Transcribed by Michael A. O’Neill in Mar/Apr 2014
Transcribers note: This is a transcription of Mabel’s book, not an upload of the original of the document she created. It was transcribed using Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software, which will result in capitalization errors; misspellings of proper names; odd usage of prepositions or common words; and incorrect homophones. For true fidelity, you can request the book via Interlibrary Loan from the Greenville College or Azusa Pacific University libraries.
During the depression years we struggled along as best we could. Weston came to work in the Superior Fireplace Company and for a long time was the vice president. Little by little the business began to grow. I was a permanent teacher in Los Angeles Unified School District, the salaries were not very high. Ernest’s first job was with the Automobile Club of Southern California, working in their Pasadena office during vacation in high school and later USC. It was there that he learned the insurance business. Later, that made it possible for him to establish his own insurance agency which was his lifelong profession. His office was in Alhambra. When our business was incorporated, Darcy asked Ernest to serve on the board of our company. His experience and good judgment were a fine asset to our company. Ernest built a lovely home in Hermon, where he and his family lived for a long time. Weston and his family lived in Alhambra. For a long time, their children were small and we all met at mother’s on Sunday afternoons. We were a close family, and we all help each other when they were problems.
Both of my brothers were married in 1925. Ernest and Florence had a lovely wedding at The Little Church of the Flowers in Forest Lawn. Her sister Zeta, brother Douglas and aunt Minnie were, by them, living in California [sic].
Weston went back to Wrightsville, Iowa to marry Meredith. They were married in the Little Brown Church, so famous in song, not far from her home. They came to Seattle and, from there, by boat to Los Angeles. We met them at the port, and I remember how beautiful Meredith was in a fall wool dress. At the time, Weston was doing quite well selling shoes at the leading shoe store in LA at the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard. A few years later, the depression worsened, and life was difficult for everyone. Weston was not earning enough to support his family. Darcy asked him to come into our company.
Darcy was born in Tennessee, but the family moved to Texas when he was a small boy. His mother died when he was just a young boy. His sister Una, oldest in the family, really raise them. Every time he made a trip east, he would go by Dallas and visit his sister in McKinney, Texas. Darcy’s oldest brother had died some years before I met Darcy, but the brother’s widow and some of the family still lived in McKinney two. One of the boys was named for my husband. His name was Darcy C Cage. Only the middle initial was different. My husband was Darcy L Cage.
One of those visits my husband’s nephew, Darcy, asked him if he could give him a job in Los Angeles. His reply, “no we are just getting started and I don’t have a job for you.” It was about 1935 and there was little building. But young Darcy appeared one evening without warning on our doorstep. He was twenty-one years old hadn’t even graduated from high school. My husband told him he could stay at our house and go to school, but that was not what he wanted to do. Finally my Darcy let him help the shipping clerk. Eventually, through sheer determination, he became a salesman.
We had been married about a year when Darcy spoke to me seriously about the business. He explained to me that he was not satisfied with the partnership. He was sure he could make a much better fireplace that would not infringe on Mr. Groth’s patents. He said that we would not have much money for a while. My reply was that he should do it while I had a job.
Darcy relinquished all interest in the Groth Cage Company. Then for some weeks he worked on a design for a new, larger and more efficient fireplace unit.
At first he had the new unit made by a sheet metal firm on contract. Thus we started the Superior Fireplace Company in 1932. As we could afford it we began advertising in some of the building magazines. We took pictures ourselves and I wrote the copy and made the layouts. At first Darcy called the new unit, the Heat Circulating Fireplace. That name was too long to write in the specification forms that the architects used. So we change the name to HEATFORM.
A company at Syracuse, New York got our literature and copied our unit as nearly as they could. That company was already established with other products and had far more money than we did. They called their unit a Heatilator. Ours was the first one and always the best fireplace. Darcy thought their advertising really helped us and establish the idea of the metal unit. As years have gone by our Heatform has been recognized as the best. We also made dampers for those who didn’t want to use the Heatform. The damper business became a large part of our business.
