History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 43

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II > Part 43

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Mr. A. C. Brown, on High Street, alone employs constantly about sixty hands, and his sales amount to from $50,000 to $60,000 annually. About two hundred journeymen are at present working upon the bench in the various shops, whose wages amount to $60,000 a year. Over $40,000 worth of boots and shoes are annually imported from the east by our merchants.

On May 24, 1849, was published an advertisement of the trunk factory of G. W. Peters, situated on Long Street, between High and Front, "a few rods northwest of the new Methodist Church." Of this infant enterprise and the great industries which are its lineal results the writer has been favored with the follow- ing interesting sketch :

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

About fortyfive years ago George W. Peters and family, including two sons. George M. and O. G., moved from Chillicothe, Ohio, to Columbus, on a canal boat, landing at the headquarters of the canal at the foot of Friend-now Main-Street, which was to the city at that early time what the Union depot now is. Tunis Peters, the aged father of George W. Peters, met them as they walked the plank from the canal boat, and together they all walked up Main Street and south on High to Peters's Run, where was located in the big hollow (where the present Consolidated Street Railway stables are now situated), the tanyard, and on the hillside (now the southeast corner of High and Beck streets), the old home of Tunis Peters, the grandfather of George M. and O. G. Peters. At this home and tanyard George W. Peters had spent his young days, and upon marrying Sarah A. Merion went to Chillicothe, seeking his fortune, and started a big tanyard. He used to sail down the canal to Ports- mouth, Ohio, and then down the Ohio to Cincinnati and St. Louis and purchase hides and bark and bring them by boat to Chillicothe. But the enterprising young tanner in the hard times of 1837-8-9 failed, but not discouraged he built small houses on the tanyard, which was called Petersburg until it burned down at the great fire in Chillicothe.

Here on this tanyard, in one of these small houses, George M. and O. G. Peters were born. When they arrived at Columbus they were respectively five and three years of age. George M. and his sister Lucy attended the plain little school at the rear of the old Montgomery Hotel, at the northeast corner of High and South-now Fulton-Street where the new County Jail has recently been built. Their father started a trunk factory-the first in this city and perhaps in the State-in the basement under their dwelling in the South End near the old tanyard-now Number 518 South High, just south of Blenkner Street. He tanned the hides at his father's tanyard with which to cover the trunks, and with hand shears cut up sheet iron for the bands, for at that time rolled hoop iron was unknown in their manufacture. Early in life George M. showed mechanical inclinations by helping to make these trunks. About 1847 George W. Peters bought the lot on the southeast corner of Long and Front Streets, where he lived and had his trunk factory in the rear of his dwelling, until at the age thirtyfive he died, July 26, 1852, from overwork. John R. Hughes, who learned the trunk- making trade with George W. Peters, carried on the factory for his widow until Mr. Ilnghes was able to buy the business, which he has since pursued and which has laid the foundation for Mr. Hughes's fortune. At ten years of age George M. Peters could make a beautiful trunk, but his father died just as he was getting a start, and being in debt, the business had to be sold to save the little home which still stands on the southeast corner of Front and Long, where Charles M. Peters, the younger brother, was born. Often the father would pat his son George on the head and say, "in a few years, my boy, we will buy the lot on the cor- ner of High and Long (the lot on which now stands Miles, Bancroft & Sheldon's drygoods house), and build the biggest trunk factory in the world with a big sign on it, G. I'. Peters & Sons; " and, judging from his pluck and enterprise, this no doubt would have been done, if his energy had not killed him while yet a young man. He did not foresee that within about a square of that very spot his sons would help to build a great carriage factory and revolutionize a business that was tenfold more important than trunkmaking.

After the death of his father, George M. Peters was apprenticed to E. & H. F. Booth, the carriage makers on Fourth and Gay streets, April 1, 1856, at three dollars per week. He served four years at painting, showed extraordinary skill, became one of the most accom- plished carriage painters in this country, doing the finest ornamental painting, scroll work, lettering and varnishing, and after a few years obtained from Messrs. Booth a contract for doing all the painting necessary in their large trade. Just after the war, against the persua- sion of Messrs. Booth, George M. Peters struck out in business for himself. Having saved a few hundred dollars, he, with William and John Benns, bought the little shop of H. H. Charityn, just south of the Third Street Engine House, near Town Street, where they did carriage repairing, painting and horseshoeing. During the day Mr. Peters helped at black - smithing, horseshoeing, keeping books, collecting, etc., and at night when the smoke and dust

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MANUFACTURES.

