Will & Finck was a San Francisco company established in 1864 as cutlers, surgical instrument makers, locksmiths and bell hangers. The company closed in 1932.
Will & Finck was a San Francisco company established in 1864 as cutlers, surgical instrument makers, locksmiths and bell hangers. The company closed in 1932.
Frederick Adolph Will was born in Albany, New York in about 1837 and by 1860 was living and working as a cutler in the establishment of Hugh McConnell in San Francisco. [1] He also worked with cutler and surgical instrument maker Frederick Kesmodel at 817 Kearny Street before taking out his own business listing in 1863 at 605 Jackson Street, the McConnell premises. [2]
Julius Finck came from Baden, Germany, where he was born in about 1831. After several years working as a locksmith in New York City, in 1859 he formed a partnership in San Francisco with August Browning at 198 Kearny Street. In 1861 Browning & Finck were advertising their services as bell hangers as well as locksmiths. [3]
In 1864 Will and Finck advertised their combined services operating at “No. 605 Jackson Street, south side, 2nd door west from Kearny.” They provided burglar-proof locks for banks, safes and stores, and guaranteed their “superior trusses of our own invention.” [4]
Will & Finck exhibited at the 1865 fair of the San Francisco Mechanics’ Institute. The Examiner described their showcase: “We doubt if the most extensive establishments of Birmingham or Sheffield could surpass this brilliant display. This collection of Messrs. Will & Finck, embraces every article in the cutlery line from an ‘Arkansas toothpick’ of the largest dimensions to a delicate ladies pocket-knife –– and from a hotel annunciator to a champagne wire-cutter.” The reporter suggests that a Thanksgiving turkey would “fall to pieces at the sight of one of their lustrous, and finely tempered carving knives.” [5] Participation in the Mechanics’ fair, the state fair and the San Joaquin fair of 1865 yielded six first prizes.
From 1865 they subtitled their ads “Excelsior Cutlers” at 613 Jackson Street, offering all kinds of table and pocket cutlery and informing the reading public they were “sole agents for Jackson’s Patent Hotel Annunciators.” [6]
They began importing as well as manufacturing. Their product line expanded to surgical and dental instruments as well as barbers’ cutlery. [7]
In 1870 Will & Finck opened a branch store at in the Occidental Hotel building at 110 Montgomery. Their products now included “Bar Goods of our own manufacture, constantly on hand: Lime Squeezers, Ice Picks, Lime Knives, Champagne Hooks and Corkscrews, in great variety.” They were sole agents for Heinisch’s scissors and shears, and manufactured any cutlery to order. [8] 1871 advertising added “All Kinds of Faro Tools” and offered bell-hanging services “in any part of the Pacific Coast.” The factory was at 821 Kearny Street, and the retail store at 140 Montgomery. [9] Gaming supplies would become an important component of their business. They were considered the experts when an unlucky gambler took some losing dice for inspection and they found them to be loaded with mercury. [10]
The company moved their “manufactory and elegant stock of goods from 821 Kearny to their large and new establishment, 869 Market Street…” in 1876. [11]
In the 1880 San Francisco business directory, Will & Finck advertised in twelve categories: Barbers’ Supplies; Britannia Ware;Comb Makers;Corkscrew Manufacturers; Cutlers; Dentists’ Materials and Instruments; Electrical Apparatus Manufacturers; Faro Materials; Ivory Goods; Locksmiths; Surgical Instruments; Truss Manufacturers. [12]
They advertised in directories from Alaska to Mexico. [13] A more aggressive advertising program was underway in San Francisco newspapers, with promotions for specific items (baseball and boxing gloves, razors) and suggestions for Christmas giving,
Frederick Will retired in 1883, and for the next twenty years a succession of names appeared as associated in the management of the company along with Julius Finck. These were Samuel W. Levy, Simon Blum, Morris Frederick, Henry L. Finck and Charles E. Wiggin. Levy had other business interests; Blum was his son-in-law. The others had worked at Will & Finck as managers but not craftsmen: Frederick as a manager for five years, H.L. Finck as a foreman and factory superintendent for four years, and Wiggin as a bookkeeper for fourteen years.
