400 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. chine was manufactured by Russell & Co. up to 1871. In the spring of that year, the " Peerless " was sold to C. Russell & Co., of Canton, and its production transferred to that city, Mr. Miller withdrawing to take the superintendency of the Canton establishment. Prior to 1865, the shops were located on Erie street, between Tremont and South, north of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway, but the business having outgrown their producing facilities, at this time the firm decided to erect more commodious and convenient buildings just south of the railway. Accordingly, in 1864-65, the present extensive and substantial buildings were put up and equipped with improved machinery, tools, and every convenience requisite to the rapid and economical manufacture of their increasingly popular products. In the summer of 1868, Mr. T. H. Williams retired from the firm. In December, 1871, Mr. Allen A. Russell, the youngest brother, and Alanson A. Rawson, since deceased, a nephew of the brothers Russell, became members. On the 1st of January, 1878, the firm was dissolved by mutual consent, Mr. Clement Russell, one of the original members, retiring, and has since had po connection with the house. On the 17th of May, 1878, just as they were fairly under way for the season's business, fire destroyed all their iron working machinery, wagon stock and thirty-six years, accumulation of patterns, the latter having cost not less than $75,000, and throwing 250 men out of employment. The entire south wing and one-half of the Erie street front of the main building, were destroyed, involving a loss, exclusive of that in patterns, of $75,000. The whole amount of insurance realized was $53,100. Many of the valuable patterns could never be replaced, and the net loss by the disaster was estimated at $50,000. The fire broke out soon after 1 o'clock, A. M., and had it not been for the almost superhuman exertions of the fire department, aided by citizens, the entire works would have been destroyed. Fortunately about two-thirds of the main building was saved. At daylight the next morning seventy men were set to work on the ruins, and two of the partners started, one East and the other West, to procure machinery to replace that destroyed. Such promptitude and pluck are characteristic of the enterprise of the firm. By the kindness of C. Aultman, Esq., of Canton, and Capt. J. H. Kauke, of Wooster, machinery which they had in charge as assignees, was promptly loaned to the firm until new machinery could be procured. Gas was put into the works and a supplementary engine attached to run the foundry; so that just one week from the time of the fire they were running the iron department double time to make up for lost time, and within thirty days were turning out their full complement of machines. The Erie street front was rebuilt during that summer, and in order to make more room in the works, the office was removed, and the present elegant and spacious two-story office building was erected the same year, and, in the winter of 1880-81, erected a four-story new brick warehouse 250 feet in length. In the fall of 1878, Russell & Co., under the general law of Ohio, without a change of style, became an incorporated body. The corporators were J. E. McLain, N. S. Russell, J. K. Russell, T. H. Russell, G. L. Russell, A. A. Russell and J. W. McClymonds. Capital stock, $500,000. The first election resulted in the selection of Nahum S. Russell, President ; J. W. McClymonds; Secretary and Treasurer ; T. H. Russell, Superintendent ; since which they have created the office of Assistant Secretary and Treasurer, to which position Mr. C. M. Russell has been elected. The works have been repeatedly enlarged and improved until they now comprise one of the largest and most complete manufacturing establishments on the Western Continent. The premises have an area of about seven acres. A convcnient side-track connecting with all the railroads runs alongside the shops with excellent facilities for rcceiving materials and shipping products. The works are splendidly equipped with every mechanical appliance calculated to expedite manufacturing operations and processes, thus reducing to the minimum the cost of production, and enabling Messrs. Russell & Co. to place upon the market their supernor machines at figures which defy competition. The entire establishment in all its parts is governed by a perfect system and discipline. The several departments are under the watchful and vigilant care of practical members of thc company, who see to it that nothing in the way of labor or material is neglected or executed in any unworkmanlike manner. Mr. Thomas H. Russell is charged with the general superintendency of the establishment. Mr. Joseph K. Russell has the purchas- CITY OF MASSILLON - 401 ing of the lumber and the general management of the wood-working department. Mr. George L. Russell has charge of the metal-working department. Mr. Allen A. Russell has supervision of the finished machines and territorial agencies, several hundred in number. His residence is in Indianapolis. Russell & Co. have branch houses at Indianapolis, Ind., Mr. G. W. Harbaugh, manager ; Council Bluff's, Iowa, Mr. V. S. Russell, manager ; St. Joseph, Mo., Mr. George 0. Richardson, manager ; Dallas, Tex., Mr. F. R. Rowley, manager ; McGregor, Iowa, Mr. G. W. Prim, manager. The number of workmen employed in all departments is 425, whose monthly wages exceed $18,000. The aggregate product of their extensive establishment approximates $1,500,000. A description of the different kinds of work manufactured by Messrs. Russell & Co., does not come within the scope and design of this work. It is sufficient to say that they invite competition. They are the only establishment that has taken hold of the threshing machine business in the city of Massillon and reduced it almost to an exact science, their labors are rewarded by a market for their products all over the United States and Territories, Germany, Russia, South America, Australia and New Zealand. While the old firm of C. M. Russell & Co. were not the first to engage in the building of threshing machines, they were first to see what the business could be brought to by care and attention. The first machines that were built in Massillon were called the " Pitts Separator," and were introduced by H. D. Jameson, from Rochester, N. Y.; he built 100 in one year, in 1838 or 1839, when his works were closed by his sudden death. Messrs. Knapp & McLain embarked in the business about the same time, but did not continue. The making of pig iron received little or no attention until 1853, when the late M. D. Wellman conceived the idea that that branch of industry could be successfully carried on here, and by subscriptions of money added to his own capital, which had become much impaired by unsuccessful ventures, he erected the furnace lately torn down to make room for the glass-works now about to be erected, and which was a success as a manufactory of pig-iron, and a source of wealth to the owners. During much of the time that it had an existence, the fluctuations of business after it had passed out of Mr. Wellman,s hands, ruined the iron manufacturers, and the " Massillon Furnace " passed out of existence, and as incidentally noticed above, in its place is to be glass-works. In 1855, Messrs. Hiram B. Wellman, James S. Kelley and others seeing the success of the Massillon Furnace, as it was called, determined to build another, and accordingly the Volcano Iron Company was incorporated, under the general law of Ohio, and went into operation. It was a failure, and made bankrupt many of the stockholders, was sold, and is now owned by the Volcano Furnace Company, the principal stockholders of which are James Lee, Esq., and Hon. Anthony Howells, late Treasurer of the State of Ohio, under whose judicious management it promises success. As this work goes to press a new enterprise for the Tuscarawas Valley and the city of Massillon, in the shape of glass works for which Massillon affords abundant facilities, is fully inaugurated with ample capital, skill and experience on the part of the proprietors. Inside of the city limits are the Merchant Flouring Mills : Messrs. Warwick & Justus, and Isaac N. Doxsee, in the Sippo Valley ; Messrs. Kitchen & Sons, on Tremont street, west of the Tuscarawas River, on the line of the C., T. V. & Wheeling Railway ; McLain Brothers, on Exchange street, in the heart of the city ; A. A. Taylor, Esq., on North Erie street, and George Heppert, on the northwestern boundary of the Third Ward. Messrs. Kitchen, McLain Brothers and Taylor use steam exclusively, while the rest use steam and water. Just above the city limits is the Crystal Spring Mill, also owned and run by the McLain Brothers, making seven extensive flouring mills in and near the city ; and which, if they are not already, can be put within call of each other by telephone, and which consume more wheat annually than was ever consumed or purchased during the busiest days of the wheat city. Independent of the great coal interests of the city, Massillon supports more than fifty establishments of various kinds, manufacturing, commercial and industrial, and in addition to those above enumerated, including an extensive paper mill, under the general management of C. T. Bicknell, Esq., also foundries and machine-shops, each carrying on a healthy and paying business. Its stone quarries within and just outside the city limits are a great 402 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. source of revenue, and furnish employment to all who want work. A sale of the stock in trade and fixtures of a single one of these establishments, in the early part of June, in the present year, for $35,000, exhibits the importance of that branch of trade in this city. The formation of the Massillon Iron Company, which was a voluntary association of individuals, was followed by the obtaining of a charter for the Massillon Rolling Mill Company from the Ohio Legislature ; and but for the panic of 1837, would have given the place a start in manufactures that would have made it one of the most important manufacturing points in the State. The charter was extremely liberal. The capital stock named in the charter was $600,000, the company having power to do anything but a banking business. it invested a large amount in real estate, city lots and farms ; and, under the pressure of the panic referred to already, sunk all the capital subscribed. The stockholders, most of whom resided in Boston, became discouraged, and the Massillon Rolling Mill Company, of which James Duncan was President, and H. Wheeler, Jr., Superintendent, is now only remembered in the description of premises where the " Massillon Rolling Mill Company's alteration and subdivision of certain lots in the city of Massillon " forms a part. The coal interest alone in Massillon is represented by $840,000 of capital invested by the following-named persons and companies : Camp Creek Mine, 0. Young & Co., $80,000 ; Pigeon Run, Pigeon Run Coal Company, composed of Hon. John G. Warwick, Hon. Anthony Howells and James Lee, Esq., Massillon, and Hon. W. S. Streator, Cleveland ; capital, $80,000. Warmington Coal Company, Messrs. Robert Rhodes & James Rhodes, sons and successors of the late Hon. D. P. Rhodes, Mark A. Hanna and George Warmington, Esqs., Capt. Henry Foltz and Hon. J. G. Warwick ; capital, $80,000. The Grove Coal Company, first organized under that name and style by Charles H. Clarke and Orlando Grove. This company and its extensive mines have been merged in a syndicate able to command all the capital required. The amount of capital at present invested is about $60,000. The Massillon City Coal Company, composed of Capt. Henry Foltz, the Nestor of all coal operators in the Tuscarawas and Newman,s Creek Valleys, and James F. Pocock, Esq. This well-known company commands all the capital it needs, and its operations are extensive, extending into Tuscarawas County. The Sippo Coal Company, an incorporated company, Hon.Clement Russell President, and Milton Wilson, Esq., Secretary and Treasurer. These gentlemen are the principal stockholders ; capital invested, $60,000. The Willow Bank Coal Company : This company operates through a slope and shaft, and have a capital invested of $60,000. The Mountain Mine : This is a most extensive organization, and has invested $80,000. The Ground Hog, $40,000. The Ridgeway Coal Company : The nominal capital of this company is $60,000 ; but commands all the capital required for its extensive operations. It is under the management of J. P. Burton, Esq., one of the most energetic operators in the Tuscarawas Valley. The Oak Hill Coal Mine is under the general management of James Neall, Esq., and is owned by him, John Albright and others. Its capital invested is $40,000. The above mines give steady employment to at least fifteen hundred persons, operatives of all kinds, inside and outside of the mines, and make Massillon a shipping point, in connection with the other industries of the city, from which a greater tonnage is shipped than from any other railroad center in the interior of the State. In 1831, when Capt. James Allen was a member of the House of Representatives in the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, an act was passed incorporating the Massillon & Pittsburgh Railroad Company. The necessary reconnoissance was made by a corps of engineers, at the head of which was Lieut. 