- - - INDUSTRIES - - -
Junction Mill Company
 
 
The following article and advertisement appeared in the Shelby Independant News - November 11, 1869:
 
 

 "Junction Mills- We last week visited the Junction Mills, recently erected by the Junction Mill Co., composed of Messrs. Morse, Peck, Anderson & Lowrie, the latter formerly of the Center Mills.

We confess we were not prepared to see so extensive an institution in Shelby, and were highly pleased with the facilities they have for manufacturing flour. The main building is 40 by 60 feet - four stories high - with a rear building about the same size, but not so high.

Their power is obtained from two engines of over one hundred horsepower each. They have five run of burrs - three bolting chests, with nine reels. Have a Bran Duster, Separator and Smut Machines below, with all the latest improvements for manufacturing first-class flour. We incidently learned, since our visit, by a gentleman, who recently visited Cleveland, that their flour is much sought after there, and in great demand. They have the capacity for making two hundred barrels per day - though for want of material, and for other reasons, are now running only about one hundred and twenty-five.

They have just finished a very beautiful office, having its entrance from the North side, sixteen by thirty feet, with a Bank counter, a magnificent stove, and a safe on the way, costing eight hundred dollars.

The mill is run day and night. Jacob Free, Jr. and Horatio Swan, are the engineers - each of whom are on duty, six hours at a time. Our friend David Wherry is, we judge, the boss miller. Mr. Greenleaf book keeper, Mr. Morse the business manager, while the other members of the firm all have plenty of duties to perform, to keep the institution running. They are now purchasing all the wheat they can, either from wagons, or other sources, and manufacture to sell at wholesale, all kinds of flour, meal, and feed. They make almost daily shipments to Cleveland, New York, and other eastern points.

Too much praise cannot be awarded the proprietors for the energy with which they have prosecuted the work to a final completion and success, and they may well be awarded the thanks of all who have the prosperity of Shelby in view. While they aim at not interfering with any of the established enterprises of Shelby, they are very much enlarging the borders of Shelby business and are giving a new impetus to our trade, such as the establishment of no other institution in Shelby, has given for some years."

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anderson, Morse, Peck, and Lowrie

Samuel H. Anderson's parents, David and Rachel Dickson Anderson, were born in Pennsylvania c. 1805 and 1807. They were married there c 1827 and began their large family. They moved to Ohio c. 1832. By 1840 they were living in Vernon Twp., Crawford County, Ohio. In the 1850 census they and their family of 12 children were still living in Vernon Twp., but Samuel had married and was living with his new wife Mary J. and farming in Adams County, Indiana. By 1860 Samuel and his second wife Maria Arter were living and farming in Sharon Twp. In the early 1860s Samuel began to acquire additional property in Richland County.
 
In 1863, Eli and Mable Wilson deeded a parcel of land located on the south-east side of the C. C. C. & I (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis) railroad and east of North Broadway Street and north of the Shelby Junction. This was only a small part of the land purchased by Eli and Mable Barnes Wilson after he sold property he owned on Shelby's west side. This parcel was later to be designated Shelby lot 467. The purchaser of this property was Samuel Hamilton Anderson and his wife Maria Arter Anderson.
 
In early 1868 Samuel and wife Maria sold this same parcel to: Samuel H. Anderson, David L. Lowrie, Lysander Morse, and John C. Peck. They were at the time doing business as: The Junction Mill Company.
 
 
Sylvester Lysander Morse was born c. 1814 in New York State. In 1850 Lysander and wife Abigail were living in Washtenaw County, Michigan and he was a "Miller" by occupation. Six of the Morse children were born in Michigan. In 1860 they were living in Whiteside County, Illinois and he was a hotel employee and there was a Clark Peck born c. 1837, living in the household. By 1880 Lysander had moved on from Shelby and was farming in Mitchell County, Kansas.
 
