Boom & Bust - 1830s & 1840s

Samuel A. Lane

Fifty Years and Over of Akron and Summit County

CHAPTER IV

THE BOOM AND THE COLLAPSE—POETRY VERSUS FACT—SPECULATION RAM­PANT—WONDERFUL ENHANCEMENT OF VALUES, AND STILL MORE WONDER­FUL DECLINE—THE MORUS MULTICAULIS CRAZE—IMMENSE FORTUNES THAT DIDN'T MATERIALIZE—THE PANIC OF 1837—HARD TIMES AS WAS HARD TIMES—THE SHIN–PLASTER ERA—DECIDEDLY A MIXED CURRENCY --THE "TRUCK AND DICKER" SYSTEM, ETC., ETC.

 

A DECIDED BOOM

In a work of this character, it will, of course, be impossible to present a strictly chronological narrative of the events to be treated of; consequently there will sometimes he, for the sake of continuity on the subject under immediate consideration, a reaching forward, and at other times a backward movement, as to the order of occurrences herein recorded. Though the growth of Akron, notwithstanding its antagonisms, had hitherto, from its very inception, been almost phenomenal, in the West, for those early times, the location of the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, com­monly known as the "Cross-cut" canal, from the Ohio River a short distance below Pittsburgh, to this point, gave an impetus to the boom which has scarcely been exceeded in the later gold, silver, oil and gas booms of California, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

While Howard and Market streets were then, as now, the chief business streets in North Akron, the sticking of the stakes in Main street for the new canal, in 1835, caused the real estate upon that street, between Mill and Tallmadge, streets more than quad­ruple in value in a very short time; it being confidently believed that the completion of the canal would immediately create a demand for large warehouses, and other business blocks, along the entire street.

Such was also the .case in South Akron, and lots abutting upon the canal, fronting on Main street, between the present City Building and the Clarendon Hotel, were immediately and eagerly sought after, and contracted for (but not always paid for) at almost fabulous prices, both on speculation and by persons who really designed to improve and occupy them on the completion of the canal; one substantial three-story brick block having actually been built, and the store-room filled with goods, by Mr. Benjamin W. Stephens, on the present site of Merrill's pottery, the south end Of which is part of the original building.

Money, such as it was, was plenty, and credit was seemingly lavished upon all who asked for it; large stocks of goods were ordered, and stores and other business enterprises rapidly increased so that, in the early part of the year 1836, the town was seemingly upon the very apex of the high road to prosperity and wealth.

      A local poet Mr. Milo Fuller, brother of the late well-known "Doctor" Isaiah Fuller voiced the popular enthusiasm and confidence in Akron's future, in the following " jingle," which we find in a local journal of the time:

 

Here, Science reigns and guides the statesman's quill, And Arts develop all their wondrous skill; Here, Virtue sits enthroned in robes divine, With modest Beauty kneeling at her shrine; Here, Pleasure, too, with all her matchless charms,, Invites the youth, and calls them to her arms, And gently whispers to each mirthful son, The banquet's open for your sport and fun; While all things grand and pleasing to the eye. Allure the traveler as he passes by,           , And with glad accents from his weary breast, He hails a home, a refuge and a rest.

Thus has Dame Fortune from her bounteous store, Poured forth her treasures on this happy shore, And every breeze from every sun-lit land, Is wafting blessings with a liberal hand, And all the world with honor deigns to bless,

THE GREAT AND MIGHTY LOWELL OF THE \VEST.

The foregoing doggerel was, as before intimated, a true index of the prognostications, as to both its proximate and ultimate great­ness, indulged in by the average citizen of Akron, in 1835-6. But, alas! How uncertain are human calculations and human prophe­cies. Not only the new and snappy town of Akron, but the entire country was at that period on a high pressure boom; all making haste to get rich, but to be overtaken by the inevitable sequence of over-production, over-trading and excessive speculation — irretriev­able collapse — the now historical panic of 1837.

