Stan Hywet hosts super-sized reunion
Seiberling descendents congregate
in the service courtyard before the group photo shot.
More than 400 people attended the family reunion last
weekend.
Seiberling
family members Chris Seiberling, Mike Goverman, Nate
Seiberling and Kyle Dobrenko, all of Sharon, Mass.,
get together in front of the Manor House at Stan Hywet.
The
grandchildren of Stan Hywet’s F.A. Seiberling
gather for a group portrait in front of the Manor House
July 16. Photos: Fred Durr
Seiberlings gather from 32 states
for event
By Kathleen Folkerth
WEST AKRON — There are family reunions, and then there are Seiberling family reunions.
Members of the family, which has so many ties to Akron, celebrated during the weekend as they met one another and made connections between the many branches of their family tree.
According to Harriet Chapman,
of West Akron, the great-granddaughter
of F.A. Seiberling, 430 people from 32 states and the
District of Columbia attended the reunion, which took
place at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens, the former home
of F.A Seiberling.
“It was a great weekend,” said Mary Chapman, of West Akron, a granddaughter of F.A. and Gertrude Seiberling, and Harriet’s mother. “We had an awful lot of nice people who are relatives that we got to meet.”
“It was great to have it in Akron,” added Harriet Chapman. “People enjoyed the city and enjoyed learning about the history. It was a privilege to have it at Stan Hywet.”
Smaller reunions of family members
have taken place over the years, but this is the first
time there has been a reunion
of this magnitude, Harriet Chapman said.
She said 162 attendees were from
Ohio. Other states with the most family members attending
were North Carolina, Iowa, Pennsylvania, New York and
Florida.
The event also attracted distant
relatives the Arnold family, of Germany, whom the Chapmans
met while on a trip to Germany to visit the birthplace
of Michael Sauberlich — who headed to the United
States in 1741 and changed his last name to Seiberling.
The reunion was meant to mark
the 265th anniversary of his arrival in Philadelphia
after a trip on the ship Molly.
Brothers F.A. and C.W. Seiberling,
the co-founders of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., were
the great-great-great-great-grandsons of Michael Seiberling.
The Chapmans are among a group
of family members who descended from
Nathan Seiberling and took on the planning of the reunion.
Cousin Lois Maston, of Colorado Springs, Colo., headed
up the project.
Nathan Seiberling arrived in
Norton in 1830 and built a home on Greenwich Road. Nathan
had 15 children, according to Harriet Chapman, and F.A.
and C.W. were his grandsons.
About a year ago, reunion planners
set the date and made arrangements with Stan Hywet officials
for the event. The goal was to find family members descended
from Michael, the first American Seiberling.
Relatives started arriving July
14, and activities were scheduled for July 15 and 16.
On July 15, tours were given of the Cuyahoga Valley
National Park. In 1974, Rep. John Seiberling, the area’s
representative in Congress, successfully introduced
a bill that resulted in
a section of the Cuyahoga Valley becoming a National
Park Service unit called the Cuyahoga Valley National
Recreation Area. In 2000 it became a National Park.
Tours of sites significant to
the family, such as Seiberling Street and Goodyear headquarters,
also were offered, as were tours of Akron. The day concluded
with a banquet at the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn.
The day July 16 began with a
photo shoot. All attendees gathered in the brick service
courtyard near the Manor House for a group shot.
Throughout the day, entertainment
was provided by the Goodyear Band, and a vintage baseball
game took place on the grounds.
Harriet Chapman said it was amazing
to see connections being made between relatives who
didn’t know each other before the weekend.
“We had people who
were really interested in finding
out who their ancestors were to give their children
a sense of history,” Chapman said. “This
really put the family history in context.”
She added that the grounds of
Stan Hywet provided a wonderful backdrop for the weekend.
“People from out of town
were very impressed and very interested to know that
it had been built in Akron and survived,” she
said. “It put into context who this person was
who founded Goodyear.”
Harriet Chapman said attendees
discussed the possibility of another large reunion in
five years.
“Maybe if someone else
plans it,” said Mary Chapman.
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