The Gibbs Manufacturing Co. of Canton, Ohio, manufactured a primitive benchtop scrollsaw. It was constructed mainly of wood, with machine screws as pivot points. A pressed-steel pulley was provided to be powered by a motor via a round sewing-machine belt. Gibbs manufactured toys and this saw was likely intended as an inexpensive but working tool for boys.

Information Sources

• 1895 Annual Report of the Department of Inspection of Workshops lists, among factories inspected in Canton, "Gibb's Manufacturing Co / E. North street / (kind of manufacturing) Lawn rakes, etc.", employing 12 males, 1 female, 3 minors; number employed prior to business depression of '93-'94, 12.
• 1898 Farm Implement News Buyer's Guide lists Gibbs Manufacturing Company, Canton, O., as makers of Boss garden rakes; Active weeding hooks; Gibbs, Model, Hustler, Regulator, and Ohio Girl lawn rakes; Eclipse and Niagara lawn sprinklers; Perfect pruning shears; Gibbs, Imperial, Columbia, National, Canton, and Hustler post-hole diggers.
• 1899 Seeger and Guernsey's Cyclopædia of the Manufactures and Products of the United States, lists "Gibbs Mfg. Co., Canton, O." as makers of mincing knives, can openers, curry combs, toe weights, vegetable mashers, potato hooks, post-hole diggers, garden trowels, weeders & potato diggers combined, weeding hooks, toy tops, and embroidery hoops
• 1909 trademark registrations for embroidery-hoops, numbers 60,549 through 50,552 inclusive.
• 1916 book, A Standard History of Stark County, Ohio.

  Gibbs Family. As inventor and manufacturers the Gibbs family has been identified with the industrial history of Canton for over three- quarters of a century, and three generations of the family have been at the head of important plants in the city.

  Joshua Gibbs, inventor and manufacturer, and grandfather of the present generation of the family, was the pioneer plow maker west of the Allegheny Mountains. He was a native of New Jersey, born near the City of Trenton, in 1802, of Quaker parents. He learned the trade of cooper and general wood-worker, and became an expert mechanic. After working at his trade in Trenton, New Jersey and Philadelphia, he came west to Ohio in 1822. He worked in Cleveland for a few months, and then came to Canton, which at that time was a town equal in size to Cleveland, and in the opinion of Mr. Gibbs, offered better opportunities, and a better future than did the town on the lake. When he came to Canton there were two cooper shops here, and he found employment in the shop owned by Mr. Fogle. Up to this time Mr. Gibbs had not turned his mind seriously to inventions, though he had long before given evidence of more than ordinary genius in that direction. His first patent was on an invention known as a bar share plow, on which he received a patent in 1826, which letters patent, signed by Andrew Jackson, then President of the United States, is still in possession of the Gibbs family. Mr. Gibbs began manufacturing his plow in about 1827. The plow had a wooden mold-board with metal trimmings, and was the first plow manufactured west of the Alleghanies, and it brought its inventor and manufacturer into prominence all over Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and the western states of that date. Along about that time the Laird Foundry was built in Canton, and Mr. Gibbs promptly changed the wooden mold-board plow to one of metal, having his castings made by the Lairds. From that time on Mrr. Gibbs continued the manufacture of his plow until 1856, when he retired from active business, and was succeeded by his sons, Lewis, Martin, and William, who carried on the business until 1863 under the name of Lewis Gibbs & Bros. Besides the plow, Mr. Gibbs patented many other of his inventions, the most important one being his invention for drying grinding plows, which proved a big success, and which is the basic principle of the dry grinding in use today throughout the country.

  Mr. Gibbs married Barbara Schaefer, who was born in Germany, and came with her parents to Canton in early days. Mr. Gibbs died on December 15, 1875, while his wife died in 1878, at the age of eighty-one years. The late Lewis Gibbs, son of Joshua, who, like his father, was both inventor and manufacturer, was born in Canton in 1833. In early life he worked in his father's plow factory, and in 1856 he and brothers under the firm name of Lewis Gibbs & Bros., succeeded to their father's business. In 1863 he associated himself with other gentlemen and founded the Bucherr & Gibbs Plow Company, for the manufacture of the "Imperial Plow" under Mr. Gibbs' own patents. In 1891 Mr. Gibbs withdrew from the Bucher & Gibbs Plow Company and associated himself in business with his sons Elmer W. and Alvin J., they founding the Gibbs Lawn Rake Company, and manufactured lawn rakes and other hardware specialties under other of Mr. Gibbs' patents. This company was subsequently merged into the Gibbs Manufacturing Company, and its product changed to include that of patented specialties for the dry goods, notion, toy and hardware trades. This company has grown into one of the leading ones in the line in the country and is one of Canton's important industries. In 1903 the business was incorporated with Mr. Lewis Gibbs as president, and he continued at the head of the company until his death. The company was reorganized in 1914, with Elmer W. Gibbs as vice president and superintendent, Alvin J. Gibbs, treasurer, and F. W. Preyer, secretary.

  In 1856 Mr. Lewis Gibbs married Caroline Bauerice, the daughter of Ludwig and Margaret Bauerice, of Canton. Of their children, the following survive: Elmer W., Alvin J., and Clara G., who married F. W. Preyer. Mr. Gibbs died April 5, 1915. His wife died in 1900.

  Elmer W. Gibbs, son of Lewis, was born in Canton on February 22, 1864. He was educated in the public schools and at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York. When he returned from business college he became assistant to his father who was then at the head of the plow department of the Bucher & Gibbs Plow Company. In 1891 he, with his father, became active in the Gibbs Law Rake Company, which was organized in 1884; he becoming vice president and superintendent of the Gibbs Manufacturing Company. Mr. Gibbs is interested in various industrial enterprises of Canton, and is a director of the City National Bank. He is a member of the Canton Chamber of Commerce and of the Masonic order. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and politically he is a member of the republican party.

  Mr. Gibbs married Louise Voges; who, was born in Cleveland, the daughter of the late Capt. Theodore Voges, who served as a member of General Sherman's staff during the Civil war.

  Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs have the following children : Hazel, Louise, Harry E., E. Lewis and Theodore V.

• 2005 book The Pony Circus Wagon, by Joseph A. McCaffrey.

  The Gibbs Manufacturing Company of Canton, Ohio, had existed in varying metamorphoses since 1829. It had started in the plow business, had moved into a variety of other farm-related products, then the notions business with the production of knitting and sewing hoops, crochet hooks and needs, and finally in 1896 it developed a toy top for the presidential election of William McKinley, a Canton resident... Thousands were made and passed out as election novelties...

  ...In a relatively short period of time, the company would develop a number of inventive and well-made toys....

  The Gibbs Company was a family-run business. Its last reorganization in 1903 decreed Lewis (father) was President, while sons Elmer (Vice President and Superintendent) and Alvin (Treasurer and Advertising Manager) and son-in-law Fred Pryer (Secretary and Sales Manager) were to be officers of the corporation. They were creative businessmen who turned out a class product line....