USA > Pennsylvania > McKean County > Bradford > Illustrated history of Bradford, McKean County, Pa. > Part 9
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As a rule, the relations between capital and labor have been most harmonious. Strikes and lockouts are practically unknown. Good wages are paid. Employers have generally shown a willingness to discuss differ- ences with employes, and these differences where any have existed, have, with few exceptions been adjusted to the satisfaction of all concerned.
The products of the factories of Bradford are shipped to every point on the globe. Glass works, brick works, iron works, wood works are among the industries that have blazoned the name of Bradford abroad, and contrib- uted materially to the prosperity of the city. Some idea of the extent and magnitude of these enterprises may be gained from the illustrations and sketches which follow :
Prominent Manufacturers and Oil Producers. HON. LEWIS EMERY JR.
An historical sketch of Bradford would be incomplete without reference to Hon. Lewis Emery, Jr. and the various important business enterprises with which he is connected. Limited to but a few pages this account must necessarily be brief, but let us hope it will be sufficient to show the remarkable versatile and broad gauge capacity of the man.
Most men are content to devote their time to a single avocation. The management of a mill, the direction of a business enterprise, the control of a corporation, the study of state craft, any of these are sufficient to tax the energies of the average man to the uttermost, yet Mr. Emery does all this and more. Not only is he the controlling spirit in the great Emery Manufacturing Company, which has for many years battled successfully with monopoly, but he is also an extensive oil producer, owner of a large department store in Bradford, has wheat land interests in North Dakota, merchant flour milling at Three Rivers, Michigan, lumber mills in Kentucky, an excellent daily newspaper in Bradford and besides finds time to take an active and aggressive interest in public affairs.
The story of his life is like a story from a book. Beginning with nothing but a willing hand and eager brain, he amassed a competence. Financial
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complications swept away everything and piled on his shoulders a load of debt that would have staggered many. Fortune again smiled upon him. He paid every dollar that he owed and had plenty to spare. He took an interest in politics. The people sent him to the Pennsylvania legislature, first as an assemblyman, next as a senator. In his legislative capacity he took part in many a hard fought political battle. Sometimes he lost, more often won, and he is today at the age of sixty-two, one of the most conspicuous characters of western Pennsylvania, if not indeed of the entire state.
HON. LEWIS EMERY, Jr.
As an uncompromising, aggressive and successful competitor of the Standard Oil Company, Mr. Emery has attracted the attention of the entire country. He is the one independent refiner who has successfully resisted the efforts of that great corporation to crush competition and his success is attested by the immense refinery in Bradford and the independent pipe line to the sea board owned by him.
Mr. Emery is of Norman ancestry. His forefathers came to this country in the early part of the seventeenth century. Members of the Emery family still own the old Emery homestead, which is situated at the mouth of the Merrimac river, at a spot now known as Emery's field and was originally
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EMERY MANUFACTURING COMPANY'S REFINERY.
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settled in 1635. The father was a contractor on the construction of the Genesce canal and Erie railroad from 1839 to 1842, and was subsequently financially embarassed by the failure of the contractors employed on the Genesee Valley canal to pay the sum due him. In 1842 he went west and settled at Jonesville, Michigan, where he engaged in manufacturing. Young Emery completed bis education at Hillsdale college of Hillsdale, Michigan, taught school two years in Wheatland township and then went to work for his father in a flouring mill.
In 1864 he embarked in his first business venture in the southern part of Illinois, establishing there a saw mill and mercantile business. Oil operations attracting his attention he removed to western Pennsylvania and located his first well at Pioneer. He was successful and soon became known as one of the leading producers in the field and a man of unimpeachable integrity.
The financial panic of 1873 swept away his fortune and left him deeply in debt. Impressed with the possibilities of the Bradford field, then undeveloped, he leased fourteen thousand acres of land in that section and was one of the first to open the field. This was the end of his financial troubles, and in the course of time he had nearly five hundred wells in operation.
