A New and Improved Derrick

The Atlas Iron Construction Company used an advanced derrick for the American Tract Society Building which garnered attention.  I recently came across a complete description of this derrick in The Engineering Record, which included schematics and the following photograph which shows the work site "a few days after erection was begun, and showing the derrick and assembled iron-work up to the first story."

Frederick Williams (son of Henry C. Williams and an employee at Atlas Iron) wrote about this in his family history papers without mentioning the building site specifically:

"Frank [Harrison] invented a derrick, a square affair, with a mast and boom at each corner, which hoisted and put in place iron columns, beams, or girders, all four working at the same time and greatly expediting the building operations.  He did not patent this however so our rivals copied it ere long."

The derrick was designed with ease of use, simplicity and lightness in mind (it weighed a mere sixteen tons).  It was the subject of an article in the New York Times, which called it "the largest ever built in this city for handling structural steel."  It was over forty feet tall, made of iron beams and Virginia pine.  It was powered by two engines which were fixed on the ground.  The booms were between 45 and 53 feet long, and could lift nine tons each.  In addition to the four corner booms, a fifth was added to cover the area in the center of the derrick.

Atlas Iron was contracted to raise the building's structure at a rate of two stories per week.  After setting two stories in place, the derrick was hoisted by its own engines to the top of the completed framework - a process which typically took two days, but with the careful construction of this derrick it could be done in under a day.  With a work force of 50 men, they "expected to substantially complete the erection of the whole 3,000 tons of iron-work in about 90 days."

In publishing the details about the construction and use of the derrick, The Engineering Record thanks Frank Harrison for sharing his working drawings.  It seems he was glad to share his achievement with fellow engineers.

Sources:
"New Derrick For Rapid Building", New York Times, 25 November 1894, p 19.
"Erection of American Tract Society's Building, New York", The Engineering Record, vol 31, no 3, 15 December 1894, pp 44-47.
Family documents.

The American Tract Society Building

On a recent sightseeing trip into Manhattan, I had a pleasant surprise when getting off the subway at City Hall.  The American Tract Society Building is now free of its construction netting!  I had visited a year ago to take photos of the building, but it was mostly obscured by netting at the time.  I took this opportunity to get some better photos.

Northeast (Spruce Street) facade of the building.

Top of the northeast facade of the building.

Main entrance on Nassau Street.

Why is this building of interest?  Because my ancestors helped build it.

In 1891, Henry C. Williams (a direct ancestor) formed the Atlas Iron Construction Company with Frank Harrison (his first wife's cousin), Philip Raqué, and Frederick Youngs.  They were successful for a time, growing to become the second largest structural iron business in the city.  They had an office in the New York Times Building and a factory in New Jersey.  They worked on early skyscrapers, bridges and on the roof of a drill hall in one of the city's armories (I'm not sure which one). 

In fact, the only structure that I know for sure that they worked on is the American Tract Society Building.  According to the Times, they employed the largest derrick yet seen in New York for this work.  Construction used the day's leading engineering techniques.  When completed in 1895, the building was one of the tallest in the city and it boasted more office space than the only two taller skyscrapers (the Manhattan Life Insurance Building and the New York World Building).  It remains significant as one of the earliest steel skeletal-frame skyscrapers in the city.

The building stands between Frank Gehry's Beekman Tower
and the New York Times Building.

City Hall and Newspaper Row, circa 1906 (photo from Wikimedia Commons).

Sources:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/amertractsocbldg.pdf
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SCC/SCC018.htm
Family documents.

Family Car For Sale

A car which has been in our family for three generations (not including my own) is being offered up for sale.

This 1930 Lincoln Sport Phaeton was purchased by John Butler in 1938.  A bill of sale shows that it was bought used for $195 (equivalent to about $3300 today).  The car was used on a family trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, then returned to New York City and was later retired to Vermont.  I vaguely remember seeing it stored in the garage of the family farm in Marlboro, VT, and more recently had a chance to see it in storage.

I hope some new owner will find joy with this classic.  For more photos, history and sale details, visit The Old Motor.

"Life is not a firework to be let off at the end of a party."

This quote jumped out at me recently - partly on its own merits but partly because of the context in which it was said.  I encountered it in The Battle For Spain by Antony Beevor, a good history of the Spanish Civil War which I am still reading and enjoying.  These words were spoken by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the lawyer, nobleman and politician who founded the Falange party.  In March of 1936, during the tensions before the war broke out, the Falange was outlawed by the Republican government.  José Antonio was immediately arrested on charges of illegal arms possession.  After the uprising that started the war, he was still in enemy custody.  He was put on trial in November along with his brother Miguel and sister-in-law Margarita Larios.  Conducting his own defense, he did not stoop to plead for his own life, but did make a successful appeal for leniency on behalf of his brother and sister-and-law.  It was in this context that he stated, "life is not a firework..."

A Japanese Lantern

I just visited Washington D.C. on the first weekend of this year's National Cherry Blossom Festival.  While the blossoms weren't out yet, I still enjoyed walking around the Tidal Basin and monuments in decidedly spring-like weather.  One of the things I wanted to see while there was the Japanese lantern which is lit once a year during the festivities.  I didn't expect it to turn into a history lesson.

When I arrived at the lantern, there was a park ranger sharing facts with a small tour group.  He explained that it was a gift from Japan to the United States in 1954, meant to symbolize renewed friendship between our countries after having fought each other in the Second World War - which of course culminated in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  He went on to say that the lantern had been carved three hundred years before, and was given then as a gift or tribute to one of the Tokugawa shoguns.  The requirement for such gifts helped ensure that local lords couldn't amass enough wealth to challenge their leaders.  An inscription on the lantern's support column records the details of this original presentation, marking it as a gift from Hizen Province.  A Chinese fellow in the group was even able to make out the inscription and confirm this.  The park ranger then shared that the part of Hizen Province from which the lantern came is now the Nagasaki Prefecture.

This well-presented tale drew an impressed murmur from the group (myself included), and gave added meaning to the monument before us.  It stayed with me and made me curious, so when I got home I checked into more of the details.

I found this translation of the inscription on the lantern, with additional notes:

"A pair of stone lanterns dedicated in memory of Daiyuin, placed in front of mausoleum at Toeizan in Bushu on this 20th day of the 11th month of the 4th year of Keian by Shigenobu Matsuura, Lord of Hirado, in Hizen Province." (Translated from Japanese by the Library of Congress.)

Daiyuin was a posthumous name for Iemitsu Tokugawa, third of the Tokugawa shoguns, who lived from 1604 to 1651.

Toeizan in Bushu is the Kan'ei-ji Temple, now in Ueno Park in Tokyo.

The date listed is equivalent to January 1, 1652.^[1]

While looking up information about Hizen Province and the city and domain of Hirado, I found another intriguing connection.  In 1616, a decree made the cities of Hirado and Nagasaki the only two Japanese ports open to non-Chinese foreigners.  In the 1630s, Iemitsu Tokugawa enacted the sakoku policy which would close Japan's borders for over two centuries. 

Japan began to re-open its borders in the 1850s, after the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry's "Black Ships" and a show of force.  Perry signed the Treaty of Peace and Amity with Japan on March 31st, 1854.

The lantern was presented as a gift to the people of the United States at the opening of the Cherry Blossom Festival of 1954^[2].  The dedication ceremony was held on March 30th, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the signing of the treaty between Japan and the U.S., and using that to call to mind the bond between the countries.

So... the lantern which was first carved as one of a pair, honoring the shogun who had closed Japan's borders,  became a gift to the United States as a symbol of friendship and commemoration of the re-opening of Japan's borders.

I wonder if this was an intentional choice, or just a coincidence.  I found a few references^[3] which indicate that Japan had offered the lantern as a gift as far back as 1921, but diminishing relations between the countries and then the war prevented that from happening for 32 years.  In any case, the lantern is still an integral part of the Cherry Blossom Festival and it tells quite a story.

[1] "The Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Washington, D.C., A Living Symbol of Friendship" by Roland M. Jefferson, U.S. National Arboretum and Alan E. Fusonie, National Agricultural Library (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1977), p 28 (p 38 of PDF)

[2] newsreel footage from 1954 dedication ceremony

[3] National Park Service sign, undated

The Yale Hospital at Limoges

Here's a photo of many men and women of Mobile Hospital No. 39, taken around December 1917 in Limoges, France.  Sorry, I don't have a higher resolution copy right now.

