The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 169

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I > Part 169

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It is very common, when a great manufacturing or commercial house, by dint of energy, enterprise, and the judicious investment of its means, has attained to a superiority over other houses in the same line of bus- iness, to such an extent as to make them, willingly or unwillingly, tributary to its further success, to raise the cry of " monopoly " against it, and thus scek to rouse the opposition of the interested and the un- thinking. While mankind arc constituted as they arc, this cry will be almost invariably raised against successful business men. Sometimes, it is true, the tyranny and grasping disposition of these business kings, may justify a part of what is said against them ; but oftener, the foulest and meanest charges which are made originate entirely in the envious brains of those who have failed in the strife of busi- ness, and who, if they had been successful, would have been far greater tyrants and oppressors than those whom they condemn.

The Standard Oil Company needs no defence at our hands; but a very small proportion of its vast business is conducted within the bounds of Kings county; its immense reservoirs, tanks and refineries clsewhere are out of our limits; but we may be permitted to say, that so far as we have been able to observe, its superi- ority is due to the wonderful energy, enterprise, and business ability of its managers. Commencing at a time when the petroleum production and market were at their lowest ebb, they had the sagacity and courage to foresee for it an eventual and wonderful success. While hundreds were failing, they held on and held out, and when the tide changed, and the export demand became large, they were ready for it. They saw their great opportunity, and embraced it; and to-day it is almost wholly due to thicir exertions that our petroleum exports have risen in about fifteen years from nothing to more than forty million dollars a year, and that re- fined petroleum of the best quality is sold at a price which is within the reach of cven the poorest. Of course this has not been accomplished without exciting the envy and hostility of many; and unthinking parties, ready to believe the worst of their fellow men, have aided to spread the most malicious and unfounded re- ports, when they neither knew its business nor its man- agers. It may have committed some errors, possibly some minor wrongs; most great corporations do; but that the noble-hearted and high-minded Christian gen- tlemen who arc at the head of that great company have, knowingly or wilfully, attempted to oppress or crush others, because they had the power to do so, we do not believe.

Among the companies which are most largely en- gaged in refining petroleum in Brooklyn, two, Charles Pratt & Co. and the Devoe Manufacturing Co., are

much the largest. Mr. Pratt and Mr. Devoe were both originally members of the great firm of Reynolds, De- voe & Pratt, manufacturers of and dealers in paints, etc., but left it in 1867 to engage in the refining of pe- trolcum. At that time most of the "kerosene " on the market was highly inflammable and dangerous. Fires and deaths from its use were constantly occurring. So late as 1869, out of 636 samples obtained in New York and Brooklyn, from respectable dealers, there were only 21, not quite one in 30, whose flashing point was above 100° F. Both Mr. Pratt and Mr. Devoe determined to produce an article which should be free from danger, and while the Legislature had fixed the minimum fire test of 100° F., below which it should be a misde- meanor to sell kerosene, Mr. Pratt, and, we believe, Mr. Devoe also, fixed a fire test about forty degrecs higher as the lowest point consistent with complete safety. Mr. Pratt affixed to his product the name of "Pratt's Astral Oil," while Mr. Devoe gave his the name of "Devoe's Brilliant Oil." By great exertions in making the merits of their respective oils known, both built up an immense business. "Pratt's Astral Oil" has become a household word, throughout our own country, and is very largely sold in foreign countries. After some years Mr. Devoe sold his interest to the Devoe Manufacturing Company, and returned to his former business as a manufacturer and dealer in paints and oils. Mr. Pratt constantly enlarged his business, adding to it manufactories of tools, cans, petroleum barrels and tanks, etc., and taking in partners, as his extended trade required. He also formed a company called the Pratt Manufacturing Company, to manufac- turc the sulphuric acids and other chemicals used in refining petroleum, both for his own company and for the Standard Oil Company, of which he is a director. Of late years, the demand for his "Astral Oil " abroad has compelled him to engage largely in the export trade. Most of the oil shipped to foreign ports is sent in what are called cases, each wooden case containing two five-gallon tin cans, so packed as to be fire and water proof, and also secured against leakage, and at the same time, when the case is opened, the cans can be used or emptied by the retailer without inconveni- ence. For the home trade, it is sold either in petro- lcum barrels, so prepared as to be proof against leakage, or in one and two-gallon cans, provided with a spout and cap, which are largely used by families. Some- times, for stores, ctc., the five-gallon cans are used.

The firm of Charles Pratt & Co. are deserving of high commendation for their solicitous care to send out no oil which was not above the point of perfect safety, and for the precautions they have always in- sisted upon in the use of the Astral Oil. They are now refining it to a yet higher test, and it is a well ascer- tained fact that their Astral Oil will not explode. They manufacture, for gas machines, gasoline; a naphtha of special grade and quality for street lighting in small

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

cities and towns; a benzine, of 62° quality, for manu- facturers' use; a naptha of 70° gravity, and a deodor- ized naptha of 76° gravity, for vapor stoves, lamps, &c. All these are put up so carefully, and with such precautions, as to insure them against accident.

The Devoe Manufacturing Company have been less active in supplying the home market, though their oil is of excellent quality, but have turned their attention mainly, of late years, to the export trade, in which they are, we believe, the largest exporters of refined petro- leum in the United States, their out-put, in a single day, in the busy season, amounting to 60,000 five-gal- lon cans, or 30,000 cases. The annual amount, of course, depends upon the price of refined oils and the foreign demand, which last, however, is constantly in- creasing, in spite of the great discoveries of oil recently made in Germany, Russia and the Caucasus.

The other oil refineries in Brooklyn and Kings county are : Bush & Denslow Mf'g Co., the Greenpoint Oil Works, the Brooklyn Refinery, the Eagle Oil Works, Franklin Oil Works, the Chesebrough Mf'g Company, (vaseline and petroleum jellies), James Donald & Co., G. F. Gregory, Jenney & Son, Wilson & Anderson, Mc Goey & King, the Empire Refining Company, Sone & Fleming, the Hudson Oil Works, the Kings County Oil Works, the New York Kerosene Gas- Light Company, the Vesta Oil Works and the Washington Oil Works, and perhaps four or five individual refiners. A few of these do not report, but we have full returns from twelve of the largest, and those not heard from can hardly increase the following returns (which are for 1883) by more than 10 or 12 per cent. The capital in- vested in the business by these twelve companies is about $7,200,000.

The greatest number of hands employed at any one time during the year was about 3,000.

Average day's wages for a skilled workman, by day, $2.50; by night, $2.66; for an ordinary laborer, by day, $1.55; by night, $1.70; for a cooper, $2.50; for a tinsmith, $2.10. Total amount of wages paid during the year, about $1,500,000.

Gallons of crude petroleum used during the year, about 210,000,000. Value, from $7,200,000 to $9,600,- 000 (at average prices of 1883, the latter sum would be nearest the truth.)

Tons of anthracite coal used during the year, includ- ing pea and dust coal, about 84,000; value, about $210,000. Number of tons of sulphuric acid used dur- ing the year, about 18,000. Number of tons of caustic soda, about 360. Number of barrels used, about 2,400,000; value, about $3,000,000. Number of tin cans made, about 19,200,000; value, about $1,800,000. Gallons of total product of kerosene exported to foreign countries in cans, about 15,000,000. Number of boilers, for steam, about 54. Number of boilers, not for steam, about 48. Horse-power used, about 4,200. Annual out-put can only be roughly estimated from

the fluctuating price of the oil, but can hardly fall bc- low $21,000,000.

Adding to this 10 per cent. for the non-reporting companies, and we have a grand aggregate of $23,000,- 000.

SUB-SECTION I .- Illuminating Gas.

The production of illuminating gas is a large indus- try in Kings county. There were, in 1880, eight gas- works in the county, reporting a capital (partly nomi- nal) of $9,190,000, and employing in all 257 men, pay- ing wages to the amount of $163,019, using $445,605 of raw material, and producing annually illuminating gas to the amount of $1,835,068. The introduction of the so-called "Water Gas" (which owes its illumina- ting properties in part to its combination with naphtha and other petroleum products) within the past two years has probably somewhat diminished the amount of the production of the other illuminating gas com- panies. Their business has also been somewhat dimin- ished by the increasing use of kerosene as a means of illumination, and by the introduction into large stores and public buildings, halls, &c., of the electric light. The probable substitution of a cheaper gas for heating and culinary purposes, where less illumination is re- quired, will, in the course of two or three years, per- haps, supply present deficiencies.

/ Since the spring of 1883, the eight gas companies of Brooklyn have been reduced by consolidation or the purchase of a controlling portion of their stock by the Fulton Municipal Gas Company, which produces the so-called water gas. The independent companies are the Fulton Municipal, the Nassau and the Brook- lyn gas companies. It is said that the Brooklyn has made some arrangement with the Fulton Municipal, by which they are no longer in opposition. It is generally believed that the Standard Oil Company baeks the Fulton Municipal. It is certain that it furnishes it with naphtha. The production of the gas companies is certainly less than in 1880, but does not, we judge, fall below $1,550,000. They are making strenuous efforts to supply gas for heating purposes, but, as they have not reduced the price per thousand feet, for this use, and heating by steam pipes laid in the streets is pending, they have not as yet met with quite the suc- cess they anticipated.

Gas-Light Companies .- Mr. Joseph Sprague has left in his manuscript autobiography the following ac- count of the inception of

The Brooklyn Gas-Light Company .- " In July, 1824, Al- den Spooner and myself, for amusement, inserted a notice in the Long Island Star of an application to be made to the Legislature for an act of incorporation for a company, with a capital of $150,000, for the purpose of lighting streets, dwellings and manufactories with gas. We were desirous only to create a little sensation. It was received in earnest, and the demand persisted in that I should go to Albany for a charter, which I did, and the bill was passed, April 18. 1825, that is now giving light to Brooklyn. The stock was

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

monopolized by the directors at ten per cent. advance, and it was amusing to witness the infatuated dignity over a worth- less charter, which was to them a rich placer of gold. Com- mittees were put in motion, lots bought for gas-works, plans and estimates examined. I then moved that the money paid in be refunded, and all operations be discontinued until the increase of Brooklyn should afford a reasonable prospect of supporting a gas company, which suggestion was adopted, and the money returned with interest."

The directors named in the act were Robert Carter, Adrian H. Van Bokkelen, Joseph Sprague, William Furman, Jehiel Jagger, Joseph G. Swift, Alden Spooner, Fanning C. Tucker, and Richard V. W. Thorn. Twelve years later, the company was revived, and February 1, 1847, elected the following directors : Alden Spooner, Joseph Sprague, John Dikeman, Ralph Malbone, Tunis Barkeloo, Losee Van Nostrand, Fan- ning C. Tucker, Jehiel Jagger, William Kumbel. Their acts were legalized in 1850, and March 26, 1855, the company was authorized to increase its capital to $1,000,000.

The gas-works were located at the foot of Hudson avenue, which location the company still retains. The 1st, 3d and 5th wards were first supplied with mains and pipes for con- sumers. The company now owns 80 miles of mains.

In June, 1835, Fanning C. Tucker was elected president ; James B. Clark was the first secretary. The succeeding presidents have been Alden Spooner, Feb. 11, 1847, till his death, December, 1848 ; Robert Nichols, December, 1848, to January, 1862; Arthur W. Benson, January, 1862, to January, 1882; James H. Armington, January, 1882-4 ; E. Storer, Sec- retary, January, 1881-4.

The Citizens' Gas-Light Company (office, 130 Atlantic avenue), was incorporated October,26th, 1858, with a capital of $1,000,000, which was afterward increased to $1,200,000. Permission to lay mains was granted by the city in March, 1859. The company's works were erected at the corner of Smith and Fifth streets. The presidents of the company have been: John H. Smith, H. P. Libby, J. H. Stebbins, and the present president, Samuel E. Howard.

The other officers for 1883-4 are: Jacob I. Bergen, treasurer; Samuel F. Tudor, secretary.

The People's Gas-Light Company (offices, 419 Myrtle avenue, and 51 First street, E. D.), was organized, under the general law, in October, 1864, with Abraham Meserole, President, and a board of nine directors : Alex. McCue, Chas. J. Lowry, D. M. Talmage, Wm. Peet, H. J. Alden, Jr., Abm. Meserole, O. M. Beach, J. B. Craig, and Augustus Ivins. The capital stock at first was $100,000. During six years no active operations were prosecuted.

In January, 1870, the company was re-organized, the capi- tal stock increased to $1,000,000, and William L. Husted be- came President; succeeded, in 1871, by Frederic Cromwell, and he, in 1873, by the present president, Edwin Ludlam. The company's works were commenced in 1867, and com- pleted in 1870. They are located at the corner of First and South 11th streets. There are two gas-holders, and the ca- pacity of the works is 500,000 feet daily. The present pro- duction is 400,000 feet per day. Forty men are employed at the works, and fifteen elsewhere.

This company has 43 miles of mains, and supplies the ter- ritory in the city east from Washington avenue, between DeKalb avenue, Broadway, and Kent avenue. The present directors are Edwin Ludlam, Wm. H. Husted, Wm. Mar- shall, Wm. Peet, H. H. Rogers, Wm. Rockefeller, Benj. Brewster, Geo. N. Curtis, H. R. Bishop. The officers for 1883-4 are Edwin Ludlam, President; Wm. Peet, Vice Presi- dent; S. J. Edwards, Secretary.

