The year was 1803. Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States. Ohio was admitted into the Union as its westernmost state. The area of northeast Ohio known as the Western Reserve had been surveyed by the Connecticut Land Co. and divided into townships five miles square.

Young John Garrett III had served as a private in the Revolutionary War in the 6th Delaware Militia Company, his father's (Capt. John Garrett II) company. He later transferred to a company of the upper district of Christiana Hundred, Delaware. It has not been established whether he was later commissioned.

John Garrett II was a comparatively wealthy man for the times. He owned extensive properties as well as a grist mill, a paper mill, and a snuff mill, all on Red Clay Creek in Delaware. In 1795 John III and his wife Eleanor Jones Garrett had purchased a 182-acre plantation located next to the old Garrett homestead.

In the book, The Garrett Snuff Fortune, authored in 1965 by C.A. Weslager, "Like his mother and father, and his grandmother and grandfather, John Garrett III and his wife were faithful members of the Brandywine Baptist Church. Eleanor's father was a Baptist minister. Such religious zeal burned in John and Eleanor that the affairs of the church took precedence over home, family, and business. They heard a call to carry Baptist tenets to the Western Reserve, the gateway to the Mississippi, where new settlements were being made and many Revolutionary soldiers, paid in western lands, were settling with their families. No doubt there were long and serious discussions before the final decision was made because it meant uprooting themselves from the ancestral lands, deserting a thriving business, and severing family ties to seek a new life in the western wilderness...."

In the summer of 1803 they began selling off their holdings in Delaware, the plantation and tenant houses, as well as his interest in his father's estate. In September, Garrett was in Hartford, Connecticut and purchased 300 acres in the "Town of Nelson"  from Appoleus Hitchcock, Ephrain Root, Urial Holmes Jr. and Timothy Burr, who owned the entire area of Nelson Township. The deed stipulated the purchase was to include a waterway. The price paid was $1,313, approximately $4.38 per acre.

Covered wagons which were pulled by oxen contained the families, food staples and household goods of John Garrett III and Abraham Dyson when they started from Delaware on or about May 17, 1804. The Garretts and their five children: David J., John, Elisha 6 years old, Elizabeth 4 years old and little Josiah, 2, also brought with them two slave girls, Flora, aged 10 and a 6-year-old mulatto. Abraham Dyson was a blacksmith. His Quaker wife Martha, two sons, John and James and a daughter Martha  completed his family.

Garrett had refused to sell the two young girls into a lifetime of slavery in Delaware and had to obtain a legal permit to bring the girls with them. By law they would become free at the age of 18, as slavery was forever forbidden in the Northwest Territory by the Ordinance of 1787. (See contents of Slave Permit)

The  events of that trip are not known to us, except for a letter written to S.C. Templin in 1912 from Elisha's daughter Mary. (Templins lived in the old Elisha Garrett house in Garrettsville.) She wrote from her home in Argentine, Kansas: "...They (grandparents John and Eleanor) came with two ox-teams. They missed Father (Elisha, 6), then found him asleep under some leaves. He often told us about the trip and how tired he would get."

And so it was, in 1804, they arrived on the banks of Silver Creek in the southwest section of Nelson Township. They set about to start their new lives in the beautiful wilderness of the Western Reserve.

These industrious families lived in their wagons for a time. They worked at clearing the heavily forested area and built two log cabins.They built a saw mill, a grist mill and a dam across the creek to supply water power.

Grief accompanied the hardships. Two-year-old Josiah Garrett died in August of 1805. He was buried on a little knoll among the shelter of  the large trees a few hundred feet north of the mills. This was the chosen spot for a burial ground in the new settlement. Six months later, January 16, 1806, John Garrett III died of pneumonia, reportedly on the day his mill was to have been started up. There were no men here to bury him. They had gone to Pittsburgh for provisions. They returned three days later, bringing with them two millwrights. The 46-year-old husband and father of this pioneer family was laid to rest in
the frozen earth on the knoll next to his youngest son.

John Garrett III provided in his will for this lot as a burial ground and a Baptist meeting house. It was deeded to the Governor of Ohio in perpetuity. It would block any use of the land other than for the purpose specified. His little son was the first white child and he was the first white adult to die in the new little settlement.

