Finding aid for the Tiffin Manufacturing Company Records


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

History of the Tiffin Manufacturing Company

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.


Scope and Content

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.


Statement of Arrangement

The collection is arranged in five series.
Series I: Correspondence is arranged chronologically.
Series II: Financial is arranged in nine sub-series.
Sub-series A: Ledgers and Account Books is arranged chronologically.
Sub-series B: Monthly Journals is arranged chronologically.
Sub-series C: Day Books is arranged chronologically.
Sub-series D: Cash Books is arranged chronologically.
Sub-series E: Inventory Books is arranged chronologically.
Sub-Series F: Order and Invoice Books is arranged by document type and then chronologically.
Sub-series G: Employee Time and Wage Books is arranged chronologically.
Sub-series H: Bank Books is arranged alphabetically by subject and then chronologically.
Sub-Series I: Miscellaneous Financial Records is arranged alphabetically by subject and then chronologically.
Series III: Catalogs is arranged chronologically.
Series IV: Miscellaneous is arranged alphabetically by subject and then chronologically.
Series V: Drawings and Blueprints is arranged chronologically.

Restrictions on Access

None.

Separated Material

All photographs have been removed to the photograph and print collection.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Church decoration and ornament -- Catalogs.
Church decoration and ornament -- Drawings.
Church furniture -- Catalogs.
Church furniture -- Drawings.
Furniture industry and trade -- Ohio -- Tiffin.
Tiffin (Ohio) -- Industries -- History -- Sources.
Tiffin Manufacturing Company -- Archives.

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4482 Tiffin Manufacturing Company Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Mr. and Mrs. Harold Musgrave, 1966.

Processing Information

Processed by Richard Hite and Robert Ray in 1990.

Detailed Description of The Collection

Series I: Correspondence 1875-1961

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

Sub-series A: Ledgers and Account Books 1875-1957

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

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

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

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

Box Folder
17 122-123 Inventory Books 1875-1925

Sub-series F: Order and Invoice Books 1875-1956

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

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

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

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

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

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

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