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Documented in 1838 — a single-mention firm
Founded: No founding record has been found. The firm is documented once, by an eyewitness: John W. Dawson, who arrived in Fort Wayne on 6 March 1838, describing the town as he saw it that year in his Charcoal Sketches (Fort Wayne Daily Sentinel, 15 March 1872). Walking Columbia Street at Calhoun, he records: "On the opposite side of the street were the tannery of Paige & Fry, the 'Franklin House,' kept by Mills & Taylor, and the residence of Francis Comparet, the spot where the American House now stands."
What it did: A tannery — tanning hides into leather, a foundation trade in a town whose commerce still ran on animal power and leather goods.
Course and fate: Nothing further is documented in the sources searched: no later directory listing, advertisement or second history mention of Paige & Fry has been found. The firm stands in this record exactly as Dawson left it — operating on Columbia Street in 1838, across from the stores at Calhoun.
Sources:
- John W. Dawson, Charcoal Sketches of Old Times in Fort Wayne, No. IV, Fort Wayne Daily Sentinel, 15 March 1872 (reprinted by the Allen County–Fort Wayne Historical Society, 1959) — the 1838 description.