History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 138

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania > Part 138

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however, too circumscribed for the progressive mind | of Mr. Lukens, who, in 1836, made Lebanon County his residence, and there leased the Newmarket Forge for a period of ten years. At the expiration of this lease, and after a brief interval, he removed to Bridge- port, and was, during the succeeding four years, en- gaged with his brother in the lumber business. In 1851 he purchased a farm on the Wissahickon, in Whitemarsh township, and in 1858 removed to Con- shohocken, having the previous year, in connection with his brother-in-law, Alan Wood, built the rolling- mills at that point. After a lengthened period of great business activity he retired from business,

He is also a director of the Plymouth and White- marsh Turnpike Company. He is in his religious predilections a Friend, and worships with the Plym- outh Meeting. Mr. and Mrs. Lukens in 1884 cele- brated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, the occasion being replete with interest to the mem- bers of the family who assembled to do them honor.

CONSHOHOCKEN TUBE COMPANY was incorporated in 1882. The works are located in the lower part of the borough of Conshohocken, adjoining the iron-mills of Jawood Lukens, who is president of the company. James W. Harry is secretary and treasurer and Albert L. Murphy is the manager. The capital stock of the

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company, which is fully paid up, is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The business of the company is the manufacture of wrought-iron tubing by the new and improved method invented by Stephen P. M. Tasker, Esq., of the firm of Morris, Tasker & Co. At present the business is conducted in a large frame building, one hundred and twenty-five feet front to- wards Washington Street and six hundred and twelve feet deep towards the river Schuylkill. This building was erected for temporary purposes, and will be re- placed in the near future by more extensive and sub- stantial works. This enterprise has been a complete success and has contributed largely to the growing prosperity of the borough. They are now producing twenty-five tons a day of finished work, which, with the receipt of raw material, coal and all the other accessories necessary to the production of so large an amount of finished work, gives a great impetus to local and other industries. The company has one of the largest pipe-welding and heating furnaces in the coun- try, which is a very great advantage to their business.

They are steadily increasing their capacity for production, and when busy will employ one hundred hands, with a pay-roll of one thousand dollars a week.

CONSHOHOCKEN COTTON-MILLS, STANLEY LEES, PROPRIETOR .- These mills were established in 1856 by the brothers, J. & S. Lees, who formerly operated a mill at Mill Creek. The extent and capacity of the works have been quadrupled during their occupancy by the Messrs. Lees, and the only change in the firm has been made by the death of J. Lees, when the junior member assumed the whole management. The mill building is the largest single building used for this purpose in the Schuylkill Valley, being two linndred feet long by fifty feet deep, with separate buildings for engine, machine-shop, picker-house, dye and sizing-houses. About two hundred hands are employed upon the looms and other machinery. Four thousand dollars are paid monthly in wages, the pro- duction of cotton goods being about thirty thousand yards per week. The mill was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1880, but was quickly rebuilt and fitted up with new and improved machinery.

ALBION PRINT-WORKS .- The extensive range of buildings known as the Albion Print-Works stands on the low grounds between the canal and the river, at the east end of Matson's Ford bridge. Tradition says that in and subsequent to the Revolutionary times a grist-mill stood on the spot, and still later it is reported that a saw manufactory was conducted here. These, however, have disappeared, and in 1865 a Philadelphia firm, Joseph Lea & Co., built a silk-mill and dye-house here, with Mr. Jonas Eber- hardtas manager, seven natives of France having been brought over to assist in the work. The mill was destroyed by fire August 21, 1875; was rebuilt and started again January I, 1876, with Richard H. Brehn, Esq., as manager, the firm being then Lea, McCarter & Co. When in full operation the works

(now a print-cloth establishment) employ two hun- dred hands, paying seven thousand dollars a month in wages, and putting through the machinery about fifty thousand pieces of goods per month.

The two main buildings are of the following dimen- sions: the main print-works, ninety-four by three hundred and thirty-four feet, and the bleach, dye and boiler-house, ninety-eight by two hundred and sixty l'eet. The property is valued at five hundred thousand dollars.

