A workplace remembered under several names
New Process Gear belongs to the history of manufacturing in Baldwinsville, Syracuse, and DeWitt. Its products, ownership, and locations changed considerably over more than a century. For former workers and their families, those changes matter: a recollection of the old Syracuse factory is not necessarily a recollection of the later DeWitt automotive-parts plant.
1888: New Process Raw Hide in Baldwinsville
An industry retrospective published by Gear Motions for Nixon Gear's centennial reports that Thomas W. Meachem organized New Process Raw Hide Company in Baldwinsville on June 25, 1888, with $30,000 in capital. It describes initial production of leather-covered boats and canoes, followed by solid, quiet rawhide gears used in machinery and electric railway cars. This retrospective is a manufacturer-industry source; original incorporation and patent records have not yet been examined for this history.
From rawhide to metal gears
The same Gear Motions retrospective reports the addition of hardened-steel, brass, and cast-iron gears in the early twentieth century and dates the New Process Gear Corporation name to 1912. A contemporaneous Associated Press account of the plant's closure instead dates the name change to 1913. The one-year discrepancy is unresolved; the available sources do not settle which year is correct.
The transition from leather-related products to metal gears is especially useful for interpreting the changing jobs, machinery, and skills at the company. It does not establish which materials or processes were present in a particular building at a particular time.
The Syracuse / Franklin Square period
Historical accounts locate New Process Gear operations in Syracuse's Franklin Square and Plum Street area before its move to DeWitt. A 2011 photograph and caption of the surviving New Process Gear tower describes Plum Street operations and a 1960 move. Other secondary accounts give 1961. These sources support a research lead, not yet a verified building-by-building relocation chronology. The precise addresses, buildings, and move dates have not yet been established from contemporary city directories or property records.
The old factory structures later became part of the Franklin Square redevelopment story. The sources reviewed do not establish the exact identities and later uses of each building.
The DeWitt manufacturing era
The later New Process Gear/New Venture Gear operation manufactured automotive drivetrain components. A 24 August 2012 Associated Press report says the DeWitt factory had employed about 4,000 people at its peak and produced parts for cars and trucks. That report states the last production lines stopped in August 2012, while full plant closure was expected by year's end. These are different milestones and should not be collapsed into one date.
Accounts also describe New Venture Gear and Magna-era corporate ownership, but a verified, dated chain of ownership and exact plant-operator names still requires corporate filings and contemporaneous records. The available sources do not establish whether the corporate owner, property owner, and operating employer were the same entity in every period.
Products, departments and memory cues
The documented broad product evolution—rawhide gears, metal gears, and later automotive drivetrain components—can help visitors orient their recollections. Specific plant departments, including gear cutting, heat treatment, machining, assembly, maintenance, and shipping, have not yet been verified by dated plant records. Former employees may remember the Franklin Square tower, a DeWitt entrance, shift changes, equipment, supervisors, or the company name used on their paychecks. Those are useful interview prompts, not facts about an individual's employment.
Historical details still being investigated
- Exact addresses and parcels of the Baldwinsville and early Syracuse operations
- Verified Plum Street/Franklin Square building chronology and which structures survive
- Precise date(s) of the move to DeWitt, including whether production shifted in phases
- Dated product catalogues and plant-department records
- Fully sourced ownership/operator sequence through New Venture Gear and Magna
- Original workforce counts by year and building
- Any particular asbestos-containing product, use, or exposure at these facilities
- Rights to reproduce archival images
Historical sources
- Gear Motions, Nixon Gear's 100th Anniversary Sheds Light on Syracuse's Amazing Gear Manufacturing History (industry retrospective): https://gearmotions.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GMI-Edit-Nixon-Gear-Inc-Centennial-Article.pdf . Supports company origin, early products and 1912 naming account; original incorporation records have not been reviewed.
- Associated Press, Long-Running NY Auto Parts Plant Shut Down, 24 August 2012: https://www.manufacturing.net/home/news/13205415/longrunning-ny-auto-parts-plant-shut-down . Supports 2012 DeWitt production shutdown, reported peak workforce, and alternate 1913 naming date.
- Onondaga Historical Association, Research Center Subject Finding Aid: https://www.cnyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Online-Subject-Finding-Aid.pdf . Lists New Process Rawhide and New Process Gear files, including decade-specific collections. The finding aid identifies archival holdings; individual documents require separate examination.
- Historical photograph and user-contributed caption, New Process Gear Tower (2011): https://www.flickr.com/photos/38956209%40N03/6132323484/ . Photograph and caption supplied by a contributor; dates require independent corroboration.
- Onondaga Historical Association, Research Center policies: https://www.cnyhistory.org/visit/research-center/ . Archival images have not been reproduced in this article.