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FORMER O.C. BARBER RESIDENCE IS SITE OF DEPRESSION EVENT
By Mark J. Price
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Monday, Nov 09, 2009
Akron's Millionaires Row was looking a little ragged. Once a boulevard of fabulous mansions, East Market Street had lost its allure by the early 20th century. The neighborhood no longer boasted such elite families as the Seiberlings, Schumachers, Buchtels and Bierces.
One of the last to move was industrialist Ohio C. Barber (1841-1920), ''America's Match King'' and Barberton founder, who packed up after building a 52-room palace overlooking his namesake town in 1910.
He couldn't imagine that his former residence would someday welcome scruffy characters in threadbare suits.
Two weeks after Wall Street's crash ignited the Great Depression, a cavalcade of eccentric fellows arrived in Akron for a national convention.
The International Brotherhood Welfare Association, better known as the Hobos' Union, held its 24th annual gathering Nov. 12-14, 1929, in the late Barber's home at 139 E. Market St.
From San Francisco to New York, vagabonds hopped trains, rode buses or hitchhiked to Akron. The three-day event attracted more than 100 people, including 50 delegates and associates from 10 chapters.
Items on the agenda included public discussion of vagrancy laws, municipal flophouses, delousing stations and railroad transportation.
Benefactor James Eads How had financed the annual convention since 1905. Known as the ''Millionaire Hobo,'' the St. Louis native was the grandson of civil engineer James B. Eads, builder of a famous bridge over the Mississippi River.
Eads How arrived early in Akron to rent the three-story mansion, which last served as the Central Labor Union Temple, an equally unthinkable occupant during Barber's era.
Tall, gaunt and soft-spoken, Eads How pledged ''to launch an enterprise that will go down in the history of Akron,'' a local chapter of the IBWA.
In those days, hobos bristled at being called ''tramps'' or ''bums.'' They professed to be migratory workers who found jobs as they could — as opposed to drifters who refused work and lived as beggars.
Police chief wary
Akron Police Chief John Durkin welcomed the out-of-town guests, but requested that delegates wear badges to identify themselves from
common derelicts. At the mansion, he posted an officer who understood parliamentary law.
''It has been my experience that when conventions of this kind are held, disputes usually arise over parliamentary procedure,'' he told the Akron Times-Press in 1929. ''The disputes are often settled with the fist instead of the gavel.''
There was plenty of debate, but Durkin needn't have worried. No one threw any punches.
One of the guests was Dapper Dan O'Brien, the ''King of the Hobos,'' a pipe-smoking philosopher who spoke in an Irish brogue. His acquaintances included H.L. Mencken, Jack London and George Bernard Shaw.
A week before the convention, O'Brien ran for New York mayor on a platform offering free public transportation and a 50,000-room hobo hotel. Democrat Jimmy Walker won the election with 867,522 votes while Republican Fiorello La Guardia finished with 367,675.
Alas, O'Brien collected a mere 131 votes, but he was proud to raise public awareness about ''unjust vagrancy laws.''
He predicted that the convention would improve Akron.
''There's no reason why the hobos of Akron can't become influential politically, socially and culturally,'' he told the Beacon Journal. ''There are possibilities available for the hobo if he will only take advantage of them.''
Heeding the union's call, Akron residents Ed Green, John Hall, B.H. Jeffries, Roy Irwin and Jack Nobel formed Local 215.
After the crash
The stock market crash was a major topic at the convention.
Union Treasurer Herman Gaul, a black-clad orator from Chicago, feared that America was heading toward ''an industrial dictatorship.''
''Through mergers and interlocking directorates, the financial power of the country is steadily being brought into the control of certain high financiers,'' he warned.
He predicted that big business would endure, however, as long as Americans continued to ''enjoy the good things that present civilization offers.''
''The man who has bought his stock outright should sleep soundly, for he has nothing to fear,'' Gaul said.
The convention's keynote speaker was future Massillon Mayor Jacob Coxey, who led marches of unemployed men on Washington in 1894 and 1914.
The general of ''Coxey's Army'' said he planned to meet with President Herbert Hoover and Congress in his eternal quest to secure federal funds to create jobs for the unemployed.
''You can laugh and scoff, and say, 'What good will that do?' But a little water constantly dropping on the hardest stone will wear a deep channel through which a mighty river can course,'' he told the hobos.
The biggest controversy of the convention occurred when Cincinnati native Henry A. White, an editor of the 10-cent Hobo News, made a motion to receive a paycheck of $60 a week as secretary of the union.
