THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 251 Hamilton and built what was considered a model establishment, designed for an output of twenty-five thousand dollars per month. The shop was built at the corner of Third and Mill Streets, extending back to Second Street. The citizens donated the ground, and the brick and stone required, and the Water Power Company donated power for a short period. The business was conducted by Messrs. Gray and Gordon, Mr. Gaff being the monied man of the institution. As large and extensive as the concern then was, it would. appear almost contemptible when compared with the present establishment, but, as small as it was, it was entirely too large when the panic came and all business flattened out. In 1874 the concern had been incorporated with the corporate name of Niles Tool Works, with one hundred and fifty thousand dollars capital. Mr. Gaff became President, Mr. Gordon Secretary, and Mr. Gray Treasurer and also Superintendent of the works. During the years of the panic the business became dead flat. Debts were piled up on the two mechanics, and in 1877 Mr. Gray's hopes and patience became exhausted and lie retired. In 1877 Mr. R. C. McKinney, who had spent a time in the technical course of Cornell University, and who had been employed in the Cope & Maxwell Pump Works, was put in charge of the office, and in 1878 Mr George T. Reiss, a machinist who had educated himself by night studies, was put in charge of the engineering. These two young men were employees without ownership in the business. Mr. Gordon was the head of the institution In 1819 Mr. Gaff died and his son, Mr. James W. Gaff, became President. The business was pushed with vigor and was soon forced beyond the capacities of the shop which was accordingly enlarged. In 1882 a store and. branch office was opened in Philadelphia; not a mere agency, but a commercial house under the capital and name and management of the Hamilton establishment. In 1883 a similar branch was established in Chicago, and in 1886 one in New York, and in 1889 one in Pittsburg; all being put in charge of branch managers, carefully supervised by the home establishment. The business became extended and the demands for the products of the shop were for in advance of its capacities, and enlargements were constantly taking place until to-day the establishment is one of the largest machine shops in the world, and is quite the most extensive engaged in its line of business. In Mr. Gordon, while awaiting a train at the depot, was overcome by the heat and his health became seriously shattered, and years were spent in recovery, Mr. Gordon spending many months each year in Europe for the purpose. During his absence Mr. McKinney has been at the helm. Mr. McKinney became a stockholder soon after his first employment. In 1889 Mr Jas. W. Gaff died and Mr. Gordon became President, and Mr. McKinney Seretary and Treasurer. The reputation of the establishment is splendid, and there are no metal-working countries into which the products of this grand shop do not go The United States Government has favored the establishment with many large orders for the equipment of its arsenals, gun factories and navy yards. 252 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. While the shop turns out several hundred styles of machine tools special attention is given to machines of the heaviest type, machines for the heaviest classes of machine work, and for this line of work the shop has been specially equipped. Single machines have been turned out weighing two hundred and fifty tons. One machine sold to the Government and delivered at a navy yard in California, requiring the prepayment of a freight bill amounting to ten thousand dollars. The shops are on the grandest proportions. There are many departmental shops in the establishment and the magnitude of the whole may be judged from the fact that one of these shops, a single room, is four hundred feet long by two hundred and sixteen feet wide. The shops are lofty, and well lighted, and splendidly equipped, special attention being given to the handling of heavy work, for which purpose twenty-four travel- ing cranes are employed, two of the large ones having a capacity for easily lifting and carrying twenty-five tons each, while the next three can handle twenty tons each. The shops are lighted by one hundred and sixty are lamps, and branch tracks of the railroads run through the yards and shops. The business is conducted with the utmost system and about one thousand people are employed. P. BURNS & CO. Plows and Wagons. IN 1849 Patrick Burns was an apprentice in Hutchinson's wagon shop at twenty-five cents a day, and by working overtime managed to support himself and his mother. In 1860 he bought out his boss, for sixteen hundred dollars, four hundred dollars down and the balance to be paid whenever convenient. It was paid inside the year. Mr. Burns says that since that he has never borrowed any money or paid any interest, but, on the contrary, has done the loaning himself and has collected the interest. John Conboy worked for Burns and saved his money and got together six hundred dollars and bought into partnership with him. In 1875 Burns and Conboy and Peter Black and Frank Black and L. P. Clawson and John Stillwaugh, formed the firm of Burns, Black & Co. But it did not take long. and soon we find the firm of P. Burns & Co., composed ofBnrnss and Conboy, in the old business of making plows and wagons in the new shop on Water Street, near Market. The wagons made by the firm are sold only in the immediate neighborhood and therefore this history is not concerned with theM Steel plows are made of about every variety of pattern, and these plows are sold, to a limited extent, in the various sections of the country. Mr. Burns says he has made all the money he wants and is anxious to quit and is now on the lookout for his successor. THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF HAMILTON, O. - 253 JOSEPH SCHUMAKER & CO. Manufacturers of Angeline. A CERTAIN prescription of Dr. Kauffman was known for many years to have done wonders in the cure of rheumatism, and the formula had for some time been in the possession of Mr. Joseph J. Pater and Mr. Joseph Schumaker, who had personal knowledge of the merits of the medicine and in 1882, a partnership was formed between them for the manufacture, and sale of this rheumatic cure. A trade mark was registered for it under the name of "Angeline" and its sale was begun and the results closely watched and careful records kept as far as possible. The success was so great that its fame has spread throughout this country and Europe, and large shipments are daily being made over the country and also to Glasgow, London, Paris and Munich. The sales in 1890 were very large. THE NATIONAL CAR SEAL CO. THE old style was to lock up freight cars with padlocks, but this was expensive and a nuisance, for cars went long distances and into the hands of strangers, the locks became lost and broken, and the sum total of expense due to this was enormous. Then the change was made to a simple strip of tin or wire sealed with a lead seal bearing the seal of the road that loaded the car. Every load for a box car means a car seal to be used, and destroyed when the car is opened. Charles F. Hilker was a traveling salesman for special railroad supplies and in 1886, in Cincinnati, a friend showed Mr. Hilker a well known type of car seal and explained to him the demand for them, and stated that certain parties had spent a fortune devising machinery to make these seals cheaply and that they had reached the end of their string and the affair could probably be gotten at a bargain, and he suggested that Mr. Hilker get it and start the business. Mr. Hilker did so, securing the entire outfit and patents. He started into the seal business, incorporating it as the National Car Seal Co. It was uphill work, the method was far from satisfactory, and money was lost from the start and Mr. Hilker had every good reason for quitting the business. But he stuck to it for two years and finally succeeded in radically changing the system of manufacture. In 1890 the company established its factory in Hamilton and put out upon the market about fifty different styles of car seals. The car seals of this company's manufacture are used by about one hundred and fifty thousand miles of railroad and the seals are selling at 254 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. a rate of twelve million seals per year. The capacity is now being increased to two hundred thousand per day. The business is prosperous and all the seals are being sold that can be made. These seals are made by automatic machinery of the most ingenious character, invented and built on the premises of the concompa Early in 1891 the establishment began the manufacture of drill-presses and emery-grinders for general shop use, and these are selling largely, and it is in contemplation to take tip the manufacture of bottler's supplies and other specialties. As an example of what can be done by sticking to a problem and studying it out, it may be stated that in the car seal shop, two years ago, it cost twenty dollars to do work which now costs one dollar. J. H. Stephan and Son. Hubs and Spokes Since 1864 the firm of Deinzer & Stephan had been engaged in the manufacture of hubs, spokes, and bent work for wagons and carriages, on Water Street, at the West end of Market Street. In 1887 the firm was dissolved, and Mr. Stephan, in partnership with his son William, under the firm name of J. H. Stephan & Son, continued the hub and spoke part of the business at the same location, 119 to 125 Water Street. The goods manufactured find a general market. N. L. DORRIS Knitting Mills IN 1876 Dorris began knitting hosiery with one hand machine in his store on High Street. In 1877 a factory was built on Campbell Avenue and twenty-five hand machines were put in and worked on hosiery exclusively. In 1878 the factory was removed to Fifth Street, in a rented building, and fifty machines were operated by steam, working on hosiery. The business was later sold to other parties. In 1885 the knitting of underwear was begun on five or six machines at Schuler & Benninghofen's Mill. In 1887 the factory was moved to Campbell Avenue and operated by water power, working on underwear only. In 1890 the factory was moved to Third and Market Streets, where it is now located. Fourteen machines are operated by water power, and the line of manufacture includes hosiery, and ladies and children's knit underwear. The sales are throughout the Western states generally. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY HAMILTON, O. - 255 The Sortman and Blum Co. Wardrobes and Extension Tables. D. W. SORTMAN and E. F. Blum were both cabinet-makers and had a retail furniture store in Hamilton, and, in 1870. they started the manufacture of extension-tables in a rented factory at Water and Market Streets. A manufacturing for their own retail trade alone. In 1876 they built a new factory on B. Street near North Street. They built extension-tables only, but, in addition to work for their own trade, they branched out into the wholesale trade. There was at that time only one other factory making a specialty of extension-tables. In 188o the store was given up and the entire attention of the firm, was given to wholesale manufacturing. The sale was pushed, and wardrobes were added to the line of manufacture. The name of the firm was Sortman & Blum. In 1886 the factory burned and was a total loss, entailing an uninsured loss of seventeen thousand dollars on Sortman & Blum. In 1886 the Sortman & Blum Company was incorporated with twenty-five thousand dollars capital, since increased to thirty-five thousand dollars, with Mr. Sortman, President, and Mr. Blum, Secretary and Treasurer. A new factory was built in the same location, a roomy factory and an extensive warehouse, both three-story brick buildings. The manufacture is still limit- 256 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. ed to the two specialties, wardrobes and extension-tables. But these twos lines have been much extended so as to include the higher grades of goods wardrobes in all the modern high-grade finishes, and extension tables from the simplest and cheapest to the more elaborate style and pillar tables. Twenty styles of wardrobes are manufactured and eleven patterns of extension tables. The product of the factory is marketed all over the United States but principally in the Fast and South. Messrs. Sortman & Blum both give personal attention to the factory and business. The J. A. SOMMERS Mfg. Go., Clothing Factory IN 1887 Mr Sommers was a traveling salesman for a Dayton house engaged in the manufacture of certain grades of clothing, and in that year, under the name of J. A. Sommers & Co., he started the manufacture of overalls in Hamilton at 321 West Main Street. He had about two thousand dollars in cash and had a pretty hard row to hoe. But he was plucky and everything came out well and he added to the variety of goods manufactured. In 1891 he built the new factory at Seventh and Walnut and still further increased the line of products. The establishment was incorporated with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars, since increased to fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Sommers is President and runs the shop, Mr. C. F. Funk is Vice President and does the traveling. Mr. J. W. Slonneker is Secretary and Treasurer. Five traveling salesmen are employed and one hundred and thirty hands are employed in the factory which is always full of work, running night and day. The line of goods now manufactured includes overalls, outing cheviots and flannel shirts, pantaloons, coats, hunting cloths, knee pants, and childrens waist's. BERK, KINGERY & Co., Manufacturers of Gelatine. HIS business started in 1889, the firm being composed of F. H. Berk, S. S Kingery and H. P. Deuscher. The premises, formerly occupied by the Sohu Pork House were purchased and extensively remodeled. There is only one other factory engaged in this business in the United States. The Hamilton factory has opened its markets throughout the country, and now sells gelatine all over and for all the purposes for which gelatine is used. Last year sixty thousand pounds were sold, and the capacity of the establishment is now being increased so as to produce twice that quantity. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 257 The Hamilton Corliss Engine Works. Hooven, Owens & Rentsehler Go. IN the early days of Hamilton the firm of Owens, Lane & Dyer began the manufacture of stationary and portable steam engines and saw mills. The business became very extensive and thousands of these engines were sold all over the world, and the owners grew gray in the service. The firm was later incorporated as the Eclipse Machine Works and the name was later changed, by special act of the Legislature, to the Owens, Lane & Dyer Co. The works were very extensive and well equipped for the product. In the shop of Long & Allstratter George H. Helvey, a mere lad, was serving his apprenticeship as a machinist. He became a splendid workman but was without education or experience outside of the shop. Finishing his apprenticeship he began to gather experience as a traveling journeyman machinist. About 1873 his travels brought him again to Hamilton and he became a journeyman machinist in the Niles Tool Works. Here he became seized with ambitions and entered upon a course of hard studies at home at nights and burned the midnight oil over the books of his craft. It quickly developed that he possessed not only the skilled hand of a machinist, but the talented mind of the superior mechanical engineer. He became Department Foreman in the Niles Works, then General Foreman, and then Superintendent for C. E. Jones & Bro., in Cincinnati, and then Superintendent of the Phenix Caster Co. of Hamilton. In the meantime he was a close student. Prior to 1877 Mr. E. C. Hooven, as bright a commercial man as one will meet in many a day, was engaged as a dealer in agricultural implements in Hamilton. The mere idea of buying a thing and selling it again in unchanged form was far from satisfactory to him and he determined to become a manufacturer. He accordingly in that year got up the "Monarch" Portable Engine and the "Monarch Thresher. He had his boilers built in one shop and his engines in another, and his thresher parts in several shops. In three years he had sold seventy-five of these engines and sixty-five of the threshers. But Mr. Hooven sought for greater manufacturing fields than this. The Owens, Lane & Dyer establishment was for sale and Mr. Hooven promptly effected an association with Mr. Helvey and they, in association with Mr. Adam Rentchler, Mr. Job Owens, of the Owens, Lane & Dyer concern, Mr. Henry Sohn, and Mr. James H Campbell, bought the establishment of the Owens, Lane & Dyer Co., continuing the manufacture of the standard products of the old concern, to which was added the Monarch Portable Engine, the Monarch Thresher and the Monarch Traction Engine. They built one hundred of the Monarch Engines, fifty Traction Engines, and one hundred and fifty Threshers. In January, 1882, thefirm was incorporated as the Hooven, Owens & 258 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. Rentschler Co. with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Mfr. Job Owens retired and his son, Mr. Joe Owens, became a stockholder. The present stockholders are Mr. Hooven, Mr. Rentschler, Mr. Joe Owens, Mr. Sohn, Mr. Campbell and Mr. Richter. Mr. Hooven is President, Mr. Rentschler, Vice President. Mr. Sohn Secretary and 'Treasurer, and Mr. Helvey Superintendent. In November, 1882, it was decided to enter upon the manufacture of the highest class of stationary steam engines known to the trade, and the engine of the Corliss type was adopted as being far ahead of anything in this line yet devised in steam engineering. The first engine, with a cylinder eighteen inches in diameter and forty-two inch stroke, was started early in IS, 3 and produced results as to economy of fuel and close regulation of speed which were up to the highest standard, The business of building these engines was then, and has been since, continuously pushed with the utmost vigor with such success as to crowd out of the shop every other line of manufacture, Nothing has since been built in the shop but these high class Corliss engines, and not only this but the shop has been many times enlarged and its facilities greatly increased in every way, and for years the shop has run twenty-four hours per day. The extent of the business may be judged from the fact that seven hundred and fifty of these magnificent engines have. been ,constructed, varying in size from single cylinder thirty-five horse power engines having cylinders ten by twenty-four inches, to massive two thousand horse power engines having compound cylinders and running as condensing engines. These engines will be found installed in all of the important power centers of the country, running factories and mills and furnishing the motive power for cable railways, and electric railways, and electric light stations. The commercial branch of the business has been attended to by Mr. Hoover and the engineering and productive branches have been in the hands of Mr. Helvey who, notwithstanding his early disadvantages, and he is still a very young man, has proved himself to be one of the brightest engineers of motive power in the country. One of the most phenomenal things in connection with the enormous output of this establishment is the fact that in all this large number of high-class engines, all going in positions subjecting them to the most critical tests, not a single case of dissatisfaction has been recorded. It would not be at all to the discredit of a manufacturing concern if a number of miscalculations had developed in such a great number of diversified power plants, and the fact that this enormous business has not developed one single failure is certainly a matter of wonderment, and reflects extraordinary credit upon the establishment. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 259 THE F. & L. KAHN & BROS. Stove Foundry. IN 1842 Martin, Henderson & Co. established a stove foundry at Hanging Rock, Ohio, one of the earliest stove foundries in the state, and the design and practice was to cast stove plate directly from the reduced iron as it ran from the blast furnace, no intermediate pig iron or remelting being employed. Mr. Lazard Kahn was born in France, and when a. very young man landed in this country with a bundle of clothes and a trifle of pocket money. He started West and on the way his bundle was stolen and his pocket was picked, leaving him penniless among strangers, but there were no lazy bones in his body and lie went earnestly to work. He blacked stoves for a living and did it up to the Queen's taste. He traveled some through the country selling lamp burners and such things, and finally selling stoves, and filially ,drifted into rather intimate contact with the stove trade. He, with his brother Felix, developed strong commercial instincts and business energy and saving habits, and in 1873 they were able to purchase each a one-fifth interest in the stove foundry of Martin, Henderson & Co., then producing about four hundred tons of stoves per year. In 1876 Mr. Martin retired and the Messers. Kahn bought his interest, the firm name being changed to Henderson, Kahn & Co. In 1879 Mr. Meis of the firm retired, the Messes. Kahn and Mr. Henderson buying him out. In 1881 the Messrs. Kahn, joined by another brother since deceased, bought out Mr. Henderson, the foundry then producing eighteen hundred tons of stoves per annum, and the firm name was changed to F. & L. Kahn & Bros. as it has since remained. In 1884 the establishment was moved to Hamilton, the sales office still remaining in Cincinnati where it had for sometime been located, and in moving to Hamilton they followed the usual line of thought that the local trade of the city must 260 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. still be specially fostered. They had not long been located in Hamilton before their market began to greatly expand and the Cincinnati salsalesroom.s abolished and their products began to find a market in every locality in the United States, supplemented by extensive shipments to China, Japan, Spain, France and England. The establishment is now producing twenty-four hundred tons of stoves per year. In 1887 Mr. Samuel Kahn became a member of the firm and now has charge of outside sales department, Mr. Felix Kahn having charge of the general office business, while Mr. Lazard Kahn gives attention to the technical management. The new shop built in Hamilton is a model affair, occupying five acres and employing two hundred men. It was planned by Mr. Lazard Kahn and. it is so perfect in its arrangement that the plan has since been identically copied by several enterprising stove foundries, after visiting the establishment and procuring the plans thereof from the owners. Everything about their diversified line of stove work is done complete in the establishment which is provided with its own extensive sheet-metal shop. plating room, and art department. The designs turned out by this establishment are always in the lead. The constructions are upon well studied scientific principles and the artistic designs are of great originality and most pleasing character. Mr. Lazard Kahn has long been recognized as a man of special practical attainments in the stove trade, and in the council of the stove makers associations.. where he is an active member of the Executive Committee. In the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889, the President of the United States appointed Mr. Lazard Kahn as a member of the International Jury in Class 27, and in recognition of his services upon that jury the President of the French Republic has lately honored him with a very gratifying diploma and a handsome medal. It is usual in the stove trade to distinguish the various designs by fanciful trade-mark names, and the present establishment early adopted the term. '`Estate" as a fundamental trade mark, and the product has become extremely popular. The line of stoves and ranges now includes about five hundred.. different styles and sizes, and new patterns are being constantly produced. In 1888 the manufacture of gas stoves was taken up as a special department and this line now includes two hundred different styles and sizes, and new patterns are constantly under way. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 261 The CARR & BROWN Co. The Daisy Mills ABOUT 1860 a gymnasium society was formed, with Minor Millikin as the moving spirit, and a large gymnasium was built at the corner of Fourth and High Streets. The Gymnasium went by the board as a result of the war, and about 1868 Brown & Weller turned the premises into an elevator. About 1870 Joseph Straub bought out Brown's half interest, and in. the same year, James T. Imlay bought a third interest in the business, which was then conducted under the name of Weller, Straub & Co. In 1873 Straub retired and in 1815 again entered the business, buying Imlay's interest. About 1877 Joseph Snyder bought Straub's interest. In 1881 William E. Brown and W. B. Carr bought the property as a speculation. Mr. Carr had learned the milling trade in his father's mill at the corner of Fifth and Dayton Street, and was a partner in that mill when it burned in 1882. In 1883 the firm of Carr & Brown erected the present mill, and in 1888 the firm was incorporated as the Carr& Brown Co., with an incorporated capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, with William E. Brown as President, and W. B. Carr Treasurer and Manager. In the same year the new elevator was built. The mill is thoroughly equipped with the most modern machinery and has a daily capacity of five hundred barrels of flour and two hundred barrels of meal, and the elevator has a capacity of two hundred thousand bushels. Railway tracks run directly into the mill. The market is principally in the Eastern States while large exports are made to the Glasgow market. The mill is always running to its full capacity, and while a large number of brands of flour are made, a special reputation. has attached itseltof the "Telephone," "Bon Ton" and "Golden Rod" brands. 262 - CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. The Mosler Safe and Lock Company. MOSES MOSLER, Julius Mosler and William Mosler, all young and enterprising men, had been virtually born and brought up in the safe business, of which Cincinnati had long been the acknowledged center of trade. But while the safe business of Cincinnati was an immense one and represented the highest attainments in the art, it had fallen into ruts and the products failed, to a certain extent, to keep up with the march of events. Safes, as a general thing, were not handsome, nor were they constructed upon such systematic lines as were essential to the getting of first class safes at a fair price. Nor had the genius of the safe maker kept up with the genius of the burglar. These three brothers started the business under the name of The Mosler Safe & Lock Co. on Pearl Street. They put business talent and mechanical talent into the art and pushed the business with vigor and soon out-grew the factory and the capacity of the factory to be extended within the limits imposed by the surroundings. Then a move was made to another locality in Cincinnati and soon the business outgrew the new situation, and then a move was made to another locality on Elm Street in Cincinnati. The business THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O., - 263. continued to grow and extensions were made in all possible directions until there was no longer room to extend. Then an entirely new factory was built on Front Street to be devoted entirely to burglar proof work, and this factory soon overflowed its capacity and made it impossible to fill the orders received. In 1890 it was determined that room must be had for the increasing industry and accordingly, the magnificent factory was built at Hamilton. In this grand establishment a single one of the work-rooms is 205 feet by 400 feet. The premises occupy ten acres bounded by Grand Boulevard,. Lincoln Avenue, Safe Avenue and Mosler Avenue. The Miami and Erie Canal runs at one edge of the property and the Panhandle railroad upon the other. The Mosler Safe & Lock Co. has worked a number of revolutions in the safe trade. Special appliances were contrived for the production of the work so as to secure superior results without increase of cost. Great ingenuity was shown in modifying the established principles of construction. Safes had always before been constructed with square corners and were decidedly unhandsome. The Mosler Safe & Lock Co. abandoned this system and introduced the round cornered safe which was free from sharp angles and possessed an integrity and strength and beauty before unknown. The construction of burglar-proof work was brought to its highest point. Time-locks were brought to a superior condition of efficiency and convenience. Burglar-proof safes of the highest type had resolved themselves into impenetrable walls (that is impenetrable within the length of time available for the burglar) and hinged air tight doors locked by unpickable combination locks guarded by time-locks. The locks were inside the safe, and the safe door closed air tight in its jamb. Such construction constituted the highest attainment which had bean reached in the art of safe-making. The doors were fitted with the greatest of care and there was no chance for the burglar-to introduce explosive material at the door-joint. But the inherent defect in the system lay in the fact that the spindle of the combination lock must reach to the outside of the safe through a hole in the door, and fit in that hole with a certain degree of looseness. Here was the fatal crack and. through it the burglar could introduce liquid and gaseous explosives and cause them to reach the very vitals of the safe. The Mosler Safe & Lock Co. began the manufacture of the screw door safe. The door is circular and is ground into the door jamb and fits as tight as a poppet-valve. The door is screwed into the door-jamb and the door can only be opened by unscrewing, and it is kept from being unscrewed by the time-lock located within the safe. There is no hole through the door for a. lock-spindle and no lock-spindle at all. The safe is an absolutely air-tight impenetrable structure. Much originality is shown in all the work of this Company, which owns a large number of patents under which it is operating. The business done- THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OP HAMILTON, O. - 265 is enormous and the products go everywhere where there is anything worth locking up against fire and the knight of the jimmy. Branch houses for the sale of the work of this establishment have been 'established in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, &c. and a very extensive branch house is located in the (City of Mexico. One hundred salesmen are employed in selling the goods. In 1890 Mr. Julius Mosler died and the business has since been conducted entirely by Mr. Moses Mosler and Mr. William Mosler, both of whom give constant personal attention to the business. When the other shop was built in Cincinnati for the burglar proof work, that part of the business was incorporated under the name of the Mosler Bank Safe Co. In the removal to Hamilton everything is consolidated into one system. The Ritchie and Dyer Company. Traction Engines and Saul Mills. MR. WILLIAM RITCHIE had been connected with the old Owens, Lane & Dyer shop for many years, and when that shop was sold in 1880 to Hoven, Owens & Rentschler Co., Mr. Ritchie, started the Ritchie & Dyer Co. there being associated with him Mr. William Dyer, There was only about two thousand dollars put into the business and the new concern had a hard time in getting along. Property was bought on the corner of Vine and Lowell Street, and the present shop erected, and new patterns were made for saw mills and traction engines. Mr. Dyer soon retired. Mr. Ritchie pushed the business and everything turned out splendidly. Selling agencies were •established in all prominent cities north and south and west and the line of products was increased to include traction engines from ten to forty horsepower, and various sizes of saw mills, varying in capacity from three thousand to seventy thousand feet of lumber per day. About fifty traction engines and about three hundred saw mills are sold per year. Mr. Ritchie is President and Mr. Doeller is Secretary and Treasurer. The Hamilton Malting Company. IN 1879 the firm of Reutti & Mason leased the Schelly malt house on Canal Street between Sixth and Seventh. The house had a capacity of one hundred thousand bushels and this firm increased it to one hundred and fifty thousand. In 1879 the business was purchased by Charles Sohngen, George P. Solingen and William B. Brown, who conduct the business under the name of The Hamilton Malting Co. The product of this malt house is marketed through the Solingen Malting Company. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 267 CINCINNATI BREWING CO. IN 1850 Peter Schwab, eleven years old, landed in the United States from Germany, coming over in the same steamer with Henry Sohn. He came to Hamilton and learned the Cooper's trade at which lie worked for some time. He was smart and industrious, and saving, and in course of time, became able to embark in business ventures of his own. In 1858 John W. Sohn built a small brewery at the corner of Front and Sycamore Streets. In 1864 M. Jacobi bought this brewery of Sohn and operated it for four years. In 1878 the firm of Peter Schwab & Co., composed of Peter Schwab, F. VanDerveer and Herman Reutti, bought the brewery of Jacobi. But the business was conducted at a loss. In 1870 Mr. Schwab retired and the business was continued by VanDerveer and Reutti. In 1874 Mr. Schwab bought the brewery of VanDerveer and Reutti. It had a capacity of fifty barrels per day, but no sale could be found for that amount of product. Mr. Schwab operated in hard luck. Things were running behind, debts were piling up, and debtors were pressing, and there seemed to be no way out of the woods. Mr. Schwab was as deep in the hole as even the nerviest man care to get. But he worried along where other men would have laid the thing down, and the result of his persistent energy was to bring about an improvement in the prospects, which improvements have continued and bloomed into the highest kind of success. The trade was pushed, the capacity of the brewery greatly exceeded, and the brewery was enlarged to meet the growing demands. In 1875 the business was incorporated under the name of The Cincinnati Brewing Co. In 1890 an artificial ice plant was put in, the plant now having a capacity of fifty tons per day, of ice made from filtered water. The capacity of the Brewery has been so increased that it has now four hundred barrels per day and the sales are always up to the full capacity. The beer is shipped North, East and South, being sold very largely in Cleveland and Pittsburg. This present history is of course only concerned with that product of manufacturing establishments which goes out of the county and brings money income to the community, and in this sense the Ice Factory of this Brewery is merely an element in the manufacture and preservation of this beer which is shipped. But it seems hardly like going outside of the limitations of this history to explain that the manufactured. ice of this establishment also largely supplies the local market, this branch of the business being conducted under the name of the Hamilton Artificial Ice Co. The ice is of splendid quality and seems to be clearer and cleaner than the natural article and has always been retailed at lower prices, and Mr. Schwab's enterprise in this ice matter has met with keen appreciation by the citizens. 268 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. H. P. DEUSCHER & CO. MALSTERS. IN 1874 there was at the corner of Front and Wood Street, an establishment which had been in turn a brewery and a distillery. It was then THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 269 idle and was the property of Mr. Isreal Williams. In that year Mr. Williams and Mr. H. P. Deuscher formed a partnership under the name of H. P. Deuscher & Co. each with equal interest. The property referred to was taken in hand and remodeled and equipped, turning it into a malting house with a capacity of fifty thousand bushels. The firm did not buy the real estate, and it still belongs to Mr. Williams. Later the capacity of the house has been increased to one hundred thousand bushels. The first and second years some money was lost but without serious effect on the firm and the business has been conducted with a fair degree of profit ever since. The conduct of the business is in the hands of Mr. Deuscher. JOHN DONGES & CO. Hubs and Spokes. IN 1851 Mr. Donges came to Hamilton from Germany, where he had learned his trade as a carpenter. He worked at his trade and finally became a workman in the spoke factories and ultimately became interested in the business. He was for twenty-five years connected with the various concerns engaged in the hub, spoke and bent-wood business in the water power factories along the river. In 1872 he built the factory on the C. H. & D. road between Hanover and Walnut Streets. There is associated with him Mr. John Schumacher who has a special interest in the hub department of the business. The articles manufactured are hubs, spokes, felloes, bows, shafts, poles, and turned and sawed timber. The shop is equipped with its own saw mill and with all the necessary machinery for the class of goods manufactured, and these goods are sold throughout the country and are also exported very largely. HAMILTON BUGGY CO. THIS business was established in 1889 and incorporated in 1890 with a apital of fifty thousand dollars. The Duke shop was leased, and very extensive alterations were made in the shop and finally extensive additions were built. The shop is conveniently located directly on the railroad and was equipped with new machinery. The President of the company is Mr. John Rogers, while Mr. I. P. Anderson is Vice President and Mr. Hochheimer is manager of manufacturing. The company makes all kinds of buggies, surreys and phaetons; in addition to a number of specialties, such as the Hamilton Leader Fifth Wheel or Coupling; the Behlen Boot and the Schad shell wheel. The establishment turns out about eight thousand vehicles per year, and the business is constantly increasing. 