There were actually three firms in Morris, Illinois that used the name “Morris Cutlery.”
The first was founded in 1882, and was in business for less than two years, closing in 1883. The following excerpt from History of Grundy County, Illinois 1882 explains its beginnings:
The Morris Cutlery Company’s manufactory stands at the corner of Wauponsee and Fulton Streets (the actual site was at the corner of Washington & Fulton Streets). The building is the one mentioned as being used for a court room while building the new one. This is a new enterprise here; indeed, but few of the people of Grundy County know of its existence. It is a regularly incorporated company under the statute with $15,000 capital stock. The stockholders are men of action, not of boasting. They are practical business men with means and energy. M.W. Steiner, George Riddle, L.F. Beach, Drs. Palmer and Ferguson, M.K. Keller, J.R. Pettit, A.W. Crawford, Albert and William Smith are the stockholders, the later two being thoroughly educated cutlers from Sheffield, England. The officers are Geo. Riddle, president; Albert Smith, superintendent; M.W. Steiner, secretary & Treasurer. They have the very best of machinery, and can employ and successfully operate 150 workers. They already have twenty-one skilled laborers in their establishment, and have up to the present manufactured eighty-four varieties or kinds of pocket knives, equal in style and finish to the celebrated Wostenholm and Sons of England. No better finished knife is made in the United States, if indeed the world, than by the Morris Cutlery. So fine is their work with the force of workmen they now have. They employ none but skilled workmen, hence they experience some difficulty in obtaining all the workmen they need. They intend to do none but first class work.
Although their expectations were high, the firm closed down in 1883. The knives made by this operation were high quality knives.
In 1903, a group of men from Canton, Ohio purchased the machinery from a stock company in Morris. B.F. Thomas was the head of the Ohio group, and he entered into a partnership with a local man, Henry Pinder. They opened a new factory at 100 W. Illinois Avenue. The knives produced by this second firm were of the picture-handle type. In January 1912, Pinder purchased Thomas’ interest, and in March the firm was sold to the Aerial Knife Company of Duluth, Minnesota.
The cutlery continued to operate in Morris until 1916 when the plant was closed. Pinder opened another shop at 216 E. Illinois Avenue in 1916. This third Morris Cutlery Company operated until 1930, when it closed for good.
c 1882-1930