USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > Rock County, Wisconsin; a new history of its cities, villages, towns, citizens and varied interests, from the earliest times, up to date, Vol. II > Part 9
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Janesville is well located for manufacturing industries. Citi- zens are ever on the alert to interest new enterprises. Associa- tions of business men organized for the advancement of the eity have done much to promote these ends. Janesville has been favored with a steady, substantial growth which will continue with the passing years. While the commercial prosperity of the country has inereased in the past as if by magie, bringing into the realm of fact what formerly belonged to fairy tales and fiction. men with large vision assert that our increasing popula- tion and the continued development of the mighty resources of forest, farm, water power and mine will bring multiplied results in the future. In this growth and progress, because of her ad- vantageous position, her transportation facilities already estab- lished and to be established, her water power, her thriving in- dustries and her progressive people, Janesville will richly share.
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JANESVILLE MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
Let it be the hope and effort of all that this commercial growth shall not dominate the richer and deeper things of life, but that our material growth may be directed by those influences and forees which count for the moral enrichment of the people.
Janesville, Wis., October 22, 1907.
List compiled by Geo. Sutherland, Esq.
Produet. Capital.
1. Croak Brewing Co ..
2. A. W. Allison (weather strips)
3. Janesville Clothing Co. $128,000 $ 40,000
4. Hiawatha Springs Co. (mineral water) 30,000
100,000
5. Janesville Batting Co .. 25,000 25,000
6. Janesville Shirt & Overall Co 40,000 25,000
7. Marzluff Shoe Co. 41,000 55,000
8. Western Shoe Co.
50,000 30,000
9. Blodgett Milling Co. (rye and buckwheat). 300,000 50,000
10. Colvin Baking Co. 15,000
15,000
11. Bennison & Lane (bakery) 20,000
12. Burton & Blaisdale (windmills and tanks). 10,000
13. Kalamazoo Knitting Co. (socks)
14. Badger State Machine Co. (punches and shears) 25,000
15. Rock River Cotton Co. (bats, mattresses and twine) 500,000 250,000 16. Randall & Athon (metal novelties and tools)
17. Bennett Marble Works. 5,000
18. William Hemming Sons Brewery. 10,000
19. Fredericks, Wetmore Co. (barber supplies) 5,000
20. Burdiek & Murray Co. (harnesses)
21. The Harlow Canopy Co. (boat canopies and canopy fittings) .
22. Magee Bros. (tobacco cases) . 4,000
23. Fifield Bros. Lumber Co. (tobacco cases) .. 4,000
24. Janesville Lumber Co. (tobacco eases) .... 2,000
25. Janesville Cornice Co. (sash and door frames) 10,000
26. Nott Bros. (paper boxes) 10,000
27. H. L. MeNamara (cornices) . 5,000
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HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
