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CURBSTONEpiCK-UPSby FI H HOFFMANRazing of the plant of the Smith Manufacturing company at Second and Badger streets, recently pur-: chased by the Allis-Chalmcrs com-I pany, removes what was once animportant factory of La Crosse.The Smith Manufacturing company was successor to the firm of Dean, Smith and company, organized in 1861 for the manufacture of\ threshing machines In 1872 Mr. Dean died and W. H. Smith with Henry Merrill of Portage. Wis,; continued the business under the firm name of Smith and Merrill until 1R7C when Mr. Merrill died.The company was then re-organized under the name of Smith Manufacturing company with W. H. Smith, president; Frank E. Smith,1 vice-president, and Burt C. Smith,‘ secretary and treasurer. Upon the death of W. H Smith on March 25, 1892, the company was taken over and operated by the five sons, Frank. Burt. William, Fred and i Charles. Burt was elected presi-! dent, which office he held until July 18, 1933, when he passedaway.Prior to his death for a number of years due to the decline in the | use of wagons in which the ccm-panv specialized, the factory ceased active operations. In the early days, however, the wagons manu-' factured by this concern were 1 known throughout the country- For I a long time after the plant was .f closed there were calls for parts , and these were supplied up to the , ■ sale of the property to the All is-. j Chalmers company.For more than half a century the ,: five Smith brothers met daily in the small office adjoining the plant.t Notwithstanding the fact that theplant was not in operation the brothers met in the office everyfj morning. This continued until thei death of Burt and shortly after-i ward the deaths of Charles and Fred.During the existence of theSmith Manufacturing company thousands upon thousands of wagons. bearing the name of La Crosse, were distributed to all parts of the United States. The concern specialized in wagons foi the useof farmers and even today many of these vehicles are still in use. It was one of the early factories of the city and for many years steadily employed a large number ofI5Ptlayr5men.* * * *
Newspaper Details
La Crosse Tirbune and Leader Press
La Crosse, Wisconsin, US
Sun, Apr 14, 1935
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
La C.
WI, USA 03 Sep 2019
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