USA > New York > Seneca County > History of Seneca Co., New York, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public building and important manufactories > Part 16
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Among the manufactured articles, to each class of which belongs a great vari- ety, are force, rotary, and brass pumps; pumps for cisterns, wells, drive wells, deep wella, mines, and quarries ; windmilla, ships, steam-boilers, and railroads, and
various classes of village fire engines, all tested and known complete before ship- ment.
In August, 1870, a fire destroyed two large buildings, one in process of con- struction, and their contents, including a majority of valuable patterns, were loat in the flames. The company at once set to work and rebuilt. The present works consist of eight distinct buildings, one of which is a aix-story brick, in which is located the office. Rooms in the shops and outbuildings are filled with assorted material and finished goods. In all; the works consist of five depart- ments, over each of which is placed a superintendent, while over all is W. H. Pollard, General Superintendent, by whose mechanical skill all the machinery in use in the factory was designed and executed. A tour of the establishment shows two foundries, the larger of which has two cupolas, and a capacity of melt- ing twelve tons per day, the smaller four tons. In these foundries are full three thousand flasks of wood and iron. Two fire-pumps, with standpipes and outlets for attachment of hose reaching every story, are a precaution against fire. The rooms are extensive, yet crowded by machinery and material in various stages of preparation. Here are full two hundred engine lathes, twenty to twenty-five drills, six planers, two milling machines, besides much other machinery. Water and steam power are employed, the latter when water is low, and is furnished by two engines of fifty- to sixty-horse power. Indicative of the varied and exten- sive character of products is the presence at Philadelphia, on the Centennial grounds, of four hundred and ten different articles made at the Gould's worka, and the list not then complete. Upon the whole, such works as these are the real foundation of local and general prosperity, and are deserving of all credit and encouragement-such encouragement as was evidenced by the award of the Grand Diploma of Merit for pumps, a Medal of Progress for hydraulic rams, and a Medal of Merit for American-driven wells at the Vienna Exposition, and a Grand Gold Medal for the best pumps in the world awarded at the Moscow, Russia, International Fair, to the Gould Manufacturing Company.
Of recent formation, gratifying progress, and of full thirty years' experience by members of the firm, Rumsey & Co., proprietors of the Scoeca Falls Pump and Fire Engine Works, are a third and by no means inferior manufacturing company of Seneca County. In January, 1864, a partnership was formed between John A. Rumsey, Moses Rumsey, and W. J. Chatham, under the firm name of Rum- sey & Co., for the manufacture of pumps. In the business was invested a capital of $100,000, which amount is indicative of the confidence of the parties of suo- cess, founded upon an earlier experience, as former partners of the Cowings. Their first building, a brick, was erected between the canal and the river, just below the Fall Street bridge. The company increased their business and the capacity of their works so rapidly, by the addition of large and commodious buildings and of new and improved machinery, that they became enabled to sup- ply with promptness the demand for their implements and machines.
At present the company occupy five large brick buildings, besides two com- modious frame structures ; herein are manufactured garden and fire hand engines, lift and force pumps of all kinds, hydraulic rams, steel amalgam bells, skeins, and pipe boxes ; jack, bench, and cider-mill screws; hose and hose couplings, drills, reels, and many other machines and fixtures. In 1864, one hundred men were employed, nine hundred tons of iron consumed, and sales of from $150,000 to $200,000 made. In 1870, over two hundred men found employment here, fifteen hundred tons of material were used, and the value of an annual manufac- ture had reached $400,000. Chatham retired in 1874, and a stock company (limited) was formed, and designated Rumsey & Company. The Seneca Falls Pump and Fire-Engine Worka, controlled by this firm, cover an area of three acres, and employ a capital of probably a quarter-million dollars. It is not un- reasonable to claim that this establishment is the most extensive of its kind known. Their range of production embraces almost every conceivable variety of hydraulic machinery and metal pumpa, for lifting or forcing various fluids from various depths. Their illustrated catalogues contain cuts, descriptions, and prices of nearly eight hundred different styles of pumps, adapted to every use, and ranging in price from $3 to 8600 each. The demand for Rumsey & Com- pany's pumps is not limited to America; the annual manufacture of seventy thousand is required to meet the requirements of trade. Branch houses have been established in Liverpool, England; Madrid, Spain; and Hamburg, Ger- many, where full lines of goods are kept in stock, and from which varions other points are supplied. Added to the pump interest is an extensive manufacture of fire engines, hose carts, hook and ladder trucks, and hose carriages. The shops are amply provided with all the latest and best labor-saving appliances, worked by a large force of skilled mechanics. The advantages of system are recognized, and various processes are conducted from atage to atage, till the article is fioished and stored for shipment. Branch houses are located in the United States, at 93 Liberty Street, New York ; Chicago, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri, and at San Francisco, California.
