Is This the Earliest Documented Professional Prize Fight Held in the Town of Pelham?

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Though difficult to imagine, the Town of Pelham once was one of the most popular havens for prize fights in the New York City region.  Bare-knuckled brawls were held in Pelham because it was so desolate, so difficult to reach at the time, and had no meaningful police force -- only a handful of Town Police Constables.  Consequently, a number of nationally-renowned prize fighters fought for large cash purses in the midst of crowds of gamblers, often in hotels or barns near Pelham Bridge on Shore Road.  

I have written about such prize fights on a number of occasions.  See, e.g.:

Mon., Jul. 17, 2017:  Rode a Horse to Death Getting to and From the Famous Yankee Sullivan Prize Fight in Pelham on August 29, 1842.

Fri., Mar. 17, 2017:  "One of the Fiercest" Prize Fights On Record Between Tommy Flannigan and Pete McCabe in Pelham on November 1, 1888.

Tue., Apr. 26, 2016:  Another Pelham Prize Fight: American Jim Larkin Defeated Englishman Bill Hook on June 27, 1889.

Wed., Jan. 27, 2016:  Yet Another Illegal Prize Fight in Pelham in 1887.

Wed., Jan. 20, 2016:  Another Exciting Account of 1884 Pelham Prize Fight Between Jim Murray of New York and Tom Henry of England. 

Wed., Nov. 04, 2015:  The Famous Nineteenth Century Prize Fighter Yankee Sullivan Fought in Pelham in 1842. 

Thu., Jul. 10, 2014:  Illegal Prize Fight in Pelham in 1902. 

Wed., Feb. 12, 2014:  Pelham Was the Scene of Illegal Prize Fights During the Early Days of the "Sweet Science" of Boxing. 

Wed., Mar. 23, 2005:  Prize Fighting At Pelham Bridge in 1884. 

Tue., Oct. 04, 2005:  Front Page of the May 12, 1902 Issue of The Pelham Republican (describing the fight between Joe Gleacher and Joe Kerwin held in the spring of 1902; Gleacher was found in Mt. Vernon after the fight and was arrested, although Kerwin apparently escaped to Philadelphia before his arrest).

When was the earliest organized prize fight held in Pelham?  Though it is not known with certainty, the earliest seems to have been a major fight between James Reed of Philadelphia and Thomas Barrett of New York City (known as "Long Tom") on June 8, 1835.  (Some accounts erroneously identified Barrett as "Samuel Barrett," his brother's name.)  The fight was a brutal bare-knuckled affair that lasted forty-seven or forty-eight rounds (depending on the account) and stretched for one hour and ten minutes.

The Queensbury Rules for prize fighting did not yet exist.  They were devised more than thirty years later in 1867 by John Graham Chambers of the Amateur Athletic Club in England.  The London Prize Fight rules established by the British Pugilists’ Protective Association did not yet exist either.  They were devised three years later in 1838 (and were revised in 1853).  Thus, the Reed-Barrett prize fight fought in Pelham likely was fought under the original set of prize fight rules devised by Jack Broughton in 1743.

The Broughton rules were fairly simple.  The rules were intended to protect fighters in the ring from death.  If a man went down during the fight and could not continue after a count of 30 seconds, the fight was over.  Hitting a fighter who was down was prohibited.  Although wrestling holds above the waist were permitted, grasping below the waist was prohibited.

The fight between "Long Tom" Barrett and James Reed was held on Hart Island just off the shore of City Island.  (Both islands were part of the Town of Pelham at the time and remained so until annexation by New York City in 1895.)  At the time Hart Island was virtually uninhabited.  Adjacent City Island had only about 400 to 500 residents.

Newspapers throughout the nation reported accounts of the fight, describing it as "a gallant and severe one."  Each of the fighters brought a large entourage including seconds.  

Immediately before the fight, there was a parlay during which those in attendance exchanged bets on the two prize fighters.  When the fight commenced, the two athletes immediately began pummeling each other.  Though the fight went either 47 or 48 rounds (depending on various accounts), it lasted an exhausting one hour and ten minutes.  One of the few descriptions of the progress of the fight stated:

"The fight commenced with a parley, was followed by blows, afterwards a smasher followed by claret, both went down -- afterwards rallied -- one caught a cross buttacher -- to'ther planted a knowing one -- Reed threw a somerset over the ropes -- both lost their wind -- Reed got a smasher in the bread-basket -- he also got a winder. . . ."

At the close of the 47th round, a dispute erupted between the entourages of the two fighters.  Some claimed it originated with the entourage, including seconds, of James Reed who seemed to be more worse off than his opponent, Long Tom.  The implications of the reports were that Reed was struggling and needed time to recover sufficiently to resume the fight.  In any event, the dispute devolved into a brawl between the two sides.  As the crowd brawled, they broke down the ring within which the fight was staged.  Cooler heads eventually prevailed.  Once order was restored and the rink was rebuilt for the completion of the fight, it was discovered that James Reed was "unable to come to time."  Long Tom Barrett was declared the victor.  

It may be hard to imagine Pelham as a center for the sport of prize fighting.  Yet, for decades during the mid- to late 19th century, the little town was precisely that.  It was desolate and dark with little law enforcement protection to interfere.  It was immediately adjacent to New York City but also outside the jurisdiction of New York City police.  Thus, Pelham repeatedly was the scene of famous fights including the June 8, 1835 fight between Long Tom Barrett of New York City and James Reed of Philadelphia.  

A Bare-Knuckled Prize Fight, Circa 1880's, Like Many

Prize Fights Held in Pelham Between 1835 and the Early
20th Century.  NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"Another Pugilistic Encounter. -- A fight took place yesterday, at Hart's Island, 22 miles from New York, between James Reed, of Philadelphia, and Samuel Barrett, of this city.  The contest was a gallant and severe one, and lasted one hour and ten minutes, during which forty-seven rounds were fought.  At this stage of the affair, a row commenced; originating, it is supposed, with the partizans [sic] of Reed.  This was, however, quelled, after a short period, and the 'business of the day was resumed, when it was found that Reed was unable to come to time, and Barrett was declared the victor."

Source:  Another Pugilistic Encounter, N.Y. Transcript, Jun. 9, 1835, Vol. II, No. 108, p. 2, col. 2.  

"Pugilism.  --  Last week a regular match fight took place at Hart Island near Hell-gate, between Reed and Barrett, who by description must have been experienced prize fighters.  The fight is described in detail in some of the N. Y. papers.  They had 48 rounds, occupying one hour and ten minutes.  The fight commenced with a parley, was followed by blows, afterwards a smasher followed by claret, both went down -- afterwards rallied -- one caught a cross buttacher -- to'ther planted a knowing one -- Reed threw a somerset over the ropes -- both lost their wind -- Reed got a smasher in the bread-basket -- he also got a winder.  Barrett came off victorious.  At the close the ring was broken, and the seconds and all were fighting.  This prize fighting is a foreign fashion, lately introduced among us."

Source:  Pugilism, The Long-Island Star [Brooklyn, NY], Jun. 18, 1835, p. 2, col. 4 (NOTE:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).

"REED AND BARRETT.  --  In the same year, Jem [sic] Reed and Tom Barrett, alias Long Tom, of Philadelphia, fought at Hart's Island, but after some hard work, the ring was broken in, and a row ensued, which terminated the fight.  There was but little difference between them at the close of the fight."

Source:  "CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL PRIZE FIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES" in The American Fistiana:  Containing a History of Prize Fighting in the United States, with All the Principal Battles for the Last Forty Years, and a Full and Precise Account of all the Particulars of the Great $10,000 Match Between Sullivan and Hye With Their Method of Training for the Fight, as Described by Patrick Timony, Esq., p. 29 (NY, NY:  H. Johnson, 1849).  

"THOMAS BARRETT THE BOXER -- Philadelphia, Nov. 12, 1858.  Frank Queen.  --  Dear Sir:  Although a careful reader of your paper, I recollect not seeing much about a gentleman whose rank as one of the best sparrers in the United States is unquestionable.  --  I allude to Thomas Barrett, Esq. of this city.  This omission may have proceeded from the fact that he now belongs to the olden time, and won his fame before the CLIPPER was instituted.  Permit me, therefore, to say something of him.  

Mr. Barrett, a native of London, came to Philadelphia, about the year 1832, and established a gymnasium in Market street near [illegible].  Soon after that I paid a visit to the establishment, then a novelty, to see 'the English [illegible].'  With his light complexion and ruddy cheeks, he looked at you; his stature was very tall, and he seemed an ox in strength.

The gymnasium became popular, was patronized by persons of high respectability, and recommended by a lot of physicians as the best medicine.  Samuel Barrett, an older brother, an excellent sparrer [remainder illegible]

Source:  THOMAS BARRETT THE BOXER, N.Y. Clipper, Nov. 26, 1858, Vol. VI, No. 31, p. 3, col. 2.  

"THE AMERICAN PRIZE-RING.
-----
Its Battles, Its Wrangles and Its Heroes.
-----
An Interesting Record of Fistic Sport in the Past.
-----
A Fight Which Lasted Two Hours and Fifty-Five Minutes and Embraced 1010 Rounds.
-----
COUNTRY M'CLOSKEY'S PLUCK.
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WRITTEN EXPRESSLY FOR THE NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE, BY W. E. HARDING.
-----
(Continued.)

