Mary Fulwiler Writes about Ironton Ohio History

Miss Fulwiler Has Interesting Paper On Ironton History
Submitted by Peggy A. Wells

Ironton Evening Tribune, 9 April 1949 Saturday, Page 3

Miss Mary Fulwiler, 181 south Sixth street, a former teacher in the Ironton school system and well-known in educational circles, has submitted to The Tribune the following article for publication in connection with the Centennial celebration, which will be held next October.

Miss Fulwiler wrote the paper on “Ironton” several years ago and presented it before an organization she was a member of. Miss Fulwiler knew the men who were active in Ironton’s founding and the growth and development of this city. Her paper contains a great deal of her personal knowledge, also other material gathered in preparation for the paper, which follows:

The Ohio Iron and Coal Company was incorporated in March 1849. On the third day of May 1849, its directors resolved that John Campbell, Caleb Briggs, and W. D. Kelly be authorized to lay out a town on the land of the company above the mouth of Storms Creek to encourage and cause the erection of manufacturing establishment and other buildings connected with the operators of the Company; the said town shall be called Ironton; that suitable ground shall be appropriated for the laying off of said town for a market, a courthouse and offices; and for public buildings of the said town.

First Lot Sale
Ironton was platted, and the first sale of lots on the town site was in June 1849. Then, as now, when lots are sold, there are some boasting as to why this was a fine location for a new town called Ironton, situated at the terminus of the Iron railroad on the Ohio River, three miles above Hanging Rock, Lawrence county, situated above floods of 1832 and 1847, in a beautiful bottom that is about three-quarters of a mile wide and three miles long; dry and healthy. the landing is good the whole length of the town for the largest boat.

There were upward of thirty iron furnaces within twenty-five miles of it, yielding about 50,000 tons per year of as good iron as the world affords, nine of which were bringing their iron to that point as soon as the Ironton railroad was completed. Were these not good reasons for a town at this location? How sad! Not one of these old furnaces, at present, is in operation.

When the ground was surveyed, the briars were so thick that Mr. John Campbell carried a scythe most of the time to cut a way to pull the measure through, and Mr. Kelly was a good second with an axe. It was John, Bill, George Davidson, and Smith who carried the chain most of the time.

I had known John Campbell since I was a girl, and he was a young man. I now think he was one of the wisest, if not the wisest, men I knew. Will Kelly, like me, believed in John’s ability, and we profited from it.

City Was Named
Now, as to how our city received its name. Charles Campbell, son of John Campbell, said he had heard his father say, “I want the name to have the words iron and ton.” He would repeat, “a ton of iron and iron-ton.” In 1901 George F. Walton of Burden, Kansas, wrote to the Ironton Register that it might be interesting for you to know how our city got its name.

He wrote: “My father made a topographic survey of the land above Storms Creek under the direction of John Campbell and W. D. Kelly. I made a rough plat of the ground, and soon there was a meeting of the directors of the town company at the offices of Campbell, Ellison, and Company at Hanging Rock.

The plat I had drawn was accepted with some modification.“The town’s name was then discussed, and several names were suggested. I sat listening and conjuring up names. We wanted a name that would suggest a business of the city, to be, I thought, as the original of my family name was Wall-Town, why not name the new city Iron Town, abbreviated as my name had been?

I wrote the name Ironton on a piece of paper and handed it to John Campbell. He jumped up as quickly as thought and said emphatically, ‘That is it, George; that’s the name, Ironton. Yes, Ironton is the name. Write it on the map, George.’“No vote was taken, and no question was asked.

The first time that word was written, I wrote it. It must have pleased Mr. Kelly, for he named his new boy Ironton Austin Kelly in a few days. The brightest days for Hanging Rock as an industrial center, Burlington as a shipping point, and the county seat have passed.

Pass Petition
John Campbell, W. K. Kemp, and William Lambert, the three most energetic capitalists of the town, circulated a petition to remove the county seat from Burlington to Ironton. The petition said, “Ironton is and will be the commercial business center of the county. It is the chief town for trade and manufacturing. Consequently, the principal market to which the citizens will come to transact their business will be Ironton. It is nearer the center than any other point on the Ohio River.

