Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 8

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1150

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens > Part 8

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If the canal did not make Akron, it was the largest single factor in the making. Where so many causes have been working together it is impossible to say that the result would not have been possible without any one of them. There is reason to believe, however, that without the early advantages of the first canal the great industries and the teeming population of the present would not have been Akron's.

Allusion has been made above to certain ad- vantages which Nature provided for the future city. A study of the economic reasons under- lying the location of any city will assist us in determining what they are in the present case.

What induced the five hundred inhabitants of Middlebury in 1827 to locate there in the twenty years succeeding its founding? Leav- ing the Alleghenies behind, the boundless

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West was before them and they were free to settle here or there, as their judgment dic- tated? Then why Middlebury? To one who knows New England and Middlebury the an- swer is not hard to find. What turns the mills at Lowell, Lawrence, Holyoke and all the towns on the Merrimac and Connecticut and other rivers of New England? New England's manufacturing prestige is due to the overwhelming advantages its unsurpassed water-power gives it. It is a power, cheap and easily transmitted. New England even in the early part of the last century was full of dams and sluices and waterwheels. The man from Massachusetts and Connecticut was brought up with a knowledge of these things. They were a familiar part of his environ- ment. He knew water-power when he saw it.

The early Middlebury men were from Massachusetts and Connecticut. It was the power in the fall of the river there that at- tracted them. The early Middlebury fac- tories, including the Cuyahoga furnace, a. saw-mill and a large grist-mill, were all oper- ated by the power derived from a dam thrown across the river at the point where the plant of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company now stands. Later other dams were built and the use of the power extended. All this was done prior to the building of the Ohio canal, or even before the preliminary steps were taken.

The Portage, or carry, between the Cuya- hoga and the Tuscarawas rivers was not of suf- ficient importance to cause any extensive set- tlement along its length or to influence any that might be made in its vicinity. We, of today, are inclined to overestimate its im- portance. There is no reason to believe that it was ever extensively used. It was in no sense of the word a great pioneer highway, such as some of those that brought about the establishment of the large trading-posts of the early days. The latter were powerful fac- tors in founding settlements that grew into cities later when the sway of the white man began. Travel over the Portage Path was little enough. The long carry of nine or ten miles. part of it up and down steep hills.

was enough to deter all travelers, but those pressed by the greatest necessity. War par- ties passed in numbers at times, but trappers and traders went by other ways. There was far greater travel over the east and west high- way, part of which is now called the Smith Road, and extensive settlements were made at various points along its course.

At the southern end of the Portage Path, however, there was built up in the years 1806 and 1825 one of the most promising of all the settlements in northern Ohio. This was not because of any advantage derived from travel over the Path, but because of the fact that here was the head of navigation on the Tuscarawas. The Indians and pioneers used the waterway as far as they could and then took various trails leading in other di- rections. The river was then of much greater volume than today and was capable of sup- porting an extensive traffic. Navigation was open from New Portage to the Muskingum and the Ohio, and extensive trading sprang into existence along these waterways.

The Path, then, was of little or no bene- fit to the region we know as Akron. Neither did this immediate locality have any water- power. It was covered with thick forests of oak, ash, hickory, chestnut and maple. Splendid springs issued from the hillsides. Game was abundant. But the lake country only a few miles to the south offered much better hunting-grounds and richer fields in the fertile bottom lands along the creeks.

Early in the year 1825 a great and sudden activity was manifested all along the base of the high hill, which stretches north and south from the Cuyahoga River at old Portage to Summit Lake. and along the top of which runs the Portage Path. This narrow zone of activity met the Path at both these points. and about halfway between them it bent away to the east about a mile and a half. It followed the base of the hill closely and lay in the lowest part of the territory con- tiguous to these points.

This activity was the work of excavation for the Ohio Canal. The ditching alone would be a work of some magnitude even for

HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY

these days of steam-shovels and earth-convey- ors. The earth was excavated to a depth, in the center, of five or six feet and of a width averaging, perhaps, twenty-five feet. In the distance between the Summit Level and Old Portage the greatest engineering works of the whole project were made necessary. Be- tween these two points there is a rise of nearly two hundred feet. This necessitated a series of locks and twenty-one of them were built, in massive style, of great sand-stone blocks and ponderous oak gates. By the side of each was built a sluice, or overflow, for the pas- sage of the water when the gates were closed. This work brought into this neighborhood a small army of engineers, contractors, dig- gers, drivers, stone-masons, carpenters, black- smiths, and a subsidiary army to do the com- missary work for these. Like all camps of the kind, this was followed by the slab-saloon and the grocery, and almost in a day a town arose. It required two years' time to com- plete these works and by the time they were finished the new town numbered half as many inhabitants as Middlebury, two miles to the east and now in the twentieth year of its existence.

Then commenced the great traffic over the Ohio Canal. If the Portage Path was not a highway, the canal certainly was. It is hard to realize now how important an avenue of commerce this great waterway was in the early days of Ohio. It is difficult to estimate accurately the great part it played in the development of the state. The danger to the student of these results will be to overstate them. The village at the mouth of the Cuy- ahoga had grown rapidly. Cleveland enjoyed an extensive commerce and the products of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the East were being distributed thence throughout the West by lake carriage. Ship-building in the vicinity of Cleveland became an established industry. The Cuyahoga at this time was a much larger stream than it is at present and many lake vessels were built as far inland as Old Portage.

South of Akron were many village com- munity of older settlement. The canal

opened an easy way of communication with these. It removed the obstacles in the journey to Cleveland. When completed it formed the best method of inland transporta- tion then known, between Lake Erie and the Gulf of Mexico. Under favorable conditions loaded boats could navigate nearly as fast as a train behind George Stephenson's "Rocket." Travel by packet on the canal was not looked upon as a hardship, but welcomed as a great improvement over a journey by pioneer roads. Previous to the opening of the canal, the products of the community, which consisted mainly of flour, wool, hides, charcoal, potash, and dairy and farm prod- ucts were taken to Cleveland and Pittsburgh by wagon. These were of the prairie-schooner type and oftentimes immense loads would be hauled by eight-horse teams hitched to them. On the return trip merchandise of various kinds was brought in. The owners of these wagon routes were important men in the com- munity, and they were often intrusted with the execution of extensive commissions. No inconsiderable part of the buying and ~elling between Akron and the outside points was done through them. The most prominent among these early carriers were Patrick Christy, the grandfather of Will Christy, the electric railway magnate, and George Crouse, grandfather of the present Akron business- man, George W. Crouse, Jr.

In one respect Akron was the most impor- tant point on the Ohio Canal. Students of economic causes have learned that great nat- ural obstacles to travel on important high- ways are the points most likely to attract set- tlement and become a nucleus for future devel- opment into village and city. Thus a ford in a stream, a rapid or fall in a navigable river necessitating a portage, interrupts the jour- ney, causes delay and becomes the natural stopping place for travelers. At Akron, the traveler by canal met the greatest obstacle in all his journey. Here was a series of twenty- one locks through which his boat must pass before he could resume his journey. Four hours at the best would be consumed in the operation of locking, and delays were very

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frequent. The traveler could walk the entire distance between the extreme locks in one- fourth the time his boat took in going through. Here, then, was a splendid site for the merchant. Here was a steady stream of travel and commerce passing, for more than eight months of the year. Here that travel must halt for a large part of the day. Thus the way-faring man was forced into an ac- quaintance with Akron; thus the fame of Akron was carried throughout Ohio and be- yond.

