Mitman, Carl W. "Marshall Burns Lloyd." Dictionary of American Biography. Vol. 6. Ed. Dumas Malone. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933: 333-32.

LLOYD, MARSHALL BURNS (March 10, 1858-August 10, 1927), inventor, manufacturer, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the son of John and Margaret (Conmee) Lloyd. His father was an Englishman who had emigrated to Canada in 1832 and in the early fifties had settled in St. Paul with his bride. While Lloyd was still an infant, however, his parents returned to Canada to live and settled on a farm at Meaford on Georgian Bay. Here young Lloyd obtained a bit of an education and at the age of fourteen went to work in the village store. Possessing unusual initiative and aggressiveness he soon gave up this work to sell fish, catching his own fish and peddling them from door to door. At sixteen he went alone to Toronto and for two years worked in a grocery store and also peddled soap. At eighteen he became a rural mail-carrier on the sixty-five-mile route between Port Arthur and Pidgeon River, and while so engaged he joined the rush of settlers and real-estate speculators to Winnipeg. For a living he worked as a waiter, and by shrewd purchases of land with his meager savings he accumulated several thousand dollars within a few months. With this fund he went to North Dakota, bought a farm at Grafton, and brought to it his parents and brothers and sisters. He soon discovered that he did not like farming and went alone again to St. Thomas, North Dakota, where he engaged in the insurance business. While thus employed he patented a weighing scale for the use of farmers and undertook to manufacture the article in St. Thomas. Shortly after getting under way, however, the factory was completely destroyed by fire and Lloyd lost everything. In the hope of securing financial aid to rebuild his plant he went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, but was not successful. In order to live he became a shoe salesman and in his spare time worked on other inventions.

        After more than ten years Lloyd was eventually rewarded when the C. O. White Manufacturing Company of Minneapolis gave him an interest in the company in exchange for the right to use a machine he had patented for weaving wire door and table mats. He then patented a machine for weaving wire spring mattresses. With this invention he was able to buy out the White Company in 1900 and to found the Lloyd Manufacturing Company. The success of his woven-wire bed spring was immediate and he sold manufacturing rights not only to American industrialists but also to manufacturers in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Following this venture he perfected a machine to make wire wheels for baby carriages and began their manufacture first in Minneapolis and then in Menominee, Michigan, where his plant was permanently established. His next successful invention was the machinery for manufacturing thin tubing out of ribbons of steel of any width, and the machinery to weave wicker-ware of other than flat surfaces. He changed the time-honored method of weaving, and instead of attaching the weft or warp to the frame of the article desired, he found a way of weaving the wicker independently of the frame and attaching it afterward. He then devised a loom to weave wicker independently of the frame and attaching it afterward. He then devised a loom to weave wicker in a new way. This machine, capable of weaving wicker-ware more exactly and in one-thirtieth of the time required by the expert hand-weaver, revolutionized the wicker-manufacturing industry.

        In addition to his activities in the several manufacturing companies which he founded, Lloyd, a few years before his death, successfully organized a community cooperative department store and theater in Menominee. He was also mayor of Menominee for two terms from 1913 to 1917. He was married three times but there were no children from any of the marriages. His third wife, Mrs. Henriette Hammer Pollen of Orange, N. J., whom he married on April 11, 1922, survived him at the time of his death in Menominee.

[Sources: Who's Who in America, 1926-27; Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 1888 and years following; Menominee Herald-Leader, August 10, 1927; information as to certain facts from the Lloyd Manufacturing Company] C.W.M.

Fuller, George N., Ed., "Furniture," Chap. in Michigan: A Centennial History of the State and its People, vol 1. (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co, 1939), 555.

Who Was Who in America, Vol. 1 1897-1942. Chicago: A. N. Marquis Co., 1943.