0. M. Mitchell, just then graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and a member of the United States Topographical Corps. In those piping times of peace, Lieut. Mitchell resigned his position in the United States Army, and cultivated the arts of peace, and became a resident of Cincinnati. At the breaking-out of the war of the rebellion, he tendered his services to the Government, which were accepted, and while in command of the Tenth Army Corps, with the rank of Major General, he died on the 30th of October, 1862, at Beaufort, South Carolina. Lieut. Mitchell made his surveys, and reported it impracticable to construct a railroad from this city to Pittsburgh, and the project was abandoned. The charter of the road and the names of the corporators will be found in CITY OF MASSILLON - 403 the Local Laws, 29 Sess. Gen. Ass. The names of James Duncan and Charles K. Skinner, always connected with every improvement, were first, and could the road have been a success, would have reaped the benefit of their enterprise, as would Massillon. The fact that the line between Massillon and Pittsburgh was deemed impracticable for the construction of a railroad, and that twenty-two years later a railway was opened between these two points, known as the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad, is suggestive of the fact that " New occasions teach new duties, and that Time makes ancient good uncouth." In 1846, the year of the great wheat crop in Ohio, it became apparent that new and more rapid outlets and greater facilities for getting Western produce to the seaboard must be had, and Massillon, always first to move in those enterprises, had a small meeting at the law office of Gen. Dwight Jarvis, and he and Charles K. Skinner, Esq., were appointed a committee to visit Pittsburgh, and with statistics of the business of Massillon, to go before the Board of Trade and show the extent of the resources of this great producing region. The committee went, made known their business. The Board of Trade and the Councils of Pittsburgh and Allegheny listened to them, and were surprised. They, the City Councils and Board of Trade, at once determined to give the subject attention, but having the Great Central Pennsylvania Railroad under consideration, western connections with Pittsburgh were permitted to rest. Massillon became impatient, called another meeting, and added to the old committee Hon. David K. Cartter, then a distinguished member of the Stark County bar, and these gentlemen went again to Pittsburgh, and through the late Hon. Andrew W. Loomis, another meeting of the Board of Trade and of the Councils of Pittsburgh and Allegheny was called, and the matter of Western railway connections with Pittsburgh was presented by Mr. Loomis, in a most able speech, which he concluded by introducing Hon. D. K. Cartter, the additional member of the committee. The committee had learned before the meeting that Pittsburgh and Allegheny were not disposed to favor the enterprise, and were, if not discouraged, a little disheartened. Mr. Cartter, however, on being introduced, said he " should not undertake to present the advantages that would accrue not only to Pittsburgh and Allegheny, but to the whole State of Pennsylvania, and especially Philadelphia. That matter," said Mr. Cartter, " was presented to you in detail a few weeks since by the gentlemen now with me, and they may reproduce it at this meeting if they choose. For myself, I have come to deal in practical matters, and to serve a notice on you, gentlemen composing the Board of Trade of the City of Pittsburgh and the Councils of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, that we out West, comprising the backbone, not only of Ohio but of the Western Continent, mean business. A road is to be built from this city through Massillon to Chicago, and in its construction you must either fish or cut bait ; now take your choice. We are going home, and are going into this business at once. If you can take some immediate measures indicating that you are really awake, we can wait, and shall be glad to bear to our people the tidings that you are with us ; but, gentlemen, you must accept the alternative I have presented." The speech from which the above extract is taken was made thirty-four years since, and is a specimen of the impetuosity of Mr. Cartter's character at middle life, and its effect may be well imagined. The Councils and Board of Trade started up, rubbed their eyes, and asked, " Where is Massillon?" " Who is this fellow that talks to us in this wise ?" They finally concluded that it would be well to give the subject attention, but they delayed until Massillon became impatient, and called a meeting to be held at Massillon in November, 1847. The meeting was largely attended from Philadelphia, extending westward to the west line of Ohio. Hon. William D. Merrick was chosen President, and active measures were taken, which resulted in the obtaining of a charter for the Ohio. & Pennsylvania Railroad, and which was opened to this city in 1853. The Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad extended to Crestline and there connected with the Ohio & Indiana, which made the link to Fort Wayne, and the Fort Wayne & Chicago thence to Chicago completed the great chain of railway communication from Philadelphia to Chicago, and was the first railroad through this city. In 1869, the Massillon & Cleveland Railway Company built the road from Massillon to Clinton, thirteen miles in length, which connects this city 404 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY with the Cleveland & Mount Vernon Railway, and which affords a direct connection between Massillon and Cleveland. In 1871, the Cleveland, Tuscarawas Valley & Wheeling Railway Company was formed and built the railroad of that name, passing through Massillon to Wheeling, and as this work goes to press, the Wheeling, & Lake Erie Railway, which connects the cities of Toledo and Wheeling, making Massillon a point on its line, is rapidly advancing to completion, and when completed places this city in a direct connection with the city of Baltimore, via Wheeling and the Baltimore & Ohio Railway, and the West and Northwest, by way of Toledo, also on a direct line. The railway connections of the city are surpassed by none in any section of the State by direct lines in all directions. A more detailed history however is found in a preceding chapter of this work. In 1833, while Hon. David A. Starkweather and Hon. Jehu Brown represented Stark County in the House of Representatives, and Hon. Matthias Sheplar in the Senate, the Bank of Massillon was chartered with a capital of $200,- 000, and which was the second bank of discount and deposit in the county. The Farmers' Bank of Canton having been chartered in 1816. The new bank started out successfully, its stock was taken, much of it at home, some at Troy, in the State of New York. On the 1st of October, 1834, the bank went into operation, its banking room being on the second floor of Hogan & Harris' Block on Main street. Its first officers were James Duncan, President, and J. D. W. Calder, Cashier. Mr. Calder was from Troy, and represented the Troy stock. It soon became apparent that there was a want of harmony between the Cashier and President, which finally culminated in a third party, the Dwights of New York and Massachusetts purchasing a controlling interest in the stock, which was done on the 9th of July, 1835, one of the Directors being actively engaged in the purchase, 150 per centum premium on the amount paid in being freely paid. The Calder party in the board resigned, and their places were filled by friends of the new regime. The Cashier resigned, and Parker Handy, Esq., of Cleveland, was elected in his place. Mr. Duncan, the President, also resigned, and Augustus Baldwin, Esq., of Hudson, was chosen to fill that vacancy, he remained but a short time, when the late Charles K. Skinner took his place and continued President as long as the bank had an existence. In 1838, Mr. Hunt, then clerk in a mercantile establishment in this city was chosen by Mr. Handy as Assistant Cashier, and kept the place until the resignation of Mr. Handy, when he was appointed Cashier, and held that position until the impending destruction of the bank, the controlling interest having passed into the hands of Henry Dwight, Jr., tendered his resignation, and was succeeded by F. E. Platt, of Owego, N. Y., who remained until the crash came in 1853. It may be remarked in passing that Mr. Platt was an elder brother of Mr. Platt, late Senator from New York in the United States Congress, and that the ex-Senator was a clerk in the bank at one period during his brother's cashiership, and also a clerk in the drug store of Messrs. Joseph Watson & Co. When the bank closed, it was found that all its assets had been transferred to the city of New York, that it had in circulation $400,000, which was its full limit according to its charter, it capital stock being all paid up and it being allowed to issue two to one on its paid-up stock. As soon as it was ascertained that a crisis in the affairs of the bank had come, the President and Directors made an assignment to Charles D. Smith, Dwight Jarvis and M. D. Wellman who were afterward removed by the Court of Common Pleas on a motion by E. P. Grant, Esq., counsel for parties in interest, and Hon. George Harsh, Dr. Isaac Steese and Hon. P. C. Hull, now of Oneida, Carroll County, substituted. The entire assignment was thenceforth managed by Mr. Harsh, the other assignees of course being consulted, and being advisory members ; and it should be placed on an enduring record that no assignment was ever conducted with more unyielding fidelity than was the assignment of the Bank of Massillon, after it had passed into the hands of Messrs. Harsh, Steese and Hull. Whatever there was of its assets was faithfully accounted for to the last cent, and the records of the Common Pleas of Stark County show an honorable discharge of the assignees after having discharged their trust. The assets of the bank, not stolen by the Dwight management, paid about 30 cents on the dollar, 70 per centum being plundered from the holders of the liabilities of the bank. Meanwhile, Mr. Hunt whose sagacity had enabled him to escape the fraud for which Henry Dwight, Jr., with his .confreres, was liable, in CITY OF MASSILLON - 405 connection with Dr. Isaac Steese and H. B. Huriburt, under the general banking law of Ohio, organized the Merchants, Bank, with Dr. Steese as President, and Salmon Hunt, Cashier; their first office of discount and deposit was in the room on the east side of Erie street, south of Main, now occupied by George Yost & Son, saddlery and hardware, where they remained until they purchased the premises on the south end of the Wellman Block, corner of Erie street and the alley. There they closed out the Merchants' Bank, and under the National Banking law of the United States, organized the First National Bank of Massillon with Dr. Steese as President, and S. Hunt, Cashier, with a capital of $200,000, and the following-named gentlemen as Directors: Isaac Steese, James M. Brown, Arvine C. Wales, Charles Steese, Jacob S. Bachtel and John Jacobs, with unimportant changes, that organization continued until August, 1874, when the death of Dr. Isaac Steese occasioned an entire change. Mr. Hunt was elected President, and Charles Steese, who had been a Director in the bank from its organization, was elected Cashier, under which management it has continued except an occasional change in the Board of Directors, and is one of the institutions of the West. Its influence in money circles is not confined to Massillon, or the county or State. It bears upon its history and present existence the names of Hunt and Steese as its present managers, which are a guarantee as to its management. The name of Isaac Steese is indissolubly connected with the history of the banking institutions of Massillon. In November, 1847, the Union Branch of the State Bank of Ohio, at Massillon, was organized, with Dr. Steese as President, and S. Brainard, Esq., as Cashier. This position Dr. Steese resigned in 1850 to engage in private banking with Messrs. H. B. Hurlbut and Alvin Vinton, which firm was dissolved a year later for the purpose of organizing the Merchants' Bank, already mentioned. Dr. Steese was in all re- spects a representative man, and was so regarded, as the following extract from a notice written at his decease by one who knew him well, fully attests : With Dr. Steese's removal to Massillon, he entered upon his widest field of usefulness. For twenty-five years he was one of the largest landed proprietors and fanners of the county. For twenty-five years he was the manager of the largest banking institution in the county. No man was better fitted by nature and acquirements for an eminent banker. Of the whole theory and science of banking he was a thorough master. His perfect rectitude and integrity were widely known, and were never questioned where known. His perfect acquaintance with business, and his sagacity were such that the institutions under his direction passed through all the monetary convulsions of the past quarter of a century almost wholly without loss, and without once failing to make their customary dividends to their shareholders. Their shares were never upon the market, unless brought there by the death of their owners. Always anxious to encourage the commercial and industrial enterprises of the place so far as he safely could, no considerations of public spirit or of private friendship could cause him to forget for a moment that as a banker he was the trusted custodian of other people's money. The universal respect and confidence which he inspired, caused him largely to be sought out as the manager of the funds of the people in declining years—of widows, of minor children, and of people of small savings, carefully husbanded and left with him as in a place of the last security against a time of need. In times of financial peril and alarm, the sense of responsibility which these peculiarly sacred trusts entailed upon him was oppressive, sometimes almost crushing. Always a man of marked individuality, one of the most prominent traits of his character was his strong attachment for books, and for sound and generous literature. It began with his earliest boyhood. Before he was fifteen he secured the use of a little island in Penn's Creek and planted it with the castor bean, with the sole purpose of founding 'a library with the proceeds. Friends who knew him forty years ago, are full of amusing recollections of his inseparable companionship with books. A few men who begin life with these tastes preserve them to the last, but generally at the expense of all relish for business avocations. It was not so with him. His active and comprehensive mind maintained to the last its keen enjoyment of intellectual pursuits, and the most thorough understanding of all the details of affairs. For twenty-five years he directed his extensive farming operation,. the running of his banks, and &multiplicity of private undertakings, and during all this time he was a devoted and most loving student. He seemed to have the power of most perfectly absorbing the whole contents of a book. What was once read was never forgotten. He delighted to share with others the result of his studies, and could condense into an hour's conversation, the whole pith and substance of a bulky volume. Few practicing physicians kept so well read up in the advance of medical science. The discovery of a new remedy, a new method, or an ingenious operation was hailed with the joy of an enthusiast. There is no book in the English language treating of metaphysical topics that he was not familiar with. Not twenty men in the nation were better informed in politics in the large and best sense of the word—in political economy, and especially in questions of finance, taxation, the interchange of commodities, and the fluctuations of prices; his knowledge of tip, 406 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. action of our own and European Governments on these subjects was very full, and his reasonings wonderfully clear. It was