USA > New York > Orange County > Newburgh > Newburgh; her institutions, industries and leading citizens, historical, descriptive and biographical > Part 48
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PATRICK DELANY was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, May 25, 1842. His father died when Patrick was very young, and bis mother brought her family to America in 1848. For a year they lived in New York, and then came to Newburgh. Mr. Delany received a practical education, and entered the employ of Alexander Cauldwell, who then had boiler works here. Mr. Delany learned the trade in every part, and continued in the same employ until 1870, when he began business on his own account. He is highly regarded in trade circles for his integrity and mechanical skill. He is the patentee of the improved ice buoy used by the United States Government. He is an expert designer and constructor of steam boilers, and has de- signed many for special kinds of work. Mr. Delany is liberal in his charities and helpful to the community. He was elected by the Dem- ocratic party an Alderman from the First Ward in 1874, and served two years. He is unmarried. He belongs to the Orange Lake Club. Mr. Delany's success in life has been the result of sterling qualities. His brother John is a member of the shipbuilding and engineering firm of T. S. Marvel & Co.
ALBERT NELSON CHAMBERS is the second son of William Chambers, and was born in Newburgh July 11, 1860. After attend- ing public and private schools he was prepared for college by a four years' course at Mr. Siglar's school. He intended to take a law course at Columbia, but having a stronger inclination for a commercial life, he pursued those studies no further. In May, 1878, he became the bookkeeper at the steam boiler works of Boland & Delany, afterward known as the Newburgh Steam Boiler Works, of which Patrick De- lany was the owner. Mr. Chambers has ever since been identified
with the concern. For a number of years he was Mr. Delany's con- fidential and financial manager, and on January 1, 1890, he became part owner and partner in the property and business. It is to his skill as a business manager that the success of the concern has been largely credited. Mr. Chambers married Ella, daughter of F. B. Smith, of Newburgh. He is a Republican in politics and a strong pro- tectionist. He is a member of the Orange Lake Club, the Newburgh City Club, and the Dutchess Club, of Poughkeepsie, and also of the Masonic fraternity. For a number of years he was Secretary of Law- son Hose Company.
THOMAS S. MARVEL & CO., iron ship-building and engineer- ing works. Ship-building has been one of the industries of New- burgh from its earliest years. Situated on the great river of the North, accessible from the ocean, and convenient to the great com- mercial center of the country, it has every advantage for the business. Within a comparatively few years the large establishment of Thomas
3
PHOTO, BY MAPES.
THOMAS S. MARVEL
S. Marvel & Co. has grown up here. Soon after the failure of Ward, Stanton & Co., Captain Thomas S. Marvel, who had been the super- intendent of their shipyard, formed a partnership with John Delany, who had been a member of the old firm, and began business on his own account, securing for that purpose a site near by, and leasing from the company which then owned it a marine railway for hauling out vessels. The members of the new firm combined for this com- mon end large experience and ability in their calling. Each is master of his respective branch, Captain Marvel as a marine architect and constructor of hulls, and Mr. Delany as a designer and constructor of marine engines. They naturally succeeded to a considerable portion of the patronage of Ward, Stanton & Co., and have been very pros- perous. Their shipyard has been enlarged from time to time, and building after building has been reared for the purposes of their busi- ness. They now have a river frontage of five hundred feet, and a depth of three hundred and fifty, and every square foot is in use. Their buildings, which include a machine-shop, mould-loft, joiner-shop, blacksmith-shop, saw-mill, paint-shop, patteru-shop, storehouses, of- fices, and drafting-rooms, cover 17,500 square feet of ground. Includ-
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NEWBURGH.
ed in the equipment is a substantial marine railway, constructed at a cost of $10,000, and capable of hauling out boats of the largest size. About two hundred men are employed in the building and repairing of iron and wooden steamboats, yachts, ferryboats, barges and other water-craft. The firm contracts for the building of boats to even the smallest detail, and the products of their works can be seen every- where in northern waters.
During their six years' existence they have built fifty-four boats, nearly all of them iron or steel. The most notable ones are the ferry- boats Bergen, the steamer Homer Ramsdell, for the Homer Ramsdell Transportation Co .; Orange, Montclair, Bremen, and Hamburg, for the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company; the Pierrepont, Whitehall and Montauk, for the Union Ferry Company; propeller R. H. Rathbun, for the Lehigh Valley R. R. Co .; the propeller George W. Washburn, for the Cornell Steamboat Company; and the yacht Myra, for William E. Bartlett, of Newburgh.
