Document zd46n33bnwBbpQRO7wZdp89yR

me most important in me firm s local history. Employment is being steadily pushed toward a goal of 600 since inauguration of a second shift,earlier this year. Manager Jim Melton reports, that a steady training program is qualifying more employes for work in the plant and a good percentage of the additional em ployes are already on the job with others being added regu larly. Feb. 22, 1949 Levi Strauss opened the plant here with 56 machines and 60 employes mak ing waist band overalls. Shortly denim jackets were added and remained a mainstay of the Denison plant until early this year when .they were discon tinued. . Levi Casuals, popular trou sers, now take up the entire pro duction of the Denison plant. THIRD GAR building in terson Mgf. MULTI-MILLION-DOLLAR PLANT--This aerial view shows the proportions of the Johns-Manville Transite pipe manufacturing plant which was established in 1956 as one of Denison's more dramatic industrial developments of re cent years. Within a few months after its "just in case" he < opening, the Levi plant crossed it rich. the 200 employe mark, and con tinued growth put the plant near When the Virgin the 300 mark before announce visited Strauss t ment of the second shift addi goods for his ti Denison Took Big Industrial Step With J-M Start In 1956 tion assured that the work force learned of his use would be more than doubled vets and realized here ties. A company When Levi leased the building at Houston and Gandy from and garnet manu Southern Ice Co. it became the ed, growing to the third garment manufacturer to which made the n; Plastic pipe production and record - breaking production month on Transite Pipe are re cent highlights of Denison's Johns - Manville plant on High portant page in Denison indus continues to serve as a pattern trial history. Construction of the for efficiency throughout the in big plant was itself an industrial dustry, turning out asbestoesboost, occupying all of 1957 and cement pipe in sizes from three part of 1958 before the formal to 16 inches in diameter for a occupy the structure. Kraft was using the building for storage at the time of the Levi announce ment. As a Levi Strauss plant the terchangeable with sers.: Remembers T way 75 North. Earlier this year plant em ployes turned out more than 6, 500 tons of Transite pipe in a month, more than any two-mac hine plant had ever produced in a like period before. Plastic pipe is a new product for the Johns-Manville plant which opened here in 1958 with opening. Last year the plant had a pay roll of $1,300,0000. Employment has grown to 250 with recent additions attributed to the new plastic operation which was launched on a pi lot basis last fall. In addition to the regular em ployes Johns-Manville employes variety of uses -- irrigation, sewer, water, gas vents, tele phone ducts, drainage, etc. Both pressure and non-pressure pipe is produced here according to intended use. Varied Use Made Of Bomb Shelters local installation shares in the history of a firm that dates back 50-Year-OId I more than 100 years to the JOHNSON, Kan, California gold rush when Strauss first started in the clothing making business. Carter headed of Larkn, home frc The tale is colorful and house dance wher centers around an old prospec through Johnson. tor named Alkali Ike who could He stopped at a not keep his pockets sewn onj| feed for his hors two Transite Four plastic Pipe machines. production lines college youths during the mer months. Currently the sum plant MIAMI ffi -- ple doing with What their are peo backyard His per tailor rivets borrowed some from a saddle cop shoj> there was no atte: the animal and forg are now in operation, and an has 24 of these summer em bomb shelters? and used them on the mans ing for the feed. addition to the plant building] ployes, giving them the chance About 300 were installed in trousers, was made to house the new pro to earn money to assist in their the Miami area. The owners joke. more or less as /a Carter stopped again recently and duction area, according to Man education. found all kinds of uses for them. When the prospector retorted he still owed Lee W ager Jack Hesse. Officials and employes of the They're serving as laundries, from his next trip into the bill. ` . Forming machines extrude moldent plastic, forming it into continuous pipe which is Cooled and hardens. Automatic saws plant have proved valuable to the community, appearing in practically all facets of city life and offering leadership in many Cub Scout dens and places for weekend campouts. . A favorite use is for storage. People keep Christmas decora hills, some of his cronies ex pected to have fun hearing him complain to the tailor. However, the prospector was He found Ira Wi son, who told him 50 year-old debt. cut it into desired lengths. instances. tions, suitcases, lumber and pleased with the rivets, and the Sizes up to six inches in dia Though the plastic operation paint in them. tailor adopted their use. Mean meter are being produced for a is new and has.a.bit more gla . And a retired optometrist has time, Strauss'had given up variety of uses.- : .. mour, for that-re&son, the bulk turned his shelter into an under, dreams of-finding-gold a.-id be- Groundbreaking for the multi of the local 'plant's production grov laboratory where he doesjcome a merchant assisted by a I million dollar Johns-Manville continues to be the' Transite fori `.`a utile charity work for my supply -of canvas he had ] plant here in 1956 was an im which it is famous. The plant friends." 'brought along to San Francisco whwbkw am w tsmmsama iSias