USA > Kentucky > Jefferson County > Louisville > The city of Louisville and a glimpse of Kentucky > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
-
LOUIS T. DAVIDSON
AUGUST STRAUS.
An arched door-way leads into the main composing room or joh room as it is called. Here all the job-work is done, that is as far as the type-setting is concerned. The forms are here made up for orders for cards, envelopes, and all print- ed stationery, hook headings, pam- phlets, railroad time cards, books, blanks, catalogues-in fact, all the composition outside of the poster department. Tbis room is regard- ed by printers as the finest of its kind in America. U'nobstructed light from both sides, large, roomy windows, high ceiling, and fine ventilation.
Next is the bindery, with its wealth of improved machinery, its bevy of industrions girls, folding and making up the lighter grades of work, and its corps of forward- ers, finishers, rulers, etc. Adjoin- ing and connected is the last room on the floor, used as a stock-room for bindery goods. All this com- prises the entire fourth and part of fifth floor. On the first floor are the stock-room and counting-room.
The greatest feature of all is probably the press-room. When the building was first occupied the number of presses could he count- ed on the fingers of one hand, now they number over twenty, repre- senting an ontlay of nearly $40,000. The entire room is filled with them and other necessary appliances.
To go further into detail would be to write a book, but this can not be done here; but, to impress on the mind of the reader how big it really is, it is only necessary to say that, when trade is at all good, the pay-roll to hands alone is nearly $1,600 a week.
The company is composed of W. N. Haldeman, L. T. Davidson, Angust Straus, and John A. Haldeman, and is the ontgrowth of the old firm of R. W. Meredith & Co., whose business was purchased in 1883 by the gentlemen named above, aud by them carried on successfully until it has reached its present prominent position. This company executes a class of work superior to many other establishments, aiming always at securing the best possible assistance in the heads of all departments. It confines its facilities to no special features but does printing in plain type and colors, en- graved work of all descriptions, publishes books and pamphlets, manufactures blank and record books, does railroad work for all departments of the service, and, in fact, everything in the printing line. No order for any class of printing, binding, blank blooks, engraving, or electrotyping should ever go out of Lonisville because it can not be done at home -for here is everything. The trade of the company is drawn from all parts of the country ; orders being received from the far West and North, as well as the trade directly tributary to Louisville.
139
-y€
Dupont & Co.'s Paper Mills.
6 HE paper mills of DUPONT & Co., located on Tenth street near the river, are among the largest mills in this country that manufacture paper for the newspaper presses. The paper mills at this location were started many years ago, Prentice & Kellogg being the proprie- tors. At first the manufacture was confined to wrapping paper. So it was, also, when Mr. Isaac Cromie bought out the establishment. There is an the site of the mill an artesian well that affords a bonntiful supply of sul- phur water, and in the old days this was used for drink- ing and bathing purposes. Two large buildings were filled with bath rooms, and the well had great repute. But the bath-honses were abandoned and the buildings were converted into a paper mill, the artesian well water being used in the manufacture. Now, however, very little of the water is used for this purpose, only the first washing of the rags being done in it.
Mr. Cromie sold the mills to C. I. and A. V. DuPont. C. I. DuPont in turn sold his interest, and the firm became A. V. DuPont & Co. This firm sold ont in 1873 to Du- PONT & Co., and the part- ners now are E. Hounsfield, F. Lammot, and V. DuPont, Jr. When these gentlemen took possession of the estah- lishment, in 1873, the mills VIEW OF THE PAPER MILLS. had a capacity of two tons a day; now they have a ca- pacity of twelve tons. The buildings have been added to from time to time and now cover an area of half a large block. New machinery has been added and uow the firm has every late improvement for the manufacture of the paper it makes. Some idea of the enormons proportions of the enterprise may be had when it is said that DUPONT & Co.'s MILLS annually consume nine millions of pounds of material that goes into paper. This consists of cotton waste, rags, paper, "hard stock," or gunny bagging, and wood. The supplies come from Louisville and the South, rags and cotton waste being shipped here from many Southern cities. The specialty of the firm is roll paper for newspapers.
