Christmas in Milan, OH

I was raised in a small town called Milan, Oh which is in Erie County, south of Lake Erie, and in between Cleveland and Toledo. I actually lived outside of Milan on a 250 acre farm, which is undoubtedly where I got my love of animals. I remember that I would much rather help my father outside than to sweep and dust the house (my Saturday activity).

What I never realized growing up, was the historic significance of my town. I knew that it was the birthplace of Thomas Edison, the famous inventor -- we had his birth home in our town. And that we had a famous canal in town -- we used to ice skate on it. As I grow older, I find that I appreciate the history.

The main reason for this post is because I had a chance to have lunch with my two oldest friends. I met my friend Kathy in kindergarten, and my friend Sharron in first grade. And we were best friends through high school and beyond (and in Milan, that meant we also stayed in the same school building). But as happens when people move on with their lives, we had not all been in the same room for probably over 20 years. So this was special.

As it turns out, Kathy and her family live in a very old and historic home in Milan. It is called the Jenkins-Perry house, and is in the National Historic Registry of homes. It was built in 1836, and 2011 will be the 175th anniversary. It's amazing anything can be that old and still be standing. But in Milan, we have MANY homes that are historic and that old. The town is very quaint, and hasn't grown much since the 1840's. Back in our "hey day", the town was about 1300 people, and today it is still less than 1500 residents.

So I decided to do a little research on Kathy's home, and our town -- Milan, Ohio. I'm also a believer if you can find the info from a good source, why write it myself. So these are excepts and distillations from the web site, www.milanarea.com.

THE BEGINNINGS

Milan today sits in Erie County, which can trace its beginnings to one of the most dramatic events of the Revolutionary War. The American traitor Benedict Arnold, and British General Tryon conducted a series of raids in the state of Connecticut and left in their wake burned out homes and villages. In 1792, the Connecticut Assembly awarded 500,000 acres of land in the western most portion of the Western Reserve to the citizens who had became known as the fire-sufferers. This parcel of land soon became known as "The Firelands" which consisted of what is now known as Erie and Huron counties along with Ruggles and Danbury Townships.

On January 2, 1817, Ebenezer Merry bought a 453 acre plot of land directly by the Huron river, where he built a dam, a grist mill and a sawmill. He laid out a new town dividing it into 1 acre lots into what was to become the Village of Milan, Ohio. The grist mill was a catalyst for the new town, and by 1824, 280 people were living in Milan which had 32 homes (two of them brick and one still standing to this day), along with 20 businesses.

One of the families that moved into the Milan area was the Abbott family, and they located beside the Huron River. The area was known as "New Salem" and later became Abbot's Landing. Benjamin Abbott was a ship builder, and he believed that a sailing ship could navigate the Huron River to Lake Erie. In 1828, he built a small lake schooner called the "Mary Abbot" and sailed from Abbott's Landing to Lake Erie, and from there sailed it to New York City where he sold the goods he was carrying, restocked the ship, and sailed it back to the landing in Milan.

THE JENKINS-PERRY HOUSE (or my friend Kathy's home)

At about the same time, H. N. Jenkins build the schooner "Louise Jenkins" just below and across the river from Abbott's Shipyard. I'll stop the history lesson here for a bit, as it makes sense to me that Mr. H. N. Jenkins was the shipbuilder who built my friend's home.

Kathy gave my mother and me a tour of her home, and it was amazing. I've searched several sites on the Internet, and there really isn't any info on the home, except that it is on the national registry. Several factors about the home -- the siding is actually ship siding (as Mr. Jenkins built ships), and the pillars that you see on the home are actually real trees covered in plaster. I was amazed.

During the history of Milan and before the Civil War, the town did help run away slaves on the underground railroad. It isn't know that this particular house helped, but in doing renovations on the outside of the home, my friends uncovered a secret room in the house that is accessed through the basement up a chimney.

