When we first presented this page, little was known about the Sikes Chair Company.  Through email and photographs sent to us by readers, we are learning more every day. 

We now have catalog No. 18 and the corresponding price list (No. 45) from 1933.  We will be adding information from that catalog in future updates to this page.  This catalog does not contain data on every style or model of chair that was manufactured through the years, so we ask that you refrain from sending queries as to the value of your furniture.  Please see our page on this topic.  The price lists states, "All Patterns Not Shown In This List Have Been Discontinued." We encourage you to check back from time to time to see what new information has been posted from the catalog.

The following pages contain images, shared by our readers, of various pieces of Sikes furniture.

Introduction        Page 1      Page 2      Page 3      Page 4      Page 5      Page 6      Page 7      Page 8
Page 9      Page 10     Page 11     Page 12     Page 13     Page 14    Page 15     Page 16     Page 17

1859           Company Established,  Operated as S.D. Sikes & Brother for 15 years at 500 Clinton Street, Buffalo, NY.
1874           Company reorganized following death of S.D. Sikes -- Edwin Sikes became president of Sikes Chair Company.
1875           Buffalo Chair Company, a subsidiary of Edwin Sikes & Co, was founded.
1896-1919   William Henry Allen Leach was a stationary engineer with Sikes Chair Company.  He was a  N. A. S. E. member
                      of Sikes Chair Co., Employees Society, per great granddaughter Judy Wolf. (see page 8).
1904/06      Sikes Chair Company moved to Philadelphia, PA, and operated there for several years.
1916           Sikes Chair Company resumed operations in Buffalo, NY.
1919           Buffalo Chair Company went out of business.
1930           The Sikes Chair Company bought the Cutler Desk Company to become the Sikes-Cutler Desk Corporation.
1929/33      The Sikes Chair Company was bankrupted in the Great Depression.  By 1933, the economy was
                         entering a growth spurt and The Sikes Company continued the manufacture of fine furniture.
1933           Catalog No. 18 issued under the name The Sikes Company, 23rd Street and Passyunk Avenue,
                         Philadelphia, PA.
1933           Employee Clark Moore transfered from Philadelphia to Buffalo with the company.  He was
                         employed a total of 48 years with the company.
????            Undated Brochure for the 1749 and 1751 Lines -- Operating under the name
                         The Sikes Company, Inc., 500 Clinton Street, Buffalo, NY  -- A consolidation of 
                         The Sikes Co.(Formerly of 23rd Street and Passyunk Avenue, Philadelphia, PA),
                         Sikes-Cutler Desk Corp., and Sikes Chair Co.
1950-55      Jerry and Marion Lynch purchased 13 pieces of Sikes furniture (see page 4)
1955/6         Going out of business per correspondence with Howard Papke (see page 16)

The obituary of Edwin Sikes was published in a newspaper whose name and date was torn away.
The clipping contained a note on the edge that says, "Died Spring of 1910."

"Edwin Sikes, who died yesterday morning at his home, 573 West Ferry Street, had been for many years one of Buffalo's prominent business men.  He was President of the Sikes Chair Company.  Mr. Sikes was born in Somers, Conn., Jan. 19, 1825.  He came to Buffalo in 1860 to join his brother, Samuel D. Sikes, who had some time before established a chair factory on Clinton Street.   The business was conducted for fifteen years under the firm name of S. D. Sikes & Brother, and after the death of the elder brother Edwin Sikes succeeded to the management, reorganizing the company and becoming its president.  Mr. Sikes was elected a member of the board of directors of Citizens Bank in 1897, and continued as such until the time of his death.  For 24 years and until his retirement from most of the active affairs of the life a few years ago, he had been a trustee of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church.

On October 20, 1852, Mr. Sikes married Clarinda Colton Simons, of Longmeadow, Mass.  Mrs. Sikes died in 1867. Three children survive, William F. Sikes, Mrs. Henry L. Lyon, wife of the Deputy Water Commissioner, and Albert Sikes, all of this city.  Mr. Sikes married in 1869 Miss Louisa Sophia Colton, also of Longmeadow, who has survives him.  He leaves also one brother, Charles R. Sikes, of Ellington, Conn.  The funeral will take place tomorrow afternoon at 4 o'clock from the family home on West Ferry Street, and interment will be in the family lot at forest Lawn cemetery."

     
  I am Albert Dwight Sikes II, born May 23, 1918, and my father is Robert Mills Sikes (deceased 1952.) from Buffalo, NY.   My grandfather was Albert Dwight Sikes (deceased 1930) from Buffalo, NY.

As I recall, the original Sikes Chair Company was at first owned by these two and another Sikes brother whose name escapes me.  (Editor's Note:  From Edwin Sikes's obituary, we know the 3rd bother's name was Samuel D. Sikes.)  My grandfather bought out the other two brothers in the early 20th century. This factory was located at 500 Clinton St., in Buffalo, NY but around the early 20th century, it was moved for approximately 10-12 years to Philadelphia.  In 1916, it was then moved back to Buffalo, NY and in 1930 my grandfather bought the Cutler Desk Company and renamed the company Sikes-Cutler Desk Company.  Late in 1930 my father passed away, leaving the company to his wife, Lily Jean Sikes. 

Just as the big depression was about to strike,  my grandmother received an offer of two million dollars and a meeting was called to discuss the offer and those present were her three children.  Their names were Robert Mills Sikes, Edwina (Sikes) Gurney and  Margaret (Sikes) Prentice.  The preponderance of opinion was  to refuse the offer or two million and the belief was that the good name of the Sikes-Cutler Desk company could withstand the depression.  The depression honored no name nor status, and the Sikes-Cutler Desk Company went bankrupt with millions of others.    

My Maternal grandmother's  maiden name was Taylor.  Gordon B. Sikes is a distant cousin.  I have one Brother, Robert Stockton Sikes  from Vermont, who passed away just recently (2003).  He had two sons, named John Sikes and Peter Sikes. John lives in Vermont and I do not know where the other son lives.     My Sons and one daughter are Stephen Albert Dwight Sikes, Christopher (Kiffer) Lewis Sikes, Jonathan Sikes, and Marcia Sikes, Buffalo, NY.

Albert Dwight Sikes, II
Brevard, NC  28712
surfywings@hotmail.com

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