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Akron and Summit County still have in existence the active military organization of the Ohio
National Guard, commanded by Maj. Sam Cole.
CHAPTER XVIII
POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
By Charles W. Kempel, Chairman, Board of Elections, Former Akron
Mayor and Summit County Representative in General
Assembly of Ohio
The historian of the past has neglected to pay much, if any, attention to the political side of
events and has failed to record the course of party politics. In all the stories written of Akron and
Summit County's past very few references are made to the political side of the story. The fact is,
locally each campaign is like the proverbial tub and stands on its own bottom, and regardless of
which party would be successful at an election, political affairs would continue in the same old
way and each party would buckle on its armor for the next fight, hoping that events and issues
would shape the public mind so that they might succeed at the next election.
The poet must have had a minority political party in mind when he wrote, "Hope springs eternal
in the human breast." Since the Civil war Ohio has consistently been in the republican column
and has cast her electoral vote for the republican candidate for President of the United States at
every election until 1912 when the Roosevelt revolt divided the republican party and caused Ohio
to cast its vote for Woodrow Wilson.
In 1916 the issues raised by the World war again put Ohio in the Wilson bandwagon.
After the Civil war party feeling ran high. A small number of independent voters held the balance
of power between the two great parties which were about evenly divided as to numbers.
Majorities were small from 1873 to 1879 and ranged between one and five thousand for the
successful party.
The independent voter of the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s had a different viewpoint than the
independent voter of today. He voted for issues and parties rather than for men and when the
head of a ticket was elected it followed that the entire state ticket of that party would receive a
majority of the votes, and a Legislature was always elected of the same political faith as that of
the governor elect.
In the '70s and '80s the question of sumptuary legislation which has developed in prohibition
caused the independent voter to swing from party to party, and an act of the Legislature curbing
personal liberty would cause a wave of resentment to defeat the party then in power.
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AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 583
In those days of small majorities the weather had a great influence on election results. The great
farming district in western Ohio was solidly democratic and if the weather was bad and too rainy
for work on the farm that section would turn out a great democratic vote, which was of material
advantage to the democratic state candidates. The present day pleasantry that wet weather is
democratic weather is founded on fact.
The passage of the Australian ballot law was the beginning of the emancipation of the hidebound
party voter. It required about fifteen years of study for the voter to learn how he could vote for a
candidate on the other ticket without destroying his ballot.
Shortly after this, primary laws were enacted which destroyed party responsibility and prevented
the gathering of the clans where party problems were worked out and party disputes could be
compromised. The independent voter rules.
Under the present system delegates are elected every presidential year. Their duties are merely to
nominate electors to be placed on the presidential ticket. They are usually picked in advance by
self-appointed leaders so that the delegates have nothing to do but say "Aye," listen to a speech or
two, agree to the party platform which has been prepared in advance, jump into their autos and
go home.
Contrast that with the conventions of old, which spread over the best part of a week. No
automobiles to bring you and take you away in a hurry. You came for a good time and to take
part in the deliberations of the convention. Everything was life and color. All candidates had
headquarters at the leading hotels and the thousand delegates would mill from headquarters to
headquarters, getting acquainted with and discussing the merits of the different candidates.
At the different headquarters you would meet the county leaders ; some colorful figures from the
back counties ; probably a man still wearing the old blue swallow-tail coat with brass buttons,
while velvet vests embroidered with pink roses were not rare. Men with long curly hair and
six-inch hatbrims and old-fashioned stocks were everywhere in evidence. The advice and consent
of all these colorful figures and of all county leaders were asked in the formation of a platform
and ticket, and the convention would end in a blaze of party enthusiasm while the disappointment
of the defeated candidates and their friends would be mollified in the depths of a fragrant mint
julip and they would depart swearing allegiance to their party and its candidates. With the
passing of the state convention the county leader in state politics also passed out, and the state
leader is now one in name only.
The early political history of Summit County was uneventful and the democratic and whig parties
divided the honors, but when slavery became the issue and the republican party was formed
Summit County fell in line and joined the republican ranks.
During the Civil war the same hysteria that obtains in all wars was rampant and democrats were
denounced as traitors and copperheads. The election machinery was crude with very little
regulation by law.
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Each party furnished its own ballots. The campaign for governor of Ohio in 1863 was in the
nature of a riot. Election day the republicans of Akron brought ballots to the polls printed on pink
paper instead of the usual white, then stood in double line from the polls causing the voter to
advance between the lines to cast his ballot. They used every influence, some not so peaceable, to
make every voter deposit the pink ticket. Only twenty-seven Akron men ran this gauntlet and
voted for Valandingham, the democratic gubernatorial candidate. They were mostly business
men who refused to be coerced by such methods. After the election a printed dodger was
distributed bearing the names of the twenty-seven men and an appeal not to trade with them was
made to Akron citizens.
A Macedonian cry for help went up and was answered by the democratic counties of Wayne,
Stark and Holmes, where trade excursions were organized and large numbers of people came
from those democratic strongholds to purchase their supplies from the ostracised democrats of
Akron.
The entire city profited by the increase in business ; other events followed so fast that the
personal animosities were soon forgotten and democrats and republicans again lived in peace.
In 1865 Akron became a city and elected James Matthews mayor. After the war and until 1874
Akron and Summit County had an unbroken line of republican victories. The bloodyshirt and the
attitude of the democrats during the war were the chief issues of the republicans. Many loyal
union democrats became indignant and resented the charge of disloyalty which was applied to all
democrats and therefore battled all the harder for their party.
In 1868 General U. S. Grant was the republican nominee for President, and Horatio Seymour, the
democratic candidate. A vigorous campaign that bordered on the spectacular was waged by the
republicans. The shipping room of the Buckeye Mower and Reaper Company was used as their
headquarters. A large marching club composed mostly of Union soldiers was formed. The
campaign was almost a continuous march from one place to another in the county, with blazing
torches and waving flags, while generals, colonels and captains were waving the bloody-shirt and
denouncing the Rebel Brigadiers and painting the democrats as a nest of copperheads trying to
strike the Union in the back.
A large minority of the Civil war soldiers were democrats ; the republican majority was large
enough, however, to drown their protests and derive an advantage from the issues then raised.
They also held a number of large district meetings at which delegations from the adjoining
counties came with beating drums. The democrats had one large rally during the campaign—a
basket picnic at Hall's fairgrounds which was located in the square between Maple, Balch,
Crosby and Hall streets. George H. Pendleton, former member of Congress from Cincinnati, and
later a member of the United States Senate from Ohio was the principal speaker. Hundreds of
farmers from surrounding counties, their farm
AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 585
wagons and hayracks transformed into veritable bowers of hickory boughs and adorned with
lavish displays of American flags, gathered together in the southern part of the city, drove down
Broadway to Market Street, down Market to the Maple Street fairgrounds.
Between Main and Howard streets a band of rioters attacked the parade and started to remove the
American flags from the wagons. In a moment Market Street was a mass of milling, sweating,
fighting men. The men in the wagons leaped to the ground. John Cook, a groceryman on Market
Street, and an ardent democrat, rolled out a few barrels of axe-handles. The sturdy farmers caught
up the axe-handles and armed like Friar John with his quarter stave began playing a tatoo on the
craniums of the rioters and brought them to flight, and then continued with their parade but for
many a day the story of how Pap fought the black republicans was the favorite one to be told as
the family gathered in the sitting room at night.
There was nothing to twang the political heartstring until after 1872, in which year Horace
Greeley was the democratic nominee for President, opposing Grant who was running for a
second term. Mr. Greeley had spent most of his life abusing democrats. He is the man who is
credited with saying that while he did not believe that all democrats were horse-thieves he was
sure that all horsethieves were democrats, so the result was a listless campaign, a foregone
conclusion as to the result.
But in 1873 the old sleeping democratic party awoke and elected William Allen, governor of
Ohio, with a majority of 817 votes. Not much but enough to set things going. In 1874 Summit
County for the first time in years elected democratic county officials—David R. Paige for county
treasurer and James Poulson for prosecuting attorney. In 1875 the republicans elected R. B.
Hayes governor of Ohio by the narrow margin of 5,544 votes. In 1876 Hayes was nominated by
the republicans for President and Samuel J. Tilden was the democratic nominee. The campaign
started early and lasted until the last vote was cast. The republicans built what was called a
wigwam on the west side of Main Street near Exchange Street, and one on Mill Street about
where the Mill Street entrance to the Central Savings and Trust Bank is now located. The
democrats built one on Exchange Street where the A. C. & Y. Building is located. The forests
were scoured for the tallest hickory and pine trees for flag poles. Hickory for the democrats and
pine for the republicans. Meetings and torchlight parades were held nearly every night. If there
were no speakers from outside, local orators would fill in the gap. Republican orators waved the
bloodyshirt and pointed with pride to the wonderful accomplishments of their party. The
democrats viewed with alarm and shouted for tariff and civil service reform. This was long
before the days of quick transportation and yet the crowds would gather and wend their way to
the different township centers and there erect a pole dedicated to their party and its candidates.
There was not a township in Summit County that did not have at least one pole decorated with
streamers and floating the stars and stripes. There were
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also glee clubs and quartets galore, and as the big hickory pole was raised the democratic glee
club would sing,
"Hurrah for the hickory tree,
From the mountain top down to the sea,
May it wave o'er the grave of the tory and knave,
And shelter the honest and free."
Local rhymesters were busy composing songs to put the laugh on the other fellow. One verse of a
song composed and sung by Milt Clark, republican choir leader, went something like this :
"At the White grocery next Saturday we will meet,
Where John J. Hall will stand the treat,
And one and all, both great and small,
Will be at the raising of the Tilden pole."
John J. Hall was the democratic candidate for Congress and what he called Clark at the
democratic wigwam the next night would be awful to tell. He was like Huck Finn's father when
he complained of the government. When he got through and could say nothing more, he just
naturally started and said the same thing over again. And the next night some republican orator
would throw back into their teeth (as he would say) the vile slanders some democratic orator had
sent forth the night before. And so on and on till the end of the campaign ; and the curious part of
it all was that these men in their tirades were really angry. They took these things seriously and
took themselves seriously. The audiences were bitterly partisan and enjoyed the attacks on the
other fellow as much as the orator enjoyed making them. If the speaker today would use the same
tactics that were used in the '70s and '80s he would be considered a clown and laughed off the
stage.
D. R. Paige was reelected county treasurer. John J. Hall was not elected to Congress and R. B.
Hayes was declared President-elect a few hours before March 4, 1877, by a commission
authorized by Congress to determine the results in several southern states where the vote as given
was being contested by the republicans.
There was a wave of protest at this decision and Ohio went democratic in 1877 electing R. M.
Bishop, governor. In 1878 D. R. Paige was a candidate for secretary of state and was defeated by
only 3,124 votes. In 1879 the effects of the panic of 1873 were disappearing and in the rising tide
of prosperity the greenback theory of finance which was advocated by the democrats was losing
its potency and Charles Foster, the republican candidate, was elected governor of Ohio, and L. S.