Eleanor Garrett survived her husband by 40 years. She must have been a remarkable person to have assumed the responsibilities of the mill and disposal of lots in their new settlement. Even with a family of small children, these duties were discharged in a manner to indicate her a woman of marked administrative ability and character. Twice on horseback, accompanied by a young son, she made the trip to Delaware and back. On one of these trips it is told she brought back a pewter communion set for the church. During the early years, when mail came once a week on horseback, she even served as
postmaster.

The Eleanor Garrett homestead was later built behind the mill, across the creek and the road, at the intersection of the old State Road and Silver Creek. Her home was the stopping place for all who came here and it is said her customary address upon receiving new settlers was, "I welcome you to my country." (The Garrettsville Centennial Book shows a picture of the large old farmhouse, barely visible behind the trees, surrounded by a white fence.  In ca. 1880, Arthur E. Crane purchased the property and built his new home on the site. That house is now the rectory of St. Ambrose parish. St. Ambrose Church is on the corner.)

Operation of the mill was later turned over to her son-in-law, Edwin Atwood, husband of the only Garrett daughter, Elizabeth. After their marriage they lived with the widow Eleanor. Elizabeth died Nov. 7, 1833, aged 33 years. Edwin took a second wife, Eliza Byron. He and his family continued to live in the old homestead, with Eleanor having her own quarters in the house until her death on March 16, 1846, 86 years old. Edwin died in 1888.

ELEANOR GARRETT HOUSE-- A picture in Garrettsville’s Centennial Book in 1907 shows the old homestead of Eleanor Garrett.  It is easily recognized as the present site of   St. Ambrose Church and rectory.  In early 1880s the Garrettsville Journal stated A. E. Crane was having the basement excavated for a new residence to be built on that site.

In Aug. 1907, Emogene Slayton Landon, an 1857 resident of Garrettsville, wrote to S.M. Luther in Garrettsville, from Burr Oak, Iowa:

"In searching among some old relics, I have resurrected a poem written by Elizabeth Cornelia Atwood, daughter of Edwin and Elizabeth Garrett Atwood and granddaughter of Mrs. Eleanor Garrett. The "Old Homestead" referred to, first belonged to Mrs. Garrett and bequeathed to her daughter, Elizabeth, the first Mrs. Atwood. (She died Nov. 7, 1833, aged 33 years) Mr. Atwood then married Eliza, but held a life lease of the same.  Mrs. Garrett always lived in the east part of the house and the Atwood family occupied the other part. It was the birthplace of all the Atwood children.  Elizabeth Cornelia was 17 months old when her mother died. She married Mr. A.M. Pratt of Ravenna, and after her Grandmother Garrett's death  in 1846, she wrote this poem. I have thought that perhaps you could make some use of it at your (1907) Homecoming.  As it was written so long ago, I presume the old house is gone.

THE OLD HOMESTEAD
By Elizabeth Cornelia Atwood

I have gone from it now, the beautiful spot,
Yet my thoughts linger there, though my home it is not.
Yes, 'tis bound by a thousand links to my heart,
And its cherished remembrance can never depart.

'Twas the home of my loved ones in days that are fled,
And their ashes are gathered to rest with the dead.
'Twas there in the freshness of infancy's years
That bright seeds were sown, now garnished in tears.

There, was the lot of my guileless hopes cast;
And there the bright days of my childhood were passed,
But those halcyon hours in life's sunny spring
Have vanished with speed of the lightning's wing.

Many a change hath that fireside known,
And the sounds have been there of a varied tone.
O'er a light some group a gay voice hath passed,
Then the surges of death swept on the blast.

The stern archer's arrow, full oft hath been there,
Curdling the life-blood that shrank from the snare.
It hath well done its work, and the poisonous dart
Hath blighted fond hopes and unnerved the strong heart.
 

The beautiful babe on the mother’s breast
Hast one on a pillar of clay to rest;
And the vigor of years, life’s meridian sun,
This, too, hath the grave to its solitude won.

(The next verse refers to her grandmother, Mrs. Eleanor Garrett.)

And those, who have stood like the brave old oak,
Have fallen at last by the icy stroke,
And the silvery lock of a frosted age
Are known no more but on memory’s page.

And thus have they passed, that homestead band,
And none by the desolate portal stand,
And I grieve the sad havoc that death hath made
To darken that door with so deep a shade.

