I first learned of Schumacher because he is shown as the owner of the Old Stone Mill on an 1899 plat of the O&E Canal (via RailsAndTrails). That mill was originally built by Dr. Crosby in 1832. As Schumacher's oatmeal business grew, he built a sequence of larger mills. This Cascade Mills would have been one of them. His mill was part of the formation of Quaker Oats. The former-Quaker Oats Mill was the last one built in Akron.
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| hmdb Schumacher's Cascade Mills Marker The sandstone outline on the ground shows the mill's footprint circa 1880. It corresponds to the floor plan presented here, which shows the locations of mill activities. Explore inside the sandstone outline to find markers that indicate sections of the mill. At the markers you can create your own floor plan by using paper and chalk to make a rubbing of each room. [This is an older view of Cascade Mills because the boiler house and smokestack have been added for steam power.] |
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| uakron "When completed in 1876, the mill was turned by an iron water wheel 36 feet [11.0m] in diameter, having a ten-foot face and weighing 37 tons. The metal wheel stuck up above the ground about 18 feet, inside a semicircular housing—one that appears next to the 1876 photo [below] of the newly refurbished mill." "It was the weight of this water filling 48 buckets each revolution that turned the wheel, delivering all the power necessary to run Schumacher’s mill through a heavy leather belt 40 inches [1.0m] wide and 120 feet [36.6m] long." "But despite his dedication to state-of-the-art waterpower, Schumacher’s prescience is apparent in the tall smokestack that appears in photographs a decade later at the north end of the mill. Recognizing the advancing age of steam, Schumacher supplemented—indeed dwarfed—the output of his giant waterwheel with a modern steam-generating powerhouse. There is a very practical reason his decision, dictated by the laws of physics: The energy liberated by one ton of water falling one mile is about the same as that released by burning one pound of coal. The Cascade Mills burned in 1904, exposing the giant water wheel, which stood silently in the ruins for two decades before it was finally dismantled." |
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| 1876 photo via CascadeLocks "The first building constructed on the project site was The Cascade Grist Mill, it was built by in 1840 by William Mitchell. Ownership changed hands a few times before Ferdinand Schumacher purchased the mill in 1868. By 1876 he had invested heavily in the structure by constructing a state-of-the-art water power system, including a 36 foot 'overshot' wheel." |
And this is one of the photos that show the boiler house and smokestack.
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| uakron "Canal boats loading flour in the basin in front of Cascade Mills in the 1880s. Supplementing his waterpower, the mill now has a tall smokestack to generate steam." |
And this is the ruins of the waterwheel.
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| uakron |
On the base of this depiction of the water wheel that used to power the Cascade Mills, there are eight historical markers. Unfortunately, I cannot determine the order of the markers. The Schumacher's Cascade Mills Marker above is one of them. Following are others I have found that are located here.
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| Street View, May 2024 |
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| hmdb Ferdinand Schumacher's Cascade Mills Stood Here Marker Buried beneath your feet are the foundation stones of the Cascade Mills, a flour mill built in 1840. When Ferdinand Schumacher purchased the mill in 1868, its history became part of an early American big business, known today as Quaker Oats. Access to power and transportation benefited the mill. The Cascade Race powered the mill. The Ohio & Erie Canal provided the means to ship flour from the mill to markets in Ohio and as far away as New York and New Orleans. Judge King, along with William B. Mitchell, purchased Cascade Mills in 1840. King also brought the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal to Akron the same year. |
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| hmdb The Oatmeal King Marker The F. Schumacher Milling Company became Akron's largest business for its time, but it started small. A German immigrant, Schumacher arrived in Akron in 1851. He opened a toy and fancy goods store on Howard Street and then a grocery and drugstore on Market Street. Making oatmeal at the back of his grocery store, he slowly introduced Akron to this product that he knew from his German childhood. His fortunes turned when he filled a major oatmeal order for the Union Army during the Civil War, which he produced at his German Mills across North Street. With his success as a grain supplier, he added the Empire Barley Mills on Summit Street to supply the Army with pearl barley in 1863. Schumacher invented ways to process oats for commercial appeal. Operating from his grocery store, he invented a machine to cut oats, which he packed into small glass jars. In the 1870s, his mills launched fast-cooking rolled oats, produced by presoaking whole oats and then running them between rollers to create oat flakes. Schumacher had a strict belief in duty and temperance. He ran for governor of Ohio in 1883 on the Prohibition Party ticket, but lost by a landslide. As author W. D. Ellis wrote in The Cuyahoga in 1966, "Schumacher valued oatmeal as a 'good solid grain that grew good solid people.'" |
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| Digitally Zoomed |
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| hmdb Wheel Power Marker By 1876 Schumacher had modernized the mill and installed a new water wheel. His wheel, made of iron, was enormous in scale. It weighed 37 tons, measured 35 feet in diameter and 10 feet in width, and had 96 buckets that filled with water. The representation above you [see the above street view] matches the diameter of Schumacher's wheel, but is narrower. Gravity supplied the energy that turned the wheel. Water was directed from the Cascade Race to the buckets at the top of the wheel. The weight of the water in the buckets turned the wheel three and a half times a minute. An overshot wheel like Schumacher's was more efficient than the undershot wheels used by other mills in the valley. It made better use of the energy provided by falling water. A standpipe siphoned water from the race to the top of the wheel. |
I read (but now I can't find the reference) that this Cascade Mills' waterwheel was the World's Largest. Is that because this one in Troy was no longer working in 1876? Or are waterwheels like steam locomotives in that the largest depends on how you measure them? Note that this big waterwheel also used a standpipe. In this case, the source of the water pressure was from a nearby bluff of the Hudson River.
