The Goodell-Pratt name was in existence from 1895 to 1931, as detailed below. The company primarily made hand tools (such as drills, calipers, braces, and levels) and high-precision metalworking machinery. Hand tools are outside the scope of this web site. Goodell-Pratt qualifies for this listing because they made a small lathe for both metal- and wood-working, and a small bench-mounted drill press.

Goodell Bros. was founded in 1888 by Albert D. Goodell and Henry E. Goodell; they had been employees of Millers Falls Co. In 1892 Albert left the company to establish Goodell Tool Co. with his son. Another brother, Dexter W. Goodell, joined the Goodell Bros. firm, and the company relocated to Greenfield. Dexter left in 1895, and in 1898 Henry sold the firm to the treasurer and manager, William M. Pratt. The following year Pratt renamed the business to Goodell-Pratt Co.

Goodell-Pratt obtained entry to the growing electric tools market with the 1925 purchase of A. F. Way Co. of Hartford, CT. A substantial stand with slotted base was available for drill press operations.

In 1931, Goodell-Pratt merged with Millers Falls Co.

Massachusetts Tool Co.

The Massachusetts Tool Co. was formed in 1900 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Goodell-Pratt. Its main focus was making machinists' hand tools, although their name was also put on some lathes of Goodell-Pratt design. The impetus for creating this subsidiary was apparently to earn the "Union Made" label on their machinists' tools, which boosted sales to union shops. A difficult relationship with the union led to the loss of the label in 1910, and in 1912, Massachusetts was absorbed back into Goodell-Pratt Co.

Hand tools are outside the scope of this web site. Please do not upload pictures of hand tools! Any such pictures will be deleted.

Information Sources

• Some Information on the corporate history is taken from Randy Roeder's Millers Falls site.
• The January 1902 Machinery has the following writeup.

  The Massachusetts Tool Co., Greenfield, Mass. Illustrated catalogue of machinists' tools and small model bench lathes. The tools listed Include a line of micrometer calipers and several special calipers for Inside and outside measuring, two of which are Illustrated In another part of this Issue. There are also surface gages, protractors, trammels and other tools. This company have purchased the mechanical tool business of Coffin & Leighton, Syracuse, N. Y., and will continue the manufacture of scales which this latter company formerly made.

• The Massachusetts corporate registry database lists this company's first registration as 1895-07-26.