Friday, January 21, 2011

How Newark Ohio Got its Name

While doing some research I came across some Minnie Hite Moody articles and found one on Newark, Oh and how the towns name came to be.
 In 1666 a Christian man named Abraham Pierson came from Newark-on-Trent a town in England, yes that is correct, England!  He had the calling to spread the good word about England and the world.  He set sail and came to New Jersey with his followers and settled the vast wilderness. Abraham's followers thought highly of him and decided it only fitting to name this new settlement Newark.
 As time ticked on the settlement became larger and another fine gentleman by the name of William C. Schenck decided to call Newark his new home.   There was a section of Military Land for sale at two dollars and acre it was a junction of the forks of the Licking River.  William C. Schenck along with G.W. Burnet and John Cummins decided to purchase the land and check it out.  Well much to their joy it was a great place to start a new town.  Since William C. Schenck came from Newark, New Jersey it was decided to call the new town New Ark.  The land was surveyed and platted out, then recorded at Lancaster.  Lancaster was the county seat of Fairfield County and included New Ark.  Soon after the plat was drawn they decided to spell New Ark as one work, hence, Newark! 
Did you know the square was once called the commons, make sense to me. History says there were ponds around the wooded commons the center was just a little higher ground. The ponds were of course named after the home owners or business owners that the pond was in front of.  Such names as Sherwood, Kennedy, Gault's Tavern and Cully's Tavern were given to the ponds.  North Park Place and South Park Place were the busiest streets of all, they were named in 1874.  The square has taken on many changes over the years. 
I remember a newspaper article my mom showed me about my great-grandmother  riding in a horse and bugging.  The horses were spooked and my great-grandmother Angie (Nethers) Wright jumped from the wagon and her dressed got caught and she was dragged to death by the run away horses.  What a terrible sight that must have been. 
There were newspaper offices, grocery stores, gristmills, an iron foundry, a wool factory, a bookstore, hardware stores.   By 1900 there were also  construction companies, tractor manufacturers, and companies working with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The  Heisey Glass Company was also here and I know many of us had ancestors that worked there.
I thought it was interesting to learn that  The American Bottle Company was the largest beer bottle manufacturer in the world and employed more than 2,500 people in the first decade of the 1900s.  There have been a lot of well known people and business's that have come from our great city and there is a wealth of history here.
Ref: Minnie Hite Moody Ohio History Central  http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org

5 comments:

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    1. You are a troll:
      There was something in the air that night
      The stars were bright, Fernando
      They were shining there for you and me
      For liberty, Fernando
      Though I never thought that we could lose
      There's no regret
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      Delete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Ah, journalism has all this technology and they can't choose spell check before posting!
    "My great-grandmother riding in a horse and bugging." Made my imagination see Grandmothers from the 1800's rapping out to Run DMC!

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  4. Newark NJ was founded by Connecticut puritans, led by Robert Treat. It was named by Pierson later. Newark NJ's original name was New Ark. It was named after the Puritan church. They changed it back to Newark. Newark Ohio was never named New Ark. People in Ohio pronounce it as New Ork. Probably an attempt to sound like New York. The actual founders of Newark Ohio were the Hopewell Indians. Schenck didn't arrive here until 1802. All he did was build a home here. The railroad helped more than anything.

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