vessels of all types have to date been equipped for
the war effort with Martin-Parry Metlwal materials.
Because of failing health, Mr. Small had to relin-
quish active management of the company in the lat-
ter part of 1940. He accordingly worked out with
F. J. Fisher, oldest of the body-building family, the
consolidation of Martin-Parry Corporation and Rex-
air, Inc., of Detroit, of which company Mr. Fisher
was Board chairman. This consolidation brought the
manufacture of the Rexair cleaner, a vacuum cleaner
that uses water instead of a bag, to the York plant.
It also supplied the management and advisory sup-
port which Mr. Small sought. T. Russ Hill, president
of Rexair, Inc., became president and general man-
ager of Martin-Parry and the Rexair directors moved
onto the Martin-Parry Board.
The company then plunged into war work. It per-
fected the adaptors for the French 75 mm., the En-
glish and Canadian 18-Pounder, 4.5 Howitzer and
the English Vickers 6" Howitzer. It converted such
guns in Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Hol-
land, Dutch East Indies and the United States, thus
motorizing instantly all such horse-drawn equip-
ment, a material contribution to the arming effort.
Tank stacks and adaptors for invasion purposes were
designed and produced by the corporation as were
three types of Rocket Launchers so effective in the
later months of the war. Turret rings for tanks, gun
mounts, cable locks, gun sights, ammunition boxes,
Radar cases and many metal fabrications were pro-
duced for the Army and Navy. Partitions and linings
for vessels were supplied to the Maritime Commis-
sion, the Navy and the Army Transport Corps.
The Maritime "M" for excellence in production
was awarded to the company in July, 1943. Addi-
tional stars have been earned each succeeding six
months. Citations have also been received from Gen-
erals Campbell and Houseman for the corporation's
Ordnance achievements.
The "Martin" part of the corporation has been in
business for sixty years the "Parry" part for sixty-
five years. Having been born in the wake of our
severest war and taken three other wars in stride,
the corporation knows something about economic
and social upheavals. It is already turning out com-
mercial Metlwal products for the new building and
remodeling era, designing ship interiors for tomor-
row's liners and for the conversion of all types of
vessels. The Rexair Cleaner and Conditioner is in
War and Peace Ship and Building Interiors.
production, as are the components for prefabricated
houses. The corporation will maintain its position as
a leader in its field in a city characterized by the
stability of its enterprises and its citizens.
165
McCRORY'S
5-10-25-Cent Store
In February, of 1896, John G. McCrory opened his
store in York, Pennsylvania, just fourteen years after
opening his first five-and-ten-cent store in Scottdale,
Pennsylvania.
John G. McCrory made his start in the five-and-
dime business with a total capital of $350, saved
from his salary as a dry goods clerk plus $200
which he borrowed, and the deeply rooted convic-
tion that a store offering merchandise only at two
price levels, five and ten cents, would attract enough
customers to make it a paying proposition.
Within a few years, stores under the McCrory
banner were retailing dry goods, house furnishing
sundries and kitchenware in a dozen towns in the
industrial areas of eastern and central Pennsyl-
vania. His store in York, Pennsylvania, was one of
this chain.
MC-CROREY
AND CO.
NOTHING
OVER 10!
TT
Original York Store
The growth of the City of York has been so phe-
nomenal that it became necessary to build a brand
new store in 1941 with five times the counter space
of the original McCrory 's Store in this city in order
to properly serve the increased population.
A decade later, the McCrory chain consisted of
sixty-nine stores and by 1915, the year the company
was incorporated under the laws of the State of Del-
aware, fifty-nine more stores had been added, bring-
ing the total to one hundred seventeen. By 1921,
forty years after he had started in business, his chain
of one hundred fifty-nine branches sold $14,400,000
worth of merchandise. In 1944, customers spent over
$71,000,000 in its two hundred two branches.
McCrory's sales and profits have consistently
grown, due in a large part to the modernization of
most of their stores. The management insists upon
this modernization program as being essential to the
progress of the company through improved services
and facilities to the shopping public whose patron-
age is the foundation of the company's success.
First Floor, Side Stairway to Basement Salesroom
XV, ,
rMf feJE
^4ik ,.3>
Main Sales Floor
Present York Store
166
THE McKAY COMPANY
Chain and Arc Welding Electrodes
Over sixty years ago the James McKay Company
started the production of chain in Pittsburgh. The
company grew in size and good will with the trade
until it had the largest fire welding plant in the
country.
A few years later the Hayden-Corbett Chain Com-
pany was organized in Columbus, Ohio. This com-
pany expanded until they had two large plants, one
in Columbus, Ohio, and the other in Huntington,
West Virginia.
A little later the National Chain Company was
formed in Marietta, Ohio, with an organization long
and favorably known in the chain industry.
In 1919, these three companies merged, formed
the United States Chain & Forging Company, build-
ing at that time, for added production, a new elec-
tric welding plant at York, Pennsylvania.
In 1931, the charter was revised, without other
change in the organization, changing the company
name to The McKay Company, because so many
of its specialty products were known by this fine
old chain name.
Manufacturers of automobile tire chains, commer-
cial chains of iron and steel for marine and indus-
trial purposes and arc welding electrodes of both
mild and stainless steels, The McKay Company has
plants now located at McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania,
and York, Pennsylvania.
The chain plant at York, Pennsylvania, produces
steel chains by the electric welding process and for
the past few years its entire capacity has been con-
verted to the fabrication of tire and tow chains for
automobile trucks in heavier than commercial sizes,
and other chains for Army and Navy requirements.
Although originally chain manufacturers, the com-
pany entered the arc-welding electrode field start-
ing commercial production in 1938 in a new plant
erected and equipped for that purpose at York,
Pennsylvania. As the shipbuilding program material-
ized, the company met the increase in demand for
electrodes of carbon steel for welding and subse-
quently, at the request of the Navy, installed facili-
ties at the McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, Plant to
supplement the production of electrodes from the
York Plant.
In addition to the well-rounded line of mild steel
electrodes produced, The McKay Company manu-
factures a complete line of certified stainless steel
electrodes, and, through its own laboratory research,
supplemented by a fellowship maintained at the
Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, developed
the famed McKay "Armorloy" electrodes which so
satisfactorily met the requirements for the welding
of heavy armor plate used extensively on both Army
and Navy fighting equipment.
Aerial View of York Plant.
167
M & H PURE FOOD STORES
Chain Food Stores
What is now known as the M. & H. Pure Food
Stores dates back to 1916 when William H. Meisen-
helter opened up a food store at 29 East Philadel-
phia Street. He soon was operating four stores in
various locations.
In 1922, Horace Hake, H. H. Minnich and Martin
Miller joined the enterprise then known as the Meis-
enhelter Stores and in the next three years six more
stores were opened.
Mr. Hake and Mr. Minnich became the sole own-
ers in 1925 and changed the name to the M. & H.
Pure Food Stores. For the ensuing eighteen years,
the stores were conducted under this ownership and
management.
In 1940, Mr. Minnich withdrew from the firm and
Mr. Hake is now the sole owner and proprietor.
Mr. Hake's ancestral background fits into his pres-
ent vocation. His forebears were all engaged in the
processing of food and food products. In fact the
family coat-of-arms of English origin is even sym-
bolic of food three fish the "Hake Fish." His more
immediate ancestors were flour millers and later
wholesalers and retailers of food products.
Since food is so closely related to agriculture, Mr.
Hake has always had a keen interest in farming.
He managed his father's farm in lower York County
in his late teens and worked had in developing bet-
ter strains of farm animals, fruits and vegetables.
This naturally led him into organization work, such
as the Grange, farmer institutes and related Farm
Bureau work.
He was active in organizing the Red Lion Farmers'
Exchange which at one time was one of the most
active and largest in the East.
Mr. Hake operates his ten stores on an interesting
and unique principle. Each manager is virtually the
proprietor of his store. His income is based upon the
business he is able to develop and thus shares in
any increase for which he may be responsible.
MOLYBDENUM CORPORATION OF AMERICA
Chemical and Metallurgical Products of Tungsten and Molybdenum
The Molybdenum Corporation of America is one
of the largest manufacturers in the United States of
the chemical and metallurgical products of Tungsten,
Molybdenum and Boron.
