Middleboro' Shovel Company

Middleboro' Shovel Company advertisements.  Top, mid-1870s.
Bottom, 1874, from The Boston Directory Embracing the City Record,
A General Directory of Citizens and Business Directory.  No. LXX.  For
the Year Commencing July 1, 1874.  (Boston: Sampson, Davenport,
and Company, 1874).

Organized in the early 1870s, the Middleboro' Shovel Company operated for a short period of time as the successor firm of N. B. Sherman and Company.  Though shovels were produced at the Upper Factory in Middleborough (now the site of the Thomas Memorial Park), the offices of the firm were maintained at 63 Oliver Street in Boston.  Much of the success of the firm was attributable to George Richardson who was responsible for the redesign of a popular shovel produced by the company, and his name appears prominently in advertisements placed by the company throughout the mid-1870s.  The Middleboro' Shovel Company operated until 1877 in which year it was forced to file for bankruptcy.