Diane wrote -Does anyone know who might have owned the Diamond Match Company around the late 1890's or early 1900's. Diane I did a google search "Diamond Match Factory" +Oswego and received 15 hits. I found the following at : http://www.cityofbarberton.com/live/history/1891-1911_more.shtml About 1905, (O.C)Barber retired from active participation in the Diamond Match Company and spent his retirement years in Barberton developing his experimental farm As president of the Diamond Match conglomerate, Barber had begun a program of modernization which included new plants in strategic locations. Important to his plan was the availability of water transportation for shipment of lumber. A new plant was built at Oswego, New York, followed by the new match works at Barberton in 1894. (Sources indicate that these two plants were similar in design.) Lumber was shipped from Michigan by lake to Cleveland, and then by canal to Barberton. The new factory was located on approximately 20 acres on the beltline and the canal, giving it excellent transportation advantages. Construction was completed in 1894 and the match works began operations 1895. This plant produced both matches and the machinery for making matches. By February of 1895, 2090 men and women were employed at Diamond Match in Barberton. While many of the buildings were destroyed, an outstanding grouping of Diamond Match buildings remains standing on South Fourth Street. Housing the company's Engineering Department, these buildings were used to design and produce the match machinery used by the company. And I found the following on - http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:VpLx5zF3DL0J:www.rootsweb.com/~nyherkim/frankfort/earlyfrank.html+%22Diamond+Match+Compa ny%22+%2BOswego&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 It took great effort and patience to introduce this new fire maker to the public. (William) Gates, however, met the challenge and enlarged his factory eight times, operated 19 buildings, and employed three hundred people. During the 13 years when the factory reached its peak of production, the United States Government collected more than three million dollars of revenue on one cent a box of every one hundred matches. Later the interests were joined with the Diamond Match Company and after 50 years of prosperity in Frankfort, the industry was moved to Oswego in order to be nearer the lumber resources. Thus, the origin of the Diamond Match Company has its beginnings in Herkimer County and in the town and village of Frankfort. The marker at the site of the William Gates Match Factory reads: "1844 peddled matches in Utica; 1854 invented the first continuous match machine; and 1855 introduced the first phosphorus match." (This was accomplished by Mayor George Corrado some years ago.) Better yet do your own google search and you might find something of interest. Hope this helps. Laura J. Kandro New Jersey Researching Surnames: BOHACZ, BRATKOWSKY, CHOPSKY (CZAPSKA), DEMYEN, FEKETY, FEKETI, FEKETE, GOLINSKY (GOLINSKI), KANDRATOWICZ (KANDRO) (KONDRATOWICZ) (KONDRATOVICH), KONDRAY, KUCHINSKI, KUSDIOSKA, LISKO, MURAD, OSTROVERKY (STOVERCHY), PAWLAK, RUSIN, SMARZIK, WASIL Researching Places: Kupel, Volhynia (Wolyn) Gubernya, Russia (now Ukraine); Rerzia/Rerzici, Gubernia Witebsk (now Vitebsk, Belarus), Bukovini, Mal~opolska, Poland; Galicia, Austria US Residences: Oswego, Oswego, NY; Cherry Valley, Otsego, NY; Bridgeport, Fairfield, CT; Stratford, Fairfield, CT; Milford, New Haven, CT; Culver City & Inglewood, Los Angeles, CA; Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne, PA