Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 25

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360

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The drawer fronts are attached to the sides by a new process, which, in this establishment at least, has taken the place of the old " dovetail;" the whole is done by two machines working reciprocally and most exactly to their respective patterns, the resulting portions, when matched together, making an air-tight and very strong joint. These machines, working on the end of the hard wood, and cutting to the depth of one-half or five- eightlis of an inch, produce half of a joint of scallops, with pins below, wrought out of the hard wood. The

THE MANUFACTURING"INDUSTRIES.

731

scallops come within one-quarter to one-fifth of an inch of the front of the hard wood. The rounded pins- " dowels " is, we believe, the technical term for them- arc about one-sixth of an inch in diameter, and, perhaps, five-eighths of an inch in length. The softer white wood for the side of the drawer is wrought by the corresponding machine into a scalloped edge, with the holes below it, into which the dowels fit exactly. So perfectly is the work done that, after dusting, the two ends can be fitted into each other, so as to make an air- tight joint, with only a smart blow of the hand. In practice these joints are coated with a very fluid glue before being put together, in order to avoid any", pos-

market. Messrs. Worn & Sons' goods have a wide market, going all over the country and to other lands.

The only customers of such manufacturers as these are the furniture dealers; for they sell nothing at re- tail. This is equally true of the manufacturers of chairs of all descriptions, of office and library furniture, and generally of dining room tables and furniture, of kitchen furniture, etc. The manufacturers of school, hall and church furniture, of hotel, steamboat and railway-car furniture, on the contrary, deal directly with their cus- tomers, whose bills are generally large; or take con- tracts for supplying to a great contractor such of their goods as he may order.

1880

MARTIN WORN.

(

MARTIN WORN

& SONS.

103 MARTIN WORN & SONS 109

FURNITURE WAREROOMS.

LONG ISLAND FURNITURE WAREROOMS

MARTIN WORN & SON'S FURNITURE WAREHOUSE.

sible danger of shrinkage. There are not, as in the old- fashioned dovetail, any sharp points or corners to break or split off; every surface is rounded, and the joint is more perfect than any dovetail joint could be. These machines enable the manufacturer to triumph over one of the most difficult operations in cabinet work.

The bedstead, bureau, chiffoniere, sideboard or other piece of furniture is now ready to be put together. It is first thoroughly rubbed down and cleaned, and all the delicate grooves and tenons cleared out and made ready for joining, the glue joints being pressed care- fully into their grooves, the pins or dowels adjusted and glued, and great care is taken to have every part true, so that there may be no twisting in the drawers or elsewhere. The largest joints are often held firmly in place by vises till they are thoroughly dry. It is next cleaned again, polished and varnished or shellacked, the knobs or handles attached, and it is ready for the

MARTIN WORN, the senior member of the firm of Martin Worn & Sons, extensively and favorably known as manufacturers of furniture, etc., of the city of Brooklyn, was born at Weil, in Schoenbuch, Wurtemburg, Germany, Jan- uary 15, 1832. His father was Johannes Worn, and his mother's maiden name was Anna Ried. His parents ranked among the respectable citizens of Weil, and gave their son instruction and set before him the examples so necessary for children. It is pleasant to say that the young man suc- cessfully profited by these. When old enough, he was placed at school in his native city, where he obtained a good practi- cal business education. While yet young he emigrated to America, and became a resident of the city of Brooklyn, where, on April 30, 1854, he was united by marriage with Miss Bernhardina Fent. In 1862, he began the business of furniture manufacture in the immediate vicinity of his present extensive manufactory. Prosperity and success attended him, and he soon became prominent and highly esteemed in the business and social circles of Brooklyn; and at a proper time he connected his two sons, William and Charles, with him in business, under the firm name and style of Martin Worn & Sons.

732

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Some idea of the extent, importance and large amount of business transacted by this firm may be gained by visiting their factory, which occupies Nos. 127, 129, 131, 133 Siegel street, near Humboldt, and their warerooms, situated at Nos. 103, 105, 107 and 109 Humboldt street. A view of these buildings is seen on an adjoining page. Such a visit will not only be interesting, but profitable.

Mr. Worn is, in every sense, an intelligent and discrimi- nating business man, with those other qualifications that adorn and make up the character of a good citizen. He has never taken any active part in politics, but has exercised the

high functions of a voter in the best possible manner, voting for the best man, regardless of political proclivities.

