The soft and curled, or crisped covering or coat of domesticated sheep and some other animals which constitutes, next to cotton, the most important material for clothing. Wool proper is borne by wild species of sheep only as a short undercoat concealed by hair and its development in domesticated sheep is due to long continued selective breeding. Procurement of wool was one of the problems faced by early settlers in what became northeast Ohio. The wolf population made it difficult to raise sheep. With the wolf population greatly diminished by hunting, sheep farming became important. In the 1840’s Simon Perkins Jr. a prominant Akron citizen and his partner John Brown were among the nation’s leading wool merchants. Wool was one of the earliest products to be shipped out of Akron on the canal.