USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > Paterson, New Jersey : its advantages for manufacturing and residence: its industries, prominent men, banks, schools, churches, etc. > Part 18
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went about and by indefatigable industry got orders for all sorts of engines and machinery whereby he was enabled to give employment to a goodly number of men. Any- thing and everything that came along and promised work was confidently taken in hand. For instance, there was a large order for the Baxter marine engine, at a time when that engine was expected to revolutionize the system of navigation on the Erie canal. Since then large numbers of these engines have been turned out for use on steam launches, yachts, tugs and freighting vessels of every size. They are from two to forty horse-power and sell at from $420 to $2,350. Mr. Todd has also become the owner of the patent Baxter portable engine, of which he has manu- factured many hundreds. These little engines are from one to four horse-power and sell for $150 to $350. They are much used in printing offices, in running sewing machines and wherever a small power only is needed. One of them will run a press for ten hours and with the consumption of half a bushel of coal. It is no wonder they are popular. One of them occupies only about as much room as a large base-burning stove. Mr. Todd still builds steam engines of all kinds and sizes, not confining himself by any means to these small portable engines. Ile also makes flax, hemp, jute, rope, oakum and silk machinery, which finds its way to all parts of the workl. He built the first silk machinery used by James Walthall, by John C. Benson, by Hamil & Booth, and others. While some of the imported foremen in flax and hemp mills in America declare that there is no machinery equal to that made in the "old country" and consequently dis- courage the use of American machinery, on the other hand there are at least a dozen of the leading flax, jute and hemp mills in England and Scotland which are equipped with machinery built at the Todd works in Pat- erson. This is a significant commentary on the unreason- ing prejudice too often evinced by the imported foremen and superintendents who are disposed to see nothing good that does not come from abroad. In Russia the native hemp is separated and spun by machinery invented and built by Mr. Todd, and his machines have found their way even to China and Australia, while for forty years the products of this concern liave been familiar in Mexico, South America and Canada, as well as throughout the United States, wherever flax and hemp machinery is used. Rope machinery of all kinds is made, including machinery for making ropes out of sisal, a species of hemp from Mexico. Mr. Todd has filled orders to the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars for machinery to make twine to be used on patent harvesters in tying up the grain with twine instead of wire. A spinning jenny with a fine flyer twists the twine and runs it off on the bobbins. from which it is wound off into balls eight inches in diam- eter, and these are attached to the harvesters by machinery which draws out the twine and binds the grain and ties a knot as neatly as the most experienced hand could do. The works comprise a brick building, three stories high, 1TOx45 feet, with extension 40x75 feet, the first story being
used for engine-building and turning, and the second and third for fitting, carpenter work, &c. ; a frame machine shop, 130x30x50 feet, part of it one story and part of it two and a half stories high ; a brick foundry, 35x120 feet ; besides a pattern shop. a mill wright shop, carpenter shop, &c. Mr. Todd's store in New York is at No. 36 Dey street.
JOSEPHI C. TODD was born in Bridgewater Township, Somerset County, N. J., March 2. 1817. His father, John I. Todd, engaged in agricultural pursuits during his life in that locality, was a man of character and standing, and one of the lay judges of the county for several years. His mother, whose maiden name was Ann Castner, was born near Somerville, N. J. Seven children were born of the marriage, viz. :- Stephen ; Catherine, who married Lewis Harrison, of Somerville ; Joseph C., James, John A., Augustus, and Rachel Ann, wife of John Van Nos- trand, of Romulus, N. Y. Stephen resides at Dunellen, N. J., where he is a large property owner ; James has been successfully engaged in the dry goods business in New York city for many years; John A. is a minister of the Dutch Reformed denomination and pastor of the church at Tarrytown, N. Y. ; Augustus is also a minister of that denomination and pastor of the church at Schoha- rie, N. Y.