48
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
It is notable how various manufactures locate in groups, and we have yet to record the history of a fourth industry, which had its rise in, and conduced to the prosperity of, this locality, aod whose efforts were identified with pump manufae- ture; we refer to the firm of Cowing & Company. John P. Cowing and Henry Seymour began the manufacture of pumps in 1840, in the "Old Clock Factory." In this building, erected in 1832, the clock business was carried on by Marshall & Adams till 1837, and three years later occupied as stated. Upon the site of that old building the largest brick building of Cowing & Company was subse- quently erceted. A removal was made, in 1843, to a structure known in those daya as the " Old Red. Shop ;" it stood just below the lower bridge, and was de- stroyed by fire in 1858. The partnership was dissolved in 1847, the business being continned by Mr. Seymour. Mr. Cowing and Henry W. Seymour con- tinned to manufacture pumps in what was known as the " Old Cultivator Shop." where now is located their western brick building, earlier used for the same business by Thomas I. Paine. 'Six to eight hands only were employed. Their furnace was burned down in April, 1849, and rebuilt at once. In December fol- lowing it was again consumed by fire; during this year of misfortune, John A. Rumsey had entered the firm ; the business showed rapid increase, and for two years all went well. Once again the fire fiend made his attack, and in January, 1851, the cultivator-shop and furnace.fell before his insatiable ravages. Imme- diately rebuilding, work was steadily continued .till the breaking forth of the great cooflagration of 1853, when the factory, the front and rear furnaces, and much valuable machinery were destroyed. Yet again, with an undiminished energy, the company proceeded to the construction of the substantial buildings they now own. These were assailed by another powerful element -- the air. During the great tornado of '53, which swept with such force over this locality, the roof of the City Mill was dislodged, and a purloin plate was hurled into the upper building of Cowing & Company, and considerable damage done. In Jan- uary, 1859, Mr. Seymour retired from the company, and Philo and George Cowing, sous of the principal of the firm, were admitted to partnership, and the business continued under the title of Cowing & Company. The sale of maoufac- tures amounted. in 1831 to $20,000, and constantly increased, till, in 1862, they exceeded $200,000. In 1858, they bought the site of the sash-factory, at the end of Mill Street, adjoining their own worka; on this ground they erected a large brick building of three stories, in which to manufacture fire engines. In 1861, John P. Cowing erceted the large six-story building on the old paper-mill site. The company carried on the manufacture of fire engines, pumps of various kinds, hydraulie rams, thimble-skein and pipe boxes, and a variety of brass and iron goods. Four times burned out, once damaged by a hurricane, and once washed away by the flood of 1857, Cowing & Company have contended successfully with difficulties which fall to the lot of few, and in 1870 had in their employ one huu- dred and forty men, whose pay roll amounted to $5000 per month ; raw material was purchased to the amount of $60,000, and sales reached a quarter-million. In 1875 the number of hands was much reduced, and consequently the amount of manufacture. Their wares were known at home and abroad, and agents found ready markets in foreign lands. At the Vienna Exposition a medal for general assortment of pumps was awarded to their. honse, based on an improved method of finishing pump interiors, which method is secured to the firm by their own patent. The company are not running their works, but are selling off manufac- tures on hand, preparatory to the organization of a stock company.
