This farm equipment maker claimed to have been founded in 1846; if so, its early identity is unknown. In 1860 it was operated by brothers Samuel and George Hauck, as S. & G. Hauck. In 1880, George Hauck left the business and George Stedman Comstock joined; the name changed to Hauck & Comstock. Among their products were sawmills. Sometime between 1890 and 1893, Hauck left the firm and the business operated as Geo. S. Comstock. Comstock continued to operate until at least 1913.

Information Sources

• History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania, published by Warner, Beers & Co. in 1886, mentions "the iron foundry of Hauck & Comstock, the inception of which dates back to 1847".
• Fifth Annual Report of the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture for the Year 1877 mentions a two-horse plow made of chilled iron, the "Heckendorn 'Economical, No. 8'" plow made by S. & G. Hauck, of Mechanicsburg, Pa.
• History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, by Conway Phelps Wing and Merri Lou Scribner Schaumann, 1982, is mentioned in a list of long-standing businesses: "S. & G. Hauck foundry and machine shop, comes next on the list, the present firm having commenced business in 1860."
• A genealogy web site lists a George Stedman Comstock, born 1850-07-10 in Cincinnati, OH, and died on 1915-07-12 in Mechanicsburg, PA. There was also a George Stedman Comstock Jr. and a George Stedman Comstock III.
• In the book-length transcript of American Bell Telephone Company v. The People's Telephone Co. et. al., U. S. Circuit Court Southern District of New York, 1882, is the following testimony in the cross-examination of David A. Hauck.

  Q. Give the names of your father and uncle, and the name under which they carried on business at Mechanicsburg at the shop where you commenced to work for them.
  A. My father's name is George Hauck; and that of my uncle is Samuel Hauck; the firm name was S. & G. Hauck.

  Q. What business did they carry on at Mechanicsburg?
  A. They manufacture agricultural implements and do a general foundry and machine business.

  Q. Are they still in that business there under the same firm name?
  A. They are still in the business, not not under the same firm name; about two years ago now Mr. George S. Comstock purchased an interest, and the firm name is now Hauck & Comstock

  Q. What did you do from the time you left the army until the time you went to work for S. & G. Hauck about 1869?
  A. ... until the fall of 1867, when I went to work for S. & G. Hauck, and worked in the wood shop until sometime in 1869.

  Q. ...
  A. ...During the year 1879... I again went to work for the firm of S. & G. Hauck, as it was then yet. It soon afterwards changed to Hauck & Comstock, and I have been working for them ever since.

• The 1883-05-26 issue of Scientific American has the following item in the "Business and Personal" column: "Saw Mills, Hauck & Comstock, Mechanicsburg, Pa." This item ran each (weekly) issue until June 23.
• The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's Pine Grove Furnace Collection has correspondence of the South Mountain Mining & Iron Co., including "Hauck & Comstock, Machinery Mfg., Mechanicsburg, Penna., 1838, 1885". It is likely that "1838" was a typo for "1883".
• The 1888 edition of the Farm Implement News Buyers Guide lists Hauck & Comstockas a maker of
  • Cider mills
  • Feed cutters
  • Land rollers
  • Portable saw mills.
• The 1889 edition of the Farm Implement News Buyers Guide lists Hauck & Comstock as a maker of
  • Barrel carts
  • Bag trucks and holders
  • Cider mills
  • Farm bells
  • Hay, feed and ensilage cutters
  • Hand carts
  • Hay rakes
  • Sulky hay rakes
  • Land rollers
  • Wine presses.
• Undated price list of 48 pages for Geo. S. Comstock: "Advance sheets of net price catalogue of tools, machinery and supplies for blacksmiths, wagonmakers, saw mills, machinists, threshermen, carpenters and mechanics".
• An 1893 business postcard for Geo. S. Comstock has a circular logo that reads, "Geo. S. Comstock / Founder . Machinist . & . Maker of farm machinery . 1846 established . Mechanicsburg Pa."
• Small display ad in the September 1905 Farm Journal, for Geo. S. Comstock's "Safe Lion" ensilage cutters and blowers.
• Listed in Charles H. Wendel's The Circular Sawmill, but as "no information available".
• Charles H. Wendel's Encyclopedia of American Farm Implements & Antiques lists some trade names used by Geo. S. Comstock:
  • "Comstock", for sawmills and horse powers, with data points of 1892 and 1905.
  • "Novelty", for hay rakes, with a data point of 1913.
  • "O. K.", for feed cutters, with a data point of 1904.
  • "Safe Lion", for silage cutters, with a data point of 1909.
  • "Triumph", for cider mills, with an 1892 data point.
  • "U. S. Standard", for sawmills, with a data point of 1913.
• According to a genealogical biography of one George Washington Hauck:

