(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) 600 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY Nineteen hundred and six saw the first break in the long line of republican county officials. I. S. Myers was chosen treasurer and John W. Frank for county commissioner, both democrats. William T. Sawyer, democrat, was elected mayor in 1907. Clyde F. Beery, his opponent, had served four years as city solicitor and was very popular. The election was very much in doubt until the voters discovered that Berry had forgotten to transfer and therefore could not vote. There was a joint debate between the two candidates, and before this large assemblage and from soap boxes on many street corners, Sawyer would demand of his hearers, "Why do you want to vote for Berry? He won't vote for himself." The whole town laughed and voted for Sawyer. He was reelected in 1909. This was the first campaign that was ever waged for mayor of Akron that could be called a speaking campaign. All previous contests were of the gum shoe variety without speaking or advertising, only intensive personal solicitation by the candidates and their friends. William J. Bryan for the third time was the democratic nominee for president in 1908. After a spirited fight the control of the democratic state organization between Tom L. Johnson and the regular organization, Judson Harmon was nominated for the governorship. The democratic wave that inundated Summit County for twelve years made itself felt at this election. While William H. Taft carried the county, Governor Harmon had a substantial majority and I. S. Myers was reelected treasurer. Charles W. Kempel defeated Howard Spicer for a second term as member of the General Assembly. A division in the republican ranks in 1909 on the question of who to nominate for mayor caused enough bitterness to destroy any chance the republican nominee might have had for election. W. J. Wildes was the candidate of the younger progressive element and Postmaster L. S. Ebright the candidate of the Old Guard. There were enough candidates for Ebright's position of postmaster to throw the balance to him in order to cause him to resign his position. So, Sawyer romped off with his second term by a large majority. It is strange how soon some people after being elected to office forget the glittering chariot of promises in which they rode to success. W. Aubrey Thomas, elected to Congress and who had carried the banner in the front rank of progressiveism, was being accused of apostacy. His brethren of the Roosevelt cult claimed that he was forgetting the hard simple life of the progressive faith and was basking in the luxury of the stand pat palaces. But Aubrey only smiled. Was there not a potential republican majority of 17,000 in the district? How could that be overcome? But out of Akron came a new prophet. E. R. Bathrick, filled with enthusiasm that swept all before, carried his message to every hamlet and crossroad store in the district, and it fell on receptive ears. The preachings of Bryan, the philosophy of Roosevelt and the complaints of all the host of magazine writers and lecturers had paved the way for the march of the great pro- AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 601 gressive army even if its great body of soldiers did desert to the stand pat army at the first cry of normalcy. Bathrick overcame the tremendous odds and was elected to Congress. Judson Harmon had 100,000 majority over Warren G. Harding for governor. Charles W. Kempel did not run for a second term in the General Assembly, but became a candidate for clerk of the House of Representatives, to which he was duly chosen. Atlee Pomerene of Canton was elected to the United States Senate by the Legislature, this being the last time a senator was elected in Ohio before the constitutional amendment went into effect that senators shall be elected by direct vote of the people. Pomerene took the place of Charles Dick and this was the passing of that formerly powerful figure from active management of the republican party in Ohio. A three cornered fight for mayor took place in 1911. Henry Cronan, member of the city council, was the democratic candidate. Frank Rockwell, an old time citizen, was the republican nominee. The socialist party was becoming very active and they placed a candidate named Peter Smith in the field. Smith took many labor votes from Cronan, thus causing the election of Rockwell. In 1912 the great republican party which for sixteen years had been successful was split asunder and progressiveism was the wedge. Taft was renominated after a wild battle for a second term, and Roosevelt became the candidate of the progressive party, while Woodrow Wilson was nominated by the democrats. A house divided shall fall—and Wilson was elected President. James Cox was elected governor of Ohio. E. R. Bath-rick again carried this district for Congress, and the democrats filled the courthouse with their party candidates. In 1913 a great I. W. W. invasion of Akron caused a strike in all the rubber factories and boomed the cause of socialism and they nominated Raymonds Hilds for mayor. Frank Rockwell refused the republican nomination and became the candidate of the progressive party. Edward Boylan accepted the republican nomination and John Gauthier was put forward by the democrats. A spectacular soap box campaign was staged by the socialists. Many democrats, fearful of socialist success, deserted Gauthier and united with the business interests to elect Rockwell. They succeeded, but by a bare 300 plurality. In 1914 there was a recession in the democratic fortunes. Frank B. Willis captured the governor's office from James M. Cox and E. R. Bath-rick was defeated for Congress by S. H. Williams of Lorain, the district having been changed to the fourteenth and being composed of Summit, Portage, Medina and Lorain counties. The republican ticket in the county was largely successful, but the democrats elected William Graham auditor and Joseph Thomas for treasurer. In 1915 W. T. Sawyer again secured the democratic nomination for mayor. William J. Laub was the republican nominee. After a grand display of street corner speeches, nightly meetings in tents pitched in 602 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY different parts of the city and pages of advertising in the daily papers, Laub was elected. Nineteen hundred and sixteen saw the big fight between Wilson and Hughes. The republicans had no particular issue and "He kept us out of War" was the democratic slogan. Ex-mayor Sawyer had the phrase painted in large yellow letters on the rear of his automobile. Democratic enthusiasm ran high in Ohio and Summit County, and while the national result hinged on a few hundred votes in California, Ohio went overwhelmingly for Wilson. James M. Cox was chosen governor over Frank B. Willis. E. R. Bathrick was again returned to Congress, and every democrat on the county ticket except the candidate for sheriff was elected. James A. Corey, republican, weathered the storm and was reelected sheriff. Mayor Laub succeeded in alienating the support of many of the leading republicans during his first administration and I. S. Myers, former democratic county treasurer, easily defeated him for a second term in 1917. Congressman E. R. Bathrick died in December, 1917, and Martin L. Davey was elected in 1918 to fill his unexpired term as well as the next following term. Ex-Senator Charles Dick, after seven years of private life, staged a come-back and secured the republican nomination for Congress and attempted to rally the Old Guard and led them as of yore, but their ranks were disorganized from past defeats and thinned by the passage of time, and Dick went down to defeat. After serving the Akron district almost eight years in Congress, Davey, in 1928, was nominated as the democratic candidate for governor of Ohio. A majority of the democratic county candidates were elected. Factional differences between the so-called "Jeffersonian" and regular wings of the democratic party in the city caused the defeat of Mayor Myers for renomination and made Henry Berrodin, leader of the Jeffersonians, the democratic candidate. William J. Laub secured the republican nomination and was elected in November. Akron adopted a charter form of government to take effect January 1st, 1920, a manager to be selected by the council and they promoted Laub to the managership. The president of the council, Carl Beck, thus became mayor. Warren G. Harding had 15,000 majority over James Cox for President in Summit County in 1920, and that majority swept every republican on the county ticket into office. Charles L. Knight, owner of the Beacon Journal, was elected to Congress, defeating M. L. Davey for a second term. Harry Davis defeated Vic Donahey for governor. D. C. Rybolt was elected mayor in 1921, defeating William Williams, son of the ex-sheriff. The newly elected council recalled Laub and named Homer Campbell to succeed him as manager. In 1922 Harry Davis did not seek a renomination for governor and Carmi Thompson was named for the position. Charles L. Knight, refused a renomination for congressman and entered the fight for governorship AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 603 but without success. D. C. Rybolt contested with State Senator Frank E. Whittemore for the congressional nomination, but Whittemore was successful. Vic Donahey again secured the democratic nomination for governor and M. L. Davey for Congress. Donahey was elected governor, having a 10,000 majority in Summit County. Davey was returned to Congress and the two parties divided honors on the county ticket. D. C. Rybolt defeated R. A. Myers for mayor in 1923. The charter of Akron having been changed so that the mayor would be the city manager, Rybolt entered his second term with the title of mayor-manager. The great republican landslide of 1924, when Calvin Coolidge carried Summit County by 35,000 majority over John W. Davis, gave evidence that the independent voter was here and that he knew how to vote. While Coolidge had such a large vote, Vic Donahey had a majority of 17,000 over Harry Davis, his opponent. M. L. Davey was again elected to Congress, and G. Lloyd Weil, democrat, became county treasurer for a second term. A change in the city charter creating non-partisan primaries insured the nomination of two republicans for mayor in 1925, D. C. Rybolt and Kyle Ross. The democrats by popular petition placed the name of Ross F. Walker on the ballot. Rybolt was elected. Vic Donahey was elected for a third consecutive term over Myers Y. Cooper in 1926, again carrying Summit County. Davey again won in this district, and by a 25,000 majority. Only two democrats on the county ticket were elected, Oscar Hunsicker for prosecuting attorney, and Jacob Mong for a second term as auditor. D. C. Rybolt, three times elected mayor, announced himself as a candidate for a fourth term, but there was a rod in pickle for him and the regular republican organization. All the individual disappointments of the past six years, the recall of Laub, the defeat of Whittemore, the poor showing of Thompson were all charged to the workings of the organization. When G. Lloyd Weil, twice elected county treasurer, entered the field as the democratic candidate he was nominated with Rybolt at the primaries, and then all the slumbering opposition awoke. All the discontented, all the sore and dissatisfied, all the accumulations of criticisms of six years of management united in one great body of opposition to Rybolt and elected Weil by a majority of 6,600. But the romance of politics is gone, the glamour of being a militant member of a party is gone. Elections are now swung by blocs and organizations, instead of by organized workers animated by a spirit of party loyalty. The romance of politics has departed and whispered propaganda is usually more effective than facts boldly stated, thus electing men to office, not on their merits, but because their opponents were distasteful to certain groups or organizations, and then the primary that took away party responsibility and killed the party organization's power to help name candidates, has defeated the object for which it was created. It has doubled the cost of running for office. It has nominated, yes, 604 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY and elected, many a man because his name, as Hamlet' might say, would flow "more trippingly from the tongue." Instead of increasing interest in elections, this increase of power to the people seems to have made them lose interest. In 1904, when the census showed a 42,000 population in Akron and with only men qualified to vote, the returns showed that 14,000 votes had been cast, about 95 per cent of the voting population. In 1926, with the franchise extended to women and a population five times as large as in -1904, the potential voting strength of the city would be at least 130,000, but with a governor, a United States senator, a congressman and a full county ticket to elect only 31,000 Akron people voted. This is a reminiscent age, with all the old timers telling of the glories of the past, while admitting that in a material way things are not so bad and the future shows bright prospects of better things to come. And yet the old party worker, seeing the political situation of today, should be permitted to revert with regret to the old days when men took their politics seriously and on the morning of the political rally how jubilant he was when the first cannon shot reverberated across the city from Ash Street Hill, and his spirit soared when he with his bright oilcloth cape and cap and his red, white and blue torch joined the flaming parade, and when the red-sashed marshals would finally stop dashing around and take their place at the head of the column, when the little fat captain would call and the tall thin lieutenant would repeat, "Company tenshun ! Forward, March !" his feet were so light and he stepped so high his knees would almost hit his chin, and then at Grace Park when James A. Garfield or John A. Logan, or perhaps Allen G. Thurman or Thomas Hendricks, was introduced, he could be restrained no longer and his cheers and shouts of party loyality ascended to heaven with the daylight fireworks. But even he, this old timer, nursing his memories, wakes up the day after election and remembers that he forgot to vote the day before. CHAPTER XIX CITY GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICE Through the changing forms of government that have marked Akron's greatest strides during the past quarter of a century, Fire Chief John T. Mertz and Police Chief John Durkin have served as heads of these two important branches of the city department of safety. Not quite forty-five years ago, on July 6, 1883, Chief John Durkin became a member of the Akron Police Department. Since that time to date—forty-four years and nine months, to be exact—he had never missed a day at work. Not only has he never been absent from his work due to ill health, vacations or any other justifiable reason, but he has been on the job Sundays as well as working a day overtime each week. Seven days a week on the job for forty-five years! It's a record to make one stop and think. From a youth