OUR TOWN ADVERTISED COFFEE
THIS IS IRONTON, OHIO – This is the second chapter in a review of events that occurred to spread the name of Ironton, Ohio, for a wide during the early years of history of the town in answer to a question, “Who ever heard of Ironton, Ohio?”…The voluntary response to the question had been great since the question was first asked a couple of weeks ago.
During a Grand Army Reunion held here in September 1889, six hundred tents were erected at the Fair Grounds (now Beechwood Park) with eight cots in each to sleep GAR veterans who came from Maine to Illinois to attend…The newspaper stories say that every hotel and the rooming house was filled during the week of parades…That reads like a lot of people heard of Ironton 77 years ago.
September 1885, a day many old-timers remember, the Ohio Methodist Conference was held at the new Spencer Church, Fifth and Center streets, for five days…164 churches in the state were represented by 1598 delegates…Hotels and restaurants called upon private homes to help feed and sleep the visitors…yet some people ask, “Who’s heard of Ironton?”
For those who say that the nation has heard little about Ironton, there is a coffee story better than Mrs. Olson repeats daily on the television commercial…That story made newspaper headlines in every state in the union more than 75 years ago…
Miss Clara Campbell of this city sued Arbuckle, the “Coffee King”, for a $100,000 breach of promise in marriage…The Ironton, Ohio, a lady met the coffee magnate in 1882 on a steamship voyage to Italy…He gave her a $600 diamond ring…She later visited his home in Boston…The suit was filed in 1884…It ended in the U. S. Supreme Court in 1888…She received $45,000…So nobody ever heard of Ironton, Ohio, eh?
Another high on the list of outstanding Irontonians was Emerson McMillen, who held patents at the Ironton Gas Works in 1880…He became a financier on Wall Street after leaving Ironton to live in New York…Miss Emma Kinney, now of 207 North Sixth St., went to New York as Mrs. McMillen’s private dressmaker and lived in the McMillen mansion for several years.
Charley Burgess, in 1869, invented a process to roll steel at the Ironton Rolling Mill…He took the idea and samples to England, where the first steel made in Ironton was made into knives and razors…He returned, but failed to find capital here and went elsewhere to get backing to build a steel mill…Thus, it could be possible that Ironton is responsible for all those stainless steel English razor blades advertised on TV today.
In 1869 John B. Hastings, of Belfont Mill was granted a patent on making cut nails, which made a fortune for his employers…The Ironton Bunson-burner was a patent granted Charles Hoffman and J. E. Davis, which provided this city with one of its biggest industries for a quarter of a century, the Ironton Incandescent Light & Supply Co. which resulted in the Continental Stove Corporation which manufactured a gas stove called “Ironton”…Mr. Hoffman was the father of Dr. Carl Hoffman of Huntington, WV.
Written by Charles Collettt
Huntington Newspaper – April 1966
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