USA > New York > Erie County > Buffalo > A history of Buffalo : delineating the evolution of the city > Part 2
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INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION
This quite unique industry is being developed rapidly in other cities ; but the initial adventure in it was that made by Mr. Crosby, and The Crosby Company holds the leading place in it still.
One of the works of the same character, turning out pressed steel products, known as the John R. Keim Mills, had its origin somewhat more than two decades ago, when it was founded by Mr. Keim for the production of steel balls and other cold-pressed and cold-drawn parts of machinery. Under its present name it was organized in 1907. Mr. John R. Lee is the president and treasurer of the company, Mr. N. A. Hawkins vice-president, Mr. William H. Smith sec- retary and general manager. The mills are on Kensington Avenue and the Erie Railroad.
The automobile manufacture, carried on by the George N. Pierce Company, was developed in connection with the bicycle works described above, and had its beginnings in 1896, when demands for the cycle showed decline. It was established in association with the bicycle plant, on Hanover Street, and continued there until 1907, when distinct works, on a large scale, and of unsurpassed equipment, were founded on Elmwood Avenue, at the crossing of the New York Central Railroad Belt Line. In 1901 there were twenty-five vehicles turned out of the works and their value was $10,000; in 1907 the output of automobiles was 1,000, and the value was $4,000,000. The growth of business, it will be seen, has even more than kept pace with the swift progress of engineering science and art in this new line. The company is second to none in reputation among the makers of the gasolene engine type of pleasure automobiles.
In 1899 E. R. Thomas, who had begun the construction of automobiles in Canada within the previous year, saw ad- vantages in Buffalo which induced him to remove the busi-
15
AUTOMOBILE BUILDING
ness to this field, locating the manufacture on Ferry Street. Its development in the first years was moderate, rising to a product in 1904 which represented $375,000 of value, and employed about 150 men. In the next three years it ad- vanced by leaps, the business of the season of 1906-7 giving employment to 1,500 workmen, and the output being valued at nearly $5,000,000. Mr. Thomas has works now in De- troit, as well as at Buffalo, and the total floor-space of his factories is nearly 350,000 square feet. The Thomas auto- mobiles have a world-wide fame, since one of them won the New York to Paris race of 1908, across North America and through Siberia and Russia.
The business now conducted by the Buffalo Structural Steel Company was established by Casper Teiper in 1894. The company was organized in 1899, with a capital stock of $30,000, increased to $100,000 in 1904. Mr. Teiper and William G. Houck have been the executive officers since the incorporation. The works, at 166 Dart Street, have a ca- pacity for producing about 8,000 tons of structural steel per year. They have supplied material for most of the larger buildings-hotels, apartment houses and business structures -of the city in recent years.
The Buffalo Gasolene Motor Company, manufacturing marine engines, was organized in 1899 and established its plant on Niagara Street, at the corner of Auburn Avenue. Its present officers are Louis A. Fischer, president, A. F. Dohn, vice-president, A. Snyder, secretary and treasurer, W. E. Blair, general superintendent.
A small $10,000 corporation, called the Buffalo Foundry Company, organized in 1900 by the late Charles F. Dunbar, its president and principal stockholder, was the germ of the present Buffalo Foundry and Machine Company, capital- ized at $500,000 ($300,000 issued), and remarkably
16
INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION
equipped for the manufacture of medium and large castings made with semi-steel, air-furnace and gray iron, and also for engineering work. The new company was organized in 1902, Mr. Dunbar still leading the enterprise, with Mr. M. Sullivan for his coadjutor and Mr. Andrew Langdon and others soon brought into the alliance. The old company had occupied a rented building on Mississippi Street; the new company erected a plant, on East Ferry Street and Win- chester Avenue, which is said officially to be "equipped for handling larger and heavier castings than any other jobbing plant in the United States or Canada, so far as our infor- mation obtains." With this equipment it has been able to cast gas-engine beds weighing 93 and 97 tons each for the Allis-Chalmers Company, of Milwaukee, as well as 40 ton beds for the gas engines of the Lackawanna Steel Company's plant. In the middle bay of its foundry it has crane ca- pacity for handling castings up to 200 tons in weight, if that weight is ever required.
