Catalog A-29, c. 1925

In 1880 the Richards Manufacturing Co. of Aurora, Illinois, began manufacturing hardware for rolling doors, barn doors and fire doors. By 1902 the Wilcox Manufacturing Company, also of Aurora, Illinois, was manufacturing foot-powered grindstone frames. By 1908 the Wilcox company had started making woodworking vises and was also manufacturing door hardware. In 1910 the two companies merged to become the Richards-Wilcox Manufacturing Co. In 1912 a Canadian subsidiary was incorporated, the Richards-Wilcox Canadian Co., Ltd., of London, Ontario. Both the US and Canadian operations would also make vises, especially woodworkers' bench vises; based on the number of surviving examples, it appears that the Canadian subsidiary was more successful with this product line. It would be manufactured until at least 1964.

Information Sources

• 1886, 1887 and 1899 patents to Albert Julius Ives, for door hardware.
• 1890-12-31 The Iron Age, page 90, text ad for "Naylor & Flack, 121 Chambers and 103 Reade Sts., New York / New York Agents for ... Sencenbaugh & Ives, Parlor Door Hangers..."
• 1896-02-06 The Iron Age, page 376.

  The Richards & Ives Mfg. Company have been incorporated at Aurora, Ill., by M. C. Richards, S. S. Sencenbaugh and Albert J. Ives, to enlarge the business of the old firm of Sencenbaugh & Ives. Mr. Richards is a new member of the concern who brings with him a number of specialties of which he is the inventor.

• 1897-06-03 The Iron Age, page 96: full-page ad from Wilcox Mfg. Co., Aurora, Ill. "We Make Door Hangers". Shown are the Richards Improved, the Prindle No. 1, Prindle No. 2, the New Era Steel, the Richards Steel, the Wilcox Ives, and the Barn Door roller. The Richards improved is visibly marked "Richards / Wildox Mfg. Co. / Aurora, Ill. / Pat. May 24, 81".
• February 1903 Modern Machinery, page 67.

  The Richards Manufacturing Company, Aurora, Ill., commenced business Jan. 5, 1903. The following are the stockholders of the new company: J. H. Pease, O. N. Staley, H. O. Spencer, W. H. Fitch and Lee Mighell. The company was capitalized at $49,000, and will manufacture all kinds of machinery. The new company has purchased goods from the firm of Richards & Sencenbaugh pending the erection of the company's own plant. Men are on the road for the new company and orders are being filled from the Richards & Sencenbaugh plant. The stockholder met recently and elected the following officers, who will conduct the affairs of the new company: J. H. Pease, president; O. N. Staley, vice-president; H. O. Spencer, treasurer, and W. H. Fitch, secretary.

• 1905 Certified List of Illinois Corporation, page 218, lists "Richards Manufacturing Company / (capital stock) $100,000 / (principal office) Third st. and C. B. & Q. R. R., Aurora / (president or manager) J. H. Pease, Aurora / (secretary) W. H. Fitch, Aurora", and "Richards & Sencenbaugh Mfg. Co. / (capital stock) $20,000 / (principal office) Aurora / (president or manager) M. C. Richards, 294 S. Broadway / (secretary) Geo. A. W. Dodge, Summerdale, Mass."
• 1913 Sweet's Catalogue of Building Construction mentions Richards-Wilcox "Monarch", "Advance", "Hero" and "Le Roy" ball-bearing sliding (barn) door hardware, fire door hardware, folding partition hardware, trolley roller-bearing barn door hangers, trolley ball-bearing garage door hangers, swinging overhead doors for warehouses and similar buildings, and sliding door hardware.
• January 1913 Popular Mechanics has an ad from Richards-Wilcox Manufacturing Co., 147 Third Street, Aurora, Ill., for their workbench equipped with a vise with "phosphor bronze nut engaging the entire circumference of the screw and operating the entire length".
• 1913 Canadian Trade Index lists Richards-Wilcox Canadian Co., Limited, London, Ont., as a maker of a variety of builder's hardware, fire doors, and merchandise carriers. A 1/4 page text ad mentions their door hangers and overhead trolley carrier systems, plus "bulldog joint hangers / steel frame grindstones / wagon jacks / auto jacks / post hold augers / rolling ladders / wire stretchers / fire door hardware".
• 1920-02-28 American Artisan and hardware Record has a writeup on a catalog, Number A-22, from Richards-Wilcox Manufacturing Co., Aurora, Ill., titled, "Distinctive Garage Door Hardware".
• 1923-09-20 Automotive Industries, page 112, has a full-page ad from Richards-Wilcox Mfg. Co., Aurora, Ill., and Richards-Wilcox Canadian Co., Ltd., London, Ont.; the ad is for their "OveR-Way equipment, a line of equipment for assembly-line material handling, as featured in their catalogue W-23.
• 1925 Farm Implement News Buyer's Guide lists Richards-Wilcox Mfg. Co., Aurora, Ill., as providers of "Barn door hangers and track, barn door latches, rails and rollers, mounted and family grindstones, wire and fence stretchers, wagon jacks, emery grinders, rapid-acting vises, door closers and checks, elevator door hangers, fire doors, fire door hardware, gable door fixtures, garage door equipment, house door hangers, warehouse door hangers, store ladders." They had branches at "85 Walker St., New York City; 132 Pearl St., Boston, Mass.; 321 Plymouth Bldg., Minneapolis, Minn.; 168 W. Lake St., Chicago, Ill.; 507 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa.; R. & W. Canadian Co., Ltd., London, Ont., Can.; 1735 Boatmen's Bank Bldg., St. Louis, Mo.; 626 Underwood Bldg., San Francisco, Calif.; 503 Equitable Bldg., Los Angeles, Cal."
• The website of Richards-Wilcox Garage Doors, Mississauga, Ontario, says that they were "incorporated in Canada in 1912, making us the oldest door company in the world."
• An online corporate biography says, "The Richards-Wilcox Manufacturing Company was founded in November 1910 following the merger of the Wilcox Manufacturing Company and Richards Manufacturing Company, both of Aurora, Illinois. Its industry is office storage, filing systems, overhead power and conveyor systems and its headquarters have remained Aurora, Illinois. It was acquired by White Consolidated Industries in 1967 and remained its parent until it was purchased by Electrolux in 1986. It was owned by Aker RGI from 1998 to 2004 before becoming a private company again."