Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 27

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 858

USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 27

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Like many other industrial enterprises of Detroit, that of D. M. Ferry & Company had a modest inception, and it can well be under- stood how great energy, discrimination and generalship have been brought into play in the development of the same to its present mag- nificent proportions. The first headquarters of the original firm of M. T. Gardner & Company were established in a small store on Monroe avenue, and the aggregate transactions for the first year represented only about six thousand dollars, while the market was scarcely more than local in character. The trade of the concern to-day extends into almost every township in the United States and Canada and also into many foreign countries, and the aggregate business has reached an annual av- erage of fully two million dollars. The im- portations from English, French, German, Dutch and other European concerns are far in excess of any other seed house in America. The corporation supplies more than one hun- dred and sixty thousand retail merchants with complete assortments of seeds each year, and vast quantities are also shipped in bulk to wholesalers and jobbers. The average daily shipments now are enormous and significant. The corporation itself grows immense quanti- ties of seeds, and it also has contracts for the raising of stock by seed farmers in many sec- tions of the United States and Canada, as well as in European countries. These contracts are made with ample specifications as to care and conservation of the products and through this means are gained the hardiest and most prolific varieties and species of vegetables and flowers, with special reference to future propagation under the varying conditions which compass the patrons of the house.

From the original store on Monroe avenue the establishment was removed to a more eligible location on Woodward avenue, where four stores were finally demanded to accom-

modate the constantly expanding business. In 1880 the business was removed to its present location, on Monroe avenue, where a substan- tial four-story warehouse with appropriate business offices had been erected for the pur- pose. In January, 1886, the entire building and contents were destroyed by fire, entailing a total loss of eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars, with about one-half insurance in- demnity. On the same site the present build- ing was erected, being equipped with facili- ties far superior to those of the original build- ing. The aggregate floor space now utilized in the headquarters and warehouses A & B is four hundred and thirty-five thousand five hundred and thirty-six square feet, lacking only fourteen square feet of being ten acres and not including their box factory,-their main building being a substantial brick and stone structure three hundred by one hundred and twenty feet in dimensions and six stories in height. Through the energy and fertility of resource exhibited by the interested prin- cipals in the corporation of D. M. Ferry & Company there was no interruption of business at the time of this disastrous fire, and tem- porary quarters were used until the new build- ing could be completed. The concern now has three large buildings, including the original structure as built in 1887, and the trial grounds, used for experiments in seed- germinating, etc., are of the finest type and conducted under scientific methods. The seed-growing department of the enterprise was for twenty-two years in charge of Professor William W. Tracy, now an of- ficial of the department of agriculture in the national capital, and he has able successors have effectively carried forward the work to which he gave his attention, with all of his interest and enthusiasm, for so long a term of years. D. M. Ferry & Company have a branch house at Windsor, Ontario, Canada, the same having been established in 1880, to facilitate the Canadian trade, and they also have well equipped receiving warehouses at Charlevoix and Harbor Beach, Michigan,-much propa- gating work being done in the vicinity of these two cities. The entire executive control of

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the business, however, remains placed in the home establishment in Detroit. The concern gives employment to more than a thousand persons, including one hundred and twenty- five traveling representatives in the United States and twelve in the Canadian provinces. The beneficent effects of this great concern upon the industrial and commercial precedence of Detroit may well be imagined, and Mr. Ferry and his associates deserve prominent mention as being among the foremost of those who have aided in and are contributing to the upbuilding of the "Greater Detroit."

