This firm claimed to date from 1854, though the name Peter Gerlach & Co. did not appear until 1871. The partners of that firm were Peter Gerlach, John Gerlach, and Andrew Knipper. They specialized in stave sawing machinery but also had several sidelines, such as saw sharpening tools and circular sawblades.

Advertisement from 1899-12-09 issue of "The American Exporter"

In about 1906 the name changed slightly to Peter Gerlach Co. as Mr. Gerlach reduced his role in the company in favor of his nephew R. P. Gerlach. Peter died a couple of years later but the company continued in business until disappearing suddenly in about 1930.

Peter Gerlach, from the 1910 book, "A History of Cleveland, Ohio: Biographical"

In around 1921 the company began producing gas engines. This seems to have been a short-lived effort and we have not heard of any surviving examples of their engines.

Information Sources

• Ohio, the future great state: her manufacturers, and a history of her Manufacturers by William J. Comley, W. D'Eggville, 1875 page 421:

  Peter Gerlach & Co. are the well-known proprietors of the Cleveland Saw Works, have been in existence since 1854, though the present firm style—composed of P. Gerlach, John Gerlach, and A. Knipper—started in 1871. They manufacture largely at the factory—which is located at corner of Columbus, Winter, and Leonard, with warerooms at 51 Center Street—saws, stave, shook and barrel machinery; are also the patentees and manufacturers of the justly celebrated Champion Stave-sawing Machine. They give constant employment to thirty hands, and do a business of $50,000 annually. The Champion Stave-sawing Machine will cut from 5,000 to 7,000 good staves per diem of ten hours, with eight to twelve-horse power. It will cut every stave of a uniform thickness and any width of bolt presented to it, without extra fitting to make it fit the carriage, and we can thoroughly recommend it to those in search of such machine.

• 1876 price list: "stave, shook and barrel machinery", "office are wareroom 52 Center Street".
• Listed in a work published by the United States Centennial commission, Official Catalog of the 1876 International Exhibition, as a maker of stave sawing machines.
• Industries of Cleveland: Trade, Commerce and Manufactures for the Year 1878 has the following writeup on this firm.

  PETER GERLACH & CO., Saw manufacturers, 51 Center Street.

  This well known and extensive house was first started in 1852 by Wm, Marriott & Co., who continued the same until 1870, when Peter Gerlach & Co. purchased the business. The office and ware rooms are located at 51 Center street. The works are located at the junction of Columbus and Winter streets in a three-story brick building. The firm is composed of Peter and John Gerlach and Andrew Knipper. Since Gerlach & Co. assumed control of the business it has rapidly grown, until it ranks among the best saw manufacturers in the Union, their trade extending from Maine to California, and from Wisconsin to Louisiana. They have a capltal invested of some $50,000, including the buildings, which are owned by the firm. Mr.Knipper, one of the Company, gives his personal attention, as superintendent, to the business, thus insuring perfection in all work turned out, both in quality and durability. They employ an average of twenty to thirty hands, and none but expert workmen in the business. At these works every kind of saw used is made, ranging from four-inch to seventy-two-inch circulars, and every variety of mill saws, also cylinder saws of all sizes. The manufacture of cylinder saws, of which they make a specialty, is a. new branch of trade in the West, this house being the first ever attempting it with success. Having been manufactured in the East for some forty years, the prejudices being strong in favor of Eastern saws, to overcome this obstacle an article equally as good at a corresponding price must be produced; the result is that these prejudices have vanished wherever these saws have come in competition with the Eastern saw. To parties still entertaining the idea that the West cannot produce equally as good a saw as the East, we would invite to give them a trial and be convinced. But the specialty of Peter Gerlach & Co., and for which they enjoy a wide celebrity, is their Improved Champion Stave Sawing Machine, of which they are inventors and sole proprietors. It is specially designed for sawing tight barrel staves for oil, pork, lard, syrup and spirit barrels, etc. Running motion, fourteen inches pulley, ten inches face. Speed, one thousand, two hundred revolutions per minute. Power required, from eight to twelve horse-power. Is simple, strong and durable. It is universally acknowledged that it will saw more staves out of the same amount of timber, a more perfect stave in every respect,and a larger quantity in a given period of time than any stave machine in use. Every machine is put to actual test before leaving their works. References given in all parts of the United States and Canadas upon application, as well as a lull description, by letter or otherwise.

• The Business Directory of Cleveland 1888-9 states: "Manufacturers of saws and stave and barrel machinery, Winter and Columbus. T. 735"
  
• From Seeger and Guernsey's Cyclopædia of the Manufactures and Products of the United States, 1890, Peter Gerlach & Co. is listed as a maker of circular saws, mill saws, shingle jointers, shingle sawing machinery, cant hooks, alligator chisels, coopers' machinery, mincing knives, files, and lumbering tools.
• From Seeger and Guernsey's Cyclopædia of the Manufactures and Products of the United States, 1899, Peter Gerlach & Co. is listed as a maker of coopers' machinery, alligator chisels, circular saws, mill saws, shingle jointers, ice tools, shingle sawing machinery, pitching machines, cant hooks, and lumbering tools.
• From Directory of American Cement Industries and Hand-Book for Cement Users, 2nd ed., 1902, Peter Gerlach & Co. is listed as a maker of barrel machinery.
• The January 1908 edition of The National Coopers' Journal had this obituary.

  PETER GERLACH.

