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 II, Part 18

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345

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 II > Part 18

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In all the relations of civil and social life, Mr. Peace has shown himself a good citizen, a tender and kind husband and father, and a pleasant neighbor. Though not a member of any church, he is a regular attendant on the Methodist church - the church of his parents. In politics he is a de- cided republican, though never an office-seeker or office- holder. He wields a powerful influence in his ward, but has invariably refused to be a candidate for any public position. In regard to the tariff, he favors a moderate protection of our struggling manufactures, but insists that the duties should be taken off from raw material which cannot be produced here, and reduced on such raw material as is equally a product of our own and foreign countries; thus placing us on au equality with foreign manufacturers.

Mr. Peace, though heartily American in feeling and inter- est, does not forget that he first drew breath in England. He is an officer of the St. George's Society, and a hearty and cordial friend and helper of his countrymen. In other directions also, liis liberal spirit exhibits itself, and he is a generous giver to all good causes.

Mr. Peace, and some of his skillful workmen, have designed and patented many of the machines for the purpose of grinding the various kinds of saws, as well

Harvey M. Ceace

701

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

as for polishing, toothing, handling and graining saws. While this company make every description of saws known or demanded in the trade, their special attention is directed to the higher grades of carpenters' saws, band saws (some of these are fifty-five feet in length, and they vary in width from one-eighth inch to six inches), veneer and re-saw segments, and cross-cut saws. They employ from 150 to 160 hands, and their produc- tion ranges from $200,000 to $225,000 per annum.

Files .- There are a number of manufacturers of files in Brooklyn, but most of them have but small es- tablishments. The largest are that of Mr. Charles B. Paul, whose factory adjoins that of the Harvey W. Peace Company, on Tenth and Ainslie streets, and that of Mr. E. M. Boynton, on Devoe street, who was a manufacturer of saws as well as files. The latter estab- lishment is now closed. Four or five others are. doing a moderate business in this line. The amount of capi- tal required is much less than that for the saw manu- facture; but the material must be of the finest forged steel, of the most perfect temper, and the cutting done by hand, and by workmen of the highest skill. There are, indeed, machine-cut files on the market, but for the purposes for which a first-class file is wanted, they are as yet of very little worth. There are many va- rieties of files and rasps-rat-tail or taper, round, square, flat, triangular, oval, half-round, cabinet, etc., etc. A catalogue before us specifies about thirty varieties, and fourteen lengths of nearly all.

The art of file-cutting is a very difficult one, and only acquired by long practice. A large proportion of the file-cutters are of English birth, though the younger men of American birth are now doing very creditahle work. Like the workmen in the saw works the file-cutters adhere very rigidly to their own special division of the work. The cutter of three-cornered files will not attempt to cut rat-tail files, or even half- round ones, much less rasps of any description; and the cutters of these, in their turn, look with disdain upon the three-square file-cutters.

The census of 1880 reports 12 file factories, employ- ing 96 hands, and producing $68,509 of files annually. The report is both defective and redundant; redundant in the number of establishments, which does not ex- ceed eight; and defective in the amount of product, which considerably exceeds $100,000. Mr. Paul's out- put alone is from $30,000 to $40,000; and Mr. Boynton's was not much less, in this department of his business. The average number of hands employed by Mr. Paul is from 40 to 50.

SECTION IX.

Stamped or Drawn Wares, Tin and Sheet Iron Wares, Galvanized Iron and its Ware.

The production of stamped or drawn wares, by which is meant the formation, by means of continuous pres-

