Jessie S. Dunacan heroically raced to the second floor of his burning house at 1888 Buchtel Street rescuing five small children (three of whom were his grandchildren, the other two his offspring), one-by-one, as he tossed them out a window to his wife below after which he leapt to safety. One child was left behind, his (Duncan’s) 14 month old granddaughter–Betty Butler. Duncan attempted to dash back into the now engulfed domicile, but Summit County sheriffs deputies prevented him from doing so due to the severity of the blaze. Flames were shooting out all windows and doorways.
Betty Butler tragically died in the accidental inferno, caused by a grease fire in the kitchen that occurred during dinner preparation. The two-story home was completely decimated, with an estimated $6,000 worth of damages.
Sergeant Patrick C. Mortus succumbed to the injuries he sustained on January 14, 1968, while serving his country in Vietnam. At the time of his passing, Patrick was a decorated member of the 196th Infantry, Company B. He received the Bronze Star Medal with “V” Device for heroism, the Purple Heart, and the Good Conduct Medal posthumously.
1965 Twinsburg class yearbook.
While in the United States Army, Sergeant Mortus was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Ribbon, Combat Infantryman badge, and the Sharpshooter Badge with Rifle Bar. The final campaign of his military career took place in the Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam. He was twenty years old at the time of his passing, having entered the service in 1966. His name and his service are commemorated on the Vietnam Wall in Washington: panel 34E, line 49. Both Mortus Drive and Park were named in his honor. He was survived by his wife Ginny.
There were two other brave soldiers who hailed from Twinsburg that selflessly gave their lives while fiercely fighting the Vietnam War: Alvin Robertson and Donald Malicek. Robertson and Malicek are honored on panel 36W, line 87 and panel 24w, line 45 of the Vietnam Wall, respectively.
The City of Twinsburg, though relatively young, is a wellspring of history that also offers comfort and familiarity—an area that has blossomed and evolved to include new housing developments, beautiful parks, and hubs of commerce while maintaining picturesque views worthy of a postcard. These views did not spring up overnight via the whims of mayors and city planners, but evolved with the natural passage of time to shape the cityscape we know today. Though it shares nearly 140 years of history with the Township, the city’s own unique history dates back just over sixty years. Unlike other, older villages and towns that were carved from the woods and fields of an untamed wilderness, the City of Twinsburg was created in the twentieth century by an act of political secession. The need to collect taxes from the recently announced Chrysler plant sped things along, prompting the separation of township and city and bringing jobs, other businesses, and a torrent of taxpayers to the area.
Much of the history to come would radiate outward from the square: Twinsburg Institute, Locust Grove Cemetery, family owned businesses, farms, school houses, and church after church sprang up within view. The streets lining the square, always the center of festivities. Richner Hardware, Lawson’s, and Roseberry’s took root one-by-one, providing locals with some of the amenities larger cities had to offer, with the comforts of small town familiarity.
No parking spaces to spare on a busy afternoon at the Town Square.
When new housing was needed, Glenwood Acres was created to provide it. Lowcost homes, numbering more than four hundred, began springing up in 1956 following the announcement of the new Chrysler plant. Homes would be needed to accommodate the countless new employees looking to minimize their commute to work and keep their families close. Production at the plant would begin in earnest the following year.
With each development and each alteration another farm, wooded area, and orchard would fall beneath the wheels of progress. The growing village reached the critical five thousand head count by the end of 1969, allowing it to acquire cityhood. City managers begat mayors, volunteer firemen begat paid firefighters, and mainstays of business gave way to corporations.
The 1970s would see two unique milestones come to pass: 1976 would mark the nation’s bicentennial as well as the start of Twins Days, a celebration paying homage to the Wilcox brothers, who laid the foundation for what Twinsburg would come to be. Though it began as a community-centered festival with a parade, food, contests, and a parachuting clown named Thunder Chicken, interest in the event would spread.
Area children lend a helping hand, planting flowers under the sign to Liberty Park.
The new Twinsburg High School opened in January 1999, providing students with a new learning environment when they returned from their winter break. (The “Old School” still stands, though it’s been closed for years.) The park system also received some attention, with Mayor James Karabec securing a letter of intent for the property that would eventually become the three-thousand-acre Liberty Park. The dawning of a new century brought with it many changes: some wanted, some unavoidable. Longtime mainstays like Richner Hardware shuttered their stores in response to big-box stores like Home Depot and Walmart eating away at their customer base. Chrysler, the financial backbone of Twinsburg and employer of many, closed during the summer of 2010. Economic ripples from its closure were inevitable, though the blow to the city’s tax revenues was mitigated in no small part by the foresight of former mayor Karabec, who had set in motion a plan to diversify the city’s income stream, knowing it relied too heavily on Chrysler. Mayor Katherine Procop would continue the work begun by Karabec, helping to secure new tenants and diversify city revenues. Among the new tenants operating out of the Cornerstone Business Park (site of the old Chrysler plant) are an Amazon fulfillment center and FedEx.