        Lloyd, Marshall Burns, inventor, mfr.; b. St. Paul, Minn., Mar. 10, 1858; s. John and Margaret (Conmee) L.; ed. pub. schs. Meaford, Can; married. First invention was combination bagholder and scale, for farmers; founded, 1900, at Minneapolis, Minn., later at Menominee, Mich., the Lloyd Mfg. Co., mfrs. bedspring weaving machine; later invented new method and machinery for making thin seamless steel tubing; also new method for producing wicker articles and loom for weaving the wicker; now mgr. Lloyd Mfg. Co.; v.p. Automatic Seamless Tubing Co. Mayor of Menominee, 1913-17. Republican, K. of P. Home: Menominee, Mich. Died Aug. 10, 1927.

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 25. P. 121.

        Lloyd Marshall Burns, inventor and manufacturer, was born in St. Paul, Minn., Mar. 10, 1881 [1858], son of John and Margaret (Commee [Conmee]) Lloyd. He was obliged to contribute to the support of the family at an early age and when only fifteen invented a clothes hamper and a spring bed which he traded to farmers for food and clothing. He was employed in various occupations in Toronto and Winnipeg, Canada. As a real estate dealer, he earned enough money to buy a farm near Grafton, N. Dak., on which his family settled. Soon tiring of farm life, he engaged in the insurance business at St. Thomas, N. Dak., and while there invented a scale and bag holder with which one man could do the work of two in filling a bag with grain. Next he invented a machine for weaving wire door and table mats and sold the rights to the C. O. White Manufacturing Co. of Minneapolis, for a part interest in the business. Then followed a new form of steel wheel for children's vehicles and a wire weaving machine. The latter invention (1900) revolutionized the bed spring industry and enabled him to buy out his partners in the C. O. White Manufacturing Co., the name of which was then changed to the Lloyd Manufacturing Co. He moved his plant to Menominee, Mich., in 1906 and manufactured principally children's vehicles. In 1910 he invented what is called the Lloyd-oxyacetylene method of making thin gauged steel tubing and a machine for manufacturing it. Solid strips of steel fed into this machine are automatically shaped, rolled, pressed and welded into the strongest seamless tubing made. With a constant forward motion, the machine automatically polishes and cuts the tubes at any desired length. In 1912 he began to manufacture seamless tubing in his own plant. Steel beds, first introduced in 1914, were one result of his invention. In 1914 he sold the American Patent rights in the inventions to an automobile manufacturing company for $300,000. His third most important invention was a loom for weaving reed or wicker articles, patented in 1917. From the earliest times articles made of reed were woven by hand. Unsuccessful attempts had been made to devise a machine to replace hand labor until the advent of the Lloyd loom which weaves the irregular shapes of wicker articles more smoothly and evenly and more rapidly. It is employed chiefly in the manufacture of baby carriages and wicker furniture. Three years after this invention the Lloyd plant had become the largest producer of baby carriages in the world, and now practically all manufacturers in that line are using the Lloyd looms under license. In 1921 he disposed of the American rights in the loom and his interest in the Lloyd Manufacturing Co. which was merged with the Heywood-Wakefield Co. of Boston. Lloyd was mayor of Menominee during 1913-17. He was president of the Lumberman's bank of Menominee, vice-president of the Automatic Seamless Tubing Co. and a director of the Heywood-Wakefield Manufacturing Co. and the Hoskin-Morainville Paper Co. In politics he was a Republican. He was a liberal contributor to charities and other benevolent purposes. Motoring, ice skating and golf were his chief outdoor recreations. He was married in New York city, Apr. 11, 1922, to Mrs. Henrietta (Hammer) Pollen, daughter of Neals Hammer, of Orange, N.J., and died, without issue, at Menominee, Mich., Aug. 10, 1927.

The Toronto Star Weekly. July 8, 1920.

             Just over forty years ago he was dragging a boy's wagon full of soap behind him and peddling its contents at Toronto back doors. Today he is owner of a million-dollar manufacturing plant and has sold his foreign patent rights in numerous inventions for three or four times that amount.

      Reared on an Ontario farm near Meaford, young Lloyd left school at an early age to assist his father in a shingle mill.

