Fort Valley machine shop making custom parts since 1885

FORT VALLEY -- If you ask Steven Lindsey, owner of Anthoine Machine Works, when he started work at the company, he may not answer directly.

He’s likely to push through clutter on a desk in the company’s front office, through stacks of old papers, catalogs and ledgers until he finds the book he’s after. Then he’ll flip through pages with a grin on his face until he comes to the right one. Then he’ll turn it to you to make sense of.

It’s the page where an attractively handwritten entry says he was hired at Anthoine’s in 1973 at the age of 17. It includes his wage: $3.10 an hour.

It’s not that the book was saved as something special when Lindsey bought the business from Bob Anthoine in 1988. It’s just Lindsey has carried on the Anthoine tradition to -- as Lindsey puts it -- “Never throw anything away.”

For a business that started in 1885, that says something.

Though the statement may not be entirely true, it’s hard to argue once you’ve walked inside.

There are more than ledgers dating back over a century lying about, more than catalogs as diverse as heavy machine parts, and delicate fly fishing equipment. Amid the workspace where Lindsey, his son Steve, fellow machinist Dale Adams and office keeper Helen Shaw do their daily business, there are cabinets and stacks and piles of things like pristine, still-in-the-box Edison-Splitdorf Corp. spark plugs from the 1930s and still crated-for-shipment cast-iron drinking fountains from a time when, according to Lindsey, every town square had one.

There’s also the contraption he often pulls out to show customers and ask, “Do you know what this is? I don’t. No idea.”

But he knows what everything else is.

If Anthoine’s is in some way a museum, it’s a living museum. Today’s work is sitting waiting to be picked up after Shaw calls and tells customers it’s ready. It may be specially fit nuts and bolts fabricated for a piece of farm equipment that’s shut down operations until this part can be bolted back to that part or a bracket that the part number wore off of long ago that Lindsey, son Steve or Adams will have to match in a catalog or re-create themselves.

There’s PVC pipe that’s easy enough to order and hydraulic lines and fittings that can be put together from stock on hand, but there’s also raw metal waiting for a machinist to turn into the part an old generator needs that there’s no hope of ever finding in any catalog ever again.

It’s what’s been going on at Anthoine’s for 127 years.

Lindsey said when Henry C. Harris opened the shop, the railroad had already made Fort Valley a main stop and a huge freight depot had been built. Industry was growing to support farming, and a machine shop was needed to help keep them all going.

There are varying accounts as to just what happened when, but it seems soon after Harris opened the business in 1885 he sold it to J.W. Love. There’s a framed bill of sale saying Harris sold it to Love in 1888 for $800 at 8-percent interest. Lindsey said James W. Anthoine was Love’s son-in-law and managed the place before buying it. His son Tom took over from him and in 1967, Tom’s son Bob took over from him. Each man and their families are well known for contributions to Fort Valley’s history and progress.

Lindsey said he was working at his father’s machine shop in Florida when they were all hired to come to Fort Valley for a year to set up a canning operation. Lindsey decided to stay on and went to work at Anthoine’s. He said he worked for three years then got hired on at the Pabst brewery in Houston County but still helped at Anthoine’s with tough jobs.

He said he got a call in 1987 asking if he’d like to buy the business. He said yes and became the owner in 1988 -- 100 years after Love bought it.

“It was a good decision and I’m as proud of the company today as anyone ever has been,” Lindsey said.

Of course, with it came all that had been saved and the line shaft that runs the course of much of the ground floor of Anthoine’s and, through a system of belts, provides power for lathes, saws, grinders, presses, benders, shavers, sanders and other fabricating tools just like it did in 1923. That’s when Anthoine’s moved from its original facility on West Railroad Street to its current two-story, 80-by-100 foot building at the same address.

Back then it was powered by steam, today by electricity.

Lindsey said instructors bring students studying modern machinists’ methods and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) practices by the shop to see how things used to be done.

“The modern ways of doing things are a remarkable achievement,” he said. “But the deal is, we do one of a kind, we don’t do production. CNC is great for production but not always the best for a one-of-a-kind part. The customer probably couldn’t afford one special part made that way.”

Having run Anthoine’s himself for almost a quarter century, Lindsey said he feels he’s carrying on a tradition. It’s not just a tradition of hardly throwing anything away, but one of craftsmanship and service where customers are considered family and served fairly and promptly with the best effort possible.

“It’s up to each individual whether he’s going to be a true craftsman or not,” he said. “I like to do the best I can.”

And by the way, Lindsey said Anthoine is pronounced Ann-thorn. He also said anyone is welcome to have a look around the shop. Anyone, that is, except the junk/antique guys from the “American Pickers” TV show. He said for them, the answer is no. He’s not selling anything.

Contact Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.

This story was originally published June 5, 2012 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Fort Valley machine shop making custom parts since 1885."