Abrams Instrument Company   Centrifugal Fusing Company  Dail Steel Products Company   Duplex Truck Company   Fisher Body Division of Genera Motors - Lansing Plant   Hill Diesel Company   John Bean   Kold-Hold Company   Lundberg Screw Products   Motor Wheel Corporation   Nash-Kelvinator - Lansing Plants   Novo Engine Company   Oldsmobile Division of General Motors   Olofsson Tool and Die Company   Reo Motor Car Company
Lansing Michigan Companies in World War Two
Recognizing Companies from my Hometown that contributed to winning World War Two

This page updated 8-29-2022.

The story really starts here at 817 Smith Avenue in Lansing, MI.  This is the house in which I grew up during my formative years.  We moved into this house in the early 1950s and then left it in 1968 for another one several miles away.  I still remember the phone number.  It was Ivanhoe (IV)9-0836.  While living at 817 Smith Avenue, I went to Barnes Avenue Elementary School, Walter French Junior High School, and J.W. Sexton High School.  I started attending college at Michigan State University while still living in this house. 

All three school buildings that I attended in Lansing still exist. 


Barnes Avenue Elementary School is now a private school.  It was built in 1919 and my mother attended this school when she was young.  My fifth and sixth grades with Miss Reich were in a classroom above the "Barnes Ave. School" sign.  Author's photo added 2-20-2022.

In the 1950s, the parking lot was gravel.  My first grade class with Mrs. Hetherington was on the first floor classroom all the way to the right or north end of the building.  This is the room with the air conditioner in the window.  My third grade class with Mrs. Tubbs was the room to the left of my first grade class.  Down by where the bottom windows are underneath my first and third grade classes, we used to play marbles at lunch.  There was no cafeteria at the school, so we all went home for lunch.  When we got back early, we would play marbles, football, or softball in the school yard.  Author's photo added 2-20-2022.

My mother also attended Walter French.  It closed as a public school in 1981, as the area could no longer sustain enough children to support it.  The building then served as a private charter school for a while.  Currently, it is owned by the Capital Area Housing Partnership.  Walter French is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  It gained that distinction in 2014.  They don't make schools this good looking any more, as it looks just as majestic now as it did when it opened in 1925. 

The J.W. Sexton High School building still exists and is now a STEM Magnet School for the city of Lansing.  My uncle Bill Dominik was one of the first to graduate from J.W. Sexton after it was completed during World War Two.  He was my mother's younger brother.

I grew up in the immediate post-World War Two era and the war was still fresh in the minds of my parents and the parents of my friends.  Several of my friends in the neighborhood had fathers who served during World War Two.  Mike, who lived across the street for a while, had a father who was in the Navy.  Steve's father was in the Marines.  My father, Dwight R. Jackson, served with the 88th Infantry Division in Italy and was a combat veteran awarded the Combat Infantry Award.  He had PTSD, but no one called it that or made any attempt to cure it.  World War Two shaped many of us into who we are today.

In the over fifty years since I moved out of this house, there have been many changes to it.  The driveway is now concrete.  It was pea gravel when we lived here.  The tree has gotten a lot larger but is still there.  I learned to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk that runs in front of the house.  The steps are now concrete but were constructed of wood when I lived there.  I used to stand on the sidewalk and throw a rubber ball at the steps which, if I did it correctly, would bounce back and I would catch it.  If I did it incorrectly, it would bounce up and hit the front door.  My friends and I would play ball in the streets all the while watching for any car that would come down the street, so we could get off the street until it went by.  Then we would resume our game.  There are a lot of memories here.

The house now has vinyl siding.  When I lived here, the gray wood siding had to be painted every several years, which I did several times.  It is funny how certain events stick in your mind.  While painting the house, I would listen on my transistor radio on AM station WILS "1320 on your dial."  One summer, I distinctly remember listening to "I Got You, Babe" by Sonny and Cher multiple times as I painted the house.  It was only one of many songs played on the radio as I worked, but for whatever reason, this is the only song I specifically remember connected with the house painting.  Now whenever I hear "I Got You, Babe" on my satellite radio, it takes me right back to this house with me standing on a ladder with a paint brush in my hand.

I left Lansing behind in 1973.  I moved to Indiana after getting my college work done to work for the Delco-Remy Division of General Motors.  Indiana is my adopted home and my wife, children, and grandchildren are Hoosiers.  I have moved on from Lansing, MI and have now lived in Indiana for twice as long as I lived growing up in Lansing.  I still go back to Lansing every so often.  While it is the same, it is different.  Nothing stays the same.  That part of my life is in the past.

Many of the companies listed and researched on this page, which participated in helping win World War Two, were still in business while I lived here.  Many of them went out of business or moved out of Lansing while I lived in this house.  Unfortunately, others closed or moved out after I left Lansing.  These include Motor Wheel, Reo, John Bean, Dail Steel Products, Fisher Body, and then in 2004, the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors.  Nothing lasts forever.

In early July 2021, an unexpected email caused me to do some, what I thought would be, quick research on a few companies in Lansing about their participation in World War Two.  There were a couple of companies already on my list of interest at the time.  However, once I really starting deep diving into the historical record, I found that there were companies in Lansing I had never heard of.  The challenge was to find out as much as I could about how these small and now defunct companies helped win World War Two.

The time to research, collect, and present as much information as I could find from 80 years ago took several months to accomplish.  Below are the results of this research.  For some of the companies, I could only find a brief description of what they made.  For others, I was able to find enough information to do dedicated pages which are linked at the top of this page and in the body below.

David D Jackson
10-3-2021

Six companies in Lansing were awarded Army-Navy "E" Award during World War Two.

Fisher Body Lansing Plant won the "E" Award one time.
Kold-Hold Manufacturing Company won the "E" Award three times.
Lapaco Chemicals, Incorporated won the "E" Award five times.
Motor Wheel won the "E" Award five times.
Nash-Kelvinator Lansing Plants won the "E" Award one time.
Oldsmobile won the "E" Award four times.

There are 28 companies listed below that produced products and components that helped win World War Two.  For some of the companies, I have been able to find enough information for the company to have its own page.  For other companies, the only information that is available is what is listed below.  I was previously aware of fourteen of the companies in the list below.  The other thirteen were unknown to me until I started researching this project, which has allowed me to learn more about my hometown and the companies that provided jobs for workers in the Lansing area.  There may be other companies not on this list that also contributed to the winning of World War Two, but they were too small to be identified and will go unacknowledged in their efforts.

• Abrams Instrument Company - The company produced Army CF-8 stereoscope map readers, aerial cameras, intervalometers, contact printers, printer timers, camera mounts, height finders, contour finders, assessing units, vertical and oblique sketch-masters, and mechanical triangulation equipment for all three U.S. military services during World War Two.

• Atlas Drop Forge - The Atlas Drop Forge on Mt. Hope Avenue employed almost 1,000 workers during World War Two.  It produced forgings for tanks and bomber aircraft.  See Table 2 below for details on the company's $1,978,000 in major war contracts.

• Capital Erection and Welding - The company provided 500,000 bomb casings for the war effort.

• Centrifugal Fusing Company - The company produced brake drum castings for the P-47, B-17, and B-29 aircraft.  These were produced under sub-contract to the Motor Wheel Corporation, which then made them into the final brake drum.

• Chaard Laboratories - This company was formed in 1940 to produce disintegrating Plaster of Paris casts.  The casts disintegrated by making a groove in them and then putting warm water in the groove.  During World War Two, the company had multiple advertisements in the Lansing State Journal for women to work at the factory.  During the summer months high school girls and teachers worked at the plant at 317 North East Street.  The company had $2,966,000 in major contracts which included two contracts for packing ration packets.  One advertisement by the company sought 80 women to pack ration packets.  See Table 3 below for the details. 

• Dail Steel Products Company - The company produced stamped metal parts for unknown military applications.

• Duplex Truck Company - The company produced trucks and search light equipment. 

• Federal Drop Forge - The company produced forgings for unknown military applications.  See Table 4 below for details on the company's $51,000 in major war contracts.

• Fisher Body Division of General Motors - Lansing Plant - An Army-Navy "E" Award winner.  This plant produced B-29 control surfaces and engine nacelles, aircraft tail sections, XP-75 aircraft parts and assemblies, M4, M18, M24, M26 tank parts, 90mm anti-aircraft gun carriages, and components for 5 inch naval guns mounts.

• Hill Diesel Company - This company produced diesel engines for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army Signal Corps power generators.  During World War Two this company was located in the building that is currently the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing.

• Hugh Lyons and Company - This company produced unknown parts under subcontract to other companies.

• Industrial Metals Company - This company produced tools, dies, and gauges for other companies making military products.

• John Bean - This company produced FFN-1, FFN-2, FFN-3 U.S. Navy crash fire trucks, Class 125 Army Air Force fire trucks, and spray decontaminating equipment for the U.S. Army Chemical Corps.

