Industry grew and changed in Hudson over the century

At the beginning of the century, Hudson was pretty much a farm town, and although there were some exceptions, the businesses and industries reflected the farming base.

The automobile changed that over the course of the century. Farming became less of an influence, and Hudson's industries became less farm related and more related to the automobile.

In 1900. Hudson's largest industry was the Bean-Chamberlain Company, which built bicycles, farm machinery, and even took a swing at building an automobile. In 1906, Louis R. Hazen moved an iron foundry to town, Hazen Manufacturing Company. In time, Hazen bought out Bean-Chamberlain, and the combined companies, under the name of  the Hudson Manufacturing Company, built bicycles, paper bailers, fire extinguishers, and other items.

After the death of Louis Hazen in 1924, the companies he owned were bought out by a Wisconsin firm, Hardie Manufacturing Company, and the  production gradually shifted over to the construction of pumps and spraying equipment, mostly for farm use. The main Hardie plant was located on Main Street east of the north-south railroad tracks. Hardie's was eventually bought out in 1957, and soon afterward the plant was closed.

The Helvetia Milk Condensery came to Hudson in 1909. The company purchased milk from surrounding dairy farmers, condensed and canned it, using cans made in a can factory. In 1924, a merger with the Highland Milk Company resulted in the name change to Pet Milk, which is how the company is remembered today. Production peaked during World War I. Production fell off after that, at least partly due to the advent of home refrigerators.

When Pet Milk finally closed, it had processed five billion pounds of raw milk, and shipped fifty million cases of condensed milk out of Hudson. Pet Milk was located south of Mechanic Street, between the north-south train tracks and Bean Creek.

For forty years, Hardie Manufacturing and Pet Milk were Hudson's largest industries, having a great influence on the community. 

The modern era for Hudson's industry began rather quietly in 1941, when Alton McGehee realized that the increase in war production offered an opportunity. He went searching for a place to locate a production machine shop, and discovered the disused city building on Hudson's east side. It would serve the purpose, so he asked the Hudson City Council to rent it to him. The council quickly agreed, and McGehee, along with Max Sayre and some ancient equipment began work as M&S Manufacturing. The two started with $800 in capital to work with, but a war order in November for five million small parts that went into a 20mm anti-aircraft shell got them going. By 1943, M&S had grown so large that a subsidiary plant had to be started to supply them with some items, L&N Manufacturing. As the end of the war drew in sight, it was realized that the company couldn't survive on war orders in the long term, so a shift in direction was made to supply parts for the auto industry. When the war ended, the company took one day off to celebrate, then started in on auto parts production.

M&S, along with subsidiary companies in which McGehee had a share, including Tri-State Manufacturing, Hudson Manufacturing continued to be added on over the years. Most of the financing for the expansions was local, or provided out of profits.  Careful, efficient management and quality control allowed for considerable growth, and M&S today is Hudson's largest and most important industry.

The renewal of automotive production after the war created a market for aluminum, brass and bronze castings that Richard and Nelson Berlin decided they could fill. In 1947, the two started Metalloy on East Main Street, with the help of the Greater Hudson Industrial Group. The company grew steadily, and in 1959 purchased the unused Hardie Manufacturing building, located between Main and Mechanic Streets along the river. The company continued to expand after that, adding plants in Fremont, Indiana and Tupelo, Mississippi, and other plants in Hudson, as well. Metalloy was purchased by General Aluminum Corporation in 1998, but continues to operate in Hudson under its old name.

The old Pet Milk plant was occupied for many years after it's close by Purpose Aluminum, an aluminum extrusion plant that operated into the 1970s. Other businesses have operated there in parts of the buildings over the years,  but a series of fires damaged the plant, which today stands empty and abandoned. Geneva Boat,  later Mingus Fiberglass, occupied a part of the nearby Hardie plant.

Another company to get its start in the old Pet Milk plant was Malabar Manufacturing Company, started by John Malarney, also doing screw machine work. Business eventually outgrew the old plant, and Malabar now occupies a modern plant in Hudson's Industrial Park.

In 1955, former coach Edward Engle Sr., left his secure job with M&S, and with Merlin Michael founded  Rima Manufacturing, taking the name from the first two letters of their wives names. Starting an in abandoned coal company building with eight vintage screw machines, the business grew in a year to where they could move to a concrete block building north of Main Street near Bean Creek, today the Metalloy Technical Services building. Engle bought out Michael's share of the business in 1962, and the company continued to grow, mostly machining aluminum die castings. By 1978 the company had outgrown its building on Main Street, and moved to a new facility on Munson Highway, which it occupies today. Rima also operates a subsidiary located in Kingsville, Ontario.

Another postwar company, Homer Donaldson Company, started in Hudson in 1946 in Hudson's downtown area, when Homer Donaldson started a business doing rods and assemblies. The business stayed small until incorporated in 1964, and now does cold-headed wire forms and assemblies, mostly for the automotive industry. Homer Donaldson, a Quality Standard 9000 company, is now located in the Hudson Industrial Park, the fourth plant that the company has occupied. The company is planning another expansion in the spring.

In 1986 Homer Donaldson and Japan's Kitsuda Engineering Company joined forces to start a parts assembly plant in Hudson. The plant, Kecy Industries, located in Hudson's Industrial Park, is now wholly owned by Kitsuda Engineering, and is extensively involved in robotic engineering -- just one example of many of the modern, high-tech equipment that's behind the plain block walls of many of Hudson's industries.

Formerly known as Day Industries until purchased in 1994, Powers Metal Manufacturing  makes metal fasteners and fittings for the construction industry.

Other Hudson area industries include Lenawee Metal Treating, located on School Street, which does finishing work on aluminum castings; Michael Industries,  which is located north of Hudson and which does screw machine work, and Paschal Burial Vault, located on School Street, making cast concrete products.

    Hudson has come a long way from the mostly agricultural-based industries of a hundred years ago. While less locally owned than they were even a decade ago, Hudson's industries still reflect a local pride and attention to the community




M & S PLANT on Main Street near Maple Grove Avenue, one of many plants the company has in Hudson. This photo probably dates from the early '50s.

     

AUTOMATED PRODUCTION has been a hallmark of Kecy Industries since the plant went online in the late '80s.

HELVETIA MILK CONDENSERY In 1909, the Helvetia Milk Condensery Company, attracted by the fine dairy country around Hudson, located one of its factories in the city. Later known as the Pet Milk Company, it was once Hudson's largest industry. Howard Schad was the manager. The plant  closed in 1956 due to a shortage of whole milk in the area and the building has since been torn down.

HARDIE MANUFACTURING,  along the CN tracks. Date of the photo is uncertain, but 1940s would be a guess based on the cars in the picture.


HOOK HARDIE COMPANY was founded in 1903 for the manufacture of sprayers and pumps, and later became Hardie Manufacturing; Harry Hardie was the president and inventor of the pump. The company left here in 1958 after being sold. The plant and land was purchased by Metalloy Foundry in 1959. The railroad tracks are the Cincinnati Northern.

                                                           

FRANK AUSTIN, working in Rima Manufacturing in about 1990. Machining of various types is the most common Hudson industry today.