Abe Vanderzee and Frank Speight fought at Fort Washington, on the Hudson, near New York, on Sept. 26, 1837.  Fourteen rounds were fought in twenty minutes, and Abe was declared the winner.

George Owens, the Manchester Pet, an English pugilist, arrived from England in September.  He was matched to fight Jim Reed, of Cincinnati, who had defeated McLane and fought a draw [sic] with Tom Barrett.  The fight took place at Fort Washington, N. Y.; on Nov. 10, 1837.  Owens proved to be a first-class pugilist, and he whipped Reed in thirty-nine rounds, lasting one hour, forty minutes. . . ."

Source:  Harding, W. E., THE AMERICAN PRIZE-RING -- Its Battles, Its Wrangles and Its Heroes -- An Interesting Record of Fistic Sport in the Past -- A Fight Which Lasted Two Hours and Fifty-Five Minutes and Embraced 1010 Rounds -- COUNTRY M'CLOSKEY'S PLUCK, The National Police Gazette [NY, NY], Jun. 12, 1880, Vol. XXXVI, No. 142, p. 15, col. 1.  

"The men who competed in combative, 'ritualized, rule-bound, respectable spectacles' of bareknuckle boxing were likely workingmen of the traditionalist variety, demonstrating 'no fast and hard distinction between work and play.'  Unlike their revivalist counterparts, Philadelphia's traditionalist workers refused to label 'certain amusements as sinful,' indulging in a wide range of sporting pursuits, from hunting and fishing, to balloon launchings and cockfighting.  Spectator sports were particularly appealing to traditionalist artisans, permitting large groups of men to exercise communal masculinities vicariously by supporting a representative -- human or animal -- of their group.  Although cockfighting and dogfighting were popular amongst traditionalists, prizefighting was their spectator sport of choice.  Andy McLane was one of Philadelphia's earliest pugilistic heroes.  McLane's first recorded prizefight was his 1832 defeat of Jim Sanford on the outskirts of Philadelphia.  On May 7, 1833, McLane continued his pugilistic exploits, facing William 'Boss' Harrington, a New York City butcher, on neutral ground in Baltimore, Maryland, for one thousand dollars.  When it became apparent that Harrington would defeat McLane, however, the latter's followers tore down the ring, drawing their knives and pistols, to end the bout before Harrington could earn a decisive victory.  The violence surrounding the McLane-Harrington bout was exactly the sort of behavior that led many Philadelphians to demonize the prize ring, labeling it a source of immorality and vice.  While Lane's popularity in Philadelphia waned, sibling English boxers Tom and Sam Barrett were incorporating sparring into the activities offered at their local gymnasium.  When one of the Barrett brothers -- sources differ on which -- attempted to parlay his sporting popularity into a prizefight with Jim Reed of Cincinnati in 1836 [sic], however, the outcome was strikingly similar to the McLane-Harrington debacle, resulting in the destruction of the ring and a general brawl before a winner could be determined. 53  [Endnote 53, p. 250, states:  "Most historical works claim it was Tom Barrett who fought Jim Reed.  See, Timothy, American Fistiana, 29; National Police Gazette, June 5, 1880.  A resident of Pittsburgh, however, wrote the New York Clipper in 1858 claiming it was in fact Sam Barrett that fought Reed.  See, New York Clipper, November 20, 1858."]

The Barrett-Reed prizefight, staged at Hart's Island, New York, was likely facilitated by the advent of rail transportation between Pennsylvania and New York City.  In 1833, the Camden and Amboy Railroad provided relatively quick travel -- about nine hours, including a ferry and stagecoach -- between the Quaker and Empire cities.  While this new rail connection presented prizefighters with an array of potential fighting grounds, it also accelerated the formation of a more thoroughly class-based society in Philadelphia, dividing the population sharply between a working class of manual laborers and a middle class of non-manual workers.  Although the new railway connecting Philadelphia to New York increased demand for Philadelphian products domestically, the locomotive also ushered in an era of considerable industrialization. . . ."

Source:  Ross, Greggory M., Boxing in the Union Blue:  A Social History of American Boxing in the Union States During the Late Antebellum and Civil War Years, The University of Western Ontario Western Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies:  Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository, pp. 209-10 & n. 53 (Ontario, Canada:  May 2014) (certain endnotes omitted).  

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Edward C. Cooper Tried to Resurrect His Solar Salt Works on City Island in 1852 and 1853

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One of the earliest commercial manufacturing enterprises constructed in the Town of Pelham was a small solar salt works built on City Island by Dr. Edward C. Cooper of 22nd Street in New York City during the early 1830's.  A print in the collection of the New York Historical Society entitled "E.C. Cooper's Plan of Salt Works at City Island (1835)" shows a remarkable facility with a windmill built atop a platform in Long Island Sound that pumped water via a pipe to a tank above four "inclined planes" down which salt water was dripped onto a bed of gravel covering the inclined plane surfaces at precisely the correct rate so that water would coat the gravel and the heavier salt-laden brine would flow downward into "rooms" (also known as "pans") at the bottom of the inclined planes.  There, a small and movable roof could be rolled over the pans during rain (and at night) and rolled away from the pans during sunlight.  Evaporation of the liquid in the thick brine would leave salt crystals that could be harvested for profit.

"E. C. Cooper's Plan of Salt Works at City Island (1835) From an old print

in the New York Historical Society" Source: Jenkins, Stephen, The Story of

The Bronx From The Purchase Made by the Dutch from the Indians in 1639

to the Present Day, Opposite p. 626 (G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and

London, The Knickerbocker Press, 1912).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

I have written before about Cooper's solar salt works on City Island during the early 1830s.  See Mon., Sep. 01, 2014:  Solar Salt Manufacturing Plant Built on City Island in the Town of Pelham in the 1830's.  In that article I wrote that "Diligent effort has uncovered no primary sources that address when, how or why Cooper's salt works on City Island failed (if the works actually 'failed')."  I also wrote that "no record has yet been located to determine whether Edward C. Cooper ever sold stock to raise money for his plan to build a larger solar salt works.  At present, however, it does not appear that any such sale of stock took place."  It turns out, however, that additional research has revealed more to the story of Edward C. Cooper and his solar salt works on City Island in the Town of Pelham.

More than twenty years after his first effort to operate a solar salt manufacturing plant on City Island failed apparently due to lack of funds, Edward C. Cooper tried a second time.  In late 1852 he reportedly began construction of a new solar salt manufacturing plant, once again, on City Island.  From short descriptions of the second facility, it apparently was quite similar to the technology he patented and used to construct his first facility on City Island in the 1830s.  

According to one account, Cooper began construction of his second facility so late in the season in 1852 that it was "too late in the season to form salt."  Thus, according to the same account, he had to abandon the effort "for want of funds."  

It seems that, for a second time, Cooper had an idea and the desire to make it a reality, but lacked the necessary funds to succeed.  He did not give up, however.  Instead, he made a written appeal to the New York Chamber of Commerce in New York City asking for funds (its "patronage") to permit him to continue construction.  Cooper submitted with his written request for aid a "plan" of the salt works he had begun construction on City Island.  He estimated that $5,000 would enable him to construct ten acres, or more, of salt works, yielding upwards of 10,000 bushels of salt annually. 

The New York Chamber of Commerce considered Cooper's request at its regular monthly meeting on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 1, 1853.  After reviewing the communication, the organization ordered that it be placed "on file," effectively rejecting the request perfunctorily.

Once again, Cooper's grand plan to manufacture and operate a solar salt works on City Island in the Town of Pelham failed for lack of funds.  Cooper does not appear to have tried again.

Page 1, United States Patent X8,821 Issued to E.C. Cooper for an

"Evaporator" by the United States Patent Trademark Office on

May 16, 1835.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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"SALT FROM OCEAN WATER. -- At a meeting of the New York Chamber of Commerce, on Tuesday, a communication was received from Edward C. Cooper in relation to the manufacture of salt from ocean water.  The Journal of Commerce says: -- 

Accompanying it was a plan of salt works constructed last season on City Island, East River, but too late in the season to form salt, and abandoned for want of funds.  They are formed of inclined planes, made on the earth, of hydraulic cement, taking four barrels to every thousand feet of surface.  It is estimated that $5,000 would construct ten acres, or more, of works, yielding upwards of 10,000 bushels of salt annually.  The patronage of the Chamber is requested.  The communication was ordered to be placed on file."

Source:  SALT FROM OCEAN WATER, Daily Albany Argus [Albany, NY], Mar. 5, 1853, Vol. XXVIII, No. 8339, p. 2, col. 5.  

"CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
-----

The New York Chamber of Commerce held its regular monthly meeting yesterday afternoon, at the Merchants' Bank. . . .

A communication was received from EDWARD C. COOPER, in relation to manufacturing salt from ocean water.  Accompanying it was a plan of salt works constructed last season to form salt, and abandoned for want of funds.  They are formed of inclined planes, made on the earth, of hydraulic cement, taking four barrels to every thousand feet of surface.  It is estimated that $5,000 would construct ten acres, or more, of works, yielding upwards of 10,000 bushels of salt annually.  The patronage of the Chamber is requested.  The communication was ordered to be placed on file."