Until the spring of 1907 the company operated its foundry alone. Then the David Bell Engineering Works were merged with it, and its present name was assumed. The old David Bell Works were abandoned, and the machine shops and the foundry are together on East Ferry Street. The present officers of the company are H. D. Miles, presi- dent and treasurer, M. Sullivan, vice-president, F. C. Slee, secretary.
The J. P. Devine Company, which controls valuable Ger- man patents for vacuum drying, established its business in Buffalo in 1903, but was not incorporated until 1905. Its manufacturing establishment and experiment station are on Maryland Street.
The L. M. Ericsson Telephone Manufacturing Company, which began the establishing of a plant on the Military
17
DROP FORGING
Road in 1905, has brought it to fine perfection of equipment, and will undoubtedly have importance in the future of the industries of the city.
The General Railway Signal Company, which transferred its business to Rochester not long since, had established a drop-forging plant, in connection with its other works, on the New York Central Belt Line, at Elmwood Avenue. This was purchased in the spring of 1907 by The Consoli- dated Telephone Company, and the business continued under a new corporation, named the General Drop Forge Company, in which the former secretary of the General Railway Signal Company, Clarence H. Littell, was retained as general manager and treasurer. The plant was destroyed soon afterward by fire, but rebuilt, of fire-proof construction and much enlarged and improved, resuming operations in September of the same year. The business of the company is "the manufacture of special drop-forgings, up-setter, bull- dozer and general forging work."
CHAPTER V MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIES
A CCORDING to Mr. H. Perry Smith's History of the City of Buffalo and Erie County," published in 1884, the first brewing of the German lager beer in this city was undertaken by a Swiss settler, Rudolph Baer, who came to Buffalo in 1826, "engaged in keeping the hotel at Cold Springs, and soon after built a brewery and gave the Buffalonians their first taste of beer made at home." When Mr. Smith wrote he could draw, no doubt, from per- sonal memories on the subject which are not now to be appealed to, and which death may have extinguished even a decade ago, when a historical sketch of the brewing industry of the city was compiled for the Buffalo Brewers' Associa- tion, in 1897. In that sketch it is said to have been ascer- tained "from the best information obtainable, that previous to 1840 there were in this city five breweries, with a capacity of from one to nine barrel kettles each;" and that "the pioneer in this important enterprise was Jacob Roos, whose plant was located in what was then called 'Sandy Town'- between Church and York streets and beyond the Erie Canal, near the Old Stone House." It is further stated that Mr. Roos, early in the forties, purchased the land lying between Hickory and Pratt streets, below Batavia (now Broadway), where the Iroquois Brewing Company now has its large plant.
The second brewery mentioned in this historical account was established by Messrs. Schanzlin & Hoffman, at the corner of Main and St. Paul streets. Two years later the firm was dissolved, and Mr. Schanzlin built a brew-house, a dwelling and a restaurant out where Main Street crosses Scajaquada Creek. The third brewery was connected with a restaurant on Oak Street, near Tupper, by Joseph Fried-
18
19
BREWING AND BREWERIES
man, and, passing subsequently into the hands of Beck and Baumgartner, gave its beginning to the extensive business now carried on by the Magnus Beck Brewing Company, on the corners of North Division and Spring. Another of the greater brewing establishments of the present day has grown from the next of the small plants founded in that period; for a daughter of its founder, Philip Born, married Gerhard Lang, and Mr. Lang, in due time, becoming a partner in the business, developed from it the Gerhard Lang Park Brewery, having its present location at the corner of Jeffer- son Street and Best. The fifth and latest of the pioneer breweries of 1840, described in the record here quoted, was started by Godfrey Heiser, on Seneca Street below Chicago, and ended business some forty or more years ago.
