A Brief History of Akron Ohio

Akron was founded in 1825 by Paul Williams, one of the area's first settlers, and General Simon Perkins, an Ohio Canal Fund commissioner. They saw potential for a city at the highest point along the canal route. This position gave the city its name, derived from akros, a Greek word for "high place." The city's industrial growth began in 1827 with the opening of the first section of the Ohio and Erie Canal, linking Akron and Cleveland. In the 1800's, Akron began to quickly grow from a small canal town into a fledgling city, the rubber industry causing the city to grow and thrive quickly. Due to the difficult terrain around the city - the swamp to the south, the Little Cuyahoga Valley to the North, and the steep hill to the west - Akron grew east.

As well as being the birthplace of many rubber-industry based products and companies, Akron saw the birth of the first breakfast cereal, the first artificial fishing bait, the first U.S. toy company, the first graded school system in the U.S., the first automobile police patrol wagon, the first long-distance electric railway in the world, the first U.S. spacesuits, the first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the first Zepplin built in the United States. Other important births in the city are those of many famous celebrities, including Hugh Downs, Chrissie Hynde, LeBron James, Thurman Munson, and James Ingram.

Akron was incorporated as a village in 1835. It was later incorporated as a city in 1865.