Bittersweet memories for former employees at Heller Tool reunion in Newcomerstown

  • By Jennifer Kneuss
  • August 18, 2010
  • 1713
                        
When German immigrant Elias Heller first set up a small shop in Newark, New Jersey, with a crew of three making hand files and rasps, it is unlikely that he could have imagined the thriving American business his little shop would become. Nor did he think that his new company would someday close due to the exporting of jobs out of the country. In the mid 1860s, three of the immigrant’s sons joined the business. Their reputation for quality tools grew, and by 1880 they even added their own steel mill to produce the raw materials they needed. The third generation of the Heller family continued to expand the company, and in 1906, another “new” entered the picture… the establishment of a file manufacturing plant in Newcomerstown, Ohio. At its peak during World War II, Heller Tool employed 1,746 workers. By 1950, most of the original business had moved to the Newcomerstown facility. Simonds Industries acquired the company on July 1, 1955, but retained the loyal workforce of Newcomerstown area residents. This expansion made the company the #2 file manufacturer in the world. Today, the Heller Tool manufacturing company in Newcomerstown is just a memory. At an open house and reunion on August 14, at the Olde Main Street Museum in Newcomerstown, former employees and their families gathered to reminisce about both good and bad times. “I started out as an hourly worker and ended up as salary, working at Heller from 1943 until 1988. When I retired, I was quality control manager,” said Harold Huff. “This model brings back lots of memories,” he noted, pointing to a huge, scale model version of the 183,000 square foot facility on display at the museum. Acquisition of the model was made possible by help from the Tuscarawas County Convention and Visitors’ Bureaus non-profit branch. “There is one family here who had five generations work there. There was a lot of loyalty. Heller finally closed down due to foreign competition.” “I worked at Heller 40 years plus, most of the time as an inspector. I was there until the company moved away,” commented John Hines, who was looking over a display of Heller tools with former co-worker Dean Taylor. “For the last five or six years, they were moving it out, down to Honduras. Whenever they closed this down, they moved the last 15-20 percent down to South America. They moved our jobs, what little were left here. I talked to some of the representatives from down there, who came up here to see how we operated before they moved this stuff out. I asked them what they make down there, and they said 140 dollars a month was their pay rate there for a good job. We were getting 100 plus a day here.” Hines shook his head sadly at the thought of the lost American jobs. Dana McPeak began at Heller in 1959, and by 1976 was the plant manager. “In all, it took them about 20 years to dismantle the company, but they got it down. The knowledge and the techniques were transferred to Honduras,” said McPeak. “We had 60 days notice that our jobs were shipping out. They came in with cameras and recorders to see how things were being done,” stated Hines. “We knew that those guys were taking our jobs. After they told us they were shutting the place down, there was just no morale left. That happens all over America.” “When the plant closed, it really hurt the town,” added Jack Ellis, who retired from Heller after almost 33 years there. “We lost another industry. One time, when there were 700 to 800 people employed here, it was wonderful. It really helped the village tax wise. It was just sad to see them go,” he said. “I had a lot of enjoyable years there, and made a lot of friends.” “It was a good place to work,” agreed Huff. “ I spent 43 years there, and it was a good place.”


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