History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 24

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II > Part 24

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The superintendents have been Isaac Battin, from beginning to 1855; William Beal, from 1856 to 1866; James Slade from 1866 to the present time.

The company made coal gas for more than twenty- five years, to 1879, since which time it has chicfly made water gas, by a process of its own, with illumi- nating power averaging about twenty-five candles. The price of gas now (1885) is $1.25 per thousand feet.

Mr. Thomas Clapp Cornell, the President and Treas- urer of the Yonkers Gas Company, is of an old West- chester County family, settled in Scarsdale since 1727. He was born January 7, 1819, in Flushing, Queens County, L. I., where his parents then conducted a boarding school for girls. His father, Silas Cornell, son of Benjamin, was born in the old Scarsdale homestead in 1789.1 His mother, Sarah Mott, daughter of Adam, was born in North Hempstead, Queens County, in 1791, in the old Mott homestead, on the shore of the Sound, which had then been in the family for a hundred years and is still in the possession of the descendants of its founder. Both his father's and his mother's families for half 'a dozen generations were among the staunchest Quaker yeomanry of the two counties. In 1823, Silas Cornell removed to a farm, near Rochester, N. Y., where during the winter months he had a little school, the only school his son Thomas ever attended. The aggregate of his schooling did not reach three years, and was ended before he was twelve years old. Whatever he learned beyond that was in hours saved from daily labor. When he was fifteen he was doing a man's work on the farm, and keeping up his studies by spending an hour or two be- fore breakfast, often by lamplight, at his Latin or Greck grammar or mathematics. His father became the surveyor of the neighborhood, and in 1836 removed

to the adjacent city of Rochester, as surveyor and civil engineer, and Thomas was his principal assistant. After coming of age in 1840 he entered the engineer department of the State on the Erie Canal enlargement, and had charge of work on the Combined Locks at Lockport. In 1844-46 he was in the employ of the Ca- nadian government, at Montreal, on the Lachine Canal, and in the office of the engineer of the Provincial Board of Public Works. Early in 1846 he went to Europe and spent a year and a half in France, Ger- many, Switzerland, Italy, England and Scotland. He sought in each country he visited to associate exclu- sively with its natives and to speak with them in their own tonguc. He returned to America in the latter part of 1847 and was immediately employed in the construction of the Hudson River Railroad, as assist- ant engineer from Spuyten Duyvil to Dobbs Ferry. This brought him to the then small hamlet of Yon- kers, where, when his section of the railroad was fin- ished, he decided to remain. He did almost all the surveying and engineering of Yonkers for many years, with occasional work as architect. In 1854 he co-opcrated with Messrs. Scrugham, Getty and others in founding the Yonkers Gas-Light Company, which first delivered gas in November of that year. He has been president of the company since 1857, and also its treasurer since 1860. Mr. Cornell has also been a director of the bank of Yonkers, now the First Nat- ional Bank, since 1856. He was also for many years a trustee of the Yonkers Savings-Bank and chairman of its finance committee, until he said he had done his share of the work, and declined to serve longer. He was one of the founders of the Yonkers and New York Fire Insurance Company, and one of its direc- tors from its organization, in 1863, to its dissolution by the great Chicago fire in 1871. In 1852, Mr. Cor- nell first proposed and aided in founding the first " newspaper in Yonkers, the Yonkers Herald (now the Yonkers Gazette). Three or four years later, the Her- ald having become hostile to himself and friends, he co-operated with Messrs. Matthew F. Rowe and the late Jeremiah H. Stedwell in founding the Yonkers Examiner (now the Statesman), and he has been a frequent contributor to its columns ever since.

In politics, Mr. Cornell was brought up in the Whig party, but was always an Abolitionist, and was one of the first signers of the call for the original organiza- tion of the Republican party in Yonkers, three days after the nomination of Fremont, in June, 1856, and has always supported the party, but has never ac- cepted any political office, nor any other office, except that of trustee of School No. 6, to which he was elected in 1877. He has been a member of the Union League Club of New York since 1870.

While in Europe, Mr. Cornell abandoned the Prot- estantism of his anecstors, and in 1847 was received, at Lyons, into the Roman Catholic Church, of which he is still a zealous member. He bore an active part in the founding of St. Mary's Church, Yonkers, in

1 " The Scarsdale Cornell" will be found elsewhere in the history of the town of Scarsdale.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

1848, and its parish schools in 1859, and St. Joseph's Church in 1871, and in the establishment of the Sis- ters of Charity at Mount St. Vincent in 1856. In 1882 he prepared and published a history of the " Be- ginnings of the Roman Catholic Church in Yonkers."

