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Foundry & machine works · Railroad car wheels and axles
On the record
Founded: 1853, with a founding-name conflict that is not resolved. ACGSI’s Bass Foundry page states the works was "founded in 1853 as Cooper, Bass & Company," was "operating as Bass & Hanna" in 1868, and was incorporated in 1873. Griswold (1917), Hawfield and ACGSI’s own Sion Bass page instead say the 1853 firm was Jones, Bass & Company — W. H. Jones, John Hough Jr., Sion S. Bass, and John H. Bass. The National Register nomination suggests the Cooper name belongs to the predecessor blacksmith shop on the Pennsy site — a plausible conflation route, not a settlement. Incorporation 1873 vs 1898 is also flagged, not resolved.
Founders: on the Jones, Bass & Company account: W. H. Jones, John Hough Jr., Sion S. Bass and his younger brother John H. Bass. Samuel (Judge) Hanna is a later partner (1860–1863, then Horace Hanna to about 1869), after which John H. Bass was sole owner.
What it did: made railroad rolling-stock iron — above all car wheels and axles — plus boilers, Corliss engines, complete power plants, iron and steel forgings and gray-iron castings. Its wheels and axles fed the Pennsy Shops directly across the tracks.
Course: the 1853 firm was sold to the railroad in 1857 and became the nucleus of the Pennsy Shops; in 1862 John H. Bass took sole control of the new Hanna Street foundry. At its turn-of-the-century peak the News-Sentinel called it "the world’s leading manufacturer of railroad wheels". Peak-size figures conflict by source and are not merged: 1,100 men / $35,000 monthly payroll (News-Sentinel, quoting the 1888 Gazette) vs an average of 2,500 men / $1,500,000 annual payroll (Griswold, 1917). John H. Bass died in 1922.
Fate: decline after 1922. In 1939 the foundry filed for reorganisation under federal bankruptcy law, claiming debts of $250,000; in 1941 it was purchased by Thomas Simmons. It "closed up shop after World War II ended"; no exact closing date is given, so none is claimed. The company’s board minute book runs to 1955 at ACPL, but the exact dissolution date is not established from the sources opened.
Find them on this page
- § 05 — business
Sources: ACGSI, Bass Foundry and Machine Works — https://www.acgsi.org/genweb/fort-wayne/bass-foundry-fort-wayne-indiana.html ; ACGSI, Sion Bass — https://www.acgsi.org/genweb/people/bass-sion-allen-county-indiana.html ; Leininger, News-Sentinel Cityscapes (1981) — http://egen.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/scapes4.php ; Hawfield, News-Sentinel Cityscapes — http://egen.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/haw4.php ; Griswold, Vol. II (1917) — https://ldsgenealogy.com/IN/books/The-pictorial-history-of-Fort-Wayne-Indiana-a-review-of-two-centuries-of-occupation-of-the-region-about-the-head-of-the-Maumee-River-Vol-II-part-5.htm ; National Register nomination, Baker Street Station — https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/f2117a9e-7ba2-4da7-9d02-57eff891e1ca . Sources as cited in the profile.