Early Businesses
In the early nineteenth century, people migrated to Wooster in greater numbers. This growing market presented an opportunity for the establishment of local businesses. The ambitious people of Wooster would use whatever trade or skills at their disposal to open their own stores. Other settlers received shipments of goods such as wine, spices, and clothes from as far away as New York or Pennsylvania to sell locally, catering to the needs of people who wanted imported luxury items.1 Henry Howe, a historian of Wayne County and a contemporary of the time, described the burgeoning economy of the town, as he reported that in 1846 there were “4 grocery, 10 dry goods, 2 hardware, 2 book and 3 drug stores, 1 bank…”2 Mills were essential businesses from the town’s very beginning since Wooster had plenty of water sources and Joseph Stibbs opened the first mill in 1809 near Apple Creek.3
1 “Advertisement for the Sale of Goods Brought From New York and Philadelphia,” Wooster Democratic Journal and Democratic Times, June 16, 1836.
2 Henry Howe,Historical Collections of Ohio (Norwalk, OH: The Laning Printing Co., 1896), vol., 832.
3 Ibid., 833.
This map shows the growing number of families who settled in Wooster by 1826 and includes some familiar names of early wealthy landowners such as Larwill, Bever, and Quinby.
This advertisement for a local mill showcases the common services that mills such as the Stibbs Mill in Wooster would have offered, which allowed families to bring their grains and get them ground to make flour for bread.
A Bob Evans Restaurant replaced the historic old mill that once stood near the Oak Hill Cemetery signalling the symbolic end of mills in Wooster, which were once a major feature of the local economy.