pratt - read
re: america' s favourite screwdriver co. ; the fate of pratt read
pratt read - 46900 - 6 pc. screwdriver set, insulated | sears outlet
donated by pratt, read corporation in 1989. in addition to the papers donated by the company, several individuals donated pratt, read materials in their possession .
pratt, read and co. closed its doors in deep river as a piano manufacturer
deep river historical society, inc. a history of pratt read & co. 1973 .
america' s favourite screwdriver co. ; the fate of pratt read - the garage journal board
pratt, read corporation records, 1839 - 1990, archives center, national museum of american history .
louis e. pratt, master ivory cutter for pratt, read & co. , shows off eight ivory tusks, april 1, 1955. courtesy of deep river historical society hide caption
( left) ivory tusks at pratt, read, imported from portuguese east africa, now mozambique, 1950. (right) a pratt, read worker uses a five - bladed circular saw to cut ivory for a piano keyboard in the 1920s. ivoryton library association hide caption
pratt, read & company. pratt, read & company is one of the oldest companies in the state of connecticut. the firm traces its origins to 1798, when an essex goldsmith and clockmaker named phineas pratt invented a circular saw to cut the teeth on ivory combs. in 1809, george read and his brother in law, phineas pratt ii, dammed the deep river in the nearby town of deep river and constructed a waterwheel to power ivory cutting machinery. read left the partnership in 1816, and phineas pratt ii joined with alfred worthington to manufacture ivory combs under the name of pratt worthington & company. when worthington died in 1830, two of phineas pratt ii' s sons, ulysses and alexis, took over the business, operating as u & a pratt. the name was changed in 1844 to pratt spencer & company, when a new partner was added, and changed again in 1850, to pratt brothers & company. in 1856 the company erected a much larger factory in deep river .
but there was an inner conflict arising in george read, who besides being a founding partner of the ivory manufacturer pratt, read & co. was also a local deacon and founder of the deep river baptist church .
view of an industrial building complex. caption at top left reads :
pratt, read & co. deep river, conn .

records documenting pratt, read and company; its early competitor and later partner, comstock, cheney and company; and a number of predecessor, subsidiary and related companies. other topics include the late 19th century african ivory trade and pratt, read' s production of troop - carrying gliders during world war ii .
in january, ideal took over colorado - based western forge, which was the nation' s largest domestic producer of screwdrivers, ahead of pratt - read .
at its peak, pratt - read was the second - largest maker of screwdrivers in the united states. the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year .
the museum' s pratt - read, now on display in the great gallery, is painted to represent the u. s. navy lne - 1 variant .
in 1863, the firms of george read & company, julius pratt & company, and pratt brothers & company, were merged to form pratt, read & company. the new company further enlarged its factory in deep river in 1866. in 1871, the old julius pratt & company factory in meriden was closed and its operations moved to deep river. though this factory was destroyed by fire in 1881, a larger factory was quickly rebuilt and the company was back in business early in 1882 .
johnson, curtiss s .
from ivory combs to carnegie hall and today: the history of the pratt read corporation .
[ unpublished history in the collection. ]
records relating to pratt, read and to comstock, cheney can be found in a number of other collections, both within the archives center and in other repositories. the wood & brooks company records (archives center coll. # 457) contain significant information on pratt, read' s operations and an important record of production statistics gathered by george wood while he was factory superintendent and taken with him when he set up a rival firm in buffalo. while the ernst moore collection (archives center coll. # 321) primarily documents the purchase of ivory in africa (much of which was ultimately used by pratt, read), it also includes a history of pratt, read written by moore while he was employed by them. the sohmer & company records (archives center coll. # 349) document the piano manufacturing firm that pratt read acquired in 1982 .
moore, ernst d .
history of pratt, read & company .
