American Balance, Akron, Ohio

August 26, 1837, 3:3

AKRON

The village of Akron is situated in the South West part of the County of Portage, in the State of Ohio, 33 miles from Cleveland, on the Ohio Canal, at the Portage Summit, and at the point where the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal unites with the Ohio Canal. The village extends along the Canal from Lock 1 at the South end of the Summit, to Lock 15, being nearly one mile. Akron was laid out in the Spring of 1825, very soon after the Ohio Canal was laid out, was then covered with timber; but the forest was soon removed and the village rose rapidly, for a short time. The place proving unhealthy during the several succeeding years, was, in a measure, abandoned till 1830. A new impulse was then given to the place by reason of a large water power being accumulated at that point.

Previous to that time the improvements were all in the vicinity of Locks 1 and 2 and the basin. The improvements made after 1830, were below Lock 4 on the Ohio Canal. Since 1830, the village of Akron has made rapid advances in buildings, population, and the wealth, and bids fair to excel, in fact to exceed any other interior town in Ohio. At the session of the Legislature of Ohio in 1835-36, an act of Incorporation was passed, authorizing the citizens of Akron to choose a Mayor, Recorder and five Trustees, and to make their own By-laws. The citizens organized under that act, in the summer of 1836, and are now in the full enjoyment of their corporate privileges.

Akron has at this time 4 Taverns, 11 Dry Goods Stores, 1 Hard-ware Store, 4 Drug and Medicine Stores, 12 Groceries, 1 Clothing Store, 2 Shoe Stores, 1 Hat Store, 2 Saddle and Harness maker Shops, 2 Woolen Factories, 1 Chair Factory, 1 Flouring Mill, where 60,000 barrels of Flour, per annum, may be manufactured, 1 Flouring mill erecting, 1 Blast Furnace, 1 Foundry, 1 Forwarding And Commission House, 2 or 3 Cabinet Shops, 1 Post Office, 1 Printing Office, where a weekly newspaper is published, several Blacksmith Shops, besides mechanics of almost all kinds in abundance. The public buildings are one Baptist, 1 Methodist, and 1 Congregational Churches, also several School Houses.

Akron has now a population of nearly two thousand inhabitants, and so soon as the monetary affairs of the country assume stability, there must be a great influx of capital and population. [singed] A.

In the above communication of A, it is stated that the place proving unhealthy, was in a measure, abandoned until 1830. In regard to the health of the place, we are decidedly of opinion, after a residence of nearly five years, that no place of equal size, in this part of Ohio, or in fact any part of Ohio or N. York, possesses a more healthy population, or where fewer cases of disease occur during a year.  In 1828, in addition to the general cause which brought Death to almost every door through the whole length of the land, the Ohio Canal was being opened through the Summit Lake and the adjacent marches the Lake itself was lowered about four feet consequently a vast amount of vegetable matter from the drained grounds became exposed to the action of the sun, the effluvia of which, together with the exhalations which arose from the earth, composed almost entirely of decayed vegetation which was thrown out of the canal rendered Akron and the adjacent country a theatre of mortality unequaled in history of this part of Ohio which causes have now ceased to operate. Akron is now a healthy place.

Akron 1904