About 1856, T. J. Stratton, of Geneva, New York, brought out a new article of dry hop yeast, and sold it hy peddling through the country the cakes carried in a carpet bag. It was good, but it would not " keep." J. B. Stratton discov- ered a vegetable substance that would remove this difficulty, and cause a preser- vation of the yeast for any length of time and in any elimate. 'The two brothers formed a partnership, and commenced manufacturing what is now widely known as " The Twin Brothers' Dry Hop Yeast." After manufacturing about a year, and establishing the merits of the preparation, they sold out to W. H. Burton, an enterprising and prominent lawyer, of Waterloo, for $40,000. One-half of this sum was paid for the trade-mark, which is the dual likeness of the twins. Mr. Burton proceeded at once to the ercetion of a fuetory at Waterloo, and began business under the title of " Waterloo Yeast Company." The demand for the cakes becoming constantly greater, Mr. Burton continued to enlarge his facilities for supply until he has now, besides his Waterloo establishment, a factory in De- troit, Michigan ; one in Toronto, Ontario; Que in Peoria, Illinois, and one in Chicago, Illinois. There ia being turned out from all about ten million packages annually, each package containing one dozen, cakes, which retail at ten cents each. Its sales are made throughout the United States, Canada,: Europe, the East and West Indies, and elsewhere. It received the Gold Medal and honorable mention at the Vienna Exposition, and wherever shown in this country has taken first 'premiums at all State fairs.,
A sixth and principal manufactory in Seneca County is located at Waterloo,
and widely known as the " Waterloo Woolen Manufacturing Company." Early in the year 1836 three men, John Sinclair, Richard P. Hunt, and Jesse Clark, succeeded in inducing citizens and farmers to unite their means to erect a manu- factory, and secure a home market for the wool-clip of this and adjacent counties. A'company was organized and incorporated on May 15, 1836, and proceeded to purchase all the rights in the water-power furnished at this point by Seneca Out- let from Elisha Williams's executors. The company then conveyed to T. Fatz- inger & Co. one undivided fourth part of their water-rights and water-powers. The order of precedence to the waters of the canal are as follows: First, The right of the State to so much water as is necessary for purposes of navigation. Second, The Woolen Company, with twenty-one and one-fourth rights, and T. Fatzinger & Co., with six and three-fourths. Then limited rights by S. Vande- mark, Wilson & Thomas, Edmund Gay, and Ledyard & Morgan. The first mill building, of stone, was erected in 1836 and the early part of 1837. It is 45 feet front by 100 feet deep, and has five floors. East of this work an addition, 25 by 50 feet and three stories, was constructed. The increase of business re- quired additional space, consequently a new building was erected of stone, a few rods east of the first. This building is 50 by 150 feet, and has five atories. Farther cast is a dye and dry house and picker and wool rooms, 40 by 175 feet, three stories. The construction of these buildings was effected at a cost of about $150,000. Besides the factories, there are two large store houses-one well known as an old flouring-mill. . During the fall of 1837 the mills began to run as a cloth manufactory. Broadcloths and cassimeres were made until about 1849, when the company began to turn their attention to shawls. By 1857 this fea- ture had become exclusive, and their mills became known as the pioneers, in America, of plaid or blanket shawl manufacture. The shawls were notably superior, in fineness of material and brillianey of color, and sold at high prices. As a lubrieator, steam takes the place of oil, which cannot be used; it is also employed for heating the rooms and drying the dyed wool. A report of 1867 gives a working force of about three hundred operatives kept constantly em- ployed. Fine wool, to the amount of 400,000 pounds, is annually demanded for the production of 60,000 to 70,000 long shawls (two single counted as one), various in style and pattern, and valued at $350,000, more or less as prices range. For this manufacture, twenty sets of cards, twenty-five jacka, and sixty-five broad Crompton looms, fromu 90 to 136 inches wide, are employed. From the inception of the enterprise to the present, the work has been constant and highly remunerative.
