Author Archives: Colby

JB went to work on the opportunity. The Waynesburg plant had a well-equipped machine shop and some skilled machinists experienced in extrusion die making. After months of trial and error, they had enough success to make some trial pieces. These trials at The Timken Company, using hollow tile materials, failed as the hot tops broke apart and flaked off with filled with the 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit molten steel. The ceramic material in the hot tops had to be modified to withstand the heat shock of the molten steel. JB and his people came up with a suitable raw material mix and the next trials at Timken were successful.

The Whitacre-Greer hot top then faced a new problem. Al Turner had been issued several hot top patents and was the major supplier of hot tops. He used many leased factories to produce the product. Turner wrote to The Timken Company threatening legal action against Timken for using our hot tops, which Turner maintained infringed his patent or patents. Whitacre-Greer turned this matter over to DD and his Case classmate Fred Bosworth. After examination of the Turner patents, Bosworth wrote to Turner stating that the WG hot top did not infringe his patents and that if Turner did not immediately cease threaten gin our customer, Timken, WG would sue Turner for damages. We heard no more from Turner and WG was in the hot top business.

By the end of the period, as with many new processes, the successful extrusion, heat shock resistance and size control of the new WG hot tops were not consistent enough for the company to be more than marginally profitable.

Hot Tops

The automobile business had grown enormously from the start of the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Better car manufacturing required higher quality steel for critical parts. The Republic Steel Corporation and the Timken Company plants in Canton, Ohio, were among the early leaders in the United States in the development of specialty steels by adding various allow elements. Steel plants used substantial amounts of a variety of clay refractory products in melting, pouring and heat-treating steel products. Art Estep asked his friend Pete Daly, who was in charge of the Timken melt shop, “What products do you use that we might make at our Waynesburg factory?” The most promising was the single use clay “hot top.” One hot top was required on top of every ingot mold filled with molten steel. Daily use of the hot tops was in the hundreds in each mill.

Hot tops were typically either round or approximately square hollow tubes, 15 to 30 inches square, 20 inches long with a wall thickness of 2 inches to 3 inches. The ingot mold was cast iron to promote rapid solidification of the molten steel by a high rate of heat transfer from the steel to the mold. The hot top was inserted 3 inches to 5 inches into the top of the mold. It had a slow heat transfer, keeping the metal molten and allowing this metal to flow down into the ingot and fill the centerline cavity created as the steel shrunk, while solidifying in the ingot. Up until this time, sewer pipe presses were used to form clay hot tops. Could these shapes, 20 to 30 inches in diameter, be formed on a 15-inch diameter auger extrusion machine that compressed the extruded column 15-inch into a smaller shape? It hadn’t been done to date and was no easy task.

The last few months have been filled with highs and lows as construction played out.  Now, take a look! We’re still working out some of the kinks, but the renovated kiln is running! Thus far we’ve produced 4x8x2-1/4 Bevel Lug shade 30. Test runs of additional colors will be produced in coming weeks. In addition to renovating the kiln, the project included two new transfers, new kiln cars, dryer improvements and modifications to the production and unloading/packaging areas. Thus far we’re extremely pleased with the results. Enjoy!

John’s story continues:

The many miles of underground mines at Waynesburg, Magnolia and Malvern were a large fixed cost for the company. The electric power bill to keep the water pumped out of the mines was too expensive to continue. The Ohio Department of Mines supervised the mines’ closing by blocking the entrances at the Waynesburg plant. For two years, the water pressure built up and finally broke through and flooded the plant. Since then, the water has drained from the mines opening. From then on, the coal and clay were obtained by surface mining.

The size of the fireproofing tile operation had grown and a substantial cadre of technical, management and salespeople were needed in the business. When the business stopped, JJ’s children did not accept the urgency of cost reduction and JJ himself went to all the salaried people and laid them off. He then gave these instructions to his children, “John, you run the factory. Art, you take care of sales. Donald, you keep the books.”

There was little fireproofing business remaining. The stack brick business and 8 x 8 x 16 salt glaze foundation tile business continued, hardly enough for even a small plant operation. Finding new products was the order of the day.

During this period, JB married Augusta Lines and they had two children, John B., Jr., born in 1926 and Ann, born in 1928. DD married Eddy Crane and had two children, Bette, born in 1925 and Daniel Crane, born in 1927. Kate and Art Estep never had children. JB build and lived in a house east of the mansion and DD and the Esteps lived near each other on Ridgeview, a road between Canton and Waynesburg.

On “Black Tuesday,” October 24, 1929, the stock market crashed. The Great Depression started. Before the 1932 presidential election 15 million people, or 25 percent of the American work force, were unemployed. Eleven million banks had failed, with $2 billion worth of deposits wiped out. Fortunes were wiped out and death by suicide was common.

