Mount Union borough
The Factory that Outgrew the Brick
The factory where the women worked. In 1920, Mount Union Manufacturing opened for men's suits and coats. Within two years, 62 women worked there. The L. Greif Company of Baltimore bought the firm in 1922 and kept building. Employment reached 314 by 1938. In the 1940s, during World War II, part of production shifted to army uniforms, and the company doubled the factory size. By 1948, it had 591 employees.
And then something quiet happened: the sewing factory outgrew the brick industry that named the town. By 1959, seven hundred twenty-five workers. That was about a hundred more than both refractories combined.
Employment was almost exclusively women at first. Then men came as the brick plants closed in the early 1950s. But the needle work stayed steady, right through 1971, when Greif became part of Genesco. Three years later, both plants shut down.
Sources
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Checked 2026-09-19 · Historic Mount Union collection