. - )\'\Oi & * fjA i '" kv Til 1852-1952 A dramatic account of Rock ford's growth from a few sawmills on the old Water Power to a great industrial city. to Wayne Whittaker Graduated, Beloit College 1930 Worked for years as news and feature writer on the CHICAGO DAILY NEWS. Articles and fiction in many national magazines including the SATURDAY EVENING POST. A wartime POST story was made into a motion picture by RKO Studios. Present: Assistant Managing Editor of POPULAR MECHANICS MAGAZINE. "Writing 'The Rockford Story' was a tremendously interesting job and certainly a challenge to me from the beginning. Rockford's industry has had a truly unique development with many modern plants stemming from a single idea that hatched in a barn loft or basement shop. Although the picture of the city's growth over the last century is a complex one, I found a simple pattern that I call 'the Rock- ford tradition.' Not having visited Rockford since my Beloit College days in the late '20's, it was a privilege to renew my acquaintance. I visited many factories and spent hours with Rockford's industrial leaders. Meeting and working with these progressive businessmen was a pleasure and in my honest opinion there can be no smarter group in the country." f7r I IL . H '5 r 1852 - 1952 By Wayne Whittaker ROCKFORD is celebrating its 100th birthday as a city. The century of its growth — from 1852 to 1952 — has been the period of greatest progress in the history of the world. It has been a tumultuous century with life almost completely revolutionized by the achievements of this technical age. Rockford's industrial history covers the amazing span from the days of the covered wagon and stage coach to the jet plane, from power generated by a water wheel to the split atom. When the city was incorporated, on Jan. 3, 1852, it had a population of about 2500. The town was a muddy stage coach stop on the trip from Chicago to Galena so few outsiders had actually seen the place. Today Rock- ford has a population of 92,927 with many thousands more in the metropolitan area. From a few struggling factories along the old Water Power, the city's industry has grown to scores of factories where more than 40,000 persons earn a living. Rockford products — machine tools of all kinds, hard- ware goods, textile machines, farm implements, gas ranges, furniture, knitted goods and fine textiles, auto- motive and tractor and airplane parts — are known throughout the world. It's a safe bet that every person, every home and place of business in the United States has been affected directly or indirectly by products made in Rockford plants. The story of Rockford's great century of industrial growth is basically an account of how Rockford people have' earned a living. The products of their hands and skills have flowed out across the world and money has poured back into their pockets for food, clothes, homes, schools, hospitals and more factories to produce more goods. Always expansion. From the days of the Water Power to the present, Rockford leaders have accepted growth as natural as breathing. All through the city's history small groups of men have banded together to start "back room" in- dustries that have grown to become farflung enterprises. The leaders have come from the ranks of workers and have operated their plants with a know-how learned the hard way in the shop. This has given Rockford scores of modest-sized industries with owner-management that has been a boon to the city's healthy growth. Unlike Detroit or Gary or Pittsburgh, there is no one dominat- ing industry that rules the town. Across the path of Rockford's 100-year history are the shadows of many great men and events. Constant struggle, heartbreaking reverses, fabulous success, booms and depressions, war frenzy and peacetime progress are all interwoven in the Rockford story. The real dawn of the city's century of development came a few months after Rockford became a city. It was on Aug. 2, 1852. The day started off with cannon- ades and the ringing of bells. People from the West Side poured across the wooden State Street bridge. Farmers and their families arrived in wagons. Page 1 Among those who picked his way through the good- natured crowd was a machinist who worked in the Clark and Utter plant, his wife, small daughter and 12-year- old son. "I don't see why all the grownups are so excited," said the boy. "What is the train going to bring so im- portant ?" The train he referred to was the "Pioneer" and the celebration was to welcome the Iron Horse to Rockford over the newly-laid tracks of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad which had finally reached the east bank of the Rock River. Before the father could answer his son's question, the lad's attention was attracted by a caravan of ox-drawn covered wagons that lumbered by. The wagons raised a cloud of dust as they headed for the river and the rock ford which had given the pioneer city its name. Women in sunbonnets peered from the wagons. A tired man on horseback, who was herding the group's cattle behind the wagon train, asked a bystander what the celebration was all about. "Railroad, heh? Well, we can't wait for no Iron Horse. It's Galena and on West for us." The machinist watched the group move on as he had watched others these last few years. He turned to his son. "One of these days people will stop here instead of going on through," he said. "Know why? Because of our railroad." "What's the railroad going to bring to Rockford?" the boy repeated. "The whole world," said the father slowly. "It will bring us a lot of people that know how to do a lot of things and it will give us a chance to ship out the stuff we make. We've got a new reaper to build down at the plant. The railroad means that we can make 'em for the whole country and hire more men and build more factories. The railroad will bring in iron and wood and all sorts of supplies as well as people from faraway places." "People from Chicago?" asked the boy as that was the most distant place he had heard of. The father smiled. "Yes, and