The local plant was founded and operated under
the name of York Ferro Alloy Company, later
changed to the York Metal & Alloys Company, and
in 1930 became a unit of the Molybdenum Corpora-
tion of America.
The York Plant is fully equipped for the refining of
Tungsten, Molybdenum and Boron ores, producing
Ferro Tungsten, Tungsten Metal Powder, Tungsten
Carbide, Calcium Tungstate, Sodium Tungstate, Am-
monium Tungstate, Tungstic Oxide, Tungstic Acid;
Ferro Molybdenum, Molybdenum Metal Powder,
Molybdenum Carbide, Calcium Molybdate, Sodium
Molybdate, Ammonium Molybdate, Molybdic Oxide,
and Molybdic Acid; Ferro Boron, Calcium Boride,
and Manganese-Silicon-Boride.
Through chemical and metallurgical research, this
company has been responsible for supplying to the
steel industry, alloys, metal powders, and carbides
of Tungsten and Molybdenum, to be used in the
production of alloy and special steels for world
consumption.
Sodium Tungstate and Sodium Molybdate, the
chemical salts of Tungsten and Molybdenum, have
been directly responsible for the rapid progress in
the textile, ink, paint, and rubber industries.
This company has played an outstanding part in
the World War II program, 97% of the total produc-
tion going into the war effort.
Smelting Tungsten Ore
1 Aft
McGANN MANUFACTURING CO., INC
Special Machinery
The McGann Manufacturing Co., Inc., a Penn-
sylvania corporation, was founded in 1922. It was
organized for the manufacture of chemical equip-
ment, dryers, hydrators, sugar machinery, dam and
lock gates, and various kinds of heavy special
machinery. Among the peacetime products of the
company are condensers, tanks, boilers and special
machinery designed and produced for several na-
tionally and internationally known design and erec-
tion companies.
Early in 1940, Clyde H. Smith became associated
with the company, acquiring a substantial interest
at that time. In 1945, he acquired all other outstand-
ing stock and is now sole owner and operator of the
company.
Plant Facilities
The company buildings are situated on grounds
bounded by Richland Avenue and King's Mill Road
of approximately ten and three-quarters acres. The
entire area is enclosed by six-foot Anchor fence. The
grounds, exclusive of building sites, are used for
both employee parking and material storage, and
seasonally, for plate shop fabrication work.
The main building contains the administrative of-
fices, foundry, machine shop, boiler shop and as-
sembly departments.
Other smaller buildings include one containing
the pattern shop and receiving, stores and shipping;
another, pattern storage; another, engineering of-
fices; another, the heating and steam plant, and
others for storage of various materials.
The entire building area, exclusive of administra-
tive and engineering office space, is approximately
54,000 square feet.
The buildings are in the main of wood or steel re-
inforced, frame construction. All are steam heated
with Modine blower units throughout, excepting the
administrative offices.
The shipping facilities available to the company
are several motor express companies and Pennsyl-
vania, Western Maryland and Maryland & Pennsyl-
vania Railroads. The company owns a spur con-
nected with the Pennsylvania Railroad siding. A
switch spur enters the shops.
Technical Facilities
The experience and background of the company,
its management and engineering department is one
of many years of experimental, development and
production engineering work on special machinery
and equipment. They have designed and produced
such products as lime plants and hydrators, L. S. T.
ship box sections, sugar machinery, buoys, traveling
cranes, gantry cranes, floating dock cranes, projec-
tiles, steam and electric cargo winches and other
hoisting equipment, and many other types of special
machinery and equipment.
Coupled with experimental and development en-
gineering work on these products, the company has
gathered together over the period of the last twenty
years an organization of shop supervision, mechan-
ics, foundrymen, plate fabricators and assemblymen
who have had a broad experience in the production
of many additional items of manufacture.
The Engineering Department consists of a highly
skilled and versatile mechanical engineer who is
assisted by two designer-draftsmen. In addition, the
company employs the necessary draftsmen to round
out an engineering unit capable of carrying out such
design and development work as may arise. The
chief engineer is fully acquainted with company's
products and has had a wide experience in the me-
chanical field involving other machinery and equip-
ment not produced by this company.
