The "Tube Company" And Its Predecessors.

At this writing, November, 1909, the principal manufacturing interests of Kewanee are: National Tube Company, Kewanee Works; the Kewanee Boiler Company; the Boss Manufacturing Company; Peters Pump Company; and the Kewanee Water Supply Company. Of these the two first mentioned are much the largest, and the second is the outgrowth of the first. The history of the Kewanee Boiler Company is, therefore, the history of the evolution of the Kewanee Works of the National Tube Company during the greater part of its existence, and both are the results of natural evolution from a very small beginning.

The Kewanee Works of the National Tube Company was, up to January I, 1908, for about sixteen years known as the Western Tube Company, and during the same sixteen years, and subsequently, the Kewanee Boiler Company has been a separate and individual corporation. .

Prior to 1892 the Western Tube Company, or rather its predecessor, was known as the Haxtun Steam Heater Company, and still prior to that time, or prior to 1875, it was variously known as the Anderson Steamer and Heater Company, the Anderson Universal Steam Boiler Manufacturing Company, and the Anderson Universal Steamer Company.

There are very few men now living in Kewanee who remember much, or in an accurate way, about the original company, but it is learned from the issue of the Kewanee Independent of April 6, 1871, that the Anderson Universal Steamer Company's factory, established about two years before,* was the largest factory in the county. Possibly it ought to be said that originally this concern was a copartnership under the name of Anderson and Slocum, because it islearned that such a partnership was dissolved in November, 1870. At about that time also a stock company was formed to manufacture the Anderson Universal Steamer, which is said to have been considered "without a rival" by fanners. In the same issue it is remarked that about twenty men were employed in this factory building the Anderson Universal Steamer, which had already begun to be used for domestic purposes, warming dwelling houses, public buildings, etc. It is alluded to as a "base burner and radiator," and the business of the company is stated to have amounted to ten thousand dollars per month (sic.).

In the issue of May 4, 1871, reference is made to the Anderson Universal Steamer Boiler Manufacturing Company, O. H. Loomis (now deceased), secre­ tary. August loth, following, reference is made to an Anderson house heater and radiator which had been installed in the residence of O. H. Loomis, and the system described appears to have been the prototype of the modern system of heating fresh air by passing it through steam radiators. About this same time Pierce and Brother, hardware merchants, a firm consisting of Thomas P. and John H. Pierce, were advertising Anderson Steamers for feed cooking, and this fact calls attention to the original use to which the Anderson Steamer was put.

In November, 1871, a foundry forty feet by sixty feet with a two-story cupola house and "baking room" was built, and a machine shop thirty feet by eighty feet, two stories high, driven by a forty horse power engine instead of the single horse which had furnished the power previously for this shop, was also com­ pleted, the old shop being converted into a boiler shop.

By this time house heaters had been installed in the residences of J. L. Platt, W. E. Haxtun, E. R. Kerr and O. H. Loomis, and in the Congregational church, as well as in a few other places in Illinois and Iowa. We learn from a long letter from Dr. G. E. Kimball of Iowa City, Iowa, that the Anderson Steam Heater in his home was very satisfactory in February, 1872, and in March of the same year he wrote another two-column letter which still further boosts the Kewanee product.

In April, 1872, the name of the concern appears as the Anderson Steamer and Heater Company. From that time until 1875 the growth of the company's business appears to have been steady, and the formation of the Haxtun Steam Heater Company occurred in the latter year.

In March 1876, the Haxtun Steam Heater Company reported to the state treasurer that it had a capital of fifty thousand dollars invested, used annually ten car loads of pipe, forty tons of boiler plate, and one hundred and twenty tons of cast iron; it employed from twenty-five to thirty-five hands.

In May 1876, this company took contracts for heating buildings in Eldora and Ames, Iowa, amounting to fifteen thousand dollars, and the notice of this contract is the first public intimation of the connection of John H. Pierce with the industry. From this time on, however, until 1904, his name is inseparably linked with the growing manufacturing interests of Kewanee through his con­tinuous connection with them and the tremendous strides which they took under his hands.