      Here he introduced his first "invention" in the shape of eaves troughs for houses and barns. These he made from cedar poles split, and with the centres removed. The family moved into Meaford and Marshall B. set up in business as a fish salesman, spearing his stock in trade in the Georgian Bay and selling it from a wheelbarrow in a house to house canvass. A job as delivery boy in the ideal store followed and on the transfer of the business to Toronto the young inventor turned his hands to the making of an improved clothes hamper.

      A flattering offer from his old Meaford employer of "$8.00 per month, board and room," brought the boy to Toronto where he became an employee in the John L. Milkie store at 424 Younge Street, on the corner of Buchanan immediately south of College. Mr. Milkie who had a dash of nomadic blood himself, again removed his store, this time to Port Arthur leaving his Meaford assistant behind in the city. It was a time when jobs were scarce and it prompted the discarded apprentice to force the hand of Fortune.

      With his last money he bought a stock of soap. Borrowing a small boy's wagon he set out to conquer his world.

      "I guess the women felt sorry for me because I was so small" said Mr. Lloyd to an interviewer recently.

      "They bought enough soap to last them a long, long while. I kept at the game until I thought I had sold enough to keep all Toronto clean until the millenium.

      Having no fixed ambition to become a soap baron the young peddler next turned his attention to cheap jewelry. With one of his soap boxes for a platform and armed with a tray of glittering near gems and trinkets he startled Younge street with his eloquence.

      "Well, sir, it was a great business" declared Mr. Lloyd, and his tone seemed to indicate that nothing in his subsequent amazingly successful career has given him quite the same up-and-down-the spine joyous feelings that he experienced when he awoke the down-town echoes forty years ago, "yelling like blue murder"-to quote his own phrase and selling broaches and earrings like hot waffles.

      "I saved one of my old soap boxes because I was so small that I had to stand on something in order to be heard" he explained.

      "I'll never forget that first day in the jewelry business. My small figure voice fighting the stage fright and queer antics soon attracted a crowd.

      Before saying a word I pulled out my handkerchief and performed a few simple tricks. I promised to do the greatest trick ever known after I had sold a few pieces of jewelry, but we all forgot about the famous trick long before I was through selling. I had a special line of alleged poetry for my goods and one phrase that I recall was: "If you present this to your Isabella she will never leave you for another fella!"

      When business in the city showed signs of slackening, the young merchant bought a horse and buggy and carried the good work into the country districts. Other lines of merchandise were gradually added and the widening itinerary finally landed the peddler at Port Arthur. Here be became mail carrier with a train of dogs and a sleigh of mail. Then he traded his watch for a railroad ticket to Winnipeg. Arriving there without funds he served as a waiter in a hotel. Acting on a tip concerning a piece of ground he secured an option on the plot, which he sold at a profit of $150. With this money he opened a real estate office and when he decided to pull out of Winnipeg he took with him $15,000.

      Lloyd's next essay was a United States farmer. From that he passed to insurance. One day he stood watching two men fill and weigh grain sacks. He decided that one man was enough for such a job and he accordingly invented a scale and bag holder that cut the cost of labor in two.

      Renting a blacksmith shop, he started to manufacture his new invention but hardly was he under way before a disastrous fire cleaned him out. Without funds he accepted a position as a shoe salesman.

      The invention of a wire weaving machine for making door and table mats brought him half interest in the C.O. White Manufacturing Co. of Minneapolis, a concern making baby carriages. A later invention to make bedsprings and mattresses was so successful that he was able to buy out his partner and change the name of the firm to the Lloyd Manufacturing Co. The sale of his patent rights in foreign countries put the concern on a sound basis.

      Other successful inventions followed and fifteen years ago the Lloyd plant was removed to Menominee, Michigan where it is now located. It was here that Mr. Lloyd brought out a new process, a machinery for making steel tubing. The Steel Corporation at Pittsburgh turned down the invention as "crazy" but later paid the inventor many thousand of dollars for using his method.

      Mr. Lloyd's most famous discovery is a loom to weave wicker baby carriages, an invention for which he refused $1,000,000 and for the Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and British rights of which he received $1,500,000.

      The new Lloyd loom can weave a baby carriage in any desired shape or contour in fifteen minutes. Previously, it took a hand weaver an entire day to perform the same work.

