The Enterprise Manufacturing Company
Akron, Ohio
It is generally accepted that this famous name in fishing reel
manufacturing had its beginnings in 1881 when once grocer, then harness
maker, E.F. Pflueger formed a company apparently first named
Enterprise Works, being so listed in the 1883 Akron Directory. The
same year he started his company he purchased the American Fishhook
Company and subsequently claimed its date of origin, 1864, as that
of his own company. He incorporated his business in 1886 as the
Enterprise Manufacturing Company. With the exception of a
simple wooden device that doubled as a line dryer Mr. Pflueger had
patented in 1896, Enterprise did not manufacture reels until at least
1900. The earliest reference to reels offered by them is 1902. Most of
those early models bore the Pflueger name which had became trademarked
by 1908.
By 1914 reels were
offered by Enterprise under three trademarks: Pflueger Bulldog, Four
Brothers (named for the four sons of E. F. Pflueger), and Portage, a
trademark previously used by one of those brothers, E.A. Pflueger and
used by him during a brief period beginning in 1906 when he resigned
from Enterprise and formed his own E.A. Pflueger Company.
Enterprise remained a
leader in reel manufacturing into the 1960s, offering a great variety of
models over the years, ranging from tiny fly reels to large saltwater
models, and including some of the most popular casting reels ever made.
In 1965 the company name was changed to The Pflueger
Corporation. The following year it was purchased by The
Shakespeare Company. Pflueger reels are still manufactured by the
Pflueger Sporting Goods Division of Shakespeare.
Contributed by Bob
Miller
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