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 182

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 182

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Some of the furniture manufacturers confine them- selves to the manufacture and veneering of the frames of sofas, tete-a-tetes, divans, easy chairs, etc., ete., which they sell to the upholsterers and furniture deal- ers; and thus, unlike the elass just mentioned, they are not upholsterers, but manufacturers of chair and sofa frames, etc. This is a large business, and is constantly increasing, the frames being of all classes, from the very poor and cheap to the best carved, veneered and inlaid frames. Messrs. Christian and George Spoerl are the largest manufacturers of these frames, and have two houses, one in Myrtle, the other in Lee avenue. The leading upholsterers who do a large wholesale business are: Peter W. Schmitt, Rohman & Hillman, Charles M. Medicus, William Lang, Joseph Huhn and Staudinger & Goldsmith, and A. & C. H. Baldwin, of Fourth street, E. D., who have a building 30x134, 4 stories high, and employ a large number of hands. Schmitt, Lang and Hulin do some retail business also, but, we believe, the others do not. Messrs. Lang & Nau, T. Brooks' successors, J. G. Reither, R. G. Lock- wood & Son, George A. Probst, the Cowperthwaite Co., and perhaps, also, the Brooklyn Furniture Co., and some others, have upholstery shops, and do work for their own eustomers, but not as jobbers or wholesale dealers. Among these upholsterers is a specialist, Mr. Frederick B. Jordan, who is a manufacturer of and dealer in furni- ture draperies and trimmings, such as lambrequins, mantel draperies, portieres, &c., at 155 & 157 Adelphi street, corner of Myrtle avenue. He commeneed busi- ness in July, 1876, with a capital of about $8,000, em- ploys from 6 to 24 hands, paysabout $7,500 wages, and lis annual produet is about $60,000. There are also

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

many upholsterers, some of them excellent workmen, who start on a small scale, working themselves and em- ploying one or two hands, who do custom work and re- pairing, but keep no general stock of furniture, or even of upholstered goods. In the course of a few years some of these work their way into a good business, while others drift back into the large upholsterers' shops. But for this upholstery work, many of the larg- est dealers in furniture would have no claim to the name of manufacturers. Another class, who deal alto. gether in the cheap and trashy articles, which will only hold together long enough to reach the houses of their customers, procure their goods from distant points in the country, where woods abound, and where the pieces which go to make up chairs, bureaus, tables, etc., are worked out in the rough, usually from wood only part- ly scasoned, often turned out in the lathes for turning irregular forms, roughly veneered, and sent to the city to be finished, where glue and putty, paint and varnish, conceal the imperfection of the work. There are more wholesale dealers in this class of goods in New York than in Kings county, and the "Cheap Johns " in the retail trade supply themselves very largely from their stock. But two or three houses in Brooklyn are en- gaged in finishing and selling in quantities these cheap and trashy goods. It may be said, however, in justice to Messrs. Rohman and Hillman, and the Long Island Furniture Co., in Myrtle avenue, that if they finish and sell many of these cheap goods, they also manufacture some that are of a better grade.

SUBSECTION II .- Chairs, not upholstered, except in special cases.

The manufacturers of chairs of bent wood, veneers and perforated seats, and of rattan, willow, etc., as well as those who make what are known as cane-seated and splint chairs, and the still cheaper articles known as common wood chairs, rockers, etc., and iron, galvan- ized iron, and iron wire or steel wire chairs, are a class by themselves. Each man or firm adheres to a single description of chairs, and makes only that kind, though he may indulge in the greatest variety of forms. There are ten or twelve of these manufacturers of chairs and chair seats in Kings county, and some of the wire- work manufacturers, as well as two or three of the manufacturers of fancy iron castings, may be added to the number. The chairs, settees and fancy bed- steads of the wire-workers are often very elegant and useful. The Cubble Excelsior Wire Manufacturing Co., Messrs. Howard & Morse, and, we believe, also the Brooklyn Wire Works Co., make a great variety of patterns of these goods.

