USA > Michigan > Saginaw County > History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II > Part 62
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Old designs in furniture, which at first were followed, gave way to new, and in 1910 the twentieth century bulge arch design was evolved. This beautiful and original design has given the name of Herzog a distinctive place in the furniture world ; and it is a maxim of the trade that no piece of furniture made under this stamp of perfection fails of the artistic.
Furniture in the "white" is ready for the application of every known variety of finish, including Adam Browns, Burly Walnuts, Circassians, Enamels and Silvergreys. The finishing department alone is more than three city blocks long and wider than Michigan Avenue. Here are tables, desks, piano benches, dressers, bed-room suites, record cabinets, phonograph cabinets and cases. All cabinets of the famous Sonora phonograph, in all their beauty of design and perfect workmanship, are here finished in exquisite style.
The small beginning of the Sonora cabinet business at a quite recent date makes its phenomenal growth a magical demonstration of the judgment of John L. Jackson and John Ilerzog in measuring and in developing a wide- spread demand for a brand new idea. Mr. Herzog had designed samples of music cabinets with the bulge lines, and had patented the application of this design to phonograph cabinets. The idea received scant attention from phonograph manufacturers and distributors until brought to the notice of George E. Brightson, president of the Sonora Phonograph Corporation, of New York. The conception fitted perfectly in his plans to produce an ideal phonograph that would be the epitome of artistic design.
llis first order with the Ilerzog Company was for ten cabinets, and material for fifteen cabinets was cut. These fifteen cabinets having been disposed of, Mr. Herzog went after a cutting order for twenty-five, but received an order for only ten, taking the chance of the phonograph people selling the remainder. He next solicited an order for one hundred cabinets, but the conservative Sonora Corporation would guarantee to take only fifty with the understanding that they were to be held subject to order. Before the order was half completed, so many more phonographs were sold that the Sonora Corporation ordered the entire lot of cabinets finished and shipped to New York.
Meanwhile a fairly complete line of samples had been manufactured, and twenty-five of each number were put through on the first regular cutting order. Before these had been manufactured and sold, new lots of five hundred each were ordered from almost every number. This was only about five years ago (1912), yet at the present time some of these numbers are ordered by the Sonora Corporation in lots of ten thousand cabinets: and in 1916 sixty-seven thousand cabinets were ordered, made and shipped to the phonograph people by the Herzog Company.
The remarkable success of the Sonora phonograph is due very largely to the collaboration of these industrial leaders in producing patented manu- facturing processes, patented machinery, and patented designs which have made commercially practical the famous tone quality and tone control obtained by the construction of a patented wooden horn, used only in the
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
Sonora phonograph and made only in Saginaw. The marvelous beauty of the Sonora cabinets is due both to their superior finish and to their graceful flowing lines obtained by the patented bulge process of making furniture. The instrument itself also has numerous quality advantages over all others. the motor being made by Swiss expert mechanics with generations of ex- perience, while the reproducer is the most perfect sound producer that is made. A matter of particular interest is that the Sonora won the gold medal for tone quality, in competition with every other type of talking machine, at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco, in 1915.
Early in 1917 the business of the Sonora Corporation reached such an enormous volume that a closer co-ordination of interests with the llerzog Company was necessary. A large part of the assembly department of the former company was moved to Saginaw, and installed in the plant of the local company. At the same time a working agreement was entered into by which the Herzog Company contracted to furnish twenty-five million dollars worth of cabinets for the Sonora Corporation, covering a period of fifteen years. This great production will very nearly require the entire facilities of the mammoth furniture factory, with the employment of eight hundred workmen, about two hundred working on night shifts. Another large addi- tion to the Herzog plant is contemplated, and the Sonora Corporation has planned to erect a large assembly plant for the phonographs. on the property owned by the Herzog Company directly opposite the main units of the factory on Michigan Avenue. The phonograph business is believed to be still in its infancy, and what the outcome will be for the Sonora, and of its ally. the Herzog Company, can scarcely be imagined.
