What’s in a name? The topic arose while some of my tennis pals and I were waiting for our orders following a grueling (not really) tennis evening.
We discussed how some last names tracked directly from occupations in the good old days — or at least, old days.
Farmer needs no explanation but Cooper was a barrel maker. Then we arrived at Willard.
With the exception of Willard Water, my Uncle John’s creation, the only other product associated with the name Willard is the Willard Battery.
Oh, there were two famous (not counting me) Willards: Jess Willard was a renowned heavyweight boxer and Frances Willard was a temperance crusader — most of us saw her as the “black sheep” of the family.
Back to Willard batteries, my friend did find an advertisement for a Vintage 1942 Willard Car Battery Print Ad. The print ad cost $12 — perhaps more than the battery in 1942 — but only one was available.
The Willard Storage Battery Co. was founded by Theodore Willard (at best a remote relation, no rich relatives to bequeath me untold riches) as the Willard Electric & Battery Co. in 1896 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Business must have been good — not shocking, yes I said that — because in 1902, Ted as we may call him, reorganized the company as Willard Storage Battery.
This was a versatile outfit as they produced batteries for use by dentists and physicians (I’m drawing a blank as to their usage), Edison phonographs, and for lighting railroad cars.
Willard etc. made its first battery for automobile ignition in 1908. This was a big deal at the time; too bad Ted didn’t look to this century with our all-electric cars.
Two years later Willard expanded to producing electric lighting accessories along with their batteries and sold them directly to automobile manufacturers.
Well, the marketing manager knew his business, so the company built a 15-acre plant to handle the business volume. Within three more years, Willard had contracts to supply batteries to 85% of the U.S. automobile manufacturers. Note: in the early days of motoring there were many small manufacturers who dwindled by the 1930s-’40s.
As the automobile industry grew, so did Willard Storage Battery.
What was next for the company that was charging ahead (yes, I said that, too).
Well, Ted had been experimenting with radio broadcasting for several years so he bought station WEAR from Goodyear Tire and Rubber and combined it with his own operation as WTAM. WTAM was a 1,500-watt, clear channel station in 1923 in Cleveland.
Within the 34 years since its startup Willard etc. had more than 2,500 employees and plants in Los Angeles and Toronto as well as distributors in 89 countries.
During World War II the company produced batteries for submarines and became a pioneer in the development of small hand-sized batteries.
Then things went bad and by 1952 employment had dropped to 1,500 as well as sales. The firm was taken over by the Electric Storage Battery Co. of Philadelphia and in 1959 that bunch closed the Cleveland operation.
The 1942 ad looks attractive and the slogan was “Willard ‘safety-fill’ Batteries Have the power to carry you on.” Sadly, that only carried on for 17 years.
My Dad did come across a Willard Batteries nylon jacket, which he gave me. He was always giving me clothing and articles with the name Willard. I guess he thought my memory wasn’t as good as it is.
Credit: Source link
