USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 37
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THE DETROIT MOTOR CASTINGS COM- PANY.
Under the above title is conducted a pros- perous enterprise which adds not only to the industrial prestige of the city of Detroit but also to her marked distinction as the "hub" of automobile manufacturing in the United States, as the products of the concern are to a very large extent utilized in connection with the last mentioned industry.
The Detroit Motor Castings Company was organized in 1906 and was duly incorporated under the laws of the state, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. The officers of the company are as follows: Ed- ward J. Roney, president; F. G. Skinner, vice- president ; and Jacob C. Danziger, manager. The other interested principals, who were like- wise organizers of the company, are: John J. Roney and R. R. Sterling.
The well equipped plant of the concern is devoted to the manufacturing of brass, bronze and aluminum castings for automobile and power-boat use, and the special products are finished parts for gasoline engines and auto- mobile bodies. The business is largely con- tract work for the larger concerns in the auto- mobile and power-boat manufacturing, and the enterprise has been successful from the time of its initiation.
THE PENINSULAR MILLED SCREW COM- PANY.
The rapid industrial growth of Detroit within the past few years has been a subject of much comment and a matter of great sat- isfaction to the city. Men already prominent in local business affairs have conserved this
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progress by giving their capitalistic and ex- ecutive support to new enterprises, and among the successful industries thus fostered is that represented by the company whose name initiates this paragraph.
The Peninsular Milled Screw Company was organized in 1902, being duly incorporated under the laws of the state, with a capital stock of thirty-four thousand dollars and with the following named stockholders and or- ganizers: Herbert J. Conn, Thornton A. Tay- lor, William L. Caswell, William E. Currie, John A. Mercier, Ralph B. Wilkinson, Lyle G. Younglove, George Groul, Charles B. Kidder, and August Guerold. Of these Messrs. Tay- lor and Caswell were men of practical expe- rience in the line of business for the prosecu- tion of which the company was organized. The personnel of the original official corps was as here noted: William E. Currie, president ; Ralph B. Wilkinson, vice-president; Herbert J. Conn, secretary ; John A. Mercier, treasurer ; and Thornton A. Taylor, general manager. In 1903 Messrs. Taylor, Conn and Caswell purchased the interests of the other members of the company, and in the reorganization the following executive offices were assigned: Herbert J. Conn, president; William L. Cas- well, vice-president; and Thornton A. Taylor, secretary and treasurer. Under the direction of these officers the enterprise has since been successfully continued. Mr. Conn has the su- perintendence of the financial affairs of the company; Mr. Caswell is in charge of the manufacturing department; and Mr. Taylor, besides supervising the general office and fiscal affairs of the business, has charge of the pur- chasing department and is associated with the president of the company in the supervision of the sales department.
The present substantial and modern plant of the company was erected in 1904, and the main building is forty by one hundred and sixty-three feet in dimensions, two stories in height, with a one-story "L," forty by forty- five feet. In 1906 was constructed an addi- tion of one story, forty by one hundred and twenty feet in dimensions. In 1907 was com- pleted a large warehouse. The business at the
start was conducted with headquarters in the old Wilson foundry building, 613 Fort street west, and the present plant is located at 751- 755 Bellevue avenue. The buildings are of fire-proof construction, and the interior pro- visions in this line were installed by the Ameri- can Fireproofing Company.
The company began operations on a modest scale, at first giving employment to a force of only ten men, and at the present time about one hundred men are employed, about one- half of the number being skilled artisans. The first year's business aggregated only fifteen thousand dollars, and the rapid expansion of the industry is shown in the fact that in 1907 the transactions of the company represented an aggregate of fully two hundred thousand dol- lars. Ninety per cent. of the products of the factory is sold from the general offices of the company, and the goods are also handled by commission men in various sections. The company manufacture a staple line known as standard set and cap screw studs, nuts, etc., which are carried in stock, also many special- ties, embracing all screw-machine products, such as automobile parts, spark-plug shells, universal joints, washers, rollers, clevises, cones, turnbuckles, steel taper pins and planer bolts, milled coupling bolts, malleable-iron thumb nuts and screws, finished and case-hard- ened nuts, ice calks, etc. All kinds of case- hardening work are turned out in the well equipped factory, and also every description of work turned from solid bars. The trade of the concern is principally in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, and its business is constantly expanding in scope and in extent of territory.
