2020 | Historic facts
#16. Curvis Rhyne
Curvis F. Rhyne – photo from Canton Repository column “Stark’s Famous,” Feb. 27, 2016
Curvis Rhyne (1922-2007) served as a city councilman in Alliance for 48 consecutive years, being first elected in 1951. Curvis was born and raised in Georgia and then moved to the Alliance area in 1942. He attended Akron University Law School for six years and then studied political science coursework at Mount Union College. He was a dedicated community leader, and a tribute written by Gayle Agnew in 2007 notes that he credited Mabel Hartzell for getting him involved in community activities. Curvis Rhyne has sometimes been called the first African-American elected to serve Alliance as a city councilman, but while he is not the first, he is undeniably the most well-known. (As for the first, a gentleman by the name of William David Jackson was elected in 1932 and served a single term.)
Curvis was best known for his smile, his strong voice, colorful suits, and always had a handshake for the men and a kiss for the ladies. In 2016, Alliance City Council unanimously passed Resolution 37-16, which dedicated the road in Maple Beach Park as Curvis F. Rhyne Way, and the newly constructed pavilion in the park as the Curvis F. Rhyne Pavilion.
His obituary included a lengthy list of clubs, honors, and awards and concluded with this: “Through the years Curvis traveled many places and touched a lot of lives. By his humanitarian ideals and strong moral convictions, love for his fellow man, and many contributions to society warrants him the honor of being called “a legend in his own time.”
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
#4. Red Cross Canteen Serves Troops Passing Through Town
The Alliance chapter of the Red Cross established a Canteen Committee to provide meals for the troops during World War I and again during World War II. In November 1918, a room at the Pennsylvania Depot was secured for the operation.
2020 | Historic facts
#3. Morgan Engineering Invents the Traveling Overhead Crane
During the lifetime of Thomas R. Morgan, Sr., many notable milestones in the history of the company occurred, among them, the first Overhead Travelling Crane ever built in the United States in 1878; the first Electric Overhead Travelling Crane built in the world, 1881; the first Electric Overhead Cranes ever installed in a steel mill, thirteen 10-ton capacity cranes for the Homestead Steel Works 1893; a 25-ton double trolley overhead crane exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, for which the Morgan Engineering Company was awarded a special Diploma of Achievement. Also during this period the long association between the company and the United States Ordnance Department was begun, the most noteworthy achievement being the construction of the Gordon 10 in. Disappearing Gun Carriage in 1894. This immense gun mount designed for coast defense weighed more than three hundred tons, and at the time was the largest gun mount ever built in the United States. During the Spanish-American War, many additional gun carriages were built, and a company of Pennsylvania National Guard was assigned by the War Department to guard the plant.
2020 | Historic facts
#2. Taylorcraft Supports the WWII Effort with Planes for England
O-57 in production at the Taylorcraft hangar. The airplanes would be used by the Army Air Corps as a liaison airplane with ground forces. The “O” was the Army’s term for “observation type”. An order for 21 of the model DC-65 Tandem airplanes was received in November 1941 which forced the factory into round-the-clock production. They were identifiable by their olive drab paint and the blue circle with white star and red dot in the center of the star. During World War II, women were called into action as factory workers taking on roles traditionally held only by men. Taylorcraft created a welding school to meet their added demands for aircraft for the war effort. More than a dozen women at a time could be trained.
