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Summit County
possesses some of the most beautiful scenery in Ohio.
There is not an uninteresting township in the whole county.
Each has some special charm to prove that Nature has been
most lavish of her gifts. The valley of the Cuyahoga
divides the upper half of the county, while the southern
half is diversified by a chain of beautiful lakes.
Everywhere there is variety; monotonous expanses of level
ground are nowhere to be seen. Near the head of the
Cuyahoga Valley are the famed Northampton Hills which offer
vistas of hill country that remind the beholder of New
England. Here, on a smaller scale, are the qualities
which have made the Berkshires famous for their beauty.
The Lake Country has its eminences, also, rising two or
three hundred feet almost from the water's edge. The
lakes, nestling amid these green hills, make a picture which
is worthy of long journey which many travelers make to see
it. From these high points, the land stretches away to
the east and west in long rolls and billows. It is not
a matter of wonder that Medina and Portage and Stark
counties objected so strenuously to being deprived of the
townships which were taken from them to form the new county
of Summit. By that process they lost the fairest
portion of their domain.
BATH TOWNSHIP.
Of the early settlers of
Bath Township there are two families which stand out
preeminent - the Hales and the Hammonds.
The influence of the Hale family during the years
subsequent has been stronger and wider felt than that of
perhaps any other family in the county. It has been of
incalculable benefit, exerted, as it always has been, in
behalf of high thinking and clean living. The fact
that for the long time this region was called "Hammondsburgh"
shows the prominent part Jason Hammond played in the
performance of its early affairs. The hamlet of
Hammond's Corners still bears the name of this first
settler. The first real settlement of the township was
made in 1810. During the summer of that year,
Jonathan Hale and Jason Hammond, both Connecticut
men, came to Ohio to settle upon the land they had recently
purchased. They were obliged to dispossess other white
men whom they found living upon their land without color of
title. A survey of the township had been made in 1805,
and the name "Wheatfield" given to it by Rial McArthur,
the surveyor, probably because his eyes had been gladdened
that day by a sight of a waving field of that grain.
It is a pity the name did not survive. Fine fields of
wheat may be seen on all hands, today, in season, and it is
one of the successful crops of the township, while the name
of Bath is of no significance, locally, whatever. It
is said the name was given to the township in joke. It
is now firmly affixed and "Bath" this township will ever be.
Bath was organized as a township in 1818, and Jonathan
Hale was made the first trustee; Jason Hammond,
supervisor; Henry Hutson, justice of the peace, and
Eleazer Rice, constable. Bath sent nearly one
hundred men into the Union Army during the Civil War and
many of her citizens have occupied prominent places in the
county and State. Among them may be mentioned Gen.
A. C. Voris, Peter Voris, R. O. Hammond, J. Park Alexander,
Sumner Nash, C. O. Hale, Jared Barker and O. W. Hale.
The principal places in the township are Botzum, a station
on the Cleveland and Terminal Valley branch of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad; Montrose (formerly called Latta's Corners
and sometimes Ellis' Corners); Hammond's Corners and Ghent.
At the picturesque village last mentioned there are
extensive saw-mills, grist-mills, a general store, etc.
P. A. Ganyard is the township clerk in 1907, and
William Davis and C. S. Parsons are
justices of the peace.
BOSTON TOWNSHIP.
Boston Township contains three
villages - Peninsula, Boston Mills and Everett. The
earliest settlers were also from Connecticut. In 1805,
the purchasers of the holdings of the Connecticut Land
Company sent many surveying corps into Summit County for the
purpose of alloting the lands. In this year Alfred
Wolcott, James Stanford, John Teale and Samuel Ewart
came to Boston Township for the purpose of making a survey.
In 1806, Wolcott and Stanford both purchased
land surveyed by them the summer previous and located upon
it at once. They thus became the first settler in the
township. The Wolcott family afterward became
very prominent and influential. The township was
organized in 1811, as a part of Portage County. Its
first officers were Timothy Bishop, Andrew Johnson
and Aaron Miller, trustees; William Beers,
clerk; Launcelot May, treasurer; Alfred Wolcott
and Moses Cunningham, justices of the peace, and
James Jordan, constable. More than 140 men of
Boston township fought for the Union in the war of 1861-65,
the most distinguished of whom was Colonel Arthur L.
Conger. On July 4, 1889, Colonel and Mrs.
Conger presented to Boston Township the fine soldiers'
monument which stands in the village of Peninsula at its
western border. Peninsula has an extensive flour-mill
and, in the southern part of the village, a large
stone-quarry of a fine-grained, white sand-stone, from which
mill-stones are made. Boston has saw-mills and the
great paper-mills of the Akron-Cleveland Paper Bag Company,
the power for which is partly secured from a large dam
thrown across the Cuyahoga River. Colonel A. L.
Conger and Hon. S. P. Wolcot are the Boston
citizens who have earned for themselves the greatest fame.
At the present time Charles Peterson is clerk and
E. B. Conger and N. B. Wise are justices of the
peace.
COPELY TOWNSHIP.
Copley Township came to us
from Medina County when our county was created in 1840.
It is well watered by Pigeon Creek, Wolf Creek and Chocolog
Creek, besides having within its confines White Pond, Black
Pond and Chocolog Pond. Formerly a great swamp called
Copley Swamp occupied a large part of it, but by judicious
draining it has been reduced to an insignificant area.
It is now one vast garden - the old peat and muck beds
furnishing the best kind of soil for raising celery, onions,
etc. In early times it was the great game preserve of
the whole region. Copley was first settled in 1814 by
Jonah Turner, who came from Pennsylvania. Six
additional families arrived during the next five years.
It was set apart as a township of Medina County in 1819, and
was named Greenfield at first by Garner Green who
originally owned a large part of its territory. He
afterwards changed the name of Copley, the maiden name of
his wife. When the Northern Ohio Railroad was built,
in 1891, it gave Copley an outlet, and was the means of
starting a new hamlet - Fairlawn, which now boasts a mill,
general store, smithy, etc. Copley sent nearly 150 men
into the Union Army. Homer G. Long is now
township clerk and C. C. Frederick is justice of the
peace.
COVENTRY TOWNSHIP.
Coventry Township lies to the north
of Franklin and Green and just outside of the City of Akron.
It is also the southern line of the Western Reserve.
Its physical features are unusual in that it is dotted by
numerous lakes and in early days was traversed by a
considerable stream, the Tuscarawas. In addition to
this, about 1840, the Reservoir was built, composed partly
of natural and partly artificial bodies of water. Long
Lake is the largest of these natural bodies of water.
The Indian seem to have made this their headquarters and
naturally so, for New Portage was at the head of the
Indian Trail. These Indians were Delawares and the
most important of their chiefs was Hopocan or
Captain Pipe. He called himself, "Hopocan,
King of New Portage." The first white settler of the
township was Daniel Haines, who came from
Pennsylvania about the year 1806. After him, in 1811,
came the Allens, from New York State, forebears of
the Allens, who live there today. The township
grew at an amazing pace and a great future seemed before it.
