Akron, Ohio

“ Passing west of Presque Isle, the first stream offering another passage way to the Ohio was the Cuyahoga River. Ascending this stream about twenty-five miles, an eight-mile portage, almost within the city limits of Akron, Ohio, offered the traveler a passage way to the Tuscarawas branch of [Pg 161] the Muskingum River, which in turn offered a clear course to the Ohio at Marietta. ”

“ In 1842, he commenced business in Albany in the same line, with but two hundred and twenty-five dollars and a good character, for his capital, under the firm name of Allen & Myers, continuing thus about two years. At the end of that time, believing the West offered greater inducements to young men of small means, he removed to Ohio. His partner had previously made a tour of observation through the West and become favorably impressed with the business prospects of Akron, Ohio, which was at that time attracting considerable attention. ”

“ President and di-rector Central Savings and Trust Co., Barberton Savings Bank, Akron People's Telephone Co., Hamilton Building Co.; vice-president and director The Northern Ohio Traction & Light Co., The Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. Republican; Congregationalist. Member Akron Chamber of Commerce and Young Men's Christian Ass'n. Recreation: Golf. Clubs: Portage Country (Akron) , Country (Cleveland) . Residence: 160 Fir St. Office : 236 Hamilton Building, Akron.
Church, Benjamin Franklin, physician; born Texas, 1858; son Benj. Franklin and Mary E. (Sweatman) C. Education common schools ”

“ In 1800 the entire Western Reserve was erected into the county of Trumbull and a township government was given to Cleveland; ten years later Cleveland was made the seat of government of the new county of Cuyahoga, and in 1814 it was incorporated as a village. Cleveland’s growth was, however, very slow until the opening of the Ohio canal as far as Akron in 1827; about the same time the improvement of the harbour was begun, and by 1832 the canal was opened to the Ohio river. ”

“ It is the seat of Buchtel College (co-educational; non-sectarian) , which was founded by the Ohio Universalist Convention in 1870, was opened in 1872, and was named in honour of its most liberal benefactor, John R. Buchtel (18221802) , a successful business man who did much to promote the industrial development of Akron. Buchtel College provides three courses leading to the degrees of A.B., Ph.B. and S.B.; it has a school of music, a school of art and an academy; in 1908 there were 267 students. Coal is mined in the neighbourhood. The river furnishes considerable water-power ”

“ Otis moved to Akron, where he resided and continued to practice his profession until January, 1854. While a resident of Summit county he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the county for two years. He also filled the position of president of the Akron Bank, from its organization, till January, 1854, and was a member of the Board of Control of the State Bank of Ohio, and member of the Convention which formed the present Constitution of the State of Ohio. ”

“ Authority was also given to build a branch from Hudson towards the Ohio and Pennsylvania and any line running in the direction of Columbus. A separate company afterwards constructed this "Akron Branch," or Cleveland, Zanesville and Cincinnati Railroad, so far as Millersburgh. The Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad has had a serious financial struggle to go through, but it has come out as an important and prosperous line. It is now working under a consolidation of earnings with the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago, formerly known as the Ohio and Pennsylvania. ”

“ OHIO, Ross County, Hallsville vicinity, Buchwalter House-Applethorpe Farm, 292 Whissler Rd. (05/26/83)
OHIO, Sandusky County, Fremont, Fabing, Frederick, House, 201 S. Park Ave. (05/26/83)
OHIO, Summit County, Akron, Akron Post Office and Federal Building, 168 E. Market St. ”

“ OHIO, Holmes County, Millersburg, United Methodist Church (Millersburg MRA) , N. Washington St. (07/17/84)
OHIO, Montgomery County, Dayton, Dayton View Historic District, Roughly bounded by Broadway, Harvard Blvd., Superior and Salem Aves. (07/19/84)
OHIO, Summit County, Akron, Grace Reformed Church, 172 W. Bowery St. (07/19/84)
RHODE ISLAND, Providence County, Lincoln, Albion Historic District, Roughly Berkshire Dr., Willow Lane, Ledge Way, Kennedy Blvd., School, and Main Sts. ”

