The Acme Bolster Roll from Hinde and Dauch

The advertisement above appeared in the book What: Souvenir of Sandusky, Ohio and the Islands of Lake Erie, published by Hill & Dolly, and printed by I.F. Mack and Brother in 1903. The illustrations at the top of the page are for the Acme Bolster Roll, which was a popular item manufactured by Hinde and Dauch in the first decade of the twentieth century. Made of corrugated jute board and weighing only four pounds, it was used a decorating item. It could be covered with fabric to match the bedspread, and gave a neat appearance to the bedroom during the daytime. In another ad from Everybody’s Magazine, Hinde and Dauch offered a free 88 page booklet with hints on home furnishing using the Acme Bolster Roll.

Hinde and Dauch also made gummed security mailing envelopes in the early 1900s, as well as double corrugated paper fillers. The Hinde and Dauch Champion Bottle Wrapper was patented in 1896. The wrapper was used in the shipping of wine and liquor bottles, helping to keep the bottles from breaking during shipment. 

The Hinde and Dauch Company employed many area residents in the first half of the twentieth century.  Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to read more about the historic businesses and residents of Sandusky and Erie County.

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.

A Tribute to Jacob Julius Dauch

A printed tribute to Jacob Julius Dauch is in the historical files of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. J.J. Dauch’s daughter Leola had reprints of a biography of her father which had originally appeared in the National Encyclopedia of American Biography, created to give away to relatives.

The first page of the tribute discussed his parents, as well as his many business ventures, before he became involved in the very successful Hinde and Dauch Paper Company, which was formed in 1900.

Page two goes on to discuss his wife and children, as well as his untimely death on August 15, 1918,

The third page concludes with the words of a man who knew J.J. Dauch. He said of Mr. Dauch, “His strength and simplicity, his power and modesty, is unaffected integrity, stamped him as a citizen which Sandusky could ill afford to lose and one whose loss to his family and relatives is beyond worldly computation.”

Visit the Sandusky Library to learn more about J.J. Dauch and other former residents of Sandusky and Erie County.

Erie County Residents Were Inventive

      

For several decades, the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company was a leading company in the production of corrugated paper products. James J. Hinde is credited with developing the corrugated process that revolutionized the shipping industry in the early 1900s. Below is an advertisement for an early bottle wrapper that allowed products in glass containers to be shipped safely.

The American Crayon Company began with the development of chalk being molded into a stick. Later the company made crayons and other educational products, and provided employment for hundreds of area residents.

Willard A. Bishop was a photographer in Sandusky for many years. (You can see several of Mr. Bishop’s photographs at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.)

He was issued a patent for a copying camera in 1914.

Wilbert G. Schwer was issued Patent Number 1,696,584 on December 25, 1928, while he was associated with the Sandusky Tool Company. His patent related to the improvement of planes.

Though the company went out of business in the late 1920s, planes from this firm are still highly sought after by collectors.

Did any of your ancestors have a patent issued to them? It is easy to search Google Patents by keywords. For example, by putting in the terms "Otto Kromer" and "Sandusky," a search retrieved several patents by Mr. Kromer, a former Sandusky resident who was well known as a machinist in the late 1800s. 

Early Images of the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company

Pictured above are employees of the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company, probably around 1890. In 1888, Jacob J. Dauch and James J. Hinde took over the Sandusky Paper Mill, which was located at the southeast corner of Shelby and Filmore Streets. Both Mr. Dauch and Mr. Hinde had been farmers in Erie County, and they made extra income by baling straw and selling it to the Sandusky Paper Mill for use in making paper from the straw. 

The Hinde and Dauch Paper Company was incorporated in 1900.  That same year, this commemorative medal was presented to Hinde and Dauch at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, for the company’s achievements in the manufacturing of paper products.

Below are several of the company’s employees in 1905 at the Hinde and Dauch factory at the northeast corner of West Water Street and Decatur Streets, known in later years as the Keller Building.

        

The Hinde and Dauch Paper Company became known worldwide as a major manufacturer of corrugated boxes. The Water Street factory had to be re-built in 1906 in order to keep up with the demand for corrugated boxes. 

