History of Mulliner Box & Planing Company
Seth Hinshaw, 9/17/2019
Mulliner was a millwork company that is best known today for its 1893 millwork catalog that was republished in 1995.
Display ad in the Shelby County Herald, 10/7/1874
Edward S. Mulliner (1839-1921) opened his millwork business in Quincy, Illinois. Mulliner was born in 1839 in Michigan and relocated to Quincy in 1868 where he immediately opened his millwork operations. The business was known as Mulliner & Co. until 1874 when Albert Beebe joined the firm, after which the firm was known as Mulliner & Beebe Union Planing Mills. The firrm began to place display ads in newspapers in surrounding counties listing their products, with one of the early ads appearing in the Shelby County [MO] Herald on 8/5/1874. In the spring of 1875, the firm began to produce ice chests and refrigerators (Shelby County Herald, 4/28/1875). These two products were very profitable, and they were later described as "the best in the market" (Shelbina [MO] Democrat, 7/25/1883).
Display ad in the Quad City Times, 5/20/1879
The History of Adams County (1879) reported the following about Mulliner & Beebe: "Mulliner & Beebe are located on South Fourth street, between Jersey and York, and are doing a large business. They furnish employment to 20 men and boys, and turn out large quantities of building material, tobacco boxes, together with their unequaled refrigerators, for which they have a high reputation" (History of Adams County, Illinois, Murray, Williamson & Phelps, Chicago, 1879:958).
Albert Beebe died in 1879; his primary contribution to the partnership with Mulliner was his connection to a tobacco company in Quincy. Soon afterwards, the company was renamed Mulliner Box and Planing Co, of Quincy, Illinois, the best-known name variant of the company (St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 5/14/1882). Mulliner began to carry a type of iron fence called Thomas's Perfection Fence and produced a small illustrated catalog showing its fencing options (Shelbina [MO] Democrat, 2/25/1891).
Display ad in the Shelbina Democrat, 4/29/1891
The Mulliner catalog of 1893 was published at this point in the company history. The catalog interestingly is the same as that published by the Paine Lumber Company that same year, and a closer look explains why. The interior pages of the catalog nowhere give the name or location of the company. The title page specifies that it was approved by the Wholesale Sash, Door, and Blind Manufacturer's Association of the Northwest. It appears that a group of millwork companies paid for the publication of the catalog, which was quite expensive, then had individualized covers produced for each company. This explains why some of Mulliner's important products of earlier years (refrigerators and fencing) were not included in its catalog.
It is unclear how long Mulliner remained in business. The name last appears in the newspapers.com database in a news story in 1906 (Muscatine [IA] News-Tribune, 5/1/1906). The company's buildings burned in 1915, and a photograph of the crowd observing the fire is stored at the Illinois Historical Society. It is unclear if E.S. Mulliner decided to rebuild; he died in 1921.
Earlier blog posts
8/28/2020 Chicago Millwork Supply Company catalog of 1931
10/6/2019 History of Hinkle & Company (1833-1870)
9/17/2019 History of Mulliner Box & Planing Company
6/3/2019 J.R. Quigley Plant, Gloucester City, New Jersey
4/23/2019 Cleveland Cottage Door
4/13/2019 Trenton historic door #2
4/10/2019 Trenton Doors #1
3/6/2019 Pressed Wood Door Knobs
2/23/2019 Gettysburg Doorscape, Part 4
2/18/2019 Gettysburg Doorscape, Part 3
2/12/2019 Gettysburg Doorscape, Part 2
2/9/2019 An Introduction to the Gettysburg Doorscape
1/22/2019 The Blake Latch
1/19/2019 Rare Four-Panel Door of 1890s
1/5/2019 Cast Iron Rim Locks
12/28/2018 Inaugural Blog Post