History of Berks county in Pennsylvania, Part 118

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards
Number of Pages: 1418

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"LUDWIG HOFFMAN was shot while standing a little

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HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

above Esterly's store, on Penn Street, on the evening of the 23d ult., and from which he died early next morning ; ball entered on the right side of the spine immediately above the crest of the ilium, passing through the ascending colon to the right and a little below the umbilicus, where it passed out.

"JOHN H. WEAVER came to his death by a wound produced by a rifle ball which entered the left side of the chest about the fifth rib, which it fractured and then passed downward, wounding probably the aorta, the hemorrhage causing death in a short time. Ball was shot by one of the soldiers.

"LEWIS ALEXANDER EISENHOWER came to his death by a rifle shot wound while leaving the east side- walk of the Ubil House, the bullet entering the out- side, passing through horizontally the lower part of the upper third of the right thigh, taking with it a portion of the thigh bone and wounding the femoral artery, the hemorrhage from which caused his death in about two hours. We are satisfied that the shot came from the military.

"JOHN A. CASSIDY came to his death nearly in front of Shearer's shoe store by a rifle shot fired by the military on Penn Street and Seventh, shooting diag- onally across and up Penn Street, the ball entering in the small of the back near the spine, on the right of the spine, making its exit near the lower part of the breast bone, right side, from which wound he died in about twenty minutes.

" JOHN ALVIN WUNDER came to his death from wounds received from the military near the corner of Penn and Seventh Streets, and from which he died in about two hours after the receipt of the wounds. The wound was that of a rifle ball or slug shot which passed the hip and abdomen ; that above named was at Seventh and Penn simply as an innocent spectator.

"DANIEL NACHTRIEB came to his death at the cor- ner of Penn and Seventh Streets; that a bullet-shot entered immediately over the right eye, passing through the brain and making its exit behind the right ear, on about a level with it, causing his death in a short time, and that said shot was fired by one of the military, who were on Seventh Street, about twenty or twenty-five yards above Penn Street.

"ELIAS SHAFER came to his death on the evening of the 23d ult., on Penn Street, near Seventh Street, and died of hemorrhage, from a wound of a rifle-ball, which entered on the left side of the chest, near the nipple, passed in a direct horizontal line backward, penetrating the lower part of the lung, and emerged at the left side of the spinal column, which was shat- tered. We believe that the shot came from the mil- itary.

" HOWARD CRAMP was picked up on Penn Street, a little above Esterly's store, about half-past eight o'clock, and carried into the drug-store, where he died. The boy was no rioter, but a peaceable and quiet boy, and was there simply as a spectator. Ball

entered immediately above the hip, on the left side, and passed out on a level on the right side.

The following citizens were wounded :

William Clark, Elam Kissinger, Christian Groet- zinger, John Weiler, Patrick Quinn, Samuel Graul, Edward Boyer, George W. Palm, Albert Mills, Walter Groff, Edward Heineman, - Wentzel, stranger from New Jersey, Martin Noonan, Ludwig Rupp (police- man), Edward Haggerty (policeman), Daniel D. Hart (policeman), Samuel M. Odenwaller (policeman), Abner R. Jones, Albert S. Hawk, David Buchter, Henry Murray, Samuel Bertolet, Isaac Diefenderfer, Thomas H. Gwinn, Valentine Graf, Valentine Long- lot, Henry W. Corbit.

The following soldiers were wounded :

G. P. Roth, Company B; C. G. Weber, Company B; Josiah Hillegass, Company B; Lewis Heckman, Com- pany E; O. C. Bunting, Company F; Frederick Sny- der, Company F; Charles Leidy, Company F; George McDowell, Company H; B. F. Hunt, Company H; Albert Kildare, Company I; H. M. La Bar, Company K; William F. Allen, Company K.

TRIAL OF RIOTERS .- Many men were ar- rested and indicted for alleged implication in the riot. Samuel Humphreys and Edward Smith were indicted with five others (including Hiram Nachtrieb) for maliciously setting fire to Lebanon Valley Railroad bridge, but they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to imprison- ment for five years. Of the five other defen- dants, Hiram Nachtrieb was the only one tried, and after a determined trial on the part of the commonwealth, with the assistance of F. B. Gowen, Esq., president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, from October 2 to October 6, 1877, he was acquitted. A secoud case, against fourteen men, was tried the follow- ing week and all were acquitted excepting one, who was convicted of inciting to riot. A third case was called on October 22d, in which forty- one persons were indicted, but it was not tried. The trials were attended by many people, espe- cially the first trial.

