Kent State University - Chestnut Burr Yearbook (Kent, OH)

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YQ-- I 1 'f -'N-ss Franklin Mills, named for the township and the flour and sawmills built along the Cuyahoga Fiiver, was just a few scattered houses along the Ravenna-Stow road in the early 1800's. The village anxiously awaited a financial boom when plans for the establishment of a silk mill became reality. Mills were built and mulberry trees for feeding the silkworms were planted. But the uncooperative little caterpillars who were supposed to munch those mulberry leaves and produce silk fiber instead died, ending the village's first attempt at industry. 22 So Zenas Kent's grand brick block on the corner of Main and North Water streets was left vacant, except for a few cows who occasionally took refuge from the rain in the hotel. The village got another chance at commerce when the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal was built parallel to the river around 1836. Farmers could ship out goods and merchants could bring in goods via the Akron to Cleveland to Pittsburgh route. Travellers stayed overnight at Franklin Mills' inns or the hotel - cowless now - or guzzled a drink at a Water Street saloon while their canal boat waited its turn at the

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. Q- 'Z U .... And John Brown, later of Harper's Ferry fame, whose tannery in Franklin Mills quickly went out of business, couldn't peek ahead to see the various industries - a chain works, an umbrella factory, celery and onion farms, mills, a pickle processor - in the village's future. Marvin Kent wouldn't have believed that his pet project, bringing a railroad to Franklin Mills, would one day evolve into dozens of automobiles lined up for interminable periods, their exhaust-choked occupants waiting at the crossing for the inevitable train. . , .,.v....-. . - Opposite page, top, view west across the river about 1867. The railroad will replace the canal lock within a year, and the present stone Main Street Bridge will be built in 1876. CUniversity Archives, Art Troy Collectionj Bottom, view down South Water Street, about 1890, Frank W. Cone Dry Good Store pictured is now Thompson Drugs. QUniversity Archives, Trory Collectiony This page, top, trolley, left is about to turn north onto Water Street. The horse watering trough at the Main and Water Street intersection was removed in 1919. QUniversity Archives, Art Trory Collectionj Bottom, candy, cigars, film, or a refreshing soda are all available at Donaghy's Drug Store in 1918. QKent State University American History Ftesearch Center, Dick Donaghy Collectionp Merrill, Rockwell and McGiIvrey, viewing the two unfinished buildings, handful of students and 70 briar-laden acres of the Kent Normal School in 1913, would probably be overwhelmed by the 97 buildings, 18,000 students and sprawling 2,265 acres of today's KSU. None of these phantoms from Kent's past would believe the changes that have occurred. lt's been a long road. 21

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