In 1874 Henry Bickford left J. A. Fay & Egan Co. and began building drill presses under his own name. In 1887 Bickford and some new investors reorganized as the Bickford Tool Co., which lasted only until 1893 when they reorganized again as the Bickford Drill & Tool Co. By 1900 the company specialized in radial drilling machines.

In 1909 the Bickford Drill & Tool Co. merged with the Cincinnati Machine Tool Co. to create the Cincinnati Bickford Tool Co. In 1955 the company was acquired by the Giddings & Lewis Machine Tool Co. and became the Cincinnati Bickford Division of the Giddings & Lewis Machine Tool Co. Giddings & Lewis is still in business as part of the France-based Fives Group.

Information Sources

• The Cincinnatian, V 4, 14 May 1917, page 7, By Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' Exchange.

  In 1874 Henry Bickford, who had been employed by J. A. Fay & Egan Company, started to build upright drills in a shop at Front and Pike streets. In 1879 he started to build a 24-inch drill to sell for $100, as against the regular price, $300. It was a cheap competition machine, but from it developed the modern products of the Cincinnati-Bickford Tool Company. In 1887 the Bickford Tool Companv was organized by Charles Hoefinghoff, President of the Hoefinghoff & Lane Foundry; A. H. Kerkhoff, Bickford's foreman, and George K. Kerkhoff, formerly with the Blymyer Iron Works, Cincinnati.

  On February 1. 1893, the company reorganized as the Bickford Drill & Tool Company, with Charles Hoefinger. President; August H. Tuechter, general manager, and Anton Mill, superintendent. In 1894 Lewis G. Keck was admitted to the partnership and made Secretary-Treasurer. Mr. Mill retired from the company February 9. 1897, and May 17, 1897. Henry M. Morris became its superintendent and engineer.

  Mr. Morris served his apprenticeship with the Bement, Miles Company, Philadelphia, Pa., and worked as a draughtsman for the Phoenix Iron Company, Phoenixville, Pa.; the John A. Roebling Son's Company, Trenton, N. J.; Dr. Coleman Sellers, Philadel phia; Ferracute Machine Company, Bridgetown, N. J.; Brown & Sharpe Company, Providence, R. I.; was designer for Pond Machine Tool Company, Plainfleld, N. J. inspector for Garvin Machine Company, New York; superintendent of Riehlé Bros. Testing Machine Co., Philadelphia, and general manager of Campbell & Zell Company, Baltimore, Md.

  When Charles Hoeflnghoff died, In November, 1898, Mr. Tuechter entered partnership with Sherman C. Schauer, who for eight years had been superintendent of the Hamilton Machine Tool Company, Hamilton, O. and under the name of the Cincinnati Machine Tool Company specialized on upright drills.

  Subsequently the Bickford Drill and Tool Company, with Harry C. Hoefinghoff as President, specialized on the manufacture of radial drills. When H. C. Hoeflnghoff died, March 2, 1907, Fred A. Geier, President of the Cincinnati Milling Machine Company, was named executor of the will. Mr. Geler was made President of the Bickford Company, which he supervised until February 11, 1909, when it was consolidated with the Cincinnati Machine Tool Company, as the Cincinnati Bickford Tool Company, with A. H. Tuechter, President; S. C. Schauer, Vice President and general manager; George P. Gradolf, Secretary and Treasurer, and H. M. Norris, mechanical engineer. The new plant at Oakley, Ohio, into which the company moved January 1911, is the largest and most modern factory in the world, devoted exclusively to the manufacture of drilling machinery.

• 1918-10-17 The Iron Trade Review, Obituaries.

  Sherman C. Schauer, vice president and general manager of the Cincinnati Bickford Tool Co., Cincinnati, died at his residence in that city Oct. 11, aged 53 years. He had been connected with the Cincinnati Bickford Tool Co. ever since its organization, and previous to that time was with the Cincinnati Machine Tool Co.

• 1918-10-31 American Machinist has an obituary for Sherman Cornelius Schauer.
• November 1918 Machinery, Obituaries.

  Sherman C. Schauer, vice-president and general manager of the Cincinnati Bickford Tool Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, died on October 11. Mr. Schauer was born at Hamilton, Ohio, November 13, 1865, and after completing a common school course entered the drafting-room of the Cope & Maxwell Co., pump manufacturers. It was not long before he realized the necessity for a more practical knowledge of machine shop work than this position afforded, so he went with the Bentel & Margedant Co., manufacturers of woodworking machinery, as an apprentice machinist, and equipped with the experience thus acquired, went to Cincinnati with the old Lodge & Davis Co., and later with the Lane & Bodley Co.

  Mr. Schauer's earliest business venture was at Aurora, Ind., whence he returned to Hamilton to become superintendent of the Hamilton Machine Tool Co., where he remained for eight years. In 1898, in connection with August H. Tuechter, Mr. Schauer founded the Cincinnati Machine Tool Co., for the manufacture o f upright drilling machinery, and made many valuable practical improvements in the product of his company. In 1909, the Cincinnati Machine Tool Co. was consolidated with the Bickford Drill & Tool Co. under the name of the Cincinnati Bickford Tool Co., with August H. Tuechter, president; Sherman C. Schauer, vice-president and general manager; George P. Gradolf, secretary and treasurer, and H. M. Norris, mechanical engineer.

  Mr. Schauer was highly regarded by a wide circle of personal and business friends as well as by his associates and employees in the great business which his mechanical ability and untiring energy helped to build up. He is survived by his widow, three sons, and one daughter.

• An early H. Bickford Catalogue can be found at the Cincinnati Public Library website.
• 1955-08-15 New York Times. "Giddings Lewis Machine Tool Company of Fond du Lac, Wis., plans to acquire two other companies in the machine-tool field. The companies that would be absorbed are the Cincinnati Bickford Tool Company of Cincinnati and the Kaukauna Machine Corporation of Kaukauna, Wis."
• July-December 1958 Catalog of Copyright Entries lists "Cincinnati Bickford radials, Giddings & Lewis Machine Tool Co. Cincinnati Bickford Division."