Jennison Hardware

In 1834 William Jennison and his wife, Maria, packed their family and moved from Baton Rouge, Louisianna, to New York City. There William took an opportunity to form an iron mongering business under the business name Mackey, Oakley, & Jennison. William’s son Charles Ewer Jennison was only 5 years old when the family moved to the city, and was raised in Brooklyn and under the wing of his father’s business. At the age of 21, Charles set out from his family’s home and headed west along the Great Lakes, settling in an area that was once known as “Lower Saginaw” along the mouth of the Saginaw River in Michigan. Though he originally went in to business with partners in a mercantile company, in 1864 he shed all connections to his previous partnerships and focused solely on hardware, eventually forming the Jennison Hardware Company, wholesale and retail Iron and Steel, Heavy Hardware, and Mill, Mine and Factory Supplies. As his business grew, so did his family, and eventually he sired 6 children, 4 of them sons by the name of Charles (born in 1858) George (born in 1860), William (born in 1864), and Dudley (born in 1867). The Jennison Hardware Company was located on the docks at the foot of 5th street in what grew to be known as Bay City, and by the turn of the century, George, William, and Dubey were salesmen and managers at their father’s business that had doubled in physical size and increased its capital stock from an initial $40,000 to $100,000. In 1906 they would expand again, buying most of the property on the waterfront block along the Saginaw.       The flagship line of the Jennison Hardware Company was the “Black King” axe, an easily recognized tool despite limited production. At least 2 stamps were made, both of which matched two series of axes manufactured for hardware companies by the Mann Edge Tool Company. Advertisements show these axes produced in the 1920s and 1930s, though previous records may indicate an early manufacturing. The line name was not trademarked, and the Warren Axe and Tool Company also carried a Black King line, though no relation is known between the two. (Nicholson also produced a Black King line of files).    Though Jennison Hardware filed for bankruptcy in 1976, the company reorganized and continued until around 2000, after which lawsuits from asbestos cases seemed to have put the final nail in the coffin for the long time hardware business. 

Jennison Axe Lines or Trade names: Black King: