Union Car & Bridge Works
Stone & Boomer
Union Car Works (Chicago)
Stone, Boomer & Bouton
American Car Company (Chicago)
The Union Car & Bridge Works had its beginning at Chicago,
Illinois, in
February 1848, when A.B. Stone and
L.B. Boomer formed a partnership to
construct wooden bridges under the patent of Stone’s brother-in-law William
Howe, inventor of the patented Howe truss. The partnership did business under the name of Stone & Boomer. During
the 1850’s they would construct bridges for 24 different railroads in
Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin. { ? }
In November 1852, Stone & Boomer established the
Union Car Works on
South Clark Street. [Another source {330} says the works belonged to A.B.
Stone & Co.] They produced their first car three months later. {329}
During 1853, Union produced 250 freight cars, 20
- 1st class
passenger cars, 10 - 2nd class passenger cars, and 10 baggage and mail cars.
They also furnished the iron work for 150 railroad bridges. {336}
During 1854, Union produced 400 cars, worth
$300,000, and bridges worth $450,000. [336] These were primarily for the
Western Division of the Rock Island Line and for the Ohio & Mississippi
Company. {329}
In September of 1855, the Union Car works was destroyed
by fire. At this time, they had contracts with 24 different roads in Illinois,
Missouri and Wisconsin, with gross annual earnings from bridge building of
$800,000 per annum. [Almost $18 million in today’s buying power!] {329}
The buildings that were destroyed, all of wood, included a
two-story framing shop, 60 by 110 feet, a two-story machine shop, 38 by 120
feet, a setting-up shop, 40 by 110 feet, with an “L” 30 by 38 feet, and a
brass foundry 25 feet square. Their value was estimated at $65,000. [Almost
$1.5 million in today’s buying power.] Insurance proceeds expected were less
than $10,000. {333}
At the time of the fire, the Union Car Works
employed about 300 workers, and was producing an average of two cars a day in
addition to their bridge work.
{333}
Most of the foundry work for the car works had
been done by a foundry on Clark Street near 15th owned by George W. Sizer &
Company and managed by Nathaniel S. Bouton,
a principle of that firm. Shortly after the fire, Bouton bought the idle works
of the American Car Company on behalf of Stone & Boomer and “shortly afterward”
joined the partnership, which became Stone, Boomer and Bouton.
{329} [Elsewhere Andreas says
the works, located on the lake shore in the
southern part of Chicago, were those of “the American Bridge Company.”
But that seems to be a confusion with a company later founded by L.B. Boomer
(see below).]
The American Car Company of Chicago had begun building cars in November 1852.
[332] It carried on an extensive manufacture
of railroad cars in 1853/54. It was located on the lake shore at the foot of
Rio Grande Street, now 26th. The section of the city surrounding its works
became thickly settled and became known as “Carville.” {329}
President of the company was Timothy Dwight, and plant
superintendent was J.H. Lyman. {329}
During its 1st full year of operation (1853), American Car
produced 700 cars, with a value of $450,000. These were mostly freight cars,
though it did build passenger cars for the Illinois Central Railroad.
{329} It employed 260 men.
{330}
During its 2nd full year of operation (1854), American Car
produced 269 cars, with a value of $600,000. These consisted of 230 platform
(flat) cars and 39 1st-class passenger cars. {329} This despite a fire in
January that entirely consumed its brass and iron foundry, blacksmith and molding shops.
{331}
But apparently the fire was too much for
American Car, as it failed that summer and its works, consisting of a foundry,
blacksmith shop, engine house, machine shop, paint shop, and two passenger car
car shops, were lying idle in September
of 1855 when the Union Car Works burned. {329}
The new firm of Stone, Boomer & Bouton
did business under the name of the Union Car & Bridge Works, doing all kinds of iron work
for railroads as well as structural and architectural iron. In addition to
the new works on the lakeshore, Union Car continued to use the old foundry
on South Clark Street. {329}
Sometime during 1857/58, Nataniel Bouton acquired the
architectural cast-iron business of Frederick Letz and moved it to the
Stone, Boomer & Bouton foundry. In 1858, Stone, Boomer & Bouton sold the
works of Union Car & Bridge to the Illinois Central Railroad , which was
acquiring as much lakeshore property as possible, and sold the burned-out
works of the former Union Car Works on Clark Street to Nathaniel Bouton.
And the Stone, Boomer & Bouton partnership was dissolved.
{329}
Though the Union Car & Bridge Works did all
kinds of foundry work and metal fabrication, we have found no evidence
that it built any cars beyond those noted above.
Cast of Characters
—
Nathaniel Sherman Bouton
(1828-1908) was born at Concord, New Hampshire. Though short of formal
education, he apparently learned much from his minister father. At the age of
14, he went to work on a nearby farm. At 16, he began teaching school. A few
years later (1846), he went to work for E. & T. Fairbanks selling scales
throughout Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois.
{334}
In 1852, Bouton went to work for George W. Sizer & Company,
a foundry firm that had sizeable works in Cleveland and Cincinnati, and was
looking to establish itself in Chicago. He became manager of the Chicago
operation, and a year later became a partner in the firm. {334}
The Sizer & Company foundry, at Clark near 15th Street,
manufactured primarily car wheels and castings for other for the developing
Chicago railroad trade. Among the firms supported in this way was the Union
Car Works. {334}
Following the September 1855 fire that destroyed the Union Car Works,
Bouton purchased the plant of the American Bridge Company and soon afterwards
entered into partnership with Boomer and Stone, forming the partnership of
Stone, Boomer & Bouton, which did business as the
Union Car & Bridge Works.