In 1863 there were 35 breweries in operation in the city, and their product that year was 152 barrels. In 1896 the number of brewing establishments had dropped to 19, but the annual product had risen to 652,340 barrels. In 1907 three of the breweries that had been in operation twelve years before were no longer in existence, and one new one had been established; but the 17 of the later period were producing 964,000 barrels per year. In these facts we have a striking illustration of the tendency of business, in the last two decades, or thereabouts, to concentrate its organizations and enlarge their scale.
Of the breweries now existing, five have passed a half century of age, namely : the Magnus Beck and the Gerhard Lang establishments, already mentioned; the Broadway Brewing and Malting Company's plant, founded in 1852; the Consumers' (known formerly as the Lion Brewery), founded by George Rochevot in 1857, and the Ziegele Brew- ing Company's (Phoenix Brewery), founded by A. Ziegele in the same year. Two date from about 1867,-one founded by Christian Weyand, now operated by a company
20
INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION
which bears his name, the other founded by John M. Luip- pold and now the property of the East Buffalo Brewing Company. From the decade of the seventies none have sur- vived. But six that arose in the eighties are flourishing in the business still, to wit: Buffalo Cooperative, from 1880; the Clinton Star, from 1881; the International, which the late Jacob Scheu established in 1884; the German-Ameri- can, which represents the old time establishment of Joseph L. Haberstro; the Lake View, built in 1885; and the Simon Brewery, formerly carried on by the J. Schuesler Company. The brewery of the Germania Company, founded in 1893, and that of J. Schreiber, which began production in 1900, complete the list. Thus far, the twentieth century has made no addition to the brewing establishments of the city.
For the brewing of ale and porter there is but one con- siderably extensive establishment in the city, the Moffatt Brewery, which has been in operation for more than half a century, at the corner of Mohawk and Morgan streets.
Soap making was an industry of some importance in Buffalo at a quite early time, and is notably represented among the larger organizations of productive business at the present day; but most of the older manufactories have dis- appeared. One, founded by Gowans & Beard about 1848, and now conducted by Gowans & Son, has had a prosperous career of some sixty years.
Another, of nearly equal age, had the smallest possible beginnings in 1853, when William Lautz, Sr., coming from Germany with a family of four sons and three daughters and with a very few dollars in his pocket, began at once to win the means of living by moulding tallow candles, in the mode of that day, and sending his boys out to peddle them through the town. This needed next to no capital. Soap- making, which went then with candle-making, required somewhat more; but thrifty Mr. Lautz had soon saved
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The foundations of this enterprise in soap, manufacture To were laid by Mr. John D. Larkin, a native of Buffalo, in . - 1875. The original factory was in Chicago Street, near Fulton Street, but was removed in two years to Seneca Street, which forms a part of the' present plant. Year by year since 1877 new buildings have been added and old Buffalo ones superseded or extended. The space occupied is fifty acres. A specialty is made of the system of delivering directly from "factory to family:" n tably represented among the larger . rganizanons iff productive business at the present ilav ; but must /1 the ilder manufactories have dis- appearel One fuund I by Cuwans & Beard about 1848 and now sendound üv Gewans & Son, has had a prosperous
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21
SOAP-MAKING
enough for the buying of a kettle or two, and so started the creation of a soap factory which, for many years past, has occupied a good part of Lloyd Street, and employed a large force of men. The boys, who were assistants and salesmen of the establishment, marketed its products, of candles and soap, in hand-baskets at the outset, then with hand-wagons, then, presently, with a dog-team, soon succeeded by a small horse,-and so, progressively employing their vehicles of transportation, until all the railroads and ships and boats that went out of Buffalo were carrying their commodities far and wide. The father of the business died in 1886. The sons and grandsons who have continued it, under the firm name of Lautz Brothers & Co., have been valued citizens, and the younger of the sons, Frederick C. M. Lautz, who died not long ago, is honored greatly in memory as a lover and patron of music, who exemplified in his generous promotion of it the finer uses of wealth.
