Taken from an undated postal card put out by the E. M. Partridge Publishing Co., the illustration above shows the Millers Falls plant as it appeared about 1905. The image is relatively easy to date since reverse side is the undivided type that conforms to postal regulations in existence between 1901 and 1907. An examination of the photograph shows that a good deal of construction had taken place in the previous fifteen years. The black arrows added to the photo indicate structures not present in the 1891 illustration that appeared in Wade, Warner and Company's Picturesque Franklin County.The smaller arrow in the center part of the image identifies a second story addition that was added to the boiler building, one the site's earliest structures. The small one-story addition, seen at the far right, was built for office space. It housed the general manager and adjoined the office of the plant superintendent. The plant's main building, the older structure which sports a cupola on its roof, shows no evidence of the disastrous fire which had heavily damaged the back third of the building in about 1900.
The month of December 1900 was marked by the death of Henry L. Pratt, longtime company president and the driving force behind the manufacturer's success for thirty years. Edward Payson Stoughton, the firm's New York sales representative, is sometimes considered to have followed him in an unbroken company presidency that lasted to 1918. The transition was not so simple, for although Stoughton's obituary in the October 4, 1936, New York Times has him ascending to the position two years prior to Pratt's death and serving as president for twenty years, it overlooks the years in the first decade of the twentieth century when Levi J. Gunn served as company president and Stoughton was vice-president. Gunn's presidency began in 1901 and ended in 1910 when he retired at the age of eighty years. His position is documented both in company catalogs and in the town history of Greenfield. While it is entirely possible that Stoughton viewed Gunn's presidency as largely honorific and considered that he ran the company from the vice-president's office in New York, Gunn's position within the firm cannot be ignored. (1)
The tinted reproduction of the plant, shown below, is taken from a 'divided back' postcard of the type approved for usage in the United States in 1907. Although published by the Springfield News Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, the card was printed in Germany, a leading postcard manufacturer due to early success in mass producing color lithographs. Representing the plant as it appeared sometime between ca. 1905 and 1910, it depicts two buildings not included in the illustration at the top of the page. The first decade of the twentieth century was, perhaps, a time more characterized by growth in physical plant rather than the introduction of new tools. The years just prior to 1912 were a time of especially intense construction, at the end of which the campus had pretty much taken the form that it would enjoy for the next half century. Despite the new buildings and growth, conditions inside the plant remained crowded and dreary—as can be seen in a ca. 1900 picture labeled "polishing room one year after 'new' building was constructed".
The Millers Falls company gained complete control of the Langdon Mitre Box Company in 1906.(2) The involvement of the Rogers family in Langdon had been extensive. C.C. Rogers had served as company president; George E. Rogers, while secretary of Millers Falls, had served as treasurer; David Rogers had patented the firm's miter planer. The transaction was likely a simple affair involving an exchange of shares between various members of the Rogers family and Millers Falls. Although Langdon relied on the Millers Falls Company for the bulk of its sales, it had been putting out a small price list under its own name for some time. The parent company continued the tradition for at least a year after the buyout. A 1907 price list touts the New Langdon Acme Miter Box, the deluxe model that would anchor the line for over a half century. The list also included, on the other end of the spectrum, the company's Star Miter Box, an economy model that could be used with either a panel or a back saw.
