I was in Akron, Ohio, today doing research and thanks to the wonderful librarians of the Akron-Summit County Public Library I was shown an unpublished manuscript. It was a history of Akron motorcycling written by Akron resident Jack Morris. The book was nearly an encyclopedia of Akron motorcycling filled with amazing photos, newspaper clippings, old advertisements, racing results and just about anything you can think of spanning 100 years of history. It was one of the most amazing historical finds I’ve ever happened across.

I reached Jack, who is around 80 years old, and he was thrilled someone was interested in his manuscript that he completed nearly five years ago. He gladly granted me permission to copy the book and share its contents to all. After nearly three hours of scanning the manuscript it is now secure and digitally backed up. This is important to preserve the book for future generations.

I will make the book available to anyone interested at no charge on CD in PDF format (it’s too large to email). Simply email me at lawrencemedia@hotmail.com. It is nearly 300 pages and is laid out by hand in a scrapbook style. If I understood Jack correctly it took him 15 months to put this book together and that was after years of collecting stories that would lead him in his research.

It will take me months to go through all the info in the book. If you’re from Akron and want to know about your city’s history as it pertains to motorcycling this is the book to have. It’s also a great research tool for historians showing all the dealers and brands ever sold in the town complete with newspaper and Yellow Pages ads those dealers put out over the years.

Again a special thanks to Jack Morris for taking the time to assemble this collection and to the Akron-Summit County Library for preserving and making the manuscript available.

Here are a couple of pages from the manuscript, the first showing the participants of an AMA Hillclimb sometime in the 1950s and the second scenes from Akron motorcycling in the 1910s.

AMA Hillclimb competitors at a meet in Peninsula, Ohio sometime in the 1950s. Two of the best known hillclimbers in this photo are Earl Buck and Howard Mitzel.

An Akron dealership and Akron motorcycle couriers from the 1910s. From the Jack Morris Akron Motorcycling History book.