Fay J.A.

Early History J.A. Fay & Co.

In 1833, George Page of Keene, NH, patented a foot-powered mortiser— the first such patent granted in the U.S. In 1834 he partnered with Edward Joslin to manufacture his invention; their firm was known as Page & Co. In 1836 Page and Joslin joined with Aaron Davis and Thomas M. Edwards to form T. M. Edwards & Co.

Later that same year Jerub Amber Fay, who seems to have been an itinerant salesman, bought out Page, Davis, and Edwards, and with the remaining original investor, Edward Joslin, formed a new company called Joslin & Fay. In 1842 Fay patented his own version of a foot-powered mortising machine. There are several surviving examples of his design.

Expansion into Connecticut, Ohio, and Massachusetts

Fay formed some sort of association with Caleb B. Rogers of Norwich, CT. Rogers maintained his own business, C. B. Rogers & Co., while at the same time he was director of J. A. Fay & Co.'s Norwich operations. The company opened a Cincinnati operation in 1847 or 1850 under the name J. A. Fay & Co., and they were probably already using that name elsewhere, though not consistently. It seems that the Joslin & Fay name was reserved for the New Hampshire operations, and the J. A. Fay & Co. name was used elsewhere.

In 1853 the company purchased the operations of Childs & Tainter of Worcester, MA, which was making Daniels' planers.

Death, Dissolution, and Resurrection

In 1854 Mr. Fay died unexpectedly while he was in Richmond, Virginia, trying to establish another plant. An 1856 J. A. Fay & Co. ad lists the company's directors: E. C. Tainter, Worcester; E. Joslin, Keene; C. B. Rogers, Norwich; and John Cheney, Cincinnati. Although not listed, Fay's widow maintained an interest as well. By this time J. A. Fay & Co. was one of the largest woodworking machinery manufacturers in the country, if not the world.

In 1861, with business in decline due to the Civil War, the company partnership was dissolved, but a group of agents bought the name and operations, sans the New Hampshire and Massachusetts locations. At that time, the company's Chicago agent, William H. Doane (see below) became the company president. Once they were past the turmoil of the re-organization, the company continued to grow and thrive. They were headquartered in Cincinnati, which increasingly became the gravitational center of the company.

At the time of the 1861 dissolution, the Worcester works were bought by its director, E. C. Tainter, who continued to operate them under his own name. It is not known what happened to the works in Keene, NH. To our knowledge, the only woodworking machinery maker active in Keene at that time was John Humphrey.

Following the 1861 dissolution and resurrection of J. A. Fay & Co. the Worcester firm of Richardson, Meriam & Co. advertised itself as a successor to J. A. Fay & Co. There does not seem to be any basis to this claim, although Horace A. Richardson was a nephew of Edward Joslin, who ran J. A. Fay's Keene operations. Richardson had worked for J. A. Fay & Co. from 1858 through 1861.

The 1860s through 1880s were prime years for J. A. Fay & Co., as Doane led them to expand and modernize their product line and also expand their sales as the country's rail system allowed them to ship further afield. Fay created an impressive portfolio of patents. In the 1880s, however, Defiance Machine Works established dominance in the heavy-industrial end of the machinery business, and crosstown upstart The Egan Co. became a serious irritant and threat to Fay.

Merger with The Egan Co.

In 1893, J. A. Fay & Co. merged with their crosstown Cincinnati arch-rivals, The Egan Co., to form the J. A. Fay & Egan Co. Egan Co. owner Thomas P. Egan became the president of the combined operations, and Doane became director. The merger was not a one-step procedure. It seems that the two parent firms created a co-owned entity, J. A. Fay & Egan Co., but each continued to operate fairly independently for several years. We have seen ads from each of the parent firms as late as 1900. These ads do not mention J. A. Fay & Egan Co., and it seems likely that the machines themselves were not always marked with the post-merger name until after 1900. Thus, a "J. A. Fay & Co." or "Egan Co." name on a machine probably means "made in 1900 or earlier" rather than "made in 1893 or earlier".

