Issue #22 2004 September

Published by the Ellenville-Wawarsing Chamber of CommerceAlso Online at www.Wawarsing.Net

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Wawarsing’sLegacy of

Making Knives

Wawarsing.Net Magazine • 2004 September

Forward, into the PastSchrade... and Before: a 130-yearLegacy of Knife Making in Wawarsingby Marion M. DumondFormer Town of Wawarsing Historian& Ellenville Public Library Director (Retired) Memories of “the knife shop” linger in more homes inthe Town of Wawarsing than those of any other business.This is not strange, since knives have been made here formore than 130 years. The recent closing of the ImperialSchrade Corporation stirs recollections within manyfamilies whose members have worked in the local industryfor as much as three or four generations. In a 1979 program at the Ellenville Public Library &Museum, Katharine T. Terwilliger, the Town ofWawarsing’s revered Historian, began her talk by remi-niscing, “In my childhood, family routine was governedby the knife shop whistle – at seven in the morning, it setyou to hurrying, and at noon it is safe to say that everyhousewife checked her own clock by the whistle.” At thattime, the knife shop was operated by Dwight Divine &Sons, manufacturing Ulster Knives.

Back to the beginning... The Ellenville Co-operative Cutlery Company beganmanufacturing knives in December 1871. At that time,there were about 2,500 residents in Ellenville and ap-proximately 8,000 in the Town of Wawarsing. Ellenvillehad grown steadily ever since 1829 when the D&H Canalcame into operation. The glass factory located here shortlyafter, and Ellenville’s major growth spurt began. By 1871,there were two banks; stores lined both sides of CanalStreet; the paving of sidewalks had begun; water was be-ing piped in from the new reservoir. Nearby Napanochwas a busy manufacturing community. However, the years after the Civil War were uneasy.Railroads were challenging the waterways as major con-duits of transportation. The glass factory was shaky; localresidents were moving away to seek employment. Thebusiness community was worried. Some men from Walden’s cooperative knife factoryvisited Ellenville to talk about the possibility of moving

here, but the talks failed. Somehow, word of this tentative

Presentation knife for Schrade Cutlery Co.’s 75th anniversary ofits Walden founding in 1904, from a 1979 ad.

exploration reached Connecticut, where there were severalcooperative knife factories. Men from the one in Nauga-

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tuck, Connecticut, wrote to local officials and a publicmeeting was held in July 1871. Village leaders were en-thusiastic about the possibilities and a committee was ap-pointed to find a site and work out details. One of thecommittee members was Dwight Divine. The local committee’s job was to find a site and buyit. Local residents formed a stock company (see stock cer-tificate, below), naming it the Ellenville Knife BuildingCompany. This committee purchased eight acres of landon Canal Street, with good waterpower from the streambehind it and occupied by the Bloomer Foundry buildings.That was August 1871; the Connecticut men arrived inNovember; the Ellenville Co-operative Cutlery Companybegan operations in December 1871. The officers were the Connecticut men – all skilledcraftsmen, many from Sheffield, England – who hadserved their apprenticeships in the best knife factories inthe world at that time. Within six months, the cooperative plan was droppedand the business was reorganized as a stock company.Ellenville men, chiefly those involved in the originalplanning, were the new officers and trustees of the �

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Ellenville Knife Company in July 1872. They were MajorDwight Divine, Alfred Neafie, and R. H. Brodhead. From the start, the mainstay of the Connecticut men,as far as actual manufacture went, was William Booth(photo above, at right, with fine pen grinder Charles Joby,who also worked at the facility for over 50 years). Boothwas born in Sheffield and, at age 14, was assigned for aperiod of seven years as apprentice to a Sheffield cutler.Upon completing that apprenticeship, Booth sailed toAmerica, soon settling in Naugatuck. He was in the firstwave of the Connecticut men who came to Ellenville tomanufacture high-grade cutlery. When the cooperativeconcern failed, William Booth stayed on with theEllenville Knife Company. And stay on he did, for morethan 50 years, as superintendent, engineer, designer, andinventor. A lengthy article in Paine’s “Cutlery Journal” inSeptember 1927, said, “Mr. Booth was a pioneer in the

many changes in theAmerican system of mod-ern manufacturing, suc-cessfully applying thedepartmental plan to pre-paring and fitting knifeparts. An inventor of supe-rior talents, many of thefinest stock models of theDivine concern sprouted inthe mind of Mr. Booth.”William Booth was thegrandfather of HaroldBooth, cashier of the FirstNational Bank for manyyears, and of anotherWilliam Booth, also ofEllenville.

