From Bagley through Todd - Part Three

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

Note: this is the fourth installment in a series of articles.  Part one is posted at https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2018/03/with-couple-twists.html.

Since the 1840s, the pen and pencil factory founded by Albert G. Bagley had seen many principals come and go, and the dissolution and formation of numberous partnerships in rapid succession.  By 1868, the works were operating under the name of Kurtz & Monaghan, owned by Keller Kurtz and Joseph Monaghan.  In that year, Edward Todd retired from nearby Mabie, Todd & Co. on January 13, 1868:

In David Moak’s book Mabie in America, Moak questions whether Edward Todd was actively involved in the business or whether he was more of the financier and marketing wizard for the firm (although he does note that Edward Todd had two patents to his credit).  There may be some truth to Moak’s claims: sources indicated that after his retirement, Todd took a year off traveling before settling into a decidedly non-pen related post-retirement.  On November 28, 1868, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle identified him simply as a “merchant” at 180 Broadway:

An Edward Todd also appears on the board of directors for the Brooklyn Life Insurance Company on March 12, 1870.  However, Todd wouldn’t stay out of the pen and pencil business for long.

Keller Kurtz retired from Kurtz & Monaghan, effective March 18, 1870, leaving Joseph Monaghan to continue the business alone:

On September 1, 1870, Edward Todd and Joseph Monaghan published notice that they had formed a partnership at 1 Maiden Lane, called Edward Todd & Co.

After this blizzard of successive partnerships, the name would remain the same for decades, although there were some changes in the principals and organization of the firm.  In February, 1884, Edward Todd Jr. and Henry C. Potts were added to the firm as partners:

Joseph Monaghan died on February 1, 1886, triggering a dissolution of the partnership.  The new partners were Edward Todd, Edward Todd, Jr. and Charles S. Freer, and an announcement of the new copartnership was printed in The American Stationer on February 25, 1886, rather than in the local newspaper:

In early November, 1897, Edward Todd, Jr. filed a petition for the appointment of a receiver to dissolve the partnership, owing to the advanced ages of his father and Mr. Freer.  “It is whispered that the firm may be reorganized,” The American Stationer reported on November 4:

The whisperings were accurate.  As soon as the partnership was wound up, The New York Times reported the incorporation of Edward Todd & Co. on February 5, 1898.  The directors of the new corporation were G.E. Avery of Detroit, and Henry E. Avery and Edward Todd Jr. of New York.

Under Edward Todd Jr.’s leadership, the firm continued through 1932 – at least, that’s the best information available.  Although that date is often repeated on various pen sites, the only source I have been able to find for that date is Edward Todd Jr.’s obituary, which states tersely that “his business was discontinued in 1932.”  Edward Todd Jr. passed away on Christmas Eve, 1937:

After winding through this entire history, we now have a nearly complete history of the ancestry of the New York firm of Edward Todd & Co., from its origins with the colorful Albert G. Bagley to Edward Todd & Co.’s demise:

Albert G. Bagley, 1839 (claimed) - May, 1846
Albert G. Bagley (informal partnership - Albert G. Bagley, Gerrit Smith and Edgar M. Smith - May, 1846-November 30, 1846
Albert G. Bagley & Co. - Albert G. Bagley, Gerrit Smith and Edgar M. Smith - December 1, 1846-August 10, 1848
Albert G. Bagley - August 11, 1848-late 1849 (between May and October)
A.G. Bagley & Co. - Albert G. Bagley and Henry Harrison Houghton - late 1849 (between May and October)-December 31, 1855
Bagley, Houghton & Co. - Albert G. Bagley, Henry Harrison Houghton and Charles F. Newton - January 1, 1856-April 19, 1856
H.H. Houghton & Co. - Henry Harrison Houghton and Charles F. Newton - April 19, 1856-
October 27, 1857
C.F. Newton -  Charles F. Newton - October 27, 1857-December 31, 1860
C.F. Newton & Co. - Charles F. Newton, James P. Byrne and Joseph Monaghan - January 1, 1861-December 30, 1863
C.F. Newton & Co. - Charles F. Newton, James P. Byrne, Joseph Monaghan and Keller Kurtz - December 31, 1863-December 31, 1864
Newton, Kurtz & Co. - Charles F. Newton, Keller Kurtz and Joseph Monaghan - January 1, 1865-
May 1, 1867
Kurtz & Monaghan - Keller Kurtz and Joseph Monaghan - May 1, 1867-March 18, 1870
Joseph Monaghan, March 18, 1870-September 1, 1870
Edward Todd & Co. - Edward Todd and Joseph Monaghan - September 1, 1870-February, 1884
Edward Todd & Co. - Edward Todd, Joseph Monaghan, Edward Todd, Jr. and Henry C. Potts - February, 1884-February 1, 1886
Edward Todd & Co. - Edward Todd, Edward Todd, Jr. and Charles S. Freer - February 1, 1886-November, 1897
Edward Todd & Co. (Incorporated) - February, 1898-1932

From Bagley through Todd - Part Two

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

Note: the first installment in this series was posted at https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2018/03/with-couple-twists.html.

On April 19, 1856, Albert G. Bagley, the gold pen and pencil manufacturer who was one of the pioneers in the industry through the 1840s, retired and headed west to St. Louis, leaving Henry Harrison Houghton and Charles F. Newton behind to continue the business he had created, under the name H.H. Houghton & Co.  There would be several other partnerships before Edward Todd appeared on the scene in 1870.

H.H. Houghton & Co. advertised heavily in the New-York Tribune at the end of 1856:

Unfortunately, Houghton died suddenly at the age of 36 on October 27, 1857:

Charles F. Newton continue the business himself for a short time thereafter.  He ran identical advertisements through the 1857 Christmas season, changing only the first line to indicate that C.F. Newton is the successor to Bagley, Houghton & Co.

At some point between 1855 and 1860, a man by the name of Keller Kurtz became a traveling salesman for Newton – or possibly for Houghton or Bagley.  Kurtz was a Pennsylvanian who had opened a “Book, Stationery and Notion Store” in Gettysburg in 1847, which he later renamed the “Keller Kurtz Literary Emporium”:

The “celebrated cheap store of Keller Kurtz” had been selling “Bagley’s unequalled gold pens” since the early 1850s:

Kurtz closed his shop in 1855, selling off all the fixtures and squaring away his debts by December 17, 1855:

He also sold his interest in a “boot, shoe, hat and cap” partnership known as Cobean and Paxton at the same time.  By January, 1860, Kurtz was a full time representative for C.F. Newton, when on January 10, 1860, he narrowly survived a brutal robbery in his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee:

The thief stole a few items at gunpoint, leaving Kurtz tied up in his room, but the perpetrator missed about $2,000 worth of writing instruments in Kurtz’ trunk.  The violent attack made national news, including in Kurtz’ hometown press:

Meanwhile, another character came within Newton’s orbit: James P. Byrne.  After the outbreak of the American Civil War, Byrne began selling “Byrne’s Army and Navy Writing Case,” a writers kit including pens, pencils, ink and paper.  According to this advertisement in the October 29, 1861 edition of the New York Tribune, orders were addressed to J.P. Byrne at 1 Maiden Lane.

What’s interesting about this advertisement is that while the address is the same as Newton’s, and as David Moak noted in Mabie in America the firm of C.F. Newton & Co. was listed as early as 1859 at that address in the New York City Directories, there’s no indication here that Byrne was part of the “& Co.”  I believe published accounts of the existence of a firm by that name was Newton referring to himself in the “royal We,” since Newton still appeared to be acting all on his own at 1 Maiden Lane at the end of 1859, as this advertisement from the December 8, 1859 issue of the New York Tribune indicates:

The earliest reference I could find to the formal organization of C.F. Newton & Co. was on January 4, 1861, when a copartnership notice was published in the New York Tribune naming Newton, James P. Byrne and Joseph Moneghan as partners effective January 1, 1861:

On January 1, 1864, Keller Kurtz officially became a partner in C.F. Newton & Co.:

Byrne left at some point during 1864, moving to Chicago to become a partner in Kearney & Co., a publisher, bookseller and stationer in that city.  Byrne is described as having been “for many years a member of the firm of C. F. Newton & Co., of New York,” but we know the longest he could have been associated with Charles F. Newton was five years – and judging from his side business at 1 Maiden Lane selling Army and Navy writing sets, it looks like his connections with Newton prior to 1864 could best be described as fluid.

