History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 63

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Ohio > Summit County > History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio > Part 63

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The product of this company comprises car, driving and locomotive axles, shafting, eleven sizes of eye-bars for bridges, and every deserip- tion of wrought shape work. In all depart- ments are employed long-experienced and well- skilled artisans, none but the best selected materials, and absolute perfection is aimed at and attained in all their manufactures. Hence, wherever these uniformly fine goods have been introduced and used, their quality, strength, finish and durability are acknowledged to be unsurpassed by the output of any other like establishment in the Union. In their line of manufacture, the character of the stock em- ployed is an all-important consideration, and therefore they use nothing but carefully se- leeted wrought serap, of tough and fibrous texture. insuring the most satisfactory re- sults.

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CITY OF AKRON.

The company are doing a very prosperous business, and their product is in active demand by railway and other corporations, keeping the works constantly busy. They now give em- ployment to some fifty hands, while their pay- roll foots up to $2,000 per month. The pres- ent output is at the rate of about $300,000 per year.

The shipping facilities of this company are all that need be desired. The Valley Railway runs through their premises, and they have switches connecting with the A. & G. W. and C., Mt. V. & C. roads, whereby they are enabled to ship their products to all parts of the country at competing rates. The office and works are east of the Fountain Driving Park.

One of the large industries of Akron is the manufacture of oat-meal. An analysis made by the eminent chemists Liebig and Hassal, shows that while wheat and barley contain 14 per cent of the nutritious elements-the life and muscle-giving qualities-and corn but 12 per cent and a fraction, oats contain nearly 20 per cent. The phosphorescent qualities of the latter act as a gentle and healthy stimulant to the brain ; and on no food can one endure so great or so prolonged mental labor as on oat-meal porridge. To a very great number of people the value of oat-meal is little known, although the prejudice against it is fast giving place to a more just opinion, especially among the educated classes who are capable of appre- ciating the value of the favorable verdict of chemists and physiologists. There is more oat-meal now consumed in the United States than in Scotland. As it contains in an unnsu- ally large degree all the essentials which go to produce health, hardiness and long life, by all means give us more porridge. and less pastry. From a highly instructive paper on oat-meal, by Dr. H. A. Mott, an eminent analytical and consulting chemist, of New York, we learn that of all cereal meals, oat-meal is far supe- rior for the following reasons : Because it con- tains more fattening matter than any other cereal grain ; it contains a large amount of ni- trogenous matter (gluten); it contains so much nutriment in small bulk ; it can be eaten for long periods with beneficial results; it keeps unchanged for a long time. In oat-meal the nitrogenous and carbonaceous elements exist in such proportions as to admit of it being eaten alone as a sustaining diet ; hence it is a

typical food. The proper preparation and use of oat-meal for the table to make it palatable, is, as yet, not well understood by a large por- tion of American cooks. They cannot prepare it properly. To do so, requires a double kettle for boiling in water and steam-iron outside, and tin about an inch smaller inside. In this way the meal cannot be scorched.

The oat-meal mills of Akron may properly be said to have given the city a goodly share of its wide celebrity as a manufacturing cen- ter. The man as yet best known in this con- nection is Ferdinand Schumacher. Before he inaugurated the production in this country of this wholesome article of diet, it was generally believed that such a commodity as good oat- meal could not be made in America, simply be- cause it then was not. But Mr. Schumacher entertained a different opinion in the premises, and, having had some experience in his native country (Germany) in this line, he came to the conclusion that the experiment looking to the production of superior oat-meal here should be persistently attempted. The signal success he has met with in his efforts in this direction shows that he was perfectly right in his judg- ment. When he began, all the oat-mcal con- sumed in this country was imported from Can- ada and Europe ; but his excellent product at length led the market, and at present the im- portations of this valuable hygienic food are comparatively trifling in amount.

Near the depot of the New York, Pennsyl- vania & Ohio Railroad are located Mr. Schu- macher's German Mills, devoted exclusively to the manufacture of this article of food. His are among the largest and best-equipped mills in the country. They are seven stories high, and cover an area of 60x90 feet. They are fully furnished, from foundation to the top floor with the latest improved machinery and manufacturing apparatus. The engine. 20x42, is of 125-horse-power, built by the Putnam Machine Company, of Fitchburg, Mass., as were also all the other engines in this establish- ment.

The German Mills have two basement sto- ries, each thirteen feet high, containing sixteen oat-driers, with a capacity of 3.000 bushels per day. The oats are kept constantly stirred and turned by machinery, so as to secure perfect uniformity in drying. Though the fuel used is coal, the arrangement of the driers is such that

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no smoke or smut can come in contact with the grain.

In these mills are eleven hulling stones and buhrs for grinding feed, which are all run from a line shaft by quarter-twist belts. When per- fectly hulled and cleaned, the berry of the oats are cut by ingenious machinery patented by Mr. Schumacher, consisting of a series of knives operating in connection with vibrating perfo- rated plates, for the purpose of cutting the meal, instead of bruising and crushing the berry as in the old process, whereby a large propor- tion of the starch was unavoidably converted into a comparatively worthless meal or flour. The packing and warerooms are very commo- dious, light and airy, and kept scrupulously clean. The oat meal is conveyed from the mill into this department by machinery, for the pur- pose of being packed and shipped fresh every day. A fair proportion of the meal is put up in fourteen-pound air-tight tin packages, in which it may be kept perfectly sweet for years. The "German Mills American Oatmeal " brand is largely shipped to every State in the Union, and its quality and flavor are pronounced un- surpassed on every hand.

Carter & Steward also manufacture oat-meal in Akron, at 111 South Main street. The buildings occupied by this enterprising firm were erected more than a quarter of a century ago and used as flouring-mills until 1873, when they passed into the hands of the present pro- prietors, and extensive alterations and improve- ments were made, and since that time they have been used exclusively for the manufacture of oat-meal. The main building is 33x95 feet in size, and the engine house and kiln, or depart- ment for drying oats, is 15x95 feet. The mill is supplied with complete machinery, especially adapted to the uses for which it is employed, and all the appointments of these works are of the best and latest improved designs. The products of these mills are sold in all portions of the United States, from Portland, Me., to San Francisco, Cal., in New Orleans and throughout the entire South. An idea of the capacity of the works and the extent of the business transacted by this house may be gath- ered from the fact that their annual sales in this one item alone exceeds $100,000.

Besides the two mills already spoken of, there are those in Akron of Hower & Co., successors to Turner & Co., which make oat-meal, on the

corner of Canal and Cherry streets. Turner & Co. started in 1877, and were succeeded by Ilower & Co. in December, 1880. Their mills are now known as the Akron Oat-Meal Mills. Their capacity is sixty-five barrels a day. The trade of the firm extends from Michigan to Maine.

The latest addition to these mills is the man ufacture of rolled avena (rolled oats), which is oat-meal as originally made, and claimed to be superior in flavor and much more easily cooked than the granulated meal.

There are in Akron four extensive planing- mills. The Weary, Snyder, Wilcox Manufact- uring Company have their buildings on Main street. This company was founded in 1864, by Weary, Snyder & Co. It became a joint-stock company in 1877, with an authorized capital of $150,000. This company handles about 3,000,000 feet of lumber annually. Their yards and mills occupy about four acres of ground opposite the Empire House. The factory build- ing is three stories in height, and 80x120 feet in size. This is equipped with a variety of machinery especially adapted for this particu- lar branch of industry, among which is a gang of saws twenty-eight in number, planing ma- chines, ten single saws, numerous scroll saws, a dove-tailing machine of their own invention, used especially in the manufacture of boxes for the establishment of F. Schumacher for the packing of oatmeal, pearl barley and cracked wheat ; door, sash and blind machinery, etc., operated by a forty-horse power engine. In this establishment is manufactured doors, win- dow sash, blinds, door and window frames, cas- ings and brackets.

In 1852, J. H. Dix & Co. started a planing- mill at the AEtna Mills-the first in Akron. They moved in 1855 to south Howard street near the gas works, where the business is still carried on-but by other parties. They con- tinned the work for three years, when they sold their mill to J. Rockwell & Co. The last-men- tioned firm conducted the business about three years, when their interest was disposed of to W. L. Evert & Co., who continued the work for a time when the property was sold to W. B. Doyle & Co., the present owners. This firm manufacture doors, sash and blinds and other articles appertaining to house-building. They also have a lumber-yard connected with their mill. They carry on an extensive business.

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CITY OF AKRON.

Plaster, as a fertilizer, is also manufactured by them.

Another planing-mill is that of Simon Han-' key. This was started at his present location, 1136 South Main street, in July, 1872, where he occupies three acres of ground. By reason of his straightforward course, characteristic push and integrity in all his dealings, he has succeeded in establishing a prosperous and con- stantly amplifying trade. His fine planing-mill measures 60x122 feet, part of which is of two stories. He has the latest improved machinery for general planing and the manufacture of sash, doors, blinds and moldings. His trade is chiefly that of the city and county.

The planing-mill of D. W. Thomas, at 244 West Market street, is an extensive one. It was first started as a furniture factory by George Thomas, father of the present owner. After going through several hands and being changed to a planing-mill, the ownership finally passed to Mr. Thomas, who now conducts a large lum- ber business in connection with his mill.

All nations, ancient and modern, savage and civilized, have considered respect for the dead a virtue, and burial-places as sacred. Abra- ham bought the cave of Machpelah as a burial- place. Egyptians hewed sepulchers out of solid rock, and built vast pyramids to serve as repos- itories for their dead, whose bodies were so em- balmed that after 3,000 years they are found in a good state of preservation. The Romans honey-combed the hills of Southern Italy with catacombs, in the niches of which they placed their dead. The cemeteries of modern civiliza- tion are fast getting to be picturesque cities of the dead. Monuments of all kinds mark the resting-places of those who slumber in the bosom of the earth. Akron is not behind her sister cities in the manufacture of these stand- ing memorials. The proprietor of the Akron Marble Works, M. H. Crumrine, manufactures and deals in American and Italian marble and in American and Scotch granite mantles and grates. He first started the business in Massil- lon, in 1857, and in 1863 changed its location to Akron, when he purchased a lot at 219 and 221 East Market street, 100x40 feet, and erected a frame building in which he continued his bus- iness until in 1866, when he moved the frame building to the rear of its former location, and on the same site erected a fine three-story brick block known as Castle Hall Block. In 1868,

at 15 North High street, one door from the cor- ner of Market street, he erected a brick building 53x16, which he has since occupied as sample and salesroom and office, with a work-shop im- mediately in the rear 35x20.

Besides the marble works just mentioned are those of Emil Feige, who manufactures monu- ments and tombstones of Italian and American marble, sandstone and other varieties, at 235 Main street. This house was founded in 1858, by Jennings & Henry. In 1877, the present proprietor, E. Feige. purchased the establish- ment and became sole proprietor. The build- ing at present occupied by the business is a frame 20x45-the front portion used for display of manufactured good and the rear for manu- facturing.

Not only oat-meal, but pearl barley is exten- sively manufactured in Akron. The Empire Barley Mills of Ferdinand Schumacher are lo- cated near the depot of the New York, Penn- sylvania & Ohio Railroad. These mills have six floors, each measuring 85x60 feet. The en- gine room contains a double engine with com- bined power of 250 horse. A 40-inch belt on an 18-foot pulley conveys the power to the pearling machines, which, thirteen in number, are attached to a long line shaft, and have a united capacity of 250 half barrels of pearl barley per day, of 110 pounds each.

On the first floor are the barley machines, consisting of an iron shell turning in the oppo- site direction, from rapidly-revolving sand- stones, four fect in diameter by fourteen inches across. This mill, the German Mill, the model Akron (A) elevator, and the commodious pack- ing-houses, whichi are all adjoined, have a total frontage of 293 feet.

Gorner & Planz are the proprietors of the Akron File Works, located between Carroll and East Middlebury streets. This firm is the only one in Summit County engaged to any extent in this branch of manufacture.

The enterprise was first started by Methias Harter, in 1868. The senior partner of the present firm became a partner in 1870, and the business was conducted until 1873 under the firm name of Harter & Gorner, when Mr. Gor- ner purchased the interest of Harter, and for a year and a half continued the business alone. In 1875, H. Polile purchased the works from Gorner, and continued the business with Planz as partner until 1877, when Mr. Gorner re-

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purchased the interest of Pohle ; and since, the firm name has been Gorner & Planz. The buildings occupied for the conduct of the busi- ness are two in number-one, 16x32, the other 16x22. The location of the works is just east of the Buckeye Shops, and in the rear of the Akron Knife Works. In the works is a ten- horse-power engine, which is used principally in the grinding of files, five cutting-blocks, and all tools and machinery used in cutting files. The trade of the house extends throughout Northern, Central and Eastern Ohio, a large amount of the product being sold to the large manufacturing establishments of Akron.