One firm makes only barbers' and dentists' chairs; one makes opera chairs, of iron, upholstered; two or three make wood and cane-seated chairs; three or four make cane-seated chairs, and repair these and other furniture; two are put down as chair-seat manufac-

turers; two are manufacturers of wood chairs on a large scale, and one manufactures dining-room and read- ing-room chairs exclusively. There are also three manufacturers of rattan goods, but they confine them- selves to baskets, split cancs for seats, etc., etc. The rattan chairs, rockers, tete-a-tetes, lounges, etc., as well as those of willow ware or osier of similar forms, which are now so popular, are wholly manufactured by three or four firms in New England, and are so protected by patents that there can be no competition. Much of this work is farmed out among families in the country towns, at a very low price. The cane seats are now largely woven by those firms, and put in in such a way as to be very perishable; and, in consequence of their mode of constructing them, cannot be replaced, except at nearly the cost of new chairs. The rush-bottomed chairs, once very popular, have been driven out of the market by the rattan manufacturers, who have bought up large tracts of the marshes, and burned the rushes, to prevent their use. The perforated and bent wood veneered chairs, made principally under Gardner's patents, are manufactured at his factories in New York, where the seats are also sold separately. The chair manufacture in Brooklyn is not very large, although considerably beyond the amount of product set down for it in the census, $121,703. The real product of the whole eleven or twelve manufacturers is not far from $225,000.

SUBSECTION III .- The Decoration of Houses, Theatres, Halls, etc., with Hard-wood Trimmings.

This, on the scale on which it is now conducted, is a new industry. Intimately connected with the finer grades of furniture is the decoration of costly dwell- ings, churches, hotels, halls and theatres, steamships, steamboats and palace cars, with hard woods, carved by hand, veneered with the choicest veneers, polished, and wrought in forms of great beauty. Some of these decorations are even more costly than the finest furni- ture which our best artists have produced, but the de- mand for them is large and constantly increasing. Among the houses which have attained the highest rank in this department of decorative art, is the great lumber house of Cross, Austin & Co. They have attached a hard-wood department to their business, and are unable to supply the demand for their exquisite products. Nothing can exceed the beauty of these veneers and richly carved woods; the panelled and in- laid doorways, newel-posts, rails, window and mirror .

frames, arches and alcoves, have not been equalled in the past, even in artistic France.

The White, Potter & Paige Manufacturing Co., now passed into other hands than those of its original found- ers, is also largely engaged in the production of these hardwood and cabinet trimmings, as well as of picture and mirror frames and mouldings, hard-wood doors, and to some extent prepared lumber. Their establishment

735

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

is a large one, the lots which they occupy including about 47,000 square feet on Willoughby avenue, San- ford and Walworth streets, of which about 24,000 feet is covered with buildings. Some of these buildings are three stories, others two, and a part one story in height. The amount of lumber they usc and sell in a year is 2,702,000 feet. The largest number of hands employed at one time is 308; the amount of wages paid per year, $146,500; amount of sales of manufactured goods, $322,500. Other hard-wood trimmings manufacturers are: Alexander Dugan, Goodwin, Cross & Co., Downes & Turk, in the line of picture frames, and perhaps one or two others. The whole present total annual out-put of these trimmings is a little more than $550,000.

SUBSECTION IV .- Mouldings of Soft and Hard Woods, Sashes, Doors and Blinds.

Under these two heads the Brooklyn City Business Directory for 1883 enumerates forty-four manufacturers, some of them large, and others only just beginning business. We have classed them together in this sub- section, though they are, as now conducted, two entirely distinct branches of the business. By "mouldings" are understood in the trade all that variety (becoming daily more infinite) of grooved, fluted, rounded and ornamented beadings and trimmings about doors, win- dows, stairs, ceilings, office rails and trimmings, which in these days make the builder's work so largely a de- corative art. These mouldings are wrought from either hard or soft woods by scroll, jig or band saws in part, but principally by planing knives, each adapted to make its particular moulding, and the patterns of these knives are constantly changed to satisfy the eager demand for variety, the ingenuity of the best machinists being taxed to invent patterns of new designs.

