Oliver Transue

2026 | Hall of Fame

Oliver Transue
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Oliver F. Transue (1865-1925)

Class of 2026 – Industrialist

Oliver F. Transue was born December 10, 1865, the son of local industrialist Frank Transue.  He and his father contributed  much to the development of Alliance.   Oliver Transue grew up in Alliance and attended the local schools.  In 1895 he joined his father and Silas J. and Joe Williams in organizing the Transue & Williams Company, which specialized in drop forgings. The company was originally housed on North Union Avenue near the site that would become Alliance Rubber.  Before breaking ground on its West Ely Street plant in 1898, the company also operated for a time in the old Nixon shop, near the corner of Freedom and Patterson.  The company grew to become one of the most well-known enterprises in Alliance under his tenure as president and general manager. 

Transue & Williams Company played a key part in Henry Ford’s success story.  In order to bring his dream of affordable automobiles to the masses, Ford needed a lighter car, and he was searching for a steel that would be light but strong.  In 1906 Ford was looking for a company that would work with vanadium steel.  Transue was already making forgings for Ford, and he put Ford in touch with Joseph Flannery of Pittsburgh and Harry Ross Jones of United Steel Co. of Canton.  After some trial and error, the vanadium experiments were a success.  Stark County historian Edward Thornton Heald in 1949 calls this the “greatest single event in Stark County history, making Stark County the greatest center of electric-furnace alloy steel production in the world.”  It was all Transue & Williams could do to keep up with the forging orders.  Under Oliver Transue’s leadership, the company expanded into the metal stamping business in the early 1920s.

Transue also became president of the Buckeye Jack Manufacturing Company and the Buckeye Twist Drill Company.  He served as a director of the McCaskey Register Company and the Republic Stamping & Enameling Company, as well as Alliance First National Bank and the Midland Bank Company of Cleveland. 

Transue married Grace Fisher in 1887, and they were the parents of two daughters, Ruth Transue (1889-1978) and Margaret Transue (1891-1918).  The Transue’s beautiful home was built in 1904 at 1251 South Union Avenue, just south of Glamorgan Castle.

Oliver Transue was considered a generous man and much beloved by his associates.  He died at the age of 59 on October 19, 1925 at Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio after a three-week illness.  His wife died in 1947, and they are both entombed in the Transue Mausoleum in Alliance City Cemetery.

 

(Sources: 1928 Blue; Heald, vol. II)

Daniel Sourbeck

2026 | Hall of Fame

Sourbeck House
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Daniel Sourbeck (1812-1883)

Class of 2026 – Business

Daniel E. Sourbeck was born in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in 1812, and he spent most of his life doing hotel work.  He was the son of John and Lydia Sourbeck.  He married Louiza (Eliza) Jack in 1836 in New Brighton, Pennsylvania.  They had two children: James Power (1848-1887) and Sophia (1865-1890).

Sourbeck received training in carpentry and various trades in his youth, and he worked at bridge building and on the Erie Canal for a time.  In 1837 he established a Sourbeck House in New Brighton, which he personally ran until 1852. 

In May 1852 Daniel Sourbeck came to Alliance, Ohio at the request of the railroad company.  He took over operation of the hotel in the original station erected by the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad, later known as the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railroad.  The hotel soon became noted far and wide for its superior meals.  Even though he accepted the position in Alliance, he continued in ownership of the hotel in New Brighton.  It is said that the name recognition of Alliance across the country had much to do with the excellent reputation of the Sourbeck House.  In the fall of 1852, the railroad erected a neat frame depot on the north side of the track and this move only added to the appeal of Sourbeck’s establishment. 

In 1855 Sourbeck survived a deadly train crash traveling from Philadelphia.  Reports indicate that dozens were killed as a result of the crash and derailment, and Sourbeck was badly injured but was lucky to be alive.

A tragic train accident at the Alliance depot on December 8, 1856 resulted in substantial damage to the station, but no harm to its proprietor.  Eight people were killed and others injured.   One of the passenger cars was thrown into the rotunda of the depot, and another into the sitting room of the Sourbeck Hotel.   This building burned down in 1864, forcing Sourbeck to briefly do business again in his original building until the magnificent new and expanded brick structure on the south side of the track was completed in 1866.

On February 15, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary stopped in Alliance on their way to Washington, D.C. for his inauguration.  Because of the Sourbeck House’s reputation for fine dining, Lincoln’s party stopped to eat there, and Lincoln delivered a very brief address to a gathered crowd.

