Ohio's Last Company Town
Country Living Magazine | February 2001
There aren't many of Ohio's "Little Cities of Black Diamonds" remaining.
These ramshackle boomtowns that once lined the Hocking River Valley
of southeastern Ohio took their name from the black diamonds (coal)
that lured an influx of immigrants to the region from Germany, Italy,
Ireland and Hungary. Nowadays, many of them, like Hobo, Hamburg, Carring-ton
and Ludington, are long gone, ghost towns that hauntingly linger on
only as road markers dotting the region. A few of them remain — like
Shawnee, Congo and Hemlock — small villages that once were filled
with flimsy frame houses, dirt streets, company stores and noisy saloons.
One of them, Haydenville, is the last remaining of these "company
towns," with churches, schools, company stores and row houses
all built by the industrialists as the homes for their workers. In
Haydenville, there's enough of these buildings remaining with their
unique architecture for visitors to get a good feel for what it was
like to live in a true "company
town." In 1840, Ohio had nearly 800 miles of canals built by
the influx of European immigrants whose shovels carved the waterways
through the Appalachian foothills to the Great Lakes. Coal-laden boats
floated to the beat of hoof clops while children guided mules down
a crowded canal, speeding at four miles an hour while passengers rode
for one cent a mile. In Haydenville, there's a reminder of this era
in the huge silent stones of Lock 17 that remain behind as witness
to a near-forgotten era. Today, paved highways shuttle traffic past
the insignificant road sign just north of Nelsonville on U.S. 33.
But Haydenville's real boom years date to the Civil War era and its aftermath,
when the Union had a thirst for industrial growth that was fueled by coal. The
Black Diamond rush to the Hocking Valley came with the discovery of the Straitsville
Vein, one of the thickest coal veins in the U.S., 14 feet thick and running for
miles through southern Perry County. Although the coal was difficult to mine
and there was a lack of transportation and workers in the era, that situation
changed quickly.
 In 1854, the Hanging Rock Furnace near Ironton was purchased and hauled by canalboat
to a small settlement called Hocking Furnace. This drew the attention of Peter
Hayden, who owned several canalboats supplying coal to fuel his iron foundry
in Columbus. Over time, he purchased 3,000 acres of land in the region, including
a small town that quickly was renamed Haydenville. He placed his nephew, Halleck
Hayden, as the company manager of the Haydenville Mining and Manufacturing Company
(HM & MC).
Like others of the Black Diamond company towns, Haydenville was hurriedly constructed
to house workers who flocked to the region. By 1866, Peter Hayden became the
president of the Hocking Valley Railroad (now ascenic railway). As soon as the
steel rails were laid, coal mines were opened and the area's population soared
to 15,000 by 1890. The region was booming with natural resource industries such
as lumber, coal, iron ore, oil and clay. But when those industries started to
flounder and companies began to close, the towns quickly died as the inhabitants
left in search of work. The rough, makeshift framed company houses perished quickly,
leaving mapless names of ghost towns. Today, the region's population has declined
to 4,500, of which 370 now occupy Haydenville.
"We are trying to preserve our town and its history," said Nyla Vollmer,
local historian and member of the Little Cities of Black Diamonds (LCBD) Council.
She smiles as she views old sepia photos of Haydenville. "The love of history
and learning to appreciate where one lives is why I do this. Every town has
a history, and Haydenville is filled with visual evidence of its past."
Haydenville remains a three-dimensional picture postcard of Hay den's
industrial vision that created a self-sustaining town with school,
church and a company store (now gone) supplying all the needs of the
company workers. It is the last Ohio company town that remains with
original company row houses and where its 107-year-old company-built
church still opens its doors.
But what truly is unique about Haydenville are the bricks and tiles
found everywhere in the town, products crafted from the rich clay
in the region that once had been discarded during the coal boom. Large
kilns were constructed, creating fine clay products that soon were
in high demand, sought after throughout the country and used in prominent
buildings such as the Woolworth Building and the Pennsylvania Hotel
in New York; the Wrigley Building, the
Civic Opera Building and the Morrison Hotel in Chicago; and Cleveland's
Terminal Tower and Cincinnati's City Hall.
Even today, collectors travel great distances to seek out Haydenville
bricks and tiles or to see the architectural vestiges of the bricks
and tiles that remain in the town. The first two-story porous brick
homes were built for employees around 1870. Between 1883 and 1900,
the company expanded with several more homes but with an ingenious
idea. Peter Hayden built the homes with high-quality fired clay
products, such as silo tile, clay sewer drains and the famous star
emblem bricks.
"There were 20 silo round houses that were built right beside the Hocking
River on Hunkey Road. It got its name because of all the Hungarian immigrants
who lived in that sec-
tion." Vollmer explains. "Red Road was where most of the
freed slaves lived. Like the immigrants, they had come to work on
the canal, and then generations stayed working for the company."
Peter Hayden died in 1888, leaving his industry (HM & MC) to
his nephew. The company continued strongly until WorJd War II when
the shift to steel changed buildings' exterior design and ended
Haydenville's role in decorative tile. The company altered its
efforts to producing underground ceramic conduit, but then the company
and town were sold to National Fireproofing. After 1907, the 115 mass-produced
new homes were built of wood.
Of the original 350 row houses only 122 homes survive, and only one of the round
houses. Most are occupied by former company family workers who've resided in
the region for generations. "The company store and hotel are gone and
the school is now closed, but
we are striving to preserve our town," says Vollmer.
In its struggle to survive, Haydenville has formed a preservation committee
and obtained one of the original company homes to convert into a town museum
and community center. "It is our hope to have library archives of genealogical
and town history and also use the facility for community needs," continues
Vollmer. "We hope to save the rail depot and some of the other buildings
eventually. It is through grants and activities that we have managed thus far
in our restoration efforts."
Haydenville's annual Chautauqua, held each July, brings back history
of the company era. This Chautauqua is a traveling festival of music
and story-telling that gives a glimpse of the past.
Hay den's company may be long gone, but the architecture remains,
as do many of the descendants of the original workers. Obviously,
those generations that have lived and died in this company town
have fought hard to preserve their heritage.
— Dexter Wolfe is a freelance writer from McDermott.
For more information about Haydenville and the Little
Cities of the Black Diamonds, write the Haydenville Preservation
Committee, P.O. Box 17, Haydenville, OH 43127 or view
their websile at http://www.tcomschool-.ohiou.edu/haydenville. A good
book I about the Black Diamonds is The Little
.1 Cities of Black Diamonds by John Winnenberg. The Little
Cities of Black Diamonds Day, an annual event, is held in
October. For information on other area towns, contact the Little Cities
of Black Diamonds Council at P.O. Box 109, Shawnee, OH 43782
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