Farrel Company.

The Farrel Company was founded in 1848 by Almon Farrel in Ansonia, Connecticut . Almon Farrel was a prominent engineer and millwright whose contributions to manufacturing enterprises appeared in Connecticut and southern New York . Aided by his son, Franklin, Almon Farrel won his reputation by successfully constructing and equipping manufacturing plants. In 1844, at the request of Anson Phelps, Almon Farrel and his son journeyed to Ansonia to survey, engineer and build a water project and erect a copper mill. The Farrel presence remains evident in town today.

Almon Farrel 's original business in Ansonia was Almon Farrel and Company . Begun in 1848, the business included a small foundry and machine shop. The company supplied heavy machinery to manufacturers in the Naugatuck valley. Earlier products were power drives and gears for water-powered installations and brass and iron castings. Late in 1848, Almon and Franklin Farrel entered in a partnership with Richard Johnson, a pattern maker, and formed Farrel-Johnson Company . Almon Farrel contributed $8,000 of the $15,000 capital required to begin operations. In 1850, the partnership was incorporated and renamed Farrel Foundry with Almon Farrel serving as president.

In 1851, the company expanded its operations to Waterbury, Connecticut, where a foundry and machine ship were built. The Waterbury facilities were designed to offset transportation difficulties and speed repair service in that area. In 1880 the plant was taken over by its manager, Edward Coffin Lewis . In return for his quarter interest in the Farrel business, Lewis received control of the Waterbury branch, severing all legal ties with the parent company. Lewis served as president of Waterbury Farrel Foundry & Machine Company until his death in 1901. The company remains in operation today as a division of Jones & Lamson Textron .

Following Almon Farrel 's death in 1857, Farrel Foundry reorganized and was incorporated as Farrel Foundry & Machine Company . It was capitalized with $90,000,000. In 1869 Franklin Farrel became president of the Company.

Farrel Foundry & Machine Company products were designed to meet the needs of the expanding brass and rubber industries in the area. The company concentrated on producing rolling mills and rubber processing machinery and fabricated the first rubber calendars used in industry. Production of chilled iron rolls remained a mainstay of the company's business until the mid twentieth century. The company proceeded to produce roll-equipped machinery for the plastics, metals, paper and sugar industries.

A policy of diversification was implemented in the 1870s when Farrel Foundry & Machine Company began manufacturing sugar mills. In a separate venture, Franklin Farrel purchased sugar estates in Cuba and Santa Domingo . Interests in these ventures were sold in 1903. In 1877 Franklin Farrel acquired the Parrott Silver & Copper Company in Butte, Montana . After limited success in this and other mining ventures, Farrel sold Parrott to Amalgamated Copper Company in 1889.

In 1920, the company purchased a plant in Buffalo, New York, to help meet the growing demand for rubber machinery. However, the plant was never used for its original purpose. Farrel acquired a patent for the Sykes Gear Cutting Machine and the Buffalo facilities were utilized for gear production. The plant closed in 1961.

In 1927, Farrel Foundry and Machine Company merged with the Birmingham Iron Foundry to form Farrel-Birmingham Company, Inc. Founded in 1836 by Sylvester and Sullivan Colburn, Birmingham Iron Foundry produced primarily rubber machinery. [ Farrel Company currently uses 1836 as its founding date.]

Farrel-Birmingham Company, Inc. acquired Consolidated Machine Tool Corporation located in Rochester, New York, in 1951. This corporation represented a conglomeration of machine tool companies with the facilities and equipment capable of handling Farrel's larger operations. The plant and product lines were sold to Conlin Company in 1983.

The company shortened its name to the Farrel Corporation in 1963. In 1968 the company joined United States Shoe Machinery (USM) with divisional status. In 1976, Emhart Corporation merged with USM and the Farrel Machinery Group, as it was then known, became a division of Emhart. On 6 May 1981, Franklin Farrel IV resigned as assistant secretary of the company, signaling the end of family participation in the business. The company's most recent name, Farrel Company, Emhart Machinery Group, dates from 1983. in 1989 Emhart was taken over by Black & Decker.

In the 1980s the Farrel Company operated three plants in Ansonia and Derby, had subsidiaries and licensees in over thirty countries and produced the heavy machinery that built the company's reputation over 100 years ago.

From the guide to the Farrel Company Records, undated, 1800-1993, (Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries)