Allen County and Its Diversity of Manufacturing

We talked to a number of people on Saturday during Taste of the Arts about our new exhibition gallery and the inventions that were created and produced here in Fort Wayne. For many of us who didn’t grow up here (and for many who did), the list is rather amazing. THAT was created in Fort Wayne? Really? Here?

When Allen County Innovation opens in late September, you’ll be able to see for yourself. In the meantime, just for the fun of it, we’re providing a partial list of some of the items in our collection that pertain to manufacturing in Allen County and the name of the company that produced or used  the item for marketing. Look at the diversity of manufacturing that came about in our city and county.

Item	Company
Spool Wire	Aerometal
Sign, Trade	Aurentz Chocolate
Sign, Trade	Baker Cigar Co.
Can, Beer	Berghoff Brewing Co.
Bottle, Beer	Berghoff Brewing Co.
Screwdriver, Ratchet	Bowser, J. C. & Co.
Pump, Fuel	Bowser, S. F. & Co.
Bottle	Brames & Ehrman
Bottle	Brames, L. & Co.
Can	Burdsal-Haffner Paint Co.
Television	Capehart Farnsworth Co.
Television	Capehart-Farnsworth Corp.
Radio	Capehart-Farnsworth Corp.
Radio-Phonograph	Capehart-Farnsworth Corp.
Bottle, Beer	Centlivre Brewing Co.
Box, Candy	Columbia's Fine Chocolate
Radio	Continental Radio Corp.
Box, Cigar	Cooney Cigar Co.
Bottle, Pop	Crystal Bottling Works
Book, Ledger	Davis and Brother, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Bait	Dickens Bait Company
Box, Bait	Dickens Bait Company
Lure	Dickens Bait Company
Spool, Wire	Dudlo Mfg. Co.
Wire, Radio	Dudlo Mfg. Co.
Ornament, Christmas Tree	Dudlo Mfg. Co.
Sales Sample, Tinsel	Dudlo Mfg. Co.
Spool, Wire	Dudlo Mfg. Co.
Package, Wire Spool	Dudlo Mfg. Co.
Box, Cigar	Eckert, J. C.
Spool, Wire	Essex
Radio	Everyhome Radio Co.
Bottle	F. Hake & Co. Works
Pipe	Falcon Pipes
Pipe, Bowl	Falcon Pipes
Pouch	Falcon Pipes
Can	Falstaff
Television	Farnsworth Television & Radio Corp.
Tube, Vacuum	Farnsworth Television & Radio Corp.
Tube, Electron	Farnsworth Television & Radio Corp.
Radio-Phonograph	Farnsworth Television & Radio Corp.
Radio	Farnsworth Television & Radio Corp.
Bottle, Pop	Felger, D. C. Bottling Works
Dental Floss	Flossrite Corporation
Bottle	Fort Wayne Bottling Works
Rule, Folding	Fort Wayne Brick Co.
Plaque	Fort Wayne Cement Stone Co.
Commutator Dresser	Fort Wayne Electric Co.
Fan, Electric	Fort Wayne Electric Works
Paperweight	Fort Wayne Electric Works
Ammeter	Fort Wayne Electric Works
Transformer, Bell	Fort Wayne Electric Works
Electrometer	Fort Wayne Electric Works
Fan, Electric	Fort Wayne Electric Works
Rheostat	Fort Wayne Electric Works
Transformer	Fort Wayne Electric Works
Wire, Recording	Fort Wayne Metals
Puzzle	Fort Wayne Paper Box Co.
Tin	Fred Eckart Packing Co.
Bottle	Fremion, J.  F.
Fan, Electric	General Electric
Club, Golf	General Electric
Motor, Electric	General Electric
Engine, Diesel	General Electric
Chopper, Food	Griscer
Bottle	Haines, H. H.
Bottle	Hake, F. & Co.
Hat, Top	Harper & Fitz
Violin	Heath, Oren V.
Wrapper, Candy	Heit-Miller-Lau Co.
Box, Candy	Heit-Miller-Lau Co.
Tin	Heit-Miller-Lau Co.
Box	Hermans Ice Cream Co.
Sack	Hermans Ice Cream Co.
Crate, Shipping	Hires Root Beer
Brick	Hoagland Brick and Tile Co.
Keg, Beer	Hoff-Brau Brewing Corp.
