History of Salt Lake City, Part 89

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company
Number of Pages: 1194

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In the fall of 1878, the Deseret Tanning and Manufacturing Association con- templated starting a shoe factory, for the purpose of making up the leather pro- duced in their tannery ; but the officers of the association being loth to conflict in any manner with the good then being accomplished by Mr. Rowe, considering that a unity of effort with him would be to the best interests of the community, therefore made propositions which finally resulted in the amalgamation of his business with theirs. Mr. Rowe was appointed superintendent of the organiza- tion, resigning his individual enterprise with the hope that the prominent and wealthy men with whom he thus became associated would greatly add to the facilities for manufacturing.

Unity is not merely a pleasing subject for inspiring discourse among the Mor- mons, it is a living principle which they seek to practice in their moral, social, and business relationships. Being governed by that feeling, and realizing that it would not only prevent a business conflict but also aid in increasing manufactur- ing, and so benefit society by providing more employment, the directors of Z. C. M. I., who were mostly officers also of the Deseret Tanning and Manufacturing Association, decided that it would be to the best interests of all concerned to merge the business of the latter into Z. C. M. I., which was accordingly done in March, 1879. This movement was a further step in the right direction, because Z. C. M. I., doing the largest boot, shoe and leather trade in the Territory, and with abundant capital at command, is better able than any individual or firm to invest in a manufacturing enterprise of this character, and to find a market for the goods produced. We are assured it is the determination of the officers of the insutution to foster and increase this successful branch of their vast business, with

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the object in view of ultimately making all the boots and shoes they can sell. There are now one hundred and twenty hands employed in the shoe factory, includ- ing eighty men, twenty boys, and twenty young women and girls.

When the boot and shoe factory of Z. C. M. I. started, the business of this branch of that house amounted to $400,000 a year, only $70,000 worth of which was of their own make ; now over $200,000 of the business of that house in the boot and shoe trade are home made. This, of itself, shows the rapid pro- gress made in the home industries of our city in the last few years since Z.C.M.I. became its active patron and helper. The factory first started on stoga work, but it now manufactures every class of goods, except babies' shoes. This progress has been made by the efficient management of the factory and the education of the employees up to a class of work that completes successfully with the imported goods.

Not only has the factory built up itself, but it has also built up the tanning department connected with the factory, in using the leather for which other- wise it could not have found a market. It should be here mentioned that all the Utah tanneries suspended work and passed out of existence on the advent of the railroads, and this one established by Z. C, M. I. is a revival of the leather-making business. The factory uses up 13,000 sides of leather a year, made at its tannery, which is about equal to the whole tannage of the city in early times. All those hides are from the Salt Lake butchers, which would have to have be sent out of the Territory for a market but for this factory. Here fol- lows a detailed description of Z. C. M. I. Shoe Factory, as given by the secretary of this manufacturing department :

In the cutting room a dozen men and boys are employed. In this room the first part of the manual labor is done. Care, skill and judgment are highly essen - tial qualifications of the workmen in this department, as the materials used in cut- ting are expensive, and a considerable degree of ingenuity is required to cut the stock to advantage and with the least possible waste. The cost of material and labor in the uppers averages about one-half the value of the finished article. There are nearly one hundred styles of boots and shoes made in the establishment, and the large number of patterns required is surprising. Each shoe upper is made of six or more pieces, and in cutting a set of sizes of ladies' shoes there are fre- quently upwards of fifty patterns used. Manager Rowe is the designer of the multitude of patterns, which constitute an invaluable adjunct of the business. Nearly all the work in this department is done by hand. There are no two sides of leather, or skins, exactly alike; it is, therefore, hardly possible to use machinery in cutting uppers ; a few dies, and some small machines for cutting strips, is all that is used here. We must not omit noticing, however, a remarkable ingenious machine placed in this room for measuring leather. No matter how irregular in form, nor how many holes there may be in the leather, the indicator of the ma- chine will instantly show the precise quantity of surface in the side or skin placed on it. Fully half of the material required for the uppers is imported, but we are pleased to state a large amount is now made at the Z. C. M. I. tannery, and J. W. Summerhays & Co. of this city furnish most of the lining skins and roans that are used.