Foundry Facilities
The floor area of the foundry, including the pat-
tern shop, pattern storage, core room and core ovens,
is approximately 12,000 square feet.
The molding floor is serviced by two overhead
traveling cranes. At present, there are two cupolas
of eight and two-ton capacity, respectively.
The floor space and equipment provides for
approximately sixty employees, including thirty
molders.
In addition, the company maintains a pattern
shop, including able wood pattern-makers who have
been in its employ for several years. The facilities
and equipment available in this department provide
for from twelve to twenty pattern-makers.
This department has been in production through-
out the company's program of steam winch manu-
facture, which began in the latter part of 1941. Prior to
that time this department did grey iron casting work
for customer companies and for company products.
Plafe Shop Facilities
The floor area of the plate shop, including the area
at present used for electric winch assembly, is ap-
proximately 18,500 square feet.
This area is serviced by a fifteen-ton overhead
traveling crane. In addition, several one and one-
half ton budget hoists and other heavier hoisting
equipment are located over and about such equip-
ment as requires these facilities.
The floor space and equipment provides for ap-
proximately two hundred plate fabricators, welders
and the like.
This department has been in production through-
out the company's life manufacturing such products
as lime plants and hydrators, gantry cranes, floating
dock cranes, traveling cranes, buoys and L. S. T.
ship box sections.
War Record
In 1941, the company was called into the War Pro-
duction Program by the U. S. Maritime Commission
and was given an assignment to manufacture 7' x 12'
steam cargo winches for the Liberty ships. At the
end of the present contracts the company will have
shipped approximately 2,600 of these winches,
enough to outfit approximately 325 ships.
In early 1944, the company did plate shop fabri-
cation for the Army and Navy, including floating
dock cranes and L. S. T. ship box sections. This was
subcontracted work.
In early 1944, the company also took on prime
contract work with the U. S. Army for projectiles.
In the latter part of 1944, the U. S. Maritime Com-
mission called upon McGann for additional work in
their shipping program for the manufacture of elec-
tric winches. This program required a production of
approximately 400 winches to outfit twenty-five ships.
169
THE MEDUSA PORTLAND CEMENT COMPANY
Cement
Few people, perhaps even those living in York,
Pennsylvania, know that the world's first White
Portland Cement was produced in York. . . . How it
came about makes an interesting story.
Back in the years preceding 1907, the officials of
Medusa Portland Cement Company were intrigued
with the idea of producing a White Portland Cement.
. . . They knew that the possibilities for the use of
such a cement were unlimited. . . . They believed
that if materials for a white cement could be found,
the cement would be unexcelled for the making of
terrazzo and stucco. The problem was to find a
white limestone near white clay and high-grade
coal. After a geological search, this combination was
found near York, and in 1907, the York Plant was
built for the production of the world's first White
Portland Cement.
Since this was the first White Portland Cement,
Medusa executives found it necessary to develop
new processes for the manufacture of this product.
This gave the York Plant another "first" in cement
making, in that it's believed to be the original
straight-line production cement plant.
After this mill was in operation for a number of
years, it was found that a considerable percentage
of the raw materials were unsuited in color to make
white cement, but could be used for producing an
excellent quality gray cement. Therefore, in 1927,
the York Gray Portland Cement Plant was erected.
This is the story back of the two Medusa cement
plants, one manufacturing White Portland Cement,
the other Gray Portland Cement.
Perhaps an equally interesting story is how these
cements came to bear the name Medusa. ... It so
happened that among the founders of the Medusa
Portland Cement Company were two men instructors
or professors in geology in leading universities. In
the search for the name for Portland Cement, these
men were reminded of the story of Medusa, the
fabled woman of Greek mythology, whose hair had
been changed into hissing serpents because she
dared to vie in beauty with Minerva. She became
a monster so frightful that no living thing could be-
hold her without being turned into stone. Since
Medusa turned living things into stone, her name
was selected to symbolize the modern magic by
which Portland Cement creates edifices and engi-
neering works as solid as native rock. We believe
that few products are so significantly named as
Medusa Portland Cement.
The name Medusa today designates a wide va-
riety of cements and cement products manufactured
by the Medusa Portland Cement Company in its
eight plants located in strategic market centers in
the eastern part of the United States.
