Genesee County's oldest manufacturing company celebrates 140 years in business
Photo by Howard Owens.
One hundred and forty years ago, homes didn't have electricity, and there were no amateur photographers.
That's right. In 1884, neither General Electric nor Eastman Kodak's founders had launched their history-making companies, nor had Nabisco or Coca-Cola product their game-changing products to market yet.
But a pair of young businessmen in Oakfield, Ralph E. Chapin and brother-in-law Frank Harris, had devised an idea for a better container to store kerosene for lamps and Chapin Manufacturing was born.
