History: Local: Chapter XXXVII - Part III : Manufacturing Industries: Bean's 1884 History of Montgomery Co, PA

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                           BEAN'S  HISTORY  OF

                     MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

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                         CHAPTER XXXVII. PART - III

                         MANUFACTURING  INDUSTRIES.


599 (cont.)


                             WEST CONSHOHOCKEN.

    THE MERION IRON COMPANY, WEST CONSHOHOCKEN.  -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
boards of directors are
J. B. Moorhead (president)
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 1857.  The capacity of the furnace in the
last-named.  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 cost to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.  The capacity
of Elizabeth Furnace is about two hundred and sixty to two hundred and seventy-five tons
per week, -say thirteen thousand five hundred tons per annum.  In addition
to the two blast furnaces, as above described, there is a fine
mansion-house and about eleven acres of land, situated in the borough of
West Conshohocken, belonging 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
Bonds secured by mortgage on the premises, bearing
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 producing 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 capital stock.  This estimate is based on
the present depressed condition of the iron market; the results may, and
probably will, prove much more remunerative 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 collector of internal revenue for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania, which necessitated his removal to Harrisburg with his family,
where his death occurred in 1817.  The family soon after returned to the
ferry property, the eldest son, James Kennedy, being, at the age of twelve
years, his mother's main reliance in conducting the ferry and managing the
firm.  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 employment 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 contracts.  Meeting with an unfavorable response to

600

his demand on the plea of his youth, he determined to operate
independently.  A letting of contracts 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. 




         PICTURE OF J. BARLOW MOOREHEAD, APPEARS HERE.




He subsequently became engaged with his brother in the filling of important
contracts on the Portage Railroad, the Monongahela slack-water navigation,
in bridge building in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, and in various important
railroad enterprises.  Mr. Moorhead, in 1837, prior to entering upon his
Kentucky contracts, married Miss Elizabeth Hirons, of Wilmington, 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.)
Caroline F. (married to Joseph E. Thropp).
Mr. Moorhead, 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 was in 1842, appointed by the canal
commissioners superintendent of motive-power on Philadelphia and Columbia
Railroad, which position he held until 1844, after which he continued for
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 purchased the
Merion Furnace, located at West Conshohocken, and commenced as a novice in
the iron business.  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. Moorehead was formerly
allied in politics with the Democracy, but in 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
Episcopal Church.  From 1841 until 1850 he was vestryman of St. Paul's
Church of that denomination, in Chester Valley, and has since 1864 held 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 who were inseparable
from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  The leading industries of city and
State stand as a great monument to his name and thine.  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

601

    CONSHOHOCKEN WORSTED-MILLS, GEORGE BULLOCK & CO.   -This grand establishment
for the manufacture of textile fabrics are one of the oldest in the State,
and have 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 1881, and
produce, three hundred thousand pounds of the finest, worsted yarns per
annum.  The building is ninety feet wide by one 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 the produce three hundred, and twenty-
five thousands 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 two
stories 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 mill, are established under the firm-title and name of the
Conshohocken Worsted-Mills.  George Bullock, treasurer;
James Moir, superintendent; 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.

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

    The mill on Main Street, Norristown, belonging to the firm is four stories
in height built of stone, mortar-coated, and is fifty by ninety feet in
size, with a rear building, used as a dye and picker-house of fifty by
fifty feet.  Within, the mill is neat and cleanly, and has the reputation of
being one of the best kept in the country.  It is divided into four
departments, and gives employment to seventy hands, to who 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 modern machinery for the manufacture of black broadcloths and
woolen goods.

    GEORGE. F BULLOCK is of both English and Scotch lineage.  Samuel Bullock
and his wife, Hannah, emigrated Yeadon, Yorkshire, England, to America, and
settled in Germantown, Pa.  Their children were
Benjamin
John
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.  He
became associated in 1822 with Anthony Davis in the wool-pulling business. 
In 1837 he embarked in wool manufacturing, and continued for a period of
thirty-seven years actively engaged in this, and other enterprises in
Philadelphia and vicinity.  He married Martha, daughter of George Maxwell,
whose children were eight in number, of whom George, the subject of this
biographical sketch, 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 business.  His fidelity were rewarded by an interest
in which he continued until the death of his 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 it
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 Benjamin Bullock's Sons.  This
extensive enterprise eventually became a corporation under the corporate
title of the Conshohocken Worsted-Mills, with George Bullock as president,
treasurer and owner of the controlling interest.  In 1862, Mr. Bullock,
finding it desirable to make his permanent abode among the scenes of his
business activity, purchased it picturesque site, embracing three hundred
acres of valuable land, and erected a spacious residence, surrounded by all
that 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
administrative abilities coupled with rare energy and force.  He is a
citizen, public-spirited and liberal, manifesting a keen interest in the
material welfare of those who are identified with his various interest.  He
is a Republican 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 Prison, Inspectors and for ten years has been a member
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 Conshohocken, and a stanch advocate of the cause of
temperance, both by precept and example.  Mr.  Bullock was married, in 1851,
to Miss Josephine, daughter of Samuel Wright, of Philadelphia.




                PICTURE OF GEORGE BULLOCK, APPEARS HERE.




602

    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 Carolina, 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.

    "George Bullock believes in having everything done in the best way; hence
he has the best of workmen, pays well and turns out here best quality of
goods.  As the president of a bank, he has a through knowledge of
commercial paper and acts from a fixed principle, not asking how much a man
may be worth nor how large his bank account may be, but what kind of man is
he that the note, and how does he do business, believing that certain
principles of business mean success, while the reverse insures, some time
in the near future, failure. 

    "In the successful management of his large mill he acts with decision and
promptness, and at times seemingly with prospective loss, but the end is found to
justify the means.  As an illustration, if times are dull and goods have
accumulated largely on his hands, he takes steps to dispose of then. 
First, his goods are exactly as represented, always up to the standard.  The
severest test of the market may be applied, the closest scrutiny of warp
and woof way be made.  The material, the worked the finish are all of the
highest grade for that class of goods.  The large stock will be placed in
the market, cash realized, the wareroom cleared and his hands kept at
work, If goods are low, so must the raw material be; hence the firm and the
mills are ready for new goods, new pattern and the raw material low, ready
for advanced prices when the rise takes place.  We at times attribute
success to luck, but Mr. Bullock takes small stock in 'luck.'  During the
seven years of the panic, from 1873 to 1880, he kept his mills running and
his hand together.  He uses good material, the newest and most approved
machinery, employs skilled workmen and workwomen and keeps everything in
excellent order and under the most careful management.  His hands are well 
paid, and hence feel an interest in the success of the employers.  His
well-known kind and liberal disposition to all with whom he comes in
contact, his especial interest in those who are in need and the great love
he has for children, all combine to make the 'Conshohocken Worsted-Mills' a
name and a success in all that is valuable in that word, both in profits
and reputation.  Mr. Bullock maintains largely the church on his grounds,
while hundreds of dollar a years are spent upon the Sabbath-school connected
with this Baptist congregation.  In his works of kindness and benevolence he
has the aid and assistance of his excellent lady, the acts of Christian
kindness of Mrs. Bullock, like the falling rain, blessing many around her
in very many ways."

    JAMES MOIR.  -Mr. Moir who is of Scotch descent and the son of Adam and
Dorothy Moir, was bon on the 18th of July, 1820, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland,
where he remained until twenty-one years of age.  He enjoyed at home
opportunities for all excellent rudimentary education, and on its completion
entered the mills of Hadden & Co., of Aberdeen, with a view to acquiring a
thorough knowledge of  manufacturing.  His term of service was completed with
Messrs. Popplewell  Co., in the same city, after which in 1841, he sailed for
America, and located in Watertown, Jefferson Co., N. Y., remaining two years at
that point.  His next location was in Cazenovia, Madison Co., N. Y.,  where he
became superintendent of a mill, filling the position until his later
removal to Eaton, in the same county. 




                  PICTURE OF JAMES MOIR, APPEARS HERE.




    Mr.  Moir next found employment in Jones & Kershaw's mill, located in
West Philadelphia, and in 1859 responded to a demand for his services as
superintendent for Thomas Kershaw, at West Conshohocken.  The mill owned by
the latter gentleman eventually passed into the hands of Benjamin Bullock
& Sons, and in 1871 the firm of George Bullock & Co. was formed, with Mr.
Moir as an active partner, who went to England in 1881 for the purpose of
properly equipping the mill with what is known as the French worsted
machinery.  In 1881 the building known as Mill No. 1 was erected.  It is
exclusively devoted to the production of worsted yarn and worsted fabrics
the various mills being managed under the corporate title of the
"Conshohocken Worsted Mills," with James Moir as general superintendent.  The
subject of this sketch was in 1852, married to Maria Theresa, daughter of
Peleg H. Kent, of Clark's Mills, Oneida Co., N. Y. whose children are
Emma (Mrs. G. R. Kite)
Roscoe K. 
Rosa B. 
Mr. Moir is a Republican in his political affiliations, but not actively
interested in the public measures of the day.  His sympathy with the cause
of education has, however, influenced him to accept the presidency of the
board of school directors of West Conshohocken.  He is a member of the
Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained high rank.

    WILLIAM DAVIS JR., & Co's LUMBER-YARD.  -This establishment is located on
the corner of Front and Ford Streets, in West Conshohocken, and does a
thriving business, employing quite a number of hands.  The firms have
usually stocked in their large building over two million feet of lumber. 
The business was established in 1865, and has increased to about one
hundred thousand dollars per annum.

603

    HALL'S CARPET-FACTORY.   -In a nook on the River road, through which trickles
a small stream, almost unknown and unnoticed, bearing the Indian name of
Arenike Creek, stands the small carpet-factory of Mr. James Hall.  The
building is of frame, and unpretending in its appearance and dimensions,
yet here Mr. James Hall, a skilled weaver from the north of England, has
for three years conducted a successful business in the manufacture of
ingrain and other carpets, he employs forty-five hands, and runs thirty-
nine looms.  The looms are operated in the old primitive fashion of throwing
the shattles from hand to hand.  Five thousand yards a week are produced,
and he pays two hundred dollars a week in wages.


                               POTTSTOWN.

    THE GLASGOW IRON COMPANY.  -These works were established in 1876 in
Pottsgrove Township.  One hundred and thirty hands are employed, with a
payroll of five thousand dollars a month.  Their specialty is plate-iron for
boilers, tanks, etc., and muck-bar.  The capacity is six hundred and fifty
tons a month.  The motive-power is derived from one one hundred and seventy-
five horse-power engine and an eighty horse-power waterwheel, taking water
from the Manatawny.  Joseph L. Bailey is the president
treasurer, Comly Shoemaker;
secretary, S. W. Nicholls
general manger, Edward Bailey.

    ELLIS KEYSTONE AGRICULTURAL WORKS.  -These works are located in Pottsgrove
township, fronting on a public road leading from Madison Bridge road to
Klein road, with a frontage of three hundred feet and a depth of two
hundred and fifty feet, The works were established in 1876, with a capital
of twenty thousand dollars raised to forty-two thousand dollars in 1881. 
Up to this date (1884) the specialty was the Ellis threshing-machine, of
which they manufactured about two hundred per annum.  They are now preparing
to make fodder-cutters (Queed's patent).  The main building is forty feet
square, four stories in height.  There is a brick building one hundred and
ten by twenty-six feet, three stories in height, and a frame building one
hundred by thirty feet for storing finished work.  The lumber-shed is twenty
by sixty feet, and the engine-house twenty-eight by twelve feet.  In 1883
the value of the finished work produced was thirty-five thousand dollars,
wholesale prices.  The machines made here are chiefly for the home trade,
but they also ship to Canada and parts of Europe.  Twenty-five hands are
employed, with a payroll of twelve hundred dollars a month.

    POTTSTOWN IRON COMPANY.  -The Pottstown Iron Company, whose works have added
so much to the industrial wealth of the place, was organized in 1866.  The
erection of the plate-mill was commenced in 1863 by the late William
Mintzer and J. E. Wootten, Esq., now general superintendent of the
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.  Afterwards Mr. Wootten sold out to
Edward Bailey and Joseph Potts, Jr., and the mill was operated for some,
time by Edward Bailey & Co.  Mr. Bailey interested several Philadelphia
parties in the manufacture of iron here, among them the old and well known
house of Morris, Wheeler & Co., and the Pottstown Iron Company was
organized and incorporated by act of the Legislature dated March 27, 1866,
and was granted an increase of capital to the sum of five hundred
thousand dollars by an act passed in 1867.  A nail-works was built and put
in operation in October, 1866.  The large Anvil Furnace of the company was
completed and blown in 1867, and extensive mines and ore rights were
purchased.  When busy, twelve hundred hands are employed here, and the
amount of finished work is three hundred and fifty thousand kegs of nails
and twelve thousand five hundred tons of plate and other iron per annum. 
The buildings, yards, and store-houses cover an area of twenty-two acres. 
For several years Edward Bailey was treasurer and general manager of the
Pottstown Iron Company, and to him Pottstown is under great obligations for
the location of these works here and for their successful management for
some time.  The improvements made by the Pottstown Iron Company, and the
investment of so large an amount of capital here, increased the value of
property in the town, built up other interests and has been of incalculable
advantage to the place. 

    WARWICK IRON COMPANY.  The furnace of the Warwick Iron Company at Pottstown,
another of the important works located at this place, was commenced in
1875, completed in 1876 and blown in on the 20th of April of that year.  The
capital of the company is two hundred and twenty thousand dollars.  The
company owns valuable ore mines at Siesholtzville and Boyerstown, Berks
Co., and at other places.  Magnetic ore is supplied from the above named
mines and hematite from Flourtown.  There is but one stack, fifty-five by
sixteen feet.  There are seventy hands employed at the works and seventy in
the Boyerstown mines.  Their specialty is pig-iron, of which twenty-one
thousand tons are produced annually.  The president is Isaac Fegely;
treasurer, Jacob Fegely; V. J. McCully, secretary; Edgar S. Cook, manager.

    ISAAC FEGELY.  -Conrad Fegely, who was of German descent, resided in Douglas
township, Montgomery Co., where he combined the trade of a blacksmith with
the occupations of a farmer.  He was united in marriage to a Miss Fox, and
had sons -Jacob and John and daughters, -Mrs. Daniel Miller, Mrs. Jacob
Fillman, Mrs. George D. Heiser and Mrs. Jacob Binder,

604

Jacob Fegely was born on the 5th of January, 1794, in Douglas
Township, but early removed to Berks County, where his life was spent in
the pursuit of the blacksmith's craft combined with the cultivation of a
farm.  He married Susan Miller, daughter of Peter Miller, the latter having
been for several terms a member of the State Legislature.  Their children are
Solomon
William
Isaac
Jacob
Maria (Mrs. Reuben Fryer)
Catherine (Mrs. William Sweinhart)
Susan
Lucinda (Mrs. M. Y. Slonacker).
The death of Mr. Fegely occurred on the 23d of January 1878. 




              PICTURE OF ISAAC FEGELY, APPEARS HERE.




His son Isaac was born December 25, 1825, in Berks County, Pa., where he
remained until eighteen years of age, meanwhile, until his fifteenth year,
receiving at the country school it rudimentary education and later
assisting in the varied employments of the farm.  In 1843, desiring to
acquire it trade, he removed to Pottstown and became in apprentice to that
of a coach-maker, serving his allotted time, two and a half years. 
Circumstances soon after made him thoroughly familiar with the vocation of
a millwright, which engaged his attention in the county and territory
adjacent to it for five years.  On the 5th of May 1853, he was married to
Miss Lavina Romich, of Douglas Township, Berks Co.  Their children are
Ida
Ann Mary
Newton Henry
Morris Jacob, all deceased.

    In 1853, in connection with a partner, Mr. Fegely embarked in the coal
business, his brother Jacob becoming in 1854, and a member of the firm,
lumber being added to the stock.  In 1862, in connection with William D. 
Evans, he engaged in car-building.  Having purchased the interest of his
partner, he controlled the business until 1867, when it was sold, and Mr. 
Fegely embarked in various profitable undertakings until 1874.  During the
latter year the Warwick Iron Company was organized, with the subject of
this biography is president, which office he still fills, his time and
ability being devoted to this company.  He was also one of the projectors
and is the president of the Pottstown Gas and Water Companies, president of
the Pottstown Cemetery Company, director of the Pottstown Market Company,
of the Ellis Keystone Agricultural Company and of the Union Mutual Fire and
Storm Insurance

605

Company of Norristown.  Mr. Fegely is in politics a Democrat, but not
interested as a politician in the public issues of the day.  He is a member
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Pottstown, and largely identified
with its growth and influence.

    POTTSGROVE IRON-WORKS.  -The Pottsgrove Iron-Works, the rolling-mill of
which is located on Water Street, between Charlotte and Penn Streets, were
erected in 1846 by Henry Potts, of Pottstown, and Hon. David Potts, Jr., of
Warwick, Chester Co.  The works were enlarged in 1878.  In 1862 the firm-name
was changed from Potts & Baily to Potts Brothers, and is now Potts
Brothers' Iron Company (Limited).  The buildings front on Water Street four
hundred and twenty feet, with a depth of five hundred and eighty-seven
feet.  The entire works cover an area of five acres.  One hundred and
seventy-five hands are employed, with a pay-roll of seven thousand five
hundred dollars a month.  The capacity is eight thousand tons of plate-iron
and eight thousand tons of muck-bar per annum.

    JOSEPH D. POTTS.  -The man of whose active life we here give an outline,
though for a number of years past a citizen of Philadelphia, and a native
of Chester County, is a member of the family whose name is the oldest and
most prominent in the history of the mechanical industry of Montgomery
County, and is himself identified with one of the largest of its
manufacturing establishments.




                PICTURE OF JOSEPH D. POTTS, APPEARS HERE.




    He is a descendant in the sixth generation of Thomas Potts, the pioneer
iron-master of the region, and his great-great-grandfather, John Potts, was
the founder of Pottstown.  His grandfather, Joseph Potts, was the owner of
Glasgow Forge and Valley Forge.  His father, David Potts, was born at the
family house, near the first-named ancient iron establishment, on August
11, 1799, and died November 15, 1870.  His mother, Rebecca S. (Speakman)
Potts, was born in Delaware County.

    Joseph D. was born at Springton Forge, Chester County, December 4, 1829,
and his early life was passed at Pottstown and at Isabella Furnace, Chester
Co.  He entered upon the profession of civil engineering in May, 1852, on
the Sunbury and Erie Railroad, and was afterwards engaged on various roads
in Western Pennsylvania, and was made vice-president of the Steubenville
(Ohio) and Indiana Railroad, superintendent of the Western Division of the
Pennsylvania Railroad and president of the Western Transportation Company. 
In May, 1861, Governor Curtin appointed him on his active staff as
lieutenant-colonel and chief of the transportation and telegraph department
of the State, which post he held until December, 1861, at which time the
State transferred this labor to the national government.

    In 1862, while serving with the militia called out in consequence of
Lee's Antietam expedition, he was detailed by General Reynolds as military
superintendent of the Franklin Railroad.

