Hocking Valley Manufacturing Co., 1869

LANCASTER – The history of the Eagle Machine Co. appeared on this page on Feb. 10. William Pursell began to manufacture wheat drills in Lancaster about 1857.

Ten years later, Pursell and his sons purchased the Gilbert Devol foundry and machine shop in order to enlarge their Lancaster Agricultural Works and Foundry.

About the same time, three Whiley brothers had come to Lancaster. Frederick and Samuel Whiley purchased controlling interest in the Pursell business. They incorporated as the Eagle Machine Co. on Jan. 7, 1870.

The farm implement manufacturer was just west of downtown Lancaster and located on the site of the present CVS drugstore until 1940. The Eagle Machine Co., however, was not the first agricultural implements factory to incorporate.

It is not known who first formed the idea, but other leading Lancaster businessmen were meeting in City Hall by mid-July 1869 to discuss how they might secure a new agricultural implements factory in Lancaster.

The Gazette reported in the July 22, 1869, edition: "At a meeting held in City Hall on July 16th a committee consisting of G.A. Mithoff, J.C. Weaver, J.S. Brasse, and M.A. Daugherty was appointed by the meeting to solicit subscriptions to make up the loan of $25,000 required to secure an agricultural implements factory in Lancaster."

Funds raised, building purchased

They were successful in acquiring the needed $25,000.

A list of all who loaned money was printed in The Gazette (Nov. 4, 1869). Two people each loaned $2,000, two loaned $1,500 and 14 loaned $1,000 in addition to many smaller loans.

The Hocking Valley Manufacturing Co. incorporated on Oct. 25, 1869, and with the funds raised, the group purchased what was known as the old Starch Factory.

The factory had been built in 1856 for $66,000 by a different group of local investors who had organized the Lancaster Ohio Manufacturing Co. to convert Indian corn into starch. Their endeavor was not successful and closed in 1860. Their deserted, three-story brick factory stood on about 6 acres of land east of South High Street, south of the railroad and north of the canal.

By Nov. 11, 1869, the Ohio Eagle reported: "Workmen have been engaged some two or three weeks in cleaning up the old starch factory to resume work therein as a agricultural works. ... A powerful steam engine has been purchased and is expected here by the first of January."

The Ohio Eagle reported March 31, 1870, that the work was almost complete and that "every man, woman and child is invited to visit the former starch factory on Saturday."

It also was announced that, on April 2, they would begin to receive orders for threshing machines, harrows, horsepower cultivators, feed cutters, and road scrapers.

The men in charge

The Hocking Valley Manufacturing Co. incorporated in 1869 with the purpose of "manufacturing agricultural implements and machinery, and of conducting a general manufacturing and jobbing business."

The officers were: President Abel T. Barnes, Vice President G.a. Mithoff, Secretary John B. Mcneill and Superintendent Theodore Mithoff.

Barnes had been president of the Tiffin Agricultural Works but resigned to come help organize the company.

Brothers George August (G.A.) Mithoff, born in 1813, and Theodore Mithoff, born in 1820, were enterprising businessmen. The Mithoff family came from Germany to the U.S. in 1829 and to the Lockville area of Fairfield County in 1839. About 1864, both brothers moved to Lancaster.

G.A purchased Darius Tallmadge's home and farm west of town and became president of the Hocking Valley Bank. He also served as vice president of the manufacturing company.

Theodore purchased the town residence of Darius Tallmadge on North Columbus Street. In 1865, he purchased the Swan Hotel and then enlarged and improved it to create the Mithoff Hotel and business block on the southeastern corner of Main and Columbus streets. He served as vice president and then president of the E. Becker Brewing Co.

When Barnes resigned as president of Hocking Valley Manufacturing in 1871, Theodore was elected president. Upon the death of G.A. Mithoff in 1881, Theodore also became president of the Hocking Valley Bank.

A credit and honor to the town

A glowing report of the progress made in just four years by the company appeared in The Gazette on Feb. 13, 1873:

"This is an extensive manufactory, and has been doing an immense and highly remunerative business ever since its establishment. The building itself is an immense brick structure, and admirably adapted to the very business now being prosecuted within its spacious walls ... every square inch of room is put to profitable use by the energetic company now occupying it.

"The first floor is taken up by the extensive Blacksmith Shop, under the care of L. Kissner; the Foundry with Josh Whitely as foreman, and the Machine Shop, F. Etzel, foreman. On the second floor is the Carpenter and Wood department, under the supervision of Joseph Humbarger, while the third is occupied by the Paint Shop, in charge of J. P. Hall; and rooms for general storage.

"Within the past six months about eight hundred Cider Mills have been manufactured, for which there has been an almost incessant demand, as their speedy shipment plainly attests; while the number of Feed Cutters made and sold during the same length of time far exceeds that of the Cider Mills. The Shellers ... have been turned out in almost incredible numbers, and gobbled up ... while the run on Leed's Patent Post Hole Diggers has been extensive and uninterrupted. In the same time three hundred Lard Presses, of which they manufacture three sizes for butchers and family use, have been readily disposed of.

