He was born on March 4, 1792 on Canonicut Island, Jamestown Township, Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. He was the son of Peleg and Anne (Dyer) Slocum. He was a descendant of Anthony Slocum (or Slocombe), one of the first purchasers of Cohannet, New Plymouth (later Taunton, Massachussets), in 1637.
After a rudimentary education, he learned the trade of carpentry.
For upwards of twenty years he was engaged in construction work in various parts of Rhode Island. He apparently accumulated in the course of these years quite a sum of money. Shortly he accepted the office of justice of the peace of Richmond. His movements after this are not clear.
Probably about 1823 he removed from Richmond to Bristol, but just what his occupation was there is not known. Some eight or ten years later he sailed with his family for England and for upwards of five years lived in London and in Newport on the Isle of Wight. Although up to this time he had given no indication of an interest or talent in invention, in 1835 he perfected and patented a machine to make wrought-iron nails, a machine for making pins with solid heads.
It is thought that, being unable to find a financial backer in England, he returned to the United States shortly after obtaining his pin-machine patent, and after establishing his residence in Providence, Rhode Island, sought a partner to engage in making pins for the market. At all events, the firm of Slocum and Jillson was a going concern in 1840 at Poughkeepsie, New York. Meanwhile the question of packaging pins held Slocum's attention, and on September 30, 1841, he obtained patent No. 2, 275 for a machine for sticking pins in paper.
Slocum and Jillson joined forces with John Ireland Howe, and from Slocum's pin-sticking machine and Howe's paper-crimping device evolved a sticking machine superior to that of their competitor, Fowler Brothers of Northford, Connecticut. The latter, however, had the better pin-making machine, and in 1842 this organization was purchased by Brown and Elton of Waterbury, Connecticut, who subsequently purchased a third interest in Slocum and Jillson's works and acquired control of Howe's paper crimper as well.
Slocum continued operating his plant at Poughkeepsie for the succeeding four years, however, and then sold out to the newly established American Pin Company. This company retained Slocum for some years, and he secured an extension and reissue of his patented machine for sticking pins on paper, October 1 and December 4, 1855. About this time he retired to his native Rhode Island and lived first in Smithfield, and last in Pawtucket, where he died.
Samuel Slocum perfected and patented a machine to make wrought-iron nails, devised and patented a machine for making pins with solid heads. His firm Slocum and Jillson was one of the two pin-making companies in the United States, obtained patent for a machine for sticking pins in paper, which is often believed to be the first stapler.
He married in 1817 to Susan Stanton in Richmond, Washington County. He had three children, Samuel Dyer Slocum, Mary Slocum, and John Stanton Slocum.
