Marvin Kent, of Franklin, Ohio, was the proprietor of a glass works, woolen factory, and flour factory, among other enterprises, and wanted railroad connections to bring his products to market. To accomplish this, he received a charter on March 10, 1851 from the Ohio legislature for the Franklin and Warren Railroad. The charter gave Kent the right to build a railroad from Franklin, OH to Warren, OH and east to the Pennsylvania state line and south to Dayton. Work on the line began in July of 1853 with Henry Doolittle and W. S. Streater as contractors. In September 1853 the company changed its name to the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company.
Marvin Kent was the president of the the Franklin and Warren Railroad and later the Atlantic and Great Western of Ohio Railroad. Under his leadership, the railroads built huge yards and shops in Franklin Mills, about 20 miles east of Akron on the Cuyahoga River, and many workers were hired. When the A&GW, by then the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad, was absorbed into the Erie Railroad, the townspeople were so grateful to Marvin Kent for the prosperity he brought their town that they voted to rename the town “Kent” – the current name of the city.
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- Hungerford, Edward. 1949. Men of Erie. New York, NY: Random House.
- Mott, Edward. 1899. Between the Ocean and the Lakes – The Story of Erie. New York, NY: J.S. Collins.