His influence is always given to morality and the cause of education; and while he is not connected with any religious organization, he upholds the Protestant faith.

There have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Worn six children: William, born October 2, 1855; Charles, born January 12, 1857; Anna, born July 20, 1862; John, born September 4, 1866 ; Mary, born July 2, 1869; Edward, born May 16. 1874. Of these, Messrs. William and Charles Worn are married.

One of our Brooklyn houses, Messrs. Fingleton Bros., whose portraits grace the opposite page, are engaged in a business of so varied a character that we hardly know where to class them. They are dealers, at whole- sale and retail, in furniture, upholstered goods, mat- tresses, stoves, kitchen furniture and utensils and baby carriages; but they also manufacture much of their furniture, upholstered goods and mattresses on their extensive premises, having a capital of $60,000, em- ploying about 20 men, and turning out about $50,000 worth of goods a year.

PATRICK J., HENRY W. and Huan S. FINGLETON .- About the year 1842, Hugh Fingleton came from Ireland to New York city, where he engaged in the tobacco business. 1848, he married Catharine Moore, also a native of Ireland,

who came to this country the same year he did. About two years later they bought land on Kosciusko street, built a house, and came to Brooklyn to live. This section was then far out in the country, and settled only by a few scattering farmers. His tobacco business in New York proved so re- munerative that he was able, in 1862, to buy a lot one hun- dred feet square on the corner of De Kalb and Nostrand ave- nues, and build three stores thereon. Over these he finished a suite of rooms, into which he brought his family from Kos- ciusko street, but lived only a few months to enjoy his new home. He died January 3d, 1864, leaving a wife and chil- dren as follows: Patrick J., born October 10th, 1854; Henry W., born August 9th, 1856; Sarah E., born May 12, 1855; Hugh S., born March 28th, 1861. Besides these, they lost two sons, who died, one ten years and the other five months old.

On the 1st of August, 1876, the three brothers, whose por- traits are shown herewith-Patrick J., Henry W. and Hugh S.

Jestinglalon

Ar Singleton

26.S. Fingleton

"FOUNDERS OF THE EAST BROOKLYN FURNITURE COMPANY."

733

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

-commenced business in one of the stores their father built, as manufacturers of and dealers in bedding. Their beginning was careful but energetic, and in the following May they added furniture of all kinds, manufacturing the parlor furniture in their own shops, 75 and 77 Kosciusko street. During the next autumn, carpets and upholstering were added to their trade, which continued to grow and ex- pand till the original building proved utterly inadequate for its wants. In 1878, they built an extension 45 x 60, to which repairs and enlargements have recently been made to accom- modate the demands of still another department devoted to stoves, kitchen utensils and baby carriages. For many years their business has been the largest of its kind between Fulton street and Broadway. But over this fair career of manly and honorable prosperity there came the dark shadow of loss of health and finally of life. During the increased bur- den of work and care consequent upon building in 1878, Pa- trick J., the elder brother, took a deep-seated cold, from which he never recovered. It is the old, old story. Neither he nor his physicians became alarmed till it was too late. Then travel was tried. He and his mother crossed the ocean, and visited the scenes where her childhood and her young womanhood had been passed. Then he went to the Adiron- dacks, to Colorado and to California, but that terrible de- stroyer, consumption, was marching him through all these weary miles only to the grave. His last winter was spent in Florida, in company with his brother, Henry.

The inevitable event occurred July 15, 1883. His remains were sadly and tenderly deposited in Holy Cross Cemetery, Flatbush, by a large circle of bereaved friends. , His mother's death, which occurred January 14, 1882, was hastened by an insupportable solicitude for the life of one so near and dear to her, and her loss also hastened his decline. Her unmar- ried sister, Mary Moore, has for over twenty years been a member of the family, almost filling a mother's place.

The daughter, Sarah E., now Mrs. James Lynch, together with her husband, live in the home family with the two re- maining brothers, neither of whom have ever married.

The business is still prosecuted with energy by the two younger members of the firm. The business involves a cap- ital of $60,000, gives employment to 20 men and amounts in current sales to $50,000 per year. Its conductors have always been noted for unassuming, gentlemanly qualities, combined with intelligence, diligence and enterprise.

