Cook’s Patent Evaporator is often described as one of the earliest, if not “the” earliest evaporators to replace the simple flat pan in making maple sugar. Designed by Daniel McFarland Cook, most often identified as D.M. Cook, his sugar evaporator was put to use in evaporating both cane sugar juice and maple sap. Cook began experimenting with his design in the mid-1850s with his first patent (US20631) received in June 1858.
As early as 1859, newspaper accounts began to spread the word of the improved speed and quality of maple sugar Cook’s Patent Evaporator could produce and by the 1860s manufacturers were placing advertisements for its purchase.
First version of Cook’s Portable Patent Evaporator
Born in 1820 in Mansfield, Ohio, the farm of Cook’s youth included a 1,000 tree sugarbush. With this exposure to the process and methods of making maple sugar in the early part of the 1800s, Cook felt there was a better way. At heart, Cook was a thinker and a tinkerer and it was no surprise that he put his mind to improving and speeding up the oftentimes slow process of boiling maple sap to syrup and sugar. Where Cook improved on the flat pan was in his introduction of a series of continuously winding channels that would push or pull the higher density and warmer sap along through the maze to a point where it could be drawn off as syrup. Cook’s evaporator was faster and used less wood and through the natural process of sap moving through the maze-like channels, the syrup could be drawn off at a density that made it immediately ready for “stirring off” or “sugaring off” into granulated sugar.
Drawing of Cook’s 1858 patent for an evaporating pan (US20361).
His earliest design sat on a portable arch that featured rockers on each side that facilitated making subtle shifts in the flow and level of sap and syrup in the pan. His later improved design that earned him a patent in 1863 saw the evaporator resting on a more permanent brick arch.
As an engineer and inventor, Cook personally never manufactured the Cook’s Evaporator for sale himself, but rather sold the manufacturing and sales rights to a variety of individuals around the country. Cooks Sugar Evaporator was first available only through a number of Ohio firms like Hedges, Free & Co. of Cincinnati; Blymeyer, Bates & Day Co. of Mansfield; and H.W. Wetmore from Akron. Ohio. A few years later, firms all across the maple, sorghum, and cane processing states were making and selling Cook’s evaporator.
Advertisement from 1860 for Cook’s Improved Portable Sugar Evaporator for sorghum and maple sugar.
In 1863, he improved on his earlier patent design by adding a series of drop flues to the bottom of the back pan. Interestingly, these flues ran transverse to the length of the arch, rather than parallel to the arch and in alignment with the flow of heat and gases from the fire box to the back of the arch and up the stack at the rear. The idea was an excellent design improvement although the execution was not as well refined.
Patent drawing for Cook’s 1863 evaporating pan design with drop flues (US37736).
By November 1863, one advertisement from C.C. Post, the first Cook’s Evaporator salesman in Vermont, said there were already 6000 of Cook’s evaporators in use and by 1868 over 20,000 sold. Cook’s innovations in evaporator design set the ball in motion for many more improvements by other inventors and maple producers in the coming years and by the 1880s the Cook’s Sugar Evaporator was already becoming obsolete.
1868 advertisement for Cook’s sugar evaporator sold by C.C. Post out of Hinesburgh, Vermont.
Soon after, other evaporator designs came on the market, such as Cory’s Evaporator discussed in the history of the Vermont Farm Machine Company history. It is especially interesting to note that the engraving image used to illustrate advertisements for Cory’s Evaporator and Cook’s Evaporator by different newspapers in the early 1860s are exactly the same image. Recall however, that the Cory’s Evaporator was not patented until 1861, whereas Cook’s was patented in 1858. Compare the drawing below to the drawing for Cory’s in the Vermont Farm Machine Company history.
Close up of the drawing illustrating Cook’s evaporator in advertisements from the 1860s.
It is probably true that Cook’s Evaporator was his most successful invention as far as the impact it made, but it was by no means his most interesting. “Crazy Cook” as he was sometimes called around his home of Mansfield also worked to invent a “flying machine” and a “perpetual electrical generator and engine.” As he told a reporter from Cincinnati in 1886, this machine could run off its own current and power any machine in the world at no cost to run it.
Image of Daniel McFarland Cook.
As for the flying machine, Cook built a prototype in 1859 that looked something like a 10-foot tall metal bullet or diving bell with portholes, but that invention never really “got off the ground” so to speak. Miraculously that original model was found to still exist and has been preserved in Mansfield, Ohio.
Unfortunately for Cook, he was never able to turn his genius into long term success and later lost his farm and died a relatively poor man in 1897 at the age of 74.
The G.H. Grimm Company was one of the largest and most influential maple sugar evaporator companies of the late 19th and all of the 20th centuries. The company began with Gustav Henry Grimm who was born in Baden, Germany in 1850. He came to new world in 1864 with his parents, settling in Cleveland, Ohio. A few years later as a young man, around 1870 Grimm moved to Hudson, Ohio with his new wife. Grimm came from a family of tin workers, with the 1870 and 1880 census for the Cleveland area showing a number of other Grimms who immigrated from Germany to Ohio also listed as tin workers.
Image of Gustav Henry Grimm from 1987 Rutland Historical Society Quarterly article by Robert F. Moore.
The business of G.H. Grimm & Co. was established for manufacturing the Champion Evaporator in Hudson, Ohio in 1881 with the Champion marketed from the beginning as an evaporator for the making of maple sugar, sorghum, cider, and fruit jellies. In the first year the company produced less than a dozen evaporators. Gustav H. Grimm applied for his first patent in November of 1881 (US254476) for a raised flue evaporator with Horace M. Clark, with the patent formally registered in March of 1882.
Patent drawing from Grimm and Clark’s 1882 evaporator design (US254476).
Over the next few years Grimm continued to make design changes and improvements to his evaporator and as Grimm Company history tells it, the first “real Champion evaporator” was tested in 1883. As the company expanded, in 1883 G.H. Grimm took on W. C. Parsons of Akron, Ohio as a partner. Over the next few years Grimm continued to tweak his 1882 patent with patented (US296743) improvements to various features and accessories to the evaporator as well as a patent (US316893) for the process of folding the sheet metal to form the distinctive raised flues.
1885 Patent drawing from Grimm’s method of folding metal to form raised flues (US316893).
Through the 1880s the company continued to expand its sales and distribution reaching into New England, Pennsylvania, and New York. In October 1888 the company was formally incorporated in Ohio as the G. H. Grimm Manufacturing Co. with an authorized capital stock of $50,000. The first president was W.C. Parsons with G.H. Grimm listed as superintendent.
Advertisement from 1885 for the Champion Evaporator from G.H. Grimm and Co. out of Hudson, Ohio.
Interestingly, there was another, completely unrelated, Champion Evaporator Company that operated in Berkshire, Vermont and later Richford, Vermont about this same time in the 1880s. This company was relatively short lived with evaporators in production from 1882 to about 1887. The history of the Richford, Vermont Champion Evaporator Company will be covered in greater detail in a separate post in this series on evaporator company histories.
Recognizing the need to be more centrally located in the heart of the maple sugar producing territory, in June of 1890, G.H. Grimm secured a lease for land alongside the railroad in Rutland, Vermont and over that summer erected a 120 by 40-foot one-story building. Manufacturing of new evaporators began in the fall and by December 1890 advertising for the company prominently displayed their locations as Rutland, VT and Hudson, OH. By April 1891 the company reported that it had put out 500 evaporators in the state of Vermont.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from 1895 for Rutland, VT showing first location of G.H. Grimm building on northwest side of Pine Street.
With the construction of the Rutland factory, G.H Grimm also moved his family from Ohio to Vermont and built a large, elegant new house at 201 Grove Street in Rutland. This historic home is now listed on the Vermont State Register of Historic Places.
1891 advertisement for Grimm’s Champion Evaporator showing Rutland, VT and Hudson, OH as the locations of their plants.
In the fall of 1892 the Grimm Company further expanded into Canada. On October 28, 1892 Le Prix Courant, a business newspaper in Montreal, Quebec, under the heading of “new companies”, announced the arrival of the “G.H. Grimme Manufacturing Company (Limited)” incorporated under the laws of the state of Ohio with Gustave H. Grimm of Montreal as general manager. Gustave H. Grimm’s younger cousin John H. Grimm, relocated to Montreal from Rutland, Vermont to run the Quebec branch of the company.
1893 advertisement listing Hudson, OH and Montreal, Quebec with an excellent engraving of the Champion Evaporator.
With facilities in Hudson, Ohio; Rutland, Vermont; and Montreal, Quebec the company had solidified their presence in the heart of the maple syrup producing world. The company was producing over 1,000 evaporators a year. In a 1894 tariff inquiry report to congress under the category of metal manufacturing companies, Grimm reported that in 1893 they produced 900 evaporators in the United States and 200 in Canada with an average price for a unit being $100 to $125.
Grimm’s move to Rutland signified a shift in his company focus towards New England and away from Ohio. A few years later the G.H. Grimm Manufacturing Co. formally separated itself from its Hudson, Ohio facilities. In addition, advertisements and publications for G.H. Grimm Manufacturing Co. no longer list Hudson, Ohio as one of its locations after 1893.
1904 advert for the Champion Evaporator Company of Hudson, Ohio.
Charles Bouton purchased the Hudson portion of the company in 1895, after which the Ohio manufacturing company under his ownership was called the Champion Evaporator Company or sometimes the Champion Evaporator Works. Presumably the Hudson “Works” were manufacturing the Grimm-style Champion Evaporator under license or contract for the G.H. Grimm Co., although that is not exactly clear.
The new Champion Evaporator Company in Hudson took a little time to get on its feet when in late 1895 and again in spring 1896 there were reports of the factory in Hudson closing. In August of 1896 it was formally announced that the Champion Evaporator Works in Hudson had been purchased by Bouton & Son. Bouton (sometimes misspelled as Bonton) was a hotel and livery owner in Hudson and had earlier acquired financial interest in the G.H. Grimm Company in 1886. Prior to his ownership of the Hudson Works, Charles Bouton’s association with G.H. Grimm was more than investor. In early 1895 he invented and patented (US546648) a sap pail and cover with the patent assigned to the G.H. Grimm Co. As owner of the independent Champion Evaporator Company, in 1900 Bouton patented his own evaporator design (US647798) in partnership with Clayton S. Bediant.
Bouton continued operation of the Champion Evaporator Company in Hudson until his death in October 1910. It is presumed the company continued under the leadership of his son Clarence Bouton, until his death in 1920. Following a stint in the Navy, Albert H. Schow acquired the company in the early 1920s and managed it until it closed in the early 1940s. As late as 1941, Schow was advertising to hire metal workers for the Hudson evaporator works. In 1942, Schow and the company were listed for unpaid taxes and later accounts in Hudson, OH newspapers suggest the company was forced to close operations in 1943 when supplies of sheet metal became difficult to obtain due to the war effort. In 1979, the city of Hudson rehabilitated the old Champion Evaporator Company factory space and opened it as a series of retail and studio shops, appropriately named “The Evaporator Works.”
Sanborn Map from 1900 showing later location of G.H. Grimm building across Pine Street from the earlier building.
Back to the G.H. Grimm story – business continued to stream in for the company in Rutland and in the summer of 1898 they began construction on a new three-story, 50 by 150-foot building with a spacious basement on Pine Street. Machinery was moved from the old location in the fall and the company was ready for business at its new location by the start of 1899.
Early 1900s Illustration of G.H. Grimm factory on Pine Street. Notice the building dimensions of 50 x 150 included on the drawing.
In 1900, the Grimm Company went through another reorganization when the Grimm cousins decided to split the Rutland and Montreal branches of the company into two independent companies. The Rutland operation became known as G.H. Grimm Company, sometimes just G.H. Grimm, with the word “manufacturing” dropped from the name. While the Montreal firm under John H. Grimm became Grimm Manufacturing Co., LTD., dropping the initials G.H. at the beginning of its name.
Catalog cover for The Grimm Mfg. Co. LTD out of Montreal.
John H. Grimm and his brothers Charles E. Grimm, Henry E. Grimm, and Wendell Grimm formally incorporated in Quebec in 1910. John H. Grimm and Charles E. Grimm continued to run the Montreal company for the next three decades until their deaths with John in 1941 and Charles in 1943. After their deaths, Grimm Manufacturing Co. LTD of Montreal was sold to Sylvan LeBrun and his Dominion Evaporator Company in 1953 to become Dominion and Grimm. A part of the LeBrun story was covered in the earlier posted history of the Waterloo Evaporator history and a later post will cover the history of the Dominion Evaporator Company and Dominion and Grimm, Inc. in this series on evaporator company histories.
Advertisement flyer from around 1901 for the improved Grimm Spout and Cover.
Although the first two decades of the G.H. Grimm Company witnessed many changes in organization and location, by the beginning of the new century things were largely settled from the standpoint of facilities and infrastructure. Gustave H. Grimm had found a permanent home for his family and company in Rutland with the plant on Pine Street and had narrowed his focus to just managing and leading the G.H. Grimm Company in Rutland. While still selling maple sugaring evaporators and equipment designed and patented by G.H. Grimm, the Montreal Grimm’s and the Hudson Champion Evaporator Company were no longer under Gustave H. Grimm’s control or his responsibility.
Reverse side of advertisement flyer from around 1901 showing Grimm Spout No. 1 and the special production Horseshoe Cover, patented by Abbot Augustus Low (US668313).
As G.H. Grimm worked to grow the Rutland company he was fortunate to be chosen by Abbot Augustus Low to be the evaporator and equipment supplier for Low’s massive Horse Shoe Forestry Company maple sugaring operation in the Adirondacks of New York. Low purchased at least 19 large sized evaporators and taps and pails to gather sap from as many as 50,000 trees. Grimm took advantage of the notoriety of Low’s sugarbush as the largest in the world and emphasized in their advertising that Low was using Grimm sap spouts. As noted in an earlier blog post, Grimm and Low also partnered even more directly when the Grimm company put A.A. Low’s patent (US668313) design for a sap pail cover into production. The Horseshoe Cover as it was known, was primarily produced for use by Low in his Adirondacks sugarbush, but Grimm also advertised its availability for purchase by any interested customers.