“ The city is home to the University of Akron, the Akron Aeros "AA" affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, and the Firestone Country Club, at which the PGA Tour's Bridgestone Invitational is annually played. Akron is often referred to as "The Rubber City," being the home of both Goodyear and Firestone. The city is also home to the All-American Soap Box Derby which has been held at Akron's Derby Downs race track since 1935. ”

“ There are many things that link the capital city of financial and commercial America, to the State of Ohio, that New England enterprise, and New York encouragement, and Virginian patriotism, did so much to build beyond the Alleghenies. It is not merely in the associations and connections of to-day that New York and Ohio are bound together. A pregnant era of the early past, was disposed toward good results forever, by the patriotic generosity of the Empire State, at a time when Ohio was but a name in the far off wilderness; a promise that many things must nurture, before it could be realized. ”

“ Within ten years, Connecticut sent a brave squad of men through the wilderness of New York to found Cleveland; Virginia sent of her brain and blood to found one of the most important settlements in Ohio in the fair Scioto valley. These four settlements, before 1800, in the Black Forest of Ohio were typically cosmopolitan and had a significant mission in forming, so far west as Lake Erie and so far south as the lower Ohio, the cosmopolitan American State par excellence. ”

“ Other important manufactures are food preparations (especially of oats) and flour and grist mill products. The value of the total manufactured products (under the “factory” system) in 1905 was $34,004,243, an increase in five years of 54·5%. Akron was settled about 1825, was incorporated as a village in 1836, was made the county-seat in 1842, and in 1865 was chartered as a city.
See S. A. Lane, Fifty Years and over of Akron and Summit County (Akron, 1892) . ”

“ Ohio has no preponderant social center; her multiplicity of colleges and universities bears tribute to the diversity of the elements that have made the State. One-third of her people are of foreign parentage (one or both parents foreign-born) , and the city of Cincinnati has been deeply affected by the German stock, while Cleveland strongly reflects the influence of the New England element. That influence is still very palpable, but it is New England in the presence of natural gas, iron, and coal, New England shaped by blast and forge. The Middle State ideals will dominate Ohio's future. ”

“ Our canals are no longer the great avenues of commerce, because the modern needs and means are different from those of former days, but our schools are still the royal roads, the people’s roads, to and from the world of letters and arts. Ohio is now second to no other state in her public school system: and well-nigh three-quarters of a century ago, when General Lafayette visited Cincinnati in his tour of the Republic which he had helped to found, nothing surprised and charmed him more than the greeting which the children of her public schools gave him. ”

“ It combines in itself all the elements that tend to make its inhabitants the happiest people on the face of the earth. Nature has done every thing in favour of this country. In point of fertility, it excels every one of the thirteen old states; and, owing to its political institutions, and the abolition of slavery, it has taken the lead among those newly created.
Ohio is bounded on the north by lake Erie, on the west by the state of Indiana, on the south by the river Ohio, and on the east by Pennsylvania, comprising an area of 4,000 square miles ”

“ The "Seven Ranges," lying directly south of the Reserve, 100 drew emigrants from Pennsylvania, with some from farther south. The Scioto valley attracted chiefly Virginians, who early made Chillicothe their principal center. In the west, and north of the Symmes tract, Kentuckians poured in by the thousands.
Thus in a decade Ohio became a frontier melting-pot. Puritan, Cavalier, Irishman, Scotch-Irishman, German—all were poured into the crucible. Ideals clashed, and differing customs grated harshly. But the product of a hundred years of cross-breeding was a splendid type of citizenship. ”

“ Committing my baggage to a carman, I ascended the bank of diluvial earth and pebbles with all eagerness, and walked to the point of land where Fort Pitt (old Fort Du Quesne) had stood. It is near this point that the Alleghany and Monongahela unite, and give birth to the noble Ohio. It is something to stand at the head of such a stream. The charm of novelty is beyond all others. ”

“ This was the life of the early settler in every county in Ohio, as each in its turn was organized and opened to settlement. A life so hard, was yet so attractive that many pioneers, when a few neighbors gathered around them, preferred to sell their clearings and push further into the wilderness. In the meantime the older settlements attracted newcomers. Mechanics and tradesmen came along them. Then towns sprang up, and incipient cities, with corner lots and hopeful speculators, tempted eastern capitalists to invest their money in Ohio. ”

