Council Proceedings: July 5, 1898

To the Honorable Mayor and City Council. Fort Worth Texas.

Gentlemen:-

We your committee on Schools, as instructed in a Message from the Mayor, and passed by this council June 27th-98. have received bids from five of the largest manufacturies of School Desks in the United States. which we submit with this report. and recommend as follows.

That the ^ Mayor & secretary be authorized to settle contract with the Wabash Church &. School Furniture Company of Wabash Ind. for the 300 School Desks, and the 6 Teachers Desks necessary. at the price quoted in their bid of June 30th--98, which is 25% less than the next lowest bid.

Also that a bond be required from the Wabash School &. Church Furniture Company, with the Fidelity &. deposit Company. whose office is in the City of Chicago Ill. to protect the City against any inferior furniture being furnished, or to any breakage of the furniture within the next Ten years. that being a part of their agreement.

There being a sample desk now in the possession of the committee, to be held to compare with the furniture on arrival.

We ^here on recongize the fact that the Grand Rapid School Furniture Company have the best desks, and at a difference of ten cents per desk more than the Waubash Company have bid, we would recommend that the contract be given to them. More did they accept within 24 hours from this time.

J.N. Edgell J.F. Henderson W.F. Stewart

Committee on Schools.

40,000 School Desks Sold in 1896. 63,000 School Desks sold in 1897.

===The Wabash Church and School Furniture Co.===

WABASH, INDIANA

We have Seated More Churches with Good Substantial and Modern Pews than any other Company in the United States.

James Lynn, Jr., TRUSTEE

Send Floor Plan of Pencil Sketch of Your Auditorium and We Will Submit Estimates on Seating the Same.

Send for our catalogue of Opera and Assembly Chairs.

JL/GA

June 30, 1898.

T.N. Edyell, Chairman of School Commissioners, Fort Worth, Texas.

Dear sir:-

I beg to make you the following proposition for school desks which you will want.

As I understand yoru letter you will want 253 single desks, and as we have not the sizes before us we will make you a price on the different sizes, and if we should be so fortunate as to secure the order you can make up the sizes according to the proposition herein given and arive at the average price on the entire lot by the prices we name on each size.

We will guarantee to deliver, F. O. B. cars at Fort Worth, Texas, complete ready for use, such school desks as you may require. The same manufactured in either solid rock maple of solid oak, as per sample submitted, for the following prices.

SINGLES. Nos. 1 & 2 _ _ $2.24 Nos. 3 & 4 _ _ 2.05 Nos. 5 & 6 _ _ 1.79 Rears any size 1.68 Fronts any size 1.68

For Adjustable Desks add 40cts. per desk to the above prices. Recitation seats per lineal foot 55 cts. Tablet Arms for Recitation seats 35 cets. each. On teachers Tables we beg to quote you the following prices. The same to be manufactured in either solid rock maple of solid oak. And we guatantee any color and finish in every way with that of a school desk. Also we beg to herein enclose a circular illustrating and describing the same.

Teachers Tables. No. 2 - - - - - $8.25 No. 12 - - - - 4.87

40,000 School Desks Sold in 1896. 63,000 School Desks sold in 1897.

===The Wabash Church and School Furniture Co.===

WABASH, INDIANA

We have Seated More Churches with Good Substantial and Modern Pews than any other Company in the United States.

James Lynn, Jr., TRUSTEE

Send Floor Plan of Pencil Sketch of Your Auditorium and We Will Submit Estimates on Seating the Same.

Send for our catalogue of Opera and Assembly Chairs.

No. 2. T. N. E.

No. 20 - - - - - - $8.75 No. 30 - - - - - - 9.50 No.500 - - - - - - 10.25

Chairs.

No. 1 - - - - - - - $.85 No.202 - - - - - - 1.75 No.204 - - - - - - 2.00 No. 43 - - - - - - - 5.50 No. 78 - - - - - - - 2.75

We especially desire to call your attention to the fact that we manufactured and sold 63,000 school desks last year, thus placing us at the Head of the List as the largest manufactueres of School Desks in the World.

We have had the pleasure of selling a nice order of school desks for shipment to Australia, and we had the pleasure of furnishing the Hawaiian's with durable school desks of modern style and excellent finish.

We will guarantee to furnish you a desk equal in finish to the desks we exported, which you are aware requires the most excellent finish to stand the warm climate of that country.

We feel that no one in the manufacture of school desks has had so wide an experience as ourselves in the finish of school desks, therefore we are able to furnish you a school desk, the finish of which will stand the climatic influence in your state.

So that you may be throuoghly advised, we have this day sent you a sample desk by express, charges Prepaid.

We will ask you, in view of the fact that we do not have a representative on the ground, to examine the same carefully before placing your order.

Also we would specially call your attention to the sample block and hinge, which you will find in the the shlef of the sample we sent you. Kindly examine the method employed by us in uniting the worrd to the iron.

The lock-key fastening, which you will kindly note, is the only one in the market which contineously unites and securely locks the wood to the iron, and is the simplest and strongest method known of uniting wood

40,000 School Desks Sold in 1896. 63,000 School Desks sold in 1897.

===The Wabash Church and School Furniture Co.===

WABASH, INDIANA

We have Seated More Churches with Good Substantial and Modern Pews than any other Company in the United States.

James Lynn, Jr., TRUSTEE

Send Floor Plan of Pencil Sketch of Your Auditorium and We Will Submit Estimates on Seating the Same.

Send for our catalogue of Opera and Assembly Chairs.

No. 3. T. N. E.

to iron.

If you will take notice of this fact you wil no doubt see the impossibility of a desk becoming damaged in any way after it is once properly erected. It is simply "solid as a rock" and will last FOREVER and that is long enough.

We have not names a price for the erecting of these desks, for the very reason that you can do that work for less money than we would probably be able to accomplish the same for, however for your informatio I beg to state that the average cost of erecting school desks by one of our men does not exceed 3 cts. per desk, and we believe you can contract for your desk s delivered from the depot adn placed in the school building, ready for use, for a sum not to exceed six or seven cts. per desk.

We have received the contract for furnishing the deks for the city of Detroit and we pay for drayage and erection 5 cts. per desk.

Hoping we may be favored with your order, and assuring you in the event we are so fortunate we will take great pains to excuting the same, and will furnish you the best goods within our power to make.

Yours respectfully, James Lynn, Jr., Trustee.

Enclosure.

P. S. In the event you desire us to file a bond for the faithful performance of our contract we will be glad to do so, and we herein enclosure a copy of a form of bond which we will execute and you can fill in the amount desired,and we will give you a bond signed by the Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland, whose offices is in Chicago.

Half a Million New Rubberless

WABASH AUTOMATIC SCHOOL DESKS, IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS.

OVER 40,000 OF OUR DESKS WERE SOLD IN 1896, While in 1897 the Sales reached the Enormous Number of 63,000

THE NUMBER OF SCHOOL DESKS We Manufactured and Sold during the years 1896 and 1897 Exceeds by Many Thousands The Entire Output of any other Factory in the UNITED STATES. for the same length of time.

SOLID MAPLE OR OAK.

The New Rubberless Wabash Automatic School Desk is incomparably superior to all other desks in artistic design, great strength of Lock Key Fastening, perfection of the mechanism of the Hinge, ease of operating the noiseless automatice Seat, facility with which it can be set up and the richness of its finish.

Kindly note on followign page the construction of our ecently patented tension hinge, the most perfect hinge ever devised. Address,

The Wasbash Church and School Furniture Company, WABASH INDIANA.