Hi Paul & Sandy & All,

Paul asked about an auger bit marked HOLYOKE and FORD PATENT 1891. Sandy
attributed that to a Holyoke (MA) Mfg. Co. and commented that the DAT
says nothing about that company. That naturally stirred my juices, so I
took a look myself. It took a bit of tracking to get there, but I
eventually found a Ford Auger Bit Co. which was also reported as the
Ford Bit Co. They worked in Holyoke, MA, from (assumed) ca. 1891. One
source  says they only worked until 1910, but another shows their bits
still being sold in 1914. Some other company may have taken them over in
1910 and continued to use the name; the DAT says that may have been
Millers Falls, but maybe it was really Sandy's Holyoke Mfg. Co.? The DAT
info came from one tool marked as Paul said, five primary source
documents and four secondary source documents. What the five primary
sources were is not specifically known, but they were probably
directories, advertisements, etc., from within their working years. That
many original sources conveys a pretty high level of certainty that the
name was as cited for the years shown. The DAT does not show the full
paptent date cited by Sandy - only the 1891 from the marking.

Best Wishes,
Bob