Fork, Clothes	Home Specialty Co.
Can	Hoosier Paint Works
Planter, Hand	Horton Manufacturing Co.
Machine, Washing	Horton Manufacturing Co.
Mangle	Horton Manufacturing Co.
Sprinkler Head	Huth Machine Shop
Fan	Imperial Adv. Co.
Tube, Vacuum	ITT
Tube, Electron	ITT
Blouse	Julliard Gowns, Fort Wayne
Skirt	Julliard Gowns, Fort Wayne
Form, Glove	Killfish Mfg. Co.
Bottle	Kline & Baker Bottling Works
Rod, Fishing	Kruse, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Eggbeater	Kunkle and Bostick
Bottle	Laurent, J. H. & Son
Tin	Laurents & Hartshorn Packing Co.
Bottle	Lenz Bros. Bottling Co.
Painting	Loomis, Andrew
Reamer, Juice	Magnavox
Radio	Magnavox
Projector, Film Strip	Magnavox
Television	Magnavox
Television-Radio-Phonograph	Magnavox
Radio-Phonograph	Magnavox
Phonograph	Magnavox
Speaker	Magnavox
Microphone	Magnavox
Speaker	Magnavox
Box, Control	Magnavox
Capacitor, Electrolytic	Magnavox
Transceiver	Magnavox
Amplifier	Magnavox
Transformer	Magnavox
Solenoid	Magnavox
Box	Mar-Velo Products Co.
Box	Mar-Velo Products Co.
Trundle Toy (Automobile)	Mattel Fort Wayne
Charger, Battery	Mattel Fort Wayne
Bottle	Maumee Beverage Co.
Bag	Mayflower Mills
Hat	Mergentheims Millinery
Dryer, Hair	Miracle Hair Dryer Co.
Dryer, Hair	Miracle Vac Co.
Reel, Fishing	N. Fries Mach. Works
Iron, Soldering	National Specialties Co.
Miter Guide	National Specialties Co.
Massager, Nerve	Nerve Massage Co.
Reel, Fishing	O. K. Machine Co.
Vacuum	O. K. Machine Co.
Box	Old Country Remedy Co.
Bottle, Whiskey	Old Fort Distilling Co.
Organ	Packard Organ Co.
Organ, Reed	Packard Organ Company
Melodeon	Packard Piano Co.
Piano, Upright	Packard Piano Co.
Propeller	Packard Piano Co.
Organ	Packard Piano Co.
Piano Leg	Packard Piano Co.
Piano, Player	Packard Piano Co.
Piano Bench	Packard Piano Co.
Novelty	Packard Piano Co.
Chair, Folding	Packard Piano Co.
Tin	Parrot Meat Market
Can	Parrot Packing Co.
Box	Perfection Biscuit Co.
Tin	Perfection Biscuit Co.
Can	Perfection Varnish Co.
Spool, Wire	Phelps Dodge Corp.
Bottle	Pinex Co.
Box, Patent Medicine	Pinex Co.
Tin	Pinex Co.
Music, Sheet	Powell C. C.
Measure, Liquid	Progress Medicine Co.
Bottle	Puraq Co.
Bottle, Water	Puraq Co.
Chair, Folding	Rastetter, Louis & Sons
Box, Candy	Raunek, Clara, Chocolates
Spool, Wire	Rea Magnet Wire
Wrapper, Soap	Rub-No-More
Box	Rub-No-More
Box, Soap	Rub-No-More Company
Pants	Rubus, Fort Wayne
Hoop	S & S Enterprises
Ornament, Christmas	Saf-T Santa Co.
Bottle	Scheele, William
Bottle, Pop	Scheele, William
Can	Seyfert Foods
Radio	Slagle Radio Co.
Pillow, Throw	Sorg, Arthur
Speaker	Stark Electrified Pipe Organ
Box, Cigar	Steckbeck Cigar Co.
Box, Cigar	Steckbeck, W.J. & Sons
Bottle	Strasbourg Brewing Company
Bottle	Studers Mineral Water Works
Box, Soap	Summit City Soap Works
Box	Summit City Soap Works
Spool, Wire	Superior Essex
Pants	Theime Bros.
Stocking	Theme Hosiery
Socks	Theme Hosiery
Stool, Step	Toidey Company
Toilet, Childs	Toidey Company
Pump, Fuel	Tokheim Corporation
Repellant	Twee Chemical Co.
Box	Wayne Candies
Box	Wayne Egg Mash
Stocking	Wayne Knitting Mills
Pump	Wayne Oil Tank Co.
Bottle	Wayne Pharmacal Supply Co.
Bottle, Medicine	Wayne Pharmacal Supply Co.
Jar	Wayne Pride
Can	Wilkens Bros.
Piston	Zollner Corporation
Pin, Piston	Zollner Corporation
Rings, Retainer	Zollner Corporation

