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Title: |
1912 Article & Portrait-William Lodge |
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Source: |
Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume 3 1912 pgs 10-14 |
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Insert Date: |
6/11/2016 1:09:54 PM |
WILLIAM LODGE.
William Lodge, a prominent representative of industrial activity in Cincinnati, connected with the business interests of the city since 1872, is now president of the Lodge & Shipley Company, manufacturers of machine tools. It was a far reach from his starting point in business to his present position, nor did he gain this prominence by leaps and bounds but by steady progress along safe business lines, faithfully mastering the duties which each day brought and thus finding strength and inspiration for the labors of the succeeding one. He is one of the pioneers of the present day methods of machine tool manufacture and the company of which he is now the head is making a specialty of iron and metal turning lathes. His identification with the machine tool trade in this city covers a period of thirty-nine years.
Mr. Lodge arrived here when a young man of about twenty-one. He was born in Leeds, in the County of Yorkshire, England, May 12, 1848, a son of George Lodge, a skilled mechanic who was connected with the textile industry for which Leeds is noted. The common schools of his native land afforded William Lodge his educational privileges, and as a youth of seventeen he entered upon training in connection with the textile industry, but after a few months secured a position in the machine shops of Fairbairn & Company, of Leeds, as an apprentice. His term of indenture covered four years and brought him to his majority. He then came to the United States and was a resident of Philadelphia from 1869 until 1872, when he arrived in Cincinnati and sought employment with the firm of Steptoe, McFarland, Nottingham & Company, receiving appointment to the position of foreman in their shops. John Steptoe, the senior member of the firm, and in fact the original owner of the business, was the first machine tool manufacturer west of the Alleghanies. Mr. Lodge spent eight years with Steptoe, McFarland, Nottingham & Company, and on the 1st of January, 1880, became associated with William Barker in a partnership for the manufacture of machine tools under the firm style of Lodge, Barker & Company. They conducted a growing and successful business until 1886, when Mr. Barker disposed of his interest to Charles Davis and the firm was reorganized under the name of Lodge & Davis. Six years passed in that connection and in 1892 Mr. Lodge withdrew from the firm which then became Davis & Eagan and later the American Tool Works Company, now one of the important manufacturing con- . cerns of Cincinnati.
In the same year Mr. Lodge organized the Lodge & Shipley Company of which he is now president, but began operations under the firm name of the Ohio Machine Tool Company. The plant was located at the corner of Culvert and Pioneer streets, the company purchasing the property formerly used and built by the Walton Iron Works Company. At the outset the Ohio Machine Tool Company employed about twenty-five men and business was continued under that organization until 1893, when the Lodge & Shipley Company was formed. In 1899 they erected on Colerain avenue a modern brick office and factory building, with two hundred and fifty feet frontage and a depth of three hundred feet. To this they removed their office and factory. The business was incorporated with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars and an idea of the growth of the enterprise can be gained from the fact that although the capital stock remains at that figure the company have a surplus of over nine hundred thousand dollars. They own about fourteen acres of ground, largely covered by modern factory buildings, and the Lodge & Shipley lathes and machine tools are today used all over the world. When they removed to their present location on Colerain avenue in 1899 they had ninety employees and now employ over five hundred. The works are modern in every respect and the machinery and equipment are the finest that can be obtained. An expert foreman is at the head of each department with a general superintendent over the whole, and all is under the personal control of Mr. Lodge, who is president and general manager. Murray Shipley, a son of the late Rev. Murray Shipley, is vice president and treasurer of the company. The thorough practical training which Mr. Lodge received in his apprenticeship and during the period of his service in the employ of others well equipped him for the conduct of the business so that he has been able to direct the efforts of those who serve him so as to produce maximum results with a minimum expenditure of time and labor—and this is the secret of all success.
Mr. Lodge today stands as a prominent figure in the circles of the trade which he represents. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and since 1907 has served as treasurer of the National Metal Trades Association. The National Machine Tool Association was organized in his office and he became its second president, serving by reelection for two years, after which he was made vice president through the three following years. He is now the vice president of the Associated Organizations of Cincinnati and is president of the Ohio Manufacturers Association. The machine tool industry in this city, of which he has been such a prominent representative, has grown to gigantic proportions during the period of his residence here. When he started as a manufacturer of machine tools in 1880 the entire output of all the factories of Cincinnati was less than one hundred thousand dollars a year, while in the year 1909 the output of all factories mounted up to over fifteen million dollars. The product is sent to every corner of the globe. Mr. Lodge is looked upon as the dean of the Cincinnati tool manufacturers, there being fourteen of the leading machine tool manufacturers of this city and the immediate vicinity who hold their start in life either directly or indirectly to him. This includes Henry Dreses, of the Dreses Machine Tool Works, who prior to starting business for himself was head draughtsman for the Lodge & Davis Company, William Greaves, of Greaves, Klusman & Company, and many others. It may be safely said that Mr. Lodge has done more for the development of the machine tool trade in Cincinnati than any other man.
When the cares of the day have been laid aside Mr. Lodge has always found his pleasure in the companionship of the members of his family. He was married in Cincinnati in 1873 to Miss Mary Grace De Rosa, and unto them have been born two children: Augusta Rose, the wife of Louis J. Dolle, a prominent attorney of Cincinnati and one of the directors of the Lodge & Shipley Company; and Mary Felicia, the wife of L. B. Weber, also a director of the company and its purchasing agent. Mr. Lodge is a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to Avon Lodge, A. F. & A. M., but holds membership with no other societies aside from the trade organizations previously mentioned. He is classed with the citizens of English birth who have found in the freedom and appreciation of this great western world the business opportunities which they sought and through their improvement have attained substantial success. The methods he has ever employed have awakened the approval and admiration of the many for the world pays its tribute to him who through enterprise, unfailing effort and clear sighted judgment makes substantial advance in the business world without infringing on the rights and privileges of others. |
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1912 Portrait William Lodge
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