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The uppers, after being cut and stamped with sizes and order numbers, are assorted in what is called " case lots," that is five dozen pairs of shoes or one dozen pairs of boots, and are passed into the fitting room. A work ticket accom- panies each case lot, on which is detailed a description of the goods, order No., who for, when wanted, scale of sizes and number of pairs of each size, with lines on which to write the name of each person who does any of the various desig- nated portions of the work. We will here mention that in the making of each pair of boots or shoes, the labor of over thirty persons is represented.

In this room an Otto Silent Gas Engine, of seven horse-power, is located. A peculiarity which every visitor notes in regard to the engine is that it is kept locked up in a glass-enclosed room, and that it has no attendant. It needs no attention except to oil, clean, start or stop it, and can be started or stopped in one minute. There is no boiler, no fire, no smoke; no dust, no noise, no danger connected with it; it feeds itself and consumes no more gas than it needs, is therefore decidedly economical, and is truly one of the wonders of the nineteenth century. This engine runs seventy-five machines belonging to the shoe and clothing factories. The process of making the uppers is commenced by passing the edges of the leather, which have to be sewn, under a revolving knife, which rapidly takes off a shaving and reduces the edge to uniform thickness. The fitters paste the various parts of the uppers in proper position, and otherwise prepare the work for the sewing machine. The operators receive the uppers thus prepared and govern the lively moving sewing machine while it stiches the curved, scol- loped or straight seams. A light pressure of the foot suffices to start or stop the sewing machine instantly. The exhausting labor of feet and limbs is no longer necessary, and the engine thus proves a blessed boon to the young lady employees. It is exceedingly interesting to observe the astonishing rapidity of movement and beauty of work done by the machines, intricate designs in stitching being worked with the greatest precision, under the expert guidance of the operators. A but- ton-hole machine that automatically guides itself, making button-holes at the rate of two per minute, with a perfection of stitch unequalled by hand, is one of the most admired of the sewing machines. Several other machines in this room seem, almost, endowed with intelligence, among them being the puncher and eyeleter. This machine punches holes, regulating the distance between, inserts and fastens eyelets with great rapidity and perfect workmanship. The waxed- thread machines are large and strong, being capable of easily sewing through leather a half inch thick, and several of them carry two needles each, for stitch- ing double seams on shoe fronts, etc.

The rooms described, connected with which are the packing department and office, are located in the second story, west end of Jennings' Emporium Build- ings. From there we can descend by an elevator to the basement, or sole leather room. A fifteen horse-power steam engine, built at the Salt Lake Iron Works, operates the machines in this and the bottoming departments. Connecting with the south end of the basement is a boiler room, in which there are two twenty horse-power boilers, one furnishes steam for the engine, the other to heat the entire premises.

The hands employed in the Sole Leather Room, cut and prepare the material

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required for the bottoms and heels of boots and shoes. The number of pieces thus prepared averages twenty-four to each pair of boots or shoes, and as there is a daily production of about 400 pairs, there are, consequently, nearly 10,000 pieces of leather cut and fitted up every day in this room. The sole leather used is the best quality of California oak tan. The machinery employed includes two sole-cutting presses ; a guillotine knife, for cutting strips ; a splitter, to reduce the leather to uniform thickness ; a heavy roller, through which the rough pieces are passed, under great pressure, making the leather firm and smooth ; a moulder. which moulds the soles into the curved form of a last ; a powerful heel press, and a variety of smaller machines for trimming, skiving, etc. One of these small machines is an ingenious contrivance for making nail holes. It accurately guages the distance from the edge and between the holes, and punches them with aston- ishing rapidity. An important, and costly item in this department is the exten- sive assortment of steel dies required for cutting soles, heel lifts, etc., used in connection with the two sole. cutting presses. On the floor above this is the bottom. ing room.