The Bergen is a double-ender screw ferry-boat, the first of its type. She has a screw-propeller at each end. The shaft runs the entire length of the boat, and the screws always rotate together, being in- capable of independent movement. Many advantages are claimed for this system. All the machinery is below decks, enlarging the deck-room about twenty per cent. The absence of side-wheels, of course, largely increases the cabin-room. The engines are of the triple-expansion type. The screw-propeller blades have faces alike, since they are required to work both ways.
CAPT. THOMAS S. MARVEL has been trained in ship-building since boyhood, and has had many years' experience in the direc- tion of operations in connection therewith. His father, Thomas S. Marvel, was a native of Rhode Island, of English ancestry. Thomas S., Jr., was born in New York City, May 16, 1834. About two years later his father, who was a ship-builder, came to Newburgh, and established a business, having his shipyard first at the foot of Little Ann Street, and afterward on Norris's dock, at the foot of Renwick Street, where he had a marine railway and every facility for carrying on a large business. The boy early showed a preference for his father's calling, and at the proper age was regularly apprenticed to the trade of ship- carpentry, and learned drafting besides.
At the age of twenty-one, his father having retired, Mr. Marvel began business for himself, and subsequently took George Riley into partnership. When the war broke out, he quit his business and rais- ed a company which was mustered in October 28, 1861, as Company A, 56th New York Volunteers, with Captain Marvel in command. He served in all fifteen months, then he resumed business in New- burgh, but a couple of years later moved to Port Richmond, Staten Island. In 1877 he engaged with Ward, Stanton & Co., of Newburgh, to superintend the construction of their vessels. While he was em- ployed there some of the finest boats in American waters were built by the firm, and when it passed out of existence Captain Marvel formed the present partnership with John Delany. He married, in 1861, Hattie, daughter of John Burns, of Monroe, N. Y., and has two sons and two daughters.
JOHN DELANY, junior member of the firm of Thomas S. Marvel & Co., was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1840. In 1848, after his father's death, his mother brought the family to America, and re- sided a year in New York City before coming to Newburgh. John became a wage-earner as soon as his years permitted, and acquired a practical education by attending night school. At the age of sev- enteen he was apprenticed to George M. Clapp, superintendent of the Washington Iron Works, to learn the machinist trade, and during his employment at these large works he was thoroughly schooled in the mechanical and theoretical principles of engine-building. He worked on the gunboats building for the Government, and spent six years in Cuba setting up machinery for the company.
About 1869 Mr. Delany bought out the interest of the junior part- ner in the firm of Melrose & Moss, general machinists, in South Water Street, near South William, and subsequently became sole proprietor of the business. He made good progress, and enlarged his facilities by purchasing the machine-shop of George Hunt, which
T. S. MARVEL & CO.'S SHIPYARD.
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NEWBURGH.
adjoined his own. In 1872 he formed a partnership with Samuel Stan- ton, formerly superintendent of the Washington Iron Works, and Luth- er C. Ward,formerly business manager of the same concern, under the firm name of Ward, Stanton & Co. They took possession of a large brick building and the adjoining dock property on the east side of South Water Street, near the foot of South William Street, and designated them the Highland Iron Works. At first they manufactured engines and general machinery, but within a few years iron ship-building hecame their principal business, though wooden vessels were built as well. Within a few years the works were greatly enlarged, and three hundred men were employed. It was the largest concern then in Newburgh. They built a great number of boats. principally steam yachts, ferry-boats and towing-propellers. They not only designed and constructed hulls, engines and boilers, but furnished boats through-
feet, three stories; No. 2, 190x60, three stories with additions; No. 3, 150x60, three stories; No. 4, 200x60, one story; No. 5, 80x50, two stories; a total of 126,000 square feet of floor space. Besides water power, the location has the added advantage of railroad and water communication. A switch from the Erie enters their yard, and tide- water is not far away. Steam as well as water is used for motive- power-300 horse-power of steam-engines and 140 horse-power of water-wheels. A system of forty driven wells furnishes a supply of 1,250,000 gallons daily of the pure spring water used in bleaching. One hundred and twenty hands are employed in bleaching and finish- ing all kinds of cotton goods. A specialty is made of bleached Canton flannels, the output of the Newburgh Bleachery in this class of goods being more than one-third of the total production in the country. The present capacity of the works is 160,000 yards daily. The New York
NEWBURGH BLEACHERY.
out. The fine steam yachts Namouna, Polynia, Rhada, Vidette, and Shaughrann were built by this firm.
