With the Spirit of Enthusiasm

Canal Dover was known from 1916 simply as Dover, Ohio. I can be forgiven for misrelating William Couzens Hardesty (1891-1962) with Walter Collins Hardesty, Sr. (1879-1935). Both appeared professionally as ‘W. C. Hardesty.’ Both were successful profit takers associated with Dover … on banks of power-generating, goods-transporting Tuscarawas River. It transpires the pair were but vaguely related.[1]

2019 post Wild Confusion in Every Direction opened with “terrific explosion” of 1862. One-ton steam boiler launched with sufficient velocity to crash down through roof of adjacent, three-story warehouse belonging to Haines, Hardesty & Co. at Malvern, Ohio. I bookended winding blog post with concluding reference to “Blast Followed By Pandemonium.” Hardesty Chemical Company explosion gravely rocked Dover 4 May 1949. Speculation that firms’ ownership sprung from Hardestys sharing close kinship was overreach.

Images enlarge when clicked.

Some backstory, before attending to art (and spoken word) that prompted reassessment of my 2019 speculation.

William Couzens Hardisty was born 23 August 1891 into locale where ancestors had migrated from Yorkshire, England almost two hundred years earlier. At Baltimore, Maryland. His father, Richard Hardisty, Jr. (1864-1943), was enumerated there as Iron Worker, Bridge Shop in 1910 census. Where eighteen-year-old William C. appeared, same household, as law office Stenographer.[2]

1917 draft record made me privy to Couzens as middle name. And that our subject’s eyes were gray, hair was brown. William, in his own hand, presented as (‘Hardesty’ and) Sales Manager for Philadelphia-based General Manufacturing Company.[3] He had married Elizabeth L. Heck (1891-1924). And declared her, their two daughters and an unidentified brother dependent on him.[4] William C. Hardesty manifest as ‘Private Secretary’ to Philadelphia Meat Packers three years later. He, Elizabeth and daughters were resident in his own, mortgaged, Philadelphia home.

Second daughter Ella Marie died 1920 … of bronchitis and having just attained age three.[5] William’s paternal grandmother, Margaret (Talbot) Hardisty (1835-1922) expired two years later. At Washington, D.C.

Influenza took Elizabeth in 1924, at tender age of thirty-three. She was survived by William, daughters Elizabeth Louise (1913-2004) and toddler Vivian Elizabeth (b. 1919). Mother Elizabeth was interred near Ella Marie at West Laurel Hill Cemetery … noted for imaginatively designed landscape on Schuylkill River north of Philadelphia. [NOTE: Pedigree Chart concludes this post.]

Our subject was depicted as managing candle manufacturing at New York in 1930 census. We discover only son of a firstborn son, of a firstborn son, in mobility upward and toward opportunity. William had remarried … to Philadelphian Mary Elizabeth Pierson (1897-1998). The foursome took up fashionably modern conveniences at Biltmore Hotel Apartments (right), Pelham Manor, Westchester County, New York.

Haynes described trajectory at birth of oleochemical industry: “W. C. Hardesty Company, Inc., was established Oct. 1926 … solely for the production of fatty acids.” Recall Hardesty’s stint with Philadelphia meat packers. “The fatty acid industry of that day was undeveloped. Some fatty acid manufacturers were controlled by packing-house interests, which thus created intracompany consumers of the fats and tallows from packing houses; others also made soap or candles and consumed much of their own fatty acids.” Hardesty, who claimed but secondary education, “… was enthusiastic about the potential possibilities of this industry.” No doubt proffering work history of business recordkeeping, sales and executive management – while demonstrating some imaginary thinking – he secured financial backing from Binney and Smith, Incorporated.[6]

In November 1926 W. C. Hardesty Company began operations at a Carnegie, Pennsylvania plant. “The first products made were stearic acid, Oleic acid, crude glycerin, stearin pitch, and animal and vegetable fatty acids.”[7] Innovation soon followed, and “disastrous fire” wrecked the plant in April 1929 “… before most of these undertakings could be translated to full-scale production.”[8]

Disaster from volatile glycerin would in due time rain from skies at unfathomable scale. On 6 August 1930, in early stages of Great Depression, William, Mary E. and ‘Lavina’ Hardesty returned to New York from Bremen in seven-day crossing. Aboard newly refitted North German Lloyd luxury liner S.S. Columbus (left).

W. C. Hardesty Company bought Century Stearic Acid Candle Works, Inc., at Manhattan, in December. Operating as a wholly owned subsidiary, operations were relocated to Dover in 1933. Where sons of Thomas Hardesty (1820-1869) depicted in 2019 post had launched from flour milling at scale into banking … and one of them, Alonzo Haines Hardesty (1846-1892), had fathered Walter Collins Hardesty. Having relocated to spectacular manse in Daytona Beach, Florida environs a decade earlier, Walter was beckoning clientele nationally to his glamorous ‘Riviera on the Halifax’ resort in 1933. And struggling with launch of million-dollar development for extravagant Rio Vista community. He had no Dover overlap with our subject. [UPDATE: Practicalities of Idealism, Chapter One introduces Walter Collins Hardesty, Sr.]

William Hardesty’s processes diversified between industrial supply and consumer goods including cosmetics and crayons. “Also in 1933 a new plant was established at Los Angeles, the first fatty acid plant on the West Coast,” reported Haynes.[9] “The original quarters being outgrown by 1937, a larger building was erected.” 17 February 1937 reporting in Daily News at Los Angeles described “Explosive force released by atomic action of hydrogenated oil caused a blast …” and estimated $10,000 damage to W. C. Hardesty plant at the harbor. His initiatives suffered second industrial catastrophe in eight years.

“I am W. C. Hardesty of W. C. Hardesty Co., Inc. And business is good! We have done more business in the first two weeks of January than we did the whole month of December.” Henry Morgenthau, Jr. (1891-1967) was Secretary of the U.S. Treasury when taking 2 February 1938 meeting with a cadre congealed as “Association of Small Business Men of the Second Federal Reserve District.” One gets a sense of Hardesty’s gregarious personality from the Secretary’s diary: “People who order from us, like Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., when they send their orders in, want them shipped the same day. Wonderful!”

Hardesty gave backstory in his own words. “We entered business in 1926. We go overboard, hook line and sinker for everything we had, when we go through the depression of 1931-1932. Then we get our friends to come to our rescue with $150,000” as bonds to be repaid over ten years. By New York Times reporting on “Small Business Parley,” Hardesty advocated U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation resume lending from $1,500,000,000 fund. I assume ‘friends’ to have been bankers. They may have been corporate co-investors.

Hardesty presented as attuned to manufacturing processes and business accounting. He detailed specific machinery purchased with borrowed money in 1935, “… and we paid taxes of $11,371.19. In 1936, still with the spirit of enthusiasm, we spent [an apparently borrowed] $31,705.09 and, glad to say, we paid $25,207.53 in taxes.” In back-and-forth with Morgenthau he declared 11% corporate profit on $1,800,000 gross business.

While angling for clarity on government policy, the forty-six-year old conveyed a certain folksiness, referring to Washington, D.C. “fellows up there who are now giving us the ha-ha.” Hardesty gushed “I am one of the fellows who thinks the Government has done a swell job. I want to congratulate the Government and the wonderful spirit which is going along.” “Let me say, from my angle, my treatment from the banks was fair, from the Manufacturers Trust, from the National City, from the Sterling Bank; all right. We are getting a very moderate rate.” “… so far as I am personally concerned, I have no complaint.”

Transcript ran twelve pages. A dozen Association men attended; Hardesty occupied Morgenthau for the final two pages. And prevailed. Obtained promise of immediate meeting with the President’s Special Tax Advisor, Undersecretary Roswell Magill (1895-1963, with Morgenthau, left).

Hardesty Company operations in 1938 unfurled further with $50,000 investment in Toronto, Canada subsidiary and W. C. was on trajectory to sincere financial comfort. As top-echelon industrialist. Or ‘Small Business Man.’

William was not an absentee Dover Business Man. Daughter Elizabeth was Stenographer at W. C. Hardesty Company there, and by 1939 married Walter W. Somers (1909-1993) … Superintendent of Hardesty’s Dover operations.[10] Somers appeared at Hardesty’s side in 27 March 1939 reporting (right) on act I find particularly commendable. Under our folksy subject’s leadership, his company responded to capitalism’s decade of job eradication and wage suppression. Increasing for a second time compensation paid Dover’s two hundred or so employees. Dispersal of additional $1,500 in bonuses transpired as unilateral act, President Hardesty failing to obtain industry-wide consensus for such.[11]

Defendant W. C. Hardesty Company, Inc. – described as “a corporation of Delaware doing business at Dover, Ohio” – prevailed in patent infringement case brought by New Process Fat Refining Corp. Decided 16 November 1939, defendant’s means of steam-distilling fatty acids did not incur royalty. Important for this narrative, ruling found “Raw fatty acids are derived from garbage, grease, tallow or cottonseed foots. This raw acid is a chemical composition of [industrial] fatty acids and glycerine.”[12]

Society pages noticed W. C. and Mary Hardesty spent Christmas of 1939 at the posh El Mirador Hotel, Palm Springs, California. Star-studded New Year’s Eve parties there had become a rage in elite social strata. Our subject reported 1939 earnings exceeded $5,000.