We also sold fireplace screens and sets made by other companies. I helped make our catalog, our Fireplace Book, that we revised at times. It was a good means of sales and advertising.
Mother died in 1934 after a long bout with cancer at the age of sixty-four. Father looked so well and strong at the time that I thought he would live for many years, but he lived only 1 ½ years after mother died. He too, succumbed to cancer of the pleura around the lung. Hers was in the colon. Life never seemed the same without them. Both funerals were at the Hermon church and attended by large audiences.
My parents were wonderful people whom I loved and adored. They set a great example in love and loyalty for all of us. I have always been most grateful that they had the courage to bring us to California when it was so difficult to do so. We have all had pleasant lives here. What role models they were!
It was during World War II that the company could no longer bimetal. The business was shut down for three years. Had we owned the shop that was making our products, we could have gone into war work and could have done very well. We couldn’t get a contract because we didn’t have a shop, and we couldn’t buy a shop because we didn’t have a contract. Most of our employees got were jobs. Darcy kept the desk in a business arcade run by Mr. and Mrs. Jack Howard. He did a little advertising and answered correspondence. We lived in one of the apartments at the court and lift off the income from the court. Weston and Meredith got were jobs at McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach. Meredith did riveting on the B-17 bombers. Weston was put in personnel and given some more training in handling the unions. They worked there for three years and it was money thus earned with which they bought our store when we incorporated. Weston’s experience and training there was later very valuable to our company. For years, Weston handled all our labor contracts and we never had any serious trouble with the unions. When Darcy died in 1969, the most beautiful displays of flowers we received came from three labor leaders. I think that spoke very well for both Weston and Darcy.
In the beginning, I was rather dubious about having relatives in the business; I had heard so many stories about families who had trouble over business. However, for many years, Darcy in Weston got along remarkably well. About 1960 they did disagree on policy. Weston wanted to expand rapidly and take some serious chances. Darcy didn’t want to do that. He had been hurt financially once early in his career, and he was more cautious. I sided with Darcy for I felt the business was his. About 1960 Weston found a smaller metal business in Baltimore that was for sale. It was a friendly separation. We were in Baltimore when I met Weston and Darcy at a hotel for lunch. Darcy said to me, “we have something to talk to you about.” Then he said, “Mabel, if it is okay with you, all lend West $30,000 to finance this new business.”
I said, “Darcy, I think that is very generous.” Of course I agreed.
Darcy said, “I would never want to cause any trouble in the Vinson family.” Darcy was a kind and generous man.
Weston ran that small business for five years, then liquidated it and recovered about twice what he gave for it.
When the war was over and metal was available again, our business begin to grow. Darcy decided to buy machinery and to manufacture his own products, at least the Heatform and Superior dampers. He had bought two old buildings on East Fifteen Street. The apartment court, where we lived, was all paid for and I let him put a mortgage on it for $30,000 to buy machinery.
RC felt more and more that we should have an Eastern plant. He and I made trips around the country to try to find a suitable location. He hoped for a location in the South. He was born and raised in the South and labor was cheaper there. In the end, we located in Baltimore, Maryland. The chief reason was that steel companies were near and steel was available. We bought suitable property there and made plans to build.
We were doing national advertising and could not afford to ship everything from the West Coast. Darcy had earned the reputation as an expert on fireplaces. Architects would call him for advice on fire pace problems even if they did not use our products.
In June 1944, I retired from teaching. I was not at retirement age, but I had completed thirty years, including the three years in Iowa and one year I took first sabbatical to write one of the textbooks. At that time, I was entitled to a teacher’s pension of fifty dollars a month. A few years ago, it was raised to over $300 a month. Darcy wants me free to go with him on the business trips. When the Baltimore plant was opened in 1947, Darcy sent several of our key employees there to help run it. Among the more Weston and his family, Lavon and her husband Leo and family, Jim and Lydia Howard, and my husband’s nephew, Darcy C Cage and his wife, Verna. After that, Darcy and I made two trips every year to the East Coast. Things were going well and we were happy. I was an officer of the Corporation, and I always attended board meetings as Darcy wanted me to.