      Now one loom does the work of thirty weavers. The output of the plant has been increased by 600 percent and the number of employees only 25 per cent. The floor space of the plant has not been added to but a great new factory has been erected for the weaving of wicker furniture.

      I was too busy in those days to take in very lasting impressions of my physical surroundings. I can recall but little detail of Toronto as I knew it then. The town was a good one and live for its size. I doubt very much if I should be able to recognize your fine city of today, with the Toronto of my boyhood struggles. I always found the people very generous. This was particularly true of the women who, instead of haggling with me about the price of my soap, paid me most liberally.

      Mr. Lloyd has been Mayor of Menominee, Michigan for two terms. He invented so many improvements into political government that he was known as "Efficiency" Lloyd, a name that has stuck and by which he is generally known.

The Herald-Leader Menominee, Michigan, August 10, 1927, P1.

Menominee Mourns Loss of its Best Friend

Marshall Burns Lloyd

The Herald-Leader Menominee, Michigan, August 10, 1927, P10:1.

    Besides his widow, Mr. Lloyd is survived by one brother, Cyrus S Lloyd of Santa Monica, Calif. and three sisters, Mrs. Marguerite (Ernest) Gifford, Lockport N.Y., Mrs. Agnes (C. A.) Farrar and Mrs. Ellen (William) Jamieson, Meaford Ontario. He is also survived by nine nieces and eight nephews.

    the funeral has been announced to be held Saturday afternoon but definite arrangements and the exact hour will not be known until tomorrow. Rev. Lewis J Bailey of Grace Episcopal church will officiate. Burial will be in Riverside.

    The body will lie in state after 4 o'clock Thursday afternoon at the Lloyd residence on Sheridan road where it may be viewed by the public

The Herald-Leader Menominee, Michigan, Wednesday, August 17, 1927.

New York Times, Thursday August 11, 1927, P21:2.

    MENOMINEE. Mich., Aug 10 (AP).--Marshall B. Lloyd, wealthy manufacturer and nationally known as the inventor of the Lloyd loom, died late last night of heart disease, after an illness of two weeks.
    Credited with revolutionizing three industries through his inventions, Mr. Lloyd was better known as the inventor of a loom for weaving fiber furniture, by which baby carriages are made.
    It was this invention which brought him his greatest wealth, although he realized $800,000 in the sale of his patents on a process for making steel tubing. Antedating both of theses was the invention of a machine for weaving bed springs.
    The loom for weaving fiber furniture was invented in 1917 and transformed the industry. Making a baby's carriage constituted a full day's work for a hand weaver, but Mr. Lloyd's loom turned out one every eighteen minutes.
    Mr. Lloyd, who was 69 years old, became known as the "baby carriage king" and American Rights to the patent were sold by him a few years ago for $3,000,000. His inventions totaled 200.
    A widow, two brothers and a sister survive.

The Herald-Leader Menominee Michigan, Monday, August 22, 1927 P2:1.

    The Milwaukee Journal Sunday [Aug. 21, 1927] carried a column story of the devotion of Marshall B. Lloyd to Menominee, his beloved home town. Accompanying the story were pictures of the big department store and of the great crowd in front of the Lloyd theater on the opening night.
    Most of the article deals with the diagnostic clinic provided for under the will of the late benefactor, and it was written by a member of the Journal's staff who was here last week.
    It follows:
    "A man who amassed a fortune of $2,000,000 died remembering that he once was poor. And he recalled that his father had been poor and had died probably because of incorrect diagnosis of an ailment, and that his own wife had suffered for 16 years for the same reason. Studying over these facts in his last years, this man learned that the general medical practitioner of the small town has neither the time not the laboratory equipment to diagnose and treat chronic ailments, and he knew that the person of moderate means often cannot afford to visit specialist in distant cities.
    "So he endowed a diagnostic clinic with the bulk of his fortune, to solve the medical problems of the town of 11,000 and vicinity. That is the story behind the will of Marshall B. Lloyd, known as "the baby carriage king," who died here Aug. 10. His will bequeathed real estate valued at $150,000 to Mrs. Lloyd, and the remainder of the estate, $2,000,000, is to be held in a trust fund, all of which eventually is to be devoted to charity.

