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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 345 CHAPTER XIV INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL GENERAL STIDGER AND HIS ENTERPRISES-TANNERIES AS PRIMITIVE INDUSTRIES- PIONEER BRICK YARDS-FIRST PAVING BRICK MANUFACTURED -FIRST BIG COMPANIES FORMED-BUILDING BRICK NOW SECONDARY- METROPOLITAN PAVING BRICK COMPANY-SCARCITY OF BRICK HOUSES -EARLY ARCHITECTS-LINES WHICH "PETERED OUT "-CORNELIUS ALTMAN AND HIS GREAT INDUSTRY-WORKS ESTABLISHED AT CANTON -WONDERFUL GROWTH OF BUSINESS—EXPANSION OF CANTON AND AKRON PLANTS-DEATH OF THE FOUNDER-NOVELTY IRON WORKS-THE BERGER MANUFACTURING COMPANY- THE CARNAHAN TIN PLATE MILL-UNITED STEEL COMPANY'S PLANTS-CANTON STAMPING AND ENAMELING COMPANY-THE FABRICATION OF WATCHES- DIEBOLD SAFE AND LOCK COMPANY-OTHER METAL MANUFACTORIES- ARTIFICIAL ICE AND REFRIGERATING APPARATUS-THE INDUSTRY OF SUPPLYING ELECTRICITY-CANTON BANKS UNUSUALLY SOLID-A FAMILY OF BANKERS-ISAAC HARTER AND SONS-THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK-THE GEORGE D. HARTER BANK-THE CITY NATIONAL BANK-THE CENTRAL SAVINGS BANK-THE DIME SAVINGS BANK-THE COMMERCIAL AND SAVINGS BANK. Canton, with her two hundred factories of various grades, but altogether making her a great industrial center, realized her destiny slowly during the first half century of her existence. It was early recognized that her geographical position, almost equidistant from the great coal fields of Pennsylvania and Virginia and the rapidly growing districts bordering the Great Lakes, was most favorable to the founding and development of a manufacturing town, when the transportation facilities should become adequate to receive the fuel and disburse the goods. The discovery of good brick clay in the vicinity of the county seat added to the advantages of the place as a residence, the town early became widely known for the solid character of its merchants and professional men, and its newspapers, its schools and its churches upheld its good reputation through all the earlier years. 346 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY GENERAL STIDGER AND HIS ENTERPRISES Of the very early pioneers whose energy and progressive ideas aided materially in fixing the business and industrial standing of Canton, Gen. George Stidger was the foremost. As has been stated, he came to Canton from Pennsylvania in 1807 and built the first hotel of the town, a story and a half frame building of four rooms. The general became the owner of the land on the east side of the Public Square lying between Tuscarawas and Fifth streets, but eventually disposed of all except the central portion. The corner on East Tuscarawas Street was sold to a merchant named Sterling, while a saddler named Reed purchased the Fifth Street corner. Soon after making his home in Canton, General Stidger opened a general store, which he operated with his hotel. He also conducted a tin and cooper shop next to his home in the center of the block mentioned. On the portion of the original tract which he retained he erected a large brick house, one of the most pretentious in Canton, using the front part for a store, and the rear as a large dining room and entertainment parlors. In addition, the general established a tannery on East Tuscarawas Street, between Piedmont and Walnut. TANNERIES, AS PRIMITIVE INDUSTRIES This was the first industry of the kind to be founded at the county seat, and may be said to be the starting point of its history as a manufacturing center ; for, although the tanning industry is now virtually obsolete at Canton, at one time there were several there, and the fine quality of the leather which they manufactured gained considerably more than local repute. William Christmas operated one of the tanneries, the site of his plant being near the present water works station. Motive power for the grinding of the required bark was furnished by a race fed from the outlet of Meyer's Lake, which now forms the small lake in Wood Lawn Cemetery. PIONEER BRICK YARDS The next industry which arose from the Canton field is still active ; has increased to large proportions through a century of exertion and enterprise. Brick-making has gone hand-in-hand with the substantial upbuilding of town, village and city. Even when confined to building operations the industry walked right along, but since bricks have commenced to go so extensively into pavements it has taken immense leaps forward. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 347 From information furnished by Capt. William S. Williams, of Washington, District of Columbia, who was one of the pioneers in the business here, it appears that bricks were made in Canton as far back as 1816. These, it is said, were used to build the courthouse erected in that year. They were made just east of what is now Woodland Avenue, close to the intersection of Aultman Avenue. Blue clay, the deposit in the bottom of the old Williams pond, was the material. George Williams, father of Captain Williams, started a brick yard just east of McKinley Avenue and south of Lake Street, in the angle of what now is the intersection of the two thoroughfares. The first brick he made were sold to John Saxton, editor of the Ohio Repository, for a home in South Market Street, where the McKinley Hotel now stands. Afterward brick was made in almost every field where clay was found on the old Williams farm, between Market Street and Cleveland Avenue. The last of these small yards was situated immediately north of the present residence of Conrad Schweitzer in North Cleveland Avenue. George Williams retired from the business in the early '50s and the yard was then operated by William B. Reed, who made brick there and on the David B. Smith farm, west of the city, for a number of years. Jonathan Oldfield operated a yard west of Market Street and south of Navarre Street for a long time, and Collins McGregor and others had yards just outside the town. FIRST PAVING BRICK MANUFACTURED While he was passing back and forth from his work, during the time he was employed in the United States engineer 's office in Cleveland. Captain Williams had his attention attracted by a piece of fire brick paving laid between the car tracks leading into the square from the south. From the manner this pavement stood the wear, it appeared to him that the material used in its manufacture was the kind that would make excellent paving brick for streets. After his term of employment in Cleveland, Captain Williams came hack to Canton and started a brick yard at the intersection of the Valley railroad and Fulton Streets. In 1887 he erected the first structure for the making of paving brick that was built in Stark County. For a time he made fire brick, but soon found that shale clay was a superior material. The first shale brick was laid by Daniel Holwick around his home at Lincoln Avenue and West Tuscarawas Street, and several carloads were shipped to Cleveland. 