Allen County, Indiana Genealogy

GE - General Electric

John McGauley photograph The Iconic GE Sign posted May 19, 2014 on flickr
I thought it was worth going up to capture this icon in its rightful place over downtown Fort Wayne before the GE complex demolition gets started.

Started as Jenney Electric in 1881, eventually became Fort Wayne Electric Corporation and in January 1899 was bought by General Electric.

The Story of General Electric in Fort Wayne: Documentary Trailer from PBS39 on Vimeo.
Electric Legacy: The Story of General Electric in Fort Wayne will take you on a journey 140+ years in the making. at PBS39 WFWA Fort Wayne

See Jenney Electric or Electric Works for more information.
ElectricWorks Facebook page or website: fortwayneelectricworks.com has the latest news on redeveloping and modernizing the former GE campus.
Fort Wayne Works news over 55 volumes of General Electric News Fort Wayne Works publications at Archive.org
General Electric Collection at The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indianahas hundreds of photos.
General Electric Photos in the Allen County Public Library Digital Collections at the Allen County Public Library.
Fort Wayne, IN: General Electric (GE) Buildings at Towns and Nature blog has many interesting historical photos from various sources.
Fort Wayne: General Electric Broadway Campus Documenting the last years of GE's presence in Fort Wayne. Daniel Baker photos on flickr.
In 1944 GE employed 20,000 workers, they had a General Electric Company Quarter Century Club and Elex Club for women with files on ACGSI.org.
General Electric Documentary Research and General Electric Documentary Research History Fort Wayne Photos by Rob Rhodes on Pinterest has lots of images that can lead to more information.
April 20, 2024 post on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook.
Comments range from they look like Sears Catalog homes to are they still standing?
Similar General Electric News April 19, 1929 pages posted March 24, 2024 and Armed Caravan who guarded payroll in the October 7, 1927 General Electric News Fort Wayne Works posted March 24, 2024 on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook.
We LIKE this #tbt to 1947 on the GE campus in #FortWayne. Check out as Broadway still featured brick streets and trolly...
Posted by Hoch Associates on Thursday, February 11, 2016

February 11, 2016 post by Hoch Associates on Facebook:

We LIKE this #tbt to 1947 on the GE campus in #FortWayne. Check out as Broadway still featured brick streets and trolly tracks (once the most popular way to get around town).

What would you like to see happen to the 32 acre campus on Broadway?

Hoch Associates wants to remind you to bring your #powerfulideas to the "Future of General Electric Campus Meeting" tonight at Citzens Square 5:30-7:30PM.
That's Where Your Money Goes on page 6 of twelve page GE News June 2, 1950 in the Allen County Public Library Digital Collections at the Allen County Public Library.
Employees of the General Electric Fort Wayne Works were beneficiaries of an exemplary corporate social welfare program....
Posted by The History Center on Monday, July 2, 2018

July 2, 2018 post by The History Center on Facebook:

Employees of the General Electric Fort Wayne Works were beneficiaries of an exemplary corporate social welfare program. This included employee clubs, family outings, athletic organizations, open houses, special-interest newsletter columns, and vacation opportunities. Employee organizations were voluntary, but had high rates of participation, and active democratic participation led by elected officers was encouraged.

In addition to leisure, GE offered benefits that provided stability, treating an employee’s family as part of their responsibility. GE provided a Relief Union and insurance plan, deduction-oriented savings plans, home ownership aid, retirement and disability pensions, a company credit union, an employee pricing discount store, profit sharing, discounted education, and company-provided medical services. Come and learn about Corporate Culture during the twentieth century with our new interactive display on GE Employee organizations. #sociallyhistory

GE Logo General Electric in Lights 200 @ 200 2016 Bicentennial items at The History Center.
Where should we keep our money? It is a question that has been asked by the workers of Allen County for generations. In...
Posted by The History Center on Tuesday, February 27, 2024

February 27, 2024 post by The History Center on Facebook:

