The Bit Players

The Bit Players pages include information about some of the smaller players in the history of American auger and bit manufacture. The guidelines for inclusion on the Bit Player pages are flexible, but in general, the entities listed here were not long-lived firms that produced mass quantities of bits, such as Irwin, Russell Jennings, and the like. Taken together, the listing on these pages provide a fascinating glimpse into the history of the wood-boring auger and the development of North American tool manufacture. Individually, they tell what to me are some fascinating stories of ingenuity, enterprise, and persistence.

Arrow brand

Arrow brand bits were manufactured by a series of Philadelphia-area businesses from 1866 to 1918.⁽¹⁾ The first of these was Dwight Morrison & Kelley, an entity organized by William T. Morrison (1842-1919), Emanuel Dewitt (1835-1908), and a not-yet-identified Kelley. Based in Philadelphia proper, the company's primary products were augers and bits manufactured from first-quality British cast steel.⁽²⁾ Its auger bits, with the manufacturer's identification imprinted on the tang and an unpolished black twist, were typical of East Pennsylvania. A simple, feathered arrow impressed on the stem gave nod to the brand name, and the tangs of its bits bore the acronym D. M. & K. PHILA. Sets of its auger bit sets were sold in wooden boxes equipped with a hinged bit holder with an arrow cast into its top.

By 1897, Kelley was no longer with the business, and the firm became Dewitt & Morrison.⁽³⁾ The partners continued to use their one-of-a-kind bit box and mark the stems of their black-twist bits with an arrow. The tangs of the bits were now stamped D. & M. PHILA. Dewitt & Morrison soon relocated the business to Darby, a suburb of Philadelphia.

On December 8, 1902, Emerson E. McCargo (1858-1928), a steel supplier, joined with William T. Morrison to incorporate the Arrow brand business as Morrison, McCargo & Company. It was the second incorporation involving McCargo that year. The previous month, he'd incorporated his steel business as the McCargo Company.⁽⁴⁾ Morrison, McCargo & Company continued to manufacture black-twist bits and put them up in the traditional Arrow brand boxes, manufacturing them in Colwin, Pennsylvania, and marking them M & M CO. PHILA PA. By 1913, the business had added axes and edge tools to the line. Alston Saw & Steel Co. of Folcroft, Pennsylvania, bought the company in 1918 and continued to market Arrow brand augers under the M & M name.⁽⁵⁾ Though William Morrison died in 1919, the business retained the Morrison and McCargo names and made axes and edge tools in Darby until at least 1925.⁽⁶⁾

Illustration credit:

• Author's photos

References:

1. The 1866 start date for the Arrow brand's founding business can be found on the paper labels attached to the interior of Dewitt & Morrison bit boxes. A successor to Dewitt, Morrison & Kelley, it is unknown if the firm manufactured augers and bits from the outset.
2. "Augers and Bits." Woodworkers Tools: being a Catalogue of Tools, Supplies, Machinery, and Similar Goods. Detroit, Michigan: Chas. A. Strelinger & Co., 1897. p. 688. Reprinted: The Midwest Tool Collectors Association, 1979.
3. Welcome to Delaware County PA History. delawarecountyhistory.com/darbyborough/DARBY_DIRECTORY_1897_A--Palmer051111.htm
4. List of Corporations Enrolled in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth During the Two Years Beginning June 1, 1901 and ending June 1, 1903.
5. Pennsylvania Dept. of Labor and Industry Commerce. First Industrial Directory of Pennsylvania: 1913.. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 1914. p. 139, 391.
6. "Sale in the Auger Line." Hardware Dealers' Magazine. (July 1918). p. 156.

Bassett, David

The Great Patent Office Fire of 1836 destroyed the documentation for the March 18, 1829, screw-auger patent issued to forty-six-year-old blacksmith David Bassett of Derby, Connecticut. Though office staff found mention of the award in surviving lists of issued patents, Bassett failed to submit the original text and artwork—or certified copies—to the Office's project to re-create what was lost. The Patent Office simply assigned a reference number (5043X) to be used in the event that the original documentation came to light. Fortunately, the Franklin Institute, a Philadelphia-based research institution, published a summary of the award in its journal shortly after issue.⁽¹⁾ The patent covered the polishing of screw augers, and the summary reads:

This patent is taken for the manufacture, and not for the machinery employed. The ordinary screw auger is to be ground true, and polished throughout, by means of stones and buffs, in the way well known to workmen. The patentee thus states his claim.

"What I claim as new in this invention, is the auger thus made by me, whether the brightening, smoothing, or polishing, be performed by the means aforesaid, or by any other means producing the same effect."

The advantages stated to result from polishing, are the lessened liability to corrosion, and the greater ease of working, from the facility with which the chip is delivered.

In 1831, David Bassett purchased the waterpower right on Beaver Brook, a small tributary of the Naugatuck River in an area of Derby now known as Ansonia. Shortly afterward, he built a dam and began making augers at the site.⁽²⁾ Whether his augers were the brightly polished tools described in his 1829 patent remains a matter of speculation. The accumulated dirt and oxidation of nearly two centuries have done much to destroy the original surfaces of surviving examples. The tools he produced were stamped either D. BASSET or D. BASSETT.

In 1836, David Bassett relocated to a raceway on the Housatonic River in an area of Derby known as Birmingham, where he associated with Eleazer Peck and expanded production.⁽³⁾ Their thriving partnership is the likely source of augers marked D. BASSETT & CO. Peck left the operation in the mid-1840s, and Bassett brought his eldest son, Robert N. Bassett, into the business.(4) They stamped their output D. BASSETT & SON. Sometime before 1856, David Bassett retired from active participation in the enterprise, leaving the operation in the hands of his son Robert, who soon added galvanized pump chains to the product line. Though the factory continued to make augers for a time, their manufacture was soon de-emphasized. By 1859, the company's production had shifted to metallic wires for hoop skirts and steel parts for corsets.

David Bassett also sold coal, a logical sideline for someone operating a forge. His second son, Charles Lewis, worked in his father's auger shop for a time and later as a clerk in the family's coal business. Shortly before retiring from his auger business, David Bassett was appointed a deacon in his Congregational Church and was thereafter referred to as Deacon David Bassett. He died in 1872 at the age of eighty-three.

Illustration credit:

• D. Basset stamp: author's photo.

References:

1. “American Patents: List of American Patents Granted in March 1829.” Journal of the Franklin Institute, new series, v. 3, 1829. p. 416.
2. Samuel Cutter and Ambrose Beardsley. "Further Sketches" in: The History of the Old Town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1800. Springfield, Mass.: Springfield Printing Company, unnumbered page 825. Not all copies of the book have this page. The copy at the University of Virginia does.
3. Rockey, J. L., ed. History of New Haven County. vol. 2. New York: W. W. Preston, 1892. p. 390.
4. New-England Mercantile Union Business Directory ... New York: Pratt & Co., 1849. p. 285.

Bisbee, Daniel

Daniel Bisbee, Sr. (ca. 1774-1852) was one of the early augermakers in Kingston, Massachusetts, and likely apprenticed with the area's pioneering augermaker, Seth Washburn. Bisbee built a dam and set up shop on Trout Brook (originally Furnace Brook), a tributary of the Jones River, in 1810. The Kingston area had a rich history of ironworking going back at least to the mid-1700s, and the stream owed its original name to the presence of an early forge or blast furnace. Bisbee made augers at the site until 1844, when he sold out to Thomas Russell.⁽¹⁾

Mentions of Bisbee's business are hard to find. He displayed his "screw augers" at the First Exhibition and Fair of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association in Boston in 1839.⁽²⁾ The federal census of 1850 lists him as 74 years old (an error), still living in Kingston, and working as a "smithwright," an early term for a blacksmith. The same census lists his son, Daniel Jr., as a nailer—an early term for a nail maker.

His augers are stamped D. BISBE or D. BISBEE.

References:

1. Welker, Peter, et al., "Generations of Augermakers in Kingston, Massachusetts." Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association. v. 53, no. 3 (September 2000), p. 120.
2. First Exhibition and Fair of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association. Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1837. p. 67.

Chester Mfg. Co.