In 1882 the works were nearly destroyed by fire, and in 1884 the firm failed. Soon after Mr. Delany formed the partnership with Mr. Marvel, and a new establishment is growing up under their hands which is likely to surpass the old one. Mr. Delany married Sarah E., daughter of John Toohey, in 1867, and has four sons and three daughters.
THE NEWBURGH BLEACHERY, of which James Chadwick is President, and Joseph Chadwick, Treasurer, is one of the largest and best equipped establishments of the kind in the country. At- tracted by the unrivaled advantages Newburglı presented as a site for a business such as theirs, the Messrs. Chadwick purchased in 1871 a tract (now fifteen acres in extent) on the Quassaick Creek. They then had a factory at Rutherford, N. J., but in the course of a few years the whole business was concentrated here. The principal build- ings, five in number, have the following dimensions: No. 1, 200x60
office is No. 115 Worth Street. James and Joseph Chadwick are also partners with their brother Thomas M. Chadwick and their brother- in-law William Smith in the Boarshaw Bleachery, Dye and Print Works at Middleton, near Manchester, England.
JAMES CHADWICK, President of the Newburgh Bleachery, and his brother Joseph, have been material contributors to the enlarge- ment of Newburgh. Long ago they perceived the singular adapt- ability of our city for a manufacturing center. Though they then had large interests in another place, with that forehandedness which has characterized them as business men, they set about at once to acquire the larger measure of success that awaited them here. They now, without having sought public notice, fill important places in the business and social life of the city, and are of that class of men who give tone and character to the community in which they reside. It is by instancing the abundant success of adopted citizens like the Messrs. Chadwick that we hope to secure other manufacturers like them.
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NEWBURGH.
James Chadwick was born January 22, 1830, in the City of Hey- wood, Lancashire, England. The Chadwicks of his lineage had re- sided in that vicinity for three centuries. James was graduated at
long the volume of business demonstrated the need of greater fa- cilities than Rutherford afforded. In 1871 the site of the present establishment was purchased by the Messrs. Chadwick from Enoch
M.N.Co.
PHOTO. BY ATKINSON.
JAMES CHADWICK.
JOSEPH CHADWICK.
the Townhead Academy, Rochdale, and choosing a manufacturing career, he was apprenticed in the factory of a relative to learn cotton-
Carter and William B. Sanxay, who had a small flour mill there, and within a few years the present buildings successively appeared. The
spinning. He served three and a half years at that trade, and then, to further prepare himself for his life-work, he en- tered a bleaching and dyeing establishment. Therefore when in 1859 he came to America, he was well equipped for the position he secured in the Boiling Spring Bleachery, in New Jersey. Subse- quently he formed a part- nership with George Wylie in the napping bus- iness, at Paterson, N. J., and his brother Joseph having come from Eng- land, succeeded him in the Boiling Spring Bleachery. In 1867 the two brothers and Mr. Wylie formed a partnership, and execut- ed a contract to lease the Boiling Spring Works at the expiration of the ex- isting lease. In the meantime Mr. Wylie died, but he left a trustee by will to fulfill his part of the requirements of the contract. That was the beginning of the present concern. Ere
RESIDENCE OF JAMES CHADWICK-182 Grand Street.
Boiling Spring Bleachery was relinquished in 1878.
James Chadwick has been a citizen of New- burgh since 1871. He has a handsome residence at IS2 Grand Street. He is a Vestryman at St. George's Church, a Di- rector of the Newburgh National Bank, and a member of the Newburgh City Club. He married Mary Ellen Hughes, of Philadelphia.