Yet my heart, Old Homestead, clings to thee still,
And oft at thy name will my wild pulses thrill,
But I’d dread to pass thy lone threshold o’er,
For those I have loved can cross it no more.

Fast, fast art thou hastening back to decay,
And the beauty of better days passing away.
The wild winds sweep through thy desolate halls,
And the tempest beats on thy time-broken walls.

The old trees are standing, where oft I have played
And whiled away time in the depths of their shade.
And the flowers I loved are bright in their bloom,
Though the hand that planted them rests in the tomb.

There are none now, the clustering vine to train,
That climbs on the casement and creeps o'er the pane.
For the stranger's hand lacks the tender care
Those cherished flow'rets were wont to share.

There is not a spot in the world's wide waste
So dear to me as that loved old place.
But its memories come in a saddened throng
And tune my harp to a mournful song.
 
 
 

When I think of it crumbling to ruin, I feel
That like its decay is my own woe or weal.
And I sometimes think as I watch its decline,
That its destiny's star is fated with mine.

But these are dark musings; I'll break them now,
For there's youth in my heart and health on my brow;
But in vain would I bid those memories depart,
Which the Old Homestead throws like a spell round my heart.

I have gone from that roof to battle with strife,
To stem the strong tide of the current of life;
But where're I go, or what'ere my lot,
The home of my childhood shall ne'er be forgot.
 

_____________
 
 

Son David J. Garrett was a partner with his brother-in law in the first dry goods business in town called "Hazen and Garrett", but  Elisha Garrett seems to have been the enterprising son here. He was involved in several different businesses. His home on
Liberty Street is one of the oldest and loveliest in the village. It is still often spoken of as the "Garrett House". As related in daughter Mary Garrett's letter of 1912 from Kansas: "I am glad I can tell you the house was built in 1845." Yet, she goes on to say, "The old part was built in 1827, before Father was married. They (Elisha and Nancy Eichar) were married in Wooster (Ohio) in 1828 the 21st of May." The Elisha Garretts had 9 children. Two of these, Ann and Secretia,  died in infancy. The family  emigrated to the west in the 1850's.  Their descendants can be found in Missouri, Kansas and Idaho. The Historical
Society has several letters of the family.

Eleanor carried out their mission of bringing the Baptist religion to the young settlement. Some of the early meetings were held in her home. The Baptist Church was organized in 1808 but a meeting house was not built for several years. In the 1912 letter: "Garrettsville was a wilderness when Grandfather settled there in 1804. Plenty of Indians and wild game, hemlock trees where bears were shot....It was a year before anyone moved in. They walked 7 miles to church nearly every Sunday. They took their dogs along to keep off the wild animals."

A new church was soon built on the level area in front of the cemetery and was used until 1916, when the Baptist, Disciple and Congregational faithful organized as the United Church. Burials in the old cemetery were ceased in 1876 when the new Park Cemetery in the northeast corner of town was established.

This peaceful, well-cared-for cemetery on a tree-lined street that is fronted by some of the loveliest old homes in our small village serves as a reminder of the courage and fortitude of the hearty souls who came our way and stayed, almost two hundred years ago.

John Garrett never knew that a village was to be named in his honor. In the 1864 incorporation of the village it was officially named as the settlers called it ..."Garrettsville" ... Could it have been called anything else?
 

(A typed copy of the Slave Permit carried by John Garrett follows:)

State of Delaware

 I, Isaac Stevenson, Notary and Taballion Public of and for the said State, by lawful authority Commissioned and Qualified, residing at Wilmington, do certify that the Bearer hereof, John Garrett, Esq., now of Christiana Hundred and County of
Newcastle in the State aforesaid, with whom I have been acquainted for a number of years past and have known as a good and orderly Citizen, and who is about to remove hence to the State of Ohio, with his family and two waggons--and who takes with him a negro girl aged about ten-----years and a Mulatto girl aged about six-----years, who are both his slaves, and who by his removing of them to the said State of Ohio will by their laws be free at the Age of Eighteen years which will accord with his wishes, he having refused to transfer them for life in this place, and ought not to be interrupted by any person travelling to the State aforesaid with the said two girls.

