USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 63
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82
During the war the scrapers, large and small, were in great de- mand by the government, being used in the preparation of all the immense aviation fields and the cantonments, as high as 100 heavy "wheelers" being produced in a week, when needed, and 250 of the "regular" pattern ; while the strong iron wheelbarrows made a large percentage of the cargo of every vessel of the emergency fleet. This plant which, like all of Sidney's industries, was patriotically placed at the disposal of the government for the duration of the war, was, at the signing of the armistice, making rapid strides toward conversion to the manufacture of chassis for army kitchens. The sudden turn of affairs made this work, so far as carried forward, a total loss, but it has now recovered normal poise, and will, with the natural revival of road building and bettering, continue its usual progress. The normal yearly business is not far from a half million dollars. The Sidney Steel Scraper company has a notable record for honorable treatment of its customers large and small, experienced or other- wise. Its trade reaches to all parts of the world although the great west of America is normally its most constant market.
The Sidney Production company, which operated for some time in a vacant factory building near the Sidney Scraper Works, was purely a war industry, and while syndicated chiefly from stock- holders in.the Sidney Steel Scraper company, it was in no other way connected with it. It was established for the specific pur-
481
THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
pose of sub-contracting under the Dayton Products company in the manufacture of shells, the process undertaken at the local plant be- ing the "roughing" of the shell castings, reducing the weight from twenty pounds each to ten pounds each, ready for the finishers. The Sidney plant was one of four, located respectively at Dayton, Spring- field, Greenville and Sidney, and the first work was on contracts made by the Dayton company with Russia, later being taken over by the United States government. The industry, of course, came to an end with the signing of the armistice. It is proper to say that while small attention was paid to any phase of this war work except to further the single purpose of rapid construction, patriotic service being held paramount, Sidney interests have no reason to regret this syndicate, nor any of the war specialties that were manufac- tured in any of the city's plants, for the local investors reaped what they considered a full reward for their service,-which is a tribute to their loyalty as well as to their efficiency.
Confectioners. Among the rugged industries for which Sidney is noted, it is a little like turning the leaf of a very plain book to find a gay picture on the other side, to realize that by turning "right about, face" from a great steel scraper works on Court street one's vision is confronted by a five-storey brick building erected for no other purpose than the manufacture of dainty confections to tempt the palate.
Mr. C. F. Hickok, in 1895, was in the retail confectionery busi- ness, at the well known northwest corner of the public square. About this time he made some experiments in a small way, and being satisfied with the results, the entire third floor and half of the second floor of the building were leased, and a plant installed for the manufacture of fine confectionery. The dainty excellence of the products created an immediate market, and the industry grew so fast that it was necessary in 1900 to erect the five-story model factory on Poplar street to meet the demands. Here, with fifty thousand square feet of floor space, there is not an inch to spare, and the employees have increased from a dozen to a hundred hands.
The Hickok factory is not confined to one variety or line of confections, but carries on a general manufacturing business cover- ing everything in the confectionery category. The top floor is devoted to storage of boxes, fancy and plain, also the larger pack- ages, pails and containers. Coming down to the third floor, the steam cooking kettles, creamers, and marshmallow beaters are en- countered, the moulding frames and dusting contrivances, and the conveyors which transport the cream centers to the enrobers, for the chocalate coating. The cooling room and packing department are also on this floor, and a fan suction ventilating system by which the whole building is kept supplied with fresh air.
The hard candy department is on the second floor. Caramels, wrapped and chocolate coated butter scotch "chips," stick-a most fascinating department !- and broken "Kiddy Mixed," all are fash- ioned in the different rooms. On the first floor are the stock and shipping rooms and the offices. In the basement, which is mostly above ground, is the refrigerating machinery, the artesian well, the machines for roasting and blanching peanuts, and a department
482
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
where the sugar, syrups, et cetera, are stored. Everywhere is im- maculate cleanliness, dainty sights and odors greeting the senses in all the departments.
. The Hickok factory did not enlarge to compete for government orders during the war, as it was already working about to capacity, but it did give government orders the preference, and tons upon tons of Hickok candies went to the boys in khaki.
The signal success of the Hickok plant brought out the sin- cerest of compliments, that of following its example and doing likewise.
