Repository: | Western Reserve Historical Society |
Creator: | Tiffin Manufacturing Company |
Title: | Tiffin Manufacturing Company Records |
Dates: | 1875-1961 |
Extent: | 26.40 linear feet (24 containers, 19 oversize volumes, and 10 oversize folders) |
Abstract: | The Tiffin Manufacturing Company was a church furniture manufacturing company located in Tiffin, Ohio, and founded in 1874 by Alsatian emigrant Jacob Scheiber. The company first made a range of wood products but by the early 1890s devoted itself entirely to the manufacture of church furniture and church interiors. The company became a national leader in the field of church furniture and established trends in the design of church furnishings and interiors. Tiffin Manufacturing was in business until the 1960s. The collection consists of letter books, other correspondence, financial records (including ledgers, journals, day books, cash books, inventories, order books, invoices, and wage books), catalogs, and drawings. |
MS Number | MS 4482 |
Location: | closed stacks |
Language: | The records are in English |
The Tiffin Manufacturing Company (f. 1874) located in Tiffin, Ohio, was organized by Jacob Scheiber, who emigrated from Alsace, France, to the United States in 1832 at the age of eleven. Scheiber learned the blacksmith trade in Canton, Ohio, and moved his family to Tiffin in 1848 where he opened a blacksmith shop. Scheiber retired in 1874, and after a brief involvement in the coal business, organized Tiffin Manufacturing at 70 Melmore Street. This company initially made various types of wood products, but by the early 1890s it devoted itself exclusively to the manufacture of church furniture and church interiors. Its primary products were altars, altar railings, baptismal fonts, confessionals, pedestals, pews, pulpits, station frames, and vestment cases. Scheiber served as the first president of the company and was on its board of directors. His nephew, Herman Scheiber, joined the board of directors in 1887 and eventually became plant superintendant and general manager, overseeing the operations of the company until his death in 1914. Herman's three sons, Richard W., F. Paul, and Herman I. Scheiber then took over control of the company and held it until their deaths in the 1960s. Their widows then terminated the operations of the company. The Tiffin Manufacturing Company emerged as a national leader, with business from coast to coast, in the field of church furniture and its architects began to establish trends in the design of church interiors and furnishings. The company was also noteworthy for being one of the first corporations west of the Appalachian Mountains to operate with electrical power.
The Tiffin Manufacturing Company Records, 1875-1961 and undated consist of letter books, other correspondence, financial records (including ledgers, journals, day books, cash books, inventories, order books, invoices, and wage books), catalogs, and drawings. The collection is arranged by document type and then chronologically.
This collection details the operations and activities of a church furniture manufacturing company in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The financial records are particularly detailed and thus the collection is valuable for economic historians of the period. Because of the information on personnel found in the financial records, this collection may also be utilized for demographic studies of the company and of the area in which it was located. The catalogs and drawings may be used to examine furniture styles of the period covered.
None.
Separated MaterialAll photographs have been removed to the photograph and print collection.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4482 Tiffin Manufacturing Company Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Mr. and Mrs. Harold Musgrave, 1966.
Processed by Richard Hite and Robert Ray in 1990.
Series I: Correspondence 1875-1961 |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
1 | 1-8 | Letter copy books April 1875-February 1906 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
2 | 9-14 | Letter copy books February 1906-November 1911 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
3 | 15-19 | Letter copy books November 1911-August 1916 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
4 | 20-24 | Letter copy books August 1916-December 1921 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
5 | 25-29 | Letter copy books December 1921-September 1925 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
6 | 30-34 | Letter copy books September 1925-February 1929 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
7 | 35-39 | Letter copy books February 1929-June 1933 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
8 | 40-44 | Letter copy books June 1933-July 1940 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
9 | 45-48 | Letter copy books July 1940-January 1946 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
10 | 49 | Chronological correspondence 1914-1961 | |||||||||
10 | 50-55 | Alphabetical correspondence 1940 |
Series II: Financial 1875-1959 undated |
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Sub-series A: Ledgers and Account Books 1875-1957 |
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Volume | |||||||||||
1-5 | Ledgers and account books 1875-1916 | ||||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
10 | 56-59 | Ledgers and account books 1914-1945 | |||||||||
10 | 60-64 | Ledgers and account books 1917-1930 | |||||||||
10 | 65-69 | Ledgers and account books 1920-1935 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
11 | 70 | Ledgers and account books 1920-1935 | |||||||||
11 | 71-77 | Ledgers and account books 1943-1957 | |||||||||
Sub-series B: Monthly Journals 1875-1955 undated |
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Volume | |||||||||||
6-13 | Monthly journals 1875-1955 | ||||||||||
Volume | |||||||||||
