ALEXANDRIA'S HEMP AND LEATHER

If you think about it, a harness maker combines several technologies and skills to produce a harness. First, you need to be able to work leather and rope. In Alexandria, there was an abundance. In early days, the harness maker also made shoes. Then, you need hardware - buckles, clasps, rivets, and bits, not to mention the tools to work the leather. Alexandria had blacksmiths and coopers. You need the be able to sew leather together and probably had some glue available as well. Finally, you need to understand the mechanics of a harness to make it comfortable to the horse; you need to understand horses. Harness making is not something you just decide to do one day. Because we often find harness makers associated with rope makers or cobblers, it is difficult to tell what they actually did.

One of the first mentions of rope making in Alexandria is a rope factory built by Alexander Devilbiss in the back of Lot 20. Very early on, a rope bridge over the Raccoon Creek was made along what today is Tharp Road. This rope bridge was in existence in the early 1900s and is mentioned in The Buxton Journal. Then it was known as the South Road.

Another 1800s Alexandria farm and business family was the Boudinots. In 1866, Elisha Boudinot owned the farm northeast of Alexandria and by 1875, extended to the highland along the east side of Mounts Road. Elisha also owned properties in Alexandria. These include the lot where the firehouse currently stands, although in 1866, there was a house there. He also owned the lot across the street. On this lot, there was a house on the west side of the lot and a harness shop on the east half. Elisha also owned a large house on the east side of North Liberty across from the current township garage.

Elisha Boudinot got his start growing hemp. With so much farmland devoted to staple crops - often with so much excess of grains that it was converted to whisky and rye - Boudinot could afford to grow hemp and buy flour. Boudinot would dry the hemp and work it into fiber with which to weave rope. It is not clear if this led Boudinot into the leather business or if he stuck to rope, but we do know Boudinot & Oldham's offered custom shoes.

Then we have the record of L.S. Chadwick, the hardware merchant, who recalls "Mr. Blizzard and John Reid" as harness makers some time earlier.

The Blizzard family immigrated to Licking County from Pittsburgh sometime in the early 1800s. The 1840 Federal Census of St. Albans Township lists M. (Mervin) E. Blizzard, a single male between 20 and 29. By 1850, M. E. Blizzard, had married, moved to Monroe Township, and is raising a family. By this time, he had married Louise Reed. The couple would go on to have six children, none of whom remained in Alexandria. His occupation is "Saddler" as was his partner, John. By 1870, M.E. Blizzard lived in Wauseon, county seat of Fulton County just a few miles south of Michigan, where he is a harness maker. John Reid (also spelled as Reed and Read) was married to Mary M. ________. In 1850, John and Mary had no children. By 1880, John and Mary had a 20-year-old son named Johnnie who worked as a store clerk. John was listed as a farmer.

By this time, Watson Davison was the wagonmaker and seemed to take over for Mr. Marandville who lived more or less across the street at 57 West Main. Through Alexandria family relationships far too lengthy for your patience, we come to Zola Rugg, who married into the Davison family. Zola was the daughter of Elijah 'Lige' Rugg. Lige was the older brother of Ephraim Rugg. We are more familiar with Ephraim by his company's name E.T. Rugg & Co. This company made harnesses in Alexandria.

The Newark Advocate tells us that Ephraim T. Rugg went into business sometime around 1880 when Ephraim was about 25 years old at the time. Some sources indicate that harness-making requires a four-year apprenticeship. This would have been the same time his kinsman, Watson Davison, opened his wagon-making shop. The locally produced monthly, Hearth and Home, has an 1881 advertisement for E.T. Rugg & Co., a grocery, clothing, and dry goods store downtown that also offered custom made shoes.

In 1900, The Johnstown Independent reported two bits of Alexandria news,

It has been announced that the E. T. Rugg & Co. Halter Factory will be removed to Newark. - May 24, 1900

The members of the firm that have organized the new halter factory in the village to take the place of the Rugg factory, met Monday evening and elected the following officers: Pres. L. C. Laycock, Treas. J. T. Reese, Sec. C. H. Thorpe. Land was also purchased from M. D. Shrader for building purposes. - July 12, 1900

Rugg may have had the raw materials he needed to make harnesses, but the reason he moved, as reported in The Newark Advocate, was he needed access to the railroad. Alexandria was a stop on the Toledo & Ohio Central (T&OC) RR, but it wasn't enough. Rugg's Newark factory sat right beside the Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road right-of-way that paralled Mt. Vernon Avenue (State Route 13) north out of town. This location gave Rugg the ability to have a siding and load up railroad cars full of harnesses. Given the terrain, such a location in Alexandria would have been nearly impossible. What isn't stated is that Rugg had a larger labor pool on which to draw given his location in industrialized northwest Newark.

According to The Newark Advocate, by 1911, E.T. Rugg & Co. was considered to be the nation's largest halter maker. With the popularity of the automobile, and new leadership provided by Ephraim's nephew Howard Rugg, the Rugg company diversified into plumbing supplies and eventually lawnmowers. On the eve of World War II, lawnmowers were Rugg's leading line. However, lawnmowers were not a wartime priority and the Rugg Company changed production to land mines. Following the war, Rugg returned to the lawnmower business; his mowers were sold through several outlets including J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, and Western Auto. In March 1970, the Rugg Company ceased production and closed the factory. A Rugg built lawnmower is on display at The Works in Newark.

Rugg's factory was located south of Sisal Street off Mt. Vernon Avenue. On the other side of Mt. Vernon Avenue is a brick side street, Rugg Avenue, that is lined with 100-year-old houses. Ephraim and Emma lived out their days in this prominent north Newark neighborhood. As for the company to replace Rugg's factory in 1900, these Alexandria businessmen must have seen a need to replace the Rugg factory. In a fit of irony, in the April 1915 edition of Harness: For Harness, Trunk, and Leather Goods Makers and Dealers, an advertisement appears on page 32 for the E.T. Rugg & Company's "Hold Fast" Halter. Below this advertisement is another for the Alexandria Halter Manufacturing Company. The company even had a catalog,

The Alexandria Halter Mfg. Company. of Alexandria, Ohio: Illustrated descriptive catalog of Five-Ring Leather Halters, Bridles, Rope, and Web Halters, Cow Ties, &c. The company state [sic] that it is their aim to keep their standard of quality well to the front, as their experience has been that the better class of goods are more satisfactory to all concerned.

- The Iron Age, Volume 71, January 1, 1903

It is not known exactly when the Alexandria Halter Manufacturing Company went out of business. We do know the first car in Alexandria appeared in 1907. By then, steam engines were already at work threshing on Reese's farm. The horse and buggy days were rapidly ending, and far fewer harnesses would be needed.