PART IV.

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

The close proximity of Reading to the vast coal fields of the State of Pennsylvania, the superior local resources and its location being

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near the great marts of trade and commerce of the seaboard States induced enterprising busi- ness men to here establish large manufacturing works. They have been the main cause of the rapid growth and substantial prosperity of the city, and have given Reading a name and a fame which extends throughout our entire country, and into many other countries of the civilized world. Small manufactories were first started, which were attended by success, and then gradually developed into the present ex- tensive ones, which have given employment to many people, and have contributed very much to the material interests of the city.

A description and a history of the various manufacturing industries of the city are pre- sented in the following pages.

Before 1849 large manufacturing establish- ments were very few in Reading ; in fact, only one extensive firm is worthy of special mention, Keims, Whitaker & Co., afterward Seyfert, McManus & Co., instituted in 1835. There were numerous works, some carried on by indi- viduals and others by firms consisting of two and three persons, such as furnaces, machine- shops, foundries, saw-mills, planing-mills, coach-factories, wheelwright-shops, cabinet- shops, etc. The decade from 1840 to 1850 was particularly prosperous in respect to various enterprises. As a consequence, the population of Reading increased eighty-seven per cent. during that period, and dwellings multiplied rapidly to satisfy the great demand for them. The growth in these two respects was almost entirely to the south of Penn Street, which district surrounded the industries.

The first considerable enterprises under the act of 1849 were the "cotton-mill " and " woolen-mill." But they had not been carried on long before they ran into insolvency. The spirit of a corporation was apparently not adapted to industries of this character. Upon falling into private management they were operated successfully.

Jones, Darling & Co., in 1837, erected a foundry in the western portion of the borough of Reading, and began the manufacture of all kinds of iron and brass castings for rolling- mills, factories, engines, threshing-machines,

corn-shellers, forge-hammers and anvils, car- wheels, platforms and turnouts for railroads, pipes and pumps, etc. Brass castings were made here, however, at least twenty years be- fore, a foundry having been carried on by Henry Fellows and Isaac Myers.

About the same time Dotterer, Darling & Co. established a large machine-shop near by, for the manufacture of locomotives and station- ary engines, mill-gearing and machinery. They manufactured the first locomotive engine at Reading. It was made to order for the Charleston (South Carolina) Railroad, and tried on April 27, 1838, with success. Soon after, they finished another for the same road.

The manufacture of iron tubes was begun at Reading by Thomas S. Darling. He converted the old machine-works in which he had been interested into a tube-works with a daily capac- ity of twenty-five hundred feet.

In December, 1851, a forge company was in- stituted, under the name of the Reading Steam Forge Company, for the manufacture of iron, with a capital stock of seventy thousand dol- lars, in fourteen hundred shares. In January, 1853, the stock was increased to two thousand shares, and in February, 1854, to two thousand five hundred shares. The first subscribers numbered fifty-two, and the largest in Reading were Farmers' Bank, 100 shares; Lewis Kirk, 100 shares ; H. A. Muhlenberg, 110 shares ; Andrew Taylor, 100 shares ; Adam Johnston, 80 shares ; M. S. Richards, 80 shares.

This forge was built in 1852, adjoining Jack- son's ropewalk, and operated some years by the company.

THE READING IRON-WORKS were estab- lished in May, 1836, by the firm of Keims, Whittaker & Co., and then named the Read- ing Iron and Nail-Works. About one hundred thousand dollars were invested in the business. The firm was composed of Benneville Keim, George M. Keim, James Whittaker and Simon Seyfert. A large rolling-mill, a slitting-mill and a nail-factory were erected. These works were planned on a very extensive scale and gave a new impetus to the industrial life of Reading. At these works the first large stationary steam-en- gine for driving machinery was introduced into

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HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

this county. Two hundred and fifty men were employed. Bar-iron was made in very large quantities, and cut-nails of many kinds and varieties, by twenty-six nail-machines. In April, 1839, George M. Keim retired from the firm, and in July, 1844, Benneville Keim and James Whittaker retired.

