The food was so fresh at Young’s Hotel that it practically leaped onto the plate from Nesmith Lake.
Bluegills, bullfrogs and turtles were the resort’s main fare during the late 19th century. The proprietors later added wild duck, another Portage Lakes delicacy that was easy to catch at dockside.
Canalboat captains, coal miners and farmhands threw back whisky at 3 cents a glass at Young’s.
The fish dinner was free — at least in the early years.
In 1850, pioneer John Young and his wife, Elizabeth, opened a log-cabin grocery with an attached bar along the Ohio & Erie Canal near the southern terminus of the Portage Path. The site off present-day Manchester Road at Nesmith Lake was along “the feeder,” which diverted water from Long Lake to replenish the busy canal.
Elizabeth Young began to fry bluegills to give away as sandwiches to the hard-drinking men at the bar.
“No one ever dreamed that money could be made in selling them,” son Lewis Young, 70, told the Akron Times-Press in 1928. “At first, they were served as a free lunch with beer and whisky.”
The newly unearthed interview, conducted by historian John A. Botzum, sheds light on the early years of the Summit County resort.
Born in 1858, Lewis Young was raised at the family store and worked as a mule driver along the canal. About 1880, he bought the business from his father, tore down the log cabin and built a wood-frame hotel and tavern across the road.
“On the start, we were satisfied to make money with the bar,” Young recalled. “Sometimes when our friends came out from Akron, we would catch a few fish and serve them free. One day, it was suggested that we should cash in on the fish end of the game. That’s how and why the fish fries became popular and spread fame.
“At first, we charged but 25 cents for a meal. The knives and forks had wooden handles but the bluegills were fine. People used to smack their lips and call for more. The business started to grow.”
In downtown Akron, excursionists caught a Crescent Line boat near Lock 1 at Main and Exchange streets and steamed south to Young’s Hotel. Other visitors paddled in canoes or drove horse-drawn buggies to the lakeside landmark.
Lewis Young and his wife, Emma, watched with amazement as their tranquil little hotel became one of the most popular destinations in the county. The proprietors switched from wood utensils to silverware and started charging 35 cents for fried fish.
They paid professional fishermen 1 cent per bluegill delivered to the kitchen. Some guests caught their own fish and asked the cooks to fry them.
“Back in those days, the canal, lakes and reservoirs were full of bluegills, bullfrogs and turtles,” Young reminisced. “I can remember when frogs were so thick that people used to kill them with clubs. The frog catchers of 50 years ago got $2 a dozen for frogs and shipped them to Akron, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and New York and they made a lot of money. We also had our professional turtle catchers. Yes, sir, I’ve seen some mighty big turtles caught down around these lakes.”
Young’s Hotel raised the price of fried fish to 50 cents and began serving coleslaw and other side dishes.
Soon other local taverns followed suit. Pete Shaffer’s saloon on West Reservoir and Paddy Ryan’s bar on East Reservoir offered fish sandwiches, too. The Portage Lakes became known for tasty fried meals.
People traveled from near and far to sample Young’s cuisine. Famous guests included President William McKinley, U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, U.S. Sen. Joseph B. Foraker, Ohio Gov. Frank B. Willis and inventor Thomas A. Edison.
“Many a famous man has told me that never in all their experiences in the big hotels in the great cities of the world have they ever had such a meal as they found down around our lakes,” Young boasted.
Young began operating a horse-drawn bus that met streetcars in Kenmore and transported passengers to the hotel. With the advent of automobiles, guests arrived in horseless carriages.
Lewis Young completed major additions to the hotel and restaurant in 1905. The complex was destroyed in a devastating 1907 fire, but Young rebuilt the resort in the same configuration as the charred hotel and reopened for business in 1908.
Even with the demise of the canal in the flood of 1913, business prospered at the lakeside resort.
Lewis and Emma Young turned over operation of the hotel to their children and grandchildren in the late 1920s.
“We never disagree on how much salt to put on the fish or how much vinegar should go into the coleslaw,” daughter Myrtle Cooney told a newspaper reporter in 1934. “We learned to cook as we helped our mother, and we never got away from home to drift apart in our cooking beliefs.”
The only major change was the end of hotel operations. The family stopped renting rooms in the 1930s and turned the building into a full-time restaurant.
Oh, the menu changed, too. Bullfrogs lost favor among customers. Turtle hunting simmered down. Fried fish was still served, but most of it came from Lake Erie. Steak and chicken became the restaurant’s specialties.
Lewis Young was 77 when he suffered a stroke and died July 25, 1936, at his vacation home in Winter Haven, Fla. His descendants continued to operate the restaurant for nearly 70 more years.
When the business closed in 2004, the aging, three-story building quickly fell into disrepair. The city of Akron acquired the former hotel in 2007 with the hope of renovating it, but the plan never came to fruition. The dilapidated building was demolished last December.
This is the first summer since 1850 without a Young’s presence at Nesmith Lake. During its day, the place was a fine catch at the Portage Lakes.
“I believe that our bluegills, bullfrogs and turtles did more than anything else to spread fame over Akron,” Lewis Young concluded in 1928.
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send email to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
