Arnold Specialty Company Records

The Arnold Specialty Co. (ASCO) was a small, primarily family-owned manufacturing business located on Parker Road in South Lancaster, MA. It operated from 1946 until 1958, though its business was minimal after about 1955.

The business was incorporated on November 14, 1946 by Ralph E. Arnold, President; Ralph O.E. Arnold, Treasurer; Wayland A. Tuttle, Vice President, and Raymond K. Putnam, Clerk. The Agreement of Association set out, as the purposes of the business: "The manufacture and sales of textiles, textile machinery and equipment, and to enter into all contracts and to do all acts not prohibited by law and in any way designed to carry out any or all of the objects or purposes."

Its original business was the manufacture of special textile machinery, in particular card clothing machines (card setting machines). By 1952, it had mostly abandoned machinery manufacturing and had turned instead to manufacturing and selling card clothing: cotton, woolen, worsted, and napper card clothing. This shift of business emphasis can be seen in the evolution of its letterhead and business card design, as well as in its filings with the Massachusetts Department of Corporations and Taxation. On August 4, 1952, ASCO wrote to the Director of Price Stabilization in Washington, D.C., explaining the company's business shift and seeking approval of its proposed prices for the sale of card clothing.

The two primary founders of the company, Ralph E. Arnold (REA; possibly known as "Eddie") and his son Ralph O.E. Arnold (ROEA), had worked previously for the Wickwire Spencer Steel Division (Worcester, Mass.) of Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation, making and/or selling card clothing. ROEA was described as having worked for Wickwire for fourteen years, and his father was described as "in complete charge of the Card Clothing Mill…." The records suggest that one or both of the Arnolds may have continued to work for Wickwire Spencer while operating ASCO; an earnings statement dated March 12, 1950 shows "Ralph Arnold" having worked 40 hours for Wickwire during that pay period. The gross earnings for that period were $105, and the statement shows year-to-date gross earnings of $1,155, so the paycheck was not an isolated occurrence. (See Box 2, folder 62.)

REA also had been the president of the Lowell Napper Clothing Company of 60 Fletcher St., Lowell, incorporated in 1923, and his business card is in the ASCO collection. The collection includes a 6/22/25 financial statement for Lowell Napper Clothing Co., prepared for the purpose of procuring credit. The collection also includes a series of sales journals, dated from 1925 through 1952 but otherwise unlabelled, which may be records of the Lowell Napper Clothing Co.

Various Arnold family members were involved in related businesses, some of which transacted business with Arnold Specialty Co.

Oliver Arnold, father of Ralph E. and Lester R. Arnold, obtained a patent (No. 656,335) in 1900 on a "Perforating Mechanism for Card-Setting Machines," of which ROEA sought and obtained a copy from the U.S. Patent Office in 1953.

Another family member with whom ASCO dealt was Stanley R. Arnold, president of Berkley Machine Works of Berkley, MA, from whom ASCO ordered some machine work in 1948 and 1949. Several handwritten notes in the collection indicate that Stanley was ROEA's brother.

Lester R. Arnold, brother to Ralph E. Arnold, was sales manager for Jefferson Manufacturing Co., as indicated by records of transactions involving the "Duesberg grinder."

The name of Lois Irene Arnold, REA's wife and ROEA's mother, also appears periodically in the records. A 1948 telephone memo about a call from Stanley is signed by "Lois Irene Arnold, Secretary." In 1954, following REA's death in 1953, she acquired her late husband's shares of ASCO stock and became the company's vice president for the rest of its corporate life.