Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company

10/26/2020

Several visitors have noted their lack of a funnel tube for their square steam steam cooker. I have one that I am willing to part with to followers of this page This one does not have the top whistle. (Note the whistle is not material to the operation; it provides a low-water warning.) The price is $25 + $4 shipping. Please reply if you are seriously interested. Thanks for following this page!

10/22/2020

Selling a vintage heater by Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company under the brand name Everhot. It is a 1950's model in great working order with updated cord, and will heat a small to midsize room easily. $40 + shipping.

03/19/2019

03/18/2019

08/28/2017

The following is transcribed from a document originating with the Company, author and date unknown. [In collection] While provide a good basic history, based on the last paragraph of the article, it is speculated that this article may have been written in response to the growing labor union activity that was taking place in Toledo. Indeed, labor activity was a primary cause of the Company's ultimate sale of several divisions and relocation to Murfreesboro TN in 1953.

"THE HISTORY OF THE SWARTZBAUGH MANUFACTURING COMPANY (Its early beginnings - its growth - what made it grow - the products manufactured)

This is the story of a small business - small if compared to General Motors and United States Steel. But large or small, any business that can operate continuously for more than 50 years, through periods of depression and prosperity - that has never once missed a payroll nor failed to pay its honest debts - such a business commands our interest and respect.

If you sometimes wonder how a business can be started in a small way and made to grow over the years - our story about the Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company may throw considerable light on the matter for you. But the mere facts about physical growth, interesting as they are, do not explain to most of us the reasons for the success of this business. These reason, it appears, lie largely in the policy of their management to plow back their earnings into their business like the farmer who regularly fertilizes his fields. And thus, when depressions came they were able to provide a certain degree of security for their business and their workers.

Our story starts in Toledo, Ohio in July 1897. One day during that month, Charles E. Swartzbaugh Sr., his brother Clifford, and a skilled mechanic Charles Phillips arrived in the city from Buffalo NY. They were looking for suitable factory quarters in which to start a business. Mounted on bicycles, these men canvassed the city and at last, on August 5, they rented two-thirds of a floor of a factory building on Albion street at a rental of $10 per month.

One month later on September 19, 1897 Charles E. Swartzbaugh incorporated the Toledo Cooker Company with a capital of $10,000 of which $5,000 was paid in cash - and the business started operations. Several factory workers, including Charles Phillips, moved their families from Buffalo. Of their original number, Charles Platt is an employee of the company to this day.

The only product that the new business manufactured in these early years was a combination steam cooker and canner. This cooker was largely sold by college students canvassing from house to house, the money they earned going to defray the cost of their education.

Thousands of the men and women of the older generation will remember htr "Ideal Steam Cooker" because it was widely sold in the farms and smaller towns of Ohio and Michigan. Hundreds of older business and professional men gratefully remember the cooker because it was instrumental in helping them earn their college educations.
It did not take long for The Toledo Cooker Company to outgrow its first quarters. Early in 1899, a Toledo capitalist, L.S. Baumgardner, offered to build a plant for Charles E. Swartzbaugh on the rear of property in Auburndale that later became the site of The Toledo Scale Company. For five years the Company manufactured Ideal Steam Cookers in this location. But by this time the owners of the business had saved up a little capital - their business was growing - and in 1903 Mr. Swartzbaugh purchased a factory site at 1336 west Bancroft Street and built a factory there in early 1905. Between 1905 and 1912 more capital was saved, still further progress was made, and a second factory unit was erected in the same location. Four years later in 1916, a third unit was built.

In the meantime, the Company had developed several new products, among the most popular of that earlier day being aluminum cooking utensils and fireless cookers. However, the Company continued to make steam cookers and canners, although a number of improvements in it had been made, and the name of the cooker changed to "Conservo".

Contrast the payroll for the first year's operation in 1897, amounting to $4,500 with the payroll of 1916 which ran many times this amount. The factory was now employing a hundred men instead of the six or eight who started out with the firm in 1897. And the only money that had been invested by its owners was the money that had been saved out of any profits earned. Even in 1916, practically all of the employees who had come to Toledo in 1897 with Mr. Swartzbaugh were still with him, and all were prospering.

In 1922 when Charles E. Swartzbaugh passed on, the management of the business was assumed by his brother Clifford, and his sons Charles, Jason and Ted. It was about this time that some of the company's older lines began to decline; so it was decided by the new management to enter the field of electrical appliances and this is the line of business in which the Company is engaged at the present time.
In 1923, the name of the Company (The Toledo Cooker Company) was changed to The Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company because of the new and diversified appliances that were being produced. Thousands of people will remember the Everhot Electric Cooker which was one of the first electrical appliances placed on the market by the Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company.