In this department of mouldings the house of John S. Loomis is easily foremost in Kings county. In 1849 Mr. Loomis, a native of Wyoming county, Pennsyl- vania, and a practical carpenter, having taken a fellow workman, James McCammann, into partnership with him, commenced the manufacture of sashes, doors and blinds, in a shop twenty-five feet square, on Tompkins place. The machinery, which was run by horse-power, consisted of one circular saw, one mortising machine, one tenoning machine, and a small sticker, or moulding machine, constructed by themselves; the Fay sticker, a small moulding machine, very defective in its work- ing, being the only other moulding machine then in the market. The business of the young firm prospered to such an extent that within two years they were com- pelled to move to larger quarters. They purchased a site on Wyckoff street, near Smith, where they erected a new mill, 25x30, and two stories in height, and put in a small five horse power engine and considerable new machinery. In 1855 the partnership was dissolved, Mr. McCammann going out. Mr. Loomis resolved to enlarge his business and seek a market in the South,

He was so successful that in five years he sold out his saslı, door and blind business, and devoted himself ex- clusively to mouldings, erecting other buildings to ac- commodate his fast increasing trade. In 1868, after a long and prosperous career, his mill, buildings and ma- chiinery were entirely destroyed by fire. Obtaining temporary quarters for his business, he immediately purchased the site of his present extensive works at the head of the Gowanus canal, and in less than six months had a very large inill, with abundant machinery, running full time. Since that time he has suffered the same ex- perience of destruction by fire three times, viz., in 1870, 1876, and in August, 1881, and cach time has erected larger and more complete buildings, and has greatly in. creased his business. The destruction in the fire of August, 1881, was complete, destroying everything ex- cept the office and storage building, and sweeping away also the adjacent sash, door and blind factory of Stan- ley & Unckles; yet in three months' time the present factory, said to be the largest and in every particular the most complete of its kind in the United States, was finished and in running order. The present buildings occupy the whole front (200 feet) on Nevins street, from Baltic to Butler, and extend back on both streets 225 feet, the whole space (45,000 square feet) being covered with buildings, leaving only the necessary pass- age ways for wagons and trucks. The corner building, 38x115 feet, is occupied on the first floor and basement by the turning, carving and sawing department. The second story is fitted up as a carpenters' or joiners' shop, with the most improved labor-saving machinery. Here are made window-frames, wood mantels, panel work of all descriptions, employing a large force of first-class mechanics. The third floor is used for storage and other purposes.

Adjoining on Baltic street is the machine shop, where the machines used in the establishment are made, and all necessary repairing is done. The next is the stair- building shop. Then come the storage sheds where kiln-dried lumber is stored ready tocut, and on the rear we reach the drying kilns, six in number, built of brick and extending from Baltic to Butler streets, a distance of 200 feet, with capacity for drying 180,000 feet of lumber at once, and insuring a constant supply of thoroughly scasoned lumber.

The remainder of the ground is occupied by one large mill building containing 13 moulding machines, capable of producing 130,000 feet of worked mouldings a day ; 3 large planing machines, band, jig, circular and other saws, and the necessary belting and shafting for driving them; in the centre of the mill, the " knife room," where the moulding cutters are made and where, on shelves, each numbered in order, the knives or ent- ters are stored after their manufacture or repair. Two men are constantly at work making new knives. The shop is fitted up with a portable forge, anvila, tanite emnery wheels, etc. In this same mill are also the sand-

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

papering machines, invented by Mr. Loomis, and used exclusively in this establishment. On these machines the mouldings receive the smooth finish for which Loomis' mouldings are noted in the trade. Two of these ma- chines now do the work of from 60 to 80 boys, and ac- complish it much more skillfully and satisfactorily, preserving all sharp corners intact, and finishing uni- formly, and without injury, all surfaces and delicate members of the moulding.

Mr. Loomis also owns and occupies a lumber yard 100x225 feet, on the canal, at the corner of Carroll and Nevins streets, for receiving and piling his lumber, and another yard 100x100 feet, opposite his mill on Nevins street, where he keeps for sale all descriptions of

Court from 1675 to 1687, and died in 1688 at the age of 66 years. The son of Thomas Loomis, of Windsor, was Thomas Loomis, of Hatfield, Mass., born in 1653. His son was Thomas Loomis, of Lebanon, Conn., born in 1684; and his son Lieu- tenant Thomas Loomis, also of Lebanon, born in 1714. Captain Isaiah Loomis, also of Lebanon, was a son of the lieutenant, and a soldier of the Revolution; he was born in 1749. Sherman Loomis, of Centremoreland, Penn., was the son of Captain Isaiah, born in 1787, and was the father of John Sharp Loomis.

