Pepper Manufacturing Records

Collection

Identifier: 6832

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Scope and Contents

The Pepper Manufacturing Company manufactured textile machinery, specifically hosiery and knitted underwear machinery. The records (1880-1906) consist primarily of order books, listing the machinery sold and to whom, machinery parts sold and some repairs made, and the customer’s name and location (usually city and state). The company did business with a wide range of companies geographically, ranging from the New England states to New York and Pennsylvania; Montreal and towns in Ontario, Canada; numerous Mid-Western states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Ohio; a company in Macon, Georgia, and one in Eugene, Oregon. Several volumes have needles pinned to a page, or contain occasional drawings of machine parts in them.

Volume #1 lists the machinery sold, with a description of the machine, and the customer’s name and location. The volume begins chronologically, but then machines are referred to by number (#182 through #503).

Volumes #2 through #12 list the machinery parts sold and to whom. These include such items as cylinders, dials, wheels, castings, shafts, etc..

Volumes #13 - #15 are similar to volumes #2 - #12, although they represent overlapping time periods. Machines are often identified by number in these volumes. Volume #15 contains more description of repairs. Volume #13 is in poor physical condition, and these volumes, in general, are not as neatly written as the earlier ones.

Volume #16 is similar to volume #1, referring to machines sold and identifying those machines by number.

Volume #17 (“Price List of Machines and Parts”) contains a list of customer names and locations (1882-1886), an alphabetical list of parts with prices given, and miscellaneous notes on machines and parts. There is a small fabric sample (black and tan) pinned to one page in the volume.

These records cover a period of time during which the company changed names several times, and are referred to here as the “Pepper Manufacturing Company Records” for the sake of simplicity.

Dates

1880 - 1906

Creator

Pepper Manufacturing Company (creator, Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.

Biographical / Historical

William H. Pepper, founder of the Pepper Manufacturing Company, was born in 1830 in Nottingham, England. The Peppers moved to the United States when William was a young boy and he was raised in New Hampshire. After high school, William worked in a variety of mills and machine shops before settling in Lakeport, New Hampshire (Lakeport became part of Laconia in 1893 when it was severed from the town of Gilford).

In 1862, William H. Pepper formed a partnership with John S. Crane to produce the Pepper Knitting Machine. The partnership lasted until 1869.

William H. and his brother John formed J. & W. H. Pepper in 1871 to manufacture knitting machinery and knitting machine needles, as well as hosiery itself. By 1875, William H. was listed in the New Hampshire Business Directory as Wm H. Pepper Knitting Loom Mfr., Lake Village (Lake Village changed its name to Lakeport in 1891).

After John’s death in 1876 and the bankruptcy of the hosiery manufacturing division of their business, William H. continued with the manufacture of knitting machinery. In 1886, William H. Pepper and two of his employees, A. T. L. Davis and George A. Sanders, formed Wm. H. Pepper & Co.

In 1890 the business was incorporated as Pepper Manufacturing Co., with William H. Pepper as president, A. T. L. Davis as treasurer, and George A. Sanders as secretary.

William H. Pepper was not only a prominent businessman but also an active community member. He served as director of both the Lake Village Bank and the Lakeport National Bank. In addition he was elected to the state legislature in 1890, where he served on the manufacturing committee.

In 1904, three years after William H. Pepper’s death at the age of 71, Pepper Manufacturing Co., now known as the Pepper Machine Works, was purchased by Crane Manufacturing of Laconia, New Hampshire.

Extent

.5 cubic feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Custodial History

American Textile History Museum Collection, gift of the New Hampshire Historical Society.

Related Materials

Crane Manufacturing Company Records, 6581 Gilford Hosiery Company Records, 6666 Scott & Williams Company Records, 6887

Processing Information

The ATHM # references the accession number given to collections by the American Textile History Museum (ATHM). These numbers have been kept and tracked for researchers looking for former citations. The ATHM accession number for this collection was 1192.56.4. When these numbers appear in the processing note, the box and folder are the numbers that immediately follow the accession number. For instance, the number 1992.56.4.1.3, would indicate that the material was formerly in Box 1, Folder/Volume 3.