Spring City PA



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|SPRING-FORD AREA |

|HISTORICAL SOCIETY |

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|P. O. Box 312, Royersford, Pa. Phone 610-948-7127 |

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Volume 19 Number 2 April 2004

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|Saturday May 8th – 9:00 AM until 2:00 PM |

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|SFAHS Museum - 526 Main St. Royersford, Pa. |

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|Flowers For Sale Bake Table |

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|Art Show in the Gallery Room |

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|Hot Dogs Sodas and Lunch Foods |

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|Special Museum Table Sale |

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|Postcard History Books Available |

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|Live Banjo Music by John Fischer |

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|Museum Open 9:00 am to 2:00 pm |

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Membership Meeting

Ken Reed Auction Company

65 East Bridge Street

Spring City

Wednesday

May 12th, 2004

7:30 P.M.

Special Flag Program

“History of Flags”

We welcome Jean & Michael Rapp from the

Brandywine Flag Store

located on Wallace Ave.

in Downingtown, Pa. for

this special program.

| President’s Column | | |

| |Please continue to support our |Museum Group Tour |

|As I write this message the sun |programs & events and be sure to |On Tuesday evening March 23rd, 2004 the Cub |

|is shinning brightly and the |invite a friend or neighbor to come |Scouts from Grace Lutheran Church in Royersford|

|trees and flowers are showing |along. We are trying hard to |visited our museum for a tour. Dave Fritz, cub|

|us God’s beauty. |provide worthwhile activities for |leader, was accompanied by 10 young Cub Scouts |

| |all of our members to enjoy. |and several parents. On Wednesday evening |

|Lets hope we have some great | |April 7th, several members of the |

|weather ahead as we look for- |Attention |Phoenixville/King of Prussia Stamp club along |

|ward to our big May Fair event |Local artists will exhibit |with their president, Dr. Gus Spector, toured |

|on May 8th. This will feature an |their work during a one |our museum. We always welcome and encourage |

|art show with 12 local artists |day show in conjunction |these visits from local organizations. If you |

|participating. Also our famous |with the May Fair. |are a member of an organization interested in |

|bake sale and added this year |The display will be open |visiting, or know of a group that might be |

|is a plant sale which proved so |to the public from 9 am |interested, please let us know and we will be |

|popular when we offered this at |until 4 pm in our own |glad to make arrangements to schedule a tour. |

|the Bard Center several years |Museum Gallery Room. | |

|ago. This years entertainment |Twelve Artists will be | |

|will feature strolling music to be |Participating. Sales of |Calendar of Events |

|provided by none other than our |Watercolors | |

|own John Fischer. John played |Photographs |Annual May Fair |

|banjo professionally for several |& Fish Prints |May 8th 9am to 2pm |

|years with the Wheeling |To benefit the SFAHS | |

|Jamboree. There will also be | |Fall Festival Event |

|lunch refreshments for sale. | |September 18th |

| |New Program Ideas |Sat. 9am to 2pm |

|On Wednesday May 12th is our | | |

|Public meeting at Ken Reed’s |The SFAHS is always searching for interesting programs |Xmas Open House |

|auction gallery. The program |ideas. If you have any suggestions or information |Dec 5th noon to 5pm |

|features the history of flags |about a possible future program please contact Ann | |

|including, of course our own |Tudor (610-495-7402) or any of our board members. | |

|American Flag. This program | | |

|should get us in the humor to |See you in May ! RLW | |

|celebrate Memorial day the | | |

|end of May. | | |

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|I know it is always hard to | | |

|single out members for special | | |

|thanks because it is so easy to | | |

|omit someone, but over the last | | |

|several weeks a number of our | | |

|members have been working | | |

|very hard and should be | | |

|recognized and thanked for | | |

|their efforts. These include | | |

|Joyce & Bill Brunner, Dick | | |

|Marshall, Jim Burns, Mike | | |

|Stehman, the Eric Wunder | | |

|family and of course as always | | |

|Carolyn Fetterolf. | | |

|Royersford Spring Company |

Traveling from Spring City to Royersford one passes by the Royersford Spring Company. It’s right there at the traffic light on First Avenue. If you are stopped at the light you can’t help but get a good look at local history. That old brick building houses one of the oldest continuing manufacturing plants in Royersford.

