Ransom Crosby patented and manufactured woodworking machines. He also licensed patents, including a machine for assembling window-blinds that had been patented by one Thomas R. Crosby, and a miter chopper patented by S. W. Hall. Crosby died in 1864; the rights to the miter chopper, at least, went to fellow Newark makers Hawkins & Dodge.

Information Sources

• Ransom Crosby and Henry D. Edgcomb, both of New York City, were granted an 1852 patent for a planer-matcher. The patent was assigned to Ransom Crosby, Jr., also of New York City.
• The list of premiums awarded at the Fifth Annual Fair of the New Jersey State Agricultural Society, held 14-17 September, 1859, lists Ransom Crosby as winning "special premium and diploma" for his "Patent improved lathe and rod wire", and likewise for his "Hall's patent mitreing machine".
• Transactions of the American Institute of the City of New York, for the years 1859-60 lists premiums awarded at the Thirty-First Annual Fair of the American Institute in the Fall of 1859, including a bronze medal awarded to Ransom Crosby of Newark, for a mitre machine.
• The 1860-01-02 issue of Scientific American, in a follow-up report on the previous November's Fair of the American Institute, reports that "Crosby's Blind Lath and Rod-wiring Machine, for inserting the little wire staples into the slats and rods of window-blinds; and S. W. Hill's Miter Machine; both exhibited by Ransom Crosby, 358 Broad-street, Newark, N. J."
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• A Ransom Crosby died as a prisoner during the Civil War. We do not know if this was the father, the son, or a different person altogether. From one of various online collections of Civil War records: "Corporal.-Ransom Crosby, mustered in August 29, 1861; died at Milliss, Ga., October 25, 1864; prisoner of war; buried at National Cemetery, Beaufort, S. C., Section 36, Grave 159."
• Mentioned in Early Tools of New Jersey and the Men Who Made Them by Alexander Farnham, 1984.

  ...there were a few manufacturers of small and or foot-powered woodworking machines within the state who deserve some mention. One of these manufacturers was Ransom Crosby, the inventor of a blind-wiring machine. Blind-wiring machines, along with the 1858 patented Halls mitring machines, were made at his 385 Broad Street factory. Both must have sold well for at least three Newark firms were making them during the eighteen-sixties. Beside Ransom Crosby they were made by the administrators for his estate, Hawkins & Dodge, and by Seymour & Whitlock. These latter two companies also made other machines, including foot-powered mitre and mortising machines.

• According to a page at ancestry.com, Crosby died on 1864-02-28, which is consistent with all other evidence we have, that show he died sometime between 1861 and 1868.