Simkins: The Great Sewing Machine Man

Julie Druker | Nov 11, 2015

The Simkins family, who were originally from Harrowsmith, are celebrating 150 plus years in the sewing machine business. The business's current owner, Eric Simkins, had a display of his machines, both modern and antique, at the Trinity Quilters’ Heritage show last month in Verona.

Eric is the third generation of Simkins in the family business of selling and repairing sewing machines and his display at the show included a history of the family business, which began with his grandfather, Miles Wesley (M. W.) Simkins, who was born in Harrowsmith and is buried in Sydenham.

One of M.W.’s sons was Ivon Simkins, Eric’s uncle, who was born in 1920 and passed away in 2004, and he was the one who wrote the family history that was on display.

The account says that at the age of 19, M.W. left the family farm located near Harrowsmith and headed for Kingston looking for “fame and fortune”. An ad in the British Whig newspaper from a Toronto firm needing a salesman in the Kingston area caught M.W.'s eye, so he paid the $1.50 fare and sailed in the hold of a Lake Ontario freight ship to Toronto to apply for the position.

He landed the job and was given a hand-operated sewing machine, likely an Abbott (see photo), as a demonstration model. It was his “convincing sales pitch of every household’s need for such a marvel in the home” that quickly made M.W. a very busy and prosperous man. He soon began buying and selling machines and became known as “The Great Sewing Machine Man”.

In 1866 he opened a store in Kingston on Montreal Street in Kingston, where he sold and repaired machines and as the city expanded to the west, he moved the store to 366 Princess Street. That same year he served in the militia and hired a trusted friend to run the business until he returned in 1867. Around that time he purchased a building lot in the village of Newburgh, and as his new business flourished he began building a home there complete with a showroom and repair shop.

The new 12-room home was completed in 1875 and M.W. married in 1870 but his first wife died in1889. As his business flourished M.W. quickly became a well-respected, trusted and prominent businessman in Newburgh and when a fire destroyed 30 buildings there in 1887, Simkins was one of the key rebuilders of the town.

His second marriage in 1898 produced four children, one daughter and three sons. The two eldest were Hubert and Vernon; the latter was Eric's father. The two brothers were both employed in the business for many years and both continued on when a stroke took their father in 1936, at the age of 93. Vernon continued to sell and repair machines in the village shop and in 1937 the brothers formed a partnership and purchased a grocery store in the village where they also sold and serviced sewing machines.

Twenty years later in 1957, the three sons split up and went their separate ways. The eldest son Hubert stayed on in the store in Newburgh while Vernon opened the first egg grading station in Kingston but also continued to repair sewing machines at his home.

Eric Simkins is continuing the family business in Kingston and has brought it into the 21st Century, selling the latest in Janome and Elna machines, which offer the latest features and range in price from $250 to $3,000.

Eric recalled working with his father as a young boy. “One of my first jobs when I was just nine or ten years old was working on the old treadle sewing machines. My job at that time (circa 1962) was to disassemble the bases of the old treadle machines, paint the iron stands and sand and varnish the wooden parts, then reassemble, clean and oil them and replace the old belts with new ones. I'd then put them outside and sell them for $15.”

Included in Eric's display at Trinity United Church last month was one of the earliest kinds of sewing machines, an Abbott sewing machine dating from around 1867. It is a compact, tabletop, hand cranked machine capable of only of a chain stitch and it took more than one pair of hands to operate. “The sewer would hold the fabric in place and usually the kids in the family would turn the wheel.”

Eric's grandfather M.W. began selling this kind of Abbott machine in 1863. Roughly 100 years later in 1957, Eric's father Vernon started selling the new electric Bernina sewing machines, which boasted a free-arm to get into sleeves and had zig-zag stitches.

Twenty-two years after that, in 1979, Janomes, the first computerized sewing machines, which are capable of roughly 500 kinds of stitches, were sold by Vernon's son Eric. Regarding the changes in machines in his family's era, Eric made a car analogy that seemed fitting. “The Abbott machine is like a model T Ford; the Bernina, a Mercedes Benz; and the Janome a self-driving Rolls Royce”.

For Eric, the business is second nature and it was after his father Vernon became ill that Eric decided to step in and take it over. “I knew it was the right decision because of the satisfaction I got doing the job.”

Simkins Sewing Machines is located at Unit #1-754 Baker Crescent in Kingston. Eric stocks numerous makes and models and well as parts and also does repairs. You can contact him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 613-546-6110 or 1-800-667-2164. Website: www.vbsimkinssewingmachines.com