Boom Down South…

 

William and Ida McKinley with the Marcus Hanna Family, Thomasville, GA

Mark Hanna invited Governor McKinley, and his wife Ida to his winter home in Thomasville, Georgia in March of 1895.  This would be the considered by some to be the boom of the McKinley campaign.

Our historian from the 50’s & 60’s Edward Heald accounts of the beginnings of McKinley’s grasp for the “Big Fish,” the presidency! This story from E.T. Heald was first a radio broadcast on W.H.B.C. on April 26, 1954, then published in 1959 in Volume IV Part Three of the Stark County Story.

E.T. Heald was making his way to Clearwater, Florida in the spring of 1954. Stopping in Thomasville, GA, he walked around the town inquiring if anyone could be found who could recall William McKinley’s visit.  The response every time was, go see Ed Jerger,  proprietor and editor of the Times-Enterprise, the local newspaper in Thomasville.  Jerger recalled meeting Governor McKinley when he was eleven years old.  He and his mother met Mr. McKinley, and he distinctly recalled his mother telling the Governor of Ohio she was glad to meet the next President of the United States.

Mitchell-House

Heald asked if he could find any accounts of the ball thrown for the Governor and his wife during their visit to the town. Jerger replied their would most likely be a write-up in his newspaper.  The back issues were bound and lived in the town library.  Heald went to the library and found the accounts of a lovely ball held in the Mitchell Hotel where 500 people were invited to see the Ohio Governor and his wife.  All of the dignitaries of the city of Thomasville were invited, including Captain Hammond who paid high tribute to the Governor.

The trip proved to be monumental.  Its illustrated McKinley’s attachment to the South. He received the backing of powerful southerners as well as northerners in March of 1895, went on the win nomination of the Ohio State Convention on May 29, 1895, and the Republican Nomination for the presidency on June 18, 1896.

“McKinley was the first president after the war (Civil War) to break down sectional feeling and to bring about a new understanding and good will between North and South.” – Edward Heald

The Canton Repository accounted the Governor and his wife Ida moving on to Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Palm Beach, FL, and back to Savannah, GA.

Fountain in Forsyth Park Savannah, Georgia

More Later…

Advertisement

Pure Bliss…

Podcast

 

 

The Onesto Lofts are an accomplishment beyond words…

Next door is the next obstacle, Bliss Tower!

Bliss Tower was built between 1964 – 1965, by Onesto Hotel Company.

Brett Haverlick, Project Manager of Onesto Lofts and Bliss Tower gave us the opportunity to see the 12th and 13th floors!

In 1867, when Canton, Ohio gained a young attorney named William McKinley Jr. , Eliphalet William Bliss started making stamping presses in a small 40 by 20 feet loft in Brooklyn, New York.

From Forgotten New York:

In 1884, Dr. L. P. Brockett, the author of “The Manufacturing Industries of Brooklyn and Kings County” section of Henry L. Stiles’s History of Brooklyn, wrote that Bliss “has built up in a few years an immense business in machinery for drawing and stamping cold plates of tin, sheet iron, brass or copper, in all the required forms for household and manufacturing use.”  At the time, Brockett asserted, the factory building, occupying 27,000 square feet, was the largest of its kind in the world and employed between 300 and 350 people. By the early twentieth  century, the factory occupied 186,492 square feet and in 1912 employed 1,646 people in its DUMBO operations – 1,521 men and fifteen women. In 1906 the company briefly forayed into automobile production.

This immense factory was located in a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York known as DUMBO.  DUMBO is an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

E.W. Bliss Company came to Canton in 1950.  The Canton Development Corporation under the leadership of T.K. Harris, and E. Oscar Kuendig were responsible for bringing Bliss to Canton.

The former Naval Ordinance Plant located on Raff Road SW was converted to E.W. Bliss Company in 1950.

Now Bliss Tower, much like Hotel Onesto will be saved, and receive a new life!

A spiral staircase that extends from the eleventh to the thirteenth floors.

 

We hope to stay close to the progress of the Bliss Tower.

Thank you to Steve Coon, of Coon Restoration, and Brett Haverlick.

