Seattle-Tacoma Box Company

Seattle-Tacoma Box Company is a pioneering Seattle company established in 1889 by Jacob Nist and his sons as "Queen City Box Manufacturing Company." For over a century, the Nist family has continuously owned, managed, and operated the company, producing wooden crates, boxes, containers, and other wood products. Renamed "Seattle Box Company" in 1905, the business purchased a second manufacturing facility in Tacoma in 1922.

Seattle-Tacoma Box Company
Formerly
  • Seattle Box Company
  • Queen City Box Manufacturing Company
TypeCorporation
IndustryWood products
FoundedOctober 21, 1889 (1889-10-21)
FounderJacob Nist
Headquarters
Seattle (Kent), Washington
,
USA
Area served
International
Key people
Ferdinand Nist, President
ProductsContainers, boxes, crates
BrandsPerfectioNIST
WebsiteSeattle-Tacoma Box Company

The two enterprises merged efforts in 1975 as "Seattle-Tacoma Box Company," opening a new plant in Kent, Washington. Governor Booth Gardner honored the Nist family and the company on its centennial in 1989, proclaiming the pride of the citizens of Washington for the company's "contributions to the economy of the state". In addition to wooden boxes and crates, today the company produces packaging supplies, bags, strapping, pallets, fuel pellets, portable moving and storage vaults, and seafood containers.

Queen City Box Manufacturing, 1889 to 1905
old photo of lumber mill
Stetson-Post Mill ca 1900

Jacob Nist, a farmer and grocer from Philadelphia, migrated to Seattle with his wife and seven children by 1880 and initially took up farming.[1][2] He and his sons soon found work in the lumber mills.[3] Nist worked for three years as a turner at the Stetson-Post Mill Company in Seattle, and his sons found employment as carpenters and mill engineers.[3][4] By 1888, Nist and his sons Michael, Jacob J., George, and Aloys were all working at the Seattle Lumber and Commercial Company,[5][6] which was operating 20 hours per day and had added a new box factory.[7] That mill was destroyed on June 6, 1889, in the Great Seattle Fire, along with every other mill and wharf between Union and Jackson streets, as well as most of downtown Seattle.[7]

vintage photo of box company plant
Queen City Box Manufacturing Company – postcard

To continue providing for the family after the fire, Nist and sons established the Queen City Box Manufacturing company and began production in October 1889.[6] The original Queen City Manufacturing facility was next to the Nist family home on the shore of Lake Union. The company started slowly, and according to the Seattle City Directory three of Nist's sons, Michael, Jacob J., and John were also employed in 1890 by Skookum Manufacturing Company, another local sawmill.[8][9] The company made millwork, sashes, and door frames. The Nists incorporated the company two years into production, in November 1891, with $10,000 capital, 100 shares at $100 each.[10] The company objectives were to "manufacture, buy, sell and deal in all kinds of lumber, sashes, doors, window blinds, molding, stairs, stair rails and banisters, and all kinds of woodwork and finishing material−to operate sawmills, sash and door factories, shingle mills, box factories, and to build houses, deal in timber and own land."[11]

Seattle experienced rapid growth in the 1890s, as did the new company, despite the temporary setback caused by the economic panic of 1893, which hit the Northwest hard.[12] The Klondike Gold Rush began in 1897, and according to journalist J. Kingston Pierce, "Elliott Bay became the frenzied embarkation point for tens of thousands of miners shipping north."[12] The miners provided additional business for Seattle companies that, in turn, required boxes and crates for their products. In 1903, Queen City Manufacturing Company even acquired a mine formerly owned by the Horseshoe Mining Company in Whatcom County, Washington.[13]

vintage photo of box company on tideflats
Seattle Box Company, 1905, built on Elliott Bay tidelands

Seattle Box Company, 1905 to 1920

Michael J. Nist became company president in 1905, but years before that he had become the major decision-maker of the business.[10] Company founder Jacob Nist died in 1907, after almost six months' illness.[14] By that time, the company had been renamed Seattle Box Company, reflecting the chief products of the company: crates, boxes, and shooks. (A shook is a set of wooden staves and headers, for assembling a barrel or cask.) The company was constructing a larger plant on the tidal flats of Elliott Bay in South Seattle. The building permit allowed three structures: a factory building, a dry kiln, and boiler room.[10] A photograph by Seattle Times photographers Ira Webster and Nelson Stevens, circa 1905, shows the company surrounded by water, the only building in the area, accessible via a railroad trestle, a causeway built across the bay, and by a 30-foot motor launch kept under the building.[10]

Two fires during this period, in 1908 and 1920, destroyed Seattle Box Company's mill building, machinery, and stock.[6][9] The company used insurance reimbursements to re-build each time,[15] and by 1916, assets had more than tripled, from the original $10,000 investment to over $30,000.[15] Seattle Box Company continued production through World War I, running three shifts per day.[15] Michael Nist stepped down as company president in 1920, selling his company shares to his sons Ferdinand and Joseph.[15] He continued writing company checks through 1930 and died in 1932.[15][16]