a subject of frequent regret among his friends that he had not exercised his talents of this kind in a wider way, and in a. public capacity. In several departments of natural philosophy—in history, in the best lighter literature, in social and reformatory topics, he was well read, and kept abreast with the best minds of the age. His kindness of heart was universally known and acknowledged. But the extent of it never was and never will be known. Hundreds of the kindest acts of his life were so quietly and so delicately done that they never reached the knowledge of any but the recipients of them. Of the most genial disposition, few men so enjoyed the society of his fellows. What he was to his family—what to a circle of friends larger than often gathers around one man who walked with him through half a life time so nearly, that their hearts touched his, I dare not, with the grief of his death fresh upon me, trust myself to write. The home which he builded up in Massillon was known far and near not more for its elegance, its culture and refinement than for its open-handed hospitality; it was always the home of teachers of youth. Its welcoming doors were always open. There were few days in the year when its generous tables were not surrounded, and its rooms were not filled with neighboring or distant friends. At this home, on the 10th day of August, 1874, attended by all that the highest medical skill or the most painfully anxious affection could suggest, ministered to by loving hands, and surrounded by a devoted and heart-broken family, he quietly passed away. From the organization of the Merchants' Bank until the death of Dr. Steese, Hon. S. Hunt, now President of the First National Bank, was associated with him ; and of Mr. Hunt, it may be said, his name is a synonym for integrity and uprightness. For forty-three years, with a slight intermission, he has been a banker in this city. From Assistant Cashier to President, he has by unswerving fidelity built up and sustained a reputation for purity that cannot be assailed, and with that of Dr. Steese, will be treasured as one of Massillon's brightest jewels. Next in order was the Union Branch of the State Bank of Ohio, which was started in 1847 by Dr. Isaac Steese, Sebastian Brainard and others. After the death of Mr. Brainard it passed through many hands, and was finally merged in the Union National Bank of Massillon, and is one of the soundest banking institutions in Ohio. The President and Cashier are among the soundest business men in the Tuscarawas Valley, and its stock is held by men of wealth. The following gentlemen compose its Board of Directors : John E. McLain, Thomas McCullough, Joseph Coleman, Frederick Loeffler, Edward Kachler, Frank R. Webb and James H. Hunt. President, John E. McLain ; Vice-President, Thomas McCullough ; Cashier, James H. Hunt. The capital stock of the bank is $100,000. The Massillon Coal and Iron Company was formed in 1873, with a capital stock of $50,000, all paid. Its principal stockholders are John E. McLain, James Bayliss, Clement Russell, Nahum S. Russell, Peter Dielhenn, Edward Kachler, Hermann Schrieber, Joseph Coleman, Gustavus P. Reed, William F. Ricks, Henry Beatty, Silas A. Conrad, James H. Justus, Peter Sailer, Salmon Hunt and others. Its present officers are S. Hunt, President ; Edward Kachler, Secretary, and Joseph Coleman, Treasurer. The company, immediately on its organization, being incorporated under the general law of the State, built a rolling mill which, for its capacity, is regarded one of the best in the country. It is now leased to Joseph Cams, Esq., for three years, who has taken a son into partnership, the firm being Joseph Cams & Son, and who are running the mill successfully. The mill has eight puddling furnaces, two heating furnaces ; much train, eighteen-inch bar mill train, nine-inch small train. The product of the mill is 425 tons per month, and has more orders than it can possibly fill. The force employed is 120 men, and the cash value of the product of the mill is about $20,000 per month, or from $240,000 to $250,000 per annum. Messrs. Carns & Son are at the head of their profession, as managers of a rolling-mill, and by their energy and sound judgment are making the Massillon Coal and Iron Company's Rolling Mill a most important item in the business of the city, and in the northern portion of the Tuscarawas Valley. CITY OF MASSILLON - 407 CHAPTER XV.* THE CITY OF MASSILLON — ITS CHURCH HISTORY —THE EARLY METHODISTS— PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH—OTHER CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS—SECRET AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS —THE PRESS—FIRST NEWSPAPER IN MASSILLON— CHANGES, ETC., ETC. AT the laying out of Massillon fifty-five years ago, " the word of the Lord was precious." The Methodists, always on the frontiers of civilization, had preaching at stated periods. Massillon belonged to Canton Circuit, Steubenville District, of the Pittsburgh Conference. Their preachers occupied the schoolroom, when there was one, for that purpose. When no school-room could be had, a private house was opened, if in the winter ; if in the summer, the threshing floor of a large barn ; but Methodist preaching was sure to come. In 1832, Messrs. Hogan & Harris, a firm of forwarding and commission merchants, erected the brick building on Main street, now owned by Hon. George Harsh, in the third story of which was a hall, known as Hogan & Harris's Hall, which was used for all public gatherings, religious or political, or for any special meetings. The Methodists continued in this houseless manner until 1840. At that time Rev. D. R. Hawkins was on the circuit. He was a young man of great force of character, and he determined that there should be a Methodist Church edifice in the village. So he at once opened a correspondence with the Freemasons, who held their meetings in Hogan & Harris's block, occupying the room on the west side, the public hall being on the east side. The result of the correspondence was the Methodists and Freemasons determined to erect a two-story building, the lower story to be fitted up for a room for the church, and the second story for a Lodge and Chapter for the Masons. The building was erected in 1840. On the 24th of June the corner-stone of Clinton Lodge, No. 47, and Hiram Chapter, No. 18, and of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Massillon was laid, " with pomp and circumstance." For seventeen years there had not been a public Masonic exhibition in the county, the last one having been in Canton in 1823. Clinton Lodge * Contributed 1 y Robert H. Folger. was organized by charter from the Grand Lodge of Ohio in 1836, and was almost the only working Lodge north of the National road in the State. The building was erected and the two institutions occupied it harmoniously until 1860, when the Masons bought out the Methodists, and the Methodists had bought the old church edifice of the Baptists in 1858, which, as is noticed elsewhere, had been abandoned by the Baptists many years before. Although the Methodists purchased the building for a mere nominal sum, the extensive repairs they have put on it have made it cost as much as a new building would have cost, and is now commodious and well adapted to the wants of the church and congregation, now one of the most numerous in the city, of English Protestant churches. In 1845, the annual conference made Massillon a station, and the first in the county. Rev. Dr. Osborn is now the preacher in charge. The first organization of a Presbyterian church and congregation in Perry Township or in this city is hidden in impenetrable obscurity, there being no one living who aided in such organization ; nor is there any record that aids in arriving at a correct conclusion. As early as 1829, a distinct and earnest movement tending to such an organization was had. Rev. James B. Morrow then settled at Canton, and after him Rev. T. M. Hopkins came to Kendal and Massillon, and preached in Daniel Myers, carpenter-shop on State street in Kendal. At that time the Cruson brothers, John and Garrett, Austin Allen, Joseph Heckman and a few other families, composed the entire church, and they were the first to get a house which should be used for religious worship, after the Quakers of Kendal. They gave liberally, and got help from those who " had a kind word for all " evangelical denominations, and erected the building now used by the veteran carpenter of the city, John Zimmerman, as a HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 408 carpenter-shop, which stood near where it now stands, on the hill between Kendal and Massillon, as the topography of the place was then described ; and it was used as a meeting house for all religious sects, the Presbyterians however claiming the exclusive right. In this building Mr. Hopkins preached first, and which was in 1830 or 1831. In 1832, the mercantile firm of Baldwin & Noble came to Massillon and opened a stock of goods in the frame building which stood where now stands William Yost's saddlery and harness shop and store. They were Presbyterians, earnest and determined to see a church organized in the village. Through their influence the Rev. Elijah Buck, with his young and excellent wife, came from Rochester, N. Y., or from that section of the State, and becoming discouraged at the prospect for organizing a church, did not remain a great length of time. He is remembered, however, as an earnest, sincere young man, of scholarly attainments, and, if living, is supposed to be in Branch County, Mich., at or near Coldwater. In March, 1833, Rev. G. W. Warner, now of Canaan Corners, Columbia Co., N. Y., then Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Wooster, being on his way to Sandyville, Tuscarawas Co., to aid the minister there in the labor of a four days, meeting, stopped here in response to repeated invitaions, and made the acquaintance of the Presbyterians of Massillon, and such others as attended his meeting. The sermon on that occasion " was founded on the first clause of the 8th verse, 33d chapter of Ezekiel," and, as Mr. Warner says in a late letter to the writer, "was as plain and pointed as the preacher could possibly make it." This meeting was followed by a prompt and decided request for another sermon, and an appointment was made for May 25. " On this evening," says Mr. Warner, "almost the whole city came together to hear the word of the Lord." Mr. Warner adds: "The impression was favorable. Written as well as oral testimony, of the most gratifying character, rendered it certain that the labor was not in vain in the Lord." " Indeed, from that very point in the history of your thriving village, was dated the more manifestly growing change from the old regime of infidelity to the ultimate and completely commanding influence of Christianity." From the fact that there is a record in existence showing that the late Joseph Heckman, Esq., was installed as Elder June 1, 1834, it would seem that a church was organized in Massillon at that time. It is certain that on the 30th of January of that year, there was no settled Presbyterian minister in Massillon, as the writer has a tolerably vivid recollection of a marriage that took place at that date, at which Rev. T. M. Hopkins, then settled at Canton, was the officiating minister. It was not, " however, until the 17th of April, 1836," says Rev. Mr. Warner, " that a minister of this denomination went among this people with a view to steady and exclusive operations." " At that date," adds Mr. Warner, " I found a church organized, and Mr. Heckman its only Elder ; and, during the first of my ministry, Mr. Parker Handy, Cashier of the bank of Massillon, and Darius Ford, were ordained Ruling Elders, making the session to consist of Rev. George W. Warner, Moderator ; Joseph Heckman, Clerk, and Parker Handy and Darius Ford. " I was an ordained minister when I went to Massillon, but was never installed as Pastor of the church there." The Trustees were Parker Handy, Harper Partridge and James 0. Bloss. From the foregoing facts, it is clear that the Presbyterian Church in this city was first organized by Rev. Elijah Buck or Rev. T. M. Hopkins. Mr. Hopkins succeeded Mr. Morrow at Canton, as is now recollected, and Mr. Morrow removed to New Philadelphia where he died. The following tribute to the memory of the late Joseph Heckman, by Rev. Mr.Warner, is so just and so well deserved that it is given a place in these reminiscences : " He for many years, even unto the day of his death, with marked consistency exemplified the principles and power of his Christian faith and it should be added that as a citizen and public officer, his name will always, in the history of the good and useful men of Massillon, be especially remembered." Dating from April 17, 1836, the Presbyterian Church of this city has had an existence. From Rev. Mr. Warner at that date there has been a succession of ministers, stated supplies and installed Pastors, who have maintained its position as one of the institutions of the city. On Mr. Warner assuming the duties of the pastorate of the little church here, he, with characteristic energy, set about getting a house in which to worship. The eligible lot, on the con¬ner of Hill and Plum streets, was purchased, CITY OF MASSILLON - 409 and a building erected, which served the church until 1852, during the pastorate of Rev. D, C. Blood, and during which it may be said the church grew and flourished, equal to its prosperity in any former period. In the year above named, the old building was sold, and the present commodious one erected. The old building was purchased by J. J. Hofman, and took the name of Hofman's Church, while he continued to own it. It is now occupied by Mr. Hoke as a residence on North street. On the resignation of Mr. Blood, after many years of faithful service, he was succeeded by Rev. George A. Little, now of Warsaw, Kosciusko Co., Ind., on whose resignation, Rev. R. L. Williams, now of Baraboo, Wis., was installed as Pastor ; and who, in 1879, after twelve years of service, resigned, and was succeeded by Rev. N. P. Baily, 1). D., who is now the Pastor, having been installed at the date above named. During that year, the church was made the recipient of a most munificent gift from Hon. H. B. Hurlbut, of Cleveland, consisting of a most commodious chapel, erected immediately adjoining the church, building, furnished and ornamented with every thing useful and beautiful, including a piano. As a church, the Presbyterian is the oldest organization in the city ; and, in view of the changes of the past forty-five years, while it has not escaped the trials and vicissitudes incident to all organizations, its permanence and prosperity, as at present organized, are assured. There are some things connected with the history of the Presbyterian Church in