USA > Vermont > Rutland County > Wallingford > People of Wallingford, a compilation > Part 18
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The year of the fire seems to have been important in more than one respect, since, on January 1, 1848, both the mortgage held by Alfred Hull for $900 and the mortgage held by Lyman for $800 were discharged, leaving the sons in full clear possession of the factory property.
Four years after the fire, in 1852, the Western Vermont Rail- road was opened for business by running trains at irregular in- tervals. The depot was built that year and Depot Street was surveyed April 6, 1853. The opening of the street probably required the moving of Rustin's hat shop and other buildings.
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PEOPLE OF WALLINGFORD
The station building was burned in 1858 and the present one was built in its place. The year 1852 must have marked an epoch in the history of Wallingford village, and to the fork works it meant greatly increased facilities for transportation.
Looking in at the new stone fork shop of this period Lyman may be seen at the north end bending forks over a curved form in a hand operated machine. Two trip hammers were in use, one with flat dies and the other with grooved dies for swedging. The fork tines were drawn out between the flat surfaces of one ham- mer and then passed to the second hammer with grooves that gave the tines their finished shape. Business demanded the full capacity of the plant. John Ballou (son of the former owner of the land on which the shop stood) and Hiland Bump, starting early in the morning, ran the two trip hammers until noon; then John Batcheller and Lyman Batcheller, Jr. ran them in the after- noon. Lyman's daughter, Mrs. Hiland Shaw, painted the forks while her husband traveled and sold for the firm. Altogether about six men were employed in the works besides the Batchel- lers.
Two years later, about 1854, another pair of trip hammers was installed, which greatly increased the capacity of the works. The water-power became insufficient to operate all the machinery, so a small ten-horse-power steam engine and boiler were added, about 1855 or '56, to supplement it. Later the power was further increased by increasing the speed of the engine.
Besides the shop on the east side of the highway there was a small building on the west side in what was later John Batchel- ler's garden. This building, which was standing as late as 1870, contained a small water wheel and several polishing cylinders. Water from the Stone Shop flowed under the main road to a point on the west side where all, or a part of it, could be deflected through an underground channel to this building. Cast iron cyl- inders about four feet in diameter and five feet long were filled
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JUSTIN BATCHELLER, 1828-1903
JOHN SCRIBNER, 1822-1900
LYMAN BATCHELLER AND THE PITCHFORK INDUSTRY
with water and gravel and three or four dozen forks placed therein to be polished. After filling the cylinders they were sealed and made to revolve for twelve hours. The forks tumbling about in the gravel and water gradually became polished all over. This simple method of polishing has continued to the present time. The right to use the water flowing from the Stone Shop is prob- ably that granted in 1814 by John Ballou to Alexander Miller "for his farm use and tan works, water to be taken from near the west gate of the blacksmith shop."
Steel for forks was imported from Jessops, noted manufac- turers in Sheffield, England. It was a high-grade crucible steel which took a fine temper, giving great elasticity and strength to the fork tines. These qualities made it possible to make the tines slender and light. The strength and temper of the tines was tested by springing the tines together and by the weight of a man stand- ing on them, which always impressed customers. Only steel of a definite quality would stand such a test. The handles were made of selected "second growth" white ash, which was light and strong. The ferules were painted steel-blue. Every effort was made to produce forks of the best quality, and on this quality business was solicited, resulting in a gradually increasing volume of sales.
The reputation of the Batcheller forks was early established by direct contact with farmers who used them. A man went from Wallingford to eastern Pennsylvania and taught school. During vacations, in order to earn a little extra money, he went among the Pennsylvania Dutch farmers and sold them Batcheller forks. In this way he established a trade that for many years the best efforts of other fork manufacturers could not secure. As a result in later years concerns who made forks in and about Philadelphia came to consider the Batcheller forks a standard which they endeavored to attain. The factory of Meyers & Irvine was in Ashbourne, a suburb of Philadelphia. Mr. Meyers once related his experience in
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PEOPLE OF WALLINGFORD
coming to Wallingford with the intention of spying upon the Batcheller works to learn, if he could, the secret of making forks of such good quality. He came to East Wallingford and hired a man to drive him down. Contrary to his instructions the man drove him directly to the office of Batcheller & Sons. Mr. Meyers thought then it was best to explain who he was and state frankly that he wanted to inspect the factory. To his surprise he was greeted warmly and shown every part of the process of fork making. He went home, perhaps wiser, but he was never able to take from Batcheller & Sons their trade with the Pennsylvania Dutch farmers.
