USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 77
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In 1891 the Erie Button Works was established by Simmonds & Co., and in 1892 N. A. Watson became proprietor. This was one of sev- eral manufactories of pearl buttons started in Erie at about that time, and is the sole survivor. A new and much larger building was erected at 2016 State street in 1904. . .. In 1891 David Schlosser opened his planing mill at Sassafras and Ritner streets. He had been in the same business from 1866, part of the time having L. Felheim as a partner, but after the mill of the firm was burned, the partnership was dissolved in 1887. In 1905 the firm name became D. Schlosser Co.
In 1892 the Metric Metal Co. erected a large shop on Tenth street and Payne avenue for the manufacture of gas meters. It is a branch of the American Meter Co. There have been several enlargements and an improvement amounting practically to reconstruction was effected in 1908-9. . . . Curtis Johnson embarked in the planing mill business in 1892, in the mill that was built by Althof & Siegel in 1890. . . . The George Carroll & Bro. Company, Erie's oldest planing mill and door factory, incorporated in 1892, originated with George and T. H. Carroll about 1866.
In 1893 the Walker Foundry Co., was organized by A. W. & B. A. Walker, and a plant established at Cherry street and the railroad. In 1903 it was reorganized, with George I. Black, president; W. W. Mayo, vice president, and \V. Pitt Gifford, secretary and treasurer.
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The product is gray iron castings and the capacity a daily melt of forty tons.
The year 1894 witnessed the inauguration of a number of enter- prises. The Erie Chemical Co. was incorporated, and built on the Nickel Plate Railroad west of the city limits. It was reorganized in 1905, in connection with F. H. Kalbfleisch of New York. The product is sulphuric acid and paper makers' alum. ... A. Gottfried & Co., (Anton Gottfried and Henry Kugel) manufacturers of organ pipes and supplies, was organized in Philadelphia in 1890 and removed to Erie in 1894, renting the old boarding house building of the first Erie Car Works; in 1904 the fine new brick shop at Nineteenth and Myrtle was built. ... The Dispatch Printing & Engraving Co. was organized in the year 1894, being the formation of a company separate from that en- gaged in the publication of the newspaper, and taking over the job printing business of the Dispatch The Lejeal Cycle & Mobile Works, begun in 1894, at first builders of bicycles, later of automobiles, engaged in the manufacture of marine gasoline engines in 1909. . . . The Reno Mfg. Co., their product neck-yokes, and other specialties of wood, in 1897 removed into the shop on Nineteenth street near Hol- land. . . . The firm of Kirschner Bros., organized in 1894, succeeds Sebastian Kirschner, who began business in 1868. In 1892 the firm of S. Kirschner & Sons was formed. Sebastian died in August, 1894, when the present firm came into existence.
The Erie Foundry Company was incorporated in 1895 and ac- quired for the site of its works a portion of the former fair grounds, on Twelfth street, west of the city limits, engaging in the manufacture of heavy castings and machine work, especially the building of steam hammers. Fire destroyed a large part of the plant in 1908, which was rebuilt immediately of brick, and in 1909 it was in operation on a larger scale than before.
The Lake City Engineering Co. was incorporated in 1897, for the manufacture of pumps and engines, and established itself in a brick shop at the corner of Nineteenth and Peach streets.
The Consumers Ice & Cold Storage Co. was chartered in 1898, and securing the "Reed spring," the source of supply of the old pump-log water works of borough days, engaged in the manufacture of artificial ice. Subsequently it was consolidated with the Union Ice Co. . . . Roths' Cycle Works was founded in 1898, and continues to build bicycles, al- though the sale, repair and housing of automobiles is at the present time the principal business of the Roths.
In the year 1899 the Reed Manufacturing Co. was chartered, and, building a brick factory on the West Lake road, at the E. & P. railroad crossing, engaged in the manufacture of small tools, which was con- tinued until the corporation was reorganized in 1902. At that time the business was greatly increased through the energetic management of
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the Messrs. Wright, of Westfield, who assumed the management. In 1908 the shop was doubled in size and in 1909 steps were taken to still further enlarge. . . . During 1899 the Erie Brewing Co. was chartered, and the Consumers-later the Wayne Brewing Co. . . Constable Brothers Co. became a chartered corporation in 1899 and built an extensive planing mill and shop at Fifth and Sassafras streets, continuing the business founded by John Constable in 1849. The original mill, built alongside the canal, was burned in 1888, the new mill taking its place. The new company includes E. W. and Chas. A. Constable and Hon. C. S. Clarke.