After delegates rejected the measure, White accused them of blindly following a millionaire dictator.
''When you can get along without Eads How, I'll be only too glad,'' he fumed.
Telegram to Hoover
The group did adopt King O'Brien's resolution calling for a national two-hour workday and a six-day week, and sent a telegram to President Hoover.
''With everybody working, we can produce all that America needs in two hours a day,'' O'Brien explained. ''Everybody will have more time and money — provided wages are raised.''
The unusual convention ended with live entertainment — mostly off-key singers and harmonicas — and a banquet table laden with buns, apples, oranges, cake and coffee.
''Why, we've got music and talent here tonight,'' Eads How said. ''Let's just have a regular old-fashioned hobo celebration.''
Delegates stayed late because most of them didn't have to get anywhere in a hurry.
Ultimately, Secretary White got his wish. This was Eads How's final convention. Eight months later, the Millionaire Hobo died of pneumonia at age 56, virtually penniless after giving away most of his inheritance.
Without a patron to foot the bills, the International Brotherhood Welfare Association dissolved. The timing was terribly unfortunate, because the Depression created a lot more hobos.
Barber's old mansion was demolished a few years later to make way for the Lightning Auto Wash.
Today, the site is an empty lot next to Haven of Rest Ministries, which provides food and shelter for homeless people.
The Hobos' Union didn't realize what a trend it was starting on Millionaires Row.
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send e-mail to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
Akron's Millionaires Row was looking a little ragged. Once a boulevard of fabulous mansions, East Market Street had lost its allure by the early 20th century. The neighborhood no longer boasted such elite families as the Seiberlings, Schumachers, Buchtels and Bierces.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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akron, OH
Posted 04:40 AM, 11/09/2009
Paleeeeeeeze!
Akron, OH
Posted 05:19 AM, 11/09/2009
http://www.hobonickels.org/alpert04.htm
Posted 05:26 AM, 11/09/2009
They might have been "hobo's" but they dressed better than 70% of the men in Akron do today ...
akron, oh
Posted 07:40 AM, 11/09/2009
One of the first meetings of the liberal left extremeists.
Raise wages, work 2 hours a day. The only thing left out was a daily libation celebration with the local head politician.
Seriously, thanks Mark Price. A nice piece of history to read about.
Akron, Oh
Posted 10:11 AM, 11/09/2009
Hobos of the World Unite!
Posted 12:49 PM, 11/09/2009
Great nostalgic piece about a time and place I never knew, but one which expands my knowledge and appreciation for the history of my hometown. The comment about fiananciers' role in the depression sounds like a precedent for today's difficulties. Of course today's difficulties pale in comparison to yesterday's depression.
Posted 01:16 PM, 11/09/2009
@Ralph Bormet ~"Of course today's difficulties pale in comparison to yesterday's depression."
That depends on where you are getting your information. Get out and talk to some of your elderly neighbors. Talk to people who either lived through the depression or to some of those that were born shortly after it and who heard their elders talk about the depression. Most of those that I have talked to say that our present day recession is just as bad or even worse than the depression.
hudson, oh
Posted 02:09 PM, 11/09/2009
jimdandy:
Get a life!
I feel sorry for you!
They have drugs for compulsiveness...
Akron, Oh
Posted 03:00 PM, 11/09/2009
Let me get this straight. In 1929 a bunch of bums
(homeless) came to Akron. The police
Chief was wary so he made the bums wear badges identifing themselves. If memory serves me right, our Mayor was wary of bums begging money so several years agohe registered them, he now makes them wear a badge to identify themselves. This may be the problem with Akron,we still live in the 1920's.
Canal Fulton, Oh
Posted 07:47 PM, 11/10/2009
Sorry but I missed when this was being held???
Canal Fulton, Oh
Posted 07:58 PM, 11/10/2009
Ok,another dumb question..is this the Cavs Mark Price?
Posted 09:42 AM, 11/11/2009
peebs02 ~ Unless you are into time travel you really missed it ... It was held in 1929
Akron, OH
Posted 04:52 PM, 11/11/2009
I like trains and I carry my clothes in a bindle.
Does this make me a hobosexual??
Canal Fulton, Oh
Posted 09:27 PM, 11/11/2009
@class of 73 I know that,I mean when is is coming to Akron for the convention?
Posted 05:48 AM, 11/12/2009
@peebs02 ~ Read the story & try to keep up ... The hobo convention was held in Akron from Nov 12-14 in 1929. It was over a long, long time ago!
