Planer and lathe maker S. C. Coombs & Co. was established in 1845 by Samuel C. Coombs, Russell R. Shepard and Martin Lathe, who had all been employees of textile machinery maker Phelps & Bickford. Within a couple of years C. Wheelock joined the firm. In 1852 Wheelock had been replaced by J. A. Whipple. In 1853 Coombs left the partnership and the business became Shepard, Lathe & Co.; see that entry for the subsequent history.

Information Sources

• Ad in 1852 Massachusetts Register: "S. C. Combs & Co. / Manufacturers of power & hand planing machines, for iron, turning engines, hand lathes, malleable iron dogs, and all kinds of machinists' tools, also, agents for Fairman's scroll chucks, / Heywood's Building, Centre Street. Worcester, Mass. / Samuel C. Combs, R. R. Shepard, Martin Lathe, J. A. Whipple."
• The 1917 bookIndustrial Worcester by Charles G. Washburn.

  The building of railroads created an increased demand for machinists' tools, and in 1845, Samuel C. Coombs, a machinist in the employ of Phelps & Bickford, in company with Russell R. Shepard and Martin Lathe, a woodworker, in the same shop, formed a copartnership under the style of S. C. Coombs & Co. They started in the Court Mills, then moved to Dr. Heywood's shop. Before they moved C. Wheelock was taken into partnership. From the Heywood shop, in Central Street, subsequently used by the Harrington Brothers as a paint shop, they removed to the Estabrook shop, where they occupied room in the northern end of the building, where in 1853, their successors, the Lathe & Morse Tool Co., continued until they moved to their own building, in Gold Street, where they were located in 1889. Their business from the start was the manufacture of lathes and planers. They employed on an average about fifty hands, and their product went all over the world. The Lathe & Morse Tool Co. was succeeded in 1892 by the Draper Machine Tool Co. which was later, in 1905, merged in the Whitcomb-Blaisdell Machine Tool Co. at 134 Gold Street. The first exhibit of machinists' tools was made by S. C. Coombs & Co., at the Mechanics' Exhibition held in September, 1851.

• American Milling Machine Builders: 1820-1920 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2007, page 75.
• American Lathe Builders: 1810-1910 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2001, page 36.