        So disastrous was the collapse in Akron that only two or three, out of the score or more of the mercantile establishments' of the town, maintained their financial integrity, while real estate sank in value almost out of sight. To such an extent did this deprecia­tion fall, and continue, that, in 1839, the writer leased from Col. Justus Gale the lot on Main street now covered by the handsome new brick blocks of Augustus Warner and E. G. Kubler, and from Mr. Nathan B. Dodge the adjoining lot upon the north, now occu­pied by Paige Brothers' magnificent stone front block, for which $1,000 each had been paid in 1835, for the period of five years, for the payment of the taxes; while hundreds of lots, thus pur­chased at boom prices, either reverted to the original owners or were sold for taxes.

GENERAL MONETARY CRASH.

At that period the most of the banks of the country were chartered under loosely-constructed State laws, the greater por­tion of them being what were properly denominated " Red Dog," or " Wildcat " institutions. When the crash came, all the banks of the country, good, bad and indifferent, immediately suspended specie payment, and gold and silver, which had been in fair supply dur­ing the flush times, at once almost entirely disappeared from circulation. Many of the banks failed out-right, and the large vol­ume of the notes of such banks then in the hands of the people, became entirely worthless. Others maintained a partial standing, their notes for a time being taken by merchants in exchange for merchandise, at discounts ranging from 10 to 90 per cent.

This condition of things continued for several years, THE BEACON of June 15th, 1842, giving quotations of discounts as follows: Mechanics' and Traders' bank of Cincinnati, 10; Marietta, 10; Chillicothe, 20; Franklin bank of Columbus, 20; Lancaster, 20; Com­mercial Bank of Lake Erie, 40; Farmers' Bank of Canton, 50; Hamilton, 60; Cleveland, 70; Steubenville, 75; Urbana, 75; Gran­ville, 80; Ohio Railroad, 85. As indicative of the dire financial distress of the entire country, particularly Akron and Summit County, at that period, THE BEACON of November 2, 1842, contains five full pages of delinquent taxes, while wheat is quoted at 50 cents per bushel, and a year or so later a single number of THE BEACON advertises 54 sheriff sales.

A few of the old banks of the country, though suspending spe­cie payment, maintained their financial standing, among which, in this vicinity, were the old Western Reserve, at Warren; Banks of Geauga, Massillon, Wooster, Norwalk, Sandusky, etc., (Akron having no bank at that time). The notes of these banks were readily taken at par in all commercial transactions, though being extremely conservative as to discounts, their limited issues were entirely inadequate to meet the wants of the people in their abso­lutely necessary business transactions.

Then came into existence, all over the country, a class of local "shinplaster" factories, from which small notes for circulation were issued, payable, not in specie, but in current bank notes, the most of these institutions purporting to be based upon real estate securities. Of this class, now readily recalled to mind by the wri­ter, were the "Kirtland Safety Fund Bank," under the auspices of the original Mormon prophet, Joe Smith; "The Orphan's Institute,", at Canal Fulton; "The Cuyahoga Falls Real Estate Association;

"The Medina Land Company;" "The Munroe Falls Manufacturing Company;" "The Franklin Silk Company," etc.

THE MORUS MULTICAULIS CRAZE.

This latter institution was based upon the silk culture craze that then prevailed in many sections of the country, with which the people of Munroe Falls, Franklin Mills (now Kent), and other

places in this vicinity were severely smitten--village lots, as well as farm lands, being held and sold at fabulous prices. Immense cocooneries were built, and, everybody having land went into the raising of the morus multicaulis variety of the mulberry tree, on which to feed the silk worms.

A wealthy farmer by the name of Barber Clark, a short dis­tance east of the village of Franklin Mills, made arrangements to devote his entire farm to the business, and among other like transactions, contracted with Joy H. Pendleton, Esq., now of the Second National Bank of this city, then residing there, for all the young trees of a single year's growth, that he could raise for three years, at 25 cents each for the first year, 15 cents for the 'second year and 10 cents for the third year. As they could readily be grown from slips, or cuttings, it will be seen that Pendleton had a mighty good thing of it, (in his eye). The first year the plant was comparatively small, but the second year he was on hand with some $3000 worth, and by the third year he would have realized, under his contract, about $50,000. But, alas! for human calcula­tions and, alack! for Pendleton and Clark. The bottom suddenly fell out of the silk business; Clark was irretrievably bankrupted and Pendleton not only did not realize his $50,000, but absolutely lost, from Clark's failure, about $2000 of the $3000 already earned, and, considering the outlay he had made, was probably consider­ably out of pocket by the operation.

