The Defiance Tick Mitten Company

Partial photo showing the Defiance Tick Mitten Company.  Full panoramic photo may be viewed .HERE

The first mention of the Tick Mitten factory was in the newspapers of 1899.  It appeared that the mittens and gloves were made of ticking, perhaps lined in flannel and proposed to be waterproof and very warm. Some writers referred to them as "canvas gloves."

By 1908, there were actually three different mitten / glove factories in Defiance:
The Defiance Tick and Mitten Company, with its main factory in Toledo;
The Defiance Glove and Mitten Factory and
Superior Glove and Mitten Factory.  

In 1912, the girls who worked at the factory staged a small strike over wages, but it was short-lived.  The managers quickly made adjustments that were acceptable to the ladies.

Looking through the 1910 census at those employed by the mitten factories, it appeared to be largely single women, younger than 25, with a few errand boys and a few men who were bookkeepers or managers of some kind.  The census offered up this sampling of names employed in the factory, but there were many, many more:

Margaret Arens, 22, sewing girl

Tillie Balskey - 36, forelady

Laura Bates, 21, sewing girl

Sarah Biles, 17 (all that follow are sewing girls)

Mildred Biles, 15

Elsie Bensyder, 17

Allace Brewer, 18

Margurite Brown, 17

Lillie Brown

Della Chubb 16

Esther Conroy, 16

Maude Daubel, 19

Bessie Daubel, 16

Josephine Dehaus, 20

Rosa Diringer, 19

Minnie Durke, 20

Bertha Dunkelbarger, 19

Goldie Dunkelbarger, 18

Lillian Durrah, 23 (manager)

Lee Durrah, 15 (errand boy)

Harry French (clerk)

Louisa Goldfuss, 14

Bessie Desgranges, 17

Lucy Greaser, 18

Esther Greaser, 16

Regina Grossell, 24

Francis Grossell, 20

Mable Grube, 15

Louisa Hehr, 27

Goldie Healy, 23

Frank Hall, 22 (bookkeeper)

Nettie Hartman, 25...etc.