6th and Eggleston
In 1884 Russell & Morgan moved into their new factory on Eggleston Street. The factory took up half of a city block and was bounded by Eggleston, 6th Street and Lock Street. It was 70’ x 229’ (96,000 sq.ft). The building was 3 times bigger than the one on Race Street and the final cost was approximately $750,000 ($22 million). They even made their own cardboard and ink. Their daily production was 16,000 decks of cards (111 gross), 1 million labels and 60,000 pictorial show papers. The superintendent was 23 year old Willis Wilmington Russell.
Their old address (Red Arrow) and their new address (Black Arrow)
Right after they started operation the 1884 Cincinnati Riots broke out just a few blocks away at the Court House. About 50 people were killed and 300 injured. It was started because the citizens didn't agree with a murder trial verdict. One of the members of that jury was a Russell and Morgan employee printer named Louis Harmyer. You can read about the trial, Harmyer and the riot here....
1891 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showing the factory.
They were across the street from the hospital and an apartment complex used by a number of employees.
They were across the street from the hospital and an apartment complex used by a number of employees.
The building was structured as thus......
1st Floor Ink Dept, Show Printing, Label Cutting and an Engine Room
2nd Floor Label Press Room, Stereotype and Composing
3rd Floor Stock, Card Sorting and Show Pasting
4th Floor Card Cutting, Printing and Plating, Drying Room, Crushing Machines and Box Making
5th Floor Drying Room
6th Floor Enameling, Engraving and Lithographing (Including containers of cleaning acid)
For fire protection it had a total of 1,298 Grinnell Automatic Sprinklers mounted in the ceilings, and on each floor there were 14 buckets of water, 6 buckets of sand, fire axes and boxes of fire hand grenades.
1st Floor Ink Dept, Show Printing, Label Cutting and an Engine Room
2nd Floor Label Press Room, Stereotype and Composing
3rd Floor Stock, Card Sorting and Show Pasting
4th Floor Card Cutting, Printing and Plating, Drying Room, Crushing Machines and Box Making
5th Floor Drying Room
6th Floor Enameling, Engraving and Lithographing (Including containers of cleaning acid)
For fire protection it had a total of 1,298 Grinnell Automatic Sprinklers mounted in the ceilings, and on each floor there were 14 buckets of water, 6 buckets of sand, fire axes and boxes of fire hand grenades.
Fire Hand Grenades
Almost immediately they had their first accident. On Saturday, May 10th, a large cylinder on one of the fourth floor steam presses exploded. The 50 employees in the area, mostly women, fled screaming, causing other workers in the building to run also. Soon the fire escapes and stairways were packed with people. After things calmed down Mrs. Frankie Wayland, a 27 year old widow with two children, was found lying near the broken press obviously struck by flying metal. She was rushed across the street to the hospital where, first thought dead, she was admitted in critical condition. Frankie died four days later. Many of the women press workers failed to report back to work.
In 1885 they start protecting their card designs. One of their first ones was for their tiger logo.
Patent #12,648 PLAYING CARDS
The Russell & Morgan Printing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio
Application filed September 19 1885
The arbitrary word symbol "TIGER", the representation a tiger's head and the arbitrary number 101
Patent #12,648 PLAYING CARDS
The Russell & Morgan Printing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio
Application filed September 19 1885
The arbitrary word symbol "TIGER", the representation a tiger's head and the arbitrary number 101
On December 31, 1886, A. O. Russell had addressed a letter to the other members of the Label Manufacturers' Association withdrawing as a member. Now the Russell & Morgan Printing Company proposed a new deal, by which all of the label manufacturers of the country would again control the label business. Russell had already obtained control of the largest label maker Hines, Ketcham & Company and two other Cincinnati label firms. Joseph E. Hinds becomes a Vice President of the United States Printing Company and Russell & Morgan began taking over the trade.
In 1887 they had grown to 530 employees and by a year later it was 630 employees. In July twenty-two pressmen went on a week long strike after a fellow pressman was fired. A worker named McKay had been standing by a press with others when he laughed about something. A foreman named J. J. Stackhouse passing by heard it. He stopped and told McKay "I want no hilarity around here. If you do that again, I'll throw you out the window".
