When this unusual c.1907 farm implement catalog for McWhorter Mfg. Co. in Riverton, NJ with a purple cover and green text surfaced on eBay I bid for it even though I had no clue where such a factory would have stood.
With having a saved search on eBay for “Riverton, NJ” for some time, I had already seen small ads for sale from periodicals like this one:
HSR Board member Roger Prichard joined the search and found this obit in The New Era for F.S. McWhorter, the president of the company, who once lived at Eighth and Lippincott and…
…another ad for a grass edger made by Allen McWhorter (presumably a son or other relative) indicating a 420 Lippincott address.
However, both of those residential neighborhood addresses seemed like an unlikely place for a manufacturer of farm and garden implements.
While I was stumped on the location, Roger kept digging and found the plant in East Riverton, as shown on Sheet 14 of this 1919 Sanborn Insurance Map for Riverton.
View the entire 28-page catalog here: McWhorter Special Farm and Garden Implements Catalog c.1907
If any century-old McWhorter manufactured items are still around, please send us a photo. -JMc