    From 1862 to 1865 he was general manager of the Philadelphia and Erie
Railroad for its lessee, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.  From 1865 to 
1872 he was president of the Empire Transportation Company, and also of the
Erie and Western Transportation Company, the latter being the owner of a
large fleet of propellers upon the chain of Great Lakes.  In 1877 the Empire
Transportation Company sold its entire plant, equipment and good-will, and
closed its existence.  Mr. Potts continued as President until its final
dissolution and the complete division of its large assets among its
share-holders.  He remained president of the Erie and Western Transportation
Company until June 7, 1881, when he retired to obtain relief from the
responsibility and care involved, which, in addition to various other
duties in relation to numerous enterprises, made a heavier burden than he
chose to carry.  The estimation in which he was held by the company is
evinced by an extract from the proceedings of the directors, showing the
report of a special committee to who was referred big letter of
resignation.  It reads as follows :

    "Mr. Potts' proposed retirement will sever relations which have existed
between him and this company since the beginning of its operations.  Under
his fostering care the company has so grown that it is today prosperous,
substantial, strong and healthy, financially and otherwise.

    "So highly appreciated are his services that the committee feel they are
speaking, not only for the board of directors, but for the whole body of
stockholders, in saying that to him is due, in the largest measure, this
excellent condition of affairs; that without his foresight, his unfailing
powers of resource and his untiring energy no such results could have been
attained.

    "It is with the most profound regret that his retirement is reluctantly
assented to, and the fact that he has consented to return in the board
but in a measure modifies; this feeling.

    "He will leave his official position accompanied by the warmest good wishes
of the directors, officers and all others connected with the service of the
company.

                                                          "W. THAW
                                                          "H. H. HOUSTON
                                                          "W. H. BARNES
                                                          "GEO. B. BONNELL."

    The stockholders at their meeting passed resolutions of an import similar
to the foregoing expression from the directors.  Mr. Potts is still a member
of the directory of the company.

    He became managing director of the National Storage Company in 1874 and
president of the National Docks Railroad Company in 1879.  These are both
New Jersey corporations, the first owning extensive wharves, warehouses,
etc., in Jersey City, and the latter all important railway through the same
city.  He resigned both of these positions in 1884, though still a director
in each company.  He became president of the Enterprise Transit Company in
1871, and still holds that position.

    He purchased an interest, in 1879, in the Potts Brothers' Iron Company
(Limited), of Pottstown, Pa., which owns the Chester Tube-Works, and has
since been one of its managers.  In 1880 he purchased the Isabella Furnace
property, in Chester County, formerly owned by his father and now managed
by his sons.  He was for some years and until January 1, 1885, president,
and is still a director of the Girard Point Storage Company of
Philadelphia, which is the owner of the extensive elevators, wharves,
warehouses, railroad, tanks, etc., near the mouth of the Schuylkill River. 
from its establishment he has been a land owner and a director in the
International Navigation Company (Red Star Line).

606

    During the last few years Mr. Potts has, although strongly urged to the
contrary, withdrawn, as far as possible, from active business duties, and
has refused several very tempting offers of highly lucrative and honorable
positions.  The comparative ease and quiet which he has secured by partial
retirement from business has been well earned by years of remarkable activity 
and the untiring exercise of great financial and organizing ability.

    Mr. Potts, on June 1, 1854, married Mary, daughter of Dr. William and
Margaret (Pollock) McCleery, at Milton, Northumberland Co., Pa.  Their
children are
Arthur (who died in infancy)
William M.
Francis Lanier.

    J. DUTTON STEELE & SONS' MANUFACTURING COMPANY, POTTSTOWN.  -The works 
are located on High Street, and were established in 1880.  The frontage is
seventy-five feet, depth three hundred feet, and one story high.  Fifty
hands are employed, with a pay-roll of fifteen hundred dollars a month.  The
power is supplied by an eighty horse-power engine.




              PICTURE OF J. DUTTON STEELE, APPEARS HERE.




    J. DUTTON STEELE is the eldest son of John D. Steele, of Chester County,
Pa., who migrated with his family from England in 1795, and first settled
in Whitemarsh township, Montgomery Co where he resided for seven years,
after which he married Ann, daughter of Hugh Exton, of Hunterdon County,
N.J., and purchased a tract of land in central Chester County, upon which
he resided during the remainder of his life; there J. Dutton Steele was
born in 1810, and at the age of eighteen, after being educated in the
mathematical schools of Chester Co., he joined a corps of engineers engaged
in the surveys for the internal improvements of Pennsylvania, and continued
in the service of the State for two years.  In 1830 he entered the service
of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, the construction of which work
was at that time being commenced, and continued in that service for ten
years having been connected chiefly with the construction department until
their rails had reached Harper's Ferry, and had been extended to Baltimore,
Md., and during in interval in that service he located the road between
Troy and Ballston Spring in the State of New York.

607

    His last appointment with the Baltimore and Ohio Company was in connection
with the location and construction of the Western Division of the road,
extending, from Cumberland, Md., to the Ohio River.  

    In 1837 he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Judge Thomas Capner,
of  Hunterdon County, N. J., and settled in Wheeling, Va., from which point
he  conducted all extensive system of surveys necessary for the location of
the work in charge.  The great financial break-down of that period, however,
caused the railroad company to suspend the construction of their road west of
Cumberland, and consequently his engagements with them terminated in 1840.  He
then purchased a farm near Downingtown, Pa., and followed the pursuits of
agriculture for six years. 

    During this period, the financial condition of the country having
recovered from its depression and the charter of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company through Southwestern Pennsylvania having lapsed, they
applied to the Legislature for a renewal of their chartered privileges; but
at the same time the Pennsylvania Railroad Company were applying for a
charter through the middle of the State; hence the memorable "rights of way
contest," in which his familiarity with the topographical features of the
regions to be traversed enabled him to take an active part, and in which
the Baltimore and Ohio failed to obtain the renewal of their charter asked
for and were forced to occupy a circuitous route round the southwestern
corner of Pennsylvania.  In 1846 he made a survey of Pittsburgh and its
environs for the purpose of indicating the practicable routes for entering
that city with railway improvements, and entered the service of the
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company on the 1st of January, 1847, in
charge of the roadway department of that road, and continued in the
service of that company, in the several capacities of chief assistant
engineer, chief engineer and vice-president, until 1867, -a period of nearly
twenty years.  During this time the bridges on the road were nearly all
replaced with permanent structures and the superstructure was renewed, an
accurate survey was made of the Schuylkill coal-fields, the shipping
facilities at Port Richmond were enlarged and improved, and the rails were
extended into Mahanoy Valley and to Harrisburg.  He introduced into railway
practice the ribbed stone arches the skew bridges, and availing himself of
the experiments made by a commission appointed by the Queen of England in
1847 to investigate the "applicability of iron to railway structures," the
report of which was published in 1849, he introduced wrought-iron girders
for bridges of short spans, and was the first to use electricity as in
auxiliary to rock-blasting to any considerable extent, with no light to
guide him but some experiments which had been made in English stone
quarries, and without the aid of which the tunnels on the Reading Railroad
could not have been widened, in the brief space of four months allotted for
the completion of the work, with safety to the passing trains.

  In 1868 he was elected president of the Sterling Iron and Railway
Company, and removed to Brooklyn, and assumed the duty of developing an
extensive iron ore property in Orange County N. Y., in which position he
continued for three years.  During this period he made explorations for
railroad extensions in the States of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota;
took all active part in organizing the American Society of Civil Engineers
and contributed to their journal, and was appointed one of a commission of
civil engineers to examine and approve the plans of John A. Roebling for
the East River suspension bridge.  It may not be out of place to refer here
to some interesting, geological features of the Sterling estate
confirmatory of the glacial theory of Agassiz.  Bowlders of fossil limestone
were found on the tops of hills, two hundred feet above the level of the
valleys, which had been carried hundreds of miles by the ice, and they had
existed at an earlier day to such an extent as to furnish the necessary
flux for a charcoal furnace, which had been upon the property for a period
of half a century.  A mountain in its external appearance was one great
mass of iron-ore; but on penetrating it, it proved to be only a vein of
iron-ore, corresponding in pitch with the slope of the hill, which had been
worn smooth by glacial action, and immediately below it, and under a
superincumbent mass of eight feet of gravel, was found a deposit of shot
ore, which had evidently been rasped off the vein by the rock-toothed
glacier when the world was yet enveloped in ice.

    In 1870 he returned to his residence in Pottstown, Pa., and was in charge
of the construction of the Nesquehoning Valley Railroad and the
Nesquehoning tunnel, in Carbon County, Pa., and in the latter work,
availing himself of the experiments then in progress at the Hoosac tunnel,
made use of compressed air as a motive-power for the rock-drills.

    He was next appointed to select the location, amid several conflicting
interests, for the extension of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from
Central Ohio to Chicago, and after the necessary surveys, recommended the
route upon which that road is now built, and was also engaged on the
Wilmington and Northern and Berks County Railroads and other works of
lesser importance.

    He afterwards organized and established the J. D. Steele & Sons'
Manufacturing Company at Pottstown, Pa., and thus ended an active but
inconspicuous professional career.

608

    POTTSTOWN IRON AND BRASS FOUNDRY.  -The Pottstown Iron and Brass Foundry is
located on Beech Street, and was erected in 1868 by William Auchenbach.  It
was operated for several years by W. P. Buckley and William Auchenbach,
under the firm-name of W. P. Buckley & Co., but was subsequently changed to
the firm of William S. Ellis & Co.  The firm is engaged in the general
foundry business, and also manufacture sad-irons, having a branch
establishment for the finishing of sad-irons on Queen Street.  The firm is
in a flourishing condition and employs a number of men.