From July, 1844, to July, 1846, the works were owned exclusively by Simon Seyfert and John McManus, (the latter of whom had some years prior to the first date become a part owner,) each owning a half-interest, under the firm- name of Seyfert & McManus. In July, 1846, Jacob V. R. Hunter and Nicholas V. R. Hun- ter were taken in as partners. Each of the four individuals then composing the firm owned a fourth interest, and the name was changed to Seyfert, McManus & Co. In 1848 the tube-mill was built, the capacity of manufacture greatly increased and more work- men employed. In 1852, after the death of Simon Seyfert, his interest was disposed of to his son, William M. Seyfert, and James Mc- Carty. The name remained unchanged, and the individuals composing the firm then were John McManus, Jacob V. R. Hunter and Nicholas V. R. Hunter. In 1853 Horatio Trex- ler purchased one-fifth interest in the works. Anthracite Furnace, No. 1, was built in 1853- 54. Its height was fifty-six feet, and it was fifty feet square at the base and forty feet square at the top. During the first week it was in blast one hundred and seventy tons of iron were made; its entire capacity was two hundred and fifty tons per week. In Decem- ber, 1861, the interest of Nicholas V. R. Hunter was closed out by purchase.

In 1862 a charter of incorporation was ob- tained and approved on April 17th, under the present name, Seyfert, McManus & Co., the Reading Iron-Works. The names of the in- corporators are John McManus, Horatio Trex- ler, William M. Seyfert, James McCarty, Charles H. Hunter, M.D. (son of Jacob,) I. N. Hunter, H. A. Hunter, Mary A. Hunter, Lucy J. Seyfert, Lmma E. Hunter and James F. Hunter.

In January, 1862, the Scott Foundry, on North Eighth Street, was purchased by this company,

at which large cotton-presses, castings for sugar- mills and other large castings have been exten- sively made. During the Civil War cannons from nine-inch to fifteen-inch calibre were made for the United States government.

In February, 1862, the Reading Steam Forge, situated on North Eighth Street, was purchased, and the manufacture of heavy forge-iron was begun. No forge in America has exceeded this one in the production of immense bars of iron. Some years ago a solid shaft of iron, thirty-six feet long and three feet in diameter, was made here for a large ocean steamer.

In September, 1865, the sheet-mill was bought of Lauth, Berg & Co. It is situated at the foot of Chestnut Street. Huge sheets of iron and large plates are made at this mill. In 1874 Blast Furnace No. 2 was built. Its capacity is two hundred and fifty tons per week.

The Reading Iron-Works, employs, in all its departments, about two thousand and twenty- five men regularly. When running in full capacity, three thousand men have been employed. At the present time (1886) about one thousand men are employed in the tube- works, two hundred and fifty in rolling-mill, two hundred and fifty men in the sheet-mill, two hundred and twenty men in the two blast furnaces, one hundred and seventy-five men in Scott Foundry, and one hundred and fifty men in the steam-forge. From eight hundred thousand to one million dollars are paid annu- ally to the employees. The company that own and operate the Reading Iron-Works own one- half interest in the Gibraltar Plate-Mill and lands belonging thereto, and also own the tube- works at Camden, N. J.

SIMON SEYFERT was of German descent, his grandfather having emigrated from the prov- ince of Alsace. His father, Joseph Seyfert, was born in 1752, near Shartlesville, Berks County. He was married to Catherine Allweine, of the same township. Joseph Seyfert combined farm- ing with the business of a miller and continued in the active management of his varied interests until his death, in 1821, in his sixty-ninth year. Simon Seyfert, one of his seven sons, was born June 2, 1786, on the homestead. After obtain-

Simon Sey fert

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ing a rudimentary education he began business as a clerk in the grocery and dry-goods store of John F. Eichorn, in Reading, and remained several years in his employ. Being ambitious for a more extended field than had thus far opened to him, he then purchased property at the northeast corner of Seventh and Penn Sts., Reading, and erected a store, where he engaged in the grocery and dry-goods business. Here he remained until 1826, when, in connection with John Schwartz, he purchased the Gibral- tar Forges and embarked in the manufacture of iron. In 1828 he and his partner purchased the Mount Penn property, in Cumru township, erected a furnace and operated it in connection with the Gibraltar property, under the firm- name of Seyfert & Schwartz. This business connection was continued until 1833, when, on a dissolution of the partnership, the property was divided, Mr. Seyfert taking the Gibraltar Iron-Works, which he managed successfully until his death. In connection with George M. and De Benneville Keim and James Whit- aker, Mr. Seyfert, in 1836, became interested in the original Reading Iron-Works, consisting of a rolling-mill and nail-factory, the interested parties remaining as above mentioned until 1838, when George M. Keim retired. In July, 1844, Mr. Seyfert became owner in connection with John McManus, the firm becoming Seyfert & McManus, which was again changed in 1846 and became Seyfert, McManus & Co., with Jacob V. R. Hunter and Nicholas V. R. Hunter as the additional partners. Two years later the firm established the wrought pipe and tube- works, which are still in successful operation in Reading. In 1848, upon his death, William M. Seyfert, his son, assumed his interest in the concern.

