52 Trade Houses Part 35: Kelley-How-Thomson of Duluth, MN

Over the course of the next year, we'll be detailing the history of 52 companies that sold branded fishing tackle. 52 trade houses in 52 weeks -- some obscure, some famous, and all available exclusively here on the Fishing for History Blog! If you have any items from the week's entry you'd like to share with us, please send it my way and I'll make sure it makes it on the blog.

For a discussion of what exactly trade tackle is, Click Here. Enjoy the 52 for 52!

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Trade House Tackle, Part 35:
Kelley-How-Thomson of Duluth, MN


Growing up in Duluth, it is nearly impossible to escape the influence of Marshall-Wells Hardware. The company, founded in 1893, was one of the largest and most influential wholesale hardware firms of the twentieth century, serving nearly half the country and all of Canada through its five massive terminals in Portland, Winnipeg, Spokane, Edmonton, and Vancouver. The waterfront headquarters of Marshall Wells on Park Point in Duluth is still one of the largest buildings in the city.

Almost always overlooked and in the shadow of its big brother was Duluth's other large wholesale hardware merchant: Kelley-How-Thomson. They competed alongside Marshall-Wells for over half a century. The Kelley-How-Thomson Hardware Company was founded in the l890s as a tool and hardware jobber for the northern lumber and logging industries, and by the 1900s was shipping a large line of products marked Hickory, its most famous trade name, out of its South 5th Avenue warehouse in the waterfront wholesaling district of downtown Duluth.

K-H-T also had branches in a number of nearby small towns, including Proctor and Cotton. One of K-H-T’s traveling salesmen in the 1920s was John Cotter, namesake of the Cotter & Co. that would later purchase Hibbard, Spencer, & Bartlett. He would later write favorably of his time spent working for K-H-T.

The K-H-T branded tackle is usually found with the word Hickory spelled over a diamond. Marked Hickory reels, lures and hook folders have been found, and date to the pre-WWII era. It is most often found on fluted spinners, but all marked Hickory tackle is rare. K-H-T also utilized the Sportland trade name on both rods and terminal tackle.

Here are four different Kelley-How-Thomson line spools. They are presented from oldest to newest.




This is the uncommon Hickory marked K-H-T fluted spinner.


Kelley-How-Thomson was purchased by Marshall-Wells in November, 1955, after which it was to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary under its own name. It met the same fate as its parent company when Marshall-Wells’ wholesale hardware business was liquidated in 1958.

There is an interesting footnote to Kelley-How-Thomson history. In order to boost its exposure, the team sponsored a professional football team in the 1920s known as the Duluth Kelleys (after founder Martin Kelley). They became part of a fledgling organization known as the National Football League, playing such legendary teams as the Green Bay Packers and the Canton Bulldogs. With their hall-of-fame halfback Ernie Nevers, for a short time they lit up the football world, but were gone by the end of the decade. The Duluth Kelleys were immortalized recently in a movie starring George Clooney called Leatherheads, based on a history of the team called Leatherheads of the North. Its actually worth checking out sometime.

-- Dr. Todd

52 Trade Houses Part 34: L.P. Wood of Burlington, VT

Over the course of the next year, we'll be detailing the history of 52 companies that sold branded fishing tackle. 52 trade houses in 52 weeks -- some obscure, some famous, and all available exclusively here on the Fishing for History Blog! If you have any items from the week's entry you'd like to share with us, please send it my way and I'll make sure it makes it on the blog.

For a discussion of what exactly trade tackle is, Click Here. Enjoy the 52 for 52!

o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o

Trade House Tackle, Part 34:
L.P. Wood of Burlington, VT


Today, we will feature a sporting goods store that had a long presence in the local Vermont community of Burlington. I chose this company because it represents just how difficult it can be to research even companies with a long and important local history.

The firm in question is L.P. Wood's Sporting Goods Store of 78 Church Street, Burlington, Vermont. I have spent a good bit of time researching this firm, and have not found very much at all about this firm, despite the fact it appears to have been in business for six decades or more.

L.P. Wood (and his wife Edna) was an important local businessman in the Burlington community. Forest & Stream tells us he was a a member of the Lake Champlain Yacht Club in the 1910s, along with a number of other local leading lights.

We know the company was in business as early as 1910, when it was listed in the Vermont Year Book as one of the state's four sporting goods retailers, and likely was founded even earlier than this. Gun historians have uncovered the fact that L.P. Wood's Sporting Goods Store of Burlington, Vermont received an order of 25 "Super .38" Colt pistols which were then sold to the Vermont Motor Vehicle Department. It's the earliest mention I can find of the firm.

