INDUSTRY 






<PRE>
Brooklyn Standard Union ­ Anniversary Issue

As Brooklyn to-day is one of the leading manufacturing cities of the world
in its own right, so the Brooklyn of 1863 was already a great factor in
producing nearly everything used by the world.
It did an annual business somewhere in the vicinity of $40,000,000 and
boasted more than 100 industries, represented by nearly 500 factories and plants.

Sugar refining, which industry centered in the district near the Wallabout,
was by far the greatest in the city and did a total of $7,000,000 in
business annually.  Some great names associate themselves with this industry
sixty-five years ago.  There were the plants and refineries of HAVEMEYER and
ELDER, DE CASTRO and DONNER, MOLLER, SIERCK and Company, DICK and MEYER,
Thomas OXNARD, the Fulton Sugar Refinery and many others.

Rope and Hemp Came Second.
Rope making and associated production of hemp, jute and twine, one of the
oldest industries of the city, was second only to the sugar industry.  It
centered around lower Fulton, Washington, Adams and Tillary Streets, near
the water front, and recalls the names of William WALL, James INGALLS,
FORBUSH and ALBERT, TUCKER and MARSH and others.  This industry, which had
"rope walks" instead of factories, did an annual business of nearly
$4,500,000.  Ten rope walks were in operation in 1863.
Petroleum refineries clustered along the Eastern District shore, vieing with
the sugar plants for water-frontage.  Old timers will probably recall the
names of Charles PRATT, DEVOE Manufacturing Company, Empire Refining
Company, Greenpoint Oil Works, BUSH and DENSLOW and a host of others.  There
were ten important plants as well as a number of smaller one and altogether
they had an annual output of more than $2,000,000.
The hat and cap industry claimed about ten factories and a number of smaller
places which did $2,000,000 worth of business.

John Barleycorn Was Important.
Further back in the Eastern District, in "Dutchtown," were the seven
distilleries which at one time made Brooklyn famous, and near them were
fifteen breweries, all supplying Brooklyn and the rest of the world with
$2,580,000 worth of whiskcy, spirits, wines and beer per annum, of which
$1,950,000 was produced in the distilleries.
The production of Morocco leather was another of the big Brooklyn industries
and six plants helped to make life miserable with various "smells" as they
produced $1,200,000 in business annually through this industry.
Ship and boat building partly located in South Brooklyn and partly in
Greenpoint, was handled by a dozen or more yards and did an annual business
of upward of $2,500,000.  During the Civil War, Brooklyn was in its heyday
in this industry and in 1863 had built a great many ships of war as well as
commercial craft.  It had the only lifeboat building plant in the country
for a time which alone did $20,000 a year.

Machine Shops Kept Busy.
Steam engines and boilers made up another large branch of Brooklyn
manufacturing activity which was in its rush period during the height of the
war excitement.  The Continental Iron Works, the Atlantic Steam Engine
Company and the South Brooklyn Steam Engine Company employed from 1,000 to
1,500 men each in 1863, working at a great pace to furnish engines for the
Union Navy iron clads as well as other craft.  This industry totaled
something like $1,280,000 a year.
The famous Worthington Pump was being made at the Worthington Hydraulic
Works in South Brooklyn in 1863.  Hardick Brothers had a pump works at 23
Adams Street.
Iron works did a large share of the business among which were the Eagle Iron
Works, James RITCHIE, Pioneer Iron Works, William TAYLOR and Sons, Jacob MAY
and many others.
Brass foundries and wire works the latter numbering among its best known the
Williab Cabble Wire Works and H.W. Peace at Tenth and Ainslie Streets (E.D.)

Pressed Tinware Then a Novelty.
E. KETCHAM and Company were at South Second and Twelfth Streets,
manufacturing "seamless" or pressed tinware, a novelty of the period of
which to-day is an everyday matter.
The Agricultural Machine Works of R.H. ALLEN were in Plymouth Street.
Three white lead manufacturers were already producing $1,500,000 worth of
white lead and linseed oil.  They were the Brooklyn White Lead Company at
Front, Washington and Adams; the Atlantic White Lead and Lindseed Oil
Company at Marshall and Gold Streets, and the Union Lead Works at Front and
Bridge Streets.

Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax.
Among the other industries were those manufacturing bags, one plant, $10,000
a year; cord and tassels, three plants, $35,000 a year; paper boxes, one
plant, $100,000 a year; ribbons and silk trimmings, three plants, $150,000;
three bakeries, $20,000; five camphene, paraffine and kerosene refineries,
$630,000; six soap and candle factories, $240,000.
Five chemical plants, including Mayor KALBFLEISCH¹s, E.R. SQUIBB¹s and
others, were producing $675,000 a year; two confectionery factories, $5,500;
two drug and medicine houses, $85,000; nine house builders, $48,000; one
roofing material house, $25,000 and three box factories, $220,000.
Peter COOPER¹s Glue Works was on Newtown Creek along with E. Frank COE and
several other plants, which also helped "smell things up" but not without
doing $350,00 a year.
One of the great many lumber yards was right at Flatbush and Fulton and a
number were down in South Brooklyn.
There were cooperages carpenter shops, planning mills, wood mouldings and
kindling wood manufacturers doing all the way from $25,000 to $200,000 a year.

Glassware a Leading Industry.
Glass and glassware was another industry which was threatening to rival some
of the biggest glass manufacturing cities in the country, and in Brooklyn in
1863, $720,000 worth was turned out.
Tobacco packing and tobacco curing was one of the really big industries and
rightfully belongs among the bigger ten as it brought in more than
$2,000,000 a year from seven plants.
Shoe manufacturing, in which Brooklyn to-day leads the world, was in its
infancy in 1863, but seven plants were turning out $150,000 worth of
footwear a year.
There were broom factories, brush factories, saddleries, rug factories, bed
and mattress plants.
Factories were making clothing, collars and cuffs, furs, shirts, neckties,
cigars, cigar lighters and toothpicks, corks, macaroni, jewelry, oil cloth,
paints, colors, varnishes, stained paper, wall paper, vinegar, salt petre,
petroleum by-products, porcelain and china, pottery, iron pipe, smoking
pipes, saws, files, printing presses, photographic supplies, cannons, fire
arms and percussion caps, alphabet blocks and shoddy.
Two gas plants were furnishing the fuel for the range of that era, "gas
chandeliers" and street lamps.
Ten tinsmithing plants did $680,000 worth of business a year.

Historic Refinery Is Restored to Old Place of Greatness
A Brooklyn Landmark of Industry Since 1859, It Is Newly Rebuilt.
The first sugar refinery established in Brooklyn was erected in 1859 by
HAVEMEYERS, TOWNSEND & Company and afterward expanded into the HAVEMEYER &
ELDER Refinery of the American Sugar Refining Company, extending five blocks
across Kent Avenue, and the establishment of the Brooklyn Cooperage Company.
Two years ago the entire refinery site was place in the hands of the
engineers and builders.  Through the cooperation of the City of New York in
the sale of two short street ends, the entire site was thrown into two
units.  Antiquated piers and buildings have been demolished.  New
manufacturing and warehouse buildings have been erected.  A bulkhead over
five hundred feet long, accommodating the largest cargo ships, has been
built.  The boiler plant has been remodeled into a pulverized, coal burning
plant.  Power, production, packing and shipping facilities have been greatly
improved.
What this rebuilt refinery means to Brooklyn can best be judged by the past.
Over a period of the last ten years the American Sugar Refining Company has
melted in its Brooklyn refinery more than 7,000,000,000 pounds of raw sugar;
has docked more than 1,100 ships, has paid customs duties to the United
States of more than $65,000,000 and has consumed more than 1,700,000 tons of
coal.  Re- (?) bringing in the fourth sugar refinery erected by them and
their predecessors on the present Brooklyn site ­ restoring this historic
refinery to its place among the great industrial plants of Greater New York
­ and keeping for Brooklyn its position as one of the great sugar refining
centers of the world.


Transcriber: Mimi Stevens
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