Simon Seyfert was married, in 1811, to Catherine, daughter of William Mannerback, of Reading. Their children are eight in number. Mr. Seyfert affiliated with the Old-Line Whig party in politics, and while active in the furtherance of the principles of that party, de- clined all proffers of office. He was, aside from his private business interests, energetic in the organization and support of various corporations of which he was director and a leading spirit.

Gifted with rare business capacity, unerring judgment and great energy, his co-operation in the establishment of various commercial enter- prises was earnestly solicited. Public-spirited, liberal and ever ready to invest capital for the employment of labor, Mr. Seyfert was an influential factor in the growth and develop- ment of Reading. He died October 26, 1848, in his sixty-third year.

JOHN McMANUS, a well-known man in his day throughout the country, and a resident for the most years of his life in Reading, was born in September, 1808, in the county of Fermanagh, province of Ulster, Ireland. His parents, of whom the father was Irish and Catholic, whilst the mother was English and Protestant, oc- cupied glebe lands, which his father farmed under a lease that had been held and renewed for many generations by his people. The father was well-to-do in his farming, according to the measures of the country, and able to send his son to Portumna College, where he had the benefit of a good education. At the age of nineteen, alone and without acquaintance, he came to this country. Owing to the friendly interest of the captain of the ship on which he made the passage, he was able shortly after his landing to get employment in a dry-goods store in Philadelphia. But the position of a dry- goods clerk was irksome and promised too little future advancement. He preferred a sturdier and more independent walk in life, and the public works at that period, 1828, just begin- ning to take great form, under the needs which the political and commercial growth of the country created, attracted him. He started out as a common laborer, though his term of service in that position was but brief, for his employer soon discovered that he was fitted by natural ability, as well as by education, to higher duties, and shortly thereafter he became a " boss" or director over portions of his employer's work. The step was not then a long one to taking contracts for himself, and his first work as a contractor was on the Morris Canal. There were but few of the great public enter- prises under way between the years 1828 and 1842 in which he was not engaged, and the location of his works in the various and then

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HISTORY OF BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

remote parts of both the States and Canada, compelling him to travel widely, enabled him to gain an aquaintance with public men and an intimate knowledge of the country's re- sources, which made him a man of practical and interesting intelligence, and proved to him in after-years valuable achievements. Iu 1838, he built the section of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad around Neversink Hill, just south of Reading and underneath the land- mark known as the "White House," where he kept bachelor's hall while prosecuting this work. During his stay about Reading he met Ca- roline Seyfert, daughter of Simon Seyfert, a well- known merchant and manufacturer of Reading, to whom afterwards, on January 29, 1839, he was married by the Rev. Keenan, of Lan- caster. In 1840 he was at work on the con- struction of the Croton Dam and Aqueduct, the water supply system of New York City, and a stone tablet affixed to the reservoir at Croton bears testimony to his important connection with this work. As a contractor he did other work near and about Reading: to wit, the grad- ing of a portion of the line of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad near Shoemakersville, and the widening of the Schuylkill Canal and Union Canal. His last work as a contractor was the building of a section of the Hudson River Railroad opposite West Point.

In the meantime, in 1840, he had fixed his family in Reading as a place of residence, and at the urgent solicitation of his father-in-law,- for he was loth to leave a field of business which had been so profitable to him, and which at that time, too, was offering even larger and more important stakes by reason of the great railroad and canal extensions just then being projected,-he invested a large portion of the accumulated fruits of his labors and exertions as a contractor, thien amounting to over $100,000, in the rolling-mill business, at Reading, of Whitaker & Seyfert. In 1844 Whitaker left the partnership, and Mr. McManus, who had been quietly instructing himself in the iron business and the process of its manufacture, took personal charge, and the business thence- forward was carried on under the firm-name of Seyfert, McManus & Co. Under his