"A specialty is also made of the manufacture of iron fences, their patterns of which are no less unique and beautiful than the fences themselves are lasting and serviceable. The handsome, tasteful fence enclosing the Court House yard will convey abundant corroboration of our statement to every observer. ... The Hocking Valley Manufactory is an establishment that is a credit and honor to the town."

Cartmell joins Mithoff family, firm

Edson Black Cartmell, born in 1846, was a student at Kenyon College until 1873.

He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1874, after which he served Christ's Church in Oberlin for one year and was then rector of St. John's in Lancaster for one year. After resigning from the ministry, he served as principal of Lancaster High School in 1876-77 and superintendent of schools in Morrow in 1878-79.

On April 24, 1879, Cartmell married Clara Mithoff, the third daughter born to Theodore and Henrietta Mithoff, in the home of the bride's parents.

By 1881, Cartmell was elected secretary of the manufacturing company. When his father-in-law, Theodore Mithoff, died Feb. 28, 1894, after serving as president from 1871 to 1894, Cartmell was elected president.

Disastrous fire

The fire that was first spotted in the early hours of Aug. 27, 1882, was described by The Gazette as "the largest and most disastrous fire the thriving city of Lancaster ever experienced."

Cartmell estimated the loss in round numbers at $125,000, and insurance coverage amounted to only $31,100.

The Gazette further reported: "New machinery costing many thousands of dollars, including new engine, a new Fay planer, elevators and cupola had just been put in, and there was at least $20,000 worth of finished work awaiting shipment, but all was destroyed, even the walls are heaps of crumbling and broken bricks. The works were fairly overwhelmed with work, and orders enough were on hand to keep the entire force of 118 men busily occupied until March 1st."

When the fire department arrived, crews were not able to save anything except the extreme western end of the building and the office that was in a separate building.

The Gazette described the scene with these words: "The fire swept everything before it with the velocity of a tornado, almost completely devouring the contents of the huge structure before one could realize it. The firemen worked nobly, but their efforts were puny in comparison to the powers of the ravaging flames."

The employees and residents of Lancaster were elated by the decision of the Mithoffs to re-establish the company and rebuild.

By Sept. 14, 1882, the Gazette reported: "Work on the rebuilding of the Hocking Valley Manufacturing Works is being pushed forward with great rapidity, and the institution is expected to be in full running order by the first of November."

First gas well

The first gas well drilled in Lancaster was to the east of the company.

The Lancaster Natural Gas Co. was organized Dec. 2, 1885. The company hired Albert Smith to drill the first well on the Hocking Valley property. Gas was struck on Feb. 1, 1887, and sold to Hocking Valley.

The natural gas was used to light and heat the entire factory.

Alfred Family connections

Theodore Mithoff's daughter Henrietta married Dr. Charles M. Alfred in 1890.

They had three sons: Theodore C., George E. and Thomas M.

The 1942 Lancaster City Directory listed all three of the Alfred sons working for Hocking Valley Manufacturing: Theodore C. as president and general manager, George E. as treasurer, and Thomas M. as vice president.

The offices of the company moved to Cleveland in 1941, but an Eagle-Gazette article appearing July 5, 1949, announced that the offices for its production, engineering, purchasing and cost departments were returning to Lancaster.

The entire third floor of the Hannan Building, 201 S. Broad St., had been leased to Hocking Valley for office space. Thomas Alfred said the firm had decided to shift some of its departmental offices here from Cleveland to be closer to its factory, which was at 434 S. High St.

Genuine merit and enduring qualities

An introduction to a catalog published by Hocking Valley Manufacturing about five years after it began crafting farm implements stated:

"Undue puffing and wild, unfounded claims may secure temporary attention, but genuine merit and enduring qualities alone are the things upon which a prosperous business can be founded. ... For several years past, without the services of a traveling salesman, without the help of any advertising, our only anxiety has been how we should fill our orders with sufficient promptness. ... We take this flattering state of things as undoubted proof that the quality of our goods is understood by the trade at large, and our prices satisfactory."

Those qualities served the company, its employees and the community well for almost 80 years.

The decline in the demand for agricultural implements, however, led to bankruptcy. A public auction was held April 11, 1950.

The Eagle-Gazette reported on April 11: "The physical assets of the defunct Hocking Valley Manufacturing Co., tied up in litigation for nearly six months, were disposed of today in public auction at the plant site on South High St. The sale will realize approximately $150,000."

The sale drew about 150 people. Fairfield National Bank purchased the real estate for $23,000. Machinery and equipment sold for $75,000, and the steel and scrap metal brought $39,000.

Office furniture and equipment brought $7,800, and the trade names, jigs, patterns, dies, etc., brought $3,200. The sale brought an end to the company that had offered pride in workmanship and jobs for countless families.

Today, as inquiries are received from across the country, we realize the company is gone but not forgotten. Owners of old wine presses, cider presses or implements look to Lancaster for the history and information about their Hocking Valley Manufacturing Co. items.

Readers can contact Joyce Harvey at [email protected].