Where should we keep our money? It is a question that has been asked by the workers of Allen County for generations. In our communities, there are mainly two different options: banks and credit unions. The latter began during the Great Depression when President Roosevelt signed the Federal Credit Union Act in 1934, forming a national system to charter and supervise federal credit unions. Locally one of the first credit unions began just two years later. In 1936, a group of GE employees in Fort Wayne, Indiana, petitioned for a federal credit union charter. On May 15, it was announced that the formation of the General Electric Employees Federal Credit Union was assured and temporary officers were elected. Decisions were made to limit membership to regular employees at the Winter Street and Broadway plants and those who had at least one year of service. The charter was granted on May 29, 1936. The first office was actually located inside the plant. Eventually, the young Credit Union needed more room and leased office space near the plant. In 1946, the Credit Union was located at 2001 Broadway and later, it relocated to a moveable office at 1021 Swinney Avenue. This credit union account book was used by GE employee, Garland Roby, Jr. The dates in it indicate that it was used from 1962-1966. In 1969, a permanent structure was built on that site. With the growing number of branches and mergers, the institution changed its name in 1987 to MidWest America Federal Credit Union to better reflect this expanded field of membership and market area. Today, Midwest America is still headquartered in Fort Wayne and continues its 88-year tradition of financially supporting the people of Allen County. #sociallyhistory
Page 5 April 2, 1954 GE News This is GE in Fort Wayne, April 20, 2024 post on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook

Pages 6 and 7 April 2, 1954 GE News This is GE in Fort Wayne, April 20, 2024 post on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook
General Electric— Powering Fort Wayne displays at The History Center.
General Electric at Fort Wayne a 110 year history was written in 1994 by Clovis E. Linkus
Pioneering GE group fades Elex Club, once home to 2,500 women, plans sendoff by Sherry Slater published November 2, 2011 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.
Fort Wayne Electric Works on Vintage Machinery.org discusses its history from Jenney Electric based on information from The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana 1917 pgs 509-510.
A FORT WAYNE ICON – THE GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY posted December 10, 2003 by The Waynedale News Staff on The Waynedale News.com.
RCH's Throwback Thursday is in tribute to a huge influence in Fort Wayne for more than a century: General Electric, Throwback Thursday: GE, Part 2 of 4, Throwback Thursday: GE, Part 3 of 4, and Throwback Thursday: GE, part 4 of 4 posted April 10, 2014 on Facebook.
GE looking to demolish some of old Broadway campus 'Endangered' iconic sign is spared -- for now by Kevin Leininger was published May 6, 2014 in The News-Sentinel newspaper.
GE holds a key in city's transformation Preserving Broadway campus helps position city for growth by David B. Lupke published March 15, 2015 in The Journal Gazette newspaper archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Future unsure for GE's crowded campus New use might require more buildings to come down by Paul Wyche was published March 29, 2015 in the The Journal Gazette newspaper.
After 88 years, future of General Electric sign hangs in the balance by Justin Kenny published April 8, 2016 in The News-Sentinel newspaper.
Save Our Fort Wayne General Electric Campus on Facebook.
Developer plans $300M upgrade of GE campus by Kevin Leininger published February 13, 2017 in The News-Sentinel newspaper.
Timeline of significant events from 1878 to 2017 posted with GE campus finds its buyer by Sherry Slater published February 14, 2017 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.
60 photos of 1942 company picnic post on the original Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana page on Facebook.
Posted by Indiana News 1 on Wednesday, August 30, 2017

August 31, 2017 post by the original Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana page on Facebook:

1916 a basement is excavated using two steam shovels and horse drawn wagons. The name Fort Wayne Electric Works is painted on the building to the left.
The historic General Electric campus on Broadway will get new life! Developers purchased the property from GE on Sept. 21, and expect the first tenants to move into the reinvented Electric Works facility sometime in 2019. So much history on these 30+ acres! Copied caption for 20 photos posted September 26, 2017 by Greater Fort Wayne, Inc. on Facebook.
It has been decades since the General Electric campus along Broadway generated the frenetic buzz that comes from nearly 10,000 employees working on the site. ... General Electric has been there since it bought the former Jenney Electric Light Co. in 1911, and Ewing Street and Fairfield Avenue were made one-way to facilitate the traffic generated by thousands of employees flowing in and out of the plant at shift change. But now, the future is uncertain. - read the rest of the story Iconic GE site’s future: Blight or a new light? Company, city officials discuss likely uses by Dan Stockman of The Journal Gazette November 18, 2012 newspaper.
An Abandoned Factory In Fort Wayne Will Give You Both Nostalgia And The Spooks Does your job have a bowling alley? by Rowaida Abdelaziz published November 9, 2017 in the Huffington Post.
GE General Electric Sign

The final 2014 entry on the ARCH Endangered List is the largest, the General Electric, Broadway Campus. General...
Posted by ARCH, Inc. on Friday, May 30, 2014

May 30, 2014 post by ARCH, Inc. on Facebook:

The final 2014 entry on the ARCH Endangered List is the largest, the General Electric, Broadway Campus.

General Electric announced in 2014 that it would be closing down all operations in Fort Wayne. While this signals an end of an era in Fort Wayne, it ushers in new challenges. The future of the Broadway Campus buildings presents a new challenge for GE and the local community.

