Bantam before Torrington — the bearings works' front end

1905 – 1937 · the banked Torrington entry's back end stands

A Connecticut works, moved whole: The banked Businesses entry carries the Torrington bearings plant from its documented presence to Ingersoll-Rand's closing of it in 1984, with the founding unpinned. The front end is a removal, not a founding. The Bantam Ball Bearing Company was organized in March 1905 at Bantam, Connecticut, and in July 1928 it moved its entire operation to South Bend — the date the standard company history and the Tribune's own editorial of 25 September 1935 both give. A Connecticut preservation narrative dates the removal 1927; the two years stand in the record together, 1928 carrying the stronger carriers. The Tribune of July 1935 placed the works at 3702 West Sample Street, as that item is quoted in a family-history compilation. The restart was small: fifty-five people when manufacturing resumed in South Bend, and 375 by 1940.

Torrington, 1935; Bantam Bearings, 1937: The Torrington Company acquired Bantam in 1935 — the Tribune's September 1935 editorial marks the merger as it happened, with Karl F. Herrmann remaining at the South Bend works as general manager — and in 1937 the subsidiary was renamed the Bantam Bearings Corporation, as the trade press of 18 March 1937 records. Herrmann's presidency of the works, the wartime and postwar course, and the 1984 closing stand in the banked entry; what this addendum fixes is that the plant the Torrington name covered was a Connecticut bearings house transplanted whole in 1928, seven years before Torrington bought it.

Sources:

1. International Directory of Company Histories, the Torrington history — Bantam Ball Bearing Co. organized March 1905; the entire operation moved to South Bend in July 1928; the Torrington acquisition of 1935; fifty-five employed at the restart, 375 by 1940.
2. South Bend Tribune, editorial, 25 September 1935 — "moved to South Bend from Bantam, Conn. in 1928"; the merger marked as it happened; Herrmann remaining as general manager.
3. Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office, Bantam narrative — the removal dated 1927; printed against the 1928 carriers.
4. Paper Trade Journal, 18 March 1937 — the renaming as Bantam Bearings Corporation.
5. South Bend Tribune, July 1935, as quoted in a family-history compilation — the works at 3702 W. Sample Street; the weakest carrier in this entry, printed at that strength.
6. Indiana University South Bend Archives, UAW Local 590 records finding aid — the back end: Ingersoll-Rand's 1984 closing rather than renovation, and the relocation to South Carolina; the banked entry's source, cross-referenced.