USA > Ohio > Butler County > Hamilton in Butler County > The centennial anniversary of the city of Hamilton, Ohio, September 17-19, 1891 > Part 18
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Job Owens had built a factory designed for felt making, but tor some reason the project had never been carried forward and the factory had been used for various purposes and was at this time vacant. Sohn, Rentschler and Balle threw up their jobs and rented the Owens factory and started in business as Sohn, Rentschler & Balle, calling their concern the Ohio Iron Works.
These men began to find out what real business was. The enthusiastic Balle began to appreciate the sterling merits of a regular pay-day at the Niles Works, for the boot was now on the other foot, and serious problems arose as to how to scare up the money to pay the men. No paying business had been established and what little there was produced a loss instead of a profit. Everything was mortgaged up to the neck and finally Balle's en- thusiasm gave entirely out and he incontinently quit and returned to his first love, study work and a sure pay-day.
Sohn and Rentschler assumed the load, and the heavier the load pressed the harder they worked. They pushed out for trade and they got it. They sought for customers seeking the finest grade of castings and they found those customers and they made those castings and they made money, and they have made money ever since and to-day are looked upon as two of the wealthiest men in the city. They own lots of real estate and are interested in numerous manufacturing enterprises, and in the language of the street they have money to sell. But no men have worked harder or given closer attention to business. To-day, or any day, Adam Rentschler will be found in his foundry with his coat off and Henry Sohn will be found digging at his
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office work. They still occupy the same shop, which has been much en- larged. They bought the place once but it was impossible to get a deed and so they remained tenants.
There is something peculiar about the history of this institution and its product. Iron foundries are the commonest kind of institutions and if you want to buy castings the woods are full of places where you can get them and get them at any price you desire to pay. But there are castings and castings. Some castings are hard and some are soft ; some are rough and some are smooth ; some are round cornered where they ought to be square cornered, and some are square cornered where they ought to be round cor nered. There are situations where any kind of castings will answer and there are situations where the castings must be just so. Sohn and Rentschler early found out that there was a large class of custormers wanting small castings true to pattern, neither larger nor smaller nor more crooked nor less crooked. They accordingly gave special attention to matters of shrink- age and strains in small castings and became able to sell a reliable product. It has been the universal custom in foundries to buy the pig iron and then to mix as much scrap iron with it as the castings would stand. This, in small castings, yields a hard product. Sohn and Rentschler found that there was a large demand for small castings, requiring considerable drilling and other work, which should be pure and soft and they accordingly cut loose from the usual plan of mixtures and adopted pure iron regardless of cost, and the writer well remembers visiting their shop within the last year and not find- ing any scrap iron in the yard. They were working on mixtures of pure pig. If customers want their small castings cleaned up cheaply Sohn and Rentschler rattle them in a tumbling barrel, which is the usual cheap pro- cess, but this has a tendency to round off the sharp corners of delicate cast- ings. If customers want the sharp corners left on the castings Sohn and Rentschler clean them up in pickling vats. The difficulty of procuring the class of castings which Sohn and Rentschler supply to the trade may be judged from the fact that they are continually making large shipments to New York, Chicago and other distant points where iron foundries can be found by the hundred. They send to New York gray iron castings for elec- trical apparatuses which is so soft that it can be slightly rivited. Quite a number of very extensive manufacturers of small machinery, using castings by the car load, have long ago concluded that the success of their business rested too much upon the perfection of the castings to justify them in erecting their own foundries. It is;easy to build foundries and make castings, but it is extremely difficult to make the quality of small castings called for in some line of manufacture. It is the satisfactory supply of such demands as this that has formed the basis of the success of Sohn!& Rentschler.
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THE BENTEL & MARGEDANT CO.
Wood Working Machinery.
I N 1864-65 Mr. Charles E. McBeth, a machinist in Hamilton, com-
menced the manufacture of small power presses, corn stalk cutters, tobacco molds, shoe polishers and other small articles. In 1867 D. W. Mc- Clung, and later Jacob Schaffer, entered into partnership with Mr. McBeth to manufacture the Universal Wood Worker. They had bought a half in- terest in the patent and also the control of the other half. Mr. McClung soon retired, selling to Shaffer and in 1869 Mr. Shaffer retired selling to Mr. W. C. Margedant.
