In 1830 Luther Weld established a machine shop on Asylum Street in Brattleboro, Vermont. He manufactured planing machines and other woodworking machinery. In 1856 he was operating as Luther Weld & Son, the son being Luther Rogers Weld. It seems that by 1859 the son had left the business, and then in 1863 nephew Calvin J. Weld took over the business of operating the Weld Machine Shop where he and a small handful of employees made wood planers, shingle machines, bandsaws, lathes, and turbine water wheels. He also patented a machine for making wash-boards but it is uncertain if he manufactured the machine or the wash-boards. The business seems to have survived until close to Calvin's death in 1894.

Information Sources

• 1856 Vermont Directory and Commercial Almanac, page 67 lists L. Weld and Son as manufacturers of planing machines.
• 1859 Vermont Directory and Commercial Almanac lists L. Weld as a manufacturer of planing machines.
• 1863 Walton's Vermont Register and Farmer's Almanack, page 43, lists Luther Weld as a maker of planing machines.
• Listed in the 1874 work, Wiley's American iron trade manual of the leading iron industries of the United States, as a maker of "wood-planing machines".

• 1884 book Child's Gazetteer and Business Directory of Windham County, Vt..

  The Weld Machine Shop, located on Asylum street, was established by Luther Weld in 1830, who carried on the business until 1863, when the present proprietor, Calvin J. Weld, purchased the property and has since carried on the business. He manufactures planing machines, lathes, and band saws, and is also the patentee and manufacturer of the Weld shingle machine, and the Weld self-regulating water-wheel, employing five men.

  Elsewhere in the volume:

  Calvin Weld [grandfather of Calvin J. Weld] came from Plymouth, Vt., about a hundred years ago, and settled on the farm now owned by his grandson, Isaac A. Weld, where died. His son Isaac, who was born here in 1800, married Sally Archeraft, by whom he had four children, Isaac A., Calvin J., Louisa, and David. He was a gunsmith, and in addition to that business carried on the manufacture of ox-bows. He died February 12, 1873, and his wife June 11, 1865...

• 1921 book, Annals of Brattleboro, 1681-1895, Volume I. "Other machine shops were owned by...Luther Weld, who carried on his shop from 1830 to 1866, when Calvin J. Weld purchased the property. He manufactured planes, band saws, the Weld two-block shingle machine and self-regulating water wheel."
• FindAGrave.com page on Calvin J. Weld shows that he was born in 1830 and died on 1894-09-20.
• The Shaker Village of Mount Lebanon, N. H., has in its collection a wood-framed planer that is very tentatively attributed to Calvin Weld. From an article on their website: "No other examples survive. There is no manufacturer’s name on the planer, however if it was commercially made the name may have been left off to guard against the maker being sued by the [Woodworth] syndicate. The blades on the planer are marked “A. Wheeler, Brattleboro, Vt.” Wheeler is a known manufacturer of edge tools—axes, adzes, drawknives, and, apparently, planer blades. At the same time Wheeler was in business there was a manufacturer of planing machines in Brattleboro, Calvin J. Weld, from whom the Shakers purchased a planer in the 1850s for their Tyringham, Massachusetts community. It is possible that this machine was obtained from the same source..." As indicated in the history above, it was probably Luther Weld rather than Calvin J. Weld.
• Luther Rogers Weld (1825-1917) moved to Faribault, MN, as reported in the 1889 book A Cutler Memorial and Genealogical History. The year of Luther R. Weld's death is from genealogical websites.