Examples of Pure Vermont Maple Syrup packed by the G.H. Grimm Company out of Rutland, VT.
It should be noted that in addition to manufacturing and selling maple sugaring equipment, for a period of time in the 1890s and early 20th century, the Grimm company in Rutland also bought maple sugar and maple syrup from producers in New England and New York and packaged it under the Grimm label. For example, in 1898 the Grimm company reported that by June it had shipped 10 tons of maple sugar and 6000 gallons of syrup which was about one third of the volume they had moved at the same time the year before.
One of the sheets of the patent drawing from July 19, 1904 showing Grimm’s sap spout no. 1 and his design for a sap pail cover (US765478). December 1904 patent drawing for Grimm sap spout designs for spouts no. 2, 3, 4, and 5 and sap pail cover (US778031).
The early 1900s saw G.H. Grimm expand his portfolio of sugaring equipment designs and patents (US729330, US765478, US778031) with a series of sap pail covers and sap spouts that were assigned numbers 1 through 5. The company continued to make improvements on their evaporators as well with three additional patents awarded for improvements to designs for sap preheaters and sap regulators (US884272, US962830, US1159213), with the final patent being awarded in 1915, posthumously following Grimm’s death in 1914.
Gustav H. Grimm died in Rutland on December 24, 1914 at the age of 64 from general paralysis. For a number of years following the death of G.H. Grimm, the company operated under the name of the G.H. Grimm Estate with his daughter Nella Grimm taking over management of company at age 36. After Grimm’s death the company continued to provide evaporators and equipment to the maple industry although at times it was forced to protect their interests in G.H. Grimm’s patent designs that made the company’s products popular. For example, see the 1918 case challenging the use of Grimm designs by three former Grimm employees that left the company to form the Vermont Evaporator Company.
Grimm’s evaporator patent drawing from 1908 with updated features (US884272).
Nella Grimm married John Crary Fox in 1923 in New York City. At time of her marriage Nella was described as executive head of the company but was living in Philadelphia and New York. Following his marriage to Nella Grimm, John C. Fox joined her in managing the company until his unexpected death from a heart attack in 1932.
The next 20 years are largely unremarkable for the company as it continued to maintain its market share as one of the five main evaporator manufacturers in the US and Canada. In 1951 Nella Grimm Fox decided to retire from management of the company and sold G.H. Grimm to Robert F. Moore of Rutland and Louis Veale of Montpelier. A few years later, Veale became ill and died in 1958, leaving the company in the hands of Robert F. Moore and his family with each of Moore’s sons working for the company before following separate career paths outside of the company.
Drawing for Grimm’s 1910 patent for a sap preheater (US962830).
Many of the details of the story of the Grimm Company after the sale of the company in 1951 have been told in a nice article by Robert F. Moore that appeared in 1987 in the Rutland Historical Society Quarterly. Here are some highlights of the next 40 or so years.
In 1964 The G.H. Grimm Company buys the Lightning Evaporator Company. (See the history of the Lightning Company in another post in this series.) In 1984, the Moore family sells G.H. Grimm to a group of Rutland businessmen known as the Grimm group. In 1985 the Lamb Naturalflow maple sap tubing company out of St. Bernhards Bay, New York became a subsidiary partner of the G.H. Grimm Company. And finally, in 1989 the Leader Evaporator Company of St. Albans, Vermont, purchased the G.H. Grimm Company and Lamb Naturalflow to become the largest maple equipment company in the world. Leader continued to manufacture the Grimm evaporators for a number of years before new designs and changing technology and health and safety requirements related to the use of lead solder led to their discontinuation. Leader operated the G.H. Grimm plant in Rutland for another 15 years before deciding to moving the majority of their operations to St. Albans in 2005; however, they still use the Pine Street facility in Rutland for a portion of their manufacturing.
The Granite State Evaporator Company was one of the only evaporator companies to come out of New Hampshire in the late 19th century. The company has its origins when Perley E. Fox purchased a tin and stove works in Marlow, NH in 1869. Fox was born in Marlow in 1833, but as a young man headed west to Illinois in 1857 where he worked as a school teacher and professor. He returned to Marlow in the early 1860s working again as a teacher and president of the Marlow Academy and as a daguerreotype artist according to the 1860 census.
Portrait of Perley E. Fox from 1890s.
He entered the tin, stove, and hardware business when he bought out the business of J.H. Fisher in Marlow.; however, it is not clear when he first began manufacturing evaporators for maple sugaring. Perley obtained a patent in 1875 (US165223) for an evaporating pan that was a series of individual pans that were linked sequentially through tubular connectors placed in an alternating formation, effectively forming a sort of baffle or zig-zag pattern of flow of sap and syrup through the pans.
Drawing of evaporating pan patent (US165223) awarded to Perley E. Fox in 1875.
Advertisements from as early as 1879 referred to Perley’s evaporator as the Granite State Evaporator. By the 1890s the illustrations for the Granite State Evaporator Company show it as large flat pan with divided compartments resting on a portable steel arch. Perley also patented his own sap spout (US283593) in 1883 that was a hookless style formed from rolled sheet metal in a tubular design.
Drawing for Perley E. Fox’s patent (US283593) from 1883 for a rolled sheet metal sap spout.
Perley reportedly retired from the hardware and tin business in 1892 to devote his time to farming, but it wasn’t the end of his evaporator company. In fact, the Granite State Evaporator Company continued to operate and manufacture evaporators well after that time. Perley was noted as an exhibitor of his evaporator at a number of fairs and agricultural expos in the region after 1892 and his name continued to be associated as the owner of the company in the next couple of decades.
Illustration of the Granite State Evaporator and portable steel arch, ca. 1898.
The company reached out beyond the range of New England maple sugar producers to the midwestern farm states to sell devices similar to small evaporators or finishing rigs that they called “feed cookers” and “water heaters”. These large deep flat pans sat on metal arches and were marketed as a universal tool for all your boiling needs on the farm, be they heating water and food to feed animals, or preserving foods or making jellies. The Granite State Evaporator Company employed a special salesman based out of New York City to help promote their feed cookers. By the late 1890s, Frank E. Morrison was listed as the company president and advertising agent and maintained a sales office in Temple Court on Beekman Street in New York City.
Advertisement from 1895 for the Granite State Evaporator Company.1897 advertisement for the Granite State Feed Cooker and Water Heater, a piece of equipment handy on the farm that was similar in design and manufacture as a maple sap evaporator.
Morrison moved on to another company by the early 1900s, but the Granite State Evaporator Company continued to manufacture evaporators and advertise to maple sugar makers in New England newspapers for a few more years. When the company stopped production is not exactly clear.
In his later years, Perley represented Marlow as a member of the New Hampshire legislature in 1903 and 1904. In August 1916, a fire in Marlow destroyed a number of buildings including the evaporator factory. Newspaper accounts of the fire described the building for the Granite State Evaporator Company as owned by Perley Fox; however, it was not clear if the company was in active production. Following the fire and the destruction of the company factory, Perley Fox was listed as a locksmith at the age of 86 in the 1920 census. He died of pneumonia in 1929 in a nursing home in Westmoreland, NH.
