1350 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY which falls into the Miami seven miles below this Fort." (Miami). "History of the Late War in the Western Country"-1816 On Page 14, of his "History of the Late War in the Western Country," McAfee says, "Col. McKee, Superintendent of Indian affairs for the districts of Detroit and Macinac to Col. England, the (English) Military Commander at Detroit, wrote from Camp near Fort Miami, August 30, 1794, as follows, viz : "Sir: I have been employed several days in endeavoring to fix the Indians (who have been driven from their villages and corn fields) between the Fort (Miami) and the Bay. Swan Creek is generally agreed upon and will be a very convenient place for the distribution of provisions, etc." "Historical Collections of Ohio"-1846 Henry Howe in his "Historical Collections of Ohio" says that Fort Industry was erected about the year 1800. "The Toledo Directory"-1858 Homer and Harris in "The Toledo Directory," 1858, on page 14, say : "A small stockade known by the name of Fort Industry was built near the Junction of Swan Creek and the Maumee River immediately after the Treaty of Greenville. It was garrisoned until 1808 by about 150 men, merely to guard the territory ceded to the United States against Indian depredations." "Early History of the Maumee Valley"-1858 H. L. Hosmer, the author says: "A small stockade by the name of Fort Industry was built near the junction of Swan Creek and the Maumee immediately after the Treaty of Greenville. It was garrisoned until 1808 by about 150 men merely to guard the territory ceded to the United States against Indian depredations." "Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812"-1868 On Page 493 of this work by Benson J. Lossing, he says: "I visited (Toledo) on the 24th of September, 1860, and had the singular good fortune to be accompanied by H. L. Hosmer and the venerable Peter Navarre. We left the city for our ride up the Maumee Valley * * * Mr. Hosmer vol- 1352 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY unteered to be coachman * * * At the Oliver House in time for dinner and a stroll about the little City of Toledo * * * It covers (page 493) the site of Fort Industry, a stockade erected there about 1800 near what is now Summit Street." "The Great Republic"-1871 The author, James D. McCabe, says (Page 836) "Toledo covers the site of a stockade fort called Fort Industry, built in 1800." "History of the Maumee Valley"-1872—by H. S. Knapp The frontispiece of this work shows a wood engraving of Fort Industry and the "Landing at Fort Industry (Toledo) of the First Continental Regiment of United States Infantry under Col. Thomas Hunt in June, 1803 * * * on its way from Detroit to St. Louis. A night was spent in the vicinity of the Fort under tents * * * This old Fort stood near the edge of the Bluff, about thirty feet above the river * * * erected under orders of General Wayne in 1794." Knapp (Page 93) says that Fort Industry was built by order of General Wayne, immediately after the Battle of Fallen Timbers. He also says (Page 10), "In 1696, Captain Nicholas Perrot built a trading station at the west end of Lake Erie, which in * * * 1697 was destroyed by the Miami Indians * the exact location of Perrot's station, cannot now be determined * * * about this time (1700) a party of factors from Detroit built a small post on the Maumee where Toledo now stands." "Historical Atlas of Wood and Lucas Counties"-1875 Andres and Baskins, editors and publishers of the above work say "To counteract the influence of Fort Miami, Wayne built a fort at the mouth of Swan Creek and named it Fort Industry "Fort Meigs"—A Condensed History of the Post-1886 "Fort Industry * * * General Wayne * * * built and garrisoned it with a small force under Lieutenant Rhea by whom it continued to be Occupied for several years * * * Upon the completion of Fort Industry, General Wayne marched his army back up the river," (James P. Averill was the author of the above work). TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1353 "History of Toledo and Lucas County"-1888 On Page 44 of his "History of Toledo and Lucas County," Clark Waggoner, says—"The immediate object sought in this expedition to the Maumee River having been attained in the brilliant and complete victory of Fallen Timbers, General Wayne, by easy-marches, made his way to the Grand Glaize, (Auglaize) arriving there August 27, 1794, (seven days after the Battle of Fallen Timbers). Leaving a sufficient force at Fort Wayne, the General with a remnant of his former command, proceeded to Greenville, where he arrived November 2nd, after a fatiguing tour of 97 days during which he marched upward of 300 miles through a dense wilderness, meanwhile erecting three fortifications—Fort Adams at St. Marys, Fort Defiance at Auglaize, and Fort Wayne at the Miami Villages." And on Page 64, he quotes as follows from a letter received by him (Waggoner) from Adjutant General L. C. Drumm (U. S. War Department), viz : "A stockade fort was erected about the year 1800, near the mouth of Swan Creek on the Maumee River, and as near as can be determined upon what is now Summit Street, in the City of Toledo, to which was given the name of Fort Industry. It was at this Fort that a treaty was held with the Indians, July 4, 1805, by which the Indian title to the Fire Lands (Huron and Erie counties) was extinguished and at which were present Mr. Charles Jouett, United States Commissioner, and Chiefs of Ottawa, Chippewa, Pottawatomie, Shawnee, Muncie and Delaware Indian Tribes." "Settlement of the Northwest Territory"-1896, by William Van Z. Cox. (See Sons of the American Revolution publication, May 18, 1896, Pp. 8-18). "Fort Industry—Wayne erecting a blockphouse near the mouth of the Maumee. This was built so expeditiously that he called it 'Fort Industry.' " "A History and Atlas of Lucas County"-1901 The Uhl Brothers, publishers of "A History and Atlas of Lucas County" say on Page 3, "The following important data, giving a recapitulation of the most important of these contests and battles (between the Whites and the Indians) was presented in a paper read by Mr. Charles B. Bliven of this city ( Toledo) before the Maumee Valley Pioneers Association in which he says : 'In the numerous Indian wars, the war between the French and Indians, the French and the English, the English and the In- 1354 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY dians, and the United States and the Indians, many severe battles were fought in this immediate vicinity * * * 1669-70 French Fort built at Swan Creek * * 1697 French Forts built at Kekionga (Fort Wayne) and foot of Rapids (Miami) * * * FORTIFICATIONS AND REMAINS—When General Wayne or rather Colonel Hamtramck in 1796 took possession for the United States of the British Post Fort Miami (or Campbell) at the foot of the Rapids, also Detroit and Macinac, he rebuilt the post at the mouth of Swan Creek, very near the northeast corner of the Twelve Mile Square Reservation and named it Fort Industry. It was garrisoned for some ten (1806) or twelve (1808) years and is distinguished as the location of an .important treaty with the Indians. The Fort consisted of a Block House surrounded by a stockade and stood in the center of a clearing of about four acres. The exact location has been questioned, but from the best obtainable evidence, it stood on the afterward site of the National Hotel now occupied by the Due11 Block of F. Eaton & Company store, (143 Summit Street). The cellar or magazine as was supposed, also some of the stockade, was visible as late as 1830 of which several of the older citizens of Toledo have a vivid remembrance and substantially agree as to the precise point of location. It has been thought that the location was nearer the river, but aside from the evidence of the living, it must be remembered that Water Street was not then in existence, hence the bank or shore was much nearer this location of the Fort than now. Also there was a very steep bluff on the north side of Monroe Street, the original bank of Ottawa River, later Swan Creek, now Mud Creek, rising some thirty feet or more. Therefore, the center of the indicated theory would be about the spot as here stated. While we give the precise date of the rebuilding of the Fort by Wayne, the evidence is abundant that a French Trading Post was located on this spot in 1680 and there is also strong evidence that it was occupied many years earlier even before La Salle came down the river in 1669-71, probably 1640-48 when the French escorted the Hurons to the Miami confederation.' "Fort Miami or Campbell which was situated on the west bank of the river about 12 or 15 miles from its mouth and rebuilt by the British in 1763 after its surrender by the French, appears to have been a regular military work, mounting 14 guns, 4 nine-pounders on the land side, also 2 large howitzers and 2 swivels, It was surrounded by a deep ditch with horizontal pickets pro- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1355 jecting over it. It was doubtless the strongest fort ever built in the valley. Its outlines are distinctly visible. Although its construction probably antedates any other earthwork in the valley, the precise date of its occupation as a post is like that of Fort Industry, quite indistinct, but is doubtless contemporaneous, as the Fort of the Rapids, as well as Swan Creek and Kekionga (Fort Wayne) were places early recognized as being objective points to the earlier whites in the valley." "Early History of the Maumee Valley"-1902 John Gunckel in his "Early History of the Maumee Valley" (page 41) says : "After completely routing the Indians, General Wayne followed them down the river, passed the silent Fort Miami, where upon a high bank (Swan Creek) overlooking the river, he rapidly constructed a military fort on August 23, 1794, and this was built so expeditiously that he called it Fort Industry. This fort or block-house, as it was familiarly known, General Wayne left in charge of a small but efficient force, by which it continued to be occupied for several years. The dimensions of the Fort were about 200 x 250 feet * On August 27, 1794, he started (arrived) with his main army for [at] Fort Defiance." "Memoirs of Lucas County"-1910 Harvey Scribner in the "Memoirs of Lucas County" (page 77) says: "S. S. Knabenshue, in an editorial in the Toledo Blade of January 24, 1903, writes that 'The date of its (Fort Industry) erection, by whom and for what purpose have never been determined. The tablet on the Monroe Street side of Fort Industry Block, recites the popular legend, but no historic proof of the statement has ever been found." * * * Says Scribner himself: "The popular belief is that it was erected by a detachment of Wayne's Army soon after the Battle of Fallen Timbers which is probably correct, even though the records on the subject are not clear." "History of Ohio"-1912 Randall & Ryan in "History of Ohio," page 560, say: "Fort Industry, located at the mouth of the Maumee, was erected by orders of Wayne, after the Battle of Fallen Timbers, as a safeguard against Fort Miami. It was never in possession of the British." 1356 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY "History of the Maumee Basin"-1905 In Charles E. Slocum's "History of the Maumee Basin," he says : "Two Quakers, Hopkins and Ellicott started from Philadelphia February 23, 1804, taking Philip Dennis with them to remain with the Indians and teach them. They traveled to Fort Wayne, via Zanesville, Lancaster, Chillicothe, Piqua and Lora, mie and reached Fort Wayne April 13th, 1804. They departed for Detroit April 25, 1804, via the Maumee River. In the report of their journey we find 'Prudence seemed to dictate that we should run into a harbor which we did, at the mouth of Swan Creek, where is a small fort (Fort Industry) lately established by the United States.' ". In Slocum's "The Ohio Country," 1910, (page 161), we find the following: "In the United States, estimates of all posts and stations where garrisons will be expedient and of the number of men required, made December 3, 1801, but three military posts were mentioned for the territory northwest of the Ohio River, viz : Detroit, one company of artillery and four of infantry: Michelmacinac, one company of artillery 'and one of infantry: Fort Wayne, one company of infantry." And on Page 164, Slocum says: "Fort Industry was built in 1804 on the left bank of the lower Maumee River, at the mouth of Swan Creek for protection in various ways, and for the convenience of the commissioners who, July 4, 1805, there effected an important treaty with the chiefs and warriors of the Wyandotte, Ottawa, Chippewa, Munsee, Delaware, Shawnee and Pottawotami tribes and those of the Shawnees and Senecas who lived with the Wyandottes at this time, all of whom ceded to the United States, their entire claims to the Western Reserve of Connecticut for and in consideration of $1,000, in addition to $16,000 paid to them by the Connecticut Land Company and the proprietors of a half million acres of Sufferers' Lands (Fire Lands) granted to those who suffered by fire in Connecticut by acts of the British during the Revolutionary war. The small stockade composing Fort Industry was abandoned by the United States soon after the treaty." On Page 118, Slocum says: "As fast as possible McKee (the Indian trader) assembled the savages by the Maumee River, at the mouth of Swan Creek, about eight miles below Fort Miami." (This was after the Battle of Fallen Timbers). On Page 119, he says: "Colonel Richard England (Commandant at Detroit) wrote October 28, 1794, to Francis