Steamboat Arabia: A Historian’s Blog

1856 Parlor Stove manufactured by Newberry, Filley & Co.

After I posted my blog yesterday, I was curious about the St Louis iron works- Excelsior Stove co.’s owner G F Filley sending 2 boxes of patterns to a Newberry, Filley & Co in October 25, 1854. Seeing a repeated name- Filley, I thought maybe these firms were connected and after googling, I found out, they definitely were!
As you can see by the quotation below taken from, The Albany & Troy Stove Industry, From Start to Finish: 1808-1936 - there is a hint these pattern molds, Giles F Filley sent in 1854 were to manufacturer replacement parts for older model stoves produced in his St Louis Excelsior Stove Works to help his relations, Marcus L Filley (Newberry, Filley & co), who bought out Morrison & Tibbits (Green Island Foundry) in the same year. This Troy partnership lasted until 1858 when it was again sold to new partners and articles suggest they were affected by the 1857 panic when the demand for manufactured goods dropped like a lead balloon and when customers did not pay back their promissory notes (IOU). I am sure credit reports at Harvard Business School will shed much light on the status of the firm.

"Patterns.  When one firm succeeded another in the stove business, a part of what it bought or leased, as well as a foundry site and ‘goodwill’ (the customer list), was the pattern stock, comprising both an existing product line and the ability to supply replacement parts for old stoves.[1]  This could be a very profitable business, extending years or decades beyond the end of a stove’s life as a marketable new product.  As the list of 1875 Albany and Troy stove names reveals, for example, Marcus L. Filley, who had taken over the Green Island Foundry from Morrison & Tibbits in 1854, was still prepared to supply parts for stoves whose names indicate their age – the Darien, Panama, and Placer, from the Gold Rush era; the New York & Erie, commemorating the railroad line’s opening in 1852. "

So, this Bill of Lading for the New York Central Railroad gave me a concrete example and taught me something new about 1850s business practices I never had thought about before. Remember, I am looking for the big picture- Now, I wonder if these stove manufacturer's produced identical stoves or other iron ware and what the correspondence tells me between the two firms. This question alone could be a master's thesis!
Arabia Insight- Photograph taken in 2001- Stove found on the Steamboat Arabia during restoration. Before Greg Hawley passed away, he told me that many cookstoves found in Arabia's hull were crushed by the stacks- I assumed these were all cookstoves but maybe there were other models.


Hagley Library does carry a catalogue for the Troy firm and I do hope I get around to following this up- 

Call number TS425 N53 TC Author/creator Newberry, Filley & Co. (Troy, N.Y.) Title Green Island Foundry catalogue. Imprint Troy : The Company, 1856. Physical Description 20 p., 18 leaves of plates : ill. ; 27 cm. Items 1 - 1 / 1
Top of Form 1 Select to add record to cart Call Number TS425 N53 TC Location Trade Catalogs Copy 1 Status Available Barcode 000001109 Bottom of Form

Over the weekend, I will try to follow up and scan the sketch on the Excelsior Stove Works- as promised. Do read the article about Troy's Stove manufacturing industry and another interesting links I found today about the Filley family showing iron works began with the father and is a common way for the sons and other relatives to follow in their father's footsteps.
The Captain Oliver Filley Family- Bloomfield Connecticut