Daniel Sourbeck was connected with the Ohio militia, having been a lieutenant in the Alliance Light Guard, and while in Pennsylvania he was captain of a cavalry company known as Beaver Co. Light Horse. He is often referred to as Colonel Sourbeck, although this title could be honorary.  He was affiliated with both the Masons and the Odd Fellows.

Sourbeck died Nov. 19, 1883 in New Brighton, Pennsylvania after retiring from the hotel business.  He and his wife, who died in 1884, are buried in Grove Cemetery in New Brighton.

(Sources: Perrin 1881, 745; Sourbeck Children online; Ancestry; 1868 McKee;)

 

Philip Sharer

2026 | Hall of Fame

Philip Sharer
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Philip Sharer (ca 1811-1889)

Class of 2026 – Business

Philip Sharer, founder of the Sharer family in the old village of Freedom, was a native of Germany.  Born about 1811 and orphaned at age 5, he migrated to America in 1837 at the age of 27.  He landed at New York after a sea voyage of 68 days.  He sought employment for 4 weeks after arrival, but New York was much affected by the Panic of 1837.  He left his trunk as security for a board bill and started on foot for Pittsburgh.  For 6 weeks he begged his way through NJ and PA.  Finally at Adamsburg in Westmoreland County, PA he got carpenter’s work at 37.5 cents per day, working 14 to 16 hours a day.  He worked there 4 years, marrying Mary Magdalene Hoffman in 1841.  Sharer then started out on foot again, this time accompanied by his wife and bringing tools and a few household pieces on a small one horse wagon.  On Oct. 1, 1841, he reached the village of Freedom, now part of the city of Alliance, and he started a cabinet shop.  He continued in that business, adding furniture and undertaking, until 1882 when he retired.  The oldest continuously operating business in the city is now known as Sharer-Stirling-Skivolocke Funeral Home.

Mr. and Mrs. Sharer had ten children: John H. (1842-1908), William Sharer (1844-?), Sophia (1847-?), Elizabeth (1848-1935), Mary (1851-?), Frances (?-?), George (1855-1940), Emma (1858-?), Frank F. (1861-1934), and Hallie (1864-1931).  Sharer died in 1889.

[Sources: Heald, Magrath, newspaper obits, SSS website]

 

George Russell

2026 | Hall of Fame

George W. Russell
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George W. Russell (1841-1906)

Class of 2026 – Veteran

George W. Russell, who also went by the name George Williams, was born into slavery near Fulton, Callaway County, Missouri about 1841.  He did not know the month or day of his birth, and so he chose Lincoln’s birthday as his own. 

During the Civil War, he went south with his master Robert Rankin Russell, the latter serving as a Confederate officer.  During the battle of Vicksburg in 1863, Russell was picked up between the lines by Union soldiers.  He was captured by Harding A. “Hard” Buckman of Company A of the 32nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI).  Buckman, as well as many other soldiers in this unit, had direct ties to Alliance, Ohio.  Russell was then sworn into service and officially joined Company A of the 32nd OVI.  He was an “Under-Cook,” responsible for officers’ meals, a position authorized by the Enrollment Act of March 3, 1863.  This act provided a way for African Americans to legitimately serve in Union military units apart from the United States Colored Troops.  Duties of Under-Cooks included cooking and distributing rations.  They also sometimes served as nurses or stretcher-bearers on the battlefield. 

After the war, Russell was brought back to Alliance by Mr. Buckman and a Mr. James Gilmore Hogue. In Alliance he was first employed by Linus Ely, and then by John C. “Jack” Sutton.  He worked at a number of jobs over his years in Alliance, but he took most pride in being the trusted custodian of a number of local banks.  Russell was honest and loyal and grateful to be in Alliance, delivered from slavery.

George Russell was a proud member of the Fremont Post of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).  He served as the flag bearer during parades and ceremonies, and also as the post’s chaplain. 

Russell enjoyed playing croquet and taught the game to many local children.  He also was well known as a caterer for local events.

George Russell married Annie Thompson in 1874.  Annie was a former slave who was born in 1850 and who worked in a hotel in nearby Salem, Ohio.  George and Annie were beloved members of the First Presbyterian Church.  George was the custodian of the old church on Prospect Street for many years.  When he died in 1906, many business offices in Alliance closed in honor of him.

