From 1887-88 Polk's Michigan State Directory

In 1870 Alfred C. Buxton opened a machine shop in Nashville, Michigan, as A. C. Buxton. By 1887 he was making vertical balanced steam engines plus wood lathes and emery grinders. The business continued into the twentieth century. Buxton died in 1924.

Buxton had worked for a time at the Remington Armory, and while running his machine shop he also manufactured firearms, including shotguns and rifles. Firearms are outside the scope of this Vintage Machinery website and we do not have more information on them.

Information Sources

• Built in 1880, the building of the A. C. Buxton machine shop is still in existence and is an attractive red brick building on Main Street at W Washington.
• Seen on an auction site: an 1894 letterhead: "A. C. Buxton, Manufacturer of Steam Engines and Lathes. ... Four styles of steam engines from five to seventy five horse power. Nashville, Michigan."An illustration shows a mid-sized wood lathe with cast iron bed and a jackshaft below the lathe.
• 1895 Standard Atlas of Barry County, Michigan, page 78, lists "Buxton, A. C., Farmer, S. 34, T. Johnstown, P. O. Lacey, 1853."
• 1897-02-25 The Middleville Sun, page 5: "A. C. Buxton of Nashville, one of Barry counties inventors, was in the village on business Monday. He is now working on a machine for the Keeler Brass Co."
• 1903 State of Michigan Twentieth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, page 203, in a listing of "Changes ordered in the Eighth district during the year": "A. C. Buxton, Nashville.—Equip boiler with low water alarm."
• May 1903 Municipal Engineering, page 395. "The Buxton Pump and Iron Works, Nashville, Tenn., has been incorporated with officers as follows: President, A. C. Buxton; treasurer, C. A. H. Hough." This appears to be a coincidence of names and is unrelated to our A. C. Buxton of Nashville, Michigan.
• 1917 The Farm Journal Illustrated Rural Directory of Barry County, Michigan does not contain any mention of A. C. Buxton.
• 1969 book Nashville, Michigan, 1869-1969, page 53.

  A. C. Buxton Fire at Dry Cleaners and Drug Store. Buxton's Gun Manufactory—Mr. Buxton first came to Nashville in 1866, and was employed in the sawmill erected by Hiram Hanchett, where he remained five years. He was later in the workshop of the Remington Armory at Ilion, N. Y. and in 1870 returned to Nashville and erected a shop which was well stocked with lathes and other machinery of his own construction. After that he engaged in the manufacture of guns, saws and various mechanical instruments. He then constructed a spacious warehouse and workshop on Main Street (where Stop and Shop are located) which was provided with steam power, in which he devoted his time to the construction of light machinery and the manufacture of firearms.

• FindaGrave.com entry for Alfred C. Buxton (1845-1924), buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Nashville, MI. From the obituary of a younger sister we learn that their parents were from Vermont, moving to Castleton Township in Michigan in 1840.
• Nashville, Michigan is in Castleton Township, Barry County. It is roughly midway between Grand Rapids and Lansing but south of both of them.