You have doubtless seen the products of this Company in stores all over Ohio and Michigan. Today the trade name "Everhot" is found on electric roasters, heaters, and other electrical appliances. The distribution of Everhot merchandise is widespread in every section of this country and even in foreign countries. Thousands of retail dealers sell Everhot electric roasters, which is the biggest selling appliance now manufactured by The Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company. The Company attributes their steady, successful progress to the fact that their products have been "famous for quality".

It is news to many people that in addition to electric roasters and other domestic appliance manufactured by The Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company, another department of this business makes food carts and food conveying equipment for hospitals and factories. Today more than 80% of all the hospitals in the United States are equipped with Ideal Food Conveyors. Many of America's largest industrial plants also use Swartzbaugh equipment to serve food to their production employees. These larger food carts are equipped with refrigeration machinery as well as electrical heat, so that both cold and hot foods and drinks may be transported and served to employees at or near their machines.

Few of us realize that a small business like The Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company can make so many useful products. Here is a factory turning out thousands of domestic electric appliances, steam cookers and canners, and also large, scientific and costly food conveyors for hospitals and factories. This diversification must require considerable skill and cooperation on the part of both management and workers.

Today the management of The Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company is just as concerned with building up the skills and cooperation of their employees as they are with maintaining the quality of their products. Building up men and women to greater earning power, and striving to help workers to have greater personal security in their jobs is an important function and duty of the management. Practically every department head, foreman and executive in the Swartzbaugh business is a man or woman who started work in the factory. For years all employees have received vacations with pay. Older workers are not discarded on account of age, but are placed in jobs they can handle and are partially pensioned. Still on the payroll are employees who have been with the Company for 20 to 45 years. This is as it should be in every business - this is the policy of which The Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company is most proud."

07/19/2017

Donkey Cigarette Dispenser - Prohibition Model
[Collection of Melodie Swartzbaugh]

The Toledo Cooker Company changed its name to The Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company as of June 30, 1924. The name change was attributed to the expansion of product offerings, particularly into electric appliances, and geographic market.

The Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company continued to manufacture and sell the box-shaped steam cooker under the brand name "Conservo". Under the "Everhot" brand name the Company eventually introduced an electric version of the steam cooker called the "Rangette Oven", as well as an electric version of the "fireless cooker". Otherwise, it appears that the Company discontinued manufacture and sale of the non-electric round steam cookers and the fireless cookers in the mid 1920's.

With the wide spread introduction of electricity, the Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company significantly expanded its product offerings under the household goods brand name "Everhot". These items included food cookers, food warmers, potable/tabletop stoves, crock pots and roasters, electric appliance timers, heaters and fans, electric irons, coffee percolator, hair beauty sets (curling iron and drying comb), and electric blankets. They also manufactured a few oddities along the way, such as a soldering iron, a medicinal "inhalator", and the Wupee Junior Fisherman's Pal. Though likely for promotional gifts only, they also manufactured the donkey cigarette dispenser! While these products are represented in advertisements of the period, it is difficult to find some of these products today, and due to interest in them as collectibles, even more difficult to obtain for private collection.

It also is notable that the Company manufactured and sold by contract to the U.S Military certain food conveyance products, primarily a "cooler" and related internal food containers, as well as cook pots. According to an entry in "Antique Electric Waffle Irons 1900-1960: A History of the Appliance Industry in 20th Century America" (copyright 2003), the Company sold electric kitchen appliance "under contract to larger firms including GE and Westinghouse."

A significant division of the Company became the manufacture and sales of food conveyor systems to hospital and larger industrial factories. at one point, the Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company's food conveyor system was used in approximately 80% of all US hospitals. This is the division that was ultimately relocated to Murfreesboro TN in the early 1950's..

In the mid-to-late 1940's C.E. Swartzbaugh II was joined in the Company by his son, John D. Swartzbaugh, Sr.

In 1951 the Everhot division was sold to McGraw-Electric. The above referenced "History" article states: "In 1951 due to major labor troubles at its plants, Swartzbaugh Manufacturing sold the 'Everhot' name and all tooling to McGraw-Electric and ceased to exist as a separate entity." The ending comment may have been in regard to the Everhot division, but certainly does not apply to Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company itself! The institutional equipment division continued successfully. In 1953, John D. Swartzbaugh assumed the Presidency of Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company, relocating the hospital food service division to Murfreesboro TN, where it continued to operate successfully until sold to UNESCO in 1969.

07/10/2017

Hi folks! Thanks for your interest in Swartzbaugh Manufacturing Company products, and its predecessor companies (Peerless Cooker Company > Toledo Cooker Company). This page is hosted by the founder's great-grandson, and while I have become quite familiar with the companies' histories and products, I certainly do not know everything! There is a lot of information on this page via the Albums and photos (and related comments/replies), as well as general posts. I hope you enjoy the page!