CANTON

President William McKinley

For most of his adult life, Canton was the home of William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States. Born in Niles, Ohio, McKinley first practiced law in Canton around 1867 and was prosecuting attorney of Stark County from 1869 to 1871. The city was his home during his successful campaign for Ohio governor, the site of his front-porch presidential campaign of 1896 and the campaign of 1900. Canton is now the site of the William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum and the McKinley National Memorial, dedicated in 1907.

President McKinley's impact on Canton as his adopted home is still reflected today in many different ways, and he remains the namesake of McKinley Senior High School of the Canton City School System.

Debs's antiwar speech

On June 16, 1918, Eugene V. Debs delivered the keynote speech at the annual Ohio Socialist Convention held in Canton's Nimisilla Park. At the time, Debs had been a four-time candidate for president and was considered the country's leading socialist and labor organizer. During his speech he decried America's involvement in the First World War, saying, "They have always taught you that it is your patriotic duty to go to war and slaughter yourselves at their command. You have never had a voice in the war. The working class who make the sacrifices, who shed the blood, have never yet had a voice in declaring war." Among Debs' audience at Nimisilla Park were agents of the U.S. Department of Justice.

On June 30, 1918, Debs was arrested and charged with, among other things, "unlawfully, willfully and feloniously cause and attempt to cause and incite and attempt to incite, insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny and refusal of duty, in the military and naval forces of the United States" under the Espionage Act of 1917. Debs' trial began on September 10, 1918, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. On September 12, 1918, a jury found Debs guilty. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. On March 10, 1919, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of Debs' conviction in Debs v. United States. Debs began serving his prison sentence on April 13, 1919, and remained incarcerated until December 25, 1921, when he was released after President Warren Harding commuted his sentence to time served.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision affirming Debs' conviction was sharply criticized by legal scholars at the time and is generally regarded as a low point in First Amendment jurisprudence. The lead author of the opinion, progressive Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, later changed course that same term and authored a dissenting opinion recognizing the constitutional protection of such speech in Abrams v. United States. Justice Louis D. Brandeis was the only other jurist to join Justice Holmes' dissent, and the minority opinion had no effect on Debs' conviction and continued incarceration. The changed mind articulated by Justice Holmes on November 10, 1919, nevertheless had a profound impact on the development of American constitutional law. His dissent in Abrams is considered by many legal scholars to be the canonical affirmation of free speech in the United States.

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class I am in it; while there is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison I am not free.

In June 2017 Canton applied for and received a historical marker from the Ohio History Connection, formerly the Ohio Historical Society. The marker is located next to where Debs stood in Canton on the afternoon of June 16, 1918. It commemorates the significance and legacy of his speech at Nimisilla Park, notes the many speeches at the park by other prominent historical figures, and honors the park's continued importance as a gathering place for the community.

Major companies

The Timken Company has been among the largest employers in Canton for nearly 100 years. In 1898, Henry Timken obtained a patent for the tapered roller bearing, and in 1899 incorporated as the Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company in St. Louis. In 1901, the company moved to Canton as the automobile industry began to overtake the carriage industry. Timken and his two sons chose this location because of its proximity to the American car manufacturing centers of Detroit and Cleveland and the American steel-making centers of Pittsburgh and Cleveland. By 1960, Timken had operations in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, France, South Africa, Australia and Brazil. The company changed its corporate structure in 2014; the roller bearing-producing part of the company was separated from the steel-producing part of the company, resulting in two separate companies. The Timken Company continues to manufacture roller bearings, while TimkenSteel produces steel.

Today, TimkenSteel remains headquartered in Canton and employs 2,800 people, most of them in Northeast Ohio. The company makes special bar quality steel, used in applications all over the world. The Timken Co. is now headquartered in Jackson Township, a suburb of Canton, and employs 14,000 people around the world. The company designs, engineers, manufactures and sells bearings, transmissions, gearboxes, chain and related products, and offers a spectrum of power system rebuild and repair services around the globe.

The Dueber-Hampden Watch Company was an important employer in Canton during the early 1920s. It was formally organized in 1923, having previously consisted of two separate companies: the Dueber Watch Case Company and the Hampden Watch Company. In 1886, John Dueber, the owner of the Dueber Watch Case Company, purchased a controlling interest in the Hampden Watch Company. In 1888, he relocated the Hampden Watch Company from Springfield, Massachusetts and the Dueber Watch Case Company from Newport, Kentucky to Canton, Ohio. These two companies shared manufacturing facilities in Canton but remained two separate companies. The Dueber Watch Case Company and the Hampden Watch Company quickly became two of Canton's largest employers. In 1888, the companies' first year in Canton, they employed 2,300 Canton residents. In 1890, Canton's population was 26,337. Thanks to these two companies, Canton became an important center for watch manufacturing in the United States. In 1927 the company went bankrupt, finally ceasing operations in the city in 1930. The machinery and tools were sold to the Amtorg Trading Corporation, one of Soviet Russia's buying agencies in the US, for $329.000. The company's massive brick factories, which covered over 20 acres and included an ornate 150-foot clock tower, were demolished to accommodate the construction of Interstate 77.

Football history

On September 17, 1920, a meeting was held at the Hupmobile showroom in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building in Canton to found the American Professional Football Association (renamed the National Football League in 1922). The attendees included Ralph Hay, owner of the Hupmobile showroom and the hometown Canton Bulldogs, and George Halas, owner of the Decatur Staleys. Jim Thorpe of the Bulldogs was the league's first president. In 2014 a sculpture titled Birth of the NFL was erected in downtown Canton marking the exact location in the Hupmobile showroom where the NFL was created in 1920.

On December 6, 1959, the Canton Repository, a local newspaper, called for city officials to lobby the National Football League to create a football hall of fame in the community. Canton officials formally proposed their city as the site for the Hall of Fame in 1961. The NFL quickly agreed to the city's proposal. To help convince NFL officials to locate the Hall of Fame in Canton, city officials donated several acres of land on Canton's north side to the project. Local residents also raised almost $400,000 to help construct the Hall of Fame.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame formally opened on September 7, 1963. Initially, the museum consisted of two buildings, but in 1971, 1978, 1995, and 2013, the Pro Football Hall of Fame experienced several expansions. As of 2013, the museum consisted of five buildings, covering 118,000 square feet. Since its founding, over 10 million people have visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "Welcome to Canton" is the official way of saying congratulations to a new enshrinee.

21st century

Starting in the mid-2010s, Canton began experiencing an urban renaissance, anchored by a growing arts district centrally located in the downtown area. Several historic buildings have been rehabilitated and converted into upscale lofts, attracting hundreds of new downtown residents into the city. Furthering this downtown development, in June 2016, Canton became one of the first cities in Ohio to allow the open consumption of alcoholic beverages in a "designated outdoor refreshment area" pursuant to a state law enacted in 2015.