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Alex I Askaroff
Alex has spent a lifetime in the sewing industry and is considered one of the foremost experts of pioneering machines and their inventors. He has written extensively for trade magazines, radio, television, books and publications worldwide.
Over the last two decades Alex has been painstakingly building this website to encourage enthusiasts around around the Globe. |
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The Foley and Williams
Manufacturing Company Researching the toy or small Foley & Williams sewing machines has been incredibly frustrating. After years of digging I still have very little information about a company that was around for decades and made some of the most spectacular small sewing machines in history. So, I have put everything that I have learnt onto this page in the hope that someone will take the flag forward and complete my work. What do we know about Foley & Williams?
E P Johnson established the Foley & Williams Piano Company in 1870 in Chicago. He also established the E P Johnson Piano Co in 1907 in Illinois. Both companies were dissolved around 1930 during the Wall Street Crash when hundreds of companies went to the wall. This manufacturer made Pianos, reed organs, bicycles, but best of all for us, sewing machines. In 1880 the Foley & Williams Sewing Machine Co was formed and by 1882 Foley & Williams had bought out the giant Goodrich Company. Foley & Williams are intertwined with Goodrich sewing machines as I will try and explain later. By the early 1880's Goodrich's, run by Herman Barnum Goodrich, was the largest manufacturers of sewing machine attachments in the world. With their main salesroom at 70-72 Adams Street, Chicago.
But let’s look just at Foley & Williams sewing machines. The main address that I have for Foley & Williams is 121 to 123 Fifth Street, and West Sixth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio. Hang on there is another address later...
I know the Midget and Reliable sewing machines came from 46 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois. Was this a manufacturing plant or main showroom? I know their later, Empire Sewing Machine, had a metal badge on the body saying... Foley & Williams Mfg. Co. Cincinnati & Chicago. Now, there is a possibility that Foley & Williams did not make any complete sewing machines until they acquired the Goodrich sewing machine business around 1882.
Foley & Williams
sewing machine attachments Originally W C Foley was employed at the Goodrich sewing machine business and he teamed up with D W Williams in order to purchase the Goodrich company. How they came into the enormous wealth so quickly need explaining as things don't add up here. Somehow Foley went from a dogsbody at Goodrich to owning his own, and the the Goodrich Company! How?...A lot of money came from somewhere and suddenly. From my research it is most likely to have come from a marriage. A wealthy marriage William Foley seemed to come into a large amount of money and financial help and was able to make the huge leap from employee to business entrepreneur and owner. It is quite possible this sudden wealth came from William's marriage into the substantial McNamara family.
William Foley married Mary Josephine
McNamara, daughter of Patrick McNamara and Mary Brazell. Patrick
McNamara was originally from Ireland and a
self made man.
The couple married in Chicago in 1878. Their daughter was Hazel Foley.With the marriage William came into enough wealth to follow his dream.
Now things move on a pace. From 1882 the Goodrich Sewing Machine Company became Foley & Williams. However it's not that simple for a few years later after William Foley bit the dust Williams decided to revert back to the Goodrich name. I'll explain later. Got a headache yet? The perfect chain stitch machine, small but substantial
Foley & Williams branched into small sewing machines as well as the normal Goodrich large-range at this time. William Foley also bought up other patents to do with sewing machines such as the Nicholas A Hull sewing machine tabletop patent. To make things more confusing Goodrich, along with their attachments manufacturing, may have originally only supplied machines from another source and made parts, not manufacturing the bigger sewing machines till later. I will explain more about in a mo.
The Foley and Williams Manufacturing Company acquired the Goodrich Sewing Machine Company and may have moved to their premises at Cincinnati, Ohio from 1882 to 1926. 1867-1882: H. B. Goodrich, Chicago, Illinois
The model 29 or Goodrich B was advertised as the best selling sewing
machine that they had ever placed on the market. No big boast if the
other machines were poor!
Foley & Williams produced a range of toy sized sewing machines like the... Yankee Practical Triumph Victor Pony Reliable Midget Liberty Tourist The Touristy was an oval cast iron machine, some of the other were in wood and circular like the Triumph, Victor and Pony. And to make things even more confusing F&W were also agents for other companies such as Remington and Springfield.
Several of the Foley & Williams toys were very similar. For example the Midget, Gem and Liberty look similar. The only difference with the Gem was the lack of automatic tension which was a real drawback. I can only assume it was even cheaper than the $2.50 Midget.
The Foley &Williams Reliable is almost the same as well but with a complete hand-wheel (rather than cam-handle) that allowed three stitches for each revolution rather than one.
The most expensive of the toy machines was the Foley & Williams $5 Automatic which managed four stitches per revolution.
