Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc., Part 7

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Akron > Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc. > Part 7

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

A few days after the fire, while seated on a stool at my impro- vised table, writing an account of the great calamity for the BEACON, I felt the entire building swaying violently back and forth, in an easterly and westerly direction, for several seconds, which phenomenon I instinctively thought was caused by the rubbing of one of the aforesaid donkeys against the corner of my frail building, and was greatly puzzled on going to the door and finding none of said animals in the vicinity. On going to the plaza to mail my letter, a short time afterwards, I found the people of the city in a high state of excitement over an earthquake which had toppled down chimneys, cracked walls, broken windows, thrown bottles and other articles from shelves, and driven the occupants of hotels, private dwellings, stores, etc., in .the utmost consternation into the streets. The scratching of a donkey, indeed !

AGAIN IN THE AUCTION BUSINESS.

In the rebuilding of the burned district, which proceeded at a rapid rate, there was, of course, a great demand for signs, and my business was quite prosperous for several months. In the mean- time Mr. James G. Dow, with Mr. Charles W. Tappan, also of Akron, as a partner, had again embarked in the auction business, with phenomenal success, and about the middle of September, 1851, I entered their employ as a salesman, at a salary of $275 per month. · Two months later a branch store was established in which I took

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

a one-fourth interest, with Mr. Hallet Kilbourn, now of Wash- ington City, as a member of the firm, finally becoming a half owner, with Mr. Humphrey Sawyer, of Massachusetts, as partner, the venture being reasonably remunerative.

THE HOMEWARD FLITTING-CHOLERA RAVAGES, ETC.

Mr. Sawyer desiring to go to the mines, we closed up our business and dissolved our partnership on the first of May, 1852. Doing an occasional job of sign-writing for an old established firm, ad interim, to defray my expenses, on the first day of September, 1852, I sailed for home via Panama, on the Steamer "Winfield Scott"-its distinguished namesake then running for the Presi- dency as the candidate of the Whig party. The steamer was densely packed with passengers, and the passage to Panama stormy and long (19 days) not only causing a great amount of sea- sickness on the first part of the journey, but producing consider- able havoc from cholera, on the latter part, from 30 to 50 persons having probably been consigned to a watery grave during the last six or eight days.

The transit across the Isthmus was then largely of the primitive order, the first 22 miles, from Panama to Cruces, on the backs of mules, at a cost of only $25 per mule (hire, not purchase,) from Cruces to Barracoa, 12 miles, by open boat rowed by nearly naked natives, at $2.00 per passenger, and from Barracoa to Aspinwall, 20 miles, by railroad, at the moderate charge of $8.00, two full days being consumed in making the transit, 54 miles. The trip from . Aspinwall to New York, via Kingston, on the Island of Jamaica, was also tempestuous, and fraught with much discomfort to all, and especially to this particular individual, who lost, from sea- sickness, nearly one-half the surplus flesh gained upon the overland journey as above stated, but a small portion of which has ever come back to him. The many interesting (and some thrilling) incidents . of the homeward journey cannot be here given for want of space.

CLOTHING MERCHANT-AGAIN BURNED OUT, ETC.

Returning to Akron with my " pile"-something "less" than a million-but with what was far better than gold, thoroughly restored health, after "pottering around" through the winter of 1852-3, (among other things, paying my own hall rent and deliv- ering to crowded houses a series of lectures on the "Overland Journey to California," the substance of which is reproduced in another chapter of this volume), I invested my savings in a clothing and merchant tailoring establishment, where the New York Clothing House now stands, on the south side of East Market Street.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

With Mr. Arthur Malcolm, as senior partner and chief cutter, the firm of A. Malcolm & Co. were doing a reasonably prosperous business, when, on the morning of April 30, 1855, in the fire which destroyed the large brick hotel on the present site of Woods' block, every dollar of my investment was greedily licked ,up by the devouring flames.

UNSUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE FOR OFFICE.

In the Fall of 1853, while selling "rags" as aforesaid, the Temperance Reform Party of Summit County placed me in nomi- nation as a candidate for Representative in competition with the regular nominees of the Whig, Democratic and Free Soil parties, but afterward an arrangement was made between the Temperance Reformers and the Whigs and Free Soilers, by which all three candidates should submit their claims to a union mass convention, in which Dr. Porter G. Somers, of Cuyahoga Falls, carried off the prize.

