[Illustration: FIGURE 46. LUCIUS W. POND] [Illustration: FIGURE 47. SALMON W. PUTNAM] In addition to all this they built the famous Boydon waterwheel, mill machinery, and a list of standard machine tools quite as catholic as that of Gage, Warner & Whitney. They did their work well, contributed material improvements to manufacturing methods and had one of the most influential shops of their day. Most of the plants for manufacturing woodworking machinery can be traced back to a comparatively small area limited approximately by Fitchburg, Gardner, Keene and Nashua. This section was poor farming land, rough and heavily wooded, and the ingenuity of its inhabitants was early directed toward utilizing the timber. Mr. Smith, of the H. B. Smith Company of Smithville, N. J., came originally from Woodstock, Vt., and Walter Haywood started at Gardner. J. A. Fay and Edward Josslyn began manufacturing woodworking machinery as J. A. Fay & Company at Keene, in 1836. In 1853 they felt the need of better facilities and purchased Tainter & Childs’ shop at Worcester, which was manufacturing the Daniels wood planer. Mr. Fay died soon after, and the business passed through the hands of H. A. Richardson, Josslyn’s nephew, to Richardson, Merriam & Company. They built up a good business before the Civil War, and had branch offices in New York, Chicago, and Cincinnati. In the early sixties the western agents bought the name of J. A. Fay & Company and started manufacturing at Cincinnati. Later this was united with the Egan Company, and the present J. A. Fay & Egan Company formed. When J. A. Fay & Company was started at Cincinnati, machinery, superintendent and mechanics were brought from Worcester, and, as the name implies, the present company was a direct descendant from the old Worcester and Keene enterprise. Winchendon, in the center of the district referred to, has long been known for its woodworking machinery. Baxter D. Whitney began there before 1840. He died in 1915, aged ninety-eight years, the last of the early generation of mechanics. For many years he was a leader in the development of woodworking tools, and the business which he founded is still in successful operation under the management of his son, William M. Whitney. Springfield, although an important manufacturing city, has had few prominent tool builders. One company, however, the Baush Machine Tool Company, has built up a wide reputation for drilling machines, especially large multiple spindle machines. CHAPTER XVIII THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY