Listed in the 1874 work, Wiley's American iron trade manual of the leading iron industries of the United States: BELKNAP, ELY & CO. -- Iron foundry, circular-saw mills."
An 1867 patent for a sawmill head-block was granted to Charles R. Ely of Northfield, VT; one of the witnesses was Perley Belknap. A Charles R. Ely was witness to an 1878 shingle-machine patent granted to one Joseph Alexander Mumford of Avondale, Nova Scotia, Canada.