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 37

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 37

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Most of the larger coopers, aside from their manufac- ture of barrels, half barrels or kegs, manufacture or deal in sugar shooks, casks and staves, heading and hoops, and some of them make a specialty of repairing second- hand barrels.

PAUL WEIDMANN, well and widely known in connection with the cooperage interest in Brooklyn, was born in Nieder- auerhach, near Zweibrucken, Rhein Pfalz, Bavaria, May 15, 1830, and came to America in March, 1852, and was employed about six months by a brewer in New York. Later he worked about a year in one of the old Williamsburgh breweries, and for a year as a cooper in Cincinnati and vicinity. Returning east, he was employed in New York and Williamsburgh as a journeyman cooper until 1859, when he opened a small cooper's shop of his own in the rear of an old building on North First street, near Second. A few years later he re- moved his then greatly increased business to South Twelfth street, where the Havemeyer sugar refinery now is, and it was located there till the property embracing his site was purchased by the Havemeyers, and converted to their use. He then purchased the lot on North First street, where he had first begun business on his own account, and occupied en- tirely the buildings, one room of which had previously been sufficient for the demands of his business. Later, he removed to North First, between Second and Third streets, where he had a large establishment for the time, but which his grow- ing business necessitated his abandoning, on account of lack of room and other facilities, which he obtained in 1874, at his present location on North Third street, where he bought a large factory, to which he was compelled to build an addition, and near which he has erected other buildings, until he now has one, 100x125 feet, six stories high; one, 50x125 feet, two stories high, and another, 100x125 feet, four stories high, ad- jacent to which is a capacious yard. His business, which af- fords employment to many workmen, is one of the largest of its kind in the city, and in its management, Mr. Weidmann is assisted by his sons, Paul Weidmann, Jr., and Frederick Weidmann. Mr. Weidmann married Susan Diehl, a native of Bavaria, but a resident of New York, by whom he has two children living. While yet working as a journeyman cooper, Mr. Weidmann established a small fancy store which his wife managed thirteen years, thus aiding him to put his enter- prise on a firm footing, which insured its after success. His wares include new sugar, flour and syrup barrels, half-bar- rels, kegs, &c., and he deals extensively in sugar shooks,

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Medmann

second-hand barrels and casks and staves, heading and hoops. His factory and warehouse are located at 85 to 109 North Third street, and 94 to 104 North First street, and he has a yard and wharf at the foot of North Sixth street.

SECTION XXXI. Clothing : Men's; Women's; Shirts.

The clothing trade, in its various branches, is a very large industry in Kings county ; large, not only in the amount made for our Brooklyn manufacturers, but still larger in the amount produced here for New York houses.

We are at loss to understand the clothing statistics furnished by the census. The compendium of the tenth census states the number of establishments engaged in manufacturing men's clothing as 328. If this number was meant to include all the tailors, it was altogether too small; for they number 716 in the city and about 24 in the county towns, or 740 in all. But it is not usual to count every tailor, or indeed, the tailors gene- rally, as manufacturers; though, in a sense, a part of them are so. If, on the contrary, it was intended to include all the manufacturers of ready-made clothing, it was very much too large, for, including all the deal- ers in ready-made clothing, there are only 150; and of

these, less than one-half manufacture their goods here, whatever they may do elsewhere. Several of the larger of these houses have their factories and cutting shops elsewhere, and the goods are only brought here to be sold. This is especially true of such houses as Baldwin, A. J. Nutting & Company, and many others. Some, of course, do manufacture here, and a larger number than is generally supposed. The largest of these is, undoubtedly, Smith, Gray & Co., whose ex- tensive stores, factories and warehouses occupy so large a space on Broadway and Fourth street, E. D., and Manhattan and Greenpoint avenues, Greenpoint. In their specialty of boys' and children's clothing, this house is the largest, as it was the first, in the United States. It is now fifty years since the present senior partner of this firm-whose portrait and bio- graphy are among the most precious contributions to the gallery of worthies in our work-commenced the business of making boys' clothing in New York city, prompted thereto by his firm conviction that such gar- ments, if properly made, would find a ready sale. He was himself an accomplished tailor, cutter and fitter, and his goods were soon largely in demand. Mr. Allen Gray, the second partner of the present firmn, added to the popularity of this branch of business by originating

-q2by H Futchro

Edward Smith

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

the best set of graded patterns for boys' clothing, which had ever been produced. Mr. Smith removed several times in New York and had built up in twenty-seven years of active and honorable toil a very extensive wholesale trade, largely with the south ; when, at the commencement of the late civil war, he found himself subjected to the loss of many hundreds of thousands of dollars, by the indisposition and in many cases, the in- ability of his southern customers to pay, he with- drew from business, gathering together the wreck of his fortune. It is not often the case that a man, past fifty years of age, who has lost so large a fortune, suc- ceeds in retrieving his fortune and winning a still larger one; but this was one of the rare exceptions. In 1864, in partnership with his brother-in-law, Mr. Allen Gray, Mr. Smith opened a retail clothing store of small extent on Fourth street, Williamsburgh. But so popular had their goods been, before the war, that old customers rallied round them and besought them to manufacture boys' clothing for them. And so it hap- pened, that before the close of the war in 1865 they had been compelled to establish a manufactory on Broadway, E. D., and removed their retail store to that street in 1868. Each enlargement only opened the way for another, and in addition to a branch factory at Greenpoint, 48x100, and four stories high, and buildings on Broadway, 100x100, seven stories in height, they built an im- mense factory in Fourth street, and are now about erecting another imposing and extensive structure on the corner of Broadway and Fourth street, E. D. They have now three departments of their manufactures, the wholesale trade, the retail trade, and custom work. Over 3,000 adults are on their pay-roll; and their weekly disbursements for wages alone reach $30,000 or more, making more than $1,600,000 for wages annually. Their annual production is probably greater than that of any other firm of manufacturers in Brooklyn, except the great sugar refiners and perhaps one or two of the petroleum houses. They do not, by any means, confine themselves to boys' and children's clothing, but make and maintain a full line in all departments of their busi- ness. The present firm consists of five partners, the in- fusion of younger blood having increased its efficiency.

EDWARD SMITH .- One of the representative self-made men of Brooklyn is Mr. Edward Smith, resident at No. 99 Bedford avenue. A son of Gershom B. and Temperance (Sheffield) Smith, he was born in Norwalk, Conn., December 19th, 1816, and his early life was spent on his father's farm.

As subsequent events have proved, Mr. Smith was not intended by nature to be an agriculturist, and he seems to have recognized this as a fact at a very tender age; for, when only fifteen years old, he left home and secured a situation as errand boy in a New York grocery store, and was employed in that and other humble capacities, with different grocery firms in that city, for about two years. Next he solicited his father to permit him to learn the tailors' trade, and was apprenticed to a tailor of Ridgefield, Conn. At the expira- tion of a year his instructor went out of business, and young

Smith, having in that short time acquired a considerable knowledge of the trade, returned to New York and worked as a journeyman until 1832, when he was compelled to leave the city on account of the outbreak of the cholera. Just at this point in his career he had engaged a competent person to instruct him in the art of cutting, but was prevented from learning by his sudden departure for home. But, nothing daunted, he daily practiced the drafting of clothing, and in a short time obtained a good theoretical knowledge of cutting.

After the abatement of the plague, Mr. Smith returned to New York, and, though he had never yet actually cut a garment, engaged as cutter with a firm for whom he had formerly worked as a journeyman, and filled the position successfully and satisfactorily. In January, 1833, with the assistance of his father, he went into business as a clothier on Chatham street, between Pearl and Baxter streets, and in conducting his trade soon discovered that there was a lack of boys' clothing in New York; and, believing that neat and well-made garments, in various sizes, for boys, would meet with a ready sale, he got up an assortment of such goods, and was so successful with it that he continued in this line and became the first manufacturer of boys' clothing of any prominence in the city. In 1836, he removed his establishment to Fulton street, and, about 1843, requiring more room, to William street, below Maiden Lane, where he embarked quite successfully in the wholesale trade. For some years the trade of the city had been gradually concen- trating on the west side, and about 1847 Mr. Smith removed his business to Barclay street, at the corner of Church. Five years later he located on Warren street, and, after two years, removed thence to Broadway, near Leonard street. From this time on his business rapidly assumed larger proportions, growing steadily until 1861, when he retired on account of embarrassments arising from the unsettled condition, caused by the war for the union, of a southern trade which, during years of unabated growth, had attained to hundreds of thou- sands of dollars.

