History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 49

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592

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The John Church Company, publishers of music, is one of the largest concerns of the kind in the city. The business was established thirty- four years ago. Recently it was incorporated under the laws of Ohio with a capital stock of one million and a quarter dollars. Branch houses are maintained in New York and Chicago. The great bulk of their business consists in disposing of the product of two piano fac- tories that rank as high as any in the market-the Everett and the Harvard-the publication of music and music books, the importation of band instruments, and also the manufacture of violins, guitars, mandolins, banjos, drums, and other instru- ments. The firm occupies a magnificent seven-story building fronting on Fourth street, which gives them 58,000 square feet of warehouse room. In addition to their own music they keep a stock of all other popular music and music books published throughout the world. The firm employs 840 hands in their own establishment and that of the piano factories in which they hold controlling interests. The corporation is officered as follows: W. Hooper, president; Edwin Ranson, vice-president; A. How- ard Hinkle, treasurer, and Frank A. Lee, general manager.

The Strobridge Lithographing Company has built up an immense business in this line of work. Its beginning, which dates back to 1854, was very modest, but its progress was always continuous and upward, until it now stands at the head of all similar establishments of this kind in the country. At first its business did not amount to $75,000 annually, but the yearly income now makes this sum appear- insignificant. The company had its fine building destroyed by fire in the winter of 1887, but it immediately rebuilt the elegant structure which it now occupies on Canal street. A large number of skilled workmen are constantly employed, and the finest grade of lithographic work is turned out.

Wood working machinery .- The J. A. Fay Company was established in 1835. The Egan Company was established in 1873. On March 1,1893, these two concerns were consolidated under the firm name of J. A. Fay & Egan Company, of which Thomas P. Egan is president; Frederick Danner, vice-president; Albert N. Spencer, second vice-president; Edwin Ruthven, secretary; L. W. Anderson, treasurer, and S. P. Egan, superintendent. About 1832 Mr. Fay, then in Keene, N. H., invented the first wood working machine, rather crude, but it was the beginning of wood work- ing machinery. The J. A. Fay & Egan Company is recognized as standing at the. very front of enterprise in its respective line, and its machinery is to be found in every State and Territory in the United States, and all the civilized nations in the world. The capital invested amounts to millions of dollars, and several hundred. men are employed.

Charles Davis is president of the Lodge-Davis Machine & Tool Company, one of the largest concerns of the kind in the United States. It was organized in 1880, and became a stock company in 1888. At first it was small, employing only about fifty hands, and its output was about sixty-five thousand dollars annually; now 550. men are employed. and the annual output reaches seven hundred thousand dollars ..

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Billiard Tables and Organs .- The manufacture of billiard tables is one of the great industries of Cincinnati. The capital invested is given at about twenty-five million dollars, but there are those who think it is a great deal more. The Bruns -- wick-Balke-Collender Manufacturing Company, organized in 1842, makes billiard and pool tables on a large scale. The home factory and business centre of the company, located in Cincinnati, employs about one thousand men. The company has branch factories in Chicago, St. Louis, New York and San Francisco. No figures showing the value of the output are available. Charles W. Huss is president of the Huss Brothers' Company, which manufactures bar, store and bank fixtures. About two hundred thousand dollars is invested in the plant and business.

D. H. Baldwin & Company take high rank among organ and piano manufac- turers. Their house has been in the business for fully one-third of a century. In addition to their own productions, they sell for other houses. Their great success is due largely to the fact that their instruments give universal satisfaction wherever they are introduced. Agencies are maintained in fully ten States of the Union, and the demand for their instruments is constantly on the increase.

Great Tool Company .- Another great manufacturing industry is the Lodge & Davis Machine Tool Company. It was first incorporated in 1880, and again in July, 1888, under a reorganization. Everything in the way of tools used in the manufacture of iron is manufactured, as well as steam engines, locomotives, traction machinery, railroad and street cars, dynamos, electric motors, sewing machines, typewriters, and all metal articles that in their manufacture have to be handled by machinery. The company also makes machinery used by the government in the manufacture of fire-arms, cannon and ordnance of all kinds, as well as projectiles and shells. Nearly all the government arsenals have been furnished with machinery manufactured by this company. Their trade extends throughout Europe and Asia and South America. Half a million of capital is employed, about six hundred men are on the payroll, and the output reaches about two million dollars annually. The company is officered as follows: Charles Davis, president; William H. Burtner, vice-president; Henry Luers, secretary and treasurer.