The very highest design produced by the Herzog Company is retailed by the Sonora Corporation at one thousand dollars, the features of which are unsurpassed by any cabinet or piece of furniture made today. It is a unique unit that most perfectly fulfills an artistic purpose. Plans are being developed for the design and manufacture of several new and elaborate models that will be placed on the market at retail prices ranging as high as five thousand dollars.
But what of the personality of the founder of this great industry-John llerzog? A dynamo of energy and enterprise, he radiates inspiration and zeal to all his associates. Through his genius, large inventive ability and humanitarian ideas he has brought the factory to a high degree of efficiency. Bulge Arch furniture is likely to become a monument to him, but whether this is realized or not he is building day by day a lasting monument in the hearts and lives of his workmen.
It is his constant aim to be helpful to all, and vet he almost persuades himself that those he helps are more benefit to him than he is to them. He takes a special interest in the apprentice boys, and has established night schools where young men and boys are afforded practical instruction in drawing, designing and woodworking-advantages equal to what a student gets in a technical school. By this means highly trained mechanics and cabinet makers have been developed. The policy of the company is to recruit its leaders from the ranks of its own employees, and with its continued growth practically all the foremen and sub-foremen have come from the best class of workmen in the factory.
In 1916 the company inaugurated large bonuses to its workmen and foremen. Every operation has gradually been put upon the bonus plan of wage payment, which will eventually enable the workmen to greatly increase their wages in proportion to the amount of good work they produce.
Every summer the Herzog employees give a huge excursion and picnic at some lake or city, which is financed by the company, though earned by the workers. This event is followed by an annual banquet in the fall.
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Mahogany Veneers Gluing Veneers and Body Boards
Lumber from Dry Kilns
Cutting Small Parts Finishing by Spray Process
MAKING SONORA PHONOGRAPH CABINETS IN THE HERZOG ART FURNITURE FACTORY
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
V. P. NERSHON & CO.
PLANT OF WM. B.
Wm. B. Mershon & Company
The industrial history of Saginaw contains few names of as much prominence as that of Mershon, whose business activities through three gener- ations have contributed very largely to the growth and prosperity of this city. As early as 1854, when Saginaw was little more than a frontier settle- ment, E. J. Mershon, grandfather of the present principal generation, came to Saginaw. He soon engaged in lumbering, and laid the foundation for the great business which afterward developed. Ilis activities and personality are well remembered by pioneers still living.
Augustus 11. Mershon, his son, followed in the lumber business and for years was actively identified with the firm of A. G. Bissell & Company, of which he was the executive head. At that time practically all lumber was shipped by vessel to lower lake ports, in the rough as it came from the saw. a practice which entailed a considerable loss to Saginaw River lumber- men. Mr. Mershon was one of the first lumbermen to perceive the advantage of planing and dressing lumber for shipment, and was the first to make box shooks in Michigan. He was Inspector General of Lumber in 1874, and his views on this subject were graphically expressed in his official reports, excerpts from which appear in the chapter on "The Lumber Industry" pp. 413-14. It was largely by his influence that a number of lumbermen built planing mills and dressed millions of feet of lumber for the Eastern trade. During the eighties and early nineties the Saginaw Valley was one of the largest lumber distributing markets in this country.
In 1876 Wm. B. Mershon took over the planing mill business, which had been well established by his father, and erected a salt works as an adjunct to the business. llis brother, Edward C. Mershon, soon joined him in the enterprise and, being of a practical mechanical turn of mind, was given entire charge of plant and equipment. The business was incorporated under the title of Wm. B. Mershon & Co., with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. Under able management the business increased rapidly, and became one
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DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES
MERSHON & COMPANY
of the largest wood-working institutions in Saginaw Valley. Its products consisted of doors, sash, window frames, interior trim and finish, and lumber for all building requirements.
An important part of the business was the making of box shooks- pieces of lumber cut and dressed to exact dimensions for packing cases and boxes of all descriptions. In those days rough boards were resawed to the required thickness by circular saws. a process which entailed great waste of material. No one had yet devised a practical sawing machine for doing this work with a thin saw kerf and reduced cost.
