MFMA
Hall of Fame
 Albert
H. Abendroth
Born February 12, 1867, in Neulobitz, Pomerania,
Germany, Albert came to the U.S. in 1883 at the age of 16 and located
in Detroit.
He traveled north to Reed City, Michigan, looking for
employment in woodworking. In 1886 William Horner, who ran a planing
mill surfacing
white pine lumber, gave him a job. He worked there
for two years and then went to work for Frederick Robbins in his
white pine operation.
As the white pines were dwindling in the area, Robbins
moved his operation to Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Albert, not wanting
to leave Reed City,
devised a plan with William Horner to start running
maple flooring in the planing mill. To gather experience, he worked
a year for Nichols & Cox
in Grand Rapids running maple flooring. He returned
to begin producing maple flooring for Horner in 1891.
Recognizing a
need to standardize grading and milling, William
and Albert joined with other maple flooring producers
to form the MFMA in 1896-97. Albert was active with
the association, helping to develop
product standardization. Between 1891 and 1900, Albert
developed the first single-pass flooring machine,
similar to the ones still running
today. He was honored for that achievement by the
MFMA in 1946.
In 1914, Albert was charged with the task
of building a new plant for Horner in Newberry, Michigan.
He ran this plant for five years.
This "state of the art" plant produced more flooring than
any other single mill to that time.
Albert left Horner
in 1919 to form Robbins Flooring Co., assisted by
his son Paul W. Abendroth. Other officers included
Frederick Robbins and Bill Caldwell. Albert converted a planing mill
in Rhinelander to run maple flooring. The new company
became members
of the MFMA
shortly after its formation. Albert and Paul bought
out Robbins and Caldwell in 1922. Albert's son Walter
joined the business shortly
thereafter.
In 1927 Robbins Flooring Co. bought the
Horner flooring mill in Newberry.
They ran two mills continuously until 1946, however,
the Newberry mill partially burned in 1938 and was
rebuilt and resumed operation
in 1939. After the fire temporarily closed that mill,
Albert, Paul, and Walter needed to make up for lost
production so they bought a
mill in Gladstone, Michigan, and operated it until
1944. Robbins, under Albert's reign as president,
owned and operated three mills
from 1938 to 1944.
Albert retired in 1944 but could
be found in the Rhinelander mill quite often after
his retirement. He died September 30, 1954, at the
age of 87.
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