USA > Ohio > Erie County > History of Erie County Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 48
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The Greggs, and later Barney, Ockobock & Torrey carried on this business in its earlier stages of development; but in 1867 the present stock company was organised with a capital of $200,000. The business of this company extends over a very wide area, and a traveling salesman is employed continu- ally. A monthly pay roll of from $8,000 to $10,000 is regularly disbursed by the company besides large amounts for material from which to manufacture the wheels, bodies, and seats.
Mr. J. M. Boalt, president, has been a resident of Sandusky from boyhood ; vice-president C. M. Cook came here from Toledo in 1870 ; O. B. Bannister. secretary, has been connected with the firm since 1869. Samuel Irvine, super- intendent, has been in the employ of the company for nearly twenty years. and thoroughly understands all the details of the business.
A. Kunzman, on Water street, near Wayne, conducts the manufacture of all styles of carriages, buggies, wagons, cutters, etc., and has been at this busi- ness in Sandusky since 1867, when he came here from Port Clinton, where he had been in the same line of business since 1854. The main building is three stories high and forty-six by sixty-eight feet on the ground, with a blacksmith shop in the rear. Mr. Kunzman keeps about fifteen men steadily at work in the various departments of the establishment, and gives much of his own time to the inspection of the work turned out.
The average annual product is $15,000, and the goods are shipped over - wide extent of territory. Considerable local trade is also secured. All the ironing, painting, upholstering, etc., is conducted in the establishment, which. as the description shows, is quite spacious.
A. Schwehr's cigar-box factory. In 1880 the Fox Brothers established this business near the present location, at the corner of Water and McDonough streets. Later, A. J. Hare became interested, but in 1884 the present pro- prietor took hold of the business and has brought it up to its present flourish- ing condition. The establishment employs twenty people steadily, and has a capacity of ten to twelve hundred boxes per day. Mr. Schwehr's trade ex- tends about one hundred miles in all directions, and amounts to nearly four- teen thousand dollars a year. Much of the work is done by machines operated by women and boys.
J. H. Soncrandt came to Sandusky in 1885 and established a barrel factory under the firm name of Soncrandt & Bailey ; but the latter named gentleman
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THE CITY OF SANDUSKY.
retired from the firm recently, and the extensive and increasing business is now conducted by the former alone. Mr. Soncrandt is also interested largely in a much more important establishment at Trowbridge, O., where he manu- factures staves, heading, etc,, and procures the material for the shops in this city. The shop furnishes employment for thirty men, and an annual product of three hundred thousand barrels is a fair estimate of the average work ac- complished. The barrels are mostly used by the lime men of Sandusky and Marble Head Peninsula across the bay. The deftness with which each man performs his allotted portion in the turning out of a barrel is only equaled by that of the men employed in the wheel and tool factories, where co-operation in labor, if not in net results, is brought to perfection. The shops are located on Water street, near Monk's ship-yard. Though the buildings are all of wood, they are conveniently arranged and necessarily quite extensive. The grounds are quite large also, and conveniently located with relation to the lime-kilns in the northeastern part of the city.
Mackey & Merrick, Water street, near Decatur, manufacture wooden ware, step-ladders, clothes-bars, tables, etc., and do contract work in wood. Their factory is twenty-four by eighty feet and three stories in height. The busi- ness was established in 1887, but is growing in importance. Shipments are made to Pennsylvania and New York, but the bulk of the business is with Ohio towns.
Iron and Metal Workers .- Portland Boiler Company. In 1849 N. H. Moore began the boiler making business in Sandusky on a small scale. The business was quite successful and increased in volume until in 1883 it was organized in- to a stock company under its present name. J. F. Kilby is now president, W. E. Chapman, manager, secretary and treasurer. The office is located near the factory.
The company makes a specialty of large stationary and marine boilers, the reputation of which has been well established during the past forty years. The demand is mostly for steel boilers during the later years of the enter- prise. The steel is punched by machinery, but the riveting is done by hand. The shops are located on West Water street near the I. B. and W. depot.
The stockholders have been very fortunate in receiving dividends, one of 20 per cent. having just been declared. None but first class work is turned out by this company.
