Manufacturing and Commercial

422 Woodland Avenue
414 Centab Drive
The Miller-Lewis Company

The name of Centab Drive is a shortening of Cen(tral) Tab(let). The Central Tablet Manufacturing Company was located here for over 50 years.

In June 1902, a blank book, tablet and stationery manufacturer, The Miller-Lewis Company was incorporated by Charles H. Lewis (President) and Edward T. Miller (Secretary and Treasurer) at 277 North Fourth Street. J. Frank Miller was manager. By 1910, the plant was located at 424 Woodland Avenue. By 1912 the company had become Central Tablet.

Charles Hendrickson Lewis (April 25, 1871 - 1965) was born at Egypt, Pitt Township, Wyandot County, Ohio. His father organized and was manager of the Harpster Bank in Harpster, Ohio. He graduated from the music department of Ohio Northern University in 1889. He was a trustee of the university, and was awarded an honorary degree in 1927. He taught school for two years, and entered Ohio Wesleyan University. He graduated Bachelor of Science in 1895, and worked in his father's bank for thirty years until 1925.

Lewis was elected Lieutenant Governor of Ohio in 1924. At that time, Governor and Lieutenant were elected separately, and Lewis (a Republican) served with Democrat Governor A. Victor Donahey. They got along amicably, and Lewis represented the state at the inauguration of Calvin Coolidge in 1925. He was also dispatched to lead an official inspection of the locks and dams of the Ohio River.

Lewis was president of the school board in Harpster for 25 years, and president of the county board of education for ten years. He also was president of the Lewis Bank and Trust Company in Upper Sandusky, Ohio and owned the company that published the Daily Union in Wyandot County. He farmed more than 1000 acres, raising Shorthorn cattle and Poland China Hogs.

Lewis also ran Lewis Systems Inc., a research organization in Columbus, Ohio, and had more than seventy United States patents for treatment of polluted water.

Lewis was a Mason, an Odd Fellow, a Phi Delta Theta, and Kiwanis. He was married June 30, 1896 to Frances E. Sears, who died in 1932. Their child died the day he was born. Charles Lewis died in 1965, and is interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Upper Sandusky, Ohio.

Col. Edward Thomson Miller (November 4, 1870 - June 6, 1944) was born in Dunkirk, Ohio, son of J.C. and Irena M. Miller. In his youth, he was a apprentice on the Liberty Press in Liberty Center, Ohio. He attended Ohio Wesleyan University and was on the staff of the Delaware (Ohio) Gazette. In 1895 he joined the editorial staff of The Ohio State Journal, where he remained for seven years, the last four as managing editor and editor. He resigned from the Journal in 1902 to develop a stationery business.

Miller took over the Burt Printing Company at 136 East Gay Street in 1909 and operated it as The Edward T. Miller Company until 1917. About 1918 he moved to Chicago to pursue printing union leadership.

Miller lived at 151 Hamilton Avenue. On June 3, 1903, Miller married Bess Watson in Delaware County. Bess was born on October 9, 1879 in Delaware, Ohio, daughter of Elmer and Georgia Allen Watson. They had a son, Edward T, Jr. (October 25, 1905 - January 1, 1986). Bess died on June 6, 1944. The Millers are buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Delaware, Ohio.

The October 1912 issue of Mill Supplies, reported that the "Central Tablet Manufacturing Co., Columbus, O., has completed plans for an addition to its plant, two stories high, brick construction, 42 x 120 feet."

Until 1965 Central Tablet employed a sizable labor force and was a profitable manufacturer of writing tablets, school supplies, art materials, and related articles. On August 13 of that year, production and maintenance employees went on strike. While the strike was in progress, an accidental fire on September 10, 1965, extensively damaged and destroyed the greater part of the equipment, inventory, and building. Even though insured for the loss, on May 14, 1966, nine months after the fire, the shareholders of Central Tablet voted to dissolve the corporation and to liquidate its assets.

After 1921, according the the 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance map, an additional building was added to the property for wholesale wine and beer. In 1955, the Ohio Distributing Company was advertising with an address of 370 Centab Drive.

The original property is now 330, 364 and 372 Centab Drive.

Edward T. Miller

Charles H. Lewis

The Ohio Sentinel, May 21, 1955

The Ohio Sentinel, June 18, 1955

The Ohio Sentinel, July 2, 1955

424 Woodland Avenue
450 Woodland Avenue

Andrew Pugh opened this asphalt plant and coal dealership as early as 1893 and operated it at least through 1924.

