2020 | Historic facts
#15. Buckeye Jack Company Produces Jacks for the Growing Auto Industry and Railroads
Buckeye Jack owned by Alliance Historical Society
The Buckeye Jack Company produced jacks for the railroads and the growing auto industry. The initial products of the company were heavy lifting jacks for railroads and industries. As the automobile industry blossomed, Buckeye Jack produced the original supply of jacks for automobiles.
The company was founded in 1904 in Louisville, Ohio, but moved to the Alliance area at the beginning of 1910. Its organizers were from Alliance, including the company’s original president, treasurer, and general manager Ed C. Bates, and associates Frank and Oliver Transue and Frank E. Dussell. Leaving Louisville due to a shortage of labor there, the company relocated to the property of the former Standard Bolt & Manufacturing Company just north of Alliance, in the area known as Bolton. The plant had a large building and was located on Gaskill, adjacent to the Cleveland & Pittsburgh railroad line. A large malleable foundry measuring 120’ x 350’ was added to the property.
Buckeye Jack flourished during WWI, making jacks as well as drill presses and other machinery for the military. After the war, the company’s business declined, and the product lines were not competitive in the industry. President Bates died in 1924 and his two sons Clem and Bernard took over the management of the company. One of the directors of the company was William H. Purcell, founder and president of the Alliance Machine Company. Mr. Purcell asked his son-in-law, Clarence J. Rodman, a respected and educated scientist, researcher, and engineer, to take over the management of the Buckeye Jack Company in 1926. Dr. Rodman revitalized the company’s product line, redesigning and patenting new jacks as well as tools and equipment for other industries. By 1929, Buckeye Jack was once again a profitable company. Unfortunately, after the crash of 1929, the automobile industry declined, and so did Buckeye Jack. Dr. Rodman resigned in 1932, and in 1933, the company was taken over by a group of local bankers who tried to run the business for a year or so before it closed.
2020 | Historic facts
#14. The McCaskey Register Company Revolutionized the Way Shopkeepers Handled the Accounts of Their Customers
McCaskey Register owned by Alliance Historical Society
The McCaskey Register Company manufactured systems for keeping track of cash and credit accounts, revolutionizing the way shopkeepers and businesses handled the accounts of their customers. The company was founded in 1903 by Perry McCaskey, a Lisbon grocer who needed a better way to keep track of his charge accounts. He invented a “one writing” credit register system to solve the problem, and he found financial backing in Alliance to open his business here. The registers utilized custom printed sales books that produced duplicate and triplicate copies. The company bought a brick building and land on Rush Street for its operation. Around 1908, a fire burned up a large stock of wooden registers, which led to the creation of insulated and fireproof metal safe registers.
McCaskey Register Plant 1
Business was so good in 1908 that the company built a new five-story plant at the Rush Street location. At this time majority stock ownership went to three Canton businessmen, but the factory and sales headquarters remained in Alliance. Between 1908 and 1913, the company grew tremendously, opening offices in Canton, Boston, Canada, and England and expanding and refining its product line. Major customers included Eastman Kodak and International Harvester, as well as automobile manufacturers. By 1922, more than 2 million McCaskey credit registers had been sold. At this time the company began making a cash register, the first one being sold to the Alliance Buick Company.
McCaskey Register Plant 2
In 1925, Plant #2 was built at 2435 S. Union Avenue. This plant had general offices and a modern printing plant, leaving the Rush Street plant to manufacture the register systems. In 1926, F. E. Henry, Jr. took over as president and treasurer of the company, having first started at McCaskey in 1908. During the Depression, McCaskey Register customized cash register systems for gasoline service stations, miniature golf courses, Ohio state liquor stores, and physicians. The company converted to war production during WWII, making instruments for warplanes and bomb racks. After the war, production of registers was limited due to materials shortages. In 1950, the company employed 800 people, including 325 in Alliance and 250 traveling salesmen.
In 1953, McCaskey was bought by the Victor Adding Machine Company. There are some machines made that bore the Victor McCaskey name, but eventually the McCaskey name disappeared. The Rush Street plant was later occupied by Alliance Wholesalers; it burned down in 2012. The Union Avenue plant served as Plant #2 of the Alliance Manufacturing Company until sometime in the 1970s; the property has had a few other short-term tenants, but is vacant today.
2020 | Historic facts
#13. Lincoln, Chase, and McKinley
Sourbeck House, ca. 1860
President-Elect Abraham Lincoln made a brief 20 minute stop at the original Sourbeck House located on the north side of the railroad tracks at the Crossing, on February 15, 1861, as he traveled from Illinois to Washington, DC for his inauguration. His remarks were brief and could barely be heard over the sound of a train whistle. He simply stated that he wished to make it to Washington before his inauguration and if he were to give a long speech at each stop along the way, he wouldn’t be able to make it on time.
Chapman and Miller Halls on the Mount Union College campus, ca. 1867
Mount Union College received its charter in 1858 and then became a full member of the Methodist Conference in March 1864. But no dedicatory program had been held to celebrate the founding of the College. President Hartshorn searched for some prominent figure of national stature to be the featured speaker. He singled out the Honorable Salmon P. Chase, ex-Governor of Ohio and the current Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln. Hartshorn was persistent and wouldn’t take no for an answer from Chase. In his opening remarks, Chase retorted, “I replied that I could not attend, and gave him an excuse for not coming, which I thought sufficient to satisfy any reasonable man. But allow me to say the President is not a reasonable man, and would not accept an apology or excuse, and visited me in person … and again pressed me to be present.” The dedicatory services were held in the new college building (Chapman Hall) on December 1, 1864 with Chase bestowing blessings on the educational institution.
