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The last Vise Grip locking pliers and Unibit drill bits to be manufactured here were boxed for shipping at 10 a.m. Thursday.
It is the end of an era for this village of 572 people, where the plant once known as Petersen Manufacturing dominates the downtown.
Longtime employees clocked out early Thursday to take a long lunch and drink a glass of beer with co-workers that they know almost better than their own families. It was their last day of work, although they'll be back at the plant today for a farewell luncheon, a group photo and, rumor has it, a souvenir pair of pliers.
Several said reality probably won't sink in until Monday, when they have no job to get up for when the alarm clock rings.
"I know what I'll do Monday," said Dennis Bors of Wilber, whose 33-year career at the DeWitt plant ends today. "I'll be unemployed."
He's worked at the Vise Grip factory since he was 19.
In August, Newell Rubbermaid, owner of the plant since 2002, announced it would close the facility at the end of October. Today is the last day of work for most of its 330 employees, with only a handful of staff remaining to wrap up paperwork and prepare the facility for possible sale. Manufacture of the Vise Grip pliers will be moved to China. Unibit drill bits will be made at a Newell Rubbermaid plant in Gorham, Maine.
Company spokesman David Doolittle said Newell Rubbermaid is "actively marketing" the facility in hopes of finding a buyer.
"We hope another employer will take it over as quickly as possible," he said. "There's a great workforce in DeWitt."
The plant was founded by former blacksmith William Petersen and his four children in 1934 to manufacture the locking pliers he began producing a decade earlier. The siblings sold the company to the American Tool Co. in 1985 to protect it from being broken up after their deaths.
Harriet Petersen Fort, now 98, is the only one of the Petersen siblings still living.
"I'm just sick (about the plant's closing), like everyone else," she said. "People didn't work for us, they worked with us. The best friends I ever had worked in the plant."
Workers, who hail from Beatrice, Wilber, Wymore and other towns in the area, as well as DeWitt, said they're weighing whether to go back to school or whether to try to find a new job in the area.
A federal program will help with training and school expenses for the displaced workers. Newell Rubbermaid will supplement their unemployment benefits for 13 weeks.
Aimee Wollenburg of DeWitt said she hopes to go back to school, but fears her bursitis and tendonitis from working 19 years at a manufacturing job might make it too difficult.
Although most doubt they will be able to find comparable work -- and pay -- in the area, few said they were considering moving away. Jobs typically paid about $11.50 per hour.
"We all have our lives," said Teresa Schuerman of Swanton, who has worked at the plant for 21 years. "You can't just pick up your house and go."
Janis Turner started working at the plant 20 years ago, at age 24. Her marriage was breaking up, and she had four small children to support.
Her father and grandfather both worked at the plant -- but at the time, she didn't know the difference between a pair of pliers and a Vise Grip.
"For everybody around here, this is where you wanted to work," Turner said. "I tried four times to get on. When they finally hired me, I felt like, 'My gosh, I've made it. I work at Petersen.'"
Connie Reed of Wymore and Susie Miller of Beatrice said they were afraid they wouldn't be able to find new jobs because of their ages. Reed is 60 and Miller is 56.
Reed said that at one time 11 members of her family worked at the plant. Reed's and Miller's husbands previously worked at the plant, but both of them took voluntary buyouts offered a few years ago after Newell Rubbermaid bought the plant. Reed and Miller stayed on in hopes that they could make retirement before the plant closed.
The plant long has been a place of employment for women in the area.
That practice started with World War II, Fort recalled.
"All the men went into the army and practically all the women came to work for us," she said.
Some workers said they were trying to be optimistic that the plant's closing ultimately will be the best for them.
"It might not be the job, it's the people we're going to miss," said Lynette Jurgens of Beatrice, a 24-year employee. "I'm looking forward to a new opportunity."
"I'm looking forward for a chance for my body to heal," Wollenburg said.
"I'm afraid I'll never get a new job," Miller said.
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