- Business - Janesville Sesquicentennial
-
- [Photograph; caption reads: Main Street, pictured looking
north about 1915, has been a center of commerce throughout Janesville's
history.]
-
- Water power turned wheels of first industry
- White settlers chose to remain in the area along the Rock
River that would become Janesville
- because of the land's attractiveness and agricultural potential.
- The first industry here filled agriculture's need, and the
mighty Sinnissippi's inexorable and inex-
- haustible power literally turned the wheels of that first
industry: milling.
- Charles STEVENS, who gained a reputation as one of
the city's first innkeepers and businessmen,
- and others had secured a charter for a dam and "water
power," but it was H. S. HANCHETT in 1843 who urged
building the first dam on the Rock at the rapids north of what
would become downtown.
- "Liberal donations of land were given him including
most of the water power itself on condition that
- a substantial dam should be erected," according to Orrin
GUERNSEY and Josiah WILLARD's 1856 history.
- STEVENS put up a sawmill almost immediately to provide
lumber for the growing town and sur-
- rounding area. Working night and day, it turned out some
3 million feet of hardwood boards a year.
-
- The Big Mill
- The remainder of the water power soon was sold to A. Hyatt
SMITH and W. H. H. BAILEY,
- and in 1845, they engaged James McCLURG to erect a
large flouring mill on the raceway at the west end of the Milwaukee
Street Bridge. It became known as the Big Mill, "for many
years the big institution of the Rock River Valley," until
it burned in 1871.
- "The destruction of this old landmark seems to the older
residents of Janesville and vicinity much
- like the passing away of an old and cherished friend,"
a 1908 history reported.
- The mill was one of the largest structures in town, located
at its center and is considered by many
- historians the reason Janesville earned a reputation as a
milling community and got its start as an industrial center.
- In 1876, O. B. FORD and Sons built another, smaller
flouring mill on the Big Mill's site. It was
- fitted with up-to-date machinery but still could only equal
half of the Big Mill's 300-barrel-a-day output.
- In 1856, FORD and J. M. MORTON bought the STEVENS
saw mill and rebuilt it as a flouring
- mill. By the late 1870s, "they were producing 1,200
barrels of flour per week, shipping their products to the principal
cities of the East and also filling large orders in the southern
states."
- Other milestones in Janesville's early industrial history
were:
- 1843: First brick burned here by C. C. PHELPS. J.
M. ALDEN started making bricks here in 1846 and moved
the business twice, finally locating on Bluff Street.
- 1845: "During the early 40s the country was fast filling
up with settlers, who were anxious to bring the fertile soil
of southern Wisconsin into cultivation, and immense quantities
of agricultural implements were in demand, so that factories
in this class were badly needed," according to the 1908
history.
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-
- Ag-related businesses
- Thomas SHAW and John M. MAY started the first
such agricultural-related enterprise here on
- Main Street in 1845. In 1849, they built two stone buildings
between Bluff and Main, "where they carried on a large and
profitable business."
- A. W. PARKER and Ole EVENSON moved into the
SHAW and MAY's old shop on Main
- and started making plows. PARKER and EVENSON
moved several times before returning to the Main Street locale
and putting up brick buildings. In 1856, the company manufactured
400 steel plows and 200 harrows and cultivators.
- Many small companies sprung up to serve farmers' needs, "but
there was no united effort on the
- part of men of such means until 1859."
- That year, James HARRIS, Zebediah GOULD, D.
R. ANGELL and Leonard TYLER built
- shops to make farm implements on the West Side near the lower
bridge and expanded the business until 1866 when it was transferred
to new owners - J. HARRIS, E. G. and Leavett FIFIELD
and Horace DEWEY - who incorporated the next year.
- By the 1870s, the corporation, known as HARRIS Manufacturing
Co., employed 125 people and
- had annual sales of $250,000.
- From these seeds, Janesville's farm implement business eventually
blossomed into the Samson
- Tractor Division of the General Motors Corp., which is the
direct ancestor of the city's largest employer today, the Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac
Group assembly plant.
