A fistful of nostalgia

MORRIS – The first product that the Northwestern Corp. manufactured, then called the Northwestern Novelty Co., was the Yankee cigar lighter.

It would dispense a single match that would light when removed from the machine. The company was incorporated in 1909 with five shareholders. The first president of the company was Emerson A. Bolen.

At the end of March, the final sale of the manufacturing equipment for the Morris-based company took place.

In April 2017, the company was bought by Colorado-based National Entertainment Network, a vending machine company.

“When I was a kid, my dad pointed out on the flap on a gumball machine somewhere that it said Northwestern and Morris, Illinois, on it,” Larry Thorson said.

Thorson is the administrator of a Facebook page called Northwestern Gumball Machines that tracks and memorializes the machines. “It made quite an impression on me. ... It’s always been a little thread through my life, I guess.”

Thorson said he never worked at the factory, but that whenever he passed the factory on Armstrong Street, he couldn’t help but look at it. He said it was a global brand, and the best equipment in the world. When he lived in Florida, he would see the machines grocery stores there and think of home.

In creating the Facebook page, Thorson said he wanted to create a place for employees or people who had a connection to the company.

“I felt I needed to do something,” he said. “It’s not a big deal, just a page to post pictures and talk.”

The shuttering of the facility came as a shock to most of the community, he said. There was no for sale signs or other information disseminated.

“Most people did not know it closed,” Thorson said.

After the invention of the safety match, the company began manufacturing vending machines for the small boxes of matches, according to local historian Ken Sereno’s book “Morris Factories.”

Then, in 1912, it again created a new machine, this time to sell stamps. By 1921, the company had broken into the market for vending machines that sold nuts, candy and gum.

In the year between the April 2017 purchase of the company by NEN and the March final sale of the equipment, Thorson said he got familiar with the factory and the people working there.

“I always want a new machine,” Thorson said. “One day I just poked my head in there.”

He originally was looking to see if they had a key for an old machine he’d bought at Goodwill. But they were able to make him a machine like the one he’d always wanted.

Thorson said it was a wonderful day.

According to Replay magazine, a publication that covers the coin-operated amusement business, NEN made about
2 million parts before closing the Morris operation, enough for about two to three years of supply. It said the final sale of Northwestern assets was March 27.

The magazine estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of Northwestern Machines in operation.

“It’s iconic,” he said. “Everyone has turned the handle on one of these machines.”