The following timeline was taken from "Towpath to Towpath: A History of Massillon, Ohio" by Margy Vogt (2002). If you would like to purchase a copy of this book, please click here for more information.

Community Chronology

1812 Thomas Rotch records the village of Kendal
1814 Perry Township residents first meet in Kendal
1818 Kendal completes wooden aqueduct
1821 Thomas and Charity Rotch build their Spring Hill home
1825 Ohio and Erie Canal construction begins
1826 James Duncan records the Village of Massillon
1826 Kendalites form a Communistic Coalition
1827 Mayhew Folger is named Massillon's first postmaster
1827 James Duncan organizes Massillon's first school
1828 The first canal boats arrive in Port Massillon
1829 Students first live and learn at Charity School of Kendal
1830 The Massillon Gazette begins publishing
1831 William Henry founds West Massillon
1832 Duncan, Wales, and Skinner buy land to join Massillon and Kendal
1833 The Bank of Massillon is founded
1835 William Henry plats Brookfield
1835 James and Eliza Duncan build their Main Street home (which will later house the Massillon Museum and the Massillon Public Library)
1842 C.M. Russell & Company incorporates
1844 Photographic pioneer Abel Fletcher opens his studio
1847 Telegraph lines reach Massillon
1848 Sabotage of the Sippo Dam causes the Washington's Birthday Flood
1848 Massillon passes its first school levy; Union School opens
1851 Entire block of downtown buildings burn
1852 The Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad reaches Massillon
1852 Ohio Women's Rights Association forms at Massillon
1853 Massillon incorporates as a town
1853 Massillon Water Company incorporates
1853 Massillon Furnace manufactures iron products
1853 Citizens elect their first mayor- Samuel Pease
1853 Fire Department purchases its first pumping engine, "The Vigilant."
1856 Massillon builds its first firehouse
1862 104th and 115th O.V.I. muster in at Camp Massillon
1863 The Independent begins publishing
1864 Russell & Company incorporates
1867 Population reachs 5,000; Massillon becomes a city
1868 The forerunner to the B&O; Railroad comes to Massillon
1868 Moses Brown founds Brown Lumber
1869 Thomas Harvey publishes Harvey's English Grammar
1869 Joseph Davenport founds Massillon Bridge Company
1869 Heitger Funeral Home is established
1869 Students first attend West Massillon Union School
1869 The Baltzly Drug Company opens
1869 The Bucher Opera House opens
1871 The Cleveland, Tuscarawas & Wheeling Railroad reaches Massillon
1871 The GAR commissions Civil War statue for Massillon Cemetery
1873 Massillon Iron and Coal Company is founded
1873 Sailer Cigar Factory opens
1874 A.A. Hammersmith starts selling insurance
1875 City Council sets up the first Police Force
1876 F.W. Arnold begins selling insurance
1879 North Street School replaces Union School
1880 McLain Grovery is founded
1880 Stoehr Glass initiates Massillon's glass industry
1880 The first aroma of bread wafts from Liebermann's Bakery
1882 Hess-Snyder begins selling stoves
1882 A Pest House opens in Mosquito Hollow
1883 Massillon Trades & Labor Assembly organizes
1885 Massillon women found Daughters of Union Veterans
1886 The Standpipe rises above the new Sippo Reservoir Dam
1888 Incandescent street lights end the gaslight era
1890 Caroline Everhard presides over the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association
1890 The Board of Trade organizes
1891 Massillon Water Supply lays iron water pipes
1891 Streetcar service begins
1892 First Methodist Church and town clock burn
1893 Massillon-based Wetter's Circus opens
1894 J. Walter and Flora McClymonds build their Five Oaks Mansion
1894 Massillon High School Tigers play their first football game
1894 Coxey's Army marches to Washington D.C.
1895 Elizabeth Folger is Massillon's first female school board member
1897 C.J. Duncan opens his jewelry store
1897 Frieg's Restaurant opens
1898 Massillon State Hospital opens with 300 patients
1899 The Bee Hive is Massillon's first electrical fire
1899 McClymonds Public Library opens
1899 Albert Bamberger is Massillon's first firefighter killed in the line of duty
1900 Fifteen West Brookfield homes burn
1902 Duke Cunningham buys and Edison Photograph to become a D.J.
1902 The Sugar Bowl serves its first candy and ice cream
1903 Massillon Professional Tigers play their first game
1903 Mount Airy Hospital Opens
1904 MCA Sign Company is established
1906 The first Jewel Automobiles roll out of the Massillon plant
1907 Philanthropists deed Sippo Valley to the City for a park
1907 Ohio Drilling Company is founded
1908 Massillon builds its first City Hall
1909 J. Walter McClymonds builds the McClymonds Building in downtown
1910 Massillon Aluminum begins manufacturing
1910 Massillon City Hospital is dedicated
