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CHAPTER XIV
                     Industry
The Hamilton Manufacturing Company
  An amazing story of industrial progress was begun in 1880
by James Edward Hamilton. It was a story that meant great
personal achievement for "Ed" Hamilton, fame for the com-
munity, and thousands of jobs for our people.
  Ed Hamilton was a native of Two Rivers and enjoyed a
reputation as a skilled industrial woodworker. Late in the
year 1880, Mr. Hamilton agreed to construct a quantity of
wooden type for Editor W. L. Nash of the Chronicle, a local
weekly newspaper. It seems that Nash had to produce a "rush"
printing order and it would take too long to receive a ship-
ment of type from Eastern manufacturers. Soon orders for the
type came in from places like Chippewa Falls and Green Bay.
Ed Hamilton set aside a room in his home and busily turned
out hollywood type faces on his foot-powered scroll saw. The
wood faces were then glued to thick blocks of less expensive
wood, which brought the total block to exact printing height,
and the finished product was ready for wrapping and ship-
ping. Mrs. Hamilton helped in the infant enterprise by doing
the bookkeeping. At the end of the first year, Mr. Hamilton
could report a gross business of $1,200. In 1882 his business
increased 1,000 per cent and that year he loaded all of his
equipment on a two-wheeled cart pulled by a billy-goat and
moved to his first plant, erected for $760. The new plant
meant the employment of more men and the addition of steam-
powered industrial engines.
  The talents possessed by Ed Hamilton became quite evi-
dent as the J.E. Hamilton Hollywood Type Company grew
during those early years. He showed great enthusiasm for his
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