Portage County, Ohio - Chapter 7, 1885

Chapter 7

Iktkrkal Improvemkxts - Thk Gukat Indian- Trail - Pionker Roads of Portage CouKTY - Mail Faculities and Letter Postage - Stack Hol te.s and DniTERa - Oakals - EARI.T Cahal LnoiSLATioN - Tiib Ohio Canal Commenced and Completed - Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal - The Efforts Made to Have it Built - Its CoNSTRrcTiON and Completion - First BoAT> Auuivi: AT Ravenna - SunsE(>ri:NT 8i'( ri:ss of the Enterprise- Cai .ses Which Led to its Abandonment - Kailroaiks - Clkn eland & Pittsburgh - Cletelani) A Mahonino Valley - Atlantic & Great Western - Cleveland, Youngstoww APittsbxjroh - Connotton Valley - Pittsburgh, Cleveland & Toledo - Th£ Froposbd Clinton Air LnvE, and

Thb Gxmbral Railroad Faoiutiss Of Tbb Couhtt

AS a matter of neceeaify, almost the hrst thing to be done after the settler airiTed was to cat out a road; in feet, it bad often to be dono before ha xaaehed his land, and in many instances days of weary work in anderbroahing a path through the primitive forest intervened before he could luovo forward with his ox teams and rude wagon. This latter necessity was the origin of ^ the first road in the county constructed by white men. When Benjamin Tappan, Jr., in the spring of 1799, as detailed in Ohapter IV. of the county history, nrrivod at a point on tlio Cuyahoga where now is the town of Boston, Summit County, he unloaded his goods, and placinj^ them in charge of one of his hired men, proceeded, with the assistance of Benjamin Bigsby, to cut out a road to hia father's land, now known as Bavonna. After worldng two or three days, Tappan struck the great Indian trail which croBse<l the Cuyahoga at Standing Rock, a short dirftanco oast of the present site cf Kent. Following this trail, he soon reached the spot where he erected hi» lirbt cabin, in the exactly at the southeast comer. This great trail had been us^ from time immemorial by the aborigines, and was their main thoroughfare in the upper portion of Ohio. It extended from Fort Mcintosh, where Beaver, Penn., now is, to Palmyra Township; thence passing through Edinburg, Ravenna and Franklin Townships^ left Portage County, going northwestwardly to Sandnsky. As early as 1786 Col. James Hillraan, one of the pioneers of the Woflt, who afterward lived to an advanced age in Youngstnwn, made six trips over this route, he being engaged in forwarding goods and provisions for a firm in Pittsburgh. The road is said by old settlers to have been very eompaet and Ihrm.

Ahont the same time thnt Benjamin Tajipan cnt his road, one was underbrushed from Atwater to Georgetown. Penn., for the purpose rif obtaining provibiouB. Capt Caleb Atwater, Jonathan Merrick, Peter BuuuoU and Asa Hall did the work. The road was about forty miles long, and ran through Atwater and Deerfield Townships, it being the present east and west center road of those subdivisions. Ebenezer Sheldon uIpo had cut a road from the center of Aurora Township in 1799, that ran northwestwardly until it intersected a bridle path to Cleveland. In Nelson Township an east and west eeu' ter road was out ontshortly after the Mills brothers settled in that section. In 1802 the road running north from Ravenna through Shalersville and Mantua Townships, to Barton, Summit County, was laid out, but it was several years nntil it was eompleled. Also^ in 1802 a road from Warren to Cleveland, whieh ran through the center of Hiram and Mantua Townships, was begun. In 1804- 05 a road was cut from the center of Rootstown Township eastward to intersect the great road from Pittsburgh to Cleveland, which passed through the center of Edinbnrg Township. Not hoe from this time a toad horn Ruidolph Center, standing at the esrsek just west of the Center, was ont to a point on tiie line between Rootstown and Edinburg Townships, and from thence running northwardly. There was ako a horse path to Canton, and a trail to Atwater. In 1906 Amzi Atwater sorveyed a road from his plaee in Mantua Townships along the south line of Hiram Township to Garrett's Mills in Nelson, and m 1806 another was cut out running westward to Aurora. About the same time a road was cat through Windham Township to Braceville, running thence to Warren, and is now known as the State Road. In 1808 Alva Day, of Deerdeld Township, and Charles Chittenden, and Cromwell and Walter Dickinson, of Randolph Township, cut out and bridged the road from old Portage to the Seventeenth Range, west of Medina. In 1809 Erastus Carter, of Ravenna, and Lemuel Punderson, of Newburg, laid out a road from Ravenna through Rootstown and Randolph Townships toward Canton, as far as the south line of the connty, bnt it wafi not completed in Stark County till 1812. This road afterward hecame the great north and south route over which J. O. Granger ran his four-hurBO stage line. In 1817 David Mcintosh cut the center road through from Bhalscaville Township to Freedom, at whieh time the latter township was an unbroken wildeniees, the first settler not airiving till the fol> lowing year.

