The Diamond Match Company has its roots in several nineteenth century companies. In the early 1850s, Edward Tatnall of Wilmington, Delaware was given an English recipe for making matches by a business acquaintance, William R. Smith. In 1853, Tatnall attempted to turn the recipe into a business at Market Street Bridge over Brandywine Creek in Wilmington. [1] The first matches ignited with the slightest friction, a problem Tatnall solved by reducing the phosphorus content by 25 percent.
In the next few years, Tatnall was joined by a young Englishman, Henry Coughtrey, who was an experienced match maker, and who changed his name to Courtney. During a business depression in 1857, Tatnall closed his plant, but Courtney continued to experiment with improvements to the safety and quality of his own matches. In 1860, William H. Swift joined Tatnall’s firm to provide clerical and financial services. Though Swift saw potential in Courtney’s innovations, Tatnall felt he had spent enough on the match business and turned the business over to Courtney and Swift for nothing. [2] In 1861, the two of them created the Swift & Courtney Company. They called their new matches Diamond State Parlor Matches, using one of the popular nicknames for the state of Delaware. [3]
Demand during the Civil War created a large and growing market for Swift & Courtney matches. In order to meet an expanding need for production even after the Civil War, the company merged with Beecher & Sons of New Haven, Connecticut in 1870 to create the Swift & Courtney & Beecher Company. Incorporated in Connecticut, manufacturing remained in Wilmington, Delaware. Later in 1870, the company purchased the match business of Thomas Allen & Company of St. Louis, Missouri. In 1872, they bought McGiugan & Daily of Philadelphia, and made contracts with Joseph Loehy of New York City and Charles Busch of Trenton, New Jersey. [4]
In 1880, everything was sold to the Barber Match Company of Akron, Ohio, founded by O.C. Barber. Barber re-named the company after the established trade name of its product, creating the Diamond Match Company. Following the Panic of 1893, Barber moved the Diamond Match Company factory in Akron to the adjacent town of his own creation, Barberton in an effort to revive the town's flagging economy. He turned the abandoned Akron match factory into a rubber products factory (see Diamond Rubber Company).
The Diamond Match Company was the largest manufacturer of matches in the United States in the late nineteenth century. [5]
It became a part of the Kreuger concern in 1932, when Ivar Kreuger took control of more than 52% of the shares.
The Diamond Match Company operated plants at Barberton, Ohio; Wilmington, Delaware (now located in the East Brandywine Historic District); [6] Barber, California (later Chico); Springfield, Massachusetts; Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Oswego, New York, and Cloquet, Minnesota.
Diamond was purchased by Jarden in 2003 after entering bankruptcy in 2001, [7] and has been owned by Newell Brands since Newell Rubbermaid's acquisition of the company in a merger in 2016. In 2017, Newell sold Diamond (except the cutlery line) to Royal Oak Enterprises. [8] In the twenty-first century, Diamond remains America's leading producer of matches, producing some twelve billion a year. [9] It also produces plastic cutlery and other wood products. [10]
The Diamond Match Company built a wood processing mill in 1902 at Stirling City, California. A 42-mile (68 km) standard gauge railroad was built from Stirling City to their manufacturing plant in Chico for operation by Southern Pacific; and Diamond Match Company also built and operated metre-gauge railway branches to bring logs into Stirling City from surrounding forests. The company became a pioneering user of treated railroad ties by building a tie-manufacturing plant at Stirling City. Later, logging branches were built to standard gauge; and the company was operating three Lima Locomotive Works Shay locomotives and one built by Willamette Iron and Steel Works when the logging branches were abandoned in 1952. [11]
Diamond Match Company also built an electrified tram line to transport employees to and from work. The Chico Electric Railway running along 9th Street and Main Street began operations in 1904, and became the northern terminus of the Sacramento Northern Railway in 1906. [12]
Wilmington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, two waterways near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River, which is a river. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, who was prime minister during the reign of George II of Great Britain.
Barberton is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 25,191 at the 2020 census. Located directly southwest of Akron, it is a suburb of the Akron metropolitan area.
Brandywine Creek is a tributary of the Christina River in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware in the United States. The Lower Brandywine is 20.4 miles (32.8 km) long and is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River with several tributary streams. The East Branch and West Branch of the creek originate within 2 miles (3 km) of each other on the slopes of Welsh Mountain in Honey Brook Township, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of their confluence.
Ohio Columbus Barber was an American businessman, industrialist and philanthropist. He was called "America's Match King" because of his controlling interest in the Diamond Match Company, which had 85 percent of the market in 1881. He founded the city of Barberton, Ohio in 1891 and moved his manufacturing plant there in 1894. It produced 250 million matches per day. He also founded the Akron City Hospital.
Preston Lea was an American businessman and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a member of the Republican Party who served as Governor of Delaware.
Stirling City is a census-designated place in Butte County, California, located on Paradise Ridge in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Contrary to its name, Stirling City is not a city. Its ZIP Code is 95978 and area code 530. It lies at an elevation of 3570 feet. Stirling City had a population of 295 at the 2010 census.
The Diamond and Caldor Railway was a common carrier 3 ft narrow gauge railroad operating in El Dorado County, California, in the United States. The 34-mile railroad was primarily a logging railroad but also operated some passenger service.
The Brandywine Valley Railroad is a class III railroad operating in Pennsylvania.
