Marvin Kent
Marvin Kent, projector and ex-President of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad (now New York, Pennsylvania, & Ohio Railroad), was born at Ravenna, Portage Co., Ohio, September 21, 1816. His father, Zenas Kent, was a joiner and carpenter by trade, who, when a young man, made the acquaintance of Capt. Heman Oviatt. He discovered in Mr. Kent business qualifications of a very high order, and in 1815 he induced him to engage in mercantile business at Ravenna. The executive and financial ability which Mr. Kent displayed, coupled with enterprise and methodical management of his affairs, soon placed him in the front rank among the repiitable and successful business men of northern Ohio.
It was in his father's store that young Marvin Kent received his first and most valuable instruction in correct business methods and habits. Up to the age of nineteen his time was divided between his father's store and the schoolroom wherein he combined, in the acquirement of a knowledge of books, a practical knowledge of business and dealings with men. He received such education as was afforded at Tallmadge Academy, under the instruction of E. T. Sturtevant, A. M., Principal, and Claridon Academy, under the instruction of Rev. Sherman B. Cantield. In his nineteenth year his father entrusted him with the purchase of his spring stock of goods, and for this purpose he visited Philadelphia and New York, with special instructions to buy on his own judgment, and to disregard the advice tendered by others, relative to the investments had in contemplation. His father was pleased with his purchases and the business sagacity displayed by his son. The year following his becoming of age, Marvin became associated with his father in mercantile business, at Franklin Mills, Ohio (now Kent), but he soon relinquished this, by reason of the precarious condition of his health, and assumed the management of a tannery, in a building erected by his father and Capt. John Brown (of Harper's Ferry notoriety). While thus engaged he was married to Maria, daughter of the late Col. William Stewart. He conducted the tannery for some time, with success, and in 1844 returned to mercantile pursuits, becoming, at the same time, largely interested in the manufacture of flour. In the latter business he continued without interruption, for about twenty years.
In 1850 in company with others he engaged in the manufacture of window-glass, at Franklin Mills, and erected and placed in successful operation extensive works. It was during the same year that he entered upon the most imporant enterprise of his life, and which secured to him a business reputation coextensive with the inauguration and completion of a great public transportation route between the East and the West. He devised, planned and projected, in 1850, the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, designed to connect the Erie with the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, thus forming a grand trunk line, with uniform gauge throughout, from New York to St. Louis. In 1851 the necessary legislation was procured, but in order to secure the charter he was obliged to subscribe for the full amount of stock required by law for the organization of the company, as well as to indemnify some of the first Board of Directors for the payment of one share subscribed by each to render them eligible for election, which fact furnishes a significant illustration of the want of faith in the success of an undertaking of that magnitude at that time. The organization of the new company was completed, and Mr. Kent made its first President. The position he filled with a success characteristic of his great business tact, energy, and ability, until the final completion of the road in 1864, save an interval of three years. On the 21st of June, of that year, he had the proud satisfaction of looking back over many years of unremitting labor and anxiety at last crowned with success, and also of driving home the last spike in the last rail. In his maiden speech on that occasion, he referred to the fact that on the fourth day of July, A. D. 1853. he broke ground for the new road, by removing the first shovelful of earth with his own hands. There were none then to withhold from Mr. Kent a most generous compliment for the completion of this road, which, uniting the Erie and Ohio & Mississippi Railways, formed a grand continental line from New York to St. Louis. The construction of this road encountered, perhaps, more obstacles and greater opposition than any other in the country. Yet Mr. Kent showed himself equal to any and every emergency, and with heroic faith and one purpose, he made success possible and victory a verity. The Portage County Democrat, of June 3, 1863, contained this truthful tribute:
"The location of the shops at Franklin Mills is doubtless due to the position and influence of Marvin Kent, Esq., the President of the road, who resides at that point. If any man ought to be gratified and benefitted by the location of the shops it is President Kent. He was not only the early friend of the road, but if we are correctly informed, he originated the idea of its construction. In carrying forward this great improvement to its completion, he has toiled and struggled for over twelve years amid doubt and discouragement, amid jeers and sneers and obloquy. While others hesitated, he stood fast; when the faint-hearted turned aside, he persevered with unfaltering nerve and courage; when timid friends forsook, he succeeded in raising up other friends, and in attracting capital to this great work; and thus, with a patience, a courage, an assiduity, and unswerving fidelity to a single aim that reaches the point of real heroism, has he held on his way through twelve laborious years of fluctuations, vicissitudes, and uncertainties, neglecting or abandoning his private business, pledging or imperiling, or at least casting into the hazard of success, his large private fortune, for the benefit of his cherished enterprise. And yet he has labored all this time without general appreciation, the select few more intimately associated in official relations with him only knowing and appreciating his trials and his toils. But it is time the man to whom more than to any other the country is indebted for its great and leading road should be understood and appreciated, for every man and every community benefited by the construction of this road, owes to Marvia Kent a debt of gratitude. He is to be congratulated on the success which the intelligence, the ability, and the fixed and resolute purpose which he has brought to bear on the enterprise, have accomplished. Who, under these circumstances, can grudge to Mr. Kent the location of the extensive machine-shops in the place of his residence? Who more than he, and what community than the one favored by his residence among them can be more entitled to the benefit?"
Upon the successful completion of this road, Mr. Kent substantially retired from active business, to the enjoyment of private life. Upon the death of his father in 1865, he became his successor as President of the Kent National Bank, which position he has held ever since. In October, 1875, he was elected State Senator from the Twenty-sixth District of Ohio, and he served his constituents with credit and ability. Mr. Kent is a gentleman of varied experience and of varied business qualifications—equally capable as an engineer or as financial manager to conduct a great public work. He has remarkable tenacity of purpose, and once resolved as to the value of an enterprise, no ordinary obstacle can prevent him from carrying it out. He is a man of liberal views and generous impulses, and has in a great variety of ways aided in advancing the material welfare of those among whom he lives. He has been a generous promoter of every business enterprise in the city of Kent, which bears his name. There are enduring monuments of his public spirit on every hand in the community in which he lives, such as public and private edifices, business blocks, mills and factories, and about them all there is an evidence of permanency and durability, of exactness in details, and adaptability to the uses designed.
As an evidence that Mr. Kent has been disposed to serve himself last, he has just completed one of the most elegant and palatial private residences in northern Ohio. Within and without there are evidences of a cultured taste in art and adornment, but never at the expense of utility and the every-day uses of domestic life. Mr. Kent has in every respect been a successful man, and prominent among the secrets of that success are untiring energy, methodical methods of work, and strict integrity.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885