Mail facilities were extremely meager in the early days, and months would elapee before news conld rea^^ tiie settlen in their new homes. Am late as the spring of 1801 Pittsburgh and Meudville, Penn., were the nearest postoffioes to the Western Reserve, and in October of that year the tirst mail arrived at Warren, Ohio. Postage, even to a much later date, was high, and frequently a bushel of wheat was rmised as payment on a single letter; A considerable number of letters were permitted to pass to the dead !< ti ci office, and in the advertised lists of letters at the Ravenna postoffice, published in tjie Courier of 1825-20, can be seen the namee of many prominent citizens who at the time lived within a thrdw ot the offioa John Diver, of Deerfield* was one of the earliest mail contractors and carriers oo the Reserve. He had the contract for canying the mail from New Lisbon to Mansfield, via Canton and Wooeter, and was in the business over forty years. The Cleveland & Wellsville Tompiko was finished in 1827 and became a great thoroughfare. It entered the ooimlj in Streetsboro Township, passed diagonally across BsTenna, Edii^borg and Deerfield and loft the county in the southeast comer of the last named township. Lines of stage routes were also opened east and west and north and sonth about the same time as the Cleveland ft Wellarille Tnmpike.

The old stage ooadi was an institution of those early days, and was, of course, the only means of traveling long distances. Several lines of them passed through this coanty, and Jabez Gilbert, of Palmyra Township, was the most noted cviTer and mail contraotor in all this region. In the Wettem OouT' ier of April 1, 1826, the editor lays: '*Tbe line of Htagee between Pittsburgh and Cleveland have always been more or less irregular, but nrrangementfl now are made by Mr. Gilbert, the enterpriaiDg proprietor of this end of the line, to prevent theie irregularities. * - * He has been at the expense of anew stage, which, instead of two, is to be drawn by four horses. * * -phe line is now completely established from Pittsburgh to Cleveland, and will run regularly twice a week. " In the same month a line of stages is announced to mn from Beaver to Cleveland twiee a week. The ronte was through a portion of this county, and was much traveled, as it intersected at Stow, now in Summit County, a line that ran due sonth to the interior of the State. August 5, 1820, J. O. Granger advertises in the Courier that he will run regularly twice a week a line of staeee from Fairport, at the mouth of Grand Eiver, to Canton, through Painesville^ Chardon and Ravenna, and the editor, spesking of this now evidence of improvement, says: "Few country towns possess equal facilities for the receipt and transmission of private and public docuiocDts; there being 728 arrivals and departures of mails within the year at and from Ravenna." In November the Pittsbnrgh and Cleveland line^ ran by Jabea Gilbert, John Stokes and Horace Danieln, wag increased to three trips per week. In August of this yenr ( 1S2G) the new bridge across the Cuyahoga at Carthage (Kent) was completed; and early in the following year a line of stages woe put on the road that passed over it, mnning from Ravenna to Middleburfj (now Akron) By this date rond'^ hnd been opened in every part of the county, which throuc^h the passin;j; yeart^ have been greatly improved, while many others were built from time to time as the wants of the country demanded.

CanaU. - The sabjset of canal bnilding began to be eagerly diseossed in this portion of tlie Union during the first quarter of the present century; but this system of navigation met with conBiderable opposition from sections of the State off the lines of the proposed routes. Canal construction was one of the first great measnres to wmoh Ohio gave attention, and aa early as Jannarj, 1S17, a resolution on the subject of canal navigation between Lake Erie and the Ohio River was introduced into the Legislature. In 1822 a bill was passed authorizing a survey of four several routes, viz.: From Sandusky Bay; from the Manmee River; from the month of the Cuyahoga River, or the Black River, by the ^luskingnm; and from the mouth of the Grand River, I'ia the Mahoning, to the Ohio. At the next session of the Legislature the Canal CoramiKsioners reported all of the routes practicable, but requested further time to ascertain the comparative advantages of each. At the session of 1828-S4 the ronte through the upper part of the Muskingum, the Licking, and the lower part of the Scif)to Valleys was recommended; but they also called attention to the advantaged of the route by way of the Miami Valley.

In the sammer of 1824 two lines of canal were located, onf» from Cincinnati to the Maomee River, and one from the month of the Scioto to Coshocton, and tlMnoe hf one of three diiferent rontee to Lake Eria By an act passed February 4» 1825, the Canal ComnMioiiflni were authorised to begin work on tfaeee two canal routes. The western route received the namo of the Miami Gaaal, while the eastern was called the Ohio Caual, and the line of the latter, fram Goehoeloii norlliwaxd, was established bj way of the Tosoarawas Biver, to the month of the Oojahoga, passing from eonth to north through what was then the western range of townRlnps of Portacjje County. Bids for the several sections of the Ohio Canal were advertised for in May, 1825, and by the middle of Jtme several miles were under oontraoi It was thought that the breaking of the first ground would take plaoe at Portage Snmmit, then in Portage County, and that Gen. LaFayette, who at that time was on a visit to America, would attend, bat the ceremony oootirred July 4, 1825, at Licking Summit, on wfaieb date that celebrated Frenchman had promised to be in Boston. The invited guests, however, included many notables of the State and Nation. Gov. DeWitt Clinton, of New York, raised the first spadeful of earth, and ex-GoT. Jeremiah Morrow, of Ohio, the second. Hon. Thomas £wiug, of Lancaster, Ohio, was the orator on the oooasion. An immense crowd hml gathered and the Rceue was one of great excitement. The canal was completed from 01eTe» land to Akron in 1827, and three years afterward navigation was opened via the Ohio Canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio Kiver.

The construction of the Pennsylvania &, Ohio Canal from the Portage Smnmit to Pittsburgh, began to be mooted early in 1825, and doring the summer of that year a number of f^entlomen along the line of the proposed route made explorations. On the tith of September, 1825, a meeting of citizens of Trumbull and Portage Counties was held at the Court House in Eavenna to take into consideration the praetieability and policy of oonstmcting a eanal from the mouth of Beaver River, via the Mahoning through the two counties to the Portage Summit. Alva Day was Chairman, and Darius Lyman Secretary of the meeting, which appointed Frederick Wadsworth, Dillingham Clark, Joshua Woodward, Eliakim Oosl^, William Wetmore^ Jonathan Sloane, Simon Perkins, EliaH Harmon, Amzi Atwater, and Calvin Pease a committee to collect information a.s to the most favorable rout« for the canal. The meeting then adjourned to September 14, when another was held and arrangements made tor a sorvey of the proposed nmta At the following session of uu» Ohio Legislature a bill waa intro<luceJ to incorporate the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal Company "for the sole purpose of making a navigable canal between some suitable point on the Ohio River, through the valley of the Mahoning River, to some soitable point on Lake Eris^ or to some snoh point on the Ohio Canal." Under the articles of incorporation, this act, if passed, was not to become a law until the Pennsylvania Legislature would grant similiar right3 and privileges to said company. The bill was read the Uiird time in February, 1826, bat farther aetion was postponed oatil flie nest session.

The people along the line were now thorooghly aroused, and in February, 182ft, a canal meeting was held at Ravenna, of which William Stoddard was Chairman and Cyrus Prentiss Secretary. The meeting appointed Seth Day, Jonathan Sloane and William Ooolraan, Jr., a eommitkee to obtain and communicate information on the advisibiliiy and practicability of building a canal from Pf)rtage Summit via the Mahoning and Big Beaver Valleys to IMttsliurgh. A similar meeting was held at Pittsburgh, March 4, with the same object in view. On the 7th of March another meeting was oonvened at Bavenna, with Jonathan Sloane Chairman and Seth Day Seeretary. Jonathan Sloans^ Seth

Bistort Of Fortaob Oouiitt

Day and Frederick Wadsworth were appointed to represent Portage Couuty in a canal convention of Ohio and Pennsylvania citizens at Beaver, Penn., wbieb was held Mareh 10. A canal meeting was also held at Warren, Ohio, on the 21flt of March, 1826; and on the 3d and 4ih of May following a very large convention assembled at Newcastle, Penn., in which twenty delegates from Allegheny, Mercer, Butler and Beaver Countiee, Penn., and Trumball and Portage Counties, Ohio, were in atlMidanoe. Those from Portage were Seth Day, Frederick Wadtaworth and Jonathan Sloane. This convention adjourned to meet at Warren, Ohio, October 25, 1826, on which date a bill for the incorporation of the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal iwas prepared. The next day the bill was appfoved and adopted, Jonathan Sloane and Frederick Wadsworth, of Portage County, being two of the incot [torators named in the instrument. This hil! was passed by the Legislature January 10, 1827, to take effect whenever the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted a similar charter. The latter State passed an act of incorporation in April, 1827, and the legal power for the couBtrncticm of this much cherished project was at last obtained. Jonnthan Sloane, then representing the Portage district in the Ohio Senate, was the aathor of the bill, and also of a resolution passed daring the same session anthoriztng the State Board of Oanal Commissioners to have the proposed route sorveyed and estimates made by a competent engineer the same Boason, and report to tbo next session of the Gpneral Assembly. Several surveys of the route were made but nothing positively decided at that time. The Courier in its iesne of July 8, 1829, annoanc^ the location of the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal through Kavonna, and says " the information was ^peted by tho inhabitants of this village by the discharge of a national salute, ^red near the located route south of the village, accompanied by hearty cheers." The survey was under the charge of Capt. Dumest, an accomplished engineer ai the United States Army.

