The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-01-26
REMINIsCENsEs
In the History of the Early Days of Stark
County.
Continued Prom Last Week.
sNYDER's SCHOOL DIsTRICT-LAKE TIP

country, has its characters" generally
shiftless, unstable souls, whose habit or
eccentricities make them the butt Of all
the jokes of the neighbOrhOOd.
Belonging to the itinerant class, their
stay in any locality is usually governed
by the matter of "cTedit" which forms
an important factor in their lives, and
whose large families growing up like
weeds, neglected and left to shift for
themselves at an early age, is often the
means OF developing a degree of self
reliance, which frequently serves to-
place them in the front ranks of success
full farmers, mechanics, or business
men, and which the proud fathers are
sure to attribute to the law Of transmits
sion of genius.
From the fact of their migratory hab--
its they really belong no where, and a
/ description of them would as prOperly
| belong to some other locality as the
Snyder district. We mention, omit
ting some names, several of these
characters, lest this locality, being
weighed in the balance, should
be found wanting. "Jakey' MOrdi, a
| good natured, rOllicking, witty mortal,
was long known in the neighbOThOOd as
one whose greatest fault was the love of
whisky. A sale or raising anywhere
within a radius of half a dozen miles
at which Jakey's smiling face was not
seen, was something unheard of, and
always to get drunk was sacred duty
to which he cOnscientiOusly adhered to
on every favorable occasion, and his an
tics while full" afforded great deal
of amusement Having bid off an
empty cider barrel at sale he was seen
frequently working at the bung-hOIe,
| rolling 1t over and over, some times on
top and some times underneath. A
large crowd being attracted to the spot,
he explained that he was trying to get
int. aaA Co.. 4 6 IL
ter from the cold, but he considered it
easier to roll hOme-three miles-than
to walk in his condition. On another
| occasion, having bid off a lOng-tailed
shOat, he set himself to work to knot
that appendage in order to prevent, as
he said, annoyance to his neighbOTs by
creeping through the fences. One day
he called on neighbOr with the "slOp
| bucket" dangling from his cOat-tail, and
when his attention was called to it, be-
came very indignant, that his wife
! should have perpetrated such joke on
| him. Being firm believer in a literal
hell, he desired that when buried, it
should be in a chestnut coffin, so that
| the cracking while passing through
the flames should call attention to the
fact that old "Jakey" had arrived. An
other odd character was remarkable for
| his great cOwaTdice. So timid was he
that, sundOwn invariably found him
in doors, never venturing out after dark
on any account. He lived an easy, COM
Portable life, with scarcely any visible
means of support, and was considered a
harmless soul whose timidity made him
the victim of many tricks, often half
frightening him to death (?) On one
| occasion he started early in the evening
to see his girl, but sundOwn found him
still a mile from his destination, and
meeting a neighbOT he insisted on his
going with him, which was good ma
turedly done, going about half the dis
tance, but rather than go the rest of the
way alone he turned back. Thus mat
ters went on for some years, when one
morning before day, a neighbOr who
having missed from time to time various
things, among others lot of corn
which had been extracted from a hole
the size of mans arm-in the crib,
had the previous evening set a large
wolf trap just inside. Upon visiting
the trap our coward was found meekly
wanting to be released, his hand being
securely caught. Space fOTbids the
mention of but one other, who claimed
to have been veteran of the 1872 war.
The love of strong drink was his beset-
ting sin, and when the contents of the
bottle got low, peculiar cough would
seize him, for which there was no re-
lief except in a pilgrimage to the still
house" to replenish the old twist
neck" the rise and fall of the contents
ever gaugi1g the severity of the
cough, which always heralded his COM
ing over the hill and through the woods
in bee line for EVeThard's. The relief
| thus afforded had very mellOwing
effect, and on these occasions marvel
| Gus deeds of YalOr were recOunted of
| which he was the central figure and
hero. In one of the battles in which he
was engaged, after dealing carnage and
death around him, our hero was sur
rounded by six British officers who, ad-
miring his valOr, desired to capture him
alive and was ordered to surrender.
| Expressing his contempt in the Ian
! guage of NapOleon's old guard under
similar circumstances at Waterloo, as
| given by Victor Hugo, he with one tre-
mendOus bound cleared their heads and
escaped! Several amusing alterations
took place between him and "Old Field"
another, as was claimed, 1912 veteran,
each endeavOring to outvie the other in
tales of tragic deeds; their accounts of
reScueS and incidents drawn entirely
from imagination not harmOnizing.
The exact date of the organization of
the Snyder school district we have been
unable to ascertain, but all agree it
took place several years prior to the
erection of the first school house
which we will attempt to describe
and which occupied the site of the pres
ent brick structure which is the third and
more pretentious than its predecessors,
the second being frame, weather-bOard-
ed, and painted the then popular color,
red. The little brook which runs along
by the hickory tree at the foot of the
knoll on which the school house stands,
murmurs as sweetly to-day as it did a
generation ago when we were children,
and the memory of ihe old log school
house made sacred by our association
with those who were dear to us and
! who are now no more, touches tender
chord in our hearts, and no word that
> may be written in this sketch is de-
/. signed to cause pain, the only object
! being to call up pleasant recOllections,-
and the liberty will be taken of calling
persons and things by their school boy
names. The first school house was
r built as near as we are able to learn, in
| in the year 1884, the timber being taken
' from the adjoining forest, the logs be-
: ing from ten to twelve inches thick,
= and what was to constitute the inside
: surface was hewed and polished with
:, the axe, the outside remaining the nat