The Standard Table Oil Cloth Company
In July, 1901, the organization of the Standard Table Oil Cloth Company was effected; seven manufacturers sold their plants to the Standard Company.- These plants were largely located-in the east. The product of the company is light weight oil cloth, by which is meant oil cloth manufactured on a cotton base used for covering tables, imitations of leather, bag muslin, shelf and stair oil cloth. The company has never manufactured oil cloth for floors, which is a separate industry, inasmuch as floor oil cloth is manufactured on a burlap instead of a cotton base, the machinery and method of manufacture being _entirely different. The growth of the business, particularly in the west necessitated the erection of a new plant, one of the largest of its kind in operation, at Rock Island, Illinois, with a frontage on the Mississippi River. This plant in time will likely be the largest plant of its kind in the world. It is centrally located, has good shipping facilities and caters to the wants of the richest country on the globe; the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys. The output of the Standard Company has steadily increased. For its last fiscal year . it manufactured about 36,000 miles of light weight oil cloth, one yard wide. Its trade mark ” Meritas,” which is stamped on the back of every yard of its product in oil cloth is well known in all commercial centers. A large export business is done. One of the products of the company which has been recently introduced to the public is a washable wall covering called “Sanitas.” This new product is meeting with great success. In May, 1907, the assets of the Standard Table Oil Cloth Company were sold to the Standard Oil Cloth Company under a merger agreement, the directors and officers retaining their positions. The Standard Oil Cloth Company has a capital stock of $6,000,000; $3,000,000 of preferred and $3,000,000, of common. Its officers are as follows: President and treasurer, Henry M. Garlick, Youngstown, Ohio; vice-president, George H. Hughes, New York City; secretary and general manager, Alvin Hunsicker, New York City; assistant treasurer, W. E. Thatcher, Orange, New Jersey. The company is the largest of its kind in the world, and employs a large number of men in its various plants.
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908