Newburgh Bleachery, bleachers and finishers of fine cotton fabrics; Sweet, Orr & Co., overalls and working-men's garments; Coldwell Lawn Mower Co.; Coldwell-Wilcox Co., iron founders and machinists; T. S. Marvel & Co., iron shipbuilding and engineering works; Newburgh Steam Boiler Works; Fabrikoid Company, imitation leathers; Newburgh Ice Machine and Engine Co.; Newburgh Lumber Co.; Newburgh Planing Mill Co.; Belknap & McCann, soap; Lackey Manufacturing Co., lace curtains; Harrison & Gore Silk Co.; Hudson River Woolen Mills; Staples & Hanford, wire goods; Newburgh Reed Co., reed chairs; Stroock Plush Co.; Stroock Felt Co.; Little Falls Paper Co.; Granite City Soap Co.; Newburgh Steam Mills, cotton goods; John Turl's Sons, iron works; Cleveland & Whitehill, overalls; Ferry, Weber & Co., hats; Abendroth & Root, spiral pipe, etc., automobiles; Muchattoes Lake Ice Co.; Higginson Manufacturing Co., cement; Newburgh Light, Heat & Power Co.; Pennsylvania Coal Co.
Of the industries which have been listed, some should be more fully noticed. The Newburgh Ice Machine and Engine Company was known at the time of its establishment, in 1824, as the Newburgh Steam Engine Works. The present company was organized in 1890 with a capital of $500,000 to manufacture Whitehill-Corliss engines and ice-making and refrigerating machines. Extensive shops were completed that year, to which additions have recently been made. Mr. Edgar Penney is vice-president and general manager.
The Muchattoes Lake Ice Company's business was started in the winter of 1859-1860 by James R. Dickson, and was bought in 1863 by Benjamin B. Odell, when he organized the company named. The officers are: B. B. Odell, president; B. B. Odell, Jr., secretary and treasurer; H. B. Odell, superintendent.
Sweet, Orr & Co. are the pioneers and most extensive manufacturers in the country of overalls and other working-men's garments. In 1876 their weekly product was about a thousand dozen pairs at their Wappinger's Falls factory, where they kept 250 employees busy. Seeking increased quarters they started another factory in Newburgh in 1880. The factory has a frontage of 150 feet on Broadway and 275 feet on Concord street. In 1882 they opened a factory in Chicago, and in 1900 another at Joliet, Ill. Sixty traveling salesmen cover the entire United States with their product. Mr. Clayton E. Sweet, head of this concern, resides in Newburgh.
To Captain Thomas S. Marvel is due the success of the immense shipyard of the T. S. Marvel Shipbuilding Company. Soon after the failure of Ward, Stanton & Co., Captain Marvel, who had been their superintendent, began business on his own account. The shipyard has been enlarged from time to time, and building after building erected for their business. Over 200 men are employed in the building and repairing of iron and wooden steamboats and other water craft. Among their notable products are the steamers Homer Ramsdell, Hendrick Hudson, numerous ferryboats, and fire-boats for the New York Fire Department.
The Higginson Manufacturing Company have a very extensive plant for the production of plaster, gypsum, etc., with steamers and barges to transport it to New York and other points. The business was begun by William R. Brown in 1868. Mr. Henry C. Higginson has been proprietor of the plant for many years.
The Newburgh Bleachery is owned and managed by Joseph Chadwick & Sons. It is one of the largest and best equipped manufactories of its kind. The Chadwicks in 1871 purchased the present site, and combined with it a factory which they owned in Rutherford, N. J., concentrating their whole business in the Newburgh establishment. They employ about 300 hands in bleaching and finishing various kinds of cotton goods.
The Fabrikoid Company's industry was moved to Newburgh in 1902. The plant covers about fifteen acres, and consists of twenty-eight buildings. The product is chiefly an imitation leather and the manufactory has a capacity of over 6,000 yards a day. Mr. John Aspinwall is president, and Mr. George H. May, secretary and treasurer.
Coldwell Lawn Mower Company, manufacturers of hand, horse and motor lawn mowers, is the largest concern in the world devoted exclusively to the production of these machines. The firm is composed of William H. Coldwell, president and general manager; E. C. Ross, treasurer; H. T. Coldwell, assistant treasurer, and A. W. Mapes, secretary. Mr. Thomas Coldwell, the parent of this industry, organized the company in 1891, and the plant was built on the most modern principles. Their annual output, shipped to all parts of the globe, exceeds one hundred thousand mowers, which is over one-fifth of the entire production in the country.