from the East and from way across the ocean — from lands like Italy and Ire- land and Sweden." His wife was amused. "Surely, papa, nobody will come from as far as Sweden to Rockford, Illinois. You have such faith in this railroad." She turned quickly. "Oh, children, look ! There's the stage." The stage coach from Chicago drawn by four steam- ing horses rattled by. "Yes, take a good look," said the wise machinist. "You won't be seeing that stage many years more. Big- things are going to start happening here." He was right, too. Big things did happen in Rockford during the '50s and some of those men arrived who were to cast long and important shadows far into the city's future. Pehr August Peterson, who was to become the "furniture king" of Rockford, arrived with his parents in 1852. He was six years old. Another arrival that year was young John Nelson whose inventive genius would launch Rockford's knitting industry. But that was still almost twenty years into the future. Rockford's industry of the '50s consisted of sawmills, grist mills, a foundry and several farm implement fac- tories. Most of these were located on the Water Power which dated back to 1845 when the Rockford Hydraulic and Manufacturing Company built a dam of brush and stone across the river at the foot of Park Avenue. Mill- races were dug on both sides of the stream to provide water power for the new factories. By 1853 the old dam had been replaced with a sturdier structure built by the Rockford Water Power Company. The Water Power district was the birthplace of Rockford industry and its nerve center for many years. It was bounded by the Rock River on the east, Main Street on the west, Kent Creek (named for Germanicus Kent, Rockford's first settler) on the south, and the North Western Rail- road on the north. Among Rockford's flourishing farm implement fac- tories of the '50s was the firm of Skinner, Briggs and Enoch. James B. Skinner was the city's first inventor. Much of his skill had been acquired in his father's black- smith shop which was located on the present site of the Palace Theater. Young James started his implement business by making wagons in his father's shop. He developed the first riding cultivator, single riding plow and gang plow. He formed a company with C. C. Briggs and I. A. Enoch and built a large factory on the Water Power. Farm mechanization was the talk of the land and Rockford's new industries boomed. In the early '50s, John H. Manny, Rockford's most famous inventor, developed a reaper and mower combination that was built by the firm of Clark and Utter. In July of 1852, the Manny reaper won first prize in a contest at Geneva, X.V., over eleven other machines. The company built 150 of the reapers in 1853 and 1100 the following year. These, of course, were shipped out via the new Galena & Chicago Union Railroad or distributed locally to the rich farming area of the Rock River Valley. The reaper was a boon to farmers and orders far exceeded pro- duction. In 1855, the Manny reaper won top honors in Eu- ropean trials. This was too much for Cyrus H. Mc- Cormick, who also had invented a reaper. He filed suit against Manny for patent infringement. An Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln defended Manny in the law suit and won the case on Jan. 16, 1856. Lincoln was paid a fee of $1000 for his work which he said was the largest he had received up to that time. Poor health, overwork and worry resulted in Manny's death two weeks after the trial ended. He was only 30 years old and had already been awarded 23 patents. However, his reaper and other patented items were manufactured by Rockford industries for many years. Two years after Manny's death, another inventor who was to leave his mark on more than one industry, de- veloped a self -raking reaper. He was William Worth Burson. Later, he invented a hand-operated twine binder to be attached to reapers. He was associated with Emerson & Company, another leading implement firm. This company ultimately became the Emerson Branting- ham Company which was purchased by the J. I. Case Company in 1928 and is today one of Rockford's leading industries. Under the Case Company's ownership, plant facilities have expanded, resulting in doubling of its employment, currently averaging approximately 2,200. Page 3 The company now makes plows, drills, planters, har- rows, mowers, manure spreaders, listers, side delivery rakes, middlebusters and cultivators. Like many another business today, its roots are deep in the city's past but its methods and products are right up-to-the-minute. One of the men who had been associated with Manny was William Gent, regarded as one of the best working mechanics in all Illinois. He is credited with having invented and made the early machines for making barb wire, so much in demand then by midwestern farmers. He also made and improved steam engines, and in as- sociation with such men as Ralph Emerson and John Nelson assisted in the development of the knitting machines. Another present day industry that dates back to the '50s is the Gunite Foundries Corporation. D. Forbes and Son started as a foundry on the water power in 1854. That was the same year the new covered bridge on State Street was erected at a cost of $15,000 and only 18 years after the first stage coach from Chicago had arrived in the city ! The Forbes foundry made cast iron grates for fire- places and sled runners and was soon to branch out into the manufacture of cast iron stoves. Malleable iron was sold to all the local makers of farm machinery. This company changed its name frequently through the years, along with its products. Its adaptability to changing times has been the secret of its survival and present prosperity. The company's names have included Forest City Foundry, Eagle Foundry and Rockford Malleable Iron Works. Its present name — Gunite — is typical of the company for gunite is the biggest part of the busi- ness. This product is also a fine example of Rockford's industrial know-how. When Duncan P. Forbes (same family of the '50s) was in college he studied metallurgy and experimented with gun iron. That was about the time (1927) the company's best customer, Henry Ford, quit making the Model T and the firm had lost 80 per- cent of its business. Gun iron is a high strength cast iron ideal for making field guns and other Army Ordnance materiel. The young college engineer brought his ideas to the Forbes' research department and soon quantities of high grade gun iron were in production. The product was — and is — such a big success that the company name was changed to Gunite Foundries. Industrial highlights of the '50s included the innova- tion of gas lighting for business houses in 1857 and the completion of a radroad to Kenosha, Wis. Lumber was shipped over this railroad for the saw and planing mills. Rockford was getting a reputation as the "Reaper City," but a visiting New York writer was soon to give it the name that stuck — the "Forest City." Big topics of con- versation as the young city neared the end of its first decade were temperance and slavery. By 1860, the population had tripled (8,117) and people of Rockford were earning a living in five flour mills, three reaper factories, two machine shops, a threshing machine manufacturing plant, several planing mills, sawmills, tanneries, a brewery, three weekly newspaper offices, four banks and an insurance com- pany. The city had ten churches and five hotels. Pork and beef, butter, cheese, corn, sorghum and wheat were shipped through the city in great quantities. In one year the amount of wheat handled by Rockford grain dealers totaled 1,160,000 bushels. Rockford was getting sophisticated and could look back across the decade and smile at the first ordinances passed by the City Council. One was to levy a fine on allowing pigs or cows to roam the streets. Another was to prohibit nude bathing in the river between sunrise and sunset. The greatest contribution from Rockford industry to the Union Army during the Civil War was flour. The big Bartlett Mill worked around the clock in those days and was the principal supplier. A barrel company was kept busy supplying the mill with thousands of barrels. Business slumped for a time after the Civil War. Out- side competition in farm machinery and flour mills was hard to meet. Industrial leaders, including John Nelson and William W. Burson, stroked their beards thought- fully as they discussed the need for a new product for Rockford. John Nelson had arrived from Sweden in '52 when he was 22 years old. He was a skilled mechanic and his specialty was woodworking. He had made and sold spinning wheels in the old country. Nelson arrived with the first group of Swedish immigrants seeking free land and an opportunity in the West. When the group landed in this country they had asked how far west the railroad would take them. At that time the new Rockford terminal of the Galena & Chicago railroad was the most westerly point that could be Page 4 reached by rail. That was how the first group from Sweden chose Rockford and was the beginning of the mass immigration that was to follow and play such a vital part in the city's growth. Young Nelson found work as a designer and maker of patterns and models. Later, he made sash, doors and other building materials. One of his early patents was a dove-tail tenon for making mortise joints. A sample of his fine workmanship can he seen today in the shut- ters on the old Erlander home, which recently was dedi- cated as a Swedish historical museum. The shutters are almost as good as the day they were hung. One day in the mid Sixties, Nelson visited Chicago on business and while killing time stopped to inspect a mechanical exhibit. There he saw a circular-type knit- ting machine which he explained afterward "did a poor job of making a sock." The operator had to stop the machine when the heel was reached, shut off the power and work the yarn carrier hack and forth to form the heel. Needles \\.v\ to he locked in and out of operation to knit both heel and toe sections. This was a challenge to Nelson's inventive genius. The spark in his eye when he returned to Rockford heralded the birth of the city's important knitting in- dustry. From that clay forth his spare time was spent in the loft of his barn working on a knitting machine. He became so engrossed in the project that after a year he devoted full time to it and obtained financial back- ing from Ralph Emerson and W. A. Talcott, the ma- chinery manufacturers. Nelson's first machine was an improvement over the circular type he had seen in Chicago. It put in the heels automatically but he was not satisfied. One night while watching his wife knitting a sock, it occurred to him that a hosiery knitting machine did not have to be circular. Why couldn't two opposite rows of needles do the trick? He soon proved that they could do just that with a knitting mach ne that revolutionized the industry. Nelson's original idea was to make knitting machines to sell to the housewife, like the popular new sewing machine. Try as he might, he could not build a sock knitting machine that weighed less than 700 or 800 pounds. William Burson joined Nelson on the develop- ment of his machine and their partnership continued for many years. While Nelson was experimenting on a lighter ma- chine, his alert young son, William, and a friend, Frank Brown, persuaded the father to build them ten machines for the manufacture of cotton work socks. This he did. The two ambitious youths each worked a 12-hour shift on the machines and at the end of the first year had made more money than John Nelson had ever seen in his life. Emerson and Talcott promoted the project and soon the Rockford sock was known throughout the nation. Burson and Nelson parted company in 1878 and Bur- son operated independently. Always in delicate health, John Nelson died in 1883 at the early age of 53. His sons, William and Frank, carried on the business. The Nelson Knitting Company was incorporated in 1880. Frank Nelson later improved his father's machine to make a seamless rib sock. Page 