Cutlery and Gun Factory. J. Ambacher, in January, 1868, located at his present place of business on West Market, and began to manufacture and re- pair guns and cutlery. He is a practical workman himself and the business has had a very steady growth until at the present writing his orders extend as far as California, although the bulk of his business is in Ohio and surrounding States. Four men are engaged regularly, and at times others are needed on special orders. Razors are hollow ground, and repairing outside the regular line is done at times. The buildings and grounds are quite spacious.
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
Kranz Plumbing and Gas Fitting Works. Fred. Kranz, at the north end Jackson street on the bay shore has a very extensive and well equipped esta ... lishment for the manufacture of plumbers goods etc. Everything in tin, con- per and sheet-iron work is done here at short notice.
The new factory is the outgrowth of a trade established in 1847 and com. ing under the present management in 1865. Mr. Kranz has by his own co. ergy and business integrity built up his present large trade, and at the sie time improved his financial resources to the amount needed in handling ?: - business. Some fifteen men are kept constantly at work in the various depart- ments of the business.
Sandusky Machine and Agricultural Works and Klotz and Kromer M !... chine Company .- The present firm was incorporated in 1870, but the busin .. ; was begun in 1845. In 1877 the consolidated business was placed in the ex. tensive shops where business is now done in both names, at the old stand on Water street opposite Norman Hall.
The company manufacture marine and stationary engines, (both automatic and common) circular saw-mills, ax handle and spoke lathes, hub and whesi machinery, wine and cider presses, hydraulic, steam and hand elevators. a newly patented pump, also the Hero binders and self-rake reaper and power corn-shellers.
The firm employs from fifty to seventy men, and necessarily has a large monthly pay roll. The output in all the varied departments of the industry amounted in 1887 to about $60,000, goods being shipped over a very large part of the United States, with some outside orders. The Messrs. Klotz and Kromer still take a very active part in the business, the former being treasurer, and the latter secretary of the consolidated company. Mr. W. F. Converse : president, and F. Rinkleff, superintendent.
Barney and Kilby's Foundry, located on Water and Fulton streets, with: offices and machine shops on the former. This firm manufactures engines. sugar and paper evaporators, wood working and mill machinery and all sorts of castings. The frontage on Water street is one hundred and thirty-two feet. and the foundry two stories high, of red brick, extends back three hundred and twenty feet on Fulton, with a width in the rear of one hundred and ninety-two feet. The number of men employed averages one hundred and fifty in San- dusky alone, while many hands are constantly required in other cities to place and start machines and engines.
W. W. Wetherell in 1846 established this business as a car-shop ; afterward it was conducted by D. C. Henderson as a mowing machine factory ; after- wards the business was conducted with various modifications by Barnes, Hornig & Pringle, and by Klotz & Kromer until the present firm was estab- lished in 1876. The facilities were greatly enlarged by them until the annual product of the establishment amounts to three hundred thousand dollars in
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THE CITY OF SANDUSKY.
value. Shipments of engines are made to all parts of the United States, to the dominion of Canada and to Cuba. Considerable work is also done for the accommodation of people located in and near Sandusky.
Jacob Buyer established a file-making and recutting establishment on Water street in 1869, and afterward removed to the present location on Fulton near Market street. He employs seven men regularly, and has a trade ex- tending through Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, with occasional orders from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and several other States of the Union. The annual sales are quite uniform, and range from eight to ten thousand dollars, with indications of an increase in the near future.
OTHER INDUSTRIES.
Sandusky Lime Company. This company represents an investment of about half a million dollars, and a decidedly strong combination of business ability and integrity. The following manufacturing plants make up the San- dusky Lime Company : The Marble Head Lime Company, comprising L. B. Johnson & Co., Daniel Kunz, the Pt. Marble Head Lime Company, and John H. Hudson, contributes sixteen kilns ; the Olemacher Lime Company, twelve kilns; Gager & Zollinger, four kilns; the Moss Marble Head Lime Company, six kilns. The company also owns three kilns in its corporate name, making forty-one in all, with a combined capacity of 4,500 barrels per day. The lime is shipped in all directions, the following States being the leading markets: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Minnesota, and the Territories also receive large consignments by water to Duluth, thence to the interior by rail. The company is officered as follows : president, Hon. Frederick Olemacher; vice-president, John C. Zollinger; treasurer, Leonard S. Johnson ; secretary, Charles B. Dennis.
