"It is recalled that in 1896 Henry and Ewald Schniewind, German textile manufacturers were known to be interested in establishing an industry in the United States and word of that fact came to Frank R. Slifer, at the time Reading Railroad agent in Sunbury
1900
He advised Harry S. Knight, local attorney, now deceased, of the plans and they greeted the Schniewinds when they landed New York City, brought them to Sunbury and showed them potential industrial sites.
The Hiram Haas farm. on which a large fairground was located became their choice and was purchased by popular subscription and turned over to the Schniewinds who built there a silk mill that was to develop into a chain of 11 plants along with the Sunbury Converting Works, a dyeing and printing facility located in the building occupied by the Celotex Corporation.
When hard days came upon the textile industry. the local silk plant was the last of the Susquehanna chain to be phased out. In addition to the Sunbury plant Sunbury Textiles has four mill outlets--two in Sunbury and one each in Williamsport Port Trevorton. Sales by the New York City sales office of the firm cover all areas of the United States and Canada."
About Converting Silk
Converting silk required several steps. First, 100-yard pieces ran through a singeing machine to burn away slubs or flaws. Then the pieces were soaked in boiling suds and bleached to allow the dyes to absorb evenly into the fabric. Workers moved the fabric to the dye house, tinted it in large vats and dried it on large steam-filled drums.
After it was completely dry, the fabric was lightly starched and finished.
1896 Ground Breaking
1903 - The company added the converting works to it's operation in 1903.
The first product made at Sunbury Converting Works in the northern end of the city was a 500-yard piece of 18-inch wide satin dyed Nile green by dye master Adolph Selter.
After the silk industry collapsed and synthetic fabrics flooded the market, the factory was home to Westinghouse Electric Corp., which had government contracts to produce goods during World War II. Westinghouse left Sunbury and moved its operations to New Jersey in the early 1950s. Later, new owners converted the sizable plant to manufacture pulp and fiberboard building products made over the years by Barrett, Jim Walter and Knight-Celotex corporations
1954, May 17th - Susquehanna Textile Mills at Sunbury reopened as Sunbury Textile Mills Inc. "In 1954, Sunbury Textile Mills opened its doors, set up its looms and began weaving decorative jacquards in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Fifty years later, we've become one of the most influential mills in the world, bringing innovation, performance, and unprecedented quality to our age-old industry."
1956, March 20 - Protection Fire Equipment, which occupied the third floor of the five floor section of Sunbury Textile Mills, was surveying the possibility of using two additional floors, and possibly eventually using all five floors. Each flood had 20,000 feet of manufacturing space. The company manufactured polvonite protection football equipment, ensolite mats and floor and wall padding, and was "one of the areas newer industries"
1958, Dec - sites for four 200-bed hospital units for use by the county CD [Civil Defense?] Council were approved . Two units were to be stored n the first floor of the Sunbury Textile Mill, one in the former Dalmatia High School, and one at Shamokin State Hospital.
1963 - First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy chose a Lokpuf damask manufactured by Sunbury Textile Mills, to cover a buffalo horn chair she had found at an antique store, for the White House.
The Knight-Celotex building closed in 2008, and was demolished in 2011.
Sunbury Textile Mills Christmas Cards
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1913
Sunbury Textile Mills was founded in 1954. It was purchased from the Susquehanna Silk Mills, a silk tie manufacturer which built the original manufacturing complex in 1890. A more modern facility was erected in 1970, housing today’s modern looms and manufacturing equipment while also keeping the original saw-tooth roof, an architectural signature from the turn of the century. Our sales and creative design offices are located in a historic, cast iron building dating back to 1861 in the vibrant neighborhood of SoHo in New York City.
Sunbury has always operated at the present manufacturing site in Sunbury, Pennsylvania and is one of the only mills of its type that continues to manufacture 100% of its products in the United States of America. In 2004 Sunbury Textile Mills became an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) company and is owned 100% for the benefit of all the employees’ retirements. We employ multigenerational families that carry on the art of weaving with an average tenure of 20 years of design and weaving expertise.
We are extremely proud of our reputation for excellence in product quality, superior design and unsurpassed levels of customer service. We are a market leader in the design and manufacture of decorative jacquard fabrics for the world market.
Cleo Francois Pineau, a motorcycle racer and World War I flying ace, was instrumental in founding the Williamsport-Lycoming County Airport, and fostered it through his connections in the aviation community, including a friendship with Wiley Post
Sometimes, when researching history, I get caught up in the wrong tangents.