5 The name of Ziock joined the Rockford knitting dynasty in the mid Eighties when William T. Ziock arrived from St. Louis and bought an interest in the Rockford Mitten Company, later to be known as the Rockford Mitten and Hosiery Company and today as the Rockford Textile Mills, Inc. The company is noted for the weaving of high quality cloth. Other companies that have evolved from the Nelson, Burson, Brown and Ziock interests are the Forest City Knitting Company (founded by the Nelson sons in 1890 to make cotton work socks) and the BZB Knitting Company (1909) which was started by Brown, Ziock and Wilson Burson. This company manufactures full-fashioned hosiery. While the knitting industry was getting under way in the Seventies, another historic Rockford industry was also born. It was an aftermath of the great Chicago fire and the guiding genius of this new industry was Pehr August Peterson who became known throughout the country as the "Rockford Furniture King." P. A. Peterson's business career in Rockford extended into many fields and closely followed the industrial de- velopment of the city from the mid Seventies until his death in 1927. He died a multi-millionaire at the age of 81 and at that time was president of nine companies and had an interest in more than 50 firms. Born in Sweden, Peterson came to Rockford at the age of six not many weeks after the celebration that welcomed the Pioneer in 1852. His father was a tailor and worked at his trade in Rockford for four years before moving to a farm near Cherry Valley. At the age of 14, young Pehr, who was short, sturdy and tremen- dously strong, did a man's work on his father's farm and on the farms of neighbors. Even as a boy, "P. A.," as he was later known in Rockford, was deeply religious. He used to walk barefooted all the way from Cherry Valley to Rockford to attend church, carrying his shoes to save leather. Two traits dating from childhood — reverence for the church and thrift — were to remain the guiding influences in his life. After working" in Wisconsin lumber camps and saw- mills, and briefly as a teamster and later bookkeeper In Chicago, he returned to Rockford in 1875 at the age of 29. Three years before, the manufacture of furn tare in Rockford had been started in a small way by Jonas Peters. Peters had sold furniture for a Chicago manu- facturer whose factory was burned down in the fire of 1871. Out of a job, Peters returned to Rockford and his old job in the planing mill of Andrew C. Johnson and J. P. Anderson on the Water Power. He persuaded Johnson and Anderson to make a few articles of furni- ture. In 1873, L. D. Upson became a partner and Rock- ford's first furniture factory was built near the south- east corner of Race and Mill Streets. The firm took the name of Upson-Johnson Furniture Company. A year later, Johnson and Anderson withdrew from the firm to start the Forest City Furniture Company on Rail- road Avenue. Upson's plant burned in } 77 and two years later, with E. L. Herrick, he founded the Central Furniture Company. P. A. Peterson was 30 years old in 1876 when he got his first good job. He helped found and became secre- tary of the Union Furniture Company on South Main Street. "P. A." worked days in the factory and kept books at night. Soon he acquired an interest in the Rockford Chair and Furniture Company. When times were bad and there was no money to meet a pay roll, "P. A." would hitch up his horse and drive out to Cherry Valley. There he would borrow money from farmers, for whom he had worked as a boy, to pay his workers. All of his life "P. A." Peterson never had trouble bor- rowing money. His honesty and integrity were never questioned and in later years banks honored his notes written on scraps of paper. Rockford was a boom town in the Eighties. Factories sprung up almost over night and immigrants poured off the trains to take the jobs created in the new plants. Some of the immigrants brought their savings in gold. One man, who had operated a crossroads blacksmith shop in Sweden, arrived with $1500 in gold coins which Page 6 he invested in a factory and quickly lost. He went to work in a machine shop where his son is still employed. There was a big building boom in homes. Two new railroads entered the city — the Milwaukee in 1881 and the Illinois Central in 1888. The first horse car made its appearance and a section of State Street was paved. The furniture factories began making the combination book- case and writing desk that was to make Rockford's high quality furniture famous from coast to coast. The city's population zoomed from 13,129 in 1880 to 23,584 in 1890 — an increase of 80 percent ! Prices went up, too. Bread was increased from five to six cents a loaf. Scores of affiliated industries grew out of the furniture business. This growth of small businesses, supplying glass, screws, hinges and other metal parts, varnish, glue, mirrors and various kinds of trim to the furniture makers was encouraged by Peterson. These small com- panies were in the Rockford tradition of industrial growth. Some of the small companies were eventually to surpass by far the parent companies they originally served. Many of Peterson's ambitious employees branched out into these small shops. When times were rough he loaned them money. When they could not meet their notes he tore them up and took stock in the com- panies. Frequently, they made him president of their companies. By the time of the panic of 1893, Rockford had 26 furniture factories. But the panic is a chapter in itself, and before it struck the city other important industries were to make historic beginnings. Shortly after the Civil War had ended a young man rolled into Rockford aboard a threshing machine with which he had worked his way west from New York State. Certainly there was no band out to greet him — but there should have been for he was to lay the foundation for Rockford's great machine tool industry. His name was John Barnes. After selling his threshing machine, young Barnes, an experienced model maker, went to work for