Iron foundrymen Anders (April 30, 1852 – January 30, 1891) and Jens Christian Johansen (December 21, 1847 – February 13, 1926) started with a wooden shoe factory in Yttrup. They moved to Skive and turned Skive Iron Foundry into Skive’s largest factory. Anders met an unfortunate end, but Jens Christian remained associated with the iron foundry through shares until it was sold in 1919
Yttrup: From clog factory to foundry
Entrepreneurship and “industrial espionage”
Anders and Jens Christian Johansen were the sons of house owner (i.e. householder) Johannes Christensen in Yttrup, Rybjerg Parish in Salling. Anders Johansen (April 30, 1852 – January 30, 1891) was trained as a millwright and Jens Christian Johansen (December 21, 1847 – February 13, 1926) as a carpenter.
Together with their younger brother, Peder Johansen (March 27, 1856-February 1895), who was trained as a clog maker, they started a clog factory on their father’s smallholding in Yttrup.
They had built a machine for making clogs themselves. And to improve it, they sourced various machine parts from Morsø Iron Foundry in Nykøbing. The parts rarely fit and it was a lot of work to adapt them. So they decided to build their own small foundry. Anders Johansen, who was a technical genius, visited Morsø Jernstøberi, where he walked around and found out how the casting work was done. The brothers bought a melting furnace and used a windmill they built themselves to drive the blower.
Skive – from poverty to the city’s largest factory
Conditions in Yttrup became too cramped, and in 1880, Anders and Jens Christian Johansen bought a plot of land on Østerbro in Skive with the help of wood merchant Jesper Christensen, who injected money into the business. The brothers built Skive Ny Jernstøberi on the site in 1881-1882. The name Skive ny Jernstøberi was due to the fact that there was already a Skive Iron Foundry in Skive, at Frederiksgade 10 (started in 1857 or 1858). The brothers sold their inherited share of the smallholding in Yttrup to Peder Johansen, who had not moved to Skive, and wood merchant Jesper Christensen injected more money. But it is said that when the construction was nearing completion, so was the money.
The solution was for the Johansen brothers to take on the former owner of Skive Mill, Chr. Nielsen, as a partner. This gave them both a necessary injection of capital and a partner with commercial and accounting expertise, allowing the brothers to concentrate on the technical side of foundry operations. During the 1880s, the number of employees grew from 10 in 1881 to 40 in 1890, making the iron foundry Skive’s largest factory.
A versatile production
Production was very versatile. In particular, machines and tools were manufactured for agriculture, mills and dairies, as well as for peat production. The foundry also solved special tasks such as casting a new church bell for Lyby Church in 1890. This involved the manufacture of castings and machines in small quantities. So it was more of a craft business than a factory industry. This was reflected in the fact that the iron foundry had several thousand molds lying around. You could order an iron staircase – or a railing for your grave, which can be seen in several places in Skive Cemetery.
Anders’ tragic end
On January 23, 1891, the printing press at Skive Folkeblad broke down. A messenger was sent to the iron foundry for a repairman, and Anders Johansen and another man showed up at Folkeblad’s print shop in Frederiksgade 11. During the repair, Anders Johansen somehow got his head caught between the machine parts of the high-speed press and was badly injured. After a week of hard bed rest, Anders Johansen died on January 30, 1891.
Skive Jernstøberi as a limited company – Jens Cristian ends up as majority shareholder
Jens Christian Johansen and Chr. Nielsen continued to run Skive Jernstøberi until 1897, when it was transformed into a limited company under the name A/S Skive ny Jernstøberi og Maskinfabrik. The share capital was DKK 100,000. – Of this, Chr. Nielsen had DKK 35,000, Jens Chr. Johansen DKK 15,000, while the remaining DKK 50,000 was divided between 10 shareholders. Later that year, Jens Christian Johansen resigned from the management of Skive Jernstøberi. In his place, C.C. Hansen was hired as technical director, and he managed the iron foundry in collaboration with Chr. Nielsen (died 1909) until 1910.
Jens Chr. Johansen moved to Langå, where he started an iron foundry, Langå Jernstøberi. He kept his shareholding in Skive Jernstøberi and a seat on the foundry’s board. Along the way, Jens Christian Johansen acquired a majority shareholding in the iron foundry, and in 1912 he hired his nephew, Johannes Johansen, as director of the iron foundry.
The Johansen family says goodbye
In 1919, the Johansen family’s connection with Skive Jernstøberi ended. Electrical engineer Siliam Bjerre and his brother-in-law, Søren Mehlsen, had built up a very large business working with the electrification of Denmark, including the construction of power plants and cable networks. In the summer, they made an offer of DKK 200,000 for the iron foundry, and the company decided to accept this offer at a general meeting on September 11, 1919.
Sources:
- Olav Jensen: Sagaen om Skive Jernstøberi. In: Skivebogen 1993, p. 78-108