Owing to ihn uncertainty as to tho point of intersection with the Pennsylvania Canal, and witnessing the steady progress that Ponnsylvania was making in extending her improvements towards the Ohio boundary, the Pennijlvania A Ohio Canal Company deemed it adriaable to postpone tiie opening of bootH for tho subscription of stock. The enterprise, therefore, lay dormant for several years, but in 1833 meetings began to be held alou^ the surveyed route, with the object of reviving the scheme. The friends of the project went vigoronsty to work, and Fdwoary 20, 1885, the charter, passed in 1827, was renewed and amended, and ton years, from December 31, 1835, given the company to complete the cunal. On the 13th of April, 1835, the JPennsylvania L^slature also passed a bill renewing the old charter. Sub* scription books for stock were opened at Philadelphia, April 27, 1885, and in less than one hour 1780,000, the amount of stock to which that city was limited, was all taken. The whole amount was placed at $1,U0(),(KX), and the remain- ing $2*20,000, allotted to Portage and Trumbull Counties, Ohio, and western Penn.sylvania, was all taken before the close of May. The stodc-holdws met at Newcastle, Penn., May 21, 1835, and elected the following Board of Directors: Abner Laycock, William Boyd, William Robinson, Joseph T. Boyd, William Raven, Leicester King and Jonathan Sloane; Abner Layoock, President; Zalmon Fitdi, Treasnrw; Leicester King, Secretary. Messrs. Sloane, Laeock and Rayen were appointed an Executive Gommittee to let contracts and transact and superintend any other business connected with the construction of the canal.

CoL Sefaried Dodge and James D. Harris were appointed Chief Engineers of Oonstmction, and with their corps began surveying on tiie Ravenna 8mn« mii, east of the village of Ravenna, June 8, 1835. By the middle of Augast the aurreT was completed, and on the 17th and 18th of that month oontracta vera let for the portion of the oanal west of Ravenna, but the weBtern terminus boing afterward changed to run by Cuyahoga Falls, tho contractB for the whole western diviaion, extending from the eaat line of Portage County to Akron, were re-let November 16, 1835. The several sections of the eastern diTision of tbe oanal, nimdiing from tho east lino of Portage Oonnty to near KoWflaatle, Penn., were put under contract August 10, September 21, and November II, 1835. The whole length of the canal from its intersection with the i'eunsyivania Canal, about two miles below Newcastle, Penn., to itb inter- -eotion with the Ohio Canal, at Akron, Ohio, was eighty-two miles. ** Feedera ** from the small lakes in the western section of Portage County w(>rp also built at the same time. The total estimated cost of the cnnal at that time wrs aboat $913,000. Tbe Kectioa east of Warren, according to the terms of the oontmoti, mm to be completed on or befoio SeptemMr 1, 1880, and that between Wanren and AJoon via Bavenna and FxanUin Mills (Kent), one year later.

The work of construction was begun at once and pushed forward vigorooaly. Hundreds of laboien found employment at good wages, bat finally on aooonnt of the stock-holden neglecting to pay their subscriptions according to contract, the work was greatly retarded, and the canal was not finished at the dates specified. Though the financee were very low, work was however oonlinned through the w&itar of 1886-87. In May, 1887, Got. Vanoe, in the name and on behalf of the State of Ohio, subscribed $450,000 to the stock of the canal, and as soon as the money could be raised, paid the first installment of $145,<X)0 to the Treasurer of the company. For a time, in the winter of 1^7-88, the work lagged, bat throogfaoat tiie balance of the f latter year the canal bed was rapidly opened through this county. In June, 1839, the Pennsylvania Legislature subscribed and paid $50, (XK) to the capital stock, which it was thought would complete the ccmal; and by April 1, 1840, it was expected to be finnhed and opened for business. These expectations were realiied, for the writer found in a report of the Harrison Convention, held at Ravenna, April 3, 1840. the proceedings of which were published in the next issue of the Ohio Star^ the following item relative to the canal:

Ii^m Trumbull County came first two crowded canal boats, with each a baod of music - the "Mohawk," of Beaver, and the "Tippecanoe," of Warren - the flxat thst «vw

On the 19th of April, 1840, the "Ohio City" arrived at Ravenna, on her - way to Pittsburgh, freighted with ashes, fish, etc. ; and on the following day the ^'Hiuon** arrived from Pittriiugh with merohandise^ the first bronght to

Ravenna by canal. Boats were now passinor Ravenna daily, to and fro, along the canal, and on the 4th of August, 1840, a celebration was held all along tiie Une^ Got. David R. Porter, of Pennsjlvania, and other disfcingaished eitizens being passengers on one of the esenrsion packets whioh made the trip.

Meetings were held at nearly every town on thp route of the canal, all expressive of a deep satisfaction over the successful completion and operation of the - grsat enterprise.

