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Destroyed plant came to Benton in 1906 |
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Monday, 23 June 2008 |
Owosso Furniture Co. began manufacturing furniture in Benton around 1906 and continued to be a major business in Benton until the late 1980s or early 1990s.
Wilson Jones, son of the plant’s primary owner, the late Woodrow Jones, said the plant began manufacturing under his father’s leadership in 1957.
Jones was reminiscing about his family’s business following a Tuesday night fire that destroyed one of the last two remaining buildings of the Willow Street plant.
The building that housed the plant’s office still stands, but it sustained siding damage in Tuesday night’s fire.
“They built the plant here after some business people came down from Owosso, Mich., Jones said. “We liked them because they brought money and capital.”
Although Woodrow Jones was the majority stockholder, the late Jimmy Lane also was part owner of the plant and was in charge of sales, Jones said.
“Carl Leech (also deceased) was an executive there, a Mr. Morgan was longtime plant manager and E.L. Whittle (uncle of Janet Spivey of Benton) was the leading salesman.
“He’s been dead about 10 years,” Jones added.
The plant employed as many as 500 people at one time, he said.
“We made bedroom suites — which were spelled ‘suites’ but pronounced ‘suits’ — and dining room furniture,” he said. “This was solid hardwood furniture — not veneered furniture — mainly oak, pecan and maple.
“Our designers were from High Point, N.C.,” he said.
In its heyday, the company’s trade territory, in addition to Arkansas, was “largely contiguous states,” Jones said, naming Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee.
The company also had national distribution through at least one of its customers, he said. “Montgomery Ward was an important customer, so our furniture went out all over the country through them.”
Jones said his father owned another furniture manufacturing plant, Jones Furniture on Edison Avenue, where upholstered furniture was made.
“My father had another furniture plant, Jones Furniture on Edison Avenue, where they made upholstered furniture,” he said. “Originally, there were three major furniture plants in Benton and the biggest one was McCoy-Couch, which became Curtis-Mathes.
At one of the plants, for a time box crates were made, and furniture for Army bases and camps was made during World War II, Jones said.
“My father bought Jones Furniture from the McCoys, and that started probably in 1946 or 1947,” he said.
He acquired the Owosso plant later on and between the two, employed hundreds of local people, Jones said.
He recalled a 1978 incident when many of the Owosso workers were trapped inside the building during a severe flood.
“Depot Creek flooded and they had to rescue the workers in boats,” he said.
“That happened on the day my father was supposed to get a state Chamber of Commerce award in Little Rock. I went to the chamber meeting while he was at the plant evacuating employees who were trapped inside the building. They got them out and no one was hurt.
“There were lots of stacks of lumber — raw material — which floated far down the Saline River,” he said. “For weeks afterward people would call telling us they had seen our lumber ... .”
Jones said his father also owned a sawmill in Benton.
The Jones family sold the Owosso plant in 1983 to Sherwood Furniture Co, which continued to operate it for several years, Wilson Jones said.
Benton firefighters were called to the scene of the Tuesday fire about 8:30 p.m. and some firefighters remained at the site until Thursday, Assistant Chief Mark Mills said today.
Because of the age and condition of the deteriorating building, a decision was made Tuesday night to “let it burn itself out,” Chief Ben Blankenship said.
The firefighters’ primary concern was to protect nearby structures, Blankenship said.
“Our firefighters did an excellent job,” the chief said.
No injuries occurred. |
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