Description
This image from 1910 of the Wooster Brush Company, founded in 1851 by Adam Foss, shows the new building that was built in 1909, which is still the Wooster Brush Company’s headquarters today. The Wooster Brush Company originally was a door-to-door selling company, but would come to evolve to have over 500 employees and become an integral part of not only the painting community, but the Wayne County community.
The industrial boom that was occurring at the turn of the twentieth century would give many people a higher standard of living, both by creating more factory and industrial jobs and also freeing many workers from the back-breaking work that was required before mechanization. In addition, many industrialists attempted to build their businesses as big as they could, rapidly expanding their business, as the Wooster Brush Company did with their new building in 1909. The expansion of industry would lead to people moving into cities and larger towns, or urbanization. The city of Wooster would flourish as many new companies, including the Wooster Brush Company would expand and need more workers during the industrial boom at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Use Ohio Social Studies Standard for American History 10 (The rise of corporations, heavy industry, mechanized farming and technological innovations transformed the American economy from an agrarian to an increasingly urban industrial society) for integration into the classroom.