1940 census entry from Greenway Apartments residence he shared with Mary at Forest Hills, Queens, New York seemed underwhelming: Hardesty’s occupation was enumerated succinctly as Executive at an Oil Company. (W. C. Hardesty Company that year registered a trademark.)

Poignantly, “With W. C. Hardesty of New York City, president of the Dover W. C. Hardesty plant, attending [Grace Lutheran Church celebration of the 4^th of July, 1941 at Dover] for the baptism of his granddaughter, Elizabeth Louise Somers,” (1942-1998, left) our subject matched congregational funding in purchase of a $25 war bond. William’s well-bred daughter ‘Viv’ that summer (at Forest Hills) married commercial artist Joseph William Shaw (1913-1982).[13] 

Nearing age fifty-three, Hardesty’s hair had grayed, complexion was described as ‘ruddy’ in 1942 Registrar’s Report for military draft.

He provided W. C. Hardesty Company corporate headquarters on 42^nd Street, in the heart of Manhattan, as means of contact. National Academy of Sciences inventory for available research facilities described five chemists then at W. C. Hardesty Company’s Dover plant. (At least two, when later lauded, cited time spent in these laboratories.) It was the only facility in the nation found producing sebacic acid. His firm complemented a mere five others in production of fatty acids. Dover output “helped to furnish glycerin used in the napalm bombs which burned the enemy out of Pacific Island pillboxes,” reported Daily Times from nearby New Philadelphia, Ohio. “High-altitude bombers carried Capryl alcohol to keep hydraulic systems working at extreme temperatures. Even a special lubricant was made for General Eisenhower’s forces and flown to them in time for the invasion of France.”

Undated ‘Save Waste Fats’ poster (above) prompted me to investigate fats, war and W. C. Hardesty Company operations at Dover. (I found unattributed placard eye catching. Imagined viewer attention seized, motivation well executed.) Consider the boost to Hardesty’s narrow industrial niche. Federal spending prompted and then compensated civilians’ free-will offering of waste. It summonsed source materials on which several company product lines relied. Butchers operated local collection centers; the U.S. government organized transport to corporate distillation facilities. (The effort proved rewarding. W. C. Hardesty Company – or bankers for him – invested in centralized processing center at St. Louis, Missouri.)

War-effort Public Service Announcements prodded participation. 25-second radio spot from 20 April 1942 certainly conveyed urgency: “need for waste fats and greases” grew “more critical” every day barked taut announcer.[14] (Click triangle, above, to hear him.) Appeal was personal: “The enemy may be superior … unless you help make up the difference from your kitchens.” [A Turtle’s Approach to Truth is set among postwar persuaders.]

U.S. Department of Agriculture ‘Food for Freedom’ instruction sheet brandished (elements, right) strategic partnership. Behind fat globules’ marching ranks stood ‘Glycerine Refinery.’ A contrastingly sober Kitchen Grease Quiz circulated in 1942. Version distributed by Oregon State Salvage Board to local committees addressed housewives as intelligent actors in war effort. Disguised fact sheet detailed curtailment of vegetable oil supply in global terms, addressed protections against potential kitchen grease diversion to profiteers. It gave 12% as effective rate for glycerin refined from household fats.[15] Seven pages of suggestive messaging concluded with proposed supportive slogans … none as catchy as “Loose lips sink ships.”

Pluto and Minnie Mouse got in the act in the summer of ’42. “Every skillet is a little munitions factory,” voice talent Arthur Gilmore (1912-2010) pitched during high-quality Walt Disney Production of Out of the Frying Pan into the Firing Line. 3-minute Technicolor animation promoted recognition of ‘Bring Waste Fats Here’ … in-store insignia (left) prepared by Glycerine Producers and Associated Industries.

American entry into global conflict inflated Hardesty’s already considerable enterprises. Per Haynes, “These expanded production facilities were of incalculable importance to the splendid production records achieved by West Coast fatty acid-consuming industries during World War II.” Help Wanted ads sprouted in the Los Angeles Times in January 1943 ... offering “Chemical Plant Work, Experience Not Necessary.” Openly stated wage offer was unique among competitors for labor. Within weeks, dense, six-line ads were replaced by two-inch vertical swaths (right), to which “Essential War Work” was added. By April the firm specifically targeted Negro laborers, offering the same starting wage. Which escalated to 93¢-$1.08 in June. The Company pledged to retain Engineers following war’s conclusion.

National quotas for scrap drives were set in 1943. Officials purposefully expected collection of 200,000,000 pounds of household fats. Bulletin went out 10 May. Under ‘Los Angeles War Council,’ a War Production Board heralded “all-out national effort to put 17,000,000 pounds a month of waste household fats into war production -- the makings of 8,500,000 pounds of dynamite for our fighting men.”[16] It also proclaimed the American Meat Institute would implement the campaign “through every meat dealer in the United States.” U.S. Citizens Salvage Committees in Southern California organized under slogan “A Spoonful of Grease a Day will Blow the Axis Powers Away.”

Operation Gomorrah, or the ‘Hiroshima of Germany,’ resulted in nearly 40,000 civilian casualties following massive-scale Allied firebombing raids on Hamburg at end of July 1943.

Time would elapse before the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI) expanded messaging beyond result in explosives and incendiaries. Lubricants, also within W. C. Hardesty Company production capacity, joined military medicines and protective coatings as rationale in ongoing pleadings for salvage fats.

Graphic posters, intended for butchers’ shops, captured my imagination. Walter DuBois Richards (1907-2006) was already a prominent Printmaker, Painter and Illustrator when producing 1943 signboard while assigned to OWI. I found his treatment of gun emplacement (right) downright painterly.[17]

Intensely  provocative ‘Save waste fats for explosives’ (left) was work product of Henry Koerner … named Heinrich Sieghart Körner (1915-1991) at Austrian birth. He would accrue multiple awards for his postwar art.[18]

One can sense by 1943 illustration ‘Kill These Rats’ (right) Alfred John Plastino (1921-2013) had already moved from Marvel Mystery Comics and then departed Novelty Comics for military service as Illustrator. His representation of Superman in particular would appear in comic books and syndicated comic strips long after his war service.

Government agencies were not the only propaganda source operant in this genre: “Paid for by Industry” appeared as tag beneath torrid-storyline comic strips urging ladies to “hurry” waste grease “to your meat dealer at once.”

Private Charles Henry Alston (1907-1977) had illustrated Fortune, Mademoiselle, Melody Maker and New Yorker magazines. The Columbia University graduate (M.A., 1931) had designed album covers for fellow artists that included Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins … before being ordered as Manhattan-based Staff Artist into the Office of War Information in 1940. He had been active as a muralist in Harlem Renaissance prior to shaping behavior (left) among Black newspaper readers. Alston, by then a pioneering educator, would be elected into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1958.

Richard Hardisty, father to our subject, died 22 December 1943 at his Mitchellville, Maryland farmhouse. Services were held Christmas Eve and, age 79, he was interred as his parents had been. At Holy Trinity Church cemetery.

“Extensive research and the resultant development of HARDESTY fatty acids during the past few years have brought forth qualities and high purities not heretofore obtainable — fatty acids that are extremely light in color, free of contaminants, and each with unusual characteristics to meet the buyers' specifications,” advertised W. C. Hardesty Company in May 1944. Dover factory appeared first in list of operations run from Manhattan offices. (I leave it to readers to assess whether our subject posed (left) as left-most decision maker for full-page ad. The model was certainly Rooseveltian.)

Chemical Industries, on cover of July 1944 issue, touted “Peacetime Markets for Chemicals.” The business journal also announced organization of Hardesty Chemical Co., Inc. Based on “scarcely known sebacic acid” in Dover production, another joint enterprise – with our subject (far right) as Vice-president – established operations at Philadelphia. Haynes made technical advances meritorious; in plasticizers, synthetic organic chemicals and “petroleum sulfonates, unrelated to fatty acids chemically.” Undoubtedly imaginative and persuasive, Hardesty continued demonstrating dexterity for financing untested process.

Indiscriminate, 1945 aerial fire-bombings at Dresden and Tokyo preceded Axis capitulation. In May, Hardesty Chemical Co., Inc. registered ‘Harchem’ trademark (right). The unit, retooling for peacetime without War Office contracts, processed castor-oil-based products. Harchem’s molecular chain of sebacic acid would prove primal in plastics: acrylics, polyesters, polyurethanes, vinyls; synthetic rubber and lubricants propagated from chemists’ laboratories.

William and Mary Hardesty, of Forest Hills, were in Dover environs for his daughter Elizabeth’s second marriage. (Divorce from Somers had been uncontested, 6 June 1945.) She united with Dover Optometrist William B. Bailey (1912-1990) in October 1946. And he set up Zanesville, Ohio practice.

Crowley found “Hardesty was having difficulty in getting into production” at a recently retired war production plant, Henderson, Nevada. Amecco Chemicals, Inc., underwriters for Hardesty Chemical Company, by 1948 undertook financial obligations and I suspect Hardesty had sold his stake in it. (See endnote.) William and Mary Hardesty in the Spring of 1948 flew from Nassau, Bahamas to Miami, Florida in what was obviously leg in wider ambulation. Our subject won Senior’s Championship when in golfing pair at Winged Foot course, Mamaroneck, New York that summer.

