Jack Gieck - Early Akrons Industrial Valley: A History of the Cascade Locks

Akron is on the Continental Divide. Rain falling on the north side of town flows north into the St. Lawrence watershed. Rain landing in south Akron goes south into the Mississippi basin. You can actually see the water dividing and flowing both ways at the point where the Portage Lakes feeder enters the Ohio & Erie Canal across from Youngs Tavern on Manchester Road in south Akron. Water flowing to the left goes north through downtown Akron and Cuyahoga Falls into the Cuyahoga River and out into Lake Erie, from which it runs northeast through Lake Ontario, up the St. Lawrence River, and out into the North Atlantic Ocean. Water going to the right flows south into the Tuscarawas River and from there finds its way down to the Ohio River, a tributary of the Mississippi, which then carries it another 600 miles south and out into the Gulf of Mexico. Akron sits at the top of the ridge dividing the two continental watershedsat the summit.

The barrier was well known to Native Americans long before Europeans arrived in North America. For hundreds of years Woodland Indians traveling south on the Cuyahoga River from Lake Erie lifted their canoes out of the water at Old Portage, carrying them up over the summit (from which Summit County takes its name) along 9 miles of the Portage Path before descending to the Tuscarawas River to continue their journey.

The north side of the Akron summit is much steeper than the south side. It is so steep, in fact, that when Ohios landmark Canal Act was passed in February 1825, canal engineers discovered that they would have to build sixteen locks to raise canal boats 149 feet in this last mile of the 38-mile trip from Cleveland, creating a staircase of locks. (This is why canal boats from the north often spent the night in the basin below Lock 15 before beginning the tortuous ascent, loading up on food and supplies in the morning after the Mustill Store opened.)

But what engineers viewed as an obstacle, Dr. Eliakim Crosby of Middlebury seized on as an entrepreneurial opportunity. He recognized that terrain this steep could be used to generate massive amounts of waterpower if an ample supply of water could be found. (Canal water couldnt be used since it was needed to operate the cascade of locks.) But Crosby conceived a bold plan that would ultimately transform the site below Lock 5 into a dynamic industrial valley rivaling sites in England created by the Industrial Revolution.

Within a decade after Crosby implemented his plan, the valley came alive with several flour mills, a woolen mill, a furniture factory, five iron furnaces, and a distillery. The same water flowed out of one factory and into the next one, and all of them were powered by gravity. The site is preserved today from Lock 10 through Lock 16 as Akrons Cascade Locks Park, developed by the Cascade Locks Park Association and operated by Metro Parks, Serving Summit County in cooperation with the City of Akron.

Eliakim Crosby arrived in Middlebury about 1820. Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1779, he was well educated and taught school until he was twenty-seven years old, when, in 1806, he moved to Buffalo and studied medicine. After completing his internship, he settled in Simco, Ontario, where he opened a medical practice and married Marcia Beemer in 1810. But when the British invaded the United States during the War of 1812 and Crosby entered the U.S. Army as a surgeon, the British confiscated his Canadian property, which forced him to return to the United States.

Dr. Crosby continued to practice medicine after arriving in Middlebury, a village bordering the Little Cuyahoga River along todays Case Avenue north of East Market. The ambitious doctor built a small iron furnace on the river in Middlebury. Since his medical practice was limited to a handful of families, he was exploring other sources of income. Running a major canal through his hometown, where he already had a business, would invite prosperity. Because Middlebury was on one of several possible canal routes over the Continental Divide, Crosby and other community activists lobbied for the canal.

But General Simon Perkins of Warren, a surveyor and an agent for the Connecticut Land Company, had other ideas. In addition to representing the land company, Perkins was privately speculating in land. Using state records, he acquired a substantial amount of property simply by paying modest amounts of past-due taxes on the land. He had, in fact, by 1825, amassed 1,003 acres at a total cost of $4.07. Perkinss properties were located 2 miles west of Middlebury, adjacent to property owned by settler Paul Williams, in an area that would become downtown Akron.