USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > Commemorative biographical encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania : containing sketches of prominent and representative citizens and many of the early Scotch-Irish and German settlers. Pt. 1 > Part 27
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The Lalance and Grosjean Manufacturing Company erected the rolling mill depart- ment of their giant enterprise in Harrisburg, in 1892. With imposing ceremonies the establishment was opened in February, 1893. The Harrisburg plant covers over four acres of ground. The first structure erected was 220 by 280 fect, but so grand was the success of the undertaking that an annex 80 by 160 feet was soon added, thus making the entire plant 288 by 380 fect. All work is now ex- ccuted under one roof, but in different de- partments and under a splendidly systematic method. A bar mill, shect mill, tin mill and appointments, a 5,000 pound steam hammer, two run-out fires, four charcoal fires, immense pair of bar shears, three double shears, three large engines and a bat- tery of ten boilers of 125,000 horse power and which consumes 175 tons of coal per week, are a few of the expensive equipments of the plant. The concern gives employ- ment to over 225 hands, which, using the accepted average, makes 1,125 people who derive their subsistence from the products of the enterprise. Concerns of this character arc of great moment to the local retail trade and are of paramount importance to the local property owners. The company man- ufactures tin plate and " black plate," which is shipped to their immense plant at Wood- haven, L. I., where they employ from 1,400 to 1,800 people, and where tin plate and black steel iron sheets are converted into all kinds of cooking utensils, and which are sold all over the civilized world, The out- put of the company is tremendous and the
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HISTORICAL REVIEW
names of Lalance and Grosjean are syno- nyms of progress in every household where order and neatness reign.
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The Harrisburg Manufacturing Company was organized in 1889 and incorporated June 10, 1895, the capital stock being $100,- 000. The manufacture of boilers for steam and hot water, heating and for power is the business of the concern, the specialties being star water tube, volcano water tube, star gas burner, horizontal tubular and vertical boilers. The company's boilers are applied to all manner and styles of engines, and have many points of vantage that can best be understood by perusing its catalogue, which gives in detail what must necessarily be omitted. in a comparatively brief article. The Harrisburg Manufacturing and Boiler Company has acquired a plant equipped throughout with the most modern tools and appliances of such general perfection that they are unsurpassed either as to facilities or the character of their pro- duet. The company is specially equipped for the manufacture of complete and perfect boilers of the styles mentioned before. The boilers of this company have been brought up to the very highest standard, both as to workmanship and efficiency, and the com- pany respectfully invites careful considera- tion of all claims in this direction. Know- ing that their efforts have been recognized and appreciated in the past, it is the aim of the company to maintain the highest standard, and to exeel, if possible, the well-established character of their product, keeping, in all respects, alive to the spirit and requirements of the times. The trade of the company extends throughout the length and breadth of the land, and their boilers are in great favor with all who have used them-the rapidity with which they gather steam, their safety and their tremendous powers of re- sistanee in the matter of pressure and their almost indestructible qualities have made them prime favorites in the manufactories of America. The quality of boiler iron used is tested by the latest recognized and ap- proved methods, and when in the shape of the finished product is as near perfection as human skill, ingenuity and money can bring it. The company employs sixty peo- ple in the conduct of their business, and oc- eupies a very large three-story brick struc- ture, which contains the office, foundry and general work rooms. The firm also makes a specialty of general repairs, and in this
line probably do more than any similar con- eern in this entire scetion of the State.
The Paxton and Steelton Flouring Mill Company was incorporated in February, 1891, for the manufacture of high grade flour, assuming control at once, through a lease for a term of years, of the Paxton Flour Mills, of Harrisburg, and the Steelton Flour- ing Mills, of Steelton. The Paxton Mills, owned by the estate of James McCormick, dec'd, in 1862 succeeded the Eagle Mills, and inereased its daily eapacity from fifteen barrels to one hundred barrels. In 1879 the old frame building was torn down, and the present large stone mill erected and fitted out for the burr process, with a daily capacity of 350 barrels, but in 1880 the mill was changed from the old burr process to the new roller process-being the first inill in Pennsylvania to adopt the roller process- with a daily capacity of 500 barrels ; since then the capacity has been gradually in- creased to meet the demands of its trade, until it is now 750 barrels. The leading brands of this mill are "Paxton" and " Hoffer's Best," which have been on the local markets since 1862 and 1880 respec- tively, and "Castilla," which has been on foreign markets since 1868. The entire plant at the Paxton Mills consists of engine and boiler house, 40x40, and mill proper, 64x85, five stories high, warehouse, 64x85, one story high, all built of heavy limestone; elevator, six stories high, built of stone and slated frame, with capacity of 80,000 bushels. Also a cooper plant, consisting of a stock house, 50x120, two stories high ; two barrel houses with a storage capacity of 15,000 barrels ; a factory 30x120, fitted up with the most improved machinery, with a daily capacity of 1,500 barrels. The Steelton Mill was built in 1882, by The Steelton Flouring Mills Company, fitted up with a full roller process, with a daily capacity of 500 barrels, but has since been inereased to 750 barrels. The leading brands of this mill for local trade are " Hercules," "Pearl," and "Stella," and for export, "Crystal," which have been on the market since 1883. The entire plant of the Steelton Mill consists of a brick engine and boiler house, 54x62, briek mill building, 62x74, five stories high, one briek warehouse, 50x78, three stories high, and one warehouse built of frame and corrugated iron, 34x120, one-story high, one slated-frame elevator, 40x62, five stories high, and cooper building, now used for barrel storage, with a eapacity
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DAUPHIN COUNTY.
for 10,000 barrels. In its various depart- ments this company employs 150 men.
In 1885 the Boll Brothers Manufacturing Company established its enterprise, and a company incorporated in 1893. For eight years it had been known as the Harrisburg Woven Wire Mattress Company. Its author- ized capital was $100,000. The company occupies a splendid five-story brick building with dimensions 40x180 feet, which is equipped throughout with all the latest im- proved machinery for the special manufac- ture of their several grades of intrieate and beautiful workmanship. There are some seventy people employed, and the represent- atives on the road eover the New England and Middle and Southern States. There are few thoroughly first-class, completely stocked furniture concerns in the country that do not handle the splendid goods of Boll Broth- ers Manufacturing Company. The goods sell themselves; their beauty, solidity and intricate workmanship being silently elo- quent of the merits of the same. Losses by fire in no way impeded the progress of the company, whose able president, Mr. Charles Boll, seems fitted by nature to surmount difficulties that would discourage most men of liis years-lie is not yet thirty-and to gather strength from his misfortunes. The building and equipment are models in every particular, the system that has been evolved is perfection itself. The fifth floor of the factory is devoted to a feather purifying de- partment, which is unique and original, being one of the latest and improved pro- cesses. The model picking room, on the fourth floor, has a granolithic floor, and is lined with asbestos, thus avoiding any possi- bility of fire. Here the material is carefully sorted and picked. The latest improved machinery is employed, notably Boll's cotton curler, which gives the company the exclu- sive franchise to manufacture curled cotton mattresses. The first floor is devoted to the elegant offices and immense sample room, where a sample of every product of the com- pany is kept to show customers. The man- agers are all practical men, educated in every detail of the business and all work and material are subjected to their personal inspection and direction. Every brass and iron bedstead, spring mattress, etc., made by the company mects every requirement of the trade, which explains the high appreciation in which dealers and the public hold their
goods. The company manufactures only for the wholesale trade.
Reference has already been made to the early development of the Lykens Valley coal regions, and in this connection it is im- portant to refer again to these celebrated mines in the upper end of Dauphin county. The Lykens Valley coal is mined by two coal companies, the Short Mountain of Wic- onisco, and the Summit Branch of Williams- town, both collieries now being controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The two collicries employ over 2,000 men and boys, who are paid on the third Satur- day of each month for all work done during the previous month. Thomas M. Williams is superintendent of both collierics. The following table shows the output for the present year, 1896, up to August 15, together with the amount shipped in 1895 to the same day, giving inerease and decrease of each colliery :
WEEK.
YEAR.
Short Mountain,
4,794 17
155,332 19
Last year,
4.497 08
116,321 09
Increase,
297 09
39,011 10
Williamstown,
4,925 11
177,603 17
Last year,
6,242 06
214,212 09
Decrease,
1,316 15
36,608 12
Total amount,
9,720 08
332,936 16
Last year, 10,739 14 .
