In a prior post, I touched briefly on the manufacture of shoe making related kits and machines in East Brimfield, just a short distance up East Brimfield Road from Holland. After a little more research, I thought I would add this information to the blog, even though it is technically not Holland related (although the title of the blog officially is History of Holland, Massachusetts and surrounding towns).
The factory at East Brimfield, late 1800s or early 1900s. Note the church, which is the only building in the photo still standing. The building had been taken over by Snell Manufacturing in the 1880s for the production of augurs.
As noted previously, in 1856 the factory at East Brimfield, previously a textile factory, was occupied by Sumner Packard, who began manufacturing and selling kits of tools for shoemakers. These kits were made from 1856 to 1865 and, being a short trip up the road from Holland, were undoubtedly purchased and used by many of the new shoemakers of Holland.
The production of shoemaker kits in East Brimfield ceased in 1865, probably due to decreasing demand, and a new business – the production of shoe pegging machines for factories – began under Charles Varney, the inventor of a shoe pegging machine that became widely popular in the large factories of Massachusetts.
Despite the misspelling of Brimfield as Bromfield, this is a portion of one of Varney’s patents for and improvement to his shoe pegging machine.
Varney was born in Sandwich, New Hampshire in 1825. A Quaker, he was educated at the Friends Boarding School in Providence, Rhode Island. At the age of 18 he began the manufacture of shoes in Lynn, Massachusettes, in which business he was quite successful. He removed his business from Lynn to Uxbridge, Massachusetts, where in 1850 he married Abby Taft. They had three children, unfortunately his wife died in 1863. He then married Carrie A. Leland in 1864.
Soon after his second marriage Varney moved to East Brimfield, Massachusetts, where he engaged in the manufacturing of shoe machinery. He invented and secured a patent on one of the first shoe pegging machines used. Varney manufactured this and other shoe machinery and built up a very extensive and profitable business. His large sales rooms were in Boston, Massachusetts.
Pictured below is copies from a trade fair pamphlet in 1865, where Varney won a Bronze Medal for his very first shoe pegging machine.
Varney’s business suffered what turned out to be a fatal blow from the Great Boston Fire of 1872. The fire, which burned uncontrolled for over twelve hours, destroyed 776 buildings across 65 acres of land; losses totalled over $73 million dollars. Included in those losses was Varney’s showroom and nearly all of his inventory of machines. By 1878 Varney decided to move west. He first located near Hastings, Nebraska, where he engaged in the stock business. In 1886 he moved to Colorado and purchased land in Yuma County, finally moving to Holyoke, Colorado where, in 1888, he opened a flour and feed store.
His obituary in the State Herald of Holyoke, Colorado, dated February 4, 1898, from which the information on his life after leaving Massachusetts has been drawn, concludes with the following remarks:
“He was a man of remarkable energy and enterprise as shown by his most successful business career while a resident of Massachusetts. When he became a resident of Holyoke, although advanced in years and a sufferer from poor health, he took rank as one of the most active and enterprising businessmen of the new western town and, even when poor health had rendered him unable to longer engage in active business, he did not lose interest in the success of the business of the town and county and was always pleased to counsel and advise others in what he believed would bring business success. He had a large acquaintance and his uniformly courteous and fair treatment of all with whom he had business relations made for him many friends who deeply sympathize with the family in their bereavement.”
Sources
The image of the East Brimfield factory is from the author’s collection; images of the pegging machine were located online.
Information on Sumner Packard’s shoemaking kit production and the factory in East Brimfield is found in:
Holland, Josiah Gilbert History of Western Massachusetts (1855)
An interesting history of East Brimfield has been recently published, and I highly recommend it:
Mahitka, John, Jr. and Lucier, Kenneth History of East Brimfield and the Lost Village (Lulu Press, 2019)
For early history of Charles Varney and his obituary, see https://www.cogenweb.com/yuma/photos/pioneer/Ford/Varney.htm
For more information on the Great Boston Fire of 1872, see bostonfirehistory.org/fires/great-boston-fire-of-1872
History of Holland, Massachusetts 