The Butte County Railroad was a 31.5-mile (50.7 km) class II railroad that ran from a connection with the Southern Pacific Railroad at Chico, California to the Diamond Match Company lumber mill at Stirling City. The railroad operated from 1903–1915 and then became the Southern Pacific's Stirling City Branch. From 1915 until abandonment in the 1970s the line was operated as the Southern Pacific's Stirling City Branch. The Chico and Northern Railroad was a non-operating subsidiary holding company of the Southern Pacific Railroad that was created to acquire a 32.31 mile line from Chico – Stirling City from the Butte County Railroad. Upon acquiring the line, Chico & Northern immediately leased the line back to the Butte County Railroad. The Chico & Northern was dissolved into Southern Pacific in 1912 and never operated any of the line.
The Akron and Barberton Belt Railroad was a switching railroad that was built to serve various industries around the cities of Barberton and Akron in Ohio. The main purpose was to switch chemical cars for Pittsburgh Plate Glass, Babcox and Wilcox Companies as well as O.C. Barber's match works, all in Barberton. It was controlled by the Akron, Canton and Youngstown, Baltimore and Ohio, Pennsylvania and Erie railroads. It interchanged railroad cars with the Erie Railroad in Barberton, Pennsylvania RR in Barberton and Akron, Akron Canton & Youngstown at East Akron and Belt Junction west of Fairlawn and the Baltimore & Ohio RR in East Akron and Barberton. The railroad was always a freight-only carrier. The East Akron line ran south of Barberton before curving back north, passing through Kenmore, South Akron, East Akron and ending at the Akron Canton and Youngstown Railroad Brittian Yard in far Eastern Akron. The Fairlawn line ran due north from Barberton, connection with the Akron Canton and Youngstown Railroad at Belt Junction just west of Fairlawn. The three-track interchange yard at Belt Junction was out of service for many years during the 1920s and 1930s due to damage but was used by the Akron Canton and Youngstown Railroad to hold overflow cars from the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing plant just east of Copley. The interchange was restored around World War II.
William Lea was a member of a prominent flour milling family in Wilmington, Delaware, who was largely responsible for the development of the Brandywine Mills to their place of importance.
Jackson and Sharp Company was an American railroad car manufacturer and shipbuilder in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company was founded in 1863 by Job H. Jackson, a tinsmith and retail merchant, and Jacob F. Sharp, a carpenter who had worked for rail car manufacturers and shipbuilders.
The O. C. Barber Barn No. 1, built in 1909, is an historic farm building located on the Anna-Dean Farm in Barberton, Ohio. It was built by American businessman and industrialist Ohio Columbus Barber, the developer of both Barberton, which he envisioned as a planned industrial community, and the nearby 3,500-acre (14 km²) Anna-Dean Farm, which he envisioned as a prototype for modern agricultural enterprise. Barber was called America's Match King because of his controlling interest in the Diamond Match Company.
James Canby (1781–1858) was an American businessman, banker and early railroad executive based in Wilmington, Delaware.
Mahlon Betts (1795–1867) was a carpenter, railroad car builder, shipwright, businessman, banker, and legislator who helped found three of Wilmington, Delaware's major manufacturing enterprises: the Harlan and Hollingsworth Company, the Pusey and Jones Company, and the Betts Machine Company.
James Price (1776—1840) was a miller, businessman, banker, and railroad executive based in Wilmington, Delaware.
Barberton was a train station along the Erie Railroad main line in the city of Barberton, Summit County, Ohio, United States. Located 612.8 miles (986.2 km) from Hoboken Terminal on the Kent Division of the main line, the station first saw service in 1890 while under the ownership of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad, a subsidiary of the Erie Railroad, to help bring people to the new community. Passenger service was terminated on August 1, 1965, with the cancellation of the Atlantic Express (eastbound) Pacific Express (westbound), and multi-day trains from Hoboken to Dearborn Station in Chicago, Illinois.
David C. Wilson was a 19th-century banker, businessman and railroad executive; and the third mayor of Wilmington, Delaware.
The Wilmington and Northern Railroad is a railway company that once owned a line from Reading, Pennsylvania to Wilmington, Delaware. The original main line from Wilmington to Birdsboro, Pennsylvania was built between 1869 and 1871 by its predecessor, the Wilmington and Reading Railroad. An extension from Birdsboro to High's Junction was completed in 1874. There the Wilmington and Reading connected with the Berks County Railroad and ran over its tracks to Reading. The Berks County Railroad was foreclosed on at the end of 1874 and reorganized as the Reading and Lehigh Railroad, under the control of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road. The Wilmington and Reading also experienced financial difficulties and was itself foreclosed on in 1876. It was reorganized in 1877 as the Wilmington and Northern. After the reorganization, the railroad was closely affiliated with the Reading, but retained its own organization and officers until 1898. In that year, the Reading bought a majority of the company's stock and incorporated it into its own system. The main line from Birdsboro to Wilmington became the Wilmington and Northern Branch, while the extension above Birdsboro was incorporated into the Reading Belt Line. The Wilmington and Northern continued to exist as a paper railroad within the Reading system. The portion of the Wilmington and Northern north of Modena, Pennsylvania was sold to Conrail at its formation in 1976. The line south of Modena was retained by the Wilmington and Northern, which leased and then sold it piecemeal to other railroads between 1981 and 2005. As of 2021, the Wilmington and Northern still survived as a subsidiary of Reading International, Inc.
The Diamond Rubber Company was a manufacturer of vehicle tires and other rubber products at the end of the 19th, and into the early 20th century in the United States.
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