Fairfield County, Ohio - Chapter 9: Manufactures and Commerce, 1912

Chapter 9: Manufactures and Commerce

Busy Workshops - The Hocking Glass Co. - The Cole Glass Co. - The Lancaster Glass Co. - The Lancaster Window Glass Co. - The Columbus Plate and Window Glass Co. The Columbus Window Glass Co. - The Motherwell Iron Works - Lancaster Shoe Factories

Total Daily Output 10,000 Pairs of Shoes - The A. Get:: Shoe Co. - The Lancaster Shoe Co. - The Fairfield Shoe Co. - The Ohio Shoe Co. - Hotels - A Classified List of Lancaster's Business Enterprises Including the Professions.

Busy Workshops

Fairfield County has not only a rich soil, but a very rich and diversified field of manufactures. In every village and town there are valuable plants that bring wealth to the community, and give employment to many hundreds of worthy people. These industries are described in Chapter VI under that township's history, of which they are a part. Baltimore, Basil, Pleasantville, Bremen and many other good towns have a place in this account of the work of men's hands.

The county seat, Lancaster, naturally leads in this field of work, and her list is a long one. There are over 115 dififerent kinds of business, and over 600 different firms at the present time ( 1912) doing business in Lancaster. This long list of industries, with the army of sturdy toilers constitutes the wealth and power of the community, still illustrating the truth of Lord Bacon's dictum, "There be three things that make a Nation great and prosperous - a fertile soil, busy workshops, and easy communication from place to place." This county is blessed with all three of these forces, and the power of the factory was never greater than in this industrial age. Men are doing wonderful things with their hands - and they are demanding that their children be taught in the public schools to use their hands.

There is a great awakening in the educational world on the subject of vocational training. Schools are planning for the future of the boys and girls who are to use their hands as well as their brains, and Ohio is in the very front of this race for added power for the youth of the land. There is no good reason why the schools should not equip every boy and girl with the elements of some useful trade or profession. This is the greatest industrial age the world has seen - rivers are bridged and tunneled; mountains washed and hewn away; stone, iron, steel, brick and cement piled high in the office buildings; acres covered with busy shops in which millions of spindles do the bidding of trained hands. Lancaster has ever

The Hocking Glass Company

The Hocking Glass Company plant, located in West Lancaster, employs more people than any other glass company in the city and its capacity is about fifteen carloads of manufactured product per week. Four hundred persons find employment here and many of them are artists of rare skill and its beautifully decorated opal ware, lamps, and splendid vases have attracted attention world-wide in its extent, and its famous product finds ready sale everywhere. They manufacture plain crystal glass ware, also, and do much in a variety of novelties. The company was incorporated and established in 1905. The officers were: T. J. Collins, president ; C. F. Von Stein, vice president; L. P. Martin, secretary and treasurer. In 1908 the company was reorganized by electing T. J. Collins, president; E. B. Good, vice president; T. C. Fulton, secretary and treasurer. The plant in its enlarged equipment occupies some four or five acres.

The Cole Glass Company

The Cole Glass Company is one of the many enterprising business concerns of which the thriving city of Lancaster is proud. It is located in West Lancaster, on the Hocking Valley Railroad, and has one of the largest plants of its kind in Ohio. The company is engaged in the manufacture and jobbing of window glass and located in 1898, coming here from Muncie, Indiana, where Mr. C. P. Cole, president of the company, enjoyed the distinction of organizing the first window glass company and erected a plant twenty-five years ago. This large factory has a forty-five blower tank capacity and employs 225 men. It produces a carload of excellent glass per day.

Heretofore only men blowers have been employed but the wonderful glass-blowing machine has made such advancement in the field of competition that the company has decided to install sixty of the latest improved blowing machines the coming summer and in a very few years a man window glass blower in Lancaster will only be spoken of as a thing of the past. The officers of this splendid business enterprise are : C. P. Cole, president, general manager and treasurer; R. F. Cole, vice president; H. M. Sutton, secretary.

