In 1871, William S. Hilles and Henry C. Jones acquired radial drill maker R. H. Barr & Co., which traced its roots back to 1858, and renamed it to Hilles & Jones. They manufactured radial drills, planers and shapers among their products. By 1895 they were making a vertical milling machine. By 1907 their product lineup was composed of punching and shearing machinery plus plate planers.

In 1922 the Hilles & Jones Co. merged with Betts Machine Co., Colburn Machine Tool Co., Modern Tool Co. and Newton Machine Tool Works to form the Consolidated Machine Tool Corp. of Rochester, NY.

Information Sources

• Industries of Delaware by Richard Edwards 1880 page 88.

  Hilles & Jones,—Engineers and Machinists, Ninth and Church Streets.

  A very noteworthy enterprise in Wilmington is that of Hilles & Jones, machinists and engineers, which was started in 1858 and has been under the present management since 1876. The firm occupy capacious and well arranged buildings and a spacious yard in the rear, on the Brandywine river. A large stock is carried, including a great amount of fine machinery and tools, etc , and a number of skilled workmen are employed.

  The firm displayed at the Centennial Exhibition Radial Drills and a Slotting machine. A specialty of the firm is the construction of steam boilers, a number of which may be seen stored in their premises, which is in full view of passing trains on the P. W. & B. R. R. These boilers have a ready sale, in fact since the commencement of the enterprise the establishment has enjoyed a success unchecked by the late financial depression.

  The members of the firm are William S. Hilles and Henry C. Jones, who succeeded the firm of R. H. Barr & Co. in 1871 and have increased the business until it now ranks as one of the most prominent of the many industrial establishments in Wilmington. Mr. H. C. Jones is the active manager of the business and from its origin has personally superintended the works.

• American Planer, Shaper and Slotter Builders: 1830-1910 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2002 page 93
• Standard corporation service, daily revised - Page 64 Standard Statistics Company - 1918