-
EDAN
AMEK
Mr. Margedant, from 1854 to 1859 had been working as a journeyman machinist in the old shop of Owens, Lane & Dyer and leaving that shop had become engineer and architect for Mr. John W. Sohn who was engaged in numerous enterprises requiring the services of such a man. Mr. Margedant had had a thorough technical education in Europe and was a man of genius and energy. In 1870 Mr. Fred Bentel entered the concern. The firm was then manufacturing tobacco molds and the Universal Wood Worker. The Uni- versal Wood Worker was a machine of a great deal of merit and demand for it grew so large that the capacity of the shop required to be greatly increased. But in May 1873 a fire occurred imposing a loss of over six thousand dollars. The loss was a hard one for it destroyed valuable patterns and made a serious break in the business on which the prosperity of the owners depended and they were very hard up for money when rebuilding was imparative. Disputes arose over the rebuilding and Mr. McBeth retired, Mr. John W. Sohn taking his place as an equal partner. The rebuilding was completed and new pat- terns were made and to the line of manufacturing was added a full line of
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wood working machinery of the very latest and most original design, Mr. Margedant proving himself to be possessed of most admirable talents in this direction. The business prospered until the dull times of 1876.1879 when things took a bad turn, business being wretched, and debts pressing. The pressure became too great aud Mr. Margedant and Mr. Bentel both retired from the business, Mr. Sohn assuming the whole load and employing Mr. Margedant as manager on a salery with an interest in the profits. Business soon picked up and the capacity of the shop became over-taxed and it be- came necessary to work double turn night and day, and many orders were refused. Business relaxed again and it became neeessary to make reductions at every point, But this depression passed over and business again picked up. In 1885 the concern was incorporated under the style of the Bentel & Margedant Co., Mr. Margedant becoming a stockholder. On January 11th, 1889, Mr. Sohn died and Mr. Margedant purchased his stock. In 1889 the business was re-organized with Mr. Margedant as President and general manager, Mr. John T. Gardner Vice President and Superintendent; and William L. Huber Secretary and Treasurer.
The business is in the best possible condition. Its products are known the world over and its machines are models of practical design and superior efficiency. The line of machines manufactured includes over three hundred different sizes and styles of regular machines, to say nothing of special machines which are being constantly devised for special work. In this line of special machines this establishment has a most brilliant reputation, it be- ing well understood throughout the wood-working world that if some new and unheard of machine is wanted for specially economical and more perfect proficiency in the working of wood, the Bentel & Margedant Co., are always prepared to devise and construct it with the assurance that the result will be satisfactory in the highest degree. For instance, in the manufacture of vehicle wheels, where the closest economy and the greatest perfection in pro · duction is called for, the special machines of this establishment are the standard requirement. This automatic refined machinery is of the utmost refined character and deals with the rough wood and produces the finished wheel. A specialty has also been made of automatic machinery for the manufacture of wood pumps, and for railroad car works. An idea of the extensive product of the establishment may be gathered from the fact that of the "Universal Wood Worker," a single machine in the long list of pro- ducts of this concern, over four thousand have been sold and they have gone into all the lands where wood is worked.
The shops are very extensive and are well equipped with the best mod- ern iron-working machinery for the production of wood-working machines, and the business is conducted with the most careful and conscientious super- vision with a constant thought as to the best interests of the customer.
WARE
10
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THE BECKETT PAPER COMPANY-
IN 1849 a party by the name of Allen, began on a paper mill in Hamilton at the corner of Buckeye and Lowell Streets. He brought to the town two mill-wrights, John L. Martin and Frank Martin, to erect the mill and he brought Adam Laurie, a Scotch paper-maker, to run the mill. At that time the only paper mill in Hamilton was the Wrapping-paper Mill of Erwin, Kline & Co.
Allen got in the foundations for the mill and then failed and left the Martins and Laurie in bad shape, stranded high and dry.
