Nathaniel Haughton purchased an interest in the Toledo Steam Engine Works, a small foundry and machine shop founded in 1865 by Cooke, Kneiser & Groff.
He joined several nationalist rallies in support of stronger reforms by Kaiser Wilhelm II and then-chancellor Otto von Bismarck; at one of these, he was arrested and a police report taken.
[3] The report describes him as "ein junger Mann, bleich im Gesicht, mit unheimlichen Augen" — "a young man, pale in the face, with uncanny eyes."
[citation needed] He had borrowed a sum of money from the owner of one of the local plants, a wealthy banker and Prussian industrialist named Fritz Schroeder.
[citation needed] With Schroeder's loan in his pocket, Hontz acquired the plans for a British grain elevator at an auction in Denmark.
[citation needed] Post-war, however, the elevator business went through the floor and the Aufzugfirma was one of the companies worst hit by the war indemnities of the Treaty of Versailles.
This expansion is designed to accommodate further rapid growth and enables Schindler to diversify the product offerings originating at this facility.