Seattle Box Company and Tacoma Box Company, 1920 to 1970

In 1920, Ferdinand J. Nist ("F.J.") became the third president of the company. He was a graduate of Seattle College and had learned the family business when he trained "as an ordinary workman" at the company.[17]

Seattle plant expansion and Tacoma plant purchase in the 1920s

In 1922, the manufacturing plant in Seattle was increased in size to a three-story cutting and assembling facility.[18][19] The new plant occupied an entire city block, and the company's motto was, "A good wood box for the purpose intended at a fair price."[20] The company purchased Calef Box Company in Tacoma in 1922. Joseph Nist undertook the management of it as Tacoma Box Company while planning a new facility. Before the plant was completed, however, Joe Nist died in a drowning accident during a family picnic in 1926, at age 37.[21] Tacoma Box Company moved into new facilities in 1928, under the management of Leo Nist.[22]

In this decade Seattle Box began modernizing, replacing two horse-drawn delivery carts with its first truck, a chain-driven Pierce-Arrow. By the end of the decade, the truck fleet also included a Ford and three Kenworth trucks built in nearby Kirkland, Washington. Since horses were no longer needed for delivery, the old stables under the plant were converted to a dry kiln, which allowed the inventory to include a larger variety of dry lumber stock, and ended the need for a lengthy storage period to air-dry the company's large inventory, 14,000,000 board feet (33,000 m3) of lumber. Other equipment modernization in the twenties included a new Stetson-Ross planer, two Mershon resaw machines, a new lumber carrier, and a new two-color modern design printer for boxes and crates.[22]

During the twenties, the Nists also made a strategic decision to serve customers who had to order boxes in small lots, identifying a niche market. (Larger companies usually specialized in specific types of boxes, and required large orders to keep costs down.) The business that began in 1889, with four employees, had over a hundred people on the payroll by 1924, and had an extensive business in California and Hawaii.[17][22] By 1927, Northwest Daily Produce News reported Seattle Box had orders from the West Indies for butter boxes made of odorless spruce, as well as another large order from a local creamery to box premium Edam cheese.[23]

In 1928, Seattle Box Company bought a steam whistle from a Yukon River boat to mark starting and stopping times seven times daily—at five and six and seven a.m., at noon, one, four, and five o'clock. This "particularly throaty" steam whistle could be heard across a 12-mile (19 km) radius from the plant in downtown Seattle until it was finally retired in 1961, the last steam whistle in Seattle.[22][24]

Great Depression and labor unrest in the 1930s

From the beginnings of the family business, the Nists owned their business property and equipment outright. The company survived the Great Depression partly because they had avoided debt, partly because they did cost studies and priced products carefully and accurately, and partly because they designed containers for individual customers rather than specializing in a limited product line.[25]

The company dealt with recurring challenges during this decade: collections were slow and prices were reduced to maintain business; the National Recovery Administration controlled both prices and profits under the code of fair competition for lumber and timber products; there were three small fires at the Seattle plant in the thirties; and labor unrest resulted in unionizing the workforce, with a 6-week strike in 1935 as well as a week-long walkout in 1937.[25] In spite of his previous "hands off" policy toward union organizing, Ferdinand Nist became the lead negotiator for industry in the Pacific Northwest, settling with the Sawmill and Lumber Workers of the American Federation of Labor.[25]

Rotting timbers in an aging foundation caused a potentially serious collapse of the Seattle plant in 1935. It completely buried one man in sawdust and endangered others who were partially buried. Fortunately, all the buried men were rescued without serious injuries, and the plant was almost immediately re-built on new foundation timbers.[26]

Eugene M. Nist (Gene) began managing the Tacoma plant in 1938. With seven employees, and only the plant supervisor and himself on the regular payroll, Gene took on the role of manager, but also "bookkeeper, buyer, labor negotiator, and troubleshooter". He scrounged for orders, eventually producing furniture frames for upholstered sofas and box springs.[25] Even with the challenges of the 1930s, Seattle Box Company kept paying dividends on its stock during the decade. In 1938, company president Ferdinand Nist explained in a radio interview that the family company "used 12 million feet of spruce and hemlock per year, all produced within 125 miles (201 km) of Seattle."[25]

World War II effort of the 1940s

During World War I, the company had heavy demand for boxes and crates, so early in the 1940s, Seattle Box began gearing up production, anticipating an increased need for the war effort. The company provided two and a half million boxes during World War II, for transportation of munitions, food, and supplies.[27] The Northwest Veteran saluted the company for "the monumental part this company played in the prosecution of the nation's war program in World War II," citing the quality and reliability of its products.[28]