CONSHOHOCKEN WARP-MILLS, HAMILTON MAX- WELL, PROPRIETOR .- These mills were built by George Bullock in 1865, and were occupied by Ham- ilton Maxwell since 1866 in the making of cotton warps, of which about six thousand pounds a week are made, and about fifty hands are steadily employed. The building is located between the canal and the river Schuylkill, with dimensions one hundred and fourteen by forty-seven feet. It was originally run by a sixty-horse turbine wheel, but the supply of water was found to be unreliable, owing to floods and the drawing off the canal, and the mill has for many years been run by steam.

HORACE C. JONES, COTTON MANUFACTURER .- The mill is located on Washington Street, and was formerly operated by John Whitton. The present proprietor, Horace C. Jones, took possession in 1880. Sixty-five hands are employed, amongst whom fifteen hundred dollars a month are distributed as wages. There are sixty-four looms weaving cottonades, four sets of cards and fifteen hundred woolen spindles. The production is about fifty thousand yards a month. The works consist of two buildings,-one one hun- dred and fifty by two hundred feet, the other fifty by one hundred and twenty feet, three stories in height.

GEORGE S. YERKES' LIMBER -YARD .- The origin of this yard dates back over forty years, when Jona- than JJones & Sons established it in connection with a saw-mill. In 1855 they were succeeded by E. D. & E. Jones, who remained proprietors until 1875, when the firm was changed to Evan D. Jones & Co. In 188t, Mr. George S. Yerkes, the present proprietor, was admitted into partnership, and is now sole pro- prietor. There are two buildings, one one hundred feet by ninety-two feet, the other one hundred feet by eighteen feet, both two stories in height. They are located on Elm and Cherry Streets, and produce a large amount of sashes, doors, frames, desks, book- cases, etc. Twenty-five hands are employed, and the firm is in a flourishing condition.

EAST CONSHOHOCKEN QUARRIES .- These quarries are in Plymouth township, and are famous for the building-stones they produce. They belong to Boyd Stinson, Samuel F. Prince and Michael O'Brien, and were bought from George W. Jacoby in 1868. The stone produced at these quarries is famous for its enduring qualities. It has been tested at Washington by the best experts of the profession, and has been pronounced perfect. The Wissahickon bridge and

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

many others along the lines of the different railroads are built of this stone. In full blast the quarries employ one hundred and fifty men, at a monthly wage of four thousand dollars, and produce fifteen hundred tons of stone per day.

MICHAEL O'BRIEN .- Michael O'Brien, the grand- father of the subject of this biographical sketeli, born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1776, was an extensive lessee of land. He married Rose Fitzsimmons, of County Meath, whose only son, Christopher O'Brien, was born about the year 1800 near Dublin, where he was

later removed to Conshohocken, where for sixteen years he was employed in various capacities and finally as general agent for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad in the transportation of coal, lime and iron. He had, during this time, become the landlord of the Conshohocken Hotel, of which he remained for twenty years the popular proprietor. Seeking a broader field of operation, he, in connee- tion with his partners, under the title of the Plymouth Quarry Company, purchased the Plymouth Quarry, located on the Jacoby farm, in Plymouth township,

educated, and followed a mercantile career. He was, in 1830, married to Catherine, daughter of John and Elizabeth Gugarty, of County Meath. Among the ten children of Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien is Michael. whose birth occurred on the 18th of February, 1832, in the above county, near the line of County Dublin, He received a thorough English education in the schools of his own county and in Dublin, and at the age of twenty, discovering no advantageous career open to him in his own country, emigrated to the United States. He first settled in Philadelphia, but

and at once obtained from the furnaces at Norristown and Conshohocken and various glass-works in New Jersey large orders for fluxing-stone. The company, in course of time, erected works, laid railroad tracks and made other improvements incident to the needs of an increasing business. In 1880, Mr. O'Brien ac- quired an interest in and became superintendent of the Conshohocken Stone Quarry Company, the prod- uct of this quarry being the Conshohocken granite, now in general use for bridge-building and the lay- ing of large foundations. This quarry has supplied