In order to make the dirty rags into paper a great deal of cleaning has to be done, but the process is a much more simple one than one would imagine. The rags are first boiled in immense iron boilers. These are made to stand a pres- sure of ninety pounds of steam, and the method of boiling is to force the steam into the rags. In this process, also, all the wool in the rags is eaten np by soda ash and lime, it being impossible to make paper except ont of vegetable matter. After the rags have been thoroughly boiled aud reduced to a sort of nuiform mass they are taken to the washers. These are great tnhs full of water and bleaching materials. The water is kept moving around the tub in a strong current, carrying with it the rags that are run over and over again through washing boards that pull them to pieces and begin the operation of cutting up the fiber. From the washer they go to the drainer, where the bleaching matter and water are drained off. Next they come to the heater. This again is a hig tub full of water in which the materials for making the paper are thoroughly mixed. The fiber of the rags is here separated by beating up very fine. The gunuy bagging and ground wood are put in to give the paper strength. The rosin, or "sizing," is also put into the beater. This gives the paper smoothness of surface. Blneing or other coloring matter is here introduced.
The above described operations, except the boiling, take place on the upper floors. From the beaters the pulp is run, through troughs, to the paper machines on the lower floors. More water is ponred into it and it looks like a milky liquid by the time it reaches the first stage of getting the pulp into the clean, white paper. First this liquid like suhstauce is strained, so as to remove any bits of foreign matter. Bits of wood and any rags not thoroughly ground up are thus removed. From the strainer the pulp is rnn onto a closely woven wire netting, a broad endless band that moves over two drum-wheels, some eight or ten feet apart. This band not only has a forward motion, but also an oscillatory side motion. As the pulp falls upon it the water drains through the finer meshes of the wire, while the pulp remains above it iu a sheet. The oscillatory motion canses the fibers to become interlaced as the water runs off. so that by the time they leave the wire they have something of the appearance of a sheet of paper. If one will hold a sheet of common printing paper before a strong light, he can see how the little threads have become woven into a regular network. As it leaves the wire it is led over a band of cloth that carries it between two rollers that gently press the young and tender paper, reliev- ing it somewhat of its load of water. This process is continned through several sets of rollers, the water being gradn- ally pressed ont and tbe fiber being dried by heat, until the paper becomes sufficiently strong to be led over the rollers unsupported. It is finally wouud over the iron bobbins into a great roll of paper.
140
The Louisville Anzeiger.
A MONG the oldest and most prominent German newspapers of the country is the ANZEIGER, a journal founded in 1849 by George P. Doern and Otto Scheefer. Mr. Scheefer retired in 1852, but Mr. Doern continued to conduct the paper until his death. The ANZEIGER is the only daily German newspaper south of the Ohio river, except at New Orleans. It publishes daily, semi-weekly, and weekly editions, and has a large circulation in Louisville, in the larger Kentucky towns, and in Southern Indiana. The paper has always been Democratic in politics, and makes itself strongly felt in the politics of this city and State. When the paper was established it was a small sheet, twenty-eight by thirty-two inches. Now it is a four-page paper, nine columns to the page. The regular Sunday edition has twelve pages ; but it frequently has to be enlarged, and has reached sixteen, twenty-four, and even thirty pages. The ANZEIGER has the Associated Press franchise, and prints the news very fully. It makes a specialty of correspondence from abroad, and has its regular correspondents in Washington and New York. It also covers the field of local news. Its editorial staff is composed as follows : Wolfgang Schoenle, editor-in-chief; Lonis Stierlin, Leo Szymanski, Lonis Stein, George Knenzel, and printing. Charles Nenmeyer. The ANZEIGER is one of the papers elected to do the city and county The paper enjoys the support of all the German citizens of Louisville and of most of those throughout the State. It has the advertising patronage of the best business houses in Louisville, and is a valuable property. It has a well- equipped job printing department, where job work is done in English and German. This is an important source of revenue to the company. In 1877 the LOUISVILLE ANZEIGER COMPANY was incorporated, its officers being George P. Doern, President; M. Borutraeger, Treasurer ; G. S. Schuhmann, Secretary. Mr. Doern died the following year, and Mr. Borntraeger succeeded to the Presidency. Mr. Schuh- mann was elected Treasurer, and Mr. Henry S. Colin, Secretary. The Directors of the company are the President and Treasurer and Messrs. J. J. Fischer, Joseph Haxthausen, and David Frantz, Sr.