    BOYER & BROTHER.  -The foundry is located at the corner of York and Walnut
Streets.  All kinds of castings are made here in iron and brass, and
ornamental wrought-iron fencing is made to order.  Twenty-six hands are
employed, with a pay-roll of seven hundred dollars a month.  The building is
forty-six by one hundred and fifty feet and the finished work averages one
ton per day.

    MECHANICS' BOILER-WORKS, SOTTER & BROTHERS.  -The firm consists of Jacob,
Ferdinand, Henry and Philip Sotter, four brothers who are skilled
mechanics.  They manufacture boilers, smoke-stacks, blast and steam-pipes,
iron stock-cars, furnace-barrows, water and oil-tanks, gas-holders, etc. 
The works were established in 1879, and were formerly occupied by Messrs.
Buckley & Auchenbach as a foundry. 

    The main building is forty-five by one hundred feet.  Thirty hands are
employed, with a pay-roll of fifteen hundred dollars a month.  During the
year 1883 the amount of finished work was estimated at sixty thousand
dollars' value.

    POTTSTOWN ROLLER-MILLS, BERTOLET & MILLER.  -This firm does a very
extensive business, and the water-power has no superior in the State.  Here
was erected the first mill in the region, about the year 1725.  It was owned
by Jesse Ives for a long period, but in 1855 the property was purchased by
Henry and Jacob H. Gabel, who rebuilt it in 1856, and furnished it with the
best machinery.  The mill is forty-five by fifty feet, four stories high,
and has a capacity of one hundred barrels a day.

    POTTSTOWN MARBLE-WORKS, MESSRS. E. REIFSNYDER AND J. W. STORB, No. 149
High Street.  -The business conducted by these gentlemen was founded forty
years ago by Albert Storb.  in 1859 the firm became Wagner & Reifsnyder. 
Five years afterwards Mr. Wagner died, and the present firm was founded,
Marble and granite work of all description is done in the highest style of
the art, and the large sixteen by one hundred feet building, always
contains a very large stock of finished monuments and headstones, so that
orders may be filled successfully.  Five hands, are employed in the busy
season and a regular trade has been secured in Berks, Chester and
Montgomery Counties.  Both gentlemen are practical workmen, and all work is
erected under their personal supervision.

    MARBLE AND GRANITE-WORKS.  -The manufacture of monuments, head-stones,
etc., was commenced in Pottstown in 1865 by Seazholtz & Yohn.  This firm was
in turn succeeded by Seazholtz & Shenton, and in 1873, Mr. Shenton became
sole proprietor.  Mr. Shenton is a gentleman of twenty-one years' experience
in this particular trade, and as in artisan of skill has no superior, as is
abundantly attested by the soldiers' monuments of Phoenixville and St. 
Clair and many other beautiful and large monuments erected by him in this
county and in Berks and Chester Counties.  The building occupied by him on
Hanover Street, near the railroad, is twenty-four by ninety-six feet in
extent.  During the busy season five hands are employed.

    POTTSTOWN STEAM PLANING-MILL, J. F. ALTHOUSE, PROPRIETOR.  -These works
are located on Apple Street, and were established in 1879, the firm at that
time being Fisher & Althouse.  A large amount of sashes, doors, window-
frames, etc., is manufactured by the firm.  Twenty-one hands are employed,
and the pay-roll amounts to one thousand dollars a month.  The main
building is one hundred and fifty by one hundred and fifty-five feet, the
lumber-yard is one hundred and fifty-five by one hundred and seventy
feet.  The machinery is driven by a thirty-five horse-power engine.

    RICHARD H. KRAUSE'S PLANIING-MILL.  -This mill is situated at Water and
Charlotte Street and manufactures sashes, doors, window-frames and scroll
work.  Fourteen hands are employed, with a pay-roll of five thousand
dollars a month.

    THE PHILADELPHIA BRIDGE-WORKS, COFRODE, & SAYLOR, CIVIL ENGINEERS AND
BRIDGE-BUILDERS.  -These extensive works are located at Pottstown, on the
line of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.  The buildings and
improvement cover an area of about thirteen acres of ground.  The
establishment has been in operation since 1877-78, and is justly noted for
its capacity to produce the best and most skillfully constructed
bridge-work of the age.  The most improved machinery is used in the
execution of their work, and their patrons are found in all parts of the
Union.  Their Philadelphia office is located at No. 257 South Fourth Street. 
They employ from five hundred to one thousand men, and are an important
branch of the capitalized industry of the county.


                           LIMERICK TOWNSHIP.

    NATIONAL STOVE-WORKS, LIMERICK STATION, MARCH, BROWNBACK & CO.  -These
extensive valuable works were established at Lawrenceville, Chester Co., in
1848, by Michael March, Isaac Buckwalter and Ezekial Thomas, trading as
March & Buckwalter.  Before the works were in full operation Thomas and
Buckwalter sold out their half interest to Michael March.  In 1849, John
Church and Thomas Church purchased one half interest, when the firm became
March & Church.  In 1850, James L. Ellis bought the interest of John and
Thomas Church, when the firm-name was March & Ellis.  In 1851, George Frick
purchased the interest of James L. Ellis, and the firm became March &
Frick.  In 1852, Daniel Allen bought the interest of George Frick, when the
firm-name became March & Allen.  In 1853, Washington Savidge bought a part
of Allen's interest, and Mr. March remained a silent partner in the firm. 
The firm-name then was Allen & Savidge.  In 1854, Savidge died, and the
business was continued by Daniel Allen.  In 1855, Henry C. March and Joseph
Johnson bought Allen and Savidge's interest.

609

    The firm-name was March & Johnson, and so continued until 1860, when
Edmund Sisler bought Joseph Johnson's interest.  The firm then became March
& Sisler, and continued so until 1865, when J. W. March entered as an equal
partner; firm-name, March, Sisler & Co.  In 1866, Franklin March entered the
firm, the firm-name continuing.  In 1866 the works were transferred to
Limerick Station Montgomery Co., where more extensive and substantial
buildings were erected, and the most improved machinery put into operation,
so as to enable the firm to meet the constantly increasing pressure
upon their manufacturing capacity.




               PICTURE OF T. J. MARCH, APPEARS HERE.




In 1868, James Brownback bought the interest of H. C. March, the
firm-name, continuing.  In 1871, T. J. March purchased the interest of
Franklin March, firm-name continuing.  In 1874, James Rogers bought the
interest of D. M. March, and in the fall of the same year Michael Towers
bought the interest of Edward Sisler, when the firm became March, Brownback [sic]
& Co.  In 1877, M. Towers sold to his partners, T. J. March, James Brownback
and James Rodgers, his interest, and since that date the firm-name has been
March, Brownback & Co.

    When the firm started the number of hands employed was twenty-five, with
a monthly production for the first year of twenty-five net tons, stoves and
plate; wages per month, approximately, thirteen hundred dollars.  At present
when working full the number of hands is one hundred and twenty-five, with
a monthly pay-roll of six thousand two hundred dollars.  The goods
manufactured are stoves, heaters and ranges, of which the product for the
year 1884 was eleven hundred net tons.  

    The works cover one and one-half acres, on which stand the following
buildings: Moulding-room, one hundred and fifty by seventy-five feet;
moulding-room No. 2, seventy-five by fifty feet; with warehouse, shipping
and finishing department in one building, one hundred by sixty feet, four
stories high; carpenter-shop and fitting department, thirty by twenty feet,
four stories high; and sand-house, forty by eighteen feet, four stories high,
office, etc.  Value of the plant, one hundred and ninety thousand dollars.

610

    THOMAS J. MARCH.  -The earliest representative of the March family in
Pennsylvania was Frederick March, of German descent, who settled in
Limerick township, Montgomery Co., Pa.  He had several sons, one of whom,
Frederick J., removed to the adjoining county of Chester, and resided at
his death in East Vincent township.  Among his children was Michael, whose
birth occurred on the 24th of July, 1803, in the above township, where he
was subsequently married to Miss Susanna, daughter of Henry Chrisman, also
of East Vincent township.  To this union were born children
B. Franklin,
Henry C. (deceased)
Ellen (who became the wife of James Brownback)
Webster (deceased)
Thomas J.
Emma C. (married to Rev. J. P. Miller)
Thomas J., of this number was born on the 16th of February, 1844, at
Lawrenceville, Chester Co., Pa., where he remained during the years of
early youth, meanwhile availing himself of such advantages of education as
the public schools afforded.  At the age of eighteen he became a pupil of
the State Normal School, at Millersville, engaged for a brief period in
teaching, and, on the completion of his studies, received, as the
representative of the Seventh Congressional District of the State, the
appointment to the United States Military Academy, at West Point, N. Y.  He
graduated in the class of 1868, and was at once assigned as second
lieutenant in the Seventh Regiment Cavalry, then on duty on the plains, his
command being at the time engaged, under General G. A. Custer, in active
frontier service.  Mr. March remained four years in the army, having been
from October 11, 1868, to November 20, 1870, in Kansas and the Indian
Territory, where he participated in the engagement on Washita River with
the Cheyenne Indiana on the 27th of November, 1868, in which he was
wounded.  He was, on the 21st of November 1870, appointed to the Military
Tactics Board, convened at St. Louis, and again assigned, on the 11th of
February 1871, to frontier duty at Fort Lyon, Colorado.  He later received
leave of absence and tendered his resignation March 10, 1872.  Mr. March, on
returning again to civil life, after his varied and eventful military
experience, entered the firm of March Sisler & Co., stove-founders, at
Limerick Station, Montgomery Co., and has since devoted his attention to
business pursuits.  He was, on the 29th of January 1880, married to Emma,
daughter of the late Jacob and Maria Kulp, of Pottstown.  Their only child
is a son, Michael Henry.  Mr. March is in his political views a stanch
Republican and an, earnest advocate of the doctrine of a protective tariff. 
He is in no sense a politician and is indifferent to the honors attached to
party service.  The religious associations of his family are with the
Reformed Church in Pottstown, of which he is a supporter.



