Re: Founder connections

Posted by John Harley On 2010/12/8 23:17:49

Traumjagercat

The father, Warren, had a very successful hardware business in Warren, Ohio. At one point he was selling railroad ties for the Transcontinental Railroad. There was a very large house that he built in downtown Warren. It was torn down in the 1970's to build a YMCA. The town now regrets that that was allowed to happen. The building that housed the hardware business still stands one the square. The family built a number of other structures in the town

The Packard script we all love was the trademark of the hardware business. It is on the marker on the family plot in the local cemetery. James Ward and his wife are buried a little ways away, with a much larger monument.

James Ward and William Doud ( "Ward" and 'Doud" in Warren) had a electric cable business, Packard Electric and a light bulb business, The New York and Ohio Company.

Packard Electric was sold To GM and became part of Delphi. At the time of the Centennial they employed about 6500 people in Warren. That plant is now closed.

New York and Ohio was sold to General Electric in the 1930's. There is a building from that period on the site of the original light bulb plant. Commemorative plaques from 1949 and 1999 are attached to this building.

Both brothers were rather small of build and somewhat retiring in nature.

Doud was the business/numbers part of the team. His health was never robust, and he died in 1923-24. His money was left for a Packard Park, a Packard Music Hall, and a Packard Concert Band, all of which exist today.


Ward died in 1928, At this point, PMCC started putting the Packard family crest on the cars. His money was left to the Engineering Department at Lehigh University , his alma mater. There is a Packard Engineering Building. PMCC donated the first Packard to Lehigh in 1930, and it lives in a glass case on the first floor of the Packard Building.

Ward was very fond of technology and machinery. One of his favorite toys was an x-ray machine. He took lots of pictures, particularly of himself. He died from bone cancer


Regards


John Harley