Even though both plants were busy during the war, the company did not prosper in the forties due to shortages of lumber and labor as the country's workforce went to war.[27] Minutes of the 1946 stockholders' meeting show the company's lumber inventory had been reduced, from over 3 million board feet in 1942, to just over a million in 1946.[29] After the war, there was pent-up demand not only for boxes and crates but also for furniture that the Tacoma plant had been producing. The company expanded to produce box springs and began an effort to improve the handling of lumber to be kiln-dried.[27] Both plants also continued to replace aging steam engines and boilers with electrical mill machinery. But there were no dividends distributed to stockholders for 1946.[27] The trends of the decade were higher wages, shortages of materials, higher prices, and heavy competition, especially from local non-unionized factories.[30]

Changing times in the 1950s

Company profits remained low in the early 1950s. In 1951, Seattle Box reported a loss for only the second time in sixty-two years of operation.[30] A labor strike in 1950 and a 1954 two-month strike affected profits by raising the basic wage to $1.905 per hour.[30][31]

Seattle Box and Tacoma Box sought new products and more efficient ways to produce them.[30] Wooden boxes continued to be the main product, but paper and corrugated cardboard boxes were beginning to affect demand.[30] The Tacoma plant set up a round conveyor system, which was then also implemented in the Seattle plant. The company adopted a new system for coloring boxes in 1957, and in 1958, began using clamp gluing and bulk shipping fasteners developed by North American Aviation.[32] The Seattle and Tacoma plants both needed continuous foundation repairs.[30]

The company continued its focus on specialty wood products in the 1950s, adding paneling, siding, and furniture assembly parts, as well as large crates for bulk shipping.[32] According to Wood and Wood Products magazine, "Besides boxes, crates, delivery cases and crating lumber, the company also manufactures such apparently non-related items as bed frames, furniture stock, bread boxes, household bins, bed slats, fence pickets, bird houses, and hanging planter baskets."[32] Manufacture of furniture stock (such as overstuffed furniture frames) accounted for 20 percent of the firm's business by 1959, with the total payroll for both plants more than 100 employees.[32]

In the late 1950s, Ferdinand J. Nist, Sr.'s sons Emmet and Eugene assumed more responsibilities for company management.[30] Ferdinand, Jr., left Central Washington University for night classes at the University of Washington, and also began working full-time at the Seattle plant in 1958, at age 20.[30]

Revolution in the industry and PerfectioNIST brand in the 1960s

By the early sixties, high lumber prices and competition from new materials, such as fiberboard, paper-overlaid veneer, plastic, and metal precipitated revolutionary changes in the container and packaging industry. The Nists had competition from large producers of the new materials, as well as continuing competition from non-unionized companies with pay scales still about half that of Seattle Box.[33]

Aging plants presented the second challenge of this period, with maintenance difficulties and less flexibility to handle new products and flow patterns.[33] Operations were beset by pollution, noise, and smoke, in spite of new procedures for baling shavings. Leadership at the plant was also in transition, with Gene Nist as vice president at the Tacoma plant and Emmet Nist vice president in Seattle.[33]

The firm continued developing alternative ways of using labor and raw materials.[33] A modular panel container system was introduced in 1962, consisting of 50 plywood veneer panels that could be configured 350 different ways.[33] "Klimp fasteners" replaced nails and cut costs by about a third, making re-use possible — and Tacoma Box had become the Northwest distributor. Moving and storage containers and a car kennel kit were also introduced in the sixties.[33] Other new products included a unique box made originally in Japan for sujiko (salmon roe); a container developed for the Dole Food Company to transport pineapple juice concentrate; patented nailless bins for shipping cement and salt to Alaska pipeline developers; and money blanks the size of a dollar bill for the U.S. Treasury Department.[33][34]

Earlier generations of the family business had allowed "Nist Bros." to be included in small print on company letterhead, with memos printed on letterhead as the primary means of advertising. But as times changed, Gene Nist developed the trademark "PerfectioNIST" for the family firm in 1968. Finally, as both plants had become outdated, the Nist family began to discuss building a new facility.[33] A company brochure for new employees noted in 1969, "Survival is predicated on changing with the times," and listed the company's motto, "Be sure you're right...then hustle."[35]

Merger with new facility, 1970 to present

New facility and packaging steel pipe in the 1970s

The decade of the seventies brought two major changes: the Seattle and Tacoma plants were merged in a new facility in Kent, between Seattle and Tacoma; and a new method for packaging steel pipeline was developed and patented in that decade for shipping to the Alaska North Slope.[36]

The 1970s began with generally difficult circumstances locally: in 1971, a poor salmon run affected demand for sujiko boxes; environmental concerns had repeatedly delayed opening the oil fields in Alaska, affecting orders for the larger containers with a capacity of 2 short tons (1.8 t); and Puget Sound's economy was generally poor, due to layoffs in the airline industry at Boeing.[36][37] F.J. Nist retired in 1972, and Emmet Nist became president of the company.

