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Chapter 10 William Bennett’s Navarre, the Canal Town sam฀tamburro Every small town has a historian, the sage of its history and heritage. In the first half of the twentieth century William Loren Bennett served that role for Navarre, Ohio, located along the Tuscarawas River in northeast Stark County. More than that, he captured on film many of Navarre’s landscapes and buildings, freezing in time the architecture and appearance of the village. For future generations, Bennett has left visual and written histories of the Village of Navarre and beyond. Born on November 9, 1869, William, like his father before him, spent his life in Navarre. In fact, his grandfather Oliver F. Bennett was one of the village’s earliest residents, arriving in town on the Ohio & Erie Canal . His trip is the stuV of legend. According to family lore, Oliver was impressed into the British Royal Navy in 1821, at thirteen.1 Apparently, the ship made several stops; Oliver and two other shipmates went absent without leave during a port call in Quebec, Canada. He and his mates hid for several days with a sympathetic Quebec shopkeeper, and the navy ship left port without them. The shopkeeper secured Oliver a job in a Quebec shipyard, where he apprenticed to be a mechanic. After working in the shipyards of Quebec for several years, Oliver decided he wanted to travel to the United States, particularly Cleveland, Ohio.2 In 1830, he traveled there by boat to start anew. After working two years on the docks of Cleveland, Oliver planned to travel to New Orleans, journeying by boat on the Ohio & Erie Canal to the Ohio River at Portsmouth. In 1833, he boarded a canal boat to begin his trek south; his first stop was Massillon, Ohio. During an overnight stay in ฀ 179 180฀ sam฀tamburro Massillon, his future was changed. After meeting the daughter of the proprietor (Peter Nave) of the hotel, Sarah Nave, Oliver decided to marry her and stay in the area. After a year’s courtship, the couple wed in the summer of 1834.3 He and his new wife moved to Navarre at a time of tremendous economic boom there. As one can imagine, the town Oliver Bennett relocated to in 1834 was significantly diVerent than present-day Navarre. In fact, the current Village of Navarre was historically composed of three diVerent villages : Bethlehem, Rochester, and Navarre. After the Ohio & Erie Canal opened, all three towns had the economy of inland port communities, built on grain shipment. In the 1830s, consequently, the towns were experiencing a construction boom, in both business and private sectors. Oliver Bennett quickly found work as a builder and constructed several of the town’s original landmark buildings, like its mill and first hotel. Among his proudest achievements as a builder was the construction of the first steeple on the old St. Clement Catholic Church. Oliver also was an inventor. In about 1839, he invented an early threshing device, a “knocker,” which was used to flail grain. According to a family history, the machine preceded that invented later by Russell and Company of Massillon. The knocker proved eVective at separating grain from straw and substantially increased the productivity of farmers, so much so that the overproduction of grain sometimes glutted the market, driving down prices. Local businessmen searched for a solution to control the supply of grain commodities. Around 1850, they pooled their resources and formed a business alliance, the Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Association. The association consisted of about fifty businessmen, with the combined capital of $20,000.4 Although it was not incorporated as a business, it was controlled by a board of directors. It built a large warehouse, a hardware store, and a dry goods store and acquired a number of canal boats to ship products to market and also built twelve wharves along the banks of the canal. The association dealt mostly in grain trade, and during its peak operational years, it purchased nearly 100,000 bushels of wheat and grain from area farmers and shipped it to Cleveland on the Ohio & Erie Canal. During the antebellum period, the Navarre area remained one of the largest trading centers in Stark County.5 Since the Ohio & Erie Canal was the transportation artery in Navarre, nearly all the local businessmen had a stake in its day-to-day operation. Oliver Bennett was no exception. In 1847, he completed the construction of a building near Lock 6, which would house his new grocery and provi- [3.137...

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