State Bank. The capital stock was $103,000. The principal stockholders were David J. Beardsley, Freedom ; Robert C. Campbell, Ravenna; Sylvester Beachen, Shalersville ; Rufus Paine, Stark County ; Seth A. Gillette and F. W. Seymour, Ravenna. Henry Dwight, New York City, held 122 shares. The Presidents from 1847 to 1863 were R. E. Campbell, F. W. Seymour, E. P. Brainerd and Henry Beecher: H. D. Williams, John H. Ebbert and Ezra S. Comstock were its Cashiers. This banking house has been carried on under the name First National since August 19,-1863.


Ravenna Savings and Loan Association was organized January 8, 1872, with Philo B. Conant, F. E. Udell, J. H. Nicholls, Noble Haven and N. S. Olin members. The capital stock was placed at $100,000. In 1879 this association ceased business, since which time a private banking business has been conducted by Ezra S. Comstock.


First National Bank of Ravenna.—This bank was organized under the United States banking law with $100,000 capital stock, August 19, 1863. The first Directors were Frederick W. Seymour, E. P. Brainerd, Silas Crocker, Henry Beecher, Newell D. Clark and John L. Ranney. F. W. Seymour was the first President, and at his death in 1863 John L. Ranney was elected as his successor, and held the position till his death in 1866, when Newell D. Clark was elected President, which position he has held to the present time. Ezra S. Comstock was chosen the first Cashier and served until January 20, 1868, when Charles E. Witter was placed in that position, where he has continued to the present time.


Robinson, King & Co., Private Bankers.—These gentlemen formed a private banking house May 8, 1857. George Robinson was first President ; Horace Y. Beebe, Cashier. In 1863 W. H. Beebe was appointed Cashier, his father resigning. This company continued to do business till 1864, when it was merged into the Second National Bank.


Second National Bank of Ravenna.—This institution was organized under the United States banking law February 25, 1864, with a capital stock of $100,000. March 12, 1872, its capital stock was increased $50,000. The first Directors were George Robinson, E. T. Richardson, D. C. Coolman, F. W. Coffin, Robert King, Eli P. King and H. L. Day. George Robinson was the first President, and he and E. T. Richardson have filled that position since the organization of the bank. D. C. Coolman is Vice-President. W. H. Beebe was chosen the first Cashier and has retained the position to the present time, 1885.


The Peoples Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Ravenna was organized February 2, 1876, with E. T. Richardson, President, and Andrew Jackson, Secretary, There were 210 holders of premium notes.


Diamond Glass Company was organized October 28, 1867, with F. W. Coffin, George Robinson, D. C. Coolman, H. H. Stevens and J. D. Horton members. In 1874 Messrs. Robinson, Coolman and Holcomb formed the company and in 1879 the latter purchased Robinson's interest. Messrs. Coolman and Holcomb are the proprietors, with George T. Smith Secretary and Treasurer. Sixty men are employed in the manufacture of window glass, the annual product of which is valued at $100,000.


542 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.


Ravenna Flint Glass Company (limited) was organized August 26, 1882, for the manufacture of glass, lamp chimneys, hollow and other glassware, with B. Zeigler, John Myrick, J. Bladenheiser, Henry Sweitzer, Henry Evans, Geo. S. Jade, Mat. Harre, J. A. Creighton, John H. Ganse, William Grinnell, John Staiger, Theo. Creighton, Geo. Kline, William Myrick, W. S. Gibbons and Frank Woolpert. The members of the company subscribed $14,500 and the citizens of Ravenna. On January 8, 1883, the Crown Flint Glass Company purchased the interests and works of this company, and in 1884 erected the large furnace.


Crown Flint Glass Company was organized January 15, 1883, with H. D. Seymour, George E. Fairchild, William Grinnell, Frank Woolpert, Theo. Creighton and James Bladenheiser members, for the purpose of manufacturing pressed and blown glassware at Ravenna. . The capital stock was $40,000. George E. Fairchild, President ; H. D. Seymour, Vice-President and General Manager, and F. W. Woodbridge, Secretary and Treasurer. Average number men employed, 175 3 amount annual sales, $175,000; pay roll about $7,500 per month.