The Nists also had to contend with two aging plants and concluded a new, modern facility was needed. Then in September 1973, a spectacular 3-alarm, 12-engine fire at the Seattle plant caused $150,000 in damages to the dry lumber storage facility.[38][39] Company officers had already identified a site in Kent of 22 acres (8.9 hectares) alongside the Milwaukie-Union Pacific rail line near the I-405 freeway. Construction on the $1.5 million plant began in 1974, and by spring 1975, the merger was underway, with 75 employees joining together in the renamed Seattle-Tacoma Box Company.[40][41] Both the Seattle and Tacoma properties were sold to help finance the new property.[42] The new facility provided workspace of 120,000 square feet (11,000 m2) under one roof, improving workflow; additionally, the property was large enough to provide a storage site for new clients in the oil pipe industry. Seattle-Tacoma Box Company had been providing nailless containers for shipping supplies to the North Slope oil fields in Alaska, and that ongoing relationship led to the development of new tubular packaging systems patented in 1978 and 1980.[43] The oil pipe packaging developed by Ferdinand Nist, Jr., brought international sales.[44]

Investments in subsidiary plants, 1980s and 1990s

By 1980, the company bought a one-third interest in a corrugated cardboard plant, the Menasha Corporation of Tacoma, and renamed the plant Commencement Bay Corrugated. In order to compete with corporate giants like Weyerhauser and Georgia Pacific, the company expanded its sales force several times.[45] In 1985, the company's subsidiary SeaPro systems began manufacturing paper, corrugated, and wood products for foodservice industries.[46]

In 1989, Washington Governor Booth Gardner honored the Nists and their company with a proclamation declaring October 23, 1989, Nist Family Day, for their contributions to the state's economy.

Twenty-first century

Seattle-Tacoma Box Company is based in Kent, Washington, with operations in Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Oregon. It serves agricultural, industrial, and seafood markets with packaging supplies, boxes, wood containers, bags, strapping, pallets, fuel pellets, portable moving and storage vaults, as well as seafood containers.[47][48]

Its subsidiaries, SeaCa Packaging (founded in 1991) and SeaCa Plastic Packaging (founded in 2014), are in operation in central California, New Hampshire, and Arizona. SeaCa Plastic Packaging in Fowler, California, manufactures polypropylene corrugated cartons as a sustainable packaging replacement to wax corrugated. In 2019, the company built a new manufacturing location in Surprise, Arizona, with plans to create better packaging on a larger scale.[49] Ferd Nist, Jr., president of the company, is a fourth-generation Nist, and fifth and sixth generation Nists (Michael, Robert, Jacob, Joseph, and Erika) already work in the family company.[6]

