Thew Shovel Articles – Feb. 1952 & 1972

Thew Shovel has been the subject of a few posts on this blog over the years.

I posted a 1949 ad celebrating the company’s 50th anniversary back here; featured photos of the demolition of former Thew Shovel buildings here; and shared some photos of the Thew Mausoleum here.

Well, here are a few more bits of Thew Shovel history, both from the Lorain Journal in the month of February.

First up is an article from the Feb. 21, 1952 Lorain Journal about an old timer visiting Thew Shovel to reminisce about his experiences with Captain Thew and the company, and how he had the honor of testing two early models.

Operator of Shovel No. 1 Returns to Plant

Marvels at Thew Development

J. W. Taubler of Westlake recently visited The Thew Shovel Company here and reminisced with officials concerning his early experiences with Captain Thew and the first Thew shovels.

When Taubler went to work at the age of 14 on the docks of the M. A. Hanna Company in Cleveland it was shortly after Captain Thew had invented the first full revolving shovel, in 1895, and was using it to handle ore on the Hanna docks.

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SHOVELS USED TO LOAD RAILROAD CARS

In order to get an acceptance for his invention, Captain Thew contracted with M. A. Hanna Company to load ore on a basis of five cents per ton. The Captain also operated the shovel and it was during this period that Taubler became acquainted with the Captain and was permitted to operate “No. 1.”

Later, when Captain Thew built and installed his third shovel with M. A. Hanna Co., Taubler also operated it.

At that time, the shovels were used to load railroad cars from stockpiles on the docks. The daily production per shovel was about 1,500 tons. Taubler also recalled that his wages at that time were $3.40 per 10-hour day.

Taubler visited the shops and inspected today’s models of Thew Lorains. He commented on the many design and construction changes and improvements that have been made over the years. He cited one point in common between the first Thew and today’s in that Thew “No. 1” shovel was powered by a single engine and “No. 3” was powered by three engines while today’s modern machines are again all powered by a single power source.

Taubler is now retired and resides at 901 Columbia Road in Westlake.

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Fast forward twenty years and Thew Shovel was now the Lorain Division of the Koehring Company. But sadly, the announcement had just been made to move the division’s headquarters and part of the production of the Lorain Division to Chattanooga, Tenn.

Here is an article from the Feb. 2, 1972 Journal making the announcement.

And here is the Journal editorial from the next day.