In 1846, John S. Loomis went from Wilkesbarre, where he had learned his trade as a carpenter, to South Carolina, and was engaged, under A. W. Craven, in building the Camden & Gadsden Railroad, one of the last links in the first railroad connection between the North and the South. In 1847, he came to Brooklyn, and entered the shop of Thomas Baylis,

PLANING

LOOMIS

ING& PLANING

MILLS.

TURNING

FFIGE

SAWING

LUMBER.

J.S.LOOMIS

LUMBER YARD

J. S. LOOMIS' MOULDING AND PLANING MILLS.

dressed lumber for the local trade. Mr. Loomis re- quires annually for his business about 6,000,000 feet of pine lumber and 750,000 feet of hard-wood.

Mr. Loomis does also a very considerable business in the production of hard wood trimmings in addition to his mouldings manufacture. He employs about 120 hands; paying annually about $92,000 wages, and pro- ducing annually mouldings, &c., to the value of about $350,000.

JOHN SHARP LOOMIS. - The subject of this sketch was born in Centremoreland, Wyoming county, Penn., June 12, 1825. He is of strictly Puritan stock, his first direct ancestor in this country having been Joseph Loomis, a woollen draper, of Essex county, England, who came to Boston in 1638, and re- moved to Windsor, in the Connecticut Colony, in 1639. One of his five sons was John Loomis or Loomys, another Thomas Loomis, both of Windsor, and both men of substance and distinction. Thomas Loomis was a deputy to the General

who was at that time one of the leading builders in the city. About a year later he formed a partnership with James Mc- Cammann, a fellow workman, and started a small mill in Tompkins place for the manufacture of sash, doors and blinds. Their mill was only 25 feet square, was run by horse- power, and contained a very few machines.

They were compelled, by the increase of their business, to remove to larger quarters in Wyckoff street, near Smith, at the end of two years, where they had nearly three times as much room and a steam-engine of five horse power. In 1855, the partnership was dissolved, Mr. McCammann going out, and thenceforward Mr. Loomis continued the business alone. He now turned his attention to the extension of his trade with the south. He had added mouldings to his products, and in five years had created so large a market for his work in the southern states, that he sold out his sash, door and blind interest, and confined himself exclusively to the manu- facture of mouldings and turned work. Notwithstanding the derangement of business consequent upon the war, his trade constantly increased, and he was in the height of a prosperous and growing business, when, on the 6th of June, 1868, his

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

737

& I Loomis

. mill was entirely destroyed by fire. He instantly made tem- porary arrangements for continuing his business, and pur- chased the site which his present mill occupies, at the head of Gowanus canal, on Nevins street. Here, by the first of December, 1868, he had completed a very large manufactory, replete with every convenience, for his business. Here the increase of his trade surpassed all his former anticipations. It would seem that Mr. Loomis would be justified in calling his manufactory the "Phoenix" works, for, since his re- moval to Nevins street, he has three times seen his buildings and machinery and stock destroyed by fire. These fires occurred in 1870, 1876 and in August, 1881. The last fire was especially destructive, sweeping away another factory as well as his own. But three months later he had finished a new factory, larger, and every way more complete in all its appointments, than any of its predecessors had been. Else- where we describe this new factory, with its numerous buildings. Suffice it to say, that it is fully supplied with machines of the latest and most approved patterns, many of them of Mr. Loomis' own invention, and that the extensive machine shop connected with it is constantly making addi- tions to its appliances for turning out perfect work. There are other moulding and turning mills in Brooklyn, of great extent and capable of turning out excellent work; but none, in all respects, equal to this. He is now also occupied quite largely in what is known as the "hard-wood department" of the moulding and trimming business. This consists in the manufacture of ornamental door and window frames, rails, Newel posts, etc., etc., which are richly veneered, in- laid, carved, etc., for halls, theatres, opera houses, hotels,

steamboats and private dwellings. The industry is a com- paratively new one, but is rapidly growing.

