Source: One Colburn Line – From Dedham to Chicago and Beyond by William E. Colburn
Generations 1 through 10
Nathaniel Colburn (1618-1691) came to Dedham, MA, presumably from Essex, England, and was the founder of our line. This occurred during The Great Migration from 1620 to 1640.
John Colburn (1648-1706) lived in Dedham, MA.
Daniel Colburn (1689-1771) was born in Dedham, MA, and died in Stafford, CT.
John Colburn (1722- ) was born in Stafford, CT.
Ezekiel Colburn (175- to 1805) migrated north from Connecticut to new territories opening up in Vermont, later moving to Massena, NY. Although he had received an M.A. degree from Dartmouth College, had become a preacher, and had studied law for a short time, he eventually became a farmer. He served in various capacities — constable, thythingman, and surveyor of highways.
Alfred Colburn (1787-1866) was a farmer and Justice of the Peace in Massena, NY.
Alfred Reeves Colburn (1822- 1881) was a “speculator” and owner of a marble shop in Massena, NY.
Joseph Elliott Colburn (1853-1927) was a specialist in diseases of the eye and ear, and a serious amateur painter. Born in Massena, NY, died in Winthrop Harbor, IL.
George Alfred Colburn (1878-1921) was a composer and musician. Born in Colton, NY, died in Chicago, IL
Robert Avery Colburn (1912-2000) was born in Highland Park, IL.
Bob Colburn’s mother, Ruby Harrington, was the daughter of Stephen Harris Harrington, one of the founders of Harrington & King. After many profitable years, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2017. The source of the history below and date it was written (early 1980, perhaps) are unknown.
History of Harrington & King Perforating Co., Inc.
The Harrington & King Perforating Co., was incorporated under the laws of the state of Illinois on May 4, 1883. The company founders were S. H. Harrington, Rockwell King, C. Wright, J. McGregor Adams and Chester A. Dawes. The original Corporate purpose was to perforate sheet metals and other sheet materials with holes of various shapes, sizes and spacings as a manufacturing enterprise. The work was done on order to customers’ specifications, with only a small amount of perforated material carried in stock as shelf items. This original purpose has changed little despite changes in materials, equipment and end uses. The product was used to screen, grade and separate materials as well as for architectural and decorative purposes.
The newly founded Company was incorporated for $20,000, not a large sum when judged by present standards when a single perforating press costs $300,000 or more. Operations were originally in a dirt floored building on the southwest corner of Washington and Jefferson Streets in Chicago. Soon the Company moved to a newer, more acceptable building on the southwest corner of Union and Erie Streets. A New York sales office was established in the late 1800’s.
What was Chicago like in 1883? The street cars were drawn by horses, and neither the automobile nor withholding tax had yet been invented. The May 15, 1883 Chicago Daily Tribune was 12 pages long. A seven room furnished flat in a desirable location was $40.00 per month. One of the Company’s early perforating machines was manually powered by a foot treadle. Heat and power were purchased from a foundry next door and power was delivered by a line shaft through the wall. The machines were driven by ropes from this main shaft. A few of Harrington & King’s early customers are well known companies of today such as Western Electric and Pittsburgh Plate Glass. Most, however, have either gone out of business or have been merged and changed to the extent that their names are no longer familiar.
A depression in teh early 1890’s had a strong influence on the founders and the Company operated in and extremely conservative fashion. The backs of incoming envelopes were used for scratch paper and at inventory time the remaining life of partially used lead pencils was appraised. In 1893 the prevailing labor wage was $.15 per hour for a ten hour day. The work week was six days for a total of $9.00 per week.
Perforated metals were first used as screens for the processing of metallic ores and for the cleaning and grading of seeds and grain. Zinc was often used instead of steel because it was soft and easy to pierce so tools lasted a long time. Stainless steels had not yet been invented.
As time wen ton the Union Avenue headquarters became too small and it was decided to located further west at 5655 Fillmore Street. The Company moved into its new building in 1923.
After Mr. Harrington’s death in 1913, Mr. Judston M. Fuller became President, Treasurer and General Manager. His first job with the company in 1885 was to open the office early and sweep the floors. Mr. Fuller was a talented and imaginative businessman and served as President until he retired in 1947 after 63 years of continuous service.
The Great Depression of the 1930’s was a national and international calamity. H&K operated in the red for two years. Office salaries were cut, factory hours reduced, but not a single employee was laid off during the duration.
From 1947 to 1955 Mr. Foye P. Hutchinson was President of Harrington & King. He continued to operate in accordance with the Company’s strong conservative traditions. He was succeeded by Mr. Judson E. Fuller in 1955. During this time the Company strengthened its position as the leader in the perforating industry and built upon its financially healthy condition. At the same time it added benefits for the employees including profit sharing and retirement plans. In 1969 acreage was purchased in Ramsey, New Jersey and soon after an office building was erected. The new sales office handled business in the New England and Middle Atlantic states.
Mr. J. E. Fuller’s death in 1972 brought to a close 88 years of active Fuller family involvement in The Harrington & King Perforating Co. Jusdon M. and Judson E. Fuller both created and maintained the Company’s fine reputation on expertise, quality of production and many years of honorable business dealings.