[ unpublished history in the ernst d. moore collection, archives center collection # 321. ]
e. d. moore, ivory buyer for pratt, read, reclines atop zanzibar' s largest shipment of tusks — 355 tusks weighing 22, 000 pounds, circa 1890 - 1910 .
in the meantime, julius pratt, another of phineas pratt i' s sons, had joined with thomas howard to set up an ivory comb factory in the town of meriden. this firm was known as howard, pratt & company. after howard' s death in 1822, it became julius pratt & company. in 1854, the firm began to produce wooden piano keyboards, which then were fitted with keys of ivory. one half interest in this firm was owned by george read .
the old bridgeport home of pratt - read tool co. on railroad avenue still bears the name and elephant trademark of the company that finally closed in the state after more than 200 years in business .
during world war ii, the pratt read company applied its wood - working skills to constructing waco cg - 4 troop gliders under contract for the war department. this design was utilised during the invasion of festung europa .
though the company pratt, read and co. still exists, it was bought out by the great, great grandson of their chief competitor, samuel comstock who now specializes in the first product samuel comstock ever sold…screw drivers .
e. d. moore, ivory buyer for pratt, read, reclines atop zanzibar' s largest shipment of tusks — 355 tusks weighing 22, 000 pounds, circa 1890 - 1910. courtesy of deep river historical society hide caption
a petition for federal trade act benefits, filed by the company on behalf of workers, is still under investigation, according to the labor department' s website. in march, ideal industries of illinois bought pratt - read' s assets .
when read left his original partnership with phineas pratt ii in 1816, he joined with essex comb maker ezra williams to set up a new ivory working factory in deep river. this new firm was known as ezra williams & company. in 1829, read became the senior partner and the company' s name was changed to george read & company. this company later secured a very important contract to supply ivory keys for the first american manufacturer of pianos, chickering & sons of boston .
the issue facing the former workers of pratt - read is whether they will qualify for trade act benefits. generally, to qualify, imports from countries with whom the united states has trade agreements must be shown to have taken market share from the company .
interesting... . good read. now let' s get back to blaming china and harbor freight for everything. .
largest ivory haul ever in zanzibar 1890 - 1910 (white buyer for pratt lounging on top of the pile). (photo :
the factories and distribution centers are idle and empty, and the last moments in the more than 200 years of history of the pratt - read co. in connecticut have been reduced to shuffling papers at the u. s. labor department over aid to workers .
pratt, read & company, located in the essex area of connecticut, was once the world' s largest producer of ivory products. beginning with the manufacture of combs, collar buttons, and toothpicks, the company moved on to the production of piano and organ key veneers, and soon dominated the field. eventually, it began to produce complete piano and organ keyboards and actions, becoming the major supplier to the american piano industry. the records in this collection document pratt, read & company; its early competitor and later partner, comstock, cheney & company; and a number of predecessor, subsidiary, and related companies. other topics of interest dealt with in this collection include the late nineteenth century african ivory trade and pratt, read' s production of troop carrying gliders during world war ii .
however, george cheney, read’s main competitor, lived in zanzibar for over 10 years and raised at least two of his children there .
pratt - read was one of the oldest manufacturing companies in the state. the business, which started in 1798 in ivoryton, first made buttons and other objects from ivory. it grew into a piano keyboard manufacturer in the 1830s and also started making screwdrivers in that same decade .
with the election of george l. cheney as president in 1892, pratt, read & company began a period of continued expansion. in december of that year the company joined with another connecticut piano component manufacturer, comstock, cheney & company, to organize a midwestern manufacturing branch, under the name of the piano & organ supply company. this firm was to serve the territory west of toledo, ohio, operating in competition with its parent companies. in 1929 pratt, read and comstock, cheney combined to buy out the piano & organ supply company and it was dissolved .
i travel up a road that winds from a landing on the connecticut river into town, with marta daniels at the wheel. she' s a freelance writer by trade, a historian by avocation .
i have always thought of this road as the road of tears ,
she says. between 1840 and 1940, the wagons of pratt, read & co. traveled this same route, carrying hundreds of thousands of elephant tusks from ships up to the company' s factories and workshops. pratt, read was the biggest importer of ivory in the world at the time .
in 1958, the pratt read company, a distinguished maker of piano parts, and recognized as the largest producer of keyboards and piano actions in the world as of the 1970s, moved its piano action division to central, south carolina from ivorytown, connecticut. the home plant continued to produce the keyboards .
most of these records were housed in the pratt read corporation' s ivory museum, located at corporate headquarters in their factory in ivoryton, conn. the museum material was assembled by peter h. comstock, beginning in 1977, and had been looked after with loving care by edith m. deforest since 1982. the remaining records were stored elsewhere in the ivoryton factory. the bulk of the records were donated directly to the archives center by the pratt read corporation on january 6, 1989. the corporation made a second, very generous donation to the archives center on june 25, 1992, consisting primarily of minute books and ledgers .
