Industrial - Estate Stove Co. (2024)

Lazard Kahn's name has faded from prominence in Hamilton, but his influence on the community continues. With his brothers, he brought the Estate Stove Company to the city and, during the 61 years the family operated the plant, employed thousands of local people. He helped convince other industrialists to locate here and shared his knowledge, leadership and wealth with local organizations and causes.

He was born Nov. 22, 1850, in Ingveiler, in the Alsace region of France. He was one of 18 children of David and Gertrude Caroline (Meis) Kahn.

At age 15, his father gave him 40 francs and sent him to the United States. The young Frenchman -- with limited command of the English language -- found menial work in several places, including Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Marshall, Ill., Nashville, Tenn., and Selma, Ala.

In the two southern cities, he was introduced to the stove business. In 1869, about three years after he had arrived in the U. S., a senior owner of a stove store retired. Kahn acquired his interest and assumed management of the firm.

One of the store's suppliers was Martin, Henderson & Co., a stove manufacturer at Hanging Rock, Ohio, near Ironton. In 1873, the proprietors invited Lazard Kahn and a brother, Felix -- who had recently arrived from France via Brazil -- to become partners and direct the business. In 1882 the brothers purchased the remainder of the firm and began considering relocation.

They reorganized the business as F. & L. Kahn & Bros. Saul (or Sol) Kahn, another brother, moved from California to Ohio to become a partner. He died about five years later and was succeeded by a fourth brother, Samuel, who had been a shoe salesman in Cincinnati.

In 1884 the Kahns closed the Hanging Rock plant, reestablished their stove works in Hamilton and opened a sales office in Cincinnati. The factory site was on the west side of East Avenue in South Hamilton, adjoining the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad.

Lazard Kahn had visited Hamilton as a salesman. According to his obituary, Kahn was "warmly greeted" by Jacob Matthias, operator of a stove store on Main Street. That favorable impression was a factor in his decision to move the business to the city.

In 1890, Kahn joined other civic leaders in forming the Hamilton Improvement Syndicate (HIS) to promote industrial growth. The group bought about 300 acres east of the Miami-Erie Canal (now Erie Highway, Ohio 4) and adjacent to the city's eastern and southern corporation line. HIS completed streets and bridges and built houses in the area as they sought other industries to locate in East Hamilton.

Among the firms taking advantage of the development were the Mosler Safe and Lock Company, the Fred J. Myers Manufacturing Company, the Hamilton Foundry and Machine Company, and the Albert Bess Company. Kahn was a key figure in securing the new jobs and businesses for Hamilton.

Kahn's leadership skills caught the attention of the Democratic Party, but he declined its invitation to become a congressional candidate in 1894.

One his outstanding contributions was service on the board of sewer commissioners when Hamilton developed a sewer system. He was instrumental in the development of Lindenwald and the street railway system. Kahn also was a founder of the Chamber of Commerce in Hamilton.

As a director of the Inland Waterways Association, he urged creation of a Miami and Erie Barge Canal along the Great Miami River and the route of the Miami-Erie Canal. The barge canal, a project that never materialized, would have placed Hamilton and Middletown industry on an inland waterway system that included Lake Erie and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

There will be more on Lazard Kahn's contributions to Hamilton in a future column.

Three annual Ohio River floods, the last and worst in 1884, convinced Lazard Kahn and Felix Kahn they should move their foundry and stove works from Hanging Rock, Ohio, to higher ground. Three Hamilton businessmen -- William Beckett, Alexander Gordon and John P. Cornell -- are credited with persuading the Kahn brothers to relocate in Hamilton.

The Estate Stove Company -- which traced its origin to 1842 -- operated in Hamilton for 77 years, including 60 years under Kahn ownership and management.

The afternoon of Feb. 23, 1885, as 60 molders cheered, the first heat was poured in the new Kahn foundry, which was part of a four-acre complex that included a five-story factory on the west side of the 1300 block of East Avenue. On a tract that had been a cornfield a year earlier, the factory produced cast-iron stoves fueled by wood or coal.