of between twenty and twenty-three years—no one knows Durkin's exact age—to a man between sixty-five and sixty-eight, ever faithful to his work. Morning after morning—around 16,300 of them if you stop to figure it out—up early and out on the job. Through forty-five winters of snow and sleet, through forty-five summers of heat and humidity but never a day off. Seventeen of these years were spent as a patrolman out on the beat in the open. During these years it was required that he work on Sundays, seven days a week. When he was promoted to an office position as chief of the police department following the riots in 1900, however, Sunday work was no longer essential. A little thing like that, however, did not deter the Chief from putting in his seven days. He continued to work Sundays as usual, reporting at the office immediately after church services. For he is just as particular about attending church regularly as he is about his work. There are only two reasons for the Chief's regularity on the job. One is a genuine love for his work and the other is his excellent constitution and good health. Chief Durkin not only likes his work but it is his chief interest in life. To see that the Akron Police Department functions with the utmost possible efficiency is his prime motive for being. He doesn't regard his work as an obligation but rather as something - 605 - 606 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY that he enjoys doing. It is for this reason that it has never been necessary for him to take a vacation. The average man confined to the job for such a long unbroken stretch would find a break in routine imperative for his health. Not so the chief. He enjoys his routine. Every day to him is a distinct pleasure of achievement. And then, too, he doesn't limit himself to the routine. He is always performing and doing little extra things that fall outside the required duties of his office. These, the public never hears about, but there are many citizens in Akron who are devoted friends of Chief Durkin simply because of some act of kindness which he went out of his way to do for them. No little detail is too trivial to receive his attention. No request from a person too insignificant not to be personally investigated and gratified if possible. Chief Durkin's other reason for his regularity on the job—good health—is made possible by abstinence and regular habits. Today he is around sixty-five years old, and up to the date of his illness in 1928 he always enjoyed good health. He eats three meals a day but he eats sparingly and only when he is hungry. He never indulges in intoxicating liquors and limits himself to one cigar a day and one cup of coffee at a meal. "Smoking, drinking and eating will never harm a man," he declares. "It's only when he goes to excess in any of them that they become injurious to him. A man could inherit the most wonderful constitution in the world and abuse it by indulging to excess in any one line." Chief Durkin has not eaten any meat except a small portion of cured ham now and then for the past twenty years. He eats only whole wheat bread and as many fresh vegetables as possible. He also maintains his regular habits in regard to sleeping. He usually retires about 10 o'clock at night and is up at 5 o'clock in the morning, winter and summer alike. When he first arises he builds the fire or does any little household chores. After this he eats a moderate breakfast consisting of toast and some cooked cereal. He is usually on the job at the office by 7:30 in the morning. He takes his noonday meal between 11 :30 and 1 o'clock and eats around 6 o'clock at night. Because of these regular habits he has been able to maintain a vigorous physical constitution and despite his age has never been forced to resort to flannel underwear during the winter months. He wears the same weight clothes the year round save for a heavy overcoat in the winter. Chief Durkin also is very fond of exercise. He takes some form of exercise every morning before breakfast and walks a great deal during the day. He walks to and from work and usually takes a walk of some kind 608 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY before retiring at night. He doesn't own an automobile simply because he hasn't any desire to drive one. He prefers to walk. Because of his lifetime of good health, he has never had a doctor in his life. Chief Durkin has a very agreeable disposition. His fellow workers praise his wonderful temperament and willingness to help others. He is said to be entirely without petty spites and grudges. Chief Durkin lives at 363 South High Street. He attends St. Mary's Church. DISASTROUS FIRES IN AKRON It was a cold, blizzardy April afternoon, almost eight years ago to a day, and the busy city of Akron was engaged in the regular mid-afternoon routine. Crowds hurried up and down Mill and Main streets, rushing to seek shelter from the postwinter blasts. A number of shoppers and housewives were enjoying a respite from their cares and worries at a matinee performance in the Colonial Theatre and around the corner in the Buckeye Building the staff of the Akron Evening Times was getting out the final edition. Suddenly penetrating the humdrum sound of the afternoon's activities, a loud blast sounded. Before the startled populace had time to wonder what it was all about, there followed a second explosion and then a third. Then came a series of fearful concussions which seemed to increase in noise and power, shaking streets, pavements and buildings. Windows crashed in and pictures fell from the walls. Merchandise was shaken from the shelves. With one accord everybody rushed to the open, only to be mystified more than ever by the sight of manhole lids shooting straight into the air to a distance of 50 or 100 feet. RUMORS SPREAD LIKE WILDFIRE Running down the street a terrified little man screamed something about bombs and anarchists and the rumor spread like wildfire through the crowds which were beginning to congest the downtown business loop. While shoppers huddled together in awe, expecting something even more terrible to follow, another rumor was circulated that hundreds of pounds of gunpowder and high explosives which were stored in the basement of the Buckeye Cycle Company had become ignited. In what seemed like an interminable time but what in reality was only a few minutes, the Hotel Linwood at the corner of Mill and High streets suddenly burst into flames. Almost immediately the call of the fire siren was heard, to be followed AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 609 by the roar and thunder of fire trucks and the hose being rushed to the scene of the conflagration. Thus was started one of the most spectacular and picturesque fires in the history of Akron. It occurred April 7, 1920, as a result of explosions due to gasoline leaking into the sewers on East Mill Street. The gas got into the cellar of the Buckeye Building and ignited. The fire was one of the worst and most difficult that any firemen anywhere ever had to fight. This was only one of a dozen or so spectacular fires in the past half century of Akron's history. A first hand account of these episodes as recalled by one who took an active part in each in the role of everything from a call man to a pipe man, captain and chief is given by Chief John Mertz. "About the biggest fire that we've ever had here in Akron was the old Jumbo Mill blaze which occurred away back in the early March of 1886," he related without the aid of a record book or any written data. "I was employed as stationary engineer at the old Gibbs pottery works on Fountain Street doing night duty at the time," he continued. "I was what they call a 'call man' on the fire department. They only had a small regular force and all others were subject to call. The fire started about 2 o'clock in the morning but I kept on at the pottery works and didn't join in the fight until around 7 in the morning when I went straight to the mills. THAT WAS REAL BLAZE "Although I had been working all night I kept straight on for another thirty-six hours. I tell you what, that was a real blaze. It was the only fire in the history of the city where we had to call in outside help. "The Kent fire department came over but they burnt out their boiler and couldn't help after they got here. The Cleveland fire department also sent over a company which arrived about the time I did, around 7 in the morning. "When I got there the whole heavens were lit up from the blaze and I believe you could have read a newspaper a mile away from the light. "It was a seven-story brick building and it was -completely gutted with a total loss of around $600,000. The fire started from a dust explosion in the dry house adjoining the mills. Due to the dust and dry wood the whole building was aflame in a short time. "Our equipment at that time consisted of two steam engines and a hose cart. The forty call men received the munificent wages of 40 cents an hour. There were twelve regular men on the department staff headed by Chief B. F. Mandebaugh. "The whole fire lasted about sixty-six hours, I believe. I remember when I went back to work at the pottery one of the foremen asked me how many firemen were killed. I told him none and he said, 'What the 21-VOL. 1 610 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY blankety blank blank ! Then they didn't do their duty. There should have been at least fifteen men killed at a fire like that.' ACADEMY FIRE OCCURRED IN 1897 "The old Academy of Music fire occurred about eleven years later, in 1897. The alarm was sent in around 10 o'clock on a hot morning in July. I was employed as a regular fireman at the time. I was located at Engine House No. 4 as leading pipeman. "It was a three-story brick building and I remember it was a very spectacular blaze as there were immense volumes of smoke. It attracted a great crowd as it happened on a Sunday morning and people were just starting out for church. "Walter Fenton, our present secretary, had just been let out of Sunday School and he ran down the street lickety split to watch the fire. "We worked twenty-four hours on the fire and the damage was about $28,000. The blaze started from under the stage and completely gutted the building. I remember one incident in particular. We had what was called a Bangor ladder. "It was a sixty-five-foot extension ladder and we worked and fussed with it quite awhile getting it set up. You see, we were new and untrained in those days. Finally we got it up and discovered that it was in a place where it would not do any good. I climbed it and got on the roof of the adjoining building that was known as the Good Block but had to come down again. FIRE STARTED AT 8 O'CLOCK A. M. "The fire of the rolling mills occurred that same month and year. I remember that was a scorcher of a day, too. The flames broke about 8 o'clock in the morning. "It was a frame building. We had been called out to some smaller fire in South Akron and were just taking up our line when we got the second call. We had rubber hose at that time and the water was so hot we could hardly handle the line. We had about two-thirds of it up when we hurried over to the rolling mills, the only steel mills that Akron ever had. "We had worked eighteen hours on the fire throughout the heat of a midsummer day. "Two years later occurred the famous. Buchtel College fire which broke out late in the afternoon just a few days before Christmas in 1899. This was particularly spectacular because it burned all through the night. We worked forty-two hours on it and the damage was about $137,000. "I was still at Engine House No. 4 at the time and went to the fire on the second alarm. When I got there the whole building was aflame from top to bottom. "We were handicapped in that we didn't have near enough apparatus. The fire started in the attic and raged groundward. I remember there AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 611 were two of our men, A. Washer and John Denison, fighting the fire from the fire escapes. "In order to escape being burned alive they had to jump to the ground. We didn't have any nets in those days and they both received minor injuries from their fall. LARGE CROWD WATCHED FIRE "Although it was pretty cold there was a big crowd out to watch the fire. We worked on it for forty-two hours." Park R. Kolbe, former president of Akron University, describes his version of the fire as follows : "I was practicing with a bowling team when the fire broke out," he related. "We were in the gym and when we came out the back door of the building we discovered the fire. We called the fire department and helped to carry things out of the building. Two or three hours after that the building was a heap of ruins. "The fire happened at the beginning of the Christmas holidays and at that time the thing which most occupied my mind was whether or not the college would reopen after the holidays and whether the students would return. The students did return and class rooms were established in the different buildings around the college and in the gymnasium." The fire out at the India Rubber Company was another big affair which occurred in March of 1903, according to Chief Mertz. "I had been chief two years at the time and answered on the first alarm. The building was located on Lincoln Street just off East Mill Street. They were slow in giving us an alarm as they had tried to extinguish the blaze so that when we got there the whole place was aflame. "A big crowd turned out as usual. We worked on the fire from 2 o'clock in the afternoon until the next morning. The loss was estimated at $179,000. TWO MEN WERE HURT "Just two years later in February, 1905, we had the old Grand Opera House fire. The alarm came in around 2 o'clock in the morning and I remember we had two men seriously injured and five others who received minor injuries. "John Lutz was hurt operating the deluge set and a brick wall fell on Bill Shaughenessy, breaking his leg. "The fire started from a furnace in the rear end and spread out from under the stage. We worked on it until about 9 o'clock in the morning, holding down the loss to around $13,000. "In 1908 the Akron fire department won fame as being the first in the country to have a piece of motor equipment. A year after this there occurred the famous fire in the Hower Block on West Market Street. 