It is nearer to the center of the county’s population than any other along the river. Ironton contains nearly one-half the population of the county.” Nearly 100 citizens signed this petition. Before voting on this question, $1200 had been subscribed for the building of the courthouse and $400 for the building of the jail. Quite several specifications as to the location of the building, as to how it should be placed, and entrances accompanied the petition.

The whole was to be completed by 1852. This building was used until 1906. John Campbell authorized W. D. Kelly to purchase the farms in this neighborhood for the site of Ironton. The names of the farmers who sold their farms and how much each farmer received are recorded. Ironton was divided into 350 lots and later on into seven wards for school purposes.

City, Railroad

Ironton and the Iron Railroad were twins and children of the furnaces. Before Ironton was laid out, there had been eleven furnaces built in Lawrence county: Union, Buckhorn, Etna, Center, Mt. Vernon, Olive, LaGrange, Vesuvius, Lawrence, Pine Grove, and Hecla. In 1851 a lot was donated to the Ironton Rolling Mill Company.

Next came the Lawrence Rolling Mill, the Star Mill, and the Olive Machine Shop, all within two or three years after the town was laid out. The Ironton Register came into existence at about the same time. Its name has been changed to the Ironton Evening Tribune. The old Register boosted Ironton in its early years and continues to do so.

One thing it brought to the readers’ attention at home and abroad was that the nearness of Ironton to the natural resources enabled her to manufacture iron cheaper than other places along the Ohio river. In later years Ironton had what was called Big Etna, Lawrence, and Ironton Iron Furnace. Col. H. A. Marting was president of all three.

Bank Founded

Next came the founding of the Iron Bank in 1851 with a capital stock of $40,300. The first president was James O. Willard, and the first cashier was James. O. Rodgers. The first National Bank succeeded the Iron Bank in 1863, and the same year the Second National Bank was organized. The Citizens National Bank was organized in May 1890. The Iron City Savings Bank was organized in July 1905.

A place for a public market, where the Memorial Hall is now located, was used for that purpose for several years. A body of laws was promulgated under the authority of a legislative act on May 3, 1852. It was not incorporated until 1865. In 1859 the post office was moved to Union Hall.

Before this time, it had been in four different places. After the occupation of Union Hall, it was located on Third Street in Masonic Temple, it was then moved to the corner room of the Odd Fellows Temple on Fourth and Center street and then to its present home.

In 1858 there were two fire companies organized. A new waterworks was constructed at the end of Vernon street. This system was put in and repaired and improved from year to year. We have a modern filtration plant operating for 23 years or more.

Now, as to our first school. In 1850 a small, frame building at the corner of Fourth and Center street. Private parties contributed money to this building. The list was headed by John Campbell, giving $100, and others giving smaller sums until they had $444. This building was enlarged in 1854. At this time, Dr. N. K. Moxley was president of the school board.

First Superintendent

There were three school examiners and five visitors, all of whom were ministers. The first superintendent was John Beach. There were only three weeks of vacation during the year. The school was closed at 5 p.m. from Jan. 15 until November 15, then two months of the year, closing at 4:30.

One of the visitors wrote to Mr. Campbell and made some suggestions about the superintendent and the teachers. The superintendent was removed, and Mr. Charles Kingsbury was appointed in his position, which he occupied until 1865. The first brick schoolhouse erected was called Central. It was located where Kingsbury now stands.

It may be interesting to hear the names of the first graduating class. They are Julius Anderson, Mrs. Harriet Kingsbury Burr, Mrs. Clara Crawford Davidson, S. B. Steece, James Bull, and Mrs. (Dr.) O. Ellison and Mr. E. S. Wilson are active and prominent citizens.

