Reed Manufacturing in Erie, Pennsylvania is celebrating 125 years of supplying industry with pipe tools and vises for the professional trades. Carl Reed, scion of one of Erie’s pioneer families, along with three partners, started the business in 1896. REED started by manufacturing pipe wrenches and plumbing supplies, as is still the case, but also scales, bicycles, and laundry machinery.
In 1902, Reuben Wright of Westfield, New York, who had created his fortune by selling supplies to forty-niners during the Gold Rush and added to it with lumber interests, bought Reed Manufacturing and installed his sons to run the business. His great-great grandsons Scott (company president and chairman of the board) and Mark (retired and a board member) are actively involved with REED to this day.