The Hanging Rock company had been acquired Feb. 21, 1881, by the French-born Kahn brothers, Lazard and Felix. It was known as F. & L. Kahn and Brothers until incorporated Dec. 31, 1905, as the Estate Stove Company. The Estate name had originated with previous owners in Hanging Rock, near Ironton.

Felix Kahn handled financial matters while Lazard Kahn headed manufacturing and sales. Lazard -- an able salesman who spoke six languages, English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Italian -- was largely responsible for building a worldwide market for Estate products.

Other Kahn brothers involved in the business were Saul (or Sol), who died in 1887, and Samuel, who served until his death in 1929. Felix died in 1924 and Lazard in 1928.

Their sons were directing Estate when the firm was sold in 1945. They were David and Albert, sons of Felix, and Bertrand and Lucian, sons of Lazard. Myron Kahn, Samuel's only son, was part of the management team until his death in 1937.

In addition, both generations of Kahns provided leadership and philanthropy to numerous local organizations and causes, ranging from the chamber of commerce and economic development efforts to the Red Cross, Community Chest (now United Way), YMCA, Mercy Hospital and scouting and veterans groups.

Kahn products included coal, wood, gas and electric Estate stoves and coal, oil and electric Heatrola heaters for domestic and commercial customers. Gas ranges were first made in 1888, and in 1921 the company introduced Heatrola heating appliances.

The Kahns ordered at least nine expansions of their Hamilton facilities in 40 years between 1889 and 1929, enlarging the layout from four to 12 acres. An advertising office opened in 1910, and 11 years later Estate began advertising on a national scale.

Estate local employment was reported as 200 people in 1890; more than 400 in 1900; up to 500 a year later; and in excess of 800 in 1960. There were no strikes in the union plant in 60 years of Kahn family ownership.

"The Kahn stoves have played a colorful as well as an important role in American history," said the Journal-News in 1945, in noting that its output was more than stoves and heaters for homes. "A caboose stove, designed by Lazard Kahn in the '90s, was used by over 60 United States railroads in cabooses and country stations, and is still in production today. During the great Klondike [gold] rush, the Kahns produced still another famous stove, the Happy Rover, thousands of which were shipped to Alaska for use by the miners."

There will be more on the Estate Stove Company in future columns.

# # #

666. Jan. 17, 2001 --

Estate also produced for military needs:

Journal-News , Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2001

Estate Stove Co. also produced for United States military needs

(This is the fourth in a five-part series on the Kahn family and the Estate Stove Co.)

By Jim Blount

The Estate Stove Company -- part of the Hamilton industrial scene for 77 years -- was known for manufacturing coal, wood, gas and electric stoves and heaters for domestic and commercial customers.

From the Spanish-American War of 1898 through two world wars and the Korean War, the Estate factory on East Avenue also produced specially-designed stoves and heaters for American armed forces.

In 1898 -- 13 years after the company moved to Hamilton -- Estate received an order for 500 portable stoves for the U. S. Army as it prepared to fight Spain in Cuba and the Philippines.

"The stove is one of the inventions of Lazard Kahn," a newspaper reported. "It is a steel cooking range and is made to bear the rough handling which it will of necessity get in the army. The stoves are lighter than the ordinary range and quite different in appearance."

The Hamilton plant was "running day and night to fill the order," the report said. When finished, the stoves were "sent in boxes with full outfits of pots and pans and other cooking utensils."

In later wars, military secrecy discouraged publicity including such details.

During World War II, a large lighted billboard on the east side of East Avenue featured an honor roll of Estate employees in the armed services and a slogan that the company is "now featuring products designed to make it hot for Hirohito and to cook Hitler's goose." Production for civilian markets had halted in 1942.

When the war ended, it was reported that Estate's varied military production ranged from shell and cartridge containers and anti-tank mines to parts for tanks and airplanes.