COL

COLUMBUS

Y COMPANY

CO. BUGGY CO

COLUMBUS BUGGY COMPANY

COLUMBUS

LEER

COLUMBUS BUGGY COMPANY.

ORIGINALE

SITE

OLUMBUS BUGGYO &

SOLE TACYORT

COLUMBUS. OHIO

THE COLUMBUS BUGGY CO. AND THE PETERS DASH CO. (See pages 323, 324, 326 and 327.)

COMP

BUGGY

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

of the forges settled down, he and Mr. Benns did their fine painting and varnishing above the smithshop. About 1865 they bought out the Moore carriage shop on Town Street, just west of the markethouse, and manufactured carriages in the old fashioned way under the name of Peters, Benns & Co. But Mr. Peters believed that carriage making could be revolutionized by proper division of labor and the use of steam power and machinery, and that instead of selling buggies for $300 apiece, as they then did, they might furnish them for less than half that price. His partners thought he was a little wild on this subject and would not encourage him, but at last they allowed him to have his own way, and he con- tracted with Ayres, Mithoff, Dann & Co., in the Penitentiary, for the wood parts of one hun- dred buggies, precisely alike, on the duplicate plan, and then put them together cheaply by systematizing the work. Mr. A. Sells, auctioneer, later of the Sells Brothers' Circus, sold these cheap buggies on the marketplace at auction, as rapidly as they could be finished up, at good profits. This was perhaps the first attempt ever made to build and sell buggies on this plan. But Mr. Peters's partners got frightened, thought their wellearned reputation for fine work would be ruined, and refused to make any more. Nevertheless, after a year or two of hard times and struggles, Mr. Peters induced C. D. Firestone, a soninlaw of Rev. Lovett Taft, Mr. Peters's pastor, to put in $5,000 and join them. Mr. Firestone was a promising young man, born and raised near Canton, Ohio, and was at that time engaged in railway business at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mr. Taft was anxious that his soninlaw should come to Co- lumbus to reside and therefore induced him to accept Mr. Peters's offer to join the firm of Peters, Benns & Co., but it only took a few years for them to sink all they had, and by 1870 . they were deeply in debt and practically had failed. However, their extremity seemed to be their opportunity, for Mr. Peters told his firm that he was going to give up all and start out on his hobby of making buggies and dashes on the duplicate plan. He begged his part- ners to join him, but none of them would do so except Mr. Firestone, who, though not a practical carriage maker and still young, felt sure that he could make the new departure a success. Without a cent, and deeply in debt, Messrs. Peters and Firestone leased from John R. Hughes the lot on the northeast corner of High Street and Hickory Alley. By going in debt they provided a cheap, frame shanty, costing one hundred dollars, and with a few traps which they bought of the bankrupt firm of Peters, Benns & Co., and for which O. G. Peters furnished them security as he had frequently done. Thus equipped they began business life over again, this time as the Iron Buggy Company. They manufactured one kind of buggy only, most of which was of iron, and was the invention of Mr. Peters. They succeeded rap- idly because Mr. Peters could devote his mechanical skill and genius to invention, to divi- sion of labor and to systematizing the manufacture of vehicles as he had desired to do years before. Mr. Firestone also entered the field with great energy and ability, and the business grew with wonderful success. Just then the infant establishment burned down, but it soon rose from its ashes and in 1875 its proprietors sold their small establishment to H. K. Tuller, now of the Buckeye Buggy Company, and formed the Columbus Buggy Company and Peters Dash Company, taking with them as a partner Oscar G. Peters, who had gained valuable experience as bookkeeper and cashier with Brotherlin, Halm & Co., and Kelton, Bancroft & Co., also in army positions which he held in the commissary department during the Civil War. Mr. O. G. Peters had also successfully carried on a grocery business for some years.

With their joint experience and ahout $20,000 capital, these three men started the Co- Jumbus Buggy Company and Peters Dash Company at the close of the year 1875. They began business in a small frame building still standing in the rear of the P. C. & St. L. R. R. offices, on the northeast corner of Wall and Locust streets, but added building after building along the railway tracks and High Street, year after year as their business rapidly developed. Their sales, amounting to about $50,000 the first year, have increased until they now reach the sum of about $2,000,000 per annum on an active capital of about $1,000,000. The pro- ducts of their great factory are now exported to nearly all the countries of the world. They employ over twelve hundred persons and have facilities for producing about one hundred

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vehicles and fifteen hundred carriage dashes per day. Their semi-monthly pay-roli amounts to about $15,0006. The Peters Dash Company manufactures carriage dashes, wheel fenders, washers, straps, etc., for sale to carriage hardware dealers and carriage manufacturers. These articles are made mainly under patents and by machinery invented by George M. Peters.

