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Note: The following is a republished excerpt from P. & F. Corbin’s History of the House of P. & F. Corbin. Published in 1904, it recounts the companies’ history on it’s 50th anniversary. We have made no changes to this excerpt and what you see is exactly how it was printed in 1904, albeit in a different medium.

Corbin, Whiting & Company (1849-1851)

The first traveling salesman for the concern was Mr. Henry W. Whiting, the new partner, who had previously done some work of this kind for Doen, Corbin & Co. and made three or four trips during his connection with the firm.

In the early years of this business goods were sold upon long time. The custom was to make settlement twice a year – in January and July – accepting in payment of accounts notes payable in four months. Customers would naturally defer making purchases until after the settlement period and then buy heavily, and the result was that on a large share of the goods almost a year’s time would be given. To hasten payment, manufacturers were wont to allow a cash discount of five per cent. at settlement time, or one per cent. per month for later prepayment of the notes. There was but little money in circulation, and a quick return upon capital such as is demanded to-day was not possible. This made it correspondingly hard for a new concern with limited means to make rapid headway.

In addition, American goods were not always looked upon with favor. The domestic manufacture of hardware was in its infancy, the known brands and favored goods coming from aboard. Importers and dealers, with their shelves stocked with foreign goods for which a trade was already created, were not disposed to buy domestic wares of no general repute which would have to be sold as substitutes for the well-known importations. To make articles already manufactured in this country would be but to add to the discomfort in introducing his line, so Philip Corbin decided at the very beginning to, so far as possible, make goods not then made in America, and thus eliminate one source of competition. Continue reading →

Note: The following is a republished excerpt from P. & F. Corbin’s History of the House of P. & F. Corbin. Published in 1904, it recounts the companies’ history on it’s 50th anniversary. We have made no changes to this excerpt and what you see is exactly how it was printed in 1904, albeit in a different medium.

Doen, Corbin & Company (1849)

In the summer of 1848, Philip Corbin had fully determined that he must find employment elsewhere, and he and his brother Frank, after canvassing the matter fully, took into their counsel a brass founder by the name of Edward Doen, a good workman, and skilled in all branches of his trade. After much planning it was decided to a form a copartnership under the above caption and go into business for themselves. Each of the three men could furnish three hundred dollars, making a joint capital of nine hundred dollars, barely sufficient to equip a small – a very small – shop.

Land was procured in the eastern part of the town from Mr. Samuel Kelsey (a grandfather of Mrs. Philip Corbin and universally known as “Squire” Kelsey, and a contract was made with Mr. Henry W. Whiting for a two-story frame factory building, with stone foundation, and with a cellar extending under the entire building, the price for land and building being about six hundred dollars. In October, the cellar was dug and the wall was built, and Philip Corbin spent Thanksgiving Day in 1848 in banking the foundation to protect it from the winter frosts. In the following spring, the building was erected. A horse-power trade-mill which had seen some use had been contracted for in the fall before and was now installed in the cellar, and connected with the machinery, consisting of a grindstone, an emery wheel, and two lathes; a big black horse was bought to turn the machinery; two furnaces for casing (another was added a little later, when a small building was erected in the yard for a foundry) were built in the little lean-to in the rear, and by May of 1849 the plant was ready for operations. Everything was paid for in cash, and the three partners stepped into their establishment with a factory free from incumbrance and a cash balance of somewhat less than two hundred dollars – with which to buy metal and conduct the business. Continue reading →

Note: The following is a republished excerpt from P. & F. Corbin’s History of the House of P. & F. Corbin. Published in 1904, it recounts the companies’ history on it’s 50th anniversary. We have made no changes to this excerpt and what you see is exactly how it was printed in 1904, albeit in a different medium.

The Founder and Head of the House of Corbin

Hon. Philip Corbin, the founder of the commercial house of Corbin and its active manager and head from the inception to the present time, was born at Willington, Conn., on October 26, 1824, and spent there the first seven years of his life. The family is an old one, tracing the line back to Robert Corbin of Normandy. An ancestor, Geofrey Corbin, 1194, is mentioned in English history as is his descendant, Walter Corbin, 1272. In the American branch, the line traces back to the Clement Corbin or Corbyn of Roxbury, Mass.; to his son John Corbin, who rendered valuable service in King Philip’s war in 1675; to his son James, born in Roxbury in 1667, and one of the proprietors and original settlers of Woodstock in 1686; to his son Lemuel, born at Woodstock and afterwards a resident of Dudley, where he was tithing man in 1739, and constable in 1746; to his son Philip, a man of power and prominent citizen of Dudley, being made successively constable, captain, selectman, and representative; to his son Philip, Junior, born at Union and afterward a resident of Willington, where his son Philip, the third of the name in direct succession and the found of the Corbin industries, was born. He was the third of ten children, eight of whom were boys.

It is worthy of note that from the earliest known records of the family it has contained men of character, setting their impress upon the time in which they lived and leaving records of public and private service in the archives of church and state. Forceful, energetic, masterful, many of them of more than ordinary physical and mental ability, they transmitted their family characteristics to their descendants as the histories of their lives testified. Philip Corbin was thus born with a measure of physical strength and endurance which have ably aided him in his work. The fact that he was forced by the stress of circumstances to learn to employ his powers and sense of responsibility to their full capacity when young gives a still further explanation of his successful career. Continue reading →

Note: The following is a republished excerpt from P. & F. Corbin’s History of the House of P. & F. Corbin. Published in 1904, it recounts the companies’ history on it’s 50th anniversary. We have made no changes to this excerpt and what you see is exactly how it was printed in 1904, albeit in a different medium.

History of the House of P. & F. Corbin

Illustrated: Including portraits of men notably identified with the growth of the house.

Issued in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the house on the fourteenth day of February in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-four.

Author’s Preface

The visible exponents of a commercial institution like that of P. & F. Corbin are the men who conduct it, the buildings that afford it a home, and the goods which it produces and which furnish the reason for its existence.

Its history naturally consists in the relation of the events in which these factors appear conjointly and the circumstances which affect them. It is this which the follow pages attempt to set forth.

In writing the story the greatest difficulty has been to obey the injury to keep the background the personality of the men who have made the business. I have done all that I could in this direction, even to the extent of suppressing some occurrences that have had an important bearing upon the prosperity of the company and of minimizing the part in its growth and development taken by one or two of the persons who are still actively engaged in its affairs.

Yet, I trust that those who read can find between the lines that which I have not been permitted to write, and will be able to clothe the plain recital of facts and description of goods with somewhat of the living forces and personalities that have made the narrative possible.

-J. B. Comstock Continue reading →