348 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY FIRST BIG COMPANIES FORMED About this time, or perhaps a little earlier, Nicholas Merley erected a building on the Belden farm southeast of Canton. Henry Belden, with J. L. Higley and Peter Miller, finally took over the property and organized the Canton Brick Company. Tuscarawas Street east from Cherry Street, was paved with Belden brick in 1888. In 1889 Mr. Belden, H. S. Kaufman and Anton Dewalt started a fire brick plant on the Belden farm. This is now the Canton Pressed Brick Company. The Royal Brick Company was established in 1890 on the Barber and Tyler farm, Hurford Road, by Otto Giessen, Jacob Renkert, M. C. Barber, Isaac Harter and others, and in the same year Mr. Harter, E. D. Keplinger and other started the imperial plant southwest of the city, and George Spangler, George Rex and others started two plants at North Industry. One of these has since been destroyed by fire. The Old Williams yard is now operated by the Acme Brick Company. SCARCITY OF BRICK HOUSES It is the remarkable growth in the brick-pavement idea, with the very practical effect upon the brick-making industry, which has retarded the building of brick houses at Canton. One of the city's old architects not long ago said : "There has been a marked change in Canton's architecture and building methods in the last fifteen years. Our grandfathers used shingles, which are now growing obsolete. Concrete and steel have the call now for building material. The old soft and brittle red brick is seen only in the old landmarks, although I can remember when the cream brick was spoken of as if it were a seven-day wonder. "An architect will notice particularly that Canton home-owners have a strong preference for slate roofs. If you stand on the top of the Court-land you will see almost one continuous surface of slate, extending over the face of the city to the hills that form the pocket in which Canton lies. Peculiarly enough, although Stark county has rich clay deposits. this city has never erected brick houses in the number that one would expect. There are signs, however, that brick is to become more popular for residences in the next few years. "Whatever architecture Canton has, it owes in great part to Cornelius Aultman, for it was he who helped design the First Methodist church, one of the city 's proudest structures, and the Aultman home in North Market Street." HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 349 EARLY ARCHITECTS Canton's earliest contractors, when they were erecting Canton's finest homes, went south through the public square to their work. Once it was that South Market Street and South Cleveland Avenue were the "show streets" of the city, as a stroll in that vicinity even today will indicate. Now the best residences are on the northern stretches of these same streets. Few of those first contractors who laid the brick and roofs for the older buildings on the, public square are living. Peter and Robert Owen, twin brothers, born here in 1820, were probably the first brick contractors, and the Cassilly Building, at Piedmont and Tuscarawas streets, the Aultman shops, the Eller Building at Second and Market streets, and several other structures, are monuments to their workmanship. Peter Owen was the father of David N. Owen, president of the city council. Of the oldest carpentering contractors left are Andrew Kintz, of Michigan Avenue, who has helped in Canton's building for the last half century, having worked on the Barnett House, the Eagle Block, and other down-town buildings ; and Peter Roemhild, of 416 South McKinley Avenue, now in his eighty-third year, whose almost total blindness, he protests is the only ailment that keeps him from helping to tear down some of the old landmarks that he erected. Hardly a year has passed but what the pioneers of the city yet left have seen disappear one of the buildings which played an important part in their lives. The Zeb Bowen Building in East Tuscarawas Street, the cradle of Canton Masons and Odd Fellows, lives now only in photographs ; the old brick structure on the east side of the public square that housed the earliest storekeepers of the city and was razed for the George D. Harter Bank Building was one of the last of the pioneer landmarks to entirely disappear, while the McKinley Block on Second Street S. E., where President McKinley's offices were located, has recently been remodeled. BUILDING BRICK NOW SECONDARY Within the past ten or twelve years the paving-brick branch of the industry has left the building-brick business so far behind as to be "out of sight." The claim is made that at least one-tenth of the paving brick produced in the United States is now made in Stark County, mostly in Canton. It will amount to about 125,000,000, and perhaps 20 per cent as much of building brick. There are a dozen plants in the county. 350 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY METROPOLITAN PAVING BRICK COMPANY The Metropolitan Paving Brick Company, which was organized in 1902, represents by far the largest of these interests. In the year named, it purchased the plants of the Canton and Cleveland Brick companies, one of which was located at Canton and the other at Willow, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland; also the two plants of the Imperial Shale Brick Company and the Royal Brick Company, both located at Canton. In 1906 the company purchased the Minerva (Ohio) Paving Brick Plant, and in 1907 that of the Cleveland Brick Company, at Canton. Although these concerns make paving brick principally, they manufacture several lines of face, sewer and building brick, and, for the past two years, the plant at Minerva has been turning out fire-proofing. The six factories named, controlled by the Metropolitan Paving Brick Company, have a combined output of 150,000,000 brick per year and about 40,000 tons of fire-proofing, and in their various operations they utilize over 1,100 acres of land. Its officers are as follows : C. W. Keplinger, president ; W. E. Keplinger, vice president ; J. J. Renkert, superintendent of the Royal Works ; R. B. Keplinger, superintendent of the Imperial Works ; 0. W. Renkert, general superintendent ; J. G. Barbour, secretary, and IL S. Renkert, treasurer and general manager. Besides the plants operated by the Metropolitan Paving Brick Company, are those of the Belden Brick Company and the Big Four Clay Company, each of which corporations are capitalized at $200,000 and organized, respectively, in 1895 and 1903. LINES WHICH "PETERED OUT" One of the earlier lines of manufacture which "petered out" with tanning was the making of soap. The first factory on a large scale to be established in Canton was that of C. Biechele, which was established in 1847 and developed, from year to year by the two brothers. Joseph, who obtained the business in 1868, expanded it into a large establishment, and by the early '80s the Biechele soaps were widely known. Mr. Biechele has been known for some years for his large steel interests and his identification with city finances. The paper mill of Bachert, Silk & Company and the woolen mills of L. Alexander & Son and Robbins Brothers, were also among the early industries which have had few successors, and those not especially flourishing. With the coming of the Aultman works from Greentown, however, and the realization, a few years afterward, of railroad transportation, there was an influx of agricultural implement manufactories which proved substantial forces toward broad industrial development. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 351 CORNELIUS AULTMAN AND HIS GREAT INDUSTRY Cornelius Aultman was born on a farm a few miles east of Canton on the 10th of March, 1827. His father died when he was an infant, and in his early youth he left the home farm for Greentown, a village about nine miles north of the county seat, for the purpose of learning the trade of wheelwright and general machine work in the shop of Michael Wise. While thus employed he became so interested in the Hussey Reapers, then a great novelty, that he made the patterns and built five of them himself. They were the first machines of the kind ever made in Ohio, with the exception of a few put crudely together at Martin's Ferry opposite Wheeling, in the previous year. Michael Dill-man, a progressive and wealthy farmer living near Greensburg, Summit County, had used one of these machines during the season and was so well pleased with it that he proposed joining Mr. Aultman in its manufacture. Accordingly, in the spring of 1849, after Mr. Aultman's marriage, the two opened a small shop in Plainfield, Will County, Illinois. Within two seasons they made and put upon the market nearly forty of the Hussey reapers. Then came the inventor, who had done little to actually make the machines; in the spring of 1850 he journeyed from Baltimore, Maryland, informed Messrs. Aultman and Dillman that they were infringing on his patent, and collected $15 per reaper for such boldness. After the close of the harvest season of 1850, Mr. Aultman sold his interest in the Plainfield plant (subsequently moved to Joliet, Illinois) and returned to Greentown, where he met Ephraim Ball, then the partner of Michael Wise. Mr. Aultman bought Mr. Wise's interest in the foundry, as well as that of Louis Acker, having joined Mr. Ball with the express understanding that as soon as possible the plant be moved to a more eligible site than Greentown. Shortly after purchasing a two-thirds interest in the plant, Mr. Aultman transferred a one-half interest to his brother-in-law, David Fouser, his step-brother, Lewis Miller, and George Cook, a wagon-maker by trade. These transactions left him a one-sixth. Thus was formed the firm of Ball, Aultman & Company, which turned out twelve Hussey machines and six threshers for the season of 1851. But they were not moved readily, and Messrs. Ball and Aultman came to Canton, toward which the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway had been projected. WORKS ESTABLISHED AT CANTON The selection for the first Canton works comprised three lots on the line of the new railroad, each 45 by 40 feet. The purchase was made 352 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY and Mr. Aultman moved to Canton as manager of the larger enterprise in September, 1851. He erected three shops and as early as December the works were in operation. The original capital was $4,500, and for the 1852 harvest the works produced twenty-five Hussey machines, with iron finger-bars to be used as mowers. They worked as reapers, but failed as mowers. The Ball combination machines were afterward put upon the market. All of these and others of the early '50s were one-wheel machines, and in 1854, through Mr. Aultman's initiative, two-wheeled machines were first produced. One Haines, of Pekin, Illinois, contested the Aultman application for a patent and won his contention ; so Mr. Aultman went to Pekin and bought of the Illinois patentee the Ohio rights of manufacture. WONDERFUL GROWTH OF BUSINESS In May, 1855, when Ball, Aultman & Company had made all arrangements to build some twenty-five of the two-wheeled Ohio machines, the works were destroyed by fire, but by the 1st of August they were running night and day. It is not feasible to trace the development of what became Canton's greatest industry. Their Buckeye mower was a great success and materially assisted in its remarkable growth. There were several changes in the firm, and in February, 1858, Mr. Ball sold his interest in it, branched out independently, and placed the Ohio machine in competition with the Buckeye. At his retirement the firm name was changed to C. Aultman & Company, by which it became so widely known, and for the first harvest. season of its existence the plant manufactured 1,500 Buckeye mowers and 150 threshers. Patent after patent were issued for Buckeye improvements, and in the early '60s the business had grown to such proportions that it became necessary to obtain much greater shipping accommodations than were possible at Canton alone. EXPANSION OF CANTON AND AKRON PLANTS In 1863 not only were the buildings at Canton greatly increased in capacity, but the plant at Akron was founded and placed in operation. For the succeeding season about 8,000 Buckeye machines and 500 threshers were turned out of the combined establishments, and in the fall of 1865, for the better organization of the immense business, each concern was incorporated under the state laws. The incorporators at Canton were C. Aultman, Lewis Miller, Jacob Miller and George Cook ; those at Akron, C. Aultman, Lewis Miller, John R. Buchtel and George W. Crouse. The original of the corporation HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 353 at Canton, which was continued under the style of C. Aultman & Company, was $450,000, which in 1870 was increased to $1,000,000, and eight or nine years later to $1,500,000. The first officers of the corporation of C. Aultman & Company were : C. Aultman, president ; John Tonner. secretary ; James S. Tonner, treasurer; Jacob Miller, superintendent. The original capital of the Akron concern was $300,000, and in 1878 it was augmented to $1,000,000. That establishment was incorporated as Aultman, Miller & Company, with John R. Buchtel as president ; George W. Crouse, secretary and treasurer, and Lewis Miller superintendent. Messrs. Buchtel and Crouse were among the most public spirited men of Akron and both their names and their efforts tended to the development of the Akron branch. DEATH OF THE FOUNDER By the early '80s the Canton works covered nearly eleven acres of ground and employed about 600 workmen. The founder of the great industry, which attained international fame, died at his home in Canton, December 26, 1884, then only in his fifty-eighth year. Mr. Aultman was a man of ceaseless industry, great energy of body and mind, and both an able inventor and business organizer-a rare combination of practical gifts. He was also affectionate and generous, and both he and his family are gratefully remembered for their benefactions to such local institutions as the Aultman Hospital, the Old Ladies' Home and the Public Library. Since Mr. Aultman's death, the great works which he founded have been suspended and literally scattered among various corporations. The plant of the great Aultman industry after a reorganization was finally sold to the Timken-Mather