Massillon and the old building in which Rev. George W. Warner's ministry commenced as Pastor, that should not be forgotten, first and foremost of which was the organization of the Massillon Lyceum and the great debate in the winter of 1837 on the question, " Does Justice demand the Immediate Abolition of Slavery ?" Mr. Warner and the trustees freely opened the house, which was filled to its utmost capacity every evening of the debate, and every possible phase and idea involved in the question were discussed in their length and breadth. Seed was sown that took root downward and sprang upward until the final result was. Although it took long years to accomplish it, Massillon became thoroughly abolitionized from being intensely pro-slavery, and on the close of the debate, the President, Hon. Hunking Wheeler, Jr., one of the best debaters and par- liamentarians of that day. decided that the affirmative had the advantage in the argument, but qualified his decision by saying, " Had the word expediency' been substituded for justice, he should have decided differently." The popular vote of the Lyceum was largely in the negative. In 1832, the first temperance lectures delivered in the county were delivered in Massillon by Theodore D. Weld, supposed to be living now in the State of New Jersey. These lectures revolutionized public sentiment for the time being, and when Mr. Warner came four years later, he put the Presbyterian Church into active work on that subject, and which lasted until he resigned in 1840. In November, 1841, he accepted an invitation to return, and did so, remaining two years, when he tendered his resignation, and is now, at the age of eighty, Pastor of a Presbyterian Church at Canaan Four Corners, Columbia Co., N. Y. The first preaching by any minister of the communion known in Stark County as the United Brethren in Christ was at the tavern of Philip Slusser, in what is now Brookfield, in Tuscarawas Township, and was by Bishop Newcomer, in May, 1816. From the Bishop's journal, it appears that on the 24th of May he lodged with Jacob Rowland, near Canton, and on the 25th reached Philip Slusser's. " To-day and Sunday," says the Bishop, " we held a sacramental meeting here," which is the first account that can be had of any religious services by the United Brethren in the township. Later in the year, Rev. Messrs. David Wimar, Christian Kanaga, John Wimar and Pete' Wimar held meetings in the township of Sugar Creek and at Pigeon Run, in Tuscarawas Township, and at some period between 1816 and 1820 a society was formed. Among its members were Adam Shilling, George Krider, Christian Maxhimer and many others. Preaching was had at private houses. The Pigeon Run Chapel was built at some time during the four years from 1816 to 1820, and regular preaching has been had in the township ever since. In 1829 or 1830, there was an accession of new members from Franklin County, Penn., Abraham Bowman and his family, and Samuel Lent and his family. The circuit was extended, and Brookfield was taken into that circuit, and, in 1849, a church building was erected and the different congregations were merged in the Brookfield 410 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. congregation, except at Pigeon Run, those within the bounds of the charge remaining there. In 1873, the congregation was transferred to Massillon, the church building in Massillon was erected, and since which Massillon has been a station. The first preacher at the station was Rev. Elias Lower, now in MichMichigan. first Trustees were Abram Bowman, John Silk, John Reeves and B. F. Booth. The present Pastor is Rev. J. M. Poulton. Present board of Trustees is Abraham Bowman, John Waggoner, John Silk, Tho'Tho,sSeaman and the Pastor. The church in Tuscarawas Township, as well as at Massillon, is growing, and is exerexercisingholesome influence. The journal of Bishop Newcomer is interesting, as showing the ear-. nest faithfulness of his labors in his Episcopal visit to the West sixty-five years ago. The Mr. Bowman referred to as a member of the church in 1829, was the father of Abram Bauman, Esq., now a resident of Tuscarawas Township, and of Hon. Samuel C. Bauman, of Massillon. Thirty-eight years have gone into the great ocean of time since Elder Jonas Hartzell organized the DiscDisciples,rch in Massillon. The first Pastor was Elder Eli Regel. The first Board of Trustees was Charles London, John Bender and Isaac N. Doxsee. Mr. London and Mr. Doxsee yet survive, representatives of the doctrines of their church, and as such are representative men, and as highly esteemed citcitizens.the " noiseless tenor of their way " the church and congregation meet at their meeting-house, corner of Hill and North Streets, and of them it should be said they are comcomposedmany of the best citizens, and while they do not increase rapidly, they are always in the front rank of every reformatory movement. The following history of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church is furnished by Rev. P. J. Buehl, the Pastor in charge : The members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church was gathered together and organized by Rev. P. J. Buehl, Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran ZionZion,srch of Akron, the sermon for that purpose being preached on the 5th day of September, 1863. The regular organization took place on the 1st day of January, 1864, at which time a constitution was adopted and a church council elected by the members of the church present, and installed by Rev. P. J. Buehl, and incorporated under the General Laws of the State of Ohio by the name of The Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul's Church, in the City of Massillon. The following members were elected to constitute the first Church Council. As Deacons, Hermann Schreiber, Adam Gemminger, George Schueir and Peter Bause ; as Trustees, George Speigel, Balthazer Ketterer and Peter Diemer ; Treasurer, Gattfred Danner ; and Clerk, J. Frederick Lehmann. On the 22d of February, 1864, Rev. P J. Buehl, of the city of Akron, was called as the regular pastor, which call was accepted, as advised by high officials of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, on the 4th day of May. 1864, and on the 16th day of the same month moved his family to the city of Massillon, and since said time has remained the regular pastor of said church, now more than seventeen years. On the 12th day of May the Church resolved to purchase the premises upon which now stand the church buildings, then owned by Arvine C. Wales, and the estate of William S. Wetmore, deceased, and, after grading and much preparation, the present buildings were erected. First, a schoolhouse for a German and English Congregational School, which was dedicated on the 1st of January, 1865. After preaching from the 6th of September, 1863, to the 1st day of February, 1865, in a building called Hofman's Church, on North street, now changed into a dwelling-house, and from the last above date to October, 1870, in the lower room of the Masonic Building on Mill street. On the 13th day of June, 1869, the corner-stone of the new church edifice was laid with becoming ceremonies, and on the 18th Sunday after Trinity, A. D. 1870, the same was finished and dedicated to the service of the Triune God. The building is 47 feet wide, and, with the projection of the tower and altar place, is 110 feet long, with a tower 170 feet high, the whole of first-class finish and materials. Near the schoolhouse and church edifice stand two dwelling houses, one a parsonage and one a dwelling for the Congregational teacher and organist, built since the building of the church edifice. The congcongregationreased during the first year to a comcommunicantbership of ninety-seven members of both sexes. It now numbers 300, exclusive of 130 children of school age, which are taught to a certain age in the Congregational day school in German and English, and the religious principles of the word of God and the CITY OF MASSILLON - 411 doctrines of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. To the above should be added that the church edifice and grounds of the Evangelical Lutheran Church are surpassingly beautiful. The buildings are surrounded by an Osage orange hedge, which is kept trimmed and in the highest state of cultivation, inside of which are shubbery, flowers and evergreens, among which are carriage-ways and graveled walks, all of which are kept so neatly that the place is an object of the admiration of all strangers visiting the city. All the ornamentation of the grounds is the work of Rev. Mr. Buehl, who, in addition to the duties of the pastorate, finds time to embellish the churchyard with flowers and shubbery, and keeps them in order beyond similar work in point of taste and elegance in the city. On the 7th day of June, 1836, the Parish of St. Timothy's Church was duly organized, according to the Canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church, a charter therefor having been previously obtained through the influence of Hon. David A. Starkweather, member of the Ohio Senate. The Rev. John Swan was elected the first Rector, October 10, of the same year, the corner-stone of the church edifice having been laid by Rev. Charles P. Mcllvaine, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Ohio. On the 13th of May, 1843, the church was consecrated by Bishop Mcllvaine. On the 15th of July, the Rev. John Swan resigned the charge of the parish. July 26, 1846, Rev. Anson Clark accepted a call to the parish, and remained in charge until May 11, 1851. From October 1, 1851, until April 3, 1859, Rev. Edward H. Cumming was Rector ; from July 1, 1859, to July, 1865, Rev. Henry H. Morel was Rector ; from February 1, 1867, to May 1, 1871, Rev. G. W. Timlow ; from October 1, 1871, to October 1, 1872, Rev. Wilifred H. Dean ; from May 15, 1873, to March, 1877, Rev. W. M. Probasco, who died that month of small-pox. The present Rector, Rev. R. D. Brook, took charge of the parish October 16. 1877, having been unanimously elected thereto by the Vestry. The first Vestry were James Duncan, Herman B. Harris, James S. Reynolds, Hunking Wheeler, Charles K. Skinner, Dwight Jarvis, Matthew Johnson and George Paine. The present Vestry are Thomas McCullough, Senior Warden ; Hiram K. Dickey, Junior Warden ; Thomas Hopper, Augustus J. Ricks, Moses. A. Brown, Jacob 0. Bucher, James R. Dunn, H. H. Everhard, Edward B. Upham, and John G. Warwick. Through the long period of forty-five years, St. Timothy's has been one of the standard institutions of the city. The beautiful location of the church and parsonage, in one inclosure, at the southeast corner of Tremont and East streets, attracts the attention of strangers visiting the city, and is, of itself, an enduring monument of the liberality of Hon. James Duncan, whose generosity was restricted only by his means. In 1849, the German Protestant element having increased rapidly, a meeting was called of those of the German Evangelical Church. In a legal proceeding of a later date, they were sued as the German Evangelical Church of St. John, and to that style the trustees answered. At the date above named, there were forty-eight families. At the meeting an organization was effected, and the Rev. Dr. J. G. Buettner, a most scholarly and elegant gentleman, was chosen Pastor. He remained four years. Of the original forty-eight families, but seven or eight remain. The number of families now composing the membership is two hundred and sixty-five. This church has grown in wealth and influence. The first meeting-house is the stone building on East street, south of St. Timothy's Protestant Episcopal. In that they met for long years, and when it got so small as no longer to be used for that purpose, they purchased the beautiful lot on the corner of Tremont and Mill, than which none is more eligible in the city, and on that they have erected a large and commodious building—an honor to themselves and the city. Their former meeting-house has been sold to the Union School District, and, as a schoolhouse, is useful. It was built in 1840, and after twenty years of use as a church, was sold. In 1863 and 1864 there was a secession from the church of about fifteen families, making about seventy-five members, on account of a difference of opinion on the subject of parochial schools, those who withdrew being in favor of establishing schools of that character. At that time Rev. Mr. Weisgerber was Pastor of the old German Evangelical Church. He was a positive man in all his opinions, and especially positive in his opposition to distinct schools, under the 412 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. management of the church. Upon the fact being settled that, under the government of the German Evangelical Church, parochial schools would not be established, the withdrawal took place, and the German Evangelical Lutheran Church was at once organized, and is now one of the institutions of the city. Under the fostering carc of Rev. O. W. Shetlar, thc old German Evangelical Church is moving onward, embracing in its membership a most useful and intelligent class of the German population of the city and township, and largely increasing in numbers by the unparalleled immigration from the Fatherland, and the influence and well-directed labors of its worthy Pastor. In October, 1835, Rev. 0. N. Sage, now of Cincinnati, a Baptist minister, arrived in Massillon, then a young gentleman from Erie, Penn., unheralded and unknown, and as he says " not knowing the name of any one of the people of the place." In those days, the villagc being on the full tide of successful competition with all the neighboring towns, paying always thc highest prices for produce of all kinds, its fame as the " wheat city " of Ohio attracted the young Baptist Minister. It seemed to him to be the field wherein he could labor and leave at least " some footprints on the sands of time," " Footprints that perhaps another Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, might take heart again." The young minister was right in his conclusion, as the following extract from a pleasant letter received from him indicates. He " found a quiet temperance house kept by William M. Folger, n and preached the next day in Hogan & Harris' Hall to a good, attentive audience. Before leaving the hall, it was, resolved by the people that a meeting house should be built, and the young man was informally invited to become a citizen of what was then known as the most enterprising business place in the interior of Ohio." When it is remembered that there was not at that time a half a dozen Baptists in the township of six miles square, it will strike the reader singularly that on the second day after the arrival of Mr. Sage, which was on the first Sabbath, and on hearing his first sermon, that his congregation should resolve