14-16 | Index to monthly journals 1888-1906 undated | ||||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
11 | 78-79 | Monthly journal (trial balance book) 1909-1932 | |||||||||
Sub-series C: Day Books 1875-1945 |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
11 | 80-83 | Day Books March 1875-April 1881 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
12 | 84-92 | Day Books April 1881-June 1893 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
13 | 93-99 | Day Books June 1893-March 1908 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
14 | 100-102 | Day Books March 1908-June 1917 | |||||||||
Volume | |||||||||||
17 | Day Books June 1917-June 1922 | ||||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
14 | 103-105 | Day Books June 1922-November 1945 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
15 | 106 | Day Books November 1935-November 1945 | |||||||||
15 | 107 | Day Books, miscellaneous 1889-1897 1934 | |||||||||
Sub-series D: Cash Books 1875-1941 |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
15 | 108-115 | Cash Books March 1875-April 1903 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
16 | 116-121 | Cash Books April 1903-June 1941 | |||||||||
Sub-series E: Inventory Books 1875-1925 |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
17 | 122-123 | Inventory Books 1875-1925 | |||||||||
Sub-series F: Order and Invoice Books 1875-1956 |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
17 | 124-132 | Order Books April 1875-January 1897 | |||||||||
Volume | |||||||||||
18 | Order Books November 1899-July 1906 | ||||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
17 | 133-135 | Order Books January 1900-January 1919 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
18 | 136-139 | Order Books February 1919-November 1956 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
19 | 140-145 | Invoices May 1898-April 1912 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
20 | 146-149 | Invoices May 1912-May 1945 | |||||||||
Sub-series G: Employee Time and Wage Books 1875-1959 |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
21 | 150-164 | Employee time and wage books February 1875-September 1958 | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
22 | 165 | Invoices October 1958-August 1959 | |||||||||
Sub-series H: Bank Books 1875-1931 |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
22 | 166-168 | Bank books, general 1875-1931 | |||||||||
22 | 168 | Bank Books, H. Scheiber and Company 1885-1888 | |||||||||
Sub-series I: Miscellaneous Financial Records 1883-1934 undated |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
22 | 169 | Altar price book undated | |||||||||
22 | 170 | Building and machinery depreciation account book 1910-1934 | |||||||||
22 | 171 | Estimate books 1887-1912 | |||||||||
22 | 172 | Miscellaneous job book 1883-1886 undated | |||||||||
Volume | |||||||||||
19 | Appraisal of the buildings and equipment of Tiffin Manufacturing Company 1925 |
Series III: Catalogs 1892 undated |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
22 | 174-179 | Catalogs of church furniture, including altars pews, railings, pedestals, pulpits, station frames, confessionals, etc. 1892 undated | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
23 | 180-186 | Catalogs of church furniture, including altars pews, railings, pedestals, pulpits, station frames, confessionals, etc. undated | |||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||
24 | 187-190 | Catalogs of church furniture, including altars pews, railings, pedestals, pulpits, station frames, confessionals, etc. undated |
Series IV: Miscellaneous 1932-1953 |
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Box | Folder | ||||||||||
24 | 191-193 | Miscellaneous blueprints, equipment reports and brochures, maintenance appraisal reports, etc. 1932-1953 |
Series V: Drawings and Blueprints 1936-1937 undated |
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Folder | |||||||||||
1 | Oversize Folder 1: 61 drawings of altars, pulpits, communion sets, pew bodies, church doors, etc. 1936-1937 undated | ||||||||||
Folder | |||||||||||
2 | 29 drawings of altars, confessionals, bishop's chair, pulpits, etc.; 27 drawings of altars,confessionals, shrines, pedeatals, railings, etc.; and 19 drawings of vestment cases, confessionals, thrones, altars, pews, office railing undated | ||||||||||
Folder | |||||||||||
3 | 17 drawings of bookcases, doors, an altar, etc.; 24 drawings of credence table, pew end, sanctuary bench, ambry, altar, pulpit, reading desk, wainscoting, railing, Prie Dieu, etc.; 26 drawings of altar, pedestal, confessionals, table, pulpit, canopy, throne, etc.; 27 drawings of lockers, panelwork, confessional, altars, pulpits, sanctuary bench, etc. undated | ||||||||||
Folder | |||||||||||
4 | 29 drawings of side and main altars, and altar floorplans undated | ||||||||||
Folder | |||||||||||
5 | 140 drawings of confessionals, altars, communion railings, vestment cases, pulpits, pedestals, railings, station frames undated | ||||||||||
Folder | |||||||||||
6 | 52 drawings of altars, pulpits, office enclosure, vestment cases, confessionals, pew ends, etc. undated | ||||||||||
Folder | |||||||||||
7 | 28 drawings of altars, reredos, wainscoting undated | ||||||||||
Folder | |||||||||||
8 | 54 drawings of sanctuary chair, hymn boards, communion railings, pew ends, pedestals, Prie Dieu, altars, throne, confessionals, shrine, pulpit, vestment case, etc.: 82 drawings of altars, shrines, wainscoting, vestment cases, pulpit, throne, Olea Saneta, confessionals, sanctuary chair, vestment cases undated | ||||||||||
Folder | |||||||||||
9 | 55 drawings of altar designs, clergy chair prayer desk credence, sanctuary pulpits, chancel designs, Prie Dieu, chancel elevations, lecterns, etc. undated | ||||||||||
Folder | |||||||||||
10 | 5 drawings of altar railing, pew ends, shrine, main altar for St. Bernard's Church, Alpena, Michigan; and 27 drawings of main and side altars, chancel elevations undated |