The company had its beginnings in Buffalo, New York, in 1919, where the Houde Engineering Corporation manufactured shock absorbers that had been invented and patented in France by Maurice Houdaille (1880-1953).

[1] The company continued to grow with the automobile industry, and through diversification, until 1987 when it was forced to liquidate most of its assets to satisfy obligations to investors from a 1979 leveraged buy out.

In 1927, the patents were purchased from the original French owners and Houde became the sole manufacturer and distributor of the Houdaille designed shock absorber in the United States.

In late September, 1928, Shultz sold Houde to Frederick B. Cooley and a small syndicate of investors for $4.3 million.

[9] Detroit industrialist Claire L. Barnes (1880-1947) created the Houdaille Corporation of Michigan in 1928 to acquire Houde Engineering from Cooley.

[13] In June 1937, Charles Getler was elected president of the company and Barnes became chairman of the board, Ralph Peo was chosen as vice-president.

Houdaille continued growth through acquisition and when the U.S. entered WWII the company retooled many of its production facilities for the war effort.

[14][15][16] After the war, Houdaille bought a plant in Huntington, West Virginia and retooled it to manufacture automobile bumpers.

[17] In March 1946, Peo, then executive vice president, resigned to form Frontier Industries, Inc. As head of Frontier, Peo acquired Manzel Brothers Oil Pump Company, Fairmount Tool & Forging, Inc., of Cleveland, Ohio, the Buffalo Arms plant, and Buffalo Crushed Stone Corporation.

Seeking to divisify to other industries, in 1955, Houdaille acquired Frontier through a merger and Ralph Peo became president of Houdaille-Hershey.

Jones, Eclipse Lawn Mower, Penberthy Manufacturing Co., R.H. Wright & Sons, Inc., Broward Asphalt Corporation, and Duval Engineering and Contracting.

With the heavy debt created by the LBO, the early 1980s recession, and Japanese competition in the machine tool manufacturing industry, profits disappeared.