The Olemacher Lime Company was organized in 1867 by Fred. Olemacher, and had then a capacity of one hundred barrels per day. Mr. Zollinger took an interest in 1871, and in 1880 William Olemacher and others became inter- ested.
Sandusky and vicinity has long been noted for its excellent lime, much of which is burned across the bay on Marble Head Peninsula, but considerable quantities are also burned in the city. By the present combination all the leading manufacturers in this vicinity get a fair share of the trade, and the facilities for handling the product are greatly improved. L. B. Johnson was interested in the production of lime before the Civil War; he was among the first to see the importance to which the lime interest of this section would attain.
Most of the gentlemen whose names appear in this connection have been long interested in the lime business in one way or another. John H. Hudson and Daniel Kunz, like Messrs. L. B. Johnson and Frederick Olemacher, are
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
old residents of Sandusky. L. S. Johnson, C. B. Dennis and John Zollinger represent the younger element of the corporation, but have been actively en- gaged in the business for a number of years. Several hundred men find em- ployment at the various kilns, and a great deal of money is disbursed by the company at their principal office on Water street, west of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Few industries are doing more for the city in the way of attracting com- mercial attention than is the Sandusky Lime Company.
Western School Supply. This firm is one of less than half a dozen such factories in the United States. They manufacture school crayons of pure white, and of several colors ; also railroad crayons and carpenter's chalk. The process of mixing the ingredients is kept a secret, the entire work in this de- partment of the industry being performed by interested parties.
Most of the work of crayon making is done in the spring, fall and summer, on account of the inconvenience attending the operation of drying in the win- ter. John Cowdery, L. Curtis and H. Curtis conduct the enterprise, and have been very successful in what was at one time considered a somewhat venture- some enterprise.
The crayons are sold all over the United States and in many parts of Europe. The firm manufactures its own boxes in which to pack the chalk and crayons. There are some thirty men and eight girls employed a greater part of the time between March Ist and the middle of December. The men work mostly in the box department and the girls at packing and dipping crayons. The crayons are moulded in brass frames containing several dozer. each. After standing a few minutes they are pounded loose with wooden mallets, and put away to dry and harden before packing for shipment.
The buildings are located at the corner of Polk and Prospect streets ; the grounds occupy about half a square. The buildings are of wood, large, com- paratively new, and well adapted to the needs of the business. This enter- prise was started in 1869 by M. F. and J. S Cowdery, the former for many years superintendent of schools at Sandusky, and widely known and honored as an Ohio educator.
The Adamantine Company. The manufactory in which this comparatively new compound is made is located on Water street, near the Sandusky Wheel Company's building. Messrs. Brunck & Marsh organized a stock company for the manufacture of this finish for ceilings, etc., about five years ago. Some two years later H. W. and J. H. Wagenet, with Emil Pusch, bought the Marsh's interest, and have continued the business since with growing success.
The finish is in high favor with many who have heretofore used alabastine and diamond wall finish. The composition is covered by patents. E. Pusch is president and H. W. Wagenet is secretary.
Flavoring extracts, H. A. Lee & Co., Water street, near Jackson. This
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THE CITY OF SANDUSKY.
business was established in 1881 by B. F. and H. A. Lee, and purchased in 1885 by the present firm. ,They do a wholesale business with towns on the lines of the several railroads that terminate in or pass through Sandusky. Mr. Lee does his own traveling, and finds a market in Ohio for all his goods.
The Sandusky Paper Company (not incorporated) is located south of the Lake Shore depot. J. J. Hinde is president, J. J. Dauch, secretary and treas- urer, and P. Scanlan, superintendent. The business was started in 1880 by W. J. Bonn, and after passing through various hands was purchased in Sep- tember, 1887, by the present company.
The grounds occupy about two acres. There are five tenant houses on the premises besides the mill proper, which consists of a stone building one story in height and forty by eighty feet, with an engine house thirty by thirty and a frame structure thirty by forty, two stories high; two engines, with a combined capacity of eighty horse-power. From thirty to thirty-five hands are employed steadily. The force is divided, half working at night and half during the day. The product is straw wrapping paper exclusively, and an average of twenty-five tons a week is produced. Most of the paper is shipped east as far as Massachusetts.
The straw purchased from farmers goes into a vat at one end of the build- ing and comes out in sheets of paper at the other end, where it is packed and carred. The annual wages amount to $12,000, and the product brings in the neighborhood of $75,000.
Sandusky Tool Company. This is an incorporated company and began its existence as such in 1869 with a capital stock of $125,000, which was in- creased to $150,000 later on for the purpose of enlarging facilities. The business has been conducted with none but slight intermissions from the date of its establishment, nearly twenty years ago, to the present time.
From one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred and twenty-five men have found steady employment here, and the company is usually disbursing from ten to fifteen thousand dollars per month, more than half of which is for labor. The principal work is in carpenters' planes, cabinet-makers' tools, planters' hoes, awls, etc., bench screws, handles, coopers' wood tools, and vari- ous other sorts of steel and wood implements.
White beech is used in the manufacture of planes ; handles are made of white ash, and the bench screws are made of the hard maple. From three to four hundred car loads of timber are worked up by this company every year, a larger portion into planes, for the manufacture of which they have a world- wide reputation. Small tool-handles are made from hickory, of which thirty or more car loads are annually used. Before making up, all lumber is quite thoroughly seasoned in the dry-houses, a process which, in the case of planes, occupies two years or more. Large quantities of fancy wood, such as mahogany, rosewood, lignum vitæ, etc., are made up into croquet balls, extra
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
fine planes, and various articles. The iron working department furnishes plane irons in great quantities, the average capacity being not far from seventy dozen a day. Planter's' solid steel eye hoes, for which they are famed through- out the South, are quite a specialty at this establishment; they have facilities for making about fifteen hundred daily. Small awls, gouge chisels, saws, etc., are turned out in sets, which are put up in wooden pocket cases, and sold in great quantities to the trade.
The grounds for manufacturing purposes occupy about five acres adjoin- ing the city water works lot at the east end of Market street. The main build- ing is three stories in height, sixty by one hundred and sixty feet, with a wing twenty-two by one hundred feet, in which the immense two hundred horse- power engine and the mammoth boilers are located. The iron and steel de- partment occupies a grinding room forty by sixty feet, an iron working room fifty by one hundred and four, and hoe finishing department twenty-two by one hundred and thirty six feet. The warehouse is twenty four by eighty feet, two stories in height. There is a packing and storage building two stories in height, twenty-four by sixty feet, with a wing sixteen by sixty, and five timber sheds one hundred and fifty to two hundred and sixteen feet long by thirty feet wide. The office and other minor buildings occupy various por- tions of the grounds. The lumber is mostly moved on small hand-cars, pushed over wooden tracks that reach all parts of the grounds.
The machinery of the various departments is necessarily very complicated, and many of the devices made by the workmen of the establishment from time to time are very ingenious, performing work that at first thought would seem impossible except by hand. Nearly half a million feet of lumber is used an- nually by the company for packing-boxes in which to ship the various imple- ments turned out of their extensive establishment.
The president of the company, Mr. Mozart Gallup, is an old and honored resident of Sandusky, and is familiar from long experience with the duties of his position and the details of the business. Mr. Gallup is also the manager and treasurer. He came to Ohio from Massachusetts in the year 1844, and has been connected with the present company since 1880, having come to it from the extensive handle factory of James Woolworth, lately moved to Ken- tucky. His son, Frank M. Gallup, recently chosen secretary, has been long a resident of Sandusky. He is a practical business man, and quite valuable to the business.
J. A. Montgomery, in 1869, accepted the position of superintendent of machinery, thus being with the company from the beginning of its career. Messrs. George A. Church, foreman of the wood working department, and I1 H. West, in charge of the manufactured tools and shipping department, have served faithfully since 1870, and are still in the emphoy of the company. This establishment, like a number of others it has been our privilege to describe in
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THE CITY OF SANDUSKY.
these pages, brings large amounts of money to Sandusky and takes little or none away. The great value of such plants to a city needs no explanation. The products of this industry find a market in our own States, in Europe, Au- stralia and South America.