Emerson, Talcott & Company, the manufacturers of harvesting machinery. Irked by the tedious method of carving models by hand, he developed a foot power wood-work- ing machine. This machine was an immediate success and in 1868 he decided to devote full time to its manu- facture. He was joined by his brothers, W. F. and B. Frank, and in 1872 the company of W. F. and John Barnes was incorporated. The plant was at Wyman and State Streets until it was moved across the river to its present site in 1884. While producing the foot-powered scroll saw, the brothers discovered the need for other power tools and developed them — a circular saw, a foot-power wood lathe, a foot-power former and mortiser. In the Eighties they began making metal-working machinery — a single spindle drill press, a radial drill and an adjustable screw press. In 1881 an unknown Detroit inventor ordered a drill press for his workshop. The name was Henry Ford and a model of this machine is now displayed in Ford's reconstructed shop at Dearborn, Mich. Years later, Barnes was to be a leader in the manu- facture of special-purpose machines for the growing automotive industry. Barnes has pioneered in multiple operation machines, hydraulic feeds and automatic "pro- P^e 7 cess through" machines. Through the years this com- pany's engineering department has been in the fore- front of its field. The tradition of John Barnes — search- ing for a better and cheaper method — - carries on to the present day. Amos W. Woodward, one of Rockford's most noted inventors and founder of a truly unique business, started the Woodward Governor Company in 1870. His first patent was for a governor to control the speed of water wheels. Today this same company makes governors for jet aircraft and many other products for the so-called Atomic Age. Many a thriving Rockford industry of 1952 owes its existence to the fact that the man at the head of it simply did not know when he was licked. A fine example of this is the George D. Roper Corporation. In 1888, Roper bought an interest in the Van Wie Gas Stove Company of Cleveland and moved it to Rockford. In 1891, the company suffered financial difficulties and went into trusteeship. Roper was given a chance to operate the plant in an attempt to pay off the company debts. Despite the panic in 1893, he managed to pay all obligations by Sept. 1, 1894. Nine days later a fire destroyed all company property. Undaunted, Roper organized the Eclipse Gas Stove Company, bought castings from outside foundries, and soon had more gas stoves on the market. He built a foundry in 1901. In 1906, Roper and his associates bought the old Tra- hern Pump Company that had been operating on the Water Power since 1857. This has developed into the company's Pump Division which ever since has made pumps for the home, farm, industry, ships and wherever pumping equipment has been required. In 1919, the Roper interests, which by then included Eclipse, the American Foundry Company, Trahern Pump Company, and the Rockford Vitreous Enamel Company, were consolidated into the George D. Roper Corporation. The stove division, an undisputed leader in the production of gas ranges, has set the pace in its field for many years. Another firm that moved from Cleveland to Rockford in the early Nineties was the Ingersoll Company, Later, the name was enlarged to the Ingersoll Milling Machine Company. Winthrop Ingersoll was the guiding genius of this company which today is accorded a large measure of credit for Rockford's prominence (second in the nation) in the machine tool industry. Every automobile on the road has parts made on Ingersoll machines. Ingersoll's products, which perform the vital work of milling, boring and drilling, are specialized machines "tailor-made" to the client's needs under the watchful eye of high precision engineers. Those of the transfer type, which automatically perform a series of operations, are gigantic in size. A single machine weighs up to 1,000,000 pounds and may require from five to ten flat cars for railroad transportation. When reassembled in a factory, Ingersoll's biggest units extend for two city blocks. In both World War I and II, the importance of Ingersoll's contribution to the nation's defense could not be exaggerated. One small example — every ingot of aluminum used during the last war was scalped on an Ingersoll machine. (A scalper removes impure sur- face metal before the aluminum is rolled, forged or extruded. ) Today Ingersoll machines are found in every im- portant metal working factory in the world. Through the years this company has carried out the highest Rock- ford traditions of owner-management and good com- pany relations. Another pioneer in the city's machine tool industry was Levin Faust. He was born in Sweden and came to Page 8 Rockford in 1887 at the age of 24. Rockford was on the crest of a boom when Faust arrived and to him it was a magic place in the "land of milk and honey" after his poor homeland. His early enchantment with Rockford — its countless opportunities for work and success, its good homes and schools and churches set in natural beauty — never dimmed. This was one reason for Faust's philanthropy and deep civic interest. Faust and his friend.