USA > New York > Onondaga County > Syracuse > Memorial history of Syracuse, N.Y. : from its settlement to the present time > Part 27
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J. F. Pease Furnace Company .- This company was incorporated in April, 1883, with a capital stock of $30,000 and the following officers: President, Dennis M. Kennedy; Vice-President, John F. Pease; Secretary and 1reas- urer, E. K. West. The company commenced doing business at 63 West Water 'street. In 1885 they moved to their present location in Willow street, next to the Oswego Canal bridge, where their factory is still located. In 1887 they built a foundry at the corner of Belden avenue and Sand street, where their castings are now made by the Economy Foundry Com- pany, to whom the foundry plant was rented by the J. F. Pease Furnace Company. There are employed at the factory in Willow street from sixty to eighty hands, with seven salesmen on the road; at the foundry are over 100 hands. In April, 1889, the late President, Dennis M. Kennedy, died, and the present organization is as follows : President and Treasurer, E. K. West; Vice-President, John F. Pease; Secretary, Samuel Stephens; Assist- ant Treasurer, W. K. West; Assistant Secretary, E. C. Moses. This com- pany manufactures, in addition to the ordinary warm air heaters, specialties consisting of a steam and warm air combination heater and a hot water and warm air combination heater, their business having increased more than seven hundred per cent. within the last seven years, and their sales extend from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Me., and as far south as Texas.
Pierce, Butler & Pierce Manufacturing Company .- This company was incorporated in 1876 with a capital stock of $200,000 and increased in 1890 to $600,000, and is an outgrowth of the mercantile business established by Sylvester P. Pierce in the year 1839. The business of the company embraces the manufacture of steam heating apparatus, lead and block tin pipe, solder, and the very popular and celebrated Florida steam and hot water heaters. The four-story brick building 66 x 130 feet in Clinton street is occupied for the offices and wholesale department of the company. In the basement are located two large lead presses. Their large foundry and machine shops, used for the manufacturing of their Florida steam and hot water heaters, are located at Geneva, N. Y., on the line of the N. Y. C. R. R. The officers of the company are as follows: President, S. P. Pierce ; Vice-President and Treasurer, W. K. Pierce; Secretary, C. C. Jen- kins ; these with C. V. Kellogg and M. C. Pierce constitute the Board of Directors. The concern employs 225 hands and produces an output of $1,000,000 and over per annumn. 82
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Howard Furnace Company, doing business at 529 and 531 South Clinton street, manufactures the warm air furnaces and combination hot water and warm air heaters patented in 1887 by Charles D. Howard. The company was organized January 1, 1888, with a capital of $30,000, which was increased to $50,000 in 1889, and all paid in. The company is in a flourishing con- dition and its business is constantly increasing. It has thirty employees and five salesmen. Its business has increased over 200 per cent. since its organi- zation. The officers are E. M. Moore, President; J. H. Norton, Vice-Presi- dent ; Fred H. Moore, Treasurer; G. H. Kennedy, Secretary; and Charles D. Howard, Superintendent of manufacture.
The business of the Wells Manufacturing Company was started in a small way in 1884. It is confined strictly to the manufacture of articles covered by patents, and their sales are made chiefly to the drug, stationery, and book trades. By persistent efforts they have been able to make a mar- ket for their goods, not only throughout the United States, but in consid- erable quantities in foreign countries. The business has been one of steady growth, and they have at different times enlarged their facilities for manu- facturing. In 1890 they built and are now occupying a large and commo- dious factory in Tallman street. The establishment embraces a printing office, book bindery, woodworking department, machine shop, and sewing- machine room. Arthur J. Wells is the manager and the inventor of the specialties which they manufacture. They use steam-power and employ from thirty to forty hands.
The Globe Laundry, located at 232 North Salina street, was started in 1884 by Henry Funda. In 1885 William Schillinger purchased the busi- ness, and two years later substituted steam-power for hand labor. He keeps two delivery wagons and employs twenty people.
