Osborne & Sexton Machinery Co. was established in 1908 by Don Marquis Osborne and James J. Sexton. This company was, primarily, a machinery dealer, but a 12-inch jointer has been reported with this company's name cast into the base of the jointer. Many machinery dealers had an in-house machine shop for repairing and rebuilding used machinery, and it is possible that they acquired some machinery patterns, had castings made and manufactured machines whenever their shop was not busy with other work.

Osborne & Sexton survived until the late 1960s or thereabouts.

Information Sources

• Thanks to an email correspondent who reported this maker and provided us a photo of the jointer in question.
• We have a report of a bandsaw and shaper with the Osborne & Sexton name. We have not confirmed whether the name is cast into the machine frames.
• Thanks to William L. Groves for reporting his J. A. Fay & Co. planer badged by Osborne & Sexton.
• A patent searched produced only one tentative match: a 1909 patent for a window screen that was assigned to D. M. Osborne and James J. Sexton of Columbus, Ohio. James J. Sexton received three patents: 1917, for an automobile headlight; 1918, for a pneumatic tire; 1926, for an electric-motor stand for use with a stationary machine.
• From Centennial history of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Volume 2 by William Alexander Taylor, 1909:

  DON MARQUIS OSBORNE.

  Although one of the more recent arrivals in Columbus, the record of Don Marquis Osborne, president of the Osborne & Sexton Machinery Company, is considered a valuable asset in the business circles of the city. From each experience which he has undergone in his life he has gained knowledge that is proving of present value. Many fail because of an inability to grasp, understand and utilize the lessons which are to be learned day by day in the actual affairs of life, but Mr. Osborne has made good use of his opportunities and has ever builded for the future upon his past experiences.

  A native of Circleville, Pickaway county, Ohio, he was born May 15, 1868, and traces his ancestry back to Corporal John Osborne, of the English army, who came to America to serve the mother country in the Revolutionary war. As he began to understand the conditions which here existed, however, he deserted and joined the colonists, participating in the long struggle which brought independence to the nation. He was gradually promoted through successive ranks until he became a general in the American army. Remaining as a resident of this country, he was the founder of the family to which I). M. Osborne belongs.

  Josiah Osborne, the father, was born in Delaware county, Ohio, and removed to Pickaway county after the Civil war, in which he had participated, serving as a private in the regular artillery. Later he was made commissary sergeant and went with Sherman on the celebrated march to the sea. Following the close of hostilities he engaged in the retail grocery business at Circleville, Ohio, for a number of years and in 1905 removed to Columbus, where he conducts the same line of business. He has now reached the age of seventy- two years and his life of intense and well directed activity should put to shame many a man of younger years, who, grown weary of the struggles and responsibilities of a business career, would relegate to others the burdens that he should bear. Josiah Osborne was married in early manhood to Miss Margaret Custis, a lady of German and English lineage, who was born near Baltimore, Maryland. Her father belonged to a German family of excellent connections,. During her early girlhood Mrs. Osborne came to Ohio with her mother and died in this state in 1876.

  D. M. Osborne was a student in the public and high schools of Circleville, Ohio, and for a period of four years, between the ages of nineteen and twenty-three, he was employed as a carriage woodworker. Thinking then to enter upon a professional career, he matriculated in the Normal school at Ada, Ohin, where he pursued a legal course and was then admitted to the bar. In 1888 he became a resident of Cleveland. Ohio, where he continued in the practice of law for three years in the office of his cousin, J. A. Osborne. a prominent attorney, who was making a specialty of general civil and patent law. Mr. Osborne of this review, however, abandoned the active work of the profession in 1902 to enter the employ of Strong. Carlisle & Hammond, dealers in machinery. He represented that firm as a salesman with the object of fully "mastering the business and remained in their employ until January, 1907. During the five years in which he was connected with the house he gradually increased in efficiency and ability until he became recognized as the best salesman representing that company. He thoroughly acquainted himself with the trade and the methods followed in business life, and on the expiration of that period he organized a partnership known as the Osborne & Sexton Machinery Company. In January, 1908. the business was incorporated'with Mr. Osborne as president. The headquarters of the company are at Columbus. Ohio, and from this point they have controlled an extensive business which is growing rapidly along substantial lines. They carry a complete stock of machinery of all kinds, such as iron working, brass working and wood working tools and machinery. They also handle complete power plants with either steam or gas engines and deal in electrical equipments. They take contracts for machinery such as concrete mixers, graders, hoists, etc., and carry a full line of transmission supplies used in connection with heavy machinery eauipments. They are sales agents in state of Ohio for the American "Woodworking Machinery Company of Rochester, New York, the largest house of the kind in the world, and they also represent many other concerns handling power and electrical equipments. The position of such a house is gauged by the character of the concerns which it represents and the Osborne & Sexton Machinery Company handle only the output of the best known and most prominent machinery houses in the country. Since its inception the business has shown a remarkable growth and deals largely with Columbus buyers in their line. The business has met a long-felt want in this city, where a machinery supply house was needed, for previously it was necessary to trade with Cleveland or Cincinnati houses if the purchaser wished to secure tools and machinery of any description. They employ several salesmen at this point and also conduct a Cincinnati sales office. Mr. Osborne is also president of the Century Manufacturing Company of Columbus, engaged in the manufacturing of drawing materials.

