The History of McCaskey

The McCaskey Register Company came into being at 321 Rush Street Alliance, Ohio in 1903.  It was the brain child of Perry A. McCaskey.  He wanted to make account keeping less frustrating for himself and hopefully his future customers.  His creation, the "one writing" credit register.

P.A. McCaskey bought 321 Rush Street when it was simply a blacksmith shop.  He converted it to his first factory which later became Plant No.1.  He started with a capital of only $30,000 and by the 1950's it had grown to a $3,000,000 investment.  McCaskey however had left the company shortly after 1908 to pursue other avenues.

The company was growing so rapidly by 1904 that additions were added to the plant for the next three years.  Offices were also opened in Canton, Ohio and Canada in 1908, England in 1920; a plant in Boston Massachusetts was built somewhere between 1908 and 1913 to print the many various forms required for the McCaskey Accounting System.  In 1914 the McCaskey Safe Register was introduced; it was insulated and fire proof.  This innovation was brought about by a fire caused by spontaneous combustion of varnish in 1908.  The fire destroyed a large stock of wood registers so a change was needed.  This same year McCaskey took over the American Case and Register Company located in Salem, Ohio, after a string of lawsuits against the latter company for patent infringements. In 1912 production began on the first electric powered register.  The first McCaskey Cash Register System came in 1922.  With all of this production including 1,000 salesbooks a day it was necessary to build another plant.  Plant 2 is located at 2435 South Union Avenue in Alliance, Ohio and was a million dollar project. In 1927 salesbooks were being produced at a rate of 2,500,000 books a month vs. sales of 1,000 a day in 1912.  During the depression McCaskey refused to give in.  They produced new products such as a golf machine in the thirties.  (Details of this machine are unknown.)  A plastic cash drawer (presumably Bakelite) came out in 1933 and a register made for gas stations only came out in 1939. (See products page for more details.)  They even furnished cash registers for all the state liquor stores. With materials is short supply after World War II McCaskey had to cut to minimum production.  They merged with Business Systems Inc. retaining the McCaskey name and then were later bought by the Victor Adding Machine Company in 1953.  We have seen some machines with the Victor McCaskey name on them but eventually the McCaskey name disappeared.

To McCaskey Plant Tour

return to McCaskey index page

Author's note:  The above information was obtained from various sources, all of which were "locked" in Alliance Ohio and were unobtainable without having travelled there.  Most data were found at the Rodman Public Library, and came from newspaper articles (The Alliance Review) and a series of remarkable notes made by a gentleman who had handwritten a synopsis of various published sources.  A book published by the Stark County Historical Society, apparently titled "The Stark County Story" and written by Edward Thornton Heald was the primary source material for some of these articles, but is also apparently sold out and unobtainable.   The above material has been cross-referenced as much as is possible, but in some cases only one source was found for certain facts, events or dates and must be assumed correct.