Enterprise Glass Company of Ravenna was organized January 16, 1878, with Michael Krebs, C. H. W. Ruhe, George Kleen, James Bladenheiser and Julius Schenk members. They purchased the Ballinger Glass Pail Works, extended the buildings and conducted a successful hilliness up to a few years ago. The works were shut down in June, 1883. Anthony Schneider now holds the works ready for operation.


Star Agricultural Works were established in 1874 at Ravenna. The company was organized October,29, 1874, with E. P. Brainerd, P. P. Dawley, Benjamin J. Wells, Henry D. Seymour and H. R. W. Hall members. The capital stock was placed at $40,000. The works were founded for the purpose of manufacturing O'Neil's Universal Fodder Cutter, agricultural implements, steam engines, tools, machinery, and carrying on a repairing shop. This was the successor of the Ravenna Mowing Machine Manufacturing Company. The buildings are now owned by the Quaker Mills.


Quaker Mill Company of Ravenna was organized May 3, 1877, with Francis B. King, John B. King, Henry D. Seymour, William Hisler, Henry H. Stevens original members. In November, 1881, the present company purchased the mills from W. H. Corning, who purchased the mills from the original company. H. B. Crow- ell, President ; J. H. Andrews, Secretary ; E. R. Crowell, Treasurer ; R. L. Phelps, Manager. The mill gives employment to forty men ; capacity 200 barrels of oatmeal.


Ravenna Mills were established a few years ago on Main Street near the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad Depot. Quincy Cook is proprietor. This indus- try gives employment to five men.


Atlantic Mill was moved to Ravenna from Campbellsport, and rebuilt in 1881.


E. & A Knapp Pump Factory was established by G. W. Lowe, who sold the building to Mr. Knapp in 1874. This industry gives employment to four men. The value of machinery and buildings is placed at $4,000.


D. L. Baldwin & Son's planing-mill was established by A. C. Chapman & Son as a cheese box factory, about 1863; the buildings, grounds and machinery were purchased in 1879 by D. L. Baldwin, and new machinery was introduced. The capacity is 40,000 foot surface, matching 10,000 per day. This mill employs five men throughout the year. The value of building and_ machinery is about $6,000.


The old hub and spoke factory was started by E. B. Griffin, was converted into a planing-mill and operated for over a quarter of a century.


Work & Yeend established their steam saw-mill in the fall of 1873 at Shalersville, moved the mill and machinery to Charlestown early in 1879, and thence to Ravenna in the fall of 1883. The capacity is 10,000 per day. This industry gives employment to six men the year round. Their lumber yard was established about this time.


RAVENNA TOWNSHIP - 543


Kingsbury & Sons' planing mill was erected about 1867 by K. H. Kline, and purchased in 1871 by J. Kingsbury. The value of buildings and machinery is placed at $6,000; capacity, is about 20,000 surface feet, 15,000 matching, and 15,000 resaw per day. There are four men employed.


Grohe's planing-mill and sash and blind factory (the old Griffin hub factory and planing-mill) was purchased by Henry Grohe in December, 1884. The industry gives employment to five men.

Here A. B. Griffin continues to operate the bending works.


Ravenna Gas Light & Coke Company was organized April 19, 1873, with the following members : Isaiah Lenton, Henry W. Riddle, Dewitt C. Coolman, H. D. Seymour, William L. Poe and W. Holcomb. The capital stock was placed at $40,000. On March 3, 1873, the Village Council ordered an election to be held to decide the question of gas works. This election gave a majority of contents, and on April 11, 1875, the Council authorized the organization of the company.


Zeller Valve Manufacturing Company was organized August 17, 1881, with Mahlon M. Zeller, J. H. Whitehead and E. L. Day members. Mr. Zeller's sub-scription to the capital was his patent for valves and rights therein.


Stockwell, Griffin & Co., comprising Levi W. Stockwell, A. B. Griffin, M. F. King, Benjamin J. Wells and D. W. Summerville, was organized August 16, 1873, for the purpose of manufacturing bolts, nuts, lapping-pipe, fittings and other machinery, tools and implements. The capital was placed at $100,000.


The Haley Foundry and Machine Shop was established by William Haley & Co., January 21, 1881. In January, 1884, William Haley purchased the interests of J. Blackshaw, Solomon Haley and Andrew Marshall. The leading manufactures comprise molds and tools for glass works and general machinery. The value of 'machinery is about $7,000. There are nine men employed.