Lloyd Shop News, Menominee Michigan, August 25, 1927, Vol. 9, No. 2, P. 1

Memoria in Eterna A Man Loved By All

March 10, 1858   Marshall Burns Lloyd   August 10, 1927

WILL

    Marshall Burns Lloyd is dead.
    He died as he lived--fighting valiantly.
    The odds against him in his final battle on this earth were too great. He struggled until the very end, fighting, fighting, fighting for one more breath, but at 4:15 o'clock on the morning of August 10, with Mrs. Lloyd at his bedside, he said:
    "I want to take a deep breath."
    As he straightened up and breathed he collapsed and fell forward. He was conscious until the end. Death was due to angina pectoris. With him when he died were: Mrs. Lloyd, his brother, Cyrus Lloyd; two nephews, Cyrus and William Lloyd; C[laude]. M[athew]. Dalrymple, Dr. R. A. Walker and Dr. H. T. Sethney, the attending physicians.

New York Times, May 6 1928, Sec II, P2:7.

    MENOMINEE. Mich., May 5 (AP).--A million dollars is at stake in the suit of Mrs. Margaret Isadora Lloyd of Los Angeles against the estate of her former husband, Marshall Burns Lloyd, inventor, philanthropist, and manufacturer. The case is set for trial here Monday.
    Mrs. Herietta B. [P.] Lloyd, second wife; Isaac B. Lipson of Chicago and the Detroit Trust Company, executors of the will, are defendants.
    The plaintiff seeks the $1,000,000 as her rightful share as the widow of the millionaire. Her suit is based on the contention that she was illegally divorced by Mr. Lloyd and she was his lawful wife at the time of his death last August.
    

The Herald-Leader, Menominee Michigan, Thursday Evening, August 11, 1927 P1.

    The body of the late Marshall Burns Lloyd, Menominee's most beloved citizen who passesd away at his home here Wednesday morning at the age of 69 year, lies in state at the home on lower Sheridan road where it may be viewed by the public. It will lie in state from 4 o'clock this afternoon until 8 o'clock tonight and tomorrow it may be viewed from 10 o'clock in the morning until 8 o'clock in the eventing. The casket will be closed to the public after Friday night and will not be opened at the funeral Saturday.

A glorious date in last October,
Perched on high in great delight
Sat this man, with music soaring
Through the balmy air that night.

People cheering, lights a-flairing.
Down the pathway of his flight
Came that form so dominating
Marshall B., the city's Knight.

But today we pay him homage,
Not with music and with cheer,
But with tears and douwncast gazes,
As he passes on his bier.

Strew with flowers is his pathway
To his noble, fighting end;
God Almighty, Father in Heaven
Bless his soul, Thou Maker of Men.
                                 --E. J. Perry.

MARSHALL BURNS LLOYD

    Menominee has lost her best friend.
    If the sorrow and grief of the present moment crystalizes into a resolve to carry on, then indeed will a grateful city horor the memory of Marshall Burns Lloyd.
    Almost literally he gave his life for his home town.
    He repaetedly fought through illness back to temporary strength that he might do something more for Menominee.
    The opportunity and invitation to a life of ease, enjoying the financial profits of his great industrial achievements appealed to him not at all.
    Different from most wealthy men, he admitted and sought to discharge his debt to the city where his fortune had been made.
    In common with all men, he was not always right, but he was always fearless and sincere. His unselfish devotion to the city he loved was and inspiring example of American citizenship.
    Marshall Burns Lloyd was the last man this city could afford to spare, but if patriotic example accounts for anything those who remain behind will carry on his great unfinished work.
    What a rebuke was his life of indomitable energy to those who hesitate and quibble! When only action is needed he surely did with his might what his hand found to do.
    No greater monument to his memory can be raised by a grateful community than to, without intermission, unitedly join in completing the plans he had under way to make his beloved city all his far flung vision saw it might become.
    The name of Marshall Burns Lloyd will go marching down the path of time as long as Menominee has gratitude, appreciation and civic pride.