After being thrown out of business by the fire, as stated, on the affiliation of the Whigs, Free-Soilers and Temperance Reformers, under the banner of Republicanism, in the Summer of 1855, I announced myself às a candidate for Representative, subject to the decision of the county nominating convention, the late Dr. Mendal Jewett, then living in Mogadore, being my successful competitor. On the accession of Salmon P. Chase to the Gover- norship of Ohio, in the Winter of 1855-6, I applied, with a strong backing from the citizens of Akron and contiguous canal towns, for the position of Collector of Tolls upon the Ohio Canal, but my genial friend, the late Nathaniel W. Goodhue, carried too many political guns for me, and won the prize for himself.

OFFICIAL HONORS AND SUCCESSES.

My official "deserts," however, had not been altogether over- looked by my fellow-citizens, for, on the appointment of Councilman Richard S. Elkins to the Recordership, made vacant by the death of Recorder Horace Canfield, in December, 1853, in January, 1854, I was appointed by the Town Council to fill the vacancy in the Board of Trustees, holding the position until the ensuing munici- pal election. On the resignation of the late James Mathews, as a member of the Board of Education, December 20, 1854, the Council also elected me to the vacancy, which position I continued to hold by appointment and re-election until April, 1857, also serving as Treasurer of the Board from November, 1855, until the expiration of my term of service, in the Spring of 1857.

SHERIFF, EDITOR, PROBATE JUDGE, ETC.

In the first National campaign of the Republican party, in the Summer of 1856, I endeavored to make myself generally useful, in

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

painting banners and mottoes, writing, speaking, etc., but with no special design of asking for an office for myself. Leading Repub- licans, however, in different portions of the county, seemed to spontaneously fix upon me as their candidate for Sheriff, and though there were some six or seven other aspirants working like beavers for the position, I was nominated on the first ballot by a majority of 17 over all competitors. Though bitterly opposed, on account of my well-known radical temperance proclivities, I was triumphantly elected, renominated by acclamation, and re-elected by a largely increased majority in 1858, holding the office four years and two months, the time of taking possession of the office having in the meantime been changed from the first Monday of November to the first Monday of January.

In January, 1861, on retiring from the Sheriff's office, I accepted a position with Messrs. Beebe and Elkins, as editor-in-chief of the SUMMIT COUNTY BEACON, a few years later acquiring a one-third interest in the paper. Some six months. after assuming my editorial duties, Governor William Dennison, without solicitation from either myself or my friends, appointed me Probate Judge of Summit County, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge William M. Dodge, the commission, now in my possession, bearing date July 24, 1861, being accompanied by the following note from the Governor's Private Secretary:

THE STATE OF OHIO, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, COLUMBUS, July 24, 1861.

Samuel A. Lane, Esq.,

DEAR SIR :- The Governor has heard of the death of William M. Dodge, your Probate Judge. He has appointed you to fill the vacancy occasioned by his death till the Fall election shall decide upon a successor. Herewith please find commission. Trusting it will be satisfactory to yourself and beneficial to your people, I remain very truly, Yours, etc.

WV. T. BASCOM, Private Secretary.

While this voluntary action of Governor Dennison, with whom I had had a pleasant personal acquaintance for several years, was exceedingly gratifying, I immediately notified him by telegraph that I could not accept the position, not only being under obligations to Messrs. Beebe & Elkins, but the brief period that I could hold the office would be no object, as even my cheek was not then sufficiently colossal to warrant me in asking the people of Summit County to elect me to so important an office so soon after vacating the one which I had so recently, for over four years, enjoyed at their hands.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

AGAIN BURNED OUT-AGAIN SHERIFF.

A full history of the BEACON is given elsewhere in this volume, by which it will be seen that on the 27th day of April, 1872, the entire establishment, then running on a fully paid up capital of $25,000, of which I was the one-third owner, was totally destroyed by fire. Though immediately rebuilt and established on a much larger scale, it became so greatly embarrassed by the calamity, and the subsequent commercial and financial panic of 1873-4, that in the Fall of 1875, after nearly fifteen years of the very hardest work of my life, I had to consent to transfer the concern to other parties, for the assumption of its liabilities, and retire therefrom without a dollar, and with quite a large personal indebtedness resting upon my shoulders, besides.