Two stories are told of the beginning of sales in England. Ly- man was in Boston placing an order with Jessops for steel, when he was able to persuade the steel maker to take forks for steel, and accordingly the first shipment was made to England. The other story runs thus: Jessops wrote to the firm in Wallingford inquiring what use was being made of the considerable quantity of steel being shipped to it; which inquiry resulted in an order for forks being placed to be shipped to England. Evidently the purchase of steel in England led to the sale of forks in that coun- try, and through an English agent they were sold in France.
Lyman and his sons had a decided mechanical turn of mind. Lyman was a skilled blacksmith and three of his sons, although never having served an apprenticeship, were more or less skilled in that trade. This skill enabled them to design forks that would satisfy the purchaser. They knew when a fork had the best shape, weight, etc. When they took it in their hands they could tell in- stantly whether it "hung right" or not. This was a contributing factor to their success. Forks made in England were relatively heavy and clumsy in comparison with the light, elastic forks made in Wallingford.
This calls to mind a statement of Prof. Pupin of Columbia Uni- versity on manual dexterity. (Scribner's Magazine, November,
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A PITCHFORK HAND-FORGED BY LYMAN BATCHELLER
THE STONE SHOP
LYMAN BATCHELLER AND THE PITCHFORK INDUSTRY 1922.) "There never was a doubt in my mind that American adapt- ability which I observed on every occasion was in a great measure due to the manual training which young people used to get here. . My whole experience confirmed me in this belief that .
manual training of the youth gives them a discipline which school books alone can never do. I discovered later that three of the greatest characters in American history, Franklin, Jefferson and Lincoln, excelled in practical arts requiring dexterity, and that the constructive genius of the American nation can, in part, be traced to the discipline which one gets from early manual train- ing.'
Evidently the business progressed in a normal way until sud- denly, without warning, Lyman was stricken down by an intes- tinal disorder and, after an illness of only a few days, died Febru- ary 5, 1858. The funeral was largely attended, the factory being closed while the employees attended the service in a body. Lyman was sixty-three years of age and in the prime of life when he passed away.
The following is quoted from The Local Spy dated "Wall- ingford, Vt. February 7, 1858. DIED In this village, early Fri- day morning, the 5th inst., Mr. Lyman Batcheller, aged 63 years. . It has remained for the circle of his daily associates to know, and admire adequately, his Roman firmness, his uniform kindness, and incorruptible integrity and love of the truth; it is with full justice to all when we say that no man in our vicinity for the last twenty years has had a stronger position in the confi- dence and respect of the community than the honored and la- mented deceased."
In appearance Lyman was tall and straight, with a quick, elas- tic step. Austin Wellman, an employee of the firm, said the remark has been made, "there goes old Lyman," referring to his grandson, George, who closely resembled him when walking on the street. His hair was white and he wore a long tailed, black
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PEOPLE OF WALLINGFORD
coat, which lent dignity to his carriage. He had a characteristic broad mouth with a firm set jaw that indicated determination of purpose. He was never seen loitering in the stores or on the street. He talked little and when not attending to his business spent his time at home. He possessed poise and judgment, and was highly respected in the community. A skillful cabinet maker, named Rule, who lived in Rutland, has been said to speak in high terms of respect and admiration of Lyman Batcheller, whom he knew well.
Lyman was a member of the Baptist Church but was not active in church work. Mrs. Wellman remembered seeing him fre- quently in church but did not remember that he held office. He may have done so earlier in life. His wife was an Episcopalian. He had probably enjoyed only a common school education such as the rural districts of Stratton offered. There is no record of his having traveled far; probably not beyond New York and Boston, where he must have gone to purchase supplies. He was a strong "abolitionist" and it is said his house was one of the stations of the "Underground Railroad." He had a marked sense of humor and sometimes indulged in practical jokes with the men of the shop.