These Hinde and Dauch employees are seen riding on a truck, in preparation for a parade.

During the years of 1917-1918, the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company built a new factory at the site of the former Woolworth Handle Factory, which was across the street from the Water Street factory on a pier along Sandusky Bay. The general offices remained in the Water Street location.

In 1927, the general offices of the company were moved from the old Water Street factory to a new building at 407 Decatur Street, now home to the Sandusky City Schools Board of Education. In the first half of the 1900s, Hinde and Dauch had factories in several locations throughout the United States and Canada. In 1953, the company was acquired by Westvaco. For most of the 1980s, the company operated as Displayco Midwest, which was bought out by Chesapeake in 1989. The factory closed in 1997. The former Hinde and Dauch building, pictured above, at 401 West Shoreline Drive is now home to Chesapeake Lofts. An article which provides the history of the development of Hinde and Dauch is available online. 

Cora Gated, the Child of Hinde and Dauch

While not human, “Cora Gated” was a female who was often seen in Sandusky in the 1950’s. “Cora Gated” was a trademark of the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company, as seen on this silver lighter, which is now in the collections of The Follett House Museum.

On February 24, 1953,  the company filed for a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  “Cora Gated” was a representation of a woman wearing a cardboard box hat and clothing in the shape of a corrugated box, one of the primary products manufactured by Hinde and Dauch. The trademark was registered on April 27, 1954.

Below are the several design codes associated with the “Cora Gated” trademark, which had the serial number 716442639.

Design Search Code

02.03.16 - Hats (women wearing); Women wearing hats 02.03.26 - Grotesque women formed by letters, numbers, punctuation or geometric shapes 04.07.02 - Objects forming a person; Person formed by objects 19.07.09 - Boxes, bread; Boxes, jewelry; Boxes, take out food; Boxes, tissue; Recipe boxes 26.05.02 - Plain single line triangles; Triangles, plain single line 26.05.13 - Triangles, exactly two triangles; Two triangles 26.05.21 - Triangles that are completely or partially shaded

 “Cora Gated” is no longer an active trademark, but she brings back memories of days gone by

in Sandusky.

Mystery Photo: Hinde and Dauch Employees

Harley W. Hoffman took this photograph of ten female and five male employees of the Hinde and Dauch Division, West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company sometime in the decade of the 1950s. The ladies are all wearing corsages. Everyone is jovial in this picture, and the styles certainly remind us of outfits that our grandparents may have worn. If you can identify any of the individuals in this photo, please leave a message in the Comments section of this post.

9/5/2017:
Followers of the Sandusky History blog and the "You Know You're From Sandusky" Facebook Group have identified some of the people in this picture. In the front row, left to right, are: Ruth Holzhauser, Betty LaFene, and Anna Margaret Buchanan. Second person to the left in the second row is Jane Maddrell. The lady in the hat may be Mildred Pietschman McCrystal, and behind her is Hinde and Dauch employee Gordon Wendt. This is a group of local teachers who were participating in an event called Business-Industry-Education Day, or B-I-E Day, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. Teachers toured area businesses and factories to see firsthand how local companies operated under the free enterprise system. You can read more about this event in the Sandusky Register Star News of November 2, 1953, now on microfilm at the Sandusky Library.

Hinde and Dauch Company Workers

Around 1900 the photographer L.C. Sartorius took pictures of employees of the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company. in the first photograph above we can see that several women worked at the company during this time. The man on the far left is holding a cart that contains a corrugated paper product manufactured at the Sandusky plant.

In the image below we see men posed in a field near a pile of straw. These men might have been responsible for gathering the straw that was used to make the corrugated cardboard in the factory.

This advertisement from Hinde and Dauch appeared on page 20 of  the souvenir booklet entitled What, published by Charles M. Hill and William F. Holly in 1903. Hinde and Dauch products revolutionized the shipping industry in the early twentieth century.

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.

Sales Representatives of the Kroma Color Company

Pictured above are sales representatives of the Kroma Color Company, along with officials from its parent company, the American Crayon Company in about 1941. Carey W. Hord, who had been associated with both companies throughout his long career, is the first man on the left in the front row. The Kroma Color Company had been organized as an independent watercolor company in 1912, and Mr. Hord was appointed its first president. In 1941, the Kroma Color Company became a subsidiary of the American Crayon Company. 

The first Kroma Color plant was on East Market Street. By 1921 the company had outgrown this building and moved to the six-story building (later known as the Keller Building) at the northeast corner of West Water and Decatur Streets, which had formerly been occupied by Hinde and Dauch Company.  

Here is how a portion of the building looked, with several Hinde and Dauch employees, when that company was still on West Water Street.

 

J.J. Hinde and J.J. Dauch, the Men behind the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company

Image of James J. Hinde courtesy of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Fremont, Ohio

James J. Hinde was born in Huron Township, Ohio on March 31, 1855 to Mr. and Mrs. William J. Hinde, who were both natives of Ireland. Jacob J. Dauch was also born in Huron Township, on July 2, 1857, to Philip and Mary Dauch, who were of German descent. In the 1880 U.S. Census, both J.J. Hinde and J.J. Dauch were residing in Huron Township of Erie County, and they both listed their occupation as farmer. In 1888, Hinde and Dauch formed a partnership to harvest and bale straw to be used in paper making. One of their customers was the Sandusky Paper Mill, which made butcher wrapping paper from straw. The paper mill ran into financial difficulty, and after leasing it for a time, in 1892 Mr. Hinde and Mr. Dauch purchased the mill. The company eventually became known as the Hinde and Dauch PaperCompany.  In its early years, the business was not very profitable. After  developing corrugated paper, Hinde and Dauch Paper became a leading company in its field. 

An article in the March 2, 1986 issue of the Sandusky Register stated that J.J. Hinde was the inventor, and J.J. Dauch was the business man in the partnership. Below is a drawing from Patent Number 1,005,836, for a machine for making paper board, designed by James J. Hinde in 1910. The patent was issued on October 17, 1911.

 Eventually the Hinde and Dauch Company became the largest manufacturer of its kind in the United States. There were box factories in several cities of the U.S. and Canada, and paper mills as far west as Iowa. 

In 1910, J.J. Hinde left the Hinde and Dauch Company, in order to pursue other interests. Among his later business interests were the Sandusky Automobile Company, the Hinde Paper Company, and the Hinde Brick and Tile Company. Unfortunately none of these ventures proved to be successful.  Mr. Hinde died from pneumonia on February 22, 1931. In his obituary, found in the 1931 Obituary Notebook at the Sandusky Library, we learn that Henry Ford visited J.J. Hinde, where he showed Ford the first tractor that he had ever seen. Mr. Hinde was known as an ardent conversationalist, and he often spoke fondly of Ireland, the birthplace of his ancestors.

J.J. Dauch became the president of Hinde and Dauch after Mr. Hinde departed.  In the image below, J.J. Dauch is with a group of Hinde and Dauch employees, who were all graduates of the Sandusky Business College; the photo was featured in a promotional booklet for the school. The picture was accompanied by a letter of endorsement for the college on stationery from another business Dauch owned, the Dauch Manufacturing Company.

Mr. Dauch had been a graduate of the college in 1876, when it was known as the Buckeye Business and Telegraph College. In 1881, he purchased the Sandusky Business College, but sold it in 1884. 

Sadly, Mr. Dauch died in an automobile accident on August 15, 1918, at the age of 61. His chauffeur, Harry Hicks, also died in the accident, and Dauch’s wife and daughter were injured. Another injured passenger in the car was J.W. Wellington, the president of the Matthews Engineering Company. 

An article by Tom Twitchell which highlighted the life and career of industrialist J.J. Dauch appeared in the March 2, 1986 issue of the Sandusky Register, available on microfilm at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.  In the article appeared a quote by local historian Gordon Wendt, about J.J. Dauch, “He was the wealthiest man in town, and the most important.”  

