By 1868 Quimby S. Backus was manufacturing patent vises and lathe drill bits under the name Q. S. Backus. In 1869 he organized the Backus Vise Co. in Windsor, VT, to manufacture his patent vises, with J. S. Farnsworth as president and Backus as plant superintendent. Within about a year the company relocated to Millers Falls, MA, lured by the offer of capital from the owners of the Millers Falls Manufacturing Co. Employing between sixteen and twenty-five workers, the company produced a wide range of vises, aimed at customers from jewelers to blacksmiths. They shared space in a factory owned by the Millers Falls Manufacturing Co.
An 1871 fire halted production for a time. That year they acquired the rights to manufacture the Brainard patent vises of the Union Vise Co., which had recently suffered their own fire. Only a year later the Backus Vise Co. suffered another fire, destroying their new building. The company continued to thrive despite these setbacks and demand for their vises exceeded their capacity to fill it. In 1873 they were acquired by their landlord, and the merged business was reorganized as the Millers Falls Co. By that time Backus had already left the company to establish a new business, Q. S. Backus & Co., to make hand tools of his own design. Millers Falls Co., meanwhile, continued to manufacture the Backus line of vises for at least a couple of decades.
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