Located on the south fork of Pattaconk Brook in Chester, Connecticut, the Chester Manufacturing Company was active between 1884 and 1919.⁽¹⁾ Most surviving auger bits are of the double-spur variety. A contemporary resource observes:

The first factory on the south stream is the bitt factory of C. L. Griswold, now occupied by the Chester Manufacturing Company, consisting of Edwin G. Smith, John H. Bailey, and Charles E. Wright, who manufacture auger bitts, corkscrews, reamers, etc. The factory is on the site of a forge built about the year 1816 and occupied by Abel Snow in the forging of ship anchors. About 1838, the building was used for the manufacture of carriage springs, later by C. L. Griswold & Co. for the manufacture of bitts, and by the present owners for the same business.⁽²⁾

By March of 1893, American augermakers were producing so many standard augers and bits that they had become a commodity. A soft economy only compounded the problem. A group of ten augermakers responded by forming the American Auger and Bit Association, an organization whose primary purpose was to set prices for various categories of augers, a practice sometimes referred to as price fixing. The Chester Mfg. Company became a charter member. Notable among the non-participants were the Irwin Auger Bit Company, whose unique designs were protected by patent, and the Russell Jennings Mfg. Company, whose bits commanded a premium. The organization remained active for some dozen years.⁽³⁾

The Chester Manufacturing Company ceased making bits in 1919.⁽⁴⁾

Illustration credit:

• Chester Manufacturing Company: View of Chester, Connecticut. [map] Boston: O. H. Bailey, 1881.

References:

1. Nelson, Robert E., ed. Dictionary of American Toolmakers. Early American Industries Association, 1999. p. 164.
2. Silliman, Samuel C. “Town of Chester,” in The History of Middlesex County, Connecticut: with Sketches of its Prominent Men. New York : J. H. Beers & Co., 1884. p. 222.
3. "Augers and Bits." The Iron Age. (March 16, 1893). p. 635.
4. Silliman, Kate. Kate Silliman's Chester Scrapbook. Chester, Connecticut: Chester Historical Society, 1986. p. 147.

Conard

Illustration credit:

• Isaac and Lewis Conard portraits: http://conardfamilyhistory.com/part2.php (viewed 4/14/2023)

References:

1. Bean, Theodore W., ed. History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1884. p 1142, 1143, 1181.
2. John and Sarah Childs Conard and their Descendants, Part 2. [s. l. : s. n.], 1939. http://conardfamilyhistory.com/part2.php (viewed 4/14/2023)
3. "Death's Harvest: Albert Conard, of Fort Washington Expires." The Ambler Gazette (Lansdale, Pennsylvania). June 9, 1904. p. 4.
4. "The North Wales Hardware, Iron and Stove Store." The Lansdale Reporter (Lansdale, Pennsylvania). June 22, 1871. p. 3.

Connecticut Valley Hardware Company

(Not to be confused with the Connecticut Valley Manufacturing Company)

The Connecticut Valley Hardware Company, a manufacturer of augers and bits, could trace its history back to its incorporation in 1871.⁽¹⁾ Its original location was likely the hamlet of Terryville, Connecticut, as a notice of its removal from there to the town of Chester appeared in an area newspaper in 1879.⁽²⁾ The Chester/Deep River area had been a center for auger production since the renowned L'Hommedieu brothers set up shop on there in 1812. Though the brothers were no longer in business, the Deep River Mfg. Company, C. & D. Canfield, A. H. & J. Deuse, Charles L. Griswold, the Chester Manufacturing Company, George G. Griswold & Co., and S. C. Silliman & Company carried on the tradition, taking advantage of the town's skilled craftsmen to continue the manufacture of augers and bits.

At Chester, Connecticut Valley Hardware set up shop in a two-story wooden building measuring 110 x 38 feet. The structure was not new; it had been built in 1873 for the manufacture of wire bed frames. The company powered its operation by steam and employed some 45 workers. R. J. Allyn, proprietor of Hartford's prestigious Allyn House Hotel, served as the company president, and George F. Stearns as plant superintendent and secretary of the board. Double-spur bits made up the bulk of the company's production.

The Connecticut Valley Hardware Company went on to acquire the rights to a double-twist auger patented by Chester native Ira Payne in 1868. Payne designed his bit with one of the two channels filled in order to strengthen the head and provide a surface to accommodate a replaceable spur. His design included a raised "projection" on its single cutting lip to ease sharpening by reducing the amount of steel to be removed. For reasons unknown, Payne claimed only the raised projection as the innovative feature of his bit when he filed his patent claim. The final sentence of the document reads:

What I claim as my invention and, desire to secure by Letters Patent is — the projection C on the floor–lip, for the purposes set forth.⁽³⁾

Payne's failure to draw attention to the most obvious feature of his bit, its reinforced cutting head, remains a mystery. He remedied the omission by seeking to have his patent reissued so as to correct errors in the text and drawings of the original claim. The Patent Office granted his request on March 15, 1870. The reissue document neither depicts nor mentions the raised projection that formed the basis for Payne's original claim but speaks instead to "a double-twist bit or auger having a head made solid on one side."⁽⁴⁾

Superintendent George Stearns revisited Ira Payne's ten-year-old design in 1878. Payne's original patent application had mentioned the possibility of mounting a replacement spur to a cut in his bit's reinforced head should the original be broken. Other than a passing reference to a dovetailed slot for housing the new spur, he included no details for attaching it to the bit, nor did he claim it as a patentable feature. Stearns worked to turn Payne's vision into a reality, and on June 25, 1878, was awarded a patent for his efforts. Stearns went a step further than Payne. He made his spur adjustable.

The object of my invention is to provide a cutting-lip (i. e. a spur) which can be readily adjustable by means of a screw, and can easily be removed for the purpose of sharpening.⁽⁵⁾

Although Stearns assigned half the rights to his invention to company president R. J. Allyn, it is unlikely the complicated bit ever made it into production. The tool would have been difficult to manufacture, and consumers would have balked at the extra cost. Two bronze versions of the bit are known and were likely created as proof-of-concept.

In 1885, Henry S. Lord, a Civil War veteran and former employee of the Allyn House Hotel, patented an auger and assigned the rights to its owner, R. J. Allyn.⁽⁶⁾ Lord's bit, with a replaceable lead screw, represented a logical extension of the thinking of Thomas Wood and James Morris, residents of Birmingham, Connecticut, who patented a malleable iron auger with a replaceable steel head in 1882.⁽⁷⁾ Henry Lord's patent provided for a steel head with a threaded central hole that allowed for lead screw replacement. Like Stearns's design, Lord’s bit appears never to have entered production, and no further Lord–Allyn collaborations are known.

On December 12th of the same year, Stearns patented a method of making augers with a central core, an arrangement he considered superior to the standard product.⁽⁸⁾ The core, an extension of the auger's stem, was to be manufactured of steel or high-quality iron, and the worm cast around it. The core was intended to provide the extra strength needed to protect the twisted part of the bit from breaking. Though Stearns sold a half-interest in the patent to company president R. J. Allyn, evidence for the manufacture of the bit has yet to surface, and advantages in metallurgy would soon render the auger's complicated construction obsolete.

On January 18th, 1887, George F. Stearns patented an "apparatus for making molds for twisted articles."⁽⁹⁾ Obviously intended for creating dies for augers, the language of the patent was general enough to encompass molds for other items with a regular twist or repetitive convolutions. Once again, he assigned a half-interest to Allyn. It would be their last collaboration. Allyn died the following year (1888), and the Connecticut Valley Hardware Company folded in 1890. After the closure, Stearns went on to become the postmaster at Chester.

Illustration credits:

• Line drawings in this article are taken from digital versions of the original patents.
• Connecticut Valley Hardware Company factory: View of Chester, Connecticut. [map] Boston: O. H. Bailey, 1881.
• Ira Payne bit: author's photos.
• Bronze Stearns bit: author's photos.

References:

1. The Historical, Statistical and Industrial Review of the State of Connecticut. Part II. New York: W. S. Webb & Company, 1884. p. 284.
2. "Middlesex." Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut), February 8, 1879. p. 4.
3. United States Letters Patent No. 75,454,(March 10, 1868)
4. United States Letters Patent Reissue No. 3,879, March 15, 1870).
5. United States Letters Patent No. 205,218, (June 25, 1878).
6. United States Letters Patent No. 329,660, (November 3, 1885).
7. United States Letters Patent No. 254,184, (February 28, 1882).
8. United States Letters Patent No. 333,170, (December 29, 1885).
9. United States Letters Patent No. 356,430, (January 18, 1887).

