39002015453641 zmmmimm^mmm 'Xi'/^ ';!;y i^ . ¦¦'5 ¦^¦,-- •¦.,;'^^-'i,>/-"-r--:i^ ,;:^-=-^-i r fm- tie f(mnd,ing if e ColUst i»- M^ CfhtLy" 'Y^LIl«¥]MU¥EI^SKTr¥' « ILSIBI^>^IFllf • Gift of JOHN HOWARD WEBSTER, Y. '68 1929 "biicrci Spots in the tiistor 1 of Early Eluria Bu Perru S. lUilliams 5u ferru d. lU Published al Elyria, Ohio The Republican Printing Co,, (subsequently The Lorain County Printing and Publishing Co,, publishers and Henry G, Peat Printing Co.) A DEDICATION We have noticed in some well regulated books that they have a preface or foreword, a dedication, table of contents and appen dix. We have therefore tried to give this book a full equipment of all of these things. In the matter of a dedication we direct our humble compli ments — To the Canessadooharie of the red man and the Black River of our boyhood, where snakes were wont to sun themselves under spreading willows and mud turtles craned their necks from without their pat terned armor. Civilization may intrude upon its shores, houses and factories crowd the trees from its banks and in dustry corrupt its waters, but to the youth who have navigated it with raft and canoe, gone swimming in its shaded pools, waded its shallows and fished in its depths, it will ever be a stream of momentous and happy memories. FOREWORD History as a rule is too much a record of bloody wars marking- a world's painful up-steps to better things. Yet most lives are run in paths of peace, untouched by war's alarms and the clamor and glamor of mortal battles. Histories of smaller groups and com munities may, therefore, more nearly typify the sayings and do ings of everyday men and women. Most local histories, however, in order to be profitable, are largely biographical in character, so written that they may give their subscribers none the worst of it and serve chiefly as a morgue to which newspaper writers may turn for information about the prominent citizens who it covers, as one by one they figure in the day's news, by running away with somebody else's wife, or boarding the Jordan ferry for the last great voyage to unknown shores. The principal virtue of this volume, if it has any, is that it is entirely free from commercial taint. It aims to glorify nobody, nor even mention anybody, except as they happened to touch the story of Elyria's beginnings and early development. The subject matter, for the most part, originally appeared as a series of daily editorial feature articles published on the occasion of Elyria's 100th anniversary in the spring of 1917. It is not a very ambitious volume, the work being performed very intermtitently at odd moments, and in consequence some what indifferently, the illustrations being mostly made from old cuts found lying around the office of The Telegram, and the text largely from old facts lying around in musty newspaper files. Most of the sketches were made by such amateur artists as happened to be handiest when one was needed to diagram an ob scure idea, rather than to ornament it. Even so, some of them might be worse and our grateful appreciation in this respect is extended to Harold Haag, Albert Ernst and DeForest Knapp. Acknowledgment is also made to all local photographers from III James Ryder and Charles F. Lee, down to Charles Scheide, L. A. Payne and Frank Day, besides some more or less well known for mer amateurs, such as Ray Cogswell. It is, in fact, impossible to properly credit all of the photography, some of it dates so far back. The narrative goes quite a ways back also, but does not aim to be exhaustive, merely touching the "high spots" of human in terest, and when we deemed it necessary to inject scientific facts to complete the story, we endeavored to so garnish them that they might be easily and painlessly assimilated. In addition to the facts gleaned from old newspaper files, an even larger measure of credit for information is due to such works as Col. James Smith's narrative of Indian days here; Col. Albert Whittlesey's Antiquity of Man, Judge W. W. Boynton's Western Reserve and History of Lorain County, Mary Beebe Hall's Remin iscences of Elyria, Harriet Taylor Upton's History of the Western Reserve, Professor Frederick Wright's History of Lorain County and Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio. There can be no plagarism of historical facts; they belong to the world. But when we have happened to think of ^t, as we have gone along with our story, we have usually given credit to our un conscious collaborators — the writers who have gone before. To be sure that in no important instance this has been neglected we hereby give credit to all dead historians. We make this sweeping in order to save time and to make it clearly under stood in the beginning that we do not claim to have discovered or invented the facts used in this book — only the newest and bestf ones. We stand with Kipling when he writes: "When Omar smote his bloomin' lyre He'd read all books from sea to sea And w'at he thought he might require He went and took, the same as me." IV CONTENTS Foreword Page III Chapter I Early Elyria Travels Page 1 Chapter II More Early Elyria Travels .Page 6 Chapter III Early Elyria Residents Page 11 Chapter IV More Early Residents Page 20 Chapter V Elyria's Settlement Page 25 Chapter VI More Early Settlers Page 31 Chapter VII A Long Race .— Page 35 Chapter VIII Culture Forges Ahead Page 39 The First Paper —Page 42 An Attest of Priority Page 43 Chapter IX Early Governmeat and Politics Page 45 Chapter X Martial Spirit - Page 51 Chapter XI Progress and Romance Page 57 Chapter XII Early Industries Page 66 Chapter XIII Modem Development Page 71 Chapter XIV Early Transportation Page 76 Chapter XV Navigation to the Lake Page 81 APPENDIX— HISTORICAL GENERALITIES The Gentleman from Gnaddenhutton Page 88 A Daughter ot Springfield Page 90 Early Public Utilities Page 93 A Man Who Came Back Page 9} An Old Land Mark Page 103 Old Time Weather Page 108 Social and Industrial Evolution Page 113 Cruising on the Canessedooharie Page 117 Cascade Park Page 121 The Woman Who Waits Page 127 V ILLUSTRATIONS Frontispiece _- Page VIII Bird's Eye View of Public Square During Devonian Period Page 2 Elyria Came Up from the Bottom Page 5 Elyria, a Traveller Page 7 Going to the County Seat , Page 9 Paying Taxes to Detroit — _ Page 10 West Broad Street in the Glacial Period Page 13 Located Here Permanently Page 15 Come Down the River with the Flood Page 16 Elyria's Pre-Glacial Gorge Page 17 Caves of the West Falls ...Page 18 Black River Page 19 Did Not Come on Account of tihe Scenery Page 20 The East Falls Page 22 Logical Reasons for Staying . Page 23 Tried to Plant the Qoapal Page 24 Persuading the Red Man Page 25 They Made a Hole in the Woods Page 26 The Old Beebe Tavern Page 28 The Old Ely Homestead .. Page 29 Heman Ely .Page 30 Condoling the Landless 'First Bom Page 32 Waiting for His Dress Shirt - Page 33 It Might Have Been Page 34 An Even Start in 1819 Page 36 Elyria Union School Built in 1867 Page 41 The Court House Built in 1828 Page 44 Elyria Couple Driving to Podunk Page 50 Not a Bilble in the Hauae Page 51 He Climbed the Liberty Pole Page 54 Just for That He Sued the City. Page 55 The First Elyria Band Was Organized in 1833 Page 56 The First Bridge at the West Falla.. — , ...Page 58 The Only Giraffe on the. Continent Page 59 Come in Sight of a Young Man Addreasing the Cataract Page 61 VI The Beebe House Built in '47 Page 62 After the Fire Page 64 The Elyria Block Fire Page 65 Industries Assembled Along Bast Branch Page 66 The Old Blast Furnace Page 67 Broad Street in the Fifties Page 69 Some Early Elyria Industries ._. Page 70 Dazzling Lights and Oratory Page 73 Grafton to Elyria by Water Page 79 The Dream of the Pioneers Page 83 The Other Way Page 86 Tbe Old Waterworks ._. Page 93 The Old Red Mill Page 102 The High School Building Completed in '94 Page/ 106 The City Hall Built in 1867 ....Page 107 The Snow of 1863 Page 108 Washington Avenue in the Sixties Page 109 The Flood of 1913 _ Page 110 The Wreck of Washington Ave. Bridge Page 111 The West Falls After the Bridge Had Gone Page 112 Cheapside.in 1873 Page 113 Racing at the County Fair ; . ;Page 116 Elyria Country Club .. . Page 117 Accordian Plaited Trousers Page 119 In Cascade Park Pages 120-121 Picnic Grounds and Auto Drive Page 122 When the Water Is Runnng High Page 125 A New Declaration of Independence Page 126 The Lorain County Court Hous6 Page 127 Vit THE WEST FALLS OF THE CANESSEDOOHARIE BEFORE THE BRIDGE WAS BUILT In the days when this beautiful spot was yet untouched by any handiwork of man, if one wished to cross Black river here he bad to paddle across or swim. CHAPTER I. Early Elyria Travels Elyria is commonly accounted to have passed its hun dredth anniversary in March, 1917, but from a real estate agent's standpoint it is much older than that, having had a long career before it was officially settled. Of course it was not always known as Elyria, but as the particular section now embraced within its boundaries had no other name in its earlier days, it might as well be spoken of as Elyria as anything else and much better in fact, than to be called "Podunk" as South Amherst was formerly designated. Some authorities have held that it was not proper to use the city's name of Elyria in reference to its site before it was settled, contending that a city is buildings and peo ple and not land. By way of affirmative evidence they have cited the desert where there are no buildings and peo ple and consequently are no cities. It has since been discov ered however, that land is really the foundation of all sub stantial cities and, while there may be land without cities, there is no known city without land, except mirage cities, and they have no standing to speak of in the best circles of municipal society. It is also clear that there are a few city lots, entirely vacant, within the confines of Elyria today which, despite their naked state are admittedly in, and a part of Elyria. It is therefore no more than right to speak of Elyria's land-base as "Elyria," in this historical and pre-historical way, just as one is privileged to speak of one's mother-ih-law as "mother" when as a matter of fact she really is not his mother at all; he has merely united 1 EARLY ELYRIA with her daughter to make a family just as the buildings and people have united with the land to make a city. As we know Elyria today the city is stable and well established and barring earthquake or other act of God it seems to be well and permanently located. In its younger days, however, Elyria had about as much geographical stability as an Italian hand organ. In fact it seems to have had Gulliver beat for travels according to the official records. Elyria may not have visited as many different lands as Clark Biggs or Lyman Howe's movie photographer but the towti has seen just as many queer people and curious things and its early tours covered a longer period than all of their's put together. Its trail took it through one or two territories, three states and five other Ohio coun ties before it finally landed in Lorain, and prior to the BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF ELYRIA DURING DEVONIIAN PERIOD Site of Public Siquare 2 EARLY ELYRIA TRAVELS land tour it had a wonderful sea trip; it came up from the bottom, affording an early demonstration of the inherent progressiveness that marks its latter days. Elyria has long been a wet town but in the Pale ozoic era of the world's history it was so wet it could not get its head above water, and for a long time the Eljnia site lay deep beneath the surface of the pre-historic ocean. Either because the land came up or the waters went down in the Mesozoic time, the site of El3nria rose to the surface. Naturally all of the land adjoining and abutting there on, including most of the American Continent, being loath to part with Elyria's company, came up with it, which accounts for the fact that both were here when Columbus discovered America and St. Patrick dis covered Eljn-ia. Of course it may not be literally true that St. Patrick discovered Elyria, but it is reasonable to assume that he had his mind's eye upon such a place as an approximate ideal, and if he did not individually discover it many of his apostles have, otherwise how could so many of them be here today? Moreover, the first white man who per manently located here, James Porter, was an Irishman, and further, St. Patrick's day is commonly accounted the city's birthday. If this date is accepted it was doubtless the Hibernialn Porter who loyally arranged to have the clear ing completed ready for the official founding party on St. Patrick's day. Again there may be some slight difference of opinion on this question of El3n:ia's proper and exact set tlement date. As a matter of fact Henry Beach arrived in 1815, but it is declared that Beach, while admittedly the first settler, of Elyria township was not inside what is now the corporation limits of Els^ria. Again Heman Ely came down here from the East in the fall of 1816 and arranged for the erection of a saw mill on the east branch of Black EARLY ELYRIA River, but it is pointed out that inasmuch as he did not stay, the date of settlement cannot go back to 1816. What then is to be done with the case of Porter who came in January, 1817, and did stay? If he is the first real settler of Elyria the founding date would be in January instead of March. But Porter it may be argued was not an official ranking fouhder but only herald and tree killer for the founding party which came in March. If this explanation is accepted and Porter recognized as merely advance agent for the main circus, the question of when it got here be comes the paramount issue and there is some difference on this very detail, inasmuch as early writers have re corded that Heman Ely and party arrived here on March 18 just as some have fixed the date a day earlier, particu larly in later newspaper usuage. The earlier date fellows may have been working on eastern time. It has always been suspected however, that Tom Gray and Bud Smith and Denny Seward and others have connived to spread the impression that the founding came on the 17th, so that one celebration would cover both anniversaries. Inasmuch as the record just recited shows that any one of several dates might have been fixed upon for the municipal birth day, St. Patrick's day is as good as another and probably better. A great many St. Patrick's day celebrations have lasted over until the next day and a thorough celebration of March 18, should probably be started on March 17, so most citizens have been willing to let it go at that. It really has not much to do with the travels of early Eljn-ia anyw3.y, which as has been remarked before, commenced with a sea trip at a much earlier time. Whether the ocean sprung a leak, which lowered its level, or some internal disturbance pushed up the crust of the earth at this point is not so important as the fact that Elyria came to the top like the cream on the milk. Again I 4 EARLY ELYRIA TRAVELS ELYRIA'S TOUR STARTED WITH A SEA TRIP. IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM UP like the cream, nature seemed to think its preservation was sufficiently important to warrant putting it in cold storage, for it is conceded that later, during the glacial period, this section was buried under approximately a mile of ice. After the ice melted away to the north and the animals came back from the south and mankind arrived and colon ized America, the Elyria site still seems to have been cast for a nomadic and vagrant role. CHAPTER II. More Early Travels One might never suspect it to look at the map but Elyria was virtually in Virginia at one time, by Virginia's own admission at least, being part of the broad territory "northwest of the Ohio" granted to the London company for Virginia by James I. He later granted it to some other counts and councils and lords, it being the habit of the merry monarch in those days to give away the same territory to a number of different people and then let them fight it out. This was not wholly on account of his sport ing blood but he had a very hazy idea of the size and geography of this country and particularly that part of it west of the Hudson river. One of the explorers on his staff. Sir Francis Drake, had prowled around the isthmus now known as Panama and reported to the king that he had stood on a mountain and seen the ocean on both sides. So the continent was not accounted very wide, nor for that matter very desirable ansrway, being known merely as a wilderness peopled by howling savages. Considering it not of much size or worth, the monarch did not think it made much difference to whom he deeded it. It would be just like one of us today deeding away all of the land north of the north pole. Despite his error in this adven ture, Drake seems to have been a fair non-union explorer but a very poor advertiser. Otherwise, instead of looking sideways from ocean to ocean, he would have looked the long way of the continent from Hudson Bay to Cape Horn and have reported to the king that this land of freedom was bigger than all the rest of the world put together. MORE EARLY TRAVELS What the king evidently needed instead of an ex plorer was a surveyor — preferably one with a prophetic eye. If the king could have then seen a vision of Elyria after a hundred years of refinement, he would have real ized what kind of a garden spot of the world he was frit tering away on enterprising real estate companies and im perialistic colonies. Regardless of the fact that Virginia asserted its right to all of this territory as did some of the other grantees, Elyria next come into Connecticut by decree of Charles the Second in 1662, included with a strip of land between 41 degrees and 42 degrees, and a few minutes, north lati- m/TJ YOUNGS? My5 yflRCIHIA AND CO N- >^ECTICVrBBFOREn CAME ro OHIO c=- tude reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, making one of the longest states in the world like Harry Smith's furniture store. Apparently by way of adding his part to the general confusion, next King George the Third in 1663 issued a proclamation giving this section, including in fact all of the valley of the Ohio, back into the undisturbed posses- EARLY ELYRIA sion of the Indians and annulling all previous grants. The Indian name for this section lying between the Cuyahoga and Sandusky rivers was Canahogue according to an old French map now in possession of the Western Reserve Historical Society. The territory embracing Elyria was therefore now claimed as a part of Virginia, Connecticut and the Cano- hogue of the Indians, with a shade the best of the argu ment in favor of the Indians, who were on the ground and knew all of the best fishing places. In this much devoured but undigested state this wild country lay until the revolution during which Maryland come to the front with a declaration that the land did not properly belong to any one state but to all, to afford ulti mate resources for the payment of gun powder bills and other unpaid expenses of the battles for independence. Unless the other states quit-claimed the western wilds to the whole confederation, Maryland would not come into the firm. Inasmuch as their titles all abutted on the South Sea on one end instead of the Pacific Ocean as they should, and were otherwise as hazy as a musical comedy plot or a curbstone political argument, it was easy to pick flaws in them. The up-shot of it all was that after a soulful appeal from the National government, the individual states, by 1786 had been talked out of their claims to these "back lands" covering most of the continent, excepting that Con necticut, being so small, thriftily insisted on holding out the Western Reserve including the section in which we live. Elyria was therefore in 1796 put in Wa3me County which ample western county then included all of the Western Reserve, west of the Cuyahoga River as well as part of Indiana and all of Michigan beside other territory. It was in fact a regular fat man's county with plenty of s MORE EARLY TRAVELS room for everybody to turn around in. Detroit was the county seat. If this arrangement had been made permanent we would now have to go up to Detroit to pay our taxes, al though for that matter many auto-going citizens pay more taxes now to Detroit than they do here. Probably many too, would be going to pay their taxes about the time the Windsor races were being held, and come home with other slips of paper in their pocket that cost real money besides tax receipts. So far as this county arrangement was concerned, Connecticut for several years refused to recognize the au- ELYRIA HAD RBMAENBD IN WAYNE COUNTY, SOME CITIZENS WOULD BE GOING UP TO DETROIT TO PAY THEIR TAXES ABOUT THE TIME OF THE WINDSOR RACES thority of the governor and judges of the broad general division here known as the Northwest territory. Never theless Elyria stayed in WaynJe County officially until July, 1800, when it went into Trumbull County for a seven year stay. In February 1807, a new reorganization of coun ty lines put Elyria in Geaugua County, though it was still in Trumbull when Ohio was organized as a state in 1802. By this time Elyria had become as much accustomed to traveling around as a book agent. It's next move was 9 EARLY ELYRIA another of the versatile things in its migratory career. It got into two counties at once. A reorganization of ter ritory cut it away from Geaugua and the revision of lines to make Cuyahoga county fixed the east branch of Black river as the west Cuyahoga county line. On the same day another act of the legislature made Huron county's line reach easterly to the boundary line between El3nria and Ridgeville. This embarrassing conflictiop, of boundaries was settled at the following session of the legislature by making the county boundary line the township line of £(ylt/^ O Oef«oi^ fift/oseo fWo /f3o\ '\ 'Ew |«c«t /(Me. J hit 1 tciltCKn^tx p.le-. Ltd Lorwoo^ FOR THAT MATTEIR MANY ELYRIANS PAY LARGE TAXES TO DETROIT NOW RidgeviHe, putting Elyria all into Huron County. Elyria of course wsis relieved to find itself in one county in par ticular rather than in two counties in general. On the 26th of December 1822, Elyria entered Lorain County which was formed on that date out of part of Huron and part of Cuyahoga. Elyria has been in Lorain County ever since and here let's hope it stays. When these tortuous rambles of Elyria's early life are reviewed it seems as though every day had been mov ing day here, and one feels all tired out from so much hik ing around. It is lucky we have had since 1822 to get rested up. 10 CHAPTER III. Early Elyria Residents Back in the dawn of that Proterozoic era when Elyria was still under water, the inhabitants were mostly built on a one room plan with no attic to speak of and nothing in it. They really needed no brains because they had noth ing to do but soak up a living out of the circumambient sea — although for that matter some citizens of current times do no more and that only by the grace and credit of the grocer. The excuse for those early simple creatures of the deep, of course was that they gave animal life a start. It had to start somewhere. Naturally the beginning was as modest as a school boy's first beard. Many of these primi tive creatures had no bones and left no records. Their biography is somewhat a matter of deduction from the primitive forms of life which still persist, just as One rhight deduct that there really must have been angels once because now there are ladies. There are simple animals even today upon which the odds are about even whether they are plants or fish. A novice might easily take them for vegetables if they did not eat up some of the other plants. An oyster would probably be a scintillating and supernatural genius of the animal world compared with some of the first forms of life hereabouts. As time rolled on in its easy rolling way, two story animals and more elaborate forms appeared. Some of them made tracks in the bottom of the sea, subsequently registered in the strata of the period, for the edification 11 EARLY ELYRIA of Professor Wright and other latter-day scientists. For the entertainment of the rest, devil fish may have danced the gelatin wiggle in ocean depths where now the Elyria churches rear their spires to heaven. Others like John Rockefeller were worldly but not frivolous, and accumu lated wealth for posterity. Some engaged in the manu facture of limestone, such as that which, transformed by heat and the pressure of later deposits upon it, is used today as a surface dressing in road improvements here abouts or for fluxing the molten iron in the big blast fur naces neighbor to Elyria on the north. Still others per haps in the Devonian period helped to make odoriferous waters for the medication of future generations. At the present time this water is only pumped at Lorain but it can be smelled in Elyria. All of Elyria's inhabitants of the Paleozoic time were more exclusively accustomed to water than many citizens of the present day and excelled them in other particulars. There was the big Dinichthys Terreli fish for instance, which was more than three times as long as Charley Wil son or Hon. Myron T. Herrick. The giant mastodon which roamed these parts as late as the close of the ice age would have looked upon ex-President Taft as a pygmy and Herb Barlow would have seemed so tiny to him that he would not have known whether Herb was an animal or only a germ. In those changeable early days there was naturally a good deal of rivalry for Elyria between land and sea, and the city site undoubtedly was more than once under water. At the close of the ice age previously mentioned the town-site seems to have emerged from the water by jerks about fifty feet to the jerk. About the time Lake Erie was 150 feet above its present level, what is now Broad street, being approximately a continuation of Mid dle Ridge, must have been the beach of the lake. Then the 12 EARLY ELYRIA RESIDENTS melting ice at Port Huron, Mich., opening an outlet, further released the pent up waters, so the level was lowered again and the shore line was moved to what is now the North Ridge in Avon. The first job of road scraping hereabouts having been performed by the glaciers. Nature ultimately adorned the WHEIN BROAD STREET WAS' LAKEI ERIE'S SHORE VIEW LOOKING WEST IN CLOSING DAYS OF GLACIAL PERIOD The tall lady on shore is a (Dinosaurus or something like that and is lunching on a prehistoric tree top. The long fish is the Dinicthy's Terreli, the 20 foot frame of which was lajter found in Sheffield. We know it was in Elyria occasionally, because when it was headed north and south and got anywhere near the Sheffield-'Elyria line, it wlas so long it would hang over into Eilyria waters. landscape thus refined with habiliments of living green and evolved or created for its population other land ani mals of various shades and habits. When you walk in the business section of Elyria on a busy day take a chance on being jostled in front of an 13 EARLY ELYRIA automobile and let your imagination take you back for the moment to the pre-historic time before human-kind was yet created, when the waves of Lake Erie dashed high upon the rockbound shore at Broad street and perhaps a giant mastodon pattered along the beach where now you wend your way among Elyria's marts of trade. The pre historic vision will help one to realize the evolution of the world in general and our neighborhood in particular. On account of the lake having moved some people might think that the town was a more favorable summer resort then than now, but as a matter of fact it is undoubtedly a healthier place for human kind today than it was then. If one of those big animals had happened to get a notion some morning that he wanted some new kind of breakfast food it might be very embarrassing for a man to have bee'n around here. Man — ^himself, as Jim Armitage would say — ^was among the last of the improved animals to arrive here. The first secretaries of society were a little lax in their minutes and our details are not very minute concerning the early peo ples from the Mound builders, and their probable prede cessors, down to the Moravian missionaries. The first human inhabitants of Elyria concerning whom we have any definite and exact information, however, appear to have been Indians. As a rule Indians were of nomadic temperament but at least three particular Indians located here permanently. A rock fell upon them one night while they were sleeping in a cavern by the west falls. This is estimated to have occurred along in 150 B. C, about the time the star of Julius Caesar arose upon the Roman horizon to ultimately eclipse every mundane light in the east except Cleopatra's auburn hair. An3nvay the Indians were still there in 1851 when the bottom of the cave was dug up by a party of scientists headed by Col. Chas. Whittlesey. 14 EARLY ELYRIA RESIDENTS THEY LOCATED HEIRB PERMANENTLY Col. Whittlesey in his "Antiquity of Man" reports finding these in a shelter cave on the west side of the river below the junction of the two branches. This may have been the "Moss cave," just below the natural bridge, but the description better fits the more open cavern above the junction, close by the west falls and it appears likely that he confused the two. Even historians are human and few are infallible. As a matter of fact a skull was found in the Moss cave above referred to, immediately after the flood which washed out the Washington avenue stone bridge in 1913. This may have been an ancient Indian skull exhumed from the floor of the cave by the surging waters or it may have been the gruesome relic of some unfortunate citizen washed down from Wellington, with the flood which brought along almost everything else from the south end of the county. Before white men came there were many other In dians in Elyria but these above mentioned had been here longer than anybody else of whom we know. Latterly the Iroquois Indians were the prevailing tribe hereabouts and before them the Eries were evidently 15 EARLY ELYRIA MOST EVERYTHING ELSE CAME DOWN THE' RIVER here sometime — ^long enough to get the lake named after them. When the Iroquois came along it developed that they were better archers and tomahawk throwers than the Erie's, although the latter appear to have been the better runners. It seems only natural therefore that the Erie's went, and the Iroquois stayed. After looking this section over, it is not hard to understand how the Iroquois thought it would be pleasanter to loaf around this pretty neighborhood than it would chasing Erie's, who were liable to stop and fight every time they got short of wind. 16 A PRE-GLACIAL GORGE Bearing upon Elyria's pre-historic period the pre-glacial gorge below the junction of the two branches of Black River, evidences the majestic labors of nature in preparing Elyria's beautiful town site. The massive rocks on either side have fallen from the cliffs into the path of the stream showing the pre-glacial valley filled with glacial material, later exposed by erosion, which have at times attracted many student visitors from other cities. Another view of the gorge, a little further south, is shown below. ON WEST BRANCH NEAR JUNCTION Illustrating the "Talus Slope" formation in glacial valley of Black River. WEST FALLS CAVE The open cavern shown in the picture extends under the rocky preci pice below and east of tbe falls. In here three Indians took their fatal snooze. Accumulations over the remains indicated to scientists that the deceased had probably been there since about 150 B. C. On the west adde of the river is another cave with two very small and nearly concealed entrances at different levels admitting so little light that it can not be surveyed without candles or other artificial illumination. It used to seem like quite a cave to small boysi in the days when dime novels and "nickel libraries" were at the height of their glory and imag ination wreathed its rocky recesses with lurid legends and tra ditions as dark as the tallow-stained inter ior of the cave itself. The entrances, at times, have been ob scured by debris and shrubbery but the hole must be still there — somewhere down in the bowels of the earth under Grocer Boylan's bam. The shifting of sand, gravel and smalt stones by the rushing waters during rainy seasons may alter levels in Black River but the general course of the channel has not changed and the pleasing aspect of its wooded banks, outside of the cities, must be about the same today as it was when the Indian canoe sailed up this winding waterway with one white passenger in 1775, CHAPTER IV. More Early Elyria Residents The early life in this vicinity seems to have centered around the picturesque Cascades of the Canessadooharie or Black River, where the first Indian remains were found. The first white resident of record located in 1775 near the East falls. He did not come here on account of the beau tiful scenery however, so much as the fact that the Indians, who had captured him near New Bedford, Pa., were coming this way and evidently wanted his company. His reasons for staying here were equally logical. In the course of some adoption ceremonies the Indians pulled out most of his hair and doubtless he hesitated about leaving for fear they would pursue him and get the rest of it. "THE FIRST RESIDENT DID NOT COME TO ELYRIA BECAUSE HE WAS ATTRACTED BY THE BEAUTIFUL SCENERY." He spent some months here because these Wyandottes* thought it looked like a good hunting ground. They all lived together in a rude shelter the backbone of which was their canoe, overturned and raised at an angle to shed wind *Smith was originally captured by Delawares one of whom, Tonti- leaugo, married a Wyandotte and brought Smith with Mm to Ohio. Tonti- leaugo and Smith therefore were really both "ringers" in the Wyandotte family. 20 MORE EARLY ELYRIA RESIDENTS and water. A shack, the ridge pole of which was no longer than a country club canoe, would be a poor shelter for eight braves and thirteen squaws and children, but this big war canoe was built on dimensions of a millionaire's yacht, being thirty-five feet long. Eventually the party erected a winter cabin on the same site giving them a little more commodious quarters. The young man — he was only 18 — was named James Smith. Aside from making him, shortly after his capture, run the gauntlet between 2 rows of Indians who walloped him with clubs and tomahawk handles as he passed, the worst thing they did to him was to adopt him. For that matter many an Elyria man of later day, on being initiated into some of the local fraternities in their prime, has run the gauntlet with modern variations for a lot of modern Indians, before being adopted into the lodge. Of course Smith's experience in running the gauntlet was a bit severe, inasmuch as they threw dirt in his eyes and some playful braves hit him so hard with the handles of their tomahawks that temporarily the lights went out for Smith but later, after he had been adopted, he was treated as one of the tribe. "During the winter a party of four went out to the border of Pennsylvania to procure horses and scalps" Smith relates in an interesting account of his winter's residence in Elyria. While the warriors were gone the Elyria party survived on very short rations. The quartet came back along toward the beginning of the maple sugar season with four horses and two scalps. The family by the falls did not eat the horses or the scalps, having just had a run of luck hunting the wild game hereabouts. The Indians seemed to be socialists for there was al ways a strictly just division of provender of all kinds. When there was plenty of bear meat in camp. Smith 21 ¦»jr T" ^ ¦^ -^ ¦A* .' • I V* E'*V*' '*i''V • f i.' ¦' , • t *-V ' ' ' ' BAST FALLS The Indians stopped when they reached these falls. They thought it would be a pleasant spot to winter or perhaps did not like the idea of making a portage around the falls with a thirty-flve foot boat. BAST FALLS IN WINTER'S ICY MANTLE After the river "froze up," the Indians looked out on inspiring scenery dur ing their winter on Evergreen Point, as the Washington avenue peninsula was later called. MORE EARLY ELYRIA RESIDENTS 'HIS REASONS FOR STAYING HERE WERE EQUALLY LOGICAL" had plenty and when there was only a few hickory nuts to eat. Smith got his share. In this respect Smith fared better than some Smiths do in the white man's civilization to say nothing also of sundry Joneses, William- ses, Johnsons and others who only get hickory nuts even when the big chiefs have plenty of bear meat. Smith went away to the Cuyahoga river on a trip with Chief Tecaughretanego and some four years after was re stored to his people back in Pennsylvania where he later be came a great Indian fighter, holding a commission as colon el. The knowledge of Indians that he gained in Elyria un doubtedly contributed materially to his success. It is probably just as well that Smith did not remain in Elyria even though he seems to have been a superior man, and for that matter most all of the Smiths are nice sort of people, yet there is a great many of them in the directory now and it sometimes makes it a bit confusing. It should probably be added that, although Smith had been early in his captivity formally made a member of the Indian tribe, he never married any of the squaw ladies and is therefore not ancestor to any of the Smiths or Indians now in this neighborhood. After Mr. Smith left Elyria there is no record of any more white society around here for some years. Smith may not even have been the first white man here if all of the truth were known. There may have been French visitations 23 EARLY ELYRIA much earlier, there being found in Brighton in 1838 a rough carving, mounted on a stone column six by three inches in a pyramidal form, bearing a rude engraving of a sailboat and the inscription "Louis Vagard, 1533." If there was anybody in Brighton in 1533 there must have been people in Elyria occasionally, for almost everybody in Brighton gets to Elyria at some time or an other. Along in 1786, some Moravian Missionar ies tried to plant the gospel not many miles from the mouth of the Black River but finally gave it up in disgust. In fact it has been rather hard to "TRIED TO F'LANT THE GOSPEL AT plant the gOSpcl thcrC iLOiRAiN" ever since. At that time a Delaware chief told the missionaries it would be all right for them to move on, so they emigrated westward to Huron. Some people who have been to Huron hold that this proves that Indians were savages and that this is one of the worst things they ever did, but opinions differ on such subjects and some others who have inspected Lorain in an unsympathetic way, may even be inclined to think the chief was, to the Moravians, a guardian angel and guiding star to better things. AUTHOR'S NOTE: The man who drew the picture isi a railroad man drafted for this job because he worked nights and did not have much to do in tbe day time. He was in considerable doubt as to the costume of a Moravian missionary. The historian told him to take a chance as prob ably no one else would know either and the picture was turned in as above, except that the author widened the brims of the original hats hav ing conceived a vague idea from Quakers or somewhere that broad brimmed hats might suggest ecclesiastical dignity. We asiked the artist what the shaded thing was in the upper left background and he said it was just some thing put in to break the monotony. The reader is privileged to regard it as a hole in the ground or a sandstone precipice, like the Hudson pal isades, according to whether his fancy is concave or convex. Indian gentle man will be noted in the camouflage on the left using his influence to en courage emigration.' 24 CHAPTER V. Early Elyria's Settlement The permanent settlement of this section came about through a sort of dollar diplomacy — a real estate deal along in 1793. The last lot of Connecticut's western land lying chiefly between Conneaut and Sandusky was sold in that year to Eph Starr, Sol Griswold, Pelig Sanford and other prom inent citizens of New Haven and Hartford such as Mose Cleveland and Old Man Olmsted, who formed the Con necticut Land Company. For a million and two hundred thousand dollars they got about three and a third million acres, ever since known as the Western Reserve, which was subsequently divided and redivided into thirteen counties of which Lorain was one. It was the idea of the Connecticut Land Company to coax the simple red man to move out by inducements of "PEiRiSUADING THE RED MAN" trinkets and fir)ewater and for the company to then sell out this land in small lots of a few thousand acres to persons 26 EARLY ELYRIA back East who wanted more room to raise their families and corn and other standard crops. Incidentally the com pany expected to make a modest profit on the deal. Just how much, if any, land was bought by the first man who established a permanent home in Elyria township has not been noted. One thing is clear, however, that he misjudged the location of the court house and business center for he located in 1815 about two miles west of what is now the Elyria public square. However in September, 1817, he became the father of the first white child bom in Elyria township, Henry Beach by name, which Henry al ways thought was more important, even if less profitable, than correctly forecasting the future direction of the city's development. The next permanent settler of record was the Irish man, James Porter. As has been heretofore noted, in Jan uary 1817, Porter and two other men walked down from Massachusetts carrs^ng axes on their shoulders with a commission to clear lands which Heman Ely of Wfest Springfield, Mass., had purchased from the above men tioned Connecticut Land Co. By March the three men had made quite a hole in the woods and the Ely party in cluding Artemas Beebe and others next arrived. THEY MADE QUITE A HOLE IN THE WOODS 26 EARLY ELYRIA'S SETTLEMENT Ely having prospected around here the fall before and contracted for the erection of a dam and saw mill on the east branch of the river, the town now had one industry with which to start. He next picked out a site for the fu ture Ely home on Broad St., which same, though subse quently much remodeled is still standing at this writing being occupied as a K. of C. club house. The first buildings may have been located on Broad street because there was some sort of a trail broken along the ridge which run through at this line — a trail which possibly may have been broken by Indians and further marked by pioneers coming through from the East to locate the Fire Lands in Huron county awarded them as revolutionary war indemnities. Although the two men who earlier came with James Porter went back east, Porter himself stayed, demon strating that the Irish were stayers even in those early days. Porter subsequently built houses, becoming Ely ria's first contractor as well as the village's first settler and first Irishman. He would undoubtedly have been chief of police if the office had been created in time but he died in 1822 before the town developed all of its present metro politan ramifications. Artemas Beebe was also a building contractor and proceeded, as soon as the Ely house was completed, to erect a hotel on Broad street across the road from the Ely homestead. Homeseekers from the east who now joined the colony stopped first at the Beebe tavern and made their acquaint ance with Elyria through this hostelry. This gave Land lord Beebe an early start and a commanding position with the growing population, close to that of Heman Ely who owned the saw mill and all of the land adjoining which he had not marked off for public streets. 27 EARLY ELYRIA If these two leading citizens had disagreed upon civic affairs it would doubtless have afforded a political fight in which Jim Porter would have probably held the THE OLD BEEBB TAVBiRN Elyria's first Hotel. The local Masonic Lodge had its Beginning Here and Used it as their Meeting Place balance of power through the Irish vote but Messrs. Beebe and Ely always were in harmonious agreement upon what was for the best interests of the community and a fair di vision of honors between them, thereby setting an example worthy of emulation by latter-day politicians. Mr. Ely took the first job as postmaster and Mr. Beebe got the de sirable contract for the mail route, Ezra Adams for a time being associated with him. In 1827 the same men also secured the contract for the route from Cleveland to Fremont and Beebe started a six-passenger stage coach line between these points. This insured that all the east and west travel came through Ely ria incidentally stopping at the Beebe Tavern, just as the Elyria landlord of this day has routed the auto tourists through Elyria on his guide maps, with his Elyria hostelry as a station stop. 28 THE OLD HEMAN ELY HOMESTEAD The first frame building erected in Elyria for a residence. In ita original form it was built in 1S18, Although since extensively remodeled it was still standing on Elyria's 100th birthday anniversary, having been, a short time before acquired by the Knights of Columbus for a club house and refurnished as luxuriously as an Egyptian harem. Its spacious and newly decorated interior was thrown open to the public for the "Founders' Day ' reception, March 17, 1917, as was the Masons' and other club houses and halls of the city. Descendants of the pioneer settlers stood in the re ceiving line; refreshments and dancing were free to everybody and the bright lights showed they were all there when the music started. Further festivities were planned for later in the year but the country's entrance into the great world war in the following month of April put a damper upon the plans. The project for a more extended centennial cele bration was indefinitely postponed and the energies of the people were actively directed to marshalling the resources of the community for war and relief work. 29 -j#" HEMAN ELY OFFICIAL FOUNDER OF ELYRIA Judge Ely was at the time of Elyria's founding, owner of the town- site and from the time of his location here in 1817 filled many positions of trust and responsibility. He was ''angel" for the first Elyria news paper, financing The Lorain Gazette, started by Park and Wbittlesey in 1829, was instrumental in getting the court house located in Elyria, fi nanced the erection of the first high school building and was as busy as Samuel the Prophet in promoting worthy public movements, although he wore his hair more like Elisha, starting a style here which has been accepted aa a model by some of Elyria's most thoughtful and prominent citiaens even down to the present day. 3a CHAPTER VI. More Early Elyria Settlers Of course for it to be much of a town Elyria had to have more than two prominent citizens. So there was Enos Mann, tlie first manufacturer. He made wooden bowls. To be sure, even before Enos ever came west to grow up with the country, Heman Ely had his sawmill going, but a saw mill is more of a refinery than a factory. A great deal of corn porridge was consumed in those good old days, and business was very fair in the bowl mak ing industry, so Enos took in a junior partner with his wife's consent. The new member of the firm was a boy and was the first white child born within the first limits of Elyria village. He was named Ely Mann after Heman Ely who stood as his god father at the christening. In picking out the name of Ely for the child's Christian name the parents were not moved so much by considerations of euphony as by a persistent rumor that any native son who received this name would be endowjed with 50 acres of land by Heman Ely, in recognition of the honor so conferred upon him. This legend proved to be poorly founded and contrary to fact. Ely had about 12,000 acres of land but he was tak ing no chances with it by frittering it away on nursing namesakes. Some friends of the Mann's regarded this as an evidence of thrift, one or two going so far as to chuck little Ely under the chin and condole with him in infant language. 81 EARLY ELYRIA CONDOLINQ THE LANDLESS FIRST BORN "Bless little boofy's heart," one might say, "Rich man would'nt give swieet snookum a farm. Never mind, be big Mann man some day and have one anyway," and sim ilar light comment would be offered principally for Mrs. Mann's benefit for of course little Ely himself did not know nor care and was hav ing more fun with a wooden bowl than he possibly could have with a farm anyway. Looking back over his shoulder for a hundred years it is the historian's humble judgment that far from evidenc ing excessive thrift, Heman Ely was foresighted and wise in his generation, and was trying to save the future Elyria from a plethora of youth answering to the name of Ely every time the dinner bell rang. Consider what might have happened had he given up that 50 acre wood lot! When Jim Porter's boy was bom he would have been neuned Ely Porter. To make it strong Jim would have undoubtedly gone the Mann's one better and named his offspring Heman Ely Porter. When Ezra 32 MORE EARLY ELYRIA SETTLERS Adams' boy was born he too would have had to have been named Heman Ely Adams and so on with other baby boys without end until the land was all gone. Then what a confusion a few years later when these landed young men grew older ! There would have been many Heman Ely Smiths and several Heman Ely Joneses and following the common genealogical custom there would have been, in another generation, many young men named after their fathers and so we would have Heman Ely Porter Sr., and Heman Ely Porter Jr., and by now there would be one or two more generations and the town would be overrun with Heman Ely's of one sort and another. They would all get one another's mail, by mistake, and learn one another's secrets. Heman Ely Johnson would receive love letters which should have gone to Heman Ely Johnston and He- man Ely Johnston would be getting bills which belonged to Heman Ely Johnson, which when he told about them would make Heman Ely Johnson so mad that he would tell what was in Heman Ely Johnston's love letters, which he opened by mistake, and a big scandal would ensue mak ing no end of trouble. Imagine under such cir cumstances a poor messen ger boy hunting around on a stormy night to deliver a Telegram addressed to He- man Ely Smith with He- man Ely Smiths on every street. Think of Heman Ely Taylor waiting for his fancy dress shirt, to go to a fash- WAiTiNG FOR HIS DRESS SHIRT ionablc ball while the Peer less laundry wagon made the rounds of all and sundry He- man Ely Taylors before finding the right one. Yes, Heman Ely showed characteristic prescience and forethought 83 EARLY ELYRIA when he refrained from putting a realty bonus on name sakes. It may have seemed hard on poor little Ely Mann to lose his landed birthright, but it was better for posterity. He suffered that others might be spared. Better a thou sand times that he join his father in the wooden bowl busi ness and fail to get in on the unearned increment that has since been anointing this land, than that a large por tion of Elyria citizens should be later forced to go by number, like automobiles and convicts, in order to be iden tified one from another. IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN! 34 CHAPTER VII A Long Race It seems to be the history of civilization up to the twentieth century anyway — that as soon as food to sustain life and a shelter over his head have been assured him, man has next added culture and liquor to his equipment. Some go in for one and some for the other and many have tried to cultivate both but usually with such indifferent success as attends a man who tries to make love to two ladies at once. The word culture is here used in its broad sense com prehending both spiritual and intellectual development. Men of religious nature early seek expression through some group form of worship, while even in the primitive community, some find their principle interest in utilizing organized association for acquiring and disseminating knowledge. Others in whom the social instinct predomi nates, make personal contact with their fellows chiefly a means of entertainment and alcohol sometimes an auxil iary to that end. The same man may have been fojond in all three groups at different occasions according to vary ing mood and circumstance. Not because of what they have in common, therefore, but because they spring, more or less directly, from pri mary instincts, we find that, just as the church usually goes before the school, the jug has generally followed it — some times so closely that it got there first. In the establishment of early Elyria it was a neck and neck race, the first combination log church and school 35 EARLY ELYRIA house being built on the East Bridge street hill in the very same year Chester Wright'is distillery was erected not far away, opposite the cemetery. This was in 1819. The distillery might be regarded as father to the thirty odd saloons supplying the thirsty public of Elyria in its hundredth year just as the little log school house may well be counted parent to nearly a score of substan tial church structures which at the same time adorned the streets of this city. At the outset the distillery had a shade the best of it for while the Indians did not patronize the church much, the dis tillery did con siderable busi- ness with white men and red men both. On the occasion of the first Fourth of July celebration in Elyria — also held in 1819 — a great roast pig and venison dinner was served and, according to Mary Beebe Hall's Reminiscences of Elyria, "popular beverages of which whisky was the chief ingredient, was the dessert." Evi dently the distillery was built in the niche of time or per haps the first 4th of July celebration was not held until it was completed. However the same author pays a compli ment to the temperance or capacity of those early Lo rain county citizens in the further statement: "Though whisky was freely used, not a drunken man was to be seen and there were no accidents." <^.lT\(>l'< THEY HAD AN EVEN START IN 1819i. 36 A LONG RACE Liquor was not always handled so successfully, how ever, for we hear of occasional over-indulgence at barn raisings and similar festive social occasions of the period and only ten years later we find a number of citizens headed by Nathan Stevens, Schuyler Putnam and Doc Man- ter organizing a temperance society to combat the intem perate use of alcoholic beverages. Of course there was no real actual necessity for any body using such beverages, who did not want to, for after things were well a-going almost everybody had his own rain barrel and Levi Mann started digging wells at three shillings a foot and his board while digging. Nevertheless business seemed to warrant a well known druggist of the period in keeping for sale an astonishingly elaborate list of wines and liquors and prominent citizens occasionally offered the public, at reasonable prices, some good home made products for "medicinal and sacramental" purposes. A second Lorain county temperance society was formed a bit later, 81 females and 63 males pledging ab stinence from ardent spirits, wine and tobacco. Ten more males agreed to abstain from ardent spirits but decided to stick to the weed. About the same time, however, we find Mr. Jackson advertising that he had a new shipment of whisky just received on consignment, for sale cheap for cash or wheat. One pauses to wonder how a man who bought his whisky by the barrel could raise any wheat but evidently they thought it could be done in those sturdy days. Per haps the purchaser in barrel lots did not have to consume it all himself but had helpful neighbors and gave a good many parties. One may well marvel at the long duration of the bat tle, or rather battles, which have since ensued. If all of the money spent by the temperance forces in fighting liquor, 37 EARLY ELYRIA since that far day in 1819, had been allowed to accumulate, there would be money enough in the treasury by now to buy outright all of the breweries and distilleries around, and have a lot of money left to erect imposing memorials to John Barleycorn befitting to his large acquaintance and the potent influence he has wielded. Owning all of the liquor plants, the temperance forces of course could convert them into fuel alcohol and pop factories and end the argument. Such is human nature however, that a program of benevolent assimilation would probably not have been so generously supported as the unremitting effort to eliminate the bottle by battle. Still it might have been the easier and quicker way and certainly much more effective than the time- honored endeavors of our other large school which has at tempted to put alcohol down by direct consumption, only to find that unorganized man power is no match for ma chinery and organization — which same is as true now as it was in the days of Chet Wright's primitive distillery. While the grain stewed and brewed Elyria's religious activities nevertheless advanced and flourished. In the log church on the hill services proceeded each Sunday, occasionally hurrying up a bit on fair days, we are in formed, so that the pioneers could bum stumps in the aft ernoon for there was much of clearing yet to be done and that also was the Lord's work. 38 CHAPTER VIII Culture Forges Ahead Now that little landless Ely Mann was bom, besides Henry Beach nearby, it became the duty of the commu nity to commence to make provision for the education of these and other young people arriving and expected from time to time. So a school was started in the log church which was the beginning of educational enterprises of great pith and moment as will herein appear. In 1824 a Presbyterian church society was formed in the little church and the same year the Methodists here organized a church society, other denominations follow ing suit from year to year. In 1831 the first camp-meeting hereabouts was held, or "holden" as the notice rpad, on the farm of Clark Eldred and in 1832, another on the farm of Orson J. Humphrey. This was followed by other great tented gatherings of the same kind in 1835 and again in 1840, on the grounds of the present Country Club. The writer has known of silent prayer being offered at the Country Club in later days, when a golfer was trying to clear the creek, and has also heard a good deal of scriptural language on the golf links but, as a matter of fact, the grounds are no longer used for purely religious purposes. Still it can truthfully be said that the attendance is generally largest there on Sunday. Looking back upon it, Elyria's church history does not appear vastly different from that of many other New England-fostered communities. In an educational way, however, the town early assumed a leading position and became widely known as a center of culture, the first high school in the state of Ohio being incorporated here in 39 EARLY ELYRIA 1830. This was only nine years after the first high school on American soil was established in Boston. Between these two educational milestones there was a school established in 1825 on Broad street nearly opposite to the site of the present Eagle's club building and in 1827 a district school was erected where the city hall now stands, which latter was known to history as the "Yellow Schoolhouse." The first high school building was erected in 1831 by Judge Ely, under a rental contract with the trustees, and stood between the present properties of the Y. M. C. A. and the First Congregational church. By August, 1834, the Elyria High School advertised a curriculum including English, Latin, Greek and French, physical, intellectual and moral sciences, mathematics and the music of the piano forte. John Montieth was princi pal up to 1835 when Dr. Brown succeeded him and by 1836 with a staff of five assistants the Elyria High School had come to have almost a national reputation. The courses of study covered everything from bookkeeping to botany and chemistry to Cicero. French and Greek and possibly some other things not always in the curriculum in more recent years were included. About 200 pupils were en rolled way back there in 1836 and they came from all over the country. Dozens of them were from Massachusetts and New York, some from Michigan and many from Cleve land and other Ohio cities. Even before the high school was established the Lorain County Library Association was in corporated (1828).* Judge Ely also realized that the community should have a newspaper and in 1829 he talked A. S. Park, a trusting yoimg printer of Ashtabula, into believing that Elyria was a live town in which to start such an enterprise. One of the most forceful arguments which he used was that he was willing to help finance the undertaking and this was undoubtedly ?Charles Arthur Ely, founder of Elyria's Public Library, was born in 1829. 40 CULTURE FORGES AHEAD. the one which carried conviction into the young printer's mind and heart. Thereupon the Lorain Gazette was started July 21, 1 829. Frederic Whittlesey was editor until the paper sus pended November 4, 1831. No reason was assigned for discontinuing the paper but the writer having passed, some four score years later, through that period in es tablishing a daily paper in Elyria which corresponded to the founding of a weekly in the earlier stages of community growth, concludes that financial reasons had a bearing on the suspension. After the paper was revived again on July 12, 1832, under the name of the Ohio Atlas, by Park and Joel Harris the latter acting as editor, Elyria has never since been without a newspaper for any appreciable period. The beginning of the new publication greatly facili tated the work of future historians, it being well known that facts are more or less freely, and sometimes almost carelessly, used in both newspapers and histories. ELYRIA UNION SCHOOL BUILT IN 1857 Probably no building in Elyria linked the past with the present in quite so largely representative a way, in Elyria's hundredth year, as this brick high school for, although it had been torn down in the early nineties, there were still hundreds of intellectual people travelling Elyria's streets, who at some earlier day had entered the portals of this old building with virgin minds encumbered with little learning and less care. i£ ^-^kmrnmrnW^^^ X wM¥m._ J f> FI \KJi,t(cif'*Tr \(t\i.'mif I ¦tllUJ'FAO jffs. ".< J* 1* I. IIAhOi, ¦^-^f.j.iito \'*. -i - .„„ f»- tl ..¦i fen ntfdi\M , _! , , ;fiOEK L u Si ' . > V - .. (l.'fc .-,1- . n ~l^i^^^^^ " ^.Vj<(#' THE FIRST PAPER EVER PUBLISHED IN ELYRIA Photographic reproduction of front page of The Lorain County Gazette, founded in 1839. AN ATTEST OF PBIOBTTY Elyria's precedence in the establishment of a high school in Ohio is not merely a pleasant local conceit, but isi recognized by outside authorities in educational matters as shown by the following letter: Mr. Wallace Cathcart, Feb. 3, 1917. Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio. My dear Mr. Cathcart: I remember that I promised to send you some additional facta concerning the earliest records of the Elyria High School. The high school of Elyria was granted articles of incorporation by the state legislature, Feb. 22, 1830. It was the first institution in the state to be incorporated under the name of a high school. The Elyria High School was certainly the first school in Ohio to le gally bear the name high school. I rather suspect it was the first one this side of the Allegheny Mountains to do so. The Wood ward High School of Cincinnati was chartered almost exactly a year later. The claim is sometimes made that the Woodward is the oldest chartered high school in the state, but this claim rests on a misapprehension of the facts. The Woodward Free Grammar School was chartered in January, 1827, but it was especially pointed out that the purpose of the school was to teach poor children the rudiments of an English Ed ucation. Quite distinct, as may be seen, from the function of a high school. The men that were the incorporators of this first high school were Heman Ely, Nathan H. Manter, Ebenezer Whiton, Reuben Mussey, David W. Lathrop and "their associates." These men were "erected and made a body corporate and politic, by the title and name of 'The High School of Elyria. •> * * • "The said Corporation shall be capable in law of hold ing any estate," * »¦ » "but no part of the funds shall ever be applied to any other object than supporting a high school; and said corporation shall be competent to receive any gift, graait or do nation for the purpose of the object of its erection." I think it is decidedly an evidence of the alertness of these men that just nine years after the first high school in America was es tablished, (in Boston of course), they should charter and establish an institution of similar name out here in the woods of the West ern Reserve. Elyria, and the Elyria High School, may well be proud of the record. With best wishes, I am Sincerely yours, E. A. MILLER. Department of Education, (Oberlin College). THE OLD LORAIN COUNTY COURT HOUSE BUILT IN 1828. A view taken from the jail corner (Third street and Middle avenue) which shows the beautiful Gothic church erected in 1848 by the First Presbyterian church society (First Congregational) organized in 1824 in the little log church on the hill. CHAPTER IX Early Government and Politics The present County Court house is architecturally one of the most admirable and ornamental buildings in Elyria, even as its predecessor was in its time. Some day, years hence, it will doubtless be replaced by a still more impos ing structure, making it reasonably certain that as long as Elyria remains the county seat, its material beauty will be so enhanced. There are of course other advantages accru ing to the community as the seat of county government, some measure of rural trade for instance, following the county business here. One of the obviously clever, although entirely logical things which Elyria's pioneers did, it is therefore appar ent, was to get the court house located here early in 1823, although Sheffield and Black River had the latchstring out and were keeping open house for it, and the commis sion appointed by the legislature visited both of these townships before deciding in favor of Elyria. One thing v/hich doubtless had an influence in the matter was the offer of Heman Ely to furnish temporary quarters for county purposes, including court offices and jail until the new court house was erected, for which he contributed $2000. The first little log school house was therefore built on the back of the present court house square and the first temporary court house, a one-story frame building was erected on the corner of Cheapside and Broad street, where court was held until the first real court house was built in 1828. 46 EARLY ELYRIA There already was a sheriff, Josiah Harris, by name, and county commissioners, Asahel Osborne, John Reid and Ben Bacon to Ibok after the court house, as well as an auditor, Sherman Minot all of whom had been elected in the spring of '24 and re-elected again in the fall by a total vote in the whole county of 332. To complete the organi zation the commissioners elected Edmund West, county treasurer, John Pearson collector of taxes and Edward Durand surveyor. Heman Ely was made an associate judge, some years later, but was not included in the official family at the outset. Wolsey Wells was made county clerk but, being the only attorney residing here, they had to have him for a prosecuting attorney, so they only let him be clerk for a day and then gave that job to Ebenezer Whiton. Judges George Tod, Mose Eldred, Henry Brown and Frederick Hamlin held a three days' session of court in the same year, but it seems mostly to have been designed to scare the unrighteous for not much of any real business was transacted until 1825 when two men were convicted of stealing hogs. This big crime wave accellerated the construction of the larger and more suitable two-story court house which was completed in 1828. The building was constructed of brick and -with its big white fluted columns made an inspiring appearance, and was certainly a very creditable building for a settle ment barely ten years old and a county even younger. Provision was next made for the poor. Rajmiond Starr and Buel Peck of Elyria opened the newly built Lo rain County Poorhouse and advertised in the Ohio Atlas, June 12, 1830, that it was ready for the receptibn of paupers. This house has never had to advertise for ijusiness since. The first meeting of the Lorain County Agricultural Society was held Sept. 3, 1832. The morning was given over 46 EARLY GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS to speeches at the court house, by Eliphalet Redington and Frederick Whittlesey. Redington was first president of the society. The afternoon was devoted to examination of the animals and other exhibits. Heman Ely won the first prize for oxen but Artemas Beebe outclassed him in geldings while William Andrews and William IngersoU had them all beat on bulls and three-year old steers. In February, 1833, an act was passed by the Ohio Leg islature to incorporate the village of Elyria, and some de partmental ramifications followed along in the next few years. Although a Board of Education was not organized until May, 1850, Elyria had one standard municipal depart ment even before the town was incorporated. On July 11, 1832, owing to the threatened epidemic of cholera a Board of Health — Elyria's first — ^was formed with Walter H. Manter, president, John S. Matson, secre tary and Conrad Reid, Samuel Strong, Buel Jones and Dan iel T. Baldwin, members. A few years later the Lorain County Medical Society was formed and before 1840 was holding regular quarterly meetings. With these two or ganizations to guard its health the city has survived many sudden changes of weather. In fact there has been nothing the matter with us to speak of ever since, and this condition has been chronic rather than acute. On Saturday night, April 15, 1837, a fire started in R. M. Wallace's blatksmith shop on Mill street several doors north of the Commercial Block upon the present site of the Troxel power building. It was extinguished before effecting much damage but the incident was made the basis of asritation for the creation of a fire department "to meet the destroyer when it comes with power" as the editor of the Atlas put it. The fire fighting forces were or ganized and the "destroyer" duly arrived as advertised. coming in January 1842. Being the first fire of note there had been to practice upon, the engine did not work very 47 EARLY ELYRIA. well — as may be gathered from the following notice in the Independent Treasury, leading journal of that period HOUSE BTTBNT TTP On the 25th ult, after our paper was nearly worked oft, the dwelling house of Mr. J. Taylor In the north part of the town, was discovered to be on fire. A large number of persons were soon on the spot, hands snugly stored away in their breeches pockets to keep them warm, (with the excep tion of some half dozen who had the wisdom to take buckets with them) looking on as unconcernedly as though it was mere sport. That POWER FUL THING, the engine, shortly made its appearance in the cooper yard of Mr. Wallace, run aga-inst a snag, broke the king bolt, and after a delay of some ten or fifteen minutes, was hauled up by the side of Mr. Tiffany's rain trough, where It was filled, and proceeded to the place of action. By this time the fire had progressed so far that the roof had fallen in, and the house was completely wrapped in flames, and past saving. Like everything else Elyria's fire department had to have a beginning and come to its present day efficiency only through many trials and difficulties. It should be noted that most of the trouble at the outset was definitely due to the king-bolt. There was nothing whatever the matter with Tiffany's rain trough. No doubt some attention was given to politics right from the start, but after the town had newspapers and the lawyers commenced to get thicker, political activi ties livened up in earnest and we find them seemingly in full blast in the community's second decade. There was much excitement and contention over who were fit to hold town and county offices even as there is sometimes nowadays, although in truth there is often not so much difference between candidates and their qualifi cations as their supporters make themselves believe, and endeavor to make others believe. In those early days also, personal preferences and prejudices on occasions were twisted into important issues of principle just as they some times are today. In a greater degree than now, men fol lowed their party, right or wrong, regardless of the person- 48 EARLY GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS. ality of its nominees or the iniquity of its position but independent voting was not unknown in local affairs. Sometimes when the Dernocrats regarded the village of fice as theirs by divine right the fickle electorate would turn them out and put the Whigs into power. On the other hand Nahum B. Gates, prominent Whig when he was elected mayor in 1843, held that office off and on, nearly half of the next forty-five years, yet at times would be defeated by some unchastened upstart of the opposition party who, curiously enough, might also prove to be a very extellent officigl. Of course the Whigs lambasted the Democrats and the Democrats the Whigs and both, of them the abolitionists. While there was not less interest in local affairs than now adays there seems to have been a more sustained concern over national politics and government details. Col umns of long speeches by Henry Clay or Daniel Webster were often printed in the local papers to the exclusioh of any home news. Local orators discussed the current issues before interested audiences all over the countryside. Back in the year 1840, ill the Lorain Standard, resurrected successor to the defunct pioneer, the Lorain Gazette, a notice issued by a Democratic committee read, in part as follows : "Whereas divers Whigs not having the love of truth in them did charge that Joel Tiffany had falsified a report upon the military system communicated to the house by William Harrison, by plastering newspaper paragraphs in the same and reading therefrom to an Elyria audience, know ye therefore that a meeting will be held at South Amherst, usually called Podunk, on Oct. 12 at which time said Joel Tiffany, Esq., will be present and address the people touching said reports and other matters deemed proper and we notify divers Whigs to be present and make good their charge," 4? EARLY ELYRIA. Liberty men of Lorain county were also active as in dicated by the reports of their convention in the Ohio Atlas, in 1841, although the Independent Treasury called the meeting a burlesque. "We are to have another aboli tion farce," said the Treasury, and added: "More persons probably signed the call than will vote the ticket. Elyria raised eight abolition votes last fall out of more than eighty professed abolitionists making one honest man out of every ten and this is better than the average of abolitionists." Evidently the Liberty Party had a worse time trying to maintain a foothold, as a party organization, than the Progressives of more recent years, but like the Progressive party, the principles it cherished lived to find permanent place in the laws of the land, beyond doubt to endure long after the party has been forgotten. All of the anti-slavery sentiment in early Elyria was of course, not enlisted in the Liberty Party. There was considerable partiality to the new doctrine in the other parties and independent thought was directed to the same end. An Elyria anti-slavery soci ety was formed at the court house in 1834. The erec tion of the court house it will be noted, made a much-used plaSce •...,',,¦¦ ^^^j.^: 'k:^& -^l^-'^fe^S^ ^ foi meetings of many kinds for years thereafter. ELYKIA COUPLE DKIVING OVER TO PODUNK IN 1840 TO HEAR JOEL TIFFANY LAMBASTE THE WHIGS. A captious critic suggests that the artist has made the tree in the right background of the sketch, resemble the smokestack of a fire en gine more than a relic of the late forest. This footnote is to assure the reader that It is a tree trunk expanding at the top into autumn foliage and not billows of smoke A disciplined imagination Is the essential equipment with which to attack this form of art, rather than a sfnoke consumer. 50 CHAPTER X Martial Spirit On February 7, 1837 a meeting was held to form a Bible society and re-supply everybody with Bibles, a good many careless people having run out of them. There is a tendency for this to happen in any community after it gets into politics. It is hard to keep one's mind upon the ten commandments and the iniquity of the opposition at the same time. "THEY SAY THE SIMITHS HAVEN'T A BIBLE IN THE HOUSE" Not so many years after this time Elyria run out of dogs but no society was formed to re-stock the town. On 51 EARLY ELYRIA. the contrary the Elyria Courier gloated over Painesville and Cleveland (a thrifty town of some 9,000 souls 25 miles east) which were having mad dog scares. The Courier said: "It is. a matter of congratulation that we have no dogs in our village, so that our citizens can feel entirely secure and their children play in the streets without danger of being bit unless some of our country neighbors who keep dogs suffer them to come into town." The Elyria Lyceum was formed in 1833 and in corporated in 1834. They had lectures on anatomy and personal magnetism, and debates on many subjects. Once J. B. Green and John Montieth were the "disputants" as they called them, against George Harris and A. C. Pen- field in a discussion as to whether the Revolutionary War was justifiable. It suggests tiiat there was 'an anti-war sentiment in the county even then which ultimately took form in a peace society that was organized at a mass meet ing at the court house on a call issued by N. H. Manter and a half dozen other well known citizens. The pacifists at no time seemed to depress the military spirit however. "General training" days were alwavs big events. Col. Harris of Amherst (also first sheriff and later a judge) would issue a military notice through the Ohio Atlas, summonfing the commissioned and staff officers of the 2nd Redment, 2nd Brigade, 9th Division Ohio Mil itia, to appear at the Washington House, * Elyria on a cer tain day, or at whatever other leading tavern might be des ignated. Then Captain J. S. Hull would issue a notice notifying The Elyria Light Infantry Guards to parade in front of the Court house on the same day "armed and equipped and uniformed as the law directs for company muster." On the appointed day the cadets would assemble and go throusrh their paces in front of the court house and *The Washington House became the America* Hotel amd years later the Jackson Hotel. B2 MARTIAL SPIRIT roundabout the main thoroughfares before an admiring throng of friends and relatives, in which the village belles would risk one eye, or more, upon their favorite soldier. After the training there would be much feasting and so ciability and the populace made it a day of general revelry. There were numerous and varied military companies organized from time to time and outside of the general training days they took a prominent part in the celebra tions of the period. Sornetimes they overdid it a little. For instance in June 1844 there was a celebration on ac count of the "Baltimore nomination" and while the Ar tillery Company were firing a salute for the third time, the cannon went off prematurely, Pete Sherman having part of his right arm blown off and left thumb injured. Joel Chubb's left hand was shattered and Nelson La- throp's thumb was blown off. They all recovered except Sherman, the rest of whose arm was amputated by Dr. Norton S. Townsend* who, aside from his skill in "physics and surgery" was secretary of the Elyria Natural History Society. The Lorain Republican (Elyria newspaper) in its account of the tragedy was very considerate and took pains to say that no blame could be attached to any one, the gun being under the "able management of Captain Seekins and his Artillery Company." If the management had been any "abler" it probably would have gone hard with the innocent bystanders. Firing salutes was a popular diversion on all impor tant occasions, political hullabaloos. Fourth of July cele brations and the like. The pioneers were great for Fourth of July celebrations. They started them early in the town's career and always made a day of it. They would *Dr. Townsend later went to Congress but Is probably best remem bered by the people of Ohio for his important service in seculring the passage of legislation establishing the state agricultural college. 53 EARLY ELYRIA hold a number of preparatory meetings at the court house and elect somebody president arid vice-president. It might be Heman Ely and Eliphalet Redington and Frederic Whittlesey and Col. Harris and again, at a later period, it might be Sheriff John H. Faxon or County Treasurer John H. Boynton and somebody else. Another would be named orator of the day, another reader and anoth er chaplain. There would be marshals and assistant marshals and committees appoint ed on resolutions, cannon and decorations. The day would start with a salute. The crowd would adjourn to a nearby grove and hear a reading of the Declaration of In dependence and the speech of the day. Then it would return to the public square where hundreds would sit down at one time to long tables loaded with everything good to eat. There would be more speeches and another meal, more toasts and firing of cannon, and Nelson Lathrop would climb the 110 foot liberty pole in the square before the celebra tion was done. Five or six thousand people used to assemble for these glorifications. The Revolutionary war was a fresher memory then and a good many surviving veterans of the Patriot army helped to keep vigorous the spirit of '76. The habit of big Fourth of July celebrations in Elyria was given a fresh impetus by the civil war and continued way along into the eighties when the custom had a set-back. The lady who made the balloon ascension fell from her trapeze and dropped on Allison Wooster's fence on Second s|treet suffering instant death. A horse was frightened by the public fireworks and ran away smashing up the rig and the driver, and another man was hit in the ear by a sky 54 HE CLIMBED THE LIBERTY POLE MARTIAL SPIRIT rocket. As a result the city was sued for damages, the r^ spirit of revelry was ^ ' I'^subdued and before ^^' gi S it had entirely re- <^^^^lV covered the "Sane fef(",..«- Fourth" movement JUST FOR THAT HE SUED THE CITY reached Elyria. Sometimes there was sanity, as we understand the term in reference to celebrations, in the observance of not able occasions even in the old days. One group evidently aimed to be equally adequate both in the matter of patrio tism and general information, for their purposes and pro grams seemed to be flavored with both. This Elyria Dialectic Association was formed and held meetings in the Court house. At a typical meeting in 1842 Joel Tiffany addressed the Society on the geological structure of the earth, illustrated by diagrams from a magic lantern by Mr. Canfield after which Tiffany and Doctor Howard debated against H. A. Tenny and L. D. Griswold, as to whether Alexander Hamilton and his compatriots should be held in grateful remembrance as a matter of justice- Tenny was editor of the Lorain Republican, suc cessor to the Independent Treasury. The Dialectic Association members claimed to be mostly descendants of the Pilgrims and used to invite all of the "genuine" Pilgrim's descendants in the county to join with them in celebrating the anniversary of the land ing of the Pilgrims to whom they declared the country was indebted, particularly "to their indomitable courage, unshaken firmness, ardent piety and zeal in a great meas ure for the civil and religious liberty we now enjoy." For the celebrations of earlier years the pioneers seem to have made their own music, so to speak, probably most- 55 EARLY ELYRIA. ly vocal, save for the fife and drum which of course date well back to the beginning of things military in American history. In the second defCade we find more elaborate musical organizations springing up from time to time. As early as 1837 the Elyria Harmonic Society was formed and April 25th of that year the first public concert was given at 7 o'clock in the court house. Admission was 1254 cents per head and children half price. This may be said to be the beginning of musical culture in Elyria in a public way. Musical people might be interested to note that the program included Bonaparte's Grand Coronation March by Rossini and Agnus Dei by Mozart to say nothing of an original composition by Mr. Kendall, one of Elyria's promising young musicians. By 1838 the first Elyria Band had been formed and was giving public conc^i:s as early as March in the court house, charging an admission fee of 25c and promising by way of program a full set of German music, (by Walch), the made-in-Germany tirade mark evidently being more popular three quarters of a century ago than it was by 1917, very early in which year musical taste had so far changed that the only German music which would have been really certain of drawing a crowd would have been Kaiser Wilhelm's funeral march. THE FIRST ELYRIA BAND WAS ORGANIZED IN 1838. CHAPTER XI Progress and Romance In its first decade, Elyria's living accommodations, and buildings kept pace with the settlement's healthy growth. The more than two dozen houses which lined "Main" street in 1825 were being constantly increased by new structures. Reuben Nichols who came here from New Hampshire in 1828, started the Eagle hotel to take care of the constant ly growing traveling public. For that purpose he bought the home of that leading citizen named Joel Tiffany and, moving it from its site, then at the corner of Mill and Broad streets, erected in 1832 a brick hotel with spacious verandas which was not only the finest building in town but had all other hotels on the stage route eclipsed. It was known as the Mansion House and had a big ball room and a large dining room which served for banquets, Elyria already being some social center. The house also had modem touches in other respects including colored help and the modest sensations of the settlement were enriched one day by "Black Mary," in the heat of battle, biting a piece out of "Black Hank's" nether jaw, which the pioneer physicians were able to skillfully sew back into his dusky countenance just as it was before Black Mary had reverted, for the canni balistic moment, to the primitive impulses of her African ancestors. The Mansion house, of course filled an important part in the life of this community. When a circus came to town the barns and sheds in the rear of the hotel were big enough to house the elephants and horses and other animals whille the main tent show was in progress on the back end 67 THE FIRST BRIDGE AT THE WEST FALLS PROGRESS AND ROMANCE of the court house square ; this made it convenient. When the North American circus with the only living giraffe on the continent, "showed" here Elyria aristocracy was ad mitted to boxes in the "unrivaled establishment" for 50c and the peasantry to the pit at 25c, where, according to the newspaper announcement, they would see a great col lection of equestrian and gymnastic talent besides the Yan kee Sampson who fired a 1,000 pound cannon from his breast and hear Picanniny Coleman and the Jawbone Min strel Band. The "circus and menagerie" of one P. T. Bamum, started coming here as early as 1852. -^^:a ^ ^ ¦^x^^y S^yl <"'!, S U t'Ll THE ONLY LIVING GIRAFFE ON THE AMERICAN CONTINENT On "general training days" of the militia, or "town meeting days" of political portent, elaborate dinners were wont to be served in the dining room with much gaiety in the ball room also a feature, although dancing and card playing were not yet so widely approved. In fact a couple of old ladies who persisted in staying up late at night playing Old Sledge, made a good deal of talk. Out of doors the Crowds usually formed rings for wrestling matches which 59 EARLY ELYRIA furnished one of the chief athletic diversions hereabouts in the late forties and even later. The victor in a wrestling match would remain in the ring to "take on" the next chal lenger and there remain until he in turn was thrown, the best wrestler presumably holding his place in the ring at the finish, unless the fatigue of continued endeavor made him succumb to a less skillful opponent. The writer's grandfather William E. Stearns, died in the cheering con viction that, in his youth, he had been able to hold a place in the ring longer than almost anybody around here, back in the days when, in conjunction with Cap'n Abel Perry, he used to keep tavern at Rockport and come to Elyria on all important occasions. They wrestled hard, sure enough in those da^s, in 1852 Roswell Beamis of Amherst being thrown so violently by a Sheffield man that his neck was broken. The career of the Mansion house was eventually ter minated by fire but Reuben Nichols the first proprietor had in 1839 sold out his title and removed to Oberlin. He soon returned so that his family and descendants have con tinued to have a part in the life of this community. One of his daughters, Mary, born in the old Tiffany house just before the Mansion House was built in 1832, in the later days of her girlhood strolled one day with her chums down below the west falls, the scenic beauty of which was well apprieciated even in that early time. Pick ing their way through the trees which guarded the big open cavern upon the east side of the river, the young ladies suddenly came in sight of a young man standing upon a big rock and addressing an oration to the cataract. The youth was a budding lawyer who had chosen this rocky amphitheater to perfect his eloquence above the roar of falling waters, just as Demosthenes ^th a mouth ful of pebbles used to practice the art of oratory against the din of the breaking waves. Mary later met the 3roung 60 PROGRESS AND ROMANCE "CAME IN SIGHT OF A YOUNG DMAN ADDRESSING THE CATARACT" man in a social way and the acquaintance ripened into a courtship with what might almost be termed fatal results for they were eventually married. This may have been the first romance of Cascade park but it certainly was not the last. The young man who talked to the falling waters and won Mary Nichols for a bride was William B. Lockwood, who later became prosecuting attorney of Lorain county, and subsequently common pleas judge of Lucas county, and Federal judge of Nebraska when that whole state comprised one district. Judge Lockwood's widow, in Ely ria's 100th year, was still living and at 85 years of age at her summer home on Put-in-Bay Island was bright, well and happy. The Thanksgiving preceding the centennial year, in company with the writer she visited and viewed the old Tif fany house in which she was born in 1832, still standing on 61 mMo Hpa cqHW PROGRESS AND ROMANCE West avenue just below the N. Y. C. railroad on the west side of the street, and which as has been noted was moved from the comer of Broad and Mill streets to make room for the erection of the Mansion house over four score years before. Even prior to the destruction of the Mansion house the Beebe house was completed and opened to the public on the evening of January 3, 1848. It had over 106 feet frontage on the square extending an equal distance on Broad street and was Elyria's first four story building. Of course it looked as high as the town's first ten story build ing — which happened to be completed in its centennial year. The opening of the Beebe house was marked by a big party, an elaborate supper being served to 240 persons in "a style scarcely known among us" as the Elyria Courier put it, followed by music and sociability of which the Cour ier said "well dedicated was the spacious hall by the life en joying company that crowded it's supposedly superabun dant room." Like the Mansion House the Beebe House was event ually destroyed by fire, but in the meantime, it had been somewhat remodelled in 1892 and the name changed to the Andwur Hotel, a combination of the names of H, M. Andress and Henry Wurst who with Wm. Heldmyer had acquired the property. In that year the wing on the west was built up to four stories, the height of the main build ing. The fire which came in 1906 destroyed all but the exterior walls but as again rebuilded, its lines were much the same in Elyria's hundredth year as those of the hotel built on the same site in 1847, 63 AFTER THE FIRE The fact that these well built walls resisted the flames after the interior had been consumed a^«at8 tor the fact that the reconstructed hotel was in appearance much the same in Elyria's hundredth year as it was when It was opened as the Beebe House in 1848. ft^?^ THE HOTEL AS REBUILDED AFTER THE FIRE THE FIRST ELYRIA BLOCK BE FORE FIRE DESTROYED IT. The hotel was again damaged in the Elyria Block fire. The blaze which destroyed this handsome flve story building and seriously damaged adjoining West Broad street properties, April 14, 1909, was of sufficient magnitude to give it respectable standing along with such historic local flres as the one which destroyed the Mansion House, S. B, Wolcott's store, Dibble's harness shop and Cogswell's shoe store on March 9, 1858; the big fire which destroyed the library and Ely block stores in March, 18 73, and the fire that destroyed a number of stores on Cheapside in 1891. Before the fire a big double hall on the fifth floor of this block was the home of the Elks' Club and for some years prior to occupancy by this organization had been used for the town's largest balls, many of which were conducted on a very ambitious scale facilitated by the unified social life of the period. Many, if not most Blyrians, can recall some memorable parties there. CHAPTER XII. Early Industries The first two decades of Elyria industrial history might be termed its black salts period. One is a bit mysti fied on examining early newspaper files, to find that C. S. Ferris, the genial mon ument m a n on the South Ridge was ad vertising his willing ness to trade tomb stones for black salts and Ozias Long, the enterprising Elyria merchant was equally anxious to give any thing in his store, even to cash in exchange for black salts. Cowles & Ryder were also in the market for them as were Sandford and Andrews, all of Elyria, and Reuben Lord, of La Porte, wanted 100 tons. Others sought them no less eagerly. Black salts, it appears were legal tender hereabouts. From what evidence that is available at this late day, it may be stated that black salts were a kind of potent alkali derived from wood ashes and used with proper refine ment as a basis for pearl-ash, which same was father to 66 Industries Assemblefl Alongr the East Branch EARLY INDUSTRIES saleratus or bicarbonate of soda, the ordinary baking soda of commerce and cookery today. The pioneers evidently liked a little leaven in their biscuits and their Johnny cake, for Pearl ash became so popular after a time that there were patent systems sold on territorial rights for extracting it from wood ashes, one such making a direct market for the latter at the Elyria "ashery," which advertised for "wood or field" ashes. Field ashes were the residue of clearing operations, including logs and brush. Lye "leached" from these ashes was also used in making "soft" soap. . In this connection the manufacture of hard soap nat urally followed, and shortly developed into one of Elyria's thriving early industries, the first of which, the saw mill and bowl making have already been noted. A brick yard was established within the first decade, giving the pioneers a wider latitude in the choice of building material. The Lorain Iron Company, organized in 1832, built the first blast furnaces in Lorain county, the loca tion being close to the w^t falls. Other early Elyria in dustries, mostly located above the east falls, availing themselves of the cheap wa ter power afforded by the east branch. These included besides the Old Red Mill, which was for many years a historic landmark of the town, Olcott's tannery near the foot of Broad street, and a woolen and fulling mill about opposite the present N. Y. C. Ry. passenger depot. These industries all flourished for msiny years, growing somewhat in magnitude. One of the fabrics manufactured in the last mentioned 67 "">*» ^Jl'% The Old Blast Furnaces Near the West Falls EARLY ELYRIA factory, was a kind of watered silk, which was an appro priate product in view of its location upon the banks of the river. In the course of the city's further industrial develop ment the manufacture of real silk from real silk worms, was attempted late in the thirties. To mention names that may not yet sound unfamiliar out of a number of active citizens of the town, Artemas Beebe, Ozias Long, Heman Ely, Edwin Byington, Josiah Harris, Daniel T. Baldwin, L. D. Bojmton (the first), L. D. Griswold and others incorporated the Lorain Silk Com pany and called an organization meeting at the county court house. Their plans announced at that meeting contemplated commencing upon a moderate scale by purchasing a suit able piece of land for the cultivation of mulberry trees and an extensive nursery until it became productive, when co coons would be purchased and operations extended to the actual m.anufacture of silk. The idea appealed to the pioneer imagination; almost everybody decided to go in for silk. . Small boys dreeimed of having silk worms for pets that would come when they called them. Ladies planned to raise their own silk stock ings in their backyards, and the staple red bandanna of the male threatened to be displaced by filmy silk 'kerchiefs. What matter if their fabric was so ethereal and evanescent that a couple dozen would be required to smother the ordi nary sneeze and several hundred for a common cold, so .long as they were to be home grown and abundant? A "silk house" was eventually built on the Gulf road, and Mrs. Ely, assisted by other public-spirited ladies actu ally made tassels for the banners of Elyria's first band when it went to Ft. Meigs in the Harrison campaign in 1840. ' • ' ' -!• I !-^ Stock was sold in the new enterprise by popular sub- 68 EARLY INDUSTRIES scription. Asahel Bliss advertised "cuttings of moris multicaulis, silk reels, worms, eggs, etc.," to individual con sumers and the prospect of a flourishing silk industry here seemed very rosy. The mulberry trees grew all right, but the silk worms may not have liked the climate, for the in dustry some way failed to endure. There must always be some false alarms in a business way and occasionally a mining or oil enterprise or something goes wrong even nowadays, so the bad guess of our forbears on the silk worm culture will not be charged too heavily against them. There were other ways to make a living, anyway, in those days, some of which would hardly be practical now. A man would almost starve catching squirrels for a living today, but according to the advertisement of George Gibbs, of Elyria, in the Independent Treasury as late as 1842, one could get four to five young grey or black squirrels out of nearly every hollow tree, for which Gibbs would cheerfully pay one to two shillings a head. Coon skins, if "well stretched," brought a good price at the "old Fortress" and BROAD STREET IN THE EARLY FIFTIES 69 EARLY ELYRIA. deer skins and furs found immediate market with A. Scott in the Commercial block. Mr. Gibbs also was offering Lo rain county people two to three dollars each for tame deer SOME EARLY ELYRIA INDUSTRIES fawns, but at even that price he would not be able now-a- days to get very many in this county. Times have changed since men could make any money hunting deer around here. One hundred years ago today. When wilderness was here. With powder in his gun, the man Went out and got a deer. Buf now the thing has changed — And on another plan, With powder on her cheeks. The dear goes out and gets the man. 70 CHAPTER XIII. Modern Development The third and fourth decades of Elyria's history were years of much progress and many urban airs. The pioneers also continued to pay an increasing measure of attention to the cultivation of their minds as well as their social and religious instincts. Aside from the exceptional high school which disting uished the town, there were many other agencies of cul ture including literary societies, as we know them now, and many private schools. Ex- Superintendent John Monteith the former higli school principal, started a private school for young ladies R. Gazley opened a private school in English for males and females old and young." E. G. Boynton *organized a select school, teaching all of the common branches besides algebra and natural history. Fr. Huene started a class in German and French teaching "music on the piano and Spanish guitar" on the side. On Feb. 9, 1842 Allen Tibbits started an evening ge ography school at the yellow school house for both ladies and gentlemen who wished to be well informed. By the Lancaster ian system he taught them in 18 three-hour les sons about all of "the mountains, lakes, rivers and cities in the world and population of each in a few evenings". And ¦•Many other lawyers had been school teachers or still continued to teach something on the side. Joel Tiffany had a flourishing private school with some 60 pupils at an earlier date. Lawyers must have been very in tellectual men in those days. 71 EARLY ELYRIA such was tiie. passion for learning in early Elyria that the courses were repeated in subsequent terms. The merchants commenced to get slangy in their ad vertisements using such catchy phrases as "Nuff Ced," and like forms, some of which still persist. E. W. Sanford, tailor, promised in his announcement not to "cabbage" more than two thirds of the cloth brought to him to be made into clothes. In their news and editorial columns the papers were painfully frank and highly personal in those days. A notice of a fire in the Independent Treasury in 1842 concluded with the interesting detail that: "Mr. P who as usual was comfortably drunk was badly injured by fire before he could be rescued." "We should be glad to encourage, in every way con sistent with other claims," said the Ohio Atlas in 1838, "the cultivation of poetic talent by the amiable writer of 'The Last Day of School' and 'Responsibilities of Par ental Care,' but we are strongly inclined to the opinion their circulation should be limited to the circle of private friendship." A young man's Lyceum was formed and we find it in 1840 holding meetings in the little yellow school house and debating such questions as whether or not a third can didate for president would have been advisable. This of course was before Col. Roosevelt was on the ground to prejudice tiie case in favor of the third Candidate fellows. Aside from their schools and literary clubs the citizens profited more and more by contact with each other in var ious sorts of meetings. For night work the first settlers had to depend upon candles supplemented of course by the ruddy glow of open fireplaices. Oil lamps were used, particularly in comer stores, but they held questionable superiority in the 72 MODERN DEVELOPMENT domestic circle over the home-made candles of the pioneers, which much excelled the feeble and smelly parafine pro ducts of present day commerce. The common folks made their candles by repeated dipping of wicks in kettles of tal low but the aristocracy made theirs in moulds. In 1847 a new "stearine" candle (stearine of tallow) was put on the market and extensively advertised by merchant Burrel in the Elyria Courier. It made evening reading and study a pleasure and was so bright it almost hurt the pio neers' eyes. It was followed by the "fluid" lamp which burned "camphene" and was declared to be cheaper than any candles and better. The Lorain County court house continued to be the forum and mecca for orators and reformers and organiz ers of every kind. There were mass meetings on the fugi tive slave law, mass meet ings when the Whigs left their seats in the legislature and mass meetings to sign memorials to Congress ask ing the prohibition of mail deliveries and the clearance of canal boats on the Sabbath. In fact there seemed to have been mass meetings on any and every provocation. In May 1848 for example they had a "citizens' " mass meeting in the court house "to express their views on the annexation of Texas to the U. S." It must have been a large meeting for almost all of the prominent citizens 73 EARLY ELYRIA whose names ever got into print, signed the call for the gathering. One time there was a "great temperance mass meet ing" held in the court house in Elyria. Wolsey Wells made a speech on the immorality of the liquor traffic and E. S. Hamlin and others offered resolutions v^^ich were adopted, declaring a boycott against tavern keepers who maintained bars, and "resolving" that the use of wine at weddings, parties, and other festive occasions, by gentle men and ladies high in influence, is a most fruitful cause of drunkeness." A few days later an "indignation meeting of citizens was called at the court house for the purpose of ex pressing their feelings" about a grave robbery. The body of an honest colored gentleman who froze to death while intoxicated, had been stolen fropi the cemetery. A committee including L. D. Griswold and other well known citizens was named to "ferret out the perpetrators of the outrage upon the sanctuary of the dead" and a half -column of resolutions drawn by George G. Washburn, M. W. Pond and G. T. Smith, were adopted, from which a few repre sentative paragraphs are herewith quoted. "Whereas, our graveyard has been robbed, to afford a subject for the dissecting knife of some of our neighboring physicians, and whereas such violations of the sacred rights of the dead are contrary to the statutes of the land, and in direct violation of every man's moral sense and feeling, therefore, "Resolvefd, That we avail ourselves of this method to express our un qualified condemnation of this sacrilegious procedure, alike revolting to the feelings of the Christian and Pagan and that we will endeavor to ferret out the vile disturbers of the quiet of tbe dead and bring them to punishment. "Resolved, That we call upon the citizens of Elyria to take some measures whereby the dead shall not in future be disturbed by those fiends in human form who make their nocturnal visits to our graveyards." Nevertheless every well regulated physician had to have a skeleton or two, and a few extra, parts presumably for emergency cases, or perhaps merely as a standard 74 MODERN DEVELOPMENT equipment. The writer's great-uncle. Dr. E. C. Perry, who got started in the practice of medicine in Elyria just before the civil war, acquired one somewhere when he was yet a medical student. It was in a rather raw and unfinished state however, a good deal of the deceased still being at tached to the bones and necessitating boiling and cleaning ing before they could be again assembled into human form. The writer's mother then a girl of some 12 years, helped in the operation, it being necessary to do it when the old folks were at church one Sunday because they were quite religious, if not also a bit superstitious. After the bones were "boiled up" in the family wash boiler the young peo ple put them in the churn to have them out of sight by the time church was out. Before the youthful medical student had a chance to wire them together however he had to re turn to college and the bones reposed under the bed of the writer's mother for many months. Rather gruesome com pany for a girl just entering her teens, one might fancy, but she says the man under the bed never talked back and was easier to get along with than some people she has known since. And she looked right at the writer when she said it. 75 CHAPTER XIV. Early Transportation Transportation,, another great stimulant to culture and civilization through facilitating association with the rest of the world, extended its helping hand to the grow ing community. In addition to the east and west stage-coach line pro moted by Artemas Beebe, a new line of stages was also started by J. L. Ladd providing tri-weekly trips be tween Elyria, Akron, Medina and other points. The fare to Warren was $5.00 which is probably as much as any one here would give to go to Warren today. To make the trip more alluring, the management carried an advertise ment in the Atlas guaranteeing sober drivers. The probability of a steam railroad running through Elyria, from Cleveland to Toledo was discussed a great deal and many people affirmed their belief, and even appre hension that it would really be built sooner or later. In fact the project was regarded with considerable suspicion. A newspaper notice concerning the matter gives an inter esting sidelight upon Elyria's early relations with Cleve land and the pioneers' attitude toward railroad connections. The Elyria Courier of December 21, 1847, says: "We rejoice to see our citizens at length fairly roused to the importance of securing now the advantages of our location. We have slept while opportunities have been lost to make this a leading point. Our enterprise and business have been directed to the advantage of our neighbor, Cleve land, and we have only been seeking a closer and more cor- 76 EARLY TRANSPORTATION dial union with that town. But the location of the Cleve land and Columbus Railroad a few miles south of us — com ing so near that we shall feel all the evils that such a road can inflict, with none of its advantages — ^has at length fairly waked up our property holders, our business men and citizens, generally, to look around them and see what they can do for themselves. The result has been an in difference on the part of some, and an opposition to being connected with Cleveland at all. We are well satis fied that such A CONNECTION IS FOR US, BY NO MEANS DESIRABLE. We are . now merely her tributary. Our citizens spend from TWENTY- FIVE DOLLARS TO FIFTY DOLLARS EVERY WEEK AT HER HOTELS — from four to six loaded vans from this village alone leave daily when roads are passable, for her warehouses. This all arises from inattention to our own resources, and from friendly feel ings to our neighbor. But we can easily divert this chau' nel from Cleveland for our own benefit and add ten fold to its value ; and we have the means. Thanks to the industry and enterprise of our people, Elyria and vicinity is not in resources the town she was ten years ago. We have only to will it, and we can make this town a Lake Port, with all the advantages of an interior location. We can also con nect ourselves to the interior by plank or other good wagon roads. This done, with our manufacturing facilities noth ing can prevent our indefinite growth. The railroad will thereby become PERFECTLY HARMLESS. Farmers will always bring their produce to market with their own teams, when they can though they cross a dozen railroads. To the proposition now under contemplation, or some similar one, we call the attention of all. We hope to see no further attempt to influence the railroad company to make this town a point. We can do better without the road than with it." 77 EARLY ELYRIA Z-tC Nevertheless in due timfe the monster came. A ne"ws Item in the Elyria Courier, June 8, 1853, noted that the tracks had been completed and under a heading "The Iron Horse Has Come" chronicled the beginning of traffic ope rations which would put Elyria in touch "with the outside world." Long before this the pioneers had become recon ciled to the invader. In fact by 1850 the newspapers of Ely ria and Norwalk were quarreling a little as to whether the preferred route of the proposed line should include Elyria, or run more southerly and take in Norwalk. There was naturally rnuch viewing of the new tracks and pump house and people took their offspring by the hand and led them dowh to see the wonderful steam engine. In the. little brick school house on Chestnut street — it is related — it was for many years later a reward of merit, extended by the teacher to well behaved pupils, to allow them to stand at the window when the trains went by. The last skeptic in town of course, had also discovered as soon as the road was in operation, that there were important compensations for any trade losses or other possible disadvantages of railroad connections. It has been wisely said that "blessings brighten when they take their flight." Sometimes, like Elyria's railroad, iVv they also look dark and ominous on their approach. l\u\\ ^ * * ^, Water transportation, of couirse, was less of a factor in Elyria's development but nevertheless figured in it. The earliest commercial cruise in the upper waters of ^' Black River is noted in Judge W. W. Boynton's painstak- 78 EARLY TRANSPORTATION ing "Western Reserve and Early History of Lorain County." Guy Boughton having sold, on the way from Massa- chussetts, in 1817, a double wagon to one Heman Ely, heretofore mentioned, also agreed to deliver it to him at Elyria, which place said Ely had started out to find — and to found. When Boughton arrived in the wilds of Grafton he discovered that there was a good many miles of forest primeval separating him from the town-to-be of Elyria, the river apparently being the only thoroughfare not cumber ed up with obstructing trees and underbrush. Where' upon Boughton made a raft of logs, placed the wagon upon it and floated down with the current to what is now the i'Y:*r#^w4>i GRAFTON TO ELYRIA BY WATER foot of Broad street, delivering the vehicle to the afore mentioned Ely sometime before the latter had any prod ucts to carry in it, or even roads upon which to drive it. Heavily wooded swamp lands in the south end of the county indirectly drained into the river in those times, 79 EARLY ELYRIA maintaining more water all through the year than we have nowadays, — and for that matter the flow may be even less in the future. There are comparatively few weeks in the year when a cargo of the size carried by Guy Boughton's raft could come over from Grafton by water now. Commercial navigation of course was started in a sub stantial way at the mouth of the Black River in very early times, much merchandise, which was consumed in Elyria, being brought by water to Lorain before the railroads were built. In early mercantile advertising we find some announcements of what fine lines merchants would have to offer "when navigation opened in the spring." Consid erable Elyria passenger traffic also passed through the Black River port in those days. As early as 1832 and probably earlier, by driving over to Black River, one could board the steamer Sheldon Thompson for Buffalo on Sunday morning or on Monday could ride to the same city upon the William Penn, Wed nesday upon the Ohio, Thursday upon the Niagara, Friday upon the Henry Clay, and Saturday upon the steamer En-. terprise. Returning from Buffalo, the same boats arranged their schedules so that every evening but Saturday one of these steamers departed for Detroit, making practically daily service to both of the big lake ports. A man could "get somewhere" by going to Lorain in those days. 80 CHAPTER XV. Navigation to the Lake Considerable traffic continued to pass through Lo rain's port for many years, when somebody here conceived the notion that Elyria should have a port of its own, by a canal connection with the mouth of Black River. The idea evidently took hold of the popular fancy. Meetings were held to consider it and people discussed it on the street cor ners. The Elyria Courier of December 28, 1847, contained an editorial headed, "Milan — Its Trade," which the editor of the Milan Tribune estimates to be for imports $1,250,000 and exports $1,000,000. Commenting, Editor Bliss of the Elyria Courier said: "Our readers will here see the im mense advantage of a lake connection. When the present Milan canal was commenced, that town stood in about the same relation to Norwalk that LaPorte does to Elyria. But now, combining the advantages of a lake connection with an inland position, with Norwalk and Sandusky city established business points at its door, the town has gone forward in a manner to surprise all." * * * A mass meeting having for its object the further con sideration of plans for a canal between Elyria and Lake Erie, was held at the Court House a few days later and resolutions were passed urging the digging of a six mile canal from Elyria to the mouth of Black River and a com mittee! of five were appinted to raise funds. Also a commit tee of five was appointed to raise funds and employ a com- 81 EARLY ELYRIA. petent engineer to survey and estimate the expense of building a plank road to Wooster or some point intermedi ate between that place and Ashland. The committee of five on the ship canal was made up of H. K. Kendall, N. B. Gates, O. Long, H. D. Clark, H. Ely, Jr.; committee on plank road, N. B. Gates, E. DeWitt, D. W. Andrews, L. D, Griswold and A. Beebe. There were also appointed a committee, H, Parker E. H. Leonard, E. F. Mason — to make a detailed report of the water power of Elyria and its immediate vicinity— to report the height of the falls in the northern part of the village — ^the several falls and mill privileges on the two branches of the river above their junction, also to report the quantity of stone available for the construction of locks, buildimgs and permanent fixtures — together with the cost of and facilities for obtaining the necessary amount of good stone to be used in the construction of the canal. A committee of one, E. W. Hubbard, was also ap pointed to prepare a charter to construct the ship canal and plank road. The highway part of the project materialized in part. In volume 46 of the Ohio laws is chronicled an act passed January 28, 1848, incorporating the Lorain Plank Road Co., with capital stock of $100,000. Its powers com prehended the construction of a plank road from Elyria to JeromesviUe in Ashland County, or to some point between there and Wooster and Wayne county, and the charter in cluded all rights and provisions of an act incorporating The Lorain and Richland Plank Road Co. passed two years previously when the idea first took form. A plank road was built and fees charged for its use, as a source of earnings on the investment. A newspaper item insinuated that a certain prominent man of the period, was so "tight" that he would drive nearly up to the toll gate 82 NAVIGATION TO THE LAKE and hitch his horse to the fence, making the rest of his journey on foot to save paying tolls. Pedestrians were evi dently allowed to travel the plank road free of charge. In tile charter for this project no mention appears of the Elyria-to-Lake Erie canal. That part of the plan for civic expansion seems to have been forgotten. That was almost three-quarters of a century ago. Per haps this committee has not yet reported on the canal part THE DREAM OF THE PIONEERS of the ambitious program, and it commences to look as though it never will, unless some good spiritualistic me dium can establish a wireless communication "to another, and, we hope, a better world." At that these committees were not much more dilatory than some in action or rather inaction nowadays. 83 EARLY ELYRIA But how curiously time deals with us all! Mighty Milan seventy-five years ago, held up for Elyria's inspira tion is since fiallen into innocuous dessuetude, and is now known to fame only as the birthplace of Edison. It is the historian's idea that the canal project which was to make Elyria a lake port was probably abandoned be cause some local sage foresaw that in time big business would discover the Lorain port, and the dredging attending its industrial development would eventually extend the channel up to Elyria without the necessity of building a canal. It seems to be on the way and if it doesn't come fast enough we can revive the canal of Elyria's fathers — or perhaps all that will be necessary will be to widen and deepen the 1847 canal. Meanwhile the little Blajck River settlement which became Lorain, has on the other hand developed into a condition of obnoxious disquietude and assumes to joust with Elyria upon terms of comparative equality — and even superiority in the relatively unimportant matter of mere size. Lorain has much lamented that when she develops, Elyria develops with her, and when she dredges she dredges alone, the meat in the cocoanut of her discontent being that men employed in the industries drawn thither by the Black River port, very often prefer to live in Elyria and while Elyria therefore frequently profits in population from the better paid portion of these industrial additions, Lorain city bonds have been issued to take care of the cost of harbor improvements. This, a disinterested observer might incline to concede, is a bit unfortunate for Lorain or perhaps particularly fortunate for Elyria. However since the gifts of the gods were bestowed prior to and irrespective of corporate boundaries and inas much as Uncle Sam has done more for the improvement of 84 NAVIGATION ON THE LAKE this port than the Lorain corporation, its benefits should not be too closely circumscribed. We have heretofore called attention to the fact thai Black River comes from Elyria before it goes to Lorain, its waters being generously plassed on from Elyria to Lo rain without money and without price, and endeavored to make our neighbors in all reason to realize that, if Elyria furnishes the water, it is only fair Lorain should furnish the channel and the necessary improvements thereon. The discussion of this matter was, on the part of the Elyria newspapers marked by a restraint becoming to the civic gentility of the town, yet upon reading the files at some distatit date, anybody might regard some of our utterances as unnecessarily disputatious. This im pression would come from lack of knowledge of the sit uation, particularly of the fact that Lorain always started the argument, or if not starting it, maintained a readiness for retaliation almost amounting to rudeness. In Elyria's hundredth year a long controversy was precipitated between the two cities because Elyria proposed to build a boulevard, making an easy line of communication to a new industrial center projected at South Lorain. Such a highway wlas violently opposed by Lorain's chamber of commerce and Lorain newspapers, it being evidently deemed desirable not to have the ave nues of escape from Lorain too easy — which may be more foresighted and prudent than it is neighborly. In the meantime nobody within Elyria's gates is likely to be confused as to the purpose in this matter to facilitate connection with Lake Erie and not particularly with Lorain, which has not been too difficult of access con sidering our electric and steam railways, improved motor roads and the unlimited highways of heaven for the rap idly developing science of aerial navigation.. Then if all 85 EARLY ELYRIA other lines of communication fail there is still the primitive stream with which the history and future of both cities are interwoven. Black River, which while possibly not accomodating vessels of such heavy draft as the Ceinal might, is navigable for craft not drawing too much water. The river runs that way, just as the author of this volume pointed out in the Elyria Republican some years since in the following verses: Away, way down Below the town Afar from toil And trades' turmoil And shops and strife and busy throng. Black River's placid water winds It's peaceful way along. It seems it should turn back some day Still on it iflows the other way. 86 And when one sees The willow trees. That ride the breeze In graceful ease And birds that sing in sweet refrain. It seems the stream to Heav'n should lead Instead of to Lorain, It seems toward Heav'n it's course should lay But on it flows, the other way. tiistoricd Qenerd iities THe Gentlemen from Gnadenliutten The history of Lorain county published by Williams Brothers, of Philadelphia, in 1879^ under the heading of "Tbe Moravian Missions," contains the statement that these missionaries made the flrst settlement at the mouth of Black River in 1787. This is not correct. The settlement was about six miles up from the mouth of Black river, north of Elyria, a short distance below the first "riffle" or rapids in the river. The mission ary party was under the leadership of Rev. Zeisberger/. Zeisberger, the missionary, had established hijnself at Gnadenhutten (in Tuscarawas county,) but was ordered away to Detroit and during his absence from Gnadenhutten, the Indians of his mission were cruelly murdered. He afterwaids 1( •cated at Sandusky, but for some reason there wag more or less opposition to his presence there, and he left and for a time '.ook up his abode &i Pettauotting, at the mouth of Huron river, and from there moved to Cuyahoga, a point in Independence town ship, known as Pilgrim's Rest, but their stay at that place was only tem porary. Tho land they tilltd was not of tbe best quality and was sub ject to overflow by the river In view of this fact it was decided to look up a more favorable locality and accordingly Zeisberger sent three of his converted Indians to explore the bottora lands of Black river. They started through the woods from their mission westward, and when they reached Black river they met & small band of Tawa Indians, who told them that there was a piece of cleared bottom land some distance down the rivFT. So they constructed a bark canoe and paddled down the stream and found the land described by the Tawas, and after looking it over, returned to the mission, Zeisberger kept a diary of all the events in his work among the Indians, which gives an account of their preparations to leave, some go ing by canoes on the lake and up the rlver,and some through the woods on foot. We quote from his diary: "April 24, 1787. We turned from the way along the lake, going somo miles through the bush (the woods) straight to our place, and whea w« 88 THE GENTLEMEN FROM GNADENHUTTEN came to our crer-k (Black Rivtr) where we wished to go we found our selves en a high hill from y/hlch down to the plain we could overlook the whole country, as if i(t were a beautiful, pleasant garden. We went from there across the land, pleased with everything we saw. We found it Just as the brethren had described, and even better, for there is almost as much clear land as we shall need We encamped near the creek (Black River), which is deep and thus far no strong .stream, for the lake checks it a little further up; just above us, the stream begins. In the evening Samuel, the only Indian brother with us, went fishing, and ha,d in a short time, more fish than we could use. They are a sort of pike, which now m this season go in great numbers from the lake into the creek. The distance from this point to the mouth of the creek at the lake is about six miles. The next day our party who went Dy water along the lake, reached us by canoes, coming up the stream." * • « The Indian settlements along Black river .late far back, possibly thousands of years. The proof of this is in the numerous garden spots mostly on the east side of the river. These were all densely covered with large timber when this section of the country was settled. They extend from the mouth of the river up to White Spring at Foi-t Lot. There are probably from 300 to 500 acres of it in all This black soil was. originally muck and was obtained in the swamps along North ridge, and some was gathered up along the river, for it has shells in it. The depth ia from six to eighteen inches. Indians made buckets of tbe skins of deer and other animals and probably used them to carry the soil. With these indifferent convetiiences it must have taken a long time to cover an acre to the depth of a foot, especially when they had to curry the muck up a steep euihankraent from the river bottom. In some places the gardens were laid out in squares and where the land was cleared the line of muck could be plainly seen, it being much higher than the clay soil not covered. Before the whites came among t,he Indians they grew corn. Later on the BYeneh and Indian missionaries furnished them beans, peas, beets) carrots, pumpkins and other vegetables. They also :nade sugar. The large number ot interesting stone Implements taken out of mounds and picked up on the fields along the river and the lake shore prove that the places were occupied by different tribes. It being good fishing along Black river and the lake shore, it probably attracted the red men from other quarters, and the river bottom, uo doubt, was good hunting ground. 89 A Daug'hkter of Spring'field Many Elyrians used to be taught in their school days, that Elyria was named after Maria Ely, wife of Heman Ely, whose surname and the last syllable of her first name formed the liquid symphony by which this garden spot of the world is designated. Hon. George H. Ely, ex-state senator and grandson of the founder, has once or twice taken occasion to point out that this was not true, the first Heman Ely's wife not being named Maria, anyhow. "Elyria" was in reality a modification of the European name "Illyrla," just as Lorain county was also christened after the French province of Lorraine. It is a mysterious ordinance of destiny, that in the great world war some Lorain county boys have been fated to lay down their lives upon the soil of Lorraine — fighting in a sense for both the new Lorain and the old Lorraine. These names, therefore, have an ancient and honorable standing in the geographical lexicon as well as more modern historical luster. A» applied to this locality, they suggested themselves to the founder through his early travels in Europe before he went into the founding business. His clan, of course, did not originate in that part of the world, but was, in fact, one of tbe oldest New England families before extending its ramiflca-^ tions here. In a letter to the Elyria Reporter in 1899. Archer H. Shaw, a graduate of Elyria's schools, now an editorial writer on the Clev^and Plain Dealer, points out that a Massachusetts city is really parent to Ely ria. Shaw's article follows: "Elyria is the legitimate child of Springfield, Massachusetts. On one of the principal streets of this city is standing today the tavern built about 1665 by Nathaniel Ely, the great-great-great-grandfather of Heman Ely, the founder of Elyria. Across the Connecticut river in a village called West Springfield, is an ancient cemetery whose gate has not been opened for a funeral train for more than a century. Here are the graves of two score or more of the 17tb andlSth century Elys. Small etones of antique shape and strange design mark some of the graves, while others have been unmarked for years There is no semblance of a walk or mound, and the old burying ground, apart from the thickly Inhabited part of the village, is only visited occasionally by curio hunters or the few remaining 90 A DAUGHTER OF SPRINGFIELD local descendants of the old families burled there. Here, too, would prob ably now be resting tbe numerous branch of Ohio Elys, had not Heman Ely early in the present century taken flight to the frontier of the Connec ticut Western Reserve and there laid the foundations for your beautiful city of today. Several other Springfield or West Springfield men accom panied Mr. Bly west, some of whom later returned. Springfield was founded in 1636 and until 1774 Included what is now the village of West Springfield. The two municipalities have always been bound together by a community of interests and in the diays before their Reparation the elite of the place lived indiscriminately on the east or west side of the river as individual fancy dictated. Thus it was that the separation of tbe two towns by the general court of the state In 1774 found some of the Elys in what then became West Springfield, while other families of the same name remained with the larger town on the east side of the Connecticut. .Tustin Ely, the father of Elyria's founder, was one of the former class, and in West Springfield on April 24, 1775, the year after the separation of the towns, was born Heman Bly, who la bet ter remembered today in Ohio than in Massachusetts. The record of the events in Heman Ely's early career shows him to have been a young man of ambitious energy. Justin, his father, was a merchant and a man of means, reckoned by the standards of that day. Early in life Heman Bly turned his attention toward ocean commerce and spent several years in foreign travel. Continental Europe was not then over run with American tourists as it is today and Ely and his companions were everywhere received with marked favor. At that time the Connecti cut River was navigfable to the smaller ocean craft as far as this places and young Ely may have received his great longings for a wider knowledge cf the world from seeing the freight-laden schooners moored close by his father's store. Tn due time Heman Ely returned to Massachusetts, but wan not long content to stay in the small town of his birth. His father had been one of the original proprietors of the Connecticut Western RcBerv* in Ohio under the Connecticut land company, his holding Including town ship No. 6, range 17, where bow Elyria stands. Heman visited Ohio In 1811, going as far as Cleveland and returned; in 1816 he again went and this time visited the site of his future home, Elyria. He made arrange ments for a permanent settlement, contracting for the building of a grist mill, saw mill and a log cabin to be completed by the flrst of the succeed ing year. His third trip to Ohio was in February and March, 1817. On March 17 of that year the party of New BnglanderB forded Black River 91 EARLY ELYRIA and set the stakes for a new city on the frontier. The succeeding history of the enterprise is familiar. But to one raised in Lorain county, and transplanted to the older soil of this city, there is interest in studying the few remaining links that bind together Springfield and Elyria, "Some of those who went to Elyria came back to New England again, while others left their old associations and cast their lot with the new settlement. As I write I havt; before me a copy of an agreement made January 15, 1817, between Heman Ely and one Roderick Ashley of West Springfield, by the terms of which Ashley agreed to go to Elyria, ''to do chopping and other work under the direction of said Ely" for two yeai's from the first of next April Ashley was to be paid $200 a year and |13 a month for work done before April 1, besides being allowed by Ely f.20 for expenses in going to Ohio and board and lodging for his whole period of service. Soon after the fulfillment of this agreement, Ashley returned to this town and engaged in boating on the Connecticut River, dying there in 1878, Presumably other members of the party wen; under similar cir cumstances. It is recorded that the journey to the Western Reserve was accomplished with ox carts, even the now primitive stage coaches not then having extended their lines much of the long overland distance. "Let me say a word in closing about the Nathaniel Ely tavern which was mentioned above. Nathaniel Ely was one of the early immigrants to the Massachusetts Bay colony and after several years residence in Cam bridge. Hartford and other places, came to this town in 16.59 and here six years later he opened "ye ordinary" which stands in tolerably good repair today, I have myself wandered through the ancient structure and noted the low-beamed bar room where Ely dispensed "beere" to his temperate fellowtownsmen 2.30 years ago. The tavern, long after Ely's death, was a famous meeting place for continental soldiers and officers during the Rev« olutlon. It was also one of the few unfortified houses left standing when, in 1675, the town was burncfd by the revengeful Indian warrior. King Phillip." ^ 92 THE OLD ELYRIA WATERWORKS PLANT Ptiblic Utilities The following article was written by Mrs. Lucy P. Williams, (mother of the author of this volume) and originally appeared In the special AVomen's Edition of the Elyria Evening Telegram, September 3, 1911. The remark 1= often made, especially by those who have left th« green hillocks of youth for the valley of maturer years, that they would like to live to see the improvements that will be made in the next cen tury. Perhaps the wish is a natural one since the love of life is one of our strongest points, but It is foolish to w.aste the precious time, la menting the Irrevocable decree. We might better be congratulating ourselves that we cannot be cheated out of what we have had and be glad that we lived before the worl d was so surfeit'ed with wonder.=: that new discoveries fail to surpri se us bsyond giving utterance to the hackneyed crxpression, "What won't they do next?" It has been wisely said that it is only those who have borne the burden and the heat ot the day, who know the blessedness of the even tide. Likewise, it is only those whc have lived before the multitudln- 93 EARLY ELYRIA 0U3 inventions for our convenience and pleasure were even dreamed of, who can fully appreciate the wonderful age in which we are living. The children who are born in this day of progress, cannot experience that degree of wonder and admiration amountiug almost to enchant ment, t;hat the children experienced fifty years ago. The telephone, incandescent lights, motor cars and many other things ec.ually great, are to them part of the accessories of life. They are not regarded as luxuries. They are as much a part of the home as the library tabls or the Morris chair. No wonder children's faces express both pity and astonishment when you tell them that you lived in Elyria before there were any 'Street lights and when mail was not delivered. If one went out on dark nights, they had to take a lantern, which always had a way of castiog its shadow so as to cause one to step into all the muddy places instead of escapiug them. If one wished to mail a letter, one must go to the poBtoffice and attend to it. There were no convenient mail boxes on the corners into which it could be dropped. No tradesmea delivered anything in those days. If groceries were needed, someone took a market basket and went after them. If any thing as weighty as a sack of fiour was purchased, the man of the house or oldest boy, took the wheelbarrow and brought it home. Now, when one can sit in a cushioned chair and have his mail thrown into his lap, settle down to read the morning paper, after spend ing from three to five minutes at the telephone ordering the day's sup plies, it is no wonder that we sometimes hear the exclamation, "How did people live in olden times?" Well, we lived. One can't miss what one has never had, and for this reason, life was much tbe same as it is now. The sun shone just as bright ly; the birds sang just as sweetly; the old, old story was told with Just as much tenderness, the faithful stork made his accustomed rounds, and "Stately silence fied before the pelting of baby laughter." We laid the memorial wreaths on the graves of our loved ones, and went about our daily tasks. We certainly had what the people in this day of unrest do not all possess. We had contentment. It took much less to satisfy children aa well as the grown-ups. I well remember my school days in the little brick school house, which at this writing is still standing as a residence on Chestnut street. The school yard at that time extended to the railroad track. The reward 94 EARLY PUBLIC UTILITIES for being able to answer perfect at the close of the afternoon's session was the privilege of standing at the window to see the cars go past and high scholarships and great sanctity of deportment were necessary to at tain to this honor.* There is no doubt but what we were sometimes troubled with some obliquity of moral vision, and the truth "lingered with in us" iu our eagerness tc enjoy the promised reward for the children who saw Curtiss or Atwood in (h«ir aerial flights, could not give any more ex aggerated account of what they witnessed than could we. Wasn't that train a mile long and the engine as big as a whole house with truly fire spitting out of It just like the Bible picture of the fiery furnace? And didn't that intrepid iireman open a huge iron door and crowd whole trees into thai bed of red hot coals? Talk of th© courage of Shadrach, Me- shach and Abednego It paled in comparison to this stoker's. Well — ^ihere came a time when the public pulse began to quicken, and the village council said ''Let there be light" — and there was light, — lamp posts were placed on the street corners and coal oil lamps were used to illuminate the streets. They were placed rather sparingly at flrst but others were soon added and we had our first real taste of public improvements. The hinges of the old tin lanterns rusted in their sockets and were relegated to the garret. The old lamp lighter with his torch and ladder became a familiar figure and many a little child pressed an eager face against the window and clapped hands in delight at sight of him, for wasn't he just like the old man in the story book, who befriended the little girl, whose only joy in life was to watch him light the lamps? New York, even then may have had its great white way, but it's glare couldn't out-polnt Elyria's Broad street in the bedazzled vision of our sim,ple villagers. The old coal-oil lamps smoked and sputtered and smelled, and "the native hue of resolution was sicklied o'er with the pale cast," but you couldn't tell us the lights were shining brighter any place than here. Thfy only burned until twelve o'clock. What need to have them longer' Honest folk slept nights in those days and tnost everybody was honest then. Of course, private greed tven at this period had its grip on us, for we burned Rockefeller oil in our street lamps, but we had not learned to fear the centralization of wealth and the en croachments of '.nonopoly. As the Lord gave the world Its period of sunshine and brightness before he sent the flood, so the city fathers evolved the system of coal •The author of this book attended sohool In this little building. In the elgrhtles. Where his mother went to school thirty years before him. 95 EARLY ELYRIA oil illumination before they worried about the water .supply. Water svems to have been the last thing thought of in those days in any sense of a public necessity. The luxurious homes of the effete rich had their cisterns and wells, and the humblest cottage had Its rain barrel. There were no germs then. Probably because the wrigglers ind pollywogs ate them up, bur. the old rain barrel, in spite of its prlmltlve- ness, served several useful purposes. Aside from supplying the family with soft water, it made a safe place for the small bny with string and bent pin, to play at firhinfr, or mayhap^ to facetiously immerse the fam ily cat. Cisterns were not only a ¦nrivate, but a public utility, as under the aus pices of the village government extra large father-Blae cisterns were located on the street corners, serving as our only protection ia case of fire. The volunteer firemen worked with muscle and will to pump from cisterns sufficient forcp of water, by means of a hand engine, to subdue the flames. People here today who know no other fire service except that which is rendered bv o'ur automobile-equipped fire department with Lake Erie to back it. have no idea of the significance of a midnight fire as conditions were in Elyria's earlier days. If there ever was a time When patrician and plebean met oa common ground, it was at the vil lage fire. To remain at home, comfortable in bed, in such a crisis, would have been considered a crime. No man, woman or child who could possibly run, ever thought of staying in bed after an alarm of fire was given. The bells rang continuously until everyone was out shouting fire and going in every direction. It may be a lot easier to turn over and feel of the wall to make sure the flames are not very close, or take down the receiver and ask "central, where is the fire"; but it isn't half as exciting. The day came, however, when Elyria outgrew its cistern water supply. and a more abundant source was sought. Being properly encouraged, a family of modest Detroit financiers consented to accept a gracefully worded franchise, entitling them, not only to sell to Elyria Its own river water, but giving to said financiers as well, a clear title to the streets and alleys of the town properly abutting thereon, all its future prospects and the souls of all its inhabitants, even to the second and third generation. It was a beautiful and serviceable franchise and it eventually stood a great deal of wear and tear. In pursuance of its provisions the Detroit people proceeded to dam up the waters of Black River. As the town grew, emptying its sewage Into this stream. Its character as a water supply naturally improved very slowly. Typhoid fever repre- 96 EARLY ELYRIA sented Elyria's normal condition and germs its natural food. The river drained farms, villages, bogs and cemeteries. Its waters represented alike the quick and the dead; but withal, it was not without Its virtues, for when water from this source was played on our gardens and lawns, it served at once for both moisture and fertilizer and when the big fire engine coaxed this muddy fluid out of the mains upon a building, the flames had no chance for they were smothered and burled. When the time came that Elyria needed and demanded a more whole some and abundant water Supply, it had its first real experience In battling with a private corporation in control of its most important public utility. The war lasted for years. Again and again the people voted to heavily bond Elyria to construct a lake water plant, and just as offer were restrained by injunctions and technicalities, until at last they surrendered to Berry Bros, and bought the plant for f 40,000, thus making it possible to con struct the splendid plant which we now enjoy. So extended, a mention of early public institu tions would not be complete withour, reference to the old town clock. Though it hung in -.ho tower of the Presbyterian church, it belonged to Elyria, aud it tolled the time, the hours, the days, the years away. During the period in which we have traced the prog ress and development of some of Elyria's utilities, its companionable old face looked down upon ihe flicker ing nil lamps. Its melodious ringing notes vied with tne old water works whistle in marking the beginning and end of hoursi of labor, aud it endured to see Ely ria reach that pinnacle of progress where electric railroads, electric lights, lake water, natural gas and all the finishing touches of a modern metropolis, were either in operation or in sight. Then, as with other patient public servitors, "The fac-3 though old with a touch of gold," was shrouded in some unknown dark and, like the rest of the old people, its hands were folded and the resonant notes which had marked tim,e for births and deaths, funerals and weddings, and all other Elyria activities, were silenced forever. Even a clock is no match for Time. LUCY P. WILLIAMS. m ;M1 ^'.