612 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY "I was out at the Diamond Rubber Company at the time and answered on the second alarm at about 7 o'clock in the morning. "It was a seven-story brick structure used for storage rooms so that it was filled with inflammable materials. When I got there the lower three stories were afire and soon the whole building collapsed. Even the bricks burned up. WATER PLAYED ON FIREMEN "It happened in May and was so hot that we had eight men holding the nozzle on the deluge set and had to keep two streams of water playing on our own boys. Then a bunch of people standing on Howard Street watching the blaze with their hats over their heads bawled us out for putting the water on our men instead of on the building. The loss came to around $450,000. "A year later there was the big Standard Hardware Company's fire. It happened the latter part of October, 1910. The fire started in the basement but the flames had reached the roof before an alarm was sent in. "Then a cop doing duty down at Main and State streets just happened to see the flames and called our operator. I remember I came down Mill Street and got as far as High when the smoke was so thick we couldn't see a foot ahead of us. "The whole building was completely gutted. It was a five-story brick structure valued at about $121,000 counting the stock in it. The flames nearly spread to the Hamilton Building. There was a wind blowing about forty miles an hour which made it pretty bad. Few people knew it but inside of the court in the Hamilton Building we had five streams of water playing all the time. Several firemen were hurt but there were only minor injuries. "Just three days after Christmas in December of 1912, we got the alarm on the International Harvester fire at 114 East Center Street. The fire broke out in a pile of excelsior in the late afternoon after all the help had gone home. “Our equipment was still partly horse-driven. The whole city turned out for the fire and the loss was estimated at $200,000, although we saved the biggest part of the plant. It was an awful hot fire as I remember it. "Once started on motor equipment our progress was pretty rapid in this direction so that the year of 1913 saw the last horse go from the department. "And with that went much of the spectacular in fire fighting game. I used to love to drive the horses as they always responded' to the alarms with such intelligence and such a genuine liking for their work. They always seemed to understand just what was expected of them. "Three alarms were sent out for the Summit Lumber Company fire which occurred in June, 1918. It was a quick fire due to the fact that it AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 613 was a two-story frame building full of lumber and shavings but we had it extinguished soon with a small loss. The fire started in the dry room. "Another large fire which I forgot to mention was the O'Neil & Dyas conflagration of October 29, 1889. I was still at Engine House No. 4 at the time and answered on the second alarm. "The fire was caused by an explosion from a gas leak and the whole glass front of the building was blown out. The whole building was afire from top to bottom when I got there and not a thing was saved. It was a quick fire, soon over but leaving total destruction behind. "About the last big fires that we have had were the fires in the Wiener Block on South Howard Street. "The first one occurred September 17, 1925, and the last one, which was the worst, happened June 17 of last year. The damage from the last year was estimated to be around $100,000. "Although investigations were made for some time the cause was unknown. Five stores were harmed in the four-story block. We got the call about 3 o'clock in the morning. We called on street car men, police, buss and taxi drivers to assist us in fighting it. We had the fire under control about 6 o'clock in the morning. There were about 200 men fighting the fire counting all the volunteers." There has only been one fireman killed while fighting fires in Akron. He was Henry Luderfeldt who was killed June 27, 1914, while fighting a small fire in a barn in the rear of 1065 South Main Street. He was killed when the hay mow collapsed on him. Chief Mertz, who was with him at the time, very nearly lost his life also. Akron's fiftieth birthday was observed in 1875. No such celebration as was staged in honor of the city's hundredth year of existence took place at the time but the citizens of fifty years ago had a great civic affair of another kind to participate in. In June of that year was staged the ninth and last of the annual parades and tournaments of the city's volunteer fire fighters and to the Akronites of the period it was almost as big an event as the centennial. From 1867 to 1875 these firemen's days were the high spots of the city's social calendar each year. A regular paid fire department had been organized in 1866 but the volunteer fire department was still a necessity for some years after that date. The Eagle Hose Company and the Mechanics Hook and Ladder Company were the leading volunteer organizations of the nine-year period during which the fire fighters' celebrations were staged. GALA DECORATIONS The city was always decorated in gala fashion for these events. Banners and flags draped the downtown sections although the evergreen was the real hot stuff in the way of decorations and predominated at all points. A wooden arch decorated with evergreens spanning the street was considered as the absolute zenith in the matter of decoration. 614 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY Each of the Akron volunteer companies would have some out-of-town company as its guest for the day and the city would be turned over to the firemen and their friends. As is always the way with civic celebrations a "mammoth parade" would be one of the outstanding features of the occasion. Prizes awarded for the most handsomely decorated piece of apparatus brought out keen competition in this line. TEST OF STEAMERS Tests of the various steamers to see which could throw a stream of water the farthest and the highest was one of the favorite competitions. In another contest each company would stack a ladder and a picked man would mount to its top. Prizes were awarded for the best time in this event and also for the fastest run of a thousand yards. Silver trumpets were the most popular of all the prizes. Such a megaphone was an absolute requisite to the foreman of an early fire outfit as without it his frenzied cries of "Come on, boys!" would have battered in vain against the tumultuous racket of a company on the run to a fire. The last of these firemen's days, held in June, 1875, was the greatest of them all in more ways than one. The decorations were the most lavish in the history of the event and more out-of-town firemen were on hand than ever before. Within a few short months of this triumphal day the Eagle Hose boys and the Mechanics were to wax disgruntled and resign in a body, thus passing from the pages of the city's history forever, but at the time no one had a premonition of the impending disaster which was to overwhelm the most picturesque of all the city's institutions. FEARED WIND STORM The 1875 celebration was held on the second day of June but for weeks beforehand the Daily Beacon bristled with such paragraphs as "Numerous flags are already swinging on the breezes" and "The South Akron arch on the corner of Main and Exchange streets is a fine affair." One of the paragraphs, which appeared in print on June 1, ran as follows : "At about half past two o'clock this afternoon some fears were entertained that the hook and ladder arch on South Howard Street would be blown down by the strong wind which prevailed. The `Hookies,' however, were equal to the emergency and in a very short time had several ladders propped against their arch, all of which were well manned for any emergency." It would have been well for the Eagle Hose Company if its members had been as alert as the "Hookies," for in the Daily Beacon of June 3 we read : "The Eagle Hose Company's arch was blown down by the high winds that prevailed about 9 o'clock last evening." Pictures of both of these arches, which were among the wonders of Akron at the time, accompany this article and they are fully described in the account of the celebration published in the Daily Beacon of June 2. AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 615 The reporter's command of superlatives was somewhat limited as we read that each of the stories enumerated either "looks nicely" or is "elegant," especially, was driven twenty-four hours a day by its heartless taskmasters, the editors and news writers of the day. It was applied indiscriminately to everything from a recently opened livery stable to a Liedertafel masquerade ball. Not many Akronites know that the city still has a town bell. It no longer rouses the volunteer members of the "bucket brigade" from their honest slumbers to send them pelting out to the fires nor is it tolled when court goes into session, but it is still in perfect condition, is still in use and is still the official town bell. Cast by Meneely and Othout at West Troy, N. Y., in 1837, the 1,200 pound bell now hangs in the red brick tower of the First German Reformed Church at the northwest corner of South Broadway and East Center Street. It has already outlasted one building, having first hung in the wooden tower which rose above the white frame church which stood on the site of the present building from 1837 to 1891. EBER CRANE, PASTOR The old building was originally a Baptist church, having been so dedicated at the completion of its construction on October 26, 1837. It was shortly after this date that the bell was purchased by subscription by the citizens of Akron and presented to the church. Conditions of the gift were that it should be a "town bell" and that the church trustees should convey to members of the town council, their agents and successors, the right to enter the church free and unmolested for the purpose of ringing the bell, "from then on forever." RUNG FIVE TIMES DAILY As the bell was rung five times a day, at 6 and 9 A. M., 12 M., and 6 and 9 P. M., the good citizens of the town found it invaluable for everyday time telling usage. Watches were rare in those days and the tolling of the bell sent many a solid citizen trudging to work or dashing home to his meals. One of the primary purposes for the installation of the bell was to provide an alarm in case of fire. Previous to its installation the alarm was sounded only by the lusty whoops of Akronites spying the flames. It is conjectured that sore throats and cracked voices resulting from this prodigious yodeling may have induced some hoarse voiced residents to subscribe liberally towards the purchase price of the bell. Besides being used to announce when to "rise, eat and retire, turn out and fight fire," the bell was sounded as a means of calling the public meetings and announcing the opening of court. In 1853, the building which housed the bell was purchased from the Baptists by the German Reformed Church and the title to the bell changed 616 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY hands along with the building. On April 27, 1857, the church was incorporated under the name of the First German Reformed Church. IS SELDOM IN USE The original building, which faced on Center Street, was replaced in 1891 by the present brick structure which fronts on Broadway and the bell was placed in the belfry of the new building. There it has hung for the last thirty-four years. A scarred, black veteran, its slumber is now seldom disturbed. M. C. McNeil was the first chief of the fire department, organized in 1866. Fire Chief John T. Mertz has been at the head of the Akron Fire Department since 1901. The members of the department were placed on a full pay basis March 2, 1903. Akron was one of the first cities in the United States to completely motorize its fire department. Policing of the city was carried on in the early days under marshals who were elected every two years, from 1870 to 1898. They had a small force of police officers under them. The police department of Akron was organized in 1898, and H. H. Harrison was appointed as chief of the department. He served until the night of the riot, August 20, 1900, when the City Hall was burned. Chief of Police John Durkin has been serving at the head of the police department since December 4, 1900. In May, 1881, Akron staged a triple celebration to record its enterprise in building an electric lighting system, a water works plant, and a new city hall. These undertakings in a single year marked a capacity for collective endeavor that earned this community its excellent repute for progress—a habit that has not abated to this day. The pride and civic spirit that welled up when Akron dedicated its North Hill viaduct had good example in that other occasion when Mayor S. A. Lane and David L. King, flanked by an array of citizens' committees whose names included every influential person identified with Akron life and industry, spoke to interested thousands, and after the ceremony of dedicating the new hall and public works, led all visitors upon an inspection tour of "the following places of interest in the order named:" The Empire works, Knife works, Buckeye works, Rolling Mill, Reservoir and Glendale cemetery. Take note that on this day of days, when Akron had its first real stirring of local pride so prophetic of mightier times to come, there were then no rubber mills accounted worthy of a visitor's interest. The big four of industry were the Empire, Buckeye, Knife works and Rolling mill, only one of which remains, and for collateral interest—Glendale cemetery. Indeed, in those days, no sight-seeing pilgrimage ever started from City Hall without its visit to Glendale. It was as customary a thing for the city's guests as the practice, much in favor in World war days, when no distinguished borrower here from abroad ever omitted a flower-bearing processional to the tombs of our patriot ancestors. But it is recorded in the traditions of our yesterdays that one sojourner here AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 617 changed the itinerary. In Akron to make a speech in his senatorial campaign, the Hon. John Sherman was invited by the campaign committee to visit beautiful Glendale. In utmost reverence the statesman answered, in substance : "Gentlemen, if it's all the same to you let us not visit the graveyard ; I'm afraid there are no voters there. Let us take a trip to the mills !" If the tranquillity of the todays in City Hall is disturbed by occasional squawks from taxpayers, this generation of public servants has no monopoly on that misfortune. An unnamed taxpayer in 1881 published a circular rebuking the committee which had charge of the celebration of the building of the new city hall and light and water projects. He burlesqued the speeches of Mayor Lane, General Leggett, Senator J. Park Alexander, Lewis Miller and Chairman King, and predicted that the undertakings in which they rejoiced with so much glory would "bankrupt the town." As usual with such prophecy nothing untoward happened. Ten years later Mayor Wm. H. Miller was pleased to report to his fellow citizens that Akron's bonded debt, under the prudent management of his administration and city council, did not exceed $8,000! The floating debt was almost too insignificant to mention. In those days the whole work of public service was carried on by the mayor and city council, assisted by a town marshal, health officer and sanitary policeman and milk inspector. These were occasions when there was neither non-partisan nor civil service in local government. The glory and spoils were for the victor. There were no popular primaries, and tickets were chosen in ward caucuses and delegate or mass city conventions. It was largely because of the turbulence of these methods, flowering in the administrations of Mayor E. R. Harper, Republican, and Mayor L. Dow Watters, Democrat, that gave Senator J. Park Alexander his inspiration