A 1906 photograph of the Swab Wagon Company complex of buildings along the railroad tracks (looking west) in Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
SWAB WAGON COMPANY
Jonas Swab, who founded Swab Wagon Company was a Civil War veteran, and after his discharge from the Army March 30, 1865, at Arlington Heights, Virginia, he traveled to Nevada. Upon his return to Elizabethville, he purchased land from H. W. Schreffler on March 8, 1868 on South Market Street where he started his blacksmithing business on the site of the present Swab Motors Division. The land west of this, part of which is the Swab homestead owned by his daughter, Mrs. Etta S. Margerum, and on which Jonas built part of the wagon shops, was deeded from Benjamin Buffington April 3, 1869.
The first entry in his ledger shows that in March 1868 work was done for Isaac Hemping. When S. H. Knisely became a junior member of the firm in 1899, the average output was five wagons per day. In 1902, when the Company was incorporated with a capital of $50,000, A. P. Margerum, an architect drew plans for new building “to be erected near the depot.”
In 1900, Fred P. Margerum married Jonas Swab‘s only living child, Etta Swab, and became a member of the Swab Wagon Company. Mr. Margerum was associated with the business until his death in 1950. In March 1920, William T. Garrison of Columbia, Pennsylvania, was put in charge of sales in Pennsylvania east of Harrisburg, in New Jersey and part of Maryland, but he died suddenly November 26, 1921.
Aaron Swab, brother of Jonas, manufactured the Swab buggy as a business independent from the Wagon Company, and in March 1916, he sold his property to Swab Wagon Company, Inc. Galen Swab son of Aaron, who had worked part time for both companies, then began full time work with his uncle Jonas. Galen, who started to work in 1910, was the oldest active employee of the Company, until his death in March, 1967.
With the purchase of the property of Aaron Swab, the automobile business was begun in 1916 on Callowhill Street. At the beginning of operations and before the development of trucks, Swab farm wagon bodies were mounted on auto chasis and provided the first trucks in general use. This was the first step in the transition that resulted in the entire production of special bodies for truck chasis.
Although the Company continues to make wagons, largely commercial, until World War II, the automobile business was moved into the wagon warehouse on South Market Street in 1937, and the wagon shops on Callowhill Street south of the railroad were converted to a farm implement branch to serve mainly former customers for farm wagons. This provided additional space to expand the truck body manufacturing division.
The company devotes its entire operations to custom truck body work and builds each body in accordance with the needs and wishes of the customer. The Company’s draftsmen, Michael Margerum, Tony Margerum, and William Lehman, draw the proposed unit, make up specifications and submit them to the customer for approval. The plans are then given to the shop for construction of the body.
Among its many products are ambulances which are considered to be the most modern concept for such vehicles, a number of which have been submitted to the city of Baltimore and to other cities; rescue trucks for Fire Departments which trucks are fitted with many kinds of emergency equipment designed for rescue work in airplane and automobile accidents and disasters at sea; chick transport vans with fresh air and heating units. The Company has built a number of crash units and snow plows for Friendship Airport at Baltimore. Also included in its long list of fine products are scale testing truck units for testing public scales; mobile display vans which are ideal for companies to display their products; and animal rescue bodies used by humane societies and by hospitals for their laboratories.
The Company maintains an export Sales Department at No. 101 East 31st Street, New York, where the Company’s name appears on the directory in the lobby of the building of E. Holzer, Inc., its representative for sales in foreign countries.
Swab Wagon Company, Inc., employs more than sixty men and the present officers are: Jonas B. Margerum, grandson of the founder; Michael B. Margerum and Anthony J. Margerum, great grandsons of the founder; and William P. Lehman.
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From: History of Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 1817-1967. For availability of this book and other materials on Elizabethville history, contact the Elizabethville Area Historical Society.
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