Mr. Gordon E. Steil became President in 1972. He came to the Company from the Page Engineering Co. The 1970’s were years of rapid expansion for Harrington & King and the perforating industry as a whole. The Company’s sales rose from less than $5 million in 1970 to over $14 million in 1981. Technologies were changing rapidly in both electronic and mechanical terms and demanded that the Company keep abreast. In 1972 Harrington & King purchased the building across the street in order to provide much needed space. The era of computers had arrived and in 1974 H&K became involved in computers and computerized controls.
On December 31, 1978 a Cleveland, Tennessee perforator’s machinery and equipment was purchased, their building leased and Harrington & King South, Inc., was born. The New Jersey real estate was sold and space was leased in Paramus, New Jersey, in an effort to operate closer to New York. In 1981 warehousing operations were initiated in Houston, Texas and Jan Jose, California. During the last few years more effort and money have been expended for research, development and the modernization of tools and machinery than during any like period in the Company’s history.
As mentioned, the Corporation began with $20,000, but in 1973 a press was purchased which approached $150,000. In 1980 the decision was made to purchase a press which cost more than $1,000,000 by he time it was finally installed! As the industry changes, so must Harrington & King. Good results from these recent efforts have already begun to appear and should increase in the future. The people presently associated with the Company are able, energetic and loyal, and there is a good balance of seasoned experience and new blood.
Harrington & King is indeed one of Chicago’s pioneer companies. Its reputation as a good citizen in its community as well as a solid dependable business partner is unimpeachable. It has endured and prospered along with not at the expense of those in this social and business environment.
Fran Colburn’s memories, as told to her granddaughter, Heather Marks, on July 13, 2003
I was born in 1912 and many changes have occurred since then. I grew up on the near north side of Chicago.
I remember wonderful visits to Lincoln Park, located on the edge of Lake Michigan. Its zoo had a monkey house. Large animals like bears, elephants, zebras and deer with a line of separate cages built into a small hill. Polar bears had a small waterfall and a pool. The others all had caves in the hill to rest and cool off in the summer. Sea lions had a large, fenced-in pool. They were fed at 4 p.m. and we could watch. We walked because I lived about four blocks away. Early on, my Dad would take me there in a stroller. My favorite thing about the park was watching the sea lions get fed. The man near the pool would throw the fish in and the sea lions would jump for them.
2417 Orchard St, 1916
Cameras were expensive. Men would walk down the street and take pictures of children playing and sell them to their parents. I remember getting my picture taken.
We had a player piano. It operated with pedals for your feet to run the bellows. Instead of sheet music, the music was on a roll of paper with holes of different sizes. You didn’t look at it. Your feet would pedal and the roll would go around in the piano. The rolls were left in a cabinet (two little doors in the top) on brackets above the regular keyboard. You could play it as a regular piano too. Somehow, the air would go through the bellows and produce music. They were military songs, since this was 1918 or so. I remember the Army and Navy forever song, Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue. We would sing along to the music since we knew the words. They may have been printed on the right side of the roll.
Playing with Dolls
Girls played with dolls, games with jacks, hopscotch (using chalk on the sidewalk), jump rope and double-dutch with two ropes. Boys played marbles on bare soil and ball in the streets. There wasn’t much traffic, still a lot of horse and buggies.
They gave me a very nice doll when I was 4 or 5, with a wooden body and head. It was my mother’s hair on it. She had beautiful chestnut brown hair. I dropped the doll. I think I smashed the nose. I shouldn’t have had such a fancy doll at that age. My mother had the head replaced with a china head and I have it today. I enjoyed making clothing for the doll. It was jointed in the neck, arms, legs and ankles.
The phones at that time might have five people on a line and you could listen in, but we didn’t have one in our house. My mother had to go next door to make a call.
Our water came from Lake Michigan and was treated, so it was safe for drinking. My mother caught rain in a large bucket to wash her hair because Chicago water had too much chlorine or some chemical in it. The bucket was on a big porch that extended across two apartments on the same floor as ours. Our apartment building had three floors. The first was an English basement, three feet underground. We were on the second floor.
At Christmas, we had a small, real pine tree with candles my father lit and stayed there until completely out. Little metal clips (2 inches at most) held the candle to the tree. The tree was set up in the living room. I remember celebrating Christmas morning.
I was an only child until I was nine. I babysat and walked my baby brother in a buggy.
The iron for ironing clothes was heated on the stove. It was in two parts. The lower, flat part was put on the stove to heat and then you would pop the handle on top to lift it. There were no washing machines, so my mother would wash in two tubs of water (wash and rinse) in the kitchen. It was an all-day process. Special shirts of my dad’s were sent to a laundry.The street in front of our apartment was paved. Many of the apartments were three stories. The first floors were about three feet underground. I was probably about ten when we moved to an apartment with an electric refrigerator (1922 or so).
Only modern homes had bathtubs and running hot water. We were lucky ones. Some country kitchens had a cover over a stairway to the basement for cold storage. A door in the floor that you could lift up.
