THE object in compiling this booklet is to bring The Hughes Granite and Marble Company and its works and products more prominently before the purchasing public.

The works are located at Clyde, an important railway town of northwestern Ohio, upon the lines of the “Big Four,” Wheeling & Lake Erie and Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railways. These roads with their various connections provide easy communication to and from all sections of the country for travel and for the shipping of finished work.

The yards and factories of the company are directly upon the tracks of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, in connection which there are special side tracks for handling rough and finished stock. The various views of the works show how well every part of the plant is arranged, and how very complete every such part is in its equipment with machinery of the latest and most improved character.

The power for running the various machines is furnished by three gasoline engines, manufactured by the Olds Gasoline Engine Works, of Lansing, Mich., and is transmitted by the Manila rope system entirely enclosed so as to be perfectly safe for the workmen.

NOTE - The traveling cranes in the show room and in the cutting room, and the stock yard derrick are pneumatic power, manufactured by The Chisholm & Moore Mfg. Co., Cleveland, O.

All large straight surfaces are cut by saws and all work is finished with pneumatic bush hammers and carved and lettered with pneumatic tools. As the rough stock arrives it is lifted from the cars by a power derrick and loaded upon conveying flat cars that take it to the cutting room for immediate use, or into the stock yard where it is unloaded and stored by the use of compressed air derricks. The lifting and moving of work in the cutting room and in the show room is done by compressed air cranes. All derricks and cranes are of steel construction and have an ample capacity for handling any work that may be required, from the smallest markers to the largest shafts.

The large stock of finished work carried in the show room, embracing as it does, every character from simple markers of the lowest cost to large monuments to the value of hundreds of dollars, enables intending buyers to make selections and know just what they are going to receive. This is a point that is never fully appreciated by the general public. They make selections from designs shown by small and irresponsible dealers, or place orders with such parties for the duplication of work that has already been set. Such orders are binding upon the purchaser. The dealer then sends sketches to all the cheapest wholesalers of whom he knows, who in turn send to the cheapest manufacturers, and the one who will make the work for the least money, no matter what the quality of stock or workmanship, is the one to get the order. The work is made and sent to the dealer who sets it and sends word to the buyer that it is ready to be seen and paid for. He sees it, has to accept it and pay for it. In this way he deals with inferior parties, gets the poorest work, is seldom satisfied and pays in all cases, a price that would give very superior work had the order been placed with reliable parties who are fully equipped to do the best work and who honestly wish to serve the best interests of their patrons.

We cordially invite all persons who are in any manner interested, to visit our plant, and shall take pleasure in giving advice in reference to the selection of work, showing how it is possible to produce a grade of work by machinery that cannot be obtained by hand; how work cut and finished by machinery such as we have, will be smooth, clean and free from imperfections of every nature, while hand work will be wavy, irregular and so stunned or bruised as to be sure to stain after a very short exposure to the weather. Where work is stunned or bruised by being cut by hand, the rubbing wheels and finishing by bushing hammers, closes only the surface and leaves imperfections to collect rain and dust, so that in winter the action of the frost dislodges small particles of the work and at all times there is a discolored black condition that would not have been the case had the work been cut in the best manner by machinery.

There are dealers throughout the country who may really wish to give some special buyer a really good piece of work, but when it is considered that his, possible, one man has to cut the bottom bases, sometimes of marble and sometimes of sandstone, and then have one day to rub and the next to do the carving and lettering (such as it is), it is easily seen that he cannot furnish such work as is done by large, well equipped concerns having men who do only certain parts and therefore, become skilled to the highest degree.

It is this class of men that is employed at the works at Clyde, and it is in this manner that the work is finished, every man being selected for his special ability and then kept at that branch; so, in soliciting further patronage, the assurance is given that the work will be of the best character, will be finished where it can be seen from time to time as it advances, will not, by reason of completeness of every portion of the plant, cost any more than much inferior grades from other concerns, will have the most careful attention and be guaranteed by a company who has a reputation to sustain and advance

The Hughes Granite and Marble Co
CLYDE, OHIO

The preceding is transcribed verbatim from an advertising booklet of the Company in the early 1900's.

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