Realty Company and the Arctic Ice Machine Company, in 1905. The large Pennsylvania Railroad frontage of the factory, opposite the new Pennsylvania Station, is now occupied by the Artie Ice Machine Company, and the other parts of the property are leased by the Timken-Mather Realty Company to Today's Magazine and a number of manufacturing industries. The Akron Aultman-Miller & Company establishment was sold to The International Harvester Company of America about 1908. The concentration of the Aultman works at Akron, and the general shifting of the plants devoted to the manufacture of agricultural machinery and implements to more available centers further west, have made that industrial line of minor consequence at Canton. But, in their time, a number of factories flourished and added to the city's prosperity. The Peerless reaper and mower was invented by W. K. Vol. I -23 354 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY Miller, but put on the market by Russell & Company of Massillon. It was the third successful two-wheeled mowing machine, and in 1871, after it had been successfully manufactured at Massillon for over twenty years a large plant for its production was erected at Canton. The firm of C. Russell & Company which continued its manufacture at Canton was incorporated as the Peerless Reaper Company in 1879, with Isaac Harter as president, and W. K. Miller, inventor of the machine, as superintendent. Thirty years ago such manufactories of agricultural implements and machines as the following were giving Canton a wide reputation among the farmers of the Middle West : The branch of Whitman & Barnes, of Akron, established in 1878, and manufacturing for the local harvesting machine companies mower and reaper knives and sickles; Joseph Dick & Brother, manufacturers of hay, straw and corn-stalk cutters and crushers ; the Red Jacket Plow Works of A. Ball & Company ; Bucher, Gibbs & Company Plow Works, and manufacturers of the Chieftain hay rakes and Ney's hay elevator and conveyor. The oldest of the foregoing, still doing business at Canton, is now known as the Bucher & Gibbs Plow Company. It was established in 1864, incorporated in 1886, and is capitalized at $700,000. The works are on Second Street S. E. The Ney Manufacturing Company is also continuing the old business in a greatly enlarged volume. NOVELTY IRON WORKS Canton is the center of several of the largest steel and iron works in the country. This branch of the local industries has been spreading finely for the past forty-five years. Among the earliest of the great plants to take root was the Novelty Iron Works. The original business was established in New Haven, Connecticut, and in 1871 was moved to Canton, which was then considered a point easy of access to "western markets." P. P. Brush, then proprietor of the concern, moved his tools and fixtures to the shops formerly occupied by the Canton Malleable Iron Works. For many years the Brush foundry turned out a creditable lot of stationary engines, mill machinery and architectural iron work. One of his specialties, which had quite a circulation, was known as the Imperial Job Printing Press. Along in 1883, the business had fallen to Noble & Sherlock, and its line of manufactures was commencing to specialize in boilers and heaters, although job-casting in other lines continued. After the death of Mr. Noble the firm continued under the name of Sherlock, Elmer & Sherlock, and in 1888, coincident with an increase of the capital stock, the name of the concern was changed to the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 355 Novelty Iron Company. Its works now cover several acres of ground along the Pennsylvania tracks, in the vicinity of Tuscarawas and Eighth streets. The raw material comes into the yards in the shape of pig iron and leaves in the form of radiators, steam and hot water heaters and laundry stoves. THE BERGER MANUFACTURING COMPANY The Berger Manufacturing Company is one of the leading metal manufactories of the country. It was incorporated in 1889, and its capital has increased since its establishment in 1886, from $2,500 to $5,000,000, and the floor space of the plant from 1,000 to nearly 1,000,000 square feet. The partnership which made the first of the Berger products was composed of Edward A. Langenbach, Wilson Berger, John A. Berger and Stephen Zuger. Their first operations were commenced in 1886 in the basement of a wagon shop. At that time but one article was placed upon the market-the Berger Patent Eaves Trough Hanger. The same year the concern moved into a blacksmith shop. Edward Langenbach, while calling on the trade and selling hangers, conceived the idea of making a long length eave trough and the result was the first trough in the country made in 10-foot lengths. These were turned out on hand-operated wooden machinery. Facilities at that time were decidedly limited. The machinery was improvised and crude, but the new product met with marked recognition and the demand grew so rapidly that in a short time the little institution found itself compelled to seek larger quarters and increased capital. The lack of sufficient capacity repeatedly became in evidence and additional space was accordingly provided. In the year 1887 the firm and its three employes moved into a small frame building in Rex Street. This same structure was later moved to the corner of Ninth and Saxton streets and a new building 30 by 65 feet was added. Here they became the first makers of long-length conductor pipes. The capacity of the factory was 10,000 feet a week. The company was incorporated and the work continued on a larger scale. The manufacture of cornices was commenced in the year 1891 and the following year the department of Steel Ceiling manufacture was added. In 1893 the present site was acquired and a building 600 feet in length and two stories high was erected. This provided floor space for nearly 75,000 square feet. A building 40 by 250 feet and another 40 by 50 feet were also constructed. 356 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY In 1894 the galvanizing department was housed in an addition 250 feet in length and 50 feet wide. In 1895 the manufacture of fireproofing specialties was begun and in 1896 the lantern department added. In 1900 the Stark Rolling Mill was built, the additions to which have made it the largest independent sheet mill in the country. The steel furniture department was added in 1904. The present site of the factory comprises twenty-two acres. The steel from which the Berger products are made comes to the plant in billets and sheet bars largely supplied by the United Steel Company, whose furnaces are located adjacent to the Berger Works. The operating department of the Berger Company has charge of the traffic and handling of freight and shipments of all the Berger industries, which include, besides the original company, the Stark Rolling Mill and the United Steel Company and the Canton Stamping and Enameling Company. There are five miles of switches on the property of these companies, connecting directly with the Pennsylvania and Wheeling systems. A complete telephone