USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 62
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Aluminum cooking ware was beginning to attract public atten- tion and to create a demand for lighter, yet durable utensils, free from the patent objections to enameled ware. Owing to the cost of the metal, the aluminum ware then on the market was too light -even when not actually flimsy-to be durable, and being short- lived was both expensive and not practical. The Wagner firm undertook a radical improvement in aluminum ware as they had in cast iron ware, and braved the market with a line of seamless cast aluminum ware (not pressed nor "spun") of sufficient weight to bear the hardest, long-continued service required of any utensil in
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domestic or farm uses. The ware is necessarily rather expensive to begin with, but its reliability and worth are synonymous with economy of the greatest degree, and the Wagner cast aluminum ware is now known and used all over the world, wherever people are to be found who appreciate the best. Incidentally it carries with it everywhere the name of Sidney, Ohio. Wagner ware has won distinguished honor medals in every great exposition held since it was first manufactured, at Chicago, Nashville, Paris, Buffalo, St. Louis, and San Francisco, where it captured the Grand Prize, acknowledging it to be the finest aluminum ware on the world's market.
The former cast iron ware is still a large part of the output of the company, and there is and will always be, a steady demand for this line. In addition, cast articles of various uses, for lard and sausage making on the farm and small packing establishments; steam-table ware; mortars for chemists ; grates for furnaces ; cellar windows, ditches, and sewers, and ventilators; feed troughs, tampers, rubbish burners, gutter bridges, hitching posts and bob sled runners; and smaller building hardware. In aluminum ware, nothing ever used or desired in the culinary art but can be found in the catalogue. The daintiest kitchenette and the heaviest hotel ware have been given the same attention. The designs have been most carefully worked out to obtain artistic results, while sacrificing no whit of the practical value of the article. Wherever strength is needed it will be found, and where lightness is compatible with strength and durability, the most desirable degree of lightness has been attained. The process of aluminum casting is, of course, pro- prietary, and the outsider may see only the mechanical parts of the work, which are open to inspection and make a visit to the plant well worth while.
A trade journal is published from time to time, setting forth the ideals and progress of the concern and its wares. The little book is called the "Griddle," is edited by L. Cable Wagner, and does credit to the establishment.
The Wagner brothers, William H., Milton, Bernard P. and Louis Wagner, are the sons of Mathias Wagner, from Alsace. France, who came to Sidney as a canal laborer, and staved to become a landholder and pioneer merchant of the town, and one of its most solid and respected citizens. He married Miss Mary Rauth, and their family of eight surviving children are and have been in every way worthy of their parents. Much of the Wagner success may be attributed to the remarkable unity of the family group, harmony and co-operation marking every undertaking.
The hollow ware business was first organized as a partnership, Milton M. and Bernard P. Wagner composing the firm. W. H. Wagner entered the firm in 1893, and Louis Wagner, the youngest of the four, was admitted soon after, when the business was incor- porated as the Wagner Manufacturing company, now organized as follows: W. H. Wagner, president; B. P. Wagner, vice-presi- dent ; M. M. Wagner, treasurer; Louis R. Wagner, secretary and sales manager; Cable Wagner, assistant sales-manager. R. O. Bingham, who has been with the company from the outset, is still
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active in the capacity of superintendent, an honored and trusted associate of the business. Salesmen who have been with the com pany from fifteen to twenty-eight years are W. F. Mellen, of Oak Park, Illinois ; J. M. Harvey of Baltimore, Maryland ; E. W. Laugh- lin of Sidney, Ohio; and W. S. McCune of Los Angeles, California. Including Mr. Bingham, employees who have served the company faithfully for its entire period to date are, F. J. McDowell, C. M. Bush, R. F. Boyer, J. E. Fitzgerald, H. Wehlege, J. Rickert, J. C. Corbin, and D. H. Wilmore, each of whom has become the friend and intimate of the firm. When the Wagner company says "we," it means all these valued employees.
The entire Wagner plant is not surpassed in Sidney for efficient equipment and conservation in management, beside being replete with interest in every department, from foundry to finishing rooms. The surroundings of the works also have received attention and present the most attractive aspect of any factory in the city.
