Historic Sandwich, Illinois

Category: Business & Industry

  • The Newspapers of Sandwich

    The Newspapers of Sandwich

    Beginning with the People’s Press in 1857, Sandwich’s newspapers recorded a growing community’s businesses, celebrations, losses, and everyday life. Explore nine historic titles through surviving originals, distinctive mastheads, and the people behind the press.

  • A 1913 Sketch of the Sandwich Manufacturing Company

    In 1913, the Sandwich Argus described a company employing about 410 people and selling machinery across the country and abroad. Read its original “sketch” of the Sandwich Manufacturing Company, preserved with its figures and hometown pride.

  • A Sandwich Manufacturing Company Reunion in 1898

    In December 1898, the Sandwich Manufacturing Company gathered its district managers and traveling salesmen for a reunion in Sandwich. A contemporary newspaper account preserves the banquet, evening entertainment, and names of officers, employees, and guests, offering a glimpse into the people and families behind one of the community’s most important industries at the century’s close.

  • Warner Mercantile

    For generations, Warner Mercantile was one of Sandwich’s best-known stores. From clothing and groceries to memorable advertising umbrellas, giveaway clocks, artwork, and colorful promotions, Warner’s became more than a place to shop, it became part of everyday life in the growing community.

  • Businesses of the Marcy Block

    For more than 170 years, the Marcy Block has been home to an ever-changing collection of merchants, professionals, and locally owned businesses. This growing reference traces the known occupants of one of Sandwich’s most historic commercial buildings—from the original wooden storefronts of 1854 to today’s Village Square Mall.

  • Testimonials from the Corn Belt, 1896

    Farmers from Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and even New Zealand wrote to Sandwich Manufacturing Company praising the performance of its shellers in 1896, offering a rare firsthand look at how these machines worked in the field.

  • “Still Ahead”: How Sandwich Marketed Its Machines

    The 1896 Sandwich Manufacturing Company catalog reveals how the company marketed its famous shellers through branding, testimonials, reputation, and warnings about inferior imitation machines.

  • The “Samson” Horse Powers

    Before tractors transformed agriculture, Sandwich Manufacturing Company’s massive “Samson” horse powers used teams of horses and giant gears to run shellers, elevators, and other farm machinery across the Midwest.

  • Sandwich Manufacturing Company Sheller Catalog, 1896

    The 1896 Sheller Catalog captures the Sandwich Manufacturing Company at its peak, featuring machines of every scale, from hand shellers to horse powered rigs, along with testimonials that highlight their performance across the agricultural world.

  • A. Adams & Sons (1856–1867)

    Founded in 1856, A. Adams & Sons was the original partnership that established manufacturing in Sandwich, Illinois, and laid the foundation for the Sandwich Manufacturing Company.