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 181

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 181

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The firm has been uniformly prosperous for the past 25 years ; its management is conservative, and its goods rank highest in the market. Its machinery is of the latest and most approved patterns, while its buildings, stables and stock are always in first-class order. Its goods are distributed throughout the breadth of the land, and, wherever known, en- joy an enviable reputation.

It has always led in the introduction of novelties in styles and colors, as well as in adopting the latest inventions in machinery.

The house of Walther & Co., in Tiffany place, is a large house in this manufacture; though of less extent than that of Doty & McFarlan; they manufacture the same styles of papers, and by similar processes. There are also one or two smaller houses, which have recently engaged in the business.

The statistics of this industry, as nearly as can be ascertained, are : capital invested, about $400,000 ; number of hands employed about 250; amount of wages paid annually, about $90,000; annual product, not far from $500,000.

SUBSECTION III .- Fancy and Plain Paper Boxes.

The manufacture of these boxes is closely allied to that of the manufacture of fancy papers. These boxes are of many kinds. The hatters use immense quanti- ties, some of them only of straw-board with labels, others of much more ambitious and ornamental char- acter. The cheap styles are used very largely also by the match manufacturers, the common envelope makers, the dealers in small articles of hardware, and many dry groceries. The book trade requires large numbers. The Yankee notions trade requires a vast number of a somewhat better character; while the fancy goods and candy and confectionery trades take the best quality. One manufacturer makes almost exclusively the boxes for charlotte russes, with perhaps a small number for cake and bakers' fancy goods. The fine stationery trade demands also many of the better class of boxes. There are now in Brooklyn and Kings county eleven manufacturers of these goods, one of whom combines

729

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

the manufacture of eandies with that of boxes. Of these Mr. Beers Frost, of 125 Nostrand avenue, is pro- bably the largest. His specialty is hatters' boxes, and he supplies all the leading manufacturers. He employs an average foree of 25 hands, pays about $10,000 of wages annually, and produces an average of $30,000 annually. After him, and producing nearly as large 'an amount are: Walter W. Wetmore; Wm. Herschle and Son; John B. Hauck & Son; White and Jacobson; and, perhaps, Thomas Lenn, the box and candy maker, his combined product being perhaps somewhat more than the others.

Andrew Wohlgemuth, John Roberts (whose specialty is the charlotte russe boxes), Mrs. Wilhelmina Woer- ner, Adolph Hoeffling and Ferdinand Berian, are also worthy of notice as manufacturers of boxes. The census, in 1880, reported 12 establishments, with $49,- 050 capital; 213 hands, paying $45,089 wages, and pro- dueing $158,826 annually. There have been some changes; one or two houses have failed, but the number of hands is now about 230, and the annual product somewhat more than $175,000.

SECTION XV. The Furniture Manufacture.

The furniture trade has many subdivisions. Among the wholesale dealers, there are those who manufacture only chairs, and these are divided into rattan, willow, bent wood, bent seats, usually, ineluding also the per- forated veneer seats, wood chairs and rockers, and upholstered ehairs.

There are other elasses who eonfine themselves to bed-room sets, chiffoniers, tables, etc .; and even of these, there are those who cater to the cheap veneered goods turned out in the rough, in some of the densely wooded counties of New York or Pennsylvania, where woodland and water-power are cheap, and put together and finished here ; others, who bring their hard wood, pine and white wood lumber from the west, and import their ornamental woods, and make all their work under their own supervision, employing hand-work for the most part, but using machinery in those delicate and beautiful adjustments, which ean be effeeted more perfectly by machinery than in any other way. These houses supply all the best and some of the cheaper houses with their best goods.

Another class manufacture only library, office and drawing-room furniture ; the finer office chairs being a specialty with some of these.

Still another class produce only parlor and boudoir furniture of various styles. This involves the up- holsterers' art, and much of the best of it is donc in the larger and finer retail establishments, which adapt their work to suit their customers. In these eases, however, the division of labor is carried so far that the easy chairs, couches, tete-a-tetes, sofas, lounges

and sofa beds, ete., are prepared in the wholesale up- holstery factories, and only the covering is put on by the retailer.

