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 172

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 172

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DANIEL Y. SAXTAN is a son of Richard and Rosannah (Young) Saxtan, and was born December 13th, 1824, at Farm- ingdale, Long Island. In 1825, his parents, with their family, removed to Brooklyn, where he was educated in the public schools, as boys of his time were educated; and at the age of fourteen lie was apprenticed to learn the trade of blacksmitlı witlı Rev. Timothy C. Young, who had a shop at the foot of Pearl street. After acquiring the trade, lie was, for several years, a journeyman blacksmith. About 1851 he formed a partnership with Jacob Outwater, for the manufacture of iron railings, and their works were located in Adams street, near Myrtle avenue.

In 1866, the firm of Howell & Saxtan was formed, the part- ners being ex-Mayor James Howell and Daniel Y. Saxtan, and these gentlemen established the Central Iron Works, at the corner of Hudson and Park avenues, with offices in Adams street. This firm is celebrated for the manufacture of all kinds of architectural iron work, making specialties of fronts, roofs, bridges, domes, capitals, arches, railings, stoops, door and window guards, lamp and awning posts, sky and area lights, rolling and folding shutters, and many other kinds of iron work similar in character. The reputation of this concern for fine and reliable work is well established, and the proprietors have a reputation second to that of no other firm in the city. As wire-workers, they may be con- sidered as among those in the foremost rank, and as evidence of their facilities and ability to cope with any undertaking they assume, we may mention a few of the most prominent of the many structures for which they have erected or fur- nished the iron parts: The retort houses of Havemeyer & Co., in Williamsburgh; the Hanover buildings and the Wheeler buildings (now owned by Wechsler & Abrahams), in Fulton avenue; the new Municipal Building of the city of Brooklyn, the Armories of the 13th, 14th and 23d Regiments, and of that of the 47th Regiment, now in course of construction; and ex- Mayor Schroeder's building, and the Young Men's Christian Association building, in Fulton avenue.

Mr. Saxtan is a republican, but not active as a politician. In religious faith he is a Methodist, and he is a member of the Simpson Methodist-Episcopal Church. He was married September 15th, 1845, to Phebe M., daughter of Henry and Martha Watts, of Springfield, Long Island. He is most highly esteemed both in and out of business circles, and deservedly so, in view of his excellent standing in the community; and it is due, in no small degree, to his enterprise and thorough knowledge of the requirements of the trade and the processes of manufacture, that his firm takes its well-known high rank in the city. As a large employer of skilled and unskilled labor, Mr. Saxtan las long been regarded as, in all import- ant ways, the friend of the workingman. As a self-made man he stands before the youth of Brooklyn in the light of an example of those who rise to prominence through their own exertions; and it is doing him but the barest justice to state that his success has been lionestly earned.

Let us now sum up as far as possible the number of hands employed, and the total output of this see- tion. We cannot estimate either very closely, be- cause we have been unable to obtain the exaet statis- ties of all the smaller houses, but we prefer that onr estimate should be below rather than above the truth. There are certainly not less than 4,500 men employed in these foundries, and the out-put is not less in average years than $4,700,000.

688

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

A.LITTLE

(See Page 687.)

SUBSECTION V .- Presses and Dies, including Draw- ing and Stamping, Baling, Printing and other Presses.

In this class, one of the leading houses is that of Mr. E. W. BLISS, who has built up in a few years an immense business in machinery for draw- ing and stamping cold, plates of tin, sheet iron, brass or copper, in all the required forms for household or manufacturing use. It is well known to most house- keepers that the tin pans, kettles and pails, which were formerly cut by hand, and laboriously pieced and joined, are now stamped or drawn into shape from a single shcet of metal, at a much lower price; but it is not so generally known, except to the parties con- cerned, that our millions of tin cans for oils, fruit, veg- etables, meat, oysters, fish, and everything else which can be scaled up, are made by machines which will turn out many thousands each in a day.

Mr. Bliss's establishment is the largest of its class in the world, occupying an area of 27,000 square feet, and the main building, four stories in height, beside its basement, which is occupied as a foundry. The build- ings and plant are all owned by Mr. Bliss, who has also

invested in the business a working capital of $350,000, employs from 300 to 350 men, nearly all skilled work- men, pays an aggregate of $240,000 for wages, and produces annually more than $500,000 in value of ma- chinery, the greater part of it from patterns invented in his own works. His specialties are the production of presses and dies for working sheet metal cold, as well as paper, wood veneers, etc., etc., and the fur- nishing of tools and automatic machinery for the man- ufacture of household warcs, brass goods, lanterns, lamps, trade packages, such as fruit, meat, vegetables, fish, provisions, game and other cans; lard, butter, syrup and other cans and pails, and beyond all the rest, the cans for petroleum oils, which are in such great demand. One item will demonstrate the extent of this branch of his business; he supplied the Devoe Manufacturing Co. with machines capable of turning out 60,000 five-gallon oil cans in a day.

