Digital Commons Network^™

The Akron Roundtable: Bringing The World To Akron For Forty Years, David Lieberth

University of Akron Press Publications

For 170 years, Akron has been linked to the wider world—ever since John Brown, the famous abolitionist and Akron’s most consequential resident, traveled on behalf of Colonel Simon Perkins to the European capitals in 1846 to market the wool that became Akron’s first international export. In the late nineteenth century, Akron industrialist Lewis Miller captured international accolades for the farm machinery manufactured at his Buckeye Mower Works, located where E. J. Thomas Hall stands today. In 1912, Goodyear Superintendent Paul Litchfield established a beachhead for the company in Europe, and through the twentieth century, all Akron tire makers delivered rubber …