Tuesday, December 28, 1999
Butler history, industry linked
A century ago, factories ruled
BY RANDY McNUTT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — By December 1899, Butler County had jumped onto the merry-go-round of the industrial revolution.
From hillsides and neighborhoods, brick factories belched black soot all over Hamilton, the county seat and the self-proclaimed “greatest industrial city of its size in the world.”
At the time, Hamilton and Middletown were the antithesis of agrarian Butler County, which consisted of 138,500 acres of farmland and 40 smaller communities.
“The Great Miami River helped create the power for the industries in Hamilton and Middletown,” said George Crout, a Middletown historian. “In the beginning, the river was the artery of transportation into this re gion. By 1900, industry had used the river to firmly establish itself.”
Industries moved to Hamilton from other areas. Albert-Fisher Manufacturing, a canner and can-maker, moved from Cincinnati, as did the Mosler Safe Co. and Gordon Steam Pump Co. Hamilton was then a city of opportunity, with excellent rail and water transportation available to the factories.
New residents followed the relocating factories. Between 1895 and 1914, Hamilton's population increased from 17,565 to 37,000 and Middletown's from 7,681 to 15,000. Growth would continue for decades, but by the 1980s Hamilton in particular had lost much of its old industrial glory — and jobs.
“In 1900, the industry was tremendous,” Mr. Crout said. “Industry could use the old canal and the river for shipping to Cincinnati. The Great Miami aquifer provided a pure water source for making papers, equaled only by the Connecticut Valley. The water was nearly mineral-free, which provided good raw materials.”
Middletown had paper mills, a tobacco plant and a new factory — American Rolling Mills (Armco). It would become a major employer and develop into the present AK Steel.
About this time, he said, Hamilton and Middletown tried to convert to making automobiles, but they couldn't compete with Detroit. So they settled for making the engines and machinery and producing the steel.
Middletown had “a poor commercial center, and the city still struggles with it,” he said.
In Hamilton, the factory boom echoed even louder with industries such as Black-Clawson (machinery maker), Champion and Beckett paper companies, Hamilton Autographic Register Co., Long and Allstatter (shearing and agricultural machinery), Estate Stove, Hamilton and Miami foundries, Cincinnati Brewing, and Shuler and Benninghofen (proprietor of Miami Woolen Mills).
About 160 industries made 250 products, according to county historian James Blount of Hamilton.
The industries used a hydraulic canal, which consisted of “thousands of pulleys revolving, hammers beating, wheels going around,” former Hamilton resident Laura B. Palmer wrote in 1891, for the city's centennial. “... I viewed with childish wonder these innovations, and joined with my elders in the boast that our rapidly growing city was distancing all others in its race for supremacy.”
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