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.