The cheaper elasses of upholstered goods, as cheap sofas, lounges, ehairs, mattresses, ete., are all made in large upholstering establishments, and the quality dif- fers with the priee. Upholstery is, in effeet, an entirely distinct business from the other departments of the manufacture of furniture, and when it is regarded as ineluding mattresses, couches and beds of all descrip- tions, as well as window hangings, portieres, and those artieles more properly considered as upholstery, it assumes a great magnitude.

The increased demand, which our fast augmenting wealth and luxury have created for the best of every- thing in dwellings, business houses, churches, and all our appointments in social life, is nowhere more strik- ingly illustrated, than in luxurious furniture and house decoration. Sixty or seventy years ago, when all the settlements in Kings County could not boast more than 7,000 inhabitants, there were a few wealthy families, mostly Hollanders, and they had some massive furni- ture, mostly brought or imported from Holland, often riehly carved, and either of oak or dark mahogany. While most of this furniture would be too eumbrous and bulky for present daily use, it was worthy of pre- servation for its elaborate carving, and the grotesque figures which were so skilfully wrought on its surfaces. These articles may not have been-they probably were not-the chef d'œuvres of Flemish or Duteh art, inas- much as the early settlers of Nieuw Amsterdam and Breuckelen were not generally of the most eminent Dutch families (these having remained at home), yet they were the sons or daughters of burghers who were well to do, and thus represented, in their homes in the New World, very fairly, the furniture and applianees of the prosperous burghers of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and La Hague. These old families were not, however, very numerous, and their descendants, in some eases, were too many to inherit any very large share of their ancestors' wealth. The large majority of the farming and laboring elass, whether of Duteh, English, Irish or Huguenot descent, had much plainer and humbler fur- niture. The rude bunks or fixed bedsteads, covered, at first, with the skins of wild animals, and later, having heaped upon them the numerous feather beds, which every housewife possessed, formed a bed which was considered sufficiently luxurious for anybody. The other furniture was equally plain; the wooden, splint or rush-bottomed chairs; the settle; the plain, substantial table, often of oak, but without ornament, sometimes of pine, covered with the housewife's snowy linen; the benches and smaller table, which answered for a wash- stand; the rude shelves, containing a few books; the eorner cupboard, with its supply of delft ware, pewter plates and wooden trenehers; and in the loan-to, the pounding-barrel, soap-barrel, tubs and tub-form or

730

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

bench, the paraphernalia of washing day; while still in the rear was the leach-honse, where the lye for the soap was made, and the simple apparatns for making the tallow-dips, and very possibly, by their side, the quilt- ing-bars.

There were also two other indispensable articles of furniture, now little known; the big wheel for spinning wool, and the little or flax wheel, on which was spun the linen, fine and coarse, which Katrina, by infinite toil, prepared for her own future home. Of musical instruments there were at that time very few; occasion- ally a spinet was put in the parlor, as the greatest of earthly treasures, but its tones were weak, harsh and metallic. The Dutch did not greatly affect the guitar or the bandolin, so delightsome to the ear of the Span- ish maiden; and Hans was fain to pour forth his love in the notes of the ear-piercing fife, or the more tender- voiced flute.

The change to the furniture of the present time, in the families which, though not rich, are in comfortable circumstances, is most amazing. In the parlors we find the piano generally, and the cabinet organ, also, in many cases. The walls are hung with pictures of merit, even where they are not costly. The walls, so dingy and discolored with smoke in the olden time, are now either frescoed or hung with tasteful and elegant papers. Portieres adorn the doors and arches, and the mantels are draped with lambrequins. The furniture of black walnut, mahogany, cherry or rosewood, exquisitely carved and decorated, and finely upholstered with silk reps, brocade or plush, mirrors, and some articles of bric-a-brac; while the dining-room is supplied with its fine extension table, and with solid, chairs, often ex- pensively trimmed with leather, and its substantial and often costly sideboard. The kitchen and laundry are supplied with all the conveniences for a most efficient service; the range of the latest pattern, the hot and cold water, the stationary tubs, the ironing table, the clothes-wringer, and the patent clothes-boiler, all con- tribute to make work easy. Ascending to the boudoir and sleeping rooms, we find a revolution so great that our grandmothers could not even have imagined it in their wildest dreams. Bedsteads which, in stately ele- gance, in perfection and beauty of carving and orna- mentation, and the richness of their woods (of black walnut, mahogany, rosewood and cherry) far surpass the conches of the wealthiest and most accomplished monarchs of two centuries ago; mirrors which would once have been worth a king's ransom, and bureaus, lounges, sofas, easy chairs, chiffonieres, and cabinets.of the most graceful models and exquisite finish, adorn these rooms, and replace the maple bedsteads, with their constantly breaking cords, their turned posts, and their scant head and foot boards, the rush or cane-seat chairs, and the plain cheap bureau with a small mirror of blown glass, which were the outfit of a guest-cham- ber forty or fifty years ago.

