The Clinton Chair Factory 1873

SEYMOUR, SHATTUCK

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 4/4/2017 at 10:58:08

The Clinton Age, Jan. 31, 1873

The Clinton Chair Factory
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This extensive manufacturing establishment has grown up in our city as if by magic. Only a few months intervened between the time the enterprise was first talked of and the day the machinery was set in motion. Mr. H. Seymour, the founder, and until recently the proprietor of the Factory, was previously engaged in the same business in LaPorte, Indiana. Believing that same point on the upper Mississippi River ought to present a good opening for a Chair Factory, Mr. Seymour put himself in communication with the officers of the Citizen’s Association, in this city, and after a brief correspondence, he was invited to visit our city and see for himself. This he did, and upon looking over the ground becoming convu---with the very extensive facilities this point presented for distributing manufactured goods, and ascertaining that the lumber required for his business could be secured here at satisfactory prices, he concluded to set his stakes on Clinton soil. By the most indefatigable labor and the exercise of an almost inexhaustible supply of energy, he got his work in motion, so at the present time the factory employs 38 men in the machine department, and also give employment in bottoming the chairs of between 250 and 300 men, women and children. A few weeks ago Mr. Seymour sold a half interest to Mr. C. E. Shattuck, and the firm of Seymour & Shattuck as now constituted will carry on the business to the full capacity of their machinery.

One day last week we spent several hours examining the modus operandi of making chairs, and we propose now to tell our readers something about what we saw and learned.

In the first place the Factory occupies as eligible a site as could be desired-Situated on the corner of Front Street and Second Avenue, occupying a large part of the block, it has the easiest possible access to both river and railroad. With a side track about to be built it will be enabled to receive lumber and ship goods, by both river and rail, without the expense of cartage and re-hauling. These facilities are quite an item in its favor in competing with other factories at other points. The building is built of brick–the main part being 100ft. x 60 ft., with three L’s attached –one 60 ft. x 25 ft., one 80 ft. x 40ft., one 86ft. by 36ft., and an office 20ft. x 18ft. It will thus be seen that the Factory is commodious and roomy, and a glance at the ? shows everything in the way machinery arranged with the view to the utmost convenience of the workmen. Outside the building is a large space devoted to pilling lumber and other material.

The lumber used is almost entirely black walnut, and it is brought from Moingona, Boone, Maquoketa and the timber country up the river. The lumber is received sawed in planks from 1 and ½ inches to 5 inches in thickness.

These planks are taken into the factory and sawed with a circular saw into the proper lengths for the different parts of chairs. These go to the barrel, hand and slitting saws, then the material as now sawed, which embraces about all the lumber which is put into the chair, goes into the dry kiln, there thoroughly dried by heated air, then brought back to the band saw, where it is sawed into the dimensions required, then the band and jig-saws and shaper form the material into the proper shapes for the chairs. These saws are all curiosities in their way. The barrel saw is round like a barrel and does up its work in a very creditable manner. It is probably the only saw of its kind in this part of the country. The Band-saw is a fine piece of mechanism, answering the purpose of both a band and a saw, and it saw pieces into almost any shape required; if the work to be sawed required turning of very short corners, it is done by jigsaw, which is a spry little chap that seems to be hunting little holes to make larger; it goes in any direction, cuts the material into almost any conceivable shape, and really performs and important part in the chair business.

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The Chair Factory is now manufacturing various styles and patterns of chairs, designated and described by the manufactory as possible.
English Cottage, Brace Arm, Maple; English Cottage, Brace Arm, Walnut; English Cottage, Walnut, carved; Monitor Cottage, Brace arm, Walnut; No. 3; Tremont Cottage, Brace arm, Walnut No. 2; Clinton Cottage, Brace Arm, Walnut No. 1; Tremont Cottage, Brace arm, Walnut No. 3; Tremont Cottage Rocker, No. 1 and 2; Tremont Cottage Rocker, Walnut, No. 8; Monitor Rocker; Oval Back, rocker, plain; Oval Back Rocker, carved; Clinton, Rocker.

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