Posted 2 years ago
yougottaha…
(392 items)
Great trade cards!! Anthropomorphic ( had to look up that word) Vegetable Veggie People. These ones advertised Wheeler & Wilson no 8 sewing machine
People collected these like they collect Baseball cards Pokemon etc.
Added One other I just found!!
Odd nowadays kids just called them VeggieTales
KooL Kards
Back in my day we had fruit jokes. What's purple and conquered the World??
What's red white blue and yellow??
yougottahavestuff, Cool. :-)
That postcard also pitches the Wheeler & Wilson No. 12.
Here are a couple of sets of various Vegetable People advertising post cards:
*snip*
These 19th century trading cards were an early form of advertising for businesses; and while many times the product depicted was what was being advertised, as often as not, the real purpose of the picture on the card was to amuse people and to get some attention for a brand. In that sense, some of the weirder cards could almost be considered akin to viral posts of today. These trading cards were very popular during the Victorian era.
*snip*
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1007125870/vegetable-people-trading-cards-vintage
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1203827484/vegetable-people-set-2-victorian
The Wheeler & Wilson No. 8:
https://ismacs.net/wheelerandwilson/wheeler-wilson-number-eight.html
https://www.alamy.com/wheeler-wilson-sewing-machine-number-8-1876-designed-by-james-a-house-engraving-famous-company-product-in-its-time-image221531787.html
The Wheeler & Wilson No. 12:
https://www.fiddlebase.com/american-machines/wheeler-wilson/the-no-12-machine/
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-wheeler-wilson-sewing-machine-new-york-dated-1880-131276807.html
The New Home Sewing Machine Company:
https://ismacs.net/newhome/home.html
Thanks for all the info!!
The supplier at Reed St. Rockland Mass is about 4 Miles from me. A lot of old factory building's in that area. I'll drive by soon and check it out. Thanks again. Happy holidays
Stuff
yougottahavestuff, You're welcome. Happy Holidays backatcha. :-)
I already took at peek, and the address 4 Reed Street doesn't exist in Google Maps (it locates it out in the intersection of Reed & Union):
4 Reed St, Rockland, MA 02370
https://goo.gl/maps/vucjpW2qKgvj2GdG8
I decided to poke around old Sanborn fire insurance maps, and Reed Street certainly has been renumbered.
However, I never could locate number 4. The lowest number I could find was 10. I suppose it could have been somewhere on Reed Street West.
Out of the corner of my eye, I recall seeing on one of the maps some business on Union described something like "SEWG MACHS & FIND," so there's always the possibility that the business moved, and there isn't a specific Sanborn map available from the period when they were at 4 Reed Street.
Go nuts with it:
1885 SANBORN FIRE INSURANCE MAPS OF ROCKLAND, PLYMOUTH COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS (in 1885, the street was called Reed's Block):
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn03832_001/
1891 SANBORN FIRE INSURANCE MAPS OF ROCKLAND, PLYMOUTH COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS:
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn03832_002/
1896 SANBORN FIRE INSURANCE MAPS OF ROCKLAND, PLYMOUTH COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS:
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn03832_003/
1901 SANBORN FIRE INSURANCE MAPS OF ROCKLAND, PLYMOUTH COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS:
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn03832_004/
1906 SANBORN FIRE INSURANCE MAPS OF ROCKLAND, PLYMOUTH COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS:
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn03832_005/
1912 SANBORN FIRE INSURANCE MAPS OF ROCKLAND, PLYMOUTH COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS:
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn03832_006/
1917 SANBORN FIRE INSURANCE MAPS OF ROCKLAND, PLYMOUTH COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS:
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn03832_007/
Just for grins, here is a bird's eye view of Rockland in 1881:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3764r.pm003212/
Wow your a real searcher!!! Thanks again. I'll check it all out. I've got a Wilcox & Gibbs sewing machine base. Great cast iron piece, didn't have the machine with it. I use it for my laptop and printer. I have a Howe machine with his brass portrait on it, bad shape but I couldn't let it go to scrap.
If I ever get Lost I hope they send you to find me!!
Again thanks
Stuff
yougottahavestuff, You're welcome. :-)
I suspect that your best bet with regard to a physical building on Reed Street that once housed the Wheeler & Wilson dealer would be the brick building on the south-west corner of Reed & Union.
Over the years, it's housed a lot of different businesses, such as a confectionary, and barber shop, and a cigar factory.
All of the other buildings on modern Reed Steet are clapboard, and residential-looking.
I tried to look at property records for it, but about as close as I could get was a loopnet listing for 312 Union Street (which is the southern part of the brick building, and currently houses a restaurant):
https://www.loopnet.com/property/312-union-st-rockland-ma-02370/25023-001156848/
You might have better luck chasing down the history of that brick building than I did.
Good luck. :-)
Welp, I thought I'd finally found something that would give me historical information about various addresses in Rockland, MA, and I probably did. It just didn't return what I was expecting. :-(
It looks like the brick building on the southwest corner of Reed Street & Union Street is relatively modern:
*snip*
312-314 UNION ST
ROCKLAND
Year Built: 1950
*snip*
https://massgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=47689963e7bb4007961676ad9fc56ae9
I sanity-checked it by looking up the clapboard residence at 30 Reed Street. That one is indeed a 19th century building:
*snip*
30 REED ST
ROCKLAND
Year Built: 1880
*snip*
Hey again, yougottahavestuff. :-)
I don't know what your appetite is for this information, but given the relative newness of the brick building (1950) at the southwest corner of Union Street and Reed Street, finding the building that once housed the Wheeler & Wilson dealership will probably take looking for historical photographs.
Given that your W&W trade card name checks both W&W models No. 8 and No. 12, the photographic time frame that you should probably be looking for is the 'life-span' of the latter model, which per the late great Enrico's fiddlebase website is circa 1887 - 1905.
You could try the Rockland Memorial Library:
https://www.rocklandmemoriallibrary.org/