The Northwestern Iron Company was organized in Mayville in 1854. Looking at the the first fifty years the key figure was "Captain Bean," but I will not get into that here. The famous iron man, Ferdinand Schlesinger of Milwaukee, bought the common stock of Northwestern Iron in 1908 and with this new owner the Mayville works continued to operate and produce pig iron as Northwestern Iron Company.
In 1919 Schlesinger merged Northwestern and other Schlesinger holdings into their new structure, The Steel & Tube Co. of America, a publicly traded corporation formed in 1918 with Schlesinger and Clayton Mark of Chicago as the main stockholders. One of Steel and Tube's holdings was the Indiana Harbor Works located across the canal from the Inland Steel plant in East Chicago. At that location along the southwest shore of Lake Michigan Clayton Mark (Mark Manufacturing) had just finished construction (in 1918) of a new steel plant, as described in this story. (Note that this story incorrectly refers to Ferdinand Schlesinger as a "brother." )
What happened to The Steel & Tube Co. of America? Ferdinand Schlesinger died in 1921. From Mayville's standpoint things went downhill as a result. Later in 1921 Sheet & Tube shut down the coke plant in Mayville which had operated across the road and just east of the iron works, and thereafter they used coke for the Mayville furnaces which they brought in from the Schlesinger coke plant in Milwaukee, much to the disappointment of the people of Mayville who lost their coke plant jobs.
On June 29, 1923, The Steel & Tube Co. of America sold the Mayville works to The Mayville Iron Co., but it was really a sale to the large Ohio company, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. (Y S & T) which set up and controlled The Mayville Iron Co. as Y S & T's subsidiary. This transaction was part of of Y S & T's purchase of Steel and Tube's multiple operations, including the Mayville iron works. The Mayville works was a small piece of this sale, the main piece being the Indiana Harbor Works. But the community of Mayville did not see it that way, because the Mayville Iron Works was the city's main employer. Y S & T officials from Youngstown came to Mayville on October 12, 1924, and had their picture taken in front of a new company sign at the Mayville works. That was a big deal.
Y S & T blew out the two Mayville blast furnaces January 17, 1928, and had them demolished for scrap in 1933. In addition to the sources which I have cited here, this minimal timeline is based on information which you will find in When Iron was King in Dodge County, Wisconsin by George Frederick (Mayville Historical Society 1993), which includes references to corporate records. Also, the Limestone School Museum operated by Mayville Limestone School Museum, Inc. on North Main Street has an "Iron Country" basement gallery with photos and artifacts. Mayville Historical Society, Inc. , which has a museum on North German Street, owns a collection of iron works photos.
What is significant about the events in this timeline? First, any information, fact, artifact, or story of any kind about the Mayville Iron Works is going to interest me as someone who lives here. Beyond that, of general interest to all "steel people" is this transactional connection between Schlesinger's ownership interest in the small Mayville works, and his later acquired interest with Clayton Mark in the huge Indiana Harbor mill. Ferdinand Schlesinger had his hand in both operations, and I would say that the Indiana move was a courageous one.
If you look at the timing of events here, after the death of Ferdinand did the Schlesinger family have more than it wanted to handle with the Indiana Harbor project? The dates here are compressed. Mark finishes construction of the huge Indiana Harbor steel mill in 1918. Schlesinger joins up with Mark in 1918 to form Steel and Tube, which is Schlesinger's daring move into the Indian Harbor operation. Three years later Ferdinand dies. Only two years after that Steel and Tube sells out to Y S & T.
My impression is that after Ferdinand died the Schlesinger heirs had no interest in Steel & Tube. They got out right away. Why? At the time of Ferdinand's death in 1921, were there cash flow issues at Indiana Harbor now that there was no war to support the iron and steel industry? If business was slow, it had to be tough to make payments on the debt incurred to build the new steel mill at Indiana Harbor. Or, without Ferdinand did the family feel as though they lacked the skills to participate with Mark in an operation as large as Indiana Harbor? My hunch would be to say no to that idea, because the two Harvard educated sons of Ferdinand, Armin and Henry, had been active in the Schlesinger enterprises all along and should have been able to carry on. Or, was the company in good shape, but with Ferdinand out of the picture facing demands from the Schlesinger heirs who just wanted to cash out? At this point I don't know enough about the history here to provide any solid answers to these questions. The answers should come from family members, but as far as I know we don't have that kind of first hand information. Perhaps it will turn up at some point. But I will always be curious to learn more of this history leading up to this 1923 sale to Y S & T, and I may come back to this subject in future posts. You can read some basic information about the Schlesinger family in this Wisconsin history book at pages 1716-1718.
