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.
2020 | Historic facts
#5. Alliance Ware Revolutionizes Bathtubs and Sinks
In 1934, Alliance Porcelain Products Company was newly organized by Clarence J. (CJ) Rodman, who purchased 33 of the 35 acres of the Buckeye Jack property, including all the buildings except the original bolt factory building. The basis for this company grew out of Dr. Rodman’s Steel Sanitary Company, a research company that operated between 1927 and 1932 in the malleable foundry building on the property; Steel Sanitary Company did research and development of the first successful steel bathtub in the country. Alliance Porcelain Products would be renamed Alliance Ware in 1944. The original bolt factory building would become the home of the Appliance Manufacturing Company, which would build washing machines until the 1950s.
About 1927, there was an engineering research project involving Alliance Machine Co. and a large plumbing company to bond porcelain on steel bathtubs and sinks. Three companies, including Alliance Ware were exclusively licensed to produce the new bath tubs, but the other 2 companies did not exercise their right, so Alliance Ware became the only active licensee. So Alliance Ware was not the first producer of pressed steel bath tubs, but it was the first producer “to stay in successful operation.” It was a well-designed product, which customers widely accepted. By 1951, Alliance Ware was the fastest growing company in Alliance, with about 450 people employed at the plant.