Mr. Loomis' business, which began with the Brooklyn trade, now extends throughout the eastern, middle, south- ern and southwestern states, and he is also frequently re- ceiving orders from the West Indies, South America, Eng- land, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other countries.

Mr. Loomis is a thorough-going business man, and pos- sesses a genial and sunny temper, which has drawn around him a host of friends. His generous and social disposition; his undaunted pluck and self-poise in the midst of disaster, his confident leadership in perilous enterprises, his courage, hopefulness and perfect self-control amid the wild and chaotic excitement of the great fires which have so often de- stroyed his property; the quiet firmness and resolution with which he has retrieved his fortunes; and the constancy of his friendships, render him a man to be admired and loved by all who know him.

Mr. Loomis' family consists of his wife and three grown-up sons, two of whom are in the business with their father. He hasalways been a republican in his political relations, though not a partisan. He was one of the original stockholders and directors of the Sprague National Bank.

Mr. Loomis has always held that the eye of the master is the best guaranty of the perfection and excellence of the work which he offers to the public; and, acting on this con- viction, he may be seen, at almost any hour of the day, over- looking, inspecting and directing the work on which some of his 120 workmen are engaged.

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

The manufacture of sash, doors and blinds describes itself. It is constantly increasing, and these goods, we believe, owing in part to the strong competition, are better made, and of more thoroughly seasoned lumber, than formerly. The trade is almost entirely local, as every city and large village has its factories for the production of these articles, so necessary for the build- er's use. Of late, even hard-wood doors, of the best quality, carved and ornamented, are made in these factories. The census of 1880 reported 24 of these es- tablishments with a capital of $368,350, employing 637 hands, and paying $190,509 wages; using $398,679 of material and producing $738,722 annually. As the census makes no separate mention of mouldings or hard-wood trimmings, it is probable that these were in- cluded. Now, the business directory of 1883 reports eight houses engaged in making mouldings, etc. (there are really twelve), and in the county 38 manufacturers of sash, doors and blinds. The number of hands em- ployed exceeds 750, and the production, aside from mouldings is over $1,000,000. The largest houses in the business are Louis Bossert, Alexander Dugan, Good- win, Cross & Co., Stanley & Unckles, R. F. Whipple, H. Kirk & Morgenthaler, Welsh & Little, Long Island Saw and Planing Mills, South Brooklyn Saw Mills Company, William Skidmore, etc., etc.

SUBSECTION VI .- Mattresses, Spring Beds and Bed- ding.

More intimately connected with the furniture trade than the hard-wood trimmings, or the mouldings and the sashes, doors and blinds, are the mattresses, spring beds and bedding. Mattresses are made of exceedingly various materials. The material most valued by house- keepers is genuine, pure, curled horse-hair; and mat- tresses containing this article, and nothing else, always command a high price. There are many cheaper ma- terials, used either by themselves, or to cheapen hair mattresses, however, which have a considerable sale. Decr's hair is used by one manufacturer for ship mat- tresses, on account of its buoyant quality, as it is said that it cannot be made to sink; Russian felt is used for its freedom from vermin; curled husks, tow, excelsior, shavings, Spanish moss, curled palm leaf, hay, straw and moss are also used in the cheaper mattresses. There are also mattresses of woven wire, of spiral springs, upholstered and not upholstered, of coiled springs, and of almost every description of springs, and fastened in an almost infinite variety of ways. Then there are beds or mattresses of feathers, of down, of cotton, of wool, and of vegetable wool and woolly plants. Nearly every description of mattress named is manufactured here. The census reported but seven manufacturers of mattresses and spring beds, employ- ing 36 hands and producing $137,676 of goods; but this was a most remarkable under-estimate. Of the hundreds of upholsterers and furniture dealers, there

