in Massillon, Ohio, by David W. Palmquist

36

Plans For Restoration of Thomas Rotch Fiomestead in Massillon, Ohio

INTRODUCTION

About ten years ago I became interested in the connection between Nantucket and the town of Massillon, Ohio, which was my Mother's hometown. The results of my investigations were published in Historic Nantucket for April 1964. Kendal, the first name given to the town in the area now called Massillon, was founded by Thomas Rotch, who was the son of William Rotch. Thomas was born and brought up in Nantucket. He took with him to Kendal many Nantucket people, and others came out later. One of these Nantucketers was Captain Mayhew Folger whose grandson left the money to the Nantucket Historical Association which has resulted in the splendid museum recently finished.

The lovely old house named Spring Hill which Thomas built is still standing in Massillon, and it is interesting to find out that plans have been made for this historic Ohio (and Quaker) landmark. Mr. David Palmquist of the Massillon Museum has written the following account of the plans for the preservation of this house.

Katherine Seeler

DAVID W. PALMQUIST

Massillon, Ohio, is a long way from the ocean, but not far enough to be out of reach of the restless people of Nantucket who went West in the early 1800's when the Embargo and the second war with England ruined whaling and shipping on the seas. Thomas Rotch, youngest son of William Rotch of Nantucket, was one of the pioneers, leaving Hartford, Connecticut, with his wife, Charity Rodman of Newport, Rhode Island, and a flock of several hundred Spanish merino sheep. He settled in 1811 on land near the present city of Massillon, where he laid out a town in the spring of 1812 named Kendal, after the English woolen manufacturing town of the same name. He set up a pottery, woolen mill, general store and a saw and grist mill. A Friends meeting of course was organized at once. In this venture, Thomas was joined by other transplanted New Englanders: Macys, Folgers, Colemans, Skinners, Micheners and Coffins.

RESTORATION OF ROTCH HOMESTEAD 37

For his wife, Charity, he built his "mansion house," Spring

Hill, on an elevated site overlooking the town of Kendal. The house was built between 1821 and 1823, and here Thomas and Charity lived briefly before their deaths in 1823 and 1824. They had no children. Their employee, Arvine Wales, who had herded their sheep from Hartford, purchased the home from the Rotch heirs in 1831, and the Wales family has occupied it all but a few years since that time.

The house that Thomas Rotch built was plain even to the point of being severe, but the frame construction and chimneys are substantial, and the rooms are large and spacious. Arvine Wales added a west wing, giving the outside of the house its present balanced appearance. Over the years very little alteration has been done, and several of the original furnishings are intact to this day.

In its later years, Spring Hill was a substantial dairy farm. On the property today are several outbuildings reflecting the work that went on there: a wool house dating from the earliest period, for the storage of raw wool; a milk house for the processing of milk, butter and other dairy products: a spring house used to cool these products, with underground pipes supplying water to the milk house and cow barn; and a smoke house where fifty hams could be smoked at one time.

In 1966, a group of interested citizens of Massillon, with The Massillon Museum's official support, formed the Massillon Museum Foundation, Inc., to preserve Spring Hill as an historic property. This action was prompted by a series of events that started when the ownership of the property passed from the Wales family into the hands of a group formed to develop the property for residential and other uses. This development would possibly have destroyed the house. After a successful and concerted fund raising drive by members of the Foundation, the homestead at Spring Hill and three acres of land were purchased in late 1966. In 1967, an additional nine acres were bought to round out the property.

It is the intention of the Foundation not just to preserve Spring Hill, but as funds and circumstances permit, to restore it and eventually open it to the public, incorporating it into the total educational services offered by The Massillon Museum. The house and its outbuildings would be staffed by trained volunteer aides, along with appropriate exhibits and such re-enacted activities as spinning and weaving, candle making, cheese and butter making and other household tasks of the nineteenth century.

The work of interpretation is fortunately made easier by the large collection of manuscript papers found on the property by by Mrs. Horatio W. Wales, consisting of about 1,500 pieces of Thomas Rotch's papers and an equal amount of the Wales family.

38 HISTORIC NANTUCKET The papers are now being processed and catalogued by the Massillon Public Library. Mrs. Wales, by her study and preservation of the collection, did much to illuminate the history of early Kendal and Massillon, and provide insight into the business, religious and personal affairs of the owners of Spring Hill. The whaling portion of the papers was recently microfilmed by the Whaling and Marine Manuscript Archives of Nantucket ; those papers relating to the Quaker religion were microfilmed by Swarthmore College many years ago.

Spring Hill will further the historical education of people in the area, especially children, bringing to life the very earliest days in the Settlement of Ohio. It is also a story that cannot be told without bringing in the tale of Nantucket and New Bedford whaling, of high adventure at sea and huge profits to be made at home. The high standard of living in New England during this period is evident in the Ohio home of Thomas and Charity Rotch, with its silver and fine furniture, books, china and glassware, as well as in the design and construction of the house itself. The house is full of history, and its associations with the interesting and important people who left New England long ago will some day be seen and felt by everyone at Spring Hill.