Company History

One of the great things about the family was all the Aunts, Uncles and cousins. The family reunions were always a hoot with lots of kidding, yelling, singing and love. Beer and brats at Uncle Jay and Aunt Dot’s were always well attended family reunions. Dad used to bring the

Dad had many “On the Road” stories as he traveled extensively, demonstrating and installing machines all over the country. Here are just a few that I remember. Shine or “The Good Stuff” Dad used to smoke, use Copenhagen brand snuff and of course he could drink with the best of

Poaching was a way of life in the U.P. Deer, rabbits, Partridge, fish, all were fair game to put food on the table or salt down, pickle or preserve in one way or the other. They used to take apart old ball bearings and use the balls in homemade slingshots

Bent Shank Tapping During the depression machine orders were few and far between. Dad was always looking for a newer or better way to do things and one of his ideas was to put a tap inside the burring spindle Bent shank tapping had been done for many years but

Slots and Slugs While working in the shop building machines Dad quickly became the resident expert on how to do things on a Davenport. One day one of the other older workers came to Dad and handed him a round disk just about the size of a quarter.  He asked

Chauffeur for Mr. Lewis As a young man, only in his teens, Dad applied for a job as a chauffeur for a local machine tool dealer named Mr. Lewis. When he hired him, he told Dad, “Let’s go”. Dad climbed behind the wheel and tried to decipher the confusing levers

Ware Brothers vs. Chicago Roller Skate Dad always said, “Keep your mouth shut.” Here is one of the reasons. Dad used to sell Davenports to either Chicago Roller Skate Company or Ware Brothers, or both-Can’t remember. In any event, roller skate wheels used to be made out of hard wood

Coolant Blues There are many stories of things going wrong in the plant. Most were just human error or ignorance and I guess you could say this incident is both. The men in the turret lath department were plagued by dermatitis on a regular basis. The machines coolant sumps would

Hiking to the Blueberry Ledges As one of fourteen kids Dad and his siblings were always put to work in one way or another. Grandma Brinkman was a great cook and had many skills that helped keep the family fed. She would send the boys off to the blueberry ledges