The various counties surrounding Sencea felt the influence of a home market for wool, and, for years, it was common to see full fifty teams upon the company grounds waiting their turn to dispose of their wool-clip for cash or goods, at option. A visitor says he saw in the first or assorting room a bale of Buenos Ayrean wool, of weight a ton, bought by ageuts at three dollars a pound in that country, but the price is much changed in opinion when it is known that their currency was as one hundred to five eents of our currency. The wool is opened in the assorting room and graded. It is taken to the cleansing room and waslied. If intended for white, it goes to the bleachcry; for colored, to the dye-tubs. Brilliant colors are used, and great care taken here. When dyed, the wool is hung upon racks in the dry-house and subjected to a uniform great heat, seeured from steam. Being dry, it goes to the picker, the cards, the spinners, the warp- ing-frames, and is ready for the weaver. Upon the many broad looms, to each of which a weaver gives his sole attention, are woven the various colors and patterns seen in the finished work. The shawls pass to the "fringe-twisting" room, where, by ingenious machinery, the work is perfected. The pieces (twelve shawls in each) are taken to the scouring-room and passed through sets of heavy rollers, and sewed together; they are then revolved for hours between the rollers, through strong soap-suds, then rinsed, dried, cut .apart, pressed, labeled, and stored, ready to be packed for shipping to the company's various depots of supplies. The original capital stock of $50,000 had been raised to $150,000 in 1867. This stock, on February 1 of that year, was owned by eighty-three stockholders, most of whom were residents of the County. One ground of the company's success lies in the uniform management. There have been but three Superintendents during the forty years of the works' existence. At this time three generations, in several families of operatives, have begun and continued on as they reached serviceable age. The first President was John Sinclair, elected in 1836. At his death, Jesse Clark was made President in 1842. Mr. Clark dying, Elijah Kinne succeeded, and served until his death, a term extending from 1844 to 1850. In 1850, Thomas Fatzinger, Esq., was elected to that office, and served until 1875. The Mills' Company have now a fifth' President, in the person of Joseph W. Patterson. Richard P. Hunt was the first Secretary of the company, which position he held . until his death, in 1856. Sidney Warner, who had been in the office of the company since .May, 1838; as book- .keeper, was. chosen Secretary in place .of Mr. Hunt, and for twentyyears, has
49
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
filled the office. The first Superintendent was George Hutton, who, after ten years' service, died, and was succeeded by Calvin W. Cooke, who held the posi- tion from 1846 till 1873. The third Superintendent, and the present, is George Murray.
It is such establishments as these that give character to the industries of the County, that enhance its prosperity and promote its growthi, and the citizen will find his best interests advanced in that proportion to which they are extended and multiplied.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE INSANE POOR AND THE WILLARD ASYLUM.
PRIMARILY, the insane were objects of dread, and were confined in jails and almshouses to restrain them from violence. Later, a disposition to ameliorate their condition was manifested by a charter granted, in 1791, to the New York Hospital, and an appropriation from. the Legislature of two thousand dollars annually, for twenty years. In default of any other receptacle fur treatment of the insane poor, the hospital, in May, 1797, received of this class so far as their limited capacity would admit. Seven persons were thus provided for monthly during 1798. Special provision, on a larger scale, was agitated in 1802, as admissions and the resultant care increased. An average of twenty-two werc annually taken care of from 1797 to 1803, giving a total for the period of two hundred and fifteen. The governors of the hospital continued to urge the neces- sity and importance of the subject, as is shown by the passing of a law, in 1806, appropriating $12,500, to be paid quarterly every year till 1857 to the New York Hospital, to provide "suitable apartments for the maniacs, adapted to the various forms and degrees of insanity."
A building was completed in 1808, to a limited degree. The officials of some counties sent hither of their pauper insane, and sixty-seven persons were received, two of whom had for eighteen years been confined in the cells of a common jail. This is the carliest instance of provision for the treatment of pauper lunatics known to the State. The growth of the city compelled the purchase, during 1815, of a new site, more remote, and an asylum was completed in 1821, and received, during its first year, seventy-five patients. The history of that noble institution has been that of a prosperous and progressive agency in behalf of the unfortunate. A law, authorizing the several Poor Superintendents to send patients to the New York Hospital, was mainly inoperative. In 1807, two hundred pauper insane were in confinement, many of them linked in wretched association with crime and poverty. In 1825, the State contained . 819 insane ; of these 363 were self-supported, 208 in jail or poor-house, and 348 at large. In 1828, a law was passed prohibiting the confinement of lunatics in jails, but the enactment was not regarded. In 1830, Governor Thiroop, in his message to the Legislature, called the special attention of that body to the deplorable condition of the insane, and recommended the establishment of an asylum for their gratuitous care and treatment for recovery. As a result, a committee was appointed to investigate the subject, followed by a committee to locate a site, who fixed upon Utica.
