White, G. and Company

Gilbert White was born on July 10th of 1832 in Dundaff, Pennsylvania, to Ephraim Vinton White (born in Massachusetts) and Elizabeth (Mason) White (born in England). He was the oldest of at least 7 brothers, with Joseph and Crandle following him most closely, and the others half-brothers as Ephraim would remarry after Elizabeth’s death. At the time of his birth, both his father and grandfather were known to be makers of edge tools, with Ephraim having started an axe making business in Dundaff in 1828. By 1841 a larger scythe and axe manufacturing facility had been erected in Honesdale under the management of Cornelius Hendrick, leading to loss of businesses for Ephraim, who filed for bankruptcy in 1843. Henrick took on a partner by the name of James Bassett, but by the end on the decade, the business of Bassett and Hendrick had dissolved, and Hendrick, like Ephraim White, lost his business and factory.  

   The 1850 Federal Census noted that despite failure, Ephraim had gotten back to axe making, though this time he was living in Texas Township, which is the area surrounding Honesdale. He was noted as owning a factory, and boarding with he and his family, which by that time included sones Gilbert, Joseph, and Crandle, were Charles Parks, William Hyde, Edward Cowen, Saul Darm, A. Miller, and Anthony Tourn. All of the men, including Joseph, Crandle, and Gilbert, were noted as axe makers. The business did not do well, however, and in 1855, announcements from the local sheriff noted the seizing of Ephraim’s assets, including his axe factory and land.    

Due to his constant financial woes, Ephraim’s business was passed to his sons, who formed the business of “G. White and Bros.” Gilbert had been doing reasonably well financially, and on July 4th of 1853 he married Ellen Brown, daughter of Samuel and Betsey Brown. The 1860 census noted him as “Master” of the Axe Factory there at Honesdale. G. White and Bros continued to make axes there at Honesdale, along the road to Traceyville, through the American Civil War. In 1866, Ephraim, who had moved to Scranton and had been working as a tool maker there, died. The change in family dynamic may have caused a rift, as the following year Joseph and Crandle left the company of their older brother and attempted to start a new edge tool factory along the Delaware River border of New York at Equinunk. The loss of his two main partners forced Gilbert to reorganize, and the resulting company was known as “G. White & Company”.   

  G. White and Co. would go by that name through the 1870s and into the 1880s. The 1884 Sanborn fire insurance maps note the factory there at Honesdale by that name. However, the 1892 Sanborn maps have the facility noted as the “G. White and Ham Axe Factory”. By that time, White had taken on a partner by the name of Robert Wallace Ham. Ham was previously noted as a blacksmith, and would continue in the partnership with White until his death in 1899. During the time of White & Ham, the factory would burn down (November 16th, 1894), but was rebuilt, and was noted once again by the Sanborn maps in 1897 under the same name it had been noted by in 1892.   

After Ham’s death, the company would once again reorganize, this time becoming the “G. White Axe Company”. Gilbert was getting up in age at that time, and none of his sons had taken interest in the business, forging their own way in business and in life. At the age of 74, Gilbert White retired selling the company to Reorganized by Charles M Genung, Gorge L Mayer, and John Meyer. The new partners would reorganize the company as “G. White Axe Company Incorporated”. The new company would enter the market with a slew of advertisements, pushing G. White axes in trade magazines, journals, and domestic newspapers. The focused strongly on the long life of the company as well as the flagship “Stubb & Twist” line of axes.      

The new company would see moderate success, but in 1913, the group sold the company to investor Lucius Junius Eddy of Wilke-Barre, Pennsylvania. Eddy would  similarly focus on strong advertising to push the company’s axes, trademarking “Stub & Twist” in 1916. Eddy would ride the company’s popularity through the roaring 20s, and was noted as the president of the axe company on the 1930 census. However, like many other companies, the Great Depression took its toll, with the company closing its doors early in that decade.

G.White "Stubb and Twist" or "Stub and Twist" (depending on the era) were one of the company's more advertised lines. Not noted often during the ownership of the company by Gilbert White himself, the name was a marketable reference to durability due to the prevalence of the "Stubb and Twist" technique of gun barrel making at the time (thought to be more durable than other methods). The marketability of "Stubb and Twist" as a phrase was highly recognizable for this fact, so much so that the phrase was used often in the political satire of the times. Though the companies noted the use of the name as early as 1837 (under the manufacturing of Ephraim V. White), the name wasn't noted in media based marketing until around 1900, and was pushed increasingly under the ownership Charles M Genung, Gorge L Mayer, and John Meyer after 1906 ("G. White Axe Co. Inc"). The name was not trademarked until 1916, with the company at that time under the leadership of Lucius Junius Eddy. Under Eddy, the "Stub" seems to have been marketed with one "B" rather than 2, at least in printed advertisements.