A third establishment of quite long standing grew from somewhat similar small beginnings made by Jabesh Harris, who had learned the soap-making art in the neighboring small town of Hamburg, and came to Buffalo to practice it in 1869. Mr. Harris went through hard struggles before he gained a substantial footing in the business ; but he won it in the end, after being twice burned out, and left the large establishment of the Harris Soap Co. to be carried on by his sons.
The latest foundation of the largest and most notable or- ganization of industry in this department, was laid in 1875, by Mr. John D. Larkin, a native of Buffalo, who had been engaged in the manufacture of soap at Chicago during some previous years. Having sold his Chicago interest he re- sumed the business in his native town. His original factory, on Chicago Street, near Fulton, was a small building of two
22
INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION
floors, twenty by forty feet in size. This was outgrown in two years, and a new building of much greater dimensions erected for the manufacture on Seneca Street, occupying a small fraction of the enormous acreage now covered by the Larkin works. Almost year by year, from 1877 to the latest of the calendar, building has been added to building, old ones have given place to new ones, small ones to large ones, common brick and wood to fire-proof construction, until the floor-space of the Larkin plant now measures more than fifty acres, in all. It had grown to a little more than one acre by 1885; to sixteen acres by 1901 ; to twenty-nine acres by 1904; to fifty acres by 1907. Building, to keep pace with its own needs, has become, therefore, a big part of the com- pany's work.
Elbert G. Hubbard, William H. Coss and Daniel J. Coss were associated with Mr. Larkin in 1875-6. Darwin D. Martin entered the firm in 1878. In 1892 the Larkin Soap Mfg. Company was organized, with Mr. Larkin as presi- dent and Mr. Hubbard as secretary and treasurer. In the next year Mr. Hubbard sold his interest and was succeeded in the secretaryship by Mr. Martin. In the Larkin Co., as it is now named, Mr. Martin is still secretary, and official positions are held by Mr. Larkin's three sons.
Until 1885 the products of the Larkin factory were mar- keted in the usual way, through wholesale and retail dealers, and an extensive demand for them had been created east and west. Then the company launched boldly into its experi- ment, of direct "factory to family" dealing, which it claims as "the Larkin idea." In describing the change it states that "a Chicago wholesale merchant was the first success- fully to bring together consumer and wholesaler, leaving the retail dealer out of their transactions ; but * * the Larkin Co. was, in 1885, the first manufacturer to eliminate all dealers-wholesale and retail; all travelling salesmen
23
SOAP-MAKING
and brokers, the entire middle organization termed the ‘mid- dlemen' -- and sell important staples on a large scale entirely to the users." The saving of what would go as profits to middlemen, in ordinary trade, is represented by the large premiums which the company offers to the direct buyers of its goods; and the procuring and distributing of these pre- miums constitute an immense part of the business it conducts. Great factories outside of itself are kept busy in supplying the huge orders it gives for single articles of furniture, and the like ; and a large pottery manufacture, of the first order, has been established in Buffalo, under its ownership and control.
The Larkin products include perfumes and all toilet articles, as well as a great variety of soaps. The processes of their manufacture are interesting, and the perfect organ- ization and equipment of everything in the work of the 2,500 people employed is more interesting still. The great office building, finished and opened in 1907, with a capacity for 1,800 typewriters and clerks, and a present clerical force of more than a thousand, is unique, in its plan, in its massive construction, in its plentitude of light and air, in its pro- visions and arrangements for efficient work and for the comfort of the worker. Its model restaurant, its library, its rest-room, its trained nurse for sudden illnesses, are busi- ness-office accompaniments not often to be found. That the Larkin Works have become one of the sights of the city is not at all strange. The visitors are so numerous that guides are provided to conduct them through.
The Buffalo Pottery, referred to above, as being estab- lished and conducted by the Larkin Company, gives em- ployment to 250 persons of both sexes, and is a most inter- esting industrial organization. Its products go widely be- yond the United States, being exported to twenty-seven countries of the outer world. Its works are on Seneca and Hayes streets.