The New Process Raw Hide Company, with offices at No. 248 West Washington street, and works at Baldwinsville, N. Y., was organized June 25, 1888, with a capital of $30,000, which has since been increased to $40,- 000. This company manufactures raw hide by its patented process of curing, which removes all superfluous matter and retains only the actual fibre to the full extent of its strength, the product bearing the same relation to or- dinary raw hide that steel docs to iron. From the hide so treated various articles are manufactured, the principal ones which the company itself pro- duces being raw hide bound mallets and chisel handles, warranted not to split, and noiseless solid raw hide gears. The gears are used on all high-speed machinery, are strictly noiseless, and outwear both steel and bronze. For electric railway cars they are particularly desirable, and many of the most prominent lines have adopted them to the exclusion of all other kinds. That they will in a short time entirely supercede the use of metal gears for
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this purpose, against the noise of which the public generally vigorously protests, seems to be a foregone conclusion. The officers of the New Pro- cess Raw Hide Company are T. W. Meachem, President; Hon. W. B. Kirk, Vice-President ; A. C. Vosburgh, Secretary ; and J. C. Kenyon, Treasurer.
The firm of Dickison & Allen was formed in 1887, the individual mem- bers being William Dickison and Erwin M. Allen. Both were experienced contractors and builders: Mr. Dickison in Oswego, whence he came to Syracuse, where he has been for the past twenty three years, and Mr. Allen in this city, where his father had long followed the business. They are large operators, having the present year contracts for the Masonic Home and School in Utica and the Young Men's Christian Association Building in Montreal, Canada. Their office and extensive factory for woodwork of every description are located at 411 to 417 Canal street. The firm employs from forty to fifty hands at home and from 100 to 150 abroad. Mr. Dicki- son was a captain in the late civil war, enlisting in a regiment from Oswego.
The firm of Martin, Sprague & Co., general contractors, was formed in 1888, and consists of Andrew Martin, W. G. Sprague, and Daniel Candee. In the years 1888 and 1889 they built the James street sewer from the West Shore Railroad to Dr. Wieting's east line, and the two-foot brick sewers in Laurel, Seward, Highland, and Graves streets, 5000 feet long. Among their subsequent contracts have been the grading and macadamizing of Wil- bur avenue, three-fourths of a mile ; grading Lincoln avenue, now South Onondaga street, from Delaware to Geddes streets; and constructing a five- foot sewer in Talman and Croton streets, three-fourths of a mile. In 1890 the same parties, under the firm name of W. G. Sprague & Co., were awarded the contract to build a sewer in South Salina street, from Kennedy street to Brighton, a distance of 4,000 feet, which work is now in progress. They employ from twenty-five to fifty men. All the members of this firm have been old railroad contractors.
Martin, Sullivan & Donovan, street and sewer contractors, have been in business since 1886. Mr. Donovan was admitted to partnership in 1891. They are agents for the Empire Portland Cement Company, formerly the firm of Millen & Sons, the factory being at Warners, N. Y. They employ from fifteen to twenty-five' men, and have an office at 112 West Genesee street and a yard on the corner of Lodi and Ash streets. The individual partners are Andrew Martin, C. J. Sullivan, and D. Donovan, the first men- tioned being also a member of the firm of Martin, Sprague & Co.
Ed. Byram, contractor and builder, has a large shop on the corner of Orange and Water streets, with a planing. mill and machinery for wood- work, including stair-building, furniture, water cisterns, and moldings. lle is engaged largely in building blocks and dwellings, and employs an
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average of sixty men. Mr. Byram has lived in Syracuse and followed this business twenty-one years. He was born and raised near Culpepper Court House, Va., and witnessed the hanging of John Brown, at Charles- town, twenty-two miles from Harper's Ferry. In 1860 he was a member of the 13th Regiment, Virginia militia, which was ordered there to guard the execution. There were 105 men in his company, and every one was a carpenter by trade, officers included. The next year he enlisted in General Lee's army, Company C, 7th Virginia, Picket's Division, and fought in all the noted battles in front of Richmond, including Antietam, Gettysburg, and Fredericksburg. Making up his mind the South would never win lie deserted in February, 1865, at Bermuda Hundred, Va., and made his way to Washington, got work at his trade, and helped erect the grand stand from which the officers reviewed the great parade at the close of the war. He then returned to his native town, married, and came North, living two years in Chicago before coming to this city. When he came here he could not write his name. He lives in Danforth street, has ten children, and is prosperous.
