From The Hartford Courant, May 10, 1999:
During the early part of the 20th century, the sounds of stamping echoed through the little town of Portland. The Eastern Tinware Co., also known as the American Stamping Co., produced various items made of tin.
"The products are plain and retinned stamped ware," reads the 1896 souvenir edition of The Middletown Tribune, which goes on to say, "the company also does galvanizing and retinning for outside people as well as stamping."
The company was located off the Air Line railroad near the Portland train station and covered about 3 acres. The site covered 40 acres if one includes the housing for the 400 to 450 workers. A private reservoir of 100,000 gallons supplied the factory and mills.
A spur off the railroad extended into the company's premises "thus affording superior facilities for receiving raw material and forwarding the manufactured product."
Traveling salesmen helped the factory thrive during the early 1900s.
"A corps of salesmen is kept continually on the road in the company's interest, selling jobbers and dealers throughout this country as well as foreign countries," read the Tribune.
But the corps of hawkers began to decline as the demand for tin fell and was replaced by a thirst for aluminum. The stamping company discontinued business in 1916.
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