USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 29
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"When the company began business it oc- cupied an office in old Fireman's hall, in the Biddle block, on Jefferson avenue, and its office force consisted of three persons. Later it moved to the Buhl block on Griswold street. To-day it owns the historic building at the cor- ner of Jefferson avenue and Griswold street, and employs more than fifty persons to trans- act its office business alone. The framed check which paid for its home is one of the prized possessions of the company.
"The building is one of the landmarks of Detroit. It was the first stone structure to be erected in Detroit, if not in Michigan. Originally built for the Bank of Michigan, in the '40s, it was occupied by Uncle Sam with the postoffice and federal courts, and the fed- eral government retained possession of it until 1855, when it again became a banking office, being occupied by the Michigan Insurance Bank, the National Insurance Bank, and
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finally the First National Bank. The site of the building is prominently identified with the early history of the city. A bronze tablet which appears upon the face of the structure was dedicated by the Society of Colonial Wars and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. It tells this story :
"This tablet designates the site of one of the gateways of Fort Detroit. The original stock- ade was known as Fort Pontchartrain and was erected when the city was founded, in 1701.
"Through the gateway here located, Pontiac, the Ottawa chief, with a band of Indians, passed on May seventh, 1763, intending to surpise and massacre the garrison.
"The exposure of his plot on the previous day caused the defeat of his plans and gave the English the supremacy of this region until the close of the Revolutionary war."
THE CALVERT LITHOGRAPHING COM- PANY.
One of the largest and most modernly equipped institutions of the kind in the Union is that conducted in Detroit under the cor- porate title appearing above, and the concern has the farther distinction of being one of the oldest in the country. Like many others of the magnificent business and industrial enterprises of Detroit, it had its inception on a most modest scale, and its growth to its present proportions has been the diametrical result of the application of energy, technical skill, marked commercial prescience and inviolable integrity of purpose. On other pages of this work appears a brief review of the career of Claudius H. Candler, president of the com- pany.
In the spring of the year 1863, after a so- journ of several years in the state of Minne- sota, Thomas Calvert came to Detroit, where he soon afterward entered into partnership with John Gibson, a practical lithographer, who had lately established the business in this city, and they engaged in the lithographic business under the firm name of John Gibson & Company, beginning operations in a small building at the southwest corner of Jefferson
avenue and Bates street. In the following year Mr. Calvert purchased his partner's in- terest and changed the title to Calvert & Com- pany. The enterprise was thus continued, with a modest office in a building at the north- east corner of Jefferson avenue and Griswold street, until 1867, when, on the 16th of March, the business was incorporated under the laws of the state, as the Calvert Lithographing & En- graving Company. Under the new regime the capital stock was placed at forty thousand dol- lars, and the first official corps was as follows : Thomas Calvert, president; Claudius H. Cand- ler, vice-president and secretary; and Charles B. Calvert, treasurer. In 1870 the plant of the company was removed to quarters in the Arcade building, on Larned street west, and in 1874, still more commodious quarters were secured in the new Tribune building, adjoin- ing the Arcade. In 1881, having outgrown these quarters, the business was removed into the new building erected by the late Frederick Buhl, at the southwest corner of Larned and Shelby streets. Eventually the concern se- cured and utilized this entire building, five stories in height, and there the headquarters were maintained for the long period of twenty- two years, within which the company had gained prestige which made its name known in the most diverse sections of the Union.
In 1897 the charter of the company expired by limitation, and on the 16th of March, the thirtieth anniversary of its granting, the original stockholders, including William A. Ross, held a meeting and formally transferred the property of the company to its lineal succes- sor the Calvert Lithographing Company, whose interested principals and officers remained practically the same, George W. Heigho, who had been identified with the concern for sixteen years, becoming a stockholder at this time. Mr. Calvert remained president of the company, and actively supervised its affairs until his death, in 1900, and in the meanwhile the capital stock was increased from time to time until it reached its present figures, two hundred thousand dollars. In 1901 the com- pany began the erection of its present exten- sive plant, at the corner of Grand River ave-
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nue and Elizabeth street, and the same was completed and ready for occupancy in May, 1902. Fifty-two days were required in mak- ing the removal into the new quarters, and the cost involved was six thousand dollars. The present plant represents an expenditure of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and is one of the most modern and complete lithograph- ing establishments in the country.
