Back home again in Indiana!

Touby Cousins Reunion #4

POTATO CREEK STATE PARK, INDIANA

In September 2015, we gathered back home again in Indiana.  Phil and Karon hosted us the first night at their place where we were treated to a huge spread in Phil's "Garage Mahal."  We toured the sights in South Bend, including the Studebaker Museum and Notre Dame.  Back at the park, we had a nice campfire, made s'mores and sat under the stars.

Gene and Marcia drove from Oklahoma to join us in Greentown for a great visit with Mother!  We toured Coan Engineering and the Touby Homestead.

Haynes Stellite 1942-43

The onset of World War II increased demand for Stellite alloys precision casting for aircraft engine components.  Stellite was an extremely hard, heat-and-corrosion-resistant tooling metal developed and patented by Elwood Haynes.  Beginning in 1941, Howard County mobilized for World War II.  Kingston Products, Haynes Stellite and GM were some of the local businesses heavily involved in war production.  Howard County Historical Society, "Footprints," February 2013, Volume 2, Issue 1.

Virginia attended Ball State for one year, 1941-42, but wanted to save up money for school and decided to work at Stellite the following year.  The three shifts, which the workers alternated every couple of weeks, were 7 am - 3 pm; 3 pm - 11 pm; and 11 pm - 7 am.  Her department produced wax moulds for aircraft superchargers, a top-secret war project.

Photo credit: Indiana Historical Society, HAYNES_IMAGE_007 

 

 Photo credit: Popular Science, June 1941, "He Harnessed a Tornado" 

Haynes Stellite was located in the SW part of Kokomo and Virginia took turns driving to the factory with her neighbor, Elsie Teel.  Elsie's boyfriend at the time, Evert Donaldson, had been drafted and gave her his car to drive.  Virginia drove the family car, a 1937 Chevy 2-door, when she worked the 2nd or 3rd shift.  Jeanette Mohr (Lockhart) was her shift supervisor.  Theresa Busby also worked at Stellite, but in a different department.  Mom Oakley's, described as a local "greasy spoon," was a favorite place to hangout and dance for young women factory workers and the boys from nearby Bunker Hill Naval Base.  They would flock there either after 2nd shift or before the third shift.

Photo credit: Indiana Historical Society, 1944, "Women making turbine blades for military planes," 1944_Stellite_S85P

The following excerpt is from "The History of Haynes International, Inc." by Charlie Sponaugle.  Published in Metals Technology: Solidifying our Region's Wealth for a Third Century, Pittsburgh Engineer, Winter 2005, in an editorial comment by Ronald E. Ashburn, Executive Director for Iron and Steel Technology.

The History of Haynes International, Inc., excerpt

The company weathered the depression years selling its hard-facing alloys in industrial and agricultural applications and the new Hastelloy alloys in the growing chemical process industry. During this time new melting technology was moved to Kokomo from Union Carbide’s facility in Niagara Falls, NY. It was about 1940 that the first wrought versions of the Hastelloy alloys were being developed and rolled at Ingersoll Steel and Disc Company in New Castle, Indiana. 

The 1940s were the beginning of a new era for the company. The second world war would alter the company’s future much as the first world war had done. One of the growing applications for Stellite was investment cast turbine blades (or buckets). These blades were used in the superchargers for military piston engines on a number of planes. Over 25 million buckets were produced for the war effort. Haynes Stellite alloys 21 and 31, both cobalt-based, were used in this application about 1941. Haynes Stellite was the premier investment casting house in the US at this time and supplied about 70% of the turbine buckets used. 

Another application using both the Stellite alloys and the new Hastelloy alloys was search light reflectors for the US Navy. These metallic reflectors were shatter- proof and maintained a high luster even in saltwater environments. These reflectors were made from plate rolled by outside conversion sources using billet melted in Kokomo. Another factor in the growth of the company during the 1940s was the large amount of Hastelloy alloy used by the Manhattan Project and the Chemical Warfare Service.

Production during the war years was at an all time high, with employment reaching over 2,000 during the second world war and 3,000 by the end of the Korean war. A major milestone occurred in the late 1940s with the establishment of the wrought alloy plant in Kokomo. Prior to this, wrought products were finished by outside rolling mills. The new wrought alloy plant was situated on about 100 acres of land south of the main plant location. This new facility included rolling equipment for the production of plate and sheet products.  

New high temperature wrought alloys were also being added. MULTIMET® (a nickel-cobalt- chromium-molybdenum-tungsten alloy) appeared in 1949 and in 1950 the cobalt alloy L-605 (now called Haynes alloy 25) was first manufactured. These alloys found increasing usage in aircraft superchargers and in the newly invented jet engine.

Graf - Locke Family History

My mother, Virginia Touby Coan, has been collecting bits of family history for years.  During the past three years, she and I have worked on assembling this document that traces the history of the Philip Graf and Elias Locke families and their descendants who still reside in Liberty Township, Howard County, Indiana.  Today is my mother's 92nd birthday and I honor her efforts by publishing this document on our family blog.

Happy Birthday, Mother!

Click to view: Graf - Locke Family History

Touby Cousins Reunions

We've done all the "O" states !

 OHIO   OREGON   OKLAHOMA

In 2012 the Touby Cousins decided to do a reunion at a former Touby home - now a B&B -  in Mansfield, Ohio.  2013 took us to McKenzie Bridge, Oregon, and in 2014 we gathered in Grove, Oklahoma. 

CLICK HERE for the link to the 2012 Reunion Book.

Somewhere in Time B&B, Mansfield, Ohio  2012

Caddisfly Resort, McKenzie Bridge, Oregon  2013

Grove, Oklahoma 2014

Virginia's 90th Birthday Book

A little late to this blog, but CLICK HERE 
for the book celebrating Virginia's 90th.

Lament

 

This past October the Touby Cousins trekked to McKenzie Bridge, Oregon for our second annual reunion.  My mother had so hoped to be able to make the journey, but as time drew near she realized she was just not able.  She asked that we read this poem she had written (neither Nancy nor I thought we could do it, so Charlotte volunteered).  It was a sobering moment.

Lament

I've waited too long
To travel Northwest -
California, Washington and Oregon.
Friends invited me there,
I wish I had gone -
Now I've waited too long.

I've waited too long
To visit Vermont
in the beautiful fall of the year.
It's such a lovely season,
What was my reason?
Now I've waited too long.

I waited too long
to read the great books -
the History, the Classics,
the Bible I planned.
Others, too, through the years that have spanned,
Sadly, I've waited too long.

I've waited too long
To finish the cross-stitch
or the quilt top from fabric I've saved.
I look back o'er the years
and recall with some tears
Those little girl dresses I made.

I've waited too long
To learn to play jazz
at the piano I love so much.
My fingers, no longer nimble,
My hands seem to tremble,
I've simply lost my touch.

I've waited too long
Now that I have the time,
I can no longer see well enough.
To finish these tasks,
the time has passed.
Sadly, I've waited too long.

Touby Families celebrate Dorothy Touby Kearney

The last week of February, 2013, marked a gathering of Touby families to celebrate the life of Dorothy Touby Kearney.  Sister to Virginia, now the only one remaining of the five Touby sisters.   Mother to Mark and Caroline.  Nanny to Jennifer, Kari, Nate and Matt and their children, Elise, Kylie, Caden, Nina, Ethan and Evan.

Here are a few photos of our time together.