28. Dryer Marble Works.
29. Janesville Machine Co. $750,000 $250,000
30. Janesville Barb Wire Co. 400,000 150,000
31. E. O. Burdick Fountain Pen Co.
32. Hildebrandt & Co. (furs) .
33. Gray's Pop & Soda Water Co 10,000
34. Levi G. McCulloch (brooms) . 1,000
35. Henry Shoemaker (brooms) 1,000
36. Wisconsin Carriage Co 30,000
37. Hough Shade Corp. (porch shades hammocks) 125,000
and
200,000
38. Peter Hohenaedel, Jr., Co. (canning) 200,000
75,000
39. Choate-Hollister Furn. Co. (tables).
100,000
50,000
40. Bicknell Mfg. & Sup. Co. (iron tools) 20,000
41. Rock River Woolen Mills.
100,000
75,000
42. Williamson Pen Co. (fountain pens)
25,000
10,000
43. M. Buob Brewing Co ..
30,000
44. Janesville Granite, Brick & Stone Co ..
35,000
45. Janesville Red Brick Co.
46. Rock County Concrete Stone Co. (building blocks) 5,000
47. Janesville Cement Post Co. (fence posts). 18,000
48. Rock County Sugar Co. (beet sugar) ..... 610,000 800,000
49. Victor Concrete Mfg. Co. (building blocks)
50. Shurtleff & Co. (ice cream and butter) .
40,000
51. Lewis Knitting Co.
75,000 30,000
52. Doty's Flour & Feed Mill. 10,000
53. Bassett & Echlin Co. (harnesses and sad- dlery) 175,000 50,000
54. H. B. Smith Fountain Pen Co.
55. Silica Stone & Brick Co. (sand brick)
56. E. B. Heimstreet (fish food) .
57. J. Sutherland & Sons (picture framing and moldings)
58. Skelly & Wilbur (picture framing) .. ..
59. Schaller & McKey Lumber Co. (tobacco cases)
60. Knickerbocker Ice Co. (gravel roofing and ballast)
61. E. A. Truesdall (metal cornices)
611
JANESVILLE MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
62. Janesville Music Co. (picture framing) ...
63. O. P. Brunson (artificial limbs) .
64. W. E. Clinton & Co. (book binding and blank books)
65. Robert W. Clark (barrels and kegs) . . .
66. Carl W. Diehls (picture frames and win- dow shades)
67. Independent Printing Co. (stamps and stencils)
68. Janesville Floor Rug Co.
69. Thoroughgood & Co. (cigar box lumber and cigar boxes) . $100,000 $50,000
70. New Doty Mfg. Co. (punches and shears). 100,000 75,000
71. Rock River Hay Tool Co. (hay carriers) .. 15,000
72. Janesville Carriage Works. 30,000 150,000
73. New Gas Light Co. (gas and tar roofing) .
50,000
74. Rock River Machine Co. (punches and shears) 45,000 15,000
75. Parker Pen Co. (fountain pens) .
202,000 100,000
76. Janesville Electric Co. (electric appli- ances) 100,000
77. Janesville Cash & Package Carrier Co. (overhead carriers) 25,000
78. J. P. Cullen Co. (sash, doors and blinds) ..
79. Gund's Brewing Co. 10,000
80. Milwaukee Elevator Co. (grain) .
81. Janesville Pure Milk Co. (sterilized milk).
82. Globe Works Co. (elevator tanks and wind- mills) 70,000 30,000
83. Hanson Furniture Co.
84. Janesville Plating Works
85. Cigar Factories
86. J. D. Owen & Son (lightning rods)
87. N. Pappas (candies)
88. Janesville Candy Kitchen.
89. Janesville Cement Shingle Co.
90. F. A. Ambrose (metal boilers).
XXIX.
THE LAST QUARTER-CENTURY OF BELOIT'S MANUFAC- TURING INTERESTS.
By
J. B. Dow.
Beloit has long been noted as a manufacturing center and a most important one, but in the year 1886 she was whistling to keep her courage up. Her principal factories, the work of a generation, had failed, and her importance and prestige as a manufacturing center had been painfully minimized. There was little available capital here at that time and seemingly but little tangible inducement for outsiders to come in and bring more. Beginnings had been made upon the ruins calamity had entailed, but they were small and. Lazarus-like, were bound head and foot with grave clothes. Beloit young men, discouraged and following Greeley's advice, were leaving and going West to "grow up with the country." There was no employment for idle hands. Beloit was in a bad way. Her extremity was great, but this extremity, in the divine economy, was God's opportunity. A few men were large enough to grasp the situation and pave the way for a re- vival which should be lasting in its effects. They did this and almost a generation now have been witnesses of that resurrection.
A Business Men's Association was formed. Twenty men were called together, and twenty men came together; but only eleven stayed-eleven righteous men-one more than was asked for to save Sodom. And Beloit was saved.
In the organization Mr. J. B. Dow was made secretary of the association. and for the next twelve months put in some of the most strenuous work of his life. He enlisted men in the service until the eleven founders before the close of the first year grew to nearly one hundred. He proposed to issue a folder extolling the advantages Beloit offered to people to come in, was author- ized to do this, and prepared a document which was enthusias-
612
613
BELOIT'S MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
tically received by the association and thousands of copies or- dered printed. This edition exhausted, the common council of the city, which had been in a Rip Van Winkle sleep, opened its eyes to the advantages of the situation and ordered thousands more at the expense of the city. The folder was unique, startling, effective. It renamed the city "Beautiful Beloit." The renam- ing was approved and passed into history. The title page of the folder, which the late Professor J. J. Blaisdell, of Beloit College, characterized as a "stroke of genius," read thus and challenged at once the attention of the reader :
Beautiful Beloit. A Healthful and Picturesque Location, A Thriving Manufacturing City. THE HUM OF HER VARIED INDUSTRIES Makes Music and Money. Superb Water Power, Excellent Railroad Facilities and Favorable Distributing Advantages. AN INVITING FIELD For Laborer and Capitalist. MODERN IMPROVEMENTS AND METROPOLITAN ADVANTAGES. Schools, Churches and College CONTRIBUTE TO THE Intellectual, Social and Moral Welfare. READER, LISTEN ! If you want a Home, an Occupation, Prosperity, Happiness, a Long Life and a Fruitful Life, COME TO BELOIT!