Ebright was elected state representative.
In 1880 James A. Garfield was elected President of the United States. Lewis Miller,
manufacturer and banker, one of the heads of the Aultman Miller Company, was the democratic
candidate for Congress and was endorsed by the greenback party. Mr. Miller tried to make the
money question the paramount issue, but the republicans discovered that the democratic party in
their national platform had declared for a tariff for revenue only and painted such an alarming
picture of the pauper
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labor of Europe that all other issues were brushed aside. The tariff question became the
paramount issue and the republicans won a great victory in Ohio in October. Until after 1884 the
state elections in Ohio were held in October and in Presidential years there would be two
elections in the period of a month. The October election, would, therefore, have a great bearing
on the result obtained in November. A great number of speakers of national fame came to Akron
before the October election, but only one torchlight parade was staged. Monday night before
election day the supporters of Lewis Miller, which included many of the mechanics working in
the Buckeye shop organized a parade and with flaring torches marched through the principal
streets of Akron to the corner of Main and Exchange streets, where from a speakers' stand they
were addressed by Lewis Miller and John R. Buchtel, founder of Buchtel College and a leading
member of the green-back party, and its candidate for secretary of state in 1874.
After the October election the republicans continued their efforts trying to hold the advantage
gained in October and held a great jollification meeting with delegates, bands, floats and
mounted troops from all townships in the county. The victory in October became a rout in
November. It was announced that even Lewis Miller would vote for Garfield for President.
President Garfield's assassination in 1881 took all the fighting spirit from the democrats and
practically gave the state to the republicans by default. But in Summit County as fierce a battle as
was ever waged swirled around the candidacy of J. Park Alexander, republican nominee for
member of the General Assembly. Mr. Alexander had been a member of the city council for
several years. He was a firebrick manufacturer and a large distributor of coal oil. As a member of
the council he started a war on the gas company, owned by T. C. Cornell, and succeeded in
having the gas lamps taken from the streets and replaced with oil lamps, and when electricity
entered the lighting field, he fathered the large iron mast that was erected on the corner of
Howard and Market streets to light the town.
By his forceful actions in the city council he succeeded in alienating large numbers of the leading
and influential members of the republican party from his list of political friends. He was a hard
fighter, but a fair fighter, and his friends were as loyal as his enemies were bitter.
A large body of republican leaders organized to defeat him at the election. They, issued a paper
called The Campaigner and in its columns assailed Mr. Alexander very bitterly accusing him of
nearly every crime in the criminal code, even charging him with stealing rain spouting off his
neighbor's house and quoted H. C. Sanford as saying that the public works of Ohio would not
suffer if Alexander was elected as there were locks on the canal.
The regular republican organization tried to make the campaign a personal fight between
Alexander and Cornell, painting Cornell as a money-grabbing miser who was opposing
Alexander because he had inter-
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ferred with Cornell's profit to the advantage of the city. And so the war waged on. A few days
before the election the last issue of The Campaigner was printed and all vicious charges of all its
previous issues were boiled down and reprinted. In his enthusiasm, Cornell dressed in a Prince
Albert coat and a tall plug hat, grabbed a bundle of Campaigners, stationed himself at the corner
of Howard and Market streets and gave them to the passersby.
The partisans of Alexander saw a chance and called men from all parts of the city and pointed out
to them the person of Cornell acting as newsboy and said, "See the old millionaire miser, too
stingy to give a boy a quarter to pass the papers," and started the backfire that probably gave
Alexander the seventy-nine majority by which he was elected. But the memory of this bitter
campaign remained with the voters as the story of future campaigns will indicate.
The national government was completely under republican control but a fierce factional fight
between the stalwart or Grant, Conklin and the Blaine forces of the party were causing discontent
and rebellion among the rank and file of the republican voters. A large republican majority
dominated the Legislature and in their excess of power they forgot that the voters sometimes kick
back. In 1880 they had elected a large majority of Ohio's congressmen. In spite of this fact they
gerrymandered the few democratic districts and added their parts to republican strongholds so
that in a normal vote the democrats would be extremely lucky to elect one congressman in Ohio.
Then Congress passed a river and harbor bill containing the then enormous appropriation of
about $15,000,000, and the whole country arose in wrath and swore vengeance on the bodies that
were robbing them of their privileges and their dollars.
The Twentieth District, as fixed by the Legislature, was composed of Summit, Wayne, and
Medina counties and the iron district of Cuyahoga County. Col. A. S. McClure of Wayne County
was congressman from the old Eighteenth District and under the new arrangement was in the
new Twentieth District and became the republican nominee for Congress in 1882.
David R. Paige was nominated by the democrats to oppose McClure, and the battle was on. Paige
was a born aristocrat and was credited with being the best dressed man in Akron and when he
was arrayed in his frock coat, white vest, standing collar and black silk hat he certainly looked
the part. But even in all of Paige's glory, the grimiest laborer at his work would be at east in his
presence, and to know him was to be his friend. He had the true vote-getting instinct and was
able to put his arms about the humblest citizen and make him understand and believe that he, the
voter, was a power in the community, and that he, Paige, needed his help. But he was not
insincere and no man asked him for help that he did not respond. With this political gift Paige
started a detailed and comprehensive canvass of the district. McClure feeling safe with the
potential
AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 589
majority of 5,000 to his credit did very little personal work and made but few speeches.
There were no autos and no trollies. All campaigning had to be done with horse and buggy. Paige
covered the district and many a farmer was awakened in the middle of the night and told how to
help save the country.
Walter Wellman, who afterwards became famous as a correspondent, and by his attempt to fly
across the Atlantic and to the North Pole in a dirigible, was publishing a daily republican paper in
Akron. The average newspaper at that period was different than the newspaper of today. They
paid more attention to politics and personal controversy than they did to their business counter.
Therefore, they were always in financial distress and instead of being an independent force they
were the errand boys of the political organizations. It was to bolster up the finances of these weak
papers that the public printing laws were passed.
Wellman's paper was trespassing on territory belonging to the Akron Beacon and did not get any
support from the republican organization and it was a struggle for existence. He advised the
republicans not to vote for McClure because he had voted for that infamous River and Harbor
Bill. He did not tell them to vote for Paige, but he asked them to be sure that McClure's name
was scratched off their ballot.
Carson Lake was publishing the Sunday Gazette. He was a political acrobat, jumping as the
winds blew from one party to another. He and Wellman became engaged in a bitter personal
editorial controversy. Wellman must have had the meanest pen for early in 1883 Lake obtained
an attachment against him and his paper on an action for criminal libel. Wellman knew his time
was up, but he had a small roll of paper left and he still had the presses. He knew this would be
the last issue of the paper so he wrote an editorial on Carson Lake ; and it was a classic. He took
the meanness of Cain, Judas, Benedict Arnold and Charles Guiteau, made of it one sticky mass
and with this filthy decoction he smeared the public and private character of Carson Lake. The
denunciation of Uriah Heep by Micawber was weak and peurile when compared to the words of
Wellman. He described Lake from the end of his bright red hair to the soles of his shoes and
ended by saying, "There is the creature and it has a tape worm for a soul."
And while the sheriff was rattling the front door he pushed the papers through the press and with
wet ink the boys took them out the back door.
Wellman left Akron and became famous. Lake left Akron and achieved fame in the newspaper
world, and was one of the great forces in the nomination of Harrison for President in 1888.
Harry Barton, the city editor on Wellman's paper, became Paige's private secretary after the
election.
The Cuyahoga County part of the district was the big nut to crack. All iron and steel mills with
mostly Welsh and English workers—men drilled and graduated from the republican tariff school.
This section was added to the Twentieth District to absolutely guarantee the election of a repub-
590 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY
lican congressman. The work in the mills at that time was performed in a different manner than it
is today. Men's backs and muscles stood the strain of weight, pressure and resistance, whereas
now electrical and hydraulic power lift the burdens. In a stifling heat, the boiling, bubbling,
incandescent mass of metal was cast into an ingot of steel, requiring skill and superhuman
physical effort on the part of men, and after the heat was over, wringing wet with perspiration
and exhausted to the breaking point, the crew would dash to the saloon at the mill yard gate,
reach down their individual bucket which was hanging along the side of the wall and soon their
exhaustion was giving way to the revivifying effects of stock ale. One afternoon, about the
middle of September, when a score of men with tilted heads were gazing at the inside bottom of
their buckets, there entered the saloon a small, elderly man who walked to the bar and ordered a
bottle of pink pop.
He was bright-eyed with pink cheeks. His beard was grey and semi-Vandyke. He wore a rusty
silk hat, his cuffs were frayed and his black diagonal coat was suffering from wear. He drank half
of his pop, placed a nickle on the counter and addressed the men, "well boys, I am running for
Congress, and as you are all good republicans, I want you to be sure to get out at the election and
give me a big majority." He finished his pop and walked out, saying that he must get along.
There were no campaign lithographs of candidates used that year, but they recognized in the
small shabby man the person of Colonel McClure. All rules of the political game had been
broken, all ethics of campaigning had been shattered and "Well, I'll be damned" was heard from
all parts of the room. This scene was reenacted in every saloon in the iron district.
After a week Paige entered the scene. He, spotless and shining, bred confidence and radiated
hospitality. In the saloons the walls and ceilings belonged to the proprietors, the contents soon
belonged to Paige and there was no stint in their passing. His canvass of the Cuyahoga County
end of the district became a triumphal procession. The man they mistook for McClure was an
Akron doctor, a republican but a friend of Paige's. He sure had his fill of pop, but it did him no
harm as he lived many years after.
The elections that year were democratic landslides. A democratic Congress. In nearly every state
democratic governors were elected. A democratic secretary of state and at least fifteen
democratic congressmen out of Ohio's twenty-one districts were elected, although Summit
County, outside of the majority given to Paige went solidly republican. As a rebuke to the
republican gerrymander, wagons all over the state carried banners, "By whatever measure ye
measure, it shall be meted out to you."
A great jollification meeting was staged by the friends of Paige. The iron workers from Cuyahoga
County came down in a body, headed by a delegation of the Cooper's Union of Cleveland with
Martin A. Foran, who was formerly a cooper and was now the newly elected congressman from
Cleveland. Wayne and Medina counties sent their quotas and a great parade was formed. Torch
lights by the thousand, prancing horses and marching men, a glare of red fire, jostling, shouting
crowds, every man
AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 591
and woman proclaiming the triumph of Paige. The speakers' stand was erected at the corner of
Main and Exchange streets. The hulk of an old canal boat was towed to the center of the lower
basin opposite the Thomas-Philip paper mill, piled over fifty feet high with oil barrels and old
lumber. The match was struck and Akron saw the greatest bon-fire of her history.
In the spring of 1883 Lorenzo Dow Watters, just admitted to the bar and known as the young
eagle of democracy, was elected mayor of Akron.