The number and variety of these presses and dies is very great. His catalogues give illustrations of more than 200, and he is constantly producing more, either from his own designs or those of other manufacturers, which he makes to order. Some of these presses

C.WRIGHT. N.Y.

" OWL'S HEAD."

RESIDENCE OF E. W. BLISS, Esq., AT BAY RIDGE, L. I.

OFFICES OF E. W. BLISS.

E.W.BLIS'S

MACHINE SHOPS.

FORGE SHOPS

CART WAY

E.W.BLISS

BROOKLYN

VIEW OF E. W. BLISS'S MACHINE SHOPS AND FOUNDRIES.

690

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

weigh 25 tons or more, and are the perfection of me- chanism for their purpose.

An industry which has so thoroughly revolutionized the vast trade in tin-wares, and in other goods pro- duced from sheet metal and kindred substances, de- serves to have a record of its history made. Under the heading of tin-ware manufactures, we have de- scribed, in part, the effect of the new processes of drawing and stamping the sheets of tin into a great variety of forms upon other productive industries. In speaking of Mr. Bliss's establishment, our inquiries must be confined to the history and progress of the construction of machinery for accomplishing these purposes.

The whole foundation of the discovery of the mode of manufacturing deep stamped or pressed ware, had for its basis the ductility of cold wrought iron, under slow and continuous pressure. This quality of the wrought or sheet iron, whether coated with tin or not, had not been fully discovered till about 1843. It was known, indeed, that, by the use of the drop press, it was possible to make shallow dishes of tin or sheet iron by repeated stampings, but the corners of the arti- cles so made were very prone to crack, and the articles had a rough appearance. The first inventor of machin- ery to accomplish this, who was successful in manufac- turing it on a large scale, was a Frenchman named Mix, of Metz, then in France, but now in Germany. He ac- complished his purpose by slow pressure with a power press, but he annealed his sheet iron before stamping it, and did not coat his plates with tin till he had stamped and otherwise prepared them. This afterward proved to be unnecessary. His process was a strict monopoly and secret, and, while charging enormous prices for his wares, he reaped a great fortune from their manufacture. The secret, however, finally trans- pired; and, in 1856, the firm of Lalance & Grosjean started a factory for deep stamped tin-ware, near Paris. They had large capital and were enterprising, and, in 1862, established a branch house in New York, which they removed the next year to Woodhaven, Long Isl- and. Their processes were substantially the same as those of Mix. They met at first with very strong op- position from the trade, but finally overcame it, and for three or four years had the monopoly of the pro- duction in this country. Then a rival house sprang up, but was finally bought up by Lalance & Grosjean. This house had, however, made several machines which they sold to others before they were bought out. The processes had been improved, and sheet tin was now used, and with satisfactory results. But monopolies do not flourish well on our soil, and, before 1870, there were eight machines sold to as many different firms for the manufacture of the deep stamped tin-ware. New inventions had been patented, which rendered the pro- cesses cheaper and more satisfactory. The time had come for the development of the business of producing these

machines and selling them to the tin-ware manufactur- ers. One improvement made about this time gave a new impetus to this enterprise. This was an adjust- ment, by screws and guides, of the " blank-holder." The sheet of tin had hitherto been laid across the mould, and the die or stamp had descended upon it with com- paratively slow, but irresistible, force, and the plain sheet became, under this force, a deep dish or pan. A rough disk of metal, even then known, perhaps, as a blank-holder, had been laid over the plate by Mix and his successors, but the pressure was uneven and not carefully adjusted ; and, as a consequence, the edges of the pan or dish were wrinkled or corrugated a little, and the pan was not so smooth and seemly as those made by the old process, and was composed of several pieces riveted and soldered together. The new adjust- able blank-holder was an annular disk or ring of metal which was held in place by screws and bolts, which could be so perfectly adjusted as to make the pressure perfectly uniform over the whole plate and prevent the slightest wrinkling or corrugation.