that a house should be built, and he invited to become a citizen. The people of Massillon were not disappointed. The name of Rev. Orrin N. Sage is kindly remembered by the few who remain, who listened to his preaching, and who will never forget his earnest labors to fashion and improve the social and moral condition of the then plastic society of Massillon. The encouragement given to Mr. Sage of course set him at work. He purchased the lot on the northwest corner of North and Mill streets, which was then the extreme northern boundary of the village, and, with untiring energy, erected the church edifice now there. As soon as it was inclosed and convenient rooms in the basement could be finished, religious worship was had there, and the first Baptist Church of Massillon was organized, with Mr. Sage as its Pastor. The church edifice, under the general management of Mr. Sage, the funds for which were furnished, mostly, says Mr. Sage, " by the business men of the place, who had no particular devotion to any religious sect but a a kind word for all." Those who have lived since 1836 and remember the inflation of the currency and consequent panic in the following year, will remember how easy it was to lay out cities, and in part to build them up. Massillon went into the wildest speculations. Corner lots, that have since been sold for less than a tenth part of the then prices, brought $5,000, and more was paid in " hand money " than they were worth the result was bankruptcy and ruin, in which the First Baptist Church of Massillon was a sufferer. The church edifice was erected on the credit of the subscriptions of those persons " who had a kind word for all," who subscribed without thinking of the pay day. In 1837 came the crisis. Gen. Jackson, President of the United States, the year bef .re had issued his famous "specie circular," and in May, 1837, a general suspension of specie payments by the banks all over the country took plate, and suspension of payments in anything, by in viduals, followed. The church had a heavy debt, and which was an incubus from which it never recovered. Mr. Sage remained five years, struggling to save the property and keep the congregation and church, especially, intact. It was the darling object of his early life as a minister. His health, from labor and anxiety, broke down, and he was compelled to seek another home. His successor was Rev. S. B. Page, D. D., now of Cleveland, who found about one CITY OF MASSILLON - 413 hundred members connected with the church, who were increased during his ministry to about one hundred and twenty. Mr. Page was Pastor in 1841. As services were had in April that year on the occasion of the death of President Harrison, the opening hymn, as is well remembered, commencing with the lines, " God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform." How long after that year he remained is not certain. ̊The church being burthened with a heavy debt and accruing struggled for many years. The business of the town changed and went into new hands, who were in no wise responsible for subscriptions to the church nor were members. As an organization the church could not be sustained. Super-added to all other calamities, it passed into the pastorate of a most unpopular minister, under whose pastorate the house was closed forever to the Baptists, and the church was scattered. Few yet remain who were members. Among those who are yet living should be named Andrew B. Cox and William Bohanon, respected citizens of the Third Ward in this city. The building was sold at Sheriff's sale, under a decree or judgment of the Court of Common Pleas of Stark County, and the First Baptist Church of Massillon exists only in history. Although the Baptist Church organized by Mr. Sage was the organization of that communion in the city, he was not the first Baptist minister who had preached there. As early as 1830, Elder Jehu Brown, by occupation a millwright, who did a great amount of work for Mr. Duncan, preached on alternate Sundays at his boarding-house, corner of Oak and Erie streets. He was a man of strong mind, and did his duty faithfully as he understood it. He was elected in 1833-34 to the House of Representatives in the General Assembly of the State, and afterward removed to Mt. Carroll, Carroll Co., III. Rev. 0. N. Sage is now, and for thirty-seven years has been, a resident of Cincinnati, beloved and respected by a large circle of friends. The first preaching or address by a Priest or Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in this city was by Bishop Purcell, and was in what was then Johnson's. now Beatty's, Block, on the corner of the canal and Main street, in the room now occupied by the Knights of Pythias. The Bishop had been in the northern part of the diocese, Ohio being then included in the Diocese of Cincinnati, on an Episcopal visit, and took Massillon en route on his return. Timothy Finnegan, an active Irish Catholic, procured the hall for the Bishop. This visit was in 1838. and before many of the since numerous German Catholic population had settled in the Tuscarawas Valley, in the neighborhood of Massillon. The old church at Canton, St. John,s, being the only one in this part of Ohio, except a little church in Lawrence Township, naturally drew around it the immigrants of that faith. The few Catholics in Massillon were not without religious services. The first celebration of mass was by Rev. Father Hoffman, from Canton, in a private house. He continued to visit the members of the church during the year 1836, as circumstances permitted him to do so. The next year, Father Yunker had services in a little one-story dwelling house, since raised to a two-story building, near the corner of Mill and Plum streets, and also had service at the house of Patrick Harney, northwest of where now stands the station house and other buildings of the Cleveland, Tuscarawas Valley & Wheeling Railway, which house is yet standing, and is one of the oldest frame houses in the township, having been built and occupied by an early settler by the name of David Anderson, Esq., and father of Samuel M. Anderson, now of Dalton. Squire Anderson will be remembered as one of the early Presbyterians of the Tuscarawas Valley. In 1838, Father Kuhr, from Canton, had services in the third story of Gen. Gardner Field's building on the west side of the canal. This was a comparatively large and comfortable room, but it could not be had at all times, and the Catholics were driven into private houses. They next met in 1840, in a small frame house on Charles street, near the corner of Muskingum ; then at Widow Ertle's, on North Mill street, near the present residence of David Kerstetter, Esq. That year services were also held at the house of Timothy Finnegan, in a building yet known as the " Finnegan House," corner of Mill and North streets. Timothy was a scholarly Irishman. Tradition has it that he was educated for a priest, but was captured by a bright Irish girl, whom he married, and then learned the trade of a cooper, at which he excelled, as he did in defense of his religion. He finally removed to Cincinnati, where he died. 414 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. Near the close of the Pontificate of Pope Gregory XVI, there came into the village a Presbyterian minister by the name of Delavan, and the Presbyterian pulpit being vacant, he, Mr. Delavan, was temporarily employed. He at once commenced preaching sermons and publishing articles in the newspapers against the Catholic Church, and especially against Pope Gregory XVI. The irreverent boys about town gave him the sobriquet of " Pope Gregory," which fastened itself upon him until he was bctter known by that name than any other. His articles were replied to with great spirit and ability by Finnegan, over his initials. His familiarity with the history of the Church, and his quotations from the Fathers, accompanied by translations, surprised everybody, and the Presbyterian minister found his match. His perfect discomfiture by the Irish cooper did much to prevent his being permanently employed by the Presbyterians. At the time Mr. Delavan left, a most amusing incident occurred. A meeting had been called by the Presbyterians to determine whether they would employ him, F. M. Keith, Esq., then of the law firm of Pease & Keith, being his warm friend and a member of the church. On the evening of the meeting, he went into the office and had a conference with Mr. Keith, after which Messrs. Pease, Keith and two students went to the church, the students to see what would become of " Pope Gregory," under the championship of their preceptor. When the vote was taken upon employing Mr. Delavan permanently, there was but one in his favor. After the close of the meeting, he again went to the office and found one of the students in, and at once asked him if " there was a good degree of unanimity in the proceedings ?" " Oh yes," replied the young man. " It lacked but a single vote of entire unanimity." Mr. Delavan seemed delighted and left for his lodgings, and encountered Mr. Keith on the way, who gave him the facts. Mr. Delavan left the next morning, and Timothy had the field.. In 1840, the Catholic residents within what might be denominated the Massillon Mission, or St. Mary's Mission, and who are really the pioneer Catholics, were Frederick Ertle, Nicholas Smith, Andrew Paul, Christian Witt, Nicholas Heiser, John Frease, Anton Vogt, John Boerner, John Yungbluth—commonly called Youngblood—John Yungling, Francis Miller, John Kutcher, George Seifert, George Ress, Thomas Kegler, George Hoke, Adam Hamersmith, Martin Bauman, Peter Runser, Magdalena Bamberger, Margaret Frease, Nicholas Bamberger and some others whose names cannot be ascertained. Few of these pioneers yet remain prominent among the survivors are Christian Witt. John Boerner, Anton Vogt and Adam Hamersmith. In the summer of 1840, for a short time Father Peter McLaughlin. was at Massillon, making his home with Timothy Finnegan. Father Peter, as he was called by those whose acquaintance justified such familiarity, was one of the most genial gentlemen ever at Massillon in the service of the church. His truly Christian character will ever be regarded with affection by all who knew him. The last known of him was that he had a parish in Milwaukee. At the date last mentioned, the Catholics of Massillon and vicinity, extending to McDonald-vine, in Jackson Township, Richville, in Perry, Brookfield, in Tuscarawas, feeling that they should have a church edifice and grounds surrounding it, purchased the premises where now stands the magnificent structure known as St. Mary's, or Neue Katholishe Mutter Gottes Kirche, in Massillon, Ohio, and which when completed will eclipse anything of the kind in Northern Ohio. The photograph, by Haring, shows what will be the elegance of the build- ing when it shall have received its finishing touches. On purchasing the premises, which were then far north of the city limits, the few Catholics of the mission proceeded to build a church edifice, which they accomplished under the guidance and supervision of various priests, who were sent here, and St. Mary's grew and prospered until 1852, when their church was destroyed by fire, thc work of incendiaries. Stricken, but not disheartened, they rebuilt and enlarged the building, and continued to use the repaired structure until a few years since, when they tore down the old building, that with its repairs, had for more than thirty years served them, and have gotten their new building in a condition to be used. The new building was commenced by Father Koehn, but his health failing, he was transferred by Bishop Gilmour to another field of labor, where he soon ended a useful life. On his leaving the parish of St. Mary’s, Rev. Father Kuhn took charge, and has since remained. There CITY OF MASSILLON - 415 are nearly three hundred families connected with the church, with which they have a. large school, by the enlargement of the city limits ; the buildings and churchyard are on the corner of Cherry and Mill streets, a location well adapted to the wants of the large membership. Clinton Lodge, No. 47, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons. This institution commenced work under a dispensation granted by Right Worshipful William J. Reese, Grand Master of the State of Ohio, in 1836, and continued so to work until the 22d day of January, 1837, when a charter was granted to George D. Hine, W. M.• Joseph G. Hogan, S. W.; S. Buckius, J. M.; Asa Rice, Treas.; George W. Swarengen, Sec,y ; Conly Hunter, S. D.; Britton Edwards, J. D.; Andrew Robertson, Tiler. There were many others in the neighborhood who had not affiliated with the craft, their being no working lodge within their reach. For forty-five years Clinton Lodge has sustained itself, and is now about to erect a new and commodious hall, having used the present one since 1840. Its present officers are : G. W. Blanchard. W. M.; Frank Strobel, S. W.; D. L. St. John, J. W.; J. R. Dangler, Treas.; F. A. Brown, Sec'y ; J. C. Harwood, S. D.; Howard Garrigues, J. D.; J. M. McE wen, Tiler. Of the original members who obtained the charter and organized the lodge, not one remains. Hiram Chapter, No. 18, of Royal Arch Masons, was organized, by charter from the Grand Chapter of Ohio, 1839. The first officers were : George D. Hine, M. E. H. P.; T. Dunham, E. K.; Jesse Rhodes, E. S.; John E. Dunbar and others, Associates. The present officers of the Chapter are : George W. Hathaway, M. E. H. P.; Charles H. Tinkler, E. K.; G. Liv. Ryder, E. S.; J. C. Harwood, Capt. Host ; B. F. Cline, P. S.; D. J. Kirkland, R. A. Capt.; D. L. St. John, Third Vail ; A. P. Wiseman, Second Vail ; D. Atwater, First Vail ; J. R. Dangler, Treas.; C. H. Garrigues, Sec'y ; J. M. McEwen, Guard. A Commandery of Knights Templar was organized under a charter issued Oct. 16, 1842. Its original officers were W. J. Reese, G. D. Hine, K. Porter, John Barney, Joseph B. Heuzey, Sylvanus Buckius, Thomas Hine and George A. Kellenberger. Its present officers are : R. V. Hampson, E. C.; Frank R. Webb, Generalissimo ; James H. McLain, Capt. Gen.; James R. Dunn, Prelate ; C. H. Tinkler, S. W.; W. H. Kirkland, J. 'W.; G. Liv Ryder, Warder ; J. R. Dangler, Treas.; G. W. Blanchard, Rec.; Luther Hicks, Standard Bearer ; J. Robbins, Sword Bearer ; J. McEwen, Sentinel. Sippo Lodge, No. 48, I. O. O. F., was instituted August 30, 1845. Charter members : F. T. Hurxthal, James S. Kelley, George Miller, Joseph Culbertson, John Wisner. First officers : James S. Kelly, N. G.; George Miller, V. G-.; John Wisner, Sec'y ; Joseph Culbertson, Treas. Present officers : C. H. Mong, N. G. C. E. Taylor, V. G.; Charles T. Higginbotham, R. Sec'y ; H. C. Brown, P. Sec'y. Eureka Encampment, No. 24, I. O. O. F., was instituted August 13, 1847. Charter members : George Miller, William C. Earl, C. A. Brobst, Pomeroy Baldwin, Samuel Oberlin, William H. Bahney, William S. Wann, N. S. Russell, F. W. Parmelee. First officers : W. C. Earl, C. P.; George Miller, H. P.; J. J. Hofman, S. W.; Pomeroy Baldwin, J. W.; I. H. Brown, Scribe ; Samuel Oberlin, Treas. Present officers : Henry Suhr, C. P.; C. W. Kline, H. P.; C. H. Mong, S. W.; Thomas Laviers, J. W.; H. C. Brown, Scribe ; N. S. Russell, Treas. Massillon Lodge, No. 484, I. O. O. F., was organized July 11, 1871. Charter members : Conrad Gessner, Louis Stilke, Frederick Loeffler, Henry Nalter, Joseph Slebaugh, Frederick Buckel, Charles Zupp, Christian Blaker, Frederick Beck. First officers : Conrad Gessner, N. G.; Louis Stilke, V. G.; G. F. Buckel, Sec'y ; F. Loeffler, Treas. Present officers : John Kapp, N. G.; Philip Baldauff, V. G. Valentine Kroenerich, Sec'y ; Julius Koehnle, P. Sec'y. There is a large and flourishing German lodge, and is composed of representative Germans. Perry Lodge, Knights of Pythias, was instituted June 30, 1875, the following persons being charter members : Henry Alterkruse, Alexander McLaughlin, L. C. Cole, Isaac Ulman, Victor Burnet, George W. Earle, Herrman Mayer, George Goodheart, Z. T. Baltzley, R. A. Walker, S. S. Whisler, Orlando Martin, 416 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. Henry Waggoner, E. N. Seeley, Turenne Goetz, W. F. Harshey, W. G. Curry, Henry Peters, W. C. Poe, D. Kitchen, R. Hay, Robert Lormer, John Lun. On the organization of the lodge, the following persons were elected to the several offices: Isaac Ulman, 0. C.; Z. T. Baltzley, V. C.; S. S. Whisler, P.; H. Mayer, M. of F.; L. C. Cole, K. of R. &. S.; H. Altekmer, M. of E.; A. McLaughlin, M. at A.; Orlando Martin, I. G.; Turenne Goetz, 0. G.; G. W. Earle, D. D. G. C. The institution has progressed until it numbers seventy-five members, and is now governed by the following officers : D. A. Henney, C. C.; M. C. Young, V. C.; John Spuhler, P.; Alexander McLaughlin, M. F.; Z. T. Baltzley, M. of E.; H. H. Minnick, K. of R. & S.; John Martin, M. at A.; A. Matthews, 1. G.; T. Goetz, 0. G. The year 1836 opened upon Massillon with one of the saddest events of its early history, in the death of Gen. Gardner Field, which occurred on the road between Massillon and Canton. Gen. Field was driving to Canton in his sulky, and by some mishap fell from his seat, and was found with his skull fractured, and beyond the reach of medical aid. He was taken to Hawk,s Hotel, in Canton, where he died. Gen. Field was largely connected with the business and social interests of Massillon, and his loss was severely felt for a long time. A s an indication of the public feeling and public sentiment on the occasion of his death, the following proceedings were had, as shown by the obituary notice of Gen. 0. Field, published in the Massillon Gazette, January 9, 1836 : DEATH OF GEN. G. FIELD. In our last was mentioned the accident which happened to Gen. G. Field, of this village. We have now the melancholy duty to perform of recording his death. He expired in Canton, on Friday evening, on the 1st day of this month, in the thirty-fifth year of his age, about ten hours after the accident. The manner in which he was thrown from his carriage is not known beyond the border of a conjecture, as he was riding alone and none sufficiently near to witness the commencement of the scene. The vehicle was proceeding over a smooth part of the road, there was no running off, yet he was found dragging between one of the shafts and the wheel by which his head was so horribly mashed that he never after uttered a word. In the death of this man society has sustained a shock from which it will not easily recover. The community at large will feel it, and will regret it the more that he has been snatched away in the flower of his years, in the spring-time of his career of usefulness. The calamity, however, must be felt with greater poign- ancy of grief and sorrow by his family and con- nections, by having by so lamentable an occurrence their late happy homes changed into grief and mourning, and the smile of peace and comfort giving way to the tear of family affliction. The memory of the deceased will long continue engraven on the recollections of many; but no condolence can materially lessen the sorrow of domestic woe. The deceased was the son of Waterman Field, of New Berlin, Chenango County, New York. In the spring of 1827, he came to this State, and engaged as an engineer on the Ohio Canal, in which service he remained until about three years since, when he left it to engage in business in this town. He had held for the past year the office of Collector of Tolls on the Ohio Canal at this port, and only a few weeks previous to his death was elected Brigadier General of the Militia in this county. Among the active, industrious and enterprising citizens by whom Gen. Field was surrounded, none were more so than himself. He enjoyed in an eminent degree the confidence of his neighbors and fellow-citizens, and in the characteristics of promptness, energy and activity in all operations which he undertook, either for individual or public benefit, no one excelled him; and being amiable in his deportment, conciliating and just with all, and friendly beyond the usual acceptation of the term, his death will be mourned by all, and his worth, now that lie has gone, will be more fully appreciated and his loss more sensibly felt. He has left an amiable and interesting widow and an infant son to deplore his sudden and untimely end and their irreparable loss. His remains were brought to this place on Saturday last, and were buried on the following day with military honors, and, notwithstanding the extremely unpleasant weather, a large concourse of people attended his funeral. A meeting of his friends and acquaintances was held the evening preceding his burial to express their regret on the occasion, and to make arrangements for the funeral, the proceedings of which as furnished to us, read as follows: At a meeting of the citizens of Massillon convened at the house of William M. Folger, on Saturday evening, the 2d inst., for the purpose of making necessary arrangements to pay the last tribute of respect to their late valuable fellow-citizen, Gen. Gardner Field, Alexander McCully, Esq., was called to the Chair, and A. G. Hammond appointed Secretary. The object of the meeting having been briefly stated by the chairman, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted. Resolved, That in the melancholy and sudden death of our highly esteemed fellow-citizen, Gen. G. Field, society has sustained an irreparable loss, and his numerous acquaintances, a warm and generous friend. Resolved, That this meeting tender to his widow, relatives and family connections, their deepest and most sincere sympathies, and that a committee of three be appointed by the chair to communicate these resolutions to them. (Whereupon D. Jarvis, P. Handy and William M. Folger were appointed said committee). CITY OF MASSILLON - 417 Resolved, That the following gentlemen be requested to act as pall bearers, viz.: D. Jarvis, H. B. Harris, H. Wheeler, Jr., J. G. Hogan, Alexander McCully, John Everhard, William M. Folger and S. Buckius. Resolved, That the fellow-citizens of the deceased be requested to wear crape on their left arm, while attending his funeral obsequies. Resolved, That C. K. Skinner, Osee Welch, M. D. Wellman, F. Hurxthal, P. C. Hull and George Harsh be a general committee of arrangements. Resolved, That the proceeding of this meeting be published in the papers of the county. A. G. HAMMOND, ALEXANDER MCCULLY, Secretary. Chairman. The year 1848, while it was the year for organizing the Union Schools of Massillon, witnessed an event of a different character, and one that will never be forgotten while any one lives who witnessed it. For the purpose of supplying the village with pure water and creating a water power of immense value to the proprietors, the " Massillon Rolling Mill Company " purchased all the land immediately adjoining Sippo Lake, about three miles northeast of the village, and, by means of a dam across the outlet of the lake, created a reservoir of water covering about 1,100 acres, fed from the lake and some small springs, and which was as fine a body of water as is usually found. In addition to the purposes sought to be accomplished by the rolling mill company-, the State became a party to the enterprise for the purpose of using the water . for the Ohio Canal, which is near ninety feet below the surface of the lake. The plan proved to be a success in every respect, and could the reservoir have been permitted to remain, the benefit the city would have derived can hardly be estimated. Almost as soon as it was built and filled, and before it was possible for any evil effects to have arisen from the accumulation of so large a body of water, a hue and cry was raised against it because of alleged malaria arising therefrom, and thereby prejudicing the health of the neighborhood. Threats of its destruction were made, but as they could not be traced to any reliable source, and considering the effect upon the city, involving property and life, as the whole lower part of the city would be swept away, no one supposed -that the neighborhood either of the city or the reservoir contained any person who would be guilty of such an outrage. On the night of the 22d of February, 1848, which had been selected because of its being the anniversary of the birthday of Washington, and the opening of the Tremont House, then much the largest hotel in this section of the State south of Cleveland, arrangements were made for a dance in the spacious dining-hall of the hotel. Parties were present from all the prominent places in the neighborhood, including Akron, Wooster, Canton and Cleveland, and the occasion was, as it was intended to be, one of the grandest festivals that Massillon had ever witnessed. The rolling mill company, who were the owners of the hotel, had spared neither pains nor money in its construction or appointments for the purposes for which it was erected, and taking its name from the " Tremont " House, of Boston, Mass., it was intended by the proprietors that the Tremont of Massillon should be to that city what the Tremont of Boston was to the " Hub of the universe," hence its opening was signalized by extraordinary efforts on the part of all concerned. While the dance was at its height and all present were in the full tide of enjoyment, "the sound of revelry " was hushed, and " whispering with white lips " took its place ; the roaring and hissing of the torrent up the valley told but too truly that the reservoir was coming. The dam had been blown up with powder, and suddenly the whole body of water was put in motion, having a fall of ninety feet before it reached the level of Main street, in Massillon. The effect of a breast-work of six to eight feet of water moving down the little channel of Sippo Creek can hardly be imagined. It had been known for a long time that the 22d of February had been selected for the grand opening of the hotel; and that occasion was undoubtedly selected by the miscreants who blew up the dam as one in which not only property in the city could be destroyed, but a destruction of human life could and would be effected, to the greatest possible extent, and why no lives were lost is a question that cannot be answered. The designs of the conspirators were completely foiled in that respect. The loss of property was simply immense. The solid gravel street between the south end of the stone block and the north front of the hotel, which stands on the southeast corner of Tremont and Erie, as far east as the corner of Tremont and East streets, was swept away. Reaching Erie street, it swept that away also, taking with it the large and well-built three-story brick warehouse, owned by the Rolling 418 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. Mill Company, occupied by J. L. Reynolds as a wholesale grocery store. Of this building "not one stone was left upon another," nor was one dollar of the stock saved. The flood swept through the street to the canal, and through both banks of the canal, and up and down the canal, with a resistless force, filling the basement of all the warehouses, crushing in the doors on the canal side, and floating out everything that would float. Such packages as were too heavy to float were swept into the river, and went down with the current. The south end of Tremont Block, better known as the " stone block," a three-story building of cut stone, built in the very best manner, by the late Francis Worthorst, was swept out as though it had been a cot house, and to this fact may be attributed the safety of the hotel. Before reaching the hotel, the current took a northerly course, striking the end of the stone block, and while it retained sufficient force to wash away the earth from the cellar walls of the hotel, it had not force enough to disturb the wall. As the water fell, the cellar wall was exposed from the lowest foundation stone to the brick work. A critical and careful examination by experts showed the walls to be uninjured. The entire lower part of the city, south and west, was completely submerged, and what the loss was has never been completely ascertained. Among the greatest losers were the heavy wholesale grocery firm of J. Watson & Co. ; Fenner & McMillen, wholesale groceries and dry goods ; the Rolling Mill Company, the damage to which consisted in injury to real cstate, loose property carried off by the flood and damage to buildings. Since that memorable night, thirty-three years have passed away, and whatever is written of it now must be transcribed from memory. At the time, dreadful as was the calamity, and it was worse than all the fires the city has ever experienced, no record can be had that gives a detailed account of the losses. Many who were great losers have passed away. Death and removals, in the absence of records, tend largely to increase the difficulties attendant upon the obtaining of correct local history. In April, 1830, Capt. James Allen, of Canton, who had served his apprenticeship to the " art preservative of all arts" in the office of the Ohio Repository, at Canton, came to Massillon with the material for a newspaper, and rented the upper room of a building on Main street, immediately east of the store of I. Brown & Co., about where now stands the drug storc of Mr. Ph. Morgenthaler. The material that he bought included all that was necessary to get out a paper such as was gotten out a half a century ago. The press on which the paper was to be and was printed, was an old Ramage press, so old and dilapidated, that the inventor, himself, Adam Ramage, would hardly have recognized it as a copy of his invcntion. It, with the other material, was brought into the county in 1827, by that veteran printer, now gone to his long rest, Joseph Wilkinson White, a printer who had started more newspapers in Ohio and elsewhere in the United States west of the River Ohio than any man, living or dead, except Sam Pike. When Mr. White brought his printing material to Stark County, he was bound to start a paper to support the Administration and re-election of John Quincy Adams, then, 1828, being in its last year ; but falling in with several influential Democrats at Canton, he concluded to start a paper at Paris, in this county, then a little hamlet, in the support of Gen. Jackson. He did so, and his paper, the Ohio Democrat, lived and flourished until after the Presidential election, when it was removed to Canton, but did not flourish there. Capt. Allen was in some way connected with it, and finally became the owner of the establishment, and brought it to Massillon at the time named, and, with Dr. John Townsend, started the Massillon Gazette. It was printed on a small super-royal sheet. Massillon at that time had possibly five hundred inhabitants, when the Massillon Gazette, by Allen Sr. Townsend, appeared in April, 1830. The political tidal wave that carried Gen. Jackson triumphantly into the Presidency had scarcely subsided ; the ground-swell after the storm was still rolling, everybody was Democratic save a few who inherited the faith of the Federal fathers, and, under these circumstances, the Gazette, without any particular principles, started. Townsend soon withdrew from it. Allen, one of the most genial men ever connected with the Stark County press, and of remarkable ability as a writer, and whose colloquial powers were rarely equaled, and a practical printer withal, was unable to make the Gazette a success. The Democrats of Massillon, under the lead of Alexander McCully, bought out the paper, and it weut into the hands CITY OF MASSILLON - 419 of Bernard & McCully, Bernard being a practical printer. In the autumn of 1831, Allen was elected to the Legislature, and did not return to Stark County Columbus. When the Legislature adjourned, he went to Cincinnati, obtained a berth on a steamboat as clerk, for a time, and finally brought up as editor of the old Cincinnati Republican, then published by Looker & Reynolds. He remained there until the establishment changed hands and he became proprietor, and the firm was Allen, Looker & Disney, familiarly called Dick Disney. Allen was a man of fine presence and engaging manners, and with a thorough knowledge of English literature and English history, he was able to write an article on almost any subject with little preparation. His fine physique gave him, while he resided in Cincinnati, the sobriquet of " The Six-foot Two," which was really his height, and admirably proportioned, by means of which, as a military officer, he was enabled to present an appearance which was envied by many an officer who served with him. His paper, the Republican, went down. Allen remained in Cincinnati until 1836, when the Texas fever broke out. He then raised a company in Cincinnati that was armed, equipped, and provided with the munitions of war in almost every respect, and, taking passage on a steamboat to New Orleans, thence to some Texan port, they went into the contest " to extend the area of freedom," but like almost all. of Allen's schemes, his Texas adventure was a failure. The company was disbanded in Texas. Allen and Sam Houston, afterward Senator from Texas in the United States Senate, could not agree, and Allen came home to Stark County, like Francis the First, of Austria, having lost everything but his honor. The citizens of Massillon, of whom the writer was one, recognizing his talents, got together the material for a newspaper, and again set him at work as the editor of the Gazette, revived, after many changes, as noticed elsewhere. Still the phantom, success, was just out of his reach, and his second attempt to conduct a newspaper was a worse failure than the first, seven years before, and he went to Columbus to edit the Daily Journal, which was simply another failure. When the memorable campaign of 1840 came around, Allen, Sage & Beveridge started a paper at Columbus called the " Straight-out Harrisonian," a campaign paper, which, with the election of Gen. Harrison, ceased to exist. Capt. Allen and Gen. Harrison were warm personal friends, and could the President have lived, he would have remembered his earnest friend of many years, whose trenchant pen had vindicated his claims to the presidency against Buckingham, of the Boston Courier, in the palmy days of that well-remembered paper. He did get a clerkship at Washington, but had to surrender that when things there became Tylerized, and he came back to Ohio. In 1846, when the Mexican war broke out and troops were called for, Allen enlisted and was elected Captain of Co. A, of the First Ohio Regiment, Col. Samuel R. Curtis, afterward Major General of Volunteers in the war of the rebellion, and Member of Congress from Iowa. As the then Ohio regiments were only intended for one year's service, when the year was up the troops were mustered out, and Capt. Allen came home, after having done camp duty a year at Matamoras ; he went to his old home at Canton, was elected a Justice of the Peace, and was appointed a Deputy Clerk of the Common Pleas Court of the County. In 1849, on the discovery of gold in California, Capt. Allen determined, like the Argonauts who sailed in search of the Golden Fleece, to sail for California as soon as circumstances would permit him to do so, having a brother-in-law at Marysville, Hon. 0. P. Stidger, a Judge of one of the courts, who had gone there in 1849. He left. Canton for the Golden State in 1853, and arrived there after a two or three months' journey. He, soon after arriving there, was offered and accepted the position of editor of the Marysville Herald, where he remained for some time. Leaving there, he visited various portions of the State, and finally brought up again at Washoe, Nevada, and, in 1863, was editor of Washoe City Times, a daily. How long he remained there is not known. In 1865, as nearly as can be ascertained, he died suddenly, somewhere in the Sierras ; and a truer man, in all that constitutes genuine manhood, than James Allen never lived. Under other circumstances, his name would have been peerless in the list of American writers. From 1843 to 1848, it is exceedingly difficult to keep track of the changes in the newspaper press in Massillon. At one time, during those few years, the late E. P. Grant had charge of a 420 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. paper. Also, the late Dr. William Bowen. There was the Massillon News, in 1847, by Messrs. Keith & Miller. The following, furnished by Joseph K. Merwin, Esq., a practical printer residing in the city, may be regarded as giving a correct account of the newspaper press of Massillon since 1848 • "The Herald of Freedom and Wilmot Proviso was printed in the summer and fall of 1848 as a Free-Soil campaign paper, by E. Burke Fisher, than whom there were few more spirited writers. That year, the Massillon Telegraph was published by Painter & Wilson, and was a Whig paper. It ceased to exist in 1849, and the materials belonging to the office were purchased by a Mr. Hanna, from Circreville. He had a fondness for the name he gave his paper, the Herald, having been connected with the Circleville Herald. The late Hon. William C. Earle and James S. Underhill, Esq., now in Illinois, purchased the material and revived the Massillon News. Mr. Earle soon purchased Mr. Underhill's interest, and edited the paper several years with marked ability and success, when he sold out to Messrs. Logan & Fletcher, who held the paper something over a year, when they sold out to Charles A. Augus. James E. Wharton bought Hugus out, and continued the publication of the paper until 1857; and then stopped. In 1858, in the early spring, Joseph K. Merwin and David W. Huntsman purchased the material of the News office, and commenced the publication of a paper called the Journal of the Times. After publishing a paper neutral in politics for fifteen months, Mr. Merwin purchased Mr. Huntsman,s interest, and continued the paper as a Republican paper until the spring of 1861, when he sold out the good-will and subscription list to Josiah Hartzell, of the Stark County Republican. Soft after, the material composing the office was purchased by Robert & Alexander Harkins, who revived the old Massillon Gazette, and continued it until May, 1862. After the Harkins Brothers ceased to publish a paper, John Frdst, of New Lisbon, the veteran printer of this Congressional District, and Peter Welker, Esq., of the city of Massillon, purchased and commenced the publishing of the Massillon Independent. They were succeeded by Charles E. Taylor, Esq., who continues to publish it. In the meantime, J. W. Garrison removed to Massillon from Alliance, bringing with him a general assortment of printing material, and commenced the publication of the Massillon American November 10, 1869. He was succeeded by Messrs. McCurdy & Geesaman, in August, 1870, and they in turn were succeeded by Messrs. S. & J. J. Hoover, in December, 1870, who have continued the publication of the paper to this time." During all this period other papers have started and gone " where the woodbine twineth." In 1851, the ubiquitous Joseph Wilkinson White started the Wheat City Mercury, which lasted about three months. Dr. Bowen, an enthusiast on the subject of education, at one time published The Free School Clarion, and in 1841, The Genious of Temperance lived as long as the friends of temperance would sustain it. When they ceased its support, it sickened and died, as did more than one hundred temperance papers that sprang into existence that year all over the land under the dispensations of Washingtonian temperance. That part of Massillon now known as the Fourth Ward, origiually as .Kendal, was always famous for its celebrities. In its early days, it had its Poet Laureate or Laureates, for they were many, one of whom seemed especially favored. In 1822, while Thomas Rotch was proprietor of the Kendal Woolen Factory, he had in his employ an Irish weaver,. who was in many respects a genius, by the name of Moses McCammon, who, in addition to his being a weaver and at the head of his profession in the handling of the warps and woofs of a piece of cloth, often essayed to scale the rugged heights of Parnassus. His Pegasus used to carry him to the mountain top. One of his flights brought forth the following. His employer, Thomas Rotch, having sent to Sally McCammon, Moses' wife, a small package of tea, Moses thus acknowledges it in a note to his employer : Disappointments of view and the courses of fate Press down on our bosoms with wonderful weight, But all the annoyance that tends us through life Is nothing at all to the frowns of a wife. I have one, who as long as her teapot's supplied, I seldom have known her to scold or to chide, But when it is empty, no mortal, I'm sure, Could bear the abuse I am forced to endure. Since ever she got what you sent her, she's been As great in her mind as a Duchess or Queen ; Like a kitten, she skips thro' her house full of glee, And I am as happy as happy can be. LEXINGTON TOWNSHIP - 421 She vows and declares, to the end of her days While her tongue it can wag she will sound forth your praise, And she'll work like a Trojan thro' cold and thro' heat, And endeavor to make all her endings to meet. Let speckled faced topers, so jolly and frisky, Keep roaring the praises of brandy and whisky ; They may roar till they split, it is nothing to me; I'll sing while I'm able the virtues of tea. Tea makes an old woman that's withered and gray As blithe and as blooming as daisies in May, And I know very well that it quiets the strife Which often arises 'twixt husband and wife. Here, now, I conclude, and as long as the spring Entices the bushes gay verdure to bring, Or as long as great Erie produces a salmon, So long, I'm your Well wisher, KENDAL, February 22, 1822. MOSES MCCAMMON. CHAPTER XVI.* LEXINGTON TOWNSHIP— THE EARLY HISTORY AND PHYSICAL FEATURES — SETTLEMENT BY THE WHITES—PIONEER INDUSTRIES—EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES—CHURCH HISTORY, ETC. THE chronological increase of agricultural products, wealth, population of the town- ship, etc., are garnered matters of record, open to research and examination, now as in the future. But the arduous labors, interesting hunting exploits, depredations, heroic fortitude, reminiscences of the Indians, etc., of the pioneers of the township, have their record only in the fading memories which gleam dimly on the incidents of early life. It is the design to incorporate as much of this class of material in the subsequent chapters as has been or as can be reliably obtained. The facts herein written were obtained some twenty years ago from the first settlers of 1806-08 since then, the last of these, Shadrach Feltz, has passed the threshold of that home, which fast bolts its treasury of early remembrances from the prying scrutiny of inquiring posterity. There are many who sleep in the small, neglected and almost forgotten graveyards of the townships, whose heirloom was heroism, but whose wager of life was hard. They battled with interminable forests, wild beasts and wilder men, and to-day they sleep forgotten. Their hard-earned patrimony is in the fertile fields, early life, happy homes clustering with peace and comfort—a realized legacy to-day. For these bequeathments we will read and write their names anew. Settlement in Lexington Township was made in 1805-06, by families attached to the Quaker faith, among the first of whom were Amos Holloway, Zaccheus Stanton, Nathan Gaskill, John Grant, David Berry and Jesse Feltz. Amos Hol- * Contributed by Dr. L. L. Lamborn. loway emigrated from Loudoun County, Virginia and entered the land that was chosen for the site of the village of Lexington, and, in conjunction with Nathan Gaskill, was the proprietor. The first roads laid out in this township were the ones leading from Deerfield to Canton, diagonally across the township, and the other was from Salem, intersecting the first at the village of Lexington. The first post office was on the first of these routes, located in 1811, three-quarters of a mile west of the town, at the house of the pioneer, Jesse Feltz. The farm is still occupied by his son, Shadrach Feltz, who had the control of the office near twelve years. A weekly mail arrived at this station. It was first carried on horseback by Judeth Farnam. It was considered an extraordinary trip to reach Canton from Deerfield in one day. The same post office was kept till it was laid down in Lexington, by Mr. William Kingsbury, a volunteer soldier in the last war with England, and who was in the reception of a pension from the Government for over thirty years. In an engagement with