HARDWOOD RECORD 



15 



Makers of Machinery History. 



NUMBER I. 



Harry P. Coe. 



It has been the province of the Hardwood 

 Record to publish portraits of men, and re- 

 view briefly their history, who have been 

 individuals of accomplishment in connection 

 with the hardwood lumber industry of thi3 

 ■country. It would seem of equal moment 

 likewise to print portraits and review in 

 the same manner the history of people who 

 have distinguished themselves in the pro- 

 duction of tools and appliances which have 

 been of such inestimable aid to lumbermen 

 in carving out their success. 



With which to commence this series of 

 articles, the Hardwood Record is pleased to 

 present the portrait and a brief review of 

 the career of Harry P. Coe of Painesville, 

 O. The name of Coe has become synonymous 

 in the hardwood industry of this country 

 with the production of machinery which 

 has revolutionized a considerable portion of 

 the hardwood business of the United States 

 ■ — the making of machines for the manufac- 

 ture and drying of rotary cut veneers. To 

 Harry P. Coe himself there is no credit due 

 for the presentation to the world of a new 

 idea or even of a new machine, but to him 

 is due the credit of the development of 

 ideas, the perfection of appliances and the 

 business acumen through which a great and 

 rapidly growing industry has been devel- 

 oped. It is an industry based on the eco- 

 nomical utilization of our forests, and as 

 such is worthy of more than ordinary com- 

 mendation. 



More than to any other individual in tho 

 ■country, the credit of the basic idea of the 

 •conversion of round logs into rotary cut 

 veneers or thin lumber and the invention 

 and development of machinery that should 

 accomplish this result, is due to H. H. Coe, 

 the founder of the Coe Manufacturing Com- 

 pany and the father of the subject of this 

 sketch. The elder Coe was born at Charles- 

 ton, Summit county, O., in 1830. He moved 

 to Painesville in 1849 and in 1850 the firm 

 of Anderson & Coe was organized to engage 

 in the manufacture of sawmill machinery 

 and engines. It made mulay and circular 

 sawmills and most of tho earlier Michigan 

 mills were equipped with the Anderson 

 mulay mill. 



In 1861 Mr. Coe entered the Union army 

 with the seventh Ohio regiment as band- 

 master, and afterward led the band for 

 General Jack Casement 's brigade. Shortly 

 after the war Mr. Anderson sold his inter- 

 est in the firm to Mr. Wilkes and the name 

 was changed to Coe & Wilkes. Early in the 

 seventies they were asked by local capital- 

 ists to build a machine for cutting tooth- 

 picks and lamp lighters, and thus they en- 

 tered the veneer machinery industry. Sev- 

 eral tooth-pick machines were built which 



proved highly successful, making fortunes 

 for their users who soon retired from busi- 

 ness, having made enormous profits. They 

 obtained $25.00 a case for tooth picks which 

 now sell for $1.50. 



A short time after this Coe & Wilkes built, 

 the first heavy veneer machine ever made, 

 for the Pittsburg Barrel Company, and from 

 this time on Mr. Coe interested himself par- 

 ticularly in veneer cutting machinery. Many 

 of the features now found on all up-to-date 

 machines originated in his fertilo brain. 

 One of the most important of Mr. Coe's 

 inventions is the automatic knife pitch de- 

 vice, without which the working efficiency 

 of the machine would be greatly reduced. 

 In 1S90 the manufacture of veneer ma- 

 chinery equipment had become the principal 

 business of Coe & Wilkes, although the mar- 

 ket was limited and the number of ma- 

 chines sold comparatively few. The educa- 

 tion of the timber man and the sawmill man 

 to take up the production of thin lumber 

 by means of rotating a section of a log 

 against a fixed knife, in place of manufac- 

 turing lumber by means of a sawmill, was 

 slow, but year by year the demand for these 

 tools has increased, until today many hun- 

 dreds of them are in successful use. 



Harry P. Coe, the present managerial head 

 of the Coe Manufacturing Company, assumed 

 an active part in the management of affairs 

 in his early youth, and while his father is 

 still president of the corporation, he has 

 retired from active participation in the busi- 

 ness of the company and is enjoying a weil- 

 earned rest. Harry P. Coe was born in 

 Painesville in 1865 and at an early age en- 

 tered his father's shop as an apprentice. He 

 learned thoroughly the machinist 's trade 

 in all its branches. After several years of 

 practical work in the shop he attended the 

 Ohio State University, and there learned 

 the theoretical side of mechanics. He was 

 an active member of the Phi Delta Theta 

 fraternity and one of the most popular men 

 in college, a reputation which has followed 

 him throughout his business career. After 

 leaving college he returned to Painesville 

 and took charge of the shop as foreman, in- 

 cidentally spending considerable time on the 

 road among the mills, thus gaining a U 

 edge which makes him one of the 

 posted veneer men in the country. 1 1 

 an expert veneer cutter, and there is no side 

 of the proposition with which he is no'. 

 thoroughly familiar. In 1S91 the Messrs. 

 Coe bought out the interest of Mr. Wilkes, 

 and under the active and intelligent direc- 

 tion of Harry P. Coe the business has 

 wonderfully expanded since that time, the 

 little shop having given way to one of the 

 finest machine-making plants in the country. 

 Mr. Coe is an Elk and an active Hoo-Hoo, 

 and in 1903 was elected mayor of Paines- 



igencies of his business com- 

 pelled him to resign. 



The dominant characteristics of Mr. 1 



1 e enumerated as embod 



companionable disposition 



combined with the theory that whatever is 



worth irth doing well. Above 



money-making Mr. Coe is indefatigable in 



aehinery that - 

 accomplish better results on a more econom- 

 ical bases than can be achieved by anyone 

 else. Thus he has instituted improvement 

 after im] upon his various ma- 



chines for the cutting and drying of vei 

 until lie is able to back his own confidence 

 in the several tools produced by his com- 

 pany with an absolute guarantee that 

 will accomplish the definite result designed. 

 This guarantee of accomplishment has be- 

 come a veritable Coe trade-mark, and the 

 impress of his character goes forth with 

 every machine that he sells and installs. 



It is but a bare statement of truth that 

 the process of rotary veneer cutting, con- 

 sidering the thousands of uses to which 

 wood in this form can be placed, is one of 

 if not the greatest aid pertaining to tin- 

 economical utilization of our forests that 

 has ever been invented. It means economy 

 of raw material; it means the reduction of 

 timber into lumber with a minimum of 

 waste; it renders possible the showing of 

 fine figured surfaces, concealing inferior but 

 just as valuable wood for the purpose with- 

 in the woodwork, for house finish, doors, 

 furniture, carriage bodies, and an infinity 

 of other purposes. The veneer business is 

 the acme of economical handling of the 

 forest wealth of the earth, and it is with 

 extreme gratification that the Hardwood 

 Record has the privilege of paying this brief 

 n ute In 1I1" man who above all others has 

 contributed to this great and desirable 



Industrial Development. 

 An industrial bureau has been established 

 by the Chicago >v North-Western Railway, the 

 purpose of which -shall be to furnish reliable 

 Informatlo rig the many desirable lo- 



cations along the North-Western line for new 

 manufacturing enterprises. 



The rapidly growing cities and the splendid 

 resources of tl 'V reached by the 



North 1 combine many of the 



■ lustn.il success. Kine water- 

 be supplement' d 

 electrical energy developed therefrom, 

 forests of soft timber for all kinds 



of woodworking concerns, mineral wealth that 

 provides tl ' •'' '"" 1 machine 



woril hand, and an ex- 



f a good class of labor are all 

 found here. 



This feature should prove of much benefit 

 not only to the company, but also to 



mg the line, and such of 

 theni as have commercial organizations will 

 ion by this department. 

 It .. i, we a time-saving conveni 



t0 ma rs seeking new locations 01 



siring to establish branch establishment: 

 m information will be promptly furn, 

 upon application. 