sure by a power press, and by single or combined dies and blank-holders, of pans, dishes, pails, kettles, sar- dine, blacking, spice and other boxes, and by combina- tion machines and dies, fruit, vegetable, meat and fish cans, petroleum cans and cases, and the lettering of these with any required name or address by dies, worked by the same machines, has become an import- ant industry, and has almost entirely superseded the old process of manufacturing tin-ware. In some of these machines, the pan, pail, dish or can, etc., come from the machine complete; in others they require wiring, trim- ming and finishing, all of which is done with great rapidity on other machines. By the use of these machines the amount of production can be increased one hundred fold with the same number of hands. The process of deep stamping was first invented by a French- man of Metz (now Mayence) named Mix; it was con- siderably improved and introduced into this country by Messrs. Lalance & Grosjean, who still manufacture, in Queens' county, these and their enamelled or granite wares on a large scale. Subsequent improvements were made in the machines, for stamping not only tin, but sheet iron, brass, zinc, copper, straw and card board, leather, etc., and the first extensive manufactory of these machines was started in Brooklyn in 1867, and subsequently greatly enlarged by Mr. E. W. Bliss, who is now the sole proprietor. Mr. Bliss does not manu- facture stamped ware himself, but produces the ma- chines by which it is made. The leading manufacturer's of stamped wares are the refiners of petroleum oils, who make millions of cans, of a capacity of from one to five gallons, for exporting and transporting their oils; the canners of fruits, vegetables, meats, oysters and fish, whose consumption of the cans is immense; and the houses which are engaged in the production of house- hold hardware. It is only because these petroleum oil cans, fruit, meat, vegetable, oyster and fish cans and boxes, and the lard pails, etc., etc., can be furnished so cheaply, and in such quantities, that the oil and pro- vision trades and the canned goods trade have been so enormously expanded within the last decade, and especially within the last five years. These inventions have also rendered other industries largely prosper- ous, which but for these products of the stamping machines must have long since been abandoned as unprofitable.

It is not exceeding the bounds of truth to say that these products of machines manufactured in Brooklyn, and almost wholly hy Brooklyn manufacturers, have increased our national exports to the extent of about fifty million dollars annually.

The leading manufacturers of stamped and drawn wares, as well as of other tin-wares, aside from the great manufacturers who make cans, pails, etc., exclusively for their own goods, are : E. Ketcham & Co., Fred. Habermann, Silas A. Ilsley & Co., William Vogel, G. J. Hauck & Co. and Somers Brothers.

702

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

ENOCH KETCHAM .- The subject of this sketch was born October 18th, 1818, in the quiet village of Pennington, Mercer county, New Jersey. His parents were Enoch and Matilda Smith Ketcham, who are buried in the cemetery of the Pres- byterian church of that place, where also rest the remains of seven successive generations of the family name. His earlier years were spent upon his father's farm, among the duties incident to such a life, with educational advantages of the most limited nature. Pennington was not then, as it is now, a noted seat of learning, and the only privileges, formerly given to the farmer's son, were a few weeks in the district school during the winter season, when services could best be spared from the work at home. While yet a youth Mr. Enoch Ketcham left the old homestead to learn the trade of a car- penter; and, after serving a full apprenticeship, worked for a while at Newark and Morristown, in his native state. In 1844 he began his mercantile career in Cliff street, New York, enter- ing in the lowest capacity, and soon rising, by industry and integrity, to a position in the firm. In 1849 he was married to Miss Eliza Van Auken, and resides still in the city of New York. Like his fathers, he has retained his connection with the Presbyterian church, being now a member of the Church of the Covenant, corner of Park avenue and Thirty-fifth street.

Mr. Ketcham is one of the oldest dealers in manufactured tin-wares in the United States. When he began in 1844, and during the first years of his business life, nearly all kinds of goods for house-furnishing were imported from abroad. But few were made in this country, and they were the common wares of the country tin-shop. He entered largely into the manufacture of such articles, his house always occupying a foremost position, and he, personally, recognized as a leader in the trade. Of late years the methods of producing these goods have been entirely revolutionized, nearly every process being wrought out by elaborate and expensive machinery. These improvements have given rise to varions large estab- lishments for the construction of such machines, which were entirely unknown before. The younger men in the trade can hardly appreciate the great changes that have transpired since Mr. Ketcham first undertook the building of his fac- tory.

The firm of E. Ketcham & Co., at great expense, and with an enterprise seldom equalled in these days, constructed machinery under their own roof which can be had of dealers at the present time for very moderate amounts. Later firms have profited largely by the experience which the firm of E. Ketcham & Co. acquired only by long and tedious experi- ments .*

In the year 1857, in company with some other persons, Mr. Enoch Ketcham purchased the factory at the corner of South Second and Twelfth streets in Williamsburg, and organized the firm of E. Ketcham & Co., whose warehouses are at 96 Beekman and 58 Cliff streets, New York. This building, which at that time was quite meagre in its proportions, has . since become of extensive size. It is built in the form of a hollow square, is five stories high, and arranged to accommo- date the several departments of which it is composed. The stamping rooms are one of the main features of the place. Here articles of great depth are formed from one sheet or disc of metal, without seams or solder. It was in this branch that experiments were first put forth, the earlier efforts pro- ducing vessels of, say, half an inch in depth, and finally reaching from seven to ten inches, so that all cooking vessels may be made from single sheets of tin, or other sheet metal,

without the possibility of leaks .* There are many other de- partments in this factory, in which tin plates are manipu- lated in various ways and shapes, and then polished to a lustre equalling silver in brilliancy.

Somers Brothers have confined themselves to the production of lithographed or decorated cans, boxes, pails, etc., etc., in which they have a large trade.

THE SOMERS BROTHERS .-- The brothers, Daniel M., Joseph L. and Guy A. Somers, among the best known of Brooklyn's manufacturers, are, though not of an old Brooklyn family, of one of the oldest families in the United States. The name has been for centuries known in England, and can be traced to the time of William the Conqueror.

The Somerses of America are descended from the family of John Somers, Lord Chancellor of England during the period of the War of the Roses. John Somers, the first of the name in America, emigrated from England in 16 5, and settled on a large grant of land in New Jersey, embracing Great Egg Harbor ; Somers Point, a well-known locality, having been the place of his residence. He had contracted a runaway marriage with a French lady of much beauty, higlily accom- plished, and of distinguished social position in her native land. Previous to this alliance, the Somerses had been blonde men and women, with light hair. Partaking of the personal characteristics of this lady, her children and their descendants, to the present time, have almost invariably been dark of complexion, with the usual accompaniment of black hair and eyes.

John Somers had two sons, who were named Richard and James. The former had a son, named John, also a grandson of the same name. who located in Virginia in 1804, and who had a son named Joseph R. Somers, who had three sons (the subjects of our sketch) and a daughter, all of whom are resi- dents of Brooklyn. They were born in the following order: Daniel M., March 20th, 1841; Guy A., July 31st, 1842; Joseph L., January 8th, 1844; and Mary Florence, June 1st, 1850. All of these are married and have families.

Col. Richard Somers, of the war of Independence, and a member of the Provincial Congress for 1775 in Philadelphia, was a grandson of the original Jolin Somers, of New Jersey, whose brave young son, Richard, was born September 15th, 1778, and became a sailor, and rose to the rank of lieutenant in the United States Navy, and commander of the United States ship Nautilus. In the Algerine War, before Tripoli, on the night of September 4th, 1803, he voluntarily sacrificed his own life by blowing up the ship Intrepid, to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy.

The great-grandfather of the Somerses of Brooklyn lost some ships during the Revolutionary War, and their grand- father lost four vessels by the fortunes of war in 1812-14. The Somerses of America were ship-owners for successive generations; but, during the last half-century, have drifted into other lines of enterprise. While of English and French descent, the Somerses of Brooklyn are thoroughly American, being of the sixth generation of their father's and of the fifth of their mother's family in the United States.

The firm of Somers Brothers-was organized in 1869 by Daniel M., Joseph L. and Guy A. Somers, who, without cap- ital or a local business acquaintance, began operations, in a small way, near Fulton ferry, Brooklyn, stamping metal goods for manufacturers. Gradually increasing their busi-

* The reader will find these processes very fully described in the arti- cie on Stamped and Drawn Metallic Wares, and in that on Presses and Dies.

* It was in this establishment that milk pans, wash-bowis, dippers and the like were first made " seamless," since which time they are to be found in every city and hamlet of the land.

8. Hitchany

703

THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

ness, they removed, in 1875, to their present location, at the corner of Front and Pearl streets, near Fulton and Catharine ferries. About this time Mr. William H. Atkinson, a cousin, was admitted to a partnership in the enterprise.

The manufacture of brass and nickel-plated goods was in- troduced, and the business increased rapidly with each pass- ing year, as the products of the factory became known in the market. In 1878, the firm began the manufacture of dec- orated tin boxes, for use as packages by manufacturers of proprietary articles. Although these goods are of compar- atively recent origin, their success has demonstrated their great usefulness and popularity wherever they have been introduced, the demand for a complete and perfectly finished package in tin having been long recognized.

The great perfection which this firm has attained in the modern art of decorating tin has opened a new channel for making these goods. By a process peculiar to themselves, Somers Brothers prepare the surface of the tin-plate with various richly-colored enamels or japans, and print directly upon the surface of the same by the lithographic process, bringing out the finest lines with the greatest clearness, and giving it a perfect and beautiful finish. By their care and experience, they have advanced the printing to such perfec- tion, that they are enabled to make a clearer and more artistic impression on their prepared tin than can be made by the same method on paper. After printing, another process is employed, which produces a finely enameled surface. Sev- eral days are required to finish these processes before the tin is ready to be manufactured into boxes or other articles; and the labels and other printed matter are imprinted on the tin- plate before it is made into the goods. These boxes present such an attractive appearance that the public, after using the contents, use them for general and household purposes, the indestructible label being regarded as one of the best modes of permanent advertisement that can be had.

From a small beginning, this enterprise has grown to be one of the most important in the city; and it is, without doubt, in the front rank of similar enterprises in the United States. The members of the firm are practically acquainted with the various departments of their branch of manufacture, and give to its details their personal attention, thus insuring an excellence in their goods that they could not hope other- wise to attain.

They have recently purchased a site for a factory on Third street, corner of Third avenue, upon which they are to erect a large and durable building for the accommodation of their rapidly increasing business.

Other manufacturers who are doing a good business are : Brooklyn Mfg. Co., C. W. Butler & Co., Lorenz Grussier, Iron-Clad Mfg. Co., Peter Michels, August Nagel, Willaim Norris, Robert Schreick, Hugh Sul- livan, Jas. H. Van Winkle, John Wilkens, Reinhard Wenz, and Thomas Heney. It is somewhat remark- able, and we fear, not quite in accordance with the truth, that the census represents Brooklyn as the only large city in the United States, which is extensively engaged in the production of stamped or drawn goods. New York is reported as producing $97,280 worth, and Brooklyn $1,556,829, while no other large city reports them at all. It is probable, however, that in many cases stamped ware is included under the head of " tin, copper and sheet iron ware," though the manufactur- ing census of both New York and Brooklyn have re-

turns under both titles. The manufacturers of the drawing and stamping machines tell us that large houses in Portland, Me .; Wilmington, Del .; Baltimore, Md .; Buffalo, N. Y .; St. Louis, Mo .; San Francisco, Cal., and Portland, Oregon, manufacture oil, fruit, vegetable, provision, fish and oyster cans by hundreds of millions by this process; and that household wares are manufactured largely in the same way in Buffalo, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis.

Tin, sheet iron, zinc and copper are manufactured in so many forms that it is not to be supposed that the drawing process can be applied to them all, but the ingenious manufacturers of these machines have de- vised the means for making almost everything which can be made by machinery; stove-pipes are made and riveted, the elbows formed perfectly, kettles, large pails, wash-boilers, steamers, hot-air pipes, copper ket- tles, baking and dripping pans, camp-kettles, etc., etc., etc., are all turned out perfectly by machinery. En- ameled wares are also manufactured by machine methods. The manufacture of stamped and other tin- wares in Brooklyn has nearly doubled since 1880. At that time there were reported of stamped ware six establishments, with $870,000 capital, employing 1,010 hands, paying $394,779 wages, using $936,084 of ma- terial, and producing annually $1,556,829. The tin- ware, copper-ware and sheet-iron ware trade, was repre- sented as having 119 establishments (this must have included the traveling tinkers and dealers as well); with $136,350 capital, employing 284 hands, paying $150,331 wages, using $346,867 of material, and pro- ducing $619,134 of these wares. The aggregate num- ber of hands then was 1,294, and the annual product $2,175,963. This was exclusive of the production of the petroleum companies who employed in 1883 about 1,200 hands on their cans, and turned out goods which cost them about $2,225,000; it was exclusive also of the large packing houses, whose production, though very considerable, cannot now be ascertained. The present business in this line in Brooklyn employs about 2,700 hands, and produces somewhat more than $5,200,000.

The manufacture of galvanized iron for building purposes, and of galvanized iron wares for household and other uses, as for leaders, tubing, etc., etc., prop- erly belongs with this class of manufactures. It has no separate item in the census, but there are three or four manufacturers who employ in all about forty or fifty men, and produce goods to the amount of over $150,000.