330,533 18
The Hummelstown Brownstone Company was established in 1867, and the quarries, lo- cated about three miles from that enterprising town, have been worked for thirty years past. For the last cigliteen years, however, they have been more extensively operated, owing to the change of ownership and the business facilities and enterprise of the new manage- ment. The plant consists of a railroad of some three and a-half miles, with extensive sidings, four locomotives and a number of freight and passenger cars. There is a large stone saw mill of thirteen gangs, with a large stonccutter shop, thoroughly cquipped with rub wheels and ten stone planers, together with all necessary appliances for doing first- class cut stone work. There are four quarry openings, with some thirty steam hoist der- ricks, and in prosperous times the number of men employed has amounted to about 600. The capacity of the quarries is prae- tically unlimited, and in the summer season as many as forty cars of stone have been shipped in one day. Perchance no similar
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HISTORICAL REVIEW
quarries in the United States areso thoroughly equipped in every respect with machinery and proper appliances, and these quarries are recognized as amongst the largest in the United States. The building stone taken therefrom is of the most durable character, and the climate does not seem to have any effect upon it. It may be proper to state that Professor Pond, who made an analysis of the brownstone, says that in comparison it is placed among the best, as far as the chemical determination of the constituents is capable of indicating, while Professor Reber, in testing the stone for compression states, that the crushing strain averaged over seven hundred tons to the square foot, showing that the stone is of excellent quality for building purposes. It may be well said that the Brownstone Company has been one of the most successful in the State of Penn- sylvania, due to the fact of its high grade and excellence as building material.
In the month of May, 1880, there was es- tablished at Middletown an industry which advanced with such marvelous strides thatit has developed into the largest manufacturing pipe and tube works in the United States, if not in the world. The new plant started with about seventy-five men, which rapidly increased until with the supplemental plant at Youngstown, Ohio, two thousand persons are employed. The magnitude of the Ameri- can Tube and Iron Company, at Middle- town, must be seen to be properly estimated. The mills are equipped to make all dimen- sions of pipe. The sizes of pipe made in the butt mills run from 1-16 inch diameter to 12 inches diameter, whilst the sizes made in the lap mill range from 13 inches diameter to 20 inches diameter. A large galvanizing works filled with three immense baths is in constant operation galvanizing pipes. Three car loads of spelter are used per week for this purpose. This department is kept so busy that it was found absolutely necessary to en- large it, and it was only recently that changes were made which increased its output fifty per cent., thus giving employment to addi- tional workmen. As it is not proposed to bring within the scope of this notice the methods of manufacturing pipe, no mention can be made of the many departments and buildings wherein pipes, tubes and fittings pass through the various stages of manufac- ture before being ready for market. It is the admirable equipment of these mills and their mechanical departments that has ever distin-
guished the American Tube and Iron Com- pany from other pipe concerns, and enables it to undertake successfully special lines of work requiring the highest engineering knowledge and skill to develop and apply the same with the greatest accuracy of de- tail. This is one of the reasons why, during the dullest business seasons when all trade seems to flag, the mills are able to keep their large army of workmen fully employed ; a body of men keenly alive to the value of steady employment, and for whose welfare they have made ample assurance.
For the character of work the American Tube & Iron Company could casily claim supremacy. Several years ago, by way of illustration, the mill was running day and night for about one hundred miles of eight- inch pipe to convey natural gas from the Indiana fields to Chicago. Six of the largest pipe concerns of the United States endeav- ored to meet the rigorous requirements of this company, but unsuccessfully. Every gas and oil field has the pipe manufactured by this company in use. Among its largest customers is the Standard Oil Company, for whom it has furnished hundreds of miles of pipe. The Sandwich Islands and other prominent countries have afforded promis- ing fields for the production of this great in- dustry. For the great success of these works much is due to the enterprise and energy of the Mathesons.
Apart from this mammoth industry there are other enterprises at Middletown, which in prosperous times have added very much to the progress of that thriving town. It has always been an important manufacturing center, and contains within and around it all the elements to make it a great industrial point.
