The J. Park Alexander Family was prominent in business and civic affairs in the Summit County and Akron, Ohio, area during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. J. Park Alexander was born in Bath Township, Summit County, in 1834 and began his entrepreneurial endeavors in sheep and wool growing at the age of 18. He attended the Richfield Academy and then the Marlboro Normal School, studying civil engineering before entering the education profession in the Akron Public Schools for two years. He married Martha D. Wright of Tallmadge in 1860. In the mid-1860s he began manufacturing silica fire-brick and stoneware in Akron, then, in 1872, bought two oil refineries which he ran in connection with the Standard Oil Company for five years. From the 1850s through the 1870s he also maintained his interest in agriculture through his work in the Summit County Agricultural Society and the State Board of Agriculture. During the 1880s, his interests turned to politics and he represented Summit County in the State Legislature from 1882-1883 and in the State Senate from 1888-1892 and 1896-1898. Alexander died in 1908, survived by seven of his eight children, including Clara W. Alexander who had married Professor Charles B. Wright and resided in Middlebury, Vermont.
The J. Park Alexander Family Papers, 1854-1945, consist of diaries, journals, correspondence, a legislative resolution, and autographs for J. Park Alexander, his daughter Clara and her husband Professor Charles B. Wright, his wife Martha Wright Alexander, and his mother Mary.
These papers pertain primarily to the daily activities and social life of Mary, Martha, and Clara Alexander in Akron, Ohio, and to Clara's experiences on her trips to the Rocky Mountains in 1872, Europe in 1877, and around the Great Lakes in 1881.
This collection is arranged by document type according to family member.
Processed by Bari Oyler Stith in 1988.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4157 J. Park Alexander Family Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Polly Upson Kohler, 1982.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.