146 



CITIES, AMERICAN. (AKRON, ALPENA.) 



grades to a height of 50 to 75 feet, spreading out 

 into level plateaus, where the fine residence por- 

 tion is being built. The Northern Pacific Rail- 

 road has division headquarters within the corpo- 

 rate limits, owning 22 sections of land. In 1890 

 the road was operating within 10 miles of the 

 city, and there are regular lines of steamers to 

 Portland and San Francisco. A steam ferry 

 plies between the portions of the city separated 

 by Chehalis river, and two bridges will shprtly 

 be erected across the Wishkah. Bonds have 

 been deposited for an electric road to connect 

 with Hoquiam, to cost $100,000. Six years ago 

 the city was a mere mill site. By the census of 

 1890 it had a population of 1,638. Increase is 

 shown by the post-office receipts, which for the 

 quarter ending Jan. 1, 1890, were $450.96, and 

 for that ending Jan. 1, 1891, $908. The sum 

 of $50,000 was expended by the city during the 

 last six months of the year on street improve- 

 ments. Water works are being erected, at a 

 cost of $75,000, the supply being obtained from 

 springs within half a mile of the city limits by 

 the Holly principle of direct pressure. For pro- 

 tection against fire, water is pumped from the 

 harbor by stationary engines running night and 

 day, and" there is a volunteer fire department of 

 84 members. Electric lights are in use. The 

 enrollment in the 2 graded public schools, Oct. 

 80, 1891, was 272 ; a new central school building 

 is to be erected, to cost $25,000, and there is a 

 Catholic school. The Catholics also have a hos- 

 pital. There are five churches. The monthly 

 pay-roll of manufactures aggregates $35,000, the 

 city having the only foundry on the harbor. 

 From the ship-yard a large three-masted schooner 

 was launched in September, 1890. Four saw mills 

 have a combined daily capacity of 300,000 feet, 

 the shipment abroad of lumber for 1890 being 

 33,000,000 feet, and the amount consumed at 

 home 9,000,000. Three sash, door, and blind 

 factories, 2 planing mills, 1 shingle mill, a cigar 

 factory, and an ice factory are. in operation ; 

 and the yearly pack of 3 salmon canneries is 

 41,000 cases, valued at $73,000. There are 2 

 banks (1 national, with an aggregate capital of 

 $550,000), and a building and loan association 

 has been organized. A weekly and a semi-week- 

 ly newspaper are published. 



Akron, a city of Ohio, county seat of Summit 

 County, in the northern part of the State, at the 

 junction of the Ohio and Erie and Pennsylvania 

 and Ohio Canals, 40 miles from Cleveland and 

 246 from Cincinnati. It is 400 feet above the 

 level of Lake Erie, and is the highest point of 

 the Ohio and Erie Canal. The railroads are the 

 New York, Lake Erie and Western, the Cleve- 

 land, Akron and Columbus Valley, the Pitts- 

 burgh and Western, and the Valley. The sur- 

 rounding country is fertile, arid wheat is export- 

 ed, together with mineral fire-proof paint from 

 deposits in the vicinity of the city. A milling 

 plant established at Akron in 1852 operated the 

 first oatmeal mill in America, in 1856, with ca- 

 pacity of 20 barrels a day. In 1890 the total 

 product of 5 mills owned by it was 2,500 bar- 

 rels daily. A capital of $10,000,000 is invested 

 in 300 manufactories, watb-r power being sup- 

 plied (in addition to steam) from the Canal and 

 Little Cuyahoga river. These include the largest 

 match factory in the world, producing one fifth 



of all the matches made in the United States, 

 using annually 3,000,000 feet of pine lumber, 70 

 tons of brimstone, 17,000 pounds of phosphorus, 

 35,000 pounds of chlorate of potash, 30,000 

 pounds of glue, and 50,000 pounds of paraffine 

 wax. Six sewer-pipe factories are supplied from 

 inexhaustible beds of clay, long one of the chief 

 contributions to the wealth of the city, which is 

 vitrified, and thus rendered impervious to acid, 

 steam, or gas. There are also 9 stone- ware works, 

 7 planing mills, 5 foundries, 2 galvanized-iron 

 works, 6 brick and 2 fire-brick works, 4 boiler 

 works, 3 breweries, 2 box, 3 soap, 1 chain, 1 

 church furniture, and 2 barrel factories, 2 of the 

 largest agricultural-implement works in the Unit- 

 ed States (employing upward of 1,000 men), 2 

 harness-specialty factories, 4 stone quarries, 2 

 marble works, polishing and plating works, fac- 

 tories of hard-rubber goods, woolen, leather belt- 

 ing, wagon-gear, paper-sack, and other factories 

 turning out machine knives, twine and cordage, 

 flour sacks, gymnasium supplies, stoves, files, 

 canal boats, etc. Akron was founded in 1825, 

 and became the county seat in 1841. The popu- 

 lation in 1870 was 10,006; in 1880, 16,512; and 

 in 1890, 27,601. The assessed valuation is near 

 $15,000,000 and the tax rate in 1889 was 27'4. 

 The debt in March, 1891. was $111,281.83. There 

 are 12 miles of street railway (electric, Sprague 

 overhead system), costing $300,000. Water is 

 supplied from springs. The churches number 

 23, and there are a Masonic temple, and 14 other 

 halls, in addition to 2 armories. Five banks, 3 

 of which are national, have a total capital of 

 $575,000, and a surplus of $102,000; 2 savings 

 institutions have a capital of $150,000, and 1 

 savings and loan association has a capital of 

 $100,000. One daily paper is published, 2 tri- 

 weeklies. 4 weeklies (1 in German. 1 semi-month- 

 ly, by the students of Buchtel College), and 2 

 monthlies. There are 11 public schools, includ- 

 ing the high school, and 99 teachers are em- 

 ployed. The enrollment in the public schools in 

 1887-'88 was 4,654, and in the private and pa- 

 rochial schools 957. Of the last class, 3 are Cath- 

 olic, 1 German Lutheran, and 1 Hebrew. Two 

 business colleges and a school of design are flour- 

 ishing; Buchtel College (Universalist), opened 

 in 1873, has 14 professors and instructors. The 

 streets are well laid, and the principal ones 

 paved. There are free public libraries, 8 parks, 

 and 2 theatres. The Ohio Canal was begun July 

 4, 1825, and the first boat for it was built on the 

 lower basin near Lock One, at Akron. 



Alpena, a city of Michigan, county seat of 

 Alpena County, 120 miles from Bay City and 

 250 from Detroit, by water, in the northeastern 

 part of the State, on Thunder Bay, which is an 

 inlet of Lake Huron, 10 miles wide at its mouth, 

 and affords one of the safest harbors on the 

 great lakes. There are 3 lines of passenger 

 steamers. The city is the terminus of the Detroit, 

 Bay City and Alpena Railroad, and has notable 

 manufacturing interests, chief among which 

 are 14 saw mills, which in 1889 exported 219,- 

 915,000 feet of lumber, 53,936,000 laths, 36,610,- 

 000 shingles, 242,570 railroad ties, 145,000 cedar 

 posts, and 1,000 telegraph poles. There are also 

 2 large engine and machine works, one of the 

 largest sulphite fiber pulp mills in the United 

 States (employing 75 hands), 5 shingle and 4 



