Racine County

The Elite Laundry is an expression of Racine’s enterprise and business ability. It is the property of the firm of Eager & Dunn and the rapid development of its business is indicative of the progressive methods of the owners. In 1905 the firm of Chapman & Anderson established the Elite Laundry at No. 612 Sixth Street, but after two years the business failed. Several months later the plant was sold to Hess & Williams, who a year later sold to Eager & Dunn. Something of the growth of the business is indicated in the fact that at that time the …

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There are not many hours in which the ring of hammer and steel does not waken the echoes in Racine and the name of the city has become to the outside world a synonym for unflagging industry. Various successful industrial concerns have contributed to the reputation of the city in this regard. The F. J. Greene Engineering Works have been in existence since 1892, when the business was established by Fred and George Hodges under the firm style of Hodges & Son. Two years later, or in 1894, Frederick J. Greene purchased an interest in the business and about 1902 …

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The S. Freeman & Sons Manufacturing Company, one of the foremost business enterprises of Racine, was established in 1867 by S. Freeman, who in a small way began manufacturing and repairing boilers. A few months later he entered into partnership with William E. Davis and opened a little machine shop. In 1868 they admitted John R. Davies to a partnership, at which time Mr. Davies was operating a foundry in the old Star mills, located where the William Pugh coal yards are now found. At that time the firm name was Davies, Freeman & Davis. After a brief existence the …

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The Gold Medal Camp Furniture Manufacturing Company had its inception in a business started by R. B. Lang in 1890 and incorporated in 1892, its first officers being R. B. Lang, president ; William G. Gittings, vice president; and J. G. Teall, secretary. This company manufactures all kinds of camp furniture and outing outfits, although at the beginning the output included only six or seven articles, among which was the Gold Medal Cot invented by Louis Latour. Since that time the output has been extended in its scope until there is no accessory to camp furnishings that cannot be supplied …

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Joseph S. Hartmann, president of the Hartmann Trunk Company, of Racine, was born in Germany, in 1846, and was a youth of sixteen years when he made the long voyage across the briny deep to the United States in 1862. He first settled in New York but afterward made his way- westward to Wisconsin, establishing his home in Milwaukee. A few years later he embarked in the trunk business there under the name of Carpeles-Hartmann & Company, and later removed to Chicago although he established his business in Racine. The Hartmann Trunk Company was organized in November, 1889, and the …

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The Chicago Rubber Clothing Company, with its plant at the corner of Albert Street, the Northwestern tracks and Forest Avenue, controls one of the largest establishments of this kind in the United States. The company has about four acres of ground space, its buildings covering two acres. Two of these are three stories in height, one is two stories and two are one story structures and all are of brick construction, adequately supplied with a sprinkler system. The buildings are well lighted and ventilated and the employees work under sanitary conditions. They employ over two hundred people, fifty per cent …

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The Racine City Bank was organized in 1907 and opened its doors for business on the 25th of January, 1908. Its first directorate included William G. Gittings, who was chosen president: Fred W. Gunther, vice president; Henry N. Bacon, cashier: C. A. Wustum, Chris Slot, E. C. Tecktonius, W. T. Harvey, A. J. Piper, Thomas Hay, W. J. Higgins and G. W. Blythe. There was no change in the personnel of the officers of the bank, a fact which indicates the harmonious relations which have ever existed in the management and the efficiency of those who as officers control the …

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The Racine Electric Company is one of the more recently established enterprises of the County, having been in existence for four years. It was organized in 1912 with Toulie Tolfson as president; John Ruggaber as secretary, treasurer and manager, and William Nelson as director. In the year 1913 Messrs. Tolfson and Nelson sold out and Herbert Van Bree, purchasing an interest in the business, was elected to the presidency. The business was started on Douglas avenue, in a small place, there remaining until the increasing trade caused a removal when larger quarters were secured at the corner of Prospect and …

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Racine is constantly drawing to it new industrial and commercial enterprises. Its development along manufacturing lines within the past few years has been notably rapid and among the concerns which have been started in the city in less than a half decade is that operating under the name of the Racine Hosiery Company, with W. R. Anderson as president, Alexander R. Anderson as manager and treasurer and J. H. Brinsley, secretary. The success of this undertaking was insured from the beginning, for its officers are men of long and broad practical experience in connection with every phase of the knitting …

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With a trade that extends to all parts of the United States, the industry conducted under the name of the Racine Iron & Wire Works is manufacturing household supplies, chemical fire extinguishers, and wire and iron railings and fences. Wherever man has felt a need, ingenuity has sprung into the breach and genius has brought forth something that has met the need. Thus in our constantly developing and complex civilization the manufacturing interests have multiplied and here and there have sprung up cities that. are largely given over to supplying the world’s demand for labor saving devices. Such a concern …

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