George McNeeley was born on October 8, 1906 in Southern Illinois. At a young age his family moved to Wabash looking for a better life than what farming was providing. Living with his family in an uncle's house, George attended the old Century School until the age of 16 when he dropped out. He commented he had to quit “…to allow the teachers to catch up with him.”
Upon leaving school, he went to work at the Spencer Cardinal Furniture Factory located on Chestnut Street. Only working there a short time, he moved to the Wabash Canning Company, but again, only stayed a short time. In 1926, he took a temporary position with the Honeywell Heating Specialties Co. A position where he would stay for over thirty years until retirement. He notes that he took this temporary job because it paid an extra nickel over the canning company.
In this interview George NcNeeley discusses his time starting out on the assembly floor making .35¢ and hour, moving up to becoming a test operator, and the many other positions that he filled during his career. He describes what it was like working during the merger with the Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company, during the Great Depression, and during World War II. He also describes what Mr. Honeywell was really like and how he just wanted to be “one of the boys.”
George NcNeeley died on April 12, 1981 and is buried in Falls Cemetery.
This audio is an interview that was conducted on May 23, 1973 as part of the Wabash Carnegie Public Library Oral History Project.
From 1970 to 1987 Wabash Carnegie Public Library and members of the community worked on an Oral History Project that interviewed multiple people in Wabash. These were recorded on cassette tapes, which were later converted to CD in 2006.
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