Mr. Cornell married, May 2, 1850, Miss Jane E. Bashford, of Yonkers. They have no surviving children. In 1869 they built and occupied the handsome residence on Riverdale Avenue, near Mt. St. Vincent, which they recently sold to Miss Clara Morris, the distinguished actress, who now makes it her home.

JOHN COPCUTT'S VENEER MH.L. - One of the early Yonkers industries, of which but little is now noticed or known, was the manufacture of mahogany into veneers for cabinet-work. This mill was estab- lished, in 1845, by Mr. John Copeutt, upon the site, as we have already shown, of the old grist-mill, which had been burned. The foundations of the old mill still remain as the support of the present building. Mr. Copeutt, before coming to Yonkers, had owned from 1835, a mahogany-mill at West Farms. He is now one of Youkers' oklest citizens, and has made a record of untiring industry and of deserved success.

KITTERINGHAM'S MOROCCO-FACTORY .- The busi- ness of pulling wool and manufacturing morocco and sheepskin from hides was started in Yonkers about 1850, at the corner of Nepperhan Avenue and New Main Street, by Robert Grant. By a chemical process the wool was so acted upon that it was easily sepa- rated from the skin. In 1869. Mr. James Kittering- ham occupied the same place as a morocco manufac- turer and continued there three years. Later he became a member of the firm of Rose, McAlpin & Co., of which we give an account below. His original factory is not now in existence, and he himself has retired from the firm just named.

OSTERHELD & EICKEMEYER .- One of the most important contributions to the hat manufacturing in- dustry of Yonkers is the business of this firm in the inventing and making of its machinery. The busi- ness was established in 1854 by Mr. George Osterheld, a brother of the member of that name in the present firm. The growth of it has been steady and great. Though the specialty of the establishment is machin- ery of every description for hat manufacturing, yet a wide variety of machine-work is also done. The manufacture of mowing-machines was begun in 1881, this branch being conducted under the name of R. Dutton & Co., a stock union in which this firm are large sharchoklers. The mowing-machine branch is carried on in the two upper stories of the building. and about seventy-five finished machines are annually turned out. The firm under notice was formed by Mr. Rudolf Eickemeyer joining Mr. Osterhell, and the latter was succeeded in April 1880, by his brother Henry, who now represents that name in the firm. The buikling in which the hat machinery and general | machinist work is manufactured is seventy-five by one hundred and fifty feet in area, and three stories high.

Another buikling, forty by seventy-five feet, and also three stories high, used by the business, was added in 1882. A large steam-power and about fifty hands are employed. The most of these hands are skilled me- chanics. All kinds of machines, tools and appliances used in making wool and felt hats and all parts of the same are made. This firm is justly regarded as a large contributor to the distinction which Yonkers enjoy- as a manufacturing centre. The value of its business amounts to seventy-five or eighty thousand dollar- a year.

Mr. Rudolph Eickemeyer, of the firm of Osterheld & Eickemeyer, is a well-known manufacturer and inven- tor. He was born in a small village in the Palatinate of Bavaria, where his father held the office of forester. He continued to reside in his native place, attending the school there, till he was thirteen years of age, when he left home to attend a Real school at Kaiserslau- tern, where after remaining about two years, he was sufficiently advanced in his studies to enter the Polytechnic Institute at Darmstadt.

These schools were devoted mainly to scientific and technical branches of instruction, including mathe- matics, civil and mechanical engineering, surveying, architecture, etc., it being the object to prepare the students for mechanical pursuits.

In 1848, when the rebellion broke out in France, and the people of several of the countries of Europe revolted against their governments, young Eickemeyer, with his boon companion, classmate, and, in after-years, busi- ness partner, the late George Osterheld, joined the oppo- sition party, and in the following year fought under Gien- eral Siegel against the present Emperor of Germany.

As is well known, this revolt was unsuccessful. Through it the young men who had taken arms against their sovereign were placed in an unpleasant position, and though they were amnestied their surroundings became unendurable. So at the expiration of another year, they embarked for New York, where they ar- rived safely on the 22d of November, 1850.

The journey over, Ejckemeyer and his companion found themselves in a strange city with only a limited sum of money and very little prospect of work. For- tunately, the Erie Railway was in course of construc- tion at that time, and as it offered opportunities to willing workers, the young men made their way to Buffalo by rail, and thence walked to Lodi, where they found employment on the road.