J. F. Byeis machine shop was established by Mr. Myers in 1873 and, in 1876, in the buildings previously occupied by Ferry & King as a carriage factory. The machinery is valued at about $4,000. The business of the shop is repairing and jobbing. This industry gives employment to three men.


Doig's foundry was established in 1876 by Robert Doig, who converted a part of the Ferry & King factory into a plow factory, and erected the brick building, just west, for a foundry. During the winter of 1884-85 it was closed down.


The Ravenna Woolen Mills, near the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Depot, are operated by J. and J. M. Gledhill.



Osborn’s marble and granite works are operated by H. L. Osborn.


Etna Block Company was permanently organized February 19, 1867, with Henry Beecher, President ; William Ward, Secretary ; D. K. Wheeler, Superintendent, and H. D. Seymour, Treasurer. The building committee comprised H. Beecher, D. K. Wheeler and William Ward. During the same month the mason work of the proposed building was sold to Brigham and Jennings and the joiner work to George Thomas.


On January 25, 1868, W. S. Streator, N. D. Clark, H. D. Seymour, W. M. Butler, D. K. Wheeler, William Ward and Nelson Converse agreed that W. S. Streator, in consideration of his conveylince of three fourths interest in his property, known as the Gillette House and Stables, he should hold a one-fourth interest, the com-pany agreeing to remodel the old Gillette House, so as to render it suitable for stores, offices, etc., Streator paying one-fourth of expense and the other members three-fourths, the profits to be divided in the same proportion. The sum paid to R. P. Gillette was $5,000, and to him the house was rented in January, 1868. The first officers were re-elected, and this re-election was followed down to July 8, 1884, when William Ward, the Secretary, died ; William Ward, Jr., was acting Secretary for some time in 1884, and in September of that year was appointed Secretary, which position he now holds. N. D. Clark succeeded Mr. Beecher as President. The company owns the frame blocks known as the Empire and the


544 - HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.


Exchange, as well as the large brick block known as the Etna House. This was the second brick block erected in Ravenna, the Phcenix Block being the first.


The Commercial Hotel was erected by Andrew Poe in 1873, at a total cost of $20,000. This house has seen many changes in its ownership.


The first liveries were established by Ira Mason, Hiram Collins, Nathan Leonard, H. Hartell, James Leffingwell, Buck 85 Wheeler and Simon Stowe, from 1840 to 1850. In 1855 Benjamin Morris opened a livery ; in 1860, S. It. Poe and Newton & Bills entered the business. From 1866 to 1869 George Alvin and Simpson Poe operated the three establishments then at Ravenna. There are a few liveries and hack-lines now in operation.


Ravenna Carriage Manufacturing Company was organized September 15, 1855, with James L Curtiss, D. N. Furry, M. F. King, E. P. Evans and James Johnson original members The capital stock was $25,000.


The Mertz & Riddle Carriage Factory is one of the great manufacturing indus- tries of the county. This firm gives employment to over 100 men the year round:


The general statistics for 1884 are as follows : Acres of wheat 1,106, bushels 16,695; rye 6, bushels 38; buckwheat 6, bushels 61; oats 777, bushels 26,081; barley, 3 acres ; corn 625, bushels 7607; meadow 1,853, hay 3,053 tons ; clover 149 acres, 193 tons and 70 bushels of seed ; potatoes 228 acres, 27,123 bushels ; milk sold for family use, 82,650 gallons ; home-made butter, 59,969 pounds ; factory butter, 6,303 pounds ; cheese, 93,506 pounds ; maple sugar, 2,400 pounds ; gallons of syrup 1,317, from 5,302 trees ; 507 pounds honey from 66 hives ; eggs, 17,783 dozens ; sweet potatoes, 4 bushels ; orchards, 313 acres ; apples, 8,716 bushels ; peaches, 57 bushels; pears, 96 bushels ; pounds of wool, 5,144 ; mulch cows, 715; stallions, 3; dogs, 26; killed, 21 sheep ; died of disease, 14 hogs, 21 sheep, I3 cattle and 3 horses ; acres under cultivation, 7.456; pasture, 4,266; woodland, 2,095; waste land, 120; total, 13,937 acres. Population in 1851 was 2,239, including 808 youth ; 1870, 3,423; in 1880, 4.224; in 1881 (estimated), 4,800, including village, the population of which is estimated at 3,900.