Sylvanus Bowser

The more deeply you delve into Fort Wayne and Allen County history, the more you realize what a truly unique heritage this city holds. When our new gallery, Allen County Innovation, opens this fall, you’ll have a chance to take a closer look at the products developed and produced here and the people behind them. Their ingenuity is remarkable and made a lasting impact on our lives.

A number of these people have been profiled in the Old Fort News over the years and so in this blog post we quote from an article by Richard V. Pierard that appeared in Volume 26, Issue 4, in 1963. Its title is “Sylvanus Bowser”.

Bowser grew up with 12 siblings. He was born north of Fort Wayne, lived for a short time in Kansas and had very little education since the bulk of his childhood was spent in manual labor helping to support the family. At age 13 he joined a Sunday School class in the neighborhood and competed with the other students who were vying to win a gilt-edged Bible with a gold clasp by memorizing the most Bible verses. Bowser prevailed, memorizing 654 verses, over 200 more than the second place finisher.

Armed with the knowledge that he had the intellect to learn, he talked his father into allowing him to attend school, which he did for three months and two weeks before he had to return to work to help the family finances. This was the end of his formal education but he continued on his own to practice reading, writing and arithmetic.

Bowser was a deeply religious man from a young age.

“Later in life he testified that when he was about eighteen years old, in a vision one Sunday on the way home from church, God had called him to preach. He replied to God that he was unable to do this because he only had two weeks and three months of schooling, and he had to care for his parents, two brothers, and a sister. Then, the ‘torment’ in his soul left him. This decision, however, did not prevent him from being deeply involved with religious activities throughout the remainder of his life.”

Bowser married in 1876 and supported his family as a traveling salesman for several companies. But he fell into debt, deeded the family home to his creditors and moved his family to smaller quarters. He also suffered a breakdown, “probably due to overwork”, and was unable to function as a full-time employee due to “nervous spells which unfitted him for work for three or four days at a time”.

His life changed dramatically in the early morning hours of a wintry day in 1885. Before heading off to his travels as a salesman, he had drawn a day’s supply of water for his wife. While on the road, he began thinking of a method to more easily draw water by bucket from the 70 foot deep well. He shared the idea with brother Augustus who consulted with a mechanic friend who declared the idea impossible.

Bowser, however, thought he was onto something and decided that oil might be easier to deliver with his system. Since most grocery stores also sold kerosene that was stored in tanks often in basement corners, he believed his invention had a future. Ever the sales person, he approached his customers and ended up with five orders for a product that did not exist! Spurred on by this success, he convinced his brother Alexander and his nephew Allen to assist him in his work. Three months later, the first completed order was delivered on September 5, 1885 to Jake Gumpper, a Fort Wayne grocer. Gumpper’s store was chosen for the first pump because Bowser was broke and needed credit for groceries at Gumpper’s store.

The business grew, however, and on July 1, 1888, he organized S.F. Bowser and Company.

“Bowser had opened the door to the production of modern liquid fuel handling devices by his invention. The significant difference between his kerosene pump and its predecessors was that his was a self-measuring pump. That is, it would deliver an accurately measured quart, half-gallon, or any other particular quantity of oil desired by means of simple strokes of the handle. This meant an end to the messy measuring out of oil by hand, and it lessened the possibility of a storekeeper cheating his customers by giving the purchaser less than the full amount of oil for which he paid. The present-day gasoline pump evolved from this rudimentary pump and tank outfit.”

By 1894, Bowser’s company was one of the leading industries in Fort Wayne. Despite a fire, the company continued to grow. Newly constructed facilities were not, however, insured for fire and in 1897 another fire broke out on Christmas morning, destroying not only buildings but product ready for shipment. So rebuilding began again and all was fine until 1898 when “some of the ‘most trusted employees misused the company’s funds’ and put it in a ‘very bad financial condition’.” Reorganization followed and on April 17, 1899, the company incorporated.

“The main products of the company were various types of oil handling equipment. They included such items as storage tanks, siphons, oil cabinets, pumps, lubricating oil facilities, etc. The early catalogues offered the public a wide variety of these items to fit nearly every oil handling need. Around the turn of the century, Bowser Company produced such items as dust pans, ratchet screw drivers, and wash boards, but the making of these was later discontinued. With the advent of the automobile, S.F. Bowser and Company began pioneering in the invention and production of gasoline handling equipment for both home and public garages, and later for public filling stations.”

Twenty years after its founding, sales reached a million dollars and ten years later six and a half million. Branch offices were opened in the US, Canada, Europe, South America and Australia.

Bowser saw himself as responsible for his employees and their welfare, establishing the Bowser Employees Relief Union in 1908. This provided sick, accident and death benefits for members at a low premium. The company donated $10,000 as the beginning capital.

He also provided a large company picnic each year at Winona Lake where he owned a cottage. The crowd of people attending was so large that one year two, twelve-car trains were required to carry the 1200 people the forty mile distance to the picnic site. Bowser also built a playground for the neighborhood children who lived near his plant.

Bowser sought to influence the spiritual lives of his workers, inviting two evangelists—M.H. Lyon and Billy Sunday—to his plant in 1915 to talk with workers on company time. He ‘forbade drinking, smoking, dancing, etc., as he genuinely felt they were harmful to the men.”

Bowser’s company supported the war effort not only because he felt it the right thing to do, but also because WWI helped the company to grow. By the end of the war, this man, once a poverty-stricken salesman, was worth at least $4 million.

Bowser was described as courageous, far-seeing, cheerful, tireless, determined, optimistic, hard working, a risk taker, honest, and inventive. In 1907 he patented two massage devices and a third in 1910. All worked on the principle of rollers. He retired in 1922 and continued to work on his inventions.

Bowser had a “strong religious bent. By the time he had reached middle age, religion was the dominant feature of his character. However, this was not by any means a superficial or mystical type of experience. His relationship with God was vivid and personal, and his religious expression came from a sincere heart. It is quite important not to underestimate the influence which religion had in his life as it was the motivating force behind his optimism, willingness to work, and paternalism.”

But the future was not a rosy one for Bowser and his company. He had competition from rivals like the Wayne Pump Company and the Tokheim Company, both based in Fort Wayne. Bowser built a new office building in 1917, which quickly grew in cost to three times the original estimate of $350,000. This was capital that could have been used for other purposes.

