I recently came across an 1890s Victorian trading card for Kerr & Company. This outfit manufactured thread starting in the 1860s. I’m familiar with the Clark & Company thread and J&P Coats, but I had never heard of Kerr. It turns out they’re all interrelated.
Peter Kerr was born in Scotland in 1818. He moved to the United States in 1866, opening a thread factory in New York. He soon partnered with his brother-in-law, George A. Clark. Clark and Company was a competing thread-making firm before the merger.
Peter Kerr died in 1869, and in 1897, Clark & Company merged with J. & P. Coats. Today, the Coats Group is a conglomerate of companies, with thread still one of their main products. They also make fasteners, zippers, buttons, and shoes.
Until the 1970s, thread came on wooden spools. Today’s spools are made of plastic, which is much cheaper to produce. I don’t believe plastic spools will do what I need them to. My late Papa Haynes would take a wood spool, cut some notches in each side with a knife, and make a toy steam roller out of it. I doubt he could do the same using plastic.
The other components in his miniature steam tractor consisted of a pencil, a rubber band, a washer, and a stick match. Two matches could be used if no pencil was available. Papa made them for his grandchildren, and we’d play with these simple toys for hours. I’d love to describe how to build one, but YouTube videos do a much better job than my words can.
Years ago, I constructed a steamroller for our two youngsters, but they didn’t show the same enthusiasm as we did. Jim and I were more content back then, using creativity to get us through a day, finding that if we had two tractors, we could race them. I generally wound my rubber band too tight and it broke.
Deciding to make a steamroller just for grins, I found some wooden thread spools in my mom’s old sewing basket, all of them still having thread. I couldn’t go through with carving one up for sentimental reasons. There are some listed on eBay for a few bucks, which I’ll order.
Researching these ancient Kerr & Company Victorian cards, along with those of Clark & Company, I came across several interesting ones on eBay. A couple of them might be considered racist these days.
I like to write junk... 