ACPA - Cemetery Ironwork - Part 6 - Understanding Ironwork

Untitled Document

Preservation Planning

Theft & Vandalism

ACPA County Representatives

ACPA Partners

News & Events

ACPA Membership

ACPA Store &
Fund Raisers

Resourse &
Courtesy Links

Cemetery Ironwork - Part 6

Understanding Ironwork (cont.)

Fence companies can often be identified by the shields they placed on their gates. The example to the right is a shield for the American Fence and Iron Works Co., Cincinnati, Ohio -- a company for which we have no information at the present time. In some cases they can be identified by distinct styles. And in other cases, some fence component is marked with a catalog number that can be traced to a specific company In the example below there is the number "114" at the base of the left gate post. Recording as much detail as possible about the fence can sometimes help you determine when the fencing was added and can even help you better understand trade patterns for the local community.

Champion Iron Fence Company -- Incorporated as Champion Fence Company in 1876 by William L. Walker, James Young, William H. Young, B.G. Devoe, and Henry Price with a factory on Franklin Street in Kenton, Ohio. The works moved briefly to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1877, returning to Kenton in 1878. In 1878 it was incorporated as Champion Iron Fence Company. Date of dissolution not know, but is post 1884. (History of Hardin County, Ohio). Chicora Resources: copies of 1884 Illustrated Supplement Catalog; ca. 188_ Miniature Catalog No. 12.

C. Hanika & Sons -- It appears that the company may have begun in Celina, Ohio in the late nineteenth century. It continued to operate through the early twentieth century, but was no longer in Celina by 1907. An ad from that date, however, places the firm, still doing business as C. Hanika & Sons Co., in Muncie, Indiana. It perhaps merged with other Hanika family associated with the Muncie Architectural Iron Works, but appears under the name Ca. Hanika & Sons by 1907. The firm either no longer existed by 1911 or had merged with the Muncie Ornamental Iron Works (Celina Ohio Business Directory; Mercer County, Ohio History; Emerson's Muncie Directory). Chicora resources include only a 1907 advertisement for the firm in Muncie, Indiana.

Cincinnati Iron Fence Company -- No corporate history is available, but appears to have produced fences from the late nineteenth through early twentieth centuries. Chicora resources include photocopied portions of three catalogs, Catalogue No. 10, Price List from Catalogue No. 85, and Catalogue 19r.

Republic Fence & Gate Company -- No corporate history is currently available, but this company was a major producer of woven wire fences from its North Chicago, Illinois factory. While such "ornamental" wire fences were less expensive, they also are often heavily damaged, both by corrosion and also by lawn mowers. Fences for cemetery lots were provided (with the company remarking in one catalog, "on account of the advertising derived, we make special prices to Cemeteries, Churches and Public Institutions") as well as trellis-fabric and "lawn border fabric" that is sometimes found enclosing single graves, especially in African American cemeteries. Chicora resources include one catalog, Republic Ornamental Fence and Gates, Catalog No. 3 (n.d.).

(Part 7 - continued on following page)

Chicora Foundation, Inc., PO Box 8664, Columbia, SC, USA, 29202, 803-787-6910

Untitled Document