CP Kimball & Company

Fridays are carriage days, so here is one from the archives [author unknown], with an interesting historical note on the Portland sleigh.

"Charles Porter Kimball was born in 1825. At the age of eighteen, by agreement with his father, he moved to Bridgton to work under his brother and to get further schooling. Four years later, in 1847, Dr. Theodore Ingalls lent him 1,000 dollars to open his own carriage workshop in Norway, Maine, about ten miles from Bridgton. At first he employed only two or three workers and had the ironwork made elsewhere. The business grew and more hands were taken on. In 1850 Charles Kimball purchased a water privilege and built a new shop, 100 feet by 32 feet, three stories high. In 1852 he established a repository for the sale of carriages in Portland, and in 1854, he moved his works to that city, at the corner of Preble and Congress Streets. The Portland business prospered, the factory was enlarged and Charles was recognized as an important figure in the carriage industry. So much so that when the Carriages Builders' National Association was formed in 1872, he was invited by his colleagues, Clem Studebaker, John W. Britton of Brewster & Co., John Green and James Goold, to be the first president. He continued in that office until 1876 when he declined re-election.

Then at the height of its prosperity, the Portland factory employed between twenty and thirty hands in regular employment with about five girls employed in trimming. Wheeled vehicles of many kinds were turned out, but the Kimball factory became most famous for its sleighs of a distinctive design, known then as the Kimball Sleigh, and more commonly, called the Portland Cutter.

C. P. Kimball accumulated a large fortune and became a pillar of the community, widely recognized for his business acumen and strength of character. He was president of the Maine Charitable Mechanics Association, surveyor of the port of Falmouth and Portland, and a city alderman. The Maine Democrats nominated him for State Governor, and, although defeated, he was nominated again in 1875, receiving on that occasion the largest vote of any Democratic Gubernatorial candidate up to that time.

In 1876 he moved to New York to be associated with Brewster & Co. in the production of fine Portland Sleighs, named the Kimball-Brewster Sleigh and shown at the Centennial exhibition. He resided in New York City for only a few months, and he was invited by Governor Tilden of New York to be the State Centennial Commissioner for the Exhibition then being Planned for Philadelphia.

In January, 1877, Charles P. Kimball and his son, Charles Frederick, started business in Chicago as C. P. Kimball & Co., a firm which became one of the leading builders of fine carriages in North America; some critics have judged their work superior to Brewsters'."

I concur.

Indian summer this weekend, hope you enjoy...

Kind regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.