The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-07-03
From the Eew York POst.l
As '.Uuproiecied"bu but Successful Mau
ufncturc.

Warren Hunt, an old and well-known
resident of Douglas, Massachusetts, the
founder of the AK works there, died on
Friday last, aged sixty-eight years. His
decease has directed attention to the
business he carried on, and the day in
which il was begun and made prosper
Gus. Ii is highly interestinga rs an illus1
tration ofthe method in which the man.
ufacture of American edge-tools was
built up, until il not only engrossed the
supply of the whole country, but COM
peted with European artisans in the
markets of Sonth America, and, until
the Morrill, tariffdrOve us out OF foreign
markets, fairly ruled the trade all over
the world. The Worcester Evening
Gazette thus describes the origin of the
Douglas Ak works:
"Mr. Hunts father was blacksmith,
of whom his son Warren learned the
same trade. He early in life showed
superior business qualities, and when
day Ofleisure occurred he employed him
self, with the assistance of his brothers,
in repairing axes for the various farm
ers aud others in Douglas and vicinity.
These axes seemed TO give such salts
faction to ali who used them that he re-
solved to finish a dozen and take them
to Providence for sale. His success IN
selling them induced him TO try his for
tune with a wagon-load in Boston,
where, after looking fora customernear.
ly all day, lie made tue acquaintance Of
a hardware merchant, who, on eXamin-
ing his tools, saw their merit and
brought his entire load, giving him at
the same time duplicate order, also
furnishing him with steel and iron to
make them. From thissmall beginning,
made in boyhood, he continued to in
crease his productions, under the firm
of C.. Hunt 4 Son, until the year 1886,
when the Douglas AK Manufacturing
Company was incorporated, with capi-
tai OF $4,000"
Mr.. Hunt, as agent of the company,
managed the business until 1865, when
failing health compelled him to resign.
Every workman throughout the
works knew that the agent roald hare
his axes made perfect, and that If there
was poor ax in the pile, no matter if
a hundred other perfect ones lay by it,
he was sure to pick up the only imper-
feet one, and call him to account for it.
And to these qualities Of character are
to be aseribed the great reputation
which the Douglas Ak Company has at
tanned throughout the world"
What thoroughly American story
thisis. A blacksmith's apprentice, with
out capital and without patronage, orig
mates and builds up large branch Of
manufacture solely by the merit of his
work, his indOmitable courage and his
inflexible determination t. have every
ak "made perfect" Every workman
knew that ''if there was poor AK in the
pile, no matter if a hundred perfect
ones lay by it," the practiced eye of the
employer "was sure to pick mp the inn
perfect one" and call the maker of it to
account.
The artificial high price Of iron and
steel, forced upon the country by the
blind selfishness Of the protectiOnisss,
may cripple for q season even such an in
dustry; but the return of reason to the
country will remove the obstruction,
and the thousands of workmen who
have been trained in the American edge
tool works, and where every piece is re-
quired to be perfect, will again control
the markets of the world, asking no
favors but to be allowed to furnish them
selves with iron and steel in the cheap
est markets