For years, I've been trying to figure out the time line of Amelia Earhart's visit to Williamsport for the Grand Opening of the Williamsport Airport [which yes, is actually located in Montoursville]. The time line seems impossible, and the lack of photos of Earhart at the event also makes no sense... but the paper says she was there, most historians fully believe she was there... she probably was. Just because I don't understand the how, doesn't mean it didn't happen.
But in all the time I spent researching that, I missed the much more interesting story. Whether or not Earhart was there, Cleo Francois Pineau, a Williamsport native, was. This was a man with a life so interesting that I could fully believe Earhart would make an appearance purely to speak with him.
Born July 23rd 1893, Cleo was the son of Thomas & Adele [Gstaldere] Pineau. In 1900, the family can be found in the census for Tioga County, Pa. Thomas is listed as having been born in Canada, and Adele in France.
In an interview with Pineau's Andree daughter in 2017, the Williamsport Sun Gazette Reported: Pineau reportedly was expelled from school in sixth grade, not because he wasn’t smart, but because he couldn’t sit still in the classroom. Phillips said her father had other things he wanted to do and sitting still in a classroom for hours was not one of them. And so he misbehaved.
“It enabled him to have more time for adventures,” she said. “Speed was his thing.”
============= Racing Motorcycles =============
According to the book Sopwith Camel Aces by Norman Franks:
"He had enjoyed a varied life.. having performed as a clown in a circus, a dirt track rider, and more soberly, occupied the position of sales manager for Indian Motorcycles in North Carolina."
He began competing in the vaudeville circuit in 1911, when he would have been only 17 or 18 years old. At only about 5 feet 3 inches, Pineau may have been small in size but he dominated the track for years, becoming one of the nation’s leading motorcycle racers.
At Landon's Motordome in 1913 - with mention of going to the Milton Fair the following week
During the 1920s, he held most of the world records for motorcycle competition in motordromes.
Maldwyn Jones and Cleo Pineau, two prolific pioneer American motorcycle racers prepped and ready to charge the sandy roads of Savannah, GA for the 1913 American Classic 300-Mile Road Race.
In both 1913 and 1914, Pineau competed in the prestigious Savannah 300, a punishing 300-mile endurance race through the mossy lowlands of Georgia.
He was a staple member of the Yellow Jackets, the competitive factory team of Flying Merkel. He once defeating Barney Oldfield, a motorcycle and car racer who was one of the early winners of the Indianapolis 500.
Maldwyn Jones, Cleo Pineau, and Lee Taylor on the line for the 100-mile National held in Toledo, OH on June 9th, 1914. The three made up the infamous Yellow Jackets, Flying Merkel's factory racing team that were consistently among the top contenders of the early teens.
" To be a Merkel man in those days was to ride in rare company—alongside men like Lee Taylor, Ralph DePalma, Charlie Balke, and Maldwyn Jones, all giants in the infancy of American motorsport. Merkel's distinctive orange machines, built by the Merkel-Light Motorcycle Company of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were among the most advanced motorcycles of the day, famed for their "spring frame" rear suspension and precision engineering. Pineau took to them naturally, covering thousands of miles on perilous board track motordromes and dusty county fairground tracks alike as he carved out his legend." - Achivemoto
Cleo Pineau arriving at Miami Cycle Co., after finishing a 1,102 miles trip on May 30, 1916.
Pineau also competed on what was called the “globe of death” or the motordrome, a circular track made up of wooden planks. [Photo is of a motordome track, but does not show Pineau]
================== Flying Ace ==================
Before this country entered World War I, Mr. Pineau, though under age, enlisted in the British Royal Air Force. Trying first to join in France where his family originated, Pineau was denied because he wasn’t a French citizen. He then went to the Royal Canadian Air Force and became a pilot. He trained at the Curtis Aviation School in Buffalo, New York, and was assigned to 210 Squadron on 2 June 1918.
In a letter to his mother, he wrote:
“Flying is so much less dangerous than motorcycle racing,” he wrote. “In fact there is no danger in it at all. I will get a good commission.”
RAF Sopwith Camel
Lieutenant Cleo Francois Pineau was a World War I flying ace credited with six aerial victories. Between 6 September and 8 October 1918, he used a Sopwith Camel to destroy four Fokker D.VIIs and drive down two others. He was a member of Hangar No. 1, the top honor of the War Birds of the RAF.
Pineau loved to fly, and would write home about doing acrobats in the sky for fellow soldiers. He shot down six enemy aircraft during the war, writing the names of each plane he downed inside his flying cap.
But it was after his sixth victory in the sky that Pineau was shot down over enemy territory and taken to a prisoner of war camp which was under the command of Kaiser Wilhelm's son.
Andree Phillips said her father rarely talked about his experiences in the war, or his imprisonment. But, Pineau saved a lump of bread from the prison camp and every Thanksgiving he would bring it out and give thanks for the blessings he and his family had.
After the war, Pineau received a letter from King George V, penned in his own hand:
“The Queen joins me in welcoming you on your release from the miseries and hardships which you have endured with so much patience and courage,” the King wrote. “During these many months of trial, the early rescue of our gallant officers and men from the cruelties of their captivity has been uppermost in our thoughts.”
He was awarded the British Distinguished Flying Cross, the French Croix de Guerre, and, among other honors, was decorated by the Belgian government.
In 1920, in Ohio, Cleo Pineau married "Gabrielle P Bartingale", who was actually Winnifred Bartingale - why she was using the name Gabrielle is unknown. A photo of her appeared in a 1922 Motorcycle Magazine:
"Mrs. Cleo F. sends from England - where motorcycle statistics are more popular than automobiles - this message: "I drive Scouta because it is easy to control and because it is the nicest in terms of shape and appearance. Its low saddle and perfect stability ensure safe driving and the performance of it is to make it happy for every rider. "
Records show Mrs Pineau traveling back and forth between England the U.S. through 1935. It appears that the couple divorced sometime prior to 1940, with Cleo married to Margaret by the 1940 census.
Mrs Cleo Pineau [Margaret ]
In 1928, Radiant Steel was formed from a division of Darling Valve & Manufacturing Company. Pineau was Radiant Steels first sales manager, in 1948, he was president of the company. The Radiant Steel Products Company is still in operation today, a custom precision fabricating and finishing plant servicing the HVAC, office furniture, electronics and athletic equipment industries.
Pineau was one of the members of the former Committee of 100, who founded the West Branch Manufacturers Assn. He served as treasurer of the WBMA for more than 20 years and was an honorary life director of the association.
Even though the area had no airport, Pineau continued to fly with other local pilots, landing in farmers fields and regaling locals with their acrobatics. Pineau was affiliated with Stinson Airplane Company at the time.
He became one of the founders of the Williamsport-Lycoming County Airport. His acquaintanceship among top early aviation people enabled federal approval of the airport, and also paved the way for attendance at the airport dedication of many noted early flyers. [One of these was Wiley Post, killed shortly afterward with Will Rogers in their attempted flight over the North Pole.]
When Lycoming Manufacturing Co., which was building automobile engines at the time, decided to venture into the aviation world by building and developing airplane engines in the 1920s that the airport took shape.
Spearheaded by Chairman E.L. Cord, the company needed a place to test its engines. Working with the city of Williamsport and the local chamber of commerce, funds were raised to purchase 161 acres of land for $75,000 from three farmers just south of Montoursville.
The company invested $30,000 to build a hangar on the land and, in April 1929, the first plane powered by a Lycoming engine made successful trial flights.
The airport was dedicated on July 20, 1929, and was heralded as one of the great leaders of the aviation movement on the East Coast. Five trans-Atlantic flyers attended the dedication, including Amelia Earhart, along with a crowd estimated at 30,000 people, believed to be the largest in the history of the county.
Pineau was an organizer and the first commodore of the West Branch Motorboat Assn.
Sometime in the early to mid-1940s Cleo F. Pineau of Williamsport, PA purchased a thunderbolt boat that had been made in 1937 for Lee Fishman of Philadelphia. He raced the “Emily” on the Susquehanna River and most notably in the Lock Haven Jaycee’s Powerboat Regatta still occurring today. In June of 1954, the ownership of “Emily” was transferred to Robert Gehret, a long time friend of Pineau and Plant Manager of Radiant Steel Products
Pineau was also a life member of the Williamsport Wheel Club, a member of Garrett Cochran Post 1, American Legion, and a member of the Williamsport Country Club.
He died May 29th 1972, aged 78. He's buried in the Mt Carmel section of Wildwood Cemetery, Williamsport Pa.
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READ MORE
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Cleo F. Pineau, Former Radiant Steel Head, Dies
Cleo F. Pineau, retired president of Radiant Steel Products Co., died at 6:47 a.m. Monday, May 29, 1972, in Divine Providence Hospital, where he had been admitted Friday as a medical patient.
A prominent industrialist here, Mr. Pineau had been Radiant Steel's first sales manager when the company was formed in 1928 from a division of Darling Valve and Manufacturing Co. He continued in a variety of capacities until becoming president in 1948, an office he retained until his retirement in January, 1969. He continued as a director of the company until his death.
