by Nancy McCammon-Hansen
One of the more interesting
facets of life for me is to visit with others about what they remember about
growing up and the world the way it used to be. That’s why I thought the story
of retired Judge Phil Thieme’s grandfather would make a great blog post so I
sat down with him over lunch one day to chat about Theodore F. Thieme.
Judge Thieme says he doesn’t
remember much about his grandfather, who died when Phil was 13, but he does
know that he has made some decisions in his life based upon his grandfather’s
character. At age 16, Phil hopped a freighter to South America. His grandfather
had been a world-travel all of his adult life. That travel led in part to the
opening of the Wayne Knitting Mills behind what is now Paula’s Restaurant on
West Main.
Theodore Thieme was referred
to in the biography “Theodore F. Thieme: A Man and His Times” by Ross F.
Lockbridge (copyright 1942) as “Little Napoleon”, a nickname the elder Thieme acquired
due to his height of five feet five inches, weight of about 150, and his
unusually strong shoulders. Lockbridge, who had at one time worked for Thieme,
wrote his book because he wanted “to do some justice in this modest effort to a
life that is singularly full of lofty vision, gigantic efforts long continued,
heart-breaking disappointments, and substantial and enduring successes.”
The Thieme family hails from
Germany and this German heritage led to a second career for Theodore Thieme,
who at one time aspired to be a musician and ended up a pharmacist. He studied
in New York City where he could enjoy music when not at work. His mother had
wanted him to become a Lutheran pastor, but that was never a part of Thieme’s
plan. In all honesty, neither was pharmacy, but sometimes life leads you to
make career decisions based upon need rather than desire.
According to Judge Thieme, at
age 33 his grandfather, now a fairly successful Fort Wayne business person,
“was restless and bored and wanted to do more.” He had visited his mother’s
family in Dresden and his father’s family in Leipzig, Germany in 1878, meeting
relatives for the first time and visiting the Paris Exposition along the way.
He had attended the World’s Fair in Philadelphia in 1876 and attended every
international exposition of that type for the remainder of his life.
He loved adventure and he
valued the training he had in owning a pharmacy in downtown Fort Wayne, never
ceasing “to emphasize the importance of that kind of training—training in
exactness covering numberless details—training in assuming responsibility for
innumerable little things.”
He was also able to see
opportunity in new laws, the most promising, at least for his personal
interests, the McKinley Protective Tariff Law enacted by Congress in 1889. On
March 31, 1890, he sold his half of the interest in the Thieme and Gross
Pharmacy to J.B. Pellens. The business, located on Calhoun, was renamed Gross
and Pellens. Thieme took off for Germany to start a new career.
He explained his mode of
researching a new endeavor this way:
“In order to save time, I
decided to begin my business investigation by inserting a few advertisements in
the leading daily newspapers of each city of importance, announcing that an
American gentleman was interested in introducing in his country the manufacture
of some article benefitted by the new McKinley Tariff Law, and solicited
correspondence. No immediate attention was to be given replies, save
acknowledgement, until we arrived in Berlin, where the sightseeing part of the
trip would terminate…When Berlin was reached some four months after landing in
England, my mail had taken on larger proportions than I had expected; and I was
assured that plenty of opportunities existed for me to grasp, the main
consideration being the selection of something worthwhile.”
That “something worthwhile”
proved to be full-fashioned hosiery. You can read a more detailed account of
why knitting was such an art, and this style of stocking so important in
Lockridge’s book, available at the Allen County Public Library. The Germans
weren’t inclined to want to send trade secrets across the Atlantic to America,
so Thieme set himself up in a hotel room as a prospective buyer of machinery
from Poland. The Germans didn’t particularly want to sell to a Pole either, but
he was better than an American.
Thieme then returned to the
United States with a rough draft of the plan for his company, thinking he would
set it up in Philadelphia. On a brief side trip to Fort Wayne to catch up with
family and friends, he talked of his plans and was asked more than once, “But
why not in Fort Wayne?” Exploring the idea with only half a mind that Fort
Wayne would be an ideal location, he soon found that Henry C. Paul, president
of the Old National Bank, had enough good reasons for him to light upon Fort
Wayne as the location for his business. Those reasons were in the form of
investors.
 |
| The caption in "Theodore F. Thieme: A Man and His Times" reads "The novelty of introducing a new industry direct from Europe in those early days of Wayne Knitting Mills, proved a fertile field for cartoonists." |
In August, 1891, the Wayne
Knitting Mills was organized with Paul as president; Charles S. Bash, vice
president; William H. Dreier, treasurer; and Thieme, secretary-manager. The
investment was small so that no one would lose money should the company fail,
but enough to get it off the ground.