In my research, I came across a hand-written key to who is who in the photo.  Several members of the unit, including my great-grandfather, are not present.

seated: Capt. James W. Squires, Lt. William H. Morris, Lt. A. Bliss Dayton, Lt. Donald B. Wells, Capt. Alfred M. Rowley, Major Joseph M. Flint, Capt. Philemon E. Truesdale, Lt. Alexander L. Prince, Lt. Edward C. Streeter, Lt. Francis B. Jennings, Lt. Robert L. Elliston.

second row: Pvt. Johnson, Sgt. John Allison (behind), Pvt. Shea, Mrs. Rowley, Miss Watts, Miss Conway, Miss De Freest, Miss Greenwood, Miss Cumming, Miss Catherine McGovern, Miss Screen, Miss Mollie Shepherd, Miss Ethel Squires, Miss Cullum, Miss Kane, Sgt. Brown, Sgt. G. C. Heath, Sgt. Archibald MacLeish (behind), Rev. Mr. Bradbury.

third row: Pvt. Hascall, Pvt. C. Morgan Aldrich, Pvt. Francis H. Bangs, Sgt. R. B. Turner, Pvt. Bill Moore, Pvt. Charles H. Wilson, Pvt. Leslie Babcock, Pvt. Ben Shove, Pvt. E. L. Douglas, Pvt. Walter Hovey, Pvt. T. Lawrason Riggs, Pvt. Booth, Sgt. Shelden Rose, Pvt. Smith, Pvt. Russ Hoye, Corp. Sawyer, Corp. John L. Alsop, Corp. Degnan, Pvt. E. Dwyer Hubbard, Pvt. O'Reardon, Pvt. Lou S. Middlebrook, Pvt. Randy Reynolds.

fourth row: Pvt. Carter, Pvt. Willard, Pvt. Dutch Arnold, Pvt. W. Douglas, Pvt. L. E. Clark, gap, Pvt. Gardner Murphy, Pvt. H. H. Brownlee, Pvt. Tom Cornell, Pvt. Reginald "Pete" Roome, Pvt. W. H. Covey, Pvt. Ted Pease, Pvt. Len Beadle, Pvt. G. Clark, Pvt. Samuel J. Keator (almost concealed), Pvt. Ernie Rasmussen, Pvt. Aldric H. Man, Pvt. Stanley Daggett.

back row: Pvt. Stanford, Pvt. Ed Purdy, gap, Pvt. Charles R. Bartlett, Pvt. John H. Williams, Pvt. Danford N. Barney, Pvt. Thompson, Pvt. Archie S. Alsop, Sgt. Russell, Sgt. Howell.

An Introduction

How to begin?  Many of you who find this early on will already know that I've gotten hooked on historical research.  I've been telling family and friends about this hobby for a while.  I have no formal training in this, it's just something that I'm figuring out as I go along.  My approach is to start with family history and use that as a point from which to dive deeper into local and world history.

My first major project actually started with a stamp collection.  During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), individual towns on both sides of the conflict created their own stamps.  My great-grandfather, Marshall H. Williams, Sr., created a highly specialized collection of the Spanish Civil War Locals which were also Madonna Stamps.  That collection was passed on to me when I was young.  I tried to learn about it at the time, without much luck.  I took it out again a few years ago and started investigating all over again, and this time learned quite a bit about the stamps and the war.  I also learned more about my great-grandfather and other ancestors, and began to dig into other topics.

My current project, which I have been working on for almost a year already, is a study of the Yale Mobile Hospital (Mobile Hospital No. 39, A.E.F.) in World War I.  Marshall Williams enlisted with this unit and served with it for the entire sixteen months that it was in France.  Despite its number, it was actually the first mobile hospital in the American Army.  They went through some difficulties in getting started, but were ultimately successful and served as a prototype for other units of the same type.  I've found all of this quite interesting - learning about the hospital unit, my great-grandfather's involvement, and more about the war as well.

My hope with this blog is to share some of the things that I come across, as I work on these types of projects.  A good portion of that for the foreseeable future will be about the Yale Mobile Hospital, but I don't intend that to be an exclusive focus.  I've enjoyed sharing things about this work with others so far, and hearing feedback, and I hope this can be a place for more conversations about these topics.  Whatever brought you here, I hope you enjoy what you find.