Demolition has begun. The landmark GE sign will be put in storage. While GE and the City of Fort Wayne claim to be talking, little has been shared with the community about the future of the site. The huge scale of the campus, its relationship to downtown and the surrounding historic neighborhoods, and prospect of a long-term large "clear-cut" space on the community's tax base all deserve public debate.
Now that a GE plant has shown interest in moving Fort Wayne's iconic sign to Kentucky, the pressure is on. Do we step up or let it go? http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20140619/LOCAL/306199961
Posted by The Journal Gazette on Thursday, June 19, 2014

June 19, 2014 post by The Journal Gazette on Facebook:

Now that a GE plant has shown interest in moving Fort Wayne's iconic sign to Kentucky, the pressure is on. Do we step up or let it go? Old GE sign could get to stay in city Company ‘open to suggestions’ for saving skyline’s historic icon

[ article is archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine ]
Downtown Fort Wayne saw a major change to its skyline today when the iconic GE sign was razed. Here's why: http://wane.com/2016/03/29/iconic-ge-sign-pulled-down-from-downtown-campus/
Posted by WANE 15 on Tuesday, March 29, 2016

March 29, 2016 post by WANE 15 on Facebook:

Downtown Fort Wayne saw a major change to its skyline today when the iconic GE sign was razed.

Here's why: Iconic GE sign pulled down from downtown campus
I wrote something about this GE sign for Four for Quarter. I just heard it came down today. Here is my take: The...
Posted by Michael Martone on Tuesday, March 29, 2016

March 29, 2016 post by Michael Martone on Facebook:

I wrote something about this GE sign for Four for Quarter. I just heard it came down today. Here is my take:

The Maintenance of Light and Language in the Air above Fort Wayne, Indiana

My dad was a janitor all his life over at the GE. We lived on Brandruff Street by the Wabash tracks. From our backyard, where we kept a garden of trellised tomatoes, pole beans, and grape arbors, we could see the top floors of the factory beyond the rails and warehouses. I staked the plants. Strips of white cloth trained the stems up the poles and wires. GE's got factories everywhere, making all kinds of things electrical. The Broadway GE made the light bulbs. My dad worked third trick. He changed light bulbs with new light bulbs off the line. Union rules, that old joke. Yes, it took three guys, two to turn the ladder while he held the bulb. On the roof was the GE sign. GENERAL ELECTRIC spelled out in thousands of bulbs. The old intertwined initials blazing in a circle of script above it. G and the E laced together. Each night, my dad woke up and, ready for work, sat with me in the garden. We listened to the plants grow. Fireflies sparked upward off the tips of the lush leaves. The trains shunted back and forth in the yard. With binoculars, he focused on the burning sign, floating above the roof. Later, I watched him, a blurred shadow, crawl across the light, making his way along the brilliant scaffolding, to the single extinguished bulb. I had to look away. Only the brightest stars were in the sky, the rest washed out by the all the light of the city. My father kept his eyes closed as much as he could even behind the polarized window of the welder's mask he wore. He'd look away, he told me, to where he thought our dark house would be where I would be in the vast darkness below.

Vandals prompt removal of historic GE sign in The Journal Gazette newspaper archived on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
With the GE sign in Fort Wayne taken down recently due to vandalism, we thought we'd mention our collection of digitized...
Posted by Genealogy Center on Monday, April 4, 2016

Monday, April 4, 2016 post by the Genealogy Center on Facebook:

With the GE sign in Fort Wayne taken down recently due to vandalism, we thought we'd mention our collection of digitized General Electric materials from the Fort Wayne complex. It includes scrapbooks, photographs, archives and publications, as well as employee publications from the Elex Club. View the collection on our website at: http://www.genealogycenter.info/generalelectric/
For those people that moved from closed and downsized GE plants, this will hold special value. This is the sign that...
Posted by IAM Local Lodge 912 on Monday, January 28, 2019

January 28, 2019 post by IAM Local Lodge 912 of Cincinnati, Ohio on Facebook:

For those people that moved from closed and downsized GE plants, this will hold special value. This is the sign that was atop one of the Broadway buildings in Fort Wayne. For many years, our union brothers took care of the sign, changing bulbs for the Christmas season, to red and green. It was a familiar sight for people in the city for many years. The GE portion of the sign has been brought to Evendale, where IAM 912 members are painstakingly restoring it. Thank you for your hard work. It will bring a smile to as many people here as it did there.
GE signage newspaper article
In 2016, I was the facility operations plant manager for the GE Aerospace Evendale facility located on Interstate 75 in Evendale, Ohio — a few miles north of Cincinnati.