SUBSECTION I .- Upholstering.

In the upholstery branch of the furniture manufae- ture there are different methods followed from those which we have described above. There are upholsterers on a large scale, who employ a considerable number of hands. They procure or make the frames, which are usually of pine, well veneered, but sometimes, in the best goods, of black walnut, mahogany or eherry, and veneered, carved, overlaid, ornamented, &e., in such a way as will attraet and please their eustomers; and these are then upholstered, except the outer covering; that is, the springs are put in, usually upon heavy web- bing, tightly drawn, but sometimes on thin boards or iron strips. These are covered with a heavy, coarse eanvass, and then the seat or back stuffed with hair, or often some cheaper material, as tow, exeelsior, hay, eurled palın leaf, &e., &e., is laid upon the eanvass, and a heavy cotton or canton flannel is drawn over it

tightly, and, perhaps, knotted at each spring. The under surface and webbing is covered, as there is little or no strain, with eolored cambrics, or, perhaps, some heavier material. These sofas, ehairs, &c., thus in their undress, are sold in considerable quantities to the fur- niture dealers, who keep samples of the goods used for covering, which include morocco, book-binders' ealf, Russia and other leathers, hair and whalebone cloth, broadcloth, reps, brocades of silk, satin or worsted, raw silk, cotton or worsted reps, &c., and cover them as desired. But the upholsterer also seeks retail custom, and upholsters a single set as readily as he would sell a hundred of his blanks to a furniture dealer.

On the other hand, many of the furniture dealers, especially those dealing with the better class of custom- ers, though they do not attempt to manufacture any other descriptions of furniture, (purehasing it or having it made to order by the wholesale houses) yet employ a considerable number of upholsterers, some of them very skillful workmen; and, buying the frames, have them upholstered in their own establishments, and in such way as their customers desire. These houses are not generally furniture manufacturers, but they are up- holsterers.

Some of the furniture manufacturers confine them- selves to the manufacture and veneering of the frames of sofas, tete-a-tetes, divans, easy chairs, etc., etc., which they sell to the upholsterers and furniture deal- ers; and thus, unlike the elass just mentioned, they are not upholsterers, but manufacturers of ehair and sofa frames, etc. This is a large business, and is constantly inereasing, the frames being of all elasses, from the very poor and cheap to the best earved, veneered and inlaid frames. Messrs. Christian and George Spoerl are the largest manufacturers of these frames, and have two houses, one in Myrtle, the other in Lee avenue. The leading upholsterers who do a large wholesale business are: Peter W. Schmitt, Rohman & Hillman, Charles M. Medicus, William Lang, Joseph Huhn and Staudinger & Goldsmith, and A. & C. H. Baldwin, of Fourth street, E. D., who have a building 30x134, 4 stories high, and employ a large number of hands. Sehmitt, Lang and Huhn do some retail business also, but, we believe, the others do not. Messrs. Lang & Nau, T. Brooks' successors, J. G. Reither, R. G. Lock- wood & Son, George A. Probst, the Cowperthwaite Co., and perhaps, also, the Brooklyn Furniture Co., and some others, have upholstery shops, and do work for their own customers, but not as jobbers or wholesale dealers. Among these upholsterers is a specialist, Mr. Frederick B. Jordan, who is a manufacturer of and dealer in furni- ture draperies and trimmings, such as lambrequins, mantel draperies, portieres, &e., at 155 & 157 Adelphi street, corner of Myrtle avenue. He eommeneed busi- ness in July, 1876, with a capital of about $8,000, cm- ploys from 6 to 24 hands, pays about $7,500 wages, and his annual product is about $60,000. There are also

734

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

many npholsterers, some of them excellent workmen, who start on a small scale, working themselves and em- ploying one or two hands, who do custom work and re- pairing, but keep no general stock of furniture, or even of upholstered goods. In the course of a few years some of these work their way into a good business, while others drift back into the large upholsterers' shops. But for this upholstery work, many of the larg- est dealers in furniture would have no claim to the name of manufacturers. Another elass, who deal alto. gether in the cheap and trashy articles, which will only hold together long enough to reach the houses of their customers, procure their goods from distant points in the country, where woods abound, and where the pieces which go to make up chairs, bureaus, tables, etc., are worked out in the rough, usually from wood only part- ly seasoned, often turned out in the lathes for turning irregular forms, roughly vencered, and sent to the city to be finished, where glue and putty, paint and varnish, conceal the imperfection of the work. There are more wholesale dealers in this class of goods in New York than in Kings county, and the "Cheap Johns " in the retail trade supply themselves very largely from their stock. But two or three houses in Brooklyn are en- gaged in finishing and selling in quantities these cheap and trashy goods. It may be said, however, in justice to Messrs. Rohman and Hillman, and the Long Island Furniture Co., in Myrtle avenue, that if they finish and sell many of these cheap goods, they also mannfacture some that are of a better grade.

