Simonds started in 1832 as a scythe manufactory, under the name J. T. Farwell & Co. The Farwell family were the pre-eminent scythe makers in the country at the time and the Farwell name gave the new venture instant credibility. The company grew and the name was changed to A. Simonds & Company. It added other agricultural cutting tools to its offering. Among these were mower blades and reaper sections.
Abel Simonds retired in 1864, turning the business over to two of his sons - George Frederick and Alvan Augustus - and a local businessman, Benjamin Snow Jr. The renamed Simonds Bros. & Co. continued to produce agricultural cutting tools, but looked for other areas into which to expand.
The inventive George Simonds led the company slowly into the manufacture of saws. He developed and patented an entirely new system of tempering and straightening saw blades and this allowed the company, in 1876, to introduce circular saw blades to its product range.
The circular saw business grew rapidly and the (now five) Simonds brothers started to look into other types of saws to manufacture. That, coupled with a decline in the market for agricultural cutting tools, caused the brothers decide to focus more on saw blades and less on agricultural tools.
In mid-February of 1878, Simonds sold its reaper and mower blade business to Whitman & Barnes Mfg. Co., a western conglomerate based in Syracuse, New York and Akron, Ohio, for $17,000. It was a gamble at the time, but one the brothers were sure would pay off for the small company.
Whitman & Barnes had its roots in Fitchburg. It was started when Albert Page left Abel Simonds in early 1845 to form A. G. Page & Co., which through mergers became Page-Whitman & Co., then Whitman & Miles, and finally Whitman & Barnes.
Whitman & Barnes itself enjoyed a long history. In the late 1890's, a young Harvey Firestone ran the tire department at Whitman & Barnes, before setting out to start his renowned venture, the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. In the mid-1900's, W & B itself was finally absorbed into The J H Williams Co. (part of Bahco today) and a piece of it was sold off to present day Greenfield Industries. Fitchburg companies just do not disappear!
Simonds used the proceeds of the mower and reaper sale to initiate the manufacture of cross-cut saws and wide band saw blades in addition to the existing lines of planer knives and circular saws, and never looked back!