270 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. THE SOHN AND RENTSCHLER CO. GRAY IRON FOUNDERS IN 1875 Henry Sohn was book-keeper in a Hamilton Brewery, Adam Rentschler was foreman in the foundry of the Variety Iron Works of Hamilton, and John Balle was a machinist working at the Niles Tool Works. These men were cronies and were anxious to go into business together, and the more they talked about it the more anxious they became, especially Balle who was thoroughly enthusiastic. None of them had ever been in business and all had been working for the sure thing of daily wages. They had twenty-nine hundred dollars in money between them. Their idea was to start a foundry with a small machine shop attachment and manufacture shelf hardware, and at the same time, furnish the castings and machine fittings required by numerous makers of agricultural implements, who were not themselves prepared to do their cast metal work. Job Owens had built a factory designed for felt making, but for some reason the project had never been carried forward and the factory had been used for various purposes and was at this time vacant. Sohn, Rentschler and Balle threw up their jobs and rented the Owens factory and started in business as Sohn, Rentschler & Balle, calling their concern the Ohio Iron Works. These men began to find out what real business was. The enthusiastic Balle began to appreciate the sterling merits of a regular pay-day at the Niles Works, for the boot was now on the other foot, and serious problems arose as to how to scare up the money to pay the men. No paying business bad been established and what little there was produced a loss instead of a profit. Everything was mortgaged up to the neck and finally Balle's enthusiasm gave entirely out and he incontinently quit and returned to his first love, study work and a sure pay-day. Sohn and Rentschler assumed the load, and the heavier the load pressed the harder they worked. They pushed out for trade and they got it. They sought for customers seeking the finest grade of castings and they found those customers and they made those castings and they made money, and they have made money ever since and to-day are looked upon as two of the wealthiest men in the city. They own lots of real estate and are interested in numerous manufacturing enterprises, and in the language of the street they have money to sell. But no men have worked harder or given closer attention to business. To-day, or any day, Adam Rentschler will be found in his foundry with his coat off and Henry Sohn will be found digging at his THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, 0. - 271 office work. They still occupy the same shop, which has been much enlarged. They bought the place once but it was impossible to get a deed and -so they remained tenants. There is something peculiar about the history of this institution and its product. Iron foundries are the commonest kind of institutions and if you want to buy castings the woods are full of places where you can get them and get them at any price you desire to pay. But there are castings and castings. Some castings are hard and some are soft; some are rough and some are smooth; some are round cornered where they ought to be square cornered, and some are square cornered where they ought to be round cornered. There are situations where any kind of castings will answer and there are situations where the castings must be just so. Sohn and Rentschler early found out that there was a large class of customers wanting small castings true to pattern, neither larger nor smaller nor more crooked nor less crooked. They accordingly gave special attention to matters of shrink. age and strains in small castings and became able to sell a reliable product. It has been the universal custom in foundries to buy the pig iron and then to mix as much scrap iron with it as the castings would stand. This, in small castings, yields a hard product. Sohn and Rentschler found that there was a large demand for small castings, requiring considerable drilling and other work, which should be pure and soft and they accordingly cut loose from the usual plan of mixture, and adopted pure iron regardless of cost, and the writer well remembers visiting their shop within the last year and not finding any scrap iron in the yard. They were working on mixtures of pure 'pig. If customers want their small castings cleaned up cheaply Sohn and Rentschler rattle them in a tumbling barrel, which is the usual cheap process, but this has a tendency to round off the sharp corners of delicate castings. If customers want the sharp corners left on the castings Sohn and Rentschler clean them tip in pickling vats. The difficulty of procuring the class of castings which Sohn and Rentschler supply to the trade may be judged from the fact that they are continually making large shipments to New York, Chicago and other distant points where iron foundries can be found by the hundred. They send to New York gray iron castings for electrical apparatuses which is so soft that it can be slightly rivited. Quite a number of very extensive manufacturers of small machinery, using castings by the car load, have long ago concluded that the success of their business rested too much upon the perfection of the castings to justify them in erecting their own foundries. It is easy to build foundries and make castings, but it is extremely difficult to make the quality of small castings called for in some line of manufacture. It is the satisfactory supply of such demands as this that has formed the basis of the success of Sohn & Rentschler. 272 -THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. THE BENTEL & MARGEDANT CTO. Wood Working Machinery. IN 1864-65 Mr. Charles E. McBeth, a machinist in Hamilton, commenced the manufacture of small power presses, corn stalk cutters, tobacco molds, shoe polishers and other small articles. In 1867 D. W. McClung, and later Jacob Schaffer, entered into partnership with Mr. McBeth to manufacture the Universal Wood Worker. They had bought a half interest in the patent and also the control of the other half. Mr. McClung soon retired, selling to Shaffer and in 1869 Mr. Shaffer retired selling to Mr. W. C. Margedant. Mr. Margedant, from 1854 to 1859 had been working as a journeyman machinist in the old shop of Owens, Lane & Dyer and leaving that shop had become engineer and architect for Mr. John W. Sohn who was engaged in numerous enterprises requiring the services of such a man. Mr. Margedant had had a thorough technical education in Europe and was a man of genius and energy. In 1870 Mr. Fred Bentel entered the concern. The firm was then manufacturing tobacco molds and the Universal Wood Worker. The Universal Wood Worker was a machine of a great deal of merit and demand for it grew so large that the capacity of the shop required to be greatly increased. But in May 1873 a fire occurred imposing a loss of over six thousand dollars. The loss was a hard one for it destroyed valuable patterns and made a serious, break in the business on which the prosperity of the owners depended and they were very hard up for money when rebuilding was imparative. Disputes arose over the rebuilding and Mr. McBeth retired, Mr. John W. Sohn taking. his place as an equal partner. The rebuilding was completed and new patterns were made and to the line of manufacturing was added a full line of THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON. O. - 273 wood working machinery of the very latest and most original design, Mr. Margedant proving himself to be possessed of most admirable talents in this direction. The business prospered until the dull times of 1876-1879 when things took a bad turn, business being wretched, and debts pressing. The pressure became too great and Mr. Margedant and Mr. Bentel both retired from the business, Mr. Sohn assuming the whole load and employing Mr.. Margedant as manager on a salery with an interest in the profits. Business soon picked up and the capacity of the shop became over-taxed and it became necessary to work double turn night and day, and many orders were refused. Business relaxed again and it became neeessary to make reductions' at every point, But this depression passed over and business again picked; up. In 1885 the concern was incorporated under the style of the Bentel 8i. & Margedant Co., Mr. Margedant becoming a stockholder. On January 11th, 1889, Mr. Sohn died and Mr. Margedant purchased his stock. In 1889 the business was re-organized with Mr. Margedant as President and general) manager, Mr. John T. Gardner Vice President and Superintendent; and, William L. Huber Secretary and Treasurer. The business is in the best possible condition. Its products are known the world over and its machines are models of practical design and superior efficiency. The line of machines manufactured includes over three hundred different sizes and styles of regular machines, to say nothing of special machines which are being constantly devised for special work. In this line of special machines this establishment has a most brilliant reputation, it being well understood throughout the wood-working world that if some new and unheard of machine is wanted for specially economical and more perfect proficiency in the working of wood, the Bentel & Margedant Co., are always prepared to devise and construct it with the assurance that the result will be satisfactory in the highest degree. For instance, in the manufacture of vehicle wheels, where the closest economy and the greatest perfection in pro duction is called for, the special machines of this establishment are the standard requirement. This automatic refined machinery is of the utmost refined character and deals with the rough wood and produces the finished wheel. A specialty has also been made of automatic machinery for the manufacture of wood pumps, and for railroad car works. An idea of the extensive product of the establishment may be gathered from the fact that of the "Universal Wood Worker," a single machine in the long list of products of this concern, over four thousand have been sold and they have gone into all the lands where wood is worked. The shops are very extensive and are well equipped with the best modern iron-working machinery for the production of wood-working machines, and the business is conducted with the most careful and conscientious supervision with a constant thought as to the best interests of the customer. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 275 THE BECKETT PAPER COMPANY IN 1849 a party by the name of Allen, began on a paper mill in Hamilton at the corner of Buckeye and Lowell Streets. He brought to the town two mill-wrights, John L. Martin and Frank Martin, to erect the mill and he brought Adam Laurie, a Scotch paper-maker, to run the mill. At that time the only paper mill in Hamilton was the Wrapping-paper Mill of Erwin, Kline & Co. Allen got in the foundations for the mill and then failed and left the Martins and Laurie in bad shape, stranded high and dry. At that time William Beckett was a lawyer in Hamilton, and so was F. D. Rigdon. The stranded mechanics consulted Beckett and the result was that an arrangement was effected whereby the Martins and Beckett, under the firm name of Beckett, Martins & Rigdon, undertook to put the project through. Beckett had one-third interest, John L. Martin one-third interest and Frank Martin and Rigdon each one-sixth. This was in 1849. A sixty-two inch machine was put in and the product was book and newspaper. Adam Laurie was foreman. The first year showed badly. In 185o Beckett purchased the interest of the two Martins and the firm name was changed to Beckett & Rigdon. In 1852 a second machine was put in, this time a sixty-eight inch machine, and both machines were run on book and newspaper. About 1854 Mr. Adam Laurie took a one eighth interest in the mill, and the mill made money. In 1862 or 1863, Rigdon retired and the style of the firm was changed to Beckett & Laurie. In 1870 Mr. Adam Laurie, Jr. who had learned the trade in the mill, was taken into the firm, and the style of the firm was changed to Beckett, Laurie & Company. The two machines had been running on book and newspaper, but during the war the product drifted somewhat into colored papers for poster and cover work. No other mill in the West was then making colored papers. To make these colored papers was a great trick in the trade, and Mr. Adam Laurie was a special artist in this line and the reputation of the papers of this mill became so great that the colored papers began to predominate in the product or the mill and in 1875 or '76 everything else was abandoned and since that time the mill has made only colored papers. Young Tom Beckett had learned the trade in the mill, and in 1885 he was taken into the firm. In 1887 or '88 the Beckett's bought out both the Lauries and the concern was incorporated as the Beckett Paper Company, with one hundred thousand dollars capital, with William Beckett as President and Thomas Beckett Secretary and Treasurer. The mill was rebuilt from stem to stern the two old machines were thrown out and a single sixty eight inch machine was put in. This new machine was built by the Black 276 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. & Clawson Co. in Hamilton. Paper-machines to-day look very much as they did many years ago, but the mill of the Beckett Paper Co. furnishes a splendid example of the results of modern improvements in construction and in details, and in the running speed of paper machines. The capacity of the two old machines, one sixty-two inch and one sixty-eight inch, was two and one-half tons of paper per day and the capacity of the single sixty-eight inch machine now in use is five tons per day. In other words, half the machinery produces double the product, a four fold increase. The product of the mill is exclusively colored papers, but the lower grade of paper for posters, &c., has been entirely abandoned and the mill now runs entirely upon the finest grades of colored papers for book covers. In this line of trade the product of this mill stands in the highest rank and it has a market®all over the country. The two Becketts give personal attention to the business. Toni runs the mill and runs the office, and Mr. Beckett, Sr., does all the traveling. THE COLUMBIA. CARRIAGE COMPANY THIS is a comparatively new establishment, having started in business this year with excellent facilities and most flattering prospects. The firm is composed of R. A. Davis, J. E. Wright, R. I. Hedges and T. L. Curley. Messrs. Davis, Wright & Curley have had long experience in the carriage business. Mr. Hedges is from Kansas City. Business was started in February, 1891. The premises were leased of the Hamilton Distilling Company and were entirely remodeled to suit the new business, and the result is a commodious establishment well suited to the manufacture and storage of the intended product. The factory is directly upon the C. H. & D. Railroad and on the line of the Electric Railway. The factory was completely equipped with entirely new machinery. The success of the new firm has been greater than was contemplated. The expectation was that at the outside one thousand rigs would be shipped this year, but these figures have been far exceeded and the shipments so far have amounted to fifteen hundred. In installing this business the owners determined to avoid entirely the low grade markets, and accordingly, to establish the grade betwen the medium and highest grades of carriage work. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 277 THE H. P. DEUSCHER COMPANY, AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS ETC. H. P. DEUSCHER was a farmer who had been in various business enterprises in other places than Hamilton, and was engaged in Hamilton in the malting business with Israel Williams. In 1879 he contemplated starting the hardware and implement business in the establishment of the Variety Iron Works. It was a risky venture, and he consulted his personal friend William E. Brown, of the Second National Bank. who had frequently helped him. Mr. Brown sat squarely down on the project and prophesied the most dismal failure and refused to encourage it in any way. and promised to withhold his help if needed in case the venture went forward. But Mr. Deucher took the rash step and soon found himself in hot water and Mr. Brown's prophesy became nearly being fulfilled. This was in 1879 and to- 278 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. day Mr. Deuselier's establishment is entirely free from debt and has been many times enlarged, and he has a most magnificent business, his sales at present amounting to a thousand dollars a day. It was a pure case of nerve and energy and splendid management, with very little of the element of luck about it. The first implements made were the Barbour Corn Drills, and in connection with this business the castings were made for the well known "fashion" school-desk and the castings were also made for the Implement Works of Norris Brothers. Later the McColm Soil Pulverizer was taken up and then the "Victor" Churn and then the "Favorite" Churn, later the "Hamilton" Corn Planter, and Check row Corn Planter, Horse Hay Rakes, Disk Harrows, Folding Harrows, and Lever Harrows were gone into. The trade was pushed in every direction and a market found in every state in the union. Of the Hamilton Corn Planters alone, five thousand have been sold, and certain meritorious points in their construction have formed the model which has revolutionized the Corn Planter trade, The school desk business has increased enormously. The first year Mr. Deuscher made seventeen hundred of these desks and this year he has made eight thousand of them. In 1888 Mr. Deuscher turned his business into a corporation with an incorporated capital of fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Deuscher is the owner of the business and gives it his personal attention. His establishment occupies GEORGE F. HUTCHINSON & CO. Omni Currant the King Pain ABOUT thirty years ago Dr. J. J. McBride had a prescription for a remedy for all manner of aches and pains, from toothache to rheumatism. He traveled and sold the medicine largely, and Mr. Henry VanDerveer traveled with him for a while and received the formula, and, ultimately, began the manufacture and sale of the medicine on his own account, he and Dr. McBride operating in different parts of the country. Dr. McBride died and Mr. VanDerveer kept tip the business in a small way. In 1886 George Hutchinson went into the business with Mr. VanDerveer and the manufacture of the medicine was established in Hamilton under the name of G. F. Hutchinson & Co. In 1887 Mr. VanDerveer retired and Mr. Hutchinson has since continued the business under the old name and has pushed it extensively. The laboratory was established on the corner of Third and High Street, and from there the medicine was shipped to the various selling points. Seven travelers are employed, and in addition to the sales made by them there is an established demand throughout the country. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 279 R. J. F. FISHER was an edge-tool maker and had been extensively in the business in Hamilton for many years, and his son Joseph Fisher learned the trade with him. Mr. Fisher finally sold his business to M. Bare and Joseph Fisher, became Mr. Bare's Superintendent. In 1888 Joseph Fisher, Jacob Lorenz, and Mr. Herman Augspurger established the Fisher Ice Tool Co., with an incorporated capital of ten thousand dollars. The line of manufacture included ice-harvesting tools and ice-elevating machinery. A specialty was made of a double ice-marker which Mr. Fisher had lately invented, and this implement is practically superceding the old single line markers in all of the ice-harvesting fields or the country. In connection with this implement the surprising fact developed that it took less power to cut two grooves in the ice than it did to cut one. The new implement did just twice the work of the old one and did it easier. The line of products of the Company includes every machine or implement used in the ice trade, and these goods are found wherever ice is harvested or handled. The growth of the business in the hands of these pushing men may be judged from the fact that for the season of 1888-90, the first season after bginning business, the sales were nine thousand dollars. The second season of 1889-90 they were twenty-one thousand dollars. The last season, that of 1889-90, they were thirty-three thousand dollars. In 1889 Mr. Augspurger retired from the business, which is now owned entirely by Mr. Fisher and Mr. Lorenz. New products have lately been added to the list and the establishment is now engaged largely in making. metallic poles for electric railways, and also metallic specialties employed in electric railway work. Steel street-crossings are also being made. D. M. STEVENSON Furniture Specialties Mr. Stevenson had been engaged in Cincinnati for some years in the manufacture of furniture specialties and, in 1888, he removed to Hamilton, taking shop-room at Water and Market streets. He manufactures lodge-room furniture which finds its market among the secret orders of the country. He has lately taken up the manufacture of folding beds of his own invention. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 281 SHULER & BENNINGHOFEN WOOLEN MILL THE two brothers Breidenbauch in 1853 had a dry goods store in Hamilton and took a notion to make the woolens which they sold. These two with Jerry Andrum and Titus Shuler and Asa Shuler, under the name of Breidenbauch & Co., started a woolen mill in the building now standing on Fourth Street between the shops of Long & Allstatter Co. and the Bentel & Margedant Co., the old building now forming a part of the Long & Allstatter shop. About five thousand dollars was put into the business. The two Shulers were carpenters and Andrum was to be the woolen mill man. They put in tour narrow looms, one wide loom, one spinning-mule, and one set of ,cards. They made yarns, cashmeres, blankets and flannels. All were sold ,either in Hamilton or in Cincinnati, the business being strictly local. Pay was taken mostly in trade, The first year they managed to lose nine hundred dollars and Mr. Andrum retired in disgust. Mr. Asa Schuler assumed the management of the mill and the business was pushed into new markets and with great success, In 1858 Mr. J. W. Benninghofen bought the interests of the Breidenbauch Brothers and the firm name was changed to Shuler & Benninghofen. Mr, Benninghofen was clerk in the Brewery of John W. Sohn and he remained a clerk in the Brewery for a year after he bought his interest in the woolen -mill. In 1862 the present mill was built, on the corner of Heaton and Lowell Streets, and when the new mill was done a double set of machinery was put in. In 1854 the mill made its first felt for use on a paper machine. This was bought and used by Shuey & McGuire for their paper-mill in Hamilton, It was not an endless felt, but was seamed. Paper-makers felts were made right along to some extent and in i866 the mill made its first endless felt. This felt trade has grown enormously and this mill now has two-thirds of the Western trade on paper-makers felts and the reputation of these felts is the very highest. In 1881 Mr. Benninghofen died and his two sons, Chris and Peter took his place in the mill where they can always be found, every day in the week. The mill now makes paper-makers felts, up to one hundred and twenty-six inches in width; blankets of the finest grades; woven woolen skirts both endless and pieced; flannels, yarns and skirting flannels. The widest loom is two hundred and sixty inches. The trade of this mill now extends all over the United States with trade connections in Mexico, Japan and other foreign countries. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 283 THE HUGHES MFG CO. GRAIN-CLEANINGMACHINERY ETC. IN 1849 Learned & Hughes patented certain improvements in grain-cleaning machinery, and at this time, the art was in its infancy. In 186o Hughes patented the volute system of bran duster. The business of manufacturing and selling this machinery was carried on in Hamilton by Mr. Hughes and various other associates for quite a number of years and with magnificent success, the machines being sold very extensively and at handsome profits. The business was finally incorporated as the Stephen Hughes Manufacturing Co. and was operated by Mr. Stephen Hughes and Mr. Robert Hughes. The manufacturing business was conducted in the shop formerly occupied by Black & Clawson on the corner of Water and Market Streets. In 1882 the Edmands Manufacturing Company was formed and engaged in the manufacture of grain-cleaning machinery, Mr. Edmands being the moving spirit and Mr. Heimsath his principle colleague. Upon the death of Mr. Edmands, Mr. Heimsath became Superintendent, and finally purchased the entire business. In 1887 Mr. Robert Hughes and Mr. Heimsath formed the Standard Grain-cleaner Co. which took over the business of the Edmands Manufacturing Company, the factory being located in the Morey factory building at the West end of High Street. In 1890 the Hughes Manufacturing Co. was incorporated, forming a consolidation of the Stephen Hughes Manufacturing Co. and the Standard Grain-Cleaner Co., taking up the manufacture of their combined products, the principal owners being Stephen Hughes and Robert Hughes. In June 1891 both of the Messrs Hughes retired. Mr. H. P. Deuscher is now President of the Company, Mr. F. C. Heimsath Vice-President and Treasurer, and Mr. W. H. Stephen Secretary. They occupy their own new factory on Water Street, a brick structure operated by water power. The concern manufactures wheat separators, graders, smutters, corn-cleaners and separators, flour feeders and mixers, flour blenders and vertical and horizontal bran dusters; in all a line of fifty-three sizes and styles of machine The machines have been sold by the thousand all over the known world, where grain cleaning machinery is used. 284 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. THE BESS MAHINE CO., Laundry Machinery & Paper Slitters, IN 1884 Albert Bess finished a three years apprenticeship as a machinist in the shop of Black & Clawson. He was then twenty-one years old. In 1888 while working in the shop of Black & Clawson he invented a slitting cutter to be applied to paper making machines to cut the wide web into narrower webs as the paper ran from the machine. Paper slitters of various kinds were quite old but Mr. Bess' contrivance had many points of decided superiority. At this time there was in Boston the Koegel Slitter Co, whose slitters were being quite extensively sold. Mr. Bess had no money, except his weekly pay as a machinist, but he had a foot-lathe in his kitchen at home, and when he got up his new-fangled slitter nothing would do but he must start a machine shop of his own. He borrowed fifteen dollars of the First National Bank, with Mr. Robert Andrews as security, and then went to the Beckett Paper Company and got their order for four slitters, Bess to take in pay for them an old lathe which was in the paper mill, and he got the lathe in advance. He now had two lathes and he rented a place and started his establishment, entirely without capital. Mr. Black, of Black & Clawson, was good enough to say "If you get too hard up you can come up to our shop and work awhile." Mr. Bess did find himself too hard up, and while he was the proprietor of a machine shop himself he could generally be found at work at Black & Clawson's shop. But while he worked as a journeyman at Black & Clawsons for the sure thing of weekly pay he kept a machinist or two at work in his own institution. The new-paper-slitter was an admirable arrangement and sold on sight. Mr. Bess got his first hundred dollars from sales of slitters made to the Friend & Forgy Paper Co. at Franklin, Ohio, and he borrowed another hundred dollars with Mr. Montgomery of Oxford as security. He was now a manufacturer and a capitalist with debts and went at business with vigor. But the Koegel Slitter Co., claiming a monopoly in improved paper slitters, notified Mr. Bess to stop infringing on their patent. Mr. Bess took council and was advised to go ahead. The Koegel Slitter Co. then sent agents and finally an attorney to size up Mr. Bess, and every effort was made to bulldoze him. The efforts would have succeeded with ninety-nine men out of one hundred but Mr. Bess was not a man to be bulldozed. He got his patent on his own invention and sold his slitters and told his opponents THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 285 to crack the whip. And the crack of the whip in the United States Court is no small matter for any manufacturer. Mr. Bess managed to save up one hundred and thirty dollars and proposed to take a trip in the far East among the paper mills with his slitter. Mr. Clawson, of Black & Clawson, told him that he did not think it would take him long to `'blow in" the one hundred and thirty dollars, but he was mistaken. Mr. Bess was gone thirteen days and the net profits of the trip were six hundred and fifty dollars. The Koegel Slitter Co. now boiled over and began a patent suit against one of Mr. Bess' customers in Franklin, Ohio, and Mr. Bess gave a thousand dollar bond of indemnity to the Defendant and took upon himself the full defense of the suit, employing Messrs. Parkinson & Parkinson, of Cincinnati, Ohio, as his counsel. The case was fought through the Court and Mr. Bess came out with flying colors, and the decision rendered by the Court was one of the most serious rebukes yet given to a patentee who seeks to squelch independent and superior improvements. But Mr. Bess desired more extensive fields of manufacturing and contemplated the production of a full line of laundry machinery for steam laundries. He knew nothing about this kind of machinery and in fact he had seen little of it, but he took the bull by the horns and started a laundry and equipped it with the best modern machinery and operated it for ten months until he knew all about laundry machinery, and then sold it out, coming out without loss. He then got up a full line of steam laundry machinery of the most modern and ingenious construction and is now in full swing under the style of the Bess Machine Co. with an incorporated capital of twenty-five thousand dollars, with himself as President and his brother Arthur as Secretary and Treasurer. The establishment has moved into a larger shop with greatly increased facilities and is now in contemplation of much more extensive enlargements, it being found impossible to keep up with the orders on hand, the paper slitters alone making a very respectable manufacturing business. They are now the standard article in this line and are specified for all first-class paper machines and orders are filled for them by the hundreds. Mr. Bess has now in contemplation the erection of a model laundry for the special purpose of exhibiting to visiting customers a full line of the Bess laundry machinery in practical operation. It would be impossible for a young manufacturer to have brighter prospects. THE CENTENNIAL, CELEBRATION OF HAMILTON, O. - 287 THE LONG & ALLSTATTER COMPANY Punching and Shearing Machinery and Agricultural Implements. IN 1855 56 John M. Long, a machinist, was foreman in the old Owens Lane & Dyer shop. Peter Black owned a shop on Water Street on the north side of present Market Street. He was a blacksmith and did a genera blacksmith business. Robert Allstatter was a file cutter and in 1854 he hadl rented room in Black's shop and the firm of Allstatter & Scheisman cut files and sickles for a living. In 1856 the parties got together and the firm of Long, Black & Allstatter started business in Black's shop. Long & Allstatter had a few hundred apiece and Black owned the shop, which had water power. The new concern did a general small jobbing business and made a few broom-handles, lathes and made sickles for manufactures of mowers and reapers. They supplied sickles for reaper-makers in Springfield and other places, and in some cases, made the finger-bars also. In 1887 they began studying reapers and in that year built two combined mowing and reaping machines, entirely of metal, and known as the "Iron Harvester." There was a big reaper trial at Hamilton and these machines got second premium, missing the first because they had no self rake. There had been iron mowers but these were the first iron reapers built in the country. They sold none the first year, as these machines were built merely for a test. In 1858 they sold sixty-five machines which gave them a good test. In doing their sickle work they found that all their punching and shearing machines made in the country were inefficient and they therefore got up machines of their own, and these punching and shearing machines were so superior that they were called upon to fill orders for them from many manufacturers of reapers &c. In 1859 the concern sold three hundred harvesters. The reaper men did not much like the idea of their sickle-makers going into the harvester business but still in this year the concern sold about fifteen thousand sickles. In 1860 they sold eight hundred of the iron harvesters at good prices and at good profits. The concern had a splendid opening but were too timid to build in advance of actual sales. The punching-machine business was constantly growing and improved machines were constantly being gotten out and sold to various branches of trade, car works, safe makers, and others. In this year the shop took up the manufacture of 288 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. two horse corn drills, seed drills and feed cutters. In 1861-62 business fell off owing to the war and the high price of iron. In 1863 the manufacture of hay rakes was taken up and this year about eight hundred harvesters were sold and a great deal was done in supplying cultivator points and such things to other manufacturers of implements, the experience of the shop in punching and shearing and polishing having put them in a superior position in this direction. About this time property on the south side of the street, across from the water-power canal was bought. It was the old Hamilton and Rossville Female Academy where the City Building now stands and was bought for twenty-five hundred dollars, and the factory now occupied both shops, which were connected by a shaft across the street. About 1871 Mr. Black retired and the firm became Long & Allstatter, with a right to remain in the old shop two years, Mr. Black conducting a blacksmith and machine shop in the northern part of the premises, where he started into the portable engine business. In 1893 Long & Allstatter got into their new shop on the corner of Fourth and high streets and soon dropped the manufacture of harvesters as self-binders were then becoming fashionable and they had not succeeded in getting one that was satisfactory. They took up plows and sulky-plows and cultivators, and pushed the sickle business and the punching and shearing machines. They soon received a severe blow from the panic. In 1874 Mr. Charles McBeth and Mr. Herman Snyder cane into the firm and the firm name was changed to Long & Allstatter Co. Mr. McBeth had been in the firm of Bentel & Margedant Co. leaving it after their fire. In 1878 the concern was incorporated as the Long & Allstatter Co. with two hundred thouasnd dollars capital, and a few additional small stockholders came in. In 188r the sickle business had grown greatly, the concern being the second largest in the business. The other sickle manufacturers wanted a trust formed but the arrangement did not suit the Long & Allstatter Co. so they sold the business out on highly satisfactory terms. They were then making about fifty thousand sickles per year and lots of complete cutting apparatuses for harvesters. The business has since been pushed in the other branches and with eminent success. The punching and shearing machines have been kept up to the highest notch and the concern is now the acknowledged leader in the world in this line of machines. The establishment now makes about seven thousand cultivators; nine thousand horse rakes ; and two hundred punching and shearing machines a year, besides large numbers of straw cutters, cotton planters, plows, &c. The shop has been much enlarged and now covers three acres. Mr. John M. Long is President, Mr. Joe Long Vice President, Mr. McBeth Secretary and Treasurer, and Mr. John M. W. Long Superintendent. All of these men are thoroughly practical shop men and give personal and constant attention to the business. A few years ago Mr. Allstatter retired entirely from active business. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 289 The Albert Fisher Manufacturing Co. Canners and Can Makers, ALBERT FISHER & CO., had been engaged for many years in Cincinnati as canners of vegetables, the firm making its own cans by ordinary hand process. In 1885 the concern moved to Hamilton and built a new factory on Third Street near Black, the business at this time being incorporated as The Albert Fisher Manufacturing Co., Albert Fisher President, Charles Fisher Secretary and Treasurer. In Cincinnati the goods to be canned had been purchased in the market, but when the business was installed in Hamilton, preparations were made for raising the vegetables, as far as possible. Fauns were accordingly purchased and leased until now this establishment cultivates about one thousand acres of land. The goods packed consist of tomatoes, corn, peas, beans, and vegetables generally. The market for these goods is all over the United States and the well known "Star" brand of canned goods stands high in the estimation of users. The growing business would no longer permit of the cans being made by hand, and accordingly, the latest modern machinery was put in for their manufacture, and even the most modern machinery was greatly improved upon and original machines were devised and built until finally the can-making part of the establishment was in a position not only to produce its own cans, but to sell cans largely to other canning factories. The large factory has been very greatly enlarged and now has a capacity of one hundred thousand cans per day. These cans are sold to canning factories all over the West and South and as far East as Buffalo. In addition to cans, the automatic machinery is also employed in the manufacture of lard pails and buckets, which are sold largely. THE Sohngen and Brown Co. Manufacturers of Maize Malt. THE old Canal Mill, at the head of Dayton Street on the Canal, had been idle, and in 1888 The Sohngen & Brown Company was incorporated with a capital of twenty thousand dollars, with Charles Sohngen, President William B. Brown, Vice President, and George P. Solingen, Secretary and Treasurer. The old mill was completely cleaned out and entirely new machinery put in, adapted for the manufacturing of maize malt. The work is done by roller-mills entirely and two thousand bushels of corn per day are ground and the product is sold in New York, Philadelphia, and the East generally. Mr. Brown runs the business at the mill and the office is with the Sohngen Malting Co., corner of C and Franklin streets. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 291 The Hamilton Foundry & Machine Company. General Iron Foundries. MOST of the larger machine establishments in Hamilton have their own foundries and large and roomy and well equipped foundries are they. There are also three concerns doing jobbing foundry business. These latter concerns supply those shops which have not their own foundries and also furnish castings for use abroad. Notwithstanding the extent of Hamilton foundries, the amount of castings used in the various industries is so great that the foundries cannot keep up, and a number of concerns have been obliged to order large quantities of castings from abroad. It is the intention of the Hamilton Foundry & Machine Co. to supply this demand and to see that hereafter the City of Hamilton is a larger seller of castings instead of a buyer. Heavy work is to receive especial attention. The foundry is one hundred by three hundred feet, with a melting capacity of fifteen tons per day, and the equipment for dealing with the heaviest class of machine casting is probably superior to anything in the State. The factory is located on the Panhandle Railroad at Lincoln Avenue. The Company was incorporated in 1891. Adam Rentschler is President: Frederick Thomma, Vice President: J. C. Hooven, Treasurer : and Earl Hooven, Secretary. The Advance Manufacturing Co. Cider Mills, Ice Tools. THE NEW MALES Manufacturing Co. had for some time been engaged in the manufacture of cider mills and ice harvesting tools. In 1888 The Advance Manufacturing Co. was incorporated, with fifty thousand dollars capital, William Ritchie, President; F. Doeller, Secretary and Treasurer, and H. Lashorn, Superintendent. The new concern bought out the New Males Manufacturing Co. and bought property and built the new shop on the Panhandle Railroad and the Canal, near High street. The American cider mill is made in three sizes. An extended variety of ice harvesting tools and implements are made, and the Little Giant Power Converter, for use in connection with wind mills, is also largely manufactured. The new concern has gotten along prosperously and the business is growing. 292 - THE CENTENNIAL, ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. THE GORDON STEAM PUMP COMPANY. Two pattern makers in Cincinnati, Messrs. Cope & Maxwell, devised and patented an improved steam pump and, in a small way, they began its manufacture. The business grew upon them and they took in partners with capital and formed the Cope & Maxwell Manufacturing Company. Their factory in Cincinnati was on the usual city style, heavy work being done in upper stories and no possible chance for extensions. In 1871 the establishment moved to Hamilton and erected a splendid factory with facilities for doing the work properly. They still retained the business office in Cincinnati, but the important fact is to be noted that within one year after moving to Hamilton there were more Cope & Maxwell pumps pumping water in Egypt than in Cincinnati, and to-day there is no country in the world in which they are not well known. These steam pumps were made for every possible duty and of a great variety of sizes. In 1873 the establishment built its first waterworks pumping-engine for supplying the city with water. This machine was erected at Newport, Kentucky, and was followed in 1874 by the pumping-engines for the water-works at Clinton, Iowa, and in 1875 by the water-works engines of Anamosa, Iowa, and the Athens Ayslum, of Ohio, and in 1876 by the engines at Logansport, Indiana, and others. In 1884 Mr. Cope retired and the entire establishment was purchased by the Gordon & Maxwell Company, a new Company composed of Messrs. Gordon, McKinney & Gaff of the Niles Tool Works, and Mr. Maxwell of the former Company. Soon after that Mr. Maxwell retired entirely from active manufacturing business and entered upon the profession of Consulting En- gineer, and in 1890 the name of the concern was changed to the Gordon Steam Pump Co. The shop has been many times enlarged until now it is very extensive and splendidly equipped and turning out an enormous output of everything in the way of steam pumping machinery, principally duplex steam pumps for general purposes and water-works engines for the supply of municipalities. The first steam pump manufactured by the concern had fixed upon it a small plate bearing the legend "No. 1" and ever since that the practice has been followed of consecutively marking the machines sent out. The number of the last plate, at the present time of writing was 8290. The variety of product will be understood from the fact that the number of styles and sizes of steam pumps for which patterns are on hand and for which orders are being constantly filled is nine hundred. The capacity of the establishment, as large as it is, is always over-taxed and night work is constantly being done. Special attention has been given to water-works engines for cities, and up to the present writing this establishment has furnished two hundred and seven pumping engines for water-works use, and it may be of interest to note that these water-works pumping engines have been distributed as follows, viz: Alabama 1, Arkansas 1, Colorado 3, Canada 4, Dakota 2, Delaware 1, Georgia 3, Illinois 19, Indiana 11, Iowa 21, Kansas 4, Kentucky 3, Mississippi 1, Minnesota 2, Missouri 3, Montana 2, Michigan z8, New York 4, New Jersey 4, Nebraska 1, North Carolina 1, Ohio 48, Pennsylvania 17, Tennessee 1, Texas 7, Virginia 2, West Virginia 4, Washington 2, Wisconsin 6. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 293 MACNEALE & URBAN Safe and Lock Company. IN the forties C. Urban-was a locksmith in Cincinnati and in 1847 or 1848 he began the manufacture of safes. Safes were at that time merely extra strong treasure boxes or "strong" boxes, and there was nothing that could make any pretensions to being burglar-proof and little more could be said about fire-proof qualities, a fire-proof safe in those earlier days being a thin iron box lined with wood, wood kept from air being recognized as a poor conductor of heat and a material of slow combustion. But Mr. Wilder, of New York, had patented a new system of fire-proof safe, an iron box lined with plaster, and it was under the Wilder patent that Mr. Urban began his operations. But as lowly as the safe-makers art was at that time, Mr. Urban was a safe-maker in the fullest sense, making his own safes and locks coinplete on the premises. In 1855 W. B. Dodds, not a mechanic, was taken into the business and the firm became Urban, Dodds & Co. In 1857 Mr. Urban died and his interest was bought by Dodds and the business continued as W. B. Dodds & Co. In 1859 Mr. Neil Macneale, a Civil Engineer, entered the firm, but the name remained unchanged. Mr. Herman Urban had learned the trade in his father's shop, beginning work in 1857 and was, at that time, foreman of the shop. In 1863 he bought a one third interest in the business and the firm became Dodds, Macneale & Urban. In 187o Dodds retired and the firm became Macneale & Urban. In 1890 the new and splendid factory was built at Hamilton, occupying ten acres and having a capacity to work six hundred men and turn out fifty to sixty safes per day, in addition to an immense amount of the most modern character of burglar-proof vault work, safe deposit work, etc. etc. In 1891 the firm was changed to a corporation under the name of The Macneale & Urban Safe & Lock Co. H. Urban President, Neil Macneale Sec'y and Treas. The history of this concern is almost the history of the art of safe-making. About 1855 the important change was made from plaster to cement composition as the fire resisting material for the filling for fire proof safes. The conflict between the Safemaker and the burglar came on. In the earlier years two quarter-inch iron plates with a quarter. inch hard steel plate between them, giving a wall three-fourths of an inch thick was considered the acme of burglar-proof construction. Later the thickness of plates and the number of plates was increased and the material was radi- THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 295 cally changed. About 1866 the laminated construction came in, each plate being composed of alternate layers of iron and steel welded together. Macneale & Urban have at all times been with the advance guard in the march of improvement, and the burglar-proof work constructed by them today with thick walls of "malacent" steel would dumbfound the older safe makers and safe-breakers. The older safes of the best construction were locked with key locks and great was the ingenuity expended in the contrivance of these locks and in the contrivance of means for picking them. The crown jewels of England were guarded by the celebrated Chubbs locks and the great Bramah, he of hydraulic-press fame, had invented the celebrated Bramah lock, and for years there had hung in his window in London one of his locks with an attached document offering two hundred guineas for the instrument that would open it. Chubbs locks and Bramah locks were considered unpickable. At this time the World's Fair in London was in full blast. The American Consul said: "The Americans have about one-eighth of the building in London to exhibit in and there are three barrels of shoe pegs and a bundle of brooms as exhibits. The American exhibit is a failure. " Mr. Hobbs, an American lock expert, visited the Exhibition and gave the American side of it a new and sensational character, for he picked the celebrated Chubbs and Bramah locks. These were key locks. He had picked all key locks which had been presented to him. He picked the dial lock of William Brown, "Lock-maker to Her Majesty. About 1860 the combination lock, dispensing entirely with the key, and dispensing entirely with the idea of either fixed o. movable wards, came into vogue as the result of the exposures made by Hobbs regarding the-weakness of key and ward locks. The modern combination lock is distinctly recognized as belonging to. an unpickable class. Macneale & Urban had always made their own locks, following closely the improvements in the art, and often leading them, and took tip earnestly the manufacture of the combination locks which they have continued ever since, all Macneale & Urban safes being guarded by Macneale & Urban combination locks. The work of this concern goes all over the known world and selling agencies are established in all important cities in the country and also in Honlulu. Melbourne, Sydney, Paris, Calcutta, Kingston and San Luis, Potosi. Work has been sold to many of the foreign legations. Work is now under way in the shop for the German legation in Berlin and four big jobs for Stuttgart. Thirteen burglar proof vaults are now in process of construction for Eastern cities, Bangor, Maine; Bradford, Connecticut; Washington, D. C.; etc. etc. Last month work was shipped to the Government. Treasury of the Sandwich Islands, and Macneale & Urban have been con, suited by the official architect of the National Bank of Spain. 