USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 60
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The three warehouses described represent . the total grain handling business, so disposed, in Sidney in 1919. The J. E. Wells Grain company, operating from a different standpoint, occupies offices in the Citizens' National bank building at the corner of Main and Poplar street.
A very old warehouse is remembered by some, as standing on the rear of the residence lots of Dr. Hunt, on the west side of the canal and south of the Court street bridge. It was owned at one time by J. A. Lamb.
In Dingmansburg, at the first corner across the Court street bridge, H. Enders long maintained an establishment where he wove coverlets from the native wool, many of these of decided beauty of color and design. Mr. Enders was an expert in dyeing, and his work- manship is still to be seen in many Sidney homes, sometimes care- fully packed away from moth, in cedar chests, and sometimes boldly defying moth and time while doing duty as portieres.
South of the weaving house, some little distance, stood a pioneer pottery, where crocks, jars, jugs, etc., were made for the folk of Shelby county. A cement block works is now located not far from the spot. About 1881, O. O. Mathers started a flax mill in an old frame building two stories in height and of goodly dimensions. The original purpose of the building, which stood on South Ohio avenue, adjacent to the old Davies pasture, is not remembered, but it may have been a hay barn, which Mr. Mathers reconstructed for his purpose. At all events, the mill operated for a few years quite profitably, but was not long-lived. Only green tow was manufac- tured, and shipped to other mills. Many of "the old boys" remem- ber the farmers' wagons loaded with the fresh straw driving into town, and also recall that the place was afterward used as a storage house for corn husks, which were cured for mattress manufacture.
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A row of small dwellings now occupies the ground, and at the north end of the lot is the home of Louis Weingartner. Mr. Mathers instituted a number of mills of various purpose in the county, none of which were of long duration, but served the time.
Other mills and warehouses now operating in Shelby county are described in the sketches devoted to the smaller towns where they are located.
A large poultry and produce and egg shipping depot, built about 1912, by E. J. Griffis & Co., stands along the Big Four track oppo- site the Sidney Manufacturing company's buildings, and at the north of the high school athletic field, from which the major part of these products in Shelby county is shipped to metropolitan markets. A very heavy trade passes this depot annually.
Other industries are developing rapidly. Welding establish- ments are numerous, and at present a large plant to be devoted to heavy welding is being pushed to completion at a location over- hanging the old feeder canal bed south of the West avenue bridge. Agricultural warehouses and setting up plants are maintained by all the well-known companies.
The Sexauer bread-baking firm have a growing business as manufacturing bakers, and ship large quantities of their excellent bread to other towns.
Nearly every line of retail trade is well represented in Sidney, some of them in remarkable degree. The Thedieck Brothers de- partment store is one of the most beautiful stores in a large district ; and that of Piper & Son, of pioneer establishment, presents equal attractions to buyers. Hardware has always held a foremost posi- tion in local trade, with a tendency to specialize of late, along dif- ferent lines. The Lauterbur Machine company not only carries complete lines of automobile accessories, but special tools and parts of varied uses, and often proves a valuable auxiliary of the manu- facturing plants of Sidney, in emergency.
The Tanning Industry
The first industry established in the old pioneer days, when necessity demanded shelter first of all, was carpentry. Simple and rough it often was, but the builder's art was nevertheless in evidence in every log cabin or more pretentious habitation. Carpentry in- volved the introduction of a second industry without which it could not be carried far. Saws, hammers and axes came in the oxcarts from the older settlements, but nails, hinges, bolts and latches re- quired a blacksmith's forge.
Waiting only upon these to make its necessity felt, was a third industry, tanning. With wild animal pelts accumulating in the wake of the pioneer rifle; with rough living demanding stouter material than cloth for a part of every pioneer's clothing, to withstand the mud and briars of his daily travels ; and with shoes or boots only to be procured at great difficulty and expense, it devolved upon the pioneer to apply every art learned in the east and south to the exigencies of his situation. Springs of pure water abounded every- where. Oak trees studded the forest which progress in farming
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THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
compelled to be cut down. Space in the settlement was begging to be occupied. Hence, scarcely later than the sawpit and the forge, the tanner's vat was established in Old Sidney.
