Kewaunee County History: Ole Olafson Storle, and the Storle Valve Company

 

Storle Valve Company Building, postmarked 1911

It was an old postcard photo that prompted some curiosity about the Storle company in Kewaunee.

The company seems to have appeared in Kewaunee in early September 1907 when the Enterprise reported that William Karsten presented a petition signed by 250 Kewaunee taxpayers and citizens, including nearly every businessman, asking the city to donate a suitable site and building for a new industry for the manufacture of valves, hydrants, and “specialties.” Discussion was to be taken up at the regular Council meeting on September 5. On the following day, the Enterprise said Council was “inclined,” however did not act, feeling that more information was necessary.

William Karsten, the city attorney, and an alderman were appointed to investigate Storle’s proposal and to see about an option on land Kewaunee Iron Works had for sale. The property in question was between the Iron Works and adjacent to the Ziemer foundry. Zeimer was the alderman appointed to the investigating committee. The  lot in question was on the river and could support a 32 x 75’ building.

Storle’s high pressure valve was already being used in Kewaunee. It was the valve and the invention of a new motor that urged Kewaunee business to encourage manufacturing in the city. Engineers and other experts claimed Storle’s valve was the best invented while Joseph Bohman, president of Kewaunee Brewing Co., said that he used one of the valves for months, and it was the best the company ever had.

In November, the Record announced that contracts were let for the building of the newly incorporated O.O. Storle Valve Co. It went on to say articles of incorporation were filed with the Wisconsin’s Secretary of State, and $50,000 of capital stock was raised among Kewaunee businessmen.

A few months later, in January 1908, Storle’s son Norman arrived from Tacoma, Washington, to accept a position with his father. The forge used in manufacturing the tools necessary for the Storle valve arrived about the same time. Tools needed for valve manufacture were quite different from tools in other machine shops and Storle had to manufacture his own. When the first castings for the valve were received, there were two 2-inch valves and one 2 ½” valve.

Late 1909 saw Storle gone from Kewaunee for about a month in search of capital, which he found. Returning to Kewaunee, manufacturing resumed after the plant had been closed while Storle was looking for money. Although manufacturing began a year earlier and although the valve was the  best on market, it was necessary to raise additional funds to get the valve to market in large numbers.

Just six months later, an Enterprise headline told readership the city was losing an industry. Storle Valve Co. was moving to Green Bay. The paper reminded folks that the city erected a building for Storle two years earlier and sold about $2000 worth of stock, money mostly used for machinery. When it was necessary to raise more capital, the local market was tapped out, forcing Storle to look outside the area.

Rumor had it that Storle Valve Co. had never been in operation because of a lack of capital and had received an offer from Green Bay parties.  If it happened, Kewaunee would lose an industry which so far had not been beneficial to the town, however it would mean a great deal in operation. The Record didn’t know when the move would happen but did say a building was necessary before machinery could be transferred.

As it was, Green Bay valve manufacturer, William Hess, was most impressed with the Kewaunee valve and completed a deal for the company’s purchase. Hess had owned a steam boiler works in Manitowoc. In the deal, Storle retained half interest and held a salaried position, putting up his patents as his portion of the payments. Hess controlled the other half of the business which he financed.  Stockholders were paid in full with 7% interest so they made money on Storle’s brief period in Kewaunee.

In an article the Record reprinted from Manitowoc Daily News, it was said that William Hess moved to Green Bay and founded Storle Valve Co. there, intending to erect a big factory, but decided to go to Manitowoc where he conferred with officers and directors of the Manitowoc Citizen’s Association. Whatever happened, that group refused to divulge information, and the new site was chosen in Green Bay.

When the City of Green Bay donated 6 acres and buildings, the Enterprise felt the company was on track to become one of Green Bay’s largest industries. The Kewaunee factory site and building reverted to the city when the company left the city.

While that was happening, Sam Newman was in Kewaunee investigating the Storle Valve Co. with intentions of purchasing stock and getting the plant into operation. Though the valve was considered one of the best on the market, the plant was idle for 3 years because of lack of capital. Newmann owned the brass factory in Algoma and planned to supply brass castings when the plant went into commission.

When the Record announced Storle’s new gasoline engine in late in 1911, it said the new gasoline engine added a new chapter to motor power and would revolutionize it. The two piston rods – rather than one – will do twice the work with less gas at little expense, said the Record. It also reported Storle assigned his valve patent to Green Bay parties before working on the two-piston engine in the Kewaunee Iron Works shop. According to the paper, local residents marveled at the new engine, and Storle’s sons came from Tacoma to enter the business. Apparently Norman Storle had returned to Tacoma because the paper said both Norman and Benjamin came to Kewaunee. The Record opined that when manufacture began, it would be in the building originally built for Storle’s valve operation.

Storle received his patent letters for the improvement of the gasoline engine in early 1914 and organized the Storle Engine Manufacturing Co., securing the vacant building once the Storle Valve Co. in addition to purchasing the Zeimer foundry property. Plans were to begin operation in days.

As it was, in November 1912 Kewaunee attorney W.A. Cowell served plantiff  Xavier Delain in his suit against members of the Zeimer family, Ella Warner and W. Seyk Co. foreclosing on the Zeimer foundry. Legal notices appearing in the Enterprise, gave notice that by virtue of judgement on November 14, 1912,  the real estate and mortgaged property in Lot 2, Block 13 in the City of Kewaunee, would be sold by Sheriff J.J. Kulhanek at  a Sheriff’s Sale at 2 PM on January 17, 1914.   