A few months after the war ended -- as stove and heater production returned to normal -- the era of Kahn family ownership concluded.

Dec. 28, 1945, Estate was purchased by the Noma Electric Corporation. Noma was identified then as the "world's largest producer of Christmas tree lights and novelty lighting effects and leading toy producer."

At the time of the sale, Estate company officers included David, Bertrand, Albert and Lucian Kahn, sons of the brothers who founded Estate (Felix, Lazard and Samuel Kahn).

Another change came Sept. 22, 1952, when the company was sold to RCA. Then July 18, 1955, the RCA Estate Appliance Corporation of Hamilton was merged with Seeger Refrigeration Company, St. Paul, Minn.; Sears Roebuck and Company and the Whirlpool Corporation, St. Joseph, Mich. The new firm was called the Whirlpool-Seeger Corporation.

Nearly six years later, Feb. 21, 1961, Whirlpool announced it would stop production at the Hamilton plant at 1301 East Avenue by the end of June. At the time of the closure announcement, 750 people were employed at Estate, down from the 804 working there a year earlier.

Estate hasn't been a part of Hamilton for almost 40 years, but the name survives. In 2000, the Whirlpool Corp. continues to market gas and electric ranges with the Estate name.

"The Estate brand name first appeared way back in 1842, when it began as a tiny foundry in Hanging Rock, Ohio," Whirlpool advertising explains. "From its humble beginnings making stoves and other products, that small company established a legacy of trust that still flourishes today." The ad also says that "when the Whirlpool Corporation acquired it in 1955, the Estate brand was the oldest continuously used brand in the appliance industry."

Seventy-seven years of Hamilton labor helped establish that Estate "legacy of trust."

Three annual Ohio River floods, the last and worst in 1884, convinced Lazard Kahn and Felix Kahn they should move their foundry and stove works from Hanging Rock, Ohio, to higher ground. Three Hamilton businessmen -- William Beckett, Alexander Gordon and John P. Cornell -- are credited with persuading the Kahn brothers to relocate in Hamilton.

The Estate Stove Company -- which traced its origin to 1842 -- operated in Hamilton for 77 years, including 60 years under Kahn ownership and management.

The afternoon of Feb. 23, 1885, as 60 molders cheered, the first heat was poured in the new Kahn foundry, which was part of a four-acre complex that included a five-story factory on the west side of the 1300 block of East Avenue. On a tract that had been a cornfield a year earlier, the factory produced cast-iron stoves fueled by wood or coal.

The Hanging Rock company had been acquired Feb. 21, 1881, by the French-born Kahn brothers, Lazard and Felix. It was known as F. & L. Kahn and Brothers until incorporated Dec. 31, 1905, as the Estate Stove Company. The Estate name had originated with previous owners in Hanging Rock, near Ironton.

Felix Kahn handled financial matters while Lazard Kahn headed manufacturing and sales. Lazard -- an able salesman who spoke six languages, English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Italian -- was largely responsible for building a worldwide market for Estate products.

Other Kahn brothers involved in the business were Saul (or Sol), who died in 1887, and Samuel, who served until his death in 1929. Felix died in 1924 and Lazard in 1928.

Their sons were directing Estate when the firm was sold in 1945. They were David and Albert, sons of Felix, and Bertrand and Lucian, sons of Lazard. Myron Kahn, Samuel's only son, was part of the management team until his death in 1937.

In addition, both generations of Kahns provided leadership and philanthropy to numerous local organizations and causes, ranging from the chamber of commerce and economic development efforts to the Red Cross, Community Chest (now United Way), YMCA, Mercy Hospital and scouting and veterans groups.

Kahn products included coal, wood, gas and electric Estate stoves and coal, oil and electric Heatrola heaters for domestic and commercial customers. Gas ranges were first made in 1888, and in 1921 the company introduced Heatrola heating appliances.