to slip down to Columbus and have a friendly legislature pass the "ripper bill," setting up an administration by four non-partisan commissioners, appointed by the mayor and probate judge. One of the partisan chronicles of the time referred to the commissioners as "Akron's four kings, drawing a salary of six dollars a day." It was under the administration of the commissioners that many of Akron's new public works were undertaken. A growing Akron needed paved streets and sewers, school houses, fire stations, parks, and bridges, and it was not long until the $8,000 debt limit, source of the honest boast by Mayor Miller, went glimmering. It was the commissioners who gave the nation its first automobile police patrol wagon, constructed by Engineer Frank F. Loomis of the fire department. The patrol figured in many a campaign either as evidence of municipal progress or example of extravagance in high places, according to the partisan inclination of the viewer. It rumbled and rattled over stony streets until its career ended disastrously in the Ohio canal on the night of the riot and burning of the city hall. Whether the rioters had taken the car out for a joy ride, and it went into the canal through incompetent handling, or whether it was driven wilfully to its destruction as a then proper defiance for an 618 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY instrument of the law, was never certified to the assurance of the police department. But it went the way of the Bastile. In the very beginning of commission rule in Akron more trouble came to the partisan politics of the community than to its government. The theory of the new system was good, but in practice it did not work. A republican probate judge and a democratic mayor could not agree upon appointments. Then came the famous "deadlock," when Judge George M. Anderson declined to agree to the commissioners named by Mayor Wm. E. Young, and the old board held over. These were times when local governments and not a state commission bargained for rates and terms of service and granted franchises to public service companies. Before the deadlock was broken Akron experienced a lively contest over the granting of a telephone franchise. It was this dispute that introduced Ohio to competition in the telephone business. Senator Alexander, angered by the apparent haste and willingness of city council and the commissioners to grant a franchise upon terms that did not protect the rights of subscribers, organized the famous Citizens' Committee of Fifty. Before this committee was formed the senator had ripped his telephone from its housing on the wall and suspended it on a pole in front of his West Market Street home. This act served better than oratory to arouse the fighting spirit of the community. A citizens' delegation stormed the old city hall in such numbers that the floor of the council chamber sagged and the meeting had to be adjourned. There was the first community movement in "safety first." On the ground floor under the council chamber the chief executives of Akron held their famous Mayor's Courts. Police magistrates and police chiefs were then unknown. Akron continued to have its marshals until the coming of the federal plan. It is around this mayor's court room that most of the memories of yesterdays linger. Here Mayor Dow Watters dispensed both justice and philosophy in a way that gave him more than local fame and enabled him in a rock-ribbed republican community to be elected its mayor as often as he wanted to be. To this day when politicians want to designate a good and popular campaigner it is sufficient to say that "he is another Dow Watters as a vote getter." The city prison was housed in the basement under the mayor's court room, and reached by a causeway inclined from the corner of Market and Quarry streets. It was down this grade that the electric patrol careened to its doom. For near a score of years the late John Ackerman, and John E. Washer, the latter afterward prominent in federal secret service, served as keeper to the prisoners. In a room adjoining the mayor's court room the city marshals directed the activities of the police force, in Marshal Hughlin H. Harrison's and Wm. E. Mason's time a staff that numbered less than twenty men. Out around Four Corners in South Akron, a tall young Irishman, graduate of the Akron rolling mill, was recruiting as a patrolman. Occasionally he paused on his beat to swap yarns with Newton Chisnell, an actor of renown, who spent his vacations in Akron. H. H. Harrison was Akron's first chief of police. John E. AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 619 Durkin was Akron's second chief, and in spite of all stress and storm he still graces the job. Administrations come and go, but like his veteran colleague, John T. Mertz, head of the fire department, this public servant remains where the confidence of the community placed him. One of the busiest sections of the city hall were the two rooms allotted to the health department in days when Dr. A. A. Kohler was health officer and "Colonel" M. W. Hoye, sanitary policeman and milk inspector. In the middle nineties, when Akron had its smallpox scare, this division of government held dominion over the life and habits of the people that for efficiency was not surpassed by anything that happened in World war days. "Colonel" Hoye's daily bulletins prescribing a regimen for the people in the movement to stamp out the epidemic were attended as closely by the citizenship as any of Commissioner Herbert Hoover's well-known designations of meatless, wheatless and heatless days. But the program obtained results, and it was not long until Akron emerged in good health and spirit from its panic. How "Colonel" Hoye and Dr. Kohler ever managed for so many years, without a corps of assistants, to make a spotless town of Akron was one of the marvels of the time. The era produced the well-known Mike Hoye fish fries for city officials, which developed an institutional phase. They were the first community banquets, combining the methods of a gridiron club and a board of trade. They both praised and roasted the faithful. and were excellent boosters for the town. They were an incubator for incoming mayors, councilmen and commissioners. They endured until Portage lakes no longer produced an inexhaustible supply of black bass and blue gills, and until the legislature passed a law prohibiting the serving of these delicacies at public dinners. Until his death Poor Director Joseph Kendall was a good official ministrant to the poor. For near a generation he was a familiar figure at city hall, his broad face beaming kindness and charity. He was Akron's first "community chest." When the funds allotted to his department were not enough to go round he called for contributions from private citizens, and the deficit was straightway corrected. His greatest trial was in the panic of '93, when many good people were both jobless and homeless, and unkind partisans were advising toilers to eat the roosters that they wore on their hats when they were "shouting for a change." Uncle Joe was equal to this emergency too. He supervised the planting of community gardens in vacant lots whose use was contributed by owners. Uncle Joe permitted the planting of everything but turnips, which latter, he declared, contained "nourishment neither for man nor beast." It was in the sessions of the city councils that the old time city halls had their chief interest for the people. Council was at once the voice and welfare of the people. There were franchises to be guarded and public rights to be protected. Then as now a prudent civic interest stalked the trail of extravagance. There were as many roars from taxpayers when the city owed an eight thousand public debt as there are now with a thirty million. From the closing days of the Civil war until the year 620 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY when Senator Alexander persuaded the legislature to adopt the Akron-Youngstown plan of government by commission, city council was the chief factor in Akron government. Its membership was drawn from the city's leading citizenship. There was no shirking of public duty. Councilmen served for many years without pay. There were factions who struggled for the pride and honor of control, but none ever accused either of being faithless to the city's interest. Next to the smallpox scare and the riot, and the stirring incidents of war times, the greatest excitment . ever in evidence at city hall was on that day in June, 1903, when the Supreme Court made an end of government of Ohio cities by special acts. This decision ended the Akron-Youngstown plan and ousted the city commissioners. It was succeeded by the Nash Code, providing for the federal plan, which gave the city a mayor and a cabinet of directors elected by the people. These continued until the well known home rule constitutional convention of 1912, which permitted the present charter plan, but conferred a home rule that had many qualifying strings attached—as all the people know. But correcting these are problems for the future. The city commissioner period was, in general, a time of animated municipal politics. The commissioners as such succeeded in remaining fairly "non-partisan," however active "Czar" George M. Anderson or "Czar" Chas. H. Isbell and others might be. The first board of commissioners, consisting of Wm. Buchtel, 0. L. Sadler, John W. Baker and Henry Young, was representative of Akron's leading citizenship of that day. Friends of Senator Alexander were disappointed that he was not appointed to a place on the board, in view of his successful effort to have a bill passed changing the form of local government. But whatever ill-feeling there was on this score disappeared when the new commission started in to give Akron an excellent nonpartisan administration of its public service. In those years Akron had real home rule in every division of government. The people did not have to go to Columbus to consult state commissions every time they wanted to make a change in their municipal household. They regulated their own tax rates, debt limits, and the rates for services purchased from public utilities. The Akron commission, in its day, was an advanced step along the line of reform in local government, and whatever success attended it was due to the high quality of the men chosen to administer the commission's affairs. Other commissioners who served on the board in later years were Howard E. Sears, Jos. Hugill, Albert T. Paige, Dan McGarry, John Crisp, 0. L. McMillen, Franklin G. Stipe, Louis Seybold, James C. Wilson, James Houser and John McFarland. The first clerk to the board of commissioners was Frank C. Wilson, who had long identity with Akron administrative service. Mr. Wilson was succeeded by Charles H. Isbell. Upon the whole it was a goodly company of public servants which in past years walked in their turn through the corridors of its four city halls, and administered the affairs of Akron. Long before Akron had a Chamber of Commerce the city halls served in this function for the people. AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 621 They strove to bring varied industries here and to marshal community sentiment along the right lines. It is a tribute to the success of their efforts in the upbuilding of a city that this year Akron will dedicate its fifth city hall. So many in so brief a span of life is good evidence of municipal progress. Akron was governed for nearly fifty-five years under the Federal plan. Under the general provision of the State Constitution, January 1, 1920, its form of government was changed to that of a charter city under the Home Rule provision in the constitution of Ohio adopted in 1912. The Village of Akron, later known as "South Akron," viz., Main and Exchange streets, was platted in 1825. Akron's first town charter went into effect in 1836 following the filing of a petition by North and South Akron jointly with the General Assembly of Ohio in 1835. The population of Akron in 1835 was estimated at about 900 although when a bank charter was asked for in the latter part of that year the population was stated to be 1300. Seth Iredell was elected as the first mayor in June, 1836. A recorder and five trustees were elected at the same time and the management of the city's affairs was carried on under their direction. It remained as an incorporated village until January, 1865. Akron became a city under a resolution adopted by the village council in December, 1864, and a new form of government went into effect on January 21, 1865. The city had a population at that time of 5,066 and was divided into three wards. The first election under the city government was held Monday, April 13, 1865, and James Mathews was elected mayor. As the city grew the council was increased in size by adding new wards. The city's affairs continued to be operated under the Federal plan with but little change until the Board of Commissioners plan was inaugurated in 1893 and continued for about ten years. In 1910, under additional legislation passed by the Ohio Legislature, the mayor was given power to appoint a safety director and service director, and these three constituted a Board of Control. This board had direct supervision over the police and fire departments and awarded contracts for the city's business under legislation enacted by a city council composed of three councilmen elected at large and one from each of seven wards. The president of the council was also elected at large. Under the constitutional amendments adopted in 1912 cities were permitted to adopt a charter which would establish the form of government. The amendment provided that such a charter should be drafted by a commission of fifteen members elected at large by the voters of the city. Action under this amendment was taken in April, 1913, when a charter commission was elected. The commission spent several months in framing a charter embodying the commission form of government and providing for the election at large of three commissioners. This charter was submitted to a vote of the people at the election in the fall of 1913 but it failed to carry by the lack of ninety-one votes. 