At that time William Beckett was a lawyer in Hamilton, and so was F. D. Rigdon. The stranded mechanics consulted Beckett and the result was that an arrangement was effected whereby the Martins and Beckett, under the firm name of Beckett, Martins & Rigdon, undertook to put the project through. Beckett had one-third interest, John L. Martin one-third interest' and Frank Martin and Rigdon each one-sixth. This was in 1849. A sixty- two inch machine was put in and the product was book and newspaper. Adam Laurie was foreman. The first year showed badly. In 1850 Beckett purchased the interest of the two Martins and the firm name was changed to Beckett & Rigdon. In 1852 a second machine was put in, this time a sixty- ·eight inch machine, and both machines were run on book and newspaper- About 1854 Mr. Adam Laurie took a one eighth interest in the mill, and the mill made money. In 1862 or 1863, Rigdon retired and the style of the firm was changed to Beckett & Laurie. In 1870 Mr. Adamı Laurie, Jr. who had learned the trade in the mill, was taken into the firm, and the style ofthe firm was changed to Beckett, Laurie & Company.
The two machines had been running on book and newspaper, but dur- ing the war the product drifted somewhat into colored papers for poster and cover work. No other mill in the West was then making colored papers. To make these colored papers was a great trick in the trade, and Mr. Adam Lanrie was a special artist in this line and the reputation of the papers of this mill became so great that the colored papers began to predominate in the product or the mill and in 1875 or '76 everything else was abandoned and since that time the mill has made only colored papers.
Young Tom Beckett had learned the trade in the mill, and in 1885 he was taken into the firm. In 1887 or '88 the Beckett's bought out both the Lauries and the concern was incorporated as the Beckett Paper Company, with one hundred thousand dollars capital, with William Beckett as Presi- dent and Thomas Beckett Secretary and Treasurer. The mill was rebuilt from stem to stern the two old machines were thrown out and a single sixt y eight inch machine was put in. This new machine was built by the Black
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& Clawson Co. in Hamilton.
Paper-machines to-day look very much as they did many years ago, but the mill of the Beckett Paper Co. furnishes a splendid example of the results of modern improvements in construction and in details, and in the running speed of paper machines. The capacity of the two old machines, one sixty- two inch and one sixty-eight inch, was two and one-half tons of paper per day and the capacity of the single sixty-eight inch machine now in use is five tons per day. In other words, half the machinery produces double the pro- duct, a four fold increase.
The product of the mill is exclusively colored papers, but the lower" grade of paper for posters, &c., has been entirely abandoned and the mill now runs entirely upon the finest grades of colored papers for book covers .. In this line of trade the product of this mill stands in the highest rank and it has a market all over the country. The two Becketts give personal at- tention to the business. Tom runs the mill and runs the office, and Mr .. Beckett, Sr., does all the traveling.
THE COLUMBIA.
CARRIAGE COMPANY.
THIS is a AHIS is a comparatively new establishment, having started in business this- year with excellent facilities and most flattering prospects. The firm is composed of R. A. Davis, J. E. Wright, R. L. Hedges and T. L. Curley. Messrs. Davis, Wright & Curley have had long experience in the carriage business. Mr. Hedges is from Kansas City. Business was started in Febru- ary, 1891. The premises were leased of the Hamilton Distilling Company and were entirely remodeled to suit the new business, and the result is a commo- dious establishment well suited to the manufacture and storage of the in- tended product. The factory is directly upon the C. H. & D. Railroad and on the line of the Electric Railway. The factory was completely equipped with entirely new machinery. The success of the new firm has been great- er than was contemplated. The expectation was that at the outside one thousand rigs would be shipped this year, but these figures have been far ex- ceeded and the shipments so far have amounted to fifteen hundred. In in- stalling this business the owners determined to avoid entirely the low grade markets, and accordingly, to establish the grade betwen the medium and. highest grades of carriage work.
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THE H. P. DEUSCHER COMPANY. AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS ETC.
P. DEUSCHER was a farmer who had been in various business en- terprises in other places than Hamilton, and was engaged in Ham- ilton in the malting business with Israel Williams. In 1879 he contemplated starting the hardware and implement business in the establishment of the
THE H.P. DEUSCHER CO.
