COLUMBIANA COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY PART 12 (published 1898)
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HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO, By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898

                        TRAVELING NOTES
        May 2. -Came to-day from Martin's Ferry by rail through the valley
to East Liverpool, passing Steubenville; returned at 8 p.m. to
Steubenville. East Liverpool lies on undulating ground well elevated from
the river and only two or three miles from that giant State, Pennsylvania.
The potteries are somewhat scattered; some by the river bank; some on the
second level near the high valley hills.
        The town is open, the buildings scattered, the streets wide and
airy; one is named Broadway. A certain quarter, on a side hill, consists
mainly of dwellings and being away from the observation of strangers, bears
the eccentric appellation. "Seldom Seen," so I was told, for by me it was
"Never Seen."
        The ride up the river was attractive, for from Steubenville one
passes through several pottery villages as Calumet, Toronto, Walker's etc.
This part of the valley is a hive of industry for the manufacture of what
are called "clay goods." The development of this industry is enormous; it
is estimated that of white ware alone E. Liverpool produces one-third of
all manufactured in the United States; Trenton one-half, leaving only
one-sixth to the scattered establishments elsewhere.
        Of white ware Knowles, Taylor & Knowles produce twice as much as
any other two companies in the country. Beside the 500 hands employed under
cover in their works they have 700 men in their pay in the country. They
use fifteen tons of clay daily and turn out a crate of ware every ten minutes.
        The shades of evening were over the valley when I boarded the cars
for Steubenville. The scenery was impressive; the broad curving river and
the bold lofty hills misty in the deepening shadows of the coming night
loomed up almost alpine, their summit lines and forms in continuous change
by the changing position of my lookout from the cars, now elongated and
then massed as in peaks. Surely no scenery could surpass it in grandeur. I
remember nearly forty years since going through the same region in a
steamer with the mother of the gifted Margaret Fuller, the Countess
D'Ossoli; Margaret was said to have been not only the best
conversationalist of her time but to have the magnetic faculty by her
speech to so stimulate the talking powers of any ordinary mortal as to
astonish listening relatives to discover that "our Jack" or "Dolly"
-whichever it was -knew so much.
        Willis said "nature uncorks her champagne twice a day, morning and
evening." Then shade darkens into shade in infinite gradation, while the
high lights on the distant water of the mountain summits attract with a
power of beauty akin to Divine truth on the heart of man. On that long ago
passage up the river it was towards the close of a day in early June that
we sat on the upper deck and drank in the beauty of the upper Ohio. From
the continual changes in the valley the river came under the eye as a
succession of beautiful lakes bordered with grassy meadows and softly
sloping wood-crowned hills.
        Just above Steubenville, on the West Virginia side, is a spot known
as the Englebright or Half Moon farm, which is greatly admired. It occupies
a broad expanse of meadow land a mile and a half long in the shape of a
half moon, with the river on the west making the inner curve, while lofty
hills frame the outer convex line.
        Cole, the artist, in his youth, nearly seventy years ago. lived in
Steubenville. He made studies of the Ohio river scenery and introduced it
largely in his pictures, notably in his celebrated series. "The Voyage of
Life." He was early famous for his exquisite paintings of our autumnal
scenery, and took some specimens to England. The English critics, who knew
nothing of the glories of our forests at the season, their own being devoid
of any such brilliancy of hue, pooh-poohed at his pictures as untruthful
and farcical.