“By 1919 the company employees had become dissatisfied with Bowser’s paternalistic policies. Moreover, he had a strong dislike for unions and would not recognize one in his factory. This did not please the men. On May 19, 1919 a shop committee presented some written demands to the company which it refused. One week later, the committee firmly declared that either the company would accept the demands immediately, or a strike would be called. The company countered with a lockout on May 28.”

The plant reopened a few days later with non-striking employees and strike breakers. The company set about hiring new employees. But the business was not operating to peak capacity. A strike riot broke out at the plant on June 25 and several of those not on strike were attacked and injured. The company sought an injunction from the Allen County Circuit Court, barring strikers from interfering with non-strikers. The injunction also limited the number of picketers at the plant gates.

The strike drug on with more acts of violence and a few jail sentences for defying the injunction. The company continued to operate but the strike had taken its toll on the business and the company “lost heavily, both in money and prestige…”.

Bowser had set up the Bowser Loan and Trust Company at this time to help employees buy their own homes. He built another building for this part of the company.

The company continued to struggle but by 1923 sales had risen to $12 million a year and the plant produced its one millionth pump that year also.

But Bowser was aging and his health failing. He retired as company president on January 1, 1922. He contracted diabetes and dropped many of his pursuits including the board of Bowser Loan and Trust. By 1931, however, he had found a physician who was able to assist him in becoming well enough to travel to Europe. But he eventually lost much of his fortune in the Depression and lost all of the control of the company he had founded when the corporation was reorganized.

As he aged, he became more and more eccentric and spent the remainder of his money and time on ”trips, inventions and agitation to reorganize the church”. By 1937, his health was better but his diabetes started to trouble him again the next year. He became confined to his home and died on October 3, 1938 at age 84. He is buried in Lindenwood Cemetery.

At the time of his death, Bowser had gone from being worth millions to an estate valued at $11,000.

 “He was indeed an unusual millionaire since he was able to spend almost all of his money before he died.”

There is a wonderful photo of Bowser in the latest edition of the Old Fort News. Pick up a copy in our gift shop today.

Day Trippin' to the Ford Museum

“The “highlight” – if you want to call it that – of 1970s history in our country was the resignation of Richard Nixon.  I will never forget standing in the living room of my first apartment, two friends in chairs on either side of my black and white portable television (my college graduation gift to myself), watching the footage of Nixon’s farewell. To this day, I get a lump in my throat. U.S. Presidents should know better than to push the Constitution to the breaking point.

Jerry Ford inherited Nixon’s mess. Many were livid when he pardoned Nixon. Some of us felt he did the right thing. Most of my time in college was taken up on the national scene with Watergate and Vietnam. It was time for the country to move forward and cease being mired down in this morass of dysfunction.

We were fortunate enough to have Hugh Sloan visit us this spring at the History Center to talk about his experiences working for the Republican Party during Nixon’s re-election campaign. Sloan offered us an insider’s perspective on Watergate and has spent his life talking about this point in our history—not for personal financial gain—but to instill in all of us the need to question authority when it appears to be moving beyond its limits. What he had to say was profound.

Ford was also one who, had he known earlier on, would have been appalled at Nixon’s actions and those of his cronies. Ford was one of the “good guys”—a believer in that which is best about America and what our forefathers envisioned for this country.

Last weekend, my husband and I ventured up to Michigan to visit family in East Lansing and then over to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. As we were leaving Lansing, Aunt Sally inquired about my interest in Ford. Uncle Jim had worked in the Kennedy, Johnson and Carter administrations and she was wondering what this Democrat found so appealing about Ford. I told her he was the only Republican candidate for president for whom I’d ever voted. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

The Ford Museum in Grand Rapids is among the finest presidential museum I’ve seen and a tremendous look at the Watergate era and the 1970s. It’s well worth the day trip to Grand Rapids. There are many interactive elements that my husband finally had to pull himself away from or we would have spent the entire day there. The museum is that interesting.

“To Heal a Nation” is a book you can buy that contains the words of almost all of the panels within the museum. But the photos and graphics of newspaper front pages that are part of the actual exhibits are really what you need to see. There are gifts to the Fords, some of Mrs. Ford’s clothing (a veritable polyester paradise since it WAS the 1970s) and memorabilia from Ford’s athletic and Naval careers.

Gerald Ford was born in my home state of Nebraska. His mother left her abusive marriage and moved to Grand Rapids, marrying Gerald Ford, who adopted her son Leslie Lynch King and gave him the family name. In the Ford household there were three absolute rules: “Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time.”

Ford learned a number of life lessons as a youth from his time in school and athletics to scouting to the night his birth father showed up at the diner where the young Ford was washing dishes. King had started a new life and wasn’t afraid to brag about it to his son, even though he was now what we’d call a deadbeat dad. From these experiences, Ford learned, “There are two kinds of education you get in this world. One you get from others, and another you give yourself.”

Part of his education was likely his marriage to Elizabeth Bloomer. Betty Ford is one of my favorite first ladies. She wasn’t afraid to “tell it like it is”. From her breast cancer to her views on the ERA, Betty did not believe “that being First Lady should prevent me from expressing my views…Why should my husband’s job or yours prevent us from being ourselves? Being ladylike does not require silence.” She’s my kind of woman!