When the business was instituted originally it gave employment to two men and a boy, and was almost entirely local. It now employs over three hundred hands and extends throughout the entire United States and their possessions. During the corporate life of this company the lithographic business has been practically revolutionized, but the company has more than kept pace with the multifarious changes. In the present plant one hundred and fifty thousand square feet of floor space are utilized, and every department is thor- oughly modern and complete in equipment and appointments. The personnel of the present executive corps of the company is as follows : Claudius H. Candler, president; William A. Ross, vice-president; and George W. Heigho, secretary and treasurer.
THE DETROIT CREAMERY COMPANY.
An industry of magnitude and one whose operations are based on ample capital and all that thorough experience and care can bestow, is that conducted under the title which forms the caption of this article. No concern of similar functions in the state of Michigan ex- cels this in the extent and importance of its work, and the company is recognized as one of the substantial and emphatically progressive corporations of this favored commonwealth.
The Detroit Creamery Company controls a business whose inception dates back nearly forty years and whose history has been one of consecutive growth and ever increasing suc- cess. The company was incorporated in 1900, with a capital stock of one hundred and forty thousand dollars, which was increased to two
hundred thousand dollars in 1906, while in the following year, in meeting the amplifying demands of the enterprise, a further increase was made, to the noteworthy capital stock of four hundred thousand dollars. The company succeeded to the business of the firm of A. Easter & Son, and the latter represented a copartnership which was formed in 1889, to assume control of the business which had previously been conducted in an individual way by its founder, Alfred Easter, who initi- ated operations on a comparatively small scale in the year 1872. The story of the upgrowth of this really great concern is interesting to contemplate, and it bears at every stage the impress of the personality of its founder,-a man of marked business acumen and power and one whose progressive ideas and efforts have been the chief factors in the building up of the magnificent enterprise.
The plant of the Detroit Creamery Com- pany, representing all that modern and thorough scientific principles and appliances can supply, occupies practically the entire triangular block bounded by Grand River ave- nue, Middle and Clifford streets and Adams and Cass avenues. This location is in the heart of the business district of the city,-a fact which has marked bearing on the facility with which the gigantic business is handled. In 1906 the fine ice plant was erected at the corner of Clifford and Middle streets, at a cost of eighty thousand dollars, and in the follow- ing year was instituted the erection of a three- story brick ice-storage building and milk de- partment, at the southwest corner of Clifford street and Adams avenue, on the former of which it has a frontage of one hundred feet and on the latter of one hundred and eighty feet. The plant as completed represents a storage capacity for the accommodation of five thousand tons of ice. The new building involved an expenditure of more than one hundred thousand dollars, and the plant of the company is conceded without reservation to be one of the most perfect of the kind in the United States, both in size and in matter of
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facilities, sanitary provisions, etc. The com- pany are dealers in milk and cream, and manu- facturers of ice cream. Their sales of milk and cream aggregate an average of two mil- lion gallons annually, and they virtually con- trol the ice-cream trade of the city of Detroit, in which department of the business the sales have attained to as high a volume as six thousand gallons in a single day. The in- dustry affords employment to a force of one hundred persons in the manufacturing and milk departments, and sixty-five in the delivery department. The company's stables, located at the corner of Second avenue and High street, have a force of fifteen employes and show an average of one hundred and forty horses, with a relative complement of fine de- livery wagons and other necessary vehicles. The company pay out annually in wages alone the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and this represents but a comparatively small part of the incidental expense involved in the operations of the business. The busi- ness covers Detroit and its suburban towns and villages, and this territory they virtually con- trol, by reason of superior service in every particular. The policy of the interested prin- cipals of the company is essentially and em- phatically progressive, no expense being spared in maintaining every department at the highest standard at all times, and the products command the well merited commendation of the general public, which is ever appreciative of service of high standard and of a business conducted upon principles of honor and fair- ness. The company have done much to pro- mote, if not, indeed, to compel the raising of the standard of production in their line on the part of all competitors, and the great benefit of this result inures to the public. The officers of the company at the time of this writing, in 1908, are as here noted: Stephen Baldwin, president; Austin E. Morey, vice-president ; Ferdinand W. Ulrich, secretary and treasurer; and Alfred Easter, the founder of the business, general manager of the great enterprise, to which he may well point with pride and satis- faction.