exchange is in operation with trunk lines, so that this immense manufacturing district is as closely bound together as if its manifold transactions were being carried forward in one room. Of its 2,500 employees, about 125 comprise the office force, which is housed in a large two-story building at the corner of Belden and Klorer avenues. Conductor pipes, cornices, roofing, skylights, ventilators, lanterns and a host of other articles are included in the Berger products. The head of the immense business in still Edward A. Langenbach, who has been identified with it for a quarter of a century. Next to him, in length of service, is Assistant Superintendent Julius H. Schlafly. THE CARNAHAN TIN PLATE MILL In 1899 John E. Carnahan located in Canton. He came from a Pennsylvania iron and steel district, bought a piece of ground adjoining the Pennsylvania lines 11/2 miles from the business center of the city and in 1901 established what has since become widely known as the Carnahan Tin Plate Mill. The concern has made a special reputation in the manufacture of charcoal iron roofing plates. They are bought largely by the National Government. Besides these the plant turns out such -articles as tin plates from which the better class of tinware is manufactured ; polished steel for stove pipes, and steel sheets used by makers of enameled ware. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 357 UNITED STEEL COMPANY'S PLANTS The United Steel Company, located in the eastern part of Canton, Ohio, and along the main line of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway, was organized in the year 1902, and was in course of construction during the panic of 1903. The plant was completed and began operations in August of 1904. The original plan was to build a steel plant to furnish sheet bars to the Berger Manufacturing Company and the Carnahan Sheet & Tin Plate Company. To this installation was added equipment for the manufacture of Universal mill plates, for which latter was used a large portion of the tonnage produced. About this time it was noted that there was developing a wide field requiring the use of a high grade, yet moderately priced steel to be used in automobile construction. The company at once began the manufacture of alloy steels, specializing on vanadium steel, being the pioneer company in the manufacture of this special grade of steel. This move proved a success, and in the course of a few years it became necessary to install additional furnaces and bar mills, until there are now, in 1916, in operation in what is known as Plant A eight open hearth furnaces, seventy-five ton capacity each, one twenty-five ton tilting furnace and two electric furnaces. The product from these furnaces is rolled on a 34-inch Universal mill, one 24-inch Lamberton billet mill, and the following bar mills: one each 20-inch, 10-inch, 9-inch and 8-inch, the above plant having a capacity of 300,000 gross tons per annum. In addition to the above equipment, and in order to further finish part of the product made, there was installed equipment for cold drawing and turning of steel for shafting purposes. There was also organized a department equipped with special furnaces for the heat treating of steels, thus increasing still further the efficiency of the high grade product turned out to the automobile trade, and establishing for the company an enviable record and an increased demand for its product. Handicapped for lack of room, which permitted of no further expansion in the present plant, the company found it necessary, early in the year 1915, to build another plant to take care of the constantly increasing number of customers desiring to use the United Steel Company's product. Having already procured several hundred acres of land east of the present plant, an entirely new steel plant known as Plant B was built, consisting of twelve open hearth furnaces; also blooming mills and bar mills sufficient to roll the product from same, which gives a further pro- 358 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY duction of 400,000 gross tons of high grade steel per year. With the increase in capacity, the company also increased the number of grades of steel, and at this time there are being produced electric and open hearth chrome vanadium steel, chrome nickel steel, chrome carbon steel, nickel steel, tungsten electric furnace steel, special open hearth carbon steel, and Enduro metal (anti-rust). The above grades of steel are being put on the market in the form of merchant bars, sheet bars, slabs, billets, universal mill plates, cold drawn bars, turned and polished bars for shafting and automatic machine work. This plant, known as Plant B, is under the same management as Plant A, the officers of the company being: President, F. H. Snyder, Massillon, Ohio; vice president, E. A. Langenbach, Canton, Ohio ; treasurer and general manager, H. R. Jones, Canton, Ohio ; secretary, E. L. Hang, Canton, Ohio; general superintendent, John McConnell, Canton, Ohio. Much of the credit for the success of the company is due to the aggressiveness and far-sightedness of H. R. Jones, treasurer and general manager, who has been active head of the company since it began operations in 1904. At the same time that Plant B was started, the United Steel Company became equally interested with the Pickands, Mather & Co. in the construction of a blast furnace plant, which is a separate organization, organized under the name of the United Furnace Company. This furnace company was financed by the United Steel Company and Pick-ands, Mather & Co., of Cleveland, and built for the purpose of furnishing hot metal to the United Steel Company's Plants A and B. The capacity of the furnace is 150,000 gross tons per year. The plant is so laid out that another furnace of the same capacity can be put in operation during the years 1916 and 1917. The corps of officers of the United Furnace Company is: President, H. G. Dalton, Cleveland, Ohio; first vice president, H. R. Jones, Canton, Ohio ; second vice president, E. A. Langenbach, Canton, Ohio; treasurer, E. R. Williams, Cleveland, Ohio; secretary, E. L. Hang, Canton, Ohio. This plant is located on the Pennsylvania Railroad and east of the United Steel Company's plants A and B, thus becoming a part of a group of industries located on the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and which are also reached from the south side by a spur track built by the Wheeling & Lake Erie and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad systems, thus affording excellent and direct shipping facilities over three competitive lines. This group of "United" industries employing 5,000 to 6,000 men will add very largely to the growth of the City of Canton during the next few years. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 359 CANTON STAMPING AND ENAMELING COMPANY The Canton Stamping and Enameling Company is another of the Berger group and is a development of the Carnahan Stamping and Enameling Company, which was incorporated under its present name in March, 1909. The original building comprised but a single building of the Carnahan works and is now occupied by the stamping department of the enlarged plant. Some 80,000 pieces of enamel ware are now turned out daily, a record probably nowhere exceeded. The styles and sizes of the different articles produced number fully 500, and most of the designs have originated in the company or among its patrons. The scope of the original business was confined to the manufacture of tin cans. Shortly afterward a small enamel department and furnaces were added. Later, owing to industrial conditions, the manufacture of cans was entirely discontinued, and the enameling branch of the business was specialized and developed. One of the distinctive features of the operation of this company is its machine shop, which now occupies a large separate building. Here all of the tools used by the workmen and the dies used in the machines and presses are designed, made and kept in repair. Edward A. Langenbach is president of the Canton Stamping and Enameling Company ; F. H. Snyder, first vice president, and R. E. Bebb, secretary and general manager. THE FABRICATION OF WATCHES The Dueber-Hampden Watch Works, which have been established at Canton for thirty years, have their home on a commanding rise of ground along Dueber Heights and Tuscarawas Avenue W, and stretch back from that thoroughfare like some massive baronial structure whose owner has laid out the surrounding grounds with care and good taste. It is directly in line with the advanced idea of making the working hours of the industrial classes as agreeable and sanitary as possible. The works are arranged in two great wings, with a central and loftier structure for administrative headquarters. The right wing is where the watch cases are made, and the left where the movements are manufactured. The management claim that the Dueber-Hampden Watch Works represent the only factory in the world wherein is not only every part of the watch made, including the case, but even the tools which are used to fashion its many pieces. Six different sizes of movements and as many sizes of cases are turned out, the smallest watch being no larger than a 5-cent piece. 360 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY John Dueber, the founder of this unique industry, moved across the Ohio from Newport, Kentucky, to Cincinnati, where he opened a little shop for making watch cases, in 1864. In 1886 he moved to Canton and combined his watch-case business with that of the Hampden Watch Company, which had been making watch movements at Springfield. Massachusetts. From that small combination has developed the great works, which even now draw a distinct line between the making of the eases and the manufacture of the movements of the watch. To describe all the minute processes required to complete a watch at the Dueber-Hampden Works would demand a book in itself. Suppose, for example, that a watch of a different model than those already manufactured is to be made. First, at least 150 designs must be drawn, covering the different parts of the watch and on scales from ten to forty times the actual size. When completed, copies of these drawings are given an expert machinist to produce a model and masterplate of them from which the tool makers construct the tools for the manufacture of the watch. This work is all done in the tool room of the factory where some 400 different tools, each with some specific use, enter into the making of the necessary devices for the production of a watch movement. With the masterplate completed and the tools made, the process of producing and assembling the 200 pieces of the movement can begin. After the plates or frames of the watch movements have been fitted and numbered they are taken to the motion department. As to the case of the watch it is made of fifty-seven different pieces. Both halves are punched out of sheets of gold, rolled down to fifteen one-thousandths of an inch, or thirty one-thousandths of an inch, according to the size of the case being made. Forty presses are kept constantly busy stamping out the watch backs and shaping them up. Every piece that enters into the construction of the case has a number stamped on it, the system by which these hundreds of thousands and millions of pieces are kept in their proper assemblage being something wonderful, but too crowded with details to be described. After all the parts are completed they are assembled in the finishing department, where all inaccuracies are detected and corrected, before the watches receive their final adjustment. All the better watches are adjusted to temperature and position. This means that each completed watch, after it has been timed, is run for twenty-four hours in a specially constructed box having a thermostat regulator which keeps the temperature automatically at nearly 110̊ Fahrenheit. The balance, which, with the hair spring and escapement, operates to control the mechanism and produce perfect time, is made of two metals, brass and steel. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 361 In noting all the different processes through which the gold watch case goes—the washing and polishing, the engraving and other work rooms where they receive attention-there is great opportunity for the loss of small particles of the precious metal that gives them their intrinsic value. But who, not familiar with the facts, would suppose that this loss every year would aggregate more than $120,000? Precautions arc taken to reclaim these particles of gold. This is what is done : Every evening, after the day's work is done, the floors of all the work rooms are carefully swept and the sweepings sent to the smelting department. Also the aprons, overalls and towels that the workmen have used during the day and which have been accumulating a small supply of gold dust are laundered by the company, many times more than the cost of laundering being regained in gold. Water from the wash stands all over the building is collected in a great tank in the basement. And this water, with that from the laundry, is thoroughly filtered until it comes out pure and clean. All the sweeping from the buildings and the residue from the filtered water are now put into a smelting cupelling furnace, which, after the process is completed, gives up gold, silver, copper and other metals that were contained in the sweepings and water. The intricate and interesting industry which has been developed by the Dueber-Hampden establishment has been managed, since the death of its founder, by Albert M. Dueber, his son, who is a worthy successor of the energetic and able John C. Dueber. Among other remarks the present proprietor says : "Since the watch industry has been started in the United States about forty-five million time-pieces have been sold. In recent years a heavy demand has developed for ladies' watches. Few probably know that when an order is given to the factory for a considerable number of watches it requires eight months before the first watches of the consignment are turned out. Each watch passed through 480 operations." DIEBOLD SAFE AND LOCK COMPANY The Diebold Safe and Lock Company, whose works occupy ten acres of factory space