USA > Ohio > Butler County > Hamilton in Butler County > The centennial anniversary of the city of Hamilton, Ohio, September 17-19, 1891 > Part 17
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The Hamilton Corliss Engine Works. Hooven. Owens & Rentschler Co.
N the early days of Hamilton the firm of Owens, Lane & Dyer began the manufacture of stationary and portable steam engines and saw
mills. The business became very extensive and thousands of these engines were sold all over the world, and the owners grew gray in the service. The firm was later incorporated as the Eclipse Machine Works and the name was later changed, by special act of the Legislature, to the Owens, Lane & Dyer Co. The works were very extensive and well equipped for the product.
In the shop of Long & Allstratter George H. Helvey, a mere lad, was serving his apprenticeship as a machinist. He became a splendid workman but was without education or experience outside of the shop. Finishing his apprenticeship he began to gather experience as a traveling journeyman ma- chinist. About 1873 his travels brought him again to Hamilton and he be- came a journeyman machinist in the Niles Tool Works. Here he became seized with ambitions and entered upon a course of hard studies at home at nights and burned the midnight oil over the books of his craft. It quickly developed that he possessed not only the skilled hand of a machinist, but the talented mind of the superior mechanical engineer. He became Department Foreman in the Niles Works, then General Foreman, and then Superinten- dent for C. E. Jones & Bro., in Cincinnati, and then Superintendent of the Phenix Caster Co. of Hamilton. In the meantime he was a close student.
Prior to 1877 Mr. E. C. Hooven, as bright a commercial man as one will meet in many a day, was engaged as a dealer in agricultural implements in Hamilton. The mere idea of buying a thing and selling it again in un- changed form was far from satisfactory to him and he determined to become a manufacturer. He accordingly in that year got up the "Monarch" Portable Engine and the "Monarch Thresher. He had his boilers built in one shop and his engines in another, and his thresher parts in several shops. In three years he had sold seventy-five of these engines and sixty-five of the threshers But Mr. Hooven sought for greater manufacturing fields than this. The Owens, Lane & Dyer establishment was for sale and Mr. Hooven promptly effected an association with Mr. Helvey and they, in association with Mr. Adam Rentchler, Mr. Job Owens, of the Owens, Lane & Dyer concern, Mr. Henry Sohn, and Mr. James E Campbell, bought the establishment of the Owens, Lane & Dyer Co., continuing the manufacture of the standard products of the old concern, to which was added the Monarch Portable Engine, the Monarch Thresher and the Monarch Traction Engine. They built one hun- dred of the Monarch Engines, fifty Traction Engines, and one hundred and fifty Threshers.
In January, 1882, thefirm was incorporated as the Hooven, Owens &
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Rentschler Co. with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Job Owens retired and his son, Mr. Joe Owens, became a stockholder. The present stockholders are Mr. Hooven, Mr. Rentschler, Mr. Joe Owens, Mr. Sohn, Mr. Campbell and Mr. Richter. Mr. Hooven is President, Mr. Rentschler, Vice President. Mr. Sohn Secretary and Treasurer, and Mr. Hel- vey Superintendent.
In November, 1882, it was decided to enter upon the manufacture of the highest class of stationary steam engines known to the trade, and the engine of the Corliss type was adopted as being far ahead of anything in this line yet devised in steam engineering. The first engine, with a cylinder eighteen inches in diameter and forty-two inch stroke, was started early in 1883 and produced results as to economy of fuel and close regulation of speed which were up to the highest standard, The business of building these engines was then, and has been since, continuously pushed with the utmost vigor with such success as to crowd out of the shop every other line of manufac- ture. Nothing has since been built in the shop but these high class Corliss engines, and not only this but the shop has been many times enlarged and its facilities greatly increased in every way, and for years the shop has run twenty-four hours per day. The extent of the business may be judged from the fact that seven hundred and fifty of these magnificent engines have been constructed, varyirg in size from single cylinder thirty-five horse power en- gines having cylinders ten by twenty-four inches, to massive two thousand horse power engines having compound cylinders and running as condensing engines. These engines will be found installed in all of the important power centers of the country, running factories and mills and furnishing the motive power for cable railways, and electric railways, and electric light stations. The commercial branch of the business has been attended to by Mr. Hooven and the engineering and productive branches have been in the hands of Mr. Helvey who, notwithstanding his early disadvantages, and he is still a very young man, has proved himself to be one of the brightest engineers of motive power in the country.
