 Underwood
Whip Company |
| Lorenzo Bimel's son, William, was induced by Sidney’s Board of Improvement to return in 1897 to build a new plant
for the production of buggies on Miami Avenue just south of the canal feeder. The business
failed after seven years. The structure was last occupied by the Hawthorn-Seving Company.
Fire destroyed the building in 1980. Buggies were also made in Sidney by C. F. Yager who
conducted business at 708 West Avenue. Each new industry in those early days created trailing businesses to supply needed parts. Jonathan Dann established a spoke and wheel business in 1870. It was located on the north side of the canal on Ohio Avenue. A large parts plant was established in 1881 by Enoch Anderson, Cyrus Frazier and J. N. Anderson. The company made wooden wheels and wheel parts. The Anderson-Frazier Wheel Works was situated north of the original Big Four Railroad tracks, between Miami and Main Avenues, where Bimel and Hawthorne-Seving would later be located. In the 1890s, a major fire swept the structure and water from the nearby canal was pumped in to fight the blaze. Owners of buggies and wagons needed whips to motivate the occasionally stubborn horse. Sidney, Ohio, acquired a major whip manufacturer in 1891, when the Underwood Whip Company, (pictured above), a division of U. S. Whip Company, moved to Sidney from Wooster, Ohio. This was one of the businesses that local leaders recruited to move to the area. In the late 1890s, Underwood Whip was the largest whip manufacturer west of Massachusetts. The plant had doubled its capacity by 1903. It was located on the northwest corner of North Street and Highland Ave. (An apartment complex stands on the site today which is located across the street from the empty Sidney Machine Tool Company building owed by Stolle.) [Back] [Next] [Up] [New Search] Industry segment written in January, 1998 by Rich Wallace |