When the financial panic of 1857 engulfed Ebert & Lowdan, Thomas Griffith and G. W. Ebert continued the business of a general machine shop in the former works and in 1858 Francis Wedge purchased the Ebert interest, and the firm of Grifiith and Wedge engaged in the manufacture of portable engines. November 29, 1870, Mr. Wedge obtained patents on a vertical portable engine, the first of its kind, the former types having been horizontals, and with so radical an improvement in the engine the business assumed large proportions, and other forms of machinery were produced. Mr. Grifiith died in 1884, and in 1885 the Griffith and Wedge Company was incorporated and the following officers chosen: Francis Wedge. president: Charles D. Wedge, vice president; Edward Cigax, secretary and treasurer; John Wedge and A. Crotzer; March, 1893, Mr. Wedge died and the present officers are: John Hoge, president; C. D. Wedge, vice president and manager; Edward Gigax, secretary and treasurer. The company now makes a specialty of the Ohio Corliss engine, one of the highest types of engines, and clay working machinery. The plant embraces iron and brass foundries, machine, boiler, blacksmith and pattern shops and an extensive drawing room; only the most skilled mechanics are employed and every product is wrought from drawings.

     This company was formed in 1860 with the renaming of Griffith, Ebert & Co.; Francis Wedge had joined the firm in 1858. The company incorporated in 1885 as Griffith & Wedge Co.

      Production in 1897 included steam engines, portable steam engines, hoisting & winding engines, boilers, circular sawmills, and mining machinery.

Information Sources

• Past and Present of the City of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio 1905 pg. 174
• American Steam Engine Builders: 1800-1900 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2006 page 106
• A January 1871 issue of Scientific American has a front-page article on this company's vertical steam engine. The article includes a large engraving of the engine.
• Listed in the 1874 work, Wiley's American iron trade manual of the leading iron industries of the United States, as a maker of "steam engines and machinery".
• Ad in 1875 issue of Manufacturer & Bulder, featuring their circular sawmills.
• An article in the March 1875 issue of Manufacturer & Builder features this company's vertical steam engine. The engraving is the same one used in the 1871 Scientific American article.
• The January 1876 issue of Manufacturer & Builder carries a brief advertorial on this firm's vertical steam engines and circular sawmills.
• A Philadelphia library site lists Griffith & Wedge as an exhibitor at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. The Official Catalog of the Centennial Commission lists Griffith & Wedge as exhibiting "Vertical portable engine, and centrifugal drying machine".
• The 1876 work, The biographical encyclopœdia of Ohio of the nineteenth century, has the following entry:
  WEDGE, FRANCIS, Manufacturer, was born in Staffordshire, England, January 12th, 1825. He is of English parentage, and was educated Stone, Staffordshire, England. While in his seventeenth year be was placed to learn his trade, and served an apprenticeship of five years under Joseph Whitworth, of Manchester, England. August 3d,1848, be sailed from Liverpool for this country, and finally, on the following September 30th, settled in Zanesville, Ohio. During the ensuing six months, he was employed in setting up machinery for the Ohio Iron Company (formerly the Zanesville Rolling Mills). He then associated himself in partnership with John H. Jones, and for eighteen months prosecuted business in the Blocksom Foundry, which had been rented by the partners. He subsequently served eight years as foreman for H. & F. Blandy. The following year was spent in the saw-mill business in Arkansas. He then found employment in "getting, up" machinery, designs, and drawing for portable engines, for Owens, Lane & Dyer, Hamilton, Ohio. In 1857 he designed, build and bought the first engine in Zanesville, Ohio. In 1858 he became a member of the firm of Griffith, Ebert & Co., which, after the lapse of two years became Griffith & Wedge. While in the employ of H & F. Blandy he built not only the first locomotive in Zanesville, but also the first portable engine. He has achieved business success in the face of many embarrassing difficulties, and by steady persistence and industry has secured the legitimate reward of enterprise and labor. He is a stockholder in the Brown Manufacturing Company and also in the Zanesville Woollen Company. He was married, July 29th, 1846, in Manchester, England, to Nichola J. Weild.
• The August 1885 issue of Manufacturer & Builder carries the following notice: "The Griffith & Wedge Co., of Zanesville, O., formerly doing business as Griffith & Wedge, has been incorporated to manufacture mining and other machinery, and to build portable and stationary engines, boilers, and saw mills."