The early years of Joseph C. Todd's life were passed in his native county where he received a good common school education. At the age of sixteen he left home in order to learn the trade of carpenter with his uncle, James Castner of Somerville, where he remained three years. He then went to New York city, where he worked at his trade as journeyman for a few months, and when nineteen years of age came to Paterson, where he worked in the employ of David Reed for a short time, laboring, among other things, on the Cross street M. E. Church. Soon af- ter he secured employment in the machine shop of God- win, Clark & Co., where he remained about a year and meantime learned how to make patterns for machinery. He next entered the machine shop of Rogers. Ketchum & Grosvenor and was there employed when the first locomo- tive engine, the "Sandusky," was built in 1836-37. IIc at first made the wooden frames to put around locomotives but when William Swinburne was promoted to the super- intendency, succeeded him as pattern maker and worked in that department in connection with Watts Cooke and John Cooke. He remained in that position for four or five years at a dollar a day compensation and then estab- lished a sash and blind manufactory, which he soon gave up. He next occupied the position of head patternmaker in the Oldham machine shops for a few years and while there devised the first successful hemp spinning machine that was ever built, making several improvements in the original plan of construction. He has since made a spec- ialty of manufacturing hemp and flax machinery and has ta- ken out several different patents on them in this country and in Europe, the latest on May 15, ISSO. In 1844, in company with Daniel Mackey, he engaged in the manufacture of
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hemp and flax machinery in the James Nightingale mill. on the lower raceway, and met with so much success that two years later they were compelled to seek more commo- dious rooms in the Bradley mill, which stood on the pres- ent site of the Machinists' Association building. Three years later, needing both more capital and more room to meet the demands of their rapidly increasing business, Philip Rafferty was admitted to the concern, and in IS50 the firm ot Todd, Mackey & Co. was organized. The new firm at once purchased of the estate of Daniel S. Holsman the property on the lower raceway that has since been occupied by the extensive machine shops of the con- cern, and commenced the manufacture of machinery on a large scale. In 1855 Mr. Mackey withdrew and the enter- prise was carried on under the name of Todd & Rafferty, until April, 1872, when it became the Todd & Rafferty Machine Company, with Mr. Todd as president and Mr. Rafferty as treasurer. The latter died on July 30, 1872, and the business has since been conducted by Mr. Todd alone. Upon securing the present location in 1850, the concern began the manufacture of steam engines and grad- ually ran into the making of flax, hemp, silk, jute and bag- ging machinery of different kinds. The products of the works have been sold all over the world, and the machin- ery for not less than a dozen factories in England and Scotland has been designed, built and put up by the con- cern. Mr. Todd has been the mechanic of the enterprise throughout the entire term of its existence, and his skill and ability in that direction have contributed very largely to its success. He has visited Europe three times on bus- iness for the firm in 1859, 1860, 1862 and 1863. Besides being engaged in the making of machinery he has also been actively connected with other manufacturing enter- prises in which he has achieved great success. For eight- een years he has been engaged in the manufacture of jute bagging for covering cotton, on the corner of Taylor and Jackson streets. New mills were erected in 1873 and the capacity of the works is six thousand yards of bagging a day, about ninety men being employed. Mr. Todd is also chief owner of a silver mine in Colorado and the sole owner of the Davenport Consolidated Mining and Smelt- ing Company of Mineral City in that state.
He has never been a public man or engaged in political matters, although he was city treasurer of Paterson for three or four years, at the same time filling the position of Alderman from the Sixth Ward. He has been a large stockholder in the Mechanics and Traders' (now First Na- tional) Bank of Jersey City from the time of its organiza- tion. He was married in 1836 to Miss Emeline Bogar- dus, of Paterson, and has two daughters, Harriet and An- na Todd.
THE RIVERSIDE BRIDGE AND IRON WORKS .- The Riverside Bridge and Iron Works were established about 10 years ago, by Mr. Charles O. Brown, and he has been at the head of that establishment ever since. He was born and educated in Germany, and commenced his career as Civil Engineer in 1872, on the Fourth avenue improve-
ment in New York city. In IS73. he was admitted to mem- bership in the American Society of Civil Engineers. and has been identified with the designing and manufacturing of structural iron since that time.
The immediate cause of the establishing of the works was his three years' trip to South America, whence he re- turned with numerous orders. The works which were es- tablished on a small scale, covering only eight city lots, to fill these orders. were extended, and they include at present the block bounded by Lyon, East 5th, Putnam and Wait streets. thus covering 29 city lots, the property of the present company. They adjoin the Erie Railroad and a switch runs into the works. The latter circumstance enables them to manufacture very large girders and other heavy pieces of iron work which are placed directly upon the cars of the Erie Railroad.