Le- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1357 Martre, British Military Secretary, complaining of the great amount of food supplies taken by Colonel McKee to the Maumee River, at the mouth of Swan Creek." On Page 120 of Vol. 12 of the "Ohio Archeological & Historipcal Society Publications," 1903, Slocum writes as follows, viz : `There has also been much of conjecture with unauthoritative statements regarding Fort Industry, the, site of which tradition places about the crossing of Summit and Monroe streets in the present City of Toledo, Ohio. Henry Howe in his "Historical Collections of Ohio" in 1846, also in his edition of 1896, Vol. 2, Page 148, wrote that Fort Industry was "erected about the year 1800." H. S. Knapp in his "History of the Maumee Valley"-1872, Page 93, wrote that it was built by order of General Wayne immediately after the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Neither of these writers give any authority and their statements are negatively disproved by official records as follows, viz : "1. The Battle of Fallen Timbers occurred 20th of August, 1794, and General Wayne's army was very busy caring for the wounded and dead, in searching the country for savages and in destroying their crops, during the two days before the counter march began. The night of the 23rd, according to Lieut. Boyer's diary, the army bivouacked at Camp Deposit, Roche de Bout (not Roche de Boeuf as written by some early chroniclers) and the morning of the 24th, the march was continued up the Maumee River. This shows that there was not sufficient time between the Battle and the return march to build even a stockade, with all the other work on hand, and this also immediately after the great excitement and exhaustions of the Battle. "2. No mention is made of Fort Industry, nor of building a post on the lower Maumee, in the diary of General Wayne's campaign, nor in the reports. "3. The report to General Wayne that on the 30th of August, 1794, the British Agent, Alexander McKee, had gathered the Aborignees at the mouth of Swan Creek to feed and comfort them ( `fix them') , is also presumptive evidence against the existence there or thereabouts of an American fort or body of troops at that time (American State Papers, Aborignee Affairs, Vol. 2, Page 526. Also McKee's letter to the British General, Richard England, at Detroit). "4. Timothy Pickering, then acting Secretary of War, reported to the Congressional Committee on the Military Establishment, 3rd February, 1796, the names of the then existing Mili- 1358 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY tary Stations. In this list, the name of Fort Industry does not appear. The stations then existing in and near the Maumee region were Forts Defiance, Wayne, Miami and Sandusky, all of which aggregated a fort of one Battalion of Infantry, one Company of Rifle Men, and one Company of Artillery, at Fort Wayne which was the headquarters for these posts; also, Fort Adams, Recovery, Jefferson, Loramie, Head of Auglaize and Greenville, the headquarters, had one Battalion of Infantry, and one Company of Rifle Men divided among them. "5. The 29th March, 1796, James McHenry, Secretary of War, with his thoughts on economy, particularly * * * `Ought the military force of the United States to be diminished,' gave to the aforementioned committee the list of forts to be maintained in this region, with the garrison each should have, as follows, viz : Defiance, Wayne, Adams, Recovery, Head of Wabash (Auglaize) Miami and Michillimackinac, each 56 men and Detroit 112 men. In these reports, Forts Miami and Detroit were recognized as the property of the United States, but they were not evacuated by the British until the 11th of July, 1796, according to the report of Lieut.-Col. Hamtramck and others. "6. With the date of War Department December 23, 1801, the estimate of all the posts and stations where garrisons will be expedient, and the number of men requisite for each garrison, does not contain the name of Fort Industry. "7. An official statement of the reduced army under the Act of March 1802, and its distribution 1st January, 1803, names Fort Wayne, with a garrison of 64 men, as being the only fortification or military station then in or near the Maumee region. "8. The report issued from 'Headquarters, Washington, Feb. 4, 1805, for the year 1803, designating every post and point of occupancy,' does not contain the name of Fort Industry. "9. Nor does the name Fort Industry appear in the schedule of 'Posts and places occupied by the troops of the United States in the year 1804, taken from the latest returns, and designating every post and point of occupancy; to which it annexed the number wanting to complete the Peace Establishment.' The only fort or United States troops in the Maumee region at this date was at Fort Wayne, with an aggregate garrison October 31, 1804, of 68 men. (See American State papers, Military Affairs, Vol. 2, Pages 113, 115, 156, 175, 176). "In fact, the only authoritative statements that Fort Industry ever existed is the mere mention of it—'Fort Industry on the TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1359 Miami of the Lake' as the place where was held an important treaty with the Aborignees 4th July, 1805 (American State Papers, Aborignee Affairs Vol. 1, Page 695) ; nothing more, nothing before and nothing after this date, so far as the writer has been able to find by several inquiries in person and by letters at the War Department, at the United States Library and other large libraries; and there is nothing but tradition to designate its site within the limits of the present City of Toledo. "The negatives here adduced are equal to positives; hence, we may rest with the belief that Fort Industry was little more than a stockade built hurriedly, industriously—if a former stockade enclosure, as a trading post there, was not repaired instead —in the summer of 1805 solely for the treaty there held, and called a 'Fort' to make it more impressive to the Aborignees. It was soon thereafter abandoned by the troops who were then necessarily present, as at former treaties." Slocum continues as follows: "The authenticity of the frontispiece to Knapp's 'History of the Maumee Valley' is completely set aside in an editorial from the able pen of S. S. Knabenshue in the Toledo Blade of January 24, 1903. 0. J. Hopkins, who drew this view and engraved it on wood, asserted that this drawing was without foundation, in fact, and purely a work of fancy, and such is the case, also with the 'old painting in oil' (in possession of the Western Reserve Historical Society) that is sometimes referred to, and of many statements that have been written regardping this fort. Knabenshue further says: 'It is not at all probable there was any blockphouse. The fort was a simple stockade of logs planked vertically in the ground and with one or more log houses in it to serve the purposes of the detachment of soldiers who were here temporarily.' Before the grading for streets bepgan, two prehistoric semi-circular earthworks, presumably for stockades, were surveyed in Toledo, one at the intersection of Clayton and Oliver streets on the south bank of Swan Creek and the other at Fasset and Fort streets on the right bank of the Maumee. A third work of this character was recorded over 50 years ago by the late Col. Charles Whittlesey as existing at Eagle Point about two miles up the river from the Fasset Street Bridge." 'A Story of Early Toledo"-1919 On Page 20, of "A Story of Early Toledo," Judge John H. Doyle, the author, says : "Shortly after the treaty (Greenville) 1360 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY and about the year 1800, there was erected by the Government in the vicinity of what is now Monroe and Summit streets, a fort which was called Fort Industry. This was erected and garri- soned to enforce obedience to the treaty and to protect the reserve tions from depredation, and for a number of years a company o regulars was stationed there. At this fort in 1805, another treaty was concluded with the Indians, by which their title to the Fire Lands (now Erie and Huron counties) was finally extinguished." "Toledo and Lucas County," 1923, by Jno. M. Killits On Page 130, Vol. 1, Killits' work says : "Fort Industry was erected on this site by order of General Anthony Wayne just after the Battle of Fallen Timbers as a defense against the British Al occupied Fort Miami." Resume: We now have assembled in convenient form for reference the views of practically all the historical writers who have expressed themselves as to the origin, occupation and abandonment of Fort Industry. It will be seen there is much divergence in their views. Practically all of the later writers, dependent as they were on those who had attempted to record history while the important actors were still living, have simply reaffirmed the views of some one of these pioneer historians. Lacking access to source material, they merely reflect the views of the early writers, so they should be disregarded. It is indeed strange the elements of doubt and uncertain, should exist at all, for we must admit that in the life of a natio this span of one and one-third centuries since Wayne's campaign is indeed a brief one, and an accurate history of important events should be available and at our command. In the present instance, difficulty in verifying events of such a recent date may be explained in part by the destruction of the records of the War Department when the British occupied the City of Washington during the War of 1812; in part by the fact that Northwestern Ohio was possessed of an exceedingly sparse white population during and immediately after the Revolution and none or practically none of these were members of Wayne's "Legion of the United States," so local family records do not avail. Reviewing briefly the numerous references heretofore cited, we find that Mott, Knapp, Averill, Gunckel, Spears, MacAfee, TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1361 Killits, and Randall and Ryan, all agree that Fort Industry was built by Wayne in 1794. In this opinion, Scribner hesitatingly concurs. On the other hand, Hosmer, Homer, Herne and the Toledo Directory of 1858 assert that while this fort was built by Wayne, yet it was in the year of 1795 instead of 1794. Bliven claims the fort Was built or rather rebuilt after the British in 1796 surrendered to Wayne the posts at Miami, Detroit and Macinac. Howe, Lossing, Waggoner, and Doyle place the date at 1800 or four years after the death of Wayne. Slocum says (1903) that Fort Industry was built in 1805, "for protection in various ways and for the convenience of the commissioners who negotiated the Indian Treaty in 1805 at this point." He also states that Hopkins and Ellicott, the two Quakers, were sheltered here late in April, 1804, "where a small fort had lately been established." The War Department is unable to furnish any information owing to the incompleteness of the military records for the period prior to about the year 1820. They are, however, inclined to think the post was established about 1800 and under date of October 8, 1928, they say "there was a treaty with the Indians at Fort Industry July 4, 1805, and still others in that region on various dates as late as October 6, 1818, which fact suggests that there may have been troops at the site of Toledo for nearly twenty years after the year 1800." An old war map in the writer's possession of "Upper and Lower Canada and the United States contiguous" dedicated "to the officers of the Army and the citizens of the United States" under date of November 4, 1812, does not show Fort Industry at all. So it is safe to say there was no garrison there during the War of 1812 though the post may have been reoccupied later for conferences with the Indians. War Department estimates and reports under dates of February 3, 1796; March 29, 1796; December 23, 1801; January 1, 1803; October 31, 1804; and February 4, 1805, make no mention whatever of Fort Industry in referring to the posts maintained in the West by our Government. We know from the Quakers Journal already referred to that in the latter part of April, 1804, Fort Industry had "lately been established." We also know that it was at least temporarily occupied in June, 1803, so it was probably built or rebuilt in the spring of 1362 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY 1803 as a military outpost of Fort Wayne or Detroit having been previously occupied as a trading post or supply station from the earliest arrival of the whites and during both French and English occupations. H. L. Hosmer, also Homer and Harris, in the Toledo Directory of 1858 say that Fort Industry was abandoned as a military post in 1808 and that during the period of its occupation it was garrisoned by about one hundred and fifty men. Bliven says it was abandoned in 1806 or 1808. It may have been temporarily garrisoned at subsequent times as suggested by the War Department but that it was not occupied during the War of 1812 is indicated by the military map heretofore referred to and by Slocum's statement that "on January 12, 1813, General Payne of General Winchester's army, routed a gathering of Aboriginees from an old stockade post on the north bank of Swan Creek near its mouth." "The Swan Creek Trading Post" There is little doubt but that Swan Creek was considered a point of strategic importance for trading by both the French and the Indians. There were numerous Indian villages in the Maumee Valley between the present site of Fort Wayne and Maumee Bay, including one at the mouth of Swan Creek. The river itself was a favorite route