A Boom Town

A Boom Town. . Shawnee’s founder, T.J. Davis, purchased land from his fellow investors including this site, then occupied by the farm house of Israel Gordon. Within several months of the town’s platting in March, 1872, the farm house became the town’s first hotel, the O’Bear House. Commercial buildings and homes began going up daily. Established in 1874, the village government immediately constructed a Town Hall, and shortly thereafter, a two-story school house. , Shawnee’s first residents were migrants from earlier mining centers in southern Ohio. Immigrants from the British Isles followed, comprising of mostly the Welsh, they were complemented by other groups including Scots, English and Irish. These groups separated themselves go congregating on individual hills which would become Welsh Hill, Scotch Hill, and New England Hill. Germans and a small group of Italians, who settled in what became known as “Italyville,” soon joined the mix. Town sentiment and laws prevented African Americans and those from southern and eastern Europe from settling in town. In general, newcomers were regarded as strike breakers, here to flood the labor pool and thus lower wages. , Among the early businesses on Main Street were milliners, meat markets, dry goods stores, restaurants, Chinese laundry, and taverns aplenty. Despite this, two coal companies operated company stores. The New York Company is known to h ave paid miners in scrip redeemable only at their store. Doctors, lawyers, opticians, dentists, funeral directors and a chiropractor rounded out the professional services available. , Churches also flourished in Shawnee, including: Primitive Methodist, Methodist Episcopal, Welsh Congregational, Welsh Presbyterian, Baptist, Church of Christ, Church of God and Catholic. Small congregations of Lutherans and Jews also met in the village. , Social groups including the Odd Fellows, Pythians, Masons, Red Men, Maccabees, Hibernians, Foresters and Princes of the Orient; as well as their female counterparts all had lodges here. Shawnee became an entertainment center for the region with two opera houses, traveling Chautauqua and medicine shows, large celebrations and parades each Labor Day weekend, and sporting events, including a victorious visit by the Cincinnati Reds in 1906. , Shawnee was connected to the outside world by two rail lines each maintaining their own depot and telegraph office. Four newspapers operated during Shawnee’s boom era. The longest lived was the People’s Advocate which ran from 1891-1944. Political and labor rallies were frequent, with visits from gubernatorial and presidential candidates, including then Governor William McKinley and his presidential opponent William Jennings Bryan. Shawnee grew to about 4,000 people by 1900 making it the largest mining town created during the Hocking Valley coal boom era.