Manufacturing in Lower Town: The Ann Arbor Agricultural Works

Manufacturing in Lower Town: The Ann Arbor Agricultural Works. . Manufacturing shaped the life of Lower Town after the Civil War. In 1866 Lewis Moore and his son Eli began building an agricultural implement factory on the north bank of the river on the site of the old Chapin Paper Mill. By 1896 the Ann arbor Agricultural Works, seen here in a fanciful drawing, covered three acres. It was one of the largest employers in town, with a machine shop, warehouse, lumber yard, and its own railroad spur connecting to the Michigan Central line. Machinery was powered by water from the millrace, later supplemented by steam. The headrace ran under Broadway and the tailrace flowed out next to the foundry (lower right in drawing). , Up to 100 men manufactured a line of agricultural implements including "the Advance Hay Tedder, Advance Iron Mower, the Advance Sulky Rake, the Advance Chilled Plow, and the Improved Cummings and Clipper Food Cutter." , The company claimed a reputation for first-class good in this line: "Transportation facilities are excellent, switches from the Michigan Central Railroad and Toledo and Ann Arbor Railroad carry the crude material directly to the works an bear away to market the finished products." Proud of its success, the company insisted in an 1893 promotion in the Ann Arbor Argus, "The united voice of Ann Arbor proclaims: Long Live the Ann Arbor Agricultural Company." , Eli Moore was the plant's superintendent until 1903, when the business closed. It opened the next year as the Ann Arbor Machine Co., managed by Ell's son, Wendell Moore. It manufactured many of the same products but specialized in large hay presses sold to customers throughout the US and Canada. , Agricultural Works superintendent Eli W. Moore and his wife Elizabeth Cooper Moore, are shown below in front of their "House on the Hill" at 661 Swift. It still stands today on the former site of Anson Brown's house, now moved to 1029 Pontiac Trail. The name of nearby Brown Street was later changed to Moore in their honor. For decades, their home was a center for family, social, and community activities many for good causes Regular meetings of the Ladies Decoration Society of the Fifth Ward were held there, as well as efforts to raise funds for the Union Church which had its early gatherings in the old Baptist Church meeting house on Wall Street. , Like other Quakers, Eli and Elizabeth were strong opponents of slavery and advocates for the temperance movement to limit the use of alcohol. It was their Quaker custom to formally address one another as "thee" and "thou." When interviewed on his 89th birthday in 1922, Eli Moore commented on the saloons and drunken brawls that were a part of daily life in Ann Arbor in the early years. "Not that I was ever in one of those places," he said with his usual engaging pleasantry. "Thee was not," said his wife briskly. "But thee knows I was when W.C.T.U. in the early days appointed a woman for each ward to visit a saloon and pray."