In 1878 Mr. Emery began his political career. Elected to the General Assembly from Mckean county, he won the confidence of the people by his vigorous advocacy of the interests of the oil men and in 1880 he was elected a senator from the twenty-fifth district of Pennsylvania. While in the legislature he was outspoken in his opposition to ring rule and the corrupt use of money in party caucuses, and in the legislative revolt of 1881 was the leader of the fifty-six republicans who refused to vote for J. Donald Cameron for United States Senator and thus brought about the election of Hon. John I. Mitchell. The people endorsed this action by returning him to the senate in 1884 by an increased majority. That same year he was elected a delegate at large to the Republican National Convention and was one of the number to assist in the nomination of James G. Blaine for the presidency.
In 1890 Mr. Emery headed the movement that defeated George W. Delemater, the republican candidate for governor, electing Hon. Robt. E. Pattison.
He has traveled extensively in both Europe and the United States. Mr. Emery was born near the village of Cherry Creek, Chautauqua county, N. Y., August 10, 1839. He married Miss Elizabeth A. Caldwell at Vistula, Elkhart county, Indiana, December 29, 1863. They have four children, three sons and one daughter. They have a pleasant home on Congress street.
THE EMERY MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
One of the leading plants in the world for the refining of crude petroleum is the one owned by the Emery Manufacturing Company, of which Lewis Emery, Jr. is the sole proprietor. The works cover an area of six and one half acres, located in the northern part of the city and directly on the lines of the B. R. & P. and Erie railroads. They are equipped with the most modern machinery and turn out as fine a product as any in the world.
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The crude supply is obtained from Mr. Emery's own wells in the Pennsylvania field, over two hundred and fifty miles of pipe being used to bring the petroleum direct from the wells.
The visitor is impressed by the neatness and order observable in every part of the plant. High board fences enclose the spacious yards and everything inside the enclosure is as smooth and clean as the best kept lawn. Water for the works is obtained from six drilled wells, averaging one hundred and twenty-five feet each in depth. Steam and power pumps provide a pressure of one hundred and eighty pounds to the square inch for fire protection and additional safeguards are provided for every tank.
Power is provided by a battery of seven boilers, four of one hundred horse power and three of one hundred and fifty horse power and three gas engines of seventy-five horse power each. The establishment contains twelve crude stills and three steam stills. An immense suction pump is used to draw the contents from tanks at wells located on a lower level than the receiving tanks. The barrel house is built of brick with five thousand feet of floor surface. There is a shop for repairing pumps, stills, boilers, tank cars, etc.
Mr. Emery purchased the original plant from John Haggerty in March 1888 and from a comparatively small beginning has built it up to its present perfection. Originally the crude capacity of the plant was but two hundred barrels a month. It now has a capacity of over 50,000 barrels a month. From these statistics some idea of the growth of the business under Mr. Emery's capable management may be obtained.
All the various products of petroleum are turned out here. Refined oil, lubricating oils, paraffine oils and waxes, benzine, naphtha, gasoline, etc., produced at this plant are considered by consumers as the best grades obtainable. These products are shipped to every quarter of the globe, about sixty per cent. of the output being exported. In this connection it may not be out of place to quote a few statistics regarding the results obtained from refining a barrel of crude petroleum at these works, viz. : ten per cent. one hundred and fifty degrees water white petroleum, sixty-eight per cent. export refined oil, eight per cent. benzine and gasoline, seven per cent. tar and seven per cent. loss.
In 1892 Mr. Emery in connection with other capitalists procured the organization of the United States Pipe Line Company, for the purpose of piping oil to the sea board. The lines consisting of one four inch pipe for crude and one five inch pipe for oil were in due time constructed and are now in operation.
The works furnish employment for forty men and it will thus be seen are among the leading industries of Bradford. Mr. Emery's son, Delevan, who is a graduated chemist from Lehigh University, has charge of the manufacturing of oil and is general manager and financier.
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CHARLES P. COLLINS,
The subject of this sketch, was born in Caribou, Maine, December 12, 1847. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Caribou and he at- tended an academy at Houlton for a time, but when twenty years of age the restless energy of the young man began to assert itself and journeying to Wis- consin he sought employment in the immense pineries of the state. There amid the solitude and the grandeur of the forest he found ample opportunity to meditate on the problems of life and lay plans for the future.