THE DETROIT STOKER & FOUNDRY COM- PANY.
In the line of manufacturing industries it has been repeatedly observed that Detroit bears aloft a high standard and has acknowl- edged leadership, and on the long list of sub- stantial industrial enterprises which conserve her prestige that conducted by the above named corporation contributes its quota.
This industrial concern was organized and incorporated in November, 1901, under the
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name of the Detroit Foundry & Manufactur- ing Company, with a capital stock of ten thou- sand dollars and with official corps as follows : President and treasurer, Frank L. Bromley; vice-president, Frank H. Sears; secretary, Alvah H. Leavitt. At that time the company was engaged in the jobbing foundry business, on Atwater street east, between Antoine and Hastings streets. The plant was a small one, with a maximum capacity of from four to five tons of finished castings per day. During 1902 the business was carried on successfully in this small foundry, but the business was necessarily limited, on account of the size of the plant. In 1903 the officers of the com- pany were changed, as follows: President and manager, Frank L. Bromley; vice-president, J. W. Thompson; secretary and treasurer, Charles F. Lawson. The capital was increased from ten thousand to sixty-five thousand dol- lars and a plat of land fronting on the Grand boulevard, between Russell and Dequindre streets, was purchased. A large and modern foundry building, one hundred by one hundred and eighty-five feet in dimensions, was erected on this land early in 1903, and in this plant the business was carried forward in much greater volume. During the same year the company built a machine shop seventy by one hundred and ninety feet in dimensions, which building was leased to the Detroit Automatic Stoker Company, a concern which contracted for all its grey-iron castings from the Detroit Foun- dry & Manufacturing Company. This ar- rangement continued until February, 1905, when the Detroit Automatic Stoker Company sold its entire business to the Detroit Foun- dry & Manufacturing Company. After the transfers were made the name of the company was changed to that of the Detroit Stoker & Foundry Company and the capital was in- creased to one hundred and ten thousand dol- lars. During 1906 Mr. C. F. Lawson re- signed his position as secretary and treasurer, and the corps of officers was changed as fol- lows: President and treasurer, Frank L. Bromley; vice-president, J. W. Thompson; secretary, William H. Rea. The manufacture and sale of the Detroit Automatic stoker were
pushed with such success that in 1907 the capi- tal of the company was increased to one hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars, and the "De- troit Stoker" became favorably known amongst engineers and owners of power plants through- out the entire country.
The Detroit automatic stoker is a patented device, known as a smokeless furnace. It is used in power plants for the purpose of burn- ing the lower grades of bituminous coal under boilers without smoke. The furnace is sold under guarantees as to economy and smoke prevention, and it has proven so satisfactory that the business has almost doubled each year since it was turned over to the present company.
The Detroit Stoker & Foundry Company gives employment to over two hundred and fifty men and fully sixty-five per cent. is rep- resented in skilled labor, while the average annual pay roll shows an expenditure of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It has been necessary to build two new additions to the plant during the last two years, in order to take care of the increasing business. The company appreciates the value of the name "Detroit" and is doing everything in its power to make the Detroit Stoker & Foundry Com- pany and the "Detroit Stoker" a credit to the city which has helped so materially in its success.
THE COWLES & DANZIGER COMPANY.
It is a fact uniformly conceded that few cities in the Union offer to manufacturing en- terprises so desirable facilities, ready capi- talistic support and general fostering care as does Detroit, and within her hospitable walls no legitimate undertaking need lack for appre- ciative support. One of the later and im- portant manufacturing enterprises established in this city is that conducted by the company whose name introduces this brief sketch.