Roger W. Andrews.

The Herald-Leader, Menominee Michigan, Friday Evening, August 12, 1927 P1.

    They came--they came for their last farewell.
    The poor, the rich, the old, the young, those high in civic and business life, those doing the most menial labor--they all came for the same purpose--came to take a last look at the man who had the courage to say in meaning words, "Menominee, I love you."
    From early Thursday afternoon when the sun was high in the heavens until darkness cast its shroud over the mourning community, they came--Then again all day today they came. Singly, in twos, threes and in groups they came. Silently they wended their ways through the gates, into the home and to the bier of the departed First Citizen.

Menominee Herald-Leader. Unknown date.

Marinette Eagle-Star. P. 6, Sec. 3. After Aug. 1950. Courtesy Menominee Co. Historical Society. Menominee, MI 49858.

Marshall Lloyd

Marshall B. Lloyd came to Menominee in 1906 from Minneapolis, Minn., and established the Lloyd Manufacturing Co. which opened for production one year later. Lloyd's contributions to the community were tremendous. One of the most significant was his bequeath of more than $650,000 "to the people of Menominee for health charities." Lloyd died Aug. 10, 1928 [1927].     Litigation over the Lloyd will and curtailment of building materials during World War II delayed until the spring of 1949 the start of construction of the hospital facility which was to bear his name.

Sixty years ago, American Marshall B. Lloyd invented this style of furniture. It's produced today in the United Kingdom using the original method -- brown paper fibre wrapped around wire. This has proved a durable mixture -- It's still possible to buy 60-year-old pieces in perfect condition. "Belton" armchair, £220, and 23in round table, £150, from Lloyd Loom Furniture Ltd. For stockists, tel: 0775 712111.

Menominee, Herald-Leader, May 25, 1923.

MARSHALL B. LLOYD

The announcement does not only mean that the business of the Lloyd Manufacturing Company will be expanded but it means as well that employment will be made possible for upwards of 500 more persons, bringing the payroll of this company close to the 1,500 mark.     After the first building is erected, it will be necessary to make several department changes while the other structures are undergoing renovation and raising. This will necessitate some extensive moving of machines and stock but every effort will be made to keep operation as close to normal as possible. Present plans do not specify any letup in operation.

Underwood, Jane, Pub. "Wonderfully Wicker." Oklahoma Treasures etc. April, 2000. <http://www.shopoklahoma.net/oktreasures/articles0400.htm>

http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/
Oct. 12 1912, Marshall B. Lloyd arrives in NY aboard the Adriatic from Liverpool line 0022 of ship's manifest. b. St. Paul MN Mar. 10 1858 male married age 54 res. Menominee, MI

LaRose Eric. "Theater has Second life as an Antique Store." Eagle Herald: A Beacon for the New Millenium, The Marinette and Mominee Online News Souce. Monday, September 29, 2003. <http://www.eagleherald.com/thea0929.htm>

Theater has second life as an antique store

MENOMINEE -- Each year there are more and more movies being produced, and fewer theaters to show them in.

        The single screen movie theater has been on the brink of extinction ever since multiplex theater chains became the norm. Most of the theaters many remember going to as a child have been destroyed. But some, thankfully, have found new life.

        When movies were first presented to small groups of people in nickelodeon theaters and traveling tent shows, they served as a passport to far away places, especially destinations that members of the audience would never have a chance to see otherwise.

        Movies took people on adventures, placing them in the middle of the action, while editing out the real danger.

        As movies progressed, they became bigger, louder and more colorful. They also required bigger theaters to be displayed in.

        At one point in time or another, the Twin Cities were home to several movie theaters including the Royal, the Rialto, the Lyric, the Fox, the Strand, the Grand, the Cozy, the Gem in Menekaunee, Dreamland in Menominee's Finntown, the Highway 64 Drive-in Theater and the Lloyd Theater in Menominee. All of them have been demolished, except the Lloyd.