About 1894, at the site of Sidney Machine Tool company's buildings, which now front on three streets, West North, Carey and Highland avenue, the firm of Sebastian & May established a manufacturing business along the same lines, and built the first of the factory structures now in use there. The site was given by the city of Sidney, as were several factory sites about the same time, for the encouragement of new industries. The concern was not notably prosperous, and Mr. May and-later-Mr. Sebastian, were bought out by Allen P. Wagner. Mr. Wagner became involved in dispute regarding patents and brought suit against his superintend- ent, who, however, was exonerated by the court, after which Mr. Wagner closed the plant and transferred the machinery to Detroit, Michigan, where the manufacture was continued, but under financial difficulties which finally closed it. In 1909, Mr. I. H. Thedieck pur- chased the plant and brought it back to Sidney, setting it up with enlarged and improved capacities in a new and very modern factory on Oak avenue.
In the meantime, however, the factory of the defunct Sebastian- May firm invited the attention of prospective manufacturers, among them Mr. A. C. Getz, who was a sojourner in Sidney for some time, without succeeding in getting serious attention. Mr. Getz then left Sidney for a time, and made a good start in Defiance, Ohio, returning in 1904 with a little capital of "success"; and with this running start "The Sidney Machine Tool company" took over the old Sebastian- May site and began a business that has become one of the most important in Sidney. Drills and blacksmiths' forges were the first lines of output, to which have been added various wood-working machines, saws of all descriptions and uses, engine lathes, gauges, vises, bevel and mortising machines, planes and borers, et cetera. A special achievement of the factory is the production of the "Uni- versal" wood worker, Mr. Getz' invention, a machine which com- bines five to sixteen machines, by supplementary equipment, and at which five men may work at one time without interference, if desirable. This machine is invaluable in the small woodworking factory, where there is not room to accommodate several individual power-driven machines. The machine tools, of course, mean those
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which are to be power-driven, and the company uses saws, bits, and other details from the Toledo Saw and Supply company, the Forest City Bit and Tool company, and others of the highest grade, in the setting up of their machines. The "Universal" has had an enor- mous sale, and the manufacture of engine lathes has been equally heavy, government orders for this line demanding about ninety per cent of the company's capacity during the war. The plant and buildings have been repeatedly enlarged, and at present extensive additions are being completed. Beginning with about seven work- men in 1905, two hundred men now answer the roll call, while the annual business of the past few years is not far below a million dollars.
The company as organized at present is: Mr. I. H. Thedieck, president ; Mr. E. H. Griffis, vice-president; Mr. A. C. Getz, secre- tary, treasurer and manager. Clarence Brown is superintendent. The incorporation was effected June, 1904.
When Mr. Getz is not busy at the works, he is resting his mind in agricultural pursuits, specializing in the culture of aristocratic breeds of hogs, which he is having trained to habits of refinement which will eliminate the tendency to vocalization and entirely root out the propensity to wallow. The animals are fed on fresh whole milk and clean grains, shampooed and manicured every morning, and so serene are they that the casual visitor to the Getz country home is obliged to ask the way to the pens. All this has nothing to do with the fact that bacon is 75 cents per pound, as none of Mr. Getz' herd has yet been taken to market. The aim is purely scientific.
The Monarch Manufacturing company, as the re-organized Sebastian-May company was named in the transformation, was transplanted from Detroit to its native soil in Sidney in 1909, where it began after 1910 to thrive phenomenally, the wartime activity causing the most unprecedented growth, in order to fill the govern- ment orders for engine lathes, until it claims-with figures to prove -to be the largest engine lathe manufactory in the world at the present date. Two thousand three hundred and fifty lathes were shipped in 1917, and a still larger number in 1918, being used by munition manufacturers, gun makers and air-plane builders. It is said that the company paid 600 per cent on investments during 1918. The equipment of the plant is of the most complete character, both for work and as to working conditions, safety of employees, and general efficiency. Both the Monarch and the Sidney Machine Tool companies operate on the same system with regard to employees, a graduated rate of bonus being paid to the workmen, in addition to their wages.