The Tuscarawas was then an immense stream capable of
floating large boats, and many a boatload went from Coventry
to New Orleans. A glass factory started and for some
time many articles of value and profit were turned out.
A distillery was started by Adam Falor.
Saw-mills and grist-mills started up. A lawyer by the
name of Van Humphreys settled there and the "State of
Coventry" began to be. The now well known "State Mill"
arose in this fashion: At the time of the construction
of the Reservoir it was necessary to destroy the mill
formerly there, and to replace it the State built a large
mill at that point. For a long time it was the center
of the mill business of that district, and of late years has
become valuable, chiefly as a summer resort. With the
advent of the canal the township continued to flourish and
for a time seemed to rival Middlebury. However, its
prospects died down and it settled down to the regular way
of a township. Still it is to be remembered that with
the last increase of territory of Akron, a large part of
Coventry was annexed to the city, and the old city spirit of
Coventry survives possibly in another form.
The township organization occurred in 1808, and at that
time Coventry was a part of Springfield and they were a part
of Portage County, till the organization of Summit in 1840.
At the present time the taxable property in the township is
valued at about $1,300,000. With the rapid growth of
the city south, and the addition of Barberton and Kenmore,
it seems that it will be only a short time till the township
will disappear within municipal lines. Among the
prominent families in the township have been the
Brewsters and the Falors. From Coventry
township also came John R. Buchtel, the founder of
Buchtel College, and William Buchtel who
represented Summit County in the State legislature from
1901-3. The present representative, Howard C.
Spicer, is also from Coventry township. B. T.
Davis and H. E. Shook are the present justices of
the peace for the township.
The village of CUYAHOGA FALLS was founded in 1825 by
Elkanah Richardson. Among the earliest settlers
were Joshua Stow and William Wetmore. In
1815 a saw-mill was in operation near Gaylord's Grove,
operated by power derived from a dam across the river at
that point. The name Cuyahoga Falls was adopted in
accordance with a suggestion from the postoffice department.
The firm of Stow and Wetmore built several
mills, dams and business buildings in the new village, and
by 1830 the town took on an important aspect. In that
year they built a large paper mill, an industry that is
still carried don profitably. They were assisted in
the paper business by John Rumrill, who had learned
the art in the New England paper mills. About 1825
Henry Newberry came from Connecticut and built more
dams, a saw-mill, linseed oil-mill and a paper-mill.
He was a graduate of Yale and was one of the most prominent
of the early settlers. March 5, 1851, the citizens of
Cuyahoga Falls organized a township of the same name and
co-extensive with the territory of the village. The
government of the village was then given over to the
township officers who were elected at that time as follows:
Horace A. Miller, Henry Newberry, Jr., and Peter
G. Somers, trustees; Llucious Bradley, treasurer;
Grant P. Turner, clerk; William H. Taylor,
assessor, and W. J. Wilson and W. W. Lucas,
constables. This arrangement failed to give
satisfaction and on June 3, 1868, the village government was
reorganized. On September 1, 1868, the first election
was held and William A. Hanford was elected mayor;
Henry C. Lockwood, treasurer; Porter G. Somers,
recorder; T. F. Heath, Charles Hunt, W. M. Griswold, John
Hinde, and L. W. Loomis, trustees. In 1841
the Board of Commissioners, to locate the county seat
decided upon Cuyahoga Falls, but the legislature interfered
the year following, and, leaving the question to a popular
vote, it was located at Akron. It cannot he said that
Cuyahoga Falls was at anytime the county seat, in spite of
the acts of the commission.
Cuyahoga Falls' schools have always been among the best
in the county. The village obtained its reputation as
an educational center very early in its existence. In
1834 a private school was opened by J. H. Reynolds.
In 1836 a school for girls was opened by Sarah
Carpenter. Later schools were conducted by
Frances C. Barron and Eliza Deaver. In
1837, the Cuyahoga Falls Institute was opened for pupils by
Rev. Roswell Brooks and Charles Clark
The present brick High School was organized in 1855, H.
F. Taylor being the first principal. Among his
successors have been such famous men as Edward R. Sill.
Vergil P. Kline and William I. Chamberlain.
In 1833, "The Ohio Review," Cuyahoga Falls' first newspaper,
was started by Horace Canfield and Timothy Spencer.
It ran about one year. It was followed in close
succession by the "Renovator," "The Young Buzzards." "The
Telescope," "The American Eagle," and "The True American."
The last mentioned stopped about 1843. In 1870 "The
Cuyahoga Falls Reporter" was founded by E. O. Knox
and, by good business management, has succeeded in
continuing publication until the present time. In 1881
"The Weekly Journal" was started, but did not last more than
a year.
The village sent nearly 200 en into the Union Army
during the Civil War. In 1859 "The Union Fair
Association" was formed and fitted up fair grounds at the
north end of the village. Not being a success
financially, the association was wound up in 1861.
Cuyahoga Falls has had her share of prominent citizens,
among whom can be named Edward Rowland Sill, one of
America's very best poets, and whose fame has just begun to
grow, Elisha N. Sill, Samuel W. McClure, Henry McKinney,
George Paul and Charles R. Grant.
Cuyahoga Falls now has the following churches:
Church of Christ, Rev. W. L. Denslow, pastor; First
Congregational, Rev. A. E. Woodruff, pastor;
Methodist Episcopal, Rev. W. J. Wilson, pastor; St.
John's Episcopal; St. Joseph's Roman Catholic, Rev. J. A.
Nolan, pastor, and the Welsh Congregational. The
principal industries now are The Welsh Paper Company, C. M.
Walsh, president; T. A. Murphy, vice-president and
general manager; E. A. Prior, secretary, and F. T.
Moloney, treasurer. They have a very large factory
on River Street. On Portage street are the Pearl Flour
Mills, operated by the Walsh Milling Company, of which
Cornelius M. Walsh is president. The large factory
of the Falls Rivet and Machine Company is located on the
railroad at Portage Street. Edwin Seedhouse is
president and C. H. Wells, treasurer. They make
rivets, bolts and power transmission machinery. The
Acme Wire Company has officers as follows: W. C.
Hall, president; S. H. Miller, vice
president; L. D. Brown, treasurer; E. A.
Henry, general manager. Falls Hollow Staybolt
Company, C. M. Walsh, president; The Falls Lumber
Company, G. R. James, secretary and treasurer; The
Keller Brick Company, Frederick W. Keller,
president; W. F. Keller, secretary and president;
Tift and Vogan consisting of Smith D. Tift and
Fremont D. Vogan; Turner, Vaughn and Taylor,
of which Calvin W. Vaughn is a general manager;
Isaac N. Reid who makes carriages and does a general
smithy business; The Fair Oaks Villa is a sanitarium
for mental and nervous diseases, conducted successfully by
Drs. W. A. Searl and H. I. Cozad. The
Cuyahoga Falls Savings Bank was organized Sept. 2, 1904,
upon the failure of the Akron Savings Bank, which has
conducted a Cuyahoga Falls branch. It has a capital of
$50,000 and is ably managed by the following officers:
President, C. M. Walsh; vice-president, W. R.
