Hello;

I have a set of  nine (should be 9, I have only 8,)  N. Sperry Seymour 
Conn USA blued Jennings pattern auger bits in a Bartlett tool holding 
box pat May 30, 1893 (498,455) missing the #4 1/4 bit.  Does anyone have 
one for sale?  The lead screws are fine thread.  Doing research on these 
bits I encountered msg. #111989 from the archives and the ensuing 
replies.  I find it interesting that Seymour Conn is also the home of 
the James Swan Co.  Is there a possible connection between Swan and 
Sperry?  I looked through the Swan catalog available from Rose tools and 
found no mention of Sperry but the bit holding box is commonly used by 
Swan and others.

Bret

Bret Rochotte
rochotte@b...
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> I have a set of  nine (should be 9, I have only 8,)  N. Sperry Seymour 
> Conn USA blued Jennings pattern auger bits in a Bartlett tool holding 
> box pat May 30, 1893 (498,455) missing the #4 1/4 bit.  Does anyone have 

> one for sale?  The lead screws are fine thread.  Doing research on these 

> bits I encountered msg. #111989 from the archives and the ensuing 
> replies.  I find it interesting that Seymour Conn is also the home of 
> the James Swan Co.  Is there a possible connection between Swan and 
> Sperry? 

Seymour was THE center of auger making in America, partly due to the great 
water power of the Naugatuck River, and much of it involving various 
members of the extended French family starting as early as 1806. According 
to "Seymour Past and Present" (1902), some of the French family 
enterprises involved in auger making include Walter French; his son Warren 
French, who partnered for a while with his brother Wales French, and later 
founded French, Swift & Co. (which later was bought out by H.B. Beecher) ; 
Raymond French & Co.,  which then became Dwight & French and later the 
Humphreysville Manufacturing Company, which was reorganized with new 
partners (including Norman Sperry) around 1875.  Norman Sperry later 
became the sole owner in 1895 until at least 1902 (when this book was 
published).  I don't know if Humphreysville Mfg Co was renamed N. Sperry 
later, or if this is prior to 1875, but since you have an auger marked "N. 
Sperry" we know he used that mark at some point.  Sperry died in 1913.

Sperry was born in Cheshire, CT in 1842 and moved to Seymour in 1862. 
Sperry had worked for other Seymour auger makers, including H.B Beecher 
and the Douglass Manufacturing Company (which produced its chisels in 
Vermont and it augers in Seymour at this time).  The Douglass shop had 
formerly been the Upson Manufacturing Company owned by Hiram Upson.  And 
of course Douglass was then bought out by James Swan who had managed the 
Douglass shops.  So there is your connection between Sperry and Swan. They 
probably worked together at Douglass and in the end they were competing 
against each other.

These companies listed are just the big names.  There seem to have been 
many others.  Auger making was the thing to do in Seymour!

Brian Welch
Worcester, MA

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On Nov 14, 2007, at 9:56 AM, Brian Welch wrote:

> Seymour was THE center of auger making in America, partly due to the  
> great
> water power of the Naugatuck River, and much of it involving various
> members of the extended French family starting as early as 1806.

Holy Hannah!

I've been looking through various sources to try to date the  
variations of plane irons used by the Delhi (NY) planemaker Archibald  
Inglis, most of which came from Seymour firms (Dwights French & Co,  
Dwights & Foster, etc.)  Is there a handy time chart anywhere in  
"Seymour Past & Present" that might help me out?  Can you give me as  
much biblographic material as you have on the book so I can try to get  
a copy through abebooks.com or interlibrary loan?

The potentially eternally grateful John Wadsworth, in Delhi, NY
(who will some day write that article on Inglis)
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jtwad@a... wrote on 11/14/2007 12:22:06 PM:

> Holy Hannah!
> 
> I've been looking through various sources to try to date the 
> variations of plane irons used by the Delhi (NY) planemaker Archibald 
> Inglis, most of which came from Seymour firms (Dwights French & Co, 
> Dwights & Foster, etc.)  Is there a handy time chart anywhere in 
> "Seymour Past & Present" that might help me out? 

John,

I see in the archives that you have posted on this topic before, back in 
2004:

>The DAT shows Dwights French & Co as being in various Connecticut
>locations (Humphreysville, Seymour, and possibly Derby) from 1849-1900.
>A variant mark, Dwights & French, is thought to be from 1849. There are
>related/predecessor firms (Timothy Dwight & Co., Dwights & Foster), with
>dates in the 1830s and 1840s, located in Seymour.

And our beloved Bob Nelson back in 2001:

>The DAT is a bit vague on the Dwight French  & Co. starting date, but it
>was somewhere between 1844 and 1849, so 1852-54 is within their range
>(they lasted until beyond 1900). Incidently, the name of the company was
>a bit variable and the reason/timing of the differences are uncertain.
>Variations include Dwight & French;  Dwights & French; and Dwights,
>French & Co. The plural is assumed to denote both Timothy and John
>Dwight. 

Here is the information I have been able to gather from various sources 
(which just happen to be at my desk due to my research on Douglass/Swan):

HS--History of Seymour by W.C. Sharpe (1879)
SPP--Seymour, Past and Present by Campbell, Sharpe, and Bassett (1902)
LNV--Tercentenary Pictorial and History of the Lower Naugatuck Valley 
(1935)
HP--Historic Personalities of the Lower Naugatuck Valley by Dorothy A. 
DeBisschop (1973)--online at http://www.oxfordpast.net/hp127.html

BTW, Humphreysville was a village in Derby, Connecticut which gained 
independence and then later renamed itself Seymour in 1850.

1832--Raymond French (1805-1886) begins manufacturing augers [LNV, SPP] 
(According to HP this is 1834 and he is in partnership with John C. 
Wheeler)

1836--Timothy Dwight (1778-1884) begins manufacturing augers [SPP].  (His 
father, Timothy Dwight IV, was president of Yale University from 
1795-1817.)

1837--Raymond French becomes sole proprietor of his auger busniess [HP]

1841--Fire destroys the Raymond French shop [LNV, HS].  It is "soon" 
rebuilt.  Raymond French was at this time in business with Hiram Upson and 
John and Timothy Dwight [LNV] 

1844--Raymond French (and John and Timothy Dwight) build new brick factory 
and begin manufacturing (after visiting England to study their 
manufacture) plane irons, chisels, and drawknives in addition to augers 
[LNV].  They are officially called either "Raymond French & Co" [HS], 
"Dwight, French & Co." [SPP] or "Dwights and French" [HP] at this time 
(take your pick!)

1849--Company is renamed "Dwights, French & Co." as new partners are added 
[HP].  An 1849 business directory calls them "Dwight & French" [HS]  Hiram 
Upson is manufacturing augers on his own by 1849 [HS]

1860--Raymond French listed at "Tool Manufacturer" in Census

1868--directory listing for "Raymond French, manufacturer of augers and 
tools" [LNV]

1870--Raymond French listed as "Iron Manufacturer" in census

1880--Raymond French listed as "Ox Shoe Manufacturer" in census

This is all I could figure out after two long lunch breaks.  The sources 
give various names at various times, and all of them conflict.  I saw no 
information suggesting that they lasted until 1900 and beyond, so I'm not 
sure where that information came from, other than local directories from 
that time.  But Timothy Dwight and Raymond French were both dead by that 
time.

I saw no mention of Dwights & Foster.

Hope this helps!

Brian Welch
Worcester, MA

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