Headquarters for Safes .- In the manufacture of safes and vaults Cincinnati distances all competitors. The Herring-Hall-Marvin Company is the largest con- cern in the world. The Hall Safe and Lock Company was established by James L. Hall in Pittsburgh in 1845, but soon afterward moved to Cincinnati. There are fourteen large buildings in use here, and about 800 men are employed. They also have branches in New York and Philadelphia, which, combined, are as large as the home works. By the consolidation of the various companies named in the title of the corporation the concern grew into its present mighty proportions. The ma- chinery used is of the finest kind, and the factory floors cover 1,200,000 square feet. The output is about ten thousand safes annually, and the capital employed is $3,300,000, all paid up. They have over twenty branch stores in the United States, with branches in London and Berlin. In all their shops over two thousand skilled workmen are constantly employed. The Central office is in Cincinnati, and the corporation is officered as follows: Edward C. Hall, president; Richard F. Pullen, secretary, and William H. Hall, treasurer.

Rookwood Pottery .- The Rookwood Pottery, a high art institution of Cincin- nati, was founded in 1880 by Mrs. Maria Longworth Storer, daughter of Joseph Longworth. Her father was the founder of the Art School, and chief patron of the Art Museum. In 1883 W. W. Taylor became associated with the enterprise as manager. When Mrs. Storer retired from the business in 1890, the present com- pany was organized by Mr. Taylor, and the buildings and manufactory erected on the commanding position overlooking the city. The conception of the idea by Mrs. Storer was the result of beholding the ceramic display of Japan at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. Being an enthusiast in this line of art, a

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school for pottery painting formed part of the scheme at first, and from the begin- ning the commercial side of the enterprise was subordinated to the artistic. It attracted the attention of those possessing a cultivated taste, and steadily grew in popularity. The ware "is a true faience," made of clays found in deposits in the Ohio Valley. The decorators, with the exception of one native Japanese, and including the founder, are graduates from the Art School of Cincinnati. The artists are encouraged to give each piece an individual character, and, as no painting process is in use, duplications in design seldom occur. Mr. Denny, in his interest- ing description of the pottery, says that "these conditions, aided by the native inventive faculty and the ample capital at command, have developed an American pottery which possesses marked originality. The coloring in both grounds and decorations is entirely underglaze, and a distinguishing mark of Rookwood faience is the decorative quality of the color grounds. Their harmonious blending is care- fully studied with reference to the decoration, and to fine examples, especially of the darker-toned glazes, their softness, depth and lustre impart a rare beauty." Clarence Cook, an art writer of high distinction, declares that outside of Japan and China he does not "know where any colors and glazes are to be found finer than those which come from the Rookwood Pottery." Other writers speak in the same high terms, and affirm that " this is the only pottery in this country in which the instinct of beauty is paramount to the desire of profit." As a result of such care in the production of pieces, and the consequent development of genius, awards of gold medals have been received at exhibitions all over the world ; and high hopes are entertained that future achievements in the line of decoration will excel those of the past.

Extensive Bakery .- The Langdon Bakery of the United States Baking Com- pany, originally established in Cincinnati in 1865 under the firm name of G. R. Worthington & Company, has met with marked success during its career. At first the business was small. In 1874 the firm became Solomon Langdon & Son, and in 1885 it was incorporated. In 1890 thirty or forty of the large cake and cracker bakeries in the Central States, including several in Boston and elsewhere, were con- . solidated into one immense company, known as the United States Baking Company, and the Langdon Bakery became the chief Cincinnati branch of that great combi- nation. The capital is between five and six millions of dollars. The Cincinnati branch is of great size, and specially supplied with the best modern machinery. A large force is constantly employed in turning out over 150 varieties of cakes and crackers. Everything about the establishment is kept scrupulously clean, and the productions are packed with great care.