The Lancaster Glass Company

The Lancaster Glass Company was organized by Lancaster business men in November, 1908 and a site of about five acres was secured just east of the old mill road in East Lancaster, where the plant was located for the manufacture of flint glass, decorated table ware, lamps and many unique patterns of flint ware. The business was a pronounced success from the start because it was in the hands of experienced glass men and experts in all departments. The concern employs about 225 people the year around and is one of the popular enterprises of the city. The capacity of the plant is from six to nine carloads of ware a week, which is shipped to all parts of the country and has the reputation of being the finest flint glass and decorated ware in the country. The officers of the company are : Dr. J. J. Silbaugh, president; J. E. Hill, vice president; L. P. Martin, secretary; I. H. Strickler, treasurer; and L. B. Martin, manager.

The Lancaster Window Glass Company

The first window glass company to locate in the City of Lancaster was the Lancaster Window Glass Company, which erected an extensive plant in East Lancaster in 1887 and operated what was known as pot factory. This pot factory was only in operation for a short time. In 1890 the plant was sold to Abel Smith & Co., of Pittsburg, Pa., who, after making a number of improvements, operated it in connection with their two plants at Pittsburg until the year 1897, when the plant was sold to

The Columbus Plate & Window Glass Company

This company continued to operate the concern as a pot factory up until the year 1900. About this period there were new developments being made in the manufacture of window glass, in the way of furnace construction and the melting of glass. Instead of using pots, which had been the general custom all over the country, they dismantled the pot furnaces and installed the tank furnaces, increasing the output of the plant two hundred and sixty per cent. Instead of only making six blowings per week, which was necessary in the operation of pot furnaces to allow time to fill the pots again, and make each melt, they now melt and blow continuously, night and day. In the year 1909 the word "Plate" was dropped from the name of the company and it is now called

The Columbus Window Glass Company

In 1909 in order to get the manufacture of window glass on a more scientific basis, the company built a machine which would blow window glass and do away with a large percentage of labor, thus reducing the cost. The year 1912 finds these machines being operated successfully, and the capacity of the plant is increased twenty-five per-cent and the plant is said to be one of the most complete factories in the country today for the making of window glass. They have their own electric light and power plant, gas wells.

laboratory, etc. The officers are: Charles Wandless, president and treasurer; 'F. M. Southwood, secretary; W. R. Campbell, vice president and general manager. The company employs several hundred men and has a capacity of eight to ten carloads of glass per week.

The Motherwell Iron Works

One of the business enterprises of Lancaster which is now a part of her past history and which the older inhabitants recall with pleasure and pride, was the old Motherwell Iron Works, which was located on the old canal bank and Zane Alley, where it manufactured shovels, farm implements and all kinds of mining tools for a period of fifteen years with rare success. It was a manufacturing plant of which not only the city was proud but the entire county felt a just pride in the successful concern and it was with no little regret when on August 10, 1882, the people saw the plant removed to Logan, Hocking County. Mr. Culver, an enterprising citizen of the valley town, with others of his fellow citizens, having bought out the Motherwells.

The official force of this historic concern was as follows: James Motherwell, president; Robert Dressbach, vice president and secretary ; and William Motherwell, treasurer. Of the above named, only Robert Dressbach is still living, he being now located in Florida. Mrs. Dressbach. however, spends most of her time in Lancaster at the Dressbach home on East Mulberry street. Robert Motherwell, a brother, also conected with the iron works, moved to Findlay and went into the bottling business and died there some years ago. William Motherwell located in Chicago and John Motherwell drifted to Kansas soon after the sale of the iron works, and both have been dead for a number of years. The Kelley mill was erected on the site of the old Motherwell Iron Works, and the bed of the old canal, which was abandoned some years ago, is now called Front Street.

Lancaster Shoe Factories

If there is one class of industry more than another to which Lancasterians point with pride it is that of making shoes and for a number of years Lancaster has been famous for her shoe manufactures. There are four large and well equipped shoe factories in the city that mean more to the city of Lancaster, perhaps than all of her other factories combined. They give employment to 1,200 people approximately and the combined output of the factories is in the neighborhood of 10,000 pairs of shoes per day. Originally the factories were known as the H. C. Godman shoe factories, but the four plants are now operated by four separate companies, yet practically all under the same management.

The A. Getz Shoe Company

The A. Getz Shoe Company was the pioneer shoe concern in the city and was organized in 1889 locating a small factory on Forest Rose Avenue, which afterward grew and prospered and today employs 175 people and turns out 1,750 pairs of shoes daily. The officers are F. A. Miller, president; E. S. Petigrew, vice president; E. E. Lerch, secretary; and H. J. Kaufman, treasurer.

