Where you may have worked while living in Stratford in 1905.

 

There were many businesses associated with the lumber industry in Stratford. Shook Factories being one of those businesses.

Shooks were wooden slats usually made of pine . The wooden slats would be manufactured in a Shook Factory and then shipped to another facility to build wooden boxes to ship piano's as per the article below. Shooks were also used to create boxes to ship fruit and vegetables. By the 1930's nearly half of all lumber manufactured went into making box shooks. By World War I cardboard boxes started to replace Shook boxes.

Charles Bower of Stratford ran two Shook Factories. One for J.C. Livingston and the other at Stewart's Landing, possibly for Livingston as well. Both businesses employed 30 people.

Charles Bower was born in Stratford, NY on August 16, 1863. His parents were Sebastian Bowers a farmer, and Carrie Miller both originally from Germany. Sebastian and Carrie are shown living in Stratford around 1851 - 1855 when they immigrated from Germany with their son George.

Charles married Mary Elizabeth "Libbie" Knapp in 1900, and together they resided with their family in Stratford unitl about 1910 when they moved to Manheim.