--. Winthrop Ingersoll and George D. Roper, played an active part in the establishment of Rockford's tine park system. Levin Faust Founded the Mechanics Machine Com- pany, known today as the Mechanics Universal Joint Company. One winter, soon after he arrived in Rock- ford, he and several of his friends from the W. F. and John Barnes Company reconditioned an old boiler in their spare time. From as simple a project as this an industry was born that today employs 1000 persons. In 1890, Faust organized the Mechanics company and the young firm had hard going for years and bumped its head on many a blind alley. In 1912, the company sold out its machine tool business and threw in its lot with the rising automotive industry. For a time the firm manufactured a truck, called the Rockford Truck, but this was given up to concentrate on the making of trans- missions and universal joints. Faust worked day and night. When business was slack he went out with his horse and buggy to get orders to keep the men in his shop busy. The turning point in his fortunes occurred when the Chevrolet Company awarded his firm a contract to build 25 transmissions a day. These sturdy transmissions caused Chevrolet to increase its orders to 30, 40, 50, then 75 transmissions a day. Soon the company's engineers invented an oil lubri- cated universal joint that could operate for thousands of miles without attention. This was a sensation in the automotive industry and an avalanche of orders paved the way for vast expansion of the business. Today the company produces most of the universal joints used by the automobile and tractor manufacturers. From the earliest days of the auto industry to the present, the know-how of Rockford engineers and machinists, both in parts and machine tool plants, have helped to reduce the cost of cars and make them available to almost every working man or woman in the country. The panic of 1893 played havoc with Rockford's 187 factories. Many of the furniture factories, cooperatively owned in the Swedish tradition, had little capital in the till to withstand a depression. In a single day, twenty- six factories closed their doors. P. A. Peterson was not only wiped out, but was left $300,000 in debt. He stub- bornly refused to go through bankruptcy and probably the thought of jumping in the river never occurred to him. Every last penny, he told his doubtful creditors, would be paid back. Peterson took to the road as a salesman, but in 18 ( 'd be was called back with a des- perate appeal from the bankers. Would he please re- turn and manage the floundering factories he had helped organize? He would and did. In a relatively short time, he paid off the companies' debts to the banks and the furniture industry was back on its feet. Rockford furniture business was to flourish for years and climb to the dizzy pinnacle of 61 factories by 1928. The panic of '93 hit other industries as well as furni- ture. There were idle workmen from the shops that made machine tools, harness, wagons, socks, shoes, mit- tens, watches, windmills, screen and wire, crackers, oat- meal and all the other products that Rockford people made for the rest of the country. There were soup lines and pay days with no money to meet pay rolls. It was after such a day that Winthrop Ingersoll was walking dejectedly home and met an indignant workman from his shop. "It's bad when you work all week and get no money to buy bread," said the angry machinist. Ingersoll put his hand in his pocket and emptied it of the few coins he had. He held them out. "This is all the cash I have in the world," he said. "Half of it is yours. We've got to pull together 'til times get better." He gave the machinist half of his money and they parted friends. This was the spirit, both on the part of the man in the shop and the man who met the pay roll, that pulled Rockford industry through the panic. Many a Rockford leader of 1952 feels that this mutual trust is still part of the city's makeup. In 1893, a painter and decorator named Smith started a paint company which evolved into a huge oil business. The Smith Oil and Refining Company has developed through a chain of events stranger than fiction. The founder, C. G. Smith, and his eldest son, Ernst, expanded the sale of paints, oils and varnish to include Page 9 wall paper in 1904 and called themselves the Smith Paint and Wall Paper Company. The store building was on West State Street. Guy and Carl, younger sons, joined the company in 1909 about the time the horseless car- riage joined the parade of horses and buggies going by the store. Many paint and oil customers started coming to the Smiths for advice on the kind of oil they should put in their cars. The company soon built a warehouse for the distribution of automobile oils and greases. The next step was the handling of gasoline and kerosene. In June of 1911, the first horse-drawn yellow tank wagon ap- peared on Rockford streets bearing the name Smith Oil and Refining Company. Today the company handles millions of gallons of auto fuels, and in addition supplies the metal working industry with specialized oils. Hardly anybody comes to the Smiths these days with requests for paint and wall paper samples. When the old century ended and Rockford residents beat on pans and blew horns to greet the dawn of the 20th century, the city had a population of 31,051. Fac- tory hours were from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Most workmen owned their homes which cost them between $2000 and $3000. The first year of the new century was an important one industrially for Rockford. A new inventor and industry builder — in the tradition of John H. Manny and John Nelson — started a business in the city. His name was Howard D. Colman and he called his company Barber- Colman. In the early days he was associated with W. A. Barber, a lumberman of Warrens, Wisconsin. Colman's particular genius was with textile machines — not to be confused with the knitting machines invented by Nelson and Burson. Colman developed yarn prepara- tory machinery which included hand knotters, warp tying machines, warp drawing machines, automatic spoolers, superspeed warpers, and automatic quillers. As Barber-Colman Company grew to be one of Rock- ford's largest industries, the Company expanded its operations to include the manufacture of machine tools, metal cutting tools, automatic temperature and humidity control products, small motors, molded plastics, air dis- tribution products, overhead type doors, and electric door operators. The Automatic Controls section of the Company supplies control system components for over seventy-five different types of military and commercial aircraft. Another inventor who came to Rockford just after the turn of the century was Charles A. Haddorff. He was a piano expert and had developed an acoustical sys- tem which made possible uniform and distortionless