William Hardesty was not at Dover for deadly 1949 explosion depicted in my 2019 post. (The imaginative Walter Collins Hardesty, Sr. was dead, as was his same-named son. Walter Collins Hardesty III (1938-1984) was age ten … and likely in his mother’s Daytona Beach household.) It may be of slightest interest that Daily Reporter at Dover placed Hardesty Milling Company among ten largest companies there in 1929. (It was then under Presidency of paternal first cousin to Walter Collins Hardesty.) In list compiled recent to 1965, “Harchem Division of Wallace & Tiernan” sat in top tier of principal Dover companies. Our W. C. Hardesty had introduced the manufactory to a disused plant there.

Samuel Harold ‘Sam’ Bonifant (b. 1908) died of burns in 1949 pandemonium. Twenty were injured in all. “We want our appreciation expressed to Mr. Hardesty and other officials,” President of Local No. 20, International Chemical Workers Union, told the press in August. Each employee had been awarded $50 bonus ... as “token of the company’s appreciation of the fine spirit and loyalty” shown following disaster. (Each check included note from Hardesty.) Widow and mother of two, Edith Isabell (Besozzi) Bonifant (1908-1976), was compensated almost $30,000. Company outlay formed nearly half of her quittance. None had been laid off when Somers announced weeks of paid vacation in July dependent on length of employment.

The plant had suffered an estimated $240,000 damage. I did not realize, when referencing it in 2019, that industrial blast would dent W. C. Hardesty’s career.

Somers was summarily replaced as Plant Superintendent. Though I don't know at whose instigation, Binney and Smith assumed management of W. C. Hardesty Company in early 1950 ... and they subsumed his corporate identities to Belleville, New Jersey base of operations. (Dover’s local baseball team played as ‘W. C. Hardesty’ into the mid-1950s … several seasons after Wallace & Tiernan acquisition of Dover plant.)

William was described as ‘Executive, Manufacturer of Raw Materials,’ working 40 hours a week, in April 1950 census. He and wife Mary were ensconced in stately Larchmont Village home, Westchester County. ‘$10,000+’ (overstricken) appears in columns both for earnings and income aside from it (dividends in first instance, perhaps proceeds from buyout in the second).[19]

The following year, Hardesty (placed third in his age class for U.S. Senior’s Golf Championship and) established entities with corporate relationships that had apparently been distilling since wartime. Hardesty Industries Company was established in joint venture with Philadelphia tannery under new generation of management by Jacob Stern & Sons.[20] Hardesty was also credited as founder of the Acme-Hardesty Company: it remains a branded division within Jacob Stern & Sons to this day.[21]

The firm’s name appeared first in alphabetized list of members in a Fatty Acid Producers’ Council formed in 1951. The trade group committed to “statistical, technical and educational projects” encouraging “more effective use and broader application of fatty acids.” Perhaps mindful of potential for pandemonium, the Council (which included Harchem) moved in “direction suggested by quality-minded and research-minded thinking.” 1963 report (above) by Soap and Detergent Association relied on Council data to chart impressive increase in fatty acid production over the next decade. Twenty-page brochure (graphicly portrayed intricate, multi-stage production process in two-page spread, and) meticulously described tallow-to-product vision in which Hardesty had been formative.

Hardesty likely summonsed his clan to Bimini in the Bahamas in summer of 1956. Passenger records revealed return to Miami by daughter Vivian’s second husband, Frank Brisbin Foster, Jr. (1908-1982). (She had divorced Shaw, 1950.) A teen who would marry granddaughter Libby Lou made the same crossing five weeks later.

After brief illness, William C. Hardesty, age 70, died at his comfortable Greenburgh, New York home (right). On 18 April 1962. The New York Daily Post promptly eulogized him as “pioneer in the conversion of fats to industrial uses.” The New York Times (laid out career highlights and) observed him as still-serving President of Acme-Hardesty. Three-paragraph Dover obituary manifested 20 April. As perfunctory notice to local friends of the deceased.

He was declared survived by widow Mary, his daughters Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Bailey and Vivian (as Mrs. Frank Foster, Jr.), two granddaughters, and sister Emma Gertrude (Hardisty) Barker (1895-1987). To put our subject’s trajectory into perspective, Gertrude had by 1950 divorced John Anderson Barker (1885-1956) … who was in 1940 enumerated as Stationary Engineer at a Baltimore scrap yard.[22]

Services for Hardesty were held Saturday, 21 April at a Scarsdale, New York funeral home. And also at Laurel Chapel, Philadelphia later that same afternoon. He was interred with first wife Elizabeth and their daughter Ella Marie in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd. Second wife Mary, having removed to Haverford, Pennsylvania in 1964, would join them, and her father – at same plot – in 1998. Former Schoolteacher Elizabeth Louise ‘Betty’ (Somers) Mikolashek, William’s granddaughter baptized 1943, died that year in a Cleveland hospital.

~

The author has been a collector of World War I propaganda art.

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ENDNOTES:

After endnotes were sewn up, I discovered Hardesty Chemical Company in 1947 appeared before their own ‘McCarthy hearings.’ U.S. Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy (1908-1957) was interrogator for Senate subcommittee finding the company $18,000 in arrears on rent due Federal corporation created by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. According to staff, the company had been “induced” to surplus Nevada plant; produced detergent and resold cogenerated hydrochloric acid there. Company President testifying was Samuel J. Cohen (1898-1960, image above). Per Haynes, Cohen, through his firm Amecco, spent $500,000 retooling the Nevada plant by 1949; he had apparently bought Hardesty out c1947 and remained a Director of Harchem’s Dover plant at his drowning.

[1]  Walter C. Hardesty descended by four generations from Methodist ‘Brother’ George Hardisty (d. 1779). William C. Hardisty by one account was six generations removed from immigrant Francis Hardesty (1671-1734) … whose most earnest biographers do not support specifics in the contention. I have long concurred with supposition that all colonial-era Hardestys in North America were related. That all by some means descended from Francis, a patriarch who arrived Maryland before 1703 from Yorkshire. BACK

[2] William C., age eight, was in 1900 enumerated in Richard Hardisty’s rented Baltimore domicile. (Consult endnote [22] for disambiguation attempt.) Three of six children born to Mary Emma (Murr) Hardisty (b. 1863) survived … William and sisters ages six and four were enumerated. The quintet occupied a different Baltimore household in 1910; two ironworkers boarded with them. Our subject may have left home as a teen: a William Hardesty appeared in 1910 Philadelphia directory as Bookkeeper.

I note some decline in intergenerational status. Baltimore Sun obituary for Richard Hardisty, Sr. (1829-1908) credited William’s paternal grandfather as progressive Farmer, General Store Merchant at Collington (now subsumed into Bowie), Maryland. As “intimate social and political friend” of one-time Governor Oden Bowie (1826-1894). Richard, Sr. likely married Margaret Talbot in 1862 and was taxed four years later for carriage, piano and gold watch. (Her father, Thomas Jefferson Talbot (1804-1869), was well-situated at 800-acre ‘Medford’ estate, Prince George’s County, Maryland.) Richard, Jr. was first-born, preceding at least nine siblings.

Census records for 1915 and 1920 suggest Richard, Jr. was at Manhattan. As ‘Farmer’ on East 81^st Street; then as Manager of a Club. If so, Richard, second wife and Dressmaker Sarah T. McGrail (1875-1968), with her three sons, four daughters (and, initially, her mother and sister, also in Hardisty household) would have preceded his son William to New York. Richard Hardisty was enumerated 1930 as Tobacco Farmer, Prince George’s County … with (no wife) daughter Emily (1919-2017) born at New York, and that McGrail sister-in-law, in his domestic arrangement. Emily's obituary divulged mother Sarah remained at New York. BACK

[3] Our subject elevated from Sales into corporate machinations of impressive scale: “The General Manufacturing Company has purchased from W. C. Hardesty for a nominal consideration the lot on the north side of Delaware avenue in the middle of Bigler street. The ground was purchased earlier in the day by Mr. Hardesty … for $110,000,” reported The Philadelphia Inquirer, 25 July 1918. G.M.C. expected to erect a number of factory buildings at 204-acre parcel.

See The American Fertilizer Handbook, Vol. 8 (1915), p. A-67: W. C. Hardesty appeared as Treasurer for Martin Fertilizer, Inc. at Norfolk, Virginia (with plants at Baltimore and Philadelphia). Hardesty would have been, at most, age 24. See Moody’s 1920 Manual, p. 1055: W. C. Hardesty was listed as a Director of D. B. Martin Company, Philadelphia slaughterers also manufacturing fertilizer, glue, soaps and broad range of meat-based products. The company was valued at nearly $10,000,000. BACK

[4] Unidentified brother, sketched into 1917 draft record almost as afterthought, was perhaps son to his father’s second wife. He may have been brother to wife Elizabeth Heck. She had been only child in Henry Granville Heck (1870-1918) household at Dauphin County, Pennsylvania 1900. Village of Heckton had been established there 1832 by Dr. Ludwick ‘Lewis’ Heck (1810-1890). Grandsons born at Heckton achieved distinction. Among them, Lewis Heck (1889-1964), age peer of Elizabeth’s, was U.S. High Commissioner to Turkey 1918-1919. His brother Nicholas Hunter Heck (1882-1953) at time of Elizabeth’s marriage was pioneering underwater acoustics: he would revolutionize hydrographic surveillance. BACK

[5] Baby Ella Marie was borne from funeral service in Hardestys’ home in White Plush Casket (see right) by white hearse, to Laurel Hill Cemetery.

Conundrum: Philadelphia Inquirer obituary for ‘Elizabeth Shipley’ appeared two days after death of our subject’s spouse. It named ‘W. C. Hardesty’ as survivor, gave his home address for services. And surname is contradicted by death certificate … for which W. C. had just been informant. Where he stated Elizabeth L. was daughter to Granville Heck and Elizabeth Feeser. BACK

[6] After property transfer to G.M.C., Hardesty’s model for joint venture seems to have been offloading site and facility cost to investing companies. Meeting supply agreements within their business, he reinvested his earnings to staff laboratories and factories with chemists and workmen inspired to develop new materials. Lucrative reward arrived from identifying, patenting and marketing or licensing branded products. Hardesty was innovator, adopting new industrial processes also increased his profit. When they did not explode.

Binney and Smith had profited immensely from carbon black (cast off by coal refining) and industrial coloring. They had introduced Crayola brand wax crayons in 1903. Principal’s wife Alice (Stead) Binney (1866-1960) is credited for combining French word for chalk, ‘craie,’ with Latin ‘olea.’ (Think olive oil.) Hardesty would make the most of oils, fats and Binney and Smith funding. Blackening formerly white Goodrich tires was apparently joint enterprise the companies performed. BACK

[7] Additionally, 1927 Buyer’s Directory gave Hardesty Company as source for Candle Tar and Distilled Red Oil. Adhesive Candle Tar was newly being processed via vulcanization for elastic properties. The latter was an oleic acid of distilled grease the texture of lard, preferred by textile manufacturers as a soap. Industry was beginning to explore Red Oil’s antiseptic and lubricating properties. BACK

[8] See ‘Fire Loss Set at Million in Grease Plant,’ The Pittsburgh Press, 15 April 1929, p. 19, col. 8: “W. C. Hardesty, president of the Hardesty company, estimated the damage in excess of $1,000,000.” Firefighters required a day to extinguish fire originating in “still house” and which soon fed from grease and oil tanks. At least a hundred working men lost jobs. Same-day New York Times reporting described thirty buildings destroyed, $500,000 loss. Pennsylvania Railroad passenger traffic was shunted to branch route “because of the danger of tanks adjoining the right of way exploding.” Another account put Binney and Smith as facility owners, in the business of making pencils. BACK

[9] W. C. Hardesty Co., Inc. registered trademark HYDREX (right) in 1934. From description of goods and services: “Preparation of fatty acid of marine, animal, and vegetable origin for use as a rubber compounding ingredient, as an aid in the dispersion of pigments, as a binder in the preparation of buffing compounds, and as an ingredient in the compounding of lubricating greases.” BACK

[10] Wide-eyed “Plant Manager Walter Somers (pointing)” appeared (right) in 1949 Dover reporting beneath ‘Hardesty Plant Damage Over $275,000.’ Somers (who had no middle name; Draft Registrar noted middle initial ‘W.’ did not refer to any) had been “head of the GOP committee” inviting (U.S. Senator for Ohio and) Presidential candidate Robert Alphonso Taft, Sr. (1889-1953) to Dover in 1948 campaign to counter economic New Deal before an audience of five hundred. BACK

[11] Retrospect reporting recalled 55 Dover employees striking 4 August 1937 and obtaining wage increases. 1939 act was apparently unbargained follow-on. American Federation of Labor members nevertheless struck W. C. Hardesty Company in 1941. 8¢/hour pay rise had been bargained, unionists agitated for a closed shop and more favorable means of dues collection. BACK

[12] Cottonseed oil foots – or soapstocks – become admixtures of soap, vegetable oil and other aqueous liquids when refined from crude cottonseed oils. Our subject would in 1942 be named to ‘Soap and Glycerine Committee,’ by the U.S. War Production Board. W. C. Hardesty Company surfactant process would be referenced seventy years later, in another’s 2009 patent application. BACK

[13]  After being elected President, freshman class at Linden Hall – Lititz, Pennsylvania boarding school (1929) – ‘Viv’ (right) had in 1937 graduated Penn Hall Girls’ Preparatory School at Philadelphia. The groom was of Vesper George School of Art at Boston. Connecticut death index would describe Joseph W. Shaw as President of Shaw Advertising. And widower to a second wife. BACK

[14] mp3 audio file retrieved 20 May 2023 from sample shared at Old Time Radio Catalog, website OTRCAT.com. BACK

[15]  Fat Salvage Program Copy Policy by the War Food Administration, February 1945, offered intriguing insight for using language to solicit intended behavior. Specified word choice preferences for instructing civilian participation. It opened with declaration defending “Need for salvaging used kitchen fats in 1945 is more important than ever.” Compare this with Strasser’s 2014 claims: “Women who did contribute felt good about being part of the war effort, even if that contribution was somewhat of a ruse. The types of explosives made with such fats were not of major importance in the war…” And “Keeping women busy and productive was the important thing.” See Turning Bacon Into Bombs by Adee Braun (2014).

For those interested in psychology of marketing messages to consumers, see A Turtle’s Approach to Truth (2023). BACK

[16]  Independent Commodity Intelligence Services reported the American Fats Salvage Committee collected more than 924,000,000 pounds of household fat during their campaign. BACK

[17]  Richards, probably at Manhattan by 1943, was 1936 graduate of Cleveland School of Art, less than 80 miles due north of Dover. I recommend the blog ‘Walter DuBois Richards,’ respectful and intelligent tribute by the artist’s grandson, Andrew T. Richards.

Copy for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History exhibit ‘Posters on the American Home Front (1941-45)’ described “Two contending groups within OWI clashed over poster design. Those who saw posters as “war art” favored stylized images and symbolism, while recruits from the world of advertising wanted posters to be more like ads.” We might deduce from Fat Salvage Program Copy Policy [at 15] that “Advertising specialists in OWI finally gained the upper hand in 1943.” BACK

[18]  Koerner’s WWII poster ‘Someone Talked’ won award at National War Poster Competition by the Museum of Modern Art. He returned to Vienna in 1946: to discover his parents and brother – all but two of his relatives – had been deported and put to death during the war. BACK

[19] The Hardestys sold their five-bedroom Larchmont home … with “vapor oil” heating system and maid’s quarters (right) in 1952. To take up Sprain Road residence at nearby Greenburgh on Hudson River. Mary, active in Greenville Garden Club, entertained persistently here and at Sprain Road. BACK

[20] The Family History at Jacob Stern & Sons, Inc. website contends “A chemical engineer named William Hardesty approached Lucien Katzenberg [in hides and tallow business] with the proposition of splitting tallow to yield glycerine, a substance that could be used to produce explosives. The idea was appealing to the family and the plant was commissioned …” Hardesty was not known to have had formal science training. Acme-Hardesty celebrated 80th anniversary in 2023 with 49-page booklet. Jacob Stern & Sons’ single shareholder, Chairman Philip Lucien Bernstein (b. 1942) recalled meeting ‘Bill’ Hardesty, “... future co-founder of Acme-Hardesty, “a number of times” when a “youngster.” Per Bernstein, Hardesty “figured out” how brokers between fat renderers and soap industry could profit as manufacturers. “[His] proposition to my grandfather was that we take the tallow that Jacob Stern had access to, and split it to get the the glycerine, to sell to people who were making ammunition and munitions ... Hardesty was a chemical engineer by training and reckoned that there was a fortune to be made by selling material to the government to support the war effort.” As the U.S. began warring in Korea. “Glycerine, at the time, was worth close to a dollar a pound. The splitting idea had appeal and, before long, open kettles were added” to Jacob Stern & Sons facilities at Philadelphia. On incorrect premise, Bernstein reported “Hardesty went on to start another fatty acid business in Dover, Ohio. To this day, that plant still exists, in a greatly transformed state …”

Lionel^® scale model train “tank cars lettered for Jacob Stern, the parent company of Acme-Hardesty, a firm in Philadelphia … were promotional items that Jacob Stern gave to customers as gifts or incentives around 1949 or 1950.” Asserting “no critical problems of fire protection are created,” 1963 Soap & Detergent Association report on fatty acid transport also described “specially lined cars equipped with heating coils …” to prevent discoloration.  BACK

[21] “Acme Hardesty Co., New York, N.Y. Principally for hand soaps and resins” was listed behind only General Mills as members of Fatty Acids Division of the Association of American Soap & Glycerine Producers, Inc.” in 1953 Soybean Digest ranking (here). “Few products have a wider range of usage yet are more unheralded. The consumers of the end products never hear of fatty acids,” observed Pellett, who drew attention to “big expansion” in previous five years. Soybean fatty acids had been considered near-worthless byproducts of soybean oil refiner’s ‘foots kettle,’ sold only to soap manufacturers, who bought them for little more than transportation costs. “Now they are convertible into fatty acids of uniform grades which enter into products as various as rubber and paints, perfumes and paper, and insecticides and cosmetics. And fatty acids are quoted on commodity exchanges at about the price of crude soybean oil.” BACK

[22] 1910 census enumerated Richard C. Hardisty in first marriage, wife Mary E. in her second. And that three of six children born to her survived. William C. and Emma G. (Gertude) were recorded … as was daughter Ella M. (b. c1894). The quintet mirrored 1900 household. 1936 Baltimore Sun obituary cast Emma M. Murr (c1864-1936) as having married Richard C. Hardesty. 1937 Social Security application for Ella Matilda (Hardesty) Delker (b. 1893) gave Hardesty and Murr as parents. ‘Mary E.’ (b. c1862) appeared in 1870 enumeration for Baltimore household of William F. and Mary Murr. ‘Emma’ (b. c1862) appeared in enumeration of William and A. Mary Murr at Baltimore a decade later.

