RACINE — The Spirit of Racine Entrepreneurs Exhibit has expanded with two recent donations.
A little Mitchell Wagon and a lollipop machine have come home to the city where they were manufactured more than 100 years ago.
The Spirit of Racine Entrepreneurs Exhibit is a collection of historical items and advertisements for items made in the building that at one time was the home of the Racine Wagon & Carriage Company and is now the Racine Business Center, 1405 16th St.
Members of the public are invited to see the collection at the Exhibit’s open house from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4.
Jim Mercier, a local historian, said he would hang up signs to help people get through the sprawling complex to the exhibit.
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Mercier has been collecting Racine memorabilia for more than 40 years. He described himself as someone who loves the history of the community and collecting pieces from its past.
The main room contains items specific to the building’s history. There are also two other rooms with general items of historical interest.
Wagon
The Mitchell Wagon is in surprisingly good condition considering it has probably surpassed its 100th birthday.
This Mitchell Wagon was donated to Spirit of Racine Entrepreneurs Exhibit
Dee Hölzel
The wagon was initially owned by Carl Clemenson, a local man who served in World War I, and was given to Gladys Hansen just after World War II with the instruction that she give it to her first grandchild.
Hansen, in turn, gave the wagon to her daughter Mardell Hansen Davis, who donated the wagon to the exhibit on Oct. 10, 2020.
Davis told The Journal Times the Mitchell Wagon presented storage challenges, so it sat in her basement for 35-40 years.
She met Mercier when she answered an ad in the newspaper, placed by a person looking for old Racine memorabilia.
Davis said more than anything she wanted information about the Mitchell Wagon, but for sentimental reasons she did not want to part with it.
Some years went by and Davis saw the ad again, placed by Mercier looking for Racine memorabilia. She reports Mercier was just as enthusiastic about the Mitchell Wagon as the first time he saw it.
“He seemed so excited about it,” Davis said. “I decided I would just as soon give it to someone who was going to take care of it.”
Mitchell
The Mitchell Wagon Company was a competitor of the Racine Wagon and Carriage Company.
The Mitchell Wagon company was founded in 1834 in Chicago, opened its Racine location in 1855, and was sold to John Deere in August 1917.
Spirit of Racine Entrepreneurs Exhibit features historical items rescued from obscurity.
Dee Hölzel
The operation covered 20 acres parallel to Eight Street. The factory was later converted to the Mitchell Wagon Factory Lofts, 815 Eight St.
The Racine Wagon and Carriage company was started in 1865 and manufactured spring vehicles and farm wagons until 1914.
Business began to wane for both companies due to the rise of the automobile.
Lollipops
The old lollipop machine was a long way from home when it was recovered approximately seven years ago in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, by Mark DeFault, who provided a written account of how he came to have the machine.
This lollipop machine was likely the from the Racine Confectioners’ Machinery Company, one of the many small businesses located within the sprawling Racine Business Center, 1405 16th St.
Dee Hölzel
According to DeFault he located the lollipop machine in the basement of an old mill complex, but it was inaccessible and heavy, so he was not able to move it.
The machine sat in the basement of the complex for five more years until a fire in 2020, which destroyed multiple buildings in the area, according to news accounts.
“A few weeks after the fire, the demo company was cleaning up the property, and I found that it had been moved up from the basement and placed on the ground by an excavator,” DeFault recalled. “Luckily, I found it before the scrappers did.”
He shared the building where the lollipop machine was located had been built in around 1897 and was used by the School House Candy Company located about a mile away from the building where the machine was found.
DeFault speculated that “School House Candy may have originally commissioned the Racine Confectioners’ Machinery Company to design and build this ‘Gatling gun’ of sugar.”
Spirit of Racine Entrepreneurs Exhibit includes back rooms with some of the Racine memorabilia that local historian Jim Mercier has been collecting for more than 40 years.
Dee Hölzel
Industrial
In 1916, with the use of farm wagons on the decline and motor vehicles on the rise, the Racine Wagon and Carriage Company was rechristened the Racine Industrial Plant. Rather than being one company that manufactured one thing, the building became a “business incubator” where small businesses could rent space.
One of those businesses was the Racine Confectioners’ Machinery Company, which manufactured machines for mass producing candy. Before machines, lollipops were made by hand in small batches, which was a slow process and made the candy more expensive.
The lollipop machine, in contrast, could produce 300 lollipops per minute, according to DeFault.
When it was being used to make lollipops, there would have been a “heated conveyor feeding a rectangular belt of semi-solid lollipop stock into the front. Then, simultaneously, the lollipops were formed by the rolling molds, and the sticks were inserted by a camming action out of the hoppers (much like a Gatling gun) until shooting out of the other side.”
DeFault said he was happy to have rescued the machine from the scrapyard and that it was returned to Racine.
Treasure hunt
Mercier came across the lollipop machine on one of his daily checks of the Internet as part of his mission to find pieces of Racine history and bring them home.
He said he came across the lollipop machine on Ebay about two-and-a-half years ago, but at that time it was listed for $2,500. That was a bit expensive, so he did not make a bid, but he did keep his eye on the item.
Over the course of the next 18 months, the price continued to drop until it was $500.
At that point, Mercier reached out to DeFault, who reported that he had been lugging the heavy thing around to various shows. While people were curious and asked questions, there were no buyers.
Mercier said he offered DeFault a deal. If he was willing to donate the lollipop machine to the city where it was made, Mercier would pay for the shipping. DeFault agreed.
The lollipop machine was added to the collection of the Spirit of Racine Entrepreneurs Exhibit on Oct. 10.