For a period of nearly forty years the Mc- Cormick estate has had control and manage- ment of the Paxton furnaces, which in the flush times of the iron trade have been suc- cessfully carried on, and the production of iron profitable demonstrated. The capacity of these furnaces is about twelve hundred tons of pig iron per month. In connection with these furnaces there is a rolling mill which has been one of the most successful enterprises in this locality. The main build- ings cover an area of ground, 250 by 160 feet, while the puddle mill has a large nun- ber of double puddling fornaces and a ca- pacity of about 150 tons per week.
The Jackson Manufacturing Company
1
WM. H. EGLE, M. D.
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DAUPHIN COUNTY.
was established in 1880 with a paid up capi- tal of $50,000, but owing to the vast increase of business, in 1889 the stock was increased to $100,000. The company has a large and substantial building which extends a whole block, from New Fourth street to Fulton street along Boyd avenue. The plant throughout is equipped with all the latest ap- pliances and improved machinery, including heating furnaces, hydraulic presses, drills, etc. The reputation of the Jackson Manufactur- ing Company is not only confined to the United States, but extends throughout North and South America, and across the waters. They construct the highest grade, scientifi- cally, steel wheelbarrows for all purposes, used by mills, large industries, miners, rail- roads, public works, etc. At present twenty- five experienced hands are employed at these works. During the busy season this num- ber is doubled. A few years ago this com- pany received a medal and diploma from the Exposition University at Barcelona, Spain.
To show how the varied manufacturing industries thrive and succeed at Harrisburg, we need only refer, in conclusion, to the manufacturing of shoes. The establishments of Forney Brothers & Company, Bay Shoe Company, and the Harrisburg Boot and Shoe Manufacturing Company, with two others, incorporated, whose combined pro- ducts are valued at nearly a half million of
dollars, go to show how successful these en- terprises have proven to be in the Capital City.
Although the foregoing industrial estab- lishments are more prominent owing to their extensive works and the large sum of money invested therein, still there are other indus- trial concerns intimately connected with the prosperity of Harrisburg whose total value of stock and machinery with the other pro- ductiveness amounts in value to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Limited as we must necessarily be, only an epitome of the indus- tries of a large manufacturing city, like Har- risburg, can be given. Its unequalled ad- vantages, its facilities for transportation, in the midst of one of most productive regions in America, give to Harrisburg a supremacy offered by no other city or town in the American Union. Capital has been invited, capital has located its establishments, and capital has received its rich reward. Closely allied to the various industries are the bank- ing institutions of the city. The various financial institutions have always been of conservative management. And the new Harrisburg, and newer Steelton, with ten millions of dollars in their banks, show alike to capitalists, manufacturers, and skilled labor that no better financial institutions and greater manufacturing enterprises exist anywhere.
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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA
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DAUPHIN COUNTY.
- HILLS, STEPHEN, the architect of the State Capitol of Pennsylvania, was the fifth child of Jolm and Sarah (Lewis) Hills, who were married in December, 1755, and had a family of seven sons and a daughter. Stephen, the fourth son, was born at Ashford, Kent county, England, August 10,1771. According to the custom of the times, he was " bound out for seven years " and apprenticed to a local house- wright, living in his "master's" family until his twenty-first birthday. In 1794 he mar- ried Margaret Ashby, of Pluckley, a parish village about five miles from Ashford. He was the first of five brothers who came to America, arriving at Boston in either 1796 or 1797. His brothers Richard and William joined him in 1801, and subsequent to his departure for this city, about 1802, his broth- ers George and Joseph, and their widowed mother, came to the United States and settled in the capitol of New England.
While a resident of Boston he was actively engaged in business and built several houses. The building erected for his own home in 1799, in what was then the outskirts of the town, still stands in what is now a very thickly settled part of Boston. The city's geographi- cal center has passed it, and is now nearly a mile beyond its location. At how early a date he became a resident of Harrisburg is not known to his New England relatives, but it is believed that he built many of the houses of that city which were erected in the earlier part of the present century. His plans for the capitol of Pennsylvania were adopted, and he was the builder as well as the archi- tect of that edifice, the cornerstone of which was laid May 31, 1819.
