Eberhard Manufacturing Company Revenue and Competitors

Eberhard Manufacturing was one of the nation's largest producers of malleable iron wagon and carriage hardware and one of only a handful to survive the demise of the horse-drawn vehicle industry. Eberhard owed its existence to the Cleveland Malleable Iron Co., established in 1868 by Robert Hanna and four other investors for the production of malleable iron castings for a variety of industrial use. The firm quickly became a national leader in the field. In 1879 Alfred A. Pope established the Eberhard Manufacturing Co. to supply malleable iron castings to the nation's rapidly expanding wagon and carriage industry. The Eberhard works were built near Cleveland Malleable at East 79th Street and Woodland Avenue, and like that firm relied upon the labor of the nearby community of Hungarian immigrants. Soon Eberhard was producing large amounts of castings ranging from simple "D" ring and buckles for the saddlery trade, to more complex items such as steps and fifth wheels for wagon and carriage makers. The company sold the majority of these goods through and extensive series of heavily illustrated catalogs. At its height around 1900 the Eberhard plant occupied nearly twelve acres and employed over 1,000 people. By the time of Mr. Popes death in 1913 the firm had been producing automobile parts for several years, items which became their primary product as the horse gave way to the internal combustion engine. Malleable iron castings were enormously useful in the production of automobiles and the company exploited this need to the fullest. Eberhard remained an independent producer until 1936 when the company was purchased by the Eastern Malleable Iron Co. (now The Eastern Company) of Naugatuck, CT, the oldest malleable iron company in the nation. Still operating under their original name but as a division of Eastern, Eberhard continued to be an important Cleveland area firm. The company was an important supplier of parts for military vehicles during World War II boasting that not one type of vehicle made in the US went to war without something of the Cleveland plant functioning on it. In the early 1950's approximately 30% of the production at Eberhard still went into defense production directly or indirectly.