MEFFP.A. PIN HA
Variety Iron Works. It was a risky venture, and ke consulted his personal friend William E. Brown, of the Second National Bank. who had frequently helped him. Mr. Brown sat squarely down on the project and prophesied the most dismal failure and refused to encourage it in any way. and promised to withhold his help if needed in case the venture went forward. But Mr. Deucher took the rash step and soon found himself in hot water and Mr. Brown's prophesy became nearly being fulfilled. This was in 1879 and to-
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THE CENNTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O.
day Mr. Deuscher's establishment is entirely free from debt and has been many times enlarged, and he has a most magnificent business, his sales at present amounting to a thousand dollars a day. It was a pure case of nerve and energy and splendid management, with very little of the element of luck about it. The first implements made were the Barbour Corn Drills, and in connection with this business the castings were made for the well known "fashion" school-desk and the castings were also made for the Implement Works of Norris Brothers. Later the McColm Soil Pulverizer was taken up and then the "Victor" Churn and then the "Favorite" Churn, later the "Ham- ilton" Corn Planter, and Check.row Corn Planter, Horse Hay Rakes, Disk Harrows, Folding Harrows, and Lever Harrows were gone into. The trade was pushed in every direction and a market found in every state in the union. Of the Hamilton Corn Planters alone, five thousand have been sold, and certain meritorious points in their construction have formed the model which has revolutionized the Corn Planter trade. The school desk business has increased enormously. The first year Mr. Deuscher made seventeen hundred of these desks and this year he has made eight thousand of them. In 1888 Mr. Deuscher turned his business into a corporation with an incor- porated capital of fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Deuscher is the owner of the business and gives it his personal attention. His establishment occupies five acres at Seventh and Hanover Streets.
GEORGE F. HUTCHINSON & CO. Omni Curant the King of Pain.
BOUT thirty years ago Dr. J. J. McBride had a prescription for a remedy for all manner of aches and pains, from toothache to rheumatism. He traveled and sold the medicine largely, and Mr. Henry Van- Derveer traveled with him for a while and received the formula, and, ulti- mately, began the manufacture and sale of the medicine on his own account, he and Dr. McBride operating in different parts of the country. Dr. McBride died and Mr. VanDerveer kept up the business in a small way.
In 1886 George Hutchinson went into the business with Mr. VanDer- veer and the manufacture of the medicine was established in Hamilton under the name of G. F. Hutchinson & Co. In 1887 Mr. VanDerveer retired and Mr. Hutchinson has since continued the business under the old name and has pushed it extensively. The laboratory was established on the corner of Third and High Street, and from there the medicine was shipped to the var- ious selling points. Seven travelers are employed, and in addition to the sales made by them there is an established demand throughout the country.
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THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O,
The Fisher Ice Tool Company.
MR. R. J. F. FISHER was an edge-tool maker and had been extensively engaged in the business in Hamilton for many years, and his son Joseph Fisher learned the trade with him. Mr. Fisher finally sold his busi- ness to M. Bare and Joseph Fisher, became Mr. Bare's Superintendent.
In 1888 Joseph Fisher, Jacob Lorenz, and Mr. Herman Augspurger established the Fisher Ice Tool Co., with an incorporated capital of ten thousand dollars. The line of manufacture included ice-harvesting tools and ice-elevating machinery. A specialty was made of a double ice-marker which Mr. Fisher had lately invented, and this implement is practically superceding the old single line markers in all of the ice-harvesting fields of the country. In connection with this implement the surprising fact de- veloped that it took less power to cut two grooves in the ice than it did to cut one. The new implement did just twice the work of the old one and did it easier.
The line of products of the Company includes every machine or implement used in the ice trade, and these goods are found wherever ice is harvested or handled.
The growth of the business in the hands of these pushing men may be judged from the fact that for the season of 1888-90, the first season after be- ginning business, the sales were nine thousand dollars. The second season of 1889-90 they were twenty-one thousand dollars. The last season, that of 1890-91, they were thirty-three thousand dollars.
In 1889 Mr. Augspurger retired from the business, which is now owned entirely by Mr. Fisher and Mr. Lorenz. New products have lately been ad- ded to the list and the establishment is now engaged largely in making. metallic poles for electric railways, and also metallic specialties employed in electric railway work. Steel street-crossings are also being made.
D. M. STEVENSON. Furniture Specialties.
Mr. Stevenson had been engaged in Cincinnati for some years in the manufacture of furniture specialties and, in 1888, he removed to Hamilton, taking shop-room at Water and Market streets. He manufactures lodge-room furniture which finds its market among the secret orders of the country. He has lately taken up the manufacture of folding beds of his- own invention.
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THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O.
SHULER & BENNINGHOFEN. WOOLEN MILL.
