Mary shares the history of Akron, which began as a town along the Ohio-Erie Canal. Akron grew into a manufacturing hub with multiple rubber companies, including Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and Goodrich Corporation.
Class Discussion Questions:
1) Why is the Ohio Erie Canal important to Akron?
Read the Script:
Nowadays, Akron is probably best known as the birthplace and hometown of basketball superstar, LeBron James. But before LeBron ever hit the court the birth of the city itself came because of the Ohio Erie Canal. In the early 1800s, Ohio's governors saw a need to connect Lake Erie and the Ohio River in order to make trade and travel easier. Enter the appropriately named Ohio Erie Canal. A canal is a manmade waterway used for transportation and for delivering goods. Akron began as a town along the channel that the workers could call home. It was founded in 1825 by General Simon Perkins and Paul Williams. No surprise here, General Perkins was on the Ohio Board of Canal Commissioners. He was tasked with raising funds to pay for the canal. Here, you can see the original town plan. Akron was established at the highest peak along the canal. The location inspired the town's name. See, Akron comes from the Greek word for elevation or point.
In 1832 the Ohio and Erie Canal finally opened. It established an easy path from Akron to Cleveland, which brought in the opportunity for the region to grow. Then, with the addition of trains to the area, too, plenty of factories set up shop. An assortment of products were made in the city from cereal to farm equipment. Even 1/5 of all the matches in the country were made in Akron at the time. The area really got a big boost with the addition of rubber manufacturing, though. In 1871, Benjamin Franklin Goodrich opened up his first rubber plant in Akron. At the time, the BFGoodrich company focused mainly on making fire hoses, but with the invention of the air-filled tire the company really got rolling. As you can imagine, these new tires were a big hit with bicyclists. The company even set up a lab to test new uses for rubber and developed air-filled tires for cars. It wasn't long before other rubber manufacturers moved into Akron. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company opened there in 1898 and Firestone Tire and Rubber Company came in 1900. Akron became known as the Rubber City, and that nickname continues today. Goodyear used the success of their tires to launch a completely new business, producing blimps. Their first order came from the U.S. Navy. In 1917, they bought nine airships, but like the rest of the country, Akron fell on hard times during the Great Depression.
It wasn't until World War II that Akron had another upswing. With an increased need for military equipment, think lots of rubber tires, Akron factories were chugging away. And, of course, Goodyear's blimps were used in the war, too. They were able to hover over water and spot enemy submarines. Alas, as technology improved and post-war financial hardships hit, factory jobs began to dwindle. This led to some people moving out of Akron in search for jobs. Although there aren't as many factory jobs the legacy of the Rubber City still lives on, and if you're lucky enough, you might even see it in the sky when a Goodyear blimp flies by.