Lodge; vice-president, Edwin Seedhouse; treasurer
and cashier, F. T. Moloney; secretary, E. A. Prior.
The Falls Savings and Loan Association is ably conducted by
L. W. Loomis, president; E. A. Prior,
secretary; Dr. W. A. Searl, treasurer, and C. T.
Grant, attorney. Bauman and Orth (
Edward H. Bauman and Frank W. Orth) are the
present proprietors of the Cuyahoga Falls Reporter.
The Central Union Telephone Company and the Akron People's
Telephone Company both have exchanges here. The
population of Cuyahoga Falls, is now about 4,000. In
1907 its officials are: Mayor, C. A. Davis; clerk,
C. D. Crumb; treasurer, Theodore Heath; marshal,
I. Goldwood. The mayor and clerk are Democrats,
the other two Republicans.
TALLMADGE TOWNSHIP.
Tallmadge was founded in 1806 by
David Bacon, minister, missionary and colonizer.
His experiences in the wilderness and the difficulties he
had to contend with in establishing his little colony are
typical, and for that reason are here set forth i full
according to the excellent narrative of his son, Dr.
Leonard Bacon, as published in Howe's Historical
Collections (Ohio). It may readily be believed that
the labors and dangers incident to the settlement of
Tallmadge were no greater than those attending the
settlement of the other townships of the county.
Rev. David Bacon, the founder of Tallmadge, was
born in Woodstock, Connecticut in 1771, and died in Hartford
in 1817 at the early age of forty-six years, worn out by
excessive age of forty-six years, worn out by excessive
labors, privations and mental sufferings, largely consequent
upon his financial failure with his colony. He was the
first missionary sent to the Western Indians from
Connecticut. His means were pitifully inadequate, but
with a stout heart, reliant upon God he started, August 8,
1800, from Hartford, afoot and alone through the wilderness,
with no outfit but what he could carry on his back. At
Buffalo Creek, now the site of the city of Buffalo, he took
vessel for Detroit, which he reached September 11,
thirty-four days after leaving Hartford, and was hospitably
received by Major Hunt, commandant of the United
States garrison there. After a preliminary survey he
returned to Connecticut, and on the 25th of December was
married at Lebanon to Alice Parks, then under
eighteen years of age; a week later, on the last day of the
last year of the last century, Dec. 31, 1800, he was
ordained regularly to the specific work of a missionary to
the heathen, the first ever sent out from Connecticut.
On the 11th of February, 1801, with his young wife, he
started for Detroit, going through the wilderness of New
York and Canada by sleigh, and arrived there Saturday, May
9. The bride, before she got out of Connecticut, had a
new and painful experience. They stopped at a noisy
country tavern at Canaan. There was a large company
altogether, some drinking, some talking and some swearing,
and this they found was common at all the public-houses.
Detroit at this time was the great emporium of the fur
trade. Some of the Indian traders were men of great
wealth for those days and of highly cultivated minds.
Many of them were educated in England and Scotland at the
universities, a class today in Britian termed "university
men." They generally spent the winter there, and in
the spring returned with new goods brought by vessels
through the lakes. The only Americans in the place
were the officers and soldiers of the garrison, consisting
of an infantry regiment and an artillery company, the
officers of which treated Mr. Bacon and family with
kindness and respect. The inhabitants were English,
Scotch, Irish and French, all of whom hated the
Yankees. The town was enclosed by cedar pickets about
twelve feet high and six inches in diameter, and so close
together one could not see through.
At each side were strong gates
which were closed together and guarded, and no Indians were
allowed to come in after sundown or to remain over night.
Upon his arrival in Detroit the missionary society
paid him in all four hundred dollars; then until September,
1803, he did not get a cent. He began his support by
teaching school, at first with some success, but he was a
Yankee, and the four Catholic priests used their influence
in opposition. His young wife assisted him. They
studied the Indian language, but made slow progress, and
their prospect for usefulness in Detroit seemed waning.
On the 19th of February, 1802, his first child was born
at Detroit - the afterwards eminent Dr. Leonard Bacon.
In the May following he went down into the Maumee country
with a view to establishing mission among the Indians.
The Indians were mostly drunk, and he was an unwilling
witness to their drunken orgies. Little Otter,
their chief, received him courteously, called a council of
the tribe, and then, to his talk through an interpreter,
gave him their decision that they would not have him.
It was to this effect:
Your religion is very good, but only for white people;
it will not do for Indians. When the Great Spirit made
white people he put them on another island, gave them farms,
tools to work with, horses, horned cattle and sheep and hogs
for them, that they might get their living in that way and
he taught them to read, and gave them their religion in a
book. But when he made Indians he made them wild, and
put them on this island in the woods, and gave them the wild
game that they might live by hunting. We formerly had
a religion very much like yours, but we found it would not
do for us, and we have discovered a much better way.
Seeing he could not succeed he returned to Detroit.
He had been with them several days and twice narrowly
escaped assassination from the intoxicated ones. His
son, Leonard, in the Congregational Quarterly for
1876, and from which this article is derived, wrote:
"Something more than ordinary courage was necessary in
the presence of so many drunken and half-drunken Indians,
any one of whom might suddenly shoot or tamahawk the
missionary at the slightest provocation or at none."
The two instances mentioned by him in which he was enabled
to baffle the malice of savages ready to murder him remind
me of another instance.
"It was while my parents were living at Detroit, and
when I was an infant of less than four months, two Indians
came as if for a friendly visit; one of them, a tall and
stalwart, young man, the other shorter and older. As
they entered my father met them, gave his hand to the old
man, and was just extending it to the other, when my mother,
quick to discern the danger, exclaimed, 'See! He has a
knife.' At the word my father saw that, while the
Indian's right hand was ready to salute, a gleaming knife in
his left hand was partly concealed under his blanket.
"An Indian intending to assassinate waits until his
intended victim in looking away from him and then strikes.
My father's keen eye was fixed upon the murderer, and
watched him eye to eye. The Indian found himself
strangely disconcerted. In vain did the old man talk
to my father in angry and chiding tones - that keen, black
eye was watching the would-be assassin. The time
seemed long. My mother took the baby (himself) from
the birch-bark cradle, and was going to call for help, but
when she reached the door, she dared not leave her husband.
At last the old man became weary of chiding; the young man
had given up his purpose for a time and they retired."
Failing on the Maumee, Mr. Bacon soon after
sailed with his little family to Mackinaw. This was at
the beginning of summer, 1802. Mackinaw was then one
of the remotest outposts of the fur trade and garrisoned by
a company of United States troops. His object was to
establish a mission at Abercroche, about twenty miles
distant, a large settlement of Chippewa Indians, but they
were no less determined than those on the Maumee that no
missionary should live in their villages. Like those,
also, they were a large part of the time drunk from whiskey,
supplied in abundance by the fur traders in exchange for the
proceeds of their hunting excursions. They had at one
time no less than 900 gallon kegs on hand.