In the spring of 1851 Mr. Eiekemeyer returned to Buffalo, where he found employment in the Buffalo Steam-Engine Works, one of the largest machine- shops in that city, his duty being to assist in making the first mowing-machines produced in this State. He continued at these shops till 1853, when he left Buffalo to take charge of the repairs in the marble- mills then in full operation at Hastings-on-the-Hnd- son. His stay in this place was of short duration. In the following year. September 1, 1854. he removed to Yonkers, and, with Mr. Osterhehl, who had been with him in all the places mentioned, opened an es-

R. Gretterey

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YONKERS.

tablishment, the business at first being confined mainly to repairing tools used in the hat-shops aud other factories at Yonkers.

While attending to these duties Mr. Eickemeyer became familiar with the art of hat manufacturing as conducted at that period, and almost intuitively ap- prehending and appreciating its needs, gave his serious attention to the work of supplying the necessary me- chanical aids. As a result of his study, he very soon produced a small machine for making leather hat- bands. The popular shape of hat at that time was called the Ledger Hat, after the story-paper of that name which Robert Bonner had just purchased and was advertising in all parts of the country. This hat was finished with a leather band and binding; the band had both edges turned under and was embossed by being pressed between figured rollers ; the turning of the edges of the band had to be done by hand, a process too slow and tedious to enable hat manufac- turers to supply the increasing demand for the hat. Mr. Eickemeyer proved equal to the emergency, and in a short time made the machine above mentioned, which folded and embossed the band at a single opera- tion. From this have been developed the present universally-used machines for making the sweat- leathers used in hats of every description.

A year or two later Mr. Eickcmeyer constructed the first sewing-machine used to sew the leathers into the hats. This made a peculiar stitch, which is ealled a whip-stitch. From seventy-five to one hundred of these machines were produced, the manufacturers continuing to use them for a number of years, till they were superseded by others of different construction. The stitch then introduced, however, is retained to the present day in some of the best button-hole machines, and within a year past a machine for sewing leathers into hats, embracing the samestitch, has been patented.

At the beginning of our late war Mr. Eickemeyer decided to use his sewing-machine tools for the manu- facture of fire-arms, and accordingly, for a number of years, revolvers in considerable quantities were made at the Yonkers factory, though the regular business was not neglected upon this account.

In 1865 he invented and patented his first hat- stretcher and also a machiue to pounce hats in a coue- shape, and, in the following year, together with Mr. Osterheld, le invented the first successful hat-block- ing machine. From that time forward a specialty was made of hattiug machinery, and nearly all the force of the shop was devoted to its production. Mr. Eicke- meyer's time and attention was mainly taken up in improving the machines already produced. These improvements in stretches, blockers, formers, fulling- mills, hat-presses, hat-ironing machines, sizing-ma- chines, sewing-machines, etc., etc., furnished the sub- ject-matter of a large number of letters-patent granted to him during the past twenty-eight years, of which he has taken out about oue hundred, nearly all of which have met with success.

ii .- 9

In 1869 Mr. Eickemeyer invented and perfected a driving mechanism for mowing-machines, which proved to be the simplest and easiest-running device ever produced. The machine, the "Haymaker," was entered at the Centennial Exhibition, where, being the lightest draft machine exhibited, it received a bronze medal. Three similar medals were awarded the firm for their exhibit of hatting and other machinery.

The mowing-machiue, which is known as the " New Champion Mower," is now manufactured on an ex- tensive scale at Springfield, O., and in a modified form, as a one-horse mower, by a firm in Yonkers. Mr. Eickmeyer's latest inventions in hatting machin- ery include a hat-shaving machine and one to make blocks and flanges. He is now engaged in perfecting and introducing a set of machines to curl and shape hats, which will undoubtedly prove as successful as the great number of other machines inveuted by him.

The inventions of Mr. Eickemeyer are in use all over the world, and the firm of which he is a member has a large export trade, not only with Europe, but also with New Zealand and Australia, the two last places having lately imported some of their machinery. Of late he has given some attention to electric matters, and will probably in time be able to show some of the results of his study in this branch of science. Some of his mechanical inventions have cost him many years of thought and work, not consecutively conducted, but renewed from time to time, and advanced step by step, after each process had been mentally wrought out.

