EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a weekly series on our region’s history coordinated by the Trumbull County Historical Society.

In 1799, two wealthy New England men rode on horseback to inspect land they had acquired in the Connecticut Western Reserve, or what we now know as northeastern Ohio.

One of the men, Simon Perkins, went on to become a driving force in the formation of Warren and Akron. Warren emerged as the capital of the Western Reserve in that sliver of time before Ohio became a state in 1803. Akron, of course, went on to become “the rubber capital of the world.”

The man riding with Perkins on that fateful ride was his brother-in-law, John Kinsman, who founded what some have described as “the town time forgot.” The name was inspired, not as a slight, but in recognition of the town’s ample natural beauty and historic charm.

Some of the most beautiful structures of early Ohio were built here in Kinsman, and it is still possible to turn a corner and come eerily face to face with the 19th Century. Pride in its history has always been deeply felt by the people of Kinsman, but in recent years the very organization formed to gather and preserve that history came precariously close to becoming history itself.

The Kinsman Historical Society fell quiet as many of its strongest leaders either moved or passed away, said writer Emily Webster Love, one of the society’s longest-serving and passionate members. Meetings dwindled to only a few a year, then stopped altogether after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic six years ago, never to be revived.

Last fall, the Kinsman Free Public Library decided to reach out to community members to find out if there was any interest in bringing the organization back to life.

Turns out there was.

At a kickoff meeting in January, some 20 people showed up to share ideas and get to work. Early assistance and guidance was received from the Trumbull County Historical Society, especially AmeriCorps member, Emmy Varner. Since then, new officers have been elected. Among them is Love, who, in addition to serving as secretary, will share vital institutional memory.

Vice President Judy Rees said her focus will be to recruit new members by getting them interested in the Kinsman story in full, from the pioneer days through the Gilded Age and beyond.

President Gary Moss said he wants to encourage people to reimagine the way they see history, by getting them to understand how they are a part of it.

Moss said nobody captured that idea any better than Southern writer William Faulkner when he wrote:

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity. Haunted by wrong turns and roads not taken, we pursue images perceived as new but whose providence dates to the dim dramas of childhood, which are themselves but ripples of consequence echoing down the generations.”

The library will host the society’s first public program on Thursday when Moss reviews plans to transform the boyhood home of famed trial lawyer Clarence Darrow into an inn and museum. The lecture will be titled “Octagon House: Past, Present & Future.”

“No doubt Faulkner would have approved,” Moss said.

Membership into the Kinsman Historical Society is welcome to anyone interested in supporting the local history of Kinsman and its surrounding areas, regardless of their permanent residence. For more information, call 330-876-2461 ext. 3 or email nicoles@kinsmanlibrary.org. The Kinsman Free Public Library is located at 6420 Church St.