History of Akron, Ohio, USA

Akron, a beautiful and flourishing town of Portage township, and capital of Summit county, Ohio, on the Ohio and Erie canal, at its junction with the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, 110 miles in a direct line N. E. from Columbus, and 36 miles S. from Cleveland. It occupies the highest ground on the line of the canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio river, and is 400 feet above the lake. By means of the canal and little Cuyahoga river, the town is amply supplied with water-power, which is employed in a variety of manufactures; and its mercantile business is extensive. Immense quantities of wheat are shipped here. Akron was laid out in 1825. In 1827 the Ohio and Erie canal was constructed to this point, and in 1841 Akron was chosen as the county seat. The canal was finished in 1832; cost $5,000,000. The same year the canal which connects it with Beaver, Pennsylvania, was opened, and a new impetus given to its improvement. It has several churches, 1 bank, 2 woollen factories, 6 large flouring ...

Akron, Ohio, May 12. - Saturday was a bad day for this city. A terrible cyclone moved down upon us, causing great damage. Professor Egbert, of Buchtel College, who was out in the storm, calculated that it was traveling at the rate of four miles a minute, so that its track of about a mile and a half through this city was traversed in little more than twenty seconds. It moved in almost a straight line through a well-settled part of the city, and scarcely a foot of the mile and a half traversed, but is strewn with splintered timbers, broken
furniture, uprooted trees, and leveled barns and outhouses. In a trip over the storm's path nineteen dwellings were counted that were either ripped into kindling wood or so badly wrecked that they can not be occupied. About seventy-persons in all, are out of house and home and are being sheltered by friends.

Eighteen persons were injured but it is thought all will recover. Seventy-five buildings, including residences, barns and outhouses, were...

Akron, a beautiful and flourishing city, the capital of Summit co., 0, is a manufacturing, mineral, and railroad centre,39 miles by rail S. by E. of Cleveland, 131 miles by rail N.E. of Columbus, and 252 miles by rail N.E. of Cincinnati. It is on the Ohio Canal, 960 feet above the level of the sea, and 400 feet above the level of Lake Erie. It has an active trade in grain and extensive manufactures of agricultural implements. Akron has 33 churches, 7 banks, public schools, a high school which cost $100,000, a public library, boiler-works, brick- and fire-brick-works, a paint and oil-factory, a harness factory, a sewer-pipe factory, a stoneware-factory, hard-rubber works, a twine- and cordage factory, a shirt-factory, soap-works, knife-works, an ice factory, a roller flour-mill, stove-works, a match-factory, and lumber-mills. Two daily, 1 tri-weekly, and 4 weekly newspapers are published here. Akron is the seat of Buchtel College (Universalist), founded in 1872. Coal is mined near this ...

Akron, O., July 19. - The Academy of Music block, containing the local opera house, was almost destroyed by fire Sunday. The loss on the block, owned by SYLVESTER T. EVERETT, of Cleveland, is $25,000; that on the opera house is $10,000, with smaller losses to offices and stores will amount to another $10,000. The insurance on the block and the opera house is about half the losses.

Akron, O., Dec. 21. - The main building of Buchtel college, including all the laboratories, library, men's and women's dormitories, was burned to the ground. The fire started in the men's dormitory, about 5 p.m., and spread to other portions of the building rapidly. Much of the personal property of the students and a large number of valuable books from the library were saved. The loss is fully $100,000, with $65,000 insurance. A meeting of the students and friends of the college will be held Thursday and it is probable that the college will be rebuilt at once.