Made in the Valley Then … and Now
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio --In 1881, the Lane and Woodworth Patent Glass Roofing Co. of Youngstown thought it had a sure moneymaker on its hands. The premise was to manufacture an interlocking glass roof shingle that would allow more natural light in houses during the day while it served the agricultural market by creating a barn roof of glass that allowed the sunlight to dry hay much faster.
There was one problem. When winter arrived and temperatures fell, the glass contracted and fell apart.
“When the frost came and the tiles froze, they broke,” says Jessica Trickett, collections manager at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society. Lane and Woodworth’s business on what is today Andrews Avenue didn’t last long. It closed up shop after four years in 1886.
Lane and Woodworth’s glass tile was one of those products made in the Mahoning Valley that didn’t quite make it. Others, of course, did. Aside from well-known manufacturing operations such as the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., The Packard Motor Car Co. in Warren, or the Mullins Manufacturing Corp. in Salem – which during the 1950s manufactured and stamped the sinks, dishwashers and metal cabinetry that made up the company’s “Youngstown Kitchen” line – the region has a rich heritage of successful small manufacturers that persists today.
“There’s always been an innovative spirit here,” observes William Lawson, executive director of the historical society. “We’re often cast as simply a steel mill town, but that’s not the case.”
Automobiles, portable bathtubs, farm implements, a precursor to the pinball machine, beer – even a manually operated vacuum cleaner – have entered the Mahoning Valley’s product legacy.
“People were always looking to build a better mousetrap around here,” Lawson relates.
He points to the one product generally accepted in the industry as the world’s first coin-operated pinball machine, The Whiffle.
“It was a modified miniature bagatelle game,” Lawson says. Bagatelle, born as an 18th century French parlor game that featured a table with pegs, was played with billiard balls. Over the years, scaled-down versions used marbles.
Then, in 1931, an enterprising salesman by the name of Earl Froom thought that a coin-operated mechanism attached to the game held commercial promise if it were installed in public places. “He made a reproduction of the game and played around with a mechanical system that would let loose the marbles when you put a coin into it.”
The device worked, and the first pinball machine was installed shortly thereafter in Merle Park’s drugstore in Youngstown. Soon, Froom’s new company, Automatic Industries Inc. on the East Side, employed roughly 200 people as it began producing the innovative game for a wider market.
But just as Froom and his business partner, Al Pauline, sought to patent the product, other companies quickly copied the concept, Lawson says. Companies such as Midway games and Bally’s – today household names in the arcade business – took Froom’s idea and adapted it for their own use.
Lawsuits filed by Automatic Industries against its competitors followed, Lawson adds. “Court costs bled the company dry,” and Automatic Industries closed its doors in 1934.
The Mahoning Valley’s tradition of auto manufacturing isn’t limited to General Motors’ Lordstown Complex or Packard, Lawson says.
In 1895, what would become the Youngstown-based Fredonia Manufacturing Co., 155-165 Market St., cranked out the first automobile manufactured in Ohio. That vehicle – named The Booth after its designer, prominent physician Carlos C. Booth – entered one of the early horseless carriage races in the country.
Booth went on to design another vehicle, the Fredonia, in 1904 (see page 13). According to a magazine advertisement from that year, a new Fredonia was priced at $1,250.
About 10 years later, the Youngstown Carriage and Wagon Co., then located on what is East Boardman Street where Amedia Plaza is today, began production of The Mahoning.
Household items became part of the region’s product mix as well. In the early 20th century, the Thompson Manufacturing Co. produced the Thompson Vacuum Cleaner, a hand-operated vacuum the company patented in 1911. When the consumer pulled the handle out, it created suction that vacuumed dirt off the floor.
William Rudge developed a portable bathtub that could be stowed away, the historical society’s Trickett explains. “This was before indoor plumbing, so you could store your tub when you weren’t using it.” The tub was encased in a large wooden chest that could be open or closed as desired, and was manufactured between 1880 and 1896.
Manufacturers geared to the agricultural industry were also prominent during the late 19th century, Lawson says. The Anson Wood Mower & Reaper Co., based in Youngstown, produced in the late 1880s a newly designed plow. A salesman’s model dating to that period is in the possession of the historical society.
Today, products created for agricultural use have been successfully adapted to fit other markets.
“Our product was developed for use on dairy cattle,” says Linda Kuzior, director of operations at Redex Industries Inc., Salem, which produces Udderly Smooth Udder Cream.
In 1978, the company began marketing the lotion to nearby dairy farmers, who soon discovered it soothed their chafed skin. “They found that it worked well on their hands,” Kuzior says.
The entire product is manufactured, packaged and shipped from Salem, she says. Udderly Smooth is found in retailers across the United States and about a dozen international markets such as Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, China, Brazil, and Canada.
Kuzior reports the company produces between 1,000 to 3,000 gallons of Udderly Smooth daily. “We’re amazed. I recently heard a zoo was using it on the paws of a North American jaguar.”
Another manufacturing tradition alive and well in the Mahoning Valley is brewing beer.
In 1865, Philip Schuh and John Bayer, two immigrants from Germany, established the City Brewery at 203-209 Pike St. along the banks of the Mahoning River in Youngstown.
According to the book, Brewing Beer in the Buckeye State by Robert Musson, the plant was producing about 3,000 barrels of beer a year by 1879. The plant was sold in September 1885 to Cincinnati native George Renner Jr.
The company was renamed The Renner Brewing Co., and enjoyed years of growth and expansion after massive retooling and investment from the Renner family. During Prohibition, the operation bottled soft drinks and for a short time brewed Reno, a non-alcoholic beer.
After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, a host of new Renner beers entered the market, including Old Oxford, Old Dublin, Old Vet and Clipper Beer. New investment and upgrades also followed.
As competition intensified during the 1950s from national brewers such as Anheuser Busch and other giants with deep pockets for marketing and advertising, sales started to slip at Renner. By 1962, the equipment at the company was liquidated and its remaining brands sold.
“We’re thinking about doing a Renner tribute beer in the near future,” says Ken Blair, co-owner of Rust Belt Brewing Co., which operates out of the B&O Banquet Center in Youngstown.
Rust Belt, formed in 2008, brews a small number of beers for the now-popular craft beer market. The name, Blair says, reflects the hard-nosed working-class ethic of the region as does its year-round brand beers – Coke Oven Stout, Blast Furnace Blonde Ale and Rusted River Irish Red Ale.
“We brew for the blue-collar guy,” he says, “and everybody can identify with that guy.”
Bottles of Rust Belt can be found in regional supermarkets and on tap in area bars and restaurants, Blair reports.
New bottling equipment at the company allows Rust Belt to bottle 60 cases an hour, Blair says. “We can bottle in an hour what used to take us a day,” he reports.
While Rust Belt’s market is mostly regional, the company is reaching out to distributors throughout Ohio and other states, Blair says. “We just signed with a small distributor in Florida,” he reports.
Rust Belt’s seasonal and specialty beers are fast becoming popular, too, Blair says. “Our John Young line is a little more complex, and geared toward the more experienced craft-beer drinker. We come out with a new one every quarter.”
In September, the company begins brewing its seasonal Oktoberfest, and is contemplating making a pumpkin-spiced beer this year, Blair says. “We’ve got a lot of fun stuff.”
Blair says that although the craft-beer market is competitive, he believes that his company’s product has the potential to sell and cater to many tastes throughout the country.
“I’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit,” he says. “I think we have a good brand that can expand across the United States.”
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Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.