-
- First furniture maker
- 1846: M. W. FRASK first made furniture here - in a
"small way" on Main Street opposite the public square.
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- The next year, Alvin MINER operated a small factory
on Milwaukee Street. He sold out in 1852
- to J. F. MORSE, who, with partner S. A. MARTIN,
moved the factory to the river raceway in 1860. In 1864, W. B.
BRITTON, Fenner KIMBALL and W. H. ASHCRAFT
established the Janesville Furniture factory on the raceway.
- Also in 1846, BATES & JENKINS consolidated
much of the town's harness manufacture by
- buying out H. S. WOODRUFF, CHASE & JOSLYN,
A. SHEARER, William WRIGHT, H. H. MEANDER
and J. M. RIKER.
- 1848: First carriage and wagon factory owned and operated
by John KING on the southeast corner of Milwaukee and
Bluff streets, where M. S. RYCKMAN constructed the first
buggy ever built in Janesville. KING also had a shop on
the other side of the street, which he operated until he built
the Janesville City Hotel in 1851. He died the next year.
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- KING had sold his manufacturing plant to Robert HODGE,
who took Herman BUCHHOLZ
- as a partner in 1860.
- Also in 1848, William HODSON operated the city's first
brewery. Fire destroyed the building,
- but HODSON rebuilt and sold to Henry BRUNSTER,
who later sold the building to RIXLEY [PIXLEY],
KIMBALL & Co. In 1853, John BUOB built a brewery
on the river on the north end of town.
- The city's brewing history continued in 1856 when MARSH
& WAGONER erected the Black
- Hawk Brewery near the south end of Main Street.
- After a few years, they sold to John ROETHINGER who
enlarged the plant and called it the
- Janesville Steam Brewery until it burned in 1872. He build
the Cold Spring Brewery on the same site and sold it later to
ROSE & BENDER. John G. TODD established
an ale brewery here in 1869 and did a large business for many
years.
- In 1848, Farmers' Mill was put up on the south side of Milwaukee
Street by Andrew B.
- JOHNS, who sold it the same year to F. H. JACKMAN,
who ran it until 1857. He sold out in stages to C. A. ALDEN
and John CLARK. "During the wheat-raising days of
southern Wisconsin, this property was considered one of the best
mills of its day," according to the 1908 history.
- 1849: Frank WHITTAKER started the manufacture of woolen
goods here in a four-story brick building at Monterey, where
the city's lower water race was. It was a three-set mill that
could turn out 12,000 yards a month. WHITTAKER sold the
factory in 1856 to Mrs. A. Hyatt SMITH but bought it back
in 1860, only to resell it to a syndicate in 1868.
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- After "two disappointing years," the HODSON
Mill was bought in 1848 by Hamilton
- RICHARDSON, who with his associate William TRUESDELL,
changed it into a flouring mill. This property evidently seems
to have carried a jinx because it almost was destroyed by floods
twice, rebuilt both times and finally fell victim to "short
yields of grain and financial depressions."
-
- Iron works starts
- 1852: The Janesville Iron Works was established on River
Street by Joseph H. BUDD and manufactured all kinds of
machinery and farm implements.
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- The iron works employed from 75 to 100 men. They made stationary
and portable engines, boilers,
- threshing machines, reapers, plows and cornshellers among
other things, and in 1855 the iron works turned out $70,000 of
products and were expanding.
- 1853: The year marked the birth of DOTY Manufacturing
Co., cited in the 1908 history as an institution that "has
withstood the ravages of time and survived through many changes
of ownership." PIXLEY, KIMBALL & OLSEN
built the general machine shop on the site of the old HODSON
brewery and started making agricultural implements.
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- A New York outfit, PHELPS, DODGE & Co.,
bought them out shortly thereafter, and it sold
- the plant to HAMILTON and R. J. RICHARDSON
in 1865. They reorganized the business and formed a stock company
that included the interests of Metropolitan Washington Machine
Co., New York. They engaged almost exclusively in making DOTY
Washington washing machines and by 1874 were making 8,000 machines
a year to sell throughout the United States.
- But their success was noted and business mimicked to the
point that washing machine factories
- "were started all over the country." The local
firm then turned its energy to making punching and sewing machines,
grain drills and wind mills.
- Also in 1853, C. SEXTON built a factory on the west
side of the river to make plows and culti-
- vators. His son, H. B., later joined him in the business.
-
- Pioneer broom maker
- 1855: Jerry BATES pioneered broom manufacturing here.
After serving with Union forces in the Civil War, he resumed
business and continued for many years.
- 1856: The city's gas works were built by a "stock company
which included the leading citizens of the town." The gas
company was on Bluff Street, and J. WOODWARD was the contractor.
Hiram MERRILL was the superintendent and a large stockholder.
But "the company did not get on smoothly at first and encountered
financial difficulties, and the property passed into the hands
of Milwaukee parties."
- 1859: F. A. WHEELER started a woolen factory under
the name of WHEELER Manufacturing Co. After he died, his
son, C. F., operated the business under the name LAWRENCE
and ATWOOD. The factory had a capacity of 1,000 yards
a day and was a favorite of people who used spinning wheels because
they would get their roll carding done there.
- 1874: The Janesville Cotton Manufacturing Co. was established
on the upper raceway, north of Milwaukee Street on River Street.
"At that time it was the only factory of that kind in the
West. It was a bold business venture, which required courage
and ability of high order."
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- The three original buildings still stand, and two of them
will be renovated into apartments as part of
- Janesville's current downtown redevelopment.
- The factory was enlarged in 1877, and the work force grew
to 250 people, with a payroll of
- $70,000. The factory had 400 looms and in 1878 manufactured
5,350,900 yards of sheeting, which was valued at $310,000.
- The business expanded in 1883 with the construction of a
large factory and power plant at
- Monterey at a cost of a quarter million dollars. Four hundred
people worked for the company then.
- But excessive freight rates for cotton because of the great
distance it had to be brought and the
- high prices paid to the company's operatives forced the ambitious
enterprise into a financial corner. In 1886, a new corporation,
the Janesville Cotton Mills, formed to take over the business.
It ran it for a while longer but eventually the plant was sold
to the Janesville Electric Co.
- Also in 1874, the Janesville Pickling and Packing Works was
established.
-
- [Photograph; caption reads: J. P. CULLEN & Sons
constructed the Wisconsin Telephone Co. building on E. Milwaukee
Street in 1947. Note COLVIN's Baking Co. and PARKER
Pen Co. in background.]
-
- Shoe company opens
- 1875: The Janesville Shoe Manufacturing Co. started making
shoes at the corner of South Main and South Second streets. Three
years later, the business passed to the Wisconsin Shoe Co., and
the business continued at a $200,000-a-year clip until it burned
in January 1888.
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- Three other boot and shoe companies followed in Janesville
Shoe's footsteps.
- 1877: John THOROUGHGOOD and F. STEVENS started
making cigar boxes and cigar box lumber after buying out several
small businesses established by Fred MORSE three years
earlier. The factory was at the foot of Pease Court, and Henry
A. DOTY began another cigar box operation just north of
the THOROUGHGOOD factory.
- 1880: Chester BAILEY, former superintendent of Janesville
Cotton Manufacturing, started Badger State Warp Mills near the
west end of the upper dam and later began making cotton batting.
He sold the latter business to T. O. and Fred HOWE, and
the operation, incorporated in 1902 as the Rock River Cotton
Co., grew steadily until in 1908 it occupied nearly the whole
block between Franklin, River, Wall and West Bluff streets.
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- The HOWE brothers also were "extensively interested"
in the Janesville Machine Co., which was
- incorporated in 1881.
- 1881: Janesville Machine was incorporated by James HARRIS,
J. B. CROSBY and others with $100,000 to take over the
operation of HARRIS Manufacturing Co. on Jan. 1, 1882.
