Fifty years with the Revere Copper Co.

by S. T. Snow.

I

A Personal Word by way of introduction. My first appearance in the Revere Copper Company's office, then at No. 22 Union Street,[1] was on Monday morning, March 23, 1840. Sat.u.r.day night last, therefore, completed the full period of fifty uninterrupted years of service.

In the nature of things it cannot be expected that this record will be repeated by me, nor can any one else duplicate it for a long time to come. There is no other stockholder whose certificate bears an earlier date than 1881, and no one in the office has a retrospect of twenty years even.[2]

The Company was incorporated and organized in the year 1828. In 1840, all the original corporators, or a.s.sociates, were living. Other stockholders from their families were afterwards added, but they all, the first a.s.sociates and the others subsequently admitted, have pa.s.sed away. It follows that, at the present time, there is no other one living who has been brought into daily business intercourse with the members of this Company from its very beginning.

It would therefore seem to be a very proper and fitting thing for me, on so interesting an occasion, to review somewhat the personnel of the Company.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The office and storehouse were removed June 1, 1843, to No. 97 State Street; again July 1, 1867, to No. 47 Kilby Street; and still again, November 1, 1888, to No. 369 Atlantic Avenue, where they now are. In the conflagration of November 9 and 10, 1872, the building Nos. 45 and 47 Kilby Street was destroyed. During its reconstruction, just one year, building No. 113 (later 117) State Street, corner of Broad Street, was occupied.

[2] Mr. James Edmiston Brown came into the office February 8, 1873. He deserves special mention here for his faithful, efficient, and valuable services.

II.

Preliminary thereto, however, a brief historical statement should be made of the beginnings of the enterprises to which the Company succeeded.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Paul Revere & signature]

In January, 1801, Colonel Paul Revere[3] bought the old powder-mill at Canton, where during the Revolutionary War, largely by his instrumentality and agency, the Colony and State had been supplied with powder. He and his son, Mr. Joseph W. Revere, under the firm-name of Paul Revere & Son, erected and adapted the buildings necessary for the manufacture of copper into sheets and bars.

In the years 1804 and 1805 Mr. J. W. Revere spent considerable time on a visit to England and the continent for the purpose of obtaining all the information possible in the prosecution of their undertaking.

Colonel Revere claims, in letters written by him at the time, that their mill for rolling copper was the first erected in this country.[4] And it may be said in pa.s.sing that the copper trade in England was hardly more advanced there than here.

Their business grew slowly, but it made a steady progress until substantially established. Colonel Revere died in 1818, but the son, Mr.

Joseph W. Revere, continued on with the manufactory started at Canton until it became a part of the incorporated Company.

Singularly coincident with the events already narrated, Mr. James Davis, but five months younger than Mr. Joseph W. Revere, had come to Boston from Barnstable, his native town, and acquired here a trade, reaching his majority in 1798.

In the very first years of the present century he established himself on Union Street as a bra.s.s founder. Here he continued, gradually expanding the business until the admission of his son, Mr. James Davis, Jr., as a partner, January 4, 1828, when the firm-name of James Davis & Son was adopted.

These two enterprises naturally ran along very much together in certain respects. For instance, in their trade with shipbuilders, which was an important feature with each; while the foundry was turning out composition castings required for fastenings, the mill was preparing copper in its various forms for use on the same vessel.

It was therefore to be expected that the rapid revival of our mercantile marine after the close of the second war, giving to both these firms a largely increased trade, would bring them into very intimate relations and suggest to them the wisdom of a more permanent union.

Out of these conditions finally grew the incorporated Company, taking the family name of its real founder, and known since as the Revere Copper Company.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Paul Revere and Son, Boston]

The card on the opposite page is printed from the original copperplate, which must have been engraved earlier than the year 1804. In that year the foundry described as "at the north part of Boston," which was on Lynn Street,[5] was so seriously damaged in a severe gale that it was not afterwards repaired nor occupied; its contents and the work done there were transferred to the copper-mill at Canton.

The plate is in possession of the present Mr. J. W. Revere, son of the late Mr. John Revere, and has been kindly loaned for use here.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] He was commissioned by Governor Shirley, February 29, 1756, as lieutenant of artillery "for service in the expedition to Crown Point, under command of General John Winslow"; by a majority of the Council, then at Watertown, April 10, 1776, as major in the regiment commanded by Colonel Josiah Whitney, "for service in the defence of Boston Harbor"; and by the same authority, November 29, 1776, as lieutenant-colonel of artillery, "for defence of the State and for the immediate defence of the town and harbor of Boston," under command of Colonel Thomas Crafts.

Thereafter he was always known by his neighbors and townspeople as "Colonel Revere."

[4] "The Copper Works of the Messrs. Revere are referred to by various writers as of Boston; Bishop saying that 'in 1802 the only manufactory of sheet copper in the country was that of the Messrs. Revere at Boston.' The facts are that while this firm made Boston the headquarters of its business the manufactory was at Canton where soon after the war $25,000 had been invested in a plant."--The Memorial History of Boston, vol. iv, page 81.

[5] In 1800 Lynn Street extended from Winnisimmet Ferry to Charles River Bridge. In 1833 it was merged into Commercial Street.

III.

The original Charter of this Company was approved by Governor Levi Lincoln, June 12, 1828. The corporators named therein were J. W. Revere and F. W. Lincoln.

The charter has been amended by approval of Governor George N. Briggs, January 29, 1845, and again later by approval of Governor Henry J.

Gardner, March 9, 1855.

At the first meeting of the corporators held, for organization, at Mr.

Revere's counting-room, No. 75 Kilby Street, Friday, July 25, 1828, two other names were added, and the four stand recorded in the following order:--

JOSEPH W. REVERE.

JAMES DAVIS.

FREDERICK W. LINCOLN.

JAMES DAVIS, JR.

These accordingly, although not enumerated in the original Act, have always been spoken of as the corporators or original a.s.sociates.

The office of the Revere Copper Company in 1840, as shown in the frontispiece hereto, occupied so much of the building on Union Street as had previously been devoted by Mr. Davis to a shop, wherein were displayed the wares kept by him for sale, and still earlier had been used by Mr. Gay for the same purpose.