More Later…

Source: Forgotten New York

BLISS MACHINE WORKS, DUMBO

Making a Difference…

From Left to Right: Larry Snyder, Judy Pocock, & Gary Brown

On Friday May 29, 2015 Gary Brown from The Canton Repository visited the Ramsayer Research Library to interview history docent, Larry Snyder.  Larry is also the Vice President of the Plain Township Historical Society.  The point of the meeting was to inform the community of the Peter Pontius House.  The Plain Township Historical Society is working on preserving this 1835 farm house located on the West side of North Market Avenue between 55th (East Hill) and Schneider Road.

 

The spark came from the widening of North Market Avenue.  You may recall Larry inviting me to tour this house on May 14th of this year.  Read more of that tour in my blog post: Lands Transformed…

Ohio Statehouse, Women’s Gallery. (front row, left to right) Cyndie Gerken, Trustee, Preserve Ohio, Marian Vance, President-Preserve Ohio; Cindy Guest, Archivist, PTHS; Phyllis Rustifo, Trustee, PTHS; Carol Merry, Trustee, Preserve Ohio; (back row) Larry Snyder, Vice-President PTHS

 

The Plain Township Historical Society is successful in getting this house on the endangered list.

Read the press release from this accomplishment:

Press Release: Plain Township Historical Society
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Canton, Ohio

Plain Township Historic Home Named to 2015 List of Ohio’s Most Endangered Historic Sites

Preservation Ohio, the state’s oldest statewide non-profit preservation organization released the 2015 List of Ohio’s Most Endangered Historic Sites at the Ohio Statehouse during a Press Conference.

Plain Township Historical Society Trustees Phyllis Rustifo and Larry Snyder wrote the nomination for the Peter Pontius House located at 5901 Market Avenue.

The house was built in the Federal Style popular between the 1820’s and 1840’s. It is constructed of brick painted white. Currently the house is all that is standing with a small outbuilding, a springhouse. A large bank barn was located to the rear of the property, but was torn down several years ago. The house has gone through some changes. Two additions have been added to the house. In 2004 Bethel Temple Church came into possession the 13.61 acres and buildings. The church used the house as a rental property for eight years. The house has stood empty for the past year and a half.

The original site consisted of a quarter section that Peter and his brother Jacob settled on in 1831. When Peter married Catherine Essig Pontius he bought the quarter section near his wife’s family, the Simon Essig’s. The house was built in 1835. Peter lived in the house until his death in 1860 at the age of 86 years old. Peter himself was a farmer and is mentioned frequently in history accounts that he was a Plain Township Supervisor, Trustee, and a school director. It was Peter Pontius that insisted that Ohio needed to have a picture of all schools in the state. It was first completed in 1880 and again in 1980. Peter was voted President of the County Agricultural Society and he saw to it during his presidency all the debt was paid and he reorganized the board. He was also elected to the Justice of the Peace in 1885, and served for 15 years.

Recently the state of Ohio has proposed widening Market Avenue to a four-lane highway from 55^th Street to Applegrove. That project will remove 20 feet of land from in front of this historic home.  Market Avenue itself contains many of the oldest and grandest homes in Plain Township known to be standing. We have seen too many of our historical buildings destroyed in the Stark County area. We of the Plain Township Historical Society have come to a place in its existence where we are identifying all of our older, historic structures so as too allow us to attempt to preserve and protect as many as we can. We need the support of Ohio and the people of our township to let people know that, “this place matters.”

Some might ask why do these places matter? Historic preservation champions and protects places that tell the stories of our past. It enhances our sense of community and brings us closer together. The Plain Township Historical Society is thankful for this opportunity by chronicling the relevance to locality, region and the state. We hope that this raises awareness for these endangered properties and encourages people to continue to preserve history, that our past matters and these places matter.
Submitted by: Larry Snyder
Vice-President Plain Township Historical Society

 

*Too see pictures of the interior of the Pontius House go to Mark Holland’s Blog site for the McKinley Museum. https://archivistsattic.wordpress.com/2015/05

Peter Pontius and his wife Catherine (Essig) are pioneers of Plain Township.  Catherine is a direct descendant of Simon and Julian Essig.

We have the Essig Family Tree in the Ramsayer Research Library within the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum.  It may be viewed Monday – Friday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm.

More Later…