Boardroom Chair

The exact date of the chairs is unknown, but we assume around 1885. For that is the year that Rumford bought the building at 58,59 and 60 South Water Street. The chairs are carved oak with leather upholstery in the Victorian style. The Boardroom was located there along with the packaging and shipping departments. The building was sold in 1927 as the Rumford Company was constructing Building 31 on the corner of Newman Avenue and Greenwood Avenue. Here were housed the general offices, Boardroom and the canning and shipping division. That building still stands.

Over the years there were many changes in Board members. Originally when the Company was incorporated in Seekonk, Massachusetts (now Rumford, RI) George Wilson was President, Edward Mandell was Treasurer, Benjamin Tucker was Clerk. In 1867 Eben Horsford was President and George Wilson was Treasurer. Between 1877 and 1878 Wilson was President and Horsford was Treasurer. The two switched places again, finally retiring Wilson as Treasurer in 1878 because his expenses caused by too much expansion were too high. The Presidents following were L.H. Farlow, Cornelius Sweetland, Andrew Fiske, Gardiner Fiske and Albert Marshall. You can find the Board members listed in the Corporate Minutes of the Rumford Corporation located in the archives of the RI Historical Society Library on Hope Street in Providence, R