The Springfield Art and Historical Society will present "A Photographic Tribute to the J&L," Saturday, February 19, 2:00 pm, at the First Congregational Church in Springfield, Vermont. This program is free and open to the public. Masks will be required.

This program is not a fact & figures history of J&L manufacturing but rather a tribute to how the company physically grew and to its 114-year old building, now gone from the face of the earth. We have gathered up old and newer photographs to illustrate how this business, which arrived via ox carts over dirt roads in 1888, turned a basic farm town, without even a railroad, into a world-renown machine tool producer.

What was memorable to many about 1888 was the Blizzard that dropped 3 feet of snow and then whipped it up into 15' drifts in some places. But to the people of Springfield Vermont, it was the arrival of the Jones & Lamson Machine Tool Company from Windsor Vermont. It took from April to October to complete the move down the 17 miles of dirt roads from Windsor to Springfield in ox carts. Thanks to Adna Brown and company who made the deal to bring the business to town and then to James Hartness who guided it, and its three offspring, to become world-renown machine tool businesses.

So what was this business that, at a special town meeting, the townspeople voted 500 to 1 to give it a 10-year tax exemption? So many of us had a relative who worked there, be it a sibling, parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle. This program is for them. For more information, call 802-886-7935 or email sahs@vermontel.net.

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Dec 18, 2024, 10 to 11 AM