The spinning lathe, another early invention, was so modified and improved that it facilitated the rapid and perfect finishing of these goods. In 1867, Mr. Bliss, who had served as apprentice, journeyman, contractor, foreman and superintendent in machine shops for six- teen or seventeen years, formed a partnership with John Mays, of Brooklyn, to manufacture presses and dies, in a little shop in Adams street, employing six workmen. The time was auspicious, and the partners were enterprising and ambitious. They had increased their business and had made improvements on these presses, when, in 1871, Mr. James H. Williams bought out Mr. Mays, and the business was moved to larger and better quarters. They removed again in 1874, and greatly enlarged their business. They had already in- vented machines for applying this drawing process and other processes to the manufacture of cans for fruit, meats, fish, etc., and to the rapidly developing demand for petroleum oil cans. In 1879, Mr. Bliss purchased the site of the present factory, and erected their build- ings, and the business was removed thither the same year. Four times, since 1879, the buildings have been enlarged, and the business extended by the purchase of other buildings. In 1881, he bought out Mr. Williams' interest, and has since conducted the business alone ; and, at the age of 47, is at the head of one of the larg- est machine shops in the world, with a business which is increasing with a rapidity unparalleled in that line of industries, and all this has been accomplished in six- teen years, by pluck, energy, and perseverance.

Mr. Bliss, in his extensive machine shops and foun- dry, sometimes turns his attention to other branches of the business, as the construction of steam pumps, sugar- house machinery, etc .; but, in general, his large force are fully employed in filling his orders, which come from every part of the globe,

691

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

There are other machinists engaged in a moderate way in supplying this demand for drawing and stamping presses and dies. Among them we may name Robert Brass, of Seholes street, E. D .; Oramel C. Carpenter, of Lorimer street, E. D., and Messrs. Kennedy & Diss, of Adams street. Bernard F. Piel also advertises presses among his various machines. The total annual produet of drawing and stamping presses and dies does not probably greatly exeeed $600,000, and employs, possibly, 425 men.

We can find no trace of but one manufacturer of cotton presses in Kings county, viz., Balston & Son, of 35 Quay street, Greenpoint. We have been unable to learn any particulars of the extent of their manufae- ture.

There were formerly two manufactories of printing presses in Brooklyn, the Montague and the Campbell; the former have now removed to another eity, and the Campbell press manufacturers have formed a joint stoek company, under the title of the Campbell Press Works. The Campbell press is one of the best and most popular of the modern printing presses, as dis- tinguished from the great printing machines on which the mammoth dailies are printed, and there is a good and constantly inereasing demand for a press of this description. The Campbell Press Works employ 30 or 40 men and turn out something over $100,000 worth of presses annually. The entire annual out-put of this subseetion may be safely estimated at not less than $800,000, and about 525 men are employed in all its shops.

Among other manufacturers and dealers in engines, machinery, &c., we may mention James Pendlington, 88 Elizabeth street, shipsmith, steam forging and serew-bolt manufacturing, established 1869 (since his deeease, in 1882, the business has been managed by his step-son, John A. Knowles). Reuben Riley, 508 Clinton street, builder of steam-engines and machinery; came to Brooklyn in 1854; established 1866, on Sum- mitt street; now loeated corner of Riehard and Bowen streets. Daniel Sanders & Son, Shepard avenue, near Baltic avenue, engineers and machinists; established 1881, East New York ; make a specialty of manufae- turing experimental machinery.

SUBSECTION VI. - Brass Foundries and Brass Castings and Finishing.

It is somewhat difficult to ascertain who, and how many of our manufacturers, should be included under the title of brass founders. Most of the large engine and steam pump manufacturers manufacture, cast and roll the brass for the trimmings and bearings of their pumps and engines; some of them, like the Worthing- ton Pump Works, manufacture the brass from the zine, eopper, etc., in order to have it of the requisite and uniform hardness which they want. The jobbing and repairing machine shops, which use a good deal of

brass, purehase it in sheets or ingots of the great man- ufaeturers at Waterbury, Ansonia, or elsewhere, and work it up for themselves. These last are certainly not brass founders, as the Worthington and some of the others are, but they are to some extent brass fin- ishers.

Yet aside from these there are twenty brass found- ers and manufacturers, and six brass finishers in Kings County, besides one iron founder, whose work is much more in brass, bronze and zinc than in iron, and two or more machinists who make brass work a spe- eialty.

In Mr. Frothingham's report the number of estab- lishments of brass castings and finishing was 25; the capital invested, $227,750; largest number of hands employed, 381; amount of wages paid, $144,213; raw material, $773,125; annual produet, $1,059,823. This probably represented, as far as could be ascertained by the census processes, the business of brass castings and finishing in 1880. It does not fairly represent them in 1884.