The incessant pounding of shoemakers' hammers, whirr of machinery, lively movements of the workmen and array of racks filled with boots and shoes in pro - cess of manufacture, combine to make a picture of industry that instinctively calls to mind a hive of busy bees. The method of fastening soles on boots and shoes, adopted in this workshop, is the same as has, for many years, extensively pre- vailed in England, and is now becoming popular in America; it is called the clinching screw process ; unquestionably the best in the world. Solid iron lasts are used ; the clinching screws are driven into the soles, with a stout, flat file ; the points of the nails turn on the last, after passing through the inner sole, and they are then firmly riveted, or clinched, by blows of a heavy hammer. After the soles and heels are securely fastened on, the boots or shoes having passed through the hands of lasters, nailers and heelers, are then given to the heel breaster, who manipulates a machine which, at one slice, cuts through the six, or more, thick- nesses of sole leather comprising the heel and leaves a square breast next to the shank. The heel trimmer next receives the goods. An old fashioned shoemaker, accustomed to spend an hour or more in whittling a pair of boot heels into good shape would almost be inclined to think that the magic art had been introduced in the modern method of heel trimming as done in this establishment ; the rap- Idity with which heels are trimmed, by machine, into the most perfect forms, has the appearance of a slight of hand trick. Although highly interesting to a per- sonal observer, it would be tedious to a reader to follow a detailed description of the many splendid machines used in this department. Each machine is the most perfect that can be obtained. We will simply name them in the order in which they are used. Next to the heel trimmer is the heel filer and scourer, then the edge trimmer ; edge setter or burnisher ; heel burnisher ; sandpapering machine, or buffer, for scouring the soles; following them are the bottom finishing machines, including revolving brushes for applying colors, polishing, etc .; also a machine with heated steel stamps of various designs, for stamping a trade mark on the soles ; and an embossing machine for gilding the tops of boots.

From this room the goods are conveyed on the elevator up to the floor where

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the packing room is located. The process of cleaning and packing boots and shoes involves more labor than is generally understood. Their attractive appear- ance, or the reverse, depends greatly on the manipulation of cleaners and packers. All boots are subjected to three or four rubbing and dressing opera- tions, on boot " trees," before they are sufficiently smooth and polished to pre- sent to the public, and ordinary leather or calf shoes are similarly treated.

There are competent foremen in each department of the factory, who are specially instructed to permit no poor stock to be used, or imperfect work done on the goods, and their duty is to carefully examine all goods as they pass through the various hands in each room. By this means every pair of boots and shoes is subject to frequent inspection. Damaged or poor goods are laid aside, and only the best are packed for market.

To properly conclude our observations we will now look into the office. In this quiet corner is generally to be found the principal moving power of the whole concern, W. H. Rowe, Esq. He is one of those human electric ma- chines whose business force is felt by all with whom he is associated. The suc- cessful working of this factory speaks loudly for his acquaintance with details and managing ability. In addition to supervising the Shoe Factory Mr. Rowe is man- ager also of the tannery and clothing factory.

The employees of these manufacturing departments of Z. C. M. I. have estab- lished, by Mr. Rowe's advice, a mutual aid society, which has proved highly ben - eficial to them. The members of this society pay a very small sum monthly into a fund from which they receive aid in case of sickness, and they hold meetings frequently for social enjoyment and mental improvement. In all matters con- nected with the growth of these manufacturing enterprises Mr. Rowe has had efficient aid in the services of Mr. D. M. McAllister, and other faithful em- ployees, men, boys and girls.

That these manufacturing concerns are accomplishing much good is a remark hardly necessary to make ; every person can readily comprehend that the large number of people employed are not the only persons benefitted, but that the whole Territory indirectly participates in the advantages. We heartily commend the laudable example of Z. C. M. I. in establishing and fostering these branches of industry, and recommend others, who can, to go and do likewise.

To this may be added something more of detail of the overall and under- wear department, under Mr. Rowe's management. The overall department was first started by Mr. Spencer Clawson, while he was with Z. C. M. I .; but when Clawson left to go into business for himself, the department was turned over to manager Rowe, under whose enterprise it has constantly increased. He im- mediately added to the original overall making, the underwear, which enabled them to cut up 25,000 yards of Provo flannel the first year. This enterprise has entirely cut out the importation of Chinese overalls. The division of labor being adopted in this branch of business, a single overall going through thirteen hands, has made it a decided success.

