TUSCARAWAS COUNTY OHIO - HISTORY: County History part 9 (published 1898) *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Submitted by: MRS GINA M REASONER Email: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com Date: August 13, 1999 *********************************************************************** HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe, LL.D., 1898 TUSCARAWAS COUNTY PART 9 NEW PHILADELPHIA, county-seat of Tuscarawas, 100 miles northeast of Columbus, 100 miles south of Cleveland, is surrounded by a district rich in agricultural and mineral products. Cheese-making is a large industry. Its railroads are the C.L. & W. and C. & P.; also on the Ohio Canal. County Officers, 1888: Auditor, John W. Kinsey; Clerk, John C. Donahey; Commissioners, William E. Lash, Robert T. Benner, Wesley Emerson; Coroner, B.D. Downey; Infirmary Directors, Ozias DeLong, J. Milton Porter, Louis Geckler; Probate Judge, John W. Yeagley; Prosecuting Attorney, James G. Patrick; Recorder, John G. Newman; Sheriff, George W. Bowers; Surveyor, Oliver H. Hoover; Treasurer, John Myers. City Officers, 1888: Daniel Korns, Mayor; Israel A. Correll, Clerk; H.V. Schweitzer, Treasurer; H.E. Shull, Marshal; Philip Getzman, Street Commissioner. Newspapers: Times, Democratic, Samuel Moore, editor and publisher; Der Deutsche Beobachter, German, S.R. Minnig, editor and publisher; Tuscarawas Advocate, Republican, J.L. McIlvaine, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 Reformed, 2 Lutheran, 1 Disciples, 1 United Brethren, 1 Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 German Reformed. Banks: Citizens' National, S.O. Donnell, president, Charles C. Welty, cashier; City, W.C. Browne, president; Exc hange (A. Bates), John Hance, cashier. MANUFACTURERS AND EMPLOYEES. -Criswell & Nagley, doors, sash, etc., 12 hands; carriages, etc., 6; Warner, Lappin & Erwin, doors, sash, etc., 8; W.M. Hemmeger & Son, carriages, etc., 7; Sharp & Son, machine shop, 4; Sharp & Son & Kislig, foundry, 3; New Philadelphia Brewing Co., beer, 8; Welty & Knisely, straw paper, 2; A. Bates, harness leather, 3; New Philadelphia Pipe Works Co., water and gas pipe, 125; River Mills, flour, etc., 10; J.P. Bartles & Son, carriages, etc., 7. -State Report, 1887. Population, 1880, 3,070. School census, 1888, 1,384; W.H. Ray, school superintendent. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $345,000. Value of annual product, $375,000. -Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888. Census, 1890, 4,476. The country around New Philadelphia fills one with a sense of magnificence. The Tuscarawas here is about four hundred feet wide, the valley itself from two to three miles wide. The river hills low and with graceful rounding slopes, alternating with forests and cultivated fields. The town site is level as a floor, with broad streets and large home lots. In the vicinity are three salt furnaces, the wells about 900 feet deep. The brines are "40 Salometer test," which is characteristic of the Ohio and Pennsylvania brines. The untied production of these wells is about 75,000 barrels. Bromine is manufactrured at the salt wells, and is more an article of profit than the salt. Large quantities were used in the hospitals in the war time. The fireclay industry, in certain parts of the county, is growing in importance, and the materials are abundant -coal, clay and water. At Urichsville Sewer Pipe Works the clay is fourteen feet thick, under a four-feet seam of coal, in the drift mines there. DOVER IN 1846. -Dover, three miles northwest of New Philadelphia, was laid out in the fall of 1807, by Slingluff and Deardorff, and was an inconsiderable village until the Ohio Canal went into operation. It is now, through the enterprise of its citizens and the facilities furnished by the canal, one of the most thriving villages upon it, by which it is distant from Cleveland ninety-three miles. Its situation is fine, being upon a slight elevation on the west bank of the Tuscarawas, in the midst of a beautiful and fertile country. The view was taken on the line of the canal: Deardorff's mill and the bridge over the canal are seen on the right; in the centre of the view appears the spire of the Baptist church, and on the extreme left, Welty and Hayden's flouring mill. The town is sometimes incorrectly called Canal Dover, that being the name of the post-office. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Moravian, 1 Baptist and 1 Methodist church; 6 mercantile, 2 forwarding houses , and had, in 1840, 598 inhabitants, since which it is estimated to have doubled its population. -Old Edition. CANAL DOVER is three miles northwest of New Philadelphia, on the west bank of the Tuscarawas river, the Ohio Canal, the C. & M., C. & P. and C.L. & W. Railroads. City Officers, 1888: J.H. Mitchell, Mayor; Emanuel Amick, Clerk; Wm. H. Vorharr, Treasurer; John W. Goodman, Marshal; John W. Criswell, Street Commissioner. Newspapers: Iron Valley Reporter, Independent, W.W. Scott, editor and publisher; Tuscarawas County Democrat, Democratic, W.C. Gould, editor and publisher. Churches: 1 German Methodist, 1 Methodist, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Lutheran, 1 Catholic, 1 Moravian, 1 German Evangelical. Banks: Exchange (P. Baker's Sons & Co.), Jesse D. Baker, cashier; Iron Valley (A. Vinton, Stoutt & Vinton). MANUFACTURES AND EMPLOYEES. -Cascade Mills, 5 hands; City Mills, 17; Dover Brewing Co., 4; S. Tooney & Co., carriages, etc., 35; Christian Feil, carriages, etc., 4; Wible, Wenz & Co., doors, sash, etc., 7; The Penn Iron and Coal Co., 75; G.H. Hopkins, iron castings, 12; Sugar Creek Salt Works, 13; Deis, Bissmann, Kurtz & Co., furniture, 95; Dover Fire Brick Co., 30; Reeves Iron Co., 175. -State Report, 1887. Population, 1880, 2,228. School census, 1888, 1,065. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $412,000. Value of annual product, $730,200. -Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888. Census, 1890, 3,373. THE GERMAN COMMUNIST SETTLEMENT AT ZOAR Eleven miles north of the county-seat and eight from Dover is the settlement of a German community, a sketch of which we annex from one of our own communications to a public print. STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND. -In the spring of 1817 about two hundred Germans from Wirtemberg embarked upon the ocean. Of lowly origin, of the sect called Separtists, they were about to seek a home in the New World, to enjoy the religious freedom denied in their fatherland. In August they arrived in Philadelphia, poor in purse, ignorant of the world, but rich in a more exalted treasure. On their voyage across the Atlantic, one young man gained their veneration and affections by his superior intelligence, simple manners and kindness to the sick. Originally a weaver, then a teacher in Germany, and now intrusting his fortunes with those of like faith, Joseph M. Bimeler found himself, on reaching our shores, the acknowledged one whose sympathies were to soften and whose judgment was to guide them through the trials and vicissitudes yet to come. Acting by general consent as agent, he purchased for them on credit 5,500 acres in the county of Tuscarawas, to which the colonists remov ed the December and January following. They fell to work in separate families, erecting bark huts and log shanties, and providing for their immediate wants. Strangers in a strange land, girt around by a wilderness enshrouded in winter's stern and dreary forms, ere spring had burst upon them with its gladdening smile, the cup of privation and suffering was held to their lips, and they were made to drink to the dregs. But although poor and humble, they were not entirely friendless. A distant stranger, by chance hearing of the distress of these poor German emigrants, sent provisions for their relief -an incident related by some of them at the present day with tears of gratitude. POWER OF ASSOCIATED EFFORT. -For about eighteen months they toiled in separate families, but unable thus to sustain themselves in this then new country, the idea was suggested to combine and conquer by the mighty enginery of associated effort. A constitution was adopted, formed on purely republican and democratic principles, under which they have lived to the present time. By it they hold all their property in common. Their principal officers are an agent and three trustees, upon whom devolve the management of the temporal affairs of the community. Their offices are elective, females voting as well as males. The trustees serve three years, one vacating his post annually and a new election held. For years the colony struggled against the current, but their economy, industry and integrity enabled them to overcome, every obstacle and eventually to obtain wealth. Their numbers have slightly diminished since their arrival, in consequence of a loss of fifty persons in the summer of 1832, by cholera and kindred diseases, and poverty in the early years of their settlement, which prevented the contracting of new matrimonial alliances. Their property is now valued at near half a million. It consists of nine thousand acres of land in one body, one oil, one saw and two flouring mills, two furnaces, one woollen factory, the stock of their domain and money invested in stocks. Their village, named Zoar, situated about half a mile east of the Tuscarawas, has not a very prepossessing appearance. Everything is for use -little for show. The dwellings, twenty-five in number, are substantial and of comfortable proportions; many of them log, and nearly all unpainted. The barns are of huge dimensions, and with the rest are grouped without order, rearing their brown sides and red-tiled roofs above the foliage of the fruit trees, partially enveloping them. Turning from the village, the eye is refreshed by the verdure of the meadows that stretch away on either hand, where not even a stick or a chip is to be seen to mar the neatness and beauty of the green sward. -continued in part 10 *************OH-FOOTSEPS Mailing List***************************