739 research outputs found
The Kent Historian, Kent Historical Society Newsletter, Number 101, Summer 2021
No full textSpecial issue: In Memoriam
Remembering Roger DiPaoloTHE KENT HISTORIAN
September 2021
In Memoriam
Remembering Roger Di Paolo
By Sandra Halem President Emeritus KHS
In June 2009, Roger and I met at the Haymaker Farmer's Market in Kent and spoke once again about putting together a book about Kent history based on his Sunday Record-Courier newspaper columns. He had taken over the local history column after Loris Troyer had retired. It was his rightful inheritance. While Loris had learned his history as a transplant from Amish country, Roger was born to it. He absorbed the stories of his hometown as well as becoming an expert on all the small towns that made up his beloved Portage County.
As the Kent Historical Society Presi ent, 1 ha ma de publications a priority. We began a six-month accelerated timeline to a Christmas publica
tion assisted by "Team Roger," which included journalists Mary Louise Ruehr, Bob Springer, Kasha Legaza-Burton and her husband Jona, along with Roger, my husband Henry and me. We winnowed down hundreds of columns into categories but couldn't decide on a title. Roger settled on Rooted in Kent.
No one was more "rooted" here than
Jit.ne_3, lq5b -JLLne t't, ~o)J
Roger. He had been an award-winning reporter who could have taken his talents to a bigger city but leaving was unimaginable. Kent was everything Roger loved. Being editor of the RecordCourier was everything he had dreamed about. Few people can be so totally fulfilled by a job that both defined them and contributed to the betterment of their community.
He loved sharing. It was his honor to be asked questions and his greatest pleasure to be able to answer them. But most of all, he left us all with a better sense of the arc of our town's life through the eyes of one of its favorite sons who never had to leave to be successful. Roger stayed out of choice and contributed out of love. His death leaves an enormous hole. We will miss all the books that will never be written, but we are grateful to have had you here with us, dear friend. Thank you for making a difference.
By Wayne R. Enders Historian-in-Residence Portage County Historical Society
For most of its 213 years of history, Portage County has been fortunate to have had several individuals who have had an interest in recording local history. Roger Di Paolo and I met when we were in the eighth grade because of our parents' activity in local politics and stayed in touch over a half century due to our love for local history. Through his inquisitive mind, attention to detail, and his search for truth, he was able to apply his journalistic skills to write some of the best nar-, · l, rative histories of our age. As editor of the
Record-Courier at 36, Di Paolo had the most powerful typewriter in the county. He never used his influence to label or divide, but to encourage and unite. Roger was a great listener. He was not one to interrupt. If asked a question concerning someone he knew or a topic that was dear to him, he could talk at great length with a wealth of information. His books on Kent and Ravenna were a reflection of his commitment to history and his desire to educate his readers. Those narratives were but the tip of the iceberg of the knowledge he had, and the unwritten ones forever lost by his untimely death. A friend of the underdog and those who were denied rights and freedoms, he chose his friends from all walks of life, His only unwritten requirement was that a person be fair, honest and opened-minded. It was my honor and privilege to have been his friend and colleague. 2017, he authored Portage Pathways, a went on to careers in national media.
By David Dix Former Publisher, Record-Courier weekly history column that had been Born June 3, 1955, Roger is survivedstarted by his predecessor, the late Loris by his husband, Timothy Krasselt; his
Roger J. Di Paolo, my editor ofthe
C. Troyer. Di Paolo's Portage Pathways
son, Brian Di Paolo; and his sisters, LinRecord-Courier from 1991 until March were compiled into two books. Rooted da Di Paolo Prezioso and Betsy Soule.
2017, died June 18, 2021, following a
. in Kent was published in collaboration
long battle with cancer.
with the Kent Historical Society and An elegant The Ravenna Record was published to stylist and raise money to refurbish the historic grammarian Ravenna flagpole on Main Street.
By Henry Halem
ofprecision, I will miss Roger. He was a wonderVolunteer, KHS
an avid reader
ful conversationalist and my near daily
and student of Beyond a personal friendship, I had
discussions with him about the day's
local history, Di the pleasure ofworking with Roger on
news after he became editor were never
Paolo chronihis book publishing projects for the
dull. I looked forward to them and
cled the news of Kent Historical Society.
learned a lot. Roger held strong views.
Portage County Sometimes we did not agree, but he I have many fond memories ofsitfor 40 years. He got his start at the Rehad a way ofmaking me re-examine my ting around my dining room table withcord-Courier as a reporter in 1977 when
own opinions and Roger nearly always Roger and his editorial team, hashinghe reported on the protests surrounding
made me laugh. He had a great capacity out which articles and photos to includethe construction ofa building on land for empathizing with those getting a in his book Rooted in Kent: 101 Taleschat intruded on the site where four
ftom the Tree City. His eye forstudents were killed on May 4, 1970.
detail was always present. HereA Roosevelt High School student in
are a couple ofdetails Roger1970, the shootings had a formative
wanted included in the bookeffect on Di Paolo's view ofthe world.
that I found in notes from thoseHe had an affinity for the underdog,
meetings: Include about the Silkpassed on by his father, the late Judge
Mill: "... it took about one millionRoger F. Di Paolo.
bricks to build which were all supRoger's abilities were recognized plied by the Ferry Brickyard which early. In 1978 while a student at Kent was located in town. "About the State, Di Paolo was the recipient of Clapp/Woodward House, "... the James M. Sutherland Award, cited there is a fireplace in every one of as the Most Promising Young Profesthe four rooms facing out on main sional by the Sigma Delta Chi/Society street. No two fireplaces are alike. of Professional Journalist. He was One is oak, one is cherry, and two one of60 honored by the Kent State are paintedstone. "The book was University School ofJournalism and his labor oflove. Mass Communications at the School's
The years passed and Roger60th anniversary in 1997. He was
was itching to get involved inthe recipient offour Ohio Associated
another book. I suggested we putPress Awards including Best Editorial
together a book of Kent, BradyWriter. Honors were also bestowed by
Lake and Kent State Universitythe Portage County Historical Society,
vintage postcards. Roger thoughtthe Portage County Chapter ofthe
the book was a wonderful idea,NAACP, the Kent City Schools of
and we were soon hard at workHall ofFame, the Kent Area Chamber
sorting postcards. Once Rogerof Commerce, and the Ohio School raw deal in life and had no patience for made his decision, he would then writeBoard Association. He set a record as those who feel entitled. two or three lines describing each card.the featured speaker for Kent State UniAs
editor, Di Paolo oversaw a staff of But Roger soon found that for many
versity's town-gown Bowman Breakfast approximately 20 full-time and partofthe cards he had more to say. Howon three different occasions.
time employees and a budget exceedcould it be otherwise? Roger was a man Devoted to local history, Di Paolo ing $1 million annually. He enjoyed ofdetails. On many occasions I would compiled a popular weekly history feateaching newcomers and was proud that have to tell him to "shorten it" and ture called Yesteryears. From 2002 until some ofthe reporters he worked with began to think ofmyself as chat grumpy old editor often depicted in old blackand-white movies. He would grumble, but eventually he'd find a way to shorten it. This book, Welcome to Kent, A Postcard Portrait ofthe Tree City,
was in full color, and Roger was very happy with the result.
In 2020 my wife Sandy revived an idea she'd had when she was the president of the historical society. Roger's cancer was in remission and she hoped he could help develop a walking tour ofStanding Rock Cemetery. I would design a folded two-sided piece; on one side, a full-color map of the cemetery with specific grave sites marked, and on the other, a brief synopsis of the person buried at each site. He couldn't wait to start on the project. Roger and Sandy insisted that the tour include those individuals who represented -our historical diversity. Once the names were decided, Roger set to work writing a brief biography ofeach individual. "A Walking Tour of Standing Rock Cemetery" is a Kent "who's who." Seventy-seven people from all walks oflife who made a difference. Sad to say, there is now one more name to add to that distinguished list.
I loved working with Roger and his "Team Roger," as we were known. I loved Roger. Listening to him reflect on all things Kent was a treat. He was not a man of few words when it came to his hometown and all the families that lived and died here. Whenever a Kent question arose about a family, a person, a place or a date, "Call Roger" was the cry. Call Roger. We
cannot call Roger anymore, and I cannot tell you how many times since his death I have needed to make that call. Farewell, my friend.
By Doria Daniels Civic Leader
Roger and I shared the same passion about the accurate history and recognition of Kent's South End neighborhood. Our interaction with each other goes back over 30 years when as a journalist and later a city editor. He had a keen eye for digging deeper into stories that
emanated from our neighborhood. He didn't gloss over stories or dismiss content as we had experienced before. This is how our
friendship developed. It was years later that I learned his heritage began in the south end and he was obviously not embarrassed to associate or identify with his "South End" roots. He was fully supportive of our efforts to seek historic recognition for the neighborhood and was an asset in providing research, especially on the Italian contributions to this community. The legacy he left to this cpmmunity will be the drive to excel and to continue to overcome the prejudice and stereotypical depictions of the neighborhood. To that end we are PREVAILING.
Team Roger: I to r, Henry Halem, Bob Springer, Roger, Kasha Legeza-Burton, Sandy Halem By Charles Michel Childhood Friend
Conversations with my childhood friend Roger Di Paolo, always went something like this.
Me... "Roger, whatever happened to old Mrs. Kelly?"
Roger... "She died on Thanksgiving Day, 3 years ago. She had been living with her daughter, Lucy (whose married name
was Smith) down in Ft. Myers Fl. Lucy was the youngest of the Kelly kids. There were ten kids in all. From oldest to youngest... there was Tommy, Teddy, Theresa, Mary, Emily, Arthur, Danny, Helen, Ellen, and baby Lucy. They lived on Highland Avenue just behind St. Patrick's Church. They are all still living except for Arthur, who died in Vietnam on September 3, 1969."
No one person has ever known more about or cared more about the people in his own home community than Roger. Roger was much more than the editor of a newspaper... he was the heart that held close every memory of everyone and everything. For Roger, every Kent resident, past and present, living and dead... was family. And the entire community was itself more of a family because Roger lived his entire life there. Like George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, Roger's life was made wonderful by making a very big difference in his very own backyard. Roger Di Paolo was indeed "the richest man in town." And
the town and the state and the nation
and the world will forever be a bit poorer now that Roger is no longer here
to keep it rich in memories and rich in
love.
By Jack Amrhein
President, KHS
On October 24, 2017 the Kent Historical Society and Museum's Board ofTustees appointed Roger Di Paolo as historian-in-residence. The board was fortunate that Roger was available to do the job and he and his knowledge of Kent's history were well known to the community. Mr. Di Paolo wrote or coauthored as well as edited books for the Society. In his role Roger helped muse
~------------------------
Roger's horse-drawn hearse on its way to Standing Rock Cemetery ~
um visitors research historic questions as well as helped them trace relatives or past businesses that were important to them. He also presented programs
on our behalf to the citizens of the community.
On many occasions I remember Roger sitting down with visitors, employees and members and
weaving Kent's history into fascinating and interesting stories. His knowledge of Kent's long and varied history was amazing. No one had the vast knowledge ofour community's history as did Roger. He was an excellent addition to our Museum's team. His talents as an author, editor and historian enabled the Kent Historical Society to enrich its programs of events, publications and public programs.
Roger will be deeply missed.
To contribute to the Roger Di Paolo Student Scholarship Fund at Roosevelt High School please call KHS at (330) 678-2712 or email [email protected]
Photo credits: Brad Bolton, Tim Krasselt, Sandra Halem, Henry Halem ~ . 1
fu,,b.,fLuc:t~v ill." Jtu~ ~ ~/},_
~-~---, ~ ~1'
And, ofcourse I am grateful for havinggrown up in Kent, a community whose diversity is part ofmy heritage
The Kent Historian, Kent Historical Society Newsletter, Number 90, Spring 2017
No full textTHE KENT HISTORIAN
The Newsletter of the Kent Historical Society Spring 2017
Number 90
Questions about Kent's black squirrels answered
Local authors share book and activities at KHSM event
By Bailey Mulholland
Publications Specialist
Do you know how the black squirrel
came to Kent? Those who attended a
Kent Historical Society & Museum event
on Feb. 18 learned the history and even
some biology of this spunky rodent from
local authors Kathy Frazier and Deborah
Walker.
Frazier and Walker read their book ''And
Now You Know Too! The Story of How
the Black Squirrel Came to Kent" to an
audience of more than 30 children and
adults, afterwards engaging in discussion
and overseeing a variety of activities.
Attendees of all ages enjoyed munching
on squirrel-shaped cookies while making
bracelets, assembling pipe cleaner squirrels
and coloring characters from the book.
''And Now You Know Too!" is available
online and at Off the Wagon in Kent.
Bonnie Garrett, passionate KHSM
benefactor, passes alVay at 85
Bonnie D.
(Shepherd)
Garrett, 8 5,
passed away
Feb. 11 in Cincinnati,
Ohio.
She was born
July 24, 1931,
in Kent, Ohio
to Norm and
Vivian (Poulton)
Shepherd.
Bonnie was a
1949 graduate
of Kent State
University
High School. Bonnie D. Garrett, a generous
supporter of the historical society,
at an event with family. She is survived
by her sister, Barbara Meeker of Kent;
son, Robert (Judi) Garrett of North Richland
Hills, Texas; daughter, Linda (Harry)
Gurgol of Cincinnati; grandchildren, Chad
(Melissa) Garrett of Henderson, Nev., Ali
(Andy) Massingill of Little Elm, Texas,
and Charles (CJ) Garrett of Atlanta, Ga.,
Michelle (Brian) Gurgol Spegal of Hebron,
Ky. and Sara Gurgol of West Chester, Ohio;
great granddaughters, Peyton Massingill of
Little Elm, Texas, and twins Gabrielle and
Madison Spegal of Hebron, Ky. She is pre-ceded
in death by her husband, Charles
(Larry) Garrett, and sister, Bette Geiger,
of Raleigh, N. C.
Bonnie and her husband, Larry, were
employed in family businesses. As a newly
married couple, they had a 300-acre Hereford
farm north of Ravenna. Then Larry
and his father, Robert, built and ran the
first motel in Kent; the Eastwood Motel,
between Kent and Ravenna. Next, they
owned Garrett Asphalt, followed by the
Foster Bodman Co. in Akron. Larry was
also a pilot for the Davey Compressor
Co. and a volunteer sheriff for Portage
County.
Bonnie enjoyed her family, friends, traveling
and life at the lake. She grew up in
Twin Lakes and spent summers at Muzzy
Lake when her family was young. As
empty nesters, Bonnie and Larry enjoyed
boating with Kent friends at Catawba
Island, Lake Erie. They retired to Marco
Island, FL.
Bonnie was a passionate supporter of
the Kent Historical Society Museum. A
future gravesite service at Standing Rock
Cemetery for Bonnie and Larry will be
performed by the Rev. Julie Fisher of the
Kent Christ Episcopal Church.
Frazier and Walker share their book with local
families and answer questions.