JOSEPH CHAD-
WICK, Treasurer of the Newburgh Bleachery, was born in Heywood, Lancashire, England, October 24, 1841, and ed- ucated at the Townhead Academy, Rochdale. Coming of a family of manufacturers, he natur- ally chose a similar call- ing for himself. The
practical knowledge of his business was acquired at a large bleachery, dye and print works in Manchester, and at his father's
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NEWBURGH.
cotton-spinning factory at Rochdale. The American war between the States caused a stagnation in cotton manufacturing in England, and in 1865 Mr. Chadwick came to America to see the country and observe what opportunities were offered in his line of bus- iness. He had a clearly defined ambition to suc- ceed along the line for which he had been spec- ially fitted. He hoped for nothing to come by chance, and even thus early in life his every step was well considered. He quickly estimated the probabilities of a great development of cotton manufacturing in this country, and when the position vacated by his brother at the Boiling Spring Bleachery, at Rutherford, N. J., was opened to him, he accept- ed it. Two years later he and his brother secur- ed an agreement for a lease of the works. While in Rutherford he was elected a member of the Township Committee, and also of the Board of Education and clerk of the public school. He was also for several years a Vestryman and Warden of St. John's Church, Passaic, N. J.
He remained in charge of their Boiling Spring Bleachery till 1878, since which time he has been a resident of Newburgh. He has a fine country-seat on Powell Avenue. Mr. Chadwick fills an honorable position as a trustee of the Savings Bank. He is a member of the
esteemed as one of our substantial citizens, and stands high in the social scale. He has been the architect of his own fortune, and his
RESIDENCE OF JOSEPH CHADWICK-Powell Avenue, corner of Castle Avenue.
career is an example of what thorough prepara- tion and intelligent, per- sistent effort along one line will accomplish for an ambitious young man. Mr. Chadwick married Margaret, daughter of William Smith, of Man- chester, England, a prom- inent dyer and finisher of cotton-goods, and has three sons and one daughter
THE NEWBURGH PLASTER WORKS
are the largest in the world. They have a frontage on the river of one thousand feet. They are admirably equipped with the latest improved machinery, driven by two large steam engines. One hundred and fifty men are employed. The products are calcined plaster, land plaster, terra alba, paper makers' supplies, whiting, etc., which are shipped to all parts of the United States and exported to Canada, South America and Aus- tralia. The annual out-put of the mill would be represented by about fifty thousand tons of the materials used. Situated on tide water, the works have direct communication with the Atlantic coast cities and foreign ports; and for connection with the interior cities several rail routes are at their doors on the western side. Mr. Higginson,
NEWBURGH PLASTER WORKS.
Merchants' Club of New York, one of the incorporators of the New- burgh City Club, a member of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation, and also of the Newburgh Board of Trade. He is
the proprietor, says he has every facility for the transaction of a large business, and if he had the works to build again he would build them precisely where they now are; he knows of no better location
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NEWBURGH.
KILMER MANUFACTURING CO.'S ROD MILL AND WIRE WORKS.
in the country. Newburgh is a port of delivery, with a resi- dent customs officer. Sea-going and river vessels are almost constantly loading or unloading at the plaster works docks. Two steamers and a barge are employed exclusively in carry- ing from the works to New York and river points. The busi- uess was established by William R. Brown in 1868. Henry C. Higginson, the present proprietor, has been connected with it since 1869, and in 1876 succeeded Mr. Brown. He was born in Dubuque, Ia., in 1852. He is a grandson of the late Judge John W. Brown. He is also President and half owner of the Sing Sing, N. Y., Lime Company, President of the Orange Lake Club of this city, and Commodore of the Orange Lake Ice Yacht Club. During the existence of the 17th Battalion, N. G. S. N. Y., he was Inspector of Rifle Practice, and captain of the battalion rifle team.
THE KILMER MANUFACTURING COMPANY have since their settlement in Newburgh developed a very large business in manufacturing a series of different articles of wire. The business was begun in 1878 by Augustus Kilmer and his sons on a farm at Howe's Cave, N. Y., in manufacturing bale ties on an invention of Irving A. Kilmer. The following year a factory was established at Schenectady, and in the course of subsequent years numerous other inventions were made by them, aud the business greatly enlarged. When, in 1886, increased facilities were imperatively demanded, induce- ments were presented by the Newburgh Board of Trade which brought about the removal of the business to this city in 1887. Au excellent site of twenty-six acres on Quassaick Creek was purchased, on which a brick factory 450 feet in length, 62 feet in width and two stories in height was erected. Operations were begun in November. A galvanizing mill was a later addition. In February, 1891, a rod mill was completed. It is 180x100 feet, built of iron. The mill itself is a departure in some respects from the ordinary type, the design being the invention of Irving A. Kilmer. A billet is rolled in a billet-train of seven passes, whence it is deliver- ed through a trough with twist guide to a side train. Through a repeater the rod is conveyed to the second pass on the side train, from which it issues as an oval and is delivered through a trough with twist guide to the third train, having five stands of rolls. It finally reaches the finishing train with four sets of rolls, the repeaters being on the same side of the train, iu which the rods are square. It is finally delivered from the last pass to reels.