It has been an interesting, if somewhat arduous, search to un- earth, from the forgotten past of Sidney, the earliest tanneries estab- lished. There is, in fact, still some doubt as to which was the very first to be built. It seems, however, that the builders of the town objected to tanneries being located within the village plat, and that the earliest of the three which are known to have flourished here stood outside the village pale in what was once called "Lacyburg," though it has of late years become a highly favored residence sec- tion. The land whereon it was built belonged originally to James Starrett, by whom it was sold to Matthew Gillespie ; Gillespie dis- posing of it, soon afterward, to James Clark, who is known to have been a tanner, and who, after quitting the business in Sidney, opened another tannery on his farm near Jackson Center, where his son continued the same industry for many years following. The tannery in question stood at the corner of South Ohio avenue and Dallas street, the vats and workshop occupying the angle, while the large tan-bark shed stood on Dallas street next to the alley. No one now living has any memory of this tannery in its working days, but it is probably the same tannery which Edmund Lytle leased, when he came to Sidney in 1834, and which was abandoned when he left the village for his farm in Clinton township, near the infirmary. All that is now recalled by a few of the elder men of Sidney is that, as lads, they played about the old tan-bark shed, which at that time was used for weighing hay; and the incidental recollection that the boys were wont to burrow tunnels in the hay, and play hide and seek in these passages. During this period it is remembered, also, that an old shoemaker named Dodson had a little two-room house built over the spot once occupied by the tanning vats, where he cobbled the village footgear in the front shop, and cooked and ate his lonely meals in the rear. Later, when the county infirmary was building, the old shed was used as a temporary infirmary one sum- mer, a man named Miller living there. But all that was effaced, many years ago, by the building of the Weingartner home, in which Harry Taylor, sr., resides at present.
The Sidney fathers must have relented in regard to compelling tanneries to keep company with the dogs of old Jerusalem, for it is certain that, neither long before nor after 1830, a second tannery stood at the southwest angle of North Main avenue and North lane, where, after many years, Hamlin Blake built a home which is now occupied by Dr. Hobby. This tannery was built by John Whitmire, but perhaps not for his own use. Whether it ever had more than one owner is indefinite, but during at least a part of its existence it was the property of James Skillen, father of John W. Skillen. It is fairly clear that it ceased to operate about the date of the building of the third tannery, at the corner of Ohio street and the canal.
Small tanneries on the farms were comparatively numerous in pioneer days, as settlers who had practised the art in former homes found it better to avail themselves of the bark and spring water at home than to await the slow process of carrying hides to the town
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through miles of forest and muddy roads, and of going after the leather when it was ready. For it must be remembered that the shoes were oftener than not made by the itinerant shoemaker, who made yearly rounds of the backwoods districts and shod the settlers with their own leather. The little tanning establishment on the Lytle farm was in operation during the building of the county in- firmary, a part of the bricks being made at the farm; and when weather conditions forbade brickmaking, the workmen were, at option, employed in the tannery.
The present tannery plant is the last development of that indus- try, begun in 1836 by Mr. Neiswanger, and acknowledged to be longest established of any existing industry in Sidney. It stands on its original site, and its only move has been in the way of ex- pansion, it now covering every foot of available space, and prac- tically closing North lane to public use, at the corner where the lane skirts the feeder canal. Mr. Neiswanger sold the business at a date and to a customer not definitely known. The different owners and operators appear to have been legion, but only a few names have been recorded, while creditable tradition mentions numerous honorable names in Sidney history, among the many changes. Cer- tain it is that the plant has never been idle. Gen. Taylor, the father of the late O. J. Taylor, was either an owner or lessee at one time. His son, O. J. Taylor, was employed there as a young lad, and the discussion of wage scales, in later days, was wont to remind him that his wages, for a day's grinding at the old tanbark mill, had been considered generous at six and one-fourth cents. The same inci- dental memory fixes the date of Gen. Taylor's ownership at a very early day in the tannery's history, for, about sixty-five years ago or more, the handmill had been replaced by a low tower, in an upper floor of which an old horse, led up the wooden incline each morning, was hitched to a beam lever, and set a-plodding patiently round and round the treadmill course, while the tanbark, fed into a hopper from above, fell down the chute to the level of the vats. This may have been the beginning of the development of the plant to its pres- ent elaborate and efficient mechanical equipment. S. Alexander Lecky, son of George D. Lecky, became interested in the tannery, also Charles Myers; and Turney & Evans were in full control at one time. Robert Given entered the tannery as an apprentice when a boy in his early 'teens, rising to a partnership, first with Mr. Myers, then with Mr. Lecky, Given & Lecky first purchasing the plant from Turney & Evans; after which Mr. Given became sole owner in 1869. Later, he took one of his sons into partnership, and in 1902 the R. Given & Son company was incorporated, and large ex- tensions made in the establishment, which then took a foremost position in the business world of Sidney. Mr. Given, sr., died, but the company continued without change of title, until the sudden death of John Given in 1917 precipitated a crisis in the business which made the sale of the whole advisable.