The overalls are cut by folding 72 bolts, about 3, 600 yards, placed on a table and cut into sections by hand, then cut by a power knife, which produces twelve pairs of overalls per minute; the stitching is done by sewing machines running

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1,400 stitches per minute. The buttons are put on by a magnetic machine. The production of the room is 400 pairs per day.

It is the nucleus of a clothing factory, on a large scale, towards which the management is aiming.

In connection with Z. C. M. I. boot and shoe factory it is highly proper to personally distinguish William Jennings as a home manufacturer.

Mr. Jennings is known to day as the successful merchant and a millionaire of trade. This he has made of himself, but nature, made him for a manufac- turer and an employer of the operative classes. The circumstances of the country changed the bent of his life and threw him into the more profitable avenues of a mercantile commerce rather than that of manufactures-more profit- able, however, only for a time, for the commerce of the future will be chiefly con- structed upon our home industries and native resources.

At first, Mr. Jennings was the manufacturer. He was in Utah nearly ten years before he became the regular merchant. Dealing in cattle was a family vo- cation, but notice in his history how soon he constructed several branches of trade nearest to his primitive business. He established a successful tannery and manu- factured leather. He prided himself in this and made the best leather in the Ter- ritory. The time was when Jennings' tannery was a great public good ; next he became a large manufacturer of boots and shoes, and when he opened a mer- chant's store he placed his home-made stock side-by-side with his States goods and raised it to a cash value, competing in his own store with the imported article. None of the other merchants of Utah did as much. This is by no means said to the discredit of other merchants, but to mark out Jennings' proper line of useful- ness to the community. At one time he employed a hundred men, and stopped the importation of leather from the States. The co-operative organization of the " Big Boot " grew out of his original concern, as did also the Deseret Tannery & Manufacturing Association, which business is still carried on in Jennings' Empor- ium building and at the premises in the 19th Ward, under the auspices of Z. C. M. I. Indeed, he was the original manufacturer of Utah and the only one worthy of that name in the earlier days, though others are now rising, like hives of busy bees, as illustrated by the weavers of cloth in Provo, and the boot and shoe man- facturers of Salt Lake City. Furthermore, it may be noted that Jennings & Sons are ambitious to make their Wasatch Woolen Mills (the pioneer woolen mills of Brigham Young) the rival of the Provo Woolen Factory, in which case Salt Lake City will own a little colony of cloth manufacturers as well as Rowe's colony of boot and shoe makers.

In connection with William Jennings we should give a regular biographical link of his early partner, John R. Winder :

John Rex Winder was born at Biddenden, in the County of Kent, England, on the 11th of December, 1820. In the year 1847 he first heard of Mormonism, in Liverpool ; in the following year he rendered obedience to the Mormon Gos- pel; and in February, 1853, sailed from Liverpool on board the Elvira Owen, which made the trip to New Orleans in thirty-five days. He steamed up the river to Keokuk, and camped there until the 19th of July, when the company started across the plains, arriving in Salt Lake City, October 10, 1853. He genedag

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with Samuel Mulliner in the business of manufacturing saddles, harness, boots, shoes, etc., and remained with him until the spring of 1855. He then joined in partnership with Wm. Jennings, under the firm name of Jennings & Winder, butchers, tanners, and manufacturers of boots, shoes, harness, sad - dles, etc., doing a successful business in each department until the move South, in the spring of 1858, when this partnership was dissolved. William Jennings continued the business, and John R. Winder, in connection with Brigham Young and Feramorz Little, started another tannery on Canyon Creek ; this was carried on successfully until the railroads brought leather to the Terri- tory cheaper than it could be manufactured at home. As already noted, the rail- road caused a general suspension of the tanneries throughout the Territory, but more particularly was this the case in and near Salt Lake City. The last home enterprise John R. Winder was actively engaged in (associated with Feramorz Little, Wm. Jennings, W. H. Hooper, Geo. Romney, Elias Morris and others) was the building and operating a new tannery in the Nineteenth Ward. After putting it into successful operation, it was disposed of to Z. C. M. I., and is now carried on by that firm, as detailed in the general history of the leather trade.