His work was obstructed from the impossibility of
finding interpreter, so the took into his family an Indian
lad, through whom to learn the language - his name was
Singenog. He remained at Mackinaw about two years,
but he Indians would never allow him to go among them.
Like the Indians generally, they regarded ministers as
another sort of conjurors, with power to bring sickness and
disease upon them.
At one time early in October the second year, 1803,
Singenog, the young Indian, persuaded his uncle,
Pondega Kawwan, a head chief, and two other
Chippewa dignitaries, to visit the missionary, and
presenting him a string of wampum. Pondega Kawwan
made a very non-committal, dignified speech, to the effect
that there was no use of his going among them, that the
Great Spirit did not put them on the ground to learn such
things as the white people taught. If it were not for
rum the white people taught. If it were not for rum
they might listen, "but," concluded he, "Rum is our Master."
And later he said to Singenog, "Our father is a great
man and knows a great deal; and if we were to know so much,
perhaps the Great Spirit would not let us live."
After a resident at Mackinaw of about two years and all
prospects of success hopeless, the missionary society
ordered him to New Connecticut, there to itinerate as a
missionary and to improve himself in the Indian language,
etc. About the 1st of August, 1804, with his wife and
two children, the youngest an infant, he sailed for Detroit.
From hence they proceeded in an open canoe, following the
windings of the shore, rowing by day and sleeping on land by
night, till having performed a journey of near 200 miles,
they reached, about the middle of October, Cleveland, then a
mere hamlet on the lake shore.
Leaving his family at Hudson, he went on to Hartford to
report to the society. He went almost entirely on foot
a distance of about 600 miles, which he wearily trudged much
of the way through the mud, slush and snow of winter.
An arrangement was made by which he could act half the time
as pastor at Hudson, and the other half as a missionary to
the various settlements on the Reserve, by the old Puritan
mode of colonizing, by founding a religious colony strong
enough and compact enough to maintain schools and public
worship.
An ordinary township, with its scattered settlements
and roads at option, with no common central point, cannot
well grow into a town. The unity of a town as a body
politic depends very much on fixing a common center to which
every homestead shall he obviously related. In no
other rural town, perhaps, is that so well provided for an
in Tallmadge. "Public spirit, local pride." writes
Dr. Bacon, "friendly intercourse, generous culture and
good taste, and a certain moral and religious steadfastness
are among the characteristics by which Tallmadge is almost
proverbially distinguished throughout the Reserve. No
observing stranger can pass through the town without seeing
that it was planned by a sagacious and far-seeing mind.
"It was fit that he who had planned the settlement, and
who had identified with it all his hopes for usefulness for
the remainder of his life, and all his hopes of a competence
for his family, should be the first settler in thee
townships. He did not wait for hardier adventurers to
encounter the first hardships and to break the loneliness of
the woods. Selecting a temporary location near an old
Indian trail, a few rods from the southern boundary of the
township, he built the first log cabin, and their placed his
family.
"I well remember the pleasant day in July, 1807, when
that family made its removal from the center of Hudson to a
new log-house in a township that had no name and no human
habitation. The father and mother - poor in this
world's goods, but rich in faith and in the treasure of
God's promises; rich in their well-tried mutual affection;
rich in their expectation of usefulness and of the comfort
and competence which they hoped to achieve by their
enterprise; rich in the parental joy with which they looked
upon the three little ones that were carried in their arms
or nestled among their scanty household goods in the
slow-moving wagon - were familiar with whatever there is in
hardship and peril or disappointment, to try the courage of
the noblest manhood or the immortal strength of a true
woman's love. The little ones were the natives of the
wilderness - the youngest a delicate nursling of six months,
the others born in a remoter and more savage West.
These five, with a hired man, were the family.
"I remember the setting out, the halt before the door
of an aged friend to say farewell, the fording of the
Cuyahoga, the day's journey of somewhat less than thirteen
miles along a road that had been cut (not made) through the
dense forest, the little cleared spot where the journey
ended, the new log-house, with what seemed to me a stately
hill behind it, and with a limpid rivulet winding near the
door. That night, when the first family worship was
offered in that cabin, the prayer of the two worshipers, for
themselves and their children, and for the work which they
had that day begun, was like the prayer that went up of old
from the deck of the Mayflower, or from beneath the wintry
sky of Plymouth. One month later a German family came
within the limits of the town; but it was not until the next
February that a second family came, a New England family,
whose mother tongue was English. Well I do remember
the solitude of that first winter, and how beautiful the
change was when spring at last began to hang its garlands on
the trees.
"The next thing in carrying out the plan to which
Mr. Bacon had devoted himself was to bring in, from
whatever quarter, such families as would enter into his
views and would co-operate with him for the early and
permanent establishment of Christian order. It was at
the expense of many a slow and weary journey to older
settlements that he succeeded in bringing together the
families who, in the spring and summer of 1808, began to
call the new town their home. His repeated absences
from the home are fresh in my memory, and so is the
joy with which we greeted the arrival of one family after
another coming to relieve our loneliness; nor least among
the memories of that time is the remembrance of my mother's
fear when left alone with her three little children.
She had not ceased to fear the Indians, and sometimes a
straggling savage, or a little company of them, came by our
door on the old portage path, calling, perhaps, to try our
hospitality, and with signs or broken English phases asking
for whiskey. She could not feel that to 'pull in the
latch string' was a sufficient exclusion of such visitors,
and in my mind's eye I seem now to see her frail form
tugging at a heavy chest, with which to barricade the door
before she dared to sleep. It was, indeed, a relief
and joy to feel at last that we had neighbors, and that our
town was beginning to be inhabited. At the end of the
second year from the commencement of the survey, there were,
perhaps, twelve families, and the town received its name,
Tallmadge."
Slowly the settlement of the town proceeded from 1807
to 1810. Emigration from Connecticut had about ceased,
owing to the stagnation of business from European wars, and
the embargo and other non-intercourse acts of Jefferson's
administration. Mr. Bacon could not pay for the
land he had purchased. He went East to try to make new
satisfactory arrangements with the proprietors, leaving
behind his wife and five little children. The
proprietors were immovable. Some of his parishioners
felt hard towards him because, having made payments, he
could not perfect their titles. With difficulty he
obtained the means to return for his family.
In May, 1812, he left Tallmadge, and all "that was
realized after five years of arduous labor was poverty, the
alienation of some old friends, the depression that follows
a fatal defeat, and the dishonor that falls on one how
cannot pay his debts." He lingered on a few years,
supporting his family by traveling and selling the "Scott's
Family Bible" and other religious works, from house to
house, and occasional preaching. He bore his
misfortunes with Christian resignation, struggled on a few
years with broken spirits and broken constitution, and died
at Hartford, August 17, 1817. "My other," said Dr.