Among the founders of this association, which did so much to resurrect Beloit and set the wheels of prosperity in an indus- trial sense again in motion, and which is eminently deserving of conspicuous mention on this historic leaf of Beloit's manufac- tories, are the following, some living, some dead: Mr. E. J. Ad- ams, who was the first president of the association; J. B. Dow, its secretary ; Professor E. G. Smith, Attorney B. M. Malone, David S. Foster, Fred Messer, C. C. Keeler, L. H. Parker, John Foster, William H. Wheeler, C. D. Winslow, W. M. Brittan, E. F. Hansen,
614
HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
C. B. Salmon, President E. D. Eaton of Beloit College, A. N. Bort, C. F. Rau, Dr. Samuel Bell, E. S. Greene, Cham Ingersoll, F. F. Livermore, C. W. Merriman, C. F. Hardy, C. A. Smith.
The Berlin Machine Works. As a result of this organized ef- fort upon the part of determined business men, new industries were brought in, some at considerable cost; but in nearly every case expectations were far more than realized. The Berlin Ma- chine Works was induced to remove its wood-working plant to Beloit by the gift of a plant costing our citizens $9,000, and from the start its growth has been phenomenal, until at the present time it is accredited as the largest plant manufacturing wood- working machinery in the United States, if not in the world.
Every kind of wood-working machinery is made in this plant. Factories all over the world engaged in the manufacture of wood into various forms are equipped with Berlin machinery. Furni- ture factories at Grand Rapids, wagon factories at South Bend, implement factories in our own city and in Moline and Chicago, car shops at Pullman, woodenware factories in Michigan and In- diana, planing mills in Japan and the Philippines, and factories of like character, all pay tribute to Beloit through the coffers of the Berlin Machine Works. In recent years citizens at a cost of $7,500 secured the vacation of part of Third street, on which the company, according to its promise, expended about $70,000 in new buildings.
The Berlin Machine Works is capitalized for $2,500,000, and the officers are P. B. Yates, president, and L. D. Forbes, secretary and treasurer. They maintain branch offices in Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Spokane, Seattle, New Orleans and Macon, Ga., and have representatives in many other sections of the United States as well as agencies in all principal foreign cities. The plant is absolutely modern, all of the present build- ings having been erected in recent years, and in every detail they are equipped with the best labor-saving machinery and equip- ment that the ingenuity of man has devised.
Railroad tracks run into every building and electric traveling cranes provide easy facilities for handling the work in the shops and for loading it upon the cars. The first open-end cars for load- ing machinery were made for this company, and the company itself owns a large number of cars. The plant and yards occupy fifteen acres of. ground and the buildings have 552,500 square
615
BELOIT'S MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
feet of floor space. Part of this has been added within the past year. A new pattern storage house has just been built, three stories high and covering a ground area of 150x72 feet. An- other new building has just been finished measuring 200x40 feet. The development of the great empire of the Dominion of Canada has not passed unnoticed by the company. Their machines have been in constant demand on the other side of the border, and for some years the trade has been so important as to warrant a care- ful study of the special circumstances which regulate this com- merce. As a result the company has built a large branch factory at Hamilton, Ont., where machinery will be manufactured espe- cially for the Canadian and export trade. This will not in any way affect the prosperity of the main factory, as the business is steadily growing and constant additions are necessary to keep pace with the demand for Berlin machinery. The Berlin Machine Works employs over 800 men and the output of its factory is over $2,000,000.
The Fairbanks-Morse Manufacturing Company. As another result of the effort of the aforesaid Business Men's Association the Williams Engine Works was secured and a plant built beside the then growing Eclipse Wind Engine and Clutch Pulley Works, all of which were later sold out and consolidated in what is now known as the Fairbanks-Morse Manufacturing Company, which alike of its kind, in the multiplicity of its practical products with its large and ingenious sales department, has no equal in this or any country.
The plant occupies fifty acres and has more than a quarter of this under roof, providing over 500,000 square feet of floor space. This plant was established in Beloit in 1894 by Fairbanks, Morse & Co., by the consolidation of the Eclipse Windmill Company and the Williams Engine and Clutch Pulley Works, the former of which had been in operation in Beloit since 1872. From small beginnings in the early part of the last century as Vermont scale manufacturers the Fairbanks-Morse Company has grown into a powerful concern in the manufacture and selling of its products. The company foresaw the coming of the tremendous development in the manufacture and use of gasoline for power and installed in Beloit what has quickly grown to be the greatest gas and gaso- line engine manufacturing plant in the world. They make gas engines in 200 sizes and styles, from 2-horsepower engines to the
616
HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
giant 200-horsepower vertical. They also make engines to be operated by gas, gasoline, kerosene or crude oil and have been the leaders in the development of the marvelous producer gas engine, proclaimed by the experts of the United States govern- ment to be the power of the future.
