User:Gatoclass/SB/Fletcher

Company history
The co-founders of the firm that would become W. & A. Fletcher were William and Andrew Fletcher and Joseph G. Harrison. The Fletchers were Scottish-born brothers who emigrated as young children to the United States with their parents in 1829. The two brothers eventually followed their father trade by joining the New York engineering firm of H. R. Dunham & Co. in their teens as apprentice machinists. Both proved to have exceptional ability and had risen to managerial positions in the firm by their early twenties.

With the retirement of Henry R. Dunham, proprietor of H. R. Dunham & Co., in 1853, the Fletcher brothers joined forces with a young machinist from the Delamater Iron Works, Joseph G. Harrison, to start their own business. Capital for the venture was provided by Harrison's father, a successful businessman. The three young machinists established their new firm in 1853 on the premises of the old Phoenix Foundy on West Street, New York, between Laight and Vestry Streets, under the name Fletcher, Harrison & Company. William Fletcher became manager of the new firm and his brother Andrew designing engineer, while Harrison attended to office matters. The new company's alternative name, the North River Iron Works, was an apparent homage to H. R. Dunham's defunct firm, which had also gone by the alternative name "North River Iron Foundry".

Fletcher, Harrison & Co. was originally established as a ship repair facility, but in 1854, its second year of operation, the company accepted its first contract for construction of a marine steam engine, for the small 31-ton Hudson River steamer James H. Elmore. Other, larger marine engine contracts soon followed, in sufficient quantity to enable the company to eventually abandon ship repairs and become a specialist in marine engine and boiler construction.(haer)

The company appears to have supplied no marine engines directly to the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War, but at least four privately-owned steamboats powered by Fletcher, Harrison engines were purchased by the Navy and converted into the gunboats USS Isaac N. Seymour, USS Isaac Smith, USS Nansemond (1862) and USS Oleander. Many more Fletcher-powered steamers were, however, chartered by the Navy for use as transports or supply vessels. Shortly after the war, the company also supplied the engines for two Great Lakes revenue cutters, Sherman and Fessenden.

In the postwar period, New York suffered what has been described as America's first deindustrialization crisis, as the flood of ex-Navy vessels entering the market deprived the city's shipbuilding and marine engineering companies of new orders for a prolonged period, driving many of them out of business. Fletcher, Harrison & Co. was one of the few New York-based marine engineering companies to survive the slump. While marine engineering companies of the period typically acted as subcontractors to shipbuilding firms, Fletcher, Harrison reversed the practice by frequently competing directly with shipbuilding companies for complete ship contracts, building the engines and machinery themselves and subcontracting hull construction to a shipbuilder. By the 1890s, Fletcher Co. had become the largest such contractor in the United States.

The Fletcher company remained primarily a marine engine and boiler maker through most of its history, and its reputation was established on this line of work. It never built complete ships, but the company's managers accumulated considerable shipbuilding expertise and often acted as consultants on the design of the vessels for which they supplied the machinery. In some cases, they appear to have been responsible for designing at least parts of these vessels.

Over the course of its history, the company established close working relationships with a number of shipbuilding firms. In its early years, the company supplied the machinery for many steamboats built by Benjamin C. Terry, Keyport, New Jersey's largest shipbuilder. Another shipbuilder with which Fletcher Co. often partnered in this period was the New York, later Greenpoint shipbuilding firm of Lawrence & Foulks. These two firms exclusively built wooden-hulled ships. In the 1880s, Fletcher Co. formed a close working relationship with T. S. Marvel & Co., a company capable of building both wooden and iron or steel-hulled ships. Other iron and steel shipbuilding companies to subcontract with Fletcher Co. from the 1880s included the famous Delaware River firms of William Cramp & Sons, Harlan & Hollingsworth and John Roach & Sons. On the Great Lakes, a frequent collaborator was the Detroit Dry Dock Company.

Notable engines
The firm also began to establish a reputation for quality; it was said of the proprietors that they would "sooner lose money than slight work". A number of early vessels powered by the company's engines proved exceptionally fast, including the Hudson River steamboats Sylvan Grove (1858) and Daniel Drew (1860), but it was the powerplant supplied for the celebrated 1861 steamboat Mary Powell which is said to have gained the company widespread recognition as one of America's leading marine engine manufacturers.


 * walking beams - later turbines
 * cutters civil war
 * business partners
 * 4 fastest hudson r steamers
 * engines powered two or three boats
 * postwar collapse - primary contractor
 * move to hoboken
 * personnel changes
 * wwi work
 * later history, historic building etc
 * notable steamboats, by locality then company

company

 * william jr, quintard obits -htrust
 * andrew 1925 obit -web
 * 600 employees 1901 -htrust also, consolidated
 * consolidated ad - a virtual subsidiary 1893 -htrust
 * "nearly all the hudson river steamers", joinery work and design, 22 of 52 postwar transports (1920) -archive
 * compound beam economy, old colony ssc fletcher boats unsurpassed by other engines -htrust
 * majority of high speed beam engines, sickels vs stevens, catskill 100th -htrust
 * "lose money rather than slight work" -htrust
 * steam reversing gear on plymouth, priscilla -htrust
 * fletcher testimony leviathan etc -archive
 * expansion, work, more shipbuilding contracts than any other firm without shipbuilding plant 1900 -greatlakes


 * weiss
 * founded 1853 andrew designer, william manager, harrison "in charge of the office"
 * west street, nyc
 * first engine for james h elmore 1854, small vessel, sylvan grove/shore next two
 * mary powell 1861 largest and fastest river steamer at time, business grew, reputation for workmanship and speed.
 * harrison retires 1880, w & a fletcher, after william then w & a fletcher from 1883
 * andrew continues as head of co until d august 7 1907 aged 77
 * then andrew jr president and treasurer, william son of w. vp, henry n son of andrew secretary, all trained in family business
 * plus 100 steamers to 1883; excellence, quality of engines machinery
 * andrew fletcher jr designer
 * puritan, priscilla plymouth "new departure in engine design", excellent equipment and speed, "finest in their class" in world
 * double screw, double compound engines pioneered
 * beam engines, economy low maintenance
 * contract for vessels complete
 * hudson river day line steamers hendrick hudson, washington irving, successively "largest and finest in existence"
 * hudson river night line steamer berkshire
 * finest and fastest steamers on great lakes
 * turbines, andrew jr research
 * turbine reliability "probably not equalled"
 * 52 ussb turbines
 * 39 troopship conversions
 * andrew fletcher iii assistant to father and his brother 1920
 * 3,500 workforce 1920
 * andrew ii president american locomotive co, ceo of eddystone manufacturing, phil, munitions
 * weiss -htrust
 * historic site?
 * map of works 1919 -loc
 * premises photos -gbook


 * fletchers to US in 1829.
 * machinists at hr dunham & co (archimedes works) "rose to positions of authority by mid century"
 * hr dunham closes 1853.
 * 1853 joined with machinist joseph g harrison to form fletcher, harrison. financial backing from harrison's father successful businessman william.
 * purchase phoenix works on west st between laight and vestry sts. change name to north river iron works, "apparently in honor of former dunham facility".
 * william general manager, andrew designing engineer, harrison "business matters".
 * ship repair work, built first marine engine 1854, first marine boiler 1855.
 * "strong reputation as designers and manufacturers of engines and boilers for smaller coastal and river vessels" while continuing to do general repairs. Company "particularly respected" for production of reliable walking beam engines. Larger vessels, moved away from repairs. "Leading builder of marine steam engines" in NY harbor in second half of 19th century.
 * harrison retires 1880. W & A Fletcher. William d 1883, reorganized as W & A Fletcher Co., andrew president.
 * haer history haer history -loc
 * marinelink history
 * seaport history
 * j g harrison d notice 1896 -fulton
 * elec. lighting 1879 -fulton
 * w h harrison suicide in 50s 1907 -nyt
 * plate shop proposal april 1919 -tmr htrust
 * 10k electric floating dock 1920 -tmr htrust
 * 8.5k dock and photo -tmr htrust
 * a dozen contracts july 1922 -tmr htrust
 * 1924 receivers -nyt
 * bethlehem seeks plant 1938 -nyt
 * blueprints 1982 -nyt
 * forty year old boiler -fulton
 * 1880 dissolution and continuation -public notices -fulton
 * baseball team 1920s -fulton -fulton
 * takeover of gowanus 1923 -fulton
 * 1929 united dry docks -photo -archive
 * brief company bio -archive