In September, 1876, the Haxtun Steam Heater Company obtained its first side track for its exclusive use. The next four years were apparently years of

"The first "Feed Steamer" was probably built by Anderson in 1868. continuous growth, for in October, 1880, the Geneseo "News" reports that the Haxtun Steam Heater Company employed one hundred and twenty men and melted five tons of iron daily. At that time Mr. J. H. Pierce was secretary of the company and Phil Potter its superintendent. About the same time, or a month or two later, there is also evidence that the company had begun the manu­facture of fittings in a considerable way, for a three-way reaming and tapping machine was built at a cost of over two thousand, five hundred dollars which it was said would finish the three openings of a tee in about two minutes. The inventor and builder of this machine was Mr. N. D. Bailey, a mechanic of rare ability who had already been in the employ of the company for a number of years and is still employed in the Kewanee Works of the National Tube Company.

Early in 1881 a "large boiler factory" was built and a considerable addition to the foundry, and in March of the same year Mr. J. H. Pierce retired from the firm of Pierce and Brother to devote his entire time to the Haxtun Steam Heater Company. At that time the directors elected were W. E. Haxtun, J. H. Pierce, E. R. Kerr, Phil Potter, and C. S. Wentworth, and the capital stock was increased from fifty thousand to seventy-five thousand dollars. It was reported that the freight charges paid during the previous year had amounted to fourteen thousand, five hundred and fifty-three dollars and fifty-three cents and that the business had grown eighty per cent during that year just ended.

In October, 1881, two hundred hands were on the pay rolls; the foundry was occupying a space amounting to fifty by one hundred and sixty feet, the machine shop fifty by one hundred and eighty feet, and the boiler shop sixty by one hundred feet. Phil Potter resigned as superintendent in October, 1881, and at the next election of directors, in March 1882, his place was filled by E. E. Baker, who has been continuously connected with this industry and with the Kewanee Boiler Company since that time and up to the present; and Mr. Baker's name is also one of those always thought of in connection with the ubuilding of the manufacturing interests of Kewanee.

Building operations were extended during 1882 very largely, the capital stock was increased from seventy-five thousand to one hundred thousand dollars, and the increase of business during the previous year was reported as about one hundred thousand dollars. Brass foundry operations were also begun about that time and it is evident that the company was now producing a large quantity of fittings and valves in connection with the building and installation of its heaters. Power boilers were also a part of its product. At this time the moving spirits in the organization were W. E. Haxtun, J. H. Pierce, E. E. Baker, N. D. Bailey, and Horton Vail. The last named was the head of the boiler making part of the plant and he remained in that capacity through many years and up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1902, while he was superintendent of the Kewanee Boiler Company.

About this time the city (then village) of Kewanee began exercising its beneficent powers by vacating portions of streets for the use of the rapidly growing needs of the company, a practice which has continued up to the present and which has done much to foster the interests of Kewanee's manufacturing industries.

In July, 1882, two molding machines were in operation in the foundry and heat of twenty-three thousand pounds of iron was melted. (Compare this with the two thousand, six hundred pound heat which was the first taken off in 1876.) The following March at the annual meeting of 1883, it was reported that the sales for five years had been as follows: 1878, sixty-three thousand dollars; 1879, ninety-six thousand dollars; 1880, one hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars; 1881, two hundred and eighty-eight thousand dollars; 1882, three hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars; a surplus on hand of sixty-eight thousand dollars. The boiler shop covered an area sixty by one hundred and twenty-four feet; the machine shop, sixty by one hundred and ninety-two feet; the iron foundry, fifty by one hundred feet; the brass foundry, fifty by sixty feet. In this year the directors elected were W. E. Haxtun, J. H. Pierce, C. S. Wentworth, E. E. Baker, and L. O. Goddard. During the previous year the company had used one million, one hundred and two thousand feet of pipe, six hundred and forty thousand pounds of boiler iron, three million, five hundred and twenty-four thousand pounds of pig iron, and large amounts of scrap, and one hundred and forty-nine cars of sand; and there had been paid out to employes one hundred and three thousand dollars. Considerable building was done during 1883, an^ in May the company was employing two hundred men.

The next great event was a mass meeting of citizens held June 25, 1883, to consider establishing rolling mills and pipe mills. The company was already manufacturing the fittings and valves which were a necessary part of the appara­ tus used with steam heating installations, but was buying its pipe for radiators and steam lines; thus it is seen that necessity was the mother of the mill proposi­ tion which was discussed at the mass meeting alluded to above. At this meeting it was reported that certain capital was ready to build the mill if ground was furnished for the purpose, and the following named citizens were appointed a committee on ways and means: A. B. Ashley, T. P. Pierce, C. C. Blish, David Bennison, M. C. Quinn, Elias Lyman, John Lyle, A. F. Bigelow, C. K. Ladd, S. T. Miles, E. R. Kerr, H. T. Lay, and E. V. Bronson. This committee reported- at a meeting held June 27th, two days later, that it had succeeded in securing subscriptions, locally, amounting to eleven thousand, two hundred and thirty-six dollars. Later this committee purchased the ground upon which the mill build­ ings of the National Tube Company, Kewanee Works, still stand, and reported having sold the buildings which formerly occupied this site for two thousand, one hundred and seventy-five dollars.

About the middle of July, 1883, the rolling mill and pipe mill proposition became more than a promise by the incorporation of the Kewanee Rolling and Pipe Mill Company with the following corporators: L. O. Goddard, Chicago; John W. Gilbert and John G. Foote, Burlington, Iowa; and W. E. Haxtun and J. H. Pierce, Kewanee.

At the first annual meeting of this allied company the following were chosen directors: John G. Foote, John W. Gilbert, L. O. Goddard, J. H. Pierce, and W. E. Haxtun. The officers elected were: J. H. Pierce, president; John W. Gilbert, vice-president; E. E. Baker, secretary and treasurer. The capital stock was one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Buildings for these mills were commenced about August 1, 1883, and November I4th some of the machinery was set in motion by engines aggregating six hundred and fifty horse power. On that date the first iron was rolled. The following statistics in regard to these mills are found in the issue of the Kewanee "Courier" of November 21, 1883: The rolling mill occupied a building seventy- five by two hundred feet with an ell sixty by sixty-five feet; the pipe mill was housed in a building sixty by two hundred feet with an ell forty by one hundred and seventy-five feet; the gas producer building was forty by one hundred and fifty feet; and the boiler house forty by one hundred and ten feet. The buildings were all of frame timbers covered with forty tons of corrugated iron sheets and covered an aggregate area of two and one-half acres. Over a million brick were also used in the construction of furnaces, etc.

In the skelp mill there were three stands of rolls driven by a four hundred horse power Corliss engine. The iron was heated in two gas furnaces having a capacity of sixty tons per day of twenty-four hours. There were also two quad­ ruple gas puddling furnaces having a capacity of twenty-four tons of muck iron per day. In the pipe mill there were three regenerative gas furnaces, two for butt weld pipe and one for lap weld boiler tubes, and the combined capacity of these furnaces was said to be one hundred tons of pipes and tubes per day. The addition of these mills raised the total number of employes so that late in 1883 there were about five hundred people at work. At the close of the year a record of seven hundred pieces of pipe per day had been established; the monthly pay roll had reached twenty thousand dollars; and the annual incoming freight amounted to over ten thousand tons. Late in January, 1884, the pipe mill was turning out about thirty thousand feet of pipe daily, and already a new muck train was contemplated to double the capacity of the rolling mill.

In March, 1884, the Haxtun Steam Heater Company and the Kewanee Rolling and Pipe Mill Company were consolidated under the name of the former, with a capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars, and the list of officers elected at that time was: W. E. Haxtun, president; J. H. Pierce, secretary; E. E. Baker, cashier; and these with Messrs. Wentworth, Goddard, Gilbert, and Foote constituted the board of directors of the new company.