Bacon, "standing over him with her youngest, an infant
in her arms, said to him: 'Look on your babe before you
die.' He looked up and said with distinct and audible
utterance: 'The blessing of the God of Abraham, of
Isaac, and of Jacob, rest upon thee.' Just
before dawn he breathed his last. Now he knows more
than all of us, said the doctor; while my mother, bathing
the dead face with her tears, and warming it with kisses,
exclaimed: 'Let my last end be like his.'"
There is little doubt that Rev. David Bacon was
the first white person who made his home in this township.
Other early settlers were George Boosinger, Justin E.
Frink, Ephraim Clark, Jonathan Sprague, Titus Chapman,
William Neal, Elizur Wright, Moses Bradford, Salmon Sackett,
John Caruthers, Reuben Upson, John Wright and Luther
Chamberlain. The township was named in honor of
one of its early proprietors, Benjamin Tallmadge, of
Litchfield, Connecticut. Nearly all the original
settlers were from Connecticut. It was organized as a
separate township in November, 1812. Elizur Wright
was elected clerk and Nathaniel Chapman, justice of
the peace. Tallmadge has from the very earliest
days brought a very strong religious and educational
influence to hear upon the surrounding communities.
The average of culture is higher here than in any other
community in this vicinity - perhaps in Ohio. The
purpose of its founder was religious. The
Congregational Church was organized here in 1809. In
1810, a school-house was opened and Lucy Foster, who
married Alpha Wright the next year, was its first
teacher. In 1816 "Tallmadge Academy" was
incorporated and opened to students. Among its
teachers, Simeon Woodruff and Elizur Wright
were the earliest, while later came Sidney Edgerton.
Abut 1835 Ephraim T. Sturtevant opened a private
school and taught it successfully for several years.
Tallmadge established the first public library in Summit
County, opening it in 1813, and continuing and increasing it
until the present writing. The Congregational Church
edifice was built in 1822, and is a fine specimen of the New
England church architecture of the period. With very
few changes, it has continued to serve the society until
now. In 1825 the Methodist established a church
organization, and in 1832 erected a church building.
In 1874 they built the present structure near the public
square. Coal and potters' clay are extensively mined
in the township. In the early '40's several veins of
iron ore were discovered and a furnace erected to smelt
them. The attempt was unsuccessful and the enterprise
ultimately abandoned. Some manufacturing has been
successfully conducted, notably, carriage manufacturing,
begun in 1827 by Amos Avery and William C. Oviatt.
In 1836 they took in Isaac Robinson. In
1841 Ira P. Sperry organized the firm of Oviatt &
Sperry and later took in Samuel J. Ritchie. L.
V. Bierce and J. E. Baldwin also manufactured
carriages for many years. In 1868 Alfred Sperry,
Charles Tryon and Benjamin D. Wright began the
manufacture of sewer-pipe, Henry M. Camp later
succeeding Mr. Tryon. In 1871 Samuel J.
Ritchie and Ira P. and Willis Sperry
bought them out and continued the business with success
until the fire of 1878. In 1881 Ira P. and
George P. Sperry rebuilt the works. The
apple-butter factory of John A. Caruthers should also
be noticed. Tallmadge gave her full quota of men to
preserve the Union during two of the greatest names of
Summit County history in Sidney Edgerton and
William H. Upson.
HUDSON TOWNSHIP.
The original proprietors of Hudson
township were Stephen Baldwin, David Hudson, Birdsey
Norton, Nathaniel Norton, Benjamin Oviatt and
Theodore Parmalee. It consisted of 16,000 acres,
and, in the distribution of the lands of the Connecticut
Land Company, it was sold to the above mentioned proprietors
at 32 cents per acre. In 1799 David Hudson
organized a party of eleven persons for the purpose of
inspecting the new purchase. They started overland
from Litchfield, Connecticut, and, with their wagons, oxen
and cows, made a very respectable looking caravan.
They were nearly two months in making the journey, reaching
the present township about the latter part of June.
The summer was spent in surveying; erecting a bark but and a
more substantial log-house; clearing land of timber;
planting and sowing crops, and platting the village, now
called Hudson, after its founder. Early in October the
survey of the township was completed and David Hudson,
with his son Ira and the two surveyors, started back
to Connecticut, leaving the remainder of the party as a
nucleus of the future settlement.
By offering bounties of land and other inducements,
Mr. Hudson succeeded in getting together twenty-eight
colonists who agreed to return with him into the wilderness
and assist in the pioneer work of settling the new township.
In this party were Heman Oviatt, Joel and Allen Gaylord,
Joseph and George Darrow, Moses Thompson, Samuel Bishop
and others. After enduring the usual perils and
deprivations incident to pioneer journeys, they arrived
safely in Hudson in May, 1800. Their first act was a
public meeting to conduct services of thanksgiving for their
safe journey and deliverance from the perils of the way in
the wilderness. On October 28, 1800, their was born to
David Hudson and his wife, Anna (Norton) Hudson,
a daughter, whom they named Anner Mary Hudson.
She was born in Hudson and was the first white child born in
what is now Summit County.
Early in 1802 the county commissioners of Trumbull
County, of which this locality was then a part, organized
Hudson township and arranged for the first election in
April, 1802. There were elected at that time, Heman
Oviatt, Ebenezer Sheldon and Abraham Thompson,
trustees; Thadeus Lacey, clerk; Rufus Edwards,
Ebenezer Lester and Aaron Norton, constables,
etc., etc.
On September 4, 1802, the first church organization in
what is now Summit County was made by David Hudson,
with twelve of his fellow-colonists, who were members of
Congregational Churches back in Connecticut. The first
church thus established was a Congregational Church, and,
from that day to this, not a single Sabbath has passed
without public worship being held by the Congregational
Church of Hudson. In 1820 the society completed a fine
church edifice on the site of the present Town Hall, which
was used continuously until the splendid brick church on
Aurora Street, next to the "Pentagon," was built in 1865.
This was proved sufficient for the needs of the
Congregational Society until the present day.
In 1828 Moses Draper, Daniel Gaylord and
Perley Mansur organized a Methodist Episcopal Church,
the history of which is not a record of unvarying success.
The Protestant Episcopal Church was organized in 1842
by Frederick Brown, Anson
NORTHAMPTON TOWNSHIP.
In drawing of lands of the
Connecticut Land Company the present township of Northampton
fell to W. Billings, David King, Ebenezer King, Jr., F.
King, John Leavitt, Jr., O. P. Holden, Luther Loomis, Joseph
Pratt, Timothy Phelps, Solomon Stoddard and Daniel
Wright. It was first settled in 1802 when Simon
Prior, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, brought his
wife and ten children overland from the beautiful village of
Northampton, on the Connecticut River, in the green hills of
Hampshire County, Massachusetts. Other early settlers
were Justus Remington, David Parker and
Samuel King. Later came Rial McArthur, David
Norton, Nathaniel Hardy, Sr., Daniel Turner.
