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new model beginning in 1921. It is remarkable that of all the knitting machine makers from that era, only Auto Knitter continued under different ownerships to make machines as late as the year 2000. It seems to be the preferred sock machine for many hobbyists today.
On April 3, 2002, while visiting friends in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, I talked with a great granddaughter of Joseph Gearhart and agreed to share documents with her. She has become interested in the history of the Gearhart Knitting Machine Company.
On returning home, I again studied documents I had copied at the Clearfield Historical Society a few years earlier. I found a statement that Emery Gearhart, youngest son of Joseph E. Gearhart, had "headed up" a company called the Superior Appliance & Pattern Co.
Emery Gearhart was also credited with the "home work" system that ultimately bankrupted the company when it was overwhelmed with too many socks.
As I mentioned earlier, Superior Appliance & Pattern Co. was printed on the back of the Auto Knitter manual. This means that Emery Gearhart had an interest in the Superior Appliance & Pattern Co. in Clearfield at the same time his father, two brothers, and he, were managing the Gearhart Knitting Machine Company. The documents go on to say that one of the key products of Superior Appliance Co. was a rug hook based on a mechanical rug knitter invented by Joseph Gearhart.
I had read these documents before, but did not pick up on the interesting connection between Emery J. Gearhart and the Superior Appliance & Pattern Co. and finally the possible connection with a new company, the Auto Knitter Hosiery Company.
How can one not wonder if Emery Gearhart founded, or helped found, the Auto Knitter Hosiery Company, as it was typical of his nature to promote new and aggressive management policies for the Gearhart Company? At the very least, the two companies knew of each other. Auto Knitter could not have exactly copied the Gearhart machine without being noticed.
The Next Step
Further research in the Clearfield Historical Society and Clearfield Library, and interviews with Gearhart family members may shed more light on the question, "Did the founding of the Auto Knitter Hosiery Company have a connection to the Gearhart Knitting Machine Company?"
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