HE two brothers Breidenbauch in 1853 had a dry goods store in Hamil- C ton and took a notion to make the woolens which they sold. These two with Jerry Andrum and Titus Shuler and Asa Shuler, under the name of Breidenbauch & Co., started a woolen mill in the building now standing on Fourth Street between the shops of Long & Allstatter Co. and the Bentel & Margedant Co., the old building now forming a part of the Long & Allstatter shop. About five thousand dollars wass put into the business. The two Shulers were carpenters and Andrum was to be the woolen mill man. They put in four narrow looms. one wide loom, one spinning-mule, and one set of cards. They made yarns, cashmeres, blankets and flannels. All were sold either in Hamilton or in Cincinnati, the business being strictly local. Pay was taken mostly in trade,
The first year they managed to lose nine hundred dollars and Mr. An. drum retired in disgust. Mr. Asa Schuler assumed the management of the mill and the business was pushed into new markets and with great success. In 1858 Mr. J. W. Benninghofen bought the interests of the Breidenbauch Brothers and the firm name was changed to Shuler & Benninghofen. Mr. Benninghofen was clerk in the Brewery of John W. Sohn and he remained a clerk in the Brewery for a year after he bought his interest in the woolen mill.
In 1862 the present mill was built, on the corner of Heaton and Lowell Streets, and when the new mill was done a double set of machinery was put in.
In 1854 the mill made its first felt for use on a paper machine. This was bought and used by Shuey & McGuire for their paper-mill in Hamilton, It was not an endless felt, but was seamed. Paper-makers felts were made right along to some extent and in 1866 the mill made its first endless felt. This felt trade has grown enormously and this mill now has two-thirds of the Western trade on paper-makers felts and the reputation of these felts is the very highest.
In 1881 Mr. Benninghofen died and his two sons, Chris and Peter took his place in the mill where they can always be found, every day in the week.
The mill now makes paper-makers felts, up to one hundred and twenty- six inches in width ; blankets of the finest grades ; woven woolen skirts both endless and pieced ; flannels, yarns and skirting flannels. The widest loom is two hundred and sixty inches. The trade of this mill now extends all over the United States with trade connections in Mexico, Japan and other foreign conntries.
The Hughes Mij.Co. ty
E
MCFEE.CO. HAM. O.
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THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O.
THE HUGHES MFG CO. Grain-cleaning Machinery etc.
I N 1849 Learned & Hughes patented certain improvements in grain-clean- ing machinery, and at this time, the art was in its infancy. In 1860 Hughes patented the volute system of bran duster. The business of manufacturing and selling this machinery was carried on in Hamilton by Mr. Hughes and various other associates for quite a number of years and with magnificent success, the machines being sold very extensively and at handsome profits. The business was finally incorporated as the Stephen Hughes Manufacturing Co. and was operated by Mr. Stephen Hughes and Mr. Robert Hughes.
The manufacturing business was conducted in the shop formerly occu- pied by Black & Clawson on the corner of Water and Market Streets.
In 1882 the Edmands Manufacturing Company was formed and engaged in the manufacture of grain-cleaning machinery, Mr. Edmands being the moving spirit and Mr. Heimsath his principle colleague. Upon the death of Mr. Edmands, Mr. Heimsath became Superintendent, and finally purchased the entire business.
In 1887 Mr. Robert Hughes and Mr. Heimsath formed the Standard Grain-cleaner Co. which took over the business of the Edmands Manufac- turing Company, the factory being located in the Morey factory building at the West end of High Street. In 1890 the Hughes Manufacturing Co. was incorporated, forming a consolidation of the Stephen Hughes Manufacturing Co. and the Standard Grain-Cleaner Co., taking up the manufacture of their combined products, the principal owners being Stephen Hughes and Robert Hughes. In June 1891 both of the Messrs Hughes retired. Mr. H P. Deuscher is now President of the Company, Mr. F. C Heimsath Vice-Presi- dent and Treasurer, and Mr. W. H. Stephen Secretary. They occupy their own new factory on Water Street, a brick structure operated by water power. The concern manufactures wheat separators, graders, smutters, corn-cleaners and separators, flour feeders and mixers, flour blenders and vertical and horizontal bran dusters ; in all a line of fifty-three sizes and styles of machine The machines have been sold by the thousand all over the known world where grain cleaning machinery is used.
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