 Quod Attestor                                                  Isaac Stevenson
 May 17, 1804                                                  Notry & Tabn Public

(In  the book, History of Portage County, 1885: Mantua Township--Flora, a colored woman in the employ of the Garretts, formerly a slave of Mrs. Garrett, married Thomas Hughes (another source said Henes), also a colored, in 1818. Hughes came to Mantua in the Spring of 1816 with Benjamin Sharpe and wife Lucy, the first colored people to come to Mantua.)
 
 

Because the late John Garrett of the Township of Nelson in the County of Portage and State of Ohio intended to devise a certain portion of land hereinafter to be described, to the Baptist Society of Christians for the purpose of a burying ground and also of erecting thereon buildings for public worship for said Society, and whereas the intentions of the said John Garrett were frustrated in consequence of the defective execution of his last Will and Testament:

Now know all men that we, David J. Garrett, Elisha Garrett and Elizabeth Garrett of the Township, County and State aforesaid, and John S. Garrett of the County of Washington in the State of Pennsylvania, being the heirs of the said John Garrett and desirous of effecting the intentions and purpose of our Father as to the above mentioned objects, and for and in consideration of the sum of $1.00 in hand paid by Jeremiah Morrow, Governor of the State of Ohio, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, have given, granted bargained, sold and aliened and quit-claimed and by these presents do give, grant, bargain, sell and quit-claim unto the said Jeremiah Morrow, Governor of the said State of Ohio and his successors in office forever, in trust for, and for the use of said Baptist Society holding and believing the Doctrines and Tenets contained in a Confession of Faith adopted by the Baptist Association met in Philadelphia, Sept. 25, 1742, for the purpose of sepulcure interment or burial of the dead, and of erecting buildings for public worship for said Society and no other, all our right, title, interest, claim and demand, both in lien and equity in and to the following described parcel of land lying in the said Nelson Township, County of Portage and State aforesaid: Commencing at a stake 2 chains and 75 links east from a line dividing Nelson and Hiram Townships on the north line of Lot No. 1 in said Nelson Township, thence running west 3 chains and 25 links, thence north 3 chains and 25 links to the place of beginning containing one acre and 5 perches of land, be the same more or less.

To have and to hold to the said Jeremiah Morrow, Governor as aforesaid and to his successors in office forever, in trust and for the use of said Baptist Society and no other, the piece or parcel of land described with the privileges and appurtenances
thereunto belonging.  And Elizabeth Garrett, wife of David Garrett doth hereby, in consideration of the money paid to him, the said David Garrett, and for other causes stated in this deed, remise, release and quit-claim unto the said Jeremiah Morrow, Governor as aforesaid and his successors in office, in trust and for the use of the said Baptist Society and no other, all her rights and title to the above described parcel or tract of land.

In testimony hereof we have hereunto set our respective hands and seals on this the 22nd. day of February in the year of our
Lord 1825.                 Signed and sealed in the presence of us.    Anson Booth    Hiram Messenger     David Garrett    Elisha Garrett     Elizabeth Y. Garrett     J.S. Garrett     Elizabeth Garrett
 
 

For 75 years the Opera House in Garrettsville was a village showpiece. The three-storied building--with its imposing bell tower-- was built in 1889 at a cost of  approximately $15,000. It was considered "the finest building of its kind in any place outside of the larger cities." It was a cultural center as well as our City Hall. It contained an auditorium on the upper floor and the fire station, police headquarters and council chambers on the ground floor.

The main floor audience hall had a seating capacity for 600, plus a 23 by 48-foot stage and dressing rooms. One of the first plays produced was the "Dummer Boy of Shiloh", a Civil War story about the friendship of a Northern and a Southern family. Succeeding plays included "Mrs. Wiggs in the Cabbage Patch", "Womanless Wedding" and a number of others. In the summer of 1912 a cast of 25 local thespians entertained theater goers for four nights with  "The Old Homestead", which netted almost $800.00.

The first silent movies were held there in 1912. A piano accompaniment was played by Mrs. Marie Chalker. Admission was ten cents. Movies were first held on Saturday nights, later three nights a week and by 1929 were held six nights a week. On Monday the Opera House was dark, getting ready for next week's show. Paul Thomas bought the shows in 1929 and they were later run by Gene and Martha Smith and Eleanor Tobin Hull. At one time, Lew V. Snow operated "Snow's Shows" there. In later years The Garrett Theatre printed movie schedules for a whole month on colorful 11x5-inch cardboard  notices.