It is consonant that in this article a word of special appreciation should be uttered concern- ing the late Charles C. Bowen, who was identi- fied with the enterprise from 1865 until his death, which occurred in August, 1900. He was one of the influential and honored business men of Detroit and was a citizen of distinctive loy- alty and public spirit. He was born in Orleans county, New York, in 1831, and was reared and educated in the old Empire state, where he remained until 1863, when he took up his residence in Detroit. He had previously been identified with business interests in the city of Rochester, New York. His connection with the firm and corporation of D. M. Ferry & Company has been adequately noted in pre- ceding paragraphs. He was one of the chief stockholders in the Standard Life & Accident Insurance Company, of Detroit, of which he was vice-president for a number of years an- tecedent to his death, and he had also other local capitalistic interests of important order, besides being concerned in mining and rail- road enterprises in Arizona. He was a zealous and devoted member of the Baptist church, to the various departments of whose work he contributed with all of consecrated apprecia- tion and liberality. He was for many years a member of the board of trustees of the Wood- ward Avenue Baptist church, was a trustee of Kalamazoo College at the time of his demise and also of the University of Chicago, which is in general a Baptist institution. Prior to his removal to Michigan he was married to Miss Julia M. Hord, of New York state, and she survived him by only a short interval, her death

occurring in 1901. They are survived by one son and two daughters. Lem W. Bowen, the only son, practically assumed his father's in- terests in the business of D. M. Ferry & Com- pany, of which corporation he had been treas- urer for thirteen years prior to the death of her father, after which he became general manager, while still retaining his incumbency as treasurer. He is one of the most enthu- siastic of those enterprising citizens who are working so earnestly for the making of the larger Detroit, and was president of the De- troit Board of Commerce, in the keeping of which is entrusted much of the promotive en- ergy brought to bear in this line. He is presi- dent of the Cadillac Motor Car Company, vice- president of the Security Trust Company, a director of the Michigan Fire & Marine In- surance Company, and vice-president of the Standard Accident Insurance Company.

The only living members of the old firm of D. M. Ferry & Company are H. Kirke White, admitted into the firm of Ferry, Church & Company in 1866, a director in the cor- poration in 1879 and ever since, its treas- urer from 1879 to 1888, its vice-president since 1903; and A. E. F. White, admitted into the firm of D. M. Ferry & Company in 1872, a director in the corporation in 1879 and ever since, and its auditor since its incorporation. He has been actively connected with the company continuously for forty-four years and H. K. White has been continuously connected with it forty-nine years. Both H. K. White and A. E. F. White are also largely interested in the Acme White Lead & Color Works and have been instru- mental in the success of that company from the beginning. They have many other impor- tant business and banking affiliations.

THE MICHIGAN STOVE COMPANY.

No small measure of the great industrial prestige which pertains to Detroit may be justly attributed to the great concern whose business is conducted under the corporate title here des- ignated and which is the largest concern of its kind in the world. Its products are sold in

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practically every civilized country and it has been built up along conservative lines and upon the highest business principles, from which there has never been the slightest deviation. Such are the industries to which "Greater De- troit" points with distinctive pride and gratifi- cation and upon such enterprises rests to a large degree the material and civic prosperity of the fair "City of the Straits."

Of the inception of the Michigan Stove Com- pany mention is made in the individual sketch of its virtual founder and present president, Jeremiah Dwyer, elsewhere in this work, and the two articles should be read in connection if a distinct grasp of the salient features of the history of the company is desired. In 1871 Mr. Dwyer promoted the organization of this company, enlisting as his coadjutors Messrs. Charles Ducharme, Richard R. Long, Mer- rill I. Mills and George H. Barbour. The last named became actively identified with the company June 29, 1872. The company incor- porated under the present title and the origi- nal capital stock was one hundred thousand dollars. How great the advancement of the industry has been in the intervening period of thirty-six years may be measurably appreciated when it is stated that operations at the present time are based upon a capital of three millions of dollars. The original official corps of the Michigan Stove Company was as follows: Charles Ducharme, president; Jeremiah Dwyer, vice-president and manager; Merrill I. Mills, treasurer; and George H. Barbour, secretary. The gentlemen who organized the company constituted its first board of directors.

