Genealogical society hears about W.F. Norman

Wednesday, January 18, 2017
On Tuesday, at the meeting room of the Nevada Public Library, Nancy Lyons Thompson, treasurer of the Cedar and Vernon County, Missouri Genealogical Society, gave the 20 people on hand for the society's monthly meeting, an overview of the life and work of W.F. Norman and his company in Nevada. Thompson followed this by documenting her investigation into the murder of a family memberand discovering how she is Norman's first cousin, three times removed. Johannes Brann/Daily Mail

jbrann.ndm@gmail.com

On Tuesday, at the meeting room at the Nevada Public Library, Nancy Thompson, treasurer of the Cedar and Vernon County Genealogical Society, played a video on the life of W.F. Norman and a history on the company he founded.

Thompson followed this up with a recounting of genealogical work, which uncovered her connection to Norman.

"I am W.F. Norman's first cousin, three times removed," said Thompson. "By that I mean, I am three generations removed. "

Franklin Norman's mother, Eliza Byler, was a sister to Thompson's great-great-grandmother, Margaret Byler.

"Because we know the rest of the story, think of how exciting it would be to go back and visit Nevada at the start of the previous century," Thompson said before her presentation,

In the year 1900, Nevada was home to two companies, still in their infancy, producing world class products. Each was named for its founder and the first name of each was William.

William. H. Talbot reels were perhaps some of the highest quality fishing reels ever made. The earliest reels were made in Nevada, from about 1895 to 1913. Although the company was gone by 1920, its designs are still studied and the reels command high prices.

The other company -- the second William -- was William Franklin Norman and his W.F. Norman Company.

In 1893, Norman was a traveling salesman for Wheeling Corrugating Company of Wheeling, West Virginia, which is still in existence. He earned $166.67 per month to sell the firm's steel ceilings, roofing and other products.

Norman's territory included Nevada where he made a number of local sales, which can still be seen. Cavener's Office Supplies and Furniture has a Wheeling ceiling sold by Norman.

Desiring a more settled life, Norman chose Nevada in which to put down roots.

Convinced there was a local demand for pressed metal, Norman and tin worker, John Berghauser founded the W.F. Norman Sheet Metal Manufacturing Company, in 1898.

They started in a small shop making ceilings and cornices.

In the mid-19th century, small tin shops did most of the architectural sheet-metal work, largely by hand-craft methods. But all that changed in the mid-1870s when several Midwestern firms introduced large scale factory techniques to the production of both stamped zinc ornaments and sheet-metal cornices.

Though large firms dominated the business nationally, the 1890s saw reductions in the cost of hammer drop presses and cornice brakes -- the machines which beat sheet metal into decorative profiles -- encouraged smaller shops like Norman's to successfully compete for business.

An article in the trade publication, "Metal Worker" commented on this phenomenon, pointing out how, a few decades earlier, the industry was summed up by the names of the few large manufacturers such as Meskers or Mullins, "but now almost every sheet metal establishment does cornice work."

Norman was among them. Initially, he continued to act as an agent for the Wheeling Company and bought finished materials from them until 1905, Norman then expanded his business, built a new factory and began to produce his own pressed metal ceiling and roofing line.

His slogan was, "Made in the West -- They are the Best!"

Between 1870 and 1930, there were at least 45 major sheet-metal companies with national distribution, operating in 10 different states.

As the current W.F. Norman Company video makes clear, in that same time period, there were a total of almost 2,000 firms across the United States making and selling sheet-metal products.

All of them depended on the railroad for their raw materials and distribution of their finished products.

For Wheeling Corrugating and then for Norman's own business, the catalogue was key both to awareness and orders.

When W.F. Norman's grandson, Franklin Norman sold the business to the Quitno family in 1978, discovered among the records was an early 1900s catalogue in mint condition. This provided an awareness of what the company had and could still produce, since many of the old molds were still on site.

While the original heyday of metal ceilings was in that period of 1870-1930, the Quitno family has found a resurgence of interest in both the style and materials.

Back in the 19th century, the molded metal was, in part, an attempt to imitate the very ornate and very expensive designs executed in molded plaster or stucco. Current interest is both for the look of a more graceful time as well as for the special accents it provides.

While the materials most often used were rolled sheets of zinc, steel or copper, the nickname of "tin ceilings" was a reference to the designs being an inexpensive imitation and mass produced, reminiscent of Henry Ford's Model T, the "Tin Lizzie."

The fall of 1979 saw the resumption of ceiling panels and cornices being turned out again along with reproduction of designs from other companies and a host of new products.

From home use to the cupolas on state capitals, to various rooms in Donald Trump's Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, Norman products are purchased and installed around the world.

Thompson told the assembled, "One of the joys of genealogy comes as you are searching for one piece of information and you uncover something unexpected."

Several members laughed and others vocalized their agreement.

"The family research I was doing was something quite unpleasant, a murder," said Thompson.

The murder was that of Abraham Byler, the maternal grandfather of Norman. Byler was ambushed on his farm in Cooper County, not far from Boonville, likely by abolitionists. This killing took place in August 1862, leaving behind a wife and eight children.

"What I was researching was not fun but I was delighted to find my connection to W.F. Norman. Genealogy is like that and it keeps me going because you never know what you'll find," Thompson said.

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