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| Yvonne Wall posted, cropped via Dennis DeBruler |
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| hmdb Becoming an American Company Marker Fires and mergers transformed Schumacher's Akron business into the major American company of Quaker Oats. Schumacher's empire peaked as an independent business in the 1880s. His Empire Mills had expanded into a major complex which included the German Mills, rebuilt after an 1872 fire, and the new eight-story Jumbo Mills, then the largest mill in the world. Trouble followed in 1886 when fire destroyed the complex and caused over $10 million damage in 2008 dollars. Schumacher could not afford to rebuild. After a series of mergers his company became the American Cereal Company. Personal financial trouble struck during the 1896 depression, causing Schumacher to lose his stock in the company. By 1901, with Schumacher no longer involved, the company became known as Quaker Oats. The Quaker trademark began with the Quaker Milling Company of Ravenna, Ohio. The F. Schumacher Milling Company merged with seven other companies, including Quaker Milling, as the American Cereal Company in 1891. After Schumacher lost his stock in the American Cereal Company, he founded a new company, the Schumacher Cereal Mills, with his sons in Iowa. While his business interests followed the agriculture to the Great Plains, he continued his affiliation with Akron, where he died in 1908. |
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| hmdb Made in Ohio, Produced for America Marker The Ohio & Erie Canal connected the Cascade Mills to markets in Ohio and beyond. Boats carried flour packed in barrels and paper bags north to Cleveland, or south to Portsmouth. In Cleveland, flour could be transferred to Lake Erie steamers for shipment to New York's Erie Canal and further east. From Portsmouth, it could be transported down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. This connection made flour produced in Akron available to the nation. In 1880, when Schumacher's business was near its peak, flour and meal represented Ohio's largest industry in terms of value of product produced, just edging out iron and steel. In the latter half of the 19th century, railroads began moving goods once shipped exclusively on the canal. Schumacher owned railroad yards in downtown Akron near present day Quaker Square Inn at The University of Akron. Even with railroads, some businesses still transported bulk goods by canal. The convenient location of the canal to Cascade Mills suggests that Schumacher continued to ship at least some flour by canal. |
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| hmdb The Legacy of Schumacher Marker The Cascade Mills, Cascade Race and the Ohio & Erie Canal were cornerstones of 19th-century industry. Each had their heyday, but were replaced as technology and business changed. Today the park allows for their rediscovery. Once the American Cereal Company shifted operations to Chicago, Akron's role dwindled. The Cascade Mills' role diminished to grain and flour storage. In 1904, it burned to the ground. Today the park outlines the buried foundation of the mill. Offering 10 times the power of water, steam ultimately made the Cascade Race obsolete. The race tunnel still exists underground and its route is traced here. Competition from railroads cut into the canal's business in the 1850s. Its transportation role ended in 1913 when record snowfalls and spring rains caused major flooding throughout Ohio. Citizens dynamited lock gates in Akron to allow water to disperse. Today the canal is visible along the Towpath Trail through Cascade Locks Park and other areas of the Ohio & Erie Canalway. |
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| Digitally Zoomed |
Here is another depiction of the mill along with Locks #13 and #14 and North Street at the bottom.
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| hmdb, Cascade Locks Mural by artist Don Getz courtesy of Cascade Locks Park Association The Canal Basin Marker This planted area depicts the original boundaries of a canal basin, the widening, turning, terminating, and waiting area for canal boats. Docks are indicated above ground level for cargo loading and unloading. Mills and shops needed canal transportation to bring materials and ship products to market. Canal boats picked up deliveries at the scheduled weekend. Water from the race collects in this area and is filtered by the wetland plants growing here. It provides a natural way to clean storm water. |
This is the location of the above marker. The brown grass would have been the basin, and the white lines in the grass mark the foundation walls of the mill.
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| Satellite |
A photo of the mill is available on a marker along the towpath trail.
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| hmdb via Dennis DeBruler |
This marker is not on the wheel's base. It is close to North Street in Cascade Park. (Detailed location below.)
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| hmdb Where's the Actual Mill Marker The University of Akron conducted archaeological research to locate the underground remains of the Cascade Mills and its water wheel. Local lore suggested that the iron water wheel was buried on this site. Archaeologists used electrical resistivity, a process where electrical currents indicate that something is buried in the soil, to locate parts of the mill. The sandstone rocks in front of you are the base of the mill's 125-foot brick chimney. Electrical resistivity also located the sandstone foundations of the power house and barrel house. Archaeologists were able to confirm that the wheel had been previously removed. |
This is the "Where's the Actual Mill" marker's location and the sandstone rocks referred to in the above marker.
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| Satellite |
This is the eighth, and thus final, marker on the wheel display base.
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| hmdb The Cascade Race Marker This tunnel opening is part of the Cascade Race, which powered the Cascade Mills. The tunnel runs under the park, crosses beneath North Street, and continues underground to the Little Cuyahoga River near the Mustill Store. Akron industrialist Eliakim Crosby created the Cascade Race in 1832. He diverted water from the Little Cuyahoga River to power his Old Stone Mill south of here near Mill Street. From the Old Stone Mill, the race flowed down the Cascade Valley, powering the Cascade Mills along with other mills, iron furnaces, a furniture factory, a distillery and a brewery. |
(These historical markers came from the search results of "https://www.hmdb.org/results.asp?Search=Place&?Search=Place&Town=Akron&State=Ohio".)
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