You’ll have to visit the museum to get the overall picture of Ford’s presidency, a short, non-elected administration that actually accomplished quite a bit despite what we thought at the time. Much happened in those few short years including the conclusion of the Vietnam War, when hundreds were evacuated from the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon. The staircase those people used is at the museum. Watching all of those people climb a staircase to a helicopter waiting on the embassy roof is another memory I doubt I’ll ever lose. Ford described it as “the saddest hour of my time in the White House.”

If you were a fan of Saturday Night Live back then, you likely remember Chevy Chase’s imitation of Ford as a bumbling doofus. But here are some quotes from Ford we’d do well to heed today.

“Throughout my political life…I was truthful to others. I expected others to be truthful with me.”

“I am indebted to no man and to only one woman—my dear wife….”

“A great nation cannot escape its responsibilities. Responsibilities abandoned today will return as more acute crises tomorrow.”

“History will judge this conference (Helsinki), not by what we say here today but by what we do tomorrow—not by the promises we make but by the promises we keep.”

Gerald Ford died at the age of 93 on December 26, 2006. He and his wife are buried on the grounds of the museum. A security guard told us that when Ford’s body lay in state at the museum, one of the Ford children was standing by the door at all times. The hand of everyone who had come to pay homage to the former President was shaken as they entered the museum.

From the Model T to Spacecraft

As we prepare for the opening of Allen County Innovation in the next couple of months, we thought we’d use our blog to fill you in a little on some of the history behind this new exhibit. We’ll be featuring photos on our Facebook page as well so that you can see what goes into the behind-the-scenes work here at the History Center.
 

The exhibit will feature a number of companies who have brought to the world market innovative products and services. You may be surprised at some of these as well as their practicality. And as forerunners to the age in which we now live, the ingenuity behind these products has no equal.
 

So a couple of our first blog posts on Allen County Innovation will be on magnet wire.
 
Now I have to confess that to me, magnet wire in and of itself is not exciting—that is, until you realize that without it we would never have had space travel or pacemakers. As a person for whom the study of science has never been a strength, I can’t even begin to summarize for you how magnet wire is made. So here’s a quote from the actual exhibit:
 
“Magnet Wire Is All Around Us
 

George Jacobs

When wound into a coil and energized with electricity, insulated wire becomes an electromagnet thus earning the name “Magnet Wire.” The application of this principle is what powers most electronic devices.
 
Wire is made by drawing heavy copper or aluminum rod through a series of successfully smaller dies until the desired bare diameter is formed. The bare wire is then enameled in repeated dip/bake cycles in an enameling oven until a multi-layer coating is built up to the required thickness.
 
Magnet wire is used in countless applications including automobiles, appliances, toys, computers and cell phones. These products couldn’t exist without the use of magnet wire. Can you imagine what your life would be like without magnet wire?”
 
There you have it. No magnet wire would mean none of the great adult toys none of us seem to be able to live without. You should also know that some magnet wire was so thin that a board had to be placed behind the equipment used to make it so the wire could be seen with the human eye. And this was the early 1900s which weren’t exactly known for their “techiness”. 

The Old Fort News article “Wire Wizards” in the 1970 Vol. 33 No. 1 edition gives a more detailed description of the origins of magnet wire for those who are interested.
 
The Dudlo Company “made Fort Wayne the magnet capital of the world”. George A. Jacobs, its owner, was a native of Dudley, Mass. and, in 1906, a “promising figure at Sherwin Williams”. As the market for the automobile was growing, existing wire was not capable of performing the job needed to help spark and fire engine components. The wire was too thick and the veneer cracked and peeled too easily. Jacobs worked for three years and finally came up with a “liquid mixture which made obsolete the tedious process of winding fine wire with cotton fabric…..
 
“Development of the enamel had been an experience fraught with an element of considerable danger because the mixture was highly inflammable. The application of heat to the enamel increased the hazard; the pungent and acrid fumes which emanated from the Jacobs ovens must have brought him much opprobrium from the residential neighborhood. In their finer stages, the enamel and the oven wire developed together. In 1910 Jacobs began production of enameled fine wire in small quantities; the process then moved out of backyard confinement.”
 
Jacobs was the son-in-law of W.E. Mossman, who built a barn-like structure for Jacobs as an incentive for him to bring his wife, Mossman’s daughter, and move to Fort Wayne. Jacobs and his wife were living in Ohio at the time and the name of his company—Dudlo—is a combination of Dudley and Ohio. The 50 x 100 structure built on Wall Street had a cupola the full length of the building and was “one of the strangest industrial structures ever to appear in Fort Wayne”. In July, 1912, the Dudlo Company moved in and this structure became known as “the enameling building”.
 
Henry Ford can be praised for a lot (and denigrated for his anti-Semitism) but without the automobile, Dudlo may have never been successful. Yet Ford and Jacobs were working separately on inventions that the other did not know existed and changed the course of how Americans travel even today. Ford was designing cars. Jacobs was developing a wire that would expressly be used in automobile ignitions.
 