C. P. COLLINS.
As the busy mills of the great west gradually devoured the lumber, and the hills grew bare, Mr. Collins began to look for other avenues of employ- ment. The opening of the oil regions of western Pennsylvania had been heralded abroad and fortunes were made with marvelous;rapidity. Here then was the place for the young and the ambitious. So Mr. Collins determined to try his luck in this county and in 1869 he came to Shamburg, Veanango county, Pa., and clad in the rough rig of an oil driller he began at the bottom of the ladder with an unshakable determination to work his way up.
Of the hardships, sacrifices and privations incident to the life of the com- mon laborer in the oil regions in those days much might be written, but lack
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of space precluding mention here, it will be sufficient to say that Mr. Collins endured his share and in a little over a year after he secured his first employ- ment as a common driller, he invested his savings in oil territory and thus in an humble way entered the ranks of producers, and began a successful business career which has brought him the rewards that come to those who mingle brains with their work.
In 1871 Mr. Collins began taking contracts to drill oil wells. He followed the field and witnessed the wonderful development of the rich oil territory of western Pennsylvania, learning all there was to learn about dusters and gushers and spouters and incidentially absorbing useful knowledge about the production of oil.
Forming a partnership with W. L. Hardison and J. V. Ritts in 1878, under the firm name, C. P. Collins & Co., Mr. Collins was enabled to continue his oil business on a large scale and eventually he became interested in other business enterprises too numerous to mention in detail here. C. P. Collins & Co. continued in business until 1883, when the firm was dissolved.
One of the important business enterprises with which Mr. Collins is now connected is the Inca Mining Co., which owns valuable mines, located in the fastnesses of the Andes mountains of South America. The development of this property has taken much of Mr. Collins' time and attention and he has made frequent trips to the scene of operations, remaining there for months at a time.
Mr. Collins married Miss Ida Merrill, of St. Petersburg, Pa., and in her he found a helpmate in all that the word implies. The couple removed to Bradford in 1888 and have since made the city their home. They occupy a beautiful residence on Jackson avenue, which was recently completed, and are closely identified with the social life of the city. Five children have come to brighten their married life. They are Bert, Ray Merrill, Charles Leo, Samuel Wilson and Wallace Hardison Collins.
In his social life, Mr. Collins has achieved as great a success as in his business career. He joined the Masonic lodge at Caribou in 1879, and, advancing step by step in the order, has attained a knowledge of all its mysteries up to and including the 32nd degree. Personally he is a very companionable man and deservedly popular. Unspoiled by the struggles incident to the accumulation of wealth, he is the same hearty, jovial, wholesouled man, who, twenty-one years ago came as a common laborer to the oil regions of Pennsylvania, and there and then commenced the stern struggle to wrest from the unwilling earth her hidden treasures. By labor of hand and brain he fought his way to success, a success that has made him one of the wealthiest men in the community in which he resides, and which has enabled him to realize many of the hopes and ideals of his young manhood. All this he has accomplished by tireless energy and continued effort. No difficulty was too discouraging, no obstacle too great to overcome. Whether in the oil fields of Pennsylvania, where fickle fortune frequently determined results, or in the mines of the tropics, where savage nature interposed apparently insurmountable obstacles to operations, it has been the same. He has never feared or faltered and his reward has been commensurate with the
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courage and capacity displayed. His fortune is untainted with the record of rapacity and greed that so often characterizes the accumulation of wealth, and he is today in the prime of life a typical American of the class that has made the nation the wonder of the world.
LEWIS ELMORE MALLORY
Among the veteran oil producers of Bradford may be mentioned the name of Lewis Elmore Mallory, who has been engaged in the business for the past 30 years, and who knows all the methods and details of the work as thoroughly as a school boy knows his primer.
LEWIS E. MALLORY.
Mr. Mallory began earning a livlihood for himself as a tool dresser. Beginning thus, so to speak, at the bottom of the ladder, he soon learned a great deal about "altitudes," "geological structures" and comparative "depths of sands" and many things about oil wells that it is very necessary that the successful operator should know, consequently, when in 1871, he embarked in business for himself as a producer, there were few who were better equipped with knowledge and experience to hustle about the country in search of the oleaginous product.
As a producer, Mr. Mallory followed the oil fields, having operated in New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, and to quote him literally on this subject, he operated "all over" and with success.