Union Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, ca. 1900
Ground was broken for the Union Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church in June 1893. On July 13, 1893, the cornerstone was laid in a grand ceremony led by Bishop Joyce and assisted by then Governor William McKinley, a trustee of Mount Union College. The cornerstone, donated by the Mount Union Class of 1894, consisted of a copper box containing newspapers of the day, the 1893 commencement program, a history of the church, minutes of the Mallalieu League, names of donors and committee members and a Columbian half dollar.
2020 | Historic facts
#12.The Village of Mt. Union
Plat Map of Mt. Union, Ohio, 1833
Jobsville was the first community founded in Washington Township at the intersection of Main Street (now State Street) and Mt. Union Avenue (now Union Avenue). The community requested a post office but the name they wanted, Johnsonville, was already in use. Job Johnson was the first postmaster and general store owner so they selected Jobsville. According to Yost Osborne’s book A Select School, a history of Mount Union College, the name was not to the liking of all the settlers. “During one of the discussions held to determine a suitable name, someone had suggested that the name ‘Mount’ would be very fitting, because surveys showed that this locality was among the highest in the state. This suggestion had been greeted with approval. Then someone else had proposed that since all were agreed, the name should be ‘Mount Union.’ And Mount Union the name became.” The village of Mount Union had over 150 inhabitants by 1845 and became part of the City of Alliance in 1889.
The Village of Mount Union, ca. 1910
2020 | Historic facts
#11.The Great Squirrel Hunt of 1832
Jim Perone sings about The Great Squirrel Hunt of 1832 while Randy Flint poses as a squirrel hunter
The period of 1827-1832 saw a large number of crops devoured by squirrels. To fight back, two great squirrel hunts were organized. In the 1827 hunt, Littlebury Stanley shot 80 squirrels and Clayton Grant shot 75. During the Great Squirrel Hunt of 1832, 1600 squirrels were shot in one day to help the farmers save their corn from being devoured by the hungry rodents. This story was immortalized during our 75th anniversary gala in 2014 by singer-songwriter Jim Perone and Randy Flint with narration by Dick Elliott. A video of the performance is available on our YouTube channel.
2020 | Historic facts
#10. Haines Family Helps Enslaved People Move Along the Underground Railroad
Sarah and Jonathan Ridgeway Haines standing by the Haines House. https://www.alliancememory.org/digital/collection/people/id/2/rec/1
The Haines House served as an Underground Railroad station in Alliance, Ohio beginning around 1853. It’s owners, Jonathan Ridgeway Haines and Sarah Grant Haines were Quaker farmers who were active Abolitionists in an area that Underground Railroad historian Wilbur Seibert characterized as “a hotbed of abolition” in his book, Mysteries of Ohio’s Underground Railroads. For more information on the Haines House and its ties to the Underground Railroad, visit their website at www.haineshouse.org.
2020 | Historic facts
#9. New Guinea Black Colony
Around 1805, a colony of black people was located in Lexington township, one mile east of Williamsport, on the north side of the Mahoning River. This settlement comprised about two hundred people, and was made up chiefly of fugitives and freedmen from Virginia. They were orderly, industrious, and esteemed good citizens. The territory extended over several square miles of irregular contour and was laconically called “New Guinea.”
2020 | Historic facts
#8. Gertrude Kay and Brinton Turkle Delight Children with Their Illustrations
Brinton Turkle creates during an appearance at Rodman Public Library in 1984. https://www.alliancememory.org/digital/collection/p15190coll1/id/73/rec/7
Gertrude Kay produced covers and story illustrations for Ladies’ Home Journal and other magazines from around 1908 through the 1920s. During this time she illustrated children’s books as well, including The Illustrated Alice in Wonderland. Her popularity as an illustrator increased with her foreign travels as she demonstrated her ability to accurately portray family life and, in particular, children. She was also known for her paper dolls.
Brinton Turkle spent much time learning from Gertrude Kay and went on to be a highly regarded illustrator in his own right. His book Thy Friend Obadiah was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1970. He wrote and/or illustrated over 50 books for children.
2020 | Historic facts
#7. Brick Industry “Shapes” Alliance
Workmen removing the finished bricks and putting them on the drying cars at Alliance Clay Products. 1928. https://www.alliancememory.org/digital/collection/places/id/1033/rec/19
Brickmaking began in Alliance during the 1860s with Josiah Rosenberry who took his clay from the ponds that are now on the Glamorgan estate. As early as 1907, James Wilcox’s Alliance Clay Products Company was turning out 18,000 brick a day from a single plant at 1500 South Mahoning Avenue. By 1924, Wilcox had three plants in operation at the same location and was capable of producing 275,000 bricks a day, or about 50,000,000 a year. For about seventy years, the clay products industry was of considerable economic importance to Alliance. Production subsided during the 1950s and 1960s until Alliance Clay Products sold out to Whitacre-Greer. (Condensed from https://www.wgpaver.com/alliance-brick-industry/)
2020 | Historic facts
#6. The Opera House Collapse
The Alliance Opera House was built in 1867-68 at a cost of $75,000. There were doubts to its safety and arrangements were in progress to put it in a secure condition when it was inspected by J. T. Weybrecht the morning of June 2, 1886. He warned all inhabitants to vacate the premises. At approximately 4:30 p.m., the building collapsed. The cause was from defective bricks used for its construction. There was some speculation that vibrations from closely passing railroad trains contributed to the shifting of the bricks. No one was hurt in the collapse. Remnants of the building were still extant until the final demolition in the 1970s after Chuck’s Inn collapsed during renovation.