The lesser known Keystone Evaporator was a product of Sproul Hardware and Manufacturing Company out of Delevan, New York. James B Sproul & Sons opened a hardware store in Delevan, New York around 1902 and along with hardware goods they began manufacturing maple sugar equipment including evaporators of various sizes and syrup finishing rigs.
Portrait of James B. Sproul, founder of the Sproul Hardware and Manufacturing Company in Delevan, NY.
Prior to settling in the Delevan area, Sproul and his family tried their hand at farming for a few years in Ashtabula, Ohio and before than he was in the dry goods business in Springs, Pennsylvania. Both of J.B. Sproul’s two sons, Clyde Robert Sproul and James Fay Sproul, were a part of the hardware and manufacturing business from its very beginning and carried the manufacturing portion of the business forwards after the death of their father J. B. Sproul in 1917.
Portion of a Sproul Manufacturing Company sales brochure featuring the Keystone Evaporator, circa 1910-1915.
In 1909 Sproul & Sons expanded their production operations, constructing a new building in Delevan specifically dedicated to manufacturing maple sugaring evaporators. At that time, they also posted advertisements in the Buffalo, NY area looking for experienced “tinners”.
The primary product of their maple sugaring manufacturing efforts was called the Keystone Evaporator, which was a flat-bottomed set up with multiple pans on an iron arch. A particularly unique feature of the Keystone Evaporators was a series of horizontal tubes built into the back pan to serve as a kind of sap pre-heater. The smaller model called the Keystone Junior featured vertical tubes in the rear pan that were referred to as a cupped heater.
Image of the horizontal tubes in the deeper sap heater pan at the rear of the Keystone Evaporator cropped from Sproul Manufacturing Company sales brochure.
In the 1930s, the Sproul Manufacturing Company added another evaporator to their line up which they called the Cyclone Evaporator that featured a back pan with deep flues, a middle pan with shallower flues, and a flat-bottomed front or syrup pan.
1934 advertisement for Sproul Hardware and Manufacturing Company’s Cyclone Evaporator.
Sproul Manufacturing offered a full-complement of maple sugaring supplies and equipment including the Vermont sap spout made by the Vermont Evaporator Company and patented by Willis. They produced their own sap gathering and storage tanks and their special Keystone sap pail. The sap pail cover they offered was made in the design patented by Augustus H. Todd of Griffin’s Corners, New York.
Patent drawing for A.H. Todd’s 1884 design for a sap bucket cover (US302604) sold by Sproul Manufacturing Company.
By 1915, J.B. Sproul appears to have retired from the business and left it in the hands of his sons. In 1916, they sold the brick and mortar hardware store and the two sons instead focused their attention on manufacturing sugaring equipment. This continued through the 1920s, 1930s, and into the 1940s.
It is not clear when exactly the Sproul Manufacturing Company stopped manufacturing and selling evaporators, but it was probably sometime in the mid-1940s. The older of the two sons, Clyde R. Sproul, passed away in 1946 and it appears that the company was transferred to bank ownership in 1950. The younger son Fay Sproul himself passed away in 1957.
Image of reverse side of Sproul Manufacturing Company sale brochure featuring sugar making supplies.
June 1866 advertisement from the Hartford Courant promoting sale of Cory’s Sugar Evaporators by the Hartford Sorghum Machine Co.
The Vermont Farm Machine Company began life in Hartford, Connecticut as the Hartford Sorghum Machine Company where under license they manufactured the Cory’s Sugar Evaporator, sometimes spelled Corey.
Patented by Christopher Cory (US33238) in September 1861, this metal pan featured a bottom formed into crimped ridges, an early version of shallow flues, that increases the surface and heating area of the sap, leading to more rapid boiling. These evaporator pans came in lengths ranging from 6 feet to 15 feet and were placed on a permanent brick arch.
The Hartford Sorghum Machine Company was formally incorporated in May 1866 under the leadership of James B. Williams of Glastonbury, CT. As President, Williams came to the company not as a metal worker or sugar maker but as a successful businessman and maker of soaps. Williams was also an active investor in a variety of manufacturing businesses in the Glastonbury area.
Portrait of James B. Williams, one the founders and first president of the Hartford Sorghum Machine Co.
Initially marketed as an evaporator for making sugar from sorghum, by the end of 1868 the Hartford Sorghum Machine Company was also advertising the Cory Patent Evaporator for boiling maple sap and making maple sugar. In 1868, they also were promoting the use and sale of the Guild Sap Regulator, patented by J.H. Guild in 1867.
Patent drawing of J.H. Guild’s water cut-off, sold as a regulator for sap levels in evaporators by the Hartford Sorghum Machine Co.
In July 1868, it was announced that the Hartford Sorghum Machine Company was setting up a Branch Office and Manufactory in Bellows Falls, Vermont. With J.B. Williams as president and F.G. Butler of Bellows Falls as secretary, the company would begin building a manufacturing plant for production of evaporators for maple sugar makers. The company hoped to have produced and sold 1000 of the evaporators by November of that year. The Cory’s evaporator was proved to be popular and maple sugarmakers that adopted the Cory’s Evaporator reported doubling their production over traditional flat pans.
James B. Williams and the company were not afraid to adopt the ideas of other evaporators and continued to work to improve their design. In early 1869, the company reported that its evaporator combined the features of Corey’s, Cook’s, and Harris’ patent evaporators, all of which they had licenses to manufacture. By June 1869, James B. Williams had obtained a patent on his own evaporator design (US 91890) along with a patent on a machine (US91889) specifically designed for forming the crimped metal corrugations featured in his evaporator design.
In 1871, a group of men led by James B. Williams and Francis G. Butler of Bellows Falls, purchased the Bellows Falls interests of the Hartford Sorghum Machine Company and began doing business as the Vermont Farm Machine Company. Also in March 1871, F.G. Butler obtained a patent on his own evaporator design (US112539) that featured a series of dampers in the fire box of the arch that permitted greater control of heat on the finishing pan, in this case, located at the rear of the evaporator. Although Butler was the patentee, this patent was assigned to himself and to James B. Williams. Butler had another patent associated with evaporator design in 1871 (US116803) but it does not appear to have been assigned to the company or put into use in their evaporators.
Later that same year, 1871, they began referring to their evaporator for boiling map sap as simply the “Improved Evaporator.” On February 15, 1873 the Vermont Farm Machine Co. of Bellows Falls was formally incorporated in the state of Vermont for the manufacture of mowing machines, horse rakes, maple sugar evaporators and other agricultural implements with a capital stock of $25,000 with F.G. Butler as president and J.B. Williams as a member of the board of directors. J.B. Williams continued his successful soap business in Connecticut which lasted into the 1950s.
Early 1870s advertisement for the “Improved Sugar Evaporator” offered by The Vermont Farm Machine Co. of Bellows Falls.
As the “farm machine company” name implies, the company was beginning to diversify its manufacturing line beyond evaporators to include cream separators and other farm implements and in 1877 brought on Nathan G. Williams to take over and re-organize the Bellows Falls operations. There is no known relation between Nathan G Williams and J.B. Williams. Prior to joining the firm in Bellows Falls, Nathan G. William, who was originally from Pomfret, Connecticut, had been in the mercantile business in Missouri, Iowa, and Chicago, Illinois since 1873. Through the 1880s, the company continued to expand its sales to the maple industry and began to offer a portable iron arch to go under the regularly featured Improved Evaporator.