Of the Hayden establishment in 1850 the following account is given in Glover & Henderson's City Directory of that year :

The Binningham Works, the property of P. Hayden, are situated on State Avenue, and on the east bank of the Scioto River. The main buikling is built of limestone, 196 feet long, consisting of a centre building 46 feet, 4 stories high, surmounted by a handsome cupola, and two wings, each of 75 feet long. In the rear of the centre building is the engine house, in which are two engines, one of 50 horse power, the other of 100. Adjoining the engine house, in the north yard, is a mill for rolling scrap iron into bars and rods, capable of pro- ducing six or eight tons of bar iron and three tons of rods daily. In this yard is also a smith's shop, 115 feet long by 32 wide, for making chains, &c. In the south yard is a tan- nery, 80 by 30 feet, three stories high, designed principally for the manufacture of morocco. The main building is designed principally for the manufacture of saddlery hardware and drawing wire. The first floor in the centre building is fitted with machinery for the latter purpose, and about three tons of wire, a part drawn to the smallest size, is made each week. In the north wing, on the same floor, are machines for making buckles and rivets. The two upper rooms are used for filing, plating and finishing iron and brass work. Over the wire room, in the centre building is machinery for spinning, carding, &c. Mr. Hayden employs from 100 to 150 hands.10

The Ohio Tool Company was incorporated in 1851, with a capital stock of $190,000. Martin, writing in 1858, stated that it employed at that time about two hundred workmen, and named the following as its officers and directors: Presi- dent, George Gere; secretary and treasurer, A. Thomas; superintendent, C. II. Clark ; directors, O. Allen, W. A. Platt, A. McNairy, J. R. Swan, George Gere, P. Ilayden, and J. M. McCune. Its chief product consisted for some time of car- penter's planes ; hence it was commonly known as the " plane factory."

The Columbus Woolen Factory, incorporated in 1851, began operations April 1, 1852; first directors, A. P. Stone, F. C. Kelton, Theodore Comstock, John Butler and James Lennox. The factory building stood by the canal, at the foot of Monnd Street. It was equipped with 640 spindles, 20 power looms, nine carding machines, one napping and brushing machine, and extensive apparatus for pressing and dyeing. It consumed 52,000 pounds of wool annually, and produced a considerable variety of fabrics, including satinets, cassimeres, tweeds, flannels, blankets and yarns. One quality of its cloth was known as Olentangy doeskin. The company's dividends, says Martin, were usually paid in additional stock, or in manufactured goods. The enterprise was never financially successful, and finally ended, much to the relief of its stockholders, with the accidental destruction of the factory by fire. This event took place August 4, 1870. The superintendents of the establishment, successively down to 1858, were J. L. Haughton, John 11. Stage, and A. P. Mason.

In the spring of 1853 Brotherlin & Halm erected a fourstory brick building for the manufacture of cabinetware, and in July of the same year, their produc- tion actively began. Their factory, situated near the canal, in the southwest part

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

of the eity, was destroyed by fire in 1856, but was immediately rebuilt. Their warerooms were located on High Street. Their employes numbered about forty.11 The factory building was again destroyed by fire in March, 1861 but was rebuilt, and in October, 1862, operations were resumed. In 1864 Mr. Brotherlin died, and the name of the partnership was changed to that of Halm, Ford & Stage.

A company for the manufacture of hollow woodenware by steamdriven machinery, erected buildings on the west bank of the Scioto in 1855, and in July, 1856, began operations. The company had a capital stock of $28,000, which sum proved to be insufficient to pay for the buildings, and start the business advan- tageously. On May 10, 1858, the factory building was set on fire by lightning and destroyed. Its officers at that time were: President, George Kanemaeher ; secretary, W. L. Hughes; treasurer, H. Crary ; superintendent, W. H. Beebe.

The Novelty Mills, originally erected by Theodore Comstock west of the eanal, took the name of City Mills, under the ownership of A. S. Decker & Co .- Comstock, Harrison and Decker-and in 1857 were transferred to a new building on Fourth Street.

