BIOGRAPHY: James A. Townsend; Newburgh, Orange co., New York

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Portrait and Biographical Record of Rockland and Orange Counties New York
Containing Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens of the Counties.
Together with Biographies and Portraits of all the Presidents of the United
States.
New York and Chicago; Chapman Publishing Co., 1895

JAMES A. TOWNSEND. In the business circles of Newburgh Mr. Townsend is, by
universal consent, accorded a high place. Eminently successful in a financial
sense, he has throughout his entire career exhibited clearness of perception
and soundness of judgment, and moreover enjoys an enviable reputation for
moral worth and integrity of purpose. He possesses true public spirit, and
uses his influence to enhance the best interests of the city and county,
and all worthy enterprises for their development meet with his hearty support.
It is the united testimony of the people that his course is such as
to reflect credit upon the citizenship of Newburgh. 

The Townsend family is of French extraction, and its progenitors in America
were identified with the Society of Friends. The grandfather of our subject,
Benjamin Townsend, was born in Ulster County, N. Y., and passed his life
there, engaged in farm work. The father, Jacob P., a native of Milton, Ulster
County, was a merchant by occupation, and died at the age of seventy-nine. The
mother, Mary A., was a daughter of Absalom Barrett, a farmer of Ulster County
and a member of a Quaker family.

The seventh among thirteen children, all but two of whom attained years of
maturity, the subject of this notice was born in Milton, Ulster County, N. Y.,
February 28, 183o. When he was fourteen years old, his father lost his entire
fortune and was obliged to begin at the foot of the ladder again. To assist
him in his struggle, the son remained with him, without receiving any
remuneration for his services, until he was twenty-six years of age. He had
the satisfaction of knowing that his efforts were not in vain, and that, when
free to begin for himself, the father was financially independent.

September 1, 1856, Mr. Townsend came to Newburgh and secured a clerkship in
the whole-sale grocery and forwarding house of T. Powell & Co. (the "Co."
being composed of Thomas Powell, Homer Ramsdall and David Moore) . He was
employed at a good salary during the term of serving with them. During the
panic of 1857 the firm suspended business, not because they were insolvent,
but because they could not make collections nor sell any property. They
offered him the business to run until they could resume, and as he lacked the
necessary capital, he took into partnership Capt. Charles Lockwood, the firm
name becoming Lockwood & Townsend. He was at the head of the business, and it
prospered under his management.

In connection with Homer Ramsdall and George W. Townsend, our subject,
February 1; 1858, established the firm of Homer Ramsdall & Co., in which each
member had a one-third interest. The partnership, formed in one-half an hour,
lasted for eighteen years, during which time the firm built up the largest
wholesale grocery and commission business in the city. In fact, it has never
been surpassed, in the extent of its trade, by any business house of Newburgh.
This success is the more remarkable when it is considered that the business
was in a declining and unprofitable condition at the time it was taken up by
the firm. The active management of affairs devolved upon Georg_ W. and, his
brother, the latter of whom spent considerable time on the road, selling a
larger amount of goods than any other sales-man. February i, 1876, he sold his
interest to Homer Ramsdall and George W. Townsend, the latter continuing in
the firm until his death.

The wholesale grocery business at No. 10 Water Street Mr. Townsend carried on
for a number of years, under the firm title of James A. Town-send & Co., his
partners being M. L. Lee and A. D. Marvin. Since 1880, however, he has been
sole proprietor. He owns a building 20X 100 feet, six stories high, with
elevator and all mod-ern conveniences. In 1870 he became interested in the
Highland Paper Mill, with a capital stock of $120,000. Erastus Ide, President
and Treasurer, and James A. Townsend, Secretary, of the corporation known as
the Ide Paper Company, were manufacturing the celebrated Valley Forge and
Highland Mills writing paper. The former gets its name from the fact that the
Valley Forge of Revolutionary fame is located on land belonging to the mill.
In September, 1876, he bought the entire mill property, which he has since
re-modeled and enlarged to more than double its former capacity, so that it is
now one of the finest plants of the kind in the state.

The mill is situated at Moodna, on Murderer's Creek, upon a seventy-acre
tract. Its shipping facilities are excellent, connection being had with the
Erie, West Shore and Ontario & Western Roads, as well as with the Hudson
River. There are ten tenement houses on the property, in one of which the
illustrious General LaFayette had his headquarters and residence during the
Revolution. The main building is 60x100, four stories high. The first floor is
utilized for drainers; the second for a beater-room; the third, calenderroonl
and office; the fourth, drying loft, with turret. There is an adjacent wing,
6ox6o, four stories, upon the first floor of which is the wheel house; second,
spring-water supply room; third, finishing-room; and fourth, drying loft. The
stock department is a building 5ox6o, four stories. The machine department,
5ox1o5, two stor-ies, has a boiler and sizing-room on the first floor, and a
paper machine on the second floor. The carpenter-shop, two stories, 4ox6o, is
devoted to repairs and the manufacture of cases. There are also a storehouse,
4ox5o, and a stone building for stock, 13ox50, two stories. The boiler is
eighty horse-power, and the engine thirty. The water-power is only exceeded,
in the state, by that of Niagara, being a thirty-eight foot head water-power
on three turbine wheels, of respectively one hundred and sixty-five, sixty and
thirty horse-power.

The principal machinery used in the mills are a Coburn-Taylor rag-cutter and
three dusters, a rotary boiler 6x 12, three fifty-pound beaters, three three
hundred-pound washers, a sixty-two-inch paper machine with a capacity of three
thou-sand pounds per day, four stocks of sheet calender, two elevators, and a
forty-inch Kent paper cutter. Employment is furnished to forty hands, and it
requires three weeks from the time the rags are started in the cutter until
they are ready for packing. The product of the plant is unexcelled, and the
best grades of linen and extra superfine writing paper are manufactured. M. V.
Brooks,' a practical and expert paper-maker, is superintendent of the mill.

Mr. Townsend owns the old Marvin homestead of two hundred and twenty acres,
and the Seely homestead of one hundred and eighty-five acres, both of which
are situated near Oxford Depot, in the town of Blooming Grove. Both farms have
substantial buildings, and during recent years he has expended a large amount
in the erection of buildings on the Seely fartn. The land is operated by
superintendents, and is devoted largely to pasturage, about one hundred and
fifty cows being kept. Other valuable property is owned by Mr. Townsend,
including his elegant city residence at No. 235 Montgomery Street, Newburgh.
In politics he is a believer in protection of home industries, and naturally
gives his support to the Republican party. In religious matters he is
connected with Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church.

The first marriage of Mr. Townsend united him with Miss Elizabeth Marvin,
daughter of Van Renssalaer Marvin, a member of one of the old families of
Blooming Grove. Their five children are George W.; James Augustus, Jr., who is
connected with his father in the wholesale grocery business; Fannie M., wife
of W. F. Cassedy, of Newburgh; Edwin M., who is also with his father in the
grocery trade; and Bessie. The present wife of Mr. Townsend was Miss Ida Lena,
daughter of Franklin and Eliza Ann (Van Vliet) Bull, both deceased, the former
having been an extensive farmer of the town of Blooming Grove.