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Dorothy Copus Brush The Merrimack story is an amazing one The Merrimack Canoe Company came to Crossville
in 1972. It was a family business where the understanding of
and the skills to build canoes had been handed down from L.H.
Beach to his son, Lem. When Lem married Doris Cox Pew, a native of
Creston, TN, he gained a 10-year-old son, Randy Pew. Although
technically Lem was his stepfather, Randy says, "To me he
is my dad." Randy was born in New Hampshire where his mother
had lived since the 1930s when she went there with her first
husband. Lem had returned to canoe building after serving
20 years in the Navy. By that time fiberglass had undergone improvements
and was much thinner. Lem introduced the Merrimack canoe, named
for the New Hampshire town where he lived and for the river of
the same name which runs through the center of the town. Randy
was brought into the business when he was 15 years old and became
the third generation of canoe builders. After serving a year and a half in the Army,
Randy settled in Crossville and joined the company full time.
Business was good, and 60 dealers around the country carried
the Merrimack line of canoes. In 1996, an order was received
from Japan for 80 canoes. The large order kept the workers busy
all winter, but in January the order was canceled because of
Japan's faltering economy. That was a hard blow. Eventually all the canoes
were sold, but Randy said, "I had been in the business for
31 years, ever since I was 15, and I was tired. Tired of being
a boss, tired of employee problems, tired of spending so much
time on the road going to shows and calling on dealers."
In September 1999, Randy closed the business and put it on the
market. In late summer the next year, Scott Hale visited
him. Scott had been an outstanding employee before he left to
serve time in the Navy, and then when he returned he went to
college to study organic gardening. He told Randy he had not
found anything as satisfying as building canoes, and he urged
his old boss to open the company again. Scott offered to work
out a financial plan. The completed report covered everything down
to the last penny and Randy felt reinvigorated and ready to open
the business. Financial backers agreed and on Dec. 1, 2000 the
Obed River Canoe Works opened. The name will revert back to Merrimack
once all the legal points are taken care of. Another former top employee, Canadian Erin
Roth, had been trying for four years to gain permanent residence
in the United States, and he was granted that status just in
time to become the third member of the canoe-making team. The output is one canoe a day, 250 a year
with two weeks' vacation. Each canoe goes through seven stages,
one process each day until it is complete on the seventh day.
Dad Lem is retired, but he works several hours each day on wood
parts. Dealers have been pared down to 15, and they were all
thrilled that the business is back. All other sales are retail,
and through a Web page they receive orders from around the globe
-- Brazil, Greece, Istanbul. Of the six handcrafted models available, each
carries the Merrimack logo, and each is signed and numbered on
the floor of the canoe. That these quality canoes were built
to serve for years is evidenced by a group of canoes sold to
Camp McConnell 28 years ago. As the team has time they are restoring
these canoes. Randy and his wife Susan, owner of the Art & Frame Shop, have one child, a daughter Rachel. In July she made them proud grandparents to a baby grandson. Perhaps, some day he too will become part of the family tradition as a master canoe builder. |