McGraw-Edison

McGraw Electric was founded by Max McGraw in Sioux City, Iowa in 1900, in the business of installing electricity in houses.

The founder was aged 17 at the time. The company quickly expanded into industrial and commercial buildings.{{sfn|Max McGraw Foundation}}

It made several acquisitions over the years, evolving into a manufacturer of electrical products.

In 1952 McGraw Electric and the Pennsylvania Transformer Company merged, keeping the name of McGraw Electric.{{sfn|Our History: Cooper Industries }}

Thomas A. Edison, Inc. was formed in 1910 as a reorganization of the Edison Manufacturing Co., which had its roots in the 19th century.

Edison began with the manufacture of phonographs and records, and later made radios and dictation machines.{{sfn|Thomas A. Edison hand signed ... 1936}}

Charles Edison became president of the company in 1927, and ran it until it was sold in 1957, when it merged with the McGraw Electric Company.{{sfn|Max McGraw Foundation}}

McGraw-Edison Co. was created in 1957 when the McGraw Electric Company acquired Thomas A. Edison, Inc.{{sfn|Our History: Cooper Industries }}

Charles Edison became board chairman of the merged company until he retired in 1961.

Max McGraw was chief operating executive.{{sfn|Max McGraw Foundation}}

In March 1957, McGraw-Edison acquired Griswold Manufacturing. Griswold manufactured cast-iron cookware and some electrical items.

Later that year, the Griswold brand and housewares division were sold to the Wagner Manufacturing Company of Sidney, Ohio.{{sfn|Griswold History}}

In 1959, Al Bersted became president of McGraw-Edison with responsibility for overseeing day-to-day operations.

Max McGraw continued as chairman of the executive committee.{{sfn|Max McGraw Foundation}}

McGraw-Edison took over the power-tool businesses of General Electric in 1969 and of G.W. Murphy Industries in 1972.{{sfn|McGraw-Edison Co.: VintageMachinery}}

In September 1979, McGraw-Edison purchased Studebaker-Worthington, a company formed from a merger of Studebaker and the Worthington Corporation.{{sfn|Studebaker History Timeline}}

The automaker Studebaker had been founded in 1852 as a blacksmithing and wagon-building company by Clement Studebaker and his brother Henry.{{sfn|Erskine|1918|p=15}}

Meanwhile, Worthington had been founded by Henry Rossiter Worthington, the inventor of the direct-acting steam pump.{{sfn|Max McGraw Foundation}}

The two companies had merged with Wagner Electric in 1967 to form Studebaker-Worthington.{{sfn|Churella|1998|p=144}}

The purchase of this agglomerated firm more than doubled the size of McGraw-Edison.{{sfn|Max McGraw Foundation}} Also, in 1979, McGraw-Edison sold its appliance division (which owns the Speed Queen brand) to Raytheon Company. This former appliance division is now part of Alliance Laundry Systems.

In June 1980, Bastian-Blessing, soon to merge with Nytronics, Inc., acquired McGraw-Edison's food service equipment division.{{sfn|Bastian-Blessing Co., Nytronics...}}

In September 1980, the company sold its power tool division to Shopsmith, Inc.{{sfn|McGraw-Edison Co.: VintageMachinery}}

McGraw-Edison manufactured equipment such as air conditioners, cooling fans, electric space heaters, air humidifiers, portable hair dryers, toasters and other household appliances at their {{convert|24|acre}} site in Calhoun County, Michigan between 1958 and 1980.

During its operations between 1970 and 1980, the company spread about {{convert|15000|gal}} of oil waste contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) to control dust on the site's dirt roads. In 1980, TCE contamination was found in nearby residential and municipal wells. The State of Michigan and McGraw-Edison Corporation registered a consent decree on June 11, 1984 for clean-up of the contaminated soil and groundwater.{{sfn|Region 5 Superfund: McGraw-Edison}}

McGraw-Edison was acquired by Cooper Industries of Texas in 1985. At the time of the take-over, McGraw-Edison had 21,000 employees working in 118 facilities in the United States and other countries.{{sfn|Max McGraw Foundation}} Cooper took over responsibility for the Calhoun County site clean-up, and as of 2004 the remedies were reported to be functioning well.{{sfn|Region 5 Superfund: McGraw-Edison}}

Citations

{{reflist |colwidth=30em}}

Sources

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal|ref={{harvid|Bastian-Blessing Co., Nytronics...}}

|title=Bastian-Blessing Co., Nytronics Complete Their Consolidation|journal=Wall Street Journal|date=25 November 1980|page=21}}

• {{cite book|last=Churella|first=Albert|title=From Steam to Diesel: Managerial Customs and Organizational Capabilities in the Twentieth-Century American Locomotive Industry

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wHGfrlQV4d0C&pg=PA144|access-date=2013-10-22

|date=1998-08-03|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2268-3}}

• {{cite book|last=Erskine|first=Albert Russel|title=History of the Studebaker Corporation|publisher=Poole Bros.

|url=https://archive.org/details/historystudebak00erskgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/historystudebak00erskgoog/page/n19 15]

|access-date=2013-10-22|year=1918}}

• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Griswold History}}|url=http://www.gcica.org/mfg-history/griswold_history.html|title=Griswold History|publisher=Griswold & Cast Iron Cookware Association|access-date=2013-10-21|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021171530/http://www.gcica.org/mfg-history/griswold_history.html|archive-date=2013-10-21}}
• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Max McGraw Foundation}}|url=http://www.maxmcgrawfoundation.org/gpage1.html|title=Max McGraw|publisher=Max McGraw Foundation|access-date=2013-10-21|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016202314/http://www.maxmcgrawfoundation.org/gpage1.html|archive-date=2014-10-16}}
• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|McGraw-Edison Co.: VintageMachinery}}|url=http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=1044

|title=McGraw-Edison Co. |work=VintageMachinery.org|access-date=2013-10-21}}

• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Our History: Cooper Industries }}|url=http://www.cooperindustries.com/content/public/en/power_systems/about_us/our_history.html|title=Our History|publisher=Cooper Industries|access-date=2013-10-21|archive-date=2018-10-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013211610/http://www.cooperindustries.com/content/public/en/power_systems/about_us/our_history.html|url-status=dead}}
• {{cite web |ref={{harvid|Region 5 Superfund: McGraw-Edison}}|url=http://www.epa.gov/R5Super/npl/michigan/MID005339676.html

|title=Region 5 Superfund: McGraw-Edison Corporation|publisher=U.S. Environmental Protection Agency|access-date=2013-10-21}}

• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Studebaker History Timeline}}|url=http://www.studebakerhistory.com/dnn/Timeline/tabid/65/Default.aspx|title=Studebaker History Timeline|work=StudebakerHistory.com|access-date=2013-10-21|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021181726/http://www.studebakerhistory.com/dnn/Timeline/tabid/65/Default.aspx|archive-date=2013-10-21}}
• {{cite web |ref={{harvid|Thomas A. Edison hand signed ... 1936}}

|title=Thomas A. Edison Industries hand signed Minutes of Operating Committee Meeting on October 26, 1936}}

{{refend}}

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Category:Defunct manufacturing companies of the United States

Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1957

Category:Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1985

Category:American companies established in 1957

Category:American companies disestablished in 1985

Category:1985 mergers and acquisitions

Category: Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange