We have a report of a ca. 1870 wood-frame planer from this maker. The machine has a cast plaque that clearly reads, "BEMIS & WARE. / MANUFACTURERS. / BRATTLEBORO. VT."
Information Sources
- Thanks to Benjamin Campbell for bringing this maker to our attention.
- A patent search came up completely dry, as did a web search.
- A search of the "Making of America" archives produced only one very tentative data point. The book, Henry Dunster and his descendants, by Samuel Dunster, 1876, lists several members of the Bemis family residing in or around Brattleboro. The only one who seems like a candidate for having made a planer: "CYRENE BEMIS, is a blacksmith, an excellent and ingenious workman, in Brattleboro." Cyrene was the son of blacksmith Lemuel K. Bemis 1790-1854.
- 1849 New England Mercantile Union Business Directory, page 241, lists under Machinists, "Macomber, A. S. (lathes, &c.) E. Bennington."