Early in the eighteen-nineties the Mershon Company entered into a large contract with the Standard Oil Company of New York, for shooks used for shipping petroleum products in the export trade. This contract required a large quantity of lumber which was cut at the Shaw & Williams mill, adjoining the Mershon planing mill. The lumber from this mill ran uniformly thick, and the waste in resawing it for this box shook order was appalling. At length the oil company. in consequence of changes in the methods of valuation by the custom officials, ordered the box shooks made thinner than before, but the price remained the same.
This circumstance led the manufacturers to attempt a radical departure in resawing, in an effort to secure three thin pieces from a thick one-inch board, where only two pieces were being obtained by the old methods. Ex- periments had elsewhere been made in resawing by the use of band resaws. but without much success. The needs were so urgent, however, that Edward C. Mershon examined the machines then in use in the East, and ordered one for his plant. When received it was set up and operated accord- ing to directions with fairly encouraging results. The thin band saws reduced the kerf to a minimum, and three thin pieces of lumber, such as were needed for the box shook order, were obtained from one board, instead of only two. But there were inherent defects in the design and construction
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
EDWARD C. MERSHON
of this primitive machine, which caused the saws to break and other parts to get out of order. so that the factory operations were constantly delayed. entailing a heavy loss.
The inventive genius of Edward C. Mershon was at once applied to correct and overcome these defects. He studied every phase of the subject and examined every part which seemed to need attention, and at length discovered where the trouble lay. Plans and specifications for an improved band resaw were drawn according to his ideas, and an entirely new machine was built in Saginaw, at a cost of fifteen hundred dollars. This was the first perfected band resaw ever built anywhere, and from the first day of its operation it proved a complete success. Two other band resaws were soon after built on the same plans, one of which was sold to a box shook manu- facturer at St. Paul, and was burned in a mill fire a few years after. The other machine is still in successful operation in a planing mill in Saginaw.
From this beginning, brought about by the necessity of the lumber trade. there has been developed an extensive business. The first improved band resaw, bearing the name of "Mershon," was shipped in 1892, and from that time the demand for these machines has constantly increased. In 1901 the lumber business of Wm. B. Mershon & Company was taken over by a new corporation-the Mershon, Shuette, Parker Company, and in the Spring of 1902 the old company removed its machine shops into a new plant in the neighborhood of the old.
This plant is a modern two-story brick structure, planned to meet all the demands of the business, and is equipped with all essential machinery and tools for the most economic operation. When opened thirty-eight machinists and workmen were constantly employed. Extensive additions to plant and equipment were made from time to time, and in 1917 the concern is the largest in the world making band resaws. Machines are built and assembled complete in this city, about one hundred and fifty of various types and specially adapted to every need, being built annually. About
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DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES
seventy-five skilled mechanics and workmen are now given steady employ- ment in the shops, and they receive nearly one hundred thousand dollars yearly in wages. The annual production is valued at about three hundred thousand dollars.
The Mershon Band Resaw is known to almost every civilized country on the globe, and the name "Saginaw" has been carried by this home product to the most remote places. Machines have been shipped to Alaska, Aus- tralia, New Zealand, to almost every country of South America. to Africa, Sweden, Russia, and to the Island of Borneo. The smallest resaw sells around seven hundred dollars, others at twelve hundred to two thousand, while the big band resaws for saw mills are priced as high as thirty-six hundred dollars.
In addition to economy in operation, the Mershon Band Resaws are desirable from the standpoint of safety, simplicity, and adaptability to a wide range of service. They minimize the saw kerf by the use of the thinnest saw blade possible, resulting in an increased merchantable product from the log or board. The band resaws as made today incorporate all the features which the ingenuity and experience of Edward C. Mershon devised for the perfect operation of thin saw blades.
The present officers of the company are Edward C. Mershon, president ; Wm. B. Mershon, vice-president ; Ilugh B. Brown, secretary and treasurer.
