The Repository | CantonRep.

com | Sunday, March 27, 2016G1

MORE INSIDE
SECTION G CANTON
SECTION H JACKSON TWP. 1-3, MASSILLON 4-7, PERRY 8-9
SECTION I LOUISVILLE 1-3, ALLIANCE 4-7, GREEN 8-9
SECTION J LAKE, HARTVILLE, UNIONTOWN 1-3
NORTH CANTON 4-6, PLAIN TWP. 7-9

Stories of your communities ...

Over the course of the last year, as we at
The Repository celebrated our bicentennial
anniversary, we also told you the stories of
your communities. We started with Jackson
last June and worked our way to today's final
community, Canton. It is the county seat, and
the largest city in Stark County. Just as our
county doesn't start and end there, neither
does today's section.
Our Canton Community Section kicks off
40 pages of community sections from the
last year. This Canton section startson this
pagewith Shane Hoover's fascinating narra-
tive on what became of the Deuber-Hampden
Watch Co.,which helped spur growth in
the city before the turn of the 20th century.
That story is brought to life with the account
of how around 20 workers from the Canton
factory went to Russia to teach workers there
how to make timepieces.
This section continues on the following
pages with the future of Canton. Alison Matas
breaks new ground in a story that looks at
how downtown Canton can connect to Hall of
Fame Village, as well as what the
comprehensive plan for the city means.
We hope you find the stories on Canton
informative, in-depth and historical.
But we've got more today.
In the three sections that follow, the best
stories from our community sections over the
last year fill those pages. These 40 pages are
meant as a keepsake for readers to remember
and refer back to the stories that have helped
shape their communities. Our second section
(H)revisits Jackson Township, Massillon and
Perry Township. Section I holds the stories of
Louisville, Alliance and Green. And Section
J looks back on the stories of North Canton,
Lake Township-Hartville-Uniontown and
Plain Township.
These are some of the stories that have
helped shape and mold Stark County into
what it is today:Your community.
We hope you find as much enjoyment read-
ing this as we did in putting it together.
TODD PORTER,
REPOSITORY SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR

By Shane Hoover

M
Repository staff writer

ay 1, 1930. Moscow.
Crowds jammed the
streets of the Soviet
capital for the May Day
workers parade. Among
the groups carrying
banners, singing and dancing, were work-
ers from the First State Watch Factory,
including Louis Ryman of Canton.
The watchmakers marched two miles from their
under-construction factory to Red Square, where
they met up with other workers and marched under
the reviewing stands in ranks 36 abreast. The
parades lasted all day.
The papers said two million men marched and I
was one of them, with a little band of red around my
arm, Ryman wrote home. The parade showed the
spirit the people have for the government. Every-
body was out. Those who didnt march were out
watching and cheering.
A few months earlier, Ryman had been a foreman
at Cantons Dueber-Hampden Watch
Co. Now, he was 4,900 miles from home
with about 20 other Dueber-Hampden
watchmakers to teach theRussians how
to make their own timepieces.
THE GREATEST ADVENTURE
Thirty-four travelers posed for the faded sepia
photograph. The picture was taken aboard RMS
Aquitania, the ocean liner that carried the Due-
ber-Hampden workers and their wives to Europe
for what the Canton Daily News christened the
greatest adventure of their lives.
On the left side of the group, John C. Miller
stood stern-faced in his bowler hat. He started
working at Dueber-Hampden when he was 14
years old. He was now in his 50s and the factory
superintendent.
Ira Aungst, a model-maker who earned a patent
for his electric-watch design, stood on the right
side of the group. He was the first Canton resident
hired at Dueber-Hampden and worked in the mam-
moth brick factory for 41 years.
Between Aungst and Miller were other work-
ers, many of them managers and foremen, with
decades of experience. Some, such as William H.
Goodenberger, with his bowtie and fedora, were
grandfathers.
RMS Aquitania departed New York on March 1,
1930. During the weeks and months before, friends,
bridge clubs and fraternal groups had seen the
workers off with farewell parties.
The crossing to France was rough. A 40-foot
wave crashed into the ship and knocked out seven
portholes. Several of the travelers got sea sick,
reported Sue Killen, the only female watchmaker to
make the trip.
After sight-seeing in Paris, the group traveled
to Berlin, then Warsaw. They arrived in Moscow
almost three weeks after leaving the United States.
A band met them at the train depot.

SEE COMRADES, G8