People arriving in the Territory to-day, when we have so many of the nec- essaries and comforts of life-when we have our railroads, street cars, gas works, foundries, mills and manufactories-seldom stop to think of the early days of these settlements, when these things did not exist here, nor of the many trials and difficulties that the early settlers had to encounter in bringing about the present state of affairs,-many of them without a practical knowledge of what they under- took to accomplish, without money or influence abroad that would secure credit, without everything, in fact, except their indomitable will, perseverance, and faith.

In connection with the lumber business, which forms so important a factor in the building of cities, are the factories, containing a number of machines, called wood-working machinery, consisting of planing and grooving machines, mortice and tenanting machines, moulding and shaping machines, circular, fret and band saws and a number of other useful machines, nearly all of which were unknown to our grandfathers, but without which the whole country could not have taken such giant strides the last half century.

The first successful effort to introduce this class of manufacture in Utah, was by the firm of Latimer, Taylor & Co., consisting of four partners: Thomas Lati- mer, Geo. H. Taylor, Charles Decker and Zenas Evans. The first two were sash and door makers, the last two owned and ran a saw mill. It was in the winter of 1866-7, when the canyons were closed up, that the owners of the saw mill used to sit around the fire at Latimer & Taylor's little shop (they -Latimer & Taylor- being agents to sell their lumber). There they would talk about machines and machinery, and study over an illustrated catalogue of the same, that had found its way out here, and wish that they could raise the money to purchase the nec- essary machinery to make a start in that business. They determined at length to make an effort to borrow five thousand dollars, each one pledging himself and all he was worth as security. It was also determined that as Latimer and Taylor had the least of this world's goods, they should do the borrowing, and the other two, being worth more, could give the security.

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If the national currency had been then what it is to-day, the borrowing might have been a very difficult task, but as greenbacks then were worth only fifty cents on the dollar, those who had money were not disposed to hoard it. In a very short time the five thousand dollars were raised. Mayor Smoot furnished three thousand at three per cent. per month, and the other two thousand was pro- cured from various sources at five per cent. per month.

When we consider the high prices of everything in consequence of the depre- ciation of currency, and the enormous rate of interest paid on the loan, we can form some idea of the task these men had undertaken.

Orders were immediately sent through Fred. Perris for the necessary ma- chinery, and in the fall of 1867, it was brought here by ox team, the freight amounting to twenty cents per pound. A lot was rented opposite the southeast corner of the Eighth Ward Square. A lumber yard was started and a planing machine set up, but as yet they had no power to turn it. The first effort to run was made wich a small two-horse power rig, which they hired for an experiment, to which they had attached eight mules, but after turning the contrivance upside down a few times, they came to the conclusion that they could never succeed in running a four-horse machine with a two-horse power. Learning that Mr. Henry Din- woodey was expecting a four-horse steam engine from the east, they negotiated for the same, and on its arrival, had their mill up, and the machinery all in place, so that when the engine arrived, it was but a few days before everything was in order, and they blew the first steam whistle that was ever heard in the city. Young people, who had never heard one, came from all parts of the city to witness the novelty.

Many predicted that it would be a faliure, and the idea that Latimer and Taylor, who were to run it, would make a success of it, seemed preposterous, when it was known that Latimer was a potter by trade, and Taylor a calico en- graver. Though neither of them had any experience with that class of machinery, they started out to succeed, and Mr. Latimer being naturally a machinest, they soon overcome the obstacles that inexperience left in their way. Fortunately for them it was a busy season, mechanics scarce, and they soon had all they could do at remunerative prices. By working early and late, and with the assistance of the lumber from the other partners, they, at the close of the first season, had paid off all their interest and settled the most pressing part of their principal.

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History of Salt Lake City, Part 89

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Tullidge, Edward Wheelock
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Salt Lake City, Star printing company
Number of Pages: 1194