This company was created in 1897 (incorporated in January 1898 in New York State), as a result of the merger between the following:
- F. H. Clement Co., Rochester, NY
- Glen Cove Machine Co., Brooklyn, NY
- Goodell & Waters, Philadelphia, PA
- Hoyt & Bros. Co., Aurora, IL
- Lehman Machine Co., Williamsport, PA
- The Levi Houston Co., Montgomery, PA
- Milwaukee Sander Mfg. Co., Milwaukee, WI
- C. B. Rogers & Co., Norwich, CT
- Rowley & Hermance, Williamsport, PA
- Williamsport Machine Co., Williamsport, PA
- Young Bros. Co., New York, NY.
The resulting company battled with P. B. Yates Machine Co. for bragging rights as the nation's largest woodworking machinery manufacturer. Their factories were consolidated into operations in Rochester, NY; Williamsport, PA; Montgomery, PA; and Aurora, IL.
According to Planers, Matchers and Molders in America, planer manufacturer Globe Machine Co. of Chicago, was acquired by American Wood Working Machine Co. "within a few years" of the 1897 merger that created American. The same source shows a "Money Maker" surfacer and sizer that bears both Globe and American labels. The 1898 American catalog also shows a "Money Maker" planer-matcher, a surfacer, and a power feed box matcher; we are not certain what that implies.
That first American catalog featured one machine attributed to American rather than one of its predecessors: the Automatic Hollow Square Chisel Mortising Machine, a horizontal mortiser. None of the vertical mortisers offered were hollow chisel type.
In 1925, American was bought out by P. B. Yates to form the indisputably largest Yates-American; prior to the merger, each company had about 1,000 employees. Planers, Matchers and Molders in America says that, at the time of the buyout, American faced having to redesign its entire portfolio of planers, matchers and molders to incorporate ball bearing spindles and direct motor drives needed to handle the newer multi-knife cutter heads and higher feed rates.
Name Confusion
The company name, as given in their first catalog in 1898, was American Wood Working Machine Co. Subsequent catalogs, including the 6th, 12th, 13th, and 14th, catalogs, use American Wood Working Machinery Co., as do all the patents we have seen that are assigned to this company. Some machines are labeled with American Woodworking Machinery Co.
Don't get this company confused with the American Woodworking Machinery Co. of Hackettstown, NJ, which was a marketing name for the American Saw Mill Machinery Co. that was used only after 1950. The Rochester-based American moniker was in use from 1897 through 1925.
The American Machinery Co. was founded in about 1891 to make universal miter trimmers. In 1903 the company was renamed to Oliver Machinery Co. to avoid confusion with the much larger American Wood Working Machinery Co.
At this writing there are twentry-two entries in the OWWM Manufacturers Index whose names begin with "American". It takes some care to avoid confusion.
Information Sources
- Numerous catalogs. Each catalog was numbered, starting from number 1 in 1898. They were probably annual, so add 1897 to a catalog number to get an estimated year.