Amie Harnois came to Syracuse in 1862, and began his present business in 1865. His first contract was on the corner of Union avenue and Town- send street. That year he built sixteen houses. After that he erected the first house on Prospect Hill, the first on Liberty Hill, and the first in Ger- trude street. Mr. Harnois has instructed many people of his nationality in the carpenters' and builders' trade, and helped them to start for themselves. Perhaps no Frenchman has done more to assist his countrymen to their very creditable and prosperous condition in Syracuse than has Mr. Harnois. He is a Director in the Fourth Ward Railroad Co., a Trustee in the Builders' Exchange, and a Trustee in the Central City Land Company. Besides his contracts with others he builds a good many houses to sell and to rent; he employs thirty people, and is an extensive owner and dealer in real estate. The Syracuse Malleable Iron Works .-- The origin of this concern dates from 1882, when it was started by Hon. Willis B. Burns, the present propri- etor. A. W. Dowsland is Superintendent. The premises are on the north side of the Erie Canal at North Geddes street. This is one of the great metal works of the United States. In it upwards of 225 workmen are ent- ployed in conducting the various operations incident to the production of every variety of malleable casting. The foundry, 100 x 200 feet in dimen- sions, is supplied with open hearth furnaces in which the iron is melted, and by the use of which direct radiation from the flame is derived. In this way a pure quality of casting is produced, as the metal is not contaminated with sulphur. The main building, which is Go x 235 feet in size, is devoted to the operations of annealing, tempering, pattern-making, trimming, etc.
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The motive power is supplied by a 60-horse-power Straight Line En- gine and an Abendroth & Root 100-horse-power boiler. Connected with the works are three large coal sheds and a spacious horse stable. The mate- rials received include anthracite and bituminous coal, fire sand, molding sind, luting clay, fire brick, etc. The castings made here vary from one- half pound to 300 pounds in weight. The works consume about 3,000 tons of coal and 15,000 fire brick annually.
Friedel & Soule in 1884 succeeded Jacob Listman in the manufacture of paper boxes at their present location, 408 Clinton street, and 111 and 113 Walton street. At first they employed about thirty hands. Their business has increased. until now they employ fifty hands. They have made a spe- cialty of sample cases for candy, and their goods are sold in all parts of the surrounding country.
The Palace Steam Laundry, at 329 Warren street, was started by Ar- thur B. Russell and Edward A. Hunt in 1888, who have some forty branch offices in Syracuse and adjacent cities and villages. They run three deliv- ery wagons, and give employment to fifty people.
The Syracuse Tube Works .- In the year 1881 a number of Syracuse men organized the Syracuse Iron and Tube Company, and a comparatively small plant was established on the block bounded by Pine, Beech, Wash- ington, and Water streets. N. R. Ryder was President. After an existence of less than two years the entire establishment was disposed of and a new company, called the Syracuse Tube Company, which included most of the old shareholders, was organized, with James Morrison as President, and with a capital of $100,000, which has since been increased to $180,000. Manufacturing was begun on an extensive scale, the product being wrought- iron pipe and boiler tubes. Specialties are high grade boiler tubes for loco- motives and stationary boilers. About fifty men were at first employed, which number has increased to nearly four hundred, and extensive addi- tions have been made to the plant, until it is at the present time one of the leading industries of Syracuse. The officers are: James Morrison, Presi- dent; W. H. Niven, Vice-President; George Timmins, General Manager ; George B. Leonard, Treasurer ; J. M. Colwell, Secretary ; A. Telfer, Super- intendent. This Board has held the offices from the beginning. The office is located at 1317 East Washington street.
The Syracuse Stove Works was incorporated July 13, 1888 ; capital, $150,000. The plant is located on the north bank of the Erie Canal, east of North Geddes street. The officers of the company are J. M. Eaton, President ; Frederick J. Fincke, Vice- President ; Nicholas Devereux, Sec- retary ; Francis Kernan, jr., Treasurer. The word " Welcome" has been adopted and is widely known as the trade mark for their goods. They
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manufacture a complete line of stoves and ranges, employ about one hun- dred men, and melt from ten to twelve tons of iron per day.
