Axe manufacturing in Pennsylvania
Throughout this lengthy period, the businesses endured despite personal illness, early deaths, family disputes, financial difficulties, labor unrest, and fire and flood disasters that often struck axe works.
Three years later in 1828, they moved to Boiling Spring (now Axemann) and built a modern forge on land purchased from Judge Thomas Burnside.
An early "inlay" method inserted a bit into a V-shaped cleft or "lip" in the scarf, welded in a forge, and then drawn using a trip hammer.
[5] An axe-finishing shop at Thomas Mill in Bellefonte was established in 1832 through partnership with Franklin B. Smith, but this venture failed after only a year.
Nearby stands the General Store and the United Methodist Church, built in 1882 and paid for by Mrs. Mann as tribute to her late husband.
While on a business trip in 1876, William III would die tragically in a boiler room explosion of a steamboat on the Ohio River.
Remnants of the works are still visible along the banks of Kish Creek, including portions of a mill race, protective stone walls, and footings of the dam and railroad spur.
Operations in the Mill Hall area were started around 1840 by Willis Mann, who rented a blacksmith shop near Mackeyville and made axes on a small scale.
[24] In early 1849, Robert undertook a project to build an axe factory on Big Fishing Creek at a site owned by Saul McCormick.
In 1866, following the death of three children due to diphtheria, Robert decided to retire to farming and sold the Mill Hall works to James, who wanted to leave Reedsville over a family dispute.
Some production was replaced by agreement with a nearby works in Lamar, the Loveland Axe Co.[29] Fire losses were partially covered by insurance and the factory was up and running again in May 1878.
Growth prompted the next move, construction of a second or Lower Plant devoted to double-bit axes (located in Mill Hall on Water St.).
These arrangements did not survive and in 1892, Joseph was discharged from American Axe and Tool Co. Thomas also quit his position with AAT and put his energies to use in non-axe trades.
Some were loose price-fixing or market division agreements, cartels or pools that often enjoyed only short-term profits due to cheating.
Transformed by improvements in transportation, communication, and finance, numerous corporations discovered that once geographically-isolated markets were now subject to vigorous price competition.
After dismissal from AAT, Joseph moved to Lewistown and set-up shop in an old mill on Water St., near where Kish Creek empties into the Juniata River.
Today, the Upper Plant site along Big Fishing Creek is a grassy field with a parking lot for fishermen.
One would never suspect that this was the site of a substantial industrial complex, but a historical marker in the parking lot accurately recounts what once existed at Mill Hall.
Two days after the fire, the board voted to remove Joseph as President and terminate A.C.[47] Robert Jr. was a general sales manager, but he would leave MET in 1903 and died in Sep 1910 at age 44.
[49] Along with various ownership and management changes, MET continued to produce axes in Lewistown until 2003 when the company was sold to Truper Herramientas, a Mexican concern.
After 175 years of entrepreneurial vigor, all Mann factories in central Pennsylvania disappeared from public view: Axemann (1828–1892); Reedsville (1835–1903); Yeagertown (1840–1927); Tyrone (1881–1890); Mill Hall (1849–1926); and Lewistown (1893–2003).
and on merit alone for your orders compete" (verse in a Mann Edge Tool catalog).Many companies produced axes under aliases or for private brand labels (e.g., hardware stores).
Given all of the mergers, brand-name acquisitions, name and location changes, alias companies, and other marketing gimmicks in the industry, it is often difficult to discern where and when an axe or hatchet was actually produced.
[50] In 1966, portions of Collins were acquired by Mann Edge Tool Co. Its great plant at Collinsville, CT was closed and equipment was moved to Lewistown.
A site on Big Fishing Creek in Lamar operated as an axe works, run by James and Nelson Hayes from about 1841 to 1846.
About 1838 they built a shop on Bald Eagle Creek near Milesburg, and then in 1846 moved to Clinton County and purchased the Hayes Axe Works.
After the fire, the factory may have been sold to a concern affiliated with Joseph Mann and its equipment possibly was transferred to Mill Hall.
The axes were named in recognition of Olaf A. Norlund (1856-1931) of Williamsport, PA, who made a variety of tools and implements for logging, sawmills, sport fishing, and housewares.
After the Trust was formed in 1890, operations were progressively consolidated at Beaver Falls (site of the former Hubbard Axe Co.) and eventually at Glassport.
In 1870, a large plant was built at Chester, with a workforce of 30–40 men and capacity of over 700 edge-tools per day, including axes and hatchets.