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the stone for the bridge built by the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad crossing the Wissahickon, for that crossing the Schuylkill at Manayunk and the bridge across the Perkiomen Creek built by the Pennsylvania Railroad. It sup- plies all the stone used for purposes of construction by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. The company employ one hundred men, two hoisting- engines, one double hoisting-engine and work five massive derrieks, three sets of boilers, six steam- drills, one hundred railroad cars, and have two miles of track connecting with both the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia and Reading Railroads. The exten- sive business connections of this quarry and its ex- ceptional mechanical equipment make it the most successfully worked quarry in the State. Mr. O'Brien is a pronounced Democrat in his political sympathies, and has served for two terms as burgess of the borough of Conshohocken and for six years as school director. He was one of the earliest directors of the First National Bank of Conshohocken, as also of the Plym- outh Turnpike Company, and treasurer of the Franklin Building Society. lle is in his religious faith a Roman Catholic and member of St. Matthew's Church of that denomination in Conshohocken. Mr. O'Brien was married, in 1856, to Mary Ann, daughter daughter of Thomas and Ann Fox, of Philadelphia. Their children are Annie (Mrs. Horace Hallowell), Kate, Thomas C. (a student of medicine in the Medi- cał Department of the University of Pennsylvania), Minnie, Madaline, Lizzie, Michael and Louis H.

WEST CONSHOHOCKEN.

THE MERION IRON COMPANY, WEST CONSHO- HOCKEN .- The charter of the company authorizes the manufacture of pig-iron, rolled-iron of all sizes and shapes and iron castings of every description. The capital stock consists of four thousand shares of fifty dollars each,-two hundred thousand dollars. The board of directors are J. B. Moorhead (presi- dent), George C. Thomas, Jay Cooke, Jr., Joseph E. Thropp, Edwin P. Bruce.

The Merion Furnace was built in 1848 by Stephen Caldwell & Co., and purchased by J. B. Moorhead in year was about one hundred tons of pig-iron per week,-say five thousand tons per annum,-since which date a new blowing-engine has been put in use. Three of Player's hot-blast ovens have been erected, the furnace-stack raised from forty to fifty feet in height, a new hoist and other improvements added, increasing the capacity of the furnace from five thousand tons up to twelve thousand tons per annum.

The Elizabeth Furnace was built by J. B. Moorhead in 1873 at a cost of about one hundred and fourteen thousand dollars, and further improvements have raised the eost to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The capacity of the Elizabeth Furnace is about two hundred and sixty to two hundred and

seventy-five tons per week,-say thirteen thousand five hundred tous per annum. In addition to the two blast furnaces, as above described, there is a fine mansion-house and about eleven acres of land, situ- ated in the borough of West Conshohocken, belong- ing to the corporation, together with all the tools, implements, railroad-cars, horses, carts and necessary working fixtures, all of which were included in the purchase of the property, at a cost of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, paid for as follows :

Three thousand shares of capital stock at par, $50

per share . $150,000

Bouds secured by mortgage on the premises, bear- ing five per cent. interest per annum 100,000

Total $250,000

From 1857 to 1883, a period of twenty-five years, the average annual net earnings applicable to the payment of interest or dividends were, under the management and ownership of J. B. Moorhead & Co., equal to more than fifteen per cent. per annum on the present capital stock, and when it is considered that the average produeing capacity of the works during the same time was less than three-fourths of the present capacity, it may be considered reasonable to estimate the future annual earnings as being equal to the payment of the interest on the mortgage bonds, and at least twelve per cent. per annum on the capi- tal stock. This estimate is based on the present depressed condition of the iron market; the results may, and probably will, prove much more remunera- tive to the stockholders, taking a period of seven to ten years in the future.

JOEL B. MOORHEAD was born on the 13th of April, 1813, on the banks of the Susquehanna River, at Moorhead's Ferry, Dauphin Co., Pa., at which point his father, William Moorhead, owned a large farm and established a ferry. There being no bridge across this river at that early day, Moorhead's Ferry, twenty-two miles above Harrisburg, was widely known in that portion of the State. In 1815, William Moorhead was appointed by the President of the United States colleetor of internal revenue for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which necessitated

1857. The capacity of the furnace in the last-named ! his removal to Harrisburg with his family, where his

death occurred in 1817. The family soon after re- turned to the ferry property, the eldest son, James Kennedy, being, at the age of twelve years, his mother's main reliance in condueting the ferry and managing the farm. When the State began, in 1828, the construction of the canal on the river-bank, James K. obtained a contract in connection with this improvement, his younger brothers finding employ- ment with him during the progress of the contract work. The subject of this sketch being ambitious for a more successful business career than had yet been opened to him, when eighteen years of age, demanded an interest with his brother in one or more of these contraets. Meeting with an unfavorable response to

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

his demand on the plea of his youth, he determined to operate independently. A letting of contraets was made soon after by the State Railroad, covering a stretch of territory between Paoli and Lancaster, at which Joel B. was present, and made a successful bid for a large contract covering one and one-half miles west of Paoli, in Chester County. He associated with him an older partner with influence, but no practical experience, and at the expiration of the second year the contract was completed. He subse- quently became engaged with his brother in the fill- ing of important contracts on the Portage Railroad, the Monongahela slack-water navigation, in bridge-

was, in 1842, appointed by the canal commissioners superintendent of motive-power on the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, which position he held until 1844, after which he continued for several years to execute contracts, residing meanwhile on his farm. In 1850 he made Philadelphia his residence, and two years later was awarded the contract to build the Sunbury and Erie Railroad, extending from Sunbury to Lock Haven, a distance of nearly sixty miles. Owing to financial embarrassments of the company the work was greatly delayed, and was not until 1856 brought to a successful conclusion. In 1857 he pur- chased the Merion Furnace, located at West Consho-

J. Barlow, Moorhead

building in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, and in va- rious important railroad enterprises. Mr. Moorhead, in 1837, prior to entering upon his Kentucky con- tracts, married Miss Elizabeth Hirons, of Wilming- ton, Del., whose children are Charles N. (married to a daughter of John Hickman), Ada E. (wife of G. C. Thomas), Clara A. (married to Jay Cooke, Jr.) and Caroline F. (married to Joseph E. Thropp). Mr. Moor- head, on the completion of his Kentucky contracts, in 1840, returned to the site of his first venture in Chester County and purchased a fine farm that he had, during his migratory life, determined eventually to make his permanent home. One year's experience, however, convinced him that farming was not his vocation. He

hocken, and commenced as a novice in the iron busi- ness. The plant has been greatly enlarged, and the capacity increased from one hundred tons per week in 1854 to six hundred and fifty tons per week in 1884. He is also largely interested in the Sterling Iron and Railway Company, in the State of New York. Mr. Moorhead was formerly allied in politics with the Democracy, but a careful consideration of the important public issues of the day caused him to give his allegiance and support to the Republican party. His religious associations are with the Protes- tant Episcopal Church. From 1841 until 1850 he was a vestryman of St. Paul's Church of that denom- ination, in Chester Valley, and has since 1864 held

George &Bullock

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the same relation to the Holy Trinity Church, in Philadelphia.

James Kennedy Moorhead, of whom mention has been made in this sketch, died March, 1884, at his home, in Pittsburg. He was not less identified with the leading business enterprises of Pittsburgh than with various interests which were inseparable from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The leading industries of city and State stand as a great monu- ment to his name and fame. In his business, as in his social relations, he never deviated from the high line of an irreproachable life. Having filled well the measure of a well-rounded career, he went down to an honored grave revered and beloved by all.

CONSHOHOCKEN WORSTED-MILLS, GEORGE BUL- LOCK & Co .- This grand establishment for the man- ufacture of textile fabries is one of the oldest in the State, and has a national reputation. Our limited space forbids us to do as we would wish, and give a detailed record of the family and of the enterprise. But history is inexorable, and demands that we give nothing but facts and figures.

The new worsted-mills in West Conshohocken were built in ISSI, and produce three hundred thou- sand pounds of the finest worsted yarns per annum. The building is ninety feet wide by four hundred feet long, costing, with the machinery, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The number of hands is two hundred and seventy-five.

The Balligo Mills were established in 1858 and 1859, and then produced from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand yards per annum of three-quarters- yard and yard-and-a-half-wide goods, at a monthly pay of two thousand five hundred dollars. Now they produce three hundred and twenty-five thousand yards of yard-and-a-half-wide cloth per annum, and pay one hundred thousand dollars a year in wages.