though exactly what george read knew of the vast numbers of slaves being captured in zanzibar decades after the emancipation proclamation in 1863, no one really knows. there is no record of him ever visiting africa but many wonder how it could even have been possible that he didn’t know at least something of the atrocities his company was creating. after all, thirty years after the civil war and slavery was made illegal in the united states the two companies (pratt, read and comstock, cheney) were still profiting enormously from it .
the first post - war club was the washington soaring club, formed around 3 pratt - reads and a laister - kauffmann. this group operated in 1946 - 1948 at the old schrom airport at greenbelt, and present m - asa members who were members of that club are bill ebert and jack perine. there were about 8 active members, and when the club disbanded after a few years, one pratt - read, ng0745, was sold to a newly forming group called the district of columbia soaring club. nate frank was one of its members .
( world’s fair) with piano keys as white as snow, supplied by none other than pratt, read and co. overnight, the two became the world’s top piano makers and were conveniently located within miles of the ivory manufacturers. orders for pristine white piano keys shot through the roof. if ivory combs had made them thousands piano keys were about to make them millions .
i don' t know if this has already been discussed here, but i just found out that back in march 09', pratt read filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. a company that has been making screwdriver from around 1830 could close its doors shut... .. or move manufacturing to china or taiwan? here' s an article for those interested: urltoken
1936 merger. on december 31, l936, pratt, read & company of deep river was consolidated and merged with comstock, cheney & company of ivoryton. the resulting corporation was titled pratt, read & company, inc. by l938, all manufacturing operations had been consolidated in ivoryton and the deep river factory closed. during world war ii, both the deep river factory and the ivoryton factory were used to produce cg 4a
waco
troop carrying gliders for the u. s. army air forces, along with lne 1 training gliders and the glomb experimental plane for the u. s. navy. production of piano keyboards and actions was sharply curtailed for the duration of the war, and was slow to resume afterward. in l946 the deep river factory was sold .
note: this section borrows heavily from jack perine' s previously referenced work. a complete copy of his history of m - asa, which includes the clubs that preceded it, can be read on the internet .
the importance of this cannot be over - emphasized. this availability of two - place high performance sailplanes at a price that many could afford, even in those money - scarce postwar days made it possible for many clubs on a limited budget to form and successfully operate. it may be of interest in view of today' s $ 18, 000 sailplanes that the surplus pratt - read, brand new and on trailer, sold for $ 350 .
in the mid to late 1800s the part of connecticut referred to as the queen of the valley had risen to become the largest manufacturer of ivory in the world. pratt, read and co. was set up in deep river with their main competitor comstock, cheney & co. in full swing just a few short miles away in the town called ivoryton. as the middle class continued to flourish in the united states so did their appetite for ivory .
the pratt read corporation also donated a number of objects to the national museum of american history at the same time as their 1988 donation of archival records. included were combs and letter openers and other examples of products made from ivory; piano components, such as gauge boards, key actions, and keys; and such diverse items as tools used in the factory, world war ii employee i. d. badges, and a uniform from the company sponsored basketball team .
i find pratt reads at the local ace hardware and at northern tool. to me i think they' re moderately priced and affordable. if you look hard enough you' ll still find some old pr made craftsman at sears too .
in any case, it is sad to see yet another connecticut tool company dying. i was at a northern store over christmas break and saw some pr drivers i hadn' t seen before. they were quite nice and a good departure from the old handles (which i don' t like so much). they were also the first pratt - read labeled drivers i had ever seen (as opposed to made for some other brand) - i thought the company was doing better !
in 1913, harry j. sohmer took over the company and turned it into incorporation in the year 1940. he was succeeded by his sons, harry j. sohmer, jr. , president, and robert h. sohmer, secretary and treasurer in 1971. in 1982, the sohmer brothers sold the rights and assets of the company to pratt, read & co. , then, the largest american manufacturer of piano actions and keyboards, and moved to their facilities in ivoryton, connecticut .
one of the connecticut buyers who sailed to zanzibar was ernst moore, who worked for pratt, read. moore spent years in the trade, and it made him wealthy, but he grew to hate it. he wrote a book called ivory: scourge of africa. yet, says conniff, quoting moore' s book ,
he is the one who also said,' our lives were so crammed with our business and adventure that we were perfectly content to take what we had and make the best of it.'