TRENO
RISTORANTE
COMING SOON
In our next newsletter, learn
more about the new Italian
restaurant soon to occupy our
historic Erie Depot. Join the
historical society at the grand
opening later this year!
Author and adventurer Marvin Kent Curtis
One descendent of Marvin Kent honors the interesting life of another
By Kasha Legaza-Burton
KHS Trustee
How do you tell the story of a multilingual
World War I aviator-turned-prisoner-
of-war who went on to live a grand
life as an author, illustrator, a skilled
outdoorsman who mentored countless
young summer campers, a yachtsman and
a globetrotter who rubbed elbows with the
famous in 500 words or less? You can't!
It's the very reason Missouri resident
Mary Jo Johnston created both a Wikipedia
page and a blog website detailing the
adventurous existence of her great-uncle,
Marvin Kent Curtis - great-grandson of
Marvin Kent, for whom our city is named.
Johnston admits with a chuckle that researching
the life of "Uncle Kent" has been
her "passion" for the past two decades!
She believes the Chicago-area native's
gadabout lifestyle was a result of him being
held as a prisoner of war for several months
in Germany after the American 148th Aero
Squadron bomber he was piloting over
France was shot down on Aug. 24, 1918.
His killed-in-action death at the age of
27 - a report wired to father Charles E.
Curtis from the U.S. War Department
(mother, Grace Kent Curtis, died in 1907)
KHS Museum Hours
237 E. Main St.,
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Fridays and Saturdays
and by appointment.
Contact
Kent Historical Society
23 7 E. Main St.
Kent, Ohio 44240
330-678-2712
Email
[email protected]
Website
www.kentohiohistory.org
Find us on Facebook
www.facebook.com/
KentHistoricalSociety
- made front-page news in Kent papers.
That provided Curtis with a Mark
Twain-esque "reports of my death are
greatly exaggerated" tale to tell for the next
40 years - and he did! (Record-Courier
Editor Roger Di Paolo detailed this period
of Curtis' life in a Feb. 1, 2015, "Portage
Pathways" column entitled, "Marvin
Kent's namesake lived 40 years after his
obituary.")
Curtis' career as a professional writer was
launched in 1920 when he received a 1,000
in a national writing competition. That's
the equivalent of nearly $14,500 in today's
dollars!
From there Curtis went on to write and
illustrate five novels while continuing to
author magazine essays. Four of Curtis'
books are boys' adventure stories set in
places he loved living: the North Woods of
Minnesota and the Florida coastal islands.
The fifth book, "The Tired Captains," is a
historical novel based on a group of World
War I pilots. Qohnston and her husband,
Kelly, acquired copies of all five novels and
graciously donated them to KHS last fall!)
During his lifetime, Curtis crossed the
Atlantic 2 5 times and the Pacific once. He
lived in Paris intermittently throughout
the 1920s and it was there, while pursuing
his writing career, that he became
acquainted with numerous famous people.
One of them, F. Scott Fitzgerald, wrote
chat Curtis' "The Blushing Camel" was
one of the best boys' books he'd ever read
and compared it to works by Hemingway
and Twain.
Curtis spent more than 30 summers
at Camp Mishawaka for boys in Grand
Rapids, Minn., serving as a counselor,
entertainment director and, eventually, a
co-owner. He led 31 "Big Canadian canoe
trips" for campers through the Minnesota-
Canada boundary waters and also
introduced a sailing program that he ran
from 1937 until his death in 1957.
Johnston said that at the end of most
camp seasons, Curtis would return to his
winter home on Captiva Island by sailing
Photo: Mary Jo Johnston
Marvin Kent Curtis on his sailboat in Miami,
FL circa 1934. Curtis was the great-grandson
of Marvin Kent and was an accomplished
outdoorsman, well-traveled author and favorite
counselor at Camp Mishawaka.
the Mississippi River from Minnesota to
New Orleans. During the 1930s he competed
annually in a St. Petersburg to Havana
sailboat race, captaining his 32-foot
yawl "Marelen II" to a first-place finish in
1932 and third place the next year.
Many letters inherited by the family, as
well as stories gathered by Johnston, reveal
that Curtis' vivacious personality made
him the center of attention - whether at
the yacht dub, aboard a cruise ship, at a
Paris soiree or at Camp Mishawaka.
A man who knew him from camp wrote,
"Kent Curtis was the most unique person
I've known. Multi-talented, Kent could do
anything but add up a laundry slip: writer
(5 books), artist, musician (he played the
piano but couldn't read a note), actor,
woodsman, cook, sailor, expert in canoeing,
raconteur par excellence, but through
all his talents, the humorist predominat-ed.
He was idolized by more boys than
anyone else. He was the life of camp and of
reunions."
To read more detailed stories on the
fascinating life and times of Marvin Kent
Curtis, visit Johnston's blog website at
undekentcurtis.wordpress.com or en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Kent_ Curti
Kent Historical Society Newsletter, Volume 2, Winter Issue
No full textKENT HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
•PRESERVING THE PAST TO IMPROVE THE FUTURE·
A Society dedicated to the preservation of historical artifacts nnd
properties within the City of Kent. Ohio
WHERE DID TAX ABATEMENT COME
FROM
Tax abatement, the modern day
method of obtaining up front money to
attract new businesses, is really
nothing new.
In September of 1878, Joseph Turner
of Jamestown, New York was seeking
a new location for an alp~ca weaving
mill. Mr. Turner had heard about a
possible s1te in Kent. The site, a
building orig1nal1y built to house a
weaving mll l in the great silk worm
experiment of Marvin Kent, was
available because silk worms don't
1ik e cold weatrier and succumbed to
the harsh winter of 1857, killing Mr.
Kent's dream of making silk in the
United States.
The building had sat id1e for twentyone
years and Mr. Kent was anxious to
lease it. Joseph Turner came to Kent,
11ked what he saw, and said it could
be made suitable for h1s alpaca mil 1.
However, he couldn't possibly
consider putting such a f actl 1ty in
without financial he1p from Mr. Kent
and the people of the community.
Subsequently, Marvin Kent put in
15,000.00 was pledged to meet
the community·s requirement.
The building ultimately had 254
weaving looms and hired 120
employees. In the 1880's, it was
Kent's second largest employer. Even
though the company only remained in
Kent for a decade, it was a good
tnvestment to our commun1ty.
Of special note, the Atlantic and
Great Western Ra 11 road a 1 so
subscribed the citizens of Kent for
$4,000.00 to bu1 ld the railroad
stat1on in 1874. Even though the
method was different, the idea of
collect1ng capital to start a new
business was the same.
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
We would like to extend a warm
welcome to the following Friends who
have joined the society this year:
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph G. Paoloni, Mr. & Mrs.
Charles Chandler-, Ron Tkach, D1versa
A.dvertising, Inc., Mr. & Mrs. Glenn
Wiedeman, Rick Bissler - Bissler &
Sons, Euclid Carment Mfg. Co.,. Kent
Lions Club, Terri Ulrich, Copy Pr1nt.,
Ful1er Design Group, Archttects, Mr.
'William Sykes, Mr. & Mrs. Mark
See-man, and Mr. James Arthur.
A Tribute To George Washington
Austin On His 103rd Birthday
1911
Th 1s headline, wr1tten by John Davey,
author, poet, pamphleteer, lecturer,
entrepreneur~ and inventor, appeared
on a Poem in the Kent Courier Fr1day,
oc tober 27, 191 l.
The poem is tr,e reprinted below
because its content remains
app i 1 cab 1 e today. Does tr1e passage of
ume really change history?, Does
history really repeat itself) or does
history remain the same with only the
character of the world's stage
changf ng. Read Mr. Davey's poem and
form your own opinion.
Th1ne eyes have seen the fores ts
(Which come to us 1n dreams);
Thy childish feet have waded
1 n the brooks and native streams;
Thou has angled for the sunfish,
The bass, and nimble trout;
Thou has seen the bear and pant,,er,
And heard the Indians shout.
But changes, great, have t.aken place,
And we are in d1smay!
To think of man's destruction,
Just since thy natal day!
The forest gone! the running streams
once filled with teeming l1fe
Are dried! and lands are robbed!
And clties filled with strife!
When we were naught but babies,
In lands so far away,
Thou wast a man who grappled
With "the problems of the day."
Aye! sf nee thy lowly advent
on this dear earth of ours,
The nations - f111ed with hatred -
Have ratned w1th leaden showers.
comes fresh before the vision
The "Alma," red with blood;
"Sedan" beyond the ocean,
That ran a crimson flood;
.And all that "horrid conflict"
.A.bout the negro s 1 ave
.That killed two hundred thousand
Of our noblest and brave!
Thou thtnkest, too, of Russia.
Who forced a war with "Jap;''
And after murdering thousands,
Saw a change upon the map.
And now, dear "Uncle Austin,"
If all had lived like thee,
There· d been no war nor b 1 oodshed
On the land nor on the sea
The world has one great trouble,
Above all others seen,
For Self they live, for Self they die,
Then "pass beyond the scene."
Men hurry through this world,
And evil passions nurse;
And str1p the earth of fruttfulness,
Then stamp it with a curse.
But thou, true man of morals,
Shalt share Columbia's fame,
Outlasting bronze and granite;
Thou hast an honored name.
About the poet John Davey:
John Davey was born June 6, 1846 in
Somersetshire England. His family
was poor, so at a very early age he
went to work on neighboring farms
turning his earnings over to the
family. It was not unt n r1e was
twenty-one that he learned how to
read and write paying for his
education by trading part of his wages
for tuition.
John Davey arrived 1n the United
States in 1873, continuing his
education at twenty-seven, when he
learned Greek, Latin, Astronomy, and
Botany by using his labor as a janitor
1n a private school to pay for tuit1on.
In 188 1, he came to Kent to become
the Sexton of Standing Roel<. Cemetery.
f"1r. Davey's work in the cemetery
kindled a great des1re to learn all he
could about trees and enabled him to
exoeriment·wtth pruning, cabling, and
cavity work. He became so
knowledgeable that he wrote and
published a book The Tree Doctor,
1902. In 1905, he wrote a second
book called Davey's Primer on Trees
and Birds.
To earn more money for h1s f arn1ly of
five children, John Davey gave
lectures and had his books and
pamphlets sold both at those
lectures, and door to door by his son
Martin.
in 1909, he and his sons started the
Davey Tree Expert Company, the first
and only company of its k1nd. Today,
it is the largest tree company in the
world and sttll bears the name of its
founder, John Davey.
•.
.:-: '.·:.,.,r
John Davey as i1 lustrated 1n
Davey's Primer on Trees and
Birds 1905.
LATEST ACOUISTIONS
Tools An American broad axe,
Carpenters adz with maul head, center
b1t with bar handle, donated by Peg
Glauger. ·
Books, The Tree Doctor by John Davey
( 1902) and Davey's Primer on Trees
and Birds donated by John Carson.
YOU ARE INVITED
Our guest speaker on January
9th,
Fran Murphey is the "Good Morning"
column 1st for the Akron Beacon
Journal. She is a graduate of Kent
State University with a degree in
Journalism. Ms. Murphey also travels
extensively.
Ms. Murphey has won many awards
1nclud1ng state and national awards
like the outstanding Alumnus Award
in Journalism from K.S.U. and the John
5. Knight award presented by the
Buckeye Chapter of the Society of
Professional Journalists.
Ms. Murphey w 11 l be honoring us w 1th a
slide presentation called "In and
Outhouses I Have Known."
-- _,
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' Ii:) ll:G3la(S)WJ[b[i ®Ii' [;:W'{lllfir@I ~ = :::•
MARK TH IS DATE ON YOUR CALENDAR
Jan. 09 7:30 P.M. In and Outhousu I Have Knovn
Ms. fnn Murpheg, Akron Beacon Journal,.
Kent free library,. Donaghy Room
March Meeting & Speaker to be announced
..a - =;--.. (?; ::: !!• . I.", •_. . 1a ..._ II n ~. -- - -
Kent Hlstortcal society
152 Franklin Aue., P .o. Boa 663
Kent, Ohio 44240
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
FROM THE
KENT HISTORICAL SOCIET
The Kent Historian, Kent Historical Society Newsletter, Number 75, Spring 2012
No full textTHE KENT HISTORIAN
The Newsletter of the Kent Historical Society Spring 2012
Number75
New book tells of Davey's extended family tree
Dr. Jacobs recalls company's family ethic, camaraderie in 'Growing Up in a Davey Family'
John Davey, founder of Davey Tree Expert
Co., is considered to be the "father of tree
surgery" and was fondly referred to as "Father
John" by his employees.
But a new Kent Historical Society Press book
by John Jacobs entitled, "Growing Up in a
Davey Family: A Reminiscence," presents
snapshots that show a company where the
importance of family took root and co-workers
also became an extended family for each other.
Dr. John Jacobs
was born in 1927.
"The Davey
Company was largely
centered in Kent,"
Jacobs writes in his
book:, published this
year. It was an
organization of which
the employees were
proud and to which
they were fiercely loyal.
It was a closely knit
group."
Jacobs, the son of
Homer Lee and Mary
Alice (Cochran) Jacobs,
Jacobs' father began working for Davey in
1922. And, although his father was born into a
poor farm family, he eventually retired from the
Davey organization in 1962 as vice president
for research and development.
Jacobs said that John Davey was looked
upon as a "kindly man."
"My father knew him and only had good
words about him - and mv father, like me,
was not reluctant to be cynical about people,"
Jacobs said with a smile.
The book by Jacobs in the fuse in a series
called "Kem Remembers." While some
forthcoming titles now are in the preliminary
stages of production, KHS also is looking for
further ideas for additional volumes in the
series.
Jacobs originally began writing his
recollections several years ago for his own sense
of enjoyment.
But, lacer, he decided to share it with KHS
Director Tom Hatch, not only to allow Hatch
to learn more about Jacobs but also to give him
a sense of the Davey Company, which was
founded in 1880 and still has its global
headquarters in Kent. The organization now
has more than 7,000 people in its workforce
and has been employee-owned since 1979.
Children whose parents worked together at Davey Tree
Expert Co., top photo, shared a special camaraderie and
friendship. Above, from left, are Shorty Williams, John Jacobs
and Bill Birkner. Jacobs is the author of a new KHS ·
publication entitled "Growing Up in a Davey Family."
"I was immediately taken with it as an
authentic, vivid recollection of an important
time in Kent history," Hatch said.
Jacobs said a large majority of the Davey
extended family were from rural areas all over
the eastern part of the country. The company is
what initially brought them together and it was
also what kept them together.
"They needed each other and congregated
and became like a large family," Jacobs said.
"They had family dinners, their children played
together, many worshiped together."
Jacobs' recollections focus mostly on his early
years as a Davey child and feamres photographs
and Jacobs' recollections of the families and
where they lived, played and vacationed
together.
