GENEVA TOOL CO.
The earliest connection to the Geneva Tool Co. indicates that a man named Norman S. Caswell, a maker of scythes, handles and such sold his goods from the back of his wagon as early as 1849. In 1854 he formed a partnership with O. H. and J. H Price and worked in a building located on the south ridge of Geneva, Ohio. By 1868 the company was doing well enough to justify the forming of a stock company which was then named the Geneva Tool Co. In addition to manufacturing some of their goods, the company may have applied labels and markings to the goods they resold that had been obtained from other sources.
Axes bearing the Geneva Tool Co. name seem to have been advertised more in Canadian Catalogs than catalogs from US concerns. Axes with the company name appeared in the 1901 Caverhill, Learmont & Co. catalog as well as magazine advertisements for Caverhill, Learmont & Co. during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Caverhill, Learmont & Co. was a Canadian company located in Montreal, Quebec.
The Geneva Tool Co. was one of the sixteen companies that joined together to form the American Fork & Hoe Co. in 1902. Many of the brands owned by those sixteen companies continued to be made and distributed. The axe brands may have been gradually replaced by the brands associated with the Kelly Axe & Tool Works, a division of American Fork & Hoe Co. (later to become True Temper) The Geneva line labels may also have been continued to satisfy marketing arrangements involving distributors in Canada.
By Tom Lamond ©
GENEVA, OHIO 1846-1902
Etched marking used on some axes made by the Geneva Tool Co.
It is believed that when the Geneva Tool Co. became part of the American Fork & Hoe Co. they were also making or added shovels, spades and scoops to their product line. Like many products, manufacturers used their own brands on goods sold through wholesalers. Eureka was one of the three brands of shovels known to have been made at the Geneva plant. The other two were Geneva and Oxford.
Facsimiles of axe labels depicted in catalog No. 40, dated 1901, from Caverhill, Learmont & Co., a Canadian wholesale hardware concern.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Information used in this article has been obtained from a variety of sources including but not limited to:
Caverhill, Learmont & Co. catalog No. 40, Montreal, Canada, 1901.
Observations of axe markings.
The labels and markings were observed in the field, in catalogs and advertisements and/or redrawn based on those observations. All the graphics have all been drawn by the author.