622 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY The movement for a charter form of government was taken up by a Citizens Committee of One Hundred again in 1917 and a charter commission of fifteen members was elected in November of that year. Its members were : E. E. Workman, president ; Fred M. Harpham, vice president ; Rev. George P. Atwater, George W. Billow, Clarence Cranz, Jerome Dauby, G. Carl Dietz, E. D. Fritch, Dr. C. T. Hill, Walter F. Kirn, Wm. H. Kroeger, E. C. McQueeney, James Shaw, A. J. Tidyman and E. E. Zesiger. D. A. Donovan acted as secretary. The commission organized early in 1918 and spent many months in considering the provisions which should be incorporated in the new Home Rule charter. The new charter was submitted to a vote at the November election, and it was adopted by the following vote : For, 11,552; against, 6,298. The Home Rule charter adopted at the election in November, 1918, went into effect January 1, 1920, with a mayor and eight councilmen elected at large. This council appointed a chief administrator who was given the power to appoint directors of the Departments of Law, Public Service, Public Safety, Social Service, and Finance. The chief administrator was made responsible to the council for the proper administration of all of the affairs of the city and the directors of the different departments acted as his cabinet. The Director of Health was appointed by and made subject to the supervision and control of the Health Commission which was appointed by the chief administrator. Another important feature of this charter provided for a City Planning Commission composed of seven members, five of whom were appointed by the mayor, and of which the mayor and the chief administrator were ex-officio members. This commission was given considerable power in passing upon planning of subdivisions and the laying out of streets and boulevards. The zoning ordinance which went into effect October 15, 1922, was prepared under the direction of the City Planning Commission. This zoning ordinance provided for the classification of the uses of property for various purposes and for restrictions so as to set aside certain sections of the city as residence districts, apartment house districts, retail business districts, commercial districts and industrial districts. Changes were made in the Home Rule charter at a special election in June, 1921, whereby the election of councilmen was changed to provide for the election of three at large and one from each of eight wards. Further amendments to the charter were made at the August primaries in 1923 by a vote of 7,266 for, to 7,094 against, under which the office of the chief administrator was abolished and his powers were transferred to the mayor, elected at large. The change went into effect January 1, 1924. The mayors of the town, village and city of Akron from 1835 to 1928 are as follows : AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 623 MAYORS OF AKRON 1. Seth Iredell - 1836 2. John C. Singletary, Jr. - 1837-38 3. Lucius V. Bierce - 1839 4. Arad Kent - 1840 5. Lucius V. Bierce - 1841 6. Harvey H. Johnson - 1842-43 7. Lucius V. Bierce - 1844 8. Philo Chamberlin - 1845-46 9. Levi Rawson - 1847 10. Israel E. Carter - 1848 11. Lucius V. Bierce - 1849 12. George Bliss - 1850 13. Charles G. Ladd - 1851 14. Frederick Wadsworth - 1852 15. Philip N. Schuyler - 1853 16. William T. Allen - 1854 17. Nathaniel Finch - 1855-56 18. Frederick A. Nash - 1857-58 19. George W. McNeil - 1859 20. Henry Purdy - 1860-61 21. Charles A. Collins - 1862 22. Henry A. Collins - 1863 23. George D. Bates - 1864 24. James Mathews - 1865-66 25. Lucius V. Bierce -1867-68 26. John L. Robertson - 1869-70-71-72 27. Henry Purdy - 1873-74 28. Levi S. Herrold - 1875-76 29. James F. Scott - 1877-78 30. John M. Fraze - 1879-1880 31. Samuel A. Lane - 1881-82 32. Lorenzo D. Watters 1883-84-85-86 33. Louis D. Seward - 1887-88 34. William H. Miller - 1889-90-91-92 35. Lorenzo D. Watters - 1893-94 36. E. R. Harper - 1895-96 37. W. E. Young, - 1897-98-99-1900 38. W. B. Doyle - 1901-2 39. Charles W. Kempel - 1903-4-5-6-7 40. William T. Sawyer - 1908-9-10-11 41. Frank W. Rockwell - 1912-13-1915 42. William J. Laub - 1916-17 43. I. S. Myers - 1918-19 44. W. J. Laub, Adm. ; Carl Beck, Mayor - 1920-21 45. Homer Campbell, Adm. 1922 M. P. Tucker, Adm. - 1922-23 D. C. Rybolt, Mayor, 1922-23 46. D. C. Rybolt, Mayor - Manager - 1924-25-26-27 47. G. Lloyd Weil, Mayor-Manager - 1928- Akron's municipal water works is the city's finest asset. The inhabitants of the city were furnished water by a pumping system first under a contract made with the Akron Water Works Company by the city council, July 1, 1880, when the original water system was installed. As the city increased in size the water furnished by this company from Summit Lake and a few wells became inadequate in quantity and poor in quality, and in 1912 the city bought out the water works system owned by the company and constructed a reservoir in the valley of the Cuyahoga River about three miles above Kent as a new source of water supply. The filtration beds and pumping station are located just below the reservoir and the water is pumped to a storage reservoir on one of the hills in the eastern part of the city. This reservoir with auxiliary reservoirs on hills in the southern and southwestern sections of the city maintain adequate pressure throughout Akron. Akron has now one of the most complete municipal water works systems in this country and in 1925 it represents an investment of about $11,000,000. 624 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY Another of Akron's important municipal improvements was the construction of the North Hill Viaduct which was completed and dedicated in October, 1922. It is 2,800 feet in length. Millions of dollars have been expended during the past few years in rebuilding the city's sewerage system and about three million dollars will be expended on the city's sewage disposal plant. About seven miles north of Akron in the midst of the rolling foothills of Botzum surrounded by verdant meadows, patches of dense woodlands and the winding valley of the tranquil Cuyahoga is to be found Akron's new $7,000,000 sewage disposal plant. Here in this picturesque setting has been installed equipment for treating sewage on a scale that is equalled by only one other plant in the country. After nearly two and one-half years of labor, involving such feats as picking up and changing the entire course of a river and creek, relocating and raising a county road in two places and laying several miles of both standard and industrial-gauge railway track, the contract for the construction of the plant proper is practically completed. All that remains to be done is to put on a few finishing touches before it is formally accepted by the city. Due to litigation which held up the construction of the giant conduit which will connect the Botzum plant with the old one on Cuyahoga Street, it will not be ready for use for several more months. WORK IS STARTED Work on the new $2,000,000 intercepting sewer is now well under way, however, so that it is estimated that the trunk line will be finished and the new Botzum plant put into operation about the first of December. Several small miscellaneous contracts for the installing of equipment such as fine screens, a sewage meter, valves, sluice gates and centrifugal pumps also have been delayed pending completion of the connecting conduit. It is difficult for the ordinary layman not familiar with the technicalities of engineering procedure to appreciate the magnitude of the job at the new Botzum plant. It is even more difficult to comprehend the complicated processes through which the sewage is put until it is finally released into the waters of the Cuyahoga absolutely free of all organic matter. Some of the engineering feats accomplished can perhaps be best described by sketching the former appearance of the location of the plant in contrast to the way it looks today. ORDERED BY BOARD Where one now sees a gigantic disposal plant covering about forty acres of beautifully landscaped ground dotted with neat, red brick build- 626 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY ings, white stone driveways and the mammoth tanks and sludge beds, there was formerly only ordinary farm land. Erection of the plant was ordered by the State Board of Health following complaints of property owners on the Cuyahoga River against its pollution by sewage. The Botzum site finally was decided upon as the best location for the new plant in that it was situated far enough out of Akron to provide for growth of the city and also because it would permit expansion of the plant itself. Although the plant only occupies about forty acres, the city acquired 800 acres to prevent encroachments of private developments. The sewage treatment layout was all designed by members of the city sewerage department, including J. E. Root, formerly sewerage engineer, who has now accepted a position at Cincinnati ; R. A. Alton, now at Columbus, and A. B. Backherms, the resident engineer in charge of construction who now occupies the former position of Mr. Root as sewerage engineer. STARTED IN 1926 The Walsh Construction Company of Davenport, Iowa, awarded the main contract for the construction of the gigantic disposal plant, moved in and started operations March 8, 1926. The site was uncultivated land, generally level and without much growth to obstruct operations. There was a single county road direct to Akron, the only considerable nearby center for supplies and the materials, which was available by highway. The railway was on the opposite side of the river. It was, however, the logical means of access for materials and equipment of the volume and weight required by the work. So the first main construction task was to develop this means by building a service railway from a siding put in at Botzum across the river and throughout the field of work. Meanwhile the highways were used for trucking in materials and supplies, for establishing camp and for other preliminary work. Some of the main problems which were successfully coped with in the construction of the plant were the relocating of the Cuyahoga River and Woodward Creek and the relocation and raising above the flood stage of the county road in two places. HOUSING AND FEEDING It also was necessary to lay 3.2 miles of standard gauge railway, 1.4 miles of cable way track and 2.7 miles of standard gauge track which was taken up and shifted to various parts of the field of operations as it was needed. There also was the housing and feeding of 400 men. The maximum AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 627 number of men at work at one time was 523 but there was a large turnover in labor. During one month there were more than 900 men on the payroll for an organization of 500. This was due to the large number of floaters who came from all over the country. About 50 per cent of the labor was local, however. A veritable little city sprung up at the Botzum plant during its construction. Temporary shacks, which cost from $300 to $2,500, were put up to house the men. A mess hall also was built. In order to promote harmony among the men, the labor was divided into three camps. One housed the Americans and two others various nationalities of foreign laborers. The handling of 2,903 carloads of material, not counting the material delivered by truck, an item itself, was another big phase of the construction work. Due to the size of the job, it attracted visitors from all over the country. Famous engineers, including Langdon Pearse of Chicago and George Gascoigne and staff of Cleveland, made inspection trips to the Botzum plant to note in detail its construction. One of the new features of the plant which aroused especial interest was the Detritus tanks installed at the south end of the plant for the removal of grease, grit and trash. These tanks are a new feature in sewerage engineering. An idea of the immensity of the job may be gleaned from a citation of the quantities of various materials which were either excavated or used in its construction. A total of 340,000 cubic yards of earth was excavated. About 34,000 cubic yards of concrete went into the construction and around 21,000 lineal feet of reinforced concrete piles. More than 140,000 square feet of gunite, which is a concrete mixture shot through a gun to give increased density, were used to form slabs three inches thick placed in the Imhoff tanks to form gas vents and sloping walls. Five million pounds of reinforcing steel were used, 440,000 pounds of structural steel, 148,000 pounds of special iron castings and 64,000 square yards of trickling filter flower covering about fourteen acres. Some of the filtering material which went into the plant included 260,000 tons of crushed limestone which was delivered and placed at the rate of thirty-five carloads a day. There also were 11,400 square yards of sand and gravel used for filtering material in the sludge beds. Three miles of industrial track were laid to be used in the operation of the plant which covers an area about one-half a mile long and one-fourth a mile wide. During its construction, weather conditions were anything but ideal. In fact, at the beginning of the job they were very adverse. Despite this 628 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY handicap, however, the Walsh Company managed to keep the men at work so that there were only five days lost during the entire first season. To provide for the growth of Akron, the present disposal plant is laid out on one side of a center line established with the idea of increasing capacity across the line when needed. In short, the Botzum plant is laid out as one-half of an ultimate plant of two parallel units. The system of sewage treatment employed is known as the Imhoff tank trickling filter type of plant. The Botzum plant has a capacity of 33,000,000 gallons of sewage a day, sufficient to take care of a city of 260,000 population. At the present time the Cuyahoga Street disposal plant, which was built in 1910 before the sudden future growth of the city was envisioned, takes care of only 8,000,000 gallons of sewage daily with the result that 12,000,000 gallons find their way into the Cuyahoga River. Starting about the first of December, the new plant will receive the sewer drainage from Akron through the $2,000,000 interceptor, the inside dimensions of which will be twelve feet in width and seven and one-half feet in height. It will be about four and one-half miles long. Akron celebrated its one hundredth anniversary by the erection of a handsome new City Hall. Akron's area now covers over twenty-five square miles. Akron's parks with a total area of about four hundred acres, have come to the people of this city largely as gifts from our public spirited citizens. Gen. Simon Perkins started this movement in 1825 when in making the plat of South Akron he set aside five acres for parks on the west side of Bowery Street and north and south of Exchange Street. Akron is thus also celebrating the centennial of its first park. The part south of Exchange Street was later taken for school grounds and the school is still called the Perkins School. The part north of Exchange Street is called Perkins Square. The next gift came from Col. Simon Perkins, the son of General Perkins, when in 1848 he gave to the city the land lying between Prospect, Park and Summit streets and the railroad tracks. It was named Grace Park in honor of his wife, and a statue of Colonel Perkins stands at the southwest entrance to the park. He also gave what is known as Union Park to the city. Samuel Thornton in laying out his addition to the "Town of Akron" dedicated five acres for park purposes at the corner of Thornton and Grant streets. This is called Pleasant Park. Gen. L. V. Bierce deeded the land for a park in 1875 on which the Public Library now stands. Col. George T. Perkins, following the example of his ancestors, deeded in 1900 the beautiful woodland tract of seventy-six acres lying south of Maple Street and west of Edgewood Avenue, now known as Perkins Park. AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 629 Frank H. Mason gave the city twenty-three and one-half