"Vor twelve years nothing occurred to mar the success of the canal, and throughout the summer of 1851 a lino of packets connected at Ravenna with the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad, which was completed to Ravenna early in that year. But in March, 1852, the railroad was finished to Wellsville, on the Ohio BiTor, and therefore a superior mode of truTel and shipment institoted between northem and sontbem Ohio and PennsylTania. It, however, did a coniparatively gocxi business for three or four years longer, or until the completion of the Cleveland &. Mahoning Valley Bailroadi, when ite trafiSc gradually dwindled away, and it became an unprofitable institution. In Jan> nary, 1863. the State Board of Public Works sold the stock owned by the State in the canal, being thp one third of the whole amount, to the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley liailroad Company, for the sum of $30,000, by which purdiaae CltiB road obtained a oonlrolling interest in the oanal, and ttraa sounded ite death knell. In December. 1803, tho warehouse at Ravenna was sold, and though an occasional lx>at floated lazily along its sluggish waters, its day of usefulness and prosperity had passed away, and it was gradually abandoned. Ita bed, which niiia duroo^ Pttiris, Gharleetown, Bavenna and B^ramklin Townahips, Portage County, is now occupied by the Pittsburgh, Cleveland & Toledo Railroad, but nothing remains to be seen bj the casual obearyer, save here and there portions of its old channel

Sailroad$. - Up to the oloae of 1860, ISO eharten tot the oonatmotioii of railroads had been granted by the General Assembly of Ohio, and the work was fairly under way for the net-work of roads now covering the State. The year 1851 introduced a new era and an entire revolution on the subject of railroad legislation. Daring tho aesaion of the General Aaaembly fhia yecr, twenty-one raihroad charters were granted, and over forty amendments were made to those already in existence. The c}iart<>r8 and amendments all contained power and authority to borrow money, and thirty-six of the amendments aoihonsed ooontieai eitiea» towns or iownahipa to aobBoribe stodL The door was thrown as wide open as lagiilalion eonld go to enable railroad oompaniea to borrow money and procure stock subscription.

The Cleveland &, Pittsburgh Railroad Company was the first corporation to obtain a charter from which Portage County aabeequently reaped a benefit It was granted under a special aet passed March 14, ISSH, vesting that company with the right to construct a railroad from Clovoland to some point on the State line between Ohio and Pennsylvania, or on the Ohio River, in the direction of Pittsburgh. But little or nothing was done under the rights thus granted, and an act of revival and amendment was passed March 11, 1845. By the acts of February 10. I S 10, March 9, 1850, and February 19, 1851, certain branching privileges were granted, under which the roads from Bayard to New Philadelphia, and from Hudson eouthwest into Wayne County were subsequently built On the 8th of April, 1850, an act was passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature authorizing the company to extend ita railroad from the eastern line of Ohio up the valley of the Ohio River to a point at or near the month of the Big Beaver. The same Commonwealth also passed an act April 18, 1858, adopting the two first named acts of this State, and making the company a corporation of Pennsylvania with all the rights and powers granted by the Ohio acts. Under those various acts the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad Company constructed 199J miles of railroad (not including the branch from Hudson, whic^ was built by a separate company), extending from Oleveland to "Wellsville, and thence down the Ohio River to Bellair, and frtnn Wellsvilleup the Ohio to Rochester, and the Tuscarawas Branch from Bayard to New Philadelphia.

company began laying the track between Cleveland and Ravenna On tho evening of March 6, 1.S51, the last rail connecting these points was laid and the last spike driven about one mile southeast of Hudson, and Monday morning, March 10, the first passenger train left RaTenna for Clevelud, retnming the same evening. The first ronnd trip from Cleveland was made on tiie following Thursday, March 13, 1851, when the locomotive "Ravenna," drawing one car tilled with Diroctors of the road, came down from the city to examine the progress of the work. On the 18th of March regular daily trains began nmniDg, coimMtiDg at Ravenna with a packet on the Ohio & PemugrlTania Canal, which ran to Beaver, Ponn., whore the traveler took the steamer for Pittnlnirgh. The trip was mado in twenty six hours, and the fare from Cleveland lu Pittsborgh was ^'S.bO including meals and bed on the boat At that time a daily train (esoapt Simda3r8) left Cleveland at 8:80 A. M., anrivad at Ravenna at 10:30 A. M., and left the latter point for Cleveland at 2:30 P. M. But after the Ist of April, 1851, an accommodation left Ravenna every morning (excepting Sunday) for Cleveland, and retomod in the evening, so thai, at mk early day, Savanna anjoyed traveling f aeUitieB that many oonntry towna do not even yet possess.

