Wednesday, June 26, 2019

We used to make things in this country #307 Whitman and Barnes

Whitman and Barnes was an American hardware and tool making company with main factories- in the early 20th century- in Akron, Chicago. and St Catherines, Ontario. The company had started in Massachusetts and grown over the years with the purchase and acquisition of many small hardware companies all over the US. With the the purchase in 1880 of the Collinson Burch Company in St Catherines- a maker of hay mower knives- the company acquired a Canadian branch. Along with knife edges for machinery, this factory soon added hand tools to the product line- including the pipe wrenches in the ad.
 The St Catherines factory lasted until declining sales closed the operation just after WW1. The American operation, mainly making drill bits by this point, settled into Detroit in the 1930s and was still going at least into the 1950s.
Full company history;
 The first 100 years of Whitman & Barnes.1848- 1949

History of the St. Catherines factory here.


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