In 1905 the Reliable and Foley & Williams Automatic were sold through the Montgomery Ward Catalogues and sold well enough to be included up until 1908. It was advertised as a portable machine ideal for travelling and Practical and light, perfect for the ladies! Superior to any sewing machine ever offered at this price. Probably true, they were little diamonds. Sear's & Roebuck also stock the machines.
The machines were often sold and sometimes given away. If you could get enough subscribers to a periodical of the day like Casino’s Little Folks you would get a sewing machine for free. This was a similar strategy used by several companies the best known being the Beckwith Sewing Machine Co. Liberty $2.50 Midget $2.50 Reliable $3.50 F & W Automatic $5 Several of the Foley & Williams machines with automatic tensioner have a similar mechanism to the Willcox & Gibbs machines just smaller and interestingly take the same Willcox & Gibbs needle with special grooved needle bar shaft. I have some Willcox & Gibbs needles. Mail me: alexsussex@aol.com The most successful F & W model was the Foley & Williams $5 Automatic which ran for 20 years from around 1890 to 1910. The Foley & Williams portable machine ,ideal for travelling. Practical and light, perfect for the ladies! Superior to any sewing machine ever offered at this price
I spotted the Midget on Ebay and grabbed it against stiff opposition. It sews like a dream using Willcox & Gibbs needles. Back to the Goodrich sewing machines. Sears & Roebuck, one of North America’s most successful supplier of sewing machines featured Goodrich sewing machines in their 1893 catalogue. In 1894 they sold the Goodrich Mercury Sewing Machine. Goodrich sewing machines had an early connection to a company called June Sewing Machines which were the Standard Sewing Machine Company of Chicago. Apparently Goodrich got some of their complete early machines from these/this company.
In 1881 Singers were taking them to court for trademark infringement. The Standard & June sewing machines were clearly marked as Singers and Improved Singers. How crazy is that! To copy the biggest manufacturer in the world who just loved taking competitors to court. Needless to say Singers won. So far all this is as clear as mud but I shall struggle on.
Back to Foley & Williams. As far as I can find out, originally, the Foley & Williams Manufacturing Company had two manufacturing bases one in Chicago and one in Kankakee. It is possible that one factory made the toys, or small models, and one factory the full size main-stream models like the Empire Sewing Machine and later the Goodrich model B, below. Foley & Williams Goodrich Model B circa 1890
Kankakee is a city in Kankakee, Illinois, once home to the Potawatomi Indians. The Kankakee River, part of the upper Illinois River was perfect to transport goods to and from the factory. In 1896 the full sized Improved New Goodrich sewing machine or their No2 model sold for $26.50 a princely sum of around six weeks wages. The Improved Goodrich Sewing Machine was also sold as the New Treasure Sewing Machine and was guaranteed by Foley & Williams for 10 years.
One of the retailers for Foley & Williams and Goodrich sewing machines was W C McKenzie & Co of Piedmont, South Carolina. It leads the world.
In 1917 W C Foley died and in 1926 the Foley & Williams went bust and were reorganised solely as the Goodrich Sewing Machines Co. So that is where we will end of our little journey. Apparently the Goodrich Sewing Machine Co still manufactured machines and parts under the Goodrich name right up into the 1950's! How amazing, if true... I would love to see a later model. I have not come across anything later than 1917 so far...
Values All Foley & Williams toy machines are highly collectible and look great in a collection. The last one I saw on Ebay went for $650 and it was in superb condition with its box. Some of the rarer Triumph and Pony machines just don't turn up. One went at an auction in Britain for over $1000. Not bad for a machine that cost $2.50 when it was made!
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 Well, that was short and sweet. Let’s hope that some genius comes up with some information to fill in the blanks. I do hope you enjoyed my work. I have spent a lifetime collecting, researching and writing these pages and I love to hear from people so do drop me a line and let me know what you thought: alexsussex@aol.com. Also if you have any information to add I would love to put it on my site.
News Flash! All Alex's books are now on: www.crowsbooks.com
Both
Sussex Born and Bred, and Corner of the Kingdom
Fancy a funny read: Ena Wilf & The One-Armed Machinist A brilliant slice of 1940's life: Spies & Spitfires
This is a very useful clue sent to me by Yvonne
Marten Ebstein
Dear Alex
Thanks for the information on WC Foley of Chicago. He was my Great Grandfather.
William Foley married into the wealthy McNamara family-big bucks.
Florence Foley Beauvais Born in 1885 was the Daughter of WC Foley and
she was my Grandmother.
Jeanne Beauvais Marten, daughter of Florence Foley is my Mother. She
was born in 1927 when Florence was 42.
Kind regards,
Yvonne Marten Ebstein
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CONTACT: alexsussex@aol.com Copyright ©
As a
new collector I have found your site
has increased my knowledge in
a short time to a degree
that I couldn't have
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