References
  1. "Jacob Nist dead". The Seattle Star (Last ed.). August 6, 1907. p. 1. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  2. Business Directory of the City of Seattle for the Year 1882, comprising a brief sketch of the settlement, development, and present business of the City. Elliot & Sweet. 1882. p. 49. Nist, Geo. clk, r Lake Union. Nist, J M farmer, Lake Union. Nist, M J engineer, r Lake Union.
  3. Washington State and Territorial Census. 1885. p. 26. Nist, J M, 45, watchman. Nist, M.J., 22, sawyer. Nist, George, 18, millman.
  4. "Pioneer J Nist Dead at 67 years, Founded Queen City Box and Was Successful Business Man". Seattle Post Intelligencer. August 7, 1907. He migrated to Kansas where he farmed for several years. Then he sold and drove a team to San Francisco, and took passage to Seattle in a sailing ship. For three years he was a turner at the Stetson-Post Mill Company.
  5. Seattle City Directory, 1889. R. L. Polk and Co. 1889. p. 336. Nist, Aloys, lab S L & Com Co, res 322 Rollin. Nist, George J, mach hand S L & Com Co, bds 322 Rollin. Nist, Jacob J, boxmkr S L & Com Co, bds 322 Rollin. Nist, Jacob M, boxmkr S L & Com Co, bds 322 Rollin. Nist, John, clk J W Hughes, rms 322 Rollin. Nist, John A, upholsterer Lake Union Furn Mnfg Co, bds 614 Moltke. Nist, Joseph, clk rms 322 Rollins. Nist, Michael J, foreman S L & Com Co, res 322 Rollin.
  6. Morris, Barry (September 1, 2000). "PerfectioNist Heritage Defines Seattle-Tacoma Box Co". Inside Self-Storage. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  7. Bagley, Clarence B. (1916). "Sawmills, Lumber and Lumber Products". History of Seattle from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company. p. 232.
  8. "Seattle City Directory, 1890". Hathi Trust Digital Library. 1890. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  9. "Ferdinand J. Nist". Who's Who in Washington. 1924. Jacob M. Nist and his son, the father of the present president of the company, established the Queen City Manufacturing Company, to manufacture wooden boxes. The concern, located on the shores of Lake Union, grew very slowly at first. The plant was eventually taken to Spokane street, where it was visited by two destructive fires — 1908 and 1920 — which failed, however, to put the company out of business. Each time the plant was rebuilt on a larger and more ambitious scale.
  10. "1891–1905". Centennial Brochure. Seattle-Tacoma Box Company. Within two years after its founding, the Queen City Manufacturing Company was on solid enough ground that it was incorporated and capitalized at $10,000...100 original shares, valued at $100 per share... It is known that the company was making millwork, sashes and doorframes, and probably other wood products... The city building permit is dated March 15, 1905, which may have been after the fact of building. The permit allows the building of three structures, a factory building, dry kiln, and boiler room...The new buildings were accessible only by horse team along the Spokane Street causeway and by a railroad trestle which curved out to the site from the main Northern Pacific track. Early photographs show the Seattle Box Company, the only building in the area, surrounded by water. (It was also accessible by the 30-foot launch kept under the building.)
  11. "Articles of Incorporation: Queen City Box Manufacturing Company". Seattle-Tacoma Box Company Archives. November 9, 1891.
  12. Pierce, J. Kingston (November 24, 1999). "Panic of 1893: Seattle's First Great Depression". HistoryLink.org. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
  13. "Washington, Whatcom County". International Monthly Review of Current Progress in Mining and Metallurgy. 1903. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
  14. "Jacob Nist Dies at His Home — One of Seattle's Pioneer Businessmen Expires after an Illness of Several Months — Leaves Valuable Property". Seattle Times. August 6, 1907. Jacob Nist, late head of the Queen City Manufacturing Company and for twenty nine years of Seattle, died at his home, 221 Sixth Avenue North, at 11:45 o'clock last evening, after an illness of nearly six months.
  15. "1906–1920". Centennial Brochure. Seattle-Tacoma Box Company. 1989. This 15-year period was punctuated by two of the worst fires in the company's long history. On June 18, 1908, fire destroyed most of the building, machinery and stock. The company returned to business quickly, using the insurance money to rebuild. ...By the time Seattle Box Company was reincorporated in 1916, net assets had tripled, from $10,000 in 1891, to $30,000. The second incorporation was necessary because of the expiration of the original, which had been drawn up under an earlier legal code. ...Surviving records do not refer to production during World War I. Gene does remember his father saying that the company ran three shifts during the war. ...A fire on June 9, 1920, destroyed all the manufacturing facilities. Five days later, the trustees met in temporary offices, again voted to rebuild and continue the business. They notified their customers to expect them back in business by late July. The estimated loss of $35,900 was covered by insurance. It was noted later that the company did not pay a dividend in 1920. ...Michael is remembered by his grandson Emmet as a man with a deep voice and a commanding presence. Although he stepped down in 1920 and sold most of his stock to his sons Ferdinand and Joseph, he retained the titles of vice-president and treasurer. He continued to appear at his desk and sign checks for the next 10 years.
  16. "Michael J. Nist funeral set". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. May 13, 1932.
  17. "Ferdinand J. Nist". Who's Who in Washington. 1924. He was educated in the public and parochial schools of this city and subsequently from Seattle College as a member of the class of 1902. Immediately following the conclusion of his college course he entered his father's box factory in a minor position, to learn the business from the bottom up. Step by step he mastered the essential features of the industry and is now proving by able and active service as the president the value of the training he received as an ordinary workman in the factory.