Mr. William B. Sandford had taken charge of the pipe mill and it was under his superintendence that this mill continued to turn out increasing quantities of pipe for over twenty years.

At the annual meeting in March, 1885, the same directors and officers as in 1884 were elected, with the exception of Mr. E. E. Baker who became treasurer. In October of that year the pay roll had risen to twenty-two thousand dollars per month, and throughout the year the average number of employes was five hundred and fifty,while the sale increased one hundred thousand dollars over 1884. At the annual meeting of March, 1886, the same directors and officers were elected, and again in 1887. In 1886 the capital stock was reduced to four hundred thousand dollars, all paid in, and the pay roll for that year was three hundred and thirteem thousand, one hundred and thirty-eight dollars and eighty-four cents; the ship­ ments amounting to twenty-two million, three hundred and thirty-three thousand, seven hundred and sixty-nine pounds.

A disastrous fire occurred January 1, 1888, which destroyed all the mill buildings except those housing the gas generators and boilers. It was at once decided to rebuild, and operations were commenced within a few days on a larger scale than ever, so that on Washington's birthday work was resumed in the rolling mill. At the time of the annual meeting the following March, every­ thing was going as before and the same directors and officers were elected. At this time the pay roll was announced to have been for the year previous about four hundred and twelve thousand dollars, and there were about nine hundred men employed.

Passing over the balance of the year 1889, which was marked by some build­ ing operations, the annual meeting of March, 1890, marked the entrance of the National Tube Works Company into an interest in the affairs of the Haxtun Steam Heater Company. The directors elected were: J. H. Pierce, E. C. Converse of New York, H. N. Wade of Batavia, Illinois, C. A. Lamb, Chicago, Edw. Wor­ cester, St. Louis, L. O. Goddard, Chicago, and E. E. Baker. Mr. Pierce was elected president; Mr. Baker, vice president and treasurer; Mr. Edw. Worcester, secretary; and A. M. Hewlett, assistant treasurer. Of the above directors, Messrs. Converse, Lamb, and Worcester were National Tube Works Company men, and the election of Mr. Worcester as secretary of the company brought into the organization a man who did much for it in extending its business, and has been directly connected with the company ever since, with the exception of two or three years. He is now vice president of the National Tube Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a very good friend of Kewanee's manufacturing interests.

In 1890 Mr. J. H. Pierce went to McKeesport to act as assistant general manager of the National Tube Works Company's great plant at that place. October 2Oth of that year the Haxtun company was employing one thousand, one hundred men, and in September, 1890, the first girls were employed in the core rooms. The capital stock of the company was also increased one hundred thousand dollars during this year.

The following March, 1891, the old name of Haxtun Steam Heater Company was discontinued and the name Western Tube Company was adopted. The same directors were elected as in the preceding year with the addition of Mr. J. C. Williams, who had come to Kewanee to take charge of the fitting and valve operations, and he remained with the company until 1898. In June. 1891, the pipe finishing mill was started.

In 1892 the officers were the same as in the preceding year, except that Mr. Hewlett became treasurer. Mr. Hewlett's connection with the company lasted from that time until his death in 1907, as treasurer, secretary and treasurer (after the retirement of Mr. Worcester), vice president, and president, and his name must be linked with those of Mr. J. H. Pierce and Mr. E. E Baker as composing the triumvirate which has done more for the manufacturing interests of Kewanee than any others.

In June, 1892, a mass meeting of citizens was held at which an indemnifying bond was signed protecting the company on the title to streets which had been vacated by the city. In this year also the company engaged in the manufacture of malleable iron fittings.

In the .spring of 1892 the Western Tube Company decided to discontinue the manufacture of boilers and other heating apparatus, with the exception of radiators, continuing the manufacture of pipe, fittings, and brass and iron valves. Accordingly, a new company known as the Kewanee Boiler Company was organized by Mr. E. E. Baker, and the history of that company becomes from that time on the history of a separate corporation which will be reviewed later on in this chapter.