“On August 16, 1916, Purchase Order No. 73,417 of the Ford Motor Company reached the desk at the Dudlo Manufacturing Company. This one order kept Dudlo busy from September 18 until the ensuing February 28. This avalanche of business from Ford constituted a vast growth problem although it never seemed to create the slightest worry from General Manager Jacobs.”
 
World War I brought another addition to the use of magnet wire.

“During World War I the British government was confronted with the deadly menace of unrestricted German submarine boat warfare and consequent destruction of the shipping which supplied much of the food for the people of Britain. The fabrication of a submarine boat detector required much finer wire than had yet been manufactured. George Jacobs readily and unhesitatingly agreed to supply a ton of such wire to the British munitions board. Since this wire, smaller than a human hair, existed only in the mind of Jacobs the machinery for its previously unheard of production had first to be built. Jacobs and his co-workers at Dudlo undertook this Herculean task. The wire was accordingly produced and delivered six months after receipt of the order.”

Most of the copper that the Dudlo plant used came from Great Falls, Mont. and a smaller amount from Arizona and Chili. Copper mined in Michigan was not considered suitable for electrical use.
 
Dudlo went on to provide wire for the telephone industry and then moved into creating tinsel.
 
“Those tiny gold and silver threads had lent much charm to the Yule tree. They had for a long time found their way into some of the finest decorative fabrics. A monopoly of craftsmanship had jealously guarded the production of tinsel since the sixteenth century. The art of making tinsel had developed in the ancient city of Lyons, France. There its secret was closely guarded for many years.
 

The Dudlo Building in 1920

“Ultimately the Germans through research and deductive science learned the secrets of the French monopoly and produced more cheaply a fine gilded product although it did not equal the original in quality. Still the European tinsel industry continued to monopolize the market.”
 
The Leonic Division of Dudlo went on to produce tinsel thread for millinery braids, upholstering, lamp shades, brocades, shoe cloth, draperies and garments. They utilized pure gold and silver in the multi-step process.
Dudlo reached a peak of success by 1927. But by then the coming depression was on the horizon and so a number of major wire producers decided to merge, knowing that the economic uncertainly of the time had the potential to only get worse. The merged entities became General Cable Corporation. A new facility was constructed in Fort Wayne.
 
But in July 1929, Jacobs, now a General Cable vice-president, and Wendell G. Glass, plant manager of the Dudlo Division of General Cable, resigned and organized a new wire mill named INCA Manufacturing Company. In October, 1930 General Cable closed the Dudlo office facilities in Fort Wayne and moved them to the East. The name Dudlo disappeared to be replaced by Fort Wayne Plant, General Cable Corporation. Warren V. Sweet, vice-president of the Dudlo Divison, resigned.
 
Victor Rea, general manager of General Cable in Fort Wayne, resigned in 1933 and announced the formation of Rea Magnet Wire Company.
 
Operations at what had been Dudlo moved to Rome, NY that same year. The Dudlo facility was eventually acquired by the Essex Corporation, which continues to maintain a presence on that historic site.
 

The Dudlo Building in 1924

The influence of Dudlo lives on and this fall you can see how in the new exhibit “Allen County Innovation”.

The Magnet Wire Capital of the World

Magnet wire had its modern beginnings in a small building south of Swinney Park where Superior Essex currently occupies its present-day administration operations and the Fort Wayne plant.

Enamel successfully applied to wire to produce magnet wire – the insulated copper or aluminum wire that is wound in coils to create electromagnetic fields – was developed in Fort Wayne, and Fort Wayne gained the title of “The Magnet Wire Capital of the World.”

George Jacobs, the founder of the U.S. magnet wire industry, was a bright young chemist at General Electric’s Fort Wayne Works in 1901 working on the problems of wire insulation.  By 1911 Jacobs had left G E and with his wife Ethel perfected a process of enameling, or insulating wire for use in coils.

When Ethel’s mother, Emma, died in 1911, George and Ethel Jacobs were persuaded by her father William to return to Fort Wayne from Cleveland.  William Mossman yearned to be near his daughter and offered to establish a laboratory in Fort Wayne for Ethel and her husband to pursue their interests.

With this new product development, George Jacobs and his associate Victor Rea further developed, enabled wire of any thickness to be coated evenly with a chemical insulation that could be baked on in special ovens and yet remain flexible enough to be wound into coils.  It’s those coils in motors and transformers that make them work and it is a motor or a transformer that is at the heart of labor saving devices that do our work and makes our lives more comfortable. From this modest beginning at the end of Wall Street on Fort Wayne’s near south side emerged one of the modern world’s most important products: magnet wire. Without magnet wire, most electrical devices that are common features of everyday life – electric motors, computers, televisions, radios, automotive devices, hearing aides, telecommunications equipment and much more – would be impossible.

Jacobs formed Dudlo Wire Company, as the original magnet wire manufacturer in Fort Wayne.  Today, Superior Essex, Rea Magnet Wire and the former Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire Company, along with other wire operations trace their origins to this early triumph of George and Ethel Jacobs and the Dudlo Wire Company. 

