Davies & Thomas' Foundry
Source:
Matthews, Alfred and Austin N. Hungerford, History
of the Counties of Lehigh & Carbon, in the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, Everts
& Richards (Lippincott), Philadelphia 1884
This establishment is one of the important
ones of the town, and has been, the prime cause of the building of an addition
to it, known as East Catasauqua. The works owe their existence to the late
Daniel Davies, who was a thoroughly practical and a very energetic man. He
learned the iron trade in Wales, his native land, and for fifteen years held a
responsible position with the Crane Iron Company. In 1865, with his son, George
Davies, and a Mr. Thomas, who was a distant relative of the present junior
proprietor, under the firm-name of Davies Thomas & Co., established in a
small way the business which, since very materially enlarged, is now carried on
by their direct successors under — as it happens — the original
name. In 1868 the Messrs. Davies purchased their partner's interest, and the
business was then carried on prosperously and without any change of
proprietorship until 1876, when the death of Daniel Davies occurred. The works
then passed into the possession of the present owners, George Davies and his
brother-in-law, James Thomas, a son of Hopkin Thomas,
a noted ironworker and for many years master mechanic of the Crane Iron Company.
His son appears to have inherited his father's genius in mechanics, and has
been eminently useful in the business which now engages his attention. As we
have said, the works' of Messrs. Davies
& Thomas have been enlarged from time to time, and they are now
among the most extensive and best equipped of their kind in the Lehigh Valley. The
buildings, which are of brick and comparatively new, comprise a foundry fifty
by two hundred and ninety feet; machine-shop, fifty by one hundred and twenty
feet; two other structures, each forty by forty, an extensive office, etc. The machine-shop and some of the other buildings are two stories
in height. The aggregate area of available flooring is thirty-five thousand
feet. The motive power of the works is supplied by five vertical engines, and
from one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred men are given employment in
the different departments. The
buildings constituting East Catasauqua are the homes of many of these
mechanics. The product of the establishment consists of general foundry- and
machine-work, vertical and horizontal engines, car- castings, and all kinds of
furnace, mill, and mine appliances.
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June 2014