O. C. Barber

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Ohio Columbus Barber (1841-1920) == Biography ==

Ohio Columbus Barber was the second son of George and Eliza Barber. George Barber was a versatile Yankee peddler/cooper/hotel keeper who immigrated to the Connecticut Western Reserve in 1826. He prospered, married, and settled in Middlebury, a thriving village later annexed to Akron.

A curious tinkerer with a scientific bent, George Barber acquired tools and equipment for the hand manufacture of matches in 1845. As the venture prospered, his young sons would sell the product door to door in hand baskets. The Barber family and their helpers boosted productivity. Soon the factory relocated to a former blacksmith shop and continued to expand first using water power from the little Cuyahoga and later, after moving to Akron, steam power with water taken from the Ohio Canal.

The productivity expanded beyond the needs of the local market. At age 16 Ohio Columbus Barber became the company salesman, meeting the canal boats and distributing the matches to country stores by horse and wagon. Business was conducted largely by barter. He became factory manager at age 20.

The Civil War brought hardship to the company due to an increased tax burden. The family lost its soldier son, George H. Barber, to dysentery. Incorporation of the Barber Match Company provided the needed capital for survival. By 1880 the Barber firm was number one in Ohio and gained 20% of the national market.

At age 26 Barber married Laura Brown of Coventry. They had 2 children, Anna and Charles, but Charles died in infancy.

In the 1870's improved machinery and access to railroads allowed the Barber Company to become one of the largest of the U.S. match producing companies.

Unregulated competition made it difficult to keep the company stable and solvent. Other match companies had the same difficulties. In 1881 twelve companies agreed to consolidate into one, the Diamond Match Company. Diamond was a Barber brand suggested by the shape of its splint.

Diamond Match took over 85% of the national market in the 1880's. Its headquarters now in Chicago, Diamond attracted wealthy investors in the city. Barber began to travel abroad with a view to setting up a global market.

Barber never lost interest in Akron or Ohio. He took a personal interest in modernizing Akron's utilities and improving Diamond's factories and its employees' welfare.

In the 1890's a period of amazing diversification began. A factory making strawboard led to a national consolidation of strawboard manufactures with Barber as president. Aware of the consequences of fire caused by volatile chemicals, Barber formed a company to make fire extinguishers and steel tubing. Through mergers the fire extinguisher company became part of the Grinnell Corporation. When boilers became necessary power sources in the Barber companies, he went into the boiler business with the inventor Allen Stirling, making a new type of boiler. The Stirling Boiler Company became by merger the Babcock and Wilcox Company. Other new enterprises produced sewer pipe, ammunition, aluminum, pottery, tiles, woolen, and felt.

For the Barber vision of expansion to take place unimpeded a new location would be required. He began to acquire land in New Portage, a village near Akron. The land would be the site of a planned industrial city to be called Barberton. The Barberton Land and Improvement Company was organized to develop the project. Factory and home construction followed quickly. The term "Magic City" was coined by a Beacon Journal reporter who saw the town transform itself from cornfields to community within two short years.

The new town and its busy factories were served by railroads and the Ohio Canal. Barber organized the Akron-Barberton Beltline Railroad to enhance access to those railways serving Akron.

The city of Barberton was incorporated in 1891. A severe business downturn threatened to destroy the economic base of the city. Barber had another magic trick left: he built in Barberton a modern new match factory for Diamond Match to replace its Akron plant. This assured the future of the city he had conceived.

The big dream of a global match market with Diamond companies encircling the world would be filled with unpredictable obstacles. Unfriendly takeover attempts were focused on the company in the United States. Though unsuccessful, they weakened the resources needed for expansion. Speculators, inside and outside the company, were a constant harassment. Despite all the difficulties, Barber was ultimately successful in creating a framework of worldwide match factories.

In 1906 he decided that a large supply of lumber should be acquired to meet the needs of the global market. A huge forest in the Sacramento Valley of California was purchased and scientific forest management was introduced to conserve and replenish the timber land. Another large investment was required to build a railroad to transport the trees to sawmills and lumber yards. The villages of Barber and Stirling City grew up, one at each end of the railroad. The Barber neighborhood in Chico, California was named after him. The neighborhood was originally built to house the employees of the Diamond Match factory in what is now Chico and was then called Barber California. arber decided to retire from active participation in the Diamond Match in 1909. He handpicked his next two successors and was active in the company affairs until his death in 1920.

His 20th century business activities were impressive. Rubber products and cereal mills were among Akron's rapidly growing industries, and Barber played an active role in each. Oatmeal company mergers were not among his successes. The Diamond Rubber Company was a great success and merged with B. F. Goodrich in 1911. The strawboard consolidation was unsuccessful and costly.

In 1905 he began his last great project. By 1909 he owned 3,500 acres of farm land near Barberton. He set about creating a scientific farm and a kingly residence. Farm related businesses mined fertilizer at Barber, Virginia, milled flour and cereal, and produced decorative concrete work. Thirty seven Beaux Arts style buildings were built on the estate by Ohio C. Barber between 1909 and 1912. Today eight buildings remain thanks to the diligent efforts of the Barberton Historical Society. The Anna Dean Farm's produce enjoyed wide distribution and the Anna Dean Farm added to Barber's growing fame.

Barber continued to take an interest in Akron long after he founded the city of Barberton. Akron philanthropic projects included construction of Akron City Hospital in 1904 and in 1906 Barber founded the Akron Chamber of Commerce.

After being a widower for twenty years, Barber remarried in 1915 to his secretary Mary Orr. She shared his vision and after his death five years later, from the Spanish Influenza that was ravishing the United States, Mary attempted to fulfill his plan for the farm, which was to be willed to Western Reserve University and used as an agricultural college. However ultimately this was not to be, and alone Mary was not able to operate such a huge concern dedicated to scientific farming.

For complete biographical material see: America's Match King, Ohio Columbus Barber, 1841-1920. and also please visit the web site, www.annadeanfarm.com