Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/45

 THE NEW LONDON SCYTHE COMPANY. 33

��THE NEW LONDON SCYTHE COMPANY.

��AT the outlet of Pleasant Lake, in the eastern part of the township of New London, is situated the thriving village of Scytheville. Pleasant Lake, a beautiful expanse of water, two miles long and over a mile wide, nestles at the base of the hill which is crowned by the massive structure belonging to the school known as Colby Academy. The lake is fed by one large brook and springs beneath its surface. It covers an area of over one thousand acres ; and affords a reservoir of water which a dam and a gate permit to be raised ten feet above its pristine level ; and is well stocked with black bass. The water, as it escapes and seeks the lower levels, is used four times in the village of Scytheville ; flows through the towns of VVilmot and Andover ; and is the source of the Blackwater, an important feeder of the Contoocook river.

In 1835 there was a grist-mill on the water power, when Joseph E. Phillips, Richard H. Messer, and Anthony Coll)y formed a partnership for the manufact- ure of scythes, and commenced an industry which soon built up a flourishing village where before was a wilderness. Mr. Phillips was twenty-four years of age. and Mr. Messer twenty-eight, when they commenced business in town, coming from Fitchburg, Mass., where they had learned the trade side by side. Mr. Colby was the silent partner of the firm, but it was due to his indomitable energy that the enterprise was sustained during the financial storm which swept over the country in the early days of the undertaking. In 1842, Samuel Greenwood was admitted to partnership, under the firm name of Phillips, Messer, Colby and Company. N. T. Greenwood bought his father's interest in the busi- ness in 1859. C. C. Phillips and J. S. Phillips inherited their father's interest in 1869, when C. E. Folsom was admitted to the firm. In 1871, the firm was reorganized into the New London Scythe Company. Harry Greenwood was admitted to the company in 1880.

Joseph E. Phillips, the original promoter of the enterprise, died August 28, 1869, at the age af fifty-eight, and was succeeded by his two sons. Richard H. Messer died May 12, 1872, at the age of sixty-five. Anthony Colby represented New London in the legislature in 1837, 1838, and 1839, and was governor of New Hampshire in 1846. He died July 20, 1873, aged 80. Samuel Greenwood is represented in the firm by his son, N. T. Greenwood, and his grandson, Harry Greenwood. Samuel Greenwood died May 12, i860, aged 69 years.

In the early days of the business fifteen hundred dozen was the anniial product. These were painted blue, unsharpened, packed in straw, and disposed of to the traders and farmers throughout the neighboring towns and counties. Mr. Phillips was the practical workman ; Mr. Messer, the business manager. From small beginnings the works have grown to large proportions. The annual product now is ten thousand dozen scythes, one thousand dozen hay-knives, and five thousand dozen axes. These are all shipped by railroad to wholesale dealers in Bangor, Portland, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, California, Scotland, and Sweden. The wholesale agent is Horace F. Sise, 100 Chambers street. New York city. It is a remarkable fact, that the manufactured goods should be shipped to Sweden, from which country the iron entering into the composition of the scythes and axes is originally exported in bars. The competing in Scotland with goods of English manu- facture speaks volumes for the skill of the American artisan.

Two hundred tons of iron and fifty tons of steel, made in England for the firm and imported by them, are annually manufactured in this establishment,

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