Vivian’s son Stephen J. Shaw (b. 1945) was not mentioned in maternal grandfather’s obituary. Viv made consequential second marriage … to Frank Brisbin Foster, Jr. at Manhattan in 1953. Significant heir to fortune accrued from Diamond Glass Company at Royersford, Pennsylvania, Foster also entered second marriage. He and Vivian returned in First Class Andrea Doria cabins from Naples in 1955. When Mary (Pierson) Hardesty removed to Haverford, it was to be near step-daughter Vivian. BACK

Ancestry.com subscribers will find sandbox titled ‘With the Spirit of Enthusiasm.’

Wild Confusion in Every Direction

10 March 1862

On 24 February, Jason Lombardi, President of Malvern Historical Society in Carroll County, Ohio, posted an 1862 news clipping (right) to the group's Facebook page. He tagged me and asked, "Any details to add to the Haines, Hardesty, & Co. business firm?"(Roll your cursor over the image; a jumble of text should appear. Click on any blog image; a larger version displays.)

Dramatic, first-hand reporting cried out from the front page of the Morning Leader at Cleveland, Ohio. It impressed Lombardi: "A terrific explosion ... one which propelled a two-thousand-pound boiler high enough into the air to crash through the roof of a three-story warehouse!" Thirty feet distant, I might observe. With "cries of distress," and "wild confusion in every direction," the writer's voice certainly conveys agitation.

I'm predisposed to assist Lombardi. Last summer he put into my hands (left) an 1838 record of sales carried out at a Malvern mercantile venture ... operated by my 4x great-grandfather, Rev. William Hardesty (1776-1846). We assessed his sons' provisioning: preparation for a 4th of July one hundred and eighty years earlier.

Mercantile operation, we'll return to that.

Albert R. Haines (1826-1907) is first-listed in 'Messrs. Haines, Hardesty & Co.' I'll begin with him, culling much from Beers' Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Harrison and Carroll, Ohio (1891). Ten years following his parents' arrival from Maryland; the eldest known child of that union was born about a mile northwest of Pekin, Ohio. Haines was schooled in what were no doubt rustic conditions, yet he was teaching when his father Joseph fell ill at the end of 1849.  It's a poignant vignette: "His father taking sick, [Haines] was called home" – from a one-room school at Fairfield, Illinois – "but his father had died and was buried the day before he reached home."

Haines was enumerated as a farmer on 15 October 1850, working his widowed mother's $2000 farm in Brown Township of Carroll County. A brother and four sisters (three not yet aged ten) extended the household she kept, in close environs of his paternal grandfather and uncle.

Haines taught classes locally during winter term before risking a new vocation, to clerk in the store of Joseph Pool & Co. ... in nearby Minerva.

Pool (1830-1917) was born at Minerva and "attended the public schools until seventeen years of age, when he entered his father's dry-goods store," as White informs us, in The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, Vol. X (1900). The 1850 census has Pool in Paris Township of Stark County, Ohio, eldest in his parents' household, enumerated as a Clerk. As for humble beginnings, entry for father John, Merchant, gives no value ... for real or personal estate.

It seems hardly fair, to beleaguer readers with Pool's career, since relationship with Haines must have been fleeting: Pool removed to Canton, Ohio, read law, and was admitted to the bar at twenty-one ... a small window for potential collaboration. He'd left partnership at a Columbus, Ohio law firm by the time of wild confusion at Malvern: Pool had entered military service as a Company Lieutenant. He emerged from the Grand Army of the Republic in 1865 as a Lieutenant Colonel, having risen to quartermaster, and then been appointed by Lincoln to serve as a Union paymaster. Pool also emerged with strong ties to the national Republican Party.

1881 bond, NYWS&B Railway Co.

A soldier's responsibilities likely shaped Pool's trajectory. He was in New York City and President of American National Bank by 1868. After five, lucrative years at the helm, Pool traveled Europe for two years. Following a five-year stint as President of The Manufacturers and Merchants Bank, he bought a railroad and in 1880 reorganized it as the plush New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway. (Pool battled for lowest, feasible shipping rates ... with the Hudson River Railroad: Cornelius Vanderbilt bankrupted Pool's enterprise, in 1885.) The Biographical Directory of the State of New York (1899) gives but a partial list of corporations Pool ran subsequently; prior to lofty appointment as New York City Magistrate in 1897.

Not bad for a Minerva boy. I'd be interested to learn whether Haines and Pool received instruction in the same rural schoolhouse: biography of their schoolmarm might be enlightening.

Returning to Haines, c1851: for "a short time," he is to have clerked for Morledge & Perdue at Minerva. I'll posit one partner was James Morledge (1821-1898): his 1850 census record has him with the highest real estate value (at $1300) among a knot of Paris Township tailors. Perrin's History of Stark County (1881) has Morledge moving to Minerva proper and "engaged in the grain and produce business" c1851. Haines' sister Rachel Ann (c1832-1854) had married Carroll County Blacksmith Rezin Justus Perdue (1823-1890) in 1846. Albert's brother John Haines (1829-1862) had set up as a Wagon Maker with Perdue by 1850. I suspect this Purdue fulfills second-party depiction in 'Morledge & Perdue.'

Haines' first apparent exercise of actual partnership is to have arisen with brothers Jeremiah Gustavus (1822-1895) and William Frederic Unkefer (1828-1894), in a general store at Minerva. Family connections likely played a role in this proprietorship as well: paternal aunt Rachel Haines was mother to the Unkefer brothers.* I find it notable that family-owned Unkefer Farm Equipment Company has operated from Minerva since 1947.

Haines' association with Perdue kin had certainly soured by 13 February 1856. On that date, Haines was alone in legal action against his mother, five siblings and four Perdue children born to his recently deceased sister: Haines sought to have almost 640 acres partitioned. Four parcels, in Stark and Carroll Counties, had apparently been inherited in common by the parties. The case was still being litigated in 1869.

Beers' profile on Haines, published while he was yet living, informs us that, "In the fall of the year 1855 Mr. Haines removed to Malvern, where he conducted a general country store, keeping everything the farmers needed, and buying all kinds of produce. The store belonged to a joint-stock company, he being general agent and stockholder." We might postulate that this 'joint-stock company' unveils precursor to the subject of Lombardi's inquiry: A. R. Haines acted as agent for the Farmer's and Mechanic's Mercantile Association. George Hardesty (1812-1875), fifth known son born to Rev. William, above [and Louisa Knouff/Knauff (1782-1850)], was President of the firm, based at Malvern.

Haines married Almira Harsh (1831-c1919) at Carroll County on 25 August 1857. He succeeded Otto Henry Paessler (1829-1888) to become Malvern postmaster on 11 November that year. Haines held the post until 7 August 1861, precisely seven months prior to a one-ton boiler dropping through the Haines, Hardesty & Co. warehouse roof. We'll attend frequently to Malvern postmasters: I may be influenced by the mere fact that records exist; it may be relevant that foot traffic nicely complimented commercial trade.

[Speculation in U.S. postal contracts is theme at The Ruling Force of Time.]

6 April 1859

Haines, Hardesty & Co. became manifest on 30 March 1859. 

Notice arrived in a Carrollton, Ohio newspaper (right): "Successors to the Farmer's and Mechanic's Mercantile Association ... have added a large amount of new capitol (sic) to the original stock, and are now prepared to do even a larger business in the mercantile and produce line, than has heretofore been done by the old firm. Their Spring stock of Goods are (sic) now arriving and will be sold lower than at any other establishment in the country." Grand proclamation promised the "highest price in CASH paid for Wool, Grain, and other produce." Keep in mind the idea that partners intended for cash to circulate.

Hoping to dampen wild confusion in every direction, I at this point refrain from deep depiction of identified partners, other than by naming them in order of display: Haines and George Hardesty entered association with David Hough Sholl (1828-1911) and Hardesty's younger brother Thomas (c1820-1870). I will individually elaborate on this Malvern assemblage presently.

"The business prospered," observed Beers. As 'A. R. Haines,' Albert is enumerated on 28 June 1860 as a (new father and) Malvern merchant. His real estate, likely including goods on hand, was valued at an impressive $6800. Not yet thirty-four, he is to have held $1625 in his personal estate. The Haines household was apparently situated between the families of Cabinet Maker Joseph Fishel (1833-1915) and John Harsh Tressel (1833-1909), then a Professor at Malvern Academy. By the time of the explosion, two of four surviving daughters had been born to the Hainses.