In the fall of 1883, J. B. Foraker and Judge George Hoadley opposed each other for governor of
Ohio. No particular excitement was ejected in the campaign ; personal liberty was the question
discussed. Hoadley and a democratic Legislature were elected. Henry B. Payne was elected
United States senator at its session in 1884. Summit County again voted solidly republican. The
succession of democratic victories in the state and nation for the past two years culminated in
1884 in the election of Grover Cleveland to the Presidency. The Legislature had re-districted the
state and Summit County was now in a district with Wayne, Medina and Stark. Stark County was
the home of William McKinley, who was serving his third term in Congress, and was recognized
as the leading apostle of protection. Stark County was at that time a strong democratic county,
but McKinley was popular at home and was in the habit of carrying his county. It was new
territory for Paige. It was a battle of the giants, a contest of political skill and behind it all,
something the voters did not know, a fight between oil and iron. Money flowed like water. There
was no corrupt practice act on the law books of Ohio and no statute limiting the use of money, no
statement of expenses to be made, so the candidates and committees were not worrying about
that feature of the campaign. A first voters club was organized in both parties. The republicans
adopting a gray plug hat and the democrats wore the black silk hat as their head gear. Paige had a
body guard of 200 silk-hatted linen dustered men. They accompanied him with brass bands to
important meetings, but these meetings were limited to points that could be reached by railway.
Special trains were chartered and made up at a moment's notice for Canton, Wooster, Cuyahoga
Falls and other points. The republicans were also a bunch of busy men. Both parties held many
meetings and with speeches, parades and excursions it assumed the nature of a continuous
performance. Indeed, the entire populace seemed to have adopted the motto, "If politics interferes
with business, forget your business." It was a filthy campaign from the standpoint of personal
abuse, and charges of immorality on the part of national and local candidates were freely made.
The most noted speakers of the nation orated all through this district. Both Blaine and Logan
spent several days here to help elect McKinley. The practical side of the campaign did not suffer
while the spectacular demonstrations were taking place. At a meeting of the democratic strategy
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the reports from the entire district were flattering. Victory perched on their banners, and with a
general hand-shake they adjourned, but the Indians were on their trail. Every move they had
made, every compact that had been formed, every worker that had been hired was known to the
republican scouts. A day or so later a democratic committeeman entered headquarters and
noticed a change in the air. He said to the secretary :
"Whence the gloom?"
"Oh," said the secretary, "they've got a new roll."
"Who?"
"The repubs."
"How much?"
"Eighty-five grand."
"Where from?"
"Down Pittsburgh way ; guess it's all off."
The amount may not have been as large as stated, but they did have a new roll, and with that roll
they dashed from one end of the district to the other and upset many of the well-laid plans of the
democrats, and retrieved many a worker from the Paige ranks. So McKinley was elected in
October and the republicans in a frenzy of joy marched up and down the sidewalks singing,
"Hurrah for Blaine and Logan,
And Billy McKinley, too,
We'll send them all to Washington,
For fifty dollars, we do,
As we go marching through Akron."
They would spy a bunch of democrats and surround them singing and jeering till they had every
last democratic dollar in some stakeholder's pocket. But after the November election many a
republican who had felt so rich was financially flat. The election of Cleveland depended on the
result in New York. Cleveland was finally given that state by about eleven hundred majority and
while the people were waiting for the official count, the excitement did not abate. Crowds lined
the streets, bon-fires blazed on many corners, and cheers and groans would receive the news as
the
I vote of county after county was tabulated. But it was finally over and after a large democratic
jollification Summit County forgot politics, but for many a year those democratic silk hats would
be in evidence on St. Patrick's Day.
Dow Watters was reelected mayor of Akron in 1885. J. B. Foraker, republican, was elected
governor of Ohio and with his election Col. A. L. Conger, one of the county leaders, became an
important state figure. In 1886 Charles Dick first entered the political field as a candidate for
auditor of Summit County. He afterwards went to Congress for several terms and at the death of
Senator M. A. Hanna the Legislature elected him to fill that important position. George W.
Crouse, who had been auditor, treasurer and commissioner of Summit County, elected state
senator in 1885, was nominated and elected to Congress in 1886. In 1887, L. D.
AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 593
Seward, a republican attorney, was elected mayor of Akron and Joseph Foraker was reelected
governor. J. P. Alexander, who was nominated for state senator, and while he was elected by
reason of the overwhelming republican majority in this district, his old enemies banded together
and again opposing him caused him to lose Summit County.
In 1888 Benjamin Harrison was the republican candidate for President, opposing Grover
Cleveland for a second term. Allen G. Thurman, the idol of Ohio's democracy, was his running
mate for vice president. Thurman habitually used a red bandana handkerchief and that article
became the democratic symbol during the campaign. The republicans adopted the American flag
as their symbol and all good republicans used a silk flag for a handkerchief. The campaign was
rather listless. The democrats featured it by caricaturing Harrison as a small man trying to wear
his grandfather's hat which was too large for him, but at the election the band on grandpa's hat
played a victorious melody. Martin L. Smyser, republican, of Wooster, was elected to Congress,
Mr. Crouse having refused to run for a second term.
In 1899, William Miller, a machinist in the then flourishing Buckeye shop, was the democratic
candidate for mayor. With the backing of the workmen at that large factory he was elected. J. B.
Foraker was the republican candidate for a third term as governor. He was defeated by James E.
Campbell, his democratic opponent. Summit County went republican and Charles Dick was
reelected county auditor. The democratic victory in the state included the election of a democratic
majority in the Legislature. Calvin S. Brice was elected United States senator by the Legislature,
and they also redistricted the state, placing Summit County in the new Twentieth District of
Huron, Lorain, Summit, Portage, Lake and part of Cuyahoga. The new Sixteenth District in
which McKinley lived was formed for the avowed purpose of defeating him for Congress and
was composed of Medina, Wayne, Stark and Holmes counties.
