Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-11-27
CoRREspoNDENcE.

! EDITOR REPORTER in Mann
towoc recently, through the kindness O
Mr.. H. F. Hubbard, general manager
we were shown through the mammoth
establishment of the Manitowoc Manu-
featuring Co., where is made all kinds
and descriptions of school and church
furniture, opera house chairs, hall and
| 4. K. settees, store stools, type cases,
bank and office fittings, etc., and think
| ing it might interest some readers of the
Reporter" to hear something of the
establishment from which came the fur
niture of our new Unity church, also
where the building committee of the NJ
E. church have made arrangements for
the furnishings of their beautiful new
edifice now in course of erection. I
send you a meagre account of our visit.
| can give but faint idea of its vast
ness. 1t must be seen and travelled
through, as we did, before any correct
idea can be obtained. 1t is a little world
of its own, veritable "hive of ofindustry''
where never drone is found, but all
are "rushers,'' each in his own particu-
lar sphere or cell.
| From this company can be obtained
any thing and every thing in the line of
school furnishings from slate-pencil,
slate, black-b board, chart or globe, to the
most elegantly carved library desk;
from cushioned foot-stool to the most
elaborately upholstered opera chair;
| the pla1nest church pew up through the
different grades of panneled and veneer
ed, to the exquisitely carved and up
holstered pulpit and pulpit chairs.
We first entered the room where is
taken the lumber in the rough, just as
it comes from the mill, and followed it
through the different apartments, plain
ing, saving, glueing, sand-papering,
carving, painting and finishing, coming
out in the packing room, where all are
neatly bound together, packed in strong
ironbound cases, marked and put on
board the cars. We were also taken
into the moulding room, where twenty
moulders, with long handled, iron lined
ladies' were dipping the red-hot liquid
ore into the various moulds from
| which were to be taken the castings
forming different parts Of the iron work
of the furniture manufactured in the
establishment.
This company sends goods to all parts
Of Lo TT,,i&ol i, l.
attest for the reliabiability of the
firm, also farther than this, for while we
were there they were filling an order
for twenty carload of school furniture
going to the Chilian government, as was
an order for furnishing a church in
| Louisiana and one in northern Michigan,
showing how rapidly christianity and
education is spreading through the
length and breadth of our land.
This company succeeds to the business
of Hubbard & Noble, and has been un-
der its present management only about
two years and is already overwhelmed
with orders, which shows what hold
this firm have upon the confidence of
the public. Their buildings occupy one
whole block, one side lying along the
r. r. track, where cars are brought to
the doors for filling.
They have new Corliss engine of
the most improved pattern. capacity
$50 horse power, two boilers of one
hundred horse power each. The driv-
ing wheel fourteen feet in diameter,
with twenty-six foot face and weighs
| ten tons.
They have in their employ 250 men,,
some of them such as carvers, moulders
and machinists are very high priced.
Their monthly payroll amounts TO a
disbursement of 81 800, and their ship
ments average about sixty carloads of
finished goods per month.
If patrons of the "Reporter" or any
persons at any time be called to pass
through Manitowoc in their wanderings
they would be more than repaid for
their delay, by remaining in town long
enough to "do" this establishment from
office to engine room. They will always
find obliging clerks and assistants whose
duty and delight it is to show visitors
through this wonderful "hive" and ex-
plain to them all its parts and workings.
Mrs. A. S. ROBINSON.