Conrad see Conard

D. & M. (Dewitt & Morrison) see Arrow brand

D. M. & K. (Dewitt, Morrison & Kelley) see Arrow brand

Deuse

Three generations of the Deuse family made auger bits, gimlets, screwdrivers, punches, and other small tools on the north branch of Pattaconk Brook in Chester, Connecticut, between 1867 and 1966. The original firm, S. Deuse & Brother, was founded by Simeon and Amos H. Deuse in 1867. When Simeon left Chester for Hartford in 1872, Amos bought the land and waterpower privilege. A third brother, James Smith Deuse, bought into the operation, and in 1880 the business became A. H. & J. S. Deuse.⁽¹⁾

The same year, Amos and James Deuse were issued United States Letters Patent No. 224,156 for a die to manufacture double-twist gimlets. Few, if any, of the Deuse operation's gimlets were stamped with a manufacturer identification. A marked example of a Deuse double-twist gimlet has yet to turn up.

The brothers' factory burned to the ground on April 28, 1898. Deep Hollow, the site of the structure, was somewhat isolated, so no one discovered the fire until the next morning, when workmen arrived and found the structure reduced to ashes. The office and packing room survived the fire, but Amos Deuse withdrew from the partnership, leaving James S. Deuse as sole proprietor of the business. J. S. Deuse built a 30 x 90-foot two-story factory and attached it to the older buildings.

To all appearances, James Smith Deuse was a respectable man serving as a representative to the Connecticut General Assembly for the 1897-98 session and as president of the Chester Savings Bank from 1916 to 1928. His life, however, was not without scandal. In 1894, he was charged with the assault of Mrs. Ellen Dickenson at a family gathering.

The claim is that when Mrs. Dickenson entered the house some of the men present were having a quarrel and that Mr. Deuse struck her on the back and seizing her by the neck and arm, pushed her out of doors. Charles B. Davis testified to seeing Deuse strike Mrs. Dickenson and said it caused a swelling on her shoulder as large as a saucer. Two daughters testified to dressing the wound. The defense claimed no blows were given and that Deuse placed his hand on her shoulder, turned her around, and told her to leave.⁽²⁾

Though the outcome of the trial is unknown, the scandal was nothing compared to the fuss his son's marital problems created in 1900. Burton Deuse worked for his father as plant superintendent and bookkeeper. A married man, Burton unexpectedly ran off with his wife's sister, a lass of eighteen, leaving his toddler son and infant daughter behind. The couple fled to Galveston, Texas, and then to New York. Sadly, a lifetime of undying love was not in their future. The young lady returned home five weeks later, a sadder, but wiser woman.⁽³⁾ An unpopular Burton Deuse did not return to Chester but remained in New York City. His brother Edison became increasingly involved in the operation of the company factory, and when James Smith Deuse passed away in 1937, the firm became the E. W. Deuse Company. The business folded in 1966.

Illustration credits:

• Double twist gimlet bit: United States Letters Patent No. 224,156, (February 3, 1880).
• Deuse first factory: View of Chester Connecticut. [map] Boston: O. H. Bailey, 1881.

References:

1. Silliman, Kate. Kate Silliman's Chester Scrapbook. Chester, Connecticut: Chester Historical Society, 1986. p. 143.
2. "Middletown." Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut). April 5, 1894. p. 8.
3. "Sensation in Chester." Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut), June 22, 1900. p. 1; "Stella Morse Returns." Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut), July 24, 1900. p. 3.

Dwight, Timothy

Two Timothy Dwights, a father and son, manufactured augers in Humphreysville (Seymour) in the early 19th century. The elder Timothy Dwight built a factory at the mouth of the Little River and began making augers there. By October of 1834, his son Timothy Dwight, Jr. had joined him, and the men's augers had won a "diploma" at the Fair of the American Institute of New York City.⁽¹⁾ They stamped their augers T. DWIGHT & SON.

Timothy Dwight, Sr., passed away in 1844. At the time, Timothy Dwight, Jr., was no longer part of his father's business. Seven years earlier, in 1837, the younger Dwight had built a shop at the mouth of the Little River, a tributary of the Naugatuck, on the bank opposite Blueville. His business, T. DWIGHT JR. & COMPANY, manufactured augers, chisels, and plane irons. His augers won a silver medal at the 1839 fair of the American Institute of New York City.⁽²⁾ His enterprise was listed in Price & Lee's New Haven Directory as late as 1842.

What relation Timothy Dwight, Jr., might have had with the Seymour-based Dwights & Foster, makers of edge tools, is uncertain. The firm was short-lived and appears to have been active in the mid-1840s. Since Timothy Dwight, Sr., lived until 1844 and his son William J. was also involved in the auger/edge tool business, any of the three may have been connected to the operation. It has been suggested that hand plane inventor William Foster of Washington, D. C., served as a principal in the business, but at this point, the matter remains speculative.⁽³⁾

In 1845, Timothy Dwight partnered with Raymond French to form Dwight & French, a manufacturer of augers and edge tools. They set up shop in a wood-frame factory using the waterpower of the Rimmon Falls (Tingue) dam and stamped their wares either DWIGHT & FRENCH, or DWIGHT FRENCH & CO. When fire destroyed the Factory in 1849, the owners replaced it with a new brick structure. At about this time, William J. Dwight, the younger brother of Timothy Dwight, Jr., made a substantial investment in the operation, and as a result, the business became Dwights, French & Company. Its products were marked either DWIGHTS & FRENCH, or DWIGHTS FRENCH & CO.

Dwights French & Company began making railroad cars, perhaps influenced by Charles French, Raymond's son, who had developed a wildly successful car spring. The company reorganized and split into two parts in 1852: the American Car Company, which focused on the railway side of the business, and a reorganized Humphreysville Manufacturing Company, which made tools.⁽⁴⁾ Raymond French, Timothy Dwight, and John W. Dwight became major shareholders. When the Board of Directors moved the car works west to Chicago in 1885, the Humphreysville Manufacturing Company assumed control of its Seymour assets. Dwight and his brother John went on to become major stockholders in the New Haven Copper Company, an entity that included augers and bits among its products. Timothy Dwight moved to Canada in his old age and passed away in 1895.

More about Raymond French.

Illustration credit:

• Author's photos

References:

1. "Seventh Annual Fair of the American Institute, held at Nielo's Gardens, October, 1834." Mechanics' Magazine and Register of Inventions and Improvements. v. 4, no. 4, p. (October, 1834), p. 249.
2. "Premiums Awarded at the Twelfth Annual Fair of the American Institute..." Journal of the American Institute. Vol. 4, No. 12, p. (September, 1839), p. 668.
3. Smith, Roger K. Patented Transitional and Metallic Planes in America. Vol. 2. Athol, Massachusetts: self published, 1992, p. 12.
4. Rockey, J. L., ed. History of New Haven County. vol. 2. New York: W. W. Preston, 1892. p. 601.

Essex Manufacturing Company

Catalogs of Sargent & Company of New Haven, Connecticut, indicate the business sold auger bits stamped Essex Mfg. Co. in 1910 and 1911. Sets of bits were put up in wooden American Case boxes. Several firms bore the name Essex Manufacturing Company in the late 19th and early 20th century United States. A likely candidate for auger production has yet to be identified.

French, Raymond

Note: Raymond French was not closely related to fellow Seymour augermaker Walter French.

Raymond French was nine years old at the time of his father's untimely death in 1814. At an early age, he was apprenticed to local blacksmith Isaac Kinney.⁽¹⁾ He may have been twelve to thirteen years old at the time, a typical age for binding a lad to his master. The death of his father raises the possibility that he may have been as young as ten.

At the end of his apprenticeship, Raymond French went to work in a nearby auger shop where he developed a reputation as a proficient toolmaker. In 1828, at the age of twenty-six, he left Seymour and moved to the Caribbean island of Trinidad, where he worked for the British government installing and maintaining machinery for processing sugar cane. He returned in 1834 and partnered with John C. Wheeler in an augermaking enterprise on Bladen's Brook in a neighborhood then known as Blueville. That year, he was awarded the first of his two auger-related patents.⁽²⁾ A summary of the 1834 patent in the Journal of the Franklin Institute notes:

This is said to be an improvement on screw, pump, and spur augers, and consists in giving to the plates which are to be twisted, a longitudinal, concave surface, so that the plate, as well as the pod, when twisted, shall be thinner at the centre than at the edges. ... The advantage derived from this construction is said to be, that it gives to the spiral cavities of the pod, when twisted, a greater capacity towards the inner surface, and more perfectly envelopes the core, or chips, within a metallic surface, in their passage from the bottom to the top of the hole while boring, by which they are caused to rise and flow off more freely and rapidly.⁽³⁾

Raymond French became sole owner of the business in 1837. Two years later, he and Hiram Upson bought two parcels of real estate from John C. Wheeler, French’s former partner. The property included a machine shop built by Newell Johnson in 1832, where the men began manufacturing augers.⁽⁴⁾ Their partnership is the source of the rarely seen augers stamped FRENCH & UPSON. When fire destroyed the shop on July 1, 1841, work on a replacement began almost immediately. The disaster may have had something to do with Upson leaving the business and Raymond French's decision to associate with Timothy Dwight, Jr. Timothy Dwight was no stranger to augermaking. In 1837, he had built a shop at the mouth of the Little River, a tributary of the Naugatuck, on the bank opposite Blueville.