SUBSECTION II .- Chairs, not upholstered, except in special cases.

The manufacturers of chairs of bent wood, veneers and perforated seats, and of rattan, willow, etc., as well as those who make what are known as cane-seated and splint chairs, and the still cheaper articles known as common wood chairs, rockers, etc., and iron, galvan- ized iron, and iron wire or stecl wire chairs, are a class by themselves. Each man or firm adheres to a single description of chairs, and makes only that kind, though he may indulge in the greatest variety of forms. There are ten or twelve of these manufacturers of chairs and chair seats'in Kings county, and some of the wire- work manufacturers, as well as two or three of the manufacturers of fancy iron castings, may be added to the number. The chairs, settees and fancy bed- steads of the wire-workers are often very elegant and useful. The Cabble Excelsior Wire Manufacturing Co., Messrs. Howard & Morse, and, we believe, also the Brooklyn Wire Works Co., make a great variety of patterns of these goods,

One firm makes only barbers' and dentists' chairs; one makes opera chairs, of iron, upholstered; two or three make wood and cane-seated chairs; three or four make cane-seated chairs, and repair these and other furniture; two are put down as chair-seat manufac-

turers; two are manufacturers of wood chairs on a large scale, and one manufactures dining-room and read- ing-room chairs exclusively. There are also three manufacturers of rattan goods, but they confine them- selves to baskets, split canes for seats, etc., etc. The rattan chairs, rockers, tete-a-tetes, lounges, etc., as well as those of willow ware or osier of similar forms, which are now so popular, are wholly manufactured by three or four firms in New England, and are so protected by patents that there can be no competition. Much of this work is farmed out among families in the country towns, at a very low price. The cane seats are now largely woven by those firms, and put in in such a way as to be very perishable; and, in consequence of their mode of construeting them, cannot be replaced, except at ncarly the cost of new chairs. The rush-bottomed chairs, once very popular, have been driven out of the market by the rattan manufacturers, who have bought up large tracts of the marshes, and burned the rushes, to prevent their usc. The perforated and bent wood veneered chairs, made principally under Gardner's patents, are manufactured at his factories in New York, where the seats are also sold separately. The chair manufacture in Brooklyn is not very large, although considerably beyond the amount of product set down for it in the census, $121,703. The real product of the whole eleven or twelve manufacturers is not far from $225,000.

SUBSECTION III .- The Decoration of Houses, Theatres, Halls, etc., with Hard-wood Trimmings.

This, on the scale on which it is now conducted, is a new industry. Intimately connected with the finer grades of furniture is the decoration of costly dwell- ings, churches, hotels, halls and theatres, steamships, steamboats and palace cars, with hard woods, carved by hand, veneered with the choicest veneers, polished, and wronght in forms of great beauty. Some of these decorations are even more costly than the finest furni- ture which our best artists have produced, but the de- mand for them is large and constantly increasing. Among the houses which have attained the highest rank in this department of decorative art, is the great humber house of Cross, Austin & Co. They have attached a hard-wood department to their business, and are unable to supply the demand for their exquisite products. Nothing can exceed the beauty of these veneers and richly carved woods; the panelled and in- laid doorways, newel-posts, rails, window and mirror frames, arelics and alcoves, have not been equalled in the past, even in artistic France.

The White, Potter & Paige Manufacturing Co., now passed into other hands than those of its original found- ers, is also largely engaged in the production of these hardwood and cabinet trimmings, as well as of picture and mirror frames and mouldings, hard-wood doors, and to some extent prepared lumber. Their establishunent

735

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

is a large one, the lots which they occupy including about 47,000 square feet on Willoughby avenue, San- ford and Walworth streets, of which about 24,000 feet is covered with buildings. Some of these buildings are three stories, others two, and a part one story in height. The amount of lumber they use and sell in a year is 2,702,000 feet. The largest number of hands employed at one time is 308; the amount of wages paid per year, $146,500; amount of sales of manufactured goods, $322,500. Other hard-wood trimmings manufacturers are: Alexander Dugan, Goodwin, Cross & Co., Downes & Turk, in the line of picture frames, and perhaps onc or two others. The whole present total annual out-put of these trimmings is a little more than $550,000.

SUBSECTION IV .- Mouldings of Soft and Hard Woods, Sashes, Doors and Blinds.

Under these two heads the Brooklyn City Business Directory for 1883 enumerates forty-four manufacturers, some of them large, and others only just beginning business. We have classed them together in this sub- section, though they are, as now conducted, two entirely distinct branches of the business. By "mouldings " are understood in the trade all that variety (bccoming daily more infinite) of grooved, fluted, rounded and ornamented beadings and trimmings about doors, win- dows, stairs, ceilings, office rails and trimmings, which in these days make the builder's work so largely a de- corative art. These mouldings are wrought from either hard or soft woods by scroll, jig or band saws in part, but principally by planing knives, each adapted to make its particular moulding, and the patterns of these knives are constantly changed to satisfy the eager demand for variety, the ingenuity of the best machinists being taxed to invent patterns of new designs.

In this department of mouldings the house of John S. Loomis is easily foremost in Kings county. In 1849 Mr. Loomis, a native of Wyoming county, Pennsyl- vania, and a practical carpenter, having taken a fellow workman, James McCammann, into partnership with him, commenced the manufacture of sashes, doors and blinds, in a shop twenty-five feet square, on Tompkins place. The machinery, which was run by horse-power, consisted of one circular saw, one mortising machine, one tenoning machine, and a small sticker, or moulding machine, constructed by themselves; the Fay sticker, a small moulding machine, very defective in its work- ing, being the only other moulding machine then in the market. The business of the young firm prospered to such an extent that within two years they were com- pelled to move to larger quarters. They purchased a site on Wyckoff street, near Smith, where they erected a new mill, 25x30, and two stories in height, and put in a small five horse power engine and considerable new machinery. In 1855 the partnership was dissolved, Mr. McCammann going out. Mr. Loomis resolved to enlarge his business and seek a market in the South.

He was so successful that in five years he sold out his sash, door and blind business, and devoted himself ex- clusively to monldings, crecting other buildings to ac- commodate his fast increasing trade. In 1868, after a long and prosperous carcer, his mill, buildings and ma- chincry were entirely destroyed by fire. Obtaining temporary quarters for his business, he immediately purchased the site of his present extensive works at the head of the Gowanus canal, and in less than six months had a very large inill, with abundant machinery, running full time. Since that time he has suffered the same ex- perience of destruction by fire three times, viz., in 1870, 1876, and in August, 1881, and each time has erected larger and more complete buildings, and has greatly in- creased his business. The destruction in the fire of August, 1881, was complete, destroying everything cx- cept the office and storage building, and sweeping away also the adjacent sash, door and blind factory of Stan- ley & Unckles; yet in three months' time the present factory, said to be the largest and in every particular the most complete of its kind in the United States, was finished and in running order. The present buildings occupy the whole front (200 fect) on Nevins street, from Baltic to Butler, and extend back on both streets 225 feet, the whole space (45,000 square feet) being covered with buildings, leaving only the necessary pass- age ways for wagons and trucks. The corner building, 38x115 feet, is occupied on the first floor and basement by the turning, carving and sawing department. The second story is fitted up as a carpenters' or joiners' shop, with the most improved labor-saving machinery. Here are made window-frames, wood mantels, panel work of all descriptions, employing a large force of first-class mechanics. The third floor is used for storage and other purposes.

Adjoining on Baltic street is the machine shop, where the machines used in the establishment are made, and all necessary repairing is done. The next is the stair- building shop. Then come the storage sheds where kiln-dried lumber is stored ready to cut, and on the rear we reach the drying kilns, six in number, built of brick and extending from Baltic to Butler streets, a distance of 200 feet, with capacity for drying 180,000 feet of lumber at once, and insuring a constant supply of thoroughly seasoned lumber.

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Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 25

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : Munsell Number of Pages: 1360

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360