Now we know how the mill worked!

New Treasures:   

the 1936 promotional flier to raise the money for Cleveland council to buy the West Richfield property for a camp.   It's called "3,000 girls depend on you!" and proceeds to list all the reasons why this is the perfect location.  Sunny Baddour had scored this from ebay many moons ago, and she lent me a copy.

A copy of the the application to register the mill on the National Register of Historic places.  It does not include technical diagrams. HOWEVER there is an 8 x10 close-up of the axle mechanism.  I stared at it for a million years and figured out that it doesn't look normal.  I showed it to Rob who figured out where the ball bearings would be & how that would work!!!!!!!  

They are enclosed in a sort of a donut that goes around the axle.  I thought all loose, Rob thinks maybe sitting in a groove.  Either way, the axle is actually resting on the ball bearings.  Since ball bearing are not a stable surface, anything sitting on them will roll off.  But the thing that it rolls off onto is the next ball bearing in the line and the line is enclosed by the donut.  So the axle doesn't slide off.  It just turns.  That's what made it turn so easily.   

PROGRAM - TIE IN:  Do I think girls are going to get excited over ball bearings?   Hell, no.  How will we demonstrate it so it makes sense?  We play games.  Ever see people log roll someone else?  I did - on stage - it was the coolest thing

Here's the demo:  first,  take a an 80 pound sack and drag it across the grass.   Heavy, isn't it?   Easier way?   Let's take this girl right here.  Now honey, we're going to drag you across the grass. That don't sound too fun, does it?   OK, let's get your troop mates to help.  The rest of you, you are all the ball bearings.  Your job is to roll.  Yeah, go ahead & roll down that hill for practice.  I'll wait.    

   

Now , if you were all the ball bearings in the millwheel,  you wouldn't be all rolling around loose.   You'd be in a line. [stage direction;  help girls lie down side by side ]   Ok now all turn together  [ they do it ]  now all together to move your friend.   [Axle girl gets to fly over all her friends & I can guarantee that they will all want to take turns trying it. } 

Follow it up with a quick synopsis of the physics, and that's enough formal education for the day.  Don't pile too much in at once---- leave 'em beggin for more

  

OK - back to the application - the person leading the NRHP registration effort was Clare Dowdall  (thank you, Clare, wherever you are)  Much typewritten correspondence.    In the margin of one of these, she scrawled a little note, " I'm sure you don't want us to mention the "ghost" but it might make it more interesting - Clare".  That's the only thing she says about it.  Too bad.   (Dammit,  Clare, we DO want to know about the ghost!)  

She also includes the name of the guy who built the mill:  "Mr. Pardee".  "The spokes and rim are made of cypress and the buckets are made of oak."

Signing off for now to read some more - just had to share because I'm excited!   

Lynn

Lynn,
> Excellent info! Thanks for including Sunny and me on your information list.
> Two other thoughts for possible info sources:
> Joe Prioreschi (sp) was incharge of all the camps  for awhile. He might be
> a good source of info.
> I think he likes the camps, too.
> Peg Gaggini did much of the research on the camps when we were working on
> "A Promise Kept".  She might be able to supply info or suggest where to
> look in the book papers to find info.
>
> I like your thoughts about an activity to help girls understand ball
> bearings. Your description sounds  like maybe ball were used to make what
> is now called a roller bearing.  Girls shape fits rollers. One would need
> to explain that balls were actually used when the mill wheel was built.
> Was a patent obtained on the idea of  increasing mill wheel efficiency by
> the use of this type of bearing?
> How about relating this activity dealing with ball and roller bearings to
> the STEM programs?  STEM is the current "in" terminology. Maybe money is
> available to do STEM activities. STEM means science, technology,
> engineering, and mathematics.
> I'm glad we spent some time on gathering this info.
> Luise
>

ah - I had not hear the term roller bearing before,  but it makes sense.
I know there are lots of ways to expand that concept,  either taking it in
the direction of industrial pieces/parts OR  the concept of taking what one
knows and tweaking it to apply to a new situation.    IS STEM actually a
specific program ,  or just a handy grouping of subjects?  Yeah - I
should have used that terminology in the property report.   I feel like I
could write a fat sequel with just the material that we found on
Tuesday!!!!!