Much is made, in multiple profiles, of Haines' antipathy toward (the death penalty and) war. In June of 1863, he registered for the Union draft (as a merchant). But one entry separates Haines from the above Thomas Hardesty, depicted as a miller. Neither man indicated prior military service.

Albert R. Haines (1826-1907), c 1890.

"After several changes," in the next few years, Haines (right) "bought out the whole business, and conducted it upon his own account." A notable career followed purchase of Haines, Hardesty & Co.. In History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio, Vol. II (1921), Eckley devoted a page to the "leading merchant in the village of Malvern." Haines "became one of the most influential men in the Carroll County ranks of the democratic party."

Democrats chose him to serve as an elector in support of Horace Greely's doomed 1872 presidential campaign. He represented Ohio's 21st District in the state senate, 1876-1877, as Republicans controlled both chambers; and the 18th Congressional District, as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1888 at Saint Louis. (Their candidate, Grover Cleveland, was voted from office. Ohio's 'favorite son,' U.S. Sen. Allen Granberry Thurman was also on the ticket.)

Former-Senator A. R. Haines was among Malvern men providing the Malvern Clay Company with $6500 in capital in 1887, according to Eckley's History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio, Vol. I (1921). Evocative of the 1862 explosion, the plant burned in 1889. Perseverance paid off: a prototype paving brick was awarded a gold medal at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago. Follow-on business was rewarding. Beers divulged that Haines "owns the clay and coal land near Malvern, out of which the clay and coal are taken to the Malvern Clay Company plant, in which he is an officer and stockholder. He also owns several thousand acres of land in the State of Arkansas."

By then ensconced at his 'Church Hill Farm' on outskirts of Malvern village in the Sandy Valley (see map, below), Presbyterian Haines "broadened his intellectual ken" ... by extended travel. Crossing the Atlantic in the autumn of 1889, he capped extensive and repeated domestic travel – from the eastern seaboard at least as far as Rocky Mountains – with a year-long, European sojourn. Haines visited a half-dozen "great cities of the world." By his passport (left) we can appreciate that his hair had grayed by age sixty-three. He stood 5' 8" tall. A small chin, gray eyes and large nose were set into a round face with a high forehead.

As far as I know, following 1860, Haines is ever afterward enumerated as a farmer. A wealthy farmer, to be sure: his 1870 estate converged on $27,000. Church Hill Farm was an accommodating place. His sister-in-law (about twenty-nine years Almira's junior) shared their 1880 household, when Hainses' daughter Joetta was enumerated a Shop Keeper for a Dry Goods Store. Empty-nesters Almira and Albert - he then aged seventy-one - listed infant Henry J. Reed as an 'Adopted Child' in their 1900 abode.

I suspect Haines himself declared he "never accumulated a fortune" to Beers. Haines was ill, at the drafting of a last will, dated 8 December 1906. Almira was favored; all four daughters were to "share and share alike" following her death ... notwithstanding likelihood that specifically-allocated Des Moines and Denver properties could be expected to fluctuate in value, prior to passing through the widow's estate. Haines can be seen as a financial planner: he provided that any contesting his will should be disinherited.

Haines is at rest, with his wife and three daughters, at Malvern. An impressive obelisk towers over his headstone at Bethlehem Cemetery.

As for 'Hardesty,' in Messrs. Haines, Hardesty & Co., there were two. Sons of the above Rev. William Hardesty – who began securing Ohio land grants a decade prior to Haines' parents' arrival – who died in 1846. A one-time Methodist circuit rider, Hardesty is not primarily remembered as a merchant. He "reared a family of ten sons, nine of whom followed the pursuit of their father and owned their mills," recorded Lee, in History of the City of Columbus, Capital of Ohio, Vol. II (1892). He continued: "Most of the grandsons in their day also became millers, so that, at the present day, a legion of successful millers bears the name of Hardesty." (A chart depicting this cast of characters appears at the post's culmination.)

I re-introduce George Hardesty (1812-1875), as second-named in 1859 announcement of the firm's establishment. Though I assume it would be wise to elevate easily recognized personalities ... to lend confidence to the enterprise ... perhaps investment ratio served as rationale for precedence in depiction of partners' names when Haines, Hardesty & Co. was first promulgated. Rank was apparently not based on personal wealth. George had represented Carroll and Tuscarawas Counties in Ohio's 47th General Assembly, 1847-1848. Conclusion of his term in office almost coincided with termination of his stint as Malvern postmaster, which ran from 3 February 1841 through 28 January 1848. [George was succeeded by his next-younger brother, Philip Willard Hardesty (1815-1892) ... who in 1857 was succeeded by Haines, Hardesty & Co. partner Sholl's older brother Jacob, Jr..]

A dense digital array illuminates George Hardesty on line. He no doubt deserves his own post, if not blog site. Childless after 1836 marriage to Hannah Jackson Hillerman (1815-1883), three unrelated preteens shared the Hardesty Homestead at Malvern (image below), which George inherited from his mother in 1850. Hardesty was at this time enumerated as a Miller, possessed of $4000 in real estate. Three years later, W. W. Reilly's Ohio State Business Directory indicates partnership with younger brother Thomas (another Haines, Hardesty & Co. partner). While their father was alive, the trio expanded from grist-milling ... to build and operate a sawmill. By 1853, the brothers expanded enterprise to become Sash, Door & Blind Manufacturers. They were acknowledged Produce Dealers at the time: I've no idea where such undertaking fell ... in terms of revenue generation. It seems George and Thomas organized themselves as 'Hardesty Brothers.' That's a name which will soon blossom into some complexity: let me say that this iteration  – which included George's next-elder brother William, Jr. (c1810-1869) – dissolved by "mutual consent" at the close of 1859. Haines, Hardesty & Co. had formed in April; William, Jr. went on to develop Carrollton Steam Mills at the county seat.

Initially a Whig, George, among the "legion of millers," seems to have most hallowed his father's Methodism ... and politics. Contrary to his interests as a shopkeeper, Hardesty maintained (public and) lifelong antipathy for intoxicating liquors. A credentialed delegate (as was future U.S. President Rutherford Birchard Hayes), Hardesty played a role on the Permanent Organization Committee at Ohio's Republican Party convention of 1860. They nominated 'Honest Abe' for President.

17 Nov 1858

Brothers George and Thomas Hardesty were each enumerated with at least $13,000 in real estate in 1860 census. Each held nearly $5000 in personal estate. The accumulation is stunning, a decade after their mother's estate was settled. Particularly when it becomes apparent that the pair were three- and in several instances sixteen-times wealthier than siblings. It's unclear whether wealth parity reflects fifty-fifty partnership between George and Thomas. In November 1858 (eight months after proposing formation of an historical society at Carroll County), George was solely associated, publicly, with screaming notice of Hardesty's Mammoth Stove and Tinware Establishment at Malvern (right). Reading deep into the ad, it becomes apparent that, at harvest, "everything in the produce line, that can be bought, sold or eaten," will be taken in payment: if this is not the Farmer's and Mechanic's Mercantile Association, the enterprise is in conflict with it.

At the time of 1862 explosion, George and Hannah accommodated her parents and various extended-family members in household at the Hardesty Homestead, as well as two of the unrelated children of a decade earlier … and a White woman, depicted as a German-born 'domestic.'

George Hardesty was Malvern's first Mayor when the 1870 census was taken. Haines, Hardesty & Co. remained a going concern, but mercantile operations may have contributed less to his net worth ... of an astounding $41,000 in real estate, and thousand dollars in his personal estate. The current iteration of the gristmill his father had started was valued at $25,000 (and milling $15,000 worth of George's own grain, annually). Calamity re-visited Malvern. Hardesty's adjacent, water-powered woolen mill (indicated on Atlas map, below) had not been insured when it burned in the summer of 1869, but would soon return to generating income. The sawmill, also on water diverted from Sandy Creek, was valued at $5,000: it had by then become complicit with a barrel factory, and generated $3000 annually. The two operating mills employed a half-dozen Malvern men, year-round.

1870 was not entirely a banner year for George Hardesty. Embracing speculation, he invested sufficiently to be made a Director for the Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Continental & Chicago Railroad. According to History of Morrow County and Ohio (1880), the firm "died a natural death" two years later. Boosters had been unable to convince local investors to finance the laying of track in their environs.

Hardesty Homestead, 1874

Hardesty Homestead, as George had constituted it, was valued at $10,000 in 1870, when including improved acres under cultivation. The image (left) was published by Hiram Hubbard Hardesty (1822-1898), the (youngest and) only son of William and Louisa not to pursue milling in adulthood. In his Illustrated Historical Atlas of Carroll County, Ohio (1874), Hiram – enumerated as an 'Atlas Peddler' in 1870, with combined net worth of less than $2000 – described brother George as a 'Miller and Banker.' The designation may have been in response to Haines, Hardesty & Co.'s lending capacity.

 George Hardesty (1812-1875) 

"Even those who come with nothing but CASH, "will not be turned away,"" concluded the tinware ad (above) that went out over George Hardesty's name in 1858. Mercantilism, and buying and selling produce, may have, by 1870, given way to drawing greater profit from reinvesting cash accrued in that core business.