There is nothing, not only of this fine furniture, but of that still more exquisite, inlaid and decorated with the finest paintings and sculptures, in wood or porce- lain or leather, which is not to-day produced, from the rough wood to the most complete finish, in Kings county.

We are not now speaking of the retail furniture houses, of which there are some hundreds, of all grades, and which may and do procure their wares wherever they can buy them to the best advantage, but of the manufacturers who sell only at wholesale.

As an example of these, take the large house of Martin Worn & Sons, whose immense warehouses and storage rooms, five stories high, cover eleven full city lots. They mannfacture only the articles of bedroom, boudoir and hall furniture, and in this single branch of the furniture industry, embracing hall-stands, bed- steads, bureans, wash stands, canopy bedsteads, side- boards, wardrobes, armoires, chiffonieres, cribs, &c., &c. They employ about 225 hands, and produce goods to the value of $250,000 or more. In their lumber yards and sheds we find the purest and whitest pine; the still finer white wood (liriodendron tulipifera), dear to the hearts of all cabinet-makers; the California redwood; the Oregon cedar; black walnut (juglans cinerea), from the West; mahogany from Honduras and the West Indies; wild cherry; the beautiful wood of the cerasus Virginiana, and the costly veneers of the French wal- nut, French and Hungarian ash, mahogany, &c. All these are thoroughly seasoned under cover for two years or more, and when called into service are reduced to their prescribed form and shape with the utmost exactness by machinery, which seems almost capable of thinking, and by skilled hand-work. The thicker veneers are sawed here, and the boards to which they are to be attached having been planed to the smoothest possible surface, they are glued on and dried under very heavy pressure. When dry they are planed and polished till all their beauty is brought out. Every joint is fitted with the most mathematical accuracy. Those portions, as fronts of drawers, bedsteads, tops and fronts of chiffonieres, sideboards, hall-stands, etc., which are to be ornamented, have the straight lines- cut by a machine, and the leaves, rosettes, flowers, etc., carved by hand; or, in a lower grade of work, these ornaments are struck out by dies, working under a pressure of many tons.

The drawer fronts are attached to the sides by a new process, which, in this establishment at least, has taken the place of the old " dovetail;" the whole is done by two machines working reciprocally and most exactly to their respective patterns, the resulting portions, when matched together, making an air-tight and very strong joint. These machines, working on the end of the hard wood, and cutting to the depth of one-half or five- eighths of an inch, produce half of a joint of scallops, with pins below, wrought out of the hard wood. The

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

731

scallops come within one-quarter to one-fifth of an inch of the front of the hard wood. The rounded pins- " dowels " is, we believe, the technical term for them-' are about one-sixth of an inch in diameter, and, perhaps, five-eighths of an inch in length. The softer white wood for the side of the drawer is wrought by the corresponding machine into a scalloped edge, with the holes below it, into which the dowels fit exactly. So perfectly is the work done that, after dusting, the two ends can be fitted into each other, so as to make an air- tight joint, with only a smart blow of the hand. In practice these joints are coated with a very fluid glue before being put together, in order to avoid any"pos-

market. Messrs. Worn & Sons' goods have a wide market, going all over the country and to other lands.

The only customers of such manufacturers as thesc are the furniture dealers; for they sell nothing at re- tail. This is equally true of the manufacturers of chairs of all descriptions, of office and library furniture, and generally of dining-room tables and furniture, of kitchen furniture, etc. The manufacturers of school, hall and church furniture, of hotel, steamboat and railway-car furniture, on the contrary, deal directly with their cus- tomers, whose bills are generally large; or take con- tracts for supplying to a great contractor such of their goods as he may order.

1880

MARTIN WORN.

MARTIN

WORN

& SONS.

