Collections Highlight: C. & E. L. Granger Parlor Stove
By Teresa Greene
Nothing conjures feelings of coziness and comfort like sitting by a warm fire on a snowy day. This highly decorative parlor stove, made by C. & E. L. Granger around 1840 in Pittsford, Vermont, has a similarly sized firebox as a modern wood-burning stove, but with five times the style! The box has a wide opening at the front and a smaller opening on the right side, both secured with hinged cast-iron latches. A covered urn sits above the box between an arch connecting two chimneys to a single center pipe.
Functionally, the stove is similar to today’s wood-burning stoves. Aside from innovations to reduce pollutants, it is very advanced. The nameplate lifts away, allowing air to flow freely into a shallow chamber underneath a grate in the firebox, and once replaced, blocks the air for efficient fuel usage. The urn acts as a built-in kettle: when filled with water, two small holes in the lid allow steam to escape, humidifying the room.
C. & E. L. Granger remained on the cutting edge of stove-making technology and received several patents for their innovations, one for a stove with a rotating cooktop that allowed every pot to get direct heat. Even their iron—mined in Chittenden—was innovative, with the addition of manganese making it rust-proof. The success of these ideas, along with a knack for design and marketing, put Granger stoves in households across the eastern United States.
In 1826, Simeon Granger purchased the Furnaceville area of Pittsford, including the actual blast furnace built by Israel Keith in 1791. Under the name Simeon Granger & Sons, Simeon and two of his children, Chester and Lyman, operated the family business and created a “factory town” named Grangerville with employee housing, a factory store, and a school. At Simeon’s death, Lyman sold his share to his brother Edward, who operated the business along with Chester as C. & E. L. Granger. At Edward’s untimely death, George Hodges purchased his shares and the company name changed to Granger, Hodges & Co. As the Chittenden mines depleted, Hodges and Granger sold the company. Granger, Hodges, & Co. became Pittsford Iron Company, then Vermont Iron Company.
At its peak, the company produced 300 tons of iron goods a year. Newspapers advertising C. & E. L. Granger goods listed kettles, griddles, basins, flatirons, and door hardware, in addition to several types of stoves, such as “Farmers” stoves, parlor stoves, mechanics stoves, Yankee Notion stoves, box stoves, airtight stoves, and even “small premium stoves suitable for railroad tents.” They were so prolific, and their products so trusted that the Granger name became synonymous with quality stoves. In 1899, long after the business had dissolved, a company in Missouri produced a version of the “Granger Cook Stove” with the tagline “old reliable.”
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