Tight Lines Tuesday by John Etchieson
Pawtucket Braided Line Company
The Pawtucket Braided Line Company established in 1882 in Pawtucket Rhode Island by Alphonso G. Hazard, this firm produced cotton, linen and silk fish lines as well as shoe laces until about 1928 when the firm was sold to Horrocks Ibbotson of Utica New York. Horrocks Ibbotson changed the name of the firm to American Line Company and subsequently moved the factory and production from Pawtucket to Utica in about 1930 and continued to make the American Line Company brand lines through the early 1930s.
Horrocks Ibbotson also used their newly acquired Pawtucket Braided Line Company equipment to manufacture fishing lines for others under private label such as the W T Grant Company, a chain of five and dime variety stores. The examples shown here used the same art work for the labels for both firms, but the Horrocks Ibbotson produced version appears on the blue color wooden spool that H-I introduced in 1932 while the Pawtucket version produced prior to 1928 is on the black color spool.
Finding either of these line spools would be considered difficult as both are extremely rare, but finding both with the exact same graphic label provides historic evidence of the ownership transition in the merger of two great fishing tackle firms more than 85 years ago. Comments or questions may be sent to John at johnsetch@aol.com
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