Levi J. Gunn

Levi J. Gunn, the second president of the Millers Falls Company, was born in Conway, Massachusetts, on June 2, 1830. He was the son of a blacksmith (also named Levi Gunn) and Delia Dickinson. The younger Gunn worked at his father's trade until he was eighteen and then hired on at the Conway Tool Company, a manufacturer of wooden planes. When Conway Tool was destroyed by fire in 1851, two of the principals, Alonzo Parker and Daniel Rice II, restarted the operation in the nearby town of Greenfield, renamed it the Greenfield Tool Company, and re-hired Levi J. Gunn to work at their new factory. Between 1852 and 1854, Gunn served as one of the five men at Greenfield Tool assigned the difficult task of making complex wooden plow planes.

While at Greenfield Tool, Gunn became acquainted with Charles H. Amidon, a talented machinist from the nearby village of Monroe. The men got on well, and their abilities were such that they soon became holders of the contract for the production of all of the company's tools. Innovators by nature and interested in production, the pair soon developed and installed machinery to minimize the amount of handwork going into the operation's manufactured goods. In 1861, while still employed by the Tool Company, Gunn and Amidon established a small business in Greenfield for the manufacture of household wash wringers.

When it became apparent that the wringer enterprise had a chance of success, the men left their jobs at Greenfield Tool to direct their attention to the new endeavor. Although Gunn initially served as sole proprietor, Charles H. Amidon became a partner in December 1863, and the business was renamed Gunn & Amidon. The company's primary product was a wash wringer Amidon had patented in 1862. It sold well, and an improved version was brought out three years later. The defining moment for the business, however, occurred in 1864, when the partners bought the rights to a bit-brace developed by William H. Barber. Sales of the device were astonishing. The introduction of the brace led to a gradual de-emphasis on the wringer business. Additional bit braces were introduced, and in 1868, new investors were brought in. The business was reorganized as the Millers Falls Manufacturing Company and work on a new factory at the falls of the Millers River was begun.

Levi Gunn became Treasurer of the new company; Henry L. Pratt, a well-to-do lumber dealer, became President. Gunn's former partner, Charles Amidon, did not serve as an officer but served, instead, as Plant Superintendent. Pratt left for New York City almost immediately in order to establish a sales office, while Gunn remained on site, serving as general manager of the operation and finding a replacement for Amidon, who left the business two years after it was organized. Owing much of its good fortune to the quality of its boring tools, the Millers Falls Manufacturing Company prospered. In 1873, it merged with the Backus Vise Company, a smaller firm located just next door to its factory. Since Levi Gunn and Henry Pratt held sizeable positions in Backus Vise and served as the company's president (Pratt) and secretary (Gunn), the merger of the businesses was not entirely unexpected. The enterprise formed by the merger was renamed the Millers Falls Company, and under the leadership of Gunn, Pratt and somewhat later, George E. Rogers, it went on to become one of the leading manufacturers of hand tools in the United States. A textbook example of New England stability, Gunn's tenure as Millers Falls Company Treasurer lasted twenty-eight years.

With the death of Henry Pratt in 1900, Levi J. Gunn became president of the company he helped to found—a position he held until his retirement in 1910 at the age of eighty. Gunn maintained his residence in the city of Greenfield, rather than in the rough-and-tumble village of Millers Falls, and as his manufacturing business prospered, he became more involved in the community. The former blacksmith's apprentice built a stately home at 24 Main Street, sponsored baseball teams, became active in Republican Party politics, served on the Financial Committee of the local Congregational Church and even sought public office. At one time or another, Levi Gunn served as selectman and assessor in Greenfield, as state senator, and as a member of the Republican State Control Committee. In addition to his holdings in the Millers Falls Company, Gunn maintained a financial interest in the Greenfield Savings Bank, was an incorporator of the Greenfield Electric Light and Power Company, and served as president of the Franklin County Public Hospital. Edward P. Stoughton succeeded Gunn as company president.

Levi Gunn and his wife, the former Esther Cowles Graves, of Sunderland, parented one son, Levi Walter Gunn. Levi J. Gunn died in Greenfield, September 9, 1916.

Patents

Sources

Biographical Review: Sketches of the Leading Citizens of Franklin County, Massachusetts. Boston: Biographical Review Publishing Company, 1895. p. 285-286.
"Gunn Made Big Dream Come True." In: A Century of Experience: Millers Falls Company. Greenfield, Mass. : Greenfield Record, Gazette and Courier, August 13, 1968.
Wing, Donald & Anne. "The Workings of a Plane Factory." The Mechanick's Workbench. Catalog No. 10., August 1980. p. 3, 10-11.
Toomey, Daniel P. & Quinn, Thomas C. Massachusetts of To-day: a Memorial of the State Historical and Biographical Issued for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. Boston: Columbia Publishing Company, 1892. p. 583.
Illustration: Toomey & Quinn.

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