If there was a patent on the mechanism Kirby used for the mill,  it was not
taken out by Kirby.   Rob & I hit the patent records when you suggested that
before.  We found tons of cool stuff - bt not that.  [Little known fact
that I don't feel I can announce publicly at this time:   Kirby's very
first patent was a vibrator. ]    Which begs the question- why not?   He
had patents on all kinds of everything.  Hypotheses [is that how you spell
the plural of hypothesis? ]  He may thought of it as an individual
solution, but not  commercially viable.  OR he may have designed it jointly
with the millwright -  Mr Pardee.   Maybe Pardee has a patent.   - something
I intend to check.

One of Mason Oviatt's relatives - not sure exact relationship- lived in
Richfield & had a bobsled factory& patented the design.   That's an
interesting story.  I sent it to the general FoCH group.  copied below

About 1878, the Oviatt Manufacturing Company was organized and suitable
buildings erected, south of the depot, for the purpose of manufacturing the
patented inventions of Mr Solomon  E. Oviatt, formerly of Richfield  -
Oviatt's thresher and separator, common sense wagon,  independent runner
sled, etc.   But though promising for a year or two, either from lack of
adequate capital, proper enterprise, or judicious management, the company
came to financial grief and the business was abandoned."       -page 840,
Fifty Years Later ,  by  Lane

More invention patents from our peoples!    Yowza.     Charles Brush lived
in Richfield, too.  What IS it with this place and inventors?    Maybe it's
something in the water.

After reading the info in Lane's book at the Historical Society,  I popped
over to Akron to take a look at the patents.
The first three inventions were from the years shortly before setting up in
Akron.  But the bobsled patent was from a while earlier - 1863.  It is well
known in Richfield history that Salmon Oviatt  (or Solomon)  had a bobsled
factory in town.   Evidently he was pretty successful, but then as his
repertoire expanded, he made the move to the big city.

While hunting up those patents, I accidently came across another one -  a
type of cook pot lid invented by Luman B. Oviatt of Brooklyn Village,
Cuyahoga County.   Here's the eerie part :   When the Lake Erie Girl Scout
council sold Camp Margart Bates, the title transfer lists all the previous owners

of the land.   The oldest deed transfer was from December 8, 1869.

......................... to Luman Oviatt

Lynn

Remember the Ladies

I took time out from a wild goose chase yesterday when the trail of the elusive tax records seemed to end in the Akron library.  Right next to the useless tax duplicate indexes was a book called  "Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve".  It turned out to be a treasure.  I called Linda Flemming to see if she wanted me to xerox extra copies of the Richfield chapter for her.  Turns out that RHS already has a copy - but when she found out what I was doing , she told me to check the U of A archives down the street.  So I did, and there were the records!  For Summit county, anyway.  

I am doubly fond of the book- first for itself,  second because it brought me good luck!

Richfield Basic History Part 2

This information is from the Combination Atlas / Map Summit Co. , OH  1874

in 1809 the first white settlers came wandering in:  Bob Mays and his wife.  They came to get away from all the Yankees back east.  Mrs Mays stated that she'd rather eat raw potatoes boiled in cold water than live among Yankees.   The second white settler was Henry Mallet.  He started his own mint and manufactured hard currency to order.  Less enterprising neighbors took exception to the practise . They encouraged Mr Mallet to take his business elsewhere by torching his money factory. 

With Richfield all neatly parceled up,   it was pretty easy for four different investors to to get control over the whole place.  The town neatly split along it's major roads:   Streetsboro Road ( Rt 303) running East/West  &   Cleveland-Massillon Rd ( AKA Brecksville Rd ) ( Rt. 21) running North/South. 

Then, when there was some fear of possible Indian uprising,  one of the investors decided to sell out cheap.   Heman Oviatt from Hudson took advantage of the bargain basement pricing and bought the Northwest quadrant for  $5,000 ($1.25 per acre) in the year 1811.  {Lynn's note:  Heman had ten brothers & sisters.  Nine of them moved from CT to the Western Reserve.  Many of them moved with Heman to Richfield.  On the 1834 map; his brothers Nathaniel and Salmon are major property holders.  Heman's son O.M. was a major investor.   Salmon Oviatt had eleven children, two of whom, Uri and Mason, have large tracts.  Among the Non-Oviatts,  several were related by marriage. ex. Everett Farnham was married to Emily Oviatt}

"In the fall of 1811 there was a large increase in settlers, including Denton E. Buck.  He erected the first mill in the township, which consisted of a large oak stump hollowed out on top with a pedestal worked with a spring pole. "  

Land in the center of town was purchased for investment by John Newton.  But when settlers came from the east and saw the high cost for land at the crossroads in the center of town,  they kept right on going.  Many of them settled  a half mile further west,  starting a second town center.   For many years,  East Richfield and West Richfield maintained an informal rivalry. 

"The Indians inhabiting the town were the Wyandots and Tawas, or Ottawas; who, on retreat of Captain George after the battle of Tippecanoe, abandoned the township.  After the conclusion of the War of 1812 a party of 15 or 20 returned to their former homes;  but they were strangers to the land of their birth.  They asked permission of those holding their former homes to erect huts to protect their families. Subdued and broken hearted, they again left for the Far West.  Their homes were desolate, the deer that constituted their food destroyed, and they had to leave the graves of their fathers or starve."

More on Mason

Since I STILL cannot find out how old the Oviatt farmhouse is, I shall instead pass along today's history snippets .

This is from a scrapbook page.  It looks like a rough draft, and I have to question some of the accuracy.   I do not know who wrote it,  but he/she is writning about & quoting Jennie Oviatt ( a granddaughter of Fanny & Mason )

"MIss Jennie Oviatt has in her home at West Richfield, a beautiful maple chest of drawers with the original glass knobs leaded into it.  This chest was brought by her great-grandparents from Goshen, Connecticut.  Matching the chest of drawers is a hand-turned bedstead of maple made at a shop that stood on the site which is now occupied by the Girl Scout Camp. 

"Miss Oviatt and her sister Mrs Ingersall recalled how their grandfather would take cheese, which was made on his farm, by oxcart to Cincinnati to sell.  The trip took six weeks.  They relate also that dairying was the chief occupation of the early Richfielder's. The name Richfield came from the fact that a certain plant grew in the fields of pasture that afforded excellent food and tonic for the cattle and sheep. Hence the name "Richfield".

" The [John] Brown family was not held in very high esteem by their neighbors and their fortunes were anything but but good while living in Richfield.  Here, John Brown became bankrupt and in that process was stripped of everything but a few articles the court decided nessessary for their maintainence.  Among the things they were allowed to keep were:  eleven Bibles and testaments, one book entitled "Beasties of the Bible", one "Church member's guide", two mares, two cows, two hogs, three lamps, seven sheep, nineteen hens, and three pocket knives.  All their other belongings went under the auctioneer's hammer."

end of quote. This is me talking again.   I was pretty skeptical about Mason spending six weeks hauling cheese to Cincinnati.  As if Cincinnati can't get cheese from any place closer.  How realistic is that?  I mentioned this to Dr. Lee, the archeologist. He actually supported the Miss Jennie quote!!  Very shocking.  But the reasons are - Cincinnati, being on the Ohio river, was a major port for moving products to St. Louis, the major jumping off place for anyone traveling out west.  Anyone traveling a long period of time would need provisions, but there were very few foods that could be kept without spoiling.  Cheese was one.  Whiskey was another. 


Therefore, there was a HUGE market for cheese and whiskey.  It was not at all unreasonable for farmers in the Western Reserve to turn their crops into these two products.  The money they got for them made travel time well worth it.   

However - Miss Jennie was born 14 years after Grampa Mason died.  So any recollecting she did was of  Grandma Fanny talking about him. 