He moved to Bradford in the fall of 1880 and has since made the city his home and the base of his various oil enterprises.
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MYRON MATSON.
Myron Matson, a well known resident of Bradford, began life as a farmer and by his own efforts has worked his way up to an enviable position among his fellow men. Born in Rushford, Alleghany county, he received the advantages of an academic education and then engaged in farming until attaining his majority.
About this time the oil discoveries in western Pennsylvania were attracting attention, and living near the oil fields, Mr. Matson determined to try his fortune with the rest of the producers who were hastening to this section from
MYRON MATSON.
far "and near. Accordingly he gave up his farm and plunged into the excitement and turmoil of the oil country, a course of action he never had reason to regret for he was successful beyond his greatest anticipations and soon became owner of many valuable oil leases.
There is a fascination about this oil business that seems to hold all who engage in it. Mr. Matson is no exception to the rule. He became a producer in the early days of the oil excitement. He has remained a producer ever since and now owns leases of valuable oil territory, which provide an ample income.
Despite the business cares and perplexities which engross the attention of the acitve producer, Mr. Matson found time to interest himself in public affairs
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and soon became known as an active and aggressive member of the republican organization of Mckean county. For several years he served on the county committee and was two terms chairman of that body. He also represented his party on several occasions in state conventions and a year ago, accepted the nomination for senator for the twenty-fifth district, comprising Mckean, Potter and Tioga counties. At the election in November, his popularity with the people was attested by a splendid plurality over his opponent of nearly 4,000 votes.
In the senate his ability and worth as a man of affairs was recognized by an appointment on several important committees. He was made chairman of
DAVID PHILLIPS.
the committee on banks and building and loan associations and was given a prominent place on the committees on appropriations, corporations, mines, elections, insurance, municipal affairs and public roads, and his work on each and all of these committees has made for him a clean and capable record for the session.
Besides his oil interests, Mr. Matson has large investments in gold mines and other important business interests.
Personally he is a very companionable and agreeable man and consequently has a large circle of friends and admirers. He is a 32nd degree Mason and takes an active interest in the welfare of that great fraternity.
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Mr. Matson was born in Rushford, Alleghany county, N. Y., September 13, 1850. He was educated in the public schools of Alleghany county, completing his education with a course in the Franklinville academy. He married Miss Bertha A. Scott of Cuba, N. Y. They have two sons and occupy a beautiful residence on Congress street.
DAVID PHILLIPS.
Mr. Phillips was born in St. Petersburg, Pa., in 1875, coming to Bradford in 1880. After receiving his education, he associated himself with his father, Mr. David Phillips, Sr., in the drilling tool manufacturing, and has been interested in this business ever since. About ten years ago, Mr. Phillips purchased large oil interests both in the Pennsylvania and W. Va. fields and devotes most of his time to these. Mr. Phillips is an ardent lover of good horses, owning several who have made world records. He is a director in the Bradford Driving Park and Fair Association, is a Mason and an Elk, has a beautiful home on Jackson avenue and is one of Bradford's most progressive young men.
E. R. CALDWELL & COMPANY'S PLANT. Group of employees on page 150.
E. R. CALDWELL AND CO.
Conduct a general foundry and machine shop at 68-76 Hilton street. The firm was organized in 1896, under the firm name of Close & Caldwell, R. M. Close and E. R. Caldwell. About a year ago Mr. Close withdrew and Mr. Caldwell re-organized the business under the present name. General foundry and machine work is done here. The foundry has a capacity of fifteen tons of castings daily and is now running an average of ten tons daily. Steam pumps, gas engines, starting pumps, hydraulic wheel presses for all purposes are manufactured here. Machine moulded castings are a specialty. All kinds of iron castings up to five tons weight are manufactured as are also all kinds of special machinery. The works provide employment for about sixty-five employees. Edmund R. Caldwell, of the firm of E. R. Caldwell & Co., was born in Goshen, Indiana, November 22, 1867, and educated in the public schools of Goshen and Bradford. He began his business career in the employ of L. Emery, Jr., as a clerk. He remained with Mr. Emery for thirteen years and then in company with Mr. Close, engaged in the foundry business, ultimately taking charge of the same as previously stated.
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AMERICAN WOOD RIM CO.
