The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1920-08-28
MAKING CHEESE BOXES.
An Industry Once Active Near Rey-
nolds Bridge, Conn.

Occasionally the news man finds it
difficult to scrape up sufficient interest
ing news but the news man got in
touch with little section of country
less than an hours drive from Rey.
nolds Bridge; the section is now hardly
noticed by the traveller. and vet half
d century ago it was one of the most
active settlements in Connecticut. This
is located on the westerly branch of
the Naugatuck river, about midway be.
tween Torrington and Norfolk. Within
radius of two miles were installed six
cheese factories, which, for many
years previous to 40 years ago, were
engaged in active business Now of
most of them, only the stone founda
ton is-seen surrounded by woods and
bushes; in fact all have been silnnced
by a change in methods OF doing bust
ness, The following are some who
owned and operated this once interest
ing industry: Robert Martin, Lucius
Drake, Ford Brothers, Nelson and Reu-
ben, Victory Hart, James Gibbs, Laur.
en- Apply, Simeon Loomis and Theron
Bronson, all now deceased
Most of these factories had saw mills
connected with them, for lumber used
for making these boxes to pack cheese
in had to be of right kind and GER
tain variety, namely, oak, beech, elm
and wildwood As a rule, better lum-
Der was put into cheese boxes than is
now used in our modern clock making.
Timber was plentiful in those days and
cheap; the process of making boxes
had to be carried on when the lumber
was full of sap. The work of handling
it was very hard, for planks were
sawed out of logs eight inches thick
and from seven to Il feet in length,
and with green timber, made a good
lift for couple of men. Later these
heavy planks were sawed in lengths,
suitable to the sized boxes to be made.
These blocks were then put upon an
automatic frame or carriage, where
the block was sawed into rims. In
those days these rims were plsned by
hand, Two good smart men usually
kept up with the saving, but few Of
the factory hands nowadays could
stand that job; it was work. Lucius
Drake was the first to invent a home
made device to plane these rims IT.
consisted of strip of hard wood about
four by four and eight or 10 feet long
,ne end connected with a wheel off
setting the center, the other end car
led a knife This wooden shaft of pit
nan moved back and forth over the
i'm laid onto solid bed, and the plane
lid the work, but buyers of these
,oxes claimed the hand made gave the
,est satisfaction, as there was a sort of
/ gloss on the box that the machine
urface lacked. consequently the incest
,ox sold more readily.
These rims, after being plsned, went
o a machine called the lathe machine, |
ghere both ends were sharpened, the
i'm itself, when finished, being about |
hree .sixteenths Of an inch thick. !
The narrow rim for the cover |
vas called riffon. The rims, after go
ng through the various processes, were
arried outside, to remain standing up |
ntil thoroughly kiln dried, when they
we're collected and stored away until !,
eeded for making boxes. The sizes of {
oxes usually averaged from seven and !
ne-hslf inches in diameter up TO about !
, and one half inches in diameter. The
ews man got a little idea of what
here was in the business relative to
roft. Although most of these little
oncerns carried on some other bust
esses, like grist mill, saving and
irping, two men stated their profit
al $500 in the cheese box business:
400 each. This was considered good
d those days, but nowadays that
luldn't be called profiteering. Theron
ronson was thrifty merchant, bought