Baker, Merriam & Co. manufacture wood and clay smoking pipes, enameled teapot knobs, pail woods and cigar boxes, also all styles of Hamburg and Shaker pipes, at the corner of Bowery and Ash streets. J. W. Baker began business at this point in 1870, in the manufact- ure of cigar boxes alone, and was joined in the fall following by J. C. McMillen, who purchased an interest in the concern. They made cigar boxes about four years, after which they added wood smoking pipes and tinners' teapot knobs. They now carry on a large and flourishing busi- ness in the articles above mentioned.

Among the multifarious industries of the city of Akron, there is no single one which has con- tributed in a greater degree to give the city a wide-spread reputation than that of the pro- duction of sewer pipe. From the rock-bound coasts of New England to the prairie cities of the far West the fame of the Akron sewer pipe is familiar as household words, and has repeat- edly received the highest encomiums from Mayors and boards of public works, engineers, contractors and chemists. It is manufactured from a combination of the celebrated "Summit County Clays," which by careful analysis have been found to be superior to any yet discovered for this particular purpose. By skilled labor and powerful machinery of the latest and most approved design, the material is rendered homo- geneous and uniform throughout, and under immense pressure the pipe is made very com- pact, and under a high temperature becomes thoroughly vitrified and impervions to the action of acids, gases and steam, all of which are found to a greater or less extent in city sewers. This kind of clay receives a perfect glaze from the vapors of salt, and does not re- quire slip or other foreign substances which are

liable to cut or scale off by the action of sewer gases.

The subject of thorough and perfect sewer- age is beginning to receive the general public attention and recognition which its importance demands. That the health of communities is seriously affected and impaired by faulty or inadequate drainage is a proposition suscepti- ble of ample demonstration. The disease-breed- ing miasmas contaminating the atmosphere of thousands of neighborhoods and homes, pois- oning the human system with noxious cflluvia and deadly exhalations, are the sure and direct result of heedlessness with regard to sanitary teachings in this direction. Go into a neigh- borhood where typhoid and typhus fevers pre- vail, and you will certainly find a canse for this infectious malady in the noisome gases eman- ating from the undrained soil or from imperfect sewerage, and, not infrequently, in consequence of drinking well water impregnated with fetid percolations from contiguous privy vaults and cess-pools.

It is, moreover, unquestionable that many other forms of disease are contracted by similar means, emphasizing the vital importance of counteracting and removing this pestilent cause of discase and death.

The fact of the need of a universal system of sewerage being well established, it now re- mains for us to consider and determine as to the best and most approved material for this purpose, inasmuch as upon this point of perfect sewerage depends the health and well-being of the public.

The strange anomaly is too often observed of a house-builder, in order to save a few dol- lars, contracting for the introduction into his premises of a poor and cheap sewer connection, thus inviting febrile disease into his house- hold ; but then does the victim employ a quack doctor to attend his family ? No ; he hesitates not to summon the best physician to be had. Here is an illustration of obtuse empiricism at the first and corrective skill at the last, although perhaps the latter is employed too late to pre- vent fatal consequences of the imprudence of " saving at the spigot and leaking at the bung."

The initial process in the manufacture of vitrified pipe is the grinding and tempering of the clay, some of which is extremely "refrac- tory," in huge mills-the substance being ma- nipulated by large revolving discs describing

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diverse circles, and moving gradually from cen- ter to circumference of the clay receiver by the operation of an automatic screw. From the mills the tempered mass is thrown into the " blockers," which expel the air, solidify the substance, and form it into blocks, which are brought by elevators up to the powerful screw and steam presses, the cylinder whereof con- tains an inside die suspended from the top of the press, taking the place of the core in iron castings, and an outside die which forms the ex- terior of the pipe. The clay is forced down between these dies, producing pipe ranging in diameter from one to twenty-four inches, and is cut off at proper lengths by a series of knives. The present forms are then transported by steam and hydraulic elevators, consisting of endless belts, to the drying and finishing de- partments, where they are seasoned for three or four days by steam heaters. They are then taken by tramways to the burning kilns, ten in number. each of which is as large as a good- sized room, where for several days they are subjected to a most intense heat, perhaps not far from a thousand degrees-a " warmth " that would have made old Dr. LeMoyne, of crema- tory fame, dance with delight. The torridness of this temperature may be imagined when it is stated that thereby iron can be reduced to a cinder.

