Acme/Interlake Newsletters

A couple months ago as part of my general scouring of the internet for info on the coke plant, I came across a historical society based in the far south suburbs that had some valuable information.

The South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society (SSGHS) has a variety of newsletters from Acme and Interlake spanning almost the entire history of the company (in Chicago). They have these scanned and sell them for a reasonable price. I jumped at the opportunity but made a rookie mistake.

The Society has five ‘volumes’ of newsletters, but as of yet only three are scanned:

• Currently Scanned
  • Vol. 1: Acme Steel Newsletter Extracts 1926-1932
  • Vol. 2: Acme Steel Newsletter Extracts 1935-1944
  • Vol. 3: Acme Steel Newsletter Extracts 1959-1961
• NOT Currently Scanned
  • Vol. 4: Acme Steel Newsletter Extracts 1945-1958
  • Vol. 5:
    • Miscellaneous Acme Steel Publications from August 1957 to 1998 (with gaps)
    • Two issues of ‘Coke & Iron Monthly’ from By-Products Coke Corporation & Iroquois Iron (September 1917 & May 1919).

I’m not sure what my confusion was at the time, because I know better, but unfortunately none of the three currently available volumes could possibly have anything to do with the coke plant, as it did not have the Acme name until 1986. Still, in my immense ignorance I did purchase volume three (1959-1961). While I was unable to use it for my research here, it was a very interesting read and I have not yet even gone through them all.

The PDFs are scanned at 600 dpi and well organized in subfolders. They also provide a couple Excel spreadsheets that list every surname mentioned anywhere in the newsletters, with a reference to an issue and page number. If you had a grandfather or other relative who once worked in Riverdale, it would be wonderful to be able to get a hold of some scans that might mention their name.

I continued chatting with Paula Malak, who serves on the board of directors for the Society and also is a librarian at the Hazel Crest library, where the Society is based from. I mentioned that if she ever needed help scanning, I’d be glad to assist. It seemed clear to me that they did, with two additional volumes waiting to be made digitial.

Sometime later, she did contact me and sent me a variety of Acme newsletters from the late 90s (these would be part of Volume 5) also with two very old Interlake newsletters from 1964 – a historic time for the company as Acme and Interlake merged. These fragile newsletters are on real newsprint and are tabloid size (approx. 11.5″ x 16.5″, folding in half like the Chicago Tribune). Unfortunately I did not find much in the mention of the coke plant, and only a bit of info on the furnace plant. Again, it was pretty amazing to hold these in my hands. I did scan them and return them quickly. I was unable to properly digitize the Interlake newsletters for the Society but I was able to scan some portions which are below, and will also be highlighted in an upcoming post.

I’m sure I will stay in touch with Paula because I would love to get my hands on the 1917 and 1919 issues from the pre-Interlake days. I highly recommend this service from the society, especially if you have or had loved ones who worked in Riverdale or at the furnace or coke plants. The scans are shipped to you on a USB drive (or DVD) and are very well put together. I have shared the order form below as well as the link to the website. Tell them acmecoke.com sent you!

Acme Steel Newsletter Collections