Grand Rapids Furniture Manufacturers’ Association – founded 1881

Grand Rapids Furniture Association – founded 1900

The Furniture Manufacturers Employers Association of Grand Rapids - 1904

The Guild – founded 1908

The Furniture Manufacturers Association of Grand Rapids – 1911 (see Merger below)

The Car Loading Department of the Furniture Manufacturers Association of Grand Rapids - 1910

The Car Loading Company of the Grand Rapids Furniture Association - 1911

The letter, dated November 18, 1911, from D.H Brown, president of the Grand Rapids Furniture Association, to Franz Kuhn, Attorney General of MI, outlines some of the confusion that arose over the various furniture associations.

Your notice of June 25, 1912, which was delivered by mistake the Car Loading Dept. of the Furniture Manufacturers Assoc. of Grand Rapids, a Corporation, was filed with the dead file.

We have had some difficulty here over matters of this sort, as there have been in existence at different times within the past two years, The Grand Rapids Furniture Association, Ltd., the Furniture Manufacturers Employers Association of Grand Rapids, the Car Loading Company of the Grand Rapids Furniture Association, The Furniture Manufacturers Association of Grand Rapids, and the Car Loading Department of the Furniture Manufacturers Association of Grand Rapids.

Coll. 084-1-2, Grand Rapids Public Library

MERGER COMPLETED

The Furniture Manufacturers’ Association of Grand Rapids has recorded its articles of incorporation at Lansing. This is a merger of the various furniture associations that have long been in existence, including the old Furniture Associations, the Trade Mark Association, The Guild, and the Furniture Manufacturers Employers’ Association. And in the merger the old Car Loading Association, which was organized as a private enterprise and later taken over by the Furniture Association, is eliminated.

The purpose of the association as set forth in the articles are, “To promote and protect the welfare of the furniture industry in the city of Grand Rapids and vicinity; and to promote and protect the welfare of all persons engaged in any capacity in the furniture and wood working industry in Grand Rapids or in its vicinity.”

The association will hold monthly meetings with the annual meeting the first Tuesday in December. For the purposes of incorporation the directors are: Charles R. Sligh, E.H. Foote, Burt A. Hathaway, Roy S. Barnhart, Samuel D. Young, Robert W. Irwin, David H. Brown, and John Hoult. The officers are: President, Roy S. Barnhart; vice-president, Robert W. Irwin; treasurer, William H. Gay; with secretary yet to be chose.

Evening Press, November 28, 1911, page 16