The glowing sky was bewildering. It was 2 a.m. Why was the sun shining?
As Akron residents wiped the sleep from their eyes, it dawned on them that something was terribly wrong. Shouts of “Fire!” filtered through downtown streets.
The eight-story Jumbo Mill, one of the largest oatmeal plants in the United States, was engulfed in flames, a towering disaster that the city was ill-equipped to handle. The March 6, 1886, catastrophe stunned the community and underlined the dire need for better fire protection in a rapidly growing city.
When Ferdinand Schumacher (1822-1908) went to bed a few hours earlier, he was the oatmeal king of Akron. He awoke to a hellish nightmare.
“It is indeed a bad thing,” Schumacher sobbed while gazing at the inferno at South Broadway and East Mill Street. “Just think of it: In two short hours, the work of my lifetime almost entirely swept away.”
The German immigrant built a cereal empire in a 35-year span. He moved to Akron in 1851 and began milling grains in 1856 because he missed the oatmeal of his native land. He opened the German Mill in 1859 at Howard and Market streets and landed a government contract to supply oatmeal to Union troops during the Civil War.
Success soon followed. Schumacher opened the Empire Mill on South Summit Street in 1863, bought the Cascade Mill on North Street in 1868 and built a new German Mill next to the Empire about 1872. His crowning glory was the Jumbo Mill, a gargantuan complex that he constructed on Broadway in 1884.
The milling operation employed nearly 200 workers and produced 2,000 barrels per day of oats, wheat, barley, rye, corn and other grains. The works included a drying house, grain elevator, boiler house and office building.
The 1886 blaze, described in Akron newspapers as “the most disastrous conflagration that has ever befallen the city” and “the most fearful fire of all,” ignited in the drying house in the early hours of March 6.
Fire Chief Benjamin F. Manderbach and his 12-man department responded to the shrill alarm with everything they had: two steamers, three hose carts and one truck.
They tapped fireplugs near the block but water pressure was weak and the squad had a terrible time getting a bead on the fire. The hose repeatedly burst and had to be replaced with new hoses. Drawn to the flickering light, thousands of newly awakened spectators watched as the blaze spread from building to building.
“With its tons of the best and most improved machinery, its costly beltings and shaftings, it was mown down like grain before the sickle, absolutely disappeared like a whiff of smoke,” the Akron Daily Beacon reported. “About three o’clock, every window in the great structure glowed with flame.”
The roaring inferno climbed 200 feet above the city’s highest church steeples. The fire department telegraphed for assistance from Canton, Kent and Cleveland, which all sent engines but had difficulty supplying water because many hoses did not fit the Akron fireplugs.
When the eight-story building collapsed, it sounded like a cannon blast. The fire gutted the Jumbo Mill, German Mill, drying house, grain elevator, office building and the adjacent home of widow Jane Russell, who escaped to safety.
“Everything combustible was licked up by the flames and the disemboweled structures melted away into a chaotic mass leaving nothing but a heap of ruins to make the site of what, but a few hours before, was the witness of a gigantic industry and financial enterprise,” the Akron Sunday Telegram reported.
Firefighters worked valiantly to spare the Universalist and Grace Reformed churches and Windsor Hotel. As flames closed in on the Empire Mill, the weary brigade maintained a stream of water on the structure.
“Boys, if you save that mill, you save me,” Schumacher beseeched.
By the light of morning, the milling complex was a total loss — except for the Empire Mill, which stood defiantly among the smoking ruins. It was a miracle that no one was killed or seriously injured in the blaze.
“It is a sad affair but it can’t be helped now,” Schumacher said. “We must do the best we can.”
Damage was estimated at $1 million — about $34 million today. The loss was magnified when Schumacher, a frugal man, admitted that he had insured the complex for only $113,500 because he believed the buildings were fireproof.
“I did not want to pay the exorbitant rates that were charged as it was a fearful price,” he explained.
Traumatized by the disaster, the oatmeal king contemplated stepping back from the business.
“I do not care to further involve myself,” Schumacher told the Daily Beacon as the Jumbo Mill still smoldered. “I will be content to run on my other mills and live as best I can. I can pay all debts, get square with the world and I do not propose to again involve myself.”
A month after the fire, though, Akron Milling Co. owners Alexander Commins and Albert Allen agreed to consolidate their operation with Schumacher under the name Schumacher Milling Co. In 1891, that company merged with the American Cereal Co. in a conglomerate that renamed itself Quaker Oats a decade later.
The Jumbo Mill fire spurred Akron officials to take action. The city issued bonds to build a new engine house and purchase a new hook-and-ladder truck and modern equipment.
There would be other fires, of course, but the city would be better prepared for emergencies.
“Just look at it,” Schumacher sighed while surveying the lost mill in 1886. “What can happen to a man in two hours.”
Copy editor Mark J. Price is the author of the book Lost Akron from The History Press. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 and mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.