The company incorporated in 1909, with Mr. I. H. Thedieck. president, and Mr. W. E. Whipp, manager. The directors are I. H. Thedieck, L. M. Studevant, W. H. Wagner, A. J. Hess and E. J. Griffis.
About 1905, William Harmony and Frank Lucas established what was known as the Standard Clutch company, building for their concern a part of the structure now included in the Peerless Bread Machine plant. At first a general repair shop, they added
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a foundry and manufactured the clutch for some time, but closed out about 1912, at which time the building and plant were taken over by E. J. Griffis and W. E. Wenger, who continued the repair shop until October, when the whole was converted to the manu- facture of the Peerless bread machines, a series of machines of practical excellence unequalled in their line, and all of them invented and patented by F. X. Lauterbur, a young man born and educated in Sidney.
These machines, intended for the use of manufacturing bakers, include the Peerless dough mixer, the Peerless loaf moulder, the Peerless double-armed cake creamer and icing beater, and the rotary proofing tablets. The Peerless Bread Machine company was formed and incorporated in January, 1913, with the following personnel : E. J. Griffis, president; William Piper, vice-president; F. X. Lau- terbur, secretary, treasurer and manager; directors, E. T. Custen- border, Jennie E. Custenborder, D. F. Mills, Leo B. Lauterbur, and Mary M. Lauterbur. The plant is operated to the utmost capacity, and an addition which doubles the size of the floor space is being rushed to completion, and the factory will then accommodate, in all, three hundred workmen. The site is at the corner of East avenue and Clinton street, and covers all that was left of the locality once included in "Maxwell's mill pond," the west half having been built up years ago. The "Peerless" will have the newest manufactory in Sidney.
The Bimel building has been occupied since July, 1917, by a new, "all Sidney" company, who bought the premises, and have established a plant for the manufacture of power presses, for use in sheet-metal working plants, one of the newest departures in Sidney industries, and well illustrates the facility with which the little city has learned to snatch victory from defeat. The business, still young, employs but thirty-five workmen, but its output is increasing steadily, and at a safe gait. The company incorporated two years ago, with the following personnel: W. E. Whipp, president; W. C. Horr, vice-president and secretary; P. C. Pocock, treasurer and general manager ; is known as "The Sidney Power Press company."
Opposite the Mull Wood Work plant, on the east side of Miami avenue, is the building (once a part of the Anderson-Frazier com- pany's property) of the Eclipse Folding Machine company, which was formed in 1884, by A. T. Bascom and L. M. Studevant.
Mr. Bascom came to Sidney from Bellefontaine, where, in the office of the Bellefontaine Republican, the suggestion of an inexpen- sive but practical newspaper folder for use in the small town office, had come from Mr. J. Q. A. Campbell, the editor and proprietor of the paper. The inventor had the necessary mechanical genius, not possessed by the editor, to develop an idea, and Mr. Campbell financed Mr. Bascom for several months while the machine was perfected for patenting. This partnership was broken by Mr. Camp- bell purchasing the few machines already made, and Mr. Bascom located in Sidney, where, with Mr. Studevant's assistance, the ma- chine was put on the market successfully, apparatus of this nature finding a ready market with small publishers. About 1887 Mr. Bascom's interest was purchased by John W. Skillen and the manu-
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facture has continued quite steadily ever since, improvements being patented from time to time. Mr. Skillen sold out to Mr. Studevant in 1906 and retired from business, and the concern then became incorporated as a stock company, with a capital of $50,000. Since 1912, W. C. Horr has been secretary and general manager of the business. The Eclipse folders are widely known and extensively used. It is rather remarkable that of five folding machine factories in the United States, Sidney should possess more than one, but such is the case.
About 1897-8, in a small building at the rear of a lot on South Main avenue, George Mentges began the manufacture of the Mentges newspaper and job folding machines. The patents were inclusive not only of newspaper folders, but of folders designed for small work, papers, letters and circulars of all sizes, and adjustable to different foldings. These have been improved and elaborated until the last word seems to have been said, in the way of adjusta- bility and application of power. The business of the little establish- ment increased so that in 1905 it became necessary to build larger quarters, and a substantial and practical factory was erected and the plant installed at the corner of Oak and Poplar streets, on the elevated tracts beyond the railroads. Here the company, which owns all of the patents manufactured in the establishment, employ about eighteen to twenty highly skilled workmen in one of Sidney's most distinguished, though not largest enterprises. Originally George Mentges was sole owner of the works, which gradually be- came a partnership concern, and in February, 1919, was incorpo- rated as a stock company with the four Mentges brothers and William Blake as the incorporators. The personnel of the company is George Mentges, president; Fred Mentges, vice-president ; John Mentges, manager; William Blake, secretary and treasurer, and Jacob Mentges. The Mentges brothers first gained experience in the Eclipse factory.