        Built in 1926 for $125,000, the Lloyd Theater was part of the once mighty Lloyd's Department Store. Originally built as a single screen silent theater, sound was introduced 18 months after it opened, and the Lloyd became the third theater north of Chicago to show "talkies."

        The theater was split in the 1980s to accommodate more patrons. When it closed in 1997, a week after the Mariner Theater in Marinette closed down, the area lost a big piece of its history.

        The Mariner did eventually reopen and at approximately 30 years old it is the oldest operating theater the twin cities of Marinette and Menominee.

        Most movie theaters don't get a second chance. But the Lloyd's marquee still overlooks 1st Street in Menominee, and the two theaters still transport people to other places and times.

        After closing, the Lloyd was purchased by Darrell and Linda Eland and turned into the Timeless Treasures Antique Mall. Where people used to sit and watch Hollywood's latest offerings, now sit tables and chairs, glassware and figurines, board games and old 45s.

        "We opened in June of '98, we bought it in November or December of 1997," said Darrell Eland.

        When they bought it, they tossed around a couple of possibilities of what kind of business they could open up before deciding on an antique store. Oddly enough, a movie theater was not one of them.

        "In our deed it said that were not allowed to," Eland said clarifying that if they wanted to they could have opened a theater, but they would have had to wait 20 years to do it.

        They spent the better part of the six months the space was closed for remodeling. Eland kept the two theaters in tact, but ripped out the seats and added balconies where the screen was for additional antiques.

        It was the second time Eland had remodeled the space.

        "My company did the drywall work when they split the theater," said Eland, who still owns and operates Eland Dry Wall Service in Menominee.

        Owning the theater has been a kind of treasure hunt for Eland, as he has found numerous artifacts of film history throughout the space, most of which he has on display in the old ticket window and front counter.

        They have found original programs from the theater, a film slide, an early film trailer, an usher's flashlight, and a pocketknife with burlesque pictures on it. He also found several films that, when he touched them, disintegrated.

        Now, instead of the movies showing people the world, the theater brings the world to it.

        A map at the front of the store is filled with stickpins representing where customers have come from.

        They have had visitors from all 50 states and from as far away as Australia and Europe.

        To keep giving it that real movie feel, the concession stand is open. "We make popcorn for anyone who wants it," said Eland.

        The projector has long since been turned off, but history in this movie theater still lives on.

"Mr. Lloyd." From A Century of St. Thomas Times. p. 190 (FHL US/CAN Fiche #6048108)

MR. Lloyd

        He was here in the mid 1880's and lived over the blacksmith shop owned by Billy Jones. The shop caught fire and he came down in his red flannel underwear carrying something small in his hand, which turned out to be a scale he had invented--this was the Lloyd Scale. He also made aLloyd baby carriage, Lloyd springs and cash register.

Ebsch, Larry. "Lloyd, Menominee good match." Eagle Hearald. Marinette, WI; Menominee, MI: Sunday, 23 Jul 2006.

        "Made in Menominee." What a powerful message just three words can send around the world in describing in part what the creativity of an energetic inventor and the skilled hands of proud laborers can do as ambassadors of a community. Marshall Burns Lloyd, and his hard-working labor force, made those words magic in world commerce with their many products that were sold coast to coast and in foreign markets.

        The impressive craftsmanship, originating with Lloyd Manufacturing Co. and continued today under the identity of Lloyd-Flanders Industries Inc., has been a lasting trademark for 100 years. Lloyd began building his empire in the summer of 1906 and started up the factory machines in January 1907.

        Ambitious and daring, Lloyd's multiple business ventures were already successful in Minneapolis in the 1890s. In 1900, he had purchased outright the interests of his business partners and was in full charge of Lloyd Manufacturing Co.

        His initial rise in the business field came in inventing and manufacturing a combined grain sack holder and scale that reduced labor costs, then designed and produced a special door mat woven from wire. Soon his inventive mind developed a new wire wheel and a line of boys' wagons. He gained patents on his products. His drive to become wealthy was under way.

        Looking for ways to expand on his ingenuity, and realizing he would need fresh investments to attain his goals, Lloyd decided to relocate from Minneapolis. He was somewhat familiar with the growth and development taking place in the Great Lakes region, and was aware that Menominee, Mich., and Marinette, Wis., were thriving lumber towns that were experiencing a decline in natural resources.