Another factor that I found very interesting (and I'm sure is true with other large homes of this period) were the servant doors. The home has a maid room, with stairs from that room to the kitchen area and also the bedrooms on the 2nd floor. On the inside of the rooms, the doors were very ornate with decoration, and one of them would be very plain on the other side. This was how the servants knew through which door the could enter -- only the door with the plain side.

THE MILAN CANAL

River barges had been built on the Huron River as early as 1811, but the successful launch of the schooner's "Mary Abbott" and the "Louise Jenkins" firmly established the specific area from which the river was passable for larger schooners, and the ability to transport large cargos of goods to the Great Lakes.

This was important for the growth of Milan, as farms in North Central Ohio could bring their goods to Milan and load them on river barges. But because larger schooners could navigate the river, plans changed from building a barge canal to a ship's canal.

In 1832, a towpath was built from the entrance of the Huron Harbor (east bank of the river) to Abbotsford a little over 8 miles. And a 3 mile long canal and towpath became known as the Milan Canal.

The Milan Canal officially opened on July 4, 1839, eleven years after the Mary Abbott opened the river to schooner traffic. It was an immediate success and storage warehouses were quickly erected on the south side of the basin. It was an unprecedented economic growth for Milan. It was, at this time, the largest inland port on Lake Erie, with the peak year for shipping on the Canal being 1847 (the year Thomas Edison was born), when over 900,000 barrels of wheat were shipped from Milan. At this time, Milan was the second largest wheat exporting city in the WORLD -- second only to Odessa, Russia. It was not uncommon to have up to 500 or more farm wagons filled with goods stretched from the canal basin. At it's peak, more than 20 ships per day were leaving Milan's basin with full loads of wheat from farms as far away as 150 miles from Milan.

MILAN LANDMARKS

The town was growing, and in 1845, the historical two-story Milan Inn was built as one of only 20 Ohio Stagecoach Inns. The original Green Gothic styled building structure shares much local history within the village.

The Inn is located on a lot on the south side of the Village Square, and has been resilient while withstanding a major fire in the 1890's and an adjacent Milan Ledger building explosion in July of 1969. Thereafter the Inn was renovated and remodeled a few times, and has gone from having sleeping rooms, to becoming a popular restaurant and banquet facility.

Today my friends, Tom and Nancy Gfell, own the Milan Inn. It is home for Tom's antique store and Nancy's gift shop. They have renovated the second floor into a beautiful 2 bedroom residence available for rent.

In the 218 years that the Village of Milan has existed, no single period of time is historically more significant than the brief 29 year period from the beginning to the end of the Milan Canal. This economic boom was every bit as significant and bigger than many of the gold strikes in California.




During this time The Town Square was established in 1867, which included the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, which honored the residents who served in the Civil War. This turned the public square from a hitching post to a city park. Around the park is our town hall, most of the downtown buildings and numerous landmarks.





THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Milan's biggest claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of Thomas Edison. His birth home is in Milan and is open to the public. Edison's father had to escape from Canada as he had taken part in the unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837. He came to Milan because it was a boom town at that time. The home was built in 1842, and Tom Edison was born in 1847. Edison's family was forced to move to Port Huron, Michigan when the railroad bypassed Milan in 1854. Tom was 7 years old.

Edison's parents sold the house in 1854 when they left, and one of Edison's sisters repurchased the home in 1894. Edison so cherished his childhood home that he purchased it from his sister's family in 1906. The birth place was first opened to the public in 1947.

AFTER THE CANAL

Yet for all the canal's incredible success, storm clouds were gathering on the horizon. The railroads had finally come to Ohio and they were working day and night to lay new tracks into previously ignored farm communities throughout north central Ohio. The railroads could simply move goods faster and more efficiently than shipping them on the canals. Milan's fate was sealed and by the turn of the century, Milan had returned to its roots as a quaint inland village in northern Ohio.

But from one who grew up in Milan, I'm happy the railroads passed it by and it did remain a quaint village. It was a great place to grow up, and is still a prized town in which to live.