In the general dearth of real money, the bills of these local institutions circulated more or less freely, in the traffic of the vicinity where they were issued, and to a limited extent in more remote localities. Being redeemable in sums of not less than five dollars, holders of lesser sums at length found it difficult to get rid of them, giving rise to a brood of street brokers, who would buy them up at a discount, paying for them, perhaps, in the equally worthless notes of the "Bank of Pontiac," or "River Raisin," of Michigan, or similar red-dog "currency."

When these speculators began to pass in their accumulations for redemption, the shinplaster fabricators were found to be decid­edly short of "current bank notes" wherewith to redeem their promises to pay,  and speedily fell into disrepute and eventual failure. The Franklin Silk Company was an exception to this rule; the late Zenas Kent, father of the Hon. Marvin Kent, then a substantial merchant in Ravenna, being a large stockholder in the company in question, rendered the value of its notes certain and their redemption sure.

Owing to the scarcity of coin, merchants, hotel-keepers and other business men, issued considerable amounts of a species of private "fractional currency," payable on demand in their own wares, or in current bank bills, when presented in sums of one dollar or its multiple. These however, unlike the majority of the class above named, were pretty generally redeemed, in one or the other of the modes indicated upon their face.

In fact, so uncertain was every species of "currency," that People at length became distrustful of even the very best, and preferred to exchange such commodities as they raised, or manu­factured, for such fabrics or produce as they themselves needed; and even if a man got hold of a dollar or two in "currency," he would hasten to get it off his hands the same day, lest he should wake up the next morning to find that the bank had failed during the night. Hence, the inauguration of the "truck and dicker system that will he so vividly remembered by the older portion of my readers, and which was operated something as follows:

Country produce was bought by all our merchants, and invar­iably paid for in goods, or credited on running accounts, farmers, in turn, paying their help, farm hands and mechanics, whom they employed or dealt with, in their own products, or in orders upon the stores. There were a number of woolen factories then running in the town and vicinity, and "sheep's gray" cloth, was almost a "legal tender" in the transaction of nearly every kind of business, while the goods and wares of the numerous stove founders of the town, were of almost equal potency as factors of trade and com­merce.

How was it done? Something like this: A carriage maker, for instance, would sell a wagon or buggy to the factory or foundry man, and agree to take his pay in cloth or castings. Then he would trade off his cloth or his castings for lumber, wood, coal, horses, hay, oats, beef, pork, potatoes, apples, butter, cheese, poultry, eggs, etc., or perhaps sell a roll of cloth at a discount to a merchant to be paid for in goods. Then, in turn, lie would pay his hands in sheep's- gray, farm produce, orders on stores, furniture dealers, tailors, shoemakers, butchers, etc. In payment for his new wagon or carriage, the farmer would turn in ten or a dozen fat steers, which the wagon maker would pass over to the butcher to be paid for in daily steaks and roasts for the family of the wagon maker and his hands.

And this system of exchange entered into all the ramifications of business, agricultural, manufacturing, mechanical and com­mercial, and to a great extent into real estate transactions; the writer once taking in part payment for a house and lot on Howard street, 40 brass clocks, which in turn, were traded off to the lumber dealers, the stone mason, the carpenter, the brick mason and the plasterers, for the erection of another house on the lot next north of the new Baptist Church on South Broadway.

Individuals and firms doing thousands of dollars worth of busi­ness per year, would thus sometimes go weeks at a time without handling scarcely a dollar in money. During a good portion of the time covered by this financial and commercial depression, the wri­ter was engaged in the publication of a small paper in the interest of which he personally canvassed the most of the towns and villages of Northern Ohio, and in about the proportion of nine to one, pay­ments for subscription and advertising were made in trade, woolen cloths, calicoes, sheetings, shirtings, furnishing goods, boots, shoes, tinware, saddlery, etc., which in turn were traded for paper, wood, coal, farm produce, etc., for the use of his own and his printers' families. This state of affairs was, in many respects, a very whole­some experience and discipline for both the business man and the farmer, mechanic and laborer of the day, inasmuch as the con­stant figuring and ingenuity required to transmute such commodi­ties as he could get for his own labor or products, but for which he had no use, into such articles as he really did need, had a tendency to sharpen both his intellectual and his business faculties, while at the same time it inculcated habits of the strictest industry and the most rigid economy of both individuals and families.

