Little known Detroit Labor history, courtesy of the house next to the Bronx Bar

[gazhekwe]

This was our first married residence, third floor, top windows. Jim had also lived in the first floor front apartment and the rear first floor apartment. It was such a beautiful place, full of very high end finishes despite its years of deterioration as cheap, roughly divided apartments, none with its own bathroom. We just had to research its history. See more below the picture for some Detroit industrial history.



This home was built in the mid-1880s by S. Olin Johnson, manager of Detroit Knitting and Corset Works not long after he moved to Detroit from Massachusetts. Born in 1847, he had obviously already achieved a good position in society. He lived in this house maybe ten years and moved onward and upward, I believe to the Boulevard. The house was divided into apartments originally as a young women's residence, then on to general occupancy by the 1920s. When we lived there, most residents were WSU students and artists.

Inside the home there are carved double doors dividing the areas on the main floor so the social receiving rooms could be opened to each other and the front entry. Beautiful smooth carved stone [[marble?) fireplaces in each of two main areas were still intact when we lived there in 1969. The stairs leading up on the left side of the entry still had their Craftsman details, matching the details on the front entry porch. At the back of the entry floor was the original kitchen. It was not very big, nor at all ornate as it clearly was a service area. We did not have any presence on the second floor, so I don't know any details. The family bedrooms were on that floor.

We lived on the third floor, front windows with kitchen on the left, bedroom on the right. We shared the bath down the hall with our neighbor. I believe the third floor was servant quarters and possibly a nursery.

S. Olin Johnson went on to become a very influential businessman in Detroit, president of Penberthy Injector Company, the largest maker of injectors in the world, and one of the largest industries in Detroit at the time.

As if that were not enough, he became a significant part of Detroit Labor history. I am going to insert an article by Charles Moore, History of Michigan [[1915) rather than tell the story myself:

While the record of this enterprise [Penberthy Injector] is in itself sufficient to make Mr. Johnson known as one of the able business men of a great industrial center, he has also played a prominent part in the wider fields of business in that city.

Most persons acquainted with the recent industrial history of Detroit will recall the important part taken by the Employers' Association in making Detroit an "open shop" manufacturing center and a brief recital of facts should be stated in this article.

Up to 1902 Detroit was, industrially, in the complete grip of the unions, and strikes were called by delegates on the slightest pretext. In that year the Brass Manufacturers' Association, of which Mr. Johnson was president, and the Metal Manufacturers' Association were amalgamated under the name of Detroit Employers' Association, of which organization Mr. Johnson became the first vice president.

With five other prominent manufacturers, composing the executive officers of the organization, they worked at different periods for five years with later organizations in settling labor disputes, until finally, on the amalgamation of the two associations, they came out boldy and declared that Detroit was henceforth to be an open shop town. The details of the subsequent struggle cannot be told here, but it is a fact that through the efforts of Mr. Johnson and his associates open shop conditions were established, and have since been maintained by the Employers' Association.

The value of this work had the broadest application to Detroit's remarkable prosperity in the past decade. It should be remembered that about the time the Employers' Association was organized, the automobile industry was in its infancy, and there has been no one fact of greater importance in Detroit's growing prestige as a center of automobile manufacture than in the maintenance of the open shop principles in labor circles. [Emphasis added by Gazhekwe]

What was done by this comparatively small group of men working together in Detroit was not without its beneficial effect on industry throughout the state, and extended to many manufacturing cities in the immediate vicinity of Detroit.

http://archive.org/stream/historyofm...3moor_djvu.txt

This is more about the family from the same article, I just love the marriage part:

In New York City on June 5, 1873, occurred the marriage of Mr. Johnson to Miss Lilla Louise, daughter of George and Sarah [[Bissell) Sturtevant of New York City. Mrs. Johnson is a niece of George H. Bissell, the discoverer of petroleum in America, and who donated to Dartmouth College the gymnasium which bears his name on the campus of that institution. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are: Homer S. Johnson, Alice G. Johnson, Claire Olin Johnson, and Charles B. Johnson.

Here's a picture of Mr. Johnson from American Threshermen, Vol. 10:



http://books.google.com/books?id=YSB...0%2C547&edge=0

[EastsideAl]

Ahhhh, so he was the union-buster-in-cheif then. What a lovely assholish way to be remembered.

[gazhekwe]

One of them anyway, and when Penberthy Injectors blew up Nov 26, 1901, 9:10 a.m., it was the worst industrial accident of the times, killing mare than 26 workers, critically injuring 24 more. The plant, then at Abbott and Brooklyn, was later rebuilt in a different location.

http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19011127.2.2

Notice how that history I cited in the first post celebrates it all, no thought given to the terrible costs that can come from management overbearing labor.

[Wesley Mouch]

One of them anyway, and when Penberthy Injectors blew up Nov 26, 1901, 9:10 a.m., it was the worst industrial accident of the times, killing mare than 26 workers, critically injuring 24 more. The plant, then at Abbott and Brooklyn, was later rebuilt in a different location.

http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19011127.2.2

Notice how that history I cited in the first post celebrates it all, no thought given to the terrible costs that can come from management overbearing labor.

I skimmed, but did not read every work of this article. I did not see how a boiler explosion was caused by management overbrearing labor.

Boiler explosions were a major problem in the early years of the industrial revolution. They happen[[ed) in residential and small commercial settings too. There's a reason why boiler operators are still licensed.

Now I don't know what caused this explosion. But I'd suggest that there are terrible costs to all progress. And I'm sure some of it has and will occur under the best of conditions.

[gazhekwe]

There was a lawsuit over the accident of course and all the details were doubtless aired. You can find links to this on Google, but I haven't looked at them. I did the research years ago before the internet, and don't recall the details. I can't get my head past the gory details.

[Bobl]

g: Thank you for an interesting post. I suspect that we have met. Lived at 683 Prentis in the late sixties, then moved to Forest Arms, in 69/70. Worked at Henry Drugs, now the liquor store, at Third & Forest, where I met many neighborhood folks.
I sometimes wonder about the corner home on Canfield, the one restored by a Mrs Groen [[sp?), I believe. I think it was the first to be restored. Do any forum contributors have any information?

[EastsideAl]

Notice how that history I cited in the first post celebrates it all, no thought given to the terrible costs that can come from management overbearing labor.

History written by the [[then, and temporary) victors. Most of those late 19th and early 20th century local histories, as interesting as they are from a historical resource perspective, are full of puffery and boosterism for local businessmen and wealthy social luminaries. And definitely lack perspective.

[libris58]

Olin Johnson's wife, Lilla, was the president of the Tuesday Musicale, an organization that still exists that promotes music in metro Detroit.

[Henry Whalley]

When we lived there, most residents were WSU students and artists.

Two artists who lived there in the early 1970s were Carol Ann Doering and John Joyce.

[p69rrh51]

This was our first married residence, third floor, top windows. Jim had also lived in the first floor front apartment and the rear first floor apartment. It was such a beautiful place, full of very high end finishes despite its years of deterioration as cheap, roughly divided apartments, none with its own bathroom. We just had to research its history. See more below the picture for some Detroit industrial history.



This home was built in the mid-1880s by S. Olin Johnson, manager of Detroit Knitting and Corset Works not long after he moved to Detroit from Massachusetts. Born in 1847, he had obviously already achieved a good position in society. He lived in this house maybe ten years and moved onward and upward, I believe to the Boulevard. The house was divided into apartments originally as a young women's residence, then on to general occupancy by the 1920s. When we lived there, most residents were WSU students and artists.

Inside the home there are carved double doors dividing the areas on the main floor so the social receiving rooms could be opened to each other and the front entry. Beautiful smooth carved stone [[marble?) fireplaces in each of two main areas were still intact when we lived there in 1969. The stairs leading up on the left side of the entry still had their Craftsman details, matching the details on the front entry porch. At the back of the entry floor was the original kitchen. It was not very big, nor at all ornate as it clearly was a service area. We did not have any presence on the second floor, so I don't know any details. The family bedrooms were on that floor.

We lived on the third floor, front windows with kitchen on the left, bedroom on the right. We shared the bath down the hall with our neighbor. I believe the third floor was servant quarters and possibly a nursery.

S. Olin Johnson went on to become a very influential businessman in Detroit, president of Penberthy Injector Company, the largest maker of injectors in the world, and one of the largest industries in Detroit at the time.

As if that were not enough, he became a significant part of Detroit Labor history. I am going to insert an article by Charles Moore, History of Michigan [[1915) rather than tell the story myself:

While the record of this enterprise [Penberthy Injector] is in itself sufficient to make Mr. Johnson known as one of the able business men of a great industrial center, he has also played a prominent part in the wider fields of business in that city.

Most persons acquainted with the recent industrial history of Detroit will recall the important part taken by the Employers' Association in making Detroit an "open shop" manufacturing center and a brief recital of facts should be stated in this article.

Up to 1902 Detroit was, industrially, in the complete grip of the unions, and strikes were called by delegates on the slightest pretext. In that year the Brass Manufacturers' Association, of which Mr. Johnson was president, and the Metal Manufacturers' Association were amalgamated under the name of Detroit Employers' Association, of which organization Mr. Johnson became the first vice president.

With five other prominent manufacturers, composing the executive officers of the organization, they worked at different periods for five years with later organizations in settling labor disputes, until finally, on the amalgamation of the two associations, they came out boldy and declared that Detroit was henceforth to be an open shop town. The details of the subsequent struggle cannot be told here, but it is a fact that through the efforts of Mr. Johnson and his associates open shop conditions were established, and have since been maintained by the Employers' Association.

The value of this work had the broadest application to Detroit's remarkable prosperity in the past decade. It should be remembered that about the time the Employers' Association was organized, the automobile industry was in its infancy, and there has been no one fact of greater importance in Detroit's growing prestige as a center of automobile manufacture than in the maintenance of the open shop principles in labor circles. [Emphasis added by Gazhekwe]

What was done by this comparatively small group of men working together in Detroit was not without its beneficial effect on industry throughout the state, and extended to many manufacturing cities in the immediate vicinity of Detroit.

http://archive.org/stream/historyofm...3moor_djvu.txt

This is more about the family from the same article, I just love the marriage part:

In New York City on June 5, 1873, occurred the marriage of Mr. Johnson to Miss Lilla Louise, daughter of George and Sarah [[Bissell) Sturtevant of New York City. Mrs. Johnson is a niece of George H. Bissell, the discoverer of petroleum in America, and who donated to Dartmouth College the gymnasium which bears his name on the campus of that institution. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are: Homer S. Johnson, Alice G. Johnson, Claire Olin Johnson, and Charles B. Johnson.

Here's a picture of Mr. Johnson from American Threshermen, Vol. 10:



http://books.google.com/books?id=YSB...0%2C547&edge=0

The pre 1920-1921 address for 4470 Second Avenue is 810. The house was built as a spec house by Seth E. Smith in 1883. Smith owned a local lumber yard. S. Olin Johnson did not move into the house until 1885 [[the house sat unsold until Johnson purchased ,the house). Johnson would move to 56 Rowena, now 110 Mack Avenue in 1903. 110 appears to have been the house of Edwin F. Conely. Conely had passed away in the house in 1902.

Advertisement featuring 810/4470 from the October 9, 1883 edition of the Detroit Free Press.