Tappan appliances was founded by W.J. Tappan as the Ohio Valley Foundry Company in Bellaire, Ohio in 1881 selling cast-iron stoves door-to-door. The company relocated to Mansfield, Ohio in 1889 and was renamed the Eclipse Stove Company before being renamed the Tappan Stove Company. In 1950, Tappan acquired the Los Angeles-based O’Keefe & Merritt Stove Company and used the O’Keefe & Merritt name in the western United States from then until the late 1980s.