User:Gatoclass/SB/Leary

James Daniel Leary (1837–1902) was a Canadian American shipbuilder, general contractor and timber merchant based in Brooklyn, New York.

Early life
James Daniel Leary was born in or near Montreal, Canada on September 25, 1837. His family was of Irish extraction. While growing up in Canada, he reportedly received a "meagre" education in private schools.

Shipbuilding
In 1853, at the age of sixteen, Leary travelled to New York City to begin a four-year shipbuilding apprenticeship with his uncle Thomas Stack, who was then a partner in the shipbuilding firm of Perine, Patterson & Stack. The same year, the firm was dissolved, and Stack continued the business at the same yard under his own name, where Leary completed his apprenticeship. Leary also advanced his education in this period by attending night school. His aptitude and application were such that by 1855, Stack had promoted him to yard foreman.

In 1861, at the age of 21, close to the outbreak of the American Civil War, Leary opened a small shipyard of his own at the foot of North Thirteenth Street, Brooklyn, a few blocks from Stack yard at the foot of North Sixth Street. The following year Leary was appointed Assistant Superintendent of Construction and Repairs for the United States Revenue Marine, later becoming Superintendent. He was also appointed as the United States surveyor for Lloyd Registry of British and Foreign Shipping, a position he would hold for nine years.

In 1865, Leary supervised the construction of a revenue cutter at Tonawanda, New York in the name of his uncle, Thomas Stack. Leary returned to Stack yard at North Sixth Street in 1866, the two reportedly forming a partnership. With a postwar shipbuilding slump in full swing, Stack is said to have retired from the business in about 1867, though retaining a keen interest in the trade. At some point, Leary became sole proprietor of the firm, though continuing to trade for some years under Stack name. Leary also expanded the yard across two additional blocks of waterfront property, from North Sixth to North Fourth Streets, to accommodate his growing suite of business activities. In 1883, Leary sold the yard to Theodore Havermeyer, and moved to a larger property at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, adjacent to Newtown Creek, where he set up a new shipyard in his own name, along with a lumber yard and "an extensive timber farm".

Leary remained a shipbuilder throughout his life, reportedly accumulating most of his wealth from this business. While much of his shipbuilding career coincided with the decline of New York as a major shipbuilding center during the postbellum period, Leary prospered where others failed by contracting mostly for small, unglamorous vessels such as scows, barges, lighters, pilot boats, car floats etc. He did however build a small number of more notable vessels, the best known of which were the U.S. coastal survey vessel Carlile P. Patterson, the government steamer Thomas S. Brennan and the private steamboat City of Gloucester. Leary also reportedly built the Hercules dredges used by the American Contracting & Dredging Company in the excavation of the Panama Canal. Leary is credited with building approximately 400 wooden-hulled vessels of all types in the course of his shipbuilding career.

ships

 * two car floats 1879 -npc
 * minnahanock 1875 -fulton
 * five scows 1880. also poillon. favouritism allegations -fulton
 * 1882 police launch -fulton
 * police launch some details -fulton
 * more police boat details -fulton
 * city of gloucester 1883 -abs1898 slow and ugly
 * 1882 harbour launch quintard -np.com named patrol -htrust
 * 1883 patterson freight barge l&f two lighters -np.com
 * 1884 patterson launch full description ship -np.com
 * patterson launch 1884 -nyt
 * patterson launch 1884 -eagle
 * patterson cosgrove draughtsman -fulton
 * patterson keel -fulton
 * thomas s brennan launch 1884 quintard -nyt
 * tonawanda gunboat 1865 -fulton
 * obit -fulton
 * bellevue charities, ulysses s grant police, two barge, overhaul dictator 1875 -fulton
 * lightship, mosswood 1877 -fulton
 * revenue cutter mosswood rebuild 1877 -eagle
 * yacht widgeon 1878 -fulton
 * two car floats 1879 -eagle
 * scows, shipbuilding decline, 1879 -eagle

business

 * 1877 advertisement -htrust
 * rafts ended for scarcity of timber (1930) -eagle
 * 1890 raft -eagle
 * raft preparations 1891 -fulton
 * west coast rafting 1901 -fulton
 * pacific log rafting 1905 -htrust
 * log raft found norway -fulton
 * yard location, scows 1879 -htrust
 * collins suit 1910 -htrust
 * yard location, rafts 1893 -htrust
 * 1887 raft, patent -htrust
 * more details on 1887 raft, from sciam -htrust
 * leary reid partnership 1902-1912 -htrust
 * holland an employee of morris & cummings -gbook
 * cape cod canal 1893 -htrust
 * longer raft 1889 -htrust
 * panama canal dredges, attempted takeover of canal 1888 -fulton
 * diamond reef "biggest brooklyn contract" 100k -fulton
 * timber yard greenpoint location -fulton
 * large real estate holdings -fulton
 * "the rotten dock board" 1895 -fulton
 * east river tunnel project 1898 -fulton
 * more on tunnel -fulton