Northampton Township was very slow in being settled.
The Indians remained here longer than in any other part of
the country. It was not until the American forces
began to assemble here for the war of 1812 that the last of
the red men departed. Many of their village sites,
mounds, etc., may be seen at the present time. Here
was a rendezvous for militia during the second war with
England, and three vessels of Commodore Perry's fleet
were built in Northampton and floated down the Cuyahoga to
Lake Erie.
In 1836 the village of Niles, at the mouth of Yellow
Creek, was platted. It never grew to anything more
substantial than a vision in the minds of its projectors,
Peter Voris and his associates. The site is now
called Botzum. Other hamlets are Northampton Center,
Steele's Corners, McArthur's Corners and French's Mill.
Northampton did far more than her share in furnishing men
for the Union Army in 1861-65. More than one hundred
and forty of her citizens responded to the call of the
nation. In 1907 W. E. Voss is township
clerk, and P. D. Hardy and L. A. Hart are
justices of the peace.
NORTHFIELD.
Northfield was first settled in
April, 1807, when Isaac Bason brought his family from
Massachusetts and built a log house for them about a mile
and one-half from the present Town Hall. Other early
settlers were Jeremiah Craner, George Wallace, Orrin
Wilcox and William Cranny. The township was
organized May 24, 1819, when an election was held, at which
Jeremiah Cranmer, John Duncan and George Wallace
were elected trustees; Henry Wood, clerk; Watrous
Mather, treasurer; and Abraham Cranmer and
Edward Coyne, constables. In 1840 the township had
a population of 1,041. It furnished more than one
hundred and twenty-five men to the Federal Army in the
Rebellion. In 1907 M. A. Van Horn is township
clerk, and O. E. Griswold and H. A. McConnell,
justices of the peace. Flourishing centers are
Northfield, Little York, Macedonia and Brandywine.
NORTON TOWNSHIP.
Norton township was
originally a part of Wolf Creek township, but was organized
as a separate township in April, 1818. It was named
for Birdsey Norton, one of its Connecticut
proprietors. It was first settled in 1810 by James
Robinson, who came from New York and built a cabin for
himself on Wolf Creek. Other early settlers were
John Cahow, Abraham Van Jyning, Henry Van Hyning, John D.
Humphrey, Charles Lyon, P. Kirkum, Seth Lucas, Charles
Miller and Nathan Bates. At the
organization in April, 1818, the following officers were
elected: Clerk,,, Joseph D. Humphrey; justice of the
peace, Henry Van Hyning, Sr.; trustees, Charles
Lyon, Abraham Van Hyning and Ezra Way;
supervisors, John Cahow, Elisha Hinsdale and
Joseph Holmes. Norton possesses some of the richest land
in the county and many of her citizens have amassed much
wealth from agriculture and mining of coal. The
township also possesses some of the most prosperous hamlets,
like Norton Center, Western Star, Loyal Oak, Hometown,
Johnson's Corners, Sherman and Dennison.
It is also fortunate in having within its limits that
marvel of the closing years of the nineteenth century, the
"Magic City" - Barberton. It is a city that was almost
literally built in a day. In 1890 its site was a
typical Ohio farm, with its fertile fields, rich meadows,
stretches of woodland, running brooks, comfortable
farm-houses and huge bank-barns. In its center was a
little pond of clear water, fed by springs in its bottom,
and named "Davis Lake." Rolling farm lands surrounded
it on all sides. A mile or two to the north was the
village of New Portage, a station on the Erie and Cleveland,
Akron and Columbus Railroads, a port on the Ohio Canal, and
the southern terminus of the Portage Path, that aboriginal
highway which connected the northern waters of the State of
Ohio with the southern. Five miles further north was
Akron, then a city of 27,000 people. In one short year
all this was changed as though a magician's wand had swept
over the scene. The old farms were platted into city
logs, streets, parks and factory sites. An army of men
set to work leveling the land, removing fences and grading,
and curbing the streets. Hundreds of workingmen's
cottages were commenced; splendid residences along the shady
boulevard around the lake gradually took form; great factory
buildings along the railroads arose day by day, and a belt
line of railroad began to encircle the town. By the
end of 1891 there was a population of nearly 2,000 people
settled on the Old Coventry farms of the year before.
The reader should be cautioned that this was not a "boom"
town; that its growth was not like the mushroom towns of the
western mining regions; that the buildings were not
temporary structures to be replaced later by a more
substantial construction. Here were no rough pine
store buildings, no tents, no "slab" saloons or groceries.
On the contrary, severe building restrictions were
incorporated in each deed of land and were strictly enforced
by the grantors. The residences around the lake would
be a credit to any city. The store-buildings were
mainly of brick and each factory building was of the most
modern steel, brick and stone construction. Indeed,
the thing which most impressed the visitor in those early
days was the substantial, permanent character of all he saw
about him. During that first year the construction of
the magnificent Barberton Inn was commenced. No city
in Ohio had a better hotel at that time. The fine
railroad station and the Bank building were also started.
In a few months more than a million dollars had been
invested in permanent improvements. The old farms had
disappeared forever; the walls of Barberton had arisen to
endure so long as men shall buy and sell.
The founder of Barberton was Ohio Columbus
Barber, the president of the Diamond Match Company,
the American Sewer-pipe Company and a hundred other
companies, and the boy who, in the fifties, had peddled
matches which his father had dipped by hand in the little
frame building in Middlebury. Early in 1890 he
associated with himself Charles Baird,, John K. Robinson
and Albert T. Paige, and together they purchased
nearly 1,000 acres of land. Later in the year they
sold an undivided one-half interest in their holdings to
George W. Crouse, Sr., and a Pittsburg syndicate, the
head of which was M. J. Alexander. In May,
1891, these men organized themselves as "the Barberton Land
and Improvement Company," with Mr. Barber as its
president. One-half of the stock was owned and held by
the four men of the stock was owned and built by the four
men first above mentioned. Their first endeavor was to
bring to Barberton as many manufacturing establishments as
possible. They organized many themselves. By
1892 the following big concerns were doing business in the
new city and employing many hundreds of workmen, namely:
The National Sewer Pipe Company, with a capital invested of
a quarter million of dollars and employing 200 men; the
American Strawboard Company, capital $6,000,000, and
employing 200 men; the Sterling Boiler Company, capital,
half a million, workforce, 300; Kirkum Art Tile Company,
$300,000, 500 employees; Creedmore Cartridge Company,
$500,000, men employed, 200; the American Alumina Company,
$500,000, employees, fifty; the United States Company
capital one million, men employed, 150. Mr. Barber
was made president of all these companies, as well as of the
Barberton Savings Bank Company, with a capital of $100,000.