In the 1890 election there was no debate in Summit County and V. A. Taylor of Bedford was
elected to Congress. All of the political interests were centered in the Sixteenth District contest.
John G. Warwick, who had been elected lieutenant governor in 1883, an outstanding figure in
business and politics and extremely popular in Wayne and Stark counties, was the democratic
candidate opposing McKinley. Like in 1884 the republicans of the nation flocked to the support
of McKinley, while the democratic national organization sent an army of speakers and workers to
assist Warwick. The fight went furiously on and money flowed freely. The three northern
counties gave a majority for McKinley, but in rock-ribbed Holmes the voters did not falter but
returned their usual democratic majority and Warwick was elected.
In '91, William H. Miller was reelected mayor and H. H. Harrison was elected marshal, the first
democratic marshal elected since 1877. William McKinley, defeated for Congress, was the
republican nominee for governor and defeated James E. Campbell for a second term.
In the spring of '92, two men came to Akron from Wood County and
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started printing a democratic daily paper. The men were William B. Dobson and his brother,
Russell. They were intelligent, resourceful and audacious, and injected vitality into the party,
vitality that had been lacking since D. R. Paige left Akron. Grover Cleveland was again
nominated for President and Benjamin Harrison was named to succeed himself. The paramount
question was the tariff. The McKinley Tariff Bill had been passed during McKinley's last term in
Congress. Every ill that could be discovered, the clouds of grasshoppers in Kansas and the hot
winds that burned the crops that the grasshoppers had not consumed, the fact that there was such
a bumper crop of corn in Nebraska and Iowa that the farmers were using it for fuel, all this was
charged to the working of the McKinley Bill. The strike in the Homestead steel plant, which
ended in a clash between the guards and strikers and the killing of a few brought forth the slogan
"Profits for the manufacturer and bullets for the workmen." The republicans were on the
defensive. The local fight waxed warm. The new democratic daily charged that Summit County
was run by a ring that controlled nominations and stifled the ambitions of aspiring republicans
who did not belong, and demanded that they help "Smash the ring." Sam Rogers, candidate for
prosecuting attorney, thundered denunciation against the "ring" from every town hall and red
schoolhouse in the county. The republicans, feeling secure in the handicap of numbers, pursued
the even tenor of their way and without hysteria carried on the usual campaign of organization.
There were no large gatherings that year. A few speakers but no parades worth mentioning.
Cleveland was elected and Summit County, old reliable Summit, slipped her hauser and went
down stream with the democratic pressure. The entire democratic ticket was elected.
The Legislature elected in '91 had again re-districted the state and Summit County was now in
the Nineteenth District with the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga, Trumbull and Portage, and
Steven A. Northway, republican, carried the district for Congress.
With two exceptions the entire colored population of the county voted the republican ticket.
Hannibal Lyons, a barber, and James Robison, a blacksmith, were democrats and no public
meetings were ever held without giving them prominent places on the platform to prove that the
democrats did not hate the negro.
In March, 1893, a democratic mass convention was called to nominate a city ticket. There were a
number of candidates seeking the nomination for mayor. Ex-Mayor Dow Watters was chairman.
When the chair called for the placing of names before the convention, James Robison in a
flowery address placed the name of Watters, who was not seeking the office, before the
convention, and in a burst of enthusiasm he was nominated and later elected for the third time as
mayor of Akron.
The panic of '93 struck. The tread of idle men rocked the earth. The democratic administration at
Washington must be the reason, so McKinley was reelected governor of Ohio and Summit
County again swung into the republican column.
AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 595
At this time the democrats were in a fierce post office fight. There were many candidates for the
position. William B. Dobson received the appointment and from that time until Mr. Dobson
resigned and left Akron to reside in Michigan, a factional fight prevented harmony in democratic
ranks. In '94 the same conditions existed and the state went republican ; Northway was again
elected to Congress. The republican county candidates were elected, all the democrats who had
been so triumphantly elected two years before went down to defeat.
In the spring of '95, the republicans elected E. R. Harper, mayor of Akron. During that summer
the specter of factionalism raised its head in the republican ranks. The proposed candidacy of
McKinley for President in '96 built a new element in the republican party of the state. Mark
Hanna, representing that element sought to gain absolute control of the party machinery. Charles
Dick, his able lieutenant, was a candidate for state auditor, but the Foraker men lined up for
battle, captured the State Convention, nominated Asa S. Bushnell for governor and Walter
Guilbert for state auditor and filled every other position on the ticket with a good Forakerite, and
with the Legislature elected that fall he elected himself to the United States Senate. This
factionalism slumbered in '96 and McKinley was nominated for president. The money question
was the big issue and many republicans from the western states retired from the convention when
it did not declare for the free coinage of silver.
The democrats met at Chicago without leadership and all at sea during their deliberations until
William J. Bryan of Nebraska, practically unknown, electrified the convention with an
impassioned speech and he was nominated for President. Grover Cleveland with the entire force
of the democratic administration repudiated Bryan and his platform which declared for the
re-monitization of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. New party lines were formed. Hundreds of
life-long republicans climbed into the Bryan bandwagon to be liberated from the yoke of gold,
while the old conservative democrats shouted for an honest dollar and a staple currency. Like a
meteor Bryan flashed from state to state carrying his gospel of redemption from the
money-power, while McKinley from his front porch addressed the throng that flocked to Canton
by the train load. Frenzied crowds were debating on every street corner. Each person supremely
confident in the righteousness of his cause. The voice of the soap box orator was heard in the
land and the mouth of man worked overtime with arguments. McKinley was elected. Northway
went back to Congress and the entire republican county ticket with the exception of the sheriff
was elected. Billy Williams elected in '92, defeated in '94, was again successful.