Andrew G. Pugh was born in Franklin County on June 5, 1857, son of Richard and Elizabeth Jones Pugh. He first married Mary Helen Black on October 25, 1882. Mary was born in Richmond, Indiana. They had two daughters: Ednah H. (1890) and Grace B. (1892). Helen died July 12, 1894. Andrew married Jessie Miles on September 1, 1896. Jessie was the daughter of Yearsley and Minerva Fitzwater Miles.

Pugh was an engineer and contractor for street paving, sewers and masonry. In 1886 he was appointed Assistant Columbus City Engineer under Julian Griggs. In that role Pugh was the superintendent of block stone paving on High Street from Naghten Street to Livingston avenue. In October 1886, he built the first brick roadway in Columbus on Spring Street from High Street to Third Street.

In March 1888, Pugh commenced work as a contractor on his own account. In 1899 he laid the first concrete foundation for brick streets in Columbus. Also in that year he laid foundations for the street railway on Neil Avenue from Spring Street to Naghten Street.

Pugh lived at 875 Franklin Avenue in 1891. Pugh was also
Treasurer of The Summit Land Company. Pugh's brothers were Columbus Metropolitan Library director, John J. Pugh and Franklin County Deputy Treasurer, Isaac D. Pugh.

There was a house on the plant property at least until 1951, and an employee lived on site.

In 1893, Darius Bernard was watchman at the plant. The house was numbered 420 Woodland Avenue from 1894 to 1896. From 1898 to 1900 Darius Bernard lived at 1592 Emerald Avenue. And from about 1902 until 1920 he lived in the house at 450 Woodland Avenue as watchman for the asphalt plant. (Darius Bernard is listed as a coal dealer at 420 Woodland Avenue in the 1894 through 1896 City Directories. From 1898 to 1908 others live at the 420 Woodland Avenue address.) In 1951, watchman Luther Hartsoe lived at 450 Woodland Avenue.

Pugh died in March 21, 1931.

By 1950, the plant was owned by the A.W. Burns Construction Company later the A.W. Burns & Sons Construction Company.

Andrew William Burns, Sr. was born about June 1, 1882 in Portsmouth, Ohio, son of Michael and Mary Crowe Burns. He married Elizabeth Marie Keppler at St. Patrick's Church in Columbus on December 26, 1907. Elizabeth was born in June 1887 in Columbus, daughter of Henry and Ellen O'Donnell Keppler. They had six children.

The History of Franklin County, offers a brief biography of Burns, " Andrew William Burns received his education in the schools of Lucasville, Ohio, but left school when he was fifteen years old in order to assist his father in farming. In 1902 he came to Columbus, where he became associated in business with his brother, Michael Burns, a paving contractor. This partnership continued until the death of Michael Burns in 1911, the business thereafter being known as the A. W. Burns Construction Company. Mr. Burns has laid approximately twenty-five percent of the paving in the city of Columbus during his twenty-eight years of business in the city, and during the years of 1927, 1928 and 1929, his contracts for paving in the city of Toledo, Ohio, totalled more than $1,500,000. He also has a large volume of state highway work and during the World War had the contract for the building of thirty miles of road west of Louisville, Kentucky, at Camp Knox.

...They have six children: Eleanor J. ; Ruth Marie ; Margaret Jeanette ; Andrew William, Jr., and Michael James, twins, born January 15, 1923 ; and Robert Kepler, born in December, 1926.

Politically, Mr. Burns is independent. He and his family are members of the Catholic Church, and he belongs to the Knights of Columbus, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and A. A. A."

Burns died in 1952. In 1953, his son, Andrew W. Burns, Jr. was President and Secretary of the company.

In January 1969 the property was sold to Frank's Trailer Sales, Inc.

The property is currently owned by the Bing Excavating Company.

Andrew G. Pugh, circa 1892

424 Woodland Avenue, April 2014

462 Woodland Avenue

About 1921 to 1937, the Burr Fuel Company, coal dealers, had an office and garage at 462 Woodland Avenue.

In 1927, C.B. Turvey is listed as a coal dealer at this address, yet in 1935, Francis E. Burr owned the company.

In 1946, the name had changed to the William S. Bailey and Son Company. It was then owned by Aurelius Bailey.

1937 ad in the Ohio State University, Makio yearbook

1500 Eastwood Avenue

Initially the Artura Photo Paper Company manufacturing plant, it was later a manufacturing plant of the Snyder-Chaffee Company, a candy maker, before becoming a moving and storage warehouse. By 1925 it was the Central Storage and Transfer Company, and lastly the Atlas Eastwood Storage Company.

The buildings were sold the the Board of Education in 1968 and were demolished shortly thereafter.