See Davey, page 4
2
'All About Kent' kicks off
with Civil War play, exhibit
To be held at KSU museum, where clothing is on display
"There is nothing civil about thii, war but
the name," wrote a 20-year-old Adam
Weaver in a letter to his sweetheart, Charlotte
Morton, while fighting as a union soldier
in the Civil War.
The observations and emotions that they
recorded in letters and diaries during chat period
are the basis for an upcoming "All
About Kent" series program at 7 p. m. May
17.
The staged theatrical reading, entitled
"Charlotte and Adam: Franklin Mills and the
Civil War," was written by Sandra Perlman
Halem, president of the KHS board of
trustees, and is directed by Sarah Coon, a
student in the Kent State University Theatre
Department.
It will be held at KSU's Rockwell Auditorium,
515 Hilltop Drive, at Lincoln and
Main streets.
"Since the 'All About Kent' series had been
searching for something local to connect our
audience to the 150th commemoration of
the Civil War, adapting these actual letters
into a dramatic reading seemed to offer a
perfect marriage of history and art," Halem
said.
And by offering a cooperative program
with the KSU Museum, the audience will
not only have the opportunity to enjoy a play
about Kent's history, but also will be able to
visit the museum's current exhibit, entitled
"On the Home Front: Civil War Fashions
and Domestic Life" at no charge chat night.
Adam Weaver,
above,and
Charlotte
Weaver, left,
lived in Franklin
Mills and corresponded
during
the Civil War.
Their letters are
the basis of a
play that will be
staged at 7 p.m.
May 17.
The exhibit features women's and children's
costumes, photographs, decorative arts and
women's magazines.
See Civil War, page 4
r:3315 for KHS members and 20 I
ij for non-members. Each session is limited to KHS is hosting a Victorian tea this spring. The I
I I d il M event will be held at the Kent Historical Soci- ; I 12 gir s, an registration is open um· 1 ay ety, located at 237 E. Main St. The historic Vic- j j 1. For more information or to regii,ter, torian home was built in 1883 for Harriet Kent j
~ please call (330) 678-2712. Clapp, Marvin's sister and Zenas' daughter. ;
L~~~'&'&~'&'&'&~~~'&'&~'&~'&'&~~~~~~'&~~~'&~'&~'&'&'&~'&~~~'&'&~~'&~~'&~~~~~~~~~J
Spring 2012
Jean Booth tapped for KHS board of trustees
Kentite has been volunteer for 6 years,
helping expand KHS digital research base
When Jean Booth first visited the Kent
Historical Society seeking volunteer
opportunities in 2006, it was at the urging of a
friend, Betry Sweet, also a KHS volunteer.
Six years later, the rest, as they say, is history.
"I walked in that first winter morning in
2006 to a cold building but warm and
welcoming people," Booth recalls. "Since that
first day, I have done fun work like the thirdgrade
tours, and dirty work when we moved,
and everything in between."
In January, the Kent Historical Society Board
of Trustees unanimously voted to appoint
Booth to the 12-member board. Booth ftlls the
position left vacant by the death of John
Wunderle.
"Jean Booth is an incredible asset to the
historical society," said Jack Amrhein, vice
president of the board. "Her dedication and
hard work over the past few years has helped
th.e historical society organize its records and
has made our move and transition so much
smoother. We welcome her aboard."
After retiring from NEOMED (formerly
NEOUCOM) in 2003, Booth wanted to
increase her volunteer activities, but was unsure
where she could most effectively contribute.
Although she volunteered in a variety of
capacities, including United Way and the
Portage County Clothing Center, she was eager
to become a museum docent once again.
It was Sweet who suggested KHS to Booth
after a morning church service.
''Although we have belonged to KHS for a
number of years, I had not considered
volunteering here since I am not originally
from Kent," Booth said. "I quickly realized that
Davey school subject
of 'All About Kent'
program on Sept. 24
In 2010, the original metal sign for Roosevelt
High School - a gift from the class of
1933 -was discovered at an antique score in
Medina.
As we prepare to celebrate the 90th anniversary
of the building's dedication, Kent Historical
Society members are hoping to discover
more memorabilia from the school building
that once housed Roosevelt High School until
1959, Davey Junior High/Middle School until
1999, and now Davey Elementary School.
On Monday, Sept. 24, an "All About Kent"
series program will be held at 7 p.m. in the
Davey Elementary School Auditorium.
KHS members are looking for any pictures
Spring 2012
Jean Booth is the newest member of the
Kent Historical Society Board of Trustees.
Trustees unanimously approved her appointment
to the board in January.
since I use the historical and genealogical
resources of historical societies where I cannot
volu~teer that perhaps I should volunteer
here.
Booth, a native Ohioan who hails from
Bergholz in northwestern Jefferson County,
first came to Kent in 1961 to attend the ciry's
university, from which she graduated with a
degree in communication and political science.
It originally was a deal she made with her
parents that brought her to Kent.
"My father believed that a degree in
education or nursing would provide a woman
with security," Booth said. "I did not want to
be a teacher or a nurse. Since my mother - a
school teacher - was a 1928 graduate of Kem
Normal College, we compromised and I
attended a 'teachers' school but didn't major in
education."
Jean and her husband Don are the proud
parents of three daughters: Sheila, Angela and
Valerie, and six grandchildren, Justin, Blair,
Sara, Jeffery; Jacob and Nicolas.
In addition to raising vegetables, herbs and
ornamental plants, due to her prefere~ce for
"cooking with fresh herbs and vegetables and
having butterflies" in her yard, she also enjoys
nature during vacations in Eels Lake Ontario
(where she reads and Don and their
grandchildren fish).
She and her husband also travel to Ft. Myers
in Florida when Don plays baseball in a Roy
Hobbs tournament in November and a charity
fundraiser in January.
"With attending Indian and Aeros games,
baseball for old people, baseball and basketball
for little boys and Kent State basketball and
football games, I spend a lot of time watching
sports," she said with a chuckle.
Jean plans to continue using her
organizational and research skills to press on
with the work she loves: organizing and
cataloging artifacts into KHS' computer
database and writing and editing various
publications.
"Through my work at KHS I have come to
realize I am a Kentite and have a responsibility
to help preserve the history of our town and its
people," Booth said. "Therefore I am both
pleased and humbled to be a member of the
board of the Kent Historical Society."
An "All About Kent" series program will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 24 at Davey school. The
event marks the 90th anniversary of the dedication of the building, which has housed
high school, junior high and elementary students in its 90-year history.
or yearbooks relating to the building that we
can digitize.
If you have any items you think would add
to the program, please contact Jon Ridinger at
[email protected] or stop by the Kent His-torical
Society. And please let any friends or
family members who attended school -
whether as a Roosevelt, Davey Junior High, or
Davey Elementary student - know about the
program!
3
Kent Historical Society
P.O. Box 663
Kent, OH 44240
Davey, from page 1
"I believe that the use of nicknames was
more prevalent in the Davey Company than
elsewhere and I take that as evidence for the
camaraderie in the company," Jacobs writes.
His memoir also provides memories of
company operations, offices and trips,
including fami)y vacations at Camp Perry on
Lake Erie, where many Davey families stayed as
guests of Martin L. Davey, who was preisdem
of the company, governor of Ohio and the son
of John, and at a summer home in the
Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence River
near Alexandria, N.Y., Jacobs writes.
"There were probably a dozen or more
Davey families in Kent consisting of Mother,
Father and one or more children," Jacobs
recalls.
''.And since the employees tended to be
closely knit, there were many occa~ions and
activities which brought us together. It is from
this closeness that I draw memories of being a
Davey Child."
Jacobs hopes that his reminiscenses provide a
larger perspective on the company, its
workforce and our community for readers.
"I expect that having the opportunity to go
through those childhood experiences in a
community the size and character of Kent
enhances those experiences and connects one to
more people," Jacobs said.
Jacobs' book sells for 5 and is available for
purchase at the Kent Historical Society.
Upcoming 'All About Kent' Events:
4
• May 17, 7 p.m. at Rockwell Auditorium,
515 Hilltop Drive. "Charlotte
and Adam: Franklin Mills and the
Civil War."
• Sept. 24, 7 p.m. at Davey Elementary_
School, 196 N. Prospect
St. 90th anniversary of the building's
dedication.
Nonprofit Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
Kent, OH
Permit#l50
Or Current Resident
Civil War, from page 2
Charlotte Morton and Adam Weaver lived in
what was then known as Franklin Mills.
Charlotte was 16 years old in 1863 when she
started writing letters to the young man who
later would become her husband. Their letters
are part of the Civil War history recounted in
the pages of the Portage County newsletter 100
years later by their son, Dudley Weaver. Charlotte's
mother operated a canal boat and she developed
a great love of history. Dudley
inherited his mother's affection for history and
writing, and he recorded many of Kent's historical
events in the newsletter years before there
was a Kent Historical Society.
It was a recent gift to KHS by Jacqueline
Woodring, who is Dudley's daughter, and the
granddaughter of Charlotte and Adam, that got
the ball rolling. Woodring donated copies of
the Portage County newsletter, edited by her
father, to KHS, and in subsequent readings of
the newsletters Halem discovered the letters.
Admission to the program is free but reservations
are required. Reserve your ticker by calling
KHS at (330) 678-2712.
For more information about the KSU museum
and its exhibit, call (330) 672-3450 or
email [email protected].
Spring 201
The Kent Historian, Kent Historical Society Newsletter, Number 74, Winter 2011-12
No full textTHE KENT HISTORIAN
The Newsletter of the Kent Historical Society Winter 2011-12
Number74
'All About Kent' features
rediscovered author
Rogue vagabond, author who spent
time in Kent topic of Nov. 1 event
By Paul Bauer
Author and Kent book dealer
A short, slightly stooped middle-aged man
stubbed out a cigarette and walked through the
door of my bookshop in Kent, Ohio. In the six
years I'd known Mort Krahling this scene had
repeated itself hundreds of times. Mort (real
name Ron, Mort being a nickname acquired in
tribute to comic Mort Sahl) was such a frequent
visitor that I often handed him the keys
to the shop when I was away. Mort had survived
the turbulent 1960s and his own personal
aftermath in the 1970s to become one of the
fine poets associated with Shelley's Book Bar at
the corner of Franklin and Summit. He was
also a first-rate bread baker and tended bar at
the Town Tavern. And he was an inveterate
note-taker, stopping every few feet in his wanderings
around town to jot down whatever
struck him as interesting. Mort could be curmudgeonly
and irascible - I regarded that as
part of his charm - but was at his core a bookish
and gentle soul.
On this particular summer afternoon in
1992, Mort, as usual, mentioned whatever
book he had just finished. His typical review
was, "It had its moments." Mort was an omnivorous
reader but consumed paperback mysteries
like salted peanuts. He also asked about one
book in particular. Mort requested a copy of
1he Bruiser by Jim Tully, who was regarded by
many as the father of hard-boiled fiction.
I was slightly pained to say that I'd never
heard of the book since I was a great fan of the
genre. My humiliation was complete when
Mort added that Tully had lived in Kent for six
years.
When Mort said Tully was a hard-boiled
writer, I'd assumed he wrote mysteries. Yet
Tully didn't appear in any of the usual mystery
references. He did, I discovered, appear in my
favorite reference book, William Coyle's Ohio
Authors and 1heir Books. The entry for "Tully,
Jim" was written by Paul Chapman, an English
professor at Mount Union College in Alliance.
Tully's biography, according to Chapman,
was fascinating. Born in 1886 (Chapman gave
an incorrect date) in St. Marys, Ohio, Tully
had little formal education beyond a stint in an
orphanage.
Jim Tully, above, is the topic of
KHS' "All About Kent'' program
that will be held Tuesday, Nov. 1,
at Christ Episcopal Church, 118
S. Mantua St. in Kent. Tully lived
in Kent before making his way to
Hollywood, where, for a time, he
worked for Charlie Chaplin, seen
at right with Tully.
While still a child, he hopped a train and
spent the next years crisscrossing the country.
As Chapman gently put it, he "had wide, firsthand
experience with various unattractive aspects
of American life ... " Tully traveled with
drifters, slept in hobo jungles, worked as a circus
roustabout, a tree surgeon, professional
boxer and newspaper reporter. Tully's life was
the stuff of pulp nonfiction.
And, we later learned, he wooed and lost
Nellie Dingley, Kent's first librarian. During his
road years he haunted public libraries and between
trains was kept company by Conrad,
Twain, Dostoyevsky, and others. He found his
way to Hollywood, where he committed himself
to writing, saw his first book published
and, for a time, worked for Charlie Chaplin.
That book, Emmett Lawler, like most of those
that followed, was autobiographical in nature
and drew on Tully's road years.
How, I wondered, could I have never heard
of this guy? Surely, my well-read friend Mark
Dawidziak, then at the Akron Beacon Journal,
would be able to tell me more about Tully.
When Mark dropped by the shop, I mentioned
Tully. Nothing. I pulled Coyle off the shelf,
opened it to Tully's entry and jabbed my finger
on the page. Mark was intrigued. He later
found a copy of Shanry Irish at The Bookseller
in Akron and, after reading a few pages of
Tully's autobiographical novel of his childhood
in western Ohio, he too was hooked.
We started rounding up Tully's books. This
was not as straightforward as it seemed. There
was no bibliography and no Internet. We compiled
a working list of his books from Tully's
dust-jacket flaps and began collecting magazine
articles by or about Tully, as well as books
about Hollywood, boxing, vagabondage and
histories of St. Marys and Kent. And I started
pulling newspaper microfilm at the Kent State
University Library, scanning reel after reel, year
after year, looking for Tully's name to pop up in
See Tully, page A4
2
Pufferbelly Restaurant
marks 30 years this Dec. 16
By Sandy Halem
KHS President
Everyone has always credited Sam Apicello
with the idea of beginning the Kem Historical
Society in 1971. Sam gathered the other
founding trustees, Bill Birkner, John Carson,
Titus Jackman, Leland Keller, Jim Myers, Reed
Strimple and Loris Troyer, to help create the organization
that would preserve Kent's history.
While Sam served as its first president, the task
of creating a museum and all of the exhibits fell
to Bill Birkner, who would devote thousands of
hours of his time. Our first Board of Trustees
reflected a variety of skills that would serve as
the template for future board members. This
was going to be a "working" board that had to
craft a mission worthy of our community.
Though the board drew up a list of important
buildings worthy of preservation around
Kent, the fate of the Erie Depot became the
focus of all its energy. The Depot exists because
of that mixture of public/private partnerships
which seems such a familiar phrase today.
With the opening of the Pufferbelly restaurant
on Dec. 16, 1981, the Kem Historical Society
had an anchor. By 1984 both the Kem
Historical Society and the Kent Chamber of
Commerce would occupy the second floor. The
Pufferbelly Restaurant, now under the ownership
of long-time manager Kevin Long, continues
to be a destination point.
www.pufferbellyltd.com/
The second floor is now rented to Jason
Noble who specializes in studio photography.
His web site is / /www.nobleimages.net/
This past year the society acquired a new
home at 237 E. Main St. I urge you to spend
an hour with us before the end of the year and
perhaps shop for something special for your
holiday gifts. The warmth of our home, its
beautiful rooms, displays and artifacts delight
everyone who has visited.