I received a call from the GE Motors plant manager asking whether I had any interest in the old GE sign that was part of the Fort Wayne skyline for the past 80 years. As an amateur historian, I could never pass up something that had such significant impact on the Fort Wayne community as well as my family.

Of course, I said yes to the offer and paid for all shipping costs. A few months later, several semis pulled into the Evendale campus to unload roughly 30 large crates containing the disassembled sign.

I had no idea what to do with the crates or whether the sign could ever be reassembled and placed on campus.

We decided to unpack the sign and begin to lay it out in a large basement area in one of our many factory buildings.

...

On Aug. 16, 2023, the sign was unveiled on the exterior of a building on campus and along Interstate 75.

The sign has been completely modernized with new LED lights and new multicolor controls that could be changed to reflect a holiday or to orange and black if the Cincinnati Bengals win the Super Bowl.

Iconic piece of Fort Wayne skyline finds new home near Cincinnati Tim Meyers Feb 17, 2024 The Journal Gazette newspaper

Current GE Aerospace Evendale, Ohio photo is from 2020 before the sign was installed in 2023 Street View photo on Google Maps

May 12, 2019 post by Electric Works on Facebook:

Mothers give life in different ways. Today, we celebrate the women of Electric Works’ past, and specifically the founders of the ELEX, a GE “Girls” Club. Started in 1915, the purpose of the club was: “to promote social and educational activities, to foster the spirit of friendly service and to stand for the highest ideals of womanhood.”

While examples of “the highest ideals of womanhood” may be different in this day and age, the legacy of their efforts is a building block in the social innovation strategy for Electric Works’ innovation center.

Examples of their activities include welcoming new “girls” to the GE team; ensuring proper working conditions; visiting absent men and women employees to offer assistance as needed, providing counseling services to women and men having personal problems at home; sending 10,000 boxes of “goodies” to the GE service men and women serving during World World II; organizing trips outside of northeast Indiana including Niagara Falls in 1935, and Europe in 1953; and offering evening classes on sewing, business English, basketry, gymnastics and music.

By 1992, the club had over 1,500 members, including 42 men.

We salute the founders of ELEX: Joy Elder, Velma Ranking, Flossie Davis, Bertha Buecker, Faith Small, Harriet Droegmeyer, Edith Lee, Nina Rose Offerle, Emil Fuhrman, Florence Ranking, Thelma Campbell, Gilda Hassinger and Sophia Ranking, and Mina Blue and Cora Blue.

Source: General Electric at Fort Wayne, A 110 Year History by Clovis E. Linkous.

**********
The General Electric Collection at The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indianahas links to several categories of ELEX "stuff."
November 6, 2022 post by Electric Works on Facebook:

On this day in 1916 [November 6], the Elex Club was founded by plant superintendent E.A. Barnes for a group of women employed by General Electric. Today, there's a bench memorial dedicated to the Elex Club and its trailblazers next to our campus in McCulloch Park.
January 23, 2023 post by the Genealogy Center on Facebook:

Did you know that the Genealogy Center has a digital collection related to General Electric? The collection includes GE scrapbooks, photographs, publications, memorabilia, and many other records. To browse our General Electric collection, click the link here: https://www.genealogycenter.info/generalelectric/

The photograph on the top shows the General Electric complex with street cars while the photo on the bottom shows GE employees celebrating the end of WWI. The celebration was on Broadway near building 17.
November 9, 2023 post by Electric Works on Facebook:

While watching a documentary detailing our Electric Works history, 95 year-old Hildegard Hofacker, a retired teacher, recognized one of the General Electric retirees featured in the video. Denver Sarver was one of her former third-grade students, and the two recently reunited at Electric Works, more than 60 years later. Connections like this are why it's important to us to honor and maintain the history of campus.

Click the link below to watch this heartwarming story by Wane 15:

https://www.wane.com/.../heartwarming-reunion-ge.../

#ElectricWorks #GeneralElectrics #FortWayne #Indiana #Heartwarming #Wane15 #NewsStory

HEARTWARMING REUNION: GE documentary reconnects teacher and student more than 60 years later Emily Dwire

GE Voltmen

Baseball team - the 1948 squad would go on to claim a national semi-pro championship, boasting a roster that included many members of the Northeast Indiana Baseball Assocation (NEIBA) Hall of Fame, from Chad Gramling in Baseball in Fort Wayne. Listed with other local baseball teams in April 15, 2009 Park tips cap to baseball lore newspaper article. Mentioned in Fort Wayne Area Semi-Pro Baseball Collection of Photos, Programs, Clippings.

GE General Electric Sign

GE Voltmen