other contracts

 * public bath 1877 -nyt
 * bath 1879 - baths located in river -fulton
 * morse dry dock 1900 -eagle

bio

 * ny press obit family details -fulton
 * obit, illness -gnews
 * nyt obit -nyt
 * obit nytelegram -fulton
 * land grant 1883 -eagle
 * personality, physique, appearance. multimillionaire. started at perine 1852, four yr apprenticeship. own business at 21. yards at north 4th to north 6th until 1883 when sold to theodore havermeyer. Moved to greenpoint adj. newtown creek, 250 lots on waterfront, "immense timber basin and lumber yard". Docks at gov. island, liberty island, fort hamilton, fort schuyler, willetts point. gunbeds for forts from maine to california, 1871-75 work on hudson river from coeymans to troy. breakwater at plattsburg, harlem ship canal, red hook dredging. 330 vessels, some named. five rafts, cubic feet. Lived in Brooklyn to 1884, moved to ny to be nearer sons, all went to columbia college. home at 43 east 25th street. manhattan club, tammany hall.
 * sketch! 1894 (age 57) long bio, ships built -np.com more legible print -npcom and again -npcom
 * buys yacht fra diavolo 1894 -np.com
 * raft with image 1940 -eagle


 * Educated private schools. Four year apprenticeship, night school. Foreman, 1855. Own yard, north 13th, 1861. 1862, superintendant construction and repairs for USRM. 1866, new yard from 4th to 6th north sts. US surveyor LLoyds, 9 yrs. 1871 buys Wburg Mill & Lumber Co., for "new phasse of business activity". But still built "steamboats, lighters, barges, sailing vessels, tugs and other craft in great variety." 390 vessels in total. Built Hercules dredges for Panama Canal. Yard frontage, four blocks, 1100 feet. Timber yards in Florida and Georgia. 1868 army supply contract to 1880. "water batteries piers and dykes" for US, plus dredging. Gun beds, virginius scare 1871-72. Generals grant, ingalls, Hancock, Newton, Gilmore. Brooklyn waterfront: Piers and bulkheads for Havemeyers, Dick and Meyers sugar refineries, Penn. RRC, Phil. RRC, Charles Pratt, Standard Oil - $3,000,000. Long Island City: others. 73-82 -coal contract for public schools, charities army and navy. Rafts. Harlem river waterfront improvements for astors etc, worth, $928,000. Harlem ship canal, Harlem driveway. Director north side bank, NY & LI RRC, Hoffman House, Morris & Cummings Dredging Co., vp John Good Cordage & Machine Co. Member Manhattan Club. Family: married Mary C. Fallon, daughter of builder and brownstone and marble dealer James Fallon. Four children. Daughter christened City of Gloucester. Political independent.
 * men of business bio -htrust
 * meager schooling, poor. partner with stack, then sole proprietor. purchased stack's interest in yard. accumulated wealth mostly through shipbuilding. 300 ships. superintendent USRM. Lloyds. Sold yard to havermeyer 1883, greenpoint shipyard lumber yard on newtown creek. later partnered with son in contracting business, george in dredging business. principal stockholder of Morris & Cummings dredging business. docks at governors island, forts hamilton and schuyler and willetts point. harlem ship canal, harlme speedway. rafts, some details. director long island rrc, north side bank, hoffman house co. lived with family for last 12 years at hoffman house manhattan. sylvestor n. d. 1901.
 * history of long island bio -htrust
 * different chronology establishes own shipyard 1866 takes over Stack shipyard 1871 - ancestry
 * brother of arthur -np.com
 * leary date, estate -htrust
 * mary c leary estate -nyt
 * learys in morse company 1904 brief yard bio -fulton
 * jd leary date 1902 owned hoffman house -fulton
 * george leary bio 1955, company details -fulton
 * jd leary obit -fulton
 * friendly sons 1941 -fulton
 * more on friendly sons 1937 -fulton
 * real estate holdings 1916 -fulton
 * sale of estate 1916, surveyor 40 years -eagle
 * docks ownership, dispute 1905 -eagle
 * alleged favouritism 1883 -eagle
 * hoffman house manhattan history -web
 * mrs leary home -htrust
 * george fortune of 3 million 1929 -npcom
 * still a surveyor for lloyds 1882 -fulton
 * funeral of son 1901 -fulton