Kelly-Springfield Tire Company
The Kelly-Springfield Tire Company was founded in Springfield , Ohio in 1894 by Edwin S. Kelly (1859-1934) and Arthur Grant .
Emergence
Edwin Kelly originally called the company "The Rubber Tire Wheel Company" because it manufactured rubber tires for wagon wheels. Arthur Grant received a USA patent for his solid rubber tire in a wheel rim ((Cite Patent | USA | 554675)). The tire was held on the wheel by two longitudinal wires embedded in the rubber, which had a smaller circumference than the tire. Due to the high quality of the connection, the rubber stayed permanently on the bike and the tire was immediately successful on the market.
Name changes
The company was sold to the McMillan Group in 1899 for USD 1,200,000. Arthur Grant received $ 166,000 in shares and $ 33,000 in cash for his company shares. The McMillan Group operated the new company until 1914 under the name "Consolidated Rubber Tire Company" . In 1911, the New York sales subsidiary was named "Kelly-Springfield Tire Company" . The company name of Consolidated was changed in 1914. In 1932 the prefix “The” was added to the name and it became “The Kelly-Springfield Tire Company” .
Independent development
Tire manufacturing was done at a plant in Akron, Ohio, and another plant in Wooster, Ohio, was purchased in 1915 and used until 1921. The company's growth continued.
In 1916, General Manager Van Cartwell decided to build a new plant in Cumberland, Maryland , and signed an agreement for this on November 4th. According to the plans, the city of Cumberland had to provide the land free of charge and a construction subsidy of USD 750,000. The city also had roads, water and sewerage services, and other major construction works. The factory premises covered 330,000 m². The plant should employ over 3,000 people and increase the company's production capacity five times. The first tire was manufactured on April 2nd, 1921 and the Kelly-Springfield Tire Company continued to grow.
Under Goodyear
Fourteen years later (1935) the Kelly Springfield Tire Company became part of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and was run as a wholly-owned subsidiary under Edmund S. Burke (General Manager from 1935 to 1959).
The company continued to grow. In 1962 a new plant was added in Tyler, Texas ; another plant was built in 1963 at Freeport, Illinois and the third plant in 1969 in Fayetteville, North Carolina .
In 1987, just 66 years after the first tire left the Cumberland plant, the facility closed. In the same year the "Lee Tire & Rubber Company" came into the possession of Kelly-Springfield. In November 1987 the corporate offices moved to a new location on Willowbrook Road in Cumberland. The original factory and site were returned to the city.
In 1994, The Kelly-Springfield Tire Company celebrated 100 years of existence. At the time, it was the oldest tire manufacturer in the United States. In the 1990s, the parent company Goodyear integrated the Kelly-Springfield subsidiary and relocated the headquarters to Akron, Ohio.