This company was created by the 1911 merger of Dover Machine Works and Hobbs Manufacturing Co.. Dover had been known as the John A. White Co. Hobbs Manufacturing Co. had, in 1903, bought out the historically signficant maker Witherby, Rugg, & Richardson.
National made woodworking machinery until at least 1929 or so, but changed their focus to printing presses and then business forms.
Information Sources
- Ben Campbell reports a catalog from National Woodworking Machinery Co. of Manchester, NH, that states the following in the Introduction:
In these our first general catalog pages, we desire to call your attention briefly to the business change which took place June 8, 1911, whereby the National Woodworking Machinery Co. of Manchester, N.H., a new organization, purchased and combined the woodworking Machinery lines of the Witherby, Rugg & Richardson Co. and the Hobbs Manufacturing Co., of Worcester, Mass., with the John A. White Co., Dover, N.H.
- A 1920 William H. Field Co. catalog lists a No. 653 "tilting arbor saw bench" that has a cast label: "National / Manchester, N.H."