The Nassau Gas-Light Company (office 959 Fulton street), was organized, under the general manufacturing law, Novem- ber 1, 1870, with a paid-up capital of $1,000,000. The first di- rectors were Henry P. Morgan, Edward D. White, John J. Studwell, Edwin Beers, Charles J. Lowry. At present, as above, adding S. Warren Sneden. Henry B. Morgan, the present President, was chosen to that position at the organi- zation of the company.

The works, near Washington avenue bridge, on Wallabout bay, were completed in 1873. There are two gas-holders, and the works have a daily capacity of 1,000,000 feet. The yearly consumption of gas from these works is 135,000,000 feet, and the amount of coal used is 13,000 tons. The district supplied by this company is bounded by Washington avenue on the west, DeKalb avenue and Broadway on the north, and the city boundary on the south. Fifty men are employed at the works, and about the same number elsewhere. The company has 67 miles of street mains. The number of consumers is about 6,000. The officers of the company, 1883-4, are: H. P. Morgan, President ; S. T. White, Secretary ; Frederick S. Benson, Engineer.

The Metropolitan Gas-Light Company (office, 563 Atlantic avenue), was organized February, 1871, under the General Manufacturing Act, with a capital of $1,000,000. It com- menced business in January, 1872, and its works, on Gowanus canal, at the foot of Twelfth street, were erected in 1873. They have a capacity of 500,000 feet daily. Coal gas is man- ufactured, and in the manufacture, distribution, etc., of this gas, 58 men are employed. The company has 47 miles of street mains.

Hon. Alexander McCue was the first president of the com- pany. The second and present president is John Williams. The other officers for 1883-4 are H. H. Rogers, vice-president; C. H. Stoddard, secretary and treasurer. The first board of directors were William C. Kingsley, A. McCue, Edward Harvey, A. F. Campbell, S. L. Keeney, Edgar M. Cullen and A. Ammerman. The names of the present board are: H. R. Bishop, H. Beam, J. C. Bergen, Benjamin Brewster, A. F. Campbell, A. C. Keeney, John P. Kennedy, Wm. C. Kings- ley, A. McCue, Wm. Rockefeller, H. H. Rogers, John Wil- liams and Chas. H. Stoddard.

The company owns 47 miles of mains, laid in the district bounded by Gowanus canal and Nevins street, Atlantic avenue and Flatbush avenue, to city line, to and inclusive of New Utrecht.

Fulton Municipal Gas Company (office, 342 Fulton street), was organized, under the general law, in 1879, with a capital of $1,500,000, which, in 1881, was reduced to $1,217,700. The company consisted of seven corporators. Henry M. Bene- dict has been president since its organization, and Gen. Jas. Jourdan is the vice-president. Walter K. Rossiter is secre- tary and treasurer.

The works of the company were erected in 1879, on the corner of Nevins and DeGraw streets. There are three gas holders, and the works have a capacity of 1,000,000 feet per day. Twenty-five men are employed at the works, and about the same number elsewhere. What is known as water gas, of a high illuminating power, is manufactured at this estab- lishment.

The first board of directors of this company were James N. Smith, Wm. Foster, Jr., Wm. Schwarzwaelder, Geo. H. Roberts, Frank F. Jones, P. P. Dickinson and Henry S. Ben- nett. The present board are Wm. Rockefeller, Benjamin Brewster, Henry H. Rogers, Heber R. Bishop, James Jourdan, Henry M. Benedict and E. C. Benedict.

The company owns about 60 miles of mains, supplying gas to the section of the city west of Broadway,

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

SECTION V. Meat Slaughtering.

