M. B. Skinner Company — the founding settled in part

Founded 1898, Chicago · in South Bend by the 1940s – the South Bend end unpinned

1898, and Chicago first: The gaps pass carried Skinner on its South Bend evidence alone — the Sample Street factory, the Merrill presidency, the 1950s advertising claim of "over half a century" — and left the founding unverified. The company's own published history settles the founding: the M. B. Skinner Company was founded in 1898 and located in Chicago, its first products repair clamps for the oil and gas industries, the "Skinner-Seal" line. The half-century claim in the company's South Bend advertising is consistent with that date, and the middle of the course is documented on this end: the factory stood at 3502 West Sample Street; Ken (Kenneth G.) Merrill was president and co-owner by the 1940s; a United States patent of 1961 (No. 2,983,477, filed 19 April 1956) is assigned to "M. B. Skinner Company, South Bend, Ind."; and the company's April 1961 advertisement in Gas magazine reads, "For over 50 years, our clamps have been built for permanence — M. B. SKINNER CO., SOUTH BEND 21, IND."

What stays open: Two dates do not yield. The year of the removal from Chicago to South Bend is not stated in the record reached — the company is a Chicago house in 1898 and a South Bend house by the 1940s, and the move between them is undated here — and the South Bend end is likewise unpinned. The company's later course is its own history's: in January 2000 the Skinner Company again became family-owned, and it stands today as a woman-owned company based at Greenwood, South Carolina. The founding the gaps pass wanted is settled; the removal and the closing of the Sample Street works are re-logged open's companion note.

Sources:

1. The Skinner Company, published company history (skinnerco.com, carried verbatim by its distributors) — founded 1898, located in Chicago; the first repair-clamp products for the oil and gas industries; family-owned again from January 2000; woman-owned, Greenwood, South Carolina, today.
2. Glenn Chesnut, South Bend industrial history (Indiana University South Bend library) — the Skinner factory at 3502 W. Sample Street; Kenneth G. Merrill, president and co-owner.
3. U.S. Patent 2,983,477 (filed 19 April 1956, granted 9 May 1961) — assigned to the M. B. Skinner Company, South Bend, Indiana.
4. Gas magazine, April 1961 — the company's advertisement: "For over 50 years, our clamps have been built for permanence — M. B. SKINNER CO., SOUTH BEND 21, IND."