The rod mill is equipped with five Heine boilers of 200 horse power each, and one tubular boiler, and is driven by two Wright engines having 30-inch diameter of cylinders and 48- inch stroke, and rated at one thousand horse power each. From thence the different trains are driven by belting. The furnaces are heated by gas generated on the premises. The capacity of the mill is equal to any in this country, starting with a four-inch billet. The main mill is equipped with numer- ous machines and appliances for working wire, many of them the invention of the Kilmer Company. The machinery in this mill is driven by a Whitehill engine of 250 horse power. The establishment is lighted by electricity generated on the premises.
The Kilmer Manufacturing Company, of which T. S. Kilmer is President, I. A. Kilmer is Vice-President, E. E. Kilmer is Secretary, M. D. Kilmer is Treasurer, and W. A. Kilmer is Superintendent, make wire nails, wire staples, plain and orna- mental fencing, barbed wire, bale ties, galvanized wire, market wire and wire rods. Their product has a very high reputation in the market. About four hundred men are employed at the works. There is a branch office in Chicago.
The location of the works is one of the most advantageous in the country. They have a frontage on Quassaick Creek which affords great water-power facilities. The Hudson River
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NEWBURGH.
is only a few rods away, and a switch from the Erie and West Shore roads enters the factory yard. Besides cheap freight rates, there is the added advantage of cheap coal, as the great depot of the Pennsylvania Coal Company adjoins the Kilmer works.
THE HIGHLAND MILLS, George Crawshaw's Sons proprie- tors, have an important place among the large manufacturing
then at West Farms. Afterwards he was superintendent of the Bailey Carpet Works, which were started in Poughkeepsie and sub- sequently moved to Esopus. On coming to Newburgh Mr. Crawshaw was for a period superintendent of his brother Samuel's woolen fac- tory on the Quassaick, and was afterward superintendent for P. S. Haines when that gentleman began to manufacture carpets at his mills at West Newburgh. Mr. Crawshaw began, in 1872, to weave rag carpet in a building on Broadway, opposite the car stables. Next he moved to No. 90 Broadway, where he opened a carpet store and ran a couple of looms in a rear room. In this en- terprise Mr. Crawshaw's experience was aided by the youthful energy of his son Samuel. When they started the little factory at West Newburgh they manufactured a rug that for quality and heauty BANSKIES CHALET WARS acquired a good reputa- tion in the market, and had a ready sale in their store. In 1880 Mr. Craw- shaw took his sons Sam- uel and Mark into part- nership.
Within the next few years their works were repeatedly enlarged as their business extended. About ten years ago they hegan to manufacture ingrain carpets. George Crawshaw retired with a competency in 1886, and died May 25, 1888. Since then the business has been carried on by his sons Samuel and Mark, under the firm name of George Crawshaw's Sons. The Broadway store is now owned by Thomas Crawshaw, and the other two sons of George Crawshaw,
HIGHLAND MILLS-Front View-GEORGE CRAWSHAW'S SONS, Proprietors.
establishments of varied character that are, each succeeding year, becoming more and more the basis of Newburgh's activity, and they have shared in the remarkable development which has favored nearly all our manufactories. The Highland Mills are also of comparatively recent origin. In the year 1876 George Crawshaw bought a small plot of ground, which now forms part of the present site, and erected a frame building scarce thirty feet long, for the purpose of making Smyr- na rugs.
From that little plant the existing large works have grown. George Crawshaw was, in many respects, a remarkable man. He started out in life with a determination to succeed. He overcame many obstacles, and when he had reached the west- ern side of life the goal of his early ambition was attained. Born of humble parentage in England, he learned the trade of car- pet-weaving. Every- thing he did was well done, and step by step he acquired increased knowl- edge, and rose in the es- timation of his employers till he became a superin- tendent of carpet works.
HIGHLAND MILLS-Rear View.
Emigrating to America with his wife and family in 1857, he found employment at Alexander Smith & Sons' carpet works, which were
William and George, hold positions in the mills The Highland Mills are situated on Broadway in the western part of the city, the premises
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NEWBURGH.
extending back to the Little Britain road. The Powder Mill creek runs through the property. The main buildings are two in number,
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