  In 1893 Mr. Osborne was married to Miss Agnes G. Long, of Sandusky, Ohio, and unto them have been born the following named: Margaret Irene, James Thurman, Bryan Long, Kathryn Evelyn, Don M., Jr., and Agnes Gertrude.

  Mr. Osborne is fond of fishing and outdoor sports, being a devotee of nature in many of her forms. In politics he is a democrat with a citizen's interest in the political conditions of the country. He is always genial and approachable and at the same time is an alert, enterprising man, who has the ability to concentrate his attention and interests upon the one subject at issue. He has made each step in his life count for the utmost and has found that his mechanical knowledge and legal training and his experience as a salesman have all been essential and beneficial factors in the success which he is now enjoying. He possesses the determination that overcomes obstacles and seeks out new methods in securing a desired result, and his initiative spirit and his undaunted energy have made him one of the representative business men of Columbus.

• From the above:

  JAMES J. SEXTON

  James J. Sexton, vice president and general manager of the Osborne & Sexton Machiney Company, is in this connection actively engaged in the control of one of the largest jobbing houses in Ohio, devoted entirely to the sale of wood and iron working machinery and power plants operated by steam, electricity, gas and gasoline. He has made steady advancement in his business by reason of his tireless energy and intelligent appreciation of opportunities. He was born February 14, 1878, in Manchester, England, and was a youth of ten years when in 1888 he came to America with his parents, William and Anne (Kennedy) Sexton, both of whom were native of Ireland, whence they removed to England. The father was a machinist by trade and after making several trips to this country finally brought family and established his home in the United States. The son's education, begun in his native land, was continued in the schools of Cincinnati, where he completed a high school course wth the class of 1892, being at that time but fourteen years of age. He started to school in early life and was considered a prodigy in his studies, showing special aptitude in mastering various branches which he undertook, thus graduating at a period when most boys are just entering school. Throughout his entire life he has displayed the same readiness in taking up the ideas in which he is interested and has always remained a student along the line which he has made his life work. Naturally inclined to mechanical pursuits and interested along that line, he read quite extensively books and articles bearing upon the subject. Following his graduation he became identified with The Egan Company, now the J. A. Fay & Egan Company of Cincinnati, in a clerical position, and remained in that capacity for sever years, during which period his close applicatoin, unfaltering diligence and reliability won him promotion from time to time. In the year 1899 he was made special travel representative for the company, which position he held until the latter part of 1906, at which time he resigned and started in business for himself, knowing that his capital, saved from his earnings, and his wide experience justified him in this step. He therefore organized the Osborne & Sexton Machinery Company, of Columbus, and has since been vice president and general manager. Success had attended the enterprise from the beginning and now they control the largest jobbing trade in Ohio devoted entirely to the trade of wood and iron working machinery and power plants operated electricity, gas and gasoline. At the head of the enterprise are young men: ambitious, alert, enterprising, brooking no obstacles that can be overcome by persistent and determined effort.

  On the 20th of January, 1909, Mr. Sexton was married in Ohio, to Miss Florence Mary Rankin, a daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Rankin, of Bremen, Ohio, who rank among the best known and citizens of Fairfield county, this state. In his political beliefs Mr. Sexton... advocating, however, clean politics administered in the line of... progressive business principles. Coming to America as a lad of ten years, wide-awake and alert, with a mind receptive and retentive, he was quick in becoming acquainted with American manners and customs. Mr. Sexton was a reader of papers and books on mechanics. This qualified him for his start in the business world. In the past ten years he has traveled much and, being especially interested in the progress of machinery, both wood-working and metal-working, has given that part of America's greatest industry a special study and is authority upon this branch. His ability will undoubtedly carry him to still more important relations and yet he has already achieved success that many a business man of twice his age might well envy.

  A 1909 issue of Wood Craft refers to Osborne & Sexton Machinery Co. as a dealer in second-hand machinery.

  A 1919 issue of The Wood-worker refers to The Osborne & Sexton Machinery Co. as "Re-manufacturers".

  Listed in ASME's 1941 Mechanical Engineers Catalog and Product Directory.

  Listed in 1956 Wood working digest

  Listed in 1968 Midwest Manufacturers and Industrial Directory