Dr. Briggs left Ironton in 1867 for his home in Massachusetts. The talk of a public library was begun. It is interesting to read the correspondence between Dr. Caleb Briggs, John Campbell, and W. W. Johnson. Others especially interested at this time were Charles Kingsbury and Rev. Creighton. These men were interested in everything that pertained to the community’s welfare. Their efforts at this time culminated in what they called “The Briggs Library Association.” In 1881, Dr. Briggs donated $25,000 for a free public library and many books.

Memorial Hall

Through lawful proceedings, Market Square became the site for Memorial Hall. The hall was built and dedicated in October 1892. J. K. Richards, a prominent lawyer of that time, made the dedicatory speech. Memorial Hall was partially destroyed by fire in 1905. The second time the loss of books by fire. The hall was rebuilt, and in February 1910, the Briggs Free Public Library was also thrown open to the city that year. The foundation fund at this time was $67,000. Mrs. Winifred Morton Fell was the librarian.

Before 1852, Dr. Briggs had helped to organize a library society that was then in operation with a small but well-selected lot of books for circulation among its members. In 1852-54 a new association was formed, into which the existing library was merged, and its books were transferred.

The membership embraced nearly all the heads of families in Ironton with an annual membership fee of $3.00. This association opened the public reading room and library, and 300 new books and other reading materials were placed there. Owing to the financial depression, which lasted six years, and the Civil War, the library suspended operation.

These books were boxed to await more favorable times and, in 1865, were destroyed by fire. The names of men connected with the library organization were; Dr. Briggs, John Campbell, Rev. Joseph Chester, J. O. Willard, Edward Jordan, H. S. Neal, C. G. Hawley, Ralph Leete, and Dr. Sloan.

Then before the Briggs Library was started, another attempt was made for a public library or, as we called it, a reading room. That was long in the ’90s. Miss Nettie Anderson, an Ohio Wesleyan graduate, came home one summer and was enthused about organizing a YWCA. It was organized with a fair number of members, and one of the main objectives was to have a reading room.

We met in a room on the Second street where the Bunn furniture store now stands. Ed Wilson was in charge of the books, which Mr. Briggs had left for the library stored in the Register office. Mrs. Mayme Batham Bothwell and I were appointed to go over these books and select those we thought the public, in general, would read. For this collection, we gathered books from all parts of town. Mrs. Hattie Kingsbury Burr left her residence, corner of Sixth and Jefferson streets, for the library, which was moved there in 1910.

Church Histories

Some forty years before the founding of Ironton, the Baptists had held services in a log church built just below the mouth of Storms Creek on the river side of the road. Rev. John Lee and his family, his wife, and five daughters had bought a farm nearby. In 1820 the river banks washed away to such an extent that the log cabin had to be abandoned. A frame church was built across the road from the old church, and around this church was a graveyard. In 1854 the present brick church was built. This church was very strict in the observance of its discipline.

The Methodist was the next church organization. In 1850 this church developed into Spencer Chapel. In 1872 forty members withdrew and formed Wesley Chapel. In 1913 Wesley was partially destroyed by fire, and then the Spencer and Wesley churches united instead of rebuilding, and it became called First Methodist Episcopal Church.

Since the union of all Methodist churches, the word Episcopal has been dropped. In the same year, 1850, the Presbyterian Church was organized, and the present church is in the same location as the original church. The first Catholic Church, built in 1853, stood at the corner of Seventh and Center.

Now it is located at Sixth and Center. Christ Episcopal Church was organized in 1854, located at Park and Fifth. These churches were the first churches to be organized, all located centrally. At present, there are in the neighborhood of 25 churches in Ironton.

Photo of Deaconess Hospital

Hospitals

We have three hospitals, the Charles Gray Deaconess, the Marting Hospital, and the General Hospital.

Lodges

The first secret and benevolent society to organize was Lawrence Lodge No. 198. It was begun in Hanging Rock and moved to Ironton on October 18, 1850. There are several women’s organizations of long-standing, as well as men’s groups. Ironton is noted for its beautiful shaded streets, churches, fine swimming pool, and stadium. Ironton is noted for its hospitality.