In the spring of '97 a militant force of young democrats captured the city organization and
nominated W. E. Young for mayor and he defeated E. R. Harper, who was running for a second
term. Harper afterwards moved to Colorado, entered politics and was elected lieutenant governor
of that state.
In the summer the Hanna-Foraker feud broke out afresh. John
596 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY
Sherman resigned from the United States Senate to take a place in the McKinley cabinet. Under
pressure Governor Bushnell appointed Mark Hanna to fill the vacancy till the meeting of the next
Legislature. Foraker and his followers began building organizations in the different counties for
the purpose of nominating candidates for the Legislature pledged to vote against Hanna for
senator. Mr. Dobson resigned as postmaster and the appointment of L. S. Ebright was very
distasteful to Col. A. L. Conger and the Foraker followers in Summit County. The young
democrats, elated by their success in the spring, captured the county committee, controlled the
convention and nominated C. W. Kempel and C. N. Russell of Cuyahoga Falls for members of
the General Assembly. In the minds of the old republican leaders there was no question as to the
results. They laughed at the idea of those boys being able to carry the county but they reckoned
wrong. Many a working man who had voted for McKinley and who had expected an immediate
return of prosperity was still without work and his dinner bucket was not full. There was a small
band of Foraker Braves in every precinct in the county and their tomahawks were freshly ground.
Colonel Conger wrote a series of letters opposing Mark Hanna ; even Foraker requested several
Akron business men that he met in New York to vote for the democratic candidates. He did not
know who these candidates were but he did know that they would not vote for Mark Hanna and
still the republicans did not awake. Snoring away, they let election day come and with it defeat.
Bushnell was reelected governor, J. P. Alexander again was a candidate for the State Senate. He
again lost in Summit County but the ballots of the district carried him across. At the meeting of
the Legislature a coalition of democrats and Foraker republicans organized both the House and
Senate, showing a majority of four. Mark Hanna was defeated. The coalitionists selected for their
candidate the mayor of Cleveland, Robert E. McKisson, but the republican leaders in one mass
hurried to Columbus and for ten days Columbus saw the hottest time of its existence. The
McKisson men could not hope to capture any of the regulars and worked to hold their forces in
line. The Hanna men used every pressure that could be brought to take the rebels from McKisson
and when the vote was taken on January 11, 1898, Mark Hanna received 145 votes, exactly a
constitutional majority. Charges of bribery were made but nothing developed and Hanna
remained in the Senate until his death in 1904. But history shows that nearly every converted
rebel that voted for him received a fat appointment in the public service. Threats of reprisal
against Foraker and his followers were heard on every side, but about two years later an armistice
was agreed to and in 1902 J. B. Foraker was reelected to the United States Senate without
opposition.
Steven A. Northway died in '98 and Charles Dick received the nomination for Congress and he
with the entire republican ticket was elected. W. E. Young succeeded himself as mayor in the
spring of '99. The democrats nominated John R. McLain for governor that year. The republicans
nominated George K. Nash, Samuel Jones, golden rule mayor of Toledo,
AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 597
announced himself as an independent candidate. The radical democrats of Summit County
enlisted under the Jones standard. The scenes of the '96 campaign were reenacted, resulting in a
larger vote for Jones than that cast for McLain, assuring republican victory in the county.
In 1900 Bryan again opposed McKinley for the Presidency. Free silver under the rising tide of
prosperity was no longer an issue, and imperialism because of McKinley's policy after the
Spanish war was made the issue by Bryan. Mark Hanna made the cryptic remark, "You have a
full hand, stand pat," and "stand pat" was the battle cry of the republicans. Bryan addressed a
large meeting from a platform erected on the west side of the Buchtel Hotel. He spent the
following Sunday in Akron, the guest of Judge C. R. Grant. Theodore Roosevelt was the
republican candidate for vice president and was the attraction of a large republican afternoon
meeting at Grace Park. The republicans were victorious in nation, state and county and Charles
Dick was again returned to Congress. The torch light parade became a thing of the past. Before
the appearance of the dry cleaner a few grease spots on your clothing, more or less, did not
matter, but the passing of the former fanatical partisanship made a change to the voter in the
manner of expressing their faith. The old time out-of-door speaker was also passing out. The
custom of the times had bred a band of leather lunged orators that could talk for two hours in the
cold frosty night air of October. Permanent speaker stands were erected at the corners of Market
and Howard and Main and Exchange streets. A small table with a pitcher and glass was on the
platform. The pitcher was usually filled with water, sometimes with milk, and if a kind hearted
committeeman would put something a little stronger in the milk to drive away the chill, the
speaker, on taking his first sip, might ejaculate, "Ye Gods, what a cow !" Senator Zak Chandler,
of Michigan, speaking at Market and Howard could be easily heard at Cherry Street. Gen.
Samuel F. Carey was equally good and all the others had the endurance if not the volume, and the
audience that would gather numbered by hundreds, stood and listened for hours, cheering at
every chance. It is safe to say that it was the voter and not the orator that put this practice in the
discard. The same reason that caused him to refuse to carry a torch caused him to refuse to
endure the physical torture of standing through such a meeting.
In the spring of 1901, there was a spirited contest for the nomination for mayor in both parties. A
powerful republican organization had been built up under the leadership of Probate Judge G. M.