Of the brass founders and manufacturers, some do a general business, making, easting and rolling brass for all the purposes required, and finding a market for their goods mainly among other manufacturers, who work up the brass into such forms as they require. These arc but few, however; the great brass foundries at Waterbury and Ansonia, and their warehouses in New York, supplying much of this demand. Others make a specialty of bronze and phosphor bronze, and the great demand which has sprung up for these for door knobs, hinges, window fastenings, sashes, ete., ete., as well as for statuettes and ornaments, makes this manufacture speeially important at the present time. Others make a specialty of plumbers' brass goods, and steam engine and steam pump trimmings, faucets, brass and eopper boilers, valves, stop-eocks, etc., etc. Others still manufacture registers, sereens, grate trimmings, fenders, office railings and gates, stamped brass, railroad baggage cheeks, etc. Still an- other elass devote themselves to die sinking, seal en- graving, book-binders' stamps, and to the manufacture of printers' rule, and the strip brass used in the cylin- ders for printing .vall papers.

Blakeman & Kerner, of Dunhanı Plaee, and J. O. L. Bottcher of First street, E. D., are brass founders, pure and simple, and so perhaps are two or three more smaller houses. John Bowie of the Columbian Brass Foundry, and his neighbors, the Brooklyn Brass and Copper Co., both on Front street, near Pearl, make speeial castings of brass, composition, zine and lead to order, fine ornamental eastings of zinc, lead or brass for cemeteries, and make a specialty of phos- phor bronze. F. A. Renton, of the Greenpoint Brass Foundry, and five or six others, manufacture plumbers' brass goods and brass for engineer work, and Renton makes a specialty of a patent ejeetor faueet.

692

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

ALITTLE

WILLIAM G. CREAMER.

Messrs. James Bailey & Co., of Clymer street, E. D., and several others, are die sinkers, makers of book- binders' and other stamps, seal presses, brass tools, ete., ete., while the Brass Goods Manufacturing Co. and the Long Island Brass Co., manufacture a general assortment of brass goods.

Mr. William G. Creamer of the "Brooklyn City Foundry," whose portrait and biography adorn our pages, though down in the directory as an iron founder, has more to do with brass and bronze than with iron. His establishment on Grinnell street, extending from Smith to Court, was ereeted in 1869. Its extent is 100x300 feet, an area of 30,000 square feet, and it in- eludes several large buildings. He manufactures everything in the way of hardware or metal trimmings used in the interior of railroad cars, the lamps, seat frames, ventilators, sash trimmings, bell-eord fixtures, loeks, saloon fixtures, ete., etc.

He manufactures, also, every description of registers and ventilators used in private dwellings, sehools, pub- lic buildings, ete. He has furnished these for the Cap- itol at Albany, and the Capitols at Atlanta, Ga., and Des Moines, Iowa, as well as for many of the publie schools of this city, and other eities, the Middletown Asylum, ete. But his finest goods are in the line of choice hammered brass and repoussé work, mirrors, seonces, tables, eandlestieks, table tea-kettles, ete.,

etc. He also makes fine brass, iron and bronze cast- ings and general brass work, such as railings, vaults, doors, ete., ete.

He has a capital of $100,000 invested in the busi- ness, employs about 80 hands, and turns out nearly $250,000 worth of goods annually.

WILLIAM G. CREAMER, the subject of this sketch and the proprietor of the Brooklyn City Foundry, has been a resident of this city since 1860. He was born in New Jersey, Novem- ber 26th, 1821. His ancestors on his father's side emigrated to this country from Lower Saxony about the middle of the last century, and settled in Middletown, Connecticut. His grandfather married an English lady, Lydia Simmons. His father, the Rev. John Creamer, was born in 1794, and mar- ried, in 1820, Nancy B. Snyder, of New Brunswick, N. J. She was of Holland descent. The marriage of the young Meth- odist clergyman was something of a romance, and is per- haps worthy of a place in this sketch.

Miss Snyder was on a visit to her uncle, Archibald Taylor, Esq., a wealthy land owner of Hunterdon county, N. J. While there, she and her cousin heard of the eloquence of the young Methodist preacher, who was to preach in a barn a few miles from her uncle's residence. The young ladies thought it would be worth while to go and hear him, and, with the consent of Mr. Taylor, the family carriage and col- ored coachman took them to the meeting-house, where, of course, their appearance attracted some attention among the audience. The young ladies were much interested with the eloquence of the young itinerant, who gave notice that he would preach again at the same place three weeks later.

693

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

The second time they went, the young minister, attracted by their appearance, took pains to find out who his distinguished visitors were, and a year or two afterward was married to Miss Snyder, who died in April, 1883, full of years and honors, in the 84th year of her age, at the house of her son-in- law, W. A. Bray, Esq., of Oakland, Cal. The Rev. John Creamer died in 1826, while attending Conference in Phila- delphia.

