The City Of Chester.
and controlled the Chester dock. He retained his connection with this firm until 1879, having in 1875 purchased the Chester Edge-Tool Works of John C. Beatty, to which since the latter year he has devoted his exclusive attention. Mr. Black was married on the 24th of October, 1860, to Miss Lydia Ann, daughter of John C. Beatty, of Media, and has children, - John B., William V. (deceased), Lillian M. (deceased), Ada J., Bessie S., and Maria C. Mr. Black is in politics an active Republican, has been for three successive terms a member of the City Council, and its president during a large portion of the time. He is identified with the Chester National Bank as one of its directors. He is in religion a Presbyterian, an elder of the Third Presbyterian Church of Chester, and has been for some years superintendent of its Sabbath-school. He is also active in the cause of temperance, as also in all Christian and philanthropic enterprises.
The Riverside Dye-Wood Mills. - In 1835 a business was established at Waterville, by Smith & Hartshorne, that later developed into the present Riverside Dye-Wood Mills. Later the works came into possession of John M. Sharpless, by whom they were conducted till his death, in 1875. In 1878 the firm of John M. Sharpless & Co. purchased the old site of Frick, Wilson & Co.'s boat-yard, west of Roach's yard, embracing twelve acres, having a frontage of two hundred and twelve feet on the Delaware River. On the 1st of April, 1879, the foundations of buildings were laid, and buildings erected during that year. The dimensions of the main building are one hundred and thirteen feet front by sixty feet deep, the redwood-mill forty-seven by fifty-four feet, and the extract buildings fifty-two by fifty feet, in front of which is about one hundred and eighty feet of wharfage, where there is a depth of fifteen feet of water at low tide. The main and extract buildings are four stories in height, and the adjoining mill two and a half stories. About sixty hands are employed. The firm-name, John M. Sharpless & Co., is retained. The present members are Thomas Scattergood, Richard Chambers, and John W. Pepper.
Combination Steel and Iron Company. - The main building, two hundred and eighty by eighty feet, with wing eighty by seventy feet, was erected in 1880, and operations commenced March 1, 1881. John Roach is president; George E. Weed, secretary and treasurer; and C. A. Weed, general manager. The works contain eight heating-furnaces, a rail-mill with a capacity of producing thirty thousand tons of iron per annum, a twelve-inch bar-mill with capacity of producing six thousand tons per annum, and a twenty-inch mill for angle-iron of ten thousand tons' capacity per annum. One hundred and seventy-five men are employed.
Eureka Cast-Steel Company. - The works of this company are located on the corner of Broomall and Sixth Streets, South Ward, and were erected in 1877, and commenced operations in September of that year. The area of the works is embraced in the limits of two hundred and two feet on Broomall Street, and two hundred and eighty-five feet on the line of the railroad. The building is of L shape, has a frontage on Broomall Street of one hundred and thirty-two feet, and to the same extent is parallel with the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, and in the narrowest part fifty feet wide. As it is divided, we may specify the main building as one-storied, forty-one feet over all in height; the machine-shop, eighty feet long and twenty-five feet wide, comprising the pattern-shop and pattern-safe. In the main building there are five furnaces, - four for annealing purposes and one for heating. These are, on an average, eleven by eleven feet in dimensions. The cupola, where the metal is heated, is forty-three feet in height, five feet in diameter, with a melting capacity of sixteen tons of iron. The planing-machine, used in the finishing of the casts, is the best adapted to the purpose yet invented. The vertical engine that supplies the power needed was built by Jacob Naylor, of Philadelphia, is of twenty-five horse-power, and is perfect and noiseless in its operations. It supplies the blast-works, the planing-machine, drill-press, rumblers, emery-wheels, grindstones, elevator, etc. The smoke-stack, connected with the annealing and heating furnaces, is eighty-five feet in height, five feet in diameter, and on the north side of the building. Steel castings are manufactured solely. One hundred and twenty tons of raw material are used per month, and one hundred persons are employed. The officers of the company are John A. Emrick, president; W. H. Dickson, secretary and treasurer; Frederick Baldt, superintendent.
Robert Wetherill & Co. - This firm originated in a copartnership of Robert and Richard Wetherill, Jan. 1, 1872. The property bounded by Sixth, Upland, and Seventh Streets, two hundred and seventy by one hundred feet, was purchased and large buildings were erected. The machine-shop is two stories in height and forty by eighty feet, with foundry attached one hundred by fifty feet, a boiler-shop one hundred by forty feet, with pattern loft one hundred by fifty feet. They have at present seven large buildings, covering a square of ground. One hundred and fifty tons of pig-iron, seventy-five tons of plate, and twenty tons of wrought iron are monthly used in the manufacture of Corliss engines, boilers, shafting, and gearing. Two hundred and fifty men are employed, and monthly receive ten thousand dollars in wages. The works comprise machine-shops, smith-shop, foundry, boiler-shop, casting-house, pattern-shop, pattern store-house, store-rooms, and offices.
Chester Steel Casting Company. - This company was organized in 1870, and in 1871 erected at Sixth and Norris Streets a foundry two hundred feet in length by fifty feet in width, and other buildings covering an area of two hundred and fifty square feet.