Portrait of Nathan G. Williams.
In November 1890, Lorin R. Tabor of Westford, Vermont applied for two patents for improvements to sap evaporators. Tabor was awarded patents in 1891 (US457097) and 1892 (US471229) which were both assigned to the Vermont Farm Machine Co. Most notable of his patents was a design where one could reverse the sap flow in the evaporator pan to combat the build-up of niter or what was at that time called malic acid or malate of lime.
1891 patent drawing for L.R. Tabor’s idea for a process of evaporating syrup that offers alternating draw off valves to permit the reversal of the flow of sap through the evaporator partitions.
It was in the fall of 1890 that the Vermont Farm Machine Co. began marketing their new Williams Bellows Falls Evaporator, combining features of the Tabor patents along with the earlier Williams, Cory, Cook, and Butler patents. This evaporator was a single contiguous pan, so there was no need for siphons to connect separately. It is interesting to note that drawings of the Williams Bellows Falls Evaporator, from as early as 1890, display a covered evaporator pan and the use of a steam hood, an innovation that would not become popular or widely adopted in the industry for another 50 years.
Advertisement from the Vermont Watchman in 1891 showing the newly introduced Williams Bellows Falls Evaporator with a full length steam hood.
The Vermont Farm Machine Co. became fully engaged with the maple industry in the 1890s offering a full lineup of maple sugaring equipment ranging from evaporators and pans to sap spouts, pails, gathering and storage tanks, to sugar molds and syrup cans catalogs with an eye-catching pink cover. The Vermont Farm Machine Co. advertisements were also memorable for having high quality detailed drawings with cut-away profiles showing the interior and exterior of their evaporators and sugar houses.
Early 1900s example of the distinctive pink cover common to many of the Vermont Farm Machine Co. catalogs for evaporators and sugaring supplies at this time.
Famous sugarmaker, George H. Soule even lent his name and endorsement to the Williams Evaporator in print in July 1897, when as a prominent farmer and sugarmaker in Franklin County, his use of the evaporator earned him the award of first premium for syrup at the Vermont Sugarmakers meeting earlier that year. Soule further aided the Vermont Farm Machine Co. in improving their evaporator design when his first evaporator patent (US635876) was assigned to the company in 1899. A few years later, Soule would be patenting another evaporator and himself becoming a successful businessman and manufacturer of evaporators and sugaring equipment. A history of the Soule company will appear in a later blog post.
1897 advertisement from the St. Johnsbury Caledonia featuring a testimonial from future evaporator inventor and manufacturer George H. Soule or Fairfield, Vermont.
While evaporators were an important component of their business, the overwhelming focus of production for the company in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was making dairy equipment, most notably the Cooley Creamers. With his arrival in 1877, Nathan G. Williams initially served as the company treasurer, but moved into greater leadership roles as manager and then president. Williams was popular and well-respected in Windham County and throughout Vermont, so much so that he was elected to serve two terms as the Judge Advocate General for the state of Vermont, first in 1904 and again in 1906.
Early 1900s real photo postcard of the extensive facilities of the Vermont Farm Machine Co.
Continued success through the 1890s and early 20th century resulted in expansion of their production facilities in Bellows Falls. By 1907 it was reported that the company had over 720 employees compared to the twelve workers in 1877, and by 1910 operations covered over three and a half acres with multiple four and five-story brick buildings alongside the railroad on “the island” in the Connecticut River.
With the onset of the first World War, the federal government redirected supplies of steel and manufacturing parts to support the war effort. With that, manufacturing and sales of maple sugaring equipment and other farm machinery slowed in 1916 and 1917. Also during World War I, the Vermont Farm Machine Company was contracted to manufacture shrapnel and high explosive shells for the Russian and United States governments. Complications from cancellations and delays in getting paid by the government for these contracts severely hurt the company and it never really recovered financially.
Catalog cover for 1920-1921 indicating the recent inclusion of the Monarch Evaporator with the Williams Bellows Falls Evaporator in the maple sugaring offerings of the Vermont Farm Machine Company. Note that the word Company has been replaced with Corporation, which was indicative of the restructuring that the company was going through during its period in receivership.
In 1919 the Vermont Farm Machine Co. purchased the Monarch line of evaporators and maple sugaring tools from True and Blanchard in Newport, Vermont. The Monarch production facilities were moved from their home in Newport to Bellows Falls and the additional designs and brands expanded the Vermont Farm Machine Co. catalog of offerings to maple producers. For more information on the True & Blanchard story, see an earlier blog post.
Following the end of the war, the company found it much more difficult to obtain materials and skilled labor than before. Creditors became concerned with the company’s request for additional loans and the ability of the company to pay its existing debts. As a result, in May of 1920 a group of creditors took the company into receivership and took control of its affairs. In July 1920, Nathan G. Williams resigned his position as president, treasurer and manager of the Vermont Farm Machine Co. after leading the company for 40 years, although for a short time he was still engaged as one of two court appointed receivers. Disagreements and questionable management decisions by the appointed receivers left what remained of the company in shambles. Production slowed, sales agents left in droves, and by the beginning of 1921 production at the factory had ceased. In 1925, Williams moved from Bellows Falls to Hartford, CT where he resided until his death at age 87 in 1931.
1952 photo of fire in Bellows Falls that destroyed the former Vermont Farm Machine Co. factory buildings.
The closing of the factory was the end to the Vermont Farm Machine Company’s manufacturing of maple sugaring evaporators and equipment and there is no indication that their designs, patents, and brands for maple sugaring equipment were sold or passed on to any other maple equipment companies. The company was never reorganized, and the company’s property and factory were sold to a series of different owners over the following years. A massive fire on November 14, 1952 destroyed the former Vermont Farm Machine Company buildings which at the time were being used by a plastics company, a milk company and a poultry company.
Note: special thanks to Hale Mattoon for sharing his knowledge and research collections related to patent history and the Vermont Farm Machine Co.
The Waterloo Evaporator Company began under the leadership of Sylva LeBrun in Waterloo, Quebec. Born in nearby Shefford, Quebec in 1891, LeBrun opened a hardware store and sheet metal works on Main Street in Waterloo in the 19-teens. By 1919, he was manufacturing his own evaporator and other maple sugaring equipment.
In 1924 LeBrun obtained a Canadian patent for his evaporator and arch featuring a series of widely spaced drop flues. His patent is most notable for the addition of two designs of floats for controlling sap and syrup levels in the evaporator.
Drawing of evaporator and arch from Sylva LeBrun’s 1924 patent (CA240383) application.Drawing of first float regulator from Sylva LeBrun’s 1924 patent (CA240383) application.Drawing of second float regulator from Sylva LeBrun’s 1924 patent (CA240383) application.
