The W.H. Mullins Company, formerly located in Salem, Warren, and Youngstown, Ohio, got its start making porcelain and steel sinks and cabinets for kitchens before expanding to something a little better known – commemorative statues for war memorials around the country.

Founded as Kitterage, Clark, and Company in 1872, the business was purchased by William H. Mullins in 1882. He expanded the product line to include weathervanes, metal outdoor statuary, steel car parts, metal boats, and even finials.

However, the company’s crowning achievement was an 18-foot-tall statue of Diana, designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, that was placed atop the new Madison Square Garden building in New York City. Back in 1891, when the statue was installed, the W.H. Mullins Company began using an image of it in their logo.

Fast forward several decades, and the company merged with Youngstown Pressed Steel in 1937 to become the Mullins Manufacturing Company, and again in 1956, when the American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Co purchased the business. The Ohio offices and manufacturing centers remained open, making and selling kitchen cabinets and other items as a part of the Youngstown Cabinet Division

Before all of the mergers and purchases, in the early 20th century, the W.H. Mullins Company become well known for their mass produced memorial statues. These replicas were fairly priced so that cities and cemeteries around the country could afford them. As a result, there are civil war soldier statues located all over the United States, and many of them look the same – because they were purchased from a catalog.

The W.H. Mullins Company followed suit with their E.M. Viquesney-designed doughboys, made to memorialize those lost in World War I. They can be found in downtown Akron, Ohio, right outside of the court house, as well as in many other places.

With that said, the statue shown here, located in North Canton Cemetery, also known as Zion Cemetery, commemorates the local soldiers lost in the Civil War.

Sources:

• https://mahoninghistory.org/2016/02/09/history-of-mullins-manufacturing-corporation/
• https://www.ohiocivilwarcentral.com/entry.php?rec=1624
• https://doughboysearcher.weebly.com/introduction.html
• https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wwi-doughboy-statue

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