                        UPPER MERION TOWNSHIP.

    SWEDES' FURNACE.  -This well-known furnace was built by Griffith Jones for
the firm of Potts & George in 1853, and Mr. Jones became the manager, They
run the furnace until 1869, when it was purchased by James Lanigan, the
firm, which was known as Lanigan & Repellier, paying one hundred and
twenty-five thousand dollars for the property.  The production in good times
of trade was about six hundred tons a month.  It was run by Lanigan & Co. up
to 1877, when it was stopped, and has remained idle up to this date.  The
furnace is now the property of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron
Company.

    MONTGOMERY FURNACE, MONTGOMERY IRON COMPANY.  -The furnace is located at
Port Kennedy; the stack was built in 1854 and was first blown in 1856.  It
is closed at the top.  The ores used are three-fifths magnetic and
two-fifths hematite.  The specialty is forged pig-iron, with a capacity of
twelve thousand five hundred net tons.  Two roasters for magnetic ores were
added in 1880.  A. S. Patterson is the president of the company, John W.
Eckman manager.

    Wm. B. RAMBO'S QUARRIES.  -This valuable industry covers one hundred and
forty-three acres.  The quarries were opened in 1830 by Geo. W. Roberts on a
very small scale, producing about fifty thousand bushels of stone and lime
per annum; but the business increased until 1843, when it was sold at
sheriffs sale and bought by Nathan Rambo and John T. Potts.  Before the
deeds were signed Nathan Rambo purchased the interest of Mr. Potts for five
hundred dollars, when the latter retired.  Nathan Rambo ran the quarries
alone until January 1, 1857, when his son, William B. Rambo, and Matthias
P. Walker were admitted into partnership.

    Nathan Rambo died March 1, 1858, when the firm became Rambo & Walker, and
remained so until January, 1859, when Mr. Walker retired and William B.
Rambo became sole proprietor and remained such to the present day.

    There are twenty-six kilns, operated by one hundred men, producing eight
hundred thousand bushels of quick-lime per annum for building and
fertilizing purposes, with a pay-roll of nearly four hundred dollars per
mouth. [sic]  The quarries and kilns have a capacity of one million bushels of
lime a year.  Thirty-two horses and a fifteen horse-power pumping-engine
assist in the work.  The building lime is sent principally to Philadelphia,
and the fertilizing lime is sent by the different railroads to New Jersey,
Delaware and many other States adjacent to Pennsylvania.

611

    Adjoining the William B. Rambo quarries are those of Nathan Rambo, ninety
acres in extent, producing about one hundred and fifty tons of stone per
day, most of which is used in the manufacture of asphalt blocks.  These
quarries are leased by Mr. William B. Rambo.

    THE ASPHALT BLOCK COMPANY.  -These works are located on the opposite side
of the railroad from the quarries of W. B. Rambo.  They belong to a
chartered company of Philadelphia, incorporated in 1876, with a capital of
one hundred thousand dollars.  The production is about five thousand blocks
a day, each measuring twelve by five by four inches. 
Twenty hands are employed, at a cost of about five hundred dollars a month. 
The works cover about two acres of ground, fronting on the railroad fifty
feet, with a depth of three hundred and twenty-five feet towards the river,
the main building being two stories high.  Jacob C. Daubman, of Camden, 
N. J., is the president of the company, William B. Rambo treasurer.

    GULF MILLS, GEORGE McFARLAND & CO.  -This handsome mill is situated in a
picturesque spot on Gulf Creek, in Upper Merion township, and consists of
three buildings, one seventy by one hundred and sixty feet, one fifty by
one hundred feet, and one fifty by one hundred and twenty feet.  One hundred
and thirty hands are employed, and the pay-roll is about three thousand
dollars a month.  The mill is engaged in the manufacture of jeans, producing
one million eight hundred thousand yards per annum.  The property is valued
at one hundred thousand dollars.

    ELBRIDGE McFARLAND.  -Dr. James McFarland, of Montgomery County, the
grandfather of Elbridge McFarland, graduated from the Medical Department of
the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently pursued his profession at
Morgantown, Berks Co.




              PICTURE OF ELDRIDGE M. McFARLAND, APPEARS HERE.





His four sons were
John
Arthur
James B.
George.
The last named and youngest of the number was born at Morgantown on the
20th of March 1811, and spent his youth in Norriton township.  On arriving
at a suitable age he entered the woolen-mills of Bethel Moore, on the Gulf
Creek, near Conshohocken, with a view to perfecting himself in the business
of a manufacturer.  After a limited time spent at Easton, Pa., he returned
to the Gulf, and began the manufacture of woolen goods in a small way at
the place now owned by Samuel Tinkler.  Here, by industry, energy and
uprightness, he laid the foundation of his success as a manufacturer.  In
1847 he purchased the mill property at Gulf Mills, which was rebuilt and
refitted as a cotton and woolen-mill.  About 1858 a serious conflagration
destroyed this factory, which was replaced by another on the same site, and
conducted by Mr. McFarland until 1875, when he admitted his son, Elbridge,
and Frank L. Jones, of Norristown, as partners.  George McFarland was
married to Mary Cornog, of Gulf Mills, in 1849.  Their children are George
Clinton (deceased), Elbridge, James Arthur and John.

612

    There being no portrait of Mr. George McFarland extant, it is deemed advisable 
to represent the manufacturing interest he founded through his eldest living
son, Elbridge, leading partner of the present firm, who was born May 4,
1853, at King of Prussia, and removed when a child with his parents to Gulf
Mills.  He pursued his studies at Norristown, and later entered the
Polytechnic College, at Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1872 as a
civil engineer.  He followed this profession for a brief period in
Pittsburgh, and returning to the Gulf, entered the office and mill of his
father.  In 1875 he was made a partner, and, on the death of the latter, in
January, 1879, with Mr. Jones, before mentioned, assumed the active
management of the mill, his brothers, J. Arthur and John, being made
partners soon afterwards.  While under his successful management the works
have been extended, new machinery added and the capacity nearly doubled. 
The mill, with these improvements, ranks as third in size among the
woolen-mills of the county.

    VALLEY FORGE WOOLEX-MILLS.  -These famous old mills have a history, and have
passed through many hands.  They were built in 1810 by Mr. James Rogers and
were operated by the firm of Rogers & Watters in the manufacture of cotton
goods, bed ticking, etc.  They were next occupied by James C. Ogden, but he
failed in 1857.  The mills remained idle until 1861, when Mr. Joseph Shaw
commenced the manufacture of government kerseys.  Mr. Shaw died in the fall
of 1863, when Isaac W. Smith, Esq., managed the business a few years for the
widow, Mrs. Shaw.  Mr. Smith then rented the mill for five years, when he
purchased the machinery.  He run the mill up to the year 1882, when he sold
out.  The machinery consisted of four sets of cards, four hand mules and
eighty-two looms, producing forty-two thousand yards of doeskin jeans per
month.  It was run entirely by water-power.  The mill has been idle since
1882.  Grass and weeds grow rank in the yards, the machinery is rusting and
the floors rotting, presenting a sad picture of inertness and neglect.

    MATSUNK COTTON-MILLS.  -This ancient factory was built by, and has been 
in the possession of, the Supplee family, of Upper Merion, for over five
generations, and has passed through many changes and vicissitudes of
fortune.  In 1860, Mr. Thomas Liversidge leased it and manufactured jeans
for sixteen years.  He had sixty looms, forty-eight hands and paid about
fifteen hundred dollars it month in wages.  When he removed to Norristown
the building was leased by Mr. Mark Stead, who uses it for making extracts
for separating cotton from woolen rags.  The building is about forty by
sixty feet, and is now the property of Miss Annie Novioc.


                        LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP.

    THE OLD DAVE MILLS.  -This once famous old mill is now in ruins.  Its origin
dates back nearly to Revolutionary times; it has passed through many hands
and seen many changes.  It was run as a papermill for many years, then as a
cotton-mill by C. McNamara, who failed.  It was run by Mr. Patrick Scanlon,
on jeans, from 1850 to 1870, and was also operated by Mr. Charles Shaw.  It
was finally destroyed by fire and never rebuilt.  While on this subject it
may be recorded that the Buggy Mill, on Gulf Creek, formerly operated by
Denning & Anderson on cassimeres and balimoral skirts, was burned about
eight years since, and Seth Humphrys' mill, on the Hagey property, was
burned down in the month of June, 1884.

    ASHLAND'S PAPER-MILLS.  -These well-known mills are situated on Rockhill
Creek, close to the River road, and are better known by the name of
Rudolph's Mills.  In old times they were used for the making of dye-woods,
arid were known as Ashland Dye-Wood Mills.  In 1860 they came into the
lands.  of the present proprietor, A. S. Rudolph, who gradually increased
the capacity of the mills until they have assumed their present
proportions.  Their specialty is newspaper material, of which they
manufacture one hundred and eighty-five tons a month.  Seventy-five hands
ire employed, and the pay-roll is two thousand seven hundred dollars a
month.  The store-rooms and pulp-mill front on the Rockhill Creek road two
hundred and fifty feet, forty-five feet wide and three stories in height. 
Along the Schuylkill the building extends one hundred and fifty feet by
sixty feet wide, three stories in height.  The motive power is obtained from
one one hundred and fifty horse-power engine, one eighty horse-power, one-
fifty horse-power, one twenty-five horse-power and six boilers.  The
machinery used is all of the best quality and most modern improvements
known to the trade.