The age of invention: Products invented in Racine County
Panoramic camera
PANORAMIC CAMERA: In 1896, Burlington’s Peter Angsten invented a camera with a spring-propelled pivoting lens that captured 180-degree images. The Al-Vista camera was built at Angstens Multiscope and Film Co. in Burlington until 1908, when the Kodak Co. ceased making film for it. Angsten sold his interest in the camera for $3,400, and various forms of the camera have been made since.
Malted milk
An container of Horlicks Malted Milk.
MALTED MILK: Everyone knows the Horlick Malted Milk Co. developed the process to dehydrate milk, but did you know what William Horlick’s motivation was for the product? No, it wasn’t creamy milk shakes. It was to provide a food for babies and sick people that could be shipped without spoiling. The granulated infant food was patented in 1883 and later became the impetus for an entire soda fountain industry.
Automobile
AUTOMOBILE: According to the “Grassroots History of Racine County,” the first automobile in the world — that’s right, the world — was made in Racine. It was a steam-powered vehicle called The Spark. Dr. James W. Carhart built it and was driving it around the Belle City in 1873.
Carhart was invited to show his creation at a 1908 exhibition of automobiles in Paris, but the car had been dismantled and used for other purposes. At the exhibition, Carhart was addressed as the father of automobiles. The oldest car at the Paris show was 16 years old; Carhart’s would have been 35.
The local auto heritage continued with cars made by the Mitchell Co. and the J.I. Case Co.
An image of Dr. James Carhart’s steam-powered vehicle from the 1978 publication “The Grassroots of Racine County.” At a 1908 Paris automobile exposition, Dr. Carhart — a physician and reverend in Racine — was called the father of automobiles.
Blender
BLENDER: Think blender and the names Osterizer and Waring come to mind. While both products were first made here, the inventor was Steven J. Poplawski. In 1922, he came up with the idea of putting a spinning blade at the bottom of a cup to make soda fountain drinks. That idea was turned into a commercial success in the late 1930s by big band leader Fred Waring, who marketed the Waring Blendor, and Racine inventor Frederick Osius.
Universal motor
UNIVERSAL MOTOR: It’s hard to imagine, but when electricity was in its infancy, there were battles over what type of current would become the standard in American homes. Racine inventor Chester Beach saw the sparks flying and invented the first motor that ran on both alternating and direct current. With Louis H. Hamilton, Beach developed a fractional horsepower motor that would eventually power just about every kitchen convenience product. Just after the turn of the century, Hamilton Beach’s Home Motor was being attached to sewing machines. By 1919, several attachments turned the motor into a grinder, buffer, fan and mixer.
Blenders, sewing machines, mixers, vacuums, toasters and irons are just a few of the products Hamilton Beach made available to the world.
A Hamilton Beach advertisement in the Dec. 31, 1935, edition of The Racine Journal-Times.
Manual and electric hair clippers
MANUAL & ELECTRIC HAIR CLIPPERS:In the early 1920s, Racine inventors must have been thinking a lot about grooming habits. Hometown entrepreneurs Mathew Andis and John Oster developed a hand-operated hair clipper to touch up the popular bobbed haircuts of the day. Soon barbers everywhere were clipping away with their sartorial device. Andis also developed an electric clipper that remains the industry standard. The Andis Co., 1800 Renaissance Blvd, Sturtevant, still makes clippers today.
Ivan Zoot of the Andis Company demonstrates hair cutting techniques at a professional seminar at the Racine Marriott hotel, Sunday, June 22, 2008.
Portable vacuum cleaner
PORTABLE VACUUM CLEANER: Until Frederick Osius came along, vacuum cleaners were monstrous machines built into the basements of large buildings, using hoses to reach into individual rooms. Osius used a small electric motor being developed in Racine to make the first portable vacuum cleaner. He sold his business in 1910 for $300,000 to the McCrumb-Howell Co. and started the Hamilton Beach company. He went on to develop a name brand known around the world for home labor-saving devices. The national vacuum cleaner museum in the Pacific Northwest recognizes Racine as the home of the first easily portable vacuum cleaner.
Lollipop machine
LOLLIPOP MACHINE: When an East Coast candy maker wanted to find a way to put hard candy on a stick in 1908, the Racine Confectioners Machinery Co. answered the call. The local company invented a machine to automate the process of making suckers, fast becoming a favorite candy treat. The machine could make 40 lollypops a minute, and the candy company figured it could produce in a week all the suckers it could sell in a year.
Power mower
POWER MOWER: Albert J. Dremel’s name is usually associated with small rotary grinding tools still sold under the Dremel name in Racine. But perhaps more significantly, the local inventor is credited with designing the first lawn mower integrated with a specific gas-powered motor. After designing the first wringer as chief engineer for the Maytag Co. in Iowa, Dremel moved to Racine in 1921 and created his mower.
He sold the concept for the reel-type mower to Jacobsen Manufacturing Co. and the 4-Acre mower was produced. Named because it could mow four acres of grass in a day, the machine sold for $275 and was used mainly on golf courses and large estates. Jacobsen went on to produce the first mower for the masses in 1939. Homeowners could buy the Lawn Queen for $87.50.
Garbage disposer
From his basement workshop, local architect John W. Hammes built his wife the worlds first kitchen garbage disposer in 1927. After spending 10 years perfecting his device, Hammes sold 52 handbuilt disposers during his first year of business in the late 1930s. From his invention grew the In-Sink-Erator Manufacturing Co. Half of the homes in America have a garbage disposer. Half of those disposers are In-Sink-Erators.
An advertisement from the Dec. 31, 1938 edition of The Racine Journal Times.
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