        In traveling through the West one often meets with scenes that
remind him of another land. The foreigner who makes his home upon American
soil does not at once assimilate in language, modes of life, and current of
thought with that congenial to his adopted country. The German emigrant is
peculiar in his respect, and so much attached is he to his fatherland that
years often elapse ere there is any perceptible change. The annexed
engraving illustrates these remarks. It shows the mud cottage of a German
Swiss emigrant, now standing in the neighborhood of others of like
character, in the northwestern part of this county. The frame-work is of
wood, with the interstices filled with light-colored clay, and the whole
surmounted by a ponderous shingled roof of a picturesque form. Beside the
tenement, hop vines are clustering around their slender supporters, while
hard by stands the abandoned log-dwelling of the emigrant-deserted for one
more congenial with his early predilections.
        The preceding paragraph is from our original edition. This Swiss
cottage was in Knox township on the old State road about sixty rods west of
the Mahoning, and near the site of a Switzer cheese factory. This township
was settled by Swiss and is noted for its manufacture of Switzer cheese.
        On our first appearing in this county we unexpectedly came across
this unique structure, when we alighted from old Pomp and made a pencil
sketch for this engraving. On our second appearing we learned it had stood
up to within a few years; and as there is, alas! nothing permanent in this
world, gone too must be that feeding curly tailed specimen in the
foreground, whose sole business and high pleasure in life was to eat, grunt
and grow fat; his usefulness to our kind coming when he should no longer
eat but be eaten.
        WELLSVILLE IN 1846. -Wellsville is at the mouth of Yellow creek, on
the great bend of the Ohio river, where it approximates nearest to Lake
Erie, fifty miles below Pittsburg and fourteen from New Lisbon. It was laid
out in the autumn of 1824 by William Wells, from whom it derived its name.
Until 1828 it contained but a few buildings; it is now an important point
for the shipment and transshipment of goods, and does a large business with
the surrounding country. The landing is one of the best, in all stages of
water, on the river. This flourished town has 1 Presbyterian, 1 Episcopal
Methodist, 1 Reformed Methodist, and 1 Disciples church, 1 newspaper
printing-office, 1 linseed-oil and 1 saw-mill, 1 pottery, 1 raw-carding
machine, 1 foundry, 16 mercantile stores, and in 1840 had a population of
759, and in 1846, 1,066. The view, taken from the Virginia bank of the
Ohio, shows but a small part of the town. About a mile below, on the
river-bank, in a natural grove, are several beautiful private dwellings.
The "Cleveland and Pittsburg railroad," ninety-seven miles in length, will
commence at Cleveland and terminate at Wellsville, and whenever built will
tend to make Wellsville a place of great business and population. A survey
for this work has been recently made, and there is good prospect of its
being constructed. -Old Edition.
        Wellsville situated on the Ohio river, at the confluence of Little
Yellow creek, forty-eight miles below Pittsburg, on the P.C. & W.R.R.
Newspapers: Evening Journal, Independent, Edward B. Clark, publisher;
Union, Republican, F.M. Hawley, publisher; Saturday Review, W.B. McCord,
publisher. Churches: Presbyterian, Methodist, Disciples, Episcopal,
Catholic, and Baptist. Banks: First National, J.W. Reilly, president, James
Henderson, cashier; Silver Banking Company, Thomas H. Silver, president,
F.W. Silver, cashier.
        MANUFACTURES AND EMPLOYEES. -C. & P.R.R. shops, railroad repairs,
95 hands; Wellsville Plate and Sheet-Iron Company, plate and sheet-iron
210; Wellsville Terra-Cotta Works, sewer-pipe, etc., 45; Whitacre & Co.,
wood-turning, 45; Stevenson & Co., sewer-pipe machinery, 5; J. Patterson &
Son, yellow-ware; 32; Pioneer Potter Works, white granite-ware, 87; State
Report for 1887. Population in 1880, 3,377. School census, 1,386; James L.
McDonald, superintendent.
        WALKER'S forty-six miles below Pittsburg, on the Cleveland and
Pittsburg railroad, two miles east of Wellsville and two west of East
Liverpool, is the location of the oldest and most extensive works in
America manufacturing terra-cotta and vitrified clay goods. The works are
built at the foot of the highest bluff on the Ohio between Pittsburg and
Cairo, with a frontage of more than a mile on the river. Here are over 300
acres of land rich in clay and coal, on which are erected factories and
dwellings for operatives. The deposits of clay are said to be the richest
and largest in the Union, yielding a great variety of clays suitable for
fire-brick, sewer pipe, and fancy terra-cotta wares. This great industry
was established in 1852 by Mr. N. U. Walker.
        The place has the advantage of low freightage to all points on the
Ohio and Mississippi. The Cleveland and Pittsburg railroad also runs
through the works, with ample sidings and direct communications with all
main lines running east and west.
        The Ohio "Geological Report" says: Nearly all the river works make
terra-cotta, but at N.U. Walker's the best ware of this district and the
most of it is made. His daily product would amount to twenty-four tons of
ware -about twenty in flues, etc., and four in statuary and finer grades of
work."
        LEETONIA, at the intersection of the P. Ft. W.& C.R.R. and Niles
and New Lisbon R.R., was laid out in 1866 by Leetonia Coal and Iron
Company, of which William Lee, a railroad contractor, was one of the
incorporators,a and from him the village took its name. In 1866 the
post-office was opened and first hotel started. Few places in the State can
show such rapid growth in the same period of time. In 1865 it had but a
single farmhouse; in 1870 a population of 1,800; it now contains about
3,000. Newspaper: Democrat, Democratic, T.S. Arnold, publisher. Churches:
Presbyterian, Methodist, Disciples, Catholic, Lutheran. Bank: First
National, William Smick, president, W.G. Hendricks, cashier.
        MANUFACTURES AND EMPLOYEES. -Cherry Valley Iron Company, pig, bar,
and muck-iron, 360 hands; Grafton Iron Company, pig-iron, 70; Randall,
Rankin & Co., flour and feed; Leetonia Boiler-Works Company, boilers and
bridges. State Report. Population in 1880, 2,552. School census 1886, 948;
G.W. Henry, superintendent.
        COLUMBIANA, sixty miles from Pittsburg, on the P. Ft. W. & C.R.R.
Newspaper: Independent Register, Republican, John Flaugher, publisher.
Churches: Reformed, Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Lutheran. Banks:
J. Esterly & Co., J. Esterly, manager; Shilling & Co., S.S. Shilling, manager.
        PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIES. -Enterprise Works, formerly Columbiana Pump
Works; Eureka Flouring Mills; two bending works, planing-mill, and
extensive buggy manufacturing. Census in 1880, 1,223. School census in
1886, 379; W.W. Weaver, superintendent.
        SALINEVILLE, on Yellow creek and C.P. & W.R.R., sixty-three miles
from Pittsburg. Newspaper: Ohio Advance, J.K. Smith, proprietor. Churches:
Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciples, and Catholic. Bank: Cope & Thompson.
Principal industries: manufacturing salt and coal-mining. Population in
1880, ,302. School census in 1886, 974; William H. Hill, superintendent.
        EAST PALESTINE, formerly called Mechanicsburg, was incorporated in
1875. Newspapers: Valley Echo, Independent, T.W. & R.M. Winter, publisher.
Reveille, S.H. Maneval, publisher. Churches: 2 Presbyterian, 1 United
Brethren, 1 Methodist. Bank: Chamberlain Bros. & Co. Principal industry:
coal-mining. Population in 1880, 1,047. School census in 1886, 626; G.B.
Galbreath, superintendent.
        WASHINGTONVILLE, on the boundary-line of Columbiana and Mahoning
counties, and on the Niles and New Lisbon R.R., about one and a-half miles
north of Leetonia. It claims a population of about 1,600 people; the main
occupation being coal-mining and coke-burning. The principal mines are
operated by the Cherry Valley Company, of Leetonia. They also operate
between twenty and thirty coke ovens.


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