Source:  CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Morning Courier And New-York Enquirer [NY, NY], Mar. 2, 1853, Vol. XLVII, No. 8019, p. 3, col. 2.  

"SALT FROM SEA WATER. -- Edward C. Cooper has memorialized the New York Chamber of Commerce to aid him in the construction of works, already commenced by him, on City Island, East River, for the manufacture of salt from ocean water.  It is estimated that $5,000 would construct ten acres or more of works, yielding upwards of 10,000 bushels of salt annually."

Source:  SALT FROM SEA WATER, The Baltimore Sun, Mar. 4, 1853, Vol. XXXII, No. 92, p. 1, col. 3.

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Ogden Philip Pell, a Grandson of David Jones Pell of Pelham Manor

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Ogden Philip Pell was a son of Stephen Sneden Pell and a grandson of Revolutionary War hero David Jones Pell who once owned the Pell farmhouse now incorporated into the home known today as Pelhamdale at 45 Iden Avenue and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  He spent his youth in Pelham, but left and became a very successful man.  Today he would be described as a venture capitalist and start up specialist.  He was involved in a fascinating array of successful ventures including partnering with George Chorpenning in one of the earliest Pony Express mail lines, constructing the eastern end of the Panama Canal, building railroads, establishing the first subway line in New York City, the creation of the first successful steamship line between New York and Galveston, Texas to run from the end of the Civil War blockade of Galveston, and much more.

Ogden Philip Pell was born in what was known as as the old Ogden House that once stood on what once was part of the Secor estate near Boston Post Road and Wolfs Lane.  The Ogdens sold their farm to to Francis Secor in 1836, a year after Ogden was born.  The family later lived in the old homestead of James Pell nearby.  

At the age of seventeen, Ogden Pell left Pelham abruptly.  According to one account, he left due to a personal "tragedy."  

It seems that as a teenager, Ogden Pell fell in love with young "Jennett Hay," a daughter of James Hay who had purchased, and lived in, Pelhamdale -- once owned by Ogden's grandfather, David Jones Pell.  Ogden Pell spent several years "in the company of Jennett Hay."  The pair, in fact, had a special place where they spent time together.  It was the lake that once stood on the Henry Iden, Jr. property on Wolfs Lane.  I have written before of that lovely lake.  See Wed., Jul. 15, 2015:  The Henry Iden, Jr. Property on Wolfs Lane -- An Ice Skating Paradise.  The pair loved the lake and strolled its grounds, where children sailed their model boats during warm months and skated on the pond ice in the winter.

Jennett Hay, it seems, fell in love with another.  According to an account told in the 1920s, she married a member of the Lord family of Lord & Taylor fame.  According to a story purportedly told by Ogden Pell himself, the day Jennett Hay married, Ogden left Pelham for the South.  Soon, according to one account, he:  "prospered, and developed cotton plantations in Louisiana, owning at the time of President Lincoln's famous "Proclamation of Emancipation' over one thousand slaves.  After which event the slaves refused to work and his plantations were ruined."  This account, however, may be apocryphal.  According to another account:

"At the age of 22, Mr. Pell began his business career with the old house of Treadwell & Co. who supplied all sorts of goods to southern planters during the early prosperous days of the South.  In 1862, Mr. Pell succeeded the firm of Treadwell & Pell, who conducted the business of machinery and other supplies of that character until the close of the war, the affairs of the firm being liquidated in 1867."

Even before the liquidation of Treadwell & Pell in 1867, Ogden Pell started the business of H. Blagg & Co. in 1865.  The business involved transportation of goods between Texas and New York.  According to a brief biography of Pell:  

"They loaded the first vessel that entered the port of Galveston when that port was still under blockade at the close of the war.  The business proving highly successful was followed up by establishing the Pioneer Merchant Steamship Company between New York and Galveston, now the Mallory line."

In about 1879, Ogden Pell joined with a group to organize the Mining Exchange, later known as "the Consolidated of New York."  He became Secretary of the New York Mining Exchange.  He also:

"promoted with the Slavens of San Francisco, Cal., the American Contracting & Dredging Company, which company built the eastern end of the Panama Canal between Colon and the mountains, and later, in the year 1889, he became and is still largely interested in promoting and building railroads and other public improvements  in the island of San Domingo."  

At the age of 84, Ogden Pell moved to the "Home for Old Men and Aged Couples," also known as the "Episcopal Home" located at 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.  He lived there for nine years.  While living there on October 18, 1927, fewer than five months before his death, Ogden Pell was honored as the grandson of David Jones Pell when a historic marker for his grandfather's home known today as "Pelhamdale" was placed on the Hutchinson River Parkway near the home located at 45 Iden Avenue.  See:

Wed., Feb. 01, 2017:  Pelham Historic Marker Placed on Hutchinson River Parkway in 1927.  

Tue., Jun. 24, 2014:  Story of Pelhamdale, the Old Stone House by the Bridge, Once Owned by David J. Pell.

On March 1, 1928, Ogden Philip Pell suffered a devastating stroke.  Though he rallied briefly, he suffered a second stroke and died on Monday, March 12.  The Manor of Pelham had lost another native son. . . .

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Below is the text of news stories, obituaries, and a brief biography of Ogden Philip Pell, as well as an image of him.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.

"OGDEN P. PELL.  Secretary N. Y. Mining Exchange."

Source:  Paton, Thomas B., ed., "The New York Mining Exchange"

in The Banking Law Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 2, pp. 117-18 (NY, NY:

February, 1896).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"Ogden Philip Pell, secretary of the New York Mining Exchange, was born in the year 1835 in Pelham, Westchester county, New York.  The Pells were one of the first English families who settled in the state in the state of New York, locating, as early as 1864 [sic], in that portion of Westchester county which, at that time, comprised the towns of New Rochelle, Eastchester, and what is known now as Pelham Manor, 'Pelham being a Saxon word -- 'Pell,' family; 'Ham,' remote.  At the age of 22, Mr. Pell began his business career with the old house of Treadwell & Co. who supplied all sorts of goods to southern planters during the early prosperous days of the South.  In 1862, Mr. Pell succeeded the firm of Treadwell & Pell, who conducted the business of machinery and other supplies of that character until the close of the war, the affairs of the firm being liquidated in 1867.  In 1865, Mr. Pell started the house of H. Blagg & Co.  He was the special of the firm, and resident partner in New York.  Their business was the Texas market.  They loaded the first vessel that entered the port of Galveston when that port was still under blockade at the close of the war.  The business proving highly successful was followed up by establishing the Pioneer Merchant Steamship Company between New York and Galveston, now the Mallory line, and about the year 1879, Mr. Pell was instrumental, with others, in organizing the Mining Exchange, now the Consolidated of New York.  Following this, Mr. Pell promoted with the Slavens of San Francisco, Cal., the American Contracting & Dredging Company, which company built the eastern end of the Panama Canal between Colon and the mountains, and later, in the year 1889, he became and is still largely interested in promoting and building railroads and other public improvements  in the island of San Domingo.  As will be seen, a large part of Mr. Pell's business career has been devoted to the promoting of large enterprises, both in the form of business firms and incorporated companies, and most of his undertakings in that line have proved successful ventures to himself and associates, and his last undertaking in connection with the Mining Exchange will doubtless prove equally successful.  

In 1875 Mr. Pell advocated the Rapid Transit Underground system, known as the depressed movement, to connect the City Hall with the Grand Central Depot by a route through Fourth avenue, via Lafayette Place, paralleling Broadway, to City Hall.  This system is the one advocated and commended by ex-Mayor Hewitt as the most practical solution of the rapid transit problem."

Source:  Paton, Thomas B., ed., "The New York Mining Exchange" in The Banking Law Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 2, pp. 117-18 (NY, NY:  February, 1896).  

"HONEST!  THIS MILLIONAIRE LIVES ON 50 CENTS A DAY
-----
Wall Street Wonders How Ogden P. Pell Does It, but He Hasn't Lived 78 Years for Nothing -- System Simple; He Just Signs Checks.
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All the men of the Wall street district who have known Ogden P. Pell ever since they were kids are chuckling over the notoriety which has come to the seventy-eight-year-old youngster since he made the statement in supplementary proceedings Friday that all he needs to live on is 50 cents a day, and that borrowed money.

Mr. Pell is a well known man of affairs, a member of the prominent New York family of that name, a lineal descendant of Lord Pell, who married an Indian Princess [sic].  At the age of twenty two he began an eventful career by inheriting $1,500,000.  The pamphleteers of that period spoke of him as the richest young man in the United States.

For many years he and Roger Foster, the lawyer, have been close friends.  Some time ago Foster represented Pell in legal proceedings and the two men of wit couldn't agree on the value of services rendered.  They have been having a friendly controversy over it, and as both are vigorous fighters the claim finally reached the courts.  Foster himself put Pell through the usual questions and forced him to admit that he could live on 50 cents a day, and that he even had to borrow that.

How Does He Do It?

