300 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY other characteristics of that day - some that it would be well for our people yet to practice, I could tell you, but the court house clock has struck 9 and it is time to be in bed, so good night." Our old friend's history of the olden fashions and modes of life was intended more to apply to the people of the town of Canton of sixty years ago, than to the people of the country ; but with but little change it may be applied to the latter also. Those were the days of log-rollings for the men, and merry spinning-wheels for the girls and women ; of hard work during the day, an early going to bed at night, and sound, refreshing slumbers until the early hours of new morning called to renewal of work. A simpler and more natural life than that led by most people of the present day ; fewer indulgences in eating and drinking, and greater freedom from the aches and pains and sufferings which indulgence causes. CHAPTER IX.* THE CITY OF CANTON—ITS FIRST SALE OF LOTS—ORIGINAL BOUNDARIES—THE LAND OFFICE— EARLY INDUSTRIES—FARMERS' BANK—TEMPERANCE REFORM—PIONEER. SPORTS—FIRST POST OFFICE—OBERLY CORNER PREVIOUS to the year 1805, Bezaleel Wells, of Steubenville, who was descended from the Quakers, and was a man of means and with a speculative turn of mind, entered in the land office at that place, a number of sections of land west of the Nimishillen Creek, including the portion now embraced within the limits of the city of Canton, and extending beyond and including Meyer's Lake, for many years called Wells' Lake. In 1805, as he anticipated the speedy organization of a new county, with an eye to speculation he determined to lay out a town on part of his purchase, and make a contest to secure for it recognition as the new county seat. There were already two contestants in the field, a paper town named Nimishillen town, not far from the present Louisville, in Nimshillen Township, which, for want of lot purchasers and buildings, never came to anything, and the already projected town of Osnaburg, five miles east of Canton, which, platted and entered a few months earlier than Canton, already contained several houses. West of the Nimishillen were, at that time, the plains or barrens, destitute alike of timber and stone suitable for building. These disadvantages resulted in the choice of the site between the two branches of the Nimishillen, in preference to a location a little further west, which presented somewhat superior advantages in some respects. The town was surveyed and platted by James * Contributed by Prof. Daniel Worley. F. Leonard, and the plat was regularly recorded in Columbiana County, in the Clerk's office at New Lisbon. At this time, this was a part of Columbiana County. A few lots were disposed of at private sale in the fall of 1805, and a few cabins were erected. In the spring of 1806, a public sale of lots occurred. That a crowd might be brought together at this sale, a horse race, to come off the same day at Canton, was extensively advertised, and the result was that many people from Steubenville, New Lisbon and Beaver were present, more interested, however, it seems, in the races than in the sale of lots. Some lots were sold, but at a merely nominal price. But a good beginning had been made. The original plat had the boundaries of the streets at this time known as North street, Saxton street (formerly East), South street and Wells street (formerly West). At the sale of lots above mentioned, Leonard bought the lot on the corner of Market and Seventh streets for a trifle, with the understanding that he would immediately build a brick house upon it, with a view of inducing others to come in and help build up the new town. The house was built by Leonard, according to contract, and stood until the year 1879, and is yet well remembered by most of those residing in Canton as the old " Oberly Corner," where Sherrick & Miller's large and imposing hardware store at present stands. The first settler in Canton was Garret Crusen, who started a CANTON TOWNSHIP - 301 tavern, on North Market street, between Fourth and Fifth streets. His house was a log cabin, with one room about eighteen feet square, which served amply all the purposes of the day, as bar, dining and sitting-room, and kitchen ; two small shed additions furnished comfortable sleeping apartments for the family and guests, and a storeroom for general purposes. John Matthews, a butcher, had a cabin on South Market street, where Dumont's grocery now is, with a pen at the rear of the lot used as a slaughter-house. John Bower, a blacksmith, built a cabin and blacksmith-shop on part of the lot now occupied by the court house, and on this lot the first well in town was dug. Bower did not find his trade sufficient to meet the demand for the support of his family, and he, too, went to keeping tavern. Having exposed himself a great deal at night in fishing, he soon after took sick and died. The families of the parties just named were the only ones in Canton in the year 1806. Several other cabins were erected, but were not occupied until later. Mrs. Matthews died in the spring of 1808, of child-bed fever ; hers was the first death in the town, and her child the first one born in Canton. Up to the year 1807, there was no regularly-established road eastward, and, west of the Tuscarawas River, the country was yet all a wilderness, and the sons of the forest held undisputed sway. But in this year a road was laid out between New Lisbon and Canton, afterward, with some alterations, between Osnaburg and Canton, known as the State road. Being a more direct route, and affording a better accommodation to travelers, it soon be' came the favorite road for those seeking homes in the Far West, as Canton was then called, or coming here to speculate in lands. On this road were two noted places—noted for directly opposite reasons—viz. : " Hahn's Bottom," dreaded because it was a very difficult matter to get over it with a heavy load, and " Shull's Tavern," a place of good cheer to every weary traveler when once it was reached, as every one on the road tried to do, who needed a stopping-place overnight. By means of this new road, Canton was brought into closer connection with the eastern counties and States ; parties who had been out prospecting gave flatter, ing accounts of the prospects of the new town, and the result was that a number of persons came here during the summer and fall of 1807, with a view to settlement in or near Canton, or for business. Among those who came for business were Philip Kroft, with a stock of goods from Pittsburgh ; Hugh Cunningham, in the tinning business, with which he associated the selling of whisky to the Indians, contrary to law, on the corner of Market and Fifth streets ; John Shorb, with a stock of goods from Baltimore, consisting mainly of tobacco, tea, hardware implements, leather, some drugs, a small supply of cotton goods, such as " cross-bar " ginghams and a few pieces of calico, in one corner of Leonard's new building, and George Kirkpatrick, who had a blacksmith-shop on the east end of the court house lot. Col. Thomas Gibson, John Nichols, Christian Palmer and John Harris were also about this time identified with the interests of the town. Still other parties made investments, but went East again in the fall, with the intention of returning with their families early during the following year. Philip Kroft's building had but two rooms, the front one occupied by his family and the rear one containing his stock of goods ; as there was only one outside door, customers had to pass through the family room into the store. Hugh Cunningham incurred the displeasure of the Indians, and shot himself for fear of falling into their hands. An account of his tragic fate has been given in the preceding chapter. John Shorb also brought his family, consisting of his wife and three children, with him, from Baltimore to Canton. He was a much-honored and highly respectable man ; many of his descendants are still residents of Canton and the vicinity ; others are scattered about in different parts of the country. We shall have more to say of Mr. Shorb later in this history of Canton. The winter of 1807-8 was a dreary one for the few residents of the town ; there were no mails, no newspapers, and but very few books ; habits of living were changed and many comforts and even necessities, which they had in plenty in the old homes, were scarce or entirely wanting ; the bleak winds from the plains beyond the creek, with not a tree to break their force, came with their fury, penetrating houses and even clothing, and chilling to the blood ; and the only break to the almost unbearable monotony was furnished by the coming together occasionally of the older settlers from the townships round about, and the relation of adventures in hunting or in dealing with the Indians. 302 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. The men, in this way, managed to get through the winter with tolerable composure, but, according to all accounts, the women, who were to a great extent debarred the comforts of any and every alleviation of their hard condition, became inconsolable and begged their husbands to return at once to their former homes. But the winter passed, and, with the coming of spring, many new arrivals soon cheered up the spirits of the most despondent. Of those who settled in Canton in 1808 and took an active interest in the prosperity of the town, we have the names of George Stidger, Samuel Coulter, Moses Andrews, John Sterling, Dr. Andrew Rappee, Philip Dewalt, James Drennan, Joseph Handlan, John Hunter, Daniel Fasher, and Alexander and John McConnell. Gen. Stidger, one of the most prominent of these, was naturally fitted to become a leader of men in all movements of a public character. He was a large, portly man, of commanding appearance, agreeable in his manners, attached to his friends, and ready always to do them a favor, but, when opposed, a formidable combatant. He exerted a great and generally a good influence in the community. Samuel Coulter, a staid Presbyterian, rented Leonard's new brick house and commenced keeping tavern, as the hotel business was then called, with the sign of the " Green Tree." John Sterling, a quick, bustling kind of a man, a sprightly talker, and one popular with the people, came from Washington, Penn., bringing with him a stock of goods from Pittsburgh. He had before bought out Hugh Cunningham, and immediately took possession of the frame building, corner of Market and Fifth streets, with his family and stock of goods. Mrs. Sterling was a woman of heroic mold, and came with her husband carrying her two little daughters along on horseback—Fannie (the elder, afterward Mrs. Binkley), and Eliza (a babe, afterward Mrs. Daniel Dewalt), one behind her on the horse, the other in her arms. A brick building was erected on this site in 1819. On the southwest corner of Market and Tuscarawas streets, now occupied by the First National Bank, a two-story log building, built by John Shorb, had been purchased by Philip Dewalt, and he also commenced keeping tavern therein with the sign of the Spread Eagle." This corner has, from this circumstance, always since been known as the Eagle corner, and the imposing brick block upon it now goes by the name of the Eagle Block. Mr. Shorb removed to his farm immediately west of town and lived there until his death. The McConnell brothers were carpenters, and built a frame house on the east side of the square. Dr. Rappe, a German, and the first physician to locate in this county, after his arrival in this country, went first to Steubenville. Here he made the acquaintance of the Shorb family, and was shortly afterward married to Mr. Shorb's daughter. On coming to Canton, he erected a building on the southwest corner of the square, the cellar under it having been dug by an Indian squaw. For many years Dr. Rappe was the only doctor in town. His practice, extending over a large area of country, was laborious but great and remunerative. He acquired considerable property, and accumulated more means by the legitimate practice of his profession than any physician of Canton has ever been able to do since. He was the proprietor of an eye salve, called "Rappe's Invaluable Eye Salve" that maintained a good reputation for its healing properties long after his death. The boundary lines of Stark County were established February 13, 1808. In June, following, the Commissioners of Columbiana County appointed Eli Baldwin and Elijah Wadsworth to fix the county seat. Nimishillentown soon backed out of the contest, and was soon lost to the geography of the county forever. The question was narrowed down to a choice between Osnaburg and Canton. Strenuous efforts were made by the patrons and friends of both places. Osnaburg had the advantage of containing, at this time, a larger population, and of having building material more abundant and more convenient than Canton. James Leeper, the proprietor of Osnaburg, was quite a demonstrative talker, but of somewhat unsteady habits,. The bleak winds from the plains were urged with much force against Canton. But Bezaleel Wells, the proprietor of the latter place, a man of few words but of fine personal appearance, excellent reputation, impressive in what he did say by his earnest, honest language, a member of the convention that formed the first constitution of the State, and liberal in his offers to donate lots, by the sale of which much of the expense in erecting county buildings might be raised, more CANTON TOWNSHIP - 303 strongly impressed the members of the commission than Leeper. After a proper inspection of the ground, and hearing the arguments in favor of each place, Canton was chosen as the county seat. In January, 1809, the Legislature completed the action necessary to make Stark an independent county. After the survey of lands in 1808, west of the Tuscarawas River, a land office was established in Canton, with James Gibson as Register and John Sloane as Receiver. In January, 1809, a post office was established here, and James Coulter was the first Postmaster. The mail was carried on horseback; once a week, from New Lisbon to Canton. At the time of the location of the town, and for some years afterward, a lake, covering some thirty acres of ground immediately adjoined it on the northeast. It was supplied by Shriver's Run, from strong springs north of town. In many places this body or water was more than six feet deep, and, as it was abundantly supplied with fish, it was a great resort for the fishermen of the period. Shriver's Run was also the outlet of