Anderson, and the candidate of that faction, William B. Doyle, was nominated by the
republicans. Charles H. Isbell was nominated by the democrats over A. T. Paige, a brother of D.
R. Paige, after a very bitter primary fight.
After a spirited campaign Doyle, labeled "The man of the Hour," was elected. George K. Nash
was reelected governor of Ohio in the fall by common consent. On account of the assassination
of President McKinley there was no political activity during this campaign.
In the fall of 1902 a bitter fight was waged over the office of probate
598 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY
judge. Judge Anderson had served two terms and W. E. Pardee, his deputy, was nominated by the
organization. W. E. Young, former mayor of Akron, was nominated by the democrats. By this
time a great number of republicans became dissatisfied with the republican organization and
assisted Young in his fight, and while Pardee was elected by about 100 votes the remainder of the
republican ticket went through by the usual vote.
In the spring primaries of 1903 the Union men of Akron entered the field of politics and
demanded recognition from both parties. There had been no labor trouble in Akron for some
years and the unions were very strong and active. A number of union men announced themselves
as candidates for nomination on both tickets.
The republicans again named W. B. Doyle as their candidate for mayor but failed to recognize
the unions, nominating on their entire ticket but one union man for the council. The democrats
nominated C. W. Kempel, a union painter, for mayor and a number of union men for other places
on their ticket. The fight centered on the mayorship and the republican and democratic union
men, fused into one mass by their grievances, were in the thick of the fight and elected Charles
W. Kempel.
J. Park Alexander secured the nomination on the republican ticket for member of the board of
service, and again the old animosities were aroused and he was defeated by James Burt, the
democratic nominee.
This was the last spring election held in Ohio. Before the next election the Legislature abolished
spring elections and caused them to come in the fall with the county and state elections.
In the fall of 1903 Tom Johnson made a spectacular race for governor. Automobiles were just
coming in and Tom Johnson, with a large red machine like a circus bandwagon toured the state,
speaking at every village and hamlet, going to the larger centers at night where a tent holding
thousands had been erected during the day. However, Myron T. Herrick was elected governor.
Nineteen hundred and four saw Roosevelt elected to the presidency. The average democrat
thought that Alton B. Parker, their candidate, had been too plainly stamped with the Wall Street
label and Roosevelt's popular majority was the largest ever given to a presidential candidate.
But while the republicans were united on the presidential ticket a large Roosevelt following of
the younger republicans imbued with the spirit that Roosevelt inspired began to chafe at the yoke
of the old party machinery in the county, state and nation.
Congressman Charles Dick had succeeded to the senatorial toga after the death of M. A. Hanna,
and a successor to him had to be chosen. The young progressives under the leadership of R. M.
Wanamaker got behind the candidacy of Aubrey Thomas of Trumbull County, while the "Old
Guard," as Charles Dick lovingly called them, wanted E. L. Lampson of Ashtabula nominated.
The selection of delegates to the convention to be held in Warren, Ohio, was the most interesting
and exciting ever held in Summit County, with the honors about even in the district, the Old
Guard
AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY- 599
having a little the better of the situation, which was shown by preliminary test votes. Flushed
with assured victory the Old Guard adjourned for dinner.
The young crusaders knew no defeat and while the Old Guard were disposing of their beans and
ham sandwiches, they worked frantically on and secured enough converts so that when the final
vote was taken the proud banners of the Old Guard were trailing in the dust and Aubrey Thomas
was the nominee. He was elected in 1904 and reelected in 1906 and 1908.
Nineteen hundred and five saw the first open attack of the Anti-Saloon League on the entrenched
wet forces of Ohio. With hard work and shrewd political finesse they captured the Democratic
State Convention and nominated John M. Pattison, an ardent advocate of prohibition, for
governor. Myron T. Herrick was nominated on the republican ticket.
The horse-racing interests of the state thought they had Governor Herrick's promise to sign a bill
favorable to them if they could secure its passage by the Legislature. The bill was passed and was
vetoed by Herrick. The race horse men claimed that they were double crossed and organized to
get Herrick's political scalp.
The progressive rebellion was growing and William H. Taft, then in Roosevelt's cabinet, in a
speech made in Akron's Music Hall, advised the republicans to vote against the domination of
George B. Cox, at that time the big republican boss in Ohio.
The wet forces seemed to be in a daze and too late began a fight to beat Pattison, but the odds
were too great. Pattison was elected. For the first time since the Civil war Summit County gave a
democratic candidate for governor a majority of her votes.
Charles W. Kempel was reelected mayor of Akron. Howard Spicer was elected as a member of
the General Assembly and during his term the Legislature changed the time of elections so that
all municipal elections would be held in the odd numbered years and the state and county
elections would be held in the even numbered years.
While this state battle was being waged, a fight in the Akron judicial districts between the Old
Guard and the "Indians," as the young progressives called themselves, was taking place, and for
intense bitterness, for charges and counter-charges it far exceeded the hectic days of the Aubrey
Thomas campaign of the year before.
R. M. Wanamaker, the leader of the Indians, was their candidate for the nomination for common
pleas judge, and Dayton A. Doyle, a law partner of Senator Dick, was sponsored by the Old
Guard. The contest was close and the result in doubt till the delegates in convention assembled at
Medina nominated Wanamaker, once more putting the Old Guard to rout.
But as a tribute to the worth and ability of Dayton A. Doyle when the next vacancy occurred on
the common pleas bench he was nominated for the position without any opposition in Summit
County. Judge Wanamaker later was elected judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio.
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