of communication between the Indians of the Ohio Valley and those of the North. The importance of the Maumee route was very early recognized by the French for Killits says, (Vol. 1, Page 61) that after the loss of the Griffin, La Salle returned to Fort Frontenac for supplies and from there wrote "There is at the end of Lake Erie ten leagues below the Strait (Detroit River) a river by which we could shorten the way to Illinois very much. It is navigable by canoes to within two leagues of the route now in use," so La Salle knew all about the Maumee River as early as 1680. Indeed, it appears well defined on the map of 1656 by Nicholas Sanson, the Royal Geographer of France referred to and shown by Killits. Bliven says "The evidence is abundant that a French Trading Post was located on this spot in 1680 and there is also strong evidence that it was occupied many years earlier * * * probably 1640-48 when the French escorted the Hurons to the Miami Conference." He also states that a French fort was built at Swan Creek in 1669-70. Knapp speaks of a trading station built in 1695 "at the west TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1363 end of Lake Erie" and about this time (1700) a party of factors from Detroit built a small post on the Maumee River where Toledo now stands. The British Military Archives contain' many references to the Indians at the mouth of Swan Creek and to supplies furnished them at that point, and also to supplies for Fort Miami from Swan Creek. It is evident that this was an important British trading post and supply station both before and after the Battle of Fallen Timbers even up to the final evacuation by the British of the American posts in July, 1796. Slocum says: "In 1702, Captain Francis Morgan de Vincennes with French soldiers and others from Canada, established posts along the Maumee and the Wabash as far southwest as Vincennes, Indiana," and that in 1742, there were forts on the Maumee and Wabash and that in 1748, the French established trading posts on the Maumee. Slocum on Page 165 of "The Ohio Country" says: "The small stockade composing Fort Industry was abandoned by the United States soon after this Treaty,", (July 4, 1805). He further says —"From the original records, we catch glimpses of different traders with the Aboriginees along the lower Maumee River, and there can be no doubt that stockades were employed for the protection of their goods and peltries from the beginning of the 18th century or before." Captain Grant, in command of. British Naval operations on Lake Erie, on returning from the Miami River in September, 1782, "finding the provisions at the mercy of the weather and the Indians, he (Grant) built a rough block-house for its lodgement which may be defended by ten men against one hundred." We have nothing definite as to the location of this block-house. If on the site of Fort Industry, it may have been destroyed by Wayne's Volunteers who immediately after the Battle of Fallen Timbers pursued the Indians as far as Swan Creek where they "destroyed and burned all the possessions belonging to the Canadians and savages." (See Boyer's Journal of Wayne's Campaign). CONCLUSIONS 1. During the French occupation of the Maumee Valley from 1680 to 1763 and of the English occupation from 1763 to 1796, trading posts or supply stations were maintained on the north bank of Swan Creek near its mouth, it being a convenient place 1364 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY for receiving supplies and for distributing them among the numerous Indian tribes in the valley. 2. These trading posts or supply stations were substantial log structures kir housing stores of all kinds and for protecting them from Indian depredations and may have been and probably were stockaded. 3. They were never garrisoned by regular troops and therefore never bore the name of "Fort." 4. Fort Industry was not built by General Anthony Wayne prior to the evacuation of Fort Miami in July, 1796, and its occupancy by General Hamtramck, nor was there need for him to build it thereafter with Miami in his possession only eight miles away. 5. It did not exist as a recognized and occupied permanent army post during any portion of the Wayne Campaign nor in December, 1801; nor January, 1804; nor October, 1804; nor in February, 1805; nor during the War of 1812; and in January, 1813, it was occupied by the Indians who were driven out by United States troops. 6. It did exist as a temporary outpost station in June, 1803; and in April, 1804 and in July, 1805; also, in September, 1805. 7. It was probably established and occasionally occupied as an outpost of Detroit, the nearest and most important regularly garrisoned army post, or it may have been an outpost of Fort Wayne on the upper Maumee. It was occupied temporarily from time to time as conditions required the presence at this point of United States soldiers. The most important event occurring a Fort Industry was the Indian Treaty in July, 1805. 8. On the site of Fort Industry was probably a trading post or Indian supply station established by the French about 1670 (Bliven) abandoned by the English in 1796 and later repaired or rebuilt by United States troops and first occupied by them in the spring of 1803 and thereafter as required until 1808 or possibly until the War of 1812 when it fell into the hands of the British and later the Indians, which latter were driven out by United States troops under General Wilkinson, in January, 1813. 9. We have no later information of a definite character concerning its history, so must assume it was allowed to gradually decay and finally made way for the Fort Industry block of 1842-3. W. J. SHERMAN. Toledo, Ohio, October 25, 1928 CHAPTER LXVI COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL TOLEDO By Frank S. Ellsworth Publicity and Foreign Trade Secretary the Toledo Chamber of Commerce. REVIEW OF EARLY AND PRESENT INDUSTRIES-MERCANTILE INTERESTS PAST AND PRESENT-TOLEDO CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY. Because of its original isolation and the necessities of the people living here, Toledo became an important industrial center at a very early date. Although strategically located, at the junction of land and water trails, the new community on the Maumee was so far from sources of supply and so difficult to reach that it was cheaper in the long run to bring in necessary equipment either by water or by wagon, and manufacture on the spot what was needed by the settlers. Of course the first houses and other buildings were of logs and the most urgent demand was for lumber. The result was that a rude dam was thrown across Swan Creek near the present crossing of Detroit Avenue and a waterpower sawmill went into operation early in 1831. It was owned by Ezra Goodale and Oliver Stevens, who operated under the firm name of Goodale & Stevens. This was the first industry in Toledo. The first use of steam power in Toledo, as far as known, was in 1834, when Edward Bissell began to operate a sawmill by steam power near the foot of what is now Elm Street. The community was growing and felt the need of other materials. Bricks and fabricated iron were needed, and being of great weight the cost of transportation over long distances was prohibitive. The settlers were compelled by the conditions of living to manufacture on the spot, and in 1834 Samuel McDowell opened an iron foundry and Shaw & Babcock began to manufacture bricks. As the ore used was what is known as "bog iron," found only in masses in isolated places and is low in percentage of metallic iron, the output was on what would today be considered an exceedingly small scale. With as good clay at hand as is found anywhere, the Shaw & Babcock product had a high repu- - 1365 - 1366 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY tation and some of the bricks, although nearly a century old, are still in use. The Maumee Valley and adjacent territory was being settled very rapidly. Trails were opened and quickly developed into highways. This caused a demand for wheeled vehicles and J. W. Mount, originally a blacksmith and wagon-maker, in 1837, was building carriages. The same year Clark & Lagraen began to make hats. At first, of course, there were no chairs in the community and sections of logs were used in the house to sit on. About 1838 William R. Hoyt began to manufacture chairs. These were among the early industries of the community and the beginnings were very small, but the struggle for existence developed initiative, resourcefulness, courage, determination and thrift. No better training could have been provided, and the men behind the industries seem almost to have been selected as the founders of a great industrial center. These men were endowed with the constructive imagination and the faith in their community and its possibilities, that were destined to have a profound effect upon the winning of northwestern Ohio from the wilderness and upon the future of the state and nation. These characteristics were shown—and looking backward we can see the very great importance of the event—when certain Toledoans, inspired by confidence in the future of their community, planned the railroad that was to be built from Toledo northwesterly into the wilderness. It was the first railroad west of the Alleghenies. It was known as the Erie & Kalamazoo and was opened for operation in 1836 between Toledo and Adrian, Mich, The development of this line caused a demand for railroad cars, and the building of these, using parts made at points farther east, was one of the early industries of Toledo. In 1850, fifteen years after the city was incorporated, there were thirty-eight industrial plants in Toledo. The aggregate capital of the concerns operating them was $98,200, an average of a little less than $2,600 per plant. These plants gave employment to 263 persons whose wages for the year amounted to $70,808. This was an average of a little more than $269 per person per year, and it gives us not only some idea of the smallness, from the modern angle, of these plants, but also of the low earning power of the employes. The products in 1850 of these plants was $304,525, an average of a little more than $8,013 per plant. These products were strictly for local consumption and probably the 1368 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY greater percentage found an ultimate consumer within a distance of fifty miles of the point where manufactured. Agriculture played a considerable part in the development of industries in Toledo in the early days. Flour mills were erected and steadily grew in number and capacity until Toledo became one of the great milling centers of the United States. This development was materially affected by the growth of the northwest. Flour was in great demand by the settlers and as the country grew the milling centers moved westward with the tide of immigration, but it was not until the rise of the great mills at St., Paul and Minneapolis that Toledo's prestige declined as the source of supply for the settlers in the west. Meanwhile, a market for Toledo flour had been developed in the east, in Canada and in foreign countries and these lanes of distribution were followed until comparatively recent years. Other products of the farm were also used in manufacture in Toledo and at one time this city was an important distilling center. About 1850 it was one of the three leading American centers in the manufacture of whiskey. A large quantity of tobacco, both smoking and chewing, but principally the latter, was made here and the fame of Toledo's tobacco products was carried around the world by sailors in American ships, and became so fixed that inquiries from foreign dealers, especially at isolated points in Africa, Asia and the East Indies, are occasionally received. Dairy products were also important and had a comparatively wide domestic distribution. Naturally the activity in many of the industries that have been mentioned caused a demand for the forest products with the result that Toledo was noted from an early date for its woodworking establishments. Here were made vast quantities of boxes, crates, tobacco pails, butter tubs and barrels and casks of all kinds. The needs of the people resulted in the manufacture of furniture on a comparatively large scale. The demand for timber was incessant and resulted in the erection and operation of great sawmills at Toledo. Lumber was needed for many purposes, especially the building of houses and factories and was more generally used than brick, because, of course, it was less expensive. Toledo was not only at one edge of the great oak forests of Northwestern Ohio, but was within easy access to much of the white pine country of Michigan. The Maumee Valley drained a great forest area and with Toledo at the mouth of the river, on TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1369 navigable waters, vast quantities of oak and other hardwoods were floated down the Maumee to the great mills that lined the river banks at Toledo, while the white pine logs from Michigan were usually rafted down the Detroit River and towed across the lake to the Toledo mills. Although almost a thousand miles from the Atlantic, Toledo had an important part not only in the history of the American merchant marine but also that of England in the two decades immediately preceding the American Civil war. The fast-sailing, square-rigged American clippers, to withstand the fury of the terrific storms encountered on the world's seas must necessarily be built of the toughest timber, and oak, experience taught, was the most serviceable. It is interesting to know that most of the oak