SLED COMPANY: A little girl with polio was the inspiration of a
McKean County man who came up with an invention that would make
sledding easier for kids.
Barbara Heddens Hagg tells us her grandfather was granted a
patent on Sept. 12, 1911, for an invention for a jointed runner
that would allow for easier steering.
“This all began in Kane when my grandfather was watching his
daughter, Vera, as she was sledding. He wondered why a little girl
remained sitting on the side of the sled-run. After he learned that
she had polio and couldn’t steer with her feet, he decided that he
was going to do something about it. Thus, the first Safety Sled was
made by Frank Hornquist,” Barbara writes.
Joan Palicia of Wayne, N.J., doing research on the second of two
books on sleds, had inquired to RTS about information about Mr.
Hornquist. The second, called “Great Sleds & Wagons,” has been
published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd., copyright 2009.
The Safety Sled Manufacturing Co. opened in Mount Jewett in
January 1912 and Mount Jewett Herald proclaimed, “Everyone agreed
that the Safety Sled was, without a doubt, the lightest, strongest,
most serviceable and most boy-pleasing sled they have ever seen,
and it’s bound to be a winner.”
After a fire in 1927, the company moved to Bradford in 1928. The
company, then called C.J. Johnson Co., continued to make sleds
until Dec. 7, 1941, when the United States entered World War
II.
Barbara writes, “Among the items being manufactured at that time
were baby gates, camp stools and Army cots, which were all sold to
various branches of military service. The U.S. government granted
the approval for the company to receive A1 steel for the
manufacturing of these items, but not sleds.”
Barbara’s father, Lawrence A. Heddens, purchased the business
Feb. 26, 1944. Until the plant closed in 1978, lawn, beach and
auditorium chairs, play pens, wooden clothes dryers, surf-skimmers,
wind breakers and carry-alls were added to the baby gates and camp
stools.
On May 5, 1965, after the death of her father, Barbara became
owner-manager. Her husband, Duane G. Hagg, was acting manager until
his death in July 1972.
Barbara writes, “Frank Hornquist continued to work at the
factory until he was 93 years old, making steel parts and always
dreaming of another sled.”