several individuals also contributed pratt, read material to the archives center. hugo nickse, pharmacist in ivoryton, donated a number of photographs of the town, the factory, and the company' s facilities, in september 1990. henry z. steinway, who served as one of the company' s directors in the 1970s and 1980s, donated financial statements, board papers, and reports from that period in august 1992. hanford johnson, postmaster of ivoryton, donated two letters dating from 1890 in august 1992. jack spangler of deep river provided a photocopy of the company' s
west factory
time book, which is on loan to him from the deep river historical society .
or maybe george read had the knowledge but didn’t feel that he could do anything to stop the monster he had helped to create. whichever it was one thing was clear: the cloak of consciousness was whispering down on the deep river valley. whatever wrongs they had directly or inadvertently participated in, the fact that the town of deep river is named as one of the many historical stops along the infamous underground railroad suggests
jeff hostetler, president of the deep river historical society, says it was one machine in particular that brought ivory to this town and this factory .
what happened is phineas pratt, a very good mechanic and inventor, developed an ivory lathe to cut the teeth in ivory combs ,
he explains .
and, of course, all of phineas' relatives bought one of phineas' machines and went into the comb business .
then came the piano. in the mid - 1800s, a piano in the parlor became a symbol of middle - class cultivation. pratt' s efficient, mechanized cutting lathes were modified to make ivory piano keys. piano keys required extra labor, and soon the business sprawled all over town .
pianists liked white ,
hostetler says of the piano keys .
so the way to get a good, uniform white color is to take these thin wafers of ivory and just bleach them in the sun .
billy winters and many of his family members settled into their own homes along main street in deep river. the street would later be renamed winter avenue, (as it stands today) after its most famous inhabitant. billy went on to become a successful farmer and a permanent resident of deep river and george read’s church. the two remained close friends until the day they died. so close in fact that their families are buried next to one another in a deep river cemetery called fountain hill (1) .
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john breunig: look, up in the sky, it’s... nothing
final moments: machines were assets, employees were not, as second - largest u. s. manufacturer of screwdrivers shuts its doors, cuts local ties
the company expanded over the years, making pianos and screwdrivers, and at one point had 12 factories, including the one on railroad avenue in bridgeport. in the early 1990s, the company dropped the piano business and dedicated itself to screwdriver manufacturing, and employment in bridgeport was as high as 170 in 2004, when workers there made 100, 000 screwdrivers a day. the company moved into the old atrium window facility in shelton in 2007 .
we bought only the assets of pr ,
roberta mcquade, an ideal industries spokeswoman, said in an e - mail .
we never operated the shelton facility. we took the equipment and integrated it into our existing operations... . we are making the pr line of screwdrivers today out of our existing facilities .
ed deak, a professor of economics at fairfield university, said any u. s. manufacturer of tools, such as screwdrivers, is facing stiff competition from china because of currency manipulation and low wages across the ocean. some u. s. companies have embraced china and have their products made there and shipped here .
it' s a difficult situation for u. s. factories to navigate, he said, because the low - cost of chinese goods make products affordable here .
you and i as consumers are better off, but you and i as workers are not ,
he said .
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i am very sad to hear this news i like their screwdrivers; i wish them all the best and hope that they can keep their doors open for another 100 years .
this is really dissapointing, i wonder if it was bad management that got them to this point? it seems to me that there screwdriver line is very competitively priced compared to other usa brands, so it makes me think it was just bad business decisions .
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ im currently not taking any orders or shipping kits / parts. it' s always best to patronize local business' s when possible, if not available there are numerous online suppliers. i would advise that you price check, as there is a wide range of prices across the board. need a seal kit? contact hydraulic parts supply at 620 - 594 - 2247
they certainly cant sell them any cheaper. the craftsman sets are always priced so low it astounds me .
no big deal we can get screwdrivers from gearwrench and harbor freight, plus those people working there can just sell their homes, move into section 8 housing, go on welfare and collect food stamps. keep buying those asian tools .
