Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 33

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

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is noted above. He ever showed himself a thoroughly upright and honorable business man and as a citizen was loyal to all civic du- ties and responsibilities. In politics he was a stalwart Republican, though he had never sought or desired the honors or emoluments of public office. He and his wife held mem- bership in the Emanuel church, Protestant Episcopal.

Mr. Widman was united in marriage to Miss Isabelle Rich, daughter of the late George Rich, a representative citizen of Detroit and at one time incumbent of the office of city treasurer. Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Widman the following brief data are entered : Clara E. is the wife of Frederick L. Andrews, who is connected with the great pharmaceutical concern of Parke, Davis & Company, of Detroit; Albert U. is individ- ually mentioned in this volume; Adele R. is the wife of George Gnau, a well known insurance agent of Detroit, with offices in the Hammond building; and Florence J. is the wife of Don- ald Johnston, of Detroit, the Michigan general agent for the Union Central Life Insurance Company.

THE HUGH WALLACE COMPANY.

In the manufacturing of coats and robes this company controls a widely disseminated and important business, and the enterprise con- tributes materially to the industrial supremacy of the city of Detroit. The company was in- corporated in 1906, with a capital stock of four hundred thousand dollars, and the personnel of its official corps is as follows : Hugh Wal- lace, president; Lewis H. Ward, vice-presi- dent; Floyd G. Arms, secretary; Daniel McColl, treasurer. This company is the direct successor of the Western Robe Company, which was incorporated in 1904, prior to which time the business had been conducted under the same title but without incorporation. The business was founded in 1897, by Hugh Wallace, who has been at its head from the inception to the present time and to whose progressive ideas and wise administrative policy the expansion of the enterprise to its present large proportions is primarily due. A

brief review of his career appears on other pages of this volume.

Many of the products of this concern are- unique, and the lines manufactured include astrakhan and buffalo fur cloths, which, in turn, are utilized in the making of robes, coats, Mackinac jackets, etc. The plant has a ca- pacity for the manufacturing of three thousand yards of cloth daily, and the Wallace astrakhan and buffalo cloths are the standard in America. The Wallace robes, of varied designs and ma- terials, find sale in every state in the Union, and through their wide introduction the name of the original company was given marked prestige throughout all sections of the country. Concerning another feature of the industry the following pertinent statements are made in one of the recently issued and especially attractive catalogues of the company : "The fur and fur- lined departments have grown more rapidly than any other branch of our business, which bespeaks the popularity of these goods. We have established the same high standard in these departments that we have always main- tained in our other lines. We now have our own tanning, dressing and dyeing plant, thus insuring the very best work."

The Wallace cloak and overcoat cloths are manufactured on special knitting machines, and the factory in this department has the best of equipment throughout. It is run to its full capacity every day in the year, and more than one hundred hands are employed in this de- partment alone. One of the modern type of machines utilized will produce in the same length of time three times as much as the old- style weaving machines. The output of the knitting mill not only supplies the materials for the other manufacturing departments of the concern but is also sold to other coat and cloak manufacturers and to jobbers of cloths. The mill is two hundred and forty by one hundred feet in dimensions and three stories in height, being of substantial brick construction. The coat and robe manufactory occupies a building on the south side of Grand boulevard, and this plant was erected in 1906. Here employment is given to about three hundred persons, in- cluding twenty-five experts in the tanning, dye-

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ing and dressing of furs. A branch establish- ment is maintained at 725 Broadway, New York, where a large stock is carried, and sample rooms and agencies are also established in St. Louis, Boston, San Francisco, and in Gloversville, New York. The robes and coats manufactured by the company control a large sale throughout all sections of the Union north established in Alaska. This concern is the of the Ohio river, and a large trade has been largest of its kind in the United States, is the pioneer in covering the manufacture of its products from the raw material to the finished garment, and is still the only company which compasses such operations. The Canadian market is controlled through a branch factory at Berlin, Ontario, and the same is under the management of W. J. Simeon, who had pre- viously been connected with the business of the home plant in Detroit. In the Canadian fac- tory employment is afforded to an average force of one hundred persons. In Detroit the company disburses one hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars annually in wages to operatives, and this does not include the salaries of the office corps, of twelve persons, and the travel- ing representatives, numbering fourteen. In addition to the production of buffalo and as- trakhan and Persian lamb cloth garments, the company also manufactures duck coats and vests, women's coats, a wide variety of robes, and also gauntlet mittens and gloves. The enterprise is one of the strong and ably conducted industries of Detroit and is most consistently given representation in this publication.

JEROME H. REMICK & COMPANY.

In reviewing those enterprises which have been material factors in the advancement of Detroit to a position of importance among the leading industrial, financial and commercial centers of the United States, few instances of more rapid, substantial and satisfactory growth can be found than in that of the development of the extensive business of the corporation whose name initiates this article.

Jerome H. Remick & Company are the world's largest publishers of sheet music,-a

distinction rightfully theirs through the vol- ume of business transacted. They are also the most extensive retailers in their line in Amer- ica, the originators of the retail department in connection with the publishing business, and operate some thirty sales branches, in as many leading cities of the country. The foundation of the present business dates from the estab- lishment of the Whitney-Warner Publishing Company, of Detroit. Mr. Remick, the domi- nant factor in the enterprise of to-day, pur- chased a half interest in the original enterprise in 1898, and two years later became its sole owner, conducting it under its original title until 1904. In January of that year the busi- ness was consolidated with that of a New York institution, and incorporated under the laws of the state of New York as Shapiro, Remick & Company, its executive officers being: Presi- dent, Maurice Shapiro; secretary, treasurer and general manager, Jerome H. Remick. A reorganization followed the retirement of Mr. Shapiro, in December of that year, and the business was re-incorporated under the laws of the state of New York, as Jerome H. Remick & Company, with an authorized capital of two hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Remick was elected president and general manager.

The executive offices of the company are located at numbers 68-70 Farrar street, De- troit, and branch offices are maintained in New York city and Chicago. The company have developed an extensive foreign business, which is supplied through sales agencies in London, Paris and Berlin. In 1902, Mr. Remick orig- inated and established the first retail branch of the business, a sheet music department in one of the largest of Detroit's department stores. Its favorable reception by the music-purchasing public was instantaneous, and others were added as rapidly as possible. At the present writing, 1908, the company maintains thirty- five such departments, distributed among the leading department stores in the principal cities of the United States.

In order to centralize and facilitate the oper- ation of the mechanical department of the bus- iness, there was organized and incorporated on January 10, 1907, the J. H. Remick Print-

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ing Company, a subsidiary corporation, with an authorized capital of twenty thousand dol- lars, and the following officers were elected : J. H. Remick, president; John H. Engel, vice- president; Stephen Baldwin, treasurer; and Emil Voelker, secretary. As its title suggests, this company is engaged in printing the var- ious musical compositions emanating solely from the parent company.

The building occupied jointly by these en- terprises, at numbers 68-70 Farrar street, was designed and erected for their use in 1907. It is a three story and basement structure, having an aggregate floor space of twenty thousand square feet, and is divided in its occupancy as follows : First floor, basement and portion of second floor by the printing company: their equipment is of the latest and best known to the printing trade and includes a battery of five Miehle presses; Jerome H. Remick & Com- pany occupy the remainder of the building. The second floor provides room for sumptuous offices, music rooms and the order department, and the third floor is used for storage pur- poses, stock room etc. The extent of the busi- ness conducted by the publishing house is best illustrated through the statement that the paper stock used in printing the compositions marketed during the year 1907 represented an outlay of over one hundred and twenty thou- sand dollars. There are few homes in Amer- ica in which could not be found one or more compositions bearing the imprint of Jerome H. Remick & Company, Detroit, and the re- flex value of the familiarizing throughout the country of the name Detroit is, from the standpoint of home advertising, of inestimable value.

The development of the business has been a matter of about eight years, and when the re- sults accomplished are taken into considera- tion, one is forced to commend the remarkable energy, initiative and executive ability demon- strated in its administration by the manage- ment.

The personnel of the executive corps of the company is as follows: Jerome H. Remick, president and general manager; William Gross- man, of New York city, vice-president; Ste-

phen Baldwin, of Detroit, treasurer; and Fred E. Belcher, of New York city, secretary. An individual article concerning Mr. Remick ap- pears on other pages of this volume. In the organization, development and administration of the enterprise Mr. Remick has ever been the controlling spirit, and to his progressiveness, energy and resourcefulness the present com- manding position of the company is due. Its success has not been confined to volume of bus- iness alone and it is recognized as having pro- duced, during its career, more popular music successes than any house in the music publish- ing line in America.

THE PENBERTHY INJECTOR COMPANY.

The throbbing pulsations of the manufac- turing industries of Detroit are felt in all sec- tions of the world and the products of her magnificent institutions may be found in prac- tically every civilized clime.

In insuring this prominence and pres- tige few concerns have contributed more con- spicuously and worthily than that whose title initiates this paragraph and whose enterprise is conceded to be the largest of the sort in ex- istence. The history of the company is a most interesting and significant one, involving, as it does, the record of the building up of a splen- did industry from a nucleus of most modest order and bearing evidence of the well directed energies of men of courage, progressive ideas and distinctive administrative ability. Wher- ever steam is generated for practical utiliza- tion there are the products of the Penberthy Injector Company known and applied, and thus it becomes a matter of special gratifica- tion to the publishers of this work to enter within its pages a resumé of this representa- tive concern.