The year 1900 was prolific in the formation of manufacturing con- cerns, many of them rapidly assuming large proportions. The Erie Lithographing & Printing Co., founded in 1883 by Walker & Gallagher in a store room on North Park row and succeeded by Walker & Roberts in 1891, who added lithographing in their new shop on West Fourth street, grew rapidly. On the retirement of Mr. Roberts the company was strengthened and enlarged, until, occupying most of the square with its large plant, it was formed into a corporation, and be- came a leading and influential part of the Consolidated Lithographing Company. . The Odin Stove Mfg. Co. began in a modest way in the nineties, when the old shop of the Forsyth Scale Works was se- cured, under the able management of J. C. Hofstetter and his son, de- veloped remarkably, and from time to time added large permanent buildings. Its charter was obtained in 1900, and its line of manufac- ture is gas stoves, hot plates and gas burners. ... The Colby Piano Co., of the present, incorporated in 1900, is the successor of a company of the same name, formed in 1888, occupying the shop erected in 1871.
The Erie White Metal Co., manufacturers of babbitts, solders and linotype metal, was chartered in 1900, and built on Tenth street at the P. & E. railroad crossing. ... The J. B. Campbell Brass Works, founded by Joseph B. Campbell in 1900, has erected extensive build- ings of brick on Cascade and Sixteenth streets. . . . D. S. Milloy, building contractor, in 1900, in 1908 built a large planing mill in con- nection with his lumber business on Twelfth and Cascade streets. . . . The Erie Gas Mantle Mfg. Co., established in 1900 at the corner of Peach and Fourteenth streets, in 1908 removed to larger quarters in the old Wayne block on French street. Mantles for Welsbach gas burners are the product.
There were a half dozen important industries all destined to be permanent, that came into existence in Erie during 1901. The H. N. Thayer Co., manufacturers of baby carriages, toy wagons and goods of that order, chartered in 1901, is the direct successor of the Erie Chair Co., started in 1874, and changed to the Downing Carriage Co. in 1891. The works were twice destroyed by fire-in 1892 and 1904- and each time rebuilt, the present building being one of the largest fac-
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tories in Erie. . . . The Asliby Printing Co., chartered in 1901, was found- ed by Ashby & Vincent in 1867, and for many years have been exten- sive railroad printers, stationers and paper box makers. ... The Modern Tool Co., chartered in 1901 for the manufacture of ma . chine tools and appliances and of machinery in general, located in the Peoples Market building, adding more space from time to time until the whole of the building is now occupied by the plant. . .. The Erie Reduction Co., incorporated in 1901 for the manufacture of fertilizers, built its plant on the lake shore at the foot of East avenue that year. In 1906 the corporation was reorganized. . .. The Cascade Foundry Co., organized in 1901 as the Depinet Foundry Co., changed its corpo- rate name to the Cascade Foundry Co. January 2, 1903. At first it oc- cupied rented quarters on Cascade street, but in 1908 took possession of extensive new brick shops at Nineteenth and Plum streets, the en- largement of which is now under consideration. . .. The Griffin Mfg. Co. (organized in 1899 at Allegheny) removed to Erie in 1901 and purchased from the American Wringer Co., the F. F. Adams shop on Cherry street near the railroad which has been extensively recon- structed and added to. The line is hardware. In about 1891, J. M. Snyder began business as a manufacturer of confectionery. His earliest enterprise in this line was in 1870, when he succeeded Bener & Burgess, one of the pioneers in sweets, but his business was inter- rupted by other ventures. Since 1901, the business has grown, and, with him, become permanent.
The Erie Specialty Company was reorganized in 1902, for the manufacture of hardware specialties, many of the articles made being from patents of E. Walker. It was originated by Brown & Thomas in 1889, given new impetus by Z. T. Brindley and E. Walker in 1892, and the final change took place in 1907, when Mr. Brindley retired. ... The Williams Tool Co., manufacturers of plumbers' and pipe fitters' tools, was chartered in 1902. ... The C. L. Chapman Cream Sepa- rator Works was established the same year. . . . The American Mfg. & Novelty Co., its product wooden ware of a diversified character, be- gan business in 1902, and has its plant on Cascade street at the Lake Shore railroad crossing. The American Sterilizer Co., was formed as the Hall Brothers Co., in 1902, and incorporated as the American Sterilizer Co. in 1904, when possession was taken of the new shop corner of Eighth and Holland streets. The new shop on Twelfthi and Plum was built in 1909.
