In 1866 the Three Rivers Manufacturing Co. was organized by brothers Lorenzo B. Swartwout and William Swartwout. It appears that the Swartwouts left the business by 1876, because in that year L. B. Swartwout started a competitor business under his own name. An 1875 company listing indicates that the company president and treasurer was O. F. Bean, and the secretary was D. W. Shaw.

The company manufactured sawmill machinery, including circular ripsaws, lumber trimmers, gang edgers, and gang lath mills.

Information Sources

• This company was assigned an 1873 patent for a circular ripsaw used for edging lumber. One of its features is heated feedrolls, "so as to prevent them from clogging from pitch or ice." The same inventor, William G. Caldwell, had an 1875 patent for a "relishing machine" that was not assigned.
• 1875 Polk's Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory mentions, in its summary of Three Rivers, "the Three Rivers Manufacturing Company, with a capital stock of $50,000. This company are running a foundry and machine shop, and making a specialty of an elevated railroad sawing machine, a parallel gang edger and a gang lath mill..." The company listing simply says, "O F Bean pres and treas, D W Shaw, sec."
• The 1877 book, History of St. Joseph County, Michigan. "In 1866 the Three Rivers Manufacturing Company built their furnace and machine shop, L. B. Swarthout, general manager, and William Swarthout, treasurer. The works are still in operation."
• 1877-02-10 Journal of the Senate of the State of Michigan has a table of businesses registered in the state. Three Rivers Manufacturing Co., of Three Rivers, was founded for the purpose of "Machine, foundry, and general manufacturing business." Unfortunately the table does provide registration dates.
• 1881 Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory lists "Three Rivers Mnfg Co (Capital $50,000, George A Jackson Pres, L B Swartwout Sec, W B Swartwout Treas, L S Hogeboom Supt, Founders and Machinists, Mnfrs of Mill Machinery".
• The 1889 District-Court lawsuit Densmore v. Three Rivers Mfg. Co. describes a contract made 1874-03-21 between J. Allen and J. Kelsey, with the Three Rivers Manufacturing Co. where the latter licensed from the former the right to manufacture the lath machine of patent 146,632; the complainant, Densmore, believed to be Edwin Densmore of Grand Rapids, was also a licensee. The basis of the agreement with Three Rivers Mfg. Co. was a payment of $30 royalty on each machine sold. Three Rivers Mfg. Co. also agreed to supply lath mills to Allen and Kelsey at $150 each. The complainant alleged that Three Rivers Mfg. Co. had not fulfilled its part of the contract and therefore the contract was voided. The court demurred with that conclusion and also said that they did not have jurisdiction to decide whether or not the terms of the agreement had been breached; such a conclusion was the jurisdiction of a state court.
• According to the July, 1922 Three Rivers, Michigan—Historical and Pictorial City Directory, in 1866, "Lorenzo Swartwout came to Michigan. The Swartwouts established the Three Rivers Manufacturing Company."
• The 1922 publication, Michigan Historical Collections, Vol. XXXVIII, in an article titled, "Extracts from history of Three Rivers," by M. H. Bumphrey: "In 1868 the Three Rivers Manufacturing Company established a foundry and machine shop on the plant built by Caldwell, Twichell & Company, and later became known as the Swartwout building."
• the findagrave.com page on Lorenzo B. Swartwout provides a brief biography. He was born in New York City in 1818 and died in Three Rivers in 1888. Willard B. Swartwout (1857-1914) was a son.