Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1901-06-22
FAILURE.
It Shook Many
Business Houses.
Sale of Historic Building
Recalls 1t.
The Pentagon at Hudson
Changes Hands.
The Hopes of That Accent Village
We're Blasted.

The Pentagon, a building with a his
tory, in Hudson, has recently changed
owners and the sale recalls a failure
which shook all of Summit county
nearly 80 years ago.
The original Pentagon, says the
Hudson Independent, was erected in
1S49-1s5O with mnoey furnished
By Prof. Henry N. Day, of Western
Reserve. College and his brother,
jeremiah Day, wealthy gentleman
then residing in Hudson. Sawyer, In
gersoll and Co. HI. N. Day being the
company put in the largest printing
establishment then on the Western
Reserve. 1t was much too large for
the time and place. They manufac-
tured all their own type, and also did
all kinds of stereotype work. For
five or six years they did an immense
business, and while their capital was
not as large as it should have been
for the amount of business transacted,
they probably would have been sue
cessful, for they had orders from east
ern firms for all the work they could
do, had they not insisted on putting
their imprint on all work done. This
lost them thousands of dollars worth
of work.
A little later an addition was added
to the building and the firm of ]. w.
Smith & Co., went into the dry goods
business on an immense scale, they
also doing the largest business of the
kind on the Western Reserve, there
not being store in Cleveland even,
that could compare with the Hudson
emporium. After doing business for
two or three years this firm went to
the wall for lack Of capital. With
less than $4,000 capital they had car
ried a 100000 stock. During the
height of their prosperity they invest
ed $4,000 in building what is now
F'illius & Co.'S mill and putting in a
lumber yard at cost Of $4,000. They
also built 20 OF 80 houses in different
parts of the town and sold them on
monthly payments.
The collapse of the three railroad
schemes, ''yrhe Clinton Line" "The
Clinton Line Extension" and "The
Hudson and Painesvile' coupled with
the above brought disaster and in
1856 the collapse came. The Hudson
Book company, J. W. Smith & Com
pany, the Lumber Company, ]. G. Sny-
der. I. G. Dow, Tallmadge & Co. went
to the wall with Liabilities aggregating
thousands upon thousands of dollars
and seriously crippling many other
firms which had made great plans for
the future. AS result the Pentagou
costing $4,000 was bid in by Squire
NJ. G. Read for the mortgages for
$2,1O0. He also bid in for the same
parties over 20 Of the houses that had
been sold by ]. w. Smith & Co. and
for four years did not receive enough
rent to pay the insurance and taxes.
AS a curiosity Squire Read has a
bundle of notes aggregating $4,000
given by J. W. Smith & Co. to the
Days for borrowed money which was
never paid.
The building was occupied by sever
al firms with varying success until
1867 when S. Straight & Co. secured
possession and at a cost of $4,000
erected what is now the mill in the
rear, and put In a cheese factory,
which run for several years, doing a
good business but nothing like what
had been done before. Later he open
ed feed store and in 1894, Mr.. s. r..
Rideout rented part Of the building for
an implement store.
Allen Halverson OF West Prairie,
Wis, says: -"People come ten miles
to buy Foley's Kidney Cure" while
III. A. Spero of Helmer, Ind, says: