Minster punch press 1938

Verne C. Fryklund & Frank Roy Kepler, General Drafting.  Bloomington, Illinois:  McKnight & McKnight, Publishers, 1938.

In 1896, in the village of Minster in west central Ohio, two blacksmiths, Anton Herkenhoff and Joseph Dues, formed a partnership to do general repairs, grind plowshares, and repair oil drilling machinery.  

Anton bought out his partner later the same year and renamed the business the "Minster Machine Company."  The company really got going when the oil boom hit western Ohio at the turn of the century.  The clutches on the drilling machines tended to burn out in the shallow oil wells and these were often brought to the Minster company for repair.  Herkenhoff eventually invented an improved friction clutch, patenting it in 1905.  In 1916, the company entered the machine tool market with its "Hi Duty Drill Press." While this sold well, the rapidly expanding auto industry was in great need of stamping machines, so Minster sold off its drill press line and built its first mechanical power press in 1926.  Eventually they produced a variety of presses, which saw heavy use in the American arsenals, aircraft factories and shipyards during WW II.  In 2012, Minster was acquired by the Nidec-Shimpo Corporation, headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.