In stores, cookies were sold from large square containers with Isinglass or plastic doors in front that came down on a hinge. Cookies were sold by the pound. There were many kinds, chocolate, white frosted, lemon cookies, etc. Maybe six different kinds.
Birthday Party
12th Birthday Party. These were my friends who lived in the area. My mother didn’t like to entertain in the house. She took us to Lincoln Park and we had a picnic.
I learned to sew and crochet from my mother. I made a lot of my own clothing and my children’s clothing. In grade school, maybe age 13 or 14, we had to make our graduation dresses. It had a flared skirt and one large scallop at the waistline. It was really hard to make. I never liked it but I wore it. It was probably white poplin.
My parents traveled very little. One time, though, my mother wanted to see Niagara Falls. My brother must have been four or five. We had a car, a Jordan, and drove to see Niagara Falls. My mother would not drive, but I learned to drive on that car. I was probably 14 or 15. Only one time I remember driving alone. My father had to go to work and wanted repair work done to the car, so I had to drop him off at the elevated train. I drove to where I had to leave the car, which was not far from my high school. After school I picked up the car.
My mother baked bread from scratch. Yeast, salt, flour and so forth. Normally, she wouldn’t let me do any more in the kitchen except wash dishes or set the table because I was too messy. My mother always had problems making pie crust. I asked if I could try baking a pie crust one day, and it was a success. I was about 15 at the time. Then I became the pie crust maker.
Camp Juniper Knoll (1928 – 1929). A bus would come to pick us up so our parents didn’t have to take us. We would stay for a week or two. We went two summers in a row. We slept in tents. I was 16 or 17 years old. We were told one night to cook our own dinner and it was spaghetti. We made a fire and put on a large dishpan full of water and threw the spaghetti in without boiling the water first. We waited and waited and waited, but it never cooked. We went hungry that night. The counselors didn’t stay with us. They just left us on our own to figure it out. It was a Girl Scout Pioneers camp.
Duescher Family, 1936
My dad was short and my mother was a little taller than he was. My brother was nine years younger, but is much taller than me now. My father was brought up on a farm in Montpelier, Wisconsin. It has changed names since then. My mother grew up in Kewaunee, Wisconsin. She knitted my dress in this picture. My dad was a printer. He learned to print because he wasn’t big enough to be a farmer. His brothers were big, husky fellows. He learned to print at a newspaper at the Kewaunee Enterprise and became part owner of it. But he wanted to see the world, so he quit that and went to Chicago where he worked for Rand McNally on railroad tickets. They printed a long ticket with all the stops on it. It would be cut off at the city you were going to, and you could mark off all the cities in between.
My brother was in the Navy. He was in the service quite a while and he never talked about it. He is in Wisconsin now. I talk to him on the phone sometimes and we write letters. His wife died a couple of years ago.
Years later, when I was married and had twins, I was in the hospital. When the doctor went to tell Bob about the twins, he said “Your son was a gentleman. He said, ‘Ladies first.’”
I can still hear the laughter floating up to my bedroom from the living room where my parents and their friends are playing bridge.Mom has spent her day preparing a mouth-watering meal for their evening guests and topped it off with a beautiful pie, for which she is well-known—maybe apple crumb or rhubarb meringue. Continue reading “Memories of My Mother”→
Letters regarding the mystery of the death of my grandmother Ruby Harrington Colburn
By Joan Colburn Robertson
Mon, 13 Jul 2015
Joan – Thank you for the note. I am working on cataloguing the music your family has donated to the museum. There is a lot of items in the collection, so it will keep me busy for a while. I enjoyed researching your grandfather’s history, but was left with one unanswered question, what happened to your grandmother, Ruby? I assumed she died in Wisconsin as I found no record of her on any death indexes for Illinois, and Minnesota, Wisconsin does not have one available for the time period she would have died, and she is not at Graceland Cemetery. – Walt Bennuick, Archivist Continue reading “The Mystery of Ruby’s Death”→
According to our family stories, it is said that Ruby Harrington, a pianist who was from a wealthy family in Chicago, was disinherited for marrying George Alfred Colburn, a “poor” musician. Ruby’s father was of the Harrington & King, a metal perforating company. Continue reading “Marrying a Musician”→
My dad, Bob Colburn, loved his swimming pool.During the summer months and even in the cooler months, when no one else would dream of swimming outdoors in the Midwest, he went out for a “dip” at least twice each day.
Mom (Fran Colburn) and Dad hosted lots of pool parties.I remember the first pool party in particular.It was a Colburn family party.The pool wasn’t quite finished yet, but that didn’t stop anyone from having a good time!Cousin Larry and I occupied ourselves trying to fill up the empty shell of a pool with a toy fire truck that was hooked to a hose.
There were many other occasions when family and friends celebrated poolside, as well as the lazy weekend afternoons when Dad stretched out next to the pool to catch some sun!
I can still hear the laughter floating up to my bedroom from the living room where my parents and their friends are playing bridge.
Mom (Fran Colburn) and Dad hosted lots of pool parties.