Thieme returned to Germany to
purchase equipment and hire workers to run the knitters. Because he was fluent
in German, he was able to bridge any communication gap that may have existed.
Machinery was shipped within 60 days and 60 days after that labor to install
the machinery would follow. Thieme returned to America.
“Arriving at New York, I
arranged with an Immigration Institute to receive the people engaged upon their
arrival and attend to forwarding them on to Fort Wayne. Factory quarters were
rented in a building at the northeast corner of Main and Clinton Street, from
corner to alley, and we proceeded to put them in a condition for installation
of machinery and operation of the factory—a rather uncertain and difficult
job.”
Wayne Knitting Mills opened
in the fall of 1891 with the first finished product going on the market in
1892. These times were financially tenuous and it soon became apparent to
Thieme that his factory must increase output without increasing costs to be competitive.
More output for less wages was required but not without some dissension.
However, Thieme was lucky in that eventually most who worked for him agreed and
soon orders came into the plant, keeping it afloat.
Thieme worked tirelessly and
by 1895, his mill employed 175 people, running 22 hours a day in three shifts.
In 1898, “Thieme evolved a scheme to enlarge production without any
considerable further outlay of money. He succeeded in inducing two German
manufacturers to move their plants with their skilled operatives to Fort Wayne
under contract with the Wayne Knitting Mills to finance and house them and also
guarantee to take their output at a price of cost plus a certain per cent for
profit. It proved to be a sound idea and brought valuable increases of better
qualities of hosiery. After a few years, both of these were merged in the
ownership of the mills.” Thieme added children’s ribbed hose and infant socks
to the inventory of men’s and women’s full-fashioned hosiery.
Wayne Knitting Mills, 1910
Former Fort Wayne resident Peggy
Seigel, who has written much about women’s history in Fort Wayne, noted in an
article published in part on http://www.iub.edu/~imaghist/for_teachers/grwdvlp/lstmp/industrlgrls.html
“At Wayne
Knitting Mills, the most highly skilled workers were male knitters, who were
trained though apprenticeship programs to operate the complex machines that
knit the legs of stockings. Male workers also took charge of the dyeing
process. Most of the other jobs in the factory were semiskilled or unskilled
and were performed by girls or women. Three or four ‘transfer girls' put the
stocking tops onto quills that were then used to transfer the stockings onto
simpler circular knitting machines, also operated by women. These operators,
known as ‘loopers', sewed together the foot of the stocking. Other female
workers shaped stockings by a process called ‘boarding.' Women and girls also
worked as sorters, inspectors, folders, finishers and menders.”
Further on
she explains, “Like female workers at Wayne Knitting, girls and women at GE and
the Edison Lamp Works were not permitted to train as apprentices….”
Working
conditions in those days were not what we see in today’s American factories and
being a young, single woman living in a city after growing up “in the country”
was not always an ideal situation. However, many young women found it necessary
to work to supplement family incomes.
According
to Seigel, “Wayne Knitting opened a three-story dormitory and clubhouse modeled
after facilities in knitting mills in the Northeast. Widely hailed as ‘a
notable step in advance in the industrial sphere’ and ‘the only building of its
sort in the state, perhaps in the middle west,’ the dormitory accommodated one
hundred out-of-town girls in single and double rooms at a weekly price of $3.50
for room and board. The cafeteria in the clubhouse, open to all employees,
could seat 500 at a time. A large lounge was a place for residents to meet with
male visitors. Recreation facilities, including five bowling alleys in the
basement, were open to the women twice a week.’……The detailed descriptions of
the dormitory and clubhouse in the local newspapers created an image of
middle-class gentility. In the ‘large and brilliantly lighted' sitting room, ‘a
young rose cheeked girl in a pretty pink dress sat at the player piano
listening to the merry tune she was playing with evident enjoyment. Above the
piano was a large oil painting one would look for only in an art gallery.' The
room featured ‘comfortable chairs of mission style' and long tables covered with
magazines.”
For more on
this era of Fort Wayne History, see http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2012/03/industrial-girls-boomtown-and-ywca.html.