•(a I'CS??*:-' 97 an %¥no i^ame oae Nearly all Elyrians who leave the town like to come back — and do. This is a sketch of a man who came back, not to live as most of them do who have gone away, but to visit the Elyria of his boyhood, and found instead a new town, inhabited by strange peoples. We reproduce the story here because it covers some interesting historical references, just as it was written by the author of this volume, back in the days when he first started in the pleasant business of writing up the doings of the people of Elyria, their sins of omission and commission, their manifold virtues and achievemients. Here is the story of the Elyrlan who left Elyria in the early forties and came back some twenty years ago, reprinted from the Elyria Republican of October 27, 1898. "Many people have doubtless noticed about tbe Andwur or on the streets this week a portly and elderly gentleman who bore all outward appearances of prosperity and happiness. His dignified bearing and pleasant, full face, encircled by a continuous short white beard, not un like that of Horace Greeley, railed general attention. Inquiry brought out the fact that the stranger was D. DeForest Douglas, a former Elyrlan, who left this city over a half century ago and now returns to visit the home of his boyhood days To a Republican reporter he graciously extended the courtesy of an intervieAv. Having left Elyria in the flower of his youth, he carried away an intelligent in:pression of the county and its people, and now in his seventies, in robust health and well preserved, he is able to speak com prehensively of the Elyria of his day and his reminiscences are most en tertaining He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Douglas, who came to Elyria in ISIS and were contemporaries of the first Heman Ely. His early home was on the Parmelee farm on Lake avenue. For a brief period in his eariy life the family were in Bloomfield, Conn., but in the latter part of 1827 returned to Elyria, where they remained until 1844, and it was during this period that Mr. Douglas formed the asso ciations which he this week returned to renew. To say that Mr. Douglas observes a wonderful contrast between the Elyria of his time and the thriving city of today ia putting it mildly. The place was then a fanning community of several hundred inhabi- i 98 A MAN WHO CAME BACK tants. His recollection goes back to the time when there but three busi ness place's, one kept by H K, Kendall, another by S. W. Baldwin and the third by a man named Gates, all g'eneral stores, Resideijces werf scattered along what are now our business thoroughfares. The site of the Andwur Hotel, where Mr. Douglas has been stopping, was then a vacant lot, owned by his father, who sold it to Artemas Beebe. Thg only building he recalls which is still standing in Elyria is the Repub lican office, which he thinks was built by his father, who was a carpen ter. The physicians of the time were Drs. Strong and Manter. They visited their patients on horseback and carried saddlebags and "turn keys" The latter was a barbarous instrument like a hydrant key with a claw on the end which the doctors used to "twist" out teeth, dentistry being an essential part of their practice in those days. Tbe old red grist mill on the site of the Elyria Milling Co.'s present plant, was built in his time. The smelting furnace which stood untill a much later date on the "Furnace Grounds" was then in operation, and nothing he has since seen has so filled him with wonderment as did these things. On the bank of the west branch of Black river, contingent to where Broad street now ends, stood a saw-mill where black walnut lumber could be bought for ten dollars a thousand and was freely used In all kinds of construction. One of the principal products of the farmers were white oak staves which they hauled to Lorain with ox teams. The roads were so bad at that time that the wheels would frequently sink up to tbe hubs and the trip was always made by several teams together, so that when a team got stuck in bad places all the oxen could be hitched onto tbe one team and pull it out. Arrived at Lorain, there were no ore docks, but the wagons were unloaded at the high banks of the river through a shut© which emptied into the hold of a freight schooner. In the year 1837 the handful of people who made the nucleus of tbe present city of Lorain got a notion that the place was destined to become a bigger city than New York, on account of the magnificent harbor and manufacturing facilities. Accordingly they proceeded to have a "boom." Th«-;y platted all the farms and swamps thereabouts, laid out sites for colleges, seminaries, factories, etc., and real estate changed hands freely. Among others, the elder Douglas purchased a lot, the subsequent history of which Mr. Douglas knows nothing about, but he dryly observed that it was probably still there, 99 EARLY ELYRIA The trip to Lorain then consumed a full day's time and hard work at that. During his recent stay he had the pleasure of going down on the electric line in thirty minutes, looking over the large manufactur ing industries, harbor full of boats, etc., and finding the Avildest dream.^ of '37 still afloat and now bidding fair to be justified in no small degree. The contrast in OberUn was no less striking When as a boy, Mr Douglas took a load of apples over there, which was mercilessly raid ed by the students, wha stole them all, Oberlin was made up of one college building and one boarding house. "When T visited the place the other day and saw the beautiful town and the magnificent college buildings, I felt as one resurrected," said Mr. Douglas. "Elyria people used to toll some funny stories of the college town The students, It was said, lived entirely on mush and milk, and in order that the milk might go as far as possible, the spoons tbey were furnished by thf management, had holes m the bottom." Mr. Douglas could not find anybody hereabouts whom he recog nized. He could recall, however, many prominent names which are borne by numerous descendants, in many instances down to the third and fourth generations. Among others Wells, Boynton, Parmelee, Griswold, GrifTm, Cotton, Van Wormer and Wallace, Philemon Bliss, a resident who afterward went to Missouri and became a member of Congress and supreme court judge and his brother, Albert Bliss, who built what was at that time a fme residence on the site of the W. H. Wooster residence on Middle avenue. The public square, now covered plentifully with shade trees was at that time barren of trees or shrubbery and was enclosed by a high board fence. It was used for all public gatherings and on "general training" and "town meeting" days, when the people would form rings for the country youth to engage in wrestling matches, which would be continued throughout the entire day. These days were looked forward to for months and were participated in by all with a keen zest. Wrest ling was almost exclusively ihe athletic exercise and public recreation of the time. Of course, hunting was generally practiced, but this more as a part of the pursuit of a livelihood rather than as sport. Game of all kinds was plentiful. Mr. Douglas recalls the shooting of a wild t'trkey which weighed thirty-six pounds. During the Harrison presidential campaign of 1840, of which Mr. Douglas, has very distinct recollections, the people covered the square 100 A MAN WHO CAME BACK with large branches of trees brought from near-by forests, and held a public dinner in their artificial grove. During another celebration of this campaign he recalls a log cabin on wheels, which was drawn about the streets by twenty yoke of oxen, to the cry of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," and on the land south of where the court house now stands, a great barbeque was held and an entire ox roasted. The experience of Mr. Douglas was almost as interesting as that imputed to Rip Van Winkle, and in some respects as pathetic. After a aosence of lifty-four years he visited the home of his childhood, now fallen into decay. He searched the neighborhood for the friends of his youth, George Wells, Stanley Parmelee and the other comrades of his boyhood, but all had passed away. It gave him a feeling of sadness. He was, he said, In the words of Holmes, "the last leaf upon the tree." The little log house where he went to school to the young lady who afterward became Mrs. L. D. Griswold, was gone. Opposite, where stood thfc orchard, in which tho boys were wont to seek those delicious apples, is now located the Catholic cemetery. The brook beside it, once to his youthful eyes a veritable Mississippi, alone was left. He attended services in the M. E. church, which occupies land that in his time was a barren pasture. He took a seat pear the door and scanned in vain each person that entered. Not one familiar face was there. The sense of consequent loneliness, of which Mr. Douglas sneaks feelingly, was the same which inspired Moore's words: "I feel as one who treads alone Some banquet hall deserted; Whose lights are fied, V/hose garlands dead. And all but he departed." * * • • • During Mr. Douglas' stay here, as above narrated, one of the very few citizens living, of whom he heard, that he thought was here when he went away, was Uncle Jerry Van Wormer, upon whom he went to call, but unfortunately, he did not find him at home. This was bad luck for Uncle Jerry was probably the oldest inhabitant In town at the time and a kindly and interesting patriarch. He surely should have met Uncle Jerry and Uncle Jerry certainly should have met him. As we cannot now introduce Uncle Jerry to him, however, we are going to Introduce him to you, gentle reader, if you bear with us a bit longer. 101 EARLY ELYRIA Uncle Jerry was so tall, he could, as he crossed the park on his ap proach to the Republican office, step clear over the park rail without mak ing much of a hitch in his stride. He had long, flowing grey whiskers and carried a long staff instead of a cane. In general he tremendously sug gested old Father Time, or some ancient prophet. Of course he was not really a prophet but, as Bud Smith once said of Cal Ensign, you could always tell which way the wind was blowing by looking at his whiskers. Also meet another Smith, Albert Henry, in his forties, business mana ger of the Elyria Republican. Smith was a choleric but hospitable English man, well and favorably known to the older Elyrians, One day Uncle Jerry was sighted coming across the park, "Here comes Uncle Jerry after some exchanges," said Smith. Enter Uncle Jerry, marking time with his staff There were the cus tomary good morning greetings and Uncle Jerry descended upon the news paper exchanges which interested him. He put them under his arm and coughing a bit, remarked: "My, the smoke is thick in here today. Smith, why don't you quit smoking? I haven't smoked in forty years.'' Smith wheeled around in his chair and counted on his fingers. "Let's see, Uncle Jerry, you are about eighty-eight years old, aren't you? Well, I've figured it out that I can smoke for three years yet before I quit and still have as good a record as yours." "Well, it's too thick for me in here," said Uncle Jerry, "I'll be going," He put his exchanges under his arm and started into the hall. "Uncle Jerry!" the repprter called after him, "Did you see that stuff we had in the paper about an old timer, D, DeForest Douglas, being here? He went to call on you but you weren't home." "Yes! Yes!" affirmed Uncle Jerry, "I should have liked to have seen the young man." "Young" Mr. Douglas, be it remembered, was seventy-seven. THE OLD RED MILL As it stood at the East Falls in the Thirties 102 An Old Land Marli When D. D. Douglas visited Elyria, aft er a half-century's absence, there was just one building which be recollected in the business district as standing when he left tbe town. That was the old Elyria Re publican office and shop, which he was un der the impression was built by his own father His memory would put it away back into tbe thirties. yg OLDE PRINTSHOP Certainly it was long the most ancient looking land-mark of Elyria and its time worn and dilapidated appearance sufficiently certified to its antiquity. A former editor, who came from a city where the buildings were big and grand, was shortly after his arrival, approached by a campaign com mittee with a request to decorate for a jollification. The editor cast a re- fiective eye over the front of the building and responded: "I thought that nature had done so much for this building that It would not be necessary for us to decorate." And nature had done considerable but not by way of improvement. The clapboards on the sides had warped and split under sun and storm. The putty bad cracked around the window panes. The "Steam Job Print ing" sign was faded and seamed. In the brick veneer front the mortar had crumbled between courses so badly that some times bricks would fall on a delinquent subscriber. So the building was getting smaller every year. The early history of the building seems to be shrouded in mystery. Once it was used as a doctor's office and, it was said, that during this per iod there was a human body burled in the cellar This was long used as a goblin to hasten the tardy steps of the printing office "devil" when he, went after kindling or coal. It took a lot of coal to keep things going, too, for the plant was oper ated by an antedeluvian steam engine and boiler which on account ot scales in the fines, looseness in the packing and other things, were both very low in efficiency. If the amount of the power delivered had borne any relation to the amount of coal consumed, the rig would have wrecked the press any way, 103 EARLY ELYRIA through overspeeding, for the press was about as old and eccentric as the engine and boiler. Then the spirit of progress invaded the place and it was equipped for electric power. In the editorial columns of the Republican we noted, at the time, the installation of a "new Lundell electric motor" and comr mented as follows: "The motor replaces a boiler and engine which have supplied power longer than the memory of anyone now connected with the business. When It was shut down for the last time at high noon Saturday, it seemed like murdering a superannuated but faithful servant. For many long years that rig has patiently pulled the load. For years the engine has choked and strained like a cow with a straw in her throat and wrestled wih procrastination which was her only sin. For years that boiler stood monumental in its red coat of honest rust. And now in its old age to be supplanted by a persnickerty little shiny motor is truly pathetic. "Pl-ogress is something fierce for it makes no concessions to virtue. That boiler, though the innocent object of many printers swear words, was never herself guilty of profanity. Though a hard drinker she was nev er intoxicated. Day by day she accumulated river mud until the fire box bulged and the steam guage refused to act Every time she wheezed we ran for cover and counted each past throb as a life saved. But at the finish she was guiltless of any blood save that of venturesome fish that came through the city water main. "The occasion demanded appropriate ceremonies. The sporting edi tor recited the lines: "Life's race well run. Life's work well done. Life's crown well won. Let her rest." The "devil" viewed his hands calloused by poker and coal shovel and took up the strain: "Let her rest. She's done her best. Dang her." Then they pulled the monkey wrench off the safety valve and snaked her out in the street. Prostrate on a stoneboat she was dragged away. The rain beat upon her and the north wind blew through her flues. Where she goes nobody knows but that she may find as good society in a more restful atmosphere is our sincere wish." 104 AN OLD LAND MARK Not long afterward the Republican plant was moved to a building erected for the growing business on Second street where the installation of modern machinery and enlarged activities were planned and later suc cessfully developed. Almost any other building of course might lend itself better to growth and prosperity than the old shop but such a record as it had, required three quarters of a century in the making. Within its walls many political plans had been concocted and upon the rickety press it sheltered, numerous Elyria romances had been recorded. Many newspaper workers can be recalled, who served time in this old shop. An important part of the forty years' editorial service of George G. Washburn was put in with the Elyria Republican there. During the time B. G. Johnson, well known to Lorain county until a much later date, was editor of The Rep,ublican, it was located here. Wil liam A. Braman succeeded Washburn and like him an earnest and able writer, edited tbe paper for nearly eight years, with Albert H. Smith act ing as business manager. Ed L. Clough, afterward editor of Cleveland Fi nance and Walter Wardrop, later editor of The Commercial Power Wagon, of Chicago, served a year each as editor, and the mantle finally fell upon 1'. S. Williams, the present scribe and last editor of it, who served as its editorial and business head for some 16 years and finally merged it with The Telegram. H. P. Boynton, afterward editor of the Akron Beacon- Journal, began his newspaper training under the warped eaves of this old building, as did many others in both the editorial and mechanical depart ments, almost included among whom was Charles Lord, who, on Elyria's hundredth anniversary, was still engaged In newspaper work here after forty years of nearly continuous service in this field. Abandoning the old building in July, 1902, moved us to some fare well words, of the tenor of which the following extracts are representative: "As blessings brighten when they take their flight, so now we part from the old home, its numerous associations and its more numerous rats, with a feeling akin to regret. "We shall miss the shady square, the songs of birds, and the dogs sporting on the green, the busy throng around the street-car waiting room, the people who go down the opera house alley, girls of the show or drunks hurrying to the calaboose. And when rain comes we'll feel strange not to be drawing rags through holes in the roof, blanketing our presses or bolstering upi the plastering. Probably on cloudy days we'll have to pour water down each others back in order to feel at home." 105 EARLY ELYRIA Edward Broderick, who was graciously conceded by the editor to be the best poet on the staff at the time, paraphrased the "Old Oaken Bucket" to pay his farewell compliments to the abandoned home, in the following verse: "How dear to our hearts is the shanty we're leaving. This cracked, stained old barn that your grandfather knew, For our park and our birds and our dogs we are grieving And for all those fair passers who brightened our view. The storm-sta,ined old building, our ramshackle home, There's no castle in Spain that seems one-half so fair — And tho through great palaces 'oft we may roam' Our hearts will remember and call us back there. To our dusty old window, our cheery cool window, Our red awninged window that faced on the square.'' Those dingy old windows, what news through them fiew! How many a laugh and how many poor jokes! r There were whittled and pencilied, a place many knew. For a small bit of gossip by good natured folks. How sweet was our shanty, art colored in stains! The shaky old doors, and the creaky old stair. New spick and span quarters our sad hearts disdain. And we long for our window, our grimy old window. Our well loved old window looking out on the square." When the old "Union School" building was torn down in the early nineties the above handsome high school building was erected. at Middle Avenue and Sixth Street. The class of '95 E. H. S., was the first to graduate from here. The class of '95 E. H. S., was the first to graduate from here. 106 % ^ "~^-^ ^ "-> -X. < r^ ^' ^ 1 ' •¦<•' iy( 'f yTT^ ^..^ "M f\ 1'. r iMi ' , \ ^^jS& 1 f4f wi 1 1^ mi^Mi^ y vl » 1? 1 /^^ t 'at:* "j ^^A '^w^^fo^ a^L ^ < ??i'fl* Sw * u^^fe- Im« &«. -ipH- M^&i^ i^ ^^^M^t^£f «H iflji^^^b^ '' mB l^^^l. »4, BtAs «*¦ ¦' 7- ,1 * ?J «i ^JaCZ OLD ELYRIA CITY HALL, BUILT IN 1867. Originally the ground floor was also used for the fire department and the auditorium upstairs was known as the "Elyria Opera House" where many old time actors entertained Elyria folks, A large number of people living here in the centennial year could recall seeing Simon Legree whip Uncle Tom on that old stage aud other important dramatic events of the period. It was also the scene of many picturesque political conventions. 107 THE SNOW OF 1863 Old Time Weatlier The weather, of course, furnished the pioneers with an unfailing topic of conversation. The old people resort to it today even as do the members of the younger generation. We recall hearing one venerable citizen say one mild winter morning: "This reminds me of an old-fashioned winter — about as much thaw ing as freezing." Another said one day: "Winters are not like they used to be. They are not so cold and there's not so much snow." His was the more common viewpoint. The Idea that winters were formerly more severe probably originates in two reasons. One is that many of the old timers come from New England where winters really were more severe than in Ohio and helped perpetuate the tradition. 108 EARLY ELYRIA Another reason was that in the old times heating systems did not at tain their present efficiency and it probably seemed colder indoors in most places. Nowadays the school room is warmed by a modern ventilating furnace system which aims at an even distibution of heat. Forty years ago or more the room would have been heated by a big round stove modeled after the flrst blast furnaces and the direct heat from which almost cooked the little girl in the blue calico gown who sat nearest to it while, over on the far side of the room, a big fat boy shivered in his red fiannels and blew on his fingers to keep them warm. It was largely the same in the houses and stores where, by huddling around the fire, people could keep more than warm but at more remote positions it was not so comfortable. The truth is, the climate is probably not much if any different today than it was a hundred years ago. To be sure in any cycle of years there must have occurred extremes of cold and heat and wet and drouth, but we have them now, taken over a representative period of years. It is doubtful if the pioneers ever saw any hailstones as big as fell in Elyria on July 11, 1900, some of which weighed a third of a pound and measured over 10 inches in circumference. They inflicted great damage to roofs, windows, crops and stock. Less than a decade before our centennial year also, there was as early as November 10th, a fall of snow so deep one could barely see the tops of people's heads over the snow banks across the street, after the walks had been cleared. A WINTER VIEW OP WASHINGTON AVENUE IN THE EARLY SIXTIES In that day this well known residence thoroughfare was "out in the country" so to speak. The bridge shown in this picture was the first one ever erected across the river to the "Point", as it was known in earlier years. It was a wooden structure and went down one day in 1864 with a team and wagon load of wheat upon it, Fred Byington and Dan Gardner were coming to the Red Mill with the wheat but made other arrangements and went into the river with it instead. The young men were not badly injured by the fall, but one of the horses was killed and the accident led eventually to the erection of an iron bridge there, and it in turn was years later replaced by a stone bridge which beautiful structure, like the first one. finally came to a sudden and accidental end, as indicated on the following pages. 