The Cherry Cheer company began its career in the basement of the Wilson Carothers home on Walnut avenue, when the two elder sons of the house began the manufacture of the now well- known syrup, in 1907. Cherry Cheer was and is a syrup for soda fountain use, employed not only in soda water, but as "dopes" for ice-cream and sundaes ; also for use in punches.
The success was immediate, and the name "Cherry Cheer" was adopted as a trade mark, to cover not only other soda fountain syrups, but the manufacture of various lines of confectionery. After one year, the infant business was obliged to move to larger quarters, and rented the vacant original building of the Sidney Elevator com- pany, near the Given tannery. This year saw the incorporation of the business into a stock concern,-in which the father, Wilson Carothers, and the remaining brothers, with a few preferred stock- holders, became interested,-and the business was again enlarged.
A new building was erected in the fall of 1908, and the manufac- ture of the syrups was carried on there until September, 1916, when the vacant Underwood Whip company buildings were purchased, and new plants installed for the wholesale manufacture of fine chocolates.
The new situation, which furnishes splendid facilities, is at the corner of Highland avenue and North street. The buildings are so well windowed from all exposures that it is aptly styled "the day- light plant." There is ample space for enlargement of the building when that becomes necessary, and the immense tank for supplying the fire sprinkler system is erected upon part of the grounds, yet another part of which is fenced out for the use of the neighborhood children as a playground.
A trip through the factory today shows the visitor every step of the processes from the store or stock rooms where the sugar, emollients, chocolate, flavors and colorings are stored, and the mach- inery and conduits by which they are fed into the mixers, boilers, beaters, moulders and coolers, carried to the enrobers and the re- frigerating department, thence to the tables and racks where the fancy work is done on the highest priced dainties, some of which are double-dipped. A specialty of the plant is chocolate pieces .- the six-cent and penny dainties (Teddy Bears) so popular with children -- the same fine grade of chocolate being used in these as in the varieties designed for society use. When the question of cost inter- venes, size, not quality, is reduced. American soldiers at home and in Europe, and even in Siberia, became well acquainted with Cherry Cheer candies.
483
THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
A very interesting department is the box room, where all the paper packing boxes are made, machinery of the most approved effi- ciency being used in the processes, which are completed by the manipulation of remarkably few pairs of very clever hands.
The Cherry Cheer syrups are manufactured quite apart from the confectionery, and the machinery is a unique combination of mixer, cooker, and cooler, into which the carefully chosen materials are introduced from a private room above, and in case of necessity can be converted by magically_rapid action into Cherry Cheer syrup at the rate of five hundred gallons, or more, every thirty minutes. A 5,000 gallon tank is kept filled in reserve. All the water used in the plant is drawn from a deep driven well, and distilled before using, insuring absolute purity.
As at present organized the company is Wilson Carothers, president ; W. R. and J. C. Carothers, managers ; Paul A. Carothers, with the plant, and Frank K. Carothers, a director, the preferred stockholders, who are guaranteed 7 per cent interest on stock, an- nually, being silent.
The Venus Chocolate company is connected with the Olympia Candy Kitchen, which was opened in 1910. The first factory build- ing of the Venus company was erected on North Main street, op- posite the present large building, in 1913. In April 1918, the new building was purchased from the receiver of the Given & Son tan- nery, and with new equipment of double the former productive capacity, the business was transferred to its present site. Plans for still further enlargement are on foot, which will accommodate new machinery that is expected to eliminate at least fifty per cent of the hand labor now necessary, and permit a great increase in output.
Chocolates of every description are manufactured here, and no other candy it attempted. The method and conduct of the estab- lishment are impeccable. White-capped girls chaperoned by ex- perienced women execute the necessary touches daintily with flying fingers, and the most immaculate cleanliness is evident everywhere, both as to quarters, equipment and handling.
About two tons daily is the output of chocolates at present (1919), and the market extends over four states.
The Venus Chocolate company is only partly Sidney capital, the president being Koste Vlahos of Springfield. Stanley Bryan is secretary and manager.
The Purity Candy Kitchen, which has its retail store in the old building at the corner of Ohio and Poplar streets, where the Hickok company began, is fourth in the field of candy manufacturers. The proprietor, Evans Johnson, a naturalized Greek, has a factory in process of erection, in the rear of his own residence on West Ohio avenue, where the Purity candies will soon be made. At present the manufacture is carried on in the sixth story of the Oldham utilities building on Poplar street, which is too cramped to permit of enlargement, but where, in spite of small quarters, a very dainty line of confectionery is manufactured for the supply of the three stores, in as many neighboring cities, maintained by the Purity company.