unremitting and vigorous energy and enterprise there were added to the rolling-mill various branches, one after the other, of manufacture, and the firm made great strides iu the expan- siou and development of its business. It be- came the owner or controller of thousands of acres of coal, ore and farm land, in one locality being the owner of one hundred and sixty thousand acres in a block. Bloomaries, furnaces, rolling-mills, tube-mills, forges, foundries and machine-shops were built or secured and the firm-name became nearly as well known on the Pacific as on the Atlantic coast. Its name and brand can be read to-day on many of the largest cannon of our national defense ; and vessels of both our own and foreign navies, in the guns which man their decks, the plates which frame their hulls, as well as in the shafts and other heavy parts of the ships' interiors, display the handiwork of the firm. The promptness with which he turned the resources of his firm, so far as its works were applicable, to the aid of the government in its trying need for guns and heavy arma- ment, at the outbreak of the Rebellion, was fit- tingly testified to in terms complimentary to him in an autograph letter of General Scott. It was due to this letter that one of the firm's largest industrial departments was named the "Scott Foundry." Mr. McManus' early experience as a contractor and the inclinations bred of that employment would never wholly permit him to give up taking an active part in public enterprises, and he was prominently con- nected with many of them. His connection with the Union Pacific, Kansas Pacific and Texas Pacific Railroads is worthy of note. In the first he was an incorporator ; in the second he was both an incorporator and an active mem- ber of its board of management to the time of its completion and for some time thereafter ; in the third he was also both an incorporator and a director, and in the construction of the road itself, closely allied to it as the president of the California and Texas Railway Construc- tion Company. When telegraphy was little more than a dream, he became satisfied of its ultimate success, and for quite a time he held a controlling interest in the capital stock of the Philadelphia, Reading and Pottsville Telegraph

John 11 manus.

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Company, nearly the oldest of existing telegraph companies in the country. Letters now in the possession of his family, between Professor Morse and himself, show an arrangement with the great inventor for the building of the line.

No one took a more active part in developing and extending the railroad facilities of Reading, either by personal energy or substantial money assistance. Heinterested himself in the building of the Lebanou Valley, the Reading and Colum- bia and the East Pennsylvania Railroads from the time of their inception and building till the ac- quisition of each and all of them by the Phila- delphia and Reading Railroad. In the building of the East Pennsylvania Railroad he made a great effort to acquire au independent outlet for Reading, subscribing and taking a large number of shares ofits capital stock. Beyond the benefit to Reading in the possession of an independent and competitive railroad outlet, there were other and very important motives for resisting the at- tempts of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- road to get control of this line. The East Penn- sylvania Railroad had been built and ade- quately equipped, and under traffic arrange- ments with the Pennsylvania Railroad, which had not yet acquired the present line to New York. It had become the link in a chain of roads by which numbers of through trains from the West via Harrisburg, passing daily through Reading, were enabled to reach New York City. It was naturally the short and direct highway for freight and passengers from the West to New York or vice versa, and had the road been retained in the control of its builders and original owners, the present enormous tonnage now carried to Philadelphia, and thence to New York over the New Jersey system, subsequently acquired by the Penn- sylvania Railroad, would have passed through Reading, much, no one can doubt, to the latter city's advantage and prosperity. It was one of Mr. McManus' grievous disappointments in life that these arrangements had to be abandoned when the East Pennsylvania passed under the control of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- road, not alone because he deemed it a blow to some of his own business projects, but because he knew that Reading, the city of his home,

had lost an advantage that tended greatly to its industrial and commercial advancement, and which would never possibly arise again.

In character Mr. McManus was a man of in- domitable will and an energy untiring, quali- ties which were well displayed and evidenced in the expression of his countenance and the erect and sturdy carriage of his person. Fixed in his purpose and plan, and certain of its honesty, he pursued it to an end, whether suc- cessful or not, regardless of criticism or remark. He feared no one and respected all who were worthy. His truthfulness and sincerity in all things no one was able or dared to question. In his habits he was correct to severity, yet never ohtruded on others his own methods of conduct and practice. In religion he was of the Roman Catholic faith, whose principles and obligations he strictly followed through life, making them a duty and a guiding star to himself in all things. He died June 2, 1875, in the sixty- seventh year of his age, after only a few days' illness.

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History of Berks county in Pennsylvania, Part 118

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards Number of Pages: 1418

Author: Montgomery, Morton L. (Morton Luther), b. 1846
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts, Peck & Richards
Number of Pages: 1418