Erie County Companies Contributed to the War Effort During World War II

Many of you might know about Erie County's contribution to the production of war munitions during the Second World War. From 1941 to 1945, the Trojan Powder Company manufactured explosives at the Plum Brook Ordnance Works, five miles south of Sandusky in Perkins Township. It is estimated that over a billion pounds of ordnance was manufactured at the complex. The PBOW News, an employee newsletter, was discussed in an earlier blog post.

Several other companies in the Sandusky area also contributed to the war effort during the 1940’s. Charles E. Frohman, a Vice President of the Hinde & Dauch Paper Company, was chairman of the War Savings Program for Erie County in 1941-1942, and was a member of the Sandusky Appeals Panel of the War Manpower Commission in 1944-1945. In December, 1946, Mr. Frohman sent out several letters to Sandusky factories inquiring about their involvement in war production, as requested by the Ohio War History Commission.

Mr. E.C. Trausch, from the advertising department of Apex Electrical Manufacturing Co., answered Mr. Frohman’s request with a three page document that itemized the many products manufactured by Apex’s Sandusky plant between 1942 and 1945. Over $21 million of materials were manufactured by the local Apex plant during World War II.

The Klotz Machine Company manufactured bearings, castings, and grinders during the war.

The Union Chain & Manufacturing Company of Sandusky assisted in the design of the special track necessary for LVT amphibious tractors, and built a variety of sprocket chains and sprockets for several different military applications. Just a portion of the military items built by Union Chain are listed below.

The Barr Rubber Products Company manufactured inflatable life rafts, airplane fuel tanks, rubber fittings for tanks, pilot balloons, and gaskets and rubber coated wheels, which netted over $5 million dollars during wartime. The Hinde & Dauch Company was one of the leading suppliers of packaging for war materials and supplies. Special types of packaging were designed to meet overseas shipping requirements. Packaging had to be created that could withstand the weather of arid deserts, as well as tropical beaches and jungles. The Sandusky factory of the Hinde & Dauch Company produced 132,633,235 square feet of V-board and fabricated 14,368,000 packages, which carried everything from beer to bullets. 

Brown Industries produced heavy duty gasoline and diesel engine manifolds and cylinder heads. Employees of Brown Industries averaged more than 60 hours of work per week during the war years, in order to meet the orders needed for the war effort. Oliver F. Rinderle discussed his company’s war experience in his letter, “The greatest satisfaction experienced by us was in having our customers tell us at the end of the war that none of them had ever failed to maintain promised shipping schedules of their products due to failure on our part in meeting their demands upon us.” 

Several additional letters from Sandusky factories describing contributions to the war effort are available for research in the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

Barr Rubber Products

Barr Rubber Products began in Lorain, Ohio in 1920, with Nelt Barr serving as the company’s president. In 1923, the company moved its operations to Market Street in Sandusky. The company began as a balloon manufacturing plant, but soon it branched out into the manufacturing of balls, pet toys, and other quality rubber products. Not long after the business suffered a disastrous fire in 1928, the company moved to the site of the former Dauch Manufacturing Company in the 1500 block of First Street. During World War II, Barr Rubber switched its operations to the war effort.

Gaskets, fuel tanks, and rubber life rafts were some of the items made at Barr Rubber during the 1940s. An advertisement in the Sandusky Register Star News of September 22, 1943 stated that
Barr Rubber Products was adding a “Victory Shift.” It was intended to be a part time job for people that already were working a full time job. The Victory Shift ran for five hours a night, for five nights a week. Products made included parts for bombers, life rafts, self-sealing oil tanks and bullet cores for machine guns.

After the war, the company branched out into making rubber components for boats and automobiles, besides producing a wide variety of balloons and recreational balls. These are just a few of the types of products made at Barr Rubber in 1965:

This page from a 1973 Barr Rubber Products catalog shows the clever retail displays that could house the toys made by Barr Rubber:

In 1965 Barr Rubber Products became a subsidiary of Lancaster Colony Corporation. An article in the February 4, 2007 issue of the Sandusky Register reported that the company’s Sandusky factory closed in 1986 following declining sales. Though it is no longer in existence, Barr Rubber Products provided employment for hundreds of local residents, and sold recreational products throughout the United States.

At Work in Sandusky

Celebrated in the U.S. since 1882, Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is dedicated “to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” The men in the photograph above were employed by Lay Brothers Fisheries in the 1930s. The crew was on a fishing boat, pulling up nets from Sandusky Bay. In the historical photograph collection at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center are a wide variety of images of local residents pictured in the workplace. 

Several men and women who were employed at Hinde and Dauch can be seen in the 1905 picture below.

The ice industry provided many area residents with jobs in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

During World War II, employees at Barr Rubber made life rafts for the war effort.

In the picture below, taken sometime between 1910 and 1915, are members of the Sandusky Chapel of the Typographical Union employed by the Sandusky Register. Maybe their vehicles were decorated for a Labor Day celebration!

 

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to see many more vintage pictures of the people who called Sandusky and Erie County home.

Women Worked for the War Effort at Barr Rubber Products Company (Women's History Month)

From 1923 until 1986, the Barr Rubber Products Company was a leading manufacturer of quality rubber products in Sandusky, Ohio. During World War II, several products were made for the nation’s war effort. Two women employees of Barr Rubber are pictured below making rubber gas tanks for B-29 bombers.

The company also made rubber life rafts for the war effort.

An article in the March 25, 1944 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News described the life rafts that were made in Sandusky. The rafts were used by aviators during World War II. At first the rafts appeared to be cushions, but when airmen jumped from a plane, the cushions inflated to become life rafts. Included on the raft were a sail, bailing bucket, an anchor, paddles and a first aid kit, along with distilled water and sea markers. In March of 1944 several Sandusky High School students who were facing possible military service used a life raft made by Barr Rubber Products during a series of physical fitness and lifesaving classes conducted by Coaches Howard Ziemke and Howard Caldwell.