Allied
Textile Printers
(The
Gun Mill)
Van Houten and Mill
Streets
Paterson, New Jersey
Passaic County
HAER No. NJ-17
Historic American
Engineering Record
National Park Service
Department of the Interior
Washington, D.C. 20240
DATE: 1836
LOCATION: Van Houten and Mill Streets
Paterson, New Jersey
DESIGNED BY: unknown
OWNER: Allied Textile Printers
SIGNIFICANCE:
The remains of the Patent
Arms Manufacturing Co., constructed in 1836, comprise some
of the oldest building stock in the Historic District of
Paterson. The lot was originally leased in 1813 to a firm
which constructed a rolling mill and nail factory there.
In 1836, the entire lot was leased to the Patent Arms
Manufacturing Company. The Company tore down the nail
factory and built a four story brownstone structure
measuring 100 x 40 feet, in which the manufacture of Colt
revolvers was under-taken. The first silk processing in
Paterson also took place in this structure. In the 1840s,
as the demand for silk grew, the mill was expanded by the
addition of three new buildings. The gun factory closed in
1842 and the premises was devoted to various textile
industries for many years, until the 1870s when Joshua
Mason began to manufacture radiators in one of the
outbuildings. Textile manufacturers have continued to use
most of the mill's space to this date.
TRANSMITTED BY: Monica B.
Hawley
GUN MILL LOT
"Beginning for The same
at the distance of 9 feet from the west side of the head
race leading form the canal in Mill and Boudinot Streets
to the vacant mill lot situated between the Passaic and
Mallory Mill lots, the said point being distant 71 feet
from the southwest corner of the Passaic Mill office and
in a direct line with the north side of the canal or race
which runs on the north side of Boudinot Street, and
running from thence (1) in a straight line with the north
side of said canal in Boudinot Street westerly along the
southlines of part of the aforesaid vacant mill lot and
long the south line of the Mallory mill lot 133 feet 6
inches to an iron stake; (2) thence north 22 degrees west
partly along the west line of said Mallory mill lot 196
feet to the Passaic River; (3) thence westwardly up and
along said river 140 feet to the northwest point of a
large hard rock lying on the east side of the waste way
from the middle canal and its junction with the said
river; (4) thence southerly in a direct line 107 feet to
the northwest point or corner of a large square hard rock
lying the rear of the nail factory and on the east side of
said last mentioned waste way; (5) from thence southerly
.22 feet to the southwest corner of the wheel house wall
of the present nail factory; (6) thence easterly along the
south wall of the mail factory wheel house 8 feet being to
the east face of the wall supporting the flume which
conveys The water to the nail factory; (7) thence
southerly in a direct line to the northeast corner of a
heavy abutment wall which sustains the east side of the
middle canal and north bulkhead of same; (8) thence
southerly along the east face of said wall and abutments
sustaining said middle canal, a part of which forms the
west end of present rolling mill with the several courses
thereof to the northeast corner of the wall which supports
the present flume or waste way conveying the water
eastward from the middle canal to the one in Mill Street;
(9) thence easterly along the north wall of said last
mentioned waste way 170 feet to a point where the
curvature of the race wall begins; (10) thence along the
said curve of said race 46 feet to a point in the line
with the west side of Mill Street; (11) and from thence
northerly in a direct line 62 feet to the place of
beginning."1
It was In October of 1813,
that Samuel, John Colt, and Nicholas Delaplaine bought a
portion of the Gun Mill lot from the S.U.M., intending to
build a nail factory and rolling mill.2
The boundary line of the parcel began:
"on the west side of
Mill Street at the northeast corner of the waste way
from present upper canal, running thence northerly along
the west side of Mill Street and west side of mill lot
on Boundinot Street heretofore sold said parties of the
second part to the northwest corner of said last
mentioned lot say on the whole line 292 feet; thence
westerly 264 feet to a stake on the brow of the hill;
thence southerly to the northeast corner of the present
upper canal 92 feet; thence along the east side of the
present upper canal to the northwest corner of the waste
way 66 feet; thence easterly along north side of said
waste way 218 feet the place of beginning.3
and with the plot came the
privilege of drawing one square foot of water from the
Society's upper canal. Buildings were erected, with the
rolling mill occupying the site of the later Gun Mill, to
eventually produce hoop and sheet iron, boiler plate and
copper sheathing.4 The progeny of John
Colt, John Colt Jr., recited a detailed description of the
operation in a conversation with William Nelson, about
1884;
"The rolling mill was
completed in the fall of 1812 (sic probably 1813). They
made in the Ebiling Mill, shovels, spades, camp kettles,
frying pans, etc. for the army etc. In 1814 the nail
mill was started. At the close of the war the business
was broken up...
During the war, they began
making nails.
After the peace, the nail
business was continued for sane years, but eastern and
Pennsylvania Mills under-sold the Paterson
establishment. The building was frame, with high roof,
shingled; it was whitewashed inside. In the Nail Mill
forty headers were employed.
In the Rolling Mill---
The iron was heated by
wood furnaces, employing many teamsters and
wood-choppers. About a dozen men were employed in the
Rolling Mill.