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. cheap tools are for chumps... . the wealthy can currently accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving. 
it * is * possible to let one or two threads go every so often .
one word - walmart the us consumer is addicted to low priced imported goods. all we have to do is pass a law. any good imported into the us must be certified to have been made under the same environmental regulations, worker minimum wage and safety regulations as in effect here. end of story. of course, virtually every consumer good would go up in price 25% to 50% overnight .
i' ve been to china and the third - world hell - holes flooding our markets with low - priced goods and driving our manufacturers out of business. you wouldn' t want to live there, but by trading short term savings for long - term security, we are headed down to their level sooner rather than later .
that in itself is a clue - - they may have lost a contract, but decided to keep the factory running for as long as they could .
sure i could let it go, sure i could look the other way and move on when i see an elderly person slip on the ice and fall, plenty do. maybe when i walk up to a door to enter a building and there is a person a little ways behind me with their arms full i should rush in, let the door close and let them stumble to open the door rather than hold it open for them, i see plenty of people do it. but thats not my' style', i do something, i say something. should i change my ways to appease you and other people that buy asian imports, to save a few dollars, to make you and them happy? ain' t going to happen. to suggest i shouldn' t say anything as i watch this country fall to pieces when some peoples biggest concern is saving 50 cants rather than helping out there fellow citizens. there' s an ignore feature on the board i' m sure someone can explain to you how to use it, that or you could just whine about it, everybody loves a whiner .
keep doing what your doing mickey o. every time i think about buying a chaiwanese tool, i think about you and put it down .
no, they do not. they have the american consumer to thank for that. china isn' t forcing anything down our throat. we are all willing participants .
and when i write we, above, i mean we as in the citizens of the usa. most members of gj notwithstanding .
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no, they do not. they have the american consumer to thank for that. china isn' t forcing anything down our throat. we are all willing participants. and when i write we, above, i mean we as in the citizens of the usa. most members of gj notwithstanding .
yes, but the american consumer gets tempted by cheaper prices. there is so much chinese stuff flooding the market that in many instances we don' t even have the opportunity to choose american. it has seriously become an effort to find something us made nowadays .
jesus, pump your brakes... im sure the demise of this company is related to harbor freight... . we all get it, you dont like asian imports. . hopefully you live by that with everything you purchase in your life .
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comstock, cheney & company. meanwhile, other manufacturers of ivory products had been at work in the essex area. chief among these was the firm of comstock, cheney & company of ivoryton. the dominant figure in this company was samuel m. comstock. he had learned the ivory cutting trade while working in his older brother' s saybrook area ivory cutting shop, known as joseph a. comstock & company. by 1838, samuel had left his brother' s shop and joined with edwin griswold to set up comstock & griswold company further west up the falls river in centerbrook. in 1848, the company moved its operations to a new factory in the ivoryton area, where combs, toothpicks, and other ivory products were made. at the same time, the firm' s name was changed to s. m. comstock & company, reflecting samuel' s sole ownership .
in 1860, samuel comstock allied his firm with george a. cheney to form comstock, cheney & company. cheney had invested in comstock' s firm and was one of the principals in the important new york based ivory importing firm of arnold, cheney & company. the new firm began production of thin slices of ivory for mounting on wooden piano keys. it also had its own agents buying ivory in africa, most of which went toward production of piano keys. the company was formally incorporated in 1872 and in 1873 it opened an even larger factory in ivoryton .
1899 souvenir of essex, connecticut. rpt. , the ivoryton public library, 1979 .
collection items available for reproduction, but the archives center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. other intellectual property rights may apply. archives center cost - recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions .
additional news clippings and information on related collections were gathered by the archivist while processing the collection .
situated on a large tract of land on the western edge of town, the plant employed many central residents. in 1963, an addition to the plant was added for construction of the newly developed electronics organ components division, occupying the new space in 1964 .
allen, mattie may morgan ,
central yesterday and today
, faith printing company, taylors, south carolina, 1973, no library of congress card number, no isbn number, page 71 .
this page was last modified on 26 august 2009, at 17: 38 .
elephant slaughter, african slavery and america' s pianos two new england towns dominated the world' s ivory market from 1840 to 1940 — transforming imported tusks from african elephants into piano keys and combs. today' s residents grapple with a dark past .
the illegal trade in ivory from african elephants has tripled in the past 15 years, to the extent that biologists fear for the creatures' future existence .
most of the ivory is sold in china and vietnam, and these days the u. s. government and international conservation groups urge those countries to arrest the traffickers. but for the better part of a century, from 1840 to around 1940, the u. s. was the world' s biggest buyer of ivory. hunters killed hundreds of thousands of elephants, and uncounted numbers of africans were enslaved to carry the tusks to ships bound for america .
most of that ivory went to a tiny town in connecticut — a town that' s now grappling with this dark part of its past .