In the boyhood days of the writer of this chapter, that part of the town lying north of Federal street and west of Summit was known as "Dublin." This name was given to the locality when the locks were being built. As remarked above, it took two years to build them and a host of laboring men were busy in the work. Now, in the twenties the great tide of immigration from Italy and Germany and the other countries of the European con- tinent had not started to flow toward our shores. The Chinese coolies did not arrive until the building of the Union Pacific rail- way. The oppression of the peasantry in Ireland, however, had driven a horde of her population to seek easier conditions. The first great immigration was from Ireland. The "Dago" and the "Hunkie" of the twenties and thirties was the Irishman. "Paddy" built the railroads and made the highways and dug canals. That is, he handled the pick and shovel and carried the hod. He was the carrier of water and the hewer of wood. Well, the men from the Shamrock Isle who came to Akron to work on the canal, built their cabins in the locality referred to and lived there during the time they were work- ing on the locks. Whether they named the place themselves as a tender tribute to the "auld sod." which was still the focus of their fondest longings, or whether the place was facetiously dubbed by the bluer-blooded in -. habitants of Cascade or Middlebury, is un- known and immaterial. The present genera- tion neither knows the name nor has any dealings with the ancient district of "Dub- lin." Today it might be more appropriately

called "Naples," for the Irish have pros- pered and moved into better city quarters, while the Italian, a late comer, has taken the old houses and hecome the predominating influence in the locality. The territory has been conquered in succession by Ireland, Africa and Italy.

How much the canal did for the new town or rather towns,-for there were two of them, one, called Akron, centering at the corner of Main and Exchange streets and the other named Cascade and located near the corner of Market and Howard streets,-is seen from the growth of population that took place on this narrow strip of land along the canal and extending from Chestnut to Beech streets. At the end of the first decade this territory num- bered more than one thousand people. In 1840, or fifteen years after the beginning of construction, the United States census showed a population of 1,381. It had left Middle- bury far behind. Practically the whole of this number had moved in from other places. Akron was already known as one of the most promising towns in the northwest territory, and this report was attracting new settlers by the hundred, annually. Most of the men em- ployed in building the locks remained here when the work was completed. So did the keepers of boarding-houses and taverns and the merchants who had been supplying the demand for groceries, clothing and such goods as the presence of so large a body of labor- ing men made necessary. These constituted a fine nucleus for the coming city. Thus. it was the canal, undoubtedly, that gave Akron its start.

For twenty-five years the canal, too, was the only means of communication Akron had with the outside world. When her citizens traveled they went by packet. between the verdant banks of the canal. Their products found the outside market and their merchan- dise was brought in to them by boats plying on that same canal. The canal was as of much relative importance in 1kron life of the period as it was in Holland. Venice, it- self. was not more dependent on, or prouder of, her waterways than Akron before 1852.

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The masters of canal boats were duly re- spected and, in the public estimation, occu- pied desirable places.

On the 4th day of July, 1852, the first railway train rolled into Akron. It came in from IIudson over the Akron branch of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad. It marked the end of the old order of things. It closed an epoch. The steam-propelled train, running on level iron tracks, had worked a revolution in the world ontside. All business had to be adjusted to meet the changed con- ditions. The world had moved on apace. Akron was practically where the thirties had left her. Communication by canal was now isolation. The railway came and growth be- gan anew. Akron was nearing the time when she was to strike her real pace. The real making of the city, as we know it today, was still a thing of the future. The city grew as a few men prospered. When the sun of prosperity shone upon Ferdinand Schumacher, Arthur L. Conger, John F. Sei- berling, Lewis Miller, David E. Hill, Henry Robinson, James B. Taplin, J. D. Cummins, the Allens, the Howers, O. C. Barber, and one or two others, then began the era of real progress. From that time on, Akron has had a steady and even growth.

The growth has never been phenomenal. Its citizens have never experienced the excite- ment of a "boom." Real estate values have never taken a decided step upward. The con- trary is true, that the price of real property has lagged behind. Of course, the increase in population and wealth has brought with it higher prices for land and buildings, but the increase in the latter has not been commen- surate with the former. This fact will serve to indicate how gradual. normal, and healthy has been the growth of Akron. It was fortunate for the city that, when some of the industries founded by the above named men fell upon hard times and gave way under the stress of untoward circum- stances, others, started subsequently, grew amazingly and more than filled the gap. It was like the springing of second-growth trees to replace the falling of century-old monarchs