In 1886, Will & Finck moved to the Phelan Building where they would expand to fill premises at 818-820 Market Street as well as 15, 17, 19, 21 and 23 O’Farrell Street. In 1890, the store employed fifty-six people, and the factory fifty workmen. “When the firm moved to 818 Market Street, in addition to its famous cutlery, it added to its stock plated ware, fancy and leather goods, athletic and gymnasium goods, and barbers’ supplies. On taking the other five stores, and opening the great bazaar, artrooms were added, and the stock increased by gentlemen’s furnishing goods, house furnishings, baby carriages and toys, until the firm now carries as large and as fine a line of goods as any bazaar in the United States.” [14] In December of 1903, Will & Finck was proclaiming itself “Santa Claus’ Headquarters” offering “Xmas novelty” handkerchiefs and toy velocipedes. Still advertising sharpening and repair of cutlery, they had dropped “locksmith and bell hanger” from their ads. [15]
All are United States patents except one.
From 1893 to 1904, Julius Finck was president of the Will & Finck Company and in 1905 he proposed to retire. In January a news item appeared that an offer had been made to ”all the stockholders of Will & Finck” and the sale was likely to be concluded that day. [16] A couple of weeks later, it was reported that the Will & Finck department store had “gone out of existence and been absorbed by the Emporium.” [17] In March, the “Will & Finck machine factory including lease and fixtures” was auctioned off, [18] and the retail stock being advertised at half price. [19]
In April, an announcement was published that Will & Finck was “Now at 57 Third St.” with a new factory at 72 Jessie Street. [20] Listed as management in the 1905 San Francisco city directory were Henry L. Finck and William F. Litzius. Henry L. Finck was a brother of Julius. Litzius had been with the company for twenty-five years in various capacities – clerk, salesman, secretary. In 1905 he made the controversial move of petitioning to change his surname to Will. Company founder Frederick A. Will bitterly and unsuccessfully fought this adoption of his name. [21]
Just days after the earthquake in April 1906, Henry Finck died. Julius came out of retirement briefly and the company resumed business first at the Finck residence and later at 1942 and then 1686 Market Street, all by the end of 1906. Will & Finck would operate at 1686 Market until 1929.
Advertising as a purveyor of cutlery, barbers’ supplies and sporting goods, William F. Will (formerly Litzius) carried on the company under the Will & Finck name until his death on Christmas day, 1932.
“Frederick A. Will, pioneer of this city, last of the charter members of the famous military organization ‘The Nationals’ and founder of the cutlery and sporting goods house of Will & Finck” died in 1912. [22] He was seventy-five.
“The will of Julius Finck, pioneer cutlery merchant and sporting goods man of this city, and former member of the firm of Will and Finck, was filed for probate today.” [23] Finck died March 20, 1914 at age eighty-two.
The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is a United States division of Swiss confectioner Lindt & Sprüngli. The company was founded by and is named after Italian chocolatier Domenico Ghirardelli, who, after working in South America, moved to California. The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was incorporated in 1852, and is the third-oldest chocolate company in the United States, after Baker's Chocolate and Whitman's.
Lincoln University is a private university in Oakland, California. It enrolls over 500 students in undergraduate and graduate level programs in business administration, as well an English language program, certificate programs, and bachelor of science degrees.
Folgers Coffee is a brand of coffee produced in the United States, and sold there, in Canada and in Mexico. It forms part of the food and beverage division of The J.M. Smucker Company. Since the early 1990s, it has been the largest-selling ground coffee in the United States.
Vulcan Iron Works was the name of several iron foundries in both England and the United States during the Industrial Revolution and, in one case, lasting until the mid-20th century. Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and smithery, was a popular namesake for these foundries.
The Master Cutler is the head of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire established in 1624. Their role is to act as an ambassador of industry in Sheffield, England. The Master Cutler is elected by the freemen of the company on the first Monday of September of each year and the position taken in the first Tuesday of October. Despite the title, the Master Cutler does not have to be involved in the cutlery business, or even the steel industry, to be elected.