 * nice ad 1920 -htrust
 * fire 1927 -np.com

personnel
[http://www.newspapers.com/image/20593511/?terms=%22W.*A.+Fletcher%22 w fletcher obit 1913??? -np.com] william d peritonitis notice 3 daughters one son -fulton
 * taylor memorial abs -htrust
 * taylor life member sname, elected president sname 1916 -htrust
 * abs president 1917, resigns quintard - around time of todd takeover -htrust
 * ad 1905 taylor vp quintard 1905 -htrust
 * andrew treasurer hudson navigation co -fulton
 * taylor manager 1901 -np.com
 * taylor consulting engineer ny n haven rrc -np.com
 * taylor obit 1926, hasbrouk? nyt -fulton
 * taylor photo -htrust
 * william obit 1883 -fulton
 * william nyt obit 1883
 * w fletcher obit 1913 -htrust
 * william obit 1883 -np.com
 * w fletcher b. 1824 -greatlakes
 * andrew one page bio, photo -htrust
 * early history of dunham etc., santvoord only contract to fletchers, andrew consulted by fall river line etc.
 * andrew asme obit -htrust
 * andrew brief obit marine review 1905 -htrust
 * andrew brief obit dad's trade -fulton
 * andrew director Am. loco works 1914 -tmr htrust
 * andrew to lloyds committee 1917 -tmr htrust
 * andrew life member sname 1921 -tmr htrust
 * 1925 andrew fletcher obit, jr? -fulton
 * andrew jr engagement 1918 -fulton
 * andrew obit "famous engines" -np.com
 * andrew obit --np.com
 * andrew ii president consolidated iron works

other jobs

 * refit yacht maria 1902 -np.com

new refs

 * j h brinkerhoff ferry 1889 -np.com
 * henry b hollins 1900 -np.com
 * west point 1901 -np.com

list
Currently about 236 engines To do:
 * abs johnson etc cites to references

table

 * william curry steamer 1859 -npc


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journals etc

 * Albany Evening Journal
 * The Allentown Daily Leader
 * The Boston Post
 * British Whig
 * The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
 * The Brooklyn Daily Union
 * Buffalo Commercial Advertiser
 * The Buffalo Courier
 * The Cambridge Chronicle
 * Chester Times
 * The Chicago Daily Tribune
 * The Cleveland Daily Leader
 * Cleveland Herald
 * Columbia Republican
 * Daily British Colonist
 * The Daily Inter Ocean
 * The Daily Milwaukee News
 * The Daily Morning Astorian
 * The Engineer (New York)
 * Fitchburg Daily Sentinel
 * Greene County News
 * The Hackettstown Gazette
 * Harrisburg Independent
 * Hudson Daily Star
 * Hudson Weekly Star
 * International Marine Engineering
 * The Iron Age
 * Jamestown Daily Journal
 * The Kingston Daily Freeman
 * The Marine Record (Cleveland)
 * Marine Review (Cleveland)
 * Newburgh Register
 * Newport Mercury
 * New York Daily Tribune
 * New York Evening Express
 * New York Herald
 * The New York Times
 * The Northern Mariner
 * Pacific Marine Review
 * The Philadelphia Inquirer
 * The Plattsburgh Republican
 * Plattsburgh Sentinel
 * The Railroad and Engineering Journal
 * The Recorder (Catskill)
 * The Saratogian
 * The Scanner
 * Scientific American
 * Shipping (New York)
 * St. Johnsville Enterprise
 * Ticonderoga Sentinel
 * The Times (Philadelphia)
 * The Times-Picayune
 * The Troy Daily Times
 * Virginian-Pilot
 * The Washington Post
 * The Washington Times
 * 
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