Massillon is a city in Stark County in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 31,325 at the 2000 census. Massillon, along with neighboring Canton, are principal cities of the Canton–Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area. The metropolitan area includes all of Stark and Carroll counties. The Friendly Association for Mutual Interests founded Massillon, then called Kendal, on a 2,000-acre (8.1 km) estate in response to Robert Owen's success in New Harmony, Indiana to create a utopian society. The group of approximately 150 people, consisting of farmers, mill workers, and mechanics from the surrounding area, abandoned their communitarian lifestyle. The town center was eventually located along the banks of the Tuscarawas River and the Ohio and Erie Canal. Massillon was named after Jean Baptiste Massillon, a French Catholic bishop. Early in the 20th Century, Massillon was home to a brass era automobile maker, Forest City Motor Car Company; despite its name, the Jewel did not shine, and the company went under. Stark Area Regional Transit Authority (SARTA) provides bus service between Massillon and nearby Canton.