In 1894 Edgar Nathaniel Hobby began manufacturing chair-making machinery under the name of E. N. Hobby. In 1898 his older brother, machinist and machine designer William Henry Hobby, joined the business and the name was changed to the Gardner Machine Works. The business operated for several decades, mostly keeping a low profile as it catered primarily to the chair-making industry. William designed all, or almost all, of the company's machines, which included various specialized chair-making machines and machines for making baby carriages, including the iron and steel parts. Edgar died in 1935, at which time William bought out his brother's shares and ran the business as sole proprietor until he incorporated the business in 1944, with himself as president. We do not have any information on the company until 1978 when, with the local furniture manufacturers disappearing, the company closed. The plant equipment was auctioned March 12, 1981.

Advertisement from the November 1913 "Wood Craft"

Information Sources

• Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics' Directory of Massachusetts Manufactures for 1898 had this item in their "Industrial Chronology" for 1898:

  Gardner. In January, E. N. Hobby, wood working machinery, took partner and changed style to Gardner Machine Works.

• 1910 New England Business Directory and Gazetteer has an ad for Gardner Machine Works, "Established 1894", "W. H. Hobby / E. N. Hobby".
• 1915 The Industries and Foreign Trade of Massachusetts lists "Gardner Machine Works (W. H. & E. N. Hobby), Depot Sq., Gardner."
• Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics' Directory of Massachusetts Manufactures for 1913 lists this firm: "Gardner Machine Works (W. H. & E. N. Hobby), Depot Sq., Gardner."
• Advertisement and listing in the November 1913 Wood Craft. The ad was for their horizontal drum sander.
• Used machinery ad in a 1949 issue of National Hardwood magazine: listings for various machines from this maker, including a chucking stand, chair leveling table and saw, hand fitting saw, rip saw, and a double pneumatic drum sander.
• The Boston Globe, Jan. 17, 1944, pg. 14
1946 The National Cyclopædia of American Biography.

HOBBY, William Henry, manufacturer, was born in Charlestown, Mass., Dec. 6, 1866, son of William Miller and Lucy Angeline (Elms) Hobby and grandson of William and Agnes (Gerry) Hobby. His grandfather was a pioneer furniture manufacturer in Boston. His father was a machinist and a veteran of the Civil War. He attended grade and high schools in Roxbury, Mass., and took a three-year course in designing and drafting at the Wentworth Institute in Boston. Subsequently, he was employed in the brass and iron foundry of the Walworth Manufacturing Co. in South Boston. In 1887 he entered the employ of L. G. McKnight, manufacturer of chair-making machinery, in Gardner, Mass. Three years later he returned to Boston to obtain experience in gear cutting, another branch of the machinist's trade. During 1892-94 he worked on building and repairing machines for Heywood-Wakefield Co., makers of chairs in Gardner, and then joined his brother, Edgar N. Hobby, in forming the Gardner Machine Works. Starting as manufacturers of chair machinery only, and that principally for the local demand, the brothers gradually extended the scope of the business until they were producing machinery for a wide variety of industries. Chair machinery, however, has always been their specialty, and in this field the inventive genius of William H. Hobby has led to the designing of machines which have revolutionized the chair industry, solving many of the existing problems and speeding up the output of the plants in which they have been installed. In all he has designed more than 125 machines, among them a machine to make chair seats, a machine for boring leg holes in wood seat chairs, an automatic chair boring machine, automatic machinery to stamp out metal wheels on baby carriages, cane machinery and dies and tools for making iron work on baby carriages. On the death of his brother in 1935 Mr. Hobby bought his brother's shares from the heirs and continued on in the business as sole owner until Jan. 1, 1944, when he formed a corporation, of which he has since been president. At one time he contributed articles to the Wood Worker. For a number of years he has been a member of the Republican town committee of Gardner. He is a member of the Gardner chamber of commerce, the Sons of Veterans and the Improved Order of Red Men. His favorite recreation is fishing. He has been married twice: (1) in Gardner. Sept. 8, 1889, to Ada G., daughter of Joseph W. Clapp, a machinist, of that town; she died in 1910, leaving two children, Nettie Lillian. who married Alan Trekell, and Alice Wilma Hobby, who married Henry LeBlanc; (2) in Gardner, Oct. 19, 1919, to Etta Levina, daughter of Alvin Richards, a hotel proprietor, of that town.

• The Boston Globe, Mar. 8, 1981, pg. 227
• The Hagley Museum and Library has a pdf document summarizing their graphic collection of items from Gardner Machine Works. The document includes the following biography. "The Gardner Machine Works specialized in manufacturing woodworking machinery, specifically those used to make chairs. The company was founded in 1894 as E.N. Hobby in Gardner, Massachusetts by Edgar Nathaniel Hobby (1872-1928). In 1898, Edgar Hobby partnered with his brother, William H. Hobby (1866-1957) and the name was changed to Gardner Machine Works. Gardner Machine Works produced various machinery including multiple types of boring, chucking, cutting, pressing, sanding, sawing, and saddle seat machines. The company closed in 1978 and an effort was made to save the site around 1980."