LeBrun expanded his hardware and manufacturing business in the early 1930s bringing on Claude Lussier, a younger partner. Claude Lussier was born in 1916 to a mother with a maiden name of LeBrun, suggesting that the men were related in some way. Sylva LeBrun and Claude Lussier were described as next door neighbors and Lussier took on the role of god-parent to one of LeBrun’s children, further demonstrating the closeness of their business and family relationships.
1940 Sherbrooke Daily Record advertisement from for LeBrun-Lussier Sugar Evaporator.
The 1930s were tumultuous times for LeBrun. In 1934 a fire destroyed a large historic barn at his farm south of Waterloo. In 1935 he ran for a seat in the national assembly as a conservative; however, he lost that election. Still wishing to get into politics, in 1937 he was elected mayor of the village of Waterloo, a seat he held until 1941.
In January 1940, Sylva LeBrun broke away from the hardware and manufacturing business in Waterloo and opened a new business called the Dominion Evaporator Company in Montreal. He established the company on Le Devoir Avenue and soon after relocated with his family to Montreal. Following the death of Charles E. Grimm in 1943, LeBrun purchased the Grimm Manufacturing Company of Montreal in 1953, forming Dominion & Grimm, Incorporated. The history of Dominion & Grimm will be covered in another blog post.
Advertisement from 1945 for Lussier & Sons featuring the LeBrun & Lussier Evaporator.
With LeBrun leaving for Montreal, Claude Lussier took control of the Waterloo hardware and manufacturing company and by 1945, it was called Lussier & Sons, or Lussier et Fils in French. Although the differences int the designs are not clear, the company continued to sell a “LeBrun” model and a “Lussier & Sons” model of evaporators.
1964 advertisement from the Sherbrooke Daily Record for Societe Ares Ltee, formerly Lussier & Sons.
Lussier & Sons continued in business until 1952 when they sold the hardware store and evaporator company to Raymond Ares and his son Andre Ares. For a few years, the Ares family continued to operate under the name of Lussier & Sons selling the Lussier & Sons and the LeBrun evaporators.
By 1964 Raymond and Andre Ares had changed their company name to Societe Ares Ltee but continued selling the Lussier & Sons model of evaporator. In time, Andre Ares took over management of the company following the death of Raymond in 1975 and until it was sold to Ernest Bieri in 1982. Bieri had begun working for Ares and the company as manager in 1979. It appears that following the death of Raymond the company dropped the name of Societe Ares Ltee and began to refer to itself as l’évaporateur Waterloo by early 1976, with a note that it was previously Ares.
Waterloo Evaporators catalog cover, circa 1982.
In 1996 Waterloo Evaporators, Inc. combined forces with Small Brothers to form one company Waterloo/Small Incorporated which continued to be run by Bieri. (see Small Brothers company history post). Then in 2001 Waterloo/Small Inc. was sold to Lapierre Equipment, Inc. to form the largest Canadian manufacturer of maple syrup equipment and supplies.
In August 1916, three men started the Vermont Evaporator Company in North Clarendon, Vermont, a small community south of the city of Rutland. These men were Robert H. Moroney, Gus W. Fish, and Thomas J. Ford. All three men had been employed at the G.H. Grimm Company in Rutland and decided to break off and start their own maple supplies company.
From the beginning they intended to manufacture and provide a full range of maple sugaring supplies from evaporators, to gathering tanks to pails and spouts. Their first factory occupied a 34 x 70 foot, one-story building near the North Clarendon railway station. They employed 10 men in manufacturing duties and five men as a travelling sales force that ranged from Ohio to Maine. In addition to manufacturing and sales of maple equipment, the company also bought and sold bulk maple syrup.
Image from inside an early Vermont Evaporator Company maple sugaring guide showing their round gathering tank and sap spout.
While the company started off strongly, things began to get difficult a couple of years later. In April 1918, representatives of the G.H. Grimm estate (Grimm dies in December 1914) sued Moroney, Fish, and Ford for patent infringement in the manufacturing of maple sugaring spouts that were too similar to sap spouts patented by G.H. Grimm in 1903 and 1904. The claim argued that while employed with the Grimm Company, Fish (for 10 years as a mechanic), Ford (for 5 years as a salesman), and Moroney (for 5 years as a stenographer and salesman), the men learned the details of the design and manufacturing process of the Grimm spouts. In addition, they allegedly took advantage of their access to Grimm’s customer lists in establishing their own business. The lawsuit sought to enjoin the Vermont Evaporator Company from producing similar sap spouts and to determine what profits had been made in their two previous years of producing and selling the spouts.
Not deterred by the lawsuit against them, in July 1918 the company moved to Rutland from its building in North Clarendon. In Rutland they leased space in the Vermont School Seat Supply Company building on Strongs Avenue. Later that same year Moroney, Fish, and Ford formally incorporated the Vermont Evaporator Company with a capital stock of $50,000.
Despite their best efforts, the new evaporator company was unable to meet its financial obligations and filed for voluntary bankruptcy in May 1920. By the time of the bankruptcy, G.W. Fish had left the company and it was in the hands of Moroney and Ford. A series of trustees were assigned to oversee the bankruptcy proceedings and the company continued in operation, albeit a bit bruised.
The level to which the Vermont Evaporator Company continued to operate following their bankruptcy filing is unclear. News reports indicate that there was a small work force in place at the company in March 1921 when a coal car came off the railroad tracks adjacent to the building housing the evaporator company, crushing the brick walls and windows and shifting the building about a foot off its foundation. To make matters worse, in April 1921 the corporation lost its charter for non-filing or non-payment of its state taxes. In May of that year the patent infringement case was scheduled to go before a federal equity judge; however, the results of that equity ruling are not known. Chances are good that, with their limited resources resulting from the bankruptcy filing in the previous year, they settled the case with the Grimm estate out of court.
The company suffered another setback in April 1923 when a fire started in a nearby building in Rutland and spread to the evaporator company and other buildings. The destruction decimated their factory building, leaving R.H. Moroney and T.J. Ford with losses and damages totaling $44,156.26.
Following the losses of the April fire, the Vermont Evaporator Company left Rutland, Vermont and re-opened for business in St. Regis Falls, New York. In November of 1923 a new Vermont Evaporator Company of New York was incorporated with T.J. Ford as President and R. H. Moroney as Vice-President. A new factory was soon under construction on Main Street in St. Regis Falls with a full assembly of automated metal working presses, shears, and brakes delivered and installed. Metal workers and mechanics from Vermont were brought on board as were a group of 10-15 local workers.
With its move to New York and greater access to markets outside of New England, the Vermont Evaporator Company continued to expand its production and sales through the late 1920s and into the 1930s. Unfortunately, fire struck again, damaging the company offices in May 1937 and again in December 1938. With the setbacks from the fires and a desire to consolidate their facilities and expand their manufacturing space the company opted to move again, this time from St. Regis Falls in Franklin County to Ogdensburg in St. Lawrence County, New York. By the time of this move, Thomas J. Ford had moved on from his leadership role and the company was solely under the direction of Robert H. Moroney.
In August 1941 the Vermont Evaporator Company leased the three-story brick Mercantile building on Crescent Street near the river in the older part of Ogdensburg. By November the company was open for business in its new space and by January the following year, it had begun shipping evaporators out by rail.
Vermont Evaporator Company maple utensils catalog with an image of “The Famous Vermont Evaporator” on the cover.
The Vermont Evaporator Company was also a buyer of bulk maple syrup, taking in hundreds of 55-gallon metal drums full of syrup each year. Through the 1940s and 1950s, the Vermont Evaporator Company was described as the largest packer of maple syrup in New York state. Their location in St. Lawrence County, New York was advantageous to their business as syrup packers, since St. Lawrence County maple producers traditionally made the most syrup of any county in New York and New York was most often the second highest producing state in the U.S.
Business continued with little change through the 1950s and 1960s; however, in the early 1970s the city of Ogdensburg introduced an urban renewal plan that required demolition of the older manufacturing buildings near the river, including the block that included the Vermont Evaporator Company. In 1972 the city moved forward with their plans using the powers of eminent domain to force R.H. Moroney to sell the Vermont Evaporator Company building. Demolition was planned with a June 1 deadline to vacate the buildings.
Cover of a Vermont Evaporator Company catalog showing their factory building in Ogdensburg, New York. Sadly, this building has long since been demolished.
Although there was great disagreement and legal wrangling over the details and final price paid for the buildings, R.H. Moroney realized that things were coming to an end for the Vermont Evaporator Company in Ogdensburg. In anticipation of the loss of his building and the adverse effect it would have on the company, Moroney sold the Vermont Evaporator Company to the Leader Evaporator Company of St. Albans, Vermont in the spring of 1972 with the sale announced in the July 1972 issue of the Maple Syrup Digest. Following the sale of the Vermont Evaporator Company to the Leader Evaporator Company, R.H. Moroney retired from the maple business before passing away in 1982.
Leader continued to manufacture and feature the Vermont Evaporator in its line-up of evaporators for many more years. Eventually improved technology, along with health and safety requirements to eliminate lead in their products forcing a shift from soldered seams to welded seams, led the company to introduce new evaporator designs and replace many of their legacy models and brands, including the Vermont Evaporator.
There happens to also be a modern Vermont Evaporator Company located in Montpelier, Vermont that makes excellent backyard sap evaporators employing small flat pans and barrel stoves. This modern Vermont Evaporator Company only shares a name with the company described in this blog post and is not affiliated with the company that was run by Robert Moroney for so many years.
The beginnings of the True & Blanchard Company date back to 1844 when William W. True, at the young age of 22 opened a tin shop in Newport, Vermont. In time the small shop took on a wider range of business and services. With the addition of E.C. Blanchard in 1886 and the purchase of the stock and storefront of another existing hardware merchant in Newport, True & Blanchard Co. became a full-service hardware store. In 1894 the firm added another partner in the arrival of J.R. Akin.
As a hardware concern, True & Blanchard carried and sold a variety of maple sugaring tools and equipment and as early as 1890 were advertising as agents for the sale of the Bellows Falls patent evaporator.
1891 advertisement from the North Troy Palladium newspaper showing True & Blanchard as sales agents for other evaporators including the Bellows Falls Pattern Evaporator
In 1893 they began to manufacture their own evaporator and arch under the label Monarch Evaporator designed by W.W. True. The Monarch name was adopted as their brand name for maple sugaring equipment.
1897 advertisement from the North Troy Palladium.
Under the Monarch name they also designed and sold their own hauling tank, storage tank, sap pails and pail covers, and carried the Eureka sap spout. In later years they expanded their evaporator line beyond the Monarch Evaporator to include the Imperial Evaporator and the Royal boiling rig.
Page from a True & Blanchard sale pamphlet ca. 1915, note the Imperial Evaporator, Royal Boiling Rig and Sugaring Off Outfit and the Monarch style Sugaring Off Outfit.
Although E.C. Blanchard left the business in 1906, the company kept “Blanchard” in the official company name. The True & Blanchard company continued to expand over the years, building new and larger facilities in Newport, both for maple sugaring equipment and other company ventures. In 1909 demand for Monarch sugaring tools had grown to such a degree that the company needed more room for production of sugaring equipment and acquired an existing two-story building alongside the Canadian Pacific railroad in Newport. The building was referred to as the Monarch Sugar Tools Factory. Other changes in the company included selling-off the jewelry sales portion of the company and erecting a new brick fire-proof garage in 1913.
Early 1900s True & Blanchard Co. catalog for maple sugarmakers’ supplies.
W.W. True patented (US1096328 / CA156779) his own evaporator design in 1914 which featured a tapered flue pan that tilted on a hinge at the mid-point when the flue pan met the front pan. This design became known as their Imperial Evaporator.
W.W. True 1914 patent for hinged flue pan and evaporator, US1096328.
In August 1914 the leadership of True & Blanchard Co. formally incorporated the Monarch Evaporator Company in the state of Vermont as an independent subsidiary of the True & Blanchard Co. with W.W. True as president and J.R. Akin as vice president.
The True & Blanchard Company was doing so well in the hardware business through the teens that they chose to focus their efforts on the hardware and retail side of things and divest itself of its ancillary businesses like the maple sugaring supplies. As a result, in the spring of 1919 W.W. True and J.R. Akin sold the Monarch Evaporator Company to the Vermont Farm Machine Company of Bellows Falls, VT.
With this sale, the production equipment for the manufacture of the Monarch Evaporator, as well as the other maple sugaring supplies were moved to Bellows Falls. Everett Hunt, True & Blanchard’s production manager for the Monarch sugaring tools in Newport also moved with the production line to Bellows Falls.
Page from 1920 Vermont Farm Machine Company catalog describing the Monarch Evaporator in their product line.
The Vermont Farm Machine Company continued to manufacture and offer the Monarch Evaporator during the remainder of its years of operation before the business failed and ceased operation in 1926. The Monarch name and line of evaporators died with the closing of the doors at the Vermont Farm Machine Company. The history of the Vermont Farm Machine Company will be covered in a future post.
The story of the Lightning Evaporator is a history of a company that started in Québec, before expanding into the U.S. to become two separate companies. The Lightning Evaporator’s unique feature of raised flues began with the invention and patent (CA12270) by David Henry Ingalls of Dunham, Québec in 1881.
Patent drawing for David H. Ingalls Lightning Evaporator 1881 patent (C12270).
Even before he patented the design for the Lightning, Ingalls was awarded an earlier patent in 1878 (CA9528) for an evaporator with slightly raised flues, more like corrugations in the bottom of the pan. His 1881 design, which carried the title of “Lightning” evaporator was known as the first raised flue evaporator and was specifically invented for boiling maple sap and making maple syrup and maple sugar. It is not clear that Ingalls ever manufactured his invention for sale to sugar makers. What we do know is that he sold the Lightning Evaporator’s patent rights to the Small Brothers of Dunham, Québec.
The Small Brothers were originally Reid Paige Small and George S. Small , both born in Dunham, Quebec in 1865 and 1861, respectively. The actual date that the Small Brothers began to the manufacture the Lightning Evaporator is not known with certainty. One source says they began production in 1889 while another says 1890. For example, labels on Small Brothers Lightning Evaporators made in the 1980s include the phrase, “famous since 1890.” Around 1893, George S. Small sold his piece of the company to his brother Stephen “Steve” J. Small, and Steve and Reid Small carried the company forward.