In light of Byrne’s departure, at the end of 1864, Newton, Kurtz and Monaghan dissolved C.F. Newton & Co., simultaneously forming a new partnership effective January 1, 1865 named Newton, Kurtz & Co.:

Charles F. Newton retired from the firm on May 1, 1867, leaving the remaining partners to recast their partnership under the name of Kurtz & Monaghan:

And at this point – finally – we reach the part of the story that sent me down this rabbit hole in the first place: attempting to learn exactly when Edward Todd came into the picture.

The next chapter is posted at https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2018/03/from-bagley-through-todd-part-three.html.

With a Couple Twists

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

As Joe Nemecek and I pawed through Ed Fingerman’s stash of Victorian pencils, these two sort of jumped into my hands and refused to leave:

These are both examples of Edward Todd’s typical combination dip pen/pencil, patented by Joseph Monaghan and Thomas Flynn on December 19, 1871, with Flynn assigning his interest to Monaghan:

I’ve written about this mechanism a couple of times before here recently, with a black hard rubber example in “Lownds Redux” (https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/10/lownds-redux.html) and most recently with an example rendered in 14k in “Packing a Punch” (https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2017/09/packing-punch.html).  But each of these has something which adds a bit more to my collection.

The all-metal example isn’t 14k, but the imprint is a little different from what I’m used to seeing, sort of wrapped around the barrel rather than in straight lines:

And the nib, in addition to being a nice big number 5, sports Joseph Monaghan’s name:

As I had mentioned in “Lownds Redux,” David Moak’s excellent book, Mabie in America, indicates that Edward Todd purchased Kurtz & Monaghan in 1871, renaming it Edward Todd & Co., the same year that the patent for the combo was issued – suggesting that this example might have been one of the earliest ones made under the Edward Todd name.

But this one is not as early as the other example.  I was eager to add it to my collection anyway, since red hard rubber examples of anything Victorian are so much harder to come by.  The nib is an Edward Todd number 3, which might suggest later production (or a later replacement nib):

But on closer examination, the imprint was something I had mentioned in “Lownds Redux” . . . something that I had never seen, but would like to:

Patent applied for.

Back in 1871, patents did not include the dates on which inventors applied for their patents, so I found it irresistible to start poking around in an effort to learn with greater certainty when Edward Todd purchased Newton, Kurtz & Co.  In the process, I found some surprising things concerning the genealogy of the New York firms which preceded him.  What developed was a clearer history than I’ve been able to find from any other source . . . one I will share with you starting tomorrow . . .

Note:  direct link to tomorrow's article is https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2018/03/from-bagley-through-todd-part-one.html.

Everybody and their Brother

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

Seems like just about everybody made pen/pencil combos that look like this one:

I’ve shown you ones like this made by Mabie Todd.  Albert Bagley and Hicks also made them, although the Bagley version usually has an elaborate finial at the top.  This one, however, is marked Rauch:

The nib is a “Ruby Point.”  

And here’s another one of these, along the same lines:

The nib this one had was an embarrassing steel nib . . . we’ll just skip that part and get to the second tanagiental relationship to Mabie Todd.  The imprint indicates Kurtz & Monaghan, in addition to the 10 karat gold content:

Kurtz & Monaghan was succeeded by Edward Todd & Co. in 1871 after Todd parted ways with John Mabie.

Small World

Over this last weekend, Saturday morning started as usual with a cup of coffee and a quick check of the online auctions, where I placed bids on two pencils that were closing later on in the day. Then I was off to the Ohio State Fairgrounds for January’s Don Scott Antique Show..

The January show is usually a pretty sedate affair, with the frenzy of the huge November and December shows behind and drab weather. A lot of what you see is the same stuff that was there in the previous two months – actually, it’s mostly the stuff that didn’t sell. Still, I enjoy going – it’s something to do, and I still find a few neat things.

This time, I got something a whole lot better.

It started when I was delighted to see a couple Victorians in a showcase:

When I asked for a closer look, the guy pulled the black hard rubber one out to show me first. With a loupe, I took a good look at the imprint:

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 3, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.