The company was incorporated in 1886, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, and the personnel of its original execu- tive corps was as follows: Homer Pennock, president; William Penberthy, vice-president ; and S. Olin Johnson, secretary and treasurer. The organization was effected for the purpose of manufacturing the improved steam injector

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invented by Mr. Penberthy, and the company assumed the ownership of the patents on the device. The original "plant" was a room about twenty feet square in the building occupied by the Detroit Knitting & Corset Works, of which Mr. Johnson, secretary and treasurer of the new corporation, was at the time manager. The mechanical equipment installed at the start consisted of one brass lathe and one tool lathe, and the operative force was limited to four men, all castings being made outside, un- der contract. Carefully and methodically was the work pushed forward and the products were introduced entirely upon their merits. The enterprise expanded rapidly but normally under these conditions, and in 1890 the orig- inal quarters were abandoned for a building of one story which had been erected in the rear of the knitting and corset factory and which was fifty by forty feet in dimensions. The de- velopment of the business continued and event- ually the entire building formerly occupied by the corset factory was devoted to the use of the injector company, while the corps of em- ployes was increased to one hundred and fifty persons. Under essentially these conditions the enterprise was successfully continued until November 21, 1901, when the plant and build- ing were completely wrecked by an explosion of the boilers, entailing virtually the entire loss of the equipment. A careful investigation of the cause of the accident was made and the matter was carried into the courts, where the jury emphatically placed the blame upon the manufacturers of the boilers, having unequiv- ocally pronounced the dictum that inferior material had been used in the construction of the same.

Immediately following the wrecking of the plant, which had been located on Abbott street, the company purchased five and one-half acres of land with a frontage of three hundred feet on Greenwood avenue and five hundred feet on Holden avenue and the trackway of the Grand Trunk Railway. On this site on hun- dred and twenty-five thousand dollars were ex- pended in the erection of an essentially mod- ern plant, with every possible accessory and device for facilitating operations and conserv-

ing time and economy in the same. In addi- tion to the sum noted about seventy-five thou- sand dollars were invested in the machinery installed. In 1907 was erected the office build- ing, one of the finest and most sumptuously appointed that can be found in connection with Detroit manufacturing concerns. In the mat- ter of lighting, convenience of arrangement, individual apparatus for protection from fire, excellence of shipping facilities and general equipment, this plant is recognized as one of the best in the country. Employment is now given to a force of about three hundred and fifty operatives, of whom fully sixty-five per cent. are skilled mechanicians. The average annual pay roll represents an expenditure of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The stock of the company is now virtually con- trolled by S. Olin Johnson, and the capital has been reduced to fifty thousand dollars, giving ample working basis and showing the conserv- ative methods on which the business is con- ducted. This reduction is significant in these days, when there is so great a tendency toward the overdue "watering" of the stock of cor- porations. The financial stability of the com- pany is further indicated in its notable surplus fund of three hundred thousand dollars, at the beginning of the year 1908. The officers of the company at the present time are as here noted : S. Olin Johnson, president and treas- urer; and Homer S. Johnson, secretary and general manager.

The Penberthy injector is manufactured in two types,-the automatic injector and the auto-positive injector,-and there is not a sec- tion of the world in which steam is applied that the products of this important concern are not, utilized and recognized for their superi- ority. This implies, as is the unmistakable fact, that there are in use to-day more of the Penberthy injectors than of any two other in- jector manufactories combined. The annual capacity of the plant is for the output of fifty thousand injectors, and the institution is run to its maximum capacity at all times in order to meet the demands placed upon it. Since the organization of the company, in 1886, it has expended more than two hundred and fifty

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thousand dollars in advertising, and this pub- licity work has been handled with signal ability and judgment. The Penberthy injectors are the recognized standard of excellence, taking precedence of all others. In 1890 an auxilliary plant was erected in Windsor, Ontario, for the purpose of protecting the Canadian patents of the company and facilitating the large business controlled in that dominion. In 1902 Homer S. Johnson, son of the president of the com- pany, assumed the management of the Cana- dian field and under his effective direction the trade therein was rapidly and substantially de- veloped from the Windsor headquarters. Since 1905 this branch has been in charge of Seth J. North, a nephew of the president of the company, and he has proven a discriminat- ing and capable executive, having well demon- strated his ability for the handling of large and important business interests. Detroit has reason to find satisfaction in counting among her representative manufacturing industries that of the Penberthy Injector Company, for the products, "made in Detroit," have brought unmistakable prestige to the city wherever steam is applied to practical uses,-and that implies all sections of the world. As in a measure supplemental and complimentary to this brief descriptive article may be taken the sketch of the career of the president of the company, said article appearing on other pages of this volume.

THE J. H. BISHOP COMPANY.

An industry of importance and one which had a most modest inception is that conducted by the J. H. Bishop Company, whose extensive plant and business headquarters are located in the city of Wyandotte, where the concern rep- resents one of the pioneer manufacturing en- terprises of this thriving town. To the prescience and indefatigable energy of the founder, Jerome H. Bishop is due the upbuild- ing of this industry, the most important of the kind in the United States, and on other pages of this publication will be found a brief re- view of the career of Mr. Bishop, who is one of the most honored citizens and most pro-

gressive and public-spirited business men of Wyandotte, where he has maintained his home for nearly forty years.

The enterprise to which this article is de- voted had its inception in 1875, when Jerome H. Bishop, who had for the four preceding years been superintendent of the public schools of Wyandotte, began the manufacturing of fur coats and robes. He began operations upon a capitalistic basis of only fifty dollars and he individually constituted the entire executive and working force. The growth of the in- dustry to its present proportions stands in evidence of his unceasing application, wise policy and strong executive and initiative talent.

The business was conducted under the title of J. H. Bishop until 1891, when articles of incorporation were filed. In February of that year was incorporated under the laws of the state the J. H. Bishop Company, with a capi- tal stock of five hundred thousand dollars. It is needless to remark that it is a "far cry" from the little shop established by Mr. Bishop and the institution which now bears his name. The company manufacture fur coats and robes of all descriptions and control a trade which ramifies throughout the United States and Canada. For the facile handling of the large trade in the Canadian provinces a branch plant is maintained at Sandwich, Ontario, and the same is in charge of William J. Burns, secre- tary of the company. The home plant of the company in Wyandotte occupies an entire block, bounded by Superior boulevard, Chest- nut and River streets and the Detroit river. Here have been erected fourteen substantial buildings and the same are equipped with the most modern mechanical devices and other accessories for facilitating the manufacturing of the standard products of the concern, while careful attention has been given to providing the best of sanitary conditions and affording ample protection from loss by fire. This is the only concern in the Union which manu- factures fur coats and robes directly from the raw material.' That is, the plant is equipped for the tanning, dyeing and finishing of all hides and skins used, and thereafter every

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detail of the manufacturing is done in the establishment itself. In the plant may be found every kind of skin utilized for the manufac- turing of the products for which the company has gained so wide and splendid a reputation. In the purchasing of skins for use in the fac- tory recourse is had to the fur markets of the world. The annual business of the company shows transactions to the average aggregate of about six hundred thousand dollars, and one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars are expended each year in salaries and wages. The company gives employment to three hundred persons, a considerable proportion of whom are skilled artisans. A corps of ten traveling representatives are retained and the business is entirely of a wholesale order. The products are recognized as standard, and their superior excellence has been the agency through which the enterprise has expanded year after year. Branch offices are maintained in New York, Chicago and Boston. The of- ficers of the company are as here noted : Presi- dent and general manager, Jerome H. Bishop; vice-president, Jerome H. Bishop, Jr .; secre- tary, William J. Burns; and treasurer, J. H. Bishop.

THE BUHL MALLEABLE COMPANY.

Members of the Buhl family have long stood representative of the most progressive citizen- ship in Detroit, and the city owes to them no insignificant debt in connection with its in- dustrial and civic upbuilding and advancement. With many concerns of commercial impor- tance is the name identified, as the pages of this work will clearly show in greater or less de- tail, and among such enterprises is that con- ducted under the corporate name indicated above.

Under the title of the Sprocket Chain Manu- facturing Company, the business had its in- ception on the IIth of April, 1899, when the company was incorporated with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. The concern began the manufacturing of sprocket chains by effecting the purchase of the business of the Detroit Sprocket Chain Company, which had been manufacturing such products upon a

modest scale. The Buhls assumed control of the business and on the 14th of August, 1899, it was incorporated under the laws of the state, as the Buhl Malleable Company, with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars. The officers of the concern were as follows: Theodore D. Buhl, president; Alexander McPherson, vice- president ; Frederick T. DeLong, secretary and treasurer. In August, 1903, Charles A. Rath- bone was elected secretary and treasurer, and also a director of the company, and upon Mr. DeLong's leaving, he was made secretary, treasurer and manager. It will thus be seen that the interposition of other repre- sentative business men than those giving title to the concern was secured, so that the busi- ness started out under most favorable auspices in the matter of executive control. The suc- cess of the company has been pronounced in order, and the business has become one of the valuable acquisitions to the industrial enter- prises of the "Greater Detroit." In 1901 the capital stock was increased to one hundred thousand dollars, and September 30, 1907, was increased to one hundred and ten thousand dollars. The business since 1903 has been very successful,-adding new furnaces, in- creasing their output and doubling this busi- ness. Upon the death of Theodore D. Buhl, in April, 1907, his son, Arthur A. Buhl, suc- ceeded to the presidency, an office in which he is directing affairs with unqualified discrimina- tion, and his brother Willis E. Buhl, was elected director to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his father.

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Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 33

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