Captains of Industry

Industrial endeavors drove South Haven's growth and prosperity from the arrival of the first settlers in the 1830s. Logging was the area's first industry, and the first sawmill was built on the Black River in 1850, with lumber from cleared forests sold and used locally for buildings, ships, and other structures. As large tracts of land were cleared, the fruit industry blossomed and created demand for baskets to ship peaches, apples, and pears, which the Pierce-Williams Basket Company supplied beginning in 1882; in 1896, its factory manufactured over two million baskets, and the company remained in business until 1952. The Cable-Nelson Piano Company began operations in 1905 and later purchased the Everett Piano Company name in 1925, producing many types of upright and grand pianos under seven different owners over eighty-one years. The S.E. Overton Company came from Chicago to South Haven in 1908, first producing piano legs for the Cable-Nelson Piano Company, then expanding into wood turnings and carvings for different kinds of furniture, and during World War II fabricating gun stocks for the army. Bohn Aluminum opened in 1940, producing magnesium castings for the war effort and, after World War II, piston castings until the factory closed in 1996.

South Haven, Michigan · United States