In 1864, Mr. Smith resunied business, on a limited scale, in Williamsburgh, in company with his brother-in-law, Mr. Allen Gray, opening a retail store on Fourth street. So popular had been Mr. Smith's goods among his former customers that many of them solicited the new firm to man- ufacture for them their stock of boys' clothing. The demand for their work increased so rapidly that before the close of the war, the firm established a manufactory on Broadway, Williamsburgh, and removed their store to that street in 1868. In 1870, they built and occupied their present large Broadway store. Their extensive store in Greenpoint was opened in their then new building in 1877. In 1881, the firm first occupied their extensive factory on Fourth street, in connection with which there is a third store.

It is with just pride that Mr. Smith refers to the fact that he was the projector of what is now the largest manufactory of boys' clothing in the United States, and probably in the world. At this time, the firm of Smith & Gray consists of Messrs. Edward Smith, Allen Gray, W. G. H. Randolph, Willard F. Smith and Warren E. Smith, the two last mentioned being sons of the senior member; and the active members are Messrs. W. G. H. Randolph, who superintends the purchase of materials and the manufacture of stock; Willard F. Smith, who supervises the retail department of the business, and Warren E. Smith, travelling and wholesale representative of the house. As large as are Messrs. Smith & Gray's facilities for manufacture, they are not sufficient to supply the immense demand for their goods, and the firm has recently purchased the Washington Hall property, at the

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

corner of Broadway and Fourth street, and will soon erect upon it a large six-story building, with iron front, for occu- pancy as a store and factory, where, with enlarged facilities, they will concentrate their business and engage more exten- sively than ever before in the manufacture, and in both the wholesale and retail trade in clothing; their wholesale trade, as heretofore, to be confined chiefly to boys' clothing, while in their retail department they will carry a large stock of both men's and boys' clothing of all descriptions. In all Brooklyn there is not a more useful business. Not less than 3,000 hands find daily employment with Messrs. Smith & Gray, who disburse thousands of dollars weekly, which goes to aid the general prosperity of the city by its gradual distri- bution through all of the various avenues of trade.

Mr. Smith has been twice married, and has three sons and three daughters. He is no politician, but takes a lively interest in all matters of national or municipal importance, and he has been a willing and liberal contributor to various charitable objects and toward many useful improvements.

Next to Smith, Gray & Co., though with a long inter- val between, is the house of Mc.Keon & Todd, 110-116 Broadway, corner 4th street, E. D .; men's, boys' and children's clothing. This firm was established in 1878; gives employment to 1,500 persons. Mr. Mckeon was formerly with Smith, Gray & Co., jobbers in New York. Mr . Todd started in the business some 18 years ago. M. Rosenberg & Son, 43 and 45 Fulton street, established in 1868, erected their present fine building in 1878, and the firm name was changed January, 1882, to A. Rosenberg; they employ 3 cutters and 25 hands, and have an annual ont-put of from $75,000 to $100,000. Adolph Ketchum, 266 and 210 Fulton street, manufactures men's, boys' and children's clothing; they were established at No. 260, in 1866, employ 200 hands, and sell largely at wholesale; Mr. Ketchum is an Austrian, and came to the United States in 1856.

Next in order come the tailors, those large houses which, confining themselves exclusively to custom work, are yet doing a comparatively large business, exclusively in supplying suits made to measure. Most of these men are dealers also, keeping on hand an assortment of choice goods for the use and wear of their customers, which they make up themselves; in other words, they are " merchant tailors." We have seen that Smith, Gray & Co., like some other of the large clothing houses, keep up a large custom department, and do a fine business with customers of the best class. A large house like this has a manifest advantage over the small " merchant " tailors, in being able to obtain a greater variety of suit goods, and at much lower prices. It was formerly said of Brooks Brothers, and some of the other manufacturers of very fine clothing, that their goods were of such excellent quality, and so admirably made, that many of the " merchant tailors," who had rich Southern customers, would take their orders for complete suits, to be delivered the next day; allow them to select their cloths, take their measure, and then go to these great houses, match the goods, applying their

measures and buy the goods ready made, and send them with the bill, on which a very large profit was made, to the customer at the time appointed. The cus- tomers of our Brooklyn tailors would hardly be satis- fied with such an arrangement; and though it might sometimes prove successful, the risk would be very great.