Bells of All Kinds .- The bell manufactory of The Van Duzen & Tift Company is one of the oldest and best-known manufactories in Cincinnati, having been estab- lished in 1837. All kinds of bells for churches, academies, farms, courthouses, steamboats, machine shops, etc., are made. Bells weighing as high as 2,000 pounds are cast. Steam jet pumps, and chimes, are among their specialties.

Engine Builders and Steam Fitters. - The William Powell Company manufacture every description of engine builders,' steam fitters,' and plumbers' brass goods. In their new factory, recently completed, they have abundance of room. The original firm was established in 1846, and incorporated as a company in 1886. Their plant is one of the largest of its kind in the city, and employs 200 operatives. The works are run by a 125-horse power Corliss engine, supplying not only the motive power for the machinery, but operating an 80-horse power electric generator to supply 300 incandescent and ten arc lights, besides furnishing 35-horse power to four electric motors for running the more distant departments of the factory, thus dispensing with long lines of shafting. Their business consists largely of specialties in globe valves, gate valves, guard, steam and water cocks, steam whistle chimes, patent lubri- cators for stationary and traction engines, locomotive and air brake lubricators, and

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a multitude of other articles in this line. Their specialties have a world-wide repu- tation for excellence, and they are shipped to all parts of the United States and Canada. The corporation is officered as follows : James Powell, president of the - William Powell Company, proprietors of the Union Brass Works, and Theodore. Albert, secretary.

Pump Manufacturing -- The John H. McGowan" Company had its inception in 1862, the firm being John H. and T. J. McGowan. Their plant for manufacturing steam-power pumping machinery was located in a small three-story building on Pleasant court, between Elm and Race, and Fourth and Fifth streets, adjoining the old Fire Engine Works where John H. McGowan had served as superintendent, and where in 1855 he built the compound pumping engines for pumping out the excavations, and sawing timber for the foundations of Fort Proctorville below New Orleans, now known as Fort Jackson. The engineers in charge who tested and accepted this machinery were G. T. Beauregard, then brevet major of Engineers, and Lieut. Wetzel, later an officer in the Federal army, and subsequently an engin- eer-in-chief of government works west of the Alleghany Mountains.

In March, 1863, the McGowans removed their factory to Nos. 94 and 96 Elm street, where they remained until their dissolution in 1870. In 1869 they erected large buildings for the several departments of their business, in Fulton (Cincinnati) along the river bank, and removed their stock and machinery therein. After T. J. McGowan withdrew, the firm of John H. McGowan was established at Nos. 134 and 136 West Second street, and continued there until 1881 when the present com- pany was incorporated. It soon became necessary to secure new quarters to accom- modate their rapidly increasing trade, and accordingly their present factory and warehouses were located at Nos. 42, 44 and 46 Central avenue, Nos. 6, 8, 10 and 12 Phoebe street, and Nos. 7, 9 and 11 Commerce street. The floor space of the man- ufacturing plant covers 50,000 square feet.

This, however, does not include the blacksmithing or iron foundry department, which are necessarily large to turn out the forgings and castings. The company is again looking for additional space to permit a large increase in the manufacture. This is required to meet the rapidly-growing demand for their special goods, and particularly for those made under John H. McGowan's patents issued during the years 1888 to 1894 inclusive, orders for which come over from foreign countries. The capital stock is now over $200,000, besides the real estate on which the plant is located, valued at $45,000.

The company has an office in Richmond, Va., located on one of the principal streets, with a full line of the output of the concern, and in charge of a resident manager to look after instructions from the home office, The company is officered as follows : John H. McGowan, president ; Robert B. McGowan, vice-president ; John W. Neil, secretary and treasurer.