I smile every day I come to volunteer.
Remember our hours are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Fridays and Saturdays, or by special appointment
for research or tours.
Tell us your memories of Kent landmark
On Aug. 28, 1972, a Kem landmark burned
to the ground.
But many people have pleasant memories of
shopping at Kent's commercial block, located
at Main and Water streets, erected in 1836-37
by Zenas Kem.
Roger Di Paolo, editor of the RecordCourier,
is writing an article to mark the 40th
anniversary of the event next year and would
like to hear some of your memories.
Where did you shop? Do you have photographs
of the fire?
Help us paint a picture of that block's most
recent history and its tragic end.
Please email your written memories or photographs
to [email protected]. You
may also mail them or bring them in person
during our regular hours.
Winter 2011
John, Jean Jacobs honored with first Birkner award
This September, the Board of Trustees voted
to create the "William A. Birkner Distinguished
Service Award."
No two people could fill this extraordinary
call to service more than Jean and John Jacobs,
named our first recipients. Jean and John Jacobs
first volunteered on Jan. 24, 2008. Hundreds
of hours later, the two of them have
shown the same love, devotion and respect to
our society and museum that they show for one
another. John and Jean are a team. They have a
long and distinguished history within our community
which unites two outstanding families:
the Longcoys and the Jacobs. They don't just
volunteer to do what they want - they volunteer
to do what needs to be done.
Please join with our board of trustees, staff
and friends, including special guest Carol
Birkner, as we honor our dear friends the Jacobs
at the special award ceremony and reception
following the ''All About Kent" program
on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011, at Christ Episcopal
Church in Kent. The program begins at 7 pm
and features guest speakers Paul Bauer and
Mark Dawidziak.
John Jacobs was born in Kent and graduated
from Kent State High School in 1945. He
graduated from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathy
and was a physician in Kent for 39
years. He retired from family practice in 1993.
After becoming interested in learning about
Jean's genealogy, their involvement at KHS
"just seemed kind of natural," Dr. Jacobs said.
"There are good people and interesting
things to do and we are always learning," Dr.
Jacobs said.
Jean (Longcoy) Jacobs was born in Kent.
Joshua Woodard, Jean's maternal grandfather,
came to Kent in 1811. Her paternal grandfa-
Oral History ... Bill Birkner
Nov. 14, 1990 (transcribed and edited)
Prepared for the Kent Historical Society Oral
History Project by Dave Ressler and John
Capretta, students of Dr. William Wilen's Secondary
Social Studies Methods Class in the College
of Education.
Interviewer: When the trains were running
through here (Kent) quite frequently, (what
were some of the) problems of the traffic before
some of the bridges were built?
Birkner: Sometimes it was almost impossible
to get through town, because - this was especially
during World War II. Of course, I can
remember that quite vividly. There were trains
Winter 2011
John and Jean Jacobs, above, are the first recipients of the 'William A. Birkner Distinguished
Service Award." The Jacobs will be honored at a ceremony and reception following
the Nov. 1 "All About Kent" program at Christ Episcopal Church.
ther, David Longcoy, settled in Kent in 1834.
Jean attended Kent State High School, where
she studied business. She worked at the familyowned
Longcoy Grocery, which began serving
the community in the mid- l 800s. The Jacobs
married in 1950 and have two children, Steve
and Jan.
"I love the city of Kent," Jean said. "I love
learning about it and helping others discover
Kent's history."
Birkner was a founding member, past KHS
president (1981-1995) and director ofKHS'
Rowe Museum. Born in Kent, he served in the
Navy during W.W.11 and graduated from Kent
State University upon his return. He worked
for several companies, including Davey Tree,
on this track all the
time, and you had
three places where
you could cross -
one was Crain Avenue
and one was
Main Street and one
was Stow Street. And
you might have trains
... actually, one train
would come down
the track this way, Birkner
and just about the
time that he was off of the three crossings, one
would come from the other direction. And
sometimes you would sit there - I know I
have sat there for more than an hour, waiting
and retired in 1989 from Field Local Schools,
where he taught industrial arts for 18 years.
Birkner worked at building a historical society,
collecting its earliest artifacts and helping
raise awareness about the importance of preserving
the history of the Kent community.
Loris Troyer, another founding member of
KHS, described Birkner's role there in a
newsletter article in July 1989:
"Bill Birkner was a virtual one-man director
of the renovation effort. He spent many hours
of on-hands labor, an effort the community
recognized in 1982 when he was awarded the
Kent Area Chamber of Commerce Public Service
Medal. The Depot's central tower is named
in his honor."
for a train. And then the other part that really
got us was where the roundhouse was. They
had all these tracks where they'd pull the cars
off to unload them. It was like a terminal.
And they'd be switching, and sometimes regular
trains weren't going in and out - while
the switches were on the tracks, and they were
switching stuff around.
And sometimes they'd close Crain Avenue
for 20 or 30 minutes before you could get
across. And this is the reason that they finally
built the bridge over the tracks.
(Ihe new Fairchild Avenue Bridge over the
Cuyahoga River, which will replace the Crain
Avenue Bridge, is scheduled to open to traffic this
November.)
3
Tully, from page 1
the local papers. Mark and I compared notes
on Sept. 24, 1992, and, we grandly announced
to our wives that we would write the first-ever
biography of Jim Tully. They were encouraging.
Publishers, we would discover, were not.
Both of our big breaks occurred on the Kent
State campus. The first came courtesy of
Michael Cole, a KSU librarian. Michael had
noticed my heavy use of the microfilm readers
and asked what it was I was looking for. He
noted Tully's name and promised to do some
looking. A few weeks later, Michael surprised
me with the news that he had located Tully's
personal papers. Over 100 boxes were deposited
at UCLA 's Special Collections Library.
In just a few months we'd gone from having little
more than the entry in Ohio Authors to having
more than enough material for a detailed
biography.
With the help of my wife, Francine, and
Mort, who watched the shop, I flew to Los Angeles
in July 1993 and met Mark, who was already
there on newspaper business. Mark's wife,
Sara, also joined us.
The boxes of Tully's papers were even better
than we'd imagined. There were Tully's manuscripts,
published books and articles, tax returns,
newspaper clippings, divorce papers and
all the other raw material necessary for a biography.
And, best of all, nothing had been
touched since it was donated by Tully's widow
in the 1950s. I will always look back on those
UCLkdays with much happiness. Opening
every box was Christmas morning.
The trail in St. Marys and Kent had largely
gone cold. Francis Kline recalled his father talking
about Tully's visits to the family grocery in
Kent, but that was it. So we were thrilled to
learn that Tully's daughter, Trilby, was living
just outside Los Angeles. If we were to be limited
to just on<; interview, this was the one to
get. Before flying out, we'd heard from Trilby's
son, Robin, that his mother had suffered a
stroke. With lowered expectations we decided
to proceed with the interview and on a sunny
California afternoon, Sara and I were greeted at
the door by Robin and his wife. It was far
worse than we'd imagined. Trilby was confused
and speechless. All those memories. Gone.
We'd missed her by just a few weeks.
Back at UCLA, Mark, Sara and I sat at long,
wooden tables in the Special Collections room
and made our way through the boxes. Our
time in LA was limited and we worked quickly,
taking notes (pencil only) on yellow legal pads
or setting some papers aside to be photocopied
by the library staff. We worked from opening
to dose with only a short break for lunch. It
was both intense and exhilarating, but there
was just too much to look at and too little
time. Mark and I returned the following summer
and Mark returned a third time to examine
the last boxes. One afternoon stands out.
We pulled a newspaper out of one of the boxes
with a headline that was so shocking, we had to
4
Tully wooed and lost Nellie Dingley,
above, Kent's first librarian, who later
served as a nurse and died in France
during W.W.I.
reread it several times. The incident we read
about that afternoon at UCLA would provide
the perfect ending for our book: shocking, dark
and twisted.
We returned to Ohio and unpacked stacks of
yellow legal pads and photocopies. We had
gone from too little information to far more
than either of us could remember - and none
of it was organized in any useful way. Without
logging it all into a database, it was worthless.
Three years and 4,000 entries later, the database
was complete. We wrote an introduction and
began looking for a publisher.
A few more years slipped by before we struck
an informal agreement with a small press. It
wasn't a good fit and we eventually parted company.
Thinking that an agent might have better
luck we signed a contract with a New York
agency. The response was the same everywhere.
The acquisitions editors loved the idea, but the
marketing people worried about promoting the
biography of a subject so unknown.
Even with two of us, the writing was daunting.
We were aware that this would be not just
the first biography ofTully, but possibly also
the last. We had to get it right. The book
needed to be rich in detail but could not become
a data dump. We outlined the chapters
and divided them between us according to interest.
Mark, for example, tended to get the
chapters on Hollywood, Chaplin and Broadway,
while I worked on Tully's St. Marys and
Kent days, including his boxing career. It was
also important that the writing be seamless and
have one voice so we edited each other's chapters.
Disagreements were inevitable but rare
and, in every instance, minor and quickly resolved.
I had many occasions to congratulate
myself on my choice of partner.
When our contract with our agent expired,
we filed away the first few chapters we'd written
and turned to other projects. Tully's life had
seemed like a terrific idea for a book, but I was
forced to concede that the project was beginning
to look like a lost cause.
Our second big break came at a reception
hosted by Kent State University Press. Mark
and I had both known Will Underwood, the
Press's new director, for a few years and when
we bumped into Will, Tully's name came up.
Not only was the Press interested in the biography,
but they had a strong desire to reissue a
few ofTully's books. This coincided with our
real goal: reestablishing Tully as an important
American writer. We spent years looking for a
publisher only to wind up, literally, across the
street from my bookshop. With Will's enthusiasm
and the commitment of a publisher, work
resumed.
With the biography finally rolling to completion,
we began soliciting forewords for the
reprints.
We were very fortunate to get forewords
from filmmaker John Sayles (for Shanty Irish),
historian Gerald Early (for Ihe Bruiser), and
my old friend Harvey Pekar (for Circus Parade).
Harvey's fine piece was one of the last things he
wrote. And Mark succeeded in getting a superb
foreword from Ken Burns for the biography.
The reissues appeared over the last two
years and, after 19 years, Jim Tully's biography
was published in spring 2011.
Nellie Dingley once wondered aloud to Jim,
"It will be interesting to know what becomes of
you ... if you do not get killed in some saloon
or the ring." Now, at last, we know.
Books about, penned by Tully available at KHS
The book ''Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish
Rover, Hollywood Brawler," by Paul J. Bauer
and Mark Dawidziak, is on sale at the Kent
Historical Society.
The biography "compellingly describes the
hardscrabble life of an Irish American storyteller,
from his immigrant roots, rural upbringing,
and life as a hobo riding the rails to
the emergent dream factory of early and
Golden Age Hollywood and the fall of his
fortunes during the Great Depression," according
to the Kent State University Press
website. Also available are Beggars of Life, Circus
Parade, Ihe Bruiser, and Shanty Irish, written
by Jim Tully.
Books also are available through KSU Press
at (330) 672-7913 or at www.kentstateuniversitypress.
com
Birthday bash for bridge comes off without a hitch
More than 100 people witnessed our celebration
of the Stone Arch Bridge dedication.
The Kent Historical Society and Kent Parks
and Recreation co-sponsored "Bridging Kent's
History." A unveiling of the city's Bicentennial
Sculpture was followed by a gala celebrating the
134th anniversary of the opening of the Stone
Arch Bridge.
The sun came out to welcome the crowd that
gathered by the Gazebo as artist George Danhires
spoke about the creation of Kent's own
Bicentennial Sculpture. The sculpture, which is
a bronze relief, is mounted on a sandstone
taken from Plum Creek Park. It is located between
the Gazebo and the Pufferbelly Restaurant
on Franklin Avenue.
Taking their seats directly on the bridge,
spectators enjoyed a performance by the "Advanced
Choral Ensemble," or A.C.E.s. The
group, from Theodore Roosevelt High School,
was directed by Donna Crews. Following a welcome
from Kent Historical Society Director
Tom Hatch, architect David Sommers of
David Sommers & Associates spoke about the
features of the bridge. Although there once
were many similar bridges across the country,
few remain because they were not large enough
to accommodate traffic. Those responsible for
the bridge's construction, particularly Marvin
Kent, insisted that the bridge be built at 60-feet
wide instead of the original proposal of 40 feet.
The crowd was treated to a re-enactment of
the ceremony that marked the bridge's opening
in 1877. Donning costumes for their roles were
Jeff St. Clair as then-Mayor Charles Kent; Ron
Burbick as Edward Parsons; Jim Myers as
Simon Wolcott; John Jacobs as Edward Day;
David Hassler as T.B. Townsend; and Bruce
Dzeda as Marvin Kent. The original script was
written by Sandy Halem.
The crowd smiled as an authentic 1891
Kramer freight wagon - owned by the Bourgeois
family of Stow and Hudson - was pulled
across the bridge by two magnificent Belgian
horses named Jim and Cody, both about 9
years old. In the wagon were Harold and Harry
Ruggles, who are the grandsons of Oscar
Champney, the first person to drive a wagon
over the bridge in 1877. Helping Jack Shuman
with the horses were Roger Bourgeois, Ron and
Kathy Sadler, Pat Shuman and Jessie Hodge,
daughter of Pat and Jack Shuman.
The festivities continued at the Home Savings
Plaza, where cake prepared by Judy Lanfranchi
was served. Special thanks to Marilyn
Sessions and Home Savings for their assistance
in organizing this event. Tours in Heritage Park
also were led by Cathy Ricks of Kent Parks and
Recreation
Winter 2011
Clockwise from top: The team of Belgian
Kent Historical Society Newsflyer, 2008
No full textKent Historical Society
Ple11se join us!
November 15, 2008
OPENING EXHIBIT
"Kent & the Great War"
11-2 p.m.
(,//1,,1..,.(,
,,~ ''J--7/'
More than 250 soldiers from Kent and Franklin Township served in World War I. It has been 90
years since this first great global conflict ended on November, 11 1918. Its effects on our community
included economic growth from the war effort, loss of life and lifelong injuries among those serving -
and the fear that the Spanish "flu" would sweep through our schools and families. bur exhibit
includes many artifacts from local families, which we hope will stimulate you to share your own
family's memories of those times. This exhibit includes artifacts from our own collection, as well as
from Kent State University Special Collections and the American Legion .
..
New Book Publication
"Kent and the Great War: The Letters of Leo Bietz"
Published by the Kent Historical Society Press
In the words of Stephen H. Paschen, Kent State University Archivist, "The World War I letters of
Leo Bietz provide not only a rare glimpse of an American soldier's experiences in wartime, but also a
snapshot of life in and around Kent, Ohio, during 1918 and 1919 .. . "
ON SALE NOW 15.00
Dedication of Loris C. Troyer Library & Archives
Saturday, December 6, 1 p.m.
