Firm Has Had Rapid Growth During Last 25 Years—Plants at Norwood, Mass.
William Turner Whedon
Few manufacturing firms actively engaged in business today can date the organization of the business back to the birth of the United States. There is one, however, a well-known tanning firm, Winslow Brothers & Smith Co., with large plants at Norwood, Mass., a main office in the heart of the Boston shoe and leather district, and with representation throughout the country. This firm is a large producer of sheep leathers.
While this firm has been tanning leather since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it has registered its greatest growth during the last 25 years, and individual concerns have been merged, making one of the largest sheep leather and wool-pulling organizations in the country« Prominent Norwood citizens have always been connected with the company, and in a recent anniversary issue of the Norwood newspaper two complete pages were given over to the history, growth and personnel of one of its leading industries, that of Winslow Brothers & Smith Co.
Present officers of the firm are Hon. Frank G. Allen, president; Cheney B. Cook, vice-president; Phillip L. Reed, treasurer; William T. Whedon is sales manager, one of the best-known men on the "street,"'who has been with the firm for more than 40 years. Andrew C. Morrow is merchandise manager; Henry Crosby, general superintendent; E. P. Gilliland, superintendent leather department, and A. L. Hill is manager of the Boston store, and supervisor of the company stores.
The president of the company, Hon. Frank G. Allen, is a native of Lynn, having been born there on Oct. 4, 1874. He attended the Lynn public schools and later went to Norwood. Mr. Allen is prominent in state affairs, having been president of the Massachusetts Senate in 1920-21. Despite his large business interests, Mr. Allen is a citizen who has given valuable public service. He was chairman of the Norwood Board of Assessors from 1911 to 1915, inclusive, and of its Board of Selectmen since 1915. In 1918 and 1919 he represented the Eighth Norfolk District in the Legislature. He was active during the World War, serving as chairman of a district draft board in his town and as first vice-president and a member of the executive committee of the Tanners' Council of the United States of America. Besides being at the head of the Winslow Bros. & Smith Co., he is president of the Eastern Leather Co., and a director of the Hub Hosiery Co., a director of the United States Worsted Co., American Trust Co., of Boston, and Norwood Trust Co., of Norwood. He is a member of the Dedham County and Polo Club, the Brookline Country Club, the Algonquin, Exchange, University, Essex Country, Brae-Burn Country, Boston Press Club and Norfolk County Republican Club.
The Norwood newspaper recently sketched the history and growth of Winslow Bros. & Smith Co., as follows:
The pioneer possibly, at least the oldest in continuous existence in this country in the tanning and manufacture of sheep skins, is the Winslow Brothers & Smith Co.; for the year that saw American Independence an established fact witnessed also the beginning of what has grown to be the largest sheepskin industry in the world.
It was Abner Guild, related to the Guilds of Revolutionary fame, who built a modest little tannery near the present site of the Winslow plant, and began the tanning of sheepskins in what was then South Dedham, now Norwood; and when he in 1791 took John Smith, a lad of seven years, as an apprentice, he little realized that he was training a successor to the business, who would start it on its broadening career and hand it down to several generations of posterity.
It was a happy fortuity that early in the nineteenth century brought to this tannery George Winslow, at the age of 18 years, born in Brewer, Me., who had served an apprenticeship in the tannery of one David Guild, at Roxbury, Mass., for he married John Smith's daughter and thus paved the way to a later partnership under the name of Smith & Winslow, which proved to be the real beginning of the remarkable development of this industry.
In 1831 John Smith retired and was succeeded by his son, Lyman Smith.
In 1853 the firm dissolved and Lyman Smith with his two sons, John E. and Charles L., built a tannery about a mile away at the east end of the town, opposite what is now Norwood Station, operating under the name of Lyman Smith's Sons, and later in 1890 was incorporated under Massachusetts laws as Lyman Smith's Sons Co., composed of John E. Smith, Charles L. Smith, Marcus M. Alden, Charles E. Pond, William T. Whedon and C. Henry Woods.
Upon the dissolution above referred to, George Winslow & Sons continued at the old location.
In 1860 George Winslow retired and was succeeded by his sons, Elisha F., George S., Martin M. and Francis O., operating under the name of Winslow Brothers. Of these brothers Martin M. retired in 1881, Elisha F. died in 1884, leaving George S. and Francis O. constituting the partnership of Winslow Brothers.
In 1895 George F. Willett acquired a controlling interest in this business, associating with him Edward C. Mills, who later retired.
In 1901 the Winslow & Smith concerns consolidated and again as originally became one, incorporating under Massachusetts laws in the name of Winslow Brothers & Smith Co., the two tanneries being known and operated as the Winslow and the Smith plants respectively.
Since that time the development has been truly phenomenal, for by the process of natural growth and the absorption of other concerns the company has enlarged and increased its productiveness and widely extended its operations.
In 1906 the company took over the business of the Morrill Leather Co., occupying a large tannery at Peabody, Mass. This company was organized in 1887 by Charles E. Morrill, who began the sheepskin business in 1865, succeeding his father, Levi Morrill, who started a successful sheepskin business as far back as 1836. In 1890 Roland M. Baker became president of the Morrill Leather Co., and Levi Morrill, (son of Charles E.), at the age of 17 years, became treasurer. Mr. Morrill died in 1903, and Mr. Baker became president and treasurer, and upon the acquisition of the business by the Winslow Brothers & Smith Co., he was made it's president, but retired in 1908.
Frank G. Allen thereafter became president of the company and continues to occupy the position at the present time.
With all the affiliated plants the capacity production of sheepskins is tremendous, and for such a production demanding sheep of every kind and variety, not only our own, but every sheep-producing country, is drawn upon and the purchasing facilities of the company are established in practically every supply market in the world. To market and distribute this large product, sales headquarters are not only maintained at the tanneries, but the company operates stores in Boston, New York and Chicago.
Besides manufacturing sheepskins in all tannages and in every vanety of finish for the multitudinous demands where sheepskins are used, the company operates a plant at Norwood under the name of the Brandt Leather Co., for manufacturing cut hat leathers, which product is distributed not only among the hat manufacturers of this but of foreign countries as well.
While primarily manufacturing raw sheepskins into leather the company has at the Winslow plant a large wool pullery with complete equipment for scouring and carbonizing wool. The importance and size of this part of the business of the concern may be realized in the fact that the company is one of the largest, if not the largest, handler of pull wools in the country.
To carry on the tremendous interests involved, the business is divided into various departments, each, under managerial heads and under the general supervision of the president.
The company has been a leader in its solicitude for the well-being of its employees, as evidenced in its being the first in the tanning business to voluntarily inaugurate the nine-hour day, while at the same time it has introduced profit sharing among the employees, and furnishes first-aid service, lunch rooms, clean and sanitary buildings and up-to-date equipment.
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