The Royersford Spring Company came into existence back on July 20th, 1899 when Franz Joseph Maier purchased the Royersford Hosiery Mills building and property from Peter C. Fritz. (“Fritz & Krause manufacturers of Ladies and Misses Fine Seamless Hosiery”). Franz Joseph Maier, born in Germany in 1840, came to the U.S. in 1869 at the age of 29. Two years later in 1871 he married Maria Valentina Kinzelmann and they settled in Newark, New Jersey. Franz, who had been a wire worker and sieve maker in Germany followed his trade and was involved with several related businesses. He eventually became owner of the Trenton Spring Bed Company. Franz held several patents for spring bed designs, the earliest dates back to 1884. Spring beds were the primary products made in the early 1900s. One related product was casket springs used by the Boyertown Casket Company in the manufacture of their top of the line models. It is interesting to note that Rudolph Valentino, Al Capone and the Emperor of Japan are among the notable persons spending their eternity on such springs. In 1915 Franz Joseph Maier died. His sons, Joseph Franz, and John B. took over the management of the business at this time, although Valentina, their mother retained ownership until her death in 1936. In the early 1920s at the time the photo below was taken, the primary product of the company was automobile seat springs. Pierce-Arrow, Lincoln Sedan, and Bugatti Sports Coupes were just a few of the big name vehicles using seat springs supplied by the Royersford Co.

Although seat springs for automobiles was the primary product in the 1920s and 1930s, there are records of other customers such as roller coaster seats for Norton Enterprises and also orders from Autocar and Honorbilt Sleepers.

Valentina K. Maier died in 1936 and the company was purchased by her sons Joseph and John. At that time the company had 49 employees and its total worth was estimated to be $75,000. The customers of the Company in 1936 included Ford Motor Company, Greyhound Lines, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company and several upholstered furniture companies. Times were rough during the depression years but the company managed to survive and continue in business.

In 1941 the company was incorporated and the ROYCO trademark was patented. In 1945 the railroad tracks running next to the factory were extended.

During the late 1940s Joseph Maier is credited with an innovative product for mass transit seating. The company added a woodshop and springs were pre-mounted onto a wood base and sold directly to the customer all ready to be covered.

The above early 1900s photo shows a section of the interior of the Royersford Spring Company where a belt and pulley system was used to supply power to the machinery. In the photo below we see a 1940s view in the assembly room.

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|I would like to thank Susannah E. Brooks for her time and her help in providing the |

|history information and several of the older photographs that helped make this story |

|possible. |

In 1966 the Royersford Spring Company was sold to Frederic S. Claghorn. At that time he also owned Cezoma International, a textile machinery sales business that he moved to the Royersford location. Mr. Claghorn was responsible for the automation of the seat production line and the spring machines, as well as the conveyor and painting system. Edward Taws Claghorn, Frederic’s son joined the business in 1974 and in 1986 he purchased it from his father. The Royersford Spring Company in 2004 manufactures coil spring and board seat/back assemblies used in mass transportation seating, formed wires and wire assemblies used in automotive seating, and custom fabricated wood products used in furniture and mass transportation seating. For additional information on the Royersford Spring Co. you can go to their website at:

| W. C. Brunner |

| - Acknowledgements - | |

|June Ciniripino |David Willauer |

|Framed charcoal painting by Ken Weigel. |Assorted Elementary & School District Publications. |

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|Doris Marshall |John Fischer |

|Royersford School Letter, WW II Army necktie and overseas hat. |Assorted photographs of the Chapel at Fernwood Cemetery that |

| |were taken in January of 2004. |

|Latshaw Hardware |Rescue Squad advertising booklet from 1972. |

|On loan to be copied – photograph of Milton Latshaw and his horse.| |

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|Leighton Hacker |- Local Landmark Falls - |

|Original type mold used by the Inter-Boro Press Newspaper. |Fernwood Cemetery Chapel |

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|Rita & Dick Walter |In the above view is the back side of the Fernwood Cemetery |

|Old school desk and old motion picture projector. |Chapel and caretaker’s house as seen from the cemetery. This |

| |building was removed on April 2, 2004. |

|Pam Naylor | |

|On loan to be copied – 1917 era photo of White’s Market at Fourth |The Spring-Ford Area Historical Society would like to extend a |

|& Main Street in Royersford. |warm welcome to Mike Stehman |

| |and Jim Burns, our newest board members. Both are currently |

|Ted Claghorn |serving on the museum committee. |

|A gift of an original 1885 Buckwalter Stove Company manual. Also | |

|on loan to be copied – several Royersford Spring Company photos. | |

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|Bob Jones | |

|A 1965 Spring-Ford Senior High School Calendar. | |

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|William Brunner | |

|Notebook binder and CD information disc of all data compiled on | |

|the Spring City Race Track. Notebook binder and CD information | |

|disc of all data compiled on the Royersford Spring Company. | |

|Miscellaneous Postcard reproductions. SFAHS rubber stamp. | |

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