MUSKEGON, MI – Muskegon’s oldest surviving manufacturer has stayed around by making an unassuming product that is used by paint sprayers, cattle ranchers and even the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA).
CW Marsh, a small but mighty manufacturer of leather seals for hydraulic and pneumatic equipment, celebrated its 125th anniversary on New Year’s Day and is still going strong selling a product that hasn’t changed much since its founding.
When Charles Marsh founded CW Marsh in 1900, he was down on his luck. The company he was working for went under, so began the bold step of making custom leather seals out of his kitchen just to survive.
That same year, Marsh made his first sale to Ingersoll-Rand, an air compressor manufacturer out of Pennsylvania. That company became a loyal customer for the next 100 years.
In 1907, Marsh moved his company into the factory at 1385 Hudson St. where it remains today. In the mid-1920s the company had about 35 employees.
While not as big as it once was, CW Marsh is still doing what it did best 125 years ago. Fifth-generation owner and Marsh’s great-great-grandson Dan Wehrwein said leather was the gold standard for sealing until the 1950s when synthetics started coming into play.
“Our business isn’t nearly as big as it used to be in its heyday,” Wehrwein said, but the company is still going strong with 15 employees and roughly $2.6 million in annual sales.
It’s the oldest surviving manufacturing business in Muskegon. Wehrwein attributed the company’s endurance to the quality of its products, such as the Vee Packing, a leather seal that goes into paint spraying equipment like the kind Graco produces.
Outside of manufacturing a quality product that hasn’t changed much since the 1900s, CW Marsh is looking to enshrine its history as Muskegon’s longest standing manufacturer.
Wehrwein is working with the city of Muskegon and the state to get a historic designation for the facility, and the application is set for review in May.
Historic artifacts around the shop include an early 20th-century line shaft that used to be powered by a steam engine and a 48-star American flag that was hung the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941.
“It’s like a trip back in time just walking through the shop,” Wehrwein said.
There are a few landmarks in Muskegon that have the company’s name on them, such as Marsh Field. Charles Marsh in 1915 helped purchase the land to construct the baseball field where high schoolers and professional teams play today. The homes around that field are known as the Marsh Field Neighborhood as well.
The company’s capacity, not just quality, has been a factor in its longevity.
With the capability to manufacture custom leather packings, CW Marsh can take on jobs of any size. The company has sold to NASA and recently received a request from the Hoover Dam, Wehrwein said.
“They (the Hoover Dam) said nobody else around can manufacture these,” he said.
The leather seal, impregnated with rubber, outlasts any synthetic seals on the market, Wehrwein said. Other applications include windmill-driven pumps that supply water for cattle.
Wehrwein said leather is the best seal for those pumps because they are buried a couple thousand feet into the ground, and leather is durable enough that it doesn’t need to be replaced often.
Last year, CW Marsh shipped 14,000 different parts to 11,000 customers. It counts paint sprayer manufacturers Graco and Wagner and CNC maker Laguna Tools among its clientele.
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