The original plant of the concern was lo- cated on Jefferson avenue, corner Adair street, and was erected in 1872, within a period of twelve months. The main building was about one hundred by seven hundred feet in dimen- sions, with five stories and basement. In 1881 was erected to the east of the original building an addition of about the same dimensions as the latter, also same height. In 1885 another addition was made eastward from the one com- pleted in 1881, and in 1889 was completed another building as large as all of those pre- viously constructed. On the 8th of January,

1907, all except the main buildings first erected were destroyed by fire, entailing a loss of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. With characteristic energy the company at once in- stituted the rebuilding of the plant, which was made ready for occupancy within the brief period of thirteen weeks. The large and sub- stantial plant as it now stands is equipped with all modern facilities, including the best pos- sible fire protection.

· At the beginning of operations the company gave employment to but three hundred me- chanics, and the products were a small variety of both coal and wood stoves, which found market almost exclusively within the confines of the states of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. The operative force of the factories at the present day numbers fifteen hundred persons, nearly all being skilled mechanics, and the an- nual output of stoves of all kinds, including gas ranges and heaters, is one hundred and fifty thousand stoves. A Chicago house is maintained, where all their business out of Chicago is handled, and agencies controlling largely the foreign trade are those established in London, Paris, Berlin, Constantinople, Spain, Honolulu and Manilla, Philippine Islands. The trade of the company extends throughout the entire United States, European countries, Great Britain, the Orient, and Mex- ico. The present official corps of this great company are as here noted : Jeremiah Dwyer, president ; George H. Barbour, first vice-presi- dent and general manager; Charles A. Ducharme, second vice-president and secre- tary; Merrill B. Mills, treasurer; Edwin S. Barbour, assistant treasurer; Harry B. Gil- lespie, corresponding secretary; W. J. Keep, superintendent; Robert L. Morley, western manager, with headquarters in Chicago. The above officers, with the exception of the three last mentioned are members of the directorate of the company, as are also Charles L. Palms and Francis Palms.

Concerning the connection of Mr. Dwyer with the manufacturing of stoves in Detroit his personal sketch gives ample details, and the article thus incidentally makes record of the circumstances and conditions which led up to

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the founding of the company of which he is now the executive head. A repetition of the data is not demanded in the present article. It may be said, however, that Mr. Dwyer manu- factured the first cook stoves ever made in De- troit and that one of them is still owned by the Michigan Stove Company, being retained as a unique and valued relic.

AONE WHITE LEAD & COLOR WORKS.

In this age of colossal enterprise and marked intellectual energy the prominent and success- ful men are those whose abilities lead them into large undertakings and to assume the re- sponsibilities and labors of leaders in their re- spective fields of endeavor. Success is methodical and consecutive and however much we may indulge in fantastic theorizing as to its elements and causation in any isolated instance, in the light of sober investigation we shall find it to be but the result of the determined appli- cation of one's abilities and powers along the rigidly defined lines of labor-whether mental or manual.

Among the great industrial enterprises which have conserved and are admirably main- taining the commercial prestige of the city of Detroit is that conducted under the title ap- pearing above, and perhaps no better descrip- tion of the same, as available for this com- pilation, can be gained than that which ap- peared in the Detroit News Tribune of Sun- day, December 16, 1906, and which is there- fore here reproduced with only such minor changes in statement and phraseology as facts and incidental expediency may dictate.

Few stories of human achievement are filled with greater interest than that which is caus- ing the assembling in Detroit this week of one of the most unique congresses that has ever come to the city,-a congress of men who come from all parts of the United States and who are the living characters to-day in that story, begun by two poor young men nearly a quar- ter of a century ago, which describes the pic- turesque growth from pigmy to giant of the greatest institution of its kind in the world. When this congress of men, brought together