109 EARLY ELYRIA. About 1879 or 1880, there was a very heavy snow but if any one would deny that they had some blizzards in earlier years they should look upon the foregoing view, of the snow drifts of 1863. One of the interesting things recalled by the old-timers, of the present day, is the big sleigh-ride party to LaPorte, January 22, 1887, in which sixty sleighs and bob sled loads, Including 900 people, participated, the affair being promoted by John Houghton, the liveryman, to celebrate 50 days of continuous sleighing here, which was undoubtedly the best sleigh- , ing record for Elyria's first hundred years. The thought is suggested that perhaps a greater abundance of trees hereabouts may have kept the snow on the ground longer and contributed to greater periods of sleighing weather than we have nowadays. In all the annals of olden times however there is not recorded any more destructive storm hereabouts than that which swept Ohio in March, 1913, taking hundreds of lives in various parts of the state and infiicting great damage in Elyria as well as elsewhere to bridges, buildings and everything which came in the path of the flood, A substantial and ex pensive portion of the equipment of the local lighting company was washed over the east falls and many thousands of dollars lost in other ways. The fiood was followed by snow and ice whch were likewise quite serious in degree and disastrous in effect. During the fiood the heavy volume of water Riled up below so fast that the altitude of the falls was considerably shortened. •*» ,i 1 WASHINGTON AVENUE BRIDGE DESTROYED BY FLOOD IN 1913 In the following year, 1914, the wrecked structure was replaced by a new concrete single arch bridge. Many people were on the bridge watching the high waters and had only brief moments to reach solid ground when the bridge commenced to yield to the rushing current. THE WEST FALLS After the First Bridge Had Gone CHEAPSIDE IN 1873 >oclal audi Inidnstrial "Keen neen pucka-chee wickie-up," is an Indian sentence meaning "Come with me to the house," At least that is what the writer of this volume, when he was a small boy, was told by his grandfather, whose people settled in what is now Olmsted township in 1815 — before Elyria was settled — and who had himself later mingled with the stoical Sioux in the early days o£ Wisconsin, acquiring tliere some Indian lore at first hand. Although wont to debate all other important matters with him, the small boy accepted at face value grandfather's Indian phrases, be cause he feared, should he start any argument, that grandfather might stop making well balanced arrows for the boy's bow-and-arrow equip ment, this being the avocation which usually started the talk of Indians and the Indian tongue. "Keen neen puck-a-chee wickieup," or something very like It, therefore, when uttered by one hospitable Indian to another, may have sounded the beginnings of social life hereabouts. After the white man come onto the scene, however, changes came very fast in society life for a few years^the war dance gave way to the waltz and the wickieup to 113 EARLY ELYRIA more commodious taverns. Right at the start and for several decades, dancing of any kind, like card-playing, was taboo, but before many years had passed It became a popular diversion. Elyria's social life in the fifties was. In fact, not remarkably unlike that prevailing here half a century later, aside from the increased vogue of card-playing in later times. As the years rolled around each budding circle had its prettiest girl, just for instance as Belle Bronson radiated beauty in Elyria ball rooms in the eighties and nineties and as other "belles" may in the future. Of course there is less social unity now; this is really the only sig nificant change. Where there are many social groups today the social- elect were formerly In one large circle — within its pale the sheep, and with-. out the goats — a distinction which prevailed almost up to the beginning of the twentieth century. We have had more societies each year, social busi ness, fraternal and religious, but the difference is in number, size and scope, rather than in kind. We have, too, more modern mechanical devices to revise our methods and lighten our labors and we smile at some of the conveniences, or rather inconveniences, that early resi dents had to put up with; but these were small matters of no real bearing upon the broad current of life, which in truth, moved much as it does today. Back In the forties there were donation parties for the pastor of the Baptist church, just as they have been held in small communities in much more recent times and we read in Elyria news papers as early as 1841 of a "bazaar and sale of fancy work at the Lorain county court house for the benefit of St. Andrew's church," .¦'ust as we sometimes have bazaars for this and other churches now. ¦Thjera is not much that is really new under the sun, and as a matter of fact, Elyria did not undergo any revolutionary changes in size for many decades A town of a few hundred in the forties, It had only reached 1,600 in 1860. It had a creditable spurt in the next ten years, gaining some 1,400 people by 1870, but the changes It brought were comparatively only a matter of degree and of consequent en largement of institutions already established, rather than innovations. In the next 20 years the city's increase seems to have depended princi pally, if not entirely, on the birth rate, achieving a gain of only 1676, or an average increase of about 75 people per year, so that by 1890 the population was only 5,611. These conditions evidently follow the city's industrial barometer and, while socially the town seems to have enlarged rather than evo- 114 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION luted in any marked degree, the business activities of Elyria have later undergone a radical change, concurrent with which has come corre sponding Increases in population. The really significant change came about the beginning of the last quarter of the town's flrst century, when from without Ton^ Johnson brought a steel plant employing many men to the banks of Black River on the north, and from within, Arthur L Garford started the first of a number of significant industrial enterprises."* These industries contributed to some rapid and substantial enlargements In population and business and have been followed fast by other enterprises large and small, so that the end of Elyria's first hundred years found her with half a hundred manufacturing plants. Its gains in population and accompanying institutions in the meantime were quickly empha sized. Its residences and stores, and churches and clubs, pavements and sewers, modern business blocks, public utilities and transporta tion systems have all kept pace with the same fast lap in the city's development which, In all of these particulars, has made It so distinc tive a period in Elyria's history that it deserves a separate volume by It self. ""Of the Industries which followed, a number of others also, had their beginnings directly or indirectly in the enterprise and energy of Mr. Garford who, more than any other man. Is responsible for the in dustrial development of Elyria and its consequent increased oppor tunities for labor. Outside of Elyria he is probably as well known In a political as in a business way, having been in 1912 tbe Progres sive nominee for governor and two years later for senator, and promi nent in the state leadership of the Republican party before and after the defection of the progressive element. His pep and versatility have kept him on the go, because whatever else he is, he isn't tired or slow. He mixes into every thing in which he needs to mix and sometimes plays with interest the game of politics. And when the Grand Old Party pained all true Progressives' pride by thinking to employ a certain stout man for a guide; when banners of defiance were so fiercely flung on high, and smoke of red rebellion rolled to decorate the sky, he rose in righteous wrath and turned his indignation loose and boosted long and loyally the sturdy old Bull Moose. But now that time has whitened many things which once were black, and reformed and reunited, the G. O. P. is coming back, he does not haste to raise his tones In eager hungry spiel or seek to crib the banquet and consume the fatted veal. His voice again as ever sounds an independant note and urges an Intelligent but free and thoughtful vote. 115 EARLY ELYRIA In the governmental affairs of this time there also have been features in its political life that would lend much ot both Interest and comedy to a book of this period, such for instance as the picturesque administration of Mayor P. D, Reefy or the animated reign of Miss Rose Moriasty in the City Hall. There are plenty of people who could write the chronicles of this important era, for its significant events and aspects are familiar to many who were still young on the town's hundredth birthday, and who could vitalize the record with the intimate tOAich of personal knowledge and association. If he should live until after everybody else is dead, the writer of this volume may even undertake it, for that history is most happily born when written by one who not only has first-handed knowledge, but who also approaches the task after sufficient years have elapsed to afford proper perspective and correct estimates of events and people. It may then be unbiased by any petty piques and prejudices, which may discolor more Immediate ob servations and anyway, if one is going to write up the neighbors at all, it is safest to write at long range. The Lorain County Agricultural Society Is one of the oldest organiza tions of the county and the custom of holding an annual fair at Elyria has been almost continuous since the flrst "meeting" held here Sept, 3, 1832. - . 116 'v;:'-=l^:ni-''^?^- - f • i < *. »y -.4^1^ THE ELYRIA COUNTRY CLUB One of the oldest buildings which "belong" to Elyria is this colonial club house. The Country Club was organized in 1906, but the original build ing was erected many decades before — probably more than a half century. thii The first boats of record on the Canessadooharie or Black River were the birchen craft of the Red Men, Some of these were of con siderable size for hand propelled vessels The war canoe of the party of Indians who brought John Smith up the river as far as the falls, in 17 55, it has been noted, was 3 5 feet long. At one time or another similar Indian craft undoubtedly negotiated the river above the falls, even as the canoes of white men have in more recent years. In fact, later navigation in these waters has been chiefly con- f.ned to campers or youthful fishermen operating above the dams in this city, factory pollution having unfavorably affected the river tor fish life below the town. Most of the year the limited flow also much 117 EARLY ELYRIA restricts the continuously navigable stretches of the stream to the south but at times of heavy rainfall a considerable volume of swiftly run ning water again covers the rocks and shoals of the upper reaches of the river. In the very early years of this twentieth century, canoeists of the Elyria Country club sometimes took advantage of these periods of high water to paddle up towards the " fountain head and see from whence it all came. Of course at such times of heavy flow, it seemed a bit unfortunate to be going south when the waters were going north, but by dint of much paddling and tugging and pulling upon the wil lows around narrow bends in the river where the current was swiftest, the canoeists used to manage to reach points further up stream than white navigators have ordinarily aspired to attain or counted worth the effort. Along in 1905 in a period of particularly high water a trio made such a voyage in an 18 foot canoe The boat was named the Minnehaha the translation of which, "laughing waters," was very appropriate, since the waters might well laugh at the laborious efforts required of the voyagers to stem its rushing tide. The passengers, or rather the crew did not themselves have time to laugh much, they were so busy keep^- Ing the Minnehaha from being washed down to Lorain, instead of going south as; advertised It took from Saturday morning to earlyl Sunday afternoon to get to Nickel Plate, the canoeists spending the night at the Park House, Oberlin, which they were able to reach by the Welling- ton-Oberlln car not far from where they beached their boat for the night: It was desirable to secure accommodations somewhere as the light refreshments they carried were both simple and Insufficient and their bedraggled appearance effectually discouraged any hospitality of neighboring farmers The trousers of one member of the party, Sher wood Anderson, were also torn so badly that it was necessary to pur chase a pair of blue overalls for him In Oberlin, which being many sizes too large made a series of convolutions in the legs resembling the leaves of an extended accordion. At least he satisfied the conventions established by law, which is more than could be said for his attire early on the following morning when he conceived the idea, about four o'clock that it was time to get under sail and awakened the rest of the crew, Starr Faxon and the writer, to tell them about some adventures he had in Clyde, Ohio ,in his early boyhood Threats and reproaches failing to restrain him, the bedroom door was bolted when he stepped across the hall to the bathroom and when he returned he found himself lis CRUISING ON THE CANESSADOOHARIE "locked out." Traveling light as to baggage and wearing no paja mas, Anderson dared only to plead softly through the keyhole and not make much disturbance lest he arouse other guests of the house. He was afraid that he would be arrested If he was dis covered at large out there in his original birthday suit, so while he was In exile the peace- loving members of the crew man aged to slip over a little more sleep. Anderson ha^s sinc|B huddled into a writer of high brow fic tion'* and he has peopled his pages with characters encounter ed or suggested in his years In Ohio, but he has never sketched any funnier pictures than he himself presented that night. When the party flnally reached Nickel Plate the forage proved very good but the trip back was made In a heavy rain and windstorm which contributed more to speed than comfort. Only a fraction of the time consumed going up was required anyway, the current carrying the canoe down so swiftly that the principal labors of the crew were directed to dodging overhanging branches and keeping the craft out of collision with submerbged tree trunks. Coming down Is always easier and faster than going up. The trouble with most of us is we find it more comfortable to start drifting down with the current before we have struggled up very far — or as far as we might On this particular cruise the party might by frequent port ages, have worked up a little further, but anyway accomplished one of the longest voyages above the falls in some years — perhaps since the days of Indians and more abundant waters. ACCORDION-PLAITED TROUSERS • Author of "Marching Men," "Windy McPherson's Son," "Wines- burg," "Mid-American Chants." 119 Cascade Par] No exposition of Elyria — past or present — would be complete without mention of Cascade Park, the city's picturesque playground. Cascade Park belongs to the early Elyria, because it wa.? here as soon as the town was — and sooner — and because the primitive forces of nature did more fop it in the beginning than man has since — or can in any future stage of the city's developement, there being some danger, in fact, that he will try to do too much. The rocky crags of this park were the lodestones around which the town was drawn together and its scenic beauty is still the brightest diadem in the crown of civic pride. The original thirty-three acres embraced in the tract were given to tlie city in 1900 by the Ely Realty Co,, but 12 acres have since been added for a play ground by the gift of twelve other citizens, and this land is being improved for recreation purposes under the direction of the present park commissioners, George H, Ely, J, T. Burroughs and P, O, Wilford. An outsider's view of the park is afforded by an illustrated feature article, written by Miss Georgia Bowen of Cleveland for the Sunday Plain Dealer, in 1917, in which the charms of this beauty spot are gracefully presented, in part as follows: "The casual observer driving within the speed limits across the bridge, or even into this park, doesn't really see Cascade, It must be viewed 121 Under the overhanging cliff and table rocks are ideal picnic grounds. Some of tbe most picturesque out looks can be viewed from the auto mobile drive. CASCADE PARK afoot, its crags scaled, its caverns plumbed. And Tom Monroe must be consulted, too. Tom Monroe is the park warden, and he knows Cascade in every nook and crevice— its history, its geology, its soil, and trees and birds, its never-ceasing wonders. There are hosts of bird houses here and there — all the work of the warden — and even the most hardened of birds'-nest pirates would not molest one of them or even be tempted. So well are they protected that even the most timid songster shows no fear. The warden says that as many as 104 different kinds of birds have been enumerated in the park. When all the world thinks only of self and heaping on more logs to brighten the family hearth, Tom Monroe, hip-booted and mufflered, wades into the park each day to .feed the hibernating birds and squirrels and chipmunks. "Cascade Park Is a mass ot great awe-lnsplrlng crags, piled one on top of another In broken stratification, cleaved, lashed, uncertain hanging in midair by a pivot of sandstone, eroded there into a mere cap on the top of the waters — a vast soul-stirring history of the fight between Devonian rocks just shot up above the prehistoric seas by internal upheaval and the counter attack of the glacial ices which retarded the new formations and left when they subsided an absolutely changed physiognomy. Leaving scientists to calculate the millions and millions of birthdays Cascade Park has had, and to what geologic period Its formations belong, the average visitor is content just to wander through the welcome cool of its caverns, to listen to the music of its waterfalls, harmonizing with the songs of Its scores of birds, to gaze awe-wrapt at the great toppling bowlders and to wond«r at the force of the Ice «heet that left its markings so dis tinctly in the stone, and imbedded a tree in the gigantic mass of sandstone, where it has petrified, its bark forming visible and well defined strata not at all like the encasing rocks. "From this point which is one of the notable features of the park, one can scramble up the heights and look far o£f across the country. This is Lookout Point, the highest peak of these boulders, placed like some alien thing In an otherwise flat country. From here is a fine view of the two branches of the river which meet and tumble over the precipice in a beautiful, tumultuous cascade which comes to rest so majestically with such a dead calm in the basin, as if the waters were merely pausing to gather Impetus to go bubbling over the rocks farther down the course. "Lookout Point and an adjacent rock almost as high forma what is I.? called Camel's Hump, and the name fits it well. Across the Black River is what looks like an untrammeled forest — Ely woods, so called be- 123 EARLY ELYRIA cause of the founder of the city and owner of the piroperty. It is a wonder ful panorama that Is revealed — one which one might travel miles to see and consider the journey well worth it. Perhaps the three rocks, gigantic guardians of the channel into the basin, might tell something of the erosion, the upheaval, the ice torrent, and floods accountable for this beautiful spot, but they emulate their name-sake, the Sphinx, and keep their secret buried deep behind their glacial scratched surface." Tom Monroe, faithful park warden, named above, was not the first to hold that happy stewardship, J, E. Gray deserving kindly mention, for Gray first served In this position for many years, performing innumerable tasks in the way of making the beauties of the park accessible to visitors. He also contributed some land to the project. By way of proper distribu tion of the credit, it should bo said that public gratitude for the park belongs to the original donor, the Ely Realty Company, the flrst park board, including Atty. J. H. Leonard, and to a considerable list of citizens who contributed to the first Improvement funds, but more particularly among these, to Hon. William G. Sharp and Professor F. S. Reefy, who not only served on the original park board, but gave much time and energy to the first promotion and subsequent development of the project. , Professor Reefy was editor of the Elyria Democrat and no worthy cause lacked for support in his columns. His activity In behalf of the Cascade Park project was only one of many manifestations of a large love and intimate knowledge of nature, which becomingly adorned his kindly soul. Hon. William G. Sharp was in turn, attorney, congressman, and manufacturer of charcoal iron and wood alcohol, with astronomy for a hobby. Since the days of his service in behalf of the park, he has also become more widely known, outside of the home circle, as America's war ambassador to France, succeeding in this positioii Myron T. Herrick, who though not exactly an Elyrian was born In the neighboring township of Huntington. Now Herrick, being born here in the county of Lorain, there . , seemed a hope his equal could be found o'er here again. When Wilson picked out WUliam Sharp we all endorsed his choice, for silver tongued diplomacy well marked our neighbor's voice. We're glad that he won such a high ambassadorial post, believing him top notcher in the diplomatic host. And if we're done with .flghting, it is likely he will show, us clever little wrinkles by which things again may grow. He'll have us using charcoal 124 CASCADE PARK turning iron into pigs, and making alcohol from chairs and little willow twigs. At night he'll wise us up about the planets such as Mar^ iand show us with a telescope the secrets of the stars. THE WEST PALLS When the Water is Running High A youth and maid together strayed Into the park by the cascade. Around where these young people stood Among the leaves a soft wind cooed And cheerily the maiden wooed. The youth, did too; Now wouldn't you? Mischievous air, which thus did dare To brush the cheek of one so fair. But recklessly it toyed and played With those blond locks of that young maid, And to her lips its homage paid. The youth did too; Now wouldn't you? CASCADE PARK IS NOW A WHITE MAN'S 'HAPPY HUNTING GROUND' "The learned is happy Nature to explore, the fool is happy that he knows no more." — Pope. A NEW DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE Somehow that darn ole sparrers' song Ain't satiafyin' me, I want to hear The gray klUdeer An' little rock pewee. I guess I'll leave the other folks To run this busy ranch, An' I'll away This merry day A splasbin' down West Branch. THE LORAIN COUNTY COURT HOUSE The beautiful colonial court house built in 1828 was torn down in 1880 and the above building eroited in Its stead. After nearly forty years this one was in excellent repair and looked like a new modern build ing on Elyria's hundredth anniversary. The Woman Who Waits Marvelously young and fair, full of the grace That marks the splendour of an ancient race A woman stands alone near by the public square, And few among the many passing there, Deign her a mom.ent's notice tho her hand, Outstretched asks something for her chosen land. Her head, held proudly, is quite bare; the wind is chill, Yet weary hour by hour she waits there, still Unnoticed — ^homeless, blind; with yet a trust That man will turn to her from strife and lust. Patient she waits, for well she knows her land's Best hopes are resting In her outstretched hands Alone—unseen! the wind sweeps chill along the squares And very thin, tho regal Is the gown the woman wears, Blind tho she is, we know how she is keeping The welfare of our city — our country — ^whlle we're sleeping Elyria pays small notice because we think she's hom.e, Our golden Goddess Justice up there upon the doime. 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