103 MARTIN WORN & SONS, 109

FURNITURE WAREROOMS. LONGISLAND FURNITURE WAREROOMS

MARTIN WORN & SON'S FURNITURE WAREHOUSE.

sible danger of shrinkage. There are not, as in the old- fashioned dovetail, any sharp points or corners to break or split off; every surface is rounded, and the joint is more perfect than any dovetail joint could be. These machines enable the manufacturer to triumph over one of the most difficult operations in cabinet work.

The bedstcad, bureau, chiffoniere, sideboard or other piece of furniture is now ready to be put together. . It is first thoroughly rubbed down and cleaned, and all the delicate grooves and tenons cleared out and made ready for joining, the glue joints being pressed care- fully into their grooves, the pins or dowels adjusted and glued, and great care is taken to have every part true, so that there may be no twisting in the drawers or elsewhere. The largest joints are often held firmly in place by vises till they are thoroughly dry. It is next cleaned again, polished and varnished or shellacked, the knobs or handles attached, and it is ready for the

MARTIN WORN, the senior member of the firm of Martin Worn & Sons, extensively and favorably known as manufacturers of furniture, etc., of the city of Brooklyn, was born at Weil, in Schoenbuch, Wurtemburg, Germany, Jan- uary 15, 1832. His father was Johannes Worn, and his mother's maiden name was Anna Ried. His parents ranked among the respectable citizens of Weil, and gave their son instruction and set before him the examples so necessary for children. It is pleasant to say that the young man suc- cessfully profited by these. When old enough, he was placed at school in his native city, where he obtained a good practi- cal business education. While yet young he emigrated to America, and became a resident of the city of Brooklyn, where, on April 30, 1854, he was united by marriage with Miss Bernhardina Fent. In 1862, he began the business of furniture manufacture in the immediate vicinity of his present extensive manufactory. Prosperity and success attended him, and he soon became prominent and highly esteemed in the business and social circles of Brooklyn; and at a proper time he connected his two sons, William and Charles, with him in business, under the firm name and style of Martin Worn & Sons.

732

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Martin

Some idea of the extent, importance and large amount of business transacted by this firm may be gained by visiting their factory, which occupies Nos. 127, 129, 131, 133 Siegel street, near Humboldt, and their warerooms, situated at Nos. 103, 105, 107 and 109 Humboldt street. A view of these buildings is seen on an adjoining page. Such a visit will not only be interesting, but profitable.

Mr. Worn is, in every sense, an intelligent and discrimi- nating business man, with those other qualifications that adorn and make up the character of a good citizen. He has never taken any active part in politics, but has exercised the

high functions of a voter in the best possible manner, voting for the best man, regardless of political proclivities.

His influence is always given to morality and the cause of education; and while he is not connected with any religious organization, he upholds the Protestant faith.

There have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Worn six children: William, born October 2, 1855; Charles, born January 12, 1857; Anna, born July 20, 1862; John, born September 4, 1866 ; Mary, born July 2, 1869; Edward, born May 16, 1874. Of these, Messrs. William and Charles Worn are married.

One of our Brooklyn houses, Messrs. Fingleton Bros., whose portraits grace the opposite page, are engaged in a business of so varied a character that we hardly know where to class them. They are dealers, at whole- sale and retail, in furniture, upholstered goods, mat- tresses, stoves, kitchen furniture and utensils and baby carriages; but they also manufacture much of their furniture, upholstered goods and mattresses on their extensive premises, having a capital of $60,000, em- ploying about 20 men, and turning out about $50,000 worth of goods a year.

PATRICK J., HENRY W. and HUGH S. FINGLETON .- About the year 1842, Hugh Fingleton came from Ireland to New York city, where he engaged in the tobacco business. In 1848, he married Catharine Moore, also a native of Ireland,

who came to this country the same year he did. About two years later they bought land on Kosciusko street, built a house, and came to Brooklyn to live. This section was then far out in the country, and settled only by a few scattering farmers. His tobacco business in New York proved so re- munerative that he was able, in 1862, to buy a lot one hun- dred feet square on the corner of De Kalb and Nostrand ave- nues, and build three stores thereon. Over these he finished a suite of rooms, into which he brought his family from Kos- ciusko street, but lived only a few months to enjoy his new home. He died January 3d, 1864, leaving a wife and chil- dren as follows: Patrick J., born October 10th, 1854; Henry W., born August 9th, 1856; Sarah E., born May 12, 1858; Huglı S., born March 28th, 1861. Besides these, they lost two sons, who died, one ten years and the other five months old.