The year 1903 witnessed the addition of a quartette of new indus- tries, among them two that took position at once among the large con- cerns. The Continental Rubber Works, including among its corpo- rators T. R. Palmer, and members of the Jarecki family, secured the extensive Tribune Bicycle Works, then idle and converted it into a manufactory of bicycle and automobile tires and other rubber goods.
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In 1909 a large addition was built. . The Erie Silk Mills date from the same year. The stockholders are principally of Erie. The large mill on the corner of Twenty-sixth and Cascade streets was built in 1903. ... The Lippold Valve Co., established in 1903, built first on Eighth street east of the P. & E. Railroad, but in 1908 erected a brick shop west of Erie on the line of the Nickel Plate Railroad. The Stratton Mfg. Co., manufacturers of bone cutters, formed in 1903, oc- cupied their shop on Twelfth and Cherry streets first in 1908.
In 1904 the principal industry established was the U. S. Horse Shoe Co., of which mention has already been made. The same year the Eriez Stove Co. was formed and erected buildings on Twentieth street between Holland and German, a large brick shop being added in 1908. . . . The Erie Stamping & Manufacturing Co., chartered in 1904, engaged in metal stamping, nickel plating and brass founding, began business on West Twelfth street. . .. The Erie Printing Co., incorporated the same year, is composed of the German printers and publishers of Erie, but their product is not confined to that language.
The Erie Burial Case Co. had a reorganization in 1904, but there had been others, for it was founded in 1881 and the "coffin factory" built out on the Edinboro road in that year. The company was re- organized in 1884, when Dr. A. K. McMullen came into it. The re- organization in 1904, was when the McMullen interests were with- drawn on the closing up of his estate. This concern is now under the control of Mr. T. W. Walker. ... The American Boiler Works, foot of State street, boilers and marine engine repairs, was established in 1904.
The Morse Iron Works was incorporated in 1905, and the exten- sive shops of the corporation on Gaskell avenue between the Lake Shore and Nickel Plate railroads was begun immediately. It is a purely local corporation, undertaken, however, with ample capital to establish it upon a footing that will enable it to enter the lists on even terms with older concerns in the same line of business, which is pipe fittings, tools and castings. ... In the same year the Bury Compressor Com- pany was chartered. The new corporation was the reorganization of the Herron & Bury Mfg. Co., established in 1902. The product is air compressors, either combined with steam engine, or separately driven. The large shop at the corner of Seventeenth and Raspberry street was more than doubled in size in 1907. William Hamilton, president of this company, is also president of the Erie Car Works and of the Morse Iron Works. ... The Urick Foundry Co. was established in 1905, and its foundry for the manufacture of gray iron castings was built the same year on Cherry street near Huron. . .. The Erie Baking Co., grew out of the Firch bakery at Fourth and Walnut streets, and was incorporated in 1905. It secured the Weschler malt house property on Ninth street between Chestnut and Walnut, which was altered
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over into a bakery for bread and other bakestuffs. . . . Another bakery dating 1905, is the Harry A. Sands bread bakery at Fourth and French streets, but the beginnings of this were away back in borough days. It was started in 1842 by E. Goodrich, and bought by F. F. Adams about 1860. Mr. Adams brought W. J. Sands from Buffalo to look after practical details, and in 1865 or thereabout, Mr. Sands be- came proprietor and introduced steam machinery. It was then a small place near Fifth and Sassafras streets. Eventually a large building was erected on Fourth street between State and French and the man- ufacture of biscuits, crackers and gingersnaps begun on a large scale. The building was enlarged and extended to the corner of Fourth and French streets in 1894, and next year the business was sold by W. J. Sands & Sons to the United States Baking Co., which operated the plant until the National Biscuit Co. was formed. The Erie plant being closed down, it was bought by Harry J. Sands in 1905, and put in oper- ation as a bread bakery. The Noyes Brass Works, opened in the shop on Twelfth street now occupied, in 1905, began thirty years ago, when E. S. Noyes opened a brass foundry on Eleventh street. There were a number of changes, the firms of Noyes & Rahn, Noyes & Bost- wick and the Keystone Brass Co., succeeding, until 1890, when Mr. Noyes removed to Akron, Ohio. He returned in 1902 and opened a shop on Twelfth street between Cherry and Poplar, which was vacated for the present shop in 1905. On the death of E. S. Noyes the business was continued by his son and daughter, Alfred R. and Helen B. Noyes.
