By Elora S Buck

Before Doc Hausinger arrived in Keene....Orville Haddock,father of Karen Haddock Putnam started the stick horse business on the corner of 3rd Street and Fairview Street in the late 1940's. Here is story that will bring back lots of memories for some of the workers at Nu-Cushion Products.

Making toys for America’s small fry is a big-time deal and Doc Hausinger proves a small town is an ideal place to be in the business.

Circle H CORRAL is almost the only place in Texas where the horse population is NOT on the decline. In Keene, Texas, stick horse capital of the world, Boss Russell (Doc) HAUSINGER and his college corral crew turn out hundreds of thousands of horses annually for the young bronco riders throughout the nation and many parts of the world.

The little end of a pin and a magnifying glass might help you spot Keene, Johnson County (pop. 1,000), on the huge map of Texas. It’s about 30 miles south of Fort Worth and is near neighbor to Cleburne. Daily from this tiny spot in Texas are shipped to every state in the Union, as well as Canada, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and recently to Alaska, some thoroughbred horses such as Hi-Step ‘N Bronco, Texas Stallion, Broom Tail Ranger’s Pal – the wee cowboy’s favorite.

Few Texans can visualize how this fellow Doc HAUSINGER who retired at the ripe age of 43 when he sold his extensive canning operations at Mission, Texas, could put his “canning” know-how into a stick-hoss manufacturing deal. Doc HAUSINGER sold his Texas food Products Company in 1946 to the Floridagold Citrus Corp. of Florida, and retired. He did, however, manage his 400 acre farming operation in the Rio Grande Valley for a few years. In 1955 he quit farming and started looking for something that would inspire his imagination.

It was just about this time he received a letter from a businessman in Keene, Texas, regarding a church furniture factory. The HAUSINGERS decided to drop by Keene as they headed for a vacation in Colorado. It was on this trip that Doc and his wife Averil, his able helper and inspiration, heard about a little stick horse factory that did amount to much.” One year later, in 1956, the couple was attending a Seventh-day Adventist Camp Meeting in Keene and hear, again, that the proprietor of that little stick horse factory wanted to dispose of it.

The factory was small. In fact, chiefly it was a backyard operation. The HAUSINGERS acquired the factory and went to work with a vision. Before a month had passed the factory was moved to larger quarters and the new boss hired more employees as sales increased.

The toy business was brand new to Doc, but he was an old hand at running a factory. Visualize, if you can, using some canning equipment in the manufacturing of a stick horse. That’s what Doc HAUSINGER did in many instances as he built a modern, up-to-the-minute assembly line. A tomato conveyor is only one of the many “canning devices” which now help turn out some mighty fine stick horses for the younger generations throughout the land, and throughout the year – NOT just Christmas time! The “Romper Room” TV live programs over about 75 stations daily keep the young riders constantly hammering mommy for a thoroughbred from the Circle H Corral.

HAUSINGER streamlined every operation and started ordering materials in carload quantities. The factory uses thousands of Texas-made sticks, tons of Texas cotton, and all the paint is purchased in Texas. The broncos from this corral are painted in an assortment of four colors and paint is no small item for the finest quality lacquers and quick-drying paints are used. No chipping or peeling on these broncs.

The stick horse capital of the world didn’t just happen. It took work, ingenuity, study, planning, machinery and know-how – all typical HAUSINGER trademarks. The first step in increasing the stick hoss population begins with an electronic heat sealer – a stamping and sealing device which because of its tremendous power has to be completely enclosed to preclude local radio and television interference. This operation die-cuts the horse’s head and seals it.

Next the heads are screen painted and laid out on a tomato conveyor with heat lamps overhead where they dry as they are being conveyed to the next operation. Usually corrals have little use for sewing machines, but Circle H Corral purchases Singer sewer machines by the dozens – perhaps they are cheaper that way. Machine operators stitch on the ears and manes sturdily, for broncos and stallions from this corral are bound to get pretty constant riding. They eyelet machines attach simultaneously the reins and jingle bells. It’s a neat operation and even the toughest little menace would have a hard struggle pulling off the pretty cotton and rayon mane and the plastic ears of any horse from this spread’s corral.

The next operation is the pride and joy of the owners of this growing industry. The stick painting process is “top trade secret” – so far as competitors are concerned. Quality-mind HAUSINGER uses only top grade lacquer which dries instantly. The HAUSINGER outfit sees to it that each horse has three coats. These little horses are called “the Cadillac of the stick horse field.”

At the Toy Fair held every year in New York, other toy manufactures have tried discretely and in discretely to find out the secret of the Texas candy-striped stick horse. On their initial trip to the Fair, doc had warned his wife to be on the lookout for these inquisitors and she was ready for them.

A very friendly competitor ambled over to the HAUSINGER’S Texas style display, complete with real longhorns, and openly admired the Texas stallion, a “horse born to lead the whole herd with long flowing mane and spirited features.” Too casually, this competitor wondered “how you Texas folks” achieve that paint job. Averil HAUSINGER foiled her competitor with her naïve mien when she replied, so innocently, “ Oh, we just take wide paint brushes and pull out about every other section of the bristles, then swish the paint brush around and come up with this candy-stripe stick.”

The ponderosa pine sticks are vat dipped and that’s as much of the trade secret as TEXAS PARADE knows. Ponderosa pine is used because of its smooth texture and grain. One more process is needed before the stick horses are ready for their first journey. The heads are stuffed by hand for uniformity with Texas cotton. Machine stuffed heads are not quite as good as hand-stuffed ones. Quality workmanship aside, in this instance, hand-stuffing gives more employment to the 100 or so college students who comprise about 95 per cent of the HAUSINGER pay roll. But more about the employment situation later.

Merchandiser HAUSINGER found that improving the quality and attractiveness of his was not enough. When he saw how the stick horses were being shipped in cumbersome brown paper bundles, both unattractive and certainly a freight problem, he immediately started to work on improving this method by designing a printed two-color box which could serve the dual purpose of shipping and, then, by simply removing the top half become a display carton.

Boxing the horses is a distinct machine-age operation and Boss HAUSINGER had to create his own boxing machine.

Other Nu-Cushion Products Company items include a Rocket Broom for mom and a toy one “just like mom’s” for the little miss, second only in popularity to the Hi-Step ‘N Broncs. Production demands have leaped so much that recently the HAUSINGER outfit spread out to take in the 45-year old Dallas Broom and Mop Company of Dallas.

The latest craze in production now at the Keene factory is called the WADDLE WALKER. One big chain distributor of the famous Texas stick horses from this corral predicts that the WADDLE WALKER will be as good as the Hula Hoop!

Keene, Texas, not a large community, is the home of Southwestern Junior College, a Seventh-day Adventist organization.

A unique employment policy may be one of the reasons for the growing success of the HAUSINGER operation. About 95 percent of the factory of the factory personnel is composed of the students who are working their way through school and come recommended by the college’s business manager. The students have a schedule of four hours work and four hours of class work. The factory worship period is held daily – then everyone goes to making Hi-Step ‘N Broncs. Saturday is devoted to the church and everything in Keene – even the Post Office – closes. It took an act of Congress to bring this about.

The Circle H Corral trademark is being expanded and becoming better known throughout the toy world. As astute and imaginative businessman who has a flair for merchandising, whether it is canning grapefruit juice or making toys with a Texas Touch. Doc HAUSINGER says with strong conviction that Texas is RIPE for a mammoth toy manufacturing plant.

“Toy business in the United States alone is $3.2 billion annually and Texas is in its infancy in the manufacture of toys,” HAUSINGER said. Using the toy business slang, Doc said, “Toys is a hot item!”