How do cobblestone streets and small islands dotting the coast of Nantucket help chronicle Massillon’s distinctive beginnings? Rotch Harbor and Folger Cape were named for Nantucket families who made their fortunes in the whaling industry and brought their money back to Nantucket.
Later, these names were to become synonymous with Massillon’s roots. In 1968, Quaker scholar Robert J. Leach traveled to Massillon to view and inventory the extensive collection of Rotch family papers owned by the Massillon Public Library. Leach's correspondent in Nantucket, Massachusetts was prominent historian Edouard Stackpole, author of many important books on New England whaling history. In later life, Stackpole was curator of the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut and director of the Peter Folger Museum.
Of course, Thomas and Charity Rotch, builders of Spring Hill Historic home in Massillon, hailed from prominent Quaker families involved in the whaling industry.
A copy of Leach's letter is in library files, and we know that Leach reported that the 2,000-piece collection "obviously is important and should be put in shape so that scholars may have ready access to it.” He also recommended that the Nantucket Historical Society provide a grant of money to further the purpose, given that "Admiral Folger must have had interest in his grandfather's pioneer settlement," referring to Massillon (then Kendal) and Rotch's friend Mayhew Folger, who followed him to the Ohio territory.
By pure coincidence, library staff recently discovered that Leach had eventually published a book on Quaker Nantucket that includes a wealth of information about the Rotch family and many others in their remarkable society. Rotch's father, William, figures prominently. A copy of that book has now been purchased for the Massillon Public Library and may be perused by our patrons in the reference department.
The Rotch documents also have a connection to a recently-published history of Damascus, Ohio. Compiled for the city's bicentennial, Damascus Through the Years 1808-2008 includes a full-color reproduction of a hand-drawn map of Ohio lands that Horton Howard drew in 1813. Howard was a Friends Minister and one of a group of Quakers from North Carolina who were sent to survey the Ohio country in 1800 and convinced several North Carolina Quaker families to move north. Howard was the first Presiding Clerk of the Ohio Yearly Meeting, and he gave the map to Thomas Rotch to help him sell land. The original map is in Massillon Public Library's Rotch-Wales collection.
Damascus historians were aware of the map, because Mrs. Horatio Wales had allowed the Ohio Yearly Meeting to reproduce the map for their 1962 Sesquicentennial held in Damascus. In 2009 editor Clarence Sekerak and committee member Kenneth Bandy traveled to Massillon and worked with archivist Dr. Barbara Wittman at the library to reproduce the map and to view correspondence between Howard and Rotch. The Damascus history is also available in the reference department, and Howard's letters may be viewed as scanned images as well as typed transcription at www.massillonmemory.org. Click "Collections," select "Rotch-Wales papers," and search the collection for Howard as the creator.
The Massillon Public Library knows that all Massillonians are proud of the fine history of this community and will be pleased that our care of these important documents continues to impress and attract scholars from around the country.
For more information, contact Sherie Brown at the Reference Department, 330-832-9831, ext. 312 or brownsh@massillonlibrary.org.