On March 30, 1836, an act was passed and appropriation made authorizing the erection of the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica. This institution was completer. January 16, 1843, and has proved an incalculable blessing to thousands. By the system in vogue at this asylum patients were received from the poor-houses and kept two years; if not cured meanwhile they were remanded back to them and new cases received. Some who were quiet, and might ultimately have recovered at the asylumn, became violent, and were chained on their return to the alms- house. The unhappy condition of this class called for a permanent asylum for the chronic insane. Miss Dix in 1843 visited the State poor-houses, and made an earnest appeal in behalf of their occupants to the Legislature of 1844. A plan of relief was suggested, but not adopted. A meeting was held in 1855 by County Superintendents of the Poor, and an appeal made to the Legislature of 1856 for relief to their insane. A report was made in 1857, but no legislation. The Legislature, by Act passed April 30, 1864, authorized Dr. Sylvester D. Wil- lard, Secretary of the State Medical Society, tu investigate the condition of the insane poor wherever kept, excepting those institutions which were required by law to make report to the State. A series of questions were printed and sent to each County Judge, who was directed to appoint a competent resident physician to visit and report upon the condition and treatment of insane inmates of the poor-house, and send the result to the Secretary, by whom the reports would be summarized and made known to the Legislature. On January, 1865, the report
was duly presented by Dr. Willard, whose memory has been perpetuated in the Willard Asylum for the Insane. The law creating the asylum was passed April 8, 1865. Its purpose was to authorize the establishment of a State Asylum for the chronic insane and for the better care of the insane poor. Recent cases are sent to Utica; chronic cases to the Willard Asylum, and the poor-houses swept of the insane. The insane not recovered discharged from the State Asylum were transferred to continue in the "Willard." The Commissioners appointed under the organic aet to locate and build the Asylum were Drs. John P. Gray, of Utica, Julian P. Williams, of Dunkirk, and John B. Chapin, of Canandaigua. Dr. Gray resigned in May, 1866, and Dr. Lyman Congdon, of Jacksonville, was appointed in his stead. The Commissioners were directed first to " seek for and select any property owned by the State or upon which it has a lien." This was understood to refer to the grounds and buildings of the State Agricultural Col- lege, which was declining and whose actual operation had ceased. The title was acquired, and the Asylum located in December, 1865. The erection of the main Asylum building was commenced in July, 1866, and proceeded with till May, 1869, when the Legislature abolished the Building Commissioners and conferred their powers and duties upon a Board of Trustees, viz., John E. Seely, Genet Conger, Sterling G. Hadley, Francis O. Mason, Samuel R. Welles, George J. Magee, Darius A. Ogden, and William A. Swaby. This board was created to organize the Asylum and administer its affairs. Their services are gratuitous. Their term is eight years, and their successors are appointed by the Governor and Senate.
The Asylum was organized by the appointment of the following resident officers : John B. Chapin, M.D., Superintendent and Physician ; Charles L. Welles, M.D., Assistant Physician ; Abram C. Slaght, Steward; and Mrs. Sarah H. Bell, Matron. The Treasurer, James B. Thomas, Esq., of Ovid, was elected in 1869, and continues to hold the office.
NOTE .- We are under obligation to Superintendent Chapin for history of Willard Asylum.
In the fall of 1869, the centre building of' the main Asylum, and one section of the north and south wings, with a capacity for two hundred and fifty patients, together with necessary offices for administration service, were deemed ready for occupation, and the first patients were received October 13, 1869. The first patient was a feeble, crazed woman, brought in irons; for ten years she had been restrained of liberty, nude, and crouched like an animal in a corner of her cell; later she was seen in the Asylum dressed, improved in cleanliness, and presentable. On the same day three men arrived in irons, chained together. Patients were admitted who had been chained and ironed and confined in cells without windows, and received food through a hole in the door. The transition from such a state, prolonged for years, to the freedom, accommodations, and attention furnished by the Asylum must conduce to improvement, and, in some instances, to recovery. Additions to the main Asylum were made at intervals until its completion in 1872. It has rooms to accommodate five hundred persons. In its means for the classi- fication of patients, convenience of administration, arrangements for ventilation, and cubic and superficial space, this structure is the equal of any like institu- tion in this country. The large number of the insane, experience in their treat- ment, and the desire to secure at reduced cost increased liberty and occupation, induced the trustees to erect additional buildings. The Agricultural College building, then incomplete, was modified and fitted for occupation for the insane in 1870, and contains at this time two hundred and twenty-five patients.
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