Davis Sewing Machine Company of Watertown, N.Y.

Beautifully engraved signed and unissued certificate from the Davis Sewing Machine Company of Watertown, N.Y. dated 186X. This historic document has an ornate border around it with a vignette of allegorical women and an eagle. This item is hand signed by the company's president ( L. A. Johnson ) and is over 136 years old. The certificate has a minor tear and light stain on the left margin










Certificate Vignette



The founder of the company, Job A. Davis, began the small scale manufacturing of a sewing machine around 1860 in New York City. In all likeliness, he may have manufactured a sewing machine similar to the New England or Common Sense chain-stitch sewing machines that were popular in the 1860s and early 1870s. This would explain the “Vertical Feed” mechanism used on later Davis machines.

Although Davis machines created a lockstitch, both styles of machines used a walking foot to feed cloth through the machine. Like the New England and Common Sense machines, Davis sewing machines featured a walking foot, or “Vertical Feed,” which by the 1880s, had become a peculiar feature of the Davis sewing machine.

Lacking feed dogs, the Davis machine used a kind of “walking foot” to move cloth forward with each stitch made. These machines continued to be manufactured into the 1890s, at which time they were replaced with more conventional models employing feed dogs.

In 1869, the operation was moved to Watertown, New York, where the Davis Sewing Machine Co. was incorporated and began the large scale manufacture of the Davis Vertical Feed sewing machine from 1871 through 1886. After 1886, the operation was moved once again to Dayton, Ohio where production continued from about 1889 to 1924.

Beginning in the late 1890s with the introduction of the models featuring feed dogs, most Davis made machines were ‘stenciled’ models manufactured and labeled for retail outlets, catalog houses, and mail order companies. Taking over from the Free, Goodrich, and National sewing machine companies, the Davis company supplied most Minnesota brand sewing machines sold by Sears Roebuck & Co. from 1900 through 1912.

The first Davis sewing machine sold through Sears was the Burdick, introduced in 1900. This was soon followed by a number of different Minnesota models in the following years. The Minnesota “A” was the best of the models, featuring ball bearing movements and a positive feed mechanism. The models “B” and “C” were lower costing models which did not posses the “A” machine’s various improvements but which nonetheless were a superb deal for the prices they were offered for.

During this period, the majority of machines being manufactured by Davis were for sale through Sears. In 1910, all sewing machines featured in the Sears catalog were manufactured by Davis. But around 1912, Sears again began to contract with other manufacturers for sewing machines.

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The Huffman bike-building legacy began in 1888, when George P. Huffman, at the age of 27, purchased all the assets of the Davis Sewing Machine Company, manufacturers of high-quality sewing machines in Watertown, New York. He moved the plant from New York to Dayton, Ohio the following year, 1889, to larger facilities that had just been built Davis continued to make quality sewing machines, a product they made throughout the lifetime of the company. The face of the company began to change, however, when the Davis Sewing Machine Company built their first bicycles in 1892. At first, the company made bicycles for other companies and for hardware stores. It was not until 1895 that Davis started manufacturing their own line of bicycles the legendary ``Dayton."



The Davis Company built their first bicycles in 1892. Initially, they made bikes for other companies and hardware stores. The first year bicycles were produced under the name "Dayton" was 1895. By 1897 Davis was the largest manufacturer of bikes in the United States. Davis produced top notch bikes with very fine finishes. All the bikes were produced in the same color, a carmine red. In 1897 the Dayton bikes had a leather tool box suspended form the frame. The tool box had an apron the unfolded from the bottom of the box and contained an oil can, adjustable wrench, hand pump and tire repair kit. This toolbox was the forerunner of the horn tank that appeared on later bikes. In the late 1890's Dayton produce a shaft drive bike with a dual shaft on each side. In 1899 the Davis Company introduced the "Dayton Special" with spherical hubs and crank hanger. Davis showcased their bike by sponsoring a racing team from 1895 to 1921. Bobby Walthour became national champion on a Dayton bike in 1920. A 1902 advertisement featured the Czar of Russia riding a Dayton. In 1897, U.S. bike manufacturers built 2,000,000 bikes which dropped to 250,487 units in 1904.

In spite of these tough times, the Davis Company thrived. In 1916 Davis purchased the Yale and Snell lines from the Consolidated Manufacturing Company of Toledo, Ohio. Davis also purchased the "National" line of bikes from the National Bicycle Company of Bay City, Michigan. Davis kept the National head badge changing only the name of the city in which the bikes were built. Davis even kept painting the bikes the National blue color. Dayton manufactured motorcycles from 1914 through 1918. Bikes began to take on the look of their motorized cousins. They had an extra top tube, truss rods on the forks, extra long handlebars and sometimes a "gas tank" fitted between the top tubes. One 1913 model was the Three Arch-Truss Roadster which used three braces between the main tube. Dayton also had a spring fork, which replaced the fender with a leaf spring and pivoted where the fork met the head tube, on some 1912-1913 models. The 1914-1915 "Chief" model was painted red, had an ornate head badge and the name "Chief" engraved in the pedals.

In 1916 George Gorman of the Davis Company acquired a patent for a self-contained motor to be fitted to a bike. The "Gorman Motor Wheel" slip over the front forks and had a throttle that attached to the handlebars. It was built through 1918. Davis also produced bikes under the names of Duro, Dixie Flyer, LaFrance, Daytonia, Shrayer, Ohio, Shapleish Hardware, Western Auto and Western Flyer.

In 1917 Davis produced seven models for the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company. The bikes were designed to imitate the motorcycles. The colors and panels were copied from the motorcycles as well. The Harley models were known as Motorcyke and 7-17 Special. Both models had a curved top bar that dropped two inches just ahead of the seat post cluster, imitating the style of the motorcycles. The Harley bikes used a typical quadraplate fork crown that was different than the other Davis bikes.

The Harley-Davidson bicycle was meant to appeal to children and young adults. An anomaly in the Harley-Davidson line, one can't help but think that the bicycle was a reaction to the success of Schwinn who owned the Henderson Motorcycle company and the Excelsior Motorcycle company. Seemingly out of place in most Harley-Davidson dealerships, sales did not meet expectations.

However, the bicycles were attractive and well-made. They were painted and pin striped in the same colors as their motorcycle brethren. Ads for the bicycle were primarily directed at pre-teen boys and girls; they clearly intended to capitalize on the Harley-Davidson name and mystique of the day. Most notable is the crank; note the ingenious "HD". Harley-Davidson received a patent for this design. Also note the wheels; the rims are wooden. The bicycles were built for Harley-Davidson by the Davis Sewing Machine Company from 1917 to 1922. They were discontinued that year for lackluster sales. Contributing to their demise might have been the number of models: 9; or, the high price which ranged from $30 to $45. Unique to the girl's model was the front chain guard and the web of string covering the rear wheel spokes. This web of string, which is original, kept the long skirts from getting caught in the wheel. Davis remained the sole supplier of Harley bikes until the Davis Sewing Machine Co. folded in 1922. Horace Huffman had worked in the business since 1900 and by 1922 he was in charge of liquidating the assets of The Davis Sewing Machine Company. He used the profits from the liquidation to form the Huffman Manufacturing Company.

--From The Encyclopedia of Antique Sewing Machines, 3rd Edition and Rusty Spokes