McKay quit and his fellow union workers went on strike against the treatment. Stackhouse, a newly hired foreman from New York was an unpopular boss and known anti-union man. What resolved the strike was not reported in the newspapers, but there is no record found of Stackhouse in Cincinnati after this incident.
McKay quit and his fellow union workers went on strike against the treatment. Stackhouse, a newly hired foreman from New York was an unpopular boss and known anti-union man. What resolved the strike was not reported in the newspapers, but there is no record found of Stackhouse in Cincinnati after this incident.
In 1890 Russell & Morgan's mechanical genius Samuel J. Murray tried something new. He invented a paper box for the company. Not just any box, this one would hold a deck of cards. It was such a success, it is still used today.
During several extremely hot summers in the early 1890s there were reports of women workers fainting from the heat. In a heatwave during July and August 1892 some factories were closing at 7:30 a. m. in Cincinnati. On the night of July 23rd, forty-four year old night watchman Ernest Roach was patrolling inside the R & M factory. When he failed to check in at 3 a. m. a boy was sent by his employer, the Commercial Telegraph Company, to crawl through a window and check on him. The boy found Ernest, reported as one of the largest men in town at about 400 pounds, passed out on the floor from the heat. It took numerous firemen to extract him from the building and get him across the street to the hospital. He died shortly after.
Besides the heat the factory work was not extremely clean. The company would state that at least 10% of their playing cards were thrown out due to contamination.
In February 1891 label manufacturers came together under the umbrella of the newly incorporated United States Printing Company. This included the Russell & Morgan Printing Company, Guggenheimer, Weil & Co., Hinds, Ketcham & Co., the Samuel Crump Label Company, the Gunn-Curtis Company, the National Bureau of Engraving and Manufacturing Company, the Frey Printing Company, the Schmidt Label and Lithographic Company and Woodward & Tiernan as members. Its object was to regulate prices, but it was soon found that some were breaking the agreement by cutting rates.
That year the two sections (playing card and job printing) of the Russell & Morgan Eggleston factory were separated. They opened another factory next door at 5th & Lock Street for printing. W. W. Russell now left to start his own company. (His first solo business attempt will be a failure within 2 years)
The Frey Printing Company (Cincinnati, Ohio), The Hinds & Ketcham Printing Company (Brooklyn, N Y) and The Samuel Crump Label Company (Montclair, NJ) are now merged into a new corporation called The United States Printing Company of Ohio.
That year the two sections (playing card and job printing) of the Russell & Morgan Eggleston factory were separated. They opened another factory next door at 5th & Lock Street for printing. W. W. Russell now left to start his own company. (His first solo business attempt will be a failure within 2 years)
The Frey Printing Company (Cincinnati, Ohio), The Hinds & Ketcham Printing Company (Brooklyn, N Y) and The Samuel Crump Label Company (Montclair, NJ) are now merged into a new corporation called The United States Printing Company of Ohio.
1893 brought another strike by some of the factory's workers. This time it was the Cutters, Straighteners and their helpers. They were getting $13, $12 and $8 per week. (Today $271 to $440/week) The company gave them a small increase and they returned to work.
Also in 1893 the United States Printing Company bought the National Card Company of Indianapolis. You can read all about this takeover on my National Playing Card website.
The Russell & Morgan factories were now referred to as .....
Factory No. 1, Russell & Morgan, Cincinnati, O. (Eggleston Street)
Factory No. 2, Hinds & Ketcham, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Factory No. 3, Hinds & Ketcham, Montclair, N. J.
Factory No. 4, Russell & Morgan, Cincinnati, O. (5th and Lock Streets)
Factory No. 5, National Card Company, Indianapolis, Ind.
On July 2, 1894 the United States Printing Company becomes The United States Playing Card Company (USPCC). They then bought the Hinds, Ketcham Card & Paper Co. of Montclair, New Jersey. (Their owner, Joseph E. Hinds became the first President of USPCC.) This factory was then stripped of all of its machines and distributed to other companies that were purchased. New machines solely for coating paper and playing cards were installed at the Hinds & Ketcham factory. This factory would then produce the Fireside Games for USPCC. You can read more about this on my website about them.
