Hoover closing historic Beatrice plant

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By Joelyn Hanse / Beatrice Daily Sun

BEATRICE — A Beatrice company that traces its history to 1911 — a history that includes a major contribution to the Allied naval effort in World War II — is closing its doors.

Today, the company is called Hoover Materials Handling Group Inc. The manufacturer of containers for transporting bulk liquids and dry products is moving its operations to Hoover’s Houston facility.

Carlos Mendez, Hoover’s director of manufacturing and Beatrice plant manager, said no firm closing date for the plant has been set.

The Beatrice plant currently employs six people, Mendez said.

“It’s just a strategic planning on the market,” Mendez said. “The market requires for us to be close to our customers.”

In 2007, Hoover began moving operations from Beatrice to the Houston facility to meet the growing demands of the petrochemical industry.

A majority of Hoover’s containers service the Gulf Coast region.

The remaining six employees at the Beatrice plant were offered the opportunity to move with the company to Houston, Mendez said. Many of them chose not to move and will be working with Hoover’s human resources staff to explore other options.

The company now known as Hoover was founded Nov. 1, 1911,  under the name Beatrice Steel Tank Co., by Thomas E. Adams Sr., a former employee of another Beatrice company, Dempster Industries.

Opened in the old Jonz Automobile Factoring building at 700 S. Seventh St., the original Steel Tank plant manufactured culverts, stock tanks, well casings, grain bins and miscellaneous farm supplies, according to a company history.

Adams died in 1935 and his sons and son-in-law took over operations of the plant.

The company continued to focus on the farm supplies fabrication business until 1942, when it switched manufacturing operations to support U.S. efforts during World War II.

Tom Adams, while on vacation, began to shop around for defense contracts and became acquainted with a Navy commander in Washington, D.C., who provided him a contract in March 1941 to begin manufacturing depth charges. Under that first contract, Beatrice Steel Tank grossed more than $1 million in Navy work.

According to the company’s history, the company won several large Navy contracts for ordnance materials. More than 50 percent of all depth charges used by the U.S. and its Allies during World War II were manufactured in Beatrice, according to the company history.

During World War II, Homestead Industries Inc. pulled together several local and area companies, including Beatrice Steel Tank and Dempster, to begin manufacturing and mobilizing production items needed for the war.

Beatrice Steel Tank went on to also manufacture powder tanks, cartridge tanks and pistol containers for the Navy. (Dempster made more than 1½ million 90 millimeter shells.)

Beatrice Steel Tank, because of its war work, received the coveted Navy “E” award for excellence in production, one of just  200 industries nationwide to receive the honor.

A Beatrice newspaper article quoted the emergency management branch at Kansas City, Mo., as stating:

“The record of the Beatrice Steel Tank Manufacturing company . . .  stands as an inspiration to Nebraska industry as it shifts from peacetime to war production.”

On Feb. 9, 1945, the original plant and storage area was gutted by fire.

Employees built a completely new plant in 45 working days and production was resumed in the new modern brick building within 60 days after the fire.

By the end of World War II, the company employed 275 people and had placed orders totaling 8 million pounds of aluminum in various forms. Among its new products: beer barrels.

Between 1946 and 1947, the company added product lines for corrugated culvert pipe, corrugated storage buildings for grain and pre-mix containers for vending machines.

In 1949, Beatrice Steel Tank acquired Tote Engineering Inc. of Seattle, Wash.

But in 1959, the company was purchased by Universal Wire Spring Co. of Bedford, Ohio — the first of several name and ownership changes that led eventually to the Beatrice plant’s demise.

A former 20-year employee of Hoover, commenting at beatricedailysun.com, said:

 “I worked for Hoover for over 20 years and it is a shame that the plant is closing.

“I urge people and the other business leaders of Beatrice to take a good hard look at what happened at Hoover and do all in (their) power (to) not let this happen to other companies in the area.”

The Gage County Museum is  compiling names of people who worked at the Beatrice plant  and collecting stories of former and current employees.