The Burke Electric Co., incorporated in 1906, is the successor of the Keystone Electric Co., organized in 1890 by Messrs. Sturgeon. Platt, Downing and others. The first shop was on Peach street near Fourteenth, from which there was a flitting to Fourteenth and State streets, and then, in 1893, the large shop on the corner of Twelfth and Cranberry streets was built. Soon after the Burke people assumed control fire destroyed a large part of the works, but the loss was re- placed by buildings of much greater capacity. The product is electric motors, dynamos and other electrical appliances. ... The Perry Iron Company was chartered the same year as noted previously in this chapter. . .. Schaffner Brothers Co., pork and beef packers, incorpo- rated in 1906, established an extensive abbatoir and packing house at 641-651 East Fifteenth street the same year. . The Washburn Mfg. Co., woodenware, 1116 West Eighteenth street, was chartered in 1906, as was the Tellers Organ Co., builders of church organs, at 2421 Holland street. ... The Greif Cooperage, a Cleveland corporation, established a branch at Erie in the old pail factory plant, for the man- ufacture of slack cooperage, in 1906. The Herald Paper Box Co., originally a department of the Herald Printing & Publishing Co.'s business, was bought by E. J. Neiner and P. C. Reidel, and established on the two upper floors of the Braggins building on Twelfth street. In
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1909 a new three story brick building was erected on West Nineteenth street. . . The American Beauty Stove Co., reorganized and incor- porated in 1896, was first established in 1888 to manufacture the pat- ents of the late Chas. H. Miller, and was known as the Miller Gas Stove Co. Later it was entered as the American Beauty Stove Co., Limited, by J. I. Town and others, and in 1905 was taken over by the interests that a year later took out a new charter. The product is gas stoves and hot plates and the works on Fourteenth street between State and French. . . The F. D. Schultz Company, manufacturers of and wholesale dealers in confectionery, was first chartered in 1900 as the Erie Pepsin Gum Co., and was located at the corner of Four- teenth and State streets. In 1906 it was reorganized and incorporated as the F. D. Schultz Co., and on March 15, 1907. occupied the fine new building at the corner of Eleventh and French streets, just completed for its use.
The new corporations of 1907, include the Germann Bronze Co., originated as Rahn & Germann, in 1889, at Sixteenth and State, but moved to the corporation's new building on Nineteenth and Chestnut in 1907. ... The Bay City Forge Co., heavy forgings and machine work, Nineteenth and Cranberry streets. ... The C. N. Grace Co .. machinery repairs, Nineteenth, west of Sassafras. ... The Erie Leather Co., tanners, established in the old Bauschard planing mill on East Ninth street. ... The Erie City Mfg. Co., hardware and wooden specialties and sterilizers, the shop erected in 1907, enlarged to more than double in 1908. . .. The Federal Mfg. Co., horseshoe toe-calks, and the Erie Coke Co., both already mentioned. The Bay City Forge Company's plant was burned in 1909, and immediately rebuilt. . . . The Keystone Rubber Co., organized in 1907 by J. G. Moomy, manu- facturers of automobile tires and rubber goods generally, making a specialty of rubber corks or stoppers. It is the successor of the Two Centuries Co., the Erie Cork Works, and the Erie Rubber Works. The Mayo Life Boat Co., manufacturers of metallic life boats, tanks, silos, doors, and furniture, erected a shop on the Nickel Plate Railroad, near the Green Garden road, in 190%.
The Keystone Brass Co., became incorporated in 1908, but its be- ginnings were thirty years ago, when E. S. Noyes first engaged in the manufacture of brass goods. When C. F. Bostwick, senior member of the company died in 1906, his partner, Louis Mertens, organized a new company which was incorporated with Louis Mertens as president and Augusta Mertens as secretary. . The Erie Art Metal Co., incor- porated in 1908, manufactures steel specialties-steel waste baskets, trays, etc., at 616-618 West Twelfth street.
The Erie Tool Works, was chartered in 1908, to engage in the manufacture of tools. . . . The Erie Cement Brick & Block Co., char- tered in 1908, makes bricks and building material from cement.
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The Bell Oil Co., is chartered as a refiner of lubricating oils and greases. . . . The firm of Patterson & Stirling, manufacturers of furnaces, iron cornice, etc., was established by Patterson Bros. in 1868, and took possession of their new shop on East Twelfth street in 1891. . . The Neilsen Mailing Machine Co., incorporated under the laws of Maine, was removed to Erie in 1908 and acquired the property built thirty years ago for the Keystone Boot & Shoe Co., on the Twelfth street extension east of the city. The corporation, Lauritus M. Niel- sen, president, and L. L. Lucas, secretary and treasurer, manufactures Mr. Nielsen's patent automatic mailing and addressing machinery.