In 1953, Hinde and Dauch was acquired by Westvaco. For most of the 1980s, the company operated as Displayco Midwest, which was bought out by the Chesapeake Corporation in 1989. The factory closed in 1997. The former Hinde and Dauch building at 401 West Shoreline Drive is now home to Chesapeake Lofts. An article which provides the history of the development of Hinde and Dauch is available online. Tom Jackson wrote an excellent article for the Sandusky Register covers the Paper District in Sandusky.

Though J.J. Hinde and J.J. Dauch were associated with the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company for a relatively short time, their names live on in the history of Sandusky and the paper making industry. 

The Combined Corrugator and Double Facer at Hinde and Dauch

The invention of the Combined Corrugator and Double Facer used by the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company was attributed to Solomon Sylvester Knisely, who was a mechanical engineer at the company. He began working at H&D in 1905, and retired in 1949 after 44 years of continuous service. Mr. Knisely is the man on the right in the picture below.

      

Two female employees of the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company are pictured at the Combined Corrugator and Double Facer in the 1920s or 1930s.

      

For most of the twentieth century, the Hinde and Dauch Paper Company was a leader in the manufacturing of corrugated paper boxes. Hinde & Dauch Paper Co. was incorporated April, 1900. At the helm of the company in the early years were James J. Hinde and Jacob J. Dauch.  In 1953, Hinde and Dauch was acquired by Westvaco. For most of the 1980s, the company operated as Displayco Midwest, which was bought out by Chesapeake in 1989. The factory closed in 1997. The former Hinde and Dauch building at 401 West Shoreline Drive is now home to Chesapeake Lofts. An article which provides the history of the development of Hinde and Dauch can be found online. Additionally, Tom Jackson wrote an excellent article for the Sandusky Register in May 2010 about Sandusky's Paper District.

Christmas in Sandusky in 1950

A series of pictures featuring holiday decorations in Sandusky’s Washington Park in 1950 is found in the historical collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. The Industrial Nut Corporation sponsored this Santa Claus decoration.      

A large group of singing carolers is seen here in front of faux stained glass windows.

Hinde and Dauch sponsored this candy cane display.

Rudolph and a sleigh full of gifts were sponsored by the Lyman Boat Company.

You can see the Ohio Edison office in the Odd Fellows building behind this large candle display in Washington Park.

The New Departure Division of General Motors sponsored this display of singers.

 Looking through microfilmed issues of the Sandusky Register Star News from 1950, we learn that at the Sears store in downtown Sandusky, shoppers could purchase a recording of their child’s conversation with the store’s Santa Claus. An ad from Cooper Chevrolet on Cleveland Avenue stated that the new 1951 Chevrolet was “America’s largest and finest low-priced car.” The Jaycees encouraged everyone to put a light in every window for the holiday season. Bing’s Furniture sold a wide variety of small and large appliances for the holiday season. The Frankel’s store offered a lay-away service, offering to “keep secrets safe” until the week of Christmas, and the J.C. Penney store in downtown Sandusky was selling men’s bomber jackets for $8.90. Herman’s Furniture advertised Lane hope chests for “a gift that starts the home.”  

District Sales Managers of the Hinde and Dauch Company

On March 25, 1916, Sandusky photographer Edward H. Schlessman took a picture of the District Sales Managers of the Hinde and Dauch Company. The banquet was held at the Sloane House Hotel in downtown Sandusky. In the front row, from left to right are: Pearl Rehfuss, Dean Beery, Russell Whitney, Charles Kiefer, Pete Klotz, Louis Wendt, Henry Squire, George Ranft, D.A. Larkin, L.L. Thigpen. In the back row: Thomas Gagen, Carl Schott, Herbert Orr, Edwin A. Walter, E.J. Eiserman, Fred Emmons, Lawrence D. Morton, Harry Felton, Joe Conley and Charles Roehme. (The three ladies in the picture were not identified.) It appears as though the image of the head of D.A. Larkin was literally cut from another picture, and pasted onto the picture above. Of course this picture was taken long before modern digital photography and photo editing software existed.

The Hinde and Dauch Company operated in Sandusky and several other cities for many years. The company was nationally known in the field of corrugated shipping boxes, and was issued dozens of U.S. patents. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the historic residents and businesses of Sandusky and Erie County.