Reply by Sue OldsWidow on May 2, 2012 at 20:02

Empire Knife Co., West Winsted, CT- 1893

So there was a cutlery business in the 1850's in Connecticut by the name of Beardsley and Alvord, which in later years changed its name to The Empire Knife company (in business until 1932).

"James Richard Alvord was engaged in the dry goods business in his early years. In 1853 he took up the manufacture of pocket cutlery. This business was continued under the firm name, of Beardsley and Alvord, who bought the small pocket cutlery concern of Thompson and Gascoygn. In 1856 they built their factory at the Lake outlet, enlarged the business and placed it on a permanent basis, changing the name to the Empire Knife Co." (From A GENEALOGY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF ALEXANDER ALVORD AN EARLY SETTLER OF WINDSOR, CONN. AND NORTHAMPTON, MASS. V COMPILED BY

'SAMUEL MORGAN ALVORD 1908 A.D)

WINSTED— FINANCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL 

THE PI.ANT OF THE EMPIRE KNIFE COMPANY ON MAD RIVER

JAMES R. Al,VORD 

Alvord, country merchants at that time, acted as the agents for them, selling their 
product. It was in 1856 that the Empire Knife Company came into existence, 
when Elliot Beardsley, who was a manufacturer of the Beardsley scythes, and 
James R. Alvord, who was his partner in the mercantile business of Beardsley & 
Alvord, took up the business of these two Englishmen, and formed the

 partnership of the Empire Knife Co., the business has been in the Beardsley and 
Alvord families from that day to this.

In 1890 this company was merged into a joint stock company, with the

 following officers, who are today managing the business: Charles L. Alvord,

 president; George S. Alvord, vice-president; and S. Landon Alvord, secretary and 
treasurer. 

This company employs over one hundred hands, made up of the most skilled 
workmen, and their product is very widely distributed, the goods being largely 
used in the finest city trade, where the competition is keenest with the highest 
grade of English goods. 

The factory of this company, for thirty years, was on Lake street, water 
power of the first factory coming from Highland Lake, but in 1880 the old table 
cutlery factory property, the first water power on the Norfolk road, was pur- 
chased, and the works were removed to that point, where, in new and modern 
buildings, thoroughly equipped for this business, the company is no

 manufacturing their well-known brand of Empire knives. 

The earliest factory work carried on in Winsted was the making of scythes. 
The first scythe shop in the town (and the third in the country) was on the 
same site where the only one remaining in the town is now situated, and 
the concern which operates it — The Winsted Manufacturing Company — has 
also the distinction of being the oldest organized company in the town.

 examples of knives