Old Jamestown - Alonzo Kent

While doing research, I came across a series of articles that appeared in the Jamestown Evening Post from November 1919 through February 1920. The were simply entitled "Old Jamestown" or "Old Jamestowners" and dealt with the early history of the city.

This specific article involved Alonzo Kent, came to Jamestown at the age of 22 with a mere 50 cents in his pocket. But in due time, Kent became a very prosperous businessman, owning the Kent House Hotel in Lakewood and the Kent Mansion in Jamestown, which was the first brick home built in the city. No expense was spared when this Italianate mansion was constructed. Today, the Kent Mansion serves as the home of the Robert H. Jackson Center.

An early sketch of the Kent Mansion

Old Jamestown

(Jamestown Evening Post – Jan. 13, 1920)

About 1830 a quiet, plainly dressed young man appeared at the "Jamestown Temperance House" informing the proprietor, Willard Rice, that he was short of money, but willing to work and was looking for a place to locate. Rice promptly told him to stop there until he found a job and to pay for his lodging when convenient.

Within a very short time the stranger and Landlord Rice's eldest daughter had formed a genuine friendship. She soon learned that the young stranger was an excellent penman and her interest led her to organize a writing school with this stranger as the teacher. The school was successful, practically all of the young people of the community becoming enrolled as students.

In January, 1834 Miss Mercy Rice, the landlord's daughter who organized the school became the bride of the young teacher and thus Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Kent started together on the highway of live and founded a family that has been prominent in Jamestown affairs from that day to this.

Mr. Kent first engaged in business in the dry goods trade and later he established the Jamestown Bank, which after the war became the First National Bank, with which he was identified for many years.