The first week the road averaged 175 passengers daily, besides carrying considerable freight, and from that time forward ita business increased rapidly. A telegraph offiee was opened in Bavenna, in connection with the road, April 22, 1851, wht(^ waa the first established in the village. The work on the road south of Ravenna was pushed alon^^ vif^oronfily. and by May 28, 1851, about eight miles of track were laid between Ravenna and Atwater. The track waa being put down at the rate of half a mile a day, and tiefera the eloae of J nne a passenger car on the constrootion train was making daily tripa to Atwater, Lima and Alliance, and many availed themselvee of the accommodation thos afforded. The cars began running to Hanover, about seventy- hve miles eonthaaat of Oleveland, lu>vember 5, 1851, there connecting with the stage for WoUsville on the Ohio River, and thence to Pittsburgh by a special line of steamers. Leaving Cleveland at 8:45 A. M., the traveler arrived at Pittsburgh at 10 P. M. the same day. The last rail completing the road to Wellaville was laid on Saturday, February 14, 1852, and the same evening the eata oame through from Wellsville to Ravenna. But the first passenger train came over the line from M'ellsville to Cleveland February 23. and Febrnary 2^^ reo;ular trains began running between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. On Thursday, March 4, 1852, a grand celebration was held at Wellsville over the completion of the road, and on the following day at Wheeling, WeetYa. The line was Buhseqnently bnilt to Bellaire, Ohio, and RoclieHter, Penn. At the latter point the Cleveland \' Pittshnrt^'h connects with the Pittsburgh. Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, which track it uses from Rochester to l^ittsburgh, under a twenty- five-year lease entered into between the two companies December 15, 1862, which went into efToct April 1, 1803. On the 25th of October, 1871, the Cleveland it Pitt.'^bnrcjh Railroad Company leased its road to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for the term of 099 years from December 1, 1871. The Oloveland ft Pittsborgh Railroad entere Portage County in the southwest Ocroer of Streetsboro Township, and thence passing in a southeast direction across Franklin, Ravenna. Rootstown, Ediuburg and Atwater Townships, leaves the county on Lot 51 of the last mentioned subdivision. It is one of the most prosperous roads in the country, and pays a large annual dividend to its stock holders.

The Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railroad Company was chartered by a special act passed February 22, 1848, with authority to construct a railroad from Oleveland to some point in or near Warren, Ohio, with the right of continuing the road to the east line of the State. The road was bnilt under this charter from ('levpland in Younj^stown, and a branch from Youngstown to the State line. It enters Portage County near the northwest corner of Aurora Townshipi and passes through Autots, Mantua, Hiram, Gairettsville^ NelsMi and Windham Townships, striking the Tmmball County line near the north> east corner of Windham. Most of the grading was done and the track partially laid through this county in the fall of 1855. The Portage County Democrat of November 7, 1855, says that the rails were then laid between Warren and Mantiia Station, and oonstmotioB trains running between those points. In the spring of 1S50 the roail was completed to Cleveland, and July 4 of that year regular trains began running from Cloveland to Warren. The road east of Warren was, after that date, rapidly pushod to completion. On the 7th of Ootober, 1868, the e/omgnaj laaned the load to the Atlantic k Ghceat Western Railroad Company for the term of ninely-nine jeazs, aod it has since lieen operatt'd as a hrauch of that lino.

The Atiauiic 6i, Great Western Kaiiroad is one of the principal trunk lines between the Bast and the West It had its inception in tlwee different ehurten granted in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, that granted by the last-men^ tioned State being the one in which Portage County is more directly interested. On the 10th of March, 1851, the Ohio Legislature granted a charter to the fVanklin & Warren Bailroad Company, for the ooostnietion of a railroad fnnn Franklin Mills (Kent), Portage County, to Warren, Trumbull County, and thence to the east line of the State, with power to continue the road westward or Houthwestward from Franklin Mills to connect with any other railroad in Ohio. On the 21st of May, 1851, the company was organized by the following incorporators: Marvin Kent, Zenas Kent, L. Y. Bierce, Thomas Earl, O. L. Drake, Cyrus Prentiss, Simon Perkins, H. B. Spelman, Charles Smith, Jacob Perkins. BufoB P. Banney, A. Y. Horr, Daniel Upson, Fred Kinsman and O. O. Sotlift Iforrin Kent, the leading spirit of the enterpriae, was elected President of the company July 8, 1851, and served five years continu* ously. He was again elected President in July, 1859, and re elected annually live times, serving in that capacity until the fall of 1864, when he resigned the office.

Another waU^loiOWn oiliMil of the eoonty, who from long connection witili the road deserves a passing notice, is Enos P. Brainerd, Esq. He became Treasurer of the company in January, 1855, and for nine soocessive jears was snnnally re-elected to the same posinon, idbleh ho resigned December 2, 1864. He was, however, retained as Assistant T^reasorer, and July 11, 1865, again elected Treasurer, but lost the office opon the consolidation of the three companies the following August.