used in British merchantmen and American clippers that were launched between 1840 and 1860, and in other American ships launched during the Civil war, came mainly from Northwestern Ohio forests and was shaped in Toledo mills. From here it was sent to the seaboard either by way of the St. Lawrence River through Canada or the Erie Canal through New York state. With the great increase in steam navigation and the disappearance of the oak forests, this industry had begun to decline before the Civil war opened and so far as large operations were concerned, ended practically with the war. Until the opening of the Civil war, manufacturing in Toledo had been on a comparatively small scale in most lines. But the demand for material with which to carry on the war and to support the civil population increased to such an extent that industry in Toledo was greatly stimulated throughout the war period and the effects of this were permanently felt. At no time since has it been correct to say that Toledo was other than an industrial city, steadily growing in importance. Manufacturing, especially of iron and steel products, in Toledo was on a larger scale during the Civil war than ever before. This was due to demands from two directions—for materials used more or less directly in prosecuting the war and for implements and tools used in developing the West. The industrial character of Toledo underwent a complete change during the five years that ended with 1865, and her commodities were more widely used. No more were they of a strictly local character and used within a few miles of the foundry or factory where they were produced. They were distributed throughout the country and were known for their quality and 1370 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY excellence. The growth of industry in Toledo following the Civil war was steady. Devoid of spectacular elements it rested upon a sound foundation. Expansion, in a conservative way, to cope with competition from other centers and to supply a constantly increasing call, was easy. The industrial current ran smoothly for ten years, scarcely ruffled by the financial panics that left their scars upon less favored communities. In 1875 the manufacture of the Milburn wagon was begun in Toledo. From the rapidly expanding West as well as from nearer home came the demand for better wagons, sturdy farm vehicles that could be used on rough roads or in rough country where there were no roads, and the Milburn wagon, which became famous not only in America but in foreign lands, found a ready market. It was the farmer's friend not only in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, but in the states and territories beyond the Mississippi and Missouri, and often, when he was moving from point to point on the prairies, the Milburn wagon, made in Toledo, was for months at a time the settler's home. A few years later came the discovery of natural gas on a commercial scale in Northwestern Ohio, an event that was almost as important to the section affected as was the finding of gold in California. It meant cheap fuel on a large scale for manufacturing purposes. In 1888 Edward Drummond Libbey, head of a prosperous New England company, was attracted and after an intensive investigation moved his business to Toledo and organized the Libbey Glass Company. Under Mr. Libbey's, direction plate glass of the highest grade was produced here. Also the cut glass product of the company became famous in art circles throughout the world. It was Libbey cut glass, made in Toledo, which caused the remark, never successfully challenged, that in ornamentation and crystalline quality American cut glass has never been equalled. Mr. Libbey was foremost in what is probably considered Toledo's most active nineteenth century industrial development. His ability and vision resulted in. making Toledo, as it was and remains, the world's center in the glass industry. Here not only is the great and growing plant of the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company,—which has subsidiary companies in a half-dozen foreign countries and is steadily enlarging its Toledo plant—and the plant of the Libbey Glass Manufacturing Company, makers of tableware and blown glass, but at Rossford, adjoining Toledo, is the great Edward Ford Plate Glass Company, makers of plate and flat glass. 1372 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY One of the associates of Mr. Libbey was the late Michael J. Owens, a glass-maker and inventor. He believed certain forms of blown glass, especially bottles and other containers, could be made by machinery. He proceeded through many years of effort, crowned by the highest success, to prove the soundness of his ideas, and the Owens bottle machine, manufactured by the Kent-Owens Machine Company, of Toledo, is the result. The Owens Bottle Company, a natural development within the glass industry in Toledo, is today one of the world's largest manufacturers of glass bottles and containers. Oil was produced on a commercial scale in Ohio more than forty years ago, and in 1889 the first refinery in Toledo began the manufacture of kerosene. The following year two other refineries were erected here, and since that time Toledo has been growing in importance as a producer of refined oils, including kerosene and gasoline, and their by-products. The investment in refineries in Toledo runs into many millions of dollars. It is constantly being increased and includes the plants of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, the Paragon Refining Company, the Sun Oil Company, the Craig Oil Company and the Hickok Producing Company. Much of the oil refined here comes by pipe-line from Oklahoma and other points in the mid-continent field. Meanwhile, during the early years and growth of the glass-making the oil refining business, an invention had been patented that was destined to have an important part in the development of industrial Toledo—the bicycle. The "ordinary," with a high wheel in front and a small one as trailer, was made here, but it was not until the "safety," of about the same style as is now used, was developed that Toledo attained widest fame as a bicycle producing center. One of the most famous of these was the Gendron, and from small beginnings the Gendron Wheel Company became not only a world-famous company because of its bicycles, but also because of its children's vehicles. These are of all sorts, all sizes and all grades and are sold in every world market where vehicles for children are sold. The American National Company was also a manufacturer of bicycles and also entered the children's vehicle field. It was a local and direct competitor of the Gendron Wheel Company, and in 1927 a controlling interest in the Gendron Wheel Company was bought by the American National Company. The development of the bicycle and the rapidity with which the "safety" came into general use throughout the world, acted like a draught of old wine in stimulating inventors in their ef- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1373 forts to produce a horseless vehicle for general use. The result was that during the closing decade of the nineteenth century, beginning in 1892, the automobile--known in those days as the "horseless carriage"—became commercially practicable, although production of the new vehicle on a large scale was delayed by efforts at improvement until after the turn of the century. One of the first concerns in the business—and for a considerable time it was one of the leaders in the industry—was the Pope Motor Car Co., of Toledo. The control of this company was purchased by the Willys-Overland Company, headed by John N. Willys, in 1909, and during the intervening years the latter has risen to a commanding position, with its cars in constant operation in every country in which the automobile is used. In the early days of the automotive industry most of the manufacturers had been interested in the bicycle industry, and John N. Willys, the master-mind in the Willys-Overland Company was no exception. Born in central New York, he was originally a bicycle repairman and then became a manufacturer. He quickly saw the possibilities in the automotive field and had the vision and courage to enter it, despite discouragement and derision of friends who believed the automobile could never be more than a toy. The result is the largest single industry in Toledo today, and one upon which many smaller local concerns are largely dependent for the distribution of their product. In other words, the manufacture of automobile accessories is almost as important in Toledo as the manufacture of the automobile itself. This means that these accessories are used not only in the Willys-Overland cars, but in practically every other car, including several that are manufactured in foreign countries. The production of automobiles on an organized basis and commercial scale was necessarily attended by the manufacture of various accessories. Of these, the spark plug is among the most necessary. The story of the development of the Champion Spark Plug Company is one of the romances of industry, turning upon the occurance in nature of the mineral sillimanite in commercial quantities. Research had shown that sillimanite was the only mineral which contained in proper proportions the chemical elements required in the production of Champion spark plugs. Geologists, mineralogists and others had been employed by the company to practically comb the earth in their effort to find a suitable deposit of this mineral, but without success. After several years' 1374 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY work and the expenditure of large sums of money, it was decided that if there was such a deposit anywhere it would be found in th Inyo Mountains, California. Scientists in the employ of the company had been over the Inyo range almost rod by rod and the summer's work was practically ended,, although two or three men had been left in the field to continue their work for a few days. One night the chief of the party spread his blanket on pine needles under a tree and laid down to rest. A rock annoyed him. Reaching under his blanket he drew it out and then slept through the night. He looked at the boulder the following morning. It was pure sillimanite. But whence came it? Examination showed that it could not have come from the base of the cliff, which rose almost at the edge of the camp, The rock was freshly broken and did not come by accident to the place where it was found. It must have fallen from somewhere up the cliff. Close study of the mountain was followed by the discovery of the desired deposit 2,000 feet above the camp. The result has been the opening and development of the only sillimanite mine on earth, and it is operated as a part of the activities of the Champion Spark Plug Company. The material is shipped east for treatment and as the train-loads of the mineral travel eastward they are likely to pass train-loads of completed Champion spark plugs going west to supply the market along the Pacific coast and beyond. The Champion Spark Plug Company now has a production approaching 50,000,000 spark plugs per year. Holding the record for excellence they are used in two-thirds of the automobiles and airplanes all over the world, and their manufacture has made the Champion Spark Plug, under the leadership of Robert A., and Frank D. Stranahan, brothers, one of the outstanding industries of Toledo. Another company of remarkable growth and having an international field of distribution, is the Electric Auto-Lite Company, of which Clement 0. Miniger is president. The company manufactures automobile ignition, starting and lighting systems and batteries. Originally it was very small but under skilled and able leadership it has become the principal industry in its field in the world, and through various mergers has absorbed more than a score of other concerns, and is the second largest industry in Toledo. The demand for other accessories, including what are grouped as automobile hardware, or more properly, automobile body parts, TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1375 resulted in the formation and growth of another large enterprise, The Dura Company, whose products are widely used not only in United States and Canada, but in many foreign countries. A comer in Toledo, but one of the oldest and largest concerns in automotive supply business, is the Spicer Manufacturing mpany, with plants in various cities and a large new plant in oledo that is intended as the source of supply for manufacturers and others in the middle west. The Toledo Machine & Tool Company, manufacturers of presses for shaping metals, and of other machine tools, has a unique position among Toledo manufacturers in that one of its principal products, presses, finds a market only in countries in whick machine manufacture has reached a high development. In such countries, including Australia, Toledo presses are in demand. Amazing as the expansion of the automobile field has been, there are many other important industries in Toledo. About forty years ago a Toledo physician with an inventive turn of mind found, in administering sprays, that there was no instrument that would deliver the spray exactly where it was wanted especially in the throat and nasal cases. He knew what he wanted and proceeded to make it, and thus Dr. Allen DeVilbiss became the inventor of the medical atomizer which bears his name and upon which the business of The DeVilbiss Company is based. The late Thomas A. DeVilbiss, son of Dr. Allen DeVilbiss, joined his father in the early days of the industry, under a partnership