The Sidney Tanning company, an aggregation of entirely new personnel, were the purchasers, the officers of the corporation being : Leo Henle, Cleveland, president; E. H. Morrison, Sidney, vice- president ; Roy E. Fry, Sidney, secretary and treasurer.
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The present aspect and condition of the industry is so revolu- tionized since the days of old that if one of the pioneer tanners could step into it today, he would recognize little but the odor-and, thanks to modern treatment, there is not nearly so much of that as in our grandsires' day. Vats must, of course, maintain certain char- acteristics, but are more safely covered than in former times, when it used to be common for the village mothers to warn their venture- some little ones that death from drowning was frequently the fate of children who strayed to the tannery. Vats were then scarcely covered at all, or only for convenience in stepping over them, and often stood oper to the sky. Yet so far as can be learned there was never an actual casualty, such as drowning, at any tannery in Sidney.
In the early days of the local tannery, oak timber-and hence, tanbark-was plentiful throughout the county, as well as water of the necessary degree of purity. Practically all of the bark now available here is shipped in train-loads from Ontonagon county, Michigan. Then the waste tan-bark served to keep the villagers from sinking in the black ooze of Sidney's thoroughfares. Today, this by-product, dried, goes to help feed the furnaces and operate the machinery.
The hides (now cattle hides exclusively) are first washed in mammoth tubs or pools to remove all dirt and foreign particles, then passed through machines which remove all fragments of flesh which still adhere. They are then immersed for a period in a de- pilatory lime solution, to loosen the hair, following which they are passed through a machine which removes the hair. All the fleshy waste is sent to glue factories for reduction, while the hair is used by manufacturers of saddle and harness pads.
The lime solution is next removed from the hides by a bath, after which they are draped over sticks or poles and, thus suspended, submerged in the tanning liquid in the vats. During the tanning process, which takes several days, the hides gradually thicken, though without contracting, until, when thoroughly tanned, they are over twice the original thickness and, except for sole and harness leather, must be split. The machinery used in this process, which is purely mechanical, is capable of the most delicate adjustment as to thickness, suitable to the ultimate uses of the leather. Leather which is not split-such as harness leather-is shaved by the ma- chine on the inner side, and then stuffed with grease until pliable enough for use. Rough-tanned leather is too hard for any pur- pose. The leathers which are to be split, such as strap, bag and case leathers, are put into drums containing water and sulphenated oils for the softening process, the presence of water being necessary for the uniform absorption of the fats by the leather. After the softening process comes the dyeing of the hides to be used for cases, straps or bags, and all leather, after softening, is set, both by ma- chine and hand. The latter (hand) process is one which can never be eliminated by machinery, and consists of making the hide per- fectly smooth by placing it on a table, and working it to the required state with stone and steel blades.
The machinery by which all is accomplished is the last word in
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its line of achievement and worth a visit to the plant, to see in operation, by every school boy in Sidney-or by any citizen who has never yet taken the pains to inform himself of the interesting scientific developments and details of the tanner's useful and dig- nified, if not dainty, art, which in any phase is worthy of study, and in which invention and discovery are always possible.