this water, but its course was a considerable distance west of the present run, which was changed to accommodate several tanneries in the east part of the town. At the edge of the lake stood a cottonwood tree, which, for nearly two generations, was the meeting-place of the boys when about to engage in their active outdoor sports. The lake was drawn off; in pursuance of an act of the General Assembly, in 1816. The fist courts were held in the Eagle Tavern, kept by Philip Dewalt, and afterward they were held, in 1810, for a short time, in an upper room at Coulter's. His cellar was used as a jail. The first criminal was that of a man convicted of larceny for stealing corn ; he was sentenced by the court to ten days imprisonment in the cellar-jail. At this time whipping was yet considered a legitimate punishment for the commission of crime, and it is said that, in this case, the court hesitated between the usual infliction of forty lashes save one," for such crimes, and imprisonment ; but as it was in evidence that the man was moved to steal the corn on account of actual need in his family, the Court mercifully gave the sentence of imprisonment. A refusal to pay debts was also in those days a crime, and a prominent citizen refusing to a pay a judgment for debt rendered against him on the ground of its injustice, was put in jail until the matter was adjusted. Roswell W. Mason, Canton's first resident lawyer, came here in 1810. He purchased ten acres of Wells, immediately west of town, and built a two-story frame house just about where the beautiful residence of Mr. Jacob Miller now stands on West Tuscarawas street, so long and well-known as the property of Mr. Samuel Lahm. Law business, however, was meager in this new country, and the prospects in the near future were not very encouraging. Mr. Mason accordingly, after living here somewhat isolated for several years, removed to Warren. His house remaining unoccupied for some time, soon presented a forlorn appearance, and on account of the creaking of doors and windows was soon regarded with superstitious eye as a " haunted house" by many of the dwellers in Canton. A family by the name of Burchfield lived in it a short time, but were soon frightened away from it by the many strange and unusual noises which disturbed their sleep at night. The ghosts, however, were considerate enough not to let themselves .be seen, and were entirely exercised some years later by Rev. James Morrow, who by his piety and a little necessary repairing, got rid of them all without much ado. Jerry Lind, who is still living, was engaged during this time in trapping muskrats along the banks of the West Creek, and he avers that the exaggerated reports about the haunted house made it difficult for him to keep his hat on his head when he was passing the house before daybreak in the morning, in going or returning from his traps. But Mr. Lind was no more 'fortunate in seeing the ghosts than others. In December, 1811, the sessions of the court were removed to the Stidger Tavern, newly erected, on the site of the present St. Cloud Hotel ; the upper story of a house near by, occupied by Daniel Faun, was rented for a jail. The second resident lawyer of Canton, Jeremiah H. Halleck, came here in 1812, but soon afterward removed to Steubenville. He, some years later, became President Judge or the circuit, and served with great acceptance in this capacity for fourteen years. Many yet living remember him well as a true gentleman, as well as an upright, conscientious Judge. Judge Halleck died in 1847. William Raynolds was the first Clerk of the 304 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. Court in fact, although, until he reached his majority John Harris was nominally Clerk with Raynolds as Deputy. Mr. Raynolds came here as a young man, and grew up with the town. He was a man of considerable information and of strict integrity, and exerted great influence in the earlier and somewhat later days of Canton, upon all who came in contact with him. He has the credit of having been in many things a kind of "Sir Oracle" among the people of this vicinity. The first county jail located on a lot donated to the county by Mr. Wells, corner of Third and Market streets, was completed in the year 1814. The northern part, intended for the jail, was constructed of a double tier of hewed logs, with a partition dividing it into two cells, one for debtors and the other for criminals ; each of these had an entrance from the hall, with a heavy door of two-inch oak plank, covered with plate iron. The south part of this building was intended as a residence for the Sheriff of the county. It was a frame, but both parts were weather-boarded together to give it the appearance of being a single structure. Several sessions of the court were held in the family part of this building just before the completion of the old court house, on the northwest corner of the square and Tuscarawas street. This was built in 1816, at a cost of nearly $6,000, and was in its day quite a pretentious structure. Among those who settled in Canton previous to the year 1812, were Winans Clark, William Fogle, James Hazlett, Jacob Sowers, James Leeds, Thomas Hurford And Samuel and John Patton, and each of these men exerted considerable influence, in his own way, in shaping the destiny of the town. Clark was a butcher, attentive to his business, and made money. He built the brick house on Market street, between Fourth and Fifth, now owned by John R. Miller. He remained here only about ten years, and then removed to Arkansas. William Fogle was from Germany.. Upon his arrival in the country, he first settled at a place called " The Glades," in Somerset County, Penn., and engaged in the, practice of medicine. From some dissatisfaction or other with his profession, he concluded to go West and change his business. He stopped awhile at New Lisbon, but soon after came on to Canton. He purchased the lot now owned by Mr. Martin Wiki dal, northwest corner of Fifth and Market streets, upon which a small frame building had been previously erected. In this he opened a store, and, among other things, he kept on hand a general assortment of drugs, which, as a physician, he had selected with a special view to the needs of this new country. Although known as a physician, he did not engage in general practice but, upon request, would frequently prescribe in cases of sickness, and, upon emergency, he would sometimes even visit a patient. Dr. Fogle, as he was familiarly called, was a successful merchant, and accumulated some property. He had, as he deserved, the confidence of the people, and, as a man of good judgment, and more than ordinary intelligence, his counsel and advice were frequently sought by others. His great popularity is witnessed by the fact that he was for many years cashier of the " Farmers' Bank of Canton," that he was twice elected County Commissioner, and that he held and acceptably filled the office of County Treasurer for eight successive terms. He built the residence on the northwest side of the square where Mr. Wikidal resides ; but not satisfied that this building might not soon be eclipsed in Canton by some more elegant structure, and himself taking great pride in a fine residence, he conceived the idea of building one so grand that no one in town would be able to excel it. He, therefore, engaged Abraham Doughenbaugh, a reputable carpenter with architectural taste, to design and superintend the construction of the colonnade structure on the hill on. North Market street, still standing, which was erected without restrictions as to cost. It was, indeed, a noble structure, and honored the public pride of the projector, and the good taste of the architect. But " vanity of vanities " is written of all earthly works, and he who dreams to do what future generations, in a progressive age, will not surpass, has simply the pleasure of his dream and nothing more. The well on this lot is the deepest in the city, being nearly ninety feet deep. While it was being walled, an old man by the name of Ruffner fell into it and was killed. The building originally had a platform on the roof of the main part, whnch gave a good outlook over the, surrounding country. At the time of Bachtel's execution for murder, it was crowded with people eager to see the sight. The grounds around the building were tastefully laid out in walks, CANTON TOWNSHIP - 305 which afforded fine promenades, and, on this account, evening parties given by the family to the young people of Canton are yet remembered by some of our now older people as very enjoyable occasions. Dr. Fogle died in 1847, aged eighty-seven years. Cotemporary with Dr. Fogle, and, like him, engaged in the pursuit of merchandising, was James Hazlett. He came from Ireland while yet in his minority, first settled in Belmont County, Ohio, and, in 1811, came to Canton. He commenced business in a frame building on the Southeast corner of the public square ; and, having been prosperous in business, he erected on the old site a two-story brick house, which, though materially changed, is still standing, and is now known as the McKinley Block. Mr. Hazlett was much respected as a friend and neighbor ; in his younger years, in connection with the store business, he was connected with other branches of business, among which may be named a tan-yard, corner of Seventh and Walnut, a forge or bloomary at Sparta, in Pike Township, and a furnace at North Industry ; but every one of these has " gone the way of all flesh," and are no more recognized in the land of the living. He was at an early day elected one of the Associate Judges of the County, and held the place until these unnecessary appendages were done away with by our present State Constitution. An incident occurred in the heated " Log Cabin and Hard Cider " campaign of 1840, between Gen. Har- rison, of Ohio, and Martin Van Buren, of New York, rival candidates for the high office of the President of the United States, in which, at the election, Mr. Hazlett's vote was challenged. He had, at this time, exercised the privilege of au American voter for thirty years without challenge ; he, of course, acted in good faith, and believed he had the right to vote, but, under the naturalization laws, his vote was rejected. His political friends were naturally indignant at the rejection of his vote ; but he himself, with a keen sense of justice in the premises, and a high regard for the prerogatives of an American citizen,, took no umbrage, and was only sorry that he had so long unwittingly vio¬lated the law. Before the next election, without opposition from either party, his disability was removed. The Patton Brothers, Samuel and John, were closely identified with the earlier days of Can ton. Samuel kept a tavern stand in a frame building on the corner of Court and Tuscarawas streets. Several years later, he took charge of the Stidger House on the ground now occupied by the St. Cloud Hotel. Here he died. John was a teacher, and held school in a frame building on Market street, south of the old Oberly corner. He is said to have been a man of fine personal appearance, and very popular among the ladies. He afterward removed to Bolivar, Tuscarawas County, where he died some years ago. Thomas Hurford, father of Alexander, still living among us, was born in Chester County, Penn., where he learned the milling business. He worked for awhile in a mill belonging to Bazaleel Wells at Steubenville ; then rented the mill and ran it in his own name. During the time, he took a flat-boat loaded with flour to New Orleans, and, on this venture, cleared $2,500. With this money he came to Canton, and entered a quarter-section of land just south of the present city limits ; he was so closely identified with Canton from his social disposition, and the frequency of his visits to town, that he was always considered as one of the early residents. He built the mill yet standing, but for many years no longer in active use, just southwest of Oak Grove. Though the sound of its grinding has for many years not been heard, it is still in the old place—one of the remaining monitors of times long past and gone. Mr. Hurford was very-fond of company, and particularly fond of discussions on religious matters. He, having been born and reared in Chester County, Penn., a region of country almost entirely occupied by Quakers, the followers of William Penn, the founder of the State of Pennsylvania, and in the very vicinity of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, was very naturally under Quaker influences in his earlier years. He tells his own story of the reasons which caused him to doff the habit of his religious faith and early training. Having been sent to Winchester, Va., at an early day, on business for his employers, he was assailed, while passing along one of the streets, by a cry from an upper window, as he supposed, " You're a Quaker," but looking up he could see no one from whom the insulting language, as he construed it, had come. He went on, but after a few steps, he heard the same cry repeated. Naturally indignant at 306 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. what he considered an insult to his religion, he angrily turned round to discover the impudent assaulter, but no one was in sight on the street or at the windows. Several hours after this, as he was passing the same locality, came a third time the cry, " You're a Quaker," when, turning quickly, he discovered the guilty party to be a parrot exposed in a cage at an upper window. This trivial circumstance so much annoyed him, that he took off his Quaker dress immediately upon his return home, and never resumed it afterward. Upon such little things, sometimes, do the destinies of men and nations hang. Jacob Sowers, grandfather of Percy Sowers, an attorney of the city of to-day, came in the year 1809, to Canton, from Maryland, and bought with him his two sons, Frederick and Eli. The old gentleman intended to make some investments in his own name, but not finding things in all respects to his taste, and, concluding to defer the matter to some future time, returned East, leaving his two sons here. Frederick was bound to George Cribs to learn the trade of a potter. He liked neither his master, nor the trade, left without ceremony, and went back to his native State, where afterward he became a highly successful Baptist minister, but contracting a severe cold from immersing in the winter season, he died from the effects of it. Eli, the other son, was apprenticed to Alexander Cameron, to make of himself a practical carpenter. He served out his time, married a daughter