  In 1869 George Hauck and his brother Samuel formed a partnership in the stove and tin business, under the firm name of Hauck & Co. In August, 1878, George and Samuel Hauck and J. K. Seifert bought out the hardware stand of George Bobb, on West Main street, and formed the new firm of Seifert & Hauck. The Messrs. Hauck, Seifert and S. H. Coover, in 1881, organized the Huston Net Company, for the manufacture and sale of a high grade of leather flynets. Mr. Coover soon resigned from the flynet business, and several years later the Messrs. Hauck purchased Mr. Seifert's interests in both the flynet and the hardware business. Both of these the Haucks together conducted until the death of Mr. George W. Hauck, on the 15th of May, 1902.

• The 1909-08-26 The Iron Trade Review lists company that had recently filed articles of incorporation, including "The Mechanicsburg Foundry & Machine Co., Mechanicsburg, Pa.; $10,000; by A. S. Jacobson, treasurer; A. G. Eberly, S. H. Hauck, J. S. Weaver, J. H. Swartz, R. H. Thomas Jr., A. S. Jacobson and J. P. Shaw, directors, all of Mechanicsburg, Pa." The Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth lists the founding date as August 11, 1909, and it purpose as "The manufacturer of iron or steel or both, or any other metal and the conducting of a foundry and machine business, and the purchase and sale of articles so manufactured and made."
• Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, April 3, 1916 has the following obituary:

  GEORGE STEDMAN COMSTOCK, son of William Henry Comstock, by his wife Catherine Amelia Foote, born at Cincinnati, Ohio, July 10, 1850, received his early education in the schools of that place and at Hartford, Connecticut, after which he entered Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, in 1876. An illness from which he suffered almost his entire life prevented the completion of his academic career, during which he was a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity and the Union Philosophical Society. In 1869, at Buffalo, New York, he entered into partnership with Mr. James Brown, in the lumber business, and from 1876 to 1879 was superintendent of the Wharton foundry and machine shop, Philadelphia, being in the latter year an iron broker with the late William M. Watts and Rodman Wister. He went to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1880, where he was associated with the late Samuel Hauck in the foundry and machine business, utilizing many of his own inventions in the output of the plant. He was also largely associated in the town's varied social and civic activities, until his much lamented death, June 12, 1915. Measured by the standard of patriotism, that love of country is best reflected in painstaking service for the State, the work for which he will be longest remembered is that of forwarding industrial safety and welfare standards for this Commonwealth in connection with the Department of Labor and Industry, to the Industrial Board of which he was appointed by Governor Tener and reappointed by Governor Brumbaugh. As a manufacturer in the iron trade, Mr. Comstock was alive to the problems on the managerial side of business; having kept in human touch with his own employees, he keenly appreciated the claims of the laborer to justice and consideration, and the variety of his experience had yielded him a knowledge of the diversified industries of the State. He was a founder and charter member of the Engineers Club of Central Pennsylvania, and served continuously as an officer thereof. He became President of the Engineers Society of Pennsylvania in 1913. For many years he was junior warden of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Mechanicsburg. A little more than twenty-three years a member of this Society, he was also in membership with the Society of Descendants of Andrew Ward, a distinguished Revolutionary officer. His wife, Julia Watts, daughter of the Hon. William Miles Watts, of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, survives him, with four children: Edith, wife of Clement Grubb Smith, Miss Katharine Foote Comstock, George Stedman Comstock, Jr., and John Reed Comstock. Of the earlier life of Mr. Comstock, Judge Wilbur F. Sadler, of the Cumberland County Court, wrote: "Asa student, he was diligent and conscientious. His moral conduct was irreproachable, leading a pure and model life; considerate of his fellow students, charitable as to their shortcomings and always lovable in his relations to them. It became a matter of common remark that he was a young man who had a proper conception of what was required to ensure a distinguished career. Frank, open, generous, sympathetic and warm to his associates; always accommodating, but never at the compromise of right and duty."