  It was with the sincerest regret that we learned of the death of Peter Gerlach, of the firm of Peter Gerlach & Co., Cleveland, Ohio, which occurred in that city November last. While we dislike to chronicle the passing of our friends at any time, it is always a consolation when we can say that the lives lived have been worthy of the men, and the good that they have done will live after them. Mr. Gerlach had reached the age of seventy-six years, and his life had been such as marked the successful man. He was highly esteemed both in business and social circles, and had gained a reputation for charitableness that will be as lasting as it was merited. The business of the Peter Gerlach Co., which Mr. Gerlach saw grow from comparatively small beginnings to established permanency, will not be interrupted, and will be continued along the same lines as in the past. R. P. Gerlach, secretary and treasurer of the company, a nephew of Peter Gerlach, has had active charge of the business for the past two years, and will continue in the same capacity, with Frank Stahl as superintendent.

• The February 1908 edition of the National Cooper's Journal has this brief item in a meeting report:

  Resolved, That this association extend to the firm of Peter Gerlach & Co. its sympathy in their loss by the death of Peter Gerlach, the senior member of that firm, who for many years was a factor in the manufacture of machinery for the benefit of the stave industry.

• A History of Cleveland, Ohio: Biographical, 1910, has the following biography.

  PETER GERLACH.

  Peter Gerlach came to Cleveland about 1844 and was numbered among the selfmade men whose ability and energy enabled them to o'erleap the environment of youth and work their way upward. For years Mr. Gerlach figured prominently as a representative of industrial life in Cleveland, being extensively engaged in the manufacture of saws, his establishment being numbered among the leading productive industries of the city. He was only eleven years of age when he came to Cleveland and his death occurred here in November, 1908, when he was seventyfive years of age. He had, therefore, been a resident of the city for more than six decades. He came from Germany to the new world with his father and was educated here, although his opportunities for mental development through the training of the schools were somewhat limited, owing to the necessity for him to start out in life on his own account at an early age. However, in the school of experience he learned many valuable lessons and through reading and observation was continually broadening his knowledge until in later years he became recognized as a man of sound and discriminating judgment, whose views of life were never narrow nor contracted. He began to earn his own living by working in Mack's Cap Store, for his father died soon after the arrival of the family in Cleveland and it was necessary that Peter Gerlach earn his own living. In the Mack establishment hats and caps were manufactured and Mr. Gerlach was there employed for a period, after which he learned the shoemaker's trade. Subsequently he engaged with his brother Philip for a time in the baking business but he did not find that pursuit congenial and sought another field of labor in which to exercise his indefatigable industry— his dominant quality. He found what he sought when he took up the business of manufacturing saws. For a short time he was in partnership with others and then formed a partnership with his brother John and Andrew Nipper, organizing the business under the firm style of Peter Gerlach & Company. Eventually this was reorganized under the name of the Peter Gerlach Manufacturing Company, under which the business is still operated. Through the efforts of Mr. Gerlach the little plant developed into a large and prosperous concern, expanding along legitimate and substantial lines as the result of the keen business discrimination and unfaltering activity of Peter Gerlach, who devoted his entire time to the business and was its president.

  In 1861 Mr. Gerlach was united in marriage to Miss Catharine Schaaf, a daughter of Conrad Schaaf, who came to Ohio from Germany and located in Brooklyn on the Schaaf road. He was one of the pioneers of the locality, took up land and eventually purchased other farms. His business interests were capably managed and grew to be very extensive, so that eventually he was the owner of a number of fine large farms and Schaaf road was named in his honor. He was, moreover, a man of decided literary tastes who read extensively and possessed wide information on a varied range of subject. In his family were nine children, of whom four are yet living: Jacob, who resides on the old home farm near Brooklyn; Mrs. Green; Mrs. Ferber; and Mrs. Gerlach.

  Unto Mr. and Mrs. Gerlach were born two children, Catherine and Lillian. Mr. Gerlach erected the fine residence on Detroit avenue where his last days were spent. He was a self-made man who never had occasion to regret coming to the new world. He felt that the business advantages over here were superior to those that he might have enjoyed in his own country and through the utilization of the opportunities which came to him he gained a prominent and substantial place in business circles, enjoying at all times the respect and confidence of his colleagues and associates. He was always public-spirited, was a charitable man and on many occasions gave liberally and unostentatiously for the benefit of others. He belonged to various German societies and to the German Evangelical church, while his political allegiance was given to the republican party. His financial condition at his death was in marked contrast to his circumstances when in his youthful days he arrived in Cleveland, a little German lad unfamiliar with the ways and customs of the country. He readily adapted himself to altered conditions, however, and the passing years chronicled his success and the victories which he achieved over circumstances.

• A 1912 edition of The Lumber Manufacturer and Dealer carries ads from "The Peter Gerlach Co."
• The November 1915 issue of The Timberman carries a small text ad for "The Peter Gerlach Company".
• The April 1919 edition of National Coopers' Journal lists The Peter Gerlach Co. as a maker of heading machinery, pail and tub machinery, stave machinery, and machine knives and saws.
• The August 1921 edition of National Coopers' Journal lists The Peter Gerlach Co. as a maker of heading machinery, pail and tub machinery, stave machinery, and machine knives and saws.
• Listed in the November 1921 edition of The American Exporter as a maker of sawmill machinery.
• From a 1929 edition of Barrel and Box, Peter Gerlach Co. is listed as a maker of cooperage knives and pail machinery (and perhaps in other categories as well; Google Books restricts our ability to see more than snippets).
• The Georgia Agrirama museum has a barrel stave saw labeled, "THE PETER GERLACH COMPANY / BUILDERS / CLEVELAND". This machine is slated for restoration and display. Thanks to Keith Rucker for providing this information, and Glenn Williamson for first bringing it to our attention in an oldwwmachines posting.