Blog 4

Tucscarawas Industry

Did you know that Tuscarawas county used to contain the clay capital of the world? It's true, in fact Uhrichsville and Dennison Ohio were the biggest clay goods producers in the world. It remained so up until the 1960s.

At first Tuscarawas county was very industrial unlike the rapidly growing and industrial east. There was very little contact with people outside the region and as a result people usually didn't even have materials such as glass or iron locks for their doors. Eventually though, industry did make it to Tuscarawas county. When the canal from Cleveland was built in the mid-1800s and went through Tuscarawas county the people began producing goods and raw materials to export. Coal was becoming a big industry and so did the oil and gas industry in time. In addition to the canal, railways were built and connected the towns to other parts of the states and the country.

 The abundance of clay was already discovered but never fully taken advantage of; until this point. The first major clay plant was in opened in 1883. By the 1920s there were 14 manufacturing plants in the Uhrichsville-Dennison area giving a payroll of 4 million dollars (56 million today). The clay companies in Ohio were even contracted to produce much of the materials to construct the Panama Canal.

This wasn't the only industry there was also a cheese and milk industry. In fact, before the depression there was an average of 3,000,000 pounds of cheese produced in Tuscarawas county. In addition to that New Philadelphia and Dover were home to several steel mills and smelting plants.

So why is this important? I think that it is not only interesting to know about the history of the area and how it became what it is now but to also take away from that. Today Tuscarawas does have industry and some factories or assembly plants and things of that nature. However, this county is far from what it used to be. It used to be known world wide and was sending its goods worldwide. How cool is that? To live in this county and know that were you are used to do so much and be such a different place. Its sad to look at Uhrichsville today and see what it is, old and run down with no recognition. That’s how I always saw it until now. Learning this has showed me why it is what it is and how it came to be.

This also makes me think about the usual way things work in the world or this country today. The way that everything seems to come from somewhere else. It can be so difficult to find things that were made locally. It all has to do with the free market and how it drove people in a town that wasn’t a great place to be and was struggling to produce things and make money and sell what they made to people everywhere. It shows the great things about this country, how a place that was nothing became something by using what they did have and selling it to places far away that didn’t have it. It shows that globalization can lead to great things but can also become too much of a priority and leave places like Tuscarawas county far from what they once were by moving industries elsewhere.

This is all important because communities need local jobs for all types of people to thrive. Businesses and industries in small communities also help the community grow and profit and when a community has more money the people in it tend to get more and be better off too. Now I know that this county will probably never be what it was but that doesn’t mean that other counties like it cant be. There are always new businesses and factories and they should take advantage of having a local community of workers and people rather than immediately going overseas.     

Over all I think there is a lot to take away form the history here and to try and learn form it for the future.