Immediately following the pioneer efforts to produce the wood rim as a substitute for steel rims in bicycle construction, even the sanity of the inventor was a matter of speculation in the minds of some, while the conservative men in the trade contented themselves in advising the inventor to "go back home. " Wood rims were an inovation. Riders imagined they could "hear 'em crack." The cycling public were skeptical, the inventor, however, continued to demonstrate the superiority of wood rims over steel. Prominent bicycle makers offered riders their choice between steel and wood and here we are today. When did you see the last steel rim?
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First plant of Bradford Hardwood Lumber Company, from which the American Wood Rim Company has grown. Built February 27, 1892.
During the interim, however, from its inception to the present day, the wood rim industry has experienced an evolution. In 1896, through the influence of Lewis Emery, Jr., C. P. Collins, B. M. Bailey, J. B. Etherington and others prominent among Bardford's business men, attracted also by the almost inexhaustbile supply of Pennsylvania Rock Maple accessable to Bradford, of a character affording the essential requirements of a material adapted to wood rim construction the original Fairbanks Wood Rim Company, located in Bradford, erecting a modern plant in Mill street convenient to the Erie, Pennsylvania and B. R. & P. railroads. The demand for wood rims so largely exceeded the supply that wood rim factories sprung up all over the country and the reverse order of supply and demand was rapid. The Fairbanks Company at that time, in the face of almost frantic
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competition and constant lowering of prices by their competitors adopted the policy that "Quality lives long after Price is forgotten" which, carefully observed and coupled with a perfect organization, ample financial ability and
B. M. BAILEY. President.
E. J. LOBDELL. Vice-President and Treasurer.
H. C. WILCOX. Secretary.
the highest class of skilled workmanship has served as an important factor in their successful career.
Probably none other of Bradford's many industries has since carried the fame of Bradford more favorably and extensively throughout the world than the makers of the famous "Fairbanks Rims." Competition worked its
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inevitable results to an extent that of the forty odd manufacturers of wood rims. E. J. Lobdell of Marietta, Ohio, Indiana Novelty Manufacturing Company of Plymouth, Indiana, Boston Wood Rim Company of Boston, Mass. and Toronto, Can. & Kundtz Bending Company of Cleveland, Ohio, together with the Fairbanks Company, remained as prominent among the fittest to survive.
In 1899 the promotion and formation of the American Wood Rim Company, by Messrs. Bailey & Lobdell, brought the interest above named under one management and Bradford was selected as the main offices for the company and here is operated one of the largest wood rim factories in the world, employing hundreds of skilled workmen and contributing largely to the staple prosperity of Bradford as a manufacturing city. This Bradford factory undertakes the manufacture of all the various styles and foreign sizes of rims for bicycles. It has recently been enlarged and now manufactures and ships wood rims for carriages, automobiles, motor cycles and all classes of pneumatic tired vehicles to all parts of the world, this department of their business promising the necessity of a still greater increase in their manufacturing facilities in Bradford. The officers of the company are: B. M. Bailey, president; E. J. Lobdell of Marietta, Ohio, vice-president and treasurer and H. C. Wilcox, secretary.
Mr. Bailey who has been mainly instrumental in building up this large enterprise in Bradford, began his Bradford business career in 1884 as private secretary to Hon. Lewis Emery, Jr. and in 1892 became associated with J. B. Etherington and Senator Emery in founding and in the subsequent management of the Bradford Hardwood Lumber Company, which now largely supplies the American Wood Rim Company the selected grade of Pennsylvania rock maple that has become celebrated in connection with its rims.
In 1899 Mr. Bailey was elected president of the American Wood Rim Company, a fact which bears fitting testimony to the high standing he has obtained in the business world.
Mr. Lobdell previously and at present, a large producer of hickory dimension stocks for the carriage trade are the pioneer manufacturers of single piece or "solid" wood rims and the name "Lobdell" has for years been a recognized insignia of high quality in wood rims and wood guards for bicycles. He is credited with the highest ability as a manufacturer and which will be seen to be required when one imagines the almost endless detail and complication entering into the production of millions of wood rims of all sizes and descriptions in every process from the evolution of the log in its native state, to the highly finished rims and guards seen on bicycles today.
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