One of the most phenominal things in connection with the enormous ontput of this establishment is the fact that in all this large number of high- class engines, all going in positions subjecting them to the most critical tests, not a single case of dissatisfaction has been recorded. It would not be at all to the discredit of a manufacturing concern if a number of miscalculations had developed in such a great number of diversified power plants, and the fact that this enormous business has not developed one single failure is cer- tainly a matter of wonderment, and reflects extraordinary credit upon the establishment.
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THE F. & L. KAHN & BROS. Stove Foundry.
N 1842 Martin, Henderson & Co. established a stove foundry at Hang- ing Rock, Ohio, one of the earliest stove foundries in the state, and the design and practice was to cast stove plate directly from the reduced iron as it ran from the blast furnace, no intermediate pig iron or remelting being employed.
Mr. Lazard Kahn was born in France, and when a very young man landed in this country with a bundle of clothes and a trifle of pocket money. He started West and on the way his bundle was stolen and his pocket was piched, leaving him penniless among strangers, but there were no lazy bones in his body and he went earnestly to work. He blacked stoves for a living and did it up to the Queen's taste. He traveled some through the country
selling lamp burners and such things, and finally selling stoves, and finally drifted into rather intimate contact with the stove trade. He, with his brother Felix, developed strong commercial instincts and business energy and saving habits, and in 1873 they were able to purchase each a one-fifth interest in the stove foundry of Martin, Henderson & Co., then producing about four hun- dred tons of stoves per year. In 1876 Mr. Martin retired and the Messers. Kahn bought his interest, the firm name being changed to Henderson, Kahn & Co. In 1879 Mr. Meis of the firm retired, the Messis. Kahn and Mr. Henderson buying him out. In 1881 the Messrs. Kahn, joined by another brother since deceased, bought out Mr. Henderson, the foundry then pro· ducing eighteen hundred tons of stoves per annum, and the firm name was changed to F. & L. Kahn & Bros. as it has since remained. In 1884 the establishment was moved to Hamilton, the sales office still remaining in Cin- cinnati where it had for sometime been located, and in moving to Hamilton they followed the usual line of thought that the local trade of the city must
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still be specially fostered. They had not long been located in Hamilton before their market began to greatly expand and the Cincinnati salesroom was abolished and their products began to find a market in every locality in the United States, supplemented by extensive shipments to China, Japan, Spain, France and England. The establishment is now producing twenty- four hundred tons of stoves per year.
In 1887 Mr. Samuel Kahn became a member of the firm and now has charge of outside sales department, Mr. Felix Kahn having charge of the general office business, while Mr. Lazard Kahn gives attention to the techni- cal management.
The new shop built in Hamilton is a model affair, occupying five acres and employing two hundred men. It was planned by Mr. Lazard Kahn and it is so perfect in its arrangement that the plan has since been identically copied by several enterprising stove foundries, after visiting the establishment and procuring the plans thereof from the owners. Everything about their diversified line of stove work is done complete in the establishment which is- provided with its own extensive sheet-metal shop. plating room, and art de- partment. The designs turned out by this establishment are always in the lead. The constructions are upon well studied scientific principles and the artistic designs are of great originality and most pleasing character. Mr .. Lazard Kahn has long been recognized as a man of special practical attain- ments in the stove trade, and in the council of the stove makers association, where he is an active member of the Executive Committee. In the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889, the President of the United States appointed Mr. Lazard Kahn as a member of the International Jury in Class 27, and in recognition of his services upon that jury the President of the French Repub- lic has lately honored him with a very gratifying diploma and a handsome medal.
It is usual in the stove trade to distinguish the various designs by fanci- ful trade-mark names, and the present establishment early adopted the term "Estate" as a fundamental trade mark, and the product has become extreme- ly popular. The line of stoves and ranges now includes about five hundred different styles and sizes, and new patterns are being constantly produced. In 1888 the manufacture of gas stoves was taken up as a special department and this line now includes two hundred different styles and sizes, and new patterns are constantly under way.
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The CARR & BROWN CO.
The Daisy Mills.
