A few years after Abel Simonds set up shop in Fitchburg, an enterprising German immigrant named Elias Heller started his own small shop on Hamilton Street in Newark, New Jersey. With its original crew of three, this shop made hand files and rasps.
By the mid-1860's, three of Elias's sons - Elias George, Peter and Lewis - had entered the business and worked to build what their father started. Under their leadership, Heller was one of the first file manufacturers to use machines to make files, and Heller was one of the first American brands recognized to be as good as the European imports.
Soon, the company was renamed Heller & Bros. and in 1874 the company moved to a new facility on Mt. Prospect Street in Newark, where they had plenty of room to expand. As their business grew, they quickly recognized the need to produce their own steel, and in 1880 they opened a steel mill next to the file factory, producing crucible steel. The business was incorporated in 1899 as Heller Brothers Company. In 1912, after Elias George passed away, his son Paul took over the business as a third-generation leader, and took the company to even greater heights.
In 1906, a small file manufactory was opened in Newcomerstown, Ohio - the Rex File & Saw Co. This business grew over the next ten years to become a prominent player in the file market. But disaster struck on April 11th, 1917, when a huge fire totally destroyed the Rex complex. Seizing on an opportunity, Heller, in need of more land and cheaper labor than Newark had to offer, bought the Rex site and set about rebuilding the file factory and hiring the workers.
Over the course of the next 30 years or so, more and more of the Heller business was moved from Newark to Newcomerstown and by 1950, the Newcomerstown facility occupied over 250,000 square feet and Heller was one of the top three file brands in the world (along with Nicholson and Simonds). By 1953, Heller closed down its Newark factories and moved fully to Newcomerstown.
By the early 1950's most of the third generation Hellers had passed and the fourth generation was not as interested in running the family business. Soon, they were approached by Simonds to be acquired, and on July 1st, 1955, Simonds acquired Heller Bros.
The combined file businesses of Simonds and Heller were now #2 in the world, second only to Nicholson. Simonds continued to produce files in Fitchburg until 1960, when all file manufacturing was consolidated in Newcomerstown. And that is the story of another of the great American tool brands - Heller files.