RUSSEL WHEEL & FOUNDRY COMPANY.
One of the substantial manufacturing enter- prises of Detroit is that conducted under the title noted, and the business dates its inception back to the year 1880, when Messrs. George H. and Walter S. Russel founded the works and began operations on a modest scale, at the foot of Walker street. In 1892 the business was removed to its present location, on Chene street, where the company owns a tract of fif- teen acres, and where large and substantial buildings have been erected, equipped with the best of machinery and facilities.
The company is incorporated with a capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars, and the personnel of the executive corps is as fol- lows: W. S. Russel, president; George H. Russel, vice-president ; John R. Russel, secre- tary; A. W. Russel, treasurer; and C. W. Rus- sel, assistant manager. The company gives employment to seven hundred men, principally skilled operatives, and the annual pay roll reaches an aggregate of nearly four hundred thousand dollars. The company makes a specialty of manufacturing cars for mining and similar operations, and also of structural iron work. The business has grown to be one of wide scope and importance and contributes its quota to the commercial prestige of the city. Walter S. Russel is a member of the directorate of the American Radiator Com- pany, of which he was one of the founders, in association with his brother George H. Dr. George B. Russel, the father of George H., Walter S., and John R., made the first gas and water pipe ever manufactured in the state of Michigan, and was the founder of the Ham- tramck Iron Works. In this manufactory were turned out the first car wheels ever manu- factured in the west. George H. Russel was secretary of this company.
THE MICHIGAN COPPER & BRASS COM- PANY.
Detroit offers unequaled inducements for the prosecution of industries of great magni- tude and, in particular, to manufacturing en- terprises, by reason of her available supply
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sources, desirable internal facilities and ready financial fostering. That these facts are real- ized is shown by the wide scope and import- ance of the industrial and commercial activi- ties of the Michigan metropolis, and the ad- vancement along normal lines of business has been greatly accelerated within the past decade, through the application of that progressive spirit which is making for the upbuilding of the larger and greater city. The representa- tive capitalists and business men of Detroit are duly conservative, and this fact is to be looked upon with satisfaction, but they are ever ready to lend influence and tangible co-operation in the promotion of business undertakings of legitimate order and in maintaining them upon the highest plane of productive activity. A noteworthy example is afforded in the secur- ing to the city the Michigan Copper & Brass Company, whose business is one unique in the middle west, as the functions of its great plant have hitherto been practically monopolized by institutions of the sort in the eastern states,- particularly Connecticut, which has virtually controlled eighty-five per cent. of the brass and copper manufacturing of the Union. The products of the Detroit plant include copper, brass and German silver in sheets, rolls, rods, tubing, wire, blanks and shells, and the equip- ment of the mammoth and thoroughly mod- ern establishment is unexcelled by that of any other in the country. It is needless to say that the industry is a distinctive acquisition to Detroit, both in a direct and collateral sense.
The Michigan Copper & Brass Company was organized in 1906, and its articles of in- corporation were approved in that year. The original capital stock was four hundred thou- sand dollars, and in enlisting this capital the chief promoter was George H. Barbour, the president of the company from the start and known as one of the most substantial and progressive of Detroit's representative capi- talists. Later, the capital was increased by two hundred thousand dollars, represented in the issuing of preferred stock. The issuing of this additional stock was found expedient in view of the fact that as the work of erecting
and equipping the fine plant progressed it was found that greater expenditures were entailed than had originally been contemplated. The policy was to spare no expense in making the plant perfect in every detail, and Mr. Bar- bour's enthusiastic and indefatigable efforts found their reward when the privilege became his, on the 24th of July, 1907, of giving the signal which started the operation of the ma- chinery in the splendid plant of the company. The buildings are of the most approved type of modern construction, being located on River street, just east of Fort Wayne. The following description is substantially that given in the Detroit Free Press of July 24, 1907, only such paraphrase and elimination being made as to make the statements con- sonant with the prescribed limitations of this publication.
