“In 1906, Mount Carmel parishioners bought
the residence of Josiah Robbins at Robbins and Linden Avenues
and renovated it for use as a chapel. The home was so big, the
chapel had seating for 300. It was later used as the Mt. Carmel
rectory. Josiah Robbins settled in Niles in 1826 and lived in
the home with his wife, Maria Heaton, daughter of James Heaton
who had founded Niles less than a decade earlier”. Niles
Daily Times, May 29, 1975.
While she was living there she attended the
red brick school on Linden Avenue, the site now occupied by
the Niles Power Laundry. When Alice was nine years old she and
her mother went back to Austintown and stayed there until they
went to Hiram, Ohio so that the young woman might enter college.
Among her professors at Hiram College was James Garfield
who would become president of the United States. Alice’s
education having been completed, they returned to Austintown
and it was there that in 1865 the young woman married Hiram
Ohl, whose father, Michael settled Ohltown and conducted
a grist mill, a sawmill and oil refiner there.
For a short time, Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Ohl lived
in Austintown and came to Niles in 1872 at which time they moved
into the Ohl home on Robbins Avenue. Except for a few houses
on the hilltop, the area above the Ohl home was merely open
fields.
Mr. and Mrs. Ohl were the parents of Howard
Cleveland Ohl, Alice Newport Ohl, and Nellie
Robbins Ohl all of whom live in Niles. Mr. Hiram Ohl died
in 1928.
In spite of her 97 years, Mrs. Hiram Ohl is
in good health and is quite active.