Join us as we formally dedicate our KHS Library and Archives to Loris Troyer, author of
Portage Pathways, founding member of the Kent Historical Society and Editor Emeritus of
the Record-Courier.
The Museum will be closed on Thursday & Friday, November 27 and 28.
Start your Holiday Shopping early
Holiday Shoppers can visit the Museum Store during our extended hours (10 - 3 p.m.)
starting Thursday December 4 thru Saturday December 20.
KHS will be closed from December 21 through January 2
We will re-open Saturday, January 3 at our regular hours, 11-2 p.m.
All programs and admission to the Museum are free and open to the public.
Call 330-678-2712 for more information.
234 South Water Street. Kent, Ohio
www.kentohiohistory.org
(330) 678-2712
email: [email protected]
KHS Member SurveY.
__ YES, I (we) would like to volunteer for the Historical Society.
__ YES, I (we) have some old movies, letters, artifacts or photos of our family or life in
Kent and events to share with KHS.
__ YES, I would like to recommend a speaker, topic or workshop for the Society:
Recommendation:----------------------------Please
include contact information for speaker at bottom of this form.
__ YES , I would like to contribute 94 to become a Charter Member of the "Loris C.
Troyer Ninety-Four Club" to help support our library and archives. My name(s) should be
listed on the plaque as follows below:
Name: ___ ......._iiiiiiiiiiia_ ......... ______________ ____________ _
Name: ---------------------------------
Check enclosed __ _
I will call for credit card order (330) 678-2712
Please make all checks payable to the Kent Historical Society. We accept MasterCard and
Visa in person or by phone.
Name:----------------------------------
Address:---------------------------------
City: _____________ State: ___ Zip _____________ _
Home Phone: ______________ Cell: _____________ _
Amount enclosed: _______ _
Please return this survey to:
The Kent Historical Society
P.O. Box 663
Kent, OH 44240
These contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
The Historical Society could use a few helping hands. Do you have any of the following to
donate that are new or slightly "used" or, make a contribution toward the purchase of these items.
D Thomas the Train set and play table for children center inter-active room
D Curio Cabinet to display ladies vintage accessories.
D Lightweight plastic folding chairs for meetings , classes & workshops (25)
D Picture frames of all sizes for historic photos
D · Outdoor benches that can be secured to the floor on the porch.
D Pop-up Canopy for outdoor displays
D Vintage telephone (wall mounted type)
D Archiva l supplies for protection of historic files, photos & artifacts
D Metal shelving for archival storage
D File cabinet , 4-5 drawers
D Electric stapler
D Laminating machine for archival newspaper articles
D Postage scale updated to 2008 postage
D Energy saving electronic light sensors for each room
D Door bells front and back doors
D Old Kent directories (selected dates) prior to 1950
D Archiva l book displays for Bibles, atlas & journals
D Any WWI letters or photos are also needed for our fall exhibit: Kent and the Great War.
In addition we would like a newer upgraded scanner for archiving our vintage photographs and a
small mini "flip" camera for filming our oral histories.
Please do not bring any of the above items to the Historical Society without calling first .
YES, I would like to help. Please accept my tax-deductible donation to put toward the above
requests.
Name
Address ---- ------ ----------------- ---- -
City _________________ State __ Zip _ _ ____ _
Yes, I would like to donate the following:
10 _ ___ 25 ___ _ 50 _ _ __ 100 ___ 0ther _ _ _
We also now may accept donations of stock certificates. Please call for more information.
up from the front room (main sales floor and meat counters) by the person assembling the order.
The orders were placed into collapsible wooden boxes of two sizes and placed, arranged by
rou te, close to the door opening onto a platform in the alley on the south side of the store. (Our fellow
tenants of the alley were Fred Bechtel and Ray's Place.)
The driver assisted in the assembly of the orders and loaded his truck, until all of the orders for
his route were filled then left. The other driver did likewise until his route was filled and he left. In
the meantime, if it was Saturday, the backroom people filled the orders for the other two routes and
arranged them by the door for pickup when the drivers returned.
If items had been missed, or there was a late order promised, we went back out to take care of
that.
After returning (on weekdays after school) we drivers did other jobs as needed in the store. Generally
we were responsible for cleaning out the accumulated trash from the basement and making a
run to the city dump at some time during the week.
Driving the routes and delivering groceries was rather interesting
and sometimes memorable experiences developed.
Mrs. Jones (not really) ordered a pint of oysters. When
I placed the pint can of oysters on the kitchen counter she
instructed me that she and Mr. Jones were from Maine and
appreciated good, fresh oysters and never ate canned oysters
and I was to take the can back and bring fresh oysters. I
took them back and Mr. Hammer, our butcher, instrncted me
that she would get %@##**++=@# fresh oysters, whereupon
he opened the can, poured the oysters into a pint bucket and
returned it to my hands. Upon delivering the fresh mollusks to Mrs. Jones, she thanked me and instructed
me again that she and Mr. Jones were from Maine and ... .
The next time I delivered groceries to Mrs. Jones, I could not resist inquiring about the oysters.
Whereupon Mrs. Jones again instructed me that she and Mr. Jones ... and that the fresh oysters were
certainly much better than canned oysters ... !
On one occasion I had a larger than usual load of groceries for my route and had stacked the
boxes 3 or four high in the truck. It happened that we did not have the passenger front seats in the
trncks to make more room. The top box on front stack on that side was filled with jars of baby food
and when I had to make a sudden stop for one reason or another, the box toppled forward, many of
the jars broke and I learned why babies made the faces they did when offered spinach, beets, and
the like.
As I continued as delivery boy and at times worked at various jobs in the store, I guess I inspired
more confidence from Mr. Longcoy and was given other jobs with more responsibility. I was always at
work on time and remained as long as needed and did not need much supervision. I even did some
of the purchasing.
George Hopkins was the produce manager and he and I got along well and I was always glad to
help him get the produce up from the coolers in the basement and placed in the counters in the front
of the store on Saturday mornings. (The produce, and other supplies that were kept in the basement,
were brought up on a hand operated elevator. The hand power was supplied to a large, endless rope,
about 2" in diameter and needless to say, it was not very fast). George was a large man, slow and
methodical, and a good teacher. He always called me "Johnnie" as did my girlfriend and other contemporaries.
After I came back to Kent and started in my medical practice, both he and Mrs. Hopkins
became my patients and I cared for them to the end of their lives.
That reminds me that by the time I retired from practice, I had delivered newspapers, groceries,
and health care (by way of house calls) to many of the same homes in the city. I consider that quite
a privilege.
2
(
Another employee, who later became my patient, was Frances Wagner. She was a maiden la<1y, a
devout Catholic and had worked at the store for many years. She was a sort of"jack-of-all-trades-;:. ndmaster-
of-all". She was a very hard worker. At times she worked in the little corner office and wnen
she answered the phone, she always said something like "Lung-kys." When Frances was working putting
up orders, we could hear, or feel, her coming up through the store by the pounding of her feet.
We had a "company" dog named Skipper at the store. He stayed in the basement most of the
time, partly because that was his place, and partly because he bit. He was a good mouser and had
the run of the store at nights. He and I became good friends and he even became trusting enough to
get on my lap and let me pet him. However, if I let him down too quickly or made a sudden movement,
he would bite me. I never scolded him, figuring he had started that for some good reason and
we remained friends.
Skipper met his demise when he was out in the alley and a lady came walking down past him,
and apparently unprovoked, he snapped at her. He had to be put down after that happened.
Longcoy's had always killed and dressed chickens and rabbits on site in the basement and was
still doing that while I worked there. I learned to do both of those operations and will spare the details.
Suffice it to say, it was unpleasant work, but at the same time it was a new experience and I felt
satisfaction in being able to be e ntrusted with the job as my total responsibility.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the jobs relating to the truck was to clean up the trash in the
basement and haul it to the city dump. In those days, "free goods" were offered with certain items
to encourage sales. For instance, we received a rather large shipment of glass salad dishes, square,
about 6" on a side and molded to give the appearance of cut glass. (Jean and I still have several of
those and they are often in use after 60 some years.) Those were to be given away with the purchase
of, say, a box of Oxydol. However, for various reasons, they did not all get distributed and they ended
up riding with me to the dump. I can't tell how many times in recent years I have seen those (or their
siblings) for sale in flea markets, antique shops, and second hand stores.
Friday evenings were frustrating because the store was open a little later than other days, closing
I believe around 6:30 or 7:00 and there was often a high school football game to go to and when
there was not, there was a date with my girlfriend. It seemed like I was always hurrying and always
late those evenings.
Saturdays were long work days at the store. H.C. of course arose and arrived at the store early
every day, but on Saturdays, because I was not in school, I got to the store at 6:30 or 7:00. If I greeted
Mr. Longcoy with a "how are you?" he invariably replied, "I was never better in my life!" There was
much to do and I seemed to do a little of everything, beside my primary job of delivering groceries.
After the deliveries were done in mid afternoon I worked stocking shelves or out on the floor.
Saturday was "clean up night" and my part in that involved cleaning the meat band saw and the meat
cases. The latter was a bad job because the trays had to be removed from over the cooling fins deep in
the recesses of the case, and the fins and coils cleaned using a solution of soap, water and ammonia.
The fins scratched and abraded my knuckles and the ammonia burned.
At one time, I felt that for the work I did and responsibility that I was given, I was underpaid.
I complained to Mr. Hammer (because he was a friend and I did not understand at that time that I
should have gone to the "boss.") One day not long after, Mr. Longcoy found me upstairs in the cereal
storage room and reached into his pocket and peeled off 100 and handed it to me, saying that he
guessed I had earned it and gave me a small raise. I was impressed.
H.C. fell one time and broke his ankle. He was laid up for a while and forbidden by his daughters
to go to the store. One day I took the truck up to his house on Park Avenue to put it in the garage for
the night. I put the truck away and walked around to where he was sitting on the porch and, trying
to reassure him, told him how well we were getting along. He looked very disappointed. I don't recall
what he said, but I hastened to assure him that he was badly missed-as he was.
After that injury, his ankle did not seem to heal normally and he walked with a slight limp. From
then on we could identify who was coming up the floor by his "clumping" footfalls.
3
)
Harry Longcoy, "Jr." was being groomed to take over the store. He was called into Army and was
kiLed in Italy and this was a terrible tragedy for Mr. Longcoy.
His rather favorite grandson, Jack Dreese, was recalled into the Air Force during the Korean War
and was killed. A nephew, Stephen White, whose father worked in the store as a butcher, was also
killed in WWII in 1943. Mr. L. never showed much emotion but we all knew that it was very difficult
for him to bear the loss of these fine young men.
In February of 1946, after High School and one quarter of college, I enlisted in the Army and
returned home in the Summer of 1947. I returned to college and continued to work at the store.
Mr. Longcoy retired in 1946 and sold the store to a gentleman who had called on the store as a
wholesale grocery salesman. Mr. Longcoy said, in a memoir, that " ... I sold it to the wrong person".
He had had little or no retail experience and before long Mr. Longcoy bought the store back and sold
it to David B. Longcoy. "Dave" (as he was called) was H.C.'s cousin, a grandson of one of the former
owners, and had worked in the store as a younger man in various capacities.
In the summer of 1950 I was home from Medical School after my freshman year and working for
Dave in the store. There had been a bakery in one of the upstairs floors and it was no longer in use.
Dave decided to remove the equipment and I was doing that job. It was hot, dirty, miserable work.
Dave had a daughter, Jean Ann, two years my junior, who I had known for several years and with
whom, a couple of years before, I had spent an enjoyable New Year's Eve. We had both been in serious,
but unsuccessful relationships in the interim.
One day when I was suffering greatly (or so I thought) from the heat and labor of dismantling
the bakery, Jean came to the store from her job across the river, to get a ride home with her fatl1er
later. She saw my distress went across the alley to Ray's place and brought back a beer, won my heart,
and we were married at Christmas time that year.
I became one of the family and attending physician to some and cared for H.C. in his terminal
illness.
Of interest to me is the fact that two of my good friends from high school days also worked in
downtown Kent grocery stores. Jim Lanham and Jon Sally both worked for the Acme store on East
Main St. Both went on, as I did, to become Osteopathic Physicians. Jim went into General Practice and
later specialized in Radiology in Summit and Portage Counties, and Jon joined my colleague, Don Ulrich
and me in our Family Practice. All three of us were inspired by and mentored by Dr. Nick Ulrich
and his son Donald. Dr. Nick was the Longcoy family's physician and a friend of Harrys'.
It is a small world.
4
Some Sketches
by
A Grocery Boy in Kent, Ohio
Dr. John C. Jacobs
About Christmas time of 1944, I was a senior in high school
and had been working at tlle Smith News Agency for George Smith
when I was offered a new job and went upstairs to work for the
Longcoy Grocery Store. Smitty's establishment was in the basement
of the Longcoy Store, on the Franklin Avenue side. I was about 17
years of age and it was during WWII and I had been driving for
George for some time and I was hired to drive one of the delivery
trucks for Longcoy's. Christmas time was a busy delivery time and
extra help was needed. As it turned out, it was more than a temporary
job for me.
Longcoy's was an old grocery store, had come down through
several generations, and was now owned by Harry C. Longcoy.
He was called "Mr. Longcoy" and spoken of, by his employees
as "H.C." He was a kindly man, an exemplary citizen, and a hard
worker of the first degree. He never scolded, led by example and,
I think, was beloved by all who knew him.
Longcoy's had two delivery trucks. A gray long bed panel
Dodge of about 1942 vintage, and an earlier vintage yellow International,
conventional bed. Bob Amick was the other driver. I
believe there had only been one truck on the road before I started,
though I am not sure of that. Ruby Bran was the lady in charge
of the little corner office on the main floor of the store, and every
morning she prepared a black purse, with a shoulder strap for us
to carry on the route. It had sufficient change that we could collect for groceries as we delivered them.
I think we only carried that purse for a short while after I started because by then almost all of the
delivered groceries were on a charge basis.
In the morning, Ruby and whoever else was close to tl1e phone
in the office, wrote the orders out on carbon copy pads and passed
them to the "back room". There was a vocabulary of abbreviations
for many of the things that were ordered. Some of them that Jean
and I remember are: "CC" for Cottage Creamery butter. "Sum" for
Sumner's butter. "Gbf" for ground beef. "C&S" for Chase and Sanborn
coffee. "Max" for Maxwell House coffee. "WW" for whole wheat
bread. There were many others because out of the hundreds of
different groceries tllat were carried, many were very commonly ordered
as staples in the kitchens of Kent.
Kent was divided into four routes for the purposes of deliveries:
SW, NW (including Twin Lakes), NE, and SE. Two quadrants were
delivered on two week days, and two on the other two weekdays.
On Saturday, the entire town was covered.
