Ancient of Hibernians in Akron

In early 1953, Joseph Fenton, an employee of the Akron Beacon Journal began to contact a number of the Irish in the Akron area for the purpose of forming a division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Mr. Fenton was originally from County Kerry, Ireland. With the help of such Irishmen as Mark Heffernan, James Flanagan, Captain Steve McGowan, Will Maloy, William Shaughnessy, Joe Aylward, Bill Quigley, Mike Conway, and others, the premliminary work was started. A number of meetings were held at St. Bernard's Church and the Mayflower Hotel in order to obtain an A.O.H. Charter for Summit County.

The Division #1 Charter was changed to the Dublin Division #2 A.O.H. of Summit County, Ohio on September 18, 1954, and all State and National A.O.H. records were confirmed. In 1969, the name was changed again to Mark Heffernan Division, A.O.H. Summit County, Ohio. This was done in honor of Mark Heffernan, who died December 1, 1968 at the age of 57, the first president of the Division formed in 1953.

Since then, there exist two Ancient Order of Hibernians Division in Summit County, the Mark Heffernan Division #2 and St. Brendan’s Division.