  18. "Loads 'Em Wide and High". The Barrel and Box. July 1, 1922. The plant of the Seattle Box Company is located at Fourth avenue south and Spokane street, where the main cutting and assembling departments are housed in a building three stories high, which has a fifty-eight foot frontage with a private side-track and is 220 feet deep.
  19. "Box Company Now Building Big Addition — Figures Being Taken on Material Contracts at Present". The Seattle Times. November 10, 1922. The building as planned will be 55X100 feet, three stories frame type of heavy timber construction. It will be the third addition to this rapidly growing plant and will house planing mill equipment and serve as a dry and storage shed as well.
  20. "Seattle Leaders — F. J. Nist". Daily Journal of Commerce. 1923. Today the factory occupies an entire city block, has under cover 65,000 square feet of floor space, and gives employment to more than 90 men. Its success is based on a thorough knowledge of the business and the motto, A good wood box for the purpose intended at a fair price. ...The company is making a specialty of the manufacture of all kinds of packing cases and crates, has a large trade in the Northwest, and is doing an extensive business in California and the Hawaiian Islands.
  21. "Tacoman Drowns while Bathing in Lake — Joseph A. Nist, Manager of Box Company, Suffers Cramps while Swimming". Tacoma News Tribune and Ledger. July 5, 1926. Joseph A. Nist, for two and a half years manager of the Tacoma Box Company, was drowned in Beaver lake, a mile and a half northeast of Enumclaw, Sunday at 4 p. m., while bathing with other members of his family, following a Nist family reunion which had been attended by a large number of the relatives.
  22. "The Twenties". Centennial Brochure. Seattle-Tacoma Box Company. 1989. The company was growing and expanding during this period and decided to branch out with the purchase of a plant in Tacoma. ...Another major decision was for the company to remain small in the sense that it would serve the "little guys" — those who had to order their boxes in relatively small lots. Many competing boxmakers specialized in specific types of boxes and accepted only very large orders, to keep their costs down. Seattle Box filled this gap left by their competitors. ...When the Calef Box Company in Tacoma went out of business, it was purchase, in 1922, by Seattle Box and renamed the Tacoma Box Company. F.J Nist's brother, Joseph A. Nist, went to Tacoma to manage the plant and soon became a popular and respected citizen of the Tacoma community while building the facility into a successful business. ...Tacoma Box was thriving and plans were underway for a new building when Joe was tragically drowned in a boating accident in July, 1926. In 1928, Tacoma Box did move into a new, three-story building at 923 East 26th Street in Tacoma. Another brother, Leo Nist, who had been the bookkeeper at Tacoma, was appointed to manage the operation. ...Seattle Box Company's use of a dry kiln made it feasible to have a variety of dry lumber stock on hand to take advantage of orders. Air drying would take at least three months, and the company had to keep a stock of about 14 million feet of lumber on hand. ...they made a dry kiln out of the old stable under the plant ...the first replacement for the horses was a chain-driven Pierce Arrow truck. The records show that a Kenworth truck was purchased in 1923, a Ford in 1926, and a new two-ton Kenworth in 1929... In 1928, the company acquired a steam whistle from a Yukon River boato announce work starting and stopping times. The whistle was reputed to be powerful enough to herald the arrival of a ship from 12 miles away. It remained a well-known part of Seattle life until it was retired from service in 1961... Among the pieces of a new manufacturing equipment purchased during the twenties was a Stetson-Ross planer, which F.J. Nist bought for $1,700 in 1921... A two-color modern design printer for boxes and crates was purchased in 1925, and was promoted to customers as an excellent method of advertising. Other purchases included... a 54" single Mershon resaw in 1927, ...a new twin 54' mershon resaw, coapable of sawing 200 feet per minute, in 1928; and a new lumber carrier in 1929.
  23. "Seattle Box Co. receives order from West Indies". Northwest Daily Produce News. January 28, 1927. Last week the Seattle Box Co. received a large order for wooden butter boxes from the British West Indies...The Seattle Box Co. is making cheese boxes for the Purity Creamery Co. of Leavenworth. this creamery, which is owned and operated by Richard Mus, makes a specialty of Edam cheese and is considered the finest produced in the entire United States.
  24. Lynch, Frank (August 1955). "Seattle Scene: Alas for the Passing of the Steam Whistle". Seattle Post Intelligencer. In the days of his youth, McCurdy wrote, every mill and manufacturing plant in Seattle began and stopped operations by steam whistle...The Nists have had the present steam whistle since 1928 or so. It came from a Yukon River boat, though none around the place, alas, can recall the name. "All I can tell you is that it came highly recommended," Nist said. "We were told that it was particularly throaty, and powerful enough to herald the arrival of the ship from a 12 mile distance. We feel that it has lived up to expectations."
