Tiffin Manufacturing Company: an 1897 Profile

From Tiffin's 75th Anniversary Souvenir book, published in 1897: 

"The business of this firm extends into every part of the United States. … Besides manufacturing pews, pulpits, confessionals, altars, altar railings, station frames, pedestals, prie-dieus, vestment cases and baptismals, they also import thousands of dollars’ worth of statues for altar purposes direct from France."

Some earlier posts about Tiffin Manufacturing Company -- click HERE.

St. Peter's Cathedral, Marquette, Michigan

St. Peter's Cathedral in Marquette, Michigan, has something in common with several churches in the Toledo Diocese -- elaborate wood carvings by Bruno Weber, a German immigrant who worked with the Tiffin Manufacturing Company.  Read earlier posts about Weber HERE. 

Weber's grandson, John Rees, has shared some photos of a table that Weber built, currently in use in the cathedral. The first photo shows the table photographed in the 1930s.

  The next is a recent photo from the cathedral.

Weber also hand-carved angels that decorate the sides of kneelers, and probably did additional work in the church as well.

St. Peter's Cathedral will probably see more visitors soon, as it is the final resting place of Bishop Frederic Baraga, the first bishop of Marquette, who has been declared "venerable" by the church -- the first step on the way to sainthood.  More information HERE.

Tiffin Manufacturing Altar Sketch

Plans for a main altar by the Tiffin Manufacturing Company, uncertain of date (shown in the Tiffin Heritage Festival 1982 program). A previous post on the company can be found HERE.

Bruno Weber, Wood Carver

Obituary from Tiffin Advertiser-Tribune, Aug. 7, 1953

I'm not sure if this solves the mystery of who carved the wooden statues of Mary and Joseph at St. Joseph in Tiffin, but now we have some more detail about Bruno Weber, a master carver who worked for the Tiffin Manufacturing Company.

According to a Seneca County history book, after Weber arrived in 1890, the company "turned to totally manufacture church furniture, producing high quality altars, communion rails, paneling, pews, confessionals and statues." Other examples of Weber's work include scrollwork at Trinity United Methodist church in Fremont, and candlesticks at Mother of Sorrows church in Put in Bay.

Identical

These three statues show an aspect of church design that tends to be forgotten. In older churches, the altars, ambos, etc., were often commissioned. The statuary, however, was often mass produced, and sold through supply houses like the Tiffin Manufacturing Company.
These three statues are identical, except for variations in the color.
This one is at St. Mary, Norwalk. While your at it, look at the wainscoating in the background. It's fantastic. I'll have to ask Alex Fries, who took this picture and was the first to point out the similarity between the statues, to get a close-up of it.
This one's in one of the towers at Good Shepherd, in East Toledo. The gate is from the old baptistry, and is a masterpiece of its period. Excellent work.

This one is in one of the transepts at St. Patrick's. The candlestand, at the right, is a gem. If I hadn't been on sensory overload at the time, I'd have gotten a picture of it.

All Souls Day approaches -

A few photos from St. Joseph Cemetery in Tiffin.

Stone for the Remakel family, 1886.

Stone for the Christian Mueller family, 1884. Apparently the artist gets a credit on this stone, see inset.

Jacob Scheiber grave stone (I'm assuming it's the Jacob Scheiber who started Tiffin Manufacturing Company), 1905.

A good resource for cemeteries in certain counties of the diocese:

http://kriskuhn.net/links_cemetery.htm

Tiffin Manufacturing Company

Kevin Hammer has found this item in the Seneca Sentinal-Bicentennial Sketches, by Myron Bruce Barnes. Apparently, the Tiffin Manufacturing Company provided one-stop-shopping for church interiors. This is very interesting, and I'll post more when I've had time to look into it. The company was in business from 1874 to 1966, so there's no telling how much of their work is out there.

"Jacob [Scheiber] and his son began employing skilled cabinet makers, wood carvers, and furniture finishers, many of whom had acquired these skills in Europe. As the firm’s reputation grew, they imported artists who could paint murals and Stations of the Cross in the finest European tradition. Their hand carved woodwork for churches was of the highest quality. They designed and built altars, communion rails, confessionals, as well as executing finely detailed carved paneling, and church pews. …the main emphasis was always on their church furnishings. The cost of creating such skilled custom made work continued to increase. Furthermore, as the old world artisans died, it was difficult to find skilled replacements. The rising costs had resulted in the fact that many churches could no longer afford to build in the grand style. Then, in the post WW II years, tastes had changed, and church architecture began to reflect the preference for the plain and unadorned, and great emphasis was placed on the functional architecture and decoration. [ Editorial remark: Read: Butt ugly ] The business was discontinued on February 28, 1966, at which time a distribution of assets was made to the heirs."