 

Levi Lamborn

2026 | Hall of Fame

Dr. Levi Leslie Lamborn
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Dr. Levi Leslie Lamborn (1827-1910)

Class of 2026 – Founder

Dr. Levi Leslie Lamborn was born Oct. 10, 1827 in Chester County PA, the son of Townsend Lamborn and Ann Clayton Lamborn.  He was the youngest son in a family of 11 children.  Some of the Lamborns came to live in Salem, OH about 1836.  In 1842 young Levi began studying medicine with Dr. Solomon Shreve in Damascus.  After graduating from Western Reserve Medical College in 1848, he began practicing medicine in the village of Mount Union. That same year he married Maria Grant, daughter of Stacy Grant and Jemima Rockhill Grant.  The Lamborns had 7 children:  Lessetta Lydia (1852-1920), LeRoy Leslie (1856-1931), Lindley Lewellen (1858-1882), Lawrence Lee (1866-1866), LoRa Ludington (1867-1955), Lannie Loreston (1869-1915), and Leebert Lloyd (1874-1956).  The Lamborn home was on the NW corner of Main Street and Union Avenue.  During the Civil War, Dr. Lamborn took sick soldiers into his home, converting the north wing into an emergency hospital–possibly the first hospital in Stark County.  After the war, Lamborn retired from medicine and shifted his interest to the economic development of Alliance and the propagation of the carnation flower. 

Dr. Lamborn was a man with many interests and talents.  In 1854 he edited and published the first newspaper in Alliance, the Alliance Ledger.  He wrote and spoke on a variety of subjects.  In the 1860s, he and several associates formed the Teeters, Lamborn & Co. which expanded Alliance by 990 lots, the largest real estate development in Stark County at the time.  The group was responsible for securing the division headquarters for the Alliance & Pennsylvania Railroad in Alliance (1863), and also the relocation of the Marchand & Morgan Steam Hammer Works from Pittsburgh to Alliance (1871).  Lamborn had an ongoing interest in politics, and most famously ran against William McKinley as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, 17th district, in 1876.  Lamborn lost the election, but the carnation flower that he would present to McKinley before their debates became a favorite of the future president, and McKinley considered it a good luck charm.  The Scarlet Carnation, developed by Lamborn, would become Ohio’s state flower in 1904, in memory of the late President McKinley.  In 1959, Alliance was named the “Carnation City,” as home of the state flower.  Dr. Lamborn died in Alliance on June 14, 1910.

 

Mabel Hartzell

2026 | Hall of Fame

Mabel Hartzell
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Mabel Hartzell (1875-1954)

Class of 2026 – Founder

Mabel Hartzell was born in Saginaw, Michigan, January 1, 1875. Mabel moved to Alliance with her family when she was eight, and her mother died when she was nine. Matthew and Mary Earley, who were friends of the Hartzell family, adopted Mabel in 1885 and allowed her to keep the Hartzell name.

Mabel was a remarkable woman, especially for her day. She received a teaching degree in 1898 and a Bachelor of Arts in 1905 from Mount Union College; a Master of Arts from Ohio State University in 1924; and also studied at the University of Washington in Seattle. She was a member of Mount Union’s Alpha Xi Delta Sorority. She taught for 1-1/2 years in Bolton, just north of Alliance, but the bulk of her career in education was in the Alliance City Schools. She taught grade school for five years, and then taught Latin, Physics, and Social Science at Alliance High School for 30 years.

According to some of her former students, Miss Hartzell was a rigorous teacher, but always fair with her students. She also served on the Alliance Board of Education from 1912-1924 and 1951-1954. This service is notable because she was first elected in 1911, before women were granted the general right to vote in 1920. Mabel Hartzell never married or had children, but she lived a full life, dedicating herself to education and to the Alliance community. She willed her beautiful home on North Park Avenue  to the Alliance Historical Society. Mabel Hartzell died in Alliance on December 2, 1954.

Mabel Hartzell’s civic accomplishments:

  • Founder of the Alliance Chapter of the American Red Cross, and a director for 33 years
  • Founder of the Alliance Historical Society
  • Founder and President of the Mount Union College Women’s Association
  • Founder of the Alliance Woman’s Club, as well as its first President
  • President of the Alliance Sorosis Club
  • President of the Alliance Quota Club
  • Member of the Retired Teacher Association
  • President and Board Member of the Alliance YWCA
  • President of the Associated Charities
  • Director of the Alliance Community Chest
  • Director of City Savings and Building Company
  • Life Honorary Member of the Stark County Historical Society
  • State Counsellor (1905) of the Daughters of America
  • Member of the Rebekah Lodge
  • Member of Daughters of Scotland
  • President of the Alliance Women’s Christian Temperance Union
  • President of the Alliance Suffrage Association
  • Officer of the Stark County Suffrage Association
  • Member of the Ever Ready Club