  25. "The Thirties". Centennial Brochure. Seattle-Tacoma Box Company. 1989. Seattle Box Company survived the period of the Great Depression fairly well, partly because the Nists had never believed in getting into debt, so company property and equipment were owned outright. F.J. NIst was an expert salesman, according to his sons, and had a talent for designing workable containers. He was a good organizer, and good with figures, as was his brother Albert J. NIst, company vice-president and secretary. Their cost studies enabled them to price their products accurately and competitively. Their flexibility and willingness to fill customer needs also stood them in good stead. ...Seattle Box did suffer in the early thirties. Collections were very slow. Promotion flyers show that prices were lowered. ...In 1933 and 1934, mention of the National Recovery Administration and minimum price provisions appear in the corporate minutes, which note that Seattle Box was operating under the code of the National Lumberman's Formation. ...labor unrest did arise at Seattle Box during the thirties, as it did generally throughout the Northwest. ...Union organizing activity began in the early thirties. The Sawmill and Lumber Workers, AFL, became the bargaining group, after a sizeable picketing demonstration and a union election. ...F.J. Nist, who had generally taken a "hands-off" attitude toward union activity in the plant, became the chief negotiator for the industry in the area. ...in December of 1938, at age 22, Gene was sent to manage the Tacoma plant. ...Gene became not only manager but bookkeeper, buyer, salesman, labor negotiator and troubleshooter. Tacoma Box had only seven people on the payroll, Gene and Superintendent Art Langendorfer being the only two on regular salary. ...Gene spent a lot of his tie scrounging for orders. He eventually got the company into the wooden frame business, making frames for upholstered sofas and later for box springs. ...Some interesting facts and figures came to light in 1938, when company president F.J. Nist was interviewed on a radio show. He told listeners that his company used approximately 12 million feet of spruce and hemlock per year, all produced within 125 miles of Seattle.
  26. "Man Rescued in Collapse of Box Plant – Worker Buried Under Sawdust as Foundations Yield; Saved by Fellow Employees". Seattle Post Intelligencer. October 15, 1935. Collapsing under tons of sawdust, a portion of the foundation of the Seattle Box Company at 4th Ave. S. and Spokane St., gave way at noon yesterday, burying one man and endangering many others. ...Milan "Mike" Kurski, trapped while the smothering tide flowed over him was dug out by workmen. Ole Halvorson, who had seem him trapped, gave the alarm. ..."The timbers cracked like guns," said Halvorson. "The floor started to slide. I shouted 'Run!' I saw Mike go down, the sawdust over him. The sawdust caught me up to the waist," Halverson recounted. "I'm all right. I knew the boys would come get me. I kind of choked. But I'm O.K.,' grinned Kurski. Repairs will commence at once.
  27. "The Forties". Centennial Brochure. Seattle-Tacoma Box Company. 1989. Seattle Box began gearing up for war production early in the forties, having experienced heavy demand for boxes during World War I. In the World War II effort, Seattle Box made two and a half million boxes to transport ammunition, food, and other supplies...in spite of acute shortages of labor and materials. ...A major postwar plant improvement was the conversion from steam to electric power. ...Labor troubles erupted as soon as the war ended. A costly strike, lasting from September 24 to December 20, 1945, resulted in an overall safe increase of 15 cents per hour, to a new hourly minimum of $1.05. "...pent up demand for furniture, particularly, was there and that's where this big furniture account evolved from. Then we got into the box-spring frames with another local outfit and then another one and that's what really brought up our volume." –Eugene M. Nist, 1982.
  28. "Seattle Box Company Speeds Victory and Aids Peace". The Northwest Veteran. December 20, 1947. Many veterans might drive along Spokane Street in Seattle and casually note the plant of the Seattle Box Company at 401 Spokane St. without realizing the monumental part this company played in the prosecution of the nation's war program in World War II. ...Through the decades, it has served a mighty purpose, on the food front and in varied ways by its production of wooden boxes and crates that make the Seattle Box Company highly regarded organization in the minds of all who know the facts and give recognition to dependable qualities. Only by producing the best in its line, has this company been able to continue in business and to expand steadily through the 58 years of its existence.
  29. "Stockholders' Meeting". Minutes. Seattle Box Company. January 15, 1947. The President reported in considerable detail that operations during 1946 were generally hampered on account of the extreme shortage of lumber and that it would be necessary to forgo any dividends for 1946...Lumber inventory is inadequate for efficient operations and will have to be increased a million feet or more. At current prices the million feet would cost in the neighborhood of $50,000.00 Inventory as of Jan.1st.1942 was 3,240,000' and as of Jan.1st.1947, 1,405,000'.
  30. "The Fifties". Centennial Brochure. Seattle-Tacoma Box Company. 1989. The trends of the late forties–higher wages, higher prices, heavy competition–continued and intensified during the fifties."..."The Seattle and Tacoma Box companies met these challenges by a continuous search for new products and more efficient production methods. Among the latter was the round table conveyer system innovated by Gene at Tacoma and put to use in both plants."... "Wooden boxes did remain a major product."... "Profits were relatively low in the early fifties. There was even a loss in 1951, only the second one in the company's history to that time." ... "Both the Seattle and Tacoma plants were in reasonably good operating condition, although their buildings were becoming antiquated and foundation repairs continually had to be made."..."Labor costs kept going up. In the summer of 1954, both plants were hit by a two-month strike. When the strike was settled, the basic wage scale had risen to $1.90 1/2 per hour."..."While he retained his title of president for many years, F.J. Nist was gradually lessening his participation in management as his years advanced. His third son, Ferdinand J. Nist, Jr., joined the firm on a full-time basis in 1958, concentrating on the area of sales. Ferd, Jr., like his older half-brothers Emmet and Gene, had worked part-time at the plant during his school days. He went to Central Washington University for a while, then returned to attend University of Washington night classes and begin his full-time career with the family company at the age of 20."..."There were some innovations during the later fifties: a new process for coloring boxes in 1957; and a system of clamp gluing in 1958.
