Background
Laroy was born on April 25, 1836 on his father's farm at China, Maine, United States, one of the twelve children of Daniel D. and Anna (Crummett) Starrett, both of Scotch ancestry.
Laroy was born on April 25, 1836 on his father's farm at China, Maine, United States, one of the twelve children of Daniel D. and Anna (Crummett) Starrett, both of Scotch ancestry.
He worked on the farm in his youth, attended public school during the winter months, and developed a marked interest in mechanics.
When Starrett was seventeen years old he went to work on a stock farm at Vassalboro, Maine, and later on a dairy farm at Newburyport, Massachussets, to help support the family. After about eight years he acquired for himself a six-hundred acre stock farm in Newburyport, which he operated for four years.
He tried his hand at invention during this time and devised among other things a meat chopper, for which he was granted patent No. 47, 875 on May 23, 1865. Shortly after obtaining the patent he made an arrangement with the Athol Machine Company, Athol, Massachussets, to manufacture his chopper while he undertook its sale in Maine.
His success was so great that three years later he sold his farm, moved to Athol, purchased a controlling interest in the manufacturing company, and reorganized it for the special purpose of manufacturing his meat chopper, as well as a washing machine and a butter worker which he had patented in 1865 (patents No. 48, 458 and 49, 953).
In the period of more than ten years in which he served as superintendent of the Athol Machine Company, he invented a number of hand tools useful in the building trades. The first of these was a combination square which contained a steel rule, graduated into small parts of an inch on both sides, with a sliding head capable of being moved along the rule or detached entirely from it; with the aid of the head it could be used as a square or mitre, as a bevel, and as a plumb bob. Shortly after patenting this (May 6, 1879), he established a business of his own on a small scale to manufacture it, and experienced slow but positive success.
During the eighties he devised and patented a center trysquare, a surface gauge, a bevelling instrument, a micrometer caliper square, and a new type of dividers, manufacturing each as it was patented. Since the products were marketed and sold in increasing numbers, he was obliged to enlarge his plant a number of times.
By 1906 he was employing about one thousand people in a great general manufacturing plant in Athol and in a caliper manufacturing plant at Springfield, Massachussets. He manufactured steel rules in a large variety of styles, and in both English and metric graduations; many different styles of squares; almost two hundred varieties of calipers and dividers; and such articles as bevels, surface and depth gauges, levels, steel tapes, plumb bobs, hacksaw frames and blades, as well as a number of unique precision instruments.
He died at his winter home in St. Petersburg, Florida on April 23, 1922.
His whole life was centered in his business and in the Methodist Church, his outstanding contribution to the latter being the gift of a new parsonage, a pipe organ, and a church building in Athol.
He married Lydia W. Bartlett of Newburyport, Massachussets, on April 20, 1861. At the time of his death at his winter home in St. Petersburg, Florida, he was survived by four children.