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History. Integrity, Innovation and Customer Satisfaction Since 1874. In the summer of 1874 on Milwaukee’s north side, Charles Jeremiah Smith hung a sign outside his family’s home: C. J. SMITH, MACHINIST.
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The company today known as the A. O. Smith Corporation was founded in 1874 by Charles Jeremiah Smith as C. J. Smith and Sons, a baby carriage and bicycle parts manufacturer. They began forming steel tubing from sheet metal to make bicycle frames.
1874. Charles Jeremiah Smith establishes C. J. Smith - Machinist, a small machine shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, producing metal parts for baby carriages and other hardware specialties. He later changed the name to C. J. Smith and Sons, after three of his sons joined the firm.
In the summer of 1874, Charles Jeremiah Smith started a small business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, making “hardware specialties.” The entrepreneur could not have imagined that his one-person business would grow and thrive to become a global manufacturer with more than 16,000 employees.
Although A.O. Smith was founded in 1904, the company traces its history back to the mid-19th century, when Charles Jeremiah (C. J.) Smith emigrated from England to the United States. The journeyman metal tradesman ventured all the way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and, after being self-employed for a decade, went to work for the Milwaukee Railroad Shop.
Charles Jeremiah Smith establishes Charles J. Smith-Machinist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, beginning as a machine shop making metal parts for baby carriages and other hardware specialties. He was later joined by two of his sons and changed the name to C. J. Smith and Sons.
Charles Jeremiah Smith, Arthur Smith’s father, first established the machine shop known as C.J. Smith & Sons in 1874 out of the basement of the Antlers Hotel on North Second Street. In its short history, the company became first renowned for producing baby carriage parts, and then as “the leading maker of bicycle parts in America.”
