In 1852 teenager John Humphrey was working at a woodenware company in Nelson, NH., when work stopped due to a failure of the mill's water supply. Humphrey had ideas for a new machine for making woodenware and he used the break to finish his design and build patterns for this machine. Mainard Wilson, proprietor of a machine shop in nearby Harrisville, took Humphrey under his wing, teaching him pattern-making and providing machine shop space for building the machine. The project was a great success and Humphrey stayed on at Wilson's shop, where a year later he became foreman even though he was the most junior employee. Wilson died on Christmas Eve of 1854 (at age 43) and Humphrey continued running the machine shop for a year until he turned 21 in 1855. At that time he received a small inheritance and he used the money to form a partnership in a machine shop in Marlboro. A year later the venture ended badly, with Humphrey losing most of his money. He moved to Keene to become an employee in the machine shop of H. L. Haynes. He continued to make his special machines on the side until 1859 when he set up a small shop in White River Junction to manufacture his shoe-peg and other special machines. In May of 1861 that shop burned down and Humphrey returned to Keene, purchased Haynes' business that had coincidentally just failed, and finally established the business that would bring him lasting success.

     At first he operated as J. Humphrey. Sometime during mid-1860s he took in one Lewis Herrick as a partner and the business became J. Humphrey & Co. Herrick apparently didn't last long but the name remained unchanged until 1873 or '74 when the business was reorganized as Humphrey Machine Co., with John Humphrey as president and general manager and A. B. Heywood as secretary and treasurer. This reorganization may have been triggered by Humphrey's development of a turbine waterhseel that they subsequently sold as the "IXL" waterwheel.

From 1868 New Hampshire Business Directory

     From early specialties in clothes-pin machines and pail machines, they diversified into a fairly full line of woodworking machinery. For a time during the 1860s and '70s they also made steam engines. Turbine water wheels were also a specialty.

     John Humphrey died in 1903. In 1907 the busines was acquired by J. C. Black & Co., who seem to have been primarily interested in in the waterwheel business. Within a year or two the company maintained a low profile, and the last time they were listed in the Keene city directory was in 1920.

      John Humphrey & Co., manufacturers of circular saw mills, and all kinds of wood-working machinery, also steam; engines, turbine wheels, machinists tools, shafting, gearing and mill work. Mr. Humphrey commenced business in 1856. and from 1859 until May, 1861. he carried on the business at White River Junction. On the 29th of May, 1861. a fire destroyed his machine shop, but the 1st of June saw him again commencing business in Keene. where he has since remained, carrying on the business successfully.

      The number of employees at the present time is about 30. The buildings are three in number. The first, built of brick, 100 x 50 feet; the second, of wood, 50 x 30 feet, each one-story; the third, a pattern shop, 30x24 feet, two stories. Their machines consist of 10-engine lathes, of various capacities, turning from 14 inches to 9 feet diameter; 4 hand lathes, 3 upright drill presses, iron and wood planes, bolt cutters, trip hammers, &c. They use steam as a motive power. Annually use about 80 tons of castings, beside other stock, in the production of the various kinds of machinery, such as water wheels, shafting and mill work of various kinds, an improved machine for sawing marble, and a variety of wood-working machines, as stationary and revolving tables, planing, pail, chairs, shoe pegs, clothes pins, and other kinds of wood making machines, with several improvements of their own invention. In fact a list of their productions includes a great variety of articles, from a double steel-lined burglar-proof safe for banks, to a simple caliper for lumberman to measure his logs. They have generally essayed to make everything their customer require, be it a machine of well-known construction and use, or one required for a new purpose, requiring invention and adaptation to the object which it is designed to accomplish.

      This company makes a specialty of inventing and designing machinery, as well as constructing it, and then success in each of these branches has made their work deservedly popular wherever it is know and used. They have received patronage from a majority of the States of the Union, the Canadas and the British Provinces, also from Germany and Australia, whither they have sent quite a number of their wood-working machines.