    ROCKHILL MILLS, JOHN DOBSON, PROPRIETOR.  -This is the oldest mill on
Rockhill Creek, dating from about the year 1798.  It was known for many
years as the Old Sheetz Paper-Mill, and its antiquity in that branch of
manufacture may be judged from the fact that for many years the paper was
manufactured "by hand." The building remained empty for a series of years,
but is now a scene of active industry.  Mr. Dobson has occupied it since
1869, and is making in excellent quality of woolen cassimeres, of which
eight thousand yards (yard and a half wide) are made per month.  The monthly
pay-roll is two thousand five hundred dollars.  Seventy hands are employed,
and when in full operation there are twenty-two broad looms and eighty-four
narrow looms at work.  There are two thousand two hundred spindles, four
self-actors, a seventy-five horse-power engine and a one hundred
horse-power boiler.  The main building is ninety by fifty feet, four stories
in height; the picker-house is fifty by thirty feet; engine-house, fifty by
thirty feet, two stories in height; boiler-house fifty by forty feet, two
stories in height; stock-house, sixty by forty-five feet, one story in
height.  The property is worth fifty-three thousand dollars.

613

    ROBINSON'S MILL.  -This mill is located on Mill Creek, in Lower Merion, and
was rebuilt in 1882 by Joseph M. and George R. Baltz.  Their specialty is
carpet-yarn, of which they make about seven thousand five hundred pounds a
week.  Fifteen hands are employed, with a pay-roll of four hundred and fifty
dollars a month.  There are three sets of cards, self-acting mules, with
corresponding machinery.  The building is one hundred and five feet front by
forty two feet in depth, two stories high; one picker-house, thirty-two by
twenty-eight feet, one story high.  The motive-power is one thirty
horse-power engine and one sixty-eight horse-power overshot water-wheel.

    THE HENRY MILLS.  -They are located on Rockhill Creek, but are now a pile
of blackened ruins.  They were first built as a machine-shops, early in the
present century by the Henry family, of Philadelphia, and since then have
passed through many hands, has seen many changes, and experienced many
vicissitudes.  They were used as machine-shops by the firm of Schofield &
Howgate, were used as a yarn-spinning factory by Reiff, Woolfenden, Leach &
Lee, and Thomas Barker.  They were finally improved and enlarged in 1860,
but were burned down February 4, 1868.  They were rebuilt, but again burned
down on August 2, 1872.  They were then, as now, owned by Thomas Schofield,
but have been a complete ruin since the date of their destruction.  The last
time the mills were in operation the proprietor employed about forty hands
in the manufacture of woolen yarns.

    ROCKHILL CHEMICAL-WORKS.  - Mr. Benjamin Lees, of Yorkshire, England, 
during the month of May, 1884, fitted up the old dye-house of the Henry Mills
(burned twelve years ago) as chemical-works, and is now doing a thriving
business in the manufacture of ammonia, oil of vitriol, muriatic acid,
nitric acid, nitrate of iron, muriate of tin, pyrolignate of iron and other
chemicals used by manufacturers.  Mr. Thomas Schofield, proprietor of the
Henry Mills, made the necessary alterations in the buildings, and as Mr.
Lees is a skilled chemist, his enterprise is likely to be a success.

    NEW UNION MILLS, JOHN DOBSON, PROPRIETOR.  -This establishment is on the
River road at West, Manayunk, and was purchased by Mr. Dobson in 1870.  It
has a frontage on the River road of one hundred feet, with a depth of forty
feet, and is five stories in height.  The motive-power is steam.  There is a
two-story boiler-house, fifty by thirty feet; dye and stock-house, sixty by
forty feet; and a one story picker-house, fifty-five by thirty feet.  The
mill has been idle for two years, but when in operation it was used for
spinning woolen yarn, of which about forty thousand pounds a month were
produced.  Sixty hands were employed when the mill was running full time.

    WEST MANAYUNK WOOLEN-MILLS, B. SCHOFIELD & Co.  -These mills are close to 
the River road in West Manayunk.  The main building is two hundred and fifty by
sixty feet, four stories in height.  About ninety-two hands are employed
upon worsted and woolen yarns when in full operation, producing two
thousand four hundred pounds of filling per day and sixteen thousand pounds
of worsted yarn per month.  There is an eighty horse-power engine and three
boilers in the mill.  The pay-roll is two thousand four hundred dollars a
month, and the plant is valued at forty thousand dollars.

    THE PENCOYD IRON-WORKS.  -These extensive works are located in Lower 
Merion township, Montgomery Co., on the western shore of the Schuylkill River,
opposite to Manayunk.  The line of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
passes through the premises, over which all supplies and products have
hitherto been shipped.  The Pennsylvania Schuylkill Valley Railroad passes
near the works, and will soon be connected with its system of tracks.  The
name "Pencoyd" is of Welsh origin, and signifies "Tree-tops," the
Roberts homestead, founded 1683 by grant from William Penn, being so
called.

    The erection of these iron-works was commenced in the year 1852, by
Algernon Roberts and Percival Roberts, with a view to entering into the
manufacture of heavy hardware; but this intention was never thoroughly
carried out, being limited to the forging of a few solid wrought-iron
anvils, in moulds, under a trip-hammer.  During the progress of their
examination of machinery necessary for the business it occurred to them to
add to their line of manufacture hammered car and locomotive axles, as the
railroad interest at that time was increasing very rapidly.  Their first
order (for twelve axles) was received from the well-known car-wheel
manufacturers, Messrs. A. Whitney & Sons.  The growth of this branch of
business was rapid, and in the year 1855 they added to it the manufacture
of rolled-scrap axles.  The product increased annually until the year 1872,
in which forty-five thousand three hundred and ninety rolled and hammered
axles were made.  At the close of the year 1880 a total number of four
hundred and sixty-seven thousand and twenty-six axles of both kinds had
been reached.

  In the year 1859, under the title of the "Bridge Company," they commenced
the manufacture and erection of wrought and cast-iron bridges, having
secured the services, of Mr. John W. Murphy as engineer.  It was the only
firm at that time engaged in the manufacture of iron bridges.  'Squire
Whipple, of New York, who preceded them in designing and erecting a number
of patent bridges, known as the "Whipple Truss," subsequently sold the
exclusive right to use his patent to the above association.  A large number
of bridges were erected on Beal's wagon-road for the United States
government; also, in 1859, an iron span was built across file Delaware
River at Easton for the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, one for the
Illinois Central Railroad Company and a number for the city of
Philadelphia.  This pioneer "Bridge Company" demonstrated new utilities for
iron, and successfully filled the demand resulting from the novel departure.

614

  The finishing-mills contain at present the following: One twenty-three
inch three-high roll-train, driven by a forty by sixty inch vertical
engine, with a twenty-five foot fly-wheel weighing seventy thousand pounds. 
Upon this train rounds up to seven inches diameter and large shapes are
rolled.  Among the latter, fifteen-inch channels, fifteen-inch beams and six
by six-inch angles may be mentioned as worthy of note.  These mills are
supplied by three heating furnaces of ordinary type.  One eighteen-inch
two-high roll train, for bar-iron, axles and shapes of medium size, driven
by a nineteen by forty-eight inch horizontal engine.  Three heating furnaces
are attached to this roll-train.  One twelve-inch three-high roll-train, for
guide-iron, small bars and shapes, driven by an eighteen by twenty-two inch
horizontal engine and supplied by two heating furnaces.

    The forge, designed especially for the manufacture of car and locomotive
axles, contains: One steam-hammer, built by Merrick & Sons, of the
following, dimensions: weight of ram, three thousand pounds; diameter of
cylinder, sixteen inches; length of stroke, thirty-six inches.  One
steam-hammer, built by Bement & Dougherty: weight of ram, three thousand
pounds; diameter of cylinder, fourteen and a half inches; length of stroke,
thirty inches.  Also one two thousand five hundred pound steam-hammer and
one one thousand pound hammer.  One twenty-inch three-high roll-train, for
shapes and bars, driven by a thirty- two by forty-eight, inch vertical
engine Mid supplied by two Siemens gas furnaces; and there is a
blacksmith-shop, thirty by sixty feet, containing seventeen fires.

    The puddle-mill contains sixteen double furnaces, two sets of twenty and
a half inch three-high rolls, driven by a twenty-four by thirty-six inch
vertical Corliss engine, and one rotary squeezer, driven by a sixteen by
twenty-four inch vertical engine.

    The scrap-house contains one shears, driven by a twenty by twenty inch
engine (capable of shearing, at one stroke, a plate ten feet six inches
long by two inches thick), two rumblers for cleaning scrap, and two shears
for cutting scrap.

    The machine-shop is equipped for handling axles and the general repairs
of the works.  Besides the special axle tools it contains; three
roll-lathes, one thirty-six inch screw-cutting lathe, several engine-
lathes, one fifty by fifty inch planer, one twenty-five by twenty-five inch
planer, a shaping-machine, drill-presses, etc., and one seventy-two inch
horizontal boring-mill.

    The pump-house contains two Worthington duplex pumps; also one duplex
pump, built by Philadelphia Hydraulic Works.  The total pumping, capacity 
is fifteen hundred gallons per minute.

    Steam is furnished by twenty-six boilers, placed over heating and puddling,
furnaces, and also by two eighty horse-power Babcock & Wilcox boiler.

    The works are lighted by electric lamps of the Thomson-Houston patent.

