James Kellogg of Amherst, Massachusetts, became a merchant on the east side of town in 1814. In 1835, he purchased a shop in South Amherst from Eli Dickinson, where he began manufacturing planes- woodworking tools used to either smooth or shape a board. His firm made both bench planes (used to smooth) and molders’ planes (used to create moldings, or boards with curved surfaces). Kellogg’s company was one of hundreds of small-town manufacturers in Western Massachusetts in the period. His company thrived and expanded and he added a second building, and eventually employed twenty men. Together with their families, they lived in a neighborhood known as “Kelloggville.” James Kellogg retired in 1867, living in his substantial home on Pleasant St., near today’s downtown post office and Kellogg St. His son William continued the business which produced, on average, 150 to 200 planes a day. The company suffered a fatal blow in 1866, when a dam on the pond where it was located was swept away. Without its main source of water-power, the company closed down.