1834]

AMERICAN HARDWARE.

387

principal cities were at this time chiefly, or altogether devoted to the sale of the American hardware, generally consigned to them by the manufacturers, and sold almost exclusively to the trade. The samples

(1) Upon the early history of the American Hardware trade, we have been favored with communications from gentlemen connected with it from its origin. Some interesting reminiscences upon the subject have been sent to us by John W. Quincy, Esq., of New York, who has been identified with this branch of the trade from its commencement to the present time-first in Boston, and for the last quarter of a century in New York. His large and intelligent acquaintance with the subject gives authority to his communication, which we should be glad to give entire if our space permitted. We learn from him, and Mr. Hand of Philadelphia, that about the year 1827, or 1828, Mr. Amasa Goodyear, a manufacturer for many years of hay forks, buttons, and other articles at Salem village, near Waterbury, Connecticut, (who had been accustomed to take orders by semi-annual visits to the city, storing his goods in the warehouse of Mr. David W. Prescott,) opened in Church alley, in connection with his son, the late Charles Goodyear, of India rubber celebrity, and under the management of the latter, a small store, which, it is believed, was the first in the United States for the sale of American hardware. A. Goodyear & Son having failed, through speculations of the junior partner in real estate, the business, in January, 1831, passed into the possession of Messrs. Curtis & Hand, by whom it is still conducted, and who exerted themselves to give currency to various articles of home manufacture. About the former date the business was also commenced in New York by Christopher Hubbard, afterward Casey and Hubbard, who were followed in 1829 by George H. Gray & Co., and Hasner and Green, of Boston. At that time there was but one hardware store in the country of one hundred feet in depth, those of forty to sixty feet deep being considered first class stores, and a rent of $1,000 per annum rather a high one. The number of articles of domestic hardware, kept or to be obtained by the largest dealers was quite

limited, and embraced many small articles, as shell and other buttons, which have since passed to other branches of trade. Among the staple articles kept by the earliest dealers were Goodyear's patent molasses gates, Fenn's patent cockstop and leather faucets, cast bits and screws (not very saleable), nail, shoe, and side strap hammers (among which those of Charles Hammond, of Philadelphia, and Mr. Eastman, of Concord, New Hampshire, were well known), wooden awl handles, Rowland's mill saws, the circular and handsaws, and wood-saw web, of Welch and Griffiths, of Boston (whose brand was already in repute), spinning wheel heads of home invention, Britannia wares, carpenters' planes, manure and hay forks, shovels, scythes, &c. Even all of these had not come into use as early as 1828 or 1830, but the list of American articles purchased and sold by hardware dealers, at the close of this year (1834), embraced the following goods furnished by Mr. Quincey from a record before him. Some of these articles were still more or less largely imported as well as made here, and are marked thus [*]. Iron and brass wire seives, cotton, cattle and wool cards, board coffee mills, brass andirons, brass head shovel and tongs, cast iron circular gridirons, bung borers and reamers, *iron wire, *Britannia tea and coffee pots, wood faucets, wheel-heads, hoes (not planters"),

scythes, cow bells, japaned lamps, blackball, bulls-eye and dark pan hand-bells, pewter faucet and molasses gates; lines, mackerel and small hemp, bed cords, clothes lines, window cord, coil rope of hemp and manilla; brushes, viz., scrubbing, floor, paint, furniture, horse, shoe, hair, varnish, dust, sash, hearth, etc.; sand boxes, #scale beams, sad iron stands of zine; sleigh bells, raw hides, *inkstands, *gunter scales, *board rules, gauging rods, pocket rules, two and four-fold; britannia tumblers and ladles; whipthongs, mouse traps, guns, bellows, coopers' axes, #adzes and draw

.388

WOOD SCREWS IMPORTED-AMES' COMPANY.

[1834 were generally limited to a few shelves, and the profits were extremely small, compared with those on hardware. The general prejudice was strongly in favor of foreign goods, and the introduction of a new article of domestic manufacture was extremely slow and difficult for many years, the prejudice only giving place by degrees to the manifest superiority in quality or cheapness of the latter. The limited and fluctuating character of the protection, as yet afforded by the tariff, also retarded the growth of this branch.

Hammered brass kettles or battery, began at this time to be first made in the United States, at Wolcottville, Connecticut, by Mr. Israel Coe. It has since been extensively manufactured by rolling at Birmingham, in the same state and elsewhere.

Wood screws were this year first made by machinery at Providence, Rhode Island, where the New England Screw Company, and another company in the same business, were organized within a few years, and employed a capital of $200,000, making daily two thousand gross of brass and iron screws. The quality of the screws made there was such that they soon superseded James' celebrated English screws, notwith standing the mercantile prejudice in favor of foreign articles. The business in that city has recently exceeded the value of one million dollars per annum.

N. P. Ames, and his associates, who employed at Chicopee Falls twenty-five to thirty men in making cutlery, and finishing swords by contract with the United States government—having been incorporated as the "Ames' Manufacturing Company," commenced operations this year in a new establishment, erected at Cabotville. They employed a capital of $30,000, afterward increased to $200,000, in the manufacture of arms, tools, cutlery, etc., to which they added, two years after, a foundry for casting bronze cannon and church bells, and in 1845, an iron foundry for machinery, etc., nearly all of which branches are still carried on extensively, in addition to some others. Gold and silvermounted swords were made also by W. F. Widmann, of Philadelphia,

ing knives, steelyards; cut tacks and brads, sheet nails, patent awls, iron candlesticks, mahogany knobs for drawers, steel squares, brass spring door catches, screw drivers, #plated squares and bevils, *brass nails, *awl hafts, *mincing knives, *spring shoe punches, gimblets, coopers' braces, gut and bone whips, *japaned door latches, circular saws, glass knobs, timber scribes, shingling, lath and axe hatchets,

scratch awls, hooks and eyes, silver everpoint pencil cases, razor strops, screw augers, auger bits, *pocket books, *lead pencils, bone mould and suspender buttons, soap, axes, waffle irons, oil stones, blind fasts, #mill, cross-cut and tenon saws, manure and hay forks, shovels, spades, glue, planes, #sadirons, *Bristol brick, cast iron cart and wagon boxes, brass head dogs, scythe-rifles, wood-saw frames.