The Life of William H. Doane

Born in 1832, William Howard Doane started working for J. A. Fay & Co. when he was 18 years old, and rose to president of the company in only 11 years. When J. A. Fay & Co. merged with the Egan Co. to form J. A. Fay & Egan Co., Doane served as director of that company under president Thomas Egan. Doane received dozens of patents covering a wide variety of machines; it is possible that his name was placed on most patents applied for by the company, regardless of the actual inventor. In his lifetime, Doane wrote the music for over 2,000 hymns. In fact, there is far more online information on his hymns than on his work at J. A. Fay & Co. In 1875 Doane was awarded an honorary Mus.D. degree by Denison College in honor of his musical and charitable work; they also named their library after him. Doane died in 1915, having become very wealthy from his work at Fay, and Fay & Egan.

Information Sources

A 1924 article in the Cincinnati Enquirer gives a history of this firm; it is reprinted on another page.
S. G. Griffin's 1874 book, History of Keene N. H., has biographical information that illuminates the early years of J. A. Fay & Co. A biography of Edward Joslin is reprinted on another page.
Dana Batory's book, Vintage Woodworking Machinery: An Illustrated Guide contains a history of J. A. Fay & Co. and several reproductions of period ads and catalog pages. Some of the history given in Batory's book is somewhat in conflict with the history given here or the other articles reproduced below.
An updated version of Batory's research on J. A. Fay & Co.'s early history appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Fine Tool Journal (volume 56, no. 4).
Searches of the Cornell "Making of America" archive have been fruitful. Both Scientific American and Manufacturer & Builder are available there, and both have had numerous articles on J. A. Fay & Co. and/or J. A. Fay & Egan Co.
Kenneth Cope's American Cooperage Machinery and Tools lists W. H. Doane as a maker, in 1861, of a stave machine. Cope's source appears to be an 1861-01-12 article in Scientific American describing Doane's invention; the article refers inquiries to Mr. Doane, and there is no mention of J. A. Fay & Co. We have seen an 1861 city directory that listed W. H. Doane as the Chicago agent for J. A. Fay & Co., and Doane had supposedly been with the company since 1850. Furthermore, Doane became president of the company later that year. It all makes it seem rather unlikely that Doane ever manufactured his inventions himself. In any event, Doane was one of a group of company agents who purchased control of the company after Fay's widow and partners dissolved the company in 1861.

This week's find is an early foot powered mortiser of the type patented by J.A. Fay in 1842 (I'd love to know how to code the word 'patented' as a link); the patent can be seen here:

http://www.datamp.org/displayPatent.php?number=2425&type=UT

The machine that I found is this

From the patent: "The first of these improvements consists in the manner in which I have arranged and combined the spring latch by which the chisel shaft is turned round, and is held in place, so as to reverse the chisel...

This feature is clearly shown here:

I do own a later model (circa 1860's), of which I have lost the photos; I will re-shoot them. Another is shown here:

which I believe to be a little later than my most recent find. In the above image, you will notice diagonal bracing around the wheel (which moves the chisel in and out); this bracing was never on my machine. Instead, this bracing was achieved by horizontal through bolts in between the horizontal wood members, which are lap jointed over the uprights, then drawn tight by tightening the bolt. I suspect the change to diagonal bracing was made because the former method was susceptible to loosening with humidity changes in the wood.

I also stumbled across an article about dating furniture by how the screws used were made. The screws in this piece are of drawn wire, lathe cut, blunt ends, and the heads were formed on a lathe, rather than hand filed, all of which dates them to around 1845.

So, I am pretty sure that this machine is before 1850, anyway.

The machine is in very good shape, but quite dirty. I believe the finish is shellac, I would like to clean it without damaging the finish, and would welcome any input there.

The iron work has all lost it's finish (it was likely japanned), and is a bit rusty.

I am a little hesitant as to how to care for this piece. I consider it to be of important historical value, equal to any piece of furniture it might have had part in making. Normally, I have no problem with restoring a machine to an as new working piece, but in this case I think a little more care is in order. Again, I would appreciate any feedback.

Source: thkuist