The A. Sanford Logging Tool Co. was established in Oshkosh in 1853. Oshkosh became known as a center for logging tools. In 1895 the Oshkosh Logging Tool Co. was established by a former Sanford employee, Elmer Leach, and sometime around 1906 Leach's firm took over the operations of A. Sanford. In 1911 they also absorbed the Oshkosh Tool Manufacturing Co. and changed the merged company's name to the Oshkosh Manufacturing Co. By 1924 the name had changed again, to the Leach Co., although we suspect that the Oshkosh Mfg. Co. name continued to be used for some time.

Advertisement from the January 1913 issue of Canadian Builder and Carpenter

This website's focus is on machinery as opposed to the tools such as peaveys and cant hooks that were the stock in trade of Oshkosh Manufacturing Co. and its predecessors. However, the A. Sanford Logging Tool Co. made—or at least, put their name on—a gasoline-powered tablesaw with a sliding arbor, a product that was also made under the Oshkosh Mfg. Co. name. The "Eveready Saw Rig" was a portable (by the standards of the era) gasoline-engine-powered carpentry saw.

Information Sources

• The Fourth Biennial Report of the Commissioner of Labor, Census and Industrial Statistics, Wisconsin, 1888—1889 has the following listings:
  • Oshkosh Logging Tool Co., mfrs. lumber and river driving tools. Two buildings—one 2-st. frame; one 1 st. frame; 1 boiler; 1 engine. Est. 1887. Ordered guard on rip saw, railing on stairway, and main door to swing outward. 15 male employees, 0 female, 30 horsepower.
  • Sanford A. Logging Tool Co., mfrs. lumbermen's tools. Two buildings—one 1-st. brick; one 1-st. frame; 1 boiler; 1 engine. Est. 1853. 12 male employees, 0 female. 15 horsepower.
• The Fifth Biennial Report of the Commissioner of Labor, Census and Industrial Statistics, Wisconsin, 1891—1892 has the following listings:
  • Oshkosh Logging Tool Co. Two buildings—one 2 st. frame; one 1 st. frame, iron veneered; 1 boiler; 1 engine. Est. 1887. 19 male employees, 1 female, 30 horsepower.
  • Sanford A. Logging Tool Co. Two buildings—One 1-st. brick; one 1-st. frame; 1 boiler; 1 engine. Est. 1853. 10 male employees, 0 female. 20 horsepower.
• From an ad in the April, 1911 issue of American Carpenter and Builder.
• From a 1911 issue of Telephony:

  Oskhosh Mfg. Co. Succeeds Three Well-Known Names

  The advertisement of the Oshkosh Mfg Co, succeeding the Oshkosh Logging Tool Co., the A. Sanford Logging Tool Co., and the Oshkosh Tool Mfg. Co., as shown in this issue, involves an interesting story.

  It is the story of two companies which have been competitors in the tool business since the old days, one always endeavoring to put out better tools than the other, and both of them succeeding to a wonder extent in constantly putting out...

  Soon after it took into its employ Mr. Elmer Leach, who stayed with the Sanford company until 1895, when he started the Oshkosh Logging Tool Co., taking in with him Mr. C. Nygaard, the general superintendent of the new factory. The new ...

• Catalog "No. 30 / 1913 / Oshkosh Mfg. Company / Successors to / Oshkosh Logging Tool Company / A. Sanford Logging Tool Company".
• Ad in 1915 Carpenter and Builder magazine.
• The web site for the Leach Co. says this about their history:

  Leach Company was founded in 1887, as the Oshkosh Logging Tool Company. The primary product was logging tools serving the then heavy woodworking industry in the Oshkosh area. For the first thirty years of our manufacturing existence, the Leach Company continued to manufacture logging tools as well as expand our market into farm equipment and woodworking tools. We were also one of the leaders in the development and manufacture of portable cement mixing units.

  In 1932, Leach Company started the manufacture of refuse collection equipment. At that time, household waste was picked up in open top vehicles that proved to be very unsanitary. Leach developed the first enclosed refuse collection vehicle (The Garbage Getter) and initiated the nation wide sale of professional manufactured refuse collection equipment.

• Mara Munroe, a researcher with the Oshkosh public library, says, "When the Leach family sold the company to Federal Signal Corp., the logging tool unit was spun off and sold to a small group, which is still making tools as Oshkosh Tool Company, Inc."