deep river is old new england, and its residents take their history seriously. driving into town, i pass a fife and drum corps practicing for a performance on the village green. stone barns from the 18th century, riverside mills and newly painted victorian mansions line the highways .
people called deep river
the queen of the valley
150 years ago. mills and factories and timber made the town well - to - do. but it was ivory that made deep river rich .
stephen beale drives a wagonload of ivory tusks to town from deep river landing. (date unknown .) courtesy of deep river historical society hide caption
the big brick factory at the top of the road — it' s longer than a city block — is now a condominium called piano works. water still cascades through a nearby sluice that ran the factory' s machines .
and then into making billiard balls, cutlery handles, shirt buttons — all manner of ivory knickknacks .
acres of bleaching houses sprang up — huge greenhouses containing blocks of ivory instead of plants. people fertilized gardens with ivory dust. kids swimming in local ponds came out of the water coated in it. soon, a rival company, comstock, cheney & co. , emerged and built a whole new town nearby for its workers, called ivoryton .
the two towns dominated the piano key business for decades. fortunes were made and spent on grand houses that still stand. one of them is now headquarters of the deep river historical society and home to a startling assortment of the artifacts that made deep river rich. curator rhonda forristall shows me around .
you' ve got needles; you' ve got crochet hooks, toothpicks, buttonhooks ,
she says. handles for straight razors. buttons for corsets. for piano keys, the ivory was sliced thin, into laminates that were secured to wooden keys .
three pieces go into making a key ,
she explains .
you could get 45 keyboards out of one tusk .
pianists liked the feel of ivory, and it wasn' t until the 1950s that cheaper plastic keys completely replaced those made of ivory .
in deep river, these artifacts are a source of civic pride, but pride that' s also tinged with shame, especially as the world condemns the current slaughter of elephants to make trinkets. daniels, for one, says if americans are going to condemn others for trading in ivory, they should at least know their own history .
we were the largest importer of tusks anywhere in the world ,
she says passionately .
so we have a special responsibility and we have a unique opportunity to say,' we are sorry we have done this, but we want in some way to help stop the slaughter now.'
citizens have formed the deep river elephant tusk force to publicize the ivory history here, both its good and bad sides. they organized a conference last year with speakers from the u. s. fish and wildlife service to talk about the u. s. ivory trade. they speak in schools, and they' re lobbying for a law banning the import of existing ivory into the state. they raised money to buy an elephant statue that sits in front of the town hall .
those efforts aren' t likely to resonate in china and vietnam. but peter howard, trustee of the historical society and a tusk force founder, says at least deep river residents are now confronting the town' s past .
there' s a lot of debt that' s owed the elephant here ,
he says ,
and a lot of awareness. but it was kind of in the back of peoples' minds .
dick smith — as first selectman of the town, he' s essentially the mayor — says he knew about deep river' s ivory history, but not about the current trade in asia. he says he' d tell ivory buyers now to stop, even though americans once were just as guilty .
we learn from our experiences ,
he says .
it wasn' t right .
deep river' s john guy laplante is more sympathetic to the town' s forebears. attitudes were different 150 years ago .
you know, we deplore what happened to the elephant. it was brutal, there' s no doubt about it. but we have to put it in context. these men... who ran this industry, were upstanding, moral, high - minded people who didn' t think they were doing anything wrong .
but there was another ugly fact about this trade that many americans either didn' t know about or simply chose not to see — ivory slavery. ivory traders needed ivory bearers. so they captured africans and enslaved them to transport the tusks to the ships .
richard conniff has investigated the african end of the trade. he' s a writer who bought a house in deep river and then discovered its past. he found historical accounts from africa and from deep river' s ivory barons. they tell of ships from connecticut that sailed to zanzibar, an island off the east coast of africa. americans arrived with cloth, gunpowder and weapons to trade. the ivory came from central africa, brought to zanzibar by arab slavers .
they would seize slaves, seize ivory, and then use the slaves to carry the ivory back to the coast ,
says conniff .
and the descriptions that missionaries gave of those caravans were particularly brutal... slaves bound by a log, basically, around the neck to the person behind them, and then carrying a tusk on one shoulder .
often, only 1 in 4 slaves survived the journey, according to british explorer dr. david livingstone, who observed and wrote about them .
conniff, sitting in a gazebo on the deep river landing where the ships once arrived with ivory from africa, says that' s likely the attitude of people who are buying illegal ivory now .