    The products of the works are hammered and rolled axles, shaftings from a
half-inch to seven inches diameter, squares from a half-inch to four
inches, flats from one inch to twelve inches, channels from two inches to
fifteen inches angles from one inch to six inches, tees froin one inch to
four inches, beams from three inches to fifteen inches.  The total annual
capacity is about thirty-three thousand gross tons of finished iron. 

    Particular attention is given to the manufacture of iron of high quality,
for special purposes; such as, bridge, tension members, boiler-stays and
all other work for which guaranteed material is required.

    The first mill erected was about seventy-five by seventy-five feet, and 
contained one heating furnace and a trip-hammer.  The fuel consumed daily was 
about two tons, and the product eight car-axles.  The number of hands employed was
twelve.  The demand for this product increased, making additions necessary,
until the available space for building was all occupied.  In 1865 six acres
were purchased of A. L. Anderson's estate, being a part of the original
tract first purchased.  Upon this was erected, in 1872, a stone structure,
two-hundred and twenty-five by one hundred and thirty feet, containing two
trains of rolls, two steam hammers, which enabled the firm to turn out
altogether about twenty thousand tons of finished iron per year.  The demand
for their line of product soon exceeded their means of capacity, and in
order to extend the works, and control a pure water supply, additional
purchases of land were made from time to time.  The firm now owns about fifty
acres.  The capacity of the entire works is about thirty-five thousand tons
of various kinds of manufacture, such as car axles, beams, channel and
angle iron, etc., consuming about one hundred and thirty tons per day.  The
last addition erected in 1883 is two hundred by one hundred feet in size
and contain two furnaces heated by gas, one train of rolls is capable of
turning out fifteen thousand tons per year.  It requires about two miles of
different kinds of railroad tracks in order have material handled to
advantage.  The works gives employment to seven hundred hands when in full
blast.  The employes are paid every two weeks, and the pay-roll amounts to
about thirty thousand dollars per month.

    The firm own between fifty and sixty dwellings, occupied by their employes,
all of which are substantial and comfortable.  They have also provided their
workmen with a free reading-room and a library conveniently situated and
open to all well-disposed persons.

615

    STILLWAGON'S MILLS.  -These mills have been rebuilt on the site of an old
mill on Mill Creek, which was erected in the last century, and belonged to
the firm of C. H. Gordon, of New York.  It has passed through many hands,
and was burnt down in 1882.  It has been idle for nearly a year, and the
grass is growing in the court-yards and by-ways of the Mill.  When in
operation the motive-power was obtained from a forty horse-power overshot
waterwheel, one twenty horse-power and one sixty horse-power engine.  About
twenty hands were employed in the manufacture of Manilla paper.




                   PICTURE OF ROBERT CHADWICK, APPEARS HERE.




    MERION MILLS, ROBERT CHADWICK, PROPRIETOR.  -These mills, located in
Roseglen, were built in 1836 by William Chadwick, father of the present
proprietor.  The manufacture is that of cotton yarns, yarn and
warp-bleaching, miners' lamp-wick, chandlers' wick, etc., of which about
two thousand five hundred pounds are produced weekly, by twenty-three
hands, with a pay-roll of four hundred dollars a month.  The building is
fifty-six by thirty-two feet, three stories high, with annex forty by
thirty-two feet, The motive-power is obtained by means of a twenty-five
horse-power turbine water-wheel and a twenty-five horse-power engine.  There
are five cards, four hundred and ninety-six spindles, two drawing-frames,
with all the necessary machinery required for the work.  The property is
valued at forty thousand dollars.

    ROBERT CHADWICK, owner and operator of the Merion Cotton-Mill, at
Roseglen, on Mill Creek, is a native of Delaware County, Pa., but of
English descent.  His father, William Chadwick, was born at
Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England, in 1796.  In his youth he conceived
the project of immigrating to America, an undertaking, which he found
difficult to execute, as he was by trade a cotton-spinner, and the British
government had at that time prohibited the emigration of any skilled
workman from the kingdom.  But he was resolved on the attempt, and in the
year 1817, having associated himself with another young man of about the
same age (twenty-two), they concealed themselves in the bold of a ship
which soon after sailed from Liverpool, and after a four months' voyage
landed them at Long Wharf, Boston.  For two or three years after his arrival
Mr. Chadwick worked in the cotton-mills of Massachusetts and Rhode Island,
and during that time was married to Lucy Thompson, daughter of a
Revolutionary soldier of Lancaster, Mass.  Soon after his marriage he
removed to Pennsylvania and settled in Delaware County.  He worked in the
Bancroft mill, at Bancroft's Banks; also at Kelly's mill, and later (about
1826) at the Laurel Mill, of which he was the manager.  Afterwards he was
the manager of the Valley Forge Cotton-Mill.  In 1829 he leased from Samuel
Gorgas a cotton-mill on the Wissahickon, which he operated for one year.  In
1830 he leased the McClenegan mill, on Mill Creek, about two miles above
the mouth of that stream.  He purchased the machinery of this mill, and
continued to run it until the expiration A his lease, April 1, 1837.

616

     In the mean time (in 1835), while operating the McClenegan mill, William
Chadwick purchased from Jacob Hagy the water privilege and land on which
the Roseglen Mill now stands.  The property then consisted of thirty acres
of timbered land and a log house.  In 1836 he commenced the erection of the
present stone mill and two or three dwellings, which are still standing.  At
the expiration of his lease of the McClenegan mill (April 1, 1837) he moved
into the new mill, that is now called Roseglen, and continued there more
than twenty-five years, engaged in the manufacture of chandlers' wicking. 
He died there in 1862, and was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery.  His wife,
with whom he had lived nearly forty years, and who was born in
Massachusetts in 1800, survived him about twenty years, and died in 1882. 
Her mother, who was of the old New England stock, died in Massachusetts at
the great age of one hundred and two years.

    The only education which William Chadwick received was obtained by him in
the Unitarian Sunday-school (at which were taught the branches usual in
secular schools) at Duckinfield Chapel, in Lancashire, England.  In religion
he was a Unitarian of the most liberal kind, being a believer in the
doctrines of the celebrated Thomas Paine.  He was never known to be engaged
in a lawsuit or quarrel of any kind, and through all his life he enjoyed
the entire confidence and universal respect of the community in which he
lived.  He was always free-handed and generous in giving aid to the poor,
and the exercise of his well-known charity gave him more pleasure and
content than he could have gained from the mere acquisition of wealth.  He
had accumulated a property valued at a little more than thirty-five
thousand dollars, free and clear of all debt and incumbrance, and with
this, and the independence which it gave him, he was abundantly satisfied. 

    Robert Chadwick, son of William and Lucy (Thompson) Chadwick, was born at
Bancroft's Banks, near Media, Delaware Co., Pa., May 20, 1823, he being the
eldest of a family of eleven children, of whom four besides himself are now
living, viz.:
Edward, residing at Roseglen
Sarah (who married Christian Sharpe, inventor of the famed Sharpe's rifle),
now living at Vineland, N. J.
Mary Ann, wife of William Ring, manufacturer, of Philadelphia
George, who is now a merchant at Roseglen.

    The early education of Robert Chadwick was obtained in the common schools
of his time, after which he attended for one year (1833) the school of Amos
Gilbert, of Lancaster, Pa., and several years later (after reaching
manhood) he took a course of one year in the somewhat famous school of
Joshua Hoopes, at West Chester, Pa., paying the tuition and other charges
out of his own earnings.  In 1834 he commenced work in his father's mill; in
1836 he took charge of it as manager.  In May 1845, in company with his
sister Sarah, whose health was much impaired, he made a trip to England,
and returned in October of the same year, his sister's health being fully
restored.  Being then young and inexperienced, they did not travel much in
England, but remained at Ashton-under-Lyne, the home of their relatives. 
Since that time be has traveled over a considerable portion of the
United States, the last trip being to the Rocky Mountains, in 1879.

    Mr. Chadwick remained as manager of his father's mill (except for the
time spent in his European trip and the one year at Hoopes' school at West
Chester) until 1851, when he went to Wheeling, Va., to take charge of a
cotton-mill there, but disliking the mill and the business outlook,
remained only six weeks.  He then went to Hartford, Conn., to take charge of
the cartridge-factory of Sharpe's rifle, works.  At the end of two years he
bought out the cartridge-works and continued to operate them for ten
years.  During the last year and a half of his proprietorship of those works
he turned out eighty thousand cartridges per day, employing twenty-five men
and one hundred girls.  In the month of November, 1858, the Virginia State
Fair was held in Richmond, Henry A. Wise being then Governor of the State. 
The Sharpe Rifle Company, of Hartford, desiring to have an exhibit at the
fair, sent Mr. Chadwick to manage the matter.  An incident occurred in
connection that is worth mention.  After the fair closed Mr. Chadwick had an
interview with the Governor for the purpose of showing the rifles.  After
looking at them the Governor said, if he was going into battle he would
rather have the old musket, and, furthermore, would have his men pour out
part of their powder, and not fire until they were within winking distance. 
Mr. Chadwick's reply was "Well, Governor, if you were to meet a regiment
armed in a like manner perhaps you would be right, but I would take a
regiment armed with Sharpe's rifles and have all of your men killed before
they reached winking distance."  The answer startled the Governor, and must
have made a favorable impression, for several days before John Brown was
hanged there came a telegram to the Rifle Company to express at once to
Richmond one hundred Sharpe's rifles and ten thousand cartridges.

