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When this photograph was taken in 1889, the Arms Manufacturing Company in South Deerfield was the second-oldest manufacturing company in Franklin County. Founded by Dennis Arms in 1845, it first had only two or three workers. Forty years later the company had grown to more than fifty workers, both men and women. Their reputation for fine workmanship in the making of all kinds of pocket-books (wallets), billbooks, letter books, card cases, etc, was known throughout the country. Fire destroyed the factory building in the summer of 1889 and the owners built this new building on the same site. Note the shutters and clapboards that give the building the appearance of a home rather than a factory.

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