The Kahns ordered at least nine expansions of their Hamilton facilities in 40 years between 1889 and 1929, enlarging the layout from four to 12 acres. An advertising office opened in 1910, and 11 years later Estate began advertising on a national scale.

Estate local employment was reported as 200 people in 1890; more than 400 in 1900; up to 500 a year later; and in excess of 800 in 1960. There were no strikes in the union plant in 60 years of Kahn family ownership.

"The Kahn stoves have played a colorful as well as an important role in American history," said the Journal-News in 1945, in noting that its output was more than stoves and heaters for homes. "A caboose stove, designed by Lazard Kahn in the '90s, was used by over 60 United States railroads in cabooses and country stations, and is still in production today. During the great Klondike [gold] rush, the Kahns produced still another famous stove, the Happy Rover, thousands of which were shipped to Alaska for use by the miners."

There will be more on the Estate Stove Company in future columns.

# # #

666. Jan. 17, 2001 --

Estate also produced for military needs:

Journal-News , Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2001

Estate Stove Co. also produced for United States military needs

(This is the fourth in a five-part series on the Kahn family and the Estate Stove Co.)

By Jim Blount

The Estate Stove Company -- part of the Hamilton industrial scene for 77 years -- was known for manufacturing coal, wood, gas and electric stoves and heaters for domestic and commercial customers.

From the Spanish-American War of 1898 through two world wars and the Korean War, the Estate factory on East Avenue also produced specially-designed stoves and heaters for American armed forces.

In 1898 -- 13 years after the company moved to Hamilton -- Estate received an order for 500 portable stoves for the U. S. Army as it prepared to fight Spain in Cuba and the Philippines.

"The stove is one of the inventions of Lazard Kahn," a newspaper reported. "It is a steel cooking range and is made to bear the rough handling which it will of necessity get in the army. The stoves are lighter than the ordinary range and quite different in appearance."

The Hamilton plant was "running day and night to fill the order," the report said. When finished, the stoves were "sent in boxes with full outfits of pots and pans and other cooking utensils."

In later wars, military secrecy discouraged publicity including such details.

During World War II, a large lighted billboard on the east side of East Avenue featured an honor roll of Estate employees in the armed services and a slogan that the company is "now featuring products designed to make it hot for Hirohito and to cook Hitler's goose." Production for civilian markets had halted in 1942.

When the war ended, it was reported that Estate's varied military production ranged from shell and cartridge containers and anti-tank mines to parts for tanks and airplanes.

A few months after the war ended -- as stove and heater production returned to normal -- the era of Kahn family ownership concluded.

Dec. 28, 1945, Estate was purchased by the Noma Electric Corporation. Noma was identified then as the "world's largest producer of Christmas tree lights and novelty lighting effects and leading toy producer."

At the time of the sale, Estate company officers included David, Bertrand, Albert and Lucian Kahn, sons of the brothers who founded Estate (Felix, Lazard and Samuel Kahn).

Another change came Sept. 22, 1952, when the company was sold to RCA. Then July 18, 1955, the RCA Estate Appliance Corporation of Hamilton was merged with Seeger Refrigeration Company, St. Paul, Minn.; Sears Roebuck and Company and the Whirlpool Corporation, St. Joseph, Mich. The new firm was called the Whirlpool-Seeger Corporation.

Nearly six years later, Feb. 21, 1961, Whirlpool announced it would stop production at the Hamilton plant at 1301 East Avenue by the end of June. At the time of the closure announcement, 750 people were employed at Estate, down from the 804 working there a year earlier.

Estate hasn't been a part of Hamilton for almost 40 years, but the name survives. In 2000, the Whirlpool Corp. continues to market gas and electric ranges with the Estate name.

"The Estate brand name first appeared way back in 1842, when it began as a tiny foundry in Hanging Rock, Ohio," Whirlpool advertising explains. "From its humble beginnings making stoves and other products, that small company established a legacy of trust that still flourishes today." The ad also says that "when the Whirlpool Corporation acquired it in 1955, the Estate brand was the oldest continuously used brand in the appliance industry."