Among Mr. McGowan's recent inventions are the McGowan Patent Pump Valve Seat, which is universally recognized by experts as being the most perfect device for maintaining the capacity of pumps without increasing its speed, and also insures a longer life of valves used in connection with it ; Twin Lever Valve Gear, for use in connection with Duplex Steam Pumps, which dispenses with all pins and knuckle joints and the shafts operating on a common center, governs the stroke of pistons uniformly ; McGowan's Artesian Air Jets, for elevating water from tube wells, mines, and other excavations by means of compressed air, and it having a surface adjustment gives it precedence over other devices in this class ; his patent covers two distinct devices for the purpose, each adapted to special conditions of water supply ; The McGowan Noiseless Back Pressure and Condensing Valves, which have no metallic straps, and is provided with piston valves having graduated ports to regulate the escape of steam ; Improved Sand Screen for use in deep wells ; number of patents covering the regulation of pumping appliances by means of elec-

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

tricity, together with an automatic pump governor and pressure relief valve. The first patent was issued in 1854, and he has added a number each year since.

Pumps, Tobacco Machinery, etc .- The Laidlaw-Dunn-Gordon Company is also one of the most widely known in the manufacturing line. They manufacture pumps, tobacco machinery, iron pipes and fittings, and deal largely in railroad and general mill and factory supplies. Among their notable manufactures is the Cincinnati Standard Duplex steam pump, which is of great capacity and substantially built ; and, all the parts being interchangeable, a broken piece can be quickly removed and duplicated. The firm of Laidlaw & Dunn was formed in 1887. Cope & Maxwell removed to Hamilton from Cincinnati many years ago, and the company became Gordon & Maxwell, and after some years Mr. Maxwell retired, when the company became the Gordon Steam Pump Company, with the largest water works plant in the West. Recently the Gordon Steam Pump Company's business was consolidated with the Laidlaw- Dunn, under the title as given above. They employ about 400 hands in their factory at Hamilton. Their products are shipped to Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Canada. The officers of the company are : Robert Laidlaw, president ; Walter Laidlaw, vice-president and gen- eral manager, and J. W. Dunn, secretary and treasurer. The main office of the company is in Cincinnati.

Manufacture of Furniture .- In the manufacture of furniture, Cincinnati was " only allowed," to use the language of Mr. Shaw, of the Board of Trade, sixty establishments in the census report of 1890, with an invested capital of $4,376,278, and a product of $4,055,924. The capital includes real estate, machinery, etc. The fact is, that all told, there were, in 1890, 134 household furniture establishments, exclusive of other cabinet lines, with an invested capital of $5,213,850, and a pro- duct of $7,349.000. The number of hands employed was 3,213, instead of 2,982 " allowed." The business has been greatly increased since 1890, both in the num- ber of hands employed, and in the value of the output.

Cincinnati, at an early day, led all other cities of the West-that is for purposes of general trade. Before any other city, east or west, essayed to supply more than local demands, she was making and shipping furniture by large quantities down the- Ohio and Mississippi to supply the demand of the South and West. She was thus early the only considerable manufacturing city of the West, and to-day she is the leading producer of high household furniture. Not only was furniture first manu- factured here to supply distant demands, but in comparatively recent times bank and bar fixtures were first made for general trade. In this department of cabinet product she excels every other city of the Union in both quality and quantity. In common with high grade and specially designed household furniture, her bank and bar fixtures go to every quarter of the continent between the Atlantic and Pacific, where solid, highly artistic and finished work is required. Other branches of cab- inet product, represented by numbers of large firms, are picture frames and mould- ings, and wood mantels, in the manufacture of which she is also a leading city. And her combined cabinet product exceeds in quantity and excels in grade that of any other city. Her bar and bank fixtures are for the most parts works of high art, and are among the evidences that art as applied to manufactured product has here its highest development. This speaks volumes in praise of her mechanics and artizans.

It is a fact that Cincinnati is the greatest market on the continent for cabinet and other hard woods, and poplar, for which other cities are largely dependent upon her. The receipts of lumber for the year ending August, 1892, were 39,500 car loads. The product of her own mills is immense, and from all the eastern tributaries of the Ohio, poplar is rafted to her levees. Those woods, of which as a market and for pur- poses of manufacture, she has practically a monopoly, and of which that monopoly will become more exclusive as the years roll by, are cherry, hickory, walnut, yellow pine and poplar, while no city has a better or cheaper supply of ash, elm, maple,

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gum, oak and sycamore. It is among the remarkable facts, illustrating the excep- tional advantages of the city in the way of manufacturing resources, that the only - territory on the continent producing first-class, second growth hickory, is immedi- ately tributary to Cincinnati. It grows in Southern Indiana and Ohio, and to the southward in the Cumberlands and their foot hills. Cincinnati, therefore, has imme- diately and exclusively tributary to her, the only practically inexhaustible supply of cabinet, carriage and other woods east of the Rocky Mountains. These three com- modities, coal, iron and wood, are alone a sufficient foundation for well nigh unlim- ited industrial development.