Mr. Pineau was one of the members of the former Committee of 100, who founded the West Branch Manufacturers Assn. He served as treasurer of the WBMA for more than 20 years and was an honorary life director of the association.
Before this country entered World War I, Mr. Pineau, though under age, enlisted in the British Royal Air Force. He was a member of Hangar No. 1, the top honor of the War Birds of the RAF. Shot down two months before the end of the war, he spent that time in a prison camp which was under the command of Kaiser Wilhelm's son.
Mr. Pineau held the British Distinguished Flying Cross, the French Croix de Guerre, and, among other honors, was decorated by the Belgian government.
An Airport Founder
He was one of the founders of the Williamsport-Lycoming County Airport. His acquaintanceship among top early aviation people enabled federal approval of the airport, and also paved the way for attendance at the airport dedication of many noted early flyers.
One of these was Wiley Post, killed shortly afterward with Will Rogers in their attempted flight over the North Pole.
Mr. Pineau was noted as a professional motorcyclist as well as a pilot. During the 1920s, he held most of the world records for motorcycle competition in motordromes.
He was an organizer and the first commodore of the West Branch Motorboat Assn.
Mr. Pineau was a life member of the Williamsport Wheel Club, a member of Garrett Cochran Post 1, American Legion, and a member of the Williamsport Country Club.
City Native
Born in Williamsport, he was the son of Thomas L. and Adele Gstalder Pineau.
He was a member of the Church of Annunciation.
Surviving are his wife, Margaret C., one daughter, Mrs. Richard L. Fenstamaker Jr., city, a brother, Ernest, in California, a sister, Mrs. Camille A. Foster, Hollywood, Calif., and four grand children.
The funeral will be at 10 a.m., Wednesday in the church. Burial will be in Mt. Carmel of Wildwood.
There will be no visitation. A family vigil service will be at 8 tonight at Redmond's, 331 Elmira Street. The family will provide the flowers.
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Confusingly, I find articles in 1917 listing Pineau as being from Alberquerque, and separate articles listing him as from Williamsport. Newspapers list a New Mexico residence for his parents, but census records show them in Pennyslvania. As near as I can tell, he was born in Pennsylvania, and his parents later moved to Alberquerque.
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"Gabrielle P Bartingale, didn't exist legally. She was Winnifred Marion Bartingale. From my research, a Gabrielle P Bartingale DID marry Cleo F Pineau in 1920, and did Atlantic crossings several times under that name. In the 1939 registration, a Gabrielle Pineau is registered, but crossed out to Winnifred Bartingale (French). In 1940, Winnifred Pineau, married Henry French, and his marriage documents show marrying a Winnifred Pineau/Bartingale. I have come to the assumption, Winnifred Bartingale, took on another name - Gabrielle, to win over a War Hero and move to America. Gabrielle's last recorded departure from America is in 1935."
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1909-1914 Merkel Racing History As soon as production was moved from Milwaukee to Pottstown, the new company decided to spend serious money for racing. Five factory supported riders were hired. These included Stanley Kellog, and Charles Balke,
In April, 1910, Merkel rider Fred Whittler defeated Indian’s top star Jake Derosier.
In late 1910, Indian’s DeRosier was again bested by a Merkel, this time in the hands of Morty Graves, who set new records for two through twenty miles. A Los Angeles track record of almost 75 mph was made in November 1910 by Whittler.
When production was moved to Middletown, the new owners, the Miami Cycle and Manufacturing Company, decided not to continue racing support. Factory employees Maldwyn Jones, Lee Taylor, and Cleo Pineau, however, got under-the-table help in building racing Merkels for the 1911 through 1914 seasons. The factory consented to pay the freight bill to some races, but otherwise the boys were on their own. Jones, Pineau, and Taylor entered many half-mile dirt track races in the MidWest, which was a racing hotbed.
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1914
https://archivemoto.com/thearchive/2025/6/19/the-restless-ace-of-flying-merkel https://www.woodyboater.com/classic-boat-shows/emily-1937-thunderbolt-to-appear-in-back-in-clayton-this-alone-is-worth-the-trip/ Franks, N. (2003). Sopwith Camel Aces of World War 1. United Kingdom: Bloomsbury USA. American Aces of World War 1 by Norman Franks, Harry Dempsey (Illustrator) / Paperback / Osprey Publishing (September 25, 2001) Over the Front by Norman L. R. Franks, Frank W. Bailey / Hardcover / Grub Street the Basement (May 1992) In Clouds of Glory: American Airmen Who Flew With The British During The Great War by James J. Hudson / Paperback / University of Arkansas Press (October 1, 1990)
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