7 March 1923: This Day in History...Alliance Rubber Band Co.

Thank you to Rebecca Goodman and Barrett J. Brunsman for the following:

On this day in Ohio history, William H. Spencer of Stark County began buying rejected inner tubes from Akron's Goodyear Company and cutting them into bands in the basement of his Alliance home.

Spencer, a brakeman for the Pennsylvania Railroad, then began selling his rubber bands to office supply stores and paper and twine outlets.

While rubber bands were invented 78 years earlier, Spencer revolutionized their use.  His big break came when he noticed The Akron Beacon Journal blowing across lawns.  He persuaded The Beacon Journal to bind its product with his rubber bands, and it became the first newspaper in the world to do so for home delivery.  He then talked The Tulsa World into doing the same.  He also persuaded grocers to use his rubber bands instead of string to secure produce.

Spencer continued working for the railroad for 14 years while building his rubberband business at his Alliance plant.  Today, his Alliance Rubber Company is the largest producer of rubber bands in the world.  It makes 17.3 billion rubber bands a year, in addition to other office, mailing and packaging products.  Its products are sold in more than 30 countries.  Spencer died in 1986, age 94.  His company's headquarters were relocated to Arkansas in 1990.

SO... what on earth does this have to do with Northeast Ohio genealogy?  Well, in honor of all of those Plain Dealers that were wrapped in Mr. Spencer's rubber bands for so many years, today we highlight a fantastic database known as The Cleveland Necrology File.  This database was produced from a microfilmed copy of an alphabetical card file containing local cemetery records and newspaper death notices gathered by the staff of the Cleveland Public Library.

You can read all about it and begin your search here. Happy hunting!