The other men interested with him were elected directors and
offices in nearly all these companies. The next year
the great corporation, known as the Diamond Match Company,
and which had its principal factory i Akron, began the
construction of its vast factory on the line of the
Cleveland, Akron and Columbus Railroad just south of the
station. When completed, the entire Akron plant was
moved to Barberton and the working population of the town
was thus increased by nearly a thousand persons. The
Creedmore Cartridge Company was soon absorbed by the
Cartridge trust, to the great profit of the local promoters,
and the plant dismantled. The buildings, however, did
not long remain idle, for the Alden Rubber Company was later
organized and its business grew so rapidly that large
additions to the original buildings were soon necessary.
Before the end of the decade had been reached the Columbia
Chemical Company, with its millions of capital and its
hundreds of employees, had come within the zone of
Barberton's activities. Its part of the town and it
has been one of the big industrial successes of the place.
About the same time the Pittsburgh Valve and Fittings
Company was added to the long list of industries
successfully doing business in Barberton. So, we say,
advisedly, that Barberton will endure so long as men engage
in commerce. Its foundation is as substantial as any
business community in the world. It has shown a
remarkable power to rally from reverses. It has had
several such. The Kirkum Art Tile Company ceased to do
business after its large plant had been entirely wiped out
by fire. The Barberton Pottery Company, after an
unsuccessful career, was finally sold in bankruptcy
proceedings. One of Barberton's two banks also found
the stress of competition too severe and succumbed.
There were other failures which also brought great losses
upon Barberton people, but they are all infinitesimal in
comparison with the colossal successes which have been won.
Barberton today is a splendid monument to American energy
and sagacity.
The census of 1900 was the first in which the name of
Barberton appeared. The total population then was
4,354. Today it is probably in the neighborhood of
7,000. The present officials are: Mayor,
James McNamara; clerk, George Davis; treasurer,
E. A. Miller; marshal, David Ferguson.
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP.
Green and Franklin are the southern
townships of the county, and originally were part of Stark
County, being inhabited by the descendants of the Germans of
Pennsylvania, or, as they are familiarly called,
"Pennsylvania Dutch." Summit County is made up of
fourteen townships from Portage and Franklin and Green from
Stark, the formation taking place in 1840. Vigorous
opposition arose on the part of Stark to this separation,
both because of natural affection for the parent Dutch stock
and on account of the geographical location of the new
county seat at Summit. At that time it was said that
the Ditch and Yankees could not mix, but, like all idle
assertions, time has shown the absurdity of that remark.
Franklin is noted in natural features for the
possession of numerous small lakes. The Tuscarawas, in
early days a much larger stream than at present, offered a
water supply apparently unfailing, and Turkeyfoot Lake
seemed to hold out large promise. The coal deposits
have always been large and during the first settlements the
cranberry crop was an unfailing source of revenue, great
quantities of this berry being sent east. The peach
crop was also large, and from this a compound known as peach
brandy was made, and thoroughly tasted before shipment
abroad. In 1833 distilleries were established, but
flourished for a comparatively short time. The more stable
product of lumber enriched the possessors of forest, and
great quantities of it were shipped up to Cleveland, and
from thence of the more distant Lake ports.
The early settlements of Franklin were Cartersville and
Savannah. The first was named for a Wheeling Quaker,
who owned large tracts of land on which his town was
located. Inability to withstand the encroachments of
the rivers made this place speedily uninhabitable, and
shortly after its founding, 1806, it was abandoned. In
1816 David Harvey planted and planned the town of
Savannah, but after a struggle of ten years, this settlement
yielded to the superior merits of Clinton. The latter
had all the advantages resulting from proximity to the
canal. Clinton was originally laid out in 1816, and
from the first was a consistent business mart. It
became the center of business for several adjoining
counties. Large storehouses for grain were erected,
doctors, lawyers and merchants settled there, and the
increased shipment of coal made the town a variable
emporium. After flourishing till about 1850, Clinton
declined in influence and, owning to the encroachment of
Akron and several allied towns, decreased in power and
influence. The passing of the railroad beyond its
borders consigned it permanently to the role of the rural
village. The town of Manchester was started in 1815,
and, being inland in location, never rose to anything like
the business gait of Clinton, but, nevertheless, ahs had a
steady, substantial growth.
The township organization took place in 1817.
Previous to that, in 1811, it, with Green and Lake and
Jackson. Townships of Stark, had had one set of
officers. In matters of education and religion
Franklin has been second to none. While it is somewhat
uncertain as to the first teacher, yet it seems that a
Mr. Mishler has that honor. Rev. J. W. Hammond
was the first preacher and varied the language of his
sermons according, as the majority of his hearers were
German or English speaking. The township has an
honorable Civil War record, and was very active in the
promotion of the celebrated "Underground Railroad."
At the present time Franklin has a tax valuation on all
its property of over a million dollars and from her people
have gone forth men who have served with fidelity and
intelligence in all the walks of life.
The township has given to pubic life Hon. Hugh R.
Caldwell, judge of common pleas; Hon. John Hoy,
judge of common pleas; Hon. Jacob A. Kohler
representative, 1883-85; attorney general of the State of
Ohio, 1886-88, and judge of common pleas, 1900-1906.
GREEN TOWNSHIP.
Green, the sister township of
Franklin, has had a varied experience. In the first
place her Indian history, like that of all early
settlements, has been full of romance. Turn as we may
from time to time to the old stories, as we read that of
Green the thought of the sufferings and hardships of those
pioneers in conflict with the red man must absorb our
attention. What battles were fought there we may not
known, but from time to time great masses of flint
arrow-heads have been turned up, also an old mass of stones
with its awful suggestion of an altar for human sacrifice -
was the first settler, but the consensus of opinion gives
that honor to John Kepler, with others claiming that
it was either William Triplett or John Curzen.
A distant township organization was effected in
1814, and in 1840 occurred the separation from Stark County
with the promise that there should be no tax on public
buildings in the township till 1890. Probably the
nearest Green ever came to a boom was the event surrounding
the organization and upbuilding of the Seminary. This
was a Methodist school, started in 1854, with a capital of
$2,000, divided into shares of $50 each. At one time
some one hundred and thirty students attended the seminary
and it passed through various stages till its final decline
about 1875.
The towns of Green are: Greensburg, founded in
1828 by David Baer; East Liberty, founded in 1839 (as
might be expected these towns have been rivals in a quiet
way, but this feeling has shown itself chiefly in political
contests); Myersville, founded about 1876, has importance
chiefly because it has railroad facilities and has shown
some elements of steady and vigorous growth.
George w. Crouse was reared in Green Township.
He has served as county treasure, State senator, 1885-87,
and federal representative, 1887-90.
RICHFIELD TOWNSHIP.
Richfield, like the other
townships of the Western Reserve, became the separate
property of individuals upon the drawing of lands conducted
by the Connecticut Land company. It was settled soon
after by families who came from Connecticut and
Massachusetts. The first settler was Launcelot
Mays, who came in 1809. The township was organized
in April, 1816, and John Bigelow was elected clerk;
Isaac Welton, treasurer; William Jordan, Daniel
Keys and Nathaniel Oviatt, trustees, and Isaac
Hopkins, constable. The population then was in
excess of 150. In 1840, it had grown to 1,108.
