Groton Carriage Co.

[rustcollector]

>can't find a date where they went away, but I have found stuff where they were still going in 1900.

A History of Banking in the State of New York mentions them referring to the great depression (doesn't give an exact year)

They were forced to pledge all the remaining assets of the company against a debt of $60,000 to the First National Bank of Groton...

My guess would be that was the end of the road...

I saw that, but didn't find much evidence of them producing much for quite a few years prior to that too. So for all intents and purposes, they might have been "dead" a decade or so prior. Like most buggy and carriage manufacturers, it was either switch to the new automobile or go broke. Sometimes both.

It must be exciting to find an old wrench that no one knew existed. Congrats RC!

It is.
I've obtained a few items that Stan has used on Datamp. While I've kept most, I did sell a unique monkey wrench to lewill( Hotchkiss patent), And just recently sold a Crescent brand wire crimper thing. I also sold a pipe wrench to Dan Gaier a few years back. I have these 2 wrenches, a battery Konker tool (was in a MVWC newsletter a while back)  and a couple others still.

That said, for each unique item I've found, I probably searches through a few thousand to find the one. I'm sure I've missed a few along the way too, because they weren't in my realm, or didn't happen to come in the box lot I was after.

I still have one more I have to do a little more checking on too. I found a pair of pipe tongs marked "Brown Patent". I did find the patent, and the pipe tongs match the design, but they look so similar to all the other pipe tongs that I'm not sure they are anything special.

[rusty]

I think the factory itself became the new home of the Standard Typewriter company (later smith/corona) in 1909 or 10, so likely just an office was left (they seem to have had an office and a factory). Don't know what they were planning to make with no factory...

There were so many business failures just before and during the depression that they were no longer newsworthy, thus they are hard to find information on :(

[rustcollector]

Yep, I was trying to find anything after 1908, and have yet to see anything about them as a viable enterprise after that. But also nothing to say they weren't. They more or less quietly slipped away, at least as far as paper trails go.

[turnnut]

have you tried to research the obits for the inventor/company president ?

sometimes they dwell on the persons history/background.

just a thought.  good luck.

[rustcollector]

I haven't yet, but this Pike guy was a big deal in Groton  politics and such that they might not even mention the carriage co. But I'm certainly going to look into it.