Latest born of all the group of confectionery plants, is the Sid-
484
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
ney Candy company, its organization and incorporation dating only from January 1919. It is however, quite able to stand alone already, being strongly constituted, with men of experience and ability to guard its growth. The vacant building on North Main avenue left by the Venus Chocolate company, is the present situation, and while a tremendous demand for fine marshmallows is now occupying the attention of the force, it is the intention eventually to include the entire gamut of confectionery manufacture. The trade mark adopted, "Si-Ca-Co," embodies this idea, as does the name "Sidney Candy company, manufacturing confectioners." E. W. Farrell, formerly prominent in the Cherry Cheer company, is president and manager, and E. A. Shea is secretary and treasurer.
A word that may be said of every one of Sidney's manufactur- ing confectioners is that the materials they use are of the highest grade obtainable, nothing but the cleanest and finest of sugars, the purest of flavors, and the most expensive grade of chocolate and every other ingredient special or ordinary, goes into the candy which Sidney sends out to the world's trade.
The Cigar Industry. The first factory dates back in 1870, nearly fifty years ago, when Herman Tappè, sr., came to the village from Cincinnati, setting up his small establishment and store on Main avenue north of the public square, drifting about the same neighbor- hood according to the change in advantages, the latest situation be- ing in the rear of the Cummins block, of which the Citizens' bank occupied the first floor front, and the Tappè family made a home in one of the housekeeping apartments on the second floor. When the building was about to be replaced with the new bank block, it was vacated, and the Tappè factory, which though small had en- joyed a popular vogue among smokers, was removed to a small place on South Ohio avenue, but was never actively in business again, owing to the failing health of the manufacturer, and to his pre-occupation with his musical activities as leader of the famous "Tappè's Band," an organization which gave to Sidney a high class of band music, which has scarcely been equaled since that day. "Music by Tappè's Band" was the climactic item on any public program of the time, and had Mr. Tappè's industry and health been equal to his personal popularity, and his real ability as a musician, more might be written here. He died, leaving Mrs. Tappè to a struggle with circumstance fit to have vanquished a mother less brave. Their group of talented children have, however, done much to perpetuate the name of Tappè, and to add lustre to it, as well.
The cigar industry today is represented in Sidney by the local branch of the Deisel-Wemmer company, which operates in the third and fourth floors of the Woodward building, on the west side of the public square. Over two hundred employees figure on a pay roll which totals about $2700 per week. The working condi- tions in the local branch are above the average, the building being one of the best in the business district. The A. W. Knauer cigar factory is another quite extensive business, located in the building of the Standard Printing company.
Brewing. Tradition has a way of reading into history much that does not otherwise appear. There are persons many miles
485
THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
removed from the Miami valley, who have not looked across its smil- ing slopes and winding streams for many a year, who cherish a hazy memory of a river lined with breweries in the days of old. Far be it from the historian to discredit tradition. It is often valuable, if for no other purpose than to call attention to its errors while the opportunity is still open. Doubtless, there were small private es- tablishments in very early times, just as there were stills and gin mills that never were recorded in the town annals, but that these were exaggerated, both as to number and extent, there is no ques- tion. Since 1850 there has been no brewing business done in Sidney except that of the Wagner brewery.
The original plant of the brewery was erected in 1850 by Joseph Wagner. John Wagner, who subsequently became owner, first leased this property from his brother Joseph, in 1859, at which time a Mr. Peck was a partner. Mr. Peck remained a partner for some time. His interest was eventually bought out by Peter Wag- ner, another brother, John and Peter Wagner remaining partners until 1876, when they divided their joint property, Peter choosing the farm west of the city, and John becoming sole owner of the brewery. The brewery as it stands today, is entirely rebuilt from the original, and is a thoroughly up to date plant and in the best of condition. Recent state and national legislation has brought the manufacture of beer to an end, the brewing really ceasing some months before. The brewery always had a high reputation for strict business integrity, and honesty of product. Following the example set by many other manufactories of its class, the plant has been converted to the production of a "soft drink," and will here- after be known as "The Wagner Beverage company." John Wag- ner, a genial and benevolent personality, died in 1881. The prop- erty, undivided, is owned by eight surviving heirs. The Wagner beer was sold by the company or its agents exclusively in Sidney and Clinton township, a fact which contributed to the unanimity of quiet extinction when the end of the saloon era came in May, 1919. Contrary to expectation, the occasion was marked by no wild orgies nor disorder, many of the saloons closing long before the hour set; and if there was any difference between this and other Saturday nights, it consisted of a notable quietness on the streets of the business district.
Miscellaneous. Yenney and Piper established the business af- terward known for many years as the "Yenney Pork House," about 1865. The main building was forty by sixty feet in dimensions, and auxiliary building and sheds augmented the floor space considerably. The Yenney plant utilized the mill pond, which lay directly north of it, and twenty-four hundred hogs were slaughtered annually at the shambles. After the abolishment of slaughter houses within the city limits, the packing business was discontinued, and Mr. Yenney opened a broom factory in the building.
Donaldson and Bole bought out the broom business, but after several years this industry also closed, and the building was sold to the Citizens' Ice company (Oldham Bennett & Co.), who converted it to the storage of ice, as an auxiliary to their artificial ice plant, which stands immediately west. The old Yenney build-
486
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
ing stands adjacent to the Big Four railroad tracks, and west of the Sidney Manufacturing company, East avenue leading between the two buildings.
O. B. Blake also conducted a slaughter house which formerly stood on the edge of the Miami river at the foot of Poplar street, where all the beef sold in Sidney was once prepared for market. Mr. Blake, who still lives in Sidney, quite hale and hearty at eighty- seven years of age, also kept one of the pioneer meat markets, the little building being torn away to make room for the O. J. Taylor building at the corner of North Main and Poplar streets.
The once famous "Mary L." poultry plant in East Sidney now does duty almost equally well for a packing house, at which nearly 4,000 hogs and fully 1,200 head of cattle are slaughtered annually, and where all kinds of sausages are made and refrigerated and bacon .and hams cured, by the Bennett-Bulle Packing company.
The Sidney Knitting Mills company was incorporated May 24, 1918, with a capital stock of $100,000.00, over half of which is owned in Sidney. The board of directors includes Messrs. I. H. Thedieck, George Benkert, J. F. Phillipi, C. F. Peffer, D. E. Liddy, M. M. Wagner, and Andrew J. Hess, organized as follows: I. H. Thedieck, president; George Benkert, vice-president; C. F. Peffer, secretary, treasurer and general manager ; D. E. Liddy, superintend- ent. The company took the building on Poplar street vacated by the postoffice, and installed plant and offices for permanent oc- cupancy. Business has been good and is growing, and employment for a large number of women and girls is furnished in the machine department, besides the office and motor department force.
The manufacture of lime from the deposits of limestone south of Sidney, has been engaged in in past days to a considerable extent. The W. A. Hall company, started about 1869, was in operation for many years following, and has been succeeded by others of less per- manent character. The Shelby county deposit is said to be pro- ductive of excellent lime, but difficult to reduce, and the cement in- dustry has taken the place of lime production for the past several years. The Sidney Cement Stone company, situated on Wilkin- son avenue, at the west side of the city, is the larger of the local cement works, and is the present successor of a lime industry of former days.