"Entering the long, clean building, made light by the saw-tooth roof in which are set the skylights, the visitor is confronted with a maze of overhead shafting and tracks for traveling cranes. The cranes traverse the building at intervals and two great cranes go the entire length of the structure, a distance of five hundred and sixty-eight feet. At the front of the building are the tube-drawers, with their tremendous pulling power. Six of these mas- sive machines will make the tubes and heavy rods. The immense immersion and pickling tanks along-side of them have a business-like look, the pickling vats being lined with three- eighths inch lead, as smoothly put on as if it were paper. At the rear of the building are the initial furnaces which receive the copper and spelter. Flanking the drawing benches, with their endless chains and nippers, are the wire-drawing machines, into which the rods go for the manufacturing of the larger sizes of copper wire. Other machines are provided which will make wire from the trolley size down to the diameter of fine linen thread, all the drawing being done cold. To the right of the main entrance of the building are several massive rolling machines, with their large cogged fly wheels. One shaft leading from the engine operates all the rolls, but any of the machines may be detached without inter-
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fering with the operation of the others. The Barbour, Jr., treasurer; John R. Owen, sec- superintendent in charge of the building of retary; and Jeremiah Howe, general superin- tendent. All of the above mentioned gentle- men are members of the directorate of the company, and the others represented on the board of directors are James T. Whitehead, Henry B. Ledyard, Jeremiah Dwyer, Fred- erick T. Moran, Fred M. Alger, and Edward J. Corbett. the mill pronounced it the finest he had ever seen, and he had personally supervised the building of twenty-four mills prior to this. Power is furnished by a magnificent Allis- Chalmers engine of twelve hundred horse- power. Every labor-saving device possible has been provided, and yet this new plant will em- ploy five hundred men when running to full capacity. The plant has a unique water- THE DETROIT FIRE & MARINE INSUR- ANCE COMPANY. works of its own, and in every particular the establishment is a model and one capable of turning out products of ultimate excellence."
From the article to which recourse has just been made for the foregoing data it is not in- consistent to draw farther, in order to per- petuate the words of the president of the com- pany uttered on the occasion of the "dedica- tion" of the plant. Mr. Barbour spoke es- sentially as follows: "It is very gratifying to me, and I believe to all the stockholders and directors, to know that this plant and its equipment have been completed and paid for in cash and that there is not a dollar of in- debtedness upon it. I believe we have the most modern and up-to-date copper-rolling mill in the country. We believe this institu- tion will prove of great interest to the general manufacturing industries of Detroit. Why should we not manufacture the product of our own state? Here we are, located some seven or eight hundred miles nearer where the cop- per is produced than are many of our com- petitors, and is it not better to manufacture it right here at home than to have it shipped east, manufactured there and then returned to the west? We are most favorably located for this particular branch of industry." The plant has a frontage and best of dock facilities on the Detroit river and has also a spur track from the Michigan Central Railroad, so that its shipping and receiving facilities are of the best.
As the American republic stands to-day pre- eminent among all the nations of the globe in its capacity for conducting affairs of great breadth and scope, so does the splendid enter- prise of the Detroit Fire & Marine Insurance Company stand as a conspicuous example of the truth of this statement. The company has conducted its affairs according to the most honorable methods during its entire history, covering a period of more than forty-two years; it is independent yet conservative in its mode of transactions, not controlled by influ- ence or direction of compacts or associations, offering secure and reasonable indemnity and securing to itself popularity and consequent prosperity.