“ It is an error to say that the Ohio is a river with lofty banks. Those continuous hills, around which this river winds and curls and bends and loops, are simply the hills of the country through which the river had to find its way. We were astonished, in getting to the top of Cincinnati, after a panting walk up a zigzag road, to discover that we had only mounted to the summit of one billow in an ocean of hills.
There is always a reason why a city is just where it is. Nothing is more controlled by law than the planting, the growth, and the decline of cities. ”

“ The sameness of view along the banks of the river, as far down as Pointe Coupee, a distance of nine hundred miles, is scarcely interrupted, excepting by a few settlements, and some high bluffs, on the eastern side. The land appears to be one continued level, clothed with large timber, and an under growth of cane brakes, and small shrubs.
Opposite the mouth of the Ohio is a small settlement consisting principally of men whose employment is hunting. Five miles below, on the east side, is fort Jefferson, which is evacuated. On the west side, sixty-five miles further down, is New Madrid. ”

“ Agreeing generally with the sentiments of Governor Allen's recent message, I desire especially to concur in what is said on the subject of the National Centennial Celebration.
No community in the world has been permitted by Providence to enjoy more largely the blessings conferred on mankind by the great event of 1776 than the people of Ohio. Ohio and her interests had no existence one hundred years ago. They are the growth of less than a century. The people naturally wish that their State, and her history, and her advantages should be widely known. ”

“ From 1800 to 1850 Cincinnati not only far surpassed all other cities in the State, but was the metropolis of the West. From 1890 to 1900, however, there was a decrease in both the value of its products and the number of its wage-earners. Cleveland by contrast has rapidly grown, and now surpasses all Ohio towns in importance as to manufactures. What has brought Cleveland and other cities in the northeastern part of the State into recent prominence is the advantage they enjoy in the manufacture of iron and steel. This has become the State's leading industry. ”

“ They walked between the State buildings over toward the lake, intending to take lunch somewhere nearer the shore. When in front of Ohio’s Building, with its projecting portico, they stopped to look at the great statue in front. A woman’s figure upon a lofty pedestal raises her arms proudly as if to call the attention of all the world. Around the pedestal, like a row of bad boys sent to stand against the wall for whispering, are a ring of Ohio’s great men, including Grant, Garfield, and Stanton. ”

“ Our friends and fellow-citizens from old England's shore, from Ireland and Scotland and Germany, form their societies of the city of New York; and why should not the State of Ohio, more important than any of these countries by this represented?
"Now, gentlemen, there is one characteristic of Ohio people which has marked them from the beginning of their history, and marks them now. We are a migratory race. We are the Innocents Abroad. No Arab in his tent, restless and uneasy, feels more uncertain and movable than a man from Ohio, who can better his condition anywhere else. ”

“ In the year 1835, he reached Cleveland and at once started in trade as a druggist on Detroit Street, then in Ohio City, but now the West Side of Cleveland. At that time the West, generally, was enjoying seeming prosperity; everything was inflated and everyone was growing rich, on paper. Ohio City was then the city of the future, and fortune smiled on all its residents, and particularly on those who held real estate within its borders. ”

“ The wealthy, beautiful Ohio is placed like the heart in that great group of States between the Eastern Ocean and the Mississippi. And although this State is one of the youngest in the Union, I feel that a more central life stirs here than in any of the States which I have hitherto visited. It seems to me as if people here wished with unprejudiced minds to do justice to all powers and tendencies of humanity, and to allow every one his proper share of the heart's life and blood. ”

“ For more than four hundred miles, the beautiful river which waters its south and south-east limits is navigable for large vessels. Its northern frontiers are for seventy-five miles washed by the waters of Lake Erie, and a canal running across the whole state joins these two points, so that Ohio stands upon the great line of internal navigation which connects New York with New Orleans, passing beyond the Alleghany mountains.
To all these natural sources of prosperity, Ohio unites another advantage, which she owes to the happy construction of her constitution ”