Mr. Eickemeyer married Miss Mary T. Tarbell, of Dover, Me., in July, 1856, and has six children. He is held in the highest regard by his fell ,w-townsmen, who, in 1869, elected him trustee of public school No. 2, of which he was almost immediately elected President and so remained till the time of the consolidation and reorganization of the schools, in which movement he was a most prominent worker, and a member of the first Board. Mr. Eickemeyer served with Co. H, 17th Regt., (from Yonkers) at the time of the Rebellion.

When the project of constructing water-works was contemplated Mr. Eickemeyer was appointed on the first committee to examine plans, etc., and when the Board of Water Commissioners was organized in March, 1873, he was chosen as one of the members, and has held the office coutinuously to the present time, and for the last two years has been president of the board. He is also a director in the First National Bank. It affords us great pleasure to present his fellow-towns- men with this sketch of Mr. Eickemeyer, who has been so wonderfully and uniformly successful in his inventive efforts to supply the hat manufacturing in- dustry with efficient machinery, and who is still patiently and persistently working out new problems of a similar character, or seeking to achieve the perfec- tion of what he has hitherto only partially completed.1

1 The above sketch, with slight modification, is taken from The Hut, Cap and Fur Trade Review for August, 1882.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

D. SAUNDERS' SONS .- The industry conducted by this firm of brothers was started by their father, David Sannders. Ile was born at Cupar Angus, Seot- land, in July, 1809, eame to New York in 1850, set- tled in Yonkers in 1854, and died here August 6, 1873. He started business in 1857, using part of Peek's flour-mill for a shop, but afterwards moved below the dam into Copeutt's building, subsequently known as the Pencil-Factory. Here he was burned out in 1868. After the fire he built his factory in Atherton Street, which was first occupied May 1, 1870. This is now the site of the business of the firm.

The business at first was ordinary jobbing, and making special machinery for parties wishing it for particular purposes in their work. Afterwards the manufacture of lathes and drilling-machines was adopted as a specialty, till the shop, in 1868, was burned, with its entire contents, including the whole stock of patterns and drawings for tools. Then atten- tion was turned to gas and steam-fitters' tools, which at the time offered a fair field for improvement, and to the perfecting of these the firm has direeted its thonght and work to the present time.

The business was a success from the start, although slow at first for want of capital. The loss by fire in 1868 was a great check to it, as the work of years was destroyed in a night.

The firm is the possessor of several important pat- ents. When it started, the father and the sons, Wil- liam, Alexander, Leslie and Andrew, formed it. Wil- liam died in 1865, and another son, Irving, was taken in. The father died, as stated, in 1873, and An- drew died April 8, 1885. The latter had devised and perfected many inventions.

The main part of the building in Atherton Street is of brick, three stories high, and sixty-five by forty-five feet in dimensions. There are, in addition, a boiler- room, blacksmith shops and wooden extensions for ma- chine shops, store-rooms, etc. The firm has em- ployed at times as many as one hundred men.

UNDERHILL'S BREWERY. - The brewery estab- lishment of Edward Underhill's Son, the only one of the kind in Yonkers, is located on Chicken Island. The business was begun by Edward Underhill, Sr., in a building on the same island, which had been oc- cupied by Mr. John T. Waring's hat-factory. The first barrel of ale was brewed on the 1st day of March, 1858. The building being partially destroyed by fire, the present building was erected, and the bus- iness moved into it in 1861. Changes in the proprie- torship were frequent. The founder of the business was succeeded by Henry & Co., who were in turn followed by their predecessor. Then William Jaek- son and Robert Edgar became partners with Edward Underhill, Jr., under the firm-name of E. Underhill & Co. William Jackson retired from the firm in 1869, and Mr. Edgar retired at n later date. Henry M. Underhill was a partner for awhile, since which the business has been conducted by Edward Under-

hill, under the name of E. Underhill's Son. The products are ales and porter.

HOWELL'S SUGAR REFINERY .- The sugar refinery of B. H. Howell's Son & Co., located on the river just south of the railroad depot, was established by Ed- ward Underhill in 1862. Brown sugar is extracted from molasses and sent to New York to be purified, and bronght to the condition of white sugar. The main building is of brick, one hundred by forty feet, and three stories high. There are also two other buildings, one story high, one of which is one hun- dred by thirty-six feet, and the other one hundred and five by forty-two feet. Both are used for the granu- lating process and for storage. Mr. William C. Waring was associated with Mr. Underhill in 1863, and the firm-name was Underhill & Waring. In 1864 Mr. Underhill withdrew and Edward W. Cole took his place, making the firm Waring & Cole. By the ad- mission of Mr. A. W. Doren in 1864, the retirement of Mr. Waring in 1865, and the subsequent admission of Mr. Jacob Read, the firm became Cole, Doren & Read. Mr. Cole dropped out in 1866, and the firm was then Doren & Read. Mr. Doren died in 1868, and his interest was purchased by Mr. Read, from whom, in 1870, the establishment passed into the hands of Benjamin Howell & Co., Mr. Read remain- ing as its superintendent. Another change, subse- quently made, brought the firm-name to its present form.