the British on our northern frontier, he was struck with an ounce lead ball in the occipital region of the head, which deeply embedded itself and was not dislodged by surgical skill until some weeks after the accident. The old man kept the ball and his bloody shirt till his death, which occurred in 1835, as trophies of the danger he encountered through his youthful patriotism. His son, Guy Kingsbury (deceased) represented the county from this township in the lower branch of the Legislature in the year 1833. Mr. Guy Kingsbury was the only resident of the township 422 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY   that ever represented the county in the Legislature, except the Hon. Humphrey Hoover (deceased) who was elected in 1860, and re-elected in 1862. Since then R. G. Williams and E. Hartshorn have servcd in that capacity. John Kingsbury, a resident of this city, was a brother to Guy Kingsbury. The Ohio Repository. which was published in Canton for more than fifty consecutive years, by the respected pioneer editor, John Saxton, was the first paper received at the first office and read by the first settlers of Lexington Township. The first child born in the township was a daughter to Timothy and Alice Grewell. The first marriage was a daughter of Abraham and Tabitha Wileman to William Beeder. of New Garden. The second marriage was a daughter of William and Mary Pennock, to Matthew Vaughn, of Virginia. It seems singular to the third generation that the prospecting settlers of Stark County should prefer to pitch their tents on the thin, cold, clay soil, common to the immediate vicinity of Lexington. when much more fertile localities lay in close proximity. The barrens, or that section surrounding Canton, now grown, except where cultivated, with small oaks, was considered, in 1806. to he very worthless land. Time has proven it to be the richest land in the county, and peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of wheat. But therc are many influences at work controlling the judgment of locating pioneers ; soil and timber kindred to the kind ,from whence they came is not the least potential. The Mahoning, at this date, was a mighty river, often sweeping to the brow of its secondary embankments, its tributaries yielding it their ever constant supplies, drawn from the humid soil, evaporation shut out by dense, over-arching forests. It is now shorn of its majesty, and dry seasons see it dwarfed to a rivulet. Then the white-barked cottonwood trees, a few of which remain along its course, though prostrated, had no power to dam its waters or stay its course ; they were swept as feathers from its channel. The early settlers were of the opinion that the Mahoning was navigable and would be the highway of commerce from the Ohio River to Lexington. This opinion had much to do with the first settlers locating upon its banks and calling that location Lexington in 1805. This stream, which once was deservedly dignified by the title " river," enters the township on the southern third of its eastern border, runs a circuitous direction and passcs out at its northeastern corner. At the time of the first settlement, it was well stocked with fine fish ; from its waters the pioneers and Indians drew a supply of food of this kind, equal to all their wants. Notwithstanding its present diminished volume and interrupted waters, many good-sized fish (bass) are yet annually caught. The bank of this stream in this township for sixty-eight consecutive, years has had its continuous line of Daniel Waltons. Cotemporary with the settlement made in Lexington Township, one was made at Kendal, now a northern ward of the city of Massillon. It givcs the mind a better conception of the wild and chaotic condition of things in that territory six miles square, known as Lexington Township, at the time of its first settlement. viz.. 1805, to know that the cOunty of Stark was not organized for four years after this date (1809). The first house in the town of Lexington, and the first with a shingle roof' in the township, was built in 1808 by Amos Holloway. In this building the first store was opened, by Gideon Hughes. The heaviest of any one article, as well as the one in which most capital was invested, was earthen-ware. This mercantile enterprise, proving anti-lucrative, was soon abandoned, and this shingle-roofed St. Paul's of Lexington was used as the first house for the asscmblage of public worship by the Society of Friends, and in the interim of its religious occupation, was hallowed to the noble use of " teaching the young idea how to shoot." The first pedagogue in this school was Daniel Votaw. This was a subscription school, and conducted in harmony with the views of Friends. The land of Lexington Township was entered at $2 per acre, and payable in three installments at the land office in Steubenville. In the reduction of the price of Government land to $1.25 per Acre, there was a clause permitting all who had forfeited their land, by not paying the second and third installments, to re-enter Government land at the rate of $1.25 per acre, to the amount of the money they had paid on their forfeited estates. From the scarcity of post-routes, and consequent difficulty of disseminating a knowledge of enacted laws, as well as other news, in these times, the early settlers were generally ignorant of this providing clause LEXINGTON TOWNSHIP - 423 in the new land-law, and thought they had lost all under the provisions of the old law. A few men, or rascals, acquainted with the facts in the case, purchased the entry papers of numerous defaulting carly settlers, for a few dollars, and paid the balance due or entered new lands to t he amount that had been paid upon what had been deemed forfeited patents. The beginning of some of the largest fortunes in this section were laid by dealing in these papers. The morality of the procedure may be a question upon which the posterity of a defrauded ancestry may speculate. A real estate operator, well known in this section of Ohio, obtained a beginning in this way, and died ten years ago worth $1,500,000. In the war between England and America, in 1812, the British Government sought in the savages, numerous in the West, and in front of t he advancing tide of Caucasian civilization, emissaries to assist in the dominancy of their arms. Prior to this period, the Indians of Lexington Township were numerous. The red men throng and linger where game abounds. The forests herc were alive with game; and the waters of the river filled with fish. From the earliest settlement of the township until the war, the conduct of the Indians toward the white settler was pacific, if not kind. This, to an extent, was referable to the fact that the first whites were disciples of William Penn, and the kind, peaceable disposition of the members of the tribe inhabiting the township. We have no savage brutality upon their part, occurring in the township, to record. One white man was shot, the ball passing through both eyes and the bridge of the nose, yet lived deprived of sight. His name was Daniel Diver. He died in Deerfield in 1850, where the shooting occurred. It sprang out of a horse trade. The Indians trapped game on thc Mahoning, Beech Creek and Deer Creek, all larger streams than now, but they had no permanent settlement in the township. Another feature which attracted the Indians to Lexington Township, besides the abundance of game, was the large, compact groves of sugar trees peculiar to the township, from which they obtained a supply of the saccharine element. Some of the trees yet show the scarifications and girdlings adopted by them to obtain the water. It was also the current be- lief among the people of the township, even as late as .1840, that the Indians obtained their supply of lead from this immediate vicinity. At the time of the first white settlers the Indians possessed many of the common implements incident to frontier civilization, such as guns, hatchets, axes, kettles, etc. The chief encampment of the tribe found in this township was four miles south of New Philadelphia, in what was then Coshocton County. But it was then common for Indians to stay over the hunting season, committing no depredation, and remaining kind and deferential to the whites. The exact spot of one of their primitive mills is a little south of Mr. Haines' orchard. The machinery consisted of a stump hollowed out and a sapling bent over ; to the pendant extremity of which was attached by thongs of tough bark a large stone, which, by bearing on the bent sapling, played upon the maze in the concavity of the stump, which would reduce it rapidly and effectually. Suspicion is a strong,. latent or developed trait in the Indian character. They raised the war-whoop against the settlers in 1813. Some few settlers of the township left through fear, for more populous and better protected localities, but Commodore Perry put an effectual quietus upon the tin- natural and barbarous coalition formed by England against Americans ; and the Indians, left unsupported by British gold, rum and influence, grew sullen and suspicious— stopped all intercourse with the whites of the township, and withdrew to unoccupied, or new hunting-grounds. After 1813, only a traveling or passing Indian was seen in the township. Occasionally an Indian grave is by accident opened, revealing only some rude device for hunting less perishable than their bones—flint, darts and stone axes being now and then turned up by the plowman. These, with the traditions we have recorded are the only rcminders that they ever trod the soil of the township. Let them go from other places as from here, their destruction is fixed and necessary everywhere; we have no sentiment to waste on a savage. Wild game, at the settlement of Lexington township, was very plenty, with the exception of beaver, which, being very scarce at first, soon entirely disappeared. Otters and muskrats were trapped by the Indians until 1813. on the Mahoning. Bears were very plenty and destructive on hogs as late as 1815. They would seize a hog that would weigh one hundred pounds, in their fore paws, and run direct 424 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. with it to the forest. If the hog was too large for them to manage in this manner, they would jump on it, guiding it with their fore feet, and stimulating it by gnawing its neck, thus ride it to the woods and destroy it. A large specimen of the bruin species, engaged in this equestrian exercise, was shot by Shadrach Feltz, (a pioneer living about one mile west of Lexington, on the road to Limaville). Its weight was two hundred pounds. The Bucephalus of its choice was a large hog belonging to Mr. Feltz. Bears attack swine by gnawing the tops of their heads and shoulders. A hog belonging to Nathan Gaskill had stayed away in search of mast ; it returned with its eyes out and its skull bone exposed. This hog, though scalped and blinded by bruin, lived and was fattened by Gaskill. The last hear seen in the township was in 1830. A large tract of land that is low and level, consisting of ten or fifteen feet of turfy vegetable deposit, resting on a body of water about three feet deep, upon which East Alliance is now built, was known to the earliest settlement of the township as the " Bear Swamp." This wet or swamp land was covered with a dense growth of alder bushes, ten or fifteen feet high, which formed an excellent rendezvous for bears. From its being their .covert, it received the name of " Bear Swamp." But there are no alder bushes or swamp or bears there now, and the title is fast losing its significance. Isaac Teeters—who don't know Isaac ? He has been for years an essential feature of the P., Ft. W. & C. R. R. at this point. Isaac and Peter Chance each lost an arm by the premature discharge of an old cast cannon, with which they were trying to give character to a national birthday in Williamsport, over thirty years ago. Isaac well remembers his father, Jonathan, going to this swamp to hunt deer, always returning to his home laden with bear, deer or otter. Deer, in 1806-07, in Lexington Township, were as abundant as sheep are now, and continued abundant until the great snow storm of 1817, which thawed a little, then froze, thus forming a crust which incapacitated them from traveling ; hundreds of them starved to death. This protracted snow starved many other varieties of game. The great snow of 1817 is yet ominously referred to by old people now, but young sand vigorous at that date, and battling bravely with the vicissitudes and obstacles of frontier life. The snow averaged a depth of four feet, and continued on the ground near four months. Deer could illy travel on the frozen crust of the snow, and if they broke through, they could not extricate themselves, and consequently perished by the score. Wolves were numerous and the wary and common enemy of the sheep the settlers were trying to introduce, which could only be preserved by penning them up through the night and guarding them through the day. Turkeys, between the years of 1806 and 1820, were seen in great flocks, often numbering hundreds. Porcupines were very thick ; they are strictly vegetarian in their habits, living on bark, roots, buds and wild fruits. There are none now in this section. 'A price is paid to, see them in traveling menageries. Rabbits and quails were very scarce in early times. These and some other animals are a link between domestic and absolutely wild or untamable animals ; they flourish better under the shadow of a sparse population. There are more of them to-day in the township than there were fifty years ago. From 1805 to 1820, deer skins were worth 75 cents ; raccoon skins, 25 cents ; otter skins, $4, and bear skins, $1.25. Rattlesnakes, in early times, in Lexington Township, were quite common, and very numerous. In 1812, one struck an ox above the eye, which speedily caused his death. The ox was owned by John Grant, father-in-law of R. J. Haines. Grant's first cabin was about twenty feet north of L. L. Lamborn's stable. The debris of the cabin was partially exhumed by the plow last fall. The last rattlesnake seen in the township was caught by the writer in 1850, on the grounds now owned and occupied by the Mt. Union College. It was captured by inducing it to enter a barrel laid on its side, and when in, the barrel was straightened up ; it was two feet long and had eight rattles. It was kept and experimented with for four months. It took no nourishment during this long time but .a small, green-colored snake, nine inches long. When first captured, this snake was very poisonous ; it struck a quail on the thigh, which caused its death in five minutes. From confinement and improper nourishment it gradually lost its poisonous qualities. It is a traditionary practice with hunters traveling grounds infested with this reptile to stuff their boots or