1-70
METROPOLITAN EDISON COMPANY
Public Utility
Electric service for a majority of York's large in-
dustrial plants is supplied by Metropolitan Edison
Company which has made available for them the
resources and facilities of a large, modern and well
operated electric power system. Through the years,
and particularly since the acquisition of the prede-
cessor, York Haven Water & Power Company, in
1923, Metropolitan Edison Company has constantly
increased and expanded its equipment for the pro-
duction and distribution of electric energy.
The most recent major improvement was the re-
building of the Smith Street Substation, in the out-
skirts of York, increasing its capacity to 67,500 kilo-
watts. Included in this important project, which was
completed during the latter part of 1944, was the
construction of a new 110,000-volt steel tower, high
tension transmission line between York and two of
the company's main generating stations on the Sus-
quehanna River at York Haven and Middletown, Pa.
Improvements and additions at the Smith Street Sub-
station increased its capacity about 70 per cent. The
total capacity of Metropolitan Edison facilities serv-
ing large industrial customers in York and surround-
ing territory has been raised to 120,000 kilowatts.
To supply electricity for its customers in all parts
of the territory which it serves. Metropolitan Edison
Company has four main generating stations and a
number of miscellaneous sources of electric power
supply with a total installed generating capacity of
224,500 kilowatts. Of these, the closest to York is the
hydroelectric station on the Susquehanna River at
York Haven with an installed capacity of 20,000 kilo-
watts. For years it has been an important source of
electrical energy for industrial York.
As far back as 1924, however, in anticipation of
the demands which York's expanding industries
would make for more and more electric power, the
company further guaranteed the availability of its
service with the erection of a new steam turbo-gen-
erator plant on the Susquehanna River, at Middle-
town, about five miles above York Haven. The initial
unit of 30,000 kilowatts' capacity was an important
addition to the power resources of a growing terri-
tory. A year later a second unit of 35,000 kilowatts
was added so that the Middletown Station, designed
Modern Steam Turbo-Generator Plant at Middletown
for ultimate 200,000 kilowatts' capacity, now has
65,000 kilowatts installed. Preliminary work on the
installation of a third unit, that will increase the sta-
tion output to 110,000 kilowatts, was suspended due
to war conditions.
The stations at York Haven and Middletown are
the principal sources of electric energy which Met-
ropolitan Edison Company furnishes for York and
vicinity and they are directly connected with the
Smith Street Substation. The company's system is
also connected at seven different points with the
power system of other large companies, the capac-
ity of these interconnections being 150,000 kilowatts.
The York office of Metropolitan Edison Company
is at 123 East Market Street. The manager of this di-
vision of the company's territory has his office there
and likewise the industrial power engineers whose
services are at the disposal of all company custom-
ers in this area. Principal offices of the company are
at 412 Washington Street, Reading, Pa.
Hydroelectric Station on Susquehanna River at York Haven
171
MORRIS DRUG COMPANY
Manufacturer, Wholesale, Retail Druggist
One hundred and twenty-two years have passed
since this drug business, founded by Charles A.
Morris, started at the present location, 7 East Market
Street.
The company was twenty-three years old when
the Mexican War began and it has experienced the
depressions, inflations and panics incident to all
wars since.
Many have been the changes and discoveries in
medicine and chemistry since 1823, but the Morris
Drug Company has been able to keep abreast of the
times during all these years.
During the Civil War, a few days preceding the
Battle of Gettysburg, the premises were searched
by the Confederates for drugs of value to its army,
but all important medicines had been carefully hid-
den. On the third day of that battle this company
delivered first-aid supplies on the field for use of the
Northern Army.
The Morris Drug Company engaged in wholesale
and retail drug distribution and also drug manufac-
turing, years before the formation of any of the large
pharmaceutical manufacturing concerns.
Distribution in the wholesale field was by means
of large wagons drawn by four horses or mules,
familiar and regular travelers over the roads of the
Allegheny Mountains. Doctors in the rural commu-
nities depended on the Morris Drug Company for
their supplies of medicines.
This company is now the largest covering all di-
versified lines of the drug business between Phila-
delphia and Pittsburgh and is housed in its own
four-siory building extending a half city block con-