agreement and later in the corporation that was formed. The perfumizer was a logical development from the medical atomizer, and the invention of other spraying apparatus followed. In more recent years this development has found expression in the paint spraying equipment which the company manufactures. This equipment is used very largely in the automotive industry and in all trades in which painting is required by other than the dipping system. In the manufacture of perfumizers at the DeVilbiss plant, art and industry are most closely allied in that no trouble or expense is spared in decorating the perfume container or in preparing the metal parts for use. The DeVilbiss paint spraying apparatus is widely distributed in the domestic market and is being sold in increasing quantities abroad. In 1898 the making of scales, mostly for use in retail stores, was begun by what is today the Toledo Scale Company. The company has been progressive from its inception and Toledo scales, made for almost every conceivable purpose, are known through- 1376 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY out the world. These will weigh anything from the most minute quantity to the largest that can be handled. Other scales manufactured by the company will measure by weight the thickness of a film that is laid on a fabric, the fabric moving across the scales during the process, and others are used in industrial processes that are quite as interesting and in great number. Another Toledo company that has had a notable growth is The Air-Way Electrical Appliance Corporation, in the manufacturing of a sanitary system that has a nationwide distribution. In the few years the company has been in operation several plant expansions have been necessary. Other articles manufactured in Toledo on a large scale are industrial chemicals, varnishes and paints, dental supplies, tents and awnings, bags, barrels, brushes of all kinds, aluminum castings, steel safes, metal chairs, air compressors, fireless and electric cookers agricultural implements, piston rings, insecticides, metal dies, electrical apparatus, equipment and supplies, engines, elevators, furnace and foundry equipment, feeds, flour, fertilizers, fire clay products, ship fixtures, ships and boats, flooring, floor surfacing machines, fountain pens, mechanical pencils, gloves, hammocks, cloth hats and caps, heaters and heat treatment apparatus, laundry machinery, oil well supplies, special machinery of all kinds, woodWworking machinery, washing machines, mirrors, sugar and molasses, oils, ovens, pharmaceutical supplies, metal pipe, saws, drag scrapers, radio supplies, surveying instruments, tanks, machine tools, wheelbarrows and many others. It is evident that Toledo is a city of remarkably diversified industries and in that it is true to the history and tradition of the community. From small beginnings based upon the necessities of an isolated frontier community has grown an industrial city of more than 330,000 people in 1929, containing over 800 industrial plan employing in 1928 about 80,000 workers and having a payroll of over $60,000,000, according to the United States census, whose products, distributed to every part of the world, have a value annually in excess of $370,000,000. EARLY MERCANTILE INTERESTS Continuing the comprehensive story of Commercial and dustrial Toledo, as told by Mr. Ellsworth, the first merchants the northwest and the Maumee and Sandusky valleys, were I dian traders, who exchanged attractive articles and trinke much of little use, for the annual Indian catch of furs and peltries TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1377 The first stock of goods intended for the white settlers' trade brought to Toledo or Port Lawrence, was in 1823, when John Baldwin and Cyrus Fisher opened a store in. the noted old warehouse built for the projectors of the new town at the mouth of Swan Creek in 1817. Later Fisher sold his interests to Baldwin who with his brother Marquis Baldwin, carried on the business until 1833. The interesting story of Toledo's early merchants is told by Richard Mott, W. J. Daniels and others, in the chapter on Toledo Reminiscences. A. K. Gibson & Company evidently established the first exclusive grocery in now Toledo, "on the wharf next to A. Palmer & Company." About this time (1835) Sinclair & Wilkinson had a merchant tailoring establishment over the store of Collins Brothers, Tremainesville. In 1837, E. Jacobs, a merchant tailor, was located on Summit Street in "Lower Town" and Snell & Cornell on St. Clair Street, "Upper Town." The first appearance of ready-made clothing here was about 1838, when T. Lyons & Company opened a store of that character on Monroe Street and V. H. Ketcham in the "Lower Town." In 1838 Erastus Roys & Company opened an exclusive book and stationary store and kept a "complete supply of quills and ink," an early innovation. Among the list of early "general merchants" following closely, were : E. B. Brown & Company, John M. Boalt, Bissell & Gardner, H. A. Carpenter, Brownlee, Pendleton & Company, Carlos Colton, Henry Eagle, Curtis, Watkins & Company, Field & King, Granger Brothers, Alonzo Goddard, Edward Haskell & Company, Ludlow, Babcock & Brownlee, B. F. Hollister, George McKay & Company, Mitchell & King, Mott & Comstock, Palmer & Bush, B. P. Peckham & Company, Smith, Bronson & Company, Thomas & Schwartz and Stalham Wing. While throughout the country districts until the present day there are found the general stores which carry their stocks of dry goods and groceries, and perhaps clothing, boots and shoes and even patent medicines and hardware, it was about 1850 to 1855 that exclusive dry goods, clothing, drug, grocery, hardware and other stores of special lines began to appear in Toledo. Then much later was inaugurated the "Department Store," which was in fact the old general store idea, systematized, upon a scale never dreamed of in the early years. THE NEW MERCANTILE ERA The career of Frederick Eaton who laid the foundation of the present great department establishment, the Lion Dry Goods 1378 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY Company, need not be repeated. Mr. Eaton was the pioneer of the new era of dry goods merchandising in Toledo. George M. Fisher of St. Louis in 1885, acquired a controlling interest in the fast expanding business and the firm became Fisher, Eaton & Company. Gaining entire control of the business in 1890, Mr. Fisher organized The Lion Dry Goods Company, with a capital stock of $250,000. At the present writing, while the establish. ment extends from Summit to St. Clair streets, with frontage also on Adams, greater floor space and finer quarters are in preparation. At this time, John W. Lewis, Jr., who has displayed wonderful ability in large affairs, is president of the company; A. J. Pete, vice president and general manager ; G. B. Steitz, secretary and treasurer; D. Beaman, superintendent. The establishment is one of the units of the Mercantile Stores, Inc. One of the best known merchants of Toledo, is Julius G. Lamson. It was in 1885, that he with his brother John D. R. Lamson, now deceased, opened up a modest dry goods business at 319 Summit Street. The enterprise prospered and in 1887 the store space was enlarged. In 1889, the brothers purchased the mercantile stock and store lease of the S. H. Frank Company, 333-335 Summit Street. The building was remodeled to give three floors and basement. In 1890 a third brother C. E. B. Lamson became a partner. In 1893, still further quarters were added towards Adams Street, and in 1898, this addition was razed and a new five story building erected; then in 1902 the two story structure, 341343 was torn down and another five story adjoining the north rooms was built. In March, 1910, the women's wear stock of the J. C. Evans Company, located in the Clinton-Close Building was purchased, extending the Lamson Stores to the corner of Summit and Adams streets. February 1, 1905, the business was incorporated as The Lamson Brothers Company, capital stock $400,. 000, with Julius G. Lamson, president; John D. R. Lamson, vice president; C. E. B. Lamson, secretary and treasurer. Later the capital stock was increased to $1,000,000. With the death of John D. R. Lamson, and the retirement of C. E. B. Lamson from the organization, Sidney D. Vinnedge, son-in-law of Julius G. Lamson became one of the active heads of the company. It was then that the concern took one of the most important moves of its long and prosperous career. It was no less than the announcement of the purchase of a large section of the block fronting on Jefferson Street between Huron and Erie for the purpose of erect ing thereon one of the most modern store buildings in the west, 1380 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY Carrying out their purpose, the company opened for business in the fine new structure shown elsewhere, November 14, 1928, with entrances on Jefferson, Huron and Erie streets. The 1929 officers of the company are : Julius G. Lamson, president; Sidney D. Vinnedge, vice president; second vice president, William E. Buckingham; secretary and treasurer, Robert J. Lamson. It is a well known fact that the retail dry goods concerns of Toledo rank with the best among the cities of the middle west. One of the institutions which has brought Toledo that reputation is The Lasalle & Koch Company, whose great department store occupies an eleven story building which takes up a full quarter block and situated on Adams and Huron streets. The founders of the business were the veteran tradesmen Jacob Lasalle and Joseph Eppstein, in 1865, who were soon joined by Joseph Koch. Later an organization was formed with a capital of $150,000, which included Sol Lasalle and John J. May, and which took up quarters at the corner of Summit and Adams streets. The company was incorporated in 1898, and when expanding business required larger floor space the building now occupied by the Toledo-Edison Company, Superior and Jefferson streets, was taken over. Upon the death of Joseph Koch in 1904, he was succeeded by his son Alfred who became secretary of the company. Meeting the demands of the Northwestern Ohio increasing trade, additions were made on both Jefferson and Superior streets; but faith in growing Toledo and environs brought about the erection of the fine building they now occupy as above stated. About this time the capital stock of the enterprise was increased to $600,000. The new structure was first eight stories and basement, but under the direction of Alfred Koch and his able corps of assistants, more floor space was yet required for the business and three stories were added as shown in the accompanying engraving. The present officers of the concern are : president, Alfred B. Koch ; vice president, Lewis Eppstein ; secretary and treasurer, Sigmond Sanger. One of the early mercantile establishments was that of J. L. Hudson at the northwest corner of Summit and Adams streets, started about 1880. In the spring of 1909, the store was destroyed by fire and James Thompson becoming associated with Mr. Hudson, a fine six story concrete building with basement was constructed on the old site and the reorganization was known as The Thompson-Hudson Company. Upon the death of Mr. Hudson, Mr. Thompson became president and general manager. In 1923 Mr. J. A. Rainie and Mr. S. C. Barbour, well known mer- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1381 cantile men, became associated with Mr. Thompson and the firm became The Thompson-Rainie-Barbour Company. On the retirement of Mr. Thompson from the business in August, 1925, the name was again changed to The Raine-Barbour Company; then in June, 1928, the business was purchased by The Kobacker Stores, Inc., Mr. Barbour continuing as manager. The Tiedtke Company's Department Store, located at Summit, Adams and Water streets, is one of the largest concerns of its character in the country. The founders were Charles and Ernest Tiedtke, who in 1893 opened up a modest stock of goods at Summit and Monroe streets designed to supply hotels and restaurants as well as family trade. Success attended their project and they took larger rooms at 140-142 Summit Street, where they remained until 1902, when they removed to the present location fronting Summit Street through to Water Street near Adams. More space was used from time to time and departments added. One of their sources of income was from supplying the marine trade and boats entering Toledo harbor. As a general department store carrying a wide range of goods the concern was incorporated in 1905 as The Tiedtke Brothers Company, capital stock $500,000, with Charles A. Tiedtke, president and Ernest Tiedtke, secretary and treasurer. With six stories and a Summit Street frontage the record of the enterprise has been most marked. On May 26, 1926, the business was purchased by the Kobacker Stores, Inc. This concern has eight other department stores in its system, located in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and New York, of which Tiedtke's is the largest unit. Their total buying resources are over $200,000,000. J. M. Kobacker is president of the company which does an annual business approximating $25,000,000 and which has no connection with other Kobacker Toledo stores. A most reliable mercantile firm which was well known in Toledo for many years, was Neuhausel Brothers. Martin and Nicholas Neuhausel opened a dry goods store on Summit Street, August 15, 1866. Their business prospering they added more space and two other brothers, George C. and John F. Neuhausel, entered the firm. In 1895 the store rooms were destroyed by fire