Stories of small businesses that operated for multiple decades abound in Holyoke’s industrial history. Many small businesses received little news coverage and were not widely known beyond their owners, employees or customers. Today’s topic focuses on one such owner and his company: John F. Netcavic and Products Engineering & Manufacturing Company.
John F. Nitcavic was born in Holyoke, where he lived for about 10 years before his family moved to Chicopee. In 1920, he worked as a laborer in a sporting goods store. In 1930, he was employed by an electrical equipment manufacturer and was listed as working for the Perkins Machine & Gear Company of West Springfield in 1945.
At age 44, he left his job and founded the Products Engineering & Manufacturing Company in 1945. As with many other startups, industrial space was available in Holyoke, owned by the Holyoke Water Power Company, which had acquired it after the failure of several paper mills that had been part of the American Writing Paper Company.
Products Engineering & Manufacturing rented 3,500 square feet of space in the basement of the former Wauregan Paper Mill at 420 Dwight Street. The company produced screw machine parts for equipment. Ads were placed over the years in the Help Wanted classifieds seeking Turret Lathe operators who were independent and able to set up their own work.
The business continued to operate at 420 Dwight Street until closing, when Mr. Nitcavic retired.
Citations:
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; publication dates and pages are shown.
Ancestry.com (paid subscription): Price & Lee, Holyoke, Massachusetts, City Directories
U. S Federal Census, 1920-1950
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