And then the word was passed around that Ogden P. Pell, one of the best-known brokers in New street, member of the Belle Harbor Club, honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati and leading citizen of Richmond Hill, was living on fifty cents per day.  Because of the present agitation over the high cost of living everybody wanted to know how Pell could do it.  In order to avoid inquiries Pell could do it.  In order to avoid inquiries Pell took to his private yacht, the Queen City, and remained out of town over Sunday.  

A World reporter called on him yesterday at his office to learn how to manage living expenses.  Mr. Pell laughed and said:

'If I didn't like Roger Foster and didn't need him in some pretty important litigation I'd get his goat for giving out this yarn.

'But,' he continued, 'If you want to see how I do it come with me.'

Mr. Pell then became the host in a prominent restaurant  of the 'street,' and with the vigor of a college student set the following menu before his guest:

Some Bronx Cocktails and then some.
Bismarck Herring.
Little Neck Clams. 
Green Turtle Soup.     Imperial Brut (plenty).
Broiled Bonefish with Butter Sauce.
Sliced Tomatoes.
Porterhouse Steak with Mushrooms.
Potatoes au Gratin.     Fresh Asparagus.
Fried Eggplant.
Escarole Salad.  Peaches with Ice Cream.
Yellow Chartreuse.
Cigars imported for private use.

Simply Signs Check.

'You see,' said Mr. Pell after he signed the check.  'I haven't spent a cent yet.'

Mr. Pell admitted during the conversation that he had accomplished a few things in his reckless career of seventy-eight years.  He has built a few railroads and signed a $35,000,000 contract with Dr. Lesseps over the luncheon table in the Palace Hotel in San Francisco which involved digging the section of the Panama Canal from Colon to Gatun.  Mr. Pell's company was going right ahead with the canal when the bottom fell out of the old French canal company.  It was a subsidiary company which changed the course of the Chagres River.

'I have never been sick a day in my life,' he said, 'and the only time I ever needed a doctor was when I had a boil on my neck two years ago.  After the doctor fixed it up he told me I was good for twenty-five years more.'"

Source:  HONEST!  THIS MILLIONAIRE LIVES ON 50 CENTS A DAY -- Wall Street Wonders How Ogden P. Pell Does It, but He Hasn't Lived 78 Years for Nothing -- System Simple; He Just Signs Checks, The New York World, Thrice-A-Week Edition, Jul. 12, 1911, Vol. LII, No. 6138, p. 3, cols. 6-7.

"Pioneer In Pony Express Dies at 93

New York, March 13 (AP).  --  Ogden Pell, 93, a partner in one of the earliest pony expresses to carry mail across the continent, and an organizer of the first steamship company to operate boats between New York and Galveston; died Monday in a home for the aged where he had lived for nine years.

He was born in Pelham where his grandfather had been one of the founders of the settlement, now one of the most exclusive in the metropolitan area, and left there as a young man to begin a varied and colorful career.

He was associated with a man named Chopenning [sic; George Chorpenning] in organizing a pony express, and was once connected with a New York banking firm which obtained land concessions from the government of Liberia.  These lands are now controlled by the Firestone Rubber company."

Source:  Pioneer In Pony Express Dies at 83, El Paso Herald, Mar. 13, 1928, p. 8, cols. 7-8 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).   

"Pony Express Pioneer Dies in New York City
-----

NEW YORK, March 12 (AP). -- Ogden Pell, 93, a partner in one of the earliest pony expresses to carry mail across the continent, and an organizer of the first steamship company to operate boats between New York and Galveston, died today in a home for the aged where he had lived for nine years.

He was born in Pelham, where his grandfather had been a founder of the settlement, now one of the most exclusive in the metropolitan area."

Source:  Pony Express Pioneer Dies in New York City, Schenectady Gazette, Mar. 13, 1928, p. 8, col. 4.  

"Died in Poverty

New York, Mar. 14 -- Ogden Pell, grandson of one of the first settlers of Pelham, organizer of the first steamship line to Galveston, partner in the first pony express, one of the promoters of the first subway, and winner of the first land concession from the government of Liberia, is dead without funds, as an inmate of the Home for Old Men and Aged Couples."

Source:  Died in Poverty, Rochester Times-Union, Mar. 14, 1928, p. 5, col. 5.  

"OGDEN PHILIP PELL
1835 -- 1928
By William R. Montgomery
-----

Pelham lost its oldest son, when Ogden P. Pell passed away in his ninety-fourth year on Monday, March 12, 1928, at the 'Home for Old Men and Aged Couples' in New York.  This institution though termed 'home' is in reality a club with all the comforts and conveniences of a rich man's residence.

Mr. Pell suffered a stroke on March 1st.  He rallied, but succumbed to a second attack on Monday.  Funeral services were held yesterday.

Mr. Pell was born February 20, 1835, in the old Ogden House, that once stood directly in front of the well on the lawn of Mr. Julius Manger's estate at Boston Post road and Wolf's Lane, formerly the property of the Secors.  Later he lived in the old homestead of James Pell nearby, when the Ogdens sold their farm to Francis Secor in 1836.

Mr. Pell left Pelham about 1852 and had not returned until October 17th of last year, when the D. A. R., Bronx Chapter, unveiled the New York State marker on the Hutchinson Parkway at Iden avenue.

This tablet marks the old homestead of Mr. Ogden P. Pell's grandfather, Colonel David J. Pell, and the birthplace of his father, Stephen S. Pell.

There is rather an interesting story, though a tragedy connected with Mr. Pell's sudden departure from Pelham.  When he approached 'Pelhamdale' last October he anxiously inquired about the brook and the pond.  The pond that he was interest in was, in those days, a beautiful lake, near Wolf's Lane and Colonial avenue, now covered by a dozen or more homes.  On this lake the children sailed their boats in the summer time, and skated in the winter.  It was here that he spent several years in the company of Jennett Hay, the daughter of James Hay, who had purchased Mr. Pell's grandfather's place, 'Pelhamdale' in 1827, now the property of Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Wagner.

He told the story himself, of his love for Jennett, and of her promise, and of the day he left Pelham, for it was on that day Jennett Hay married Mr. Lord, one of the founders of the firm of Lord & Taylor.

Ogden Pell went South, prospered, and developed cotton plantations in Louisiana, owning at the time of President Lincoln's famous "Proclamation of Emancipation' over one thousand slaves.  After which event the slaves refused to work and his plantations were ruined.

Later, he opened up various steamship lines for the transportation of cotton.  He developed a line of steamships that became known as the Mallory Line."

Source:  Montgomery, William R., OGDEN PHILIP PELL -- 1835 -- 1928, The Pelham Sun, Mar. 16, 1928, p. 3, cols. 4-5.  

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Solar Salt Manufacturing Plant Built on City Island in the Town of Pelham in the 1830's

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Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

One of the earliest commercial manufacturing enterprises constructed in the Town of Pelham was a small solar salt works built on City Island by Dr. Edward C. Cooper of 22nd Street in New York City during the early 1830's.  A print in the collection of the New York Historical Society entitled "E.C. Cooper's Plan of Salt Works at City Island (1835)" shows a remarkable facility with a windmill built atop a platform in Long Island Sound that pumped water via a pipe to a tank above four "inclined planes" down which salt water was dripped onto a bed of gravel covering the inclined plane surfaces at precisely the correct rate so that water would coat the gravel and the heavier salt-laden brine would flow downward into "rooms" (also known as "pans") at the bottom of the inclined planes.  There, a small and movable roof could be rolled over the pans during rain (and at night) and rolled away from the pans during sunlight  Evaporation of the liquid in the thick brine would leave salt crystals that could be harvested for profit.  

An image of the print depicting Cooper's salt plant included in a book published in 1912 appears immediately below.  The image originally appeared as part of a technical article about the salt works that appeared in the January, 1836 issue of the Journal of the American Institute quoted in full at the end of today's Historic Pelham Blog posting. 

"E. C. Cooper's Plan of Salt Works at City Island (1835)

From an old print in the New York Historical Society"

Source:  Jenkins, Stephen, The Story of The Bronx From

The Purchase Made by the Dutch from the Indians in 1639

to the Present Day, Opposite p. 626 (G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York and London, The Knickerbocker Press, 1912).

Introduction

The story behind Dr. Cooper's salt works at City Island is a fascinating tale of a get-rich-quick scheme that failed.  Edward C. Cooper of New York City was an entrepreneur who, in the late 1820's or early 1830's, perceived an opportunity that he hoped would make him a rich man.  He analyzed the ability of limited U.S. manufacturing resources to manufacture the salt necessary to serve the American public.  He further determined the costs (and related pricing) that made American-based solar salt works unable to produce salt at a cost that would allow competitive pricing and that might reduce the massive negative net export balance involving salt.  Once Dr. Cooper assembled the data, he embarked on a quest to design and build a solar-based salt-production facility that would produce salt that could be sold at a competitive price.  He chose City Island in the Town of Pelham as the site of his salt works.  He built the facility, it is believed, in about 1830 along what once was Banta Lane and the eastern part of today's Carroll Street.   

Who Was Dr. Edward C. Cooper?

The "E.C. Cooper" who built the salt works on City Island was Dr. Edward C. Cooper, a New York City physician and a brother of Peter Cooper, an American inventor, industrialist, philanthropist and founder of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan, New York City.

