Industrial Strength, Shore Style

Naturally, the lion’s share of traffic through Maryland’s easternmost counties in the warmer months is headed for the beaches—from Cape Henlopen to Assateague—with imaginary blinders keeping passers-by focused on the back-seat chant “are we there yet?” Motorists usually know only what they see lining the beachbound thoroughfares, mostly vast stretches of flat, elaborately irrigated, rural farmland dotted by produce stands and slowed occasionally by small hamlets that cater in large measure to the fleeting traveler in need of replenishment, in some manner or form. 

But peel back that image just a bit and you’ll see a much different fabric off the beaten path. A hidden, yet bustling, industrial machine comprises several companies and corporations that have been around for decades—some for even a century or more. In many cases, these time-honored enterprises are what brought (or have kept) residents here, providing a slightly slower-paced way of living away from the urban megalopolis that stretches up the seaboard just to its west and north. In this small unscientific survey, we take you behind the industrial walls to see what’s emanating from some of the big businesses that have made a home here and contributed to their communities for so long.

In Pursuit of Safe Water

As environmental fingers point to agricultural and industrial runoff—along with other water-borne pathogens—as the main threats to the health of the Chesapeake Bay, a major source of testing equipment for such pollutants sits within sight of the creeks and rivers that empty into it. From a 15-acre industrial park near Chestertown, the LaMotte Company marks its centennial year in 2019.

David LaMotte (right), president of LaMotte Company, based in Chestertown, accepts the award for Best New Product at the 2016 International Pool, Spa & Patio exposition for the company’s WaterLink Spin Touch technology.

A chemist in Baltimore named Frank LaMotte started the company as a pioneer in testing the properties of Ph (for non-chemists, that’s the measure of hydrogen ion concentration of a solution) that could apply to chemical control. Its first catalog in 1930 was a bit of a crystal ball, anticipating, as the company points out, “many areas in which accurate chemical control is indispensable today—boiler water, swimming pools, drinking water, and more.” 

Today, that scope has expanded to include tests for the growing market of aquarium and fish farming, laundry and sanitation, and microbiological soil testing that complies with Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for storm water outflow. In May 2016, the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded the LaMotte Company the “President’s ‘E’ Award for Exports”—a practice revived in 1961 by an executive order from President John F. Kennedy—in recognition of LaMotte’s expansion into foreign markets, especially in Europe. Then-Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker cited the company, the only firm in Maryland so honored that year, for its achievements that “have undoubtedly contributed to national export expansion efforts that support the U.S. economy and create American jobs.”

Can O’ Corn

Say “Queenstown” to most out-of-towners from the Western Shore and beyond, and all they’ll know about it is being the home of the “Premium Outlets” situated at the intersection of Routes 50 and 301. But outside this region, the little town is known best as the home of S.E.W. Friel, a giant in the canned-corn industry.

S.E.W. Friel, based in Queenstown, is a large-scale canning operation whose lines of canned corn are consumed globally. 

In April 2016, the Queen Anne’s County Economic Development Commission and the Department of Economic and Tourism Development met in Wye Mills for a “Business Appreciation Breakfast.” The Business Legacy Award that year went to S.E.W. Friel, LLP, and the Friel family “for their lifelong contributions to the county’s economy.” And what a legacy it is.

The company was foundedin 1903 and “has evolved into one of the most advanced automated corn canning facilities available,” according to its sales literature. More than a century ago, the elder Mr. Friel started a lumber company that manufactured and shipped railroad ties, along with an innovative cannery in the heart of the mid-Atlantic’s corn-growing region.

One of the trademark innovative aspects of the Friel operation is its support of what is called “the canned vegetable, private label industry.” The company states out front that “we make your brand our brand,” serving its customers as partners. “You know your market better than we ever could,” it says, and “that is why we do not believe in having a national or regional brand. We focus our energy on serving YOU.”

Valves and Couplings and Clamps

Few of us even think of how and where such seemingly mundane items as air-hammer couplings, fittings, clamps, hose menders, high-pressure rotary hose couplings for oil drilling, cams, and grooves are made and sold. But a large part of the answer lies here on the Eastern Shore. 

Dixon Valve and Coupling, headquartered in Chestertown, is a global manufacturer of industrial  couplings, fittings, clamps, and much more, including fire hose nozzles and couplings. 

Billed as “a leading innovator in the hose coupling industry,” Dixon Valve and Coupling has its headquarters in Chestertown, but its reach is international. And since its founding in 1916 by Howard W. (known simply as H.W.) Goodall, who quit school at age 15 after the eighth grade to work as an errand boy and clerk for the rubber distributor Latta & Mulconroy Company in Philadelphia, the company has prided itself in its investment in the people who work there. Growing from a single plant in Pennsylvania, the company’s reach now spans four continents.

The company took a major turn during World War II, when its manufacturing plants switched to making military supplies, namely 380,000 fuse plugs for anti-aircraft shells, and were unable to service their hose distributor customers. To satisfy that specific need, a former Dixon sales manager started a hose accessories enterprise that later became the Le-Hi Valve and Coupling Company.

In 1952, Dixon purchased Buck Iron Company in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, “a major source of malleable iron, brass, aluminum, and ductile castings for Dixon,” according to the company history. Dixon moved its business from Philadelphia to Chestertown in 1976 and “entered the cam and groove market” four years later. Following several mergers, acquisitions, and international expansions, Dixon retains its headquarters in the Eastern Shore town and aims to stay focused on the founding mission of “people, product, and service” established by H.W. Goodall himself 103 years ago.

Progress Under Its Belt

Have you ever wondered who first came up with the concept of a conveyor belt, arguably the most crucial piece of machinery in the assembly-line configurations of the Industrial Revolution? Not many of us think about such things as we go about our daily lives, but Cambridge Engineered Solutions is still manufacturing belts much the same way it has for more than a century. While it may or may not have been the first, the Cambridge Wire Cloth company started making metal belts in Dorchester County in the early 20th century, boasting electric light pioneer Thomas Edison as one of its early customers.

By the 1920s, Cambridge “had designed and patented a metal belt for high temperature ovens still in production today,” so the company history goes. With a merger in 1998 to Maryland Wire Belts, the wire cloth enterprise changed its name to Cambridge International Holding Corporation, making it the world’s largest manufacturer of metal conveyor belts.

Cambridge Engineered Solutions is world-renowned for industrial applications for conveyor belt techonolgies, specifically custom metal and plastic belt systems. 

In 2016, Rexnord Corporation acquired Cambridge for $210 million in pursuit of the company’s expertise in the manufacture of metal conveying and woven metal systems used primarily in food and packaging. “Cambridge aligns well with our strategy to expand our presence in customer-driven end markets,” according to Rexnord President and CEO Todd Adams.

Today, Cambridge-Rexnord is the world’s only manufacturer of custom metal and plastic conveyor belting for food processing and industrial applications. And the belts continue to “convey,” essentially from the same location.

Contain Yourself

Behold, the plastic cup. Can anyone imagine a time when these now-ubiquitous beverage vessels were the stuff of fantasy? Certainly not now that they’re such a part of daily life—even though their use and abuse is shunned by the environmentally conscious. 

You may not be familiar with Federalsburg manufacturer Dart, but chances are you’ve sipped a coffee or party beverage out of their product line of cups, most ubiquitously the red Solo cups. 

If you don’t recognize the name of manufacturer Dart Container, chances are you do know Solo, the brand name of those familiar red plastic party cups—among other disposable (or “one-time use,” as the company terms it) items—you can buy at any chain grocer or drugstore. And every time you bring home leftovers from a restaurant or wrapped up prepared food from the grocery store, you’re probably carrying it out in a Dart container.  

Dart acquired Solo for $1 billion in 2012, but the parent company traces its roots to 1937, when it started manufacturing plastic key cases, steel tape measures, and ID tags for the U.S. armed services. 

The company’s early claim to fame was its introduction of expandable polystyrene in the 1950s and subsequently, the first insulated foam cup. The Dart Container Corporation was born in 1963 in Mason, Michigan, and its timeline includes the easily recognizable introductions of “easy-to-hold” cups, “sip-through” lids, translucent cups, thermo-glaze, color-coding for size, hinged-lid containers, those aforementioned red party cups, recyclable foam, and cappuccino lids.

Today, one of Dart’s largest production plants, in Federalsburg, is Caroline County’s top employer with nearly 600 employees.

Chickens by the Barrel

It all started in 1941, when A. D. Amick had “one small chicken house, a wood-fired wash pot, and 500 baby chicks.” He delivered his fresh dressed chicken to neighbors from barrels of ice in the back of B-model Ford. For his efforts at supplying “the freshest, best-tasting chicken at a reasonable price,” customers began calling him “Chick,” and the name stuck.

Amick Farms promises flavor, value, and quality of their chickens, which are processed in Hurlock, Dorchester County.

Amick Farms, with a processing plant in Hurlock, Dorchester County, makes several bold promises: flavor, value, and quality. And they apply all three to their chickens. Each one is grain-fed and the company employs a marination technique to lock in moisture, promising “a product that is extra juicy, tender, and delicious.” The chickens themselves are larger than most of the competition, they say, which yields more chicken at a lower price. As for quality assurance, Amick Farms is a fully integrated processor, which means that it has complete control of the processing, “from hatchery to our package design.”

In August 2006, Illinois-based food conglomerate OSI Group acquired Amick Farms “to expand their meat-processing portfolio,” making Amick now part of the 11th largest meat-manufacturing company in the world. But even with that corporate oversight, Amick retains its familiar logo. At first glance, it could well be mistaken for the insignia of Mercedes Benz, but a closer look reveals more: a large unbroken circle of 21 eggs, representing the poultry life cycle—a chick hatching from the egg in as many days; a spur with three points (representing spirit, mind, and body) on a field of blue, the color of truth and honesty.

The preceding is just a small sampling of the businesses that help the residents of Maryland’s Eastern Shore thrive. For something different, take a little time to veer from the beaten path for a while and begin to appreciate the complexity of a region known better for its simplicity.