The post-war era brings a lot more references. The firm was being listed in the Vermont Year Book in 1960 and was further listed in a 1967 issue of Esquire Magazine. L.P. Wood billed itself in the post-war era as "Vermont's leading sporting goods store." It also advertised in all of the local high school and university year books.

Thanks to recent obituaries, we also know the names of three principals at L.P. Wood's in the post-war era. The manager of the store in the 1950s and 1960s was Sabe Abell, who helped turn the store into a premier place for skiing equipment. Two other long-time employees included Royden Edgar "Ductchey" Brown (1895-1985) and Kenneth "Ted" Haynes (1912-2001).

A nice piece of fishing tackle marked "L.P. Wood" is this really nifty complimentary snelled hook holder with the firm's name on it. Inside was an actual snelled hook packet stamped with the firm's name. Both of these date from the 1930s.




L.P. Wood's is a great store with a lot of positive memories associated with it. It appears to have still be in business as late as the 1970s, meaning it had a very long run as a major sporting goods retailer in Vermont.

Anyone with any additional information about Wood's Sporting Goods drop me a note!

-- Dr. Todd

52 Trade Houses Part 33: Jack Dickerson Supply Co. of Camdenton, MO

Over the course of the next year, we'll be detailing the history of 52 companies that sold branded fishing tackle. 52 trade houses in 52 weeks -- some obscure, some famous, and all available exclusively here on the Fishing for History Blog! If you have any items from the week's entry you'd like to share with us, please send it my way and I'll make sure it makes it on the blog.

For a discussion of what exactly trade tackle is, Click Here. Enjoy the 52 for 52!

o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o

Trade House Tackle, Part 33:
Jack Dickerson Supply Co. of Camdenton, MO

An often overlooked sporting goods distributor from the heart of the American homeland is the Dickerson Supply Company of Camdenton, Missouri. A fairly obscure company, I checked the bible for Missouri collectors -- Dean Murphy's Fishing Tackle Made in Missouri, but was unable to find any information on Dickerson. Of course, I was only able to locate my first edition, and Dean may very well have added this to the second edition of his outstanding book.

I wasn't able to uncover a tremendous amount of information about this company. I do know it was active in the 1960s and 1970s, and three of the principals involved were Jack, Jim and Terry Dickerson. I believe Jack was the principal, and its possible Jim and Terry were his sons.

Jack Dickerson was profiled in an article dated June 19, 1969 by Joplin Globe outdoor editor Bill Potter in an article about Ozark environmentalism. At a news media dinner, "Jack Dickerson and E.B. Kinder of the Missouri Tourism Commission were there. Jack, owner of the Jack Dickerson Supply Co., operating out of Camdenton and Branson, is a member of the commission His firm provided the happy hour sociabilities preceding the dinner.

The following year they were listed in the October, 1970 Field & Stream as a distributor of Refrigiwear winter wear.

While it is not known their ultimate fate, an advertisement in the November 13, 1980 Galveston Daily News showed Dickerson was still in business, and looking for a "sales representative by a leading U.S. sporting goods distributor." So clearly the firm's history spanned the 1960s to the 1980s as a sporting goods distributor.


The company filed for the following trademark in 1973 but the trademark was cancelled in 1982. I assume this meant that the firm was either purchased or shuttered by the owners.



The original trademark application noted the firm was "retail mail order services, namely, mail order sales of sporting goods." It appears it was both a wholesale and retail firm. I believe Dickerson's Supply Co. was succeeded by Jack's Sporting Goods & Hardware Co., also of Camdenton.

The company sold fishing tackle branded with its name. The most commonly found are the "Laker" brand line spools, like the one pictured below.


Note that this one was sold by the ALCO Discount Stores. ALCO Stores are still around today, which makes this the neatest of trade tackle items--one that is an item from two trade houses!

There are other items marked Dickerson out there, and one sometimes causes great confusion. Occasionally, very cheap fly rods marked "Dickerson" come up for sale. Owners who rush to the internet discover that there was a rodmaker named Lyle Dickerson who was internationally famous. L.L. Dickerson rods sell regularly for over $5000 and some have brought as much as $10,000. In an excited rush, they put their Dickerson fly rod up on eBay and expect the money to come falling from the sky. One look by anyone even remotely knowledgable will reveal there is no chance in hell that Lyle L. Dickerson ever had a thing to do with these cheap rods. Instead, these are Dickerson Supply Co. trade rods and worth around $20 instead of 25 times that amount.

Anyway, it's a neat Missouri trade house and tackle marked with the Dickerson name can be tough to find. If you want to know more about Missouri fishing tackle, contact Dean Murphy and get the second edition of his book! He's in the NFLCC directory.

-- Dr. Todd