The Father of Modern Banking Hailed from Fort Wayne

Right now, if you buy a new membership to the History Center or “gift” someone with a membership, you can receive a copy of George R. Mather’s “Frontier Faith” or Susan Lee Guckenberg’s “Hugh McCulloch: Father of Modern Banking”. We’ve already profiled Mather’s book in our series on immigration (that being just one of the parts of Fort Wayne history that the book covers) and now we’re moving on to Hugh McCulloch. 

Since studying history via biography and autobiography has been one of my interests since elementary school (because I find the people far more interesting than any other aspect of history),  I concentrated on Hugh the person in writing this post, not Hugh the financial guru that he became. However, there’s one quote from McCulloch that in today’s financial climate should probably be recirculated again because he really hit the nail on the head with this one.

From Guckenberg’s book:

“In December of 1863, Hugh circulated a letter to bank officials as a guide in the management of the new national banks. He emphasized that every banker under the national system should feel that the reputation of the system depended upon the manner in which his particular institution was conducted. He urged bankers to manage their banks as a business and to let no ‘political partiality or prejudice influence your judgment or actions.’ The national currency system was intended for a nation, not for a party. He urged no speculation and attributed the failure of any national bank to ‘those in charge of its affairs’ violating the law. If they obey the law strictly the depositors would be safe.”

The letter was reproduced and circulated in 1923 by the American Exchange National Bank of New York. “It was referred to as a contribution to banking literature so plain, profound and wholesome that it could be regarded as safe a guide in 1923 as it had been sixty years earlier.”

Although trained as an attorney, McCulloch became manager and cashier of the State Bank of Indiana. He regularly traveled between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne with large sums of money. “Fort Wayne was three days away from Indianapolis and for fifteen years he made this trip alone on horseback without the slightest fear of being robbed. He stayed at taverns or cabins along the way and it was well known that he carried great sums with him and always rode unarmed.”

McCulloch was the first Comptroller of the Currency and later served as Secretary of the Treasury.

“Hugh took the work (Comptroller of the Currency) to heart. His labors were ‘severe and incessant.’ He was proud to put into operation a banking system ‘admirably adapted to our republican institutions.’ He was also satisfied about the security it gave to the bank note circulation. Hugh’s appointment as the first comptroller was an honor that his family thought he valued more than his later appointment as treasury secretary. It also ascribed to him the title, ‘Father of the National Banking System.’”

McCulloch gave a not so flattering portrait of Indiana prior to moving here and in his first years in our city.

“I can make a living in my profession in: I can do the same in Maine (he was born in Kennebunk and descendants of McCulloch still live there). But this is not enough. I shall never be satisfied with it, until I am confident that I can do no better. I have no strong desire to be rich, but I am determined not to die poor…the people in the western states are more ignorant and consequently are more inclined to litigation, and more apt to get entangled in the intricacies of the law. Professional men are more scarce, and are looked upon as persons of some considerable importance.”

His opinions of Fort Wayne weren’t much better.

“He saw Fort Wayne as being, ‘about as uninviting in every respect, except its site, as any of the towns through which I had passed.’ But it proved to be the end of his journey, ‘which had been long and solitary, but by no means lonesome and tedious.’”

In another description of Fort Wayne, he said: “the ‘morals of the place…have been low,’ but were rapidly changing for the better. There are ‘many fine families’ and ‘no lack of meetings’ which were generally held at the courthouse, alternately by the Presbyterians and Methodists.”

McCulloch and his first wife lived on the corner of Main and Barr, not far from what is now the History Center, in a two-story frame house. Eunice died at age 26 on February 29, 1836. “She was buried in the ‘old burying ground’ which was later McCulloch Park. In 1860, when Lindenwood Cemetery was started, her grave was transferred.”

He remarried Susan Maria Man. Together they would “raise four children; two others would not survive. While doing so, he would contribute to the growth of the city and become one of those, ‘professional men….who are looked upon as persons of some considerable importance.’”

McCulloch helped form the Young Men’s Literary Society in 1846 and was one of its most popular speakers. He helped select works for the public library and the library established by the Literacy Society. He was a leader in organizing the Methodist College in 1846. This institution became Taylor University. 

He was a strong supporter of education and served as one of the first trustees of the school system in 1853. The first public school building in Fort Wayne was on Lafayette between Main and Berry.

“In an address given at the graduation of St. Augustine’s Female Seminary on 22 July 1852, he described education as the business of life.”

In 1859, he was one of twelve who purchased a tract of land that was developed into Lindenwood Cemetery. Many family members’ graves were moved there and he expected to be buried there, but is interred at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington DC along with Susan.

McCulloch was among thirty men present at a speech given by Stephen A Douglas on July 4, 1860 at the Rockhill House. These men, “the ‘Old Settlers’ of Fort Wayne who had settled in Fort Wayne on or before 1840, were each given a cane made from timber saved from the old fort.” 

See John Beatty’s article in the Old Fort News, Volume 72:2, 2009 “The Douglas Has Come! Stephen A Douglas and the Presidential Campaign of 1860 in Fort Wayne, Indiana” as well as Walter Font’s article in Volume 74:1, 2011 “News from the Past: True Tales by a Pioneer. John Fairfield Reminiscences of Early Days.”

