From the time workers dug the seven-mile canal from the Mecan River to the Fox River in Princeton by pick and shovel in the 1850s, progressive businessmen led the effort to attract industry to “Bean Town.”
The channel’s waterpower would help attract a grist/flour mill, foundry, tannery, and furniture, milk stop factory, tub, and shirt and overall factories to the industrial west side in the 19th century. Princeton’s first electric plant also tapped into the waterpower.
But the city also missed out on several potential factories whose owners could not entice investors in conservative Princeton or encountered resistance from city officials.
Early in 1960, the Princeton Development Association learned that the Westfield Crate and Pallet Company was looking to relocate. The firm, which had been operating out of a former theater, told Westfield officials it needed more space to expand.
Because the project would involve a significant financial investment, the Princeton Area Industrial Corporation took the lead and in June purchased 15 acres on the west side of County Road D north of the railroad track from the Handcraft Company Inc.
The rail access was considered essential for the future of any industry.
The property at 500 River Road in 2024 is home to Tank Technology Inc.
Princeton Times-Republic, May 19, 1960 – “Steps were taken on Tuesday which may eventually lead to the location of a woodworking factory for Princeton. The Princeton Industrial Corporation has contracted to erect a factory on a suitable location on the outskirts of the city, at an estimated cost of $60,000. The factory will employ 20 men at its inception and will have a potential for the employment of 50. In order to erect the factory, it will require the support of all interested persons in the city. Title to the property, it is proposed, will rest in the name of the corporation, and the investments made will be secured by a mortgage on the plant. The entire loan will be liquidated over a period of 20 years, and the loans will bear interest at a rate of 5 percent per annum. City leaders believe this to be one of the finest opportunities ever offered in Princeton to obtain a factory. It behooves every citizen to register his support by subscribing for the building fund as soon as possible. It is estimated that the factory will be completed within sixty days after the details have been worked out between the company and the industrial corporation.
Funds were solicited by Development Association and Industrial Corporation members to pay for the property and to build an 80-by-160-foot factory. Excavation began in August.
“This marks the beginning of an industrial expansion for the City of Princeton,” the Times-Republic opined. “With the knowledge gained in the handling of this initial project, it is hoped that further expansion will be in store for the community.”
Carrier & Container
Princeton Times-Republic, Sept. 22, 1960 – “Princeton’s new factory, formerly the Westfield Crate and Pallet Company, expects to begin operation within the next few weeks and is asking for employees from this area. … The railroad siding for the factory is now being constructed and the steel will be erected this week. The firm makes pallets for all types of industries (unfinished wood pallets) and also crates for appliances and other equipment.”
The factory began operations in the industrial corporation’s new building in October under the name of Carrier & Container Corporation. Several new employees were trained in Westfield before the operation moved to Princeton. Local residents called it “the box factory.”
The company shipped its first truckload of 450 pallets from the Princeton factory to Briggs & Stratton in Milwaukee in November 1960.
After Carrier & Container Corp. went bankrupt in September 1963, the Princeton Area Industrial Corporation leased the building to the Producers Container Company, a division of Green Giant Canning Company, in November 1964. Green Giant used the building for storage.
Oshkosh Heater Company
City officials’ efforts to recruit a tenant for the 10,000-square-foot building eventually led to the Oshkosh Heater Company, which manufactured water-heating equipment under the nationally known Diamond trademark in a three-story building on Ceape Street in Oshkosh. Local residents could buy Diamond Water Heaters at the Princeton True Value Hardware store at 502 West Water Street.
The Oshkosh Heater Company in June 1966 signed a lease-purchase agreement with the Princeton Area Industrial Corporation to rent the former Carrier & Container property for three years and then purchase it. Hollister Martin, general manager, said the firm would move to Princeton in August and would employ about 12 people.
Detroit-based Wessels Tanks Inc. purchased Oshkosh Water Heater Company in 1975.
Wessels Tanks Inc.
“There has been much activity at the former Oshkosh Heater plant on River Road this past month,” the Times-Republic reported on August 7, 1975. “A new industry, Wessels Tanks Inc., is moving here.”
The Wessels Company of Detroit was founded in 1908. It manufactured concrete laundry tubs before it began fabricating steel tanks in 1923. Wessels Tanks Inc. was formed as a subsidiary of the Wessels Company, and manufactured glass-lined water and air tanks.
Owner Eugene “Mac” McDowell served as president and chairman of the board of both Wessels companies. McDowell reorganized the company as McDowell Tanks Inc. about 1979 and sold it to John C. Bock, who owned Bock Water Heaters in Madison, in November 1991. Bock renamed the Princeton company Tank Technology Inc.
Tank Technology
Tank Technology and Bock Water Heaters are subsidiaries of Universal Technologies of WI.
According to a history of the company prepared by Colleen Lunow for the city of Princeton’s 175th anniversary booklet in 2023, Bock passed away in March 2001 and left an option in his will for the employees to become owners or shareholders of both companies.
“On Sept. 11, 2001, the company ownership transferred from privately owned to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan,” Lunow noted. “This means the company is 100 percent owned by employees.”
In 2022 Tank Technology employed 45 owners, including three student youth apprentices.
According to the firm’s website, its 6- to 200-gallon storage tanks, typically porcelain coated, are used in water heaters, solar tanks, marine heaters, and boiler indirect coil tanks.
Improvements in the 21st century include a 7,500- square-foot addition erected in 2007 and a 32,500-square-foot addition completed in 2015. The factory in 2024 has about twice the operating size as in 1991 when Bock purchased the property.
Bock is considered a premium brand of water heater.
Please let me know if you spot any errors.
Thank you for reading and caring about local history.
Nice to see a company become employee owned.