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Suspenders, buckles were big business here

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Today the Sun-Gazette offers the next installment in a weekly history series that tells the stories of those who came before us.)

At one time, Lycoming County could boast of having the largest suspender manufacturing facility in the world.

The Wire Buckle Suspender Co. operated in Williamsport in the 1880s and 1890s.

The company, which started in 1885 in Jersey Shore as the Economy Suspender Co., moved the next year to Williamsport, according to Meginness’s “History of Lycoming County.”

With the relocation, the Wire Buckle Suspender Co. was formed under William Silverman, Solomon Silverman, Joseph E. Astrian, and perhaps most notably, C.R. Harris, a local inventor and bicycle manufacturer.

The company produced an astounding 40,000 pairs of suspenders daily. The plant employed an average of 150 boys and girls and 30 men as traveling salesmen.

The company in 1897 moved to New York City and became the Harris Suspender Co., operating initially at 142 W. 14th St., according to Boyd’s Directory of Williamsport 1899.

In addition to suspenders, the company also was involved in the manufacturing of braces and garters.

Although Harris lent his name to the company, he was not involved in the enterprise at that time.

However, he is credited with inventing new and useful improvements in wire buckles.

In an application to the U.S. Patent Office dated July 4, 1893, Harris wrote: “My invention relates to an improvement in wire buckles, the object being to provide a wire buckle that will present a neat appearance, capable of withstanding any strain to which suspender buckles are ordinarily subjected, and adapted to be easily and quickly adjusted on a suspender web.”

Harris also was involved in the Cygent Cycle Co., a bicycle manufacturing company located at 120 W. Fourth St., Williamsport, according to Boyd’s Directory.

Interesting enough, nearly two dozen bicycle shops were known to have been in existence in the area at that time.

The Wire Buckle Suspender Co. was not without local competition.

The Self-Locking Buckle Suspender Co. was chartered in 1890, employing 90 people and 12 traveling men.

Company officers were E.A. Rowley, president; W.H. Taylor, general manager and treasurer; Joseph Kunkel, secretary; and W.J. Stewart, general sales agent.

Taylor, a Williamsport native, had a rather distinguished career.

After working as a clerk for L.L. Stearns, Taylor purchased the Crocker & Co., a grocery store business, before moving to Elk County to help organize the Elk Coal and Coke Co.

He also was an organizer of the Williamsport Board of Trade and a director and stockbroker in the South Williamsport Land Co.

Rowley was among the wealthiest men in Williamsport at the time, the owner of one of the state’s largest wood-working machine companies, Rowley and Hermance Machine Co.

He also served as president of the local Edison Illuminating Electric Co., chairman of the National Furniture Co. and president of the Culler and Hawley Furniture Co.

Yet another suspender manufacturing company of the time began operations in 1889 on West Third St., according to Meginness.

Samuel Baum and Victor B. Ulman, who developed their own wire buckle, launched the company, later establishing a branch office in New York.

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