The fire department's equipment was housed in the lower part of the building and firemen were summoned with the fire bell which was housed in the tower. It weighed 3200 pounds and had a 50-pound clapper! When it was found that this bell was cracking the plaster, it was replaced with a smaller bell of 150 pounds.

In 1907, a committee was appointed to raise funds for a clock for the tower of the Opera House. Individuals and organizations were asked for contributions toward the purchase of a clock "that will be an object of just pride to every citizen of our town".

It was reported that the first time money was raised, "someone ran off with all the receipts." Everyone ralllied to the cause the second time, with even the school children donating their pennies. The Garrettsville Journal published a list of all the donors, as well as the amount of their donation. The list was broken down in groups: Town residents, former residents, other friends, and bachelor girls! Total: $1,101.55.

After the new Waltham clock was installed, Garrettsville jeweler Ned Lansinger took on the responsibility of winding it once a week. He climbed the eighty steps to the top of the belfry tower, every Monday, for 30 years. He had to wind up a 750-pound weight to operate the striking mechanism until he hooked up an electric motor to operate the wooden turn wheel.

Use of the auditorium as a motion picture theater was prohibited when structural weaknesses were discovered by state building inspectors and the fate of the 69-year-old Opera House began to be questioned. A committee study revealed both pros and cons and sentimentality seemed to head the pros' reasons for saving the building. But estimates for correcting the faults ranged around $18,000 and the huge building became a drain on the village treasury when rental fees from the auditorium stopped. Those questions were answered in 1964 when the famous old landmark was razed.

The clock was saved and has chimed the hour of the days and nights for the last 20 years in a new clock tower on the site of the former one.

But ask anyone who remembers anything about the old Opera House that stood on the corner of High and Maple Streets, and you probably will hear about their personal memories. They remember the fun they had going to dances, plays, graduations, movie shows, lectures and holiday parties. Many lament, "if only we could have saved it".

Even now, 36 years after it is gone, we remember.....

Standing majestically by the creek at the east end of Garrettsville's Main Street is "the mill". Some of it is part of the original "Garrett's Mill", as it is again named. This is where founder John Garrett III built the first grist mill and saw mill on the banks of Silver Creek, after he settled here in the wilderness of the Western Reserve in 1804. It was the beginning of our village.

Garrett died in January, 1806, but the grist mill continued to be the anchor of the young settlement. The mill business stayed in the Garrett family until 1883 when it was sold to John and Edward Vanderslice by Edwin Atwood, son-in-law of the Garretts. The mill has had several names and undergone as many  changes in these many years. The Vanderslice Four Mill name was followed by Hopkins' Old Water Mill to now The Garrett's Mill Company, in commemoration of its founder.

 A large part of the mill suffered destruction in 1940, when a rejected suitor of a local farmer's daughter set fire to it. Legend has it that he thought the farmer had a large amount of grain in the mill. He also set fire to the farmer's barn outside of town. The mill was rebuilt  and business continued..........

At the bridge crossing over Silver Creek, the mill stands on the site of the first Garrett water-powered mill. It is dated "1804".  It now houses the famous Alessi's Ristorante. The dining room overlooks the gentle falls of Silver Creek.

Nature worked its wonders thousands of years ago, and almost 200 years ago our small village was founded around the waterfalls, one of her beautiful creations. Through the centuries, rushing rapids from ancient melting glaciers transformed the river bed into the falls as water cascaded over the rocks and onto the rock bed.

The creek which meanders through Garrettsville reportedly was christened in 1802 by Hiram pioneer Mason Tilden. He and a friend were looking over the countryside and as they were admiring the clear stream that ran before them, he referred to it as a "silver creek". The name has carried down through the years, although later maps label it as Eagle Creek.

When John Garrett III purchased 300 acres of wilderness in the Western Reserve of Ohio, history records that from all appearances the water power of the creek was the object of attraction and measure of value. He and his family were leaving behind their comfortable means in Christiana Hundred, Delaware, to carry the gospel of their Baptist religion  to the Town of Nelson where he planned to engage in the milling of grain and lumber, as did his father in Delaware. The water power was needed.

