Richard's note left in the platen of the Olympia SM2 for its trip across the Pacific. You can easily tell that Richard has a far lighter typing touch than I do!
I should have pointed put that this is a typewriter Richard himself serviced for WordPlay before it was put on sale there. In other words, it is in tip-top condition.
See the history below
OK, so the SM2 on the right is burgundy, but can I now call it a "purple" "Cairo Rose", to also remember Cincinnati and my "The Purple Rose of Cairo" experiences there?
THE HISTORY OF
SPITZFADEN
OFFICE SUPPLIES
629
MAIN STREET
CINCINNATI,
OHIO
1873-2013
By Robert Messenger
T
|
his
year marks 140 years since the formation of the printing company which would
ultimately become Spitzfaden Office
Supplies. The company, Woodrow, Jones & Skinner, was established in
1873 by three very young, ambitious Ohioans at 35 West 3rd Street, Cincinnati.
Cincinnati Directory,
1873
The group was led by the 17-year-old son of
a wealthy Cincinnati ironmaster. Clifford
Trimble Woodrow was born in Cincinnati on May 2, 1856, the sixth child and
fifth son of David Trimble Woodrow and his wife Louisa. David Woodrow
(1812-1892) was a leading manufacturer and iron and steel merchant who had
returned to Cincinnati in the year of Clifford’s birth, 1856, after spending
the early 1850s as a trader in Maysville, Kentucky. He made stoves, hollow ware
and castings, owned an Ironton Iron and Steel Company warehouse and the Clifton
Nail Works, was a partner in the Ironton foundry, rolling mill and Howard furnace
and was a trustee of the Cincinnati Water Works and Miami University.
Joining Clifford Woodrow in the 1873 printing
company venture were Cleveland-born George Winfield Jones and Samuel Wiggins
Skinner.
Their partnership did not last long and the
next year, 1874, Clifford Woodrow enlisted yet another young man in forming a
job printing company at 101 West Front Street, this time Canadian-born James Henry
Leland.
Paper, ink, type and printing were very much
in Clifford Woodrow’s blood. There were many printers in his family, notably his
elder brother, William Howard Woodrow. The Western
Reserve Chronicle of Warren, Ohio, reported during the Civil War: "Among
the gallant young men who left Warren in obedience to the call for volunteers,
and who now form a part of the 84th Infantry Regiment at this time, are two
printers of this office. They are W.H. Woodrow and R.P. Leisenring … That they
will do their duty, and their whole duty, as soldiers, we have no fears. They
have done this as printers, and they will do no less in their new calling.” An
uncle, Henry Bascom Woodrow, and his son Samuel Bradford Woodrow, were also
printers, as were Clifford’s elder brother Frank Henry Woodrow (1854-1907) and two
other family members, James and David.
In 1880 Clifford joined Frank in forming
Frank H. Woodrow & Brother, “fine stationers and steel and copper plate
engravers” of 16 West 4th Street. Engraving was Frank’s forte while
profitably running businesses was Clifford’s. By 1889 Clifford had formed
another company, Woodrow, Baldwin & Company (with Walter Baldwin and T.A. Hayes),
“stationers, printers and blank book manufacturers” of Walnut Street. This
was Clifford’s first venture into office supplies.
Clifford Woodrow was a rather flamboyant man
for his time. When he was married, to Margaret Andrews “Pinkie” Tillman, in
Louisville, Kentucky, on June 4, 1890, newspapers reported:
For many years after her marriage Margaret “Pinkie”
Tillman Woodrow ran the Cincinnati Women’s Exchange, an organisation formed in
March 1883 which enabled poor women to sell items to “ladies of means”.
In 1895 Woodrow, Baldwin & Co became the
Woodrow-Ryder Company, with Clifford as president and Thomas W. Ryder his new
partner. By 1899 this had become the Woodrow Stationery and Printing Company, with
Frank Woodrow as engraving manager – the company also made die sinkers. In 1909
Clifford owned this company outright, but in 1912 he took on a new partner in
E.A. Bradley, and later S.A. Scott (while retaining the Woodrow-Bradley name).
Scott continued to work for Woodrow into the late 1920s.
