WAGNER TYPEWRITERS In 1895, under the name Wagner Typewriters, what we would know as Underwood Typewriter, Canada began. According to the obituary of John, Joseph Seitz was the founder and head of what was to become Underwood Enterprises in Canada. In 1896, John Joseph Seitz started the Underwood Typewriter Company of Canada in Toronto, and by 1898, he introduced the new technology to Canada. Seitz remained at the helm of the company for the next four decades until his death, at which point his son J L Seitz would continue in his footsteps. However, in 1898, his son J L Seitz joined his father in the company, which would become a leading enterprise and a name everyone recognised. J J did not show bias - his son attended De La Salle Institute and University of Toronto, while he started as an office boy at Underwood. UNITED TYPEWRITER United Typewriter Company, Limited, incorporated in 1903 when it bought the assets of the Creelman Bros. Typewriter Co. for over $65000. The managing director of the company was J J Seitz of Toronto, and named in the manufacturing of the machines was R I Creelman of Georgetown, Ontario. My father’s uncle, Nathaniel Cameron Bell, worked as a valued employee and tool machinist, for Creelman Knitting Machines of Georgetown. I wrote a previous article about their amazing machines. Creelman Bros were renowned, for their sock knitting machine, yet it was another machine that caught the interest of the Toronto investors — their typewriters. The head office of United was in Toronto with branches in Montréal, Hamilton, and London. They would take over all operations and contracts for the Creelman Bros including a ten year exclusive selling contract to sell Underwood Typewriters in Canada, a one year contract for Empire Typewriters in Ontario, as well as a five year exclusive contract for Webster’s Star Brand ribbons and Multi-Kopy carbon paper. We can find a detailed account for the purchase in the Prospectus of United Typewriter Company, Limited From the prospectus, it is mentioned that Underwood typewriters had been sold in Canada during the past four years (1898-1902) to Government offices and banking and educational institutions with great success. My father, Kelvin Rankin Bell, was born in Halton, Ontario and moved as an infant in 1908 with his family to Toronto. Both parents were from the Halton area and visited often with family. While Kelvin’s father’s family was small, his mother was from a large, close knit family. We have long known that networking is a good way to find your path towards a career. It was possibly even so at the turn of the 20th century. Far different in a technical sense we see today, but still prevalent none the less. After studying my father’s life, I have found threads I was not aware of until I researched at a different level. When Dad joined Underwood in 1924, he gave credit to J L Seitz, managing director, who rose to become President of the company. As he climbed that ladder so did my father. He often mentioned a special bond between them. Dad was seventeen when he started at the company and took a position in the mailroom as an office boy. Until recently, I did not know that J L had started in that same position when his father hired him. The two men were worlds apart; my father, a young man who left school to help support his family, and J L, from a privileged family in Rosedale. One man had a grade nine high school diploma, while the other was a university graduate. There was something that created that bond between them, and I believe it was their strong work ethic. J J's son took over the company Presidency in 1940, after his death, and my father would soon assume the previous title of J L. By the late 1950s, Underwood had branch offices in 41 major Canadian cities and several smaller cities. While it is unclear which cities manufactured typewriters, it is clear from a ca.1959 article in the Canadian Register of Commerce and Industry that head offices and the majority of operations were in Toronto. In the 1920s, the company made large expansions in Toronto, including a five-story factory built on Madison Avenue, Toronto. Other locations in Toronto included the business district at 45 Adelaide St. East. In the 1930s this location moved to a nearby building on Victoria St. Later in the 1950s, it relocated to 100 Adelaide St. East. Seitz hired Charles Sanderson to sell and provide maintenance on the machines and, at some point, sold off the repair part of the company to Sanderson. That part of the company developed into what we know today, as Dominion Business Machines. The Dominion Business Machines website website has different info than my other sources. One article in particular I found among my father’s belongings contained a biography about the founder of United Typewriter. which differs substantially from the history on the Dominion Business Machines site. **This may shed more light on the Seitz family and the development of Biography of John Joseph Seitz This was a letter that accompanied the in the anniversary edition MAY— JUNE, 1921 Twenty-five years ago Mr. J. J. Seitz started the United Type- writer Company, Limited. Since then typewriter companies have come and gone, while this company has grown to be the largest in the British Empire. Some have failed because the machine they sold was not good enough, some because of poor management. We have sold a good machine, and we have enjoyed good management. The company's first office contained less than 100 sq. ft. To-day we have in Toronto alone over 40,000 sq. ft. of space. Our business for 1920 was many millions < of dollars. One hundred and sixty-five employees are on the salary list in Toronto and as many more in our sixteen branches. We are a Canadian company, oper- ated by Canadians. In Head Office a score of departments are functioning. These include the Underwood, the Dalton, the Bookkeeping and Special Machine, Supply Printing, Inspection, School, Employment, Mechanical, Rental, Accounting, and Purchasing Departments. Mr. Seitz was at first manager of all departments. As the business grew and a department proved its worth someone was found to take charge. Because of his remarkable ability to pick the right man and develop him, he has often been spoken of as a “developer of men.” Mr. Seitz came off a farm in Bruce County. He tells of his first trip on the train, when the Newsie pasted the end of a dollar bill to the top of one of the pages of a book. Placing it among others, he offered the country lad his choice for fifty cents. Mr. Seitz says, "No doubt I was green all over, but I knew that I could not buy a fifty-cent book for fifty cents and have a dollar bill thrown in." He knew that sound business was based on the principle of a dollar's worth of goods for a dollar, with good service thrown in, and that has been the policy he has followed these twenty-five years. Being the head of a typewriter industry such as this carries with it great responsibilities. One who has not had the pleasure of meet- ing Mr. Seitz may picture him wrongly as a bewhiskered old curmudgeon scowling over a desk-full of papers and giving orders to a flock of trembling menials. Quite the contrary! We doubt if any business man in Canada gets through as much real work in a business day with as little fuss. While some men think around and about a proposition, narrowing it down gradually, Mr. Seitz has the faculty of cutting straight through to the heart of it, and making a decision quickly. He seldom makes a wrong one. At work or at play he is thoroughly human. For want of a better phrase we might say he is a ''good sport." If the employees hold a euchre he has to be reckoned with by those who are after first honours. At the company's anniversary dance he was on hand with the younger “boys.” He was once President of the Toronto Ball team, and the writer has often seen him slide for first with the best of them. Mr. Seitz is a better Canadian than most of us. He has travelled Canada from Sydney to Victoria many times, and is a keen student of Canadian history. Few know their Canada better. He has two bobbies. One of them, of course, is the Underwood. The other is music. If he has made a fortune out of one, he has spent a fortune on the other. And how could money be better spent? The best musical critics of America insist that in one of Mr. Seitz' sons Canada can claim ownership to one of the greatest living pianists. Speaking to a class of stenographers in a business college recently, Mr. Seitz said: “Many years ago I gave one of my boys the opportunity to study music under the best teachers. To-day I am proud of him. Your parents have given you an opportunity. Make the most of it. Accomplish something that will make your parents proud of you, too.” Putting it in that way, he has made more than one student decide to work harder than ever. At one time female office help was not even tolerated. The type- writer changed this. In the early days, every time Mr. Seitz sold a typewriter he had to find a young lady to operate it. Indirectly he still places thousands in positions yearly. We wonder how many millions of dollars in salaries have been paid to young women em- ployed in offices in the last twenty-five years as a result of the Underwood Typewriter and Mr. J. J. Seitz. I believe my father kept this letter, considering J J Seitz and his son both mentors. J J Seitz died January 12th 1940 at which point his son took over his many positions in numerous companies he owned, following in his father’s footsteps UNDERWOOD TYPEWRITER When When Dad began working at Underwood, it was still under the name of United. I could find this through “The Toronto Directories 1924 — 1937” before we see the name of United change to Underwood Elliott Fisher. Then in 1951 I listed him as Manager and Secretary Treasurer of Underwood, having dropped the two other names. Yet the following year my father appears in the Directory and they have Underwood Elliott Fisher listed as his workplace. This could just have been an oversight, having been with the company at this point for almost 30 years. In 1960, Dad became Vice-President with Underwood. It was at this point J L Seitz began appointing others to wear some hats he wore for many years, as did his father. When J L sold the company in the 1970s, my father remained on for several years. He retired in 1976, one year before Lanfranco Amato, the new chairperson and CEO of Olivetti also left. OLIVETTI CANADA Olivetti Canada, purchaser of Underwood Typewriter Canada came at a time when multi-nationals were emerging in Canada. This would see a big change in the business world. My father only remained with the company for a year as he retired in 1977 at age of sixty-eight. He stayed on with the company for the transformation, as the corporate office asked him to be part of the transition. It was a shock to him that when he left his position was divided and two men were hired, each earning more than he had in his final years earned. He could have stayed longer, but disappointment and health were issues and he wanted to enjoy life as a retiree. The new president of the company was Lanfranco Amato (1922-2005). His obituary mentions his significant accomplishments as the head of Olivetti Canada, as well as his Honour Appointment, Investiture Member of the Order of Canada June 20, 1983 October 5, 1983 Mr Amato as a leader of the Italian Community in Toronto, worked successfully to integrate people of Italian origin into the Canadian society. In addition, he has given freely of his energies to hospitals, the arts and music.
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Stephanie Bell-Boissonneault"When researching Family never leave a stone unturned, not even a pebble." Archives
July 2023
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