This concern manufactures about 10,000 engines every year, an average of a complete engine every twenty minutes of the working day. Among its other manufactures are steam pumps from all sizes up to the largest triple expansion pumps for city water pumping stations, making over 4,000 yearly. Steam lioists and artesian well engines are also a part of their product. The quantity of wooden and steel windmills or wind engines which this company manufactures and sends out is simply enormous. They make steel mills for every conceivable purpose, and with them wooden railway tanks and tank fixtures. The foundries operated by the company pour an average of 114 tons of iron every day.
The company is constantly adding to its plant more buildings and machinery and employs about 2,000 men.
Recently a superb office building covering a ground area of 40x170 feet has been constructed, complete in all its appoint- ments. The plant is equipped with the most modern labor-saving devices, electric traveling cranes being installed wherever pos- sible to carry the work from one machine to another and to load the finished product upon railroad cars, which run into every part of the shops over its private tracks. Its fire protection through seven miles of its own water mains and its sprinkler system is very complete.
The officers of the company at the present time are: C. H. Morse, Jr., president ; W. E. Miller, vice-president, and George B. Ingersoll, secretary and treasurer. The general manager of the Beloit plant is Mr. J. A. Vail, a man formerly with the Allis- Chalmers Company, a most competent man and one of wide ex- perience. The general superintendent is Mr. W. T. Clark. Be- sides its Chicago offices the company has offices and warehouses outside of Chicago in all the leading cities in the United States, in Canada, and in London, England, and also conducts numerous other manufacturing plants in this country.
Beloit Iron Works. One of the most reliable and substantial of Beloit's industries, the Beloit Iron Works, dates its birth in
REV. CLAUS L. CLAUSEN.
617
BELOIT'S MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
1885. Four men-Fred Messer, Alonzo Aldrich, Noble J. Ross and William H. Grinnell-with a combined cash capital of $9,100, made a start in the manufacture of paper mill machinery. They bought the old frame shops, machinery, patterns, etc., of the de- funet Merrill & Houston Iron Works, and the first year, with this small capital, through their individual efforts and with fif- teen men in their employ, catalogued an output of $20,000. Fred Messer was president, an accredited genius along those lines in which they were engaged; Aldrich secretary, Ross superintend- ent and Grinnell treasurer. From the start the concern proved to be a pronounced success. Within about ten years its home trade this side the water was enlarged until it reached Japan and China. It shipped the first American paper mill to Japan, two to China, and in 1904 sent off a solid train of twenty-five cars loaded with a paper mill to be erected on the Thames near Lon- don. The concern now employs 200 men, has an invested capital of $136,500 and has an annual output of $420,000. It has during the years erected fine substantial modern factories, equipped with the most modern machinery and mechanical devices known to the craft for its use, and, with the Berlin Machine Works and the Fairbanks plant, has helped to make Beloit, as Milwaukee beer did Milwaukee, famous the world over. Messrs. Aldrich and Ross are now the active managers at the head of the concern, and it is said to make its stockholders supremely happy by paying monthly dividends the largest of any company in the city and possibly in the state.
J. Thompson & Sons Manufacturing Company. The history of this concern is a part of the history of Beloit and of Rock county and well deserves prominent mention upon this page. Its be- ginning dates back nearly half a century and was among the early inspirations which helped to make Beloit. Mr. John Thomp- son, the father and founder, who is still an active survivor among early settlers, started business as a blacksmith alone in 1860 in a small brick shop where the present implement factory is located. From that small beginning he soon took up the making of sleighs, wagons, and later in a small way plows and farm implements. After ten years, in 1870, he took in as a partner Colonel O. C. Johnson, and later his brother, J. A. Johnson, of Madison, and the firm began to make plows and other farm implements in a wholesale way, shipping them to various points in the West.
618
HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
In 1873 they put in a steam engine and boiler and at that time were employing only about twenty men, the wages ranging from $1.25 to $1.75 per day.
In July, 1876, the factory was entirely destroyed by fire en- tailing a loss of about $60,000, with practically no insurance. The following day work was begun clearing up the ruins, and with temporary quarters business was shortly resumed. The fol- lowing year, in 1877, a new brick shop was built, and year by year enlargements were made. In 1880 John Thompson bought out his partners and took in his sons under the firm name of J. Thompson & Sons. The business expanded very rapidly under this new management and in 1886 was incorporated with a cap- ital stock of $120,000. In a few years the capital stock had in- creased to $200,000, the company then employing 150 men.
