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 Ferree Company Wallets 
Many Niagara County residents depend on Social Security to meet their retirement needs. This was not always the case, as the government program got its start in 1935 under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. There is an interesting story concerning the beginning of Social Security and how it played out with a local company, The E. H. Ferree Company of Lockport. (The Ferree building is one of the four remaining 19th century structures on Richmond Street, now Canal Street.) When Social Security was new, the federal government was tasked with the responsibility to sign-up millions of eligible Americans for this new social program. To make it easier, federal agents visited businesses and gave Social Security cards and numbers to the employees of every business. As a result, all of the co-workers at the Ferree Company in the 1930s had the distinction of having completely consecutive Social Security numbers when the program began. Ferree Company president, Douglas Patterson, decided that his company’s leather goods business would be greatly enhanced if they showed customers how a Social Security Card would fit in their new wallet. So, they included a sample Social Security card with every wallet they produced. The specimen card included the name of Patterson’s secretary, Hilda Whitcher, and the number 078-05-1120. The card was slightly smaller than normal, but because the concept of the cards was so new, many Americans who purchased a Ferree Company wallet thought they had indeed received their own Social Security number. Ferree sold the wallets to Woolworth’s and other department stores and in 1943 alone, 5,755 people began using Hilda’s number as their own. In a day and age before computer tracking of tax returns and income statements, the government was having a hard time figuring out how to correct these mistakes. Before the problem was completely solved, over 40,000 people had reported income using Hilda’s Social Security number. As late as 1977, twelve people were still trying to use the Ferree Company card number as their own. Douglas Farley, Director Ann Marie Linnabery Erie Canal Discover Center 24 Church St. Lockport NY 14094 716.439.0431 CanalDiscovery@aol.com www.NiagaraHistory.org |