BOUT 1860 a gymnasium society was formed, with Minor Millikin as the moving spirit, and a large gymnasium was built at the corner of Fourth and High Streets. The Gymnasium went by the board as a result of the war, and about 1868 Brown & Weller turned the premises into an ele- vator. About 1870 Joseph Straub bought out Brown's half interest, and in. the same year, James T. Imlay bought a third interest in the business, which was then conducted under the name of Weller, Straub & Co. In 1873 Straub retired and in 1875 again entered the business, buying Imlay's interest. About 1877 Joseph Snyder bought Straub's interest.
A
CARRABROWNSMILLS
RETAIL DEPARTMENT
OFFICE
In 1881 William E. Brown and W. B. Carr bought the property as a speculation. Mr. Carr had learned the milling trade in his father's mill at the corner of Fifth and Dayton Street, and was a partner in that mill when it burned in 1882. In 1883 the firm of Carr & Brown erected the present mill, and in 1888 the firm was incorporated as the Carr & Brown Co., with an in- corporated capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, with William E. Brown as President, and W. B. Carr Treasurer and Manager. In the same year the new elevator was built. The mill is thoroughly equipped with the most modern machinery and has a daily capacity of five hundred barrels of flour and two hundred barrels of meal, and the elevator has a capacity of two hundred thousand bushels. Railway tracks run directly into the mill.
The market is principally in the Eastern States while large exports are made to the Glasgow market. The mill is always running to its full capacity, and while a large number of brands of flour are made, a special reputation. has attached itseltof the "Telephone," "Bon Ton" and "Golden Rod" brands.
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MOSLER , SAFE . WORKS.
HAMILTON, OHIO.
M"FEE-CO CIN-HAM. O.
The Mosler Safe and Lock Company.
MOSES OSES MOSLER, Julius Mosler and William Mosler, all young and enterprising men, had been virtually born and brought up in the safe business, of which Cincinnati had long been the acknowledged center of trade. But while the safe business of Cincinnati was an immense one and represented the highest attainments in the art, it had fallen into ruts and the products failed, to a certain extent, to keep up with the march of events. Safes, as a general thing, were not handsome, nor were they constructed upon such systematic lines as were essential to the getting of first class safes at a fair price. Nor had the genius of the safe maker kept up with the genius of the burglar.
These three brothers started the business under the name of The Mosler Safe & Lock Co. on Pearl Street. They put business talent and mechanical talent into the art and pushed the business with vigor and soon out-grew the factory and the capacity of the factory to be extended within the limits im- posed by the surroundings. Then a move was made to another locality in Cincinnati and soon the business outgrew the new situation, and then a move was made to another locality on Elm Street in Cincinnati. The business
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continued to grow and extensions were made in all possible directions until there was no longer room to extend. Then an entirely new factory was built on Front Street to be devoted entirely to burglar proof work, and this factory soon overflowed its capacity and made it impossible to fill the orders received. In 1890 it was determined that room must be had for the increas- ing industry and accordingly, the magnificent factory was built at Hamilton. In this grand establishment a single one of the work-rooms is 205 feet by 400 feet. The premises occupy ten acres bounded by Grand Boulevard, Lincoln Avenue, Safe Avenue and Mosler Avenue. The Miami and Erie Canal runs at one edge of the property and the Panhandle railroad upon the other.
The Mosler Safe & Lock Co. has worked a number of revolutions in the safe trade. Special appliances were contrived for the production of the work so as to secure superior results without increase of cost. Great inge- nuity was shown in modifying the established principles of construction. Safes had always before been constructed with square corners and were de- cidedly unhandsome. The Mosler Safe & Lock Co. abandoned this system and introduced the round cornered safe which was free from sharp angles and possessed an integrity and strength and beauty before unknown. The construction of burglar-proof work was brought to its highest point. Time- locks were brought to a superior condition of efficiency and convenience.
Burglar-proof safes of the highest type had resolved themselves into im- penetrable walls (that is impenetrable within the length of time available for the burglar) and hinged air tight doors locked by unpickable combination locks guarded by time-locks. The locks were inside the safe, and the safe door closed air tight in its jamb. Such construction constituted the highest attainment which had bean reached in the art of safe-making. The doors were fitted with the greatest of care and there was no chance for the burglar to introduce explosive material at the door joint. But the inherent defect in the system lay in the fact that the spindle of the combination lock must reach to the outside of the safe through a hole in the door, and fit in that hole with a certain degree of looseness. Here was the fatal crack and through it the burglar could introduce liquid and gaseous explosives and cause them to reach the very vitals of the safe.
