This company was founded in 1885 and incorporated in 1895. Their major product line was paper box machinery, but they also made woodworking machinery; that line expanded in 1903 following a major factory renovation and expansion. That same year they acquired Witherby, Rugg & Richardson, a firm that could trace its roots back to Thomas E. Daniels, who had begun operations in 1834.
There is conflicting information on what happens next. This firm was reportedly purchased by Concord, NH, entrepreneur Joel Sheppard, who had already purchased John A. White Co.; Sheppard then merged the two companies to form National Woodworking Machinery Co. But National was in business by 1920, and we have seen a 1925 ad from Dover Machine Works, so something is not quite right.
That 1925 ad indicated that Dover was the successor to Kidder Manufacturing Co..
Information Sources
- The Massachusetts corporate registry database lists Hobbs Manufacturing Co's first registration as 1895-07-05.
- From 1904 catalog. According to that catalog, they had absorbed Witherby, Rugg & Richardson in March of the previous year.
- The 1904 catalog gives this further history:
The Hobbs Manufacturing Co. has been a successful going concern since 1885, the present corporation dating from 1895, manufacturing an extensive line of Paper Box Machinery. During 1903 the factory building was thoroughly overhauled and a large addition erected, all the old machinery and fittings were sold at auction, new machinery of the latest pattern installed and plans made, in a large way, for continuing the manufacture of wood working machinery as a branch of the general line.
- An ad in the March 1908 Wood Craft says "Hobbs Manufacturing Co. / Established 1860". We have no idea where that date comes from.
- An ad in the May, 1925 issue of The Wood-Worker says that this company is the successor to Kidder Manufacturing Co. The ad also states that Hobbs is a manufacturer of: "Kidder Die Presses, Improved Circular Sawing Machines, Boring Machines, Paper Box Machinery, Lock Washers, Rings, Cotter Pins."