Akron

Akron, a town of the state of Ohio, North America, the capital of Summit County. It is situated 36 miles south of Cleveland, on the Little Cuyahoga, which falls into Lake Erie, and at the junction of the Ohio and Erie Canal with the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, at the highest point in the course of the former canal, whence its name (Gr., 'a summit'). It is also at the intersection of two railways. It has woollen factories, flour-mills, a steam-engine factory, a stove factory, a mineral-paint mill, and other works, the machinery of which is driven by ample water-power. Near the town are large supplies of the mineral which supplies the Ohio fire-proof paint. It was first settled in 1825. Pop. (1870) 10,006; (1880) 16,512; (1890) 27,601.