In 1843, Raymond French patented a double twist auger having a single cutting lip with one hollow deeper than the other. The deeper hollow was connected to the cutting lip. It is not known if the auger made it into production. According to French:

The superiority of this auger thus made consists in this, that it is stronger, less liable to spring or bend, and more durable than the single twist auger, and also in boring more rapidly, and making a straighter hole, than the common double twist.⁽⁵⁾

The initial name for the French/Dwight collaboration was Raymond French & Company. The operation stamped its augers RAYMOND FRENCH & CO. The business did so well that the principals were soon looking to expand. Needing extra space, they installed machinery in a second shop at the mouth of the Little River while Raymond French scouted a location for a new dam near Kinneytown, a few miles downstream from Seymour. Securing the property he needed, French went to work on the dam immediately. Unfortunately, he began construction before he had a firm title to all the land needed to maintain exclusive rights to the water power. Though he prevailed in the end, Raymond French sold the completed dam that same year (1844) without moving Raymond French & Company to the site.

When Raymond French & Company reorganized to become DWIGHT & FRENCH in 1845, the operation sold its Blueville shop and bought a parcel of land and a portion of the power generated by the Rimmon Falls (Tingue) dam. They purchased these from the Humphreysville Manufacturing Company, a cloth and paper manufacturer established in 1831. The partners initially set up shop in a wooden-frame building on a canal created by the Tingue Dam. A fire destroyed the shop in 1849, and the company built a "large brick mill and fitted it up with machinery for the manufacture of augers and bits, plane irons, chisels, and drawing knives."⁽⁶⁾ The investors changed the name of the business to DWIGHTS, FRENCH & COMPANY that year, indicating that Timothy Dwight's brother John had taken a substantial position in the business.

In addition to manufacturing augers, plane irons, and the like, Dwights & French began making railroad cars. In 1852, the company split into two parts: the American Car Company, which focused on the railway side of the business, and a reorganized Humphreysville Manufacturing Company, which made tools.⁽⁷⁾ In 1855 the Board of Directors moved the car works west to Chicago and the Humphreysville Manufacturing Company assumed control of its Seymour assets. Raymond French, who had a controlling interest in Humphreysville Manufacturing, served as plant superintendent (and for a time as president) until 1870. At that point, he sold out, and a group headed by Norman Sperry bought the entirety of the business, which continued operation as the Humphreysville Manufacturing Company.

Unwilling to completely retire, Raymond French went into the business of manufacturing "plain and steel-plated" ox shoes. He passed away in February 1886 at the age of eighty-one.

Illustration credits:

• 1834 patent auger: author's photos.
• 1843 auger drawing: United States Letters Patent No. 14,561, (July 20, 1843).
• Raymond French portrait: Rockey, J. L., ed. History of New Haven County. vol. 2. New York: W. W. Preston, 1892.

References:

1. Rockey, J. L., ed. History of New Haven County. vol. 2. New York: W. W. Preston, 1892. p. 600-601.
2. United States Letters Patent No. 8491X; United States Letters Patent No. 3,181.
3. “American Patents: List of American Patents Which Issued in November, 1834.” Journal of the Franklin Institute, new series, v. 15, 1835. p. 393.
4. Sharpe, William C., Seymour and Vicinity: Historical Collections. Seymour, Connecticut: Record Print, 1878. p. 73.
5. United States Letters Patent No. 3181, (July 20, 1843).
6. Campbell, Hollis A., et. al. Seymour Past and Present. Seymour, Connecticut: W.C. Sharpe, 1902. p. 161.
7. Rockey, J. L., ed., p. 601.

French, Walter - Wales - Warren

Note: Walter French was not closely related to fellow Seymour augermaker Raymond French.

In 1810, Walter French moved from Mansfield, Connecticut, to Humphreysville (now part of Seymour), a hamlet six miles above the mouth of the Naugatuck River. There, he went to work in the blacksmith shop of Ira Smith, who later served in the War of 1812. Smith's was a small, landlocked shop located a half mile from the Rimmon Falls dam (now referred to as the Tingue Dam). Walter French's considerable abilities soon became apparent, and he moved from employee to Smith's business associate. Smith's death in 1822 may have been the impetus behind French's decision to build a shop on a nearby tributary of the Naugatuck, the Little River, and go into business for himself.⁽¹⁾ He stamped his augers with both his given and surname, WALTER FRENCH.

Though Walter French is sometimes credited with inventing the double-twist auger, he was relatively late to the game. The first commercially viable American screw auger appeared in Pennsylvania as early as 1772. It would be more accurate to credit him with pioneering the development of the tool in his part of Connecticut. Even then, there is disagreement over French's status as the first to make the auger in the surrounding area. Some believe another local blacksmith, Jessie Hartson, did so earlier. More to the point is that Walter French believed he was the first to develop the revolutionary auger. He may have come to this conclusion following a sales trip to New York, where an effusive hardware dealer told him his screw augers were the first to be sold in the city and referred to him as an honor to his country.⁽²⁾

The life of an independent businessman may not have appealed to Walter French, for some time after 1837, he became the superintendent of his neighbor Clark Wooster's auger shop. He remained there until Wooster closed the shop in 1844. French then moved to Westville, eleven miles away, where he is reported to have gone into the auger business.⁽³⁾ The 1850 federal census records Walter French as a laborer working in Westville. The 1860 census finds him living in New Haven's Eighth Ward with surveyor William Hartley and his wife, Jane, and having no occupation. Aged 79 at the time of the census, he died five years later.

Walter French took his religion seriously. In 1815, he became a licensed Methodist exhorter. Exhorters did not preach the Gospel but encouraged their friends and neighbors to live upright lives. He went on to become a licensed preacher, one step short of a minister, and traveled the local circuit when needed. A contemporary remembered Walter French as a man with "a good memory and a ready utterance," who often "spoke with great power and success."⁽⁴⁾

At least two of Walter French's sons went into the auger business. In 1844, the year their father moved to Westville, Wales French bought the Clark Wooster shop and began making augers there with his brother Warren.⁽⁵⁾ Their business, the source of augers stamped W. & W. FRENCH, lasted two years, coming to an end at about the time Warren became one of the six partners to form French Swift & Co. Wales French moved to Westville and continued to make augers, stamping them WALES FRENCH. He stuck with the auger business through at least 1857. The 1860 federal census finds him living in New Haven's second ward and working as an insurance agent.

On April 5, 1847, Warren French joined Charles Swift, Henry B. Beecher, John F. Marshall, Lemuel Bliss, and Horace Radford to form French, Swift & Company. The company's primary products were augers and bits. Their output was stamped, logically enough, FRENCH, SWIFT & CO. Henry B. Beecher bought out his partners one at a time until 1866, when he gained control of the company and renamed it Henry B. Beecher. Warren French followed in his father's footsteps and became a licensed exhorter and preacher in the Seymour Methodist Episcopal church. One observer remembered, "Warren French was an exhorter whose exhortations went to the hearts of sinners as red-hot as the augers he twisted at his forge."⁽⁶⁾

Illustration credit:

• Walter French portrait: Basset, Frank G. “Town of Seymour.” The Connecticut Magazine: an Illustrated Monthly. v. 66, no. 5, (July-August) 1900.

References:

1. Sharpe, W. C. A History of Seymour, Connecticut with Biographies and Genealogies. Seymour, Connecticut: Record Print, 1879. p. 155; Rockey, J. L., ed. History of New Haven County. vol. 2. New York: W. W. Preston, 1892. p. 574.
2. Campbell, Hollis A., et. al. Seymour Past and Present. Seymour, Connecticut: W.C. Sharpe, 1902. p. 158-159.
3. Campbell, p. 159.
4. Sharpe, History of Seymour, Connecticut with Biographies ... p. 175.
5. Campbell, p. 159, again.
6. Sharpe, W. C. Annals of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Seymour, Connecticut. Edition of 1896. Seymour, Connecticut: Record Print, 1896. p. 89.