By today’s standards, work in
the Wayne Knitting Mills was comprised of long, hard days and tedious work,
just as it was in almost every factory in America at that time. But Thieme did
view his employees as valuable assets and began profit sharing programs in addition
to the apartments, bowling alley, tennis courts and annual parties that he
hosted for his workers. Profit sharing “provided, in effect that out of each
year’s net profit, 10 percent dividend should first be paid to the
stockholders. Then the remainder of the profits was to be divided into two
equal funds, one to constitute extra dividends to stockholders in cash,
additional stock, or surplus; the other, to be applied to profit-sharing and
welfare. The profit sharing covered three distinct classes—officials, heads of
departments, and general employees, ranging from 250 to 300 in number, who were
not on piece-work. The portion to be applied to welfare activities for the
promotion of greater efficiency, unity, and good-will among all Wayne Knitters.
The welfare plan was conceived for the common benefit of all, individually, and
as an industrial group. It was based upon the conception that all had a mutual
interest in the success of the business. It was a sincere attempt to follow the
Golden Rule in the application of humanitarian principles to all features of
the industry and to every individual in it.”
Welfare activities included
education, recreation, protection in the way of insurance and safety measures,
community activities, publicity such as an employee newsletter, health
services, service awards and savings plans such as a Christmas savings.
Theodore Thieme married
Bessie Loring of Boston on January 18, 1894. Together they set up house at
their home on the corner of Berry and Rockhill. This home would later be given
to the Fort Wayne Art School. In November, 1911, the new boulevard extending
from West Main Street along the St. Mary’s River was named Thieme Drive in
recognition for the improvements to that area spearheaded by the businessman.
Thieme had been an avid
bicyclist in his younger days and a charter member of the Fort Wayne Bicycle
Club (see the blog post http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2012/01/for-wayne-cycling.html and http://historycenterfw.blogspot.com/2012/01/for-wayne-cycling.html). He was also a member of the Old Aqueduct Club and
you can see a statue dedicated to the members at Main and Theime Drive yet
today.
Thieme was also involved in a
move to change the form of city government in Fort Wayne to a business form of
government. The effort failed. Thieme was “not amused” so to speak and issued,
in part, these words to the public:
“The legislature that was
elected under the pledge to promote the widest and freest expression of local
self-government, coldly refused the people of Fort Wayne an opportunity to
determine for themselves the sort of government they wanted. The bill as
framed, would not, if passed have bound the people of this city to a business
form of government. It simply would have authorized them to determine at an election
whether they desired such a change. It was designed to put the whole matter up
to those most intimately and vitally concerned—the citizens of Fort Wayne. And
the citizens of Fort Wayne by their own representatives have been denied a
voice in their own affairs.”
In 1920, employees of the
Knitters’ Union in Fort Wayne went on strike. Wages were being lowered due to a
decline in business and this action had
been discussed among management and the union on multiple occasions. Thieme was
in Los Angeles when the strike began and returned to Fort Wayne. The strike was
eventually settled when 16 employees were terminated with the admonition that
they would never be employed by Wayne Knitting Mills again. A training school
for apprentices was up and running in no time and the overall damage to the
company from the strike was not great.
(For more detail on this
please consult Lockridge’s book and other works about unionization around the
time of and after World War I.)
Thieme was one of the
founders in 1915 of the Fort Wayne Morris Plan Company, the first of “twenty
six companies established in the United States—the first in Indiana. It was a
new type of bank—a bank for the individual. The idea was originated in Norfolk,
Virginia, just five years before.”
At age 66, Thieme decided it
was time to retire. He decided to form a committee of management in the year
leading up to his retirement as president of Wayne Knitting Mills to train key
men to step into positions of leadership with the company. But when he left for
a trip to Florida, some board members pooled their stock to provide controlling
interest in the company and sold it the Munsingwear Corporation of Minneapolis
in April, 1923. A newspaper attack was launched against Thieme on a personal
level, who responded with legal action, letters to stockholders, public
statements in the Fort Wayne newspapers and a 12-page pamphlet entitled “How
and Why The Wayne Knitting Mills Was Sold”. Thieme’s last annual meeting with
the company was June 19, 1923.
Thieme was once again free to
indulge his love of travel and from 1925 to 1935 crossed the Atlantic some 20
times and in 1929 took a tour around the world. In his later years, he and his
wife split their time between Los Angeles and Fort Wayne, where they built a
large home near what is now the Fort Wayne Country Club.
There are a number of resources available about the Wayne Knitting Mills. Here is one:
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