On the plus side :   The foundations of the shop are still there.  

The Quest Continues: One Good Deed

Since I have been going around complaining that I can't find out the date the Oviatt Farmhouse was built, historically-savvy people have told me to check the property tax records. A sudden increase in valuation means a building was added. Property tax has been around here since the 1820's. Summit county wasn't established until 1840 - so I'd have to check Medina County records. Then it occured to me that before I look for taxes, I ought to check there for the deed transfer.

Medina County's deeds index was a huge old book, about 2 feet tall and pages 15 inches across , with all the property transfers in Medina County from 1818 to 1843. Rough alphabetical order. There were TONS of Oviatts: Benjamin Oviatt, Mason's grandfather who was a Revolutionary War soldier; Salmon Oviatt, Mason's father whose house is still standing on Rt. 303 just east of Broadview; Heman Oviatt, the rich uncle; plus various other uncles, cousins, and one aunt. There were also tons of now familar names from the histories I've been reading recently: Newtons, Nortons, Farnhams and Hudsons. Sometimes the parcels swap around between the main charactors. No Mason to be seen. Whatever else he may have been, Mason Oviatt was NOT a major player in the real estate market. A little note at the bottom of the last column refers back to another page. There's a bunch more "O" entiries out of order. Three quarters of the way down the page is our man.

Mason bought the land from his parents for one thousand dollars. The deed starts out with a hello to anyone reading the document. If you have read this email so far, the message is for you, from April 5, 1836: " To all persons to whom these presents shall come, greeting." Then it gets all legal. The western boundary of the land went all the way to the Hinkley border. It measured one hundred and one acres. Although the land had been owned jointly by Salmon and his wife Mary, the title only transfers to Mason, not Fanny. You have to wonder why. Did her in-laws not like her? Were they trying to make sure her relatives, the Carters and the Farnhams (who were big wheels in town) never got control of it? Was Mason opposed to having Fanny on the deed?

Whatever the reason, it wasn't an oversight. I was surprised at how many women were listed in the index holding their own property. Plus, the ammendment to the deed transfer certifies that the county recorder made sure that Mary was included in the deal - that she understood the legal issues and that she was OK with them. This appears to have been part of his routine function:

 " Personally appeared before me - Salmon Oviatt & Mary Oviatt his wife who acknowleged that they did sign and seal the forgoing instrument, and that the same is their free act and deed, And I do further certify that I did examine the said Mary Oviatt separate and apart from her husband and did then and there make known to her the contents of the forgoing instrument and, upon that examination she declared that she did voluntarily, sign, seal, and acknowledge the same and that she was satisfied therewith.
- Martin Chittenden, Justice of the Peace // Recorded June 3rd 1837 //
Oviatt Cole, Recorder.

History research: Basics and Beyond

Here is some very basic historic/geographic info in case anyone wants to also research camp lands.  There is some that has to be done by going on site somewhere and sifting through old records.   A lot can be done via internet.   But  the most interesting will be done from talking to the descendants of the many families who lived on our land.   And those descendants can be anywhere.    

 

When the Connecticut Land Company had title to the Western Reserve,  they parceled up the land by dividing it up into squares - 6 miles on a side.   They called those the Townships.    Townships were then divided up into smaller grids - 10 squares to each side called sections.   When people bought the land,  they bought it sight unseen.   Based on the numerous early land transfers in the Medina Recorders' Office; it seems that once people found their designated land,  they were just as likely to exchange it as keep it. 

 

Land was measured by chains (roughly 80 feet) and links.  They also described direction in some way that makes no sense to me.  89.5 degrees east seems redundant, but OK /// 89.5 degrees west makes no sense.   RHS is checking with a surveyor to see if he understands what this means.  Also - instead of metal surveyors pins, most of the Richfield boundary markers consisted of "post and stones" .   Early surveyors were aware that posts would be relatively short-lived.  But they had to use was they had handy.  To lenghthen the span of usefulness,  they piled up stones around the base of their post.  We think one of Spazz's kids may have found one such pile when we were looking for the Green Cathedral - but there's no way to know for sure.  