The mill is seventy-five by four hundred and fifty feet, one and twostories high, with sixty-five tenement- houses. Two hundred and seventy-five hands are employed, and the full value of the plant, real estate, machinery, etc., is estimated at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

The whole mills are established under the firm-title and name of the Conshohocken Worsted-Mills. George Bullock, treasurer; James Moir, superintend- ent ; capital, six hundred thousand dollars. There are eight sets of cards, sixty-eight broad looms and eight thousand two hundred and sixty-four spindles on worsted yarns and French worsted suitings.

On woolen suitings, two sets of cards, twenty-five broad looms and nine hundred and sixty spindles, and in Mill No. 2, thirteen sets cards, eighty broad looms and five thousand one hundred and eighty spindles.

The mill on Main Street, Norristown, belonging to this firm is four stories in height, built of stone, inortar-coated, and is fifty by ninety feet in size, with a rear building, used as dye and picker-house.

of fifty by fifty feet. Within, the mill is neat and eleanly, and has the reputation of being one of the best-kept in the country. It is divided into four departments, aud gives employment to seventy hands, to whom are paid about two thousand two hundred dollars monthly. An engine of sixty horse-power, with boilers of one hundred horse-power, supply the necessary power and steam for the dyeing and drying of goods. The mill is furnished throughout with all the moderu machinery for the manufacture of blaek broadeloths and woolen goods.

GEORGE BULLOCK is of both English and Seotch line- age. Samuel Bullock and his wife, Hannah, emigrated from Yeadon, Yorkshire, England, to America, and settled in Germantown, Pa. Their children were Benjamin, John and Sarah, who became Mrs. Charles Cummings. Benjamin Bullock, who was born in Bradford, England, in 1796, at the age of nineteen came to the United States and began an active business career. Ile became associated in 1822 with Anthony Davis in the wool-pulling business. In 1837 he em- barked in wool manufacturing, and continued for a period of thirty-seven years actively engaged in this and other enterprises in Philadelphia and vicinity. Ile married Martha, daughter of George Maxwell, whose children were eight in number, of whom George, the subject of this biographical sketeh, was born March 9, 1830, in Philadelphia, where his youth was spent as a pupil of the public schools. At the age of fourteen he entered his father's wool-store and became thoroughly versed in the various details of the busi- - ness. llis fidelity and service were rewarded by an ! interest in 1851, which continued until the death of his i father, in 1859, when the enterprise was continued by him both as a wool dealer and a woolen manufacturer. In 1862, Mr. Bullock removed to West Conshohocken, having acquired a valuable mill with water-power at that point, and conducted an extensive manufacturing interest under the firm-name of Benjamin Bullock & Sons, the style of which was in 1865 changed to Ben- jamin Bullock's Sons. This extensive enterprise eventually became a corporation under the corporate title of the Conshohocken Worsted-Mills, with George Bnllock as president, treasurer and owner of the controlling interest. In 1862, Mr. Bulloek, finding it desirable to make his permanent abode among the seenes of his business activity, purchased a pieturesque site, embracing three hundred aeres of valuable land, and erected a spacious residence, surrounded by allthat is beautiful in nature and art, and embracing views from various points which are unsurpassed. The subject of this sketch is a man of great administra- tive ability coupled with rare energy and force. He is, as a citizen, public-spirited and liberal, manifesting a keen interest in the material welfare of those who are identified with his various interests. He is a Repub- lican in politics, but frequently votes independent of his party when men or measures are obnoxious to him. He has served for two years on the Board of State

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Prison Inspectors and for ten years has been a mem- ber of the State Board of Charities. He has been burgess of the borough of West Conshohocken since its organization. He is also president of the First National Bank of Conshohocken. He is a liberal supporter of the Baptist Church of West Consho- hocken, and a stanch advocate of the cause of tem- perance, both by precept and example. Mr. Bullock was married, in 1851, to Miss Josephine, daughter of Samuel Wright, of Philadelphia.

The following summary of the character of Mr. Bullock has been prepared by a friend : "Mr. Bullock possesses in the line of business what was attributed to the great mind of John C. Calhoun, of South Caro- lina, in the line of political measures,-the ability to judge of the future of any public measure. He reads the future from the experiences of the past and from principles evolved from the same. He inherits great business qualifications from his father, Benjamin Bullock, who in his day was a most reliable man on the wool question, a committee of Congress having honored him by summoning him before them to be enlightened upon this interest of the nation.

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 138

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534