of the forest. Of the above names, four of . the men who bore them, and who had amassed great fortunes from their enterprises, went to their graves, broken in fortune. Three of the great businesses were closed up forever, and their names forgotten in the busi- ness world. In the joy of possessing the greater industries that have taken their places, few make room for the emotion of regret that ordinarily would have attended the departure of the older. Thus it has happened that Akron has been known successively as "The Oatmeal Town," "The Match Town," "The Place Where They Make Mowers and Reapers" "The Sewer-pipe Town," and lastly, "The Rubber City." When the magnitude of The Werner Company is considered, we can say with reason that it might well be called "The City of Graphic Arts." The renown of the lat- ter publishing house on the American Conti- nents would easily make it the one over- shadowing feature of many of Akron's rival cities, were they fortunate enough to possess it.

Among the economic reasons for the re- markable growth of Akron, an important place must be given to the extraordinary ad- vantages derived from certain mineral de- posits discovered in Summit County, early in its history. Even the most unreflective reader must be aware of the desirability of cheap fuel in a district devoted to manufacturing. Water-power was a good thing so far as it went; but that was limited, not only in the amount of the horse-power it could develop, but in the kinds of manufacturing which it could subserve. Thus, it was unavailable for the largest part of the operations of the pot- teries and for such work as operating the "driers" of the cereal mills.

Fortunately, Nature was prodigal of her gifts to the territory of which Summit County is a part. To the south and east of Akron lie gread beds of bituminous coal, some of it of superior quality. The "Turkey-foot Coal" is the same as that of the Massillon field, and on combustion is capable of producing as many heat units. Steady mining for more than half a century has not exhausted these

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resources; it has not even determined their full extent. New mines are opened from time to time, and the out-put continues to furnish the major part of the Akron supply. A short haul of five, ten, or fifteen miles brings this splendid fuel to the doors of- Akron's big factories. Thus, this city has an advantage over her manufacturing rivals, who must add to the cost of production the ex- pense of transporting fuel, sometimes for long distances.

The "burning" of sewer pipe, brick and earthenware requires large quantities of fuel. These were among the very earliest of the city's industries. Contemporaneous were the furnaces for reducing iron ore to metal. They, too, needed heat rather than power.

Coal was not the only fuel, for magnificent forests covered the entire country, and rich peat beds filled the swamps in many localities. Long after the coal is exhausted it will be possible to obtain excellent fuel by resorting to the peat deposits in Coventry, Copley and Springfield townships. Oil can also be ob- tained by refining the carboniferous shales which abound in various sections of the country.

Akron sewer-pipe is the standard for the world. Specifications often read: "Sewer- pipe used must be equal to the best Akron." It cannot be doubted that the superior quali- ties of the finished product are due in large measure to the superexcellence of the raw material. Great beds of fine clay extend over the townships of Tallmadge, Springfield. Coventry and Green, while other townships possess smaller deposits.

Reference has been made in previous pages of this history to the existence of iron-fur- naces in Middlebury and Akron. None exist now, and have not for many years. Only the oldest inhabitants will remember them. The present generation ask in surprise, "Well, where in the world did they get the iron ore?" The answer, too, is surprising. It was ob- tained right at home. The furnaces were built here because the ferrous ores were here. They are still here, but are the so-called "bog- iron." and the process of reduction is so ex-

pensive that they cannot compete with the richer ores mined in other parts of the coun- try. Hence, when use was made of the great deposits in the Lake Superior district, the Akron furnaces went out of business, and now nothing remains of them but the slag and cinder heaps which they left behind.

In Springfield and Green townships there exists a four-foot stratum of limestone, of fair quality. Limestone, very impure, also occurs scattered in other portions of the county. Be- low Cuyahoga Falls, it was quarried in the early days of the county, and burned for water-lime. It is said that quantities of this local lime were used in the masonry of the Ohio Canal, at the time of its construction.

