Lake County Ohio GenWeb

Painesville Parmly Hotel

From the Painesville Telegraph, July 5, 1860:

This appeared in Lake Lines 18:1 January 1992, retranscribed by teen volunteer, Casi Dosky and submitted by Sally Malone.

PAST AND PRESENT.

The laying of the Corner Stone of the Parmly House, tomorrow, (we issue two days earlier this week.) will constitute a sort of epoch in the affairs of our town. We therefore take the present as a fitting time to review the Past, and at the same time examine the Present, - thus bringing the two into contrast.

It may be said that the settlement of this vicinity began in 1800, or it might be said with propriety that it began between 1800 and 1805, for with all who became residents hereabouts during that period, every man almost, familiar at all with the history of it, has their names upon his tongue's end.

They are General Edward Paine, Col. Eleazar Paine, Joel Paine, and we believe Jesse Phelps, John Miller, Edward Paine, Jr., Judge John Walworth, John Smith, Jeremiah Wilson, Elisha Pollock, Lemual Fobes, Joseph Rider, Benjamin Ellenwood, Jeremiah Ellenwood, Benjamin Bridges, Scott Merrills, Capt. Skinner, Gen Bond, Jonathan Root, Mr. Merry, and we think Sessions, came in afterwards. - There are some others which in the haste of writing we do not recall, and of these how many survive today? Of these heads of families only one, that we now think of still lives, Johnathan Root. Mrs. Merry, we think is still alive, and so is Mrs. Sessions and the widow of John Miller, now one hundred years old. - Of the younger member of these families we can call to mind Col. Paine, now of Illinois, Frank Paine, Mrs. Sally Paine, and Miss Eliza Paine, in this village; Mr. Silas Pepoon of Warren, Illinois, and his two brothers Benjamin and Augustus, here, and Samuel Miller, of Willoughby. A Mr. Palmer, whose name we did not recall when naming the heads of families was here, and his son, Jesse, is now living, and he is thought to be the oldest male born person in the Town of County.

We still have standing and tenanted, the first house built in Painesville. These are about all the connecting links between that early day, and the present, that still remain. All save them, how changed! - From rudeness everything has changed to refinement. Then the school master's fitness consisted chiefly in his muscular ability to apply the "birch' and the ferrule; now he rules as well, but by appeals to the higher instincts, so to speak, and sentiments of human nature, whilst his employment chiefly consists in imparting to others the qualities of an educated, refined and insentient intellectuality. Then most of the country was howling wilderness, with small rude inclosures, as an exception, now there are in place, pleasant fields, beautiful landscapes, fine dwellings, bewitching rural scenes, elegant school buildings, Churches, and happy homes. Then the common log cabin of the pioneers was the only place of entertainment for the occasional traveler, wandering forth in quest of a home in the wilds. Now we have rising up for that purpose in our midst, in comely proportions, the "Parmly House", in all, the beauty, elegance, convenience, comfort and taste, of modern, inventive genius. We live in an age of improvement of progress in all that makes men better and more hapy, an age of news and newspapers, books, blessed privileges and an approximating brotherhood, we hope and trust, among men. O, who would return to the scenes of the olden times. Let us joy in the living present, and "Let the dead past, bury its dead."