Did you know yo-yos have a link to Coshocton?
What child’s toy originated in Greece and China and was sold in the United States by Pedro Edralin Flores?
If you answered the yo-yo, you guessed right. Who would have thought the first yo-yo manufacturing company in the United States was begun by someone buried right here in South Lawn Cemetery in Coshocton in Section K Lot Two?
His is an interesting back story. Born in Vintar, Llocos Norte in the Philippines, April 26, 1896, he married Edria Myers on June 6, 1931, and lived in Coshocton for 26 years, where he died in December 1963.
In addition, we find Pedro in the 1940 Census as a councilman way over in District 9 of Los Angeles County. While in California he attended Cal Berkeley and Hastings College in Santa Barbara. However, he did not complete his education because we find him applying for and receiving a certificate on June 9, 1928, to conduct business for a yo-yo manufacturing company he founded in downtown Santa Barbara in the historic Granada Building.
There he made a dozen yo-yos by hand and started selling them in the local area. Four months later, he sold 2,000. He modified the yo-yo so the string looped around the axle instead of being attached to it, allowing it to spin. The invention led to yo-yo contests and events across the country. The popularity reached a peak worldwide in the 1960s.
Pedro’s idea attracted two investors, James and Daniel Stone of Los Angeles, which allowed him to buy equipment for two additional factories. Four months later he produced 300,000 yo-yos per day and employed more than 600 workers. All interest was sold to Donald Duncan, Sr. for more than $250,000. Duncan renamed his purchase The Duncan Yo-Yo Company.
The company’s profile says Duncan introduced the loop and slip-string, but that is wrong, according to the Museum of Yo-Yo History. Flores invented the motion before it was sold.
Pedro Edralin Flores was survived by his wife; a stepson, Delinar Walters of Warren, Michigan; and three step-grandchildren.
Did you know there’s an American Association Hall of Fame in which Pedro is known as the father of the modern yo-yo? This information is according to Lucky Meisenheimer, author of “Lucky’s Collection Guide to 20th Century Yo-Yos.”
Pedro’s wife, Edria Beatrice Myers Walters Flores Bainter, died when she was 92 on April 12, 2002, at the Hill Crest North Nursing Home in Knoxville, Tennessee. She was born Oct. 11, 1908, in Coshocton and moved to Canton with her parents when she was 3. She was well known in Coshocton and played piano in local bands. In later years she worked in a dress shop until she retired at age 73. Her father, Arthur Myers, was born in 1886 in New Philadelphia. Her grandfather, Lewis Myers, was born in 1846 and is buried in Waggoner Cemetery in Coshocton.
After a little searching, I located a marriage certificate for Edria in West Virginia when she married Delmar Walters in 1927. (Researching all those marriage was overwhelming.)
So when you see a yo-yo, remember the role Pedro Flores played in its popularity.