Akron and Summit County have had the oil and gas fever from time to time. Many attempts have been made in the last forty years to find these minerals, with varying success. Mr. Ferdinand Schumacher drilled a deep well, about twenty-five years ago on the site of the former Cascade Mill. His de- sire was to obtain gas sufficient to provide fuel for the operation of his mills. He was not successful, though gas in moderate quan- tities was obtained. Somewhat later J. F. Sei- berling drilled several holes in Springfield Township near Brittain, but after drilling to a great depth the wells were abandoned on account of the poor showing. In Bath and Northampton, surface oil has been known to collect in wells, and farmers have often been excited over the indications of petroleum. In Peninsula, the largest flow of gas ever found in the country comes from a well drilled there, and in the year 1907 the flow was con- tinuing unabated.

In 1905-1906, the most ambitious attempt to search for oil that has been made in this district was undertaken. James and Mathew Lang organized the Interstate Oil Company. and secured much capital in Youngstown. Akron, and other cities, for the purpose of making a thorough test of this locality. Their theory was an ingenious one, and ap- peared plausible enough to any but expert geologists. In explaining the theory it was said that oil was all about us. To the east

HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY

and south were the Pittsburg, Parkersburg and Marietta fields; on the west were the Lima and Findlay fields, while north of us, some oil had been found in Canada and the Islands of Lake Erie. The oil in all these places had been found in the stratum of rock known as the Trenton formation, and this dipped from all these points toward Akron. In other words, Akron is built over the center of a great basin, the bottom of which is formed of Trenton rock. Therefore, all that was nec- essary in order to reach the greatest supply of petroleum ever tapped, was to drill in the neighborhood of Akron until the Trenton formation was encountered. Geologists are of the opinion that this rock lies more than 4,000 feet below the surface of Summit County. These parties overlooked one thing, which is the weak point in their the- ory: The pressure of so tremendous a mass of the earth's crust would certainly force all oil and other liquids to ascend through the geological faults or porous strata, like the shales, to regions where that pressure was not so great. Is it not worthy of belief that this pressure has forced the oil from the central and lower parts of the basin to the rim of it, and that the surrounding fields have oil be- cause it has been forced out of the territory of which Akron is the center? In the years last mentioned, several wells were drilled near Thomastown, and oil in paying quantities was found far above the Trenton rock. Drill- ing was then stopped, and the oil has been steadily pumped from these wells since, in moderate quantities. A well is now being drilled near the State Mill, in Coventry Town- ship, and is said to be down 3,000 feet, with no indications of oil. It is extremely im- probable that Akron will ever enjoy an oil "boom." Most geologists are of the opinion that oil and gas do not exist in Summit County in sufficient quantities to make a search for either very profitable. Nature has so plenteously enriched this region with other resources that no one must be heard to com- plain that one or two gifts have been with- held.

AKRON'S EARLY DAYS.

On the 6th day of December, 1825, there was duly recorded in the records of Portage County, Ohio, by the recorder thereof, a plat of a new village. It consisted of about 300 lots of land, and occupied the territory lying between the present railroads, St. Bernard's Church, the Goodrich Rubber Plant and the Perkins School. The prime mover in this allotment was General Simon Perkins, of Warren, who owned considerable land in the county, a part of which was included in the amount platted. With him was associated Mr. Paul Williams, who owned the land adjoin- ing Gen. Perkins' on the east. These men were the founders of Akron. The city cannot appropriately celebrate its first centennial until 1925, although 1907 completes the first century since the settlement of Middlebury, which is now a portion of it.

The survey for the Ohio canal had been made, and, by studying the altitudes of vari- ous places on its length, it was seen that the site of this new village occupied the very highest point. There is a Greek word, Akros, which translated means "high." At the sug- gestion of a lawyer friend, General Perkins adopted the name "Akron" as a very appro- priate one for his new town. She is the original Akron. She has been a prolific pa- rent, for new "Akrons" are found in New York, Colorado, Indiana and many other states. The city does not occupy the highest land in the state, as is often erroneously as- serted. The highest altitude in the city is about 1,100 feet above the level of the sea. The highest point in the state is in the town of Ontario, not far from Mansfield, where the elevation reached is 1,373 feet.

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Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 8

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1150