1911 Massillon's first Boy Scout Troop is organized
1911 Reliance Manufacturing Company incorporates
1912 Griscom-Russell evolves from the fading Russell & Company
1912 Grocers form Progressive Delivery Company
1912 Reinhardt Ausmus first flies his homemade airplane
1913 Massillon suffers the worst flood in its history
1913 Peerless Drawn Steel sets up in Massillon
1913 Students first attend the new Massillon High School
1913 Herman Albrecht designs Massillon's new Post Office
1914 Enterprise Aluminum opens
1915 The first steel is poured at Central Steel Company
1915 The Grand and Lincoln Theatres show their first films
1915 The Massillon Chamber of Commerce organizes
1916 Rotary Club of Massillon is chartered as the town's first service club
1916 Oak Knoll Park is dedicated
1916 The Tigers win their first state football championship
1917 Massillon Steel Casting Company opens
1917 "Massillon's Own" Company K ships out for World War I
1918 Emergency hospitals deal with the Spanish Influenza Epidemic
1918 Hess-Snyder Company constructs a nine-story building for the Ideal Company
1919 400 attend the first meeting of Massillon Woman's Club
1920 The Agathons play semi-professional baseball
1920 Columbia Heights thrives on bootlegging and gambling
1921 Massillon's YWCA organizes
1922 Longfellow School replaces North Street School
1923 First National Bank builds its eight-story office tower
1924 Perry Rubber incorporates
1925 The YMCA building is dedicated
1925 Massillon becomes Ohio's third city to install traffic lights
1926 Massillon celebrates its Centennial
1926 East Brookfield and West Brookfield merge into Massillon
1926 Central Alloy Steel lights the Betty Furnace
1926 Fidelity Bus Service replaces streetcars
1927 Massillon Aero Corporation produces its first and only airplane
1928 Boy Scouts "plant" Lincoln Highway markers
1929 Tyson Bearings Incorporates
1930 Republic Steel Corporation is organized
1932 Paul Brown comes home to coach the Tigers
1933 Nathan Genshaft founds Superior's Brand Meats
1933 The Massillon Museum opens
1933 1000 unemployed register for WPA and PWA jobs.
1934 Massillon Tiger Booster Club organizes
1936 Massillon Boys Club is founded
1937 Massillon Public Library opens
1937 The Little Steel Strike causes violence and deaths
1938 The Tiger Swing Band pioneers a new marching band style
1939 St. Dymphna Shrine is dedicated
1939 Tiger Stadium is constructed
1940 Work begins on the Flood Control Project
1941 Mayor Lash appoints a Civil Defense Council
1943 Massillon Victory Garden Committee organizes
1943 Griscom Russell flies Massillon's first "E" Pennant for production excellence
1943 Massillon Lions Club forms and produces its first Annual Show
1948 The Tremont Avenue Viaduct opens
1949 Tommy Henrich's ninth inning hit wins a World Series Game
1949 The Lincoln Way Viaduct opens
1950 Massillon Development Foundation incorporates
1951 The Cherry Road Viaduct opens
1952 L Company, 145th Regiment, 37th Division leaves for active duty in Korea
1954 Towne Plaza and Amherst shopping center open
1958 WTIG goes on the air
1958 Massillon's first leg of Route 21 opens
1959 Police confiscate 21 tons of equipment in gambling raids
1960 The Ohio National Guard deducates Kilper Armory
1962 Griscom-Russell closes
1965 Steelworkers bank the Betty Furnace for the final time
1965 "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Football Town" airs on ABC
1967 "The Three Buddies" are killed in a Vietnam helicopter crash
1969 The Oberlin Road Viaduct opens
1970 A new Post Office opens on Canal Land
1970 A new central Fire Station opens on Canal Land
1970 The Lowry Price Urban Renewal Project alters southwest Massillon
1971 U.S. 30 reroutes south of downtown Massillon
1971 The last passenger train stops in Massillon
1973 Indian River School opens
1975 Three firefighters lose their lives in the La Cuisina Fire
1976 Massillon celebrates its Sesquicentennial
1976 Duncan Plaza is dedicated
1976 Massillon Municipal Government Center is constructed
1982 Massillon Lions Club reopens the Lincoln Theatre
1985 The Ohio Military Museum opens
1992 The first students graduate from the new Washington High School
1995 Eric Grohe paints the first of Massillon's "Tromp L'Oeil" murals
1995 The Legends of Massillon Golf Course opens
1995 Lincoln Citicenter opens
1995 The new Route 241 eliminates the Oberlin Road Humpback Bridge
2000 The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath is transformed into a popular bicycle trail
2000 Massillon Marketplace opens
2001 Massillon Celebrates 175 years
2001 Grand Mill Center provides a new look on Lincoln Way
2002 City opens a new Recreation Center
2002 Pedestrian Bridge links Towpath with Downtown

More coming soon!

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