Of additional establishments in successful operation in 1858, Martin enumerates the following :

The Saw Factory at the corner of Water and Spring streets, propelled by steam - pro- prietors, Messrs. Ohlen and Drake ; several Planing Machines propelled by steam, at which are also manufactured doors, sash, blinds, ete. ; Messrs. Swan and Davies's Foundry and Machine Shop, on the west side of the river, established a few years since, and giving employment to some twentyfive to thirty men ; the new steam Paper Mill of Messrs. Hines and Miller, erected in the fall of 1857, and which commenced manufacturing paper in January, 1858; the Coffee and Spiee Grinding Mill, established by Messrs. Rose and now owned by C. P. L. Butler, Esq., worked by steam power; Messrs. Shoedinger and Brown's Furniture Manufactory ; and two extensive breweries in the south end of the city, one owned by Messrs. Hoster and Silbernagle, and the other by Mr. John Blenkner.

The first Franklin County Fair was held in October, 1851. A newspaper review of the exhibit said: " Of manufactured articles there were but very few. A fine assortment of cabinet work from the shop of Dryer & Co., and a splendid lot of harness work and saddles, a large portion of which was from the shop of Mr. Starr, comprised nearly everything under this head. . .. Of farming imple- ments there was but a small assortment."

One of the current industries of 1851 was the manufacture of iron fencing, and kindred articles, by J. G. & M. Krumm, whose shop was on South High Street, near Peters's Run. Rickly's new distillery is mentioned in 1852; also a new machine shop, near the railway station ; Halm's cabinet shop and Chadwick's carriage factory, on Rich Street ; the Columbus Stone Dressing Company, "in rear of How- lett's Factory ;" the carriage factory of E. & H. F. Booth, corner of Third and Gay streets ; and the Lennox machine shop, in rear of the American House. In 1853 the Booths employed fortyfive persons in their carriage business and manufactured two hundred buggies. Their sales for the year amounted to $40,000 ; average wages paid, $2.00 per day. In 1865 they ereeted a new factory building of four stories. J. A. Shannon's carriage factory, on the eastern bank of the Scioto, just below State Street, employed, in 1853, over seventy persons. Its wareroom was on

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East State Street. In November, 1854, Mr. Shannon sold his establishment to Blake, Williams & Co. In April, 1853, a new machine shop was opened at the corner of Front and Spring by Charles L. Lewis and B. F. Sylvester. The Buckeye Machine Shop was fitted up about the same time by C M. Ridgway. It occupied the building known as the Old Paper Mill, at the east end of the National Road bridge. The repair shops begun about the year 1853 by the Columbus & Indianapolis Railway Company soon became extensive. They were located about a quarter of a mile west of the station. In November, 1862, these shops were destroyed by fire, but they were immediately rebuilt on a more extensive scale, and were equipped and used for the manufacture of cars, as well as for repairs. William Romans, a master mechanic and an inventor of considerable note, was in charge of their machinery.

Alma JOR

OFFICE AND MAIN SHOPS OF

THE KILBOURNE & JACOBS MANUFACTURING COMPANY, COLUMBUS, OHIO.

ON C. C C & I. R. R., 1-4 MILE N E. OF UNION DEPOT.

The furniture factory of Hughes & Beebe rose to noticeable magnitude in 1854. It stood beside the canal, near the commission house of Buttles & Com- stock. In the same year Hyde & Schlapp erected a brick building for the manu- facture of doors and blinds at the foot of State Street. A contemporary enter- prise was that of the Stone & Lime Company, which purchased five acres of ground just west of the Penitentiary, " leased Colonel Medary's farm for ten years, with the privilege of quarrying stone on any part thereof," and put down a branch track connecting their quarries with the Piqua & Indianapolis Railway. The Ohio Tool Company's establishment was mentioned this year as " one of the most entensive of the kind in the West." Its payroll averaged about $6,000 and its prodnet a value of about $20,000, monthly. The steel used by the company was manufactured expressly for it by William Jessup & Sons, England ; its iron was supplied from Pittsburg and from the works of P. Hayden. In 1857 the com-

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

pany employed about 350 hands and its sales were roundly stated at $200,000. A corn broom and brush factory was conducted by B. E. C. Bardwell, on High Street, opposite the County Courthouse. The trunk factory of J. R. Hughes, situated on High Street, near Long, obtained conspicuous mention. In 1853 about eighteen million bricks were manufactured and laid up in walls, but the supply was not equal to the demand. In 1854 the number of bricks produced was about twenty millions and the yards then in operation were thus catalogued : Atchison five, Ramsey two, O'Harra two, Temple, Stipe and McElvaine each one ; whole number of workmen employed, 185. Common laborers in the yards were paid twentytwo, and moulders thirtyseven to fortyfive dollars per month. In 1859 Stipe's yard produced 30,000 bricks per day.

