Livin' in Luxury -- Wehrle Stove Co. !
(David P.)
By L.B. WHYDE
Newark Advocate - May 12, 2008
NEWARK -- At the turn of the 20th century,
Newark was a boom town.
Sitting in the middle of the boom, both
physically and theoretically, was the
Wehrle Stove Co., which produced coal
and wood-burning stoves.
At one point, the company employed 3,000
people and manufactured more than 200,000
stoves per year.
The site was instrumental in the growth
and prosperity of Licking County then and
could be again in the future.
The Mid-Ohio Development Corp. bought the
industrial site in 1980 and is pursuing
a $3 million grant to help demolish the
remaining buildings, Vice President
Larry Parr said.
Many of those buildings are condemned.
Some of them still are used for record
storage or rental of storage space. The
grant also would help pay for removal of
the water tower and to conduct asbestos
abatement.
"There is an increased interest in the
site due to its accessibility of the
railroad line that runs alongside it,"
Parr said. "Newark has nowhere to grow,
and this 42-acre site allows for the
possibility of future industry."
A DIRTY JOB
Like the founder of the company, J.C. Wehrle,
many of the workers in the plant were
immigrants from Croatia, Italy, Poland
and Macedonia. It is estimated at one point,
90 percent of the employees were immigrants.
Local businessman Johnny John said that is
how his father, Dan, an immigrant from
Greece, came to work at the factory, where
he stayed for 30 years. John's five uncles,
many from his mother's side, also worked at
Wehrle and were immigrants from Macedonia.
Dan John was a molder, which was a dirty job,
but it provided an income when times were
tough, Johnny John said.
The younger John also gained an income from
the company. At the age of 10, he would go
to shift through the dumped sand used in the
manufacturing process, looking for scrap metal.
He would take that metal to their nearby home
on Wehrle Avenue in his wagon. He saved it
until he had enough to go to the junkyard.
"My mother was good at having me save that
money," Johnny John said. "I ended up with
$3,000, which I used to buy my first business
when I got out of the Air Force."
Throughout the years, the plant changed names
and products several times. In addition to
stoves, the plant also made safes, electric
stoves and lawn mowers.
The location of the 42-acre manufacturing site
was opportune because of the accessibility of
the railroad track. At one time, part of the
canal system ran right in front of the property.
'A LAVISH PRODUCTION'
Richard Thorton's father and uncle also worked
at Wehrle. He remembers hearing the stories
they had about the factory in the early 1920s.
His father was responsible for counting the
raw materials that came into the plant and the
finished products that left. The company would
make everything, including the wooden crates
and nails to ship them in.
"He (my dad) was always amazed at the railroad
cars full of raw materials and how it ended up
coming out as a finished product," said Thorton,
of Newark. "It was a lavish production."
Thorton also knew A.T. Wehrle and visited his
mansion with his father when work was needed
on the electrical system. Thorton remembers
Wehrle's extensive American Indian artifacts
and gun collection.
"I remember he was somewhat of a recluse,"
Thorton said. "He was nice, just not real
outgoing. You wouldn't know he was a multi-
millionaire. He liked to be in the back shadows."
His father also would talk of the great fire
that burned part of the building. Newark was
devastated by the news as people feared the
company would close, causing great financial
burdens for the city and people in the area.
During one strike, the plant was closed for
about one year, Thorton recalls. During that
time, Chris Doneff started baking & marketing
bread. When the plant reopened, Doneff, who
was from Macedonia, went to A.T. Wehrle and
asked his permission to continue his bread
making.
Wehrle consented, and when Doneff needed a
safe, he again approached Wehrle. But Doneff
never received a bill for the safe. So, when
he contacted Wehrle, the stove/safemaker
denied ever knowing about the safe.
"That was his way to say he appreciated Doneff
for being an entrepreneur," Thorton recalls
from his father's stories.
======================
Timeline
1883: Company started on S. Buena Vista St.,
as the Moser-Wehrle Co. making cast-iron
coal & wood stoves for cooking & heating.
1889: Company moved to what now is Union St.
& Wehrle Ave. near the railroad tracks.