This establishment on account of long experience and practical engineering knowledge has been constantly im- proving, particularly the construction of fire-proof build- ings in New York city, and has thus been instrumental in changing the style of construction during the last ten years. While before that time a girder thirty feet long was consid- ered a heavy piece of iron to put into a building. the put- ting in of girders one hundred feet long, made. shipped and erected in one piece. is at present not extraordinary at all.
In ISSS the proprietor deemed it advisable to transform the business into a company, of which he himself is now president, with Mr. G. Planten, treasurer, and Mr. W. G. A. Millar secretary. A branch office is established at IS Broad- way. New York city.
A large number of iron structures have been erected in that city and Brooklyn by the company. At this moment for instance, they furnish the iron work for the large store- age and warehouse in course of erection on the corner of 43d street and Lexington avenue, N. Y., and for the so- called Wechsler building, in Brooklyn, at Fulton and Duf- field streets, besides numerous other works in the above cities.
But, as has been said before, the company's field of labor is not restricted to the United States, and in South America the name of the Riverside Bridge and Iron Works is cred- itably connected with the erection of many bridges, tele- graph towers, piers, etc.
The average number of hands in the shop and outside is two hundred, turning out 20,000,000 pounds of manu- factured iron per year.
The company manufactures not only railway and high- way bridges, but also structural and ornamental iron work of all descriptions for buildings, iron awnings. balconies, beams, capitals, columns, cornices, domes, doors, fire escapes, fronts, girders, lintels, patent lights, roofs, railings, rolling and folding shutters, side-walk, elevators, sills, sky-lights, stairs, stoops, window guards, etc.
Space does not allow to give a complete list of all the im- portant buildings and bridges made by this company, but among them are the following :
Bridges-The new iron bridges for the Rochester Di-
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vision and Jefferson branch of the N. Y., L. E. & W. R. R .: Hackensack draw, Erie R. R. ; Passaic Falls ; Clay Street Bridge. Newark, N. J. : Float bridges, piers 7 and S, Long Dock. Jersey City ; Float bridge, Lehigh Val- ley ; float bridge for the Standard Oil Company, besides a number of Highway bridges in New Jersey and elsewhere.
Buildings, etc .- Liverpool, London and Globe Build- ing, Newark. N. J. ; Zinsser buildings in Washington and Beach street, and William street, New York ; Arion build- ing, New York ; Erie R. R. Ferry shed, Jersey City ; Building of Smith. Gray & Co .. Brooklyn ; Manhattan Storage and Warehouse, 42d street and Lexington avenue ; Grand stand and club house, and saddling paddocks, Mor- ris Park, etc., etc. Freight sheds for Pacific Mail Steam- ship Company, at Aspinwall; Passenger stations Panama R. R. at Colon and Panama, etc., etc.
THE PIONEER SILK COMPANY .- Mr. John Ryle bore the same relations to the silk industry of this country that Mr. Thomas Rogers bore to the locomotive industry ; it would be impossible to give even a meagre account of the silk industry without dwelling to a greater or less extent on the work of John Ryle, without referring to his indefati- gable exertions or admiring the zeal and energy with which he laid the foundations of an industry which has brought fame and fortune to Paterson. The indirect heri- tage of Paterson from Mr. Ryle consists of thousands of looms and scores of mills ; the direct heritage consists of the Pioneer Silk Company and the Passaic Water Company ; his connection with the latter is ably told on other pages by one of his co-laborers; the subject of this sketch is his connection with the silk industry.
