American Tea Tray Company

According to limited sources, (an anonymous, typed page in a file folder & a few second hand accounts in the local paper) the American Tea Tray Company was started in Albany in 1851 by George L. Jones & brought to Union Village by local investors in December 1859.

The American Tea Tray Co. made, yup, you guessed it, tea trays! They actually made two kinds. One was "japanned ware" made of sheet iron, painted black and guilded. The other was "planish ware" which was white & very durable.

The American Tea Tray Co. was pretty successful, being (some say) the only manufacturer of its kind in the US. However, its fate was linked to the fall of the Washington County Bank in 1878 (more about that in the next installment). So, the American Tea Tray Co. only lasted about 20 years on the banks of the Battenkill, but I have a lasting piece of its history in my office.

American Tea Tray Company "japanned ware" tray



detail of the tea tray in the Town Historian's office

 References:
Hearsay and History: A Column Devoted to Present-Day Interest in Days Long Past. The Greenwich Journal. July 13 & 20, Aug 3,10 & 17 1949.

Iroquois Pulp & Paper

I tend to write these blog posts by the seat of my pants. I rarely have an idea of what I am going to write about before I come to work on a Thursday evening. That's probably why some posts are awesome & some are mediocre at best.

Anyway, as I began searching through the beautiful clutter that is this historians office, without a clue what tidbit would present itself to me, I came across the ephemera from the bicentennial, sesquicentennial, and centennial celebrations. As I was carefully thumbing though the items, I found myself leafing through the Village of Greenwich Centennial Program from Summer 1809. On the back cover, I spotted the most amazing image. It took me a moment to realize, truly see what I was staring at.

The image of the Iroquois Pulp and Paper Co. in Thomson startled me. The mill is laid out along the Hudson River. Northumberland is in the foreground siting along the Saratoga County side of the river. When you look closely, you can see the Champlain canal and the island it created. Behind the factory, are the mill houses, and just to the right of the water tower is the large white cupola of the big Victorian. But what is most shocking to me is the openness. The miles and miles of treeless fields. Now it is very wooded and overgrown.

Iroquois Pulp & Paper, manufacturers of hanging papers c.1809

I wonder if I could get a photograph now from a similar vantage point, maybe on Stark's Knob?