Horse collar factory

Status Report on the Dayton Industries

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The following is from The Ottawa Free Trader, June 2, 1888, p. 8, cols. 2-3

Dayton

Times are a little livelier now in this vicinity than they have been for some time past.

The paper mill has started up again, and is getting a number of car loads of baled straw.

The tile works are running right along and are shipping a considerable quantity of drain tile of the very best quality. They are also shipping a lot of fire clay, having received an order for one hundred tons to be shipped immediately to Chicago. Users of clay are beginning to learn that we have the very best quality of fire clay in the county, and no doubt in the near future Dayton will contain a number of good substantial fire clay manufactories.

The roller mills are running on custom and merchant work as usual, and are manufacturing a first class article of straight grade roller flour. Try a sack and be convinced.

The horse collar works have cut down on their working force, as this is their usual dull season, and are manufacturing fly nets. With good crops this season, this firm anticipate a good trade during the fall and winter.

The old woolen mill property which has been run as a pressed brick factory by the Chicago and Dayton Brick Co., has been sold to an eastern firm who are putting it in shape for manufacturing purposes. We have not learned yet the intentions of the new company, but hope they have sufficient capital to do an extensive business.

The town is full of fishermen at present, and Landlord Timmons, of the Dayton Hotel, says he has had a good run of custom during the past two or three weeks.

Harding turned out a good sized fishing party last Saturday.

Mr. and Mrs. T. H. Green, and Miss Winnie Childs, of Morris were in Dayton over Sunday.

Mr. Bert W. Stadden and Miss Taylor, of Chicago, were in Dayton a few hours Sunday afternoon.

The river is a little higher on account of the late heavy rains.

Mr. William Hewitt is greatly improving the appearance of his piece of property by a coat of paint.

We find there is considerable interest taken in our extracts from California letters among various readers of your valuable paper in the county, as this information is reliable and not highly colored like the usual real estate men’s information. We wrote Mr. Butler of Puryn, Place Co., California, in regard to the fruit business being overdone in that State, and will give you his reply and other information: [content of letter not transcribed]

Occasional

Another Dayton inventor

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Dunavan, A F - patent In 1870 Albert F. Dunavan purchased the Dayton horse-collar factory, a thriving business. The collars were sold throughout Illinois and adjoining states, and in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and California. In 1886 they even received an order from Sidney, Australia, enthusiastically described in the Free Trader as the most distant sales ever made from La Salle county. The Dunavans did a good business for many years, but in 1892 the business failed and was sold to pay the debts. Albert Dunavan then moved to Harvey, Illinois, where he worked in insurance and real estate, but he also applied for a patent on an apparatus for shaping horse collars, based on his many years of experience.

A Summer Crime Wave

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picture of an old safe

1885 was not a good year for the Dayton Horse Collar Factory. As you will see, there were no less than THREE attempts to rob the safe that summer.

The first try:

A. F. Dunavan, of the Dayton Collar Factory, was in the Free Trader office last Thursday morning and stated that an attempt had been made the night previous to blow open his safe. Powder was placed in the keyhole and fuse was found on the floor, but the burglar or burglars left, finding the attempt unsuccessful. Krouse, the gunsmith, went up and opened the lock of the safe, which had been so damaged that it could not be opened.1

Later in the summer, two more attempts were made:

Wednesday night of last week burglars broke into the safe of A. F. Dunavan & Son, of Dayton, the celebrated horse collar men. The safe was blown open with powder, but the thieves found nothing to reward them for their trouble, the safe being only used for the protection of books and papers in case of fire. This was the second attempt made by burglars, within the last two weeks, to break open this safe. Safe cracking is getting almost too numerous in this vicinity of late. There is work for a good detective in this county.2

However, it doesn’t appear that the thieves made any profit from their labors, reinforcing the notion that crime doesn’t pay.

  1. Ottawa Free Trader, May 30, 1885, p. 1, col. 5
  2. Ottawa Free Trader, August 15, 1885, p. 1, col. 5

The Pennypacker Horse Collar

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Horsecollar ad

The celebrated Pennypacker horse collar was a specialty of the Fox River Horse Collar Manufacturing Co., which claimed that the general mechanical construction of this collar “has rendered it the best device of its kind known to the trade. It is so constructed that the draught is close to the horse’s neck instead of back on his shoulders, and thus an easy and comfortable fit is effected.” Their goods were widely known, from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia on the east, to Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri on the west. They used about forty tons of rye straw yearly for filling horse-collars, and the hides of about 2,000 head of cattle were required yearly to supply them with leather. The Seamless Team Collar was a standard pattern, always on hand. They also advertised their willingness to make any grade or pattern to order on short notice. Their collars were for sale by any harness dealer in Ottawa and elsewhere. In 1883 the factory had a capacity of turning out 300 dozen collars per month, which were shipped throughout all of the western states and into many of the eastern states, and even, in 1886, to Sydney, Australia.