We’re looking back today, but not too far back.
Here are a couple of updates on local history stories that were featured recently in This Place, This Time, plus a new mystery that a knowledgeable librarian solved in record time.
See you next week, history fans. Same “this place,” same “this time.”
What a matinee!
Kathleen Edwards said her father, Jack Haag, was one of those boys who, at the age of 9, saw stripper Gypsy Rose Lee perform in October 1941 at the Palace Theater in Akron.
“Almost every Saturday, he took the bus downtown and watched the matinees,” she explained. “Little did he know that he was about to see the show of his young life.
“According to my dad, he was in the balcony or rear of the theater. At the end of that movie, Miss Lee came out and did her thing. Imagine his surprise when this lady appeared, and started to peel off articles of clothing. He was entranced by this whole operation and decided that for the next movie, he ought to move down a little closer. So he did, right into the front row.”
At the close of the next feature, Lee came out and repeated her motions. She spotted young Jack in the audience and called him out. “Well, who is this cute young man in the front? What’s your name?”
“Quite the day for a young North Hill boy,” Edwards said. “And he couldn’t wait to get home so he could tell his mother just what kind of day he had.”
Fortunately, Haag’s mother, Mary Jane Haag, had a sense of humor about such things, Edwards said.
“As my dad described this pretty lady, kinda taking her clothes off, but not really, my grandmother listened as she made supper, her shoulders shaking a little to suppress her laughter,” Edwards said. “You are so right that it was a more innocent time.”
Jack Haag, a U.S. Air Force veteran, Kent State graduate and founder of SGS Tool, died in 2012 at age 80. Mary Jane Haag, a registered nurse for 30 years at St. Thomas Hospital and the widow of Ollie J. Haag, died in 2009 at age 107.
“Thanks for bringing up a happy family story,” Edwards said.
Closing the book
Akron resident Beatrice Woolridge has found a good home for the 19th century Bible from the Warner family of Coventry Township.
Her parents discovered the book in the 1950s when they bought a furnished home on Fifth Avenue in East Akron, and she wanted to return it to a rightful heir.
After an item appeared in this column, Beatrice received several inquiries about the Bible.
She decided to turn it over to family genealogist Kyle Warner, a North Carolina man who is a direct descendant of the Warners listed inside the front cover.
“I appreciate the effort that you put in this on my behalf,” Woolridge told the Beacon Journal. “Thank you very much.”
Warner, the lucky recipient, said it was a “beautiful surprise” to find the family heirloom waiting for him when he returned home from work. He looks forward to using the information in the book to fill in gaps in the family’s story.
“I love the fact that you publish mini-mysteries for the public to help solve,” Warner said.
Beyond the grave
Speaking of mysteries, Cuyahoga Falls resident James G. Hudkins asked us to help finding a grave from an infamous murder.
Happy to oblige, Jim.
In April 1853, James Parks robbed and killed William Beatson near Bailey Road along the Cuyahoga River in Cuyahoga Falls.
“Taking Beatson’s money, Parks cut off Beatson’s head, and disposed of the body in the river,” Hudkins explained. “Parks was arrested, but the trial was held in Cuyahoga County, where he was found guilty and executed.”
When Hudkins gave a public presentation on the case, a woman in the audience asked: What became of Beatson’s body? Hudkins was unable to answer. He contacted Cuyahoga Falls officials, but the records didn’t go back that far.
“Sometime I would like to find, and visit Beatson’s grave [if any], and be able to put an end to the search,” Hudkins wrote. “Perhaps you could look into this and find the answer.”
We turned to Akron-Summit County Public Library’s Special Collections Division for help. Librarian Rebecca Larson-Troyer searched a database from the Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society and found the answer.
Thanks, Rebecca!
Beatson is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Cuyahoga Falls. Section 5, Lot 872, Grave 3.
Well, at least three-quarters of him, anyway.
Beacon Journal 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 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.