After the clay has approached the melting or fluxing state, coarse alkaline salt is thrown upon the fires, producing a dense vapor which per- meates every part of the kilns, circulating through and around the sections of pipe, com- pletely enveloping their inner and outer surfaces. This vapor chemically unites with the pipe communicating to it a smooth and glossy finish. whereby the substance becomes vitreous or glass-like, and the glaze is an integral part of the pipe itself ; not a mere varnish-like coating, as is the case with the " slip "-glazed pipe. The contents of the kilns are allowed to gradually cool off, and usually at the expiration of a week they are in proper condition for removal and the market.

The Akron Sewer Pipe has for many years been in satisfactory use in every section of the country, and is its own complete recommenda- tion. Its even interior surface has no hum- mocks to arrest any floating substance, and its glassy smoothness enables a very small flow of water to carry along with it all the solid matter

that finds its way into the sewer. For over twenty years the " Akron " has been the stand- ard in Chicago, where the flat, low-lying surface requires the most perfect sewers, because of the very slight fall possible in their construction. The experience of other cities and towns which have adopted this pipe uniformly corresponds with that of Chicago, and wherever practically tested it has maintained its justly exalted repu- tation.

Another significant fact is that these pipes have been and are employed in chemical works and retorts, holding the strongest acids, and nothing has ever been used which will produce the slightest effect upon them ; they cannot be disintegrated or even weakened by any known chemical.

There are three sewer pipe companies in Akron, each one which is largely engaged in the manufacture of sewer pipe. The Akron Sewer Pipe Company, at 173 North Water street, Sixth Ward, make standard Akron sewer pipe. The business is conducted under the name and style of the Akron Sewer Pipe Com- pany, was founded in this city in 1848, by Mer- rill, Powers & Co. It subsequently was trans- ferred to Hill & Adams, who were succeeded in 1867, by the Hill & Adams Sewer Pipe Com- pany. In 1871, the company was again recon- structed and became as at present, with a paid- up capital of $175,000, and an authorized cap- ital of $300,000. It is a joint-stock company, incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio, with works and general headquarters at Akron, and agencies in all the principal cities of the United States. The works consist of one two-story brick structure, 50x240 feet in size, and one four-story structure, 50x150 feet, with numerous smaller buildings, sheds, etc. They have ten down-draft kilns, each with a capac- ity of twenty-five tons. These kilns are con- structed so as to secure a uniform heat, vitrify- ing each piece of pipe, which by gradual cool- ing is rendered free from checks and scales. The products of the company are sold in almost every State in the Union. These were the first sewer pipe works started west of New York City, and the second established in the United States.

The Buckeye Sewer Pipe Company manufact- ure, at 921 East Exchange street, Sixth Ward, vitrified salt-glazed sewer pipe. This company was incorporated in 1872, with an authorized

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capital of $100,000. The buildings occupied were erected in 1867, for the manufacture of woolen machinery, and were occupied for this purpose until in 1872, when the business was changed to that of the present. They consist of two main shops of brick, 170x45 and 80x40 respectively, office, sheds, etc. The shops are equipped with all modern appliances for the manufacture of sewer pipe ; six kilns of two car-loads dimensions each.

The Hill Sewer Pipe Company also manufact- ure sewer pipe in Akron. Their place of bus- iness is at 1175 East Market street. This company was founded under its present title in 1873, as a stock company, with a capital of $80,000. D. E. Hill, one of the stockholders, and the gentleman from whom the company takes its name, originated the sewer pipe busi- ness in the United States, and to him is largely clue the honor of bringing about a much needed reform in the sewerage system of most of the cities of the Union, by the introduction of this pipe, which is now acknowledged to be a safe and reliable article for sewers. The works oe- cupied by the Hill Sewer Pipe Company occupy a large traet of ground, and contain one four- story structure. 50x100 feet in size, equipped with all the necessary machinery for the manu- facture of these improved pipes, and four kilns, 15x30 feet in dimension.

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History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 63

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848- Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104