Sidney was a powerhouse of industry in the mid-19th century. The surrounding countryside, however, was more than just a source of food and raw materials for this quickly industrializing village.
Sidney’s products ranged from steel scrapers and school desks to buggies, butter churns, and brooms. The rural areas, also sharing in the manufacturing boom, boasted industries more closely allied with farming and forests. Long before Honda near Anna, Airstream and Plastipak in Jackson Center, or Clopay in Russia, Shelby County’s rural villages forged ahead with grain mills and elevators, saw-mills, and tile manufacturers, all supported by the county’s largest industry then as now...agriculture.
[Up] [New Search] Industry segment written in January, 1998 by Rich Wallace