This firm built almost all the railway bridges in what was then known as “the
West” (meaning more-or-less everything west of Pennsylvania), including the
bridge at Rock Island that was the first to cross the Mississippi River. They
also built railway cars. {334} This company was sold to the Illinois Central
Railroad in 1857. {335}
In 1857, Bouton was appointed superintendent of public works
of Chicago, a position he filled for three years. He was one of the three men
who established the present grade of Chicago, and it was during his
administration that the first streets were paved. In 1862 he became
quartermaster of the 88th Illinois Infantry, a position he held until after
the battle of Chickamauga [Sep 18-20, 1863], when he resigned and returned
home to attend to his burgeoning business. {480}
In 1858, Bouton bought out the interests of Stone and Boomer in the old
Union Car Works, which he rebuilt and operated until 1863. In that year he
organized the firm of N.S. Bouton & Company, the “company” being Christopher
B. Bouton and Edward F. Hurlburt. This firm did business until 1871, when it
was incorporated under the name of Union Foundry Works with Bouton as
President, Hurlburt as Vice President and Superintendant, and Christopher
Bouton as Secretary and Treasurer. This firm specialized in architectural iron
work. Among their contracts were many of the finest business blocks of the
city, the custom house in Chicago, and that in St. Louis, the statehouse of
Illinois and of Iowa, and most of the Chicago grain elevators. {334}
In 1881, the Western Indiana Railway Company acquired for a right-of-way
the premises occupied by the Union Foundry Works. A new company was organized
called the Union Foundry & Pullman Car Wheel Works.
It was located on 11 acres in the newly-founded south suburban town of
Pullman, where George Pullman was building his great works. It carried on a
general foundry and machine shop business in addition to producing car wheels
and other castings for the
Pullmans Palace Car Company. Some 600 men melted about 150 tons
of iron daily. {334}
In 1886, Bouton disposed of his interests in the “Pullman Palace Car
Company.” [Did the writer really mean to say the
Union Foundry & Pullman Car Wheel Works? Or did Bouton actually
own an interest in Pullmans Palace Car Company?] He then organized the
Bouton Foundry Company in Chicago, from which he
gradually retired, leaving the business in the hands of several of the younger
men who had been his employees and business associates.
{335}
Andros Boydon
Stone (1824- ) was born in Charlton, Massachusetts, the younger
brother of Amasa Stone,
Jr. He left home at 16 to serve an apprenticeship as a carpenter with
his older brother. After a year and a half, when his brother was employed by
William Howe, inventor of the Howe truss bridge, he was allowed to become
time-keeper on the job. Howe subsequently bought out his apprenticeship
contract and kept him as time-keeper, while adding various responsibilities,
including making estimates, and drawing bridge plans. When his brother and
Azariah Boody bought the rights to William Howe’s bridge patents for six New
England states in 1842, he was given a job with their firm, Boody, Stone &
Company. He began by supervising the construction of small bridges but
circumstances gave him a chance to supervise a large one and he rose to the
challenge, and was soon promoted to general superintendent of construction.
After several years, when Boody, Stone & Company signed a contract with the
Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad, Andros was made a partner with his brother
and Azariah Boody. {482}
After several more years, in 1847, Amasa Stone and Azariah
Boody separated, Amasa to take the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut and
Rhode Island, and Boody taking the
other three. {467} It
appears that Andros stayed with Boody, as he was then involved in building
bridges for the Rutland & Burlington Railroad in Vermont. In 1850, Andros
partnered with a Mr. Maxwell, and they apparently bought Azariah Boody’s
interest in the Howe patents for the three northern New England states.
{482}
In 1852, Andros moved west to Chicago, where he partnered
with his brother-in-law, Lucius B. Boomer. During the next six years, the
partnership of Stone & Boomer built an estimated 30,000 feet of bridges,
including the first across the Mississippi river. Their Union Car Works
In 1855, Stone and Boomer acquired a new partner, Nathaniel
S. Bouton, and the firm of Stone, Boomer & Bouton renamed their works the
Union Car & Bridge Works. Their foundry produced iron works for cars, bridges
and turntables, as well as buildings. One source { C } says in 1856 "Twenty
iron-front buildings, all designed by the architects VanOsdel and Bauman, were
built in Chicago . . . two, one of which was a bank, were made by Stone,
Boomer and Bouton of Chicago."
In the Spring of 1858, Andros sold out his interest in
Stone, Boomer & Bouton to Nathaniel Bouton and moved to Cleveland, where his
older brother Amasah had become president of the Lake Shore & Michigan
Southern Railroad.
Lucius
Bolles Boomer ( - ) was born probably in Worcester,
Massachusetts. We know nothing at this time about his life before 1846, when
Andros Stone married his sister Amelia. We do know that in 1852 he was in
Chicago, for in that year he partnered with Andros to establish the firm of
Stone & Boomer establish the Union Car Works, and to build bridges of the Howe
truss type. In 1858, he sold his interest in that firm to Nathaniel Bouton.
In 1863, we find him described as a major bridge builder,
with “large contracts with the United States government in erecting railroad
bridges. Among others the firm replaced several bridges on the M. P. Railroad
destroyed by the rebel Gen. Price during his raid.” { A }
In 1870, he joined with brother-in-law Andros Stone and
several others to establish the American Bridge Company (Chicago). In 1878,
however, “failed designs and troubles with contracts and general business
conditions” brought about the firm’s liquidation. It was somehow resurrected
as the American Bridge Works some 13 years later, but nine years after that
(1900) was bought out by J.P. Morgan’s newly organized American Bridge
Company. { E }