acres in the valley of the Little Cuyahoga River near North Street in 1912. It was named Elizabeth Park as a memorial to his daughter. J. Edward Good's gift of 180 acres lying west of Hawkins Avenue in 1924, gave Akron its largest park. It afforded ample space for the laying out of a municipal golf course. It has been named the J. Edward Good Park. The city secured a forty-six acre tract lying along the northeast shore of Summit Lake, in taking over the Akron Water Works Company's property. This was set aside for park purposes, and named Margaret Park in memory of Mrs. Margaret C. Barnhart in recognition of her services in behalf of the playground movement in Akron. The city also purchased the other small park areas known as Glendale, McLain, Hill and Neptune parks. Street lighting of very early days was by the use of oil lamps, first installed at public expense in 1855. Then came gas supplied through mains laid under the city's streets, first put into effect under a contract made by the City Council with the Akron Gas Company, November 19, 1872. When electricity came into use, the city established a municipal lighting plant in 1880, and Akron was one of the first cities to attempt to light its streets with iron towers about one hundred feet in height and electric lights at the top. The city went out of the municipal lighting business in 1883. Gas lamps continued to be used, supplementing the electric system, until recent years. The following data relative to the construction of Akron's new City Hall is of interest at this time. Council legislation was passed March 23, 1920; Bonds sold April 27, 1920 ; Contract awarded May 6, 1924; Ground broken December 29, 1924 ; Corner-stone laid May 22, 1925 ; Approximate cost $750,000. The new building is modern and fireproof throughout. Without sacrificing the beauty of the structure, particular emphasis was placed on making its arrangement convenient and its offices easily accessible to the public. The best materials and workmanship, as well as the most modern methods of lighting, plumbing and heating were insisted upon. The building is nine stories high, exclusive of the basement and subbasement. Offices are located according to floors as follows : Sub-basement—Heating Plant, Machine Shop. Basement—Garage, Store Rooms. First Floor—Department of Finance, Operating Division of Waterworks, Operating Division of Public Service Department. Second Floor—Mayor's Office, Service Director, Purchasing Department, Street Cleaning Department, Special Assessments, Assembly Room, State Auditor's Office. 630 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY Third Floor—Council Chamber, Council Clerk, Council Committee Rooms, Law Department, Press Room. Fourth Floor—Building Department ; Drafting, Engineering and Accounting Divisions of Waterworks Department ; Telephone Exchange. Fifth Floor—Division of Sewerage, Blue-print Room, Assembly Room, Building Custodian. Sixth Floor—Division of Highways, Highway Maintenance, City Planning Commission, Board of Zoning Appeals, Civil Service Commission. Seventh Floor—Health Department, Art Institute and Municipal Research Library. Eighth Floor—Courtrooms, Judges' Offices, Clerk of Courts, Bailiff, Witness Room. Ninth Floor—Jury Rooms, Court Library. Room numbers have been placed on the doors to each office and a main switchboard (Main 2160) has been provided so that the general public will have little difficulty in locating the desired department either by personal call or telephone communication. For obvious reasons it was impracticable to locate all of the city offices in the new building. Those located elsewhere are as follows : Police Department, Central Police Station, South High and East Bowery Street. Fire Department, No. 1 Engine House, South Broadway. Charity Department, 5 East Buchtel Avenue. Library, East Market and High streets. Employment Bureau, 5 East Buchtel Avenue. CHAPTER XX MERCHANTS DEVELOP FINE STORES Climaxing the wonderful development of Akron and Summit County mercantile interests was the opening in 1928 of the new M. O'Neil Company store on South Main Street, between State and Center streets. This wonderful department store, a branch of the May Company chain, gives Akron one of the most modern and well equipped stores of its kind in the United States. Department stores in the Akron district include the following : Akron Dry Goods Company, Acorn Stores Inc., Davies & Griffiths, Dollars Department Store, Epps Army Store, Federman Company, Glegel Department Store, Hower Company, Jaffes Department Store, Kempel's Department Store, J. Migdal, M. O'Neil Company, The A. Polsky Company, Swartz & Fetzer Company, The Weisberger Company, C. H. Yeager Company. There have been many changes in the business map of Akron since the time, half a century ago, when M. O'Neil and his partner, the late I. J. Dyas, opened their store on two floors in the narrow building standing at 114 East Market Street. UNPAVED STREETS At that time the most desirable business locations were in the vicinity of Market and Howard streets, known as "Hall's Corners," and Howard Street was then the principal business thoroughfare. It would have been regarded as foolhardy in those days for a merchant to venture to locate on Main Street, because an open ditch, once the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, was still there. Main, Market and Howard streets were unpaved, and farmers coming to town with their wheat and wool hitched their teams at the hitching posts which lined the business thoroughfares. There were no street cars or telephones and most of the streets were lined with wooden sidewalks. After a few years at the East Market Street location, the partners felt the need for larger quarters and, in spite of the warnings of other business heads, they decided to locate on South Main Street, a step then regarded as extremely precarious. TRADE FOLLOWS STORE Mr. O'Neil looked farther than the day in which he and his fellow-merchants were living and foresaw that South Main Street was to become, - 631 - 632 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY one day, a busy thoroughfare instead of the remains of a canal bed. The ditch was then being filled in. On a site immediately north of the entrance to the former store the firm built a building sixty feet wide and moved in in January, 1889. The step proved to be a wise one, for trade followed the new store and business grew. Less than a year later, in October, 1889, the store building and its contents were completely destroyed by fire. Returning temporarily to the Market Street location, business was continued there until a new and larger building had been erected on the South Main Street site. FIRE ANNIVERSARY It was on the first anniversary of the fire that the new building was opened for business and the firm of O'Neil & Dyas was back on Main Street. The death of Mr. Dyas was a severe blow to Mr. O'Neil, but shortly afterward he decided to incorporate the company and completed the reorganization of the firm, together with J. J. Feudner, F. B. Goodman, and the late William T. Tobin, who died in 1920. The first step forward taken by the new concern, known as the M. O'Neil Company, was the acquiring of Albert Hall, which adjoined the company's store to the south and which was remodeled as part of the store. VOLUME INCREASES Other merchants were following the lead of the M. O'Neil Company by that time and were locating on South Main Street. Need soon came for greater expansion and the company purchased a building with 100 feet frontage on Howard Street and connected with the original building of the group by a bridge across Bank Alley. Later a building forty feet wide on Main Street, the property of R. A. May, was leased and added to the group, giving the store a frontage of 160 feet on Main Street. The company's volume of business increased steadily year by year and, in 1912, the store was sold to the May Department Stores Company, a New York corporation operating stores in numerous large cities. The new owners took possession in July of that year and have operated it since then. When the May Company became the owner of the store, Jereme Dauby, now president, was appointed manager. At that time the company employed about 360 persons, and on the pay roll today are approximately 1,000 persons. BUY FROM "LOTTA" In 1913 the Abbey Block, adjoining the store to the north, was purchased from Lotta Crabtree, who attained nation-wide fame as one of the 634 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY most celebrated actresses of her day. The frontage of the Abbey Block was 120 feet, and the M. O'Neil Company paid for it $412,000, or approximately $3,433 a foot. In addition to the store on Main, the company has a large warehouse at Hill and Forge streets, built in 1916, with 60,000 square feet of floor space and served by a railroad siding where freight cars are unloaded. The M. O'Neil Company numbers among its hundreds of employes many who have been with the store for more than a quarter of a century. Two of them, F. B. Goodman and J. J. Feudner, have been with the company nearly ever since the days of the first store on East Market Street. The A. Polsky Company It is a far cry from the humble little store which was founded here in 1885 by Abram Polsky as The A. Polsky Company to the big mercantile establishment on South Main Street which still bears the same firm name. Today this store occupies about 90,000 square feet of floor space on four floors and includes about 300 employes in the store organization. STARTS WITH PACK It was not long after the Civil war that Abram Polsky, an immigrant lad of twenty years, and his young bride landed in America and made their way to Davenport, Ia. From Davenport, Polsky started to carve out for himself a living in the new world by peddling merchandise. With a heavy bag on his shoulders, he tramped many a mile, vending his wares from door to door. His business prospered and he was soon able to add a horse and wagon to his meager equipment and to swing the pack of goods from his back. Year after year, he became more firmly established until he moved to Orwell, O., where he joined with Sam Myers in a business venture. The store bearing the firm name of Myers & Polsky opened in 1885 at about 165 South Howard Street. Business continued to increase and, seven years later, Myers sold his interest in the business to Polsky. NEED MORE ROOM In 1903, The A. Polsky Company occupied a forty-foot, three-story structure in Howard Street which is now the Howard Street annex to the present building. This move was made after it was found that the little twenty-foot-wide store could not accommodate the customers who wanted to patronize the store. As early as 1905, The A. Polsky Company handled all of the various lines of merchandise that it now handles on a much larger scale. OPEN NEW ANNEX The next step in store growth was made in 1913, when the increased business of the company necessitated a move to its present location in AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 635 Main Street, with entrances on both Main and Howard streets. Within the past year, a new store annex on Howard Street was opened, permitting expansion of the curtain and drapery department. An unusual record was made by The A. Polsky Company in 1924, when it delivered merchandise by mail to customers in 736 towns, including points as far distant as Singapore and India. HEADED BY SONS The founder of the present pretentious merchandising concern lived to see it grow from its humble beginnings in the well-worn pack of a traveling merchant to a metropolitan store, but he died in March, 1915, and since then the affairs of the company have been under the direction of his two sons, Harry 0. Polsky, who is president of the company, and B. A. Polsky, who is secretary and treasurer, while Dr. S. Morgenroth is vice president of the company. The two sons had acquired an interest in the company while they were quite young and grew up with the store as it developed. They are adhering to the merchandising policies which were established for the firm by their father and are carrying on successfully the business which he inaugurated. HAVE LONG EXPERIENCE Harry Polsky is regarded among his fellow-merchants as one of the most successful ready-to-wear operators in the country, for he entered his father's store at the time when ready-to-wear clothing first gained vogue. He followed the development of this branch of the clothing business from the ground up and is recognized as an authority in this line. Bert Polsky also was well grounded, through many years of experience in the business that his father had founded, and has played a large part in the growth of the company. With the growth of the company has come a corresponding growth in the organization needed to attend to the efficient functioning of the business of the store. At the head of the merchandising staff is V. T. Henney, merchandise manager. J. F. McTyer is superintendent, and Miss R. E. Leopold is educational director. The position of publicity director is held by E. L. Rice, and M. Morgenroth is office manager, while Mary Hetzel is credit manager. On the merchandising staff are the following buyers : Miss B. Dowds, art goods ; Mrs. I. Nelson, infants' and children's goods ; Miss E. Dyke, millinery ; Miss A. Burgess, women's underwear and corsets ; A. L. Morgenroth, women's coats ; Richard M. Polsky, women's dresses ; Donald Sands, domestics and linens ; Mrs. E. Showalter, handkerchiefs, trimmings, and notions ; H. R. Rothman, leather goods, toilet goods, jewelry and silverware ; Mrs. L. Deitz, gloves ; Mrs. M. Wehner, hosiery ; H. M. Choate, yard goods ; and Miss C. Sheehan, ribbons and neckwear. 