I have some documents, things like letters, news articles, jotted down figures, back of napkin calculations, handwritten notes, drafts for the research, the eventual analysis and articles by some of the people who did the early South Bend research, which I am identifying as between 1954-1971. The first year, 1954, is when the last employee (at that time obviously a kind of pseudo employee) retired. The second year, 1971, is when Paul Berg published the first comprehensive article concerning the South Bend Watch Co.

The major players, listed generally in chronological order, were:

Walter Shelton - generally known as the first and last employee of the SBWCo.
Joe Gratzol - an employee of the Studebaker Mail-Order company from c.1925 until closing in 1929.
Jesse Coleman - An editor, columnist and writer for what is now known as the "Horological Times".
Paul Berg - Studebaker and South Bend collector, researcher and writer.
Lloyd Murray - South Bend Collector and researcher (and archivist of much of this material).
Dr. Owen Bruce Frye - South Bend Collector, researcher, writer(and also a prolific archivist).

This first article I have scanned is one of the most important documents and has been the source for much of the lore about South Bend. It a newspaper article by the South Bend Tribune about Walter Shelton and his "retirement" in 1954. To be able to read the scanned article you will need a browser that can zoom in on a picture. Also, printing out the scan as a page makes it easier to read.

Page One.
Page Two.

If you get asked to sign in use "guest" for the username and "password" for the password.

High quality 600 dpi scans are available by request.
The higher quality scans are 20Mb's altogether and they are slightly better but they don't add a lot of sharpness. Unfortunately the scan is a copy of a copy from microfilm. I'm just glad the words are legible (for the most part).

Very interesting article about Walter Shelton. Thank you for posting it.