Bath Country Journal - ScripType Publishing

Century Homes continued W.E. Palmer was
is buried in Bath Center Cemetery. The
1900 census shows Charles S. Parsons,
a 61-year-old widower with Seymour
(13) and Merle (9). By 1910, Charles
Parsons was 72 and in poor health. His
daughter, Merle, was a teacher. Carrie
B35 CENTURY HOME
By 1922, the Manton family had remodeled
and built additions to the home.
Miller, a nurse, lived with them. The
1910 tax records show that he owned
90.23 acres of the southern part of Lot
56, about 51 acres fair plow land, 20
acres rough pasture, 19.23 creek bottom
swales and wet lands. Also noted are
“old buildings, good water, house roof
poor.” Charles S. Parsons died in 1913
and is buried next to his wife in Bath
Center Cemetery.
the next owner of
this property. Little
is known of the short
duration he owned
the farm. Palmer or
Parsons may have
added the secondstory
addition to the
one-story wing of
the home.
In 1919, Irvin R.
Manton purchased
this property and the
property north of it
to create a large farm.
The family moved to
Bath in the spring
of 1920. He owned
the land all the way
north to Bath Road,
except for one acre
at the corner owned
by Mrs. Linder. Irvin
Robinson Manton
was born in 1874
in Akron, the son of
James and Harriet
Robinson Manton.
In April 1899, he
married Fredericka
Hurxthal. He was a plant superintendent
at Robinson Clay Product Company,
which was incorporated in 1902.
B34 CENTURY HOME
Left to right, Fredericka, Julia, Laona (standing), Fredericka
and Irvin Manton posed for a photograph on the porch of their
new Bath home in the summer of 1920 before the northern addition
was built.
The company was originally founded in
1856 by his uncle Thomas Robinson,
Richard Whitmore and Thomas Johnson.
The large company made sewer
pipes, bricks, tile and many other clay
products. Irvin and Fredericka Manton
lived in Akron prior to their move
to Bath. They had two sons that died
in infancy, James and Irvin, and three
daughters: Laona (1907), Fredericka
(1911), and Julia (1914). The family
posed for a photograph on the porch of
their new Bath home in the summer of
1920 before the northern addition was
built. The Mantons were related to the
Seiberlings by marriage and traveled in
notable social circles.
In Memories of Bath Center, Laona
Manton Mather Morgan, daughter of
Irvin Manton, recalls what it was like
moving to the countryside of Bath
Township in the early 1920s. The
Manton family remodeled and built
additions to this home. They had a
farm manager, Frank Bordner, who
lived in the home to the north and
managed the farm operations that they
named “Brookdale Farm” (see BCJ,
48 The Bath Country Journal, November 2012