Why all this talk about Indiana Harbor in a blog which is about Mayville? Ferdinand must have learned a great deal from his years of ownership and management of the Mayville works. Yes, Ferdinand had been busy buying land and mining iron ore before he bought Northwestern in 1908, but from from what I can tell, reading this obituary and other material on the subject, Northwestern in Mayville was his first iron works. At Mayville Ferdinand learned the blast furnace side of the iron business and that experience prepared him to jump into the Indiana Harbor project.
Also, we ask what might have been different Ferdinand had lived and worked beyond 1921. Perhaps the Mayville coke plant, which closed months after he died, would have stayed open. Perhaps the sale to Y S & T would not have happened. It was Y S & T which shut down the Mayville works in 1928. With Ferdinand as owner of the Mayville works, would we have seen the Mayville Iron Works continue to operate into the Depression of the 1930's, and then thrive during World War II when iron was at a premium? I doubt it. We don't know whether Ferdinand had a determination to keep Mayville open through thick and thin. And, Ferdinand died at age 70. Even if he had lived and worked for a few years beyond 1921 his era was going to come to an end before 1930. And, most would say that the Depression would have killed a small operation like Mayville regardless of the owner. But it's fun to speculate about what might have been.
Actually, on reflection, I give credit to Y S & T. They added Indiana Harbor to their operations. It was a good fit for them, with its new plant and excellent transportation facilities on Lake Michigan, and they did well with it. They kept going through the Depression, and then thrived after that. Y S & T brought its resources and expertise to Indiana Harbor and made that operation successful, as they competed in the steel business at the highest level, with other huge operations. The small producers like the Mayville Iron Works with its two furnaces and no steel producing ability did not fit the post-1923 mold. As tough as it was for Mayville, I can't say that I blame Y S & T for shutting us down in 1928. Blowing out Mayville was a matter of facing economic reality. Rather than focus on regrets over the shutdown, I prefer to be grateful for Mayville's 80 good years of iron production. Mayville reaped benefits from the Mayville Iron Works, even after its shutdown, but those will have to be the subject of future posts.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Preface to W.D. Knight's Study of Mayville Industry
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| Clock that W.D. "Don" Knight received from the University of Wisconsin - Madison when he retired in 1986 |
Before I get to that Mayville connection in the next post, bear with this family history preface which is my tribute to W.D. "Don" Knight (1916-1988). On this blog you will find that I like to reflect on the history which these kinds of objects bring to mind, as discussed in previous posts on the iron parlor stove, and on the five-cent drink token. This clock is an artifact which is important to Katy, because it was a gift to her father, Don Knight, given when he retired in 1986 from his job as a Professor in the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin, after 40 years there. We make fun of these kinds of "inexpensive" parting gifts which employers give out when people retire, but as the years pass, they become important. Now we are glad that after Don and Maureen died, we didn't throw out this clock. The clock with the Badger plaque is hands-on proof for our children of what their grandfather did for a living.
Don Knight grew up in Beloit, Wisconsin located along the Illinois border about 80 miles west of Chicago. Beloit was a tough industrial city in 1920's and 30's when Don grew up there. People seeking factory work moved to Beloit to work at Fairbanks Morse & Company (now Fairbanks Morse Engine), Beloit's largest employer at that time, a huge enterprise which manufactured pumps, industrial supplies, engines, parts, washing machines, windmills and many other products in Beloit and in other locations. (The company website reports that the company was famous for being the first company to successfully market a gasoline engine in 1893.) At Beloit High School Don used to tutor some of the toughest students in the school. He taught a boy there how to read, and to say thanks the kid gave Don a book, but he couldn't keep the book because, as it turned out, the kid had stolen it from the library. Don just dropped the book in the library return box with nothing said.
After high school, and now it's the Depression, there was no family money for college but Don lived at home found a way to quickly work his way through Beloit College, and then with a scholarship he moved on to the University of Michigan where he took a Ph.D. in finance in 1939. Through these student years Don kept in touch with Beloit, and after finishing school and the military Don married Maureen McKenna who had been working there as an industrial nurse at Fairbanks Morse.