McCulloch served in the administrations of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.

“During the politically troubled backdrop of the Johnson Administration, Hugh McCulloch stood out as one who did not adhere to party politics above his practical, sound financial principles. In the words of Henry Brooks Adams, the famous historian and great-grandson of John Adams, ‘he had been spared the gluttonous selfishness and infantile jealousy which are the commoner results of early political education.’ Therefore, he did not cave into increasing pressure to rescind the authority granted to him to enforce the policy of contraction.

“In the year 1868, Matthew Brady photographed Hugh in a standing position, in his Washington studio. The photograph served as a model for one the participants in the famous painting by Alonze Chappel entitled, ‘The Last Hours of Lincoln.’ The photograph and painting are part of the collection of the Chicago Historical Society. It is the only full-length photograph taken of Hugh McCulloch. 

The only other full-length painting of him was done in Kennebunk as a student and is located in the McCulloch house at The Landing.”

In Spring 1866, McCulloch and his wife began building a home in Washington DC after renting for a number of years.  They had a “late life” child named Mary when Susan was 48. They then moved to London in 1870 for Hugh to work in a joint banking venture.

“Mary McCulloch was three years old at the time and would play in the garden of Kensington Palace with a girl who would become Queen Mary, wife of George V. At the time she was little Princess Mary of Teck. She was also three years old having been born on 26 May 1867. Mary McCulloch later remembered her own house as large compared to their home in America. It faced a square that contained a railed-in garden. The householders around the garden were furnished with keys to open the garden gates. She distinctly recalled being locked in this garden ‘where even a small child could come to no harm.’”

“In May (1871), Hugh and Susan were invited to attend the Queens Ball on Friday, the 19^th at 10:00 at Buckingham Palace. Susan attended without Hugh as he was ‘unwilling to wear stockings and knee breeches.’ Susan wore a plum colored velvet and lace dress that had a long train. She wore a headdress of braided strands of pearls. Later the train was cut off to make a short jacket. The dress and headdress are now in the possession of the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk. Even though the dress was made to fit, Susan’s ‘great annoyance’ was that she could not get a pair of shoes in England that fit. The ones she ended up wearing were ‘made for English feet.’ Standing so long that night in the Great Hall was very fatiguing with poorly fitting shoes. Some of the women were very elegantly dressed, while others wore their oldest gowns and laces, as they expected to have them all torn to pieces due to the immense crowd. Susan had a coachman and footman who were liberally fed in the servants quarters with cold roast beef, breads, cheeses, and ale. After the ball, they were loud in their praises of royalty. After being received by the Queen, Susan left the palace and happened upon former Union Generals Philip Sheridan and James Forsyth who escorted her to her carriage.”

McCulloch returned to Fort Wayne for a visit in July, 1874 and was interviewed by one of the local newspapers.

“The reporter described him as a man of commanding personal appearance. Tall, portly (weighing 224 pounds), with a large head firmly set on a pair of broad shoulders, full face, a keen piercing eye, high forehead, his head lightly silvered over with gray hair, light side whiskers, mouth and nose indicating power and firmness. He would be picked out as a man of authority in any crowd and any circumstance. Time had touched him lightly during his sixty-five years. He seemed to be in the ‘very zenith of his powers, and undoubtedly has yet a long career of usefulness and distinction before him.’”

Hugh and Susan McCulloch celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary on March 21, 1888 in their Washington DC home. By then, McCulloch had retired from public service and the business world.

“The next couple of years Hugh submitted articles for various periodicals including the New York Times and Washington Post. Subjects would range from free trade, the folly of maintaining a protective tariff, restoration of the foreign marine service, and the character of George Washington. Little is known about the last four years of his life spent in solitude at Holly Hills (his country home). On Friday, 24 May 1895 at 2:40 A.M. Hugh McCulloch died at the age of 86. ….The cause of death was listed as kidney failure and lung disease.”

McCulloch was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington on Thursday, May 30. His grave is marked:

“Hugh McCulloch Dec. 7 1808-May 24, 1895

Comptroller of the Currency 1863

Secretary of the Treasury 1865 to 1869, and in 1884

‘Justice and Judgment are the habitation of Thy Throne.

Mercy and Truth shall go before Thy face.’”

“On the day he was buried, the Treasury Department neglected to lower the flag. It did not go unnoticed by Kate Field, ‘The Treasury flag hung high yesterday morning when I looked out my window. It is difficult to believe one’s own eyes in these days of topsy turvy, and I rubbed mine to remove the night’s cobwebs before relying on them. There was no doubt about it. Though Hugh McCulloch was to be buried at 11 o’clock the Treasury Department had forgotten the fact. The mistake was rectified later in the day and the old rag that answers for an American flag flew at half-mast.’”

Susan lived until July 25, 1898, devoting her remaining years to writing her autobiography “The Recollections of Susan Man McCulloch”. In 1981, they were presented to the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society.

Not long before she died, she described Hugh as “a husband second to none in nobleness of aim and unselfishness of nature. Ready at all times to help and comfort those who were in need or sorrow, and who never closed his ears to any word save the breath of slander.”