Hardesty (right) shared this with Haines: both are to have abstained from alcohol. Hardesty's good works become more evident to me late in his life. He was in 1873 styled 'Reverend,' when helping retire $1122 debt for brick construction of the still-standing Methodist Episcopal Church at Malvern. By the beginning of 1875, bacterial infection (which likely inflicted facial blemish) began to seriously debilitate Hardesty. He'd acquired Union Mills at Van Wert, Ohio ... and been active in establishing a schoolhouse there. George died in March of that year.

He and Hannah also repose beneath a fine obelisk ... in a private cemetery atop the hill crowning Hardesty Homestead.

Third-mentioned in Haines, Hardesty & Co. was David Hough Sholl (1828-1911), who succeeded Haines and was serving as Malvern postmaster when a rocketing boiler landed in their warehoused corn. Pennsylvania-born to German-born parents, "he removed to Malvern ... in his boyhood," according to a finely printed death notice offered online, without citation, by descendant Anne Louise Robinson Moore. "At the beginning of his business life Mr. Sholl was a carriage manufacturer building the vehicle complete from the shaping of the nails upon the anvil to the finishing coats of paint. Later he engaged in general merchandising." His biographer amplifies a thread which tethers some in this cast of characters: "Mr. Sholl was a member of the Masonic lodge, having joined in Minerva while a resident of Malvern. With his characteristic zeal he traveled the five miles distance between the two places many scores of times ..."

A 'life-long Methodist,' Sholl married German-born Maria Engleman Paessler (1831-1924) at Carroll County in 1850. She was younger sister to Otto Henry, above, who had succeeded their father, Christian G. Paessler (d 1856), as Malvern postmaster; a position Christian held from 8 July 1854 until his death. The 1850 census offers Christian and Henry as modest Carders and Fullers, no doubt preparing fibers for George Hardesty's woolen mill.** Visited just thirty days prior to their marriage, David and Maria are enumerated in parents' adjoining Scholl and Paessler households. Brother millers Phillip Willard and David Hardesty, who straddle Thomas in birth order, each maintained households in Paessler environs. Future partner David Sholl was in 1850 more likely shaping nails: as Blacksmith, he was learning from elder brother Jacob, Jr. ... then described as a Wagon Maker. Their father almost certainly worked in a Hardesty mill.

Maria had inherited by the time of the explosion. According to the 1860 census for Malvern she held $400 in real estate in her own right. Sholl, enumerated as a Clerk, was also possessed of $400 in real estate, and holding $1000 in his personal estate. The couple had three young daughters in common. Among Haines, Hardesty & Co. partners, their father likely held the fewest shares. Sholl had resources, however. He was subject to two, Civil War era drafts; Union records describe chronic stomach disease: "conditions of health compelled him to send paid substitutes" confided his biographer. Sholl is to have moved to Van Wert in 1864, eventually retiring to Chicago, where he died. Let us have him depart our scene. He and Maria lie in unmarked graves at Woodland Union Cemetery, Van Wert.

Last-named in Haines, Hardesty & Co. announcement above was Thomas Hardesty (c1820-1870), whose entry appeared proximate to Haines' in the 1863 draft record. Among Rev. William's progeny, seventh-son Thomas' career can be distinguished: "Milling was his principal occupation but he also became interested in the banking business," wrote Lee.

Thomas married Mary Jane Collins (b c1820) in 1840. Only twenty-one households were enumerated in Malvern proper that year. Hardesty brothers account for four of them, six years after their father platted out the town site. If location can be derived from this record, the couple were situated between Jacob Sholl, Sr. and three, elder Hardesty brothers [George and my 3x great-grandfather John (1805-1878) among them].

All four surviving children had been born to Thomas and Mary Jane by 1850 ... when his real estate was valued at $3750. His occupation is listed as Miller, though father William had modeled speculative venture in which sons were vested. Thomas was, by 1848, registered owner of the canal boat 'M. Adams of Malvern.' Eldest brother Adam Hardesty (1802-1859) persisted as a 'Boatman' in 1850, though brother Isaac (1822-1897), whose home likely sat beside Thomas', no longer captained his canal boat, 'Malvern:' Isaac was enumerated as a Clerk in 1850.

In 1834 "when it was almost a certainty that the Sandy and Beaver Canal (route, left) would pass [through what was then Stark County] Hardesty platted a town ... and named it Troy," reported Gard and Vodrey in The Sandy and Beaver Canal (1952). Rev. William Hardesty's town site would be re-named 'Malvern.' Hardesty had invested in the enterprise, if not served as a Company Director: the project was completed two years after his 1846 death. Though the ill-fated firm ceased operations in 1852, the watercourse powered Hardestys' Malvern mills for years to come. Financial outlay ultimately failed return on investment ... yet the venture no doubt widened sons' vision of dispersed economic capacity.

Thomas' enumeration in 1860 census – as a Malvern miller – attributes $13,250 for real estate holdings ... double that of Haines', and on the order of brother George, ensconced at Hardesty Homestead. At $4650, his personal estate nears equivalence with Haines and George. Thomas acquired Dover City Mills at Canal Dover, Ohio, in 1866. According to Lee, Hardesty "retired from active life in 1868, and died in the following year at the age of fifty-four." I do not know where he was interred.

I believe we can deduce that whilom banker Thomas was a principal capitalist in Haines, Hardesty & Co. at time of the 1862 explosion. In his will, dated 28 December 1869, Hardesty's executor was to disburse $14,000 ... in shares of the Exchange Bank of Baker and Hardesty. In the likely year of his death, the 1870 Merchants and Bankers Almanac carried entry for the private bank of Baker & Hardesty, at Canal Dover. The New York-based investment firm of Winslow, Lanier & Co. acted as correspondents for the enterprise.

Without giving clue to its business pursuits, or span of operations, Hardesty's will also referenced "the late firm of Hardesty and sons." Haines-Hardesty partnership was broad; incorporating one known associate not mentioned in the firm's name. I can assure you that expanding, inter-generational narrative allows me to tussle with 'wild confusion' in my own reporting.

Demise of Haines, Hardesty & Co. did not immediately follow Thomas' death.

Thomas' only sons, Alonzo Hanes (1846-1892) and William A. Hardesty (1848-1908), almost assuredly perpetuated partnership with Haines and remaining financialists following their father's death. The pair did team up ... as Hardesty Brothers ... to profoundly expand the milling operation they'd inherited from their father.

Substantial business acumen distinguished this pair among Lee's "legion of successful millers." After primary education at Malvern's one-room schoolhouse, William A. (who, with brother Alonzo, did serve the Union Army in Civil War) attended Duff's Mercantile College at Pittsburgh, the nation's first business college.

The Hardesty brothers were at Canal Dover in Tuscarawas County, Ohio ... and accumulating $8500 in mill profits annually by 1870 ... when each married. Alonzo took as his bride Mary Catherine Baker (1849-1914). Importantly, she was eldest child to Philip Baker (1812-1881), who is readily identified as 'founder' of the Exchange National Bank, later known locally in Dover as the Baker Bank. I contend the institution was, long before receiving its charter in 1890, initially organized as the Exchange Bank of Baker and Hardesty. President Baker, a man of longevity and high finance, had in the interim served as Director in a stock offering widely subscribed at Canal Dover; his ongoing public profile no doubt submerged that of Thomas Hardesty, a Carroll County-based partner who did not long survive the venture's initiation.

1903 Dover Directory

Twenty-six-year-old Alonzo's real estate was valued at $6000, William's at $5000 in 1870: each is enumerated with $2000 in his personal estate. Hardesty Brothers bought out their major competitor's mill in 1872. Audacious commercial adventuring was a sign of things to come.

I've delineated a pair of Haines' Malvern-area parcels in Hardesty's 1874 Atlas [detail right, Hiram in 1853 married Amelia C. Paessler (1832-1916), another daughter of Christian Paessler (above)]. That same year The Bankers Almanac for 1874 depicted Haines, Hardesty & Co. as financiers behind Farmers' Deposit Bank, apparently the sole repository then doing such business at Malvern. Capitalized at $100,000, it was affiliated with Kountze Brothers Bank at New York City. [Enriched subsequently in the west, partner Herman Kountze (1833-1906) left his father's Osnaburg, Ohio mercantile business at the age of 26.]

Upon the 1874 Atlas map dedicated to Malvern (detail, left), I've highlighted the only bank indicated. Perhaps it was to the nearby Union Hotel that a "somewhat injured" Theodore Johns had been taken a dozen years earlier, following boiler eruption. I was unable to discern either Harford's Steam Furniture Establishment, or any ware-house ... let alone that of Haines, Hardesty & Co..‡

Oddly, Haines, Hardesty & Co. ... as an entity ... appeared in The Banker's Almanac and Register of 1876 as 'President' of Farmers' Bank. Perhaps the partnership dissolved or was discontinued that year: cryptic listing by The Bankers Magazine, Vol. 31, indicates organization of Farmers' Bank at Malvern changed somehow in 1876. Haines was unspecific as to the date, in his above claim, that he "bought out the whole business." It may be that Haines' broadening interest in politics led to the partnership's demise.