Orders were made up in the "back room", which opened onto
Franklin Avenue. It was pretty well stocked with most of the items that
would be ordered and those that were not stocked, were picked
1
The Kent Historical Society
Speaker Series Presents
"All About Kent"
Author & Editor of the Portage CountyTimeline
and noted Bicentennial Historian of Portage County
Will Speak on
Monday, Feb. 9th, 2009
Doors open: 6:30 p.m. - Talk at: 7:00 p.m.
Where: The Marvin Kent Family Homestead/Masonic Center
Built in 1884
409 W. Main St.
Comer ofWestMain & Mantua St., Kent, OH
• Light Refreshments will be served.
• Jeffrey Jones will play period music on the dulcimer.
• Pictures of a sleigh once owned by the Kent family and
reconstructed by the Portage County Historical Society
will be on display.
• Period photos assembled by John and Jean Jacobs from
the KHS archives will be on display.
• Mr. & Mrs. Marvin Kent (Bruce & Nancy Hansford)
will give a tour of their home following the talk.
• For more information call the KHS office.
Sponsored by the Kent Historical Society
2,34 S. Water St., Kent, OH
330. 678.271
Kent Historical Society Newsletter, Volume 5, Winter Issue, December 1990
No full textKENT HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
•PRESERVING THE PAST TO IMPROVE THE FUTURE•
A Society dedicated to the preservation of historical artifacts
and properties within the City of Kent, Ohio 1990
Our • Autumn Antiques Appraisal" on fr e 1880's, his newest from the 1930's.
November 13th was an unqualified success, F1scher is primarily interested · in bulbs
More than 75 people brought a variety of produced prior to World War I, although
ant1ques and co11ectables to Roosevelt High Mazda bulbs from the •3o•s also capture his
School's cafeter1a for appra1sa1 by Nell 1nterest. Plan to Jo1n us for what 1s sure to
Mengel. Mrs. Mengel, who seemed to know be an enlightening even1ngl (and they say
something about almost every item shown, H1stor1ca1 Soc1et1es don't have a sense of
presented a 11vely program, full of colorful humort>.
anecdotes and f asc1nat1ng stories. Thanks
to everyone who helped to make the evening Diane Lassan, Program Director.
a success, especially Laura and Walt Cheges.
D1ane Lassan, Program Director.
\ I
.,,,,,,,,-
Glen Harbaugh
In 1980 when the call went out for volun-teers
to help restore the Railroad Station,
there appeared one G 1 en Harbaugh and h 1 s
dear w1fe, Dorothy. For nearly a year, every
Saturday at 9:30 AM sharp, these two wonderful
people arr1ved to help pa1nt, wash,
scrub, or anything else that was needed.
Glen was 78 years young and Dorothy close
~ bet)1nd. I shall never forget the1r cheerful
faces, the1r wonderful sense of humor, and
the1r dedication to seeing the old bu11d1ng
· renewed to its once elegant grandeur. We
our next program, scheduled for 7:00 PM, got very few volunteers to help us with the
Tuesday, January 15th at the Donaghy Room monumental task of restoration, but w1th
of the ,Kent Free Library, should prove 111u- such loyalty and comm1tment from Glen and
minating. Larry Fischer, owner of Fischer's Dorothy, a great dream became a reality.
Ant1ques 1n Deerfield, will display and light Glen passed away December 17th, but h1s
part of h1s large 11ghtbulb collect1on. mark in the Center Tower and Museum w111
F1scher's 1nterest in lightbulbs was st1mu- always be remembered by the Historical
lated several years ago by a customer at his soc 1 ety.
shop. Through a tw1st of fate, F1scher our condolences to Dorothy and her family
1 eventually purchased that man's collection for their great loss.
- Jand began f1ne-tun1ng 1t. H1s oldest bulb 1s
....,;
1900
zest was given by wretched roads. None of
the roads were paved; few were any better
than they had been for long decades before.
In the fall and spring they were often sea~
of mud and trave 1 over them in an automl_,,
b1le was 1mposs1ble. The result was that
the autos had to be "put up" for the winter.
In the summer, the roads were ankle deep
w1th dust, and the motor1sts of the day had
to wear goggles, leather gauntlets, and long
The fo11owing excerpts, taken from Gris- "dusters· or they were not cons1dered propmer
·s, relate when the first autos came to erly attired. On the rare occasions, the
Kent in 1901. roads were f a1rly good, and it was dur1ng
one of these per1ods that C.L. Bartshe estab-
Get a Horse, vou N1nny, Get a Horse 11shed a new record from Cleveland to Kent,
W1th the dawn_ of the new century, horse- mak1ng the tr1p in the ·1ncred1ble" time or
less carr1ages began to puff and -snort along 2 hours and 37 m1nutes. That was ·on June
the streets of Kent. At first they were 24, 1906.
looked upon as curiosities which cou1d never An article by Karl Mosher talks about an
have any really pract1ca1 va1ue. And with early auto owner, Father Bremagen of Sa1nt
good reason. Rarely 1ndeed did one of those Patr1cks Church. Karl says "I can't reca11
first machines make a trip of more than a the name of the car but it was a two seater.
few mnes without breaking down some- The front seat would seat two forward, the
where along the road. Then came the mock- back seat faced the rear. The steering was
ing cry from the skeptics of the day: ·Get a a lever type and the dash was 11ke a t>ugo\/_
horse, you n1nny, get a horsel" front. The motor was under the seats a.__,
P.W. Eigner is credited with bringing the you cranked 1t to start. I be11eve 1t was a
f1rst automob11e to Kent. It was a Toledo two cy11nder. About every t1me the good
Steamer runabout which had every one of Father would go for a ride, he would call my
the • 1atest improvements.• John G. Paxton, folks and te 11 them to send me to the Parish
dean of Kent newspapermen, even now re- House to take a r1de with him. He would also
ca11s w1th dread a tr1p he made to Br1mf1eld teJJ them to have me bring along John Dlw1th
E1gner one day 1n the summer of 1901,_ vokey. We knew from .past experience 1t was
when the car was sti11 brand new. • It was· not so much for the ride as tt was to push the
terrib1e/ sa1d-Paxton;·s1mpty terr1ble: We - car -back to Sam Friend's Bicycle Shop on
met Frank Becht1e coming down the• road.,. North Water Street for repa1rs when 1t
H1s horse and buggy took across a f1eld and broke down."
was lost in the woods. Then we approached The f1rst "Local Auto News" wh1ch apanother
horse and buggy. The horse stood up peared in a Kent newspaper was printed by
on its hind legs and began pawing the air - the Courier April 8, 1910. It conta1ned the
the driver swore at us Hke a trooper. On 1nterest1ng 1nformat1on that there were
down the road a man who saw us com1ng then in Kent, or had been ordered, 30 autoleaped
out of his buggy and held his horse, mob11es.
and the cuss1ng he gave us s1mp ly couldn't Garrison & Young's Auto L 1very was open
be repeated." for business - "Leave your orders at Mart1n's
Dur1ng those early years, driving an auto- restaurant and they w111 be promptlv
mob1Je was a real adventure to wh1ch added hand1ed. •
The first speed ord1nance 1n Kent was
passed June 28, 191 o. It f1xed the speed 1n
the bus1ness section at 8 miles an hour and
1n the res1dent1a1 sect1on at 15. It also
~ stipulated that when a motorist approached
a horse-drawn vehicle he must slow down
and stop when signaled to do so, and- remain
so until the horse passed.
The f1rst automob11e advertisements 1n
Kent newspapers were paid for by James B.
M111er who announced that he would gladly
teach anyone how to drive and that he would
equip cars with One-Spark plugs or M111er
Keyless Locks for the too 1 chest. One of the
first repa1r shops and gasoline pumps was
operated by Sam Friend. Before he started
1n bus1ness, gasoline was purchased 1n
hardware and grocery stores.
We are fast com1ng to a new century and
I _wonder what the 21st century will bring to
the world of transportation. The advent of
the automobile completely made over the
11ves of the American people, changing where
we 11ve, the k1nd of homes we have, the
_,/--- schools we attend, the way we earn our
11v1ng, the food we eat, and how we spend
our vacations. Most amazing 1s that these
changes came about in a 11ttle more than
half a century.
__,I
Bill Birkner.
HJstory commtttee
The Kent History Committee on Decem-ber
20th named Mr. Jack Ba 11 ard to be the
Editor and author of a continuing History
of Kent. The new book wi 11 be a reprint of
Karl Gr1smer·s 1805 to 1932 h1story.
It will be Mr. Ballard's job to write a
new history, us1ng the same format as the
orig1na1 Grismer version from 1932 to the
present. Both books w111 be bound into
one for a 600 page history.
The Wjsh Ust
We have rece1ved two groups of 1tems recently
that we would enjoy receiving many,
many more times. One of these groups 1ncluded
yearbooks from Kent State Normal
High School, Kent State University, and Kent
Roosevelt. The first yearbooks we received
were from M11dred Elg1n Bumphrey and dated
from 1919 through 1923. From these we
have recorded the names of students and advert1sers
who were 1n Kent during the t1me
of the yearbook. These yearbooks are a
great resource for any Historical Society.
The second group of items we rece1ved
included old home movies show1ng downtown
events, parades, campus days, etc.. We
have just received severa 1 that were taped
on one VCR tape. These are most 1nterest-
1ng and we owe our thanks to Comfort
Spellman for them. Th1s sort of med1a helps
us record history and shows how Kent looked
in the 1940's.
We w 111 accept 1 terns such as these as
gifts or as loans.
B111 Birkner.
Latest Acau1s1tioos
Two Salt dishes and two F1nger bowls
from the Marvin Kent family's everyday
ch1na set were donated by Mrs. Richard
Bauer.
A picture of Kent with frame, c1rca 1868,
one round Molding plane, and two Long or
Trying planes were donated by Cec11 and
Mlldred Bumphrey.
A VCR tape of Kent in the 1940's (from
8mm movies) was donated by Comfort Spellman.
on Loan
A small bookcase with glass doors and
locks for use 1n the H1stor1ca1 Society office
is on loan from Mrs. Louise L 1ttlepage.
This case was brought to Kent from Oregon
in 1916 by Hugo B1rkner.
Kent Hl1tar1ca1 society
152 Frantlln Rue., P .o. Baa 663
Kent, Ohta 44240
A HAPPY, HEALTHY, AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR FROM THE KENT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
a.aru ;s:♦i , ·- "nrm !!!111!!:!!I . .,, -= a-im .. r :di
Is There = I a1 JJ•
Something Hiding =~
In Your Attic? ~
j We are looking for Historical
I Art if acts!
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J. We need items for the Museum that i relate to Kent's heritage. i
• Please Call: i
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MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
Detach and mail to: Kent Historical Society
P.O. Box 663
Name
Street
City
Kent, Ohio 44240
____ State __ Zip Code __ _
ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP RATES ( please check one) _,,,,,-
- Student 35.00
_ Single 50.00
_ Family 100.0,'"-""
_ L 1fetime Membership $1 ,000.0
Kent Historical Society Newsletter, Volume 7, Summer Issue, June 1991
No full textKENT HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
"PRESERVING THE PAST TO IMPROVE THE FUTURE»
A Society dedicated to the preservation of histori~al artifacts
and properties within the City of Kent, Oh10
June, 1991
152 Franklin Avenue, P.O. Box 663*Kent. OH. 4424O*Phone (216)678-2712
A Ouartertv Publication Vo1ume7,Summer Issue lune. 1991
DO YOU REMEMBER
If you can remember any or a 11 of the following you
were around Kent during the late 20 's and 30 's when the
country was in the depths of the depression, life was
simpler, the town was smaller and almost everyone
knew everyone else.
DO YOU REf1EMBER:
When you could go right into the Mill at Williams
Bros. and they would fill a paper bag, from the chute
with the wooden gate, with a wheatina-type cereal. Cost
about 1 5 cents a bag?
When you could take your own gallon jar to
Tagenhorst 's Perfection Dairy on River St. and get a
gallon of skim milk for 25 cents?
The little boxes that zipped around on mov1ng
When there was a gravel bank across from the wires at Gensemers dry goods carrying the bill and your
Masonic Apartments on Lake Street? money to the cashier and then brought your change
back?
The Miniature Golf course that used to be on the
hill where the Ohio Bell parking lot is now?
The Stiver house at 140 Lake St. that had a wel 1
or cistern by the front steps ... tr1e pump was the kind
with the crank that turned a chain that had little buckets
on the the chain each of which dumped as it came over the
top? When Dr. Krape had his office in his home on
Columbus St. An office cal I was 1.00 and that included
f"1usson's Blacksmith Shop located in the build- several packets of pills?
ing (still standing) at 118 Lake St.?
When men named Nash and Luli both had horse-
The Interurban freight station at N. Water and drawn trash wagons?
Lake St. ( still standing) where an item ordered by phone
from a Cleveland store would come in and be delivered the
next day?
The red International trucks (two of them) tr1at
delivered groceries for Meachum and Rhoades, Knifels
and Longcoys. How about the folding wooden boxes they
used ... that would stack when filled with groceries and
trien fold nat when empty. You could call your order in
to the store and the delivery people would walk right into
your house and unpack the groceries on the kitchen table
and put the milk and meat in the icebox if you were not
around?
When a man with a horse and a wooden V-shaped
plow cleared the sidewalks after each snow?
When a man built a home-made airplane in the
second story of the building still standing behind the
house on the N.E. corner of Vine and Cherry St. I wonder
if he ever got it out and if tt ever flew?
When Mary Klinko was murdered while walking
through U1e area from Black & Decker to Crain? Another
unsolved murder on S. River between the American
Legion and Stow St.?
The Erie restaurant at N. Water and Crain where The old Erie boarding house ( st111 standing) on
the Erie callboy with his sidecar equipped motorcycle Orchard St. and the swinging bridge over the river used
would start looking for train crews? by the trainmen to get to the roundhouse?
Kladags radio parts store upstairs over Kline's
grocery? The entrance was up an outside stairway
i-ien ind the grocery.
The strike at Domestic Electric ( later Lamb,
then Black & Decker ... now Ametek) when the rubber
workers came over from Akron and used deer rifles to
shoot out all the windows and put holes in the water tank
so that it looked like a giant fountain?
Fred Bechtle still wore a starched hard collar
and put the cigar store Indian out on the sidewalk each
day?
When there was only one traffic l1ght tn town on
a post right 1n the center of Main & Water?
When the entire police force was Chief St. Claire
West, Bud Barr, and Firman Grubb. They had one Model
A, Ford car and usually parked it on Water St. right beside
Thompsons Drug Store?
The tax1s that cost a dime and were owned by
Miller, Wise, Gillespie! and a couple of others. They
would polish their cars while waiting for a fare?
The watchman's shanty with the watchman that
came out and stood in the street carrying a sign that said
"stop" whenever a train came through. Also carried a
red lantern at night.
When candidate Hoover spoke f ram the back
platform of a westbound B&O train. They stopped the
train so that he could speak to people on the Main St.
bridge and standing along the rail by the Erie tracks?
When every train through town had hundreds of
men riding from place to place looking for work. Looking
down at a B&O train from the bridge often saw 20 or 30
men in each gondola car and others riding on top of box
cars or sitting in the door with their legs dangling.
