Bloomfield Jack Factory
Bloomfield Jack Factory
The Bloomfield Jack Factory is a division of the Bloomfield Manufacturing Company, located on West Spring and South Franklin Streets in Bloomfield, Indiana. The company has been in business for over one hundred years. It is home to the largest jack in the world, which has become a landmark in Greene County.
The Bloomfield Manufacturing Company was founded in 1895 by Philip John Harrah. During the years of the depression the company survived while other businesses had to close their doors. The company has been handed down from generation to generation, and the factory is still being operated by the Harrah family.
In its early years the company made products such as anvil-vise-drill, casket display cart, folding tea wagon, and seven-use hammer-hatchet-wirecutter-pliers tool. Harrah, who was also the president of a company, had many talents other than just managing a company as he was an inventor. He invented the metal fence post but sold the patent to another company.
Realizing that cars were becoming popular in the early 1900s, Harrah started producing vehicle-related tools and eventually began to make jacks. As more people bought vehicles, the company began to grow with many customers.
The company is now known worldwide for its high-quality jacks. The year 2005 marked the one-hundredth anniversary of the invention of the Hi-Lift Jack, which is the mainstay of the company and its most popular selling product. The company received a gift from its iron-casting supplier, Taiyak DC Industries Company of Taipei, Taiwan. The gift was a 20-foot tall, 2,980 pound cast iron replica of the jacks that are produced in Bloomfield. It was given to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the company and was put on a concrete display area in front of the company’s plant for the public to view. The jack is one of a kind and probably the only one that will be built—especially something of that size.
This information was used with permission from the Linton-Stockton School Corporation.