The Hardesty Brothers had not only added to their father's Canal Dover mills, they'd embraced steam power. Financing a $3000 Corliss steam engine (left), installed in 1879, no doubt required the pair to amass capital: need for such may have required dissolution of Haines, Hardesty & Co.

I suspect, however, that the firm's disestablishment was occasioned by George Hardesty's 1875 death. He and Haines had been the last two partners at Malvern. Akin to the Haineses, George and Hannah effectively adopted: widow Hardesty would end her days in the Toledo household of Morris H. Brown (c1842-1911). It's difficult to ascertain who inherited from George, but Brown, raised by the couple, certainly did not step boldly into Hardesty family enterprise.

Thomas' sons were certainly on the move: the Hardesty Brothers may have been disinterested in cumbersome financial entanglement. Twenty years their senior, Haines may have obliged them. I found no further reference to the firm, by name.

After seventeen years, Haines, Hardesty & Co. likely ceased operations in 1876. I would exceed Lombardi's specific query to carry on much further. Story-telling, however, compels me to lay out for you a bare-bones trajectory of William A. Hardesty and nephews.

Each Hardesty brother (Alonzo and William A.) was enterprising outside the partnership, but their core business branched into branding flour, buying and shipping grain. 

The Bankers Magazine, Vol. 35 (1881) offered notice that President Baker had died: the Exchange Bank at Dover was soon backed by 'P. Baker's Sons & Hardesty.' As she was a Director of the Bank by 1910, this may indicate that Alonzo's bride Mary Catherine (Baker) Hardesty had – in her own right – by then acted in concert with her financier brothers for at least nineteen years.

William A. Hardesty (1848-1908)

William A. Hardesty (right) modeled conglomeration. He relocated to Columbus in 1880, where Hardesty Brothers incorporated latest technology to build a thoroughly modern flouring mill from scratch. In ten years he, as President, helmed the Ohio State Savings Bank and Trust Company. Brother Alonzo died, of complications following a fall in a Dover mill, in 1892. William went on to embrace new industrial processes at the coming of the 20th century: he became Vice-President of the Hanna Paint Manufacturing Company, and served on the initial Board of Directors for the Columbus Citizens Telephone Co. In 1900 the Duff's Mercantile College attendee was a Director of the Columbus Machine Company; by 1903 he served as President of the National Bread and Columbus Varnish Companies ... all while remaining head of the savings bank.

Outstanding entrepreneurialism descended along Alonzo Hardesty's line. 

Forgive me a final discursion. William's only son, Thomas Moore Hardesty (1877-1931) joined Alonzo and Mary's surviving spawn: Harry A. (1871-1955), Walter Collins (1879-1935), Jessie Duncan (1880-1936) and Edgar Alonzo Hardesty (1884-1972). All clerked at Hardesty Brothers, and then rose in the ranks or launched into collateral pursuits. First cousins formed Hardesty Milling Company: it concentrated on flour and grain. Harry operated a seed and grain export business out of New York and London offices by 1900. In 1904 second-generation Hardesty Brothers purchased an opera house at Dover (above left).

As a teen, Walter's foot had been amputated following a mill accident. Among other, higher-level responsibilities, the opera house was in his charge.† By the time of his uncle William's death, Walter presided over the Hardesty Manufacturing Company at Canal Dover. It was likely by his own enterprise that the 'Automatic Theater Chair' was introduced by 1908. Self-folding perches offered several innovations; they were also narrow, and "will seat 25 per cent more people than the old seat," according to a Billboard Magazine ad (above). The contrivance made him independently wealthy ... as nickelodeons and then motion picture houses supplanted vaudeville.

Rio Vista on the Halifax

While dabbling in Republican politics, Walter settled into a real estate career. It was either financial embarrassment at Akron, Ohio, or magnificent vision which led him to invest in Florida land ... in advance of boom times. "W. C. Hardesty Realty Co. ... will develop a 350-acre town site and construct roads and streets; install water, gas, and electric lights, park etc." announced the Manufacturers' Record in 1922. The result was charming. Denizens ultimately erected thirty-eight distinctive, red-tiled, villa-style homes two miles from Daytona Beach.

More, beneath the luxuriant Rio Vista plat, drafted by Hardesty's engineer, town planner and landscape architect.

"Rio Vista is not a vision, but a reality," declared Orlando Evening Star advertising, of investment opportunity. Motor coaches ferried prospects to the property from five Florida offices by 1925. The firm asserted it had already poured a million dollars into the project. No doubt Hardesty's home (right) figured into that calculation.

The visionary centerpiece, however was the exotic Riviera Hotel (right). In addition to a casino, the Monte Carlo Grill and a jazz-age piano lounge; the property met needs of trap shooters, golfers, polo and hunt clubs. A three-hundred-foot dock with boat and canoe club on the Halifax River accom-modated yachtsmen. Rio Vista even boasted a zoological garden. Seemingly over the top, guests were to be ferried across the property by gondola. In The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Lane in 2014 credited Hardesty's wife with design of faux Roman ruins (below), a façade psychologically intended to suggest the project's enduring permanence to those receiving first impression by rail. "Complete with columns, vine-covered friezes depicting chariot teams and mysterious stairs" descending into a canal, "they were said to cost almost $50,000 to build."

The visionary's maiden name, that of Walter's bride, was Anna Haines (1880-1931) ... and we stumble on another Haines, Hardesty association.§

* William Frederic Unkefer [and wife Charity Ann Keith (1837-1905)] would in 1872 name a son for Haines, the father's maternal cousin and one-time business partner.

** One pastime for this blog is to evidence property in historic relationships. Otto Henry Paessler, brother-in-law to Hiram (George and Thomas Hardesty's youngest brother), suffered "no less than $5000" loss when his stocks burned in an 1869 fire at George Hardesty's Malvern woolen mill ... seven years following boiler explosion. Paessler held $2000 insurance; Hardesty the capitalist had none to cover his $3000 loss. Hardesty was worth a whopping $42,000 in 1870. German-born Paessler, seventeen years younger, was enumerated that year as having $4000 in real estate, and $3500 in his personal estate (perhaps reflecting insurance payout).

† The one-footed Walter Collins Hardesty (right) was a leading figure among free-thinkers. The Buckeye Secular Union enjoyed opportunity to convene at his Opera House. From The Humanitarian Review, Vol. 7 (1908): "At the evening session, Mr. Walter C. Hardesty, of Canal Dover, pointed out the beauties of practical "Idealism." Not a word too many, not a word too few – a perfect little literary gem, evincing a talent which Mr. Hardesty, who is a quite young man, would do well to put in frequent practice." His bold vision, for the Rio Vista on the Halifax, demonstrated capacity to heed the admonition.

‡ What became of Haines, Hardesty & Co.? "The dry goods store of Haines & Shepherd, of Malvern" was operating in 1874 according to 1890 biography of Willard James Combs (1860-1917). Combs clerked for the firm for six years, from the age of fourteen; he wed Albert and Almira Haines' daughter Joetta (1861-1946) in 1883. As Combs was three years later buying and selling grain in Altoona, Iowa ... for Albert's younger brother, Thomas Eakin Haines (1831-1908) ... I cannot definitively state Albert Haines partnered with the unidentified Shepherd, following demise of Haines, Hardesty & Co..

§ Anna, born in Sabetha, Kansas was daughter to merchant Henry Clay Haines (1844-1924), born at Canal Dover, and himself son of Marylander Samuel Haines (1810-1891) who died at Canal Dover ... when Albert R. Haines, of Haines, Hardesty & Co. was sixty-five years old and at Malvern.

NOTES:

Bold face indicates the author's direct ancestor.

Theodore W. Johns (1841-1896) may be the party slightly wounded in the 1862 explosion at Malvern. An unsourced online tree has him marrying less than 90 days later: daughter Nettie was born at Minerva in 1874. I found nothing on Mr. G. S. Harford, owner of the demolished Steam Furniture Establishment.

I extend appreciation for archivists, and the Ohio Historical Society at Columbus in particular. The Library of Congress was able to digitize Cleveland Daily Leader reporting, upon which this post is based, due to the organization's preservation of source documents.

Further research: Index to Notices in the Canton Repository 1850-1875 at Stark County District Library in Canton, Ohio indicates a 19 March 1875 obituary for George Hardesty may be available. Dayton Metro Library may have Haines' obituary in the Dayton Daily Journal.

"Blast Followed By Pandemonium:" an explosion rocked Dover, Ohio on 4 May 1949. It killed at least one man employed by the New York-based Hardesty Chemical Company. Six workmen were hospitalized, scores injured. Debris discharged five hundred feet into the air, to cover many adjacent blocks. The manufactory was subsidiary to the W. C. Hardesty Co., Inc.; those initials make it exceedingly likely that the company President was named for Walter Collins Hardesty or his son of the same name. Reporting (right) continued on page fourteen, in just one of the papers circulating dozens of first-person accounts of this disaster.

UPDATE: 2023 post With the Spirit of Enthusiasm corrected above-misattributed ownership of W. C. Hardesty Company at Dover. William Couzens Hardesty (1892-1962) was President of the firm.

Most Hardestys referenced in the post are depicted below: it is not a full descendant chart.