1855-Boiler shop, H. D. Langdon and Neil MeKennon; blacksmithing, Tresenrider & Noble ; bookbinders, Neereamer & Behmer; sash, doors and blinds, Biddle & Bancroft ; tubs and buckets, Leaman & Carlisle.

A new brewery, by Charles S. Say, on Front Street, was announced in June, 1858. On June 20, 1859, the hub and felloe factory of Adam Luckhanpt, one mile east of the city, on the National Road, was destroyed by fire. In 1865 a company organized by John Short, began the manufacture of agricultural machines; its shops and office were at the west end of the National Road bridge. In 1862, the Columbus Cabinet Company was organized, with eighteen stockholders, and bought the building know as the Comstock property, to which, in 1864, a two- story addition was made. Rishtine, Leonard & Co's paper mill on Friend Street, west of the canal, is mentioned in 1863. The firm of Ford, Stage & Co. was organ- ized in February, 1865, for the manufacture of furniture, in which it soon became extensively engaged, employing, in part, convict labor.

The Ohio Furniture Company was incorporated June 28, 1866, by George Gere, John G. Mitchell, J. S. Ford and Alfred Thomas. Its factory was estab- lished on West Mound Street, its salesrooms on South High. In 1890 it employed 125 men and its trade had extended to many States besides Ohio ; its officers were, B. S. Brown, president; D. E. Phillips, secretary, treasurer and general manager ; Charles Baker, Smith Spencer, W. H. Stage and F. E. and Charles H. Hayden. The company's factory was destroyed by fire during the spring of 1867, but was rebuilt. Ou June 6, 1866, a " steam brick company " was incorporated by David Auld, Henry Miller, Theodore Leonard, Edward Hall and J. C. Auld ; capital stock, 850,000. During the same season the Franklin Machine Works were established on Water Street by J. S. Andrews, William McNulty, M. R. Wil- liams and D. H. Royce, all practical mechanics. The Capital Manufacturing Com- pauy was incorporated December 26, 1866, by J. A. Campbell, W. J. Conger and D. W. H. Day ; capital stock 830,000. Its purpose was the production of brushes and wirework by convict labor.

A business in sawmaking was begun about the year 1854, by James Ohlen, who, with very modest resources, made such progress as to enable him to erect a factory at the corner of Spring and Water Streets. In 1866, this establishment was considerably enlarged ; in 1869, it was producing about eight hundred saws, of different sizes and patterns, per day. The Capital City Foundry, MeDonald &

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Shilling, made a specialty in 1867, of the Wilson steel plow. In March, 1867, Albert Gemunder engaged in the manufacture of pipe organs on South Sixth Street.

In December, 1866, the tanneries then in operation were thus enumerated : D. A. Hamilton's, at the foot of Rich Street ; Kraner & Co's., at the foot of Bank Alley, near Hoster's Brewery ; Louis Buchsieb's, on South Front Street; Frank Sehlegetter's on the canal, near the south corporation line; Adolph Bick's, on Mound Street west of the eanal ; and C. C. Smith's steam tannery, then recently established, situated on the canal, near the Mound Street erossing.

Of the origin of the Columbus Sewer Pipe Company, incorporated March 7, 1869, the following interesting account appeared on September 29, 1870, in the Ohio State Journal :

Some two years ago it was discovered that the peculiar clay and soapstone shale along a ravine on the farm of Mr. Joseph Guitner, three miles north of Columbus, was much like the clay out of which was manufactured the celebrated Middlebury stone sewer pipe. Samples of this clay were taken to Middlebury, put through the ordinary process, and the result was a very superior article of sewer pipe. This led to investigation by scientific men and more experiments. The clay was pronounced superior in many respects to the clay at other places where sewer pipe was manufactured, and the equal of the best in every respect.

The Columbus Sewer Pipe Company was organized with $100,000 capital, and B. F. Rees, Windsor Atcheson, S. Medbery, James A. Wilcox, Philemon Hess, Joseph Guitner and S. S. Rickly as directors. B. F. Rees was elected president and William Wassall, super- intendent. Mr. Wassall had managed several sewer pipe manufactories in England and in this country, and brought to the business here the lessons of experience. The company pur- chased of Mr. Guitner fifteen acres of land along the ravine, and made preparations to secure machinery and put up a large manufactory. Last spring work was commenced in earnest, the manufactory was erected on the high ground near the Worthington road, the machinery was put in place, two kilns were erected, and in May operations were commenced. This was in the way of an experiment. The result was satisfactory beyond the brighest anticipations and the work was extended. Two more kilns were put up and machinery perfected.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 43

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1196

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196