page_title: Carrom Company
section_title: Beginnings (1889–1900)
hierarchical_section_title: Carrom Company / Beginnings (1889–1900)
caption_attribution_description: English: Henry L Haskell portrait
context_page_description: Carrom Company was a manufacturer of games and furniture, headquartered in Ludington, Michigan. It started as Ludington Novelty Company in the 19th Century. Its main product was the game of carroms. The company first started as the Ludington Novelty company at the end of the nineteenth century making novelty items. One of these was the game of carroms as a family game. The first carrom game boards were made by hand one by one and sold first before another was made. The game was sold in the US by the tens-of-thousands starting at the end of the 19th Century. The parlor game became popular worldwide. Various local businessmen were involved with the company in its financing and management. Additional products were added to the original game of carroms as time went on, usually as associated furniture. The original company sold out to a larger firm in 1951 and the Ludington branch, which continued making the carroms game, became a small part of the larger firm.
context_section_description: Henry L. Haskell started the Ludington Novelty company in 1889, making baskets and games. The names of the first games of "Novelty" are unknown. Haskell was a Sunday school teacher at the time and was concerned that young boys were loitering around pool halls, exposing them to develop bad habits. In 1892, he invented a game called carroms that the whole family could play on a carrom board, a design he later patented. An 1895 newspaper advertisement said, "you can keep the boys home nights by giving them a good carrom game."
  The first carrom game boards were made by hand in 1892. At that time a game board was made and then sold before another was started. Haskell convinced his friend John A. Mitchell to invest in this venture in 1893. Mitchell invested $1000 in Haskell's enterprise, his brother Chauncey also invested, and the Ludington Novelty company was founded. In 1893, the company's production was about ten game boards per day; approximately 2,500 were produced in the first year. They were made by hand with the assistance of crude machinery from a Ludington planing mill partly owned by Haskell. Haskell's carroms game was marketed from Ludington and by 1901 had been introduced to ten states by their traveling salesman Eugene C. Allen.
  Haskell patented the carom game board (USD27788S) on October 26, 1897. His invention became popular in the US, then spread globally. An 1898 advertisement for the game of carroms in a Ludington journal used the slogan "A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men." The ad went on to say that a fascinating way of nonsense was through the best parlor game made – carroms. Catalogs of carroms products were available upon request.
caption: Henry L Haskell
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