Thus once more hors de combat in the battle of life, in 1876, just twenty years after my first election to that office-then 61 years of age-I again appealed to the good people of Summit County to give me my old position of Sheriff, to which they generously responded, also re-electing me in 1878, making my entire term of official service eight years and two months, an honor accorded to no other incumbent of that office in the history of the county.

The office of Sheriff, of a county like Summit, while not remarkably remunerative, involves very great pecuniary responsi- bilities and hazards, and bristles with perplexities and dangers, but fortunately, though declared by my political opponents and competitors to be too old to properly perform its functions-in my "dotage," in fact-I got safely through, and am under a positive pledge to my constituents not to ask for the office again until 1896 -just 40 years from the commencement of my first and 20 years from the commencement of my last incumbency, at which time, should I survive till then, I shall be only 81 years of age.

EXCITING JAIL INCIDENTS.

Space will not permit a recital, even in the briefest terms, of the many exciting episodes of the eight years of my Sheriffalty- efforts to break jail-mutinies and insubordinations-attempts to commit suicide-one by cutting his throat, at the moment of starting him to the penitentiary, and another (a girl) by drowning herself in the bath-tub, though I am happy to say that-no thanks to our noisome and rickety old jail-I never lost a prisoner, either by sickness, self-murder or escape.

One incident, however, is worthy of pretty full mention, as illustrative of the strategetic ingenuity of the average prisoner, and of the pluck and nerve of some women. Among my most efficient aids in the management of the jail, and safe-keeping of the prisoners, was my present kind-hearted wife, who, while most

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

sympathetic to any of the numerous cases of illness or distress with which we had to deal, was also extremely vigilant in detecting mischief among the inmates and preventing escapes. In the Summer of 1878, a couple of tramps giving their names as James Thompson and James Pierce, were convicted of burglar- izing the store of Mr. George S. Dales, Corner Howard and Mill streets. Pierce was a stout, burly young man, with close kinky hair, from which his jail-mates nicked-named him "Curly," and Thompson was a short, spare, and rather sickly looking youth, whom his companions nick-named "Shorty." At this time the late John S. Rowan was temporarily acting as my turnkey, who, after locking the prisoners safely in their cells, in the evening, spent the night with his own family on Forge street.

After conviction, and before sentence, "Shorty's" "sickly" symptoms rapidly increased, elicting the sympathy not only of turnkey Rowan, but also of our kind-hearted women, especially our most excellent cook at that time, Mrs. Amelia Randall, of Richfield, who fixed him up sundry delicacies to eat, instead of confining him to the regular, though wholesome and abundant, rations served to the other prisoners.

· One night, between ten and eleven o'clock, just as I was retiring, there was a commotion in the jail, and on going to the door I was informed that "Shorty" was very sick with a terrible pain in his stomach, which statement seemed to be confirmed by fearful groans apparently emanating from his cell. Thinking that perhaps a dose of strong peppermint sling might afford him relief, I warmed some water in a tin cup over the gas burner in the guard-room and compounded a good strong potion. In the mean- time Mrs. Lane and Mrs. Randall had both put in an appearance, and supposing all the prisoners to be safely locked in their cells, I threw open the inner jail door, without taking the precaution to close the guard-room door, and with my cup of "medicine" in one hand and a candle in the other, I started down the steps and along the corridor, "Shorty's" cell being upon the north side upper tier, reached by stairs, at the east end of the jail.

Just as I was about to turn the corner, I heard a sort of suppressed scream, and instantly comprehending the situation, I turned and retraced my steps, on what the prisoners in the lower cells, who were on the watch, called "the best time on record," to find the "sick" prisoner in a desperate hand-to-hand struggle with the two women, Mrs. Randall, as he suddenly popped up from the darkness of the narrow corridor, on the west end of the jail, instinctively seizing him around the waist and hanging on for dear life, on the supposition that he had suddenly gone crazy, while Mrs. Lane was doing her utmost to keep him from getting through the open door of the guard-room.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

On arriving upon the scene of conflict I seized the young desperado by the collar, whereupon he turned and clutching me by the throat, endeavored to thrust nie back into the jail. Wrenching his hands from my throat with my right hand and holding on to his collar with my left, with my right foot I managed to close the outer guard-room door, which being at once securely fastened by Mrs. Lane, the prisoner incontinently wilted, and was soon safely locked in his cell again, by Deputy S. D. Blocker, who, awakened by the rumpus, had by this time appeared upon the scene; the feat of closing the guard-room door being all the more difficult from the fact that when both wide open the inner, with its stationary lock-bar, laps a foot or more over the outer door.

