Growing up in and around Lancaster, OH, I've always been surrounded by locally manufactured storm sewer tops and manhole covers from both Eagle Machine Co. (1870-1940) and Alten's Foundry & Machine Works (1889-1983), the latter who also had an outdoor cooking division. In recent years I've taken notice of examples from other foundries lurking out in the territory. In the first photo is the initial manhole cover I encountered cast by the Humphrey Pipe & Foundry Co., of Bellefontaine, OH; it is located just off the public square in Piqua. The second photo is a Humphrey taken over in Bremen, just east of Lancaster. Bremen had an oil boom that lasted from 1907 until some point in the 1920s and at the time could boast of paved brick streets, a water system, and a sewer system that at the time was unusual for a village of its size.
Here is some biographical background on Humphrey from "History of Logan Co. and Ohio": Joseph A. Humphrey, Proprietor of Brass and Iron Foundry, Bellefontaine. Of the old and respected businessmen of Bellefontaine stands the above-mentioned gentleman, who was born in Jefferson Co. Ohio in 1818. In 1835 he moved to Logan Co. with his parents and located on a farm near Bellefontaine. In 1841 he learned his trade as a machinist; he, in company with several others, started the first foundry in Bellefontaine - firm of Stroud, Humphrey and Scott. After working here several years at the foundry business, he went to Indiana and was for four years in the saw-mill business, when he moved to Pemberton, Shelby Co. Ohio, where he followed the same business until 1865, during which time he also enlisted in the 13th O.V.I. under Captain Wilkinson and served with the 100-Days Service, doing duty near Richmond and Petersburg. In 1865 he returned to Bellefontaine and in 1874 embarked in his present business by erecting a frame building, 24' x 30', with basement and first floor. This was erected to do a general repairing business in the agricultural line, and run by horse-power, but the business gradually increased until Mr. Humphrey added a foundry department to do a general foundry and molding business. In 1889 he increased his business by building a new 24' x 36' addition and today has a neat foundry and machine shop, where he is prepared to do all kinds of work usually done in the foundry and machine shop business. He is engaged very extensively in manufacturing iron pumps, which are meeting with good sale; his machine shop is now run by steam-power, employing some six men in both departments. He is a man that is recognized as being a No. 1 machinist; he did the first iron turning in Bellefontaine; his work turned out from his establishment is of a No. 1, giving satisfaction to his customers; his business is constantly increasing.