The Mosler Safe & Lock Co. began the manufacture of the screw door safe. The door is circular and is ground into the door-jamb and fits as tight as a poppet-valve. The door is screwed into the door jamb and the door can only be opened by unscrewing, and it is kept from being unscrewed by the time-lock located within the safe. 'There is no hole through the door for a lock-spindle and no lock-spindle at all. The safe is an absolutely air-tight impenetrable structure.
Much originality is shown in all the work of this Company, which owns a large number of patents under which it is operating. The business done
RITCHIE & DYER CO
RITCHIE & DYER COR
Sp
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is enormous and the products go everywhere where there is anything worth locking up against fire and the knight of the jimmy. Branch houses for the sale of the work of this establishment have been established in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, &c. and a very extensive branch house is located in the City of Mexico. One hundred salesmen are employed in selling the goods.
In 1890 Mr. Julius Mosler died and the business has since been con- ducted entirely by Mr. Moses Mosler and Mr. William Mosler, both of whom give constant personal attention to the business. When the other shop was built in Cincinnati for the burglar proof work, that part of the business was incorporated under the name of the Mosler Bank Safe Co. In the removal to Hamilton everything is consolidated into one system.
The Ritchie and Dyer Company. Traction Engines and Saw Mills.
R. WILLIAM RITCHIE had been connected with the old Owens, Lane & Dyer shop for many years, and when that shop was sold in 1880 to Hoven, Owens & Rentschler Co., Mr. Ritchie, started the Ritchie & Dyer Co. there being associated with him Mr. William Dyer. There was only about two thousand dollars put into the business and the new concern had a hard time in getting along. Property was bought on the corner of Vine and Lowell Street, and the present shop erected, and new patterns were made for saw mills and traction engines. Mr. Dyer soon retired. Mr. Ritchie pushed the business and everything turned out splendidly. Selling agencies were established in all prominent cities north and south and west and the line of products was increased to include traction engines from ten to forty horse- power, and various sizes of saw mills, varying in capacity from three thousand to seventy thousand feet of lumber per day. About fifty traction engines and about three hundred saw mills are sold per year. Mr. Ritchie is Presi- dent and Mr. Doeller is Secretary and Treasurer.
The Hamilton malting Company.
N 1879 the firm of Reutti & Mason leased the Schelly malt house on Canal Street between Sixth and Seventh. The house had a capac- ity of one hundred thousand bushels and this firm increased it to one hundred and fifty thousand. In 1879 the business was purchased by Charles Sohngen, George P. Sohngen and William B. Brown, who conduct the busi- ness under the name of The Hamilton Malting Co. The product of this malt house is marketed through the Sohngen Malting Company.
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Cincinnati Brewing Co.
N 1850 Peter Schwab, eleven years old, landed in the United States from Germany, coming over in the same steamer with Henry Sohn. He came to Hamilton and learned the Cooper's trade at which he worked for some time. He was smart and industrious, and saving, and in course of time, became able to embark in business ventures of his own.
In 1858 John W. Sohn built a small brewery at the corner of Front and Sycamore Streets.
In 1864 M. Jacobi bought this brewery of Sohn and operated it for four years. In 1878 the firm of Peter Schwab & Co., composed of Peter Schwab, F. VanDerveer and Herman Reutti, bought the brewery of Jacobi. But the business was conducted at a loss. In 1870 Mr. Schwab retired and the business was continued by VanDerveer and Reutti.
