The foundries and machine shops of the second rank

1921 – 1949

How they were missed: second rank under the great works. The directories name them, and in 1949 they are three foundries deep.

The record: the 1921 classified's metal headings are thin and mostly spoken for — Founders and Machinists carries the Perkins Corporation, 409 N. under Machinery Depots. The independent rank stands under Machinists and Machine Shops: the Mishawaka Machine Co., rear 216 N. Mill; Smith Frank R., 417–419 S. Main; and Ullery Elmer W., out Lincoln Way W. 7th; the S & H Foundry Corp., iron and steel, 2202 Lincoln Way; and Wickman Wm. H. B., brass, bronze and aluminum, at 211 E. Mishawaka Ave. — two iron foundries and a brass foundry standing in the city a full working lifetime after the flagship story's foundry chapters close. The same book's forge line adds the Johnson A. Forge & Machine Co., on E. Jefferson. None of the four has a course in anything reached — no founding, no ownership, no end — and they stand at directory size with their settling sources, the Tribune's business pages and the state manufacturers' directories, named in the closing article. One name-line closes a counting trap instead of opening an entry: the 1949 book's Foundry Supplies and Equipment heading carries the "American Wheelabrator & Equipment Corp.," at 400 S. The foundry-equipment firm was not missed; it was carried under its later name, and the line is printed so no reader counts it twice.

Sources:

1. Polk's Mishawaka City Directory (1921), classified directory — headings Founders and Machinists; Machinery Manufacturers; Machinery Depots; Machinists and Machine Shops.
2. Polk's South Bend and Mishawaka City Directory (1949), Mishawaka classified — headings Foundries; Foundry Supplies and Equipment — Manufacturers; and the forge line, as read from a poor scan.
3. Tony Harris, the Wheelabrator company history (1 June 1964), and The Wheelabrator Way (July 1976) — Verne E. Minich's 1908 beginning; the American Foundry Equipment Co. name from 1920; the consolidation at Mishawaka, 1 January 1926; the name changed to American Wheelabrator and Equipment Co. in 1946 and shortened to Wheelabrator Corporation in 1955.