617

    In 1863, Mr. Chadwick sold the cartridge-works to the Rifle Company and
returned to Lower Merion Township, Montgomery Co., where he purchased the
Mill Creek property of his father's, who was then recently deceased.  He
enlarged and improved the mill buildings, put in new machinery throughout
and added several now dwellings for the workmen.  In taking possession of
the Merion Mills property he assumed his father's place with the family,
and kept the homestead in the old way of his father's hospitality, -"the
latch-string out to all comers."  He had continued to operate the Mill from
that time to the present.  During that period, in consequence of some
unfortunate investments by Mr. Chadwick, the mill property was sold at
sheriff's sale to H. P. Sloan & Sons but continued to be operated by Mr.
Chadwick, who, at the death of Mr. Sloan, again became its purchaser.

    Robert Chadwick was married, in 1855, to Ellen M. Watson, Hartford,
Conn., who is still living.  Their children have been
William Jefferson, now married, and living in Philadelphia
Robert Whitaker, who died in infancy
a daughter not named, who died in infancy
Carrie 0., unmarried and living at Roseglen. 
In May 1884, Mr. Chadwick was appointed postmaster of Roseglen, and now
holds the office.  He was always a Democrat until the presidential election
of 1864, when he voted for Abraham Lincoln, and has since been a strong
Republican.  He has never been a member of any church, but holds the most
liberal religious views.  At Hartford, Conn., in 1852, he commenced
investigating the philosophy of spiritualism, and soon became a convert to
that belief, of which he is still a steadfast adherent.




                PICTURE OF SETH HUMPHRYS, APPEARS HERE.




At the time of this writing (1885) the subject of this biography, at the
age of sixty-two years, has enjoyed above the average good health,
notwithstanding the many vicissitudes of life, he being of a regular and
temperate habit of living and of a cheerful and hopeful disposition,
disposed to look on the bright side of the circumstances of life and trust
for a better future.

    FAIRVIEW MILLS, SETH HUMPHRYS, PROPRIETOR.  -The old mill on Mill Creek was
built in 1825; it was for years used as a gun-factory, and was burned down
three times.  It was rebuilt in 1877 by Mr. Seth Humphrys, but was totally
destroyed by fire on the 25th of July 1884, from a spark in the picker-
room igniting the inflammable material.  When in full operation there were
eighteen broad looms making blankets, and about fifty-five hands employed. 
There were nine hundred spindles, thirteen rough pickers, two finishing
pickers, one patent burr-machine, a duster, it wringing-machine, two gig-
machine and a weaving-frame.  The product was about eighteen hundred and
fifty pounds a day of blanket cloth and nine hundred pounds a day of woolen
yarn.  The payroll was about seventeen hundred dollars a month.  The motive-
power was one thirty-five horsepower overshot wheel and a forty-five
horsepower engine, with three boilers.  The whole is now but a mass of
blackened ruins.

618

    SETH HUMPHRYS, who has been long and successfully engaged in woolen
manufacture in Lower Merion township, was a son of Enos and Charlotte
Humphrys; born in Somersetshire, England, December 25, 1827.  In 1834 he
came with his mother to America, and on his seventh birthday landed at New
York, whence they proceeded to join his father, who had emigrated about one
year earlier, and who, being by a trade a wool-dyer, had found employment
as the head of that department in the Wetheredsville Woolen Mills, in
Baltimore County, Md.  In 1849 he left that place and went to Staunton, Va.,
where he died soon afterwards, his family still remaining in Maryland.  In
1851 the son, Seth Humphrys, left Wetheredsville, and obtained a situation
in the employ of Alfred Jenks, of Bridesburg, Pa., a manufacturer of all
kinds of machinery used in woolen manufacture.  Under this engagement he
continued a little more than two years, traveling through various parts of
the Southern States, setting up and putting in operation the machinery made
in Jenks' shops.  During this time (in 1853) his mother died, in Maryland. 
After leaving Mr. Jenks he worked at carding and spinning, first in the
establishment of Joseph Hughes & Co., Philadelphia, then in the Wyomensing
Woolen Factory, at Reading, Pa., and afterwards in the mills of Thomas
Kent, on Darby Creek, in Delaware County, where he remained five years, and
saved a sum of money sufficient to enable him, in 1862, to put in operation
a woolen-mill on a tract of thirty acres of land, which he then bought and
to which he has added fifteen acres by a later purchase.  The factory site
is on Mill Creek, within a few rods of his residence, in Lower Merion township.

    The business being commenced in the early part of the, war of the
Rebellion, it immediately became prosperous, and continued so through the
protracted depression that succeeded the financial panic of 1871.  During
that period of stagnation, which wrought ruin to hundreds of manufacturers
throughout the country, the mill of Mr. Humphrys was running constantly and
profitably.  In 1882 he enlarged and improved the establishment, adding the
manufacture of blankets to that of carpet-yarns (which had previously been
its only product), and giving work to seventy hands, where only thirty-five
had been employed before.  The main building was one hundred and two feet
in length, three stories high, with an addition forty by sixty feet in
size.  The mills then continued in mill full operation until July 1884, when
they were totally destroyed by fire, thus closing the business, which its
proprietor hall prosecuted with uninterrupted success for twenty-two years.

    Mr. Humphrey was married, September 11, 1853, to Martha, daughter of David
Wagonsellers, of Chester County, Pa., whose mother was it sister of John
Schrack.  The children of Seth and Martha Humphrys have been seven in
number, Seth, born October 17, 1854, deceased; Mary Ellen, died at the age
of thirteen years; Annie, married Alfred Heft, of Roxborough ; Clara M.,
married Dr. A. H. Mellersh, of Roxborough ; Enos, now twenty-one years of
age, living with his parents; Seth, second of that name, died when seven
years old ; and Mary B., born in 1872.  Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey, are members
of the Lower Merion Baptist Church, at Bryn Mawr, of which he is also a
deacon.

    RIGHTER'S MILL.  -Hardly a vestige of the mill remains; a ragged pinnacle of
ancient rude masonry protrudes from the rank weeds of Mill Creek, low down,
and flooded by every slight freshet.  It is a desolate looking spot, the
haunt of the rat and the watersnake.  We would not mention the place
only that tradition tells a dark story of a most atrocious deed located
here.  It is said that in this mill the Tory murderers ground the glass to
be mixed with the flour furnished to the patriotic army at Valley Forge.  We
do not vouch for the truth of the story, but if there be a spot in this
region which seems to have had the land of desolation laid upon it, it is
just there, among these old ruins, built in Revolutionary times.

    TODD'S MILL.  -Such is the name by which this mill is popularly known, but 
the title is the Glencairn Factory, and is owned by G. E. Fox, of Norristown. 
It is situated on Mill Creek, Lower Merion, adjoining Booth & Brothers on
the north and Seth Humphrys on the south.  The factory is built on the site
of the ancient works at which Henry Derringer for a long series of years
manufactured arms for the United States.  It is situated in a beautiful
valley, abounding, in springs of the purest water; in the county.  The,
factory building, of stone, is three stories and attic one hundred and ten
by fifty-five feet, with picker-house adjoining, forty-five by twenty feet,
and boiler-house, thirty by fifteen feet.  The water-power is thirty-five
horse; eighty to one hundred horse.  There are two first class boilers and
engine, and best modern machinery for making, cotton yarns, running three
thousand spindles.  One hundred acres are in the tract, on which are a large
mansion-house, a farmer's house, nine other dwellings, etc.  The State road
from Conshohocken to Philadelphia, three miles distant, passes through it,
also the Mill Creek road, leading to Rose Glen Station on the Reading
Railroad, about three quarters of a mile distant.

619

    ROSE GLEN MILL.  -This mill is also popularly known as the Nippes Mill, 
and is situated on Mill Creek, in Lower Merion township.  It is operated by
William Booth and Thomas H. Barker, under the firm name of Booth & Brother,
for the manufacture of carpet-yarn.  The building was erected about the year
1814, and was for a considerable time used as a manufactory for guns for
the United States government, by Samuel Nippes.  It was used as a carpet-
yarn factory by James Ledward in 1861, and was operated for the same
purpose by Thomas Schofield.  In 1872 it came into the possession of the
present firm.  At that time they employed but ten hands, and made about
three thousand pounds of yarn a week.  To-day they employ forty hands, and
make twenty thousand four hundred pounds a week, paying one thousand
dollars a month in wages.  There are three sets of machines, nine hundred
spindles, which are driven by water-power and steam.  The building is fifty
by sixty-five feet, three and a half stories high, and the property is
valued at fifty thousand dollars.

    MERION FLOUR-MILLS EVAN G. JONES, PROPRIETORY.  -This famous old mill, 
located on Mill Creek, lays claim to remote antiquity, having been one of the
first paper-mills in the State of Pennsylvania, being used as such about
the year 1798.  Peter Walever operated it for several years, but the
property was seized by Sheriff Scheetz, of Montgomery County, and sold to
Evan Jones, father of the present proprietor.  It was a paper-mill up to
the year 1848, when it was changed to a cotton and woolen-mill, and was
run by John Shaw, and subsequently by his son, Joseph Shaw, for some years. 
The present proprietor changed it again and fitted it up as a grist-mill,
which it has remained up to the present date.  It is beautifully located in
the midst of a farm of seventy acres of fertile soil, belonging to the
proprietor of the mill.  The building is in excellent condition,
notwithstanding its great age.  It is sixty-five by forty-five feet, three
stories in height; has an engine of forty-five horse-power and a capacity
of fifty barrels a day.

    MORRIS MILLS.  -This mill is located on the Gulf road, and is now occupied 
by Mr. Pyle.  The property belongs to Mrs. Levi Morris.  The building is about
forty-five by sixty feet, three stories in height, is operated by
water-power and has a capacity of about fifty barrels of flour per day.

END PART III