of George Dunbar, and, for many years, carried on this business extensively and successfully, until, with the acquisition of a competency, advancing years admonished him to retire from active business. He was elected one of the Associate Judges of the county, and filled the position with credit for a number of years. The Judge often spoke of the great eclipse of 1811, when he, with others, was engaged in shingling the old Kaufmann House, corner of Ninth and Market streets. The sun gradually disappeared, darkness soon enveloped everything about them, and the men, one and all, precipitately abandoned the roof with the impression (bred of the want of knowledge and considerable superstition) that the world was coming to an end, or that some other dreadful calamity was immediately impending. The sun, however, soon brightened up again and the world still stands. In these earlier days, and some of the later ones, people hereabouts, without fixing precise dates, would refer to things which happened before or after the war of 1812 with Great Britain. Hence the references above given of those who were here before 1812. There were of course, many others, who either made no record, or, following the Westward course of rule and civilization, have entirely passed away from the recollections of men. Many of the pursuits of former times have passed away, and a few words touching the arts that the improvement of machinery or greater facilities elsewhere have destroyed, are in place. In pioneer days, here as elsewhere, those pursuits which minister to man's immediate comforts and needs were the first ones started and longest continued. A young lady's outfit, in town as in country, then, always included a spinning-wheel and its accompanying reel. From the first settlement of the county, and for a couple of score of years thereafter, these articles were in great demand ; at one time, there were no less than three establishments in Canton engaged in their manufacture, those, namely, of Joseph Handlin, Joseph Musser and Jacob Bucher. Handlin left first, Musser ran away with another man's wife, but Mr. Bucher continued in. the business as long as there was anything to do, and amassed a very respectable fortune. But the music of " the one-stringed piano," as some one has facetiously called the spinning-wheel, no longer enlivens the dreary long winter nights, or the sultry late summer evenings. Tom Marshall, from Steubenville, where he had previously engaged in the same business, started a nail factory and continued it for a few years. He heated his iron-plate in a forge, and cut and headed the nails by machinery. His shop was on Tuscarawas street, about where the parsonage of the First Methodist Church now stands. He could and did make from fifteen to twenty pounds a day, which sold readily at 50 cents a pound. Messrs. Webb, Tofier, Schroggs, Sweeney and Albert carried on the hatting business at an early day and for many years. Hats, at that time, were made only of fur and wool, both kinds, a stiff hat with a high crown. When a man or a boy wanted a hat, he went to the hatter and had his head measured, and the hat. made over the measure, would be finished in a month or six weeks. It was not a great CANTON TOWNSHIP - 307 while, however, before the merchants began to bring on hats and shoes from the East. The hatters and shoemakers, of course, considered this an intrenchment upon their prerogative, and they made common cause against the merchants ; but the old fight of supply and demand, and of the right to buy goods in any legitimate way. where they could be bought for the least money, won the day eventually ; the war ceased, the merchants had the trade, and the hatters and shoemakers were obliged to yield. The hatters finally left the field, and those of them who remained in town, went into other business. There have been as many as nine tanneries in different parts of Canton, mostly on or near Shriver's Run, and seven of the nine running at the same time ; now there is none. The same might be said of the hatters, who, after the first fight with the merchants, were only known here by an occasional itinerant coming once in awhile. to brush up and renovate old hats ; a year or two since, however, an old and experienced hatter from Philadelphia located in Canton, and though he does not pretend to cope with the older houses East or West, in making new hats, he has succeeded in establishing a good business in the renovating line. In the former days, there were Sterling's, Stidger's, Kroft's. Fogle's, Slusser's, Hazlett's, Christmas', Dobbs' and Kimball's tanneries, the last seven at the same time. As this circumstance indicates there was a very urgent demand for leather, so urgent indeed, sometimes, that people would take it away before the leather had been fully and properly tanned. V. R. Kimball, who started his tannery in 1832, at the corner of Cherry and Third streets, where Alexander's woolen factory is now located, ground his bark by steam-power, and as his was the first steam engine ever seen in Canton, it was a great curiosity, and attracted, for awhile, crowds of people eager to see this wonderful substitute of heat and water for horse-power. The engineer was named Albert Kugle, and the boys of the period considered him the greatest man in town. The stage driver, up to this time, was the man of most importance in the eyes of the boys, but he had to yield to Kugle. As game was then abundant, and every man and boy considered himself deficient in something essential to his manhood, if he had not a gun or did not know how to use -one, and as emigrants going further West brought this part of their outfit here, the demand for guns and rifles was sufficient to keep three shops running. Adam Kimmel, John Clark and Jacob Danner engaged in the business, and they all made money out of it. Associated with the regular gun business, Mr. F. A. Schneider, the pioneer hardware merchant of Canton. started and kept in operation for some time, a gun-barrel factory on Fifth street, between Walnut and Cherry. The building was afterward diverted into other uses ; it is still standing, but has been turned into a number of tenement houses. Among others of those who pursued in former years, what are now entirely or comparatively lost arts in Canton, George Faber, a man of decidedly inventive turn of mind, and a good citizen, manufactured for several years all kinds of cards, such as wool-cards, horse-cards and the like. Although a distinct portion of the history of Stark County will be devoted to the medical fraternity, in which all the pioneer physicians will receive full notice, we deem it due to the history of Canton to revert briefly to the earlier doctors, who came here after Dr. Rappe, of whom, as the first one, a fuller notice has above been given. After him, the brothers John and Thomas Bonfield came and practiced in this city and neighborhood. Dr. John came first, and, though a man of decided ability, was somewhat odd in his manners and dress, and had a penchant for holding some public office, an ambition, however, which he was never able to gratify. Dr. Thomas S. came shortly after, and was in nearly every respect totally unlike his brother ; he was a popular practitioner, a zealous member of the Methodist Church and a noted skater. After these came Dr. Thomas Hartford, who first engaged in the practice of his profession and afterward in merchandising. Highly successful in both callings, he amassed considerable wealth, which by his will, after making liberal provision for his widow during her lifetime, he bequeathed as a perpetual poor fund to the city of Canton. Dr. Hartford removed to Pittsburgh in 1832, and lived there in ease and comfort all the balance of his days. Dr. James Jerow was the fifth physician, a good practitioner, but a very decided and somewhat arbitrary man. He died in 1825, of a malignant fever. Dr. George Breysecher, the next, came from Germany, and settled in Canton in   308 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. 1819. He was reputed a good physician and a very successful hunter. Drs. Gardner and Simmons came here in or about 1820. The former died in Canton. The latter, about the year 1830, removed to Cincinnati, and afterward to St. Louis, where he died only a few years ago. Many of these older settlers have left historical reminiscences highly interesting and instructive. We will give a few of these which we deem of especial interest. John Shorb, who came here in 1807, was a native of Zweibruecken, in Germany, and when yet quite young, he came and settled in Baltimore, where he married Catharine Gross, a sister of Mrs. Andrew Meyer,' from Neiderbronn, Elsass. Mr. Shorb had pursued different branches of business in Baltimore, and had made some money before he came to Canton. He kept store a few years, first in Leonard's building, and afterward in his own building. Giving up the store to his son John, he.removed to his farm just northwest of the old city limits, now, however, nearly all within the city. When he went East in after years to buy goods, he invariably made the trip on horseback, accompanied at different times by his wife, a feat of horsemanship that but few women of the present day would dare to attempt. In 1815, he became President of the first bank in the town, called " The Farmers' Bank of Canton." He did considerable business also in real estate. He took an active part in public affairs, and was always ready to give a helping hand to his neighbors. An example will perhaps give some insight into this part of his character. It was customary in the early times for sea captains to bring over emigrants destitute of means, and, in -order to pay their passage and expenses, to sell them out to service for a number of years. Sometimes whole families were thus sold out into this condition of white slavery. A Swiss, by the name of Imhoff, was one of this kind of emigrants. He came from Basle, and was a tailor by trade. He was sold to one of these " dealers in human flesh," who was instinctively a tyrant. Soon finding his condition unbearable, Imhoff took the first favorable chance, as many others in like positions did, and ran away, taking his family along with him. With other parties going West, he came first to Plain Township, and then to Canton. He had been pursued, and on the day of his arrival here, he was caught by his pursuers, together with his family, and they were in danger of being taken back to their slavery, and to suffer the punishment of whipping for running away. They were almost exhausted with weariness and the want of sustaining food. and the terrible fate awaiting them if they should be taken back to Philadelphia becoming known, many of the then residents of the town took compassion on them, and one of them, John Short), being in good circumstances offered to buy their freedom. The pursuers were at first unwilling to make any terms for the release of Imhoff and family, but they were soon brought to terms by the loud mutterings of the anger of the people, and the threats of lynch law if they did not quickly accept their money and leave. One who vouches for the truth of this transaction said : " The scoundrels took themselves off mighty quick when they heard of hanging." Shorb was a zealous member of the Roman Catholic Church, and one of the founders of the first congregation in Canton. He was injured while giving a helping hand in the erection of the old Catholic Church corner of North and Poplar streets, and on the 24th of July, 1824, he died from his injuries, at the age of sixty-five years. Philip Dewalt was also one of the noteworthy pioneers of Canton, and came here in 1808. His parents came from Germany to America in the year 1761, and Philip was born on the vessel during the voyage over the ocean. The family went first to Hanover, York Co., Penn., next to Center County, and finally, to Stark County in 1808. The parents lived to great old age ; the father, also named Philip, died at the age of one hundred and five years, and the mother at one hundred. Both were buried in the old graveyard on Plum street in Canton. The subject of our sketch first engaged in making. " small beer " and pepper cakes," but in the winter following, commenced keeping the " Spread Eagle " tavern ; he did a good business. From 1809 to 1812, large numbers of people from the East came to look up and locate lands, and Mr. Dewalt had often as many as twenty guests passing the night with him. His son, Daniel Dewalt, now over eighty years old, still resides here and knows more about the early settlement of Canton, from his own knowledge, than any other citizen. At the end of twenty years, Philip Dewalt sold the Eagle Hotel to his oldest son, George, and built another tavern stand on the northeast CANTON TOWNSHIP - 309 corner of Tuscarawas and Plum streets. He died in 1844, aged eighty-three years. His wife Eva was called home some seventeen years before at the age of sixty-four years. They had a family of seven children, five sons and two daughters, of whom " Old Uncle Dan," tolerably hale and hearty, alone survives, one of the last links connecting the primitive age of Canton with the present. A history of Canton would be very incomplete without a more extended notice of " Uncle Dan." In the spring of 1809, he went to school to a Mr. George Geisweil, northeast of the present fair grounds, and received instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic, both in English and German. The tuition in this school was 50 cents per month. One Andrew Johnson, taught the first English school in Canton, in a log schoolhouse, erected in 1807 on the lot now occupied by the court house. Daniel Dewalt made fair progress in school, and afterward helped his father in the tavern. He attended to the horses in the stable and blacked boots for thgueststi, sometimes assisted by his mother, and frequently did not get done with his work until after 1 o'clock in thmorningin. He, however, pocketed all the cash paid for this service himself, and often drove a profitable trade. He took to horses naturally when quite young, and while yet a boy did some sharp trading, as early as the year 1812, when the last war with Great Britain broke out. About this time he owned, in his own name, a flock of sixty sheep, which found good and abundant subsistence on the rich plains near Canton. One day a farmer came to the Eagle Tavern, with a tolerably good horse, which he wanted to exchange for sheep. Daniel gave him four sheep and took the horse. A few days after, his father sent him on business to New Philadelphia, and he, of course, took his horse along