  31. "Box Factory Strikes Over – 5 cent an hour raise in scale announced". Seattle Post Intelligencer. December 7, 1950. Week-old strikes at two Seattle box factories and one at Tacoma have been settled by 5-cent hourly wage raises. Earl Hartley, president of the Puget Sound Council of Lumber and Sawmill Workers announced return of 100 workers to the Seattle Box Co. and Herr Bros. Box Co. here and of 20 more men to the Tacoma Box. Co
  32. "Box Plant Success Key: Pioneering, Diversification". Wood and Wood Products: 27–28, 37. September 1959. Seventy-year-old Seattle Box Co. has added 'imagination blocks,' paneling, siding, dimension, newest ideas in boxes, furniture assemblies and special services in expanding its markets for wood." …"In the Seattle plant, the company employs over 70 individuals. Including the payroll of the plant in nearby Tacoma, total payroll exceeds 100 employees."... "When North American Aviation Company developed its revolutionary fastener for bulk shipping, Seattle Box Co. officials were quick to see its possibilities for them. They became distributor of this fastener and have added several new improvements of their own such as automatic stapling in place of nails.
  33. "The Sixties". Centennial Brochure. Seattle-Tacoma Box Company. 1989. Lumber prices were very high, and wood was being replaced by paper, fiberboard, paper-overlaid veneer, plastic and metal."..."Both the Seattle and Tacoma plants were getting older, more difficult to maintain, and unable to accommodate new products and flow patterns. Pollution problems, noise and smoke, were plaguing the operations (although it was noted that baling the shavings had helped eliminated some of the smoke problems.)"..."Management was in transition. Ferdinand J. Nist, Sr., remained nominally the president, but he was approaching 80 and was not interested in branching our into new products and new buildings. Following the pattern set by his father and grandfather, Ferd, Sr., was seeing his sons take over the reins. Gene, who had been managing the Tacoma plant since 1938, was also vice-president. In 1961 Emmet was officially named vice-president in charge of the Seattle plant, which he was managing."...."That Jacob, Michael and Ferd, Sr, kept low profiles is evident from the scarcity of information about them. Their names were seldom in the papers and they did not talk much about their lives. They did allow the name "Nist Bros." to appear in small print on the Seattle Box Company letterheads during some of the early years. Then, in 1968 as times changed, Gene developed the "PerfectioNIST" trademark for the family company."..."During the sixties the fourth generation of Nists kept up a constant search for better ways of using their labor and raw materials and for developing new products."..."In 1962, Seattle Box introduced its new modular panel package—50 pieces of plywood veneer panels which could produce 350 combinations of containers."... "Several years earlier, Tacoma Box had become the Northwest distributor for those ingenious fasteners called Klimp fasteners, which replaced nails, thus cutting costs by a third and allowing reuse."..."Introduced during this period were moving and storage containers and a car kennel kit."..."the sujiko, or salmon caviar box, a unique container originally made in Japan and which Seattle Box was willing to perfect to their Japanese customers' specifications."..."This policy of developing products to meet specific customer needs led to a liquid concentrate container which turned out to save the Dole Company $100,000 per year."..."The company was beginning to think seriously about moving, and many proposals were looked at. There was a tentative plan to expand in the tidelands area, and many parcels of land in other areas were considered.
  34. Belanger, Herb (July 5, 1964). "Pioneer Seattle firm's motto: 'If it's wood, we'll make it'". The Seattle Times. Products are too numerous to list. They run from packing cases to money blanks—900,000 pieces of wood the size of a dollar bill ordered by the Treasury Department.
  35. Lund, Roland (February 23, 1969). "Good vibrations – Tacoma Box humming with activity since '24". Tacoma News Tribune. A company brochure says: "Survival is predicated on changing with the times..." The company motto is: "Be sure you're right...then hustle." And when a new employe is hired and is handed his "welcome letter," the last sentence says: "May your stay with us be long and pleasant."
  36. "The Seventies". Centennial Brochure. Seattle-Tacoma Box Company. 1989.
  37. "Cement for Alaska's North Slope oil field". Tacoma News Tribune. July 5, 1974.
  38. "Fire hits south end box company". Seattle Times. September 15, 1973.
  39. Nast, Stan (September 16, 1973). "Box firm fire loss $150,000". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. p. A 16.
  40. Bidstrup, Marvin (January 30, 1975). "Business Report – 'Don't Box Me In' sing Kent-Bound Nists". Tacoma News Tribune.
  41. "Seattle; Tacoma Box Co.'s pave way for merger". Seattle Times. February 22, 1975.
  42. "Sale of Seattle Box Co. to be completed". Seattle Sunday Times. July 20, 1975.
  43. "Patents by Inventor Ferdinand J. Nist, Jr. – Shipping bundle for numerous pipe lengths". JUSTIA Patents. 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2014.
  44. "Seattle-Tacoma Box Company – History". Seattle-Tacoma Box Company. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  45. "Commencement Bay Corrugated". cbcbox.com. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  46. "About SeaPro Systems". SeaPro Systems. 2014. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  47. "Seattle -Tacoma Box Company". Industry Cortex Links. 2014. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  48. "Corrugated boxes suppliers in Kent, Washington". Thomasnet.com. 2014. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  49. "SeaCa Packaging Breaks Ground on Manufacturing Facility in Surprise, Arizona During Arizona Manufacturers Month". GPEC. October 26, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
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