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- HARRIS Manufacturing was started by HARRIS
and others to continue the business started by
- HARRIS, GUILD & ANGELL: the manufacture
of agricultural implements.
- By 1908 and under the direction of general manager J. A.
CRAIG, the concern was the city's
- largest. New buildings increased the company's physical plant
until it occupied nearly three city blocks - south from Pleasant
Street on both sides of River Street - and employed 250 to 300
men.
- It was CRAIG who convinced W. C. DURANT, president
of GM, in 1918 that Janesville
- Machine would be a good investment for the small but growing
General Motors Corp. GM also bought Samson Tractor Co. of Stockton,
Calif., and merged it with Janesville Machine to form the corporation's
Samson Tractor Division here.
- HARRIS invented the Little Champion mower and a safety
oil lamp. In 1880, the firm of
- HARRIS & SMITH made about $30,000 selling
the lamps worldwide with a large trade in Europe.
- 1885: About this year, HARRIS & SMITH "drifted
into the manufacture of barbed wire." SMITH withdrew
from the business after a few years, and it was carried on by
HARRIS and his son, A. J. It grew to a large operation,
also making wire nails and the "more humane" woven
wire, which supplanted barbed wire for livestock fences.
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- The HARRISes incorporated the business in 1903 as
the Janesville Barbed Wire Co. with a
- capital stock of $150,000.
-
- PARKER Pen Starts
- 1891: George S. PARKER incorporated The PARKER
Pen Co. That company's history is outlined in a separate story.
- 1900: Peter HOHENDALE, Jr., starts his Pickling &
Packing Co. Its specialty was canning corn and making sauerkraut
with the corn and cabbage being grown locally. Pickles were also
a big product, but the cucumbers had to be shipped in. The company
put on an addition to can peas in 1908.
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- That wasn't the city's first canning and pickling operation.
The Janesville Pickling & Packing Works
- had operated from 1874 to 1884 and made pickles and vinegar
but had to cease operations because local farmers would not continue
to raise cucumbers.
-
- [Photograph; caption reads: People harvested ice from the
Rock River behind the City Ice ice house in 1890.]
-
- Also in 1900, COLVIN Baking Co. started. It remained
in business here until selling out to
- Helleman Co. in 1979.
- 1902: Azel HOUGH moved his infant company, HOUGH
Shade, from New York to a site on South Jackson Street south
of Delavan Drive. The reason for the move was to be closer to
basswood, which was the best material for the wood-weaving machinery
that HOUGH invented.
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- His sons, John E. and Albert R., carried on the business,
today known as HOUGH Manufacturing
- Corp., located on Norwood Road. John is chairman of the board,
and Albert still works for the firm in a part-time capacity.
- 1904: About this year, the Hiawatha Springs Co. started bottling
water from a springs known as the BURR or POPE
springs about two miles north of Janesville.
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- The water won first place at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.
- Thomas NOLAN, Janesville, and a number of businessmen
from Minneapolis bought out the
- BURR holdings and extended the sale of the spring
water.
- Also in 1904 was started "an enterprise that meant much
to the whole county of Rock." Capt.
- James DAVIDSON of Bay City, Mich., started the Rock
County Sugar Co. on Emerald Grove Road to process sugar beets.
The machinery cost $1 million.
- Local farmers started raising sugar beets, and they were
shipped in. Each season's processing
- "campaign" would employ 400 to 500 workers and
turn out 60,000 tons of sugar. Local farmers realized about $300,000
annually from beet raising.
- 1905: Janesville Clothing Co., which made overalls and similar
goods, had to move from a single floor at the PARKER Pen
building on South Main Street to the former WOODRUFF Buckle
factory on North Franklin Street.
- 1907: J. M. BOSTWICK built a large factory at the
east end of the Court Street Bridge for the BASSETT &
ECHLIN Harness & Saddlery Co. The firm had occupied
the first and second floors of the Armory block on West Milwaukee
Street for many years, but the business increased to the point
that BOSTWICK built a new building for them at Court and
Park streets in 1902, which had to be expanded three years later
but still didn't provide enough room by 1907.
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