Alfred Tily .- Mr. Tily has the longest business record of any one in his line in Syracuse who is still in the trade. He learned his trade by a thorough British apprenticeship in Hampshire, England, and came to Syra- cuse in 1854. In 1857 he opened a store at No. 75 East Genesee street. At that time the only man in the plumbing business in Syracuse was George Gratton. Two years later F. E. Carroll, afterwards Mayor of the city, became a partner with Mr. Gratton. In 1861 Mr. Tily removed to his present location (then No. 89) 333 East Genesee street, which he leased of Richard Paine. In 1865 he purchased the property for $5,500, embracing a lot running through to Washington street 20 x 127 feet. There was then no building on the railroad street side. During the past thirty years Mr. Tily has employed from five to forty men, and has made an honorable busi- ness record.
Edward Joy has had an extensive experience of twenty-six years in the steam heating and plumbing business in Syracuse. His establishment has been located since 1865 at the corner of East Washington and Market streets, and his business has so increased that he now occupies four stores on the ground floor. Among the prominent buildings and residences which Mr. Joy has furnished with steam heating and plumbing are the new Kirk Block, Florence Flats, Church of Assumption School, the new House of Providence, new City Hall, the residences of Congressman J. J. Belden, Senator Frank Hiscock, Senator Francis Hendricks, Judge Wallace, Judge Ruger, George Barnes, and the Solvay Process Company's new office, be- sides a number of fine residences in Cazenovia and Oneida.
R. C. McClure began his plumbing business in South Clinton street in 1879. In 1891 he put up the five-story brick building now occupied by him, which is 133 x 40 feet, at a cost of $25,000. He gives employment to fifteen men.
Charles G. Hanchett began plumbing and heating at No. 13 West Wash- ington street in 1881, and occupied his present location, No. 351 South Sa- lina street, in 1887. He employs twenty men, and put the plumbing and heating in the Snow Building, the Syracuse Savings Bank, the Crouse Sta- bles, the Orphan Asylum, and many of the finest residences.
Francis Baumer .- Many residents of Syracuse will learn here for the first time that the largest manufactory of wax candles in the United States is located in their midst. Francis Baumer's candles have acquired a repu- tation which has enabled the manufacturer to assume the leading position in that trade. Mr. Baumer and Hugo Moosbrugger began making wax candles in 1871. In ISSo Mr. Moosbrugger withdrew from the firm and
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Mr. Baumer has since remained alone. The business was small at the first. employing three workmen, but persistence in manufacturing only the best of goods and great improvements in processes made by him soon greatly increased the business. The sales extend throughout the United States and Canada, and a business has been built up which has grown from year to year and now employs nearly sixty workmen. The wax candles from this manufactory are made of the best refined beeswax, and vary in weight from one-quarter of an ounce to thirty pounds and even larger. Many of the candles, especially those for the first communion and Easter services, are elegantly decorated, fine artists being constantly employed in this work. The manufacture of parlor candles is also carried on extensively. About 400,000 pounds of beeswax candles and 300,000 pounds of stearic acid and paraffine candles are turned out annually. The refining and bleaching of the great quantity of wax is done in Pond street, where the plant covers an entire block. The factory proper is a large brick building in Alvord street. Mr. Baumer was born in Bavaria and came to Syracuse in 1848. He has won a reputation as an honorable and useful citizen, and his manu- factory is one of the representative successful establishments of this city.
Eckerman & Will .- From an insignificant beginning this industry has developed with the growth of the city, and with the increased demands made upon it through the general growth and prosperity of the country. It has become not only one of the important industries of Syracuse, employ- ing as it does about sixty hands, but has helped to give the city of Syracuse a national reputation in this peculiar branch of industry. The pioneer in this business, not only locally, but in the United States, was Anthony Will, who emigrated from Wurtemberg in 1855. He had served his apprentice- ship in Bavaria in the days when the "Wanderbursche" was wont to carry his bundle upon a stick over his shoulder, and trudge from town to town to serve an apprenticeship with each "Meister." Arriving in America, and being unable to find employment at his trade, he began by working a few months at the carpenter trade, devoting spare hours to producing the first wax products by preparing and melting his small stock of material upon a cook stove. From this small beginning the facilities were steadily increased, enabling him to produce better goods and at a lower price than the in- imported article; for at this time all of this class of goods were imported from Italy and Germany, making them so expensive that the demand was limited. When it is understood that in those days there was a lack of proper tools to work with, the few samples of his work, which are still pre- served, bear evidence of skill and taste Framed pieces entirely of beeswax, representing the Singers' Wreath and Book, are still upon the walls at the Liederkranz rooms, and though made over thirty years ago are well pre.