Of course, merchants had to have some money to make their purchases in the East, though these were largely made with wool and other produce taken from the farmer in exchange for goods. Mechanics would also need to have a little money, to buy their iron, steel, paints, etc., and in making their contracts would have to stipulate accordingly, a liberal amount of good Eastern money finding its way into circulation here, during the Summer, in the purchase of wheat, wool, etc. There being no railroads in those days, transportation of every description from the East to the West, and front the West to the East, was entirely suspended for nearly one-half of the year; the writer, on getting married and going to housekeeping in November 1838, being obliged to hire beds and bedding to use through the Winter, until the provident young lady, who had consented to unite her destiny with his, could get her own liberal collection of such articles, from her former home in the State of New York, on the opening of navigation in the Spring.

 

IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.

And dire, indeed, was the condition of the poor wight who was so unfortunate as to be indebted to a heartless creditor; and the town and county was then, as now, perhaps, cursed with a class of Shy-locks, who not only stood ready to prey upon the necessities of their fellows, but to invariably insist upon the "pound of flesh," if the victim found himself unable to meet the fullest requirements of his bond, or of the inhuman and oppressive laws then in Vogue. There was then no exemption of real estate from execution, and but about $20 worth of personal property, such as furniture, per­sonal clothing, etc. In one instance in the South Village, in Decem­ber, 1838, and which created the most intense excitement in the community, as well as severe newspaper comment, in collecting a small store account from a hard-working mechanic, the creditor caused the Sheriff to levy upon everything he could find in and about the house—furniture, meat, flour, potatoes, beans, apples, etc., and even the cradle of a sick infant and the washtub which con­tained its soiled linen, the family books, the ax from the scanty wood pile, etc., and when, in setting off the exemptions, the wife of the debtor wanted them to include a portion of the provisions, the creditor objected, because the law exempted clothing and furniture only.

The law then sanctioned imprisonment for debt, and if the creditor chose to do so, by paying a dollar or two a week for board, to the Sheriff, he could cast his debtor into jail for an indefinite period, unless lie could prevail upon sonic friend to sign a bond admitting him to the limits of the county, in which case, if he but stepped over the county line for a single moment, the bondsman would become liable for the entire debt. Under this barbarous law, Mr. Charles W. Howard, one of Akron's pioneer manufacturers and merchants, and for whom our well-known and well-used How­ard street was named, was, in 1837, incarcerated in the jail of Portage County for nearly a year, at the instance of the local attorneys of the well-remembered New York dry goods firm of Tappan, Edwards & Co., the senior member of which firm-Arthur 'Tappan-was the best know philanthropist and promoter of the Antislavery cause, and other humanitarian' and benevolent enter­prises, of half a century ago. Of course, in the extensive operations of the firm, Mr. Tappan had no personal knowledge of this particu­lar transaction, but, on the contrary, it was said that on his attention being called to the matter, through certain strictures in the little paper, devoted to the righting of similar wrongs, which the writer was then publishing (the " BUZZARD " ) Mr. Howard's dis­charge was at once ordered. Be this as it may, Mr. H. was released from custody, either by such order, or by the repeal of the law in question, in March 1838. Mr. Howard's case was, by no means, the only case, in which citizens of early Akron and contiguous villages, suffered imprisonment for debt, though in most of the cases so long a confinement, or perhaps any actual incarceration, was obvi­ated by furnishing the required bond, giving them the range of the county-thus, of course, affording them the privilege of being with their families and of pursuing their customary vocations.

It will thus be seen-and those of my contemporaries who have lived through them all, will bear me out in the assertion—that the "hard times" resulting from the panics of 1873 to 1877, and from 1883 to 1887, were unalloyed prosperity, compared with the disas­trous nine years' panic and financial and commercial depression, from 1837 to 1846.

As may readily be imagined, during that dark period in its history, Akron made but comparatively slow progress; though even then, it pluckily more than held its own with its sister towns in Ohio, and of the West generally.

 

 

Lane, Samuel A. Fifty Years and Over, The History of Summit County. Beacon
     Job Department, 1892. p64-70.