Builder of Steam Engines and Corn Shellers since 1858.
This maker, also known simply as A. B. Holabird, made circular sawmills circa 1860. They had been around for at least a decade before then—and possibly much longer—making steam engines and corn shellers.
Information Sources
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American Steam Engine Builders: 1800-1900 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2006 page 121
- Mentioned in 1860-09-29 issue of Scientific American as a maker of a 50-inch circular sawmill.
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Sketches and statistics of Cincinnati in 1851, by Charles Cist, lists "A. B. HOLABIRD, west Front St., makes steam engines principally—50 per year for the past three years; will this year increase those figures. They are worth one thousand five hundred dollars each. One hundred corn shellers, which sell for one hundred dollars each. Their repairing and small machinery business, fifteen thousand dollars."
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Ohio state gazetteer and business directory for 1860-61, by George W. Hawes, lists A. B. Holabird & Co. as a Cincinnati business.
- The 1873 work, Wiley's American iron trade manual of the leading iron industries of the United States, has the following listing for a Cincinnati firm: "Holabird, Harlow & Co.—335 West Front Street. Machinery. Established 1826. 100 hands employed." The connection, if any, between this firm and A. B. Holabird is unknown.
- An email correspondent writes, "My Great Grandfather, Peter Loring Marlett was a molder working at the A. B. Holabird Foundry, on Front street, Cincinnati, OH, from 1846 until 1890. He worked there all his life until he badly burned his hand and arm in an accident at the foundry... He was able to become a school janitor for a few years in North Vernon, IN, but his injuries worsened and he was an invalid in constant pain before dying in 1896. Back then there was no disability pay. If you couldn't work you didn't get paid. Life was hard back then."