The company was organized and incorpo- rated in 1901, with a capital of fifteen thousand dollars and with the following named business men as the interested principals: R. R. Ster- ling, F. G. Skinner, A. A. Cowles, and Jacob
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C. Danziger. The original official corps com- prised the following: R. R. Sterling, presi- dent; F. G. Skinner, vice-president; A. A. Cowles, secretary and treasurer ; and J. C. Dan- ziger, manager. The executive officers have since remained as above, save that Mr. Cowles served only during 1901 as secretary and treas- urer, being then succeeded by J. C. Danziger, the present incumbent, who also continues as general manager of the business. The com- pany manufacture steel barrels for the use of the gasoline and oil trade, have built up a large and substantial business, and the trade extends throughout the United States and into diverse sections of the dominion of Canada and re- public of Mexico. The annual business shows an average aggregate of fully fifteen thousand dollars, and the factory, which is essentially modern in its equipment and facilities, is lo- cated on Beaufait avenue. The work in the factory is done principally by compressed-air tools and the products are recognized for their superiority in every practical and technical detail.
THE GORDON-PAGEL BREAD COMPANY.
In every populous community one of the very important lines of industrial enterprise is that which has to do with the production of foodstuffs, and in this branch of manufactur- ing Detroit is signally favored. Here are to be found concerns whose every effort has been to produce for the use of the consuming pub- lic a grade of food requisites of the highest possible standard and prepared under the most perfect sanitary conditions. As standing in exemplification of the truth of the above state- ments it is but necessary to refer to the es- tablishment of the company whose title initi- ates this paragraph. An inspection of the plant of the Gordon-Pagel Bread Company, the most modern in the city, can not but compel the ob- server to recognize that baker's bread may be made thoroughly wholesome and more palat- able than is the average domestic product. The absolute cleanliness of the establishment in every department and the strict regard to mod- ern sanitary precautions and provisions, to- gether with the scientific methods employed in
the treatment of the materials used, proves a revelation to one who has not previously familiarized himself with the workings of baking establishments of the highest type.
In 1900 James C. Gordon and William M. Pagel entered into partnership, under the title of Gordon & Pagel, and forthwith established the business which has already grown to be one of the most successful of the kind in the city of Detroit. Mr. Gordon had previously passed about twelve years in the employ of the Morton Baking Company, of this city, and brought to bear in the new enterprise a most thorough experience of a technical order, and Mr. Pagel had conducted a successful retail grocery business for about a decade prior to entering into partnership with Mr. Gordon. The original plant of the firm occupied a small section of the present ample quarters, at the corner of Chene and Hendricks streets, and at the start only two men were employed in the baking department. The members of the firm officiated as their own salesmen and drove their own wagons, realizing that personal ap- plication and consecutive industry constitute the basis of success, and having no false ideas as to business dignity when they thus gave themselves to the work in hand. The growth of the enterprise has been most gratifying and has shown the wisdom of their initial and retained policy of operations. Each year has seen the completion of an addition to the plant and the augmenting of its facilities, and at the present time the company occupy premises with a frontage of two hundred and ten feet on Chene street and running back one hundred feet on Hendricks street to the alley. On the southeast corner of the same streets they erected in 1907 a modern stable building, one hundred by sixty feet in dimensions, and this is utilized for the accommodation of their fifty or more horses used in connection with the delivery department of the business. The at- tractive wagons used in this department number about thirty at the time of this writing.
A brief description of the modus operandi of a modern baking plant can not be malapro- pos in this connection. The first operation is the sifting of the flour, followed by the blend-
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ing of the winter and spring wheat varieties; next the flour, weighed to exact proportions, is placed in a mixer, with an equally definite amount of sterilized water, which is heated to the proper temperature indicated by science and experience, which also determine the blend- ing of the two varieties of flour. After the dough is thus prepared in the mixer it is placed in large wooden troughs, scrupulously clean, and later into a machine which weighs with exactitude the amount to be placed in each loaf. This small portion is then run through a kneading machine and shaped for the baking pans, which are then sent to the proving room. The scientific appliances and facilities of this room afford means of obtaining results not possible in the home, and the even tempera- ture maintained insures uniform size and also symmetry in the loaves of bread. From the proving room the waiting loaves are taken to the baking oven, whence is finally turned out the completed product, ready for the consumer and far superior to that secured by old-time methods, according to which chance, unequal temperature, unproven and unequalized grades of flour and inexact proportions gave ever varying results.
The rapid growth of the business of the firm of Gordon & Pagel finally made the in- corporation of the concern expedient, and on the 16th of July, 1907, the Gordon-Pagel Bread Company was organized, with a capital stock of seventy-five thousand dollars. Mr. Gordon is president of the company; John W. Zimmerling, vice-president; and William M. Pagel, secretary and treasurer. Brief reviews of the careers of Messrs. Gordon and Pagel appear on other pages of this publication. The equipment of the plant embodies the most mod- ern and perfect appliances pertaining to the manufacture of bread. The buildings are mod- els of sanitary construction, and every pos- sible care is given to delivering to the trade a product perfect in every particular. In main- taining the perfect sanitation of the plant a compressed-air system is employed, in addi- tion to the practically constant application of soap and water, and two men give their entire time and attention to this work. The oven
capacity makes possible the baking of fifty thousand two-pound loaves of bread in a single day; employment is given to a force of about one hundred men; and the annual out- lay in wages reaches the notable aggregate of sixty thousand dollars. The output of the es- tablishment is sold entirely at wholesale, and the trade territory is confined to Detroit and its suburban districts.
PHILIP KLING BREWING COMPANY.
The successful enterprise conducted under the above title has been in existence for more than half a century and stands among the lead- ing industries of the sort in the state of Michi- gan, while its facilities are unexcelled by those of any other of similar order in the city of Detroit.
The business was founded in the year 1856, by Philip Kling, who was one of the pioneers in this field of industry in the city of Detroit, where he still maintains his home, and here he has the distinction of being at the present time the oldest citizen of the Michigan metropolis who has been identified with brewing interests. His reputation and that of the establishment of which he was the founder have alike re- mained unassailable, and through well directed effort he built up the splendid enterprise whose title perpetuates his name.
The original brewery was located on the site of the present fine plant, and was one of modest order but one which turned out a product of so superior quality as to early gain to it an ap- preciative and substantial patronage. The standard has never been lowered but rather has been raised by every possible means, so that the business has shown from the start a steady and normal expansion, until it is now one of the largest and most important of the sort in the state, throughout the most diverse sections of which the trade extends. The brewery, which is of the most modern type in all equip- ments and accessories, is located on Jefferson avenue near Grand boulevard, with a frontage of two hundred feet on the avenue mentioned, and extending back to the Detroit river, by means of which, as well as through railway
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connections, the shipping facilities are of the best. The buildings of the plant are substan- tial brick structures, and in every department the utmost care is given to the maintaining of the most perfect sanitary conditions and to insuring absolute purity of product, so that the output is of a sort that in itself gains and re- tains trade. The company gives employment to an average force of seventy-five hands. The honored founder of the business, now vener- able in years, is living practically retired, and is one of the sterling pioneer business men of Detroit, where he holds a secure place in the confidence and esteem of all who know him. A brief sketch of his life appears elsewhere in this volume.
The Philip Kling Brewing Company was incorporated in 1887, the business having pre- viously been conducted as an individual or partnership enterprise. The personnel of the official and executive corps of the company at the present time is as follows: Josephine Kling, president; August Kling, vice-president and general manager; and Kurt Kling, secre- tary and treasurer.
THE GIES GEAR COMPANY.
The manufacturing of reversing gears for marine engines of the explosive type has brought this company into wide repute and its products, recognized for simplicity, effi- ciency and general superiority, are now uti- lized in all parts of the world where such types of marine engines are in commission. Letters of commendation have been received from leading manufacturers and users of such ma- rine engines to which the Gies reverse device has been applied, and the record of satisfactory service of the gear is practically unparalleled. The Gies Gear Company was organized in September, 1906, when it was incorporated under the laws of the state of Michigan, with a capital stock of seventy-five thousand dol- lars.
Those interested in the organization of the company were Howard E. Putnam, Bruce H. Wark, Frank G. Gies, Clarence J. Gies, A. F. Gies, and Harry D. Morton. The officers of
the concern are as here noted: H. E. Put- nam, president; B. H. Wark, vice-president; C. J. Gies, secretary ; and H. D. Morton, treasurer and general manager. The well equipped plant is located at 345-7 Bellevue avenue, where the main building is eighty by one hundred and forty feet in dimensions, one story in height. The foundry building is thirty by fifty feet in dimensions. Of the fifty employes in the establishment fully ninety per cent. are skilled mechanics, and the average outlay in wages each year is thirty-five thou- sand dollars. The products of the institution find sale throughout the United States and Canada, and the demand extends to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and every other part of the world where the motor boat is known. The European trade is covered through the agency of The Fairbanks Com- pany, of London. At the headquarters of the company in Detroit the president, Mr. Put- nam, has general supervision of the auditing department; Mr. Morton has the management of the purchasing department and general su- pervision of the business. Within the first ten months after beginning active operations the company turned out three thousand of its pat- ented reversing gears, and the business is con- stantly expanding in scope and importance. Full information in regard to the products of the establishment may be had by applying to the company's general offices, in Detroit.
THE DETROIT REGALIA COMPANY.
In extent of business controlled and in out- put capacity this concern ranks third of its kind in the Union, on which score it will readily be understood that it adds its quota to the commercial prestige of Detroit, where its manufactory and general headquarters are maintained.
The enterprise dates its inception back to the year 1891, when operations were instituted by a copartnership, in which the interested principals were James G. Morgan, Emil Puhl, and C. V. Morris. The original firm name was Morgan, Puhl & Morris, and in 1894, so marked had been the expansion of the business
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of the firm that it was considered expedient to organize a stock company. This was duly ac- complished, and the Morgan, Puhl & Morris Company was incorporated with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. Under this title the business was successfully continued until 1904, when the company was succeeded by the Detroit Regalia Company, which was incorporated with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, its officers being as follows: Philip Breitmeyer, president; Leon C. Finck, vice- president; and John Gillespie, general man- ager. The company, with unrivaled facilities, manufactures all kinds of uniforms, regalia and lodge supplies, and its headquarters are maintained in the Palms building, 45-49 Grand River avenue, where five stories are utilized, each fifty by seventy feet in dimensions. In the factory and general sales and office depart- ments employment is given to an average of seventy persons, at an annual expenditure in salaries and wages of fully thirty-five thousand dollars, besides which a corps of able traveling representatives is retained and much employ- ment given in the placing of piece work out- side the factory. The company has agencies in all leading cities in the United States and Canada, throughout which its trade extends, and it also has a substantial demand for its products in foreign countries. The company has secured many prizes for its regalia and other insignia, and its products have met with special commendation in the elaborate re- galia of the Masonic and other fraternal organizations.
. THE KOPPITZ-MELCHERS BREWING COMPANY.
The brewing industry in Detroit is repre- sented most effectively by the finely equipped plant, excellent product and substantial busi- ness of the Koppitz-Melchers Brewing Com- pany, which was organized and incorporated in 1890, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars. Those concerned in the or- ganization of the new company were Messrs. Konrad E. Koppitz, Arthur C. Melchers, Her- man C. Sachse, and Charles F. Zielke, the first
two mentioned having previously been identi- fied with the Stroh Brewing Company, of this city. Mr. Melchers was elected the first presi- dent; Mr. Koppitz, vice-president; and Mr. Zielke, secretary and treasurer. In 1907 Mr. Koppitz became president of the company, suc- ceeding John A. Preston, who died in April of that year, having been president from 1903 and prior to that year having served as treas- urer of the company. Ferdinand P. Goettman succeeded Mr. Zielke in the management of the accounting department in 1894, was elected secretary in 1899, and since 1904 has served as both secretary and treasurer. Practically from the inception of the business Mr. Kop- pitz has had charge of the manufacturing or general brewing department.
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