There was a time around the turn of the 20th century that, if you lived in Akron, you could buy anything and everything that you needed right there. Akron was a leading farming community at that time. 30 to 40 percent of the citizens in and around Akron were farmers. 60 percent of the residents of Akron worked at several rubber factories. Goodyear, B.F. Goodrich, Seiberling, Firestone, General, Mohawk, Diamond, and several others. Akron was divided into sections such as the Italian section, German village, the Irish section and so on. In the early 1900s, the population of West Virginia dropped terribly as thousands flocked to Akron for jobs in the rubber industry. Akron was jokingly referred to as Little West Virginia. The fact was, the highway between Ohio and West Virginia was filled every weekend with cars of West Virginians heading home on Friday nights to visit family and returning on Sunday. To house their employees, Harvey Firestone and Frank Seiberling built complete residential areas. Firestone Park and Goodyear Heights were created and homes could be purchased by the companys employees for very low prices. Frank Seiberling, of Goodyear Rubber Company had a clause in his home buyers agreement that stated if an employee was injured on the job, became ill or had a family emergency that required them to miss work, that buyers house payments would stop until they were able to return to work. Then the payments would continue. This way, no Goodyear employee would have to worry about losing their familys home.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 01:28:30 +0000
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