Two days after receiving the patent, on January 26, 1914, the new company composed of O.O. Storle, O.L. Pierpont and Wenzel Heck of  Kewaunee and H.O. Brandenberg of Appleton incorporated as Storle Engine Mfg. Co. to build Storle’s patented gas engine. Two engines would be manfuactured – one as a 2-cylinder for farm use and the other a 4-cylinder for autos.

In December 1914, the “wizard of mechanical science,” O.O. Storle, told the Record he received a patent that would assist in the manufacture of violins. The new invention enabled the regulation of tone which, in the past, sometimes ruined a violin. Chippewa Falls’s Hellerd Bros. manufactured violins and were interested in the invention was looking.

The Enterprise revived interest in the Storle Engine Company in late April 1916 when Mr. Storle came from Washington, where he spent the winter with his family, to push his business plans. For two years, the Enterprise said, business cirecles discussed the Storle engine. He said he was completing manufacturing arrangements.

Storle’s partner, H.O. Brandenberg of Oshkosh was expected to arrive within two weeks to arrange manufacture which would begin soon. Storle had secured all the patents. When Storle was questioned about the plans, he had little to say, however did say that manufacturing would be carried on in the old building. Peculiar that it seems, two year earlier, in December 1914, H.O. Grandberg of Oskosh was the promoter of the gasoline engine plant at Kewaunee and was going to begin organizing the manufacturing about January 1. Plans were on hold until Grandberg, who was confined to his Oshkosh home, recovered from his broken leg. Who knows what happened between January 1915 and April 1916?

On May 4, 1923 the papers listed a delinquent tax  for Storle Valve Co. located on Lots 15-16-17-18 of Block 12 in the City of Kewaunee.

Ole O. Storle was remembered in a November 1933 Enterprise article about Storle’s Civil War Union Army service and his capture and escape from Libby prison. Storle was 93 and a resident of Tacoma when the Enterprise reprinted a column from Chicago Journal of Commerce. Making his escape, Storle was wounded in the knee and weak from blood loss as he crawled through corn fields for a week, living on raw corn. The article went on to say that the successful Storle left Kewaunee almost 20 years earlier, after several years residence. The man with 65 patents ran his company in the building across from the Harbor Service Station (in business in 1933) which was then owned by Svoboda Church Furniture.

When Kewaunee was about to get a 2^nd Standard Oil Co. in early 1952, it was on land purchased from Svoboda Church Furniture Co., and Trottman and Selner on lower Milwaukee St. The property fronted on Milwaukee St. and extended to the Co-op. Part of the work to be done was moving the old Storle Valve Co. warehouse to the northwest corner of Dodge and Park where it would remain part of the Svoboda Co.

Who was Ole Olafson Storle?

Although Storle’s gravestone in Tacoma Town Cemetery, Tacoma, Washington, records his dates as 1841-1939, the Racine Journal Times, July 23, 1937, ran an article about the man’s 100^th birthday, celebrated at his Tacoma home. As the inventor of the “Kant Leak” valve, Storle was an organizer/partner of Burlington Brass in 1904. His partners included C.G. Raasch and John Gill, both of whom eventually relocated to California. Storle’s Burlington residence stood on Storle Avenue in Burlington.

The Racine Journal article indicates that the company was not successful, and Storle sold his interest to C.B. McCanna and moved to Tacoma. The article mentioned the visit to Storle in Tacoma by the secretary of the Milwaukee law firm that took care of his patents and legal work. She told the Racine paper about Storle’s children giving the 100^th birthday party. Elderly in years, the hale, hearty man was still enjoying tromping the beaches and finding agates, spotting before the younger people did.

Biographical information said Storle, who came to America from Norway at age 3, invented hundreds of mechanical gadgets, patenting 250 of them. Did get 250 patents, or was it 65 as the Enterprise  said? Either way, it is a lot of patents. One of Storle's initial inventions was the first wire knotter for a grain binder bought by Cyrus McCormick. After working a few years for McCormick, he went to the William Deere Co. (article says William, not John) and International Harvester.

The Racine article continues saying Storle joined Co. H, 10^th Wisconsin Infantry at Lincoln’s first call for volunteers in what would later be called the Civil War. He was wounded three times. After 3 ½ years he returned to Burlington, resumed inventing, and married in 1876.

The biographical article fails to mention Storle’s company, and work, in Kewaunee, nor does it mention his Green Bay connection. Given communications in the late 1930s on the eve of World War ll, perhaps the law secretary was providing what she knew, or perhaps the paper left out what was regarded as unsuccessful for only a few years in a long life. Whatever the reason, Ole Olafson Storle had an impact on Kewaunee County. Having 65 or maybe 250 mechanical patents, it is certain he touched those who never heard of him.

A Google search for Storle’s patents describes an invention in the National Museum of American History, however it was not pictured online. To learn more, see patent model,harvester rake automatic trip| National Museum of American History, https://americanhistory.si.edu>object>nmah_857207 to find the patent modek for the harvester rake automatic trip. Patent number 266.063 2qw recorded on October 17, 1882. 

Below is an image found at https://patents.google.com, US77675A, and found under “mowers combined with apparatus performing additional operations while mowing with rakes” which was an improvement to what had been available earlier.

 

Sources: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Record, Algoma Record Herald, Find a Grave, Kewaunee Enterprise. Postcard is from the blogger’s collection.