amplification of the entire piano scale. With P. A. Peterson's backing, he founded the Haddorff Piano Company. The year 1903 saw the beginning of three important firms, one of which — ■ the National Lock Company — was to grow into Rockford's largest industry. P. A. Peterson was also active in establishing this company and served as its president for years. It was organized as an affiliate of the furniture industry to supply the local factories with screws, bolts, trimming, cabinet hard- ware, butts and hinges, casters, locks and other products. National Lock started in a small way and was originally incorporated for only $5000 with $3300 paid in. In 1904, the company's sales were less than $25,000, but by 1910 they had risen to $342,000 and employees numbered 250. The company's peak employment has reached as high as 4500 and at present is about 3200. Rockford residents have long forgotten the days when National Lock was the poor and dependent relative of the furni- ture industry. Another business of 1903 origin and humble begin- nings was the J. L. Clark Manufacturing Company. For some time before that, Clark had operated a wholesale and retail hardware store. Every winter he was irked by the problem of storing flue stoppers. This was a seasonal item and was purchased by home owners to cover the chimney hole when the wood or coal-burning stove was taken down for the summer. Clark invented a folding flue stopper that would occupy less shelf space. He bought a second-hand press and started making the stoppers in the store basement. This idea was the begin- ning of a business that makes millions of light metal cans and containers for products found in every home in the United States. The company does expert lithographing and was the first to make lithographic plates for metal printing by photography. This diversified company has thrived through wars and peace and gives employment to 900 persons. The third important Rockford firm to make its bow in 1903 was the Greenlee Brothers and Company. Originating in Chicago in 1869, the company was moved to Rockford to be near the furniture factories which bought Greenlee wood working machines. Later, the Page 10 company expanded to become an important factor in the machine tool industry. Many new furniture Factories made their appearance in the early 1900s and more people moved to Rockford to rani a living. The Rockford Furniture Company was Founded in L905 with Will A. Brolin, president. Others wen' the Excel (A. D. Floberg), the Rockford Palace and the Rockford National Furniture companies. In 1905 the Sundstrand brothers, David and Oscar, started a company to make horseshoe calks, chucks for carving cutters, rubbing machines for wood finishing and engine lathes. The firm was incorporated in 1910 under the name of Rockford Tool Company and in 1926 merged with the Rockford Milling Machine Company under the name of Sundstrand Machine Tool Company. Meanwhile, David Sundstrand (1915) invented an adding machine, the first popular 10-key machine that could be used for direct subtraction. This was manu- factured by the Rockford Milling Machine Company and was sold to the Elliott-Fisher Company at the time of the Sundstrand merger in 1926. Among those associated with the Sundstrands was Hugo Olson, who had immi- grated from Sweden in 1890. He served the company as president for many years and pulled it through the depressions of the 1930s. Today, in addition to its line of machine tools which include the giant transfer type of special machines built for processing automotive cylinder blocks, Sundstrand makes 70 per cent of all oil burner pumps that are sold. The company also makes oil control pumps for the operation of jet planes at high altitudes — a far cry from the horseshoe calks of 1905 ! Rockford hummed with wartime activity during World War I. The machine tool industries worked night and day building machines to make the machines of war. The Chamber of Commerce and industrial leaders brought about the establishment of Camp Grant and the city was jammed with khaki-clad soldiers. Many of these men returned to Rockford after the war to make their homes. Between 1914 and the end of World War I, Rockford factories grew from 265 to 312 and the yearly pay roll was increased from $6,645,000 to $18,379,000. The machine tool factories, knitting mills, and furniture com- panies all boomed during the whoopee era of the 1920s. New buildings and additions went up one after another, new schools and thousands of home. Money flowed freely and everybody's credit was good. An economist of the day wrote that Rockford was the most prosperous city in the United States. Then came the stock market crash of 1929 and with the speed of a dive bomber Rockford plunged to the depths of business stagnation in the early 1930s. During the boom days the city's population had grown to 85,828 and thousands were out of work. Rockford industrial leaders were determined to end the depression in the summer of 1931. They organized a gala parade and festival to celebrate the end of the depression that June. On the morning of the day set for the celebration three banks closed their doors. That was the end of the festivities. By December of that year, only two of Rockford's eight banks were left. An en- couraging note was a new bank, the Illinois National, organized in September. It was financed by a former Page 11 Rockford resident, George W. Mead of Wisconsin Rapids, who had faith in the city. Two-thirds of Rock- ford's largest industries limped through the depression and managed to keep some semblance of turning wheels. For an industrial city, Rockford's percentage of per- sons on relief during the depression was surprisingly low. Somehow people managed to find odd jobs when their savings were gone. Mechanics started shops in their garages and bookkeepers worked part time. Every- body raised a garden and helped his neighbor. Rockford people realized that when they had to stop producing goods to send out to the rest of the world no money flowed back to them. The trip back