1903: Changed name to Wehrle Co. as brothers
August & Wm. Wehrle bought out John Moser.
After this time, the company became the
largest stove foundry in the world,
turning out 900 to 1,400 stoves per day.
1904: The company became a corporation with
assets of about $1 million. All sales
were from catalogs. The company acquired
the Atlas Safe Co. of Fostoria and made
safes out of the Newark plant.
1919: Large fire destroyed much of plant.
1921: The plant became unionized.
1936: The Florence Stove Co. bought an interest
in the company, & the name was changed to
Florence-Wehrle Stove Co.
1939: Name changed again to the Newark Stove Co.
1941-45: Converted to wartime production shells,
shell casings, land mines, airplane rudders,
bomb bay doors and cargo doors.
1945: Sears, Roebuck & Co. became sole owners
of the plant & manufacturing of electric
stoves began.
1948: Last cast iron was used in products.
1952: Diversification began with addition of
mowers to product line.
1958: Because of a large percent of business
being mowers, the name was changed to The
Newark Ohio Co. The company was the largest
rotary mower manufacturer in the world.
1962: Started manufacturing Whirlpool line
of electric ranges.
1964: Company merged with Geo. D. Roper Corp.,
of Kankakee, Ill.
1969: Workers earned $3.33 per hour.
1975: Roper closed its doors.
1980: Bought by the Mid-Ohio Development Corp.
1996: Crews started demolition of buildings on site.
.
.
--
tonto...@gmail.com
Nikolai Kingsley
> I have a pot belly coal stove excellent condition werhl co.
> can I burn wood in it without damaging it.
the pot belly stove will be fine, as long as the wood isn't
reconstituted particle board with toxic glue holding it together.
> Also it has number 16 where it says werhl company Newark Ohio
Dr Gero.
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Android_16
--
"Sure is a lot of not killing Son Goku going on! You know what would fix
that?"
euclid
> Redevelopment sought at factory site
> grant also would help pay for removal of
> the water tower
That way they blend in with the surroundings more...not such an eyesore.
euclid
Nikolai Kingsley
>> The
>> grant also would help pay for removal of
>> the water tower
>
> Not very imaginative over there.
and keep fish in 'em.
--
"And then there was Twisk, who usually appeared as an orange-haired
maiden wearing a gown of gray gauze. One day while wading in the
shallows of Tilhilvelly Pond, she was surprised by the troll Mangeon. He
seized her about the waist, carried her to the bank, ripped away the
gray gauze gown and prepared to make an erotic junction. At the sight of
his priapic instrument, which was grotesquely large and covered with
warts, Twisk became frantic with fear. By dint of jerks, twists and
contortions she foiled the best efforts of the sweating Mangeon. But her
strength waned and Mangeon's weight began to grow oppressive. She tried
to protect herself with magic, but in her excitement she could remember
only a spell used to relieve dropsy in farm animals, which, lacking
better, she uttered, and it proved efficacious. Mangeon's massive organ
shriveled to the size of a small acorn and became lost in the folds of
his great gray belly.
Mangeon uttered a scream of dismay, but Twisk showed no remorse. Mangeon
cried out in fury: "Vixen, you have done me a double mischief, and you
shall do appropriate penance."
He took her to a road which skirted the forest. At a crossroads he
fashioned a kind of pillory and affixed her to this construction. Over
her head he posted a sign: DO WHAT YOU WILL WITH ME and stood back.
"Here you stay until three passersby, be they dolts, lickpennies or
great earls, have their way with you, and that is the spell I invoke
upon you, so that in the future you may choose to be more accommodating
to those who accost you beside Tilhilvelly Pond."
- Jack Vance, "Lyonesse"
euclid
> He took her to a road which skirted the forest. At a crossroads he
> fashioned a kind of pillory and affixed her to this construction. Over
> her head he posted a sign: DO WHAT YOU WILL WITH ME and stood back.
> "Here you stay until three passersby, be they dolts, lickpennies or
> great earls, have their way with you, and that is the spell I invoke
> upon you, so that in the future you may choose to be more accommodating
> to those who accost you beside Tilhilvelly Pond."
> - Jack Vance, "Lyonesse"
euclid