The fireproofing tile business was ended for good, although few realized it at the time. When large building construction began again 10 years later, there would be a cement plant located about every 200 miles and poured reinforced concrete would be the material of choice for buildings. Business stopped abruptly for the Whitacre-Greer Fireproofing Co. Substantial bank debt remained from the prior factory expansions. With the bleak outlook, JJ arranged for the sale of the Chicago plant to the National Fireproofing Company, a Pittsburgh-based corporation with 18 factories, including ones in Waynesburg and Magnolia. JB opposed the sale. Board minutes read, “Due to the action of JB, JJ changed his vote.” WG did not sell.

The Chicago Heights plant was then sold to CC Whitacre for his stock and enough cash to pay off the bank debt. CC’s wife, Sybil, had other income from Oklahoma oil interests that helped buy the plant and provide working capital for their new company. A few years later, she saw the futility of continuing to finance the venture that then went bankrupt. CC’s son Elson was electrocuted at the auction of the Chicago factory. Another of CC’s sons, Corwin, was a contemporary of DD Whitacre and also graduated from Case School of Applied Science. Corwin was a successful owner and manager of a plastics business in Chicago.

In 1920, the Volstead Act made Prohibition the law of the land. The Whitacres were ‘wets,’ except JJ’s wife, Cora, who was a ‘dry.’ Some time and energy were spent in the 1920s to provide beer and liquor for the family group. I was born May 22, 1926.

JJ customarily spent the winter in Miami. He had become increasingly deaf, which was a great frustration, as he was unable to participate in the political process to the extent he would have liked. In the words of his son-in-law Art Estep, JJ didn’t start to ‘enjoy life’ until Art introduced him to the pleasures of golf in the morning and the racetrack in the afternoon in Florida. JJ was interested in the horses and came up with some can’t-miss betting schemes that in practice did miss. One year they were successful, when Art subsidized a ‘timer’ who would go to the track at 5 a.m. and time the horses working out. Several days later when the horses ran, the betting was successful enough to finance a week’s stay at The Greenbrier on the trip home.

The prosperous economic times of the 1920s brought on a shortage of railroad cars. Whitacre-Greer felt the the location of its factories on the Tuscarawas branch disadvantaged WG in obtaining cars, as it was more difficult and expensive for the Pennsylvania Railroad to service the branch, compared with factories located on the mainlines. We hired an investigator whose sole work for the year was to report car deliveries weekly to our factories versus factories on the mainlines going through Alliance and Dover. With this persuasive data, we filed a complaint with the Interstate Commerce Commission, which regulated railroads. The ICC issued a ‘cease and desist’ order against the Pennsylvania Railroad, ensuring our factories received a fair share of the available cars. When we get to the chapter on the 1950s, we will see how this order again helped the company.

JJ observed the start of the great Florida building boom of the 1920s and saw an opportunity for extensive sales of fireproofing. When he returned to Ohio, he leased many factories to make fireproofing, booked orders, and made and shipped tile by the railroad. Before long, customers complained that tile were not being delivered. A check with the railroad revealed 150 boxcars of fireproofing tile backed up in Cincinnati, with no possible way of getting the cars to Florida in a timely manner with existing facilities. The problem was unsolvable in the short term, so the ventured ended with Whitacre-Greer buying back the leases on the plants it had leased.

Many wonderful families contributed to the company’s success over the years. The Dagenhards, the Williams and the Costellos are just a few. Their stories follow:

Joe Dagenhard was the underground mine boss. He was Irish. Joe and his brothers were renowned barroom fighters. Fifty years later, Joe attended a Magnolia/Navarre high school football game and became involved in a fight. Joe had both hands around a man’s throat and was pounding the man’s head on the ground. After several men separated them, Joe was heard to say as he walked away, ‘Don’t ever go to a game in your slippers, you can’t put the boots to them.’

During Prohibition JB, Joe and Jack Williams went to Cleveland to see an Indians game. Preparation for the trip included a visit to Dr. Bunkers in Magnolia, where each man was provided with a bottle to help him enjoy the trip. An exciting play at this game caused all the fans to stand and Joe’s bottle fell and broke. The memory of this massive Irishman standing with tears streaming down his face remained with my father for his lifetime. Joe’s son Ned succeeded him as mine boss after World War II. His other son John will be prominent in the hot top years. Dr. Bunker was the father-in-law of Fred Morrow, who joined Whitacre Greer after World War II.

Jack Williams was a pug mill operator and then plant superintendent during the years of the clay hot top development. His son Bob was shipping foreman in Magnolia and Waynesburg after World War II. Bob’s daughter Cheryl became an officer at the Bank of Magnolia.

Bill Costello was setting gang boss at Magnolia. His son Mike succeeded him at that position. Another son Nick worked at the Magnolia plant office after World War II and became a face brick salesman and sales manager. Nick died tragically of a heart attack in the early 1970s, while officiating a college basketball game. Another brother Vince was middle linebacker for the Cleveland Browns for 10 years. Vince was generous with his time and always gracious to Whitacre Greer employees and customers. Vince said to me one time, ‘When I first came to the Browns, I was fast and strong, but did not know where to go. When I retired, I knew where to go, but couldn’t get there anymore.’ This is instructive in matters other than football.

John’s story continues:
When JB returned from France and was mustered out of the Army, he brought a piece of ordnance, a Thompson submachine gun. From time to time, he would clean the weapon and test fire it. Reports were that the test firing of the weapon coincided with periods of serious labor unrest at the factory. In 1954, we learned that possession of this weapon was illegal and donated it to the Carroll County Sheriff’s department. In 1995 John III, working with Carroll County Sheriff Lucas, arranged for the sale of the weapon for $10,000, with the money to be spent on the department’s needs.

JJ’s older son, JB, graduated from Case School of Applied Science in 1914 with a degree in mechanical engineering. In World War I, JB served in France as a first lieutenant in ordnance. He served with skilled engineers, machinists and maintenance personnel and some of them returned with him to Whitacre-Greer after the war. He came home without much respect for the French, but respected the technical abilities of the Germans.

November 11 was his favorite holiday for the rest of his life.

JJ’s daughter, Kate, married Art Estep in 1915. Art attended Dartmouth Collage for three years, where he was a football player of note, receiving honorable mention on Walter Camp’s All-American team. In World War I, Art joined the Navy and was an ensign stationed in Key West, Florida. One of his duties was to search incoming German citizens. He reported the only excitement was a brief uproar from Washington the he ordered the search on a Mrs. Busch who was an heir to the Anheuser-Busch brewery fortune.

JJ’s younger son, DD, served only a few months in the Army in the U.S. before pease was declared. When World War II broke out, DD enlisted as a naval officer and served four years. He also graduated from Case School of Applied Science with a degree in electrical engineering. He was a gifted student as described to me by his classmate and longtime WG patent attorney Fred Bosworth. “In the evening, your uncle would come by as we did our calculus homework, look at the problem, write out the answers and go to a show while the rest of us spent hours trying to arrive at the same answers.”

JJ believed that all he could give his children that couldn’t be taken from them was an education. JB attended Harvard Business School for one year, then got married and did not complete the course. Kate went on and received a master’s degree from Western Reserve University and Art took engineering classes at Case School at this time. JB, DD and Art took positions with the Whitacre-Greer Fireproofing Company.

Pictured: (top to bottom) Art Estep, Donald Whitacre and John Whitacre Sr

Hollow tile known as fireproofing continued to be the material of choice for large major buildings such as the Merchandise Mart in Chicago and the Cleveland Hotel and Union Commerce Building in Cleveland. The economy and building were strong and the Whitacre Fireproofing Company grew and prospered. The Waynesburg factory was enlarged to 50 kilns, named Plants 1 and 2, which was then the largest factory of this type in the country.

The Whitacre Engineering Company was formed to provide engineering and detail work for complex fireproofing construction required to provide tile cladding for the steel work, as well as floors and partitions for very large multistoried buildings.

In 1914, the company purchased the Pittsburg and Malvern Paving Brick Company in Malvern, Ohio, a 33-kiln factory, which was known as Plant 3. This factory was converted to the manufacture of fireproofing tile. The Malvern plant mined its clay from a surface mine located in a bog on the Caldwell farm. A narrow gauge railroad was build from the mine to the plant. An underground mine was also started to provide additional coal and clay for the fireproofing products.

Plant 4 was a fireproofing plant acquired in Chicago Heights, Illinois, to better serve the large and growing Chicago market. This plant featured a continuous kiln. Clay and shale were mined with a shale planer from an adjoining hill.

In 1916, the Whitacre Fireproofing Company merged with the Greer-Beatty Clay Company, which had an 18-kiln factory south of Magnolia, Ohio, afterwards known as Plant 5. This plant was on the east side of Route 542 across the street from the original JJ Whitacre plant, which had been sold to the National Fireproofing Company, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Greer-Beatty owned about 1,500 acres of farmland adjoining its plant. Both the Whitacre and Greer-Beatty stockholders had their holdings appraised as high as practical and stock in the merged company, now the Whitacre-Greer Fireproofing Company, was issued accordingly. JJ received enough common stock to control the company, in addition to a substantial amount of preferred stock. The common stockholders had the vote and controlled the board of directors. The Greer-Beatty factory at Magnolia was also converted to fireproofing tile production.