We have seen a couple of wood-bed lathes bearing the name Claypool Machine Co. in the headstock casting. The lathes appear to be of late 19th century (perhaps early 20th century) design. One lathe turned up in New Hampshire and the other one was in Ohio.

In 1921 the Claypool Machine Co. was organized by Dick W. Cripe, J. D. Cripe, and W. E. Black, replacing an existing partnership whose business name remains unknown to us. The company provided foundry, machining and heat treating and they primarily manufactured axles and crankshafts. In 1936 company president Dick W. Cripe was killed in an explosion and fire of heat-treating oil, and in 1937 the business was re-organized as Claypool Machine Corp., and relocated to Kendallville. It seems likely that by this time the company was no longer manufacturing lathes, or anything else of interest to this Vintage Machinery site. In any event, the company went bankrupt in 1941.

Information Sources

• An owwm.org forum discussion provides some background on the company and the lathe the manufactured.
• 1921-06-16 American Machinist. "The Claypool Machine Co., of Claypool, Ind has been organized with a capital stock of $70,000. Directors named are D. W. Cripe, J. D. Cripe, and W. E. Black." This organization turns out to be a formalization of an existing family business; see below.
• 1930-11-17 The Daily Banner, Greencastle, Indiana.

  Lathe and milling machine operators of the Claypool Machine Company at Claypool have been working overtime the past two weeks filling orders for automobile exles and pipe cutting tools.

• The 1937 lawsuit, Claypool Machine Co. v. Cripe, sheds considerable light on this company. Dick W. Cripe—a company officer and part-owner—was killed in a work accident and the company and its insurer did not pay his widow and two minor daughters the required death coverage. Dick Cripe spent most of his time doing whatever factory jobs were required: janitorial, boiler repair, machine repair, machine operator, etc. He did little office work even though he was company president. While he was in the plant stockroom, in the heat-treating area "a fire broke out in one of the furnaces containing oil and as he and his brother were going toward the tank there was an explosion which trapped him and killed him." The defendants argued that he was "not an employee within the meaning of the Indiana Workmen's Compensation Law." The Court of Appeals of Indiana found that he was, in fact, acting as an employee at the time of the accident and was thus entitled to coverage.

  There was evidence before the board that the Claypool Machine Company is a corporation and was organized in the year 1921, to take over the assets of the partnership theretofore existing, the partners of which were Dick W. Cripe, the decedent, J.D. Cripe, his brother, and another.

  The stock of the newly organized corporation consisted of 350 shares of common stock and the same amount of preferred stock all of the par value of $100 per share, and was issued in equal proportion to the said three persons in exchange for their right, title, and interest in and to the business and property of the partnership.

  On July 1, 1936, the date of the accident, the decedent was the owner of forty-nine shares and an undivided one-third of sixty-five shares of the common stock and also owned six shares of the preferred stock. He was president and director of the company. This company was a corporation of humble proportions and its business was that of an axle company. It employed about twenty men in the year 1936.

• 1941-08-18 Garrett Clipper.

  RECEIVER IS APPOINTED FOR FACTORY AT KENDALLVILLE Kendallville, Ind., Aug. 14. Arthur A. Auer has been appointed trustee of the Claypool Machine company at a hearing before Alvin F. Marsh of Plymouth, referee in the bankruptcy action involving the Kendallville firm, it was announced today after a proposal to reorganize the company was rejected by the U. S. northern district court of Indiana. Ordered liquidated, the property will be placed on sale within thirty days, Mr. Auer stated in revealing that an indebtedness of approximately $30,000 exists. Upon a petition filed by creditors, the Claypool Machine company was adjudged bankrupt last March but operation of the firm was continued by the Kendallville Machine company which leased the industry August 10, 1940. When the bankruptcy action was first taken, the court agreed to stay any further order until expiration of the Kendallville Machine company lease, the termination of which was reached last Sunday. As the expiration date neared, Claypool officials advanced a proposal under which the firm would be restored to a reorganized financial foundation but the court found that it failed to meet the "best interests of the creditors." This issue received attention of creditors and the court last Monday and upon rejection of the plan, the liquidation order was filed. Mr. Auer stated that arrangements have been made for the Kendallville Machine company to continue operation until the liquidation sale.

• 2010 obituary of Helen Klinehance Cripe: "she started her career at Peoples State Bank, Claypool and the re-established Claypool Machine Corporation (1937) that relocated to Kendallville after a deadly fire in 1936. The manufacturing of crankshafts and axles provided significant contributions towards the war effort."