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served specimens of the art. Mr. Will may justly be styled "the father of the wax business" in this country. After his death, which occurred in 1865, the business was continued for a time by his widow, under the style of Eck- erman & Will, and more recently by his sons, the present members of the firm being Louis and Albert Will. Energy and enterprise have character- ized their management, and the business has had a steady and healthy growth. They have branch offices at New York and San Francisco. The increase and prosperity of the business soon induced competition, and now there are five firms engaged in this industry in Syracuse, employing an ag- gregate capital of about $300,000. Characteristic of all American enter- prises, the scope of the product has been materially enlarged, embracing almost everything produced in the line of wax and its by-products. These include beeswax and stearinc candles, plain and decorated for Catholic and Episcopal Church use, bleached white and refined yellow beeswax for chemical and pharmaceutical purposes, wax tapers and fancy candles in colors, and elegant decorations for drawing-rooms and evening parties. The little toy candle that illuminates the Christmas tree to the delight of the little folks is also an important product, while the " house for the little busy bee" is now produced in the shape of artificial honeycomb, thus saving the labor of house building, and increasing the honey product correspondingly. Steam-power is employed in melting and refining the various grades of wax, and special machinery, gotten up in the course of many years of labor and experiment, has supplanted hand labor to a large extent.
Moosbrugger Candle Co .- When the partnership between Francis Bau- mer and Hugo Moosbrugger was dissolved, in 1880, the latter continued the business until his death in 1889, under his own name. Since March, 1890, the firm of Moosbrugger Candle Co., comprising E. Moosbrugger, Frank A. Rauch, and J Hisley, jr., has carried on the candle business at the corner of Pond and Carbon streets. They turn out a full line of decorated wax candles and church and parlor candles. From eight to twelve persons are employed.
The Canning Industry -This industry in Syracuse is an important one, particularly from the unique character of some of its products, and there are several establishments that rank high among the prominent ones of the country, and whose goods find a market in many of the States. One of the earliest firms to engage in the business here was that of Loomis, Allen & Co., which was composed of C. C. Loomis, George R. Allen, and W. B. Ostrander. They began canning tomatoes and corn in 1867, in Willow street, where the Pease Furnace Company is now located. In 1875 the business was removed to Cicero, where its facilities and product were en- larged. In 1878 H. H. Loomis and A. J. Loomis purchased the interests
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of C. C. Loomis and W. B. Ostrander, and in 1883 a branch was established in the First ward, in which Russell Z. Sadler became, and still is, a partner. Mr. Sadler was Supervisor of the First ward in 1887, '88, and '89. This in- dustry has grown to large proportions. In a single year they have used the product of a thousand acres of sweet corn, filling 750,000 cans, which they also manufactured. During the active season 300 operatives are em- ployed, and the annual production has a value of $75,000.
In the spring of 1869 Oscar F. Soule and G. Lewis Merrell formed a partnership for canning purposes, locating opposite where they now are, in West Fayette street. The product of the first season amounted to only about $12,000 in value. In the following year they purchased a site on the corner of Marcellus and West streets, where they remained with a gradu- ally increasing business until 1881. Needing more room at that time they purchased their present quarters, comprising 114 feet frontage on the north side of West Fayette street, and bounded on the west by the creek and on the north by the Central Railroad depot. Two years later Frank C. Soule became a partner in the firm, and in order to accommodate their greatly in- creased corn canning business the firm established a factory at Chittenango, on the Erie Canal. There the product of from 1,200 to 1,500 acres of land is packed every season, equalling an average of as many hundred thousand cans. Their well known trade mark of Captain George, of the Onondagas, is seen in all parts of the country, and is recognized as a guarantee of ex- cellence. They also export largely. In 1873 the firm developed new pro- cesses in the canning of corn and secured valuable patents on the machinery invented for the purpose. The manufacture and sale of this machinery has grown into a prominent part of their business, particularly in the Western States, where most of the canneries work under their processes. In 1885 they began in a small way the manufacture of condensed mince meat, which has now developed into the largest part of their business, averaging a large number of tons daily in the two- pie package form for family use.
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