I have been on the coleman collectors site for many years now and just never set up an account here. Well I finally did it and so glad I did. The amount of knowledge here is second to none! I look forward to getting to know many of you and I am sure there are many here that already know me. I have been a collector for almost 10 years now with a collection of about 300+ items. I started out getting all the kerosene models I could find. When I started to get to the expensive ones I expanded my interest to most all gas pressure appliances and took a liking to radiant heaters and lanterns made before 1925. I also started to like the lamps more and more as I found original shades and older torch light models. I have a few items to add to the reference library but that will come with time and better pictures on my end. I enjoy using my lamps and lanterns the most and take at least 10 with me every camping trip. My coleman 319 has been on many road trips along with my coleman ARC lanterns. To me the older the better! My all time favorite brand is Akron lamp company mainly because I live about 20 miles from where they were made. For those of you that went to the convention in Ohio this year I was the one who put the Akron display up. Greg
Welcome Greg . Glad you shifted here to broaden your knowledge of Lamps Lanterns etc . Plenty of stuff here to find to . Bob .
If you like Akron then you might be interested in Jay C Steese who was owner of the company. I have just finished researching his family and discovered what the C is. He was registered at birth Ceylon J Steese. He is on the 1880 census as John Steese and in 1900 and 1910 Jay C. So he was actually Ceylon John Steese but they changed that to John C and then in the family probably JC which became Jay C. Ceylon is an odd choice of name and I can't find a previous family member called Ceylon. Odd to call a child after a place many thousands of miles away. Got to be a story there but I can't find it. ::Neil:: Just had another hunt and discovered there are three Villages/townships called Ceylon in the US largest is Minnesota but there is also a Ceylon in Ohio and it is likely that the family had some conection with that place rather than Sri Lanka. ::Neil::
I did a bunch of research on the Akron lamp company and Steese about 3 years ago and found some really interesting stuff. I enjoy local history a lot. I won't say your wrong Neil but I will add what I remember without digging through some old paperwork. The original city park in Akron was donated by JC's father and the park is still there today. I was under the impression that JC was born in Akron so I'm not sure of a connection with a place an hour away but the Steese family could have had a summer cottage on lake Erie which was very popular back then. At one point I called JC's grandson who just happened to be the last family owner of a local dairy farm that supplies milk to most of my area. I might just have to give him a call again and see if I can get any information. The first time I talked with him he didn't really seem to want to be bothered by it but it might have been my approach. I think he is an older gentleman and wasn't sure about a random person calling and asking a bunch of questions. When steese was younger he was heavily involved in the local bicycle club that is still active today. He was also good friends with many of the founding fathers of Akron. In fact the factory was right in the heart of it all and had Firestone as a neighbor. I will see what else I can find in my paperwork. I know I have a picture of his home somewhere. I need to put an ad in my local newspaper asking for old company information. I also need to go to the newspaper and see if I can find any old articles about the family or company.
It was just that normally when a place name is used as a family name it means there is some historical connection to that place. It is perhaps likely that the connection goes back further than we can trace the family through the US census and other on line records. It may well be that the family might know something of that "lost" history of course because often family stories get passed on but are not in any officil record. What I have has been gathered from Census information and an on line family tree which confirms much of the official records. There was also a couple of newspaper articles and an obituary for Jay C. As always there is much detail that I don't add into the PLC so I tend to give basic information on the family background only. I was aware that his father and father in law had donated the land for the park and that he had won medals for cycling. I am sure I recall reading that the Steese and Thornton families owned a serious chunk of Akron in the mid 1800s so Jay came from an influential family and married into another. With local connections you are always going to be better placed to dig out more info on the company and family. Mind you not all families like it because they feel it is an intrusion into private family concerns. I know I have had two promising leads cut off because a family matriarch forbade her children from talking to me and sharing info on her father. Still I will be interested to see what you find. PM me with an email address and I will share with you what I have. ::Neil::