Ivory Soap .- The Procter & Gamble Company, manufacturers of the celebrated Ivory soap, deserve more than a passing notice for the great energy they have dis- played, and the beautiful village they have built up. The plant, now grown into such enormous proportions, was founded as early as 1837. At first only soap was manufactured, but candles was soon afterward added, together with glycerine, oils and other residuary products from the stock used. As the business gradually devel- oped it soon became apparent that more enlarged quarters for manufacturing pur- poses were required. In 1885, therefore, the firm determined to build new works in a suburb where there was abundant room and railroad facilities for shipping their products, and where the whole plant could be designed and so laid out as to meet future as well as present wants. A spot seven miles west of the city, situated on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton; Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern, and Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis railroads, was selected and named Ivorydale, after the famous brand of soap. The grounds were properly laid out, and the foundations not only laid for an immense manufactory, but a beautiful village besides. The sur- roundings are picturesque; there are lawns, flowers and shrubbery in abundance to please the eye and regale the senses; many of the dwellings are stately and graceful, and convey an impression of good cheer and comfort not only to the visitor, but practically to those whose good fortune it may be to occupy them. The manufac- tory is a mammoth concern. Marvelous and costly machinery of new design and novel construction fill the buildings. There are storage tanks for material of three millions of pounds capacity; systems of powerful steam and hydraulic engines; monster kettles, each of one hundred tons capacity; crutching machines, as they are termed, for stirring or mixing one-thousand-pound lots; copper stills and cloth and charcoal filters and condensers in endless variety; batteries of twelve Galloway boilers, and six special high-pressure batteries of boilers, and water storage tanks of 530,000 gallons capacity. Over a million gallons of filtered water is used daily. There are miles of tunnels and underground steam, water and other pipes; an immense elevated 85-foot stand-pipe, ten feet in diameter; reservoirs, some of the capacity of four million gallons; dozens of great and small pumping engines; nine 6,000-pound hydraulic elevators, and artesian wells 1,635 feet deep. Locomotives and tracks belonging to the company run from building to building, with sidings from all roads passing through the town, on which 150 freight cars can stand, and there is a system of automatic carriers for everything. An electric plant supplies the buildings and yards with incandescent lights, and there is a system of drainage which is perfection itself; there are coal bins for countless tons of coal; resin slieds and sheds for oil barrels, lye, lime, etc., machine shop, cooper shop, millwright shop, paint shop, carpenter shop, perfumery shop, blacksmith shop, tub makers' shop and other shops without number, and a box factory, where six million feet of lumber is consumed annually, and where there are employed all kinds of machines required in the manufacture of boxes. There are fire engines as well as every other appliance requisite for the quick extinguishment of fire, a corps of regularly drilled firemen, and a bucket brigade. Telephone wires from the main office communicate with every building on the grounds. The factory covers sixty-five acres. A greenhouse, heated by steam, to supply plants and flowers for lawn decoration, is kept up in winter time;

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and over all these numerous buildings towers a smokestack 230 feet high, ten feet internal diameter at the top, with a concrete base 42 feet square, and deeply planted in the ground. This immense stack or chimney contains 200,000 bricks, and cost $12,000. The entire plant represents a cost of over three million dollars, and hundreds of skilled workmen are employed. A cake of Ivory soap can be purchased anywhere for five cents. Such, in brief, is an outline of Ivorydale, the largest manufacturing plant not only adjacent to Cincinnati, but in the world. Soap goes hand in hand with civilization, and in proportion to its uses are the refining influences of the latter increased.

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 49

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1592

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592