        He sold his operations in Minneapolis and headed for Menominee, where he found willing investors who already were wealthy from their lumber dealings. It was a match that has lasted 100 years.

        Before the diminutive man with the brilliant mind encountered health problems that led to his death on Aug. 10, 1927, at age 69, he had more than 200 inventions to his credit and accumulated a fortune of more than $2.5 million, a fortune he was willing to share with the community he now called "home."

        Mr. Lloyd not only was generous in giving to the community and its surroundings, but also was active in civic affairs. He served as mayor of the city from 1913 to 1917 when the position was a part-time office, but one which had tremendous political clout. A 14-member city council served as the governing board in a city of more than 12,000.

        He bankrolled the construction of the Lloyd Department Store, a four-story (with basement) downtown showpiece in 1926. Originally tabbed "The Wonder Store," Lloyd's dream retail outlet included an arcade and the Lloyd Theater.

        He encouraged local investment in the project, and created the Menominee Community Building Co. for a communitywide stock drive. The project received more publicity and marketing promotions than when his huge manufacturing plant in the northern sector of the city was built.

        Area retail competition was keen, however, and the famed Lloyd Store was doomed for closure after a few years of doing business.

        Although Mr. Lloyd left his handprints on many Menominee enterprises during his tenure, the most philanthropic and beloved was his gift to build Menominee County Lloyd Hospital.

        Lloyd left most of his vast fortune to the city upon his death in 1927 to establish a medical clinic for the care of patients who were unable to afford it. Political bickering and legal issues, however, prevented Lloyd's original plan from moving forward, and it wasn't until more than 20 years later before the hospital plan was completed.

        He was a generous giver to many other local undertakings, and wasn't afraid to participate in community affairs. The city honored him with a street name. Lloyd Avenue ran east and west and touched the front property of the manufacturing company that bears his name. The street became 30th Avenue in 1950 when the city went to a numbering system.

        Inventing things, and then finding a way to put his ideas to good use through manufacturing, inspired his phenomenal success.

        Lloyd Loom was the inventor's one striking masterpiece that set him apart from other industrialists in the furniture business. His early wicker-made products became a showcase around the world.

        Then came the famous Lloyd baby carriages that attracted nationwide attention. The historical photos that we sometimes see featuring wicker furniture and baby carriages are precious reminders of what Lloyd workers produced when today's older generations were growing up.

        It would require a capacious brochure to detail all of the inventions and products under the Lloyd name since his arrival in Menominee. I find it necessary, however, to list some of them: public seating for theaters, schools and auditoriums; transportation seating for railroads, buses, street cars, aircraft and steamships; chrome-plated furniture for hotels, restaurants, clubs, taverns and other public institutions; outdoor furniture for businesses and homes; and home dinette sets. All of this besides boys' wagons and baby carriages.

        Perhaps the least publicized, but the most important of ail Lloyd Manufacturing Co. products, came off the assembly lines in World War II. The federal government kept tight controls on domestic manufacturers that produced materials for the war effort. Lloyd workers received numerous government awards for their devotion to duty and for workmanship in meeting critical deadlines.

        The company made glider fuselages for Ford Co. plants in Kingsford and Detroit, and bomber trainers for a plant in New York. It made motor mounts for Curtiss Wright Co. in Columbus, Ohio, and air breathers, oil lines and water lines for the Gray Marine Motor Co. in Detroit. The company made 100,000 75 mm high-explosive shells per month for the military.

        Eighty-five percent of Lloyd's work in the early 1940s was in war production. About 250 of Lloyd's work force marched off to war. Women replaced men in the factory.

        Lloyd Manufacturing Co. was once the largest employer in the M&M area with about 1,200 workers on the payroll. They were the ones responsible for forging the best advertising symbol any manufacturer could have: "Made in Menominee."

"Millionaire Inventor is Home From Florida." Ironwood Daily Globe. Tues. Evening, May 15, 1923. P2:C4