Michael Conte, Jr.
The Collins Brothers began manufacturing axes and machetes around 1826 along with William Wells and being joined in 1832 by E.K. Root. Samuel Collins was a very shrewd businessman who believed in controlling all phases, of not only his business, but the “factory town” that grew up as a result of his enterprises.
The site chosen for his factory was carefully selected considering land factors and natural resources that would enhance his operation. He chose a site that had a water supply formed by an outcrop of bedrock which formed a waterfall, and near at the time to the iron industry.
As was the case with so many factories being supplied by water, even Samuel Collins, who painstakingly saw to all phases of the business, underestimated the water supply. This underestimation was probably due to unreliable topographical maps. Eventually Collins was forced, in order to keep expanding his business, to modify his water supply to meet his demands for power. He accomplished this by raising the dam that supplied water to his water wheels, replacing the water wheels with turbines and building, along with the Greenwoods Company, a reservoir to supply water when normal supplies were low.
The Collins factory was closely tied to the iron industry in Connecticut because of the quantity of iron needed in the production of axes. They soon found out that the quality of iron produced in Salisbury and other Connecticut iron factories were not up to the standards of Samuel Collins, so they began to import their raw materials from England. The English suppliers were experiencing difficulty in making their quotas, so, Samuel Collins took it upon himself to produce his own steel. He brought in a European who had a qualified background to operate this plant which produced a high quality of steel for the company.