Transients riding the Erie had to get off above the yards
and walk down Lake St and Water St. and then get back on
another train below the yards before the train got going
to fast.
There were several "Knights of the Road 11 that
had semi-permanent shelters built along the canal bank
behind the Lake St dump by Breakneck Creek, these
were dug into the hil1side 1 had a tin roof ( appropriated
from a billboard) covered with dirt. One even had a
spring inside that furnished running water. They cooked
in o1d cans over an open fire. Some stayed on several
years.
Smith's Pie Shop at Portage and N. Water where
they had pie shells already made and would fill the shell
with pineapple! cherry) apple, etc. Pies cost 5) 10, and
25 cents.
The barber shop next to the pie shop with the
funny sign ... one side said "EL Hopkins keeps this shop."
The other side said "This shop keeps E.L. Hopkins. 11
When KSU was the Normal School with about 900
students almost all female, who had to be in by 9 each
night and 1 AM. on weekends. If they were late the door
was locked and they had to ring for the house mother and
then sign a late slip.
When almost every house in Kent had a combination
lock on all the outside doors ( many are still in place
and in use).
Swimming at Brady' Lake on the North shore at
Spe1mans Beach ... so called because it was the location of
the Ice House that was owned by Mr. Spelman but had
burned some years before?
When people made wooden frames about 2 ft. x 4
ft. and covered them witt-1 hardware c1oth and then sifted
the dirt in the Erie yards to get the coal that had collected
over the years ... then hauled it home in a box or bur lap
bag with a coaster wagon? They did not have the 2.50
a ton to pay for coal to heat their home.
When transients came to the door and offered td
do any kind of work for a sandwich and a cup of coffee.
If you can remember any or all of this you are
right on the verge of being what is sometimes called an
"old timer.I! But it's not all bad ... you saw some things
and experienced some happenings that wm never occur
again. Some of these things we are better off
without...others will never happen again without drasr
changes in the wor 1 d as we know it today.
John P. Wunderle, Guest Writer.
We would welcome many guest writers in the
future, if you wish to become a historical author please
join us.
ACQUISITIONS
Six boxes of Kent Ohio slides and pictures, donated by
Charles Fr an k houser.
Portage County Atlas, 18 7 4 and Wor 1d Atlas of 1885,
donated by P .G. Sellman.
Ticket Booth window frame from the o1d Opera House,
donated by Lenora Lorenz and Bob Gressard.
Highchair, donated by May Belle Apley.
1917 Record Tribune newspapers, donated by i·1ary
Amadi 's.
William Stedman letter on Atlantic & Great Western
Stationary, 186 l, donated by Charles Proctor.
Can we print your name in our next issue? Don't
forget we need art1facts, don't keep them in your~ attic,
let them be seen. We are especially interested in old
scrapbooks and pictures that we may be able to use in ou
upcoming History of Kent Book.
BOUNDARIES Of KENT'S NEW
HISTORIC DISTRICT
Shown above are the boundaries of Kent's Historic
DistricC as established by the Kent Historical
Society, June, 1991
Tr,anks to Loris Troyer, we have a tally of the
locations of the structures, districts and places listed by
the National Register of Historic Places. These are: the
John Davey House, 338 Woodard Street; Franklin
Township Hall, 218 Gouglar Avenue; the Kent Charles
louse, 125 North Pear1 Street; the Old Kent Jail, 124
West Day Street; and, the Marvin Kent House ( the Masonic
Temple), 409 West Main Street.
The Districts include the Kent Industrial District,
roughly bounded by Main Street on the North,
River Street on the West, Franklin Avenue on the East,
and the Portage County 1 ine on the Soutr1. The structures
that can claim recognition are the Main Street Bridge,
the P&O Canal Lock, the Atlantic and Great Western
Railway Station, the Kent Dam, the old Gifford Building
(Will1am, Welser, and Antogo1i). the Alpaca Mill
( Portage Packaging Co.), and the old Atlantic and Great
Western Car Shops ( Davey Kent, Inc.).
The West Main Street District starts at the
Marvin Kent Home ( -tt 409) and includes the following
addresses on the North side: 431 , 443, 453, 463, 4 71 ,
477, SO 1, 511, 519, 529, 603, 607, 611, 619, and
625. On the South sideare included: 430, 438, 450,
458, 466, 474, 602, 606, 612, and 628.
The last District is Ohio State Normal College at
Kent located on Hilltop Drive on the Kent State University
Campus. The structures are Franklin, Kent, Administration
Building, Merrill, Lawry, r1orelton, and
the Rockwell Library.
A total of 44 structures are 1 isted and recognized
··y the National Park Services, Register of Historic
., laces. This far exceeds any otr1er community in Portage
County.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S NEWEST PROJECT.
THE HAYMAKER CEMETERY
You probably never heard of Haymaker cemetery,
but it is Kent's oldest burial ground. You may have
heard it called the Old Stow Street Cemetery, because of
H's location; however, it was begun by the family of
Jacob Haymaker, Kent's first native.
When Jacobs wife, Eve, died on October 11,
181 O, just six years after he settled what is now Kent,
he set out a two acre plot along the banks of the Cuyahoga
for use as a family burial ground. A year later, the
family deeded the property to Franklin Township to
serve as a community cemetery.
Our project, is to restore the name to the Haymaker
Cemetery and to restore the site to the beauty it
once had in honor of the Haymaker family. We may need
volunteers to help us to achieve this goal.
If you want to help, call us at 6 78-2712.
REMINDER
COMMEMORATIVE CHRISTMAS
ORNAMENTS
The Kent Historical Society will be selling commemorative
Christmas ornaments, they are bright red with a
silk-screened picture of the Railway Station and dated
1991. We hope we can make this a tradit1on, with a
different Kent landmark each year. The ornaments can
be obtained at the following locations:
Kent Historical Society Office
Home Savings Bank
Kent Hardware
McKay Bricker
Thompson's Drugstore
Sue Nelson's
Logo's
The Works
Kent Travel
Flynn and Paoloni
TRIPLE WEDDING
Ever heard of a triple wedding? Kent had one on
September, 2, 1872.
A 1 ice Underwood married Fred Foote
Rhoda Charles married Joseph Whitehead
Efie Parsons married J.B. Miller
The weddings were simultaneously held in the
front parlor of the Underwood-Elgin house built in
1865 by Freeman Underwood. The Underwood-Elgin
house stands on the hill just above what is today the Ohio
Bell Company office on DePeyster Street We are happy
to report the home is presently being restored.
Mildred Elgin Bumphrey provided us with this
anticdote of history. If you have an anticdote from Kent's
past, please drop us a line at P.O. Box 663 .
Kent Hlstortcal society
152 Fntntlin Aue., P .o. BoH 663
Kent, Ohio 44240
KENT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
MEMBERSHIP APPL/CATION
NAME: ______________________ _
STREET: _____________________ _
CITY: ______________ STATE: ___ ZIP: ___ _
ANNUAL MEMBERSHf P RATES (please check one)
D Student 35.00
D Single 50.00
D Family 100.00
D lifetime Membership $1,000.0
Kent Historical Society Newsletter, Volume 3, Spring Issue, March 1990
No full textKENT HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
•PRESERVING THE PAST TO IMPROVE THE FUTURE"
A Society dedicated to the preservation of historical artifacts and
properties within the City of Kent, Ohio
March, 1000
152 Franklin Avenue, P.O. Box 663*Kent, OH. 44240*Phone (216)678-2712
A Quarterly Publication Volume 3, Spring Issue Ma.rch, J 990
You Are Invited
Dr. George w. Knepper w i 11 be our
speaker March 20th at 7pm 1n the
Donaghy Room of the Kent Free
L 1brary.
The f1rst introduction to government,
1n what is known today as the State
of Ohio, was in 1787 when the
Northwest ordinance was granted by
congress. This ordinance later
created the states of Oh1o, Indiana,
111 inois, M1ch1gan and part of
Minnesota.
What better place to start' out our
meeting this month than having a
speaker who 1 s an authority on Ohio
and the Northwest ordinance. Dr.
Knepper·s top1c w111 be on the western
Reserve area, particularly Kent and
how its people fit into the history of
Ohio. Dr. Knepper will have cop1es of
his latest book for sale which he w111
autograph for you.
Dr. Knepper is a distinguished
Professor of H1story and the
University Htstorian at the University
of · Akron. He was born and raised in
Akron, received a B.A. degree in
History from the University of Akron,
and M.A and Ph.D. degrees from the
University of Michigan. He has taught
at the University of Akron since 1954
and ts the author of f1ve books dealing
with aspects of Ohio. His most recent
pub1icat1on, Ohio and Its Peopl~ is
the first general history of the state
written in this generation. Dr.
Knepper 1s act1ve 1n many
organ1zat1ons. He has served as
president and trustee of The Ohio
Historical Soctety, the Ohio Academy
of History, and the Summit County
Historical Society. He is a member of
many other professional organizations
and served on the Ohio Commission on
the Bicentennial of the Northwest
Ord1nance. He is a former Fulbright
Scholar, has won a number of teaching
awards and was recognized 1n 1982
with an award for the best book on
Ohio 1ocal history.
Want Help Finding Your Roots?
Need A Speaker For Your CJub?
A SPEAKERS BUREAU was organized
one year ago by Marlene Mackenzie of
Rootstown, Ohio, who represents The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. The speakers w111 speak to
groups about several topics which
include FAMILY HISTORY and WRITING
A PERSONAL HISTORY. They are
wi11ing to speak to groups free of
charge. You can make arrangements
by caliing Mrs. Mackenzie at phone
number 325- 7800.
For those who are interested 1n doing
genealogical research with attendants
on hand and totally free of charge, you
can call THE FAMILY HISTORY CENTER
LOCATION 1n Akron at 735 N. Revere
Rd., phone number 836-8216. The
center is open during the following
days: Mondays and Wednesdays 1 Oam
to 2pm, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
6:30pm to 9:30pm, and Saturdays 9am
to 5pm at The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. Please feel free
to call or v1s1t the center any t1me
during the hours and days rnent 1oned.
The church also has a FAMILY HISTORY
CENTER LOCATION in Kirtland at 8751
Kirtland Rd., phone number 256-8808.
The1r hours are Tuesdays and
Saturdays from 1 Oam to 2pm,
Thursdays and Fridays 7pm to 9:30pm.
You are welcome to call or v1s1t any
time during the days and times given.
We want to help you with your
genealogy 1n any way that we can.
Needed Guest Authors
We need guest authors to wr1 te
stories for future newsletters. If you
have wr1t1ng ab111ties and 1nteresting
stories about Kent history, Kent
Glass, AGWRR, family outdates, Kent
family histories, etc., we would
welcome your participation. -call us
at 6 78-2712 on Wednesdays, l 1 am to
2pm, or at my home 6 73-4682. Ask
for Bi 11 Birkner.
latest Acquisitions
Francis Kline donated twenty-nine
Reco1lecttons of an Old Settler books.
Reprinted in 1964, 1t was written and
first published in 1874. Francis also
donated twenty-four Portage Herl-tage,
books, a Portage county history
from 1807 to 1957. His intention was
that we could sell these books to help
fill the financial obligations of the
soc1ety.
Some of the stories are so
interesting, I decided for this issue to
give you some excerpts from these
two books, to wet your appetite, so to
speak, for purchasing one or both of
these books wh i 1 e they 1 ast.
"The Savage Woolyn1g"
"Portage County·s ear11est historian,
describes the wild animals to be
found when settlers first came, tells
of the ·woolyn1g· as fallows: 'The
woolynig is an animal about the size
still larger than the wildcat, not so
long 1n the legs, but heavier and
stockier built. They are of a darker
color. They have large whiskers on
each side of the head. They look
savage and are as savage as they look.
They are the hardest customers that
roam the f crest, according to their
size. The w11dcat 1s smaller than the
woolynig. He is about as large as a
small sized dog, but of longer legs in
proportion to his body. He is fond of
feathered f Jocks, such as chickens,
geese, ducks, as well as pigs and
lambs, and sometimes kills smallish
deer, etc.' It is believed that the
·woolynig,· described by Cacker, was
the lynx or wolverine, both of which
had reputations for fighting ferocity."
The first of these excerpts is from
Cackler's Recollections of an Old
Settler.
The following excerpts are from tr1e
nook Portage Heritage which was
written by many authors and edited by
Dr. James B. Ho 1m.
"What A Man -- Pod Moore"
11 Some of the boat captains of the old
P. & 0. Canal were what in later days
would be called ·colorful' characters.
One ·such was Capt. Roland Lorenzo
Oren Moore, known as 'Pod Moore.' Six
feet, ten and a half inches tall, big
girth and strong as a bull, he could
bend s11ver dollars w1th his f1ngers.
He was a prodigious eater and drinker
and his drinking bouts lasted all night.
It 1s told that once when his boat was
waiting its turn at the lower Frank1in
lock, some one from another waiting
boat derisively yelled 'Fat Belly' in
his direction, he went into act ion and
personally and s1ng1e handed cleaned
up on the crews of three other boats
waiting lockage. It is also related
that 'Old Pod· was converted to
religion, joined the church and became
a great worker for Prohibition,
especially along the canal. He was
the father of 21 children."
"Garfield·s Canal Career"
"In the d1ary of James A. Garfield, he
refers to his work on the canal as
follows:
Aug. 16, 1948 - Went to Cleveland.
Hired on the canal boat, Evening Star,
to my cousin A Lechter. Started up
the canal.
Aug. 1 7 - Passed through Akron.
Sept. 2 - From Akron we turned east
on the cross out which passes through
Cuyahoga Falls, Franklin, Ravenna,
Warren, Youngstown, and a short
distance from the latter place it
forms a Junct1on with the Er1e
extension, and from there went to
Beaver on the Ohio River. Hired a
steamboat to tow us up . the river to
Pittsburgh, where we arrived on the
26th.
Sunday, Sept. 27 · - Took a stroll.
Listened to two sermons on the street
by men hired by the authorities of the
place.
Oct 2 - Staid over Sunday. Unloaded
Monday. My bus1ness 1s 'bowing,·
which is to make the locks ready, get
the boat through, trim the lamps and I
get 12.00 per month of 24 days each. He
wrote that he ·expects trouble' there.)
Nov. 13, 1849 - Punished 5. Herrington
severely for disobeying and being
saucy. He endeavored to fight me but
finally gave up and 1s now a good boy."
The cost of these books are t 5.00 for Portage Herjtage. You can
pick them up at the Ra11road Station
Museum.
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Kent HlItor1ca1 society
152 Franklin Bue., P.O. Baa 663
Kent, Ohio +1240
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We are lootin9 for Historical Artifacts,
We need items for the Museu1D that
relate to Kent·s herita9e. If vou have
tnovledge of ang items that vou feel
vould enhance our exhibits. call:
678-2712 on Wednesdag·s betyeen
11 :00 A.M. and 2:00 P .M. L., ~ - .. .. II
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~---- --- ·- -... .,, __.,. -... ~ - ..• ,
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. )cent~hioMll,f:.._. . . ,~-.. , Jjj ,~:·-,_
➔ ~~ -~ .
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
Detach and mail to: Kent Historical Society
P.O. Box 663
-Kent, Ohio 44240
Name ______________ _
Street ______________ _
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Kent Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin, Volume 17, Spring 1994
No full textKENT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
P.O. Box 663 - Kent, Ohio 44240- (216) 678-2712
Volume 17 - Spring 1994 Quarterly Bulletin
"Friend of Man ... the Tree Speaks"
Ye who pass by and would raise your hand against me hearken
ere you harm me.
I am the heat of your hearth on the cold winter nights, the friendly
shade screening you from the summer sun, and my fruits are
refreshing draughts quenching your thirst as you journey on.
I am the beam that holds your house, the board of your table, the
bed on which you lie, and the timber that builds your boat.
I am the handle of your hoe, the door of your homestead, the
wood of your cradle, and the shell of your coffin.
I am the gift of God, I am the friend of man.
Ye who pass by, listen to my prayer.
Harm me not.
NEW EXHIBIT FOR ROWE MUSEUM . ..
"DA Y TREE AN ITS BE INNING"
On June 6, 1846, in the small parish of Stawley
near Wellington, Somersetshire, England, John Davey
was born. He had a tough life as a youngster, but his
parents passed onto him many virtues, characteristics,
and wisdom that he carried the rest of his life. From
his father, he learned perseverance, the will to work
hard, and the motto, "Do it right or not at all. 11 This is
still the motto of The Davey Tree Expert Company
today. From his mother, he gained a deep religious
background, a great desire to learn, and a love of
nature. He had a curiosity for what made things grow.
Because of his eagerness to learn, John moved
to southern England to learn greenhouse management,
horticulture, and floriculture. It was here, at age 21,
that John met an educated man who taught him the
alphabet. In that six-year period, 'With the aid of a
dictionary and a New Testament, he began to teach
himself how to read and write. Sometime later, he
obtained a grammar book and a hymnal. With these
four books as his library and an enormous amount of
energy, he laboriously taught himself how to read and
write.
In 1873, when the six-year contract was
complete, John was very confident in his ability to
succeed. He decided to pack his small holdings and
strike out for America. It was not the best time for
such a move, because the country was suffering a
severe depression. Men were out of work, and many
were starving. Somehow, no one seems to know
how, John ended up in Warren, Ohio. His first fulltime
job was as a janitor in a private school Once
again, his desire to learn made him trade labor for
tuition. At the age of 27, when the most educated
man had graduated, he was just starting school. His
subjects were Latin, Greek, astronomy, and botany as
. . . by Bill Birkner
well as the standard courses. Quite a feat - to work,
go to classes, make his o-wn meals, and study each
day! John spent 6 years in Warren (1873-1879) -
these were his education years, both formal learning
and experience. He bought a greenhouse, started his
own business, and became an author and lecturer. His
publication, Davey's Floral and Landscape Educator,
began monthly distribution in 1878.
However, Davey's business failed. Money and
making money were not skills he 'Wished to pursue.
His interests were scholarly - he had an inquisitive and
inventive mind. He was a crusader who wanted to
change the ways that mankind treated the environ
ment John may have been the first God-sent human
that, as early as 1870, could see how the human race
would eventually destroy the earth by always taking its
resources and never giving anything back in return.
Today, we are even able to destroy the very air we
breath.
In 1879, Mr. Davey came to Kent to become
the sextant of Standing Rock Cemetery. It had been
neglected for years; however, to John Davey it was an
experimental laboratory. It was a landscape that he
intended to shape into a place of beauty, a hands-on
project where he could prove his theories on tree care
- and prove it he did. Standing Rock became a
shmvplace for miles around. It was difficult, however,
to convince a nation that trees should be saved - how
could we ever run out of trees? The good old USA
just had too many.
John must have been frustrated, but he never
gave up. He began lecture tours throughout the area,
using slides to demonstrate tree care. (The old slide
projector is on display in the Davey Exhibit.) Hf
utilized the whole family - Belle, the oldest, and th&-
Kent Historical Socie Spring Meeting
Monday, I 25 - 7:30 pm
John & Carson's home
1134 Glenview, Suffield
( south on Rt 43, right on Waterloo Road, left on
Glenview - house is on the left)
Every time I visit this home, rm amazed and
impressed by John's coUectionf Every room in
this home has a collection or artifacts of some
kind. It is a treasure of history. Listed below are
just some of the items of interest: early maps of
Kent area, 1900 pharmacy, 1850 post office,
early medical & dental tools, penny bank collection,
miscellaneous Kent and Portage area
artifacts, postcard collection (Kent & Portage
County)i Ohio Indian artifacts, miscellaneous
household items {late 1800's-early 1900's),
books, postcards & photos of Ohio Canal era,
and blimp memorabilia. Unless you are a friend
of the Carsons, this may be the only chance you
wiU have to see this treasure chest of history,
especially the pharmacyl Refreshments will be
served. Please RSVP by caning the Society
office at 678-2712; you may leave a message on
the ansv1ering machine.
t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t
Slone marker for lhe rededicalion of the Pioneer
Cemetery
flOHEER CEMEIERY
1810
DEDICATED MAY 30. 1'94
BY THE 1-EHT HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
IN lOVHIG MEMORY
OF THE
HAYMAKER FAMILY AND OTHER
EARLY SETTLERS OF
KENT I HAUKUH TOWNSHIP
WHO UE HERE IN
ETEIHAL FEACE
The first death in Franklin Township was that
of Eve Haymaker on October 1 L 1810. She was the
wife of Jacob Haymaker and the mother of ,John,
George, and Frederick who were the founders of the
e of FrankHn Mms in 1805. Jacob died in 1819.
John in 1827, George in 1838, and Frederick in 185 L
FoHmving the death of Mrs. Haymaker, a two-acre
site was set aside bv the Havmaker famHv for use J J ;
as a cemetery. Later, it was deeded lo the com-munity.
Most of Franklin's pioneers were buried
there. and it was used unrn Standing Rock Cemetery
was opened to the north of Kenl on North Mantua
Street in 1857.
Last year, the Historical Society requested
thal the city and township trustees consider changing
the name from Stow Street Cemetery lo Pioneer
Cemetery to honor aH of the early pio~eers of our
community. The Cemetery Board has approved, and
the Hislorica1 Society is planning to repair the gate
and front fence and clean up and piant flowers. We
would appreciate your heip~!
PIONEER CEMETERY WORK DAYS
We need your helpl Bring your own tools on
Saturday, April 23 and April 30 at 10 a.m. We
wiH be conducting an "Operation Clean-Up" at
the Pioneer Cemetery to get it ready for its
rededication. We wiH be trimming, raking, and
spading flower beds and around the tombstones.
Donations of flowers and plants would be greatly
appreciated. For further information, contact
Laura Cheges at 678-0700. Please join us!
t t * * * * t * t t * t *
"KENT FIRSTS"
We are in the process of compiling a list of Kent
":firsts". We have a few but would like to know if
there are more. Here is our list - are we correct?
(1) f'irst tree care business; (2) first keyless lock
company; (3) f'irst governor from Kent (i\·I.L.
Davey); (4) first mass production bus company
(ffiin Coach); (5) first full research Jaboratorv for
research in liquid crystals; (6) f'u-st woma~ to
boys, Wellington, Martin and James - for his lectures.
1ul was too young to hold up posters and props.)
1.1.e wrote a book The Tree Doctor in 1901. The story
of tree care was spreading, especially in the east, from
Hudson Valley to Boston. The large estates of the
very wealthy, George Eastman of Eastman Kodak
fame and J. llorace McFarland were influential and an
inroad to the elite of America - the V anderbilts,
Camegies, Rockefellers, etc. The gardeners on these
estates were not interested in being "monkeys",
swinging in the trees! (I will never forget my first
climb into a great big elm tree. No daylight could be
seen between me and the trunk of that tree. Whitey
Myers was standing on the ground and said with a
laugh, "Isn't it fun, Bill?" In a few weeks, it was!)
Since the estate gardeners didn't or wouldn't climb
trees, the natural· alternative was to train people to be
tree climbers and sell a service to home owners.
Everyone is a salesman, trying to sell something,
but all are not super salesmen. Martin, the third
child, was such a person. He was just so different
than his father. Although he had the curiosity of his
father, he was also inventive and persuasive - the
ural salesman. From peddling vegetables to selling
books door to door, Martin had learned his lessons
well. Martin's mother, Bertha, also contributed much
to his early years, one of these traits was teamwork.
With so much work to do in rearing five children, the
family had to share in everything - chores, clothing,
raising produce in the garden and selling it in order to
survive. Martin, also, had learned through sports that
the team that worked together won together. He was
formally educated, and, from his father's wisdom of
doing everything right or not doing it at all, together
they founded a service company. In 1909 it was
incorporated as Tue Davey Tree Expert Company.
With a background of such wisdom and a little luck,
Davey Company was a success. Martin always
called his employees and their families "the Davey
family". Each year, every wife and child of an employee
received a birthday letter. When times were
good, the children also received a fifty-cent piece.
How I used to anticipate this each year ( and how I
would spent it)! When times were tough, as during the
A~pression, o,,,e.•racu,no was paid something - sometimes
stock in the company. Whenever a new position or
promotion was necessary, Martin always filled it from
within the company, going outside only when no one
inside the company was qualified. This created a
harmony from within the work force.
No man in the eyes of God is immortal - the
closest thing to it is his wisdom, his deeds, and his
philosophy which is passed on from generation to
generation. Martin Davey was such a man. He passed
on to his son, Martin L. Davey, Jr., his wisdom, and,
when it became necessary for the Davey family to
tenninate their association, it was only fair in their
minds to pass it on to the other "family" - the employees.
Today, the new "family" has carried on as
many of its traditions as possible, and it is the largest
company of its kind in the world - employing over
5000 people.
The city of Kent has to be proud of the Davey
family's heritage from its bloodline to its employee line
for the many contributions to Kent's heritage as well.
From the research of our new history book committee,
I believe it is certain that, as the Kent family was to
the last century, the Davey family will be to this
century in our history. (In future publications, we will
cover the political life of Martin L. Davey.) Come
to the Rowe Museum and see for yourself The
Davey Exhibit
(NOTE: The poem on the front cover is available at
the museum printed on ivory parchment suitable for
framing.)
OFF# /IOI/SE.
Wednesdayi April 13 - 7:00 pm lo 9:00 pm
The Davey Tree Expert Company and
Kenl Historical Sociel y in vile you lo an
Open House al lhe Rowe Museum. 11/Je
1/islory of IJavey Tree Expert Compan_y'1 is
the current exhibit on display. Plan lo join
us and bring a friend.
~come president of an Ohio university (Carol
_art"Tight); (7) Kent, the fu-st "Tree City
U.S.A.". If you can think of any more, please let us
know at 678-2712.
t • t t * * t t t * t t • • t
Coming in August
The Society would like to feature the Twin Coach
Company for our next exlnoit in August. We would
appreciate any loans or donations of pictures and
artifacts to make this exlnoit a big success. For you
who are not fan:n1iar \\<1th T,vin Coach, it was the
c-0mpany that first mass produced busses made in the
U.S. and, in 1941, was the largest manufacturer of
busses in the country. Please call the office at 678-
2712 with any information you may have.
t • t * t t t t t t t t t t *
A ·es are due ....
has come to my attention twice in the last two
weeks that we are advising people we are not interested
in accepting artifacts of Kent heritage.
This is defini not true..
At the present time, for instance, we have one mannequin
on y without shoes. This is because we do
not have any shoes circa 1922 to fit her feet. One of
our biggest problems is that we don't have eno
items to create new exlnoits and are forced to acquire
articles on a loan basis. Because of this, it's hard for
me to understand anyone from this Society turning
down anything \\<1.thout seeing the articles first. In
case the wrong number was dialed, our office number
is 678-2712. If we're not there, please leave a
message on the machine and we'll get back to you
as soon as we can ..
This isn't so funny! Today. many use bag balm on
cows with chap udders as wen as on humans
with drv hands and feet Trv some - it's ereat~ ✓ J -
Picture donated by Jim Myers of Thompson's Drug.
Don't Discharge your Doctor
But tell him frankly you are,
aettina desperate. Perhais he
will review his troabnent, and
advise a t.rial of
A parilla.
In this case* as in many otliers.
the change worked wonders:-
Three 7eara -=o I autfi,;rcd greatly troqa
Liver Cu1u1•laiut, General l»ebllltf, Lou
of A ppctlte, aaul Uc:uhiehe; tny atomach
was dburdcrcd, aud, altbou:b · I ate
aparlogly, of earefully 11cL:ded food, l was
lb eou&hmt dblttSit frum lnilige:;llc.n. I
ill'~ tE~ablcd with .L:eg,L:~!>Dt"SS, 1nJ ~c,.
eamo so entacblted and feeble tb.tt
tq !cue nay room. Afkr r
&hi reduced ecm,llllou f.ifcc~ a
won«h, and rc:.-cekin:; nu bcnedt frt,.IU tLt
medldbclil prtaerllic,.J for rne, I ob:nlm,J
my ;doeluaJa eoa~ut to • trfai c,f ~\ye,'a
Ula. Defore l laaJ fiul,.lml tho
. le of tLla medic:loe I bc0-;an to 1111*
pcu,·e. Dy lts eoutlnaaed 111"1 tLe lHmUlt.a •
.• l\'ilb __ , lhcr aud 11tomacL gr;ailqaUy 4i,t.;
appellred, a11d any appetite aud strcuJ."Ui
rt:1111·nc4. .After leu.ln~ eight bt..tUcs ru1
. Lcallla wu fully tc.lored. and I am a.;aha .
. } Ui able to alteoil to my lna!.ioEct.t. - I
+#-r,,t 1 ' Y ,rrington, Dunker 1IIU IL, C.'har ~Pp
Cup7dcLLe<1. • . . DJM.rlct, Bu.tor.a, llau.• ·
For all dlsordcn of dac Dlood1 .,... •
. . . Ayt,r's SarsaparlUa.
l'tt~ 1'J Dr. Z. CL .Ayer I. Co.; Lowd).~ ~¥ •1 Dn.,:autL f.ri;::,e ti; -. ~ IL
Copied from /fen! Saturt:lav lluJJetin -Auirnst 1, 1885,
Donated by Mrs. Marjorie Woodring. ...,
,--~.
- ✓-~~· ,,,~~ -._ ·n.a--8l9 (~l) - ;,--:-.-="'> ·• ·
~~::JliZ_~faqg:7:JU:o)!,,_ $£92 ~"a_:·~~ t'tj,l!P{UE,!.:i Z:SI :';;:;ff!_:/?· ~, ,l.J ::,=
Kent Historical Society
P.O .. Box663
152 Franklin Ave.
Kent, OH 44240
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Kent,Ohio
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