The Lancaster Shoe Company

The Lancaster Shoe Company was organized in 1894 and erected a large two-story brick plant on North Columbus street on the site of the Judge Brasee residence which was destroyed by a natural gas explosion in 1893. The plant employs 275 people and has a capacity of 2,400 pairs of shoes per day. The official force is F. A. Miller, president; E. S. Petigrew, vice president; E. E. Lerch, secretary; and H. J. Kaufman, treasurer.

The Fairfield Shoe Co

The largest of the several shoe factories is the Fairfield Shoe Company, which was organized in 1897 and located first on West Main street where it operated till 1901, when it moved into its splendid large, three-story brick plant on North Columbus street, opposite the Lancaster Company's plant. It employs 500 people and has a capacity of 4,500 pairs of finely finished shoes per day. In this plant is located and equipped one of the finest and most complete private electric-power plants in the country and from it is supplied all of the electrical power and light for all of the shoe factories. Its massive engines and machinery equipment are wonderful models of power and mechanical ingenuity. F. A. Miller is president of this concern : E. S. Petigrew, vice president; and C. S. Hutchinson, secretary and treasurer.

The Ohio Shoe Co

The last shoe company to organize was the Ohio Shoe Company, which located on West Main street in 1900 but moved in 1910 to its more commodious three-story pressed brick quarters on West Mulberry street, adjoining the Fairfield Shoe Company's plant. It employs 150 people and manufactures over 1,200 pairs of shoes every day. The officers of this company are the same as those of the Lancaster and the A. Getz companies.

George F. Lerch was for a number of years a prime factor in the Lancaster shoe manufacture and was manager of the Lancaster plant for several years before he died in March, 1908. After his death Mr. John Schmidt, who has been identified with the business from the first and is considered one of the best shoe men in the country, was promoted to general manager of the entire system of shoe factories and well he has succeeded in his responsible position with the intelligent and never tiring aid of Secretary Hutchinson, and on the shoulders of the two men rests largely the weight of responsibility in conducting these splendid Lancaster enterprises.

Lancaster's hotel accommodations keep pace with the demands of the growing city. It has two leading hostelries - first class and popular with the public. These houses are well kept and well managed.

Hotel Martens has long been a popular and successful hotel. It has been under the careful management of Mr. T. E. Kraemer for the past two years and enjoys a fine trade.

Hotel Mithoff is also a first class, up-to-date and successful hotel. It has 75 rooms. It has a good location in the heart of the business part of the city, and near the inter-urban station. Messrs. Elmer Rubke and Clem Yonk have been efficient managers for the past five years. The chief clerk is Mr. Ralph Bitler.

Another excellent house is : The Ohio Hotel, Mr. N. W. Tipple, proprietor. This is one of the popular houses of the city. The Hillside Hotel, of which Mr. William Goetz is the careful and shrewd manager, enjoys a large and lucrative patronage.

The Kirn Hotel is managed by Simon Lape. This is a very widely known hotel, for it occupies the same place where the old Tallmadge House stood. It has a good share of the public patronage.

General George Sanderson tells us in his "Recollections" that Rudolph Pitcher, in 1800, erected a log cabin on the northwest corner of the Public Square and^road street, and that he kept tavern there for two years. In 1802 he sold out to Peter Reber. He then erected a more commodious building on the southwest corner of the Public Square. This building was square, and had a shingle roof - a rare thing at that time. Here at "Pitcher's,' the public was "dined and wined," for the big sign over the entrance announced "Entertainment for Horse and Man." Everybody was made to feel a royal welcome in that "Waldorf-Astoria" of the early days of Lancaster.

Confectioners. Alps, The. Antill, B. F. Cochran, J. W. Hamilton, W. O. & Co. McNeill & Son. Marcuson, A. Pfadt, J. A. Peters, A. L. Rockey, C. I.

Printers, Book and Job. Democrat Printing Co. Dudley-Reynolds Co. Dunn Printing Co. Eagle, The Ohio. Gazette, The Lancaster. Standard Colortype Co. Wilkinson. G. W.