After the death of their father John C. and Lyman, Jr. con- tinued the business under the old name of Batcheller & Sons, since that name was well established and implied forks of high quality. The Civil War broke out in '61 but work went on at the factory. Mr. Heman Mandigo came to Wallingford in April 1864, and in the fall of that year began working for Batcheller & Sons. He described the Stone Shop in operation at that time. John Batcheller managed the shop and Lyman, Jr. the office until Mar- low Congdon took charge of the books. There were four trip hammers, still running in pairs, one pair operated by Tom Con- nolly and Mark Mattison, the other by Andrew Mattison and Calvin Higgins. Henry Pratt did the tempering at the north end of
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OFFICE OF BATCHELLER & SONS
NEW OFFICE BUILDING, AMERICAN FORK & HOE COMPANY
FINISHING SHOP AND STORE HOUSE, BURNED MARCH 17, 1924
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LYMAN BATCHELLER AND THE PITCHFORK INDUSTRY
the building. The bending was also done there. The steam engine that supplemented the power of the over-shot water-wheel was in the brick extension at the south end of the shop, and was under the care and management of James Connolly, then a lad of seven- teen years. Mrs. John Ballou painted the forks, Mrs. Shaw having died of tuberculosis in 1860. Other employees were John Ballou, John Ames, John Wells, Patrick McInlear, Simon Sabin, Law- rence and William Sherman; in all about fifteen employees. Mar- low Congdon succeeded Hiland Shaw as traveling salesman, and later worked in the office. There is a reproduction of a daguerreo- type in Mr. Thorpe's History of Wallingford showing the Stone Shop at an early date before the brick addition was added for an engine house. A frame building, used for storage, stood south of the main building, to which it was connected by a bridge on the second floor. This storehouse was probably the wheelwright shop, referred to in the deeds. Attached to the storehouse was an old dwelling house, converted into an office. This was the house that had been occupied by Susannah Coes, Lyman's mother-in-law, when it stood farther back in the garden. .
It is evident that the volume of business had increased year by year, for in 1852 only six men were employed, whereas in 1864 the number had increased to fifteen, an increase of two and one half times in twelve years. But there was a limit to the possible growth in the existing plant. The Stone building had received a one story frame addition on the north end, besides the extensions already mentioned at the south end. It was apparent to John and Lyman, Jr., that if the business was to grow to still larger propor- tions a new and larger plant would be necessary. On January 31, 1865, when the Civil War was drawing to a close, Warren Adams and Hiram Dickerman deeded to John and Lyman, Jr. the site of the fork works that was to grow up on the Creek, including the buildings that stood thereon. It appears from the records that Warren Adams obtained the gristmill lot, sawmill and clothing
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PEOPLE OF WALLINGFORD
works with water privileges, from the Wallingford Manufactur- ing Company, the directors of which were Frederick Button, Dyer Townsend, Joseph Packer, Alfred Hull and John Ives.
In 1865, when John and Lyman, Jr. bought the property for a new fork factory, there was an old, tumbled down building be- side the Creek where the trip hammer shop now stands, in which Deacon Post ground tanbark for his tannery. Post's tannery stood about where the first house on the east side of River Street now stands. In the 1870s the tanning vats could be seen just west of Batcheller & Sons' storehouse. The ground in that vicinity was covered with tanbark. The bark mill was on the site of a gristmill which was burned many years before. The property purchased included a three-story building originally built for a clothing, or woolen mill but was equipped for a gristmill and was used for that purpose by Abram Adams. Later Samuel G. Britt & Son of Newport, New Hampshire, rented the building from 1864 to 1866 and manufactured wooden shoe pegs. For years after Batch- eller & Sons had converted it into a finishing shop, where forks and handles were assembled and finished, it was referred to as the "Peg Shop." Just north of the peg shop a large building was erected for the storage of handles, finished goods, etc., and be- yond that a small brick drying house was built.
A sawmill stood across the road from the finishing shop, be- tween the finishing shop and the office, which was run for a time by Jonathan Carpenter, who sawed ash logs from which fork handles were made for Batcheller & Sons. There was a handle shop in the west end of the sawmill.
As soon as the property was purchased by John and Lyman, Jr. plans were made for a forge and trip hammer shop beside the Creek, construction proceeding in due time. The building was framed by McKnight. When the shop was equipped it contained seven trip hammers, all of a new type having dies with a horn to draw out the tines and grooves in which to swedge, or finish,
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LYMAN BATCHELLER AND THE PITCHFORK INDUSTRY them, so that a tine could be completely drawn and finished in one operation on one hammer; a great improvement over the former method at the Stone Shop, which required a pair of ham- mers. The number of trip hammers is a good measure of the ca- pacity of the new factory, which was several times that of the Stone Shop. The greatest number of hammers in use later, before the business passed to the American Fork & Hoe Company, was thirteen.