Seventy-seven years of Hamilton labor helped establish that Estate "legacy of trust."

663. Dec. 27, 2000 --

Kahn legacy evident in community:

Journal-News, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2000
Kahn legacy evident in community

(This is the second in a five-part series on the Kahn family and the Estate Stove Co.)

By Jim Blount

When Lazard Kahn and his brothers began moving their stove-making business to Hamilton in 1884, their first challenge was finding skilled workers for an operation that soon would employ 200 people. The company -- known later as the Estate Stove Company -- had left Hanging Rock, Ohio, for a new factory on East Avenue in Hamilton.

"Owing to the scarcity of skilled labor," a contemporary source said, the Kahn brothers decided to train "unskilled men and boys" residing in Hamilton. "By the employment of special teachers" the company "succeeded in a comparatively short time in making first-class mechanics out of this raw material. This was the foundation to which may be ascribed the high character of their present employees," said the 1894 account.

Later it was noted that Kahn won popularity with his workers as he made almost daily trips through the Hamilton plant, greeting employees by their first names and asking caring, intelligent questions about their families.

Lazard Kahn -- who was joined in the business by three brothers, Felix, Saul and Samuel -- married Coralie Alice Lemann of Donaldsonville, La., May 17, 1881, about three years before moving to Hamilton. They were the parents of five children -- a daughter, Mrs. Marie Kahn Heyn, and four sons, Milton, Bertram, Lucian and Jerome, who were involved in the business.

The French native, who arrived in the U. S. in 1866, directed the production of cooking and heating devices under the Estate and Heatrola brand names in Hamilton for 44 years. He died Wednesday, March 7, 1928, at age 77, at his residence in Avondale in Cincinnati.

"Our city has lost one of its most distinguished and brilliant citizens," declared a Journal editorial. "The success that he achieved came not by chance, but by hard work, by devotion to the principle of honesty and by an integrity of character that knew no bending. While he worked, he also read and thought and became a man of most unusual scholarly attainments. He thought straight, wrote well and was an orator of no mean ability."

Those admirable traits weren't reserved for his business pursuits. Kahn was generous with his time, talent and money in the community.

After his death, his sons founded the Lazard Kahn Foundation, which supported a variety of local civic and charitable organizations and causes, including the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, United Way and "Operation Pumpkin," a Halloween program for Hamilton children.

Fifteen years after his death, in the midst of World War II, the Lazard L. Kahn Memorial Community House was established in his honor.

The property at 319 North Third Street was purchased April 23, 1943, by Bertrand B. Kahn, vice president of the Estate Stove Company. Kahn said the house, a memorial to his late father, would be controlled by a three-member board -- Cyrus J. Fitton, Walter S. Rowe and Lucian L. Kahn, a brother of Bertrand and a also son of Lazard Kahn. It was to be used by the Hamilton Chapter, American Red Cross, for the duration of World War II, then later by other community organizations.

From 1885 until 1897, Lazard Kahn and his family had resided in the house immediately north -- at 323 North Third Street. His sons also presented that property for community use in 1943 and it has housed the offices of Butler County United Way and its predecessor organizations.

The Kahn Community House at 319 North Third had been built in 1863 by Clark Lane, who a few years later donated his private library to the city, the basis for the Lane Public Library system.

In December 1951, seven men formed the Hamilton Community Foundation, a non-profit corporation to receive and distribute charitable funds for the health, education and welfare of the people of Hamilton. During its formative years, the foundation shared the offices at 323 North Third with United Way.

For more than 20 of its nearly 50 years, the Hamilton Community Foundation has performed its mission from offices in the former Kahn Community House, better known in recent decades as the Lane-Hooven House. The Lazard Kahn Fund continues and is one of the dozens of permanent funds administered by the foundation.