In tiie meantime, during the sammer of 1852, aome gentlemen in Ohio and Pennsylvania had proposed the project of continuing the broad gauge of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad through Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania and southwestern New York. This grand plan for a great broad gauge from St. Louis to New York was subsequently submitted to the Directors of the three local oompanies of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York (the two last-n^ntioned having some years previously, under different titles, obtained charters covering the construction of roads in the same general direction), and favorable action taken thereon. By a decree of the Court of Common Pleas of Portage Oonnty, dated October 17, 1854, the name of thooompany in Ohio was changed to the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad Company. The Pennsylvania Company also changed its corporate name, by an act of the Legislature passed April 15, 1858, to the Atlantic & Great Western liaiiroad Company of Peanaylvania. The Atlantic & Great Western Bailroad Oompany of New York was incorporated the same year, and it was the intention to buil(l and operate these tliree roads as one line, so far as such ooold be done by contracts with each other.

On the 20th of April, 1860, the pii^inocrs commpncpd work nt Tflmefttown, N. Y., and on the 27th the contractors began grading. On the Sth of ^fay, 1860, the tirst rail was laid, and the tirst spike driven. In May, 1861, the tewsk was laid to Corry, I'enn. Work was soon afterward suspended end it was not until Octolior 22, l'>Cy2, that the road was opened to Mcadvillo, Ponn. During this tiino the work on the Ohio division wan prof^ressinf; very slowly, but in the spring of 1862 it was energetically commenced, and vigorously poshed throaghoat the The first week in November, 1802, two looomofive«? wero plaopd upon the track at Ravenna to aid in the work, and by the T2th of that month abont Hpven miles of track were laid east of that town. The telegraph othce of the Atlantic & Great Western Kailroad was opened in Kftveiina September 20, 1862, end the first dispatch eent over the wires to Corry, Penn., on that date. By December 10, 1862, the track between Ravenna and Warren was completed, and the construction trains freely runniiur from the latter town to a point four miles west of Bavenna; and January 4, ^88, the last rail, eonneotingf Warren and MeadTille^ was laid in plaoe.

On the 15th of January, 1863, thirteen freight cars loaded with rails arrived at Ravenna from New York over the new line, being the first oars direct from the eastern metropolis without change. On the evening of Febra- x ary 10, 1808, the first aooomodation train readied Barenna from Iffeadville. i ' The passengers were prindpally officers of the road. They were met at the depot (then a temporary frame building), by a number of leadin^^ citizens, taken in carriagee to the Collins House and handsomely entertained, returninsr | to Headville ttie following morning. The first frsigfat was sent over this road i from Ravenna to New York February 11, 1863, and consisted of a car load of flour from one of the mills in the town. Two days afterward ten barrels of sogar were received at Ravenna from New York, via the Atlantic & Great WeatsfB. A nffnlv aooomnuxlatioii train began rmming east from Bavenna Febrtiaiy 16, 1868. It made three tripe a week each way, and was only intended as a temporary arrangement to accommodate the people along the line until the fofttMr ocnnpletion of the road. Though the railis were laid and an aooommod^ttifi turning in oonneotion with the eonstnietion train, as far west aa KcB^ i^iFbbmary, 1863, the first through paasengsr train did not reach that town until Saturday, March 7, 1863. The passengers oonsieted of President Marvin Kent, Chief Engineer Thomas W. Kennard and other officials of the road, who made the trip from New York to Kent without change. Up to March 80, 1863, there were only three trains weekly each way, but on that date daily trains began running. Business grew rapidly, and by the 18th of May the company found it necessary to pat on two daily passenger trains each way to aooonunodate the traveling publio. On the 26ih of May, 1868, the line was completed to Akron, Deeember 27ih to Oalion, and in June, 1864, to Dayton, there taking the broad gauge track on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad to Cincinnati, which had been prepared for a connection to the new lina In August of the same year a train was mn from New York to St. I Louii), 1,200 milea of broad gauge, in forty-seven boors. j

Under an agreement of August 19, 1865, the three companies of Ohio Pennsylvania and New York were consolidated as the Atlantic it (xreat Western Railway Company. On the Ist of April, 1867, the road went into the hands of a reeeiver, and Deeember 7, l8o8, it was leased to the Erie Railway Company for the term of twelve years, hwt was only operated by them fonr months, when at the suits of creditors the courts of New York. Fonusylvania and Ohio again placed the road in the hands of receivers, ihe i^rie iiailway Ocmpany leased the road in Febmaiy, 1870, but in July* 1871, it was 80l4 tb6 purchasers re-orpanizing as the Atlantic Sc Great "WeBtem Railroad Company- The road again went into the hands of a receiver December 10, 1874, and January 6, 1880, was sold and its name changed to the New York, Penniylvanift St Ohio Baalrcwd. The track has been changed to the fltandud gmngtt of tho country. Tn Mnrch, it was leased for ninety-nine years to the Now

York, Lake Erie & Wostfrn Railroad Company, who still operate it. It strikes the east line of Portage County in Lot 50, Windham Township, and taking a general ooone throngh Windham, FMedom, OharlMtcmii, RavoDiia and Franklin, leaves the connty at the northwest comer of Brimfield Township. The machine shops at Kent which employ a large number of men, were located at that point by the iiourd of Directors April 5, 1854, thougJ& they were not built for mmy yean afterward.

The CleTeland, Youngstown & Pittsburgh Bailroad, which passes up the eastern side of Deerfiekl and Palmyra Townships and across the southeast comer of Paris, sprung from the Lake Erie, Alliance & Wheeling Bailroad, ahartered Febroacy 10, 1874, to ran fsom Fairport, on Lake Erie, to Wheeling, W. Ya. Early in 1870 the work of ootistruction was begun, and the road was completed the same year from Alliance, Stark Coinity, through Portage, to Newton Falls, in Trumbull County, and the following summer to Braceville. On the 9th of May, 1878, the road was sold, and on the 81at the puxxshaaera re-organized as the Alliance &. Lake Erie Bailroad Company, and in the UH ' of 1870 completed the road to Phalanx. It was originally a narrow gauge, bat July 14, 1882, a consolidation was effected with some other companies, under the title of the Oleveland, Tonogatown & Pittsburgh, and the road changed to a standard gauge.

The Connotton Vnlley Railway Company was formed by a consolidation of the Connotton Valley Kail;-oad Company and the Connotton Northern Bail way Company. The Youu>;btown & Connotton Valley Bailroad Company was incorporated Angnst 29, 1877, to construct a line of road from Bowerstown to Youngstown. Tn ISTs this company purchased the Ohio it Toledo Railroad, which consisted of u finished track from Dell Boy to Minerva, and in the fall of 1879 the route and terminus of the Youngstown & Connotton Valley was dianged, making Canton instead of Youngstown the northern terminoa. 1^ a decree of the Conrt of Common Plons, issued November 2(>, 1879, the name of the corporation wa.** changed to the Connotton Valley Kfiilroad Company. The CouQottou Northern Railway Company was chartered March 23, 1879, lo baild a road frcm Canton to Fairport on Lake Brie^ bat the northern tmniniis was afterward changed to Cleveland. When the Connotton Valley was built to Canton, and the Connotton Northern in course of construction, the two oompaniee saw that their interests would be better conserved by uniting, and ox^ ttie 25th of October, 1880, the consolidation was effected as the Connotton Valley Railway Company. The road is a narrow gauge, which entering Portage County on the southern line of Suffieltl Townshi]), takes a p^eneral northerly course through Sufiield, Brimtield, Franklin and Streetsl^oro Townships, and crosses into Snmmit Gonnty on Lot 7, in the sonthwest comer of Aurora Township. It was completed and trains nmning as far north as Mogadore by the close of June, 1881, and during the same year was finished and opened through to Cleveland.

The Pittsburgh, Cleveland & Toledo Railroad Company was incorporated April 28, 1882, to construct a road from Newcastle Junction, in Lawrence County, I'oiin., to Akron, Ohio. ^^^lIk was !>»>srnn .it once Hn^l pnsliod vigorously throughout 1882 and 1883, the track being laid through Portage Coun^ in the snmmer of the latter year. The road was opened tot business Fefamary

1, 1S84, bnt regular trains di<1 not begin runninfr nntil the 4th of March following. It follows the abandoned bod of the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal, through Paris, Chariestown, Ravenna and Franklin Townships, and has proven quite an aoquimtion to the railroad faeilities of the country throagh whieh it fkasses.

The foregoing are the only completBd railroads which touch Portage County territory, bat from 1853 to IhoO considerable grading was done on a proposed road called the Olinton Air lAtM. It entered the State at Kinsman on the Pennsylvania line, and passed southwest throagh Trnmball, Geauga, Portage, and Summit Counties, thence onward in the sarae general direction. It struck the northonDi boundary of Hiram Township, in Lot 4, and passed south west ttirongh Hiram, Mantoa and Aurora Townships to Hudson, Snmmit Ooontj, crossing the Cleveland ft Mahoning Talley Railroad near the boundary line between Mantna and Aurora. Some efforts have recently been made to revive the project, but so far nothing definite has been effected, and it is very doubtful if the road will ever be bnilt Portage Ooanty, however, is well supplied with railroads, few coontiee in the State being able to point to six roads passing through their territory. Randolph and Shalersville are the only townahipe in the county not touched by a railroad, jet railroad communications are so elose at hand that the inhabitante of those two townships probably derive as miuli real bencitt &n»i the roads as if th^ passed within sight of their doora.