what they need to realize is what this town has discovered ,
he says ,
that our involvement in that kind of thing is ultimately a source of shame, and that the grandchildren of those people who are buying that ivory are going to look at them with the kind of horror with which we now regard the ivory trade that happened here .
the status - maker of the 19th century with bleach - white ivory keys. “antique chickering piano, stanley hotel” by ajmexico licensed under cc by 2. 0 via commons .
by leaving them under the new england sun. this made them pristinely white, unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. he soon filed the first us patent on a bleaching house, which was nothing more than a greenhouse, filled with thin wafers of yellowish, bone - colored ivory laid out to bleach white in the sun (2) .
. a single ivory tusk could make enough keys to fit 45 pianos and yet there still wasn’t enough ivory to accommodate all of the orders (2). the white american hunting firm in africa, arnold, hines & co. , was killing elephants by the thousands and still they could not keep up with demand. the slave brokers were raiding more villages in zanzibar (modern - day tanzania) to meet the supply the slave trains now required to carry all of the tusks from the elephants they were killing to the coast. any slaves who lived long enough to make it that far were sold to the ships waiting underneath the red flag that signified the main slave market. they too, were shipped out to america making double the profits for the ivory traders. the industrial revolution was still well underway on the east coast of the united states .
. he proved just how deeply he felt about the issue when a runaway slave showed up on his doorstep by the name of daniel fisher .
daniel had escaped from a plantation in south carolina where he had recently been sold. the rest of his family remained slaves on a farm in virginia where he had been born. after nearly being captured several times along his journey north he finally found protection in a quaker community in philadelphia, which directed him to safety .
billy winters lived into his 80’s as a freed slave in deep river. (photo copyright by
using a large network of safe homes and contacts. many of deep river’s townspeople were in on “the secret” and there were escaped slaves holed up in houses all across the valley. whenever an outsider would visit deep river the black residents would hide and none of the white ones let their precious secret out; even though ‘slave catchers’ were willing to pay large sums of money for any escaped slaves .
and wear a wig in an effort to throw the slave catchers off his trail when they came looking for him, which they did for years (1) .
identified stops along the underground railroad. the blue dots represent sites along the valley that were safe houses for runaway slaves. (photo: courtesy of
. it was his wife’s uncles after all, (who formed the elephant hunting firm arnold, hines & co .) who were supplying the majority of the ivory in africa to the west. and they were most certainly creators of the numerous slave trains required in order to get it delivered to the coast .
there is no doubt that, though squeamish about the prospect, george cheney knew exactly what was taking place .
he didn’t have the heart to punish the slaves under his own care using his own hand. when he felt discipline was in order he had someone else do it and, as detailed by his wife in a letter home, was
whichever way you feel about the dark history of deep river the foundation of the queen of the valley was built upon the backs of slaves and the tusks of elephants. the last shipment of ivory was delivered to deep river in 1950 when by this time, there was no such thing as a big tusker anywhere near zanzibar (3). the numbers of elephants had plummeted so low that entire ecosystems had begun to collapse. the first laws protecting elephants began to emerge with britain leading the charge. with the days of playing the piano in sitting rooms long past and the price for ivory driven high with scarcity the demand had also fallen .
for the last time in the late 1980s. today the big brick factory that takes up an entire city block has been transformed into a large, fashionable condo complex called piano works in which a single condominium with a gorgeous view of the connecticut river can be sold for as much as $ 250, 000 .
the piano works condominiums in deep river where so much of america’s history lies .
the deep river museum situated not far from the red, brick building is dedicated to the town’s dark and riveting history. it stands as a place for the ancestors of the valley to come to terms with the fact that they have had a profound and devastating impact on not just africa’s dwindling population of elephants but on the hundreds of thousands of black slaves who never made it as far as the underground railroad.
pratt-read is an american manufacturing company based in sycamore , illinois , that produces screwdrivers . it is a subsidiary of ideal industries . it is one of the oldest companies in the united states , having been founded in 1798 . 
pratt-read is an american manufacturing company based in sycamore, illinois, that produces screwdrivers. it is a subsidiary of ideal industries. it is one of the oldest companies in the united states, having been founded in 1798.
pratt-read is an american manufacturing company based in sycamore, illinois, that produces screwdrivers. it is a subsidiary of ideal industries. it is one of the oldest companies in the united states, having been founded in 1798.