One of the nearly forgotten events of Twinsburg’s past is the annual Horse Show. First staged in 1957, the show was conceived as a means for the Twinsburg High School Boosters to raise $2000 needed to purchase new uniforms for the football team. Co-sponsored by the Boosters and the local Saddle Club, the show was held at Curry Farm on Route 82, west of the Chrysler Plant. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, the first show featured over one hundred and fifty horses from three states and “scores” of riders.
Ultimately, the venture proved unprofitable and was short-lived, with the final show being held on September 5, 1960 (Labor Day) at the Curry farm location. There were twenty classes in the final Central Ohio Saddle Club Association event. Ann Stueber served as the judge and Shirley Nowak was the steward.
Far too many VFW posts are mainly meeting places where veterans can engage in the consumption of alcohol and possibly a game of cards, but VFW Post 4929, founded in 1945, has proven vastly different. “Our post became noted for the fact that we’re serving veterans—which is what the veterans’ VFW post is supposed to do,” according to Commander Joe Jasany. The veterans who attend Post 4929 meetings do so to aid other vets. The goal of every member of the post is to better the lives of their fellow veterans by supporting them and their families (paying for funeral arrangements, a motorized wheelchair, etc.) and veterans hospitals, and performing too many other charitable deeds to mention. ”We played bingo for fifty-one years out at Brecksville VA. We served coffee and doughnuts at Brecksville VA for 41 years every Saturday,” Jasany proudly said.
VFW Post 4929 was started by World War I veterans Leonard Roach and Herbert Richner Sr., who felt there needed to be a place for returning soldiers to visit where they would be able to learn how to readjust to civilian life.
The Ladies Auxiliary of the VFW was formally instituted in 1946 with a membership totaling forty-three. During their existence they played a crucial role in programming for Post 4929. Thousands of hours were spent volunteering at the Brecksville VA Hospital and other facilities benefiting veterans.
Commander Joe was the catalyst in bringing more attention to veterans and in acquiring the old City Hall building as a headquarters in 2000. Prior to its acquisition, the VFW had to meet at a school, a church, or someone’s house for over thirty years. The post hadn’t had a building since the 1960s, when it was located in the Brass Horn, a local watering hole. Losing the Brass Horn as a home base ultimately was a blessing as it was the impetus for altering the focus of the post from alcohol consumption to more altruistic aims.
The membership of Post 4929 increased by twelve after the Cost of Freedom tribute, bringing the total to forty-four members. New members joined from Garfield Heights, Solon, and as far away as Eastlake due to the post’s commitment to its mission: the betterment of veterans’ lives. Most recently, its name has been changed to VFW Post 4929 and Museum, as some of its meeting rooms have been converted to a museum, including a display case dedicated to everything that was left behind from the Cost of Freedom tribute, no matter how trivial the items may seem to the general public.
A bombing, a greenhouse, and political dissatisfaction: together, they might set the scene for a run-of-the-mill crime novel. This, however, was no dime-store rag, but a very real list of circumstances for the events that unfolded on February 12, 1969. Carl Herrick’s Greenhouse, once located at 8935 Ravenna Road (currently Kollman’s Greenhouse), was rocked when a strategically placed stick of dynamite tore through the glass and greenery.
Carl Herrick, greenhouse owner and operator, stands feet away from where a stick of dynamite ripped through
“At approximately midnight last Wednesday, a bomb was placed at the base of the front wall of Carl Herrick’s Greenhouse. Mr. Herrick didn’t hear the dynamite explode. At 2:00 a.m. he was awakened by an alarm from the greenhouse indicating that the temperature was dangerously low. The glass windows covering the front wall of the greenhouse had all been blown out, and the freezing winds had killed all the vegetation within 15 feet of the wall. Friends worked with Herrick through the night to cover the wall so that no greater loss would be suffered. Most speculated that Herrick, a Twinsburg Township Trustee, was the target of this destructive action because of his views on annexation. Mr. Herrick doesn’t know. He feels that the only enemies he has are political, and he doesn’t feel that his political enemies would stoop so low.”