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NEW STANDARD 60-INCH BAND RESAW
a Specialty not & White Line
DANO DFQ ALA UHIU TILJAWU
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
Germain Manufacturing Company
An important addition to the wood-working industries of Saginaw is the Germain Manufacturing Company, whose large plant is located on South Jefferson Avenue between Rust Avenue and Webber Street. The company was incorporated April 1, 1913, by Louis Germain, president and general manager: Edward F. Germain, vice-president, and Walter M. Ger- main, secretary and treasurer, with a capital stock of seventy-five thousand dollars, paid in cash.
Louis Germain is a thoroughly practical mill man with extensive expe- rience in the wood-working industry, having been for many years superin- tendent of the great plant of Edward Germain, his brother. Edward F. and Walter M. Germain, his sons, the other active officials of the company. are young men of ability and integrity. By diligence and strict application to business they have aided their father in building up a large and prosperous business, and now hold enviable positions of trust and responsibility.
The original plans of the company contemplated the erection of a modern wood-working plant, one hundred and four by two hundred and twenty feet in dimensions, with high and well lighted basement. This brick structure was designed specially for the making of piano backs and other piano parts on a large scale, and was built at Jefferson Avenue and Webber Street. With the large dry kilns and power plant adjoining, the plant covered almost an acre of ground, while the lumber yard covered two or three acres more.
In this modern factory building was installed the best type of wood- working machinery, some of which was designed especially for the making of piano backs. These special machines included the assembling, or hand screw presses, so devised that the piano back is put together in one opera- tion and taken out as a completed unit. Before this stage is reached, how- ever, there are numerous operations in preparing the wood, gluing the pieces together, sawing the units thus formed into various shapes and sizes, sandpapering and inspection. All this is done by batches of thou- sands upon thousands of units, as the daily maximum capacity of finished piano backs is two hundred.
All the machinery is laid out and the operations are carried on on a scientific plan, insuring the utmost economy of handling the countless pieces of wood, and also the expedition with which the finished product is turned out. The beech and maple lumber from which backs are manufactured is entirely a Michigan product, and is brought into Saginaw by railroad. It is here sorted and piled for several months air drying, and then placed in one of eight steam heated dry kilns, conveniently located at one end of the factory. After a thorough drying at uniform temperature for eight to ten days, until the moisture is reduced to below five per cent., the lumber is taken out directly into the mill, where it enters upon a regular chain of operations.
At this end of the factory are the numerous saws which rip and cut the boards into pieces of various sizes, and planers and shapers which smooth and form the pieces into the desired shapes. The machines are so placed that the lumber, pieces and parts pass from one to another in regular, con- secutive order, so that the handling is reduced to a minimum. There is no retrogression in any of the operations. By a constant and well defined move- ment, from one end of the factory to the other, the various pieces, after pass- ing through the gluing processes and the screw presses, come out the finished unit -a piano back in the "white." From twelve to fifteen days have elapsed since the dry lumber was taken from the kiln, or about one calendar month since the rough lumber was moved from the pile in the
PLANT AND LUMBER YARD OF GERMAIN MANUFACTURING COMPANY
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
vard to the dry kiln. At this rate of manufacture it is readily to be seen that from four to five thousand piano backs are constantly in process of making in this modern plant.
When finished and loaded in the car for shipment the piano back is ready for the "bellying" process, which is the placing of the sounding board. This, however, is done by the piano makers in their own factory.
A notable feature of this well planned factory, whose annual capacity is sixty thousand piano backs on an employment schedule of one hundred men, is the high and light basement. In this basement is installed all the shafting and pulleys for driving the various machines. The main drive shaft is set beneath the floor beams, and the pulleys transmit power by short belts through the floor to the machines above. The pillow blocks, or shaft bear- ings, are set in foundations of concrete, insuring stability and eliminating much of the vibration incident to suspended shafts and pulleys running at high speed.
ready market for piano backs is found in New York City, Buffalo, East Rochester, Philadelphia, Columbus, Milwaukee and Chicago. The field for the Germain Piano Back is steadily broadening, and the capacity of the plant is so taxed that the manufacture of piano bridges, which at one time was carried on quite extensively, has been reduced to a minimum. It is interesting to note that this piano back is entirely a glued product, no nails, pegs, ties, or screws entering into the combining of the numerous pieces of wood which enter into it.