In 1897 the company began the manufacture of the Lewis gas and gasoline engine, and this became a prominent part of the business. Thousands of these have been sent to all parts of the United States and have given excellent satisfaction.
Mr. John Thompson in 1903 retired from business and the capital stock of the company was then increased to $300,000. A modern plant was erected in South Beloit and the gas engine was built on a large scale. Fire and flood in 1904, March 20, however, nearly destroyed the new plant, entailing a heavy loss ; following this soon after, the same year, the old implement fac- tory in Beloit was almost destroyed by fire, another heavy loss. But the company rebuilt and equipped its South Beloit shop with the best and most modern tools and equipment, including a fine 15-ton electric crane for handling heavy work. The com- pany added then to its line of work the gas producer engine and has turned out some very fine machines of this type. It built single engines up to 250 horsepower and twin tandem engines up to 500 horsepower rated capacity.
The Beloit plant was also rebuilt and continued the manu- facture of agricultural implements.
The officers of the company are: O. T. Thompson, president and treasurer ; E. A. Thompson, vice-president, and A. S. Thomp- son, secretary.
The Thompson Plow Works, familiarly known all over the United States, is deserving of a great deal of credit for the labor it has furnished to citizens of Beloit, for what it has added to
619
BELOIT'S MANUFACTURING INTERESTS
Beloit's material wealth and for the reputation it has given to Beloit as a reliable manufacturing center.
Charles H. Besly & Co. As manufacturers of taps, dies and dise grinders, along with other lines, this coneern ranks among the leading factories of Beloit. They began in a very small way about twenty years ago in the making of taps and dies, later add- ing the dise grinder which was invented by F. N. Gardner. The company was organized under the firm name of C. H. Besly & Co. and commenced business with an investment of about $10,- 000, under the management of F. N. Gardner. It employed at the outset only about half a dozen men. It has a capital now invested of $115,000, employs upwards of eighty men and has an annual output of about $100,000, sending its products, which have been largely inereased in variety and kind, all over the world. Three years ago a large new fireproof building was ereeted on the water-power and a new water-power plant in- stalled. The method of making the kinds of tools above enu- merated has been greatly changed under the management of the Besly shops, which have contributed largely to its success. Mr. Charles H. Besly, the leading man of the concern, is a resi- dent of Chicago, the active management now in Beloit being in the hands of Charles Munson and John Miller, Jr.
The Gardner Machine Company. Mr. F. N. Gardner, presi- dent and general manager of the Gardner Machine Company, is aceredited as the man who was the inspiration of the mechanical part of the Besly company and a large factor in bringing about the success that coneern has achieved. While he worked during the years there he thought and planned and invented not only his dise grinder, which has so important a place now in large manufactories, but other labor-saving devices and improved tools and machinery which are most useful and largely used. About three years ago Mr. Gardner resigned his position with the Besly people and organized the Gardner Machine Company, he being its president and general manager; N. J. Ross, of the Beloit Iron Works, vice-president; W. H. Grinnel, treasurer, and C. T. Mitehel, secretary. The business has a good start, manu- facturing principally all of the inventions of Mr. Gardner, which now have a large demand at home and abroad.
Gesley Manufacturing Company. The history of Rock county would be incomplete without mention being made of the Gesley
620
HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
brothers, whose inventions of farm machinery have found such large place in the markets of the West. Among them are the Gesley sulky plow, the New Improved three-wheeled sulky plow, Gesley cultivator, the Gesley lever harrow. They were estab- lished in Beloit as manufacturers nearly fifty years ago and for many years did a successful manufacturing business. The man- ufacturing end has largely been eliminated during recent years, but they are still at the old stand, dealing in other manufac- tured products and doing a very successful business. The officers of the company are Torris Gesley and C. O. Millett, both enter- prising business men contributing not a little to the industrial interests of our city.
R. J. Dowd Knife Works. The R. J. Dowd Knife Works is another old established and vigorous concern, which was founded by R. J. Dowd over thirty years ago. Mr. R. J. Dowd began in a small way in 1877, employing but few men, manufacturing machine knives at that time of a limited number of kinds, his first year's output being but about $8,000. From the start this business has grown in volume and importance until its annual output is now considerably over $100,000 and its product is sold outside of this country in Mexico, Europe and Australia. Its invested capital is about $100,000. There are two sons, G. A. Dowd and Robert I. Dowd, active managers with the father, who is still hearty and vigorous and whose counsel is yet an impor- tant asset in the running of the business.
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