About Us
In 1945 what would become Foxy Manufacturing was founded in Poplar Bluff, Missouri as Salyer Handle and Tool. It was founded by Jessie Clinton Salyer. JC as he was known, came home from World War II and noticed a void in the market that wasn’t being served. There were many handle mills in the area, but they were not selling their products directly to the store across the street. Instead they relied on a redundant system of distributors that amplified their costs and ultimately the end users cost. Throughout the 40’s through the 60’s JC developed a network of local independent resellers that still continue to provide their customers with the products they need to be successful to this current day.
In the late 1970’s, Michael Lady was working for UPS as the regional manager and he too noticed that there were a lot of hickory and ash handles being sold from this region to the rest of the world. He realized there was something to this and decided to commit himself to it. Despite working years at nights for no pay after the hours of his regular job, his first attempt at handles and tools ended in failure. He was not easily deterred however and when the opportunity to purchase Salyer Handle and Tool presented itself, he negotiated the sale with Joey Hayes and Danny Christian(JC’s son).
Poplar Bluff was ideal for Hickory and Ash handle manufacturing due to being located on the edge of the Ozark forest and the Mississippi alluvial plain. Tight grained Hickory could be secured in the hills of the Ozarks and White Ash is plentiful in the Mississippi river valleys. At the end of the 1800’s there were at least five different handle mills in Poplar Bluff alone.
During the height of the handle boom, handle mills flourished along the Ozark Foothills. In Missouri there were mills in the following towns: Jackson, Dexter, Bernie, Lutesville, Puxico, Des Arc, Van Buren, Doniphan and Poplar Bluff. Handle production continued to a lesser degree into Northeast Arkansas. The production in Arkansas was primarily concerned with Hickory due to the availability of Hickory and lack of significant resources of White Ash. The northern latitudes of Arkansas are characterized by the prevalence of Pumpkin, Green or Swamp Ash versus Northern White Ash. Due to its lightweight and wide open grain structure Swamp Ash does not make good tool handles. Handle production in Arkansas was centered in the following towns: Corning, Pocahontas, Walnut Ridge and went as far south as Batesville. The combined production of handle making in Missouri and Arkansas fueled the western expansion of the United States by providing the axe handles to clear the forest for settlement and sledgehammer handles to build the railroads.
There is another industry that cannot be overlooked when discussing the production of handles. Wagon spokes were a sorely needed commodity on the frontier. They were usually made of White Oak and Hickory. In the late 1860’s, a German immigrant named Peter Kettering from Defiance, Ohio began developing machinery for the production of wagons spokes. Prior to this wagon spokes and tool handles were generally made by hand with spokeshaves. Although there is evidence that the production of curved axe handles and gunstocks was taking place on Blanchard copy lathes as early as the 1820’s. Sometime in the 1870’s Kettering developed the first spoke lathes. This invention facilitated the mass production of wagon spokes and tool handles. These machines were so efficient, that with a few modern upgrades they are still used in handle production today. By the 1910’s the two largest spoke mills in the world were Bimel Ashcroft in Poplar Bluff Missouri and Burroughs Ross Colville in McMinnville Tennessee. Long after cars replaced wagons as the primary mode of transportation they were still using wooden spokes. It was not until 1927 that Henry Ford quit using them on the model T.
