DAVIES AND THOMAS COMPANY.
In 1865 Daniel Davies bought
an old planing mill in East Catasauqua and fitted it up as a foundry and
machine shop. He had as a partner William Thomas (no relation to the present
Thomases), and they traded under the name of Davies and Thomas. This
partnership continued for two years, when William Thomas retired from the firm
and returned to Wales, and Daniel Thomas & Son continued the business until
1876, when Daniel Thomas died.
The works were then shut down
until February, 1879, when James Thomas bought a half interest in the business
and with George Davies, the son of Daniel Davies, formed the new firm of Davies
& Thomas, and did business under a partnership agreement until the death of
George Davies on October 1st, 1894.
On December 21st, 1894, the
firm of Davies & Thomas Company was organized into a chartered company,
with a capital of $100,000. The stock was afterwards increased to $300,000.
James Thomas was president of
the last named company until his death on December 18th, 1906, and was
succeeded as president of the company by his son Rowland D. Thomas at the
meeting of the company in January, 1907, who continued as president of the
company until November, 1911, when Leonard Peckitt was elected to the
presidency and continues in that office to the present date.
The following persons have
served as directors of the company during its lifetime as a chartered company:
JAMES
THOMAS,
ROWLAND
D. THOMAS,
HOPKIN
THOMAS,
D.
H. THOMAS,
C.
R. HORN,
GEORGE
DAVIES,
ROWLAND
T. DAVIES,
JAMES
T. DAVIES,
HARRY
E. GRAFFIN.
The present board of
Directors is made up as follows:
LEONARD
PECKITT, President,
ROWLAND
D. THOMAS,
HOPKIN
THOMAS.
GEORGE
DAVIES,
HARRY
E. GRAFFIN,
The officers of the company
are as follows:
LEONARD
PECKITT, President
CHARLES
R. HORN, Secretary.
HARRY
E. GRAFFIN, Treasurer
The general agent of the
company was A. R. McHenry until his death in 1898, when C. R. Horn was
appointed to succeed him, and fills the position to the present time, operating
from the company's general offices in New York City, the centre of all big
work.
The Davies & Thomas
Company has been a furnisher of material for all the large contracts for
underground railway and tunnel work requiring cast iron material for their
construction in the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore,
etc.
For the various tunnels under
the harbors of New York City, this company furnished eighty per cent. (80%) of
the cast iron material used in their construction, and as these tunnels were of
eight (8) different designs, it constantly necessitated changes in the patterns
for the cast iron castings used in the various designs to meet the
requirements.
The Davies & Thomas
Company is considered the pioneer in the above line of work and their ideas and
plans have almost universally been adopted and accepted by engineers
constructing the same.
When you ride through the
various tunnels connecting New York with Jersey City, Brooklyn and Long Island
City, you will pass through tunnels whose construction material is almost
entirely the product of this company.
At the present time the
company is engaged on a contract for the manufacture of the lining of a large
sewer tunnel for the Borough of Queens, Long Island, which work will keep the
foundry very busy for an entire year.
The future of the company has
.a very bright outlook, as other large projects for tunnel work are expected to
materialize in the near future, of which a goodly share no doubt will be
awarded this company.
Another large activity of
this company is the manufacturing of cast iron material used in the
construction of Water Gas Plants; and since 1880, and up to the present time,
they have manufactured all the castings used, first, by A. O. Granger in this
work, and later by the United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia, Pa., in
the equipment of their water and coal gas plants; and ninety per cent. (90%) of
the water gas plants operated in the United States show the product of the last
named company. This work is continued, year in and year out, and keeps employed
at the foundry from sixty to seventy‑five men continually.
The plant, in 1876, was but a
small stone foundry, employing very, few men, but its growth has been steady
and continued from year to year, until at the present time the Davies &
Thomas Company have a foundry occupying over 16,000 square feet of floor space;
equipped with electric and boom cranes and four cupolas; three machine shops
fully equipped; a large power plant with boiler and engine room for the manufacture
of electricity for the running of the entire works. The plant has a capacity of
two hundred tons per day of finished castings. They had employed over six
hundred men at one time when the foundry was running full.
The plant at the present time
is under the management of Mr. Hopkin Thomas as General Manager, who, with
Leonard Peckitt, President, Harry E. Graflin, Treasurer, and C. B. Horn.
General Agent, constitute the working force
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