In 1818 a Union church organization was effected, which, in
a few years, became the First Congregational Church.
The Methodists, Baptists and United Brethren also organized
societies very early in the history of the township and have
been uniformly prosperous, thus indicating the sound basis
upon which society in Richfield is built. The
influence of Richfield has always been exerted in behalf of
the personal and civic virtues. Her schools are among
the best in the country. In 1836 the Richfield Academy
was opened and attracted many pupils from outside the
township. Some of its graduates afterwards acquired a
national fame. It afterwards became the East High
School, was burned in 1887 and replaced by a fine modern
building. There is also a brick high school building
at the West Center. Richfield Center is composed of
two parts - the East Center of the West Center, situated
about a mile apart. Both centers had a hotel and a
post-office. The West Center has now a fine hotel
which is the equal of any of the rural hotels in the county.
Of late years Richfield has been gaining prestige as a
summer resort, many earthy Cleveland families coming here to
spend the summer. Owing to the lack of transportation
facilities. Richfield has never had any manufacturing
industries. Mr. H. B. Camp, of Akron, is now
(1907) promoting a railroad from Cleveland to Akron, which,
if built, will pass through the centers. In mercantile
life, however, many of her citizens have been successful.
Among such may be mentioned William C. Weld, Everett
Farnam, George B. Clarke, Frank R. Brower, Henry C. Serles,
Baxter H. Wood. The hotels have been successful in
the hands of Lewis P. Ellas and Fayette Viall.
Other village enterprises which have been successfully
conducted, some of them for many years, owe their success to
John Ault, Peter Allen, Seth Dustin, T. E. Ellsworth, Z.
R. Townsend, C. P. Townsend, S. E. Phelps, Henry Killifer,
Michael Heltz, C. F. Rathburn, Henry Greenlese, Percy
Dustin, Samuel Fauble, George L. Dustin, Julius C. Chapman,
Asa P. Carr and E. D. Carr. Mention should be made
of the tile factory built by Ralph Farnum and
Berkly S. Braddock. The former was an expert in
ceramics, and a large factory and pottery was built upon the
old Farnam farm about 1890. About the same
time, these two gentleman equipped the finest stock farm in
Summit County for the raising of fine horses and cattle.
One stallion alone cost them $5,000. The tile industry
proved unremunerative, owing to the long distance from a
railroad. Both men sunk their large private fortunes
in these enterprises. Ralph Farnam
afterwards went to New Jersey and was very successful in the
tile business. The old farm finally passed into the
possession of Charles P. Brush, of Cleveland.
Richfield gave over 150 men to the cause of the Union in
1861-65. Two men of national fame have gone forth from
Richfield in the persons of Russell A. Alger and
Samuel B. Axtell. The present township clerk is
R. H. Chapman and O. B. Hinman is justice of the
peace.
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP.
Springfield Township was
first settled in1806, when Ariel Bradley moved from
Suffield to what is now the village of Mogadore. Other
early settlers were Thomas Hale, Benjamin Baldwin, John
Hall, James Hall, Nathan Mooore, Reuben Tupper, Abraham
DeHaven, the Ellet family, the Norton family,
Patrick Christy, James McKnight, William Foster et
alii. The township was organized in April, 1808.
The manufacturing of the township is all in the pottery
line, as great beds of potter's clay are found here.
Coal is also mined. Mogadore is the principal village
North Springfield, Brittain, Thomastown, Millheim and
Krumroy are also flourishing hamlets. Springfield
furnished nearly 150 men to the Federal armies in the Civil
War. At the present time J. Ira Emmet is
township clerk, and R. C. Gates, Milo White and M.
S. Mishler are justices of the peace.
STOW TOWNSHIP.
Stow Township is named after
Joshua Stow, the original proprietor by grant from
the Connecticut Land Company. The first settler in
this township was William Walker, who in 1802, came
from Virginia. He was followed in 1804 by William
Wetmore, who built a house at what is now called "Stow
Corners." Other pioneers were Gregory Powers, John
Campbell, John Gaylord, Adam Steele, George Darrow, Erastus
Southmayd, James Daily, Isaac Wilcox and David
Ruggles. The township was organized in 1808.
It is now best known as the location of Silver Lake, a
summer resort which is spreading its fame country-wide.
Since the death of R. H. Lodge, his family have
wisely continued his policies, under which great prosperity
came upon Silver Lake. Near by are two other beautiful
lakes - Wyoga and Crystal Lake. Stow township
also contains Monroe Falls, a village on the Cuyahoga River
a few miles above Cuyahoga Falls. This village was
founded in 1836 by Edmond Monroe, a wealthy
capitalists of Boston, Mass. A number of mills had
been erected there to make use of the water-power afforded
by the falls of the river. Up to the advent of the
Monroe organized the "Monroe Falls Manufacturing Company,"
and built a large store, many residences and the mill which
is now used for the manufacture of paper. The township
furnished 104 men to the country when our national life was
threatened in 1861. W. Nicerson is now township
clerk and Noel Beckley and W. R. Lodge are
justices of the peace.
TWINSBURG TOWNSHIP.
The first settlement of Twinsburg
Township was made in April, 1817, and the honor of being the
first settler belongs to Ethan Alling, who was then a
mere boy of 17 years, sent on by his father to prepare for
the later coming of the Alling family. Moses Wilcox
and Aaron Wilcox, twin brothers, were also among the
very earliest settlers. They were also among the
original proprietors, as was Isaac Mills, who gave
the township its first name "Millsville." The
Wilcox twins afterwards persuaded the settlers to let
them name the township, which they did, calling it Twinsburg
in honor of their relationship. The township was
organized in April, 1819. The first officials were
Frederick Stanley, Lewis Alling, Luman Lane, Samuel
Vail, Elisha Loomis, and Elijah Bronson. Ethan
Alling died in 1867, and by his will left eight shares
of the stock of the Big Four Railroad Company to the mayor
of the city of Akron for the purpose of having the
dividends, declared thereon, being used to buy clothing, so
that destitute children might be enabled to attend
Sunday-school. These dividends are being use for this
purpose at the present day, being turned over to the city
poor director of the mayor upon their receipt. As
early as 1822 both the Methodists and Congregationalists
organized churches in Twinsburg. The latter built a
church in 1823 and the present one of 1848. The
Methodists built churches in 1832 and 1848. The
Baptists organized in 1832 and built a church in 1841.
In 1843 "The Twinsburg Institute" was opened by Samuel
Bissell, which was one of the most successful
educational institutions in the county. The beautiful
soldiers' monument on the Public Square was dedicated July
4, 1867. One hundred and twenty-eight men of Twinsburg
went to the front during the Civil War. From 1856 to
1870 "The Twinsburg Fair" was one of the great features of
agricultural life in this vicinity. At the present
time, E. J. McCreery is township clerk, and A. J.
Brown and Isaac Jayne are justices of the peace.
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