FIRE-ARMS AND MOWING-MACHINES .- During the last war the manufacture of fire-arms was a lively in- dustry in many places. The large building fronting on Vark Street, between Riverdale and Hawthorne Ave- nues, and now used by the Waring Hat Manufacturing Company, was erected in 1862 or 1863 to supply the demand for fire-arms. "The Star Arms Company " was organized, and Mr. Everett Clapp was its presi- dent. With the close of the war the demand for its products ceased, and the building was unused till February 1867, when the Clipper Mowing-Machine Company opened it for the manufacture of mowing- machines. This company carried on business till 1874 or 1875, when it dissolved.

ALEXANDER SMITH & SONS CARPET COMPANY .- The earliest carpet-factory of Yonkers was that of Hutchinson & Mitchell, the site of which is repre- sented on our map of 1847, and is now occupied by the Yonkers Flour-Mill, already described. Hutchin- son & Mitchell used only hand-looms, and their work wns conducted on a small seale. Their simple work was arrested by the burning of their factory in 1851 or 1852.

At the present time the manufacture of carpets by this company is the largest industry in Yonkers. It is under one proprietorship and management, though it occupies three of the largest plants in the city. One of these is at the corner of Palisade Avenue and Elm Street, near the heart of the city. The main building is of brick, fronting about four hundred feet

MOQUETTE MILLS.

WEAVING MILLS.

SPINNING AND PRINT MILLS.

ALEXANDER SMITH & SONS CARPET CO. YONKERS, N. Y.

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on Palisade Avenue. It has a width of fifty-five feet, and is five stories high at the south end, which faces on Elm Street. Large dyeing-houses and other accessory buildings are connected with it. On the northeastern outskirts of the city, facing about five hundred feet in length, on the west side of the Saw-Mill River road, and directly opposite the Yonkers Cemetery, stands the second mill. This one is about sixty feet wide and three stories high, with a basement. It was built by Alexander Smith & Sons in 1871. About a quarter of a mile further up the beautiful valley of the Nepperhan stands the third mill of this company. Like the other two, it is a brick building. It is four stories high, with a base- ment, being five hundred and eighty-four feet long and about fifty-five feet wide. It stands on the west side of the stream and faces on Nepperlian Avenue. Large dyeing-houses or drum-rooms are near these mills. One of them is about two hundred feet wide, five hundred feet long and two stories high.

The business of earpet-weaving was established in Yonkers by Alexander Smith in 1865; after he had twice lost a factory by fire in West Farms, where he had been pursuing the earpet business since about 1845. The invention of improved looms for the manufacture of tapestry, velvet, moquette and Ax- minster carpets, which he developed in Yonkers, and which are operated by steam-power, enabled him to manufacture his goods at priees considerably below those that had prevailed and the growth of the busi- ness, when onee fairly under way in Yonkers, was rapid.

Mr. Smith, like many other inventors of note, met with many discouragements and reverses before he could get his Moquette and Axminster looms so working as to show what possibilities lay within them. The successive fires at West Farms, already men- tioned, were not sufficient, however, to break his spirit. Twelve years of his life-years of labor, anxiety and experiment-were passed before he eould bring this loom to a condition that he thought would insure sueeess. Although thus twice defeated, he did not give up the struggle, but returned to it with renewed energy. He came to Yonkers after the second fire at West Farms, which oeeurred in 1864 and stripped him of everything belonging to his factory and his looms, and left him only a national flag which had waved above his building and had by some means escaped. He was fortunate in the aid he now seeured in his business, fortunate in liis business associations and fortunate in his continued experiments. His reputation for ability, industry and integrity made him the leader in the branch in which he was en- gaged. He perfected the improvements he had made in looms and in spinning and weaving processes, and secured patents for his inventions in Great Britain and Franee. In those countries they have been accepted, their superiority admitted and the inven- tions brought into extensive use. Mr. Smith died November 5, 1878, at the age of sixty years, having

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 24

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286