When Mr. Ryle first came to this country he went to Northampton, Mass., where he worked on a ribbon loom in the employ of Samuel Whitmarsh, who had begun the manufacture of silk on a very small scale. After spend- ing a few months he went to New York where he estab- lished the silk importing business in a small way on the corner of Maiden Lane and William street. His brothers in England furnished him with his stock in trade, consist- ing of silk handkerchiefs. Ile continued in this business but a few months when he became acquainted with George W. Murray, with whom he was afterwards associated for years. Mr. Murray contemplated establishing the silk business in Paterson and at his solicitation Mr. Ryle visited that city for the purpose of examining the old "Gun Mill" of Samuel Colt with a view to its appropriation for the uses of silk manufacture. Up to this time no silk had been manu- factured in Paterson, although Christopher Colt had made the attempt without satisfactory results. This was the foundation of the silk industry of Paterson, and, in fact, in the United States, for until Mr. Ryle bent his energies in that direction none but abortive attempts had been made to manufacture silk in this country. Mr. Murray purchased the mill at Mr. Ryle's advice and at once started the man- facture of silk, placing Mr. Ryle in full charge of the mill. Mr. Ryle was the first in this country to put silk on a spool. the successful experiment being due to a conference be-
tween him and Elias Howe, the inventor of the Howe sew- ing machine. This enabled Mr. Howe to overcome one of the chief difficulties he had in perfecting his sewing ma- chine, a way to feed the silk thread to the needle. Mr. Ryle's machine twist was the first produced of its kind that could be successfully used on a sewing machine. This was the beginning of the spool silk business which has since attained such large proportions in this country. Three years after the purchase of the mills, Mr. Ryle was taken into partnership and the firm of Murray & Ryle did a flour- ishing business in the manufacture of sewing silk and twist until the year 1846. when Mr. Ryle purchased Mr. Murray's interest and continued the business alone. Mr. Ryle was ceaselessly experimenting for the improvement and develop- ment of the industry and was untiring in his efforts to get it properly recognized by Congress. As early as 1842 he began waiting on the sessions of that body to urge the mem- bers to sustain the infant manufacture by adequate protec- tion but it was twenty years before his views prevailed in Washington. He now began experimenting with power looms but his efforts did not succeed. The World's Fair coming to New York in 1852, he set about weaving an American flag of silk, and produced a magnificent banner about twenty by forty fect, which floated for many months over the Crystal Palace in New York. a never-failing ob- ject of admiration by patriotic Americans. It was the first time the national ensign had ever been produced from American silk looms. Of course Mr. Ryle received a medal and unbounded praise from the managers and from the public in general but it put little money in his pocket. In 1855, he began the erection of a new mill which he called after his old patron, the Murray mill. It was on Mill street, opposite Ward, was seventy-three by two hundred feet in area and two stories high. The mill was built for the purpose of making sewing silk by hand. Before the mill was finished there was held in it a great Republican meeting, the first in Paterson, which was addressed by Henry Wilson, afterwards Vice President of the United States. In 1856 Mr. Ryle was running both the Gun mill and the Murray mill; he occupied the two lower floors of the former besides a small shop by the river. Ile was then employing between five and six hun- dred hands and used twenty-five or thirty bales of raw silk weekly, a production that was not exceeded by any mill in Paterson for ten or fifteen years afterwards. About 1860 he began weaving once more on the second floor of the Murray mill and a year or two later removed from the Gun mill and concentrated all his business in the Murray mill. At this time the breaking out of the war had greatly injured the manufacture of silk and the production was now almost entirely used in the manufacture of fringes. The enactment of the protective tariff of 1862-64 and the high rate of exchange gave the American silk in- dustry an impetus which it had long needed and Mr. Ryle experienced the benefits in common with others. In 1868 he added a third story to his mill and enlarged his produc- tion, making trams and organzines, spun silks and em-
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broidery silks. No weaving was carried on in the enlarg- ed mill. Between four and five hundred hands were em- ployed. While thus embarked on the full tide of pros- perity a fire broke out in the mill on the afternoon of May roth, 1869, and within an hour the entire splendid struc- ture lay a smoking mass of ruins and $400.000 worth of property had been swept out of existence. There was not a dollar of insurance, so that Mr. Ryle's loss was total. It was enough to have crushed an ordinary man, but Mr. Ryle was not of that kind and without any delay he set about the erection of a new Murray mill. This was on a new plan, which has since been followed by a great many silk manufacturers. It was of brick, but only one-story high, lighted only from the roof by sky-lights with a north- ern exposure, the different rooms separated by solid brick partitions and many of the floors laid with bluestone flag- ging. The building covers an acre and a half of ground and is virtually fireproof, besides being far more conven- ient and much safer than if several stories high. Mr. Ryle organized the Ryle Silk Manufacturing Company but this was subsequently changed to the Pioneer Silk Company. The company manufactures all kinds of silk. does all its own throwing and dyeing and is one of the very few establishments where all the processes of silk manufacture are carried on under the same roof. After the death of Mr. Ryle a number of others were admitted as stockholders. The president and treasurer is William Ryle ; the vice president, l'eter Ryle : the superintendent of the Paterson mill is Thomas M. Ryle, and the superin- tendent of the Allentown (Pa. ) mill, an annex of the Pat- erson mill, is Reuben Ryle. Messrs. G. A. Hobart, J. W. Griggs, E. T. Bell, F. W. Wettlaufer and Fleitmann & Co. are stockholders. John Ryle, Jr., who had been a stockholder, died on August 30, 1886.
JOIN RYLE was born in the village of Bollington, near Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, on October 22. 1817. His father was a machinist by trade. Out of a family of seventeen children only five grew to years of maturity, namely, Reuben, William, John. Sarah and Peter. Reu- ben and William became prominent silk manufacturers of Macclesfield, England. Reuben was the father of John C. Ryle, at present extensively engaged in the silk manufacture in Paterson, and William of the late William Ryle. of this city. Peter also engaged in the manufacture of silk in Paterson and died there. In IS20 John Ryle's parents moved from Bollington to Mac- clesfield, where his father died in 1824 and his mother a few years afterwards. Thus early in youth was Mr. Ryle launched alone upon the sea of life. He never enjoyed any school advantages and imbibed all his education at the Sabbath school. Remarkable though it may seem he was placed in a silk mill at the tender age of five years and thus was veritably cradled in the midst of an industry that largely through his fostering care and intelligent labor has become one of the most important in the United States. Mr. Ryle worked in various silk mills in Macclesfield un- til IS39. At that time, although superintending in a satis-
factory and successful manner the large business of his brothers, R. & W. Ryle. he determined to embark for the New World to seek his fortunes among strangers in a strange land. His brothers were unable to dissuade him from what appeared in a youth of his years and experience a suicidal and disastrous course, and on March r. 1839, he sailed from Liverpool. ITis struggles and reverses in this country. happily crowned with success in his later years, have already been told. Mr. Ryle died at his home in Macelesfield on November 6, ISS7 ; he had been spending some time abroad in company with his daughter, in search for health and recreation. His remains were returned to this country and after funeral obsequies in the Second Pres- byterian church, which were attended by a large concourse of the residents of Paterson and a goodly number of per- sons from other cities, were interred in Cedar Lawn Cem- etery, where a noble shaft marks the last resting place of the man who did so much to bring about the present pros- perity of the city of his adoption.
DEXTER, LAMBERT & Co. - The firm of Dexter, Lam- bert & Co. was organized nearly forty years ago at Boston, Mass , by Anson Dexter, who previously had been asso- ciated with the late Mr. B Tilt, in the firm which had for some time been known as Tilt & Dexter. When Mr. Tilt retired Mr. Catholina Lambert and Mr. Charles Bar- ton entered the firm, which has since been known as Dex- ter, Lambert & Co .; in 1861 Anson Dexter retired and his son. George R. Dexter, and William Nelson Lambert, brother of Catholina Lambert, were admitted. W. N. Lambert visited South America never to return, dying there in 1869 George R Dexter retired in IS75 and died three years afterwards ; Henry B. Wilson entered the firm in IS78 ; Charles Barton, since deceased, retired in ISSo, after nearly thirty years association with Mr. Catholina Lambert. W. F. Suydam, Charles N. Sterrett and Wal- ter S. Lambert entered the firm in ISS5 and these gentle- men with Mr. Catholina Lambert and Mr. H. B. Wilson now constitute the firm.
The firm first occupied as a factory a two-story frame building 100x40 feet, located on Coventry street, so named by Mr. Tilt ; the street has retained the name ever since. The machinery first used by them consisted of looms for weaving fringes and gimps, gimp machines, spinning wheels, braiding machines and a small plant of throwing machinery, capable of producing twenty-five pounds of sewings per day. They were at that time engaged in manufacturing upholstery, military, parasol, millinery, hatters', furriers', cloak and dress trimmings and were in fact what was called in those days a trimming house They, or rather their predecessor, attempted ribbon weav- ing in 1849, but it was not a success financially, for the greater part of the ribbons made, not being sold, were purchased by Dexter, Lambert & Co. at the time of their organization. This, it is said, was probably the first attempt at ribbon weaving in the country ; if so, to this house belongs the credit of being the pioneers in this branch of the silk industry. In 1856, having taken from a
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