A. W. Stevens Factory

They raised $300,000 of local investment money despite
depression conditions and purchased the A. W. Stevens Company,
which had been established in 1842 at Auburn, New York, for the
manufacture of engines, threshers, and farming implements of all
kinds.

The Stevens firm needed modern facilities to replace its
56-year-old factory built long before the Civil War, and the aging
Stevens heirs welcomed the Marinette offer. Most of the $300,000
was spent for a mammoth new plant of brick on a 15-acre site along
Pierce Avenue between the present Daggett Street and Cleveland
Avenue. Gleaming steam-powered machinery soon was turning out the
Stevens line of familiar farm products while research was begun on
new items to widen the line.

A catalog in the possession of Carl Erickson of Menominee even
found its way to the Erickson family farm in Sweden, where little
Carl never dreamed he would someday be employed to tear down the
sprawling structure four decades later.

Several key Stevens employees made the move to Marinette, but
the founding family stayed in New York State, content to wait for
dividends on $355,200 in stock they received for their equity. Most
of this was for patents, customer lists and good will.

No accurate record survives of the actual employment at the
Stevens plant in Marinette, but it was substantial for a few years.
When announced by the local committee, the firm was predicted to
provide employment ‘the year round. . .for five-to-six hundred
skilled mechanics and laborers.’

Success of the stock drive probably was responsible for creation
of the ‘Marinette Advancement Association’ in 1900 to seek
other opportunities. This group was headed by banker William Brown
as president, and timber and land dealer George W. Taylor as
secretary.

As usual, lumber king Isaac Stephenson, whose pride in his
community was evident on every hand, set the pace for the Stevens
stock drive with an investment of $55,000. Three other leading
lumbermen were next on the list with purchases of $27,500 each.
They were Fred Carney, John Witbeck and A.C. Merryman.

Logging and lumber money continued to be represented in the
following subscriptions: Lewis Gram, $10,000; Mrs. Maby Parent,
$11,000; H. C. Higgins, $5,500; which was matched by Caleb
Williams, Michael Corry, J. A. Van Cleve, I. K. Hamilton and
Lauerman Bros. The Lauermans had not yet moved to Dunlap Square,
but were prospering on Main Street.

In a day when thirty dollars a month was the usual wage for
woods and mill workers, other stock subscriptions also were
impressive. They included C. R. Johnston, $4,500; Gus Reinke,
$3,300; Bertha Merryman, W. A. Brown and C. S. Brown, $2,800 each;
Watson Bros. & Hitchcock , hardware merchants, $2,700; G. W.
Hanley and W. S. Baker, $2,200 apiece as well as W. E. Daggett and
Michael Bohman, $1,500 each.

Wider community participation in the fund drive is shown by
subscriptions of eleven hundred dollars apiece by Dr. W. W. Squire,
Lindem and Miller, George Ridsdale, J. F. Hancock, D. J.
McAllister, N. P. Jacob-son, Frank E. Noyes, Mrs. A. E. Mountain,
M. J. Culnan, J. K. Wright, James I. Scott, Otto Lantz, E. H.
Schwartz and Lauritz Anderson.

Pledges of $700 to $1,000 were made by C. J. Swanson, C. E.
Shields, August Westlund, Gilbert Estate, Charles Reinke, Dr. G.
Fred Colter, F. G. Fernstrum, Anna Eastman and E. C. Eastman.

Completing the stock subscription list were $500 investments by
Dr. Frank Gregory, W. A. Dennis, Ira Buck, W. E. Cleary, Quinlan
and Daily, Kirmse and Schutt, C. A. Lind, Amos Holgate, Ella Brown,
S. and H. Freidstein, August Westlund, C. I. Saxton, J. E. Utke,
Gustave Zeratsky, S. H. Johnson and Andrew Peterson.

This cross-section of Marinette’s civic leadership chose
John A. Van Cleve, president of the Stephenson National Bank, as
president of the firm, with A. C. Merryman, head of several
enterprises, vice president, and G. W. Hanley, operating manager of
the Boom Company, secretary.

All of these individuals were among the ablest and most
successful businessmen in the community, but the Stevens enterprise
ran into major difficulties within a few years and most of original
investments were lost.

Not until the Enstrom Helicopter stock drives of twenty years
ago was the community prepared to back another job-creating dream
on such a wide scale. However, after several changes of ownership,
Enstrom remains in business.

The two-story brick factory built for Stevens was taken over
shortly before World War One by the Kreiter Piano Company of
Milwaukee, which turned out a line of quality standard and player
pianos until about 1931, when the Great Depression and the
popularity of radio broadcasting killed the market for pianos
temporarily.

The building gradually fell into disrepair and was stripped of
its machinery and other equipment. For a few years, it served as
the site of a hockey rink for local teams and casual skaters.

As recently as 1941, the Chamber of Commerce was offering the
building to industrial prospects and landed one a glove
manufacturing firm from Milwaukee, which held government orders.
Some community members were critical when the property was sold to
the newcomers for $10,000, but soon changed their tune when state
representatives ruled it was unsafe.

The building was dismantled brick by brick for use in erecting
the modern one-story structure now located at the southeast corner
of Pierce Avenue and Daggett Street. After years of use by the
glove making concern under the management of Harmon Juster, the
building was purchased by the Ansul Company to house some of its
operations.

Despite the disappointment of that first venture more than eight
decades ago, a drive through Marinette’s flourishing industrial
park organized by the present Chamber of Commerce a quarter century
ago testifies to the resilience and optimism of those pioneers’
successors.