Early in 1916 this prosperous business was augmented by the addition of two new departments, for the manufacture of dimension stock for piano cases and box shooks. In June of that year the company acquired the valuable property to the north of the plant. On this ground was a one- story structure of steel truss construction, iron siding and gravel roof, two hundred by four hundred feet in dimensions. This large building was re- modeled and improved, and equipped with new wood-working machinery of standard type. It is admirably adapted to the purpose for which it is now used, and gives steady employment in both departments to seventy-five workmen.
The north side and east end of the structure is used by the box shook department, which uses from six to seven million feet of box lumber, mostly pine, every year. This is an important industry and supplies piano box shooks to a large trade. The output is constantly increasing and an im- mense business is in prospect.
The other, and equally as essential a business to the piano makers, is the dimension stock department, which occupies a large part of the south side of the building. Between this and the original factory is a battery of dry kilns and a large storage shed for selected lumber. The operations of this department consist of taking the kiln dried lumber, which is quarter- sawn yellow poplar and chestnut from Virginia and Tennessee, planing, cut- ting and gluing it together in various shapes and sizes, and finishing it in the "white," ready for the piano makers to finish and fashion with veneers to meet their own designs for piano cases.
This addition to the plant has a floor space of nearly two acres, making the total factory space under roof about three acres, while the lumber yard and grounds adjoining the main building have an area of about five acres, or eight acres in all.
Although the factory structures are as nearly fire proof as any wood- working plant can be made, every part of the plant, every nook and corner. is protected by the Globe Automatic Sprinkler System; and there are fire pumps in the power plant and water mains and hydrants throughout the yard as a safeguard against fire in the lumber piles.
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THE EAST SIDE BUSINESS CENTER FROM TOP OF BEAN ELEVATOR, SAGINAW MILLING COMPANY
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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY
SAL INAW SHOWCASE COM
PLANT OF SAGINAW SHOW CASE COMPANY
Saginaw Show Case Company, Lt'd
An industry of special interest to this city is the Saginaw Show Case Company, successors to the Stenglein Manufacturing Company for more than twenty years makers of fine furniture. In 1903 the new corporation was organized and took over the plant and property of the latter concern on Mackinaw Street between Hamilton and Niagara. The principal incor- porators and stockholders are: John Stenglein, August Stenglein, C. J. Rice, Henry Meier, F. W. Sawatsky, G. L. Burrows, Jr., S. E. Parrish, J. G. Schemm Estate, E. G. Rust Estate, James A. Nolan Estate and Fred J. Fox.
There was a broad market and steady demand for floor cases and other products of this kind, and the company started making high grade floor cases of attractive design and fine workmanship. Gradually the line was extended to include enclosed wall cases and store fixtures for the drug, jewelry, dry goods, candy and other trades, and a large business was worked tp). The field of operations covered the entire United States, and in more recent years a considerable foreign trade has been developed, large ship- ments being made to leading jobbers of Porto Rico and of some countries of South America.
The woods used are largely native to this section of the country. although more recently mahogany in both solid and vencer finish has become most popular with the trades. The mahogany is imported from Africa and South America, and worked up from the rough boards to the finely finished cases, replete with all the latest fixtures, such as marble base, mirror doors, glass shelves and electric lights. Some special and highly artistic cases have been turned out from this well equipped factory. embodying the latest ideas of arrangement and finish, and costing as much as thirty dollars a running foot.
A considerable quantity of fine marbles is used in the construction of show cases; and bevelled, ground and polished edge plate glass, as well as some fine art glass, products of Saginaw manufactories, are the principal
DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES
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materials that go into the cases. Thirty-five to forty mechanics and skilled workmen are employed by the company; and the annual production is valued at sixty to seventy thousand dollars.
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