E. W. Deuse Co.

[woody 73]

Wow talk about a tough one, more worms than a can of alphabet bits in a Campbells soup can.

The backstory:

I went to a garage sale this week and I bought 52 screwdrivers, when the very nice man said he had a "funny looking" screwdriver that I might be interested in and out of nowhere he pulls out this awl and places it in my hands so of course it had to come home with me.

Now the worms in this story start to come to life, because of copyright laws the following blurb gets cut in half, but I can make some of it out.
" The last factory on the North Branch of the Pattaconk River was the Deuse factory, close to the outlet of the deep Hollow Reservoir in the middle section of the town. The business of manufacturing mechanics tools was purchased by Simeon Deuse and his brother, Amos, on April 5,1867, and called S. Deuse & Brother." the next part get cut off because of copyright laws.

You would think so far so good, but the next part gets dicey as no more talk of these two men period. Then I start reading about two brothers J. S. Deuse and E.W. Deuse and one time it is the J.S. Deuse Co. and another time it is the E.W. Deuse Co. (See I told you a can of worms).

They made Auger bits, spade bits, Awls, center and ***** punches along with other hardware. More worms as they say because if what I found is correct, then E. W. Deuse or Edison W. Deuse is born in 1879 and he died in 1938 (aged 58-59). Making him come into this world 12 years later then the starting date, so more worms sigh...

Anyhow the company was Started in Chester, Connecticut on April 5th, 1867, and I could not find any closing date for this Company. I found a grave, in which I think (key word here) is the right man, but I could be wrong?

A few pictures of the "funny looking screwdriver" Awl, along with some links. I hope you will enjoy learning about a new (old) company on this nice July afternoon. FOR THE FOLLOWING LINK MAKE THE PICTURE SMALLER TO SEE IT.

https://archive.org/details/deuse-hdwe-age-vol-174-no-2-1954-07-22-pg-833/page/nundefined/mode/1up

J. S. Deuse Co. [1927 Catalog Excerpt] : J. S. Deuse Co. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

1 p., illus., 18.7 cm, trade catalog

archive.org

Tariff Readjustment - 1929

www.google.com

Hardware Dealers' Magazine

www.google.com

Trust Companies of the United States

1904 edition includes Hawaii; 19 -14 include Canada, Hawaii and Cuba; 1915- include Alaska and Hawaii.

www.google.com

Kate Silliman's Chester Scrapbook

www.google.com

Chilton Automobile Directory

www.google.com

US1972920A - Combined tool - Google Patents

Edison W. Deuse (1879-1938) - Find a Grave...

Born in 1879 and died in 1938 Deep River, Connecticut Edison W. Deuse

www.findagrave.com

 

[JradM]

An impact awl! Cool.

Seems like you sure like to know the full backstory on your tools. I don't have gravesite information for the manufactures of any of mine.

 

[woody 73]

JradM wait for it, wait...

John Tibbets Slocomb

I am sure a name that most machinists are familiar with, but just in case a few of you might not have ever heard his name before, this is his story. For the most part I thought I found his date of birth in New Brunswick, Canada as most of the research points to July 21,1864; that is till I had...

www.garagejournal.com

Look and see who replied to that story, how cool is that the living Granddaughter!

Woody

 

[RTM]

DAT* has the following on the two companies

J.S Deuse, Chester CT
Work From 1867 to 1887

Tools AUGERS,AWLS,BITS
E.W. Deuse & Co. claims to have been established in 1867 and to have succeeded J.S. Deuse in 1887. The illegible letters on the marked auger might be E.W. An 1869 directory listing was reported for a Chester gimlet maker "S. Deule & Bros."; that is thought to be an erroneous recording/reporting of the Deuse name. An undated catalog was reported for J.S. Deuse with no "E.W.", "& BROS.", etc.

E.W. DEUSE & CO, Chester, CT
Work From 1887 to 1965
Tools AUGERS,BITS,TOOLS
This company succeeded J.S. Deuse in 1887 and dropped the "&" at some time. It apparently transitioned from a maker of augers and bits into a broader line of "mechanics" tools, but the former may have been its primary pre-1900 products.

*Directory of American Toolmakers pre 1900

 

[woody 73]

RTM very interesting.

1867 (1887) to 1965 Good job!

 

[toolsrus]

Hello all, I found this forum after doing some searching for relatives of mine who lived in Chester, Connecticut and found some interesting information here. My name is Matthew Radune and my grandfather Reginald H. Deuse was the last owner of the factory mentioned in this thread. I attached an article about the factory closing, which apparently is from 1966. E.W. Deuse was my grandfather Reginald's father, and J.S. was his grandfather, and Simeon and Amos were J.S.'s older brothers. I also added a map of historic factories in Chester, where at the bottom A.H. and J.S.'s factory is mentioned. I imagine that A.H. is Amos.

 

[ecotec]

Hello all, I found this forum after doing some searching for relatives of mine who lived in Chester, Connecticut and found some interesting information here. My name is Matthew Radune and my grandfather Reginald H. Deuse was the last owner of the factory mentioned in this thread. I attached an article about the factory closing, which apparently is from 1966. E.W. Deuse was my grandfather Reginald's father, and J.S. was his grandfather, and Simeon and Amos were J.S.'s older brothers. I also added a map of historic factories in Chester, where at the bottom A.H. and J.S.'s factory is mentioned. I imagine that A.H. is Amos.

Thank you.

Do you collect Deuse tools and ephemera?

 

[woody 73]

Matthew, you made my day.

Thank you so much for sharing your information; Now we can fill in a few missing pieces of the story.

A big Welcome to the GJ.

Woody

 

[toolsrus]

Thank you.

Do you collect Deuse tools and ephemera?

I actually ended up as an Architect myself, so my time and attention is stolen mainly by the building trades these days. That's not to say I'm not curious what is out there in terms of Deuse factory items - I see a few on Etsy and Ebay.

 

[tdeuse]

Hi,

Tom Deuse, Grandson to Arvid Deuse. I keep a few of these tools in my family line. Attached image is some awls that were sold. I don't know to much about the family history other than the fact we had a pond (in Chester) and the business was sold off to Stanley well before I was born. My grandmother last name was Brooks and they sold sold stuff around fishing back in the day. Her family fought in American Revolution and was more successful than my grandfathers was. My grandmother was German and my Grandfather was Swede.