636 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY The C. H. Yeager Company The story of the growth and development of the C. H. Yeager Company is that of a firm which started humbly when civic Akron was still in its infancy, industrially and commercially, and grew with the city, keeping pace with the steps of progress made by Akron. The company's big store on South Main Street is now one of the best equipped in this part of the state and new departments are being added frequently. One of the most recent is the beauty salon which has been established on the second floor of the store. As modern and complete as the most attractive of the Fifth Avenue beauty shops, this salon has proved popular with hundreds of the women patrons of the Akron store. The present merchandising firm of the C. H. Yeager Company had its beginnings in the store of Joseph Yeager at Newton Falls, where he and four clerks attended to all the business about thirty-seven years ago. INCREASING BUSINESS With increasing business, Mr. Yeager was anxious to expand, but found that he could not attain his desires in Newton Falls, so he looked about for a wider field, which he found at Conneaut seven years after he had started in business at Newton Falls. He sold his Newton Falls store and located at Conneaut, where he and C. H. Yeager, of Sharon, Pa., became partners and started in the new business with a force of thirty-six persons. The firm was known as C. H. Yeager & Company in 1897, when R. G. Yeager and J. L. Yeager, sons of Joseph Yeager, were taken into the firm. Nine years later, in 1906, the Yeagers learned that the Dague Brothers & Company store in Akron could be purchased. After investigating the proposition, the Yeagers sold their Conneaut store and located in Akron. STORE EXPANDS To the original store which the Yeagers purchased in Akron, additional facilities were added from time to time. In 1909, an additional thirty-foot structure was leased, and to this was added sixty feet more in 1914. While the business was expanding rapidly, the store could not expand north or south or west because of the alley. It was possible only to grow upwards, and when the last addition was taken on in 1914, all of the Yeager units were three stories high. A big step in the way of expansion was made in 1914, when the sixty-foot addition was taken on, as the height of the entire building was increased to five floors, with a basement under all. The additional frontage secured at this time had been occupied by the properties of John Brittain and by the Riehl Catering Company. These properties had been burned out and the Yeager Company purchased the leases and remodeled the property. In its working force and equipment, as well as in floor space occupied, AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 637 the company has made big strides. When it started in business in Akron it employed sixty clerks, while the working force in busy seasons now numbers about 450 persons. FLEET OF TRUCKS There were nine departments in the first store here, but the company now operates eighty departments. For some time after the business was opened up here, two horse-drawn wagons were sufficient to deliver all of the goods purchased by customers, but deliveries now are made by a fleet of twenty-six motor trucks. In each department the growth of the city and of the company's trade have made possible increases in the volume of business handled. C. H. Yeager died at his home in Sharon, Pa., in March, 1923, and in July of the same year Joseph Yeager died at his home in Akron. The company is now operated by the sons of Joseph Yeager. R. G. Yeager is president of the company ; J. L. Yeager is vice president and treasurer, and Oscar Smith is secretary. These officers, with B. F. Fenstermaker and Mrs. C. H. Yeager, of Sharon, Pa., Mrs. Joseph Yeager and J. A. Hildebrand, are the directors. The Akron Dry Goods Company Purchased by I. E. Oppenheim and J. H. Vineberg Just Fifteen Years Ago EXPANSION IS VERY RAPID Traveling around the country as a traveling man is a pretty hard life, was the thought of two men working in this profession about sixteen or seventeen years ago. Meeting in the town that both of them called home led to a discussion that changed the entire lives of both. It was while they were talking about the hardships of looking up time tables and stopping at hotels with poor accommodations and worse meals that they decided that if either one or the other in their travels found a store that could be bought, one that had a good future before it, they would pool their savings and obtain help from their friends and buy it out. This chance came to one of these men, who at this time was traveling for Henry Glas & Company of New York City. WOULD SELL STORE He happened into Akron one day and was selling M. J. Federman a bill of goods. Federman told this young man that he would like to sell out his store, which was known as the Akron Dry Goods Company. This young man then and there saw his opportunity in this city of opportunity and told Federman that he would buy him out. Hustling over to his hotel, he wired to his friend back home ; the friend wired back that he was with him, and then this young man spent $24 more in telegrams and obtained capital enough to buy out the Akron Dry 638 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY Goods Company. These two young men, I. E. Oppenheim, now of Scranton, and president of the Akron Dry Goods Company, and J. H. Vineberg, now secretary and treasurer of the company and general manager of the Akron store, have in the past fifteen years opened and are now operating the Akron store, two stores in Scranton, Pa., and one store at Lorain, 0. RAPID GROWTH Starting with a capitalization of $50,000, these stores are now capitalized at $1,750,000. The Akron store has seen a phenomenal growth in these past fifteen years under the new management, has grown in floor space from a store fifty-four feet wide and three stories high, occupying about 25,000 square feet of floor space, to two stories running from Howard to Main streets, with an arcade, the Main Street building being four stories high and the Howard Street building six stories high, and the floor space now about 45,000 square feet. Buildings modern as building experts can make them house the fifty or more departments that this store now has. Besides having an efficient corps of buyers in Akron, this force is augmented by a buying office staff in New York City which operates with 148 stores from all over the country in a buying unit. During the present year, 1928, Mr. Vineberg purchased additional Main Street frontage from the Kirk Company, thus giving his store largely increased floor space. Federman Company IN SEVERAL LOCATIONS Had any of his friends suggested to him in 1903 that he would lay aside his studies and plans for the future to enter the mercantile business, L. G. Federman, secretary and treasurer of the Federman Company, would have scoffed at them. But such was the case. In 1903 Federman was a student in an eastern university. After leaving there he came to Akron, where he planned to enter Buchtel College for special training. Before he entered the college, however, his brother-in-law, C. D. Levy, suggested a partnership in a ready-to-wear store. The proposal seemed bright and the student pushed aside his books and a gaily bedecked sign bearing the name L. G. Federman was hung above the door of a small Howard Street store. PARTNERS EIGHT YEARS Federman and Levy continued the partnership in the former's name for eight years after the organization. Levy then sold his interests to Federman, who became the sole owner of the business. From the single room store the business grew to such large proportions that a double room was leased and remodeled. A few years later the business was moved to "Hall's Corners," as Howard and Market AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 639 streets was known. From that location the store was moved to the Snyder Block, and later, when the Central Savings and Trust Company moved across Mill Street to its present location, Federman leased the old building. Remodeling work occupied some considerable time and the business was finally taken there and new lines added. When the Dime Savings Bank moved to Howard and Main streets, the Federman Company leased the building and again expanded. INCORPORATE FIRM Federman in the meantime had incorporated the business and M. J. Federman became the president. L. G. Federman was elected secretary and treasurer, and Joe Federman its vice president. "The store has tried to keep pace with the expansion of Akron and has attempted to appeal to the masses. Our policy has always been volume turnover with minimum profits," Federman declared. As head of a growing concern, Federman said that he did not regret the change in his youthful plans. He believes that he could not have been more successful in the work he abandoned than he has been in the mercantile field. AKRON'S EARLY STORES About 1826, work was started in the building of the Ohio Canal and a settlement sprung up in the vicinity of Exchange and Main streets. It was there the first real big store was built in Akron. It was known as the "Mammoth Store," being a two-story frame building and well stocked with goods. A year later another settlement started in the neighborhood of Howard and Market streets. It was called "Dublin," for the reason that most of the inhabitants were Irish, brought here to help dig the canal. More merchants came and more stores were built. In 1840 the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal was completed and merchandise commenced to arrive over this new waterway from Pittsburgh. Most of the average cargo consisted of iron, nails, glass and groceries. No longer now did the Akron merchants have to depend upon the big, slow moving "schooners" to bring merchandise this way. The two canals, the Ohio and the Ohio and Pennsylvania, helped start a great mercantile activity here which has grown from year to year. Seven years after the opening of the Ohio Canal a young man arrived in Akron from the East. His arrival was by stage coach. That man was P. D. Hall, who started a store at the corner of Howard and Market streets. "Meet me at Hall's Corners" from that time on for nearly a half century was heard in every hamlet and at every crossroad in the county. For over a half century Hall's Corners was the very center and heart of Akron's mercantile life. P. D. Hall was soon joined by his brother, Lorenzo Hall, who helped establish a great business by peddling goods from house to house through all the country towns that were now springing up rapidly. 640 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY Twenty-five years after P. D. Hall started his store, at Howard and Market, Akron's population had increased from 600 to nearly 10,000 people. Howard Street, from the old Sumner House south to Mill, and Market, from Howard to High, were the principal business streets of the city. The banks of the Pennsylvania Canal, on Main Street, were lined with small shops, wool depots, livery stables and lumber yards. The first directory published in Akron was in 1868. Even then the life of the town was down around Hall's Corners. Howard Street was a street of small stores, shops, a few taverns and warehouses. It was a street of hitching posts, wooden sidewalks, numerous small homes with picket fences and squeaking gates. It was also Akron's great market place, where merchants lived and thrived. In front of the stores and shops the village characters sat on soap boxes and nail kegs and from them you heard the gossip of the day. The old street was filled with wagons loaded with grain and wool. Around these wagons the wool and grain buyers were striking bargains. Now and then a slow-moving ox team made its way through the scene. Over on Main Street you found the farmers feeding their teams. Main Street was the great feeding place for the country folk. That was Akron in 1868, and even down to 1875, a half century ago. With this picture in your mind, let us now turn to the merchants and ask who they were and what they were. The list of Akron merchants as it appeared fifty years ago opens up an avenue of memories. It takes you back to the pioneers, the pioneer merchants, merchants whose names loom big in the history of this city. The list follows. How many of the names will arouse memories for you? GROCERS—Barnes & Brother, Berg & Koch, G. C. Berry & Company, W. & J. Bittman, Brenizer & Heathman, A. P. Cannon, Clark & Sumner, J. Cook & Sons, James Costigan, J. R. Dietzold, William H. Dilworth, William Doran, A. Durand, Henry Eggermann, L. H. Farrand, John Feuchter & Son, William Fink, William Flower, W. Gille, Frank Gillooly, S. W. Goble, Jacob Good, John G. Grether, Hambleton Brothers, David Hanscom, J. B. Houghton, W. T. Jones, F. J. Kolb, J. H. Kraner & Son, H. W. Sumner, George Viall & Company, D. Weeks, J. M. Wills, Wood & Richards, John Leonard, McCue & Williams, M. McFarland, C. Miller, Fred Mustill, A. Neugart, Charles Parisette, C. H. Payne, E. F. Pflueger, William Poole, D. W. Roland, Steese & Hall, Map. E. Steinbacher. MEAT MARKETS —Barder & Campbell, Joseph Beckhardt, Brodt & Fink, De Long & Sherbondy, Field Brothers, Thomas Gibbs, N. D. Leopold & Company, Leopold & Treen, Elias Long, Joseph McCann, F. G. Rentschler, Schoeninger Brothers, Teeple & Brown, Peter Vinton, Willhelm, Brodt & Company. LEATHER AND WOOL —J. H. Christy & Company. MERCHANT TAILORS —T. B. Albert, G. W. Camp, Chipman, Barnes & Perkins, John Heib, Hoffman & Moss, John Kling, Koch & Levi, William Schroeder, C. F. Teits. 642 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY MILLINERY —Mrs. T. W. Baker, Mrs. S. Brown, Miss M. Fitzgerald, I. J. Frank, Mrs. J. L. Lees, Peck & Francis, T. M. Sawyer, Miss F. G. Viele. NEWS DEALERS —H. G. Canfield, Dieboldt & Clippinger, W. G. Robinson, West & Hale. ORGANS AND PIANOS —A. Straub, D. L. Foust. PAINTS AND OILS —R. L. Andrew. SADDLES AND HARNESS —Louis Berrodin, L. H. Bostford, Jacob Dettling, D. C. Gillett, F. C. Hawkins, G. F. Pierce, Philip Upington. STOVES AND TINWARE —Alfred Aker, Cramer & May, H. D. Freer, A. Jahant & Brother, Joseph Kaiser, Paige Brothers & Kent, Wetmore & Park, Thomas Williams. TOBACCO AND CIGARS —C. T. Parker, S. G. Bucher, H. M. Dietz-hold, Isaac Ettinger, Ferbstein Brothers, D. Ferbstein, John Glatther, John Gorman, J. L. Gross, N. L. Holdstein, Thomas McMillen, C. A. Norris, J. Seiber & Company, N. E. VanSickle, Weber & Freadmann, George Weimer, John Yeomans, J. H. Zeller. UPHOLSTERS AND CARPETS —Klinger & Gintz, Louis Poehlman. WALL PAPER —R. L. Andrew, Beebe & Elkins, George C. Berry & Company, Diehl & Oviatt, W. G. Robinson. JEWELERS —H. E. Abbey, Foltz & Frank, F. J. Kempel, G. J. Nieberg, O. H. Remington, J. B. Storer & Company, T. Upington & Son. HATS, CAPS AND FURS —T. B. Albert, Chipman, Barnes & Perkins. HARDWARE—Hall Brothers, Joseph Kaiser, Paige Brothers & Kent, L. B. Schneider. GENTS' FURNISHINGS —T. B. Albert, Chipman, Barnes & Perkins, I. Cohen & Company, Ferbstein Brothers, E. Hersch & Company, Hoffman & Moss, M. Joseph & Son, John Kling, Koch & Levi, William Schroeder. FURNITURE DEALERS —A. Baldwin, T. C. Budd, L. H. Limbert, D. G. Sanford, Viall & Replogel, C. W. Wright. DRY GOODS —Auble, Brown & Company, Barnes & Brothers, G. C. Berry, Hall Brothers, E. P. Holloway, R. H. McCombs & Company, Wesener, Brouse & Company, Wolf, Church & Beck. DRUGGISTS —A. M. Armstrong, Beebe & Elkins, W. T. Hefferman & Co., G. H. Helfer & Son, F. W. Inman & Son, J. H. Kramer & Son, J. M. Laffer, D. S. McBride, Sisler & Hoye, E. Steinbacher, Warner & Hollinger. CONFECTIONERY AND FRUITS —E. L. Alling, Andrews & Durant, J. M. Atkinson, C. T. Baker, Frederick Beck, Brenizer & Heathman, Durant & Andrews, I. Hayes, Lodwick & Woodrow, John Motz, Stair & Stadler, H. W. Sumner. CLOTHIERS —I. Cohen & Company, John Heib, E. Hirsch & Company, Hoffman & Moss, Koch & Levi, M. Joseph & Son. CHINA AND GLASSWARE —Barnes & Brothers, G. C. Berry & Son, Hall Brothers, Herrick & Cannon. BOOTS AND SHOES —G. M. Beck, Peter Biebricher, Bowman, AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 643 McNeil & Company, I. B. Hargett, John Hanson, S. E. Phinney & Company, J. J. Santry & Company, Saliday & Bunn, George Via11 & Company, Henry Willi. BOOKS AND STATIONERY —Beebe & Elkins, H. G. Canfield, W. G. Robinson, West & Hale. From 1840 to 1870 Akron was a considerable center for the wool industry and there were many merchants who engaged extensively in the wool trade. Prominent among these were Joseph E. Wesener, James and John Christy, and Moses Joseph and Herman F. Hahn. John Brown, of Civil war fame, was one