Maker Closest to Fosters OH

AGruber

New member
I've been collecting local tools for a long time and have recently moved into cast iron. My collection interest is primarily motivated by my family history.

My great grandfather was born in Foster's Crossing, Ohio and spent his entire life on his farm there. I have heard that the cooking in their household was done mostly using cast iron. Unfortunately, no-one saved any, and my still living relatives old enough to remember were too young to have noticed what they looked like. I'm interested in looking for CI that might potentially be of the same brand they used.

What do you think the most likely brand would be to serve that area?

Here are my clues:
- The farm was quite rural, and my great grandfather was famously opposed to travel. The maker would most likely be local. Probably as close as possible.
- The dates of manufacture would be somewhere between 1890 and 1930.
- His brother worked in King's Mills, OH.
 
Those areas are south western Ohio near Cincinnati. My guess would be Favorite either before or after their move to Piqua. Sidney would be another one as well as Wagner Ware since they are close enough to probably have sellers in his area.

---------- Post added at 11:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 PM ----------

Also remember that there were probably a number of small foundries in the area also.
 
My bad, I looked at the little Wikipedia map and assumed the large turquoise areas were the locale, not the tiny red dot in SW Ohio. In that case, not Griswold or S&G.
 
One brand comes to my mind and it would be "The Favorite" which was made by the prison inmates in Columbus, Ohio. I have a couple of skillets and on that I posted here on CIC a few years ago. The time line would fit the dates you have specified and the locality not that far away. According to our CIC resource page they would have most likely been sold by local stores or hardware stores. I have found thru my research that there were a number of small foundries that engaged in casting cookware in and around the Ohio River area probably due to the easy access of transportation of iron ore by river boats. As we know there were numerous steel mills all along the Ohio River which inspired foundries such as Erie/Griswold.
Hope you find some additional clues in your quest. Good luck.
 
They could have used Wapak, since they were made in OH. They were presumably cheaper than Griswold, Wagner, ect. Or their other, cheaper line, Oneta skillets.

---------- Post added at 12:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:54 PM ----------

Oh, and Welcome to The Forums!
 
They could have used Wapak, since they were made in OH. They were presumably cheaper than Griswold, Wagner, ect. Or their other, cheaper line, Oneta skillets.

---------- Post added at 12:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:54 PM ----------

Oh, and Welcome to The Forums!
I forgot about Wapak. They are in that same area

---------- Post added at 04:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:59 PM ----------

My bad, I looked at the little Wikipedia map and assumed the large turquoise areas were the locale, not the tiny red dot in SW Ohio. In that case, not Griswold or S&G.
It's okay. Most places don't have lakes that big. I moved to the south and went to their lakes and said, "Where is it? I can see across it." lol
 
One other thought about brands available in any given area. Travel before autos and even after autos was limited especially for the common folk. Waterways were used as mentioned but also railways. So any given local hardware store would order cast iron in bulk either directly from foundries or from distributors. Also folks could order from mail order from Sears Roebuck etc. But buying local was cheaper than ordering Griswold or Wagner through mail order. I found it interesting to look at early Railroad maps and see routes from major foundry cities to my hometown.
 
There are actually pieces called "Foster" out of Ironton Ohio. They appear to have used Griswold Iron Mt. pieces as patterns or copied the design. I have skillets, chicken fryers, dutch ovens and a breakfast skillet all made by Foster or also called "The Foster Line" on some pieces.
 
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