along Mulberry Street and the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, is one of the oldest existing industries which have made Canton famous. The business, of which the vast concern is the outgrowth, was established many years ago in Cincinnati by the firm of Diebold, Bahman and Company, who were succeeded by Diebold and Kienzle. The great expansion of the safe-manufacturing business necessitated a much larger site than could be obtained in Cincinnati and the firm therefore 362 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY transferred its operations to Canton in 1872, erecting the first of the many brick workshops which now form the plant in the year named. As the Diebold plant was the first in the United States specially built and designed for the manufacture of safes, so it has maintained a foremost standing in the production of its prime output. It manufactures everything, from light safes and vaults to those weighing a score of tons. One of its buildings is designed especially for vault work, and it is equipped with traveling cranes and other modern machinery used in the moving of massive metal fabrications. In 1874 the style of the firm became Diebold, Norris & Company, and in 1876 a joint stock company was organized and incorporated under the name of the Diebold Safe and Lock Company. The business which has expanded to such huge proportions has ever since been conducted under that corporate style. OTHER METAL MANUFACTORIES In the line of metal manufactories are numerous other establishments, among which may be mentioned the Canton Foundry and Machine Company, incorporated in 1892 and now capitalized at $100,000, with W. J. Poiser president ; Cleveland-Canton Spring Company ; American Bridge Company ; Canton Bridge Company ; the Timken Roller Bearing Company, of which W. R. Timken is president; the Canton Metal Ceiling Company, organized in 1911, of which H. S. Renkert is president, and the Eller Manufacturing Company, producing the same specialty; the Canton Art Metal Company, incorporated in 1888 and now capitalized at $400,000, and the Republic Stamping and Enameling Company. The Harvard Company is a large manufacturer of surgical equipment ; the Best Light Company, a concern of many years standing, which has occupied its plant on East Fifth Street since 1880, makes a variety of receptacles for everything illuminating except electricity ; and the Sun Vapor and Gas Street Light Company is in a similar line. ARTIFICIAL ICE AND REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Finally, there is a rather interesting group, represented by such concerns as the Canton Ice Company and the Arctic Ice Machine Company. The ice company was organized in 1898 and was incorporated in 1907. It supplies the Canton public with both natural and artificial ice. Its supply of the former comes from Congress, Silver and Brady's lakes, while the artificial ice plant is on Navarre Street. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 363 The Arctic ice machines are widely known, breweries, hotels, packing houses and manufacturers of artificial ice being their leading patrons. The plant for the manufacture of freezing and refrigerating apparatus in Canton is located at South Market Street and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The industry was established at Cleveland in 1878 and moved to Canton in 1900. THE INDUSTRY OF SUPPLYING ELECTRICITY The great building of the Canton Electric Company, between Second and Third streets S. E., north side of Pennsylvania Railroad, which is 300 by 140 feet, represents one of the most important industries in the city ; it may even be called a factory, in the sense that electric light, power and heat are manufactured. The original corporation, formed in 1885, was known as the Canton Electric Light Company. In 1907 the present corporation was formed in the East, as the direct successor to the Canton Light, Heat and Power Company and the Central Heating Company. The local secretary and general manager is W. C. Anderson. The power plants of the company are located on Second Street S. E., between Savannah Avenue and Elm Street, and at South Walnut Avenue and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Their combined capacity is 20,000 kilowatts. The electricity produced supplies Canton with 125,000 lamps, with 15,000 horse power for the operation of motors in various industrial plants, and with steam heat for numerous buildings in the central part of the city. The foregoing facts give a general idea of the magnitude of the company 's operations and its important standing as a dispenser of public utilities. CANTON BANKS UNUSUALLY SOLID Since the industries and business houses of Canton have reached magnitude they have always been sustained by a number of well managed banks, supplied with ample funds to carry along their transactions, and managed, as a whole, by citizens of long residence and familiar acquaintance with local needs and conditions. Commencing with the old Farmers Bank of Canton, backed by such men as John Shorb and Gen. George Stidger, until the present time, the men behind the city banks have given the entire community confidence and courage to undertake all feasible enterprises. A FAMILY OF BANKERS The original Farmers Bank suspended business, but was revived a number of times thereafter and covered a long period of the local banking 364 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY history, but if any one family name were to be mentioned as more generally identified with the finances of Canton than another, all who have knowledge of local matters would at once agree upon the Harter family. Its different members, father, sons and grandsons, have been identified with the founding and development of local banks for more than sixty years. ISAAC HARTER AND SONS Isaac Harter, the founder of the family in Canton, was born in Knox County, Ohio, where his father was a farmer and tavern keeper. He came of good German blood. When he was eleven years of age he was brought to Canton, whither his sister had moved as the wife of George Dewalt, and indentured to William Christmas, a merchant of that place. He was bound out under the usual terms, board and clothes, a limited education even for those days, and a new suit of clothes, designated a "freedom suit," when he should reach his majority and be privileged to earn and retain his own wages. But that was the custom then, and, although the work of a general hand around, a general store covered a multitude of details and many hours of the twenty-four, it was also the policy of the young men of those times to labor steadily and uncomplainingly. In later years, when he had become wealthy and prominent, Mr. Harter would remark, in alluding to the comparatively easy times enjoyed by the young men of that period, "I was so situated that I never had an opportunity to earn a dollar for myself until I was twenty-one." After attaining his majority, however, the young man was made a partner, Mr. Christmas allowing him for his services an interest in the profits. The firm was then Christmas, Harter & Company, the company