Reports from the Twinsburg Bulletin indicated that Carl Herrick’s views on further secession and annexation, pertaining to Twinsburg Heights and the Township, could have sparked the greenhouse bombing. No suspects were apprehended in connection with the bombing, and no additional violence against plants was reported.
One of the byproducts of Chrysler moving into Twinsburg, beyond a 52.4% population growth between 1950-1960, was the need for more services in the community, spiritual needs among them. During the early 1960s Twinsburg saw a number of new churches established, including Christ the King Lutheran.
Christ the King had its first worship service in October, 1961 and became a congregation in the American Lutheran Church April 15, 1962.
In April 2012 Christ The King Lutheran celebrated its 50th anniversary with a special worship service at which Northeastern Ohio Synod Bishop Elizabeth Eaton presided.
Few things can spur growth and development in a small town like the construction of a company in need of thousands of local employees. Taxes are generated, jobs created, and area infrastructure receives much needed improvements. The construction of the Glenwood Acres subdivision is an example of one such development. Preparations began shortly after the announcement that Chrysler was pulling its automotive plant out of nearby Macedonia and shifting its gaze to Twinsburg. When construction was complete, the development would boast more than four hundred low-cost houses. With the influx of new residents moving to the area in search of good jobs, few could overlook the housing opportunity afforded by Glenwood Acres. Residents began moving in the week of November 11, 1956, according to the Twinsburg Bulletin.
The Acres was not without its shortcomings. During a city council meeting just four months after occupancy began, vocal residents of the newly created subdivision brought their frustration to light, demanding something be done to improve upon the poor quality of the roads. However, their grievances went unaddressed. Records for 1958 indicate that voter turnout in Ward 1, which consisted of Glenwood Acres, was higher than that in the other four wards combined. The prolonged back-and-forth between City Council and the residents continued into the 1970s with issues of adequate sewage and sidewalks in need of attention. Sixty years have passed since the first residents arrived in Glenwood Acres, and in the intervening time these issues have been addressed one by one.
Automated Packaging Systems, Inc. was founded by brothers, Hershey and Bernie Lerner in a one car-garage in Queens, New York in 1962. Soon after its founding, the company was moved to Bedford, Ohio and a mere five years after its conception relocated to Twinsburg. The headquarters and plant were located at 8400 Darrow Road for many years, comprised of ten acres and employing in excess of five hundred people.
The company famously developed the idea of “bags-on-a-roll.” They saw that polyethylene bags, a new product at the time, were difficult to open and load product into. They solved the problem by perforating one side of the bag and leaving the other side open. The bags were then rolled onto a cardboard cylinder. This innovation spread to supermarkets across the nation, saving many a shopper endless headaches.
The pages of history record and recall stories and statistics of the earliest schoolhouses to dot the countryside, these antiquated institutes of learning were long vacant by the time the first truly modern school came into being. While the first centralized school brought all the students under one roof, it was the “Old School” that many remember so fondly.
The source of countless lessons learned and friendships forged, the old schoolhouse located just off the town square served the area’s children for nearly seventy-five years. Welcoming its first students in the fall of 1921, the two-story red brick schoolhouse was a replacement for the older, whitewashed building that once stood behind it. Games were won and lost, field trips were taken, and countless bells rang, signaling the end of one period and the beginning of another. For more than thirty years, the school served all grades from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The edifice, now vacant, evolved in numerous ways after closing its doors in 1992, including its utilization by Kent State University. Congressman Steven LaTourette used the space while campaigning, it was the first location of the Twinsburg Senior Center, and at one point a proposal to transform it into a perambulator museum was bounced around.
Exterior of vacant school building taken April 26, 2016.
All of Twinsburg’s current educational facilities except the new high school and the Kent State University Regional Academic Center were constructed in the mid-twentieth century, a time rampant with civil unrest and racial tensions. For those who attended area schools during this time, race relations were present, though subdued in comparison to other areas of the country. As is the case with most things though, time’s passage washed away much of the tension, as new students, new initiatives, and new administration came and went. As our world grows increasing diverse, so too does the student body. Individuals from all corners of the world converge amid the lockers and lunch tables, mirroring the melding of ethnicities, nationalities, ideologies, and opinions that occurs on the web on a daily basis. Today, most school-age students from the three communities attend school in one of five facilities:
Wilcox Primary (kindergarten through first grade)
Samuel Bissell (second and third grade)
George G. Dodge (fourth through sixth grade)
R. B. Chamberlin (seventh and eighth grade)
Twinsburg High (ninth through twelfth grade)
The newest addition to Twinsburg’s educational landscape is Kent State’s Regional Academic Center. It offers a less expensive alternative for college students from both Twinsburg and neighboring cities such as Oakwood and Bedford. The building is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified as a “green” building. Kent State University has had a presence in Twinsburg since 1991, when it began offering training and education to employees at the Chrysler stamping plant.
In 1967, to celebrate the Sesquicentennial of Twinsburg, the schools put on a production to commemorate the region’s anniversary. The production, coordinated by Richard T. Sunderland who was the Director of Music for Twinsburg Schools, featured children from virtually every grade.
In 1962 the First Congregational Church of Twinsburg authorized Miss Sarah Riley to search through 145 years of records concerning the church. The outcome was what they referred to in 1967 as “an interesting and very readable history of our church.”
In the winter of 1958 Jim Mirgliotta, an ironworker at the time, was working on a high-level bridge that connects Cuyahoga Falls to Akron, when the improperly installed falsework holding up part of the arch behind him became unhinged, causing the structure to nearly collapse. This sort of occurrence was commonplace in the era before OSHAA regulated the construction business. Danger lurked at every corner, often with little guarantee of a steady paycheck.
Mr. Mirgliotta, who was stranded 180 feet in the air at the time of the collapse without any safety apparatus to impede his fall, miraculously suffered no injuries. Following this near-death experience and tired of dealing with the instability and danger that comprise the life of an ironworker, Mirgliotta decided to start a company. So in 1959 with the help and advice of a good friend, he started Park Iron Erectors.
Just a short time later, in 1961, Mr. Mirgliotta and his wife Betty were able to purchase fifty percent of a struggling Cleveland-based steel erector company, Forest City Erectors. Prior to their purchase the business was a “sad affair” (Mirgliotta, 00:33:38). After buying out his partner in 1970, Jim sold fifty-one percent of Forest City Erectors to his wife Betty, thus qualifying it as a Woman owned, Female Business Enterprise (FBE). In 1980 the business was relocated to its current home in Twinsburg’s Industrial Park. A move that made great sense for the Mirgliotta’s who were among the first residents of Glenwood Acres when it opened in the 1950s.
Under the dual helm ship of Jim and Betty Mirgliotta the business prospered and is now one of the largest full service structural steel & construction material erection providers in the state of Ohio. They have been involved in the building and renovation of such Cleveland-area landmarks as First Energy Stadium, Cleveland Clinic, Medical Mart, and Cuyahoga County Hilton Hotel.
The Chrysler Plant was the catalyst for great expansion in Twinsburg, with the school system being second to none in its growth. In 1960 the Wilcox Elementary School opened to serve the community and its rapidly expanding student population.
Twinsburg’s first bank opened on November 11, 1912. On that morning its first president arrived to find a leading citizen, A.J. Brown, waiting for him so he could have the honor of opening the first account at the bank for his grandson. J.C. Leland Brown. His account was still active when the Twinsburg Banking Company published the story of their first 50 years in 1962.
The Twinsburg Village Police Department responded to a report of a disturbance at 9842 Chamberlin Road, about ten miles north of Akron, at 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 18, 1967. When the police arrived at the abandoned picnic spot they were greeted with flying bottles, rocks, and screams of “Here come the cops” from the members of numerous motorcycle gangs partaking in a raucous party. Members of the Sundowners, Roaring Twenties, Grim Reapers, Red Raiders, and Misfits were among the culprits, many of whom sported long hair, black leather jackets, earrings, swastikas, and German-type helmets.
Guns, liquior, insgnia, and other apparel reside in the custody of Twinsburg Police following the arrest of dozens of gang members.
Police reinforcements arrived from Portage and Summit counties, including officers from Hudson Township, Twinsburg Township, Bedford, Macedonia, Solon, Stow, and Tallmadge. Many of the officers were equipped with riot guns, but luckily, and surprisingly, when the reinforcements arrived the bikers decided to leave quietly. According to Police Chief Glenn Osborn, evidence confiscated included a .22 caliber pistol, a large assortment of knives, chains, blackjacks, and a swastika flag. Thirty-nine adults and five juveniles were arrested, with the adult perpetrators being taken to Summit County Jail, while the youngsters were turned over to the county’s detention center. Many of the officers on the scene expressed shock and dismay to find that a number of the bikers (including nine of the incarcerated) were female.
