1873

1893

Niles & Co. was formed by brothers James and Johnathon Niles in 1845. They made steam engines and locomotives and, later in the 1860s, lathes. In 1869 the brothers sold the firm and the purchasers, James W. Gaff, Alexander Gordon, and George A. Gray, renamed and operated the company as Niles Tool Works. The company moved to Hamilton, OH in 1873 and specialized in machines for the railroad industry, producing some of the largest machine tools at the time. They incorporated in 1873 and Gray left in 1877 to form the G. A. Gray Co. In 1899 Niles Tool Works was part of the merged that created the massive Niles-Bement-Pond Co., a firm that was not equaled in size. The Hamilton operations operated as the Niles Tool Works Co., Division of Niles-Bement-Pond Co.

In 1928 George A. Rentschler merged his Hooven, Owens, Rentschler Co. and Niles-Bement-Pond Co. to form the General Machinery Corp. In a series of post-World War II mergers, GMC was transformed into Lima-Hamilton Corp. and finally Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corp. before completing relocation to Eddystone, Pa., by January 1960.

Information Sources

• American Lathe Builders: 1810-1910 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2001 page 110
• American Steam Engine Builders: 1800-1900 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2006 page 168
• Steam Power on the American Farm by Reynold M. Wik, 1953 page 251
• Machine serial numbers from 1920 to 1958 may found at the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corp. (Niles Tool Works) serial number page.
• The American Cane Mill, ©2010, pgs. 218-220