with him. On the way he saw a very beautiful, dark chestnut horse, which took his fancy, and he traded his own horse and a gold watch, worth $30 or $40, for him. When he came home on his noble charger, he was a wonder to his father and all the people at the hotel. He traded this horse again a few days later to the soldiers, at that time encamped on the court house lot, receiving in exchange two other horses and $75 in money one of these he sold soon afterward for $100. He, some years later, learned tch-makingg• and jewelry business, but not finding this his particular forte, he has spent the greater part of his life in trading. He was generally successful in his ventures. In the summer of 1809, there was a great scarcity in horse feed in this neighborhood, and to meet the urgent demand, Philip Dewalt sent to New Lisbon, it distance of thirty-three miles. His two daughters, Mary and Nancy, aged respectively twelve and fourteen years, made the journey in two days. They rode horseback and leading other horses by the bridle, brought three sacks of oats on each horse. Those days developed hearty and brave women, as well as hardy and daring men, women who were in every respect helpmeets to their husbands in town and country. Before proceeding to other early reminiscences it will be well to give a resume of the early settlers which, from a paper published a number of years since, we find ready to our hands, as follows, viz.: " The first white settler, not only in Canton but in Stark County, was James Leonard, who came here in 1805. The first white child was born a couple of miles north of Canton, on the Spangler farm, and was a daughter born to Hugh Cunningham, who, however, lived but a short time. The first marriage was that of James F. Leonard with Sarah Barber, in 1806. Leonard built the same year the first brick house, on the old Oberly corner. The first death was that of James Culbertson, in October, 1805. The firsgrist-millll was erected by Philip Slusser in 1807. . The first saw-mill was set up the same year on the present site of Trump's Mill. The first tavern was started by Garret Crusen, on Market street, between Fourth and Fifth streets, in a log house. The first well in town was dug on this lot. The first store was opened by Abraham Kroft, corner of Market and Fifth streets, in 1807. The first blacksmith who did work here was John Bower, who built his shop and commenced business in 1809, on the court house lot. The firsf shoemaker was Barney Mayhan, on Poplar street, between Fourth and Fifth, in 1809. The first tailor was Levi Jones, on South Market street, between Seventh and Eight streets, in 1808. The first wheelwright and chair-maker was Joseph Handlan in 1807. The first wagon-maker was Jacob Strine, in 1818. The first cabinet-maker was Peter M. Bainbridge, on West Tuscarawas street, in 1815. The first house joiner was John Hanna, in 1809. The HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 310 first brick-layers were James McMahan and Stillinger, partners in business, in 1812 ; they also followed stone-cutting and plastering. The first tan-yard was started by Abraham Kroft, in 1808. The first lawyer was Roswell Mason, in 1810. The first Doctor was Andrew Rappee, in 1808. The first teacher was Andrew Johnson, in 1808. The first resident minister of the Gospel was Rev. Anthony Weier, in 1812. The first drug store was opened by Jacob Sala in 1820, though drugs were extensively sold in Canton by other parties before this time. The first hatter was George Stidger, on the St. Cloud corner, in 1809. The first tinner and copper-smith was John Buckius, East Tuscarawas street, in 1811. The first saddler was John Read, in 1814, who occupied a shop in common with a tailor by the name of Parker. The first gunsmith was Adam Kimmel, in 1816. The first watchmaker was Alexander Wilson, in 1814. The first butcher was James Matthews, in 1809. The first brewery was built by Thomas Hartford and Samuel Coulter, near the East Bridge, in 1820, and was operated by John Cake. The first barber shop was started by William Baker in 1820. Previous to this time the citizens of Canton shaved themselves. The first gravestone cutter was Joseph Trout, who came here in 1809. The first printing office was started by John Saxton in 1815 ; this is still in existence, and is carried on by his son, Thomas Saxton, and is well known as the Repository establishment, on Court street. The first portrait painter was John E. Dunbar, in 1827. The first church edifice, a low frame building, was erected by the Lutherans, on the lot upon which the Presbyterian Church now stands, corner Tuscarawas and Plum streets, in 1810. The first regular schoolhouse was built on the opposite corner, where the West school building now stands, in 1811. The first steam engine wss brought to Canton by V. R. Kimball, in 1833, and put to service in grinding bark at his ,tannery on the corner of Cherry and Third streets." As connected closely with these varied business interests of early Canton, we here give a brief history of the first bank. In the year 1815, a meeting of the business men of the town was called for the purpose of organizing a bank. The population at this time was about 500. There were seven stores, and several flour-mills drawing trade to Canton from a great distance on all sides. At the close of the war of 1812, a new impetus was given to business; immigration from the East, which, during the war, had nearly ceased, set in again, and there soon arose a demand for greater facilities in the way of furnishing an adequate supply of circulating medium, and in making transfers of funds. Wooster, thirty miles west of Canton, began to loom up as a rival town, and, what at this time appears rather laughable than otherwise, the contest for superiority was almost entirely based upon the relative advantages of Killbuck and Nimishillen Creeks for future purposes of navigation. The meeting called, as above stated, was considered a good stroke of policy to gain other advantages. Five Trustees were appointed viz. : John Shorb, William Fogle, Samuel Coulter, Thomas Taylor and James Hazlett, with instructions to take initiatory steps at once to compass the end desired. In the month of April a notice was published in the Ohio Repository for a meeting at the Eagle Tavern, of Philip Dewalt, to hold an election for nine Directors of a bank to be called " The Farmers' Bank of Canton," the word " Farmers " being adopted at the suggestion of Dr. Fogle. At this election, Thomas Hartford, John Shorb, John Myers, William Fogle, Winans Clark, James Hazlett, Philip Slusser, Jacob Myers and George Stidger were chosen directors. John Shorb was made President, and William Fogle, Cashier. Subscription books were immediately opened to raise stock for the new bank at Canton, at Tallmadge, at Stow and at Cleveland. In the summer of 1815, a banking house was erected on Lot 28, which is no longer standing, and in the fall of the same year it was occupied as such, and the bank went into operation. They at once issued notes for circulation and sent them out upon their mission for good or for evil. At that time, there was considerable opposition to a paper currency, and, at the February term of court in the year 1816, an indictment was 1 found against " John Shorb, President of the Farmers' Bank of Canton," for " signing and making bank notes without being, by law, authorized to do so." George Tod was President Judge, and John Hoover, Samuel Coulter and William Henry, Associate Judges of the Common Pleas Court at the time. At the trial, however, the sympathies of the com munity must have been largely with the bank, CANTON TOWNSHIP - 311 and that they wanted it sustained, was evident from the fact that the jury, after hearing the case, returned a verdict of not guilty, without even the formality of retiring to make up their verdict. Jeremiah H. Halleck represented the prosecution, and Messrs Wright and Tappan the defense. But this decision, prompt and decisive as it was for the bank, did not relieve it from all its troubles in this direction. During the same year, Henry Swartz, who owed the bank $800 on his note, resisted its payment, on the ground that the bank had issued paper money in violation of law. This case was argued at length by J. W. Lathrop for the bank, and by John M. Goodenow for the defendant. The court, however, again gave judgment in favor of the bank, and the legality of this branch of its business seems to have been thus finally established. The bank also issued fractional currency to a considerable amount, of which counterfeits soon made their appearance. The Repository of that date warns the public against them in this wise : " They are from 75 cents downward, printed on deep fancy pink paper, with larger type than the genuine, and dated May 3, 1816." It seems that a publisher of a newspaper near the center of the State, manufactured with impunity a considerable amount of this fractional currency, and escaped prosecution on account of the fear of being able to prosecute him successfully for any penal offense. John Sterling and Thomas Alexander were elected Directors of the bank in 1816. James Drennan was Cashier in 1817, and gives notice that " a dividend of 4 per cent on the capital stock actually paid in, will be paid to stockholders, or their legal representatives." From a bank statement published in December, 1818, there was capital stock paid in, $33,710 ; notes in circulation, $20,398 ; debts due, $18,000 ; deposits, $3,112 ; bills discounted, $75, 162 ; specie on hand, $1,969 ; notes of other banks, $1,406. A financial crisis was approaching, and the bank soon began to feel its effects. They struggled on and endeavored to weather the storm until November, 1818, when as many other banks had already been compelled to do, they suspended specie payments, but gave notice that they would continue " to redeem their notes in good chartered paper." In January, 1820, in compliance with an amendment of a law then in force, the board of Directors was increased to thirteen. Renewed efforts were made to sustain the bank's credit and its life ; but the reserve forces were insufficient, and in March, 1821, the bank building and lot, and the offnce furniture were sold at public auction. The first " Farmers' Bank of Canton " was dead. It was afterward resuscitated, but its later history is not so closely identified with the purpose of our work, and we do not deem it necessary to pursue it any further. We find the following interesting biographical sketch of one of the first Board of Directors of the bank, and the last of them all to pay the last debt of man to nature was Mr. Jacob Myers : " He came to this county in 1810, finding it only a wilderness. Though they were few and far between, the hearty old-fashioned hospitality of the early pioneers was a topic on which Mr. Myers loved to dwell, and he was himself one of its best exponents. In the fall of 1811, he returned to Hagerstown, Md., and, while there, he built a wool-carding machine. In the spring of 1812, he returned to Canton, where he ever afterward resided. He brought his carding-machine with him, it being the first erected in this part of Ohio. It was put into operation on the site known as Roland's Mill. Both mill and carding-machine having been burned out, he bought a lot in Canton, southwest corner of Market and Eighth streets, rebuilt his shop on the same, and ran it by horsepower. Mr. Myers was once the owner of part of the land on which Massillon now stands, near the confluence of Sippo Creek with the Tuscarawas. On this he built a saw-mill and a powder-mill, on a site on Sippo Creek, a short distance above where the Sippo Mill now stands. This was the first and only powder-mill in Stark County. At the time of which we speak, the Indians had a camp on the high bank west of the Tuscarawas River, now partly occupied by the site of West Massillon. In 1815, Mr. Myers sold his Massillon property, ,.including the land and the saw and powder mills, to Folger & Coffin. He also sold his Canton town property, and, in 1816, leased the tract upon which he built his mill, just south of Canton, on Cherry street, and where he lived, until his death, fifty-seven years. He leased the land because being school land it could not be sold ; but it afterward became his by purchase. He afterward erected a distillery, the foundation of which still remains, though the superstructure has long since disappeared. Grain at that time was a 312 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. drug, as there was more raised than this required for home consumption, and there was no foreign market, at least no means of transportation. Wheat was 25 cents a bushel, and rye from 15 to 20 cents. Much of the surplus crop was converted _into whisky, and Mr. Myers soon had a large quantity on hand. For the purpose of disposing of it to the best advantage, he, in company with Dannel Slanker, who had a mill in Jackson Township, and had a lot of flour on hand, built a boat on the Tuscarawas River, at a point known as the Old Bridge." a short distance above the present stone bridge. This was in 1823, at a time when our forefathers anticipated great results from the navigable qualities of the Nimishillen and Tuscarawas. This boat, loaded with 300 barrels of flour, pork and whisky—Slanker furnishing the flour and pork, and Myers the whisky—started for New Orleans, where they expected to find ready sale for the cargo. The crew consisted of five. In addition to the owners, who accompanied the craft, there were John Brown, of Bethlehem, and Eli Myers, of Osnaburg, who were the steersmen. There was another, whose name is forgotten, who, anxious to see the world, gave his services as a sort of roustabout fur the passage. They floated with the current and tied up at night. All went along smoothly until near Zanesville, on the Muskingum River ; there they ran against a raft of logs, tore off a side plank, and, notwithstanding every effort at the pump, the boat sank. To raise the vessel, it was necessary to unload. After it was raised, repaired and reloaded, the parties engaged a man by the name of Kincaid, who had considerable experience as a river-man, to take charge of the vessel and cargo, dispose of it to the best advantage, and make due return. Slanker and ,Myers returned home ; Kincaid, instead of going to New Orleans, went up the Cumberland as far as Mussel Shoals ; there sold out, and vamoosed. He was pursued, caught in Kentucky, and lodged in jail at Louisville. The parties, finding the trouble and expense of prosecuting him likely to cost more than they could