The product of the Mentges plant is sent all over the world and orders are now awaiting only the re-opening of traffic, which will occupy the full capacity of the works for months ahead.
A third and even a fourth company once attempted to compete in Sidney, with the manufactories just described, but were of short duration.
The Steel Scraper was introduced to the manufacturing world by Shelby county. A Shelby county boy, Benjamin Slusser, invented and first manufactured a steel road scraper in America.
Benjamin was born June 28, 1828, a few miles north of Sidney, on the farm of his parents, who were the fifteenth pioneer couple to brave the wilds of Shelby county as settlers. This lad, who worked on the home farm until he was sixteen years of age, was the genius who really put Sidney on the industrial map of the world. His education consisted of the training then to be had in the country schools, supplemented with five years of work and study in Phila- delphia and other eastern cities, where he learned the principles of applied mechanics. Returning to Sidney at the age of twenty-one, he began his life work as an inventor and manufacturer. His first practical invention was a self-loading excavator, combining the
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work of plow and carrier, and unloading, automatically, at the turn of the beam. This machine came into favor at once and was ex- tensively used in the road improvements of the Mormon settlements of Utah* and also in the building of the Mississippi river levees.
Financial ability, unfortunately, was not included in Benjamin Slusser's array of talent, and this line of manufacture proved un- profitable, to the extent that Mr. Slusser became involved in con- tracts which he could not fulfill, and was obliged to abandon the manufacture of the excavator, personally. The idea of a road- scraper made from sheet steel had by this time definitely shaped itself in his brain, and he devoted himself to its development, pat- ented it, and began its manufacture in Cincinnati, but after a few months established the American Steel Scraper works in Sidney, in 1876.
Mr. Slusser had for a partner Mr. W. S. Magill, and the business was established in the frame building then standing along the rail- road track, east of the Maxwell mill, power for the machinery being obtained from the mill weir. Immediate success followed the ven- ture. Two or three years later, Mr. W. H. C. Goode came to Sidney and purchased Mr. Magill's interest in the works, and by 1880 had become the sole owner of the works and title, while Mr. Slusser, who retained the rights of his patents, formed a new partnership with William Taylor McLean. Slusser & McLean built a fine large brick and stone factory on the north side of the canal at the foot of Shelby street, which was the largest scraper works in America at that date. The main factory is 107 feet long by forty-two wide, with large blacksmith shop, emery wheelhouse and ample fuel and storage sheds.
While the original Slusser steel scraper has been the basis of manufacture, the factory output is kept up to the hour in improve- ments, and every development in the scraper line has been met by the Slusser-McLean company. Wheelbarrows are the one excep- tion to the usual lines of scraper output, the Slusser-McLean people never having given any attention to this department, which would involve enlargement for which the site does not offer space or other advantage. A unique feature of the works is that it still uses water power obtained from the canal by means of an intake which con- ducts the water directly, with a fall of about ten feet, to the pen- stocks of two large turbines, the waste being carried underground to Tilbury run, which at this point passes under the canal, emerging on the farther side to rush noisily down to the Miami. This water power has never failed, but auxiliary engines are kept in readiness for emergency. No other firm in Sidney now uses water power. W. T. McLean, the surviving partner of the old firm, is a grandson of Gen. Taylor, pioneer citizen, and a son-in-law of Benjamin Slusser, the inventor. Mr. McLean received his first lessons in steel in the O. J. Taylor hardware store, but did not immediately devote himself to that line. For some years previous to 1884 he was actively connected with the manufacture and sale of crackers, for the Forest City Cracker company of Cleveland, but eventually
* Brigham Young was a heavy purchaser.