G. S SCHUHMANN.
Mr. Born-
traeger, the Presi- dent, was born in Rued- igheim, near Marburg, May 22, 1828. His parents brought their children to this country, landing in Baltimore in July, 1843. After stopping in Wheeling and Cincin- nati, they came to Louisville, reaching here in November, 1844. Mr. Borutraeger M. BORNTRAEGER, was apprenticed to the printer's trade, and after serving lis apprenticeship, worked in several offices, being three years in the old Journal office. In 1854 he left the case and took a posi- tion in the ANZEIGER office as hook-keeper and business manager. He was so useful in this capacity that when the company was incorporated he was made one of its officers, and was elected to the Presidency of the company in 1878.
HENRY S. CONN.
Mr. Schuhmann was born in Bavaria in 1837 and emigrated to the United States in 1853, in which year he came to Louisville, entering the job department of the ANZEIGER as an apprentice. He remained there nine years and then, with Edmund Rapp, founded the l'olkstatt in 1862. This paper underwent numerous changes and Mr. Schuhmann returned to the ANZEIGER, now being its Treasurer. He has charge there of the job printing department.
Henry S. Cohn, one of the most widely known newspaper men in Louisville, was born in Hamburg, May 4, 1844. He came to America in 1859. At first he sold goods in New York, St. Louis, and Cincinnati ; but on April 1, 1860, he entered a German newspaper office in Cincinnati as a "printer's devil." At the breaking out of the civil war, Mr. Cohn volunteered as drummer boy. He became drum-major, orderly sergeant, and then lieutenant of the 106th Ohio Infantry and was wounded and captured at Hartsville, Tennessee, December 7, 1862. At the close of the war he came to Lonis- ville and got work as a compositor on the ANZEIGER. In 1871 he entered the business department of the paper.
The ANZEIGER's prosperity has been dne very largely to the euergies of the three gentlemen above mentioned. Mr. Cohn is one of the best solicitors in the city, and Mr. Borntraeger is a far-seeing business man. The paper is not only ably officered, but its editors are all men of distinction in German-American journalism.
141
Turner, Day & Woolworth Manufacturing Company.
"HE largest manufactory of handles from hickory wood in the United States is at Nos. 1818 and 1820 Seventh street, this city. It is the establishment of TURNER, DAY & WOOLWORTH MANUFACTURING COMPANY, makers of all kinds of axe, adze, pick, sledge, hatchet, hammer, and mining tool handles. Their business was founded over thirty years ago at Norwich, Connecticut. Ten years ago this fall they moved from Baltimore to this city. The chief stockholders iu the company to-day are Sidney Turner and Norman Day, both of Norwich, Connecticut; Albert Day, of Louisville ; James Woolworth, of Sandusky, Ohio ; and L. G. Wells, of Louisville. The company was incorporated in ISSo. Previous to that time it had been a partnership. Abont 1876 the attention of the gentlemen in charge of the business was attracted by the great supply of hickory timber in Kentucky and Tennessee. They found that fuel, labor, etc., were fully as cheap here as at the older mannfacturing centers, and saw that under these conditions, together with the decreased supply of timber east of the Alleghany mountains, they could in Louisville carry on their manufacture to good advantage.
Accordingly they made preparations to move their plant. Early in 1877 they purchased the property, buildings, etc., at Seventh and Dumesnil, formerly occupied by the Louisville Edge Tool Manufacturing Company, and soon after moved into the building the more valuable and important portions of their machinery from Baltimore. They have added ground aud building, as their business increased, till now they occupy a lot 156 x 361 feet on the west side of Seventh, and another 100 x 200 feet on the east side. Their buildings include a substantial two-story brick, 50 x 275 feet, fronting on Seventh, near Oak. This is devoted to machinery and the operations of manufacture. Added to this is a one-story manufacturing department, 30 x 125 feet, a one-story warehouse, 40 x 125 feet, dry houses, boiler and engine rooms, aud extensive sheds and stables. All these buildings are on the lot on west side of Seventh ; on the lot across the street are the offices in a neat frame structure, oue and a half stories, 25 x 50 feet.
Here all the operations of manufacturing handles are carried on, from the log as cut by the Inmberman in the woods to the finely-polished aud skillfully-shaped handle ready for the tool. But most of the work done at this factory is in
OFFICES
BIRDSEYE VIEW OF THE TURNER, DAY & WOOLWORTH MANUFACTURING COMPANY'S PLANT.
finishing the handles from the timber sawed proper lengths for handles and turned iu the rongh at their varions country mills. Very much of the first work is done at a branch establishment, nearly half as large, located at Bowling Green, and a part is also done at the saw-mills of the company in operation at various points iu Kentucky and Tennessee. These mills are twelve in number and cut nearly all the timber used by the company.
When running full force 200 men are employed here, 100 at Bowling Green, and 150 to 175 at the saw-mills. This gives a total working force of 450 to 500. As these are nearly all meu with families, the total number supported by the enterprise is probably over 1,500. They run sixty-four lathes and other machinery, and in the busy season turn out daily 2,000 dozen long haudles, and of other handles, hatchet, hammer, and the like, the daily production is, of course, a much larger quantity. The production of the company embraces all styles of handles ever made from hickory-hatchet, hammer, axe, adze, broad-axe, sledge, pick, and mining tool handles. These include many patterns of each kind. For instance, of axe handles alone, there are from fifty to one hundred different patterns adapted, some to the trade of one section, some to that of another. The establishment does a large export business, and the axe handle sent to South America is quite different from that sent to Australia and New Zealand. Other countries to which they ship are England, Germany, and the colonies of South Africa; yet the bulk of their trade is, of course, with the jobbers, the manufacturers of edge tools, and the railroad companies of the United States and Canada. There is hardly a State or Territory in which their goods are not sold, and when business is brisk, will average four or five car-loads a week to New York alone.
142
The Bremaker-Moore Paper Company.
0 NE of the most important industries of Louisville is the manufact- ure of paper, and in this particular branch she leads all other Western and Southern cities, not only in the quantity but also in the quality of paper manufactured. The BREMAKER-MOORE PAPER COMPANY'S MILLS, located here at the corner of First aud Washington streets, produce exclusively a fine quality of book printing paper, and for the last twenty-four years have had a large and steadily-increasing trade in this especial grade of paper. Within the past two years new aud valu- able improvements have been introduced into these mills with the object of uot only increasing the out-put bnt of improving the quality of their product also. In this latter respect the BREMAKER-MOORE PAPER COM- PANY has been peculiarly successful, and, in consequence, been rewarded for its enterprise and foresight by an extensive trade in the East-a territory where hitherto the Eastern paper makers had enjoyed almost ex- clusive control.
The water supply is an important factor in the manufacture of paper. By means of pipe wells, water has been reached ou the premises here not surpassed in purity by that of the celebrated Berkshire Hills of Massa- chusetts, among which are situated many famous paper mills, and this, translucent and sparkling from the bosom of mother earth, is used in the various processes of manufacture. This water of itself gives to the paper CHARLES BREMAKER made by the BREMAKER-MOORE PAPER COMPANY a peculiarly brilliant color that can be readily recognized even by those not experts in the bnsi- ness, and is fast making for its mills a reputation second to that of no other mills in the country.
This corporation is an ontgrowth of the old and well-known wholesale grocery firm of Moore, Bremaker & Co., which was established nearly thirty years ago by John T. Moore, Charles Bremaker, and Delaney E. Stark. These gentlemen are now the principal stockholders of the paper company. Its extensive mills were built under the personal supervision of Mr. Charles Bremaker, who retired from active membership in the grocery firm, but retained his interest therein, and was elected President of the company, and has continued as such to this date, Although not at that time a practical paper maker, in addition to fine natural business qualifications Mr. Bremaker was an experienced machinist, and soon became recognized as one of the leading paper mill men of the country. He is now not only a practical paper maker, with a thorough knowledge of all branches of the business, but a recognized authority on paper mill matters, and has patented quite a number of his own inventions, covering principally improvements in paper mill machinery. Mr. J. J. Hayes, who for fifteen years had been the financial manager of the grocery firm and a partner in that business, was in June, 1885, while still retaining his interest there, elected Secretary and Treasurer of the paper company, and has since been associated with Mr. Bremaker in the active management of the mills. He is an Eastern man, although his entire business life has been spent in the west.
The Directors of the company are Charles Bremaker, John T. Moore, Delaney E. Stark, and J. J. Hayes. Mr. John T. Moore is one of the leading and most influential citizens of Louisville, being President of the Falls City Bank, and of the Falls City Insurance Company, and a Director in several other strong financial institutions. Mr. Delaney E. Stark is the Vice-President of the paper company, and, while taking no active part in its affairs, devotes his entire time in conjunction with Mr. Buck- ner M. Creel to the management of the extensive grocery business, from which these justly-celebrated mills have sprung. Mr. Robert B. Moore is the paper company's Cashier, and Mr. Thomas H. Stark is in im- mediate charge of their prodnet.