recover, abandoned the suit. The same year, Dr. Andrew Rappee, of Canton, loaded a flat on the Tuscarawas River with like commodities for New Orleans ; but they ran aground near, Zoar, and the enterprise was abandoned. During Mr. Myers' long residence of two generations in Canton, he always sustained the character of an honest, upright citizen. .He was a man of decided and independent opinions, kind of heart and open-handed to the poor. In his intercourse with his neighbors, he practiced the golden rule—he made it a point to do unto others as he would be done by. He took his share of the privations, and sustained his part in life as became a good citizen from first to last, during the long life, which measured in its span the growth of this great nation. In October, 1863, he had a stroke of palsy in his right side, and he was quite feeble ever afterward. In October, 1872, he had a stroke which partially paralyzed his left side ; the ultimate result of these severe attacks being his death at the advanced age of nearly ninety years." Forty or fifty years ago, as is incidentally mentioned in the above sketch of Mr. Myers, much of the surplus grain raised hereabouts was manufactured into whisky ; in those days lager beer and other beers were unknown among the people in this Western world ; whisky was used to some extent in almost every family ; the morning bitters were as regular as the morning meal ; and places where liquor was sold, were the taverns under a stringent license law, to do a lawful business, and to keep a decent and respectable house. While drunkenness was probably not as prevalent then as now, there was, however, enough of it to awaken attention, and to cause measures to be taken for its suppression. Modern temperance movements were in their infancy, and were to a great extent entirely unknown in Canton. Occasionally, however, measures were taken for the cure of drunkards, by citizens, which though not always strictly within the law, were at times quite effective. We find a vivid description of the application of one of those methods in print, headed, " Crusading in Ye Olden Times," which is as follows ; " Forty years ago, or thereabouts, when whisky sold at three cents a glass, and drunkards were made according to law under the old license system, they had a summary way of reforming topers, that often proved more effective than moral suasion. It was in the days of the old apprenticeship system, when Canton, with a population of less than two thousand inhabitants, contained more of that class of boys than can be enumerated at the present time, notwithstanding it boasts five times the number of inhabitants. To a CANTON TOWNSHIP - 313 considerable extent they constituted of a class of themselves, isolated from the society of others. They were mostly from the country, removed from the paternal influences, and ready for almost any kind of deviltry. When a "greeny " came to town, they were sure to take him through a process of hazing. There were no police in those days, and they generally managed to keep out of the way of the Constables. There are many yet living who remember how these young fellows got after the drunkards. If caught on the streets after night, they were sure to be taken through a process that may be called the hydropathic and motorpathic system, the modus operandi of which will be described in the case of Seth Godder. Seth was a shoemaker by trade—a clever, social man—who fell into the ruinous habit of indulging in strong drink. It was not long before his family came to want, and then his wife, a good, industrious woman, was compelled to take in washing and work out in order to keep the wolf from the door. She bore with her husband's weakness as long as patience was any virtue, then reasoned with him, entreated and threatened, all to no purpose. Finally, she concluded to let the "Regulators" take him in hand. She talked with John Caskey, an apprentice in the Repository office, and a ringleader among the b'hoys of that day ; she told him she had exhausted all her resources in trying to reform her drunken husband and failed ; and now she _wanted the boys to take him in hand and do anything they' pleased with him, only not to take his life. As several topers, caught on the street after night had already been taken in hand, Godder, to avoid simnlar treatment, had taken the precaution to wend his way home before dark. On the evening of the day upon which the event we are about to chronicle occurred, Godder came home drunker than usual, and, if possible, made himself more disagreeable to his family than ever before. Mrs. God-der lost no time in notifying Caskey of the condition of her husband, and requested that he be taken in hand forthwith. The company was summoned. There were John Hoover, Sam Cove, John Mobley, George McNabb and a lot more of choice spirits, including, if we remember rightly, George Haas and John Buckius. They repaired to the house of Godder, found him quite demonstrative, and asked him to take a walk. He at first declined, but finding it useless to resist, at last apparently yielded. They led him to the town pump, then on West Tuscarawas street, set him under the spout, and held him there, while two or three of the boys did the pumping, and it was effectually done to the extent of drenching him completely. Meanwhile a fence-rail had been procured, astraddle of which Seth was assisted, and securely held by one on each side, while two stout boys carried the rail on their shoulders. As they moved off singing "Jim Crow," Godder joined in the sport, but as the rail-bearers would give him an occasional bound and gyratory movement. the treatment became somewhat painful, and he began to protest. They asked him to quit drinking, but he refused. They renewed the march, and the rail movement. He swore worse than the " army in Flanders." On North Market street, at the public pump, they gave him another dose more copious than the first. The night was somewhat cool, and the patient became chilled. Remounting him on the rail, the march was resumed. It continued until Godder became apparently quite subdued and helpless. Speaking to him without obtaining an answer, a halt was ordered, and on lowering the rail it was discovered that he was apparently dead—cold, clammy and speechless. Terribly frightened, the boys hastily bore him to his home, while one of their number summoned Dr. Brysecker. On being placed in a warm bed, by the application of mustard to the extremities and hot peppermint tea internally, he gradually revived, but the shock to his nervous system confined him to the house for several weeks. He became a sober man. Never again, as long as he lived in Canton, did he drink intoxicating liquor. He secured the respect and esteem of the community. We have often thought the same treatment would be more effectual in curing our most notorious drunkards of the present day, than fines and imprisonment." In that earlier day, there was also among many of our young people a desire to add improvement to amusement, and the history of facts concerning the earlier theatrical performances in Canton should also have a place here. These performances, it must be remembered, were given by home talent exclusively. The first effort of the kind was on Christmas Eve, in the year 1817. It was rendered in the long room of John Patton's tavern, standing on the 314 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. lot now occupied by the St. Cloud. The performances, as advertised, were " The most interesting parts of the celebrated tragedy of Pizarro, to which will be added patriotic, sentimental, moral, humorous and comic dialogues and single speeches." On the evening of July 3, 1818, at the same place, " Douglas, or the Noble Shepherd," was performed, and on the evening of the 6th, a repetition of " Pizarro, or the Spaniards of Peru," was given. As there are none now living who have any distinct recollection of the particulars, the names of many of the performers and patrons of this early drama have gone into unmerited oblivion. Among them, however, were Samuel Buckius, John P. Coulter, Joseph Alexander, Lewis Barnes, James Sloan, Jacob Rapp, Samuel Penniwell, John Shorb and Adam Fogle ; Christian Palmer, a vnolinist of some note and pretensions in that day, led the orchestra. In the winter of 1822-23, the " Thespian Society of Canton " was organized. William Raynolds was one of the most active in getting up this organization, and to his efforts its success was largely owing. Their first performance was in the south part of the Eagle Tavern, then owned and occupied by George Dewalt, now also among the things of the past. The main play first presented on this occasion, was the tragedy of " Barbarosa, or the Usurper of Algiers " this was followed by an after-piece, called " She Stoops to Conquer," from Goldsmith. The male performers were William Christmas, James Beggs, James Allen, Frank and Jeff Raynolds, James Graham, Harmon Stidger, Dr. Jerome, Val. Buckius, Lewis Fogle, and the two Coulters. Dr. Thomas Bonfield, F. J. Myers, Madison Raynolds and Lewis Fogle performed the female parts in these plays. William Raynolds acted in the double capacity of prompter and stage manager. The scenery, made of curtain calico and wall-paper, exhibited considerable taste and ingenuity. The next play rendered was "'Othello," in which James Allen represented the Moor, and Frank Myers, Desdemona. Although the stage decorations and scenery were necessarily of a rustic character, and the wardrobe scant and only improvised for the occasion, all accounts agree that these entertainments were quite attractive and successful, quite as much so, indeed, to that generation as the more pretentious, but certainly not more creditable performances of to-day often are. And there was one beauty about them from which the -modern theater, especially when some celebrated " star" is to be on the boards, has gone far away, the admission fee was 25 cents, and no reserved seats. There was but this one season of performances in the Eagle Tavern. When our native talent next came to the front, it was at Trump's Tavern, a two-story brick, on the corner of East Tuscarawas and Cherry streets. Among the plays rendered here with great success, were " The Robbers," " Damon and Pythias," "Servant with two Masters," " The Review, or the Wag of Windsor," and " Robin Rough Head." In the play of " Coriolanus," Andrew Myers took the place of the leading character. Besides the persons already named, the performers at Trump's included William Bowen, Dwight Jarvis, Henry Dickinson, Adam Bowers and Thomas and Joseph Blackburn. The last-named afterward became a popular clown in a traveling circus, and was performing in England at the time of Queen Victoria's coronation. There were about the same time, also, some performances at the house of Jacob Wareham, on West Tuscarawas street, where Mr. George Althouse resides. About the year 1828, Joseph Shorb, who kept store in a one-story frame building, erected another story upon the same building and had it fitted up expressly for theatrical entertainments. The stage fixtures, scenery and accommodations for the audience were at that time considered very good. The house was usually well filled, and the receipts at each performance amounted to $25 or $30. Performances were given in this place about once a week for five or six successive winters. The principal actors, some of whom as jurists and other professional men attained great celebrity at a later day, were Hiram Griswold, G. W. Belden, Andrew Myers, John Rappe, Isaac Steese, William and Henry Myers, Henry and John Buckius, William Clark, O. P. Stidger, William Fogle and Jacob R. Palmer. A few of these as respected and honored citizens are still residing in Canton. Isaac Hartman, James Cameron and Daniel Burgert are remembered as the principal representatives of female character. " The Broken Sword" was a popular piece played here, as was also "Bombastes Furioso," a very laughable farce. Dan Meeds, commonly known as "Black Dan," led the orchestra. The Shorb CANTON TOWNSHIP - 315 property changed hands about the year 1834, and after this a new company was organized, and the upper rooms of the old academy, known as the " Salt Box," were fitted up for their accommodation. A German artist by the the name of Schweighoffer, painted the scenery, which was considered very good. Performances were given here every week or two for several winters. Among the more notable new actors, who here appeared upon the scene were S. P. Hullihan, Sol Stout, John Taylor, Isaac Hartman, H. P. Dunbar, Eli Sala and James Armstrong. Among the boys acting female parts were William Mathews, F. L. Carney, John L. Saxton and George Dunbar, Jr. Since the close of the performances at the " Salt Box," some forty years ago, there has been no effort, we believe, to organize the home talent, except upon a few special occasions, in this direction. At the expiration of the academy performances, one of the most pleasant of the enjoyments of the olden time came to an untimely end. Horse-racing was also one of the popular pastimes of the pioneer period. A horse-race excited general interest and attention, and always drew a crowd. At the first sale of lots in Canton, then competing with Osnaburg for the county seat, Bezaleel Wells, the proprietor of the town, arranged for a race in order to draw the people together from a distance, and succeeded. Our old and esteemed friend and fellow-citizen in Plain Township, Judge Loutzenheiser, was present, and is authority for the statement that there was a great crowd, and also for the additional one, that the people were more interested in the racing of the horses, than they were in the sale of the town lots. The race-course was on Market street, from North to Tuscarawas streets, which was especially prepared for the occasion by the grubbing and the clearing away of timber and underbrush. Canton, if not exactly born of a horse-race, commenced with one under the auspices of the father of the town, and though, perhaps, not one of her peculiar institutions, the horse-race was a popular institution with the pioneers of this as of nearly every new town then growing up in the West. " Like parent, like child," holds good for towns as well as for people. For a generation and longer, nearly every town and village in this part of the country boasted in the possession of a horse never beaten on the turf. Not ouly the owner of such a horse, but with him every man and boy was willing to back up the town's favorite by bets of money, or whatever else of value they happened to possess down to a bull-eye