to prosperity was a cautious one for Rockford industry during the years '35, '36, '37, '38 and '39. Old-timers shuddered at even the mention of the word "expansion." A new leadership with the daring and vision of the 1850s, the '80s and the early 1900s gradually came to the front. Setting the pace for the new Rockford was a young man named Swan Hillman and his associates. Hillman lost his job in the screw department of the National Lock Company in the late '20s. Many of his friends, including D. E. Johnson, were also jobless. The group raised $150,000 and started the Rockford Screw Products Company in 1929. O. G. Nelson, one of Rockford's outstanding industrial and financial leaders, helped organize the company and still serves as its president. At first the firm had only 12 employees. How this com- pany got on its feet during the nation's worst depression and managed to borrow and prosper is already a legend in Rockford. The faithful who invested a few thousand dollars in the company are now basking in beach homes in Florida in winter and mountain lodges in summer. When orders for screws dropped to zero in the mid Thirties, Hillman started out as a salesman. Before that he had never sold as much as a stick of gum. He became the super-salesman of the depression years and won a reputation from one end of the country to the other as Rockford's greatest booster. Today Rockford Screw Products with 1100 employees and 285,000 square feet of manufacturing space is still growing. During World War II, 90 percent of the company's production was devoted to national defense. Rockford's record during the war was of such tremen- dous importance that it has never been properly evalu- ated. The War Department called freely and often on Rockford ingenuity to solve production problems in the making of shells, tanks and special equipment for air- craft — to name a few. W. F. and John Barnes' engi- neers developed a new way to make armor piercing shells better and faster. Sundstrand — after appeals from Wright Field — perfected a hydraulic transmis- sion for making AC power practical in airplanes. These are just two of scores of examples of contributions to the war effort by Rockford craftsmen. Rockford industrial leadership is recognized nationally by drafting local men to serve in countless national trade organizations. This list includes the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Manufacturer's Association, the American Petroleum Institute, the American Baking Institute and others. Through the years Rockford businessmen have been at the forefront in the support of local hospitals, churches, the Community Fund and Red Cross, the Y.M.C.A., and have brought culture to the city in the form of fine musicians and leading thinkers of the day. Recently, a businessman brought an opera star to Rock- ford and paid all expenses of a benefit performance for the city's three hospitals. George D. Roper was origin- ally chairman of the Rockford Plan Commission which was organized to guide the city's development for 50 years. Since World War II, industry has continued to ex- pand with greater diversification in the types of new business attracted to the Forest City. A revitalized Chamber of Commerce has played an important part in this development. Old established businesses have grown, too, in the postwar period. The Smith Oil and Refining Company, for example, has increased its sales volume five times over that of 1946. More houses have been sold than ever before and today more than 70 per- cent of Rockford families own their own homes, accord- ing to a recent survey. The city has ten companies em- ploying from 1000 to 3200 employees and 85 firms with 50 to 500 employees. Rockford's industries are alert to modern training pro- grams for workers to maintain the high standard of skills that has made the city great. The city's prosperity has been built on the fact that its industrial leaders have had the vision to recognize inventive genius and the capacity to attract capital to develop it. The leadership of Rockford industries has come from backroom machine shops and basement work benches; Page 12 from men who suffered the utmost in adversity and who refused to accept failure; from men with the courage to get up when they were licked and fight for the chance to succeed; from men with the brains and vision to take advantage of their opportunities and who were never afraid of hard work. A multitude of industries that have affected the lives of every Rockford citizen have grown from the genius of the workshops. The fertile seeds for these industries were sown by men like Manny, Nelson, Colman and others. In the Rockford tradition, the pattern of success for the future — like the past — will rest on individual itiitiative. Rockford's past shines with great names : Manny, Utter, Emerson, Gent, Forbes, Peterson, Nelson, Spaf- ford, Talcott, Erlander, Faust, Ingersoll, Colman, Roper, Clark, Barnes. So does its present : Nelson, Hillman, Gaylord, Al- deen, Johnson, Anderson, Smith, Barton, McClure, Sommer, Baudhuin, Rosecrance, Forbes, Gridley, Beck- enbaugh, 1 lobson, Olson, Abegg, Eisner, Atwood, Mat- tison, Stewart, Strandquist, Caster, Eggers, Warner, Condon. At the big centennial celebration in 1952, probably some 12-year-old Rockford boy will look up at his father and repeat the words of the lad of 1852 who helped welcome the Pioneer: "I don't see why the grownups are so excited." The father will look away from the performing jet planes, or the fireworks or the pageant and explain : "It's a salute not just to the past, but to the future, son. Big things are in store for Rockford — new indus- tries and new ways for people to earn a living. There are opportunities for youth today that people never even dreamed about only ten years ago — say nothing of a hundred." Rockford industry marches on proudly, ready to meet the challenge of its second century. Second reprinting - April, 1956 {Additional copies may be obtained through the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.) Page 13