The business was moved from the Stone Shop to the new plant in 1866, the moving taking considerable time, in order not to interrupt the manufacturing process and the delivery of forks to customers. The Stone Shop and attached buildings after being vacated are shown facing page 229.
Justin Batcheller, youngest son of Lyman, and his brother-in- law, John Scribner, who married Laura, conducted a retail mer- cantile business on the corner of Main and Depot Streets from 1856 to 1868. In the latter year they sold out their business and be- came equal partners with John and Lyman, Jr. in the firm of Batcheller & Sons.
Mr. W. C. Mason entered the employ of Batcheller & Sons as bookkeeper in 1878. In 1882 Batcheller & Sons Company was incorporated. The officers were John C. Batcheller, President; Jus- tin Batcheller, Treasurer; and W. C. Mason, Clerk. The old part- ners and Mr. Mason were the only stockholders. In 1902 the com- pany was absorbed by a new corporation, The American Fork & Hoe Company, with offices in Cleveland, Ohio, and Mr. Mason became the local manager of the Batcheller Works in Walling- ford. Mr. R. C. Taft succeeded Mr. Mason in 1911.
In a few years the new plant by the Creek, with its seven trip hammers, was found to have insufficient capacity for the growing business. From time to time the hammer shop was enlarged to admit more hammers, and other machines were added until, about 1884, it became necessary to supplement the water power
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with a steam engine. There were three waterwheels at the ham- mer shop, developing upwards of eighty horsepower; a wheel in the finishing shop and two small wheels in the sawmill. With high water this was sufficient, but frequently the Creek ran low and at such times the water power was not equal to carrying the load. The steam engine was mounted on a rock foundation at the east end of the trip hammer shop and added a hundred horse- power. A chimney eighty feet in height was built to give draught to the boiler, and became a landmark for years afterward.
March 17, 1924 the finishing shop and storehouse, shown fac- ing page 231, were burned, the fire having been caused by gas that had escaped from an oil engine in the basement and was accidentally ignited. A few years before The American Fork & Hoe Company had acquired control of the Wallingford Manufacturing Company, a competing company located in Wall- ingford and occupying the building erected for a similar purpose by Franklin Post. After the fire the Batcheller Works and the Wallingford Manufacturing Company were consolidated at the latter plant under the management of Mr. Taft. All that was left of the plant which John and Lyman Batcheller built was the trip hammer shop. It stood idle for several years until rented for a clothespin factory. The sawmill went in the fire with the finishing shop. A new building of brick and tile was erected on the site of the finishing shop and was equipped with polishing cylinders in the basement, where water power was still available.
Today, 1937, little or no forging of forks or other implements is done in Wallingford, but handles are made from native ash, the forged parts are shipped here from other plants and the im- plements are assembled, employing upward of one hundred men. The business is no longer confined to pitchforks but includes hoes, rakes, all sorts of hand garden tools, axes, shovels, steel fishing rods, steel golf clubs, snow shoes, etc., most of which are manufactured elsewhere.
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TRIP HAMMER SHOP
INTERIOR OF THE TRIP HAMMER SHOP
LYMAN BATCHELLER AND THE PITCHFORK INDUSTRY
When the business was established at the new site by the Creek, John and Lyman, Jr. directed and supervised the forging depart- ment at the trip hammer shop; Justin did the office work, the pur- chasing of material and much traveling to interview customers; John Scribner supervised the handle department, the finishing and shipping. The brothers all worked from seven in the morning until six at night, and had an intimate acquaintance with all of their employees. There was a sort of fraternal relation between them; they were addressed by their first names. In the office the correspondence was all written in long-hand; typewriters were unknown. On one occasion, at the end of a year when business had been bad and prices had been cut until no profits remained, the men were all called to the office and asked to take a ten per cent cut in wages. After the situation had been explained they accepted the cut.
Some of the employees who grew old in the service deserve to be mentioned. James Kingsley, of Irish extraction, tall, broad shouldered, erect and commanding in appearance, wearing a black patch over one eye that had been made sightless by a piece of steel, was foreman of the forging department for many years. The home of his large family was a small house close to the en- trance of the trip hammer shop, shown facing page 234. One wonders how his wife and daughters ever endured the incessant pounding of the trip hammers.