Griswold, Charles & George

In 1851, Charles L. Griswold, his brother George G. Griswold, and Samuel Wright formed C. L. Griswold & Company and began manufacturing augers on the south branch of Pattaconk Brook in Chester, Connecticut. They set up shop in a collection of wood-frame buildings that had been painted red some years earlier. Locals referred to the works as the Red Factory to differentiate it from a nearby manufacturing operation known as the Yellow Factory.⁽¹⁾

In 1854 George G. Griswold erected a new building near the Red Factory and began manufacturing augers. Two hundred twenty feet long, twenty-eight feet wide, and topped with a cupola housing the factory bell, the two-story structure was anything but humble. At about this time, George Griswold organized George G. Griswold & Company, and began making augers there. A peripherally related 1881 court case suggests that Charles Griswold owned the site of his brother's operation.⁽²⁾ The Red Factory continued to house the operations of C. L. Griswold & Company.

While George G. Griswold & Company identified some of its output with a traditional GEO. G. GRISWOLD & Co. mark, at times it stamped G. G. G. & CO. on the tangs of its auger bits. At some point, Jarvis Boies (also spelled Bois) became a major investor in George Griswold's operation. His participation in the business goes far in explaining the occasional appearance of bits marked GRISWOLD & BOIS.

In 1856, George Griswold patented a method for varying the thickness of the flattened plate of an auger bit before twisting. By leaving the plate thicker in the middle, rather than on the edges, Griswold hoped to improve the bit's strength and promote the freer passage of chips up the spiral by shunting them to the outer edge of the twist. His patent application was witnessed by his brother, Charles Lee Griswold, and Joshua L'Hommedieu, a prominent local auger maker.⁽³⁾

George G. Griswold & Company sold its ten-year-old factory to Turner, Day & Company on August 25, 1863. The principals, Sidney Turner and Edward Day, were George Griswold's sons-in-law and intended to manufacture ship augers and bolts. Turner, Day & Company's stay at the plant was a short one. On February 15, 1865, the Turner & Day operation quitclaimed the land back to C. L. Griswold & Company.⁽⁴⁾ The Russell Jennings Company began producing augers in the factory later that year.

In May of 1865, Charles L. Griswold, still working in the Red Factory, patented a double-twist auger bit in which the cutting lips projected from the lead screw at nearly a right angle. Though much of the company's output consisted of standard double-spur bits with tangs stamped C. L. GRISWOLD CAST STEEL, bits protected by the new patent were manufactured. These patented bits bore the tang-stamp C. L. GRISWOLD PAT'D MAY 30, 1865. Charles Griswold went on to secure a pair of patents for gimlet handles in 1872 and 1873.⁽⁵⁾ A patent for a bitstock followed in 1878, and one for a corkscrew in 1884.⁽⁵⁾ The bit-stock may not have been manufactured.⁽⁶⁾

The Red Factory burned to the ground on October 15, 1878. Though the nearby office and outbuilding were saved, between sixty and seventy thousand unfinished auger bits were lost. Charles Griswold promptly began construction of a replacement, and a new factory was in place three months later.⁽⁷⁾ In 1884, he leased the new building to his son-in-law, Edwin G. Smith, and Smith's partners, John H. Bailey and Charles E. Wright. The three partners went into business as the Chester Manufacturing Company and produced auger bits, reamers, and corkscrews.⁽⁸⁾

Illustration credits:

• C. L. Griswold portrait: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31462312/charles-lee-griswold (viewed March 22, 2023).
• 1865 patent auger image: United States Letters Patent No. 14,561, (April 1, 1856).

References:

1. Silliman, Kate. Kate Silliman's Chester Scrapbook. Chester, Connecticut: Chester Historical Society, 1986. p. 110, 146-147.
2. Blatchford, Samuel. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Second Circuit. Vol. 19. New York: Baker & Vorhis Company, 1883. p. 95.
3. United States Letters Patent No. 14,561, (April 1, 1856).
4. Blatchford, p. 95-96.
5. The gimlet handles: United States Letters Patent No. 133,440, (November 26, 1872); and United States Letters Patent No. 143,142, (September 23, 1873).
6. The bit stock: United States Letters Patent No. 208,168, (September 17,1878); The corkscrew: United States Letters Patent No. 302,331, (July 22, 1844).
7. "Middlesex." Hartford Daily Current (Hartford, Connecticut). Vol. 42, no. 245, October 17, 1878. p. 4.
8. Silliman, Kate. Kate Silliman's Chester Scrapbook. Chester, Connecticut: Chester Historical Society, 1986. p. 147.

HiCraft

A brand name for auger bits produced by the Midway Tool Company of Melville, Ohio. Organized by former employees of the Irwin Auger Bit Company in 1946, the factory, with its two trip hammers, was located some half-dozen miles from Irwin's plant in Wilmington. The business remained in Melvin until 1955, when production moved to Sabina, Ohio. Boxes of its auger bits touted its "1,000 man years' experience."

Source: "New Company to Make Bits." Wilmington News-Journal (Wilmington, Ohio) January 21, 1947. p. 10.

Hudson Forge

HUDSON FORGE CO. was a hardware trademark first used by the W. T. Grant Company in 1923. The Grant Company operated a chain of variety stores situated in downtown locations. Slow to adapt to changes as American shoppers gravitated to suburban shopping centers, the company went bankrupt in 1976.

Jones, William

William Jones, of Portsmouth, Virginia, a shipbuilding hub, patented a device he referred to as a "hollow auger" on June 15, 1835. The Journal of the Franklin Institute published this description.⁽¹⁾

The specification of this invention is brevity itself exemplified; it consists of the following words. "This invention is a hollow auger made so as to embrace the bolts or fastenings in ships or vessels, and to cut the wood from around them by which the plank, &c., can be removed without the delay, trouble, and expense, usually acquired by splitting them out."

In the drawing the auger is represented as twisted like the ordinary screw auger, but capable of allowing the bolt to pass within it. This must be a very useful thing, and, so far as we know, is new.

The record for Jones's patent was lost in the Patent Office fire of 1836. The fire destroyed the documentation for the 9,947 patents issued to date. Congress responded to the disaster by passing the Patent Act of 1837. The act declared the destroyed patents invalid unless the rights holders submitted their original documents or certified copies to the Patent Office. Upon receipt, the documents were transcribed, and when possible, the Patent Office artists recreated the original artwork that accompanied the patent application.

William Jones is a common name. A likely candidate for the William Jones who invented this early hollow auger is William A. Jones, a blacksmith living in Portsmouth, who perished in the city's infamous yellow fever epidemic of 1855. Examples of the Jones auger have yet to be discovered.

Illustration credit:

• Reconstructed Patent Office drawing of William Jones' improved auger. Drawing is undated.

References:

1. “American Patents: List of American Patents Granted in June 1835.” Journal of the Franklin Institute, new series, v. 17, 1836. p. 49.

Ladd — W. J. Ladd Edge Tool Company

W. J. Ladd worked for Sargent & Company of New Haven, Connecticut, from 1856 through at least 1903. Sargent Company catalogs for 1910 and 1911 contain listings for auger bits manufactured by Ladd. Sets of Ladd bits were sold in wooden American Case boxes.

Leland & Co.

In 1843, John P. and Samuel J. Leland began making augers at a site on the west branch of the Little River in South Charlton, Massachusetts. The village that grew up near their factory became known as Lelandville. The men manufactured bits and augers until 1861, when they began making ramrods for the United States federal government.⁽¹⁾ The Lelands' business appears to have folded some time before Henry Stevens of the Dudley Linen Works bought the factory in 1865. Leland augers and bits were typically of the double-spur design and stamped MFD. BY LELAND & CO. on the stem.

A notable exception to the company's regular production was the single-twist auger patented by the Lelands' brother-in-law, Napoleon B. Phelps, on December 27, 1859.⁽²⁾ Phelps attached the auger's cutting lips to the coil just above them. His intent was to reduce the breakage of a bit's cutting edge during hard use. The Phelps design, a forerunner to the double-twist Cornelius Whitehouse bullnose pattern, did not take the world by storm. Though Phelps' patent documents claim rights to the design for both single and double-twist bits, surviving examples are of the single spiral variety. Leland & Co. stamped its Napoleon Phelps bits LELAND & CO. PAT'D. Dec 27, 1859.

At some point, Phelps manufactured double-spur augers under his own name. The location of his factory and the years of production are unknown. Examples are stamped MFD. BY N. B. PHELPS.

Illustration credit:

• Phelps auger bits: author's photo.

