News

Posted on

Mary Orr Barber, 1876-1946

Mary Orr Barber, second wife of Ohio Columbus Barber, the match king of Akron, made her own contributions to the city and the surrounding area by her involvement in business, civic organizations and politics.

Little is known of Mary Orr’s early education. In 1903, O.C. Barber, owner of the Diamond Match Co., hired 26-year-old Mary Orr as his private secretary in charge of the Akron, Ohio, office. On Dec. 2, 1915, the two were married – much to the surprise of family and friends. He was 74 and she was 41. Daughter Anna Barber Bevan is said not to have appreciated the marriage – or her step mother’s age, 10 years younger than she was. By all accounts, however, the marriage worked out well; the new bride knew every phase of the Barber business dealings and a prenuptial contract (Orr insisted on it) assured the new bride of future financial security, $25,000 a year for life. In any case, after the wedding, Barber took her place in Akron and Barberton society.

She was a member of the Portage Country Club and the Akron Garden Club. She was especially involved in the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), serving as chair of the newly organized committee for young business girls and as a member of the board of directors when the association was planning and building its new headquarters on South High Street in Akron.

But it was really after her husband’s death in 1920 that Mary Orr Barber came into her own in fairly non-traditional ways. She moved to the Applebrook Farm, a large fruit farm/estate in Ghent. She needed to know the newest farming techniques so she went to Cornell University to find out how to grow and sell apples successfully. She also got involved with the Grange. By the late 1930s, Barber was diversifying her farm’s production. Although fruit remained the primary business, she also began manufacturing sausage at the farm.

In 1932, she ran unsuccessfully on an anti-prohibition platform for the state legislature.

Throughout the 1930s, she remained active in civic organizations, serving on the board of Children’s Hospital, and continued her affiliation with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron.

Barber died on her Applebrook farm in December 1946. She had been ill for a year. Barber is buried at Glendale Cemetery in Akron.

Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.


–Kathleen L. Endres

Posted on

Della G. Ball, 1878-1962

Della G. Ball was part of a generation of Akron-area Catholic women who helped build that religion’s community and welfare organizations in the city.

She was involved in the National Council of Catholic Women from its beginnings in 1923. She attended its first meeting and then eventually went on to serve as its president. She also belonged to the Ladies’ Catholic Benevolent Association, Our Lady of Peace Study Club and the St. Sebastian Sanctuary Society. In addition, she was also the first grand regent of the Akron Catholic Daughters.

Besides being a member of these organizations, Ball pioneered several other Catholic organizations. She was the founder and president of the Maryknoll Guild and she was a charter member of the Legion of Mary of St. Sebastian.

Ball’s community involvement included being a member of the Historical Society, the Women’s City Club and the Loyal Club. She was also the first president of the East Akron Women’s Club.

Ball was married to Harry B., who was a clerk at the Goodyear Company. They resided at 378 East Buchtel Ave., where Ball lived until she became ill in 1961. At that time she moved to 1845 Tanglewood Dr. to live with her niece, Melvina Becker. Ball died in 1962, at the age of 84, in St. Thomas Hospital after being ill for six months.

Photo courtesy of The University of Akron Archives.

–Janelle Baltputnis

Posted on

Marie Reid Laub Babcox, died 1962

Mrs. Marie Reid Laub Babcox was one of the more influential leaders of the local Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).

She was a lifetime member of the YWCA and she served as president of the Akron YWCA board of directors from 1933-1936. Babcox’s interests extended beyond just the local level though. She was a member of the hospitality committee at Chautauqua, which was a department of the national YWCA board. Her other involvement with national organizations included the World Service Council and the National Interpretation and Support Committee.

Outside of her YWCA work, Babcox was well-known for her leadership in the Woman’s City Club, the Altrusa College Club, the Akron Council of Church Women and the Flora Stone Mather Alumnae. She also served as third vice president of the Young Women’s Christian Association from 1926-1927 and she participated in the Tuesday Musical Club as a director and a singer. She attended the First Congregational Church.

Described in the Akron Beacon Journal as a “widely known clubwoman and social leader,” Babcox was born in Cleveland but moved to Akron in 1914. She married Edward S. Babcox, who was president of Babcox Publications, a company that puts out a number of specialized business magazines. They had four children: Reid, Tom B., Edward S. Jr. and Anne. The Babcoxs resided at 666 North Portage Path.

Babcox died in 1962 in Winter Park, Fla., of a heart aliment that she suffered from for many years. When she died, she left behind her husband, her children and 18 grandchildren. She was cremated in Winter Park.

–Janelle Baltputnis

Posted on

Hallie E. Andrews, 1869-1962

Mrs. Hallie E. Andrews was one of the founding members of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).