The company was organized with a cash capital of $300,000, and dis- burses weekly over $1,500 in wages among its numerons employes, about 125 in number, thus furnishing a livelihood to probably 500 persons through those directly employed on their premises, and indirectly in a measure to probably as many more engaged in furnishing the raw urate- rial out of which the finished product is made.
Their paper is shipped to all parts of the United States : to Sau Fran- cisco, California, and Portland, Oregon, in the West, and as far South as the interior of Florida. Large quantities are sent to New Orleans, and almost all of the principal cities sonth of the Ohio receive a share, while the inhabitants of the cities bordering on the great lakes enjoy their weekly papers printed on the ont-put of these famous mills. In this connection, it is a singular fact that the rags that to-day cover the back of the beggar may to-morrow lie on the breakfast table of the mill- ionair, thus verifying the old adage that it is " but a step from poverty to wealth."
J J. HAYES.
1.43
The Merchants' national Bank of Louisville.
J. H. LINDENBERGER.
7 HE MERCHANTS' NATIONAL BANK OF LOUISVILLE was organized as a national bank on July 5, 1874, succeeding the Merchants' Bank of Kentucky, which had been operated by a charter from the State since September 1, 1860. This State bank was organized by Mr. HI. C. Caruth, an old merchant of this city who had previously been en- gaged in the hardware jobbing trade. The list of stockholders obtained by him embraced about 200 names, largely composed of the most active and prominent firms and individuals then engaged in business in Lonis- ville. This from the outset gave the institution a distinctive character as a commercial bank, devoted to the interests of trade and manufactures. The impress thus made is still recognizable in the management.
The originally subscribed capital stock was $500,000 ; but before the subscription was fully paid, it was deemed advisable to reduce the capital, in view of the disturbed condition growing out of the War of the Rebell- ion. This was accordingly done by legislative authority. As might be supposed from the character of the stockholders, who became to a con- siderable extent its patrous, the bank entered upon a successful career, and for many years was enabled to pay semi-annual dividends of six per cent., while accumulating a comfortable surplus. After the close of the war it was found necessary to increase the capital, the extent of the busi- ness requiring it. At the time of the bank's reorganization as a national hank the capital stack was increased to the original amount of $500,000, at which it now stands.
Soon after this step was taken, the policy was adopted of organizing a complete system of correspondence with in- terior banks in this and contiguous States, with a view to identifying more thoroughly this city with the territory tribn- tary to it in business. The list of correspondents has grown in numbers and importance, and has added much to the business of the bank, as well as aided in bringing Louisville into closer contact with the territory from which the city was seeking business. In connection with this, and growing out of the facilities which a large interior correspondence afforded, a collection department was organized for the collection of business paper throughout the United States, and to this department special attention has been paid, and a large patronage attracted.
The bank has constantly kept up with all the activities of progress, but has retained its original character in adher- ance to a commercial business, avoiding speculative accounts and maintaining a sound aud conservative management, promotive of the different branches of the commercial and industrial interests of Louisville. Besides the capital of the bank its resources have been increased by a surplus of $150,000, and other undivided profits of $15,000 or $20,000, which enable it to carry a line of loans and discounts of about $1,500,000 upon an average deposit of a similar amount. The bank occupies a favorable location as to the business centers of Louisville, at No. 506 West Main street.
The first President of the original organization was Mr. H. C. Caruth. Its first Cashier was Mr. J. H. Lindenberger. These gentlemen continued in office until July 1, 1881, when Mr. Caruth resigned and Mr. Lindenberger was elected to succeed him. At this time Mr. Wm. R. Johnson, who had filled the position of Assistant Cashier, was elected Cashier. These officers remain unchanged. Mr. F. H. Johnson is now the Assistant Cashier. In the policy of the bank as to its interior management the rule of promotion has uniformly prevailed, and from the Cashier down through the corps of clerks, each official began service in the bank as messenger and collection clerk. This has constantly given the bank a corps of well-trained employes. The Directors are J. H. Lindenberger, President; W. George Anderson, Vice-Pres- ident ; John M. Robinson, P. H. Tapp, George W. Wicks, John J. Harbison, John C. Russell, and H. C. Caruth.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.