On the 1st of August, 1876, the three brothers, whose por- traits are shown herewith-Patrick J., Henry W. and Hugh S.

ALITTLE

Fingleton

Ur Fingleton

H .S. Fingleton

"FOUNDERS OF THE EAST BROOKLYN FURNITURE COMPANY."

733

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

-commenced business in one of the stores their father built, as manufacturers of and dealers in bedding. Their beginning was careful but energetic, and in the following May they added furniture of all kinds, manufacturing the parlor furniture in their own shops, 75 and 77 Kosciusko street. During the next autumn, carpets and upholstering were added to their trade, which continued to grow and ex- pand till the original building proved utterly inadequate for its wants. In 1878, they built an extension 45 x 60, to which repairs and enlargements have recently been made to accom- modate the demands of still another department devoted to stoves, kitchen utensils and baby carriages. For many years their business has been the largest of its kind between Fulton street and Broadway. But over this fair career of manly and honorable prosperity there came the dark shadow of loss of health and finally of life. During the inereased bur- den of work and care consequent upon building in 1878, Pa- trick J., the elder brother, took a deep-seated cold, from which he never recovered. It is the old, old story. Neither he nor his physicians became alarmed till it was too late. Then travel was tried. He and his mother crossed the ocean, and visited the scenes where her childhood and her young womanhood had been passed. Then he went to the Adiron- dacks, to Colorado and to California, but that terrible de- stroyer, consumption, was marching him through all these weary miles only to the grave. His last winter was spent in Florida, in company with his brother, Henry.

The inevitable event occurred July 15, 1883. His remains were sadly and tenderly deposited in Holy Cross Cemetery, Flatbush, by a large circle of bereaved friends. His mother's death, which occurred January 14, 1882, was hastened by an insupportable solicitude for the life of one so near and dear to her, and her loss also hastened his decline. Her unmar- ried sister, Mary Moore, has for over twenty years been a member of the family, almost filling a mother's place.

The daughter, Sarah E., now Mrs. James Lynch, together with her husband, live in the home family with the two re- maining brothers, neither of whom have ever married.

The business is still prosecuted with energy by the two younger members of the firm. The business involves a cap- ital of $60,000, gives employment to 20 men and amounts in current sales to $50,000 per year. Its conductors have always been noted for unassuming, gentlemanly qualities, combined with intelligence, diligence and enterprise.

SUBSECTION I .- Upholstering.

In the upholstery branch of the furniture manufae- turc there are different methods followed from those which we have described above. There arc upholsterers on a large scale, who employ a considerable number of hands. They procure or make the frames, which are usually of pine, well veneered, but sometimes, in the best goods, of black walnut, mahogany or eherry, and veneered, carved, overlaid, ornamented, &c., in such a way as will attract and please their customers; and these are then upholstered, except the outer covering; that is, the springs are put in, usually upon heavy web- bing, tightly drawn, but sometimes on thin boards or iron strips. These are covered with a heavy, coarse eanvass, and then the seat or back stuffed with hair, or often some cheaper material, as tow, exeelsior, hay, curled palm leaf, &c., &e., is laid upon the canvass, and a heavy cotton or canton flannel is drawn over it

tightly, and, perhaps, knotted at each spring. The under surface and webbing is covered, as there is little or no strain, with eolored cambrics, or, perhaps, some heavier material. These sofas, chairs, &e., thus in their undress, are sold in considerable quantities to the fur- niture dealers, who keep samples of the goods used for covering, which include morocco, book-binders' ealf, Russia and other leathers, hair and whalebonc cloth, broadcloth, reps, broeades of silk, satin or worsted, raw silk, cotton or worsted reps, &e., and cover them as desired. But the upholstercr also seeks retail eustom, and upholsters a single set as readily as he would sell a hundred of his blanks to a furniture dealer.

On the other hand, many of the furniture dealers, especially those dealing with the better class of custom- ers, though they do not attempt to manufacture any other deseriptions of furniture, (purehasing it or having it made to order by the wholesale houses) yet employ a considerable number of upholsterers, some of them very skillful workmen; and, buying the frames, have them upholstered in their own establishments, and in such way as their eustomers desire. These houses are not generally furniture manufacturers, but they are np- holsterers.

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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 181

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