In 1901, Andrews was a Sunday school teacher at Grace Reformed Church, as well as president of the Missionary Society there. At that time, she met with several women at Mrs. D.P. Wheeler’s home to start the YWCA in Akron. She was one of the original 18 members of the board of directors. In addition, Andrews held the position of secretary within the organization from 1901-1907, the position of treasurer from 1921-1934, and she served as a lunchroom chairman.

On the YWCA’s 50th anniversary, Andrews was named an honorary lifetime member of the board. She was the first person to ever receive that distinction. She was also honored with the position of honorary president of the Heidelburg Class at Grace United Church of Christ. Andrews was a member of the Akron and Summit County Federation of Women’s Clubs as well.

Andrews was an Akron native and lived there her whole life. She was married to Benjamin F. Andrews, who was the vice president and treasurer of MT Cutter & Co. They resided at 278 West North St. Andrews, who was widowed later in her life, died in 1962 in Maple Crest Nursing Home in Uniontown, Ohio, at the age of 93, after suffering from an illness for 19 months.

Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.

–Janelle Baltputnis

Posted on

Frances C. Allen, 1849-1946

Frances C. Allen, first woman elected to the Akron Board of Education, is credited with helping her husband develop the oats cooking process used in the development of breakfast cereal.

Born in Barghill, Ohio, on April 14, 1849, Allen attended Hiram College (Ohio) and taught school in New Castle, Pa., before moving to Akron. She also taught at the old Perkins School in Akron.

She married Miner Jesse Allen in Akron in 1876. He was a partner in Cummings and Allen Flour which, through mergers, became part of Quaker Oats. The Allens developed in their family kitchen the oats cooking process used in the development of breakfast cereals.

Frances Allen was also in the missionary activities of her church, High Street Church of Christ. She was one of the founders and first secretary of the missionary society. In addition, she was a member of the Ohio Christian Women’s Missionary Association.

Allen made local history when she and Mrs. O.L. Sadler, a local suffragist, ran successfully for the Akron Board of Education in 1896. In 1894, the Ohio legislature gave women the right to vote in school board elections. At the same time, women became eligible to hold a seat on the school board. Both Allen and Sadler won in 1896. Both women served their full two-year term. Sadler refused to run again; Allen was nominated but failed to win reelection. Twenty years would pass before the next woman would take a seat on Akron’s school board.

After her husband died in 1915, Allen moved to Cleveland. She helped to establish the Cleveland Heights Christian Church and helped to financially underwrite both its building and maintenance. She also provided funds for educational work in India and the Philippines.

Allen died in 1946. She is buried in Akron.

–Kathleen L. Endres

Posted on

Adeline Myers Coburn, died 1887

Adeline Myers Coburn began her long involvement in community activism during the Civil War. After the war, she dedicated her life to the cause of temperance.

Born in New York, Adeline Myers married Stephen H. Coburn, a physician, in 1839. The couple moved to Akron in 1848.

Adeline Coburn’s name first surfaces in Akron newspapers in 1861 when she was named one of the directors of the newly organized Soldiers Aid Society in the city. By 1862, she was elected vice president of the organization and in 1863 she was listed as president. The Akron Soldiers Aid Society was affiliated with the Cleveland Sanitary Commission. During the Civil War, the Akron women knitted mittens and socks for the soldiers. The Akron society contributed literally thousands of dollars worth of food and clothing to the war effort. The women packed food and other goods for the Army in a small room above a store on South Howard Street. The food and goods were shipped to the central organization located in Cleveland and then onto the hospitals that cared for the wounded soldiers. In addition, the organization raised much money by holding “dime parties,” socials and dinners. Every month, the Beacon reported the happenings in the Soldiers Aid Society and invariably the name “Mrs. Dr. Coburn” was listed as a donor.

She also led Akron women in opposing imported goods by organizing and served as president of the Akron Auxiliary of the Ladies National Covenant during the Civil War. In 1865, she helped collect clothes for Freedmen.

By 1874 she was heavily involved with the temperance cause. Indeed, her involvement predates the organization of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) itself. In March 1874, Coburn signed the call for a temperance rally at the First Methodist Church. It was the rally that kicked off Akron’s famous Temperance Crusade of 1874, where women went to the saloons of the city and prayed outside for the end of the liquor trade. By the end of the year, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was organized in Cleveland.

In 1874, Coburn was elected treasurer of the Summit County Temperance Convention; in 1877, she was Akron’s delegate to the Ohio WCTU; in 1883, she was president of the Akron WCTU.

Although temperance clearly was the focus of her post-Civil War energies, Coburn also became involved with the Dorcas Society, serving as a work director in 1875, and the Ladies Rural Cemetery Association.

When Coburn died in 1887, she left one daughter Mrs. Jacob A. Kohler.

–Janelle Baltputnis

Posted on

Elizabeth Davidson Buchtel, 1821-1891

Buchtel is a well known name throughout the Akron community. There’s Buchtel Hall, Buchtel College, Buchtel Avenue, Buchtel High School. That acclaim is due, in no small part, to the generous service of Elizabeth Davidson Buchtel.

Elizabeth Davidson was born in Union County, Pa., in 1821. She married John Richards Buchtel in 1844. The marriage represented a union of temperaments and a commitment to social improvement.

It is difficult to trace Buchtel’s involvement in antebellum reform groups. By the Civil War, however, she was involved with the Akron Soldiers Aid Society. She never held a position in the association, but in 1864 she volunteered for the small committee that solicited donations of machinery, manufactures and mechanical products for Cleveland’s giant Sanitary Fair. The appointment was an ideal one. Her husband, who raised enlistments and bounty money during the Civil War, was also the agent of the Canton Buckeye Reaper and Mower Works.

After the Civil War, she and her husband dedicated much time and energy to the founding of a new college in the city. The Buchtels, both members of the Universalist Church, lobbied to get the proposed Universalist College for the city and then donated much time and money to the enterprise. In the end, the new college (now The University of Akron) was named after John Buchtel.

After the Civil War, the Buchtel name was synonymous with temperance. In 1874, John Buchtel ran for secretary of state on the Prohibition ticket. That same year, Elizabeth Buchtel signed the call for a temperance meeting at the First Methodist Church. That meeting led to the now famous Temperance Crusade of 1874 where Akron women visited saloons and prayed in the streets in an attempt to close down the liquor traffic in the city.

At the age of 59, Elizabeth Buchtel was paralyzed. She died in Akron in 1891.

Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.

Posted on

Cornelia Wadsworth Beebe, 1819-1884

Akron never had its own Sanitary Fair but the city still had a role to play in Cleveland’s tremendously successful fair in 1864. A small band of Akron women, including Cornelia Wadsworth Beebe, helped make that success possible.

Born in Edinburg (Portage County, Ohio), Cornelia E. Wadsworth married Joseph Alvin Beebe from Connecticut. Her husband opened the Akron Book Store in 1838 but made his money with the Allen Mill and the Summit Beacon newspaper.

Besides her involvement with the Sanitary Fair, Beebe often donated food and supplies to the Akron’s Soldiers Aid Society for use in the hospitals that cared for the sick and wounded soldiers during the Civil War. However, Beebe never held a position with the aid society.

Her legacy as a woman of service lived on as her daughter Helen became secretary and treasurer of the city’s Soldiers Aid Society.

Posted on

Eliza Smith Barber, 1817-1899

Eliza Barber, a hardworking and dedicated mother of nine, was a director of the Middlebury Soldiers Aid Society during the Civil War. Middlebury became the sixth ward of the city of Akron.

Barber was the wife of George, a peddler-cooper-inventor who settled in Middlebury in 1828. Before the war, the Barber family was already involved in the hand manufacture of matches. The Barber Match Company truly was a family enterprise, with sons selling matches door to door.

The Barber family sent one son off to fight in the Civil War. George H. Barber died of dysentery. Back in Middlebury, his mother worked hard with the Soldiers Aid Society so others would not face a similar plight. The Middlebury Soldiers Aid Society, always smaller than its Akron counterpart, sent food and supplies through the Cleveland Sanitary Commission that, in turn, shipped them on to the field hospitals that needed the goods. Barber and the other women of the Middlebury Soldiers Aid Society knitted warm winter clothes for soldiers and collected food and bandages to hospitals that aided sick and wounded soldiers. The women also raised money by hosting “dime socials” and dinners.

After the Civil War, she watched her surviving children become leaders in the Barber Match Company. She saw the service she began in her community and church – First Presbyterian Church — flourish.

–Angela Abel

Posted on

Roxana Jones Howe, 1805-1875

After beginning her career as a teacher in Bath Township, Roxana Howe began a second career in community leadership in Akron following her marriage. Born in Bristol, N.Y. in 1805, Roxana King Jones married Richard Howe in 1827 in Bath, Ohio. The couple had six children.

It’s difficult to track Howe’s antebellum community activism. The Beacon lists her as being on the Ladies Committee for the 1852 Fireman’s Festival. Her involvement during the Civil War is more clearly documented. In 1861, she was a director of Akron’s Soldiers Aid Society and served for a time as vice president of the group. She also contributed money, food and goods to the organization during the Civil War. The Akron Soldiers Aid Society was affiliated with Cleveland’s Sanitary Commission and contributed literally thousands of dollars worth of food and clothing . Soldiers Aid Society members spent evenings knitting mittens and socks for soldiers. They also packed food and other goods for the Army in a small room above a store on South Howard Street. The food and goods were shipped to Cleveland’s Sanitary Commission and then onto the hospitals that cared for the wounded soldiers. In addition, the organization raised much money by holding “dime parties,” socials and dinners.

Throughout her life, Howe attended and worked at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Akron. She also utilized her experience as an educator to teach Sunday school at the church. Howe was memorialized with a window in the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Akron.

Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.