While on a visit to England his wife, Mar- garet Hills, died at Harrisburg, on Sunday, August 4, 1822, in the 51st year of her age, leaving four children. Sarah, who married November 26, 1821, Samuel White, and sub- sequently removed to Indianapolis, where she was living in 1845, and three sons, John, Stephen, and Thomas. Before returning to America Mr. Hills again married, and was
for a short time once more a resident of Har- risburg. Abont 1825 he went to England for the last time and remained there about eleven years, and in the winter of 1836-7 re- turned to the United States. He is described by those who knew him at this time as a man of large frame, weighing about two hun- dred and fifty pounds. In the spring of 1837 he went to Jefferson city to build the capitol for the State of Missouri. The plans made for the Pennsylvania structure were accepted for this edifice, and so closely followed that the building was practically a duplicate of his carlier work. Immediately following the completion of the capitol, he commenced the erection of the university at Columbia, in that State, and finished his contract in the spring of 1843. He then retired from his profession and went to his farm in the west- ern part of Illinois (about twelve miles from St. Louis). Here he died, October 17, 1844, leaving a widow and her children, two daugh- ters and a son ; and a son, daughter, and six grandchildren as descendants of himself and Margaret Ashby, his first wife.
STEWART, SAMUEL, son of Samuel Stewart, born in the county Down, Ireland, was brought to Pennsylvania in the emigration of his father's family in 1735, and on com- ing of age settled as a farmer in Hanover township, Lancaster county, now West Han- over, Dauphin county, Pa., about 1750. His warrant for one hundred acres of land was dated May 17, 1754, and in an "assessment for the King's use, 1759, Samuel Stuart" is taxed five shillings. This township, estab- lished in 1737 and named in honor of the reigning family of Great Britain, almost ex- clusively settled by Scotch-Irish Presbyte- rians, was on the then frontier and contigu- ous to the Kittatinny mountains. From the date of his settlement therein, in 1754, until 1764, on account of its proximity to the wil- derness, it was subject to Indian raids and depredations from which the inhabitants snf- fered fearfully in their persons and property,
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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA
often being compelled to abandon their homes and fly for safety. This state of af- fairs continued until the massacre in Lan- caster of the Conestoga Indians, who were the aiders and abettors of these outrages. A public meeting of the citizens of Hanover township, June 4, 1774, has gone into his- tory, showing the earliest recorded movement toward independence, and, when the Revo- lutionary war began, the liberty-loving and patriotic Scotch-Irish of Hanover were found faithful and active participants. Samuel Stewart entered as a private, serving in Col. Timothy Green's battalion for the defense of the frontier, and, in June 6, 1776, in Capt. James Rodgers' company of Lancaster county associators, "destined for the camp in the Jerseys." On the erection and organization of the county of Dauphin, in 1785, wc find him upon the first grand jury, composed of prominent citizens. A Presbyterian by birth and a supporter of the old Hanover church, founded in 1735, and situated eleven miles cast of Harrisburg, the records show that on "November 2, 178S, Samuel Stewart and Nancy Stewart, his wife, were admitted to the Lord's table." Samuel Stewart died Scptem- ber 16, 1803, and was buried in Hanover church graveyard. He was a large man, weighing two hundred and thirty pounds, six feet in height, eyes blue and complexion fair. His surviving wife, Agnes Calhoun, and his son, Samuel Elder Stewart, were the executors named in his will. He married, first, Nancy Templeton, daughter of Robert and Agnes Templeton, of Hanover; died 1788, and buried in old Hanover church graveyard. Samuel Stewart married, sec- ondly, in 1789, Agnes (Nancy) Calhoun, born 1763 ; died August 29, 1823; buried in the cemetery at Graysville, Huntingdon county, Pa .; daughter of William and Hannah Cal- houn, of Paxiang township, Dauphin county, Pa. On the death of her husband in 1803, she purchased a farm in West Hanover town- ship, Dauphin county, Pa., adjoining the farm of Robert Stewart, ten miles east of Har- risburg, on the Jonestown road, where she remained until the spring of 1813, when she removed to Spruce Creek, Centro county, Pa.
- HILL, SAMUEL, son of Arundel and Char- lotte IIill, was born in 1765 in England. His ancestors belonged to one of the repre- sentative families of that country. He re- ceived a good English and classical educa- tion, and learned the trade of clock and
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