References:

1. Hurd, Duane Hamilton. History of Worcester County, Massachusetts: with Biographical Sketches ... Vol. 1 Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Co., 1889. p. 757.
2. United States Letters Patent No. 26,613, (December 27, 1859).

M & M Co. (Morrison, McCargo & Co.) See Arrow brand

Naugatuck Valley Bit Company

Auger bits manufactured by the Naugatuck Valley Bit Company were distributed by the Russell & Erwin Mfg. Co., the company that for many years distributed the products of the James Swan Company, a major manufacturer of auger bits and chisels. There is some evidence that Naugatuck Valley bits were manufactured by the James Swan operation.

Sets of Naugatuck Valley bits were distributed in boxes patented by James Swan in 1886 and marked with the patent number (United States Letters Patent No. 337,888). Seymour, the headquarters of James Swan Company, is just seven miles from the junction of the Housatonic and Naugatuck Rivers in Derby, Connecticut.

Illustration credit:

• author's photos

Poultney, James & John

This article builds on Dan Linski's original research into the Poultney family.

John and James Poultney were sons of Thomas Poultney (ca. 1718-1800), an English immigrant who arrived in Philadelphia as a twelve-year-old. Their father was an ironmonger, a dealer in hardware and iron goods. There is no record of either he or his sons working as blacksmiths, though at the time, the distinction between making and retailing iron products was not set in stone.

Thomas brought his sons into the business. The first location of their enterprise is unknown, but by the early 1780s, they had set up shop on a rental property between Third and Fourth Streets owned by noted Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin.⁽¹⁾ By 1792, John & James Poultney had gone into partnership at No. 124 on the south side of Market Street. Their father, presumably, had retired. In addition to carrying local products, they sold a wide assortment of hardware items shipped to Philadelphia from England and Holland. Not all of their products consisted of ironware. The family sold raw steel, saddlery, paint, color pigments, panes of glass, and parts for clock manufacture and repair.⁽²⁾

The Poultneys were hard-shell Quakers. In 1783, Thomas and John signed a petition titled Memorial Against Theatres in Philadelphia, a document arguing for a ban on theaters within the city.⁽³⁾ The signers were convinced that stage plays introduced "a variety of intemperance, dissoluteness, and debauchery" to the "open and visible detriment of true religion." A more meaningful involvement in public affairs took place when John and Thomas joined an organization with the lengthy name of "Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage." Four years later, John Poultney became a leader in the society's petition campaign to convince state leaders to end Pennsylvania's involvement with the Atlantic slave trade.⁽⁴⁾ The successful campaign filled a number of significant loopholes in the state's Gradual Abolition Act of 1780.

During the yellow fever epidemic of 1797, the Poultney brothers temporarily relocated their business from 124 Market Street in Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware. While not as deadly as the epidemic of 1793, which killed ten percent of Philadelphia's population, the Poultneys took no chances and became one of at least 19 businesses to leave the city.⁽⁵⁾

The change in location may have had something to do with the Poultney's decision to part ways in 1799.⁽⁶⁾ James Poultney went on to set up an ironmongery at 104 Market Street, 190 feet away from the location of the business he once shared with his brother. By 1801, John Poultney had moved into a space at No. 334 Orianna Street, an address once occupied by his father, Thomas Poultney. The elder Poultney had passed away in 1800.

Pictured here is an auger bearing the I. & I. POULTNEY stamp. (I. & I. being an archaic way of writing J. & J.) Since the brothers dissolved their business in 1799, the tool is from the 18th century. Given the scale of their hardware business, it is unlikely that either of the brothers forged and twisted the tool. The auger's early production date and square shaft bespeak an American manufacture. The brothers likely contracted with a local smithery for the production and stamping of their augers. The auger seen here would have been manufactured anytime between the formation of their partnership circa 1790 and the dissolution of the business in 1799.

Illustration credits:

• Poultney & Son ad: [Advertisement]. Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), no. 2272, May 17, 1786.
• Partnership dissolution: [Advertisement]. Gazette of the United States (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), no. 1996, February 9, 1799.
• Poultney auger photos by Dan Linski.

References:

1. Bache, Richard. "Cash Dr to Benjamin Franklin." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. v. 80 (January 1956), p. 46-73. Transcript from a daybook of Richard Bache, containing all entries relating to Franklin, 1772-92.
2. "Advertisement."Dunlap's American Daily Advertiser(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), no. 4281, October 15, 1792. p. 4.
3. "Memorial Against Theatres in Philadelphia, 1783." Pennsylvania Archives: Selected and Arranged from Original Documents ... vol 10. Philadelphia: Joseph Severns & Co. p. 141-142.
4. The information comes from a footnote appended to a transcription of "D. Broadley, Philadelphia, 1787," a document in Box 4A of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society Papers housed at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. A digital version can be found at: https://hsp.org/history-online/digital-history-projects/pennsylvania-abolition-society-papers/habeas-corpus-actions/d-boadley-philadelphia-1787 (viewed October 20, 2025).
5. "Advertisement." Aurora General Advertiser (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), no. 2099, September 19, 1797. p 1. 
6. "Advertisement."Gazette of the United States;(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) XV, no. 1996, February 9, 1799. p. 4.

Rockford Bit Company

The Rockford Bit Company was founded in Rockford, Illinois, in 1886 by Robert Hall Tinker and Wilton C. Smith. In late 1887 or early 1888, the company bought Ohio-based Ashtabula Auger Works. The ink was hardly dry on the papers when W. C. Smith bought Tinker's shares and became sole proprietor of the operation. In 1888, the company moved to Kokomo, Indiana. A brief article in the trade journal Iron Age noted:

W. C. Smith, secretary and treasurer of the Rockford Bit Company, Rockford, Ill., having recently purchased R. H. Tinker’s stock, has become sole proprietor. The company have lately bought the Ashtabula Bit Works, the two establishments being thus consolidated. Since then Mr. Smith has been considering the advisability of using natural gas, and in view of the advantages resulting from its use has decided to move the works from Rockford, Ill., and Ashtabula, Ohio, to Kokomo, Ind., where the company are now building a factory, storerooms, office, &c.

It is intimated that when the new works are completed the company will have a very convenient and well-arranged factory. The use of natural gas is referred to as enabling them to produce goods of exceptional quality. With the increased facilities thus given they will continue the manufacture on a larger scale than heretofore of their Perfection Auger Bits, special wood boring tools, machine bits, &c.⁽¹⁾

Smith's choice of a location for his factory owed much to Kokomo's location in what was then referred to as the "natural gas belt." The site he chose, three-quarters of a mile from the nearest road, met with derision on the part of local historian Jackson Morrow, a surveyor who considered that Smith had been hoodwinked by local hustlers. Though the parcel was not close to town, it consisted of pieces of three adjoining farms owned by the men who showed him the property. They donated the land to Smith, likely in the hope that the new plant would increase the value of their adjacent properties. In Morrow's view, their self-interest did not compensate for the generosity of their actions. His opinion of the ethics of J. R. Hall, Wick Russell, and Garah Markland aside, Morrow provided one of the few contemporary descriptions of the Rockford Bit Company.

In 1892 Henry C. Davis and his son, Henry C., Jr., bought an interest in the factory. In 1893 they and H. A. Bruner bought in all outstanding stock. They manufacture augurs, augur bits and carpenter chisels. The present floor space is about 25,000 square feet. In 1892 the number of men employed was from thirty to forty. In 1908 the number is one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty, and the pay-roll is eighty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars per year. The capital stock is seventy-five thousand dollars. The officers are: H. C. Davis, president; H. A. Bruner, vice-president; H. C. Davis, Jr., treasurer; George L. Davis, secretary; George J. Costello, superintendent.⁽²⁾

By March of 1893, American augermakers were producing so many standard augers and bits that they had become a commodity. A soft economy only compounded the problem. A group of ten augermakers responded by forming the American Auger and Bit Association, an organization whose primary purpose was to set prices for various categories of augers, a practice sometimes referred to as price fixing. Rockford Bit became a charter member. Notable among the non-participants were the Irwin Auger Bit Company, whose unique designs were protected by patent, and the Russell Jennings Mfg. Company, whose bits commanded a premium. The organization remained active for some dozen years.⁽³⁾

Perhaps the best known of the Rockford Bit Company's bits were its "PERFECTION JENNINGS" augers. Sets of bits were put up in wooden American Case boxes. The company stamped much of its output with a single word, "ROCKFORD". Some of the company's double-spur bits bear the remarkably wordy designation ...

