Mogadore is a village in Portage

Portage County, Ohio

Portage County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 152,061 at the 2000 Census and 161,419 at the 2010 Census. Its county seat is Ravenna. Portage County is named for the portage between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas Rivers...

 and Summit

Summit County, Ohio

Summit County is an urban county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 542,899. In the 2010 Census the population was 541,781. Its county seat is Akron...

 counties in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

. It is a suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

 of Akron

Akron, Ohio

Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...

 and is part of the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area

Akron metropolitan area

The Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of two counties, Summit and Portage, in northeastern Ohio and is anchored by the city of Akron...

. The population was 3,893 at the 2000 census

United States Census, 2000

The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...

.

Geography

Mogadore is located at 41°3′8"N 81°23′50"W (41.052256, -81.397241).

According to the United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the village has a total area of 2.1 square miles (5.5 km²), of which 2.1 square miles (5.4 km²) are land and 0.04 square mile (0.1 km²) (0.95%) is water.

History

Mogadore's first settler, Ariel Bradley, was only nine years old when he was a spy for George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

 during the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

. Born in Salisbury, Connecticut

Salisbury, Connecticut

Salisbury is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town is the northwest-most in the State of Connecticut. The MA-NY-CT Tri-State Marker is located just on the border of Salisbury...

, Bradley came to the Western Reserve of Ohio and eventually settled in a small crescent shaped valley with good timber and plenty of springs. There in 1807 he built a log cabin on a tract of land costing $335.00 containing 146 acre (0.59084156 km²). The town eventually became known as Bradleyville, then in 1825 the name of the town would be changed through the unintentional act of a celebrating sailor.

Mogador is an Arabic word meaning "beautiful" and the name of a town in Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

. In 1825 a large home was built by Martin Kent Jr. When the rafters were all in place, one of the workers, a former sailor, climbed to the top of the structure, removed a flask of whiskey from his pocket and christened the home, "Mogadore". There has always been a debate on why he chose the name Mogadore. Some say the sailor had fond memories of trips to North Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, some have said he had a friend that had been captured by the Barbary Pirates and was imprisoned in old Mogador and others have speculated that popular literature of that era was the Arabian Nights and the mysterious markets on the North African coast.

In a popular book of the time, Captain James Riley

James Riley (Captain)

James Riley was the Captain of the United States merchant ship Commerce.-Sufferings in Africa:Riley led his crew through the Sahara Desert after they were shipwrecked off the coast of Western Sahara in August 1815, and wrote a book on their ordeal detailing his memoirs...

 authored an account of his shipwreck off the coast of Africa. The book was a classic tale of adventure, where a young American sea captain named James Riley, shipwrecked off the western coast of North Africa in 1815, was captured by a band of nomadic Arabs, and sold into slavery

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

. Thus begins an epic adventure of survival and a quest for freedom that takes him across the Sahara desert to Mogadore, Morocco. This dramatic account of Captain Riley's trials and sufferings sold more than 1,000,000 copies in his day, and was even read by a young and impressionable Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

. The degradations of a slave existence and the courage to survive under the most harrowing conditions have rarely been recorded with such painful honesty. Sufferings in Africa is a classic travel-adventure narrative, and a fascinating testament of white Americans enslaved abroad - during a time when slavery flourished through the United States.

Whatever the reason, people began to refer to the center of the hamlet where this house stood as Mogadore.

The Little Cuyahoga River flows through the town and was an early source of water power for several mills and shops. It wasn't long until the small village began to prosper. The first industry was a flour mill built by James McCormick in 1817. Between 1820 and 1850 there were two more flour mills, a carding mill, two saw mills, two barrel factories, two distilleries, a wheelwright, a millwright, blacksmith and a tannery.

Prior to the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, Mogadore served as a station on the underground railroad

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...

. Escaped slaves on their exodus to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 would find shelter in several homes within the village. During the Civil War, 45 men and boys of Mogadore fought for the Union and only one man, Hiram C. Hill was killed in the war.

Vast claybeds were found and the first pottery was built by Fisk and Smith in 1829 south of Mogadore. Within a few years twenty one potteries sprang up around the village. Millions of gallons of the finest stoneware were manufactured and shipped out on the Ohio canal. By 1870, the clay industry employed 700 men making crocks, bricks, churns, pie plates, sewer pipes, jugs, vases, urns and many other specialty products. The quality of the stoneware had achieved an international reputation for quality. The unique clay qualities produced wares with durability comparable to cast iron vessels. Eventually glass and tin containers were favored over the heavy crockery thus ending the era of an industry noted for fine quality and craftsmenship. Today, any pottery with a Mogadore stamp is highly coveted on the antiques market.

Demographics

As of the census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 3,893 people, 1,485 households, and 1,125 families residing in the village. The population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 1,860.8 people per square mile (719.2/km²). There were 1,521 housing units at an average density of 727.0 per square mile (281.0/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 98.69% White, 0.18% African American, 0.05% Native American, 0.15% Asian, and 0.92% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.26% of the population.

There were 1,485 households out of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.0% were married couples

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 8.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.2% were non-families. 21.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.01.

In the village the population umbrella was spread out with 24.7% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 28.2% from 25 to 44, 23.1% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 97.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.7 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $48,255, and the median income for a family was $53,393. Males had a median income of $36,513 versus $26,557 for females. The per capita income

Per capita income

Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the village was $20,965. About 2.6% of families and 3.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.8% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

Mogadore High School

Mogadore High School

Mogadore High School

Mogadore High School is a public high school in Mogadore, Ohio. It is the only high school in the Mogadore Local School District.-Ohio high school state championships:* Boys football – 1954, 1979, 1996, 2002 * Boys golf – 1971, 1972, 1973...

 is located at 130 S. Cleveland Ave. A new dual function Junior and Senior High School building opened September 4, 2007. Its football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

teams, nicknamed the Wildcats, have enjoyed success, including four Division VI state championships.