296 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. The Phenix Caster Company, FURNITURE CASTER. ALONG in 1874 Alexander Martin, a saw maker of Hamilton, got it into his head that ordinary furniture casters wore out carpets and made too much work for the women folks. The casters rolled hard, and in turning the corner they pivoted on a single point and tended to tear holes in the carpet. Mr. Martin thereupon began to invent. He rigged up a little shop and put in two solid years in inventing casters and testing them and failing. But finally he struck the right thing and patented the celebrated Martin two wheel caster. It would move with great ease, and in turning a corner, one of the wheels would move one way and the other the other way and there was thus no tendency for it to bore holes in the floor. Mr. Martin would spread a piece of tissue paper on the carpet and then roll and twist a little truck, provided with his casters, around on the paper and show that there was no puckering tendency whatever and that the heavy load moved with the utmost ease. He showed it to all his friends who would look at it and they all admired it and smiled. He was in rather bad straits financially and finally sold the patent to William Ritchie for five hundred dollars, Ritcliie caring nothing whatever for the patent, which he took simply because Martin insisted on his taking it as some sort of an exchange for the five hundred dollars which Ritchie let him have. But the next day, as hard up as Martin was, he traded back, much to Richie's delight. Everybody appeared to ridicule the caster as a thing out of which Martin could make any money and Martin was looked upon as an inventor who was foolishly wasting his time. He took his models to large hardware concerns in Cincinnati and these men gave him the laugh. They let him make exhibitions with his tissue paper, &c., and then said they would not have the thing as a gift ; that there never had been any demand for such a thing and never would be; that furniture casters were good enough, and that if an inventor had any sense he would set his wits to work to contrive cheaper ways of making the present casters instead of getting up new fangled ones that were bound to cost very much more than the old styles. -Martin came home again with his models, thinking none the less of them however. Messrs. Sohn and Rentschler had gotten out of the woods, and their shop was next door to that of Martin and they saw so much of Martin and his casters that some of Martin's enthusiasts began to rub off on them. Messrs. Tucker & Dorsey were in contact with the hardware trade in Indianapolis and had had many close dealings with Sohn and Rentchler. Sohn and Rentchler talked to Tucker and Dorsey about the caster and finally the four joined hands and made a royalty contract with Martin. The terms of this contract, when they became known, excited more smiles than Martin's caster ever had, for that contract obligated these four men to pay Martin a big royalty on each caster and to sell a specified large number of casters per year. It looked like a splendid thing for Martin but it was prophesied to be the ruination of Sohn and Rentchler and Tucker and Dorsey. But the prophecy was not THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 297 fulfilled. The caster business was started and George Helvey was employed as Superintendent He built a complete line of labor saving machinery for making these castors nicely and as cheaply as possible. But the casters did not pretend to be cheap casters. They were essentially high priced. But the trade was pushed directly to the teeth of the hardware dealers and the hardware trade became finally convinced that this caster had come to stay and that it had its place in the market. The sales were pushed to an enormous extent, and they continued to grow ever since and the business has made magnificent returns to everyone connected with it. Mr. Marlin died soon after the thing got fairly started but his royalty paid all his debts and left his family a competence, and the manufacturers have done exceedingly well. The firm of Sohn, Rentschler, Tucker & Dorsey was established and began making the casters in 1877 and about 1884 the concern was incorporated as the Phenix Caster Co. with the same owners. The factory is always running to its fullest extent and the two wheel casters, since copied largely, are now a staple article in the hardware market. THE HAMILTON AUTOGRAPHIC REGISTER CO. IN the systematic retail store, the salesman writes a bill in duplicate, which bills go through certain retail processes of settlement with the customer before the delivery of the goods. The National Autographic Register is a contrivance designed to improve upon this method. It contains several rolls of paper, and when the salesman writes the bill, upon a part of the paper exposed in the machine, several copies are produced, one of which may go to the customer, and one to the cashier, but another copy is retained on an endless roll wound tip in the machine, which is locked up so the salesman cannot get it. A true autographic record is thus kept of each transaction and the record cannot be tampered with by unauthorized persons. This register is controlled by the National Autographic Register Co. of New York, and, in 1887, the Hamilton Autographic Register Co. was incorporated to work the register in certain Western territory, the registers being leased to the users. The officers of the company are Chris Benninghofen, President; Peter Benninghofen, Secretary ; George Hughes, Treasurer, and Jacob Rost, Manager. The registers are procured from the New York Co. and leased to merchants and other business men requiring their use, the Hamilton company, in its territory, having canvassers employed to introduce the device and look after its operations, and sell the supplies needed for its use. Places have been found for thousands of these registers and their use calls for a great deal of roll paper properly printed and consecutively numbered and the Hamilton company, in its factory on Third Street near Black Street, is thoroughly equipped for supplying this paper, which calls for a class of printing not within the capacity of usual printing offices. The paper is purchased in long rolls and is slitted into narrow widths and is printed by continuous processes, each bill of the series receiving a consecutive number, and the completed paper is delivered in rolls ready for use in the autographic register. The company also supplies cash-carriers and parcel-carriers, the product thus comprehending a complete system of store-service apparatus. 298 - THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. THE LOUIS SNYDER SONS COMPANY, Paper Manufacturers. LOUIS SNYDER was a Bavarian paper-maker. He came to the United States without money and began the manufacture of paper in hand molds in Brookville, Indiana. He finally got into the general merchandizing business in Milford, Indian,. In 1854 he built the Franklin Paper Mill at Hamilton, putting in a seventy-two inch machine and making book and newspaper. In 1868 he built an additional mill, the Fairgrove Mill on the Canal at the city limits. This mill made newspaper, having a seventy-two inch machine. In this year he took in his sons, Henry and Louis P. and Edward J. and also Mr. William Pfau, and the firm name became Louis Snyders Sons. In 1875 Louis Snyder died and the other partners bought his interest of the estate and the firm name remained unchanged. In 1880 the firm built the third mill, the Fordham Mill at Second and Mill Streets. This mill was for making book and newspaper, and its ninety inch machine was then the widest machine in this valley. In 1886 the Franklin Mill was entirely remodeled and a new machine ninety-two inches wide was put in. The mill when remodeled produced four times as much paper on the ninety-two inch machine as had been made before on the seventy-two inch machine. In 1887 the business was incorporated as "The Louis Snyders Sons Co." with a capital of four hundred thousand dollars, with Henry Snyder as President and Treasurer and Edward J. Snyder Secretary. In 1891 the construction of the "fourth" mill was begun at Second and Mill Streets. This mill has not yet been christened but "Fourth" will probably be its name. The new mill is for the production of sulphite of wood fiber. The daily capacity of the three mills is fifteen tons of paper and the capacity of the fourth mill seven tons of pulp. The product of these mills is marketed throughout the sections buying Western paper. This concern has been the pioneer to the point of revolution in certain grades of paper manufacture. To make paper of old paper which had been printed upon was long a problem in the trade and the problem seemed impossible of solution, old printed paper being looked upon as one of the waste products of the world. But the problem was solved by the chemical research and earnest experiments conducted in these mills. A small percentage of printed paper was successfully dealt with and finally the end was reached and one hundred per cent of this stock was successfully employed in making white paper. THE CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF HAMILTON, O. - 299 THE SOHNGEN MALTING COMPANY IN 1859 Louis Sohngen started in the malting business, building a small malt house on the corner of C and Franklin Streets. The house had a capacity of ten thousand bushels. The new house was built and the capacity enlarged. In 1868 it was increased to sixty thousand bushels, in 1872 to eighty thousand bushels, and in 1875 to two hundred thousand bushels. In 1878 Louis Sohngen was succeeded by Charles Sohngen & Company, the firm being composed of Charles Solingen and George P. Sohngen. In 1891 the business was incorporated with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars. Charles Sohngen is President, George P. Solingen Secretary and Treasurer, and Edward Sohngen has an interest. The product of this establishment is sold throughout all portions of the country buying malt from this district. This concern also markets the product of the Hamilton Malting Company. SCHLOSSER & CO. MALTSTERS. HENRY SCHLOSSER came to this country in about 1849 and landed in Cincinnati with an empty pocket. He walked to Burlington, in Hamilton County, and went to work on a farm, and soon after he went into Roger's mill in Burlington and learned the miller's trade, and he finally drifted to Hamilton where he became head miller in the Bridge Mill. In 1870, when Henry Schlosser was working in the High Street mill, there was a small malt house at the corner of Fourth and High Streets, and Henry and his brother, Jacob, bought that institution and began malting with a capacity of about thirty thousand bushels. In 1874 Jacob Schlosser retired and in 1878 important improvements were made in the malt house bringing its capacity up to one hundred thousand bushels. In 1891 still more important improvements were made, increasing the capacity to two hundred and twenty thousand bushels and the house was equipped with new machinery, and an elevator was built with a capacity of about one hundred thousand bushels. The trade is in the East, South and West. The business is conducted by Mr. Henry Schlosser and his son, William Schlosser, both giving constant attention to the business. Mr. Henry Schlosser travels after the Northern trade and Mr. William Schlosser after the Southern and Eastern trade.