Back to the Ellenville Knife Company. By 1875, itwas evident that the new officers and trustees could notwork together. A new stock company was formed in 1875as Ulster Knife Co., but more money was constantlyneeded. Finally, Dwight Divine (photo, bottom left)bought out the other shareholders in 1876 and assumedcontrol. He withdrew from the mercantile firm he hadbeen conducting with his father and others, and devotedhimself to the knife company. At the time, he was only in his 30s, known as “MajorDivine,” a rank he held when discharged from the UnionArmy. He was energetic, enthusiastic, and charismatic. Hetraveled widely in the first few years, building up knowl-edge of and demand for Ulster Knives. A serious fire in 1880 destroyed the factory, machin-ery, and stock, but did not destroy Major Divine’s deter-mination. By 1881, Ulster Knife was making 600 styles ofknives. During the next 20 years, there were occasional clos-ings, when water was too low, or when orders fell off.Overall, the factory went forward, making an ever-in-creasing number of designs, and earning a fine reputationfor quality. To be certain of a good backup supply of water forpower, Dwight Divine bought several lakes. We call itCape Pond now, but during Major Divine’s ownership itwas called Ulster Lake in honor of Ulster Knife. Divinebuilt a dam and held the water in a beautiful lake whereemployees were allowed to build a clubhouse, and someeven built their own cottages. The lake and dam remainedin Divine ownership until 1948 when Cape Pond, Inc.purchased it for their membership. Long before that,Ulster Knife had ceased to depend on waterpower andinstalled electric power when it was available. After 1900, the firm became Dwight Divine & Son,and then Dwight Divine & Sons, (letterhead from 1923,below) when both C. Dwight and John H. Divine joinedtheir father, but always Ulster Knife Co., appeared as theoperating body.

At about the same time, two Carman brothers, trainedby Dwight Divine, joined with W.D. Hoornbeek to form arival company, Napanoch Knife Company, and beganmanufacturing knives in the old DuVall rake factory onNational Street. In 1919, the factory was sold to theWinchester Repeating Arms Company of Connecticut.Many of the workmen moved to Connecticut. Within two years, some of the veteran employees re-turned to Napanoch. John Cushner was one of them. Heassociated himself with Melvin Schoonmaker and MelvinQuick, both skilled knife makers, and George Brackley,who brought good business experience to the group andformed the Honk Falls Knife Company, setting up (again)in the old DuVall rake factory building. They were verysuccessful and produced well-accepted knives, but a 1929fire destroyed the building and its contents. John Cushner had the heart to keep on trying andopened a small factory in the barn behind his home, oper-ating as Napanoch Knife Company. (see label, next page,top left) �

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A catalogue of Napanoch knives published by collec-tor Rhett Stidham some 30 years ago listed over 80 de-signs, praised by Stidham as “The Napanoch knives wereand still are recognized as the best that can be made...”John Cushner was killed on Route 209 in 1938. His wife,daughters, and loyal workmen continued the company un-til all orders were filled. The factory was then discontin-ued and the machinery and stock sold. During this same time period, Ulster Knife Companywas smoothly running under the management of theDivine sons. Major Divine died in 1933 and, in 1941, thesons sold to Albert M. Baer, an experienced cutlery man,who continued the Ulster Knife name (plant on Canal St,below, as festooned during WWII). His older brother,Henry, joined him the next year, and in 1946, they pur-chased the Schrade Cutlery Company of Walden, renam-ing it Schrade Walden Cutlery Corp., a division ofImperial Knife. Imperial Knife had been organized inProvidence, RI, in 1916 and had united with Ulster Knifein 1942 to become Imperial Knife Associated Companies.

