The Eagle Woodenware Company was first established in 1889 in Cincinnati by F.M. Fritsch.  The plant was moved in 1900 to Circleville and in 1911a larger facility was constructed in Hamilton. An article in the  Hamilton Journal tells the story of the company's first fifty years:

"During the 50-year history no date was more auspicious than the one in February, 1912, when machinery and equipment was moved into the new plant in Hamilton, and the wheels started turning. The new quarters were in a two- story brick building (since enlarged) on a plot of five and one-half acres. The building was modern and new equipment enabled efficient manufacturing.
 

"The facilities also enabled expansion of the line, to manufacture pails, tubs, washing machines and folding wringer benches. In 1928 the company further expanded, its operations by adding to the line of products a complete series of galvanized pail mop wringing equipment, including the portable type machine mounted on casters for institutional and industrial uses. . ." In 1889 he (Mr. Fritsch) laid the foundation for the Eagle Woodenware company, first manufacturing cooperage stock -- flour, sugar and cracker barrels and similar types of cooperage. He erected a one-story plant at the corner of Spring Grove Avenue and Straight Street, Cincinnati, and this original company building still stands.

The advent of tin cracker boxes, paper and cloth flour sacks and other substitutes for cooperage caused the demand for his goods to dwindle and in 1918 Mr. Fritsch conceived the mop wringer, then unknown to the trade.
He realized that floor cleaning was a slow, tedious, back-breaking task, and the picture of men and women on their hands and knees was an ever day sight, as they scrubbed floors, parboiled hands by dipping them in hot lye water, meanwhile wearing out both clothes and tempers.
 

Introduction of his new Eagle mop wringer was an uphill struggle. Mr. Fritsch tried house-to-house canvassers, without success. Then he steered the marketing through wholesale and retail channels.   Soon the practical design and labor-saving features of the Eagle mop wringer gained recognition of wholesalers and retailers throughout the United States. Today the company markets its product through 674 wholesale and almost all retail dealers in this line in the United States, Canada and the Hawaiian Islands.    Among these are many whose relations with the company date back to its inception.

There was another hurdle. As the merits of the wrings became more widely known, competition became keener. Imitators and infringers of the Fritsch patents sprang up everywhere, and the company was forced into legal battles to protect its patent rights. Various courts upheld the validity of the patents."

 © 2000 by the Butler County Historical Society