MARSTERS BROS BROOKLYN NY

[BILL HOERTER]

MARSTERS BROS. BROOKLYN N.Y. Any body have any information on this name stamping on one of my NY ball handle reels? I have two other MARSTERS stamped ball handle reels - J.F. MARSTERS BROOKLYN N.Y. & J.F. MARSTERS MAKER 55 COURT ST. BROOKLYN.
Thanks - Bill Hoerter

[Alan Baracco]

Bill,

Quite the coincidence, since Marsters is listed as a "Dealer in Sportsman's Goods" in the thread started yesterday right below your query. Date of 1891 in the "Sportman's Directory".

Actual listing is "Marsters, James F., 53 Court Street, Brooklyn"

I seem to recall the name in one of my searches but can't find it at the moment, I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Have a Great Holiday,

Alan

[Alan Baracco]

Bill,

I found what I was looking for, titled "Catalogue of all Kinds of Fine Sporting Goods" by Marsters, J. F., 1875.

Page 28 has all of the information on the reels being offered.

The digitized copy of this catalogue can easily be found on HathiTrust.org using the advanced search function and the search term "Sporting Goods" in the Title between 1870 and 1880.

Call or Email me if you need help finding it. Looks to be exactly the thing to get you started

Alan

[Ray Hencken]

I have a 2" diameter nickle-silver, raised check plate, half-handle fly reel in my collection which is stamped "J.F. Marsters Brooklyn NY" on the check plate cover.
I have a catalog for James F. Marsters , Fine Fishing Tackle, 51, 53, and 55 Court Street, Brooklyn-New York, Telephone, 2125 Main, Established 1861. No date on the catalog but someone wrote in the upper right corner of the cover "Late 20's early 30's". I believe it may be 10 or more years earlier based on some of the baits which are in the catalog (Shakespeare Slim Jim. Wooden Minnow, Kazoo Minnow and the Michigan Life Like Minnow). Many of the reels pictured in the catalog appear to be Montague reels along with a few Julius vom Hofe reels.

[Steve]

The Marsters brothers opened a saddlery in 1861 and probably didn't start selling sporting goods until after the Civil War. At the time, they lived with their dad, a harness maker. And, oddly enough, they had the same street address as Lorenzo Abbey [yes, that Abbey], who may have been instrumental in convincing them to get into sporting goods.

[BILL HOERTER]

Thanks for the help but I still have not been able to determine why everything I find on this business states the co name as JAMES S MARSTERS ESTABLISHED 1861 with nothing about MARSTERS BROS. Steve has mentioned the 2 brothers starting a business in 1861 & maybe my Ball Handle reel marked MARSTERS BROS.
was the starting of the business in 1861. Anybody have another idea? Thanks againBill

[Paul M]

There is a listing for Marsters Bros under Fishing Tackle in the 1867 (as pointed out below by Steve) NYS Directory and gazetteer, page 98. Their street address was 58 Fulton St., NY.



PS The citation record for this document is very confusing as it states "Published: Boston, 1859" instead of the actual document date of 1867. I originally used the earlier date in error. Thanks to Steve for catching that below.

[wrong99]

What a street Fulton street must have been!
Mark

[Paul M]

The rest of the directory contains some unrelated but fascinating stuff like the section above the one I posted, listing Hartill.

[Alan Baracco]

Marsters fans,

Don't want to muck things up, but at least as far as the 1875 catalogue goes, the company (without any mention of Brothers) was established in 1857. The catalogue also mentions that due to the success of the company they expanded to 51, 53 & 55 Court Street, which seems to be the retail operation. Maybe they manufactured articles at another location? Or maybe Court St intersected Fulton St.??

Seems (to me) that Marsters started as mainly an import business and then actually manufactured items (baseball related?) rather than reels, which continued to be imported.

Seems like REEL NEWS needs an article on the company!!

Alan

[Steve]

Fishing Tackle in the 1859 NYS Directory and gazetteer, page 98.

The link brings up an 1867 directory. Hartill began his reelmaking after the Civil War.

established in 1857

1857 is probably when James started making musical instruments. George would later patent one. George and James split and reunited over the years; hence, the 2 company names.

[Alan Baracco]

All fun stuff, nice to read on a cold morning (26 degrees F), I know, toasty compared to many of your locations back east but still cold for us CA sissies!!

[BILL HOERTER]

Thanks - You guys are great & I agree with Mark on Fulton ST - From the Fulton Street Market to all the other Fulton St businesses that I run across in looking for Fishing Reel Makers & Sellers it appears they did not have to go far to find the materials & parts they needed for their production. It looks like most of the early American salt water reel makers were located on Fulton at one time or another.

Thanks again - Bill

[Steve]

What a street Fulton street must have been!

Except for the Conroys, Crook, J J Brown, John Ingham, the Pritchard bros., Daniel Smock, Alfred Woodham, George Hinton, the vom Hofes, the Marsters bros., Eugene Mason, Gilbert & Marsters, Andrew French, George Gregory, Abbey & Imbrie, Ward Snyder, Matthias Horst, Richard Simpson, U S Net & Twine, American Net & Twine, and A G Spalding, hardly anyone sold sporting goods there.

[Mike N]

What a street Fulton street must have been!
Mark

This X10

[Paul M]

See page 67 of this Partnership Directory https://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101065143545

[Steve]

On another note...
1885:
1902:

[john elder]

Ray, i have probably the same Marsters catalog that was in the Mary Kelly collection and here guesstimate was 1911, which would be about where you put it. James F. marsters across the top and also noted as the Brooklyn address on the right. A G. C. marsters is noted one the left, located "between City Hall and Livingston Street 3 doors down from Borough Hall Subway Station".
Several pages of reels. Only one i see called out are Julius reels. A couple Meiss reels, shown without attribution. As Ray mentioned, several look to be Montague products. Names on "Marsters" reels include "The Royal Casting Reel", "The Expert Casting Reel", surf casting plus/minus free spool....in general, they overlay most offerings off the day.

[Steve]

1914:
This was actually true, James having died in 1906. George died a few months after this ad appeared, but the business was being run by George, Jr. Those catalogs were printed by the printing firm that had been established decades earlier by Silas Marsters, another brother.

[Alan Baracco]

Marsterites,

It is ALSO TRUE that Steve Vernon's grandfather was seen walking down Fulton Street in 1875 after buying some new gear!



Maybe Steve still has that rod & reel. I actually think Steve IS a Marster (on his mother's side) he knows so much about the family.

Seriously, I think I speak for all when I say that it a pleasure to have such an abundance of knowledge in he club.

Alan

[Steve]

...still has that rod & reel

Alan, I wish. But we still use one of his boots as an umbrella stand.