A Business Built on a Rod
[img_assist|nid=191|title=Charles Orvis|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=200|height=250]The Orvis Company Turns 150 Years Old By Fredericka Templeton Celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, the Orvis Company is not only the oldest mail-order business in the country, it is one of a handful of American companies founded before the Civil War still in operation. But unlike companies such as Lord & Taylor and Brooks Brothers, which pre-date Orvis but were all long ago absorbed by large multinational corporations, Orvis has been owned by only three families, all of whom loved and lived the sporting life.
The name of Orvis has been synonymous with fly fishing since Charles Frederick Orvis established a business in 1856 to provide sporting fishermen with well-made and well-priced fly rods and tackle. Born in Manchester in 1831, Charles spent his childhood exploring the fields and streams of his idyllic mountain valley home. He learned how to fly fish on the Battenkill River, at the time one of the country’s best trout streams. In a collection of essays he published in 1883 titled Fishing with the Fly, Charles Orvis described his introduction to the “gentle art” of fishing with a fly:
“I remember well my first trout; I remember as well, the first fine rod and tackle I ever saw, and the genial old gentleman who handled them. I had thought I knew how to fish with the fly; but when I saw my old friend step into the stream and make a cast, I just wound that line of mine right around the ‘pole’ I had supposed was just right, and I followed an artist. (I never used that pole again.)”
Indeed, he went on to spend a lifetime building rods and perfecting tackle that were considered among the best in the world.
Charles and his elder brother Franklin were shrewd and hard-working businessmen who between them created a first-class resort in Manchester Village and rode the crest of a wave that brought thousands of travelers from the cities over newly laid railroad lines. Fortunately for Charles, his personal passion coincided with a tremendous increase in the number of sportsmen financially qualified to spend their leisure time exploring the great America wilderness, fly fishing rods in hand…….