Factory No. 1, Russell & Morgan, Cincinnati, O. (Eggleston Street)
Factory No. 2, Hinds & Ketcham, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Factory No. 3, Hinds & Ketcham, Montclair, N. J.
Factory No. 4, Russell & Morgan, Cincinnati, O. (5th and Lock Streets)
Factory No. 5, National Card Company, Indianapolis, Ind.
On July 2, 1894 the United States Printing Company becomes The United States Playing Card Company (USPCC). They then bought the Hinds, Ketcham Card & Paper Co. of Montclair, New Jersey. (Their owner, Joseph E. Hinds became the first President of USPCC.) This factory was then stripped of all of its machines and distributed to other companies that were purchased. New machines solely for coating paper and playing cards were installed at the Hinds & Ketcham factory. This factory would then produce the Fireside Games for USPCC. You can read more about this on my website about them.
The first company officers the United States Playing Card Company were;
President: Joseph E. Hinds (of Hinds & Ketcham & Co.)
Vice President: A. O. Russell
Treasurer and Manager: John Omwake (former R & M company manager)
Secretary: Robert H. McCutcheon (formerly with Victor E. Mauger and the National Card Co.)
Assistant Secretary: William R. Poison (longtime R & M secretary)
Assistant Treasurer: John H. Frey (The Frey Printing Co. of Cincinnati)
Why was Joseph E. Hinds selected as president? Hinds, when merged with the conglomerate of label making companies put together by the United States Printing Company, was the largest lithographing label maker in the country with factories in several cities. His factory in Brooklyn was well known as the first commercial building in the country to be illuminated by Edison's new electric lights in 1881. Hinds claimed he was sold on Edison's lights because he could see the colors better during the printing as opposed to gas lights.
Hinds would later state that he was the founder of the United States Playing Card company.
President: Joseph E. Hinds (of Hinds & Ketcham & Co.)
Vice President: A. O. Russell
Treasurer and Manager: John Omwake (former R & M company manager)
Secretary: Robert H. McCutcheon (formerly with Victor E. Mauger and the National Card Co.)
Assistant Secretary: William R. Poison (longtime R & M secretary)
Assistant Treasurer: John H. Frey (The Frey Printing Co. of Cincinnati)
Why was Joseph E. Hinds selected as president? Hinds, when merged with the conglomerate of label making companies put together by the United States Printing Company, was the largest lithographing label maker in the country with factories in several cities. His factory in Brooklyn was well known as the first commercial building in the country to be illuminated by Edison's new electric lights in 1881. Hinds claimed he was sold on Edison's lights because he could see the colors better during the printing as opposed to gas lights.
Hinds would later state that he was the founder of the United States Playing Card company.
The new officers of the United States Printing Company were:
President and General Manager: A. O. Russell
First Vice President: Joseph E. Hinds
Second Vice President; Geo. Dan Seib (formerly of Hinds, Ketcham & Co.)
Secretary and Treasurer: John H. Frey
Assistant Treasurer: John Omwake
Where are Robert J. Morgan, James M. Armstrong and John F. Robinson? Morgan was presently serving as Vice President of the Cincinnati Police Commission. And Armstrong had recently passed away at age 83 while living in retirement after time in Ohio politics. Or course Robinson still had a circus to run, but that was mostly now being done by his son John G. Robinson.
John F. Robinson's circus had their winter quarters in a suburb of Cincinnati called Terrace Park. It was also his home. His favorite elephant "Tillie" was a common sight on the neighborhood streets. You can read about it here............
There is no reliable information on who designed the company's earliest playing cards. Except for one in March 1894 (Patent #23,135) that became very popular for the United States Playing Card Company. It was patented by John Omwake, who actually assigned it to the United States Printing Company where he was a company officer. To playing card collectors, this Bicycle brand design is known as "Sod" because of the grass beneath the bicycle's wheels. For an unknown reason two years later the grass would be removed from the design which helps date this card back for collectors.