from every state between the two seas, meet in the big assembly hall of the Acme White Lead & Color Works to-morrow, a fitting cli- max will have been reached in a history of human endeavor beyond which young men of to-day need not seek for a better object lesson. It will be the gathering of a great "family,"- the last step in the achievement of an ambition born in the brains of two moneyless youngsters more than twenty years ago, and who, begin- ning with the mixing and selling of a single barrel of paint, now stand at the head of an institution unrivaled the world over. During the whole of this week the one hundred and twenty-five salesmen of the Acme White Lead & Color Works will be entertained by the com- pany. While twenty-two years ago the ex- penditure of a ten-dollar bill was regarded as a matter of considerable moment by the "com- pany," its reunion now means a total suspen- sion of soliciting business in every state in the Union for an entire week and the expenditure of a small fortune in bringing its "family" to- gether and caring for it while in the city.

Just as the representatives of Michigan, of Ohio, and of other states go to Washington to participate in making laws for the welfare of the nation, so do these many traveling men and general salesmen come to Detroit to work in the interests of their company. Each of the district managers is known by the company as a "senator" and is so called, while each of the salesmen is a "representative." Together they form the only "congress". of its kind known. Being a congressman of this kind is not regarded as a joke. It is a position which demands even greater work than does such a berth in the ship of state. During the session of congress this week each of these men will advance ideas for the advancement of work, in his own territory or throughout the entire country. When congress adjourns next Sat- urday afternoon the members will return to their respective territories and the active work of the greatest factory of its kind in the world will again be taken up.

Until one visits this Detroit institution, until he knows that it covers fourteen acres of land and that its capital is now one and one-quarter

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millions of dollars, it will be difficult for him, perhaps, to fully appreciate the efforts which have given this industrial giant to the city. During the month of November there were on the books of the company "immediate-deliv- ery" orders for one hundred and sixty-two carloads of paint, besides innumerable smaller orders. Just twenty-two years ago the "com- pany's" first order was for one small barrel. In those days there were two young men in Detroit, each twenty-six years of age, both poor but both filled with pluck and ambition. These were William L. Davies and Thomas Neal, the former now the president and the latter the secretary and general manager of the Acme company. These young fellows were close chums, as they have remained through- out their lives, and together they formulated scheme after scheme for going into business for themselves. At that time ready-mixed paints were a new thing, for nearly everybody mixed his own. Like an inspiration came the idea to Davies and Neal that they might go into the paint business. But neither knew any- thing about it and neither had much money. For a time they worked like tigers, sold every- thing they possessed and pooled their money. Together they had about twenty-eight hun- dred dollars. Neal took charge of the business at the start and Davies retained his salaried position, working in a wholesale drug store. In the meanwhile young Neal hustled for a location and a paintmaker. In the year 1884 every half-grown boy was familiar with the old circus grounds, located on the Jones farm, near Grand River and Fourth avenues. It was in this vicinity that the Acme White Lead & Color Works started in business. A building forty by seventy feet in dimensions was rented and the work of making ready-mixed paints was begun. At that time the concern employed just two men,-young Neal and the paintmak- er. No difficulty was found in making paint, but for a time it looked as though people had stopped painting their houses or wouldn't use the "ready-mixed stuff." Then one day the first order came. It was for one barrel. A few days later another order came, and they rolled in, one after another,-the Acme White Lead

& Color Works was under full steam. Both Davies and Neal made a point of working ten hours a day. Neal was manager, bookkeeper, superintendent, shipping clerk, janitor and factory hand, and seldom went home before eleven o'clock at night, frequently remaining at work until two o'clock in the morning. After his day's labor in the drug establishment Davies would join him and would work in the factory until late at night. So, step by step, through their indomitable energy and pluck, the little industry, which was to result in the greatest institution of its kind in the world a few years later, slowly gained its hold.

After the first hard fight was won the enter- prise developed with remarkable rapidity. In the second year its capital was increased to twenty-five thousand dollars and Albert E. F. White and H. Kirke White became financially interested. The little business was now out- growing its quarters. A salesman had been put upon the road, the manufacturing staff had been increased to about twelve persons, and at the end of the second year it was found neces- sary to secure another Grand River avenue building, thirty by one hundred feet in size.

