Scores of ducks, lions, elephants, and rabbits live together in harmony on the shelves of the Wayne County Historical Society’s permanent collection. Crafted of ponderosa pine, the members of this menagerie are all products of the Toy Kraft Company. Founded in Wooster in 1916, by 1927 Toy Kraft was shipping more than a million colorful, hand-painted toys around the country each year. A company catalog from that era called them “Sturdily Built – Cleverly Designed – Beautifully Colored” and promised prospective vendors a “complete line of year ’round profit makers.”
By the 1940s, however, Toy Kraft had begun using cheaper cardboard materials and the company was sold to Bauer Manufacturing, which filed for bankruptcy in 1950.