Not much has been discovered about John C. Peck, but it can be speculated that he is the same person as the Clark Peck living with the Morse family in Illinois in 1860.
 
David L. Lowrie born c. 1845 in England, was most probably the David Lowrie who owned a hardware store on Main Street in Shelby in the mid 1860s. He is listed in the 1870 census as "Hardware Merchant" living in Shelby. The 1880 census finds this David Lowrie and wife Elizabeth living in Cleveland, Ohio selling mantles and grates.
 
 
 
Note:
David Lowrie, born c. 1823 in Glasgow, Scotland and perhaps related to David L. Lowrie, was living in Shelby and listed in the 1860 and 1870 Federal census as "Mill Wright" and "Miller". In the early 1860s, he was the proprietor of the Shelby Centre Mills in Shelby which was located on the north side of Main Street, just west of the Blackfork bridge. David L. Lowrie was also associated with the Shelby Centre Mill prior to becoming a part of the Junction Mill Company.
 
 
 
 
The Junction Mill Company, Anderson, Morse, Lowrie, & Peck partnership, was bought out in 1876 by a new partnership of: Fish, Storer, and Davis. The advertisments for the Junction Mill Company continued to appear in the local papers under the new name. The following was in the December 21, 1878 issue of the Shelby Times.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
They continued to operate the mill as the "Junction Mill Company" until 1882 when the new owners incorporated as "The Shelby Mill Company. The original Junction Mill continued operation for approximately nine years under the new corporate name but the new Shelby Mill built on the south side of Main Street on the west side of the "Big 4" railroad tracks being more efficient eventually allowed the old mill business to be consolidated into the Main Street location. More about this new company can be found at: The Shelby Mill Company.
 
This location (lot 467) continued to be a popular place for new businesses. The 1893 Sanborn Fire Map shows that this was the location of the "Beecher Furnace and Foundry Company". By 1897 The Beecher Furnace and Foundry Company was in receivership and a new company from Fairfield, Ohio was making plans to move their plow factory to this location. It was to become the "Shelby Plow and Foundry Company" the makers of the "Burch Plow."
 
The 1904 Sanborn Fire Map shows the "The Beecher Furnace and Foundry" had become "The Shelby Stove Manufacturing Company" and also in this location was the "Shelby Foundry Company". In early 1904, the "Shelby Foundry Company" bought out the remaining assets of the "Shelby Stove and Manufacturing Company" (there had just previously been a fire at the Stove plant and it was heavily damaged.) and all operations on lot 467 were then combined. The Shelby Foundry was a great success, but on July 17, 1918 a fire completely destroyed the entire Shelby Foundry facility. Afterward it was decided that they would not rebuild the plant and the lot and all remains were to become a junk yard operated by Max Oxman.
 
Mr. Oxman was born in Russia in 1883 and he and his family immigrated to St. Louis, Missouri in 1903. He married Mary (Oxman) c. 1907 in Missouri and they had a family of three children, Anna born c. 1908, Philip born c. 1911 and Harold born c. 1913. They moved to the Shelby area c. 1916 and when the Shelby Foundry burned, he purchased the remains and began his business as a iron merchant. Mr. Oxman continued his business at this location until he retired. He passed away in 1946.
 
 
 
 
Initial interest in the Shelby Junction Mill Company was sparked by a Junction Mill Company Day (Account) book, found and donated to the Shelby Museum by Donna Smith of Sandusky, Ohio. This Junction Mill Company day book was discarded after the original partnership was dissolved and came into the possession of Mrs. William K. (Sarah Valk) Albertson, sometime after 1874. Over the years she used the day book as a place for storing many of her cherished family mementoes, notes to her only surviving child, Lewis Butler Albertson, and as a guest book signed and annotated by many relatives visiting Sarah from afar. This book allows study of those who frequented the Junction Mill Company and also gives personal insight into the lives of this Albertson family over a period of 30 or more years. It is a Shelby treasure...
 
 
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