Peavey Manufacturing Company

    After Joseph Peavey redefined the structure of the Cant Dog and created the “Peavey”, the Peavey family had a structure by which to work toward infamy. With his sons Hiram and Daniel leading the way in the means of periodic production on a local scale, the Peavey name was well known locally and even afar in some instances. The creation of the Bangor Edge Tool Company in 1875 allowed James H. Peavey and Charles A. Peavey to continue and grow the popularity of the Peavey and the Peavey family name. Charles’s death in 1891, followed by economic hardship at the beginning of the new century, contributed to the financial failure of the company, with James filing for bankruptcy in August of 1910.    Despite some financial issues, many investors in the Bangor area saw the opportunities involved in the continuation of the manufacturing of the Peavey, as well as the present need for logging tools and axes. By the end of December of 1910, David H. Peavey, a son of James H. Peavey, was able to find financial assistance to pay off the debt of the old company and form a new one, this time under the name “Peavey Manufacturing Company”. The bulk of the financial assistance came from Charles L. Chalmers, a local investor and hardware business owner involved in the company Haynes & Chalmer there in Bangor. Along with being involved in the hardware business, Chalmers also owned and ran a lumber company, which allowed for more easily acquired handles for the peavies and axes the company produced. Despite continuing to be involved in the company, James was not elected into the leadership of the new business, but he was allowed a director’s position on the board of that new company. The initial President of the new concern was David H. Peavey, with Charles Lyman Chalmers noted as Treasurer, and Charles Gardiner Chalmers noted as assistant Treasurer.     The new company made the decision to erect a new facility on Parker Street in Brewer, just south of Bangor across the Penobscot River. This new facility was noted as being 150 feet long by 50 feet wide, and employed 12 to 14 men in the manufacturing of peavies, cants, and axes. The new location’s proximity to the railroad decreased transportation costs, and the availability of handle wood through Chalmers’s businesses allowed for a more profitable work flow. The new changes to the business allowed it to continue productively through the Great Depression and into the 1940s.    

The 1940s saw the death of both David H. Peavey and Charles G. Chalmers (Charles L. Chalmers died in a car accident soon after the formation of the company), leaving the company in a bit of a leadership battle. However, to solidify the company’s future, the decision was made to associate it with other firms with similar structures and goals. To that end, the company was merged into a group that included the King Axe and Tool Company and Oakland Wood Products Company, both of Oakland, Maine in 1945. King Axe and Tool Company had recently purchased the business of Marsh and Sons, and the Clinton Handle Mill of Clinton, also fell into the group. By June of 1946, in order to maximize profitability, the Peavey Manufacturing Company closed its shop in Brewer and moved to Oakland. The official closing of the King Axe and Tool Company followed soon thereafter, leaving the Peavey the sole manufacture of axes for the group. The new structure continued through the end of that decade.    

In 1950, Walter F. Willey purchased the company, but the factory there in Oakland burned down in 1956, prompting another ownership change. This time the business was noted as being a concern of Ray Delano of Durham, New Hampshire. During this era of the company’s life, it was noted that no axes were produced, as it would focus on its flagship products: peavies and cants. The factory burned down once again in 1965. The associated handle mill at Madison, Maine, would burn down in 1966. The double blow to the business put its future on hold, and the decision was made to move all the remaining viable assets and machinery to a location in Eddington, Maine, not far from where Joseph Peavey had originally constructed the first of his log tools. Though the business had a few slow decades, the Peavey manufacturing Company was noted once again in marketing media by 1990. The business is still producing products today, based out of Eddington, though the axes currently advertised by the company are produced by the Council Tool Company of North Carolina.