watch, a dog-knife or tin-whistle. Betting in those days was very general, whereas now it is confined almost entirely to professional sporting men. There were, however, also, in those days, men who made it a regular business to travel the country with running horses, and who were ready to match them for a consideration, with anything that offered. There was another set of fellows, owners of horses, well calculated to take in the unwary and too eager betters on horse-flesh. Their horse was a kind of " Sleepy Davy," and they went round in disguise pretending to follow some other business, by which ruse they frequently threw people off their guard. An adventure of theirs with Cantonians of two generations ago, will well illustrate their method of proceeding. On a warm summer day, a stranger might have been seen leading a horse up Tuscarawas street. He was clothed in the style of the day, but his clothes were somewhat the worse for the wear and exposure they had undergone. He wore a dilapidated stove-pipe hat, and a swallow-tail coat mounted with brass buttons. The horse had on a riding-saddle loaded with tinware. The man and his horse moved along as though they were tired, and as they approached Cherry street, a lot of boys playing there caught sight of them, and at once began poking fun at them. The man paid no attention to the boys, but moved along unconcernedly until he reached the Bell Tavern, now the American Hotel, then kept by Hahn, where he stopped and hitched his horse to the signpost. At that day, Canton received the mail but twice a week, and newspapers were rarely seen ; the coming of a stranger never failed to draw a crowd eager to learn the news from the outside world. The old man, however, paid but little attention to them, but kept on talking about the assortment and prices of the tinware he exposed for sale, until some one in the crowd made an ironical remark about his horse, upon which the owner, being quick to see and to improve his opportunity, offered to run him against anything there was in town. Jess Raffensperger, who was then carrying on blacksmithing at the corner diagonally opposite, was the owner of a little gray that, in several 316 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. competitive trials, had given proof of good racing qualities, and Jess was of the opinion that he was hard to beat, and had intimated his desire to match him against any horse that came to town. John Rex, then a boy of some twelve years of age, was present and heard the peddler's banter to run his old horse against anything there was in town, and he at once ran over and told Raffensperger that there was a man over at Hahn's who wanted a race. Jess immediately dropped his apron and went over to the tavern. When told that the horse hitched to the sign-post was the one it was proposed to run against his little gray, he considered himself badly sold by some one, so mopy and unlike a racer did the old horse appear—like his master, he was playing his role well. But when Jess was convinced that the peddler was in earnest, he felt inclined to humor what he regarded a good joke, and asked the peddler how much he wanted to wager on the race. The latter, taking out his wallet and counting over his money (all in silver) very deliberately, replied, that he had $5, which he was willing to stake on the result. " Oh ; " said Jess, somewhat contemptuously, "I wouldn't run my horse for less than $25. If you can raise that amount, I'll show you how easy it is to part a fool and his money." That was more than the peddler could raise, he said, but if any gentleman in the crowd would loan him $20, he would give the horse, saddle and tinware as security. By this time, the crowd were getting eager for the race, and were thrown entirely off their guard ; so that when another stranger, who had joined them without being observed, stepped forward, and just for the fun of seeing the race, accepted the peddler's security, and advanced the $20, not the least suspicion was aroused, and the stakes were at once put up, and preparations made for the race. The peddler stripped his horse of the tinware and saddle, and sought among the boys for some one to ride his horse ; but the old horse's movements were so awkward that the boys, fearing he would stumble and fall, placed too high an estimate on their own necks to accept the position, and the old man was obliged to ride his own horse. Eli Sala rode Raffensperger's horse. The race track, at this time, was just south of town as it was then, from Coulter's house to Frederick's hill, or as it would now be known, on Market street, from the Melchoir Bros. to the residence of Mr. Peter Housel below the railroads. To this place all parties repaired ; judges were selected, and all things were made ready for the race. In the meanwhile the stranger, who had advanced the $20, took all the bets that offered. When the horses were about to start, the peddler's horse exhibited so much spirit that it required two men to hold him until the word was given, and at the word, " Go !" he dashed out like a streak. soon took the lead, and came out at the end several lengths- ahead. The Cantonians were badly taken in, and no one more so then Raffensperger himself ; his remark about the ease of parting a fool and his money was indeed verified, but "the saddle was on the other horse." He and other citizens, for a long time, were shy of traveling racers, especially of the " sleepy " kind. In the summer of 1834, a company of enterprising and liberal minded citizens of Canton, had a circular track constructed immediately west of town on land owned then by John Harris, now part of the estate of Simon Miller, deceased. There were races daily, distance from one to four miles and repeat. The horses entered were all blooded stock, and brought here from a distance, the majority of them from West Virginia. The most notable feature of the enterprise, and one that will be longest remembered, was the new gambling devices for the firSt time introduced into this community known as " roulette " and " sweat cloth," by which many of our people both from town and cowl-try were inveigled into a trial of their " luck ;" some escaped with only a slight scorching, while others lost all they had. This track was kept up two seasons, when by a cooperation with parties at Massillon, it was removed to grounds midway between the two towns, and continued there one season more, but as the patronage was not sufficient, the enterprise was abandoned. Before concluding this chapter on the early settlement and reminiscences of Canton, nothing seems more proper than to give a history of the Oberly Corner, which from the beginning till within a very few years past, has played so important a part in the history of the city. We give it almost verbatim from an article in the Repository of a couple of years ago, and signed by the familiar letters, L. S. It says: " The lot on which the building stood, was sold by 317 - CANTON TOWNSHIP. Bozaleel Wells, the proprietor of the town, to James F. Leonard, in 1806, the year the town was located. The deed names the consideration $1, from which we would infer it was a gift. Leonard (an uncle of William Barber), was a surveyor and land-jobber, and laid off and platted the town, and was in a position to render Wells' service, and the probabilities are, that the gift was made either for favors received or expected. At this time it was hip and thigh' between Osnaburg and Canton, which should be the county seat. This consideration may have been the agreement of Leonard to improve the lot, and put up a building upon it at once. At any rate, the bricks were made the same summer, just outside the original town plat, near where the Schaefer Rink was until lately. As early as the weather would permit in the spring of 1807, work was commenced, and the building was completed and ready for occupancy in the fall, being the first brick house erected in the county. There was no cellar under the house, for the reason that no walling-stone could be procured within a reasonable distance. The first occupant was John Shorb. He came from Maryland that year. and brought with him a small stock of store goods. He remained in it but one year, when Samuel Coulter, from Washington County, Penn., rented it for a tavern. Before the expiration of the year, Coulter bought the property of Leonard, for $600, and put up a frame addition, intended for a dining-room and kitchen. Under this part was a cellar, walled only on two sides, with bowlders. This was the second tavern in Canton, then known by the traveling public as " Coulter's Tavern, sign of the Green Tree." In the winter of 1808-09, a post office was established in Canton, and Coulter was appointed Postmaster. There was but one mail a week, and that was carried on horseback to and from New Lisbon, in Columbiana County. Canton was then on the western border of civilization. All that country west of the Tuscarawas River was given up to roving bands of Indians. The upper story of Coulter's building was partitioned into three rooms. The way up was by a ladder, through a trap door in the floor above. The reason for adopting this mode of ascent does not appear. In this upper story, County Court was held for several sessions. The Hon. Calvin Pease, then President Judge, a resident of Warren, was in the habit of walking from one county seat to another in the discharge of the functions of his office. It was out of the question to travel with a vehicle, and the probability is the Judge preferred walking to riding on horseback. The hole under the frame building was used as a jail. In it there must have been several incarcerated, for there are those still living who remember one imprisoned for debt and one for stealing corn. The County Commissioners also held their sessions in this building. At the April sessions in 1809, it was ordered that for every wolf or panther scalp, under six months old, 50 cents be paid, and for every one over that age, $1." They also ordered that Samuel Coulter be paid $3 for the time each session of court was held in his house." John Harris, then a young man of energy, was engaged in teaching school, and doing odd jobs of surveying. He was, also, a fine singer, and at the solicitation of friends, he started a singing-school in the court room of the Coulter tavern. For a time it flourished, but the difficulties and embarrassments encountered by the female scholars in their efforts at climbing the ladder to the second story, deterred them from going, and the school was finally abandoned for want of the female accompaniment. The organization was turned into a debating society. Here they met weekly to discuss " Which affords the greater pleasure, the pursuit, or the possession of an object," or " Which was the greater man, Hannibal or Julius Caesar?" Sometimes their discussion took a metaphysical turn, and then they had the question, " Is there such a principle in the human mind as disinterested benevolence ?" The principal disputants were Samuel Coulter, John Harris, John Patton, uncle of Thomas Patton, Daniel McClure, Roswell Mason, Moses Andrews, William Raynolds, father of John Raynolds, Dr. Stidger, Dr. Jerome and Jeremiah H. Halleck, afterward President Judge of this district, and John Sloan and Col. Gibson, then connected with the land office in Canton. It was in this debating society that John Herris developed that forensic ability, which, in after years, distinguished him as a prominent member of the bar, the compeer of Tappan, Wright, Goodenow, Loomis, Silliman and Tom Ewing, Sr., with all of whom he came in contact. Coulter continued his tavern until 1820. when he concluded to relinquish the business. 318 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. He had a farm below town, the same land which is now occupied by several thousand people, known as South Canton. On it he had built a frame hous, the one formerly occupied by Mr. Peter Housel. Coulter rented his Canton property to Dr. Thomas Hartford, who came to Canton that spring from New York State. Dr. Hartford was a man of large heart, kind and benevolent. As an instance of his generous feeling, here is an advertisement, copied from the Repository of June 12, 1820 : " Mr. Thomas Hartford HEREBY informs such as are in indigent circumstances, in the county of Stark, that in cases of sickness advice and medicine will be given to them gratis." Imagine a physician of Stark County of the present day, offering to the poor of the county advice and medicine gratuitously. Such examples, however, were no more characteristic of that day than of the present. It is in proof, that a cotemporary physician, for three visits in a case of fever, took the only cow a poor man had. Then no property was exempt from execution for debt, and rather than have her levied upon by the Constable, and sold for what she would bring, lie gave her to the rapacious doctor. There is no doubt that Dr. Hartford was sincere in making this proposition, that it was in good faith, and not for " buncombe " or to advertise himself. It is well known that his heart went out in charity for the poor. His munificent bequest to the poor of Canton, which they are enjoying to-day, is only one of the many evidences showing his benevolent disposition. In 1821, Dr. Hartford bought the property from Coulter for $2,000. The price was considered high, but it was in a time of general prosperity, and prices had become inflated.. The Doctor had a drug store in the lower room in connection with his practice. In a few years after, his nephew, John Titus, came from the East, and assisted him as clerk. With drugs, he also kept dry goods. There are many still living in Canton who will remember John Titus, from the sport they had as boys at his expense. In 1830, Hartford sold the south half of the lot to Luther L. Foote, his brother-in-law, for $600. As the number of physicians increased in Canton, Dr. Hartford gradually withdrew from practice. He continued his store, and would prescribe for all who applied without charge. He was then in good circumstances, owning considerable real estate in and around Canton. He never had any children. Mrs. Hartford was much like her husband, and was a very estimable lady, highly esteemed by all who enjoyed her personal acquaintance. Lawyer Metcalf, of Canton, a particular friend of Dr. Hartford's, removed to Pittsburgh, and in a year or two after induced the Doctor to follow him. Following the Doctor's removal, the property was occupied by different parties as rentors. Canton at that time was flat, Massillon taking the lead, and the rent was merely nominal. Among the different occupants remembered was Joe Parker, a tailor, with a wooden leg, who for several years was bell-ringer. At that time a town ordinance required the court house bell to be rung at 8:30 A. M., at 12 M. and at 9 P. M. The ringing at night I was the signal for the stores to close, work to cease in the mechanic shops, the boys to leave the streets, and everybody to retire to their virtuous couches. The apprenticeship system was then in vogue, and men in the mechanical arts worked fifteen hours a day. There were no saloons. Topers kept their whisky at home, or got it at the taverns. The only luxury to be had in town was spruce beer and gingerbread. But we are wandering from the text. Dr. Hartford sold the corner half, including the brick house, in 1839. to John Bauer, for $1,500. Bauer opened a grocery, which, in after years, partook of the character of a saloon. Bauer was County Recorder from 1843 to 1845. In 1849, he sold out to a company composed of Henry Somers, David and John Garber and Abram Richards. They rented the property to Christian Oberly, who purchased it in 1861, for the same they gave. During the time Mr. Oberly occupied the old brick and its back addition, and the property adjoining it on the south he has used it as an eating house and saloon. In the year 1877, Mr. Oberly sold twenty-three feet front and two hundred back to the alley in the rear, to Sherrick & Miller, for $10,000. During flush times he could easily have had double that amount. Sherrick & Miller, one of our best established hardware firms, both of them gentlemen of great business capacity, of great experience particularly in their line of business, and of strict integrity and morality, tore down the old corner building, the old time-honored brick that had weathered the storms of more than seventy years, and erected in its place their CANTON TOWNSHIP - 319 splendid three-story brick building, twenty-three feet by one hundred and eleven, in the year 1879, and as soon as it was finished removed their business into it. The building is both a credit to them and an honor to the city. The old one had a checkered experience, and was equally honored in its day ; but all old things must yield to the progressive spirit of the age. Everything almost of a tangible nature having reference to the original incorporation of the village or town of Canton has been lost, and, so far as we have been able to learn, after the most diligent inquiry, there is no one now living among us able to give definite information on the subject. But from an act passed by the General Assembly, entitled " An act to incorporate the town of Canton," in March, 1838, when C. Anthony was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and George I. Smith was Speaker of the Senate, in Section 18 of said act, we find a repealing clause referring to a preceding act for the same purpose, as follows : " That the act entitled An act to incorporate the town of Canton, in the county of Stark,' passed the thirtieth day of January, eighteen hundred and twenty-two ; and the act entitled An act to amend the act entitled, An act to incorporate the town of Canton, in the county of Stark,' passed February ninth, eighteen hundred and twenty-nine, be, and the same is hereby repealed." As early as the year 1822, therefore, Canton was an incorporated town or village ; from some later public action, it seems that incorporated town and incorporated village were at that time treated as synonymous terms. The act of 1838 provided for a division of the town into four wards, bounded precisely as the four wards of the city are at this time. It provided for a Town Council consisting of the Mayor, Recorder, and two members of each ward, and into the hands of this body " the government of said town, and the exercise of its corporate powers " were vested. In August of the same year, 1838, the names of John Myers, Mayor, and of Arnold Lynch, Recorder, appear upon the ordinance book. In May, 1839, from the same source we find that Jacob Rex was Mayor, and D. A. Agnew, Recorder. On the old ordinance book we find the last ordinance of the Town Council, entitled " An ordinance to regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors and for other purposes," passed Aug. 14, 1852, attested by Benjamin F. Leiter, Mayor, and J. B. Estep, Recorder, and then two blank pages evidently left for recording some other ordinances, which for some reason or other was never done, and the next ordinance recorded is in the name of the " Incorporated Village of Canton," passed in July, 1853, and is attested by John Lahm, Mayor, and J. B. Estep, Recorder. The explanation of this apparently anomalous change of names is probably found in the fact that after the adoption of the new constitution of the State, in 1852, the Legislature, early in 1853, passed an act whereby a new classification of towns was ordained, and Canton, under the law, became an incorporated village. About this time, viz., July, 1853, with a change in the name of the corporation, there seems to have been a general overhauling of the older ordinances for the direction of the Mayor, the Recorder, the Marshals and the Treasurer, and prescribing their duties, as well as ordinances regulating the liquor traffic and providing against offenses of various kinds opposed to the public morality. The village organization, however, continued only about one year, when, under authority of the same law by which she had become a village, an act of the Village Council, March 22, 1854, changed Canton into a city of the second class ; and under the present classification it is in the third grade of second class cities. John Lahm at this time was still Mayor, and James B. Estep, Recorder. After this time, the ordinances were attested by the President of the Council, and the Clerk of the city. Thomas Goodman was the first President,' and James B. Estep, the first Clerk under the new organization. This organization of Canton continues substantially the same to the present time. 320 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. CHAPTER X.* THE CITY OF CANTON —HS GROWTH AND INCREASE OF WEALTH —SLACKWATER NAVIGATION--ORIGIN OF AULTMAN WORKS—PRESENT PROPORTIONS OF THEIR BUSINESS—OTHER MACHINE WORKS AND INDUSTRIES—CAPITAL AND LABOR EMPLOYED -CENSUS STATISTICS—WATER WORKS, ETC., ETC. "Like clocks, one wheel another one must drive; Affairs by diligent labor only thrive."—Chapman. THE war of 1812 greatly interfered with immigration Westward, and the tide did not set in again with much vigor until some years after it was over. Still, quite a number of families, many of whose descendants are still residing here, came in after the war, and before the year 1820. Among these may be enumerated the Buckius, the Dunbar, the Rex, the Saxton, the Myers, the Sherrick, the Dannor, the Kitzmiller, the Hanes, the Trump, the Hippy, the White, the Sprankle, the Smith, the Bucher, the Webb and the Whipple families, with others whose names have not been learned. When immigration commenced again, Canton had the steady and gradual growth characteristic of most other Western towns at the time. One of the greatest hindrances in the way of progress was the lack of facilities for carrying to market the surplus products of the surrounding country. At that time there were no railroads, there was no canal, and the ordinary roads in poor condition and impassable for heavily-loaded teams a great part of the year. Consequently, such articles as butter and eggs brought only a nominal price, and even wheat, oats and corn were extremely low. The ordinary prices of these things were before 1830 as follows : Eggs, 4 cents a dozen ; butter, 6 cents a pound ; wheat from 25 to 30 cents a bushel, and corn and oats from 12 to 15 cents, and that not in cash, but in trade. Of course every navigable stream was regarded as an inestimable feature of the country through which it passed ; Canton, in the forks of Nimishillen Creek, was at the head of navigation. Boats, called pirogues, capable of carrying a ton, were in common use for ordinary transportation, and flat-boats for flour, bacon and whisky. These started just below town, and their usual destination was New Orleans. In the earlier days, before *contributed by Prof. Daniel Worley. the country was cleared up, the usual stage of water in the Nimishillen and Tuscarawas was much higher than after, and this made navigation, at least part of the year, possible for light craft ; but at the best it was difficult, and attended with much risk to property. The pirogue and flat-boat furnished a partial relief, but by no means all that the wants of a rapidly developing country called for. The completion of the Ohio Canal, in 1830, gave a new impetus to general business and the farming interest of the country far and wide, but it was a severe blow to the commercial interests of Canton. The Ohio Canal was eight miles distant, and on its bank a new and rival town sprang up, and soon became the center of trade for fifty or sixty miles around. Massillon's prosperity and rapid growth worked great disadvantage to the interests of Canton for many years. and excited a jealousy between the two towns which was not removed for a great while. To offset the advantage 'of the canal to Massillon, a number of enterprising citizens of Canton projected the Nimishillen and Sandy Slackater Navigation Company, for the purpose of building a canal along the Nimishillen Creek to connect with the Sandy and Beaver. Work was commenced and considerable was done toward constructing this branch canal, in anticipation of the great impetus it would give again to business ; there was a temporary revival, and in view of immense profits to insure speedily, much property at high prices, changed hands ; but, alas ! for human hopes and expectations. A panic followed, when work had but rightly commenced, and the enterprise was abandoned ; those who had bought property at high figures a short time before suffered loss. The failure of this project put even a greater damper on the prospects of Canton. For twenty years there was but little improvement. if there was not indeed an actual retrogression. Massillon became noted as the wheat city, and CANTON TOWNSHIP - 821 went rapidly forward, and Canton stood still. So it continued until the year 1851, when the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad was located just south of the town, as it was at that day ; this road went into operation in the early part of 1852, as far west as Massillon. The railroad company did not always act in the most favorable way toward Canton, nor did they assist any by offering special facilities in building up her interests ; it is even claimed by some that there was a constant disposition to discriminate against her, until when, within a very few years, the opening up of the Valley Railroad to Cleveland gave a new outlet East and West to Canton industries. In view of the early completion of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, nevertheless, Ball, Ault-man & Co., determined to remove their works from Greentown to Canton to avail themselves of the advantages of the new railroad, secured lots on the line of the road, erected their buildings, and, in the latter part of 1851, they brought their tools and fixtures from Green-town to Canton, and a brighter day began at once to dawn upon this city ; the gloom and depression of many years gradually removed, and Canton again entered upon the march of progress, which has gone on steadily forward ever since, with but little interruption, and that but temporary. As the removal of this business to Canton is the date of a new era, it will, undoubtedly, be of great service to the younger portion of our citizens, and to after generations of Canton's children, as well as eminently just to the memory of the honored members of the firm, to put in permanent form a complete history of the rise and progress of these works in Canton, as we find it in the Chicago Commercial Advertiser, of February 26, 1880, which is acknowledged as accurate and satisfactory, as follows : When it is considered that within the brief period of a quarter of a century the wonderfully effective mowing-machine of to-day has been brought to its present stage of perfection by the pre-eminent genius and skill of American inventors, the mind dwells upon the fact with tin- stinted admiration, heightened by the thought of how completely this marvelous aid to the husbandman has revolutionized the methods of agricultural pursuits. The model and progressive farmer of the present day may well look back a couple of decades and wonder how he possibly could have accomplished his harvesting by the tedious processes then commonly employed—how he ever could have garnered his crops with the old-fashioned scythe, sickle and grain cradle. Certain it is that were it not for our labor-saving agricultural machines, this country would not now enjoy her proud position of being the principal grain-producing and world-feeding nation, whereby her wealth is augmented by hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The mechanical facilities thus supplied have within a few years given a surprising impetus to the development of our agricultural resources, and by their great economy in gathering the crops, have enabled us to beat the world in producing cheap breadstuffs, as our gratifying export statistics plainly indicate. The invention and perfection of American harvesting machinery, then, may rightly be regarded as one of the chief promoters of our country's rapid development and remarkable prosperity ; and in the light of this fact, it seems almost incredible that the original introduction into use of these now indispensable auxiliaries to the successful cultivation of the soil was attended with very serious obstacles, not the least of which was the strong prejudice and opposition manifested by farmers and farm laborers to the employment of these " new fangled " devices. Deeming that a concise and accurate history of the mowing machine and kindred farm apparatus would prove of interest to many people, and in view of the fact that the city of Canton is the recognized headquarters in this line of production, we have devoted considerable time to collating information upon this interesting subject. The opening of this historical sketch takes us back to the year 1848, when in the little rural borough of Greentown, a village of some 300 souls, situate about nine miles north of Canton, Mr. Cornelius Aultman, who had learned the machinist's trade, made the patterns and built on his own account five of the old Hussey Reapers—the first machines of the kind ever made in Ohio, with the exception of a few made at Martin's Ferry, opposite Wheeling, in the year previous. Mr. Michael Dillman, a progressive farmer with ample means, living near Greensburg, Summit Co., had purchased and used one of these machines during the season, and was so well pleased with its work that he proposed joining Mr. Aultman in his new un- 322 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. dertaking, and accordingly, in the spring of 1849, they both removed to Plainfield, Will Co., Ill., where they constructed these machines for two seasons—some thirty-seven in all and the neighboring farmers came to their shop and bought them readily. The .Hussey was a one-wheeled machine, adapted only for reaping purposes. In the spring of 1850, Mr. Hussey, of Baltimore, Md., the inventor of this machine, but who had done Very little toward manufacturing and introducing it, learning that it was being successfully produced in the West, concluded that it was worth looking after, journeyed to Illinois and informed the makers that he held patents on the machine, and claimed royalty on all that had been turned out. They finally settled the matter by paying him $15 on each machine. After the close of the harvest season, in 1850, Mr. Aultman sold out his interest at Plainfield. and returned to Greentown in December of that year. The manufacture of the Hussey machine was continued at. Plainfield for a time, and the business was subsequently removed to Joliet, Ill., where the same machine was manufactured for a number of years, and afterward the Bell machine, until about 1858, when the proprietors there secured a license to build the Buckeye machines. After Mr. Aultman's return to Greentown, Mr. Ephraim Ball, manifesting much confidence in him, wanted him to buy an interest in the foundry located there, then run in the name of Wise & Ball. Mr. Aultman had contemplated returning again to the West, but said if Mr. Ball would consent to move the establishment, within three years, to a more eligible locality, he would take an interest therein. This was agreed to, and he thereupon, about March 1, 1851, purchased the one-third interest of Michael Wise, and a like interest of Lewis Acker, in the foundry. Shortly afterward, Mr. Aultman transferred a one-sixth interest to his brother-in-law; David Fouser, one-sixth to George Cook, who was a wagon-maker by trade, and one-sixth to his stepbrother, Lewis Miller, leaving Mr. Aultman one-sixth interest, and Mr. Ball one-third. The firm now became Ball, Aultman & Co., and they at once proceeded to enlarge their business. For the season of 185.1, they turned out twelve Hussey machines and six threshers, all of which were sold to farmers in the vicinity. But the firm did not have absolute " plain sailing" in dis- posing of their machines, inasmuch as there was a strong feeling of prejudice existing in the minds of farmers and farm hands against the radical " innovation." In this connection, many things occurred that were positively amusing, while other situations were equally perplexing. But these prejudices and hard feelings gradually wore away, and after two or three years had elapsed, and the farming community generally had begun to properly appreciate the valuable aid furnished by harvesting machinery, the bitter contest well nigh ceased. The Hussey machine, as we have said, worked well as a reaper, Wit could not be used as a mower. A demand sprung up for a device that would meet this want, and in answer thereto, the Ketcham Mower was invented, and placed on the market, in 1851, and in 1852. quite a number of these machines were put into use. About the same time, the Allen Mower, made in the vicinity of New York City, was introduced. Both of these were one-wheeled machines, and did not meet with marked success. After the harvest of 1851, the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railway, having then been graded, and soon ready to be opened to Canton, Messrs. Ball and Aultman came to the latter place, and looked over the ground, with the view to securing better manufacturing and shipping facilities. They selected three lots on the line of the new railway, each 45x40 feet, being a part of the present site of their works, returned and reported to their associates what they could do, and thereupon, they unanimously decided to remove to Canton. The committee immediately came here and consummated the purchase. Mr. Aultman, who was recognized as manager, moved to Canton, on the 16th of September following, and put up brick buildings—wood-shop, 40x60 feet ; finishing-shop, 55x40 feet ; and molding-shop, 65x40 feet, the former two, of two stories, the last, of one. In December, 1851, they transported their tools and fixtures from Greentown to Canton, and commenced operations. A stock company was then formed, each partner putting in what he could, and sharing the profits in ratio thereto. At this juncture, Mr. Jacob Miller, farmer, and brother of Lewis Miller, became a copartner, contributing to the capital the sum of $1,000. An inventory of the tools, etc., was taken, and each of the CANTON TOWNSHIP - 323 five copartners (Ephraim Ball, Cornelius Aultman, George Cook, Lewis Miller and Jacob Miller) was credited with his proportionate interest. The total capital of the company, when they started in Canton, including material, property at Greentown, and estimated value of " good will," was $4,500. For the harvest of 1852, they built twenty-five Hussey Machines, with six-foot iron finger-bars, to be used as mowers, being intended for combined machines. They worked satisfactorily as reapers, but, for several reasons, they failed as practical mowers. In the fall of 1852, up to which time Mr. Aultman had done the buying and selling, and keeping books for the concern, he went to Illinois, and there made the acquaintance of Thomas R. Tonner, who was known as a good book-keeper, and being favorably impressed, prevailed upon him to come to Canton, and keep their books. When Tonner arrived here he had just a dime in his pocket. He proved a valuable man, as he was very systematic, and regulated things generally. He was made the Cashier, and the partners had to go to him when they wanted money. Before that, they were in the habit of helping themselves, when there was cash in the till, each one charging himself with whatever sum he appropriated. When clerking in Pennsylvania, Tonner had got accustomed to the ways of that region, one of which was a trifle unbusiness-like, to wit, when a note fell due, it was not considered as a compromise of credit to allow it to go unhonored for a week or so. He started out in Canton with this notion clinging to him, but Aultman said they must take care of their notes, in order to maintain their credit, to his mind a very important matter. Tonner soon saw this in the same light, and looked well after the notes, even if by so doing. the firm were obliged to do without pocket-money for a time. To this well-established credit, they attribute their successful weathering of the panic of 1857, as. had it not been for their reputation for commercial honor, they could not have passed through that trying ordeal unscathed. The business of the company so rapidly increased, that it was found necessary to procure additional clerical assistance, and in 1855, Mr. James S. Tonner, brother of Thomas, was employed as bookkeeper, after which, the latter was enabled to devote more time to the general business. A few weeks after T. R. Tonner came here, in 1852, Mr. Aultman bought out Fouser's one-sixth interest, and turned it over to Tonner, thus laying the foundation of the handsome fortune he amassed before his death. For the harvest of 1853, they built twenty-five Hussey Reapers, and also twenty-five of the Bell Machines, the latter intended for both mower and reaper. In 1853, having abandoned the idea of making, a combined machine, they turned their attention to the work of devising a practical single mower. In that summer, the Ketcham machine, having achieved some measure of success, a committee of three, consisting of Ball, Ault-man and Lewis Miller, were appointed to get up a mower. Ball was a pattern-maker by trade, and made the patterns for the concern. The committee put their heads together, and as the result of protracted consultation, study and experiment, they constructed in the same year, a mower, a light, small affair, and subjected it tip a practical test, but it did not prove a success for all kinds of grass. They kept busily at work, nevertheless, and originated another one-wheeled machine, somewhat different from the first, and it seemed, on the initiative trial, to be entirely satisfactory. Accordingly, they built eight or ten of this pattern, and sold six or eight of them in 1853. But their fortune was not yet assured, for the machines were found too weak ; they all broke down, and were returned as worthless. Some of the company got discouraged, but Mr. Aultman said, " try again." Before it was ascertained that the machines were an absolute failure, the harvest of 1853 was over. The committee was continued, and during that fall, Mr. Aultman made a drawing for a two-wheeled machine, the first attempt ever made to devise such a mower. This drawing was submitted to Ball and Miller, who made some suggestions as to modifications therein, and from that drawing, after some months of patient effort, was at length evolved what was known as Ball's Ohio Mower. The first machine of this style was built in the summer of 1854. Mr. Ball was the pattern-maker, and Mr. Ault-man, the superintendent. The model was made and the patents applied for in the fall of 1854. Interference was eventually declared between Ball's application and one made by Jonathan Haines, of Pekin, Ill., which was contested. Haines proving priority on some of his claims 324 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.  as presented at the Patent Office, a patent Was granted to him, in August, 1854. Thereupon Mr. Aultman went to Pekin, and bought of Haines the right to manufacture for the State of Ohio. In the spring of 1855, Ball, Aultman & Co. commenced to build some twenty-five of the Ohio machines, and had everything ready to erect, when, on the 5th of May following, fire destroyed their main buildings and contents; including all the machines. Just as the coma- pany were in a fair way to establish a flourishing business, this disaster not only robbed the firm of their all, but left left them deeply in debt. Right here, the firm realized the advan- tage of taking care of their credit, and of promptly meeting their obligations previously. Having good credit, fortified by a reputation for strict integrity, they progressed with the buildings, and by the 1st of August, in less than three months after the fire occurred, the new works were completed, the machinery was set up, and everything in readiness for a fresh start. While the shops were being rebuilt, they put wood benches into a shed that had escaped the conflagration, and by dint of hard work, they turned out, by hand, five mowers land twelve Hussey reapers for the harvest of 1855. On the 1st of August, they started upthce works, and ran night and day. Fortunately for them, the harvest of that year was an abundant one, and consequently, the demand for machines was active. Farmers were so anxious tosecurce them that they would come in and engage machines not yet constructed, and pay for them in advance. This proved quite a godsend to the struggling firm, as it aided them materially in tiding over theirexistiugg financial stress. After starting up, they built some twenty threshers before the season was over, and could have disposed of a much larger number. The next winter, they went cour- ageously to work, and constructed 500 Ohio Mowers, fifty Hussey reapers, and fifty Pitts threshers, for the harvest of 1856. Aultman and Miller, desiring to get up a more simple machine than the Ohio, went to work, and devised the first Buckeye Mower (called originally the Aultman & Miller machine), a two wheeled rear-cut implement, and in June, 1856, secured a patent on a double-rule hinge, which allowed thefinger-barr to be mind vertically, thus facilitating transportation to and from the 1 field. Only one of the rear-cut machines was built, and in the fall of 1856, it was changed to; a front-cut, an approved principle that has ever; since been adhered to. For the harvest of 1857, they built 1,000 Ohio machines, some six or seven of the new Buckeye, 100 threshers, and fifty Hussey reapers. In July of that year, both the Buckeye and the Ohio were practically ; tested in a competitive field-trial, at Hamilton, , Ohio, and the Buckeye came out ahead. Encouraged by this success, one of each, of the Buckeye and Ohio machines, were taken to the ; famous field-trial at Syracuse, in the same month, held under the auspices of the United. States Agricultural Society. When the trial came off, every spectator was greatly elated with the easy, neat work of the Buckeye, and the judgment was in its favor, corroborated by; the award thereto of the highest prize, the grand gold medal. In February, 1858, Ball; sold his interest in the firm, and then went to I work and put up his own buildings, in the same year. In. 1859, he placed the Ohio Mower on the market, in competition with the Buckeye,. continuing to build it up to about 1865. When Mr. Ball retired from the firm of Ball, Aultman & Co., the style of the house changed to C. 7 Aultman & Co., under which it has won its, enviable honors the world over, and this title has continued ever since. In the fall of 1857,, they had enlarged their works 40 by 120, feet, a three-story brick structure, thus doubling their capacity, so that they were well prepared to take advantage of the " boom " they felt sure they were to experience, by reason of , the splendid success of the Buckeye at the fairs of that season. For the season of 1858, Messrs. Aultman & Co. built not far from 1,500 Buckeye mowers and 150 threshers. In this year, they commenced to make a practical success of the combined machine, with reaper attachment. In the fall . of 1858, this machine was exhibited very generally all over the country, and also participat- ed in almost innumerable field trials, sometimes at three or four at the same time in different ectons, and it almost invariably took the first premiums. In June, 1858, patents were granted on the , front-cut Buckeye, application having been made, therefor in the fall of 1857. This was a transfer from rear to front-cut, requiring a radical; change in the organization of the machine ; the