‘Big Eight’ factories past manufacturing hub of Aurora

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Aurora used to be a major manufacturing hub of factories with sales items not only to the Nation, but to the world. The major employer was, of course, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which operated its famous round house repair shops on North Broadway Street in Aurora. But for total employee numbers, the combined factories overwhelmed the Railroad.

The “Big Eight” factories were, in alphabetical order: All-Steel (office furniture): Austin-Western (formerly Western Wheeled Scrapers – road-clearing machinery); Barber-Greene (road-construction machinery); the johnny-come-lately Caterpillar (land-clearing machinery); Equipto (space-utilization products); Lyon Metal (assorted steel products); Richards-Wilcox (office storage and filing systems); and Stephens-Adamson (conveyor systems).

• All-Steel (on Griffith Avenue off of South Highland Avenue) was founded in 1912 as All-Steel Equipment Company. In 1966, it was acquired by C.I.T. Finance (a holding conglomerate) and merged with the B.K. Johl Company in Canada. It was subsequently passed through several hands and was re-named simply as “All-Steel Company” in 1986. It was re-merged with HON Industries in1998 at which time the operation was moved out of Aurora. The property has become an industrial park, and Griffith Avenue no longer exists.

• Austin-Western Company, on North Farnsworth Avenue at Dearborn Avenue, started as C.H. Smith and Company in 1877 in Mount Prospect. Ill.. In 1891, the Company followed the CB&Q to Aurora and took on the name “Western Wheeled Scrapers Company.” It merged with Austin Manufacturing in 1934 and became Austin-Western Road Machinery Company. Clark Equipment Company bought A-W in 1973, closed the plant in 1977, and moved the operation to Texas the following year. The property was bought by the Indian Creek Development Company and now houses a collection of small enterprises.

Continued in December 29 edition

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