On June 22, 1895 a fire broke out in a dye house attached to the south end of Russell & Morgan's factory belonging to a cotton mill. The multi-alarm caused panicked female workers to faint. Fallen women workers were carried out of both businesses before the fire was under control. The factory sustained no damage.
Even though the factory work wasn't easy Russell & Morgan took care of their employees through their employee run Aid Association. There were yearly picnics, participation in city parades and free trips to the new Coney Island Amusement Park.
At this factory, they also produced poker or gaming chips. It was a very small part of their operation at this time. Usually they were just plain chips.
Soon they would start having designs on them when a local artist and lithographer named Peter A. Schaefer assigned two of his patented designs to Russell & Morgan to be used in 1900.
In 1899 James D. McCracken was promoted to Superintendent from Foreman. James would also go on to be the first superintendent at their next factory in Norwood. He even patented several playing card machine designs for the company. James would serve R & M for 47 years and retire as a Vice President. In 1937 he died in the hospital across the street from the factory.
In 1899 he had 600 people under his authority. But, they were not all honest employees. Especially a 31 year old pressman named Sidney E. Brewerton. Sidney had worked in the factory since June 1892. His brother George was a foreman there. Before he started at R & M he already had been in trouble with the law for petty crimes.
For a year McCracken had been noticing discrepancies in the amount of cards printed and the number going to customers. He discovered that pawnshops were selling their unopened decks because someone was using them to get loans. So he hired a detective to find out what was going on.
The detective discovered it was the same person pawning brand new, unopened decks at all the pawn shops. The matter was turned over to the police and detectives Crim and Wuebben took on the case. Soon they had the proof needed to arrest Sidney Brewerton and he confessed. He had been stealing 12 to 15 decks in his lunchbox every single day for over 2 years. McCracken estimated he had stolen about 12,000 decks worth over $3,000 ($110,000). Brewerton had even stolen the company's playing card tax stamps and purchased a machine to put a cancellation date on them to look legitimate. That was another crime. Sidney was fired, served a short sentence and paid a fine.
In 1899 USPCC broke ground in Norwood on the northeast edge of Cincinnati for a newer, bigger factory. It was about a mile from A. O. Russell's house. The Eggleston street factory would soon become a General Office and warehouse.
On the weekend before the 1900 presidential election each employee received a flyer in their pay envelope. It was to remind them to vote for the incumbent Republican president William McKinley. If they voted for his opponent William Jennings Bryan it would lead to shorter hours and possibly no jobs. It really should not have been a big concern. Ohio had voted Republican for the past 50 years and would again for the next 8 years.
A 1901 report by the Ohio Department of Inspection of Workshops and Factories showed that 60 % of the 759 workers now in the factory were females. The breakdown was;
Girls 13-16 18
Girls 16-18 113
Girls 18 and over 329
Boys 13-15 4
Boys 15-18 33
Boys 18 and over 262
It was also reported the average work day was 10 to 12 hours.
On June 2, 1908 a fire broke out at 2:30 in the afternoon across the street from the factory. The building belonged to the Cincinnati Oil Works and was a storage and distribution facility for them. The fire spread quickly and soon burning oil and naptha were flowing onto Eggleston Street. Russell and Morgan factory workers then drug their fire hoses to the windows and helped spray the burning building across the street. As the sun was blotted out by the smoke firemen fought a river of burning oils. There were also railroad tank cars full of flammable oils on fire. Several exploded.
The battle to stop the fire lasted until the next morning. No deaths or serious injuries were reported. But, a fireman that had just received his pay, in cash, had gone to the fire with it in his vest pocket. Shedding his vest during the fire, he later found it lying on some fire equipment. Checking his vest pocket, he discovered someone had stolen his $43 ($1,400).
The Russell and Morgan building was saved and later that year it was sold to the Whitaker Paper Company.
This factory, and their Lock Street location, are now gone. The former location (outlined in black) is now underneath Interstate 471 near the interchange with Interstate 71.