Mr. Creamer was married at New Brunswick, N. J., Dec. 29th, 1842, to Miss Hattie Molleson. From this marriage there were two sons and one daughter. The daughter, Hattie, only survives. She was married in 1867 to Colonel L. L. Langdon, of the U. S. A. In 1869, his oldest son, Ho- ratio, was married to Miss Chicas, of this city, and died March 6th, 1882. Two children survive him. The youngest son of Mr. Creamer, Robert, died in infancy in 1850.

At the commencement of the late war for the Union, Mr. Creamer was the first resident of the Sixth Ward to display the old flag from the top of his house in Second place, and there it remained until the close of the war.

He has never been specially active in local politics, or even national affairs, so far as immediate participation is con- cerned; but, at the same time, he has always been a close reader and earnest thinker in the history and politics of his own country, as well as the world at large, and has per- formed every duty devolving upon a citizen.

The most important sphere of Mr. Creamer's active life has been connected with his inventions and improvements, and he is widely known throughout the Union by his nume- rous inventions connected with railroad car building.

His first and, perhaps, most important invention was known as the Creamer safety-brake. This was the first prac- tical and successful invention that gave the engineer com- plete control of every brake of all the cars comprising the train. This invention was largely used on the Hudson River railroad, New York Central, Lake Shore and many others, and was only lately superseded by the air-brake. Mr. Creamer himself made the invention of an air-brake in 1855, and filed a caveat of the same in the Patent Office. This invention was shown at the time to a number of railroad men, but its use was discouraged, the safety-brake being then considered preferable. The gold medal of the Ameri- can Institute was awarded for his safety-brake. His connection with railroad affairs, through the invention of his brake, brought to his attention many suggestions of im- provement in the construction of passenger cars; and, in the latter part of 1863, he hired a small room with steam power in John street, New York, and commenced, in a small way, the manufacture of car fittings, and from this small begin- ning has grown the business now conducted at the Brooklyn City Foundry.

Space would hardly allow in detail a description of all the inventions made and patents issued to Mr. Creamer. Next to his safety-brake, his system of ventilation of railroad cars is best known. More than a hundred thousand of his venti- lators have been sold, and are being constantly made. Mr. Creamer is in the enjoyment of excellent health, and is ac- tively engaged in his business in Brooklyn and New York, and often tells his friends that he does not intend to give up work as long as his life is useful to the world, or until he is called to Greenwood.

Messrs. White & Price machinists, the South Brook- lyn Steam Engine Co., and several other large machine and engine shops, do a considerable business in brass casting and finishing.

The statistics of the brass foundries and factories are, as nearly as can be ascertained, as follows: Number of establishments, 27; or, including Mr. Crcamer and the two machine shops, 30; number of hands employed, about 600; wages paid annually, about $195,000; an- nual product, $1,693,000. .

SUBSECTION VII .- Woodworking Machinery, and small machines of all kinds; iron bolts, nuts, washers, screws and rivets; stoves, heaters, and cast-iron hollow ware.

The various industries included in this subsection occupy many shops, and employ, in the aggregate, a large number of lands; but the amount of capital in- vested is not so large, nor the out-put of so great a value as some of the other classes of machine shop work. The manufacture of woodworking machinery-which was for many years confined to a few simple machines, such as lathes, mortising machines, gang, circular, key and jig saws, and boring machines-has of late assumed a new and larger activity. The band saw and the scroll saw both work wonders; the veneers from the choicest woods are now taken off spirally, and so thin and per- fect as to save the manufacturer one-half the former outlay for veneers. The new mortising machines, the dove-tailing machine, and the lathes for irregular forms, are among the most remarkable evidences of human skill and ingenuity of modern times. Still more won- derful are the machines for working in ivory, bone, and the softer metals. The machines for making the iron and steel work of sewing machines have reduced the construction of these useful machines to the finest pos- sible point. The Singer Manufacturing Company can calculate the cost of its sewing machines to a fraction of a cent; and any proposed process which would reduce that cost to the amount of three cents, would be adopted at once, though it might involve an outlay of ten thou- sand dollars, for three cents on the cost of a sewing ma- chinc is more than $15,000 on their annual sales. This is true also of many other small machines, of which such great numbers are now put upon the market. The manufacturers of household hardware use very many of these machines, in the manufacture of their articles; and fluting, pinking, plaiting, braiding and crimping ma- chines, jewelers' rolls, macaroni machinery, etc., arc specialties of several machinists.

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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 172

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