This family history is all good. Don was a big-shot in the family, to his parents and sisters, and to all the cousins, because he was the first Knight or Quinn (mother's side) to ever attend college. But what interested us most about the Don Knight early years were the stories of poetry and literature which Don knew by heart. He used to recite Shakespeare in the college bars for drinks. I first experienced the residue of those lyrical student years about 40 years later at the Knight dinner table, when I would hear him break into song from time to time, but by then the melody was pretty shaky, pretty much at what I would call George Burns level. At Don's funeral in Madison after he died on April 15, 1988 I met cousins Don's age who came up from Chicago, and I was jarred by that because the cousins looked just like Don, tall Irishmen with thick white hair and broad smiles.
Go back to the start of the 40 year career which is noted on the plaque, to 1946 just after the end of the war when Don got out of the service and started at UW-Madison at age 29. He took on a side job which brought him to Mayville where he investigated and reported on Mayville's industry. That will be the subject of future posts.
**********
2018 supplement to this post: In 2018 I finally got to Don Knight's study of Mayville industry after the closure of the iron works in 1928. See the three 2018 posts on this subject.
T.S. 12/15/2018
Manufacturing Comeback
The previous post trumpeted Mayville Engineering Company (MEC), an employee-owned Mayville company which has added hundreds of new jobs in recent years.
Mayville (population about 5,000) has always been a busy manufacturing city, with many jobs provided by metal fabricators. This industrial history is a fascinating subject going back to companies which formed after the Mayville Iron Works closed in 1928, but I will have to cover that in a future post. My question is: Is MEC’s success evidence that our country has come to its senses about the importance of manufacturing?
In Mayville we never believed the specious predictions made in the 1990's, that the "service" economy would provide work for the middle class which could take the place of industrial jobs. Let the factory work go overseas, they said. The service economy will take care of you. But you could never persuade the locals around here, who have worked in local “industry,” that service jobs would be a substitute for their production work. And a switch to service jobs has not gone so well for the average worker forced into that by layoffs, for the worker whose new “service” job is at the fast food restaurant or at the big box retailer paying not much more than minimum wage. And, we ask, where does the income come from which makes it possible for people to have money so that they can afford to go to the store or the restaurant? At some point along the way people have to make things to generate wealth. That’s the simple thought process around here.
Now, thank goodness, the rest of the country is getting the same message, and we now read praises for manufacturing. Here is Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab, an excellent business and economics writer and speaker:
America is getting serious again about making stuff, and that bodes well for stocks, says Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab. U.S. manufacturers are improving their competitiveness, and the domestic energy scene is on the rise. "It's a big story that is just starting to capture the broad mind-set," Sonders says. "We are going to look back five years from now and realize we were in a transformation in terms of what the drivers of growth are inside of our economy. We're actually going to be producing things and exporting things again."
Liz Ann Sonders, as quoted in this U.S.A Today article. Sonders in her video presentation linked below points to data showing that overseas wages and transportation costs have gone up while U.S. wages have remained flat. The mechanics of operating overseas and dealing with foreign regulatory environments is another negative. As a result companies are bringing jobs back home. Manufacturing job growth in the U.S. in the last couple of years has exceeded non-manufacturing job growth, and it has been over 30 years since that has happened. The U.S. auto industry and domestic energy sectors are particularly promising, according to Sonders. Sonders says that while we all know of “offshoring” and “outsourcing” we will soon hear the terms “insourcing” and “onshoring.”
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs53uv_ZRmg
Getting back to the question which started this post, it’s not so much that the rest of the country is coming around to the "correct view" about the low wages you get stuck with in a “service” economy. It’s not a shift of ideas back to a better view of industrial work. It’s more a matter of simple economics. Manufacturing jobs are coming back to this country because with expenses going up overseas manufacturing here just makes economic sense. Workers are happy to take these industrial production jobs because they pay more than low wage service jobs.
But if you read the last post you will see that MEC has been ahead of the game, and has been creating U.S. jobs for some time now even during recession years, and long before Liz Ann Sonders decided to take note. I can't explain how the MEC success story fits into the theories of these experts. I'm just grateful for it, and for the people who have worked hard to make it happen.
Mayville (population about 5,000) has always been a busy manufacturing city, with many jobs provided by metal fabricators. This industrial history is a fascinating subject going back to companies which formed after the Mayville Iron Works closed in 1928, but I will have to cover that in a future post. My question is: Is MEC’s success evidence that our country has come to its senses about the importance of manufacturing?
In Mayville we never believed the specious predictions made in the 1990's, that the "service" economy would provide work for the middle class which could take the place of industrial jobs. Let the factory work go overseas, they said. The service economy will take care of you. But you could never persuade the locals around here, who have worked in local “industry,” that service jobs would be a substitute for their production work. And a switch to service jobs has not gone so well for the average worker forced into that by layoffs, for the worker whose new “service” job is at the fast food restaurant or at the big box retailer paying not much more than minimum wage. And, we ask, where does the income come from which makes it possible for people to have money so that they can afford to go to the store or the restaurant? At some point along the way people have to make things to generate wealth. That’s the simple thought process around here.
Now, thank goodness, the rest of the country is getting the same message, and we now read praises for manufacturing. Here is Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab, an excellent business and economics writer and speaker:
America is getting serious again about making stuff, and that bodes well for stocks, says Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab. U.S. manufacturers are improving their competitiveness, and the domestic energy scene is on the rise. "It's a big story that is just starting to capture the broad mind-set," Sonders says. "We are going to look back five years from now and realize we were in a transformation in terms of what the drivers of growth are inside of our economy. We're actually going to be producing things and exporting things again."
Liz Ann Sonders, as quoted in this U.S.A Today article. Sonders in her video presentation linked below points to data showing that overseas wages and transportation costs have gone up while U.S. wages have remained flat. The mechanics of operating overseas and dealing with foreign regulatory environments is another negative. As a result companies are bringing jobs back home. Manufacturing job growth in the U.S. in the last couple of years has exceeded non-manufacturing job growth, and it has been over 30 years since that has happened. The U.S. auto industry and domestic energy sectors are particularly promising, according to Sonders. Sonders says that while we all know of “offshoring” and “outsourcing” we will soon hear the terms “insourcing” and “onshoring.”
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs53uv_ZRmg
Getting back to the question which started this post, it’s not so much that the rest of the country is coming around to the "correct view" about the low wages you get stuck with in a “service” economy. It’s not a shift of ideas back to a better view of industrial work. It’s more a matter of simple economics. Manufacturing jobs are coming back to this country because with expenses going up overseas manufacturing here just makes economic sense. Workers are happy to take these industrial production jobs because they pay more than low wage service jobs.
But if you read the last post you will see that MEC has been ahead of the game, and has been creating U.S. jobs for some time now even during recession years, and long before Liz Ann Sonders decided to take note. I can't explain how the MEC success story fits into the theories of these experts. I'm just grateful for it, and for the people who have worked hard to make it happen.
MEC Makes History
Mayville Engineering Company (MEC), an employee-owned Mayville based manufacturer with a rich history, is now making history. In a city publication you will read the comment of MEC founder, the late Ted Bachhuber, as quoted in a company newsletter, that "Mayville Engineering Company was born in the fall of 1945 over a couple of beers and a handshake...." The story continues:
His Uncle Leo had approached [Ted] about starting the business and an agreement was soon sealed. They started doing business in a rented garage behind Main Street with a few tools, a lot of debt, and an abundance of great ideas. The primary focus was contract manufacturing. Within a year, Leo's health forced him to retire, and from that point on, Ted's wife Grace became his unofficial business partner. A homespun philosophy and faith in people is what led to Ted and Grace Bachhuber's dream, the growth and development of Mayville Engineering Company, Inc. (now referred to as MEC) into a worldwide provider of products and services.
City of Mayville online article at http://www.mayvilletagcenter.com/name.html.
And now look at what MEC has been doing, as reported in the December 17, 2012 Journal Sentinal:
Mayville Engineering Co., which has added hundreds of jobs in Wisconsin factories over the past six years, launched an out-of-state expansion Monday with the acquisition of Center Manufacturing Inc.
Mayville acquired the Michigan metal components manufacturer from the private-equity firm Industrial Opportunity Partners of Evanston, Ill., which had owned Center since 2006. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Center, based in Byron Center, Mich., will become a division of Mayville.
The combined business will have sales in the range of $350 million, said Robert Kamphuis, Mayville's chairman and chief executive. That compares with sales of about $40 million in 2004, he said.
Mayville has grown as it capitalized on a strong financial position to win business after financially strapped competitors failed during the recession. Since 2006, it has opened new factories in Neillsville and Wautoma and added nearly 800 jobs in Wisconsin, bringing total employment here to 1,200, Kamphuis said.
Its moves during and after the downturn helped it gain market share with key customers.