Information Sources

• Ad and listing in the 1868 New Hampshire Business Directory. "John Humphrey & Co., manufacturers of circular saw mills, planing machines, improved patent clothes-pin, pail, chair peg and other wood-working machinery, steam engines, machinists' tools, turbine water wheels, shafting, gearing and mill-work of all descriptions. John Humphrey, Lewis Herrick. Keene, N. H."
• Listing in the 1874 work, Wiley's American iron trade manual of the leading iron industries of the United States: "J. Humphrey -- Wood-working machinery."
• The 1885 Gazetteer of Cheshire County, N. H., published by Hamilton Child.

  The Humphrey Machine Co., builders of turbine water-wheels and general and special machinery of various kinds, was organized as a corporation company, under the laws of New Hampshire, in 1874, J. Humphrey, president and general manager, A. B. Heywood, secretary and treasurer, succeeding to the business of J. Humphrey & Co., which was established by Mr. Humphrey, at Keene, in 1861. Their shops at Beaver Mills occupy 150x60 feet of floor space, with storage and pattern lofts 60x30 feet each. They usually employ from twenty-five to thirty men, and have facilities for doing various kinds of work in their line. They have an extensive assortment of patterns for woodworking and other machinery, of special and improved designs, including circular and band saw-mills, box board machines, board jointers, planers> matchers, &c, &c, also tub, pail, clothes-pin and shoe-peg machinery, being almost exclusive builders of the last named varieties. They likewise manufacture an improved caliper scale for lumbermen to measure and compute the contents of round timber or logs, in board or card measure, by a decimal system, recently devised and copy-righted by Mr. Humphrey, which saves much time, many figures, and ensures accuracy of computation. Their principal specialties, however, are the improved patent I-X-L and X-L-C-R waterwheels and rotary force pumps, with traction gearing hydrant, &c, which are among the best and most effective appliances for motive power and protection against fire. Of the I-X-L turbines they make about twenty sizes, ranging from too inches down to ten inches, or less, in diameter. They are used with vertical shafts, in the usual manner of applying turbines, while the X-L-C-R is a modification adapted to use with horizontal shafting, saving the cost, annoyance, and loss of power incident to the use of gears for transmitting motion from the vertical to the horizontal movers, making a very much more desirable motor than a vertical shaft-wheel, and as they are reputed as very economical in the use of water, they are fast gaining the attention and favor of the most discerning and progressive manufacturers and mill-owners. In connection with their water-wheels, the company give attention also to the construction of flumes, penstocks and mill-gearing generally, and make surveys, plans and estimates, for the development and improvement of waterpowers, and for the construction of machinery of various kinds.

  A lengthy biography of John Humphrey seems to be the basis of all subsequent bios, including obituaries.
• The 1904 Transactions of the ASME has an obituary of John Humphrey
• According to various genealogy sites, John Humphrey was born in Lyndon, VT on 12 October 1834, and died in Keene, NH, on 24 August 1903.
• A genealogy website has a lengthy biography of John Humphrey, which transcribed from the above-linked 1885 Gazetteer bio.
• 1908 New England Business Directory and Gazetteer lists Humphrey Machine Co. as a maker of caliper log rules, fire pumps, grey iron castings, and machinery. Its writeup on teh company: "HUMPHREY MACHINE CO Capital $40,000. Org. 1873. D R Cole Pres, E H Ball Treas and Supt Machinery and water wheels." An advertisement for Humphrey water wheels also appears and can be found under the "Images" tab, above.
• 1908 Iron Age Directory lists Humphrey Machine Co. as a maker of barrel machinery, iron castings, locomotive and car castings, marine and machine castings, pulley castings, water works castings, clothes pin machinery, automatic clutches, drinking fountains, cast iron gears, wood cog gears, shaft hangers, penstocks, wood planers, shaft pulleys, fire pumps, force pumps, log caliper rules, sawmill machinery, circular sawmills, bandsaws, shafting, shoe peg machinery, special machinery, cast washers, water wheels, and wood working machinery.
• 1909 Iron Age Directory lists Humphrey Machine Co. as a maker of about the same list of machinery as in 1908.
• The Keene Public Library has a PDF document with information on various Keene businesses including Humphrey Machine Co. This document was helpful in describing the post-1900 company history.
• Webb's New England Statistical Gazetteer, 1869, pgs. 94-95