At this time, also, the Western Tube Company started on its grand march of development to proportions which it reached in 1906 and 1907. During the years 1893-94-95, this development was comparatively rapid, but in 1896, on account of the almost complete stagnation of business throughout the country, there was a decided set-back. At that time Mr. J. H. Pierce was president; Mr. J. C. Williams, vice-president; Mr. A. M. Hewlett, secretary; and Mr. C. E. McCullough, treasurer. Mr. J. C. Williams retired shortly afterward, but the other officers remained about as above until the election of Mr. C. I. Pierce as secretary of the company and Mr. A. M. Hewlett as vice-president. These officers remained unchanged in the relative positions until the retirement of Messrs. J. H. Pierce and C. I. Pierce in 1904, at which time Mr. A. M. Hewlett became president; Mr. John Duncan, vice-president; and Mr. C. E. McCullough, secretary and treasurer. This organization was continued until the death of Mr. Hewlett in December, 1907. Mr. C. E. McCullough retired December 31, 1907; and with these two men, who had been so long identified with the prosperity and upbuilding of the company, removed by death and retirement, the Western Tube Company ceased to exist as an operating concern, although it still has a corporate existence.

January 1 1908, the National Tube Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which has had a controlling interest in the stock and management of the Western Tube Company since 1895, determined to operate the plant of the Western Tube Company in exactly the same way that its other departments were operated, and the Western Tube Company became, for operating purposes, Kewanee Works, National Tube Company. Mr. Duncan was transferred to Pittsburg to take charge of the sales of Kewanee Works products, in which position he remained until his resignation in September, 1909. The operation of the plant was entrusted to a local manager, Mr. J. C. Bannister, who had been a foreman, super­ intendent, and chief engineer, and at the present time the works are in operation under his management, with Mr. J. N. Gamble as superintendent of foundry departments; Mr. C. D. Terry, superintendent of mill department; and Mr. E. E. Bowman, chief clerk.

Not only the stock of the old Western Tube Company, but all the real estate and other property of that company, are now owned by National Tube Company of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The present directors of the Western Tube Company are: Wm. B. Schiller, Edw. Worcester, John D. Culbertson, and Taylor Allderdice, all of Pittsburg, and J. C. Bannister of Kewanee.

In the early part of this review of the history of the Tube Company at the risk of tedious details, much information has been given to illustrate the normal and steady growth of the business which started in such a modest way from the old Anderson Feed Steamer. This was deemed desirable because it is always worth while to observe the development of a meritorious undertaking, and be­ cause there are but few who can recall the facts as presented. It hardly seems necessary to allude in detail to the enormous growth of the Tube Company in the years which have elapsed since 1892, the time when the original business became detached from the parent company, as most of such history is within the recollection of those living in Henry county today.

The growth has been natural but almost beyond belief to those who have not witnessed it. The works now cover upwards of forty acres, and the build­ ings and equipment are for the most part of the most substantial and durable character. With only one or two exceptions, the larger buildings are all of steel and brick construction and especially adapted to the purposes to which they are put. In 1906 and 1907 the total number of employes reached about four thousand, two hundred men, girls and boys, and the pay roll amounted to about two million, five hundred thousand dollars annually.

During the depression of business which occurred in 1908, the product of the plant necessarily fell off to a minimum, and it is only within the past six months that operations have been at all normal, and that only in certain departments. At the time this is written conditions are improving very rapidly, and the works now employs about two thousand, three hundred people and is paying out over one hundred and twenty thousand dollars per month in wages. The present capacity may be judged from the following: Iron melted per day, three hundred and eighty thousand pounds; brass melted per day, forty-two thousand pounds; pipe welded per day, three hundred tons.

On account of its isolated position, away from the base of supplies which run into large tonnages, it is not likely that the mills of this company in Kewanee will ever operate continuously to produce as great a product as in 1906, but the other lines of goods which are manufactured, fittings, valves, and other steam and water appliances, are continually becoming in greater demand and this part of the business will undoubtedly grow to very largely increased proportions.

 

History of Henry County

Submitted by the Webmaster

 

©Wini Caudell and Contributors

All Rights Reserved

Illinois Ancestors

030507