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Barberton Industry

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With the canal and railroad lines already in place at the time of the city’s founding, Barberton held great potential for industrial development. The promise of prosperity contributed to rapid growth, earning Barberton the nickname the “Magic City.” By the time the village was formally incorporated in 1892, it had a population of about 2,500 people and a growing industrial base.

Five factories existed within the city limits of Barberton at the time of incorporation: American Strawboard, Stirling Boiler, National Sewer Pipe, Creedmore Cartridge and American Alumina. American Strawboard, founded in New Portage in 1882, primarily supplied strawboard to O.C. Barber’s Diamond Match in Akron. Stirling Boiler, another Barber company, was founded in 1890, but in 1906 came under the more familiar name Babcock & Wilcox. National Sewer Pipe, the first factory to be built after the city’s founding, eventually became American Vitrified.

Shortly after Barberton was established, the nation experienced an economic downturn that threatened the future of newly founded city. Creedmore Cartridge, an early munitions manufacturer, and American Alumina, which produced industrial alum, were both casualties of the Panic of 1893. The same year Kirkham Art Tile & Pottery, located along the canal on present day Wooster Rd. W., was destroyed by fire and the economic situation prevented the owners from rebuilding.

With the future of Barberton uncertain, Barber decided to help restore the local economy by relocating Diamond Match to the city. The match works began operations in 1895 and within ten years ranked as the city’s largest employer. Economic rebound resulted in great industrial growth and Barberton soon saw the arrival of Columbia Chemical Company, later PPG Industries, Pittsburgh Valve and Fitting and Ohio Brass, which would become Ohio Insulator.

Barberton factories enjoyed a boom in production during World War I, with companies such as B&W and Diamond Match winning numerous government contracts. The years following the war were a time of further growth as the city welcomed several rubber companies, including Seiberling Rubber (1921), Sun Rubber (1923), Midwest Rubber (1923) and Seiberling Latex (1928).

Barberton soon came to employ more wage earners than any other city with similar population in the state. But the Magic City was not immune to the economic failures and layoffs that swept the nation during the Great Depression, a time when half of Barberton’s wage earners were out of work. Though the city struggled through the 1930s, Barberton again benefited from a surge in wartime production with the onset of World War II. During the war years, Sun Rubber turned from popular children’s toys to the production of oxygen masks, respirators, rubber gloves and even a limited quantity of Mickey Mouse gas masks for children. The majority of boilers used in U.S. Navy and Merchant Marine fleets were designed and built at B&W here in Barberton, while Wright Tool and Forge stopped production of all tools except socket wrenches made exclusively for the U.S. Government.

After the war, many companies experienced reduced production, but the city’s industrial base continued to be strong and growing. Several new companies emerged, such as the incorporation of B&C Machine in 1949. But the relatively prosperous 1950s gave way to several decades of economic changes when some of Barberton’s longest standing companies ceased local production or suffered major downsizing. By the mid-1980s, Diamond Match, Sun Rubber, Ohio Insulator, Rockwell International and several other companies had all closed their doors. B&W and PPG would cut employment significantly.

These industrial losses had a dramatic and lasting impact on the city, but current urban renewal plans and city projects continue to work toward restoring Barberton’s economic base and returning jobs to the Magic City.

Barberton Public Library - 602 West Park Avenue - Barberton, OH 44203 - (330) 745-1194