Workers at the Rockford Bit Company went on strike in 1916. The unintended consequence of their action was that the business folded. Greenlee Brothers & Company bought the company’s assets and moved the stock and equipment to Rockford, Illinois, the following year. The articles of dissolution for the Rockford Bit Company were filed on August 13, 1917, in Indiana.

Illustration credits:

• Robert Hall Tinker: "Robert H. Tinker." Rockford Public Library: Tinker Swiss Cottage (Illinois Digital Archives) (viewed March 22, 2023)
• Perfection Jennings images: author's photos

References:

1. "Items." Iron Age. July 17, 1888. p. 68
2. Morrow, Jackson. History of Howard County, Indiana. Vol. 1. Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen, [1909?]. p. 242-243.
3. "Augers and Bits." The Iron Age. (March 16, 1893). p. 635.

Sanford, Nathaniel C. (N. C. Sanford & CO.)

The story of Nathaniel C. Sanford's inventiveness and his involvement in nineteenth-century American auger manufacture is a convoluted one, involving a number of players and no less than eight different companies. The names of the entities involved in the tale and their approximate dates of operation are:

• N. C. Sanford & Company (1826-1833)
• Tibbals, Bush & Company (1833-1835)
• Tibbals, Brooks & Company (1835-1840)
• Sanford, Newton & Company (1845-1847)
• Sanford, Parmelee & Company (1847-1856)
• N. C. Sanford & Company, 2nd iteration, (1856-ca. 1860)
• Eagle Auger and Skate Company (ca. 1860-ca. 1865)
• E. H. Tracy (ca. 1865-1880)

Nathaniel C. Sanford was one of seven men who established an augermaking enterprise in Meriden, Connecticut, during the fall of 1826.⁽¹⁾ The other investors included: Julius Pratt, Erastus P. Parmelee, Fenner Bush, Howell Merriman, Edward Sanford, and Elisha A. Cowles. The bulk of the operation's output was marketed by an entity known as N. C. Sanford & Company, the firm's accredited sales agent. Six months later, the company leased a factory on Harbor Brook from investor Elisha A. Cowles. Unfortunately, the small steam in West Meriden proved an unreliable source of power. In 1832, the operation bought the factory of Carter, Goodrich & Bishop, makers of bone buttons, located on the much larger Quinnipiac River.⁽²⁾

The original investors in the augermaking operation parted ways in the spring of 1833. Nathaniel C. Sanford, Julius Pratt, Erastus P. Parmelee, Howell Merriman, and Edward Sanford sold their shares in the company. A smaller group of investors composed of Elisha A. Cowles, Fenner Bush, Walter Booth, and Isaac I. Tibbals, acquired the assets of the operation and formed a new enterprise—Tibbals, Bush & Company. Tibbals & Bush took on the manufacture of N. C. Sanford & Company's product line: rakes, augers, and bits.⁽³⁾ The business reorganized in 1835 and became Tibbals, Brooks & Company. The new iteration of the firm was not long-lived and went out of business about 1840.

During the 1830s, the United States Patent Office issued four patents to Nathaniel C. Sanford. The first was for a curry comb. Sanford co-patented the second, an iron-tooth rake, with Erastus P. Parmelee in 1830. The third of Sanford's patents, an ice skate, and the fourth, an auger, were awarded in 1834—the year after the original, short-lived N. C. Sanford & Company broke up.⁽⁴⁾ The drawings of the 1834 skate have disappeared, and it is not known to have been manufactured. Sanford's 1834 auger patent added a second cutting lip to Ezra L'Hommedieu's single spiral auger. (L'Hommedieu's patent expired in 1830.)

In August 1834, Isaac I. Tibbals—of Tibbals, Bush & Company—witnessed a patent application for an auger developed by Meriden resident Alfred Newton. Newton's auger was unusual in that it had three cutting lips and three channels for the clearing of wood chips. Tibbals & Brooks manufactured the design for a time, but it never caught on, and examples are few.⁽⁵⁾

The records for the early Nathaniel Sanford and Alfred Newton patents were lost in the Patent Office fire of 1836. The fire destroyed the documentation for the 9,947 patents issued to date. Congress responded to the disaster by passing the Patent Act of 1837. The act declared the destroyed patents invalid unless the rights holders submitted their original documents or certified copies of them to the Patent Office. Upon receipt, the documents were transcribed, and when possible, the Patent Office artists recreated the original artwork that accompanied the patent application. The artwork then became the basis for the line drawings found in official Patent Office publications. The United States Congress ended the effort in 1847 when it discontinued the funding. By that time, employees had recreated 2,845 of the destroyed patents.

It is uncertain just how quickly Sanford involved himself in another business after he sold his interest in N.C. Sanford & Co., but sometime before 1845, Nathaniel C. Sanford and Alfred Newton joined forces to become Sanford, Newton & Company. Their factory was located on the Quinnipiac River, a half-mile downstream from that of Tibbals, Brooks & Company. In 1845, Sanford & Newton are on record as the manufacturers of "augers, rakes, etc." worth a total of $20,000 and as employers of 28 hands.⁽⁶⁾ When Alfred Newton, Lucius B. Smith, and Elias Sanford patented an innovative auger with a graduated twist on March 27, 1847, Sanford, Newton & Company manufactured it.⁽⁷⁾ The inventors maintained that the wider channels at the top of the twist facilitated the passage of chips, leading to less clogging and minimizing the time required to pull the auger out of the hole to clear a blockage. The patent covered the use of the graduated twist on both single and double-twist augers.

The team that developed the graduated twist auger knew each other well. Newton, of course, was a partner in Sanford Newton & Company. Elias Sanford was Nathaniel Sanford's half-brother. Lucius B. Smith was raised by his maternal uncle, Erastus Parmelee, and learned blacksmithing from him. Erastus P. Parmelee would become a co-owner of the business when Alfred Newton died at age forty-one, two short months after co-patenting the graduated twist auger. The reorganized enterprise became Sanford, Parmelee & Company. Mentions of the business are scarce. Like its predecessor, the company manufactured bits, rakes, and skates and employed some forty hands.⁽⁸⁾ Its augers were stamped SANFORD, PARMELEE & CO.

In 1849, N. C. Sanford patented an additional two auger-making ideas. The first, United States Letters Patent No. 6221, covered a methodology for producing the graduated twist auger. Shortly afterward, Sanford co-patented an augermaking machine with Erastus Parmelee's nephew, Lucius B. Smith.

By 1856, the name of the business had reverted to N. C. SANFORD & COMPANY, and at about the time Erastus P. Parmelee left the area.⁽⁹⁾ The 1860 federal census finds him living in Broadalbin (Fulton County), New York, and working for a mitten manufacturer. At the time of the 1865 New York State census, he was still living in Fulton County, working as a machinist in Johnstown.

Between 1856 and 1868, Sanford patented an auger handle and two augers. United States Letters Patent No. 15,147 protected a handle for a ring-type auger featuring a threaded plate attached to the lower side of the ring. A bolt passing through the wooden handle engaged the threads and provided a secure, non-slip way of attaching it to the ring. Letters Patent No. 36,534 covered an auger with supplemental lips for boring through end grain. His final patent, Letters Patent No. 79,012, protected an auger with "two or more cutting lips ... of different radial distance from the axial center of the auger." As interesting as the drawing accompanying the award might be, the patent did not indicate what the advantages of such an arrangement would be. It appears none of the three patents made it into production.

Illustration credits:

• Reconstructed United States Patent Office drawing of rake "made under the direction of the commissioner of patents in conformity with act of 3rd March 1837." Drawing dated July 31st, 1841.
• Reconstructed Patent Office drawing of Nathaniel C. Sanford twist auger. Drawing is undated.
• Reconstructed Patent Office drawing of Newton graduated twist auger. Drawing is undated.
• Graduated twist auger: author's photo.
• 1852 ice skate: United States Letters Patent No. 9,079, (June 29, 1852).

References:

1. Davis, Charles Henry Stanley. History of Wallingford, Conn., from its Settlement in 1670 to the Present Time. Meriden, Conn.: published by the author, 1870. p. 162.
2. Gillespie, Charles Bancroft (compiler). An Historic Record and Pictorial Description of the Town of Meriden, Connecticut and Men Who Have Made It. Meriden, Conn.: Journal Publishing Company, 1906. p. 356.
3. "Notice." Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut). April 9, 1833. p. 1.
4. The curry comb: United States Letters Patent No. 997X; the rake: United States Letters Patent No. 6022X; the skate: United States Letters Patent No. 8051X; the auger: United States Letters Patent No. 8350X.
5. Nichols, Nick. "In Search of the Three-Lipped Auger." Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association. Vol. 59, No. 3 (September, 2006) p. 109-110.
6. Gillespie, p. 306.
7. United States Letters Patent No. 6,305, (April 10, 1849).
8. Davis, p. 495.
9. The Connecticut Business Directory: Giving the Names and Post Office Addresses ... Boston: George Adams, 1856. p. 18.
10. United States Letters Patent No. 9,079, (June 29, 1852).

