As Akron celebrates its bicentennial in 2025, we’re looking back at two centuries of headlines.

Visit BeaconJournal.com every Sunday morning throughout the bicentennial year for a look back at the week in Akron history.

Here’s what happened the week of Sept. 21 in local history:

1825: Ozias Bowen and Laurin Dewey prepared to print the inaugural edition of the Portage Journal, the first newspaper published in the present city limits of Akron. The printing press was transported from Cleveland to Middlebury in a couple of two-horse wagons. Subscriptions cost $2 a year for the four-column newspaper. Bowen’s nephew Hiram Bowen would found the Summit Beacon, forerunner of the Beacon Journal, in 1839.

1875: Aeronaut J.C. Johnston of Northampton Township launched the hot air balloon “Summi

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