The 38-year-old founder, Industrialist and entrepreneur Franklin Augustus Seiberling, purchased the company’s first plant with a $3,500 down payment — using money he borrowed from his brother-in-law, Lucius C. Miles. The company originally manufactured bicycle and carriage tires, rubber horseshoe pads, and poker chips. The bicycle craze of the 1890s was booming. The horseless carriage — some ventured to call it the automobile — was a wide-open challenge.

The Ohio Savings and Trust Company building (front) and Goodyear Hall – Completed in 1920, the industrial university and recreational institution was developed by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for the welfare of its employees / Image: via wikipedia.org

Seiberling named his fledgling rubber goods manufacturing company “Goodyear” to honor Charles Goodyear, the man who invented the vulcanization process for curing rubber. Seiberling founded the company with his brother, Charles Willard, because of their desire to participate in an enterprise that afforded an “opportunity for invention.” Incorporated in 1898, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company rapidly grew with the young automotive industry and helped establish Akron as the “Rubber Capital of the World.”

**View of Goodyear factory and former headquarters complex / Image: via coalcampusa.com (see more)**

This historical marker is located in front of the former headquarters building for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company at 1144 E. Market St. in Akron. The company opened a new global headquarters building in Akron in 2013 / Image: waymarking.com

⇒ Watch Goodyear Sign Akron, Ohio

Featured Image: The first Goodyear factory opened in Akron, Ohio, in 1898 / Image: via twitter.com

Websites: goodyear.com, goodyeartheater.com