Town of Kendal, Ohio
Only two months after settling in Ohio, Thomas Rotch decided to found the community he had planned in Hartford. On April 20, 1812, he recorded at Canton the plat for the town of Kendal, with himself listed as proprietor. Thomas platted Kendal with 102 lots. Click here to see Thomas Rotches’ original plat of Kendal. The town was named after a renowned textile center of Cumbria, England. Thomas Rotch aspired to make Kendal the textile center of Ohio with his woolen factory on Sippo Creek and Merino sheep flock at Spring Hill Farm.
Kendal was laid out like a New England community. Two main roads went through Kendal. Front Street (Wales Road) ran north-south along the front of the town and went along the Sippo Creek. Along Front Street were also two greens, or public spaces, named Union Square and Charity Square. The other main road was State Street (State Ave), which ran east-west.
State Street was also positioned to connect to major roads that already existed, which would connect Kendal to other nearby communities, such as Canton and Wooster. Another smaller community on the other side of the Tuscarawas River, which would become West Massillon, was first occupied around 1807 by William Henry. Thomas wanted to connect and trade with all of these communities.
Many of the early settlers were fellow Quakers from New England, who had sufficient funds to move to Ohio. In addition, Thomas restricted the sale of lots in Kendal to ‘mechanics and manufacturers’ and stipulated that everyone who bought a lot must build on it within a year. Houses were not permitted to be of logs, but had to be made of frame, brick, or stone. In addition, they had to be at least 16 by 20 feet, a story and a half high, and must have a chimney. The estimated cost at this time for building a frame house to meet these specifications including shingles and 27 panes of window glass was $85.30 ($2,030.30 today). While many in Kendal agreed with these requirements, some residents thought the restrictions kept the town from growing as much as it could have.
Just as he did in Hartford, Thomas began operating a general store in Kendal. In 1813, Thomas also established the post office and had himself named postmaster. The same year, several prominent figures moved to Kendal, including Thomas and Anna Folger Coffin, Mayhew, Mary Joy Folger, and their son, Robert. Jehiel Fox, who is credited with building Spring Hill; James Duncan, who would found Massillon; and Alexander Skinner, an early business associate of Thomas Rotch and Arvine Wales.
By 1814, a brickyard was also established, and by 1816, an impressive two-story brick house was built on Front Street for Alexander Skinner. By the end of 1816, the town had 40-50 houses, a powder mill, a pottery, two saw mills, a flour mill, and a woolen factory. People brought wool to be made into cloth from as far as fifty miles away. A simple Quaker Meeting House was built near the woolen mill on the Sippo Creek, which would later be replaced by a larger brick one. Arvine Wales, who was now the Foreman of the Rotch farm, began to travel around Ohio and neighboring states, selling woolen wares and general goods on Thomas’s behalf.
Satisfied with Kendal’s development, Thomas decided to upgrade his own living quarters. He had a larger log house built for himself and Charity around 1817 or 1818. Now more comfortable, they continued to help manage the growing community of Kendal. This also appears to be around the time they began opening their home and farm as a station on the Underground Railroad, which you can read more about here. By 1820, Kendal had a population of 140. In 1821, Thomas began planning a larger house at the top of the hills above Kendal, called Spring Hill. The house was finished around the fall of 1823.
After Thomas and Charity’s passing in 1823 and 1824, the town of Kendal faced major changes. The first was that an Owenite utopian society called the Friendly Association for Mutual Interests, bought 2,113 acres of land in 1826 from Arvine Wales, who took over managing Kendal following the Rotches’ deaths. Around the same time, James Duncan, who had arrived in Kendal in 1813, founded his own community nearby called Massillon.
In 1829, the Kendal utopian experiment failed, and the land was returned to the management of Arvine Wales. In 1831, Arvine Wales, James Duncan, and Charles Skinner purchased the former Kendal experiment land together. The three of them developed the area as an addition to the Town of Massillon, which was next to Kendal and growing rapidly. Next to Massillon and Kendal was another community called West Massillon, which was founded in 1831 by William Henry.
Later, in 1844, the Charity School of Kendal schoolhouse was completed, which was nearby Spring Hill. Many of the people associated with the school lived in Kendal. To learn more about the Charity School of Kendal and the Rotch legacy, click here.
By the 1850s, Kendal, Massillon, and West Massillon were growing closer and closer, and the three communities decided to come together in 1853. With three populations merging, the new city of Massillon had over 5,000 residents. Kendal, which no longer existed, became Massillon’s Fourth Ward, which it remains to this day.
Explore additional Kendal resources:
The story of these communities is a tapestry of local, national, and international history. Using new archival discoveries in the Massillon Museum, Spring Hill Historic Home, and Massillon Public Library collections, this book tells stories of the early Kendal and Massillon, shedding light on the Ohio frontier and its pioneers from 1812 to 1860.
Supplemental Kendal resources:
Primary sources from Massillon Public Library’s Rotch-Wales Papers