This company was organized on the Ist of February, 1866, and was duly incorporated under the laws of the state, with a subscribed capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars, of which one hundred thousand were paid in. The paid-up stock was later increased to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The per- sonnel of the first official corps of the company was as follows: Caleb Van Husan, president; Edward Kanter, vice-president; and S. War- ner White, secretary. In addition to these officers the board of directors included the fol- lowing named representative citizens of the state : John Owen, Charles Ducharme, William A. Moore, M. I. Mills, John J. Bagley, Eber Ward, Joseph Aspinall, F. Wetmore, L. M. Mason, S. Gardner, H. E. Benson, Emory Wendell and Edward Trowbridge, all of De- troit; and T. D. Gilbert, of Grand Rapids; S. P. Williams, of Lima, Indiana; P. Bach, of
The official and executive corps of the Mich- igan Copper & Brass Company is as here noted : George H. Barbour, president; James E. Danaher, first vice-president; David M. Ireland, second vice-president; George H. Ann Arbor; and S. S. Cobb, of Kalamazoo.
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From the above list it will be seen that all save one on the board of directors were Michi- gan men, and the company has remained es- sentially a Michigan institution during the long intervening years, which have witnessed the passing away of the greater number of those who were interested in its organization.
The original headquarters of the new com- pany were at 124 Jefferson avenue, and later the present eligible location, at No. 100 Gris- wold street, was secured. Discriminating management soon secured to the company a good business through the southern part of the state, and from the beginning an excellent support was received in the department of marine insurance, which has continued an im- portant feature of the business until the pres-
Mr. Van Husan continued incumbent of the office of president until his death, in 1884, proving a most able and popular executive, as did also his successor, William A. Butler, who served until his death, in May, 1891. Mr. Butler was, in turn, succeeded by William A. Moore, who likewise had done much to further the success of the enterprise, and upon his death, in September, 1906, Edward H. Butler, the present popular incumbent, was elected to the presidency. S. Warner White continued
in the office of secretary until March, 1868, when James J. Clark was chosen his successor. The latter held the office until 1891, when he was made vice-president, of which office he was in tenure until his death, which occurred in November, 1899. He was succeeded by C. L. Andrews, who was secretary of the com- pany until January, 1900, when he was elected to his present office, that of vice-president. A. H. McDonell became assistant secretary in 1891, and upon the advancement of Mr. Andrews to the vice-presidency he was chosen secretary, in which position he is still serving.
Since its organization the company has paid in losses more than five millions of dollars. Since January 14, 1897, the capital stock has been five hundred thousand dollars, all paid ent time. In 1871 the company, whose busi- up, and the gross assets, as indicated in the ness had been extended into adjoining states, official statement under date of January 1, 1908, are $1,939,094.88. The names of the present officers of the company have already been noted with the exception of that of C. A. Reekie, who is now assistant secretary. The board of directors is as follows: Alex- ander Lewis (deceased since this article was prepared), E. O. Grosvenor, Oliver Goldsmith, Merrill B. Mills, George Peck, Edward H. Butler, Edward C. Van Husan, Charles A. Ducharme, Junius E. Beal, H. L. Jenness, D. E. Heineman, George N. Brady, Albert L. Stephens, William R. Croul, C. L. Andrews. Charles A. Dean, A. H. McDonell, D. L Quirk, W. V. Moore, and S. T. Miller. encountered very severe losses in the Chicago fire, as well as in disastrous fires in Holland and Manistee, Michigan, in the same year. This required the calling in of thirty per cent. of the stock, and the subscribed capital stock was then, by resolution, reduced to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Upon hearing of the Chicago fire, and before the ex- tent of the company's losses therein was known, William A. Moore offered the follow- ing resolution at a meeting of the stockhold- ers: "Resolved, That the officers of the com- pany be instructed to reply to inquiries as to its responsibility, that the company is solvent and that the business will be continued." This resolution exemplified the loyalty which has ever characterized the stockholders of the com- THE DETROIT WHITE LEAD WORKS. pany and the policy which has conserved its continued and gratifying success.
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