KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI
GENEALOGY & LOCAL HISTORY
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COUNTY HISTORY PAGE 5
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In the post Civil war era and the early 20th Century many businesses gained wide recognition yet later disappeared. Others like Kalamazoo Cart Co., Allen Buggy and Kalamazoo Corset are less well remembered. click on image to enlarge it
Kalamazoo Corset ad, 1906 click on image to enlarge it
Kalamazoo Cart Company's 1880's one passenger buggy, the "ACME" constructed by "... only skilled mechanics whose craftsmanship cannot be surpassed" with "second-growth timber" and "Swede steel, oil tempered, and warranted" Kalamazoo was home not only to O M Allen Buggy, but a number of wagon and buggy manufacturers, among them Michigan Buggy. In 1886 Michigan Buggy occupied a large factory (see http://www.kpl.gov/history/vfile/01_0297.jpg ) at the southeast corner Porter & East Willard on Kalamazoo's north side where much of the city's industry was located. As late as 1887 Michigan Buggy produced 47,000 units of buggies, wagons and other horse drawn vehicles. Buggy and wagon manufacturers began to face competition from automobile and truck production. In 1909 Michigan Buggy launched its own automobile, the "Mighty Michigan" , but in 1913, the company failed - Kalamazoo, the place behind the products, Massie and Schmidt. click on image to enlarge it
Michigan Buggy ad from Munsey's Magazine for the Michigan automobile Other now defunct companies like Barley Motor Car, manufacturer of the Roamer automobile, and Kalamazoo Stove are still remembered. click on image to enlarge it
Barley Motor Car factory click on image to enlarge it
Other well known Kalamazoo industries included the Gibson Guitar Company, Henderson Ames, Checker Motors, the Shakespeare Company, and Fuller Transmission (acquired by Eaton Corp. in 1958). click on image to enlarge it
The Kalamazoo Stove factory, 1910 click on image to enlarge it
Shakespeare Company , manufacturer of sport fishing equipment back to the topics heading list click on image to enlarge it
Manufacturer of ceremonial uniforms and regalia. The building shown here was located at Michigan Avenue and North Park Street.
click on image to enlarge it Gibson Guitar Orville H. Gibson was born in 1856 Chateaugay, New York. By 1890, Gibson had settled in Kalamazoo and had taken up the hobby of making musical instruments. He worked as a clerk at A.P. Sprague's shoe store at 118 East Main Street, then as a clerk at Butters Restaurant on 216 East Main. .In the 1870's he acquired a small workshop, and began building mandolins based on violin construction techniques. In 1896, Gibson filed for his first and only patent for the construction of a mandolin with a carved top and back, and with sides that were cut from a solid piece of wood rather than being bent from thin strips. Gibson continued to make musical instruments on his own until 1900 when his was approach by businessmen who wanted to manufacture mandolins and guitars following his patented design resulting in The Gibson Mandolin Guitar Manufacturing Company. Gibson, in poor health, sold his patent rights to the company and remained only as a paid advisor. Eventually Gibson returned to New York. He died there in 1918. click on image to enlarge it
A Gibson Guitar and guitar making workbench on display at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, 2004 In 1917, the Gibson company established its manufacturing plant at 225 Parsons Street. The company concentrated on mandolins during the 1920's. In the 1930's and 1940's production shifted to guitars. Gibson Guitar reached its peak in the 1950's and 1960's. In 1981 the company moved to Nashville and closed its Kalamazoo plant in 1984.
However, guitar making continues in Kalamazoo: some former Gibson
employees founded the Heritage Guitar
Company.
LINKS The Melody Maids , all-woman mandolin band was made up entirely of Gibson Guitar Company employees that played in Kalamazoo and surrounding area. click on image to enlarge it
Checker Motors Corp, founded in 1922 by Morris Markin, a Russian immigrant, makes its home in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Markin purchased the Hadley-Knight Chassis Plant and the Dort Body Plant, then produced the first Checker taxicab in June, 1923. Subsequently, Checker Motors produced models other than the taxi: the Checker Limousine, the Landau , and a station wagon that could be converted to an ambulance, During WWII Checker Motors made specialty vehicles, including a few Jeeps. In 1962 Checker rolled out the Marathon, a regular passenger vehicle version of the venerable taxi as both a sedan and a station wagon. The Marathon was a rugged automobile with extra wide doors and a roomy interior. In the 1970's when oil prices began to rise, cab companies began buying cheaper, lighter, more fuel efficient vehicles. On July 12th 1982, Checker Motors Made its last cab, but Checker remains in business as an automotive parts supplier. click on image to enlarge it
A 1982 Checker Cab on display at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum back to the topics heading list click on image to enlarge it
 In the mid-1960s, General Motors built a large stamping plant south of I94 on Sprinkle Road in Comstock Township , but it was closed in 1999. LITTLE BROTHERS FEED AND GRAIN Agriculture became a smaller part of the economy traditional agriculture service businesses such as and Little Brothers Feed and Grain gave way to new companies located further away from heavily populated areas. click on image to enlarge it
The Paper Industry: As the importance of celery diminished, Kalamazoo became known for papermaking: it was no longer the "CELERY CITY", it was the "PAPER CITY". Papermaking was so important that a city in the county, Parchment, was named in honor of the Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company. click on image to enlarge it
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Kalamazoo's papermaking reached its zenith in the 1950's. Fifty years later only a handful of mills remained, but the Kalamazoo River which made the industry possible will retain the discharges forever. click on image to enlarge it
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The KVP research laboratory in 1958. click on image to enlarge it
Superior Paper 1905
Superior Paper 1934 click on image to enlarge it
Rex Paper 1911
Bryant Paper Company 1905
The following article by Maggie Snyder that appeared in the Vicksburg Commercial in February, 2001, tells the story of the Lee Paper Company in Vicksburg. The history of Lee Paper similar to many of the mills in Kalamazoo County:
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