Founded by Enos Hopkins in 1851, they took over the pocket knife business of the Smith & Hopkins Manufacturing Company. He opened a well-equipped factory on Fulling Mill Brook. They were reorganized in 1877 with F.H. Harris as president, H.H. Francis treasurer, J.A. Peck secretary, and Walter P. Hatch manager. By 1879, the area around the knife factory became known as Union City, Naugatuck.
For nearly thirty years, the Union Knife Company made pocket knives in volume. But the water power on the brook dwindled as years went by, and this put them at a disadvantage. When the factory burned in 1885, its owners abandoned the enterprise.
The Union knives were made by German and English workmen, and the surviving examples made by them are of the very best quality. There has been an attempt to counterfeit these knives. The stamping on the fake knives looks correct as to a three line marking, but the letters are different from the originals. Beware of mint knives with this marking.
(Featured image) A small single bladd jack knife with coined brass handles, of the type popular during the Civil War era.
A small ivory lockback, marked “Union Knife Co. Naugatuck.”
c 1851-1885