24
INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION
A cement deposit, which runs from an outcrop on Scaja- quada Creek, just west of Main Street, northeasterly, through Williamsville to Akron, was discovered at an early day by the pioneers of settlement in this region. It is said to have been quarried and prepared for marketing at Williamsville as early as 1824, and Williamsville cement was used in the building of the original canal locks at Lock- port. Possibly, but not certainly, Mr. Warren Granger had started cement works on Buffalo Plains at an equally early date. It was not, however, until half a century later that the Buffalo end of the cement deposit was extensively opened and worked by the Buffalo Cement Company, organ- ized by Mr. Lewis J. Bennett, in 1877. The first works of the company were on the west side of Main Street, but presently transferred to the east side and developed on a large scale. In 1888, when the production may be said to have ceased, its quarries covered about 200 acres and had yielded 80,000 barrels per acre. The output of the com- pany in the later years of its working was 1,800 barrels per day.
Borings in the neighborhood had shown the existence of a rich deposit of gypsum underlying the same region, and Mr. Bennett purchased a large tract of land on the west side of Main Street, with a view to developing this. Unfor- tunately there was soon found to be an intrusion of water which seemed to make the intended working impossible, and it was given up. Mr. Bennett then gave a new direction to his spirit of enterprise, and began in 1889 the development on his land of that fine residential district, on the northern rim of Buffalo, which is now well populated and known as Central Park.
Long before the earth-storage of petroleum was dis- covered, there was a considerable manufacture of oils, for illumination and lubrication, from other fats than the
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25
OIL REFINING
blubber of the whale. As early as 1848, Mr. F. S. Pease had established such a manufacture in Buffalo, and his lu- bricating oils, which were his specialty, and which he exhibited conspicuously at national and international fairs, obtained a great reputation and were sold extensively at home and abroad. A considerable manufacture of "lard oil," for illuminating purposes, was also carried on by Mr. Richard Bullymore, in the middle period of last century.
The manufacture of linseed oil, begun in Buffalo by Spencer Kellogg and Sidney McDougal in 1879, grew in their hands to a business of very large proportions and im- portance. It is now carried on by the Spencer Kellogg Co., whose establishment, on Ganson and Michigan streets, is one of the largest of its kind in the country, and its product is sold in all parts of the world. In recent years the firm of Hauenstein & Co. have entered on the same manufacture, at works on Vincennes Street, with promising success.
Many Buffalonians joined the rush for the Pennsylvania Oil Fields, after the first successful borings for petroleum, in 1858, and large interests in the crude oil production were acquired in this city from the first; but no refining of the crude petroleum was undertaken here till about 1873 or 1874. The late Joseph D. Dudley, with whom the late Joseph P. Dudley was associated, then established the Em- pire Oil Works, on the Ohio Basin, and carried on the refining business for a few years. The Standard Oil Com- pany had carried its campaign of conquest well forward by that time, and Buffalo was not a point it would neglect. Its first footing here was got by the purchase of the Empire Works, about 1878. A second refinery had then been started, on Seneca Street, by Messrs. Holmes and Adams, who are said to have had some friendly arrangement with the Standard Company, and their works were operated until burned, about ten years ago.
26
INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION
The third enterprise in crude oil refining at Buffalo is the one which survives alone at the present day, represented by the Atlas Oil Works of the Standard Oil Company, on Buffalo River and Elk and Babcock streets. It was started in 1880 by the Kalbfleisch Sons, of the Buffalo Chemical Works, allied with some Cleveland interests, and the build- ing of a pipe line from Rock City to Buffalo was part of the undertaking. This was a project of rivalry which chal- lenged the Standard Oil Company to an exertion of all its combative power and skill. The attempt to build a pipe line in the rival interest was made impossible in some way, while the Standard laid one of its own; and that successful company's purchase of the Atlas Works in 1892 was, no doubt, an inevitable result.
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