Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Union Chair Factory - Messrs Dana & Shipman

Marietta Intelligencer, April 19, 1857

This is one of the most extensive chair Factories to be found anywhere in the West. It was commenced three years ago this spring and completed ready for operation early in the following fall. The principal building, that containing the machinery, is constructed of brick, 60 feet long by 38 wide and three stories high; it is strongly built and well lighted. The machinery is propelled by a single engine of 20 horse power, put up by A. T. Nye & Son, of Harmar. The dry-room, as it is termed, i.e. the place where the lumber is dried, after being sawed into shape, is built directly over the boiler and warmed partly by the heat arising from it and partly by the escape steam, which passes through a series of parallel pipes under the floor. The whole building is also heated in cold weather by steam. 

In the lower story, the rough lumber is cut into the required length and shape for seats, legs, backs &c., preparatory to being consigned to the dry house; and here also, the heavier kinds of turning are done. Among the novelties in this room is a circular saw, known as the concave saw, with the periphery inclined to one side and shaped somewhat like a wooden bowl, for sawing out the backs of rocking chairs. It was formerly the custom to steam and then bend these, but the liability to break was so great that they are now sawn into the proper shape. These concave saws are of comparatively recent invention.

The second story is devoted to machinery for planing, mortising and otherwise finishing the work ready for putting together. There are several curious newly invented machines in this room, which do their work with surprising rapidity and accuracy. Almost every process, from the lumber taken in the rough state till the chair is turned out perfect and complete, is performed by machinery, at a saving of expense which can hardly be calculated. On the third floor the chairs and bedsteads are put together, smoothed off and made ready for the paintshop.

The factory has power and machinery sufficient to enable the proprietors to turn out fifteen hundred chairs per week, when pushed to its utmost capacity. At present, owing to a  scarcity of lumber and other causes, they are manufacturing only about 750 chairs per week and 25 bedsteads. There are in the employ of the Company, at this time, about 75 persons; 50 or 60 of these are employed in or about the factory, and 15 or 20 girls and boys, engaged in cane-bottoming chairs, do their work at home.

The kinds of chairs manufactured are entirely cane and wood seated; but of these there is an almost infinite variety, plain, fancy, arm and rocking chairs, and ranging from $5 to $45 per doz. in price. The bedsteads are of the plainer kind known as the common and cottage bedsteads.

Messrs. Dana & Shipman find market for the greater part of their manufactured articles within fifty or eighty miles of Marietta. The Muskingum Valley trade is almost entirely monopolized by them, and they supply the towns up the Ohio as far as Steubenville, including Wheeling. They also ship a considerable amount to Cincinnati and St. Louis. The home trade we are informed is constantly increasing, and it is their design to foster and encourage it as much as possible.

One fact eminently worthy of note, in relation to this establishment, is, that all the machinery -  and much of it is of a very superior character - was made in this city at the foundries of Owen Franks, and A. T. Nye & Son. The patterns for the machines were designed and made by the ingenious and skilful machinist of the establishment, Mr. H. S. Eddy. Mr. A. S. Dimmock is the prompt and faithful foreman, who has entire charge of the manufacturing department. The finishing department is under the charge of J. M. Eells and F. H. Wesselman, whose work bears good evidence of their experience and taste in this branch.

Besides the main building of which we have spoken, there are three large frame structures - the finishing shop, 60 feet by 30, where the chairs and bedsteads are painted, gilded and varnished - a storage building for unfinished work, 70 by 24 - and an extensive warehouse, 100 by 26 feet, for storing the work that is ready for market.

The lumber used at this factory is poplar, sugar-tree, beach, black walnut and sycamore. It is all derived from this immediate vicinity, and gives employment indirectly to a number of men, in cutting, sawing, and bringing it to town.

Of the character of the work turned out by this establishment, we can safely say that it is much superior to most of that manufactured at the east. The stock is of better quality - the work is for the most part heavier - and it is put together in a much more substantial manner. Their cane-seated office armchairs are decidedly the best we have ever seen; they are made wholly of oak, the back and arms being of one entire piece, the ends bending down in front and fastening in the seat, which gives them great strength and firmness.

The enterprising gentlemen composing the firm, after a hard struggle under many difficulties and embarrassments, are now beginning to reap their reward in the constant enlargement of their business, and in the extended reputation their manufactured articles are acquiring abroad. As we have before stated, they control nearly the whole trade along the Muskingum valley to Zanesville, up the Ohio to Steubenville, and down the river to Cincinnati. This trade, which is daily increasing, they will be sure to retain, while at the same time they are distributing their wares in the far west, and rapidly extending the area of territory which is supplied by their factory. They are now well established, and with their present experience, their energy, perseverance, and good business habits, they must succeed.

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