The major change came in 1927, when Clifford
Woodrow merged his stationery company with those of two other leading
Cincinnati stationers, William Harrison
Stanage (born Cincinnati, December 14, 1876) and Gustav Adolph Weil (born Cincinnati, April 27, 1873) to form Woodrow-Weil-Stanage. Woodrow was
president of the new organisation, with Stanage and Weil vice-presidents. The
merger meant the company had one main office, what was formerly Stanage’s at
119 East 6th Street, but three salesrooms – Woodrow’s at 726 Main Street (now
the Ohio Book Store), Weil’s at 16 East 12th Street and Stanage’s at 121 East
6th Street. Woodrow-Weil-Stanage justifiably used the advertising line of "Cincinnati's
leading stationer".
Cincinnati Directory, 1925
Cincinnati Directory, 1926
The Weil company was known as Max Weil &
Company, but the proprietor was Gustav Weil. New York-born Max Weil (1872-1927)
may have been the major original investor, but he was elsewhere heavily
involved, in cotton goods manufacturing in Cincinnati. It is not known how
these two Weils were related.
Cincinnati Directory, 1928
Carl Louis
Spitzfaden
had been secretary of Stanage’s company since 1916, and with the merger he took
over the same role with Woodrow-Weil-Stanage. A bookkeeper by training,
Spitzfaden had in 1907 been a clerk in the auditor’s office of the Cleveland,
Cincinnati, Chicago and St Louis Railway, before branching out on his own. He
was also a director of the First National Bank of Mount Healthy and treasurer
of the Mount Healthy Saving and Loan Company.
Carl Spitzfaden was born in Springfield,
Ohio, on February 20, 1884, the eldest child and only son of Michael A.
Spitzfaden and his wife Rosalie (“Lizzie”). Michael Spitzfaden was born in the Palatinate
region of south-western Germany in 1854 and immigrated with his family to the
United States the next year.
Carl L. Spitzfaden was promoted from company
secretary of Woodrow-Weil-Stanage to also take on the roles of treasurer and
sales manager. Clifford Woodrow died on December 26, 1931, and was succeeded by
William Stanage as company president.
In 1939 Spitzfaden took over the firm from
Stanage, reorganised it and renamed it Carl
L. Spitzfaden Incorporated, now headquartered at its present address at 629
Main Street. (Using the former company’s goodwill, built up over 12 years,
Spitzfaden also retained the name Woodrow-Weil-Stanage, at the same address.
The telephone number PArkway 1885 was also retained.)
Cincinnati
Directory, 1940
Carl Spitzfaden died on April 30,
1945, aged 61. His wife, Ethel May Schwarz Spitzfaden (born
Lockland, Ohio, December 14, 1886), remained at the couple’s home at
Mount Healthy until she died on August 25, 1969, aged 82.
Carr S. Spitzfaden
The couple had one son, Carl (later Carr) Stewart Spitzfaden (born Cincinnati, March 29, 1919;
died Cincinnati, November 15, 1999, aged 80). After the death of his father,
Carr Stewart Spitzfaden took over as president of Carl L. Spitzfaden
Incorporated, with Mrs Edith M. Kenny, of Covington, Kentucky, as secretary-treasurer.
Her husband, John J. Kenny, was a salesman with Spitzfaden's.
William Harrison Stanage, the last
survivor of the Woodrow-Weil-Stanage merger of 1927, died in Cincinnati in
1954.
6 comments:
Very nice, Dad.
Indeed you do splat those impressions onto the page. You may have a heavier touch than Richard's, but it is very even. Hard to believe his note came from the same machine. Some detailed font forensics may sort that out.
Great typewriters and great story - reminded me of the shops and the comics of my boyhood. I was an avid reader of The Victor and The Hornet (good names for typewriters!). :)
OK, forensic study completed, and the conclusion is that the two specimens were indeed produced with the same machine, based in part on the "t" impacting just a scosh high in each sample. Perhaps you inadvertently clicked the button on the SM2 that bolds the text.
In your velour jacket from House of Adam, you were indeed the Purple Rose!
Good to see the Olympia in action. Your history of Spitzfaden's was, of course, very well done, and I've added a link to it from my story on "Cincinnati's typewriter row."
OK, your jacket was blue, so you were the Blue Rose of Cincinnati. :)
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