OHIO STATEWIDE FILES  OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 81
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OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 81

Today's Topics:
  #1 Bio: Marvin Kent - 1885 - Portage    [Betty Ralph <bralph@HiWAAY.net>]

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Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 14:39:53 -0600
From: Betty Ralph <bralph@HiWAAY.net>
To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <2.2.32.20000229203953.00997d5c@HiWAAY.net>
Subject: Bio: Marvin Kent - 1885 - Portage Co, OH
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Bio:  Marvin Kent - Portage County, Ohio, from "History of Portage County,
Ohio" published by Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885

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MARVIN KENT, projector and ex-President of the Atlantic & Great Western
Railroad (now New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad), was born at Ravenna,
Portage Co., Ohio, September 21, 1816.  His father, Zenas Kent, was a joiner
and carpenter by trade, who, when a young man, made the acquaintance of
Capt. Herman Oviatt.  He discovered in Mr. Kent business qualifications of a
very high order, and in 1815 he induced him to engage in mercantile business
at Ravenna.  The executive and financial ability which Mr. Kent displayed,
coupled with enterprise and methodical management of his affairs, soon
placed him in the front rank among the reputable and successful business men
of northern Ohio.

It was in his father's store that young Marvin Kent received his first and
most valuable instruction in correct business methods and habits.  Up to the
age of nineteen his time was divided between his father's store and the
schoolroom wherein he combined, in the acquirement of a knowledge of books,
a practical knowledge of business and dealings with men.  He received such
education as was afforded at Tallmadge Academy, under the instruction of
E.T. Sturtevant, A.M. Principal, and Claridon Academy, under the instruction
of Rev. Sherman B. Canfield.  In his nineteenth year his father entrusted
him with the purchase of his spring stock of goods, and for this purpose he
visited Philadelphia and New York, with special instructions to buy on his
own judgment, and to disregard the advice tendered by others, relative to
the investments had in contemplation.  His father was pleased with his
purchases and the business sagacity displayed by his son.  The year
following his becoming of age, Marvin became associated with his father in
mercantile business, at Franklin Mills, Ohio (now Kent), but he soon
relinquished this, by reason of the precarious condition of his health, and
assumed the management of a tannery, in a building erected by his father and
Capt. John Brown (of Harper's Ferry notoriety).  While thus engaged he was
married to Maria, daughter of the late Col. William Stewart.  He conducted
the tannery for some time, with success, and in 1844 returned to mercantile
pursuits, becoming, at the same time, largely interested in the manufacture
of flour.  In the latter business he continued without interruption for
about twenty years.

In 1850 in company with others he engaged in the manufacture of
window-glass, at Franklin Mills, and erected and placed in successful
operation extensive works.  It was during the same year that he entered upon
the most important enterprise of his life, and which secured to him a
business reputation coextensive with the inauguration and completion of a
great public transportation route between the East and the West.  He
devised, planned and projected, in 1850, the Atlantic & Great Western
Railroad, designed to connect the Erie with the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad,
thus forming a grand trunk line, with uniform gauge throughout, from New
York to St. Louis.  In 1851 the necessary legislation was procured, but in
order to secure the charter he was obliged to subscribe for the full amount
of stock required by law for the organization of the company, as well as to
indemnify some of the first Board of Directors for the payment of one share
subscribed by each to render them eligible for election, which fact
furnishes a significant illustration of the want of faith in the success of
an undertaking of that magnitude at that time.  The organization of the new
company was completed, and Mr. Kent made its first President.  The position
he filled with a success characteristic of his great business tact, energy,
and ability, until the final completion of the road in 1864, save an
interval of three years.  On the 21st of June, of that year, he had the
proud satisfaction of looking back over many years of unremitting labor and
anxiety at last crowned with success, and also of driving home the last
spike in the last rail.  In his maiden speech on that occasion, he referred
to the fact that on the fourth day of July, A.D. 1853, he broke ground for
the new road, by removing the first shovelful of earth with his own hands.
There were none then to withhold from Mr. Kent a most generous compliment
for the completion of this road, which, uniting the Erie and Ohio &
Mississippi Railways, formed a grand continental line from New York to St.
Louis.  The construction of this road encountered, perhaps, more obstacles
and greater opposition than any other in the country.  Yet Mr. Kent showed
himself equal to any and every emergency, and with heroic faith and one
purpose, he made a success possible and victory a verity.  The "Portage
County Democrat," of June 3, 1863, contained this truthful tribute:

"The location of the shops at Franklin Mills is doubtless due to the
position and influence of Marvin Kent, Esq., the President of the road, who
resides at that point.  If any man ought to be gratified and benefited by
the locations of the shops it is President Kent.  He was not only the early
friend of the road, but if we are correctly informed, he originated the idea
of its construction.  In carrying forward this great improvement to its
completion, he has toiled and struggled obloquy.  While others hesitated, he
stood fast; when the faint-hearted turned aside, he persevered with
unfaltering nerve and courage; when timid friends forsook, he succeeded in
raising up other friends, and in attracting capital to this great work; and
thus, with a patience, a courage, and assiduity, and unswerving fidelity to
a single aim that reaches the point of real heroism, has he held on his way
through twelve laborious years of fluctuations, vicissitudes, and
uncertainties, neglecting or abandoning his private business, pledging or
imperiling, or at least casting into the hazard of success, his large
private fortune, for the benefit of his cherished enterprise.  And yet he
has labored all this time without general appreciation, the select few more
intimately associated in official relations with him only knowing and
appreciating his trials and his toils.  But it is time the man to whom more
than to any other the county in indebted for its great and leading road
should be understood and appreciated, owes to Marvin Kent, a debt of
gratitude.  He is to be congratulated on the success which the intelligence,
the ability, and the fixed and resolute purpose which he has brought to bear
on the enterprise, have accomplished.  Who, under these circumstances, can
grudge to Mr. Kent the location of the extensive machine-shops in the place
of his residence?  Who more than he, and what community than the one favored
by his residence among them can be more entitled to the benefit?"

Upon the successful completion of this road, Mr. Kent substantially retired
from active business, to the enjoyment of private life.  Upon the death of
his father in 1865, he became his successor as President of the Kent
National Bank, which position he has held ever since.  In October, 1875, he
was elected State Senator from the Twenty-sixth District of Ohio, and he
served his constituents with credit and ability.  Mr. Kent is a gentleman of
varied experience and of varied business qualifications - equally capable as
an engineer or as financial manager to conduct a great public work.  He has
remarkable tenacity of purpose, and once resolved as to the value of an
enterprise, no ordinary obstacle can prevent him from carrying it out.  He
is a man of liberal views and generous impulses, and has in a great variety
of ways aided in advancing the material welfare of those among whom he
lives.  He has been a generous promoter of every business enterprise in the
city of Kent, which bears his name.  There are enduring monuments of his
public spirit on every hand in the community in which he lives, such as
public and private edifices, business blocks, mills and factories, and about
them all there is an evidence of permanency and durability, of exactness in
details, and adaptability to the uses designed.

As an evidence that Mr. Kent has been disposed to serve himself last, he has
just completed one of the most elegant and palatial private residences in
northern Ohio.  Within and without there are evidences of a cultured taste
in art and adornment, but never at the expense of utility and the every-day
uses of domestic life.  Mr. Kent has in every respect been a successful man,
and prominent among the secrets of that success are untiring energy,
methodical methods of work, and strict integrity.


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End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V00 Issue #81
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