Ephraim C. "Eph" Tainter, the manager of J. A. Fay & Co.'s Worcester operations, bought those operations when the J. A. Fay & Co. partnership was dissolved in 1861; most of the operations were bought by a group of their agents who established a new "J. A. Fay & Co." based in Cincinnati, but the Worcester operations were not part of that deal. In an unusual arrangement, the Worcester company and the Cincinnati company agreed that they could each use the "J. A. Fay & Co." name.

Eph Tainter proceeded to largely shut down his manufacturing operations and resell machines from other makers as J. A. Fay & Co. machines. This did not sit well with the Cincinnati owners of that name, and a lawsuit was filed. It dragged on for a couple of years, but the eventual decision was that the original agreement did not restrict Tainter's right to use the name as he saw fit.

In 1869, Tainter joined the firm of Power & Davis, with the resulting firm being named Power, Davis & Tainter. By 1876 the firm was known as Power, Tainter & Co. At some point it became E. C. Tainter & Co., and then in 1878 that firm was bought out by Goodell & Waters.

Information Sources

• Ad in 1868 issues of Scientific American: "Best planers and wood tools as formerly, by E. C. Tainter, successor to J. A. Fay & Co."
• The decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court in the lawsuit by the other owners of J. A. Fay & Co. against Tainter is available online via Google Books. The plaintiffs were Caleb B. Rogers, Edward Joslin, William H. Doane, and William E. London.