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Showing posts with label TOM GLOVER'S HARTLEY TOY MFG. CO.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TOM GLOVER'S HARTLEY TOY MFG. CO.. Show all posts

Friday, November 14, 2014

1944 and 1948: KUSER FARM AND THE HARTLEY TOY MFG. CO.






During the past two days I have been going through a large 13 x 9 inch envelope filled with Glover family photos. My family's relationship with the Kuser family goes back to the mid 1930's. My brother Bud worked for Fred and Edna Kuser from 1938 through 1945 when he went into the Navy, at which point I and my best buddy Don Slabicki took over the chores at the farm, and when we entered the military, my little brother Donny and Ken Slabicki for a short time. The above graphics tell an interesting story. The photo above on the lower left shows the Kuser tennis house and in front of it, the old Kuser chicken coop built back in 1901 by Christian Mack. To the graphic on the right is a scan of one of my MERCER MESSENGER  "Hamilton Scrapbook" graphics relating to the Hartley Toy Mfg. Co. Below that is a rare 1947 or 1948 view of the Glover vegetable garden showing the Kuser chicken coop on the right in the photo, next to one of our two chicken coops.I was a 15 year old helper in disassembling that Kuser structure. I remember carefully using a crowbar to lift off the wooden shingles, dis-assembling the 2 x 4 frame and carting the parts across the field and across Newkirk Avenue to the Glover property. I also remember that there were a number of snakes under that old building. The concrete foundation of that old Kuser coop is still to be seen at the entrance to what we called Kuser's Pond.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

1946: THE HARTLEY TOY MFG. CO.

Plastic and all the other miracle compounds hadn't quite entered the American market right after WWII. My father and his brother, both experienced potters from Olde England, decided to go into the manufacture of doll furniture. My uncle Bill was a master mold maker and he crafted a little set of living room furniture consisting of a sofa, two chairs and other long forgotten accessories. After the plaster was mixed and poured into molds, the finished product had to be trimmed around the mold marks, and then taken into a room where an air compressor sprayed a velvety "flock" on each piece. For a while back there, it looked like the little enterprise was going to take off. However, times they were a-changing, and with the advent of plastic which was much lighter and easier to manufacture, the venture fell flat.