 

Needless to say,  I'm a bit fuzzy on on exact parcels,  but luckily for us, the section numbers are clearly evident on the early maps and listed on the early title transfers.  Crowell Hilaka consists of sections 16 and 25.  The western edge is shaved off by Oviatt Rd.  The Driveway runs all the way across section 17 and the tip of it at Broadview sticks out a little into section 18. 

 

On a map,   the land is a rectangle standing on one end.   Historically,   the property boundaries ended up dividing the land into thirds.   Don't know why. But I can see it happened that way.

 

In 1834,  the property ownership was:

North third:  Nathaniel Oviatt  ( who also owned a large chunk of surrounding land )  and  S. King  ( he had just the one strip)

Middle third:  Salmon Oviatt   (who had a house in the midddle of town plus assorted scattered parcels)

South third:  Mason Oviatt

Driveway: Welton:

 

in 1856: 

North third :  Nathaniel Oviatt

Middle third (plus the strip formerly occupied by S. King) :  Robert Gargett

just south of that:  a strip owned by Welton  

South third:  Mason Oviatt

driveway : Welton

 

1874:

North third:  Milton R. Freeman ( plus large adjoining chunks)

Mid third :  James Sammons

South third: Mason Oviatt

driveway:  Adeline Axtell

 

Supposedly Freemans sold to the Neals,  but I found an atlas from 1881 saying that Milton Freeman had moved to Michigan, and his daughter Hattie was living in the family farmhouse with her new husband Milo Halliwill, and they were running the place.   I also found some fuzzy title transfers from JAMES KIRBY  to Claire Neal!    He wasn't supposed to be up that far North!  A puzzlement.

 

I do not know ANYTHING about most of the people in the middle -  but it does seem to me that the presence of these historic mid-property owners indicates that SOMEWHERE in camp must be the remains of some other old houses.   One of our current service team members, Lynne Carter,  says that her father used to work for Ohio Edison and helped clear the gas cut.  They did not find anything of archeologic interest there.  So - we can rule that location out.   But if anyone wants to take on any of these other families as a research project,   that would be great because I'm too obsessed over  Mason and Fanny Oviatt to deal with anyone else. 

 

Some possible leads:   LInda at RHS mentioned, when I brought up these other names,  that the Gargett's  were the family that had the famous murder.  But she assured me that the murder did not take place on camp land.   There is some scandalous possible link between the Sammones and Mr Freeman.  The 1881 atlas says Milo Hallliwill's father Joseph was a famous sheep expert.    I'm telling you we should install some sheep at camp - Or sell little Halliwill sheep dolls. As for Adeline Axtell  - owner of our driveway in 1874 - I never heard of before yesterday. But her husband has a sketch in the 1881 atlas.  It seems they were a typical second-generation pioneer family.  She went out with him to California in 1851, and while out there, he picked up a law degree & got into politics.  He was governor of Utah territory 1875  [the Mormons were settled in, but hadn't yet renounced polygamy at that time],  then New Mexico, then back to Ohio.  Hmm.  we might be able to work that into something:  "The Adeline Axtell Memorial Driveway"

 

Heman Oviatt Endows CWRU Chair

Heman Oviatt endowed the first chair (professorship) at Case Western Reserve University.  An article about the endowment, including a picture of Heman, can be found here.

But wait, there's more!

In 1815, Heman Oviatt lent money to a guy named Zenath Kent and went into a business partnership with him to open a general store in Ravenna. The store was very successful. With this excellent start, Zenath was able to buy Oviatt out and move on to several other developments in the town of Franklin Mills.

Zenath's son carried on this business tradition.  He was so influential in bringing railroad business into Franklin Mills that the town voted to change the name of the town to Kent. As in Kent State University.

Don't you get the feeling that Heman Oviatt was pretty much the Forest Gump of the 1800's? He was involved in damn near everything.

Does this have any bearing whatsoever on camp?

Maybe.

If we play our cards right.

Something good will come of it, eventually.