You’re welcome Chris and good luck with the research. Do keep us posted and I’m sure that ‘Token Catalog’ would appreciate pictures of your token with an attribution, if you are able to track it down.
There are lots of possibilities and this one is a bit of a hunch. There was a business called “
Well’s Whip Factory” in York (about 20 miles from Dillsburg) and they moved location to Wellsville (about 8 miles from Dillsburg) in 1841. They changed name in 1859 though (so the token would have to be before that date) and then several times to ultimately become the Wells Whip Company.
From “The History of York County, Pennsylvania” by John Gibson [1886].
Well’s Whip Factory – This industry originated in York, in 1837, with McIntyre & Wells, Judge McIntyre and Abraham Wells forming the copartnership. In 1841 the factory was moved to Wellsville, the home of Abraham Wells, and John E. Wells became a partner. They also started a tannery. In 1859 a branch establishment was started at Pittsburgh. At this time William Riddle became a partner and the firm was changed to Wells, Riddle & Co. This partnership ceased in 1865. During the civil war this firm did an extensive business in making all kinds of whips for the general trade, and furnished the United States government with several large contracts of artillery whips and belts. Sixty of the employees at different times during the war entered the Union army. About this time, in the establishments at Wellsville and at Pittsburgh, 150 workmen were employed, and, on account of the scarcity of hands, boys from the House of Refuge of Western Pennsylvania were taken and trained to work in the whip factory.
When the business, in 1865, was discontinued at Pittsburg, the firm changed again to A. & J. E. Wells, and all the interests removed to Wellsville. Abraham Wells, the senior member of the firm, died in 1870, and the business was then continued by J. E. Wells & Co., with James Gowen Wells, a son of Abraham Wells, as a partner. In 1878 the Wells Whip Company was formed, under whose direction the present extensive business is conducted. Twelve traveling salesmen are regularly employed. The old building first used is still standing near by the new factory, which was erected in 1880. A fifteen horse-power engine, and a thirty horse-power boiler are used as a motive power to run the machinery. The new building is heated by steam. All kinds of whips now in use are made here, and a business of $100,000 annually is done. About forty employes, men and women, are at present (1885) at work in the home factory. The same firm, by a special contract with the legislature of New Jersey, have a leather whip factory in the State prison at Trenton, at which place about forty men are employed. Thirty or forty of the employes at the home factory, at different times, have been boys from Girard College, Philadelphia.
View attachment 2047714
