Oilwick Lamps/Wrigley Marking

Oilwick Lamps

Wrigley Marking.JPG - WRIGLEY CO. - Brass face lamp, 2 1/8 in. tall to top of lid, marked on spout THEWRIGLEY CO. MAHAFFEY, PA, tin lid and spout tip, very rare marking of the Miles WrigleyHardware Co. incorporated in Mahaffey in 1905 (Miles Wrigley was born in Lawrence, Pennsylvania in Sept. 1859, one of seven children in the farming family of Robert and Mary Wrigley. In the 1880 census, at the age of 21, he was employed as a railroad worker. In 1889 he married his wife Ida and fathered a son and two daughters. By 1900, he was listed in the census as living in Mahaffey in the county of Clearfield PA and was employed in general hardware. The List of Charters of Corporations Enrolled in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth published at Harrisburg in 1905 contains the following entry: “WRIGLEY COMPANY—Mahaffey, March 8, 1905. Capital, $35,000. Conducting a general hardware store for the buying and selling at wholesale and retail of hardware, explosives, saddlery, harness, plumbing, fixtures and tinning, and the making, installation and repair thereof usually done by a general hardware store”.A local newspaper clipping from the Dec. 16, 1904 issue of The Cambria Freeman notes that Horace P. Galer, longtime manager of the Central Supply Co. of Patton, PA (check out the Central Supply Co. marking of a Crown oil wick lamp elsewhere in the pics), has been hired by the Miles Wrigley Hardware Co. in Mahaffey to manage the newly incorporated store starting Jan. 2005. The Wrigley Hardware Co. appears to have been a successful business still listed as owned by Miles Wrigley in the 1910 census. This lamp appears to have been made by the Grier Brothers based on similarities of the lid, hook, lid hinge and bottom and was stamped with a private label for the Wrigley Co. The 1920 census does not list Miles Wrigley or his family as residing in Mahaffey or any other location in Pennsylvania and no other records for the Wrigley Hardware Co. could be found. It is presumed that Wrigley, who would have been 61 years of age in 1920, had either retired and moved out of state or had died during the period from 1910 to 1920. Either way, the Wrigley Co. marking on this oil wick lamp tells an interesting story of an early hardware pioneer in western Pennsylvania.)

Wrigley Marking | WRIGLEY CO. - Brass face lamp, 2 1/8 in. tall to top of lid, marked on spout THE WRIGLEY CO. MAHAFFEY, PA, tin lid and spout tip, very rare marking of the Miles Wrigley Hardware Co. incorporated in Mahaffey in 1905 (Miles Wrigley was born in Lawrence, Pennsylvania in Sept. 1859, one of seven children in the farming family of Robert and Mary Wrigley. In the 1880 census, at the age of 21, he was employed as a railroad worker. In 1889 he married his wife Ida and fathered a son and two daughters. By 1900, he was listed in the census as living in Mahaffey in the county of Clearfield PA and was employed in general hardware. The List of Charters of Corporations Enrolled in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth published at Harrisburg in 1905 contains the following entry: “WRIGLEY COMPANY—Mahaffey, March 8, 1905. Capital, $35,000. Conducting a general hardware store for the buying and selling at wholesale and retail of hardware, explosives, saddlery, harness, plumbing, fixtures and tinning, and the making, installation and repair thereof usually done by a general hardware store”. A local newspaper clipping from the Dec. 16, 1904 issue of The Cambria Freeman notes that Horace P. Galer, longtime manager of the Central Supply Co. of Patton, PA (check out the Central Supply Co. marking of a Crown oil wick lamp elsewhere in the pics), has been hired by the Miles Wrigley Hardware Co. in Mahaffey to manage the newly incorporated store starting Jan. 2005. The Wrigley Hardware Co. appears to have been a successful business still listed as owned by Miles Wrigley in the 1910 census. This lamp appears to have been made by the Grier Brothers based on similarities of the lid, hook, lid hinge and bottom and was stamped with a private label for the Wrigley Co. The 1920 census does not list Miles Wrigley or his family as residing in Mahaffey or any other location in Pennsylvania and no other records for the Wrigley Hardware Co. could be found. It is presumed that Wrigley, who would have been 61 years of age in 1920, had either retired and moved out of state or had died during the period from 1910 to 1920. Either way, the Wrigley Co. marking on this oil wick lamp tells an interesting story of an early hardware pioneer in western Pennsylvania.)

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