A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

Chapter 23 Powel Crosley, Jr., a Man for All SeasonsPowel Crosley, Sr. was born in Warren County, Ohio, December 25, 1849. A sharp and curiouschild, he reached the pinnacle of the education available in Springboro. The Crosley name can be tracedto England in the thirteenth century. The first Crosley in Ohio was Moses (1764-1843), a RevolutionaryWar veteran from Maryland, who settled in Warren County. His wife was Rachel Powel. Their son,William (born 1785), had a farm on the Warren/Montgomery County border. He was a successfulmanufacturer of gunpowder. One of his descendants, Bertha, married Indiana resident Edmund Burle Ballof the fruit jar fortune.Powel, Sr. 19 “...was eleven when the Civil War broke out, and, being a good reader, would oblige theneighboring farmers by reading newspaper accounts of the war to them. His two older brothers, WilliamJ. and Luken S. Crosley, served in the war. William was captured at the Battle of Fisher’s Creek and wasin Libby Prison.”Finances denied the senior Powel a college education so he started his own systematic self educationwhile teaching in local Warren County schools. He taught for about four years and left to go to St. Louisto accept a job as a bookkeeper in a department store chain. He flourished in his new career but in 1874he left to attend law school at Michigan State University. After graduation in 1876 he settled inCincinnati, working as a lawyer and land speculator. He was in charge of Pike’s Opera House for manyyears, obtaining a perpetual lease from the Pike estate. This lease was taken over when the opera houseburnt, was torn down and on this site the Sinton Hotel was built. Crosley, Sr. was one of the developers ofNorwood and a street there is named after him. He also had an interest in radio, owning stock inMarconi’s company.Powel Crosley, Jr. was born in Walnut Hills, September 18, 1886. The family moved to College Hillwhere Powel, Jr., when he was seven, attended the O.M.I. and was captivated by racing cars. In 1898, atage 12, Crosley, Jr. built a four-wheeled wagon that ran on an electric motor.A profile of the Crosley, Sr. household can be glimpsed in the 1910 Census. Powel Sr. was a lawyerand owned the house without a mortgage. In addition to his wife Charlotte, there were Powel Jr. who wasa sales manager in the automotive industry, and his siblings Edith (1897-1989) and Louis were attendingschool. There were no servants. Edith later married Albert B. C. Chatfield. She worked as one of herbrother’s first secretaries. The Chatfield name is part of Cincinnati’s past. It is associated with both paperand the manufacture of coal tar and asphalt products. For a time during their marriage Edythe and Albertlived in the Davey mansion.Louis Crosley married Lucy Johnson, a relative of the Henshaw’s, and their daughter, Charlotte,married Bud Runck. Their son, Reno Runck, has lived in and restored the Upson and Witherby houses.The Crosley’s other child, Ellen, married William McClure.Powel Crosley, Jr. married Gwendolyn Aiken, daughter of Walter Aiken and Lucy Avery. He livedon Davey Avenue in the house next to the Cummings family. This was the house built by NewboldPierson that he later sold after going bankrupt. Here is where Crosley Jr.’s first children were born, PowelCrosley III and Page. Gwendolyn played the piano and organ and was an accomplished musician.Powel’s enthusiasm for auto racing was quenched by an automobile accident but he wasn’t turnedaway from cars. He started to build his first car in 1908, the Marathon Six, in Connersville, Indiana but hecouldn’t raise the capital to go into production. In 1916 he started his second try at car production. Theventure failed. He marketed a gasoline additive called Gasatronic. He borrowed $500 from his father andpurchased the American Automobile Accessory Company. Their products included a tire linermanufactured from old tires, a car starter and an attachment to the radiator cap hood ornament of the FordModel T’s that would hold a small flag. His timing was good for patriotism surged during W.W. I and hisflag holders made him his first million.19 Cincinnati’s Powel Crosley, Jr., Joseph M. Rice, 1976, privately published.146