It's ThrowBackThursday! We present the remarkable life of "The Unstoppable Garrett Morgan -- Inventor, Entrepreneur, Hero" who had ties to Middletown
It seems only fitting on this “ThrowBack Thursday” in “Black History Month” -- just one day after MidPointe Library officially opened its first “Makerspace” for would-be inventors, artisans and crafters -- that we honor one of the country’s most esteemed African American innovators...who just happens to have ties to Ohio, including the city of Middletown.
That “very astute businessman and inventor” is the late Cleveland, Ohio, resident Garrett A. Morgan, perhaps best known as “the first black to receive a patent for a safety hood and smoke protector” that allowed soldiers in World War I, as well as local firefighters, to breathe safely in smoke-filled surroundings.
Biographies of Morgan (1875-1963) recall that he and his brother actually put those safety hoods to use when, in 1916, they rescued two men from a tunnel that had exploded under Lake Erie.
In 1923, again with safety in mind, Morgan became the “first to patent a three-way automatic traffic signal...” He eventually sold the patent to General Electric and “became known as a very astute businessman and inventor.” Two illustrations of the traffic light accompany this article.
Crout recalled that when Morgan came through Middletown in 1925… “he was stopped at the corner of Central and Broad, then the busiest corner, by the city’s first traffic light. The next time he came through the city, Morgan found 14 such signals in operation…”
Morgan’s link to Middletown was explained by the late local Historian George Crout in one of his popular “Middletown Diary” columns. It appeared in the August 20, 1977, Middletown Journal.
Crout wrote :“...Garrett Morgan is a frequent visitor to Middletown and usually stays overnight at the home of Mrs. Amanda Morgan on Clinton Street, and then has a chance to visit other members of the family,” including a cousin, Allan Morgan...”
By this time Garrett had “already become known as one of the leading black inventors in America,” Crout reported.
George Crout
“In fact, every time a person is signaled to stop or proceed in traffic by a blinking red, yellow or green light on the corner, he is under the control of one of Garrett Morgan’s inventions,” the local historian continued. “It was he who designed and built the automatic stop light, considered the most important traffic control device in the world.”
“Middletonians who have met the inventor say he is a very unassuming person,” Crout wrote. “Naturally he is very energetic. He is a likeable person and has a splendid personality. He is always trying to encourage people to make new plans and to try new ideas. He believes that everyone should learn a trade or skill so that he may be self-sustaining...”
A longtime Middletown educator, Crout pointed out that “this trait runs through the whole Morgan family, which is always striving for self-improvement. The Morgan family believes in education as a means of providing a better future...”
He concluded his column by referring to “...several other black families who have made significant contributions to the city's growth. Among these are the Pattersons, Wills, Bakers, Barnabys, Childs, Hunters, Johnsons, Strongs, Goods, Prices, Williams, Lunsfords, McBains, Holmes and others.”