J. W. Robinson Co., Robinson's, was a chain of department stores operating in the Southern California and Arizona area, previously with headquarters in Los Angeles, California.
Garfinckel's was a prominent department store chain based in Washington, D.C. that catered to a clientele of wealthy consumers. Its flagship store at 14th and F in the city's F Street shopping district is listed on the National Register. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 1990 and ceased operations that year.
The Cattaraugus Cutlery Company began as the New York distribution company J.B.F. Champlin and Son, founded by John Brown Francis Champlin and his son Tint in 1882. The Champlins expanded into knife production, and along with William R. Case and his brothers, they formed Cattaraugus Cutlery in 1886, based in Little Valley. The company hired expert cutlers from Germany, England, and other U.S. manufacturers, to produce high quality cutlery, and purchased knife-making equipment from the defunct Beaver Falls Cutlery Company. Admiral Byrd selected Cattaraugus knives to take on his expedition to the South Pole.
Henry Vaughan Lanchester (1863–1953) was a British architect working in London. He served as editor of The Builder, was a co-founder of the Town Planning Institute and a recipient of the Royal Gold Medal.
The Studio Building (1861–1906) on Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts, housed artists' studios, theater companies and other businesses in the 19th century. It "held the true Bohemia of Boston, where artists and literati delighted to gather." Among the tenants were portraitist E.T. Billings, architect George Snell, sculptor Martin Milmore, artists William Morris Hunt, William Rimmer, Phoebe Jenks; gallerist Seth Morton Vose, and many others.
The California Nursery Company was established in Niles, California, and incorporated in 1884. It was responsible for introducing new hybrids created by such important West Coast breeders as Luther Burbank and Albert Etter.
Levison Brothers / California Jewelry Co. was active from 1859 to 1935. Founded in 1859, they occupied 629 Washington Street, San Francisco, California by 1863, and by 1871 moved into two floors of their own building at 134 Sutter Street, San Francisco, furnished with machinery, tools, and appliances powered by a 25-horsepower engine.
Henry Adolph Frost was a German-born saddler and businessman known for his association with the company which eventually produced the Holden automobile. His name may have been originally Heinrich Friedrich Adolphe Frost, but he evidently preferred "Adolph Frost".
Samuel Edward Roberts was a printer and publisher in Adelaide.
The locksmith scam is a multi-faceted scam, targeting people who call a locksmith out of desperation, usually because of being locked out of their car or premises. Locksmith scams have been reported in the U.S., the U.K., and New Zealand.
Haggarty's was a department store chain founded in Los Angeles in 1906 and which closed in May 1970 due to not keeping up with fashion trends and a resulting $4.4 million in debts. It had more than a dozen branches at its peak.
B. H. Dyas Co. was a Los Angeles sporting goods retailer that turned into a department store and went out of business in the 1930s, owned by Bernal Hubert Dyas (1882–1959).
Beaver Falls Cutlery Company, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, is a former company which manufactured steel cutlery, razors and pocketknives. The company was founded as Binns & Mason in 1866 by skilled cutlers from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, as a small enterprise making pocketknives in Rochester, Pennsylvania, then it briefly became The Pittsburgh Cutlery Company. It was purchased in 1867 by the Harmony Society, brought to Beaver Falls, and developed for mass production, to employ 300 people and to cover a two-acre site. In 1872 it suffered a labor dispute which was resolved by the employment of up to 225 Chinese workers. In 1876 it produced the "largest knife and fork in the world," of its time, for display at the Centennial Exposition. The company closed in 1886.
City of Paris was a dry goods store and eventually Los Angeles’ first department store, operating from the 1850s through 1897, first as Lazard & Kremer Co., then Lazard & Wolfskill Co., then S. Lazard & Co., then with the store name City of Paris operated by Eugene Meyer & Co., then by Stern, Cahn & Loeb. It should not be confused with the much more famous City of Paris store of San Francisco, or the Ville de Paris department store of Los Angeles, of Mr. A. Fusenot, which was a spinoff of San Francisco's "City of Paris".
A bell hanger is a skilled tradesperson who installs bells in turrets and towers, or mechanical or electronic bell systems in buildings or on ships.