of the most prominent wool merchants in the history of early Akron. In 1844 he formed a partnership with Col. Simon Perkins, and Brown and Perkins raised thousands of sheep on the lands about Perkins Hill. They established wool depots in Akron and in eastern cities. In the swift moving century the old order of things has been changed. The village cobbler is no longer seen on Howard and Market. The hitching posts and watering troughs are gone. The slow moving caravans are but memories. The canals are history. The old-time stores are things of the past. The old-time merchants have moved on. With but few exceptions every one of the merchants of fifty years ago is gone. The past twenty-five years have witnessed a great growth in Akron and Akron merchants have kept pace with the marvelous advancement. Today the mercantile life of the city is not confined to Howard, Market and Main streets. It's alive in every part of a great city. Today there are over 3,000 merchants of various kinds in Akron and over 10,000 persons constitute the city's selling forces. The annual business in these mercantile houses runs into many millions. That first store, a one-man store, has given way to the big department store covering acres of floor space and employing a thousand clerks during the rush season. Two of Akron's best known mercantile houses have celebrated diamond jubilees. These are the J. Koch Company and the M. T. Cutter Company. These houses have history that dates back to the days of the village. The W. J. Frank Company a few years ago celebrated a golden jubilee. The M. O'Neil Company also is over fifty years old. There are in Akron today over 600 retail groceries, 300 confectionery stores, 300 meat markets, 50 dry goods houses, 50 house furnishing establishments, 40 hardware stores, 45 jewelry shops, 85 men's furnishing stores, 85 drug stores, 9 department stores, 60 clothing houses, 16 china stores, 50 millinery shops, 20 musical instrument stores, 40 paint and varnish stores, 25 piano and organ establishments, 50 boot and shoe stores, 12 tea and coffee stores, 25 stores in which radio supplies are sold, and numerous electrical stores and shops of many other kinds. Wholesale establishments may be listed as follows : Drugs, 1; flour, 7; meats and provisions, 17 ; milk and cream, 3 ; paints, 5; paper and bags, 8; produce, 12; roofing paper, 5; rubber goods, 9; school supplies, 1; 644 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY coal merchants, 14; coffee, 2; confectionery, 9; grocers, 6; bakeries, 6; cigars and tobacco, 5. Akron has several wholesale mercantile houses with trade in many states. The volume of business has increased rapidly among the wholesale merchants during the past ten years. There are now over 150 growing wholesale mercantile establishments in Akron, classified as follows: Hardware, 4; flour, 8; fishing tackle, 1; dry goods, 3; electric supplies, 3; drugs, 1; confectionery, 9; coal, 15; chemicals, 2 ; cheese, 2; cement, 8; bakeries, 7; groceries, 7; meats and provisions, 17; milk and cream, 3; office supplies, 2; oil and gasoline, 14; paints, 6; paper and bags, 10; plumbers' supplies, 3; produce, 15; radio supplies, 2; roofing paper, 7; rubber goods, 10; school supplies, 2 ; soft drinks, 10; sugar, 2; varnish, 2. Akron also has five up-to-date market houses which will compare favorably with such markets to be found in larger cities. Akron has several chain stores, the largest being the Acme grocery chain. Fred W. Albrecht, its founder, is still at the head of this enterprise. Another big chain of grocery stores here is that of the A. & P. Tea Company, having sixty-six stores. The Day Drug Company has a chain of nineteen stores. Fifteen years ago the merchants of this city organized what is known as the Akron Merchants' Association and much good work has been accomplished. CHAPTER XXI SOCIAL SERVICE By O. E. Olin What we call civilization has many elements, and among them increising importance is given in these modern times to the methods of securing the general welfare, educational, cultural, recreational, and the methods of dealing with the human waste of sickness, misfortune, poverty and crime. It seems of prime importance to us that the social dividend should be steady and ample and well distributed, and, we are always glad for the mounting figures of prosperity as shown by population and bank clearings and taxable wealth. But the student of life comes to know, also, that a certain ratio, approximate at least, should exist between population and the acreage of parks and playgrounds, between the number of the -people and the number of available beds in public hospitals. Recreation halls and shelter homes are necessary, and are all the more needful as the population increases, rapidly. Akron and Summit County communities today compare favorably with other cities of their size in what may be called social service work. Akron is known as a city of churches. They have social, charitable, educational, fraternal, artistic and guiding institutions, both public and private, that seem to meet fairly well the needs of a growing city. What they are and how they have become what they are—at least those that are semi-public—it shall be the work of this chapter partly to relate. In 1849 the county commissioners purchased 150 acres of land at the southeast corner of West Market Street and Portage Path Road and converted the buildings thereon, with some additions which were made thereto, into a county poor house. Later adjoining tracts were acquired until the poor farm comprised about two hundred and thirty acres. In 1864 there was built at the southeast corner of West Exchange Street and the present Rose Boulevard, at a cost of $20,000, a palatial county infirmary. Many Akron people will recall this building and the infirmary farm which included the greater part of what is now Sunset View and Elm Hills allotments, as well as that portion of West Hill south of Market Street and west of Marvin Avenue. The present county home, located at Monroe Falls, is one of the finest institutions of its kind in the state. In the early '80s was made the first attempt, in a systematic way, to administer private, as distinguished from public charity. Two societies - 645 - 646 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY were organized, one known as the "Akron Board of Charities" and the other as the "Women's Benevolent Association." Lane's "History of Akron and Summit County" gives January 13, 1885, as the date of the organization of the former, but fails to mention when the latter was organized. We are inclined to believe, from talks had with several of its charter members, that the Women's Association was the pioneer in this field. That the aims of the founders of the Board of Charities was not different from those of our present day organizations, is shown by their statement in its constitution, as follows : "1. To see that all deserving cases of destitution are properly relieved. 2. To prevent indiscriminate and duplicate giving. 3. To make the securing of employment for those able to work, the basis of relief. 4. To secure the community from imposture. 5. To reduce vagrancy and pauperism, and to ascertain their true causes." In 1889 these two organizations were consolidated as a corporate body not for profit, under the name of "The Union Charity Association of Akron." There were eighteen incorporators, among whom were such well-known citizens as Col. Arthur L. Conger, Ferdinand Schumacher and Ohio C. Barber. As far as we have been able to ascertain, the only ones now living are Mrs. R. H. Wright, Mrs. Laura K. Fraunfelter, wife of Dr. Elias Fraunfelter, late superintendent of schools, and Mrs. Sumner Nash. The Women's Benevolent Association was the owner and occupier of a property then known as the "Home," located on South High Street, immediately north of the present Pythian Temple. The consolidated organization occupied this home, afterwards known as "Grace House," until 1906, when it was given to the Young Women's Christian Association, which, from time to time, has added to the building in order to take care of the increased demands made upon it by reason of Akron's marvelous growth. Although the consolidation of Akron's two charity organizations in 1889 shows that, at that early date, its welfare workers realized the great benefit to be derived from unified effort, by 1912, there were more than thirty agencies attempting to dispense charity to and do welfare work among Akron's needy and under-privileged people. Awakened to the wastefulness and futility of such a system, the leaders in the work, after three or four years of effort, finally succeeded in combining these various associations into a single corporate body, known as the "Charity Organization Society of Akron." The directorate included twenty-five of the best-known charity and social welfare workers in the city, many of whom were prominent in its business and industrial life. The officers were : President, F. A. Seiberling ; vice president, Harvey S. Firestone ; treasurer, Henry B. Manton. An arrangement was made with the city, by which its director of the Department of Public Charities became the general secretary of the society. W. S. Bixby, an experienced social worker of New York, was AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY - 647 chosen for the position, which he ably and successfully filled until 1927, when he was succeeded by Russell K. Kurtz, formerly of the Miller Rubber Company. Mention must be made of Uncle Joe Kendall, who for more than thirty years was Akron's "Poor Director." In fact, for many years he was practically Akron's whole charity association. Also of the late Mrs. A. K. Fouser, James H. Seymour, and John C. Weber, who was Mr. Kendall's successor as poor director. PRESENT WELFARE ORGANIZATIONS Akron City Hospital.—In 1883 Boniface DeRoo, a native of France, but for many years a citizen of Akron, died, leaving his entire fortune amounting to about $10,000, to found a hospital in the City of Akron. With additions to this fund, made by public-spirited citizens, the Bartges homestead on East Market Street was purchased in 1891 and Akron's first hospital was opened. One of the donors to this fund, Thomas W. Cornell, was its first president. In 1904 Ohio C. Barber built, at a cost of $200,000, and presented to the city, the present main building. The grounds, buildings and equipment of the Akron City Hospital are now valued at more than $1,000,000. In its first year, 1893, it cared for 143 patients ; in 1924 for 4,841. Judge Charles C. Benner is president and Mr. Arden E. Hardgrove its superintendent. A $300,000 annex is now being added. Children's Hospital and Mary Day Nursery.—These deservedly popular institutions are the successors of two circles of the "Daughters of the King," originally formed at the instigation of Mrs. Mary Rawson, mother of Mrs. George T. Perkins. Four of the charter members are still living and are active in the work of both the nursery and the hospital, namely, Mary Perkins Raymond, honorary president ; Miss Carita McEbright, Mrs. Maude Waters Milar and Mrs. Lizzie Griffin Jacobs. Col. George T. Perkins donated the house and lot at the northeast corner of Buchtel Avenue and High Street to the organization, then known as the Akron Day Nursery. About this time the name was changed to Mary Day Nursery in honor of Colonel Perkins' first grandchild, Mary Perkins Raymond, now Mrs. W. H. Yule of Santa Barbara, Cal. It first started as a day nursery and kindergarten, and gradually expanded to include a hospital and a district nursing service. In 1924, 140 children were enrolled at the nursery and 1,500 patients were treated in the hospital. Mrs. Francis Seiberling is president. In 1927 the new hospital was completed at the corner of Bowery and Buchtel. People's Hospital.—This much needed addition to Akron's hospital service was organized in 1914. It was incorporated with a capital stock of $150,000. Its first president was the late Dr. W. W. Leonard. On March 1, 1915, this finely equipped hospital building, with a capacity of nearly 200 beds, together with a separate home for nurses, was opened. In 1924, an addition to the nurses' home, costing $32,000, and a maternity unit, costing approximately $200,000, were erected. To the People's Hos- 648 - AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY pital belongs the unique distinction of having for the past five or six years, lived within its income. Its receipts are sufficient to pay its entire operating expenses and it has no indebtedness. Francis Seiberling is president. St. Thomas Hospital.—Another splendid addition to Akron's hospital group is St. Thomas', located at the north end of the North Main Street viaduct, practically completed as this chapter is written. This hospital was provided through the effort of the late M. O'Neil, pioneer Akron merchant. The Citizens Hospital at Barberton also provides splendid care for the citizens of that community. The Akron Young Men's Christian Association.—This Association was organized in 1870, with B. C. Herrick as its first president. Its first quarters were in the old Academy of Music building, on the site of the present Everett Building. It was not until 1882 that a general secretary was employed who devoted his whole time to the work. In 1885 J. Newton Gunn, afterwards president of the United States Rubber Company, was employed as secretary. The quarters, consisting of a reading and social room, were at that time in the old Masonic Building at the corner of Howard and Mill streets. A building campaign, resulting in the raising of $125,000, was conducted in 1902 and, out of the proceeds, the site at the corner of Main and State streets was purchased and the present building erected thereon. This building and its equipment, considered at the time of its erection amply sufficient to take care of the needs of the association for many years to come, has, owing to Akron's growth, become woefully inadequate, and it will be incumbent upon the people of Akron, in the very near future, to furnish means for the erection of a modern Y. M. C. A. building. Much of the progress of the Y. M. C. A. was due to the leadership of H. T. Waller, who for almost a score of years served as the general secretary of the association. Mr. Waller was active in civic affairs and a member of the commission that drafted the present city charter, and formerly was president of the Akron Board of Education. During the World war he was active in the community welfare work of that period. Mr. Waller, in 1927, was promoted to an executive position in the international organization of the Y. M. C. A. and was succeeded early in 1928 by J. A. Van Dis, the present general secretary. Mr. Van Dis was born August 5, 1884, in Fijnaart, near Rotterdam, Holland. When he was eight years of age the family came to America and settled in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he attended school until his eleventh year when he was compelled to go to work. He was unable to speak English when he reached Kalamazoo. STUDIED WHILE WORKER The Y. M. C. A. helped him from the start. He learned English and was taught self reliance. Although compelled to work he also studied