and immediately thereafter a new five story building was erected on the old site-429-431-433 Summit Street. Upon the death of the different brothers, the business management was taken over by the younger members of the family, Albert Neuhausel becoming general manager, Charles Neuhausel buyer and Fred and 1382 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY Lawrence Neuhausel department managers. A prosperous business was experienced but it was finally decided to close out the stock which resulted in one of the best and most favorably known concerns of Toledo leaving the trade. One of the prominent men in the retail mercantile trade of Toledo, whose life was cut short by his untimely death in 1922 in an automobile accident while returning to Toledo from looking after his Detroit interests, was W. L. Milner, who headed a company organized in 1894. The stock of R. L. McElroy & Company was purchased and business opened at 209-211 Summit Street. With expanding trade the Coghlin Building, southwest corner of Jefferson and Summit streets, was occupied and in 1901 the concern was incorporated as The W. L. Milner Company, capital stock $750,000. Additions were made to the store quarters and business was at its peak when the fatality referred to occured. Later the business was closed out by the trustees of the Milner estate. Mr. Milner was active in Toledo civic affairs and especially in the preparation of the "Milner Street Railway Ordinance" which finally brought about an adjustment of the street railway situation between the street railway interests and the city. THE WHOLESALE TRADE The beginning and early days of Berdan & Company, wholesale grocers, established in 1836, has already been related, in telling of the lives of Peter F. Berdan, V. H. Ketcham and the Secors. With the infusion of younger blood into the institution, the advent of Marshall Shippey into the firm, together with S. C Walbridge and Sinclair Berdan, the business grew and prospered with the increase of Northwestern Ohio population. An important move was made which laid the foundation of the present Toledo wholesale grocery district. Out on Washington Street and Huron was the old Washington market. Blacksmith shops, old tumbledown shacks and dump grounds lined the way. It was in this section on Washington Street between Superior and Huron that ground was purchased and in 1902 the finest wholesale grocery house then on the lakes was built and occupied. Shipping facilities were arranged for, and on newly laid tracks by the old Clover Leaf, freight cars were loaded and unloaded at the firm's door. The concern was incorporated as Berdan & Company with a capital stock of $1,500,000. The officers of the company in 1929 were : Marshall Shippey, president, S. C. Walbridge, vice president and treasurer, and Sinclair Berdan, secretary. Mr. TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1383 Shippey has been at the head of the institution since 1897, and their Chef brand of goods are nationally known. In the same district now are the wholesale grocery establishments of The R. A. Bartley Company, the Harnit & Hewitt Company, the Overmyer Company, and J. H. Fielbach & Company. The R. A. Bartley Company, the second wholesale grocery firm to locate in this district, occupied their fine new building, Washington and Ontario, in 1914. Mr. Bartley, after being a clerk in a retail grocery for some years, began business for himself in 1872 with Enos Couisno. He entered the wholesale field alone in 1887, in the Messenger Building, Summit and Cherry streets. October 26, 1908, the building and stock of goods were destroyed by fire, but undaunted, on January 1, 1909, he opened business again at the southeast corner of Monroe and St. Clair streets, in the building vacated by the Bostwick-Braun Company (hardware) when they occupied their new building at Summit and Monroe. In 1921 The R. A. Bartley Company was incorporated with a capital stock of $1,000,000, and the following officers : president, R. A. Bartley; vice presidents, John Bartley, Norman H. Meyer and Mrs. R. A. Bartley; secretary, C. W. Peckinpaugh; treasurer, Mary L. Voss. After the death of Mr. Bartley March 8,1927, the business continuing the same policy was reorganized with the following successful management: president, Charles W. Peckinpaugh; vice president and treasurer, John Bartley; vice president, N. H. Meyer; secretary, E. Kerbey; president of board of directors, Col. Charles E. Bartley. The germ of the Overmyer Company was the old wholesale house of Wood & Aklin who began business in 1890. After several changes in the firm The Paddock-Overmyer Company was incorporated in 1896 with a capital stock of $100,000. Soon after this the company located at 210-212 Superior Street, where it remained until 1903, when larger quarters were taken up at 20-22-24 Huron Street. On the withdrawal of J. H. Paddock from the firm in 1910, the name was changed to The Overmyer Company and the capital increased to $125,000. In 1911, the present fine building, South Ontario Street, was occupied and the capital increased to $500,000. Needing larger stock space, the building was enlarged in 1917, the officers of the company being A. E. Overmyer, president J. A. Murphy, vice president; R. F. Commerow, secretary; H. M. Overmyer, treasurer. It was in July, 1924, that the wholesale grocery house of Har- 1384 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY nit & Hewitt occupied their fine new building on Washington Street in the celebrated wholesale district. Besides supplying the grocery trade, they specialize in the distribution of many leading brands of cigars. It was in 1899, that Church & McConnell, two men long on the road, started in the business for themselves, occupying one of the old wholesale quarters, where the Richardson Building now stands, Jefferson and St. Clair. The Harnit & Hewitt Company with a capital stock of $200,000 took over the business in 1922, George S. Harnit being president of the new company, Henry W. Hewitt, vice president, William A. Hein, secretary and treasurer. It was from here that this prosperous concern moved to their present quarters. The prosperous wholesale grocery house of Fielbach & Company was first started by the firm of J. H. Fielbach & Company in 1884 as a commission house, but the business gradually developed into the grocery trade. The Fielbach Company was incorporated January 1, 1899, with capital stock of $200,000. This was increased to $300,000 and the growing concern in August, 1909, took possession of the six-story building at 25-27-29 Superior Street. COFFEE ROASTING. TEA AND SPICES Toledo is one of the great American coffee roasting, spice grinding, tea importing centers. Her products of this character are sold and distributed throughout every state in the Union. Some thirty to thirty-five million pounds of coffee are roasted here annually, three to four million pounds of spices ground and distributed, and eight to ten million pounds of tea packed and shipped. The Woolson Spice Company alone has an annual capacity of twenty million pounds of coffee, three million pounds of spice and one million pounds of tea. The Woolson Spice Company was incorporated July 22, 1882, by Alvin M. Woolson, Pliny Watson, George Emerson, James Secor, John Berdan, John B. Ketcham, Samuel Stettiner, Samuel B. Wood and Philip S. Willis. The ownership changed hands January 1, 1898, when it was taken over by The American Sugar Refining Company of New York, and continued as the property of that organization until June, 1908. On the last named date, the business was purchased by Herman Sielken of New York and a number of his associates and thus continued until October 1, 1918, when the company became the property of a group of Toledo men including R. A. and F. D. Stra- TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1385 nahan, J. W. Koehrman, Marion Miller and W. A. Brigham. The present officers of the company (1929) are : J. W. Koehrman, president and general manager; F. D. Stranahan, vice president; C. N. Bevan, secretary and treasurer. The present directors are : F. D. Stranahan, R. A. Stranahan, J. W. Koehrman, W. A. Brigham, W. W. Hoffman, F. H. Biggs, Marion M. Miller. The company moved into its present plant November, 1911. The property comprises some two acres of ground with railroad sidings in both front and rear. Another large importing and wholesale establishment is The Blodgett-Beckley Company, located in a fine reinforced concrete building at Spielbusch Avenue and Smith Street, equipped with the latest machinery for coffee roasting and tea handling and where they manufacture their own cartons and shipping cases. Their brands of goods are widely known for stability and quality. The company originated in 1892, when John M. Bour opened up a small coffee roasting business on Summit Street. His trade expanding., he took larger quarters on Monroe Street and began handling teas of which he became a most expert judge. The next move was into still larger floor space at 113 to 117 Ontario Street. It was in 1904 that a site was purchased on Spielbusch Avenue at Smith Street, the present fine location, the firm then being the J. M. Bour Company. In 1910 Mr. Albro Blodgett assumed control of the business, when Mr. Bour retired from the presidency. Later the concern was reincorporated as The Blodgett-Beckley Company, capital stock $300,000, the present officers being: Albro Blodgett, president; S. W. Beckley, vice president; H. P. Blodgett, secretary and treasurer. Their "Royal Garden" and "San Marto" coffees and "Royal Garden" teas are famed throughout the country. The Gasser Coffee Company was incorporated in October, 1905, authorized capital $100,000, and began business in the former J. M. Bour Company quarters, 113-117 Ontario Street. The original officers were : M. H. Gasser, president; Charles A. Peckham, vice president; Henry W. Basey, secretary-treasurer. Later the capital stock was increased to $200,000 and Wells B. Miller became the secretary-treasurer. When the business was reorganized as The Karavan Coffee Company, E. C. Brucker became president and general manager; C. G. Schon, vice president; H. C. Gill, secretary; E. F. Brucker, treasurer. The concern now occupies its own quarters in the 1700 block on lower Summit Street. 1486 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY WHOLESALE DRY GOODS, HARDWARE, ETC. The wholesale dry goods firm of Baumgardner & Company which occupies the six story building southwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and St. Clair Street, is one of the oldest existing business firms in Toledo. It was in 1866 that Leander S. Baumgardner came to Toledo from Wooster, Ohio and opened' a stock of men's furnishings and notions at 76 Summit Street. He soon embarked also in the jobbing trade and in 1881, took a location in the famous Hall block, Jefferson Avenue and St. Clair, site of the present Richardson Building. When the Hall block was burned in 1882, Mr. Baumgardner resumed business at the corner of Summit Street and Jackson Avenue. In 1888, his nephew Edson W. Baumgardner was admitted as a partner and the firm became L. S. Baumgardner & Company at which time a stock of general dry goods was added for the wholesale trade. In 1899, the business was established in the present large quarters. It was on January 1, 1910, that a reorganization was effected and the firm name became Baumgardner & Company, the personnel of which was Edson W. and James F. Baumgardner, brothers; Frank L and Ned L. Baumgardner, sans of Edson W. ; J. H. Hildebrand and Anthony W. Lewis. On the withdrawal of Mr. Hildebrand and Mr. Lewis, their places were taken by James B. and Carlton M. Baumgardner. By the death of Ned L. Baumgardner the associates met with a great loss. In 1929, the firm was made up of James F., Frank L., Edson L., Carlton L. and James B. Baumgardner. An accession to the business in 1927, was the taking over of the wholesale dry goods business of The Miller & Hadley Company located at Summit and Perry streets, organized in 1906 with Hardy Miller, president and treasurer; Charles C. Gleckler, vice president; E. J. Biggs, secretary. Leander S. Baumgardner, one of Toledo's best remembered citizens was born in Wayne County, Ohio, February 10, 1832, and died March 3, 1909, in Florida, where he was accustomed to spend his winters. At the age of ten years Leander was bound out to a farmer with the agreement that he should be permitted to attend school three months each winter. His master failed to keep his part of the contract, but the ambitious youth by studying nights and when opportunity offered, obtained sufficient education to teach school before he arrived at his majority. In 1854 with his brothers J. H. and T. P. Baumgardner, a store was opened at Wooster under the firm name of J. H. Baumgardner & Company, An innovation was the establishment of a newspaper by the broth- 1388 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY ers, chiefly as an advertising medium for their business. Severing his connection with the firm, Leander arrived in Toledo as stated, in 1866. Always at the front in any enterprise beneficial to Toledo, Mr. Baumgardner was the first president of the old Tri-State Fair Association, one of the organizers of the Merchants & Manufacturers Exchange, president of the Continental Bank & Trust Company, a director of the Northern- National Bank, and was interested in many other business and benevolent institutions. His wife was Miss Matilda. E. Miller, daughter of David Miller of Akron. A prominent early firm was that of Luce, Chapin & Blass—Charles L. Luce, Frederick C. Chapin, James Blass, who opened a dry goods store at 176 Summit Street. Later they engaged in the wholesale trade at 32-34 Summit. On the removal of the business to 132-134 Summit Street in 1874, Mr. Luce became sole proprietor and carried on the enterprise until his death on September 15, 1886. The C. L. Luce Company was then organized and finally the stock was disposed of to various retailers. At the foot of Monroe Street and at the mouth of Swan Creek, upon one of the noted historical situations in Toledo, stands the great Bostwick-Braun Company's wholesale and retail hardware building. It is the site of the celebrated "warehouse," Toledo's first business and social center, and within a stone's throw of where stood old Fort Industry. It is within swivel shot of where the British naval commander Commodore Grant anchored his fleet when he blockaded the Maumee on the occasion of the threatened American invasion of Detroit. On this ground the red man built his camp fires, planned his scalping raids and held his revelries of dancing and feasting. The founders of The Bostwick-Braun Company were William Roff and Charles B. Roff, natives of New Jersey. Invading the west they located in Toledo in 1855, on their return from trying their fortunes at Racine, Wisconsin, and opened a small hardware stock. In 1862 Oscar A. Bostwick became a clerk in the store and in 1865 took a partnership. In 1868 William Roff sold his interest to Carl F. and George A. Braun and in 1873̊ Mr. Bostwick purchased the holdings of Charles B. Roff. The business was incorporated as The Bostwick-Braun Company, with a capital stock of $150,000, the location being at the southeast corner of Monroe and St. Clair streets. Not long after the incorporation Mr. Bostwick retired, new interests took hold and Henry L. Thompson and William W. Knight became active in the management. In 1907 the company purchased the site TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1389 of their present building, extending from Summit Street to the Maumee River and from Monroe to Perry streets, which they occupied in 1908. The capital stock of the company was increased to $3,000,000 and their trade extends into several states. The officers of the company are (1929) : president, Henry L. Thompson; vice president, W. W. Knight; general manager, I. R. Pancake; treasurer, H. M. Kelsey. After a prosperous career, The Stollberg Hardware & Paint Company, on July 1, 1926, took up its location at 220-222-224 Monroe Street. The president of the organization is John Stollberg; vice president, E. E. Teegardin; secretary-treasurer, W. F. Stollberg. The business was established in 1880, and from a modest beginning the wholesale trade expanded and in 1890 the concern was incorporated as The Stollberg Hardware Company. On January 1, 1913, it was incorporated as the Stollberg Hardware & Paint Company, capital stock $125,000, the business then being located at 416-420 Huron Street, from which place the coma pany moved to its present enlarged quarters. It was about 1905, that H. H. Standart, who had been formerly identified with the Bostwick-Braun Company, interested the Simmons Hardware Company of St. Louis in establishing a business in Toledo. The Standart-Simmons Hardware Company was incorporated and opened up in a new building they erected in the wholesale district on South Erie Street. The business is now conducted as the Simmons Hardware Company, and their trade extends, besides through Ohio, to the states of Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. There are many other companies in this line worthy of mention but organized at a later date, and it is rather the policy of this work to mention such concerns as have historical significance. Shoes.—On St. Clair Street, between Monroe and Jefferson, near where they have done business for three-quarters of a century, is located the wholesale shoe house of R. H. Lane & Company, the oldest concern in its line in Toledo. When the business was established in 1854 it was known as W. W. Griffith & Company, the personnel of the firm being W. W. Griffith and John and Robert Cummings. Later, Mr. Griffith sold his interests to his partners who continued the business until 1885 when R. H. Lane & Company took over the establishment, since which time their trade has extended over a large portion of the states of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. When William H. Simmons came to Toledo in 1865, he formed 1390 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY a partnership in the leather trade with Orlando C. Smith, the firm name being Smith & Simmons. Their first location was in a little room on Summit Street. In 1879 George H. Peabody, of Boston, Massachusetts, became a partner and the business was enlarged to include the manufacture and jobbing of boots and shoes. Gradually the trade was extended from Lake Superior to the Ohio River and as far west as Missouri. In 1890 the Simmons Boot and Shoe Company was incorporated. In 1906 William H. Simmons retired and was succeeded by his son, Francis W. Simmons. In 1855, W. B. Messenger and Gen. John W. Fuller established a wholesale shoe business under the firm name of W. B. Messenger & Company. Some two years later General Fuller disposed of his interests but remained with the firm as manager. In the fall of 1867 Messenger failed and the stock was purchased by General Fuller and T. W. Childs. The firm of Fuller & Childs was succeeded in 1872 by Fuller, Childs & Company, Dr. S. S. Stambaugh then becoming a partner. Between 1872 and 1889 a number of changes took place in the membership of the firm. Then the business was incorporated under the name of the Western Shoe Company. Their location in 1929 was at 122-124 St. Clair Street. On June 3, 1902, the Ainsworth Shoe Company was incorporated with an authorized capital of $100,000, to engage in the business of selling boots, shoes and rubbers at wholesale. The company was then located at 209-211 St. Clair Street, but in 1929 its place of business was at 122-124 Huron Street. Wholesale Drugs.—The Walding, Kinnan & Marvin Company, located at 332-334 Summit Street and 329-341 Water Street, is the oldest wholesale drug concern in this territory. The business was established at 167 Summit Street in 1877, as W. J. Walding & Company, the company being John S. Kinnan and H. E. Marvin. A year later the firm name was changed to Walding, Kinnan & Marvin and continued as such until 1894, when the business was incorporated as The Walding, Kinnan & Marvin Company, capital stock, $100,000. The present large quarters were built in 1896. All of the older men in the firm have passed on, the last being R. H. Bradley. The house is affiliated with the Kiefer-Stewart Company, Indianapolis. The present organization is made up as follows : president, George B. Parke; F. W. C. Diebel, vice president and sales manager; A. R. Waite, treasurer and general manager; F. M. Allebach, secretary. These officers with G. Barret Moxley, E. L. Mayer, J. G. Keller, E. P. Austin, and F. E. Rudd make up the directorate. 1392 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY The Rupp & Bowman Company, incorporated in January, 1909, with a capital stock of $80,000, is located at 319 Superior Street. They handle pharmaceutical supplies, surgical and nurses' supplies, hospital and physicians' supplies, etc., and consequently are closely allied with the wholesale drug trade. Mr. J. W. Rupp is president, Dr. H. S. Hayford, vice president, and Waldo M. Bowman, secretary and treasurer. Their business standing is of the highest rating. Miscellaneous.—One of Toledo's old and reliable business concerns is the Weed-Colburn Company, wholesalers of hats, Mr. A. T. Colburn being the surviving member of the original firm and who arrived in Toledo in September, 1866. Their place of business is at 231 Superior Street. In 1854, George Wilson began the manufacture of wooden boxes or packing cases in a small shop near the intersection of Erie and Monroe streets. This business was incorporated in 1900 as the George Wilson & Sons Company. In Toledo's earliest days it was believed that iron deposits existed up Swan Creek and the Geauga Furnace Company constructed a lock in the dam of Goodale & Stevens' sawmill for the passage of boats loaded with iron ore, to be brought to Toledo for smelting and manufacture. Investigation proved that the ore did not exist in quantity sufficient to pay for working and the first attempt at iron manufacture in Toledo was not a success. In the early days it was a common experience to find accretions of iron in bogs and low ground. These were generally in small and more or less flat pieces, weighing two to ten pounds, and usually of a spongy appearance, occasioned by the presence of holes or channels, like those of a sponge. In later years the city became an important point in the iron industry, both in smelting and casting. In 1866, the firm of Cooke, Kniesser & Groff established a foundry on South Huron Street. About a year later Mr. Cooke was succeeded by Nathaniel Haughton, and the firm became Haughton, Kniesser & Groff. A little later Mr. Haughton purchased Mr. Groff's interest, and in 1890 he purchased the interest of Mr. Kniesser. The plant then took the name of the N. Haughton Foundry and Machine Company, with H. B. Haughton, son of Nathaniel, as a partner. During the next five years attention was given to the manufacture of elevators, and in 1897 the business was incorporated as the Haughton Elevator & Machine Company, with attendant prosperity. Besides doing general foundry, TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1393 forge and machine work, the company makes passenger and freight elevators, to be operated by electric, hydraulic or hand power, and carries a full line of repairs for such machines. The Smith Bridge Company was incorporated in 1867 by R. W. Smith for the manufacture of wooden bridges, under patents which he held. The business was carried on successfully for several years, the bridge timbers being framed in Toledo and shipped to their destination. When steel supplanted wood as a bridge-building material, about 1890, the Smith Company changed its name to the Toledo Bridge Company and began the manufacture of steel bridges. The factory was then located on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, near the river. In 1901 new buildings were erected at East Broadway and the Lake Shore (now New York Central) Railroad and equipped with modern bridge-building machinery. The factory then became the Toledo plant of the American Bridge Company. The Toledo-Massillon Bridge Company has a factory at the intersection of Dorr Street and the Lake Shore Railroad. In December, 1911, the business was incorporated under the name of the Toledo Bridge and Crane Company, with a capital stock of $400,000. This concern manufactures bridges and bridge materials, which are shipped to all parts of the country. It also makes electric traveling cranes and coal and ore handling machinery. The beginning of the Auburndale Community was the MilWburn Wagon Company. In the fifties of the nineteenth century, John Milburn began making wagons on a small scale at Mishawaka, Indiana, as the Mishawaka Wagon Company. In 1858 George Milburn obtained control of the business and changed the name to the Milburn Wagon Company. During the Civil war the company built a large number of wagons for the United States Government. In 1873, the business having outgrown the little town of Mishawaka, men of Toledo raised $300,000 to induce Mr. Milburn to remove to that city. Thirty-two acres of ground on Monroe Street, near the Detroit branch of the Lake Shore (New York Central) Railroad were purchased, buildings were erected and the factory began operations in the spring of 1875. This was the first really big factory in Toledo. Around it grew up the suburb of Auburndale, now a part of the city. It was in 1850 that Minot I. Wilcox and his brother-in-law, S. S. Read, came to Toledo from Black Rock, New York. After engaging in several lines of trade, including milling, in 1854 they 1394 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY bought Brown's vessel supply store on Water Street. This partnership of Read & Wilcox was dissolved in 1860 when the firm of Wilcox Brothers took over the business, the new partner being Leonard Wilcox. After several changes of business title, in March, 1886, The M. I. Wilcox Company, located at 210-216 Water Street, was incorporated for the purpose of supplying lake vessels with canvas, tar ropes, etc. In recent years it has become also extensively interested in the manufacture of mill and railroad supplies, tents and awnings. The National Supply Company.