• Kold-Hold Manufacturing Company - An Army-Navy "E" Award winner.  This company produced low temperature testing equipment for the American Aviation industry. 

• Lansing Drop Forge - The company produced forgings for unknown military applications.  It won two major war contracts in 1945 for $312,000.  See Table 5 below for the details.

• Lansing Machining Company - This company machined parts for tanks and half-tracks.

• Lansing Paint and Color Company/Lapaco - An Army-Navy "E" Award winner.  This company produced high explosives for the U.S. Navy.  The company had $3,856,000 in major contracts with the U.S. Navy during World War Two.  See Table 6 below.

• Lansing Stamping Company - The company produced stamped metal parts for unknown military applications.

• Lindell Drop Forge - The company produced forgings for unknown military applications.

• Lundberg Screw Products - This company produced screw machine parts for other companies under sub-contract.  This included parts for the Clark Equipment Company's Planeloader forklift truck.

• Michigan State College of Agricultural and Applied Science - This became Michigan State University on January 1, 1964, three years before I began my university education there.  The University is actually located in East Lansing, but the Major Contracts listing shows it as Lansing.  See Table 7 below.

• Michigan State Industries - This appears to have been part of the what is currently known as the Michigan Department of Corrections.  There are three locations given in the Major Contracts listing for World War Two that show Lansing, Ionia, and Jackson as part of Michigan State Industries.  All three produced various types of clothing.  Both Ionia and Jackson were the location for two of the State's prisons.  Lansing, as the headquarters for the prisons, also received contracts totaling $264,000 for shirts and overalls.  See Table 8 below.

• Michigan, State of - The U.S. Army contracted with the State of Michigan for one month's use of ferry boats.  Most likely these were for the ferries that crossed the Straits of Mackinac between the Lower and Upper Peninsulas.  The contract was for October 1940 and totaled $76,000.  See Table 9 below.

• Melling Drop Forge - The company produced forgings for unknown military applications.

• Motor Wheel Corporation - An Army-Navy "E" Award winner.  This company produced P-47 brake drums, B-17 brake drums, B-29 brake drums, B-29 propeller spinners, M4 Sherman tank boogie wheels, M18 Hellcat tank destroyer boogie wheels, M26 Pershing tank boogie wheels, GMC CCKW 2-1/2-ton truck wheels, and rockets.

• Nash-Kelvinator - Lansing Plants - An Army-Navy "E" Award winner. This plant produced 58,134 three and four blade propellers and 85,656 spare blades for various military aircraft. 

• Novo Engine Company - This company produced small gasoline engines and power generators for military applications.  It had $3,959,000 in major contracts during the war.  See Table 6 for more information.

• Oldsmobile Division of General Motors - An Army-Navy "E" Award winner.  This division of General Motors produced cannons, forgings, and shots and shells in impressive numbers during World War Two. 

• Olofsson Tool and Die Company - This company produced tools and dies for other companies producing military products.

• Reo Motor Car Company - This company produced trucks.  It also produced fuzes for the U.S. Navy and other military products for the war effort.

• Wohlert Company - This company produced machine parts for other companies under sub-contract.

The tables below include contracts made by U.S. Government agencies with these Lansing companies.  It does not include any subcontracting work that the companies received from other companies for their services during the war.

 

Table 7 - Michigan State College of Agricultural and Applied Science's Major World War Two Contracts The information below comes from the "Alphabetical Listing of Major War Supply Contracts, June 1940 through September 1945."  This was published by the Civilian Production Administration, Industrial Statistics Division.  Table added 8-29-2022.
Product - Customer	Contract Amount	Contract Awarded	Completion Date
Training Services - Army	$1,099,000	8-1943	6-1944
Total	$1,099,000

 

Table 8 - Michigan State Industries' Major World War Two Contracts The information below comes from the "Alphabetical Listing of Major War Supply Contracts, June 1940 through September 1945."  This was published by the Civilian Production Administration, Industrial Statistics Division.  Table added 8-29-2022.
Product - Customer	Contract Amount	Contract Awarded	Completion Date
Shirts - Navy	$64,000	1-1943	7-1943
Overalls - Navy	$200,000	1-1944	6-1944
Total	$264,000

 

Table 9 - State of Michigan's Major World War Two Contracts The information below comes from the "Alphabetical Listing of Major War Supply Contracts, June 1940 through September 1945."  This was published by the Civilian Production Administration, Industrial Statistics Division.  Table added 8-29-2022.
Product - Customer	Contract Amount	Contract Awarded	Completion Date
Boats Ferry - Army	$76,000	10-1940	10-1940
Total	$76,000