Mahlon Betts
Mahlon Betts (1795–1867) was an American carpenter, railroad car builder, shipwright, businessman, banker, and legislator who helped found three of Wilmington, Delaware's major manufacturing enterprises: the Harlan and Hollingsworth Company, the Pusey and Jones Company, and the Betts Machine Company.[1]
Biography[edit]
Born in Attleboro in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on March 16, 1795, Betts came to Wilmington in 1812. On November 8, 1818, he married Mary R. Seal at the Wilmington Friends Meeting. In 1828 (or 1829),[2] he built a foundry at 8th and Orange Streets,[1] which would operate as Betts & Seal until 1867.[3] There he installed the state's first stationary steam engine.[2] His company also manufactured a variety of wheels as well as pinions, shafts, pulleys, cogs, and other castings.[4]
On March 1, 1836, Betts joined Samuel N. Pusey, who was a machinist in Wilmington, to launch Betts & Pusey.[5] The company built railroad cars at a plant at Water and West Streets. He eventually leased the foundry to his son Edward (1825–1917), who carried on the business.[1]
In 1837, Mahlon became a director of the Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad.[6] The railroad soon merged into the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, which thenceforth operated the first rail link from Philadelphia to Baltimore. (This main line survives today as part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.) Betts became a director in the merged railroad,[7] and his service as a railroad executive is noted on the 1839 Newkirk Viaduct Monument in Philadelphia.
He was also a director of the National Bank of Wilmington and Brandywine, the president of the Mechanics Bank, and the president of First National Bank of Wilmington.[2]
In the 1840s, he served in the Delaware General Assembly, first as a representative and then as a senator.
Mahlon Betts died in Wilmington on March 4, 1867. The ship named after him, the Mahlon Betts, is claimed to be the first iron sailing yacht built in the United States.[8]
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b c Adams, Warren (1998). "Betts & Seal records". Hagley Museum and Library. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2013.
- ^ a b c Betts' bio in "1836. Semi-centennial Memoir of the Harlan & Hollingsworth Company"
- ^ "Collection: Betts & Seal records | Hagley Museum and Library Archives". findingaids.hagley.org. Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
- ^ Thomson, Ross (2009). Structures of Change in the Mechanical Age: Technological Innovation in the United States, 1790–1865. JHU Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-8018-9141-0.
- ^ Williams, Greg H. (2017). The United States Merchant Marine in World War I: Ships, Crews, Shipbuilders and Operators. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 317. ISBN 978-1-4766-6703-4.
- ^ Railway Locomotives and Cars, Volume 6 (1838)
- ^ "1842 (May 2004 Edition)" (PDF). PRR CHRONOLOGY. The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society. May 2004. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
- ^ Federal Writers' Project (2013). The WPA Guide to Delaware: The First State. Trinity University Press. ISBN 978-1-59534-207-2.
External links[edit]
- Probate inventory, performed April 2, 1867, by the Borough of Wilmington, New Castle County
- American industrialists
- American carpenters
- American shipwrights
- American bankers
- 1795 births
- 1867 deaths
- Members of the Delaware House of Representatives
- Delaware state senators
- People from Bucks County, Pennsylvania
- People from Wilmington, Delaware
- 19th-century American legislators
- 19th-century American businesspeople