MOUNT VERNON — John Timms says he’s a dinosaur.
Although the 74-year-old Mount Vernon resident isn’t intimidating – or extinct – he is a rare species. Timms is a Fuller Brush Man.
Five days a week, the retired pastor works as a door-to-door salesman for the Fuller Brush Company. Every day, except Sundays and another day set aside for yard work, Timms visits homes in Knox, Richland and surrounding counties to sell kitchen and cleaning products.
He’ll park his vehicle along the road and walk sometimes four or five streets away, stopping at each doorstep. In one hand, Timms carries a briefcase with all sorts of gadgets protruding out of the top. In the other, he brings his “right-hand man,” a bright red, lightweight sweeper.
“I’m really sold on that little sweeper. It’ll pick up toast crumbs; it’ll pick up pet hair; it’ll pick up grass shavings where people tracked them in; it’ll pick up little pebbles. Actually, it’ll pick up anything a big sweeper will, and it’s quick and efficient,” Timms said.
When people open their door, Timms is quick to deliver his pitch.
“In just a matter of seconds, they make up their mind about you, and if you look halfway decent they might decide to let you in and talk to you,” he explained. “They have that window of time, so to speak, when they decide if they want to talk to you or run you off.”
On one recent afternoon in Mansfield, Timms wore a blue dress shirt paired with plaid tie and tan suit jacket. His pants had a crease down the middle, clearly ironed. He donned a pair of polished black dress shoes with rubber taps secured to the soles to keep them from wearing thin.
“No one wears these anymore,” he laughed, pointing to his feet.
This was the first of several times Timms called himself a dinosaur; he’d later repeat the comparison when talking about his career.
Timms doesn’t know of any other Fuller Brush Men in this part of Ohio. In the United States, he’s one of four individuals with more than 55 years of service to the Fuller Brush Company and one of 50 with more than 10 years of service. In Ohio, he’s listed as one of four individuals with more than 10 years of service.
But at one time, nearly every household in the United States had its own “Fuller Brush Man.”
Now headquartered in Napa, California, the Fuller Brush Company was founded in 1906 in Boston by Alfred Fuller, who made brushes by night and sold them by day. His business quickly grew to include thousands of door-to-door salesmen, who sold the Fuller products across the entire country.
“Through the years, The Fuller Brush company has grown from one man’s fiber suitcase, filled with unique, custom-made brushes to an exciting collection of home and personal care products, all crafted with the same quality and precision that made the Fuller Brush Company a name welcomed everywhere,” Timms said, reciting the company’s history like he’s reading from a book.
He started selling for the Fuller Brush Company in 1962, when his cousin and former sergeant in the United States Army, Robert Miller, recruited him for the role and served as his trainer.
“I’ve always been a shy person. They told him, it couldn’t be done, but that made him even more determined,” Timms said, admitting that he too was surprised at his own success.
Timms has worked at General Motors and Westinghouse in Mansfield, served as a pastor and moved from Mansfield to Mount Vernon. But through it all, he continued to “moonlight” with Fuller Brush.
The key to sales, he says, is to create interest in a product. He says it’s important to show customers how a product can impact them, which is something that long-time customer and Mansfield resident Carol Kirkbride appreciates.
“It’s always nice because he shows you everything, and how to use it,” she said after flipping through a Fuller Brush Company catalog and seeing many of the products in action.
Kirkbride was working outside when Timms stopped by her house recently, but she stopped when seeing Timms, immediately inviting him inside.
She cleared off a space at the dining-room table, but Timms didn’t sit down; he was already in action. He showed her a dryer vent brush, a paring knife that never needs sharpened, cotton-tipped brushes and a wide array of other products.
“I’ll give you a sample of my witch hazel lotion, if I can,” Timms said, holding up a bottle.
“I like to give it to everyone in the house. Where’s the dog?” he laughed, before getting back to the pitch. “This is good for sprains, bruises, aching muscles, good for dry-skin problems, sunburn and windburn – and it’s not real greasy.”
This peaked Kirkbride’s interest.
“I know, when I put some lotions on my hands, I can’t read a book. I can’t turn the pages, and I have to wait until it all absorbs,” she said.
She bought it and the cotton-tipped brushes, which Timms says are perfect for cleaning jars.
As he talks about the Fuller Brush products, it’s clear that Timms believes in the products.
“To be honest about things, many of my customers have been the ones to sell me on the product,” he said. “They will show me brushes, brooms and mops they purchased 50 or 60 years ago.”
Timms recalls meeting a Butler resident who used the same Fuller Brush fiber broom for decades. When Timms spotted it leaning near the front door, he hoped to replace it, but the customer didn’t see the need.
“He told me he had used it on his farm for 50 years, and he still wanted to get some use out of it,” the salesman said.
Another customer, a 95-year-old man in Mount Gilead, once showed Timms two brushes bought in 1941. And yet another in Marion, Ohio, uses two Fuller Brush dust mops, inherited through a will.
Timms says his customers are the reason he likes his job so much. He never intends to give up being a Fuller Brush Man.
“I really like people and I like to be around people, and they treat me pretty nice too in return,” he said. “Many of the customers will buy every time I come by. They’re really just wonderful people; they really treat me well.”