Wagner Park Conservatories. Quoting from Country Life, February, 1909, we read: "A private park that is a public benefit. Wagner park, free to the people of Sidney." It was a sign that stood hospitably at the wide open gateway to the private park of B. P. Wagner of Sidney, Ohio, ten years ago, and for some time after, and is still unforgoten, although many of the beauties and advan- tages the public of Sidney were invited to enjoy have been de- stroyed since then by the idle hands of Sidney's thoughtless and un- appreciative youth. However, the drive still winds inward from the suburban road now known as Park street, "inviting the way- farer to leave the glaring open and traverse the sun-flecked shadows of its winding length," and the oaks, maples, elms and beeches cast deeper shadows year by year. If the artificial fairyland of the island of "Nippon" has been wrecked by careless boys, the tiny lakelet and
487
THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
its tiny island are attractive enough in their wild state, and every- where open vistas of beauty that seem planted by the casual hand of nature rather than by the subtlety of landscape art. Indeed the observer would not be mistaken in thinking most of the effect a mere development of nature. Nowhere has any violence been done to the native contour of the park, but the suggestion for each step of the development has been drawn from the land itself. The low spot with a tendency to become marsh, is a sunken garden. Lilies of the valley revel in a little nook just out of sight from the drive, where they seem to have grown wild. One knows they are there from the delicious scent that is wafted through the shrubbery. A wayward little brook creeps through the park, winding so as to con- front the rambler oftener than one brook is naturally expected to do; and here and there, as if in some tropic land, a clump of rare iris drinks the water at its brink. Only in the arboretum is the ar- rangement of anything growing strictly formal. Even among tree culture, the formal idea of a nursery is avoided as much as pos- sible. Rare varieties of landscape flowers are planted to follow the sweep of a low knoll, and stretch in long curving lines that trail out of sight behind the changing shrubbery and trees. Masses of peony bloom in every tint known to the plant,-and some tints known only to the connoisseur in floriculture,-spread themselves before the delighted eye, and long waving ribbons of blood red oriental poppies flaunt their glory in the June sunshine.
If one stays to investigate, there is scarcely a variety of flower, tree or shrub known to northern climate, which is not growing within the confines of the big park and nurseries, or in the conser- vatories.
"And how did these all come to be here?"
About 1899 Mr. B. P. Wagner began testing plants and shrub- bery for the beautification of his own home, using the unimproved park land northwest of the city for the experiments. Sparing no pains or space, more plants than possibly could be put to use by all his friends and neighbors were developed; and that no beautiful things should go to waste, the surplus was planted wherever a spot seemed to invite a shrub or tree or bulb,-and the park began to grow of itself, becoming, almost while its author dreamed, the in- spiration for a great and original industry. The immense nursery business that has come out of the soil to add laurels to Sidney's wreath of fame, was placed under the care and intelligent direction of scientific gardeners, and the experimental nursery and green- houses of Mr. Wagner speedily became a widely known and pa- tronized source of ornamental shrubbery and landscape plants of every variety, suited to the climatic conditions of all parts of the country. The employers, from highest to humblest are all sys- tematically trained into intelligent understanding of the work in all its departments, and the whole has become not only a place for the culture of things of outdoor beauty, but has been placed upon the highest plane of professional artistry by the establishment of the Landscape Gardening Department.
In the residential looking office building is maintained the studio where are worked out the landscape problems sent in from
488
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
all over the United States, by University-trained landscape artists; and a corps of landscape engineers is kept in the field by the com- pany, visiting all parts of the country to study situations of especial difficulty, and to plan their transformation into scenes of beauty, their specifications being sent to the home office for development.
The planning of new and beautiful suburbs, turning old farms and waste places embraced by expanding cities into valuable addi- tions, is a special line of endeavor in the Wagner Park Conservatories work; and the result of landscape art, in turning the rude and mediocre into localities of subtle charm has many an example, but none more to the point in this sketch than the pretty suburb of "Bon Air," and the neighboring Country Club and golf links, in which natural situations, once neglected and objectionable, have been transformed into pictures of idyllic beauty. Past the golf links a little brook twists at will through its green basin, and cross- ing the roadway under a culvert, is caught by a tiny dam on the other side, where it spreads out in a placid pool, then, slipping over the stones of the little weir, meanders away out of sight through a low green meadow dotted with casual shrubbery. The hills, which were formerly a part of the old William Johnston farm, have been utilized as building sites for homes, and a touch of individuality pertains to each, the drives being so placed as to provide the most desirable outlook from the residences which are already beginning to build upon them, the earliest of which are the homes of Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Whipp, Mr. and Mrs. T. D. Van Etten and Mr. and Mrs. E. D. Farrell. "Wagner Club," situated about a mile west of Sidney, is another beauty spot attributable to the conservatories. And no one who walks about the streets of Sidney can fail to note the prevalence and profusion of beautiful shrubbery of countless variety which graces every lawn and makes beautiful the simplest cottage; and the sprinkling of rare varieties of shade trees that re- lieve the monotony of the maples; all of which change and im- provement in this very beautiful little city is the direct result of the Wagner Park Conservatories and its influence upon the tastes of Sidney citizens. Thus a work of positive uplift to the community has followed the development of this unique industry.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.