Investigation showed, that out of some of their extra garments and the contents of their husk mattresses, the boys had constructed a "dummy," which had been skillfully tucked away in "Shorty's" bed. When Rowan was locking them up for the night, not seeing the "sick" boy about, he sympathetically inquired how he was, and was told by "Curly" that he guessed he was feeling better as he had been sleeping quietly for some time. On reaching his cell, and finding its inmate already snug in bed (as he supposed) he locked the door and after locking all the cells, properly secured the outer door and returned home.

The manner in which he escaped detection, while Rowan was thus making his rounds, was as follows: In the Winter time the jail is heated by a huge cylinder stove, fully two feet in diameter, and four feet in height, with about a 10x15 inch door. This stove had been lined with newspapers, and "Shorty," being small of stature, found no difficulty in secreting himself therein, until all was quiet for the night, when he made his exit therefrom with the result stated-the desperado afterwards being heard to lament that he didn't carry out his original intention of beating me senseless with the heavy iron stove-poker, or a chair, before rushing up the steps and unexpectedly encountering the women, in his unceremonious flight for liberty.

HOW "CURLY" FOOLED THEM ALL.

The two burglars in question were sentenced to the peniten- tiary by Judge Newell D. Tibbals, for three years and a half each, whither I took them on the 8th day of July, 1878. Nothing further was heard from either until early in Sheriff William Mckinney's term, in 1881, when Probate Judge Samuel C. Williamson received a notice from the prison authorities, at Columbus, that the Summit County prisoner, James Pierce, was violently insane, and must be forthwith removed from the institution. Sheriff Mckinney was therefore sent for him, returning him to his old quarters here,

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

only lodging him in the "crazy room" in the second story instead of a cell in the lower jail, as before.

In the penitentiary he had violently assaulted his keeper and the surgeon, putting them all in deadly fear for their lives, and undertook to practice the same tactics upon Mac. while awaiting the determination of the county and insane authorities as to what should be done with him. Finally mistrusting that he was shamming, Mac. told him one day, that if he did not stop his fooling he would "pulverize" him, whereupon the fellow simmered down and became as quiet as a lamb, and finally confessed to Mac. that his insanity had been wholly feigned, and there being some question as to whether he could be legally returned to the peni- tentiary, and the term for which he had been sentenced being so nearly out, Judge Williamson ordered his discharge, and he has never troubled the community since.

MAYOR OF THE "TIP-TOP" CITY.

In April, 1881, without solicitation on my part, though violently opposed, not only because of my radical Republicanism, but also of my radical anti-saloonism, as the Republican nominee, I was elected as Mayor of Akron by a small majority (60) over the then Democratic incumbent, one of the most popular members of his party in the city, John M. Fraze, Esq., in which capacity I served the people faithfully, if not brilliantly, for a single term of two years.

FAMILY AND DOMESTIC MATTERS.

My good and faithful wife, Paulina Potter Lane, after bearing me eight children, four of whom died in early childhood, after a lingering and distressing illness from cancer, died July 2, 1871. Of our four surviving children, the eldest son, Julius Sherman Lane, born November 19, 1841, well-known in the business circles of Akron for, many years as the Superintendent of the Webster, Camp & Lane Machine Company, is now the general Superinten- dent of the M. C. Bullock Manufacturing Company, of Chicago, Ill., with his family residence in the beautiful suburban village of Oak Park, eight miles west of the city. My second son, Frede- rick Alanson Lane, born October 31, 1849, has for many years served as foreman of the Beacon press rooms, and superintendent of its machinery. My youngest son, Arthur Malcolm Lane, born November 6, 1855, is head draftsman of the Schenectady (N. Y.), Locomotive Works, of which my son-in-law, Albert J. Pitkin (the husband of my only living daughter, Carrie Maria, born March 26, 1858,) is the general Superintendent, the works being the second largest of the kind in the United States, employ- ing from 1600 to 2000 men, with a capacity for turning out one complete locomotive, of the largest class, every day in the year.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

Among the four, with one still unmarried, there are, at the present writing, eleven grandchildren, five boys and six girls, ranging from six months to twenty-three years, so that there is no imme- diate danger of the tribe becoming extinct, while bringing to their progenitor the proud satisfaction of knowing that whatever his own personal short-comings and errors, in business or social life, the world is decidedly the better for his having lived in it.

THE SECOND MARRIAGE.

On the eleventh day of November, 1872, I married for iny second wife, Emeline (Potter) Manning, widow of the late Levi Manning and only sister of the first Mrs. Lane, and who for the past nineteen years has been to me a most pleasant and affectionate companion and faithful help-mate, my chief regret being that the heavy strain put upon her in the care of the jail, during my last four years' incumbency of the Sheriff's office, and the excitements incident thereto, has so seriously affected her health, as to very greatly lessen the physical and social enjoyment that in her declining years, her long and faithful service, as wife, mother and neighbor, she is so justly entitled to.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

I have thus, at some length, though omitting many (to mie) interesting incidents and experiences of the nearly four score years that I have lived, given to the reader the principal events of my life-history, confirming, in a large degree, the old adage that "Man is the creature of circumstance," and possibly the truth of the familiar quotation:

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough hew them how we may."

Since retiring from the Mayoralty, in 1883, being too far advanced in life to undertake to re-establish myself in active busi- ness, and yet not wishing to be entirely idle, I have devoted a large portion of my time to gathering the data and preparing for the press, the local historical matters contained in the following pages, which, though heretofore mainly given to the public, through the columns of the BEACON, it has seemed to me and the many friends with whom I have consulted, should be put into a more enduring and convenient form.

Though very many pioneer incidents and personal experi- ences, that would have been extremely interesting to the partici- pants therein, and their surviving friends, necessarily had to be omitted, I feel that I have amassed a great amount of matter that has interested those who have perused the several chapters as they have appeared, and that will be still more interesting to the

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

rising and coming generations, who are, for the succeeding "Fifty Years and over of Akron and Summit County," to take the places of those who have so gallantly fought and won the physical, political, intellectual, moral and spiritual battles of the city and county for "Fifty Years and Over" in the past.

In the way of illustration, I have reproduced such of the early views of Akron, as could be gathered up, supplemented by many modern views of the same localities, showing the changes that have taken place and the improvements that have been made in the intervening half-century. I have also given the portraits of such of the early settlers and prominent citizens as were available, together with those of a large number of the present live business and public men, old and young, accompanied by brief biograph- ical sketches. This is a very valuable as well as a somewhat expensive feature of the work, made possible only through the generosity of our people, many of whom, in addition to liberally subscribing for the book itself, have voluntarily assumed the cost of engraving such portraits of themselves and deceased friends as it was deemed advisable to include therein.

As showing the changes of a life-time I have also had prepared, as a frontispiece to this work, seven portraits of myself, averaging about ten years apart, from 16 to 76, which may possibly elicit the curiosity if not the interest of my readers. The silhouette at 16, was left with my mother on first leaving home in 1831; that at 26 is from one of the very first sun-pictures ever made in Akron, by a travelling daguerreotypist, in 1841; that at 36, is from a daguerreotype taken in San Francisco, Cal., in 1851; that at 48 is from a photo. taken in 1863, by Akron's pioneer photographer, Samuel J. Miller, in the gallery of Gurney & Son, New York, where he was then employed as poser; that at 59 was executed by Akron's present well-known photographer, Benjamin F. Battels, in 1874; that at 72 is from the camera of Walter B. Manning, a native Akron boy, at Georgetown, Brown Co., O., taken in 1887; that at 76 by Battels, in 1891.

Trusting that its sale may be sufficiently large to defray the heavy cost of its publication, and slightly compensate the writer for his many years of downright hard work devoted to its compi- lation, this volume is respectfully dedicated to my contemporaries -living and dead-for "Fifty Years and .Over of Akron and Summit County," and their descendants and successors, by its grateful author.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905 Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department Number of Pages: 1228

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228