Today's history lesson concerns the George L. Lamb Mfg. Co. of Nappanee, Indiana. The Lamb Co. is a very interesting company, which manufactured a line of “brushes, easels & novelties”. Originally Mr. Lamb was in business in Goshen, till there was a fire in his factory. While he was searching for a new building location, he connected with the Coppes Bros., and they convinced G. Lamb to resettle his mfg. business in Nappanee. At first, the Lamb business was set up in an unused furniture Co. building, (Evangel Press building), but later when the business needed more mfg. space, they moved to the South Jackson St. location. (where the mill is now located).
Mr. Lamb was an enterprising individual, and within one year of this move, he became a sales agent for gasoline engines. Later he was also an agent for automobiles.
In 1909, a new company was formed with G. Lamb, his brother, David Lamb, and son-in-law, H. B. Green, to form the Lamb & Green Manufacturing Co. which specialized in “art glass”. They produced an extensive line of “leaded glass” floor & table lamps, which are much sought after today. They built a new three-story brick building for this new company on S. Jackson St. in 1909.
Several Lamb & Green lamps can be seen in
our museum!
This George L. Lamb receipt is from Dec. 17
th, 1903, when they were still at the first location in Nappanee. The first thing you should notice is that the receipt is for almost a full year of transactions (Feb. 17, 1903, till Dec. 15
th). Why the company did not submit an earlier receipt is unknown. Several of the items are questionable, why for example would the C, Z & M Co. which was manufacturing hundreds of pieces of furniture need to purchase small amounts of “wood alcohol; naphtha; 1 qt. heavy shellac; or 3 pts. W. O. stain (white oak). Other interesting items on this receipt are the lines; “April 14 - 20 1/4 hrs. sawing - per hr. .35”; “April 28 – 28 ½ hrs. sawing - .35”; “June 20 – 3 ½ hrs. sawing”; “and Dec. 15 – 26 ½ hrs. work - @ .15”. Why would C, Z & M Co. hire the Lamb Company to do sawing which the first company surely had the capacity to do themselves?
This mystery would seem to go unsolved unless we studied the next receipt from the G. Lamb Co. Dated Dec. 1903 and Jan. 1904. It is apparent the G. Lamb company was constructing decorative woodwork for the interior of the Coppes Bros. new homes on East Market St. (see below).
If you have any additional information on these topics, we'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment below or email Bill at bill@coppescommons.com.
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Home of Samuel Coppes[/caption]
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Home of John Coppes, located on East Market Street[/caption]
