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Manufacturers Index - Newark Machine Works

Newark Machine Works
Newark, OH, U.S.A.
Manufacturer Class: Wood Working Machinery, Metal Working Machinery & Steam and Gas Engines

History
Last Modified: Jul 25 2011 11:39AM by joelr4
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Willard Warner

This manufacturer of steam engines and sawmills was established in 1853 or '54 and survived until 1861. They acquired an excellent reputation, especially for their steam engines, but it appears that when their general manager, Willard Warner, left the firm in 1861 to enlist as a major in the Union Army, the business shut down. He reached the rank of brevet major general at the end of the war, and after returning home he served a term in the Ohio state senate before moving to Alabama, where he owned a cotton plantation and served as U. S. Congressman and then Senator.

Information Sources

  • 1854—Ninth Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, for the Year 1854, lists the premiums awarded at the Fifth Annual Ohio State Fair, held at Newark between 17 and 20 October, 1854. Newark Machine Works won a Commendation for their "Anti friction hand pump" and "Centrifugal pump".
  • 1855—The Ohio Cultivator for July 1, 1855 has an ad for this firms steam engine, plus it lists the premiums awarded at that year's Ohio State Fair held at Columbus, including commendations to Newark Machine Works' portable and stationary steam engines.
  • 1855—The September 1, 1855 issue of The Working Farmer has this note:
    We have received a Circular from Joseph E. Holmes, Esq., agent of Newark Machine Works, Newark, Ohio, containing a List of Portable Engines, suitable for farm work—from 3 horse to 20 horse power—from $300 to $1,500.
  • 1856—Eleventh Annual Report of the Board of Agriculture of the Sate of Ohio for the year 1856, List of entries at the seventh annual fair of Ohio, Cleveland, September 1856. Newark Machine Works, Newark, portable saw mill (Diploma and Silver Medal plus premium). Also horse power. "The Newark Machine Company exhibited and operated a Portable Saw Mill, which is not only cheap, ($450,) but very simple in its arrangements, and not likely to get out of repair. Their portable engine was "highly commended"
  • 1857—Williams' Ohio State Register and Business Mirror for 1857 lists "Newark Machine Works, Willard Warner, Treasurer", as machinists, iron founders, and steam engine builders.
  • 1857—The October 1857 issue of New England Farmer, has a letter regarding the U. S. Agricultural Exhibition at Louisville, Ky., including the mention that the exhibits in the Hall for machinery
    are set in motion by a very fine portable steam enginee, made by a company at the Newark Machine Works, Ohio, and a beauty in its way. A line of shafting, the engire length of the building, is set in motion by this engine, from which, by bands, all the gimcranks on exhibition there are put in operation...
  • 1858—The list of premiums awarded at the Ninth Ohio State Fair, held at Sandusky, Sept 14-17 1858, includes commendations awarded to Newark Machine Works for their portable steam engine, and their steam engine "used for Fair".
  • 1860—Geo. W. Hawes' Ohio State Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1860-'61 lists Newark Machine Works, and carries an ad: "Manufacturers of all kinds of portable & stationary steam engines & builders. Circular, gate & mulay saw mills. Belting & saws of all kinds fr sale. Address Willard Warner, Treasurer."
  • 1881—History of Licking County, O., compiled by N. N. Hill, Jr., 1881, has the following biography:

    Warner, General Willard.—General Willard Warner was a native of Granville, this county, and was born September 24, 1826. He lived in Muskingum county from 1830 to 1849. General Warner received a classical education, graduating from Marietta college in 1845. In February, 1849, he went to California, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, in company with Dr. Horace Smith, George Howell, A. Brimagin and Jones Reily, all of whom died, except himself, he returning in 1852. He was engaged in the wholesale grocery business in Cincinnati in 1852-3. General Warner then went into the Newark Machine Works as treasurer, and became general manager in 1856 or 1857, and continued such until December, 1861, when he entered the Seventy-sixth regiment of the Ohio volunteer infantry as major....

    Much of the rest of the biography describes his wartime achievements, after which he briefly served as Ohio state senator, and then in 1867 moved to Alabama.
  • 1885—The June 6, 1885 edition of the Engineering and Mining Journal, has this news item:
    James H. Smith, Secretary, and L. J. Johnson, Treasurer, of the Shawnee Coal and Iron Company, with some other parties, have formed the Union IronWorks Company. They have purchased the old Newark Machine-Works, at Newark, Ohio, and are already at work overhauling and rearranging with the view of making it a first-class machine-shop, and will probably engage in the manufacture of haulage plants for mines. Their pattern will probably be similar to the plant so successful at the Shawnee mine.
  • 1907—The Ohio Illustrated Magazine for July, 1907 had an article on the history of the City of Newark, by E. M. P. Brister, including this tidbit:
    Early manufacturing enterprises of Newark were the old Newark Machine Works, established about 1850 and which manufactured portable engines and sawmills on an extensive scale, until the outbreak of the Civil War. Major Willard Warner, of the 76th Regiment, O. V. I., afterward United States Senator from Alabama, was at the head of this enterprise.
  • 1910—The January 1910 issue of Modern Machinery had this news item:
    Ohio, Newark.—The factory of the Jewett Machine Co. was destroyed by fire. Arrangements will probably be made with the Newark Machine Works to care for the machinery end of the plant. The plant will be idle 60 days until new machinery can be installed in a new shop. The burned buildings will be replaced as soon as the adjustment is made with the insurance companies.
  • 2004—The book Newark, by Chance Brockway, 2004, provided a couple of photographs of the Newark Machine Works.