10 U.S. Manufacturers That Stood the Test of Time

For most Americans, work is the heart of their day-to-day experience. Among enterprises, the manufacturer is one of the more pervasive institutions of American life, with an impact on how we live and think. During an otherwise disappointing recovery, one bright spot is American manufacturing, as exemplified by the turnaround in the U.S. car industry.

Yet the history of business life is often absent from our understanding of American industry’s ups and downs. Early manufacturers shaped this nation’s culture and society; those still standing are enterprises worthy of respect, as well as scrutiny from business investors, employers, suppliers, and customers.

Hoover’s database lists more than 60 industrial manufacturers headquartered in the U.S. with 160-plus years of operating experience. These companies produce a diversity of commercial products and services, from cotton fabric to burial caskets, from farm machinery to boxes for consumer goods.

What separates the survivors from those that fail to prosper in an ever-changing world? Each took root in the mind of a person or group of people, and most began with modest ambitions. To have gained size, influence, and sustainable momentum -- if history is a judge -- they must have employed more people over time in pursuit of a common goal. This is not to say that, just because a manufacturer is among the oldest, it is permanent, or that it is a secure place to work or to conduct business. Yet, while the country grapples with a deeply troubled economy, Americans still continue to make things, which promises to fuel a comeback.

These 10 manufacturing companies exemplify what it takes to make through the long haul in American business:

• Crane & Co. (1801) -- Crane & Co. was founded by Zenas Crane, whose father sold paper in 1775 to supply the American colonies' first banknotes. The private company, which is owned and managed by the eighth generation of the Crane family, still manufactures most of the specialized paper used to print our nation’s bills. Preserving its popular reputation, many find it hard to imagine anything of importance not written on a leaf made by Crane.
• Woolrich (1830) -- An immigrant from England, John Rich built the first of multiple woolen mills in Pennsylvania. Customers of the woolen socks and fabric were originally lumbermen, whose camps were scattered throughout the region. Tradition credits the private company with being first to incorporate a zipper in men’s pants, in addition to supplying Union Army troops with blankets during the Civil War, and outfitting Admiral Richard Byrd’s 1939 expedition to Antarctica. Despite its success in developing a following for its rugged outdoor apparel, after losing market share to rivals the company refocused its marketing and manufacturing strategy.
• Ensign-Bickford Industries (1836) -- A small invention by Englishman William Bickford, the “Miner’s Safety Fuse,” sparked a highly diversified, technical US enterprise. The manufacturer has continued to reinvent itself, from a single product portfolio to a slew of explosives, pet food, specialty chemicals, and other offerings. It has also evolved from a family owned business to one led by a broad management team.
• Deere & Company (1837) -- There once was a man named John Deere. Moving from Vermont, Deere set up a blacksmith shop in Illinois. Change, and the necessity of finding a better way to plow turf, spurred Deere to develop the “whistling plow.” The equipment – a circular steel saw blade -- was designed to self-scour the Midwest’s rich soil from the plow’s iron blades, enabling faster trenching. From selling three in 1838, Deere today is one the world’s largest farm, construction, forestry, and lawn-care equipment makers.
• Mount Vernon Mills (1847) -- Orders for sails for clipper ships and tents for armies provided the motivation to convert a flour mill into one for producing cotton duck cloth. One mill, bolted on to several others, created the Mount Vernon enterprise. During the Civil War, its Baltimore mill sewed tents for the Union Army and its Tallassee, Alabama. mill, goods for Confederate forces. The business, surviving acquisitions, combinations, and reorganizations, held its share of the cotton duck and canvas market and later managed to expand into other fabrics for consumer apparel and industrial applications.
• Morton International (1848) -- Building a business on salt may not be sexy, but it showered profits on Alonzo Richmond when he put up his shingle in Chicago as a sales agent for Onondaga Salt. His move coincided with America’s migration west, followed by the discovery of gold in California. Business acquisitions, technological and product development, ownership changes (notably by Joy Morton in 1889), coupled with savvy marketing (“When it rains it pours”) transformed Morton into a producer and marketer of salt for myriad consumer, commercial, and industrial applications.
• Hager Companies (1849) -- America was, and remains a magnet for entrepreneurs like Charles Hager. After immigratingd to the U.S. from Germany, Hager snagged a job as a forger at a blacksmith shop. Soon thereafter, he bought the business from his boss. Hager can credit the gold rush for a stream of customers demanding metal wheel rims and hinges for their wagons. However, it was his creativity that spurred innovation in manufacturing techniques as well as in residential door hardware products to meet new needs. Fifth and sixth generation members of the Hager family own and operate the enterprise today.
• Menasha Corporation (1849) -- A trio of partners gave up on making wooden pails only to see the enterprise’s subsequent owners thrive. Among them, Elisha Smith took over the ailing pail factory. Smith manufactured the products (mainly barrels used for shipping wheat) himself. Growth was fueled by distributing his tubs and pails throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. The Civil War boosted demand for pails and other wooden shipping containers, but railroad lines built to Menasha and Neenah, Wisconsin helped to sustain it. The business’ expenses, however, overtook its revenues, and Smith’s father-in-law had to step in and rescue the company. Revived, the company gained momentum by making candy pails and later shifted from woodenware to corrugated boxes and an array of other container products.
• Matthews International (1850) -- Matthews International didn’t start out making a living by producing caskets.  Instead, its founder, John Matthews, manufactured stencils, signs, and steel stamps. His sons joined the business, and the enterprise launched the first vulcanized rubber printing plate in 1912. Matthews’ plaque-making expanded to producing America’s first flush bronze memorial plaque (sited in a Florida cemetery). It acquired the York Group, the second-largest US casket maker, in 2001, and has continued to invest in acquiring memorial and related gravure printing as well as burial offerings.
• Corning Incorporated (1851) – This company took its name from Corning, New York, the town where Amory Houghton moved his technical and pharmaceutical glass making business. Its history includes manufacturing the glass used in Thomas Edison’s first light bulb, the red-yellow-green traffic light systems, and borosilicate glass (which won’t crack under sudden temperature changes) for Pyrex oven and lab ware. Partnerships and investment in research and development propelled it to lead the industry in manufacturing specialty glass, from TV tubes to freezer-to-oven ceramic cookware, and car headlights. Financial challenges and market opportunities have led the company to continually recast its operations and products.

Sylvia Lambert is an editor at Hoover's.