Intimately connected with the manufacture of tin- wares is the production of tin and lead, or spelter toys, as well as the sheet or cast iron toys, mechanical toys, as they are termed, which in these days have so large a sale, and bring so much pleasure to the little ones. The tin, lead and sheet-iron toys are stamped out in halves, by machines of the same class with the dies

704

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

used in the manufacture of tin-wares. They are put together and soldered slightly by children, and then passed along to receive their appropriate coloring. These toys, which are of Yankee invention, have largely taken the place of the German toys, once so extensively sold here, being stronger, and better adapted for the introduction of the mechanisms for producing motion, sound, etc., and at the same time, cheaper. They are largely made from scrap iron and tin, and even the superabundant cast-away tin cans are utilized for the service.

The principal manufacturers of tin, lead, spelter and sheet-iron toys, are Elias Durlach, Max Miller, and H. F. Leser; of steam and mechanical toys, the Union Toy Manufacturing Co., and Edward P. Ryder.

From these to other toys and games the transition to wooden toys and boxes, to dolls, to indestructible toys, games and puzzles, to builders' blocks, to children's and dolls' carriages, and all other descrip- tions of toys, is easy and natural.

Mr. P. Sythoff is easily king in the department of wooden toys and boxes, though he has competitors; what Messrs. Mclaughlin Brothers cannot furnish in the way of toy-books, indestructibles, pictorial illus- trations, puzzles and games, might well go unfurnished. Messrs. J. Gotz's Sons, Peter Hillenbrand, George Hodgett, and Frederick Scellenberger, etc., manufacture dolls and a great variety of children's toys.

But the children's benefactor is Crandall, "the in- imitable." His toys of all sorts, sizes and conditions; his dolls that talk, walk, sing, dance, jump and fly, and do everything almost that a human being can do; his mechanical toys, and above all, his velocipedes, bicycles, tricycles, quadricycles; his carriages for dolls of all conditions and ranks; his children's carriages, and everything else that can make a child frantic with joy, are not surpassed anywhere.

But Mr. Crandall doesn't make all his toys, and what is worse, those which he does make, are not made in Kings County; more's the pity, and so we cannot place him as we would be glad to do, among the Kings County manufacturers. But we make up for that else- where in this volume, where we speak of him as a dealer.

A young and enterprising house, now Schwalbach & Obrig, have recently commenced the manufacture of children's or baby carriages. Mr. Alexander Schwalbach commenced the manufacture of baby car- riages in September, 1882, at 131 First Street, near Broadway, E. D. His capital was $5,000; he em- ployed ten men, and produced $50,000 the first year. On the 1st of May, 1883, he took Theodore Obrig as partner, and extended the business, adding to it the manufacture of reed and rattan furniture, establishing for this purpose a new factory at 57 Fifth street. The wood wook of their various articles they manufacture at Walton, Delaware county, N. Y., as does Mr. Cran-

SCHWALBACH & OBRIG. MAKERSLE OF

EDAIRRAJ

BABY CARRIAGES

IN WOOD, WILLOW,REED&RATTAN, Dealers in Bicycles forMen & Bays Velocipedes, Oak Wagons, ROCKING HORSES, OOLL CARRIAGES, SLEDS &c.

NEWTOWN DEPOT.

SCHWALBACH & OBRIG'S FACTORY.

dall also; but the iron work, plated work, etc., and the putting together of their baby carriages is all done here. They are now employing 100 hands, and pro- duce goods to the value of $80,000. Their sales are both wholesale and retail. The firm are young, enter- prising and energetic men, of a high sense of honor, and are bound to succeed.

The census gave the statistics of the manufactures of toys and games as 10 establishments, 388 hands, $332,146 annual product. The number of establish- ments has not increased, but the number of hands is now 450, and the product, the manufacturers say, exceeds $500,000.

SECTION X.

Builders', Mechanics' and Housekeeping Hard- ware, and Agricultural and Horticultural Implements and Machinery.

Hardware is a very comprehensive term, and in- cludes machines, implements and utensils, wholly of metal, partly of metal and wood, wholly of the harder woods, or partly or wholly of porcelain, granite wares, and metal or metallic earths. Each of the kinds of hardware specified in our title may be of either ma- terial. .

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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 II, Part 18

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co Number of Pages: 1345

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co
Number of Pages: 1345