being a silent partner, Mr. Hogg, of Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Mr. Christmas died in 1836, when it became necessary to settle up the estate and the partnership was dissolved. Mr. Harter then established an independent business, which he conducted until 1860, after which, until his death, February 27, 1876, he was continuously engaged in banking. Six years before disposing of his mercantile interests, Mr. Harter had founded a private bank, in association with Martin Wikidal, Peter P. Trump and Julius Whiting, under the firm name of Harter, Trump, Wikidal & Company. Mr. Whiting, who had been identified with the old Farmers Bank for years before its failure in 1844 and was considered one of the ablest young fianciers of the state, was cashier of the new institution. Ill health, however, compelled him to resign that position in 1862. Mr. Harter then became cashier and held the posi- HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 365 tion until 1867, when he and his two sons, George D. and Michael D. Harter, bought the interests of Messrs. Wikidal and Trump. At that time the style of the firm became Isaac Harter & Sons, as at present, and at the death of the father, in 1876, the present head of the firm, also Isaac Harter, succeeded to the presidency. Henry W. Harter, the vice president, is a leading lawyer and ex-judge. Charles W. Keplinger is the cashier. The original capital stock of the bank was $25,000, which has been increased from time to time until (with surplus) it amounts to $250,000. Its total resources are over $2,000,000. THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK The First National Bank of Canton was chartered September 5, 1863, with Cornelius Aultman as its first president. He served until his death, December 26, 1884, and his successors were as follows : George D. Harter, from January, 1885, to the time of his death in December, 1890; Johnson Sherrick, January, 1891, to January, 1898; J. J. Sullivan, from that time until June, 1910 ; L. A. Loichot, from June, 1910, until his death in August of that year, and W. R. Timken, since January, 1911. The cashiers of the First National Bank have been as follows : T. R. Tonner, who served from the organization of the bank until .November, 1864; D. B. Whitacre, from that time until March, 1866; G. W. Williams, until July, 1871; H. C. Fogle, until December, 1872 ; L. L. Miller, until January, 1898 ; L. A. Loichot, until January, 1903, and W. G. Saxton since that date. Austin Lynch is vice president. The building which is the present home of the bank was erected in 1867. The original capital stock was $100,000; increased to $200,000 in 1891, and to $500,000, as at present, in 1910. The total resources of the First National are over $6,600,000. Its deposits exceed $5,000,000; its surplus and undivided profits are nearly $450,000, and its circulation $490,000. It is the official depository for city, county and United States funds. THE GEORGE D. HARTER BANK The George D. Harter Bank was founded by the member of the well known family of Canton bankers who gave his name to the institution, as a private concern, in 1866. It was the year after his return from the front and three years after the death of Capt. Joseph S. Harter, his brother. Another brother, Michael D. Harter, then but twenty years 366 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY of age, assisted him in the organization of what was at first a private enterprise, and retained an interest in it even after his removal to Mansfield, Ohio, as manager of the Aultman interests at that place. At the time of George D. Harter's death in 1890 he had commenced his service as a representative in Congress, and his own death, in 1896, removed an able and a brilliant man from the community. The George D. Harter Bank was reorganized after the death of its founder—that is, in October, 1891-and since that time F. Herbruck has been president and ex-Judge Henry W. Harter, vice president. C. D. Bachtel was cashier from the reorganization until 1900, when he was succeeded by E. E. Mack. The capital of the bank remained at $180,000 until 1909, since which year it has been $300,000. Its present surplus and undivided profits amount to $200,000 ; deposits, $4,000,000 ; total resources, $4,600,000. THE CITY NATIONAL BANK The City National Bank was established as a private institution in 1879 and was then known as the Canton Bank. In the following year it was organized under its present name, with Peter H. Bahr as president and Henry C. Ellison as cashier. In 1883 Mr. Ellison retired and was succeeded as cashier by Henry A. Wise. Mr. Bahr continued as president until 1887, when W. W. Clark became head of the bank. At this time the capital of $100,000 was doubled. Mr. Clark remained as president until ill health compelled him to retire in January, 1905. W. H. Clark, who succeeded him and is still in office, is no relative of the former president. In 1907-08 the People's Saving Bank and the Canton Savings and Trust Company were merged into the City National Bank. At the time J. H. Kenny was president of the Canton Savings and Trust Company, and since the merging has served as vice president of the City National. With this additional income the capital stock of the consolidated bank was also increased to $240,000. Mr. Wise resigned as cashier in the fall of 1890, and H. S. Kaufman has served in that capacity since. The present resources of the City National Bank are over $2,800,000 ; surplus and undivided profits, $199,000; deposits, $2,200,000. Its building was completed and occupied in April, 1895. THE CENTRAL SAVINGS BANK The Central Savings Bank was organized in May, 1887, with George W. Raff as president and Edward S. Raff, cashier. Father and son HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 367 continued to operate the bank during their lives, and at the death of Edward S. Raff as president in 1901, Austin Lynch succeeded to the head of its affairs. Paul D. Rider has served as cashier since 1900, which year also marked the coming into office of Joseph Biechele as vice president. The total resources of the bank are over $2,370,000; capital stock, $125,000; surplus and undivided profits, about $48,000. THE DIME SAVINGS BANK The Dime Savings Bank was incorporated in January, 1895, and fully organized in the following May, with F. E. Case as president; Henry A. Wise, vice president, and Jacob I. Piper, cashier. There has been no change in officers. The capital stock has been increased from $100,000 to $200,000. The surplus and undivided profits amount to $85,000 and the deposits to $1,800,000. The building occupied by the Dime Savings Bank was completed in 1904. THE COMMERCIAL. AND SAVINGS BANK The Commercial and Savings Bank, the youngest of the financial institutions of Canton, was organized in May, 1909, with William C. Herbruck as president and Homer L. Rose as cashier. The present officers are Dr. James Fraunfelter, president ; W. W. Irwin, vice president, and Homer L. Rose, cashier. The capital of the concern is $50,000 ; surplus and undivided profits, $18,000 ; deposits, $560,000.