Toy Town Toymaking Industry

It was almost an accident on how Winchendon “Toy Town” became the Toy Capital of America.

Mr. Morton Converse was born in a small country town of Rindge, NH. After he served in the Union Army during the Civil War he settled down with his family in Winchendon. He started to make some small furniture since he very much enjoyed woodworking. He then started making collar boxes. These were small round wooden boxes used to store men’s paper and cloth collars in. Years ago men wore paper collars attached to their shirts

Then one day in 1878, Morton Converse’s young daughter became very ill. Toys were very scarce during those toys. Very few manufactured toys were made in America. Most toys were made in Germany and other countries. Toys could only be bought through catalogs, which were too expensive for most people to purchase. Converse could not afford to purchase a toy for his daughter. So he found a piece of wood and whittled and whittled with his pocketknife all night long for his daughter so she would be happy and maybe help her overcome her illness.

He carved a set of miniature wooden toy dishes. He then had taken an empty round wooden collar box and added little turned legs, making it a miniature tea table to accompany the miniature toy dishes. I am sure he was filled with joy when he saw how his little girl’s eyes lit up, and his daughter overcame her illness.

Mr. Morton Converse was a very creative man who had a deep love for children and wanted to share these new toys and ideas with others. At the factory he started to add little turned legs on the collar boxes and put miniature wooden toy dishes inside the collar boxes bought by their parents. The fancy collar boxes with the toys inside, was a big hit. The boxes became a big seller and his company grew and grew. That is how Converse started making toys.

He wanted to do more for the children and soon expanded his toy making industry. He made sure the toys had to be inexpensive and of top quality so they could be affordable to all.  Converse devoted his life to studying the needs and desires of youngsters at play. He named his company “Converse Toy & Woodware Company” and it grew very large. Converse became wealthy and built a large Red House for his family that even had a bowling alley in it with beautiful Italian Gardens in the back along the riverbanks. Morton was also very generous in donating to beautify the town and to the schools for the children.

In 1893, Converse entered the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Converse received a medal and diploma for being the finest toymaker in the world! Winchendon soon became the toy capital of America and was eventually nicknamed “Toy Town”.

Converse had over one thousand people working for him over four acres of floor space being used to make only the toys. His factory made, miniature toy dishes, stamped blocks, wooden dolls, doll furniture, dollhouses, drums, trunks, blackboards, Noah Arks and farms with animals, pianos and rocking horses. The rocking horses were a gigantic hit! Then at a later date, steel trains, mechanical toys, boats, trolleys, horse and carriages. There were about 250 different kinds of toys.

In 1912, Converse and his son purchased the Wyman Farm. In 1912 he reconstructed the old farmhouse and opened the Toy Town Tavern overlooking Lake Watatic. Many famous people and celebrities stayed at the tavern. The great inventor, Thomas Edison, Norman Rockwell and his wife, Joseph Kennedy and his family and President Taft enjoyed many weekends at the tavern. The Toy Town Tavern was a year-round resort that offered golf, tennis, horseback riding, skating, snow-shoeing and tobogganing. In 1917 the tavern’s ski jump was reported to be the longest east of St. Paul, Minnesota.

The B&M railroad once went through our town. Converse purchased wood from lumber camps in Vermont. More than three million feet of lumber was used each year in making the toys. Two hundred carloads of lumber were used in the construction of just the packing cases.

Morton Converse created a twelve-foot Grey handsome hobbyhorse “Clyde” to be the town’s dominant landmark.  It took nine large pine trees which is 3,200 feet of two inch pine nailed together. This horse was a copy of the popular toy No. 12 rocking horse.

In 1914, Clyde was in a float parade to celebrate the town’s 150th anniversary. After the parade Clyde was placed next to the railroad station where it remained for the next two decades, greeting travelers as they passed through town. In 1934 they moved Clyde to the edge of the Toy Town Tavern property. The horse remained there for the next thirty years while children continued to climb up its sturdy sides and mount the steed as parents captured the scene with their cameras.

This beloved hobbyhorse was eventually retired into storage. Clyde had fallen into disrepair from ravages of time.

In 1988, a new twelve-foot hobbyhorse was sculptured using the original as a model and using modern technology to keep it waterproof to last for many more decades. Today the 3000-pound horse is permanently displayed in a lighted covered pavilion on Route 12. For many years to come, it will continue to be a reminder of the town’s heritage and of Mr. Morton Converse and his great love for his town and the children all over the world.

If anyone has any antique toys or any Converse toys and would like to donate them to the town to put into our museum for display, please call our Historical Society. We would be very grateful to receive them as part of our collection.