In 1874 Mr. Schwab bought the brewery of VanDerveer and Reutti. It had a capacity of fifty barrels per day, but no sale could be found for that amount of product. Mr. Schwab operated in hard luck. Things were run- ning behind, debts were piling up, and debtors were pressing, and there seemed to be no way out of the woods. Mr. Schwab was as deep in the hole as even the nerviest man care to get. But he worried along where other men would have laid the thing down, and the result of his persistent energy was to bring about an improvement in the prospects, which improvements have continued and bloomed into the highest kind of success. The trade was pushed, the capacity of the brewery greatly exceeded, and the brewery was enlarged to meet the growing demands. In 1875 the business was in- corporated under the name of The Cincinnati Brewing Co. In 1890 an artificial ice plant was put in, the plant now having a capacity of fifty tons per day, of ice made from filtered water. The capacity of the Brewery has been so increased that it has now four hundred barrels per day and the sales are always up to the full capacity. The beer is shipped North, East and South, being sold very largely in Cleveland and Pittsburg. This present history is of course only concerned with that product of manufacturing establishments which goes out of the county and brings money income to the community, and in this sense the Ice Factory of this Brewery is merely an element in the manufacture and preservation of this beer which is shipped. But it seems hardly like going outside of the limitations of this history to explain that the manufactured. ice of this establishment also largely sup- plies the local market, this branch of the business being conducted under the name of the Hamilton Artificial Ice Co. The ice is of splendid quality and seems to be clearer and cleaner than the natural article and has always. been retailed at lower prices, and Mr. Schwab's enterprise in this ice mat- ter has met with keen appreciation by the citizens.
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H.P. DEUSCHER & CO'S
C
C
PNEUMATIC MALT HOUSE.
H. P. DEUSCHER & CO. MALSTERS.
I N 1874 there was at the corner of Front and Wood Street, an establish- ment which had been in turn a brewery and a distillery. It was then
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idle and was the property of Mr. Isreal Williams. In that year Mr. Willlams and Mr. H. P. Deuscher formed a partnership under the name of H. P. Deuscher & Co. each with equal interest. The property referred to was taken in hand and remodeled and equipped, turning it into a malting house with a capacity of fifty thousand bushels. The firm did not buy the real estate, and it still belongs to Mr. Williams. Later the capacity of the house has been increased to one hundred thousand bushels. The first and second years some money was lost but without serious effect on the firm and the business has been conducted with a fair degree of profit ever since. The conduct of the business is in the hands of Mr. Deuscher.
JOHN DONGES & CO.
Hubs and Spokes.
I N 1851 Mr. Donges came to Hamilton from Germany, where he had learned his trade as a carpenter. He worked at his trade and finally became a workman in the spoke factories and ultimately became interested in the business. He was for twenty-five years connected with the various concerns engaged in the hub, spoke and bent-wood business in the water power factories along the river. In 1872 he built the factory on the C. H. & D. road between Hanover and Walnut Streets. There is associated with him Mr. John Schumacher who has a special interest in the hub department of the business. The articles manufactured are hubs, spokes, felloes, bows, shafts, poles, and turned and sawed timber. The shop is equipped with its own saw mill and with all the necessary machinery for the class of goods manufactured, and these goods are sold throughout the country and are also exported very largely.
HAMILTON BUGGY CO.
PARIS HIS business was established in 1889 and incorporated in 1890 with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. The Duke shop was leased, and very extensive alterations were made in the shop and finally extensive additions were built. The shop is conveniently located directly on the railroad and was equipped with new machinery. The President of the company is Mr. John Rogers, while Mr. I. P. Anderson is Vice President and Mr. Hochheimer is manager of manufacturing. The company makes all kinds of buggies, surreys and phaetons; in addition to a number of specialties, such as the Hamilton Leader Fifth Wheel or Coupling; the Behlen Boot and the Schad shell wheel. The establishment turns out about eight thousand vehicles per year, and the business is constantly increasing.
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The Sohn and Rentschler Co. Gray Iron Founders.
IN 18 N 1875 Henry Sohn was book-keeper in a Hamilton Brewery, Adam Rentschler was foreman in the foundry of the Variety Iron Works o Hamilton, and John Balle was a machinist working at the Niles Tool Works. These men were cronies and were anxious to go into business together, and the more they talked about it the more anxious they became, especially Balle who was thoroughly enthusiastic. None of them had ever been in business and all had been working for the sure thing of daily wages. They had twenty-nine hundred dollars in money between them. Their idea was to start a foundry with a small machine shop attachment and manufacture shelf hardware, and at the same time, furnish the castings and machine fit- tings required by numerons makers of agricultural implements, who were not themselves prepared to do their cast metal work.
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