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returned permanently to his native town, and became the needful complement to Benjamin Slusser's inventive genius, and business manager of the Slusser-McLean Works. Mr. McLean has also been many years a member of the state board of public works, a holder of high offices in the Masonic order, both local and in the grand council of Ohio.
Mr. Slusser died quite suddenly in 1899, since which the partner- ship has been the Slusser estate and W. T. McLean. Taylor T. Mc- Lean, youngest son of the house, is assistant manager of the works. A policy of absolute business integrity and frankness, coupled with the live and let live principle has characterized the firm and its out- put, always, and the institution is a substantial factor in Sidney's business prosperity.
The American Steel Scraper Works, finding the old quarters growing too tight for its increasing proportions, erected a large plant west of the B. & O. tracks, at the corner of Court street and, Wilkinson avenue, moving into it shortly after the Slusser-McLean factory was occupied. Mr. W. H. C. Goode remained the sole owner for several years, Mr. W. E. Kilborn, of the Citizen's bank entering the firm about 1886, as a partner and manager of the mammoth plant. The success of the establishment has been scarcely paralleled in Sidney, and the products go all over the world wherever con- struction work is being carried on. Some years ago the partnership of Kilborn and Goode was incorporated as the American Steel Scraper company and so remains without change of personnel, although Mr. Kilborn has retired from active participation in the business, as manager of the works. Mr. C. E. Betts is the present manager.
The Sidney Steel Scraper company was founded in 1880, by William Haslup, son of G. G. Haslup, and J. H. Doering. It was conducted as a partnership until 1892, when it became incorporated, with William Haslup, president; J. D. Barnes, secretary, and Wil- liam A. Perry, sales-manager. At Mr. Haslup's death Mr. Perry became president and general manager of the company, Mr. B. D. Heck being office and sales-manager; and George Dan Toy, grand- son of the pioneer steel plow maker, its superintendent. The busi- ness, which began very modestly in a small shop near the Sidney Manufacturing company of today, soon burst its bounds and erected a factory on the north side of Poplar street, between the Big Four railroad tracks and West avenue, where it has continued its phenom- enal expansion until there is not another foot of space to be had without removing to some other site.
The lines of manufacture include several distinct patterns of road scraper as the leader, while a large wheelbarrow department is another feature, and the department of wood-working employs expert attention. The plant being typical of all, and, indeed, having somewhat outgrown them in size, a brief exposition of its features will serve to elucidate the work of the entire group.
Wheelbarrow bodies are made of metal (in this case sheet iron) in one or more shapes, the sheets being stamped in great power presses, and turned out with amazing rapidity. Clipping and edging and riveting-each process has its special machinery which works
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like magic, to the lay eye. Rolled sheet steel from the rolling mills further south in the Miami valley, is the basis of scraper manufac- ture, machines of a "guillotine" description clipping the sheets into the desired shapes for the different scrapers as neatly and as pre- cisely as a cooky cutter in a bakery. Patterns are so designed and the steel sheets so dimensioned as to leave fragments from which auxiliary parts can be cut. The residue consists of mere slivers of steel, which are returned to the smelters, and the whole process is conducted upon a most efficient plan of economical practice. The heaviest road scraper, known as the "wheeler" requires the strong- est wooden running gear possible, and some wood is used in a num- ber of the machines manufactured. The lightest scraper manufac- tured is the "Mormon" (so called because designed especially for the Utah trade), a hand scraper consisting of a narrow, strong blade of steel, and the rest of the implement of wood, with a few metal braces.
The power used in the Sidney company's plant is generated by natural gas or oil engines, and electric current,-the latter especially in the heavier riveting work. A gentle air pressure of thirty tons to the unit is utilized in the lighter riveting, and has the advantage of being less deafening to the operator-or spectator-although equally apt to produce a blood blister if put to test.
The woodworking department covers the entire manufacture of the wheels required for the heavy road scrapers ; shafts, seats and running gear; plow beams (for the Toy Plow Works), handles, et cetera-every wooden part used in any of the various machines manufactured except a certain very heavy handle for which the wood cannot be obtained here, nor the machinery accommodated. The paint and stencil department is complete and separate.
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