The famed Peter Cooper was a son of John Obadiah Cooper.  He had a brother named Edward C. Cooper.  Cf. DR. HENRY CROPSEY COOPER, N.Y. Tribune, Aug. 4, 1893, Vol. LIII, No. 17,064, p. 8, col. 4 ("Dr. Henry Cropsey Cooper, a son of Dr. Edward C. Cooper and a nephew of Peter Cooper, died last week at his home in Woodridge, N.J."); DIED . . . COOPER, N.Y. Sun, Jul. 16, 1886, Vol. LIII, No. 319, p. 3, col. 7 ("COOPER.--On Tuesday, the 13th inst., Maria, relict of the late Dr. Edward C. Cooper.").    

According to a number of sources, at about the same time that E. C. Cooper constructed his salt works in City Island, "Peter Cooper of Cooper Union fame bought property on City Island in 1835 with the idea of building a glue factory.  [He started in the glue business in 1920 [sic] and expanded several times; it made him very rich.]  He gave up the idea, however, due to poor transportation facilities, and sold his land to the Leviness family."  See Payne, Alice, City Island:  Tales of the Clam Diggers, p. 11 (Floral Park, NY:  Graphicopy Inc., 1969).  Salt, it turns out, was important in the manufacture of glue during portions of the nineteenth century.

Further evidence points to Peter Cooper's brother, Edward C. Cooper, as the builder of the salt works on City Island.  Edward C. Cooper is referred to in various resources quoted below as Dr. Edward C. Cooper or Dr. E.C. Cooper.  Peter Cooper's brother, Edward C. Cooper, was a physician.  

Physician Edward Cooper married Maria Cropsey in 1828.  (Maria Cropsey reportedly spent several years at the Bloomingdale Asylum and was insane.)  

Peter Cooper had a son that he named Edward Cooper, evidently naming the boy after his brother, Edward C. Cooper.  Peter Cooper's son, Edward, later became Mayor of New York City.  

While it is not certain that the E.C. Cooper who built the salt works on City Island was the brother of Peter Cooper of Cooper Union fame, the evidence suggests that they were one and the same.  Indeed, as indicated below, one of the two witnesses to the patent issued to Edward C. Cooper for the inventions reflected in his salt works constructed at City Island was a signatory named "Peter Cooper."  At a minimum, the clues are tantalizing.  Only time -- and additional hard work -- undoubtedly will confirm this conclusion.

Cooper's Invention

Cooper claimed to have developed the first cost-effective way to recover salt from sea water using only solar heat rather than more expensive "artificial" heat (i.e., fire-based boiling away of the water to leave salt crystals).  In October, 1835, Cooper won a silver medal for his "improved apparatus for making salt."  The accolade certainly seemed to bolster his claims that he had invented a more cost-effective way to use solar energy to extract marketable salt from sea water.  

Described simplistically, the majority of salt production plants in the United States at the time operated by pumping salt water into large steel pans.  Such "pans" allowed impurities to settle at the bottom.  The "good" salty sea water then was siphoned off and heated above a fire.  Any foam that formed on the top was skimmed off.  As the water heated, it evaporated until only salt crystals remained.  The process was slow and the cost of manpower to oversee the process and fuel to boil the sea water made the process very expensive.  

Solar-based evaporation salt works, however, attempted to hold seawater in large vats as the sun-based evaporation left salt crystals.  The process took so long that very large mobile "roofs" had to be built, maintained and moved into place when it rained (and moved away after it rained).  This sort of equipment was prone to failure at the wrong time and required a lot of labor to maintain, thus driving up the cost of producing each bushel of sea salt.  

Cooper claimed to have solved these problems by developing a series of inclined planes with a novel system to distribute a thin film of sea water along the top of the planes that would evaporate in a perfectly-timed manner as the film of water flowed down the planes.  A description of the entire apparatus published in 1836 described it as follows:

"This improvement chiefly consists in the substitution for all that part of salt works on which the salt water or brine is merely reduced, previous to the deposit of the salt of inclined plane beds, in place of the salt rooms or pans with moveable [sic] roofs, as now in use.

These inclined plane beds are are made directly on the ground, and are made water-tight by coating them with hydraulic cement; they are then covered with a coarse gravel:  this gravel, by means of a capillary affinity for the water, distributes the salt water in the most minute quantities over the whole inclined plane surface, and thus exposes it to evaporation while flowing down.  

By means of the valve and float in an ordinary water cask, connected with the reservoir, and logs running along the top of the plane, the column of water in the cask is kept at any required height, by the adjustment of the float on its surface:  and as the water flowing out of the holes in the logs is always in exact proportion to the column of water in the cask, the quantity of salt water flowing out upon the planes can, from time to time, be accurately regulated by the adjustment of the float, so as at all times to be in proportion to the amount of evaporation; and thus the brine can be run off the inclined planes at any required strength.  

The remaining parts of the works consist of the windmill for raising the water; the reservoir for receiving it -- which reservoir is made by enclosing any required extent of ground in a dirt embankment, about three feet high, and cementing it on the inside; the logs with a small aperture made in them opposite each plane; and the pickle and salt rooms or pans, with moveable [sic] roofs at the bottom of the inclined planes.  These pickle or salt pans may be made of cement or wood; or where salt works now exist, they may be substituted for this part of the works.

When rains occur, the insertion of a plug separates the inclined planes from the pickle and salt rooms, and the rain water thus flows away."

Source:  MANUFACTURE OF SALT, Journal of the American Institute, Vol. I, No. 4, Jan. 1836, pp. 170-75 (NY, NY:  1836). 

Cooper Obtains a Patent for His Invention

In a number of these published descriptions, Cooper announced that he had successfully "secured a patent" for his improved apparatus for making salt.  For example, the December, 1835 issue of The Journal of the Franklin Institute a description of the patent appeared.  It read:

"26.  For an improvement in the Manufacture of Salt by Solar Evaporation; Edward C. cooper, city of New York, May 16.

An inclined plane is to be formed by properly preparing the ground and covering it with a coating of hydraulic cement, and down this plane the water to be evaporated is to run, there being proper receptacles for it at the bottom.  To cause it to be distributed properly over the plane, the latter is to be covered with gravel to the depth of one-fourth of an inch.  The water is to be pumped into a reservoir at the head of the plane, and from this it flows into a regulating tub, and distributing logs, furnished with perforations; means being adopted, by the employment of valves and floats, to regulate the supply.  

The claims are to be application of an inclined plane as described; to the regulating tub, valves, and floats; to the equal distribution of the water by means of gravel; and to the 'successful application of a cemented water-tight surface upon a natural soil, by means of coating the same with hydraulic cement, as hereinbefore described.'"

Source:  AMERICAN PATENTS.  LIST OF AMERICAN PATENTS WHICH ISSUED IN MAY, 1835, With Remarks and Exemplifications, by the Editor, Journal of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania, Dec., 1835, Vol. XVI, No. 6, pp. 385 & 393-94 (Dec. 1835).

Edward C. Cooper, indeed, received United States Patent X8,821 from the United States Patent Trademark Office on May 16, 1835 (current U.S. class 159/32 and current International class B01D 1/00 (20060101).  The Letters Patent issued to Edward C. Cooper set fourth four "improvement in the manufacture of salt" invented by Cooper:  

"improvement in the manufacture of salt as above described and for which Letters Patent are hereby claimed consists first, the successful application of an inclined plane surface as herein described to the evaporating salt water or brine to a nearly saturated brine while flowing down the said plane.  2d. [Second] The successful application of a valve and float in a regulating tub as described herein for regulating the quantity of water flowing on to inclined plane surface by means of a regulated level of water in the regulating tub.  3d. [Third] The equal distribution of the salt water over the inclined plane surface by means of the gravel spread on said plane as before described.  4. [Fourth] The successful application of a cemented water tight surface upon a natural soil by means of coating the same with Hydraulic cement as herein before described as successfully applicable to the construction of salt pans with level bottom sides as well as to inclined plane surface."

Source:  United States Patent X8,821 from the United States Patent Trademark Office on May 16, 1835 (current U.S. class 159/32 and current International class B01D 1/00 (20060101).

Images of the patent drawing and each of the pages of of the patent appear immediately below.  I have transcribed the entirety of the text of the entire patent at the end of today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog to the extent I have been able to transcribe the handwritten patent.  

Page 1, United States Patent X8,821 Issued to E.C. Cooper for an 

"Evaporator" by the United States Patent Trademark Office on 

May 16, 1835.

Page 2, United States Patent X8,821 Issued to E.C. Cooper for an 

"Evaporator" by the United States Patent Trademark Office on 

May 16, 1835.

Page 3, United States Patent X8,821 Issued to E.C. Cooper for an 

"Evaporator" by the United States Patent Trademark Office on 

May 16, 1835.

Page 4, United States Patent X8,821 Issued to E.C. Cooper for an 

"Evaporator" by the United States Patent Trademark Office on 

May 16, 1835.

Page 5, United States Patent X8,821 Issued to E.C. Cooper for an 

"Evaporator" by the United States Patent Trademark Office on 

May 16, 1835.