"You do that in a down market and gather market share," said Kamphuis. "Then, when the market takes off, you really pop."
http://www.jsonline.com/business/mayville-engineering-acquires-michigan-manufacturer-v682cmq-183795891.htm (12/17/2012)
His Uncle Leo had approached [Ted] about starting the business and an agreement was soon sealed. They started doing business in a rented garage behind Main Street with a few tools, a lot of debt, and an abundance of great ideas. The primary focus was contract manufacturing. Within a year, Leo's health forced him to retire, and from that point on, Ted's wife Grace became his unofficial business partner. A homespun philosophy and faith in people is what led to Ted and Grace Bachhuber's dream, the growth and development of Mayville Engineering Company, Inc. (now referred to as MEC) into a worldwide provider of products and services.
City of Mayville online article at http://www.mayvilletagcenter.com/name.html.
And now look at what MEC has been doing, as reported in the December 17, 2012 Journal Sentinal:
Mayville Engineering Co., which has added hundreds of jobs in Wisconsin factories over the past six years, launched an out-of-state expansion Monday with the acquisition of Center Manufacturing Inc.
Mayville acquired the Michigan metal components manufacturer from the private-equity firm Industrial Opportunity Partners of Evanston, Ill., which had owned Center since 2006. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Center, based in Byron Center, Mich., will become a division of Mayville.
The combined business will have sales in the range of $350 million, said Robert Kamphuis, Mayville's chairman and chief executive. That compares with sales of about $40 million in 2004, he said.
Mayville has grown as it capitalized on a strong financial position to win business after financially strapped competitors failed during the recession. Since 2006, it has opened new factories in Neillsville and Wautoma and added nearly 800 jobs in Wisconsin, bringing total employment here to 1,200, Kamphuis said.
Its moves during and after the downturn helped it gain market share with key customers.
"You do that in a down market and gather market share," said Kamphuis. "Then, when the market takes off, you really pop."
http://www.jsonline.com/business/mayville-engineering-acquires-michigan-manufacturer-v682cmq-183795891.htm (12/17/2012)
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Carrie Furnaces
As I think of the
Mayville Iron Works, and its two blast furnaces and coke plant which were demolished not long after that iron works closed in 1928,
I'm grateful for this amazing site which still stands. Here are the Carrie Furnaces outside of Pittsburgh, with two 200 feet
high blast furnaces, hot blast stoves and beautiful smokestack. The furnaces were designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. The hope is that the furnaces will become a National Historic Park. Thanks to Shaun O'Boyle for
this moving photo from the other
side of the Monongahela River.
From Shaun O'Boyle "Big Steel" photo project in his Portraits of Place Blog
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The Carrie Furnaces, outside of Pittsburgh along the "Mon" River, still stand. These two blast furnaces supplied Pittsburgh with iron for its steel production. They are a monument to the story of steel production late 19th and early 20th century. Credit: Shaun O'Boyle
Shaun O'Boyle says this about the Carrie Furnaces:
The Carrie Furnaces [which are the subject of the Shaun O'Boyle photos] supplied the Homestead
mills with iron from its 200 foot high blast furnaces. The molten pig iron
would be transported across the river to the Homestead Works via the hot metal
bridge in cigar shaped brick lined rail cars. From there the molten iron would
be transferred to giant two story high ladles and poured into the open hearth
furnaces. The Furnaces were charged with limestone and other ingredients to
make the final product, Steel. The story of Rankin and Homestead is a long
complex story, it covers over 100 years of history and growth.
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Monday, December 10, 2012
Blast Furnace Process
Here is an excellent video from Mexus Education on the structure and workings of a blast furnace, showing the process and the chemistry, with pig iron as the product.
This video shows a modern day blast furnace, not the details, or the people, you would have seen at the Mayville iron works over 100 years ago. But while today automation and technical improvements have changed things, the blast furnace process is the same. You don't see the stoves in the video, but the hot air is coming in from the right, and I post this here as a help, for those interested in the Mayville operation and other late 19th century operations like it.
A major change took place in 1884 when The Northwestern Iron Company enlarged and rebuilt the Mayille blast furnace, switching from a charcoal furnace to a coke furnace using the "hot blast" process which is described in this video. The updated furnace (the A Furnace) in Mayville had brickwork encased by a shell made of iron, burned a mixture of charcoal and coke, and operated with with support from hot blast stoves which injected hot air into the furnace. When Iron was King in Dodge County, Wisconsin, by George G. Fredrick, at page 374 (Mayville, WI, Mayville Historical Society 1993) (citing sources). Later, they added a second furnace at the Mayville works (the B Furnace), but that's for another post.
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