HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER

A Salisbury Industrial Institution

A small pump company was founded in Buffalo, N. Y. in 1923 by W. Paul Martin and Rudolph L. Schwartz. In need of pumps to supply their many gas stations, a conglomerate of Sun Oil Co. and three others bought their plant in 1932. Sun Oil retained the name of Martin and Schwartz under the able direction of a young engineer recently graduated from Lehigh University named Bill Bateman. Mr. Bateman moved the operation to Salisbury in 1939. My father had started there in 1934, and, since the depression was especially severe in Buffalo, he convinced his mother that he had better go to Salisbury with the company. He had to find someone that would promise to take care of him so far away. He was 25 at the time, but things were different in those days. At the time of his death in 1978, he was still working, having been there over 44 years.

The plant in Salisbury was on Mill Street in an existing building that was refurbished to build gasoline pumps. In 1939, war was raging over in Europe, and America was supplying much of the war materials. Another plant was built and another company formed just for purpose of die making. It opened in September 1941. It was called Precision Development Company and it was built on College Ave., just east of Route 13, which had only been constructed in 1939. PDC and M & S attained five “E” awards during the war for their efficiency. One of these was presented to them by none other than Lowell Thomas. The “E” award flag, one of the individual pins, a PDC identification badge and the booklet from the first presentation are pictured above. Subsequent awards added a star to the flag. I consider these to be highly-prized items.

During the war, M & S made 3,387,670 ordnance items. These covered 37 MM shells, 37 MM shot, base detonating fuses, and cap detonating fuses. PDC was more varied and covered ship bearings ranging in size from 5 ½ to 25 inches, 481,000 miscellaneous aircraft parts, 99,000 torpedo parts and a large quantity of assemblies for radar. Other items manufactured at PDC are too varied and too numerous to mention in detail.

Also during the war, 59 people from the two plants entered the armed forces. This number included two women. Only one man was killed, and this was during a training camp accident. No other casualties were suffered during the war. Because of the increase in military orders, employment climbed from 127 in 1941 to a high of about 415 in 1944.

Finally Martin & Schwartz acquired PDC in April, 1948. The two plants struggled after the war since there was not much demand for gasoline pumps. For a time they made radios and tape recorders, but as soon as the economy straightened out and people started hitting the roads, they were back to making pumps.

In 1951, they merged with Wayne Pump Company with Bill Bateman retaining the presidency. They also acquired the Globe Hoist Company of Philadelphia in 1959, enlarging the College Avenue plant to accommodate the operation.

The final merger was with Dresser Industries of Dallas, Texas in 1968.

The hand writing was on the wall as Dresser kept moving key personnel to Dallas. The end of the history of a small pump plant from Buffalo, N. Y. that moved to Salisbury came in 2001. Salisbury University now owns the property, and all the buildings have been razed- but not before many a man raised his family from what he earned at Martin & Schwartz.