We think James B. Healy, of 205 Montague street, is probably entitled to the leading place among our " merchant tailors." He has been in business for 20 years, has a large store and stock, and keeps 35 tailors employed constantly in custom work. His out-put is very large, though we cannot give the exact figures. Godfrey Rossberg, of 282 and 284 Fulton street; D. Pyzer, of 385 Myrtle avenne; and Robert Raphael, of 464 Fulton street, probably follow; while James Porter, of 288 Fulton street; William Strauss & Co., 431 Grand street; Westin & Kreinbrink, of 141 Flatbush avenue; William Voss, 32 Myrtle avenue; J. V. Dubernell, of 333 and 335 Fulton avenue; R. & J. Donahue, of 331 Washington street; D. E. Johnston, of 36 Fifth avenue; H. P. Hansen, of 60 Bond street; and Friedrich Kron, of 744 Fulton, are all doing a large custom business. Many of the tailor shops connected with the cheap clothing trade also do a large amount of business, the greater part of which is in the hands of Germans and Hebrews. We are unable to give any estimate of the amount of this business.

The remainder of the business of making and repair- ing men's clothing is conducted in small tailors' shops, where the tailor does his work himself, with usnally one or two women, or, possibly, a single male appren- tice or journeyman to assist him. Most of these estab- lishments do not turn out more than $2,000 or $2,500 worth of work in a year, and many even less than $2,000. It is very difficult to make anything like a cor- rect estimate of the number of hands actually employed, or the amount of goods produced by the manufacturers of men's clothing. We have seen that one house em- ploys nearly three times as many hands as the census allows to the whole 328; and, inferentially, that its annual product is greater than that of the whole amount reported by the census. From as careful a review as it is possible to make of this great business, we should place the number of employees at about 5,600, and the annual product at about $7,300,000. We are sure that this is rather below than above the mark.

SUBSECTION I .- Women's Clothing.

We come next to the consideration of the manufac- ture of Women's Clothing. While this branch of the clothing manufacture has been greatly extended and in- creased since 1880, the census statistics are not quite as hopelessly wrong as in men's clothing. The census officers report 25 establishments, with $157,425 capital, 615 hands, $189,480 wages, $390,223 material, $711,249 annual product.

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THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

All, or nearly all, of our large dry goods firms arc engaged very extensively in the production of these goods; Messrs. Wechsler & Abraham, who lead in the business, employing 300 or more hands, and turning out every year more than $300,000 of these goods. F. W. Dietz, of Boerum street, E. D., manufactures women's and children's wear, employing 45 hands, and doing an annual business of nearly $60,000. he was recently burned out, but is commencing again. F. Loeser & Co .; Journeay & Burnham; J. O' Brien; Wechsler & Bro., T. K. Horton, S. B. Jones, C. M. West, A. D. Matthews & Son, F. P. Sargent, and others in the Western District, and five or six firms in the Eastern District, are also largely engaged in the pro- duction of these goods. There are also many firms which make this their sole business; and when we add to these the dressmakers and cloak and suit makers who have shops and stores, or employ help at their own homes in the manufacture of these goods, we shall find the number of establishments largely increased. Of the 559 dress and cloak makers in Brooklyn, not less than one-fifth (112) "take in work," as the phrase is; ¿. e., make the goods which are brought to them, or which they furnish, at their own homes, shops or stores; and nearly all of these employ some assistants, in sev- eral instances, within our knowledge, from 10 to 20.

The range of this business, which now includes, as the " men's clothing" does not, all articles of femi- nine underwear, as well as dresses, suits, and cloaks, has caused it to make great progress from year to year. Before the war it was impossible to purchase a bride's complete trousseau from any manufacturer. A few articles might be picked up imported from European or Mexican nunneries, and the rest was made by persons specially employed for that purpose, or by the bride herself. Now it would be hard to find a bride, of whatever station in life, who did not purchase every article needed from the manufacturer or dealer. And this is true to a great extent also of dresses, cloaks and suits, as well as of every description of lingerie, not only for women's use, but for the cloth- ing of infants and young children.