The first damming of the falls was possibly earthen, but definitely timbered at some time. Timbered dams began with building cribbing. This was a log structure resting on solid rock which supported the breast or sheathing made up of logs split and hewed to fit. Wooden pins and notched timbers held the structure together. The dam was completed by dumping twigs, brush and clay over the sheathing which stopped the leaks and also protected the timbers

It is not really known how many times this dam might have had to be rebuilt through the years, but history does record the removal of a deteriorating plank dam and the building of the cement dam in 1885 when the Vanderslice brothers owned the mill.

In 1918, some 33 years later, a leak developed in the south end of the dam close to the foundry which was located there. The Vanderslices built a second temporary dam upstream, diverting all the creek water into the small mill race. The dam was then
repaired, reinforcing rods were inserted where it was weak, and it was let dry before the temporary dam upstream was removed.

The winter of 1952 was a stormy one. The water in the creek was high and on New Year's Day of 1953 the entire side of the mill race was washed out. A sign of the times then resulted in the old mill being converted to electric-powered turbines and a mill race was no longer needed.

In 1972, the Tushar family purchased the mill and tackled the job of restoring the mill's power source as it had begun 168 years before. They repaired the tired dam and restored the mill race. A new water wheel took its rightful place, and the Silver Creek dam and waterfalls was once again providing the power to turn the millstones to grind the grain.

The late 1980s saw the Andrews' as the new owners of "Garrett's Mill" and some of the town merchants pursued the vision of a boardwalk along the creek and across the falls. Through their perseverance and generous commitment, that dream became a reality in 1993 when the boardwalk was dedicated!

Stroll the boardwalk and take the time to stop and enjoy nature's beauty in this peaceful surrounding. Listen to the water spilling over the dam and the rocks and ponder that time almost 200 years ago when the Garrett and Dyson families settled at the falls and started building their dream and our village of Garrettsville!
 
 

The Cranes were quite a prominent family in Garrettsville around the turn of the last century. The Crane Brothers Cassius, Elton and Fred had a flourishing dry goods store and Arthur E. Crane and son Clarence had one of the largest maple syrup canneries in the area.

Clarence was involved in the chocolate candy business and searched for an idea for a candy that wouldn't melt in the heat of summer. In the early 1900s he met success with his new product, hard mints with the hole in the center called Life Savers! Lacking in machinery to stamp out the hard mints, he turned to a pill manufacturer who could use his equipment to press the first Pep-O-Mints.

A New York ad man, Edward J. Noble, approached Crane with a big marketing idea, but he wasn't interested. He told the ad man if he thought so much about the mints he could purchase the formula and rights to Life Savers and manufacture them himself. And, so he did, for $2,900!

It was not all smooth sailing for Noble and a partner, though. New packaging was needed to keep the peppermint flavor fresh. He spent a lot of time on promotions and in looking for new outlets, he called on saloons, cigar stores, barber shops, restaurants, and drugstores to persuade them to take a few boxes. He suggested that retailers put the candy near the cash register with a 5 ¢ price card and be sure every customer gets a nickel with his change.

One of his promotional tactics in later years posed a humorous problem: Several men were hired to walk the streets near Columbia University in metal tubes painted like Life Savers candy packages. A group of students encountered the men as they walked up a hill. The students turned the human Life Savers on their sides and rolled then down the hill.

Noble sold Life Savers and was a millionaire. Clarence Crane continued making chocolates and died in 1931. Life Savers are now marketed by the LifeSavers Division of the Nabisco Foods Group of RJR Nabisco.

Why Hart Crane's life ended in the blossom of his career is one of those never ending questions scholars and literary buffs could debate forever. Some claim Crane, now recognized as one of the most outstanding poets of 20th century America, committed suicide while crossing the Caribbean by boat; others maintain he was pushed or fell off the deck on that fateful return trip from Mexico.

The sea, which Crane used throughout his works as a symbol of regression and human surrender, had claimed him. Suicide or accident, he was gone at the age of 32. The man who is now classified with modern day greats like T.S. Elliott, Hart Crane's life had ended a world apart from how it began.

Starting out as most young boys, Crane had been full of imagination, ambition and energy in his early days where he was born to an affluent family. Harold Hart Crane was born in Garrettsville July 21, 1899, the only child of Clarence  A. and Grace E. Hart Crane. The house he was born in on Freedom St. is still occupied. When he was three years old his family moved to Warren, in neighboring Trumbull County, Ohio.

His parents separated in 1908 and Harold, now ten years old, was sent to live with his maternal grandparents, the Harts, who were now living in Cleveland. A few years later Clarence's parents, Arthur E. and Ella M. Beardsley Crane also moved from Garrettsville to Cleveland and later bought a house across the street from the Hart grandparents.

His life had been like a well written novel from the day he was born and, if his heritage is to be considered, even before.

Beginning with his great-great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Streator, the roots of Crane's family were interwoven with honor and accomplishment. One of the first residents of Windham, Portage County, in 1803, Mrs. Streator lived for more than 100 years. A woman who worked with her hands and spent many hours spinning wool, she knitted socks for soldiers in the revolutionary War, the Civil War and the War of 1812. Crane's great-great grandfather, Jason Streator, served two years in the state legislature and delivered original verse orations to the General Assembly. A man with both political and literary interests, he also kept legislative reports in measured stanzas.

Sylvina Streator, Crane's great-grandmother, supposedly learned the alphabet from the Warren Chronicle. While teaching in a one-room log schoolhouse near Garrettsville, she considered Lucretia Rudolph to be her prize pupil. Lucretia later became Mrs. James A. Garfield, first lady of the United States.

Termed by many who remember it a carefree and sweeping romance, the marriage of Crane's parents would prove too weak to withstand a lifetime. Already on the rocks when he was three, his parents' relationship seemed to worsen when the family moved to Warren where his father established a large maple syrup cannery.

Involving herself in operas and acting roles, his mother became even further removed from her son and husband, whose love for business and success seemed to trap his concentration. Crane went to such an extent, one of his biographers claims, to gain his mother's attention he would fein illness, even to the point of nausea, bringing her to his bedside for hours. Even while he was living in Cleveland with grandparents, his mother would consistently visit and take the boy on trips some claimed were her only escape.

With his coursework too broken up to salvage, Crane quit school at 17 when his parents' divorce became final and moved to New York City to pursue his career. He had begun to write seriously when he was about 15 and by himself, learned what schools could not teach him about the art.

He studied at the feet of famous and successful writers in New York and sought out literary endeavors to engulf himself. Famous also, some will claim, for his "partying" while most of his most important writing was going on, Crane seemed to grab at almost any stimulant, including alcohol, to help activate his creative juices. He was also inspired by visual arts and music, both of which are clearly reflected in many of his later works.

While he published only two books of poetry during his unfortunately short life, the list of Crane's single works is much too extensive to enumerate. He is probably best remembered for his books, "The Bridge," a series of works on the United States featuring one of his most famous poems, "To Brooklyn Bridge," and "White Buildings," which were published in 1930 and 1926, respectively.

In addition to having his second, and last, book published in 1930, Crane was also awarded the Helen Haire Levinson Prize that year, awarded by "Poetry: A Magazine of Verse."

It had been only a year since Crane had returned to the U.S. from Mexico to attend his father's funeral when his own epitaph was engraved on the same stone. "Harold Hart Crane, 1899-1932. Lost at Sea," was the only memory the world had of him besides his works until his cousin, Helen Hart Hurlbert, publisher of the Warren Tribune Chronicle, stepped in.

On Nov. 20, 1978, several organizations, school classes in history and literature and other interested and proud citizens of Garrettsville gathered around the (under-construction) clock tower for the dedication of the Crane Memorial. Presented as a gift to the village of Garrettsville by Mrs. Hurlbert, the rose granite monument now reminds people who the man was and, more importantly, where he was from. Mrs. Hurlbert was represented at the ceremony by her daughter, Zell Hart Draz and chief editor of The Tribune, James Brown.

Mrs. Vivian Pemberton, an associate professor of English at Kent State University's Trumbull branch and long-time Crane scholar, gave a speech and area school children participated in the program by reading excerpts of the man's works. The KSU Library Special Collections Department printed a limited edition of 100 copies of a letter written by Crane to a good friend, Charles Harris, especially for the occasion.

Garrettsville will now remember him, as he always remembered it. Speaking of the mill from which the village was founded, Crane said in "The Dance":

 "I left the village for dogwood.
 By the canoe
 Tugging below the mill-race, I could see
 Your hair's keen crescent running, and the
 First moth of evening take wing stealthily."