The Small family’s Maplewood Farm Sugarhouse.
George S. Small in turn created a maple confectionary company called the Canada Maple Exchange, first operating in Dunham, Québec out of the Small family farm and sugarbush known as Maplewood Farm, before later moving to Montréal. G.S. Small sold his interest in the Canada Maple Exchange in 1910, but continued working for the company before going on his own with Smalls, LTD, in 1918. G.S. Small stayed in the maple products business until around 1927.
Small Brothers’ factory in the old Seely Hotel in Dunham, image from cover of Small Brothers 1896 catalog.
In 1893 the Small Brothers moved their evaporator production into the old Seeley Hotel, a fine three-story brick building on the main street of Dunham, Québec dating to 1865. Also known locally in Dunham as the Relais de la Diligence, the old hotel building now houses a microbrewery and restaurant and other spaces for a variety of shops and services.
The Small Brothers quickly established themselves as a viable competitor in the fast-growing world of maple syrup evaporator manufacture and sales. The Small Brothers also added their own ideas to the design and manufacture of maple syrup evaporators, including a patented (C60447) float system to maintain proper sap levels in their evaporator. Reid joined in the fun of designing and patenting (C92054) his own sap spout in 1905. Business was so good that in 1906 they opened a second production facility less than 20 miles away but across the border in Richford, Vermont.
Advertisement for the Lightning Evaporator from the Small Brothers Manufacturing Company out of Richford, Vermont that appeared in the Burlington Daily News on January 14, 1919..
Seven years later, in 1913, Reid P. Small and Stephen J. Small sold their Richford, VT operation of Small Brothers in Richford to Clarence. E. Whitcomb of Dunham, Quebec and Robert McElroy, an experienced tinsmith and plumber from Knowlton, Québec. Clarence E. Whitcomb happened to be related to the Small brothers as the uncle of Stephen J. Small’s wife Edith Augusta Whitcomb Small. In addition, Clarence E. Whitcomb and Robert McElroy were brothers-in-law, with Clarence E. Whitcomb married to Jane McElroy.
From that point forward, there were two separate, but connected Small Brothers companies that manufactured and sold the Lightning Evaporator, one in Dunham, Québec still under the control of R.P. and J.S. Small , and one in Richford, Vermont under the control of Whitcomb and McElroy. The Richford based company, despite not being owned by the actual Small Brothers, continued to use the Small Brothers Manufacturing Company name in their sales and marketing of the Lightning Evaporator.
In late 1926 Reid P. Small died of pneumonia and two years later his brother Stephen J. Small passed away as well. Soon after, in 1928 the Dunham, Québec Small Brothers Company was sold to Oscar Selby, a local general store owner from Dunham. The Selby family embraced their role as the new owners of the evaporator company and honored those that started it before them by preserving the name of of Small Brothers, Inc.
Drawing for C.E. Whitcomb’s sap spout patented (1154679) in the US in 1915 and in Canada in 1916.
It would appear from that period forward, with new ownership in Dunham, and with no further family ties to connect the companies straddling the border, the Richford, Vermont company ceased to use the name Small Brothers and began to exclusively refer to themselves as the Lightning Evaporator Company. The Lightning Evaporator Company manufactured and sold more than just evaporators. The company manufactured tanks and finishing pans as well and offered a full-range of maple sugaring supplies including their own patented spout. Like other equipment suppliers, Clarence Whitcomb invented an “air tight” spout that he patented in 1915.
Image of Whitcomb sap spout from Lightning Evaporator Company catalog, Richford, Vermont, date unknown.
In 1921 Clarence Whitcomb bought Robert McElroy’s interest in the the company, and Whitcomb’s his son-in-law G. Curtis Moynan became his business partner. Moynan, a long-time employee of the company had married Clarence E. Whitcomb’s daughter Fannie Elizabeth Whitcomb. In 1938, Clarence Whitcomb sold his share in the company to his son Carl Whitcomb, who then took his place as co-owner with G. Curtis Moynan. Clarence Whitcomb passed away in 1945.
Small Brothers MFG. Co. buildings in Richford, Vermont, circa 1920.
G. Curtis Moynan stepped away from the company 1953, selling his share to Carl Whitcomb, who became the sole owner. In 1964 Carl Whitcomb decided to sell their operations to the G.H. Grimm Company of Rutland, Vermont. With this purchase, Grimm continued to manufacture and sell the Lightning Evaporator but moved the Richford production line to Rutland, which included bringing production manager Harlan Mayhew from Richford, VT to Rutland to continue overseeing the production of the Lightning Evaporator. The Grimm Company was sold to the Leader Evaporator Company in 1989. Sadly, the Lightning Evaporator design with its unique raised flues is no longer manufactured by the Leader Company.
Lightning Evaporators logo used in 1980s by Small Brothers in Dunham, QE and Small Brothers USA after division of Small Brothers and Lightning Evaporator Company.
The Dunham branch of Small Brothers Manufacturing Company continued under the ownership of the Selby family, first Oscar, who passed away in 1961, then his son Rowland Selby who passed away in 1985, and lastly by his son Steve Selby. Small Brothers re-established a branch in the United States opening a facility in Swanton, Vermont in 1984 under the name Small Brothers USA. In 1995 it was announced that Small Brothers of Dunham (and Small Brothers USA) had been sold and combined with Waterloo Evaporators of Waterloo, Québec, becoming Waterloo/Small. A few years later in 2001, Waterloo/Small was itself purchased by the St. Ludger du Beauce, Québec firm Lapierre to become Lapierre-Waterloo-Small. With the consolidation with Lapierre, the Lightning Evaporator name and design was eliminated from their production line.
Interests in studying maple history include tracing the development of the maple syrup industry from a simple disorganized seasonal farming activity to an organized and technologically advanced specialized agricultural product. One of the ways to outline that history is through a review of the arrival, departure, expansion, and consolidation of the many maple sugar and syrup equipment and evaporator manufacturers in the US and Canada through the late 19th and the first half of 20th centuries.
To that end this is a brief introduction to my plans over the next few months to present a series of short histories of the most notable maple equipment companies; outlining the major moments in their histories; tracing the beginnings, consolidations and mergers, and in some cases demise of each company.
The list of companies or evaporator brands I plan to cover, in no specific order includes:
– Vermont Farm Machine Company – True and Blanchard – Cook’s Patent Evaporator – G.H. Grimm – Dominion and Grimm – Vermont Evaporator Company – Small Brothers – Leader Evaporator Company – George H. Soule – Waterloo
It is likely that some of my readers and connoisseurs of maple syrup history might have thoughts or suggestions for other additional companies I might want to consider – I am more than open to suggestions for additions. Please send your suggestions through the contact us section of this website. My focus in doing this series is not to highlight the history of individual products, inventions, or patents that are limited in scope, such as a particular model of sap spouts.
Rather, I plan to look at the companies and their founders and leaders that made a broader contribution to growing the maple syrup industry. I am also limiting my period of focus to companies that were formed and in business between the 1860s and the end of World War II (prior to the onset of the introduction of plastics to the maple industry).