Davies now gave up his position in the drug house and devoted his entire time, with his friend, to the development of their own con- cern. Within two years, and before either had passed his twenty-eighth year, these young men had successfully launched what quickly developed into one of the city's chief enter- prises. In 1886 another three-story building was added, and the following year several other buildings were secured. Again and again new capital was added to the company, until in 1887, only five years after two poor young men had set out to earn a livelihood by making paint, the largest part of the present site of the Acme White Lead & Color Works was purchased. From that time on the growth of the institution was little less than phenom- enal. From 1893 to 1896, years of great finan- cial depression, when corporations were either failing or calling in their traveling men, the Acme company added to all their traveling forces, arguing that "when the other fellows are down is the time to hunt for trade." So

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indomitably did they work through these years of panic that in 1896, when the era of depres- sion was ending, the erection of the present- day factories was begun, upon the site pur- chased a few years before.

A more striking contrast could not be imag- ined than that between the plant of to-day and the little factory of twenty-two years ago. While it had only two men at work then it now employs four hundred persons in Detroit, be- sides one hundred and twenty-five traveling salesmen. The industry, which started on a barrel of paint and which occupied but one large room, now produces a larger output than any other paint factory in the world, and its magnificent buildings occupy fourteen acres of land. Out of the "twenty-five hundred dollar scheme" of two poor young men have grown the several great industries of the present-day institution with its capital of one and one- quarter millions of dollars. These are a fac- tory for making mixed paints, a dry-color fac- tory, a white-lead corroding plant, and fac- tories for the manufacturing of chemicals and linseed oil.

One of the most remarkable things in con- nection with the upbuilding of this magnificent Detroit institution is the fact that every dollar of its capital has been earned. In other words, the Acme White Lead & Color Works has made itself, dollar by dollar. Additions were made only as the plant earned the necessary money. Outside capital was never solicited. It is absolutely a self-made factory,-just as the two hard-working youngsters who started it are self-made men. And this fact has had much to do with its history. It has brought its em- ployes in closer sympathy with it, and all over the country Acme people speak of the plant as "home." And it is a home, as nearly as any factory on earth could be. The men who became associated with the factory in its early days still remain with it, and it is with great pride that the men at its head to-day point to the fact that here have been no "family" quar- rels among them.

To properly appreciate what may be done by young men of energy and pluck, even though they may be poor financially, one

should take a trip through this greatest plant of its kind in existence. From the time one enters the magnificent offices until he comes out at the last door of the works he will en- counter new and interesting things. From the elegance of the one great office floor he may pass into the dining rooms, where prettily ar- ranged tables await the employes, and from there he may pass into the great assembly hall, where "congress" of the concern assembles. As he continues his journey he will pass through one of the biggest printing offices in the city; he will cover floor after floor in great ware- houses, and then he will be plunged into the noise and activity of the manufacturing plants, where he may pass one of the most interesting days of his life. And when he comes forth and goes once more on his way, he may well won- der at the indomitable energy which produced -from a barrel of paint, two men and a little shop-this industrial giant of to-day.

William Davies is president of the company, and Thomas Neal, secretary and general man- ager. Brief biographies of the president and secretary of the company appear elsewhere in this work.

THE PENINSULAR STOVE COMPANY.

The name of Dwyer has been most conspic- uously identified with the manufacturing of stoves in Detroit and representatives of the name have had most to do with bringing to the city the prestige of having the largest stove manufactories in the world. The virtual founder of the concern whose title initiates this article was James Dwyer, of whom indi- vidual mention is made in this work and who was originally associated with his brother Jer- emiah, to whom likewise a specific sketch is dedicated in this publication.

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Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 27

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932 Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago H. Taylor & Co. Number of Pages: 858

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 858