The firm bought Swedish
and Russian iron in New York. English iron was too
brittle. The iron was bought in strips nine or ten feet
long and as wide as a nail is long; from this the nails
were cut, and headed by hands. Afterwards the nails were
made by one operation. "5
Seventy men were employed in
the manufacture of nails,6 according to
one source.
Nicholas Delaplaine dropped
out of the partnership in 1818, selling his interest in
the land to Samuel and John Colt.7 Four
years later, John Colt became the sole proprietor, with
his purchase of Samuel Colt's half interest.8
Fisher, in his first census of Paterson, in 1825, records
that "John Colt's Rolling and Nail Factory"
employed 30 bands to manufacture 7 tons of metal products
a week. In the next census, output has grown to 8-1/2 tons
weekly, while the work force has declined to 25 men,
probably reflecting the use of a mechanical nail-heading
device. The work-force further declined to 23 men, by the
tine of the 1829 census, but so too did the nail output,
to 13,440 lbs. weekly, reflecting the declining fortunes
of the business. "One blacksmith shop, 2 fire and
three hands, J. Colt." is the only mention of the Gun
Mill lot in Fisher's census of 1832.
In the face of a failing
iron works, John Colt sold the lot and building in 1829 to
his Paterson Manufacturing Company, which was successfully
weaving cotton duct at Passaic Mill #1.9
Apparently, the Paterson Mfg. Co. let the factory
buildings out, for in 1834, Affleck and Dunmire had a
millwright and jobbing shop in the old Nail factory,10
which they shared with The Barrow's woolen factory.11
in 1836, the Paterson Mfg. Company bought the remainder of
the Gun Mill lot from the S.U.M.12
The entire Gun Mill lot,
including all, 'the buildings, flumes, furnaces, wheels,
fixtures and machinery... (except the nail machines and
black smith tools which are to be removed)", was
leased in May of 1836 to the Patent Arms Manufacturing
Gompany,13 which had been capitalized by
a number of prominent New York financiers, among them
Thomas Emmet and John Ehlers. Organized to manufacture
Samuel Colt '5 newly patented repeating fire-arm, the
company found the nail factory totally insufficient, tore
it down, and had constructed a four story, cut brownstone
structure, 100x40 feet.14 Thurribull
describes the works:
"On the spire which
surmounted the bell-tower was a vane very elaborately made
in the design of a finished gun, and in front of the mill
was a fence, each picket being a wooden gun, and the whole
was very beautifully painted. There was a number of small
buildings attached to the mill proper, and over the
raceway was an office... "15
Within this factory complex,
the first revolver was produced.
Christopher Colt, a brother
of Samuel Colt, was granted permission in 1838 to
establish a small silk mill on the fourth floor of the Gun
factory. After processing only one bale of raw silk, it
became apparent to Chirstopher Colt and his New York
backers that the operation could not be run profitably,
and the silk shop was abandonned, the machinery left to
rust. In the winter of 1839, or the spring of 1840, George
Murray, a pioneer manufacturer of white-lead pigment,
purchased the machinery and floorspace from Christopher
Colt, and installed John Pyle, an English silk worker, as
manager of the silk work with three or four operatives
beneath him. The rent for the space was $400 per annum, to
be paid out of the sale of sewing silks. 'Thumbull claims
that Murray-Pyle works produced the first skein of sewing
silk spun in the United States.17
The owners of the land, the
Paterson Mfg. Co., sold it in 1840 to the SUM,18
who sold it a month later to Roswell Colt 19
Throughout that year, and the two successive years, the
Patent Arms Company was issuing mortgages on their plant
to cover the great expenses of running the gun factory.
Between 1840 and 1842, the company borrowed $18,141.62 on
13 different mortgages.20 As it became
obvious that the company's creditors would soon demand
foreclosure of the property, Pyle and Mirray looked from
the fourth floor to see $60,000 worth of gun-making
machinery hidden from the sheriff beneath coal heaps 21
The factory was nonetheless seized in the fall of 1842,
and sold at a public auction to John Eblers, the Patent
Arm Co.'s biggest creditor,22 who sold
one-fourth of his interest in the property to Thomas
Drunet, another creditor, the same day.23
Henry M. Low, John Diwards,
Abram Prall and Abraham Godwin, sub-leased the third floor
of the now largely vacant mill, and began to spin cotton
under the label of H.M. low and Company.24
With the retirement of Messrs. Low and Edwards, the two
remaining partners renamed the firm A. Prall and Company,
and in November of 1845, bought out Thomas Emmett's
one-fourth interest in the Gun Mill lease and buildings.25
One floor above the cotton works, the silk manufactory was
turning out 800 to 1,000 pounds of silk weekly.26
Rapidly filling the fourth floor, the Ryle-Murray combine
refitted the fifth floor with a skylight in 1846, and
thereafter used it as a weaving shop.27
The. first two floors of the Gun mill regained vacant,
until 1846.