The division of labor, in the manufacture of these goods, has been carried to a great extent. Some houses make only ladies' collars and cuffs, and one of our Brooklyn manufacturing honses (J. C. Roach & Co.) employ 100 hands on this manufacture alone. Six or eight houses manufacture only embroideries and laces for the trimming of ladies' and children's cloth- ing, and not far from 200 hands are employed in this work only, aside from all the imported laces and Ham- burg edgings, Coventry rufflings, and the similar trim- mings made elsewhere and sold here. Four houses are engaged exclusively in plaiting, fluting and other trimming work, done by machinery on these goods.

The 11,000,000 and more of sewing machines sold every year in this country, are not purchased for fam-

ily use to any great extent, but for manufacturing purposes, directly or indirectly; many sewing women purchasing their own machines to do work for the man- ufacturers at their homes.

We conclude then that the number of establishments must be multiplied by five at least, i. e., that there are from 130 to 135 of them. The number of hands em- ployed cannot be less than 1,800; the amount of wages paid is doubtful-not less, certainly, than $400,000, and probably considerably more-and the total production more than $2,100,000. Of this product, full four- fifths is manufactured by not over 16 large houses, and the remainder, probably, by the smaller establish- ments.

SUBSECTION II .- Shirts and Shirt Fronts.

The census statistics of shirt-making are as follows: Establishments, 25; capital, $97,300; hands, 304; wages paid, $105,723; material used, $260,511; annual product, $439,060. The directory for 1883 reports 45 firms, of which, however, 3 have gone out of business, 3 others have their factories out of Kings county, and hence are not manufacturers here, but dealers; 13 are small establishments making a few shirts, or night shirts, to eke out the resources of thread and needle or fancy goods stores, and cannot fairly be reckoned man- ufacturers.

The Keep Manufacturing Co., the Harding Manu- facturing Co., the agents of the " Arcade" and the " Monarch " shirts, and some others, do no manufac- turing here, but are simply dealers. Most of the " gentlemen's furnishing goods " stores have particular brands of shirts, of which they are agents, and as these are put up with their labels on the boxes, they pass for Brooklyn manufacturers, when, in fact, they are not manufacturers at all.

Still the manufacture of shirts and shirt fronts is a good business here, both in the wholesale and the cus- toms trade. It is not as extensive as the factories of New York, Philadelphia, or even Baltimore, Chicago or Newark, and probably Troy. But it exceeds in these products any of the other large cities of the Union.

The shirts manufactured here are generally of very good quality, whether made for the wholesale or the custom trade. The Sun Manufacturing Co., of 68 Broadway, E. D .; George W. Ault, of 767 Fulton street; H. N. Burdick & Co., of 45 South Fifth street, E. D .; Gerson & Simons, 63 Atlantic avenue; J. C. Duffee & Co., 50 Fourth street, E. D .; Robert Smeaton, 123 Atlantic avenue; James Sample, Jr., 145 Fulton street; Henry Siedenberg, 454 Fulton street; Milton E. Smith, 393 Fulton street; Thomas Bros., 517 Ful- ton street, and J. A. Johnson, 352 Fulton street, are the principal manufacturers for wholesale trade. Some of these undoubtedly take orders from dealers in furnish- ing goods, to make up custom goods for them, which

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

will he sold in the name of the dealer; but most of their work is for the jobbing houses. Most of the large dry goods houses deal in shirts, but with one or two exceptions, they are not made here.

The manufacturers who make up shirts only for their own customers, and who sell their goods to the wearers, and not to dealers, are not so many; the lead- ing house in this business is that of Ithamar Dubois, of 328 Fulton street, whose portrait and biography we are glad to present to our readers as that of an es- timable, enterprising, honest and high-minded manu- facturer. He has been engaged in his present husi- ness since 1861. There are no shirt manufacturers in this country whose goods have a better reputation for excellence of quality or perfection of fit than those of Ithamar Duhois, and those who deal with him once are sure to do so again. Mr. Dubois employs a large force in the manufacture of his goods, and his annual product is said to be larger than that of any other custom manufacturer, either in Brooklyn or New York.

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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 37

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