—There are hundreds of other business organizations in the various lines of sufficient importance to deserve recognition here, but there is a limitation even in as comprehensive a work as this story of the Maumee Country, Toledo and the Sandusky Region. Mr. Ellsworth in his article pays tribute to many of Toledo's leading business men and institutions the detailed narratives of which would indeed tell the magic of dollars in the hands of the giant magicians of finance. One of these great Toledo industries is The National Supply Company. At a gathering of the families of the officials and employes held not long before this history was written, Frank Collins, executive vice president, delivered an address reviewing the history of the great enterprise. As. Mr. Collins said, "the company story is a romance—a commercial romance." As it so strikingly illustrates the growth and development of Toledo, and so intimately concerns some of the early captains of industry of this section, the address is given practically in full. "Fellow Employees of the National Supply Company, and more important, Wives, Sweethearts, and children : "I have been asked to talk to you this evening for a few moments on the history of this great company of which each and everyone here is a part. This company's story is a romance, a commercial romance. I regret very much that the older members were never persuaded to put on paper the early history of this company. The last of the incorporators of the old concern, Mr, Hardee, who died two years ago, (1924) we importuned time and again to do this but he always put us off for one reason or another till 'twas too late. After a great deal of search and with the assistance of other executives, I have been able to collect the following data tho' some of the dates may not be accurate to the month or year : "This company is about fifty-four (54) years old. During TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1395 the spring of 1870, Daniel C. Shaw came to Toledo from Chicago and organized a branch of the John Davis Company of Chicago ; this Toledo branch being in the form of a copartnership with Mr. Davis, and it bore the name of Davis & Shaw. This business consisted of a small repair shop doing general machine work, and selling steam and gas fitting, and was located at the corner of St. Clair and Washington streets. About a year later, during 1871, Cornelius Kendall joined Mr. Shaw by purchasing the interest of Mr. Davis and the firm or partnership then became Shaw & Kendall. "About 1873 a young man in the local purchasing department of the Wabash Railway named William Hardee left the employ of the railroad and joined forces with Messrs. Shaw and Kendall and the firm name then became Shaw, Kendall & Company. By this time the business had been amplified, a full line of steam goods and general mill supplies and some machinery had been added, particularly such machinery as related to the stave business; which at this time, due to the timber in Northwestern Ohio was one of the principal industries in this locality. Toledo also supported two very large sawmills where timber from Michigan was cut and marketed and Shaw, Kendall & Company derived a very nice business from these sawmills. "In the meantime, a concern immediately next door known as Wolcott, Rowe & Company had come into being, starting first with a brass foundry and brass shop, and manufacturing in a small way, brass valves and steam goods, such as gauge cocks and other engine trimmings. They also took on a line of pipe and fittings and became more or less competitive to Shaw, Kendall & Company, and one day Mr. Hardee, inasmuch as both concerns were struggling for existence, conceived the idea of merging them. This was about 1874, and the wall between the two concerns was knocked out and Mr. Wolcott came into the company and Mr. Rowe sold his interest. "We now have a partnership consisting of Messrs. Shaw, Kendall, Hardee and Wolcott. This business continued to prosper and had a steady and consistent growth, becoming one of the largest contracting steam fitting concerns in the middle west, installing heating and power plants all over the United States. In addition to this the mill supply business continued to grow and the concern added a line of plumbing supplies gradually becoming more of a jobbing house and discontinuing, to a large extent, its retail business. 1396 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY "About September, 1880, a nephew of Mr. Hardee's came to work for the company, Mr. James H. Barr, our present president. Thus you will see that Mr. Barr has been in the service of the company approximately forty-four years. In 1887, March 15, a cousin of mine brought in a youngster sixteen years old, who was your humble servant, and he got me a job. They didn't give anyone a position in those days, just a plain job, salary $25.00 a month. The next year I was paid $33.00 a month as 'twas the custom then to make annual raises and a $100.00 raise was considered exceedingly generous. "I want to go back now to 1886 and take up another thread of the story. During this year W. C. Hillman who had had considerable experience in the oil well supply business in Pennsylvania came to Findlay, Ohio, which was then the scene of a good deal of activity in the oil industry in Northwestern Ohio, and formed a partnership with one E. V. Weisbrod. Mr. Hillman had $1,000 which he put into this business with perhaps a like amount furnished by Mr. Weisbrod, and they started a general supply store, handling hardware and other items incidental to the needs of the, oil producer. The business of Messrs. Hillman and Weisbrod was successful but the partners disagreed as to methods and policy, so in 1887, about April or May, Mr. Hillman disposed of his interest to Mr. Weisbrod getting back his $1,000. "Mr. Hillman had, as a near neighbor, and a warm friend, a man by the name of Opp. Mr. Opp was a state employee, something in the nature of an inspector of work shops, and in the course of his employment he got to see the small shop of the then Shaw, Kendall & Company. Shaw, Kendall & Company had at that time, 1887, what is now known as our Toledo store, but at that time the large building in the rear of our premises which is six stories high, had not been erected. The building at that time was 90 feet front on St. Clair Street and 60 feet deep except the north 25 feet which ran through to the alley being 120 feet deep. The whole building was only three stories high with a basement. This twenty-five foot part that was 120 feet deep housed in the basement a pipe shop where we had a few pipe machines and cut and fitted pipe ready for installation on steam work. On the firs floor we had a machine shop, on the second floor a brass finishin shop, and on the third floor a brass foundry. "In addition to this on Superior Street between Washingto and Lafayette we had a foundry, a one-story building 50 x 10 feet. This was known as the Union Foundry Company and w TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1397 in charge of Frank Ensign who later organized the Ensign Foundry Company which is now in operation as a near neighbor to our Auburndale plant. Mr. Opp, in the course of his duties, became very well acquainted with the members of Shaw, Kendall & Company and suggested to Mr. Hillman the advisability of meeting these men, knowing that Mr. Hillman wanted to continue in the oil well supply business, and knowing that Shaw, Kendall & Company had some of the necessary facilities required for such a venture. "Therefore, about July 1887, Mr. Hillman came to Toledo by appointment which was arranged by Mr. Opp and was introduced to,Shaw, Kendall & Company. The four gentlemen, members of the firm heretofore mentioned, repaired to the old Burnett House with Mr. Hillman for luncheon. The Burnett House was located at the corner of Perry and Summit streets, which corner is now occupied by a billboard, and at that time was a first class commercial hotel and was considered locally about as the Waldorf Hotel is today. The luncheon and conference consumed about two hours and when they came back to the office they had agreed to organize the Buckeye Oil Well Supply Company as a branch of the business to deal in oil well supplies and it was decided to start the first oil field store at Cygnet, Ohio. Shakespeare said, "There is a tide in the affairs of men which if taken at the flood leads on to fortune," and the year 1887 brought our flood tide, not because I then came to the company, but due to this luncheon and the advent of Mr. W. C. Hillman. "Mr. Hillman moved his family to Toledo and during the month of August or September of 1887 he and I got out the first order of fittings and incidental supplies which probably constituted fifteen or twenty barrels of material and shipped the same to Cygnet. Much of that material never went to the Cygnet store, but was disposed of at the freight house. "Shortly after this, due to similarity of names, the Buckeye Oil Well Supply Company was changed to the Buckeye Supply Company, the words "Oil Well" being dropped at the request of one of our competitors. Mr. Hillman found when he got his store going that it was a pretty busy and a large undertaking for one man and he was unable, he found, to tend store and get out into the field and solicit the trade as he felt he properly should. He therefore cast about for a good clerk and in discussing his troubles with Johnny Black, an old oil man, Johnny suggested that a youngster by the name of Mascho would make him a good helper, 1398 - STORY OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY so at Mr. Hillman's suggestion, Mr. Black communicated with Mr. Mascho and Mr. Hillman hired him. Mr. Mascho's job at that time was to sweep out the store and do other things necessary to keep it clean, hustle pipe, fill orders and unload incoming material. "Inasmuch as Mr. Hillman had to divide his time between Toledo, his home, and Cygnet where most of his time had to be spent, he established living quarters over the store and one of his daughters provided the necessary meals for him and Mr. Mascho; in other words, kept house for them. I am telling you these intimate things so that you will get an idea of some of the vicissi tudes and hard work that the projectors of this great company and their families faced and had to cope with, working nights, Sundays, and Holidays, and losing all track of time and the calendar. "The business expanded by leaps and bounds and although the company borrowed all the money it could, it was always short of cash and a thousand dollars in those days looked to those men just as a million would to us today. As a consequence Mr. Mascho was forgotten in the shuffle. He had always been thrifty, had a small bank account of his own, and it ran along something in ex• cess of a year before he had any settlement of any kind either as to what his salary was to be or when he would get it. "Mr. Hillman said to him one day, 'Charlie, you have not had any money yet, have you Just how long have you been working for us?' About fourteen months,' said Mr. Mascho, 'and I have drawn from the cash drawer about $50 or $60 with which I pun chased some jean trousers, a hickory shirt, and other items that I had to have. You know I had a little money when I came to work for you.' So Mr. Hillman said, 'Well, Charlie, I think we ought to have a settlement and you had better come to Toledo with me and we will arrange it with Mr. Wolcott.' "Mr. Mascho came to Toledo and inasmuch as the company was sorely in need of funds, due to its large business and limited capital, he accepted the company's note for $1,400 bearing interest at 6 per cent and running for six months. Now, boys, how many of you would like to take service with a company on that basis today? These are some of the lights of human interest that occurred in the early history of this company. "Due to expansion we now began to outgrow our quarters at St. Clair and Washington streets. The southwest corner of our lot, a space 65 x 60 was occupied by one story sheds and in one TOLEDO AND THE SANDUSKY REGION - 1399 of these sheds we had a forge shop which consisted of two hand fires, two anvils, some blacksmith tools, and a small steam hammer. This was in charge of Jacob Zwiker, father of Fred Zwiker, who is in charge of our forge shop at Auburndale plant today. We were welding stems, making boxes and pins, repairing jars, and other cable tools at the Toledo shop and found our quarters, due to our rapid growth, entirely inadequate. "About 1890 we purchased a building• at the corner of Albion and Bishop streets, which was about 40 feet wide and 140 feet long that had been built for the Fontaine Crossing & Signal Company which was of short life and when it passed out of existence we were able to acquire its property at a very low price. Into this building we moved our shop equipment from St. Clair Street and at the rear constructed another building into which we moved our foundry from Superior Street. This gave us very much larger quarters at St. Clair Street for our rapidly growing jobbing business; and, of course much better facilities for our machine work in the new plant at Auburndale. That plant has grown from this small building, 40 x 140 feet, so that it now covers thirteen and one-half acres, which property has been acquired from time to time and new and modern buildings have been erected thereon. THE NATIONAL SUPPLY COMPANY-THE OUTGROWTH OF MERGERS "In 1893 there was a concern started in Pittsburgh by some officials of The National Tube Company, Messrs. Crosbie, Bishop and Converse, and some of their associates including Henry M. Wilson and Charles Pratt of Bayne, Wilson & Pratt. This concern distributed oil well supplies and tubular goods through some stores that they established in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and due to the wonderful and successful growth of the Buckeye Supply Company in the west, they suffered very seriously by comparison therewith. The National Tube Company officials who were interested in that concern, knowing the personnel of the Buckeye Supply Company, which latter concern distributed National Tube Company's product in the west, and inasmuch as the Buckeye Supply Company was contemplating putting stores into Pennsylvania, already having stores extending through Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, suggested a merger which was ultimately arranged. "This merger contemplated The National Supply Company of Pennsylvania, The Buckeye Supply Company, and Shaw, Kendall 11-VOL. 2