The products of the company, which go as far west as the Pa- cific coast and as far east as Maine, are : harness, belt, strap, case (smooth), bag (embossed), and sole leathers. Goodyear welting, for shoes, is the only leather manufacturing undertaken by the Sid- ney Tanning company.
Woodworking Industries. Wood working as a craft, apart from the mere production of lumber for builders' use, has had its representation in Sidney from very early days, flourishing according to demand in some lines, and in others branching into the manufac- ture for outside trade. There are only approximate dates now to be secured for the establishment of any of these older craftsmen, and comparatively few names have been preserved, with the exception of a few firms, still existing, which date their origin from fifty to seventy years ago.
Two early wood turners whose names are still recalled were Mr. Murray, of North Miami avenue, whose "power" lathe was driven by a plodding steed ; and Mr. Caleb Nutt, whose shop stood in West Poplar street, about where the furniture house of Fred. Salm is now located, on the north side of the street. Mr. Nutt was a genuine craftsman of the old school, and specimens of his work, not done for trade but for sheer love of the turner's art, are still preserved as they deserve to be, for their delicacy and merit. Mr. George Lippincott, of South Miami avenue, owns a compote turned by Mr. Nutt many years ago, which displays the high degree of his craftsmanship. The article is of native pine, the stem and base daintily patterned and perfectly executed, and the basin a marvel of turning, scarcely thicker than an eggshell. The whole is lac- quered in color and gold leaf, by the possessor, a veteran carriage finisher of the Crozier works.
Near the Caleb Nutt shop, another old frame shack sheltered the pioneer gunsmithy of John Sharp, who was famous the country round for his fine workmanship, as well as his character.
The Rupert wagon shop stood on ground which formed a part ot the site of the Sidney Steel Scraper works, but was cut off in the early fifties by the Bellefontaine & Indiana railroad, a date which fixes this as one of the earliest of all the vehicle industries of Sidney.
The Sharrit Pump works on North lane made pumps for all Shelby county, and farther, during a period of forty to fifty years ; the Rench Wagon works, also on North lane, was about co-existent with the pump works, and both passed out of existence during the boyhood of men now middle-aged.
The Piper Wagon works, established on Court street (west) in 1847, was devoted for several years to the manufacture of farm wagons; but in 1854, the buildings passed into the hands of the Miller Carriage company, who changed the business to light vehicle manufacture. A blacksmith shop was added at the east end of the
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THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
factory and the whole is still operated by Miller & Smith, though the manufacture of buggies ceased there many years ago, and only a painting and repairing business is now carried on.
In 1854, Lorenzo Bimel erected a three-story building at 218 South Ohio avenue, and embarked, with a large spread of canvas, in the manufacture of carriages. Failure ensued after a few years, and Mr. Bimel removed to St. Marys, Ohio, leaving the buildings vacant.
To Sidney from Piqua, in 1858, came James S. Crozier (of French Huguenot ancestry, filtered through Ireland), a young man of thorough training and practical experience in carriage manufac- ture. He purchased the empty Bimel building in 1860 and entered upon a long, honorable and successful career which ended only with his life, in the early summer of 1919, at which time Mr. Crozier was the only man still in active business who was so engaged when he began work in Sidney sixty-one years before.
Carriages and light vehicles have been the exclusive output of the Crozier works, in the operation of which was never anything spectacular-only a record of unfailing high quality and integrity of workmanship which became synonymous with the name of Crozier as far as their vehicles were known. From eight to ten men were employed in the factory and blacksmith shop. William Crozier, only son of James S., and a prominent citizen (ten years mayor of Sidney), became a partner in the business in the '80s, since which the firm has been known as Crozier & Son.
The carriage industry is, of course, less flourishing than in pre- automobile days, but there is still demand for well-made light vehicles, and of all the industries of this nature which have come and gone in the local field, the Crozier works alone survive.
Maintaining all his faculties, mental and physical, to the very close of life, James S. Crozier's career as man and citizen stands out as a model of simple, honest, Christian gentlemanliness. He was above reproach. The relationship, both business and personal, between the Croziers, father and son, has been one of the idylls of Sidney's quieter life.
The first establishment for the manufacture of vehicle parts attempted in Sidney was a spoke and wheel works, built in 1870, near the canal between Ohio and Main avenues. The proprietor, J. Dann, included in his lines of manufacture the making of all grades of wheels, spokes, hubs, felloes, shafts and poles, and kept five skilled workmen employed. Nothing now remains of this fac- tory, which, with the exception of the engine house, was constructed of wood and perished by fire.
The Benjamin "D" Handle factory was first established in 1878-9 by the late C. R. Benjamin, who was at first associated with a Mr. Clark as a partner. Both men came from New England. The establishment became at once a solid factor in Sidney's industrial system, and has remained so. Charles W. Benjamin was taken into partnership with his father, C. R. Benjamin, in 1891, and since the latter's death is sole proprietor. The factory stands in its original location north of the canal and east of Broadway. The handles, designed for shovels, forks, scoops, etc., are made in several sizes.
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from a high grade of white ash wood, requiring an expert in its selection. During the war, the works were taxed to capacity with government orders only, but the manufacture is lively under all circumstances, and employs an average of thirty hands.
The Sidney Planing mill was established about 1880, by J. E. Wilkinson, who sold out in 1882 to Faris & Birch, Faris later selling to Monroe. By still further changes it became the George H. Worch Lumber company, of which the manager was William Klip- stine ; and ten years ago a new company took possession, building a new dry house, the whole becoming more a lumber supply house than a place where lumber is manufactured. It is now known as the William Klipstine Lumber company. It is situated on Walnut avenue, north of the old Charles Starrett homestead.
The Anderson-Frazier Wheel works, organized and established by Enoch Anderson, Cyrus W. Frazier and J. N. Anderson in 1881, built and occupied quite extensive factories situated on the north side of the Big Four tracks, from Miami avenue on the east to Main avenue on the west. They manufactured wheels and wheel parts, and did a large and successful business for about eleven or twelve years, finally selling out, in 1893, to the American Wheel company, an outside trust, under whose ownership, during the nineties, the entire plant was destroyed by fire, and its affairs wound up by a receiver. In the meantime, upon the dissolution of the Anderson- Frazier partnership in 1893, after the sale, J. N. Anderson purchased the Maxwell mill property, and erecting extensive additions, estab- lished in it the Anderson Wheel works, which flourished for ten years, or until the early part of 1904, when, his health beginning to fail, he sold out the machinery plant of the wheel works to the Wheel Makers' association, a sociable trust, who removed it, leaving the buildings vacant. Mr. Anderson died soon after.
After the burning of the American Wheel company's plant at the old Anderson-Frazier site, William Bimel, son of Lorenzo Bimel, came to Sidney from St. Marys, Ohio, and in 1897, under the patron- age of the city of Sidney (through the well-known $100,000 bond issue), erected new buildings on the Miami avenue corner, and transferred the Bimel buggy business from St. Marys to this city. It was an error, as could be seen within a few years. The automo- bile was surely and rapidly crowding carriage manufacture from the platform of profitable industries, and in 1904 the crash came. The Bimel Buggy works and the German-American bank went down the same year. The fine new factory was empty, and also the re- modeled Maxwell mill. The Mutual Manufacturing company took over the latter buildings and undertook the manufacture of carriage bodies only, but, being unable to compete with the automobile trade, declined and closed out before long. The Sidney Manufacturing company, a combination of some of the keenest financial heads of Sidney, then assumed in 1907, the responsibility of putting thor- oughly practical and up-to-date industries into these valuable build- ings; and the enlarged old Maxwell mill, its original tall gable still perfectly recognizable, is now the home of an auto body works, in which all styles of auto bodies are manufactured in the white, for manufacturers' trade, to order. The works are running to capacity
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all the time. Metal seat forms, oil pans, and gear guards for lathes, and other details, are also manufactured in the foundry. The per- sonnel of the company, as incorporated in 1907, is I. H. Thedieck, president ; L. M. Studevant, vice-president ; A. A. Gerlach, secretary and treasurer ; directors, P. P. Dyke, Herbert Sheets, E. J. Griffis, and A. J. Hess. W. C. Horr is retained as manager.
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