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J.M. Miller and Company

The history of the J.M. Miller and Company, a small establishment located in Perth, is sketchy and virtually nothing is known about the manufactory except that it was in operation between 1872 and 1875. The company was also known as the Perth Sewing Machine Company and the Venus Sewing Machine Company.

J.M. Miller and Company manufactured a lock-stitch machine called the Venus, and it was certainly deserving of the name since the Venus was probably the most ornate and attractive sewing machine manufactured in Ontario. Every cast piece is not only delicately handpainted with roses and leaves, but it is decorative in shape as well. The Venus had a number of unusual features. Instead of a solid base or arm support on the right, there was a flat, shapely cast section which hid the gears. The spooler spindle was situated high up on this "arm" and even it was shapely and ornate. The Venus also had a special thread guide which released the thread when the needle was raised. This feature replaced the more common take-up lever.

Appleton Manufacturing Company

Although primarily noted for its knitting machines, the Appleton Company of Hamilton also manufactured sewing machines between 1872 and 1874. The Appleton New Silent Sewing Machine was based on two patents issued in 1871 to C. J. Appleton. His improvements involved changes to the feed attachment and the shuttle motion of sewing machines. The machine featured a self-feed, which continually moved the work without guidance by the operator's hand, and a tensionless shuttle. At the Provincial Exhibition of 1872, the Appleton Company displayed six of its machines, including one which was run by steam power. Although it attracted attention, there is no information on how well it sold.

Despite the Appleton Manufacturing Company's claim to the most scientifically constructed machine of the day, it was not the most popular, and the company disappeared after 1874. No examples have been located.

Fergus Manufacturing Company

Research on the Fergus Manufacturing Comapny has raised more questions than it has answered. The only information on the company found to date indicates that it was listed in the Mercantile Agency Reference Books in 1875 and 1877 and was considered to be of moderate size.

The Fergus Company produced a simple, sturdy machine called the Barclay which was quite likely designed, at least in part, by Robert Barclay, a watchmaker in Paris, Ontario. Barclay took out three Canadian sewing machine patents between 1866 and 1868, and a number of features on the Barclay machine can be identified in the patent specifications. Although the machine is quite ordinary in design and appearance, probably very few were manufactured. Because of the poor condition of the particular model located for this study, much of the information is obscured and further research will be necessary to provide answers about the Barclay and its manufacturer.

Ontario's sewing machine industry survived for little more than thirty-five years, but it had a significant influence on the social and economic development of the province. Not only did the industry provide jobs for skilled and unskilled laborers, but it also had a tremendous impact on women whose daily toil was markedly reduced by the efficiency and speed of mechanical sewing. The success of this domestic industry was equally important to Ontario from an economic standpoint, because it helped to keep money in Canada which otherwise might have gone to support manufacturers from the United States. Most of the machines produced in Ontario now stand idle and forgotten, yet they were some of the most treasured and over-worked appliances to be manufactured in nineteenth-century Canada.

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