The Sonestown Clothespin Factory

The  clothes pin factory was a major industry in Sonestown from 1903 to 1929.

On October 29th 1903, the clothespin factory began making  pins.

An artible from The Lumber Heritage Museum states "clothes pins were commonly made of Beech wood, because it would not stain when it was placed against damp material.   Beech was not typically harvested by the lumber companies and was a perfect species for the clothespin industry.  "

In Taber's Muncy Valley Lifeline, he writes:

"Logs were taken to the sawmill, white oak logs were taken to the stave mill, and maple logs to the clothespin factory, all in Sonestown.  Hemlock bark was taken to the tannery in Muncy Valley."

“The process of making these is an interesting one.  It is done in just six motions.  The first one cuts a four-foot chunk off the log, the second saws a board from the chunk, the third saws the board into square strips, the fourth cuts the strips into clothes-pin lengths, the fifth turns the pin, and the sixth cuts the slot into it.  This is done very rapidly, and they are then dried and polished in revolving cylinders, after which they are at once boxed and shipped.  The capacity is 300 boxes of 720 pins per day, or twenty-nine miles in length.”

 This view is looking northwest into town. The Sonestown hotel is visible at rear right, while the shop of the Eagles Mere Railroad is in the foreground.

Map from Muncy Valley Lifeline, by Taber

Note - if I flip the photo so that "Pin Mill Sonestown" reads properly, then the text on the train cars "Williamsport and North Branch" is backwards.

"Above Muncy Valley the valley rapidly narrows and farming vanishes. Sonestown is the next stop, three miles from Muncy Valley and twenty one from Halls. Until the Eagles Mere Railroad was built, it merely served as a focal point of all lumbering in the area for Lyon's saw mill. However, with the arrival of the railroad it took on new importance as a small railroad center. Several hotels were built. The Eagles Mere Railroad, being narrow gauge, required all food, supplies, and coal for Eagles Mere to be transferred by hand. The railroad had originally hoped to be able to transfer the standard gauge freight cars to narrow gauge tracks, but the sharp curves and light rails prevented it. As the main line of the railroad ran on the hillside, a short spur was built down to the flats where the depot was located. Later a clothes pin factory was established there and logs were brought to it on the train. A saw mill was also erected." - Taber, Muncy Valley Lifeline

This is another photo that appears to have the text on a reversed image.  Notice the building and smoke stack to the right - in most other photos, those are on the left. 

Other Clothespin factories located in towns throughout the Lumber Heritage Region included:  Kane, Mt. Jewett, Kushequa, Coudersport, Duhring, Masten and Lopez.

May 1907

In May 1907 the factory was completely destroyed in a fire.

Rebuilding after the 1907 fire

close up taken from the postcard below:

A second fire, in 1911, destroyed the store, but not the factory:

Fire - March 28th 1911

Article - March 31 1911

The clothes pin factory was the mainstay industry of Sonestown for almost thirty years, from 1903 until 1929. A number of people owned it at different times

including C. W. Sones, later a state senator.

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READ MORE

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Castano, David. “Three Hundred and Sixty Million: A History of the Dodge Clothespin Company 1896-1921,” Potter County Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin No. 215, (April 2020): pp. 2-4

Note To Self - Somewhere I have photos from when we toured the Sonestown RR Station, parts of the clothespin factory foundation were visible and should be in those photos.