Touting the "Improvement" and Hoping to Issue Stock

Upon the completion of his new salt works on City Island, Cooper entered a model of his invention in a competition sponsored as part of the Eighth Annual Fair of the American Institute held in New York City in October 1835.  A lengthy article published in the October 22, 1835 issue of the New-York Spectator described the fair and the exhibits presented.  The article made reference to Cooper's model.  It read, in part, as follows:

"An inclined plain [sic], as a model of a new and improved method of manufacturing salt upon the seacoast, by solar evaporation, was exhibited by Dr. E. C. Cooper, of this city.  The principle, he says, has been successfully tested upon City Island -- East river."

Source:  THE FAIR, New-York Spectator, Oct. 22, 1835, Vol. XXXVIII, No. p. 2, cols. 1-4.

At the close of the Fair, the American Institute awarded Cooper a silver medal as a premium for his "improved apparatus for making salt."  See LIST OF PREMIUMS, Journal of the American Institute, Vol. I, No. 2, Nov. 1835, pp. 57, 77 & 85 (NY, NY:  Nov. 1835) (stating "LIST OF PREMIUMS Awarded by the Managers of the 8th Annual Fair of the American Institute . . . Doct. E. C. Cooper, Twenty-second street, N.Y., for an improved apparatus for making salt.  A Silver Medal.").  

Almost immediately, Dr. Cooper embarked on a nationwide effort to tout his award-winning improved apparatus for making salt.  First an extensive description of his invention appeared in the January, 1836 issue of the Journal of the American Institute.  That description included an illustration of the salt works identical to the one shown above and is quoted in its entirety below.  

Within a short time, descriptions of the improved apparatus for making salt began to appear in publications distributed throughout the United States.  Such publications included the Journal of Commerce published in New York, the Farmers' Register, and newspapers including The Pittsburgh Gazette.  

The account of Cooper's salt works on City Island that appeared in the Journal of the American Institute made clear what Cooper's plans were.  He planned to form a company based in New York City and issue stock to raise $100,000 to build a larger salt works on Long Island.  Interestingly, all other accounts of the City Island salt works published at the time also made reference to Cooper's plan.  It was described in the Journal of the American Institute as follows:

"It is Dr. Cooper's intention to form a stock company in this city for the construction of salt works on Long Island, or near this city, with a capital of $100,000, which he estimates will yield near 200,000 bushels annually."

Source:  MANUFACTURE OF SALT, Journal of the American Institute, Vol. I, No. 4, Jan. 1836, pp. 170-75 (NY, NY:  1836).   

Apparent Failure of Cooper's Venture

Tradition on City Island holds that Cooper's grand plans failed and that he "discontinued" his salt works on City Island after a short time "when mining of salt became more economical in other parts of the country."  See Payne, Alice, City Island:  Tales of the Clam Diggers, p. 11 (Floral Park, NY:  Graphicopy Inc., 1969).

Diligent effort has uncovered no primary sources that address when, how or why Cooper's salt works on City Island failed (if the works actually "failed").  There is no doubt, however, that sea water evaporation works to manufacture salt long had been considered to be more expensive than the importation of salt from less expensive overseas sources.  It may be the case that "mining of salt became more economical in other parts of the country" at the time, but that assertion has not yet been tested (and is beyond the scope of this research note).  

Other research considerations seem to be at play, but involve only speculation at present.  There was, at the time, no bridge to the mainland to allow land-based transportation of salt manufactured by Cooper's City Island salt works  Transportation by water (using appropriate methods), however, traditionally has been considered less expensive than overland transportation.  Additionally, tradition holds that Peter Cooper's efforts to create a manufacturing concern in 1835 failed for as yet unknown reasons and led Cooper to sell his property to the family of Joshua Leviness.  If true, could this have played a role in the closing of E.C. Cooper's salt works?

Moreover, no record has yet been located to determine whether Edward C. Cooper ever sold stock to raise money for his plan to build an larger solar salt works.  At present, however, it does not appear that any such sale of stock took place.  

*          *          *          *          *

Below are transcriptions of the text of various items regarding Dr. Edward C. Cooper's salt works built on City Island in the Town of Pelham.  

"To the Editors of the Journal.

MANUFACTURE OF SALT.

A leading object of the American Institute in publishing a Journal, was 'particularly the discovery of such useful materials as our mineral resources, our soil and our climate afford, and which the enterprise and industry of our citizens, will from time to time develope [sic].'

In conformity with this is presented a succinct account of the manufacture of salt, and more particularly a statement of a new and economical method for its manufacture lately put into operation by Dr. E. C. Cooper of this city.  

The mineral kingdom, as connected with the arts and uses of social life is one among the most important sources of a nation's wealth.  Of all the products of the mineral kingdom, there is none so immediately important to man, as one of the substantial necessaries of life as Salt.  Salt enters in a thousand ways into practical use; in agriculture, in the arts, in domestic economy; but more especially as the agent used to preserve what are denominated 'salted provisions.'  The consumption of salt is immense.  In Williams' Annual Register for 1834, it is computed for the United States, for the last year, at 12,000,000 of bushels, about 5,000,000 being manufactured in the country, the rest being imported.

The United States has a seaboard of near two thousand miles in extent, along the whole of which salt can readily be made; and it has been said that the whole country, west of the Allegany [sic] mountains is underflowed by salt water.  It is in fact obtained almost every where throughout the west, by boring a sufficient depth.  In the interior of this state, ,salt or brine springs are found to extend through the counties of Onondaga, Cayuga,, Seneca, Ontario, Niagara, Genesee, Tompkins, Wayne, and Livingston.  Yet with such a universal abundance of this mineral, one half the whole consumption of the country, including the almost entire supply of our seaboard, is imported, and this commercial emporium, with every faculty for the manufacture and exportation of salt, now imports its whole supply, to the amount of more than a million of bushels annually.  

Salt is an article, that on account of its bulk and cost of transportation, should be made as near the place of its consumption as possible, as the cost of its transportation diminishes the value of the article to the manufacturer, as well as enhances its price to the consumer, besides the labour employed in transportation being non-productive.

This principle is very evident in the article of salt.  It is now purchased abroad at an average price of 13-3/4 cents per bushel, yet its cost in the city of New-York is from 36 to 40 cents, and at that price is nearly unproductive of profit to the merchant.  Salt made at Salina, at 6 cents per bushel, sold at the city of Utica, before the completion of the canal, at $3 per barrel, and although the state has made it free of toll, and given a large bounty, $10,000, to have the Salina salt delivered on the Hudson, the manufacturers have as yet been unable to deliver it at the city of Albany, in competition with foreign salt.  It is a singular fact, that the landing of a canal-boat in the city of New-York in 1824, loaded with salt from Salina, by way of the canal and Hudson, 'being the first, and it might be added the last that has reached New-York, so laden, was the occasion of a public dinner.'

An important reason why salt should be derived from domestic manufacture, is the astonishing enhancement it undergoes in price, during war -- thus salt sold during the year 1814, at Charleston and Baltimore, for $5 per bushel, and during the war of Independence, it was a common article of barter along the banks of the Hudson in equal weights for butter.  There were imported into the United States, from 1791 to 1819, 77,751,024 bushels of salt, paying a duty to the government of $13,694,065, and costing the consumer over $30,000,000.  The import of the last year was 6,038,076 bushels, paying to the government near a million of dollars, in duty.

All of these immense sums might be saved to the people, by the domestic manufacture of salt, as the material is inexhaustible, and existing throughout the country.  

Salt can now be made equal to the whole demand of the country, and afford a liberal profit to the manufacturer at from 10 to 12 cents the bushel, and a far better article than any of the now imported salts; and it is a subject of national importance, especially in the present critical state of our foreign relations, that we at once commence the works for producing a domestic supply, fully equal to the demands of the country; and there is in fact, no better way of preparing for war in peace, than by the domestic manufacture and production of the necessaries of life.

The manufacture of salt is simple in its operations.  It is effected by the evaporation of water, and the separation of the other ingredients, contained in the water, from the muriate of soda, or salt of commerce.  

Evaporation is carried on it two ways, by artificial and by solar heat.  

Salt made by artificial heat, -- that is by boiling, -- costs more, and is more impure than when made by solar evaporation; yet nearly the whole of the salt made in the interior of the country is made by boiling.  An improved process of boiling, by using the steam of one boiler to heat another, where the salt is formed, has been, within a few years, introduced at the Kenhawa salt springs, Va., which makes a salt, equal in appearance, to the best made by solar heat, but the works are too expensive for use on the seaboard.

Solar evaporation is in exact proportion to the surface exposed.

Of all the various plans of making salt by solar heat, there is but one that is in general use in the United States.  This plan was first suggested by John Sears in 1776, who built his works on Quivet Neck, Dennis, then Yarmouth, Mass., and like Fulton, had to contend with the bigotted [sic] ignorance of his cotemporaries [sic], who denominated his salt works 'John Sears' Folly.'

Some of the salt works, built cotemporary [sic] with Sears', are still in operation on Broad Point, town of Brewster, Mass.  Sears also invented the wooden windmill, now universally used in salt works on the seaboard -- previous to which invention, he had the salt water carried to his works by hand.

These works were made of a board floor, strongly supported, raised two or more feet from the earth, and surrounded by strong timber sides, grooved into the floor, so as so [sic] make a water-tight basin or pan.  The pans or rooms, as they are technically called, vary from 12 to 18 feet in width, and from 18 to 200 feet in length -- they are generally made in four divisions, the weak and strong water rooms, the pickle and the salt rooms; in the last of which alone, the salt if formed -- the salt room is in proportion to the whole surface as one to ten.

Over the whole of these rooms or pans are substantial roofs; these roofs are mounted on rollers or pans, as the weather indicates.  The moving of these roofs constitutes the material labour of making salt.

The cost of these works is $1 per 10 square feet, or $4,000 for 40,000 square feet; they require one man to about every 40,000 square feet of works, and this extent of works annually yields from 1,000 to 1,200 bushels of salt, which at present prices, and the uncertainty of the market, renders the works nearly unproductive of profit; and although over a million and a half of dollars was invested in works on this plan, during the last war, many are now abandoning them, and the salt manufactured for the supply of the seaboard, is now literally in a death struggle with foreign competition; and unaided by government, the market of our commercial cities will soon be dependant [sic] on a foreign supply for every bushel of salt they require.  The only means to sustain the home manufacture is by the introduction of some new and cheaper process for making it.  This with the prospect of collision with a foreign government, now so imminent, should lead mercantile men in time to adopt a certain and cheap domestic supply of salt for our seaboard.

The expense of works constructed on this plan, more especially the roofing, which wears out rapidly, has led to various attempts to dispense with the roofing in whole or in part.  

A Frenchman built works of cement, pans without roofs, on Plumb Island; and after expending $40,000 abandoned them in consequence of the excess of rain, neutralizing the evaporation.  A German plan of dripping water through twigs, suspended on wooden frames, is now in operation at New Bedford, Mass., but it is found equally expensive with the roofed works.

The substitution of an inclined plane, from which the rain may spontaneously flow away, and thus dispense with the roofing for a part of the works has been frequently attempted, but as yet none have been used beyond the first experiment, in consequence of practical difficulties that had to be overcome.  The more important being the distribution of the water over an inclined plane surface, flowing thin enough to be equal to the evaporation from it, and also to wet over the whole surface, and lastly to regulate the amount evaporated off it in the same time.

To render an inclined plane surface practically useful, it is necessary to evaporate the salt water to a fixed strength, near the point of saturation, which heretofore has never been done.  

A patent exists for spreading the salt water on an inclined plane surface, by means of cotton-bagging, but the expense is too great to make it profitable.  A gentleman at Boston attempted the same thing at his works on Natasket Beach, by dripping the salt water on steep roofs, to evaporate as it descended, but it has not answered his expectations, in consequence of the difficulty just mentioned.  

At New-Bedford, there is an inclined plane surface now in operation, made of plank, the surface being studded with wooden pegs, to distribute the water, which they but very partially do; it has not answered expectation, and is too expensive.

A gentleman in North-Carolina, Mr. Bradley, tried precipitating salt water in falls, from one ledge to another, but this too failed from its cost.

As the material from which salt is made costs nothing, the expense of its manufacture arises out of the works, and the value of labour in making it.  With regard to making salt, it requires a perfectly water-tight surface; and it inclined planed surfaces are adopted means must also be used to distribute the water in the most minute quantity, over the whole surface, and the salt water must be so let on to the planes, as to be easily regulated to the exact amount of the evaporation; and in time of rain the planes must be disconnected with the pans where the pickle and salt is collected.  All these contrivances have been carefully studied, and reduced to successful practice in the works of Dr. Cooper, on City Island, of which the drawing in this number is a correct representation.  

By this plan, the cost of salt works is diminished from $1 to 15 cents per foot; and seven eights [sic] of the roofing being dispensed with, saves the whole labour that was necessary for their removal.  

The simplicity of the works, and the accompanying plate, preclude the necessity of a lengthened description.  

This improvement chiefly consists in the substitution for all that part of salt works on which the salt water or brine is merely reduced, previous to the deposit of the salt of inclined plane beds, in place of the salt rooms or pans with moveable [sic] roofs, as now in use.

These inclined plane beds are are made directly on the ground, and are made water-tight by coating them with hydraulic cement; they are then covered with a coarse gravel:  this gravel, by means of a capillary affinity for the water, distributes the salt water in the most minute quantities over the whole inclined plane surface, and thus exposes it to evaporation while flowing down.  

By means of the valve and float in an ordinary water cask, connected with the reservoir, and logs running along the top of the plane, the column of water in the cask is kept at any required height, by the adjustment of the float on its surface:  and as the water flowing out of the holes in the logs is always in exact proportion to the column of water in the cask, the quantity of salt water flowing out upon the planes can, from time to time, be accurately regulated by the adjustment of the float, so as at all times to be in proportion to the amount of evaporation; and thus the brine can be run off the inclined planes at any required strength.  

The remaining parts of the works consist of the windmill for raising the water; the reservoir for receiving it -- which reservoir is made by enclosing any required extent of ground in a dirt embankment, about three feet high, and cementing it on the inside; the logs with a small aperture made in them opposite each plane; and the pickle and salt rooms or pans, with moveable roofs at the bottom of the inclined planes.  These pickle or salt pans may be made of cement or wood; or where salt works now exist, they may be substituted for this part of the works.

When rains occur, the insertion of a plug separates the inclined planes from the pickle and salt rooms, and the rain water thus flows away.

A capital of $6,000 will construct ten acres of the work, yielding rising 1,200 bushels each, or 12,000 bushels salt for the whole, and one hand readily attend this extent of works.

The Standing Committee on Manufactures of the American Institute having visited the works before referred to, on City Island, are expected to report at a future meeting.  

It is Dr. Cooper's intention to form a stock company in this city for the construction of salt works on Long Island, or near this city, with a capital of $100,000, which he estimates will yield near 200,000 bushels annually."

Source:  MANUFACTURE OF SALT, Journal of the American Institute, Vol. I, No. 4, Jan. 1836, pp. 170-75 (NY, NY:  1836).  

"SALT. 

Not attic salt, nor saltpetre, but common salt. Of this article it is calculated that about twelve millions bushels are consumed in the U. States per annum, of which about 7,000,000 are imported.  The bulk and weight of the article make its transportation a principal item in the cost.  According to a statement in the Journal of the American Institute, it is now purchased abroad at an average price of 13 3/4 cents a bushel; yet its cost in this city is from 30 to 35 cents by the quantity, and at the present price it affords but a moderate profit to the merchant.  Salt made at Salina at 6 cents per bushel, sold at Utica before the completion of the canal at $3 a barrel; and although the legislature made it free of toll and offered a liberal bounty for its delivery on the Hudson, the manufacturers have as yet been unable to do so at a remunerating price, by reason of the competition of foreign salt.  For consumption in the interior, very large quantities are manufactured in western N. York, western Virginia, and several other states, it is a remarkable arrangement of Providence, that while near the sea board saline springs are rarely or never found, (at least in this country) they are abundant far in the interior.  In this State they are found to extend through the counties of Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Ontario, Niagara, Gennesee, Tompkins, Wayne, and Livingston; and it has been said that the whole country west of the Alleghenies is underflowed with salt water. 

On the sea board, particularly in the regions of Cape Cod, the manufacture of salt has long been carried on extensively, but is represented to be now in a declining state, on account of the low price which the article commands.  The cause Is less to be regretted than the effect.  But surely, if it be possible by improved methods of manufacture to make the business profitable, and even to reduce tho price of the article below what it is at present, every friend of his country would wish success to the enterprise.

Such improvements are stated to have been actually made by Dr. E. C. Cooper, and are about to be put in operation on a large scale.  It is well known that on the sea board the manufacture is carried on entirely by evaporation.  Of course a vast extent of surface must be exposed to the action of the sun, which, in the old method, is effected by extensive vats, with movable roofs to shelter them from rain, when occasion requires.  The vats or rooms, as they are technically called, vary from twelve to eighteen feet in width, and from 18 to 200 feet in length.  They are generally made in four divisions, viz: the weak and strong water rooms, the pickle, and salt rooms, in the last of which only salt is formed.  Except the pickle and salt rooms, forming about one eighth of the whole. Dr. Cooper's plan substitutes inclined plane beds made directly on the ground and rendered watertight by hydraulic cement.  They are then covered with coarse gravel, which, acting by capillary attraction, distributes the salt water in the most minute quantities over the whole inclined plane surface, and thus exposes it to evaporation while flowing down. By this plan the cost of the works is reduced from $1 to 15 cents per 10 square feet, and there is also a very great saving of labor, in consequence of dispensing with so large a portion of the roofs.  When rain occurs, the insertion of a plug separates the inclined planes from the pickle and salt rooms, and the rain water thus flows away.  Any person who is curious to see a more particular description of this improvement may find it in the 4th number of the Journal of the American Institute, just published.  A capital of $6500, according to this authority, will construct ten acres of the work, yielding 12,000 bushels of salt per annum, at an expense which will allow it to be sold at 10 or 12 cents a bushel, and at the same time afford the manufacturer a liberal profit.  Dr. Cooper has secured a patent for his improvement and proposes to form a joint stock company for the construction of salt works on Long island, with a capital of $100,000, which he calculates will yield near 200,000 bushels per annum.  Of the practical operation of the thing, we of course know nothing, personally; but from the description given of it, we are led to anticipate favorable results. N. Y. Journal of Commerce." 

Source:  SALT, The Pittsburgh Gazette, Feb. 12, 1836, p. 2 (quoting the "N.Y. Journal of Commerce").  

The same text as that quoted immediately above from "The Pittsburgh Gazette" also appeared in the following:  IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SALT,  Farmers' Register, Mar. 1836, Vol. III, No. 11, p. 701. 

"E.C. Cooper maintained a small solar plant on City Island, now included in New York City, about 1830.  Nothing can be learned of this enterprise except the above meager facts.  The attempt did not last very long."

Source:  Werner, Charles J., A History And Description of the Manufacture and Mining of Salt in New York State, p. 14 & After p. 14 (Huntington, Long Island, NY:  Charles J. Werner, 1917).  

"E.C. Cooper built a small solar salt plant in 1830 along Banta Lane and east Carroll Street.  This was probably the first commercial enterprise on the island.  The sun's rays evaporated seawater and deposited salt crystals, using inclined plane beds for salt rooms and a windmill to raise the water.  This etching, from the 1836 Journal of the American Institute, is the earliest known extant illustration of City Island.  The business closed because salt mining became more economical in other parts of the country."  

Source:  Scott, Catherine A., City Island and Orchard Beach, p. 10 (Arcadia Publishing, 2004).  

"A source of supply of salt was as necessary to the early colonists, and demand always exceeded the available supply, until the opening of the salt mines after the turn of the past century.  Along the Atlantic seaboard there were numerous solar salt plants built, which depended upon the sun's rays to evaporate the seawater and deposit the salt crystals.  E. C. Cooper maintained a small solar salt plant on City Island about 1830 but the enterprise did not last long because of competition from the salt mines.  On page 14 of The History and Description of Manufacturing and Mining of Salt in New York State, by Charles J. Werner, published 1917, will be found the reproduction of a picture of this old Cooper plant on City Island."

Source:  Barr, Lockwood Anderson, A Brief, But Most Complete & True Account of the Settlement of the Ancient Town of Pelham Westchester County, State of New York Known One Time Well & Favourably as the Lordshipp & Manour of Pelham Also The Story of the Three Modern Villages Called The Pelhams, pp. 85-86 (The Dietz Press, Inc. 1946) (Library of Congress Control Number 47003441, Library of Congress Call Number F129.P38B3).

Below is a transcription of the handwritten text of United States Patent X8,821 issued to E. C. Cooper for an "Evaporator" by the United States Patent Trademark Office on May 16, 1835.

"[Page 1]

E. C. COOPER.
EVAPORATOR.
8821X     Patented May 16, 1835

[Image of the device]

[Page 2]

8821X  May 16 . 1835     515.

Edward C. Cooper of the City, County & State of N.Y.

Letters Patent.

The schedule referred to in these Letters Patent & making part of the same, containing a description in the words of the said Edward C. Cooper, himself of his improvement in the manufacture of salt by solar evaporation.

To all to whom these presents shall come.

Be it known, that I, Edward C. Cooper of the City, County and State of New York, have invented a new and useful improvement in the manufacture of salt by solar evaporation, and that the following is a full and faithful description of the construction and operation of said process as invented by me.

This improvement consists in the successful application of an Inclined Plane Surface, to the evaporating of Ocean Water or other brines to a concentrated brine while flowing down, the said inclined plane surface and also of the means by which this is rendered practical.  These means consist first in making a water tight surface by means of coating the natural surface with cement.  2d. [Second] the means for the even distribution of the salt water over the inclined plane surface and 3d. [Third] the means for regulating the quantity of salt water draining on to the quantity evaporated while flowing down, the inclined plane surface; The above salt works are to be constructed in the following manner, on ground having a southerly aspect & a descent of from one to four inches in every ten feet; being selected, and the intended inclined plane surface being marked out at the top and at the bottom of this intended inclined plane surface, two horizontal lines at levels are to be made on the ground parallel with each other and about two hundred feet apart, and the lower line to be at least from two to six feet lower than the line parallel with it at the top.  Between the above two lines or levels the whole

[Page 3]

516.          8821X

whole [sic] ground is to be evenly graded to a level plane regularly descending from the top line or level down to the line or level at the bottom; The surface being thus reduced to a regular inclined plane; trenches are then to be dug, perpendicularly from the top to the bottom of the inclined plane surface, these trenches to be about four feet apart and one foot deep for draining the ground of superfluous moisture 4th. The ground being made an inclined plane surface is now to be coated with a moderately stiff mortar composed of one part of hydraulic cement to two of clean sand.  The mortar to be carefully laid on by a trowel [illegible] to the depth of one half an inch & raised on the edges one inch, where the cement has become well hardened, it is to be washed over with a thin seal of cement to close all fissures or holes.  These being sloped and the cement being firmly set, the whole inclined plane surface is to be evenly received with gravel one fourth inch deep, which gravel constitutes the means for the even distribution of the water over the inclined plane surface while flowing down.  At the top of the inclined plane surface is to be placed a cistern of ordinary construction and of any size that may be practically required, the bottom of said cistern to be about two feet above the top of the inclined plane surface, upon a level with the top of the inclined plane surface and projecting half way under the cistern aforesaid is to be a water tight tub holding 100 gallons, and being about two feet high.  Immediately over the front of this tub (denominated the regulating tub) projecting under the cistern aforesaid is to be a hole in the bottom of the cistern one or more inches in diameter, upon this hole in the bottom of the cistern is a valve to be placed, connected by a rod to a lever attached to upper edge of the cistern or reservoir and from the other end of this lever another rod is attached, which rod projects down into the regulating tub aforesaid and upon this last rod is a moveable [sic] float of wood and a [illegible] at any required length on the rod aforesaid.

Along the whole extent of this top of the inclined plane surface is a bored log or logs, which communicate with the regulating tub aforesaid.  Into these logs opposite the ends of each single breadth 

[Page 4]

8821X           517.

of planes between the ditches one or more are to be bored and then plugged with lead and through each of these lead plugs a hole one fourth inch in diameter is to be bored.  The valve and float / which may be constructed in any practical method together with the regulating tub and the aperture in the log aforesaid together consolidate the means for regulating the quantity of salt water flowing on to the quantity evaporated from the inclined plane surface in the same given time.  

At the bottom of the inclined plane surface runs a gutter to receive the brine coursing off and carry it to pickle and salt rooms of ordinary concentration and equal in extent of surface to one sixth part of the inclined plane surface.  Having completed the structure of the inclined plane surface as well as all the parts necessary thereto, as herein before described, it is put into operation from which it flows into the regulating tub, before mentioned and from the regulating tub and into the logs and through the apertures before stated in them, -- out upon the inclined plane surface.  The float in the regulating tub, being fixed on the rod as already described at any required length the salt water rises in the regulating tub aforesaid and the float with it to the required length when it closes the valve in the cistern by means of the lever to which they are attached as herein before described, until a portion of the water in the regulating tub has run out and again lowered the float and thus reopened the valve aforesaid and thus by means of the valve, and float the water can be constantly kept at any required height in the regulating tub, by raising or lowering the float upon the rod to which it is attached; The level of water in the regulating tub accurately regulates the quantity flowing through the apertures in the logs and the salt water flowing on the inclined plane-surface can at any time be regulated to the quantity evaporated from said surface by raising or lowering the  float upon the rod in the regulating tub, The salt water flowing on to and down the inclined plane surface is evenly and distributed over the same by means of the affinity

[Page 5]

578.          8821X

the water has for the gravel upon said inclined plane surface as before mentioned.  The remaining nearly saturated brine flowing off the inclined plane surface runs into the gutter before mentioned and is by it conveyed into the covered pickle room and salt room for final crystallization of salt.  At night and at all times when there is no evaporation the salt water or brine in the cistern is shut off by fixing the valve down, upon the hole in the bottom of the cistern aforesaid.  During rain, the communication between the gutter & pickle rooms is also to be closed; in any practical way that the rain water &c falling on the inclined plane surface may flow away.  The improvement in the manufacture of salt as above described and for which Letters Patent are hereby claimed consists first, the successful application of an inclined plane surface as herein described to the evaporating salt water or brine to a nearly saturated brine while flowing down the said plane.  2d. [Second] The successful application of a valve and float in a regulating tub as described herein for regulating the quantity of water flowing on to inclined plane surface by means of a regulated level of water in the regulating tub.  3d. [Third] The equal distribution of the salt water over the inclined plane surface by means of the gravel spread on said plane as before described.  4. [Fourth] The successful application of a cemented water tight surface upon a natural soil by means of coating the same with Hydraulic cement as herein before described as successfully applicable to the construction of salt pans with level bottom sides as well as to inclined plane surface.

Edw. C. Cooper

Witnesses

Peter Cooper       )
                             )
Ebenezer Conklin )

(Patented 16 May 1835)

(Drawing)

[1440. [illegible]]"

Source:  United States Patent Trademark Office Database.

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