Blodgett Tool Company

The axe manufacturers of New Hampshire had been forging bits since the onset of colonization in New England. The presence of rivers in the area, much like other industrial centers, allowed for power and transportation of goods, and was the perfect setting for early iron work. The native people of the area, the Penacooks, Mohawks, Wamesits, Pawtuckets, and other tribes, had known the network of rivers for their food bearing properties as well as throughfares of trade and transportation, and had put their names on the confluences and falls that dotted the area. One such area was known to the Penacooks as “Amoskeag”, which in their tongue meant “place of great fishing”. This area of falls along the Merrimac River was the scene of inspiration for Samuel Blodgett. Blodgett was a lawyer and industrialist who envisioned an industrial Mecca, much like Manchester, England, as a possibility in New Hampshire. Once his eyes fell on the Amoskeag Falls area, he was sure he had found the perfect spot, and he quickly began to make modifications to the area, namely a canal system diverting water around the falls, in order to make his vision a reality.     Once the Blodgett canal system was completed, the city of Manchester quickly began to materialize. A large industrial complex, first known as Amoskeag Cotton & Woolen Manufacturing Company and later the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, was erected next to the Merrimac to house multiple factories. As the area grew, so did the Manufacturing Company, and additional buildings were added for subsequent factories and manufacturers. In 1853, a 3-story building that measured 160 by 60 feet was constructed as a home for the Blodgett Edge Tool Manufacturing Company.  The company was headed by Ezekiel Straw, a local industrialist who would eventually become governor of New Hampshire. Straw shared leadership with Jacob Greene Cilley who acted as Treasurer and Clerk, with

George B. Chandler and Moody Currier as directors. In 1857, Henry C. Reynolds would join them as an agent to the company. They employed around 40 men who produced axes, hatchets, adzes, and other edge tools.

    In the summer of 1862, the Blodgett company leaders reorganized and on the 19th of July, the company was reincorporated as the Amoskeag Axe Company, a state-chartered corporation. That company would eventually be bought out by the Underhill Edge Tool Company of Nashua, New Hampshire. Underhill would become a part of the American Axe and Tool Company in 1889, leaving the Blodgett lines under the rule of the "Axe Trust".