This industry, though not, as in Chieago, the lead- ing manufacture, ranks about fifth in our industries, and only New York and Jersey City, among our Eastern cities, give a larger annual produet. The eensus of 1880 reports 28 establishments, not in- eluding the retail buteher establishments, having an aggregate eapital of $1,125,000; employing 260 hands; paying out $194,568 in wages annually ; using $7,340,- 450 of materials, and producing annually $8,010,492. There is reason to believe that these statistics, with some abatement for the amount of material used, and a little advanee in the value of the annual product, represent, pretty nearly, the present condition of this industry at the present time. The considerable ad- vance in the price of all meat products sinee 1880, would, perhaps, make the value of the annual produet in 1883 not less than nine million dollars; but, on the other hand, slaughtering, exeept for home eonsumption, is not on the inerease here, and the packing of meats, exeept for our local markets, is falling off. This is due to several causes; not only are beeves, hogs, sheep and ealves reared much more cheaply, and fattened at a lower price, in the Mississippi valley and on the West- ern plains, than they ean possibly be here, but the ex- tensive and complete facilities for slaughtering and meat-paeking at Chieago, St. Louis, Cineinnati, Mil- waukie, Louisville, Burlington, Davenport, Kansas City, Omaha, and Denver, are so greatly superior to those of any of our Eastern eities, as to discourage en- terprise for the export trade. More than nine-tenths of all the hogs, and now full one-half of the beeves, and two-fifths of the mutton and lambs, which come to the New York and Brooklyn markets, are slaughtered at the West and brought here in the carcass ; and of the animals slaughtered here, the greater part come from the West.

By the use of refrigerator ears and steamships, beef in sides, and even in quarters, and pork and mutton as eut meats, ean be and are brought here very largely from Chicago and other western cities, and retailed at priees which leave our home slaughterers no margin of profit. The provision trade is in even a worse posi- tion. The great packing houses of the western cities, buying their cattle, sheep and hogs at first lands, and, by their admirable arrangements and economies utili- ing every portion of the animal, can furnish these paeked meats for export at prices which leave no mar- gin to our paeking houses, and even, in many eases, eompel them to manufacture at a positive loss. Their only chance for profit, except where reckless speeula- tion has made a corner in any of these products, and foreed up the priee beyond its natural average, is to put up their packed meats of so excellent quality as to obtain for them a loeal reputation which will command

an advanced priee. The shipments of dressed beef and latterly of mutton from Texas, in refrigerating steamships, tends also to depreeiate prices liere ; for, though the quality is generally inferior to that of the best beef and mutton slaughtered here, the priee is also materially less.

From these and other causes, while the aggregate amount of slaughtering and meat-packing has not in- creased materially, it has largely changed hands. The slaughtering business in Kings county is, to a very great extent (almost wholly in the case of sleep and lambs), in the hands of Hebrews. The leading slaughterers are Moses May, Levy & May, Isaac Isaacs, I. & J. Levy, Leopold Bloch, and H. c. J. Bernstein, for beeves, ealves and hogs, and Aaron Levy, for sheep and lambs. Other houses do a inod- erate business.

In the meat-packing and provision trade, the busi- ness, which a few years ago was conducted by enter- prising American packers, has passed into the hands of equally enterprising Germans; and the American houses have either withdrawn from the business, or have suf- fered themselves to be outdone by their competitors. The meat-packing trade here includes iness beef and pork, corned beef and pork, beef, pork and mutton ; hams, piekled, smoked and dried, or otherwise eured ; bacon, shoulders, sides, or middlings of pork ; tongues of beeves, sheep and lambs, fresh, pickled, or smoked ; lard (elsewhere a separate branch of the trade), sausages (Bologna and other), head-cheese, tenderloins of pork, pigs' feet, ealves' feet, livers, tripe, &c., &c.

In some of these packed meats, the Kings eounty packers have no superiors; this is espcially true of the beef and pork hams, the bacon, smoked and pickled tongues, Bologna sausages, head-cheese, lard, &c., &c.

The leading meat-packers and provision eurers are Figge & Brother, Herman Grahlfs, Friedrich Mosetter, H. Klumpf, Jacob Harman, George W. Williamson, D. J. Lavery, and .J. Lockitt && Co. Other houses do a less extensive but fair business. Conrad Scherer is the largest purchaser of beef fat, both for the olco- margarine and the soap and candle trades.

SECTION VI. Foundry and Machine-Shop Products.

Under this very general and misleading title the eensus office, in its "Compendium of the Tenth Census," has collected a great number of industries which are deserving of separate notice. This grouping and con- glomerating -- which is nearly as absurd as if they had refused to particularize any of the industries of Brooklyn, but had put them all down as Brooklyn Manufacturers -$177,223,142, or whatever other sum they chose to put down-is obviously an after- thought. In Mr. Frothingham's first report published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of July, 1881, these in-

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

dustries were placed under the following titles : Brass castings and finishing; iron castings and finishing; iron castings - stoves, heaters and hollow ware; ma- chinery; machinery-engines and boilers; machinery -- presses; machinery-steam pumps. Of these seven in- dustries, the number of establishments were in the above order, 25, 32, 13, 65, 12, 4, 9 - 160 in all; and the total product, $8,057,838.

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 169

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1114

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114