That year, John Ehlers
assigned his three-fourths interest in the Gun Mill Lot
lease to John Pyle,28 who immediately
occupied the first floor of the mill, and leased the
second floor to A. Prall and Company. (Murray had retired
in early 1846). With the demand for silk blossoming, Pyle
found it necessary to construct a two story stone mill on
the western side of the original mill, and soon after, a
building 167 feet long, 100 feet of which are 40 feet
wide, and feet of which are 20 feet in width, built
between the old mill and the river. dye house was built
adjoining the new building. From 1846 to 1850, about 350
hands were employed to make tram, organzine, sewings,
twists and materials for trimming. 29
Ryle completed his
acquisition of the Gun Mill lot lease with his purchase of
the outstanding one-fourth interest that Godwin and Prall
had bought from Errirnet, and had sold to him in 1852.30
About 1853, Pyle rented one of the rooms in the mill to
John Birchenough, who moved on to aquire the lease the
Beaver Mill the following year.31
In 1857, with the failure of
Pyle to handled his long-term credit obligations, the Pyle
Silk works failed. The firm reorganized, and Pyle
recommenced silk manufacturing, this time in partnerhip
with his nephew, William Ryle.32 In
October of that year, John Pyle sold the entire leasehold
to the Gun Mill lot to Reuben and William Pyle, probably
in the process of reorganization, for the elder Pyle
continued to use the Gun Mill as a silk works throughout
this period. Reuran and William Pyle return the lease to
John Pyle in 1859, receiving exactly what they had paid
for the property.33
Moving to their newly
constructed Godwin mill in 1858, A. Prall and company left
two floors of the Gun Mill empty. Two cotton manufacturing
firms filled the vacancy in 1859. Osborne Buckley and
company began operations in that year, and within a few
months, ran 1,152 spindles, consuming 3,000 lbs. of cotton
weekly, and employing 25 hands .34
Andrew Snyder, Alexander Ree, and Andrew Vreeland, in the
partnership of Snyder, Rae and Qoripany, started the same
year with 1,728 spindles, 40 operatives and a weekly
consumption of 4,500 lbs. of cotton in a space 130x40
feet. Their product was hank yarn. In 1860, they installed
steam engines for power, and by 1865, a work force of 65
was employed. By this time, the firm had become May, Rae
and Co., with Charles May suceeding Snyder.35
In 1870, Albert King rented
one of the out buildings on the Gun Mill lot for his dye
works. He remained on the lot for three years, after which
he left his shop, left Paterson and joined the Oneida
Community.36 While King was heading
north, the machinery of the Osbourne, Buckley and Company
shop was heading south, sold to a Mr. Howell in Georgia,
to be used in a cotton mill there.37 The
vacant space attracted Joshua Mason, who sought space for
his machine shop after a fire in the Van Winkle machine
shop on the Phoenix lot had destroyed his shop and his
partnership with Van Winkle. Moving to the Gun Mill lot in
1875, Mason spent several years perfecting a radiator for
steam heating, which subsequently became the famous, and
very successful, "Mason Radiator". In 1876, the
Pyle Silk concern, after several reorganizations, merged
with the Pioneer Silk Company.39
Continuing to occupy the Gun Mill through 1881 was May,
Rae and Company, who, after 1878, were known as the
Enterprize Maufacturing Co. They had doubled their floor
space to two rooms, 40x130, and increased their
consumption to 6.000 lbs. of cotton weekly by 1881.40
The Pioneer Silk company processed waste silk and pierced
coooons at their Gun Mill works up to1880.41
John Pyle died in 1887, and
the excutors of his estate sold his estate lease on the
Gun Mill lot to the John Pyle Real Estate Association, a
corporation, in 1892.42 This company
continued to hold and renew the lease on the Gun Mill lot
until 1933, when it surrendered it to the S.U.M.43
The society had bought the lot in 1930 from the N.J.
General Security company,44 who had
acquired from the estate of Lady Steele, and Barnard
college between 1915 and l9l6.45 Lady
Steele was a descendant of the Colt's and Barnard college
had fallen heir to its share by an alumna descendant.
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Essex L-630
Essex D-27
Ibid.
Sci. Am. p.314
Nelson,"Conversation
with John colt"
Sci. Am. p. 314
Essex C 329.
Essex F 121.
Essex I-9.
Thumbull p.79
Freeman, Map of
Paterson, 1834.
Essex L 630
Essex L 624.
Thumbull, p.167.
Ibid.
Thumbull, p. 171.
Ibid. p.172.
Passaic Deeds H426.
Passaic Deeds D-198
Passaic Deeds B 97.
B 254-281.
Thumbull p.169.
Trumbull F 536.
Thumbull p. 540
Thumbull p. 56
Thumbull I 364.
Thumbull p. 173.
Ibid. 173.
Ibid. L38.
Thumbull 174.
Thumbull A 320,
misc.
Thumbull 179.
Thumbull 180.
Thumbull F-2, 198.
Sci. a.m. 314.
Thumbull 57.
Trumbull 184.
Ibid. 57.
Ibid. 95.
Ibid. 181.
Ibid. 57.
Ibid. 233.
Passaic Deeds: C-l1,
93.
Passaic Deeds: 0-37,
147.
Passaic Deeds: E-36,
389.
Passaic Deeds: 0-25,
451.
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