Inventor Name
Hoopes Bro. & Darlington, Inc.
Repository
Hagley Museum & Library
Manuscripts & Archives Department
P.O. Box 3630
Wilmington, DE 19807-0630
302-658-2400
https://www.hagley.org/research
Physical Description
29 linear ft.
Summary
The firm of Hoopes, Bro. & Darlington was founded by the brothers Thomas and William Hoopes on their farm about a mile northwest of West Chester, Pa. in 1866. Initially, they manufactured spokes for wagon wheels from local timber. In 1869 they established a factory in West Chester proper and within three years were manufacturing complete wooden wheels. In time it became the largest establishment of its kind east of the Allegheny Mountains. By 1893 the firm was producing 40,000 sets of wheels a year. In 1898 it installed an automatic bending machine. At its peak, the factory employed between 175 and 200 workers. As the automobile began to replace horse-drawn vehicles, the company moved into the production of wooden-spoked car wheels, but around 1920 it refused to convert to the manufacture of steel-rimmed wheels. The company continued to occupy a specialty niche, relying in part on its proximity to the Amish country, where carriages were still common. It remained a small family business, most notable for being the last wooden wheel manufacturer in America. The firm was down to 17 employees by 1972, and closed in the mid-1970s. It also tried to expand into the manufacture of skis, toboggans and baseball bats. The records of Hoopes, Bro. & Darlington, Inc., are relatively complete and give a full picture of the firm during its peak years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The records are in two lots, the largest of which is designated as Accession 1374. Administrative records include a trademark certificate (1938); and an auditor's report (1941). The accounting records include statements of stock on hand and statistics on yearly profit and loss, monthly sales, dividends, and taxes. They also document the costs and expenses of machinery, along with papers relating to time-and-motion studies made during the late 1940s. Production records include pattern record books, instructions for turning spokes, a notebook with printed broadsides, specifications, drawings and prices (1927-1933), and orders for sports equipment. Payroll records include time books and payroll sheets, and analysis of machinists' time cards, primarily for the period 1869-1914, with some data from the 1920s through the 1950s. There is also an employee compensation and insurance record (1911-1935). Sales records consist of petty sales books and sales journals. Orders for wheels, though incomplete, cover the period from 1872 to 1934 and include both wagon and automobile wheels. The advertising includes a mailing list book and a scrapbook of advertisements (1922-1934). The records also include machine shop and machinists' orders; machinery and equipment books; logbooks of purchases; inventories of stock on hand; inventories of machinery and tools; and a record book of consignments (1880). Correspondence includes general outbound letterbooks (1879-1925, incomplete); correspondence relating to patents; correspondence with London agents, Pfeil, Stedall & Son; and the personal and business correspondence of Edward S. Darlington. The miscellany includes diaries with miscellaneous notes (1869-1975); calendars; trade catalogues; price lists; customer file cards; and a pencil drawing of the firm's factory. Accession 1294 consists of 5 items, including trustees' minutes (1903-1922); an account book for the "rim stock lost after coming to trimmer" (1896-1898), with entries under names of workmen; a biographical sketch of Thomas Hoopes; and a biographical sketch of John G. Robison of Coatesville, Pa., prepared for him by his daughter, Helen W. Hoopes, in 1904.
