Iron Skillet Made in Sandusky

This iron skillet, now housed at the Follett House Museum, was created at the Co-Operative Foundry in Sandusky, Ohio. The top of the handle of the skillet featured an opening for ease of storage in one’s home kitchen.

          

The Co-Operative Foundry was located at the southwest corner of Water and Shelby Streets in the 1890s and early 1900s. In 1900, the president of the company was John J. Molter, who once served as Sandusky’s Postmaster, and later as its Mayor.

According to the 1900 Sandusky City Directory, the Co-Operative Foundry employed founders and machinists. The company specialized in brass and grey castings, and also did blacksmithing “in all its branches.” The 1893 Sanborn Map shows the exact location of the Co-Operative Foundry:

A brief article in a 1906 issue of the Foundry magazine stated that the Co-Operative Foundry and Machine Company had been taken over by the Sandusky Foundry and Machine Company, later known as Sandusky International, and now the Sandusky International Division of MetalTek International.