The G. B. Hodgman Manufacturing Company (Incorporated). This im- mense wood working establishment began operations under the present organ- ization in September, 1885. The officers are G. B. Hodgman, president, O. A. Knight, vice-president, and Henry Knight, secretary. The firm manufac- tures general cooperage supplies, but lists as specialties syrup, lard and pickle packages, butter tubs and patent hoops.
Twenty acres are used in the business and the buildings comprise a ware- house thirty-one by three hundred and forty-five feet; saw-mill thirty by one hundred and sixty-five feet ; band factory thirty by two hundred and thirty-six feet; cooper-shop thirty by eighty feet; stables thirty- two by seventy- two feet ; blacksmith and wagon shop each two stories in height. They have a brick engine and boiler room, their engine being an automatic with a forty- eight inch stroke, the diameter of the cylinder is twenty-two inches. The saw-mill and factory are heated by steam and lighted with the Edison incan- descent light, the company owning its own generator and lighting apparatus. There are six stock warehouses, the first twenty-four by one hundred and fifty- six feet, the second and third each ten and one-half by three hundred and seventy-five feet, the fourth twenty-four by three hundred and thirty-six feet, the fifth ten and one-half by four hundred feet, the sixth twenty by two hun- dred and twenty-five feet, each of these buildings one story in height. Two steam dry kilns, sixteen by twenty-two and twenty-two by twenty-eight feet respectively. Owing to the bulky nature of their products the firm found it necessary to build cars specially adapted to their shipping requirements. These cars are owned by the firm and handled by the railroad companies on much the same terms that the refrigerator cars are run for the large western meat shipping establishments. The shipments of this company cover a very large portion of the United States, and the products enjoy an excellent repu- tation. The proprietors are well known for business integrity and thorough- ness. About one hundred and twenty-five men are employed the year around in the establishment here, and the business of course gives employment to a great 'many others in the pineries, where they own a saw-mill for preparing the lumber. The auxiliary mill is at Lenox, Mich.
In 1887 was commenced the manufacture of long bridge and special bill timber, for which they have a large and growing demand. Mr. Hodgman, the president, commenced the present line of business alone in 1877, and contin- ued it with marked success until the stock company was organized in 1885, as mentioned above.
Kilbourn & Company, on Water street, east of the Baltimore and Ohio
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.
Railroad, conduct one of the large cooperage establishments of Sandusky. On their lot, which is eight by twelve rods, are two buildings, the factory proper, twenty eight by ninety-six feet, and the warehouse, thirty by one hundred and twenty-six feet, besides numerous sheds, etc., for storing stock.
Their principal work is in fish, syrup and pickle packages, which are sold in a dozen or more surrounding States. They employ on an average twenty- two men. A branch establishment is conducted at San Francisco. This bus- iness was established in 1878 by the present firm. It is the intention of the proprietors to enlarge their facilities in the near future.
Ship Yard and Dry Dock. J. E. Monk, some thirteen years ago, estab- lished a ship yard at the north end of Meigs street, on the bay. Mr. Monk was a practical builder, having worked as long for others in the city prior to the establishment of his present enterprise as he has since for himself. Some fine work has been turned out in this yard, and a great deal of general repairing is being done all the time; fifteen or twenty men are kept at work most of the season. The steamers Ferris and Hayes, the barge Norma, the tug Mystic, the General Burnside, Silver Spray, L. L. Rawson, Rolland and other boats, well known at Sandusky, were built by Mr. Monk at this yard.
Stirrup and Whipstock Factory. Mr. H. H. Knight, Monroe street, near Perry, has been in his present line of business in this city for nearly twenty years. He makes all sorts of wooden stirrups and whipstocks, that are widely known among teamsters as durable and conveniently light. His goods are sold in all the States and territories, and to some extent in foreign stock rais- ing countries. Mr. Knight's stamp on a whipstock or stirrup is the average cowboy or teamster's guarantee that the stock is superior in quality. He makes a cowboy stirrup, trimmed in sheet brass, that is eminently satisfactory to the hardy sons of the plains.
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