The Harris Family Story.

Of the 54 lots platted in 1834, James and Warren Heaton owned 23 parcels including the lot at the intersection of South Main Street and West James Street( now Park Avenue).

From 1842-1865 the Harris House, located on this site, served as a hotel. It became the Harris family residence from 1865-1905. From 1905-1929, it was used for businesses. Finally, it was sold by the Harris heirs and was demolished on August 29, 1929 to make way for the Niles Trust Company Bank building.

This early picture, ca 1895, of South Main Street shows two very old landmarks. On the left corner is the old Ward residence built in the early 1840's. After the Wards moved to their new, more elaborate house on Brown Street, this house was turned into a hotel and used for this purpose for many years. It was torn down to make way for the Dollar Bank Building in 1918.

The house on the right was built in 1842 as a hotel. In 1865 it was purchased by the Harris family who occupied it until 1905. From then until 1920 it was used as a store & warehouse.

In 1920, the Harris heirs sold it to the Niles Trust Company. In 1930, the Niles Bank Building was built on the site. PO1.912

Construction of the Niles Trust Co. took place beginning in November 25, 1929. A partial record of the construction process was taken by P.T. Alfonsi, a photographer in Niles for many years. PO1.17

Harris Automatic Press Company. This is an architect’s rendering of suggested expansion of the Niles Plant, which never occurred.

The plant was sold in 1914 after a costly and prolonged strike which forced management to move operations to Cleveland. PO1.551

In 1976 the predecessor of Harris Automatic Press Co. of Niles, Ohio, Harris Intertype Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, donated the first automatic feeding press designed and built in 1896 by Charles and Alfred Harris to the Graphic Arts Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Most Nilesites have heard about Alfred and Charles Harris and their invention of the first offset printing press; but the story, as written by a family member, recently surfaced.

In 1931 A.F. Harris, son of Alfred F. Harris, then president of Harris Seybold-Potter Co. of Cleveland, wrote a story for Graphic Arts, a monthly magazine, which I’d like to quote:

“ Many people recently by reason of the fact that this is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the building of the first commercially successful offset printing press, have asked me to tell them the story of the discovery of the offset by my father, A.F. Harris, and his brother, Chas. G. Harris."
"In 1870 when father was eleven years old, his first job was in a shoe store in Niles, Ohio. Back of the shoe store was a work shop equipped with tools which exercised a strange fascination upon him . When four years later his brother Charles came into the store, the two boys began in earnest to experiment in making things in their spare time. They next worked for Thad Ackley, a jeweler in Warren, Ohio, who possessed an experimental turn of mind and encouraged their mechanical ingenuity”.

“Father then became a watch inspector for a railway company. During this time he worked with Charles on developing s twenty-four hour clock. Next they made a nail feeder. In 1889 they became Niles’ only jeweler, but the business was too small to take the full time of both of them. Consequently, they had ample opportunity for research and invention, The jewelry store had a back room, which they quickly converted into a work shop.”

“One day Charles Harris watched the installation of a new platen press in the shop of a local printer named Smith. Smith was very proud of his new press. Charles remarked that it was fed by hand, Smith, quick to defend his press, challenged Charles to perfect an automatic feeder.”

“Shortly after this, a wagon drove up before the jewelry store with a device that looked like a clothes wringer. When father saw this unloaded, he protested, saying that it was certainly not his."”

The driver, however, insisted on leaving it. Later Charles came into the shop, and rather sheepishly told of his talk with Smith some time before, and said that he had built an automatic feeder. The two brothers laughed heartily “at the joke on Smith”.”

“One day while Charles was out, father had an inspiration, and with a yardstick, a saw blade, and a rubber blanket, made a contrivance that completed the invention. Soon sheets were running through at 15,000 per hour.”

“Their first press was a wooden model. During the winter of 1890 they built an iron model in the machine shop of a friend, who was located close to the jewelry store. Whenever some part of the equipment in the machine shop was not busy, the brothers were permitted to use it. The two worked busily. In the summer of 1892 Charles, and later Father, went to see the printing exhibits at the World’s Fair in Chicago. Examination of the equipment there convinced them that they were far ahead of anything so far developed; so they decided to go into business.”

“Their first press of the new company, which was incorporated in 1895, proved a failure, and so they started all over again. In 1896 another machine was completed. When it was offered for sale, no one believed the story they told–the speed was so much greater than any press had ever been able to run. When they offered it to the next man, they made more modest claims with the result that they sold it.”

“Their first job was postcards. They ran 12,500 postcards in fifty minutes. An all-tine record up to then. Their second job was an envelope one, and this required four months in order to perfect the machine so that it would feed them. But, at last the difficulty was solved and the press accepted. Press then followed press, in quick succession.”

“One day while erecting one of their new automatic presses in a Cleveland plant, father heard a pressman become very indignant at one of his operators. The girl had neglected to trip the press when failing to feed a sheet. The result was an impression on the rubber blanket. The next sheet through was offset in reverse. Father and the pressman examined the sheet closely and were particularly interested in the sharp clear reproduction. Finally the pressman turned to him and said, 'If we could only print like that!' ”

“The result was that Father and his brother set to work to make it possible to print like that. First, they built a press with a plate cylinder, impression cylinder, and two offset cylinders.This press proved that offset printing was possible; but there were a good many things to learn about it. Experiment followed experiment until finally the first successful offset press was a reality. Each succeeding press has been an improvement.”

“During the twenty-five years since the installation of the first commercially successful offset press in Pittsburgh, the offset process has come to play an ever-increasing part in the graphic arts, The printers of America contributed immeasurable to putting the offset process over."
The late Clifton A. Bostwick, who at one time resided at 136 Salt Springs Road, Niles, worked for Harris Automatic as an erector and trouble shooter in 1912. At that time Harris Automatic Press Co. sold a press to Kline, Linderman and Bauer on New York City and Bostwick was sent to setup the new press before a designated deadline.

The press was shipped to Hoboken, New Jersey and ferried across to New York City on the day the longshoremen went on a one-day strike. The next day the longshoremen unloaded the press, but that day the riggers went on strike and another day of the delivery schedule was lost.
The press was finally delivered to a passenger elevator at Kline, Linderman and Bauer Co. on Pearl St., near Wall St., in New York City, where the elevator operator refused to transport it to the 17th floor destination.

After two days of coaxing, with a bribe to make things legal, the elevator operator relented and the delivery men and Bostwick proceeded to load the press on the elevator. To erect the press, they had to use a 12-foot long I-beam. The only way to get the I-beam to the 17th floor was to drop the elevator to the basement and then tie the I-beam to the elevator cable. Guess who rode on top of the elevator to steady the I-beam? Well it wasn't one of the delivery boys. It was Clifton Bostwick!

There were also several crates of press parts, but one crate in particular created a real problem. The crate was larger than the elevator but smaller than the elevator shaft. So, the delivery men ran wooden timbers across the elevator shaft. Then, after moving the elevator up ten feet, they rolled the crate onto the timbers; and, after dropping the elevator down, used large ropes to secure the crate to the bottom of the elevator. Then they took the crate up to the 17th floor.

The accomplishments of Charles and Alfred Harris and the inequity of Clifton Bostwick are excellent examples of Nilesites and their spirit Where there's a will, there's a way!”