To become a successful hammersman required a long appren- ticeship in acquiring the rhythmic motion of the hands, in unison with the hammer blows, in order to turn the redhot tine at each quick stroke, and so stretch out the cleft piece of steel into a long, slender prong. Most of the men who operated hammers became very skillful in their work, with years of practice that spanned a considerable part of their lives. Of these mention should be made of Mark and Andrew Mattison, Calvin Higgins, Tom and James Connolly and C. O. Allen. These were the older men but there
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PEOPLE OF WALLINGFORD
were others who served for a long time. Mark Mattison had the reputation of drawing the largest number of tines in a day. Fre- quently he sat at his hammer and had a boy hand the forks from the fire to him, and so kept his hammer in uninterrupted opera- tion.
To maintain the machinery in working order and occasionally to build new machines was the duty of an expert machinist and a skillful blacksmith. The former position was filled for fifty-five years by C. V. Howley; the latter position by Neil Gleghorn and John McConachie, not to mention others who succeeded them. No one who was familiar with the plant will ever forget the tall, rather loose-jointed Heman Mandigo, who hardened and tem- pered the forks. He stood on a block of marble before an anvil while he straightened the tines, until his footprints were worn half an inch into the marble. One day, in a supposed act of kind- ness, John Batcheller had the foot prints filled with cement, but Mr. Mandigo was so disturbed that the cement had to be cut out. His long service began in the Stone Shop. William Hodgkins heated and bent the forks into their peculiar curved form for many years. John Wells cut up the steel and prepared the pieces for the hammers. In the finishing department John Ballou, son of John Ballou who at one time owned the blacksmith shop that Lyman Batcheller bought in 1835, might be seen with a long iron bar which he used to force the shanks of the forks into the han- dles. Later a machine was designed to relieve human muscles from such arduous work and do it much quicker. Harland Strong made boxes and packed into them the forks which were destined for shipment abroad. For the domestic trade he tied them into bun- dles. Lucretia Kelley, Caroline Hilliard and Mrs. Gleghorn served for long periods painting and labeling the forks. There are others, no doubt, equally deserving of mention, whose labors in the fac- tory contributed to the success of the business. These personal reminiscences belong particularly to the period of the 1870's, al-
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THE LAST TRIP HAMMER
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EMPLOYEES OF BATCHELLER & SONS
Left to right: (Front row) John Castle, Heman Mandigo, C. O. Allen, Mark Mattison, William Eddy, Perry Wells; (Sec- ond row) Edward C. Parmenter, Luzerne Strong, James Seaver, Frank Wynn, William Hodgkins, Louis Lugene, 2.
, William Shum, W. C. Mason; (Third row) James Kingsley, Ted Toohey, William Coleman, Sheridan Congdon, Thomas Predom, Cornelius Howley; (Fourth row) Horace Wells, Harland Strong, George Savery, ? Pickett, John ? Shum, Edward Weaver; (Fifth row) ? , Edward Law, Byron Leonard, ? ?
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LYMAN BATCHELLER AND THE PITCHFORK INDUSTRY
though many of the men served long after that. A group of em- ployees is shown facing page 237.
John Scribner died April 28, 1900; Justin died April 15, 1903; Gale died December 17, 1903; John C. died April 5, 1904; and Lyman, Jr. died May 28, 1906. It is remarkable that the four brothers should all have died within a period of about three years.
Forks of Batcheller & Sons were exhibited at international ex- positions held in London, 1862; Vienna, 1873; Paris, 1878 and 1889. Medals were awarded to the firm by juries of all these ex- positions. The forks were sold in England and France through the house of John G. Rollins & Company, Ltd., whose warehouse and office was located at Old Swan Wharf near London Bridge.
The sons of Lyman Batcheller were plain, modest men, possess- ing a "New England sense of duty" in a high degree; apparently content with the growth and magnitude of the business they had built up. Greater ambition and energy might have created a larger industry, but in making comparison of achievement in their day and ours, one must remember that today people think in larger numbers. The lives of Lyman and his sons illustrate what con- stant effort and singleness of purpose can accomplish in the ab- sence of any remarkable endowment.
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