Upson, Hiram

At some point in the 1820s, Hiram Upson, a native of Wolcott, Connecticut, made the thirty-mile trip to the town of Derby to seek his fortune. Derby, located at the junction of the Naugatuck and Housatonic Rivers, was home to Walter French, an early manufacturer of double-twist augers who is sometimes credited with developing the tool. French set up shop there in 1810 in an area known as Humphreysville. (Later renamed Seymour).

Little is known of Upson’s early years in his new home, but in 1839, he associated with Raymond French in an augermaking enterprise. The pair bought two pieces of real estate from John C. Wheeler, French’s former partner in an auger-making business.⁽¹⁾ French and Upson began manufacturing augers and bits in a former machine shop located on their property in 1832. Their business is the source of the rarely seen augers stamped "FRENCH & UPSON".

When fire destroyed the buildings located on the French & Upson Property in 1841, work on replacements began at once.⁽²⁾ The event may have had something to do with Hiram Upson leaving the business and Raymond French's decision to partner with Timothy Dwight to form Raymond French & Company (later Dwight and French, later still Dwights French & Company).⁽³⁾

An 1849 village directory lists Hiram Upson as an independent business owner working in a shop on the Little River in Humphreysville.⁽⁴⁾ Though he remained in place, his address changed the following year when the Connecticut General Assembly changed the name of the village to Seymour.

In 1852, Upson joined Horace A. Radford and Lucius Tuttle to form the Upson Manufacturing Company, an enterprise organized with a capital of $6,000. The men set up shop at the mouth of the Little River in a building originally built by Timothy Dwight, Sr. and sold by his heirs to Radford in 1837.⁽⁵⁾ Upson Manufacturing employed some twenty hands on average, fired four forges, and operated two trip hammers.⁽⁶⁾ The augers it produced are marked "UPSON MFG. CO." It appears that the owners dissolved the business in 1859 when H. A. Radford sold the property to Charles Douglass, and it became the site of the Douglass Manufacturing Company.

Though Upson still considered himself an auger manufacturer at the time of the 1860 federal census, corroborating evidence is unavailable. Augers marked "H. UPSON" likely originate from that period or the years before he partnered with Raymond French. Upson reported he was a farmer at the time of the 1870 census. He died in 1874.

Illustration credits:

• Hiram Upson tintype reproduction: Portrait Painting in America: the Nineteenth Century. New York: Mainstreet/Universe Press, 1977.
• H. Upson stamp: author's photo.

References:

1. Sharpe, William C., Seymour and Vicinity: Historical Collections. Seymour, Conn.: Record Print., 1878. p. 73.
2. Rockey, J. L., ed. History of New Haven County. vol. 2. New York: W. W. Preston, 1892. p. 574.
3. Sharpe, p. 49.
4. Sharpe, p. 79; Rockey, p. 575.
5. Sharpe p. 87.
6. “Industrial Statistics.” The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil. v. 8, no. 7. (January 1856) New York: [publisher not given], p. 418.

Watrous & Company

In 1832, eighteen-year-old Richard N. Watrous went to work for the L'Hommedieu brothers, well-known augermakers in his hometown, Chester, Connecticut.⁽¹⁾ A talented youth, he became the operation's foreman at age twenty-one, and co-patented a device for making double-twist augers with Ezra L'Hommedieu in 1838.⁽²⁾ At some point, Watrous assigned his rights to the augermaking machine to L'Hommedieu, who had the patent reissued in 1845, a move likely prompted by Watrous's relocation to Charlestown, Ohio, the previous year. There, Watrous joined three other men from Connecticut's Chester/Deep River area—Levi B. Southworth, Ansel Shipman, and his brother Justin Watrous—in organizing Watrous & Company, an augermaking business. They set up shop some six miles east of Ravenna in an area that became known as Augerburg.

In 1857, R. N. Watrous patented an adjustable handle draw knife that allowed a user to adjust the angle of the blade to fit the task at hand.⁽³⁾ Shallow cuts facilitated work with hardwoods, and deeper cuts allowed for the aggressive removal of softwood stock. Watrous & Company began making the draw knife. Eventually manufactured by both the C. E. Jennings and James Swan companies, the tool remained in production for the next half-century.

The business reorganized as Watrous, Shipman & Company when Levi Southworth left in April 1858. His was not an amicable departure. Southworth left his partners with an uncollectible promissory note for $5,193.12—a substantial sum at the time. The matter went to the Portage County, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas. Its disposition remains unknown.⁽⁴⁾ Watrous, Shipman & Company continued doing business in Augerburg, making bits, ship augers, and draw knives until the second year of the United States Civil War, when the principals dissolved the business.

In 1866, after the cessation of the hostilities, the Watrous brothers and Shipman relocated to Elmira, New York, where Milton V. Nobles had just organized a business for the manufacture of bit braces and specialty carpenter's tools. Shipman soon became superintendent of the plant, R. N. Watrous spearheaded the auger operation, and Justin Watrous worked in the finishing department. In addition to turning out tools under its own name, Nobles Manufacturing Company made augers, bits, and draw knives under the Watrous & Co. name. The operation's Watrous-branded ship augers sold especially well, garnering a worldwide reputation.

Milton V. Nobles sold his interest in his company in April 1871, and a new group of investors reorganized the business as the Elmira Nobles Manufacturing Company. Richard N. Watrous stayed on at the factory, and four months later patented an improved die for forming the lips of auger bits.⁽⁵⁾ His idea was sound and incorporated into the production of bits manufactured by the company.⁽⁶⁾

R. N. Watrous was still at his job in 1877 when the buildings and machinery were sold at auction. Soloman L. Gillet and Robert T. Turner either bought the operation or rented the plant from someone who did and formed Gillet & Co. The Gillet operation continued making Watrous-branded augers, draw knives, and bits until January 1886, when C. E. Jennings & Company rented the factory. Though R. N. Watrous, by then retired, passed away the next September, C. E. Jennings & Company continued the Watrous brand. When fire destroyed the Elmira factory in 1887, production of Watrous brand tools moved to Meriden, Connecticut.⁽⁷⁾ Early on, C. E. Jennings' publicity portrayed the company as an independent entity. Jennings began treating its acquisition as a brand in the early 20th century, marking the bits with the word WATROUS in quotation marks.

Illustration credit:

• Watrous bit stamps: author's photos.

References:

1. "The Late Richard Watrous." The Democratic Press (Ravenna, Ohio) September 2, 1886. p. 3.
2. United States Letters Patent No. 851 reissued as RE72.
3. United States Letters Patent No. 18,887.
4. "Dissolution of Copartnership." The Portage Sentinel (Ravenna, Ohio) May 20, 1858. p. 3; "Legal Notice." The Portage Sentinel (Ravenna, Ohio) July 29, 1858. p. 3.
5. United States Letters Patent No. 117838.
6. "Abram M. Dewitt vs. Elmira Nobles Manufacturing Company." in Reports of Cases Heard and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. Vol. 12. New York : Banks & Brothers, 1876. p. 301. D. Mason & Co.,
7. Towner Ausburn. Our County and Its People: a History of the Valley and County of Chemung ... Syracuse, New York: 1892. p. 607.

Wilson, Joseph (J. Wilson)

Born in 1770, possibly in Brookfield, Massachusetts, Joseph Wilson moved to Marlborough, New Hampshire, where he worked as a blacksmith.⁽¹⁾ A skilled mechanic, his shop turned out augers and such agricultural implements as potato hooks and hoes. The United States Patent Office awarded him a patent for the improvement of the prong of a hoe on September 20, 1827.⁽²⁾ His house straddled the boundary line of the towns of Marlborough and Keene. He once avoided arrest by walking from the Keene piece of his home into the Marlborough part, where the Keene constable had no authority to detain him. He was known to stamp his augers J. WiLSON with a lower case "i."

Illustration credits:

• Wilson auger stamp: author's photo.

References:

1. Bemis, Charles A. History of the Town of Marlborough, Cheshire County New Hampshire. Boston: Press of G. H. Ellis, 1881. p. 699.
2. Nelson, Robert E. Dictionary of American Toolmakers. [Place of publication not given]: Early American Industries Association, 1999. p. 868.

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