The year 1909 witnessed the beginning of operations by the large sawmill of F. W. Burnham, on the Nickel Plate Railroad near Cran- berry street; the incorporation of the Mayer Brothers Contracting Co., who make asphalt pavements, and the reorganization of the Sims Co., manufacturers of steam specialties. The last named industry was founded by Henry Sims in 1886, and erected the factory on Holland street in about 1890. The officers of the company are, Henry Sims, president ; George A. Sims, secretary, and Harry W. Sims, treasurer.
CHAPTER X .- VANISHED INDUSTRIES.
OIL CLOTHS .- FIRET BLAST FURNACE .- CANDLES AND SOAP .- SILK GROWING .- OIL REFINING .- BARRELS .- PARLOR ORGANS.
In these days of greater Erie, when we point with satisfaction and pride to the gigantic industries that, beginning when the city was in its swaddling clothes, have increased to the mammoth proportions of the present time, and the many others that have since been estab- lished here, it may be interesting, if not profitable, to cast a backward glance and note what has been, but forever passed away ; to consider some of the enterprises that once had a thrifty existence and that con- tributed greatly to the wealth of the city for a time, but are now all but forgotten. Some of them were big with promise, and seemed to be an assurance of quick and rapid civic wealth. Some seemed by nature to belong here. Erie was the point where certain interests appeared to logically center, and where they would naturally establish themselves. Proximity, advantages of transportation, desirable sites, adequate cap- ital, advantageous conditions, all combined to favor Erie as the cen- ter for certain lines of industry. The beginnings, even, were made and good progress attained. And yet they went out ; departed scarcely leaving a trace ; are now barely memories, and those only of the oldest inhabitants.
There is, for example, the oil cloth industry. Who of the more than 60,000 people of the present time in Erie remember the oil cloth factories? Only a mere handful. And yet in their day these were among the most important the city boasted of ; important because they were the surest money producers at a time when hard cash was a thing so rare that hundreds of workers-in fact the great majority of the employed-regarded themselves especially fortunate if their monthly recompense included so much as a single dollar in cash besides the store pay-the "pewterinktum" and "blue crackee" the necessities of the time substituted for money. Not every industry was of such a char- acter that its product could be sent far enough out into the world to bring back the coin of the realm. The makers of stoves and plow- points and cast iron kettles disposed of their wares to the people of Erie and round about, and the pay was largely in produce of one sort or another. The money that found its way into the hands of the man-
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ufacturers and merchants was barely enough to meet their obligations for necessities that had to be procured from the larger business centers. Therefore barter became a necessity.
But it was different with the oil cloth industry. The product of these factories was not designed for home consumption. It found its way-or rather was carried-into portions of the country where money, if not abundant, was still sufficient in quantity to put the bus- iness on a money basis, and the manufacturers and their employes were correspondingly happy. Indeed the blessing was rather more diffused. The entire community was benefited.
The pioneer in the oil cloth industry was J. H. Woelmer. He came to Erie from Hamburg. He had learned the trade of making oil cloths in that German free city, and coming here, with good business instincts saw a promising field. Nothing was known in this part of the country about the manufacture of this kind of goods. As a matter of fact it was a secret. Therefore, when Mr. Woelmer, in the early forties, set up his first factory on Fourth street, near Myrtle, and engaged in the business of producing table covers, he had the field entirely to himself. Besides his ability to make the goods, Mr. Woelmer had the business sense to know how to market them. He enlisted the services of a number of salesmen. At the start there were some who sold on com- mission ; before long each man bought his stock outright and sold it. at the best profit he could secure. Thus the business was on a strictly cash basis, for the salesmen, selling by house to house canvass, obtain- ing the price on the delivery of the goods, was able to pay for what he obtained at the factory.
After operating the factory on Fourth street for a number of years Mr. Woelmer sold it to Christian Schwengel, including with the fac- tory and its appliances, the secret of the craft. Mr. Schwengel, when he succeeded to the Fourth street factory, made a success of the busi- ness. Mr. Woelmer, however, did not dispose of his first plant withli the idea of retiring from the business. On the contrary, his plan was to greatly enlarge. A farm of twenty acres was taken on the high ground west of Nicholson's hill, and a factory was there set up. Mr. Woelmer had a reason for going out into the country, and a purpose in taking up a considerable tract of ground. The site was chosen in order to get away from the dust and smoke; the large area was taken to afford as much room as possible for the drying process. Mr. Woel- mer was very prosperous. He was becoming rich. After a residence of a short time at his farm factory he married a sister of Chris. and George Rilling, and not long afterwards, deciding to return to his German home, sold out his factory to Philip Diefenbach, and departed for Hamburg.
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