The Schrade Walden division moved from Walden toEllenville in 1958. The company operated its own busesfor a period of time, providing free transportation for itsWalden area employees through the adjustment. Albert Baer purchased all the stock of the ImperialKnife Associated Companies in 1983 and adopted thename Imperial Schrade Corp. The purchase of the re-cently vacated Channel Master factory on Rte. 209 inEllenville in 1985 made it possible for Imperial Schradeto consolidate all domestic manufacturing and distributionon this site. It earned in excess of $5 million in low-inter-est bonds from Ulster County’s Industrial DevelopmentAgency (IDA) for improvements and expansion, addingalmost 80 new jobs. At the time, Schrade President DavidA. Swinden said that the company was looking first to hireas many former Channel Master employees as possible. In 1991, Imperial Schrade implemented a major ef-fort with Wal-Mart Stores in 1991. The company earned

Wal-Mart’s Vendor of the Year Award for outstandingperformance. County officials in the mid-1990s referred to ImperialSchrade as “the largest private employer in UlsterCounty.” These were the glory years, nationally known asthe oldest company in the United States continually en-gaged in the manufacture of pocket knives, with productsdistributed world-wide. Major long-term layoffs began in 2002 and, on July29, 2004, Imperial Schrade announced it was closing theEllenville plant. When one talks about the making of knives in theTown of Wawarsing, there are several phrases that imme-diately come to mind: “high quality,” “community serv-ice,” and “good neighbors” lead the list. Whatever thecompany name, be it Ulster Knife, Napanoch Knife,Honk Falls, or Schrade, knives produced in this area havehad the reputation of being excellent, high-quality knives. The companies andtheir employees have al-ways been involved in thecommunities, with partici-pation of volunteers anddonations of funds, prod-ucts, and services. Freeproduction of commemo-rative knives for commu-nity anniversaries, localcelebrations and, always,fundraisers with long-termcommitments, such as theannual knives for theFourth of July Committeeand the Holiday LightingCommittee. The list ofcommunity groups whichhave been able to complete civic projects because of theknife company’s generosity and civic sense is entirely toolong to even try to compile. Since collectible values are based, in part, on avail-ability, the assumption that Schrade will produce no moreknives will undoubtedly increase the value of thoseknives, which were limited editions in the first place.However, the value of many of the limited edition knivesmay lie more in their historical or sentimental importancethan in their monetary value. For example, the EllenvillePublic Library Museum has several knives that are veryspecial to them: a commemorative knife that MajorDwight Divine distributed to those veterans who hadserved with him in the Civil War (see composite photo ofboth sides, below), and, a much more recent Schrade knifecommemorating the 1985 reunion of Clayton’s MilitaryBand. �

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The Divine knife is marked “Lookout Mountain” andbears the dates 1863 and 1910, as well as a picture ofMajor Divine. The other side of the knife is marked 143rdReg., N.Y.V.I. The Clayton’s Band knife was produced bySchrade to be given to the former members of this fondlyremembered organization who attended the reunion spon-sored by the Ellenville Public Library & Museum. Avideotape of the July 6, 1985, event may be borrowedfrom the Library to refresh your memories. This knife isespecially significant since Tom Clayton was born in Sheffield to a knifemaker whose family moved toConnecticut. Tom was a friend of Superintendent WilliamBooth and moved to Ellenville in 1878 to work in theknife shop. Clayton had served with the band of the 14thInfantry during the Civil War and was recognized for hismusical abilities. C. Dwight Divine took flute lessonsfrom Mr. Clayton. It all ties together... As the farewells are said to Imperial Schrade, wemust remember to also say, “Thank you – for being a goodneighbor, for giving employment to so many for so long,for being an outstanding contributor to the quality of lifein Ellenville and the Town of Wawarsing, and for creatingproducts of quality and distinction.” Information, for this article came, as always, from thefiles of the Ellenville Public Library & Museum (as did allthe photos, graphics, and artifacts used), recent area news-paper coverage of the Schrade closing, and the personalfiles of Katharine T. Terwilliger, who actually wrote muchof this column as she prepared for her 1979 lecture. Hernotes are marked “I am dissatisfied with this as totallyinadequate but the best I could work out in the time allot-ted.” Twenty-five years later, I feel the same way, but whoknows when a definitive history will be produced? �

Working at the UlsterKnife Company

Imperial Schrade was primarily the result of the merger of the 1904-founded Schrade Cutlery Company in Walden (above) and theUlster Knife Works (top, in 1906 photo) in Ellenville.

Below, and following are a series of photos from the Ulster KnifeWorks; although undated, they would appear to be mostly from thefirst decade of the 20th Century. They include scenes of the variousdepartments – fabrication, assembly, sharpening, and inspection.The names of most of these workers were pencilled-in on the backsof the photos (from the Ellenville Museum’s collection), and showmany same-family members working together... family names stillfamiliar in our community today. �

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The bottom photo shows 1914-1915 employees; a numbered photo,with matching list, is available at the Museum, for those who wish toidentify individual workers. Below, a photo of group foremen.

Inspectors, above; polishers, below. �