is hardly one who does not make mattresses of some kind, and most of them many kinds; while there are 24 houses, some of them large, who make the manu- facture of mattresses and spring beds their sole occu- pation. It is, of course, difficult, and perhaps impossi- ble, to come at any very near approximation to the amount of business done in these goods, but it is cer- tainly within bounds to say that, including the export of special spring beds and mattresses made here, the whole number of hands employed is not under 250, and the production above $500,000. The leading houses who are specially engaged in this manufacture are: the Brooklyn Spring Bed Co., who manufacture woven wire and other mattresses, at 56 Flatbush avenue; they employ ten men and turn out mattresses to the amount of about $50,000; John Wood, of 223 Fulton street, whose business was estabished in 1864, and who turns out about $60,000 of furniture and bedding annually; William S. Fogg & Son; the Metropolitan Manufactur- ing Company; J. & R. Ainslie, of 20-22 Broadway, E. D., who make a specialty of peculiar metallic spring mattresses of great excellence, employ 15 hands, and produce goods to the value of about $52,000 a year; K. C. Bradford; the Metallic Upholstering Company; L. Goodwin; Edwin P. Fowler; George S. Goodwin; L. Drew, whose house has been established for more than 56 years ; his business in this line is largely wholesale, and his customers are the best furniture dealers in Kings County ; he connects feather dressing and renovating with his business, and also bedding in - general; Samuel H. Mills, William T. Fish, etc., etc.

The census returns of all branches of the furniture and upholstering manufacture are somewhat more than $2,800,000 and 2,065 hands employed. Adding for mouldings and hard-wood trimmings, and the defective report of mattresses and spring beds, and the very great increase of the business within four years, and we have an aggregate of more than $4,500,000 in all branches of the business, and more than 3,000 hands employed.

SECTION XVI.

Publishing and Book Manufacture.

The item, " Printing and Publishing," in the census of 1880, is misleading in many respects. Sixty-four establishments were reported, with $889,284 capital, employing 1,299 hands, paying $522,075 wages, using $552,610 material, and producing $1,549, 743 of books, papers, pamphlets and job work. This enumeration included every little job office in the city; but it would seem to have omitted the three great book factories of Brooklyn-or, rather, two of them, as Messrs. Barnes' factory was not erected till 1880-for Mr. Froth- ingham's report, which did include these, gave 68 establishments, with $994,384 of capital, employ- ing 1,448 hands, paying $562,613 wages,. using

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

739

$496,610 of raw material, and producing annually $2,062,293 of books, papers, &e. The census office, doubtless, concluded in these cases, as they have in many other Brooklyn manufactures, that since the goods were sold in New York city, Brooklyn was not entitled to the credit of their manufacture. But, as a matter of fact, the greater part of the product of these great book manufactories is shipped direet from the factories, by telegraphie, and telephonic orders, and never enters the New York warehouses. The capital is invested here, the whole process of manufacture is

The Freie Press and The Brooklyn Daily Union, all do a very large business, and having job offices attached to them, turn out a vast amount of printing annually. These four newspapers, with their advertisements and their job offices, have an aggregate production of not less than $700,000 annually; adding to this the seven- teen or eighteen other newspapers, periodicals and magazines (not including the advertising sheets), and we have an aggregate annual production of not less than $1,050,000. Of the other forty-two or forty- three printing establishments, some are connected

WARREN

D. APPLETON & CO.'S BOOK MANUFACTORY.

conducted here, and the perfected product is stored here, ready for shipment to any point where it is needed. But, though Mr. Frothingham's annual product exceeds that of the census office by more than $500,000, it does not adequately represent the immense production of these great houses, as we shall see presently.

Under this heading, the census, undoubtedly, in- cludes the printing and publishing of the daily and weekly newspapers and the monthly publications. We describe these more at length under the head of " The Press and Journalism." Suffice it to say, that The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Brooklyn Daily Times,

with book-stores and stationery houses; some are jobbing offices, which have a good business in con- nection with large manufacturing, commercial or busi- ness houses; some are connected with banks, insurance and real estate offices, and draw their business mainly from them, printing the advertising sheets which are so common, and other jobbing work. Most of the great manufacturing houses have a printing office of their own. Taking these all together (and the number has probably increased since 1880 to about 60), and their annual production is not less than $500,000, and may considerably exceed that sum.

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

But the production of the great book factories ex- ceeds that of the newspapers and job printers together.

The first of these in Brooklyn in the order of time, and probably the largest in extent, is that of Messrs. D. APPLETON & Co., at 201-219 Kent avenue. The Messrs. Appleton, booksellers in New York since 1825, and publishers since 1831, had found their publications becoming so numerous as to require facilities of their own for the manufacture of their publications. They commenced a bindery in New York city in 1854, a printing office with eight power presses, and 26 hands in Franklin street, New York city, in 1855, and a composition and electrotyping department in Greenc street, New York, in 1864. Mr. Matthews was, and still is at the head of their bindery; Mr. Dunne at the head of the printing department, now enlarged to 21 Adams presses and 150 hands, and Mr. William H. S. Werry, deceased in 1875, and succeeded by his son, Edward Werry, was at the head of the composition and electrotyping department, which originally had twelve hands, and now has more than 100.

In December, 1867, Messrs. Appleton erected their present book factory in Kent street and consolidated all their departments under one building or series of buildings. This is said to be one of the largest and most completely appointed printing and binding estab- lishments in the world. The bindery alone is 250 feet long and five stories high, and has about 425 hands employed. The printing office and the composing and electrotyping rooms occupy another large building, and still another has been erected for the storage of books, as well as extensive vaults for plates. The firm now employs about 700 hands, pay out $325,000 annually for wages, and their annual product in this factory is between $700,000 and $800,000.

They have a restaurant for their hands in the build- ing, which furnishes meals at the bare cost; two sick benefit organizations have been organized; there is an excellent circulating library for the operatives, founded in memory of George S. Appleton, deceased, a former member of the firm, and the Appleton Mission, which provides religious services free of charge to all who choose to attend them.

Messrs. McLoughlin Brothers were the next of these book manufacturers to establish a large book factory in Brooklyn. They had been for many years engaged in the manufacture and publication of colored toy books, games and toys in New York at first, from 1840 to 1850, as Elton & Co., and from 1855 under the present firm name; but finding occasion for larger quarters, they removed to Brooklyn in 1870, and erected their present spacious factory at South Eleventh street, corner of Third. Here they employ about 350 hands, and produce a very large amount of toy books, colored and plain games, and toys. Their business has grown steadily from year to year. All their books, toys, etc., are sold in New York.

The third, in the order of time, of these great man- ufactories, is that of Messrs. A. S. BARNES & Co. This house has been in business as publishers since 1838, at first in Hartford, Conn .; afterward in Phila- delphia, and since 1845 in New York city, where they originally occupied a store and warehouse at the cor- ner of John and Dutch streets. Their quarters be- coming too strait for them, they purchased the five- story store and warehouse, on the corner of William and John streets, in 1868, reserving the old store and warehouse, as well as a part of the new, for manufac- turing purposes. In 1880, they had outgrown these quarters, and Mr. Barnes erected their present large manufactory in Brooklyn, on the corner of Liberty and Nassau streets, 75x100 feet, and six stories high. To this new building they removed their printing offices, bindery, packing, and in part, their storage rooms. Twenty power presses are kept continually running on the school-books and other publications of the firm, and most of their orders are shipped to their point of destination direct from the factory. Mr. Edwin M. Barnes, the third son of Mr. A. S. Barnes, is in charge of the manufactory.

The number of hands employed in all departments of the factory is about 250, and they turn out over a million of school-books annually.

These three manufactories are, we believe, all, which are regularly engaged in the production of books in Brooklyn; certainly, they are all which are conducted solely for the account of the publishers who own thern. Their aggregate production, as we have seen, is above $1,600,000, and the aggregate number of hands em- ployed about 1,350.

A. S. BARNES .- There is, perhaps, no department of enterprise and industry, which has been more marked in its development within the past few years, than that of the publication of school books.

The small store, with some dozens of spelling-books and readers, with copy-books and arithmetics, in still smaller quantities, has given place to the present mam- moth establishment, turning out from its immense power-presses, and well appointed bindery, its thousands -nay, millions-of volumes yearly, embracing every department of human learning for which a text book has been, or can be, prepared. In very few establishments in the world, probably, has this development from a small beginning to a great enterprise, been more fully exemplified than in the house deriving its name from, and owing its foundation and great success to, the subject of our sketch.

It has steadily grown, from its first modest quarters of twelve by twenty feet square in Hartford, in 1838, to the occupation of buildings in Brooklyn, New York and Chicago, whose floors may be measured by acres, and the product of whose presses goes out by tons and car-loads to every part of this and many foreign .

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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 182

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