Background
He was born on October 6, 1859 on a farm in Summit County, Ohio, United States, near the village of Western Star, the son of John Franklin Seiberling and Catherine L. Miller Seiberling.
(Exhibition catalogue of the artist's 1971 exhibition at M...)
Exhibition catalogue of the artist's 1971 exhibition at Marlborough Gallery New York. Includes introductory text by Frank Seiberling, and black and white reproductions of 16 works. Also includes artist's biography and list of exhibitions up to 1971.
https://www.amazon.com/Julius-Schmidt-Recent-Sculptures-1967-1971/dp/0897971892?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0897971892
inventor manufacturer promoter
He was born on October 6, 1859 on a farm in Summit County, Ohio, United States, near the village of Western Star, the son of John Franklin Seiberling and Catherine L. Miller Seiberling.
After attending public schools in Akron, to which the family moved in 1865, Seiberling entered Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, in 1875. Two years later, a student prank led to his dismissal.
He worked for his father, an inventor and manufacturer of agricultural implements. When his father's firm, the Empire Mower Works, was reorganized as the J. F. Seiberling Company in 1884, he became secretary-treasurer.
During the next decade Seiberling entered into a variety of businesses, most of them in the Akron area. In particular, he was associated with the Akron, Bedford and Cleveland Railroad (later the Northern Ohio Traction and Light Company). This electric line, which he helped form in 1895, became the prototype of the modern interurban railway.
The depression of the 1890's, cutthroat competition, and labor unrest led to the collapse of the J. F. Seiberling Company in 1898. While in Chicago collecting unpaid accounts, Seiberling learned of the availability of an abandoned plant site in east Akron. Although he lacked definite plans for the buildings, he arranged to buy them.
He soon decided to enter the rubber business and subsequently organized the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Although plagued with a myriad of legal and financial problems, the firm survived. A favorable court decision on a patent suit in May 1902 increased demands for rubber products, and Seiberling's drive and business acumen contributed to the company's success.
By 1905 Goodyear was the nation's largest manufacturer of carriage tires, and a decade later it became the world's largest producer of automobile tires. Seiberling's inventive skills also aided his company. From 1910 to 1920 Seiberling expanded his rubber operations. During that period Goodyear was the first company in the industry to start a Canadian plant (1910); first to acquire its own textile mill (1913); first to establish its own rubber and cotton plantations (1916); first to operate its own coal mines (1917); and first to build a West Coast tire factory (1920). Seiberling acquired control of the Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad and upgraded it to provide his Akron plants with better and cheaper service. He also acquired a seventy-mile grain-carrying shortline in North Dakota, the Midland Continental.
He founded the East Akron Land Company to boost the earnings potential of the AC and Y and organized the Fairlawn Heights Company, to provide homes for his white-collar employees, and the Goodyear Heights Allotment Company, to house his factory workers.
The recession that followed World War I caused Seiberling's financial empire to crumble, and late in 1921 the New York investment house of Dillon, Read forced him from Goodyear. Undaunted, Seiberling launched a new tire firm, the Seiberling Rubber Company, with plants in Barberton, Ohio, and New Castle, Pa. Although no longer with Goodyear he provided the driving power behind that company's reorganization in 1927, an event that helped to rebuild his financial fortunes by giving value to his common stock.
Seiberling remained active in the rubber industry until February 3, 1950, when he retired as chairman of the board and director of the Seiberling Rubber Company. A joiner and organizer, Seiberling supported the Lincoln Highway Association and the good-roads movement. He was a founder of the national Better Business Bureau and actively served the Rubber Manufacturers' Association.
He died in Akron, Ohio. Stan Hyet Hall, his multimillion-dollar mansion, remains a major Ohio tourist attraction.
Frank Seiberling is most famous for co-founding the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and the Seiberling Rubber Company. Besides, he was coinventor of a tire-building machine and developed the straight-side tire, he perfected the detachable rim and pioneered development of the cord tire. He financed the first Melvin Vaniman transatlantic expedition and had his Goodyear plant build the airship Akron. He helped create such local institutions as the Akron Institute for the Blind, the Akron Settlement Association, the People's Hospital, and the Metropolitan Park Board. In 1985, he was inducted into the Tire Industry Hall of Fame as a member of its inaugural class.
(Exhibition catalogue of the artist's 1971 exhibition at M...)
He supported the conservative wing of the Republican party, in the belief that it best represented his business ideals.
Long called the "Little Napoleon" of the rubber industry because of his short stature (five feet, three inches) and his ambition, Seiberling enjoyed being a businessman. He was bright and articulate, and a man of great vision - although it would seem that at times he could not foresee financial danger.
He married Gertrude F. Penfield, daughter of a wealthy Willoughby, Ohio, clay products manufacturer, on October 12, 1887. They had six children.
