Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing Company

Infobox Company
name = Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing Company

type = private
genre =
foundation = 1840
founder = Mordecai W. Jackson and George Mack
location_city = Berwick, PA
location_country = United States
location =
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industry = rail transport
products = freight cars
services =
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operating_income =
net_income =
assets = $60,000,000 (1899)
equity =
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Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing Company, also called Jackson and Woodin Car Works, was an American railroad freight car manufacturing company of the late 19th century headquartered in Berwick, Pennsylvania. In 1899, Jackson and Woodin was merged with twelve other freight car manufacturing companies to form American Car and Foundry Company. Jackson and Woodin's management were proponents of the temperance movement in America, and went as far as buying all of the saloons and hotels in Berwick, leading to Berwick becoming a dry town by 1881. [White, p 148.] [cite news| url=http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E06EEDC133CEE3ABC4D51DFB266838A699FDE| title=No More Whiskey in Berwick; Dealers to be Paid the Amount of Their Annual Profits Instead| work=New York Times| date=1881-04-25| accessdate=2008-04-16| ] By the time of the 1899 merger that created American Car and Foundry Company (ACF), Jackson & Woodin was the largest freight car manufacturer in the eastern United States. The Jackson & Woodin shops became ACF's Berwick Plant, a plant that was heavily used by ACF.

History

Jackson & Woodin was founded in 1840 by Mordecai W. Jackson and George Mack as a farm implement manufacturing company. Jackson bought Mack's interest in the company in 1843, and partnered with Robert McCurdy, whose interest Jackson bought later in 1846. William Hartman Woodin partnered with Jackson in 1849.cite web| url=http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/jacksonwoodin.htm| title=Jackson & Woodin Manufacturing Company| publisher=Mid-Continent Railway Museum| date=2006-04-11| accessdate=2008-04-16| ] cite web| url=http://ftp.rootsweb.ancestry.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/columbia/bios/woodin-clemuel-r.txt| title=WOODIN, Clemuel Ricketts| work=Columbia-Luzerne County PA Archives Biographies| publisher=USGenWeb| date=2005-07-01| accessdate=2008-04-16| Extracted from cite book| title=Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District| publisher=Biographical Publishing Company| location=Chicago| year=1899| ] The company turned to construction of mine cars by the late 1860s. [White, p 141.]

The Jackson & Woodin shops were destroyed by fire on 1865-03-17; the company rebuilt with a larger facility in the same location, increasing the size of its workforce from 150 to 250.

After Mordecai Jackson and William Woodin retired from the company, Jackson & Woodin incorporated on 1872-03-01 with Clement R. Woodin (sometimes written as Clemuel Woodin, William Woodin's son) [White, p. 139.] appointed as president, Clarence G. Jackson (Mordecai Jackson's son) [cite book| chapterurl=http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jowest/Research/CCBios6.htm| title=The History of Columbia and Mountour Counties| chapter=Columbia County, PA, Biographies| publisher=reprinted by Ancestry.com| year=1887| accessdate=2008-04-16| ] as vice president and Garrick Mallery as treasurer. The company's partners, Mordecai Jackson and William Woodin, were appointed to the executive committee. C. R. Woodin helped the company grow throughout his time in its top position; an 1879 advertisement for Jackson & Woodin declared that the company was producing 150 railroad car wheels per day. [cite book| title=Car Builders' Cyclopedia of American Practice| pages=p 13| publisher=Simmons-Boardman Publishing| year=1879; reprinted 1881| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=S5g_AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Jackson+%26+Woodin%22&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0| accessdate=2008-04-16| ] Also in 1879, Jackson & Woodin helped with the establishment of the local YMCA chapter, donating the entire third floor of the company's main building (including rent, heat and light) as meeting space. When the Young Men's Christian Association of Berwick was incorporated in 1883, the majority of the organization's trustees were current executives of Jackson & Woodin. [cite web| url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pacolumb/berwhis.htm| title=Briarcreek Township and Borough of Berwick| publisher=reprinted by USGenWeb| pages=p 206| accessdate=2008-04-16| ]

C. R. Woodin stepped down from the company presidency in 1894 due to poor health. Clement Woodin's son, William Hartman Woodin, who would later make a name for himself as the Secretary of the Treasury under Franklin D. Roosevelt, served as general superintendent of Jackson & Woodin, and was promoted to president of the firm in 1895. [cite book| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aMiA05P92h8C&dq=%22Jackson+and+Woodin%22&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0| title=Biographical Dictionary of the United States Secretaries of the Treasury| pages=p 387| author=Katz, Bernard S., ed.; and Vencill, C. Daniel| publisher=Greenwood Press| year=1996| isbn=0-313-28012-6| ]

In 1899, Jackson & Woodin was one of 13 car manufacturers that were merged to create American Car and Foundry Company (ACF). [cite book| title=The Truth about the Trusts: A Description and Analysis of the American Trust| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=6Z5CAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22jackson+%26+woodin%22&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0| author=Moody, John| pages=p 217| accessdate=2008-04-16| location=New York| publisher=Moody Publishing Company| year=1904| ] By the time of the merger, Jackson & Woodin was the largest freight car manufacturer in the eastern United States, with total assets of $60,000,000. The Jackson & Woodin shops became ACF's Berwick Plant, a plant that was heavily used by ACF. ACF produced the first all-steel passenger car at the Berwick Plant in 1904; it was the first car produced as part of an order for 300 cars from the Interborough Rapid Transit company in New York City.cite web| url=http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/amercar&foundry1.htm#Berwick| title=American Car & Foundry Company| publisher=Mid-Continent Railway Museum| date=2006-04-09| accessdate=2008-04-16| ]

References

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